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The Good News Thread: I'm So Excited! And I Just Can't Hide It!


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16 hours ago, Delightful said:

Ohai. Also, its been closer to 8 months. *hugs*

And Im visiting family and it is nice. :D 

How on earth did I guess you would comment here....?:ph34r::lol:

 

We both have six up votes. muhahahaha.. UNLIMITED POWER!!

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I made my summer visit to the Bristol Renaissance Faire, my former place of employment and one of my favorite places on earth, to discover that the Sabersmith had a naginata that was a dead ringer for Mat Cauthon's ashandarei. Unfortunately he'd sold it by the time I'd gone back to take a picture of it, but we had a rousing discussion of the Wheel of Time and I implored him to begin reading Stormlight. I took a picture with one of his amazing creations, anyway. Rude gesture courtesy of my sister, who deserved it.

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14 hours ago, officiumdefunctorum said:

I made my summer visit to the Bristol Renaissance Faire, my former place of employment and one of my favorite places on earth, to discover that the Sabersmith had a naginata that was a dead ringer for Mat Cauthon's ashandarei. Unfortunately he'd sold it by the time I'd gone back to take a picture of it, but we had a rousing discussion of the Wheel of Time and I implored him to begin reading Stormlight. I took a picture with one of his amazing creations, anyway. Rude gesture courtesy of my sister, who deserved it.

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Lol. I really wish I had the time or place to do Cosplay. I don't want to drive to Houston or NOLA to go to events. I enjoyed Heros of Cosplay/Cosplay Melee on SyFy.

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7 minutes ago, Briar King said:

Lol. I really wish I had the time or place to do Cosplay. I don't want to drive to Houston or NOLA to go to events. I enjoyed Heros of Cosplay/Cosplay Melee on SyFy.

Ren Faire is really more wear what you want more than cosplay. I mean, I encountered a Deadpool wearing a cape and burger king crown last year, lol. Some people go all out with period accuracy, but is my opportunity to wear a corset and contact lenses. I hear the faire in Texas is a big deal!

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17 minutes ago, officiumdefunctorum said:

Ren Faire is really more wear what you want more than cosplay. I mean, I encountered a Deadpool wearing a cape and burger king crown last year, lol. Some people go all out with period accuracy, but is my opportunity to wear a corset and contact lenses. I hear the faire in Texas is a big deal!

Yeah it's pretty big. I'm right in the middle of Houston(slightly closer) and NOLA in Lake Charles LA so nothing good ever comes directly to us here. 

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I have two bits of good news. First is...I'm back slontzees! :D I've been away from the shard for about 6 years so I could work on my writing career. That brings me to my second item.

My debut novel, The Moonflower, is now out! *Muppet flail* If you want to check it out I have all of the info here on my blog.

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3 hours ago, dhalagirl said:

I have two bits of good news. First is...I'm back slontzees! :D I've been away from the shard for about 6 years so I could work on my writing career. That brings me to my second item.

My debut novel, The Moonflower, is now out! *Muppet flail* If you want to check it out I have all of the info here on my blog.

I don't know who you are, but that's amazing! Nice job on getting published!

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FINALLY finished sorting through all my photos from Antelope Island. :D This post will only have pictures of birds, but I have some more of insects and the scenery if y'all are interested. I just figure this post is image-heavy enough already.

@AngelEy3, this Common Raven is for you. Sorry it's so far away! (1 photo)

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A few seagulls (3 photos):

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This muddy Ring-billed Gull made me chuckle. I think he had probably been sticking his face in the mud looking for stuff to eat.

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Same bird about to take off.

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California Gull trying to pick little bugs off the water's surface. (He was mostly unsuccessful. :P)

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Great Horned Owls (2 photos):

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I saw two different owls, and this one apparently didn't like my proximity, so it flew up near the ceiling to get some more distance and then sat there glaring at me. XD

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Loggerhead Shrikes (2 photos):

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Shrikes are known for catching small lizards, rodents, etc., and impaling them on thorns or barbed wire (like this fence, for example) to save for later.

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Assorted shorebirds (3 photos):

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Long-billed Curlew. Check out that ridiculous bill!

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Willet with a nice reflection:

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American Avocets, apparently practicing for the synchronized swimming event at the Olympics :P There were thousands of these guys on the Great Salt Lake when I visited, although most of them were too far away for good pictures.

