C is for Coconut Crab

No, folks. This is not Photoshopped. That is a giant crab stealing your garbage. But don't worry, this beast is native to islands in the Indo-Pacific region.

The coconut crab, so named because it can crush a coconut with its bare claws, can grow up to three feet wide, including leg span. It is the largest land arthropod, and according to Wikipedia, given today's atmospheric conditions is likely at the size limit for how large an arthropod living on land can grow.

Small comforts, right?

Well, if it makes you feel any better, the coconut crab is predominantly frugivorous, meaning that it isn't just cracking those coconuts to intimidate the humans so keen on driving the poor bugger into extinction. Fleshy fruits are his choice diet, however they will also scavenge on dead animals and pick off slow and weak baby tortoises. They are also keen on stealing shiny objects from people's tents. I haven't found a good reason as to why.

Coconut crabs are nocturnal, living in self-made burrows during the day to protect them from predators (ha!), and lurking the beaches and streets by night.

Well, it turns out these guys are in danger of becoming endangered. Their meat is considered a delicacy, much like lobster is. But who really wants to chase one of these buggers down?

Somehow, this beast is closely related to the hermit crab. You know, that little thing you keep in way-too-small enclosures with sponges, some colored rocks and assorted shells for him to grow into? Baby coconut crabs, with soft shells, will climb into shells of other organisms, and adolescents will use coconut shells to protect their soft abdomens. Adults, when they molt, will stay hidden for up to a month while their exoskeleton hardens.

Coconut crabs have caught on in Japan as popular pets, and guides for their care include how to open their strong pincers if you get pinched (just tickle them and they'll release you, but otherwise they will hold on forever).

Heel, Fido! Get off the neighbor's palm tree!

Images courtesy of cryptomundo.com

B is for Blobfish

I don't know any animal whose name describes them so perfectly.

It's a fish.

And it looks like a blob.


And it is really, really ugly.

Why so serious? Oh, right. You're endangered.

But you have to feel a little sorry for this miserable-looking creature who, unlike the axolotl, has no reason to smile. The blobfish, which has spent the majority of its time on earth minding its own business, floating at depths in the ocean deep enough that your own sea-level adapted head would implode, is facing extinction. Deep-sea fishing is the culprit behind this evolutionary disaster's impending doom.

The blobfish, which lives off the coast of south-eastern Australia at depths up to 800 meters (that's about half a mile), trolls around with crabs and lobsters, content with the fact that, being as ugly as it is, no one would want to eat it.

Well, that part is true. But a destructive fishing method, called trawling, indiscriminately pulls up blobfish and arthropods alike. While many species have the advantage of spreading their populations far and wide, that is not the case for this sad creature. Since the blobfish is isolated to this one tiny area of the world, it is unlikely that migration will aid their dwindling populations.

A is for Animal

For this challenge, I bring you creatures. The scary, the smelly, the slimy and the sweet.

Today's critter is a little bit slimy, and a little bit sweet.


The axolotl is a species of salamander. Unlike other salamanders, the axolotl is the epitome of neoteny. Meaning it never undergoes metamorphosis. Metamorphosis allows the waterborn salamanders to adapt to life on the land, in which they'll lose their gills and become more.. well, lizard-like, only returning to the water to lay their eggs. The axolotl, however, never goes through this process. It retains its adorable baby-axolotl features, including gills, which sentences it to a life underwater while all its salamander cousins scurry about freely in the Overworld.

One thing it has over its salamander bretheren...

The axolotl can smile.
And a salamander will never make as cute an amigurumi. (A is for Axolotl Amiguri)

courtesy of crafster.org

Blogfest: Top Ten Horror/Science Fiction Movie Quotes

I'm in a Wilderness First Aid class all day today, so I'm posting early. I wish I'd spent more time preparing for this.. I left out so many great movies!


The Omen
A trend I greatly enjoy in movies, as you'll see, is creepy little kids. Also random movie quotes that appear in heavy metal songs.

