Spider of the day:

Yesterday after lunch I went out prowling the father figure's yard looking for pointless photo opportunities, as I generally do on a Saturday afternoon. This year's making it a little tricky since everything's so dry, but I got a few shots that will likely end up as blog fodder sometime in the next few days.

I also found some spiders, so today's officially turned into Let's Feature a Spider Day.

I won't say by popular demand, since I'm probably the only one who likes these pictures. Too bad. My house, my rules.

So.

Our featured spider of the day is the Goldenrod Spider (Misumena vatia), which is a member of the Crab Spider (Thomisidae) family. The Crab Spider family got its name largely because of the crab-like movements of these species.

Crab spiders are ambush hunters and depend on camouflage to hide from their prey rather than using a web to trap it in. The Goldenrod Spider, also known as the Flower Spider, is a bit unusual because it's capable of changing its colour from white to yellow to better camouflage in whatever flower it's hiding in. The colour change apparently takes a day or two. I've never seen it in action myself.

If you're interested in finding Goldenrod Spiders (and really. Who isn't?), one of the best ways is to look for flowers that have bees or wasps in them that aren't moving. "Aren't moving" is a pretty good hint that an insect has met its match and is currently being eaten by a hidden spider like the one in the top photo (click on the photo to make it bigger. You'll see the spider's legs).

The middle photo shows a Goldenrod Spider that I found on a different flower (gee, no kidding?). She was just done with her lunch and was pushing the carcass out of the rose. Because of that you don't get to see her characteristic hunting posture, which is to spread her two front pairs of legs wide, ready to grab any unsuspecting insect that flies towards her hiding place.

Speaking of hiding, I was hoping to get some more pictures of this particular spider but she was more than a bit camera-shy and it turned into a pretty bizarre game of hide and seek as she kept moving around the stem to get away from the lens. The last photo was, unfortunately, the best one that I got. I'm sure you all wanted to see the underside of a Goldenrod Spider, right?

Oh, and if anyone's wondering why I keep saying "she"... well, both of these spiders are female. The males are much smaller and have different colouring. To the point where they really look like different species.

Want to see more of my Goldenrod Spider photos? I just knew you did! I'll link to some of the other ones I've posted over the years, then: here (a sketch) and here and here and here and here and here and... oh yeah, if you click on my profile on the sidebar I believe my current avatar is also a Goldenrod Spider.

What can I say? I like Goldenrod Spiders.

Bet you couldn't have guessed.





And thus endeth the lesson. See you later.

Toys

As usual, today's topic (such as it is) has nothing to do with today's pointless photo. The more shocking thing would be if the photo did have anything to do with anything, since it generally doesn't...

Anyway. Toys. And excuse me if this makes almost no sense. I'm operating on very little sleep here (my father had to be somewhere early this morning, and apparently both of us were keeping half an eye open last night to make sure he wasn't late. Gotta love alarm-anticipation).

I recently treated myself to a new set of drawing pens, and with the fifty percent off coupon I received after my purchase (clearance sale, I guess. Honestly, I really don't know what that coupon was about) I then turned around and bought myself my first-ever real (as opposed to crappy-schoolkid-version) set of watercolour paints. I certainly didn't need either of those things. I have a couple of decent drawing pens -- including a dip pen for when I feel like cursing a lot -- and I don't actually paint so I definitely had no need of the watercolours.

So why get them?

Well, everyone likes new toys, right?

Yep, art supplies (and other things like books) absolutely count as my toys nowadays. It's not that surprising, is it? I mean, my "art" is nothing more than play at the best of times. I don't take it seriously even though sometimes I wish I could, because I think I do have at least a little bit of ability. But... it's all just doodles in the end, to the point where I have trouble referring to my sketches as anything but doodles.

Having said that, though, I have learned a few things about art supplies since my childhood penchant for stationery (yes, seriously. Come on, people. Can you honestly say there was anything better then every fall's brand new school supplies? Stationery's fantastic. And shut up, world) migrated to the more, um... shall we say adult?... variety of toys.

For one thing, I found out that there are times when quality really does matter. It's hard to forget the feeling of sketching with a nice 2B graphite pencil after a lifetime of doodling with a generic HB school pencil. It changes everything, really. The line, the feel, the effects you can get... it makes a person wish she could have her junior high art classes to do over again. Things might have made more sense if I could have known then that a pencil isn't just a pencil.

I'm not even going to mention the light bulb effect that even softer leads had on me a number of years back. I'll just say it was very enlightening. In a very nerdy sort of way.

Same sort of thing goes for paper. I do my fair share of scribbling on cheap paper, yes, but if I'm in the mood to really be arty I admit to being a texture snob. I can't describe it (especially with no working brain), but I know what paper textures I want for certain things, and if I don't have them I get very bored in a hurry.

Just ask my incredibly-neglected field sketchbook. Poor stupid thing and its boring, boring paper.

So if art things are the toys in my life, what would I expect Santa to bring me? Oh, I don't know. It's sort of weird to think that way, so I'm not sure why I brought it up. Maybe... oh, maybe some nice sketch pads? Or some handmade paper, since I haven't worked with that kind of thing much and it might be interesting? Oh, wait. I know. Something... different. A medium I haven't played around with yet. Something that I might have hesitated to buy for myself because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make much with it (as in: what the hell am I going to do with those new watercolours? I guess we'll see...). Something that I could have fun with when I don't have the pressure of remembering how much money I sank into the damned thing...

