#elodieunderglass

[markscherz]

Have you seen the new Metazooa browser game? It’s like wordle, but for guessing an animal by drilling down taxonomically. Today’s answer made me think of you!

Yeah, unfortunately I am not a big fan. But I think I am really not the target audience. I would want a game that gives you the option to guess by Latin name, and that would have a much, much more comprehensive list of species that you can guess, rather than a very short predetermined list. Such a thing would be possible to build if you drew on existing databases, but of course, would quickly stop being fun, when >50% of the games are trying to guess some random beetle.

#metazooa #about me #I guess #I wanted to like it #I really did #but I found the biggest challenge was guessing which species they would have in their silly dropdown list #Answers by mark #elodieunderglass

[arellebee43]

For some reason, the internet thought I needed an ad of the below product.

....thank you, internet?

#horrible things with legs #elodieunderglass

[elodieunderglass]

I really like the idea that one of the weird lurkers of your blog (like me) just hangs around looking for inspiration to write papers about. Like I realize that's not how it probably actually went down, but 2017 to 2022 seems like a pretty reasonable lead time from reading your post to conducting the research to writing and publishing the paper.

In reference to this:

It’s amusing that the original post only got 22 notes (likes), but when I looked at it again it had 19, which I’m choosing to interpret as the authors sheepishly withdrawing their likes in order to preserve their anonymity.

I think they probably just googled the phrase “friends to lovers pathway” before using it as the title of their paper and pulled up my post, or the other alternative being that the post popped onto their timeline when they were in the early stages of manuscript prep, and it was a moment of academic serendipity. I definitely don’t think I inspired the work in any way - just the quote and title. But it’s funny to imagine being studied.

I should say that I don’t necessarily expect permission to be asked if people intend to prosper or advance their careers from my words or art. However, I do appreciate the courtesy of being told that it’s happened. So far I’ve been quoted in a published book, quoted to name an academic paper, a person is actively selling plushies and other merchandise based on a post of mine while claiming that it’s their intellectual property actually, and screenshots of my work are regularly considered hilarious enough to steal but not pay me for. (the cricket post in particular was screencapped, went viral on Twitter some years ago without reference to me, was shared around BBC journalist twitter, and hundreds of people in the media industry said things like ‘lol we should pay this person to write’ …. in the apparent ignorance of the fact that if they had asked I would probably be open to…. Being paid to write……… and all the other times my posts have broken containment to go viral on other platforms for other people, with comments about how I should be commissioned to write a book; obviously that’s a normal part of online journalism and media, and I’m not naive about it, but it’s a bit much to for these people to be enriching their platforms with screencapped content, without the OP’s knowledge let alone consent, and joking about how they should pay for it or would read a whole book about it, when they’re the only people who could actually do something about it in the nightmare media landscape.) And nobody told me about any of these examples, I always find out by trying to retrieve links to my own stuff, or by friends telling me that someone else has gone so viral with my recognisable work that it got around to them.

Anyway if you do use my stuff in your own stuff, do let me know! I’m not here to prosper, but I am here to connect, and I’m quite willing to link your paper (and write a lay summary for free), buy your book or art, make your acquaintance, promote your work, or just add it to my portfolio - because if I ever DID want to prosper from my work here, which I wouldn’t usually consider except that it is evidently peer-reviewed good-enough-for-others-to-prosper-from, all of that would be valuable and helpful for me to know.

