tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42163581622735480692024-02-18T21:56:55.404-08:00My Life Is (In) A ZooA former zoo educator and animal keeper shares the day-to-day and challenges of life with animals, as well as the adventures of writing.L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.comBlogger168125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-62907177230946320742018-05-09T20:59:00.001-07:002018-05-09T20:59:39.006-07:00Life Update: The Title of This Blog No Longer Applies (Sort Of) EditionHello folks. *side-eyes date on last post*<br />
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Uhhh, well, this is awkward. I don't even know-- do people still read blogs?<br />
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At one time, I wanted to be your ultimate resource for all things Zoo. Careers, animals, animal welfare questions, environmental conservation. It was so important to me that I share with you what I've spent a career learning.<br />
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It still is. But I don't know that this is the best platform to do it on anymore.<br />
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I'm thinking of archiving this blog and creating a website for my professional writing instead. I want the information here to be available to those who need it, and I'd even love to still be available for questions, for folks who have them. But I no longer feel that a blog, specifically THIS blog, is the best way to reach the people who need reaching.<br />
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Last year, I did something drastic. I quit my job at the zoo.<br />
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My career, like everyone else's, has been full of ups and downs. After a particularly awful down (almost as if in answer to it), the universe dropped an opportunity in my lap that I found impossible to refuse. Especially when it seemed I might be the only person capable of taking it. And so, late last year, my husband and I took over a large horse ranch.<br />
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It's the perfect marriage of everything I've ever done. Animal husbandry? Plenty of that. Creativity? Plenty of that, too. I built/ painted/ lettered our signs myself. We're still in the process of cleaning up the property, as the former owners left us a big mess, but they also left us a new family-- the dozens of boarders whose horses call this place home.<br />
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It's been a really exciting opportunity, not the least of which is that it's giving me the chance to have my OWN zoo.<br />
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We've got a lot of land, and I've got a lot of experience. I already have a small collection of animal ambassadors, and I spend most of my day, seven days a week, cleaning and feeding and, my favorite part, training. I get to train as much as I want, whatever I want-- it's literally my zoological dream come true. No more red tape, no more politics. It's my zoo, I can do whatever I want (within state, federal, and local reason, of course).<br />
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Now, the success hasn't gone to my head, don't worry. (Also: I wouldn't really call it success, just yet. We're definitely still getting our feet on the ground). "Whatever I want" mostly just means, whatever I need to do to prepare my animals for their jobs, which will be educating people about animals. The difference is that they're MY animals, not someone else's.<br />
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I can't even begin to express how this all makes me feel. I'm sad that I left the zoo, but reassured that I'm still welcome there. (The zoo even donated animals to me for my education programs, which is a pretty big stamp of approval, if you ask me). I'm overwhelmed, frankly, by the day-to-day of running a business and the responsibilities I've given myself (it turns out I am a workaholic). And I'm satisfied, daily, by the things I'm getting to do with my animals, and the progress I'm making. It's been a huge confidence booster, seeing them bond with me, the trust forming, the differences I've made in just a few short months of work. The things I've envied other people getting to do my entire career that are now my daily grind.<br />
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Oh, and, despite the work, I still have time to write. I still WANT to write-- no, NEED to write. The drive is still there. I was so worried when we took over that it would go away, that I would be too busy, that I wouldn't want to anymore. But it's still there.<br />
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But it does mean that things like this blog are less relevant now (not TO me, but about me, because the title no longer applies, sort of). My life is still in a zoo, it's just now one of my own creation. Still, I'm out of the industry loop now. I won't have the same cutting edge awareness that I did for so long. And it feels wrong to present myself as an expert when in just a couple years (or less), I won't be one anymore.<br />
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My focus is shifting. I'm going to concentrate on growing my business, being a better wife/ mother/ daughter/ sister/ aunt/ friend/ and writer, and zoologically speaking? I'm going to shift my brand to training and behavior. So. I may still cross-post things here, if you're around to see them, but don't expect much in the way of updates.<br />
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This has been long and rambling but I hope it makes sense and I hope it does the job, which is to say-- I've had a really, really good run at the zoo, but it's time for adventures of my own making. If you so desire, spare some well wishes for your friendly neighborhood zookeeper and know that the well wishing is, always, returned.<br />
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Much love and reminder that Rhino Horn Isn't Medicine,<br />
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L.T.L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-57660477271124135502016-01-04T09:00:00.000-08:002016-01-27T22:12:15.425-08:002015, or, the Year I Was on PauseHello lovelies!<br />
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It's been a while. I'm sorry for that.<br />
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You see, I have a small human living in my house now, and that seriously complicates things, i.e., life. I wasn't doing that well at blogging before he came along and now, well. Let's just say nothing and pretend we're picking up where we left off, eh?<br />
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I also recently picked up a second (third?) job, and I'm still trying to find time to shower and hang out with my husband and horse and family and friends and be a human. It's hard. But people have been doing all that and more for, well, millenia now, so I think I'll manage.<br />
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But enough excuses. Really, I found plenty of extra time this year. I just didn't use it to blog.<br />
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I used it to write, and to create in other ways. I think I may have mentioned calligraphy in last year's post. Well, I kind of ran with that whole business and now I'm considering myself a calligrapher. I even SOLD two things I made with my calligraphy! So exciting!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Portrait - Nov 19, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="707" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1032duhLmo5TPfDu3GDiqcAGG6qw8rf_1FeDS02H9BbDmp3XoW76t1iO23a2PTVNTXZVXJdX7MN6x-CCOV827yg3RSR5zUJFAqsNdavRs0c9ZqriWYXmZH2zTFiaiPlmGNoaP_bW-sHs/w398-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="398" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I posted my Christmas card design on Reddit and someone asked to buy a few. Amazing!</td></tr>
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<a href="https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMIIUgXOABcuZPI-dH_F4biRr0bnNxwed2ZtnkO"></a><a href="https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMWBU1tYznGwrXdL7hLVxHvNwUAiOALuay9EYKc"></a>As if that wasn't cool enough, I <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wickedmoondesigns/">started an Instagram account</a> to keep track of my progress and seek inspiration. So, I haven't been on Twitter much lately because I've been on Instagram instead.<br />
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<a href="https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMWBU1tYznGwrXdL7hLVxHvNwUAiOALuay9EYKc"></a><a href="https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNNkTUjXQQCTovawC6H7XHV6IkMhGZaPKrfI6Az"></a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Landscape - Dec 3, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="358" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqu7TSGgU0Z9bWYFQ1S3QGSy_o-eZkBU9zHToXlvZXmImzvk5IN3d1TnK948WEGB-PDsR7fXizXWm0LTgKlefJxlg0wUb1uDkVd6-vAl11gNUZCcuGjhOy3S8jbUkDdgcJ8tRbDERMWgU/w1257-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Addressing Christmas card envelopes</td></tr>
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<a href="https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMIIUgXOABcuZPI-dH_F4biRr0bnNxwed2ZtnkO"></a><a href="https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMWBU1tYznGwrXdL7hLVxHvNwUAiOALuay9EYKc"></a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Landscape - Dec 17, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="359" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj95Ukp1wKaFNy4NHWpJF7spoYml6cwM_VCio9yjdpfIBzE7UbGFlhZ5YMXDrxYdMbo6QqQeCE-z6vCSDV47-cxBhzYEh2NwTE7mGtkNSR_ajQsgxXk9-iSjXwtOJzAfmF8U3V4BAF4tkY/w1257-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A modern calligraphy inscription for one of my new bosses</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Landscape - Dec 23, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="359" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4Hp5EURlWUVq2LC7qh-_j91771AuT4jVjJfKsAXayzdSb10gHYmJDcsx3ZrqPoaKjF7s5OFu3GOe7yQwXXVBCudRFTKyTNa5Dxzm2p5xjDqDPJ36VyHeQ7KATrKXZLU0HQjXBN0eDwQ/w1257-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gift tags for this year's Christmas gifts</td></tr>
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I also started experimenting with other visual arts. Stuff that I told myself I'd never be able to do, like paint. Well, I still mostly can't, but I'm extremely proud of some of the things that have come out of my hands these past few months.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Landscape - Dec 10, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="359" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWqci-SbJIOb21CqdN6TwGR4P5t_kAfWuMNesD3h648tcxUsnwF2a_e5l2HOBUVoK1_JvMuaHboPmwA00BihAshgGAxs8SYM8IZSOXUHFkxd7c2RF6oxWK29c7OphXPOz8x_hZ4GI22A8/w1257-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A teeny watercolor I painted for a teeny room I made. More on that later.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Landscape - Dec 10, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="359" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimDUNtbxeXPtSqaYjcEeL5-Wopl7SBo_RIK2jKXEoIyE2yL4XpCPpcYFRMdExMgLPk2QHV0P-meS74K8gySCpkbZFGCbKZbhIK779Eo0gSy5D7u_Ex15TjX_LJ8qbIsHK7P-oGv8_hUzo/w1257-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Out of the frame and with a pen for scale. Teeny!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Landscape - Oct 26, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="534" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB4UNvbi8LWX2qltLxo_AWKSiq2c0uB-1Nt2hYJLeznZfXEzWgJHNoYQJQcU5dlCm_BowshCUvQfm5nDGhIx06t6OSa6086FSD-Pymorcoyl8_RQBiN7QGFnX9-sYOi90vGSMzY7Jk908/w846-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shoehorned in here despite being completely out of nowhere: I like pretty inks.</td></tr>
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I didn't feed my soul as much as I would have liked. I only took two short trips in 2015, which I know sounds like a lot, but Husband and I are used to a long vacation in the fall (about two weeks) that we both use to recharge and reconnect. This year we got three days. At least there were trees.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Portrait - Oct 10, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="640" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3jxauYxik4lPoQ42Zf1rDxgqbpxwN-O0roN_5hkc6MrnlPzybf3JyFoHvGNT83Uoj6IyJKHtgRYkt6AEbiblRB_APdvCzFHx0hmbCwGFrDnYEtn56Tk4I5f-xqz9ls0jSup6Xp3ldZD8/w398-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="360" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pretty, pretty trees</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Portrait - Oct 5, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="640" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbF5TAc0X04YePJGUEQ1RyqXVk4eKcfOjLEZqa4TG6sQaLQOHRCTH8q_NNM7R02lSRbT5iQDcZSfhVm_onRG1TZ8kGwGqeieErDsdCj4wbzw345fdwUFlaZ9lE5KbFKS8Z8Rumd2PTzWc/w398-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="360" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This isn't a tree, but wood is the traditional gift for a 5th anniversary, and this was one of the things I made for him for ours. I gilded for the first time!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img aria-label="Photo - Portrait - Aug 26, 2015" class="SzDcob" height="640" jsname="uLHQEd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCGNs_k0tKBAX1g-5x_gnNs9wt-JhnoTyqMvfkUdWN_K4reF6UVnLErVq0TaoF8HFiDxkDsBgta4kzJrLgBx0RN2WMNL2yMs4LQg_2d1G6INDr_OEWAQ9oArRn5MLh1aRSq70oO4Ufbg/w398-h707-no/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="360" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I hung out with this. A lot. I'm hanging out with it right now actually. </td></tr>
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In March, I took a three-day trip with my bestie to New Orleans.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibuMPfvDWBeSq2afaGBTSPNTwojmERZbjV1PfZMjxMG59BEy_Ox8e-A_micNq9tov027pb6IH8pqwyFWbWzSxWHXl4rAxcGfGRsZlqTdgpx6nfLnFjEkLHi695QecPvIQBGZ5x0R9calw/s1600/IMG_20150331_103320.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibuMPfvDWBeSq2afaGBTSPNTwojmERZbjV1PfZMjxMG59BEy_Ox8e-A_micNq9tov027pb6IH8pqwyFWbWzSxWHXl4rAxcGfGRsZlqTdgpx6nfLnFjEkLHi695QecPvIQBGZ5x0R9calw/s640/IMG_20150331_103320.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The weather was awesome</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVQ64HbhtQIdQ7M3j0KHKCNVqGBPDKMJJKBrPBOxdLOfsIUExix_FbYPjt3yzyNgylY86n_DMIKEx9dUAEkbmYES7Fi2h2aEklrt1_Y9Z9TGzGVBAcf7kh335BdXYIlV8KmI2vlqzIZ0/s1600/IMG_20150401_113152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVQ64HbhtQIdQ7M3j0KHKCNVqGBPDKMJJKBrPBOxdLOfsIUExix_FbYPjt3yzyNgylY86n_DMIKEx9dUAEkbmYES7Fi2h2aEklrt1_Y9Z9TGzGVBAcf7kh335BdXYIlV8KmI2vlqzIZ0/s640/IMG_20150401_113152.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This bar was so cool. What an appropriate use of a historically significant site. We met Jack Sparrow on our way out. No, seriously. It was so surreal he made my jaw drop and I couldn't stop staring at him or even speak or move. Apparently I still have a massive crush on (Captain) Jack Sparrow. </td></tr>
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This trip was research for a book and well worth the time and expense. It was great to catch up with my BFF and run around NOLA like two crazy people. I'd never been before and it left a lasting impression on me. I can't wait to go back.<br />
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In the spring, I watched one of my CPs (and friends) <a href="http://blog.amaliadillin.com/">Amalia Dillin</a> (AKA Amalia Carosella) rise to the top of the Amazon bestseller lists when her book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Helen-Sparta-Amalia-Carosella-ebook/dp/B00NAJZDI2">HELEN OF SPARTA</a>, was picked as a Kindle First book. I was (and still am) so incredibly proud and happy of her and HELEN, an amazing book that you should all go buy right now!<br />
