she/they | lesbian | if i like your selfie its cause I think youre hot | 21+ I've had this username longer than musk has been on his bullshit - I was here first, bitch.
happy 20 year anniversary of Neil banging out the tunes!
though every rat is special, it's a wonderful and unusual thing for their accomplishments to be remembered and cherished by so many people so many years later. we're all so fortunate to know about the rat who banged out the tunes!
thank you to all the people who sent me reference photos of their beloved rats for this piece!!! credits under the cut!
@joe-spookyy Ben and Socrates
@gooseontheinternet Chamomile and Beefy
@runawayy-rat BartholomƤus and Emo
@theunholystromboli Macrogryphosaurus, Xenoceratops, and Graciliraptor
@techlecticwtch Solas and Dorian
@merlyn-bane Roslyn and Rizzoli
@logictoinsanity Luna and Buttercup
@hagsthehag Orphie, Psyche, Calypso, Ariadne, and Eury
Image 1: Apollo 1. This was meant to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, but a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test killed all three crew members: Command Pilot Gus Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee (pictured)
Image 2: Challenger. The first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight. The entire crew was killed: Dick Scobee, commander; Michael J. Smith, pilot; Ronald McNair, mission specialist; Ellison Onizuka, mission specialist; Judith Resnik, mission specialist; Gregory Jarvis, payload specialist; Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist, schoolteacher (pictured)
Image 3: Sputnik 2. Laika was the first living Earthling (other than fruit flies) in space, and her capsule was never designed to come home.
Image 4: Soyuz 11. Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev (pictured). The first people aboard a space station, spending 23 days aboard Salyut 1 in 1971. They died tragically on their return to earth when a valve failure caused their capsule to depressurise.
Image 5: Columbia. Space shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry, killing Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, Mission Specialists Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon (pictured).
Image 6: Soyuz 1. The first human death in space. Vladimir Komarov (pictured) was killed when his descent module crashed upon re-entry. It is said that Komarov knew the mission was unsafe, but if he pulled out then they would have sent his friend to die instead: Yuri Gagarin (the first man in space).
Image 7: The Fallen Astronaut. A 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) aluminum sculpture that was left on the moon by the crew of Apollo 15 to commemorate the astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the advancement of space exploration.
The other night husband and I were watching a documentary about the yeti where they were doing DNA analysis of samples of supposed yeti fur, and every one of them came back as bears.
Anyway, the next night we watched a thing about some pig man who is supposed to live in Vermont. People said it had claws and a pig nose but walked upright like a man. Now, I happen to know that sideshows used to shave bears and present them as pig men. So every piece of evidence they gave of this monster sounds to me like a bear with mange.
So now the running joke in our house is that everything is bears. Aliens? Bears. Loch Ness monster? Bear. Every cryptozoological mystery is just a very crafty bear.
Bears. Theyāre everywhere. Be wary. Anyone or anything could be a bear.
As the OP of this post, Iām going to threaten that if this gets to one million notes by the 10 year anniversary on 1 June 2026, one year from today, I will get a lower back tattoo of the loch ness bear monster.
This buttery, chamomile tea-scented loaf is a sweet pop symphony, the Abba of cakes. A pot of flowery, just-brewed chamomile isnāt required for drinking with slices of this tender loaf but is strongly recommended. In life and in food, you always need balance: A sip or two of the grassy, herbal tea between bites of this cake counters the sweetness, as do freeze-dried strawberries, which lend tartness and a naturally pink hue to the lemony glaze. This everyday loaf will keep on the counter for 3 to 4 days; be sure the cut side is always well wrapped.
Ingredients
Yield: One 9-inch loaf
½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter
2 tablespoons/6 grams chamomile tea (from 4 to 6 tea bags), crushed fine if coarse
1 cup/240 milliliters whole milk
Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar
½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 large lemon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1½ cups/192 grams all-purpose flour
1 cup/124 grams confectionersā sugar
½ cup/8 grams freeze-dried strawberries
Preparation
Step 1
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon chamomile to a large mixing bowl. Pour the hot melted butter over the chamomile and stir. Set aside to steep and cool completely, about 1 hour.
Step 2
Use the same saucepan (without washing it out) to bring the milk to a simmer over medium-high heat, keeping watch so it doesnāt boil over. Remove from the heat, and stir the remaining 1 tablespoon chamomile into the hot milk. Set aside to steep and cool completely, about 1 hour.
Step 3
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with the nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment paper so the long sides of the pan have a couple of inches of overhang to make lifting the finished cake out easier.
