#pagalini

[pagalini]

i have now been sick for.....a full week...........

[99centthoughts]

hey there! I hope you don't mind but I saw that anon asking about display tablets and i thought as someone who has used non-cintiqs i might be able to drop a rec. i use an xp-pen 15.6 - the pen is really sturdy and not battery powered, the screen is good, it has 6 express keys and great accuracy, and it cost me £350! definitely does need a screen protector to prevent scratching though. just in case they wanted a rec for a budget option. have a great day! =)

Thank you for your recommendations for tablet anon!!!! It’s really useful for me too omg bc I’ve heard about both these tablet brands but i haven’t had a chance to try them... THE PRICE AND SPECS SOUND REALLY GOOD THOUGH... i’ll def be considering them when I need a new tablet ahhh

[whiskyrunner]

pagalini replied to your post: I did a thing!

:O i love marines! are you going for a pair of clowns and a bunch of blue-green chromis? i recommend clark clowns or black and whites if you can get hold of them :) and so long as you don’t have a tang you can get clams and softies like anemones. sorry for this torrent of words! i used to work with marines and i just get excited when i see someone with them

Awesome!! It’s just a nano tank, so I’m thinking just a pair of Ocellaris clownfish and, if I can find one, possibly, a nano goby like a green banded or a citron clown. A clam would be super cool but I think I’d need much better lighting for that. The plan is to try some easy soft corals that should be okay with my stock lighting: zoanthids, button polyps, star polyps. Maybe a mushroom if I see one I like. :)

[imaginarylifetimes]

Fic Rec Friday  1.15

Whoops, almost forgot to get this out today! I’ve been reading American Gods for the last few days, and it’s... odd... to read a published novel after subsisting exclusively on fanfic for such a long time. But! I still have recs for the past two weeks for you guys, so enjoy!

ALSO, speaking of published novels, The One You Feed (Book 3 of The Sum of Its Parts) by gingersnapwolves is now available! I super recommend both the fanfic and the original versions of this series, so if you’re looking for ebooks (or real paper books! what a novelty!) check it out!

Shower Boyfriends by paintedrecs (bon)  | 4.7K | T | Derek/Stiles

Derek likes sticking to his routines: they give his days structure and keep his goals on track. His carefully maintained habits have never been more important than at college, and by his second year, he's gotten everything exactly the way he wants it. He has the ideal roommate, the best dorm on campus, and a fascinating set of classes in a schedule that lets him sleep in.

But when mysterious messages start appearing on his dorm's shower wall, Derek can't seem to resist searching for answers.

Stiles Stilinski, Boyfriend Extraordinaire by MereLoup  | 14.4K | G | Derek/Stiles

“Beacon County Sheriff's Department, this is deputy Mahealani speaking.”

“Oh thank god!”

“Stiles?”

“I, uh, I need some advice.”

“Advice?”

“Yeah. So, hypothetically, say you met your boyfriend’s mother and sister for the first time ever. Completely by accident. In the grocery store. And they convinced you to help them make a dinner to surprise aforementioned boyfriend when he got home after work. What would you do?”

Danny paused, and then, “Stiles, you don’t have a boyfriend.”

“That’s not the point! And I said hypothetically.”

“Stiles...what are you doing right now?”

***

Stiles never imagined he’d be in Derek’s kitchen cooking a surprise dinner with Derek’s family while they waited for Derek to get home from work.

Partly because their visit was a complete surprise.

But mostly because Stiles didn’t have a boyfriend.

Or even know who Derek was.

But he’d already come this far and Papa didn’t raise no quitter!

Bingo by betp  | 23.9K | M | Derek/Stiles

Derek scowls.

Or, the one that was supposed to be every item on the Sterek bingo chart and ended up being a Derek manpain feels jamboree.

A Little Spark by D1nosaurs  | 24.9K | E | Derek/Stiles

Tilly settles after his mom dies, as a littler Stiles stands clutching his dad’s pants leg with one small, white-knuckled fist. One moment she’s a tiny warm body cupped in the palm of his free hand and the next she’s a weight on his shoulder; an angular construct of stark feathers and black slate claws.

It’s hard to get comfort from a bird.

It only takes being part of a werewolf pack to understand that comfort isn't what he needs at all.

What he really needs - what any of them really need - is a little spark.

By Any Other Name by sysrae  | 36K | E | Derek/Stiles

Stiles is kinda slutty. So is Derek.

Then they meet at a party, and Feelings ensue.

Timing is Everything by ChloeWeird  | 61.6K | Works: 5 | M | Derek/Stiles

Nothing had tried to kill them for three whole years. His dad stopped updating the "Supernatural Accident Free for X days" counter. The pack was stable. The timing was perfect and they could totally do this. Stiles just had to convince Derek.

Somehow, taking their relationship to the next level doesn't go as planned.

Strut on a Line, its Discord and Rhyme by xiaq  | 61.8K | T | Derek/Stiles

“Carry me,” Stiles says.

“No.”

“But I’m injured.”

“You have a rash,” Derek says. “On your arm. Your feet work just fine.”

“Please?”

“No. You weigh almost as much as I do. And you ate a pound of chicken at lunch.”

"Well, yeah, but I pooped like an hour ago, so.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Don’t play, you love me.”

