VERKA SERDUCHKA MY BELOVED

VERKA SERDUCHKA MY BELOVED

Hobbies need to be accessible. I believe that it’s becoming more and more important for people to have physical hobbies that create real things and develop real skills–giving people a sense of accomplishment and overcoming feelings of helplessness. But so often, it seems like even beginner-level instruction is aimed at making the entry barrier as high as possible.

I was reading this book where this guy argues that people should develop areas of “micromastery” when getting into a hobby. Find one small, achievable, but still impressive task to master, so you have a cool skill to show off (and the sense of accomplishment) without having to master an entire huge area of knowledge. Instead of learning to cook, learn to create a really good omelet. Instead of learning an entire new language, learn to count to ten. And then you have a knowledge base to help you if you want to explore further. Seems very common sense. Very accessible. Learning is for everyone, not just people who want to devote tons of time to a new hobby. But even that guy, in his instructions, keeps telling people to buy the most expensive equipment to have the best possible results. There’s even a point where he says “the more expensive, the better”!

That infuriates me. I am enraged. The guy who’s trying to make learning accessible to the masses is now saying this is the realm only of the rich! It’s telling people to buy into the marketing ploy that more expensive is automatically better! It’s absurd. It’s insane. There probably is equipment that improves the outcome of the final product, but it’s not necessarily the most expensive stuff, and you certainly don’t need the expensive stuff when you’re just starting out!

Yet, tutorials and craft books keep pushing this message. If you want to start drawing, you need an expensive sketch book and seven different pencils and different weights of pen, and the right eraser. If you want to bake, you have to have the best flours and the appropriate sourdough technique. If you want to knit, you better have the expensive yarn. That’s garbage, and it makes things more difficult than they need to be.

When you’re just starting out, you’re learning if you even like the activity. Do I like spending time drawing? Do I even like the process of knitting or woodworking or building model airplanes? It’s pointless to spend tons of money on good yarn only to find that you hate the process of knitting. Pointless to get the good pencils when the process of drawing makes you want to crawl out of your skin.

If you want to try something, just try it! As simply and cheaply as possible. Want to draw? Get a free pencil and a bit of notebook paper. Want to knit? Get a pair of knitting needles from the thrift store and some dollar store yarn. As you get deeper into the hobby, you’ll probably want to upgrade your supplies–but now that you know more about the process, you know what problems can be solved by better supplies.

I was always intimidated by bookbinding–the tutorials always talked about having the right glue and the right book press–until a guy in the comments said, “I use Elmer’s Glue and my laptop.” I could manage that! That was accessible! I got some glue and some big textbooks and made a book! Not perfect, but it wouldn’t have been perfect even if I had the fancy supplies–I was just starting out! And then I figured out that a paper cutter and some kind of tool to smooth the endpapers would be useful. So I got that–as cheaply as possible. I have made books and I have enjoyed it without a huge investment in time and money. And more tutorials need to take that approach. I refuse to believe that we have to give tons of money to the crafting industry. I refuse to believe that we have to be consumers in order to become creators.

if you like crafting and also free things, might i suggest the antique pattern library?

it’s a not for profit that’s gathering books, patterns, and other materials related to crafting that are out of copyright (or getting permission from copyright holders in some cases) in order to share them online. they scan items, clean them up, then make everything available for free!

free things are great, especially when you’re just starting to get into something. like oh, i’m supposed to spend money on this hobby i just picked up 20 minutes ago???

the first time i ended up on the site, i seriously spent hours just trawling through everything. there’s the usual suspects like knitting, crochet, embroidery, but there’s also woodwork, calligraphy, and books on things like how to mount and frame pictures. with cross stitch patterns, they also make modern charts with the dmc colour codes available.

links to their webbed site and instagram:

https://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/

https://www.instagram.com/theantiquepatternlibrary/

behold, a glorious cat cross stitch pattern (link goes to antique pattern library page):

[image id: Multicolour charted cross stitch design of a cat sitting on a red pillow with tassels, holding a green ball]

ALT

a mystery allure, gotta get to know you more

Any more Toph & Zuko headcanons? (In the family/friendship sense!) I absolutely LOVE this dynamic and makes me wish there was more content on them together!!

well well well

if it isn’t an opportunity to discuss my favorite BROTP of all time... 

