Obviously, the thing in these real-world examples is that all these insects have had tens of millions of years to evolve alongside their crops, whereas humans have only been doing it for ~10,000 years, but (and I'll quote the paper here) "through a combination of insight, creative planning, and a fair share of contingency and luck," humans have managed to cultivate a wide variety of monoculture plants. If we apply the concept to a magical race and world, I see little reason why amazing leaps in agriculture wouldn't occur.

I completely forgot to mention that I was also directed to a literal underwater band, called AquaSonic (like the toothbrush, unfortunately). They use a range of instruments from the expected to the uncommon to the unique. Obviously wind instruments are right out because, hey, water, though they use what's basically a water ocarina called a hydraulophone, which is really what I wanted to point out, since a lot of their other instruments (string, percussion, glass harmonica, their own voices) make a certain kind of sense, but this thing is basically a water-type woodwind instrument and it kind of blows my mind.

You can look up some of their music on youtube if you want to listen for yourself, but their site here gives a good overview of the instruments they use.

So, as I was reading up a bit about sharks today, I finally discovered that, on my work computer, I just have access to several scholarly article sites and am not blocked by paywalls and such. It's probably something I should have realized a long time ago, because it's Baylor University Medical Center -- i.e. a medical school -- but it's nice to find out now. I hope/plan to put it to good (if questionable) use as I search for creative inspiration among the natural world.

We hotwired a DVD player into a projector today.
Watched Beetlejuice and then Castlevania.
We're going to abuse the hell out of this.

Some new information I learned today, about some specific sharks:

Thresher sharks (the ones with the loooooooong tail fins) whip them around like freaking scorpions to stun prey.

Bonnetheads (a type of hammerhead with small "hammers") can at least partially digest seagrass, and it seems to make up to 50% of their diet, though it's not clear whether they derive much nutritional value out of it, and may just eat it to pad their stomachs against the shells of the crabs and such that they eat. They also have molars, for crushing the aforementioned shells.

Silky sharks are actually incredibly sensitive to sounds, are drawn to specific sounds close to the surface, but will also get spooked if the sound suddenly changes. They also have an obvious "threat display," arching their back and swimming weird when they feel threatened, and will either run or attack if divers continue getting close while they're doing that.

Scalloped hammerheads (which seems to be the most well-studied hammerhead species) are actually incredibly social, hanging out in schools of females which spread out to hunt at night and then gather back together over underwater mountains again during the day. They also seem to have several easily-recognizable (for us) body language signs to communicate with each other.

I forget which species it was now, but I think it was a cat shark, was experimented with to test their visual acuity and memory, teaching them to recognize triangles and longest lines to get food. They not only were able to easily recognize these things despite common visual illusions (such as the <---> / >---< illusion), but they also remembered how to do these things when tested again a year later.

As a weird side-note, I also learned from at least two shark species which had extensive pages on them, that they seem to have only 1 ovary but 2 uteruses.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that scalloped hammerheads have also been observed to tan, as in their skin gets darker from melanin after exposure to UV.

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That's awesome. I'm always really impressed with visual artistic talent, and this is a very nice representation of Elphimas. I like that the lower portion of the picture is more solid, but as it moves up, it becomes more ephemeral, or, perhaps more accurately, it is probably the other way around, where the fading starts from Elphimas's head and works downward, as if they are working some of their reality-altering magic and preparing to suffer from the effects thereof.

Very cool work. My compliments to the artist, and thanks for sharing, Huey!

Aaaaaaaa :

I take it the date went well?

More than well!

I don't know just how much I should (or want to) share, but I can put it this way: Even coming back to another grueling almost-11-hour Monday at work, I came home more mentally refreshed than I ever have.

It was simply amazing. I definitely overprepared in what I took with me -- having taken some board games and all -- because we actually spent most of the time kissing and cuddling. This being my first romantic involvement, tho, I finally learned what makes kissing so actually good. My body responded in ways I didn't expect throughout the day and night, some good ways, some bad! Like, I've never tolerated so much touching before. I'm ticklish and it was both weird and amazing that I could share so much physical touch without squirming.

Glad to hear it! Lots of things seem and/or feel weird until you experience them in the right circumstances, which applies in many things besides romance

I am very happy for you, Luna, and this is just a joy to read.

Cheers!

Well thank you. I'm still not sure just how much I want to divulge, but...

She has actually given me full permission to share any and all details (she's a bit more free in that respect and says "it would be fun to brag"), but I'm not used to it still. I've been using the excuse so far that "a lady doesn't kiss and tell" just to be cheeky.

Hell yeah!


Commendable choice

aaaaaaaa

It's happening again! Her flight (originally for the 27th) got cancelled, so instead she's "in town" until this Sunday. Which means, not only do I get the chance for a second date, but since I have Monday off as well, I can make it a two-day date. (She's even intimated that she might push her own plans back to Monday for extra Luna time, tho we'll see how things turn out.)

To note in case I forgot to say before: she's in Houston while I'm in Dallas so it is a close-to-4-hour drive down there, but for Texas, that's not a surprisingly-not-terrible drive (especially while gas is so cheap).

@Luna: Awesome! I hope you kids have a great time. Just have her home by eight-fifteen.

Yeah, the middle of August should be just fine.

I spilled spot remover on my dog, now he's gone.

A quick note first: I've edited my posts above out of respect for my sweet girl (as I call her), because she cleared something up during our second date. See, something I knew since long ago is that she currently has a romantic partner (whom she's living with) and that she has very close, even sexual relationships with many other people besides. I had made a small assumption by calling her my "girlfriend", but even so she feels like the best thing that ever happened to me and I keep questioning what I did to deserve her.

My heart has been overflowing since yesterday. She actually did get another flight so that we could spend just one more day together, but I didn't expect just how much that would mean. Just before I left, for one last cuddle session she held me close and asked me to divulge something that I was too shy and far too scared to say prior, the thing that I've now told only 3 people. She got me to be so vulnerable and yet just held me tight and told me she loved me and that everything is okay and that I'm a good girl and I've been getting all teary-eyed since. Just thinking about it now while typing it out has got me going again.

And to clear anything up in case it stands out to anyone, I've mentioned to her and a few others that I seem to have something just a bit more than a passing curiosity but nowhere near dysphoria about being a girl -- something that I started realizing around the time I finally accepted that all the characters I like making for RPGs were like waifus (and to reiterate like 2 out of 20-some-odd characters were male and those two were specifically adaptations of some characters from other media [e.g. one was Bo-bo-bo]) -- so I accepted letting her call me her Luna girl, and with how much love and acceptance she's given me it's even been nice.

Luna, I am so happy that you have this in your life right now. Hugs, friend. Hugs!

Hell **** yeah! It cheered me up just reading that :3


Aww, samesies! Although my RPG representation is a wee bit more balanced - especially in ttrpgs, where some people can be weirded out by players RPing characters of their "opposite" gender I've been trying out a new name with an online friend and it's a small boost of serotonin every time I read it

The new name - additional, more than alternative as of now - has been somewhat recent for me, but not the overall genderf***ery - can you remember a time when [Inertially/Functionally] Male wasn't my set Identity?

Edit: speaking of which... there! I didn't expect the profile to have profanity filters, but I wasn't exactly surprised lol