#so some variety there is nice

[pajamadragon]

DOLLAR TREE HAS DONE IT AGAIN

For those who might not follow action figure news, Greenbrier International started a Dollar Tree exclusive action figure that made quite a few waves by being legitimately good toys (and accessories) for $1.25 plus tax. The plastic was good, the painting was passable, the story was delightfully cheesy, and it now has a small community of fans.

Evidently, this success is one they're wanting to duplicate for the young girl demographic.

Introducing, the Friends Forever Club

With the cutest, most Babysitter's Club-esque backstory I've seen in a doll line, these are honestly quite impressive for what they are. They're a group of girls who met and became friends at Science Camp.

Carina is into astronomy and wants to grow up to be an astronaut.

Alanis loves tech and video games, and wants to be a computer engineer! (and influencer but we don't need to talk about that)

Viera loves rocks and gemstones and wants to be a minerologist and geologist! Twofer, this gal.

And Iha loves the ocean and wants to be a Marine Biologist!

All the dolls have fairly simple joints, the head, arms, and legs all swivel (no ball joints). The clothing they come with is a soft plastic that actually tabs together quite nicely (I've seen $20 dolls with worse plastic connections.) There are fabric fashion packs that are slightly better than the regular doll clothes, but they still aren't that great.

Are they jawdropping, stunning quality? No. But these are as good or better than some $10 dollar dolls I've seen, have slightly different face molds, and I'm glad to see a line of (good) dolls priced affordably enough for any budget. I hope this line sticks around, because I think these could make a few little girls (and everyone who isn't) quite happy.

[clamoridoll]

personally i didn't mind the original "childish" g3 outfits; it made them look more like 15 year olds, y'know?

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Kingdom of Corona

[doginprogress]

I think one of the best things the Ibizan Hound Club of the United States has ever done is the illustrated standard

It uses real pictures of real dogs and shows variations of conformation and style within the breed that can all be correct. It also has real examples of what isn’t desirable.

It also expands upon and goes more in depth into the official AKC standard and how it is generally agreed to be interpreted in the breed

Ibizans have some really unique conformational features and the illustrated standard was so instrumental to my own learning and is such a wonderful resource to share with others trying to learn. Honestly every breed should have an illustrated standard imo

Some personal favorite sections

[goldensunset]

ayyyyy it's the art year in review post with my best work from each month

[cerise-on-top]

Heyhey..h um could you write some fluff/comfort with reader x 2bhank? Pretty pls? Like where the reader has been depressed(?)/burnt out for a few months and has been going on less and less missions and one day just refuses to leave their room for one self deprecating reason or another so 2b and hank try making them feel better in their own ways

Very self indulgent request I know but sometimes you gotta give yourself a little treat <:]

Hey! Sorry, I sort of misread this and thought you wanted 2BHank helping a burnt out reader, so I wrote that instead ^^; Again, I'm really sorry about that!

2BHank with a Burnt-Out!S/O

For as dense as Hank could be most of the time, even he can tell that you haven’t been doing too well as of late. At first he’d think you were just sick and needed some time to rest, which meant he would take on the missions you would have gone on otherwise. He was a competent grunt in his field, he could accomplish just about any task given to him. 2B, while he could sense that something was up with you, would let Hank do just that so you could recover a bit. He didn’t think you were just sick, he somehow could feel that it was something worse, something that wouldn’t go away by just letting you rest for a few days, but he left it at that. After all, you did go on missions again, some with Hank, Sanford or Deimos, some on your own. However, at some point, you just hid away from everyone, shying away from the dim light of the sun as well. Hank wanted to see you, he really did, but you wouldn’t open your door. Why? Were you doing alright? It was obvious you had been “sick” again as of late, but even he stopped buying it at some point. While he wouldn’t be too concerned about your physical wellbeing, you could handle yourself in a fight, he’d kick the door in anyway to see if you were there in the first place.

Lo and behold, you were in your room after all, lying under the blanket, not moving, merely sighing as you heard the door fall. Polite as he could be, Hank picked up the door and leaned it against the wall before walking up to you and sitting down on your bed. He’s not usually one for too much talk, but he would ask you what’s wrong, why you didn’t open the door and why you’ve been “sick” so often as of late. He won’t judge you, but he just wants to know the reasons. When you tell him you’ve simply been burnt out on it all, he wouldn’t know what you mean. Hank genuinely doesn’t know what burnout is, so you’d have to explain it to him. But even then, I don’t think he’d really understand the gravity of the situation. You’re tired? Then take some time off. He tries, but it’s not that simple.

