progress

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I’m in the boring bit now. We’ve had An Working Kitchen since Friday and I spent the weekend having a wonderful time putting stuff away, and Sunday in particular dragged by so slowly, miraculously, I lounged around, looked out the window, organized things in an offhand kind of way, just kind of fucked around, it was great.

But by now I’m sort of grimly realizing that I have to make all this stuff fit, and the problem is these great huge cabinets don’t have built-in drawers or sliding thingies or whatever. So if I fill them full with loose things I will lose all those loose things. I need to have baskets or pull-out drawers or whatnots. So. I’m making some progress, but I’m also getting frustrated.

So i’m working on that, i might buy inserts or somesuch. They exist, and I can make use of them.

But the thing that’s really preoccupying me is that I need to put some kind of light in the front window, a lamp you can switch on while you’re sitting there. It’s well-illuminated by the overhead lights, but those are controlled by a distant switch, and the dimmer is all the way on the other side of the room. Impossible to adjust while sitting at the table. And I often want just the table illuminated, not the whole room.

The obvious solution is to hang a tiny chandelier, the plug-in kind, in the bay window itself.

And I was looking at it, and the glitter in the countertops, and I was like, I’m sure this product exists: I want an LED crystal chandelier with a plant pot smack in the middle. Perfect day-to-night Basic Bitch look. LEDs make crystal sparkle incredibly, plus are usually liquid-sealed so you don’t have to worry about watering the plant, plus don’t get that hot so you won’t scorch the plant. Bada-boom bada-bing. I hopped on Etsy and started looking for it.

…

Nothing. There are plant chandeliers but they have had the lights removed for plant pots to be put in. There is one singular image of a lighting fixture that is a glass globe and a plant below, but the plant is fake (and i’m pretty sure so are the listings, nobody has convincing reviews). There are macrame holders made with crystals, but they have no light source. Nobody has combined all these elements in a way that answers my needs.

… I can DIY a lot of things but this is not using any of the skills I already have. And it’s for my front window, I want it to look like… reasonably okay. So I’m struggling a little, here. How is this not a thing that already exists. Do I have to learn macrame. (Your picture was not posted)

People don’t understand that the US HAD A COMPREHE

damage, and racist urban planning in general, this was taken from us, we had it once, history

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amtrak-official https://amtrak-official.tumblr.com/post/738547398573539328/sure-we-do-the-us-government-hate-both-rail-and :

mudkipspropaganda https://www.tumblr.com/mudkipspropaganda/738547257872367616/jesus-we-really-have-no-excuse-for-having-such-a :

amtrak-official https://amtrak-official.tumblr.com/post/738544289930477568/almost-all-rail-tracks-in-the-us-are-either :

catboymothman https://catboymothman.tumblr.com/post/738543857163272192/so-wait-were-the-tracks-not-in-use-at-all-or :

amtrak-official https://amtrak-official.tumblr.com/post/738543114474668032/also-the-alternative-is-more-highways-which :

amtrak-official https://amtrak-official.tumblr.com/post/738542740358447104/so-do-people-realize-that-we-arent-building-new :

So do people realize that we aren’t building new train tracks when we expand the amteak network, I have multiple times seen people say that we shouldn’t expand the network because it would destroy protected lands, which would be a fair criticism but Amtrak doesn’t build new tracks, we use existing tracks. We are not destroying protected lands, we are using land that has already been clear for a century

Also the alternative is more highways which destroy significantly more land for less capacity than railways. So the question is do you want to keep complaining about something that isn’t happening and let the environment get damaged as a result or do you want to actually learn how things work

So, wait… Were the tracks not in use at all? Or was it like only commercial transport on those tracks? Either way, its good that amtrak will be able to use them again, but one would be much more frustrating

Almost all rail tracks in the US are either abandoned or only used for freight rail at the moment

Jesus, we really have no excuse for having such a lackluster rail system, do we?

Sure we do! The US government hate both rail and you personally

People don’t understand that the US HAD A COMPREHENSIVE RAIL SYSTEM.

I am from a rural town about 10 miles outside of a small city. Currently, it takes about half an hour to drive from my small town to that city, where the nearest doctor’s offices and large grocery stores are located. (We have a small grocery store but it doesn’t carry much.)

In 1850 there were ten trains a day, and the trip took 15 minutes.

