#So are frogs but we don't have as many in the pond this year | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mykingdomforapen · 5 months ago

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chapter 10 of "courage of stars" will be coming next week and guys, I'm so nervous. I am so excited and I'm so nervous. This chapter is many things. It's where I got to do some things I've been really wanting to do. It's where I cross a point of no return in the story. I got to try a different style. It's where the line blurs between fanfic and a genre that I respect and fear.

It's also a huge factor in why this fic is rated M. Hoo boy.

So! In lieu of updating today, so that you won't have to face a three week wait afterwards, here's a fun little drabble/filler episode:

When Lu Guang was four years old, he lovingly killed three tadpoles. He had scooped them from the pond in a plastic cup and brought them home happily, convinced he would raise them into froghood. By Thursday, all three of them floated lifelessly in the surface of the bright blue tub in which he housed them. His mother poked them curiously with a chopstick while he sobbed into his grandmother's lap.

"Don't be so sad, Guangguang," Maamaa crooned as she patted Lu Guang's head. "You tried very, very hard. We all know that you did your best."

"I killed them!" Lu Guang wailed into her skirt. "I just want them to be frogs and now they died!"

"Oh, A Guang," his mother said as she furtively plucked the dead tadpoles into a bundled newspaper for a more discreet funeral. "This is a good learning experience, right? Now you know what not to do with a frog. See, it's good to learn with the wild tadpoles, before you spend money on a pet. You know better for next time not to use tap water."

Lu Guang sobbed louder ("I meant it to be comforting!") until Yeye came home. Maamaa intercepted Yeye before he walked through the door and sent him on a mission to bring home steamed bai tang gao as a consolation, and Yeye beelined to the nearest vendor to bring home a steaming, buoyant cake of tangy sweet rice. Lu Guang chewed on it sullenly on the living room sofa after bidding the dead tadpoles goodbye into the storm drain.

Yeye sighed as he sat next to Lu Guang, stroking his grandson's little head.

"You know," he said, "when I was little, my father raised bees."

Lu Guang blinked up at Yeye with teary eyes.

"Honeybees?" he asked.

Yeye nodded. "My father was a very adventurous man, you know. A scholar, but always enjoyed the outdoors. He got it in his head that he would like to try raising a colony of honeybees. I was so excited to help him. I thought we would have hives and hives of bees, but what do you know! Only a month or so of having the bees, one day they all flew away. The queen said, no more! I was so disappointed."

Lu Guang sniffled. Yeye scratched the back of Lu Guang's head.

"After that, we stuck with chickens," Yeye said lightly. "What do you think of chickens, A Guang?"

Lu Guang shook his head.

"I like frogs," he whispered.

"You want to try raising frogs again?"

Lu Guang nodded. Yeye smiled crookedly.

"Ah, well," he said. "Chickens are smelly, anyway."

For Lu Guang's seventh birthday, his parents took him to the pet store.

His mother had promised him a pet frog for when he turned seven, partly because she had assumed he would grow out of frogs in three years' time. She was a woman of her word, though, when she noticed him checking out library books about frog care and frog types when he hit age six. When asked if he wanted to invite friends over to play, he shook his head and asked to go to the pet shop.

So on Sunday when Ba and Ma were off work, they took Lu Guang to the best-rated pet shop in the city, four subway stops away from Peidi University. Lu Guang was shaking with anticipation as he counted down the stops, donning his frog bucket hat in celebration and looking away solemnly when teenage girls cooed at him. All he could think about was his dream coming true.

“Now, A Guang,” his mother said breezily as she took Lu Guang’s hand to wade through foot traffic. “When you pick a frog, you have to make sure it isn’t poisonous, okay? Mommy is afraid of poisonous animals.”

“I don’t want a poison dart frog,” said Lu Guang, albeit with reservation. “They won’t have them in a pet store.”

He did not know what sort of frogs were available in the pet store that Ma and Ba were taking him. Ba, in all his practicality, had assumed that they would go to one of the street markets and pick up a frog that was meant for the dinnerplate. He expressed mild surprise when they turned left to the subway station, so Lu Guang knew Ba wasn’t going to be any help in asking for clues.

“All right, Guangguang,” said Ma as she ushered Lu Guang into the pet store. It was a corner shop with clean glass windows, full of tanks and cages and colorful habitat accessories. Colorful parakeets squawked and glittering snakes coiled under sunlamps, and Lu Guang’s little heart began to race with anticipation. “Only one frog, do you understand?”

Lu Guang nodded, his eyes as wide as coins as he stared up at the tall towers of tanks. There were saltwater coral fish dancing among anemones, drowsy tarantulas (Ma squeaked at the sight of them), sunbathing turtles, bearded lizards, and–

Lu Guang felt his jaw drop.

An Amazon milk frog.

It was just at eye level with Lu Guang, so that when he pressed his nose to the glass he was eye to eye with the docile pale blue frog. It perched on a rock under the sunlamp, milky blue and content to stare back at Lu Guang. It was perfectly patterned, gummy blue webbed feet, and a lipless mouth that promised simplicity.

It was, in short, the most wonderful creature that Lu Guang had ever seen.

He stood up on his tiptoes to get a closer look at the frog. Its tiny breaths puffed in its throat in a fascinating rhythm. It was like seeing a real-life Doraemon in Lu Guang’s eyes, or Sun Wukong–a fairy-tale celebrity come to life, except instead of comic books it was Lu Guang’s frog encyclopedia. Lu Guang knew its habitat, its life cycle, its favorite foods, and now he could behold one with his own eyes.

Seven minutes passed, and his mother touched him on the head.

“A Guang, there are other frogs you should look at too,” she said.

Lu Guang shook his head. He pressed his hands against the glass.

“Aiyah, A Guang, not too close.”

Lu Guang moved his nose a millimeter away from the glass, leaving a smudge. His mother looked down at him with a crooked smile.

“Is this the one you want, then?” she said.

He looked up to his mother and nodded. Ma turned to Ba and tapped the price tag. Ba nodded solemnly and undertook the task of haggling (unsuccessfully) with the store owner.

“Let’s pick out a tank for him,” said Ma.

She took Lu Guang’s hand and tugged him towards the habitat shelves, but Lu Guang refused to budge. He glued himself to the spot, maintaining unbreakable eye contact with the milk frog.

“A Guang, come on, now,” she said. “We have to give him a home, don’t we?”

Lu Guang huddled closer to the tanks. He was convinced that if he were to let the frog out of his sight, some other seven-year-old boy would swoop down and claim the frog as his own.

“Ba is buying the frog right now, see?” Ma said, pointing to Ba who was conceding to the original price of the pet store while he pulled out his wallet. “There. Let’s choose a tank.”

After another minute of convincing, Lu Guang finally followed his mother to pick out a proper tank for his frog. He picked out the soil, cleaned rocks, plants, and water source that would all go into his terrarium, but it wasn’t until Ba handed to Lu Guang a plastic covered cup with his milk frog sitting politely inside did Lu Guang feel the surge of joie de vivre. He hugged the cup to his chest, whispered his thanks to his father, and then burst into tears, precisely in that order.

Thanks for indulging me with this little drabble, gang. Who knows, since I'm kind of keeping up this 2 week streak for the rest of the update schedule, you might see the return of Frog Guang's adventures again...after all, if you've been on my tumblr for some time, you may recall that I have a headcanon that Lu Guang has beef with one of his cousins.

Until next week!

#LC writes #link click #lu guang #stars commentary #shiguang dailiren #frog guang agenda

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legacyshenanigans · 10 months ago

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Alright, long-winded and random, but do you guys wanna know about the wild dream I had? And I have dreams like this regularly, I don't know what that says about me, but yeah 🤣 here we go..

The dream was in segments for some reason, where I like fell into different areas randomly.

