#cute little beetle on a mushroom

[bytesizeambs]

Black Lady Beetle | Spider Mite Destroyer #shorts #beetle #ladybug #bytesizeambs

These cute little black beetles are called Spider Mite Destroyers (or Black Lady Beetles/Ladybugs/Ladybirds).

Note:

The quality of this YouTube short is better when viewed via YouTube. Information on this type of Lady Beetle will be in the description of this YouTube short.

[plusie]

[mochinomnoms]

Ooo, how do you think Jade would get along with a Yuu who is hyperfixated on bugs? I think they'd have a lot to bond over, both their interests are sometimes seen as gross/wierd by others, and they can go on little specimen hunting dates! Jade can teach Yuu how to take care of terrariums, they can teach him how to pin/preserve bug specimens. (Ones that are already dead lol) Ultimate mountain lover dates. They can prank other students (jamil-) together! Couple bonding! Tbh I just think it would be cute.

It's such a fascinating interest, one that a lot of people aren't fond of. It reminds him of his mushrooms and how his friends and acquaintances don't understand his love for them. Like how people don't see the appeal in fungus in their various forms, people don't tend to appreciate insects in their various forms.

I think he'd like the idea of someone who is happy to join him on his hiking trips and outdoor exploring to collect their own things. Then going back home and working together to preserve your collections, whether that be with a big display or terrariums!

Jade does love a good joke though, and he does like seeing his peers' reactions to a tiny little bug spooking them. Jamil of course has the best reactions, but he also is likely to set the entire surrounding area on fire at the site of a beetle. And while Jade isn't necessarily opposed to the act of arson, he'd rather not get caught in the crossfire. No worries, there are plenty of others who could be just as entertaining, as long as he can sneak one of your display pieces out of its frame and into a prime spot.

[onenicebugperday]

@rotted-angels submitted: Sorry about the very meaty watermelon - heres a beetle resting on a mushroom and a little jumping spider friend!

The spider was very brave and curious about me

Fully forgiven for the meaty watermelon submission. Both these pals are very cute! Look at that spider having Spider Thoughts about you

[friskwolfiecustoms]

Here are a few unique custom plush I made a few months ago

Cordyceps zombie ant with mushrooms

This plush was really fun to make! I may add it as a permanent listing in my shop eventually. If anyone wants to order their own custom zombie ant message me on Etsy! I can make them with any of the colors I have available in my shop

Color combo:

Hunter body fabric

Kiwi leg fabric

Black thread

Camel fabric mushrooms

Little Rhino beetle with a missing leg

This one turned out really cute! I want to add a Rhino beetle listing to my shop soon. Just too busy right now to make the example plush. If you���d like to order one you can message me on Etsy!

Color combo:

Mallard fabric

Peony eye thread

Orchid body thread

Dusty rose thread scars

2 more plush for the same person who commissioned the rhino beetle above. The black one has glow in the dark thread!

Rhino beetle color combo:

Pumpkin Fabric

Sunbeam thread

Black beetle color combo:

Black rainbow glitter fabric

Glow in the dark yellow and gray threads

[oinkinpigprince]

can i please rq grim and pim w/ a super feminine s/o that's super into nature? like she will straight up pick a snake off the side of the road bc she thinks its cool

There’s a 3ft garden snake named Rodney who lives in my neighborhood. He’s rlly cool, I’m rlly scared of him.

Very feminine nature

Grim

He hates nature, what did you expect? Ngl I just think he’s scared of bugs and unironically allergic to grass, it makes his legs ITCHY AF so he doesn’t care for you’re fascination of nature

Grim thinks it’s REALLY cool how brave you are and how you can pick up wild animals and bring them into the house but he’s gonna be screaming like a little girl

If you hand him a bug he’ll shit himself and run away screaming. He’s terrified of them, if you were evil you’d chase him around the yard while holding a beetle. Sadly though, you love him

Grim thinks you’re like Mother Nature. Which he loves and also just doesn’t get. He wants to understand why you give a shit about nature, nothing but gore and disease come from it so why bother?

