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.

Oh, what fun!

Today at work there was a calculator sitting on the desk. As the hours ticked by, I noticed that it read:

0.0000014

Why would it say that? Did someone type it there intentionally? Was it the end of a long, complex problem that was waiting to be continued when the desk owner returned? Secretly, I decided to create some mischief. I cleared the calculator and typed:

0.0000015

I smiled to myself, but not enough to catch a student's wandering eye and arouse their suspicions. No one will ever know!

Such was the highlight of my day.

Welcome, Spring

Ah, Spring. Mother nature awakens, spreading light showers to dazzle the fertile soil and an eager sun to warm the hills. Either that... or ice-cold rain pelts down on us under grey skies and 35 degree weather (as is the current situation).

I've been back in Elgin for the past few weeks. I was really sad when I got back. Honestly, I think I was a little depressed for a few days. I guess all the flak I've been getting from people to have a firmer direction in life finally caught up with me. I realized that I was still living with my parents, didn't own anything, hated my job, had about six friends, just came from a "paradise" climate to a cold wasteland, and nothing was going to change for at least a few months.
Bummer...

Well, the circumstances are the same, but I am feeling better about myself. I talked to my sister and she told me to wisen up and remember the good things about the Midwest, the things she misses. Secretly, I wanted her to come and see for herself how miserable it was here. Then I went to Wal-Mart and unexpectedly realized what I'd been missing.

The greenhouses were open! The seeds are ready to plant! Everything grows in the summer! Odd to find it at Wal-Mart, but I'd completely forgotten one of the most critical things about Spring: it isn't about the weather. The weather is still horrible. It's about the anticipation. Everyone knows Summer's coming and is preparing for the wilderness to explode into a mass of green foliage. One thing people living in the tropics don't understand and won't understand until they experience it is the immense anticipation one gets from Spring after living through winter, especially one abnormally cold as the last few months.

So I've been scavenging the local stores and bought a plethora of seeds, ranging from sunflowers to pumpkins, and I'm actually going to follow through with it. It's been about five years since I've had both a backyard and Spring weather and who knows when I'll have this again, so I'm taking advantage of it while I can.

(Reenactment)

I know what you're thinking. Basically not much has changed since Hawaii, I'm just feeling better because I distracted myself with vegetables. Yes, that is exactly what has happened. I wonder how long this will last.

If you hear of any avaiable, cool job/volunteer opportunities, let me know!

waterfalls...

Today was great. My cousin and I climbed a mountain and dove into a few waterfalls in the middle of nowhere (AKA La'ie Falls). Both of us like to take pictures, so we stopped dozens of times to take flattering pictures of each other. Ironically, only one of these was posed. Can you guess which one?

You can see La'ie in the background of this picture. This is about halfway up and already it is a long way down. Yes, we did walk back to the coastline. Oh, and this was posed.

Hawaii Sun

My pilot cousin came out to visit this weekend and since then I've been having a blast. Everyday has been filled with lots of sun, water, beaches... basically what one imagines a Hawaiian vacation being. I planned on going back home sometime this week, whenever I can get a standby ticket. However... I just checked the weather report and supposedly it will snow there tomorrow with a High of 36F. You know when you're in the sun all day, and your skin almost burns but instead just darkens, and later that night your skin is still warm to the touch from the sun? That's what I feel like right now. It's great. Tomorrow we're going to hike up the mountain behind my sister's house and try to find a waterfall to swim in. I kind of don't want to go home.

jump.

We went SCUBA diving today by two shipwrecks. It was awesome. We swam in and out of the hull of the ships, with tons of fish, an eel, lots of sea turtles, and a few sharks. During the second dive, a submarine filled with tourists went by and we waved to little kids inside.

After, me and my cousin went to the beach and had a few drinks while the sun set and some surfers caught the last waves before dark.