ShiningMoon In reply to ??? [2011-05-27 05:44:06 +0000 UTC]

Aw, don't feel bad. You couldn't have known and I'm sure it's to be expected every now and again anyway. Whoa, that's a very generous offer! Only if you want to, of course. I'd feel a little bit like I was betraying/replacing Charm, though, somehow, but I know that's kind of silly. It is also kind of silly to turn down an offer of a very pretty mantis. (But like I said, only if you want. I'd feel bad if I were depriving you of any breeding opportunities. But from what you said it sounds like that's not so much a problem.)
Still waiting to see if/when these Chinese hatch...should be any day now, if the "10-20 days" info I got was accurate. I think it's been, oh...maybe two weeks, even, or more. (Haha, I will laugh if it happens this weekend while my grandparents are here for my brother's graduation. "Oh my god, she has a snake in her room AND like a kajillion praying mantises!")

Question -- I know that sometime(s) this summer my family is going to be gone for about 4-5 days. If you send me that lobata, will she be all right for that amount of time? (I figure for the Chinese, I can either give them lots of ffs [hell, I could order another net cube and just leave the culture open inside there, even, probably?], or, if worst comes to worst, put them outside and re-gather what I can later.) I think based on what you've said before she'd be all right, but I don't want to mess anything up. I don't think humidity is too much of a concern, as my room is pretty humid in the summer anyway.

Not at all. Whenever you have time, send me a note with the info/details and all that. It'll be fun to draw some new (to me) characters.

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-05-30 23:45:19 +0000 UTC]

Well, tell me if you want her before tomorrow, cause I'm sending out a buttload of packages tomorrow. XD It's no problem for me - I have more females than I'll be able to breed unless I'm very, very lucky. If my boys both manage to survive both their dates, I could always send you one.

Did your oothe hatch yet? Those are find of it or miss, even more than the most costly oothes, but I hope you have good luck with it.

Hmm, I don't actually know if she'd be alright or not... I've never left mine alone for more than 3 days, and usually no more than 48 hours. It's supposed to take them a week or more to starve to death (and you could probably power-feed her in the days before...) but I'd be really worried about her getting too dried out to molt properly, if she tried to do so while you were gone.

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-05-31 00:45:55 +0000 UTC]

Re: what you had said about leaving her alone -- for this trip, which I thiiiink will be about the same length as any other that might occur, we're leaving Sunday and coming back Wednesday. My room holds a pretty constant 65% humidity and my humidifier can boost it to a good 75% for about 18 hours. I don't know if that would help at all... I could also buy a plastic (rather than mesh) container to put her in and put some damp sponges in the bottom. If we're gone for any longer for a different trip, I don't see why the neighbor would be opposed to replacing the water in the humidifier when he comes over to check on the cats. I could trust my boyfriend to take care of her, if the above described stuff still seems risky. I could probably show him how to feed her, too. I'd just have to make sure he'll be in town (he should be).
However, I don't want to take her if I'll just be dooming her or anything. But, if any of that sounds reasonable, then I'd be more than happy to take her when you send everybody out tomorrow.

Depending on the timing of your guys, I might take you up on that as well. ^^ We'll see.

Nope, not yet. I had two of them and neither have hatched yet. I figured it might be the case that they wouldn't hatch when I bought it, but I was hopeful because the place had pretty good reviews on Amazon. (Except by one guy, who bought 40+ of them in an attempt to overrun his/her neighborhood with mantises because he/she was bitter that he/she wasn't invited to the neighborhood block party, and was upset that his/her plan didn't come to fruition.)

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-05-31 02:03:03 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, if you could get someone to mist her really just once over the course of the trip, and left the moist paper towel/humidifier and all that in her cage, it would *probably* be okay. There's always a risk, of course, but then there's a risk that they'll mismolt even with constant daily care, so.

Lol at that person. Do you have a link? XD Really, if out of 40 none hatched, HE must have been the one to do something wrong...

