Some writing

For all of you who don't read Fark this was an interesting article linked to the site South African Rain Spiders. These fellows look really interesting. I need to find some philanthropist who wants to send me on photographic spider safaris.

In computer news, my Toshiba is shutting off unexpectedly and I think it's the CPU overheating. I've currently got it propped up on four blocks of Coleman Brite Ice with an aluminium shield from the condensation, max cooling setting from the control panel and CPU set to mid speed rather than high. So seems to be working well, but as it's still under warranty I'm bringing it in tomorrow. I'm already twitchy from withdrawal.

I also need new rechargable AA's. I suddenly have only four of them, rather than the twelve I generally carry around (one set in the camera and two charged up spares). I think my shortage is somehow related to all the battery-powered toys Kai got for his sixth birthday. It seemed to go pretty well. :)

I've signed up for another math tutoring gig (Tues and Thurs evenings). It should give me another few work hours a week, not quite as much as my own leads (I can squeeze those in Sat mornings and all day Sunday). But it's more than my online tutoring (Fri and Sat evenings). That gives me Mon and Wed for my class. I do like working through math problems and concepts with students, I'm just a little afraid around midterm that I'm going to be insanely busy. I guess busy is better than broke.

My brothers and I found we're all addicted to IMDB trivia. I don't get to see much of them (you can see them at Wave and Tree), so when we do meet it's always fun to find out the common interests like Teen Titans!. I won a point for knowing who voiced Aqualad (on Teen Titans) and my brother Scott earned a trivia point for knowing Bill and Ted's (from the movie "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure") hometown.

As I go through my photos doing backups, I've come across some older ones that never made it into the blog and probably should have. I'll try to make a note of the photo's date when I put them up. Just the past few days I've been watching the ants farming and milking aphids. I always come away itchy -- those insects are very territorial.