Mammoth Meat Slugs, Batman!

Good evening Fanatics, please settle on down and let me tell you a little story about a fellow named Triboniophorus graeffei. Triboniophorus graeffei, or Mr. Red Triangle Slug as his friends call him, is Australia's biggest, toughest terrestrial gastropod. At over five inches, this guy and his family can be found all over the island continent, and they are quite a common sight in gardens and parks, where they tend to favor algae, fungi and molds over the succulent native plants. They have even been known to sneak into houses and clean up folks' mildewey bathrooms. Truly a friend to humanity, the Red Triangle Slug.

Photo by Ros Runciman

But, elevated far above the worries of the foolish lowlanders and their mildew, there exists a Red Triangle Slug of a different sort, scientists say. At just over EIGHT inches long, this slug has been known by hikers and rangers, but was only recently confirmed as a subspecies of Red Triangle Slug. 

Oh readers, is this truly a slug to behold. It hails from the peak of Mount Kaputar in New South Wales, a long-dead volcano that now exists as a unique alpine habitat surrounded by Australian scrublands. In fact, Mount Kaputar is the ONLY place you will find this subspecies, which I will be calling the Really Really Red Triangle Slug for the purpose of this post. Oh readers, oh readers, this is truly the kind of discovery I like to see. Are you ready, dear readers? Here it comes:

Photo by New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service

Via John Forlonge

In addition to being fluorescent, you'll also notice it seems much more moist than the brown variety. That is because these slugs are likely the progenitors of the modern day Red Triangle Slugs, a relic from another time. They date back to Pangea, when the area that would eventually become Australia was still covered in conifer forests. As the area became more arid, the slugs that weren't hiding away on Kaputar had to adapt by becoming smaller and retaining more water. But in this piney Oasis, the RRRTS thrived.

It also resembles a fine cut of New York Strip.

Stay Fanatic,

Aaron

5 Horrifying Texas Insects

Texas is a region of grand and varied biomes, ranging from swamps to deserts and everything in-between. Did you know the Big Thicket is actually classified as a jungle? Truly, Texas is a land of natural beauty. But every rose has its thorns, and in this case the thorns are horrifying insectile monsters, lurking in your backyards and parks, waiting for you to leave your children unattended. And I'm not talking about the usual suspects; we already have fire ants that live in big happy families of up to 500,000 members, and our mosquitos account for half of the entire country's West Nile cases. No, these following five bugs will impact you on both physical and psychological levels, as I can attest, as I have met all of them personally. Be warned, this post is not for the squeamish.

Night of the Living Dead Animals

While Megh is on the subject of animals coming back from the dead to have all kinds of fun and havoc, boy do I have a story to tell you!
It all started in 1938 off the coast of South Africa, when fishermen pulled a mysterious creature from their nets. It was a fish, of sorts, with fleshy fins and a bony head the likes of which hadn't been seen on this earth in time immemorial. They had caught a Coelacanth, the father of the modern-day lung.

Alberto Fernandez Fernandez

This is one of the earliest known occurrences of what is known today as a Lazarus taxon, a taxon that has vanished from the fossil record and assumed to be extinct, only to be rediscovered alive and well, just as in the Biblical story of Lazarus. The Coelacanth was considered to be a

Working on Cranium

What misadventures could a zombie cat possibly get into?

Megh's -hic!- 21st Brithday Party

Hello again, Fanatics!
Sorry that it's been a while since you've - blah blah blah we're lazy at writing the blog.

Anywho, last Wednesday was MY birthday. I finally turned 21 and instead of going to Prohibiton, a speakeasy themed restaurant/club here in Houston like we had planned, we bought some groceries and stayed home. I think I cried a little. Aaron's mother baked me a wonderful Black Russian cake, which Aaron and I ate all by ourselves instead of sharing with our guests at my party on Saturday.

My party was a fairly intimate affair, with only 5 people coming over. My best friend from high school dropped by to say hello and drop me off a card and balloon. We only see each other every 3 or years (it's sort of a running tradition). Aaron's friend Tank arrived, shortly followed by our other guests. Having everyone in the living room all at once made me realize that most of our friends are a good half foot (or more) taller than us. Boohoo.

