♦ juin parc. says:
*i had to content myself with this spider in my room
Peter – says:
*lol awww
*name it
♦ juin parc. says:
*NO
*not when it’s already dead
*i made my little brother kill it
*it was such a mission
Peter – says:
*LOL
♦ juin parc. says:
*yesterday, i’ve been eyeing it ALL day
Peter – says:
*are you serious … you’re scared of a spider ?
♦ juin parc. says:
*’cause it was on the very top left corner above my desk
*and i was studying
*(YEAH, SO, WANNA DIE)
*anyways
*and it didn’t budge
*it just… stayed there in that wee little corner
*so we both tried to ignore each other
*and then when i turned off the lights, i KNEW the little ass would creep around
*and it DID
*it traveled from one end of my room to the OTHER
Peter – says:
*LOL
♦ juin parc. says:
*WITHOUT me knowing
*it was soooo creepy
*when i woke up, i saw it was at the OTHER corner
Peter – says:
*hahaha you’re so cute sometimes, i almost forget you’re a girl til times like these hahaha
♦ juin parc. says:
*and it’s the corner above my rack of clothes
*HMMPH. SHH.
*so yeah, and then i was scared it’d fall onto my clothes
*so i called my little brother over who looks like he’s 8
*and he (daniel) goes: “WHAT”
*me: “hey, you’re getting bigger now.. i think you can reach that corner”
*and he goes: “… is it a spider”
*so he helped me move my clothes rack and he took a chair, and like the tiny superboy he is, he took a wooden stick and hit it against the corner
*the damn spider fell, i shrieked, i grabbed my fly swatter, moved my brother to the side and annihilated it.
*then i made my little brother pick up the spider with tissue.
*and that was the end of that creeper.
Peter – says:
*LOL
*hahahhahaaha
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
*<3
*oh my god i’m laughing so hard
*you’re too fuckin cute hahahahahahahahahahaha

—–

And that concludes my anecdote. I HATE bugs. I’m actually bugophobic, not even exaggerating.

I remember the last time a huge housefly was zooming in my room, I couldn’t find my trusty fly swatter, so while it was buzzing around in the air – I threw my dictionary at it. Yup. It was a hardcover with 1500 pages and that fly didn’t stand a chance with my fatal aim. I pwned the shiet out of him.

I remember about fifteen years ago, it was on the news here in Japan that some Australian Redback Spiders were seen in Western Japan. And that someone got bitten by one.

They assume that the spiders hitched a ride to Japan onboard a cargo ship from Australia.

It was big news in Japan at the time because the Australian Redback Spider is a very poisonous spider in the Black Widow family…and before that Japan had no poisonous spiders.

Australian Redback Spider

In Japan, there are hornets, centipedes, and a few poisonous snakes…but until this spider arrived in the mid-’90s, there were no poisonous spiders here.

But after that initial news story, I had forgotten about that spider because there was no more mention of it on the news…and also it was seen on the other side of the country.

But the Australian Redback Spider is back in the news here in Japan again.

It seems that the population of this spider has greatly expanded in Japan.
The news said that this spider has been seen in other parts of Japan now too.

I guess the Australian Redback Spider has become a permanent resident in Japan.

It’s a dangerous spider but there is an anti-venom for it’s bite so there hasn’t been a single case of a person dieing from this spider’s bite in decades.

It’s unfortunate that the Australian Redback Spider has come to Japan…but at least the highly venomous (and creepy) Australian Funnel-web Spider isn’t here!

The "Australian Funnelweb Spider" has large fangs and a deadly venom

Arachnophobia

Arachnophobia (1990) has the tagline, “Eight legs, two fangs and an attitude,” although it’s safe to say that really doesn’t sum up the sheer terror this film creates.

Deep in the Venezuelan rainforest, a group of researchers discover a breed of spider never seen before.

One of the arachnids decides to tag along back to the researchers’ camp and kills photographer Jerry Manley (Mark L. Taylor) with a toxic bite.

Hitch-hiking in the make-shift coffin of the dead photographer, the spider arrives in small village Canaima, in California.

Mating with a normal house spider, the two create a deadly batch of killer arachnids that start terrorising Canaima’s inhabitants.

It takes new doctor in town, Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels) – who suffers from severe arachnophobia – and resident insect terminator Delbert McClintock (John Goodman) to annihilate the creatures before they kill everybody and take over the town.

Directed by Frank Marshall, this film will make you itch and jump even if you aren’t afraid of spiders.

A bit of an oldie, but the special effects and the acting doesn’t date the film at all, and with the infusion of comedy consistent throughout, Arachnophobia is a classic thriller that feels so real it’s almost too close to home.