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-05-31 03:20:30 +0000 UTC]

I don't want to risk something bad happening to her, of course. If you think it best I just not, then that's fine too. But I think that if you do send her too me, I'll show my boyfriend how to care for her and maybe just have him do it while I'm gone, if he's willing...I asked him when I originally got Charm if he'd be up for caring for him while I'm gone and he agreed to it, so I imagine it'll be fine. He's a little forgetful sometimes but I'd like to think he's attentive enough that he'll remember to mist her. (Ha! I can just call him and prod him.)

Well, I think he put them out in his garden, so it's possible that some of them hatched and they were just so tiny and tough to find and/or spread out by the time he got to them that he couldn't find many. (I think he said that he found a few mantises.) I'll try to find the review... (Ha! And another person who left a review questioning the wisdom of "bringing in non-native insects"... *snicker*) Ah! Here. [link]

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-05-31 22:28:44 +0000 UTC]

All sounds good. I hope she arrives quickly, and that the other two packages I sent and the two I'm to receive also come through safely. I'm worried about the heat... but I think I'm just being paranoid. Most of these guys don't mind the 90s, of course, and even if it gets hotter I'm sure they're adapted to it... oh, but I'll be glad when they arrive. I'm always like a mother hen about these guys.

Hehehe, what an idiot. I'm wondering if that's a troll comment or if he really did expect his cunning plan to work...

On the subject of trolling... I can't even deal with this person anymore, he makes me want to break things. [link] Actually, I wish I could believe he was trolling, but I think he really is sincere about this bullshit.

Well, anyway, I'm going to go get a few things that need to be done done, then I believe that I have a new chapter of GG to read, yes? And after that, I'm going to try and get a new chapter of FRIGID finished tonight.

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-05-31 22:56:41 +0000 UTC]

I hope so too! It hasn't been terribly hot here the last few days but it's supposed to be around 90 on Thurs/Fri. I'll let you know as soon as she arrives.

I don't know, I'm guessing that he really thought it'd work. But who knows.

O_o Oh wow, that's ridiculous. And very sad, if he's not trolling.

Yes indeed~
*chants* Write! Write! Write!
I need to work on a drawing this evening, fanart for an awesome Dragon Age fanfic. It's taking me waaay too long. Haha. However, don't let that stop you from at some point sending me that note with the description of what you want for the drawing I'm going to do for you.

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Deactived In reply to ??? [2011-04-16 23:58:02 +0000 UTC]

I think I'll just leave this right here. [link] It's not anything exciting, you know, just the new DBZA episode.

PS, if you've got time for MSN I'm around.

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-17 06:26:02 +0000 UTC]

Bahahaha. Yesss.
I mean, no, not exciting at all. Or even remotely amusing. >_>
(That crab song was...amazing. )

Gonna guess you're not still on, heh.

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-20 18:50:31 +0000 UTC]

That crab song should have been 10 minutes longer, that's the only thing I can fault it for. XD

Hey... you know how I had that essay, that I was given an extra week to work on, and how I joked about how that just meant I'd have another week to procrastinate... Well, guess what I've been trying to finish all day? :/

But if I can finish it within, say, the next five hours, would you have time to proof-read it tonight? I've really got to stop doing idiot things like writing an essay the day before it's due...

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-20 19:25:17 +0000 UTC]

Agreed. XD

Sure, I should have time. Any time in particular by which you need it tonight?
(I mean, I technically probably don't have time, buuut, I'd be more than happy for an excuse to take a break.)

I'm trying to work on stuff for my essay...hopefully I'll have a draft of it within a week or so. On Friday I'm supposed to have a presentation/discussion about my progress so far and I haven't even started writing it...oh well, we're encouraged to use that time to ask the class for help, so, I guess that's what I'll be doing. Is there any chance that between now and then I could try to run a rough idea of what I'm going to write about by you, and you can tell me if there seem to be any holes/things that I should explain/discuss more? (Obviously in a general sense, since you haven't read the novel.) Related, I'm supposed to have a draft of a different paper by early next week (Tuesday) -- it's a math paper, but maybe you could give it a once-over for basic "this sentence grammatically makes no sense" type problems? If you don't have time/don't want to, I completely understand, though. I just want this draft to be good since I plan on not having time to change it very much. XD

Today is just make up day for my lab so in theory I should be done early (like 8pm at the very latest, I hope) -- if you end up having time and want to, I wouldn't mind MSN-ing while I work on stuff.

