junangel

Latest Posts by junangel

reblog your badge of honor fellow vanilla lovers

woke up and someone spilled vanilla extract all over my dash, so as punishment you strange little beasties are getting all the VANILLA FACTS i know:

vanilla is the 2nd most expensive spice in the world (2nd to saffron)

which is why more than 99% of what we call "vanilla extract" is actually vanillin (vanilla's dominant flavor compound) and is not extracted from real vanilla.

luckily, even professionals struggle to tell the difference when it comes to things like baked goods. but there is a distinct difference in non-heat treated products like vanilla ice cream. real vanilla has a more complex, individualized flavor profile.

why is vanilla so expensive? because it is a ridiculously delicate & demanding crop. complete primadonna.

vanilla beans come from vanilla orchids. these crazy flowers bloom for A SINGLE DAY and have to be HAND-POLLINATED in a process that is exhausting, delicate, and requires specialist knowledge passed down over generations.

then, if you're lucky, you get vanilla beans.

which then require months of further specialized treatment.

the entire process takes about a year and can go wrong at any stage

vanilla has been cultivated for over 800 years (possibly much longer). the first known cultivators are the Totonac, an indigenous people of Mexico.

the Aztecs used it as a sweetener to balance out the bitter taste of cocoa. it was popular in a drink called xocolatl--the precursor to modern hot chocolate!

it is only pollinated by a very specific orchid bee!!!

which is why no fruit could be grown outside of Mexico until the 1800s

Edmond Albius, born into slavery, invented the pollination method we still use today--launching a global industry when he was just 12 years old.

today, the majority of the world's vanilla is grown in Madagascar

if you want real vanilla, read the labels carefully--it's harder to find than you think!

in conclusion, those tiny black specks you see in fancy vanilla ice cream? those are vanilla bean seeds! itty bitty orchid seeds!!! they are delicious and also a PRISSY BITCH!

(src)

This user supports AO3

This user is anti-censorship

This user believes in “don’t like, don’t read”

This user believes in “ship and let ship”

This user believes that fiction tastes and preferences do not dictate moral character

Coming into a fandom late

people who comment on fics just to say that they are re-reading and still cried/felt emotions/loved it are the greatest people on earth and should be given a thousand dollars. 

LMAO

i might elaborate later but fanfic replies literally develop writer’s metacognition and make them better writers

Me duele la cabeza

here have 10 pieces of writing advice that have stuck with me over the years

every character’s first line should be an introduction to who they are as a person

even if you only wrote one sentence on a really bad day, that’s still one sentence more than you had yesterday

exercise restraint when using swear words and extra punctuation in order for them to pack a punch when you do use them

if your characters have to kiss to show they’re in love, then they’re not in love

make every scene interesting (or make every scene your favorite scene), otherwise your readers will be just as bored as you

if you’re stuck on a scene, delete the last line you wrote and go in a different direction, or leave in brackets as placeholders

don’t compare your first draft to published books that could be anywhere from 3rd to 103rd drafts

i promise you the story you want to tell can fit into 100k words or less

sometimes the book isn’t working because it’s not ready to be written or you’re not ready to write it yet; let it marinate for a bit so the idea can develop as you become a better writer

a story written in chronological order takes a lot more discipline and is usually easier to understand than a story written with flashbacks

me: *likes something*

me: *extensively researches and develops an emotional dependency for the thing in the short span of three days*

I believe very strongly in “I didn’t say it was good, I said I liked it” 

but what might be even more important is “I didn’t say it was bad, I said I hated it”

me as a writer: Oh no I can’t write that, somebody else already has

me as a reader: hell yes give me all the fics about this one scenario. The more the merrier

21 People Who Forgot A Word And Just Made Some Shit Up

its true!!

the one problem i have with people my age and younger is that a lot of us do not have hands on hobbies. like i have spoken to so many people my age who go to work, go to school and then fuck around on their phone/computer for hours and then ???????? like no wonder ur depressed and have low confidence in urself. u need to get ur hands on something, feed those dopamine receptors! learn how to play guitar, garden, scrapbook, fucking make model trains. i don’t give a shit, MAKE SOMETHING!!

