*sigh*

I have been browsing through several galleries of odd creatures. I looked at a lot of pet tarantulas, for example. I wouldn't want a pet I couldn't handle though, so I won't be getting a tarrantula. Nor a scorpion. Nor a fish, for that matter. The site with the tarantulas also had a pet brown recluse for sale, which I regard as madness. It's not pretty, it's not huge, it doesn't look interesting, and it is tiny, so if it gets loose you'll never find it again, oh and did I mention that it can MAKE YOUR FLESH ROT?! Yeah. No brown recluses for me. I can see the appeal of a lot of venemous/poisonous pets, they're often strikingly beautiful, but brown recluses are just plain brown little spiders. I'd rather get a huntsman (which the site also had) because at least they're flipping huge! I want to be able to freak out visitors and my mother, but a brown recluse would just constantly freak out me!

Anyhhow, now I am looking at a gallery of Australian snakes. OMG there are so many gorgeous snakes from Australia! I think my favorite so far is the mulga snake or king brown snake. I love the look of the huge, distinct scales so many Australian snakes have, the combined with the countershading color, it's particularly striking here. I've always liked tiger snakes since I first saw a photo of one in khukuri's livejournal. But I'll have to content myself with the ball python and my eventual rainbow boa, because venemous + endangered means I'll never own a mulga snake, nor a tiger snake either. Actually venemous alone is enough to ensure I'll never own one, see above about pets I can't handle. But man, are they pretty.

The internet is for?

Porn, of course. (Link is text, not photos. Text may still be NSFW, as it contains a frank discussion of extreme pornography.)

But this may not always be a good thing. Go read, see what I mean.

I am not convinced of all the points raised there, but... they're still points worth thinking about.

Halloween roundup

Firstly, a note to myself:

Self, the stuffed pumpkin tasted good, but the texture wasn't so hot. Next time it needs to be much drier, and the onions should be cooked before, or something. Or the whole thing cooked longer, which is silly because it took two hours as it was. But the onions were still crunchy and raw-tasting when the pumpkin was quite completely cooked. So something must be done. Also, pine nuts instead of chestnuts next time. Less work, better texture, nearly the same flavor.Oh, and dry bread, not fresh.

Got that self? Good. The end result was still quite edible, and I suspect it will be one of those dishes that improves as leftovers. Which is good, because it looks like there's about five servings in that thing, and JJ doesn't seem to want any. So I have lots.

I also have WAY too much candy. We live right next door to a house full of kids, and across the street from an elementary, and on the edge of a traditional residential neighborhood, so I assumed we'd have scads of trick-or-treaters, and bought four bags of candy. (Ate half a bag of almond snickers minis already, because I was depressed yesterday, and dang, they're good even when you're not wallowing in misery and gloom.) Anyhow... we got five kids. The ones next door, I'm pretty sure. That's it.

I'm well supplied for sugar, it seems! Thankfully while I hadn't anticipated this, I planned for it all the same, and bought only candy I actually enjoy.

Happy costume and candy day, everybody!