#a story a day

[paranatellonta]

For Every Day

The garden gnome had spent weeks carefully selecting autumn leaves. When the perfect ones had been chosen, he dried them and set about manipulating a knife as large as his own body in a sheltered spot near his mushroom home. After all, the greeting card he was making couldn’t be small or flimsy, which meant it could never fit inside his own house.

Still, the gnome wondered if the card would really be large enough to express how much he loved his good friend the giant, even now that they weren’t neighbours anymore, even when they no longer found ways to talk to each other every day. He wanted the magic contained in the card to aim high enough to reach a giant’s heart.

When the gnome finally finished his careful cut-out of a life-sized cat silhouette and had arranged its dried-leaf fur, he struggled for another three days to fit the card into an enormous envelope. Then, to his relief, the mailhuman was willing to pick it up, so the gnome wouldn’t have to drag it all the way to the post office.

As soon as the giant opened the card, the leaf-fur cat jumped off the paper and butted its crisp head against his hands. When the giant opened the card again the next morning, the caleafco purring warmly in his lap, he found out that the text had changed; it would show him a different story on every day of the year. The message from the gnome, however, scribbled below in his tiny handwriting, always remained the same:

“Remember, dearest friend, that you are not alone.”

—

[Image description: The photo centres a tall, rectangular greeting card made of cream-coloured paper, out of which the silhouette of a sitting cat has been cut to reveal a background of brown autumn leaves. The card is leaning against the white pot of a green houseplant, and there are more potted plants standing near it.]

More about the garden gnome and the giant: [part 1] [part 2]

[arsonistintraining]

24 April 2023

got the tumbler from a conference commemorating 50 years of the UN Conference on the Human Environment from last year.

this year Eid is weird, to say the least. not that the previous years haven't been weird.

[spyboy2000]

ᴇᴢʀᴀ ᴊᴀᴄᴋ ᴋᴇᴀᴛs Artwork from his 1962 book The Snowy Day.

[vaindumbass]

love all the cute dungeon meshi pride art but chilchuck would not be caught dead wearing any sort of pride merch. you think that man is going to give out any personal information? for free?????

[breakingjustxn]

well i mean, not wrong // credits: @screamingemonight on Instagram

[acorviart]

not to sound like a boomer, but I need some people to learn how to write emails in a semi-professional (at the very least) format so you're not cold emailing a business/potential employer/any other stranger about formal matters in the exact same way you'd DM a close friend on instagram

the formality/language can loosen up in the email chain once you've established a rapport and you match the other person if they're being less formal, but please don't have the very first email you send a stranger be written in all lowercase ultra-casual sms slang with no greeting or signature and a billion emojis

[sp00kies]

I want ALL OF YOU to apologize to Minecraft Story Mode right now because these graphics from almost 10 YEARS ago?

Is about 100 times better than whatever the fuck this is

[saints-who-never-existed]

“In the war film, a soldier can hold his buddy—as long as his buddy is dying on the battlefield. In the western, Butch Cassidy can wash the Sundance Kid’s naked flesh—as long as it is wounded. In the boxing film, a trainer can rub the well-developed torso and sinewy back of his protege—as long as it is bruised. In the crime film, a mob lieutenant can embrace his boss like a lover—as long as he is riddled with bullets. 

Violence makes the homo-eroticism of many “male” genres invisible; it is a structural mechanism of plausible deniability.”

–Tarantino’s Incarnational Theology: Reservoir Dogs, Crucifixions, and Spectacular Violence. Kent L. Brintnall.

[apostatefeverdream]

going absolutely fucking insane over solas dragonage. he used to be a spirit. he was meant to be bisexual. he hates tea but still drinks it. he murdered the two people he loved most in the world. he pissed magic once (maybe). he pondered an orb. he played strip poker with blackwall. he sundered the fade from the waking world. he created the blight. he sent bitchy letters to elgar'nan. he's great at chess but then lost to a random named after a chess piece. he co-parented a spirit. he murdered the other co-parent. he speaks in iambic pentameter. he imagines the sight of you being dominated would be fascinating. he ghosted his ex for a year and then yanked their arm off. he loves frilly cakes. his greatest fear is dying alone. he's bald.

