Network

Entry tags:

bookses precious

Books read, early June

Isa Arsén, The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf. Look, when a character tells you that their favorite Shakespearean character (as an actress) is Lady Macbeth and then another major character says their favorite play is Titus Andronicus--whose favorite play is Titus Andronicus? I demanded when I first got to that part. And then the book went on and OH NO OH GOD OH NO. Anyway, from the beginning you will get a clear sense that this is a setting that will tear people to shreds (1950s theater world!) and that some of the people in question will assist their milieu in their own destruction. Be forewarned on that. For me the prose voice made all the difference in the world, for you it might not make enough difference to be worth that shape of book if you're really not in a good place for it. This book goes hard, but uh...not any more pleasantly than my first sentence there would lead you to expect.

Andrea Barrett, Dust and Light: On the Art of Fact in Fiction. I was a little disappointed in this, I think because I was expecting more/broader theory. It was in a lot of places a process case study, which is interesting too, and I'm not sorry I read it, I was just expecting something grander, I think.

Agatha Christie, Hickory Dickory Dock and Peril at End House. These sure were mysteries by Agatha Christie.

Justene Hill Edwards, Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank. Very straightforwardly does what it says on the tin. A thing we should all know happened, in terms of Black Americans and finance, this book gets in and gets out and does what it needs to do.

Kate Elliott, The Witch Roads. Discussed elsewhere.

Margaret Frazer, The Witch's Tale. Kindle. This is one of the short stories, and it was clearly something Frazer needed to say about justice and community, and it got in and said it and got out. For heaven's sake do not start here, this is a series story that's leaning heavily on you already caring about this place and these people and not spending many of its quite few words in introducing them to you.

Max Gladstone, Last Exit. Reread. This book made me cry four times on the reread. I knew it was coming, I knew what was going to happen, I had not forgotten many (on some cellular level: any) of the details, and yet, dammit, Gladstone, ya did it to me again. With my own connivance this time. Anyway gosh this is good, this is doing all sorts of things with power and community and priorities and old friendships and adulthood and, the reason I read it: American road trips. Oh, and weather! I read it for my road trip panel, it also related to my weather panel, frankly I brought it up during a couple of other panels as well. This booook.

Reginald Hill, On Beulah Height. Reread. Back to back reread bangers, although this one only made me cry once. I am not a big crier over books. Such a good series mystery, by which I mean that it works as a mystery but also, and more crucially, as a novel about some people you've already had a chance to know, so you know what their reactions mean even when they're not in your home register. (Or, if you're from Yorkshire, even if they are.)

Jordan Ifueko, The Maid and the Crocodile. Magical and fun and full of textured worldbuilding and clear character motivation, I really liked this.

Sarah Kay, A Little Daylight Left. The sort of deeply gripping volume of poetry that makes me add everything else the poet has written to my reading list.

Nnedi Okorafor, One Way Witch. A prequel, a mother's story, which is not something we see often. Interesting, not long.

Rebecca Roanhorse, Trail of Lightning. Reread. Also reread for my road trip panel, also pertained to my weather panel--are there any road trip novels that's not true for? Is a road trip in part a way to make modern people vulnerable to smaller-scale weather forces? In any case, I liked the ragged edges here, I liked the things she tied up neatly but also the things she refused to.

Sean Stewart, Galveston. Reread. To my relief, this holds up 25 years after I first read it: storms of magic, layers of history, weird alternate worlds overlapping with this one, hurrah.

Greg van Eekhout, Cog. Reread. A charming and delightful sto

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Birdfeeding

Today is partly sunny and mild. It rained yesterday.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/19/25 -- We went out for a while and saw the library wildflower meadow, Fox Ridge, and the Charleston Food Forest.

EDIT 6/19/25 -- I refilled the thistle feeder that was half empty.

EDIT 6/19/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/19/25 -- I sowed 5 pots with yellow raspberries.

EDIT 6/19/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 6/19/25 -- I picked up sticks from the south side of the driveway and dumped them in the firepit.