He thinks you’re absolutely beautiful, even if he never says it. Grim likes to act tough but you can always catch him admiring your makeup or your beautiful

You have to drag him out into nature with your pretty sun dress and go on walks with him while you gush and rave about how much beauty there is. But you’re the only thing that’s beautiful here

He kinda said that last part accidentally, which makes him flustered. It’s cute when he gets all sweet and gushy like this. He can be cute sometimes

Pim

He ABSOLUTELY adores you!! He thinks you’re like a god(ess) or a fairy! He day dreams about you two being fairies together and living in a little mushroom :))

Thinks all of the effort you put in the look pretty is really amazing! Likes to watch you put on makeup sometimes, he doesn’t know how you can get your eyelids to sit so still

He just thinks you’re really pretty and loves how gentle and sweet you are. Especially to animals!

Pim loves nature. He’s a Snow White as well, so you two can enjoy befriending animals together! And admiring pretty forests and scenery

Although he may not appreciate being handed a snake, as much as he admires them. He likes to admire them from a distance and thinks you should too

Gets kinda panicky when you pick up potentially dangerous animals, he knows you’re fine but a part of him fears you getting hurt.

Loves going on picnics with you out into the woods. Sitting in a nice area and counting how many bugs you’ll see. It’s a nice way to spend your afternoon!

[demi-shoggoth]

2023 Reading Log, pt 13

I've been putting off writing this one for a while, because all of these books are... fine? I didn't feel very strongly about them any way, either positively or negatively. Plus, I've been strongly burnt out on writing in general, and it's been hard for me to push myself to even write little 100 word blurbs about books.

61. Strange Japanese Yokai by Kenji Murakami, translated by Zack Davisson. It’s rare that I get the opportunity to read a yokai book originally written in Japanese, seeing as I don’t speak the language, so I jumped on the chance to get a copy of this when I found out it existed. It’s cute, with cartoony artwork and little data file sidebars that remind me of a Scholastic book… except the content is far weirder than what American kids books contain. The theme of the yokai stories here is that a lot of yokai… kind of suck. The stories told about the big hitters, like oni, kappa, kitsune and tanuki, are about them being foolish or having easily exploited weaknesses, and a lot of the other stories are about gross or pathetic yokai more than scary or impressive ones. The book is overall charming, but a very quick read. More of a supplement to other yokai books than a one-stop shop.

62. Mythical Creatures of Maine by Christopher Packard. This is a bit of an odd duck, seeing as it combines multiple monster traditions (fearsome critters, cryptids and Native American lore) under the same set of covers. It’s a pretty typical A-Z monster book, with some good information about obscure fearsome critters and Wabanaki monsters. There are, however, two things about the book I actively dislike, that keep me from strongly recommending it. The art is terrible. The illustrations by Dan Kirchoff are done in a style I can only describe as “fake woodcuts with flat colors” and are ugly (and in some cases, difficult to decipher). The other is that most, but not all of the monsters, get little microfiction epigrams in the character of Burton Marlborough Packard, the author’s great-great grandfather who worked in the Maine lumberwoods. It’s a weird touch, especially since the epigrams are only a sentence or two, and are typically pretty pointless.

63. Mushrooms: A Natural and Cultural History by Nicholas P. Money. There have been a number of books about fungi for the educated lay audience that have been published in the last couple of years. This one doesn’t really stand out from the crowd. The photography is nice, and there’s some coverage of the history of mycology and some of the prominent people in the field. But the book isn’t very well organized, bouncing from one topic to another within the same paragraph, and there are a number of passages that feel more like rants (the chapter on culinary uses for mushrooms, for example).

64. The Lives of Beetles by Arthur V. Evans. This book serves as an introduction to entomology in general, and beetles in particular. It covers core topics like insect body plans, introduces cladistics and covers the evolution, ecology, behavior and conservation of beetles in broad strokes. These strokes feel particularly broad because there are a lot of beetles; much of the book covers groups on the levels of family, which makes it feel a little bit shallow. These are alternated with descriptions of individual species, and this is where the book shines, as it gives good information about both well known species and some pretty obscure ones. The real value of the book, to someone who has been around the entomological block as I have, is in its production values—this book is quite simply gorgeous, and there are lots of nice photos of many different species.

