Traversing the stars

Ash, he/him or zie/zir. Male with a side order of non binary, British, chronically ill. SFF, queer stuff, natural history, languages. Fandoms of my heart: Animorphs, TMA, Pacrim

[ashby-santoso]

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December.

A magical thing

And sweet to remember.

"We are nearer to Spring

Than we were in September,"

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December.

- Oliver Herford

[only-tiktoks]

[multifandomsoup]

@saturniidd

[thefugitivesaint]

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), poem 85 from “The Gardener”, 1914 Translated by the author from the original Bengali. New York: The Macmillan Company.

[mmm-asbestos]

thinking about hospital and university underground tunnels….

there is something about them….

[mmm-asbestos]

like literally your doctor tells you to go to another building and to take the tunnel cause its faster and you end up in a literal backroom and depending on how new the construction is you will encounter all three pictured above in order

[mmm-asbestos]

my favorite part of this post is most people in the notes are like yeah yeah scary underground tunnels under hospitals and universities we’ve all seen them but also there is a small group of people who never heard of these in their life and are very confused rn

[ashby-santoso]

In my first job there was a storage room we had to go to that was in the hospital tunnels. It's a bit of a maze down there, all vents and concrete, and the way you could tell you were going the right way was that the route sloped downwards, became increasingly narrow, and got warmer as you went.

[yourlocalxenomorph]

FINALLY making an actual post about this guy! This is Azurion the dragon. He's an ~8 foot long puppet controlled entirely by my left arm and hand, including the blinking mechanism! I also made a fake arm, and I think it really adds to the illusion that Azurion is 'real'. The project took roughly 6 months to complete (including planning, slacking, and lots of trial and error), and he was finished just in time for the last 2022 weekend of the Colorado Renaissance Festival. I plan on adding more to him and refining the details quite a bit, but I'm pretty pleased with the current results!

[notentirely]

no idea if this is true, but it feels true

[pleasedontsqueezetheshhh]

I heard an interview, can’t remember the psychologist, but he was explaining this idea and encouraging people to stop and take a deep breath and literally drink in small moments like you’re a dryass plant when something is ever satisfactory, positive, mildly successful, randomly joyful so your brain can code and integrate that experience because our natural lizard brain will quickly tape over it with mostly unnecessary negative survival shit. Sounds dumb and dorky but sometimes I remember this when I’m feeling good about a moment because our cave brains are still catching up with modern life without sabertooths. I like that it’s not just a pollyanna gosh just be more positive thing but more of a legit brain wiring phenomenon can be gradually hacked through small behavioral changes.

[elidyce]

Another super important one: Take the time to tell yourself, when something you did or bought or decided works out “That was a good decision and I’m glad I made it! Go me!” 

Seriously, it can have a huge impact. suddenly you go from remembering nothing but bad decisions to adding in a series of Excellent Choices You Feel Good About, and it makes things so much better. 

[silentwalrus1]

#we’re all running happiness software on survival hardware and we gotta do our own firmware updates   from @galwednesday 

[aprillikesthings]

“I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” —Kurt Vonnegut

[regularlesbian]

come on

[margbarcis]

this is fucked up 

[ripleyandweeds]

something about this bird just unlocked something insane in scientists’ heads

[regularlesbian]

this is unlocking something insane in my head to be fair

[gallusrostromegalus]

Please enjoy a mother teaching her chicks the timberdoodle Dance to Musical Accompaniment:

[tiktaalic]

I repspect the grind of trying to empirically prove dean isn’t a misogynist but. My boy so misogyny they traced the origin of the word mansplain to a forum post about how he sucks. We gotta just take the L on this one

[tiktaalic]

True: people over exaggerate the womanizing sleazing aspect and a sssssssolid 90? Percent of the time when he flirts it’s run of the mill and nothing outrageously offensive.

True: There Are Many Other Ways dean is misogynistic

[teratorex]

Every now and again, I learn new Deep Lore about the SPN fandom and what it's given to the internet as a whole, and it changes who I am as a person on a molecular level

[moreglitter]

STOP. moment of gratitude for those precious times of breathing from your nostrils when you don't have a stuffy nose

[thewebcomicsreview]

I wish I had more to say about Nancy than “it’s good”, but….it’s good.

[byelacey]

andalite….

[johnconway]

A History of Painting (With Dinosaurs)

Hi Tumblrs! My new book, A History of Painting (With Dinosaurs) has launched, and you should be able to buy on Amazon from just about anywhere in the world.

Ever wondered what it would have been like if famous painters of the past had the good sense to paint dinosaurs? Well now you can find out!

Here's some country-specific links, but search your own local Amazon if it's not listed: US, UK, Germany, Canada, Australia

[a-book-of-creatures]

Yesssss

[ask-ciaphas-cain]

I would like to add that I have now in fact bought this book and it is excellent! It's very tongue in cheek but the art is good (I really want a print of the Klimt dinosaur). It's like $20, please go buy it for anyone with a vague interest in art history and dinosaurs, or for yourself!

[johnconway]

My book is fun! And cheap! And I get a good cut!

[godbirdart]

oh to have a rod smith orca,,,

[godbirdart]

okay so there’s this artist named rod smith and over the years he’s sculpted these absolute BANGER basswood orcas. like,, they are GORGEOUS.

the formline is so simple yet simultaneously detailed, and the symmetry and cleanness of both the sculpt and paint has me in such awe and adoration i have so so much fondness for them.

he’s also done a variety of other works. salmon, seals, loons. they’ve been on display in the vancouver airport even

and naturally, they are expensive. of course his time and expertise absolutely deserves the compensation, including for the supplies, but these guys are easily twice my rent per sculpture. i’ve been in an agonizing back-and-forth of having the money by sheer luck but there’s none for sale, then suddenly there’s one for sale but i’m broke as all hell because bills. i am so determined to catch one. one day i hope to have a coveted rod smith orca ;;

[firesidetextiles]

Ohh thank you for this post. I tripped across one of his salmons the other night and didn’t realize he did mammals too.

This blue one is available here.

[labelleizzy]

[memewhore]

[wumblr]

the rodents of unusual size in princess bride should have just been like. a capybara. i’m not suggesting wesley should have fought a capybara, i’m saying they should have been terrified of the prospect of encountering one and then they see it off in the distance in the dark and they’re like “OH NO” and it’s just sitting there like (^-__-^) and buttercup is like “it’s cute. maybe it’s harmless?” and wesley is like “NO. the myths” and ominous music plays under a slow zoom on the capybara’s face while they carefully edge their way around it and it’s just sitting there like (^-__-^) the whole time. then they breathe a sigh of relief and immediately fall into quicksand. thank you. other than reintroducing the chapter on hats, this is the only change i would make and comprises the entirety of my princess bride script doctor

[wumblr]

this – and this is crucial – is still immediately preceded by the line “i don’t think they exist”

[kristina100000]

thinking about this picture from 1975 taken in san fran on this day period