Lots of fireflies are coming out. :D

EDIT 6/19/25 -- I picked up sticks from the North side of the driveway and dumped them in the firepit.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Wildlife

New butterfly species wows scientists: 'This discovery reveals a lineage shaped by 40,000 years of evolutionary solitude'

The Satyrium semiluna, or half-moon hairstreak, is a small gray butterfly that looks like a moth at first glance. The wildflower lovers are widespread across North America, from the Sagebrush steppe to the montane meadows of the Rocky Mountains.

But tucked away in the southeastern corner of Alberta, Canada, another colony of butterflies flaps across the Blakiston Fan landform of Waterton Lakes National Park.

Until now, they were thought to be a subpopulation of half-moon hairstreaks — until scientists made a phenomenal discovery: They were a new species of butterfly that had hidden in plain sight for centuries.

The researchers, who recently published their findings in the scientific journal ZooKeys, defined the new species as Satyrium curiosolus.

Miniature Collection at Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato in Guanajuato, Mexico

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/miniature-collection-at-museo-del-pueblo-de-guanajuato

María Teresa Pomar was a leading collector of traditional Mexican handicrafts. She helped elevate the status of folk art in Mexico, and her collection is now housed in various museums across the country.

At the Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato, one of the highlights is María Teresa Pomar’s collection of 2,700 miniatures.

All of them were part of the Mexican folk art that was made to sell in markets as toys or souvenirs at the end of the 20th century. Some of them can still be found in the Guanajuato market, but others are extinct techniques.

Techniques represented include bone carving, wood carving, clay modeling, palm weaving, copper molding, and wood painting. Among the pieces are devil masks, figurines dancing, a wedding scene sculpted inside a peach pit, and a cupboard with a complete set of dollhouse tableware.

The museum’s permanent collection also features 19th-century paintings donated by Olga Costa and Chávez Morado, as well as a mural of his own in the chapel. The majority of the museum is used for rotating temporary exhibitions.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/miniature-collection-at-museo-del-pueblo-de-guanajuato

Current Music: 'Poisson rouge' by Saint Privat

Entry tags:

Étoile: another ficlet, some recs, music

I would like to write something properly long and plotty for Tobias/Gabin, but that'll have to wait until I've thought of a plot and got more of a handle on characterisation. In the meantime:

It’s not just where you lay your head (719 words) by regshoe
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Étoile (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tobias Bell/Gabin Roux
Characters: Gabin Roux, Tobias Bell
Additional Tags: Fluff, Pillow Talk
Summary:

Tobias finally finds a satisfactory Parisian pillow.

I've been enjoying reading through the tag, so have some fic recs:

( Some fic recs )

I've also been listening to the soundtrack via the very helpful official Spotify playlist. It's a great variety and lots of fun! Here are some of my favourites of the songs:

( And some music )

Tobacconist Napoleon Statue in York, England

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tobacconist-napoleon-statue-york

In the past, the illiteracy of the general populace led to a variety of easily recognizable advertisements used in place of written signs. A few of the best-known examples include barber poles and cigar-store Indians.

The association of Native Americans with cigars stems from tobacco originating in the New World, and the tobacconist statues have been known since the 17th century. In the early 19th century, England also associated the figure of Napoleon Bonaparte with snuff, which the man is believed to have been fond of. Three Napoleon statues were brought from France around 1822 to be placed as tobacconist advertisements in London, Leeds, and York; only the one in York has survived.

Though displayed at the Merchant Adventurers' Hall since 1997, the Napoleon statue of York once stood in front of Mr Clarke's tobacco shop on Bridge Street for nearly a century and a half. It was once thrown into the River Ouse during World War II, and on another occasion, it was "arrested" by the police and kept in one of the cells for a night.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tobacconist-napoleon-statue-york

lift every voice and sing

Posted by Wil

https://wilwheaton.net/2025/06/lift-every-voice-and-sing/

https://wilwheaton.net/?p=9592

Lift every voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.

