#because I'm Mediterranean so

[aureliaeiter]

Once again I have to ask what I always ask: were there no Mediterranean actors available?

[look-at-the-stars-tonight]

the amount of effort that goes into figuring out what to cook and eat every day is RIDICULOUS. i used to think people were so weird and boring for eating the same thing every single day but it truly does make life so much easier

[thepandalion]

not to be annoying or anything but it's been 9 years since the release of indie game undertale

[sweettsubaki]

Sometimes I feel like a weirdo because while I like the beach just fine when it's warm outside (not hot, I hate it and it has made my spanish/Italian mom very sad), I actually love it more when it's not. It makes my grandma scared because we're very much on the beach and the sea gets very close but I think it's great (granted we are ready in case it destroys the apartment tho it hasn't happened in like 40 years).

Like, this is great

Very beautiful and photogenic

But I just love this

It just feels more lively even if, technically there are a lot less people around (also we can't go swimming because of the pollution 😢 despite it being the best moment to get into the sea)

[quatregats]

I know that this is an act of the most extreme hubris and I expect to be struck down for it sooner or later, but what if....I attempted to write Hornblower in the style of Patrick O'Brian....

[the-jellydex]

The Vancouver Aquarium

Recently, I had the privilege and honour of visiting the Vancouver Aquarium!! It was very nice, and I'd like to give my honest review :)

Jellyfish Exhibit Rating:

Diversity - 7/10 - Only limited to Rhizostomeae and Semaeostomeae jellyfish (no combs or hydrozoans), but they get extra points for showing the rare "Stalked Jellyfish"

Presentation - 7/10 - Most exhibits had more jellyfish per square meter than normal so it was very pretty. One seemed kind of sad though.

Learning - 10/10 - Accurate information paired with engaging visuals, along with dedicated and knowledgeable staff. Here's a shout out to Noah I love him so much 🙏🙏

can we also appreciate how at every opportunity they get, the staff will thank the indigenous nations by name (there are multiple) that have owned and taken care of the land that the aquarium resides in? I respected that a lot haha.

So to start... I believe we entered at an auspicious day (even though it wasn't the weekend, when the jelly touchpool tanks are open)

That's right!! A local school was visiting the aquarium at the same time we were ^-^!! How exciting is that? I felt so much nostalgia haha... I wish I could've done something like this in elementary school ;w;

OK, so going into the aquarium I was already very excited, and seeing this made me gasp !! :>

(unfortunately, I spooked my mother, so um. Yeah)

Unfortunately they 1) Do not currently show the Phacellophora camtschatica in the aquarium and 2) call it the "Fried Egg Jelly" (actually, it's not too big of a deal but I prefer to call it the "Egg Yolk Jelly" since the Mediterranean Jelly resembles a fried egg.

Hey, did you know that the Association of Zoos and Aquariums recently released a jellyfish care guide? I ended up quoting it when I talked to one of the staff, hehe

Now, most of their exhibits are divided by world region- but the jellyfish (as with most exhibits it seems) are grouped into one... except for the Papua Jellyfish, which is the first tank placed in the Tropical Exhibits.

It's verrrry large (larger than any rhizostomid exhibit I've seen) and there are many, many jellyfish! Unfortunately the strong light and deep blue background made it pretty difficult to get good individual pictures (all of mine came out blurry :<), but they were so cute and small.

The jellies often bumped into the ground, and one was swirling around on the bottom, unable to get back into the flow (perhaps it was in-between the two circular currents?). Anyways something told me that this exhibit wasn't as well-looked after as the other ones :<

I did see a couple of really broken ones (sorry for the bad lighting, but here was a jellyfish that had most of its bell ripped up), and it just broke my heart. Most of the jellyfish were in fine condition, though, so I think it's just the normal ripped bells and appendages that you can find in any jellyfish exhibit.