The open door would catch 2B’s attention and he’d enter to check up on you, involving himself in the conversation as well. He, too, would ask you how you’ve been feeling and what has been the matter. When you tell him you’re pretty sure you’re burnt out, he’ll sit down on the bed and ask you how he could help. He may not be an expert by any means, but at the very least he knows that this will likely be something that will last a long time. Although he may not be too happy about that, he won’t push you to be better immediately. Will also explain the situation to Hank, whose gears have started turning. If you know how they can help you, that’s great. There’s no one solution that fits all. A few people at S.Q. have been burnt out from all the missions they had to go on, so you’re definitely not the first.

2B will let you rest for the time being. If you ever feel up to it, then he’ll send you on a small mission that doesn’t involve too much danger, such as picking something up from a vendor. However, he won’t have you fight for your life while you’re burnt out, those tasks will be left to Hank and the others. 2B will also be checking up with you more often. He’s not the best with his words when it comes to more emotional things, but he tries. Will comfort you to the best of his ability and won’t stress you out about all those things. You need rest, that much is obvious, so he’ll let you have just that. S.Q. will continue to perform. If anyone ever talks badly about you, then they’ll be sent to him and will have a stern talking to. No one will talk shit about you as long as he has something to say about it. Overall, he’ll be very compassionate about it all. If you need something from him, he’ll give it to you, just give him the word.

When it comes to slowly reintroducing you to small things, it will actually be Hank who does that. He just really wants to spend time with you and 2B, but you’ve been so distant as of late. But he remembers 2B’s words and won’t force you to do anything, but will ask you if you’re up for something small. This might start out with something along the lines of playing cards or board games with him. If you say yes he’s actually over the moon and his metaphorical tail will start wagging. Slowly, he’ll bring you more and more things to do. New things for you to try, and old things you used to enjoy before you got burnt out. Naturally, there’s no pressure from his side, he just really wants to have an excuse to spend time with you. And if you simply do something along the lines of knitting while he’s sitting on the floor, just watching you, then he’s content.

Overall, neither of them will blame you for what happened. In fact, they’ll try to help you to get better again. If you ever just want the two of them to stay with you, then you can ask them to. Of course, if they’re going on a mission, then they won’t have too much time to cuddle with you. However, you’re more than welcome to call on either, or both, of them to just get something off your chest as well, they’re more than happy to listen. 2B and Hank just wanna see you smile again. If it takes a lot of time, then so be it, but they both just hope things will go back to how they used to be. They’ll both do just about anything for you, so don’t be afraid to ask them for anything at all, you’ll likely get it eventually.

[francixoxoxo]

I love Billy but I’m really happy branching out and writing for other big beefy hot men and I feel healed by this

[omppupiiras]

OOOH BOY with the arrival of the order i did on jere's bday, i now own enough merch that i could wear a different Käärijä shirt every day of the week 😬

[rimouskis]

obligatory sentence before the read more because tumblr refuses to register a read more on mobile without a sentence before it

something I really really really really want is to meet someone who shares my music taste. if not in its entirety, than at least in its majority. I feel like I know a lot of people to whom music is enjoyable, but not a lot of people to whom music is like... a life-sustaining thing. for example, my local bestie thinks music is alright, but she's more of a podcast person and really only listens to music that's popular now. WHICH IS FINE! like I love pop music, I do not begrudge her for being into what's current!!!! she invited me to see both hozier and noah kahan, neither of whose discography I'm overly familiar with, but I love a good concert and knew they'd deliver! of course then she got pregnant and no longer wanted to go, so rip those concert plans, maybe that would have turned me into the biggest noah kahan fan of all time lol.

anyways she is only an occasional music listener, whereas I listen to music every day, I derive enormous amounts of serotonin from music, I really really really love music and I really love MY music more than most things. I feel like if I found someone who liked all the same music I liked, I'd fall in love with them on the spot ahahaha.

like I don't know a single person who I'd take to every concert I go to. I might consider my youngest sister, as she probably can hang with the heavier rock I listen to (and my middle sister really enjoyed the rock concert we went to in the spring together). but it's like... I dunno. Music is so important to me. It's everything to me. And I feel like there would be a certain ecstacy to connect to someone and realize they get the same music I get.

[mo-ok]

Daidenjin 🤖 RoboTalk Time 🤖

things that are great about Daidenjin:

its long legs always made it feel exceptionally tall and lanky, like a teenager that hasnt filled out yet

light up multicolour discoball eyes

BIG. POINTY. HELMET.

BIG. FLAIL. WEAPON.