Step 4
Add the sugar and salt to the bowl with the butter, and whisk until smooth and thick, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, vigorously whisking to combine after each addition. Zest the lemon into the bowl; add the baking powder and vanilla, and whisk until incorporated. Add the flour and stream in the milk mixture while whisking continuously until no streaks of flour remain.
Step 5
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake until a skewer or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are OK, but you should see no wet batter), 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes.
Step 6
While the cake cools, make the icing: Into a medium bowl, squeeze 2 tablespoons juice from the zested lemon, then add the confectionersā sugar. Place the dehydrated strawberries in a fine-mesh sieve set over the bowl and, using your fingers, crush the brittle berries and press the red-pink powder through the sieve and into the sugar. (The more you do this, the redder your icing will be.) Whisk until smooth.
Step 7
If needed, run a knife along the edges of the cake to release it from the pan. Holding the 2 sides of overhanging parchment, lift the cake out and place it on a plate, cake stand or cutting board. Discard the parchment. Pour the icing over the cake, using a spoon to push the icing to the edges of the cake to encourage the icing to drip down the sides dramatically. Cool the cake completely and let the icing set.
Reminder - in the US, you can't copyright recipes. (This is why online recipes tend to have stories wrapped around them - you /can/ copyright the story. But the recipe directions are exempt from copyright.
have you ever in your life been struck by the urge to have a baby (unrelated to your actual desire/ability to have a baby). not to get pregnant or give birth, just to Have Baby
am updating my "Gravity Falls takes place in 1998" theory based on observable technology/culture I've managed to catch:
old-style flip phone (like pre-RAZR style, they all got weird after the RAZR and that came out in 2004)
Multiple teens seem to have them (mentions of "did you get my text?") but I've only spotted one teen USING one.
AND the phone appears to have a camera so it can't be earlier than 2000
There's a social media-esque "status update" on said phone in the episode, but it easily could've been something like OpenDiary, Livejournal, or Xanga, all of which could theoretically be accessed by shitty flip phone browsers which did exist by the end of the 90s, and all of those sites were launched in the 90s.
There are CDs but no sign of MP3 players
Boy Bands are still a big deal, complete with frosted tips
no sign thus far of anyone having laptops (other than the clunky old 1980s one that's plot relevant)
VHS tapes of current media (aka one of Mabel's shows).
I'm shifting my guess to GF taking place between 2001 and 2003.
Okay so s2 keeps having references to Ford going missing "30 years ago" which does throw a wrench in the works since we know that happened in the early 80s, but frankly I'm willing to say that's a plot hole that I will be ignoring, because the entire show's vibe is way more reminiscent of kind of the 1998-2002ish era. It reminds me of the kind of tech and stuff we had when I was in middle school and early high school. I still think it tracks.
Also the camera phone may not have actually been a camera now that I revisit the screenshot, so that means it easily could've been 1998-2000ish.
I always just thought of it as being because they're in a small town in a particularly secluded area that had a lot of people who weren't in a rush to be caught up on all the latest tech/fashion/news. Kind of like the town in Napoleon Dynamite, which was also the hometown of the director of that movie, Jared Hess.
The fashion, the technology, the music, even the interior design all seems like a mix of the 70s, 80s, and some of the 90s, but they explicitly show Napoleon's school ID at one point and they're in the 2004-05 school year. I remember a quote about that (which I can't find now) from the director who said something like: "Yeah, things like technology and culture take a few years to get past the Rockies".
Idaho isn't Oregon, but they're both on that side of the Rocky Mountains.
Okay but again, Pacifica. Her family is clearly legitimately rich. There is no reason for her to have a 5-10-year-old model of phone, and nothing about her family indicates that they would be inclined to buy anything but new things. Also like, even small towns had access to the same cell phones in 2012, the market at the time was almost all smartphones and had been for a few years. While it makes sense the non-Pacifica teens would have older styles of phone, they probably still would've been newer models than the ones they have. If the town was so out of touch, you can't even explain it as their phones being hand-me-downs from their parents, because if the town was universally behind, the parents wouldn't have HAD cell phones.
The thing about small towns is that generally at least a FEW people will have more up-to-date stuff, whether it's technology, decor, or fashion. You will basically never have an entirely-outdated town irl, you'll just have some of the newer stuff mixed with the older stuff. And while Gravity Falls does seem small and not the MOST "with the times" of locales, they also get a fair amount of tourists, so it is highly unlikely they're THAT far off the beaten path. Plus Mabel and her friends are able to (attempt to) attend a big concert that appears to be relatively nearby to Gravity Falls, which probably means a largeish city with things like a mall is probably pretty nearby.