#elodieunderglass #at gmail #I’ve always said that if I wrote a book it would be a nonfiction book called something like THE SECRET LIFE OF MOSS with a linocut cover #stacked with all the other eco-unreadables on an unwanted desk in Waterstones #next to WALKS WITH MY HAWKS and THE HIDDEN LIFE OF MOSS and BEES FROM MY HEARTHSTONE #A YEAR OF HONEY AND WALKS #THE LOST WORDS OF NATURAL WISDOM #MOSS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY #but you never know! I’d write a book for you if you wanted one #I’m just more of a journeyman writing to assignments and prompts than someone who wants to make up plots #and I believe my CHOSEN TRAINED career SERVES SOCIETY #far better than a novel going THE BOOK OF BONKS AND BLOSES #but fuck if someone was like #the world needs a book about walking with moss that fixes their mental health somehow #I’d be like sure. not to worry. the world does need that. #I am a workhorse who does work. I will do that work. #not the twitter marketing promotion stuff but writing is work and I do it on command. #anyway this has spiralled a bit

[shadowfoxsilver]

Your achievement!

----

Very accomplished scambuster!~

#mod talks #elodieunderglass

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Frank, can you make me some beautiful art?

The way I think of it is that one can choose to be beautiful or ugly -- I don't know that I'd characterize myself as beautiful, but I wouldn't have characterized myself as ugly, either. So it's not about being forced to think of oneself that way, it's more that being beautiful is a part of how we think of ourselves. Which I don't necessarily endorse, but I don't think it's a bad thing to have this aspect of our thought patterns. (It's kind of an inchoate and nonspecific "beauty is good" attitude, because beauty is so wide-ranging and so diverse, but I do endorse many of the things considered beautiful, even as I think many people have not understood the point of appreciating these things, nor why these feelings are sometimes painful.)

#neoteny cw #elodieunderglass

[whatwillthegirlbecome]

Autumn asks: maple, fireside

ooh thank you elodie! this made my day.

maple - is there a hobby / skill that you’ve always wanted to try but never did?

Honestly, there aren't many things i've wanted to learn to do that i have never tried my hand at. Definitely not to say that i ever get very good before i stop, just that when get a wild hare to try something, i usually try it. My apartment is full of the remnants of abandoned or infrequently indulged pursuits: dance shoes, sheet music, italian to english dictionaries, watercolors/acrylic paints/colored pencils/bookbinding supplies, etc. etc. etc. It's a little bit embarrassing to be so flighty, but i've mostly made peace with it. And i try to give away my unused craft supplies in the hopes of infecting others whenever i can.

i guess if i had to pick one thing i haven't tried yet, it's probably writing fic. i don't expect that will ever happen because i know i don't have the talent for it, but i really do wish i did.

fireside - if you had your dream wardrobe, what would it look like?

oh god this is something that i think about all the time, but now that i am faced with this question i'm finding it really hard. but probably my dream wardrobe would be about five or more rotating wardrobes depending on mood, including "chrissie hynde on holiday", "fanciest witch in the neighborhood", "italian widow runs errands", and "intensely whimsical beat girl". i contain multitudes.

#elodieunderglass #asks #thank you thank you i loved this!

[zorilleerrant]

sheep are just covered in potential crafting. you can shave the craft materials right off them

#elodieunderglass makes an excellent point about fast fashion and global exploitation and all I hear is this

[sillylotrpolls]

(Context, credit, and source below poll.)

Today's poll is based on this thread with notable principles @penny-anna, @elodieunderglass, @elanorpam, and @earhartsease. All of the options above are paraphrased from their original answers.

The full original question:

Can I please ask for your top five theories on why the Ringwraiths become so much more powerful over the course of the LotR trilogy? By the end of the books a single Ringwraith holds an army of 6000 men in paralysing dread from a height of a mile, they're dismaying hosts of men, etc. And in the beginning, they're easily defeated by "jumping behind a tree," "pretending to be in a different room," "getting on a little boat," "man with a stick on fire," etc.

#lotr #lord of the rings #poll #polls #it came from tumblr #ringwraiths #nazgul

[vaspider]

Omg y'all

@elodieunderglass in particular needs to see these, bc of the emojis, but I am gonna start using these is2g

These and more, collected here:

[willoftrees]

[edit]got an answer! they're sandhill cranes vry cleverly tryna catch a thermal :]

i couldn't get an answer on mastodon-

anyone know what kinds of birds thesse are based on their call?

seem to be migratory

also anyone know why they seemed so confused about hwere they should be going?

eventually they did move along, but i didn't see which way as i had gone back inside by the time they left.

recorded in grays harbor county, washington

uhh... bird ppl...

