@molllus on Tumblr

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

hamletthedane

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

molllus reblogged

eriquin

homunculus-argument

Random worldbuilding: A culture where everyone's social status is expressed through how their hair is braided.

Children all have the same kind of a simple, unisex "child's braid" which is meant for their parents to be easy to do - traditionally boys were only taught how to do a "wife's braid" while women braid both their husbands and their children, but a modern man is naturally an attentive father and contributes to both cleaning and feeding, and clothing and braiding his children.

While this kind of knowledge is more accessible in the modern age, the art of braiding is still seen as an intimate family thing, and it's not unusual for a youth to come out to their parents by the way of braids - for example a daughter asking her father to teach her how to do the "wife's braid", or a son asking her mother how to weave the "husband braid" for their future spouse. Or a trans kid asking their parents to give them the other gender's braid when it's time to transition from the child braid into the "unmarried youth" one.

It is nonetheless still somewhat common to see an older gay man with a "wife's braid" or two older women both wearing "husband braids", because that was the only way they were taught to braid a future partner's hair when they were young. They could learn the "appropriate" braid now, but it has become a part of the culture, an old-fashioned gay thing to do. It's pride - if you wear this braid to show that you're an adult with a spouse, why try to hide who braids your hair every morning?

The only braid that one is expected to do on themselves is the widow's braid - the only one that is also unisex, braided in reverse from the simple children's braid. Sometimes, young unmarried adults who have no interest in starting a family switch directly into wearing a widow's braid to signify that they are not looking for a partner and are independent adults on their own.

elodieunderglass

You might enjoy the hobbit and LOTR fandoms, where it’s a fondly held trope; hair-braiding cultures are common tags, and there are many… Many. scenes about people explaining their Married To The Craft braids, ceremonially receiving their Gay Engagement Braids and so on. People clearly have a lot of fun with it; I wonder what wish-fulfilment it might be reflecting.

It’s based on real-world cultures who have braided hairstyles to signify things, but the LotR element also works in things beside marital status too.

molllus reblogged

mctreeleth

calumsash

sometimes a song is good because you saw it on a fan edit for your favorite ship like ten years ago

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psych-is-the-name

chaumas-deactivated20240115

fandom sucks now I never see PSAs for writers about what can and cannot be used as lube

chaumas-deactivated20240115

finding out about lube is the worst thing that happened to the smut-writing community. back in the day I’d get reports back from the trenches about stories where the characters used violin rosin for sex.

chaumas-deactivated20240115

used to be that I could recline upon my settee and ask “what news from the front?” and my faithful friends would recount sordid tales of highly toxic viscous chemicals applied to the delicate internal orifices of various and sundry fictional characters by virgin writers.

and we were happy.

sapphireclawe

The worst I saw was just olive oil... and I Googled the plausibility of it years later. Good news, it's not terrible. Bad news, it's plausible.

chaumas-deactivated20240115

Well, yeah. They didn’t have KY jelly in antiquity.

saathi1013

I would like a timeline of lube options. I think that would be a boon to fandom At Large.

chaumas-deactivated20240115

30,000 BC: nothing but the pure sweet fat of the mastodon

30,000 AD: nothing but the sweet green syrup of the sandtrout

molllus reblogged

thetimetostrikeislater

Me rn.

dig-jules

As a photographer, I can tell you there are so. many. factors working against us.

Variable 1: For one, Shatner's weight fluctuates slightly throughout the series and sits differently on his face because of it. No problem, right? But with the next two variables it's tough to try to nail down a consistent approach to drawing it- especially when stylized- because it's hard to reflect those changes in a way that reads as intentional and not inconsistent.

Variable 2: TOS uses such a diversity of harsh lighting setups for any given shot that the contours of the face are always highlighted differently.

Harsh "Rembrandt" Studio Lighting vs. Diffused "Natural" Studio Lighting

Variable 3: To make matters worse for us, in TOS there are a lot of different focal lengths used (wide shots vs zoomed-in shots) that can give the actors' faces the additional variable of being distorted depending on their distance from the camera and the depth of the shot. Obviously this would impact everyone, but tends to be a lot more noticeable on Shatner's face because he has a less-defined jawline than Kelley or Nimoy.

Could be any of the following...

Large vs. Small Focal Length. In other words, he's simply farther from the camera in the first, closer in the second.
Both are a Small Focal Length, so he's at a similar distance, but in the first he's closer to the distorted edge of the frame- where the image is elongated along the second dimension- but in the second he's in the center- where the image is elongated along the "third" dimension.

So in short, if your drawings of Kirk look inconsistent, it could be because Kirk does look physically inconsistent when we see him in different pictures!

We all look different, depending on where/how/when our picture is taken. So hey, whatever it is you're doing, you're probably on the right track. In the words of Hannibal Buress, Kirk has a vague ass face.

+ A few of Kirk looking pretty different in any given photo at a similar angle, just for good measure. Name of the game is cameras!

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diddlysquash

omatoxin

for better or for worse

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achillesinhighheels

auntymurda

heavy is the head that wears the crown.

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sheetghosting

kushblazer666

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sleepyfilms

you know, before i started watching star trek, i thought ppl were just saying it was gay bc they liked the idea of kirk and spock being a couple, but as i've been watching it, i have realized no, they really meant it. "why mr. spock... you almost make me believe in miracles." the city on the edge of tomorrow. "i know your affection for spock." spock being fucking ecstatic that jim is still alive in amok time and even smiling. kirk looking at spock like he holds the whole universe in his eyes when he's talking about the most boring shit. like it's not just kinda gay, it's like spock and kirk were written as an actual loving couple but, y'know, it was the 60s and they couldn't really do that on tv

originalleftist

Even Gene Roddenberry sort of acknowledged it (a couple of quotes from Wikipedia):

Kirk/Spock - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Marshak and Culbreath: There's a great deal of writing in the Star Trek movement now which compares the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion to the relationship between Kirk and Spock -- focusing not he closeness of the friendship, the feeling that they would die for one another --

Roddenberry: Yes, there's certainly some of that, certainly with love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, the Greek ideal ... we never suggested in the series ... physical love between the two. But it's the ... we certainly had the feeling that the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style of the 23rd century. (He looks thoughtful.) That's very interesting. I never thought of that before.

In a similar interview, Roddenberry states:

...I definitely designed it as a love relationship. And I hope that for men. . .who have been afraid of such relationships. . .that they [Spock and Kirk] would encourage them to be able to feel love and affection, true affection. . .love, friendship and deep respect. That was the relationship I tried to draw. I think I also tried to draw a feeling of belief that very few of us are complete unto ourselves. It's quite a lovely thing. . .where two halves make a whole."