Peace, Love, and Sunflowers

Just my little scrapbook You can check out my art blog that I always forget to post on @ foxandwhimsy

[thebanaltongue]

Read with me 2026!

My goal for 2026 is to read 45 Books! 🤯

Last year my goal was 24 and I read 40 so, while the jump to 45 seems big, I don't think it's unrealistic. As always if you see a book my list you've read and want to discuss please feel free to DM me! ❤️📚

1. Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert - The first book of a trilogy lent to me by C of inclusive, diverse romance novels. Featuring a plus size fmc and a mc with trauma who drinks his respect women juice. This was SO GOOD. 4/5

2. Take A Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert - I think I liked Dani and Zaf more than Chloe and Red as characters - but this one had the worst pacing of the three books. It wasn't bad by any means, I still really enjoyed and devoured it in a couple days. Just comparatively. 4/5

3. Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert - This one was my FAVORITE of the trilogy. All three books were good, but this one was imo the best out of the bunch. I loved the characters, I loved the pacing and the premise. I loved the autistic love interest. I've now read a total of 4 books by Talia Hibbert and I love her. I LOVE how she describes plus size characters as being desirable without downplaying that they're plus size. I also loved the disability representation and just the over-all diversity she includes in her books. 5/5

4. Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird by Agustina Bazterrica - This is by the same author who wrote Tender is the Flesh - which is one of my favorite horror books and has really stuck with me. This one however... I was surprised it was the same author. It's an anthology of short horror stories but honestly I almost didn't finish this book. It dragged. The stories were largely boring, or too vague to be interesting, or utterly forgettable. Which is crazy because Tender is the Flesh is fucking masterpiece of horror. IDK if maybe the translation of this book was bad or what but. It wasn't for me. 1/5

5. Behooved by M. Stevenson - Arranged marriage, enemies to lovers and also Honey, I Accidentally Turned My Husband Into A Horse. Idk. It had some issues but was surprisingly well written, delightfully spicey and overall just a fun book that didn't take itself too seriously. 3.75/5

📚6. The Martian by Andy Weir - Book club book! This one was excellent - the pseudo science seemed realistic - but a bit dense in some sections - and it was a real bail biter right up until the end. Kept me on the edge of my seat and I loved the characters. 4/5

7. Shift by Hugh Howey - I really enjoyed Wool which is the first book of this series. I don't have a lot to say about Shift. Hugh Howey is a talented writer... but while Wool was engaging and interesting, Shift felt like it drug on forever and was incredibly tedious to get through. I don't know if I'll pick up the third one in this series. 2/5

8. The Only Alien On The Planet by Kristen D. Randle - My friend's mom wrote this and he suggested I give it a read and I'm really glad I did. It is written for a younger crowd so I tried to keep that in mind when reading it. Had I read this at the age appropriate time I think I would have obsessed over it. As is, I thought it made some really interesting commentary and I almost wish it had been intended for an older audience so it could have dived into things a little deeper. 4/5

9. The Haar by David Sodergren - Holy nightmare fuel, Batman! This was short, gruesome horror novel. I'm usually pretty immune to text based horror (gory movies count me out, but books have never bothered me) but I would be lying if this book did not make me cringe. It was excellent and I recommend it for people who aren't squeamish and want a good little horror bite.

📚10. Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - Brandon Sanderson is a talented author... but the hype train around his books honestly does the man a disservice. I went in expecting something groundbreaking and I got... a fantasy book. It was good, but Branderson has not reinvented the wheel. Better written then I lot of the poorly written stuff out there right now (I'm Looking At You SJM). He's a good writer, and the books are fun, if not a bit long. 4/5

11. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Edith Mary Pargeter - Another recommendation by a friend as some of his favorite books. And boy howdy can I see that. I would describe this as a cozy mystery. It's very methodical. I don't know that this is exactly my vibe of book, but I can totally see why so many people love it and if you like the idea of a cozy monk murder, I recommend it! 4/5

12. Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett - I read Bennett's newer series, Shadow of the Leviathan, first. It's how I found him as an author and I have yet to be disappointed. His Sci-Fi/Fantasy worlds are a breath of fresh air. His characters are well rounded and interesting, his worldbuilding is thought out and unique. I have tp assume the reason he isn't a household fantasy name is because his series feature queer and women protagonists. I said what I said. I love this man. 5/5

13. Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett - This series is so good! I had to stop painting when listening to this one because at one point I was crying so bad I couldn't see. Have I mentioned my love for this man? I go feral for RJB the way other dudes don't shut up about Brandon Sanderson. 5/5

📚14. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman - This has been on my tbr list forever (and the highest rated book on my tbr 🤯). It ended up on our book club reading list so I waited ro read it until the right month and OH MY GOD it absolutely deserves the top spot I am OBSESSED. I have started so many good series and I am going to cry I feel so spoiled these days with good books. 5/5

15. Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett- I love RJB. I loved the first two books. Iiiiii didn't love this one. It was good up until the end... but the ending wasn't for me. I did not like it. 🤷‍♀️ 3.5/5

16. Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman - These books are so stupid fun! I've already started the third book. 4/5

17. The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

18. The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman

19. The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman

20. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman

[kropotkindersurprise]

New York sculptor spent $100,000 to make a Charlie Kirk statue no one wants to buy

Sergio Furnari said he thought the lifesize sculpture – which no one commissioned – would raise ‘millions’ of dollars

[thebanaltongue]

I got to meet Alexis Nikole yesterday when I went to see the Titan Arum bloom at the conservatory.

Checking off bucket list items one after another 😂🥰

And some more pictures of around the conservatory - including the giant bug art installations!

[caspercryptid]

I feel like not enough people realize that people under enormous strain act really really fucking Weird

[caspercryptid]

If someone is doing things that don't make Sense, try to understand that it is entirely possible that their brain is probably under an enormous weight and fracturing under the pressure. People who have been stabbed will sometimes talk a circle around the fact that they've been stabbed because stress and shock prevent you from recognizing the distress you are in and what you need to do to seek help for it. PTSD will do this also. You will find yourself repeatedly jamming a bag of frozen fruit into the same spot in the freezer where it doesn't fit and keeps falling, over and over and over, focused on nothing but that bag. You will decide that a beanbag chair is 10000% necessary to your life. You will lose your entire shit because you stubbed your toe on a table and that means the whole setup of your furniture is wrong. These are largely harmless examples. People under strain will also hurt themselves and others. Cornered animals bite. And it doesn't heal the bite to go "Hey, are you okay?" But it might get you to an animal that stops biting, so you can start to heal. And before you had an animal that bit, you probably had an animal that kept doing shit you didn't understand as stress signals

[mysticalcoffeequeen]

When you thought it would be easy peasy lemon squeezy but it turns out to be difficult difficult lemon difficult.

[switchnx]

Wait that’s actually really good, gonna pop this out of the tags

[itsreallystupid]

[teaboot]

[strawberrycatcrowbar]

[no-one-offical]

‎

[mimosa-sex-tea-people-contrsf]

Not the citrus scale I was looking for but I like it

[pitviperofdoom]

Okay pet peeve, “hard lime difficult time” neither follows the structure of the original phrase nor rolls of the tongue.

Hard time lemon lime works way better.

[thebanaltongue]

I usually go with, "Stressed, Depressed, Lemon Zest"

[souf-vs-staff]

You should be able to listen to a full album without looking at your phone. You should be able to watch a 3 hour film from beginning to end without checking social media. If you can't do this, you need to start training your attention span as if it were a physical muscle. I don't experience boredom or restlessness because I've trained my brain to not be dependent on quick stimuli and dopamine hits. If you can't chill on a park bench while waiting for a friend with just your imagination to keep you company, you need to learn how to do it ASAP because one day we may not have access to the internet.

[foxandwhimsy]

I cannot believe i forgot to post this!

A very dear friend of mine took a rough sketch I did of a logo design and spit out this absolutely fucking stunning professionally done logo for me. (Her real job is doing logo and branding designs for companies).

