#jelly journal

[jellycaustic]

So, I love The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings, but I haven't read them since I was a kid. Obviously, a reread is in order, and that's how I'm getting myself out of my months-long non-reading rut. To increase my absorption and retention, I'm also doing a book journal! And at my dear bestie @hartmannyoukaigirl's suggestion 💖, I'm posting a bit of it here.

This will just be some noteworthy quotes and a bit of my thoughts on them. If something I mentioned seems obvious, it's because it's been such a long time. If I don't mention something, it might be because I've already seen it discussed around here frequently or otherwise that it's obvious, or that I've noted the quote for myself but don't have anything to say about it.

The Hobbit, Chapter 1 - "An Unexpected Party"

There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous

These quotes make it sound like The Hobbit would have taken place on Earth, not Middle Earth, like a more usual fairy tale with imps and brownies and the implication that if you believe hard enough maybe you can still see them. Placing it in Middle Earth makes it sound like inter-racial relations declined some time after the events of LotR. Sad to imagine :(

It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures.

Of course this quote has been discussed endlessly, but I'm just going to say that given that a fairy wife is clearly absurd, and yet the Tooks are certainly unhobbitlike, I have to wonder what the true reason is for their proclivities. And is the absurdity of a fairy wife the existence of fairies or the willingness of a hobbit to marry one?

"Not the Gandalf who was responsible for so many quiet lads and lasses going off into the Blue for mad adventures? Anything from climbing trees to visiting elves--or sailing in ships, sailing to other shores! Bless me, life used to be quite inter--I mean, you used to upset things badly in these parts once upon a time."

Even climbing a tree is an adventure. What occasion did Gandalf have to cause a hobbit to climb a tree? Was that even intended as an adventure or was it just so bizarre that it stuck in Bilbo's memory? Hobbits have visited elves, perhaps as recently as within the last 50 years. Were these "quiet" hobbits the aforementioned Tooks, or genuinely respectable and supposedly entirely unadventurous hobbits? And Bilbo is clearly more adventurous then he'd like to believe; is that just his Tookishness or is that common to even ordinary hobbits?

"Dwalin and Balin here already, I see," said Kili. "Some four, I should say by the sound," said Fili. "Besides, we saw them coming along behind us in the distance."

I'm not quoting it all, but the dwarves all come in separate small groups, and though travelling close together, aren't coordinated. A measure to avoid the unlucky thirteen?

On silver necklaces they strung The flowering stars, on crowns they hung The dragon-fire, in twisted wire They meshed the light of moon and sun

The Silmarils?

As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.

The dwarven song is explicitly magical.

they were all looking at him with eyes shining in the dark. "We like the dark," said all the dwarves.

Dwarves have reflective eyes, perhaps night vision.

"Where are you going?" said Thorin, in a tone that seemed to show that he guessed both halves of the hobbit's mind.

Given his smoke ring games with Gandalf, Thorin definitely has magic about him. I'm sure Bilbo is easy to read, but it's also possible that this is better than a guess.

"may the hair on his toes never fall out!"

Is that a genuine hobbitish blessing, or is Thorin guessing? He could be assuming an analogy with dwarvish beards. Bilbo doesn't comment on it.

"If I say he is a Burglar, a Burglar he is, or will be when the time comes. There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself. You may (possibly) all live to thank me yet." "That would be no good," said the wizard, "not without a mighty Warrior, even a Hero. I tried to find one; but warriors are busy fighting one another in distant lands, and in this neighborhood heroes are scarce, or simply not to be found." "That is why I settled on burglary--especially when I remembered the existence of a Side-door."

Gandalf clearly appreciates the importance of Roles. I suspect this passage had a great influence on Terry Pratchett.

"From what it says on the map I should guess there is a closed door which has been made to look exactly like the side of the Mountain. That is the usual dwarves' method-- I think that is right, isn't it?"

Gandalf sounds like he's unsure... but he's been around enough that I'm surprised by that. I think that, actually, he may be explicitly giving Thorin the opportunity to confirm him so as not to be speaking over a very important dwarf about a matter of dwarvish culture.

[mwdesiign]

⋆✴︎˚｡⋆ allow me to introduce you to my son ⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

Gloomy (Ghost card) by @petite-gloom

[phoebe-the-autism-fairy]

Pro tip

Journals are supposed to be messy. Don't pay attention to the "bullet journal girlies" on your social media and their neat little to-do lists and the things they're grateful for. Cause at the end of the day I wouldn't have the energy or the neurotypical-ness to keep up to date with bullet journaling. Just grab ya notebook and write whatever you feel. Talk about your feelings, both the beautiful and the ugly ones. Scribble in it. Doodle in it. Vent in it. Write cringey poetry. Write stories. Release your inner Regina George on that bitch. You don't need to make it fancy, your journal can be your best friend if you just let it.

