#the frogman rambles

[rainia]

tritons are amphibious so like actually more frog-coded when you think about it

[joi-in-the-tardis]

Update: this is a lot bigger than I thought it would be but small enough that I've trundled back to the car twice to stow my cryptid merch.

I need an adult.

[practicecourts]

*Rings door bell, the tune is a bit funny so I do it again…. and again …. and again, as I attempt to whistle to the tune, except I fail miserably since I don’t know how to whistle 😔 . I hear footsteps and suddenly the door opens*

PC- 🤨 “You rang?”

Me- 😨 ……

PC- ……

Me- …."Hi”…..

PC- “Uh, Hi?” *holding a bowl of candy*

Me- 🥺 “Trick or Treat…I-I Erm… I have a Snily allergy, do you have any Jily treats?”

PC- 🤨….

Me- 🥺

PC- 😃 “Oh, why yes!”

Me- 🥰

(I haven’t read the fic that you’ve finished since I’m trying to starting, “Silent Night”, btw I love the first chapter, will leave come later! 😎)

Hi @nena-96

this made me laugh!! thank you, for this!

since this trick or treat game is for a very Jily story (no snily anywhere just as the doctor prescribed;) I'll give you a little Jily moment from the last chapter. Also I guess to make up for Silent Night having exactly zero Jily content (i hope you enjoy it nevertheless, but it's about Hope Lupin and a very young Remus, not a jily treat)

Under cut bc of spoilers...

Petunia mumbling something cut off her rambling thoughts. “That hair, it’s simply all over the place.” She shook her head. “At least he’s on time.”

Lily wondered who could be considered on time by Petunia, when they clearly had already missed the wedding ceremony and the cutting of the cake.

“Hello, James,” said Petunia as she released Lily from the awkward embrace. 

Lily turned to the door. James was in the doorway, he looked like a character straight out of a movie or a book, his silhouette highlighted by the glow of the sunlight streaming into the room. The corner of her lips twitched at the thought of Frogman, so much cooler than Batman and a million times better than bloody prince Charming out there. 

He was smiling at them, even if she noted the smallest movement with his eyebrow, as if he asked her, wordlessly “Alright Lily?”. She wasn’t alright, not even close, but she could only nod, it was a hell of a lot better now he was here too. 

He wore a tuxedo, one that fit him well, Lily noticed, his black lapel shining a little in the light, an echo to his raven black hair, which looked like it always did, untameable and rather wild. Lily didn’t mind, honestly she wondered if Petunia really cared. Behind his dark framed glasses, sitting steady on a straight nose, she found his eyes and the lines of laughter that she longed to see. His lopsided smile reeled her in, like a fisherman hauling up his nets from the ocean, and she was already half way the room when his arms opened to pick her up and turn her a full circle. 

“You look absolutely stunning, Lily,” he said in a low voice only she could hear. His eyes darkened and for a moment Lily wondered if he had forgotten they weren’t alone.

[secret-sageent]

@frogman-inator2000@stained-glass-stare on an info-dump high thanks for letting me ramble at you guys; you win, and if you ever want to info-dump just imply that you want someone to ask and I will ask as soon as I see it🫡

[sirfrogsworth]

Hello, I'm reblogging from my personal blog, but it is still me.

The Frogman.

The only difference is I'm 18% more pretentious here.

I decided to make this a video so I could show and tell at the same time. I start with some feedback of your photos and then I did some basic edits on them to give you an idea of how that works. I'm afraid I ramble a bit so this ended up being 30 minutes long, but I'm hoping the information density is good and you can learn a lot from it.

I mentioned some software in the video...

Free RAW Editors Darktable RawTherapee

Paid RAW Editors Lightroom Capture One DXO Photo Lab

I forgot to mention DXO, but it is also very good and worth a trial if you need an Adobe alternative.

Lightroom does have a free trial. And I mentioned the Photography plan that includes Photoshop, but I can't seem to find the $10 version of that.

