Shadee’s Blog

We got our hermit crab Stumpy (and Ren but he has sadly passed on) during our honeymoon in a little beach town over 7 years ago. Stumpy’s always been a healthy crab and he’s grown a lot since we first got him.

In all of those years I’d never encountered any other creatures living in his tank though. So when one day, not too long ago, I went over to change his food I was horrified when I saw it crawling with what seemed like tiny dark brown bugs.

The first thing I did was check the net on how to get rid of pests like that. I came across mentions of crab mites, which can cause crabs to lose limbs and eventually die. So I checked Stumpy but luckily the creatures weren’t actually on him and seemed much more interested in his food than him so that was somewhat of a relief at least.

It was really hard to tell what they were because they were so tiny so I just assumed the worst and scrubbed out his tank, cleaned the substrate and hoped for the best.

It didn’t take long for the creatures to return however (if they were even really gone in the first place) so I decided I wanted a definite answer. There were a bunch of possible culprits so I needed to find out what they looked like. That’s where my new macro tube came in handy. I managed to take a shot with that and see a better close up.

This is what they look like. After getting a better look it was much easier to identify them. Turns out they’re Springtails. They’re also considered to be what people call “Tank Custodians”. They’re not harmful at all. In fact, a lot of people encourage these creatures to live with their hermit crabs. They eat hermit crab poo, rotten matter, prevent the growth of mold and even help prevent harmful bacteria and actual pests like mites by out-competing them.

So they’re basically little cleaners, actually helping keep my crab’s environment safe and healthy. And I’ve been catapulting several batches of then out into the cold outdoors.

So I’m sorry little guys. I guess you’re ok and welcome to stay. Sorry for throwing out your family members. I promise leave you alone from now on. :>

-Dee.

I’ve never liked that word (unless it’s meant to describe a device pushing blissfully cool air at my face), I just… I don’t know, whenever I hear the word “fan” I picture some rabid crazy person hanging over a fence, crying and screaming while trying to grab a hold of the shirt of some poor celebrity walking by with the clear intent of ripping it off their bodies and then sleeping with it clenched firmly against their chest (or God knows where else) every night for the rest of their lives.

So yeah, while I know that that’s a horrible generalization and that there are plenty of “normal” people who just have an appreciation for an actor or musician or someone along those lines who also call themselves fans, I’m just too appalled by the extreme end of the spectrum that I refuse to ever use that word to describe myself when it comes to another actual human being. I can be (and am) a fan of chocolate for example, sure!

Having said that though, I certainly do have an appreciation for work done by famous people. But I’d like to think that I wouldn’t treat a person like that any differently than anyone else if I ended up coming face to face with them or interacting with them. I would hate to have someone not see me as another person, like them but as some kind of screaming hatchling monstrosity trying to get an autograph pushed into it’s beak to pacify it for a few seconds.

Doesn’t mean that I would completely ignore the work of theirs I loved either, of course I’d mention it and let them know I appreciated it and that I thought they’re great at what they do.

Similar thing with Fan Art. When it comes to drawing celebrities I just can’t do it. Skills aside that is, I know I literally can’t do it because I suck at drawing human faces and they’d probably just end up looking like a deformed marmoset but I mean even if I could, it would just feel creepy to me. “Hi, I’m some stranger who doesn’t know you at all but I’d like to pretend I do and that it’s completely normal for me to adore you so much that I’m going to draw your face in extreme detail now.”
< "It took me like three hours to finish the shading on your upper lip.")

But I can do video game fan art. If I loved the story and characters I'll draw a tribute to the fun times I had while playing it and thank the people who were behind creating it for making it so much fun. Like my recent little Mass Effect fan art doodle:

Just to show my appreciation for the writers and voice actors of my favorite characters, because they simply made the game for me.

If one of them were to see it and respond to it though, I so wouldn’t go all weird… or…

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FGHGSAW:LKA:KDLKL!!!!!1

So we adopted this cute little tortoise shell kitty a few months ago. Everything went great. Didn’t take her very long to get used to the dog and vice versa, she took to her new litter box right away. She’s smart enough to understand rules about things she’s not supposed to get onto / into or scratch with a few firm NO!’s. I even managed to teach her how to use the scratching post! Our previous cat never touched the thing but with some clever thinking on my part (tie a catnip pillow to the top of the scratching post and watch the lulz commence [link] ) she loves it to pieces now (literally) and uses it several times a day.

