#Yeah I'm doing that but for chickens

[twotailednekomata]

Ahhh, a beautify, basic base for peahens. Perfect for customization.

Sidenote: If anybody knows any blogs or websites that shows pictures for specific genotypes, it will be greatly appreciated :3 Based on what I know, so far, I can already tell that finding out which genes a phenotype is expressing will be a nightmare so I want as clear as an idea what an allele actually looks like and work with other alleles as possible.

Additional, any websites that explain various chicken genes in an in-depth (but understandable) way is also appreciated (=^ェ^=)

[inkskinned]

one of the things that i think we should pay attention to, socially, about the disney v. desantis thing is that it is really highlighting the importance of remembering nuance.

in a purely neutral sense, if you engage in something problematic, that does not mean you are necessarily agreeing with what makes it problematic. and i am worried that we have become... so afraid of any form of nuance.

disney isn't my friend, they're a corporate monopoly that bastardized copyright laws for their own benefit, ruin the environment, and abuse their workers (... and many other things). this isn't a hypothetical for me - i grew up in florida. i also worked for the actual Walt Disney World; like, in the parks. i am keenly aware of the ways they hurt people, because they hurt me. i fully believe that part of the reason florida is so conservative is because it's been an "open secret" for years now that disney lobbies the government to keep minimum wage down, and i know they worked hard to keep the parks unmasked and open during the worst parts of Covid. they purposefully keep their employees in poverty. they are in part responsible for the way the floridian government works.

desantis is still, by a margin that is frankly daunting, way worse. the alternative here isn't just "republicans win", it's actual fascism.

in a case like this, where the alternative is to allow actual fascism into united states legislation - where, if desantis wins, there are huge and legal ramifications - it's tempting to minimize the harm disney is also doing, because... well, it's not fascism. but disney isn't the good guy, either, which means republicans are having a field day asking activists oh, so you think their treatment of their employees is okay?

we have been trained there is a right answer. you're right! you're in the good group, and you're winning at having an opinion.

except i have the Internet Prophecy that in 2-3 months, even left-wing people will be ripping apart activists for having "taken disney's side". aren't i an anti-capitalist? aren't i pro-union? aren't i one of the good ones? removed from context and nuance (that in this particular situation i am forced to side with disney, until an other option reveals itself), my act of being like "i hope they have goofy rip his throat out onstage, shaking his lifeless body like a dog toy" - how quickly does that seem like i actually do support disney?

and what about you! at home, reading this. are you experiencing the Thought Crime of... actually liking some of the things disney has made? your memories of days at the parks, or of good movies, or of your favorite show growing up. maybe you are also evil, if you ever enjoyed anything, ever, at all.

to some degree, the binary idealization/vilification of individual motive and meaning already exists in the desantis case. i have seen people saying not to go to the disney pride events because they're cash grabs (they are). i've seen people saying you have to go because they're a way to protest. there isn't a lot of internet understanding of nuance. instead it's just "good show of support" or "evil bootlicking."

this binary understanding is how you can become radicalized. when we fear nuance and disorder, we're allowing ourselves the safety of assuming that the world must exist in binary - good or bad, problematic or "not" problematic. and unfortunately, bigots want you to see the world in this binary ideal. they want you to get mad at me because "disney is taking a risk for our community but you won't sing their praises" and they want me to get mad at you for not respecting the legit personal trauma that disney forced me through.

in a grander scheme outside of disney: what happens is a horrific splintering within activist groups. we bicker with each other about minimal-harm minimal-impact ideologies, like which depiction of bisexuality is the most-true. we gratuitously analyze the personal lives of activists for any sign they might be "problematic". we get spooked because someone was in a dog collar at pride. we wring our hands about setting an empty shopping mall on fire. we tell each other what words we may identify ourselves by. we get fuckin steven universe disk horse when in reality it is a waste of our collective time.

the bigots want you to spend all your time focusing on how pristine and pretty you and your interests are. they want us at each other's throats instead of hand in hand. they want to say see? nothing is ever fucking good enough for these people.

and they want their followers to think in binary as well - a binary that's much easier to follow. see, in our spaces, we attack each other over "proper" behavior. but in bigoted groups? they attack outwards. they have someone they hate, and it is us. they hate you, specifically, and you are why they have problems - not the other people in their group. and that's a part of how they fucking keep winning.

some of the things that are beloved to you have a backbone in something terrible. the music industry is a wasteland. the publishing industry is a bastion of white supremacy. video games run off of unpaid labor and abuse.