I got a vintage glass candy dish from my friend Sam and Judy (my sister's best friend) and her boyfriend got me a teddy bear tshirt in a can. Tank brought over what looked to be a 24 pack of beer and Marcello (a boy from high school) made pasta sauce and ice cream.

My party differed vastly from Aaron's. We did not play a board game, Isaac did not attend, and half of the party was celebrated outside, mostly because it was a pleasant night. I also made a cocktail shaped pinata for the evening, filled with dollar store candy and chocolate liqueurs. A labor of about 12 hours, it lasted about three minutes. Tank managed to break the thing's stem off with a mighty hit, and I surprised myself by bashing it open.

My first handmade pinata!

I'm embarrassed to say that that I only remember snippets from the rest of the party. We played a party game where each of us made cards that I found hilarious, I am pretty sure someone let me make s'mores near an open fire pit, I convinced Aaron to wrap up sausages in foil and throw them into the fire. It was fun. Everyone stayed over and I did quite a bit of cooking the next morning. Our house is still a mess.

Now that our birthdays are over, the next big thing we have to look forward to is Comicpalooza in May; so our posts now should focus on more Fanatic subjects until then.

Stay Fanatic!
-Megh

Aaron's Bugtastic Voyage

Hello Fanatics! Fun Fact: In addition to my regular odd jobs and hobbies, I am a big big fan of macro photography. Specifically, pictures of the teeny-tiny flora and fauna that can be found in your own backyard. And guess what? My new camera has a sweet super-macro function and I am finally able to take some pictures of my own. They might not be any good, as I don't know much about photography, but I am pretty proud of them and I think they're pretty fanatic subject matter. Click on the images for a better view.

Some small mysterious mushrooms I found growing near our back fence, less than an inch tall.

There were a lot of them.

And they have babies.

A Gasteracantha cancriformis on a lemon leaf.

From another angle!

A silly ol' doodle bug.

A Crane Fly just hanging out with his legs.

A nasturtium flower, with all it's frilly bits.

A Lantana flower, as beautiful as it is toxic.

A Lantana berry bud. Yes, we have a huge toxic bush growing in our backyard.

A shield bug, also toxic.

A juvenile toad frog under a log.

A juvenile june bug.

My favorite I've taken, with a different camera. A Black Swallowtail caterpillar on a Sweet Leaf Tea cap. Suitable for a caterpillar.

That's all I really have for you tonight, sorry this post is so heavy on the "show" and light on the "tell". Until next time, stay fanatic.

Aaron

Valentine's day date with the Quiet Fanatics

Good evening, Fanatics!

This past Thursday was Saint Valentine's day! Lovers and friends everywhere exchanged cards and chocolates and just, presents and junk or whatever they liked. In our last post, Aaron shared OUR day, which was filled with a fun trip to the Houston Zoo and Hermann Park with everyones' favorite little Fanatic, Isaac.

Aaron and I took this Saturday to have a bit of a couples' date and asked Aaron's parents to watch Isaac for the day. We decided to go back into the city and have a little picnic and then attend Discovery Green's Flea on the Green by night. We had also planned to attend Texas Art Asylum's (a local "junk" and art supply store) grand re-opening, but due to a few closed exits on the highway, we lost about an hour and couldn't make it. :s 

 We stopped by Central Market to get some things for our picnic, which turned out to be fairly short because of the unexpected chill and plus there were some people playing drums in the park, and Aaron and I really have a distaste for large drum circles.

The Quiet Fanatic Recipe for a Romantic Picnic
-Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe
-Proscuitto wrapped mozzarella 
-Garlic Parmesean Breadsticks (the hard, skinny sort)
-Blackberries
-Crudites
-Iced Tea (with no ice)
-A Chocolate filled croissant (to share)

All in all, the picnic was very fun. I found out that I do not care for raw zucchini, Aaron discovered that he likes chocolate filled croissants, and a young drug addict asked us if we had any cigarettes to spare.