Segment 1:

I was in an office building, there was just a bunch of people in suits working on computers, but the office building was like a HUGE log cabin in the middle of a city, and I remember thinking IN my dream "this is so out of place" 🤣

Anyway, some woman wanders over to me with a giant bag filled with cutlery and she says "You have to go and set the table for lunch time" and I said in my dream "I dont work here" and she was like "It doesn't matter, just go and do it" so I took the bag and went into this room where there was the BIGGEST table I've ever seen, and I only had 10 minutes to set up all the cutlery on this table ready for the lunch hour, and for some reason one of my cousins who havnt seen for like 15 years showed up and started talking to me and I was like "Listen, I need to get this done stop talking to me" and he KEPT talking to me and in the end I lost my rag and I was like "If you're gonna stand there distracting me, atleast fucking help me!!" And then I fell through the floor into segment 2 of the dream.

Segment 2:

I was at a big house, and there was a pond in the back garden. One of my uncles wife's dad's was there (no idea why ive met him twice lmao) and he was telling me that there was way too many frogs in this pond and that it was really bothering him, because they're so loud and they're always splashing around in the water. He also told me there was a particular frog that looked really weird and it was like the leader of all the other frogs, and he told me to try and get rid of some of them, and gave me a net and a huge bag to put all the frogs in. Anyway, so there I am, scooping frogs and putting them in this bag, but they're all jumping out all over the fuckin place and it's total chaos. And then I see this "Leader" frog. It's bigger than the others, so I thought if I could get the leader in the bag and make it STAY in the bag, the others would follow, so I'm wading in the pond trying to catch this big frog, and I finally catch it and it starts fuckin snarling at me and trying to bite me, and I'm screaming for help, thrashing around, fighting this frog in this random ass pond, and then I suddenly went underwater, then popped up in segment 3 of the dream.

Segment 3:

I was sat on a sofa in a living room, and there was a little ginger dog next to me, staring at me. And then one of my uncles walked into the room and was like "are you ready to go?" And I was like "where?" And he said "We'll take the dogs for a walk" and I said "Dogs plural?" Because far as I knew there was only the one dog, the little ginger one that was next to me, and I looked back at the dog and there was now 4 of them all sat there looking at me. So we take them for a walk, and we're walking along the beach in the next town over to where I live now, and my uncle says "Had any weird dreams lately?" And I said "Yeah I'm having one right now, actually" and laughed, and my uncle looks at me confused and says "What do you mean?" And then I get confused and say "Well this is a dream, isn't it? I'm dreaming, like right now? None of this is real?" And my uncle stops and looks at me like I'm a fuckin monster or something, he looks terrified and his face started stretching out and going all fuckin weird and he starts screaming and his scream was getting louder and louder and the dogs turned to Ash like Thanos just did the snap or some shit. And the sand and sea on the beach went all black and fuzzy and then I woke up.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my talk. 🤣

If anyone is a big dream freak, lemme know what all this means? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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marciabrady · 2 years ago

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as i was thinking about both fiona and odette one day, i realized how many similarities they shared! fiona transforms into an ogre at night, while odette transforms into a swan by day- literally recalling fiona's curse: "by night one way, by day another."

in their respective films, they're both seen healing parties that been injured with arrows back to health:

someone must've had to teach them how to heal said arrow wounds...with fiona, specifically, i feel like she's a product of the early 2000s. in certain moments, they make her this traditional princess for us to laugh at, and in other moments she's like this badass fighter, but they don't explain where those things came from...like who taught her how to fight? then my mind started opening up to the possibility that odette and fiona were somehow related/their stories intertwined

upon further thinking upon this theory, i thought about odette's formative years as portrayed in the opening number of her film. she's seen as being a prim princess with proper manners, but also someone that's combative and isn't afraid of a physical confrontation

ok so remember this. BUT ALSO there's a frog called jean bob in swan princess, who claims that he's actually a prince and that, if odette should kiss him, he'll regain his human form

you know who the voice of jean bob is? JOHN CLEESE AKA FIONA'S FATHER, KING HAROLD, THE FROG KING

this convinced me that fiona's ogreism is a recessive gene from king harold since she, too, turns into a green swamp-dwelling creature, similarly to a frog, just like her father.

BUT if it's recessive, that means it would've had to have been inherited from both sides...which would only be plausible if her mother had a similar transformation spell she was under- say, a SWAN TRANSFORMATION SPELL

also, in shrek 2, fiona's mother says the following about how she met fiona's father:

"don't you remember when we were young? we used to walk by the lily pond and (they were in bloom) our first kiss."

um, our first KISS

also, both odette and lillian (fiona's canonical mother) have feathered blonde hair. another connection- in the third film, fiona's mother is seen head-butting through a brickwall and freeing the princesses from a prison. when fiona is shocked, her mother replies:

"well, you didn't actually think you got your fighting skills from your father, did you?"

odette is a fighter and, going along with my earlier point, the one that i think taught fiona how to safely remove arrows! so odette HAS to either be fiona's mother or cousin and lillian is her aunt or mom...it all connects

also, not for nothing, but odette is the only princess to have an onscreen awkward phase (which relates to fiona feeling ugly) and odette is literally a ginger with braids at that time, which is fiona's signature look

furthermore, in the beginning of the swan princess, the parents arrange a marriage between derek and odette. in the hopes that the prince and princess will fall in love, the parents make them spend every summer together from the age of 6 to 16, praying they'll develop a romance. odette secretly likes derek the entire time, but derek hates her. it isn't until their final meeting, when she's grown up and conventionally attractive, that he takes to her and quickly announces to, "arrange the marriage!" odette interjects, "wait!" he replies, "what? you're all i ever wanted...you're beautiful." and she LITERALLY says, "thank you...but what else?" he blankly stares at her and says, "...what else?" to which she replies (source):

i can see this being a generation curse where fiona, too, needs to learn this lesson and i think, since odette already knows there's more than beauty, it causes...tension between she and fiona. fiona being like, "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE LIKE THIS."

but also, the frog king, the swan princess, the ogre princess- this is def a family line COME ON

also since odette knows it isn't what it seems (which the prince has to master in the swan princess, as per odette's father)/there's more than just beauty, that's why i think she (lillian) wasn't shocked when fiona came back in shrek 2 as an ogre, whereas harold was visibly more upset. also, idk if you all know but there's a deleted scene with a character called dama fortuna that asks fiona to choose between 'beauty' and her 'happily ever after.' fiona chooses beauty like...again, the generational curse!

this would prop fiona up to be a perfect mix between her parents. like odette, she sees past appearances and knows there's more than beauty which explains why fiona doesn't judge shrek that much. she's initially disappointed he's an ogre purely because of her curse but otherwise, she doesn't care. meanwhile she can't accept herself because she takes half after her father, harold, who is so unaccepting of himself but also those around him (ogre shrek and fiona). like it makes SO much sense that fiona would be a combination of these two (source)

harold's need for "beauty", ie people who are societally acceptable in his eyes, leads to him literally imprisoning his daughter to a tower so no one sees her as an ogre. meanwhile, with lillian, she's way more accepting which is why i never understood how she would also send fiona off, especially since she willingly married harold the frog king.

BUT if you subscribe to my theory that she's odette

it would absolutely make sense she's cosign on sending fiona off because of the line above ("you're all i ever wanted; you're beautiful"). when fiona's growing up, odette/lillian notices fiona parroting a lot of her father harold's harmful rhetoric. where harold sends fiona off to hide her, i think odette/lillian sends her off so fiona learns the same lesson harold/frog king had to learn (it isn't as it seems/there's more to life than beauty or being accepted by society) and allowing her daughter to mentally develop in her formative years without the negative influence of her father or the unrealistic beauty standards/wrong priorities that far far away sends forth as an allegory of the entertainment and beauty industry (fairy godmother).

BUT i think with time, odette/lillian starts to feel bad and urges harold to bring fiona back, which brings us to the fourth movie with that scene where she convinces harold to make a deal with rumpelstilskin to bring fiona back

i have so much more to say on this but i'm wrapping this up for now and am qualifying this as the thesis of my theory

#the swan princess #shrek #princess fiona #princess odette #marciabrady #mine #some of this requires suspension of disbelief because yes i understand fiona's mother's canonical name is lillian BUT #here needs to be more discussion around these two female characters in general because they're incredible!