Also I think the Napoleon Dynamite aesthetic was a lot more intentional than any irl small town would just ~be~, I don't think that's a great comparison. Especially since Dipper and Mabel aren't from Gravity Falls, but they don't seem to expect or be accustomed to things more modern than what they're running into.
I'm not trying to dunk or anything, just explaining why I don't think these are reasons that my theory/headcanon is any less supported, y'know?
written for @patchworkgargoyle for the server gift exchange! š„°
this is also a fill for @thefreakandthehair's winter challenge
Summary:Ā
When Eddie took over Robin's room, Steve made a promise to himself that he wouldn't scare Eddie off, that he wouldn't do anything to let him know that heās still carrying a torch for him this many years laterābecause Steve feels like Eddie had to have known in college.
He had to have seen it every time Steve looked at him for a beat too long, every time he looked to Eddie first when told a joke, every time he wore his feelings so loudly because heās never had to reign them in before.
And now heās doomed to spend more than a week letting Eddie show him glimpses of his life that heās never seen before, parts of him that heās kept to himself up until now.
Steve feels like the more he gets to know Eddie, the more ingrained these feelings for him become.
But, you know, other than all of that, what could possibly go wrong?
Or, Steve was planning to spend the holidays alone, but there's no way Eddie's going to let that happen.
-
excerpt under the cut!
āHey, are you going to be in town for New Yearās Eve?ā Eddie asks as Steve walks out of his room, bleary eyed and barely awake. āI told you Iām visiting my uncle Wayne for Christmas, but I can be back in time for New Yearās Eve if youāll be here.ā
āIāll, uh, Iāll be here,ā Steve says, his voice still scratchy from sleep.
āWhat are your plans for Christmas now that Birdieās gone home with Chrissy?ā Eddie asks, dropping the curious act and getting to what he really wants to know.
Itās too early for this.
Eddie knows he has less of a filter when heās just woken up, so this is a targeted attack.
Heās been avoiding answering the question when Eddieās asked what his plans were before, but Christmas is in a few days and it looks like his hemming and hawing around an answerāāI might go with Robin and Chrissy,ā and āIām not sure yetāāwon't suffice anymore.
Robin left yesterday with Chrissy to spend Christmas and New Yearās Eve with her family, her first time taking Chrissy home to her parents, and Steve obviously didn't go with them.
He hums and takes the cup of coffee Eddie pushes into his hands when he takes a seat at their kitchen table. He takes a sip, trying to formulate a way to not say outright that heās staying here alone.
He shrugs his shoulders and says, "Iām not doing much. Iāll be in town for New Yearās Eve though,ā because his brain is still mostly offline and heās hoping Eddie will leave it alone. (He knows that he won't, but itās a nice thought.)
Eddie asks, āHow are you getting to your parentsā place? Or are they coming to town?ā
Eddie knows Steve isnāt super close with his parents just like he knows that he hasn't spent Christmas with them since he graduated collegeāhe and Robin have spent it together since she and her parents aren't big on Christmas as a whole.
They did visit Robinās parents the first year after college and spent the holidays there, but since then, theyāve just had Christmases at their apartment, getting each other a couple gag gifts and a couple real ones and opening them in front of their comically small Christmas tree. The only reason they aren't spending it together this year is because Robinās parents want to finally meet Chrissy.
He gulps down more coffee before saying, āIām not going to Hawkins.ā
āSteve, work with me here. Are you or are you not spending Christmas with your parents?ā Eddie asks, leaving no room for ambiguity or āmisinterpretationsā of his question.
So he just sighs and comes clean.
āMy parents are in France for Christmas, so Iām just hanging out here for the holidays,ā he says, not looking Eddie in the eyes. His parents did invite him to come along, but his passport is expired and he didn't want to stress about getting it renewed in time for the trip.
āHanging out here alone?ā Eddie asks.
Steve nods, still not looking at him, fiddling with the handle of his coffee mug.
āAnd howād you get Robin to leave without you?ā Eddie asks, suspicion in his voice.
āWhat do you mean?ā Steve asks, playing dumb.
āI mean thereās no fucking way sheād let you spend the holidays alone, first Christmas taking her girlfriend home or not. So what did you tell her you were doing for the holidays?ā
Steve sighs, so worn out all of a sudden. He wishes they weren't having this conversation at 8 in the morningāwell, he wishes they weren't having it at all, wishes Eddieās ADHD would have let him forget to ask what his plans were before he left for his uncleās place.