I did not know about Juneteenth until I was in my 40s. I recall how embarrassed and ashamed I felt, but it just wasn’t taught to me in school, and America doesn’t exactly go out of her way to teach privileged white kids like me about the horrors our ancestors inflicted on generations of human beings. Hopefully, that has changed.

In the extremely unlikely event you are hearing about this for the first time: “Juneteenth, officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, is a federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States. The holiday’s name, first used in the 1890s, is a portmanteau of the words June and nineteenth, referring to June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War.”

As the institutions and corporations that influence so much of American culture draw shamefully away from celebrating and honoring marginalized communities, including communities of color, it falls (as it always does) to us, the people, to step up and use our collective voice to speak out so our friends, neighbors, and fellow humans who do not have the same privilege that so many of us have are seen and heard.

Here’s LeVar Burton reading the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Google put this on their doodle a few years ago. ~~Today, there is nothing. Shameful.~~ My bad. My VPN autoconnected to the UK, and when I reset it to the US, I see that Google is honoring Juneteenth. I regret the error.

Watch on YouTube

https://wilwheaton.net/2025/06/lift-every-voice-and-sing/

https://wilwheaton.net/?p=9592

Entry tags:

In which I read therefore I am

- Reading: 72 books to 19 June 2025. Finished 70 + 2 in progress.

Quote: "Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! Didn't they use anything else in Ancient Greece?"

66. Bland generic novel with fish knives joke.

67. Intermittently mildly amusing novel, with a clunky attempted fish forks joke, admiring references to the father's fascism ("senatorial" gold "Roman" armbands = fascist brassards), and a whole shoal of red salted codfish.

68. Casual authorial antisemitism (not as characterisation or a plot point). :-(

69. Aurora Australis, by members of the Nimrod Expedition to Antarctica, 1908, anthology, 3.5/5
Variable quality but worth reading the whole to give context for the best. Readalong ongoing:
https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/662515.html

70. Book published in the 1920s, read for a reading challenge. Not a great choice for me, apart from the fact it's short, but I've read most of the usual suspects from that decade. I probably should've asked for recs of less well-known books, or re-read something I already know I like.

71. When the Earth was Green, by Riley Black, 2025, non-fiction popular palaeontology, ?/5
Numerical typos are very fashionable in 2025, example the first: "425 million years ago [...] during human history more than 440 million years after our beachside scene" [so 15 million years in the future... yeah, no. Also humans gonna be extinct by then, bb ;-P ].

72. Inventing the Renaissance, by Ada Palmer, 2025, non-fiction history historiography, ?/5
Numerical typos are very fashionable in 2025, example the second: "Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1987)" [No, but needs more fanfic, lol]. Palmer does produce the bestest quotes though, and if you're not prepared for 650 pages of historiography then there are shorter fun posts on her blog, or just read this:
"Lorenzo de Medici had Marsilio Ficino, the first true Platonist in Europe since antiquity, but he also had the first giraffe in Europe since antiquity (a gift from the Sultan of Egypt), and both of them wandered the streets of Florence making people smile and advertising Medici wealth and power (though only the giraffe used to stick its head through people's second-floor windows to get snacks; the Platonist came inside). Which of these two living novelties did Lorenzo value more?" [I mean, joking aside, Ficino because his works could be left to and benefit Medici heirs....]

Liverpool Plinth in Liverpool, England

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/liverpool-plinth

"Gold Lamé" by Tony Heaton on display in 2018.

For a few decades, the Liverpool Parish Church (also known as Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, or just St. Nick’s) once displayed a statue named “Christ on a Donkey” on a plinth within a small enclosed area facing Chapel Street. Due to the elements, the statue began falling apart, so it was removed in the early 2000s, leaving behind an empty plinth.

The plinth would remain empty for over a decade, but eventually, the church decided to replace the sculpture. Inspired by the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square, the church set up a collaboration with the Liverpool BID (Business Improvement District) Company to commission a series of sculptures from local artists that would stand on the plinth for 12-month periods.