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-20 21:23:26 +0000 UTC]

Also, I just wanted to squeal to someone about this (then back to work!)

I did order a B. mendica oothe along with those twig mantises - had a bit of extra cash in my paycheck. [link] Also, I'm getting an awesome tax refund... which means more mantises. One of the sellers is having a "Buy one oothe, get a ghost oothe free" sale, so I'm going to get at least one additional new species when my refund comes in. XD

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-20 21:19:02 +0000 UTC]

I just need it by early tomorrow morning, really - I could edit it before class. I haven't made a whole lot of headway here, honestly... when's the last I could send it that you'd still be able to look at it tonight? Thanks so much, btw, I know you're really busy. I'm going to try to get this done by 8 but it's not looking good. : /

Yeah, I shouldn't have any problem helping you out with either of those things. If you wanted to get on MSN to talk about the paper on the novel tomorrow night (assuming I'm not able to tonight, IDK yet...) we could do that, or you could just note me and I'll get you a reply ASAP.

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-20 22:16:08 +0000 UTC]

Oh, if you get to me before, say, 1am my time I should be able to proofread it before I go to bed. Even a little later if need be.

Tomorrow night should work fine for me; probably then I'll at least have a sliiiightly better idea of what I'm doing and will be trying to get everything organized for Friday morning. But, in case something comes up and I don't think I'll be able to, I'll write you a note instead (and if I do so, will obviously try to give you enough time to read/respond).

Niiiice! X3 Very pretty! That's exciting. I'm getting a small tax refund, haha... My boyfriend keeps non-subtly hinting that I should try to get a male axolotl and breed mine, but, I'm seriously doubting that I'd be able to find an adult male near enough that it wouldn't have to be shipped (I think adult axolotls don't hold up to shipping as well as the younger ones). It would be interesting to try, though -- since if I ever have time for anything, it'll be this summer. Unless that prof ever gets back to me about doing research for him... (Did I tell you my schedule for next semester? I'm only taking four classes, because my scholarship hours have almost run out [but I have to take 12 hrs/semester], so I'm taking two physics courses, a half-online math class, and an online creative writing class. Of course the physics class, I hear, is one of the hardest ones offered here, and I'll probably try to muscle in and do some preliminary work on my senior project, but...still.)

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-20 23:03:17 +0000 UTC]

That's good, because I've still only got little over 5 pages... and I need ten. It's going fast now, though, especially the parts were I just explain a couple of Qur'anic stories (Salih and the sacred she-camel FTW).

Most of mine is going to pay off my car, but I'll still have a good $500 left... buying mantises and supplies with part of that, paying doctors bills with some of the rest, and banking a couple hundred for the trip to New Orleans I want to take next spring break. XD

Also, some of my lobatas have been molting. They're so pretty with their shields and long arms. XD

Wow, hopefully that will be an easy semester overall. I've still got to do 15 credit hours to keep my scholarship... and I haven't made my schedule yet. Oops.

Okay, back to work....

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-20 23:25:02 +0000 UTC]

Haha, yay! XD Wish I could say I was making such good progress on my paper. I'm taking a break to work on my quantum project, but am almost done with what I need for that, so.

Yay! Exciting. My refund was something like $50, so uh, yeah. >_>

I know different places do it differently -- is 15 hours the cutoff for a full-time student where you go, or is it just the average load? Here 15 hours is pretty average, 12 is the cutoff for the full-time student. But then where one of my friends goes, 25 is considered average. O_o So they clearly use a different system.
Hopefully only taking 12 hours will give me plenty of time to figure out what's going on for my senior project. @_@

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-21 00:44:05 +0000 UTC]

Six and a half pages, and I'm running out of material.. well, I'm not actually running out, because I've got a shit ton of stuff to work with, but I'm going to have to decide on another facet of this topic to work with...