Curiously enough, however, this exhibit shows information cards for three different jellies when in reality there is only one species (The "Spotted Jellyfish") in the tank. I'll explain my theory why later when I get to them.

JELLYFISH HALL!!! There are many glowing sea nettles hanging from the ceiling, along with two life-sized lion's mane jellyfish!! :). The lion's manes also glow in different colours.

Also, if you notice, there's a very large crowd gathered in front of the sea nettle exhibit- and that's because I was INCREDIBLY, INCREDIBLY lucky to stop by RIGHT when they were doing a live jellyfish feeding. I cannot even begin to articulate how fortunate I was to accidentally stumble upon this.

Anyway, here's the obligatory jelly card haha :)

Here is speaker Noah, a 3rd year in his Marine Conservation degree showing us how amazing jellyfish are. I appreciate him a lot he gave me a lot of good information, which I'll just list down here:

The liquid inside of the measuring cup is in fact Jellyfish Food!

Usually, they are fed Artemis sp. naupili (sea monkeys, as he said it, or brine shrimp), but there were some other goodies added into the mix as well- like squid and herring.

This was all mixed in with a bit of gelatin- as sea nettles prefer to eat their food in bigger chunks.

These sea nettles are not fed with moon jellyfish- though the AZA Jellyfish Handbook does recommend to do that since sea nettles are medusivoric, and require jellyfish in their diet to grow properly. Apparently, the gelatin acts as an adequate substitute ^-^!!

Also Noah knows about the Monterey Bay Aquarium let's give him a round of applause ^-^!!! He said i should go there but. Well. I already did :3.

I could've went into more detail about the Cnidocyte explanation, but I'm probably not the best person to be teaching total beginners and children about jellyfish because I'd be way too technical (I was literally the only person in the crowd who was cheering lmao).

Here's a screenshot of the feeding video I took! (I'll upload the full feeding video if there's popular demand for it haha)

Anyways, after that excitement... it was time to look at the rest of the jellies.

This was the sign in front of the moon jelly exhibit. I just thought it was interesting to see what the aquarium defined as "Jellyfish" (this definition can vary from aquarium to aquarium) Here, we can see that the Vancouver Aquarium considers Comb Jellies, Molluscs, and Salps as jellyfish. (this is more inclusive than my own personal definition- which excludes molluscs haha)

There was a bigger tank (that I did not take a full picture of... stupid Donut) that did include the Mediterranean and Australian Spotted jelly. They actually looked... a lot bigger in person than I thought, haha.

Now, I think the reason why these jellies were not roomed with the Papua jellies was because while they were originally a part of the exhibit, the two jellies actually outgrew the tank became too big to room with the small Papua jellies. These were housed in a tank that was about as big (if not bigger) than the Papua jelly tank- and there were not as many jellies per square meter in here.

Still weird that they kept the information cards about the jellies though... I guess it would've been too unsightly to remove?

Ok, I also forgot to take a full view picture of this exhibit but don't be fooled by the pretty jellyfish. This exhibit was kind of... lacking, imo. I can only really describe it with a diagram of sorts.

This is a circular tank, but I'm guessing there were two opposing currents on either side. All of the sea nettles had migrated to the right current, making that half look too crowded and the other side completely empty. It didn't help that when all of the jellyfish were on the very shaded bottom, the entire tank was dark :(.

// Can we just say that them mentioning one of the Japanese names of the jellyfish is AWESOME? I've only seen this on the japanese wikipedia haha- though there was no mention of "Ninjas," only in military warfare in the Sengoku Period by Sanada Nobushige. Well. I'll correct my statement if it ends up being wrong later.

Quick break to visit my hero, Mackenzie Neale :). I'm a big fan of your work!!

Alright, now to visit the Moon jelly exhibit (it was honestly one of the most densely packed tanks I had ever seen- very impressive :>)

I made an instagram reel going over the sexual dimorphism of moon jellies- maybe I'll post it on here if I feel like it haha :3

^^ They have more infographics like this but this is the only one I took a picture of... awe :<.