The first sculpture, a gold-colored compact car named “Gold Lamé” by Tony Heaton, was unveiled in June 2018. Several other sculptures have followed since, and they have tended to focus on psychological, social, or political issues. The continuously changing sculptures have brought a small amount of artistic flare and social commentary to what was otherwise a relatively ordinary street on the edge of Liverpool’s central business district. While visitors may be confused to see what looks like a giant scarf or a floating white chair outside the church, local residents and office workers appreciate the sculptures as another small quirky part of the city’s identity.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/liverpool-plinth

Xingfu Village Monument in Taipei, Taiwan

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/xingfu-village-monument

There are all kinds of monuments in the world, but it is rare to come across one built to commemorate the construction of a cemetery. In the 1920s, many poor families in Taipei could not afford proper burial plots, so local community leaders and philanthropists organized a public donation drive to establish cemeteries. People from all parts of society contributed. In 1929, they purchased land over 30 hectares in Xingfu for public cemeteries, and to honor this charitable act, the monument was erected the following year.

The monument, though nearly a century old, is well-preserved and surrounded by trees, with apartment buildings in the close background. It follows a traditional Japanese style and sits on a ridge. The stone on the top is inscribed with the words “Cemetery Building Monument,” while the back tells the story of how people from all walks of life contributed to raise funds for public burial land. The pedestal is engraved with the names of donors, including well-known Taiwanese gentry of the time such as Ko Hián-êng, Lîm Pik-siū, and Khóo Péng—figures mentioned in Taiwan's history textbooks.

The monument now stands in Wenshan Forest Park, just a three-minute walk from the nearest trailhead. You might wonder—where is the cemetery? The park was actually built on former cemetery land, with the graves relocated elsewhere. Only the monument remains.

Overall, the monument is located close to a dense residential neighborhood with minimal tourist traffic. Most local residents probably have never noticed it. For visitors interested in cemeteries or hidden heritage, it’s worth combining a visit with the nearby Lai’s Tomb Tower, the only Okinawan-style tomb in northern Taiwan and a registered historic site.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/xingfu-village-monument

Entry tags:

type: recs

Underrated Apple TV+ show recs?

Do you have any Apple TV+ recs for me, preferably underrated shows without good word of mouth that are not a mainstay in the Apple TV+ Top 10?

The Village Tavern in Long Grove, Illinois

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-village-tavern

The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.

Settled right in the middle of the historic district of Long Grove, the Village Tavern has been continuously operating since 1847.

Long Grove, a few miles north of Chicago, was a small village of German settlers in the 1840s, named Muttersholz (Mother’s Wood) at that point. John Zimmer, one of the relatively older residents, decided to open a tavern in his wagon shop next door to his house. The goal was to provide refreshments to travelers who would stop by to grab a drink while their horses and wagons were tended. The year was 1847, and it was called The Zimmer Tavern and Wagon Shop.

Almost two centuries, a Civil war, and two world wars later, the tavern still exists. It has only changed ownership three times (presently, it’s owned by the Ulrich family). The tavern still holds a few 19th century relics, like a grandfather clock from the 1893 Expo, and the massive bar from McCormick place.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-village-tavern

Entry tags:

The Zone

May and the first part of June were the coolest & wettest I can remember in a long while.

But some time in the middle of last night, a high-pressure dome descended upon the quaint & scenic Hudson Valley like a bell jar trapping taxonomic specimens.

Gonna be hot.

Gonna be uncomfortable.

I'm gonna have to be out of the house by 6 am each morning to avoid getting heat stroke when I garden.

###

Meanwhile, I did not leave the house yesterday despite good intentions.

I Remunerated virtuously throughout the day and when I met my quota—1,500 words—reluctantly slid on my leggings and prepared to leave for the gym.

But it was raining when I got into my car and raining even harder when I got to the turn-off for Highway 52, and I reminded myself: You don't like driving in the rain!

In fact, I don't like driving anywhere! I grew up in New York City where there's a perfectly wonderful public transportation system and as far as I'm concerned, no reason at all to have anything to do with automobiles.

