Just Two Leaders (both are dorks) ❤︎

I am such a huge horse nerd and I apologize. :( But I’m really tired of seeing girths that are halfway down a horse’s stomach. This may not be interesting to anyone who is not me, but I like to draw fancy saddles and ridiculously long shanks on bits. Also, horses are the only animal I can draw, so I take advantage of that.

I hope this helps some frustrated non-horsey artists in at least some small way. Remember, when in doubt, add some buckles and some rings. :)

@horsefigureoftheday here’s a cheat sheet on horse tack.

THANK YOU

This is cool. And good reference! The saddle and girth in particular are great.

And… as a horse owner I have to point out that several of these bridle reference photos show a horse in pain. (This is not ops fault! It is hard to find reference photos that *don’t* show pain, because the standard of care for horses in tack is so inconsistent!)

Look at the eyes, the tension in the lines of the face, the way the lips are drawn back. And that grey in the flash noseband? That is cranked so tight that horse won’t be able to breathe. Don’t do that. There are rules for how tight that noseband can be, and even aside from that, it is crushing fragile anatomy underneath.

Bridles are not restraints. The browband should not be snug. The flash, if you need to use one, should not be snug. Double reins and bits are not for just making things look fancy. They are hard to use correctly.

I apologize for intruding reality here. I 100% agree that tack is hard to draw, and this is a great reference! Just… if you’re going to put this much care into your tack drawing anyway, maybe make it a little looser on the face. Your horse and rider will thank you.

Why do so many people make tiktoks while they're clearly driving. What the fuck. Stop that shit, you're gonna kill someone.

I think people online treat driving too casually tbh, like there was a poll about people's bad habits while driving and they weren't bad habits or problematic or whatever, they were all things that literally kill people every single day. You are driving a massive vehicle that can very easily turn into a murder weapon with your carelessness, take this shit seriously.

"Haha I never use my turn signals" you are going to kill someone.

"I don't do full stops at stop signs lol" you are going to kill someone.

"Sometimes I text while I'm driving 🤭" YOU ARE GOING TO KILL SOMEONE.

Also people who speed up or suddenly stop or swerve a lot to freak out someone in the car for fun: it stops being funny when you get into a car accident because of it. Just so you know.

Tips and ideas for how to respond when someone is being rude to you

For personal reasons I won't get into, I have a history of just freezing when some is rude / hostile / aggressive / condescending / patronizing / etc. It's obviously not something I'm happy about at all, most people who freeze or fawn aren't happy about it and would change it if they could.

One day I confided in my co-worker, a middle aged woman in her 50's, that this is something I struggle with. Considering how confident and assertive she always struck me as, I was shocked when she told me this is also something she's struggled with.

The advice she gave me is to just memorize and practice a few broad statements or reactions that you can pull out of your pocket so to speak when someone is being rude or disrespectful to you. It's not easy if you're someone who's been conditioned to freeze or fawn, but practice helps. Practice saying these things when you're alone. Put up a sticky note next to your bed or on your bathroom mirror with these phrases and practice them when you see them. Practice saying these with a partner or trusted friend, role-play scenarios where you might need to use these phrases.

Here's a few phrases that have worked for me. The nice thing about them is that they tend to shut down the situation rather than escalating, while still letting the aggressor know that you don't find their behavior acceptable.

"Are you okay?"

This works well in professional settings, because it's not like your work place's residential bully can run to HR about you asking if they're okay (but they might if you try to retaliate and give them a taste of their own medicine). However, it still effectively sends the message "I think there's something wrong with your behavior and don't accept it". It's also not likely the response they're expecting, so it'll likely throw them off and prevent further verbal aggression.

"Could you repeat that for me? I didn't catch what you said."

This one is most effective for people you believe to actually have a conscious and might regret what they said if they actually thought about it a little more. I find that often when I do this one, when people repeat the rude/snippy/patronizing/etc thing they either shamefully stumble over their words and show some remorse, or they change altogether what they say. In the off chance they don't regret what they said and end up repeating exactly what they said, this at least buys you some time to think of a better reaction since you're no longer caught off guard by a sudden rude and snippy remark.

"Can you explain what you mean by that?"

Similar logic to the last one. Often when people are being rude/snippy/patronizing/etc they're caught up in their own emotions in that moment and didn't think it through. This is a polite and civil way of putting their rude behavior in the spotlight and making them reconsider what they said. The other advantage to this one is that in case you did misread their intentions and they meant no harm by what they said or did, this gives them an opportunity to clarify that, instead of you just feeling bad over a statement or actions they actually had no ill intentions with.

