All Things Paranormal

October is gone. In commemoration of the month that celebrates night creatures, I have decided to take a look at why freaks like me become obsessed with all things paranormal.
For those people who don't know the dark and -let's face it- embarrassing side of my personality I am completely infatuated with cheesy supernatural books. The evidence is on the sidebar where I posted the bookshelf I made with all the urban fantasy books I've read in the past two years. It is absolutely sick and disgusting that I have found time to go through more than 70 books that all deal with demons, vampires, witches, werewolves, warlocks, faeries, succubus... It's kind of funny really, if you consider pathetic funny. In any case, I have summed up the reasons why , in my opinion, this genre has become so catchy.
First, because real life sucks. I know this sounds sad. But it is true. Life is just boring, mundane, prosaic, ordinary.... This doesn't mean I hate my life. But at the end of the day, it's always the same. You go to work and you go home everyday. Some of those days you hang out with people and go see a play, movie, game, drink... As nice as those things are and as much as you may like your job, when it all boils down, there's no real excitement. There's no "fight for your life", "save the world" or "stop some evil creature from killing your friends and family". In the end it is just same old world, with real issues. Yes I understand that I am being a brat. I know that there's a lot of things happening outside of my little privileged bubble, but still, sometimes I just wish there was more to this life.
The second thing I think is alluring for people is the idea of immortality. Most people are afraid of death and becoming old. I know I would do anything to stay at 25 and not grow a day older. I guess a lot of people do think living forever would suck, but imagine if you had been alive for the past 200 years all the great and terrible things you would have witnessed; the collapse of empires, country revolutions, the publishing of works like the Communist Manifesto and The Origin of Species, the World Wars, the beginning of the space age... It's no surprise that characters who have life through this and so much more would be attractive to people right? At least I think meeting someone who has lived through so much would be awesome.
The whole beauty and superpowers thing comes in at third. But pretty close to the other two. Who does not wanna be powerful and beautiful? What wouldn't most people do for getting those things? Little if I had to guess. It might be the reason why women specially like urban fantasy so much. On second thought... no; Women love this genre because they like the idea of being capable of changing men. And changing an evil man (such as a vampire, demon, fairy , etc) would be the ultimate challenge right? It's all about the ridiculous idea that you could be so special as to turn someone completely around. Which, by the way, may be more far-fetched than immortality 'cause people don't change... ever.
In all honesty, wouldn't it be amazing if magical things were happening right here under our noses? Wouldn't it be awesome to know about it and be part of this huge secret? Wouldn't it make life more exciting? I think it would. Since it's not the case, what else is there to do but try to make your life as exciting as ordinarily possible and read a few urban fantasy books? Any suggestions?

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

Paper love

Rodents, love and sorrow

It is really amazing how much an animal so small can mean to you. I remember when I first got Punky. As soon as I saw her I knew she would be a part of me. Moo was almost as instant. I remember asking the guy at Petco who the friendliest guinea pig they had. She made me smile when I first tried to pick her up, she was so heavy! And she was even more friendly that I could ever imagine. Atari was the last addition to the pack. He was tiny and adorable, so adorable I thought he was a girl... Boy was I wrong. He had to move out of the girls cage after we found out that he was male. That's when my Moo passed away. I will always remember the little sounds she made when being petted, and how she loved laying on my bed. She was by far the biggest guinea pig you would ever find! She would eat anything, even tried to nibble on Punky's medicine. She really had no taste in food, she would down anything semi-edible. Atari was probably the exact opposite. He was always active. He would run around his cage and move his hide-away from side to side. He also had the annoying habit of flipping his plate over. My favorite thing about him was that he wasn't afraid of anything. He loved to explore and chew on everything. As soon as I would come close to the cage he would stand on the door poking his head out and always made hungry noises, even if his plate was full. I think that's what I miss more about him, the constant sound coming from his cage. When he wasn't quing (what I called his hungry noise) he was running around and moving his wood house, two other noisy activities. My room is so much quieter now, it makes me so sad.
Whoever thinks people don't get attached to small animals as some do to cats or dogs they are so wrong. My guineas all had very distinct personalities and were the greatest companions. It is true they don't have the best memories but they knew me well and comforted me every time I needed just by being themselves. I hope they felt as much love for me as I did for them and I hope I gave them a good life. I am grateful I still have my Punky and I plan to make her life as great as she has made mine.
It is really true that the best things in life come in small packages, I am glad I got to share time with three of the sweetest animals I have ever met.