65. Hoax: A History of Deception by Ian Tattersall and Peter Névraumont. This book has an identity crisis. You would think, with a title like that, that the main topic would be about hoaxes and cons. Some of it is. Some of it is about people who believed what they were pushing, even if it wasn’t true (apocalypse prophecies, homeopathy). Some of it is about misconceptions in archaeology, even if nobody was intentionally lying (the Piltdown Man is an actual hoax. Mary Leakey misidentifying rocks as human artifacts isn’t). And the organization is frankly baffling—it’s arranged in chronological order for some part of a topic, regardless of how much of the chapter is actually about when it’s set. For example, a chapter on fixed games is set at 260 BCE, but spends more of its length talking about modern pro wrestling than gladiator matches. The book is a somewhat bizarre reading experience.

[ariesqueencobra]

about me

hi! i started this blog recently because i want to write some cobra kai fics! here's a little bit about me!

i love cobra kai, obvi, i've rewatched the show about six times already

i'm obsessed with xolo maridueña

i enjoy listening to the lone lobos podcast

i think sam and demetri have a cute friendship

chris is a funny and underrated character

i HAVE watched the original trilogy and it only made me love the series even more

i will not tolerate any sam slander or any slander on female characters for that matter!

johnny and carmen are my loves

amanda is so freaking funny

there is not one cobra kai character i don't like, i honestly think all of the characters are strong individually and are so interesting and well-rounded on their own

besides cobra kai, i like....

anything superhero (big fan of blue beetle)

i like the try guys (without a recipe = christmas time)

i love the sims (i spend three hours creating a sim and six hours building a house to play for twenty minutes)

i love reading (romance books are my ride or die, i'm a hopeless romantic, what can i say?)

i love painting my nails (holo taco for those who know)

i'm a fairycore/cottagegirl girly (anything with a mushroom on it really)

i love tinkerbell movies

cinderella is my favorite disney princess

my love for pomegranates have made a big chunk of my personality (idk why)

i paint in my free time

spider-man is my favorite superhero

if i could have any power, it would be pyrokinesis

i'm mexican

i'm bisexual (no homophobes on this blog)

jenna ortega, chloe bailey, keke palmer and renee rapp are the most beautiful women to ever walk the planet

i love mean girls

musicals are my fave (i do need to watch more though)

[caffeinated-beverage]

I really enjoyed your headcanons your headcanons are awesome 👌 👏 👍 😍 💖

Can I request a CanLiet(Hws Canada x Hws Lithuania)headcanon 🏕🎁📙

You came back for another ask 🥺 thank you so much!!

🏕: At times, Matthew will take Tolvydas on a little camping trip with him. They go stargazing, roast some sausages/fish/beetles (and try not to let Tolvydas' pet wolf steal them, because YOU KNOW he will if you give him half a chance!), make s'mores, tell scary stories around the campfire (Matthew watching Tolvydas get excited and invested in the story as he tells one of the scariest horror stories he can think up at the moment), go hiking, watch the sunset, play some games together, have picnics (once again, they gotta make sure Tolys' pet wolf DOES NOT steal any!), snuggle in a hammock, go fishing, etc.

For winter camping, they pick a nice campground with plenty of hills, good to go sledding. They also get to walk around and/or skate on a frozen lake, go hiking in the snow, have warm food/drinks next to the campfire, have hot cocoa, ice fishing, bonfires, go to a natural hotspring, and ride snowmobiles.

For spring camping, they have picnics, visit a local farmer's market, do some mini golf, bonfires, hike though the beautiful blossom-trees, fly some kites, paddleboat, etc.

For summer camping, they throw water balloons at each other (as the pet wolf barks at the water balloons flying back and forth), shoot each other with waterguns (the pet wolf keeps trying to get in the middle of it, and gets splashed with the waterguns), tye-dye some shirts together, go swimming in the lake (Tolys decides to start a splash fight with Matt in the lake), bonfires, go kayaking, try some waterskiing, etc.

And for fall camping, they go apple picking, visit local fall faires/festivals, bonfires, carve some pumpkins, go to a corn maze, a hayride, horseback riding, go on a date in a pumpkin patch, play football, go hiking through the trees with the colorful leaves, have some local apple cider, have some caramel apples, and go to drive-in horror movies together.

