The Blanket Fort

A pile of stuff that I like to look at

[microsff]

Poem: I lik the form

My naym is pome / and lo my form is fix’d Tho peepel say / that structure is a jail I am my best / when formats are not mix’d Wen poits play / subversions often fail

Stik out their toung / to rebel with no cause At ruls and norms / In ignorance they call: My words are free / Defying lit'rate laws To lik the forms / brings ruin on us all

A sonnet I / the noblest lit'rate verse And ruls me bind / to paths that Shakespeare paved Iambic fot / allusions well dispersed On my behind / I stately sit and wave

You think me tame /   Fenced-in and penned / bespelled I bide my time /   I twist the end / like hell

* “lik” should be read as “lick”, not “like”. In general, the initial section on each line should be read sort of phonetically.

Written for World Poetry Day, March 21, 2018. When I had this idea earlier today, I thought it was the worst, most faux hip pretentious idea for a shallow demonstration of empty wordsmithing skill in poetry ever. So I had to try to write it. I mean, how often do you get to fuse the iambic dimeter of bredlik - one of the newest and most exciting verse forms - with the stately iambic pentameter of the classic sonnet?

[allthingslinguistic]

BREDLIK SONNET

[alexseanchai]

wait is this one poem or three?

[aenramsden]

Holy shit this slaps. Hell no, this isn’t pretentious, this is awesome. I love what language can do, and this is showing it off in a cape with glitter and makeup.

[vizerothree]

Morax 🔶

[catchymemes]

[north-peach]

the social interaction program has crashed. unexpected errors are preventing normal operations and thus have shut down to prevent further damage.

please try again in

24 hoursmonthsyearsdecades

[bunjywunjy]

so the megalodon is most definitely extinct? how do scientists know?

well, the thing about large predators is that they leave an impact on an ecosystem big enough that you can tell they’re there, even if you never observe one directly. in this case, we know they’re definitely extinct because of the behavior of whales! whales used to max out at about 50 ft long and were fast and agile, entirely because of predation by megalodon!

but about 2 million years ago, our whales began to rapidly increase in size until we ended up with real monsters like the blue whale. this pretty directly lines up with the extinction of megalodon, and the removal of the pressure they were putting on large whale populations.

basically, large whales can get away with being gigantic, slow tanks in the oceans today because there simply isn’t a predator big enough to take them on anymore. if megalodon still existed, we would be seeing its impact on whale populations! whales would be smaller, and a hell of a lot more skittish than they are.

everything in a given ecosystem is connected, and you can often get important information about the unknown parts by observing the behavior of other parts of the ecosystem.

[bogleech]

All this, and the fact that if the ocean had sharks as big as Megalodon and had enough of them to sustain the species at all, we would have found at least one Megalodon tooth washed up on a beach somewhere that wasn’t fossilized. More likely, we would have found hundreds of such teeth every year for as long as we have existed. “We didn’t know giant squid existed!” is a common argument I see from cryptozoologists, but it’s also flat out false. We did know. We knew there were giant squid for centuries because we found remains of them for centuries. We simply hadn’t captured or filmed a live one!

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Okay, so I am well aware that this isn’t at all how evolution or natural selection works, but I still want a horror film that begins with a pair of scientists with dramatic music playing in the background as they pour over piles of records, until one of them turns to the other and says “it’s the whales. They’re becoming smaller, and more skittish.”

The other scientist looks out the window, over the sea. “Mother of god,” she whispers.

[milkchuggs]

Alternatively;

We begin to find giant shark teeth washing up on shore. People freak out. “Scientists find evidence megalodons never went extinct!”

Then the lead scientist calms everyone down so they can explain. “No. It’s worse than that. If they never went extinct, we would’ve found evidence like this before now. This means… ” Dramatically takes off glasses. 

“They’ve just come back.”

[animeengineer]

“But they can’t just suddenly come back like that!”

“You’re right. Someone brought them back.”

[bunjywunjy]

PLEASE,,,

[crowgifts]

Jesus Christ Super-predator

[bunjywunjy]

I’m pretty sure that I was the one driving when we all got into this little circus car but now I’m wedged under the back seat and the clowns have just ramped us off the grandstands and directly onto the popcorn cart

[damalseer]

[alexaloraetheris]

...You know what, I’ve been trying to motivate myself to go and study, and this is just what I needed.