Talk about an exotic holiday souvenir – who the hell would pack 1000 Brazilian spiders in their suitcase?! A British would-be spider smuggler was apprenhended at Rio de Janiero airport after security X-Rays revealed 1000 live spiders in his luggage.

Firstly, how the hell would he have got the spiders in there? They must have hatched in the suitcase – gross! And secondly, why bother? Who would want to buy a, probably poisonous, spider. Imagine the security guys who saw all those creepy spiders running around! Oh god, it’s making my skin crawl just writing about it!

Now I’ve been to th Brazilian rainforest, and the spiders there are not the kind you want anywhere near you, let alone in your suitcase! I hope the “Spider-man” had secured the luggage properly incase one of the little blighters escaped. Who knows if they’re poisonous or not – I just hope he was completely brushed up on his first aid training!

The guy has been released on bail, but could face a year in prison and a fine of up to 2.3 million dollars.

This first round of seminar-style presentations seemed to have gone very well. It’s the final year and it is a relief to see the scattered class bonding together. Like in the words of the Ping – paraphrased – it is a miracle; this seminar-style approach to educating every one works for o’three. Throughout this week, a lot was covered – from Wisdom of the Crowd, Mobile Revolution to Facebook.

Search engines throw out their web spiders to collect information via HTML around the vast internet – as WP presented it. I thought there were only the spiders but turns out not; ants and worms are part of the act too! And the text of mankind – be it font-size 12 or 40; lorem ipsum or twit language – collectively form the Wisdom of the Crowd. No wonder Google struck it rich: they were quick to leverage on this opportunity hence created one of the most widely-used search engine today.

I was singled out in the demonstration of that theory. And it did prove – my level of wisdom, however intelligent I may think of myself to be, could not stand up to the class as a whole. Think about it, in actuality, this is more or less along the lines of logic and common sense – the comments and opinions of others, who have come from different background and possessed different interests, are considered more objective than one soul’s point of view. To add on, you will be spoilt for choice and faced with thick walls of dilemma from having to come to your decision. Always remember, the opinions and/or comments of others are just suggestions – the ultimate decision is yours; just compare, contrast and run it through your heart. In other words, be discerning even when seeking the almighty advice from Wisdom of the Crowd.

Let me sum up Mobile Revolution in a line: The advancement in science is unbeatable, though fairly foreseeable, technology will continue to renew with greater things and maybe even realise the reality of ‘Alien v.s. Predator’ causing chaos like in ‘Left 4 Dead’.  Hence in a way, no biggie, revolutions will eventually become passe over time and more will come.

On the topic of ‘Left 4 Dead’ – here’s an interesting treat (rated NC-16):

Facebook? It’s so popular now that it does not need more text in this post.

//

//

South Florida is home to hundreds of thousands of pests (Also known as insects and rodents). In the past few years, the number of spiders has increased drastically, causing many South Florida homes to call their local pest control experts.

What exactly is a spider?

A spider is an insect with almost 40,000 different species recorded. These air-breathing arthropods have eight legs and “fangs” that can inject venom depending on the species. Spiders are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms. Spiders can be found on every continent except for Antarctica.

Spider Bites:

Spiders will generally only bite a human in self defense. Most of these bites will only produce a small infection, similar to a mosquito bite or bee-sting. Spiders such as the widow spiders and other extremely harmful spiders are shy and bite only when severely threatened.  Funnel web spiders’ defensive tactics are aggressive and their venom, although they rarely inject much, has resulted in 13 known human deaths. On the other hand the Brazilian wandering spider requires very little provocation.

There were about 100 reliably reported deaths from spider bites in the 20th century, but about 1,500 from jellyfish stings.Many alleged cases of spider bites may represent incorrect diagnoses, which would make it more difficult to check the effectiveness of treatments for genuine bites.

Palm Beach County Pest Control

That night, the entire family stayed at the old mansion where I live. All the rooms, all the beds were full, which was something of an accomplishment considering how large the place is. Being a good hostess, I slept in the basement– an ancient cavernous dungeon-esque room. This is a level of the house which I only pass through on the way to the laundry. It is full of clutter from the previous tenants, old things like wickered wine crofts, a full chemistry set fuzzy with dust, antique furniture with worn upholstry on the seats and stained where backs of tired heads rested. Also in the basement is a four poster bed set, made of intensely dark wood, beside it a matching vanity.

The bedding is covered in dust, just like in the movies, when I plopped down on it a cloud released into the air. As I lay there, I could hear the family moving around upstairs– trips to the bathroom before bed, I suppose.

As I stared up at the ceiling waiting for sleep, I noticed how high the ceiling is. And I notice movement. There, directly above me, at what seemed like three stories up, was a fleet of wolf spiders. They must have acclimated to my stillness, but every time there was movement from the floors above, they all scurried together into a crack in the wall.

