Here's my submission for #JanuArty day 3 prompt #tree

I've always loved 2D design. Takes me back to the days when I'd doodle during school and fill my notebooks with pages of random geometric and organic designs when I was bored. People now call this Zentangle. I'm also a fan of Medieval and Early Renaissance illuminated manuscripts. I decided to blend the two together and this is what I came up with. The supplies I used were Boku-Undo e-sumi Shadow Inks, watercolors, Sakura Micron pens, a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen and Amazon Basics watercolor paper. Paper towels and plastic wrap were used to help create texture.

I mean this with the utmost respect; but I truly believe that Mob Psycho 100 could only have been written by someone that “can’t draw” but truly loves to draw.

And as someone who is the opposite of that I truly appreciate it.

It’s about doing the things you love to do even if you aren’t good at them and not doing the things you’re great at “gifted” even simply because they don’t make you happy or fufill you.

Reigen really looked Mob, the quintessential gifted child, in the face and told him “you don’t have to do something just because you’re good at it, your powers aren’t who you are” and the body improvement club tells him “why give up just because your bad at it? You’re having fun aren’t you?”

Mob Psycho looked the world in the eyes and said you are more than your talents. Being something isn’t who you are it’s a choice you make and you’re allowed to make a different one everyday.

The Northern Wind - Katarina Reuter , 2023.

Finnish , b. 1964 -

Oil on canvas , 120 x 80 cm.

Hey people who have several pets, with obvious differences in intelligence levels: How did you figure out that one of them is smarter than the other? What do they do?

There are a lot of things that lead me to think my elder cat is unusually intelligent compared to other felis domesticus I have known (understands pointing, can open every door and cabinet in the house except the ones with round knobs or that I added child locks to, understands enough English to know from a phone conversation that a stranger is coming to the house) but in terms of specifically comparing one to the other, there was The Case Of The Mousey Puzzle Box.

When we got our younger cat Skadi, her favorite toy was (still is, but she's calmed down with age) the rattley mouse. She would bring the mouse to be thrown for fetch so many times that not even two human adults in the house could keep up with her. So my partner started making puzzle boxes to put the rattley mouse in that would occupy her for longer.

So, we have a setup: mouse is in the puzzle box, puzzle box is on the floor, younger cat is trying to resolve the puzzle box, elder cat is sitting on the cat tree observing all this. Skadi spends about fifteen minutes trying and failing to get the mouse out of the box. She sticks her paw into the holes. She sticks her nose into the holes. She pushes the box to and fro on the carpet. She meows beseechingly for a human to come solve the problem. Sticks her paws into the holes again.

Finally, she gives up on the puzzle box and wanders over to see if there's any food to be had. As soon as she walks away the elder cat gets up from the cat tree, big stretch, jumps down, walks over to the puzzle box, hooks a paw under the edge and flips the whole thing over, spilling the mouse onto the floor.

Gives the younger cat a look of utter disgust as if to say "That's all you had to do!" and then walks away, utterly uninterested in actually playing with the toy.

Its such a rip off that flowers don’t taste good

Spoken like a woman who’s never used garlic blossom in a stirfry, had an elderflower fritter or used Calendula and Nasturtium in a salad.

I have not but im going to now

Add pics of the tasty flowers plz

garlic blossoms (allium) balls of tiny flowers, may be white to deep purple. literally just the flowering head of the garlic you use in food. it tastes like garlic. but colorful.

elderflower, the blossom of the elderberry bush. can be battered and fried. excellent with elderberry syrup or honey. tastes fruity with a tiny hint of anise. also good in teas and sweets.

Calendula, also known as pot marigold. (please, verify you’re using pot marigold, not regular marigold. calendula is actually a daisy.) tastes similarish to bell pepper, sans crunch. leaves are also edible. should be grown with broadleaf plantain:

as a poultices of calendula and plantain can be used to rapidly heal small cuts and scrapes, and are also helpful for other dermatitis. don’t use it on deep wounds though, as it can and will cause the surface skin to heal before the underlying tissues. all of broadleaf plantain is also edible. if bitter.

Nasturtium ranges in color from bright yellow to deep red. it’s peppery and very slightly spicy.

Personally I love squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta and fried in a pan. Not ideal if you also want to harvest squash, though.

Elderflowers also make great wine or cordial! I concur with the squash blossoms, can always just use the male ones so the female flowers can still form fruit.

Finally a thread for the REAL folks: those who eat flowers

Borage! Looks like blue stars and tastes a like lightly sweet cucumber. The young leaves tase like cucumber too!

The flowers that come from any brassica (cabbage, radishes, broccoli, kale, etc) are all excellent and taste like the rest of the plant.

Queen Anne’s lace blossoms, (daucus carota, just like our domestic carrots) super common wild plant, and the flowers make a jelly that tastes kind of like pink lemonade?? It’s /delicious./ but make 100% sure you have a correct identification as water hemlock and other toxic species look similar.

Rose!!! Rose flavoured things taste exactly as they smell. So scrumptious!

Same with lavender and lilac, and violets! The list goes on! 🤩✨🌱

Here are some of my local (PNW) favorites:

[X] Big leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) blossoms are excellent in fritters.

[X] Dandelion (Taraxacum offinale) is also excellent in fritters, or my favorite is separating the petals and mixing them into pancake batter.

[X] Miner’s lettuce (Claytonia sibirica) flowers have a delicate, lettuce-like taste.