Ah, I see. I got an adult education credit, cause I'm old, so that helped a bit, lol.

12 is full-time here, I think you can take upon 18 without paying extra. I do know one guy who's doing like 27 credit hours, but he's a music major so it isn't like he's actually doing any work. (Shouldn't say that... people who attend classes in the glass social science building shouldn't throw stones...)

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-21 00:59:46 +0000 UTC]

Heh, I know that feeling (running out of what you were originally planning on doing and therefore having to branch out). I'm a little uneasy about how little I know about how many pages what I'm planning on for my paper will take me...

Ohh, I see. :3 Haha. Yeah, well, I think a big part of it is how much scholarship money I get...

Jeez. O_o Haha, I don't think anyone would let you take 27 credit hours here. If you do...I don't remember if it's 18 or 19, you have to get special permission. Anything 20 or higher is pretty much suicide (well, at least, I know it would be for a physics or math major), though I guess I hadn't considered music majors...hm, but, still, that's a lot of time. I think here it usually takes 6 years to get a music degree. I know that I should stay an extra year to take more physics classes (the ones I missed this past fall and this spring), because I'm kind of getting away with the bare minimum, but, I don't know... Plus, I mean, two majors in four years? Not so bad. (Of course it would take me longer than that if I couldn't use my physics credits toward my math focus...but, hey.) I just hope it doesn't come back and kick me in grad school. If I go to grad school...

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-21 02:25:11 +0000 UTC]

Oh god, I was counting my works cited page before... I actually only have 6 of the 10 pages I need as of right now. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die... Do you want me to send you what I have so far now? Then I can send the rest when I finish, assuming your still awake.

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-21 04:21:07 +0000 UTC]

Just got your email -- I'll look over what you have so far (though sorry to hear about the crash! that sucks). I might turn in early tonight (ridiculously tired for some reason), so my apologies in advance if I don't see the last pages in time.

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-21 04:32:37 +0000 UTC]

Thanks.

That's quite all right - I didn't expect you to stay up until I was finished. Really, I might just whip the last page out tomorrow morning, as I'm pretty burned out myself.

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-21 04:43:17 +0000 UTC]

No problem. Just sent it to you.

Well, normally I stay up much later, but for whatever reason I'm just really tired. I was going to offer to stay up until you finished it anyway [if you thought you would finish it tonight as opposed to tomorrow morning], but, at this point I'm not even sure I can. What you had so far seemed good though, and really most of the errors, like I said, were quite small.

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Deactived In reply to ??? [2011-04-13 22:37:16 +0000 UTC]

Hey, you got an hour or two you can waste on MSN tonight?

I'm doing housework, so the computer will say that I'm away, of course, but if you can talk just message me a time or three and I'll come round.

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Deactived In reply to Deactived [2011-04-14 01:32:28 +0000 UTC]

Actually, going to see a movie now, so won't be around any more tonight. But I'll talk to you later. ^^

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Deactived In reply to ??? [2011-04-12 05:02:05 +0000 UTC]

Hey... sorry I've been so entirely AWOL as of late.

Was wondering if I could send an essay (or two, assuming I get the one done tomorrow) your way tomorrow, to be proof-read? The one I'll def finish tomorrow is about Rent, and the other is about Progressive Islam. That last one might involve me pulling an all-nighter and turning it in Thursday morning, having finished it hours before it's due, the way things are going....

How's Charm, btw?