I was nearly 30 by the time I learned to drive. I was living in California by then, and you cannot live in California without driving. Learning to drive was one of the bravest things I've ever done because honestly—when I think about zooming down a highway at 60 mph in a contraption of metal & plastic, it seems fraught with danger to me. But I did it because I had to—look at me! Pioneer woman! Laura Ingalls Wilder ain't got nothin' on me-ee-eee!—and I'm glad that I did. But I've never been particularly comfortable driving.

###

Also, I'm not big on exercising for exercise's sake.

I raced bicycles for many years, and I used to love that. And as recently as when I lived in Ithaca, I was riding 20 miles a day.

But here even though I live in the country, the roads teem with automobiles, and their drivers seem pretty feckless. Riding a bicycle seems like it would be pretty dangerous for an old lady like me.

So, it's the occasional tromp and gym sessions that keep old Donkey Body (

smokingboot™) strong.

###

Anyway, I used the rain as an excuse not to exercise!

I wasn't sorry.

But I did feel guilty.

###

Back at the casa, I started futzing with an AI video generator.

I had an idea! Enchanted castle, magical cats, mouse l'orange served on golden plate. Warrior princess about seven years old comes to visit.

It was around 7 pm when I started futzing.

And then the AI video generator shot me a message: You are running out of computing seconds! Would you like to invest [$ize of $um goes here. Not huge by the way! But probably more than I should be frittering away regularly] in more computing seconds?

I glanced at the clock.

It was 11 pm. I had spent four hours blissfully in The Zone!!!!

###

Now, I'm not claiming to be particularly talented at generating AI videos.

Nor am I claiming that anything I produce has the slightest artistic merit.

But I must say, The Zone's a wonderful place! Playing with this technology completely absorbs me & is lots of fun! Yes, it is a lot like playing the funnest video game you can possibly imagine.

And the apres-glow carries over.

I'm in fine spirits this morning.

Despite the (soon-to-be oppressive) heat.

Huntoon Park Wren in Topeka, Kansas

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/huntoon-park-wren

This gigantic statue once marked a radio station's headquarters.

The world’s largest wren is likely perched in a nest overlooking an intersection in Kansas’ capital city, Topeka.

Originally created in the 1930s by an unknown artist, this wren was once perched high above the city of Lawrence, Kansas’ WREN radio station. When the station moved to Topeka in 1947, the wren moved along with it.

Once the WREN station closed permanently in 1987, the statue was sold off as part of a fundraiser. It was then purchased the group Historic Topeka, Inc. to become a local landmark. The statue was restored by Buck Thomas, who also repainted it.

The statue is made of heavy concrete, weighs over 1,200 pounds, and stands at over five feet. It isn’t the largest bird statue in the world; that distinction likely belongs to a 200-foot rendering of Jatayu in India. But it very well might be the biggest wren statue on earth.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/huntoon-park-wren

Entry tags:

Book Review: The Witch of Clatteringshaws

Joan Aiken’s pacing may have bobbled in some of her later books, but it’s full speed ahead in The Witch of Clatteringshaws, which she raced to get done with the literal deadline of her own encroaching demise.

She has a lot of loose ends to wrap up in this book, chief among them the question of who will be the next King of England. Simon is currently saddled with the job, but he doesn’t want it, because all he wants to do is live a quiet life communing with animals and painting, and also he would like to marry Dido who has very definitively stated that she is unwilling to be queen.

It’s not entirely clear to me if she’d like to marry Simon, but she’s a good bro who doesn’t want to see Simon stuck on the throne, so she heads off to the north to chase up the only lead they’ve got on a possible alternative king. Apparently there’s an Aelfric somewhere up in Caledonia with a claim to the throne?

Spoilers: we never find Aelfric. From beginning to end we have no idea who this man is. Like the thought speech, which was so important in the Is books and never appears again, this one of many loose ends Joan has decided she doesn’t have time to bother with. As she finished this book a scant four months before her death, that’s fair enough.