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unnervinglyferal · 7 months ago

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My new obsession right now is Columbo

My mom finds this very odd

I don’t understand why

I have a curio cabinet with dead things in it but she’s weirded out by my current obsession with a 70’s tv show

Although is it really a 70’s show when the first pilot episode was aired in 1968 and the last episode was aired in 2003?

That spans from the late sixties all the way to the early two thousands

If you want to include the first time the character of Columbo was seen that was the early sixties but I don’t really count that one because it was for a completely different show and he was played by a completely different actor and now Columbo is just very intwined with Peter Falk

Anyways Mom finds my obsession super weird

I can’t tell if it’s because the show was started before she was born or because both my parents have said that it was the type of show kids only watched if their grandparents were watching it

I mean like last month we had a conversation about making me a decomposition box for road kill but she’s weirded out by the 70’s show obsession

I literally walked into a water filled ditch to grab a frog today, I had to hose off the bottom of my pants after that

But somehow the fact that I know how many years it was until people knew if Columbo had a glass eye like Falk did is odd

(25, and yes the character does have a glass eye like Falk did)

This is the lady who admitted to spending hours try to figure out what type of wetland the Frog Pond is

Oh also I realized I have a screen recorder on my computer so I don’t have to fuss around on like fifty different sites trying to find good quality video files of the episodes and then fuss around for like thirty minutes trying to find good subtitles online

I can just record them from my screen

tbh weirdness is relative. There's people who would think that keeping chickens and grabbing random snakes recreationally is weird, but if something's normal in your region, it is. Nobody in my girlfriend's family considers it odd or unusual that she had a baby at 16 (despite of the average age to do that around here being almost twice that), the part they consider weird is that I'm still in the picture and actually changing diapers.

There's no such thing as normal, so don't worry about that. Also I've never seen a single episode of Columbo and have only learned about it through people making "I've been watching Columbo for some reason" posts a lot online. Which on its own is fascinating.

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quotesfrommyreading · 1 year ago

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For most people, discovering a frog living in your fence post would make you feel either kind of creeped out or kind of charmed. For one guy in Australia, it was a challenge: He decided to make it the sweetest pad possible. In a now-viral two-minute TikTok video, he designs and 3-D-prints his frog an elaborate home. He keeps adding features until the lucky amphibian has an attached pool, a downstairs mating pond with a tadpole ramp, and a predator-proof safe room.

This frog house was gleefully over the top, practically engineered to go viral with its renovations for “increased ribbit amplification” and a brushtail possum who occasionally likes to drink water from the pool. But frog houses as an idea are worth taking seriously. Animals don’t need much to get cozy in our backyards and balconies, as the world has already learned with birds. One ecologist found that bird feeding goes back at least 3,500 years; in the 18th century, the facades of Ottoman palaces and mosques were fitted with structures to house birds, who were seen as both holy and lucky. Birdhouses and bird feeders are so thoroughly part of human culture that purple martins in eastern North America nest almost exclusively in houses made by humans.

But why do birds get all the love? Building a little house for a frog to shelter in, or a pond where eggs can hatch and tadpoles can grow, is a great idea if you’ve got a place to put it. Even a tiny pondlet in a container on a patio can raise a whole amphibian generation. You can provide meaningful help to animals that need it, and participate in species conservation at home with very few downsides. Honestly, creating a backyard pond is probably better than putting up a birdhouse. Will someone please think of the urban amphibian?

Birds are beautiful, and they sing—it is no wonder we have long welcomed them into human spaces. At some level, it doesn’t even feel like sharing space, because birds live up high, in trees and on rooftops and telephone wires. They get the sky, and we get the land. Seems fair. But frogs? Inviting them into the garden can make you feel uneasy. Whereas birds are “so obvious and so charismatic,” Erin Sauer, an ecologist at the University of Arkansas who has studied both urban birds and urban amphibians, told me, frogs are “cryptic” and “camouflaged”—“they don't want you to find them.” Many frogs in temperate zones, including much of the United States, are brown and green, and more active at night. They are a subtle pleasure, compared with a crimson cardinal or an iridescent hummingbird.

It might not be obvious that some amphibians are probably living not too far from you, in part because they stay hidden. Frogs, newts, and salamanders exist in most cities. In New York, you can hear gray tree frogs call in Brooklyn Heights. In Los Angeles, the canyons of Griffith Park are filled with bumpy western toads. According to the biodiversity tracker iNaturalist, 28 species of amphibians have been spotted in Columbus, Ohio, including the colorful eastern red-backed salamander.

But amphibian populations are declining. Forty-one percent of amphibians are threatened with extinction, in part because of an ongoing fungal pandemic that as of four years ago had driven an estimated 90 species extinct. Frogs also have habitat needs that are “so specific,” Sauer said: They must have both water and land to complete their life cycle.

Still, if there are frogs near your home and some relatively protected route for them to travel, and you build a pond with vegetation around it, they will likely move in. An analysis of dozens of projects that created ponds for amphibians found that in every study, frogs showed up at some or all of the ponds. And many of the studies found that the number of species was similar or higher in created ponds than in natural ponds. Not all of those ponds were in cities, but another study looked at ponds in Portland, Oregon, and found similar results. The biggest predictor of how well a pond attracted frogs wasn’t whether it was real or fake, but the amount of plants growing in and around it.

Frog ponds aren’t very common residential features (yet), but it isn’t like no one thinks of amphibian-kind when designing their outdoor space. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has some advice for creating effective backyard conservation ponds for native wildlife. There are any number of guides online to building toad abodes, frog hotels, and general-purpose backyard frog ponds. Some gardeners install toad houses, hoping that a toad will move in and pay rent by eating common garden pests. You can even buy handmade toad houses on Etsy. And naturally, TikTok Frog House Guy is now selling frog houses as well.

It can be simple, and cheap, to invite amphibians over to your place. Tree frogs love to hang out inside vertical tubes, so simply pounding a few PVC pipes into the ground can create a little frog hotel. Building a cozy house for toads can be as easy as half-burying a broken pot. Making a frog pond is as straightforward as digging a hole; setting a commercial pond liner, an old bathtub, or even a plastic storage tote in the hole; and filling it with rocks and water. “You don’t need to 3-D-print some elaborate frog mansion,” Sauer told me.

I had called Sauer to set my mind at ease on one point: Would creating an artificial house or pond also create a transmission point for disease? She told me it wasn’t worth worrying about. Yes, multiple frogs might move into a pond or house, and they might touch if they mate, but frogs already gather in groups naturally, whereas birds at bird feeders can congregate in unusually high numbers. Feeders can pose a disease risk to birds, Sauer said: “You have a single place with one porthole, and they stick their faces in there and chew on things. And then their friends come over and do the same thing.” A frog pond can even bring in birds, who will use it to bathe and drink—with less chance of disease transmission.

There are very few downsides to catering to your local frogs, the biggest of which is that your backyard might have more mosquitoes—mosquitoes, like frogs, breed in water. To avoid that, you either need animals that will eat all of the mosquitoes (such as dragonflies or some tadpoles) or you need to keep the water moving. A solar-powered aerator costs about $30.

It is very possible that the frogs that show up to your patio water feature won’t be critically endangered species, but that’s okay. “We want to keep common species common so they don’t decline,” Sauer said. It all helps. Providing habitat for amphibians is important, but researchers are also working on frog houses that will actually help save frogs from the fungal pathogen. These houses would be like little greenhouses: hot enough to kill the fungus but not too hot for the frog’s comfort.

Not everyone can or wants to build a frog house. But they might be interested in putting a pot full of wildflowers for pollinators on their balcony. Saving species in the 21st century isn’t just about protecting big, undeveloped parks—although we need those too. It is also about figuring out how to coexist with the many species that can thrive in the urban, suburban, exurban, and agricultural landscapes we’ve made. That we’ve shared space with birds for thousands of years proves we can do it.