What beautiful creatures. They were unusually large for what I know of wolf spiders, more like tarantulas (which are ruled out as they do not live in this area), and a variety of colors: tan, brown, and grays. Some of them were missing legs– which I imagined birds found to be tasty and explained their skittishness.

I watched them settle back into their resting places, and then escape once again into hiding as more sounds emanated from the world upstairs.

…..

Later, I met a man who was known as a spider enthusiastic in the city. When I shared my sighting with him, he was as excited as I was, and had already learned about this phenomenon in the house I was living. My ex had lived in the house before me, had seen this himself, and told the man about it.

The man had been focusing his work on it for some time, and had even developed a play about the happening. He invited me to attend the dress rehearsal and meet the cast. A gaggle of beautiful women dressed in velour peacock blue syncronize swimming outfits, decked out in silver sequins and matching swim caps flocked onto stage. The play consisted of them flitting back and forth gracefully and cooperatively, as the spiders themselves had done. It was stunning and moving.

Oh, assassin bug, assassin bug,

you really are so dreamy

It’s hard to say which one is best

Harpactor or reduviinae,

A “helping” sort, you remind me of a spider,

You eat the bugs folks can’t abide,

Like crunchy, six-legged sliders!

An arachnid’s an “assassin” too, but not like you,

She doesn’t try to hide it,

Sitting in her silken web, or daintily astride it.

One day it came, the final price delivered,

For grim offence to prior-eaten bugs,

Snared in a spider’s web you quivered.

Assassin bug, oh naive victim.

I watched your end, regrets.

She wrapped you up to hide you,

And when time came to slake her thirst,

She neatly liquified you!

The photographs were taken recently on Hill-Stead’s sunny west wall.  The encounter between this bug and the spider didn’t turn out well from the assassin bug’s point of view.  Apparently size really doesn’t matter.

The assassin bug is an insect (six legs) known for creeping stealthily toward a victim-and pouncing!  They move very slowly until the last moment.  Assassin bugs can jump as well as fly, making them a formidable predator.  Assassins are considered to be a “beneficial insect”, eating bugs that destroy crops and otherwise annoy humans.  The assassin bug falls into the category of “true bugs”-hemiptera.  Further, they are known to be part of a large group of bugs with cone-shaped heads, which mask a sharp beak that delivers a painful bite.  They’ll bite humans as well as their usual prey, sometimes causing a severe reaction.  Assassin bugs occur the world over, and can sometimes take down prey that is much bigger than itself.  The females of the species make better hunters as they need the protein to procreate and to sustain offspring.  After immobilizing a victim, they inject a venom that breaks down the organs of the unfortunate prey. Ironically in view of the photos above, this is precisely how a spider operates, the difference being that the spider waits for prey and the assassin bug pursues it directly.

See you on the trails,
Diane Tucker, Estate Naturalist

Killed a spider yesterday. i think it came from the bathroom. It was on the hallway wall running. I squished it. I never used to kill them that much but ever since i got bite badly i kill everyone of them i see. I’m a killrr of spiders.

Written by Sara Fryd / Illustrations by Emily Tran

“Papa, there’s a spider in the bathroom,” screamed the little boy!   I’m too little to catch it.   Come quick!  I can’t take a bath.  I’m too scared.”

Papa walked down the hall with a plastic container to fetch the spider and toss him out in the garden where he belonged.  He didn’t like spiders much; however, they were one of God’s creatures and had their place here on earth like everyone else.

“I don’t like spiders, although, I am very fond of crickets,” Papa said.  And Erez came running up the hall to the living room clearly jumping for

~ J   O   Y   !!!!

 He had heard Papa’s stories hundreds of times and couldn’t wait to hear them again.  “Papa tell me the story again”, Erez said while climbing into Papa’s lap chattering non-stop like most 5-year olds.  “Tell me the story again, please, please.  Another story about the Israeli Army where you guarded missiles, with bird names in the North.   Can I serve in the Israeli Army when I’m old enough?  Please, Papa please.” 

“That will depend on the Israeli Defense Forces,” Papa winked.

Sitting in his favorite big chair, Papa made a face while scratching his beard, “Okay, I’ll continue if you promise to go take your bath and climb into bed as soon as we are finished.   Mama is very tired after a long day at work, so we have to help out tonight.”

“Yes, yes,” Erez responded immediately.  His dark eyes lit up like fireflies in summer in the mid-western USA from where Papa had emigrated after high school with his family.   He bounced on Papa’s lap till he found that comfortable familiar place to curl up in.

“Me too, me too, giggled Libby.   How come he always gets to sit on your lap and hear stories and I don’t?   I’m almost 5, she smiled!   That radiant little girl smile that manages to throw darts at a father’s heart; usually getting little girls what they want every time.