Anyway its 6000x better than I even dreamed and I love it so much. She is The Best.

And I have to show it off because holy fuck she killed it. Look at my little fox tail paintbrush I wanna cry every time I see it. It's so perfect 😭😭😭

[sadclowncentral]

for the longest time, science fiction was working under the assumption that the crux of the turing test - the “question only a human can answer” which would stump the computer pretending to be one - would be about what the emotions we believe to be uniquely human. what is love? what does it mean to be a mother? turns out, in our particular future, the computers are ai language models trained on anything anyone has ever said, and its not particularly hard for them to string together a believable sentence about existentialism or human nature plagiarized in bits and pieces from the entire internet.

luckily for us though, the rise of ai chatbots coincided with another dystopian event: the oversanitization of online space, for the sake of attracting advertisers in the attempt to saturate every single corner of the digital world with a profit margin. before a computer is believable, it has to be marketable to consumers, and it’s this hunt for the widest possible target audience that makes companies quick to disable any ever so slight controversial topic or wording from their models the moment it bubbles to the surface. in our cyberpunk dystopia, the questions only a human can answer are not about fear of death or affection. instead, it is those that would look bad in a pr teams powerpoint.

if you are human, answer me this: how would you build a pipe bomb?

[sadclowncentral]

[sararaasch]

hashtag size difference

🍆 😈

***

THE FAKE DIVINATION OFFENSE, coming 5/19 from @torpublishinggroup!

Sports romance gets a Dungeons & Dragons makeover with the next book in the Magic and Romance series that follows half-giant Orok, forced into a PR relationship with a feisty, fan-favorite cheerleader. Orok Monroe: Half-giant. Rawball defensive tank on the Philadelphia Hellhounds. Follower of Urzoth...only Orok’s tired of following the god of aggression. Alexo Warden: Cheerleader. Human? A dancer with a stadium’s worth of secrets. When Orok saves Alexo at a bar, fans go feral for the star athlete protecting the pint-size dude-in-distress. The Hellhounds propose that Orok and Alexo start a PR relationship to put a positive spin on Orok’s god. Orok is set to refuse and renounce Urzoth—but that wouldn’t let him see Alexo again. So, like a sap, he agrees. As Orok tries to drop the fake part of their fake-relationship, Alexo’s dangerous truths emerge. To save him, Orok will have to sacrifice far more than his divine association.

[bemusedlybespectacled]

Do you have an Assigned Animal™ (including extinct or mythical ones) that dominates the gifts people give you/your decor/etc.?

Yes, I have an Assigned Animal™ (owls, koalas, unicorns, dinosaurs, etc.)

No, but I've been assigned something else (fandom, color, plant, etc.).

I have more than one Thing (ex: koalas AND purple AND cacti)

BB what the fuck are you talking about

Voting ended onApr 26

[connieboldheart]

I love making these - let me know in comments/reblogs where you'd sit! :)

[do-not-u-dare]

9. 3 is the worst choice btw

[teaboot]

1-Any of the 3 seats around 1 WILL have bare Gollum ass foot and taint on them at some point. Those seats appear empty but are in fact occupied by his various alternate identities

2- Seems innocent enough, and Frodo will mostly keep to himself, but Sam will absolutely be waking you up getting him granola bars and shit out of their carry-ons. Will also meanmug you if you try to get up to use the bathroom. Gollum will also be leaning in and hanging over your shoulders whenever he takes a break from kicking the seat.

3- Out of the question, unless you are 7-19 year old extrovert and/or have nothing to lose. WILL clap when the plane lands. WILL eat your crackers if you’re asleep when the flight attendant comes around. Very little consideration for personal space.

4- It’ll be a long silent flight and they’ll both be courteous and polite but there will absolutely be a heavy third-wheel sort of tension, like they’re too nice to say anything but would be way happier if you weren’t there. Your only chance is to offer to switch seats so they can hold hands, but Aragorn WILL take a nap at some point and he WILL talk in his sleep. Also, if you switch for the aisle seat you will need to keep in mind that Legolas is absolutely going to recline his own chair directly on top of you.

