Tangent Musings

[tangentmusings]

this is basically how this scene went, right?

[stars-bean]

Knives Out (2019) dir. Rian Johnson

[salvadorbonaparte]

I told my students they're allowed to be creative and don't have to be factual when writing about themselves in German because I keep getting questions like "what if I don't have roommates or what if I don't have hobbies" and I'm like guys just make something up! Have fun! I won't fact check you!

So now I am grading homework where a student is claiming to be from North Korea and his hobby is tax fraud

[salvadorbonaparte]

I fully believe that as long as it's grammatically correct, coherent and answering the question students should be able to write whatever the hell they want. I don't care about their actual hobbies and the names of their siblings.

[salvadorbonaparte]

One of my students is writing about a ghost he "interviewed". The ghost is called Walter and died in 1865 . The ghost has ghost friends.

This is making grading homework significantly more fun.

[tangentmusings]

Oh I have a fun story from my high school German class like this!

Every week we had a question we were supposed to answer in (mini) essay form (I think it was like 100 words or something.) Anyway, the question this one week was, "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?"

So the day it was due we were doing that annoying standardized test thing for the first half of the day, and my classroom finished early, so we were just hanging out and talking. The kid in front of me was in my German class, and we realized neither of us had written our answers to the question.

So we collaborated.

In his essay, he wrote that he would travel to the North Pole, where he would trap Santa Claus by placing a bear trap next to his bed. Then once he was disposed of, he would rule over the elves with an iron fist.

Meanwhile, in my essay, I said I would travel to the South Pole, where the evil tyrant Anti-Santa subjugated the local penguin population. I said I would rally the penguins and overthrow Anti-Santa, at which point they would make me their leader.

Then we both ended our essays by saying that we would expand our power over our respective hemispheres, until we met at the equator and joined forces to rule the world.

We got to learn a bunch of fun new words, and our (probably initially confused) teacher wrote, "Sehr lustig!" (Very funny!) on both our papers.

[tangentmusings]

One more thing to add to the pile of Supernatural posts everyone is getting. Spoilers for everything up to the finale ahead

[tangentmusings]

in honor of spn's birthday yesterday, I humbly re-submit this creation of mine that was super fun to put together

[tangentmusings]

I was today years old when I learned that this guy

wad voiced by freaking Tim Curry

I don't know what to do with this information besides share it with all of you

[penroseparticle]

TRUST EXERCISE

This is not a rickroll

[catinc]

I love you for ever and ever.

[ashensamurai]

do you guys trust me?

[only-tiktoks]

[alexaloraetheris]

Yeah, it really be like tha- MOTHERGODDAMNFUCKER

[vnielsart]

A while back my sister @sheliesshattered sent me @alefvernon's concept art of ten swords inspired by the (at the time) ten albums of Taylor Swift. It looks like they have since added more swords for the recent double album, but leading up to that I was able to create these 3D models of each of the ten. I'm really pleased with how they all came out.

I modeled them each entirely in Maya as well as doing the UV mapping, which allowed me to create the textures in Substance Painter. I then lit and rendered the scene(s) using Arnold in Maya.

I also have some turntables of each sword, some with some fun animations! (Butterfly wings flapping, fire crackling, the clock hand spinning, that sort of thing) But! Tumblr apparently has a problem with uploading more than one video in a post, so I will be uploading those separately.

Credit to Alef Vernon for these incredible designs; they were done so perfectly it really made it easy (well easier) to create these models.

[tangentmusings]

From my art blog

[tangentmusings]

Calling bipolar friends and others who take antipsychotics

So I'm on Zyprexa/Olanzapine, and, as is common, I gained some weight - about 30 pounds. I've worked this year to lose what I can of that, and have actually successfully lost 23 pounds! (It would probably be a little more, but Chocolate Season comes for us all.)

But the strange thing is that it seemed like as I've lost weight, my meds aren't as effective. This last month in particular I have been alllll over the place with my moods. I don't know that I can really call any of them episodes since they usually only last a few days, followed by brief stability, followed by either a crash or a new bout of hypomania. I had a bit of a breakdown talking about this in therapy today, which is the first time I've cried in the whole process.

It's entirely likely this is coincidental to my weight loss. If anything it might be the reverse and that now that my weight has stagnated due to the aforementioned Chocolate Season, it's been hitting me hard. But it just seems odd that they have been steadily working less and less. And yes, I have been very diligent in taking them every time.

tl;dr does anyone know if the weight/zyprexa connection somehow works the other way? What could be causing this increase in symptoms?

[tangentmusings]

bras

So I'm fairly busty, and I have never understood the people who say "when I come home I immediately take off my bra." My bra feels great, and without it I get some awful underboob sweat.

Well today my good bra needed a wash, and I was left with older bras that were at least a size or two too small, and suddenly I get it. I'm still not going the underboob sweat route, but I really can't wait to get this off.

