Apple Seeds and Shiny Things

Queer, Black, ADHD, they/them, old as balls. Here you will find: queer things, mental health things, pretty things, things that make me laugh, things that make me angry, shameless fandom, general Blackness.

[sawthoone]

project hail mary animatic i finished a few days ago! contains spoilers of a scene towards the end of the book…

[sillyobsession02]

This is beautiful ahhhhhhh

[cilceon]

Finished Project Hail Mary earlier today and how come nobody told me this was a platonic Orpheus and Eurydice type situation between two alien species? There is no greater act of love than the act of turning around can anyone hear me hello can anyone hear me Rocky are you there it’s me Ryland I am actively bashing the side of your ship with a giant fuck ass wrench

[owenhcrper]

i just love all the stories about production on project hail mary. they didn't use a single green/blue screen in the whole film. they built the whole interior of the hail mary. the petrova line scene was done practically by putting infrared lights on a chicken wire cage. rocky's voice was one of the puppeteers because he did such a good job during filming that they couldn't imagine anyone else voicing him. and rocky was a practical puppet/animatronic! sandra huller picked sign of the times as her karaoke song and she asked her daughter if it was still a cool song. i just feel like there was so much love making this film and im obsessed

[merelyspecters]

Project Hail Mary (2026) // Statement of Teaching Philosophy, Keith Leonard

[kylieminvogue]

[paulfrankjuliusthemonkey]

anyway. onto better things

[sburbling]

onto better things thursday

[pocketseizure]

“I can fix him” okay but I can fix the narrative. I can recontextualize events and bring out depths of character. I can shift priorities and strengthen relationships and show that anyone can change with enough kindness and support, and that what you admired in him has been inside yourself this whole time.

[thesweetiepienovels]

“No one is coming to save you.” I disagree ! I believe many people made up of many small moments come to save pieces of you , even if just briefly. The mentor who believed in you . The friend who said they’re proud of you. The family member that makes you laugh . The random person who held the door for you out of nothing but kindness. The teacher who took extra time to help you understand. The person who smiled at you when you walked into a store. The little kid who looks up to you. The person who randomly complimented you. Being “saved” isn’t about being whisked away and all your hardships gone, it’s about the people and things that remind you life is not all hardships, it is kindness, love, gentleness, softness, care, thoughtfulness. It is many moments made up of your lifetime that keeps you going and showing you the world is still beautiful, and will always be. Despite.

[foodwasnevertheproblem]

T H I S! ❤️‍🔥

[the-one-who-lambs]

They should invent a being a writer that doesn't come with being isolated and diminishing returns on what you are given back compared to how much you give

[aughtpunk]

So there's this story I love about Paul Williams, right? Famous musician who has done a ton of super popular work over a very long career. Well one thing he really poured his heart and soul into was the movie Phantom of the Paradise which fucking BOMBED. Like, mere words cannot describe how bad this reimagining of Phantom of the Opera But At A Disco went. It absolutely crushed Paul Williams. Broke his heart. His biggest failure.

Except during a tour of his he met who described as a young, nerdy Mexican kid who brought him a copy of the Phantom of the Paradise for him to sign. The kid wouldn't stop talking about how much he loved the soundtrack, and how much it inspired him. This kid was literally one of the few people in the world that loved the movie

It wasn't until Paul Williams ran into the kid all grown up did he realize it was Guillermo del Toro.

And it happened again, too! He also met a pair of young French men who wouldn't stop raving about how much they loved Phantom of the Paradise and how much it inspired them and their own band, Daft Punk. The three of them ended up doing an album together. An album that I would listen to on repeat while writing the early drafts of my book.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes the creative process seems cruel, unforgiving, and thankless. You can pour your heart and soul into something only to make zero waves. But even a so-called-failure can inspire and lift up someone that needs it. So you gotta keep creating, if only to be the next link in the chain of creativity and art.

Also I don't know about you but I haven't seriously written in months and I honestly feel like I'm going to explode from too many words so like, you also gotta keep relating or else you might explode.

[ignitelimelight]

Horrifying thought: Moist Von Lipwig must look like Tony Hawk. Nobody is as unrecognizable as Tony Hawk. All your internal images of Moist are wrong (of course they are, it's Moist Von Lipwig) but did you know how wrong

[youre-dreaming-302]

1998 - Tokima “steam head” watch

[maverick-ornithography]

pelcan Mouth perfec t size for put baby in to n\ap! inside very Soft and Comfort baby sleep soundly put baby in Pelican Mouth. Put Baby In Pelican Mouth. no problems ever in peliccan mouth because good Shape and Support for baby neck weak of big baby head. Apelican Mouth yes a place for a baby put baby in pelican mouth can trust pelican for giveing good love to baby. friend pelican

[wizardsexmachine]

POPEYE?!?!??

[wizardsexmachine]

[memecucker]

[oops-all-birbs]

Let's not forget this gem

[herpsandbirds]

Red-breasted Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta bruijnii), male, family Psittaculidae, order Psittaciformes, New Guinea

These tiny parrots are only 8 cm (3 in) in length. (This measurement does not include the tail feathers).

photographs by Lev Frid

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: Never underestimate college students...

The artists are 安琪 ，月唱晚

[blackheartbiohazards]

"I don't want to read this" is totally valid.