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And in the fall, my friend <a href="http://www.cindypon.com/">Cindy Pon</a> released her much-awaited and much-fanfared <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Serpentine-Cindy-Pon/dp/1942664338/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451371124&sr=1-1&keywords=serpentine">SERPENTINE</a>, set in the same kingdom as her SILVER PHOENIX series. It's a beautiful book, and very deserving of the accolades it's receiving. Go buy that one right now too!<br />
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But other than that, life has been ... well... pretty much the same. I've kind of felt like I was on pause all year, which is partly due to the newness of parenthood and the -- I can now admit-- post-partum depression I was likely experiencing, and partly due to being kind of a boring person, when it comes down to it.<br />
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I'm glad for the stability, though. Last year was enough excitement to last me a while.<br />
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Besides, this year I got to watch the wonder of a brand new person growing into the world. I can't believe I'm a mother, or that I created such a beautiful and adorable kid, or that he would snare hooks in my heart in ways I never believed possible for myself. Everyone always talks about how much you love your kids, but I had no idea it would be this much. I'm definitely that completely insane child-obsessed mom now. Sorry, everyone. Your bad for being friends with me.<br />
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Oh! And I almost made it all the way through 2015 without any major medical issues. The closest I came was a brain MRI in August, due to some migraines I'd been getting. Don't worry, nothing exciting came of that.<br />
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And then two weeks ago I sprained my ankle. Yup. I was so close!<br />
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Ah well. I have another goal for 2016 now.<br />
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Oh, what's that? Writing, you ask? How's writing going?<br />
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Writing is going well. Thanks for checking.<br />
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Miss you all. I promise I'll get back here someday, I just won't promise when.<br />
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In the meantime, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wickedmoondesigns/">follow me on Instagram</a> for more of my art and feel free to prod me on Twitter to say hi! And you can always, always, always ask questions about animals here or at any of my other contact points.<br />
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Happy New Year, friends.<br />
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L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-36540716486537121642015-08-29T15:05:00.000-07:002016-10-25T21:43:12.013-07:00The Moral Question: How do you deal with negative comments about zoos? Since the release of the Movie That Shall Not Be Named (MTSNBN), things have... changed, at zoos. In fact, things are almost volatile. It's more common for people to balk when they find out what I do for a living now than to think it's cool or ask me questions.<br />
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And frankly, it's heartbreaking. </div>
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As a writer, I've tried so hard on this blog to counteract the damage that MTSNBN has done, but it seems people are choosing the popular path when it comes to how they feel about zoos. They've been emotionally manipulated into believing it's wrong instead of doing their own research or taking action against the real enemies, i.e., poaching, wildlife trafficking, sensationalist "animal welfare" organizations, and climate change. </div>
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It's exhausting. Some days, it makes me question my sanity. It makes me question my career decisions. It makes me wonder if I'm a horrible person. </div>
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Let me make something quite clear: I don't know a single zoo employee who doesn't love the animals in their care as if they were their children. We take better care of our animals than most people take care of their pets. We devote our lives to them. We stay awake for days at a time when they're sick. We're constantly looking for new and creative ways to enrich them. We're always trying not to think too hard about the battles their wild cousins face, because it breaks our hearts. </div>
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And talking to someone who has already made up their mind about how evil zoos are and is looking for a reason to be proven right feels like yelling at a wall. </div>
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Perhaps it's time to stop calling them zoos. Perhaps it's time to shift away from that word, like we shifted away from menagerie, and start calling them what they really are. Except "Environmental Conservation and Wildlife Science Facility" doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same. </div>
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I've been pretty lucky so far that I haven't had any major encounters with anti-zoo visitors at my job. For the most part, unless they're undercover for An Organization That Shall Not Be Named Either, people who don't like zoos don't tend to go to them. But I have had some bad luck in my personal life. </div>
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There's a person I know very well who's vocally anti-zoo, pro-MTSNBN. And it frustrates me to no end. Because she should know better. She should know that I'm not a cruel person. But I think I finally changed her mind. Or at least opened the door for her to do it. </div>
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I told her, a few weeks ago, about what's going on in Africa. How dozens of species will be extinct in the next 20 years thanks to poaching and wildlife trafficking. How zoos may be the only place people will get to see those animals. How without zoos keeping those animals now, we wouldn't understand their social and breeding behavior and be working towards saving them. </div>
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How ultimately, we work to release animals back into the wild. </div>
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I told her about tigers, and how there's more tigers in backyards in the US than left in the wild. </div>
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I told her about the California condor, and how there were only 22 left in the wild thirty years ago, and now there's more than 400, and that's ONLY thanks to zoos. </div>
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As for marine animals? Well. The thing that's particularly frustrating to me about that whole thing is that SeaWorld is the only reason most people know what a killer whale is. Until the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972, it was legal for the US Navy to use them for target practice. They were seen as scary, dispensable monsters. Now millions of people love them, all because of what SeaWorld has done. And no, their early practices weren't sound, but we knew so little about animals back then (yes, even fifty years ago), and their animal care now is top notch. </div>
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Ocean animals are so hard to pinpoint in population, but rest assured with climate change and rising ocean temperatures, they're all not long from being endangered, too. </div>
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And finally, I told her how what I want from her is to be getting mad at the people who ARE actually doing the harm. Get mad at the poachers. Get mad at the traffickers. Get mad at the roadside "zoos" who breed exotic animals for tourists to pose with and then send them off to be killed in canned hunting expeditions. </div>
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Don't get mad at the (usual disclaimer: responsible, accredited) zoos. Honestly. We're the good guys. Trust me when I say, we care more about the animals in our care than ANYONE else. </div>
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L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-13182642649548990002015-08-10T11:39:00.001-07:002017-02-02T14:58:10.869-08:00Why you should still care about Cecil the Lion (and all lions, and all animals, and...)My facebook feed the past couple of weeks was, predictably, at first filled with reasons why people were upset at Walter Palmer, the dentist who killed the famous Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe. There were witch hunts, news stories, people slamming his dental practice so hard that he closed it (though who knows for how long?), and the inevitable death threats.<br />
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And then the wind shifted, and this past week I've been seeing all these articles posted instead about why nobody should care, and the dentist didn't do anything wrong, and to the people of Zimbabwe, it was just another lion, and so on and so forth and. Well. </div>
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I obviously have very strong feelings on the subject of animal conservation. Africa in particular is a hot spot of controversy, because we send thousands of white tourists there each year, and then some trophy hunter comes along and ruins everything for everyone. </div>
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(For the record, I am pro-hunting for sustenance, and legitimate population control. I am NOT pro-trophy or "sport" hunting, and I am definitely NOT okay with poaching, which is what Cecil's death amounts to). </div>
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The number one point I keep seeing people throw around is that lions aren't even endangered. While this is technically true, what a lot of folks who just hit "share" don't realize is that they're currently being assessed to be listed as threatened. The last assessment of lions was in the 90's. </div>
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In Africa, you won't find many wild lions outside of national parks and preserves. The rest of the land has been taken over by humans, in one form or another. Just like we don't see many bears outside of national parks and preserves here in the US anymore, unless you happen to live in Alaska. </div>
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Over the 75 years, lion populations have declined 90% from their historic range and numbers. This is huge, because what happens when you lose the apex predators in a region? Prey populations explode. And what happens when prey populations explode? The land dies. </div>
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Now, enter the argument that the hunt for Cecil was a much-needed profit for Zimbabwe. Well, here's the problem with that. Cecil in particular was well-known in Zimbabwe and sought out by thousands of tourists each year who paid for safaris into the Hwange National Park, where Cecil lived. He was also part of a research study at Oxford. </div>
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Walter Palmer paid about $50,000 for the privilege of killing Cecil. <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/07/30/zimbabwe-cecil-lion-dentist/30886959/">USA Today reports</a> that Zimbabwe's final quarter of 2015 was projected to bring in about $5 million in tourism revenue. Even if only a fraction of that was due to Cecil, over the lifetime of the lion, he was worth far more in tourism revenue alive than the $50k paid to kill him. </div>
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And all the other animals that big-game, sport/ trophy hunters go after are the same. </div>
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I'm also seeing the argument that these hunts "support conservation". This is a messy can to open, philosophically, but I'm going to open it anyway. The theory goes that by these hunters paying the big money to go hunt animals in Africa, only a few animals are killed, but the money that goes to conservation efforts as a result helps those that are still alive. </div>
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Except the guides Walter Palmer hired didn't work for any conservation organization that I'm aware of, and no reputable conservation organization that I know of sponsors these hunts. It's flimsy at best to say that it's helping conservation by bringing in revenue to Zimbabwe which can then turn around use those funds for conservation, because the chances of the money actually making it there is slim to none. </div>
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Now, in the past I have heard of people auctioning off large game hunting permits and giving some of the proceeds to a conservation organization, but I'd be really curious to know who actually got the money and what it was used for. Until or unless trophy hunters actually follow through, with transparency and documentation of where the money is going, in my (admittedly personal) opinion, it's just an excuse to get what they want. </div>
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Finally, there's been a lot of stories of people on the ground in Zimbabwe saying that Cecil was "just another lion" and they are glad he was killed because they feel the need to protect themselves, their livestock, and families, from lions. </div>
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Well, yes. Any time you live in a part of the world where there's an apex predator, you are going to have to take precautions to make sure you don't become their lunch. It's very similar to the wolf issue in the US. </div>
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I don't have much more of a response, except that I sort of doubt this response from Zimbabweans, considering the ones I've met have a lot of national pride in their beautiful country and its animals. </div>
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Things can change so fast. To use another example, in the last eight years, we've gone from losing 13 rhinos to poachers, to this year being on track to lose over 1500. If things continue at the current rate, <a href="http://globalconservationforce.org/uncategorized/the-rhino-poaching-crisis/">rhinos will be extinct in the wild by 2030</a>. </div>
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So yes, you should still be mad about Cecil's death. Instead of finding reasons not to care, or sending death threats to the man who killed him, use your anger to make positive change. </div>
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You can support the following organizations if you want to do something good with your anger: </div>
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<a href="http://www.lionconservationfund.org/">Lion Conservation Fund</a></div>
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<a href="http://globalconservationforce.org/">Global Conservation Force</a></div>
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Post incoming eventually about the canned hunting industry, which is a whole other mess. </div>
L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-5274915104014525272015-07-08T09:56:00.002-07:002015-07-08T09:56:57.118-07:00Shark Week: I'm not mad, Discovery Channel. I'm disappointed.Well, okay, I'm kind of mad.<br />
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It's time for me to finally admit that I can no longer stand behind Discovery Channel's Shark Week.<br />