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-12 07:50:27 +0000 UTC]

That's fine; I've been equally distracted. Part schoolwork/projects; part continuing Dragon Age obsession. (Drawing-in-progress -- and before you say anything, I am entirely erasing and redoing his legs because I know they suck: [link] -- he is the antagonist for most of the game, also sort of the epitome of a tragic character. I won't say too much, in case you actually want to play it yourself, >_> which you do, and I'd hate to sway your first impression of him (besides that I think I've already told you that he's my favorite, now). I myself haven't done the ending that this drawing was inspired by, yet, but... It's such an appropriate ending for the game/his character/etc. *sniff*
I also drew a younger version of him: [link] *whores out own art*)

Anyway, yeah, that's fine! As for the second one you mentioned, well, I'm sure I'll be around Wednesday as well. Speaking of which, in a few weeks I have an essay due for my medieval lit class, if you think you'll have time to read it. I think it's going to be about the book we just read Les Liaisons Dangereuses (sp?), and something having to do about the reliability/lack thereof of one or more of the narrators...probably just one. (The book, if you haven't read it, is set up in the form of a bunch of letters exchanged between the various characters. I quite enjoyed it [in the slow-motion inevitable train wreck sort of way that you know the plot is going from the start], and would recommend it.)

He's doing well, I think, gimpy arm aside. I ran out of crickets the other day and haven't been able to get any more, so I'll be doing that tomorrow before I go teach lab, I think. I put him in a smaller container today with a bunch of ffs and I think he ate one or two, but beyond that seemed more concerned with getting out of the container. I left him there for some time, to consider eating the flies, but, yeah. I'll just make sure he gets an appropriately nicely sized cricket tomorrow evening. (Which is somewhat of a task, sometimes -- I move him to the other container, and he's all hyped up trying to get out, so I've been putting the freshly killed cricket in and closing the lid, and just turning the container until the cricket slides in front of him and catches his interest. When I try to dangle it in front of him, he usually either backs off or just goes around, in his pursuit to get out of the container. >_<)
Also, this ff culture seems to be doing a lot better than the last one.

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-12 17:07:07 +0000 UTC]

Wow, awesome amount of detail on that first one. o_0 I did see the second one before - heh, when I first saw it I thought it might be Snape... because that character actually looks a lot like Snape to me. (But possibly I only have Harry Potter on the brain, as I've been listening to the audiobooks over the last few weeks).

I'll send you the Rent essay either this afternoon or late tonight. It's due Thursday evening, so there's no huge hurry. As for the paper on Islam, my prof moved the deadline back to next Thursday, so I have an entire week to procrastinate and not get anything done until the last minute craft a well-polished essay. I can proof-read your essay, of course, no problem. ^_^

Is "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" worth reading for fun, btw? On a completely unrelated note (except that your mention of "slow-motion inevitable train wrecks in which you know exactly what's going to happen from the start" made me think of it) have you ever read The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas?

Glad he's doing well. ^^ He's catching his own crickets, then? Good about the culture as well.

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-12 19:48:59 +0000 UTC]

Heh, I definitely understand re: "Snape?" Haha. Here's what he looks like in the game...actually, within a video that's a cutscene from early on in the game, because I love his voice and I'm having a tough time right now finding a decent screencap. [link]

Sure! Okay, good to know -- if I don't look at it tonight, it'll probably be tomorrow evening, if that's okay.

Thanks! Oh, yes, I thought I'd said that -- I enjoyed it, at least. So long as you're up for pages and pages of people screwing each other over in various ways, yeah, definitely. I mean, it's not like it's my favorite book ever, but even if I didn't have to for this paper I'd probably read it again.

No, I haven't read that one.

Well, they're dead when I put them in there, but when they catch his attention as they slide in front of him, he sort of grabs them up. I don't know how successful he'd be in holding a living one in his current state, though, so, sticking with prekilled for now.

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-13 17:44:23 +0000 UTC]

Looks more like Snape than Allen Rickmann. (Have I mentioned that I hate-hate-hate him in that role?).

Pulling our email convo over here, because I'm really bad even worse at replying to emails -

It was like the shittiest review ever, too. I'd drag up the link to show you how bad it was, but it's not even worth the effort of tracking it down again.

