a passer-by of no importance

not a bot, just lurking

[futb-o-lka]

so you may or may not have noticed that this blog isn't really active anymore. much as i love fandom and other shitposting, i find that this year (and for the forseeable future) i can't enjoy this lighthearted activity without a sence of guilt.

however, i'm still trying to keep running my other blog on here. it's where i liveblog my study-related woes and sometimes also write about the curious things i come across in my field of studies (japanology)

if (for some reason) you want to keep up with me, that blog is where you want to go. unsubscribing completely is also an option. unfortunately, i don't think i'll be posting anything here anytime soon

[futb-o-lka]

i've just seen two (2) nAPONTMERCY FICS ON MY DASH

they go CONSEQUENTLY

to say this was a Damaging Spiritual Experience is to put it very very mildly

[futb-o-lka]

this post was made almost 3 years ago and through the tireless effort on @shitpostingfromthebarricade 's part it still gets new notes

congrats on the empereur's mercy week i guess? keep on unsettling casual les mis enjoyers (like myself) and making unsuspecting tumblrinas who got too close to the sewers see your truth!

[fishpondfish]

a russian artist called Sasha Skochilenko is now facing up to 10 years in prison after swapping the price tags in a supermarket with stickers containing information about what the russian armed forces are doing in Ukraine, she was accused of spreading “fake information about the military”, because there’s a brand new article in the russian criminal code for that

Sasha has celiac disease (genetic gluten intolerance) and bipolar disorder, she has to keep a strict diet and take her meds regularly, which she is unable to do while in the pre-trial detention center. if she stays there, her health will get worse, organ failure or oncological and autoimmune diseases may start to progress

here’s a petition demanding an alternative form of pre-trial detention for her (do NOT donate to change.org, just sign & spread the petition, thank you!)

[bloodenjoyer]

[waterandsilver]

unironically, one of my favourite pieces of horror writing is victor hugo’s description of an octopus

[waterandsilver]

[thepastisaroadmap]

[ID: photo of a book. Some of the text has been highlighted. It says “It is a pneumatic machine that attacks you. You are dealing with a footed void. Neither claw thrusts nor tooth bites, but an unspeakable scarification. A bit is formidable, but less so than such suction. The claw is nothing compared to the sucker. The claw, that’s the beast that enters your flesh; the sucker, that’s you yourself who enters into the beast. Your muscles swell, your fibres twist, your skin bursts beneath this unworldly force, your blood spurts and frightfully mixes with the mollusks’ lymph. The beast is superimposed upon you by its thousand vile mouths; the hydra is incorporated in the man; the man is amalgamated with the hydra. The two make one. This dream is upon you. The tiger can only devour you; the octopus, what horror, breathes you in! It draws you toward itself and into itself, and, bound, stuck, powerless, you slowly feel yourself emptied out within that horrendous sack, that monster. Beyond the terror of being eaten alive is the ineffability of being drunk alive.” End ID]

[youllneverseemerelax]

and don’t forget his drawing of one.

Octopus bearing the Initials V. H., Victor Hugo circa 1866:

[trappedinavelociraptor]

#this fully rules #like victor my dude octopi absolutely dont do this but this rules supremely

[dandelionwhiner]

There are many benefits to being a marine biologist

[as-warm-as-choco]

A master post of Thomas Romain’s art tutorials.

There’s not enough space to post all of them, SO here’s links to everything he has posted (on twitter) so far : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. 

Now that new semesters have started, I thought people might need these. Enjoy your lessons!

[futb-o-lka]

the real Mercer Effect is actually not the stupid blaming-creators-for-good-content whatever, it's when your dm grows The Hair after being left dming for too long

[futb-o-lka]

evidence:

[futb-o-lka]

the real Mercer Effect is actually not the stupid blaming-creators-for-good-content whatever, it's when your dm grows The Hair after being left dming for too long

[aeschylus-stan-account]

God I love German children’s literature

[mmmmmeeeeeehhhhhhh]

lol

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Today's recipe of the day, according to the French news: "lapin Bossuet au brie de Maux". Which is indeed named after that Bossuet in that Maux, who was apparently fond enough of rabbits that he kept a private colony just for eating.

Also, it posts-dates canon, but apparently the Brie from Maux has been declared King of Cheeses and Prince of Desserts. (And they have cheese monks and I love it).