Man, there've been a lot of ellipses in this post. A perfect picture of a sleepy mind. It's almost like brain mapping, don't you think? You can almost see the hamster wheel turning...

Ah. Saved by the dryer. Time to fold clothes now, so there's my excuse to leave this particular pointless thought truncated. If I've got you all in the mood for pointless doodles, though, my Illustration Friday attempt for this week is up on the other blog. This time with added modelling clay, even.

More toys, yes.

We all need our toys...

And what the heck was that, exactly?

Not the pointless photo, obviously. I know what the heck the pointless photo is.

The what the heck part is more about my morning. Which was weird. Even weirder than usual, yes.

I woke up stupidly early (yay me. Of course I did. There was no need to be up stupidly early, so naturally my brain decided that it would like to be up stupidly early), and while I was trying to convince myself to get some more sleep I ended up having a couple of very strange, somewhat disturbing half-awake dreams. You know the type, I'd imagine. You're not really fully asleep (or at least you don't feel yourself going to sleep) and all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of a different place or situation for a while. Then you realise you couldn't possibly be in that place because you're actually in bed trying to convince yourself to get some more sleep... Yeah. Definitely a good way to start your day completely off-kilter.

It doesn't help that those weird waking dreams generally tend to be anxiety-style dreams. Something's wrong, or I-need-to-get-out-of-here-quick, or...

Oh, let's face it. It's all classic anxiety, plain and simple. Showing up for work in your altogether. That kind of thing.

It's probably the reason that I don't often remember dreams.

When I was younger (a lot younger) I used to be very good at completely freaking myself out in (or with) my dreams. I think I must have had night terrors as well, because I can remember waking up scared with no real reason or memory why, but it's the true nightmares that stuck. I had a gift for taking almost any innocent situation -- even a funny one -- from real life and turning it into a horror show at night. I would have been... oh, I guess a pre-teen when this was at its worst, and the cure my brain found for it was, I suppose, a little extreme.

I stopped remembering dreams.

Completely.

For quite a long time.

To the point where it kind of surprises me to remember a dream even today. The way I figure it, my brain just decided that if I was going to be so silly as to be constantly trying to terrify myself, then I may as well keep all of that stuff to myself.

Or maybe I'm just a neurotic little twit. That could be, too.

Anyway, weird start to the day, and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. A paper airplane, maybe? Then at least I could have some fun with my screwed-up self.




And on that screwed-up thought, back to work I go.

Screwed-upedly, most likely.

One damned thing after another

I'm currently sitting at my office chair with my foot up on an empty coffee can because my knee doesn't especially want to bend today.

Yep. Yet another body part that's apparently off-warranty.

The sad thing is, it's not my bad knee. It's the other one (yes, I only have the two knees). It was sore during yesterday's round of planetariumming, but when I got home I found out that it was not only sore but badly swollen. Thus the issue with not wanting to bend.

I have no idea what I did to it. I must have twisted it or something, but you'd think that I'd remember twisting it badly enough to make it unbendable.

Stupid body anyway. One damned thing after another.

Ah well. It's the end of school programming season, so with the exception of having to set the planetarium up once next week I should have time to get the various aches under control for a while.

Hey, did I ever tell you (all two of my fans) why it is that I have the buggered-up knee in the first place? The usual bad knee, I mean. Not today's unbendy one. Let's blog-search and see, then... Well, rats. Or choose your favourite expletive if you'd rather. Of course I've told the knee story. I've probably told all of my stories at least twenty times over the years I've blogged.

I don't have that many stories, you see.

The short version of the knee story, for those who aren't in the mood to look for the longer one? I fell off a bus.

Yep.

It takes true talent to be that inept, you know.

And apparently I have that sort of talent in spades.





Or at least in my knee.

And furthermore...

Ow.

Pointless photo of the day:

Yes, I'm not bothering to think of a title yet again.

And yes, this probably isn't going to be much of a post. Yet again.

Sorry, but it's a tired-and-headachy kind of day. Just don't really feel like being charming. Or snotty. Or whatever it is I usually am around here.

It's a neat looking spider in today's photo, though. Don't you think? Been through the wars, obviously, but still neat looking.

Let's leave it at that, then. I'd promise better for tomorrow, but I really don't want to get either of my two fans' hopes up...

Pointless photo of the day:

A bit more time to blather today, but not really any inclination. I'm tired, and probably a little whiny. Best maybe to not bother sharing that with the world.

Today's pointless photo, then, features my boot. Oh, and a Wolf Spider. The boots used to belong to my mother. The spider didn't.

No boots for me today, though. I'm planetariumming for the next two days, and that means slip-ons because I have to be in stocking feet a lot of the time. You, um, needed to know that. I guess.

See? Just not hitting the blather flow here. Kinda figured that would happen. I should stop typing, then.




Oh, one thing. Is it weird that I'm seriously contemplating decorating a wall of the office with staff-produced finger painting? Like this and this, I mean. There's one up on the wall already, and there'd be more if I had any blue tack close at hand...

Yeah, it's probably weird.

Pointless photo of the day:

That's about it. Sorry. It's been busy.

Oh, one thing. In honour of the end of Kodachrome, we just have to have a little Paul Simon. Take it away, Paul.