I know you need to select only 20 GB of cloud storage to get it. But I'm not finding it on their website. So they either hid that plan to make it hard to find or they don't offer it anymore.

But Lightroom alone is $10 per month. Just remember you are committing to a year of payments when signing up. You will be charged a fee for canceling earlier.

My god, it's so hard to recommend Adobe products these days. They are so far ahead of everyone and they are the best tools but the company is just so shite.

In any case, I hope this video is helpful. I think if anyone is interested in elevating their photos, these basic editing techniques will help. And you don't have to shoot RAW or even use a fancy camera. This works with any image.

Didn't need a tripod at last night's Buccos game. Just a well-placed wall to brace my camera and a gap in the trees. Shot with the D600 and a 28-70mm f/2.8 lens.

Tagging @thefrogman to grade my work. No post-processing done, just exported with NX Studio.

[sirfrogsworth]

If I were grading this I would give it about a 58%.

It's bad enough Republicans do not have a functional definition of what socialism entails. It's just... anything bad they don't like. A boogeyman to scare their brainwashed supporters. But when more liberal folks don't take the time to figure it out, I feel that sets us back further.

I mean, the government can set all kinds of rules in all 3 of these examples.

The socialism one is not terrible, as workers owning the means of production does give them the power to make sure their labor is valued. And the capitalist one also has some truth to it, but there are plenty of examples of capitalist countries with strong regulation and social policies in which bosses and billionaires do not have the same sway as they would in our more unfettered system here.

Communism is meant to be a specific form of socialism. So while it is not the "same" they do have a lot of overlap. Some believe communism is the sort of endgame of socialism. A society where labor is valued, there is community ownership, and the class system is abolished. Others believe a totalitarian government is required to achieve those things, so I guess that's where confusion comes in. But Soviet-style communism is really bad communism (state capitalism?) and probably shouldn't be used as the shining example of what communism can be. Or at least not the *only* example.

In the end, it's really hard to break these economic philosophies down into meme-sized chunks. And there is also the matter of there being dozens of different flavors of socialism and communism. Some are close to Marx's original vision—some are not.

It's like saying socialism is vanilla ice cream and communism is chocolate. First, they are both ice cream and share many ingredients. But also, they can be mixed. But also also, there are 29 other flavors and combinations at Baskin Robins. And what we seem to be doing is ignoring all of that complication and saying "Ice cream is a soft frozen food made with sweetened and flavored milk fat." Yes, that definition is accurate, but not very helpful at describing what ice cream tastes like, nor does it let people know all of the various flavors available.

Further confusing things, beyond just the USSR, there are various countries, political parties, and groups that claim to be socialist or communist but are also rather bad examples of the traditional definitions. They corrupt the original meaning and perform their own bastardized flavor. The Nazis famously called themselves socialists and the first chance they got, they went and killed all the actual socialists.

What most progressives in the US are shooting for currently is a social democracy. A hybrid system that still has capitalism, but regulates strongly and employs a strong social safety net system. Some have ambitions to use social democracy to transition away from capitalism completely. But that seems a long way off so it doesn't get discussed quite as much.

All of this confusion is why I tend to avoid the labels altogether. I prefer to advocate for specific ideas and policies. Medicare for All. The Green New Deal. Defund the Police. I really don't care if these are socialist plans or not. I care that they are the best way to help the most amount of people.

I think when you present these policies without the baggage of what philosophy they may best represent, a lot of folks are keener to support them.

I think this reddit post is a good example of what I mean...

I guess I am just tired of this need for everything to be specifically labeled and oversimplified. Not everything fits neatly into a box.

If we use effective communication, we can explain these complicated concepts to enough people to get them on board and into the voting booth. I think all of the grassroots community organizing for progressive candidates has proven this.

[ejzah]

I would very much like to have a serious Densi conversation that doesn’t start with Kensi shutting Deeks out, Deeks keeping things to himself to protect her/ not rock the boat, or either of them walking on eggshells around each other. I think they’ve come so far as a couple and made deliberate efforts to communicate, that it seems like backtracking for them to constantly be misunderstanding the other.