Denzi Fighter is a very pleasently shaped spaceship and i am particularly fond of how it folds out into Daidenjin

this bastard was always cutting monsters in half and it was hype every single time

THE most cramped cockpit you have ever seen (this team is literally always on top of each other. no personal space allowed)

like this cockpit is so cramped they can hardly do their poses properly. they all keep smacking each other in the head. this show is brilliant

to get into the cockpit the team piles into an elevator and its fucking hilarious

[giantkillerjack]

Uh-oh! You are like, SOOO awkward!!

You're so awkward that it is occasionally mildly uncomfortable for people!

You're so awkward that sometimes people are confused by you and then there are awkward silences!

You're so awkward ...... that ultimately no one is harmed!!

Oh damn!!! What a vile crime you have committed! What an unforgivable thing it is to make a fellow human briefly confused!

Why, if *I* were ever briefly confused and kind of uncomfortable as a result, I'd be devastated.... by the absolute net zero change in my happiness and health! - From which I might never recover!! Yes indeed! No punishment can ever be enough for you!!

So you better absolutely hate yourself for it.

Better be SO MEAN to yourself about every single missed social cue so you don't forget your horrible crime! Meaner than you'd ever dream of being to someone else for the same thing! This is YOUR responsibility!

You need to show the world that you KNOW you are bad by punishing yourself constantly! After all, think of all the people who BENEFIT from you punishing yourself! - No, really! Think about it! Think about who benefits from your pain.

Think of alllllll the definitely-good people that your definitely-necessary self-torment definitely helps! I mean, you can't just cut off their definitely-life-sustaining supply of your suffering, right?? Sure, everyone else has a breaking point, but you're probably the only person in human history who doesn't, right? Best not to question it probably. Sure, it's a symptom that billions of people with trauma have had, but who knows? You could be a one-in-seven-billion exception. Anything's possible!

Instead, better just accept that idea that bullies carry like guns in holsters - the idea that people who have trouble with social cues deserve to suffer. Better carry on the burden they placed on you until you drop. Aid the cause of the callous by enforcing shame and suffering upon yourself extra hard; try your best to do their work for them. They're very busy.

Better not recognize that you need patience and kindness to heal from your trauma. Better not find out that it was trauma rather than personal weakness filling your head with self-hating thoughts. Better not find out it wasn't your fault.

Better not find out that awkwardness is not inherently harmful or unkind, and, in fact, the people who act like it is *are the ones enacting harm and being cruel.*

Better not get righteously angry when you realize just how much unnecessary damage this has done to you. After all, if you get mad, you might realize you deserve better. You might even feel brave enough to DEMAND better! You might build boundaries that keep you safe! You might make other people think they deserve to feel safe too! And we obviously can't be having that, so...

Better not show yourself even a little kindness a little bit at a time.

Better not make a habit out of it after all that practice.

Better not get confident.

Especially if you can't first wipe out every trace of awkward. (And you probably never will. Because people who experience absolute social certainty at all times tend to be insufferable assholes that enforce the status quo. And you just don't have the stock portfolio for that.)

Better not be confident and awkward because then you might confuse and delight people

- you might accidentally end up making other people feel less shame for their social difficulties

- you might make isolated, traumatized, and shy people feel like they deserve to be included in social situations

- you might even make them feel they can be themselves around you

- you might start loving the effect you have on a room

- you might enjoy conversations more

- you might forgive yourself and bounce back from shame more easily and frequently

- you might come to enjoy some of those moments of harmless confusion you cause because NOBODY expects the Confident Awkward, and that can genuinely be an advantage in social situations

- you might stop apologizing so much.

- you might find that socializing is like a video game: it requires practice but also a safe space for it to be fun and positive.

Or if you can't become assertive and confident, better not remain awkward and shy and quiet, and then love and forgive yourself anyway!

Why, it would be carnage!!

In either scenario, you run the risk of finding out that it's not your fault that safe spaces full of kind people can be really hard to find, create, and nurture. You could end up building a skillset that helps you do those things if you're not careful!

If you start giving yourself even the tiniest amount of grace at a time, you will find that you've accessed a gateway drug with extreme long-term side effects:

- You might realize that it was never your fault that it took so long to like yourself.

- You might realize that you were always worth talking to, even when you didn't like yourself and communication felt impossibly difficult.

- You might realize that you'll still be worth talking to even if communication becomes harder as you age and/or experience disability.

- You might come to know that you deserve to be heard even on bad days when words come slow and blurry.

You might discover that you were always deserving of kindness, first and foremost from yourself.

So. As you can see, it's FAR too much of a risk to start granting your awkward self free pardons for your many heinous and harmless crimes. Better to just leave it there.

[puppyeared]

i am playing professor layton and the curious village on my ds. very fun!!!

I don't know if i'm very far in because most of the time spent in that game was me being confused and bad at puzzles. it's fun though.