🎁: For Tolvydas, they often give Matthew homemade candies, cookies, chocolates, cakes, and any other homemade goodies. They also give scented candles, some trinkets, a handwritten card with some cute drawings and pressed leaves/flowers/an extra trinket or two, some knitted socks/clothes/coaster/scarf, a pretty rock they found, some of their foraged mushrooms/berries, "friend"ship bracelet, cute little clay sculpture they made, worm on a string, "friend"ship pins, magnets, etc

For Matthew, he often gives Tolys......... A book he figured they would like, something he's seen them eyeballing when walking through stores/shopping districts/malls, a soft and/or fluffy jacket (fluffy, like that hair of theirs that Matt loves!), flowers (which, they tend to eat.. But, hey, better than them just sitting on the counter and dying!), a handwritten card with some cute drawings, pressed flowers, and a few extra trinkets, a plushy, a fidget, etc.

📙: Well, Tolvydas really loves classic literature, like... Alice in Wonderland, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

For Matthew, he reads a lot of manga, such as....... Mob Psycho, Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Attack on Titan, Naruto, Komi Can't Communicate, Demon Slayer, Spy x Family, Tokyo Mew Mew, Toilet-bound hanako kun, haikyu, one piece, etc.

[ratsoh-writes]

Oh, that sounds really cute! But I think I'm all roleplayed out, so I'll just ask for a summary, please.

Lol got it! So you guys have a cute picnic in the woods on the farm property. Like promised, Ram shows you some good forage spots like wild garlic and a mushroom log that he and pitch are encouraging to grow. During the picnic a pair of does show up and kinda stare at you guys for a while. Ram jokingly tries to feed them half his sandwich but they dart off. You also met a roller beetle (a type of beetle that can curl into a ball and roll like a lil car wheel) and you two play with it for a little bit before letting it go with a few berries for its trouble

[udretlnea]

Fav. Library Event (Headcanons; Piece #1/5)

A/N: "For the creator’s event at the Favonius Library”.

Taglist: @theblueskyofthedawn​

Headcanons

Venti

On the anniversary of their victory against Decarabian, he goes to that one tree in Stormterror’s Lair and plays a song he used to sing to his old friend during the past.

After the GAA event with Mona, Fischl, Kazuha, & Xinyan he fell off the roof of the Cat’s Tail and into a bundle of cats; he ended up bedridden in the church for several days.

The most drinks he’s ever consumed in one sitting was 100, and that was during one particularly bountiful Weinlesefest in Mondstadt.

(Ehe~)

Xiao

Created small shrines to the other Yakshas in a secret compartment in his room at the Inn; he regularly gives offerings of items that he thinks they'd like. (Ex: Bonanus- Rice Buns, Indarias- Chili Minced Cornbread Buns, etc.)

After hearing Venti play on the flute once, Xiao went and tried carving one himself to practice with; keyword tried because he has no experience in woodcarving. The result looks terrible, but he keeps it stashed in the aforementioned compartment.

When not suffering from karmic debt or slaying demons, sometimes he observes mortals coming and going in his little bird form, pretending to be nothing more than what he appears.

(I miss the other Yakshas...but their deeds won’t be forgotten anytime soon so that’s nice.)

Nahida

She makes bento for the Wanderer’s lunch, even decorating it with a cute lil’ Aranara made out of a radish.

Whenever Wanderer comes to visit report to Nahida, she takes the time to ask him MomTM questions like, “How was your day?”, “Anything interesting catch your eye?”, “Would you like me to make your favorite?”

��You know those Aranara in her character demo? She plays games with them irl whenever her duties take her near Vanarana.

(No thoughts, only Nahida-Mother brainrot)

Heizou

He has his own fanclub; they’re a small but passionate group.

Heizou thought that deep-fried food was mid at first, but after the day he received his Vision his perception of it shifted as a result of the trauma and thus it now tasted delicious.

Despite not looking like it, Heizou is a decent beetle battler; he’s managed to win against Yoimiya, but not Ayato.

(I lowkey like Heizou. People should appreciate him more.)

Kazuha

When Tomo was still alive, Kazuha would pluck a strand of the former’s hair and be able to play music from it as if it were a leaf.

Kazuha used to have nightmares about that day of Tomo’s execution whenever there was stormy weather, but after putting his friend’s vision in front of his grave they aren’t so intense anymore.