New headcanon is that either the dish itself or a mocking tribute to said dish featured in our Bossuet's banquet with [s]Henriette[/s] the fille de cinq louis.

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

They're not actually monks, they're a cheese association with their own brie songs and sacred motto. And hats shaped like brie, because of course you need cheese hats to be a cheese association.

https://www.confreriedubriedemeaux.fr/

I'm kind of obsessed.

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

@pilferingapples Since 16something, according to these guys. I also found this absolutely amazing passage on the website:

"Louis XVI, en demanda une part à l’épicier Sausse après avoir été reconnu et arrêté à Varennes. La Révolution en fit le fromage du peuple. Un révolutionnaire gastronome de l’époque proclamait: « Le fromage de Brie, aimé par le riche et le pauvre, a prêché l’égalité avant qu’on ne la soupçonne possible ». Mais c’est en 1815 que ce fromage des Rois reçut sa consécration.

C’était au congrès de Vienne où Talleyrand, Metternich et les ambassadeurs de trente nations repartageaient l’Europe après les guerres de Napoléon. Un concours fut organisé pour désigner le meilleur fromage et, à l’unanimité, le Brie fut couronné « roi des fromages »."

"Louis XVI asked for a piece from the shopkeeper in Sausse, after having been recognized and stopped in Varennes. The Revolution made it a cheese of the people. A food loving revolutionary of the time declared, "Brie cheese, liked by both the rich and the poor, preached equality before we dreamed it possible." But it's in 1815 that this King's Cheese was truly consecrated.

It was at the Congress of Vienna where Tallyrand, Metternich, and the ambassadors of thirty nations re-distributed Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. A contest was organized to determine the best cheese and, unanimously, Brie was crowned King of Cheeses."

[pilferingapples]

This is just. Amazing news

and now I'm absolutely sure that Hugo had Bossue and Joly eating ham and brie as a convoluted history joke XD

[quousque]

YOU KNOW WHAT BOTHERS ME

when fantasy books describe the cloth of Quant Farmpeople’s clothing as “homespun” or “rough homespun”

“homespun” as opposed to what??? EVERYTHING WAS SPUN AT HOME

they didn’t have fucking spinning factories, your pseudo-medieval farmwife is lucky if she has a fucking spinning wheel, otherwise she’s spinning every single thread her family wears on a drop spindle NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING THE SPINNING unless you go out of your way to establish a certain baseline of industrialization in your fake medieval fantasy land.

and “rough”??? lol just because it’s farm clothes? bitch cloth was valuable as fuck because of the labor involved ain’t no self-respecting woman gonna waste fiber and ALL THAT FUCKING TIME spinning shitty yarn to weave into shitty cloth she’s gonna make GOOD QUALITY SHIT for her family, and considering that women were doing fiber prep/spinning/weaving for like 80% of their waking time up until very recently in world history, literally every woman has the skills necessary to produce some TERRIFYINGLY GOOD QUALITY THREADS

come to think of it i’ve never read a fantasy novel that talks about textile production at all??? like it’s even worse than the “where are all the farms” problem like where are people getting the cloth if no one’s doing the spinning and weaving??? kmart???

[systlin]

THANK U

[rosslynpaladin]

pro tip: what do you say instead? I gotcha.

 In Ye Olde Medieval Fantasy Dayes, everybody’s layer against skin (shirt tunic or shift) is gonna be linen. it’s almost never wool except stockings or hose (like pant legs). Say “undyed cloth” if you wanna make them sound simple and peasanty. Comment on how you can tell it wasn’t made for them (the fit is off) and has had probably eight owners before. 

Outer clothing is gonna be either wool, or a blend called Linsey-woolsey, and again you could say Undyed, but dyes are not only common they are CHEAP and relatively easy. (innerwear is often left undyed or bleached to white because it gets washed to heck- like beaten by a wooden stick on a stone by the river- and dye would just fade out a lot so why bother. Ths is also why innerwear has ties, rarely buttons, unless you are so rich you have people doing your washing delicately because they’re hired to do only that. Buttons would get broken in the washing)

A poorer person is often seen in “russet”, a kind of rusty orange-brown color. Purple was famously reserved for royalty in many times and places, but its  also just hard to do. We see a lot more magentas and fuschias for nobles or common middle class folks than we ever see of Purple- and not many of those. Deep blue was more likely on very rich people, but a light blue was common for even poorer folks. Yellow was popular with everyone, and so was green, and many shades of reds, including the color we now call orange (they did not- this is why redheads are called redheads and not orangeheads). Your vision of everyone in very drab brown and mud colors is from Hollywood- most medieval-ren folks have clothing with colors. Sometimes garish colors, to the modern eye. Traffic cone Orange and acid green was a popular combo in the 13th century.

