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flock-talk · 1 year

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hey sorry but you tagged a pic of Toto with discoloration and I was just wondering if you could point out the discolored areas cause I couldn’t tell where they were. just curious cause I think it’d be good for me as a bird owner to know more about what discoloration looks like, I only know what’s on google images

Totally! I'm going to use this as an opportunity to point out everything I can visibly see wrong with Toto, not just the feather discolouration!

First let's start with the more noticeable issues, broken feathers! The tips of some of his primary wing feathers and some tail feathers are snapped off leaving a "V" shape of filaments extending past the central shaft of the feather. This can be due to a poor diet creating a weak feather that's prone to breakage but in some cases the feathers can just break by getting caught on something and feather destructive behaviours. The tail was most likely damaged because of being in a small cage and rubbing his tail backwards against the bars, the wings likely broke because the wings used to be clipped and as the feathers grew in there wouldn't be other primary flight feathers surrounding the new feather to support it. So the new wing feather would be more prone to snapping against the force of the wind or various physical impacts.

Also visible in this image is general poor feather structure. The edges of all the tail feathers demonstrate some rippling like a wave and some feathers have a big bend in the central shaft. Those are big indicators of an unhealthy feather.

The left two arrows are pointing to tiny black specks, those are small areas of discoloured pigment! Sometimes these can form as a feather naturally breaks down or the feather gets damaged (notice how the wing has a lot of black specks around the "V" shape) but it can also be an indication of poor health.

Here we see more discoloured bits, along the very edge of almost every feather we see some brown! You do have to be careful when analyzing edges since sometimes the iridescence of a feather can create a bit of an illusion but in this instance we can see that no matter how the light hits the feather the brown edge stays the same. This kind of discolouration doesn't usually show up right when a new feather is made but will show up over time as the feather breaks down quicker than it's supposed to. That happens because when the feather was formed there weren't adequate nutrients available to make a healthy durable feather that would stay green all the way to the end of it's moult cycle. You'll also see this kind of discolouration form if you over-handle your bird, the oils from your hand can remove protective barriers from their feathers and damage them which is why you'll often see birds with black-edged head or back feathers from hand cuddles and scritches.

This can also be a sign of more serious health problems so it's best to get a vet to evaluate them to knock off potential organ damage as a cause.

With the wings we see the two cut feathers, since the filaments are cut to the same length as the shaft in a straight line these were most likely clipped by a pair of scissors. In that sense this is not a sign of a health problem, just someone wanting to prevent the bird from flying. These will moult out at the end of their cycle just fine and be replaced by new full feathers next time.

There's also some white spots along the central feather shaft of some feathers, sometimes this is just build-up of dust but it can also be stress bars demonstrating a lack of available nutrients during that point in feather production or an overall stressful period where the body wasn't able to synthesize the nutrients to make the feather in that spot properly. Stress bars usually present themselves by warping the colour along the filaments as well not just the shaft but it does happen just on the shaft sometimes.

More "V" shaped wing tips, just general breakage from the lack of support feathers when they were growing out the clip job. Potentially also a more brittle feather due to poor nutrition or underlying health problems. Same as above.

On the tail we see a lot of fraying along the edges and ends of the feather, this can be due to him rubbing his tail against cage bars for too long but it can also be a sign of a weak feather structure. Feather filaments will separate like this during rigorous activity and play but they should be able to reattach back to their singular healthy shape with regular preening. Feather filaments have tiny little hooks on them that latch together like velcro, if the feather can't reattach with normal preening then that suggests the feather structure has been compromised. Whether that's because of poor nutrition, health problems or just excessive physical damage we won't be able to tell until a vet check!

Next we have the beak. Beaks can be tricky because they change a lot with breeding hormones and seasonal moulting. Right now Toto is going through a very heavy moult so his body will be using up a lot of the same nutrients that are needed for a healthy beak, he will be replacing his current beak layer and he will be producing a lot of dust which will get caught in the little cracks in the old beak layers and make them look worse than they might really be.

