My porch moths often seem to all look the same at first glance: drab and brown with folded wings. On closer inspection, there is great variety in their patterns. I always check my archive of moth pictures before I post a new one, just to make sure I haven't posted the same kind already.

Yes, Steph was due Saturday. No, we haven't had the baby yet. Due dates come and go all the time, this is nothing out of the ordinary.

It is so nice of everyone to be inquiring about our soon to grow family, but the endless email, Skype and AIM messages, phone calls and SMS messages are a bit overwhelming. If you're comfortable enough using one of the above means to contact us and make an inquiry, you are also on the phone or email list to be notified when there is something to know. No, we haven't forgotten about you, or the almost 200 other people on our email list. I'm not trying to be rude, so I hope nobody takes it that way.

In the meantime, life goes on as normal. Well, sort of... I have no focus at work and Steph is watching bad daytime TV and playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.

Of course the obligatory cute baby pictures will be posted when there is something to post...

Flickr is my favorite place to find images of just about anything, anywhere. I've found some incredible little mantid sculptures made with painstaking care by Geoffery Haberman.






These exquisitely deltailed bugs look like they're ready to scramble up the nearest plant (or up the drapes, if you're like me!) and catch a fly. You really should see his entire Metal Insects photoset on Flickr.

I did some mixing with money & old comics.

Check out the press release around the web which reports that five of the recently laid eggs have hatched out successfully, with hopefully two more to come. It'd probably be a good time for Stephen Fry to be heading down that way for a bit of filming on the Last Chance To See TV series.

A species of flightless parrot edged back from extinction with the hatching of five new chicks in New Zealand in recent weeks and two more on the way, officials said Monday.

The latest births of owl-like kakapos in southern New Zealand brought the population of the rare bird to just 91, said Emma Neill, a senior official of a Department of Conservation program to save the parrot.

Neill said even a small lift in numbers was "awesome," especially because the birds only breed every few years.

From my front porch the other day:

Resting on a nasturtium.

The next morning, we awoke and everyone but my brother focussed on cleaning the house. My brother focussed mainly on dropping a beer bottle on the kitchen floor and staring aghast at the broken fragments of glass and the waste of a good drink.But these details are familial small fry. Our next stop was to be Lake Wanaka. On the way, a little offshoot road takes you up to Aoraki Mount Cook.

Audio

Dimension X - The Martian Chronicles - KML
Kode 9 and the Space Ape - Konfusion - Hyperdub
Su Hart - Zombie Jamboree - March Hare Music
David A. Jaycock - There be Killer Bees in Them There Trees - Red Deer Club
George Thomas and the Owls - On a Starry Night - Red Deer Club
Chandeliers - Mr Electric - Pickled Egg
The Emperor Machine - Slap on - DC Recordings
Holy F*** - Lovely Allen - Young Turks
Chatham County Line - Let it Rock - Yep Roc

Chariots of Wire Race 2

Scotty - Musical Chariot – Crystal
Keith & Tex - Don’t Look Back – Crystal
The Crystalites - The Overtaker –
The Crystalites - The Overtaker Version - Derrick’s One Stop Blank
Derrick Harriott – The Loser – Crystal
Augustus Pablo - Bells Of Death –
The Crystalites – Version Two – Move & Groove
Augustus Pablo - Sesame Street – Scotty/Bells Of Death – Crystal
The Crystalites - Call Me Trinity -
The Crystalites – Trinity Version - Crystal
Scotty – Monkey Drop – Song Bird
Scotty - Count The Tears –
Scotty – Count The Skank – Scotty *Produced by Dave ‘Scotty’ Scott and distributed by Derrick’s One Stop
Tonight – Rusty Dusty
Pablo & Fay - Bedroom Mazurka –
The Crystalites – Version Two - Randy’s
King Tubby - Concentration – Dennis Brown/Concentration Version – Trojan
Horace Andy - Lonely Woman
Horace Andy – Version – Move & Groove
Keith & Tex – Lonely Man – Stop That Train – Crystal
Derrick Harriott - Dancing The Reggae –
Derrick Harriott - Instrumental Version – Wildflower

Selected by Harry Hawke

Yes, it's true: The Baseball Card Blog is now on Facebook. If you're a member, show your love of The Blog in style and become a fan!