On the other hand, I have questions

[secondlina]

New Crow Time! It’s the Hound Knight. He’s a good boy!!!

[sosuperawesome]

Mu And CoCo on Instagram / Etsy

[racethewind10]

(source)

[siliquasquama]

This looks like a shitpost but it’s actually solid advice, like, if you want to achieve a goal you have to pace yourself and be patient instead of expecting too much too soon and then giving up

[thefloatingstone]

Been checking in on Pogo's music every now and then for the past 12 years and so only recently found this one from like 8 years ago and now it's my entire personality.

Original

[wastelesscrafts]

Upsizing clothes! There are a million upcycling tutorials for clothes that are too big, but so few on how to make too small clothes you still love bigger!

Thank you for your suggestion! We all go through weight fluctuations in life, so it stands to reason our clothes should be able to fluctuate with us.

Resizing your clothes used to be a very common practice before the advent of fast fashion. Fast fashion sizing is extremely flawed, especially when it comes to plus size fashion, and we're stuck with a lot of vanity sizing, so it's a good skill to have regardless of whether you're looking to mend something old or buy something new.

How to upsize clothes:

Introduction:

There are many different ways to make a garment larger. The following list is not exhaustive, just a few ideas to get you started.

Grading patterns:

If you're making your own clothes, it's always useful to know how to modify a sewing pattern. The easiest way to adjust a pre-existing pattern to your size is slash and spread grading. First, you need to define which spots on the pattern need extra space. You then cut your pattern in that spot, and slide the resulting pattern pieces away from each other until you've got the size you need. Use paper to fill in the gaps. To ensure the resulting pattern makes for well-fitting clothes, make a mock-up and add, move, or remove darts where necessary to adapt it to your body type.

The image below shows potential slashing lines on a set of standard pattern blocks. Each line is a spot that allows you to add extra space. To read more about this process, check out the corresponding article by Threads Magazine.

(Image source) [ID: a diagram of slashing lines on a pattern block for a dress, bodice, skirt, sleeve, and a pair of pants.]

To make your clothes easier to let out in the future, make sure to provide ample seam allowance when cutting out your pattern pieces. This surplus fabric has several different uses, including giving you some wiggle room for when you need to size up your garment.

Now, let's take a look at pre-made garments.

Lengthening clothes:

A garment that's too short on you is easy to modify. Just add more material!

If it's a skirt or a dress, add ruffles to the bottom. Ruffles are easy to make by hand or with a sewing machine. You could also add lace, or wear the item with an underskirt.

For pants, let down your hem or sew on a new cuff. If this isn't enough, maybe consider turning your trousers into capri pants or shorts.

As for shirts, sewing an extra layer to the bottom edge is the easiest way to go, too. You could even combine two shirts into one to get an extra long shirt.

Another option is to cut your item in two and insert extra fabric between your separated garment parts.

(Image source) [ID: a pair of blue pants with cuffs sewn onto the bottom of the legs to lengthen them. The cuffs are made out of a fabric with a blue and brown geometric print.]

(Image source) [ID: a before and after picture of a red t-shirt that was lenghtened by adding in a patch of colourful fabric at the waist.]

Letting out seams/darts:

Remember how we made sure to have ample seam allowance earlier? When a garment has surplus fabric in the seams and you only need a little extra space, you can undo the seams of your garment and sew them back together again, this time with a smaller seam allowance than before. The Spruce Crafts has a pretty good tutorial on how to let out seams. You won't be able to make major size changes using this technique, but if you only need a few centimetres, this is a good way to go.

A lot of garments also have darts. Darts are fabric folds that are sewn down in strategic places to help the fabric follow the body's curves. If a dart doesn't fit you the way you want it to, then unpick the dart and try on the garment. Either leave the dart open, or pin the dart in place however you want it, then take off the garment again and sew the dart back together.

Be careful not to rip the fabric when using a seam ripper. Also note that removing entire darts may change the garment's fit.

You can also add custom darts to achieve a better fit, but that's a topic for another time.

(Image source) [ID: twelve different types of darts on a feminine bodice block.]

Adding extra fabric to your garment:

If we need to add more room than seam allowance or darts can provide us with, we need to add extra material. Remember those slashing lines we looked at earlier? If you're working with a pre-existing garment rather than a pattern, those are the perfect places to chop up your clothes and add in extra fabric.