[gummi-stims]

can you make a post for Noe from the case of vanitas

I hope this is good!

🤍-💜-🤍

💜- x -💜

🤍-💜-🤍

[mysteriouspersonrambles]

Happy Birthday Mabel and Dipper take this ok pencil and ink drawing to celebrate your special day!

And as bonus have unoriginal designed drawing of them as 25 year olds (that’s crazy how old they are now)

[e-ziara]

Whoops, I’m gonna have to barge in with the 2nd page of the naturalist journal twice this week. Look at these famous birds! 🦜 📖 🌺

I tried to draw boxes just to rein myself in during sketching. I have a habit of drawing wayy too big and leaving me little space for writing notes. Honestly I don’t really plan my pages too long. I particularly am happy with the details for the turkey’s head 🦃 🪶 

That’s not the palette I was using for this page btw; I finished up this at a different location and didn’t wanna take it with me sooo here’s my original palette with all the gouache lol. 

[gratitude-with-jesus]

Day 57

Jesus, I’m grateful for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

[stuck-in-jelly]

Living with a scientist will never fail to amuse me, I’ll be playing a video game and they will suddenly look up from their book and tell me to stop and look at a white board with equations, charts, and drawings of chemical compounds.

Then we spend the next 15 minutes going from digital white board to digital white board as they decipher what’s going on in the lab.

Then we watch a movie that they like it a lot but mumble about how technically there would need to be at least two scientists present for that one scene but whatever.

And of course their favorite movie is The Martian

[comicdiaries]

I wanted to go to the Wood Egg okonomiyaki museum but it closed before we were able to make it over there. Next time!

[jellycaustic]

Chapter 2 - "Roast Mutton"

There was a fearful mess in the room, and piles of unwashed crocks in the kitchen.

This is in contrast to their hair-raising spic-and-span cleaning last night. Dwarves play fast and loose with guest obligations.

"Bravo!" said Balin who was standing at the inn door looking out for him.

Balin must have watched Bilbo's whole mad dash, and sounds pretty amused :D

There was a very small pony, apparently for Bilbo.

It's just funny that Bilbo is so small he can't even ride a normal-sized pony. Really puts Bullroarer's immensity into perspective.

His only comfort was he couldn't be mistaken for a dwarf, as he had no beard.

Does he not wish to be mistaken for a dwarf as a matter of general course, or does this come specifically after being familiarized with Thorin & Co.?

They had not been riding very long, when up came Gandalf very splendid on a white horse. He had brought a lot of pocket-handkerchiefs, and Bilbo's pipe and tobacco.

A kind gesture, no doubt. Now, did Gandalf remain behind knowing that gathering Bilbo's effects would take longer than 10 minutes, or did he also enjoy sending him off to run? Or did he not want to give him a ride on his horse? Or some combination?

At first they had passed through hobbit-lands, a wide respectable country inhabited by decent folk, with good roads, an inn or too, and now and then a dwarf or a farmer ambling by on business.

So dwarves aren't uncommon in hobbit-lands, though other races do seem to be.

Also the mischief seemed to have got into the fire. Dwarves can make a fire almost anywhere out of almost anything, wind or no wind; but they could not do it that night, not even Oin and Gloin, who were especially good at it. Then one of the ponies took fright at nothing and bolted.

This doesn't sound purely mundane. Actually, it doesn't really sound like the trolls, either. The pony, maybe, though the trolls are still far off, but surely trolls don't have a fire-damping AoE.

Others said: "These parts are none too well known, and are too near the mountains. Travellers seldom come this way now. The old maps are no use: things have changed for the worse and the road is unguarded. They have seldom even heard of the king round here, and the less inquisitive you are as you go along, the less trouble you are likely to find."

What makes the mountains scary? Trolls? Smaug? And by the way, which king?

"Bilbo Baggins, a bur--a hobbit," said poor Bilbo,

He's warming up to his role pretty quickly! This and his decision to pickpocket the trolls.

"And I won't take that from you, Bill Huggins," says Bert, and puts his fist in William's eye.

Trolls seem to just spring fully formed from the mountains, with names and identities and clothes and appreciation of food and wealth. Why is this sentence in present tense?

Trolls simply detest the very sight of dwarves (uncooked).

This despite not recognizing a hobbit at all. I wonder if it's anything to do with the dwarves' mining activities.

"Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!" said a voice that sounded like William's. But it wasn't.