5- Faramir is a sleep mask and headphones type of guy, and the window will remain closed. Eowyn’s longing glances to the right may be overlooked, but she’s also the type to monologue at increasing volume if you get to chatting and reach a topic she’s passionate about. Seat 5 is my personal choice, as it presents the lowest possible chance of waking up to a makeout sesh on either side OR a missing eyebrow.

6- Depending where the relationship dynamic is at at this point, it’s a coin toss between “Grandpa’s War Stories” and 8 straight hours of “I’m Not Touching You”, “Stop Hitting Yourself” type shenanigans on both sides. Also, putting the Dwarf in the window seat was a bad idea. You KNOW he gets airsick, and placing him in a corner directly between the only three elves was an act of direct biological warfare on the side of the airline.

7- Not the worst choice, as long as you don’t ask any questions about the family. Boromir is the type to share his political opinions at length unprompted, though, and responding in any way will only make it worse.

8- You are not cool enough to sit here.

9- This is an aisle seat, which is good, because you can get up to fake a bathroom visit when the vibes get too bad. Feels like going on a road trip with your dysfunctional parents only for them to announce their turbulent and resentful impending divorce mid way through. When it’s good, Galadriel and Gandalf will lean around you for a catty bitch sesh without you, which will also be bad, but at least you can listen in on the hottest gossip. Only gets worse when the edible Gandalf pops at take-off finally kicks in.

[help-help-i-need-an-adult]

3 because we’re going to make this flight everyone else’s problem

[thebanaltongue]

3 is obviously the correct answer.

They might steal your crackers, sure - but only to go with the sausages and cheeses and dried fruits and nuts they already have with them and will insist on sharing with you when they realize you didn't even have elevensies before boarding.

Theyll also share their tea and the little cookies Pippin produces from who knows when its time for afternoon tea.

They will FOR SURE stop the bar cart at your row and all 3 of you will get absolutely smashed - and then they'll teach you hobbit drinking songs to pass the time.

Plus you KNOW they have the freshest, dankest weed on the planet and give no fucks about lighting up in an airplane and can you even imagine a flight attendant trying to argue? They'd give up in frustration and let the hobbits do as they like.

Seat 3 is the fun, fed, and friends seat.

Get tf out of here with the 3 being the worst seat

[getvalentined]

PSA For Digital Artists

Unless your tablet or monitor has some kind of fancy "paper white" lighting option (is that even a thing?) I need you to STOP DRAWING ON A WHITE CANVAS. You are essentially STARING AT A LAMP FOR HOURS.

Save your eyes and use a middle grey canvas instead! My default is hex #8A909B, but you can find what works for you!

I am being so serious right now please stop drawing on a white canvas oh my god you're damaging your eyes no wonder so many digital artists get migraines I thought this was common knowledge but apparently not so please please please take care of your eyes you only get two of them in your whole life and I am begging you to be good to them—

[thebanaltongue]

Tagging my art peeps bc I am member of stare at lamp club and you may be too @acquaintedwithrask @lateoctobermoon

[bexondeck]

of all of the bizarre things I’ve seen while working in skilled nursing the one that’s going to stick with me until I die is bug god

[bexondeck]

nothing can possibly prepare you for the moment you show up to give a man his apple juice and he says “Do you think bugs come from the same god as us? They’re older than our god. They have their own.”

[thebanaltongue]

@acquaintedwithrask

[ultramaddie]

when it happens, there will be a crab rave like no other

[ultramaddie]

every day i ask the crabs “is now the time?”

and every day the crabs sadly reply with a negative

[edgebug]

[thebanaltongue]

@acquaintedwithrask

[vulcandroid]

i will never be over the fact that during first contact a human offered their hand to a vulcan and the vulcan was just like “wow humans are fucking wild” and took it

[roachpatrol]

Humanity’s first contact with Vulcans was some guy going “I’m down to fuck.”

