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

The Fossil Book, 1958

Carroll Lane Fenton and Mildred Adams Fenton

I got this for $10. It's really cool and has 482 pp. Actually it's pretty good where invertebrate fossils are concerned. From Acknowledgments:

Restorations of invertebrates are based chiefly upon our own studies. Those of vertebrates emobdy the work of Knight, Horsfall, Price, Germann, and other artists, and of such paleontologists as Osborn, Matthew, Scott, Case, Williston, Merriam, Stock, Simpson, and Romer. Restorations of plants reveal our debt to Seward, Wieland, Goldring, and other authorities.

In places you can probably see where direct inspiration was taken...

TOUHOU HIJACK

Since I'm in a giant slump, I guess it's acceptable to post the last artwork I was able to 'finish' even if it is a fan art for a little contest and gift to a friend.

signed under my silly-art alias

Music to go with it

Yuyuko Saigyouji, ghost princess and ruler of the Netherworld. :P 西行 幽時々子　belongs Team Shanghai Alice/ZUN.

Another Touhou Arrange, this time it's metal


Back to more involved link-heavy posts and original art soon.

Dinosaurs and Flame Wars: repost and more

I got my popcorn out yesterday to read the March archives of the Dinosaur Mailing List If there were a Fandom Wank for science, the responses to Gregory S. Paul's initial post on ripoffs and price undercutting in paleoart would be a great hit. See also this article for an apparently biased view, if commenters have anything to say about it. (For the record, I agree with a lot of what he says but also agree with those who say it sounds like he is over-reaching with some of it...)

I actually bookmarked a post by Luis Rey. l ...don't know why, but I like this guy, lol. That was my favorite post in the whole thing. *fangirls*

And GSP totally dissed Mark Witton OMGWTF! Oh no he di'int!! Why do I know who these people are? Because I lurk on so many blogs where some of them regularly post. It's kind of weird... I've been reading TetZoo for so long and started seeing lots of people like this commenting there, and then went on to read lots of other blogs.

As for me, I know enough to follow discussions on the DML and elsewhere, but not enough to say anything about anything, and I'll leave it at that. That's why I Lurk Moar. :iconthumbsupplz: You can learn a lot from your betters! I don't even remember from one month to the next, which new taxon have been lumped or split, because I am not a scientist and have other things to read about/do(see here)




Goodwill finds: AAA Tyrannosaurus and 1988 Carnegie Brachiosaurus (a good 14' tall.)

But to me it looks different than the ones pictured here.

___________

Extra: Review of the worst movie ever put on film, pt 1 and pt 2

Book Hoarding update

A few things I picked up within the last few weeks... a couple are left out, I'll get to them in more detail in further posts, including a focus on the Golden Book.


When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1985) by David Norman, illustrated by John Sibbick.

Despite its printing date, this copy is in pretty extraordinary condition. There isn't even a single crease in the dust jacket. Great cover, or Greatest cover?? Fire, random volcanoes, the obligate pterosaur AND a T-rex viciously killing something-- what more could you ask from an '80's kids' dinosaur book? Samples below.




Epic 1980's Sibbick goodness/clunkiness abounds.


The Origin and Evolution of Birds (1999 2nd edition), Alan Feduccia.

1/2 Price has had a hardcover first edition since forever ago, but it's too expensive for me to bother with. Lo, on this random visit they had a paperback 2nd ed. for half that price. Sure, it's outdated and mostly discredited BAND cheerleading, but it has DIAGRAMS.


It's full of stuff like this. I only wish the full illustrations that were presumably made for the book were printed in color.

Dinosaur Train

: 0

A Todd Marshall tribute for the preschool set?

(I actually kind of want this figure...)

Save the Glen Rose Tracks

http://savethedinosaurtracks.org/

The preserved track is housed at Texas Memorial Museum on the UT campus and I've actually been there to see them. Apparently the outdoor building that displays them is insufficient to protect the slab from moisture and degradation and they need to raise money to move it to a prepared display area indoors.

Not sure, but... it may be the most famous ichnofossil in the world so it's really worth saving.

Card Games (Not on Motorcycles)

Obake karuta images from Wikicommons

I did a cultural presentation on 正月　(Japanese New Year celebration) last semester, and found a lot of information on Iroha Karuta, as it's a popular game to play during New Year festivities. It's basically a game of matching the text read from one card to the images on the others. There are 48 cards corresponding to the former ordering of the Japanese syllabary, each character representing a different proverb.
Brief overview of Iroha and related card games
More in-depth explanations

BUT! That's not all, it has evolved into many different forms and you can find all sorts of card games nowadays

. Inubou karuta (犬ぼうかるた） Traditional Iroha game with a proverb on each card (named for the first card: 犬も歩けば棒に当たる/inu mo arukeba bou ni ataru/"Even a dog, walking, will come across a stick") Proverbs here

Youkai or Obake karuta (featuring ghosts, demons and monsters, popular in the Edo period)

Retro katakana karuta

恐竜かるた！

More dinosaurs

(Not Iroha, but "Evolution cards")

ふるさとカルタ　（Historic village?)

Totoro かるた

Toto awase (Tokyo style edition) Match the fish halves (you can find several versions of this game)

Tori awase - match the birds.

お魚かるた　Reissue of a game produced by a Tokyo fish market as a promotional item..?

WHOA!　 いい男...　Hunky Man Iroha?

Evangelion Karuta

Adult Karuta

Action Karuta

京いろはかるた丸　　Circular Iroha cards featuring punny illustrations of kanji

Kanji Trump Visual memory game for learning kanji


Children playing a giant Iroha game in the snow