[elfwreck]

Example medieval dye colors. Lots of yellows and orangey-browns. Woad gave a range of blues that are basically what we think of as “denim colors.” There were purples - royal purple was a specific color from a specific source - but if you mix wine-dye and woad-dye, you get purpleish dye. (Getting the color to stay that way may be more difficult. Everything worn by peasants fades; they couldn’t afford the really good fixatives.)

More examples and explanations here: 

Plum, dusty purple, lavender, burgundy, chestnut, blood red

Walnut, chocolate, tan, linen, pale apricot, spice, dark spice

Peasant clothes were often more colorful than the nobility. Nobles could afford bright, clear colors that peasants couldn’t - but one mark of wealth was being able to buy all 4-8 yards of fabric for an outfit at the same time. So nobles would have a full outfit, including hat, stockings, even shoes, of one type of fabric (with ornamentation of a contrasting type, and as many buttons or bits of silver as they could get away with wearing), while peasants would often have a shirt, bodice or jerkin, skirt or pants, stockings, and hat of all different colors.

Dying or re-dying any one piece of clothing was within most of their cost limits - dye itself is cheap; fixatives cost. But boiling your shirt for an hour with onion skins in a copper pot would re-color the fading fabric.

[lloerwyn-deactivated20201104]

And yet more medieval dye colour samples:

[historic-old-guard-lover]

While centered on medieval Europe for the finer points, this is broadly true for any clothing needs

[gethporno]

if anyone is interested in way too much information about the spinning, weaving, dyeing, and trading of cloth in ye olden days, pls see these lecture notes by my old economic history prof, who knew more about the textile industry in pre-modern europe than any reasonable person should. they’re old at this point but still pretty reliable.

[dduane]

This is a bit of a hot-button issue for me… so reblogging with pleasure.

The tl:dr; version of my usual complaint: I love Terry Jones’s work, but he (and MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL) have a lot to answer for in the “Medieval Life Was Irredeemably Mucky / Everything Was Drab” department. In the wake of that film, practically all the everyday color of Non-Royal medieval life got washed out of public perception. And it makes me cranky.

Period records make it plain that even among the Poor Folk, color was rife. Many people far more specialized and knowledgeable in this field than I am have gone on about this at length. I’m just signal boosting here.

[luzhiantil]

I’m putting this here because… Yes!

[valtsv]

"normal guy in an really weird place just chilling" and "weird thing or creature in a really normal place confused as hell" are both extremely funny concepts to me

[valtsv]

this is peak comedy to me

[neil-gaiman]

Eight Rules For Writing -- from a long ago piece I wrote for The Guardian.

1 Write.

2 Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.

3 Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

4 Put it aside. Read it pretending you've never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

5 Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

6 Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

7 Laugh at your own jokes.

8 The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

I finally got around to finishing this doodle? Line art? Madness? After having it taped to my wall for months unfinished.

And progression pics below.

[tma-is-poly]

@vague-magnus-archives

[hthrrloooo]

IT’S NOT AT ALL SOUP SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS, AND YET IT IS ALWAYS SOUP SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS

My viral soup post hasn’t gotten reblogged in a while and needed to be updated, and @redheadmystic asked me about it today, so here’s a brand-new master post of soups, including most of the ones that were on the list before, as well as some newer favorites. I’ve made many more soups than just this list over the past year, but these selections are my very tip-top, most enthusiastically-recommended picks.

