Creator of worlds

@artofchinara

Sokka and Yue reuniting in the spirit world

When she griddle on my harrow till I hark. Is this anything

As someone who was recently in Fukui, this isn't even scratching the surface of how mad the town is for dinosaurs.

For example, here is the outside of the train station:

If you thought that they were only outside the station, think again!

The last dinosaur has a crab, because the region is known for seafood.

You can even buy coffee emblazoned with dinosaurs!

And that's not even getting into how you get to the nearby Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum. Behold, the Dino-Liner:

And if you're like, man I don't know how the museum will top all of these dinosaurs, boy do I have news for you.

And then you get to the cafe:

But, eventually, it was time to head back to the train station...on the dino bus.

Birds of Aotearoa! At the very least, a couple of them!

part of the reason i love how bell hooks talks about masculinity is that she shows real compassion towards men suffering from the effects of toxic masculinity. she was conscious of how we need to unlearn the ways we talk about men + masculinity just as much as we need to unlearn the same for women + femininity. so many times ill see someone talking about toxic masculinity like (hyperbolizing here but only slightly) "these FUCKING STUPID BABY BITCHES won't MAN UP and go to a therapist!!!" and like. i get the anger. but you see feminists recreating patriarchal manhood by only promoting good behaviors through patriarchal frameworks. any use of the term "real men" is bad because it reifies the idea that manhood is a special title you must earn, and it is something possible to fail and fake. & as important as it is to promote sexual equality + the pleasure of non-cis-men, lots of people are essentially still working with the idea that men need sexual prowess to have worth but just shifting it slightly so there is more emphasis on women's pleasure. but I want cis men to think about their partners' pleasure because they care about their partners, not because they need to check a box in order to keep their man card. and don't get me started on small dick jokes– and the absolutely pitiful excuse people will use that "well, I don't believe it, but misogynistic men get upset when I say it, so it's okay!"

basically bell hooks is so fucking right. in order to create loving men we need to love men, simply for being alive, whether or not they are performing. as much as we need to actively unlearn misogyny (and we do), it's equally vital we unlearn patriarchal ways of seeing manhood. we can't just assume that taking a feminist perspective automatically means there is no work to be done there.

My mom is a psychologist and she has gotten dudes to go to therapy just by telling them softly, one hand gently resting on their arm, "You deserve to go to therapy. You deserve to have someone help you and you deserve to feel better than this. You shouldn't have to go through so much alone."

When I tell you she's made men cry with this, I mean it. I have never seen anyone get a man to go to therapy by making it another task they have to do in order to be a Real Man (TM). I have seen full grown badass, shredded truckers and professional businessman and toughened good ole boys get teary eyed or freeze or cry silently when shown an ounce of compassion because men are starving for it. Men are so used to everything being yet another burden to carry and thing to do in order to earn manliness points in the eyes of the world that being told sincerely, "you deserve to be happy" just about short-circuits most of us. One time one of my bullies' dads went from yelling at my mom to trying not to cry because she just listened to him rant about how stretched thin he was being a single dad, put a hand on his and said, "That sounds like a lot to carry alone. I can't imagine how hard that's been." It was like she'd flipped a switch and suddenly he had permission to feel what the anger was disguising. (She then told my bully to try to think about his dad a bit more, because family needs family. And when I tell you this boy looked like he'd been called out by God Himself, I mean it; he had several revelations and stopped a lot of toxic behavior after that.)

I really hope this isn't derailing with personal anecdotes but I just. I really think it's baffling how tumblr will post all these quotes about kindness, compassion and love and then not extend them towards men. I just don't get it. Because men react to any of it extended towards them like someone in the desert presented suddenly with water.

One of my neighbors is known as the grumpy old guy who hates everyone. He is not grumpy or hateful towards me because I did the very Southern thing of making food for everyone and introducing myself when I moved in. I listened to him rant about how no one does that these days and how no one knows their neighbors and agreed that that's awful and we all need people and it sucks that we're all so isolated from each other. I told him it's cool that he still does stuff like foster cats and didn't let the world drain the kindness from him and y'all, that one tiny piece of acknowledgment that life is hard and his kindness in spite of it took work has made the "grumpy old guy who hates everyone" my bestie. He and I chat whenever we see each other in the hall. He is starving for positivity and gentleness.

One time on the bus, coming home from shopping, I got to talking to a guy in his 50's riding across from me. He wanted to know why I had a bunch of flowers. Snidely, he asked if I was giving them to my boyfriend. (I had on a vest with Pride pins at the time.) I explained actually, they were for my French professor, whose mother had died. He was confused that I said my professor was male. Nobody gave him flowers when his mom died a year ago, he said. I took a flower out of the arrangement and handed it to him as my stop approached. He looked at it as if I'd given him an entire flower store.

A chunk of the internet seems convinced that the way to stop hateful men is to meet hate with hate. I have yet to see that work. I have yet to even hear anecdotes that state that it works, only that it satisfies some internal desire to lash out in response to someone lashing out at you.

But I have seen a construction worker on a bus hold a single white hyacinth with the utmost care and be unable to meet my eyes as he said "thank you".

fuck it homebrew boop button. reblog this post to boop the person you reblogged from.

One of my favorite things about Tolkien's writing is that he has a very specific, recurring trope. For lack of a better term, I'm dubbing this the Tolkien Wife-Guy.

