u/caudicinctus

Hi all! I am customizing a stable set and there are a few very specific textures I want to create that I figure the experts in here might be able to help me with.

Question 1: Flooring

Number one, I want to create the impression of rubberized brick tiles that have a slight texture/grip to them. This is an example of what they look like; I am looking to do the same thing in a charcoal/black color.

https://preview.redd.it/ak6x5qu4vebh1.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=e15af571cc4c67d93876ad8ad5d7e77a566ca1e6

The original flooring is plastic and made to look like bricks, so it already has the grooves between individual pavers - so I am looking for something that goes on relatively thin so that it doesn't fill in the grooves between said pavers and make it look like one big flat floor. I also don't want the grit to be too big to throw everything out of scale.

So far, my best idea for how to approach this is to gently sand the original plastic floor to create some 'grip', then mix some black acrylic paint with fine grout and hand paint a very, very thin layer over the original floor. Once it's covered in the black grout, I would use some kind of scale modeler 'rubber effect' paint to go through it with another really thin layer, possibly airbrushed if the paint is airbrush compatible, so that the texture of the grout is preserved.

What are your thoughts on this plan? Would it benefit me to put a primer over the sanded/roughed up plastic first? I'm a bit concerned over the grout flaking off or refusing to adhere to the adhesive.

Question 2: Wood

The stalls in the stable I am redoing have plastic wood boards on them that already have a texture, but they are only one color. I want to add natural variegation to the wood to make it seem real and less uniform. I'm wondering what the best approach is - are there decals in the dollhouse world that you can just apply to such things kind of like how there is scale wallpaper? Maybe paint it with a mixed base layer of acrylic with different blended shades and then go over the dried paint with colored pencil? Any thoughts appreciated.

Thank you in advance for any and all input! Hoping there will be some subject matter experts on here because this is my very first foray into scale miniatures!

I have autoimmune issues and very severe coathanger pain with massive trigger points in my shoulders. hEDS, suspected POTS, T1D. When I got my most recent mRNA vaccine, 2 years ago, the systemic pain was overwhelming and unbearable. Please don't try and tell me the vaccine is bad for xyz reason, I am a scientist and won't be swayed. I just want to hear honest accounts of how bad flares were or if the recombinant vaccine set off less of a reaction.

I'm looking for self help books akin to Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents that has to do with moving forward from the wound of a parent having a favorite child that ISN'T aimed towards a reader who WAS the favorite child, and/or for books about being a "glass child" ie the forgotten/emotionally neglected sibling of a high needs child. Not books that explain the phenomenon, but books geared towards helping readers cope with it as adults.

Thanks!

OMFG.

I just keep watching this, pausing to regroup, watching another segment, saying "ohhhh my God", then watching another careful 3 minute microdose of fundie dysfunction and pausing it again.

As someone who had to live in an extremely radical religious part of the Bible belt that was predominantly Fundamentalist Southern Baptist and Evangelical, and someone who attended high school there and saw a lot of my peers get married at the same age, I have a LOT of thoughts on this.

Formulating them as eloquently as I can here, these first 2 episodes of S11 are basically an expose on the full scale of the dysfunction in marriages in these cultures. Kody feels completely at ease talking to a visibly very uncomfortable Tony about sex with his daughter at length, because she is his possession and he enjoys the power of being able to give her away. I felt SO sorry for Tony in that dinner table conversation because Kody was being so extremely inappropriate and Tony was trapped in a situation in which he was clearly trying to not disrespect his partner while also not pissing off her domineering father - and Kody just does not GAF about boundaries. The fact that Kody goes directly to him behind his daughter's back and wants him to call the shots and approaches it like a business negotiation between giver and receiver makes my skin crawl.

On the subject of young marriage, I am in camp "it is always a bad idea". Admittedly, the typical age of marriage in my own culture is around 28/29; in the part of the rural south I lived in, people were usually married with at least one child by 21. This basically keeps you from ever being able to explore and 'find yourself' as it were, date different people, figure out what you like and don't like and want from a partner, etc. It's very much the norm for them, but it does make me really sad seeing the kids all fall into that, even when Meri, who married at 19, admits that it was a mistake and says she wishes she'd waited until she was older.

I think that the parents are absolutely correct that this is a BAD idea, but I think they're okay with it when it's Maddie because it's a country white dude whom they know. Realistically, nobody's turned into the person they will become at that age, and it's possible that the two people you are at 19 are compatible and the two people you are after the massive developmental boom in the late teens/early 20s are no longer compatible simply because you're two different people than the two people that entered the marriage. This has happened to so, so many people I know.

The fact that they don't want to wait is a red flag, and so is the short, SHORT dating period. Again, most people think their culture's way of doing things is superior, but the norm in the part of the Northeast where I live (that would horrify these people to no end) is a period of dating, then moving in together, then living together usually 1-3 years before a proposal - a sort of marriage trial run. These kids are going in BLIND. The idea of marrying someone and not knowing how they manage their finances or what they are like to live with makes me shudder.