I'm not quoting it all, but Gandalf must be a pretty good imitator, getting all the trolls' voices, including the accent, well enough to trick them even while they're on guard for more voices from the shadows. The only question is if that's magic, or a mundane party trick.

They searched about, and soon found the marks of trolls' stony boots going away through the trees. He held out a largish key, though no doubt William had thought it very small and secret. It must have fallen out of his pocket, very luckily, before he was turned to stone.

So trolls have stony boots even before turning to stone themselves, and it sounds like their clothes turn to stone with them? That or the lucky part is just that falling to the ground made the key more noticeable. My guess is that the key is a secret from the other trolls, but if it's meant to be hidden in the event of a mugging, it raises the question of what would scare a troll. Particularly given that so far the only way to fight a troll has been with trickery.

"As I was saying I met two of Elrond's people. They were hurrying along for fear of the trolls. It was they who told me that three of them had come down from the mountains and settled in the woods not far from the road: they had frightened everyone away from the district, and they waylaid strangers."

Even elves fear trolls, and their emergence from the mountains is an event worth noticing. Trolls are an uncommon and fearsome sight. Also, someone's got close enough to confirm their number.

So, I love The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings, but I haven't read them since I was a kid. Obviously, a reread is in order, and that's how I'm getting myself out of my months-long non-reading rut. To increase my absorption and retention, I'm also doing a book journal! And at my dear bestie @hartmannyoukaigirl's suggestion 💖, I'm posting a bit of it here.

This will just be some noteworthy quotes and a bit of my thoughts on them. If something I mentioned seems obvious, it's because it's been such a long time. If I don't mention something, it might be because I've already seen it discussed around here frequently or otherwise that it's obvious, or that I've noted the quote for myself but don't have anything to say about it.

The Hobbit, Chapter 1 - "An Unexpected Party"

There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous

These quotes make it sound like The Hobbit would have taken place on Earth, not Middle Earth, like a more usual fairy tale with imps and brownies and the implication that if you believe hard enough maybe you can still see them. Placing it in Middle Earth makes it sound like inter-racial relations declined some time after the events of LotR. Sad to imagine :(

It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures.

Of course this quote has been discussed endlessly, but I'm just going to say that given that a fairy wife is clearly absurd, and yet the Tooks are certainly unhobbitlike, I have to wonder what the true reason is for their proclivities. And is the absurdity of a fairy wife the existence of fairies or the willingness of a hobbit to marry one?

"Not the Gandalf who was responsible for so many quiet lads and lasses going off into the Blue for mad adventures? Anything from climbing trees to visiting elves--or sailing in ships, sailing to other shores! Bless me, life used to be quite inter--I mean, you used to upset things badly in these parts once upon a time."

Even climbing a tree is an adventure. What occasion did Gandalf have to cause a hobbit to climb a tree? Was that even intended as an adventure or was it just so bizarre that it stuck in Bilbo's memory? Hobbits have visited elves, perhaps as recently as within the last 50 years. Were these "quiet" hobbits the aforementioned Tooks, or genuinely respectable and supposedly entirely unadventurous hobbits? And Bilbo is clearly more adventurous then he'd like to believe; is that just his Tookishness or is that common to even ordinary hobbits?

"Dwalin and Balin here already, I see," said Kili. "Some four, I should say by the sound," said Fili. "Besides, we saw them coming along behind us in the distance."

I'm not quoting it all, but the dwarves all come in separate small groups, and though travelling close together, aren't coordinated. A measure to avoid the unlucky thirteen?

On silver necklaces they strung The flowering stars, on crowns they hung The dragon-fire, in twisted wire They meshed the light of moon and sun

The Silmarils?

As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.

The dwarven song is explicitly magical.

they were all looking at him with eyes shining in the dark. "We like the dark," said all the dwarves.

Dwarves have reflective eyes, perhaps night vision.

"Where are you going?" said Thorin, in a tone that seemed to show that he guessed both halves of the hobbit's mind.

Given his smoke ring games with Gandalf, Thorin definitely has magic about him. I'm sure Bilbo is easy to read, but it's also possible that this is better than a guess.

"may the hair on his toes never fall out!"

Is that a genuine hobbitish blessing, or is Thorin guessing? He could be assuming an analogy with dwarvish beards. Bilbo doesn't comment on it.

"If I say he is a Burglar, a Burglar he is, or will be when the time comes. There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself. You may (possibly) all live to thank me yet." "That would be no good," said the wizard, "not without a mighty Warrior, even a Hero. I tried to find one; but warriors are busy fighting one another in distant lands, and in this neighborhood heroes are scarce, or simply not to be found." "That is why I settled on burglary--especially when I remembered the existence of a Side-door."