OK, so with all of the main jellyfish out of the way... now started the hardest part of my journey: Finding the elusive, rare Staurozan (Stalked) jellyfish. These are so rare, apparently they're difficult for even scientists to get their hands on. I absolutely had to see them for myself.

Unfortunately... I kept running around in circles trying to find it (I had asked a staff member earlier where the exhibit was... but I forgot lol. I ended up having to ask two more people. It's tucked away in an unmarked Polar exhibit btw :>!!

Here was the gift shop I ended up visiting, there was a Japanese Sea nettle with a heart on it- awww

Anyways, I promise, after like 20 minutes of searching... I finally found the polar exhibits!!

They had (one) hydrozoan jellyfish here... and it was a picture. An unnamed picture. For the record, it's called the "Battering Ram Jellyfish," according to Lisa-Ann Gershwin. It's a part of the Narcomedusae group, which have similarly positioned tentacles.

And now, in another fit of I did a dumb... I didn't take a picture of the two wall tanks... because the Vancouver Aquarium HAD to be confusing with them for some reason :/

this is the tank on the left! It has the Stalked Jellyfish card......... but the tank itself has NO Stalked Jellyfish...? I had NO idea why and it's driving me mad.

This tank was to the RIGHT of the tank with the card (ie. A TOTALLY SEPARATE TANK), BUT THESE ONES WERE THE ONES THAT HAD STAUROZOA?????... I have no words.

I actually ended up noticing them first because of their weird "firework-like" structure was different from the other corals, but I didn't know if they were actually staurozoa until I saw the card. Anyways, very confusing, but definitely the most magical and rewarding experience you could have in the aquarium. I'll leave out the directions to find this place so if anyone decides to visit the aquarium, they can just look for the staurozoa themselves :>

... and finally, that ends our jelly tour of the Vancouver Aquarium. Before you head home, though, why not pick up a cute little eco-friendly jelly plush on your way out?

She's a beauty, that's for sure!

[navree]

"cleopatra faced oppression" the fuck she did oh my god i hate y'all so much

[exoexid]

first experiences in a new city!!

[tsubasaclones]

my favorite local restaurant is temporarily closed :( 

[peridot-tears]

Honestly, the hypocrisy here is that the same amount of ignorance exists in other western countries where the education system is ostensibly much better. As an Asian American living in Europe, I, my friends from Latin America and East Asia (vaguing locations on purpose because they come from multiple countries that sprawl over the map, and we are in different regions of Europe ourselves) would regularly encounter ignorance, such as not understanding where my friends' countries are on the map, relying on stereotypes, conflating all East Asian identities into one and greeting me and my friends with a "konnichi wa" just because we "look the same," explaining Mexican culture to my friend who is a Mexican from Mexico (idk why, this one bothers me the most, just the audacity?????), asking me where I'm "originally" from...all these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. It's really the same chip, different flavor of what I grew up with in the US.

I will fully accept criticism from people of other regions. Just never westerners. When it comes to ignorance and eurocentrism, the US and (in our experience) northern, central, and western Europe are just:

i think that, if youre usamerican and any time someone calls out your lack of knowledge on global geography you start talking about how bad the usa education is and how its actually not your fault that you dont know what continent nigeria is on because you cant look at the google maps bc donald trump will personally shoot you, youre very annoying

[manicpixiedreamguy]

I'm like Sisyphus but instead of having to roll a boulder up a hill I have to shave my face

[kyros-tha-soldier]

Why is it whenever i listen to Cumbia i just remember viola 😳😳😳

Flamenco is literally her thing but i just can't help but remember her whenever i listen to it! (especially the ones by Selena!)

