ok, it's dark but not so stormy. but cold, nonetheless! :) i'm loving it. i'm happy to be a november child. according to the mother unit, it rained an entire week when i was born.

final four episodes to the end of the current project. i was hoping to finish it before my birthday but it doesn't seem quite possible if i want to be somewhat functional during my birthday week. i shall just cruise along as quickly and easily as i can and see what happens.

having a mac&cheese before attempting an earlier bedtime.

goodnight LJ!

:)

i managed to reset my sleeping hours after 546793728613 attempts... but i screwed it up again! thanks to work! :(

am about to pass out from fatigue from working like mad, so i will elaborate more tomorrow.

but i just wanted to say...

DRATS!!!

:[

here's a random pic of lucia, before she laid four clutches of eggses. so angry at the black spaceship, yet still so cute. :D



lucia passed on in may this year. she spent her final moments curling up in the warmth of my palm as we said goodbye.

:)

i had a most satisfying and productive day! :D

it's been ages since i've had a day off - i even had to work while visiting a friend in melbourne. wasn't much of a vacay, no! my projects have been lined up and i was ready to dig into my next one after i wrapped up the previous one yesterday. imagine my joy when i received an sms from my boss to say, changes in schedule - halt and stand by for more instructions! woohoo!

i did intend to take the day off today to run some errands and pick up the babies from the lab where they were being babysat. but it sure feels good not to have the new project hanging (looming) in the near distance! :D

so, i caught up with sarge today and we went to the cricket farm, bought my bubs some fresh food, picked up the bubs from the lab, and had a cuppa tea + poached eggs on toast @ colbar. after i got home, i re-housed the bubs in suitable homes and did some major tidying/cleaning of spaces in my room. i've not had a chance to unpack properly since landing back in singapore last monday, so it felt really good to be tidying! i also want to re-organise some spaces so i'm going to get that done tomorrow!

and since i'm feeling really productive, i did up a coupla spideybub peektures from some time ago, when my current babies were still babies! :)



i currently have three babies, all girls - lucelle, lucine, lucilla. i had six but three babies died while i was away. one thing i've observed about my current batch of spideybubs, from momma lucia, is that they seem to be weaker and more delicate than lucy's bubs were. weaker genes, perhaps?

i did get a nice video of their big sister, lucius, before i went to melbourne in august. i took it knowing that she may not be alive when i got back. lucius had the most darling temperament. i could actually handle her in broad daylight and she sat happily on my arm, washing her face. :) babysitter, uncle stan, messaged me when i was in melbourne, informing me of her passing, on the 24th september:

Hi Jes,
Sorry to inform u that yr baby Lucius had passed away, prob last nite.
She slipped away to spidey heaven peacefully, leaving behind a furry body on her cage floor, still looking as adorable as ever.
My heartfelt condolences.

as a spideymommy, i have come to terms with the fact that my babies will leave me quite often, especially this species that i so love - they seem to have a pretty short lifespan despite their magnificent size (for salticidae). i still love each and every one of them, but i now can let them leave in peace and well wishes instead of grief.

rest in peace, lucius! i'm glad we bonded before you went on your way!

i will try to get her video edited and uploaded very soon, so all of youse can share our bond. i just have to think of what music to use! (argh!)

and that's all for now, folks! i shall have an early night tonight for a change!

tata for now!

:)

i really, really, really want to go to bed.

work is killing me.

:(

to get myself back into the swing of posting pics, i decided to post a no-brainer. back in august, when i saw dex for my trim, he offered to give me temporary curls, just for fun. i thought, why not?



dex is a hair maestro, no doubt about it. he always makes me feel so fabulous! loved the curls! unfortunately, i can't have them permanent. mr hair maestro informs me that perms would never achieve the effect we see here. hence, i have to be happy with getting them for a day whenever i go for my trim. he also offered to teach me to do them at home, and order me a pair of curling tongs. not a bad idea?