it feels better than drugs when i finish making a thing—and then show it off or gift it.

and then so people my age say to me ‘well—i can’t draw/paint/knit/etc. like you can. my stuff would be terrible.’ yeah, well duh—a part of developing skill is sucking at something and then practicing it over and over and over again until you suck less. u’ll have a hard time feeling lonely or bored when you can’t stop thinking abt a technique you want to try or something you want to make for someone else. making things has SAVED MY LIFE. it gave me a reason to keep living day after day when i wanted to die.

making things improved my generational relationships (when i worked for the newspaper i would talk to customers abt jamming recipes or cross-stitch, one of my grandmas always gives me pattern books and tell me abt when she knitted things for mom, my other grandma is giving me a wedding quilt that HER grandma gave her 50 years ago because she knows i will appreciate it). it also got me likeminded friends who also make things.

take a ceramics class! pick up water colors, bake cakes! learn to work on cars! make soap. DO SOMETHING THAT DOESN’T INVOLVE STARING AT A SCREEN.

Since once in a blue moon I actually discover a decent rule for adulting, and since I know I have followers a few years younger than me who are just entering the workforce, I want to tell you about a very important phrase. 

“I won’t be available.”

Imagine you’re at work and your boss asks you to come in on Saturday. Saturday is usually your day off–coming in Saturdays is not an obligation to keep your job. Maybe you were going to watch a movie with a friend, or maybe you were just going to lie in bed and eat ice cream for eight hours, but either way you really, really don’t want to give up your day off.

If you consider yourself a millennial you’ve probably been raised to believe you need to justify not being constantly at work. And if you’re a gen-Z kid you’re likely getting the same toxic messages that we did. So in a situation like that, you might be inclined to do one of three things:

Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Cave when they pressure you to come in anyway, since you’re not doing anything important.

Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Over-apologize and worry that you looked bad/unprofessional.

Lie and say you’ve got a doctor’s appointment or some other activity that feels like an adequate justification for not working.

The fact is, it doesn’t matter to your boss whether you’re having open heart surgery or watching anime in your underwear on Saturday. The only thing that affects them is the fact that you won’t be at work. So telling them why you won’t be at work only gives them reason to try and pressure you to come in anyway.

If you say “I won’t be available,” giving no further information, you’d be surprised how often that’s enough. Be polite and sympathetic in your tone, maybe even say “sorry, but I won’t be available.” But don’t make an excuse. If your boss is a professional individual, they’ll accept that as a ‘no’ and try to find someone else. 

But bosses aren’t always professional. Sometimes they’re whiny little tyrants. So, what if they pressure you further? The answer is–politely and sympathetically give them no further information.

“Are you sure you’re not available?” “Sorry, but yes.”

“Why won’t you be available?” “I have a prior commitment.” (Which you do, even if it’s only to yourself.)

“What’s your prior commitment?” “Sorry, but that’s kind of personal.”

“Can you reschedule it?” “I’m afraid not. Maybe someone else can come in?”

If you don’t give them anything to work with, they can’t pressure you into going beyond your obligations as an employee. And when they realize that, they’ll also realize they have to find someone else to come in and move on.

The Good Place really said “People improve when they get external love and support. How can we hold it against them, when they don’t?” and "We choose to be good because of our bonds with other people" and "What matters isn’t if people are good or bad. What matters is if they’re trying to be better today than they were yesterday" and "If soulmates do exist, they aren't found, they're made" and "That knowledge [that life ends] is what gives life meaning" and "The answer is friends" and "That’s what the Good Place really is — it’s not even a place, really. It’s just having enough time with the people you love" and I think that's very sexy of them

So, who wants a publishing story?

No one?

…Tough.

To preface, this was prompted by a post I saw about always making sure you read a contract before signing it. I wholeheartedly agree.

So, I write books. A roundabout result of writing books is I occasionally get to speak at conventions. When I do speak at conventions (which hasn’t been for a year. Thanks, covid), a standard question I get asked is about the benefits of self-publishing versus getting a contract. And yes, I fully realize that everyone’s experience in this is different, and I get that. Here’s mine.