They don't do this deliberately, but their conversations also really show one of the consequences of chastity culture and how a lot of these problems and utterly miserable marriages probably wouldn't happen if sex outside of marriage and 'test drive' periods with potential partners were normalized. A rushed marriage is always a bad idea.

Basically this is just soooo soooo fucked up and I'm grimacing and wincing watching this, especially with Grody constantly running intervention. I agree that it's REALLY really uncool to want to get married two months after another family member, and that this marriage is an extremely bad idea and that they need to wait, but I also think Maddie's marriage was an extremely bad idea. Literally if they love each other and just date as committed partners for a few years before getting married, nothing terrible is going to happen! If you feel like your love will die out or your partner will 'get away' or something if you don't lock it down in marriage immediately, you're not in love. Love doesn't have a timeline.

God I love/hate this show.

Another day, another round of questioning!!

(TW infertility and mention of miscarriage)

I'm wondering about the stance of the modern Mormon church on infertility and how it varies between men and women. I know that having children is really, really encouraged by the LDS church and is a cultural expectation (or so I've heard from a lot of exmos) so I am wondering what it is like for infertile couples and what the cultural and religious approach to that is.

How are infertile couples treated in predominantly Mormon social areas like Utah neighborhoods that are almost exclusively Mormon, individual churches, etc?

What is the religious reasoning behind why some people are infertile? What is the thought process when prayers don't work for conceiving a child?

Is it acceptable at any point for an infertile couple to just 'give up' and decide that trying is too emotionally taxing and just sort of come to peace with the idea of not having children?

How does the LDS church view IVF, and is that the same way that the average Mormon or a liberal Mormon views IVF?

How are infertile men viewed? I mean this in an off the record, cultural sense - like, within this social culture, how do other men see them, and how does everyone else see them? What kind of treatment might they expect?

^ the same question as above, but for women.

And for women who repeatedly miscarry, is the 'ideal' religious action to continue trying ad infinitum? What would happen if they said 'this is too dangerous, we choose not to have children'?

Some people in my last post recommended that I ask some of my questions here! Given that it'll be a while until I can actually visit SLC, and the perspectives here might be more in depth, I decided to give that a try!

Today I'm curious about the role of animals in Mormon culture, specifically about how that genre of Christianity might influence perceptions of how they are to be treated.

- Are animals thought to have souls/spirits or something equivalent in official Mormon theology? What about in the larger sphere of regular Mormon culture? Do Mormons generally believe that their beloved animals will accompany them into the afterlife?

- Does the "Rainbow Bridge" mythos exist for explaining animal death to younger children exist in Mormon culture?

- What is the Mormon view of horses and livestock? I know that there's a huge intersectional element with socioeconomic class and farming background here, but I ask because I've found that interpretation of scripture in insular communities often tends to have a downstream effect on animals - for instance, many Amish and Hutterites (but NOT all - I hate this stereotype) view animals more as machines to be used how the owner sees fit because of a belief that God created all animals as tools at Adam's disposal, existing solely to serve him as opposed to existing for their own sake, whereas the Southern Baptist view on horses tends to be more that they are also loved by God, enter heaven, and are a special gift from God as soulful, intelligent companions.

- Do Mormon horse owners also get those tooled leather items and decals and jeans etc that feature cross iconography in a 'Western'/'Cowgirl'/horsey flavor?

Thanks!!

So to be clear I'm not talking about gross like, sideshow attraction or objectification, or like how mission trip people will like pose with black or brown kids as accessories. But I'm really, really into and fascinated by Mormonism and Mormon culture as well as the theory of Mormons as an ethnoreligious group. I am from the Northeast and I have only known two Mormons in my entire life and those in this part of the country are pretty loosely Mormon and generally not of Mormon descent.

What is the perspective on tourists to SLC (context: my accent identifies me as very clearly being from the Northeast and I would be wearing not super raunchy clothing but definitely shorts/probably one of my sleeveless golf shirts) respectfully asking questions about Mormonism in these places? No camera crew or phone recording/not content farming, just like, trying to have in person conversations with some of the people there in the spirit of genuine curiosity about a world very different from my own.

The Mormons I've known have generally been excited to talk about it if asked but I am wondering if that would still be the case if I made it clear I wasn't interested in converting or attending a service and just want to know more. Is general just explaining and insight conversation something that is welcome in these spaces? Or is it weird and rude?

I'm particularly interested in last names in addition to given ones - I found an amazing list of common Utah Mormon names on this sub but I'm wondering on a social level what names are like 'Oh, they're probably very true blue with ancestry" as opposed to "there are a lot of XXXs in the Church, they're probably Mormon".

For given names, I know the tragedeighs have a stronghold for Zoomers and younger, but what about millenials and gen xs? Are there any gentile names that aren't explicitly associated with the Book of Mormon that were really popular in Utah?

Thanks!

What it says on the tin - I'm a Japanese learner and wondering if there's anywhere anyone knows of that sells print books or manga in the original Japanese - not media about learning the language, but written in the language itself. Thanks!