 Flea on the Green at night is much like regular Flea on the Green, with the slight difference of it being at night. Oh, and there was some sort of NBA All Star convention going on at the George R. Brown, which is RIGHT across the street from Discovery Green, so there was like 10x more people than we expected everywhere. They also had a mobile bar (which was closed) set up, and a temporary carnival food station in the middle of the park. We got foot long corn dogs, which I am starting to regret right about now. After milling around the Flea a bit, Aaron bought me a late Valentine's day present and we rushed home to see our little one, who we often miss for some strange reason.

I hope y'all also had a wonderful Valentine's day! 

My gifts! Aaron's mommy got me the Hello Kitty mug and plush, Aaron got me the Sanrio plush Pig and crochet cat. The chocolates were mostly for me, but we shared.

Aaron's gifts! His mommy and sister got him the "Sexy" mug and plush puppy as a joke, and I got him some artist's postcard prints featuring other worldly creatures!

-Megh

Isaac's Valentine's Day Zoo Party

Hello everyone! Yesterday, Megh, Isaac, and I spent our day at the Houston Zoo for Valentine's Day. The weather was temperate, the sun was shining, and there weren't any crowds, so we figured it would be the perfect place. Megh and I got to spend the day together, I got to use my new camera to its full ability, and Isaac got to see animals he couldn't imagine in his most horrible nightmares.

"Meh."

Initially, he wasn't very impressed with the bright sun and the loud, angry birds. But with no context to build on, he had no idea what he was in for.

Suddenly, shock!

"Aliens!"

He was hooked from then on. He liked the aquarium the most, although my camera did not. We made our way from there to the bird exhibit, where we met all kinds of studs:

Like this Corvus Albicollis and its friend, Rattus Norvegicus.

And the America Bird.

And everyone's favourite, the Lemonheaded Bushwinger. I don't know a lot about birds, okay.

The birds, although photogenic, were pretty boring to Isaac. So we decided to take him over to the children's zoo to find friendlier creatures.

But all we found was terror at the hands of the child-eating Woodgoats.

The Pumbahogs were also less than impressive.

We found the Prairie Weasels to be entertaining, but Isaac was busy looking at his feet during this part.

We went over to the climbin' pig to climb around a little I thought the climbing was average, but Isaac really liked it. In fact, Isaac really likes to be out and about; sometimes I feel like he gets frustrated that he can't walk yet.

The synthetic cimbin' pigs are much more hygienic than the real ones, for sure, but nothing feels quite as sturdy as a real climbin' pig under your feet.

Our next stop was the elephant exhibit, where the elephant cubs were having a pool party. There were treats and pool toys and fountain drinks. Everyone had a good time and Isaac learned how to do a backflip off the diving board.

They're cute and all, but in the water they remind me of some sort of terrible sea monster I've seen before.

Then we made our way to the primates, which all look like prisoners.

"Yeah I'm in here for the long run. Life, with no chance of parole. Want some cigarettes?"

Also, this giraffe.

Heating things up on Valentine's Day with his foxy lady, a Foxtail Palm.

Deciding that we didn't have enough pictures of Isaac, we had him pose next to the Waterdog statue.

And behind that, a sea lion.

Then it was well time for a nap, and Isaac slept for the remainder of our visit. I got a few perfect shots of a Golden Lion Tamarin being groomed by a Pygmy Marmoset.

And then it was time for lunch! We swooped down to the secret underground Cafe Express beneath Houston's art museum for a well-deserved lunch.

Isaac ordered the Classic Turkey Sandwich: Deli-sliced turkey, swiss, and  organic lettuce between two slices of whole wheat bread, with kettle-cooked chips on the side.

But of course, he filled up on breadsticks before his order was even ready.

The End.

Stay Fanatic, my friends.

QuietFanatics go to Comicpalooza!

Good evening, Fanatics.

I have some exciting news for you. Want to guess it?

Well, you wouldn't have to if you had read this post's title.