Chef Michael Smith’s Thai Coconut (Red Curry) Soup with Chicken & Noodles 

Not A Curry’s Thai Coconut (Green Curry) Shrimp Noodle Soup with Tofu

Nigella Lawson’s Cold Cure Soup (onion, orange, lime, ginger, cinnamon, chicken: your house will smell like heaven)

BA’s Chicken Khao Soi (very rich; will stick to your ribs)

BA’s Tom Ka Gai (if you can find galangal, it makes this soup)

Ellie Krieger’s Savory Carrot Cashew Soup (healthy & vegetarian)

my recipe for Pasta e Fagioli

my recipe for Creamy Spring Onion, Pea, and Zucchini Soup (easiest imaginable prep)

Victoria Granof’s Pasta con Ceci (sometimes I like it thick, more like a pasta dish, and sometimes I add more water and loosen it up because I want it brothier, like a soup)

my adapted version of Caldo Xóchitl(-ish)

Smitten Kitchen’s 44-Clove Garlic Soup (don’t be afraid of the number; it’s surprisingly refined and understated)

Yvette Van Boven’s Daube Provençal (stew beef marinated in, then simmered with orange, olives, and a whole bottle of Côtes du Rhône)

BA’s Poached Cod with Tomato & Saffron (note: I double all the ingredients but the fish, and add olives and capers, to make this more like a stew than a poach)

America’s Test Kitchen’s brilliant Creamy Cauliflower Soup (nearly dairy free, but super creamy)

my own recipe for Vichyssoise, adapted from a 1962 recipe in Gourmet

Alison Roman’s Spicy Noodle Soup with Mushrooms & Herbs (vegan)

Sue Li’s Lemony Shrimp & Bean Stew

Colu Henry’s Roasted Tomato & White Bean Stew

Kay Chun’s Hot and Sour Dumpling Soup

Eric Kim’s Cornish Game Hen Soup with Garlic, Ginger, and Fried Shallots

With Spice’s Cabbage, Onion, and Farro Soup

Veselka’s Cabbage, Sauerkraut, and Pork Soup

Classic Billi Bi (an elegant, wine-y, old-school cream of mussels soup)

Julia Turshen’s Chicken Tortilla Soup with the Works (requires a huge pot and an entire afternoon. Worth it.)

Elaine Louie’s completely brilliant Miso French Onion Soup (vegan if you leave out the melted cheese at the end)

[hthrrloooo]

Adding these newly discovered favorites to the list:

Andrea Nguyen’s Vietnamese Canh. Shrimp, onion, ginger, fish sauce, mustard greens: very simple, clean flavors, takes just a few minutes, and absolutely lovely with some glass noodles in it, plus a little sriracha and/or hoisin.

Urvashi Pitre’s Instant Pot Tom Kha Soup. This comes the closest of any soup I’ve ever made to my favorite restaurant version of coconut shrimp soup. Do leave the shrimp tails on, if you can: it gives the broth more flavor and makes it come out absolutely bewitching and addictive. I usually throw in half a block of cubed tofu at the end, as well.

Marcella Hazan’s Broccoli and Potato Soup. Aesthetically, this is a homely soup, but it is so comforting and delicious, especially served with a spoonful of crème fraîche swirled into the bowl at the end. This soup benefits from using homemade rather than boxed or bouillon broth.

Rotisserie Chicken Soup with Pierogi and Lots of Herbs. This one relies on boxed broth and frozen pierogies: easy, fast, and as homey and cozy as a warm blanket.

Pat Tanumiharja’s Instant Pot Soto Ayam. This Indonesian soup is amazing and richly aromatic and chickeny, but all the garnishes/fixings take it right over the top into the sublime. I always use all of the ones suggested in the recipe.

J. Kenji López-Alt’s 30-Minute Pressure Cooker Pho Ga. This soup changed our life this year. The amount of flavor you can get out of the aromatics and chicken in just a half-hour in the instant pot is nothing short of mind-blowing. I’ve learned to be sure and get a good, deep char on the onion and ginger before proceeding to the other ingredients.

Spicy Kimchi Miso Soup. This vegetarian one helped get us through a long, cold winter. I usually serve this with a scoop of rice.

Instant Pot Kimchi Beef Stew (Kimchi Jigae). This one is similar, but it’s much heartier from the beef. I also learned from firsthand experience that it freezes and reheats very well.

Carla Lalli Music’s Hammy Chickpea Soup. I normally soak the chickpeas overnight (even though the recipe doesn’t call for it) to make sure they cook evenly the next day. This soup is genius: all the carrot, garlic, and onion that cook in the soup with the legumes get fished out and put into a bowl with some of the broth, plus a scoop of the chickpeas, and pureed into a vegetal thickener for the soup. This stuff is out of this world. I forgot to add the red pepper flakes the first time I made this, and now I skip them on purpose because I actually prefer the soup mild.