“I don’t like spiders very much…although…I am very fond of crickets”, Papa began.  “And here’s why”, he continued.  “Wouldn’t you know the Israeli Army always sent me North in the winter and South in the summer, until I transferred to a research & development library in Tel Aviv.”

“Occasionally, I was assigned to guard a Hawk missile site near Safed. Every night a cricket would keep me company. He would chirp, chirp, chirp by rubbing his legs together.  And I would not feel so alone out there in the dark all by myself when I was only nineteen.”

“I named the cricket “Coincident.” For with all the creatures Hashem could have sent me to keep me company, why did he send me a noisy cricket to keep me up when I’d rather be taking a nap. After all, what on earth did I need a cricket for when I had an Uzi?” Papa winked.

Then wrinkling his brow for effect, with two enthralled children sitting in his lap, he continued, “One particularly dark, almost moon less night, I was on guard duty alone, when suddenly…(Papa’s voice got really low and both children jumped), my friend the especially noisy cricket “Coincident” stopped chirping.

I looked at the area on the far side of the cricket and saw a wild cat approaching me.  This cat was about the size of a Florida bobcat.  Almost the size of a small lion.  Big enough to eat me in one gulp!  I didn’t want to fire my Uzi at one of Hashem’s creatures, so I picked up a fist-sized rock and I threw it hard to the ground just left of the bobcat, which ran away very fast towards the Northeast.  Out of sight of the cricket and far away from Papa, Baruch Hashem (Bless God)!  And I’ve been fond of crickets ever since, though I still don’t like spiders very much.”

“Tell it again, tell it again,” the children shouted falling off of Papa’s lap. Libby grabbing the beard to keep from slipping too far.

“Maybe tomorrow night. Right now it’s bath time and there are no spiders in the bathroom, so no more excuses,” Papa explained detaching his beard from one little girl’s fingers and placing her on the floor with one deft hand.

 And two ecstatic children raced each other down the hall laughing till Papa could hear the water splashing; warmly watching while leaning against the wall with a smile that remembered, “The sounds of crickets still make me smile, though the sounds of my children…well, we’ll just have to save that for another bedtime story.”

All rights reserved.  ©2009 by Sara Fryd

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Let’s say that a webpage is about remote control and one of your keyword phrases is “remote control” and you’ve got a picture of a remote controller.

When a visitor lands on your webpage you have less than 20 seconds on average to interest that visitor. If the total of the sizes of the pictures on a webpage add up to more than 500 K then you run the risk of making a visitor wait while your page loads.

A page of nothing but text on a webpage can appear boring to human visitors but automated programs sent by search engines to index your page (“spiders” or “crawlers”) see only text.

A picture of a remote controller should be named “remote-controller.jpg” (not “left_front.jpg”) and include ALT text (shown when the viewer places the mouse on a picture) that describes the picture as a “remote controller”. The words in the name and the ALT text can be seen and indexed by search engine spiders. Using your keyword phrases appropriately in the filenames and ALT text is savvy internal search engine optimization.

Lets say your webpage has a company logo, the company logo is named “ABC-Company-Logo.png” and the ALT text says “ABC Company remote control solutions”. Do not make text part of the image, instead use surrounding text and a caption to include text to your logo. Search engine crawlers can not see text contained within a picture itself.

Take care, be well, have fun,

Tom Jacoby
email info@NumberOneOnTheList.com
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or http://NOOTL.net

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The Sound Unbound conference / symposium / performance series that’s been happening at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus this week has been hugely enjoyable and improving, so for later recollection’s sake I thought I’d better do a little roundup.

By coincidence, the art gallery that acted as the venue for some of the performances (including my own) was also housing the vBox, an interactive instrument created by artist Ellen Moffat as part of her Phoneme Project. The vBox is a long cabinet full of switches that play samples of disjointed spoken phonemes from the twelve inbuilt speakers. The gallery visitor is free to play around with the switches (and alter the speed of the looped recordings) to find any number of overlapping patterns and create a kind of unpredictably reassembled speech. Here’s an mp3, from Moffat’s website, of what the results might sound like. Naturally, I encouraged my audience to turn these knobs at their leisure during my performance. This friendly background chatter was infinitely better quality than the type you get when playing in bars.

Nobuo Kubota’s presentation (of his films, of himself) was superb, and covered a whole range of his activities as architect, film-maker, sculptor, sound artist, and vocalist. He finished up with an ace performance similar to this one, which I linked to earlier. Unlike some artists working in a similar vein, Kubota considers himself more a vocalist (perhaps a singer) than a poet. His vocalisations in the video linked to at the foot of this page come close to those of scat singers, and exist further from meaning than the great readings given earlier by Gerry Shikatani, an associate of hugely important (and Canadadaist!) concrete and sound poetry group The Four Horsemen. I should say that I also appreciated Nobuo Kubota’s demonstration of an ornithological book he’d recently bought, with built-in speakers that play examples of hundreds of types of bird song.