Yes. Yes, I am absolutely recommending Tim Wise to you. He is like a super hero. Best-best-best anti-racist warrior out there speaking and writing today. I would say more, but I actually have to run now. My Arabic class is having a big party and there's going to be awesome good food and speeches. Leaving you this these:

[link]

[link]

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-14 03:21:30 +0000 UTC]

I don't think you had mentioned that, no. Heh. Do feel free to ramble about it, though, if you feel like it.
Blegh, I don't think he'd be a good Loghain, in any case. But maybe that's just because the only person who's allowed to do Loghain's voice (according to me >_> not something official, obviously) is his VA in the game, Simon Templeman. (Who has apparently done a TON of other video game roles.) Mmmm, he can give me divisively nationalistic speeches aaaaaany day. XD

Haha, I'll just believe you that it was awful.

Just read the two things you linked to. Awesome.

Hope your party was fun. I need to go eat dinner myself. I was going to reheat a piece of pizza I had from Monday, but, the thing I've had right before bed the past couple days sounds real good...I got lazy and put some pasta and a packet of chicken boullion stuff with some other spices in a mug, plus water, and microwaved it for a minute. Tasty.

Apparently the prof of one of my classes that's basically online assigned some homework without sending out an email like she usually does, and it was due yesterday. Ugh. I'm debating whether I should do it, since I'm not sure she'll even take points off for it being late, or just take the loss and move on (as I've done with this godawful lab...at this point, I don't care as long as I get a high enough grade to not have to take another lab again; so if I have to skip this stupid experiment and get no credit for it because the prof couldn't be bothered to put the all proper equipment in the room, so be it -- is he trying to suggest that I magically know where the sine wave generators with variable voltage are? all I can find are the ones without variable voltage, and since the stupid thing's due Friday, and I don't understand the experiment in the slightest, I'm pretty much fed up with it). Also just realized that I only have a little more than a week before I have to give a presentation on my progress for my medieval lit paper [and I haven't even picked a thesis]; a little more than a week to do my quantum project [which shouldn't take too long but I haven't started it]; two or so weeks to do my modeling networks project [which I haven't started doing the research for yet]; and two or so weeks to do my math computing project [which I also haven't started]. Of course being assigned four hours of differential geometry homework a week is NOT helping. At least I only have two more lab reports to write. >_>

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-14 14:16:42 +0000 UTC]

Well, that was actually I had to say. His performance is so wooden (which is strange, because god knows he's an awesome actor...). But goddamn I want the last movie NOW...

Tim Wise is even more awesome when you hear him speak out loud - [link] Have you ever done anything with Whiteness Theory in any of your courses?

I'm not sure if hearing about your work burden makes me more or less panicked about what I need to get done...

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-15 03:25:49 +0000 UTC]

Definitely.
Same. XD Oh well, not long to wait now, right?

Oh man, that was great.
No, I haven't really taken that many courses where we'd have discussed something like that, I think.

Less panicked, I hope. >_>

Vague request for advice: I'm thinking I've narrowed my topic for my paper to why the author would make this one particular character an unreliable (or I guess not-entirely-reliable) narrator. (Might still change who it is, but at present I'm thinking I'll do the character I found the most interesting.) Do you have any general ideas that might help guide me in thinking up reasons? So far I've got that it embodies/is in her nature/character, and that it, in theory, leaves elements of the story open for the reader (because most of the things that she might not be telling the truth about are things that nobody else can fill us in on). I don't know...they seem like kind of weak reasons so I'm trying to think of some more. XD I'm hoping something will come to me while I read all the articles I could dig up about this book, since we're supposed to include at least two secondary sources in our paper and the prof recommended I start there. (She recommended I use those to guide which character I pick, but, I don't think there will be any that are that helpful...hm.)

But in any case, I thought I'd ask in case you have general thoughts about reasons for why an author would choose to make a character like that, and then I could determine if they're suited to the more specific context of the story. >_> Don't worry about it too much if you can't think of any, though, of course.

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NiniveKha In reply to ??? [2011-04-07 21:54:31 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the fav!

