#the point is progress not perfection

[curiosity-killed]

a while back I had lunch with a couple of coworkers, one of whom asked me why I like public transit and public libraries—in a genuinely, sincerely interested fashion. it was not the first time I've been asked—or had people express bemusement about this—and so, despite being caught totally off-guard the first time, I did actually have an answer this time, which was I try to support things I want to see in the world.

and i felt (and feel) like this is extremely obvious. if we all assume that someone else is going to make sure the things we care about exist and exist well, so that we don't have to do anything—chances are good they're not going to get the support they need and they, in fact, won't exist or improve. So, the counter to that is to take the steps you can to provide that support. (duh)

but I feel like there is this mindset (that is heavily class [and likely race and gender] influenced) of like....someone else will take care of it. And it's about public transit or libraries and independent bookstores and it's about voting and advocacy and community. All these important things that require maintenance and perpetual engagement—the same way that you can't just wash your dishes once in your life and never have to do them again (unless you switch to disposal dishes, but then you still have to take out the trash).

I get that there are a lot of reasons why people feel disenfranchised and fatigued but...at the end of the day, life is composed of an endless series of actions that influence what options are available to you in the future. whether it's voting or going to the library instead of amazon or taking the bus instead of an uber....like. yeah you're gonna have to keep doing it if you want to have an impact. there's no silver bullet that's going to magically land us in utopia with only perfect choices, so you're just going to have to keep choosing the best option you've got to get you that next step closer.

if there isn't a bus that takes you from doorstep to doorstep, you still take the bus that gets you closest. if the dishes are dirty, you wash them. if you want the benefits of society, you show up.

[blackkatdraws2]

I have a lot of leftover drawings in my gallery. [Blank Scripts AU]

[Content Warning: Images below contain Gore, Death, and Disturbing/Uncomfortable Imagery]

I find it a bit cute knowing they start out as crazy and then slowly settle into something calmer and relatively healthier after learning to adapt to each other's lust-turned-love. [Stanley did it first but hey :3]

[runawaymun]

I'm just going to say it. the attitude I'm seeing in the Silmarillion fandom from those who have never watched the ROP show, but are enjoying gifsets of the Annatar/Brimb scenes and expressing that it has them interested in those portrayals, while continuing to loudly assert that the Celebrimbor casting is atrocious because he's 'old and blond' fucking disgusts me.

[torchickentacos]

One of my charcoal sketches wasn't quite good enough to use for my art course, but I really liked it despite its issues so I took a picture of it and finished it digitally :) Warmer weather and snake season is approaching us! Great news for me personally.

Sketch under cut, 18x24 light green Strathmore pastel paper and willow charcoal

[citrus-art-and-life]

theres an extremely bopping jazz dance animation going around (if you havent seen it then i would be surprised) and its getting me really in the mood to do some dance animations... i dont think ive touched animation for like. 3 years now. but the HUNGER.... i technically have dozens of ideas for tfs dancing to my favorite songs - most of them megop, obviously, but some driftrod and some jazzprowl... for obvious reasons im kind of thinking about a jazzprowl dance - less jazz dancing and more prowl dancing FOR jazz (again with the prowl-chasing-jazz thing that im obsessing over rn)...... but we'll see askldjaslkdj

[audreyrose7]

It's the fake it till you make it mentality, I keep thinking what I look like to other people is what I felt all the time to myself.

The whole point of life is that nobody knows exactly how it's going to go, no matter how perfect of a plan you might think you have, life just kind of does what it wants. I so badly wish I knew..... Just more

Owch.