@elodieunderglass maybe?

#birds #flock #pnw #pacific northwest #washington state #washington #help lol

[sufficientlylargen]

@elodieunderglass I think you would appreciate this 3D printing project I found for adding legs to an IKEA Lämplig. More images and source files are on Thingiverse, so if you have access to a 3D printer you can make them yourself!

#it also comes with a file called NutInMe.stl #that you can print and stick a nut in to make sure your nuts will fit in the legs #also you can see the provenance of the file on thingivers #from which I have learned that someone started with a model of a leg #and then expanded it to a nearly-complete human body #and then someone else took the human body and stripped it back down to the leg #in a sort of bizarre STL atavism #asses to asses‚ legs to legs I guess #3d printing #horrible things with legs

[phalangelala]

When you open fb for the first time in 3 months and are immediately accosted by this nightmare (but you're secretly delighted because you can send something to your tumblr fav @elodieunderglass )

#horrible things with legs #5 minute crafts to fuel your nightmares #can you fucking imagine this in your home??!!!

[canyourfavesurvivecastledracula]

Because I saw a post about it, although that was about the Demeter: can Dr. Stephen Maturin (everybody’s favorite Irish-Catalan surgeon/naturalist/spy) from the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O’Brian survive Castle Dracula?

Overall approach to the supernatural: Is a Catholic, although not very demonstrative about it, but that’s partly due to being attached to the British navy. He’s going to assume something is a natural phenomenon/weird cultural practice first, and be curious about both of those things, but he’s not going to reject the supernatural on principle.

Whether they would accept the crucifix from the old lady: Definitely. And he’s already a polyglot, and if he’s going to Romania he has probably been studying Romanian, so he might even get more information from the peasants than Jonathan manages to after they “forget” their German. Not sure if further information will be that useful against Dracula at this point though, if “just leave” isn’t an option. He at minimum concludes Dracula is a cruel landlord, which is going to set him on edge.

Whether they would go exploring after being told not to: Ohhhh yes. (See: Spy. Also Nosy Little Weirdo.) He’s going to go exploring on principle BECAUSE he was told not to.

Ability to manage the whims of a Rich Jerk / hold Dracula's interest: On the one hand he’s perfectly capable of being disingenuous (spy) but he’s not good at hiding it when he’s in a bad mood. I think this depends on what he’s there for. Does Dracula hold the key to the defeat of Napoleon or has he just ended up there somehow? If he thinks he’s there to do real estate business he’s going to be real snippy to Dracula very early on, which will be tough to come back from.

Facility for free climbing: Ahahahaha this man has fallen off of most of the ships in the Royal Navy. Once he tried to climb the rigging while holding onto a rope that wasn’t tied to anything. Nope. That’s not to say he won’t try. If Jack Aubrey can swing in to rescue him at the last minute (Jack canonically does this when Stephen is being tortured by the French government) then Jack can probably climb for both of them. Otherwise no.

Whether they would choose to be eaten by wolves over being eaten by vampires: There’s such a lack of vampires in his books that this is difficult to say. But he’s good at picking up and starting again after all seems lost. I think he would choose the less certain death.

Other relevant information is that he is frequently covered in blood, as he does not seem to clean up after surgery; that he is something of an insomniac except when taking laudanum, which he does in worrying amounts at various points in his canon; that he is good with both swords and pistols, although those are not very helpful against Dracula, but you never know; and that he does not know shorthand as such, but will be sending coded letters.

I think he might just manage to survive, but not without extreme trauma, which will be immediately followed by a timeskip because O’Brian loves doing that.

I did not even bother asking about Jack because he is obviously so drinkable.