On one particularly fair day, Kazuha napped on a rather warm rock until sunset; he was later woken up by an amused Hu Tao who mistook him for a dead body and was in the middle of taking measurements for his coffin. The two sheepishly explained what they were doing to each other and quickly left; the event stuck with Kazuha throughout the present.

(I kind of went off with the last one here; I’m lowkey proud of it)

Tighnari

Tighnari once forgot to pack enough water during a trip to the desert for research and started acting like a clown because of thirst-induced hallucination; Dehya and co. found him before he could hurt himself and helped him recover. Tighnari doesn’t know that Dehya found him like that while the latter thought it was mildly amusing.

After the events of Nahida’s second story quest, the Traveler went to inform Tighnari about Nur and the other mushrooms at Mawtiyima Forest; now he helps tend to the garden there (if you did the quest, you know what I’m talking about).

When Collei still had Eleazar, if he heard anyone badmouth or berate Collei he would personally see to it the offender would be stuck with some embarrassing chore.

(Idk what went through my mind with the first one other than “shenanigans”. It was midnight.)

Albedo

Keeps a pouch of snacks inside his coat; it’s filled with spiders covered in a sweet resin (it sounds gross, but it’s actually quite tasty).

He’s gotten so detailed at sketching that he’s definitely opened commissions at least thrice; practically all citizens of Mondstadt flock to his office to ask for them so he’s had to set up a hard limit of ten commissions.

During the Irodori Festivsl he came across an onikabuto battle and was fascinated enough to go out and try it himself. He sometimes writes essays on the optimal and ideal form to engage in onikabuto fights.

(Can you tell that I loved the Onikabuto event so much I included it in several of these headcanons?)

Xingqiu

On one particularly sunny day, he tried to successfully practice the moves he read in his martial-arts book. He keeps practicing so as to have another option if he were disarmed in combat one day.

Thanks to the above, Shenhe and Xingqiu have developed a minor respect and the former even gives pointers on the off-chance she runs into the middle of his practice.

His hair used to be more professional and traditional, but he insisted on getting it cut to resemble Yelan’s haircut after that one encounter with her (see About Yelan) because he thought she was cool-looking.

(Nothing special on this one. This one’s fine.)

Sucrose

Regularly writes to Collei asking for updates on her teachings and offers to donate her books to Collei; Collie appreciates it, but declines because she’s determined like that.

At first, Sucrose didn’t have time for nor was interested in TCG, but after playing with the Traveler and Fischl she got hooked and now low-key collects cards a la Cyno.

When it’s just her and Albedo working together in general, she feels comfortable and safe enough to let her ears stand up.

(I wonder if Hoyo will have Sucrose and Collei interact again...)

[bytesizeambs]

Cute Little Dung Beetle | Onthophagus tuberculifrons #shorts #dungbeetle #mushroom #supercute #cute

This little Dung Beetle was living it up on that mushroom!

[mitchelldailygames]

Heroes of Song: Devlog Part 4

Obligatory reminder of the design principals for this game:

The heroes are cute.

Kindness matters.

The world is weird.

Sometimes you don’t fight. Sometimes you do.

Health is hearts.

I might end up changing the name of this game. I don’t know that Heroes of Song is quite hitting for me. Maybe something like Heroic Harmony? Not the top priority at the moment, but it’s on my mind.

Let’s get into it!

Setting

I’m definitely taking cues from TLoZ here. In the grand, connected timelines of The Legend of Zelda, there are location names carried over from game to game, like Hyrule, and other things like the goddesses, the Master Sword, and Link, Ganondorf, and Zelda that show up in games with settings that look pretty different from each other. The world of Wind Waker doesn’t look like the world of Twilight Princess which doesn’t look like the world of A Link to the Past. But all these games ostensibly take place in some proximity to Hyrule. The timeline of TLoZ explains that these games all happen at different times in the history of the world and across multiple timelines. The world drastically changes what it looks like between games because an often unknowable amount of time has passed between them.

That brings us to the world of Heroes of Song, Alebas. My idea for Alebas is that all games of Heroes of Song take place in Alebas at some point in its long and storied history across any number of timelines. The map of Alebas will be generated by gaming tables each campaign which means the world will look different game to game. But I want one table playing HoS to be able to talk to another table and draw their own lines of connection between their stories.