Instead, Dido finds a Dickensian old person’s home (and let’s pause to admire Aiken’s breadth of Dickensian vision: Dickensian orphanages, Dickensian schools, Dickensian mines, apparently Dickensian mills in Midnight Is a Place which we haven’t read yet, and now Dickensian retirement homes). And at this home there is a boy, an orphan foundling who has been raised as a drudge, even though he arrived at the door wrapped in a cloth emblazoned with a golden crown…

( Spoilers )

(no subject)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250618.html

What's that unusual spot on the Moon?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250618.html

Entry tags:

reading,
the grind

current reading, and

I've recently begun reading Patrick Carey's New Perspectives: Microsoft Office 365 & Excel 2019 Comprehensive, 1st ed. (2020). It's solid, in lieu of the documentation that Microsoft no longer produces itself, if one needs such materials. There's a newer version; this is one of the two versions required by a summer class.

So far, it's kind of soothing: not soporific but reassuring for someone self-taught who hasn't used Excel much since its 2007 release, the last to have a jam-packed toolbar of doom. Like, so far, sometimes I remember keyboard shortcuts or exact command-names for things I can't find on the ribbon, which ... means I should learn the ribbon.

Why am I taking a class on using Excel?

1) The fun-fact answer: though I've figured out how to use Excel to clean and transform medium-sized chunks of data (structured text measured in megabytes, not a few dozen rows), I'm ignorant of a bunch of normal things that people use it for. Also, tables tend to make me glaze over, and I intend to narrow down the issue and patch it. At least they don't give me actual headaches, as the graphs in my recent econ assignments did.

2) The other answer: about two years ago, I began pondering what would benefit me for job-seeking, once my health had rebuilt itself further. Last year I decided with my physician that I could probably handle taking a class or two, and then something else pushed me into going faster. Like econ, Excel contributes to a category requirement.

Meanwhile, my two-year-ago plan for job-seeking options has been pretty comprehensively eaten by what people think AI can do---not necessarily what it can do well, but what they wish it could handle for them. By the time I wrap my course-taking next spring, I'll have learned some things about basic accounting---because I want to---and I'll understand better what I can offer, may tolerate, and would probably dislike in the current job landscape.

FAQ: no, I'm not pursuing a CPA license or a data-analyst certification. It wouldn't make financial sense at my age, and most people wouldn't believe in it. I've done enough things already that're hard to believe yet well documented! A thing one cannot really say to a recruiter or hiring manager: in 30ish years of past employment, I've achieved enough. Anyway, I intend the next stage to be less pressureful.

Entry tags:

My own TEW creations

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Entry tags:

penguin,
vacations

PENGUINS

The Birch Aquarium started the behind the scenes penguin tours today--they had been paused for renovations. Since I'm only an hour away, of course I went!

In front, we learned some of them love shiny things, like keys. Of course I shook mine at them after the tour.

There were five penguins hanging out in the air conditioned back room. It's the room where they get taken care of. Four were molting, and Percy just likes it there. They can go to their pool whenever they want. They didn't want to. Percy thought about, then decided against it.

I don't want to complain about traffic because PENGUINS, but on the way back, I missed an exit, took the wrong exit on a roundabout, GPS couldn't tell, and I somehow ended up driving around the San Juan Capistrano school district offices. It was really bizarre...

But it was totally worth it. Even if my vacation goal was do nothing! So worth breaking the goal for!

Entry tags:

The Queer Canoodling Commission Pride Special!

Rogan: Hey guys! I felt so crummy about missing out on all the Pride business opportunities this month that I've decided to throw a special art commission thing for the next month: The Queer Canoodling Commission Special!

I will draw your headmates, OCs, etc. kissing, cuddling, and kanoodling, in a limited palette of the pride or system colors of your choice! $30 for two figures, $50 for three, other options available if you ask. Unlike my normal (more expensive) commissions, these come with zero rounds of edits unless I decide I've made a mistake. What you get is what you get.

Some examples! (If nothing else, this can be an excuse to post rainbow pics of us being sappy together!)
( There's room for everyone under this rainbow! )