Adam Reith has failed twice to acquire a spaceship. He decides to build a ship from scratch, but this requires vast resources; his only hope is to win valuable sequins away from the terrifying realm of the Carabas, hunting preserve of the Dirdir. Even then, his greatest adversary is the cunning, monstrous Aila Woudiver...
In the afternoon I started in The Dirdir, part 3 of 4 of Tschai by Jack Vance. The ebook I had downloaded has cover art by David Russell.
In the evening I finished The Wannek, part 2 of 4 of Tschai by Jack Vance. It was a good reread.
In the afternoon I finished The Chash, part 1 of 4 of Tschai by Jack Vance. It was a very good reread.
After crashing on Tschai, Adam Reith's scout ship is impossibly damaged. Reith must find another vessel to return to Earth. Having rescued the beautiful Ylin-Ylan, Reith is assured of assistance from her father if he delivers her back to Cath; but as events unfold, he is forced to make a dangerous choice. Inevitably he must risk everything against the enigmatic Wannek - and their devious human servants, the Wannekmen.
In the afternoon I started in The Wannek, part 2 of 4 of Tschai by Jack Vance. The ebook I had downloaded has cover art by David Russell.
A dysfunctional married couple retreats to a secluded cabin to repair their relationship, but each secretly plots to murder the other.
In the evening Esme and I watched Over Your Dead Body. I liked the movie and rate it a 7 out of 10.
A tiny woodland creature and a majestic bird suddenly swap bodies, forcing them to team up to survive the wildest adventure of their lives.
In the evening Esme and I watched Swapped. I liked the movie a lot, it's wonderfully made, and I rate it a 7 out of 10.
Just after twelve in the afternoon the tarantula and scorpion I had ordered with Matthijs Tempelman of Tarantulahub yesterday in the afternoon via Facebook Messenger arrived. I paid €25 for the tarantula, €60 for the scorpion and €10 for shipping. All in all €95.
Later in the afternoon I prepared two enclosures. I had expected the tarantula, a female Brachypelma boehmei, to be larger. Her enclosure is now a bit on the large side.
First, I transferred the female Brachypelma boehmei to her enclosure; a plastic container with a piece of cork and some plastic plants. The substrate is a mix of sand and coconut coir, which I had made slightly moist.
Next, I transferred the Pandinus imperator to its enclosure; a small plastic container with a piece of cork and some plastic plants. I don't know yet if this specimen is a male or a female. The substrate is moist coconut coir.
Finally, I cut up a superworm and put a small piece in each terrarium.
Later, in the afternoon, while checking up on the new ones, I noticed that the emperor scorpion was eating!
I also replaced the lid of the enclosure of the Brachypelma boehmei with one with much smaller holes. The one I used originally had holes that are a few millimeter in diameter and maybe the spider could manage to escape through one.
Near the end of the afternoon I noticed that the Brachypelma boehmei also had taken away the piece of superworm. When I lifted the cork I spotted her on the inside holding the piece of superworm.
The starship Explorator IV is destroyed after entering orbit around the planet Tschai. Adam Reith's scout ship is en route to the surface when the attack occurs, and is damaged in the explosion; Reith crash-lands and is separated from his ship. He finds a world full of violence, where four non-human races rule: the Chasch, the Dirdir, the Wannek, and the Pnume. Humans are present, but dominated by the other races. In this volume Reith sets out to regain his scout ship, and makes his way to Dadiche, ruled by the Blue Chasch and their human servants. Along the way he finds loyal friends, and challenges social inequities with the same aplomb that he rescues fair maidens- like the lovely Ylin Ylan, Flower of Cath.
In the evening I started in The Chash, part 1 of 4 of Tschai by Jack Vance. I've read this book several times already. It's one of my favourite series. The ebook I had downloaded has cover art by David Russell.
Back in the previous century I named my first Windows machine Tschai after the planet of adventure.
Just after 6 o'clock I decided to feed my four tarantulas with the superworms that had arrived earlier today. I had ordered accidentally two boxes instead of one with De Kammieshop last Monday, so I have plenty of food.
First, I dropped a living superworm with the female Acanthoscurria geniculata. Normally, I pre-kill superworms to prevent them from burrowing in the substrate. But the Acanthoscurria geniculata grabs everything that moves, including water, so I fell confident she would catch the worm immediately. And I was right.