She eats, she drinks, she’s playful… and she poos. OMFG DOES SHE POO! D:

About 5 seconds after she cranks out her little kitty logs the ENTIRE FUCKING HOUSE starts to smell like shit. It’s fucking disgusting. What’s worse is, it seems like she actually tries to time it so that it happens right as I’m preparing either lunch or dinner for myself.

We took her to the vet, got her all her necessary shots, had the vet give her a complete check up, gave a stool sample (warned the vet to wear a gas mask when opening) and had a full battery of blood work done to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong with her.

But when the vet called with the results it turned out she’s healthy as a horse… so she’s just a stank machine. I guess next up is gradually switching food types and hope we’ll come across one which will make things a bit more bearable. In the mean time I guess we’ll just continue to scoop multiple times a day and use the Febreze bottle as if it were a six shooter and the litter box an angry John Wayne.

Nasty cat.
Good thing she’s got the cute thing going for her.

-Dee.

So I had a messed up dream the other night.

I was at Disney world and apparently I’d randomly won something which allowed me to see some premier of a new Tom Cruise movie and actually watch it there with Tom Cruise. He was a complete nutcase, made me feel very uncomfortable and after the movie he told me he needed to show me something. Against my better judgment I went along with it.

He took me out onto to the ocean in which there was some massive hollow upside down black pyramid structure and contained inside it was Cthulhu. Apparently they thought it was Xenu or something and they needed 4 people, 1 on top of each corner of the massive structure to release him. There were already 3 there and they were trying to convince me to stand in the 4th spot. Just looking at it’s eyes over the side of the structure instantly made me feel like I was starting to lose my mind so I jumped onto the nearest jet-ski and tried to get the fuck away without looking back.

That’s when I woke up and decided that I need to start eating more spicy foods in the evenings because that dream was more entertaining than anything that’s on TV these days.

I don’t like the new Moon/Sun bar for druids.
I’m all for making Cata dungeons and combat in general more like it was back in Vanilla where you actually have to pay attention, strategize and where specific class skills matter again in encounters but this bar isn’t doing it. It’s taking away the player’s own choices and if you actually want to take advantage of the procs and bonuses it forces you to stare at your spell bar to follow the blinking buttons and spam the same spell class until the see-saw goes down on the other side instead of paying attention to the fight. Also, if I’m fighting a nature immune mob I don’t want to be stuck in the arcane corner of the bar (and vice versa) and not get any bonuses at all during the fight because of it. It’s just silly.

-Dee (who will probably be getting her Mage the rest of the way to 80 now instead).

Just sayin…

A thought came to mind when I was watching a show about a huge new species of bear they found and shot in Canada. It turned out to be a Grizzly/Polar Bear hybrid. Which they found very unusual since it wasn’t normal Polar Bear behavior to travel that far south.

So the thought I had:
Are we going to be the end of everything because we keep stopping animal evolution by shooting new hybrid species of animals like polar/grizzlies? With the polar caps melting maybe instead of trying to save a species and keeping it “pure” we should just let nature take care of it like it has for billions of years with a new and tougher species which can survive and thrive in the new conditions instead of killing them all off. It’s certainly been a trend. Every time we see something new show up it’s rare, which makes it expensive by default and we shoot it, sell it and/or study it’s corpse.

On the other hand, dinosaurs have been known to dominate the planet by not giving a lot of other species a chance too. So maybe what we’re doing is natural and all part of the cycle too.

Eh who knows.
Too much thinkz, Xbox tiem now.

-Dee.

Before writing this I already know it’s going to be difficult to keep it in a nutshell. But basically I’d like to ask for support in the form of words. This isn’t for me but for my brother who’s been going through a custody hell for way too long and the last time I saw him it killed me to see how it was wearing him down both physically and emotionally.

You know you’re in bad shape when someone from a government job agency which also pays for welfare and has a vested interest in finding people jobs fast actually tells you they can’t have you driving a truck in this state and offers to help you fill out forms and file for disability.