The top layer of a beak is the oldest layer that will be shedding off while new layers are growing in underneath. The tip of his beak is pretty normal, maybe a small bit long but not too bad really. The large crack at the tip is standard for what a beak looks like when replacing a beak layer. The white flaky appearance covering the rest of the beak, however, is not! A healthy beak should be smooth and uniform in colour for the most part. Flakiness can suggest a nutrient imbalance or more serious health problems.

Since Toto has been on a seed based diet with little to no fresh foods it's very likely that he's been lacking the nutrients necessary to make a healthy beak.

Last is the nails and I'm sorry I don't have perfect reference photos for these yet since he's still a bit scared of the camera but here's what we've got:

His nails are too long, primarily his longest toes on the front of both feet. The best way to analyze a nail is by looking at how they stand on a flat surface, they should be able to stand with a totally flat foot where the pads of the foot rest completely on the surface and the nail is just barely above the surface.

In Toto's case if he puts his pads all down the toe has to twist to compensate for the length of the nail. This puts a lot of pressure on his toes and can warp/ damage them over time.

His back nails appear to be a pretty adequate length, on a perch you can see that the nail tip is just hovering over the perch. Perches are a less accurate way to check nail length since perch diameter will influence how the nail sits and a bird can change how much they clench their foot but it's all I've got for reference right now.

Here you can see the front toe on a slightly rounded surface and if his toe is held straight (not twisted) the tip of the nail holds the pads up off of the surface quite a bit!

If we compare this to Newt's nails it becomes a lot clearer just how long they are, even in this pic Newt could use a small little bit filed off the tips.

That's all I've got for now, hope this helps!

#toto #toto ask #discolouration #toto ref

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fourseasonsfigs · 1 year

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Firefighter Huo Yan

This brave little fireman is the third in this series of Gong Jun figs - I posted about Ice Cream Cutie and Cute Nezha before.

Huo Yan is the character that he played in The Flaming Heart. Have some wonderful behind the scenes photos of Gong Jun in this uniform:

I put this shot first because I love it so much. This is just gorgeous. The pose, the angle - never would I think a firefighting uniform could look so much like high fashion. Spectacular.

Living in fire-prone Southern California has made me incredibly grateful for the unbelievably brave firefighters there and all across the US. True heroes indeed. That being said, I've never been into the actual fire uniform look, although I know plenty of folks that are. I will say Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan's firefighting shows have made me see the error of my ways.

I don't know how I was wrong about so many things before I fell into this fandom, but it has opened my mind! Dog and cat attributes on figs/dolls/art, bright colorful patterned clothing, all kinds of clothing and styling, etc etc. It's nice to be wrong sometimes, and then suddenly be gifted with a whole new world of things to enjoy out there. It would be like me going through life thinking lilikoi is just not something I'm into eating, and then trying it, and then suddenly the whole world of passionfruit flavors is opened up to me! Incredible. (Except maybe passionfruit-flavored coffee, we all know that's just not two combinations that go together well)

Like the other two figs, our brave little toaster arrived snuggly packed in a protective polystyrene cut out box.

This time Gong Jun's patented Very Serious Model Face is now the Very Serious Firefighting Business Face, and I respect it!

Love this fig angle! He looks so stern and resolute! The Very Serious Firefighting Business Face has now taken on distinct characteristics of I'm Saving That Cat No Matter What, Sir

I'm really enjoying the cowlick of hair in the back of his head. This is a nice angle to see the details on his gloves too, which is not visible in the tunnel pics above but is visible in the pic of him with his coffee on his phone.

Lot of lines going on in this top with the reflective bands and the belt. This angle always distorts lines (like how I pin that on the angle and not on my rudimentary photography skills?), so you'll see in the next picture how the factory actually did a pretty good job of keeping it all fairly clean.

See what I mean? The lines look great here. They also actually modeled the belt to be 3-D and slightly bigger than the jacket, which is a great detail. Same with the jacket sleeves being larger than his gloves.

His little arms are so cute here. I really like when the fig makers model detailed little hands with fingers, but I'm also weak for more stylized hands too. You know it.

SPEAKING of cute, I just now noticed the little smiley face on his right shoulder badge. AHHHH! I had to go back and zoom in to the badge on his other shoulder to see if it was the same, and it is. Too cute!