There’s evidence that this is already happening, and birdhouses and frog houses are just the beginning. People are adding bee hotels and bat houses, and planting milkweed for endangered monarch butterflies to lay their eggs on. It can be dizzying to think about all the species that need help right now, but engaging in everyday conservation can also just be fun, helping to turn neighborhoods into corridors of habitat for creatures such as frogs. Our cities can be wetlands too, at least in spots. Our kids can watch tadpoles on summer days. And in the spring, we can listen to the frogs sing at dusk.

— You Should Build a Frog Pond

#emma marris #you should build a frog pond #environmentalism #ecology #wildlife conservation #history #animals #frogs #salamanders #newts #toads #gray treefrog #western toad #red-backed salamander #mosquitoes #dragonflies #ottoman empire #erin l. sauer

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blorbologist · 1 year ago

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Hello! I don't know if this is strange to ask but I feel safe asking you, (if this is invasive don't worry about answering at all)

How did you get into biology? was it always your dream? was the courses and school worth it? did you do very well biology and math wise in highschool? how often do you use math in your field?

- Someone considering the biologist field

Hi there anon!

I'm so sorry this is so late - I've had a busy month both due to my personal life, fandom and academics. I'll try my best to answer, and I'm really flattered you asked me ;;

Now, full disclaimer: I'm working on my Master's thesis. I currently intend on pursuing a PhD and remaining in academia, but who knows what will happen. Maybe I get the offer of a lifetime and work as the behaviorist for a zoo! Or maybe I find happiness in a workplace only tangentially associated with biology. So there are a lot of unknowns I can't answer. But I can answer what you've got so far!

Getting into biology was not too different, at least initially, from most STEM: it meant a lot of chemistry, and physics, and high-level math. Come CEGEP and then Uni (French-Canadian education system, eh?), I continued to be funneled down the STEM pipeline, at least initially, which meant competition was very intense with pre-med, neuroscience and the likes. By my second year of uni (third for most), though, I was able to start taking the really BIO-oriented classes, and from there started scouting out profs whose class and research focuses I enjoyed for a potential research project. Doing a research project in your last year (or sooner! I was just set back by COVID) is an incredible foot in the door; it showed me what science is like in the day-to-day, introduced me to many seminars to Zoom in on and which publications to watch, and of course was a massive networking boon by getting to be in touch with the head of my lab + grad students directly. It's also a good test run as to if this is for you. From there, it's reaching out to potential labs (before grant deadlines! Start looking NOW if you're graduating this academic year!). Look at the PI's recent publications, their lab's website, what direction they are taking their research into, where you're willing to go / how far you're willing to deviate from your goal research. Have a project or two in mind. In my case I talked to two labs - one initially did not have space and referred me to others in their field I might like, and one of their suggestions I talked to had too many students to take me on. Lo and behold, my OG first pick ended up having a spot - an interview later, plus some meetings with the current grads so I could ask what the lab was like, and I'm writing this instead of making sure my data is tidy before sending it to my PI :P

TBH, it was a lifelong interest with the critters around me. I grew up in rural Quebec and so had a lot of opportunities to go outside and Find Things. My brother and I would trudge out to the pond to catch frogs and minnows and - if we were super lucky! - garter snakes or snapping turtles. But it was also the weird emerald green bugs that'd bite us, or watching wasps build a nest, and seeing how waterstriders dance. Our parents fostered a lot of that interest; my dad always encouraged us to always put animals back where we found them, to not hurt plants, to be mindful of the living space. And I do appreciate my mom swallowing her disgust at the nth Animal Planet documentary with animals dying graphically pft. Steve Irwin was an idol to kid me, though now I'd quibble with how he would interact with wild animals and stress them out, I cannot understate how many people my age he got to really get fascinated by so many creatures. I'd credit my interest in dinosaurs for a lot of this too, because wow, the world has selected for some mighty cool animals over time! How did they interact? What could select for traits that extreme? Or, inversely, what makes them stick around?

Sidebar, but a moment that sticks out to me is when my brother and I stumbled on a host of the local garter snakes leaving a brumation hide (and probably a mating ball). We caught twelve of them, including regulars we recognized. It's what got me thinking about snake behavior, about their social lives, about if they remember who they spent a good third of the year with in a tiny cramped crevice by the stream.

See, the courses initially sucked: either because I was taking chem and physics prerequisites instead of getting to do dissections and look under a microscope, or because I was in a high-stress environment decided to try and weed out potential doctors and neuroscientists and pharmacists while I just wanted to study animal behavior (and neurobiology). So those first years were really hard - but finding joy to appreciate what I was learning here and there definitely helped a lot, and I appreciate the work ethic I developed as well. Once I got into the more specialized courses things really relaxed - still a lot of learning and refining my skills, but there was less of a selection pressure on students and the professors had smaller, more interested classes, so it all went far better. I remember those ones fondly <3

I did very well in math - I didn't get any biology classes in secondary school (again, STEM prerequisites), but I can tell you that chemistry kicked my ass and physics would sometimes throw me curveballs. And the only class I've ever failed was Calculus 2 in CEGEP :p

I work specifically with animal behavior research - so it's less about math and more understanding the biology and behavior of my animals and making sure I remain consistent with experiments, accounting for as many potential factors as possible. However, math does come up. Sometimes you're TAing for a course and need to dose rats with caffeine; sometimes you're making snake oil at a specific concentration; sometimes you're preparing solutions for a perfusion. However, at least in my area, it's mostly low-level math - and in the lab I did my undergrad research in, I can confirm it took myself and two grad students to figure out some pretty simple equations together, but we got through it XD Outside of the lab context, you will be using a lot of stats to back up your findings - so brush up on those, and be ready to ask for help if needed. OFC more technically finite research than 'put snake in arena see what it do' will require more math than me, but being a bit weaker at it isn't a career-ender. Just be ready to ask labmates for help and be ready to learn.

HOWEVER, I will note that one thing that really helped me get my foot in the door was coding. Take a coding class or two - the field is leaning heavily towards automating what it can and/or using automated learning algorithms to back up findings ('look, even a machine can detect these differences and classify X Y Z based on them with high accuracy!'). At least a basic grasp of a couple coding languages is essential going forward, and from what I can tell most labs are really expecting this from their grad students.

Hopefully you see this, and hopefully it's of some help in deciding what path you want to take! Or maybe it'll help someone else - regardless, wishing you the best! <3

#biology #research scientist #ask

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mephestopheles · 2 years ago

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Okay, so this meta is a kind of catchall but it didn't solidify for me until episode four. Spoilers ahead.

So while I don't think Capitalism is the actual bad guy of this season, I do believe, autonomy and choice is at the forefront, not just the importance of Story, which is definitely present, I think Brennan is kind of interrogating not only the role of Story narratively speaking but also how things like fate and destiny are you used as shorthand for 'plot'. The fairies of the neverafter have decided that something is very wrong if the characters and 'people' of the neverafter don't follow their required paths.

Now look at each of the characters and how they're interacting with Story.

Gerard wants to get back to his story. He's the one most likely to follow the wishes of the fairies and do what they want because he just wants to get back to what he believes he's owed. Yes, it is terrible that he was turned into a frog as a little boy and then expected to understand how to rule a kingdom when he's full grown and the curse is lifted. Yes he's going to have a very black and white view on what the expectations of his life 'should be'. So, of all the people who are going to follow the rules of the fairies, he's the one that will have the hardest time going against his own nature and whatever pull Story has on him. He's comes across as a spoiled prince and a coward because he's an adult.

But his entire worldview was set when he was very young and then he spent who knows how many years living in a pond waiting for a princess to break the spell.

Rosamund is another character that is still very much tied to her Story. Again, another young character cursed and locked away from any kind of growth and developed the expectation that a prince would come to save her. She still very much believes that a prince will find her and save her even if she's becoming disillusioned by events of the narrative so far. Her talk with Cinderella is hopefully going to have lasting effects for her but narratively, the "main story" has strong vines.