@elodieunderglass likewise writes:

Do you think that Stephen Maturin has a chance of surviving Castle Dracula? Pros include being nearly-unkillable; cons include having the climbing skills of a buttered lungfish.

This guy sounds wild. And I have to say "the climbing skills of a buttered lungfish" took me out (and sounds likely to take him out as well....) One of you also mentioned a tendency to basically shed garlic bread...?

So I am hearing that he has Opinions, which yeah, might get him into trouble depending on how quickly he moves into Spy Mode. Jonathan pivots by day 3, and he's not expecting to be held prisoner by his wealthy client, so I feel like a guy who gets occasionally tortured by the French might be equally wary if not moreso.

One worry is that his attempts to get messages out might be more sophisticated and therefore more severely punished. Will Dracula recognize him as enough of a threat to necessitate killing him?

As a medical man (?) he seems well-positioned to have Views on exactly how dead Dracula is or isn't, but with his climbing acumen it sounds like no force on earth could coax him out thre window so he may not ever find the crypt - unless his powers of snooping lead him to it by another route.

Is he enough of a snacc to be worth rescuing from the Girlies I wonder? Although if he's suspicious enough going in by virtue of actually speaking the language, maybe he doesn't take the crucifix off to protect his dreams, and the Girlies have a harder time getting at him.

The insomnia I am thinking is a boon because it'll help adjust to the nocturnal schedule without entirely fraying his nerves. I think trying hard to play a role while being visibly in a foul mood might be exactly the kind of thing Dracula finds very very funny.

Ironically, if he never makes it down to the crypt, he won't get Brain Fevered by Dracula, and may well just leave out the front doors when people come in to move out all those boxes (Jonathan can't because he's all wacked out from the shovel assault and also locked in Dracula's room). I presume Dracula will have taken some measure to prevent this though? More than just saying "hey wait for the Calèche that is definitely totally coming" and then trusting him to actually do that. Hmm.

So I am inclined to say yes, Stephen Maturin can survive Castle Dracula, but is severely lacking in an exit strategy

#stephen maturin #master and commander #patrick o'brian #seafarers #spies #doctors

[elodieunderglass]

When does Tolkien start entering the public domain?

(In reference to this poll https://www.tumblr.com/elodieunderglass/730451774219190272 where I tagged it supporting my own personal theory and added that when Tolkien enters the public domain WATCH OUT)

Tolkien’s works enter the public domain in the USA, uk and Canada 70 years after his death - so 2043 with open season starting 2044.

If we’re all still around in 20 years’ time, make a note of it! I’ll write you a story with unhinged hobbit family structures, the Shire being a place that dampens magic, and the unauthorised yet strangely canonical adventures of Belladonna Took and the Silmarils. It will be 200,000 words long and written in the correct tone, and I promise to do completely immersive research to colour in the background: every linguistic reference, Anglo-Saxon folkway, Icelandic influence, weirdly deep dives into topics like kinship moiety and subtle mischief that characterises Tolkien’s work. This would be so funny to me.

Everyone will be racing to publish basic porn and games; the d&d franchise which will be world-eating in 20 years will finally get to drop the pretense of “halflings,” Witcher and other franchises ditto; all the fantasy writers who have tugged at the tit for so many generations will finally be able to do it openly, and the films will be constant and abysmal. But we, we alone, we happy few alone and free; we will be giggling together, like playing dolls, over what the people REALLY want: constructing elaborate conlang puns with a 200k textual payoff.

It will be my honor to work on this for no reason at all, and I will ceremoniously give it to you in exchange for £7.99. And we will laugh and laugh and laugh

#what a hilarious joke let’s do it #GOD #I’d like to think I’ll have my own creative endeavours in 20 years #such as competitive flax spinning or something #but it would be so funny. #literally my favorite bits are the ones where overcommitment to the bit is like #part of the bit #omg we have to do this.