You can see in this pic and the one above that he has the Fig Forward Lean going on, which helps to offset the weight of the head so the fig can stand up well. He does stand securely - it also helps that his legs and boots are close together, which actually forms one solid and more stable unit.

Which you can see better here. I upped the exposure on this so you can hopefully see the adorable fact that his helmet is hollow in the interior! The over-bright exposure does wash out the deep black of his uniform, but the little helmet detail is too cute to miss. It's clearly way too small of a helmet to fit on his big ol' serious head, so it must be for the Jiangxi cat he's rescuing.

Hehe, I like the suggestion the slightly spiky-topped hair Gong Jun has here. Always delighted by the way fig makers render the many, many varieties of short hair for both Zhehan and Junjun.

Adorable art here on the box card, which matches the box here - yes, it's the same box on all three of these figs so far!

I will note for those following this post from the other two figs in this series, that despite significant effort combing Xianyu over the last week, I still have seen not a single fig that could be anything approaching that Pokéball Jun there on the side of that box. I still can't believe I had no idea that this existed and I MUST HAVE IT. It's adorable!

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 253

Scene Count: 18

Rating: Someone needs to stop climbing trees!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#junzhe #gong jun #word of honor cast #woh cast #shl #shl cast #huo yan #the flaming heart #jzeu #figthusiast

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turing-tested · 5 years

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How do you have perfectly clear skin when you're on T? Or is that a filter? Because I'm pre-hrt, so my testosterone is wrecking my shit in regards to acne and I doubt it'll just go away when I go on hormones.

if you're AFAB it helps that when you go on T your hormone cycle will settle down and eventually you'll stop your period, the downside is T also makes you more oily and prone to breakouts

if you're AMAB and going to go on E, from what I hear estrogen does wonders for your skin

im wearing SOME foundation in that pic but I do have acne! the biggest thing that helped was refusing to pick at it (and I still slip up sometimes when im stressed) + washing my face + using moisturizer that has sacylic acid in it.

this is what my face looks like on a goodish day

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modesty-blaise · 5 years

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Since I'm curious, what caused you to become very possessive of your gifs? Not out of rudeness but curious, since no matter what you do a lot of them show up in the gif function on Tumblr which automatically credits you at the bottom of the gif.

Hey. Tbh, at first I didn’t wanna bother with yet another anon but since I see no ill intent behind this, I decided to go and answer it. Unfortunately, half-way through I realised my reply is turning into incredibly long semi-bitter rant and expands well beyond calling out just one person in Psychonauts fandom (and yes, this is related to Psychonauts fandom – you do know that these anons are not really that anonymous, right?) so… buckle up! All that beneath “read more”.

I’ve been on this hellsite for like…7-8 years? Maybe more? Can’t really tell cause I moved blogs and my old blog now consists of only 4 posts I’ve made close to leaving so I honestly have no idea how much time I’ve spend here before moving. Anyway, during those few years I’ve spent on my first blog I’ve met a lot of creative gifmakers who enjoyed sharing their love for fandoms they were in. I’d like to point out that this was waaaaay before tumblr created that insert-gif option so, back in the day, the only way to add gifs to your post was to: 1. make them yourself 2. take them from someone else. And a lot of people were taking them from someone else which resulted in many gifmakers giving up on making gifs and leaving fandoms and/or even leaving tumblr – and I’ve had many of my friends give up on what they love and have their games/shows/movies/whatnot ruined for them cause people would not stop stealing from them. And many of my friends eventually left tumblr cause they couldn’t deal with it anymore.

Tumblr adding insert-gif option, in my opinion, honestly, just made it worse for gifmakers. Cause now people had the opportunity to use gifs for their posts, with or without creators’ permission/knowledge, but it was alright and it was perfectly fine cause creators were credited. There’s their name at the bottom. It’s alright. Like… it doesn’t matter if they’re actually okay with people using something they’ve put hours into making or if they’re not – tumblr gives them credit so they SHOULD be okay with it. Simple as that.

Well, we’re all different and some people are not okay with that. I’m not okay with that. It took me weeks to figure out how to use photoshop correctly. Took me countless hours of looking through different tutorials and basically trial-and-error-ing my way through the process. Whenever I make gifs, it takes me hours to record videos and then hours trying to achieve that 3mb limit on gifs (thank lord these days we’re beyond 1mb limit). After all that effort I put into creating gifs for games that I love and enjoy, someone is going to make 2 clicks and have that same gif added to their post, without even asking. So how is that okay?