Yes, that's a picture of a dead fish floating in a pond. And with the exception of a troop of monkeys, that was all the wildlife available during a full day safari in Periyar National Park, India.

The differences between here and Africa were profound.

While Africa receives most of the press about endangered wildlife, I walked away from every park I visited filled with awe and optimism for the future of species at risk. Periyar felt dead, and even though it apparently boasts healthy populations elephants and tigers, there were few signs of life. Meanwhile, the wilderness experience was compromised by the carnivorous appetite of the jungle's overwhelming leech population.

The Lonely Planet guidebook (which now borders on useless thanks to some key format changes, I'm switching to Footprint) advises that "leeches may be present following rain". That's sporting of them to pass on the tip (Rough Guide failed to do that much), but any review of the park falls short without an precise explanation of what this means...

The tour began at 5:15 am on the heels of week long rains from the nearby town of Kumily. By 7 o'clock we were squinting at a shadowy dot on the horizon that was meant to be a deer (I'm still not convinced) and noticed a few leeches scattered on the roadway. Unlike the slug-like variety you've seen around your local swimming hole, these creatures spring across open ground like Slinkys down stairs, and as we were to find out shortly, nothing short of the tightest woven fabric will halt their march to bare skin, and these few roadside specimens were the first in a plague of near biblical proportions once we reached the jungle proper.

Once at the park's headquarters we donned our 'leech proof socks' - a kind of canvas gaiter worn like a knee high sock inside your shoe - and were rowed across to the far side of the lake for the start of a three hour trek. Twenty feet down the path each of us had a half dozen leeches on our shoes. One hundred feet the ground crawling with, not a handful, not a dozen, but hundreds of marching, swarming worms. The jungle floor was alive and everybody's legs were covered up to the knees, with more disappearing through the leather and canvas of each available shoe.

We turned back then and there having seen no more than a hundred feet of forest and a single troop of monkeys in the canopy above. The downside of the retreat was looking like colossal cowards for calling it quits after a mere five minutes. I'm not worried. The intrepid explorers that kept on enjoyed three hours of soaking rain and annelid infestation to see no more wildlife than we did in the first hundred feet. I'm calling it a victory for our hides and our nerves.

Later that day we headed deeper into the forest via jeep, but the story was the same. With the exception of a few more monkeys and the dead fish expertly framed above, the jungle offered no wildlife while the leeches continued their assault, appearing inexplicably in our covered jeep, on our sleeves, and pasted to our faces.

Granted, I'm more than a bit squeamish of the creepy crawlies of the world, but in addition to the abysmal wildlife experience, the concerted lack of information on trekking conditions bordered on negligence. Periyar is India's most visited national park. I doubt this would be the case if park officials, and tourist guide books, ponied up valid information about the Periyar experience.

I'm interested in other's experiences here. For now, I recommend it to no one. Head to Ranthambore instead where two years ago I saw a tiger and an array of other Indian wildlife.

Bootcamp is over and I did my fitness test today. I knocked 2 minutes 40
seconds off my 1 mile run (from 10:30 to 7:50!!) and improved my timed sit ups, push ups and dips. w00t! I'm going to take the weekend for a little relaxing, a lot of beer drinking and some good, unhealthy foods that I have been craving before I get back to the hard work of working out hard on Monday AM.

I bought myself a heart rate monitor this week to help me train for the Peachtree Road Race. I'll be taking it out for a run this weekend to guide me to keep my heart rate in the 70 - 80% max heart rate (MHR) zone as I run so I can (hopefully) start extending the length of my runs in both time and distance. Right now I'm working off the age based calculations, but I should find some time soon to determine my MHR more scientifically based on my resting heart rate as I wake up in the morning... if I can remember to do that at 5:30 AM when I get up.

I always enjoy seeing something that I've never seen before. Even a seasoned bug-finder like me can make a discovery right on my own front porch.