Speaking of bioacoustics, I was sorry to miss a talk at the end of last week on animal communication, but I hear that it involved a discussion of the sounds made by male spiders when trying to impress a mate. Sure enough, there’s a video on Youtube showing this behaviour… some of the commenters on this video suggest that the sounds are faked, but I do believe that these are the actual noises made (recorded using a contact mic attached to the surface that the creatures are on), not by the spider’s legs (though it looks like he’s tap-dancing) but by some other part of his surprising anatomy.

Finally, tonight there was an intelligently improvised performance by Chris Cogburn (objects teasing the resonance of drums by playing on their skins), Bonnie Jones (exposed circuit boards), Chandan Narayan (contact-mic’d autoharp) and Liz Tonne (cracked abstracted voice). Subway trains beneath us added their own low frequencies.

Answer: A first-rate comedic genius.

Perhaps it is how he engages in conversation rather than getting bogged down in the details of late fees and such.

Or it may very well be his meticulous attention to the anatomy of arachnids, even at the expense of a confused cog in the normally well-oiled billing and collection machine.

As a result of this spider drawing, he made $15,000 (AUS) on EBay.  Not bad.

I am currently understanding the term ‘I put them down early, so that I can have my time at night’.

I have been babysitting five kids–beautiful kids–tonight. I am exhausted to say the least. This week has been totally crazy with all of the Vegan stuff going on. Can I just say that I am BLOWN away by how many people participated in the Vegan -4-A- Day..here’s the list. There are so YUMMY recipes out there!

Check out Katy’s post on losing weight and being Vegan–interesting read.

I brought my own dinner to babysitting. It was interesting because the two youngest wanted to try everything in my salad. It got me thinking ‘you could feed your kids organic, vegan food if you wanted to’. Kinda like MamaPea!

My dinner: Left over pizza (no almond butter this time) w/ a salad and roasted chickpeas from the other night.

One orange

1 tb of Peanut butter, 2 TB of raisins, 1 TB sunflower seeds–unpictured.

In the midst of baby sitting (I am spending the night) I get out of the shower and into the guest room and look up and almost die because I see this. A FREAKING Huntsmas Spider.

I could actually see it’s jaws/fangs moving. I called in the three older kids and the little boy freaked out and was armed with the fly spray–good on him for trying. The eldest girl went and go the biggest tupperware container she could find.

I stared at it. It’s fangs moved in anticipation of biting me..and I knew that I had woman man up to te challenge of catching the damn thing. So I climbed on a computer chair and trapped it into the tupperware container.

Then I screamed..a lot. Look at it.

The poor kids. It was interesting babysitting. As I get older–ha ha ha–the drive to have children sparks at weird times. I am not ready for kids, but I look forward to hopefully having them one day.

Call me spiderwoman…

Are you afraid of spiders?

~M

I had a very Aussie experience last night. As I went to flush the toilet, I saw a quick movement out of the corner of my eye (pun intended). It looked like a filthy big cockroach had darted across the bowl and up under the porcelain lip. I could see the tips of two feelers poking out.

Ha ha ha, flushing you away is going to give me so much joy.

It wasn’t a cockroach. It was a huge huntsman spider. They weren’t feelers, they were legs.

vivian:
i don’t remember much except a spider about the size of a half dollar is on my right hand. it bites me once there, and i try to shake it off, but to no avail. it climbs onto my left hand and goes up my sleeve and bites me twice more.

interpretation:
to see a spider in your dream indicates that you are feeling like an outsider in some situation. or that you may want to keep your distance and stay away from an alluring and tempting situation. the spider is also symbolic of feminine power. to dream that you are bitten by a spider, represents a conflict with your mother or some dominant female figure in your life. the dream may be a metaphor for a devouring mother or the feminine power to possess and entrap. perhaps you are feeling trapped by some relationship.

assessment of interpretation:
i’m currently in a foreign country, so maybe there’s some truth to it (although i don’t feel particularly out of place). i don’t have the best relationship with my mother, either, but it’s not something that was stressing me out yesterday, although it is stressing me out in general, i guess.

Your charges are baseless!
I was listening, ok?
But … not to you, though.

Visiting family,
“Grandma, who’s your favorite kid?,
Have another beer.”

A personal choice,
She ignores the cold shoulder,
I change my number.

“You won’t believe it!”
“Well, let’s not waste time then.” Click.
I may regret that.

“Bring on the crazy!”
He shouted, then downed some shots.
Where is my Sharpie?

Hey, these jeans are cheap!
“Sir, that’s not a decimal.”
You’re shitting me, right?