The tracks are all torn up and gone now, but there remain a few old bridges, abutments, embankments, cutways. You can see the tracks used to go through, down to the nearest city and there was also a throughline that went east-west, carrying trains to major cities either direction.

We *had *railroads. But then we tore them up to sell more cars. (Your picture was not posted)

Forgive my desperate urgency but you are The Person

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A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION DESERVING OF SERIOUS CONTEMPLATION

So dragonborn are descended directly from chromatic/metallic/gem dragons in some way (the exact way is a point of theological contention). The difference between those three dragon types is, to the best of my limited knowledge, not germane to the discussion. I will consider dragons as a single category. [[MORE]]

Dragons are definitely not reptiles. They are warm-blooded and they act like cats. I do not actually think the cat thing is relevant to them being reptiles or not, Forgotten Realms wiki, but thank you anyways. So they are not like crocodiles, but are they like birds? Probably not. Although they did evolve from proto-dragon species which were among the few survivors of the cataclysm that killed the dinosaurs. Much like birds! (Or maybe they were created by the gods. Whatever. I’m not getting into a Faerûnian creationism debate. Anyways, in this context only, por qué no los dos.)

Dragons are preferentially carnivorous, but functionally omnivorous, with an emphasis on the omni. They can eat and digest just about anything, including inorganic materials. This ability is because of their “innate elemental nature”, which kind of makes me think dragons don’t really have digestive systems as we know them. They’re more like great primordial engines. I think this precludes gizzards in the dragons themselves — how would they get stones in their gizzards if their digestive system can break down stone? What would they even use them for? So if dragonborn have gizzards, they did not get them from the dragons.

Dragonborn do not seem to usually be capable of regularly digesting rocks, so if they swallow inorganic matter it should stay where it’s put. Baby dragonborn are born toothless and are fed by a lactating parent (dragonborn → monotremes??) until they grow teeth, and then are graduated through soft foods up to regular food (consisting of much more meat than your average humanoid). They are capable of digesting non-meat foods, but it doesn’t look like they have the dentition to chew non-meat foods. Which is why birds of just about all diets have gizzards — they don’t got no teeth! I’m going to go with either dragonborn have trouble eating vegetarian meals, as they have no grinding molars, or they do have gizzards. Courtesy of whatever primeval force or deity created them, maybe.

I also considered whether, if dragonborn are normally gizzardless, the Dark Urge specifically might have been created with special dietary capabilities, but you don’t need a gizzard for, say, osteophagy. (Notably, the only primarily osteophagous bird, the bearded vulture, has lost its gizzard.) And I feel like the other things animals use gizzards to digest are not quite On Theme, as it were. However, they might possibly, like bearded vultures, have a hardened, partially keratinized digestive lining for dramatic osteophagy (involving sharp broken-off pieces of bones).

On a different hand, dragonborn manifest draconic abilities at different levels, ranging from different or multiple breath weapons, dragonfear, or abilities from Bahamut or Tiamat. I wonder if some dragonborn, maybe those with particularly strong breath weapons (since the breath weapons are formed from elemental energy produced by dragons’ unique diets), might also manifest the ability to Just Eat Fucking Rocks. Not a glamorous ability! But very fun I think! Possibly more fun for dragonborn which do not natively have gizzards, as having a sort of elemental furnace in their belly instead of a stomach would then enable them to more comfortably eat food like salads.

On another totally different hand, polymorphed dragons (or not polymorphed, if you’re not a coward) are supposed to be able to hybridize with most of the humanoids, producing children that may take after either or both parents, and aarakocra and kenku are Right There. I mean, not in BG3, but, y’know. Half-dragons and dragonborn are different, but still interesting.

Also, dragons in the Forgotten Realms taste like turkey. I don’t know what you can do with this information but I feel like you would enjoy knowing it

YES Na ha ha i am delighted by this answer, which really boils down to my favorite kind of answer, which is "yes! if it's funny/ suits your purpose", which is how i like to interact with any canon.

(Saskia's decorative bone china plate of lovingly-selected shiny rocks as a digestive aid set out for her at dinner IS getting incorporated into the P-T timeline, it just hasn't come up yet. It will, have zero fear.)

We're all just into BG3 for the vibes and in my case, for the excellent shitposting potential. (Your picture was not posted)