I noticed something on the brick wall. At first I thought it was a cockroach (which, fortunately, I rarely see around here.) A closer look quickly revealed it was a beetle.



The cool thing is, it was a click beetle, a bigger species that I had never seen before. (at about 1¼ inches long.) I kept it in the net at first, because click beetles can fly, and I didn't want this one to get away before I had a chance to take a few pictures.


It didn't try to fly, but it sure was running all over the place. When I finished looking at it, I put it on the ground and it scuttled into the planter.

Splendid news out there these days, I have gotten where I hate to turn on the Tv or check the news sites. I think when I go on my water diet its going to be a water/no news diet....that will clean my body and my mind at the same time......

Prepare yourself for a shameless plug ... :)

Following the success of the Seamour Sheep Illuminative Edition, Crazy Label and Sevensheaven are proud to announce the soon to be available Seamour Sheep Radioactive Edition! In the very near future you've got a new chance to get yourself a Seamour Sheep comic figure in the shape of a limited edition USB-powered lamp, this time featuring atmospheric green LED lighting, a cool radioactivity warning sign on his side and last but not least: motion sensor controlled power switching...!


The Seamour Sheep Radioactive Edition will feature a cool motion sensor that detects when you turn Seamour on his side, turning Seamour's light off. To turn on the light, simply put Seamour back on his feet again. No more plugging and unplugging of power cables, and no ugly visible power switch!

Keep an eye on the Sheep Shop for more info as soon as the product is available!

His life has come to a sudden end.

He had been doing very well. His coloring was a bright green. He had a great appetite, much better in fact than other adult male mantids I had kept.

In my experience, male mantids usually have only one thing on their mind, and I often had trouble getting them to eat in captivity. I had decided that I would keep feeding this male every day, as long as he was interested. It would build up his strength for mating with the female, who was also eating very well, and growing fat.

Then a few days ago, the female produced an egg case. It was unfertilized, of course. I was thinking I would try to put them together soon, before she layed eggs again.

Around the same time, the male's appetite started to drop off. And he was becoming less active. I guess I didn't realize it at the time, but it was the beginning of the end for him. Last night, I dropped 2 big moths in the female's container, and a small moth in the male's. This morning, I checked to see if he had eaten it, and I found him near death.

There will be no nursing back to health this time. He is already too far gone.

I was for sure I saw Elvis at Walmart the other day. I was on the phone and he ask me if I saw the lady with red hair. I told him I only see people that wear blue......don't you love dreams...

This morning we launched a few changes to the website.

The homepage has a completely new design. It has larger box shots and shows your recent activity so you can see at a glance what we've received or shipped. The movie selection and rows are personalized, meaning that they're responsive to your ratings and rentals - they'll change over time if/as your interests and tastes change. We've included explanations of why we are showing those particular movies, and making it a little easier to rate genres and sub-genres directly on the page - so you don't have to dig through the site to tell us that you love (or hate) Action Thrillers, for example.

If you click on Browse Instant, you'll see that we've carried the new design into that section as well. We hope that will make it easier to find movies and TV shows to watch instantly. These rows are also personalized and responsive, just like on the homepage.

Overall, the whole site is now a little wider so you'll see that most of the pages have a little more white space.

The Queue has an updated look, but the functionality is mostly the same, although a few things have changed slightly in design or placement. [Note for HD/Blu-ray enabled users: there's a bug and the format column isn't showing - this will be fixed in the next few days. We're also working on another bug that is causing some of you to not see recommendations or predicted ratings.]

We think these changes will make it easier for you to find movies you'll love. It's a work in progress. Take a look, and let us know what you think.

-Meghan

Every so often I'll break out my guitar(s), write a song or two, and maybe even feel compelled to record something. At times I'm asked by others why it is that I don't pursue music as a career. Well aside from the obvious crap-shoot that music can be, it's a question I return to myself as I do enjoy music and musical creation more than most activities in this world. The simple answer to

Alison's friend Brandy came down for a visit and of course we caught a Tigers Spring Training game. The whole weekend was a blast. Put it on record that Brandy and I think the Tigers are going all the way.............. will at least until they face the Devil Rays. Lets Go Rays.

