Not Born Great, Don’t Achieve Greatness, And Don’t Have Greatness Thrust Upon Them - But A Secret

round two of Dracula daily: time to convince all my friends to do it!

(…maybe I’ll finish it this time too)

Bram stoker - the cartographer

my boyfriend: How would you feel if I was writing a paper about my journey to the UK my boyfriend: And I referred to my trip to the INDEPENDENT NATION OF WALES and their NORDIC ARCHITECTURE AND HERATIDGE

I'm getting my boyfriend to read Dracula Daily. He's not taking all the confusing geography and history nonsensical writings very well.

and I’m giving them all the same issues as me!!! it’s like matching friendship bracelets!!!

I need all my favourite characters to be more unhinged.

Nettles (alive, dead) and dock leaves

The stinging nettle (Urtica dioica): A bee sting in plant form. Both give you acidic stings, but whilst a bee will die after a single sting, the nettle holds no such melodrama. Importantly, the underside of the nettle has no stinging needles - using this, a nettle leaf can be folded and eaten. Quite delicious, but like oysters, it is best to only chew them just enough to experience the flavour. Unlike oysters, it is an established tea.

The dock leaf (Rumex obtusifolius): The apologetic, unassuming, elder sibling of our funny little trio. Never too far behind the stinging nettle, growing in the same habitat, it is a welcome gift for the unlucky or unwary. Simply crushing it's flat, broad leaf, arranged in small clumps, low to the ground, and rubbing the remains on the sting will greatly ease the pain. Unfortunately, as some kind of earthy punishment for irresponsible agricultural practices, or maybe it's simply prone to seasickness, it did not accompany the stinging nettle on its torment to Australia.

(Important note: it is NOT a certified doctor, and, in fact, does not hold any kind of medical certificate or degree).

The dead nettle (Lamium purpureum): Surprisingly, edible, and harmless enough. It's pretty pink-ish-purple flowers will ruin its disguise in certain seasons, along with its ever-present diminutive size. The dead nettle relies on the terrifying reputation of the stinging nettle to warn away anyone and anything. Yet, it you touch one, you will find no sting. Like if the spirit of the plant it pretends to be manifests in that sting, it finds itself lacking something it will never achieve. However, for the dead nettle, once that sting is proven absent, it's likely already dead - possibly uprooted for its uncanny skill of growing in driveways.

You ever been in a state where you physically have no energy, but you're bored and socially understimulated so you kind of wish you could just invite people to come over like this:

okay so I’m going to try and make a poll here goes nothing -

(and if anyone asks me to define ‘experience’ ;-; it’s literally just want any believer would define as evidence for ghosts/supernatural/paranormal/other-worldly - use your brain or at least your blood imagination’

soil creature stew

Humans are more sensitive to petrichor than sharks are to blood. So, we obviously already hunted all the soil creatures to extinction. I imagine they made a good stew.

DAN & PHIL TIT SPOILERS

This is my new prized possession 😭😭😭

(Better quality photo/scan uploading tomorrow)

NEVER GETTING OVER THIS SHOW!!!

How to make soup

This is not a recipe. Soup requires no recipe. Soup is soup. All you must remember is that food is love and food is for sharing. Now onto the recipe.

Whenever you prepare soup, you must tend to it. Unwatched stoves are the most common cause of housefires. What? Did you expect me to speak of the loneliness of unattended soup? I need not speak of unattended soup. You know what happens when you leave soup unattended. You will not like what happens when you leave soup unattended.

That's right - possibly a housefire.

Start with liquid - stock or water will do. If you are adding cream to the soup, do not add it yet, it does not do well with extended boiling. Next, find your meat, if you consume it. The bones are the best, and a chicken carcass is my favourite to start with, although lamb will always work wonderfully after hours of boiling and skimming off fat repeatedly. Here, you must extract all the flavour from the bones and leave them hollow like an old tree where you might find fairies - or a possum - there is no difference really. The meat should fall of the bones and swim in the water. Now, you add the chopped-up root vegetables. Carrots, potatoes, swede - whatever takes long to cook. Do not forget your grains - barley and rice are delicious additions to any soup, soaked for hours to absorb flavour. Heat this on a low heat with the lid on for a long time; it will not overflow. Turn off the heat and go to bed now. The soup and you both need rest. Continue to heat it the next morning. Add whatever else you wish (now or earlier even) - salt, pepper, leak, onion, garlic, basil, sage, thyme - it matters not to the hungry soup.