When the Jews return to Zion, and a comet fills the sky, and the holy Roman Empire rises, then you and I must die. From the eternal sea he rises, creating armies on either shore, turning man against his brother, until man exists no more.

Event Horizon:
I love the images in this movie. I think when I first went to watch it, I was expecting a science fiction movie. I wasn't anticipating ... well, the movie I saw.

-You know nothing. Hell is only a word. The reality is much, much worse.



The Exorcism of Emily Rose
This is one of two movies that to this day keeps me up at night.

-Once you've looked into the darkness I think you carry it with you for the rest of your life.

The Exorcist
...this is the other one. My father used to torment me as a child by chanting:

-Why you do this to me, Dimmy?


A Boy and his Dog
Harlan Ellison, made into a movie? Yes, please.

-Well, I'd certainly say she had marvelous judgment, Albert, if not particularly good taste.


2001: A space odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke really did a number on my philosophy of life.

-Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.


Silent Hill
I love. Love. Love.

-When you're hurt and scared for so long, the fear and pain turn to hate and the hate starts to change the world.


Eraserhead
Like most people, I say I love this movie, but I can't really explain it to you.

In heaven, everything is fine.


Them!
I don't like this movie at all, but it was the first honest-to-goodness B-movie I'd ever seen.

-Well, Old Man Johnson could've died in any one of five ways. His neck and back were broken, his chest was crushed, his skull was fractured. And here's one for Sherlock Holmes. There was enough formic acid in him to kill twenty men.

City of Lost Children
Oh, the French..
In any case, this batch is as fresh as they come. Not one of them is over five years old.

Rosemary's Baby
If I had seen this movie before becoming numb to horror, I'm sure it would have had a stronger effect on me.

-Here.
-What's in it?
-Snips and snails and puppy dogs' tails.
-But what if we want a girl?

Jacob's Ladder
Given my love of the Silent Hill series, of course I love the inspiration for the game's visuals. I also appreciate the use of the following line in a Sun Caged song..

If you're frightened of dying, and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. If you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the Earth.




Again, I wish I had spent more time on this blogfest! But it was definitely fun watching some old favorites!

Congrats, Kim!

I have been remiss in my blogging duties, but frankly I have been having quite a difficult time writing at all. My job sucks most of my energy, and after leaving at nearly 9 last night and waking up at 4 this morning to go back and start all over again, creativity is the first thing to go.

I just wanted to pop on to say a BIG congratulations to Kim Bowman on the opening of her new blog, and on the scheduled release of her title "Wayward Soul." Hop on over to her blog and read the blurb, then enter her contest! And check out Elaina Lee's work on that cover, woah! I've only sneaked peaks at the early stages of the story, but I think Elaina did an amazing job of capturing the mood.

Astraea Press, a sweet romance publisher, is open for submissions and Kim's title will be one of the first to launch with it. So excited for the girls behind the scenes over there setting up the stage for opening day!

Holidays, Shmolidays: The Holiday Swag Edition, and I make a cover!

I'm not one for holidays... well, except for Halloween. And Christmas, I guess. But being nonreligious myself, and living with a Buddhist, this time of year becomes a celebration of togetherness, good tidings and changing seasons.

And, oh yeah... gift giving.

Materialistic, I am not. Accepting gifts makes me very uncomfortable. Second only to giving gifts. I am the world's worst gift-giver. So I was quite pleased with myself when I settled on a handful of gifts we could both benefit from, and this has become a tradition of ours. (Somewhat. Except when I bought him a guitar last Christmas, I have no desire to play. Not that I don't get anything out of watching him play, though...) Tools, because what man would refuse power tools? We're getting into building things now, another story altogether, and I won't say "no" to a hand-made dining table if he wants to make me one. Also picked up some dharma books, which I really should read myself.

And for me? I received a bundle of Adobe programs, including the one I wanted most... Photoshop! Why did I want Photoshop?