I don’t know if I’m accurately conveying what I want to say, but it just feels like the writers are having Kensi and Deeks fall back into a certain lack of honesty in their relationship.

Of course, then there are beautiful moments of conversation that don’t align with the previous ones at all.

[tenshimelt]

Adding to this because I had a recent revelation courtesy of charcuterieaznable/champion frogman on AO3/Twitter. Read their "Kamille is trans" fic and enjoyed it. Don't know if they're on Tumblr.

Never thought about how trans Kamille getting called "big brother" would probably be affirming... in retrospect it's a gimme.

Considering I'm a trans girl myself, and aspire to be treated as someone's little sister (one of the reasons I am very normal about Rosamia) it's especially facepalm worthy. I guess I never thought about being someone's little sister in a "this is gender" way. It comes with having trouble with self-awareness I guess.

Ah, there I go rambling.

Anyway, yeah, it probably would be like that I guess.

"Nobody's ever called me 'big brother' before... *sniff*"

"I always called you that!"

"...yeah, you did, didn't you?"

heartwarming

the thought of "KamiRosa T4T" hit me like a bolt from heaven

they actually did know each other as kids! just the genders were the other way round

that spark of realisation as kamille remembers he DID have a friend with hair like that all the way back... their heartwarming reunion in their changed selves

and the horrible moment kamille discovers what happened to his old friend after they lost contact...

wait i forgot to flesh out the shipping part. uhhh t4t smooch your surrogate little sister, peace out

[chrisodonline]

It’s still so hard to tell if the inconsistent messaging on last night’s episode with police — and yes, that includes federal law enforcement — was just a product of JLJ’s inconsistent storytelling or if it was a product of her being required to put something about this in but finding ways to keep hitting back at it like a teen acting out when told what to do. Callen’s saying, “Not us” and “Again, not us” and noting they’re “NCIS” felt like her trying to do, for lack of a better word, a cop out.

[joi-in-the-tardis]

That was a lot of fun! I think if I had an emotional support human, I would stay the whole day, but as it stands I'm getting overstimulated. So off home I trot. I hope to do an old fashion art loot post this week (as some of you might remember from the cons I've been to) but it might have to wait until after the move.

[uh-e-rinnie]

I like that you made Patton a frogman in your au! I feel like we don't see enough of frogman Patton. Can we know some more about the Froggo?

Aaaah thanks for the ask! I really want to talk about my au cause its my own little happy box of ideas in my brain warehouse.

A lil long ramble below <3

As the au is still in development, anything I say can be subject to change later on! Patton is our happy frog fella from Nymphaea, a territory that is mostly swamp-forest like. Nymphaea consists mostly of amphibian and reptile folk, and sometimes you can catch some fish/merfolk.

The beastfolk of Nymphaea are a bunch of clans living in harmony, with Patton's mother being the current chief for the frogfolk. But as for the present, she's out of Nymphaea on some confidential stuff, so Patton, as her eldest son, is acting in chief. Though, he thinks he is inadequate for the role.

Nymphaea has direct connections to Creare, Creare protects Nymphaea in exchange for loyalty and exchange of resources. With Patton's status and Roman being the prince, they've known each other since they were kids.

The people of Nymphaea are quite known for their hunting skills, so it was only natural for Patton to learn to pick up a bow and hunt with the rest of his peers. But he isn't quite fond of the hurting creatures part, so instead, he learned to immobilize creatures and tame them, or at least scare them away instead of killing them.

As a frogman from Nymphaea, you can imagine that Patton is quite good with his legs. He's an excellent swimmer and can jump really high, he also climbs much faster than others.

Patton also has connections with other beastfolk clans out of Creare and Nymphaea. Because of this, Patton was easily able to point out that Virgil was not of birdfolk, because he's "Never seen wings like those before."

He had received his blessing (reward) when he was very young and still training, after he had shot down someone who was attacking him, and then instead of running, resorted to immobilizing them for just enough time so he can bandage the wound. His reasoning was that "They were a kid just like me.", but he does not think this was what he was rewarded for.