Gandalf clearly appreciates the importance of Roles. I suspect this passage had a great influence on Terry Pratchett.

"From what it says on the map I should guess there is a closed door which has been made to look exactly like the side of the Mountain. That is the usual dwarves' method-- I think that is right, isn't it?"

Gandalf sounds like he's unsure... but he's been around enough that I'm surprised by that. I think that, actually, he may be explicitly giving Thorin the opportunity to confirm him so as not to be speaking over a very important dwarf about a matter of dwarvish culture.

[bunniworms]

I like to think that every Summerween/Halloween the younger Pines twins give any jelly beans they get to Ford. It makes him happy :)

[aurosoul]

[the-awesomecosmos-studies]

Day 14/100 days of productivity | Sun 3 Mar, 2024

Lazy, chill Sunday.

Brainstormed specific graphs and statistics I want to see on my book tracker app

Went to the mall, saw Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee jelly beans (???)

Got some coloring books for mindfulness, and some sticker books for journaling :)

Got a milk frother to make that TikTok iced coffee with foam on top

Colored like an uncoordinated child in my new coloring book 🙃

[ccckie-warz]

Moon Mortar Picnic

[e-ziara]

Wake up, the first page of Book 2 of my naturalist journal is here! 🦜 📖 🌺

I think I mentioned before last but Book 2 is definitely going to have a lot more animal entries! I’m still going through the animal park that I went last year and I saw a lot sooo... Anyway, I really like how colourful these birds are! My hands are tired from trying to come close to how their colouration looks like. 💀💀

Also these Book 2 pages may look different than Book 1 because, those are actually jelly gouache + watercolour + ink + colour pencil together! I had these gouache leftovers on my palettes and couldn’t waste them lol. They do help express the vibrancy of the pheasants though ❤️💚💙

[trinketfairy]

I'm having an autism moment but the quality control decline at Jellycat makes me feel very autistically frustrated.

Some points:

Prices are getting higher while quality is decreasing. We've seen it, Jellycat has acknowledged and commented on it, and we know that JC isn't the only one who's guilty of this. But what frustrates me a lot is knowing that, despite JC's comments on their quality control and their promises to "do better," they haven't really been sticking with their word. I feel like there's been a consistent uptick in posts on the Jellycatplush subreddit of people complaining about quality even after they made their statement in January of this year and for good reason- their final products just aren't meeting the price tags anymore.

I suppose some of this has to do with the increase in popularity they said they had experienced in 2022 that they struggled to keep up with, and I imagine they're trying to keep up with the demand by loosening quality control to get more product out, but I think they're really shooting themselves in their feet for this because JC was once revered for their quality. I know I myself have said in the past that I thought the price of their products were totally worth it because I truly believed that the quality lived up to those price tags. Nowadays I can't say the same thing about them anymore.

What sucks further though is the fact that all of this product is just going to waste now. Many people have said that they were so disappointed with what they got (especially when you consider how much money they have to fork out per plush these days) that they ended up returning it to JC, which ultimately ends up being tossed in some landfill somewhere. Polyester and plastic fabric isn't exactly the definition of environmentally friendly!

Ultimately, these factories are going out of their ways to produce subpar products under what I imagine are more strict codes to get more product out, which end up being returned by the buyers because they're so disappointed in the quality control and thrown into the garbage. Or if they're not returned by the owner, then they'll still probably end up there anyway because they're defective and not as likely to last as long.

What I think should be done instead is offering discounts on defective products- within reason of course, nobody's going to want to pay any amount of money for a plush that's practically falling apart, but minor defects I could see selling fine enough because A) customers won't have to pay the full amount for a subpar product, and B) they also will know exactly what they're getting and not being set up for disappointment. I'd love to buy defective jellies, so long as I'm not paying the price of a high quality one!

But understandably, I think the above point could have a bad affliction on their reputation as a company, that they'd have defective plush to sell in the first place, which is why I don't think they do it. They've already built their image on being a higher-end plush brand, so I feel like advertising products that exist to be defective would be bad publicity.

Side note: I fear for the safety of the literal babies chewing on their toys if their quality continues to dwindle. There are specific safety protocols that toy manufacturers need to adhere to in order to produce toys for babies- the 3+ age rating exists for a reason! I don't think it's quite gotten to that point yet, but it's in the realm of possibility if JC continues down the road they're on.

I could end this by saying something about the effects of late stage capitalism on product quality control and, eventually, environmentalism and safety, but I don't imagine anyone is following a blog about children's toys to hear political commentary which is understandable so I'll save it for now.