_____________________
The situation:
He was married, had two sons and a wife which wasn’t very supportive. Most of us were already gnashing our teeth at her and her BS from the start (For example: She couldn’t hold a job, which was fine but even when jobless she couldn’t even bother to go grocery shopping or make dinner. So my brother would have to do all of that too after his crazy sometimes up to around 15 hour shifts as a truck driver. She could happily dump the kids at my parents’ place and go out spending money they didn’t have on things they didn’t need though. And that’s just one of the many things we couldn’t stand about her). Eventually he ended up getting a divorce due to him finally realizing what everyone around him already had and him simply not being able to take it anymore.

They got shared custody. He agreed to take care of all of their combined debt. She in turn offered that he wouldn’t have to pay alimony while he was struggling to work that debt off. Of course that part was verbal only which was a big mistake.

Custody went fine for a while. She found a new boyfriend which was fine and then my brother found a new girlfriend which apparently wasn’t. She didn’t like her and refused to let him see the kids while he was with her. Even after a whole lot of drama and my brother finally breaking things off with the girlfriend she still refused to let him take the kids on his weekends.

Ever since then she’s been trying every single malicious angle to try and destroy him. And sadly, where he lives the mother is usually right by default according to the law. Their ex-mutual friends who have basically all dropped her and have stood by him and even the people at the local police station have voiced their support and sympathy for him but there’s very little they can do (He was told to keep going there on his weekends and to come report it at the station every time she wasn’t there or simply refused to come to the door so they could keep a record). She’s thrown backdated alimony demands at him. Then when he lost his job and couldn’t pay she had everything of value including his car impounded. Threatened to do the same to a car my mom had let him borrow so it’s obvious she’s just doing it to destroy him. If she was after the money she would let him borrow a freaking car so he could actually try and get a job (and yes, as weird as it sounds, apparently car paperwork doesn’t matter in the messed up legal system there and if he has the keys and the car is kept at his place it can be considered his and be impounded too… wth).

Meanwhile the kids have been manipulated to the point of them being terrified of him and won’t even look their grandparents (which they used to love visiting so much that they’d go there instead of home to their mom after school as often as they could) in the eyes anymore when they see them in public. It’s pathetic what she’s doing to my brother, but even more importantly, to those kids. There was no abuse, there was NOTHING major that happened besides her not liking the fact that my brother moved on too and got a girlfriend. I shudder to think that those kids will find out that that was the reason one day, and what if it’s after their grandparents pass away and they never got to see them again because of that?! She would deserve them despising her for the rest of her life but I wouldn’t wish that on the kids at all because it’s horrible.

My brother filed for a custody case and has been struggling with instant counter custody battles where worse and worse accusations get thrown at him without any proof to back them up. She’s acting like a cornered cat and the claims have become more and more ridiculous. Still those seemed to be taken more seriously than anything my brother had to say (and actually has documents and viable witnesses to back it up with) for the longest time.

But recently there’s been a glimmer of hope. Her claim for another year of “down time for the kids” (which was BS to begin with. The only reason they needed it was because of her psychological games and fear mongering) has been denied and she’s been made clear that cooperation to get the kids and dad back together is mandatory. Even people involved in government issued mediation seem to finally see through her BS and have said that if she refuses to sit around the table with my brother to work this out again (she somehow managed to get separate appointments and avoid it so far which isn’t exactly productive :/) they’ll have to write a letter to the judge saying that she refuses to cooperate.

That still doesn’t undo all the psychological damage she’s done though. And I have no idea how a meeting between him and the kids would end up going. The youngest one still visited him for a short while after the other refused but ended up not going anymore either because (according to him, and he just mentioned this out of the blue one day) his brother and mother were abusing him and calling him a traitor for going. So for all I know they might be either clammed up in fear or actually believe all of it after having been told it so many times and genuinely despise him based on lies.

_____________________

So what I’m asking?
If any of this pushes your buttons as much as it has done everyone involved and in support of my brother I would love for you to either write a letter or even just a few words of support and encouragement. Living a continent away from him makes it hard for me to do as much for him as I’d like to so I’m just looking to put something nice together for him to cheer him up. I’m hoping that having a whole bunch of people from all over the world show him genuine support in this might lift his spirits a little.

If you’d like to contribute please send your words of encouragement to shadee@shadeewolf.com and I’ll make sure it gets to him. I’ve refrained from posting names since I wouldn’t put a limit on what this person is capable of so just use “Shadee’s brother” if you would like to refer to him in the header of your message.