This is mainly obvious in the Silmarillion, but Tolkien loves to write couples where the man is a notable individual- nobility, commits a great deed, or both- but the wife is at least equally notable, if not more beloved or powerful. Manwe is the king of the Valar and Eru's main representative in Arda? Everyone loves Varda more, and Melkor fears her more than his own brother. Elu Thingol is the king of the Silvan Elves? His wife is Melian, whose Girdle is the magic that keeps Morgoth's forces at bay. Beren is a chief among the Edain, who befriends animals and survives one of the most nightmarish places in Beleriand? His wife is Luthien.

Even in Lord of the Rings we see this occur, though the couples are on more even footing. Tom Bombadil is... Tom Bombadil, but Goldberry is the River-daughter, and Tom adores her above everything else, and the hobbits are completely taken in with her when she's their host. Similarly, while Celeborn is a mighty lord among Elves, Galadriel is one of the only Noldor in Middle-earth who saw the Two Trees, and her hair inspired Feanor to make the Silmarils, not to mention her own accomplishments in the war against Morgoth. Aragorn is the king of Gondor and Arnor, but Arwen is the Evenstar of the Elves, the descendant of three(?) different royal Elven lines. And Faramir becomes the Steward of Gondor and is one of the noblest men alive, but Eowyn killed the Witch-king, so you know. She got the grander moment for the saga.

But with (most) of these couples, we never get the impression that the man views his wife as Less-Than, or as a junior partner. Thingol is the main exception to this in how he dismisses Melian's counsel, and that's made out to be his foolishness within the text. Otherwise, Manwe treats Varda as his co-ruler, Beren never tries to downplay Luthien's achievements, and I'm pretty sure most of Tom Bombadil's dialogue is about how gorgeous Goldberry is. It's really sweet.

All of these examples really testify to how much Tolkien loved his wife. People rightly point to Beren and Luthien as the prime example of that, but I think you can find it in these other couples too. Even though Edith is mainly known to history as Mrs. Tolkien, it's evident to me that Jirt saw her as a whole person worthy of admiration outside of being his wife.

Tried to recreate one of my old digital paintings in oils

Something I drew yesterday for Day 1 of Nortvember! Master Xehanort as Successor (to the Land of Departure and all that implies). He may or may not still be the same evil ol’ bastard we know and love, but working in a slightly different capacity. Really, I just wanted to draw the outfit, haha.

I realized it had been @bizzie-bee's birthday like three weeks after the fact and immediately got tunnel vision about it dfgjd I'M LOVE YOU BEE!!! Happy to do some apritello art now and then, I felt like I was neglecting my babies-

If you're interested in a full illustration like this, stay tuned later today for an announcement on my commissions!

The little background people without blur under the cut:

Doing more than one? Choose whichever you found the most helpful. ❤️

I was actually just up in Ohio for the solar eclipse, and did you know, I'd never seen Spring before?

I thought I had, because down here in Florida we do get some flowers and nice green leaves as the weather shifts from cool to hot, but the trees are never bare and the flowers just blend in with the rest of the trees and in comparison this Actual Spring was some sort of magical wonderland, I swear to god, I've never seen anything like it

Apple blossoms???? are so pretty???????? the subtle changes of the colors, and they take up the whole tree and they're so damn beautiful????????????????? I had never seen them before, we don't have any apple trees down here at all, but now they might be my favorite flower

I'm familiar with cherry blossoms- we do have some cherry trees- but not like this. This tree was entirely pink and stood out so much! No leaves or anything on the trees, just flowers everywhere!!! I see why people like spring and cherry blossoms so much, I think.

And idek what these are but LOOK at that!!!!!!! Life and color!!!! Spring!!!!

So yeah. I went to Ohio and I thought it was beautiful and i wanted to share that with you. Your state is wonderful!!!

New challenge for the week: find something in your everyday environment that would be amazing and magical if you had never seen it before.

So far I've got that blue patch that mallard ducks have on their wings.

Imagine how magical it would be to see, if they lived in, say, remote lakes on top of mountains, instead of in whatever pond, stream, creek, or large puddle the neighborhood park has to offer.

Dedicated birders would come from out of state, get up at dawn, and hike three hours uphill through the woods, in the hopes of seeing a breeding pair, with the iridescent green head of the male, and that secret flash of blue.

@sarah-dipitous

I just uploaded my first chapter of my Kim Possible fic!

Here's the summary:

After the events of So The Drama, the aftereffects of the Diablos still linger, with Bueno Nachos around the world shut down for repairs. Kim and Ron are also navigating their first date, with Ron uncertain where to go, now that their main hangout spot is closed for the unknown future. However, this may be the least of Kim and Ron's worries, as Sheldon Director returns to take advantage of the closed Bueno Nachos to kidnap the CEO and prevent his sister from helping people around the world. Will the duo/couple be able to take down Sheldon Director? Will Ron be able to find a cute date spot for Kim? Will Rufus be able to avoid being a third wheel? Read on to find out!

::: I hope you all enjoy if you read it, thank you!!

This is both so cute and funny. I'm giggling about Ron's love for Bueno Nacho, the little moments with Rufus like slicking back his non-existent fur and whipping out a pair of sun glasses, and Ron and Kim's first date as romantic partners.

♥ Under the wisterias ♥