30 days OC challenge.

I could not find a 30 day challenge I liked, so I made one. You can just use the bolded word, or get inspiration from the following ideas. Descriptions, drabbles, dialogue, drawings. No rules, do what feels most comfortable for you. I haven't numbered these, you can do that yourself, in the order you want to.

First meeting. A new friend, sibling, business partner? First impression of someone? Or perhaps someone else's first impression of your OC?

Memories. Good or bad, one or many. One almost forgotten or maybe one they want to make?

Inventory. Special items, a random collection, only the necessities? Or maybe an item they lost?

Fighting. Skills or magic? A general description or perhaps a favourite spell? A special style or move? A situation where it was used?

Anger. What makes your OC angry? Do they fight or is it silent anger?

Formal wear or event. Anything from acquiring formal wear to wearing it to the event itself.

Romance. Is it something they want? What is romance? Small moments or a full blown fairy tale?

Friendship. An old friend or one you just met? What does friendship mean to your OC?

Sickness. A small flu or a chronic illness? How does your OC deal with being sick? Or when someone else is?

Hurt. Emotional or physical.

Travel. A journey they will always remember? One they want to take? Or perhaps somewhere in the middle?

Shoes. Yes, shoes. Anything to do with shoes. Or the lack of.

Sleeping. How do they sleep? Dreams they remember? Have they slept somewhere unusual?

Darkness. Dark night, mood, mind, location, fear. Take your pick.

First light. An early morning. Why are they awake? Lounging on a bed or already on the move?

Above-average. Does your OC excel in something? Do they have special features? How about in the opinion of others?

Water. Rain, river, lake, a bucket of water? Get soaked.

Air. Flying, high spaces, wind, breathing.

Symbols. Does your OC have symbolic features? Do they like symbols? Or maybe they are the symbol.

Fire. Stories around a campfire. Cozy fireplace. Accidents. Or maybe a fiery nature?

Earth. Getting your hands dirty. Life and death. Or maybe just lying on a grassy hill.

Jewelry. Do they have heirlooms? Buying jewelry as a gift? Wearing them?

Hobbies. Physical or mental? Creative, entertaining, useful?

Sensitive. Do they have subjects they avoid. Are they ticklish? Or maybe sensitive to the feelings of others?

Happiness. What makes your OC laugh? A situation they felt happy in?

Keepsakes. Items that have special meaning? A gift? Something they found?

Soft. Clothing, touch, mood, texture.

Embarrassment. Does your OC get embarrassed easily? Maybe they are the cause? Do they like to embarrass others?

Intimate. What things do they consider intimate? Are they willing to share those? With whom?

Imagination. Use it.

That's it. 30 things, 30 days. I will do it too, after I get back home from my trip. Feel free to use on any fandom~

It makes me happy when they listen

The elephant is making those chirps because they’re excited at the noise the drum makes. Some zoos give their elephants drums or horns to play with if they noticed they like making noise/“are musically inclined”. Shanthi of the Smithsonian Zoo became an internet sensation for her compositions on the harmonica:

Day 783 of reblogging videos of elephants.

Oh my goodness, the happy elephant chirps. I was dying from the level of cuteness.

"In a historic “first-of-its-kind” agreement the government of British Colombia has acknowledged the aboriginal ownership of 200 islands off the west coast of Canada.

The owners are the Haida nation, and rather than the Canadian government giving something to a First Nation, the agreement admits that the “Xhaaidlagha Gwaayaai” or the “islands at the end of world,” always belonged to them, a subtle yet powerful difference in the wording of First Nations negotiating.

BC Premier David Eby called the treaty “long overdue” and once signed, will clear the way for half a million hectares (1.3 million acres) of land to be managed by the Haida.

Postal service, shipping lanes, school and community services, private property rights, and local government jurisdiction, will all be unaffected by the agreement, which will essentially outline that the Haida decide what to do with the 200 or so islands and islets.

“We could be facing each other in a courtroom, we could have been fighting each other for years and years, but we chose a different path,” said Minister of Indigenous Relations of BC, Murray Rankin at the signing ceremony, who added that it took creativity and courage to “create a better world for our children.”

Indeed, making the agreement outside the courts of the formal treaty process reflects a vastly different way of negotiating than has been the norm for Canada.

“This agreement won’t only raise all boats here on Haida Gwaii – increase opportunity and prosperity for the Haida people and for the whole community and for the whole province – but it will also be an example and another way for nations – not just in British Columbia, but right across Canada – to have their title recognized,” said Eby.

In other words, by deciding this outside court, Eby and the province of BC hope to set a new standard for how such land title agreements are struck."

-via Good News Network, April 18, 2024

Press release by the Haida Nation about the vote

Two really great things about this:

1- they didn't have to go to court. Cases like this usually take years or decades and are incredibly expensive for First Nations, even if they win.

2- to quote the press release: "In the agreement, British Columbia recognizes and affirms that the Haida Nation has Aboriginal title to the lands of Haida Gwaii. This recognition does not create title – Haida Title is inherent." That's a big deal!! The difference between Canada granting title versus recognising Aboriginal title is incredibly important in matters of sovereignty. Haida sovereignty and Aboriginal title is inherent; it does not need to be "given" by the Canadian government.