Afficher davantage

Beautiful.

via Van Kelsing

Inumaki Toge Supremacy

Megumi : Oh, Inumaki-senpai is fast.

Toge :

JJK and Toge are perfection. I rest my case.

lotta people I know, especially neurodivergent ppl with special interests, express fear that they're a "know it all" or a "snob."

If that sounds like you, allow me to clear things up for ya:

A know-it-all loves making others feel inferior with their knowledge. They worked hard to learn something, and now they find great joy in holding it over others' heads.

To a know-it-all, there is no greater pleasure than realizing someone else doesn't know something, and subsequently humiliating that person for their ignorance on a topic.

Snobs and know-it-alls live for that "gotcha" moment, when they get to embarrass a person and lord their knowledge over someone, making them feel worthless for even daring to speak about something they don't know much about.

Whereas someone who just knows a lot revels in getting to share their knowledge with others. The infodump is not to brag, taunt, or embarrass. In fact, just the opposite, we info dump with the goal to engage others in something we love.

When we correct someone, it's because the information we have is important to us, and we want the facts known by everyone possible. Our goal is never to humiliate.

Above all, a know-it-all and a snob will never admit when they are wrong. They will double down and rage against the notion that someone else might know more than they do about a topic.

Someone who admits they are mistaken, that they don't have all the facts, even if it takes them a day to come back embarrassed and say "you know what, yesterday you were right, and I wasn't,"

Can never be a know-it-all or a snob.

Keep learning, keep teaching, keep sharing.

If you spread what you know with honest joy, passion, and the understanding that other people have something valuable to add, you cannot be and are not a snob, and the world is better for your passion!

They came from somewhere beyond Pluto. 

 They had many questions. 

 “You affix metal and wires to your teeth…use needles to inject portraits into your skin…stab your flesh with shards of metal…remove your hair with lasers…cut patterns into your faces…burn yourselves…remove fat and break your noses and inject diseases into yourselves willingly. Why?” 

And we answered “For beauty.” 

 Fireworks confused them. “These horrible explosions, with their colors and patterns? Is this an act of war, or is it in worship of some god?” 

 We answered, “No. It is in celebration.” 

Explaining vaccines was difficult. “You give yourself disease on purpose? You force it into your blood with needles? Why?” 

We answered, “To teach our bodies to resist it.” 

 They felt awe at our true wars. At our missiles that harnessed the power found in stars, at our weapons that spread poison and disease, at our flying machines that destroyed thousands while we flew them from continents away. They asked, “For what reasons do you go to war?” 

We answered, “To gain money and resources, to exact revenge, to impose and uphold faith and ideology, and, now and then, on our best days, to answer a cry for help.” 

 They asked us, “The moon is barren, and yet you went. Mount Everest is a deadly place, and yet you go. The ocean is vast and frightful and travel to its depths is near impossible, and yet you are trying to dive. Why?”

 We answered, “To show that we could, to show that we can, to show that we will.”   

They asked, “Why?” 

We answered, “Because how dare there be questions unanswered, realms unexplored, lands unconquered. How dare this reality not fall under our command. We will rule this universe or we will die trying.”

They didn’t come back, and no others dare visit. 

 That’s alright. 

 We’ll find them.

Honestly, I really side-eye people who say shit like, “I hate all hetero romances. If a guy and girl kiss, I totally lose all investment.”

Male-female pairings are not all the same and I’m kind of sick of people acting like they are. Similarly, I’m sick of people forgetting that there are LGBT+ people in male-female relationships.

super late but here’s a very specific ship dynamic i’ve been obssessed with recently

*smacks head repeatedly on the table*

Have I posted this yet

Posting a chapter of a story you haven’t updated in ages

Every writer on Tumblr: “I would combust out of love if someone ever drew fanart of my fic!!” Me: “oh man I wanna draw this scene BUT THEY WOULD PROBABLY HATE IT AND HATE ME FOR THE NERVE”

Me: I’m gonna finish writing that thing tonight!

Me: