(always) under construction

hello! my name is Kes (he/him, mid 20s) and I am a tumblr veteran, nature enthusiast, avid birder, sometimes artist, and lifelong learner. this is my main blog, where i reblog anything that interests me. welcome! [ my active sideblogs are: @spinus-pinus for bird/wildlife photography | @kes-trel for warrior cats art ]

[empidonax]

Art Fight

An art gifting game

I'm not sure if anyone actively following this blog would be interested but here is my artfight profile!! :3

I mostly draw animals, but I try to use AF as a way to stretch my comfort zone, and it's consistently one of my favorite things I do every year! This year I'm doing things a little differently and focusing my attacks on my wife, but I'm still going to revenge as much as possible :)

[goodlouse]

[botanyshitposts]

this morning my coworker and I were evaluating some beans and I said ‘man these beans look pretty good’ and he was like ‘meh I’ve seen better’. top ten exchanges that have happened for thousands of years in every language ever spoken

[thelostcanyon]

Sandwich Tern by Andrew Steuer III

Watercolor on Arches hot press rag paper.

[crabkick]

Quick character-building guide from yours truly!

I’m a firm believer in the idea that at their baseline, your character should have a simple but strong core. You only REALLY need like three things when building a character; the rest is just extra. Let's dive in!

THING ONE: CONFLICTING WANTS. Here you put two or more all-consuming, character-defining desires that your character has that are ALSO in conflict with each other (with one having to be sacrificed in order to achieve the other). This is essentially the "want vs need" category.

THING TWO: THE LIE. This is the lie your character has formed and spent forever believing in order to protect themselves. The story must challenge this lie and force your character to either break through it (postive upward arc) or embrace it and become it fully (tragic downward arc).

THING THREE: FLAWS. I think flaws can really make a character–because if your character isn't flawed in an interesting way, then they're not engaging. I would list about three major, solid flaws that are relevant to the character AND things you can actionably put into your writing.

And that's it! That's the core, the very crux of your character. Stuff like likes and dislikes, height, hair color, scars or what-have-you are just extra. They flavor the dish, sure, but these three things are the base ingredients that will make your character really solid.

As always, take any writing advice you find anywhere with a grain of salt–but don't be afraid to try it out either! You never know what'll work for you until you experiment. Thanks for reading!

[cuunos]

being a kid and hearing adults say stuff like "woah 2011 was 4 years ago haha" didn't really convey the fucking horror of a youtube video crossing my recommended labelled "9 years ago" and it's from 2017. that's not true. 9 years ago is 2010 or something. don't lie.

[starrynet]

that’s his little guy!!

[littleguysdaily]

I wish I had what they have...

[verifiablebot]

'this property says it has nine acres but those neighbours look pretty clo-'

oh.

ohhhhhhhhh no

[kiwisoap]

When i saw this I immediately suspected it was in Louisiana so I did a reverse image search to confirm and, yep!

The reason its so long and skinny is because Louisiana has (had? not sure if they're still in place) Forced Heirship laws. which means that you are required to leave a portion of your estate to qualifying heirs, regardless of whether you or they want it, and also regardless of what your will says. This is then combined with the fact that property in many parts of Louisiana was originally divvied up into parcels by Spanish land grants, which looked like this:

Which over many generations has led to large properties being slowly divided into thinner and thinner strips of acreage in order to satisfy the forced heirship law. Which is why they now have strips of property that are like 50 feet wide and 2 miles long

[hollowboobtheory]

"What if we find a way to keep fetuses alive outside the womb" that already exists, it's called the NICU and it took decades of advancements in medical science and technology. it takes an entire team equipped with state of the art technology to keep a fetus alive outside the womb. because it cannot perform basic life-supporting functions like breathing on its own. this isn't an anti-NICU post tbc. I'm actually considering the nicu as an option after going back to school because I really like fetuses and babies, I think they're neat. but the fact remains that it takes an entire team of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and more to keep a micropreemie alive. and most abortions occur even before the point that it becomes possible at all. "viable" doesn't mean ready to be born. it means it is possible to keep it alive thanks to medical science developed by the same "abortionists" whose executions you're always calling for.

