Yar Har Fiddle Dee Dee

[Andara Bledin]

Greetings, ex-lurker Mishugenah.

Your stories reminded me of an old one.

When I was in high school, one of my "classes" was yearbook staff. Boy was that an easy A. At least for the first half of the year when you didn't write or take pictures, anyway. I did minor editing and the entire Appendix where all the students are listed, along with what pages they're found on.

So, the entire first half of the year, we would watch movies, read, do work from other classes and whatever. I used to sit in the back room and read or practice my typing. One day, while sitting on the counter and reading, I was also eating some corn nuts I'd gotten from a vending machine.

I haven't actually been looking at the bag at all, just using touch to know where it was and grab the corn-y goodness. Someone came into the back room and needed to get into the cupboard, so I hopped off the counter and went to grab my corn nuts and right at the front of the pile that had spilled out of the top was this huge dead spider! One minute later, and I'd have actually touched the thing!

^-.-^

[iradney]

Yeeesh! Aaaaaaaag! Erk! I'm all squicked out from reading the buggy stories! I've pretty much climbed RIGHT out of my skin!
I do'nt really have any stories. TTO's old house was on a farm, so there were loads of rainspiders - I didnt mind them too much, they didn't bug me as long as I didn't bug them.
However, in our new house, a spider that LOOKED like a fleshy rainspider snuck it's way into our bedroom, no doubt to nibble on us while we slept. I discovered it perched on the wall above our pillows, and promptly had a girly fit. TTO was at work that evening, and I didn't want to kill it, so I tried the whole Capture and Release thing.
That plump, shiny,caramel coloured little bugger could MOVE. I spent about 20 minutes upstairs jumping around and shrieking before I caught the would-be assassin. Threw it out the window and then went downstairs to yell at the male housemate who didn't come running at the sound of my girly shrieks. :P

And an ex-boyfriend of mine told me a story about the time he walked into his room and just missed a large hairy spider swinging towards his face...

*shudder*

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, yeah... another story from my childhood!

I was with my brother, our two cousins (they were just a year and two older than us), and family were at a rest stop or something like that in Big Bear, and we were all right around 12 or so.

We were bored and exploring the immediate area, which included a locked outbuilding. Probably the power controls and such for maintenance for the place.

The building was vaguely L-shaped, but had a rectangular "footprint" in that the roof and concrete slab were a complete rectangle, so the place in the L where there wasn't building was a small covered patio type place.

Up in the corner was this odd-looking fuzzy thing. We knew there was a spider in there, and since we were bored, dumb kids, we decided to try to harrass it into moving. We poked at it with sticks, but none of us were tall enough and none of our sticks were long enough, so that didn't work.

Then we started throwing small dirt clods at the corner. We were purposely aiming not quite into the corner because even as pre-teen brats, we weren't interested in actually hurting the thing.

So, we finally get a chunk of dirt close enough to disturb the critter and that's when we find out that it's not a spider hiding in some clump of stuff in the corner. It's a whole freaking mass of nothing but spiders. So, the spiders scatter out from the mass, and we all freak out and hightail it back to where our parents were.

Oh, and for those who like looking at spiders, here's someone's page with some amazing spider pics. The tarantula at the bottom is particularly impressive.

^-.-^

[Kara]

Those pics are amazing. I don't mind spiders, really (unless they're in my personal vicinity). They are fascinating creatures. Same for scorpions, although I don't have to fear them at all because they don't exist around here (except out in western Kansas, but there's nothing else out there worth going for).

[DesignFox]

Those are some very impressive photos. Some of them are pretty scary! I'm so glad I won't be finding those in my backyard. but to look at them and read about them...very cool.

[MinimaMagistra]

Man, y'all are so lucky that picture's not there anymore.

All this talk of spiders and the photos reminded me of this thing I'd seen a couple of years ago and linked to in my old diary. The picture's gone by now, but get this: It was a dead spider underneath a wall clock. Do you know how big wall clocks are? It was a standard-sized circle with legs coming out from underneath it. This bastard was HUGE. Creeped me the hell out.

[Andara Bledin]

Ask, and ye shall receive, for my Google-fu is strong.

Spider behind the clock.

I nominate this guy as the same spiecies as the guy behind the clock.

^-.-^

[MinimaMagistra]

Indeed, your Google-fu is strong. Here is the collection of all three pictures. It is a Huntsman spider, typical to Australia but also to tropical and semi-tropical parts of the world.

My arachnaphobia just made a bit of a reappearance upon learning that they also are found in southern parts of America, such as Florida.

[DesignFox]

Blech! That clock spider is scary!

GK- look what you've done with your spider story!

[42_42_42]

Spiders are scary, cockroaches are disgusting, but the thing that freaks me out the most is centipedes and millipedes. <shudder> They look like aliens. I CANNOT abide their existence, but I WILL NOT go near enough them to kill them.

As for the Wookie-bonics, I refuse to try to understand people who don't at least attempt to use proper English. I am, however, utterly amazed that ANYONE was able to decipher any kind of logical meaning out of that seemingly random string of words and nonsensical noises.

Actually, my best friend (who had crap-ass parents, but turned out well except for the lingering anger issues) once thought about killing himself and was saved by a well-timed cockroach. He was sitting in his room with a loaded .45 in his hand trying, according to how he tells it, to find one thing in his life worth living for when a roach ran across the wall in front of him. Apparently shooting things with semi-auto .45s is worth living for, because he says he felt worlds better after blowing the cockroach into tiny bits and putting a hole through his bedroom wall... right up until his parents ripped him a new one for firing a gun in the house.

Since it all ended well, I kinda imagine things from the roach's perspective and wonder if it even had time to go "Oh Cra-" before it went away.

Is it wrong that that made me laugh so hard I almost peed?

/I'm going to hell, aren't I?

[Gravekeeper]

Is it wrong that that made me laugh so hard I almost peed?

/I'm going to hell, aren't I?

Probably, but at least I'll have company on the trip. Actually, by now I must have enough Damnation Points to get my seat upgraded to first class on the way there. You're still back in coach. I'll send you back some mini Kahluas. ;9

[JustADude]

Is it wrong that that made me laugh so hard I almost peed?

/I'm going to hell, aren't I?

Nah, you're good. I told him I'd posted about it and we were cracking jokes for a half hour, including one about how he'd have ended up as a zombie because suicides go to hell but Lucifer would've been scared he'd take over.

[Gravekeeper]

Nah, you're good. I told him I'd posted about it and we were cracking jokes for a half hour, including one about how he'd have ended up as a zombie because suicides go to hell but Lucifer would've been scared he'd take over.

Hey, at least we'll be in the place that has all the best music.

[Broomjockey]

Hey, at least we'll be in the place that has all the best music.

I wonder if it is possible to get a day pass, you know, change of scenery and all that? Because yeah, it'll be great to have everyone together in one place, but you realize who else is going to be there? (Hint: SCs) So I'm pretty sure I'd need a break.

[MinimaMagistra]

...but you realize who else is going to be there?

Party pooper.