Justanotherwizard - Placeholder Blog Title

i say this in all seriousness, a great way to resist the broad cultural shift of devaluing curiosity and critical thinking is to play my favorite game, Hey What Is That Thing

you play it while walking around with friends and if you see something and don't know what it is or wonder why its there, you stop and point and say Hey What Is That Thing. and everyone speculates about it. googling it is allowed but preferably after spending several minutes guessing or asking a passerby about it

weird structures, ambiguous signs, unfamiliar car modifications, anything that you can't immediately understand its function. eight times out of ten, someone in the group actually knows, and now you know!

a few examples from me and my friends the past few weeks: "why is there a piece of plywood sticking out of that pond in a way that looks intentional?" (its a ramp so squirrels that fall in to the pond can climb out) • "my boss keeps insisting i take a vacation of nine days or more, thats so specific" (you work at a bank, banks make employees take vacation in long chunks so if youre stealing or committing fraud, itll be more obvious) • "why does this brick wall have random wooden blocks in it" (theres actually several reasons why this could be but we asked and it was so you could nail stuff to the wall) • "most of these old factories we drive past have tinted windows, was that just for style?" (fun fact the factory owners realized that blue light keeps people awake, much like screen light does now, so they tinted the windows blue to keep workers alert and make them work longer hours)

been playing this game for a long time and ive learned (and taught) a fuckton about zoning laws, local history, utilities (did you know you can just go to your local water treatment plant and ask for a tour and if they have a spare intern theyll just give you a tour!!!) and a whole lot of fun trivia. and now suddenly you're paying more attention when youre walking around, thinking about the reasons behind every design choice in the place you live that used to just be background noise. and it fuckin rules.

Eel... with feet...

Akira bike sliding on a horse

hey ao3 can you like give the extra $38k you made from this month’s funds drive to charity

The Tumblr folks adopted us Redditors. Now it’s time for us to return the favor

friendly reminder for the new twitter refugees:

change your icon/pfp and put something coherent in your blog description or you're going to get blocked bcs people think you're a bot

this site is built around reblogs, so please actually reblog posts(especially art and fics!!)

you can set your likes and follows to private

checkmarks here are a meme and mean nothing

follower counts are private and we like it that way, so get used to not judging people by that metric

drama and discourse is boring, use your blacklist and block button liberally

DON'T CENSOR YOURSELF!! we can swear and say kill and make fun of corporations all we want, and if you tiktok-ify your tags people who have things blacklisted for whatever reason will still see them, and people who want to see that content won't be able to find it!! spell words out normally, you won't get in trouble!!

tumblr live is sketchy as hell and full of fake accounts, if you decide to use it anyway may god have mercy on your soul o7

be nice to the reddit refugees, they're our friends <3

I want to tell a story to the artists and would-be artists out there.

When I was 19, I made a large oil painting of the nerd I would eventually marry. I poured all my attention and care into this painting. It's the only art I have from back then that still holds up as a work I'm proud of today.

I entered it into a judged show at the local art center. It got an honorable mention. I went to see the show with my beloved model. One of the judges came up to talk to me, and highlighted that all the judges really liked the painting. It would have placed, except, you see, the feet were incorrect. They were too wide and short, and if I just studied a bit more anatomy-

I called over my future wife, and asked her to take off her shoe. Being already very used to humoring me, she did. The judge looked at her very short, very wide little foot. Exactly as I'd lovingly rendered it. I would never edit her appearance in any way.

The judge looked me in the eye, and to his credit, he really looked like he meant it when he said "Oh I'm so sorry."

Anyways the moral of the story is that all of those anatomy books that teach you proportions are either showing you averages, or a very specific idea of an idealized body. Actual bodies are much more varied than that.

So don't forget to draw from observation, and remember that humans aren't mass produced mannequins. Delight in our variation. Because it's supposed to be there.

A Bird Hit My Window: What Do I Do?

Having a bird hit a house window is an unfortunate consequence that can happen at anytime of year.  However, during bird migrations in spring and fall, the incidence of bird collisions increases as birds are traveling to their new summer or winter homes.  This white-eyed vireo slammed into my neighbor's window, and with a little TLC, it survived, despite being knocked completely unconscious!  This leads to the question, "What can I do for a bird that hits my window?"  The answer to that depends on the situation.  Audubon suggests calling a wildlife rehabber, and that would certainly be the best approach.  Unfortunately, many of us don't have a rehabber nearby, and the task of aiding in the bird's recovery falls on us.

Sometimes, birds are only lightly stunned post-collision.  Their eyes are open and they are looking around, but show no interest in flying.  If it's fairly warm outdoors, and the bird is not at risk of hypothermia, I fashion a makeshift nest out of a clean cotton hand towel, and place the bird in the "nest" and leave it alone.  From a distance, I do keep an eye on the recovering bird to see how it responds, and to make sure it stays safe from predators.  There's a good chance the bird will fly off within a few minutes; although, I have seen it take as much as 20-30 minutes.

If a bird is laying on the ground and appears lifeless, GENTLYtry to move its legs.  If the legs are stiff and don't move, the bird is likely deceased, and nothing more can be done.  However, if you can move the legs, the bird is unconscious and there are some steps you can take to aid in its recovery.  Line a small box with a clean cotton or paper towel, and gently place the bird in the box.  Bring the box indoors and place it in a dark or dimly lit area of your home that is away from noise and pets.  At this point, it's a waiting game.  It can take as much as an hour for a bird to regain consciousness and clear its head.  When you hear it scratching around the box, it's on the road to recovery!  At this point, I take the box outdoors and wait for it to fly out of the box.

What if the bird does not recover, and it dies?  It's sad, and not the outcome that any of us want, but the unfortunate truth is that this sometimes happens.  It's very likely that the bird sustained extreme head trauma, and/or there were other injuries that were not visually apparent.

In the case of our white-eyed vireo, the time from collision to full recovery was about an hour.  It regained consciousness within a few minutes, but sat perched on the shrub and looking around for what seemed to be an alarming amount of time.  Fortunately, it eventually flew away, continuing its migration south to its winter home.

The skirt I got is awesome and fits perfectly but more importantly my cat has claimed the box it came in!

perfect :’)