The first night at the temple, Toph was planning on going to Zuko’s room at night to get back at him for burning her feet, but found him still awake and extremely anxious. Instead of getting back at him, she went to ask what was up and when he deflected, she debriefed him on everyone’s names and stuff he should know about them so he would have an easier time getting on their good side. 

When Toph found out that Zuko was the Blue Spirit, his coolness factor went up by 20 in her books and she was just glad that somebody there appreciated committing casual misdemeanors as much as she did. 

On Zuko’s third day at the temple, Toph asked him to carry her to somewhere because her feet were still burned. Everyone else, including Zuko, was super confused as to why Toph was showing so much trust for him and she just brushed off their concern with “he’s the one who burned my feet in the first place, he’s the one who’s going to carry me around, deal with it” 

When the gaang crashed at the Ember Island house, Toph spent as little time inside as possible because most of it was made of wood and she couldn’t tell where she was going. Zuko picked up on this and 1. helped her find the general layout of the house without saying anything about it (and she did the thing where the clings onto people’s arms when she can’t tell where she’s going) and 2. also spent as little time in the house as possible because he just didn’t like being in there. 

One night Toph was practicing her sandbending and Zuko came out to watch her. She asked if he could help her practice and he agreed, not knowing that ‘practicing’ meant burying him under the sand so only his head was poking out. 

Zuko got back at Toph for this by tricking her into eating some extra spicy fire flakes (aka saying they were too spicy for her knowing that she would eat them to prove him wrong). This was one of her few regrets in life. 

Toph convinced Zuko to try and create glass with their combined bending. They accidentally created a small crater on Ember Island. 

Zuko is Toph’s favorite person to cling onto when they’re riding on Appa because he’s got that firebender warmth and he’s constantly regulating his breathing and she can focus on that to help calm her down 

After the war, Toph didn’t want to go back to her parent’s house and just kept making excuses about why she needed to stay in the Fire Nation to back Zuko up on the whole Being the New Firelord thing. Eventually, he picked up on the sense that she didn’t just want to stay to support him and asked her what the deal was. She opened up about not wanting to live with her parents and he was like “okay please stay here as long as you want, you don’t need an excuse.”

Zuko is one of the few people who is allowed to carry Toph on his shoulders. She likes clinging onto his head because his hair is super soft. 

Toph knew about the whole ‘where Zuko got his scar thing’ from hearing passing comments about it in the Earth Kingdom. She kind of just assumed it was common knowledge (which we’ve seen it kind of was in Zuko Alone) and kind of just assumed the gaang knew about the whole thing. This was part of the reason why she thought he was trustworthy and didn’t understand why the rest of the gaang wouldn’t believe him when he told them he had cut himself off from the Fire Nation. 

Toph was the one to escort Ozai to prison because of her metalbending and beat the crap out of him once she got the opportunity “for hurting Sparky.” She did not tell Zuko about this. 

Zuko makes Toph tea when she’s obviously upset about something. When he’s oblivious to her being upset about something, she’ll request tea as a nudge that ‘hey something’s up right now and I need to feel better’ 

After Zuko got shot with lightning, Toph metalbended the door to his room so he had to stay in bed. 

Toph returned to Earth Rumble later on just for a little bit. Zuko secretly attended her matches and fucking loved watching his friend kick everyone’s ass. He made a Blind Bandit sign to wave around. 

Iroh was the one who showed Toph what it was like to have a parental figure who believed in her abilities while still wanting her to accept the love and support of other people out not out of the notion that she was helpless, but just because people cared about her. (Similar to how he showed Zuko that the love a parental figure should be unconditional). Toph spends a lot of free time with Iroh. The three of them have many family dinners together. 

They go back and forth with threatening each other with “if you don’t start taking care of yourself, I’m going to tell Uncle” 

When Toph finally decided to confront her parents about how they treated her, she brought Zuko as backup and had to hold him off from just decking Lao in the face. 

Toph likes to bring Zuko to crappy plays so she can listen to his commentary on them 

Toph and Zuko have the kind of friendship where they’re comfortable just sitting in a room not talking, just enjoying each other’s company while they do their own separate things. 

I don’t necessarily have any particular headcanon for Toph’s sexuality, but if she were to come out as anything, Zuko would be the first person she’d tell 

Toph was Zuko’s Best Woman at his wedding