Seriously, this is real?

I was looking at an article entitled, "10 Pictures You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped" (or something of the like) and came across this:



No joke, I screamed a little when I saw this. Can you imagine??

"Oh, I'm just going to run outside to take out the tra-ahhh!!!"

I don't even know what I'd do if I saw this on my trashcan. I'm thinking pee with a blackout-and-go-crazy for a few minutes.

Anyway, it's called a "coconut crab" and I can safely say that it doesn't live anywhere I have been and I have scratched any country which lies in this monster's territory off my list of places I want to travel to someday in life.

It usually doesn't grow to be the size of this picture, but still gets to be obscenely large. I think we can all agree that arthropods should never, ever grow to be this size. And all that do should be doused with holy water and sent back to the netherworld they came from.

Fascinating creatures, though, huh?

-Dryad-

This was made using stock images and Photoshop a bit ago. If you're interested in this kind of thing, check out deviantart.com. There's a whole community of really talented artists on the site. I dabbled for a few weeks... this one seemed to be the best I came up with.

The plunge

Am I standing on the precipice of ultra-geekdom? Or have I already made the plunge? Let me explain.

My sister made a point yesterday. I'm really bad at keeping blogs. This is true. In my defense, my life really hasn't been very exciting lately. But I guess I'm also kind of tired of telling people I've been living like a bum the past few months. It's amazing what random creative outlets you discover when boredom levels are high.

I make boardgames now. It's really weird, something I never really saw coming... remotely. I guess I used to make monopoly-variations when I was in elementary school, but... my motivation to make these things is... obsessive, to say the least. Once I get inspired, I'm completely focused on the task at hand. The first one I made, back in January, I decided I was going to "dabble" in the idea on a Tuesday. Truly, I don't know what happened to the next few days. I remember little. I slept little. But Thursday night we were ready to try it out for the first time. It wasn't great.

This is not it. This was the... third one I made. It took a ridiculously long time to make. You have no idea. Unfortunately, paired with the lengthy construction is a lengthy gameplay. We never actually finished a game. After this one I tried creating one you can finish in 1-1.5 hours, is non-competitive, and where everyone feels like they're involved in the game (even with the possibility of winning) until the very end. It seems to be working. If you're in town, ask me about it. I'll be glad to divulge.

So yes, I'm a nerd.