This is from 2020, but it definitely still applies.
Did you know that leeches were once used to predict storms? Well, a tornado warning just dropped and my squad is climbing
My dad is a meteorologist and he has never once warned me about an incoming storm. My leeches, however......
https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2015/apr/19/weatherwatch-forecasting-tempest-prognosticator-storm-leech
*urgently* Lads, the leechometre is at 12 bong, I repeat, 12 bong!
"tempest prognosticator" absolutely sounds like some kind of arcane device a wizard would have lying around in his workshop
It would also probably have leeches in it.
I feel like the reason certain dog-lovers insist cats are evil is because they read their body language as if they were dogs. So here’s a very basic guide to common “mean” things cats do that actually aren’t mean at all if you know what they’re thinking.
Rolling and exposing belly- attacks you when touched
Does not mean: Give belly rubs! - haha I tricked you!
Actually means: I’m playful! If you reach for my belly I’ll grab your arm and bite it because I think we’re playfighting!
Does not mean: tricked you again!
Actually means: I’m showing you my belly because I trust you. Please don’t break that trust by invading my personal space. I might accept a belly rub if I’m not ticklish and I know you well.
Snapping at you while being pet
Does not mean: I suddenly decided I dislike you!
Actually means: You’re petting me in a way that gives me too much restless energy. Please focus on petting my head and shoulders instead of stroking the full length of my back next time.
Is in the same room but makes no attempt to interact
Does not mean: I’m ignoring you
Actually means: We’re hanging out! I’m being respectful by giving you space while still enjoying your company.
Slapping/scratching your hand when you try to pet them
Does not mean: I hate you!
Actually means: You’ve failed to establish that we’re not playing, or the way you’re approaching me scares me. Be calmer, speak more gently, make eye-contact and blink slowly at me before you try again.
I love this post omg, thank you so much. As a lifelong cat person, dogs perplex me because they’re so completely different behaviourally.
I love dogs too but, I’ve been trying to tell people, you canNOT treat cats like you treat dogs. They arent the same animals and have very different personalities
P.s.: people often pet cats way too hard. Dogs like a firm pet or a pat on the belly, cats dont have the same bone structure and are more flexible than dogs so what you’re doing probably hurts them
Sitting and staring
Does not mean: I am challenging you/plotting your demise/just generally evil and creepy.
Actually means: I am a desert-adapted species, so my natural tears are very thick and keep my eyes moist for a nice long time. I do find people interesting and enjoy watching them. I just don’t need to blink very often!
Staring and blinking slowly
Does not mean: I’m smug and think I am smarter than you.
Actually means: I like you! But I don’t need to get up in your face to show it. I can just sit over here and blow kisses at you to show you I am glad you are around!
It’s very frustrating for me when people expect cats to act like dogs, or act like they’re deceitful. They aren’t! They just AREN’T DOGS.
Pour les chats 🐈💞
Get ready for “more reasons why I fucking love cats”
- Yes, the legends are true. Cats headbutt you to show their trust and affection. They also do it to show “hey look I see you as family.” Lions do it with members of their pride to say the same. It’s not just because they want food.
- Cats nibbling is indeed literally cats grooming you. It’s what mom cats do to their kittens. If a cat is gently biting and/or licking you, they’re now your mom.
- Meowing can simply be for the mere fact they want to say hello, want to play or be pet. Again, not just for food.
- They barely meow at other cats (except for kittens, they meow at mom cat), mostly just humans. There are exceptions but overall, meowing is almost always for us.
- Cats squinting/slow blinking is indeed basically the equivalent of us smiling and/or kissing.
- Cats, like humans, prefer to get things without having to work for it- which isn’t very common within other animals.
- Cat massages or making biscuits is because they happy! Kneading is another way of saying “hey I like this moment here I enjoy you and my life.”
- Cats recognize us by smell, sound, taste, and touch. They recognize us after years as their long term memory is extremely good. This is why abused or neglected cats are so easily scared or hard to connect with. If your scent changes over the years or just in the day, your voice will them it’s really you. Also, they will only remember you if you had impact on their life. If you just existed in the same house, they obviously won’t care.
- And yes, they know our patterns in the day. You notice it when it’s beneficial to them (feeding time!). They will often wait for you to come home as well.
- To remember: cats think we are interesting as hell. They watch us do everything because we’re fascinating!!!
- They also want you to be around when eating because they feel vulnerable. They focus on eating so they hope you protect them. They do the same for you, all the time.
CATS 😍😍😍😍
when a cat turns their back on you, they’re not snubbing you. they’re trusting you to watch their back.
notice how when you’re unfamiliar but nonthreatening, they might loaf facing you and sorta halfway watch you. you’re not fully trusted, but you’re ok by them.
when you’re familiar and liked, they’ll often sit near you facing the same way. imitation of poses is a weird little way cats show solidarity. they do it to each other too. check out these bff’s:
they are doing this on purpose. it’s a buddy thing. so if you’re watching tv and a cat sits next to you and pretends to watch tv too, they are basically calling you bro and declaring friendship.
and if they really love and trust you, they’ll turn their back on you and go to sleep. they’ll sleep facing a wall in your presence, or lounge where they can’t see the room. this isn’t a snub, folks, this is true kitty love. they’re saying, “i feel safe when you’re around. i know nothing’s going to sneak up on me, because you’re here. i feel so safe i can stick my head under a pillow and snore with my butt pointed at you.”
farts aren’t an expression of love, though, as far as i know. they’re just farts.
Not mentioned but still relevant:
Wagging tail–does not mean happy, means lots of restless energy/agitated
Fun fact: because I treat ALL animals like tiny intelligent toddlers with logic and *A* common sense that just doesn’t glock yours because SPECIES barrier and a distinct lack of thumbs…
I consider any pets in a house just as much a resident to be respected as the humans because I am the guest and bitch THEY LIVE THERE.