Dragon Age: Origins

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-chief-hopes-israel-quickly-effectively-boost-gaza-aid-access-2024-04-05/

that last one particularly, there have been more children killed this year in gaza than the rest of the world COMBINED for the last FOUR YEARS

Pratik Shetty by Fran Gomez de Villaboa for Edward Crutchley F/W 21 Lookbook

Hanoi, Vietnam. Credit to Thu Huong.

pillars of eternity ask!!!

feel free to ask me stuff about my watcher rangi moa or reblog for other people to ask you stuff or just answer some questions :)

just a reminder to COMPLETELY boycott Eurovision this year; Azerbaijan and Israel, despite committing genocide, are STILL allowed to compete & have NOT been banned. by refusing to ban both countries, Eurovision is profiting off of the genocide of Palestinians and Armenians.

do not listen to the artists. do not pirate or stream the artists' music, and this applies to ALL the artists who are competing and performing this year. do not listen to the songs on ANY platform, do not give them ANY attention.

write to your broadcasters and tell them you REFUSE to watch the channels until they recognise the Armenian and Palestinian genocides & that you find it disgusting how they are allowing Eurovision despite Azerbaijan and Israel's entries.

do NOT give eurovision OR the competing artists ANYTHING but silence.

boycott ALL of eurovision.

not saying dion lightens his hair with chamomile honey & sunlight but have you seen his roots

[SOURCE]

Maternity kits, medical threads and scissors, water testing kits, anesthetics, mobile desalination units, etc do you see the pattern? Israel is not only starving the people of Gaza but it also wants to ensure the spread of disease through contaminated water and surgical tools, as well as ensuring injured Palestinians suffer through horrendous pain.

It's beyond sickening.

Earlier it was revealed that the United States was secretly pressuring other members of the Security Council to shoot down a Palestinian state membership so the US wouldn't have to use its veto as that would lead to a wave of local and international criticism for Joe Biden.

I keep thinking about the part in Pluto where Helena asks Dr Tenma of all people how to process grief. It's almost comical how she asked the man who was so legendarily bad at handling his own emotions that he managed to fuck up bereavement TWICE: once via attempting to replace his dead son Tobio with a robot simulacrum that was destined to fail at being the son he lost, and again by failing to realize Atom was a child worthy of love in his own right before he was already gone and living with family that already understood this. This is Tenma's ultimate tragic flaw, he is a genius in all ways but how to not be a total disaster with his own emotions.

And yet, the advice he gives Helena is perfect. He tells her to do what humans do: to cry, even if it's an imitation at first, and that eventually with enough practice it will be real. And he does so with the context that's what HE had to do. He had to LEARN to express grief in the normal human way until it became natural to him. And you get a glimpse for a moment that maybe he's such a genius of engineering real artificial intelligence, because he's coming at it from the same place as these beings he's creating. He knows what it's like to struggle with the darker feelings that plague the human mind, but are so essential to its existence that they must be included in a machine that is intended to fully emulate humanity. He understands that even if these feelings torment us, they can never be ignored, or cured with some kind of replacement for what we lose, or simply erased from our minds. He's the perfect one to understand these things because he's done it so catastrophically before himself.

America is absolutely disconnected to meat

I think I realized this when I had went to see my dad and stepmom one day and asked if I could place my hawk’s food. (A rabbit leg) in the freezer. My step mom was disgusted by the idea that a leg from an animal was in the freezer meanwhile an entire chicken was sitting in the fridge.

Your rotisserie chicken is an entire chicken.

Your pork chop is a hunk of pig.

Your rack of ribs are from a cow’s rib cage.

It’s like Americans view meat as colorful red and pink hued shapes that just exist and come into the world packaged.

You see so many people getting harassed or even having their content flagged for showing how to process or field dress meat when it’s at it’s freshest. Right after culling. For some reason this is considered “gore” by many folks when in reality it’s no more different from plucking a processed chicken after cull.

You also notice that Americans have an idea of what’s normal meat and what isn’t normal meat and there’s racist undertones that I’ve noticed in a lot of these comments left on foreign cooking videos

You have people that claim a video of a man in a different country preparing something like this is “eating a dog.” Meanwhile this is roasted goat.

You have people who’s only perception of an edible fish is in fillet or fish stick form and they call something like this nasty because “Eww there’s a head!” Yeah.. most animals have heads..

Some of ya’ll need to realize what your meat looks like prior to processing and that it’s prepared in different ways. We also need to erase the stigma behind non traditional meats.

Truly, genuinely, as an indigenous person I talk about this exact thing a LOT! Like, don't get me wrong I get a bit squicked when dressing a chicken or gutting and cleaning a fish, lord knows I had really mixed feelings the first time I saw a deers throat slit (I thought it was cruel, until my elder asked me if I would have preferred to let it suffer instead) The truth of the matter is that animals and humans are intertwined. We are food to one another, that's the way of the world and I think people forget that when we champion for humane treatment of animals and when we rail against factory farming we need to remember that removing death is not the goal, removing undue suffering it.