āI- may have said I was spending the holidays with you,ā he says sheepishly, finally looking up at Eddie.
Eddie levels him an unimpressed look and then, in an even voice, he says, āOkay. So youāre coming home with me.ā
āNo,ā Steve says. āNo. I swear Iāll be fine. Itāll be nice even. Relaxing, having some time to myself.ā It sounds weak even to his own ears, so heās not surprised when Eddie doesn't let up.
āUh huh, sure. You come sit by me when Iām doing my virtual D&D sessions even though you donāt play because you hate being alone for that many hours, but you want me to believe youāll be alright being alone for more than a week over the holidays?ā
God, it's so not fair bringing up how needy Steve is right now. Steve only pretty recently realized how codependent he and Robin were. They spent almost all of their free time together before she started dating Chrissy and when she moved in with Chrissy and Eddie took her bedroom in their apartment, he had to actively stop himself from monopolizing all of Eddie's time because he doesn't deal well with being alone.
He keeps finding himself almost meandering into Eddieās room first thing in the morning because spending any amount of time without someoneās voice filling his ears is unbearable to him. Even just having someone in his presence, even if they weren't talking, is better than being alone.
He tries to save face by saying, āI swear Iām fine being aloneāā
āNope, youāre coming home with me,ā Eddie says, cutting Steve off, his voice final. āItāll be a tight squeeze since my uncleās place is pretty small, but heāll be glad to have someone to talk sports with, soāyouāre coming.ā
And this is why Steve has been trying to avoid this conversation so hard for weeks now, skirting around the truth with half-answers and changing the subject because he knew Eddie wasn't going to drop it once he knew.
He really has no choice but to accept or else Eddie won't shut up about it. Or worse, heāll tell Robin and sheās definitely not going to drop it. And sheāll be disappointed that he lied and sheāll make him drive to her parentsā house and threaten to come get him if he refuses and itāll spoil her Christmas with Chrissy and her parents. And he doesn't want that, obviously.
This is the first time Robinās been serious about someone and all he wants is for her to spend her Christmas in love and happy and not worrying about him.
So he says, āFine. Fine, Iāll go home with you.ā
As much as he doesn't want to insert himself into someone elseās holiday plans, he doubly doesn't want to ruin Robinās Christmas.
āGreat. We leave tomorrow afternoon.ā
The triumphant smile on Eddieās face doesn't lessen the growing guilt and unease in stomach.
He really was going to be fine, spending the holidays alone. It would have been quiet and he would have hated every second of the silence, but he could have handled it.
His parents were never super into the Christmas spirit part of Christmas anyway. They never had traditions or decorated the house or anything. Growing up, Christmas was mostly about the giftsānot that he was complaining. He always had the newest toys or video game consoles, so for the most part, he was happy enough to skip the rest of it.
It was only when he was dating Nancy and saw how her family gathered for the holidays and spent time together that he realized that his Christmases were always kind of lonely even when his parents were around.
So after college, when he and Robin moved in together, they started to make their own traditions for the holidays, decorating their apartment and wearing matching pajamas and FaceTiming Robinās parents on Christmas morning.
This would have been the first Christmas since he started having actual Christmas traditions that heād be spending it alone. So yeah, it would have sucked, but it would have been worth it if it meant Robin got to have her Hallmark Christmas movie moment.
And now heās apparently going to the Munsonās for Christmas.
At least now Robin won't actually kill him when she gets back and finds out what he did for the holidays.
Giveaway: Gift Cards to The Amazing Devil Merch Store
In TAD's recent insta post, in addition to the exciting hint at new music and the absolutely delightful pictures, they mentioned that gift cards have been added to their merch store. So, this blog is doing a gift card giveaway!
Two winners will receive a £10 gift card to TAD's merch store.
Online shop for merchandise created by alternative-folk band The Amazing Devil (Joey Batey & Madeleine Hyland). Currently selling lyric artw
Here's how it'll work:
1 like = 1 entry
1 reblog = 2 entries
Max 3 entries per person
The giveaway will be open until Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 10pm EST. After that point, new entries won't be counted.
Winners will be contacted via tumblr ask or chat by @the-gods-upturning-inkpots. If we don't receive a response after 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.
Winners will need to be comfortable sharing an email their gift card can be sent to.
But it never says that, it just asks you wich one is greater and the text ends there, wich leads you to thinking that one indeed has greater value then the other, and that the one with the greater value is the answear