the point of activism was always to bring to light that abuse and try to stop it from happening, not to condemn those who engage in the content that comes from those industries. "there is no ethical consumption under late capitalism" also applies to media. your childhood (and maybe current!) love of the little mermaid isn't something you should now flinch from, worried you'll be a "disney adult". wanting the music industry to change for the better does not require that you reject all popular music until that change occurs. you can acknowledge the harm something might cause - and celebrate the love that it has brought into your life.

we must detach an acknowledgment of nuance from a sense of shame and disgust. we must. punishing individual people for their harmless passions is not doing good work. encouraging more thoughtful, empathetic consumption does not mean people should feel ashamed of their basic human capacities and desires. it should never have even been about the individual when the corporation is so obviously the actual evil. this sense that we must live in shame and dread of our personal nuances - it just makes people bitter and hopeless. do you have any idea how scared i am to post this? to just acknowledge the idea of nuance? that i might like something nuanced, and engage in it joyfully? and, at the same time, that i'm brutally aware of the harm that they're doing?

"so what do i do?" ... well, often there isn't a right answer. i mean in this case, i hope mickey chops off ron's head and then does a little giggle. but truth be told, often our opinions on nuanced subjects will differ. you might be able to engage in things that i can't because the nuance doesn't sit right with me. i might think taylor swift is a great performer and a lot of fun, and you might be like "raquel, the jet fuel emissions". we are both correct; neither of us have any actual sway in this. and i think it's important to remember that - the actual scope of individual responsibility. like, i also love going to the parks. Thunder Mountain is so fun. you (just a person) are not responsible for the harm that Disney (the billion dollar corporation) caused me. i don't know. i think it's possible to both enjoy your memories and interrogate the current state of their employment policies.

there is no right way to interrogate or engage with nuance - i just hope you embrace it readily.

[s4ndg3m]

i had fnaf on my mind today. really wanted to draw bonnie and then that extended to the entire fnaf 1 gang. if anything's hard to read just ask for some plaintext in the comments

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I've been thinking about how Vash always seems to be hungry. Or at least, that he's shown eating quite often in the manga. Happily having his salmon sandwiches. Eating an entire box of donuts in the side car. Knowing the conversion rate of bullets to pizza. Seeing a flower and immediately wondering if it's edible. Pondering his life over breakfast. It's a really cute little character detail about him - he likes food.

But then I kind of started to think about the angel arm and its specific brand of destruction. How there were no bodies to be recovered. Nothing but a crater left of July, left on the Fifth Moon. It's all been incinerated. Devoured, even. Tristamp takes it even a step further and makes the power something akin to a black hole - a yawning drain; a constant destructive hunger.

Vash is clearly terrified of this potential for destruction, and for very good reason. But it's not separate from him as some kind of "power he can't control" - it's his arm. It's literally his arm. It is him. Vash is scared of himself, scared of losing control. He does what he can to repress it, even subconsciously (the gaps in his memory whenever it activates). He can't control it in the moment, so he takes steps to preemptively push it down, to avoid the use of his abilities entirely, to hide himself away.

I talked a bit in a previous post about how there are probably several interrelated reasons for Vash's chronically avoidant behaviour, but I'd like to throw one more into the ring and suggest that it's not just a matter of not deserving to want things, but maybe also that he's afraid of wanting. That if he allows himself to even think about what he wants personally that he'll want too much, take too much, and that the only cure in his mind for this is to give and give repeatedly.

I wonder how starved he is for love. Vash loves hard, after all. Once he loves (and I’m not talking about the broad, distant love/compassion he has in general), for better or worse, he carries them around with him forever, long after they've passed. Does he feel like it'd be selfish to admit this kind of want? His love isn't really a passive thing after all - it's the drive at his very core; a mournful inferno he is just barely suppressing. Does he remember how to love in a way that doesn't consume him entirely?

Is that part of the reason he checks out at signs of intimacy? Diverts gifts towards others? Tends to accept kind gestures only when under an assumed name? Intentionally starves himself in Tristamp? Runs and runs and runs? Is he afraid he won't be able to stop hungering? That allowing himself to want means his want will become insatiable?

I just have to wonder how much of his avoidance of connection is being scared that he will cause more destruction (to them? or to him?) by trying to take far too much into his hands than he ever caused by turning his back and running.

...of course I may just be entirely deranged here sorry.