"This is disgusting to me" is totally valid.

"I don't want to read this because it is disgusting to me" is totally valid.

"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.

[blackheartbiohazards]

"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.

[spellscarred]

Bro, blocking someone and then using their tag like this is, all offence, weak as fuck. Like all you had to say was, na bro I don't promote pedo protags on this here blog, because I wholly agree with the premise of your argument given contexts (i.e., writing abusive relationships to show the evils, great; writing abusive relationships to show the romance, yikes).

This response is so, so comically shitty within the context of that tag, oh my god.

[blackheartbiohazards]

"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.

[blackheartbiohazards]

"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.

[blackheartbiohazards]

"Censorship of some topics in fiction and art is good and I would be happy if it were to be enacted in a way I approved of"

and

"some things should be banned from ever being written or read about in fiction"

are both authoritarian viewpoints to hold and express, even if you don't have the power to enact them.

If you hold these viewpoints you are holding authoritarian viewpoints.

[averageidiotenby]

DUDE IT’S PEDO FICS EVERYBODY THINKS THEY’RE NASTY

[blackheartbiohazards]

Let me explain this to you in simple terms.

Something being nasty is not a good reason to ban fiction about it.

If we accept that "something being nasty is a good reason to bad fiction about it" then we give a foot in the door for all the people who truly, genuinely believe that queer people are nasty to ban all queer literature.

This is not about defending bad people this is about defending the freedom of good people from tyranny, you moron.

[kawaii-pigeon]

I think if you take it to its logical extreme. Say, banning people from writing stories of sexual abuse. That could then be said "well ANY talk about sexual abuse is bad."

And from that, you could ban books that talk about it irl. Or books like how to recover after being abuse. If its not something to be discussed AT ALL.

[plague-of-insomnia]

The fact that I’ve seen this post in some form on my dash like 100x and each time there’s new idiots who do not get that you can’t have *some* censorship.

Either you’re for it or you aren’t.

The moment you agree that something should never, ever exist in fiction is the moment that anything can be banned.

Remember a while back how Tumblr banned a bunch of tags, including many popular innocuous ones that even people who are for censorship used and were upset about?

When censorship happens, stuff YOU like can and will be banned. That’s how it works.

Remember how a bunch of people had their accounts terminated here only last year for writing about their own sexual abuse?

When you ban “pedo” topics, say, any talk of child sexual abuse in any form, that means people can no longer write about their own experiences. It means people cannot educate others so they can learn how to protect themselves or get help from these situations.

Censorship is authoritarian. Full stop.

Even if “everyone” agrees something is “gross” and “shouldn’t exist,” that does not fucking matter.

Do you know who generally believes queer people are gross and shouldn’t exist??

The same people who are banning books left and right solely because they have queer characters or relationships.

The same people who attack and kill queer folk for simply exisiting.

This is not just some fandom matter or a case of being chronically online.

Protecting freedom of expression is essential, and if you do not get that, I don’t know what to say to you.

[scientia-rex]

And the people who keep bringing up child sex abuse as a reason for censorship are doing it very specifically because everyone feels like then they HAVE to agree with the person in favor of censorship.

It’s not that there isn’t widespread societal agreement on this. It’s that they want you backed into a rhetorical corner where you feel compelled to agree with them.

[ruffboi-mags]

Also, like, we KNOW how this shit shakes out in fandom because it's happened before.

In 2007, Livejournal capitulated to the "pedophilia and sex crimes!" cries of (hate group) Warriors 4 Innocence, and you know what communities got shut down? Slashfic communities. Sexual assault survivor support communities. Authors who'd written non-smut m/m fic even got caught up in it. It was DEVASTATING to fandom spaces. I think pretty much everyone knew at least one person whose account was literally DELETED, or were a member of a community that was wiped off the map because they were considerate enough to include topics like "sexual assault" or "BDSM" in the profiles under the badly-named category of "interests" to indicate that posts on said blogs or communities may include discussion of things like that. Even if it was for a SUPPORT group. And it was because a group of religious bigots came to LJ and said essentially "EVERYONE thinks it's gross and that it's promoting CSA, we should ban it."

Like, strikethrough and boldthrough were a large part of what propelled AO3 out of a more unfocused conversation on one person's blog about hosting a site INTENDED for fandom content, into being an actual archive and nonprofit. And it's a large part of why you won't find AO3 banning topics that you find "gross".

Censorship is authoritarian and it will ALWAYS have more collateral damage than you can imagine.

[tilthat]

TIL that Harvard professor Tom Lehrer was asked at the age of 84 by rapper 2 Chainz if he could sample his 60-year old song. Lehrer replied, “I grant you motherfuckers permission to do this. Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?”

via ift.tt

[theradioghost]

the fact that this doesn’t mention that 1. the song is called “the old dope peddler” and that 2. lehrer’s other songs range from delights like “the masochism tango” and “poisoning pigeons in the park” to a catchy theme tune for the myth of Oedipus to celebrations of plagiarism in math academia and a series of jokes about the folk song “Clementine” as written by various classical composers, not to mention The Elements Song, is unforgivable.

lehrer is also a math genius who entered Harvard at 15 and may or may not have invented the jello shot. eventually he got bored of performing music and went back to teaching math. as of May 2021 he’s 93 and still kicking around in California.