Pinocchio, poor Pinocchio. I think it's an easy guess that stepmother is one of the fae. Not a witch, but kind of like an archfey. I wonder if she's also the evil fae who cursed Rosamund. Her having many roles in the stories holds to how Brennan seems to be plotting this. I absolutely didn't know that in one version of Pinocchio, he kills the cricket. Yes Pinocchio wants to be a real boy again, but I think he's much less inclined to follow the narrative if he can get away with things he might start pushing back. See the broken off nice as an example. Also his relationship with Pib is interesting. Despite the terrible story where he met Pib with a fox. Pinocchio has trickster qualities that might help Pib more than stepmother, although she does have Pinocchio's father under her thumb.

So I had an image stuck in my head of the entire crew and I think I got them all. I think I'm conveying this correctly, like this is where we start Neverafter off and these are the current positions after EP 4.

Tim is a fence sitter, I get stronger "do it for others" vibes from him than Gerard, but not as strong as Ylfa. Ylfa is not pulled as much by the story as she is by needing family, especially her grandmother. If she has to be in a story for that to be possible then she might go for it, but she's the first to put herself on the line to help others so she has a bit more of a selfless vibe to her.

Pib is very self driven, the vibe of a shit head cat, what pot can I stir to make this fun for me? That's our scrappy little kitty right now. The meta stuff might fade a bit but he's still so much out for himself he'll torpedo a story if something is cooler on the other end.

Pinocchio is on the line, waffling all over the place at the whim of his fae patron.

Overall it's going to be interesting how this resolves. I don't think they'll end up all over into the meta selfless side. In fact I can see Ylfa learning to take care of herself, and Pib is at the end of the day a trickster and he may learn something but not quite enough to apply it somewhere else.

The really cool thing about all of it is that several of these stories begin when they were exceptionally young. Rosamund was a baby when she was cursed and she had to grow up with the knowledge of the curse her entire life. Gerard was a young boy when he was cursed, same as Pinocchio. Ylfa is twelve and is a werewolf. Pib is a cat that defies placing any official age and once again trickster. Tim is kind of outside the narrative by being mother Goose, a storyteller in his own right.

#neverafter meta #neverafter spoilers #character meta #stream of consciousness kind of meta #dimension 20 spoilers #prince gerard of greenleigh #rosamund du prix #ylfa snorgelsson #mother timothy goose #d20 pib #d20 pinocchio

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taylorrama · 1 year ago

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The Locked Tomb + mewithoutYou pt. 14/17

Lonesome offspring of which still resound With the victimless sins of their authors passed down And the remnants of loathsome, disjointed worlds

Song: August 6th Album: [untitled] e.p.

youtube

Maybe it's the fact that August 6th of this year coincided with when I was reading Nona the Ninth, but this song was one of the reasons I started thinking about how mewithoutYou connected to The Locked Tomb. In my mind, this song is the trailer for Nona, even though much of the imagery is rooted in the real world. The main reason is that "August 6th" has this creeping quality to it, starting very quietly and progressing without much of a break until the end of the song. This makes me think of how, as a book, Nona unravels slowly yet has this ticking time bomb with the countdown to the tomb opening. "August 6th" builds up in a similar way.

Aug. 6th, carved in desks with old knives:

Right away, we're starting with an interesting TLT connection because I swear I remember a moment in Gideon the Ninth when they're in that one office/library part of Canaan House and they find artifacts that are very clearly pre-Resurrection and I feel like there was actually something carved into a desk with a knife. Plus, I think I remember a scene like this in Nona, but I might be making that up.

“Back when our common cause was alive And--let’s say--the hyacinth fields were in bloom Children watched as the soldiers marched by All the birds fell like frogs from the sky Prostrate in the streets every crescent moon

We're placed in this scene that, at least according to the Genius notes, is likely World War II, but some of the ideas and images also apply to TLT, specifically Nona the Ninth. Lines 3 and 4 in this segment fit the best–the kids in this book have seen soldiers tons of times, and near the end of the book, all kinds of weird shit falls from the sky.

Lonesome offspring of which still resound With the victimless sins of their authors passed down And the remnants of loathsome, disjointed worlds

These lines may be symbolic in the song on its own, but in a TLT context, they can be quite literal. "Lonesome offspring" could easily describe so many characters in this series, but in sticking with this song applying to Nona, the obvious reference is to Nona's school friends. "Victimless sins" is an interesting and intentionally contradictory image, since a sin must have a victim in order to be called a sin. That said, there are many ways in which we don't see victims in our actions, but they could still be sins anyway.

It seems that the authors of the lonesome offspring passed the victimless sins down to them, which in a TLT context works on so many levels if we take "victimless sins" to be the justification for the atrocities that make this universe function. The Ninth House children are victims of Harrow's existence, but her parents clearly didn't see them that way because they felt justified in using them to create her in the first place. Similarly, we could say that Jod had similar logic in nuking Earth. It's not a sin, not the wrong thing to do, if there are no victims–or rather, if he doesn't perceive that there are victims.

"The remnants of loathsome, disjointed worlds." I mean, is this not what the entire Resurrected universe is? Is this not also the planet Nona lives on? Does Harrow not induce and experience her own disjointed worlds in book 2?

Along the short path round the lily pad pond With off-white deerskin wedding dress on

Look, it's a wedding dress. Kiriona or Alecto, take your pick LOL.

The song begins to take on a sense of urgency as the dynamics increase and the lyrics paint more dramatic images.

And sometimes when it’s quiet my heart feels like Guernica [scenes from old air raid] on screens in blue dusk Perfumed neighborhoods/graveyards the breath feels like Flies in my lungs, voice like ambulance Sirens whose light floods the ground

The chaos of Nona the Ninth happens slowly and then all at once. These lines depict a "blue dusk," likely a bomb but also in Nona we have that blue light in the sky for much of the book. When Nona is on the verge of her third tantrum, and then in the midst of having it, I think disturbing images such as "flies in my lungs" and "voice like ambulance sirens" easily fit what she experiences.

Skyline shifting like clouds Became “airplane descends” [fade to scenes on the ground] Human foreheads all smashed Foreign cars upside down

These lines fit really well with the part of Nona the Ninth where the Empire invasion is happening. Shit's descending from the sky. Blood of Eden is resisting. People are trying to escape.

I stared down a huge insect Bright red-glowing eyes [does it feel wrong to say a thought “metastasized”?] Legs on both highway sides

Sometimes, mewithoutYou writes literary sci-fi. There's a giant insect, probably a praying mantis based on an earlier line I didn't include in this post. Though there isn't a giant insect that's part of the Empire's invasion near the end of Nona the Ninth, there is this huge force that's upturning an already desolate life on this planet. The last two lines in particular have some interesting TLT connections. The "thought 'metastasized'" is easily that entire section when Nona realizes that there's a thought above and a thought below and she has to stay in the middle or else bad things will happen.

After "legs on both highway sides," the song finally takes a proper pause, which to me feels similar to finally getting to the part of Nona when the tomb opens. But the song isn't quite done, telling us that

S a i d i n s e c t w a s m e c h a n i z e d ! ! ! ! ! ! (Said insect was mechanized!)

This cements the sci-fi angle pretty well, and though there aren't actually mechanized insects in TLT, there are plenty of other mechanical things. Emotionally, this part of the song feels like a huge revelation and that's obviously how we feel by the time we reach the end of Nona the Ninth.

--- TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 1; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 2; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 3; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 4; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 5; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 6; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 7; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 8; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 9; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 10; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 11; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 12; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 13; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 15

#tlt #tlt spoilers #the locked tomb #the locked tomb spoilers #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #mewithoutYou #said insect was mechanized #Youtube

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roman-roy-monkey · 2 years ago

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Melanie Martinez's "PORTALS," wants to have its cake and eat it too.

Part 1:

One of my favorite things about Melanie Martinez's sound, is a production technique she uses called "foley."

