It's Kiwithing!

I came home last night with a little bit of a pep in my step. I was excited to see what had become of my little, nameless hermit crab that had started molting the evening before. I peeked into the corner it was hiding in, and seen that it was very still. Upon further inspection (and a couple of pokes), I found out that the crab was indeed dead. In fact, its large claw and some of its left right legs fell off. It most likely died from stress. Molting is a very stressful time for a crab.

The crab was definitely of sentimental value to me, and I also had the conditions for molting pretty spot on. Sadly, things didn't work out the way it should have. I don't know if I should be as sad as I am right now.

On the bright side, at least I was able to see a buck naked crab and its former exoskeleton in the comfort of my own home.

I have crabs. Two land hermit crabs. I've owned plenty of hermit crabs since grade school, and it's been about a three year break until recently. The new crabs were gifts from some very awesome people. I've had my first (and largest) one since the last week of March, and my smallest one since the first week of April this year. I have no idea where the larger one came from, but the tiny one came from a Petsmart near the school that I work at. They're both cute and nameless, and I love them both.

My roommate and I would take a gander into their cage, and coo at their very crazy crab antics. After a few months of observation, I've noticed that both crabs have some sort of love/hate relationship going on. One minute the larger one is poking at the smaller one with its claw, and then they get all snuggled up in one of the corners of the cage. Aw.

About a month ago, I started to wonder when my hermit crabs were going to molt and switch shells. I've never seen a crab molt while it was in my possession, and I began to get a little worried about that, since molting is a pretty big thing and a crab's survivability can be stunted if it doesn't molt in the right conditions. After doing some research, I bought lots of Calci-Sand (edible calcium substrate), coconut bark (for keeping the humidity high), and a humidity gauge. I was waiting for one of those suckers to start molting. I was anxious to find out when, where, and how it goes about shedding its exoskeleton.

Nearly a month goes by and nothing happens. I shrug it off. I figured it'll happen when it's ready.

Apparently, one of the crabs were ready today. I present to you, the Naked Crab.

I came home from work and there it was, in the corner of the cage, all balled up. I wasn't really freaking out, but it really did surprise me to see the tiny crab all curled up in the corner with its exoskeleton shoved to the side. It was flush pink, and very still. (It's a lot more pink than it appears in the picture.) The larger crab was near it, practically guarding the little crab from within the water dish. It was very alert. It also scuttled about as if it didn't really know what to do with itself. I decided to hide the crab by placing a piece of balsa wood in the corner to create a little cave that the larger crab can't get into.

I've since checked up on the crabs, and the larger crab is now perched on top of the balsa wood like a gargoyle. The little crab moved a little bit, but didn't leave the covered area. It'll take a couple of days for its exoskeleton to harden. In the meantime, I'll buy some extra shells. I already have one for the smaller crab, but I'm not sure if it is going to try it on and keep it.

The joy of land hermit crab ownership. Fills me with joy, it does.

This past winter, I had a couple of mediocre Altech Lancing speakers that were given to me by my ex when I built my first desktop. Since then, the wiring ended up getting screwy and I had to start fiddling around with the wire that lead to the Line Out in the back of my computer. That started to frustrate me quite a bit. I dealt with this until about a month or so ago.

At that time, my grandmother had a pair of speakers lying about. Since her computer was sans sound (drivers), she decided that she'd might as well let me have them. They're tiny Cyber Acoustics speakers. I like tiny things, but not when they sound really, really bad.

As of today, I've been blessed by speakers both tiny and good sounding. I'm talking about the Logitech X-240 speaker set. I went over to Best Buy and picked up the set for $54.99. (I know they're on Newegg for $48 with free shipping included.) It was a partial impulse buy, but it certainly turned out a lot better than the last impulse buy I did.

What I like the most about the speaker set is that the satellite speakers are quite slim.

The subwoofer is also fairly compact. (Which means I'm less likely to kick that sucker!)

As for the sound, it's really nice for the price. The bass is nice, and the satellite speakers have a nice sound to 'em. No buzzing, no scratchy sounds at high volumes, and no weird sounds when my phone pings a tower. (I know that doesn't describe much, but you'd really just have to listen to 'em.)

It was certainly worth the money, though I think that the MP3 player dock was a tacked on feature. (It was about as much of an afterthought as this one.)

And speaking of MP3 players...

Zune HD's on pre-order, and I'm about to snatch this sucker up!

I am a sassy person. I'm not sassy in the head bobbing, finger snapping way (archetype party). I used to be sassy in a way that made people think that I'm consistantly bitter and skeptical about everything in the entire universe. After some trial and error, I've learned to lighten up and administer my sass in smaller doses, as not to scare away others. However, when someone is clearly in the wrong, they need to be called out in the most embarrassing and snarky way possible. Especially if that person likes to administer their own sass, but doesn't like a taste of their own medicine.

That is when my secret sass comes out to play. The sass that may not seem very whippish, but it gets the point across. It's like some sort of pit viper in a pit that's covered up with very convincing leaves. Once someone treads on those leaves and falls into the pit, they'll experience true pain! (Or they'll just step on the poor snake and that'll be the end of it.)

Sometimes I think I'm being a jerk when I tell someone off. But more often than not, they deserve the berating comments about their own personal flaws, which totally justifies my need to say snarky things to people.

Yeah... That's it. Yeeeah...

My first laser mouse was the Razer Krait. I got it mainly because it fit my tiny, tiny lady hands. (Well, at least I think my lady hands are tiny.) I thought the Razer Copperhead would be too big for my dainty digits, and figured that a Krait would do because it was cheaper and more comfortable to use for my gaming hands. So, I bought a Krait about a year or so ago, and I haven't looked back to optical mice ever since. But then again, who would?

Now, within the past six months, I've had a couple of other run-ins with ol' Copperhead. First, I bought one for my ex-boyfriend as a mildly late birthday present. I figured that he needed a break from the monstrosity that was his Logitech Mouse. It turns out that he liked the Copperhead quite a bit, and has been using it ever since. After that, I started talking to one of my classmates (who is now my roomie), who owns a Copperhead and pretty much swears by it. I was skeptical at first, but then I started thinking about the ability to switch my DPI on the fly, some decent Linux support, and fiddling with extra mouse buttons.

After looking at it for a while, I began to lust after the Copperhead (as well as the Razer Lachesis). I began to fall in love with most of Razer's mouse designs. (Ambidexterious, sassy, and sexy. Hisss.) Not only that, they're all named after snakes. I love snakes.

And so, I broke down and bought an awesome mousepad (a SteelSeries S&S) and an even more awesome mouse. I couldn't be happier... For the time being.

Keep on bein' awesome, Razer. I'm forever yours.