You bought us tickets!
… Wait, to arena football?
The thought doesn’t count.

I’m a scary drunk.
Last night I yelled, “H-U-G,
Give ‘em all to me!”

A morning surprise
My sister trapped a spider
Under my hairbrush

We had a nice date
But no second date followed
I wish we’d gone Dutch

Should’ve kept quiet.
She doesn’t need to know that
My mom won’t like her.

Finally summer!
I’d be beach-bound, but I have
Glow-in-the-dark skin.

I got drunk last night,
And yelled, “I’m lyrical crack!”
Pretty kick-ass, right?

“I really like you!,
We’re like really connecting!”
What!? How drunk am I?

Silly foreigners
He described his humor as
Self-defecating

While shaking her hand,
“It’s lesbian to meet you.”
Whoops! Freudian slip.

I’m not romantic?
I can’t believe she said that!
Hmmm … She may be right.

Clock-watching at work.
Hmmm, could I take up smoking,
Just for those two breaks?

I stand here and wait
Oh, the faucet’s not auto
Glad no one’s around

Copyright 2009 Brad Stanley

LNF*

• Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.

• Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

• On average people fear spiders more than they do death.

• Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

• The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.

• Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

• American car horns beep in the tone of F.

• Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.

• Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

• On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.

• 7% of Americans will eat McDonalds today.

• All porcupines float in water.

• In Muncie, Indiana, it is illegal to carry fishing tackle in a cemetery.

LNFs on This Day:

1865 – Samuel L. Clemens published “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” under the pen name “Mark Twain” in the New York “Saturday Press.”

1928 – The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiered in New York. It was Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie,” starring Mickey Mouse.

1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana, Reverend Jim Jones persuaded his followers to commit suicide by drinking a death potion. Some people were shot to death. 914 cult members were left dead including over 200 children.

1987 – U2 opened for itself by pretending to be a country-rock group called The Dalton Brothers during a concert in Los Angeles

1994 – Cab Calloway died at the age of 86.

*Why LNF? Why Plain White Shirt? Read Rorschach’s Ribs and all will be understood.

I’m terrified of bugs. Absolutely terrified. I will jump out of the shower (shampoo in hair) and run down the hall screaming if a spider decides to drop in for steam bath. I can’t sleep in a room if I know there is a spider lurking, and don’t even get me started on that whole “you eat 8 spiders a year while you sleep”. Can’t handle it. Nightmares.

So, my quest for a bug killing solution started a few years ago while I was studying in Spain with my amiga Jacqui. We were staying with this little senora named Rosario. Darling woman. She only had one big front tooth, but she could make a Spanish tortilla like nobody’s business. If not for all the walking I would have gained 50 lbs. in a month. Here’s a picture of our little Rosario:

Told you she was *tiny*...

We, of course, didn’t have air conditioning in our building. I mean why, in 100+ humid weather, could you possibly need air conditioning? Considering everytime an ambulance wailed by she would comment on losing another “old” one to the heat… we were obviously just fine sweating through our clothes. In order to not die we opened the windows into the courtyard — well not so much a coutyard, but a hole in the middle of the building where everyone hung their clean underwear, but that’s another story…

It was one of our last nights in Granada and we were finishing up our final projects when a BEAST BUG flew in through my open window. It was essentially a big, green cockroach with wings. Imagine me… screaming, flailing and trying to communicate (insert language barrier here) what the hell was going on. I run through the one long hallway yelling “cucaracha, cucaracha” (the spanish work for cockroach) due to the lack of the actual BEAST BUG’s name. Little Rosario pulls herself up from her nightly soap, grabs a can of what can only be described as toxic waste and sprays the thing to death. A few minutes of aerosol toxic waste. In my room. With the BEAST BUG. At least he was dead right?

She grabs him up and sends him swirling down the toilet. Things had calmed down, until I re-entered my now bug free room and began to immediately choke on the toxic waste. Coughing, heaving, eyes watering, gagging, more heaving etc. were all a part of my next hour. If I ever develop some sort of respiratory disease or lung cancer, this is why.

I have since determined that there has to be a better way to manage these pests. Running soap in eyes through the halls and choking on toxic waste just can’t be the only options. Enter my birthday present:

It electrocutes any little creepy crawler or flying beetle that decides to mess with me and/or just hang around on the front porch. Some call it sadistic, I call it preventative measures.

Spiders are the insects that are air-breathing arthropods, have eight legs and chelicerae modified into fangs that inject venom. Among all other groups of organisms, they rank seventh in total species diversity. Spiders are found world-wide except for Antarctica, and have become established in nearly all ecological niche. Around 40,000 spider species and 109 families have been recorded by taxonomists as of 2008.