Check your sewing stash for fabric that's similar in weight and material to your original garment, or go thrift shopping for an item you could use to upsize your garment. Long skirts and maxi dresses are a great source of fabric for alterations like these!

Lace inserts are also a fun choice to add some room, and if you're working with a knit item, you could even knit or crochet your own custom insert.

Define the area where you want to add extra fabric on your item, and measure how much you need. Draw a straight line on your garment with chalk/soap. Make sure the line doesn't cross any important structural or functional parts of your garment like darts or button holes: refer to the slashing diagram we saw earlier if you're not sure what spot to pick. Cut the line open (or unpick the seam if it's situated on a seam), and add in your extra fabric. Finish off your new seams so they don't unravel later on, and you're done!

You can add straight strips of fabric for extra width or length, or you could use flared panels or even godets to make your item flair out.

Want to see this technique in action? Check out this video by Break n Remake:

Some ideas:

This Pinterest user cut a straight line down the front of a t-shirt and inserted a lace panel to add extra width in the front of the garment.

(Image source) [ID: a blue t-shirt with a panel of dark blue lace added in at the centre front.]

Busy Geemaw cut open the side seams of a shirt and used flared panels to add some extra width in the bust and hip area.

(Image source) [ID: a green and white long-sleeved shirt with a striped flared panel in matching colours inserted at the side seam.]

This person added a panel to the sides of a pair of jeans to give them more space in the hip area. You could easily use a long straight panel or a panel that flares at the bottom to resize the entire garment instead of just the hips, or use a wide piece of elastic for extra stretch.

(Image source) [ID: a side view of a pair of light blue jeans with a dark blue wedge-shaped denim insert running down from the waist and ending above the knee.]

This person added a godet in the back of their shirt in order to get more space in the back.

(Image source) [ID: a blue and white plaid shirt with a white lace godet inserted in the back.]

Blue Corduroy enlarged a pair of shorts by opening up the side seams and adding in strips of fabric.

(Image source) [ID: blue denim shorts with a floral fabric insert at the side seams.]

You don't need to resize the entire garment if you don't want to. For example, One Brown Mom turned this ankle-length skirt with a too small waistband into a well-fitting knee-length skirt by taking advantage of the skirt's flared shape.

(Image source) [ID: a woman wearing a black shirt and a brown tartan knee-length skirt.]

Conclusion:

Throughout our lives, our weight will fluctuate and our bodies will change. There's no shame in this: it's just a fact of life. Therefore, knowing how to upsize an item that is too small for you is a useful skill to learn.

If you want more inspiration, check out these projects by Confessions of a Refashionista, One Brown Mom, and Thriftanista in the City.

[50shadesofoctarine]

I REALISED YOU CAN POST SOUP HERE

Here is my family’s S.O.A (Soup Of Awesome). Nothing is measured, just feel it out.

Ingredients (From Most Important To Least Important):

Promite (It acts like soup stock)

Parsnip

Meat (Preferably lamb shank)

Potato (Sweet and Regular)

Carrot

Celery

Method:

Chop up aformentioned ingredients, throw them in a pot full of water. Allow it to boil until the meat falls apart.

This was/is my favourite meal from childhood. The soup makes tons of servings, so freeze it for lunches, dinners, or gifts!

[todaysbird]

there’s been a really bizarre trend in the past couple years of TERFS/radfems getting pissed off about biology posts. posts about the bilateral gyandromorph cardinal (one half male, one half female), posts about older hens beginning to crow and act like roosters, posts about animals being animals. and it’s hilarious because they interpret these posts as some kind of agenda. no! these are animals not choosing any gender identity or sexuality but being born into bodies they have no control over. weird how that happens in nature huh

[butchosprey]

never tell terfs about white-throated sparrow or they will lose their fucking minds

[tkingfisher]

Do you want to hear about white-throated sparrows?!

Of course you do, they’re fantastic. They come in two models, one with tan head stripes and one with white head stripes. But the gene that controls stripe color also has a bunch of other effects! It’s a supergene!

To briefly sum up a grueling amount of fieldwork by people who were probably not getting paid nearly enough, basically the tan-stripes are nurturers and the white-stripes are fighters, across both males and females. White-stripes chase away intruders more, tan-stripes bring more food to the nest. Tan-stripe females bring more bugs to their chicks than white-stripes, white-stripe females are more aggressive and sing more.

