u/thatoddtetrapod

I posted a few weeks ago when I was still trying to figure out a back patch so I could get moving on the back of the vest, I did just that, cutting a pattern out of a band T shirt I found on sale. Now I’m filling in the area around it, and I’ve also mixed up some of the front patches too.

For a little context here, this battle jacket project is a bit of a “fuck you” to my anxiety. For years and years, I wanted to start experimenting with different styles and aesthetics, start getting into subcultures I always found interesting, and actually build a life i enjoyed, but I was held back by this crippling anxiety. Even the smallest changes in how I dressed or looked terrified me, I was so worried about judgement, about looking weird, about embarrassing myself. I couldn’t get myself to wear a different color hoodie than usual, let alone go into new social spaces or wear something like this.

So, when I first considered making a battle jacket, those anxieties were predictably as bad as ever. I was worried about being a poser, about looking weird, about doing it wrong. So, the way I eventually got over that was by deciding to make a battle jacket that was all of those things, on purpose. The whole point was I would do it as “wrong” ad possible, make it weird, make it gay and cringe and autistic as hell; and of course to piss off the judgy purists who think they alone own the concept of a battle jacket. By intentionally leaning into the things I was worried about doing by accident, and making them the whole point, I found I was able to subvert those anxieties entirely. And now I love wearing this thing out in public.

So yeah. The theme here is more or less “queer joy and autism”. I put stuff on there if it makes me happy. And doing it “wrong”, or making it “weird” was the whole point for me. And you know what? I fucking love it so far.

TLDR: finally figured out the back piece, starting to fill out the rest of the back. For context, I’m trying to make it as weird and gay and “poser”-esque as possible specifically to subvert my own anxieties about appearing those ways, and I love it.

Edit; someone appears to just be downvoting every comment in here, as I’ve seen a lot of comments with 0 votes, so help upvote other comments and share the love around!

This is my first time with leather boots I actually care about, so I’m new to the leather care thing. I used saddle soap, mink oil, and another leather conditioner I’ve forgotten the name of (I could probably find it if it’s really important), and the stitching is noticeably darker and yellowing. Is there anything I can do about this? How should I change the leather care to prevent more of it, or to keep it happening on future pairs of boots?

As you can see, I’ve been working on the front for a while, but have yet to do anything at all with the back. For the whole jacket, I was going for a mix of political statements, band patches, and silly autistic queer joy pieces like patches referencing special interests of mine (all the wasps) or just being cute (art shrimp, trans bug etc). I haven’t put anything on the back yet because I wanted to get the center piece figured out before I put stuff around it.

As you can see, the way it’s gone so far has ended up being mostly the latter (all the bugs, the dinosaurs, pizza possum, pride stuff), with a tiny little bit of political statements, and to date no real band merch (most shows I’ve been too haven’t had patches!! At least ones I can afford. I’m new to the scene and didn’t expect this, so I’ll be getting some online ig).

For that reason I was thinking about cutting out a piece of one of my band shirts, but the only one I think I would really put on there is too sentimental too me (it was the first show I got over my anxiety enough to actually join the mosh pit. And it was my first show seeing my fave band of all time).

I’m not sure where to go from here. I could go with the band shirt idea with a different shirt (I’d probably buy one online for this purpose), or I could go with something else? I kinda don’t mind not doing a band-related thing, I do like the autism-maxing queer joy look of the front so far. I don’t really have the skills to paint or embroider, but I guess I could try? I’m really out of ideas here. Any advice would help.

EDIT/UPDATE:
I think I figured it out! I found a shirt that's on sale from my favorite band, turns out they have merch for the 10 year anniversary of All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us, which is one of my favorite albums of theirs, and the kids sizes of this particular shirt are on sale for $15. I think I'll buy the largest kids size and cut out the pattern for my back piece!

It hasn’t even been a month, and it’s all dead. A few mistakes I suspect:
- too much dead material? (There was a bunch of dead leaves and detritus in the substrate)
- too many critters? It was bustling with activity at first. Isopods, worms, flatworms, bugs.
- too much light? It doesn’t get direct sunlight but I’ve been putting this bright light on it during the daytime. At first I was leaving it on 24/7 to maximize growth, was that a mistake?

Any other thoughts on what to do next time?

As the text says, the idea here is I keep most of my favorite songs in a current playlist, starting over with a new playlist every few months when I get sick of too many songs on the old one. The logic here is it checks if the song I’m currently listening to is already in said playlist, and adds it to my library and to the playlist if it isn’t.

However, much of the time, it just doesn’t add a song it should. Sometimes it gives an “unknown error” (no error code or anything), and sometimes it doesn’t, but it still doesn’t work, despite the fact that it definitely used to!

My friend was telling me about a small bug they rescued and thought was either a fly or a moth, but didn't have a good picture of. In the ensuing convo, this is how he tried to describe the little guy. Made me think of y'all!