[X] Oregon grape (Berberis/Mahonia aquafolium) flowers are delightfully sour. I like to pick off a few small flowers from the cluster!

[X] Wood sorrel (Oxalis sp.) also sour (from oxalic acid).

[X] Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is mildly sweet.

When eating wild plants, you should be completely certain in your identification and aware of any lookalikes. Be sure you are allowed to harvest and that the area has not been sprayed by any chemicals. Many of these plants are also medicine, so you should be sure that you can safely ingest them (do your research before putting things in your face pls). This was just intended to get them on your radar!

Resources for plant identification.

Calling to the Stars

(c) gif by riverwindphotography, December 2025

This scene killed me

When you’re in the middle of playing hockey, you don’t have much time or lungpower to spare for lengthy chats, so hockey players develop a lot of on-ice shorthand. Some of this is probably limited to beer leagues like mine, but I’ve definitely heard a few of these phrases caught on the rink-level mics during NHL games, so I thought maybe some of y’all who don’t play hockey might be interested in translations of a few of the things hockey players yell at each other mid-game.

OFF = You are offside.

OOOOOOOFF = You are offside and don’t seem to realize it; stop trying to touch the puck and move your ass out of the fucking zone before you force a whistle.

CHANGE = You’ve been on the ice a long time.

CHAAAAAAANGE = Are you aware that there are other people on this team who would like to play hockey at some point?

ONE ON = An opposing player is trying to get the puck away from you and it appears that you haven’t noticed.

GOT TIME = Don’t panic and fling the puck into Siberia, there’s no one close enough to take it away from you right this second.

ICE IT = We’ve been in our zone for three minutes and everyone on the ice is nearing collapse, so go ahead, panic and fling the puck into Siberia.

I’M OPEN = Pass toward the sound of my voice right fucking now.

ALL YOU = Take the puck forward yourself; everyone else is far enough behind you that you should not rely on getting any backup on this developing play.

I GOT YOU = You are so egregiously out of position that it makes more sense for us to just switch jobs for a minute.

I GOT IT = If we both skate hard to the puck at the same time, as is currently happening, there will be no one to pass it to and also we are liable to collide in an unproductive fashion, so just let me handle it.

I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT = You did not listen to me and we are about to collide in an unproductive fashion.

edited to add: NOOOOOOOOOOO = The ref has signaled no icing on this play, so quit gliding while you wait for a whistle and move your damn feet. (This is probably the most confusing one to overhear if you don’t know what it means XD)

All of this!!!! Don’t forget:

POINT= The D is standing wide open while your dumb ass is skating circles in the corner

I CAN’T SEE= I am the goalie and you are standing directly in my line of sight, please move

MOVE= I am still the goalie and you are still standing directly in my line of sight, get out of my fucking way

MOVE IT= There are so many people open to you right now that I can’t even list them all, pass the fucking puck

COVER THE D= The D is skating the puck and one of you forwards needs to take their place for a hot sec

TWO ON= There are two people barreling down your ass while you try to get the puck and you better have a plan to get out of this alive

BACKCHECK= Last I checked, the defense are not the only players on the ice, so maybe help them out a bit

ITS YOURS= You dont currently have the puck but you are racing another player for it, go faster

COVER= Please cover the fucking puck so that we can get a whistle and this play can finally end

LOOSE= Their goalie doesn’t quite have the puck covered so poke at the goalie like you have a death wish

LOOSE= Our goalie doesn’t quite have the puck covered so beat the other team away from our goalie like they have a death wish

ALL EVEN= In case you forgot about them, the player who was in the box is no longer in the box

AO3 will be down for about 15 hours starting at 08:00 UTC on January 21 (what time is that for me?) while we make some improvements to searching bookmarks and series, including:

Please follow our status page for updates.

Starting 24 hours from now, AO3 will be down for about 15 hours.

Let’s go do fun outdoor winter activities and take vitamin d supplements and sign up for yoga class and go on antidepressants and buy a SAD lamp and stretch daily! Follow me everyone!! *slips on black ice and falls face first onto the ground and the snow piles up on my unmoving body*

Apple Blossom

those days where your entire train of thought is just “I CAN’T FUCKING DO THIS I CAN’T DO THIS I’M NOT GONNA MAKE IT PLEASE HELP ME” and whole time ur just like. sitting at your desk completely fine

Happy Release Day!

Skin Deep by Asidian Morris (@asidian) is out now!

Taurean just started his new job as a guard for Lord Cyril, one of the most influential nobles in Sanryn. It's supposed to be a cushy, easy job. But when the manor is attacked, Taurean finds himself embroiled in a tangled web of truths and lies. What kind of person is his employer? And more importantly, why does the Mangler of the East City want Lord Cyril dead? 

With the dangers of the fey-wood closing in, Taurean doesn't have long to find the answers that could save all of their lives.

Grab the ebook here!

My novelette Skin Deep is now officially available!

If you enjoy my writing, please consider picking it up. The support would mean the world to me! Thank you so much to @thewhumpyprintingpress, who allowed this to happen, and the very talented @kaciart, who did the cover art.

With AO3 going down for almost a full day on Friday, I've got an idea for anyone preemptively downloading fics to read while the site is inaccessible: leave a comment to let the author know. Just something simple like 'hey, I love this fic so much I've downloaded it so I can read it later!'

Remember to leave comments on any fics you download to read during this time!