Thysania

Hey guys, sorry, I know I've really slowed down in my dA work. Just been so busy as of late with a variety of things. Haven't gotten the time even to do any of the Halloween contests I've been keeping an eye on in dA. ;__ ;

The orb weaver I have a photo of in my gallery, "Sigourney Weaver," laid an egg sac, hanging from a ceiling of webbing. So have the mantids. It's just that time of year where little critters lay their eggs, the parents die and life starts to begin anew.

Last Sunday, I volunteered all day at a local park's nature festival, tabling for 7 or so hours, talking to kids and parents about various California wildlife, including scorpions, vinegaroons (a COOL arachnid that releases vinegar as a defense mechanism), water beetles, mantids, spiders and some amphibians. I love to be involved in the community around me and reach out in casual scientific education. I used to volunteer regularly, in fact, as a homework tutor and as a helper at a kid's science museum. The nature fest was a great success and it was a good day.

Hurrah for community service, teaching kids about bugs!

Started the sequel to Hotel Dusk, The Last Window: Secret of Cape West last week. It started out feeling kinda off, but it got good in a couple of hours. Really into the plot. It was funny one night when the main character happened to choose the same thing for dinner that I had just had myself hours before! : )
Yay for interesting story and characters in a great game!

Been pretty darn disappointed by the horror movie line up this year. Insidious was GREAT- excellent movie, and Final Destination 5 was cute enough, and I guess the new Thing was okaaay. But everything has been well, crap to mediocre. From Roommate and The Rite this January to stuff like Shark Night, Creature, Apollo 18 and Paranormal Activity 3- just UGH. It was really annoying too, to hear that PA3 hit record breaking sales for the horror movie genre, when it was so bland and brought almost nothing new or memorable to the table (one or two good scenes doesn't cut it for me).
Feelings about horror flicks this year: Smash face into wall UGH.

Still, I've always been the spirited holiday person, and have been greatly looking forward to Halloweenie things. To my great delight, I actually have been able to see a variety of haunted show attractions throughout Northern California! Starting with Fright Planet in Sacramento's very own Cal Expo!
It was really great- four nice haunted houses in a large decorated venue (an amusement park that had previously been a mini golf courses with boat and mini train rides) with lots of actors that were really into it and interacted with the audience. It will be expanding a lot next year too, which suggests that it's done well this year, which is wonderful and I am really excited to see how it improves!
Also saw another fairly local one, in Roseville. Since it was on a fairgrounds, they had plenty of space to work with, but it was a bit small and shoddily set up, especially for such a wealthy area, I felt.
From looking up Northern CA haunts, we found the ones in San Leandro (Fear Overload) and Pleasanton (Pirates of Emerson) to be amongst the highest rated in CA. Fear Overload was okay- nothing to write home about, but the Pirates venue really blew me away. It was even BIGGER than the haunts at Cal Expo, and even more finely furnished and decorated! You could see the extra time and money poured into it- lovely! And Rancho Cordova's Hagan Ranch Screampark I saw today was really excellent- the best animatronics and high quality props I've seen yet!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Fun times to all!

Meanwhile, I am also starting up a regular homework tutoring service with neighboring kids. I'm really nervous 'cause I'm a nervous kind of person and always worried about anything that could possibly go wrong. I figure everything should work out fine though. It'll be a good activity for me I think. Haven't worked with kids like this in a long time. Not since college, and I graduated years ago.

Got to see a lot of familiar faces last night at an entomology dinner meet-up- undergrads, graduates, professors and others. My old forensics prof got me all tipsy from the wine as per usual at the ent dinners. It was fun chatting and we even had home-made GIANT mosquito pinatas with candy inside!
This weekend, I'm hoping to see the big annual Sacramento herp show and perhaps go to another entomology dinner gathering.
Food and friends and crawlies, good.

The last two weeks of October are often such busy ones. It's just kind of the times that everyone wants to do everything! I suppose it's natural since it's going to start to become winter soon, and people are just trying to get all the fun tidings out of their system for a while, haha.

Unfortunately, aside from having to deal with stupid stuff like the dumb post office CANCELING MY MAIL TO MY APARTMENT apparently for the past TWO MONTHS, and various house chores, I've also had a bout of severe insomnia for the past week or two. Even if I've been awake all night and morning and know I'm tired, I cannot for the life of me, fall asleep. Or even if I do, if I wake up from something, I can't get back to sleep. It's pretty frustrating.

Girls just want to have fun! Haha, j/k. But for seriously. My MAIL!?

Anyways, here's to the changing seasons and lots and lots of holiday snacks and food!
Feed me, plz.