Back to your question. Yes, “no matter what you do a lot of them show up in the gif function on Tumblr”, that is true and that is something I was aware of when I saw you-know-who announcing they would be starting 30 days Psychonauts challenge. So, hating to see my gifs used against my will, and not wanting to start any unnecessary drama and threaten people in advance with reporting them if they do use them, I’ve made my blog as private as I could. It was only accessible through the dashboard, it was not showing in ANY search engines inside and outside tumblr, and my gifs were impossible to find through insert-gif function – I’ve made sure. I did all that cause I just knew that during those 30 days, someone would use my gifs and I would get mad and I desperately wanted to avoid that (hence going extreme). And you know what happened? You know what creator of this challenge (who prevously already reposted my gifs) did? *drums* They used my shit anyway. :3 They just uploaded it from their computer, where they’ve saved it earlier.

And like… a lot of people see pretty pic and decide to save it - I mean, we all do that. Heck, even I have a folder full of shit I saw online and liked it – but i’m not uploading it online cause I haven’t made it. It’s not mine to share.

But some people are not like that.

Some people see fanart of something they like and they want to share their opinion on it – and instead of making their own post, maybe drawing the fanart themselves, they decide to use someone else’s art for their post. Do they know who made it? Do they have creator’s permission to share it? If the answer is NO, then they should be a decent human being and not do that to creators. Oh, they shared it anyway but now people in fandom are calling them out BUT this actually happened on accident? They know who the creator is but, somehow, they accidentally forgot to credit them? OK, well, it’s possible, shit happens, but they better make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Then sometime later these same people decide they want to make a post appreciating their fav character and they want to include pics cause duh, you can’t have character appreciation post without pics, right? Now they have several options: they can get their own screenshots, make their own gifs, maybe draw something… or they can just take someone else’s creation. Do they know who made it? Well there’s my fuckin name on it, and since they’ve stretched it from 245 to 500px, it’s really hard to miss, plus it’s not like there are that many people making Psychonauts gifs. Do they have permission to share it? Hmmm, nope, didn’t ask me. Is this also an accident? Could be. I mean, I’ve seen stranger things happen, so accidentally forgetting to credit content creators twice… kinda suspicious but still possible. Who am I to say?

Now if these people then decide to make a post appreciating their fav ship and they want to add a cute pic of the loving couple – yup, you guessed it! They can either create something or take something. Again: they know who did? They asked for permission? Got the permission? No?!?! But they posted it anyway?!?! :o Could it really be, that after being called out publicly, after being told that reposting is bad (something that’s very easy to understand), after even having tumblr staff intervene and remove stolen shit from their blog, after all that - could it really still be an accident?

Nah, man.

They just don’t give a shit.

Cause if they did, they’d stop with that crap first time they were called out.

(and if you think Psychonauts fandom is their only fandom and that they’re not doing this crap in other fandoms too - hoooo, boy, do I have some bad news for you! Do you know how many stolen and butchered HP fanart is on their blog? Hobbit stuff? They seem to be one of the most accident-prone users on tumblr. And honestly - it’s a real miracle their blog’s not been terminated.)

Back to what I was talking about - I’m not okay with people using my gifs and I’ve made it very clear. I literally do not give a shit if I’m credited or not, I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want my gifs used without my permission. If you like them and want them on your blog, there’s a fuckin reblog button. It’s sole purpose is to allow you to share other people’s creations. Or shitposts, cause lord knows we all love those.

So that’s why when someone spends hours going through my Psychonauts tag and goes as far as to send me “I love your gifs” anonymous message, but the very next day makes stim moodboard post including one of my gifs, now cut and resized to fit 3x3 format they’re going with, I get mad. And that’s why when someone uses one of my gifs to promote their RP blog, butchering it to fit their aesthetics, and later when confronted going as far as blaming their good friend on it cause god! they’ve had no idea it wasn’t theirs, I get mad. (makes you wonder though: if they friend has such skills, why not making them gifs themselves?)