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It hurts to say this. I used to look forward to-- and publicly announce my excitement for-- Shark Week every year. But it's no longer what I once loved about it.<br />
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Shark Week used to be a summer celebration of the awesome power and majesty of the shark. In earlier years, it was devoted to a mission I could get behind: reducing people's fear of sharks through education.<br />
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For the past few years, though... well, let's just say their mission has changed. Every single episode of Shark Week I've caught has been sensationalist, antagonizing, and, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/discovery-channels-fake-documentaries-2014-9">in some cases, completely fake</a>. I haven't learned anything in years. I used to love Shark Week because they often showcased awesome new research being done with sharks and shared what we'd learned. But now, well. There's blood and danger music in every episode.<br />
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I love sharks. I have a healthy respect for them, I think they're amazing creatures and give them credit for my falling in love with the ocean. But they're easy villains, and sadly this has led to a lot of misinformation.<br />
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Take, for example, the shark attacks currently happening off the coast of North Carolina. We're up to 8 so far, as of this post, in the last 5 weeks. This actually isn't terribly unusual-- summer is in full swing, the beaches are full of people, which means the water is, too. What's different this year is the weather. A severe drought has made the ocean salinity super high close to shore, bringing in tons of schooling fish, which brings in the marine mammals, which brings in the sharks. And humans in wet suits, on boogie boards and surf boards and even just standing around are usually pretty indistinguishable from a sea lion. At least to a shark.<br />
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It's awful that so many injuries have occurred, but there is a logical reason for it. It's not like the sharks are out there maliciously plotting to chew on people, it's just a case of mistaken identity. But all I can think every time there's a new attack is how next year there will be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/discovery-channels-fake-documentaries-2014-9">a Discovery Channel fakeumentary on it during Shark Week</a>, (yes, that's the same link for the second time: I really, really want you to read that article) probably titled something like "The Deadly Summer of the Shark" or "Bloody Carolina Summer" or "Megalodon Returns: Revenge of the 50-foot-Shark". I also have a feeling they'll mention it as often as they can.<br />
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Discovery Channel has an opportunity that borders on obligation each summer. They could easily help mitigate the fear that's coming out of these attacks by using their airtime to educate people about these animals and help them understand how to reduce their risks (i.e., stay out of the water when there has been a high incidence of attacks). Instead, people are calling for "dangerous" sharks to be killed, because resources like Shark Week have taught them that sharks are vicious and scary and it must be intentional and maybe even the same shark doing all of this. (Spoiler: killing "dangerous" sharks would mean killing them all).<br />
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Mostly, I'm bothered that Discovery spent so many years building their reputation as a reliable resource and then slowly shifted focus away from what they set out to do. People still believe what they see there because Discovery used to be right. Every year, I wait for the old Shark Week to come back. And every year, I'm disappointed.<br />
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So, Discovery, if you're listening, this is a plea from someone who loves sharks and the ocean and wants people to love them, too: please, please, please take back Shark Week. Forget about ratings and bring back what made Shark Week great: genuine, interesting content about sharks. Until you do, my endorsement, for whatever it's worth, has been pulled.<br />
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I hope you'll reconsider watching, too.<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-42602553192023243172015-06-15T09:00:00.000-07:002015-06-15T12:43:52.483-07:00A Zookeeper's Guide to Rebuilding Jurassic World<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS</b></span><br />
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The disaster at Jurassic World this weekend left much of the zoological community in shock. The park will be closed for some time, according to initial reports of the damages and casualties, but in the likely event there is still demand for a new facility, I've compiled a small list of things the planners can hopefully do to increase survival rates.<br />
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<b>Avoid bringing relatives to work</b><br />
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Family causes stress, which causes distraction, which causes inattention to detail, which leads to accidents.<br />
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<b>Check GPS tags to verify animal locations BEFORE entering dangerous enclosures </b><br />
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Thermal cameras and other technology can easily malfunction. Create escalation protocol and be prepared to follow through before sending staff into animal areas.<br />
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<b>Don't keep corporate secrets that are vital to husbandry and enclosure maintenance </b><br />
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A genetically-engineered animal may take on unexpected traits, but a thorough understanding of its genetic makeup will help prepare for most scenarios.<br />
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<b>Ensure there is enough shelter for guests in the event of a catastrophic failure </b><br />
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Know your facility's maximum attendance and be prepared to provide cover for that number of people. Guests should be aware of what constitutes shelter, and seek the first available location that removes them from danger.<br />
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<b>Have failsafes for your failsafes </b><br />
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What would you do if the electro-shock implants were removed from your animals? There should always be a backup plan, and in the case of genetically-engineered mega-predators, the backup plan should be nuclear.<br />
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<b>Make sure all staff are properly trained on security protocol and know to double-check all latches and locks</b><br />
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A door or gate doesn't do much good if someone leaves it open.<br />
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<b>Use positive reinforcement animal training programs to promote trust and foster positive relationships with staff</b><br />
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You never know when the bond you've forged with your animals will come in handy. It might even save lives.<br />
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<b>Never feed collection animals live prey</b><br />
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Feeding live prey encourages hunting instincts to surface and gives animals a target to practice on. Especially when working with long-extinct reptilians, this can make their behavior unpredictable and increase the likelihood that their next target will be human.<br />
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<b>Hiring former Marines and other ex-military personnel will give you a staff with built-in gumption and know how in a disaster </b><br />
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It doesn't hurt if they're charismatic and good looking, either.<br />
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<b>Make sure all potentially sleazy personnel have taken Monologuing 101</b><br />
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Any staff members who might actually be working against the restoration of order in a disaster should be dispatched immediately. They can be targeted by their use of monologues, which attracts predators.<br />
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And finally:<br />
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<b>Never forget the other resources at your disposal</b><br />
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It might sound like fighting fire with fire, but sometimes the best solution for a predator problem is more predators.<br />
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I know the likelihood of anyone at Masarani or InGen seeing this advice is slim. But if they do, and it saves even one life, my work here is done.<br />
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<a href="http://gettickets.jurassicworld.com/">Go here</a> to support the disaster relief efforts for the Jurassic World survivors.<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-48745567556478451222015-06-15T08:00:00.000-07:002015-06-15T12:45:19.105-07:00Jurassic World; or: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS</b></span><br />
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Yesterday, Husband and I left Infant with his grandparents and took off to see a movie in the theater for the first time since Guardians of the Galaxy last year. Fitting, since both movies had the same star. You'd think we were huge Chris Pratt fans, which we totally are, but that part was actually just pure coincidence. </div>
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I'm certain I was That Guy(Girl) in the theater to the people around us. I spent the whole two hours gasping and laughing and fist-pumping and clapping. I know I married the right man because he was right there with me the whole time. </div>
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You guys. I literally cannot remember the last time I was that into a movie. (Pirates of the Caribbean, maybe)? Suffice to say, it's been a WHILE. </div>
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Jurassic World did not disappoint. I was so, so scared it would. 4th movies have a history of suffering, badly, and I was inwardly terrified I would walk out of the theater yesterday with a sick feeling in my gut from disappointment. </div>
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Nope. I was grinning, like an idiot, for at least an hour. I haven't done that for a movie in a long time, either. </div>
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All the shout-outs to zoo culture in general and at least one to my zoo in particular were hilarious, endearing, and surprising. </div>
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Chris Pratt trains his velociraptors pretty much exactly the same way I train my horse, cues and all. Amazing. </div>
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The nods to the previous Jurassic Park films were numerous and nostalgia-inducing. The opening for potential future films was subtle but clear. </div>
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And the monsters. </div>
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My beloved velociraptors: everything I wanted and more. A cameo from our good friend the T-Rex from the first movie. The mosasaur was pretty good, too, and quite the awesome nod to my marine park days. The pteranodons might've been the scariest ones in the movie, though. And the new dino, the Indominus Rex? Chilling. </div>
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It was tense. It was funny. It was beautiful. I cried, several times. </div>
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It had a few faults. But I loved it so much I'm overlooking them. </div>
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It's pretty much a guarantee that we'll see it again, and it's also pretty much a guarantee that I will subsequently purchase any and all Jurassic World merchandise as it becomes available. I'm hooked, guys. I have a new favorite movie. Take my tiny contribution to your millions of dollars opening weekend and bleed me dry. </div>
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I am yours, Jurassic World. </div>
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Everything is Jurassic World, and Jurassic World is everything. </div>
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L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-76794796875417864392015-06-12T08:35:00.000-07:002015-06-12T08:35:00.229-07:00Countdown to Jurassic World: JURASSIC WORLD!!!!It's here! It's here! It's here!<br />
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I'm not! I'm not! I'm not!<br />
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No, really... I'm already feeling tense and ragey about the possibility of spoilers, so I'm leaving the internet til Saturday, when I have the chance to see the movie.<br />
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See, the thing is... Well. You remember the Indiana Jones movie that Doesn't Exist?<br />
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(I liked it, when I saw it in theaters).<br />
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(I liked it, until I started hearing other people talk about how much they didn't like it).<br />
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(I still haven't seen Age of Ultron because people keep saying they thought it was meh, and with Infant in the picture it's REALLY hard to see movies).<br />
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It turns out I'm a fairly impressionable person. I want to form my own opinion on Jurassic World, without any influence going in. I've been waiting for this movie for almost fifteen years. I'm prepared for it to suffer, but I really, really hope it's awesome.<br />
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And if it's awesome to me, but not everyone else, that's okay. I'll still like it.<br />
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If it's not awesome to me, that's okay, too. I just don't want anyone else's voice in my head when I see it.<br />
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So that, crazy kids, is why I'm sitting here with my hands over my ears going "LA LA LA LA LA LA NOT LISTENING LA LA LA LA LA LA LA" until Saturday.<br />
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(I hope it's awesome. I hope, I hope, I hope).<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-18249718015439896952015-06-05T08:30:00.000-07:002015-06-05T08:30:01.745-07:00Countdown to Jurassic World: Jurassic Park IIII'll be honest, I barely remember this movie. I vaguely remember something about someone stealing velociraptor eggs, and a kid in an old ... plane? truck? train? thing. Pterodactyls. That awful Motorola ringtone. A dino I thought was an allosaurus for most of the movie.<div>
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I do remember that it didn't quite have the magic of the first two. I tend to forget it exists. JP 1 and 2 have both been huge influences on my life, but JP 3 was, well, forgettable. </div>
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So this weekend should be interesting, because it will be almost like I'm seeing it for the first time!! I get to be wildly meh about it all over again!</div>
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The plan right now is to live-tweet JP 3 on Saturday, 6/6. I just don't know what time, as I'm on call for a late shift at work. If I get called in, it will be a weird time, like mid-day. If I don't, it will be another weird time, like mid-afternoon, because I need to write in the evening. </div>