I hope to facilitate this in a few ways. One way I’ve already talked about is the folk. If all options for folk are made available to players, then every world will have human folks, furry mammal folks, bird folks, mushroom folks, robot folks, and mysterious folks. It is also likely a lot of the reoccurring antagonist folks (like hobkins) will show up from game to game. I was going to hold off naming the different kinds of folks until I was promoting the game, but naming them now is going to make it easier to talk about them later. We might go into more depth on each of these in the future. The main rulebook will let you play as:

Humkins: Basically humans

Furrikins: Anthropomorphic mammals (anything from a mouse to an elephant)

Avikins: Anthropomorphic birds (including hummingbirds, eagles, vultures, ostriches, etc.)

Forj’d: Robots

Dikari: Mushroom folks

Autsaders: Mysterious, masked or hooded folks

Unique items will also be included among the rules, like the Skip Dagger that lets the wielder teleport to the dagger, letting them throw it and then teleport to it to cross gaps or move in quickly on enemies. Items like these will hopefully feel at least a little like Link finding the Master Sword across titles, as well as the special items that unlock new areas in these types of games.

A big thread I want to give game groups so they can weave their story into the larger epoch is a reoccurring antagonist, the Ganondorf of the setting, Xesto. Xesto is an Autsader sorcerer that wears a mask stylized after a deathwatch beetle. Xesto will have multiple forms and will likely show up in many adventures or works of fiction I write for this game.

Tables can of course use whatever elements they want— they can even travel off the main map— but the idea will remain that all stories are somehow connected to the larger, HoS narrative and setting.

Magic

OK, I’ve been excited to talk about this.

The basics of magic in Heroes of Song are simple: spend Spirit, do magic. You have a list of spells on your character sheet.

But the main book will include three distinct forms of magic for character options and will hint at a fourth in Xesto’s entry: Songs, Runes, Rituals, and Sorcery.

Songs

These are for sure inspired by Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker. I talked about the Bard calling briefly in the last post. Bards come holding an instrument and knowing a couple songs. Songs generally have generally more ethereal or subtle effects on the world, the most physical effects being a gust of air or a picked lock. I really like the idea that Songs can be learned in the world and characters who aren’t Bards can pick up an instrument, play a song, and make magic.

Runes

Runes get carved into weapons to give them extra effects. This is how a character would add elemental effects to their weapons. Staves can have as many runes as you want carved into them, and instead of just adding an effect when you whack someone with the staff, you also can shoot the rune’s effect out as a ranged attack. Sages are the rune experts and have a growth option that makes their ranged spell attacks quite powerful, but anyone can attempt to put a rune on their weapon. My favorite rune is the Toad rune. it turns targets into toads. The rest are pretty much what you’d expect, but that one makes your staff into a bit of a Wabbajack.

Rituals

I think these are really cool. Rituals are what they sound like and more. They are spells that take a while and a process to cast, but have big effects. There are some rituals that involve sacred oils, arcane symbology, fresh blood, but they are honestly not the most exciting ones to me. I tried to make the rituals feel like just doing something, but when done right, magic happens. A lot of families bless their food before they eat, have traditions around holidays, or have routines that they would never break. For example, the ritual list includes the Food Ritual which is just cooking a meal, thanking the Keeper of Harvest for it, and sharing the meal. When done right, this provides lots of healing to the party. I added some requirements for tables such as describing the food that should make the roleplaying of these rituals rewarding, while also putting a soft limit on how often they are performed. My favorite ritual is probably the Grave Ritual, where by tending to a grave, the performer can actually speak with the spirit of the person whose remains occupy the grave. I just really like the idea of mourners being able to reconnect with their loved ones just by the simple act of taking care of the grave.