[biffhofosho]

If you don't hear from me again, it's because I have shuffled off this mortal coil and descended into madness on the wings of a fallen angel named Mito.

[cesarescabinet]

💐Flower Festival Freebie💐

Another (belated) offering for @queer-ragnelle's May Day Parade! Since there was no specific theme, I tried to nail down some character designs with varying success (mainly a parade of characters who I either love or want to study under a microscope. Or both!)

[katierosefun]

actually as much as i love mike and harvey together. i feel so sad for rachel zane because imagine falling in love with your coworker and then you learn that your coworker is a fake lawyer but not only that, your coworker is a fake lawyer who would literally do anything for his boss. he'll literally leave you at the altar to go to prison for his boss. he'll try to quit his job multiple times but keep coming back because his boss asked him to come back. he'll move to seattle with you, and you'll breathe a sigh of relief because it means that it can finally just be the two of you, but then you learn that he's inviting his stupid former boss to join them. and his stupid former boss agrees. you smile because your husband is so stupid happy at the idea of working with his former boss again, but you've seen this film one too many times before, and you are going to be subject to watching your husband choose his stupid former boss-slash-friend over you again and again and again and again and again and ag

[emeraldblonde]

I tried to mod something and the good news is, it didn't crash the game. 🥳 The bad news is, not what I was looking for lmao.

Like, don't get me wrong. I've seen way worse (the stuff of nightmares) on a modding channel I've been teaching myself this stuff lately, so. It's not like I completely fucked this thing up or anything like that.

It's just... I still gotta ask though.

What went wrong here?

[chickie-birdies]

Recently bought the chickens a rat-proof feeder because the world's biggest pack of rats has moved in and I've had enough. Training the chickens to use it is going well, if slowly. (It would be a lot faster if I still lived with my chickens, or at least lived closer than 30 minutes away... 😅 I can't be there all the time to work with them.)

Midnight, however, refuses to engage with the thing and instead stands next to it looking cranky while she watches the young'uns eat.

[rosenfey]

god going veggie as an autistic person + a picky eater really makes it clear how much more limited your options are huh

[aturinfortheworse]

also i made a 13 year old do my mandatory all-staff training this week, which i feel the need to confess to (and kinda brag about?)

she did pretty well. apparently she also did her mum's tafe health & safety quiz for her, and wrote her mum's affidavits for her, and also explained to me what an affidavit is.

[nouveaumoon]

ok for the art style thing your art kinda gives “kid with plans of a looney toons saturday morning cartoon marathon followed by prince of egypt and/or sinbad on vhs grew up and the art bangs now”. i was/am?? obsessed with the art direction on those dreamworls movies and your art reminds me of that stylization that had me so mesmerized lol

i will give you credit, it absolutely Feels like this should be correct, but it is only half right. i never have had cable so i never saw looney tunes outside of two visits to my aunt's house when daffy duck was on 😔 BUT i did watch prince of egypt multiple times in my teenage years when i got a laptop of my own. i looooooooooooved the art of that movie. many hours were spent drawing after school trying to imitate the shape language. you got me there

the truth is... i spent most saturday mornings watching sky high, because it was on every saturday on whatever channel was broadcasting it nearby. i feel like that does explain something, namely the bisexuality

[cultivating-wildflowers]

Encountered my least favorite question in my interview this morning and, as usual, flubbed it. The question was the generic "what are your future goals/where do you see yourself in a few years?"

I said "I'm thinking about getting chickens."

[victorluvsalice]

-->Once all the gnomes were back in position, it was time to get everyone started on all the various chores that needed to be done! I had Alice get up, clean more spoiled food out of the fridge (while I remembered “Smiler’s cheese!” and quickly put that IN the fridge – fortunately it still had like a day to go before it went off), then go kick a creepy doll in the greenhouse before harvesting the prairie grass in Moory’s pen (just found one turquoise crystal hiding in there today). Victor, meanwhile, finished clearing up the gnome mess in the greenhouse and opening all the remaining seed packets I could find around the lot (looked like a haul of mainly lemons and spinach), and got to his tending – vacuuming weeds, spraying bugs, etc, etc. Smiler, for their part, finished up Marm’s enhancements before being sent to clean the chicken coop, recycle everyone's accumulated trash piles, and to rake up all the leaves around the yard (since, well, there were a lot of them!). And Marm, now that he was feeling a little more durable (with his latest enhancement, durability in fact decays about 10% slower now, which is nice), hovered over to the living room to put out the fireplace (which somebody had lit yesterday, or possibly the day before, in-game) and get to know Shadow. The two got along quite well, so I had Marm go and take Shadow on a short walk –

