Around ten of my African land snails have now woken up from their winter hibernation. I thought they deserved a bath. Here are some pictures!
A few of the juvenile snails
This one loved to nibble on my hand. It really, really tickles!
Chris meets Mr. Nibbles
lolwut? Chris attempts to push his eyes out like the snails. He failed.
Wow, I got a much bigger response to my digital portraits than I ever expected! I’ve even had numerous requests from people on twitter for pictures of themselves. Truthfully, I’d love to draw them all but I simply haven’t got the time. I might open a few free slots after I’ve moved house next week, but paid work takes priority right now.
I haven’t got a lot to show today so I thought I’d post some work in progress photos. This is the sketch and a little bit of line work for a digital portrait I’m drawing for @Pandorasinbox. I might restart it as the face shape isn’t quite right.
Here’s the sketch from the self-portrait I drew last weekend. I thought it was kinda funny – not really sure why.
Back to some traditional work! This is a Link painting for @Seedy87. It was still damp in the photo so sorry about the crappy reflection. I have another layer of black line then I’ll add some white accents and send it off!
This is only here because I wanted to show off my awesome new t-shirt! Note the lack of orange hair – It’s been boring and brown for a while as I’m growing it out and it was a bit damaged from all the dying. You know this shirt will be 100% more awesome once the mop has been tango’d again.
Lauren a.k.a Atheistium asked me to draw her a portrait in the same style as the self-portrait I drew last weekend, and here it is! I hope she likes it. It’s quite different drawing other people, at least if I draw myself I only have myself to please!
I’m teaching myself to use Illustrator at the moment and pretty much failing miserably. I’m not very good at digital artwork. The layering system means that I am effectively working backwards compared to traditional painting methods I’m used to. With digital art you generally put down the line work first, then then colours and shading. With traditional paints, the colour and shading comes first, then the definition/line work. It messes with my brain a little.
Anyway! For my first attempt at a picture I thought I’d do a simple self-portrait. It’s a bit child-like and put my moth tattoo on the wrong side (oops!) but otherwise I’m happy with it.
Sorry for the shameless Mass Effect reference in the title!
A recent study by Fiona Cross, from the University of Canterbury, and Robert Jackson, from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Kenya, revealed that like it’s prey, Evarcha culicivora (aka. The Vampire Spider) loves the smell of human sweat. So to find it’s favorite food, this little jumping-spider has developed a love for your smelly socks! (Source: Live Science)
What a cutie! (unsure who the photo belongs to if it’s yours, please let me know so I can credit)
OK, so not only is this an interesting bit of news (and a cute picture!) but it starts off the real reason I’m posing this quite nicely. E. culicivora is known to target Mosquitoes who are engorged with blood. Not only that but ones who are infected with the Malaria parasite. Scientists are recommending people welcome these spiders into their homes. But without Mosquitoes, there will be no spiders. Better get your stinky feet out then!
Those of you that read the news regularly might have heard the term ‘Flying Vaccinator’ where Anopheles Mosquitoes and Malaria are being discussed. Genetic engineers have been attempting to mutate the insect’s mucus glands to produce a vaccine which will combat the Malaria virus. Research has so-far been fruitless. Although this genetic modification, in my opinion, is immoral. I dislike it a whole lot less than the method that has recently been deployed in South-East Asia to combat Dengue Fever. What menthod is that do you ask? Well, scientists have modified the male Aedes aegypti Mosquito, so that any larvae he produces will die before adulthood. Krogen Genophage anyone? Sorry, I just had to throw in some Mass Effect geekery!
Oxitec, the company leading this program, have reported that since the trail in Malaysia, the population of the Dengue Fever-carrying Mosquito has dropped by 80%. That is a enormous number! In fact, I am interested to see what this huge drop in population has done to the ecosystem. Another point is that by reducing the numbers of just one species Mosquito, they pave the way for other Malaria carrying Mosquitoes to proliferate.
Don’t get me wrong, the human fatalities caused by Malaria and Dengue fever are terrible. Dengue fever in particular currently has no vaccine and has numerous variants of the virus, however is not always fatal. But I can’t help thinking there must be a better way to combat these diseases than Genetically Modifying a creature, destroying habitats and adding insecticides to water ways.
Part of the reason there are so many Mosquitoes is because there is so much food for them! Over-population and the destruction of alternative food sources (wildlife), means that there’s always a steady source of human blood for them to feast on, thus spreading diseases faster. Then again, over-population is a problem I don’t want to get started on! Maybe this sterilization method might be lass harmful than I think, but only time will tell.
You can read more about this on Discovery News.
Chris and I aren’t the biggest fans of Valentines day so we agreed we wouldn’t buy any souless cards or chocolates to ruin my diet this year. Also, sending flowers is a bit pointless since he bought me a pot of daffodils last year that will flower again soon. (Random fact: Daffodils are my favourite!)
We also agreed not to buy presents… well I did. Chris bought me a copy of Bishi Bashi Special for the PSOne! I absolutely love that game. It’s utterly crazy and loads of fun to play with friends. Chris has never played it so next time he comes over, or when we finally move in, I’ll get my original Playstation out for some button-bashing madness!
Bishi Bashi was the inspiration for Nintendo’s Wario Ware games and is, in my opinion, far superior. Here’s a video with a selection of mini-games…
Blog, Gaming, Video | 
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I sent most of today in my boyfriend’s parent’s loft amongst the cobwebs, lacewings (I’m unsure why but there were loads in there*) and epic amounts of STUFF! The reason for this is that we’re moving in together at the end of the month and Chris wants to move his remaining stuff out of his parent’s house. Also, some of my decluttering obsession has rubbed off on him and it’s time to hit ebay!
We’re both big gamers and although I am usually against hording stuff, I adore my gaming collection. Chris has a wicked collection of Commodore 64 tapes which we found dotted around the place. Sadly some of the tapes seem to be missing cases or vise-versa, but I’m sure we’ll be able to sell any of them that we can’t save. It’s a shame that the Commodore 64 he owns doesn’t work because that means we can’t test them all. Fingers crossed they’re all in ok shape!
Hinding between the Commodore 64 tapes were some audio stories. I used to love these as a kid! I remember owning a Werebear and listing to the story tape that came with it almost every night. Talking of Werebears, holy crap this Werebear website brings back memories! I had the blue and yellow one growing up. Yeah, I am so finding a way of recording these Transformers tapes onto my PC so I add them to my iPod.
After sorting and re-boxing the Commodore 64 tapes, we moved on the THE TOYS! 80′s toys were the best toys ever! They were made of cheap plastic, they were virtually indestructible and most importantly, they were really creative. We pulled out a few toys today that are amazing technically. One of which was a Transformer (I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember his name) that changed into FIVE different things: a robot, a puma, a boat, a plane and a tank. So cool!
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