[catasters]

[aralintheobsessive]

if you want butterflies, you need to live with caterpillars.

i am not being metaphorical, i work in a garden center, stop buying plants 'to bring in the bees and butterflies' and then immediately poisoning every caterpillar that dares to consume a single leaf

you will not get butterflies if you kill all the things that turn into butterflies! what are you doing!

[danascullly]

Only Murders in the Building | Season 5 Episode 4 - Dirty Birds Written by Kristin Newman

[sugarfrostedapples]

animals in armour

[vmkhoneyy]

I think if I could be the kind stranger in someone’s memory, that’d be enough.

[jessie-lou]

The morning my mom died, we left the hospital and didn't know what else to do but go get breakfast at a McDonald's. We shuffled in like zombies. We were pretty shell shocked after everything we'd been through. And because of that, I guess the three of us were kind of struggling with getting our drinks and napkins and carrying our trays of food. I couldn't even tell you how we struggled with such a simple thing. We were just lost in thought, I guess. All I really remember is this little old man, a complete stranger, helping us bring our trays to the table. We didn't even ask for help. He just did. It was so weird because it was like he knew what had happened. I never got his name. The whole interaction couldn't have lasted more than 5 minutes. But I can still see his face.

[tardigradetheking]

I dont care if you think people are fundementally selfish. I choose to believe people are good and even if i get taken advantage of im going to do my part to make the world fair and kind

[knitmeapony]

Maybe this is the wrong post to put this on but I've been going through this book lately and if you need your faith in humanity restored, try this: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-paradise-built-in-hell-the-extraordinary-communities-that-arise-in-disaster-rebecca-solnit/11725474?ean=9780143118077&next=t

(My local library has it in both hardcopy and audiobook format, hot tip!)

Basically, time after time after time, when we study crises and disasters, here's what happens:

people with power get afraid to do things because they might lose control of a situation (this is called elite panic and it's a whole different post)

ordinary people give zero fucks, and begin to help one another

It doesn't matter what decade, city, or type of disaster: ordinary people step up. They carry things for each other. They loan resources. They share food and water. The idea that people would rather hoard and be individualist is, by and large, just an illusion; people start to help each other, and then when folks see people helping, they help the helpers.

[thatdisasterauthor]

Seconding the book recommendation! This book is fantastic.

[naamahdarling]

The night we put Raleigh to sleep, the night after we put Smooch to sleep, the lady at the gas station refused to charge me for drinks. Asked nothing. Saw my face and said "No." And sent me on my way.

It was small. It was just water. We wanted water because we had been crying so much and the water at home isn't as good as a Fountain Drink Water, which will compel you to drink it before it gets warm, and also tastes better. We just wanted This Specific Water with the good ice.

But it meant so much. Less the water than the instant human recognition of deep pain and the flat "No."

Not a no to us. No to the very idea of it all. No, I will not charge you for water after whatever the fuck it was you just went through. Go.

There were greater kindnesses that night. Terrible, terrible kindnesses done by the doctor who tried to save him. I won't recount it, except to say the table and everything within reach was a (bloodless) mess, and she had been crying.

But that one thing with the water will always stand out. I don't know why. It just does.

I wonder how many people who are ready to give up on the world and are very vocal about it see the value in human kindness, and how it makes things bearable, and how that makes it possible to have the strength to go on fighting.

[prguitarman]

[depsidase]

[thememedaddy]

[catchymemes]

[daily-spooky]

[sirfrogsworth]

Ironically, hard light is bad for recording sexy time.

It will highlight every pore, every vein, every wrinkle on your nutsack.

One day I will end this ring light fad. It is my ultimate side quest.

[sirfrogsworth]

It seems my lighting advice has given people a mistaken impression...

[sirfrogsworth]

These outtakes where the flash didn't go off are also AI generated.

I like this spooky dutch angle one.

I was just starting to learn flash and I didn't have all the equipment I needed. Since corgis are quite short, I had to put the lighting on the ground. The off camera flash was on a tipped over lightstand with a shoot-through umbrella to diffuse the light.

But I had no wireless triggers. And the only other way to trigger a flash, is with another flash. So I used the on-camera pop up flash to trigger the main flash.

But I had two issues.

First, I did not want that dinky on camera flash affecting my picture.

Second, triggering a flash with a flash is best done indoors. The flash will bounce all around the room and eventually hit the sensor so the main flash triggers. When you are outdoors, there is no bouncing.

SO... I took a little handheld makeup mirror and angled it toward my main flash. This blocked the dinky pop up flash and sent the beam of light towards the main flash to trigger it.

I was lying on the wet morning grass, holding a camera in one hand, a mirror in the other, trying to aim the mirror exactly toward the main flash, making crazy noises to get Otis's attention, and trying to get the focus point on his face so I didn't get a blurry photo. Also, Otis was much more interested in sniffing things than posing for a photo.

Here is an overhead view that might help explain.

I await all of your comments saying my amazing drawring is clearly AI generated.

Only 30% of the time did the flash actually go off. Aiming the mirror was tricky and I was doing like 8 things at once. I wasn't even sure I got the photo I wanted. But when I came back to the computer there was one that stood out and it is one of my favorites I've ever taken.

It was the best combination of monumental effort, great discomfort, perfect foggy sunrise light, and just pure luck.

Unfortunately, people like me who use advanced sculpting light techniques are getting accused of using AI more and more. Not really sure what to do about it—other than show the 30 awful photos it took to get the good one.

My 80s sunglasses photo and spoon photo get called out the most.

But it's just good old fashioned gradient lighting which has been used in product photography since the days of film.

So, no need to be suspicious.

[hollowedskin]

Photography like sirfrogsworth's is what the fucken AIs were TRAINED on.

[parkchanwoohoo]

[eeveestho]

ok but the full translation is also extremely good

[human-pet-girl]

that translation is accurate except for that last part. pflegestufe doesnt really translate to a state of need, its moreso means that the weed would leave you disabled in a way that makes you legally eligible for care or assistance

[ashes2caches]

one time a guy friend told me he was quitting league of legends and literally two weeks later she was on estrogen. these events are intrinsically connected in my mind.

[everyday-cutephoto]

[thewitchqifrey]

Edgin whacking people with his lute

[merulanoir]

His official fucking statblock:

[important-animal-images]

singing lessons

[arttheclowncult]

sorry to have to tell you this but if a stranger comes to your inbox or slides in your DMs asking you for your money with some sob story, no matter how tragic and convincing the story is, they are a scammer — especially if the story is obviously copied and pasted, formatted in the exact same way as the other 100 bots in your inbox