[napoleonic-sexyman-tournament]

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas:

“mustache”

“Tall! Daring! Swashbuckling! A devoted husband and father! Had a personal conflict with Napoleon! Also it was said he could, while holding onto a bar above his head, LIFT A HORSE WITH HIS THIGHS. How is he not on this list ten times already! Vote for General Dumas!”

“He was so hot that he inspired The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and many more books that his son, Alexandre Dumas, wrote. He definitely looked the part of a sexyman, as he son recounts in his memoirs: "My father, as already stated, was twenty-four, and as handsome a young fellow as could be found anywhere. His complexion was dark, his eyes of a rich chestnut colour [...]. His teeth were white, his lips mobile, his neck well set on his powerful shoulders, and, in spite of his height of five feet nine inches, he had the hands and feet of a woman. These feet were the envy of his mistresses, whose shoes he was very rarely able to put on." He could crush you between his thighs: "His free colonial life had developed his strength and prowess to an extraordinary degree; he was a veritable American horse-lad, a cowboy. His skill with gun or pistol was the envy of St. Georges and Junot. And his muscular strength became a proverb in the army. More than once he amused himself in the riding-school by passing under a beam, and lifting his horse between his legs." He was so badass he could beat 13 men with 4 and take all the enemy prisoner, and defend against hundreds of men on a bridge by himself. He performed these acts of valour numerous times in Italy. He was so formidable that the Austrians named him the "Schwartz Teufel", or the Black Devil, and his feat at the bridge earned him the moniker of "Horatius Cocles of Tyrol". He wasn't afraid to stand up to his morals and protest against unfair treatment. When unjust executions by the guillotine were happening outside his quarters, he closed the blinds of his curtains, earning him the nickname "Mr. Humanity". When in the Vendée, he complained about the wanton indiscipline in his troops. When in Italy, Berthier wrongly reported his actions as one of "observation" in St. Antonio. Dumas wrote to General Bonaparte that if Berthier was in the same position, he would have shit his pants. Dumas abhorred plunder, never exhorted the locals, and ordered the Directory agent who had come to persuade him otherwise be shot if he dared present himself to Dumas again. Integrity and a sense of moral justice is sexy, mark my words. For Dumas' final qualifier as a sexyman, look no further than this Tumblr heritage post (https://www.tumblr.com/petermorwood/133803437020/hortensevanuppity-elodieunderglass), with 300,000 notes and counting. And I quote: "- daddy general dumas was an immense fierce french warrior who was a 6 foot plus, stunningly gorgeous and charismatic Black gentleman - he invaded egypt - the native egyptians said “is this napoleon? this must be napoleon. we for one welcome our majestic new overlord” - then napoleon showed up - napoleon has all the presence of yesterday’s plain Tesco hummus - the native egyptians were like “… no… no, we’ve thought very hard and we’ll have General Dumas actually” - this did not make napoleon happy - in fact it made him jealous - napoleon felt so emasculated that he launched a campaign of revenge against General Dumas, including taking away his pension, that probably inspired a lot of Alexandre’s rather satisfying scenes in which fathers are nobly avenged and the money-grubbing villains are rubbed in the mud" I rest my case. Tl;dr: He was so hot he inspired multiple books, he was a stronk man who could crush you between his thighs or carry you like a sack of potatoes, and he was so badass that he could take on odds of 1 to 3. He had a foul mouth but a heart of gold and his actions were never self-serving. Posts relating to him on Tumblr have had 300,000 notes and counting. He is qualitatively and quantitatively qualified to be a sexyman.”

Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey

“Honesty and integrity (letter to Louis XVIII against sitting for Ney's court-martial, getting imprisoned for 3 months for it). Very sexy. Defending the capital (Paris) is also very sexy.”

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Elder Tubby, inspired by @elodieunderglass's legendary post. Juvenile tubbies and adult human included for scale.

#art #my art #elder tubby #adult teletubbies