Turkey Soup with Lime and Chile. We had this the day after Thanksgiving to use up leftover turkey. It’s dynamite.

Pressure Cooker Miso Chicken Ramen with Bok Choy. Makes a great (and easy) base for ramen, and all that’s involved is throwing everything into the instant pot – no searing or sautéing or extra steps – so it’s great for a weeknight.

Urvashi Pitre’s Instant Pot Indian Tomato Coconut Soup. This tasted like the Indian version of Campbell’s tomato soup. It’s sweet and spicy and wonderful.

Hot or Cold Creamy Lettuce Soup. So, this never comes out as pretty color-wise or as smooth as in the photo, but it is so delicious. I love it hot or cold, especially with a few drops of truffle oil on top.

Half Baked Harvest’s Instant Pot Pesto Zuppa Toscana. Made this twice. It’s so bright and rich and hearty (and easy).

Joshua McFadden’s Cream of Celery Soup with Celery Leaf, Vinegar-Plumped Raisin, and Toasted Walnut Relish. I was stunned by the ferocity of how much I loved this soup. It is pure, beautiful celery (plus sweet/crunchy/rich with the toppings).

Molly Baz’s Coconut Cod Chowder with Seasoned Oyster Crackers. The warm broth and spices – coconut, ginger, coriander, turmeric, cardamom – transform the leek, potato, and cod. This was a revelation, such an inspired combination of flavors: thick, rich, bright, fragrant, slightly spicy. And those seasoned oyster crackers are genius.

Hi everyone! I haven’t done a soup masterpost in a while, so here’s an updated list of favorites/discoveries from the past year or so.

[gentianjune]

[petralemaitre]

Now to Win at the Other Hugo: Digress like a 19th-Century Novelist

Do you ever read fiction and wish that the author would pause to delve into the backstory of a specific object, event, or character that has no direct bearing on the plot because the stories of today are too direct and devoid of semi- to thoroughly-informed meandering? Do you find yourself writing epic backstory for a walk-on character or throwaway literary reference you’ve invented on the fly, all of which stays unpublished in your notes? Come digress with us! This party is for people who like the long way around and the deep dives into minutiae, whether your ambition stretches to “I wrote a drabble, then a page of carefully-researched exposition about the history of the coffee beans sold in the shop where the drabble is set,” or to “I invented a conlang for the Tusken Raiders and I’m trying to figure out what to do with it since it got jossed by The Mandalorian, so I’m going to go full on JRR Tolkien and write a heroic novel of colonization and resistance in the sands of Tatooine.” Any fandom or original project is welcome. Whether your digression is Victor Hugo-esque and pointed in the direction of revolution, or waxes as lyrical about sperm as Herman Melville, or takes place in the appendix where all the good bits live, or comes in the form of humorous footnotes that go on far longer than Terry Pratchett’s, come share your project with us. The timeline for this writing fest is January 1 - December 31, 2022. There is no minimum length. As long as your material feels sufficiently digressive to you, it’s welcome as part of this fest. As an example, your host is planning on writing a limerick with footnotes. On the other end, there is no maximum length. Digress your heart out. Les Misérables, Moby Dick, or other era-appropriate pastiche, amalgam, or AUs are thoroughly within the brief. Any setting is welcome. If your interests are less word-based but you still want to play, join the fun. Art with footnotes or an exploded diagram? Cool. Podfic that pauses to read scholarly articles? Neat. A playlist with meta digressions that make Pale Fire look coherent and on-topic? Sure, why not! If you can work out how to digress in your medium, please tell us about it. As for the veracity of your digressions, melannen notes: “I think the key here, for the people worried about doing all the research, is that neither Hugo nor Melville knew what the fuck they were talking about at least half the time. In fact there should probably be a requirement you get at least one thing as emphatically wrong as the ‘Whales are fish’ chapter. I think you get bonus points for an assertion that is technically correct but all the facts you back it up with are bullshit.” (N. B. There will be no points system, only the enjoyment of the people who enjoy your fanwork.) If you’re interested in joining us, drop by the Dreamwidth entry and comment with what fandom or fandoms you’re considering digressing in and/or the fandom(s) you’d be open to cheerleading or beta-reading in. Closer to the posting date, I’ll make a collection on AO3, but it seems a bit premature to create one today. For people thinking of joining: Would there be any interest in a Discord server for the purpose?