People who take pictures of themselves suck balls!!

Facebook has made me realize something I hate with PASSION. I've discovered that I cannot stand people who take pictures of themselves. I get that maybe you wanted a picture with a friend and no one else could take it for you, I can even understand that maybe you wanted a picture of yourself and you were embarrassed to ask someone else to take it, or that suddenly you had the urge of having your picture taken and you just couldn't wait for someone else to do it... but that is it, when it is a constant thing it is completely unacceptable. OK, I get that sometimes there are times when people feel pretty and get the need of having their picture taken, but all the time??? Give me a fucking break!! What drives me even crazier is when people devote whole albums to this sort of pictures. Seriously, if no one wants to take pictures of you what could possibly make you think that someone wishes to see pictures of you took of yourself. Take a hint, if you are alone that means people probably don't wish to see you that much and if you are embarrassed over asking people to take your picture you are on the right track! Don't ruin it by taking the camera and extending your arm to take it yourself. Plus, be smart, think about it, who likes those pictures anyways? They always look stupid... So please, I beg you, if you are one of these people (and you know if you are one),  stop being so egocentric and delusional, get over yourself and accept that the world could care less about you so stop taking these obnoxious pictures. 

About Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series

OK so I accidentally got sucked into the Twilight vortex... I was in the airport, I had nothing to read, I saw the book, bought it and then... well I haven't been able to stop reading! It's like my drug, I can't help wanting to read more! It's funny that if I had known that so many people loved the books I would have never even consider picking it up. I usually hate what lots of people like... not in an effort to be different from everyone else, I swear, I just do. Things like Mana, Titanic, Metallica, Batman, 300, etc. just make me wanna hurl. So I am pretty sure that if I had known how many people were going crazy over this book series I would have hated it before even knowing what it was about, no wait... If I had known it was about freaking vampires I would have hated it even more. But things work in funny ways sometimes. This is not the first time this happens to me. I used to think people in developmental genetics were crazy. The thought of working with C. elegans or Drosophila was bizarre to me though I totally respected it. I just never thought of myself as someone that would enjoy working on something like that. And here I am now up to my elbows in zebrafish water.

Going back to Twilight, it is without a doubt in my list of books that I cannot put down. This list is no joke. Garcia Marquez's One Hunderd Years of Solitude, might be one of the best novels ever  written; also Of Love and Other Demons. I just couldn't get enough of it, a priest and a girl with rabies, just too good! Julio Cortazar's Rayuela, I loved this book 'cause I was always trying to see if I could understand what he would throw at you in this tangled story. I know what you must be thinking "give me a break Twilight it's some stupid story about teenage vampires" and it is true. BUT IT IS SO GOOD! I don't quite understand what it is. Maybe it wakens he teenager in me, or it is my geeky side overflowing, even worst my inner middle-aged woman craving some unreal love affair... I don't care. If you read it you will probably get sucked into the crazyness jut like me.

Oh and one last thing. I haven't seen the movie, but based on what people say, it is most likely bad. I WILL watch it though, like a Stars Wars fan! I just wanted to urge people not to judge the books by the movie. There's a whole lot of characters inner struggle that couldn't possibly be portrayed in a screen (like any other book I guess). So the end to this is just, READ THE BOOKS! and come talk to me about them 'cause I just can't get enough, maybe they put crack on the pages or something... You'll see what I mean if you pick it up ;)

Ale

Guinea Pig World Invasion... Awesome