The best way that I can describe foley, is "sound effects." Things like, breaking glass, rain sounds, footsteps, etc. Foley was originally a film technique used to capture sounds in post production, that didn't get picked up by mics on set. In the last decade foley has become frequently used by many musicians to add texture to their production and experiment with unique percussion styles.

You can hear examples of Melanie using foley across all of her various albums and projects.

In, Test Me, a glass bowl/bottle is rolled around and then distorted to sound like a carousel.

In, Numbers, a typewriter is clicked tapped and typed with, on beat.

In, Notebook, a piece of paper is scribbled on, flipped around and ruffled.

There still quite a few instances of foley being used on her third and most recent album, PORTALS, But on my many listens through, I found that most of these instances felt uncreative, and short lived.

DEATH is the very first track of the record. It's five minutes and six seconds long, and ends with sixteen seconds of Melanie gasping and running from something, with no musical interlude, and no context. I assume it has some sort of purpose in the film, but that has yet to be released so I can't be sure.

FAERIE SOIRÉE is a brilliant and stimulating track, that decides half-way through to become an entirely different song with no production except an endless vocoder. After this jarring interlude we hear the sounds of a shower or stream panned to both ears, again with no instrumentation. The water sounds lead directly into the next track, LIGHT SHOWER, which has three short lived seconds of rain as it's intro, and then it awkwardly fades out with no transition, and no intent.

In a similar vain, the end of SPIDER WEB has pond sounds filled with frog croaks, crickets and various on-the-nose squelching noises to tie its instrumental into the next song on the track list, LEECHES.

PORTALS uses this cop out frequently; introducing an interesting foley-esque layer with absolutely no instrumentation at the end of an already dragging song in order to have a "seamless" transition into the next. In my opinion it doesn't translate. Her previous uses of foley were almost always on theme, had a tie into the production, and had a reason to be there other than aesthetics. They felt intentional, they felt clever.

The one exception to this criticism is THE CONTORTIONIST, which uses various snapping and breaking sounds, in an incredibly satisfying way. I don't know for sure what they used to achieve the sounds of breaking bones, but my theory is that they snapped various vegetables and layered them overtop each other. No matter the technique, it sounds phenomenal. The cracking is always on beat, it's unbelievably satisfying to listen to, and it's creepy (in the best way.) The song stands out, and to me it feels like a track that could belong on Melanie's After School ep, or even K-12.

I wish that the attention to detail that THE CONTORTIONIST got, was given to every track on this album.

For a record that took 4 years to release, PORTALS feels strangely rushed in its mix, production choices, and themes.

#Melanie martinez #portals #crybaby #melanie portals #k-12 #new music #album #indie #indie pop #mm3 #foley #album review #littlebodybigheart #music review #music production

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pbandjesse · 2 years ago

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Oh man I am exhausted. I didn't think I was going to be this tired but it just hit me like a wave. I'm laying in my hammock at Camp waiting for James to come pick me up. And I cannot wait for them to come and get me because I'm so tired. I cannot wait to go home.

I don't really nice day though. I did not sleep well last night which is probably contributing to how exhausted I feel now. Waking up was very difficult. But I got up and got dressed and things were okay. My lips were really scabby. They're definitely healing but it's slow going. I got dressed and my hair felt very dirty but I was cute. And soon me and James were heading out. They had already put their bike on the car and they made me a sandwich and we still stopped at McDonald's to get hash browns and a soda. It was a nice drive out to camp even though the sun was in my face and I was very tired. The soda helped me wake up.

When we got to Camp James drove me up to the art building and I went inside to get my shoes before I grabbed my backpack and stuff and we said goodbye. But very quickly I was calling them to come back for me because Elizabeth texted that my materials were at the lodge and she wanted me to drive them over to the pond. So that was fine. James came back and carded me around. Before saying goodbye for real.

And today would be really fun. I was a little nervous because I don't know a ton about macro invertebrates and vertebrates. But these kids were awesome and really just made my life so much easier. We were a little nervous when we saw the numbers because there were so many chaperones. We're talking like a two to one ratio. But it ended up being totally fine. When the kids got there we had just finished setting up Nick's program. He was running a little behind. And he was teaching about the watershed so he had the most science heavy one really. So when he got in right before the kids got there I was quizzing him on his facts about the Chesapeake Bay. Just being silly.

A bunch of the kids were former campers so that was pretty cool. And I say former loosely because most of them will be coming back this year. And we split up into our groups and then I took them over to the pond.

One of the parents asked how I could handle touching the bugs. And really I'm not very comfortable touching bugs. But when I'm at camp I have to turn off the part of my brain that would freak out because if I didn't I would not be able to comfortably be here. The only thing I don't like are spiders that move too fast. And I had a really good system going for all four programs today. I would stand on the picnic table and explain what we were doing. I asked him a few questions. I told them the rules and the boundaries. And then I sent them off. I had been set up with water so that we could put in anything we found. And they found a lot of cool stuff. I decided I would keep track of everything on the board throughout the day and see if we found new stuff every time and we did. If you look at my chart the first screen words are the first group then red and then black and then green again. And if something has a star next to it that means a group found it a second time. The frogs that we found were mating which was very funny because the kids kept asking why are these frogs hugging. And we found the same two frogs twice which I thought was really funny. We found one gigantic tadball. And about a thousand little tadpoles. We found so many interesting bugs and worms and they would get so jazzed when they found something that no one had seen. They were all really good. No one fell in the pond. Someone did slip in the mud but they didn't end up all wet. Just a little muddy. The parents told me that I was so good with the kids and that was very encouraging.

At lunch I went to the art building to grab my stuff and kind of made a mental plan of where I was going to start moving stuff when I was done. I ate lunch in the kitchen with Elizabeth and the others. And We talked about former camper is and seeing them grow up and how it's very weird. And then it was time for our afternoon programs. Which went really quickly. The kids would help me clean up at the end and I left everything in the sun to drive. And we were saying goodbye. It was a good day.

I talked to Joe for a little while. About changing the Native American program and he showed me some materials that came in the mail that he wasn't sure if they were for me or not. They weren't. And then I went to the lodge where we had a meeting about May and the calendar of events. Who's on when. All of us are basically full time but I'm leaving for 2 weeks and it was just good to kind of put everything out in the universe so that we all knew.

That meeting took forever though. For like no reason. But it was fine. I asked Dachelle and Sarah if they wouldn't mind driving the gator to pick up the nature program materials and help me set up the Native American stuff. And they ended up just doing all of it because they're so lovely. I would stay behind in the cafeteria and put away all the tables and chairs and get everything set up and cleaned. And once I was done that around 3:30 I went up to the art building to start getting that less of a disaster.

And it really wasn't that bad. It's more that it's just messy and crowded. I wanted to move around a few shelves and get rid of some stuff. So I would spend the next couple hours moving things and listening to podcasts and getting a lot accomplished honestly. To the point where I'm very sore now and very tired. It's also gotten a lot colder so now I'm shivering. But James should be here soon. And they're going to help me take a few things to the dumpster before we go home. I am really proud of all the work I did today in the art building. It's not my final solution for how it's going to look but it's going to be way nicer to work in there for any programs that we need it for for the next month or so.

I feel good about everything that I did today I think I'm going to sleep a lot better tonight. When we get home I hope to wash my hair and eat something warm. And maybe try to go to sleep early. Which is why I'm writing this now. Because I very much want to close my eyes as soon as possible.

Tomorrow I'm going to the museum but it will be an easy day. I'm just watching Michael learn a role in the cannery. And I've seen him do it before and I know he's going to be fine. And then I hope to finish my commission for Rosia And just enjoy the day. I hope that you have all had a very nice day today. And that tomorrow is even better. Sleep well my friends. Be safe.