If anyone has any further examples of reactions / responses / statements that have worked for them, I'd love to hear about them. I'm new to studying the art of how to civilly yet effectively shut down bad behavior from others, so I'm always open to hearing more suggestions.

Here's another one I recently learned from a friend when I was griping to her about things like, co-workers who are redpill/MRA types and always trying weasel their agenda into casual and unrelated conversations to impose their views on me, or co-workers who strongly feel their home country is superior to my home country so they try to weasel how much better their home country is and how awful mine is into unrelated conversations. You are actually allowed to just say:

"I am not interested in having this conversation."

Yes, you are actually allowed to just say that. No, it's not particularly rude especially if the other person is trying to impose a topic or conversation on you that you don't want to have.

I say not particularly rude instead of not rude at all because of course the chances are not zero that they'll still take offense and find it rude. But this is one of the more professional and efficient ways of shutting down a conversation that you find inappropriate and just don't want to have.

If they don't respect this, just keep repeating yourself until they stop. And if they still don't respect it, then you have grounds to go to your manager / HR about them not respecting your boundaries and repeatedly imposing a conversation on you that you made it clear multiple times that you do not want to have. That is of course, if you do have a good HR department and/or manager who you think will actually care and handle it properly and professionally. If not, I'm sorry and I hope you can find a new job soon.

The "question" responses work best when delivered with genuine confusion instead of antagonistic intent! If they're just having an off day, it'll point out to them that they're not being kind, and if they're genuinely trying to be rude, it'll call them out without making you look crazy.

"What do you mean by that?" when said as a question, comes off as asking for clarification. You force them to either say the quiet part out loud, or shut the hell up. You're additionally seen as the clarifier in the conversation; nothing you've done is negative, and no third party will interpret this as you being rude.

"What do you mean by that?" when said as an aggressive call-out, comes off as just that: aggressive. You've lost all plausible deniability you could have had and are now just That Guy Who Ruined The Fun By Taking It Too Personally.

When someone's being a Snide Sneaky Asshole, your goal is to have one of these responses ready so you can force them to be an Outright To Your Face Asshole. By social contract, you then are able to respond with anger, or by taking offense. You just need them to say the quiet part out loud.

I have heard everyone's theories and I raise yall:

Shuichi rly like "I'm probably transgender but idc about that rn"

yeah i'm mad

Apollo, god of healing: And done! Do you feel any better?

Athena: Yeah, thank you Apollo

*Enter Poseidon, looking like a swiss cheese*

Apollo, god of prophecy: I was waiting for you

tell me something nice

if you grow mushrooms over a toxic waste site, chemical spill, or other polluted growing medium, they will suck up the toxins into their fruiting bodies with such effectiveness that they are being studied for their ability to clean up tainted industrial sites. it’s called mycoremediation.

if you do this with edible mushrooms, they are no longer technically edible, but on the other hand they make a great way to poison your enemies. this is called murder and it’s usually frowned upon, but they won’t see it coming and you get bragging rights afterwards about your ability to kill people with a pizza topping.

Sorry this was not precisely most people’s idea of “nice.” Let me add that you are a glow of comforting absurdity in an ever-more-fucked-up world.

I love everything about mycoremediation, but also

Slightly on the topic of removing toxic waste:

A hairdresser noticed that with oil spills, one of the biggest issues was the impact on wildlife because oil loves clinging to fur and feathers.

They used felting methods to create like a mat of hair & used it on a small scale test & it worked really well, the hair mainly stayed on top of the water like the oil & absorbed it like a sponge while leaving creatures & plants alone.

NASA is now working on large scale uses with the help of donated clippings from hair dressers and pet groomers.

And the hair can then be composted with the help of mushrooms.

3am

a herd of dairy cow isopods grazing the great green meadow 🌱

Happy TDOV!! Made a small comic, cutting my hair short was pretty much when I went. oh yeah baybe. its all comin together😏😏

SHOUTOUT TO THIS PERSON THEY GET IT

The commitment to the bit! The t-shirt that names the over-the-counter pain killer this man will have to take after this Oscar-winning performance!

wait guys is that an In Stars and Time physical release wait really really really really really REALLY?????

PHYSICAL RELEASE. IN STARS AND TIME. LIMITED RUN. PREORDERS. NOV 22ND DEC 22ND. "IT'S FOR REALSIES"