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All I want for Christmas in June is for Jurassic World to be unforgettable. </div>
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L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-26047230615354842452015-05-29T08:30:00.000-07:002015-05-29T12:50:02.234-07:00Countdown to Jurassic World: The Lost ... er, ... WorldLast week, I shared <a href="http://lthost.blogspot.com/2015/05/countdown-to-jurassic-world-jurassic.html">why Jurassic Park is so special to me</a>. This week, I'll be live-tweeting the second movie, The Lost World.<br />
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I remember going to see The Lost World in the theater, too, though not nearly as vividly as Jurassic Park. What do I remember?<br />
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Well, there are a few things, but the first that always comes to mind is the gymnast vs. velociraptor battle scene.<br />
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I remember this specifically because I thought it was ridiculous. You know, in a movie about dinosaurs living free on an uninhabited Costa Rican island and then getting shipped to the mainland and running loose in San Diego, THAT part stretched my suspension of disbelief.<br />
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The Lost World seems to catch a lot of flak, suffering either from Sequel Syndrome or Assumed Sequel Syndrome, I'm not really sure which. I can't be an impartial judge because I still think The Lost World was AWESOME, and a fantastic follow-up to Jurassic Park. It genuinely excited me because I thought it meant the franchise was viable, that it was bigger than the second-movie slump, and that we could expect Great Things from then on.<br />
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And then, well...<br />
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That's next week's topic.<br />
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I also love The Lost World now as an adult because a lot of what happens in this movie is super relevant to the work I do with wild animals. Like Jurassic Park, it has plenty of casual social commentary. And then, of course, there's the thrill of watching your (then) city get destroyed by a T-Rex on the big screen.<br />
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I'll be live-tweeting The Lost World tomorrow, 5/30 at 6:30 PM PST, still using the hashtag #JPLT. Join in, if only because it's really hard to snark alone.L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-51308214672506422742015-05-22T08:30:00.000-07:002015-05-31T20:42:59.032-07:00Countdown to Jurassic World: Jurassic ParkAh, nostalgia.<br />
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I get a healthy dose of it every single time I think about the movies of my childhood. In my memory, my childhood events are tied to the movies (and books, but this post is about movies) that came out around that time. Movies are some of the strongest memories I have:<br />
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Ariel swimming on-screen in The Little Mermaid, the first movie I ever saw in the theater.<br />
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Seeing Titanic in the theater six times in 8th grade. Both because it was the thing to do (us 8th graders put our spent ticket stubs in the clear fronts of our school binders to show how many times we'd been), and because I was into the <i>Titanic</i> disaster before it was cool, so I had to prove myself.<br />
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Waiting in line to see the first Lord of the Rings movie, and the first Harry Potter movie. My mom pulled me out of school for both so we could see them the day they came out.<br />
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Realizing I was completely in love with adventure somewhere about three seconds into the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.<br />
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And many, many more. But there's one that stands out, even above all the rest. One movie that genuinely gave me my love of movies.<br />
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My dad, when I was 9 years old, took me and my older sister to see Jurassic Park in the theater. I've been a gigantic wuss all my life, so the movie should have scarred me and left me with either years of therapy bills or a strong phobia of dinosaurs. But instead, I have vivid memories of that dark theater, sitting all the way up in the back row (this was before stadium seating, so the view wasn't that great, but my dad wanted to make sure we could leave quickly if we needed to). I remember being scared during the velociraptor and t-rex scenes, but honestly more fascinated than anything else.<br />
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Jurassic Park was the first movie to really embrace CGI special effects. Much like Titanic (though more like the disaster, since the movie was still four years away), it was also a great example of the hubris of humanity, and though it went over my head at the time, it had plenty of social and political commentary. Also much like Titanic, it wasn't any one event that led to disaster, but rather a fascinating perfect storm of individual sub-plots that all added up to a spectacular failure.<br />
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For all I know, Jurassic Park may have given me my eventual fascination with the <i>Titanic</i>.<br />
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On top of that, I'm reasonably certain I can trace my eventual wandering onto the path of zookeeping back to Jurassic Park. Yes, even though it ended poorly for all those zoo workers, I still wanted to do it. Of course I did.<br />
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Finally, Jurassic Park seemed like an inevitability in the series of other dino-themed media that, in the 80's and early 90's, also marked my childhood: The Land Before Time, the creatively-named movie Dinosaurs!, and the even less creatively-named TV show Dinosaurs.<br />
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In other words, if one movie was an iconic inspiration that shaped me into who I am today, it's Jurassic Park.<br />
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Which is why, even though it looks campy, and even though I'm half terrified it will be awful (in a bad way), I am so excited for Jurassic World that I just might pee my pants.<br />
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I'll be live-tweeting Jurassic Park tomorrow night, May 23rd, at 7:30 PM PST (approximately, I have a job and a baby and would like to eat at some point). Tune in for snark, nostalgia, and some fun zookeeper takes on the whole thing. You can click over to my twitter feed on the right sidebar there or find me as @LTHost.<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-44922380164804965532015-05-07T08:00:00.000-07:002015-05-07T10:28:06.617-07:00The Rest of the Game of Thrones Dragon Eggs<br />
So way back in January, I posted <a href="http://lthost.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-very-crafty-christmas-game-of-thrones.html">this awesome little gift I made Husband</a> for Christmas. I got the idea from and made them using the techniques in <a href="http://acciolacquer.com/diy/dragon-eggs-tutorial/">this tutorial</a> from Accio Lacquer.<br />
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And then February happened, and on Valentine's day, so did this: <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNVVvU-yo180Aoox2wa57UqJ7FGTtjF4eRqJ09OSJJ7OgvL53h5w71wrgttxt8gnqoPwv2_oduVHYf9eLEL_iea19LeI6l3oVn1B5vQzS1MOua-ZtYLBGJUuWdLTWETBGc38lQTDWAJU/s1600/2015-05-06+21.11.17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNVVvU-yo180Aoox2wa57UqJ7FGTtjF4eRqJ09OSJJ7OgvL53h5w71wrgttxt8gnqoPwv2_oduVHYf9eLEL_iea19LeI6l3oVn1B5vQzS1MOua-ZtYLBGJUuWdLTWETBGc38lQTDWAJU/s1600/2015-05-06+21.11.17.jpg" width="492" /></a></td></tr>
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This one came with a four-step scavenger hunt written in verse a la GONE GIRL. He hated me. I loved it.</td></tr>
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In Game of Thrones, this egg is described as "black, black as midnight sea, yet alive with scarlet ripples and swirls". I accomplished this one by painting silver thumb tacks with a base coat of black acrylic paint (to save nail polish). I then painted over it with varying coats and thicknesses of a deep maroon China Glaze (which has lost its label, sorry), the same Nabi Purple Jumbo Glitter as in the Accio Lacquer tutorial (I found mine on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nabi-Polish-Purple-Jumbo-Glitter/dp/B00AC8NLVK/ref=sr_1_1?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1430972593&sr=1-1&keywords=nabi+jumbo+purple+glitter">Amazon</a>), and then finished roughly 1/5th of the tacks with a black crackle polish for a cool stone effect.<br />
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I love this egg. It took the longest out of all of them, and the pictures don't really do it justice, because when you pick it up and turn it, it just sparkles with a whole rainbow of color. Gorgeous.<br />
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In March, Husband received yet another mysterious clue for our dating anniversary that led him to this:<br />
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This one is described as "a deep green, with burnished bronze flecks that came and went depending on how Dany turned it."</td></tr>
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I love the dimension on this one, too, honestly. Both the black and green eggs came out much better than I expected.<br />
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For this one, I used varying shades of green acrylic paint on gold thumbtacks, topped with lots of drug store greens and green glitters. The bronze flake is L.A. Girl Rock Star Crowd Surfing, which is on Amazon <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Polish-Crowd-Surfing-NL122/dp/B004QVMEEY">here</a>. The only challenge with this egg? The styrofoam egg underneath all those tacks was either damaged or badly formed to begin with. I noticed it, but didn't think it would make this big of an impact until the thing was finished. You can see in the second picture there towards the bottom how weirdly some of the tacks are laying as a result. So, if you choose to make your own, my suggestion is to make sure your egg is perfect when you start.<br />
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I used a lot more tacks on the two later eggs, which you can actually see in the picture below. They're more densely scaled than the white one. I think they look better, personally, but it was a buttload more work.<br />
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They're really satisfying to hold. It's weird, they feel solid and weighty and cool to the touch but warm slowly in your hands. Hard to believe they're styrofoam and thumbtacks. They feel almost exactly like you'd expect a dragon egg to feel.<br />
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Here are all three eggs together:<br />
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And, sadly, as I initially suspected, they don't all fit in their places in the box. They do fit, just not neatly cradled like I'd hoped. Oh well. Someday I'll re-visit this:<br />
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Tiny Daenerys watches over her eggs:<br />
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I didn't make Tiny Daenerys. But I think she makes a great crate guardian.<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-24114897202504841572015-05-04T09:28:00.000-07:002015-05-16T21:06:15.362-07:00One Year Later: An Anniversary of GuiltEdited to add: My now-born son is and was fine, thankfully.<br />
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Today is one year since my most recent horse accident, by far the worst of the ones I've had (including the one that left me with a permanent limp), on account of being pregnant at the time.<br />
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I've been trying to write this for a while. I thought it would help me to share what happened, but it turns out, all writing it out did was make me realize how much I'm not over it.<br />
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I still have a lot of unresolved emotions about the whole thing. I wanted to explain myself and the situation and finally try to work out why I'm still so upset but I think I can't for all the same reasons. No matter how many times I re-write it, I sound defensive, because I still carry incredible amounts of guilt. I will never let myself be okay with it. I think I need to not post those longer versions as much as I needed to write them to begin with.<br />
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So if you clicked over here from Twitter or somewhere else, I'm sorry this isn't juicy or long. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to post a longer version. I just don't think that day is today.<br />
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If you're not too upset, feel free to send a hug or a kind word my way. You may not know exactly why, but I could use it.<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-68048047320996281102015-03-23T08:30:00.000-07:002017-02-02T15:02:14.442-08:00How Much Money Do Zookeepers Make?I recently received this question by email (thanks Kali!) and thought I'd add it to the info available on the blog. I actually don't get this question as much as I used to, and obviously my experience won't be everyone's experience, but I'll be as honest as I can without giving too much away.<br />
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So. How much money do zookeepers make?<br />
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Not much.<br />
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Yeah, yeah, I know. Keep reading.<br />
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Someone once told me something about dream jobs, like zookeeping, that's really stuck with me. Basically, a significant part of the pay in a dream job isn't money. The non-salary benefits of being a zookeeper are pretty obvious, but they do mean that you'll probably never be wealthy. Sure, you can survive on a zookeeper's wages, but the rest is up to you.<br />
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I can't really help you with hard numbers, because pay varies so much from area to area and zoo to zoo. But working full time, in my area of the country, you can expect to make about $30K per year as a zookeeper. Less, obviously, working part-time.<br />
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If that sounds low, there are other options. You can go into management, or look at the business side of things. You can get into research or lab work or even go into exotic animal veterinary medicine. There's a lot of options out there if $30k isn't enough. But, like I said, for those of us in the field, who love it, the extra pay comes from the other perks we get.<br />
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Despite being a specialized and difficult job, zookeeper pay is kind of on the low side for a skilled position. Part of the low-ish pay zookeepers get is simple economics. It's a popular job, and with so many willing candidates out there, zoos don't have to pay a lot to attract qualified people.<br />
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Just another aspect to keep in mind when you're considering if zookeeping is the right career for you!<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-33774310611276799592015-02-19T14:08:00.002-08:002015-02-19T14:08:30.887-08:00New page on the blog: So You Want To Be A ZookeeperUp in the header, there's a new page for those of you who are interested in pursuing a career in zookeeping. It's my ultimate guide to getting a job as a zookeeper. Check it out!L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-44333313749080751272015-01-27T09:24:00.000-08:002015-01-27T09:45:54.983-08:002014, or, the year I felt mehIt's time for my annual Year In Review! 2013 was a rough year for me mentally and professionally.<br />