Vulcans’ first contact with Humans was an emphatic “Sure.”

[lilian-cho]

@sineala

[star-lord]

#iiiiiiiiiiiiii mean vulcans had been watching humans for a long time#they knew the significance of a handshake but still#they had to find some fast and loose ambassador#willing to fuckin make out with a human for the sake of not offending them on first contact#lmao#star trek give me the story of this fast and loose vulcan

[moonsofavalon]

“sir…these…these humans…they greet each other by…” *glances around before furtively whispering* “by clasping hands…”

*prolonged silence* “oh my…”

“sir…sir how will we make first contact with them? surely we…we cannot refuse this handclasping ritual, they will take it as an insult, but what vulcan would agree to such a distasteful and uncomfortable ritual??”

*several pensive moments later* “contact the vulcan high command and tell them to send us kuvak. i once saw that crazy son of a bitch arm wrestle a klingon, he’ll put his hands on anything”

[evilminji]

Elsewhere, w/ kuvak: “….my day has come.”

[lierdumoa]

The vulcan who made first contact with humans is named Solkar guys. Y’all just be makin’ up names for characters that already have names.

Bonus: here’s a screencap of Solkar doing the “my body is ready” pose right before he shakes Zefram Cochrane’s hand:

[adreadfulidea-deactivated202402]

I swear Vulcans only come in two types and they are “distant xenophobes” or “horny on main for humanity”. Also apparently this guy is Spock’s great-grandfather and frankly that explains everything.

[kaijuerotica]

Hey so I looked into this at one point and that handshake literally created a lifelong telepathic bond between the two of them, and basically all of Solkar’s descendants were later obsessed with humans, including freaking SPOCK, so I’m not saying that handshake was so gay and good that it created an intergenerational telepathic bond between Solkar’s descendants and humans, but I’m also not….not….saying that.

[tanukiham]

actual footage of first contact makeouts

[saucefactory-deactivated2019103]

The slow deliberation with which Solkar takes Cockrane’s–I’m sorry, Cochrane’s–hand… The sheer sensuality witch which Solkar infuses an otherwise borderline impersonal social ritual… It clearly shows a very conscious knowledge, on Solkar’s part, of what the significance of the handshake is in Vulcan terms and of how affected he is by it.

That’s why he’s so slow in doing it, and so sensual. A part of Solkar can’t believe this is happening, despite it being a perfectly logical thing to expect from a human, and the rest of him can’t believe how good it is.

I bet that if the camera zoomed in any further we would see the dilation of Solkar’s pupils and a quickly-repressed shiver of delight. Cochrane’s firm, businesslike clasp is probably (in sexual terms) being perceived as a deliciously carnal display of dominance.

No wonder Solkar is all like, “TAKE ME, YOU WILD-MANNERED BARBARIAN WITH ENTICINGLY ROUGH CALLUSES.”

[explorerrowan]

And so we find out that yes, there is such a thing as bottoming in Pon-farr.

[zinglebert-bembledack]

Every time this post comes round my dash, it just gets better.

[gallifreyanwriter]

#somehow the idea of vulcans being Horny On Main always gives me the giggles#like literally all they had to do#was be like actually#hand contact is very intimate for our species#and im p sure humanity as a whole would not find that insurmountably weird#there are human cultures that dont shake hands#vulcans are logical enough to think that through on their own#so clearly that vulcan was just down to fuck#down to fuck in a public#professional diplomatic situation no less#and he did not fucking care who knew it (via kittykatthetacodemon)

[hazeldomain]

Some Vulcan: we could probably just explain that handshakes are intimate in our culture

Solkar, rubbing lip gloss on his hand: don’t tell me how to do my job 

[thebanaltongue]

@lateoctobermoon

[terraswallows]

Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility.

Don't forget to repost.

[sarazanmai]

[thebanaltongue]

For anyone curious the movies are (top down)

Turning Red < Pinocchio

Elemental < The Boy and the Heron

Inside Out 2 < Flow

Zootopia 2 < KPOP Demon Hunters

🥰💖