Reasons to Stay Out of the Ocean

Elizabeth told me today about something that happened in a Jessica Fletcher "Murder, She Wrote" book she'd been reading, The Maine Mutiny. Jessica was stranded out in the ocean (long story as to how she got there), and a shark started circling, even brushing her legs. Turns out the shark was actually a Mola Mola, or Ocean Sunfish, which are often around the same size as sharks and have similar dorsal fins. We couldn't believe a Sunfish could be so large (I've caught Freshwater Sunfish before that were about 4 inches long...), so spent quite some time researching and being grossed out/amazed by the Ocean Sunfish. (Some time was also spent chuckling about a blog we'd found about the Ocean Sunfish. "Bimbles..." Good times.)

Who knew these monstrosities existed?! Quite frankly, they are just one more reason for me to never swim in the ocean, go on an ocean cruise, or fly over the ocean ever again. (Well, I've never been on an ocean cruise, so they're one more reason not to go on one in the first place, along with sea sickness and all of the shenanigans/murders that inevitably happen. I may be reading too many mystery novels.)

Some quick facts about the Sunfish:

- They weigh on average about 2,200 pounds (that's 1,000 kg for you Metric Systemers) (the fish in the black and white photo here weighted about 3,500 lbs)

- They are the heaviest of the boney fish in the world

- The females can produce more eggs than any other vertebrate in the world

- They eat mostly jellyfish, lots and lots of jellyfish

- Elizabeth thinks that the midget in the photo above (on the right) was planted to exaggerate the size of the Sunfish. She also doesn't believe midgets existed in 1910 (when the photo was taken). I'm pretty sure she was kidding.

Tartanic!

I went with some friends to the Michigan Renaissance Festival this past weekend, and was excited to see that Tartanic was performing! Ever since I saw them at the Saline Celtic Festival, I've been looking for another opportunity to see them perform. It was a short, but action- (and music-) packed show! Tartanic is a band that aims to bring bagpipes into the everyday lives of unsuspecting American citizens... It's bagpipe music with an edge! As a woman of Scottish descent, I grew up with a love of bagpipes, but for those of you without the bagpipe love flowing through your veins, I would still highly recommend the band.

After the show, I got my picture taken with Adrian Walter, the front man for the group. (The pose was all his idea! The girls laughing at the right of the picture crack me up, too!)

I apologize for the boring "Here's something I did, read about it!" quality of this post...just wanted to share a few photos of them!

Robot Tuesdays

Not to take away from Elizabeth's "Wednesday Thoughts" or Brian's "Sesame Street Tuesdays" but I thought I'd share some thoughts with you, and they're not necessarily connected. Since my blog URL is actually "Robottuesdays," that seemed a fitting name for this blog post and possible some future ones. Without further ado...

I'm sitting in the Public Library downtown Grand Rapids as I write this and I still can't believe I'm here! I moved here on Saturday, and it still feels really weird. It's a beautiful city (for the most part), and I can basically bike everywhere I need to go (except church). Let's go, environment!!

I've spent the last few days unpacking and trying to get my apartment to look less like a storage facility and more like an actually lived-in apartment. It's exhausting!! I'm thinking about leaving the rest of the boxes and calling it art. Either that or just donating the rest of the my stuff to make life easier (and less cluttered).

Yesterday was my first day of classes at Kendall, and let me tell you, there's nothing like a grad program at an art school to make you feel like a terrible artist. Ha! (I have to laugh because I've been torn down so much in the last few days...) I have to do a lot of self-affirmations to keep myself going. "Katherine, you're a great artist. You can do it! Your style is just different from theirs..." Thankfully there are some other new students in the same boat as me, so we're banding together. We may start a club.

I don't have internet in my apartment yet...I have never felt so cut off from the world!! Thank heavens for the library.

Ok, it's time to see if I can get a library card. I've just got to wait until "Sabrina" is over. Thank heavens for YouTube, too. ;)

P.S. I think I'm going to keep this background for a bit longer. I can't help but like it a little! Plus, with no internet at my place, I don't look at it that often...