Sorcery

Sorcery is not originally going to be available to players and when they see it, it will be sinister and associated with antagonists. However, I do hope to eventually expand on this game in a way that challenges what is “good” and “bad” in the setting at some point down the line, opening sorcery up to players in the process. Sorcery does not require items with runes or songs, but is embedded in the caster, possibly in the form of tattoos or arcane branding. Xesto will be the first sorcerer readers of the game meet, and their spell list will be mean, but that’s just the tip of the sorcery iceberg.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part of the charm of settings like this is that magic is big and a little mysterious. The Hero Characters’ interactions with magic will be through the tools available to them, but there’s no limit to what magic could do in the larger world. Time travel? Dimension travel? Unlocking ancient power? Trapping the whole world in a dream? Awakening ghosts across the land? Sure! And so much more. I hope people lean into the magical nature of Alebas in their stories and travel far and wide, constantly in awe of the new things they uncover (and come up with together at their tables). I also hope people connect to the magic in mundane things and have fun with the magic at their disposal.

The world is weird; kindness matters.

--Daily

[misterradio]

oh my word i took bogleech's advice and just looked at the aliexpress results for "gachapon" and there are SO many delightful BEASTS in there. look at these... i'll link their listings below, so if you're not sure what you're looking at just check their link (or its title).

Cooking Zombies // Camping Animals // Egyptian Pantheon

Mushroom Dragons (series 2) // Mushroom Dragons (series 3)

Cat Butterflies/Moths // Alpaca People (?!?!?)

Cryptids Waiting for the Unknown // Animal Attraction (vol 2)

There's a cheaper listing for the 1st of the mushroom dragons but i lost the link. I saved the camping animals because I thought the beetle sipping coffee was so cute ::-D (but i don't really care about the fact that they each come with various parts for building the tent...)

i think my favourite little guys here are the inkcap dragon, the alpaca covered in blobby heads, and the arugula koala.

[farotrails]

curiosity, or why Doug Tallamy needs to be required reading

I.

I'm a firm believer that environmental advocacy should include personal shifts in our own ethics and actions. (It doesn't help that science isn't considered important even when it's the explanation of foundational structure for every living thing.) The shift starting at home is explained pretty eloquently (more than me!) by Doug in his first two books Bringing Nature Home (2007) and Nature's Best Hope (2016). Kill your fuckin' lawn, and learn about the interconnectedness of every single living thing in your fuckin' lawn. Those books are a great entry to the movement and are a genuinely fun read. Motherfuckers just don't consider that the 1 3/8" uniform grass blades and their one invasive yew bush are actively harming the environment and climate that the motherfuckers may otherwise support. Pervasive ignorance, or (more politely) unawareness, or (the big one, IMO) lack of curiosity.

II.

Go step outside and take a look for two minutes. And don't just glaze over. Actually observe your surroundings, for two minutes.

What does this grass do for surrounding organisms? What was the context of its evolution? Why is it here, in this spot, right now? Now zoom in, or out, or pan sideways. There's another living thing right there, with the same set of questions and likely a completely different trajectory and set of pressures that delivered the beetle, or planthopper, or turtle, or polar bear to the place you're observing it now. Get into the habit of asking those questions and being curious (there it is again) about researching the answers. You won't always find those answers (shouts out fungi, I'm just now finding out how spore prints can be a diagnostic characteristic) and that's okay. It's still supporting scientific literacy and the knock-on effects of being Smart, and putting you in a position to be empathetic to the natural world that humans so viciously take for granted.

III.

I'm currently killing my god damn lawn. Big ass mulch pile and planning out hardscaping. And the whole way I'm observing insects, birds, mushrooms, all sorts of plants, mollusks, and even a handful of herps. Each of the native organisms has a reason for evolving into this system, and as a landowner (shouts out privilege and also Indiana for being cheap as shit) I have a very serious responsibility to support the non-human organisms that evolved into the space I'm occupying.

Now that sounds pretty bleak, and it may be in some circumstances, but it also feels really fuckin' good to see nature thrive in a plot where it previously hadn't. I live pretty rurally, on a karst ridgeline surrounded by a forest of oak, beech, maple, and at least one aspen. In this space I've found a real love for amphibians and especially Plethodontidae salamanders.