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But 2014? 2014 was GREAT for my mental state. I finally achieved a major goal and signed with my dream agent. I was pregnant with and had my first child. I feel like I've finally found my stride in the world and I've made it much, much closer to some milestones that have been eluding me for years.<br />
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Physically, though? Wow, 2014. Dial it back a notch.<br />
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It started in January with the worst cold Husband or I have ever had, one that left me using an inhaler for a month and made him pass out in our kitchen at 3 AM. We both got ER visits out of that one, and he even got a bonus ambulance ride there.<br />
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I'll spare you the in between, but since last January, I'm sitting at a whopping 5 ER visits, 4 injuries, 3 hospital admissions, 2 surgeries, 2 ambulance rides (<u>not</u> counting Husband's), 1 pregnancy (technically a holdover from 2013), and 1 child birthed. And only a tiny fraction of the above can be blamed on said child. (The pregnancy, obviously, is entirely the baby's fault).<br />
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It reads like a twisted version of the 12 days of Christmas. "On the fifth ER visit, my true love gave to me, EXPENSIVE MED-I-CAL BILLLLLLLLLLS!"<br />
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Right now I'm sitting on the couch sans one bodily organ and one facial cyst, holding my neck precariously and wishing my leg would stop aching. All echoes of things I've been through in the past year. Apparently I pushed it too hard doing a whole lot of nothing a couple nights ago, because when I woke up the next morning I couldn't turn my head.<br />
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People lament women who say that having a kid changes you. That you "can't possibly understand" until you've had a child. And until I had mine, I admit, I wasn't fond of hearing it, either. But it's true. Your whole life changes after having a kid. And it's not just because you have a partial genetic replica to care for. This body? The meat suit I'm driving around these days? Is NOT the same body I had a year ago. And I'm not whining about stretch marks or varicose veins (though let me tell you-- those both really suck, too).<br />
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No, I mean the clumsiness that caused me to fall and sprain my ankle. The resulting constant ache and unreliability of the knee I landed on when I fell. The constant ache of the other knee I landed on trying to protect my stomach when my horse had a bad moment while I was pregnant. The dull throb in my rib cage from back pain, growing-baby pains, and post-organ-removal surgery pains. The foggy memory that means I use a thesaurus a lot more than I used to. The differently-shaped, less intense, but more persistent anxiety that comes with motherhood.<br />
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My arms hurt from the 20 or so IVs I've had in the last year--no exaggeration. At least 1/4 of those blew the veins.<br />
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I've gained a lot of weight. I'm not super okay with that.<br />
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It hurts to look at myself in the mirror. My clothes fit differently or not at all. The skin on my stomach is a roadmap of downtown Manhattan in purple and pink stretch marks, stabbed through here and there with surgical scars.<br />
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I'm still learning a lot of the new tricks my body does after the year it's been through. And it's stressful. Aging is supposed to happen gradually, but I feel like a switch flipped and all of a sudden I'm ten years older. I know the human body has incredible healing abilities, but I'm scared that a lot of these things that I hate, that make me achy and uncomfortable, are the new normal. The new me. I will never quite know the old me again.<br />
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But along with the difficult has also come clarity. I'm still in awe that I created a tiny human. That I signed with not just any agent, but THE agent. And from a writing contest, no less. That I did edits and re-writes with a newborn. That I survived all these things that terrified me a year ago. That under it all, I'm still me.<br />
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So, all told, 2014 was definitely the year I felt "meh". But that doesn't mean it was a bad year. It was just... challenging in a different way.<br />
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Fingers crossed for a healthy and prosperous 2015 and beyond.<br />
<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-39393174238974848942015-01-12T08:00:00.000-08:002015-01-12T08:00:05.745-08:00A Very Crafty Christmas: Miscellania and Paper WreathsThere were two other things I made for Christmas this year, but since I forgot to get finished pictures, I probably won't bother posting them. After all, who wants to see everything but the final product?<br />
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Instead, here's a little mish-mash of some of the smaller projects I made, and at the end are this year's paper wreaths.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5OLJNN7Wcoi-4aHT7tZgf0RjVi43NUtI51QmzSxK3MJldsy08wQJsQPc9qNAvgjoaTN7mYSuUSPwINDnSJKBgYzIFVTjh4utLPrECNAmppIdSAXMZ7zghl_lncV6DBOkeCZEt11AmqOE/s1600/IMG_20141222_230135~2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5OLJNN7Wcoi-4aHT7tZgf0RjVi43NUtI51QmzSxK3MJldsy08wQJsQPc9qNAvgjoaTN7mYSuUSPwINDnSJKBgYzIFVTjh4utLPrECNAmppIdSAXMZ7zghl_lncV6DBOkeCZEt11AmqOE/s1600/IMG_20141222_230135~2.jpg" height="530" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">I made these dishwasher magnets at Husband's request using magnet strips and washi tape sheets. I used an acrylic paint pen to write on them. I had some leftover magnet strips after "Dirty" and "Clean" were done, so I just made a couple matching bar magnets for the fridge. Can't have too many magnets, eh?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIRjIwyA6g2vJE2P2DdIXrsEtN9_PWGL_c2KsjyME4ecwU-E9y_dREOsTd7WmudJBLdCFYecoWPE60MDCuj1v4enqh4GVrNLWdWWSi8dj87-0KPqMOzdgRw8T1TXoUv10o52nE6g2O0ac/s1600/IMG_20141224_152546.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIRjIwyA6g2vJE2P2DdIXrsEtN9_PWGL_c2KsjyME4ecwU-E9y_dREOsTd7WmudJBLdCFYecoWPE60MDCuj1v4enqh4GVrNLWdWWSi8dj87-0KPqMOzdgRw8T1TXoUv10o52nE6g2O0ac/s1600/IMG_20141224_152546.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">As calligraphy practice, I made some gift tags using kraft paper tags and gold ink. Just in case you can't read them, they say: "merry christmas", "Santa! I know him!", "Peace, Joy, Love", "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal", and "Mele Kulikimaka", because that song was stuck in my head for WEEKS this year.<br /><br />I look at these and see a lot of practice I still need to do, but it's not like people pay that much attention to gift tags anyway. Although I was pleasantly surprised to see a few people keep them after they got their presents and threw away the rest of the wrapping. :)<br /><br />I've decided my favorite thing currently is to write funny or slightly terrible things in really pretty letters all over everything I can get my hands on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">I also really, really love brown paper packages tied with jute string and these tags. I just die.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHJvIJBck05Oybx9L6TjYXb5xrnAM-B59FCWCmWrexLs9WY6o566bw0gIyxf3_nw3VjVn6SH79VcPQ5w4j_kijpTcCB3YZuZ5POEJqaX-OIa9dGnZRFGATEZRZzLPSofixJ7xZM5UZNac/s1600/IMG_20141229_175640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHJvIJBck05Oybx9L6TjYXb5xrnAM-B59FCWCmWrexLs9WY6o566bw0gIyxf3_nw3VjVn6SH79VcPQ5w4j_kijpTcCB3YZuZ5POEJqaX-OIa9dGnZRFGATEZRZzLPSofixJ7xZM5UZNac/s1600/IMG_20141229_175640.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">PRETTY<br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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This isn't really a gift, per se, but I adore this practice piece I made using the <a href="https://thepostmansknock.com/catalog/premium-calligraphy-worksheet-set-flourish-formal-style/">Flourish style worksheet</a> from <a href="https://thepostmansknock.com/">The Postman's Knock</a>, who is basically my new favorite. Seriously, if you're a fan of pretty letters, both alphabet and postal, go check her out. She's amazing. Anyway, I had fun playing around with this style.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghRqrl_gCwl-SACCbxmuHwmbdxn4Bfx2LzUrnVRaIdnDzBDe4nnPY3z-acyCUtVGsAizXG3RjmS9w1mAK-HlDAUXntwIB7d9Iytrx_3NMbq01i0pXbZ8e9VRvBHtuzA_yUmX3P_mOhiQ4/s1600/IMG_20141119_192542.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghRqrl_gCwl-SACCbxmuHwmbdxn4Bfx2LzUrnVRaIdnDzBDe4nnPY3z-acyCUtVGsAizXG3RjmS9w1mAK-HlDAUXntwIB7d9Iytrx_3NMbq01i0pXbZ8e9VRvBHtuzA_yUmX3P_mOhiQ4/s1600/IMG_20141119_192542.jpg" height="510" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">ALSO PRETTY</span></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">As a new mom, I caved to a Pinterest trend and collaborated with Infant to make these cute little ornaments. I used the same paper clay I made Baby Groot with, which actually gave me a lot of problems as it didn't dry flat for most of the ornaments. You can see a bit of wrinkling on the right edge of this one, and it was by far the flattest.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Foq5ztigFeS3YUIf9xY7TrFvh3ISo__zR1UjsHpS7yJeAmGkfxEhrxNiqzjmzOYL94n7yL78NxwbMya_xTMWuHxQTF1kd0Li9NHGhKXt5COvCKrCWw7Mu-_8C1Ty3ObRSGsdYXdKLRU/s1600/IMG_20150101_140620.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Foq5ztigFeS3YUIf9xY7TrFvh3ISo__zR1UjsHpS7yJeAmGkfxEhrxNiqzjmzOYL94n7yL78NxwbMya_xTMWuHxQTF1kd0Li9NHGhKXt5COvCKrCWw7Mu-_8C1Ty3ObRSGsdYXdKLRU/s1600/IMG_20150101_140620.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />I can't personally recommend this project. I made nine of these suckers and let me tell you: wrestling a paint-covered foot away from a grabby, curious baby while trying to simultaneously keep him from touching you, himself, the furniture, the walls, and anything else in range, is barely fun once. It's definitely not fun nine times. </span></td></tr>
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<br />
<span style="text-align: center;">Finally, I made more paper wreaths. I. Love. Paper. Wreaths.</span><br />
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This year, I got a little crazy and added feathers to a couple of the ones I made using paper doilies. I also made several recycling pages from old ARCs, which is my favorite way to reuse those suckers.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2tUQ8LyfPO1N7wqKB1KMyFviQ1xsFZJDYGUGGHJmr_ZMHVmNgN3iy_iXGxAHjQwK6N9P6PXFdWbAgB4mIdvr4wCwVCKtLM5IuVH9ONIyn1R4HTl4Evw3JhuNw_LrWbuCp5j4rPbL-6s/s1600/IMG_20141107_090104.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2tUQ8LyfPO1N7wqKB1KMyFviQ1xsFZJDYGUGGHJmr_ZMHVmNgN3iy_iXGxAHjQwK6N9P6PXFdWbAgB4mIdvr4wCwVCKtLM5IuVH9ONIyn1R4HTl4Evw3JhuNw_LrWbuCp5j4rPbL-6s/s1600/IMG_20141107_090104.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Large, with feathers. This is by far my favorite. It didn't sell at the only craft fair I did this year, so I'm totally keeping it. </span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPHqAxNadj0SYKSqya-M8eWZ8rxNn0bdBZVicOJgFPIb7FOFdHUskfMJChDE2npFw5FclwTIawidBDywDmcWWMTPYBEBVaTgGGKFiY7QqioUOQEE1cqtH5-JdI0MCS4p7HGRTrM7qVuUE/s1600/IMG_20141107_090125~2+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPHqAxNadj0SYKSqya-M8eWZ8rxNn0bdBZVicOJgFPIb7FOFdHUskfMJChDE2npFw5FclwTIawidBDywDmcWWMTPYBEBVaTgGGKFiY7QqioUOQEE1cqtH5-JdI0MCS4p7HGRTrM7qVuUE/s1600/IMG_20141107_090125~2+(1).jpg" height="564" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Small, with feathers. Zoomed in, so it looks bigger, but it's about 9" across.</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWReUAed24cDw0PHyG9eONuI5cdAhwnTzyQgQ8jI8nMig7aQeZhqC6lyseO8EW7NKC9VB6ih21LEd76K4L1b4-LOQtrUYpOaTQrdSM6cL5SJ6azaJWlQhchcqWqVJHcbIluCu_WEhzPBI/s1600/IMG_20141107_090136.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWReUAed24cDw0PHyG9eONuI5cdAhwnTzyQgQ8jI8nMig7aQeZhqC6lyseO8EW7NKC9VB6ih21LEd76K4L1b4-LOQtrUYpOaTQrdSM6cL5SJ6azaJWlQhchcqWqVJHcbIluCu_WEhzPBI/s1600/IMG_20141107_090136.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Small, from book pages.</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-KByUB4cEFlOTIntDRtRuTbsIeh77VaKj2VxWHIfgK6BpfeyibY09JbpNIOpexNliAYY8ng2r1GVoHH3JUV6k1FJITlOfUQOMqA8pr3atLa0wb5YEgU9XYgTR6mPjQZ0Ln0nX0YsAk8s/s1600/IMG_20141107_085840.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-KByUB4cEFlOTIntDRtRuTbsIeh77VaKj2VxWHIfgK6BpfeyibY09JbpNIOpexNliAYY8ng2r1GVoHH3JUV6k1FJITlOfUQOMqA8pr3atLa0wb5YEgU9XYgTR6mPjQZ0Ln0nX0YsAk8s/s1600/IMG_20141107_085840.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Large, from book pages.</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6yx6_cqoawEwExSzGZSu32NqkvMfh0eQDr_I_HVqS8AlIaA6L3RhFXrKHEz5NPJQcHrUX4d8-OdOFWusjwTBQj_xT4DbeUOtXyqRiUcUl3PucKFO3J6cb2txehjhPI1olPRFnOW5_d5A/s1600/IMG_20141207_205252~2+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6yx6_cqoawEwExSzGZSu32NqkvMfh0eQDr_I_HVqS8AlIaA6L3RhFXrKHEz5NPJQcHrUX4d8-OdOFWusjwTBQj_xT4DbeUOtXyqRiUcUl3PucKFO3J6cb2txehjhPI1olPRFnOW5_d5A/s1600/IMG_20141207_205252~2+(1).jpg" height="640" width="618" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This was my very first attempt at a colored wreath. It's still recycled book page flowers, but I hand-painted each individual flower layer with either a silver or blue acrylic paint wash before assembling the flowers and then the wreath. Then I added various pieces of silver and blue wreath picks and a larger focal point cluster at the bottom left. <br /><br />I don't know if I'll ever make one like this again. Probably not unless I can sell it for a hundred bajillion dollars, or I really, really like the person I make it for (which, luckily, I do, for the person I made it for this year). It was truly a labor of love. </span></td></tr>
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<br />
Well, there you have it. That concludes 2014's Very Crafty Christmas. Here's to a crafty 2015!L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-2408110368119601372015-01-09T08:00:00.000-08:002015-01-09T08:00:00.962-08:00A Very Crafty Christmas: Game of Thrones Dragon Egg(s)Yeah, I went a little crazy this year.<br />
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Husband is also huge into Game of Thrones, and the theme of Infant's nursery is mythological creatures. I had made Baby Groot for Husband, but with the intention that he would live in Infant's nursery. And there was another mythological creature I thought would work out great in there, too: dragons.<br />
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I came across <a href="http://acciolacquer.com/diy/dragon-eggs-tutorial/">this tutorial on making "dragon eggs"</a> using thumbtacks, nail polish, and styrofoam egg forms. It sounded like precisely the tedious thing I love to do, so I decided to experiment by making one egg. After reading the description of the dragon eggs Daenerys Targaryen gets in Game of Thrones, I decided to start with the cream egg.<br />
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In the book, it's described as "pale cream streaked with gold". Well, that's a bit vague, but I had a solution.<br />
