#nectardew

[onenicebugperday]

I'm sorry if this is silly, but even after being a fan of bugs for years now, I've actually never researched WHERE spiders silk comes from. I just...kinda assumed some sorta hole...but NO! It's a gland on their abdomens!!! Do you mind giving us a tldr on silk creation? I feel so silly for not even thinking about it for so long!!

It's actually a bunch of glands! The number depends on the species and sex of spider. The number of spinnerets used to pull the silk from the glands also varies by species. Silk has to be pulled out, it doesn't just flow out or fly out spiderman style. They can use their spinnerets, their legs, or simply anchoring the web and walking or jumping away to pull it out.

Every spider can create a bunch of different types of silk depending on what they're using it for, but it all starts as a liquid made from proteins and other stuff inside the glands. As it's pulled out, it undergoes some molecular changes to go from a liquid to a solid. Obviously, this happens very quickly. If you've ever seen a spider wrap up prey, it's insanely fast.

The different types of silk they can make include egg sac silk, dragline silk (which is not sticky and is used for structural anchor lines and spokes for webs, plus as a safety rope if they have to jump from a predator), prey-wrapping silk, sticky prey-catching web silk (think the spirals in orbweaver webs), ballooning silk, burrow/nest silk, and mating (sperm web) silk.

Producing a lot of silk requires a lot of resources, which is why a lot of spiders will eat their own silk to recycle its contents :)

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Frank, i have to know, do you think Uchiha Sasuke did anything wrong? I feel like he was actually right and everyone else in Naruto was a punk.

He did many things wrong, but I'll say a few of the bigger ones to set the tone for this rant:

He murdered his clanmates, and then the village. He didn't do this for ideological reasons, though he certainly could have. The narrative doesn't show his clanmates as having lived evil, or his clan as living at all except in his own hands; it seems to show him doing what he saw was the only possible thing to save the village from being destroyed.

He slaughtered an entire village full of people because he couldn't make a decision.

He was cruel and controlling. His "relationships" with women were generally abusive. Yes, the guy was probably in a bad situation and the series never really explains it, but it never really shows you that this was good for him either. As an abusive relationship, it was not one he made "better." It was a bad relationship for everyone, and while it had tragic consequences that weren't their fault (Naruto's parents, Sakura, etc.) in the end it was not a positive outcome for anyone involved. Sasuke was right about how good it would be to be free of that relationship, but I think he was wrong about the consequences. Even without getting to the point of killing the village, he made things worse. His relationship with Sakura was unhealthy and abusive, and his attitude toward Naruto was so cruel that Naruto never really knew how to navigate it. By the end Sasuke had become his own worst enemy, not to be confused with the original antagonist of the story. His whole character arc was one of unending cycles of abuse that he never seemed to get out of (though of course he tried).

All of this is bad enough, and there are plenty of bad things we hear about the guy without needing to "explain" to ourselves or the audience that he has a good side, because we already know this. The issue here is that the good side is not really ever shown. The characters and the story continually avoid showing us what it is that could make all of this good, or what it is that would make Sasuke's actions not horrible and unforgivable. The whole "story" with Sasuke keeps sidestepping the issue. (You could make an argument that the story is about making this clear, but it seems like a lot of the time the story is either ignoring it or simply not going there.)

What's really striking is that in the end, it doesn't even seem clear what's really going on with Sasuke that makes his actions understandable or even excusable. It's always the same: "my enemies are awful and terrible, but I'm different. I know they're awful and terrible but I'm so much better than them. I have to take them on and beat them up because I'm the greatest hero the world has ever seen." But, well, he never seems to get out of that dynamic? (The narrative never tries to convince us he's actually good, it's just there to give us the excuse that he has a good side)

It's like a story that's been written by a twelve year old whose main characters are, I dunno, SpongeBob and Patrick from the cartoon. The story has no good reason to be about Spongebob or Patrick, it's just a story about SpongeBob and Patrick. It never says why they're doing this or what makes them like that. Spongebob and Patrick do not have much to say, and the main conflict is one of the other characters deciding they're going to make sure Spongebob and Patrick don't do anything that'll harm their friendship. The rest of the time, the characters are having fun and things are going OK until Spongebob and Patrick make it not OK, and so the whole story is one of trying to explain how Spongebob and Patrick caused the tragedy.

In this sense, the Sasuke character is exactly like Spongebob or Patrick. (Except he's even more terrible. If I were the author of the original comic, I'd probably have to give Spongebob and Patrick a really sympathetic origin story, something where they're trapped in the same dynamic but are trying to break out.) The characters are given the excuse to act the way they do, with no real reason to be like that, and the story is one of them going back to trying to make the excuse work. The series is one of endless cycles of the characters and the story not really saying anything about how all of this actually makes sense.

But then, all of this could be said of Naruto. After all, there is nothing in the story that makes this clear to the audience. If there isn't, can the audience be trusted to know? We could never be sure. (We know it because we watched all 12 seasons.)

[catjest3r]

fullbody design/mini ref for @nectardew!! for the palette ref i drew little fabric swatches and buttons, which i think came out really cute! :3

[everybody-loves-purdy]

It's so strange to me how the Erins chose a pair of mates with the exact same set of grandparents for the second (or third?) time. Hawkwing & Pebbleshine being mates should've been their first lesson, yet now we have Bayshine & Thriftear as mates and parents to Moonpaw.