Being seen is so hard, it's so hard to let people in, so many times I've been forgotten about, I think I want people to care about me too much, it's so hard to find any kind of genuine lasting connection in this world

I know exactly when things are going to get better. One of the benefits of knowing that I'm going no contact and knowing exactly when that is

I never want to settle for the bare minimum, but at the same time it's what I expect. The smallest act of kindness from someone usually makes me cry

I'm not okay. But I'm okay with the fact that I'm not okay. And that's got to count for something

[kitkatsgalore]

now playing... ☆ track 03. pathetic love ☆ track 04. outsider ☆ track 05. why you hate... ☆ track 06. bleu

mini 와장창 track "visualizers," inspired by the ones yechan drew for the blue album! 🎶

part of #LUCYWEEK2025 | day 2 | prompt: all kinds of blue

[queeraak]

this really was our the hundred line: last defense academy (actual thoughts in tags with implied but minimal spoilers)

[asterdeer]

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

!!!! def the mars house by natasha pulley! it did meet my expectations and in a lot of ways vaulted over them, because the pre-release reviews were...... rough. thankfully i found a lot of the reasons for the bad reviews (not all of the reasons, but a lot of them) to be nonissues for me. i really liked that way pulley played with gender, the pluses and minuses of living in a non-gendered world. the mammoths thing was kind of silly but in a cute way. and gale really is the most compelling love interest of the year to me. gale themarshouse call me if it doesn't work out with january.

[reikunrei]

"we'll fix it together. okay?" and then the only time we see el fixing the diorama, she's doing it by herself while will sits at the kitchen table nudging at his breakfast

[zestyzigzagoon]

Hello! A new oneshot is here :) https://archiveofourown.org ❄️🌅

sliiiiight spoiler under cut:

Me writing the last little bit of this fic: wow, I'm really letting May be the one to get in her feels about her crush this time. I'm giving Drew a break for once, aren't I? Good for him, he deserves it.

The break in question: getting a snowball accidentally pelted at his face like it's an MLB tournament and then experiencing clinically significant blood loss in the snow (but at least he doesn't have [overt] depression this time)

[bywandandsword]

I'm also eagerly awaiting the day that we don't start off the semester with a publication by Boas or Malinowski. Sure, read their stuff in a theory class, get a basis for how anthropology theory developed, but in every other class? For fucks sake, there has certainly been better introductory writings on these topics since 1926, you know?

[compacflt]

I've just started watching The Queen's Gambit and it got me wondering: does Iceman play chess? Cause I can totally see it happening

yeah

this section of my wips got preemptively deleted for being boring and “who cares” and not well written

but yes

[torao-chan]

i am allowed to have my hobbies uwu

and if my hobbies happen to include frankensteining a 2700+ line profile code for a toyhouse character page that no one will ever see aside from the occasional person i commission... that's allowed too uwu

[valmnera]

One of the worst things they did to Richter was giving him a generic backstory where a woman is fridged. There has been many animes where the main character's mother dies. They literally created an oc for the sole purpose of killing her off.

What's worse is that Richter's arc in the games doesn't involve fridging! But sure, what a progressive show.

[just-hyde]

On progress, styles and magic

Every damn time I draw lineart, I think it's finished.

Finished, just ugly af.

But noooooooo....

Approximately at 4am a couple of days later ma arse dramatically lits up a cigarette and whips out a metaphorical bottle of Vanish outta thin air.

Like, "Aight, lemme look at this nonsense."

And there we go again. Biting the bullet.

"His nose is too flat. Let's add some blush and use shadows to show the form. Yep, just like animators do, no need in thick lineart strokes here. Nahuuh... Sharper. And a cute cheek coz he looked older last time. Mm-hmm... The colour is kinda dull, no? A better reference would be nice... Let's add some pink here. I know it's monochrome! Just for fun, like a reflection of something. Humans have blood, duh. And chins. And-a... Focus on the eyes for a moment."

Sometimes it even takes 1 mug of coffee and a good music playlist to push forward:

....and a couple of extra hours. Yep, I had to add a new canvas 'cause that one was already laggy.

...and a complete change of brushes/style mid-drawing.

No matter how hard I tried to opt for a sharper comic-book look I have on paper, some hatching, "The style chooses the artist, Mr. Potter."

Oh f#ck...

I had to redo it from scratch and it's still not good enough.

Hits hard, aye? Still, it's progress.

At least this is worth it.

Or so I hope.

#immadramaqueen