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I got cheap gold thumbtacks from the dollar store and used cream acrylic paint for the base coat (much cheaper, quicker, and less smelly than nail polish). I did about 50/50 on one coat vs. two coats of paint. I liked that with one coat, a little bit of the gold color from the tack showed through.<br />
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After that, I topped the paint with a gold glitter top coat from NYC called Top of the Gold (clever, huh?), also varying the thickness and number of coats, and used a regular clear top coat over that. It took FOREVERRRRR. But the results were pretty cool.<br />
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I bought an old-timey (technical term) chest from... you guessed it, Michaels, and crafted a platform inside it using foam core board, push pins, and some satiny maroon fabric I had lying around.<br />
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On Christmas morning, I gave Husband a card that sent him on a (short) quest to find the chest. This is what greeted him when he solved the puzzle:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCxBLQ3zbKWiSTFRuCzT20qUIE6EEFhHRy7zN4PkxX9CQN_xMmsY_BhtBjHGveSOf4aCSvfKC7S8dFePlCf2lOYkMrevbpmjV-jnRXW8UJoTD_NutnNIwiJUxMne-NaXnPo37BecaUrEs/s1600/IMG_20141231_150548~2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCxBLQ3zbKWiSTFRuCzT20qUIE6EEFhHRy7zN4PkxX9CQN_xMmsY_BhtBjHGveSOf4aCSvfKC7S8dFePlCf2lOYkMrevbpmjV-jnRXW8UJoTD_NutnNIwiJUxMne-NaXnPo37BecaUrEs/s1600/IMG_20141231_150548~2.jpg" height="640" width="582" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">What's this? (And bonus Cat)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvnn9Xqde6y2ioyCSV03RE6wlN9LjznAKQFfe1r1mZPrmBGp5hJCxhHEuflL1KF-5T43CZgOhx4sEli7UOkgjlGd_A5UXjtVgZ6ZTca-SDkV6x8gShOnIFfEUL6JOnegv_mfiwmX1DZ4/s1600/IMG_20141231_150623.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvnn9Xqde6y2ioyCSV03RE6wlN9LjznAKQFfe1r1mZPrmBGp5hJCxhHEuflL1KF-5T43CZgOhx4sEli7UOkgjlGd_A5UXjtVgZ6ZTca-SDkV6x8gShOnIFfEUL6JOnegv_mfiwmX1DZ4/s1600/IMG_20141231_150623.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Is that what I think it is? </span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju2Ly58q7uVXazlHRtl2YIHzk8Y-hZJ-ABrG5r_uLhTD4-tH9h282dWPvvy5e1642AQtVwUemRq6KynB3j-qv3ZBH_Yrg5zGlJNQJdBs0aqmswW3tsODRPvh4cd2Tm0H-ZZAwBJ1UXP2s/s1600/IMG_20141231_150636.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju2Ly58q7uVXazlHRtl2YIHzk8Y-hZJ-ABrG5r_uLhTD4-tH9h282dWPvvy5e1642AQtVwUemRq6KynB3j-qv3ZBH_Yrg5zGlJNQJdBs0aqmswW3tsODRPvh4cd2Tm0H-ZZAwBJ1UXP2s/s1600/IMG_20141231_150636.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">No way!</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPiTVIN_lHjEAXy5U_1UsRU0mXQZAflswhP-q09qaVZ1JxWgGf9xBo_Pnk3NzAnCztsh_eBuS_xmxBlMsnX3R7pIpr-boNR1xDTwVoBYiGyyOTwsnXQ3VO4EJK9DFEjstj7tWp6k0-6ek/s1600/IMG_20141231_150735.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPiTVIN_lHjEAXy5U_1UsRU0mXQZAflswhP-q09qaVZ1JxWgGf9xBo_Pnk3NzAnCztsh_eBuS_xmxBlMsnX3R7pIpr-boNR1xDTwVoBYiGyyOTwsnXQ3VO4EJK9DFEjstj7tWp6k0-6ek/s1600/IMG_20141231_150735.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">There's only one egg, but there are spaces for two more. Hmmm...</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpq1Vty3ry-Jqbgiirxu6QxW3XXeGq0wk74Y5uuZEKE2duOF72NE3l6d_Ia0l7BlNhAl2c-nZU8ySeT6qmmFXjqAtpKrxbsW-N2x2T24h6c0qIT6WM5RudWWt_YALWw9_YaXUK30p2iU/s1600/IMG_20141231_150847+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpq1Vty3ry-Jqbgiirxu6QxW3XXeGq0wk74Y5uuZEKE2duOF72NE3l6d_Ia0l7BlNhAl2c-nZU8ySeT6qmmFXjqAtpKrxbsW-N2x2T24h6c0qIT6WM5RudWWt_YALWw9_YaXUK30p2iU/s1600/IMG_20141231_150847+(1).jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">A dragon egg.</span></td></tr>
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He's currently trying to figure out how to hatch it. We won't be following the Targaryen example, that's for sure.L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-15157322080682802422015-01-08T08:00:00.000-08:002015-01-08T08:00:07.424-08:00A Very Crafty Christmas: Steampunk ClockI need to apologize, firstly, for my awful photography.<br />
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I feel like it's a skill I need to learn so I can have pretty Pinterest-worthy pictures of my work, but while I can take decent landscape/ animal/ people pics, I am pretty much the worst at pictures of objects. So, apologies.<br />
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But, that's not what this post is about. Yesterday I showed you <a href="http://lthost.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-very-crafty-christmas-baby-groot.html">the Baby Groot I made for Husband</a>. Today, I want to show you the steampunk shelf clock I made for Husband's cousin.<br />
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Well, technically, I made it a couple years ago. This is what it looked like in December of 2012:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA7ny_hlIW1XfG4W0xj4aYWWTlFItqS4fmb2IEoMLqr-tBiLWhP2Mt_fFWciLi0WRsg2y4d4sdgSp1F3HOJOuV10PTNdrICT5VZ-1LEOtE9b3DKeFYTouNVZDy-yEwV13bzpCFJgnYFfA/s1600/IMG_20121225_182339.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA7ny_hlIW1XfG4W0xj4aYWWTlFItqS4fmb2IEoMLqr-tBiLWhP2Mt_fFWciLi0WRsg2y4d4sdgSp1F3HOJOuV10PTNdrICT5VZ-1LEOtE9b3DKeFYTouNVZDy-yEwV13bzpCFJgnYFfA/s1600/IMG_20121225_182339.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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I originally gave it to him in its first iteration at Christmas two years ago. It was hastily done, as I'd gotten the idea at the last minute (like many of my best ideas). Unfortunately, the execution was a little lacking, and while I loved it when I gave it to him, I found myself making him a guarantee: if it broke or was otherwise unsatisfactory, I would fix it.<br />
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One day about a year ago, it fell over on his shelf and a few pieces came off. But the real kicker was the frame, which completely fell apart. He called me on my guarantee, but at the time didn't know a secret I did: I was pregnant, which meant it would be a WHILE before I got it back to him. I also asked him if he minded if I made drastic changes to it, which luckily he didn't.<br />
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So this year, with the product of said pregnancy napping safely away, I dragged out his clock and decided to re-gift it to him, but as a better, stronger, faster version. (I could rebuild it. I had the technology).<br />
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I upgraded the frame itself, moving to a shadow box instead of a display frame. I opted for more of a military steampunk feel instead of the frilly, awful wire bending. And I added a theme to tie the whole thing together. Essentially, the little glass vial, the gears, and the watch were the only survivors from the original design. <br />
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And here it is, December 2014:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW2h3DmGNIlx6QkcuromPQlc0Vzg-olk8gKCmGWBC9vBXDzDTCXCwqj0Ku828qf_nodfn1NHDwx-m4iRKuxN0yaJr_hLpnUN7HXz5Ey5sSQdHG_ck6_lekM7D7OvlIS-9B-VmNqgdNTWU/s1600/IMG_20141224_105247~2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW2h3DmGNIlx6QkcuromPQlc0Vzg-olk8gKCmGWBC9vBXDzDTCXCwqj0Ku828qf_nodfn1NHDwx-m4iRKuxN0yaJr_hLpnUN7HXz5Ey5sSQdHG_ck6_lekM7D7OvlIS-9B-VmNqgdNTWU/s1600/IMG_20141224_105247~2.jpg" height="640" width="564" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Glass glare is awful...<br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14syQYbAdrixyk71EvyNCXe9SxZWEQB-XfmOy-rmPQRNLoghFmaFua8zRFBjRESphmjchPxkDlyYttaH2CC1g8Fft7BT-UUPLw5bjoy4yeFiTvb8sjMhIJvGfmn0bLV_U2eMzaq5F_10/s1600/IMG_20141224_104741.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14syQYbAdrixyk71EvyNCXe9SxZWEQB-XfmOy-rmPQRNLoghFmaFua8zRFBjRESphmjchPxkDlyYttaH2CC1g8Fft7BT-UUPLw5bjoy4yeFiTvb8sjMhIJvGfmn0bLV_U2eMzaq5F_10/s1600/IMG_20141224_104741.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">... so here's the insides, out of the box, for a better view. I added a few more gears, more decoration, and made the wires more secure. There's an additional Mysterious Potion Vial (TM). And new colors for the background.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiByyOJAVnuajb0mwePOM7fGCEEkfgEKJLj0_my7zU8-TEApCGvxu9P4k6ZkDv9EYngSuItXFHdPkUTk899bcL4pxlg52TENqN1C2GtoddX08Uhw2lnjyXIFo8jm3p6OHmv7DEC8af_ih0/s1600/IMG_20141224_104950~2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiByyOJAVnuajb0mwePOM7fGCEEkfgEKJLj0_my7zU8-TEApCGvxu9P4k6ZkDv9EYngSuItXFHdPkUTk899bcL4pxlg52TENqN1C2GtoddX08Uhw2lnjyXIFo8jm3p6OHmv7DEC8af_ih0/s1600/IMG_20141224_104950~2.jpg" height="640" width="254" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Finally, the box itself. I used a plain old 5"x7" shadow box, but added these awesome metal feet from the Tim Holtz Idea-Ology collection at Michael's. Also from Tim Holtz was this super ornate label holder. I used distress ink to age white paper and wrote on it with India ink and my dip pen. It says "Time Travel Machine- USE WITH CAUTION -HGW"<br /><br />I glued them all on and made artificial nails by cutting the heads off brads and gluing those on, too. Et voila. A steampunk shelf clock. I kind of wanted to keep this one.</span></td></tr>
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-54554470475630817482015-01-07T08:00:00.000-08:002015-01-07T08:00:07.463-08:00A Very Crafty Christmas: Baby Groot!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This year for Christmas, I decided to raid my <strike>mini-Michaels</strike> craft room and make a whole bunch of stuff for gifts. I love creating, and I'm never happier than when I'm busy, so with finances being a little tight, it made more sense to give gifts from my heart (and hands) instead of a store. (Though there were plenty of those, too).<br />
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I... may have gone a little crazy. I made a lot. Too much for one post, which is why you're about to see a few of these. Today, though, I'm going to start with one of the big gifts I made for Husband.<br />
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This fall, the day before I had my first surgery, Husband and I went to go see GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and both immediately had a new favorite movie. Awesome Mix Vol. 1 became the soundtrack of my recovery as Husband played it around the house, set a few songs as the alarms on his phone, and generally sang and danced to it throughout the day.<br />
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So naturally, I wanted to do something GotG themed for him. And the thing that leapt to mind first was Baby Groot.<br />
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I've never sculpted such a large piece before. I've made smaller things, far less detailed and more general-blob-shaped. I consider this my first sculpture, and while it's definitely flawed, it came out much, much better than I expected. This is the piece I refer to in <a href="http://lthost.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-writing-gave-me-confidence-to-try.html">this post</a>.<br />
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Without further ado, here he is. Behind-the-scenes pics follow the finished product.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwf3Zp8U4yTGCf6Dbe6Ugn6mwHLAhX6eqT73pvQybPIK4FGpAL-Vz-M0lP64xs3Q1tn14WaP7gQ5yHwZNSwtvcoYbzIPTkkghiNH6yur7nZn66e18kgJmk-TWZFQ9RSDCL3UXNkDevMSA/s1600/IMG_20141231_143727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwf3Zp8U4yTGCf6Dbe6Ugn6mwHLAhX6eqT73pvQybPIK4FGpAL-Vz-M0lP64xs3Q1tn14WaP7gQ5yHwZNSwtvcoYbzIPTkkghiNH6yur7nZn66e18kgJmk-TWZFQ9RSDCL3UXNkDevMSA/s1600/IMG_20141231_143727.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Front- terrible angle, sorry</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgs3O15nAryGosq0s-Ta514xHFT2_rXKw2Sjsx1B04lGf4eYIuGpVyXXA6wXJwKMOLuYSz1N4kI0RnuEBBt-zkObz0K66UBgQYOLJVQGVoQy7gCzS_P-lfml7gSH6nepha3oWnY6zo548/s1600/IMG_20141231_143806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgs3O15nAryGosq0s-Ta514xHFT2_rXKw2Sjsx1B04lGf4eYIuGpVyXXA6wXJwKMOLuYSz1N4kI0RnuEBBt-zkObz0K66UBgQYOLJVQGVoQy7gCzS_P-lfml7gSH6nepha3oWnY6zo548/s1600/IMG_20141231_143806.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Back (still needs some minor repainting in his armpit)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSSfzuvb6cg8NwFmVajQiDRobQ8T3rvi2mQa68KN-BPL5NnR_JkUQly1w96oZ2QePbejuynLUanbRfSRk3F_V_HM2lvRdvwqIS-oZ-7tzBWy3OrJBH8WaahhZFTDW6o_BRfD9foBsxxc/s1600/IMG_20141231_143514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSSfzuvb6cg8NwFmVajQiDRobQ8T3rvi2mQa68KN-BPL5NnR_JkUQly1w96oZ2QePbejuynLUanbRfSRk3F_V_HM2lvRdvwqIS-oZ-7tzBWy3OrJBH8WaahhZFTDW6o_BRfD9foBsxxc/s1600/IMG_20141231_143514.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Different angle to show potting</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihrQ0j3LnF-_9mDFr81d5DSlp7E5G6DMT0fe7Mtzt8V4jyHtHlHWd7wiMkpNEo39Dq1qjHRBF_kRFUgP0VJwkNQkXOO3_eLzLWJbjL6wDCvxRz3RYyEqGROaXVhHg8-d9Ip-PZcQmFGPI/s1600/IMG_20141222_174543.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihrQ0j3LnF-_9mDFr81d5DSlp7E5G6DMT0fe7Mtzt8V4jyHtHlHWd7wiMkpNEo39Dq1qjHRBF_kRFUgP0VJwkNQkXOO3_eLzLWJbjL6wDCvxRz3RYyEqGROaXVhHg8-d9Ip-PZcQmFGPI/s1600/IMG_20141222_174543.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sans pot</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLC1rUd7z8LTotun6B_jE6ejnW8lseKM7cxfGYK5aE9LEaVVRNS1m2rUimEmDdlraFvskE9oy20LhuwN0ZTwwXGTKu7EUebAqZe1vvE4fN4E2m19sRWkbhuA01eq1GhMfE22E5aK2uZWw/s1600/IMG_20141217_160053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLC1rUd7z8LTotun6B_jE6ejnW8lseKM7cxfGYK5aE9LEaVVRNS1m2rUimEmDdlraFvskE9oy20LhuwN0ZTwwXGTKu7EUebAqZe1vvE4fN4E2m19sRWkbhuA01eq1GhMfE22E5aK2uZWw/s1600/IMG_20141217_160053.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">First, I made this wire armature. I've never done this before, either, but I was pretty excited with how it came out.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFQTTZHVokx_xKkIRW_QL28zw5NgHkiSX3IbRMfST8VLKuXVt5GJOEA357DbI0nT8KFZbYIN7McqW3F7lGBhTb8c8QVQzgqGwiC7ZyPnEKysj_3rqjOPkuSYX5O8tfjebJMjMIIhpWTg/s1600/IMG_20141218_105129.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFQTTZHVokx_xKkIRW_QL28zw5NgHkiSX3IbRMfST8VLKuXVt5GJOEA357DbI0nT8KFZbYIN7McqW3F7lGBhTb8c8QVQzgqGwiC7ZyPnEKysj_3rqjOPkuSYX5O8tfjebJMjMIIhpWTg/s1600/IMG_20141218_105129.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then I started wrapping clay. I used a recycled paper clay that was surprisingly smooth and workable, but unfortunately left LOTS of little dried bits around as I worked. (These photos are a bit washed out, sorry. The lighting in my house is horrible and my phone flash is super bright).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfLG0j9GdH1u7_Bx4IfbE6-7dxPHhFXa8WTD9onS5YhnT9k5F5JahXBshxgtgecmnBuAFZ83gq95voudrMyuYE228_OsleMvWMms0LE9LSmrdO5U6yTEBGfr6g4DuX6hFCXYhvMPLGles/s1600/IMG_20141218_105438.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfLG0j9GdH1u7_Bx4IfbE6-7dxPHhFXa8WTD9onS5YhnT9k5F5JahXBshxgtgecmnBuAFZ83gq95voudrMyuYE228_OsleMvWMms0LE9LSmrdO5U6yTEBGfr6g4DuX6hFCXYhvMPLGles/s1600/IMG_20141218_105438.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">More clay wrapping</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizdbXJerctI6lXYe2XO9HpC_Z-CMJROEn1TKMexZHE8U8LEbdKhCRX67p3iLXzTwLmYSG_4BvhrSA0QrIIXhcs-uuk8A_JJ7Tgo1FL8M4kLK3jox9Z11GSBl9o9azeTinUMyw3OvTJY8M/s1600/IMG_20141218_110008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizdbXJerctI6lXYe2XO9HpC_Z-CMJROEn1TKMexZHE8U8LEbdKhCRX67p3iLXzTwLmYSG_4BvhrSA0QrIIXhcs-uuk8A_JJ7Tgo1FL8M4kLK3jox9Z11GSBl9o9azeTinUMyw3OvTJY8M/s1600/IMG_20141218_110008.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Around the arms</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSJ_Q_XPe0zT6nIFmqZYJl301HnQY3VxysiHIMOawhx2R6QuS6_sMp2I_NS01Hxf8NFt2zJUQ_s0x1-TIoMR92SQVE-C3qLwMhABrLScFe00HuspJ6U6P11fxQmGlZlTI-yZ_bFdA1T6o/s1600/IMG_20141218_110326.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSJ_Q_XPe0zT6nIFmqZYJl301HnQY3VxysiHIMOawhx2R6QuS6_sMp2I_NS01Hxf8NFt2zJUQ_s0x1-TIoMR92SQVE-C3qLwMhABrLScFe00HuspJ6U6P11fxQmGlZlTI-yZ_bFdA1T6o/s1600/IMG_20141218_110326.