There are about 30,000 known species and mostly size are in centimeters and a few tropical forms obtain great size like some bird-eating spiders obtain a body length of 9 cm/3.5 in.

Spiders produce silk as well as many spin webs to trap their prey. Many of them are found in dry commons, woods; a few are aquatic. Spiders are predators; they just bite their prey and release a powerful toxin from poison glands that can cause paralysis.

Species of interest include a longer-sighted species, the zebra spider Salticus scenicus that stalks its prey and has pads on its feet that enable it to walk even on glass. The poisonous tarantula’s bite can cause local inflammation but rarely death.

The trapdoor spiders, black widow; closely related to species that existed some 400 million years ago. The Araneus diadematus, cross spider that spins webs of remarkable beauty; the water spider Argyroneta aquatica, one of the few aquatic species of spider, that has air trapped on the hairs of the body as well as constructs a web below water. The bird-eating spider genus Mygale of South America, largest member of the group with a body about 6 to 9 cm/2.4 to 3.5 in long and also a leg-span of 30 cm/1 ft. Wolf-spiders) are a biggest distributed group of predators. After hatching, the female carries the young on her back for some days.

So, this is all about spiders.

]]> http://mealsandmoves.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/something-old-something-new-something-borrowed-something-blue/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:21:46 +0000 janetha http://mealsandmoves.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/something-old-something-new-something-borrowed-something-blue/

no.. i am not getting hitched.  but i am using this little wedding rhyme for the theme of today’s post!  but FIRST i would like to reflect back on some of the motivational tips you guys left on yesterday’s post.. because daaaang i have some clever readers!

sharing time:

• deb: “I think it’s about re-committing and just mother f-ing DOING it!”
• jenna:”I motivate myself by thinking of how exciting it will be to see how proper eating and training will postitively affect my body.”
• nicci: “I motivate myself with a reward at the end of the month. Not food related but a nice pedi or a new shirt. Sometimes going and buying 3 magazines or a new book.”
• lizzy:”i do what you did and just list out the things i know i need to work on. having that list out in front of me is what helps”
• allison: “I need to dive right back into it, otherwise ‘vacation mode’ lasts for weeks”
• tay: “It’s super hard to get BOT, but I go day by day and it gets easier! I think about how much better I’ll feel once I feel clean and on track again.”
• ildie: “Try setting mini goals. Things you want to accomplish at the end of every week instead of at the end of the 7 weeks. Might be easier to meet them and then feeling good about succeeding should motivate you to keep at it. I find that this works the best for me. I try and set a mini goal for every week.”
• susan: “Part of the reason why I’m tracking calories again. Maybe it will be helpful to tighten things up just to get me through the holiday season. At least Christmas is full of turkey, which is the best lean protein there is I guess just realizing that you’re doing it and changing it is the first step in the right direction…”
• naomi: “I always get motivated when I go to the gym, this is why i never workout at home…even if I am not in the mood, once I get there I always have a great workout, seeing everyone else work so hard motivates me to work even HARDER than them!”
• paige: “I just do it. I don’t have any real words of wisdom here. I just…do it. Coercion I guess? lol”
• kristin: “when I need to get back on track- list, list, list! And I’ll write down what I’m eating (NOT kcals, just the food) for a couple weeks to make sure I am balanced. But no more- getting obsessive is no good!
  I also like to switch up the exercise, which is always a fun way to kick it up.”
• andrea: “I remind myself of how much better I feel when I work out right and eat clean. I also write my meals and workouts into my day planner. That way they are an appointment I can’t miss…”
• holly: “i think just continuing on with healthy habits – everytime i try to compensate for overeating/not exercising but doing the opposite, it never ends up well. just resume healthy habits and all shall be fine.”
• low: “make a list of attainable things I can do to help. Maybe it’s not everything I’d ideally like to be doing, but it’s the stuff I know I can accomplish and that will take me closer to my goal.”
• kailey: “I assess the situation when I’m in it. Am I really hungry, or is this just a habit I’ve created? Is that what I really want? Do I feel like feeling like crap after I eat this whole box of crackers? Nah. That normally helps, but then again I try not to be stringent or too hard on myself.”
• katie: “I have started trying on my bathing suit more than once a week to motivate myself. I sometimes disgust myself, but it sure motivates my butt into gear.” <—this was my favorite tip!
• erika: “I am in that mode myself and have resorted to counting some cals. I know, bad, but I am at the point where I am viewing any amount of almond butter as ok bc it is good for you. I like to leave out the fact that 6 TBS is NOT good for you. So counting works for me to get on track…”
• dorothy: “think about how great i feel after i eat super healthy all day and how stupid it would be to ruin it for a piece of cake or (hehe) vanilla bean ice cream”
• taysa: “I usually keep around inspirational pictures, either of myself at a healthy weight or celebrities, etc and put them in front of me wherever I am. Seeing my end-goal helps me feel remotivated.”
• angharad: “I tend to just make sure I do lots of exercise (running, yoga and weights for me!) and eat as much fruit/veggies as possible!”
• tiffany: “I get motivated by reading about you getting motivated.”
• kristi: “When I know I have the support of someone else, I tend to be more motivated and make better choices.”

