| Aminals.It was unpleasantly hot today. My apartment doesn't have air-conditioning so I was unpleasantly hot today too, except in the shower and at the library.
Scientists recently discovered an ant megacolony that's spread around half the globe (article). They know that the ants are part of the same colony because they don't fight each other. Here's a cool ant colony video.
Another cool insect video: Big sacks of annelid worms found in North Carolina sewer.
I watched Werner Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World" today. It was interesting. My favorite parts were listening to the weddell seals and the part with the disoriented penguin. I would love to find a long recording of waddell seals. And as far as the penguin thing goes, I know Herzog has a history of playing with fact and fiction in his films, but that all looks real to me. Regardless, it is both tragically beautiful and super cute. I think the reason people like penguins so much is that penguins always look like they're ready for hugs. That hadn't struck me until I saw that adventurous little penguin waddling toward certain death with his flippers open like that, but now I get it. The scientist at the beginning of the penguin video was cool too. Herzog said that the scientist has spent so much time with penguins that he doesn't like to partake in conversation with people anymore.
I finished watching "Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth" the other day. I liked it, and found Bill Moyers' apparent inability to understand most of Campbell's simple ideas annoying to the point of being very funny. They'd just be getting into a groove, and then Campbell would say something, and Moyers' response would indicate that he'd understood basically none of it (albeit enthusiastically), and Campbell would get this look of slight pain on his face and then just go with it.
When I was coming up the stairs that lead to my apartment today a black rat shot out in front of me. I was on a lower level of stairs than it was, so it was right at my eye level, and it jumped toward me to go down the steps. It ended up running by me, but I was pretty convinced for a moment that it was going to make a screeching leap onto my face and claw my eyes out. Instead it will probably just kill me with the plague. Earlier in the day I heard the lady who lives in the apartment below me scream, and thought "that sounds like a rodent-related scream." And now I know.
I found about one-hundred VHS tapes by the dumpster the other night. They were all tapes that had been purchased blank and filled with films from television. Most of them had cheesy movie-of-the-week titles, but there were a few good ones in there. I spent so much time going through the tapes that I almost didn't make it to the store in time to buy dinner.
I recently found out that one-half of my Irish heritage (being one-fourth of my total heritage) was filtered through Canada. My mom's dad's great grandpa (I think that's right) moved from Ireland to Canada during the potato famine, and then his son (my grandpa's grandpa) or maybe his son's son moved to California, and then my grandpa moved to Kansas. I thought that was cool.
I'm really close to being done with the book I'm writing (my nah-vul) and have been doing a lot of reading to make sure I get the ending right. Or, I mean I know I have it right, but I want to make sure there's nothing cool that I'm leaving out. Anyways, one of the things I read about was earth's magnetic field. I didn't realize that the source of the field was an unsolved mystery of sorts. I guess they think they have the cause for it nailed down pretty well, but that nothing is conclusive. I had always assumed that I didn't know why it existed, but that they did.
The night auditor at the hotel across the way was robbed at knifepoint the other day, so I'm on high alert tonight. S'okay so far.
Two nights ago at the gas station I saw two hot girls in short denim skirts walking toward a jeep, laughing and carrying beer. The girls hopped in the jeep, which had two dudes and several pool rafts sticking out of it, and then the jeep sped off. As they sped off one of the boys shouted, "Wooooooo!" And all I could think was, "Wow, those people are totally going to be killed off one by one at a secluded lake house this Fourth of July weekend." I know that's an odd thing to think, but they were straight out of a crappy horror movie. As I'm writing this they're probably wondering where Jake went and discovering that their cell phones have mysteriously stopped getting coverage. Or maybe they're having a great time having drunken sex with each other and riding jet-skis naked or something. God dammit.
Love,
Mike.
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