And went “you know what, we haven’t done any fun animal treat stuff in a bit” and had Alice take the Fishy Protein Treat and the Pumpkin Treat from Victor’s inventory to feed one of the brown hens and Moory the cow respectively! Alice unfortunately didn’t do a great job of giving the Fishy Protein Treat to the chickens, pouring it OUTSIDE their pen – I moved the treat pile into the pecking area in the hopes that SOMEBODY would eat it. Happily, after a short break to brush Surprise, she did much better in giving Moory her Pumpkin Treat, and – after a quick pet to keep the cow happy – got herself a nice bottle of pumpkin spice milk along with the regular milk. :) She also grabbed the eggs, since she was in the neighborhood – two regular, one hatchable. Not too shabby!

-->And with THAT all done, it was time to make some treats for the upcoming food sale! I already knew I wanted the gang to take the batch of blueberry bagels Victor had made earlier from the fridge – however, when I checked out the plate of banana split waffles in there, I found that they were very close to going off. I thus set them on the counter so Alice could quickly clean them up after they spoiled, and had Alice instead get a batch of pumpkin spice waffles and some more batches of dough started. Annoyingly, the stand mixer broke right after it was finished mixing up the dough – and after Alice repaired it, she suddenly got an inexplicable fear of death, despite the fact that, as far as I could see, she didn’t get shocked by the damn thing at all. O.o Well, all right, being afraid of death is just a natural part of existence. I’ll figure out how to help her work through her fear later! (Too bad The Sims 4 doesn’t offer the “go on a mental trip through Wonderland to confront your worries” option. :p)

While that was going on, Victor finished his tending and super-sold the greenhouse – I tried then to have him go in and make an apple pie for the sale, but he couldn’t do so until Alice finished fixing the mixer so he could get the dough out of it (an apple pie needs two batches, and we only had one available). I thus had him eat some forbidden candy instead to keep his energy up for the trip – can’t have him falling asleep in the middle of the sale! I also got a notice that Shadow (still on her walk with Marm) was getting pretty hungry, so I had the pair come back to the house and stop under the tree in the front yard so I could get Marm to call her to eat at one of the pet food bowls –

-->Except that Marm wouldn’t do it. The action just lingered uselessly just outside their queue. Puzzled, I had Alice try to call the dog over instead – but Shadow wouldn’t come, instead wandering over to the obstacle course. Frustrated, I sent Alice out there (after taking a moment to start the laundry washing again, since the game was telling me the clothes inside were still in a “Used” state) to give the dog a treat while I tried to have Marm read a book for his aspiration –

And still no go. This robot WOULD NOT move. I could not figure out why – he wasn’t FROZEN frozen, as he kept doing various idle animations and his charge continued to decay, but he just wouldn’t do anything I told him to do. *shakehead* Save file is not doing good, man...

-->Anyway – once Victor retrieved his dough and successfully baked his apple pie, I checked over everyone’s inventory, then gave Smiler the blueberry bagels from the fridge, the apple pie, Alice’s pumpkin spice waffles, and the pumpkin spice milk she’d gotten before from Moory. This was a pretty good spread, all told, but I wanted to have one more thing available for potential customers to eat, so I had Victor make a loaf of cheesy bread with some of the remaining dough while Smiler and Alice bantered and chatted under the front yard tree and Marm continued to idle uselessly. Thanks to the power of prepped ingredients, the loaf didn’t take long to bake at all, and once it was done, I moved it to Smiler’s inventory, then had Smiler make the call to have all the humanoid Sims hit up Copperdale’s Lakeview Library (hoping that it would force Marm to move...) –

[ozcarr]

Sometimes I wonder if I’m alienating my followers with the semi-frequent robot drawing (or thread where I liveblog Real Steel 2011). And then I look at who’s actually following me and it’s 75% blogs that look like this in some capacity

(you’re all really funny and ily)

[sapphroditewrites]

workin on a little gift for the holidays for y'all bc i'm so damn slow with the affair au (which i've weirdly started writing backwards? it's funny how that helps sometimes, but it's helped a lot)

it's not gonna be super polished and spit-shined like i usually try for, but it's something i was hoping to get around to every year, if that doesn't spoil the surprise lol