So if this is you, you may want to check the size of your bra. It might be too small.

[vnielsart]

I posted this elsewhere yesterday for the solstice, but forgot to share it here! This is a Zbrush sculpt of Marta Kost's Summer character. I really enjoyed making her. I sculpted, painted, and posed the character in Zbrush, and I created the hair, clothing, and flowers in Maya. I also retopologized the character in Maya, and lit and rendered the final in Zbrush.

[tangentmusings]

from my art blog again

[vnielsart]

My most recent 3D project. I tried this once before a long time ago (with Lego people and no concept of lighting or texturing that time), and I'm really happy with how this version turned out.

Modeled and textured in Maya, characters sculpted and foliage generated in Zbrush, and lit and rendered in Arnold. All of the above were done by me.

[tangentmusings]

from my art blog

[tangentmusings]

While in conversation with my father in law tonight, I tried to look up whether there are lobsters in the Pacific Ocean (delightfully, there are!). But the first suggested search when typing "are lobsters…" was "are lobsters immortal?" (tragically, they are not)

[tangentmusings]

my husband's family has this weird thanksgiving tradition where they go out in the field behind their house, tie an old car hood to the back of a working car, and ride on it while being dragged through the field by the car. it's actually surprisingly fun, even more so if we actually have snow on thanksgiving. even so, I gently tease my husband about just how very hickish the practice is.

and I was contemplating this today, when I suddenly remembered that I literally ripped my wedding dress at our reception while dancing to Cotton-Eyed Joe. so maybe we are made for each other.

[tangentmusings]

s2 of shadow and bone really said "screw bury your gays, they are now the ONLY ones to get happy endings"

[cryptcatz]

question: do ppl ACTUALLY say things they don’t mean when they’re angry? or is that just an excuse after letting something true slip? i wouldn’t ever say something i don’t mean in anger, so the concept confuses me.

but something was said to me that is bothering me, though apparently was said in an argument and wasn’t meant. but i don’t rlly believe it wasn’t like, deep down true thoughts/feelings??? anyone have any insight? anyone say things they don’t mean in anger?

[talestobetold]

To my understanding (also autistic lol), there’s two things people mean when they say this, whether they know it:

1. “I said something I didn’t mean to say and I’m sorry I said it.” There are lots of things people leave unsaid because they know it’s unfair, irrational, or unnecessarily hurtful. Also lots of things that are just hurtful, so it’s a mixed bag

2. “I made a dumb leap of logic because my angry brain wasn’t working like my calmed brain.” This can apply to projection (“Why are you mad at me?”), paranoia (“I just know you’re about to break up with me.”), jumping to conclusions (“Oh, you just want to run off to that friend of yours, don’t you?”), etc etc

I think people usually mean the former but the latter definitely exists. Hope this helps

[drtanner]

I'm not autistic but I have been in plenty of very angry arguments and so I can tell you that there is a Secret Third Thing™, which is "I said something not because I actually believe it's true but because I was angry and wanted to hurt you."

You'd be surprised at how often that one happens.

[eroticcannibal]

Theres also "i said something that was true *in the moment*, but this does not reflect how I feel 99% of the time". Think kids screaming that they hate you before storming off.

[bananonbinary]

i've definitely done the "i wanted to make you just as upset as i feel so i said something intentionally hurtful" (altho i always regret it instantly, it's absolutely never been worth it)

there's also a secret other thing (that i'm not actually sure if allistics experience, but i think is probably common with neurodivergent people), where i said something that just straight-up wasn't what i intended to say in my brain, because my words got jumbled on the way to my mouth and the end result was FAR meaner than intended. this is the "i meant to say 'no problem' and 'you're welcome' and ended up saying 'you're a problem'" phenomenon, except its a lot less funny when it happens in a really emotionally charged moment.

[tangentmusings]

As to that last point, my husband and I have a code to stop hurt feelings from misspeaking. Whenever we have something to say that we want to be taken in good faith but the way it's coming out of our brains sounds really bad or offensive, we just preface it with "I need you to suspend all judgment here." Then the other person knows in advance to not take it how it sounds, and can respond by helping come up with better phrasing and check with the first person if that's what they really meant. Granted this can be harder to do when emotions are running high, but just having it as a habit has really saved us from hurt feelings due to miscommunication.

[tangentmusings]

Naming all the tiny pieces in my 3D model is going to be the death of me

As part of this model the character has a giant steam-punk-esque hammer, and I’m naming pieces and I’m naming groups that I organize the pieces into. I have the hammer head, the handle base (right at the bottom) and.... the “handle shaft.” I literally can’t think of a better name for it. And then there are a bunch of decorative rings around this hammer, so I am now left with naming these pieces “shaft rings.” It’s technically accurate, but I would so love some way to avoid a cock ring innuendo here.