Monday, December 6, 2010

Fungi, a Man, and Reclusive Women

This past weekend I spent an above average amount of time (for myself, probably a below average amount of time for most college students,) working on homework.

While working on online anthropolgy homework, I learned about astounding fungi.
*Disclaimer: this is super sick, so avoid reading the following while eating.

A fungus in the Amazonian forest lays on plants and the forest floor, in waiting.
Once an insect or spider crawls by, the fungus attatches itself to the unfortunate creature.
The fungus sticks to the bug's exoskeleton & dissolves a part of it.
Through this opening, the fungus reaches the insect's insides and eats the non-vital organs.
The spider or whatever remains alive and functioning.
After the non-vital organs have been devoured, the fungus eats a part of the bug's BRAIN.
At this point, the fungus has basically created a SPIDER ZOMBIE (!!!); with the brain piece gone, the bug climbs to a high leaf in the forest canopy.
The fungus eats the rest of the insect and then causes it to explode(!!!), sending the fungus spore things to be dispersed throughout the rainforest to lay in waiting again!

...this same fungus has some sort of chemical in it that supresses the human immune system & therefore makes it a great med for transplant patients (of which my daddy was one,) so that their body does not reject the foriegn organ placed in them.
neat, huh???

During my laborious weekend, I also researched other things on the internet:
-C.S. Lewis. I concluded I do indeed want to read all he ever wrote, or most of his works anyways. [Chronicles of Narn, check-dunzo!]
- the Edies Bealeses, of whom Grey Gardens Documentary was of, as well as the 2009 'Grey Gardens' was based on.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Christmas Without Claymation??!


A few days ago, my friend Steph B ( http://stephbarber.com )
posted about her home's recently added christmas decor. Now here's my apt's Christmas-itizing...


Yeppers, a tree! Last year my parents finally listened to reason and got this atrificial beauty.

To accompany our dorm tree, my mommy bought a pack of super cute ornaments. But no topper was included in the box!
So...I colored and cut this star and added some ribbon.

Our tree may look massive from this perspective, but it's really a disputable 6 footer


And more handmade decorations! These oragami cranes were created and strung by the lovely Adriane (http://arianecarol.blogspot.com)


TADA! Our cozy tree and crane garland!
P.S.- I'm so glad Adriane and I both have a thing about Christmas trees being in corners
Oh, and sorry about the lame formatting of this blog postie. Hope you are having a very merry Christmas season!
Post-Post Script: For ten pretty good (there are really like 14, but only 10 are worth keeping) free Christmas songs to download, go to target.com /christmas