Well, not so I could do this:Okay, yeah, so I could do that.

I've been busy this last week with a seven hour drive south (think warm beaches!) to my grandmother's for Christmas. I love my grandmother, but the woman stays up until 3 in the morning and then wakes up at 7. I hope I have her energy when I'm her age, but right now, I need my 8 hours of sleep. Though her schedule has infected me with a little bit of insomnia.

Tomorrow (5 a.m., urgh) we're back on the road for a seven hour drive north to see the BF's family... think beaches-covered-in-snow, thank you, East Coast Blizzard of 2010!

Dreaming up inspiration

I was always envious of people, writers in particular, who claim to have found inspiration for their stories in their dreams.

I envy them for two reasons. For one, it seems ideal -- go to sleep, a function you normally do in the evening anyway, and wake up with a storyline. The second reason is, I very very rarely have coherent dreams.

A small sampling of my dreams from over the years:
- I was a gummy worm, and I was trying to get from one end of a table to another
- I was a shrub observing the dream, but I was also Will Smith, and I was getting married behind my apartments
- From my old dream journal: I'm running paper towels across campus with my brother and sister. I'm late for my Japanese test, so I keep telling them to hurry. My brother is whining because he says the paper towels he's carrying are too heavy. I tell him to be quiet, he's only carrying 19. I'm carrying 12, according to numbers that are supposedly on the bag. I give my sister my key so she can get in the room, and tell her to call my (now ex)boyfriend and give it to him so he can give it to me later.

But every once in a while, I have a very lucid, very coherent dream.

This is a dream from September. Soren is a character I've been working on for a long time.

Soren and I are in the bell tower of a church, hundreds of feet in the air. He wants me to stay with him forever, to become like him. We climb the rafters of the church with ease, though the construction makes no sense, it is like a ladder to get to the top of the tower. When we reach the top, Soren wraps his arms around me so that I can see nothing. I feel myself wobbling, terrified of heights as I am. He promises he will never let me go. Slowly I am able to open my eyes, and the first thing I see is the strong jaw of my fictional hero, strawberry-blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. He looks more ethereal than human. I become aware of my surroundings, which looks all too real. The air is crisp and cool in my nose, and I can smell the wood from a fireplace burning down in the streets below. The fog rolls back, and the first thing I see to my left down on the ground is a cemetery. Even from this height I can see individual grave stones. I see the lights from houses, and everything is so beautiful. I am so aware of the warm body holding me. I have never been loved this much by a man before.

Soren tells me this can all be mine, if only I would become a vampire like him.

The daylight begins to roll in, and the dream feels more like a dream.

We fly down through the rafters again to make it back into the church before Soren is harmed by the sunlight. We don't make it too far, for our feet hit a platform that was constructed during the night over the hole we climbed up through. I yell at him to go, but he cannot. Fortunately we do find our way around, but by this time the sun is up and we can see that the church is now occupied by construction workers building a city inside. We roll and we hide through the streets around the church. The sunlight doesn't seem to be having a physical effect, but more of a psychological effect on Soren.

The construction foreman finds Soren and captures him. I go to him and I bare him my neck. I tell him to feed from me so that he can heal. He refuses and says with the suns effects, he cannot and would never bite me. His fangs will not descend.

It is with this feeling of defeat that I wake up.

And then last night, I had another realistic dream, that got me out of bed to make coffee in the wee hours of the morning because I just couldn't shake it.

I dreamt that I had been offered a three-book contract with the publisher I'm aiming for, and I dreamt through the book I had written for them. It wasn't a particularly engaging story at all, not one I'm going to write anyway. Some erotic wolf shifter series which actually did have a plot, conflict and even resolution. It's more the inspiration that I needed to get back into writing now that I'm on my vacation for the next month. (Well, they call it vacation, even though I'm not paid for it!)

Just waiting for my muse to catch up!