Yes, it is true! Quiet Fanatics will have it's very own booth at Houston's Comicpalooza this coming May. This will be the largest (and second) convention that we will have had a booth at, and we are tickled pink about it. 

Originally, we purchased the booth for TimandBen but decided that QuietFanatics would be a much better vendor for this con. Why? Well, as you know, TimandBen's sells voodoo dolls and monster dolls, so it wouldn't be quite appropriate for a comic convention. Or any month besides October, really. Secondly, we here at QF headquarters have been working on props and crytozoological displays that we would really like to show off, along with a few prints. Our Houston fans can still expect to see a few of our more popular voodoo dolls and monster plushes at Comicpalooza, but they can also look forward to items such as Cthulhu themed statuettes, plushes based on a few of my favorite sci-fi stories, and some art prints (if I can figure out where to print the darn things).

So look forward to updates for that.

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

Aaron Day and Comicthulooza

Hello folks! Aaron here! Long time, no see! Guess what, folks? My birthday was last week! And you didn't get me a present. Shame! Unless you were one of the people who did, in which case, thank you very much! The party was a small, private affair, friends and family only, tons of fun. If you like tabletop games, we played Savage Worlds. I recommend it over Pathfinder, myself.

My best present of all was what my Megh gave me, a special prototype doll from of a line of dolls we're going to try out at Comicpalooza. Try to guess what it is!

I also got a wonderful contribution to our Indiegogo campaign (more about that later) as a birthday present from my good friend. Thank you, friend!

As a birthday present to myself, I am making this blog post incredibly easy for me to write by talking about Cthulhu monsters for the remainder. I'm going to be making a handful of different Cthulhu Mythos sculpey sculptures similar to the Cthulhu one I showed you folks at the end of this post. Here are a few of the monsters I'm going to be trying to sculpt out:

Child of Shub-Niggurath

Dagon, lord of the sea

An Elder... Thing

These should be coming up for sale soon. Check out tomorrow's blog post for a review!


Stay Fanatic
Aaron

Quick update on what's going on.

Good evening, Fanatics!

Sorry we've been so quiet lately. Being new parents is hard. Between Isaac needing us to help his baby brain development, Aaron's new job, and my crippling anxiety, we haven't had much time for our blog. Please accept our apologies.

In the past two weeks, much has happened. Isaac has hit his 5 month mark, there are a few new dolls in the shop, and Aaron's birthday was yesterday.

Aaron turned 21! Whoohoo! Booze, and irresponsible drinking, and so on and so forth.

Not really. He doesn't have much of a taste for the stuff, but I will let him tell you his thoughts on this milestone in our next post.

Today Aaron and I spent the day out together. Isaac stayed at Aaron's parents' house so we went out to Houston's own Discovery Green Flea market. Discovery Green is a park located in downtown Houston, right next to the George R. Brown Convention Center. It's a nice little patch of green that offers nearby families and office workers a respite from all of the concrete. Aaron and I decided to take the MetroRail to the Green, so we wouldn't have to leave the car unattended downtown. We discovered that there was unexpected (to us) maintenence being done to the Rail, but the 15 block walk there was well worth it.

There were fewer vendors than we expected, but the ones that were attending were amazing. All of the merchandise being sold there were produced by local artists. One of the vendors was even selling terra cotta replicas of Chinese soldiers; salvaged from the now closed down Forbidden Gardens.

Aaron snagged a bottle of Peach infused Balsamic vinegar from Texas Hill Country Olive Co, one of their most popular flavors, as a late birthday present for himself. It's really great, I suggest you go check out their store.

After we left the Market, we stopped by the Galleria to go to the Sanrio shop. I have to admit; I really love Hello Kitty. Can you imagine my excitement when I found out that today was Sanrio Fun Day? And that Kitty HERSELF WAS THERE IN PERSON? They gave me a Hello Kitty hat to wear and I didn't even care that no other adult was wearing one. If it wasn't for my distrust of costumed people, there would be proof that I met Hello Kitty. For now, this picture of a stuffed piggy that Aaron got me will have to do.

That's all for tonight, Fanatics. We will have some exciting news coming up soon, so stay tuned!