Like…. I’ve had my gifs stolen plenty of times. I’ve had them stolen for roleplaying, for headers, for imagines, just for notes… I’ve had them stolen by people claiming to run official fan sites (that’s a real wild story but I won’t get into that now)… I’ve seen them on pinterest, weheartit, FB, all those random gif sites… and I’ve seen EVERY. POSSIBLE. EXCUSE. ranging from: “well i found it on google so why should i credit you” “lol dunno who made this but its pretty so im posting it” “ive had it on my computer for years so i don’t remember where i got it from” “i dont know how to make gifs so im using weheartit as a source” “credit to whoever made this” (that’s my fav) to “its just a gif so who gives a shit” (it’s not – it’s hours of creator’s time and lots of love that you’re now shitting on so thanks) and “i have an /illness/ and getting notes makes me feel better so dont u dare blame me for stealing” (I don’t remember exact excuse but it was something along those lines and like… how do you even respond to something that without looking like an asshole?).

And sometimes it really is just an accident. Sometimes people really do forget to credit you and/or ask you for permission. And I’ve had my fair share of those accidents. People in Psychonauts fandom have been using my gifs for various crap but, when approached, they’ve removed it and apologised. And it’s something I really appreciate. (if they actually bother reading this and they recognise themselves: i’m really grateful and thank you for not being an ass)

But you know what I don’t appreciate? People making a call out posts about me, asking about my gifs when they know very well they’re the main reasons why I’m not making those gifs anymore, at the same time failing to address any of the issues I have with them and instead rather explaining to others what happened BUT explaining only the parts that make me look like a villain cause how I even dare be mad about them stealing? How I even dare call them out on it? That is so ridiculous and criminal of me, and it’s so so sooooo bad that they need to call me out. I deserve to be called out by the very same person who’s been stealing my shit.

And their explanation is…well… it’s something.

They were sympathetic and polite? When did this happen? Did I completely missed that part? Please someone fuckin enlighten me with such post/message where they expressed their sympathy and politeness and I’ll apologise right this second.

I told them to “literally fuck off”? Yeah, that did happen, I admit that. Did they bother explaining why I told them to fuck off in the first place? Did they say they were caught stealing from me and had tumblr stuff remove my shit from their blog? Did they get into details of how they demanded the proof of my so very wild and obviously false claims but then when I showed it, they just deleted that “how dare u call me out cause I would never do such thing” post? No, they didn’t and geee, I really wonder why.

Instead, what did they choose to address? Out of all the things I’ve said. Hm? What did they choose? Me telling them to fuck off. Me dropping the F-bomb on them, rudely rejecting their obvious kindness and politeness. Nothing else.

Back to what I was talking about before I got derailed again: no, I’m not mad cause this person used my gifs without crediting me. I mean – I am, but that’s not my main issue with them (and they know it). My main issue is that this is someone who will continuously lie and steal and still deny any of it, even when there’s plenty of proof (and you can always count on me to show up with proof tbh), and then go as far as to publicly ask about my gifs and try to call me out. Like me getting mad that something I’ve put hours of work into, and something I’ve made cause I love the game and I want to share my love and appreciation for it, is now being shared against my will and my knowledge - like me getting mad over something like that is so unreasonable that they need to make an entire post about it while pretending they have absolutely no idea why I’m even mad and why we have issues.

And I have every fucking right to be mad. 3 times is not an accident. 2 times to the same person is not an accident. They know it. But yeah, playing stupid is their defense so it’s not like I expected them to actually address their actions this time either.

And you know what? Just because I swear a lot doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Doesn’t mean there’s no solid ground for my claims. People on tumblr have always been and always will be stealing shit. Sometimes they will credit you, often they will not, and that’s just how it is, doesn’t matter if you’re okay with it or not. But that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna sit quiet and accept someone’s shitty behaviour. Especially when it’s directed at me.

TLDR: giving credit =/= having permission

but my previous posts leading to this ask were not about that

you knew that already

#psychonauts #this is a lot longer than i expected #meh #also: all those posts are now under one tag #so you don't have to check my blog 4 times per day #that hobbit reposter #my psychonauts stuff

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