[because-its-eurovision]

Happy birthday!!! 🥳🎉🎊✨ I hope it's been lovely 💜

Thank you Maddie ilu 🥰🥳

[culmaer]

oh, yeah, sure, perhaps I was exaggerating a bit (but not much). I used to work in the Cape Winelands and a sommelier friend of mine made it their mission to find red wines I'd enjoy. like cincault is alright, aromatic in a way that I enjoy, and I once had a light barbera which paired very well with whatever I was eating at the time (that's the other thing. as a vegetarian/pescetarian, white wine pairing is more straightforward and unless I have a sommelier's guidance, I'm just going to avoid reds lest it overpower the flavours of my meal)

and definitely let red wines breathe ! my general belief is that people throughout history have liked good flavours, and so these practices probably emerged for a reason other than ritualised pretentiousness

wine for idiots

WHITE WINE

if you want to make a wine person very unhappy, say that a white wine they like "is giving me a little green bell pepper?"

RED WINE

honestly the only two questions you need to start credibly talking about red wine are "does it taste like red fruits (strawberry/cherry/raspberry) or black fruits (blackberry/plum)?" and "does it taste oaky (i.e. gently sweet and earthy in a way youd associate with coffee or chocolate or warming spices)

if its a fancy dry wine (not a dessert wine, not port, manischewitz or markovic) dont say "sweet," say "juicy"

FIZZY WINE

if its red and fizzy its probably a lambrusco

if youre drinking champagne talk about the "minerality," even chalk notes if youre feeling gutsy. you dont have to taste it just say it

ORANGE WINE

this is very trendy. youre gonna want to talk about its "funkiness." if you use the term "gym socks" at the right time you will get a round of laughs or at least knowing nods. if you see shmutz in the bottom dont worry about it.

MISC

if you want a wine person to talk for a while and not ask you any questions just ask them how they feel about natural wine. theyll go on for a little and you can decide to agree or disagree based on how hot they are

[idkimnotreal]

people being glad that some billionaires died would maybe benefit from watching contrapoints’s video “envy”. if this is a moral issue, for me, it’s simple:

1) do you believe wealth is immoral?

2) if so, upon being wealthy yourself, would you donate all of your wealth away, or do you believe you would? not just a percentage to charities; those billionaires who died on the sub probably already did that.

if 1) is a yes but 2) is a no, then it’s just hypocrisy. i know i wouldn’t get rid of wealth if i became wealthy so i’m not gonna pretend i’m any different from those people. the only actual difference between us is that they hold more power than i do, but in their place i’d do the same.

the ussr went wrong from the moment they murdered an entire family in the name of socialism or the state or the proletariat or whatever. the only way to change humanity is through empathy. unconditional empathy. otherwise power always ends up concentrated again, like it infamously did in the ussr.

[valiasims]

Baker's Kitchen Collection

Hello everyone!

I present to you my new collection which is a kitchen set! I wanted to create a kitchen for a baker sim because lately I'm into making sourdough bread. For this kitchen my inspiration came from farmhouse, mediterranean and french country kitchens. I wanted to make it a little rustic but not too much and I added swatches which could be used for a more luxurious house as well.

I wanted to make more items but if I say that I struggled with the counters it doesn't even cover the half of it. So next month I'm going to make possibly a beautiful oven to go with this kitchen (what is a baker without an oven) and a lot of baker-themed clutter similar to those few which are included in this set. This is my first early access collection since I'd been working on this so much. I'm really grateful if you support me and if you wouldn't like to, this collection and all of the others from now on will become available for free to download after 1 month of early access. I hope you'll like this one and feel free to leave feedback!

The Set Includes

Kitchen Counter

Kitchen Island

Rail (5 pieces)

Range Hood

Shelf (3 pieces)

Workbench

🔹 Compatibility All items are Base Game compatible. 🔹 TIP You can find the items easily in your Build Catalog if you type in "Baker's Kitchen" or "VALIA". 🔹 Info - Low poly, new, maxis match meshes- Since some items share the same texture you need to have them in your mods folder to properly work.

DOWNLOAD FREE ON PATREON Public release on the 6th of May