So, because I taught pre k. And consider most pet animals to just be Adult Human Logic Impaired Thumbless Toddler Equivalents… I TALK to them like my students…
*MEOW* yes? What is it? *MEEEEEEOOOOOOOW* I don’t understand that tone can you show me?
And i follow them.
And I know a lot of “cat people” who DON’T speak cat, but they appreciate their animal. So I just give them the fun fact of what something means when they comment on a behavior they think is cute or weird they encourage simply because it is cute and they were told it was not harmful.
And my FAVORITE is when big quiet men who spoil their cats learn that their fluffy baby walking in to sit next to them playing a game, and keeping eyes on the door their human is not paying attention to is their cat’s way of saying “I got eyes on the door bro. You good to keep playing.”
There is nothing better than hearing “OH you watching the door for me, buddy? Hell yeah, thanks. After this round, we breaking out the nip!” And a responding meow after watching a man cry real tears at some point cuz I informed him that sleeping in the corner meant his cat was deeply trusted him and waking up to the cat sitting in his pillow watching the door was the guard duty while he slept. The cutest shit is telling cat people “yes, they love you JUST as much as you think they do… and maybe a lil more than you could ever imagine.”
i don't want a career, i want to do crafts
While I understand this is probably venting, I have some thoughts I wish to share.
If you don't want a career, you want to craft, maybe look into the trades. I've started working as an elevator mechanic recently and, holy shit it's changed my life.
Like, seriously. While the work is tiring, it's deeply satisfying too. To me, very similar to getting a pattern in crochet or sewing figured out. It involves using your hands, using your brain in a similar way crafting does, and it can also pay incredibly well (meaning you can use your left over pay from making things in your day job to making things just cause you want to with your evenings and weekends).
With fewer and fewer people going into trades, there's more and more demand, making it easier to get in. My province is currently paying eligible students to become trade workers, so you can see if you have a similar program where you live. (if there are any Quebecers here interested, check out Operation Main D'oeuvre and call your local Emploi Québec office for information).
And for Mentally ill people, I've found construction insanely helpful for managing my conditions. Like, regular exercice helps the management of so many conditions, right? But I've always hated exercise for the sake of exercise. But now my work has me moving every day, making my depression and ADHD way easier to manage. Nothing like beating a recalcitrant rail support into place to help work off the nervous energy creates by anxiety either. I've been struggling with my mental health for well over a decade and I do not have words to describe how good it feels to wake up and have no dread about the work I have to do today. I might be tired and grumpy, but even then, there's no soul crushing dread.
I've also found it empowering and it helps me with my crafting (it teaches precision and gives you a really good eye for measurements, depending on the trade). It gives you financial power as well as power over your space (I've changed all the switches in my apartment for dimmers, easy peasy).
So yeah, TLDR, don't want a career, want to craft? Maybe manual trades are the route for you. I know they were for me
Computer repair was easily the best most fulfilling work I ever did. Just me and a little puzzle I knew how to solve.
if you have autism please look into welding. you get earplugs and gloves and a cozy helmet. you do the same shit the same way every day. you are surrounded by the weirdest and most dysfunctional men ever invented and you don’t have to respect any of them. you go to your little horse stall and glue bits together until it’s time to go home. it’s exhausting and sometimes painful work but i have worked retail and i have sucked dick for money and i can say with my whole chest that welding is significantly less stressful in terms of time, effort, pain, and dealing-with-people.
if you have ADHD i do have to warn you that welding gets boring after awhile and you are discouraged from making little bugs out of scraps. you can do it anyway. but you have to hide them from your boss.
“I love endless corridors, I love doors that lead where they shouldn’t and stairways to nowhere, I love rooms whose dimensions don’t add up and angles that don’t make sense” bro, that’s not cosmic horror, it’s just Brutalism.
[ID: screenshot of tags taken by Tumblr user writingcaterpillar.
#media #tropes #cosmic horror #architecture #brutalism #other essential brutalist experiences that are often mistaken for cosmic horror include #’why is it melting’ #’how is it making that noise’ #and #’where did all this water come from’
End ID.]
1 fact about me is that i am completely oblivious to band fanbase beef with other fan bases of different bands to a really funny degree . 1 trait about me is that i have no idea what’s going on at all because i just listen to music and it’s good and that’s enough for me like you’re saying ween reddit and kg reddit are killing each other and eating their entrails in the streets?? nnnno boongish and han-tyumi are best friends . this could never happen . (context clue: you’re supposed to envision this post being said by a middle aged balding guy in a tank top holding a dr pepper in a lawn chair outside his trailer and then he laughs and smokes like his 15th cigarette that hour. this adds nothing to the post, but it enriches the atmosphere of it
*laughs in the middle aged man voice* egehehhehehe that’s the POINT buddy! anyway last week my dog terry found a snail with two heads and i named it The Shining twins. ain’t that somethin
AU where tma is a comedy and the avatars all behave like the worst most bickery group of estranged siblings in a sitcom ever
they have biweekly get-togethers that everyone hates and complains about incessantly but they all show up anyway as failing to do so is just asking to be relentlessly bullied on the avatar group chat for being “the one tearing this family apart”
Once I made an alternative timeline where the alpha kid’s sprites were mixed diferently and I though I could share them here
That’s all! I considered including them in the au for a bit but it wouldn’t have worked with the current storyline, so they’ll stay as another alternative timeline (posibly doomed idk)
If this isn't the intended functionality of this exhibit it fucking is now
There’s something very transgender about this
guys im sorry to tell you but salmonid smokeyard is this.
I cannot over-emphasize how much of the map is Unusable Death Pit even at the best of times.