Every Warriors fan knows that where ThunderClan is concerned, inbreeding is practically unavoidable if a cat wants to take a mate from within their own Clan. The gene pool ThunderClan has to offer isn't diverse, and cats like Molewhisker, Mousewhisker, Cherryfall, and STORMCLOUD, who have outsider blood, don't have mates or kits. Even though there would've been a considerable age difference (which the Erins don't care about given Blossomfall and Thornclaw's relationship), none of them are related to Bayshine or Thriftear. I omitted Finleap & Twigbranch from this lineup since the pair are already mates. Wafflepaw gets omitted because he's too young.

Moonpaw being Fernstripe & Shellfur's kit would've been better since we haven't seen much interaction between the two mates. They're the only inter-Clan mates in ThunderClan other than Nightheart & Sunbeam. Also -- they're not related.

With that being said, I'm excited to see Bayshine as a father. I love that he's a warrior with an established personality and although he's a background character, he doesn't just fade into the background as many others have.

Also -- very excited to see Ivypool as a grandmother. My mind still hasn't processed that both Ivypool and Dovewing aren't the young she-cats they were in OoTS & AVoS. And with Moonpaw being Bayshine and Thriftear's daughter, Lionblaze & Cinderheart are now great-grandparents. Geez.

I think this is now our fifth pair of first cousin canon couple if my count is right?

HawkPebble

BayThrift

SnowLily

NectarDew

QuailReed

I may be missing some, this is weird honestly, why do they keep doing this?

Even though I wish genetically Moonpaw could have been someone else’s kit I am also excited to see Bayshine as a dad and Ivypool and a grandma.

And wow I didn’t realise that about Lionblaze and Cinderheart, that feels crazy.

[stick-by-me]

Truer words were never spoken

(From this shop here!)

New follower sticker for: @nectardew!

[sarahmcsquish]

I got to draw this adorable sleepy sheepy for @nectardew!

[rootedincuteness]

@nectardew, about this post.

Loki: “Because I am a professional stinker! It’s kindof expected of demons.”

Loki: “I’m so evil, I could probably light this log on fire right now with just the power of my mind!”

Loki: “Muahahaha! No one can deny my-” *bright light shines on him* “Ahhhhh! The light! It burns!”

Pillomin: “Loki? What are you doing?”

Loki: “What are you doing?! Why’d you open the door like that?!”

Pillomin: “To let some light in. It was much too dark in here.”

Loki: “But I’m an evil demon! I seek the darkness!”

Pillomin: “Um... what?”

Loki: “Yeah, you heard me!”

Pillomin: “No you’re not. You’re a good and reliable friend.”

Loki: “Nonsense! I’m pure evil! Now go and fetch me some coffee. I’ll take it as black as my soul.”

Pillomin: “Okay, sure. One vanilla chai latte with extra cream, coming right up.”

Loki: *sighs* “Dammit.”

[plushie-diagnosis]

She is wearing a mask just in case she's contagious!!!!!

315

Name: silly guy !!

Skill: violently ill!! It's terminal!!!

Quote: "idk when I'll die!! Maybe I'll be here for centuries til I eventually die! Idk! But life sure sucks !!"

[softandsleepyboy]

Hey Duggee moodboard? :O - snugglingteddybears

I'd never seen Duggee before making this but it seems really cute!! I hope you like this!

[heartnosekid]

Hi! Can I get a Coraline stim board please with no food? Thank you!!! 💙💜🖤

here you go! coraline is one of my favorite books of all time!

[baby-pigtails]

🌱

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆  ( ˘ ³˘)♥

[onenicebugperday]

I've seen you make posts about why mosquitoes and ticks can be cool, even if a bit err annoying or destructive (mosquitoes carrying diseases) What about home invading roaches? I've been into bugs for at least a decade now but for the life of me, cannot get over my fear of those guys. I know ideally, it's unhealthy to have them in homes or establishments because of health concerns, but I feel bad just abjectly hating them. Any cool things about them? Thanks ❤️

German cockroaches I think are the ones that most commonly infest homes. Unlike other species, even others that can infest homes, they are found almost entirely in association with humans, in places like houses and restaurants and warehouses and not really in the wild unless they happen to wander out from inside.

So because of that, it's more difficult to talk about any positive effects on ecosystems they might have. I guess in terms of looking at them in a positive light, they are incredible survivors and adapters! They have very efficiently filled the niche of household scavenger. They don't really have predators indoors, although certainly if they happen to get outside things like birds and rats and frogs/toads will eat them. But they breed prolifically, are great at hiding in literally any available tiny space, and have evolved resistance to pesticides, so they are very hard to get rid of! We can definitely admire them for being so great at making more cockroaches, which is their goal! :)

Also...they are very cute.

Photo by Alfredo Eloisa

[dinnertime]

I may never have the concentration for these, but WOW

vanilla bean and honey doughnuts two ways

[jayfrost-designs]

We're in the home stretch now! Up next are the adorably-named NectarDew kits. Up first is Beetlepaw!

Beetlepaw has no physical description given other than his pattern, so I came up with my own for him. I gave him sort of medium-length fur and an average build, in between the two extremes of his parents. I'll figure his build out more once he becomes an adult. I used this image as a reference.

For his pattern, Beetlepaw is described as a gray tabby tom. I love how the kits are basically tabby (and white in Bee's case) versions of their parents color-wise, so I leaned into that by giving Beetle very similar colors and markings (besides the stripes) to his dad. He has no canon eye color, so I gave him his dad's amber eyes.

Overall, I'm super happy with how he turned out.

[bannerbakery]

Coraline themed outfit for @nectardew 🧵

Sfw interactions only please

[strrawberrryjam]

anytime i find a blog i rlly like i like to ask, what are ur top 3 fave ppl on here?

That's such a good Idea! At the top of my head; minerals, poppypie and nectardew