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Up and over the head</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilAzMbRh_7ZtYJPHTiXCzCdcCpSdUNF9wRKSHaabqSZ1NQQMYDXo-ErfWDXcbKRiZaRSp06u_9uEyfTJglGmktlqNxyeVp0eL7hvVzgMZQauGwqJHYputCsEsVjHkfJ-IfmJL0dsnlkFU/s1600/IMG_20141218_110953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilAzMbRh_7ZtYJPHTiXCzCdcCpSdUNF9wRKSHaabqSZ1NQQMYDXo-ErfWDXcbKRiZaRSp06u_9uEyfTJglGmktlqNxyeVp0eL7hvVzgMZQauGwqJHYputCsEsVjHkfJ-IfmJL0dsnlkFU/s1600/IMG_20141218_110953.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Added a bit more clay to give depth to the face, and his crown of branchy bits. The crown was cut into sections and molded a piece at a time. I removed a few, as you can see there are too many here.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3plIGrbVGNgL4KFrzxlVf_wFX4NW-Rj6hwY_7APo3uuAM9dzKrIH8EpFF-OZBRu2oFTu9vm6BnQqYsXGplijgTjch-MAhk4unjoI7-xuy7iaAdZ3g8jcNUv5JPW-POPAkSBznK27Nkqg/s1600/IMG_20141218_111641.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3plIGrbVGNgL4KFrzxlVf_wFX4NW-Rj6hwY_7APo3uuAM9dzKrIH8EpFF-OZBRu2oFTu9vm6BnQqYsXGplijgTjch-MAhk4unjoI7-xuy7iaAdZ3g8jcNUv5JPW-POPAkSBznK27Nkqg/s1600/IMG_20141218_111641.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Finished crown</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHgjsvV3I4MWOZCMAyZLGb2vd1KYOVYFA96clRpYi6lqbQSO7cPosVj7V-6Y6gAfqw9et8GjuZ-QBtQRStcvJ3m9JNsmB8CZ5QpgVCcU17dbqkWdThsbgF3Ulf0WGW0PD2nUN-wdXvI8/s1600/IMG_20141218_113910.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHgjsvV3I4MWOZCMAyZLGb2vd1KYOVYFA96clRpYi6lqbQSO7cPosVj7V-6Y6gAfqw9et8GjuZ-QBtQRStcvJ3m9JNsmB8CZ5QpgVCcU17dbqkWdThsbgF3Ulf0WGW0PD2nUN-wdXvI8/s1600/IMG_20141218_113910.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">First arm and hand. I thought the face would be the hard part, but the arms honestly gave me the most trouble. I hadn't originally planned on doing wire hands but I'm glad I did-- the clay was way too soft to stand up on its own and the number of times he fell over onto his arms would have broken them off it it weren't for the wire supports.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgguS0qHcxr246KkgDgPIomuqg0Ov2zm5cmOczo3xHYGNpyRiWcpN2gXeph0mn5hNdMOi_RVRAnTYY2Z0Me3WFFYGvqyWti-U06MWlD6rSI6TJYoraMGpNy2APVadsNg5b69ilMqbhyitI/s1600/IMG_20141218_115639.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgguS0qHcxr246KkgDgPIomuqg0Ov2zm5cmOczo3xHYGNpyRiWcpN2gXeph0mn5hNdMOi_RVRAnTYY2Z0Me3WFFYGvqyWti-U06MWlD6rSI6TJYoraMGpNy2APVadsNg5b69ilMqbhyitI/s1600/IMG_20141218_115639.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Second arm and hand. Same issues wrapping clay around the teeny wire fingers, but I was still glad for them later. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7EIVsn7gUHbV8fCPchyUu1kPBNStIkGHSfTEzUEvNbTCHxS-B0CF40mWJc1Npj9vVoTXBGDMStQW4jhQMtAutc3Ae5lRqIJSzLCgE6ClxV4ENP3ooeYYnj0hyHtqKVIavvTu9d7n1ao/s1600/IMG_20141218_123540~2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7EIVsn7gUHbV8fCPchyUu1kPBNStIkGHSfTEzUEvNbTCHxS-B0CF40mWJc1Npj9vVoTXBGDMStQW4jhQMtAutc3Ae5lRqIJSzLCgE6ClxV4ENP3ooeYYnj0hyHtqKVIavvTu9d7n1ao/s1600/IMG_20141218_123540~2.jpg" height="640" width="534" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">I added some wood graining, </span><span style="font-size: small;">thickness at the bottom for stability, </span><span style="font-size: small;">and tree-trunky bits. Then I carved his face, the part I'd been dreading all along. I'm still not happy with it, but I think a lot of that comes from the face I chose to carve. I decided not to do a smiling Groot because I wanted to leave the possibility that he's dancing when we're not looking. :)</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSSfzuvb6cg8NwFmVajQiDRobQ8T3rvi2mQa68KN-BPL5NnR_JkUQly1w96oZ2QePbejuynLUanbRfSRk3F_V_HM2lvRdvwqIS-oZ-7tzBWy3OrJBH8WaahhZFTDW6o_BRfD9foBsxxc/s1600/IMG_20141231_143514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSSfzuvb6cg8NwFmVajQiDRobQ8T3rvi2mQa68KN-BPL5NnR_JkUQly1w96oZ2QePbejuynLUanbRfSRk3F_V_HM2lvRdvwqIS-oZ-7tzBWy3OrJBH8WaahhZFTDW6o_BRfD9foBsxxc/s1600/IMG_20141231_143514.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The final product one more time for reference. I painted him a dark chocolate brown, then did a light brown wash over it for depth and wood grain texture. I painted the vines and moss on in a few different shades of green. The eyes were all black with a feathering around the pupil of the lighter brown. Since the clay was made from recycled paper, for durability I sealed him with an all-purpose sealer. Unfortunately, the only one I had in the house was high gloss, hence his unnatural shininess. Someday I'll re-seal him with a low gloss or matte sealer.<br /><br />I acquired the pot a long time ago at IKEA, and used styrofoam to build a base inside of it. I wedged toothpicks into the exposed armature at the bottom of Groot and stabbed him into the styrofoam, then used an all-purpose glue to hold the rocks in place (smooth pebbles from the floral section of Michael's). I went with black/ gray because I thought it looked more space-y.<br /><br />And there you have it! Our very own Baby Groot. </span></td></tr>
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-39501415776232361382014-12-18T15:30:00.002-08:002018-09-14T18:15:07.297-07:00How Writing Gave Me the Confidence to Try Anything<i>Author's Note, 2018: While I believe in owning my mistakes and also the overall message of this post, and will therefore leave it up, I do recognize the audacity of the book I speak of immediately below and would never attempt to write anything of the sort these days. People grow and change, and as I've woken up, I've come to understand that what was "okay" a few years ago was never okay, and I'm ashamed I ever thought so. I am working every day to do better. Thank you for reading. </i><br />
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I'm very comforted by routine. Comfort zones are (were) my thing. Seriously. It used to take a lot to shake me out of my rut, and I was a huge proponent of "write what you know".<br />
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Except... then I wasn't.<br />
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About the time I started pursuing writing <strike>as an all-consuming passion</strike> seriously, I got an idea for a book that was impossible for me to write. The main character was male, first of all. And black. I am neither of those things.<br />
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For a long time, I lamented that I would never get to read the book I couldn't write, because no one else would ever write it. And then I decided, oh, what the heck. I'll just write a chapter. Maybe two. Thirty pages. 100.<br />
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Oh crap. I wrote a whole, impossible book.<br />
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Writing that book was literally a life-changing event. It gave me the confidence to go from "no, I don't do that" or "no, I CAN'T do that," to "okay, I'll give it a shot."<br />
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And my life hasn't been the same since.<br />
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I love art; whether it's writing or building things or learning calligraphy or cross-stitching or music or .... so on and so forth. But I never considered myself an artist. After all, I couldn't draw, or paint, or sculpt worth a darn, so I was just a poser. An art poser.<br />
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Except-- the more I try these impossible things, the easier they become. The more I do, the more I can do. I'm not saying I'm great at everything, but I don't suck as much as I thought I did at everything, either. Last year, I started painting. I just finished my first-ever sculpture and while it's not great, I'm still really, really proud of it. I still haven't taken up drawing, but calligraphy is like drawing with letters, and while I still have a lot to learn, I'm pleasantly surprised with how it's gone so far.<br />
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Every book I've written since that pivotal manuscript has been impossible somehow. Some challenge present in the structure or the plot or the characters or the writing itself, something that I would have said before was "not me".<br />
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But then I realized that I am still trying to figure out exactly who I am, and I probably will continue to do so my entire life.<br />
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And I am so excited for all the things I thought I couldn't do before that, it turns out, I can.<br />
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And so can you. Don't let the impossible things stop you, because if you give them a try, you just might surprise yourself with what you're really capable of.<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-63786374078539804542014-11-12T12:36:00.001-08:002014-11-12T12:36:21.175-08:00Support We Need Diverse Books, and How Books Help HealYou'd have to be living in a bubble (literally) to not know anyone who is diverse.<div>
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Diversity is a wide umbrella. Obviously, most people aren't white, straight, fully-abled, mentally healthy males. And yet, this is the flavor of person most of our media portrays. </div>
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Books are a little bit better, in that especially with the rise of YA, many protagonists are now female. But racial, physical, sexual, and mental diversity are all still underrepresented.</div>
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Right now, there's an indiegogo campaign to raise funds for the non-profit organization We Need Diverse Books, which raises awareness about the lack of diverse characters in fiction and encourages publishers and readers to supply and purchase books by diverse authors and featuring diverse characters. </div>
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This is a cause that should be important to us all, because everyone deserves to find someone like themselves in the pages of a book. As of this blog post, the campaign is less than $4,000 from its $100,000 goal. If you want to support the cause, please donate <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/we-need-diverse-books">at the campaign here</a>. </div>
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Yesterday, I was talking to one of my friends at the ranch. Her wife is bipolar and recently had a severe manic episode involving a hospital stay and heavy medication. Her recall ability was severely affected by the episode and my friend has been working diligently to help rehabilitate her. We got to talking about books, and she told me that one of the ways her psychologist suggested helping her wife's recall was to read books. </div>
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Well, the problem with that was that it's still very difficult for her wife to read. But she can listen to books on tape! And they have been. My friend says they'll listen to a book for a couple hours, then she'll wait a day or two and discuss what they listened to with her partner. Her wife's recall has improved dramatically just from this simple exercise that many people use for recreation anyway. </div>
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This story really touched me. It's so easy to get caught up in the idea of Being Published. Yes, ultimately, most people who want to be published do so because they want their books to be out there and for other people to read them. But so rarely do we really stop and think about how our books will affect and possibly even change people's lives. What we put out in the world could have a profound effect on someone else. </div>
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So think about it. What worlds could you be opening up to someone by including diverse characters in your books? Take the opportunity to do whatever you can to make the world in your books more like the world we live in. You never know who you'll touch with your books. </div>
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(Note: please don't actually physically touch people with your books, unless you know them.)</div>
L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-5219137617171281222014-09-30T08:00:00.000-07:002014-09-30T08:00:04.764-07:00Seals vs. Sea LionsI hear this one all the time. It's a perfectly understandable confusion; these two animals are very similar in a lot of ways. If you're not a marine scientist or even an aficionado, there's not a whole lot of reason or opportunity to learn what the differences are between a seal and a sea lion.<br />
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This post would be more accurately titled "True seals vs. Eared seals" (more on this later). The family of pinnipedia is divided into three main categories: walruses, the eared seals (sea lions and fur seals) and the true seals (like the harbor and elephant seals). Within the eared seals, there are several types of fur seal, which have a thicker undercoat than sea lions. But aside from typical nit-picky species differences, fur seals and sea lions look pretty much alike. Therefore, since it's the only good image I've taken recently, the photo I'm using to illustrate the eared seals is a northern fur seal.<br />
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There are lots of similarities between true seals and eared seals. They're both mammals. They both belong to the family of animals called pinnipeds (meaning "wing-foot"). They have five digits on each flipper. And they both have sensitive whiskers for the detecting, pursuing, and capturing of prey.<br />
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But once you actually see them side by side, the differences become a lot clearer. </div>
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This is a an eared seal (and a human, if you want to be pedantic about it):</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK6bKGhpuqGExvqMBk174tuHDQqXvJZLky0Cy341NF5kjdiQk_bNdNkPdym4ltAHgB2itsf6qUbqpfnOKYu_aNPL27ZjpWDn_MPlolLVqwlBebnGc6uQGXazN1voWhyeJMrZ35z0siyb4/s1600/sea+lion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK6bKGhpuqGExvqMBk174tuHDQqXvJZLky0Cy341NF5kjdiQk_bNdNkPdym4ltAHgB2itsf6qUbqpfnOKYu_aNPL27ZjpWDn_MPlolLVqwlBebnGc6uQGXazN1voWhyeJMrZ35z0siyb4/s1600/sea+lion.jpg" height="640" width="475" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My photo, and you're about to see it a lot.</td></tr>
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This is a true seal. A harbor seal, to be exact:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Common_Seal_Phoca_vitulina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Common_Seal_Phoca_vitulina.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbor_seal">Wikipedia</a></td></tr>
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You'll notice several differences immediately, but the biggest one is their general body type. The eared seal is definitely more of an athlete, with a svelte, lean, muscular body. The harbor seal is, er, well, more of a fast food and binge-watching TV sort of animal. Rounder. More to love, and all that. </div>