Patton's blessing consists of two major parts (1) The ability to heal, although this is in exchange of his own energy and has limits; and (2) The ability to form connections with beasts he had tamed, and summon semi-transparent clones of them, made out of his blessing's essence.

This is all I've got for now, hoppy (hah) reading!

[sirfrogsworth]

Terms of Service

So I guess Europe created some new internet law. I haven’t researched what it is yet. But it has caused every service I’ve ever signed up for to send me an email for their new terms of service. I’ve gotten nearly a hundred emails from things I didn’t remember joining. I guess at some point I really needed to use Pastebin. A fine service, but not exactly something I have an ongoing use for.

I was also reminded of a very old Plenty of Fish account. I was very honest about my situation and income in my profile. Which led to a description of an ideal first date at Jack in the Box. I mean, 2 tacos for 99 cents is hard to beat.

I gave up on POF though. I got a bunch of messages that told me I had written the funniest, most original profile they had ever seen, but they didn’t date fat dudes. Which is fine. Attraction is an important aspect of a potential suitor. But I’m not sure that was a necessary detail to share. “You’re not my type” probably would have sufficed.

I have forgotten more services than I remember signing up for. I am excited to see others I have ignored. Perhaps Friendster will be sending me an email soon. Am I still signed up for MySpace? Who knows!!?? Does AOL still know I exist? Also, how is AOL still existing? I was almost positive they blew all their capital on free trial CD-ROMs.

Frogman’s Updated Terms of Service

If thou art following this here microblog, thou musteth be aware and agree to the following rules.

(I don’t know legalese so I’m going with poorly done Shakespearean to make it sound fancy. Klingon is available upon request.)

Thou must be cool with rambling walls of text.

Thou must be cool with a wide variety of topics. From light-hearted to deadly serious. I will attempt to tag difficult topics, but I cannot guarantee a perfect success rate. My memory is faulty and I cannot predict everything that may be sensitive subject matter.

Thou must be civil or thou gets blocketh'd. Disagreement is fine. Rampant assholery about said disagreement is less fine. I respect a well thought out argument and will give it serious consideration if the logic is sound. Spirited words are encouraged. Being a big meanie is not.

Thou must say they love corgis, even if thou preferest other breeds. I have been accused of living in many bubbles. The only actual bubble I maintain is “corgis are the best creatures on this earth." I ask thou not to poppeth that bubble.

If thine humble author makes an error, feel free to point out that error. All I ask is that before jumping straight to anger, give me a chance to consider your argument, correct any mistake made, apologize if necessary, and attempt to do better in the future. I am imperfect, but always willing to changeth my behavior in the quest to be better.

Anonymous messaging is for those who may be anxious, shy, or have trouble being social. Also to those who need advice, but disclosing their identity may exacerbate their issue. If thou needest that anonymous armor to communicate, I will happily alloweth that option.

Thou may also message me as thyself and request a private response. I will always respect that request no matter what thou mayest say.

Anonymous messaging is not for hate, trolling, or criticism without consequence. If you want to criticize my actions but cannot “say it to my face” I will take your words much less seriously. I will assume you are more interested in making me feel bad than you are about any supposed mistake I hath made.

If you abuse anonymous messaging more than thrice, thy will be blocketh'd.

All forms of hateful bigotry be unwelcome here. (Did I switch to pirate speak?) Including but not limited to... racism, ableism, sexism, misogyny, fat shaming, unwavering support of Donald J Trump, homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, xenophobia, and Islamaphobia.

Arachnophobia is acceptable because spiders want to be feared. Being creepy is an evolutionary defense mechanism that will get them stuck inside an upside down cup with a magazine covering the bottom and then freed into the wilderness (aka thine backyard).

Lastly, thou wilst ignoreth the inconsistency of my Shakespearean verbiage in thisseth Terms of Service.

Continued followership assumes you conditionally agree to these terms.