War is only started by fools, when does the bloodshed stop?

These are the weeds in my side-yard. At least they were, until I cut them down the other week. My side yard is a no-man's land. Sometimes I like to let it go "natural" because it can attract lots of bugs, but it starts to get out of hand, and then it's a real pain in the wazoo to clean it up. So I cut the weeds down.


It's a jungle out there.


After I cut down the weeds in the side yard, I tackled the suckers of Chinese Elm sprouting on the hill in the back yard. On a stump where I had clipped off a bunch of suckers, there was this little snout beetle. A victim of deforestation.

Dream Mantis by M. C. Escher, 1935

Recently, I came across the picture above by famous artist M. C. Escher. I think this may be my poster. A quick peek at eBay found the same image as a blacklight poster.

I'm not going to buy the poster. It's enough that I've been able to identify it after all these years.

EAST Bracket

Round 1
1. 1986 Dick Williams OVER 16. 1978 Terry Forster, 22-20
2. 1978 Dave Kingman OVER 15. 1975 Bill Hands, 444-327
14. 1975 Chris Cannizzaro OVER 3. 1978 Mike Paxton, 21-17
4. 1975 Rudy May OVER 13. 1978 Mike Phillips, 62-4
5. 1976 Tom House OVER 12. 1975 Bobby Murcer, 26-2
11. 1977 Dick Pole OVER 6. 1975 Elias Sosa, 23-5
7. 1975 Billy Grabarkewitz OVER 10. 1986 Tim Lollar, 39-27
8. 1978 Jose Cardenal OVER 9. 1978 Darold Knowles, 15-11

Round 2
11. 1977 Dick Pole OVER 14. 1975 Chris Cannizzaro, 22-18
4. 1975 Rudy May OVER 5. 1976 Tom House, 37-22
1. 1986 Dick Williams OVER 8. 1978 Jose Cardenal, 32-19
7. 1975 Billy Grabarkewitz OVER 2. 1978 Dave Kingman, 38-25

Round 3
4. 1975 Rudy May OVER 1. 1986 Dick Williams, 7-2
7. 1975 Billy Grabarkewitz OVER 11. 1977 Dick Pole, 9-5

EAST Final
4. 1975 Rudy May OVER 7. 1975 Billy Grabarkewitz, 141-58


WEST Bracket

Round 1
1. 1976 Juan Beniquez OVER 16. 1975 Sandy Alomar, 6-5
2. 1978 Greg Minton OVER 15. 1978 Oscar Zamora, 27-2
14. 1978 Lyman Bostock OVER 3. 1989 Brady Anderson, 307-11
4. 1976 Oscar Gamble OVER 13. 1978 Jim Todd, 39-4
5. 1980 Bert Roberge OVER 12. 1975 Darold Knowles, 30-14
11. 1978 Jim Dwyer OVER 6. 1987 Frank DiPino, 16-3
7. 1976 Don Kessinger OVER 10. 2007 JD Drew, 18-3
9. 1974 Willie McCovey OVER 8. 1986 Tom Seaver, 19-16

Round 2
2. 1978 Greg Minton OVER 7. 1976 Don Kessinger, 23-5
14. 1978 Lyman Bostock OVER 11. 1978 Jim Dwyer, 12-9
4. 1976 Oscar Gamble OVER 5. 1980 Bert Roberge, 31-2
9. 1974 Willie McCovey OVER 1. 1976 Juan Beniquez, 22-12

Round 3
14. 1978 Lyman Bostock OVER 2. 1978 Greg Minton, 256-126
9. 1974 Willie McCovey OVER 4. 1976 Oscar Gamble, 234-115

WEST Final
9. 1974 Willie McCovey OVER 14. 1978 Lyman Bostock, 169-37

AIR Championship
1975 Rudy May OVER 1974 Willie McCovey, 1337-1033

Sorry for the multiple post. I'm playing a little catch up with what is going on lately. Here are a couple of photos from the Avett Brothers concert that was in Gainesville, Florida....... Gator Nation.....