[hollowboobtheory]

also, it's not an "after birth abortion" when they "let" micropreemies die, it's fucking hospice care.

[voynichs]

obsessed with the fact that the welcome to night vale guy thinks he invented "welcome to [blank]" and gets really indignant and thinks other people who use that phrase ripped him off. its amazing. its a level of confident i aspire to be.

[shrike-dyke]

another one... david lynch you're a dead man

[darkandstormyranger]

finally some relatable content on ig

[chemsexholmes]

Unfortunately you will talk like a tumblr user for your entire life. Sorry.

[scribblyspaceskeleton]

[warriorsmurf]

Unfortunately your kids might also talk like Tumblr users. My daughter said "Get cherished, idiot" to her cat yesterday.

[returnsandreturns]

i HAVE to stop looking at shelter cats until i'm moved but BUNNY

[returnsandreturns]

bunny is still there and apparently hasn't been adopted because she's very skittish and shy but so AM I

i assume they don't put cats on layaway but i might go this weekend to see if i can say hi, at least. and then bring her home on, like, june 5th when i'm all moved and settled if she's still there.

[returnsandreturns]

bunny 1.5 years and a few pounds later

[returnsandreturns]

i would have been more specific if i knew this would blow up but i went to see bunny that weekend and she immediately reached her head out for me to pet her even though she never let strangers touch her and i ended up rushing to petsmart to buy a carrier and immediately take her back to my parents' house until i moved

she now waits in the shadows to run and jump into my lap every single time i sit down and says thank you for all your kind words in the tags

here are some more pictures just from the last month of her being the most cute

[empidonax]

getting mono has had the extremely unforeseen side effect of me getting back into wingspan (table and steam versions) which has been fun! it's such a fun game, I love playing it with people, but MAN is it a slog to learn/teach at first

[empidonax]

oh but if anyone has it on steam and wants to play me, feel free to add me as a friend on steam!! my user is kestrll

[fjordfolk]

the moral weight of not grabbing the cake and running before anyone else gets a piece weighs heavy on troj

[pawnnibel]

Aborted dad: I would have loved to play catch with you sport

[pawnnibel]

Aborted sugar daddy: I would have loved to give you $2,000 a week

[natalieironside]

Shout out to trans women who aren’t computer scientists or musicians or avant-garde artists or whatever.

Shout-out to tgirls who work at Taco Bell. Thank u queen, society would collapse without you

[snkrfnd]

Over twenty years ago my big brother got me a job at a Taco Bell in the St. Louis suburbs-West County. He warned me that it was the “gay Taco Bell”, but since I was coming from the “gay Howard Johnson’s” I wasn’t shocked. It turns out it was the black trans women Taco Bell complete with black trans women in management. And they’d worked out an arrangement with the local teen Narcotics Anonymous group so that twice a week we would shut down the drive thru and the dining room and exclusively serve 60+ teens in various stages of recovery. And many of the women I worked with were in various stages of being out or transitioning and they were from all generations from teens to over 50. One woman I worked with had a regular corporate job presenting as a man 9-5 Mon-Fri and then came to Taco Bell and worked 6pm -2am Friday and Saturday night so she could be herself surrounded by other black transwomen in those stolen weekends. And we had customers come from all over the metro area because they knew they could be themselves in the dining room. I only worked there from 1999-2001 but for young me, this was a vital, formative experience. Some of the girls came from north city all the way out to the “gay Taco Bell” on Manchester in west county because they heard it was safe to work there. Like- I know times have changed but they haven’t changed much in 20 years. I’m still convinced that for lgbt youth, finding a job at your city’s version of the “gay Taco Bell” is key to survival.

[natalieironside]

Thank u for sharing this with us