Worm Salad

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I really want to put into this blog, and, as a consequence haven’t updated it for a while. At first, I was planning to make it a fun mix of things, from reptile keeping to my work in museums to what it means to be a person with my identity living in a world that’s very often a harsh, painful place to live.

And, really, it would have been a pretty okay blog. But lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about ethics, and the way in which I live in the world, and all of a sudden, the things I do on a day-to-day basis seem a lot less important.

Maybe that’s not the best way to put that. Stop. Rewind.

All of a sudden, I’m looking at all of the things I do within a much, much bigger context. Sometimes it’s a little overwhelming, and I’ve felt so unable to cover the whole depth of my thoughts that I’ve decided not to say anything at all. And, you know, in that great world of the blog-o-sphere, it probably doesn’t matter that much if there’s one less voice shouting “Pay attention to me!”

But it does matter to me to be able to have a conversation about these things that matter in my life, and not a converstaion with academics or philosophers or politicians, but a conversation with the voices that I don’t hear every day — a conversation with everyday people.

So, call it high hopes, but that is what I am going to try to post about in this blog. I’m going to post about the things that matter to me. I’m going to write about how I relate to the world, and how my world relates to me.

If the things that matter in my world matter in yours, I hope that you’ll tell me what you think, too.

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Last year, Jason and I rescued a pair of green tree pythons.  One of them, Sprout, was in pretty rough shape, suffering from a severe mite infection and scarring, especially around the area of his face. He’s doing much better now, and, aside from the occasional hissy fit when he’s in shed, is one of the best snakes you could ever hope to meet.

But, of course, he’s not the subject of this post. Instead, I want to talk about the baby girl we rescued along with him — our girl Poppy. Poppy is one of the most beautiful snakes you could ever hope to meet, even though her attitude needs some adjusting at times (I hear she recently took a chunk out of Jason’s thumb). She is also a really good illustration of a really unique phenomenon in snakes: that of ontogenetic color change. Basically, when green tree pythons hatch from their eggs, they aren’t green at all (even though the adults are a beautiful shade of emerald). Instead, baby green tree pythons rage in color from lemon-yellow to brick-red to purplish-black, and every color in between.

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Posted in Biology, Reptiles

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So maybe it wasn’t the best idea to start a new blog the week before finals. Trying to update on a day-to-day basis while planning for a move to Chicago and putting together papers and projects is quite the challenge. But, unlike last time, I am going to persevere until an asteroid falls on my house, squashing me tragically. But that’s probably unlikely to happen, so, instead, I’m going to ramble on to you about one of those final projects.

I’m taking a class in Greek Mythology, and our final class paper involves writing about hero quests in films. And while we started by looking at Joseph Campbell and his theories about mythology, I wanted to look at something from a little bit of a different angle. Eventually, I chose the archetype of the Quest for the Holy Grail — Monty Python aside, grail quests figure quite a lot in literature, and, to be honest, I’m a sucker for Arthurian legend.

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Posted in General Blogging, School

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I overslept this morning because I forgot to tell the computer to wake me. And then the acoustic inverter of my sonic shower blew out…

– B’Elanna Torres in Star Trek: Voyager (Day of Honor)

I’m having one of those days. Sometimes, living in my own body is a scary adventure, and I think that I would much rather confront a swimming pool full of giant groupers (have I ever mentioned that I have a weird phobia of fish?) than deal with the issues that my body chemistry brings into my life. I have a dissociative personality disorder, and that means that emotional lows can break me in seriously frightening ways. Waking up from what you thought was a good night’s sleep, to discover that you’ve been a suicidal hostage to yourself all night is one of the most frightening things that you can possibly experience.

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Posted in DID, General Blogging, Mental Health, PMDD

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So, I was planning to post about my new pocket watch today, but, as luck would have it, two of my snakes were having problem sheds this morning, and I thought I’d share one of the odder slices of my life with you instead.

I live in Colorado, and while I love this state with all my heart, it’s not the easiest place to keep tropical reptiles. Sure, it’s warm and beautiful in the summer, but the humidity almost always stays under twenty percent, and one of the constant battles I wage is to keep my tropical snakes hydrated, happy and healthy in a climate that sucks moisture out of the air. Combining an ambient humidity of 20% with heat lamps is not exactly a surefire recipe for herp-keeping success, but, like all reptile keepers, I’ve developed a daily routine that works to keep everyone in the best shape possible.

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Posted in General Blogging, Husbandry, Reptiles

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As part of my concerted effort to get off my lazy butt and boost my web presence, I am starting up a blog. Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking. The first time you started a blog is crashed and burned into a flaming pile of je-ne-sais-quoi, and you never were able to recover your data. The second time was even worse, because you copped out, like the giant cop-out-monster that you are, just because your finals exploded in your face.

And, of course, you’d be right.

Nevertheless, I intend to intrepidly venture forth into the domain of blogging for the, er, third time? hoping that this will, in fact be the charm.

Also, I have rather a lot of content planned out, and a very exciting summer internship, so there should be more than enough to keep me busy.

The keyword there is, of course, “should.” Cheer me on and wave me forth. Hopefully in a few weeks you will all be completely enamoured of me and wonder how on earth you could have lived without my web presence.

But, for right now, I’m going to go catch up on reruns of Stargate: Atlantis, put the weasels to bed, and get some much needed sleep.

I will bring you content in the morning.

Posted in General Blogging

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