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heresiae · 1 year ago

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a couple of years ago, my sister and I (and, in the end, a family friend that was visiting) gifted our mother a small pond in her garden.

thanks to the many facebook groups about plant swappers, Sister came into contact with a lady that was searching for pond plants to gift, hence the idea.

her pond was beautiful shaped (her husband made very cure little shores in stone), had many many plant both in water and on the sides, red fishes and frogs.

now, sister and I LOVE frogs, like maniacs. when we were little we had a short summer vacation in a different place than our usual (we own a cabin up on a mountain, but father was searching for a change of scenery). luckily for us (but not our parents) that place has a small wetland, but you don't have to imagining it like the usual one, it was up over 1000mts, so it was like several holes in a meadow, often very well hidden by grass a full to the brim with small frogs.

we were always there, catching them and falling into the water. we put some of them in a stone watering hole near the house for a couple of days and release them, of course, at the end.

so, when we went home with four buckets filled with water plants and possibly frog eggs, we were ecstatic, and mother too when we told her that the pond and the plants, may have come with future frogs.

for two years she had frogs chanting in the garden between spring and fall. little by little they were reproducing, first they were three, then almost a dozen, then... this year summer hit.

it was so hot that almost all of the water evaporated. despite being born in a heavily rainy and wet valley, climate change arrived there too. it didn't rain for weeks and mother didn't want to use so much water to maintain the pond. in the end, only a frog remained and she's not sure if it'll survive this winter.

we're quite sad and already plan to get new tadpoles within next spring.

frogs are cute and precious and don't worry if you have pets, they're smarter than them. trust me. the only thing her cats got from trying to chase them was wet fur and a lesson learned (which we were quite sure about it).

now it's a nice frog tv for them xD

So many people have wetlands in their yards and don't even know! "This spot in my yard is always soggy and wet! How do I fix it?"

They will of course tell you to install a French drain. DO NOT DO IT! Plant Wetland plants and allow it to helpfully absorb puddles of heavy rain and give you the gift of beauty!

#frogs #frogs frogs frogs

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ammg-old2 · 2 years ago

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#environmentalism #ecology #animals #wildlife conservation #frogs #toads #birds

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cassiana-on-dark-side · 2 years ago

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Hello again! I have lots of pets (and plants). I have two Jack Russell Terriers, sisters, that are eleven. I have a 30 year old Burmese python. A very old three-toed box turtle, 3 chubby frogs, 2 De La Sangre Island Anoles, three cane toads, an American toad, two southern toads, three koi, guppies, Striped Rafael Catfish, a pond in my kitchen, a Bold Jumping Spider named Maxwell, and I keep fancy isopods; dairy cows, powder blues, and armadillos.

I'm a zookeeper and have always loved animals. I'm taking advantage of being an adult and living alone. Most of my pets are rescues or came to me from situations where they weren't wanted or no one knew what to do with them.

I really like cats but unfortunately I am mildly allergic and can't live with them in my house.

Do you have any houseplants? I don't even know if they are common in Italy. It is pretty common to have houseplants here, I think.

Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't answer earlier! But I want to wish you the most peaceful and fantastic day (or evening) surrounded by your loved ones. Wow, you really have so many animals! With your job, I guess it's kind of inevitable, and who knows how busy you'll be, but it's terrific! Here yes we almost all have houseplants or on the balconies: ficus, geraniums, begonias, and who can also basil, rosemary, and parsley. We care enough with more or less noticeable results! I myself have 6 green plants in my room and a few others on the balcony…we keep ourselves balanced! Best wishes again and I look forward to finding out who you are and being able to follow you as a mutual if you want!

#srs updates #srs22 #secret rocker santa 2022 #classic rock #classic rock fandom

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megsironthrone · 3 years ago

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Meg's Game of Tales: Tale 10

*Familiar Characters are NOT mine! The original story of "The Frog Prince" was written by The Brothers Grimm.*

Warnings: Mentions of magic, slight angst, fluff, bittersweet. Frog Prince AU. It's a bit of a long one.

Pairings: Gendry x fem!reader

Many years ago, in a land not too far from our own, a prince disappeared. Of course, no one truly knew he was a prince outside of a few people. The prince was a bastard, born to the king out of wedlock and hidden away from the jealous queen until he was old enough to hide on his own. The prince, who spent most of his life unaware that he was royalty, found company in a band of outlaws. That was where his fate changed. That was where he met a witch.

The witch offered to help him remain hidden forever. Worried for his safety, the prince agreed. He would remain in hiding until the queen was dead. Unfortunately, his father passed first and the queen had gone a rampage trying to find the prince. So the prince accepted the witch's offer, but it came a terrible price that he would be forced to live year after year. Eventually, the queen did die, murdered, but the witch was nowhere to be found. And so the prince was forced to remain hidden in the form the witch had cursed him to. That is where our story begins.

You were enjoying your small amount of solitude when you came across a small pond you'd never seen before. Sitting on a lily pad in the pond was a lone frog. You were content to ignore it at first; it was just a frog after all, but something caught your attention. The frog's eyes were blue. In fact, those eyes looked almost…human. You'd never seen eyes like that on a frog before.

Curious, you got down onto your knees to get a closer look. Your governess would have a field day seeing a princess on the ground like that. The frog didn't move an inch as you leaned in a little closer. Unfortunately, you leaned too far and your hand slipped. You managed to prevent yourself from falling face first into the water, but your most prized possession wasn't that lucky. A golden pocket watch that you kept in your bag or around your neck at all times hit the water before you could even process what was happening.

"No!" you cried, trying to grasp the piece of jewelry before it sank too far. You weren't quick enough and the watch began floating out of sight. Tears welled up in your eyes as you sank back onto your bottom in the mud. That watch had been your grandfather's, the former king of your kingdom. He had gifted it to you when he was ill saying that it would be a gift to be passed down to any sons you had. Now it was gone forever.

A small splash caught your attention. You looked up to find that the frog was no longer on the lily pad. You sniffled. "Great, first my watch and now the frog." You pulled your knees up to your chest and cried, though your tears didn't last long. For it was only a moment later that you heard the water moving again. You glanced up. There, on the muddy bank of the pond, sat the frog. Its blue eyes bore into you as it waited for you to realize that it had rescued your precious treasure. When you finally did, your eyes widened.

"Oh! Oh, thank you!" you cried out, scooping up the frog and watch at the same time. "Oh, you are the most wonderful creature!" You knew the watch would never work again, but it had sentimental value to you. "My dear friend, I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you." You did your best to dry the watch and place it back in your bag while still holding onto the frog in one hand.

"If there is anything you need, my dear frog, I swear you shall have it." You gazed into the frog's eyes as you tried to discern what a frog could possibly need from you. And then? The unexpected happened. "You could take me away from this damned pond to start with. And you could give me information about Queen Cersei."

You blinked in surprise. "D-Did you just…talk?!" The frog rolled its, or rather his, eyes. It was a sight to behold. "I did. Sorry for startling you, Princess. I was cursed by a witch and have been a frog ever since." You stared at him for a moment while your brain tried to catch up to the fact that you were, indeed, carrying on a conversation with a frog.

"I-I suppose I could bring you to my father's castle. You can rest and have all the food you could possibly eat. As for Queen Cersei, I assume you mean the Mad Queen Lion from the neighboring kingdom? She died years ago. There is no official royal on the throne of that kingdom as the king never had any legitimate heirs. There were rumors of prince that was of age when the king died, but he disappeared before he could be legitimized and given the throne."

The frog didn't respond for a moment. Then, you heard him laughing. At least you thought he was laughing. It sounded more like croaking, but what did you know? You'd never met a talking frog before. "I knew the prince," he finally said, "He disappeared because Cersei was hunting him. He was taken in by a group of outlaws and then accepted the help of a sorceress to hide him from Cersei."

You listened as you walked, intrigued by the frog's tale. He spoke to you all the way back the castle. When you entered your home, you were immediately scolded by your governess, who screamed at the sight of the amphibian in your hands. She even tried to take him from you and throw him out, but as luck would have it, your father was passing by and you explained everything to him.

"Very well, the frog shall remain with you. You will make sure he has everything he needs until you repay your debt to him." You gave your father a kiss on the cheek and the frog thanked him. Then you scurried up to your chambers with the frog in hand. After getting him set up quickly, you stepped out of his sight to change out of your muddy clothes.

