Honestly The Biggest Disappointment I Had Researching ABC Was That Medieval Authors Did Not, In Fact,

[image id: a four-page comic. it is titled “immortality” after the poem by clare harner (more popularly known as “do not stand at my grave and weep”). the first page shows paleontologists digging up fossils at a dig. it reads, “do not stand at my grave and weep. i am not there. i do not sleep.” page two features several prehistoric creatures living in the wild. not featured but notable, each have modern descendants: horses, cetaceans, horsetail plants, and crocodilians. it reads, “i am a thousand winds that blow. i am the diamond glints on snow. i am the sunlight on ripened grain. i am the gentle autumn rain.” the third page shows archaeopteryx in the treetops and the skies, then a modern museum-goer reading the placard on a fossil display. it reads, “when you awaken in the morning’s hush, i am the swift uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight. i am the soft stars that shine at night. do not stand at my grave and cry.” the fourth page shows a chicken in a field. it reads, “i am not there. i did not die” / end id]

a comic i made in about 15 hours for my school’s comic anthology. the theme was “evolution”

Cool Prehistoric Creatures

since I’ve been obsessed with prehistoric animals for the past few days, I’m gonna share several of the coolest ones I’ve found here we goooo

Inostrancevia aka the Goodest Boy.

my fave at present. a genus belonging to the family Gorgonopsidae, which is a family of extinct therapsids. These were the largest members of Gorgonopsidae, weighing 300 kilograms on average. As you can see, it is Lorge. It lived around 250-265 million years ago.

Here he is committing murder of a Scutosaurus with his badass saber teeth.

Despite the fact that this good boy would eat me, I would give him scritches.

OKAY

Polonosuchus aka HOLY SHIT THATS TERRIFYING WHAT WHO AUTHORIZED THIS

So, as much as I love dinosaurs, I feel like they unnecessarily overshadow some of the Really Unneccesarily Terrifying critters that God took look one look at, said “what have I done” and stuffed away deep deep in the Triassic period.

Such as the rauisuchians.

Nature apparently did a shit ton of experimenting around with crocodylomorphs before coming up with the flat river dwelling bois we know and love. You know how our modern crocodiles have their legs sprawled out to the side so they kind of have to drag themselves along?

Well...

Polonosuchus was basically a CROCODILE. THAT COULD RUN. FAST. AND IT WAS

IT WAS THIS BIG

SIX METERS LONG AND AS TALL AS A HUMAN

IMAGINE SEEING A CROCODILE AND IT GETS UP ON THESE TALL ASS LEGS AND STARTS SPRINTING AFTER YOU LIKE A LEOPARD

I WOULD SHIT

Doedicurus aka Literally a Tank

Have you ever looked at an armadillo and thought “hey what if this thing weighed 1,400 kilograms and had a spiky club on the end of its tail”

Thankfully you don’t have to imagine.

The club alone weighed 40-65 kilograms.

Nothing I could add would make this better

Pelagornis, aka Hey Isnt This A Little Excessive?

I’m very slightly bitter at pterosaurs for overshadowing the Giant Birds from Hell that used to just...Exist.

Pelagornis sandersi was a species of flying bird with a wingspan of 20-24 feet. We think it was some sort of seabird.

Also, because being pants-shittingly hugenormous isn’t enough for this thing:

What if beak...but...Teethy Spikes.

I’m going to let you google images of this one because i want you to see the many terrifying reconstructions.

Dinocrocuta, aka Doctor Extreme Bone Hurting

Dinocrocuta was...basically like a spotted hyena. Just. You know. 300 kilograms and 6 feet tall. The size of an entire tiger. Presumably, its large, bone crushing jaws were for crushing even larger bones.

Dinocrocuta actually has a lot of competition for Bone-Crushingest Beast though:

Mongolonyx, aka What If Hoof—But Wolf

The only reconstruction of this guy I can find is by some person on deviantart (contact and watermark is on the image, obvi)

so...some explanation. Mongolonyx is a mesonychid—a carnivorous ungulate. This is an ungulate. A Hoofed Mammal. That decided to evolve into a predator for some reason. Though it looks dog-like here, it wouldn’t have looked like any living animal at all. Its feet would have looked like paws...but hooves. Like many other hoofed mammals mesonychids were fast but not very flexible, and would have run in a similar fashion to modern ungulates.

Speaking of animals that just Do Not look like anything we have now...

Chalicotherium...Huh?

At some point some members of Perissodactyla thought, “Huh, wouldn’t it be cool if we had...Arms?” And never looked back.

Don’t you wish *you* had arms, modern hoofed mammals? That’s what I thought.

tell me something nice

"friendzoning"? i think we should talk about romancezoning. as someone who's aro, it makes me incredibly uncomfortable if someone says they're romantically interested in me. i guess it could be a little flattering at first, but the idea of, like, my close friends secretly wanting a romantic relationship instead is. not a pleasant thought.

*through gritted teeth* every day i choose to be kind *barely restraining myself from violence* i choose to have compassion *tamping down the vicious bloodlust inside me* i choose to care and to be kind and to love

Anyone else sad they’ll never get to see a live thylacine?  Me too dude. 

An experiment in graphic design– drew the thylacine in walnut ink and the rest is photoshop

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

I searched up eczema on tumblr because I wanted to know if someone was like me out there and holy shit after like five minutes of scrolling I've gotten so much new info no one bothered to tell me?

eczema (esp chronic and stuff) is considered a disability? I come under that category? no one bothered to tell me?

I don't need to feel bad and mean abt feeling angry when someone tells me not to scratch? It genuinely pisses off a lot of people?

Water irritates your skin? you're supposed to be greasy?

you need coolness and darkness and it's a sort of universal thing?

You can have triggers other than food?

Those marks on my skin that my fam freaks out about are hyperpigmentation and I'm not a weirdo for having them?

I'm not alone. People are like me out there. Even if we aren't heard we exist.

i dont think i posted these but here i made a little frog pattern to make tiny frog toys with my grandma

this is the first lil guy I made while still learning how i should sew it

The balance of

“stop acting like being aro is a great tragedy and that I’m doomed to be sad and alone forever, just because our experiences aren’t the same as yours doesn’t mean our lives are horrible”

and

“stop acting like being aro is easy and stress free because we don’t have to deal with romantic relationship drama, it’s not fun, it’s alienating and hard to navigate a world that has no idea how to reconcile your existence”