Spiders of Japan

まずは、久しぶりだね。　

My visit to a hobby shop was a total bust in terms of Safari figures, so I stopped by the neighboring used bookstore.  Found a really good hardback copy of this book for cheap, and picked up something else

原色日本蜘蛛類大図鑑 (Spiders of Japan in Colour),  八木沼健夫著 (Takeo Yaginuma) 1968 reprinted in 1971, Hoikusha Publishing, Osaka 

 

Paid $6 and the price tag says 'As Is' but aside from apparent humidity/water damage and wear on the slipcover and a bit of the dust jacket being damaged on one corner, I couldn't find anything wrong with the book itself.  Several inserts were intact inside the back cover including an errata sheet which was hand-corrected to add a missing note, by someone fluent in writing katakana.

 

 More curiously I'm trying to figure out if this book was autographed, because I can't see any good reason why someone would randomly write the author's name in the front cover.  This is interesting for a couple of reasons:

 

1.  Takeo Yaginuma was apparently a very influential arachnologist (the learned gentlemen is no longer with us in the land of the living, as of 1995) who has a genus of Salticidae (Yaginumanis) named after him. His collection of spiders is held by the Osaka Museum of Natural History. 

2. Searching for this book reveals a few copies for sale on Amazon US and UK and also at another bookseller site, none for under $95.  I have no idea if my copy is worth that much but I have a sense it is probably worth more than $6 even with a creased dust jacket and no deceased author autograph.

 

I have no idea how to find out this information and my Japanese is too bad for me to ask someone in whatever obscure Japanese forums might know something like this...  All that aside, I didn't know any of it when I bought the book.  I just immediately realized it was a beautifully illustrated and awesome book that I'd enjoy owning anyway.  

So I learned something today...

Blogger is still a pain in the ass to format

 

Acquisitions

Found at Goodwill, but the cover had water damage so I didn't buy it. However I did photograph it for your entertainment:


Highlights: "The Hadrasaur (sic) From Hackensack", "The Sauropod Swing"

Dinosaurs, by David Lambert - has nice illustrations

Prehistoric Worlds

A general historical geology textbook.

Prehistoric Animals - entirely illustrated with photographs of models, gets extra points for invertebrates, Devonian fish and other non-dinosaurs.

Prehistoric Mammals pop-up book featuring a desmostylian

From the Texas Fossils book

Carnosauria, from the Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animals Fact Finder. More like UGLOSAURIA, amirite?

Reading comprehension worksheets, I wish I had these when I was in kindergarten

Creature sketches commencement post

No. 1 in series of creature requests, genus Pterodactylus, species indefinite.

Suddenly it rained today

Before I fell asleep last night I had a random vision of a drawing of a Parasaurolophus, in great detail, that I'd like to do. That isn't really good because I have commissions to work on... on the other hand it seemed like a good idea so I pushed the Record button and was able to remember it clearly in the morning. Don't know why I have these images of hadrosaurs all the time, first it's Olorotitan....

Since I was gone a long time (moving, other stuff), I'll give you a Touhou Arrange of the day:


arrange of Staff Roll theme from Perfect Cherry Blossom, by Neutral2

The Ladies of Touhou Doujin Arrange

Presenting my favorite vocalists for your listening pleasure:

Unlucky Morpheus and Fuki


lily-an of Liz Triangle

(not only this, she is... breathtakingly dreamy *cries* )

Finally original art

Just something quick, though. Deviantart post

Puggron is my creation, I'm very sorry...

I just got trolled by Darren Naish

!OH NO WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEEE OMGWTF!!

CURSES!!




That was mean.

Kaiyodos

Got these really cheap and with domestic shipping a while back and couldn't restrain myself. Anhuangera, Suchomimus and Struthiomimus.

WINNING! They join the rest of my miracle-bargain Kaiyodos.

New art

Commission for a friend on DeviantArt, it's Yuyuko Saigyouji of Touhou Project (again...) but this time an interpretation of her living form, a priestess cursed to bring death to all who touch her. After worrying over this for a few days I finally feel like it turned out right. her face and expression were the most worrying part. Yuyuko's character profile, if you're curious She has a surprisingly tragic and interesting backstory for a character from a goofy bullet hell shooter.

It's another paper sketch colored in SAI Paint Tool.

Stressed out job hunting, trying to move, and since I accepted art commissions I got several to get to after this one. *passes out* Maybe I'll make business cards soon.

Learning never ends

学ぶことがいつも果てない。

June Acquisitions (and dinos)

Secondhand things: FINALLY acquired Long and Hendersons' Dawn of the Dinosaurs for $6, and Feathered Dinosaurs for 7. I didn't want to pay full price because the layout is so screwed up, but still wanted it in my collection.


Enjoy some images from that "Adventures in the Wilderness" book, I forget the year of publishing but will edit it later...





In preparation for boxing up, snapshot of my dino figure collection so far (excluding JP Tapejara, Kaiyodos, and some random small figs and Chinasaurs.)



Your Touhou Arrange: Liz Triangle featuring lily-an, Yasaka Kanako's boss theme from Mountain of Faith (Suwa Foughten Field - The Great Exalted Battlefield)

Kanako is awesome