I'm officially weird

Yeah, I realise you already knew that. And shut up, world.

The weirdness today is about an impromptu pet I've been sharing the desk with this morning. I was typing away when I saw something out of the corner of my eye (and who decided that eyes have corners? Eyes don't have corners; they're ball-shaped. Unless you're an owl or something like that. Then they're shaped like an Apollo space capsule). When I looked closer I noticed something dangling just above the desk, about a half-metre away from my head.

Yep, I've been sharing my space with a spider today. A Zebra Jumping Spider, to be exact. Salticus scenicus.

And where does the weird come in?

Well, I would suspect that most people, when confronted with a half-seen black blob dangling a half-metre from their heads, would at least have a slight wince, jump, or what-the-hell? reaction until they figured out what the aforementioned half-seen black blob was.

Me?

I swear, honestly swear, that my first thought was "hey! Is that a spider? Cool! I wonder what kind?"

I think I have spiders permanently indented in the brain. There's got to be a little spider brand burned in there somewhere. Nothing else explains instant thoughts of cool spiders when confronted with a half-seen black blob.

Anyway, this particular little boy (boy, yes. And I'm not planning to give lessons in spider-sexing today. Maybe another day, if there's demand for a spider-sexing class) has since been checking out the desk in a way that only Salticids can. The jumping spiders see very well (you'd have to, if you're depending on leaping to catch food), and Zebra Jumpers in particular always look like they're curious about pretty much everything they see.

They also have this peculiar, jerky way of moving about. They're very entertaining to watch... and to play with. They follow movement, you see, so I... erm...

Yeah. I've been playing with a spider on the desk. Or I was, before I started typing about it.





I did warn you about the weird.

Ah well. What can you do but accept it? After all, this blog really does strive to live up to its footer.

Before I go, I should say that the pointless non-photo is a scan of a sketch I did of a Zebra Jumper for a display I put together a few years ago. It's schematic more than realistic, but it gives the idea. It gives the idea if you remember that the actual spider's usually less than a half-centimetre wide (including legs), that is. The whole thing's much less freaky if you know that.

No, really. It is much less freaky...







Oh, whatever. I need to go have lunch now.

The spider'll have to find its own.