I do, Derek thinks, relatively horrified. I really do.

Fix-It and Begin Again by chimera01  | 201.3K | Works: 3 | M | Derek/Stiles

After the attacks by the Darach and the Alpha Pack, Stiles falls victim to a nasty flu epidemic, which affects his magical “spark”. Thrust into the past, before the time of the Hale fire, Stiles has the chance to right some serious wrongs. How will his actions affect his life and relationships in his proper timeline?

[whiskyrunner]

hey! so an update on the gerbils - they really like pumpkin seeds, and they've progressed to the point where they come running to the cage door and will crawl out onto my hands to take treats! chandler's less skittish than joey, so he'll sit on my hand whereas joey still does a bit of a grab-and-run, but they've come so far!! i'm so proud <3

That’s awesome!! I still love their names.

This is a trick I used with Duncan when I first got him and he was too afraid to even walk across my legs with the Baby Bees. If you’ve reached the point where your buddy will take treats from you but will run away with it, use something he can’t run away with. With Duncan I put ice cream on my fingers and he would sit there and lick my hand. With gerbils, you can use applesauce  (unsweetened is preferable) on a spoon. He should like that!

[whiskyrunner]

i love all your posts about your pets! i was wondering (since you seem to know a lot and my last small pet was 10+ years ago) what you thought of gerbils? mine was super docile and sweet but i don't know if that's the norm or not and i thought maybe you'd know (online it's all super conflicting info)

I love gerbils! And yeah, there is conflicting info out there. I find it’s hard to get a good idea of a pet without going out and interacting with them, but I’ll try to give you a good idea. Having had a gerbil before should help you.

Gerbils are totally capable of being docile; it’s just that, unlike guinea pigs and rats, they don’t really start out that way. You hand-tame them. I actually find them easier to tame than the dwarf hamsters at work because unlike the hamsters who are mostly concerned with food, gerbils are super curious about EVERYTHING. So whenever we get a batch of wee babies in, the first thing I do is lay my hand flat in their cage and wait for everyone to pile on. It makes me squee. (I actually once had four babies settle in for a nap on my palm, all in a row. I almost died.) So everything else is just building on that - moving your hand around with the gerbil on it, lifting your hand, etc. I find the well-socialized babies, the ones we play with a lot, find hands irresistible even if they don’t like the moving around initially. The REALLY brave/curious ones will start climbing your arm. For the shy ones, you can get them to step onto your hand using little seeds as treats. Once they’ll sit on your hand comfortably even when you move, you can bring in a second hand and start working on scooping them.

One HUGE thing I can’t recommend enough is to get at least two gerbils! They are so social and adorable to watch together, and (I’ve found this with rats too) it’s so much easier to socialize them in pairs or groups, especially if at least one individual is braver than the others. Everyone will usually “follow the leader” in those situations. With the four who fell asleep on my hand, two of them (the black and agouti) were actually very shy and learned not to be by watching the two beige boogers who would scale my sleeve given any opportunity.

(One of those liked to nibble my hand and would wait until his three brothers were also milling around on my palm to disguise his assault! So cheeky. Baby gerbils are disgustingly cute.)

Be patient because some are more skittish than hamsters. We’ve had one named Grayson at the store since October and for whatever reason he and his brother didn’t get handled much when they arrived. When Grayson was isolated for an eye infection around Christmas, he was terrified of hands. But he wouldn’t bite. I don’t recommend this method for any scared rodent, but unfortunately in Grayson’s case he required twice-daily eyedrops and that required twice-daily forced handling. Fortunately, he never lost his non-aggressive temperament and in fact settled down a lot within a month. He now bounds out of his house to see us when we open his cage. I’ve held whole conversations with people with Grayson climbing over my hands and up my sleeves. (Yesterday I gave him a little kiss on the nose and he gently nibbled my lip in return. <3) This would probably be considered a form of flooding therapy and I don’t recommend it; my point is that even a very shy gerbil can be brought around. Though he’s fine once you’re holding him, Grayson still doesn’t love to be picked up and will scoot away, and he probably wouldn’t if we had been able to take our time with him, given how friendly he is otherwise.

Grayson and his brother Edgar:

(Edgar was actually fine to be held initially, but after Grayson was separated from him for treatment, he became depressed and a lot more skittish, a sign of loneliness. We were able to take it slow with him and he became even more docile than before. Edgar went home with someone last week.)

Sorry to go off on a tangent. I love my babies at work.

Anyway, the point of all that was, docile is definitely possible for gerbils, and I expect it’s even common once you’ve worked with them a little. I remember my two were easy to handle. There’s also (as with many rodents) gerbils out there who are afraid to the point of aggression, and those are the only ones who really just need their space. But I haven’t met one yet.

Note that they’ll never be as passive as your regular Syrian hamster. They’re super busy and super curious and love to run around and explore (and chew) everything. So if you’re okay with a pet who won’t sit still and will climb on you and eat your clothes while running through them, gerbils are fantastic, especially because they’re awake during the day (morning and evening usually). If you’d prefer someone maybe a little more laidback who will bumble around and fall asleep in your pocket, gerbils aren’t so great. Unless you find the Koosh of gerbils. And let me know if you do!

[discontentramblings]

GAY

yes

[discontentramblings]

sokka, professor layton, mami

nice nice B)