Indiana has the most polluted waterways per some-metric-of-water-flowage-that-I-don't-want-to-research-again in the country. The lovely little Plethodontidae family don't have lungs; these cute fuckers breath by absorbing oxygen via wet skin. Think about that system in the context of huge polluted, like can't catch and eat more than one fish a month because of PCB contamination polluted, and these dudes are thriving in pockets. Plethodon dorsalis, the Northern Zig-Zag Salamander seen above, is an especially good litmus. They're mostly restricted to the forests surrounding fairly isolated mountain flows of the Smokies and southern Appalachians. Those waterways contributing to zig-zag ecosystems are notable for being home for endemic evolutionary cases - species that exist solely in one little hole in one little stream. Plethodon dorsalis is terrestrial and not restricted to just those waterways, but their prevalence in central and eastern Tennessee makes presence in south-central Indiana (the northwestern edge of their range) a welcome oddity, and a sign that the conditions can be improved well-enough where breathing isn't instantly poisoning these tiny buddies.

IV.

This was all an excuse to ramble about salamanders, and stewardship, and getting outdoors and fucking looking. Learn about your surroundings. It might turn into a lifelong interest, or hobby, or even contribute to groundbreaking research that can support an entire ecosystem. It all comes down to curiosity first and foremost. Leaning in, asking why, and finding out the answers. And becoming a more compassionate person along the way.

[lenyul]

To Sir, With Love Episode 8: ง is for Snake

Now that they’re settled in back home, everyone goes to visit the mound behind the house. They all see each other, which starts another round of “Well, what were you doing at the devil’s sacrament?” that once again goes absolutely nowhere. Song asks Yang a bunch of questions, and guesses what the answers are with his dad-mind-reading-powers. This only works with yes-no questions, so he doesn’t find out the secret.

Yang decides to tell Tian what he knows after talking with Yingpin. If he asked her for more advice, she probably would have told him not to have this conversation out in the garden at midnight. But here we are.

Chan hid behind the bushes so she heard everything. She decides to wait for more evidence, right after she finishes throwing up from the corpse mushrooms.

Tian took the news relatively well, all things considered. He only cries a little, then breaks into Jia’s room to look for blood-sucking mushrooms. He confronts Li and Jia, then sounds the gong and prepares to tell everyone that his mother is a murderer. Luckily she diffuses the situation by threatening to kill herself, so they pretend they just saw a snake. No one wants to catch a snake in the middle of the night, so that’s that.

In BLs, most of the main characters are usually men, so it can be kind of hard to get feminist messages across (or do product placement for make-up). Lucky for us, Lover boy is very feminist. Not only does he beat up victim-blaming misogynistic creeps, he tells them that women can dress however they want. He also does all of this while his shirt is half unbuttoned, because he wants to take on some of the objectification that women face. Oh wait, he hired the creeps to do that, nevermind.

They reunite, Jiu is looking for a job, while Tian is mostly just happy that Jiu’s alive. Turns out Jiu can’t read, so obviously it’s teaching time.

Mud continues her quest to get laid, this time with Jiu, but she has the opposite of a gaydar. She really tries her best, she even clings to him so he can’t get away (it’s more successful than when I tried the same move while wrestling in PE, which just means that it doesn’t fail miserably). 

She holds on long enough for Tian to see them, so Jiu talks to him in the garden. They clarify that neither of them like Mud. But then why are they acting this way?

Who cares, time to teach Jiu to read and write! They are always so cute together.

“Oops, I asked my crush how to write his name, and accidentally kissed him on the cheek.” Song interrupts, so Tian introduces Jiu to him, and explains that he’s the new worker he hired to hang out in his office and flirt. He also tells him that he saved his life. And that’s kind of selling him short, Jiu saved Tian’s life twice, and that was only from other people!

Mei and Fu are at Ma’s house, and we find out what Mei’s special medicine is! Opium. Well there goes the hope that one of the family’s doctors could recognise the medicine and cure her.

Let’s see what we (Doctor Qi) can get out of a single human tooth found in the garden! Apparently, a lot. The rest of the body was dissolved, but the glitter is still on the tooth, the search for the beetle orchids continues. There aren’t any in Jia’s room, but Nuan saw her bury a box in the garden. Let’s get to digging! Chan senses victory, so she throws caution to the wind (what little she had), and invites all of the workers to witness Li being revealed as a killer. She also immediately lies that everyone just happened to be there, because she doesn’t want to get into trouble. They remove the box from the ground and…

Well, Jiu’s first day at his new job was certainly eventful! He was almost seduced, he kissed his boss, he’s learning to read, and his employers are accusing each other of murder. Surely this is not what every day is like? We’ll find out next time.