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Northern Mockingbird and Lark Sparrow (2 photos):

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This mockingbird posed just for the split second it took me to get this photo before flying away.

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The visitor center at Antelope Island has a viewing window with bird feeders, and a few of these pretty little Lark Sparrows were eating dropped seeds from under the feeders.

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Some more photos from Antelope Island!

I gotta tell you guys about some funny little water birds called phalaropes. (The singular form has 2 correct pronunciations: fuh-LAIR-uh-pee or FAL-uh-rope.) They're super cute for a couple of reasons: 1) They're really little and kinda hyperactive. 2) They have this unique feeding strategy where they swim in a tight, fast circle to create a mini-whirlpool that stirs up bugs and crustaceans and stuff for them to eat. The flock of 100+ that I was watching at Antelope Island had at least half of them doing that all at the same time, and it was really funny to watch. (Skip to about 00:30 in the video below--which is not mine, BTW--to see a large group of them "spinning" together.)

My photos of the phalaropes from Antelope Island (3 pictures):

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A small segment of the flock of 100+ birds:

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Male Red-necked Phalarope in the middle of his "spinning" routine. Fun fact: Phalaropes are oddballs in the bird world for their gender role reversal. With most birds, it's the males that are more colorful and the females that take most of the responsibility for nest and baby care. With phalaropes, it's the opposite: Females are prettier, and males raise the young.

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Wilson's Phalarope in nonbreeding colors:

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Next up, a few "creepy crawlies." A dragonfly and a grasshopper (2 photos):

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This grasshopper blended right into the asphalt when it held still, but when it flew, its wings were striking black and yellow.

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WARNING: Spider pictures under this next spoiler! (2 photos)

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Big orbweaver spiders like these were extremely abundant on Antelope Island when I visited. Seriously, there wasn't a bush in sight without at least one, if not half a dozen, of these guys visible in the top.

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On 7/30/2017 at 5:25 AM, Delightful said:

Ohai. Also, its been closer to 8 months. *hugs*

And Im visiting family and it is nice. :D 

First, I didn't realize you two were related, that's cool. Second, I accidentally downvoted you, sorry about that. But I upvoted you to make up for it.

Also, I'm back! I disappeared for the past week or so because of summer band and I got in trouble so my parents took my iPad, but I have it again, so yay! 

But I'm really excited about both band camp and being back on this site again. Band camp is awesome, even though I live in Texas so it's hot and it's hard work, and I absolutely love our show music this year. 

Sadly, I probably won't be as active as I was before for another few months because of band/school. It's gonna be rough with all the AP classes I'm taking, a PSAT prep class, and marching season all at the same time. 

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1 hour ago, Briar King said:

Do Wolf spiders crawl up houses? I had a huge almost 4in giant up the other day that looked like one but I've only seen them in grass so idk what it was.

I think so. I had a fun experience at camp a few years back involving a few wolf spiders of that size...

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I drove up to the top of a mountain to look for birds yesterday and was very happy with my trip. The weather was GLORIOUS. Still sorting through my 250 photos, but here is a suuuuuper cropped picture of a Golden Eagle for y'all:

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Funny story: When I saw the eagle, I thought it was a Red-tailed Hawk, until I got home and blew up my photos on the larger screen of my PC. That's what I call a pleasant surprise!

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Finished sorting my photos from Saturday!

In case any of you were unaware, Utah's mountains are stunningly beautiful. I took lots of scenery pictures, which is unusual for me; I'm usually so occupied with the birds and the flowers and the butterflies that the landscape doesn't catch my eye enough to spend time photographing it. Not this time!

Mountain scenery (5 photos):

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Berries and wildflowers (4 photos):

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These purple ones were definitely my favorite flowers from this trip!

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Two butterflies and a grasshopper (3 photos):

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These grasshoppers were EVERYWHERE and actually got pretty annoying because they were such noisy fliers... I had a hard time listening for birds!

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This little guy is called a Purplish Copper. (Yeah, I know, it's a bit of an oxymoron. I didn't name it.)

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California Tortoiseshell butterfly, licking up water droplets from a patch of mud:

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I think I'm going to save the bird pictures for a separate post, because this one has a dozen large photos already.

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