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ShiningMoon In reply to NiniveKha [2011-04-08 02:52:44 +0000 UTC]

Oh, you are very welcome. X3

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Deactived In reply to ??? [2011-04-06 04:00:39 +0000 UTC]

I'm too tired to leave a real comment, but oh god this - [link]

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-06 05:36:11 +0000 UTC]

Bahahahaha. XD Fantastic. So true.
Everybody and their mother in Dragon Age has dead parents. Oh wait...

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Deactived In reply to ??? [2011-04-02 03:06:53 +0000 UTC]

Hey, my comp froze, so that's why I've disappeared from MSN. (posting this from my gf's comp). I'm going to call it a night.

Talk to you later. ^^

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-04-02 03:12:53 +0000 UTC]

Oh, okay! Good night!

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Deactived In reply to ??? [2011-03-24 03:08:25 +0000 UTC]

My comp crashed, and it's being a pain about restarting (posting this from my gf's comp). So, I guess that's a sign that I should be off to bed, anyway... Talk to you later. XD

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-03-24 03:35:58 +0000 UTC]

Haha, all right. Talk to you later! (I won the Scrabble game, by the way. XD)

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-03-26 00:59:54 +0000 UTC]

Hey - I posted the ffs today, so they should arrive on Monday. Charm is doing well, I hope?

(Yay!)

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-03-26 05:56:08 +0000 UTC]

Awesome; thank you!
Yes, he seems to be doing quite well. X3 Every time I peek down at him he looks at me like, "And what do you want?"
And what sort of drawing shall I owe you? (Though I won't even have time to start thinking about drawing until Monday at the earliest.)
By the way, has the package I sent made it to you yet?

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-03-26 21:39:16 +0000 UTC]

Continued -

I only got new housefly pupae in mail yesterday, still waiting for them to hatch so I can feed my guys properly. *pokes them*

I still have to think on the drawing. Maybe something cute with Kuririn and Eighteen?

Yes, I thought I said, but I guess I didn't - got the package, the drawings look even more awesome irl, and the books look highly interesting.

Speaking of books, I've got to go finish reading this Rawls thing... and then I've got 70 pages I need to finish before Tuesday, for the ISO book discussion.

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-03-26 21:34:53 +0000 UTC]

I had very little culture media left, and no excelsior, so what I ended up doing was mixing up a few spoonfuls of media, and then taking the excelsior from an old, drying out culture, and popping it flies and pupae and all into the new cup. Then I tossed in some more flies for good measure. It should last one mantis a while, I think. You can keep giving him ffs after he molts, btw, for as long as you have them left over, though I'd offer crickets too so you know he's getting enough.

Oh, and I just realized that I forgot to tell you that I didn't send any houseflies. Mine all up and died on me a few days ago (old age, I guess) so I didn't have any. I

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-03-26 23:49:50 +0000 UTC]

Okay, thanks! Good to know, about the still giving him ffs after he molts. And that's fine, about the house flies.

Sure, take your time thinking since like I said, it'll probably be a bit before I have time to work on it. (Plus, I still need to finish that next chapter of G&G. >_> Eep.)

Maybe you did say and I just forgot. You'll have to tell me what you think of the books.

Haha, I see. Man, I was going to start my reading for my lit class over break, and fix my paper, but look how that went. -_- I'll just be happy if I can finish these lab reports, at this rate. Blegh. Guess I'd better get back to that.

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-03-28 21:41:10 +0000 UTC]

FFs get to you okay?

Yes, we need a new chapter of that! In vaguely related news, I finally figured out how to move forward on Frigid, I think... now, if I only had time for that... or anything else for that matter.

Yes, I'll tell you. XD I really want to start them, but it will probably be a while until I get the chance, sadly enough. But I'm going be a hardass to myself about getting reading and writing done this summer, I swear to god I am. I know rationally that sitting in front of a computer screen refreshing the same three pages doesn't make me happy... I just need to remember that and enforce it.