There is a reason Jordan Peterson picked lobsters, not sparrows, to get all MRA about, because the sparrow ladies are ALL about the tan-striped males. Sexy nurturing tan-stripe males are immediately grabbed up by the more aggressive white-stripe females (who are also dead sexy if you’re a sparrow.) Then the remaining birds pair off, so you get tan and white couples reproducing in virtually all cases—nurturing male with aggressive female, hyper-aggressive male with hyper-nurturing female.*

And this is good!** Because it turns out that they can have a tough time if they don’t mate across stripes—white x white sparrows often come out undersized if they come out at all. There was some cool recent genetic sequencing and one particular chromosome is way funky, inverted, and scrambled in the white-stripes. So now every white-stripe has a funky chromosome and a normal one, and every tan-stripe has two normal ones.***

This is all really unique and means that white-throated sparrows effectively have four sexes, because they now only reproduce with a member of the opposite stripe and sex chromosome, and their offspring may be any one of the four sexes. The stripes have essentially become a second sex chromosome.

The geneticists involved think the funky chromosome probably showed up as a weird import from somebody gettin’ jiggy with another sparrow species. Presumably this created a hypersexy female whose white head stripes brought all the boys to the yard, and very unusually, that bred true.

Is that cool or what?!

*No word on whether there is a resulting sparrow tradwife media genre.

**Leaving aside the impact on the emotional health of the non-sexy sparrows.

**A population solely of tan-stripes can reproduce safely, they’re just not that into each other.

[jenroses]

the implications for fanfic are staggering

[hachama]

I will never create anything more beautiful than tiny human's laughter.

I will never write a story more compelling than the one tiny human is telling me, a page and a day at a time.

This little person is filled to bursting with curiosity, overflowing with a galaxy of wonders.

[zombiewretch-blog-deactivated20]

SOMEONE WENT TO A STAR TREK CONVENTION IN THE 1980’S AS SPOCK AND KIRK’S PENISES I AM NOT MAKING THIS SHIT UP

THEY PERFORMED SPIRK THROUGH INTERPRETIVE DANCE

[burning--amber-deactivated20201]

If you haven’t read the fanlore page yet, here’s an excerpt from the founding mothers of our fandom constitution. KF: Well, four of us in Phoenix saw that. And, it was PJ, Carol, Donna and I, and thought, well they are so wonderfully entertaining to us, we have to do something back for them. But, y'know, we’re really not singers, we’re really not dancers, what can we do? So we sat around with a bottle of wine cooler. And, I don’t drink, and I said, well, how about if we distill down the basis of the cock of the, ahum, Kirk and Spock— (laughter) KF, MS: —Freudian slip, Freudian slip! (laughter) KF: Yes, ah, down to their basics, and how ‘bout if we do a cock show? And— MS: I have that on tape, too. KF: I have it too. Luckily Dixie Owen would come with her video machine, and I ended up putting together a video from the two years. But the first year we ended up going there, and we had a huge seven-foot, and a six-foot cock. Kirk of course was a little shorter and thicker, Spock was taller and thinner— MS: Was very green— KF: —very green with two, with a double ridge on the top. What we did basically is, we took this foam that was used in couch cushions, very dense foam, and we’d sculpt it with an electric knife— MS: Electric knife— (laughter and coughing) KF: —so that we had the proper shapes. Carol, who—a little insider—ended up working doing the— In the beginning, for the Barney TV show? She actually did the animals and things and the costumes for Barney. Anyhow, she was our designer who— MS: (laughter) Sorry. KF: —made the fabric that came down from the head all the way down— And then for the balls, we’re thinking, “Well what are we going to use?” And I said, “Well, listen, we gotta carry ‘em on the plane. How about if we use beach balls covered in fabric, ‘cause then we can deflate them.” MS: Yes. KF: And then of course we had pipe cleaners for the hair and furry bits. MS: I remember when you brought them. Oh my god. KF: And we figure, so we— And I put together a list of songs, and we had little snippets of songs. We started out on the stage with Spock all kind of bent over and just kinda hunched. And he had the little song, y'know, “I am a rock, I am an island.” And of course you hear from off-stage the signs of “Macho Man.” All: (laughter) (indistinguishable shouts) KF: —Pick one— MS: “Macho, macho man"— KF: —and on the stage Spock goes “Huuunh?” and immediately his two balls come out— (squeals) —yeah, from underneath— MS: —from underneath, boing! KF: —and his head starts coming up a little bit, and coming up a little bit, and then the Matt Davis song, “I want you to want me, I want you to need me.” MS: The entire auditorium was in hysterical— KF: And then of course the finale is the 1812 Overture climax with the cannons going off! MS: Complete with, was it— KF: It was, it was— MS: —did you use confetti that time? KF: No, it was white candies wrapped in plas— in cellophane which I then threw up by the handfuls for— MS: Yeah. Woooo! Multiple overlapping voices: —for the climax. KF: For the climax, yeah. And, the audience was hysterical.