*time skip*

You spent the next several days getting to know your new friend. After a couple of days, you got the feeling he was hiding something, but never questioned it. He was obviously cursed and it was probably a sore subject for him and you didn't want to pry. However, everything would soon come out.

One evening, as you were readying for bed, your new friend began croaking rather loudly. That was odd since he did have a voice, though it sometimes didn't come through clearly when he was overly amused or excited about something. Other times it was him snoring. You thought that was it until you suddenly felt him hop into your hair. You screamed, not expecting that to happen.

The doors of your chambers burst open and you heard your guards yelling for someone to halt. You peered around your changing screen in time to see someone escaping off the balcony. You reached up and gently plucked the frog from your hair. "You saved me," you whispered. Before the frog could reply, your father's voice boomed from the doorway, "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"

Once more, you explained to your father what your friend had done for you. Your father smiled at the frog in your hands. "It seems we are in your debt once more, friend. Whatever you would ask of me, if it is within my power, you shall have it." There was not even a second of pause before the frog turned in your hands to face you and made his request.

"A kiss. That is what I wish." You blinked and nearly dropped him in surprise. "What?" The frog croaked in merriment. "I wish for a kiss. Something that would mean nothing to you but everything to me." You glanced at your father for help, but he merely shrugged. "You are indebted to him, Y/N. If a kiss is his only request, then you must honor it." You glanced down at the frog's blue eyes and nodded. "Very well."

You steeled your nerves and took a deep breath. Closing your eyes, you leaned forward with your lips puckered. It only took a moment for your lips to meet the wet skin of the amphibian and you couldn't wait to pull away. "Oh gods," your father muttered, causing you to open your eyes. Your frog friend was glowing! This time, you did indeed drop him to the floor.

The glow of the light grew brighter and brighter until everyone in the room had to shield their eyes. A few moments later, the light vanished. You looked and your jaw dropped in a very un-princess-like fashion. A tall, muscular man now stood where the frog had been. He smiled at you, his bright blue eyes twinkling with joy. It didn't take a genius to recognize the eyes you'd been staring into for days.

"It's you. Y-You're the missing prince," you said and his grew grin. "I am. Gendry, bastard prince and last remaining heir of King Robert. The story I told you the day we met was my story. I was transformed into a frog by a sorceress to protect me but then she disappeared and I've been stuck as a frog since. Thanks to you, I can return home."

"Will they believe you?" you asked and another voice spoke. "I can assure you that they will." You jumped and Gendry gently pushed you behind him, shielding you from whoever had entered your chambers without permission. It was getting be a bit crowded in there.

"You. Why did you run? You could have turned me back years ago!" The sorceress shook her head. "I could not. That was part of the curse. You could not reveal your true identity and I could not change you back. Only a kiss from a princess could do that." Gendry glanced back at you in surprise, clearly indicating that he'd had no idea.

The sorceress continued, "But now you have returned to your true form and you can assume your father's throne. With the princess by your side, of course." You popped your head from behind Gendry and uttered, "I beg your pardon?!" She smiled at you though there was no warmth in it. "The final part of the spell. The princess who kissed the frog is meant to rule by his side as his queen."

At that, Gendry turned to you and clasped your hands in his. After feeling his skin as a frog, you were surprised to feel that his hands were warm. "You do not have to do this. I will not force you. I shall travel to my kingdom with the sorceress and claim the throne. You may remain here if you wish. I would ask for permission to write to you often, as a friend. Maybe we'll become more one day, but I wouldn't dare force you. Whatever you choose, I will accept it."

He left the room with the guards, the sorceress, and your father. You vaguely heard your father offer Gendry and the sorceress rooms for the night so they would be well rested for travel the next day. Meanwhile you spent the night wracking your brain trying to decide what to do. In the end, you chose to stay. You knew you weren't ready to take on being a queen just yet. Gendry looked heartbroken when you told him, but he smiled anyway.

"Then I'll be happy to call you my friend for now. Take care, Princess." He leaned in and placed a gentle kiss to your cheek before turning away and heading down to the horse that waited for him. You ran as quickly as you could up to your balcony. As he began riding away, Gendry looked back at you and waved. You blew him a kiss. Then, you waved until his horse was out of sight, knowing one day, you would see him again.

#meg's game of tales #game of thrones #fairytale au #the frog prince au #gendry baratheon #gendry waters #gendry waters x reader #gendry baratheon x reader #gendry x reader

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kaleuh · 3 years ago

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The first thing you notice when you come up on the mountains is the crowning of this old, missing piece of you that you feel is waving hi. They're not your mountains, but you're there, high up in the sky again, and you feel something. You knew you would, and it makes you want to cry, but it does feel like more of a ghost, than anything. 1/8th, of who you really are, comes back to you, and you're not even sure if it's that much. 1/10th? Less? It's something, and you know you should be grateful. You are. But, like everything else, you are cursed to know, and not feel. You know you are grateful. You do not feel it.

The dips and divots in the valley write more poems than you've written in the last three years, and the clouds--you'd like to rip your eyeballs out and throw them into the atmosphere so that you never lose sight of them again--are adventurous and boastful, opulent in life. You feel their presence, but you don't feel what they feel, like you used to. You haven't been able to speak to them in ever since the decay of your world started to settle in. "Settle" is gentle--most of it hit you like a metal bat to the skull. No part of your world is gentle, now. You do not live; that is a privilege you relished once upon a dream (relish has so much potential as a word, it's such a shame we use it for one of the absolute fuck-nastiest toppings in existence.) You survive. You become irreplaceable at your job. You laugh when you need to. You pretend to forgive the people who hurt you, because the path to winning is a long game. You dissociate in most conversations you're in, even when you're enjoying yourself.

Fireflies light up the whishing trees like tinsel in the night. You see a coyote. You see a psychic who is very, very republican. You see frogs in a stagnant pond, an original pewter Dungeons & Dragons mini in a mom-and-pop antique store (you buy this, you're not sure what edition this was made for but it must be old. The clerk gives you a kind energy.) A little townie book shop where the old shop-keep reminds you of your college Creative Writing professor, Laurence the wise, who changed yours, his, hers, and many others' lives just by being. You talk about poetry. For a moment, it feels like 1/8th and thee-quarters has come back to you.

This shard of the perfect girl still glows under the right sunlight, but her likes, dislikes, hobbies, and mannerisms all feel done out of arbitrary tribute. You do new things without thinking, just to get a reaction out of yourself. You try and say new things to try an surprise yourself; anything. Anything to shake the old girl awake; but she never comes. Here you are, an amalgamate, trying to locate an identity for yourself, like a widowed housecat running to cardboard boxes in the rain. You tried to make a home in misery; you started losing contact with the sky, so you tried to run into the arms of mortal love; but there were only arms that restrained. Is there not anyone who can simply hold you without containing you? A love with freedom? Silly and resplendent for the sake of it and nothing else? You want to believe there is, but you realize the love of your life was the you of your past.

Your friends love you, but while you talk, you're somewhere else, off playing hide-and-seek in a deep forest, catching glimpses with a butterfly net as your past self waves at you from behind every tree. Impossibly jubilant, and even more elusive. She felt so permanent; so final. Everything in the sky, sun included, had a reason to translate their language to her; but misery seems to have been the last lesson. You like to think you'll come out of this a better person, and that all of this was a test, which it still could be, but why did she have to leave? Why couldn't I have stayed her? Ask yourself the questions you know the answers to. Know without feel.

In the mountains, seeking the romance of life in all its aspects, pursuing the marriage of you and the world you live in, seems to be the cure. But this is a retreat, not a permanent. Another impermanence to isolate you from yourself. You consider screaming. You consider taking off without a word to anyone.

Instead you buy a postcard that reads, "The Sun Will Rise Again."

#Because what else can you do #when you don't know who you are? What would she do?#What will you do?#Kayla's personal life

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