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+---
+layout:  2col
+title:  "sea creatures"
+date:  2024-11-06
+tags:  girlblogging
+show_blog_footer: true
+---
+this was supposed to come out last week, but I've been feeling a little under-the-weather lately, so here it is now. this (past) week, [lucidiot](https://lucidiot.wordpress.com/2024/10/27/do-not-let-me-near-a-computer/) and I agreed that the theme this time would be "ocean." x3
+
+really, I just wanted a chance to gush about cute sea creachers.
+
+for as long as I can remember, I've loved being near the water, even though now that I am older, large, open stretches of it make me incredibly nervous, *especially* at night. at this point, I've lived most of my life on some kind of coast or another.
+
+probably my favorite part of living near the ocean are the random sightings of sea creatures. I've long loved many animals, but sea creatures hold a special sort of fascination for me. I'm not sure what it is specifically, but there's something about viewing a jellyfish in its natural habitat, seeing it just floating along underwater that feels borderline...spiritual?
+
+idk there's just always been a sense of peace whenever I look at sea creatures...they're so far removed from our lives on land. they don't worry about things like politics or religion...just vibing along the ocean floor...taking things as they come.
+
+i'm definitely more than a little envious of that.
+
+where I live now has an aquarium, and once it opens in the spring, my partner and I plan to go visit it. I've always wanted to go to an aquarium!
+
+I've been to zoos in the past, and some of them had underwater areas/tanks you could look at, but nothing like a real aquarium with its myriad creatures. this particular aquarium also has a touch tank!!!!! which means!!!! I will be able to pat [sea flap flaps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manta_ray)!!!! ![manta ray](/img/emoji/ray.gif)
+
+if I think about it, underwater levels in video games always have the most calming BGM. I don't really have much to say about that other than noting it. x3
+
+recently I read the manga [shimeji simulation](https://mangadex.org/title/28b5d037-175d-4119-96f8-e860e408ebe9/shimeji-simulation) by tsukumizu, and the main character, shijima, is absolutely fascinated by sea creatures as well (she just like me fr fr). that made her immediately very charming to me, since I also love them. ![clione](/img/emoji/clione.gif)
+
+I suppose I could talk about some of my favorite creatures...I really like starfish! when I took biology in high school, they made us do a dissection on starfish, which I refused to participate in. I still don't fully understand why they insist that you dissect a creature yourself for those sorts of classes...anything I am going to learn from that I can learn from photographs, no? the cruelty of performing experiments on an animal (whether it's living or not) is just too much for me! ![tantrum](/img/emoji/tantrum.gif)
+
+but I enjoy starfish, clione (aka [sea angels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_angel), a type of sea slug), marine flatworms, jellyfish, [sea anemone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_anemone)...
+
+hehe, that reminds me of a video we had to watch in biology back when I was in high school...it was about [pseudobiceros hancockanus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudobiceros_hancockanus), a species of hermaphroditic marine flatworms that reproduce by dueling with their penises, and the loser gets inseminated... ![x3](/img/emoji/x3.gif)
+
+nature can be so brutal OwO;;;
+
+I think part of what entrances me so much about aquatic life is the near-cosmic horror quality that many of these creatures have. My every instinct upon seeing one is to turn and run, some of them even make my skin crawl a bit, because they are so strange as to register as alien...but they're also hauntingly beautiful in a way that's...disturbing, sure, but also etheral.
+
+[moon jellyfish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelia_aurita) (*aurelia aurita*), are beautiful but small, and have a cute quality, as do [egg yolk jellyfish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phacellophora) (*phacellophora*). larger jellies like [cyanea lamarckii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_jellyfish) or [cyanea nozakii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanea_nozaki) can look like ghosts floating along, but the most gorgeous, in my opinion have to be the [sea nettles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysaora), with their long, ribbon-like tendrils. ![jellyfish](/img/emoji/jellyfish.gif)
+
+sorry this one was a bit rambly x3
+until next time!
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+---
+title:  "site update"
+date:  2024-11-06
+---
+new blog post about [sea creatures]({% link _posts/2024-11-06-ocean.md %}).
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