[banahbanah]

“Kirk of course was a little shorter and thicker, Spock was taller and thinner-“

I have read this description in a fic on AO3 THIS WEEK. I love fandom.

[azcrowleyfell]

Fandom has always been fucking bananas, and I’m so grateful for our foreparents in the Star Trek fandom for launching what fandom’s become today.

[dduane]

It is nothing, nothing compared to the above… but I remember being at a convention masquerade (I think it was even a Worldcon…?) and two people came down the runway dressed as the Enterprise and a Klingon cruiser… and then they got into a brilliantly staged fistfight, wound up grappling with each other while shouting insults, and fell off the runway into the audience.

I don’t think anyone in that room could breathe for a good while, they were laughing so hard. It’s astonishing to me to this day that ambulances didn’t have to be called.

…But yeah: Trek fandom. For half a century and more, willingly going where no one has ever, EVER gone before. :)

[aurevoir-mes-amis-deactivated20]

petition to rename the usa ‘south canada’

[mellowminty]

what about alaska

are we then normal canada

[saahs]

canada a bit to the left

[officialvatican]

[conflagreat]

What about South America? Is that just America? Or South South Canada?

[starshipenterprisee-blog]

[danyinfj]

[te-odora]

i cried my ass of laughing

[plonts]

[prinxessleia-deactivated2016032]

WARM CANADA

i caN’T BREATHE OH MY GOD

[hypnomega]

I’m not even from Canada but I approve this change of names

[pebbles5ever]

[sigmatique-deactivated20170313]

M ILKY E H

[bnhoe]

IT HAS RETURNED

[gigglygamer]

FOUND IT

[transmadamegiry-remade-deactiva]

IT IS AN HONOUR TO HAVE THIS GRACE MY DASH

[transmadamegiry-remade-deactiva]

reblogging from myself bc i found this when scrolling through my blog

[not-used-to-being-normal]

Reblogging again because this is too god for not reblog

[tyrannosarcophagous]

this is one of the few posts you have to reblog or else you’ll never see it in a million years besides screenshots

[hamelin-born]

@sparklecryptid

[penandinkprincess]

i do not at all mean this in a perjorative manner, but i do think it’s important to be able to consume a piece of media and go, “i’m not the audience for this” and be able to just walk away 

there doesn’t have to be something wrong or “problematic” about something for a person to not like it. personal taste is personal taste. but something not doing it for you doesn’t mean it automatically has to be wrong or bad. it’s just not for you. 

[sindri42]

There’s been several times when I’ve watched a thing and been like, they clearly did what they intended to do, and did it well, and I don’t want any part of it. This is a high quality and deeply unpleasant piece of art.

[queenclaudiabrown]

“This is a high quality and deeply unpleasant piece of art” is a wonderful line, I love it, I feel it in my soul

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

too good a take to be left in the tags

[homunculus-argument]

My current plan to recover from my mental and emotional existence is to just go so deep into being insane that I'll come out sane on the other side. Being a chronic people pleaser plagued with impostor syndrome stretched me too thin, and that leash simply snapped and I am now a completely untethered, unapologetic vermin.

Fuck having impostor syndrome, if I'm not entitled to be here they should've barred the doors better. If I'm doing everything wrong because of imaginary rules that nobody told me about, that's their problem, you should have made your confusing system more idiot-proof.

I'm not here to please everyone and do everything right. I'm here to make bad art, chew on furniture, make people laugh, cook awful food and look at pretty landscapes, and piss off the people who don't want me to exist. If I have an unseen infinite debt somewhere that I can never pay back, I'm going to keep running that tab until I die. I'm alive purely because the universe is shit at pest control.