whew. that was long but SO worth it.. it helped me to go over all the tips again and i hope you all can pull something motivating from this list the next time you need a little nudge!

okay, now onto my day! 

something new.

okay, no, i am not going in the order of the classic wedding rhyme.. so deal with it

meal 1: egg whites+feta+spinach+chicken+onions & dry wheat toast & black coffee @ 8:00 AM

so.. the original pancake house has been getting old.  for those of you who are new to reading my rambles.. i go to the original pancake house EVERY monday for a sales meeting.. and the meals get OLD.. FAST.  and then for some reason today i decided to try a totally new combo.. and it. was. incredible.  why did i never utilize the chicken option before? no idea. but you can bet the farm (if you have one) that i will be having chicken in my eggs for many a monday to come!

work was busy again today! i managed to break just a bit past when i would normally eat. i chugged lots of water in between meals to tide me over.

something old.

ohhh.. an oldie but a goodie!

meal 2: cottage cheese + garbanzos + hidden valley ranch seasoning @ 1:00 PM

it had been way too long since i had this combo.  i didn’t have any add ins today but it was perfectly delicious just as it was.

around 5 o’clock i had half of an unphotographed clif bar.. we will call it meal 3 just because. and then i was at work until 6:15. that is an 11 hour and 15 minute monday at work. bah. i did manage to finish my gallon of water before leaving the office though.

i did not go home and lay around like i wanted to. i went to the gym. go me.

something blue.

my workout outfit had a whole slew of blue. blue tshirt. blue hoodie. blue socks. blue on my shoes.

don’t mind the huge mess behind me.. i am still working on unpacking! it never ends!

my workout~

20 min HIIT on treadmill

• incline=0
• 2 min @ 6.0
• incline=0.5
• 1 min @ 6.5
• 1 min @ 7.0
• 1 min @ 7.5
• 1 min @ 8.0
• incline=1.0
• 1 min @ 6.5
• 1 min @ 7.0
• 1 min @ 7.5
• 1 min @ 8.0
• incline=1.5
• 1 min @ 6.5
• 1 min @ 7.0
• 1 min @ 7.5
• 1 min @ 8.0
• incline=2.0
• 1 min @ 6.5
• 1 min @ 7.0
• 1 min @ 7.5
• 1 min @ 8.0
• incline=0
• 1 min @ 9.0 (high point)
• 1 min @ 2.0 (cool down)

not gonna lie.. i am surprised i could still run so fast after slacking for so long. i ended up going 2.25 miles in the 20 minutes.  then i rode the bike for 10 minutes just for fun.

something borrowed.

well.. i guess my dinner could count for something borrowed AND something blue.. but i wanted to tie my workout in somewhere so that is where the blue went

meal 4: amazing salad @ 8:00 PM

still working on good lighting at the new house. ha. this salad had..

• romaine
• sprouts
• grilled chicken
• braeburn apple (half)
• avocado
• blue cheese

and something borrowed..

artichoke hearts from the roomie!

i topped it all with the balsamic dressing i snagged at trader joe’s while in cali.

i don’t know what it is about the pairing of blue cheese with apples.. IT. IS. SO. DANG. TASTY.

pre dressing drizzle..

post dressing drizzle..

i may or may not have licked the plate.

after dinner i worked on unpacking my room a bit.  i was folding a heap of clothes and i found another spider in my room. good thing my brave roommate drew came to the rescue and did away with the creepy crawly.  i think he may have been surprised at how much i freaked out over the spider.  i HATE spiders.  i am definitely arachnophobic. to the max. i am ridiculous when i see spiders. i squeal and make a huge fuss. and it is not an act. i hate spiders. even the ones who can’t hurt me. hfewjkhfcdjkflhew. i have to stop talking about them now. oh yeah, and this should go without saying, but after i found the spider i stopped unpacking. better luck tomorrow, eh?

well i feel like i haven’t had a second to breathe today. wake up, work nearly 12 hours, work out, come home, make dinner, eat, clean, blog. guess i will go to bed and do it all again tomorrow   and maybe have a moment to tackle my google reader which is up to almost 300. sorry lovies!

this girl has got to get some sleep.

Qs~

1. what is something old, something new, something borrowed OR something blue in relation to your monday? i already told you all 4 of mine!

2. what phobias do you have? in addiction to arachnophobia, i am also VERY claustrophobic.

xo. janetha b.