!!! im glad to hear youre enjoying it!! its one of my fav titles and honestly such an underrated series, id love it if more ppl gave it a try!

the puzzles can be difficult but very rewarding!! i used to dread them as a kid but now i find them nice and challenging. the math ones are still hard, but if u speak to Flick at the cafe he'll give you chess puzzles which i think were my favorite ^_^

[thedrotter]

re:kinder goofy (for the most part) doodle dump !!! last two are from. five months ago when i was barely starting to draw these characters but i found them amusing 😊 enjoy snacks

[spidergirl-fibula]

listening to any music lately?

Trans women yelling at me, mainly

[falmerbrook]

desperately need a TES podcast that doesnt treat lore like just a series of literal information that you can do nothing with. the best people typically do is analysis into religion, which then just devolves into comparing it to irl religion

I've never checked out any tes podcasts (admittedly because the like 2 I'm aware of seemed very eso focused, but that was just my assumption) but yeah that would be so cool! Most tes lore people (that I've seen on yt) tend to not touch on the whole unreliable/biased narrator/source thing that I think is the most interesting part of the lore. And I just love analyzing bias and perspective and trying to pry at the truth (which is why I did that post about the events of the Battle of Red Mountain awhile back, I find that so fun).

Also I think people tend to overlook character analysis (even if i will admit TES characters tend to be pretty shallow. but if you're willing to get imaginative and transformative with it can be so much fun) and treat characters as just more parts of the Lore™ rather than characters. Not that there's anything wrong with that approach. but I wish there was more of the alternative too

[candycryptids]

Hiya! I hope you're doing well today! I love your characters and how you've structered their bios! Since Chuusday is listed first, is she technically your official WOL or is it someone else? Do you canonically have a WOL in the first place?

Also, I find it SO sweet that you and one of your partners both play FFXIV and have characters paired together ;w; Did you meet ingame or long before either of you started playing? Either way I wish you both the best!!! <3 - gardenofballads 🌻

Awaaaah! Im doing pretty ok!!! Taking time to answer this as a wind down from Emerald Weapon Ex Brain Soupage. And I’m so glad! ;W; I think I butchered one of those “Get To Know An OC” thingies- uhh… oh [this one] actually! I chopped a lot out and I think added a couple different thingums instead because there was so much to that that it felt overwhelming to try to look at let alone fill out LOL but it was a really good jumping off point uvu;

And!!! Hilariously Chuu was my First XIV Character, so she’s dear to my heart for being the first one- but she very quickly made it known being the WOL even as an AU was something of a Joke (Her character showed great reluctance and even frustration at having to do So Much World Saving, maybe a side-effect of me rushing through MSQ to catch up with my other spouse [Who plays Talia, though they’ve got less time for XIV these days ;0;] and the rest of my friends who were all EndGame already at the time in Shadowbringers fhdjfjsjfs.) So I made…… many alts. Throwing spaghetti at the wall but I have SEVERE side-character/NPC brain and kept making “supporting cast” types =w=; it actually took me like. 3? Alts before making an ACTUAL WoL with my husband (Ishi’li and Kizuna) (as of Right Meow, they’re in post ARR, but we’ve been working on Keathan and Tuesday together because Keathan was… Keathan’s first character in xiv XD so we’ve been jaunting through the story together and experiencing every inch of it so we can pick and choose what The Boys™ get up to when we wanna focus on them x3)

🥰 I knew both speece during at least high school- but I actually knew Keathan as early as Elementary school hehe 😌 tho the speece didn’t proper marry until… i’unno, 2017? (For frustrating legal reasons, I’m not legally married, but. As it goes. Someday we’ll have money to visit the one state that has legal poly marriages. Also I struggle to remember our wedding year 🫢)

Since managing to make a Co-WoL with my husband I’ve managed to make one other Alt meant to be a Solo-WoL (Mochiie) but I have to really wrinkle my brain to sink time into playing him, since I’m trying to take screenshots throughout the story at what I find to be inspiring beats xD And even still he has an alt-universe where he’s just a side-character for the ‘Main Timeline’ (where there’s a bunch of spaghetti and like 8+ confirmed WoL’s and the Msq entourage looks HILARIOUS in canon, someday I’ll get all the data together and take pictures, but I think it’ll cook what’s left of my brain x’3) [it’s less concrete than anything I’ve posted about before or I’d try to explain it ;v;’ it’s just interesting mostly to see how the story gets stretched to fit around a larger community of heroes than a solo guy shouldering the whole burden lmfao.]

🌸🌸🌸…. I also hope you’re having a lovely week @gardenofballads !!!! I am tossing flower petals into the air around you !!! Thank you for the ask and well wishes n kind words 🥺💖 🌸🌸🌸