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Both animals are very differently equipped. The eared seal has a rotating pelvis-- it can pull its rear flippers under its body and "walk" on all fours. Please excuse my terrible MS Paint illustrations of this:</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiekp-CEMOCMW4cGyp7qaOZmGY5Z2z2ylnYkdFdiBs4Hkxdc1XWWiked3jrEWDXuQ8MUuVS4_TnOWIVmHIHKKCrdSv9HtFG2N9r1aBDQYJc3kncyzcY5lO-966T8dEumnFb_ppstso9-Zo/s1600/sea+lion+posture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiekp-CEMOCMW4cGyp7qaOZmGY5Z2z2ylnYkdFdiBs4Hkxdc1XWWiked3jrEWDXuQ8MUuVS4_TnOWIVmHIHKKCrdSv9HtFG2N9r1aBDQYJc3kncyzcY5lO-966T8dEumnFb_ppstso9-Zo/s1600/sea+lion+posture.jpg" height="320" width="319" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Resting</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPyOg18AhhKkBodyYXt2MqGe9qxqodGLs8XqjVQLjr0gNhKIMPsgHKCp6C4_Aid3thySz89_krJUOJgjhVdxwLtpt9RZLRqUx57ZRj3nMuSUvw6mEsMCNzms-4aoTttnO9AfmK-p9TZ4A/s1600/sea+lion+posture+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPyOg18AhhKkBodyYXt2MqGe9qxqodGLs8XqjVQLjr0gNhKIMPsgHKCp6C4_Aid3thySz89_krJUOJgjhVdxwLtpt9RZLRqUx57ZRj3nMuSUvw6mEsMCNzms-4aoTttnO9AfmK-p9TZ4A/s1600/sea+lion+posture+2.jpg" height="320" width="319" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In Rotation</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ4hqlla3F10AFKCqtpTeyyF7SzV9b6L2yrUGTpU69F20hNeRmim4q2tDWP-H7f6AxrLYLTlhDO4V87gEYj5iR7upeZQwZbEhT6po1bp0-HI6-8d5OdF13GgqyZXhe_A8dEcJXuO44Drs/s1600/sea+lion+posture+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ4hqlla3F10AFKCqtpTeyyF7SzV9b6L2yrUGTpU69F20hNeRmim4q2tDWP-H7f6AxrLYLTlhDO4V87gEYj5iR7upeZQwZbEhT6po1bp0-HI6-8d5OdF13GgqyZXhe_A8dEcJXuO44Drs/s1600/sea+lion+posture+3.jpg" height="320" width="319" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Underneath</td></tr>
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Here's that standing eared seal photo again, with the rear flippers highlighted:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-h_LOSdZGkG9D0kQxmTpLQzXAH4YjcXszW9GDzi2nWuNX2EaJXT4BjA3_zxXNmJAMfC0PjWZy2zEF7k4mkBJefzKe2LBDjO4vDECtc_8Uwf6Pw0bwUoWh_Gn8gKOvs15Vjr6nhLUF0e8/s1600/flippers+sea+lion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-h_LOSdZGkG9D0kQxmTpLQzXAH4YjcXszW9GDzi2nWuNX2EaJXT4BjA3_zxXNmJAMfC0PjWZy2zEF7k4mkBJefzKe2LBDjO4vDECtc_8Uwf6Pw0bwUoWh_Gn8gKOvs15Vjr6nhLUF0e8/s1600/flippers+sea+lion.jpg" height="640" width="508" /></a></div>
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With true seals, their locomotion is primarily reliant on the amount of blubber they contain. Basically, it goes like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpiXVgpKe6ouFkUSS8kgUg4kzX-IGHstfdGsOH6txG4mPGAqLClKHB7C7H215wYO9ou_A6-FovlGPd3F-VaIvhyphenhyphenufXhBjCFKUoAQ6mrFVDGbQf-Cto35kXe4uK7BZK1K5K77gzvms6H3c/s1600/seal+locomotion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpiXVgpKe6ouFkUSS8kgUg4kzX-IGHstfdGsOH6txG4mPGAqLClKHB7C7H215wYO9ou_A6-FovlGPd3F-VaIvhyphenhyphenufXhBjCFKUoAQ6mrFVDGbQf-Cto35kXe4uK7BZK1K5K77gzvms6H3c/s1600/seal+locomotion.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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A true seal's flippers are much smaller, partly to stay out of the way when they go bouncing along.</div>
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Both animals are graceful in the water (though eared seals can move a bit more quickly), but eared seals got the upper hand out of the water, too. </div>
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You can also look at color. Eared seals are pretty much universally a dark brown. They may have some blondishness from sun bleaching, but for the most part, they're chocolate colored. True seals are usually seen in a wider range of colors (all neutrals, but more varied, for sure). The harbor seal is spotted, for example. </div>
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But if you're on a boat and you look in the water and see both animals looking up at you, there's one fast and easy way you can tell them apart. </div>
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Sea lions and fur seals have external ear flaps (little coverings for their ears), hence the family name "eared seal":</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz69c1sR5VcDOPAJvBP3P9lJ5DL2CFRrkI2M5sJy5bEJ41-XG5rntk87a8LYib6gHAeuZ4NzkBIvTugv4FhduacYKf9w5MqgB90vf_EEv0BzhgXwb-UnMxSZgB7nv85XpcCnBFtgwcMk8/s1600/ear+flaps+sea+lion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz69c1sR5VcDOPAJvBP3P9lJ5DL2CFRrkI2M5sJy5bEJ41-XG5rntk87a8LYib6gHAeuZ4NzkBIvTugv4FhduacYKf9w5MqgB90vf_EEv0BzhgXwb-UnMxSZgB7nv85XpcCnBFtgwcMk8/s1600/ear+flaps+sea+lion.jpg" height="640" width="444" /></a></div>
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True seals don't:</div>
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So, that's the difference. Wasn't that fun?!</div>
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L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-67329458422046149892014-09-25T08:00:00.000-07:002014-09-25T08:00:02.907-07:00What's Been Going On With Me Lately, Part 2Yesterday, I told you about <a href="http://lthost.blogspot.com/2014/09/whats-been-going-on-with-me-lately-part.html">all of this</a>. Today, we continue.<br />
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My husband and I were planning to drop Infant off at Grandma's and go see the horse for a quick visit as a practice run for future babysitting. I'd had some heartburn late in my pregnancy, and I was starting to feel something coming on. I took some Mylanta right before we walked out the door. By the time I got into our car, I knew something was terribly wrong.<br />
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Later, my husband said the only other time he had ever seen me in so much pain was during labor. I don't much remember the ride to my mom's house, feeling like my stomach was going to burst open inside me, nor do I remember getting there and getting out of the car. I do remember my husband calling 911, and I got my second ambulance ride of the year.<br />
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The pain subsided a bit by the time the ambulance got to the ER, but the docs ran all the tests they could anyway, and told me I had gallstones. On top of that, my liver enzymes were elevated, which they wanted me to keep an eye on. They sent me home without much fanfare except a recommendation to see a surgeon about having my gallbladder taken out. I assumed life would continue on as normal, and prepared accordingly.<br />
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I rescheduled with my mom to try again the next evening. Just before we left the house, I started to get a migraine.<br />
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You might see where this is going. Sadly, you're right.<br />
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About an hour after we got there, I began vomiting every 5-10 minutes. I'm still not certain if it was from the headache, or the gallbladder, but back to the ER we went (by car this time). There, they gave me the most awful drugs for the migraine. They made my headache feel better, and they stopped the vomiting, but they made me so agitated that if I could have crawled out of my own skin I would have. If I hadn't been chained to an IV I likely would have gotten up and walked out.<br />
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However, when the doctor came back with my blood test results, the news was bad. He said my liver enzymes were even more elevated, and I didn't have a choice: they were admitting me to the hospital.<br />
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I spent three days away from my four-week-old son, strapped to IV antibiotics and fluids. The agitation didn't go away, likely because no new mother wants to be away from her baby. The first day, I didn't get to eat at all. The second day, they let me have a liquid diet. My going-home test on the third day was eating solid food. I passed, thank goodness, because I would have torn my hair out if I'd had to stay any longer.<br />
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My roommate was this poor woman who had already had her gallbladder out and came in with uncontrollable vomiting. They thought she had some stones still forming, and I promptly wished I hadn't heard that. I didn't want to know that I could go through the surgery and STILL have terrible pain.<br />
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My husband brought my baby to visit each evening, but the time between those visits was spent crying and trying to keep myself together (and obviously failing) in my hospital room. On top of that, my IV kept failing, and each time they redid it came with at least three botched attempts at placing a new one. This, on top of other issues, meant that by the end of that three days, I was completely done with the hospital.<br />
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This time when they let me go, it was with the caveat that surgery was no longer optional. I had an appointment with a surgeon a few days later, and surgery scheduled for a couple weeks out. All was going well, except I had to stick to a low fat diet.<br />
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Apparently, even that wasn't good enough, because five days before my surgery, I had another attack and went back to the ER. They gave me pain meds and told me that I had two choices: I could keep my scheduled surgery date and go home to wait, or I could be re-admitted to the hospital and take the next available surgery, which likely still would be a few days away. I opted to go home.<br />
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The day of my surgery arrived. I nervously said goodbye to my animals, baby, and husband, and went with my mom to the hospital. The nurses still had to try three times to get an IV in, but thankfully they managed. The anesthesiologist was a very literal man who told me, when I informed him I'd had some episodes of low blood pressure and thought I'd woken up the last time I'd been put under to have my tooth extracted, that those factors "increased the possibility of interoperative recall", and I quote. Charming, lovely man.<br />
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They had me walk into the OR and sit on the operating table after making it as physically uncomfortable as they possibly could. I had also told the anesthesiologist that I might panic when they tried to put me under, which probably explains why he didn't tell me when he was putting me under. Charming, lovely man. But he kept me alive, so I'm grateful.<br />
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The surgery went "well", according to the nurse who was there when I woke up. She said I'd been in my recovery room for two hours. All I remembered was her asking if I was in pain, me saying yes, her pumping more drugs into my IV, me still being in pain, repeat ad nauseum. Finally she gave me some oral drugs and took me out to see my husband.<br />
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I was still in incredible pain, but somehow we managed to get home. Everything should have been fine, except, well, it's me. Cue another ER trip the day after my surgery and an urgent care appointment a few days following. Sigh.<br />
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The short end of the story?<br />
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I'm mostly okay now. Definitely still healing. Still in pain, but I only spent a few days on the narcotic meds. I'm sad that my husband has basically raised my baby by himself for the last month, but so, so glad to have a partner in life who is willing to do so, without complaint.<br />
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I'm grateful to my family for their support.<br />
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I'm pissed at my body for its apparent rebellion, and frankly, as a recently-pregnant woman, I'm pissed at how little I can eat.<br />
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I'm scared I might come out of this with yet another painful, chronic condition.<br />
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I'm so happy to see my baby's face every day, even if I can't pick him up yet.<br />
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I'm excited to see what the future holds, and it's coming up on fall, my favorite season.<br />
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Fingers crossed.<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216358162273548069.post-85806081105369154812014-09-24T08:00:00.000-07:002014-09-24T11:21:34.536-07:00What's Been Going On With Me Lately Part 1I've been pretty quiet recently.<br />
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Aside from signing with my agent in June, there hasn't been a whole lot to share here this year.<br />
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Well, there has-- but it's pretty personal. Still, I figured it's time to explain what's going on in my personal life. I've been somewhat cryptic on twitter, though most of this isn't exactly a secret. I haven't been answering emails very quickly. I've been pretty MIA in general here and on twitter.<br />
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Last year was rough professionally and emotionally. This year has been rough physically.<br />
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I have essentially been sitting on my couch since March.<br />
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My pregnancy was fairly easy from a baby standpoint. Infant was happy, content, and not too hard on me. But I, already a fairly disaster prone person, became a walking target for physical misfortune during the last half of my pregnancy. In early March, I fell in an erosion ditch and sprained my ankle. Baby was fine, but oh hey-- turns out they can't give pregnant women painkillers or anti-inflammatories! Basically all I had to control said sprained ankle was advice to stay off it (yeah right, my job is standing all day), ice it, and maybe try physical therapy.<br />
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After a couple weeks of trying to push through it, I was placed on light duty at work which basically involved sitting down. Normally this would have been fine, but I didn't realize how long it would take for my ankle to heal. In case you're wondering, it took eight weeks. Eight. Weeks.<br />
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Obviously I was a little too excited when I got released from light duty and put back to work, because the universe decided it needed to take me down another notch. Literally the day after I was released by the doctor, I had a freak accident with my horse. She jumped into me and sent me flying, landing on my side. Thankfully I had the sense to tuck and protect my belly, but I still left the ranch by ambulance and spent the night in the hospital to make sure the baby was okay (extra double thankfully, he was). But I didn't get off scot-free. I had some incredible (painful) bruising on my right hip, sore ribs, and a pretty banged up knee. Not to mention the terror of the potential harm to Infant.<br />
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I didn't mention this earlier because I still feel incredibly guilty about what happened. It wasn't Pony's fault, it wasn't mine. Neither of us could have seen it coming, and it's a fact of life working with animals, especially large ones, that things can happen. It was just completely terrible timing for an incident to occur. I couldn't just abandon my horse, and all efforts to find someone to help me with her care had failed, including hiring someone. The only positive to come out of the accident, aside from Infant and I being okay, was that people actually took me seriously afterward when I said I needed help with her. I finally found a couple people willing to assist me.<br />
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I very, very slowly healed from my bruises and was mostly okay by the time Infant arrived (though still pretty immobile due to being extremely pregnant!) There then followed the period every new parent goes through of doing nothing but trying to figure out how to take care of a baby. Things were just starting to look up about a month after he was born, and then IT happened.<br />
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Tomorrow: Part 2<br />
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<br />L. T. Hosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12448176940211118898noreply@blogger.com0