Serve the soup and share the soup. A soup ladle is designed to cradle the soup like you should cradle the ones you share the soup with. Gently.

Some may try to tell you that the soup is bland. That it has no substance and is not a meal worth treasuring or even cooking. Pay this no mind. There are many places, many times, many families, where not much was to be had. Tough meat and tougher vegetables were made soft and spread further with the love and time taken to craft them into soup. Whatever you have, it has always been worth taking pride in the dinner you serve. To sleep with quietened bellies is to sleep full of love.

To eat soup is to find comfort in whatever you have in the pantry or fridge or garden. To share soup is to find comfort in those around you.

HELP MY DAD WAS COOKING PORK AND IN THE QUEST FOR CRACKLING THERE WAS MORE SMOKE THAN A FOGGY MARSH IN A WINTER MORN

ABSOLUTE BATMAN #1

i absolutely adore issue #1 of absolute batman srsly

as someone has just been getting into DC this year, but still aware enough of the basic principles of batman's origin and character, this feels like a really exciting, yet approachable story.

I'd seen online some complaints that it's the 'same old batman' and that it's just another 'rehashed story with nothing interesting or worthwhile.'

I've even seen complaints regarding the inclusion of (spoilers) classic rogues like catwoman, killer croc, the penguin, riddler, twoface being introduced or mentioned so early in the story or simply being mentioned at all.

First of all - it's a five-issue series - there's only so much time to introduce everyone - and I think the first issue does a wonderful job at setting up the characters and world right of the bat.

Besides, I like the rogues. I like the DC characters - I'm reading a batman comic after all. This isn't to say that characters haven't been butchered in certain runs, or that DC always tells good stories.

What I'm meaning is - just think about what makes comics so different from every other media format? Aside from the gorgeous use of text, color, form and image - trust me, I am GOING to be making numerous posts about the silly bat costume and the GORGEOUS ART.

I'm still very new to comics, so I might be off here obviously, but;

when I think of batman, I think of the character

and what makes the character of batman?

Well, absolute batman is obviously asking this question - they've taken away the money, mansion, and butler - on top of that - his mum is alive! (He is a mama's boy 100%).

BATMAN IS GOTHAM

Like; Alfred Pennyworth (HOT DAMN THO) is narrating most of issue 1, and I love it - but when he arrives, he's asking 'where is your heart Gotham?', and then batman later appears.

Batman, who has studied and worked every blue-collar job ever - who knows the city in and out - who repairs the stairs he breaks in the night at his day job. Who Alfred acknowledges is building something here - who is childhood friends with his rogues - he's protecting Gotham.

Even Killer Croc goes 'This is our HOME, man ... someone's got to do something!'

This is overlayed a photo of them all as childhood friends, and child Bruce is even smiling - it's so precious.

We're being presented with a Gotham that's in very dire straits - and this is a Batman that feels so much more a part of the city.

Batman LOVES his city, and he LOVES the people in it.

To me, Batman is a protector.

Alfred calls him a crusader, citing his mother as his one weakness - seeing Bruce come home to a regular old house with his mum sitting on the steps - that got me.

Batman has this single-minded devotion - that's the strength of his love. I never realized how weak that devotion to his ideals seemed when he had all the money and resources in the world.

You take that away? You get a Batman who has planned his entire life to learning everything he can, on his own merits - that's some superhero shit.

Anyway, I'm so excited to see where this series goes - can't wait to meet more of the rogues! At the end of day, nothing stings quite like childhood friends who aren't as close as they used to be. Plus, his costume is cool as hell and so so so silly.