:)

it's me again. :)

i always miss writing whenever i read my older entries. and when i happen to read some of my older entries, i end up reading many, many of them for hours. i really shouldn't stop writing, i know. it is so good to have a record of my life, my words, my thoughts.

as much as i want to be doodling in my journal right now, it's 5 am and i'm hard at work. i wish i could go to bed! but i really need to finish up this episode so it's back to the grind for me.

i hope everyone has been well.

:)

ok my boss thinks a little too highly of me. i hope this doesn't come across as arrogance but i think i'm not too bad at what i do. however! the project my boss just proposed is just impossible! financial news magazine programmes with a turn-around time of 4 hours per episode? i don't like to promise when i may or may not deliver. i turned it down. no matter how much money they're going to offer.

this is the first project i've ever turned down from my boss.

the spideykids had a fruitfly buffet today. =)

sorry for the sporadic-ness of this entry but i don't know how to bring everyone up to speed properly so i'm just gonna jump in and post whatever comes to mind. hehe!

i currently have eight babies, from mommy lucia who has already passed on. she had four clutches in total, and i have at least one baby from each. i kept more of the first, a few of the second, and one each of the third and fourth.

on the humans front, i have finally done the surgery that i mentioned some time ago. was it two years ago or something? it turned out that keyhole surgery wasn't an option, so i had open surgery. i always thought it was minor, until i was admitted and overheard the nurses talking about the "major operation tomorrow". *blink*

the ten minutes i spent waiting outside the operation theatre for my turn was the longest ten minutes of my life.

i had morphine on tap after the operation. it wasn't as fun as people think it is, but it did make sleeping rather pleasant. i slept for like an entire day or two. then after that, i caught on that they would not take the drip off me as long as i was still needing the morphine, so i stopped pressing the button. i hated having the drip in my arm. wanted to get rid of it pronto. =(

strangely, there wasn't much pain. it was mostly just inconvenience and fear of ripping the wound open.

the four days in hospital were the longest four days of my life. never been so happy to get home when i eventually did. =)

much thanks to salsarina and lennon for being the first two friendly faces i saw afterward - even though i could only keep one eye open; my chocolatechip muffin marianne for the long distance phone call; ness for making me dinner and deb for bringing her laptop; kate, kenneth, amanda and hosea for visiting with flowers, fruit and food; my big sister linda for the love from new york; my boss for being understanding; vince for the frequent chats during my recovery month; and mother for everything she has done for me. =)

so that was more than a month ago. i'm pretty much ok now. not 100% yet but that's gonna take time. the entire experience is something i hope i never have to go through again, especially the part where they made me climb back onto my bed from the trolley after the surgery. i had no idea why they couldn't just lift me back. that was my least favourite incident out of the entire hospital stay. the runner-up would be the time the nurse on duty decided to forcibly empty the drip bottle into me so that she could change to a new bottle right away, causing my arm to swell like a pig's trotter. the swelling went down after they finally took the drip off me, but the pain in my arm lasted for more than a month.

yes, never again, would be good.

=)

OMG!

so, i saw a new doc today and she was really worried when she laid eyes on me. she said i looked really pale and there was no blood in my hands etc etc. i was like, really? but... i look like this all the time anyway? she asked if i have been feeling easily tired recently. i said, no? she insisted on sending me for a blood test and said she might have to send me for a blood transfusion.

blood transfusion!!! wow! i was flabbergasted. but i feel absolutely fine?

so, i sacrificed a test tube of blood to the nurse and the results were pretty normal. doc was apologetic for holding us up. it was probably unbelievable to her that someone as pale as i am could exist and be normal. haha! i told her the only sun i get is from sitting next to my window at my desk.

my iron level is only slightly low, so she gave me iron tablets. need to start getting my monthly steak meals again.

=)

just a quick one to say, lucia has laid her second clutch! =)

yes, i owe everyone pics and please be assured that i have taken some! but i'm drowning in work so it'll have to wait!

in the meantime, let me leave you with a snippet of the stuff i have been cracking my brains over. i'm so glad i'm done with this bit. i only hope they don't recite other parts of the scripture in later episodes!

天之道
損有餘而補不足
是故虛勝實
不足勝有餘
其意博 其理奧 其趣深
天地之象分
陰陽之候列
變化之由表
死生之兆彰
不謀而遺跡自同
勿約而幽明斯契
稽其言有微 驗之事不忒
誠可謂至道之宗
奉生之始矣
假若天機迅發
妙識玄通
成謀雖屬乎生知
標格亦資於治訓
未嘗有行不由送
出不由產者亦
然刻意研精 探微索隱
或識契真要 則目牛無全
故動則有成 猶鬼神幽贊
而命世奇傑 時時間出焉
五藏六府之精氣
皆上注於目而為之精
精之案為眼 骨之精為瞳子
筋之精為黑眼 血之精為力絡
其案氣之精為白眼
肌肉之精為約束
裹擷筋骨血氣之精
而與脈並為系

i barely had time to breathe all day!

so, i didn't want to post this any earlier in case i jinxed it or in case i guessed wrong. lucia has been hiding away in a very thick nest for the past few weeks, emerging for a meal every once a week or so. i have been praying that she has laid eggses. and from her voracious appetite, uncle john and i both thought it was entirely possible.

so! weeks have been flying by. still no sign of bubs. i do remember that hyllus diardi bubs take a super long time to emerge, but there was also the possibility that lucia hasn't mated at all. i did notice that the first time she came out for a meal, she was visibly thinner.

yesterday, she stood outside her nest and just stared at me all day, following my movements. i thought she had something to tell me. i feared that she was trying to tell me she needed a mate.

guess what i saw this morning?

two little ones! =) venturing out for the very first time. my new kids on the block. if i was in the habit of squealing, i would have squealed. but i wasn't, so i merely stared at them with saucer eyes and beamed like a crazy person.

momma lucia has been transferred to a new home so i can deal with the bubbas without freaking her out. she is extremely fat from a recent cricket meal and still seems to be hunting for more food, so i think she will have at least one more clutch. poor little dear is trying to find her way back to her old nest, unaware that she is in a different little world now. i'm so sorry sweetie!

i can't believe how blessed i have been with this very lovely species. first it was lucy, found by uncle john, and came to us already gravid. she gave me the most wonderful spideykids, and they grew up beautifully. tiga and lucien were the largest adults of their kind ever spotted. they all had such fantastic, individual personalities. unfortunately, being a more delicate species, mating attempts were not successful and lucy's genes could not be continued. lucia came to me when i was missing my wonderful furry darlings, once again found by uncle john, and amazingly, once again gravid!

i'm loving 2009 so far. and it's only going to get better.

=)

it started to pour and from the corner of my eye, i saw a familiar scurrying figure outside my window. rain was running down all around her and she was trapped. she was actually on the wall outside my window and it wasn't easy to reach her, much less coax her into a container to shelter, but i did (with some extreme contortionist actions, two long-handled brushes, some wire, a container and a piece of paper).



she is a fat little girl who looks like she's carrying eggses. i might give her a temp room to have her bubbas in safety and lots of food. not sure what she is yet... will have to consult uncle moo!

freakin' hilarious!

so i was on the phone with paypal and they put me on hold. i hear this familiar tune come on and it was the boy band song that everyone knew... oh but no... wait! it's not! i couldn't believe what i was hearing suddenly and sniggered all through waiting time!

so i had to find it on the internet.




am guilty of being a sniper myself.

=P

as promised, here is a little movie of lucia eating a moth, made to 'surf' by moby, approved license from mobygratis.com.



=)

i have the cutest footage of lucia eating a moth meal and i'm currently waiting for a reply from moby to use one of his tracks available for non-commercial use. thanks for the site, matt! =)

sigh.

youtube has muted lucien's videos due to music copyright issues. just when i thought it was safe to use felix the housecat since he wasn't so.... mainstream. sigh!

i'll have to find some boring generic royalty-free music.

=\