This is basically how my huskies see themselves when they try to hunt deer in the forest behind our house. And they would have succeeded too if it wasn’t for that meddling fence!
The full hours long art videos, HD image and PSD files will be DMed on my Patreon on Dec 5th :)
Everything that is exposition and big landscapes, and not just characters talking, that I was dreading when writing this turned out to be very fun to do
Here’s your unscheduled reminder that vaccines are proven, safe, healthy, and vital for our survival.
It’s also a reminder that ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield was a scam artist who was trying to discredit specifically the MMR vaccine so he could make money off his own variation, and had conflicting interests re: being paid to find problems with it. To do so, he invented a new condition that does not exist, and subjected numerous children to painful testing that had no benefit to their quality of life.
It’s also a reminder from an autistic adult that a happy healthy autistic child is a lot easier to achieve than one who died of completely preventable causes. And that it’s a lot harder for people like me, who work directly with children to enrich and educate them, to do our job and ensure a happy healthy future generation, if you get us killed by refusing to do your part eradicating known horrible diseases.
I cannot really be unbiased or friendly about this, because, again, as an autistic adult, the antivax movement boils down to using my existence as a boogeyman to hurt children.
If you wouldn’t play russian roulette with your baby, don’t deny them vaccines.
If you refuse to vaccinate kids specifically because you think vaccines cause autism, you are telling me to my face that you think that I would be better off dead than alive the way I am. And to that end, I would cordially invite you to get off my blog, because if you don’t want me in the world, you don’t get to enjoy my civility or creative efforts.
If you need a source for Wakefield’s garbage, I would recommend Brian Deer’s MMR What They Didn’t Tell You which is available free on youtube.
You ever see something innocuous, minding its own business on the clearance shelf at Michael’s and before you know it, it takes over your life for a few weeks?
So it was with this desktop greenhouse.
I took it home and after taking an appropriate time to “season” my idea in my mind (read: a month or two) I set to make my vision of a mini botanical garden a reality.
I started by removing the heavy glass panels and building a raised floor above the latch. I wanted to use the base as a foundation on the building.
I wrapped the foundation in plastic stone textured flooring (meant for Christmas villages) and built a pond at one end of the same. I then gave it a more realistic paint job and designed a rough layout for my plants and displays.
I also knew I wanted to make the ironwork significantly more intricate, but I wasn’t sure how just yet…
Up next - PLANTS! I went wild making all kinds of plants. Some were specific species and some were more conceptual.
I made several trees with polymer clay and moss, cacti out of beads and flocking, cattails out of raffia, hot glue and coffee grounds, and giant monstera leaves out of paper and wire.
This part should have taken me a long time, but it really came together fast. I loved finding ways to replicate natural shapes and patterns using bits of this and that.
I did make adjustments to my plans as I went like eliminating benches in favor of a simpler overall design.
Then I needed to fill my pond with water. For this I used resin. Lily pads were added to the top layer, and I wired in simple LED fairy lights. The batteries are kept in the box under the foundation.
In a weekend frenzy I added more plants, metal (paper) steps, new (plexi)glass windows, a roof, wrought-iron vines (paper again), doors that open, and a hose reel disguising the latch. Suddenly, a project I thought would take months was finished…
I love my desktop botanical garden. Right now it sits on a simple lazy Susan in my office. But I’d love to get it a proper display box to protect from dust.
Thank you for coming on this little journey with me. This piece packs a lot of joy into a tiny space. I always love building miniatures, and I’ll be doing more in the future I’m sure.
At the risk of sounding stupid, I just found out how long the stone age lasted. In my head it’s about as long as other historical time periods, a couple thousand years before ancient egypt, and conceptually looks like a bad car insurance commercial. Nope! Dead wrong! The stone age lasted for 3.4 MILLION YEARS.
Okay wow i would not have guessed millions. Maybe in like the tens of thousands? But definitely would have way undershot.
I told my wife and they said “Yeah, modernity is a recent and strange invention”
Oh yes! Hello I am wife. And these are the oldowan tools:
The first image is my favorite, the iconic oldowan hand axe, but you’ll note there’s a wide range of other tools crafted for everything from crushing nuts and stones, to awls and engraving devices. There is some evidence, albeit hotly debated, that these tools MIGHT have been used in ancient burials. Maybe. This is up for debate because these tools are THREE MILLION YEARS OLD. They pre date homo sapiens and homo erectus. They pre date the ice age. Hell, they pre date the fucking ice caps. We don’t think humans were burying their dead as we understand it today, but maybe?? These were made by homo habilis, or the “handyman”, so named for their invention of tools.
It makes me feel very small to look at these, like looking up at a starry sky.
