A photo of the three stones described in the skeet. To the top left is the amethyst; it is more or less triangular. Below that is a stone which is purple at top and yellow at bottom. It is also triangular, but a long, thin triangle. The narrow end is the yellow bit. To right of both is a trio of very pale, clear blue stones in matching teardrop cuts

A closeup of the amethyst so you can see how the faceting creates a star shape when the light shines through it. It looks symmetrical in these photos but I swear it isn't; all three sides are subtly different

A better view of the stones! A very unusual asymmetrically cut 13 carat amethyst, a 3.5 carat "mystery purple stone" my dad bought (he declined to say how much he paid but claims it was not expensive...), and a trio of matched blue topaz teardrops. I'm inclined to think the mystery stone is ametrine

A picture of foliage in my back yard. You can see a couple of white and purple irises blooming. There will be lots more before too long... Also I need to weed. Alas

Oh, in other household news the fancy-ass irises are blooming. The fancy tulips also bloomed but unfortunately the various late frosts were not terribly kind to them

Absolutely. As someone who worked in zoos for years and left because it turns out animal welfare absolutely is a hill I am willing to die on, I am the first person who wants to talk about the problems with the industry. But I refuse to accept "better dead than in human care" as a starting point

Man I just had a conversation with someone about this the other day and I hate it :< I worked with raptors for years and it saddens me so much whenever I hear about things like this

Anyways I haven't decided how to set them yet! But the amethyst at least is so unusual I feel like it deserves something special.

"Ametrine" is just a name for a single stone containing both amethyst (purple quartz) and citrine (yellow quartz). Given that this stone was cut to emphasize that yellow bit this seems very likely, tho I'm not an expert at identifying gemstones by any means.

A photo of the three stones described in the skeet. To the top left is the amethyst; it is more or less triangular. Below that is a stone which is purple at top and yellow at bottom. It is also triangular, but a long, thin triangle. The narrow end is the yellow bit. To right of both is a trio of very pale, clear blue stones in matching teardrop cuts

A closeup of the amethyst so you can see how the faceting creates a star shape when the light shines through it. It looks symmetrical in these photos but I swear it isn't; all three sides are subtly different

A better view of the stones! A very unusual asymmetrically cut 13 carat amethyst, a 3.5 carat "mystery purple stone" my dad bought (he declined to say how much he paid but claims it was not expensive...), and a trio of matched blue topaz teardrops. I'm inclined to think the mystery stone is ametrine

A photo of the objects described in the skeet. On top is a black silk fan with a painting of cherry blossoms. To the right and slightly below is the box the fan came in, open so you can see the writing inside (which I have just realized is upside down in the photo whoops). To the left of that is a pair of ceramic chopstick rests designed to look like kitties lying on their backs with their feet in the air. One is black, the other is calico. To the left of that is a few boxes with cut stones in them

My mom sent me some presents :> some chopstick rests she bought because she thought they were cute and sent to me because she thought I would actually use them, a fan that was found in my grandma's things, and some stones she and my dad bought for me at the rock show

I understand that inherently cosplay is always going to be something that favors the young and thin but I am begging my fellow plus size elders to keep cosplaying whatever we want. Cosplay them fat. Its hot. Youre hot. Have fun.

Annabelle seems like a mighty fine name to me!

This is why I was never destined to be popular on the internet. I am just not built to grind. Cool stuff occurs when the inspiration strikes and the rest of the time I'm just out here livin' life, and that's that

Today was a big festival at work, yesterday was gorgeous, today was rainy and cold and I was out on the rock climbing tower. Some people throughout the day but mostly we were all just freezing

He is the most sweetest haha. He was dumped by someone at my old job, but I suppose their loss is my gain!

A photo of an orange cat inside of a tiny gray tent made of felt. He's curled up sleeping with his front feet sticking out in front of him and you can just see his back feet and tail under them

This is the youngest of my cats, Bisque, also known as Cheddar Bay Bisquit. I bought this tent on clearance a while back and he really loves it haha. He doesn't sit still much so most photos I have of him are sleeping photos.

The photo the mantis painting is based on. A mantis is, indeed, standing on the other side of a window so you can see its belly. My back yard makes a blurry background. It's almost the same as the painting except the real life mantis was hanging out head down, not right side up. Also I think it's actually a Chinese mantis because it was way too big to be a Carolina.

No, this was just a friend that came to visit at my house. But we could give her a name, I suppose!

Well now I gotta find out what the giant mantis ends up getting named

It iiiiiis but I can only pick one and the vote so far is 50/50, alas

A small watercolor painting of a snail. There is no background, but it looks as if it is standing on something and looking down over the edge

A small watercolor painting of a mantis of some variety, probably a Carolina mantis. There is no background, and it looks as if it is standing on the opposite side of a glass window, so that you are looking and its belly

Help me out fam, between these two which is your favorite?

A small watercolor painting of a snail. There is no background, but it looks as if it is standing on something and looking down over the edge

A small watercolor painting of a mantis of some variety, probably a Carolina mantis. There is no background, and it looks as if it is standing on the opposite side of a glass window, so that you are looking and its belly

Help me out fam, between these two which is your favorite?

He also said he was going to poison the local foxes and my mom was pretty convinced he DID poison the squirrels and it's like my dude, go buy a penthouse in the city or something. Apparently he thought foxes were a threat to his kids. We only knew we were there b/c my mom had trail cams on at night

The neighborhood literally had "forest" in the name, if you hate trees perhaps consider moving somewhere else??

My parents' neighbor at my old home haaaated a tree that was firmly ours and one time my mom came home to find some company prepping to cut it down and was like "that's on my property and if you cut it down I'll sue you" and boy howdy did they flee fast and never answer calls from that guy again

It is indeed a very normal thing to eat, methinks. I just don't get people sometimes...

My family traditionally ate eel and boy howdy did that catch me a weirdly large amount of flak as a child. Eel used to be a major American trade!

So websites just, like, don't work anymore? Cool, got it...

I've read comics that rebooted as many as 3 times (and kept reading through it all). I think people will still be interested! I hope you have fun reworking it!

A photo of Ethan Kocak's new book The Unfamiliars, with cover art by Syd Moncrief. It features the main character, a black cat named Gram, hanging upside down from a flying broom and reaching to grab her hat. A stick big and salamander ride the broom with her

The logo for Wandering Path Press, designed by White Fox Designs. It features a crocodilian bard holding a lute and riding a capybara steed

Since @ethankocak.com's new book The Unfamiliars has now arrived, now seems like a good time to announce Wandering Path Press - a new imprint of Endangered Art Books. Featuring impactful books on various topics, Wandering Path Press is Just for Fun!

Thread of stuff for sale! Please email me at animus.panthera@gmail.com if you're interested in something

Crab, fish, net, gryphon among poppies and a shooting star. Illustration made digitally

Free Ornamentation IV. This work is dedicated to the public domain 🐌

Yeah! I've been doing embroidery since I was little. I'm not as good as my grandmother was but I think I'm still pretty good haha