Guess where I'm going this July, btw? I will tell you - [link]

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-03-28 23:33:40 +0000 UTC]

Yep, they did! They look bigger than the last ones you sent, or maybe it's just me. Charm molted last night (so I didn't bring him back to the dorm with me) and I've just gotten back to check on him/bring him back to the dorm with me. It looks like part of one of his forearms didn't make it, so he's a little clumsy and I'm not sure if that'll impede his ability to catch things? He has the arm down to the first joint, maybe the second, but not the "claw" part. Will I be able to hold the crickets in front of him with tweezers and let him catch them with the one arm, or will I have to hold them there while he eats? (I just got some crickets as well, never did end up having to try him on those others I bought. I asked for small crickets but they still look, well, a lot bigger than the fruit flies...will that be okay? I should have asked for pinheads, huh? I wasn't thinking. -_- But I also got some large crickets and an enclosure to let them live (and hopefully breed) in, and the cricket food and all that stuff.
Anyway, advise me, o mantis master. What do I do? O_o

That's good! Yeah, I'm sure in theory I could find some time for G&G, but I really need to just sit my ass down and get back into it rather than straggling along, so maybe it'll have to wait a bit yet, I don't know. Maye this weekend...

Haha, that's kind of my resolution for this summer too. Though, I know I'm also going to indulge in some gaming (and you should play Dragon Age). And, in theory, maybe do some sort of art that I could attempt to sell for some sort of money; that'd be fun.

That...is awesome. X3 *jealous* You'll have to tell me all about it!

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-03-29 00:50:06 +0000 UTC]

Dang, sorry to hear that, but at least it's not too bad.... I don't actually know if he'll be able to grab live crickets like that, but I should think that it wouldn't be too difficult to get him to take prekilled ones. I should think he'll still be able to grab ffs, so maybe you could just keep him on those until the next molt, maybe supplementing with prekilled crickets if he seems thin? Well, I guess wait a couple of days to see if he's grabbing ffs, then go from there? It's a lot of guess work and what works for you and the mantis.

I had one lobata that mismolted when becoming L2, so that neither of his arms worked and I had to handfeed him, but that came out with one good arm at L3, but he inexplicably died a day after molting, so I never got to see how much he could do on his own. (I'd been feeding him mostly chicken babyfood and honey, because I'd been having too much trouble getting him to eat prekilled bugs... for some reason he wouldn't bend over to eat a bug that was sitting in front of him, but he'd suck the soft food like water. So, anyway, I think he might have not gotten enough nutrition and that and the stress of molting did him in... next time I have a similar case I'm going to try mushing the bug up into goo with some water and honey, and maybe the mantis will "drink" that.)

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ShiningMoon In reply to Deactived [2011-03-29 01:08:21 +0000 UTC]

All right, I'll do that. Seems there are quite a lot of ffs in the thing you sent me, so hopefully that'll last for some time, and I can try the prekilled crickets in the meantime. I'll just keep a close eye on him. I took him out for a little bit this evening and mainly he just seemed a little clumsy, and can't climb up the walls so well. Do you suppose at this point I can/should put him in the net cube? (Well, might wait a little while, anyway, since I need to find some bigger sticks to put in it and it's currently snowing outside so I don't really wanna go out there. -_-) It seems like the deli cup is still big enough for him, so I don't want to put him in something too big...
Any tips for getting him to eat prekilled crickets? Do I just put him in a different container and squish the cricket and put it in there on the ground in front of him, or dangle it with tweezers, or...?

Ah yeah, I remember you telling me about him. On a slightly related note, I find it to be extremely adorable when I spray water in there and he starts drinking it. D'awww.

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Deactived In reply to ShiningMoon [2011-04-03 16:45:25 +0000 UTC]

So far as the adorable-when-drinking thing goes, some of them will drink water off your hand if you mist the mantis and your hand while holding them. It's entirely too cute. The only thing is that if he'll do this for you, when he gets bigger make sure you have the mister ready to re-spray your hand, because once they run out of water drops they start to press their jaws against your skin to get more water, and that can sting a little.

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