Thanks a bunch for your time, I really really appreciate it.

-Dee.

This is one I loosely based on my dad’s Minestrone. Today I was feeling a bit under the weather and I was really in the mood for some Minestrone soup. I didn’t like the sound of any of the on-line recipes I found because they used a lot of shortcuts and that tends to end up tasting like the nasty canned stuff. So I decided to grab some stuff from the super market and wing it. And it actually turned out pretty good. So while I didn’t really write down what I was doing while I was doing it I’m going to try and put the chaos into recipe form. Hope it’s right.

Ingredients:

About 8 plum tomatoes
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic chopped
4 fresh basil leaves chopped
2 large carrots chopped
5 potatoes chopped in about 1 inch pieces
Fresh green beans (ehrm about 2 hands full I guess) ended and cut in about 1 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups of green peas
2 cans of vegetable stock (could do water too but I used this this time and it was tasty)
1 can of Garbanzo beans
1 can of Cannelloni beans
1 can of Roman beans
1 pound of ground beef
1 cup of Ditalini pasta (or whichever small soup pasta you prefer)
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder

First the tomatoes need to be peeled. If you don’t want to go through the hassle I guess you could get something canned instead. But it’s not that huge a deal. Just fill a pot with enough water for the tomatoes to float around in, add the tomatoes and put it on high heat. Then put cold water and a bunch of ice cubes in a bowl. Wait for the water to boil or until you start to see some of the tomato peel starting to hang loose. Don’t leave them in for too long or they’ll turn to mush. Turn off the heat and move the tomatoes into the bowl with ice water. You should be able to peel the skin right off now.

Cut the tomatoes in half or quarters length wise and use your fingers to extract the seeds. The less seeds remaining the better but don’t go nuts trying to get each and every one of them unless you have OCD and it makes you happy.

Cover the bottom of a large soup pot in olive oil, add the chopped garlic, the de-seeded and de-skinned tomatoes, the chopped onion, chopped carrots, chopped basil, the garbanzo beans (not the other two bean types because they’re mushy already) and one can of vegetable stock. Let this simmer for over high heat until the tomato is starting to melt. Add the other can of vegetable stock and re-fill the can with water three times and add that too. Add the chopped potatoes, the chopped green beans and the peas. Return to boil and let boil for about 30 minutes.

In the mean time season the ground beef to taste with salt pepper and garlic powder. Make little 1 inch meatballs out of it and cook this in some olive oil in a different pan. Start on high and once they all look mainly cooked on the outside lower heat to medium, cover and cook until the insides are done too. I cut one in half every once in a while to see.

Drain most of the fat and oil from the meatballs, add them to the soup. Also add the pasta and keep boiling the soup for the suggested cook time of the pasta. Then add the cannelloni and roman beans and keep on heat until they’ve been heated.

Serve and (hopefully) enjoy.

-Dee.

There’s been quite an uproar among the WoW community due to Blizzard’s *coughActivisioncough* announcement of going ahead and adding players’ real first and last names to their forum posts.

Their reasoning is that it will discourage trolling. Then they also mention the forum moderators will be more vigilant. Wait, how about you just do that?

Your “blanket policy” Blizzard, doesn’t cover off-site trolling with the personal information you’re handing out. People can now take this info and spam people’s facebook accounts, possibly look up employment history, addresses, phone numbers and harass people in real life. So in a nutshell, you don’t care about people being trolled as long as it doesn’t happen on your forums.

Then there’s celebrities and other public figures. They’re not going to be able to post without being harassed by rabid fans in game ever again.

Another thing I keep seeing in articles about this issue is the writers of the article going: “Well this is my real name and there’s only this and this info out there on me and I’m fine with it. STFU. You’re a lousy article writer if you’re going to be a selfish little tard and not observe the fact that other people might not be like you and your amazing employment history. Some people might have information out there which is none of their fellow wow player’s business.

In a nut shell, people should be able to play a video game without a bunch of strangers being able to find out their name, home address, phone number, names of family members, employment history and god knows what else for the trolls who are really good at digging for dirt. If you want to make it optional, sure, I’m all for it. If your name is as uncommon as John Smith or if you’re not female and not worried about getting spammed to death by creepy guys and you feel comfortable putting it out there great!

But a lot of people aren’t.