[chanafehs]

Sweet dreams and elven lullabies

[deep-space-netwerk]

So Venus is my favorite planet in the solar system - everything about it is just so weird.

It has this extraordinarily dense atmosphere that by all accounts shouldn't exist - Venus is close enough to the sun (and therefore hot enough) that the atmosphere should have literally evaporated away, just like Mercury's. We think Earth manages to keep its atmosphere by virtue of our magnetic field, but Venus doesn't even have that going for it. While Venus is probably volcanically active, it definitely doesn't have an internal magnetic dynamo, so whatever form of volcanism it has going on is very different from ours. And, it spins backwards! For some reason!!

But, for as many mysteries as Venus has, the United States really hasn't spent much time investigating it. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, sent no less than 16 probes to Venus between 1961 and 1984 as part of the Venera program - most of them looked like this!

The Soviet Union had a very different approach to space than the United States. NASA missions are typically extremely risk averse, and the spacecraft we launch are generally very expensive one-offs that have only one chance to succeed or fail.

It's lead to some really amazing science, but to put it into perspective, the Mars Opportunity rover only had to survive on Mars for 90 days for the mission to be declared a complete success. That thing lasted 15 years. I love the Opportunity rover as much as any self-respecting NASA engineer, but how much extra time and money did we spend that we didn't technically "need" to for it to last 60x longer than required?

Anyway, all to say, the Soviet Union took a more incremental approach, where failures were far less devastating. The Venera 9 through 14 probes were designed to land on the surface of Venus, and survive long enough to take a picture with two cameras - not an easy task, but a fairly straightforward goal compared to NASA standards. They had…mixed results.

Venera 9 managed to take a picture with one camera, but the other one's lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 10 also managed to take a picture with one camera, but again the other lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 11 took no pictures - neither lens cap deployed this time.

Venera 12 also took no pictures - because again, neither lens cap deployed.

Lotta problems with lens caps.

For Venera 13 and 14, in addition to the cameras they sent a device to sample the Venusian "soil". Upon landing, the arm was supposed to swing down and analyze the surface it touched - it was a simple mechanism that couldn't be re-deployed or adjusted after the first go.

This time, both lens caps FINALLY ejected perfectly, and we were treated to these marvelous, eerie pictures of the Venus landscape:

However, when the Venera 14 soil sampler arm deployed, instead of sampling the Venus surface, it managed to swing down and land perfectly on….an ejected lens cap.

[notherpuppet]

Radiorose 📻🥀

Based on a true story where I deadass just started digging through a new friend’s purse because I’m a psycho who forgot how to have any goddamned manners 💀

[proxycrit]

LINKTOBER DAY 8: GORON CITY

Not featured here: bludo’s off in akkala because he and bolson company’s getting paid to work on architecture.

Very featured here: yunobo’s crippling anxieties only exacerbated by well meaning neighbors.

Definitely now my headcannon: bludo taught yunobo welding, and by the goddesses he's going to use that power for great evils (or goods)

This is an au of totk where time travel doesn’t happen! If you want to see more here’s my crimes:

And here’s my patreon!

[tariah23]

The manga industry, especially JUMP, needs to hurry up and do away with weekly scheduling for mangaka. There needs to better regulations put into place for their health and safety because this is pitiful. Two weeks - monthly updates should’ve already been the standard for the manga industry at this point. These money grabbers will only continue to put the lives of these artists at stake for the sake of capitalism unless some serious changes are implemented.

[pangur-and-grim]

there’s a poetry contest that I kinda want to enter, but the requirement is a single 10-page poem. which is nuts. it would have to be some sort of rhyming short story….