Next, I dropped a pre-killed Morio larva with the female Pterinochilus murinus. I carefully moved the quite skittish tarantula near the Morio larva, but she didn't seem interested in it. If she doesn't eat it I remove it the next day.
Next, I dropped a pre-killed Morio larva with the female Monocentropus balfouri. But she stayed hidden underneath a plastic leaf, so no photo.
Finally, I dropped a pre-killed Morio larva with the female Tliltocatl albopilosus. She was also not interested, yet.
In the early evening I finished Revenge Prey, a Prey novel book 36 by John Sandford. I liked the book, it was a good read.
Later in the evening while checking my tarantulas I noticed that the juvenile female Monocentropus balfouri was eating a Morio larva.
In the above photo some of the webbing this tarantula has made is visible in the left bottom corner. The leaves are plastic.
In the evening, when searching on Google for "Pages generated with tumblelog" (between quotes to get an exact match) I found two new, to me, blogs:
It's really nice to see others use tumblelog.
Once a lone bounty hunter, Mandalorian Din Djarin and his apprentice Grogu embark on an exciting new Star Wars adventure.
In the evening Alice, Esme, and I watched The Mandalorian and Grogu in a movie theatre in the centre of Rotterdam. I liked the movie and rate it a 7 out of 10.
We did have some problems with our tickets, though. We thought we had bought tickets for 17:30. But when we arrived the ticket scanner reported that the tickets were invalid. A girl working for the movie theatre let us pass. But when we wanted to enter the screening room the movie had already started. Confused I asked for help and then it turned out the tickets were for next week! I was told to go down to the entry and ask if the ticket could be changed. So I went to the same girl that helped us earlier and she changed the tickets for ones for 19:30. So we had to wait nearly 2 hours. Because I was tired I wanted to stay inside and just wait.
When testing a flashlight I had bought earlier today; indirect light into the enclosures of the tarantulas I keep, I noticed that the Pterinochilus murinus, also known as Orange Bitey Thing, was out and about. So I moved carefully the enclosure to the livingroom table, opened it, and took some photos.
This is the first time I see this tarantula entirely out of its hiding spot since the rehousing I did nearly two weeks ago.
Leonard Summers—not his real name—is on the run. A former high-ranking Russian intelligence officer who defected to the U.S. after providing critical information about Russian spies in U.S. government service, Leonard, his wife Martha, and son Bernard have spent the past year holed up in a CIA facility near Washington. After the CIA makes a deal with the U.S. Marshal Service’s Witness Protection Program (WPP), Leonard’s family is transported to Minneapolis. The plan is to hide them in a wooded Minneapolis suburb that resembles their former home and dacha near Moscow.
The Summers are received at their destination by Lucas Davenport and fellow marshal Shelly White. Unbeknownst to them, the WPP group has been tracked by a Russian hit team. And while nobody in the WPP has ever been attacked…Leonard might be the first victim. As shots are fired and enemies dodged, Lucas must move quickly to uncover where the leak is coming from, before the hit team can strike again.
In the evening I started in Revenge Prey, a Prey novel book 36 by John Sandford.
In the early evening I finished Ironwood, a Catalina Novel by Michael Connelly. It was an excellent read; a real page turner. I liked this novel slightly more than Nightshade, which I also rated excellent.
Sworn to protect a scenic island meant to be far from the evils of the mainland, Detective Sergeant Stilwell can feel danger closing in.
Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated—by twenty-two miles of ocean—from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven.
Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off.
An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong.
While under orders to remain in the sheriff’s substation, he finds in the lost and found a valuable backpack that was never claimed. He traces it to a woman who disappeared while hiking on the island four years ago. But then why was the pack only turned in two months back? Now thoroughly intrigued, he follows the mystery all the way to the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Renée Ballard.
Stilwell and Ballard work the case from both sides of the channel, and soon realize they are on the trail of a criminal who revels in taunting the authorities. Meanwhile, frustrated at being shut out of an investigation on his own island, Stilwell risks his already shaky standing in the department to pursue a case whose reach is wider than he ever imagined.
In the afternoon I started in Ironwood, a Catalina Novel by Michael Connelly.
In the afternoon I finished The Smoke Ring, The Smoke Ring series book 2 by Larry Niven. I really enjoyed rereading this book.
In the evening, after having watched the second half of the Costa Rica tarantula documentary part 2 with Esme (we had seen the first half in the afternoon), I checked upon the four female tarantulas I keep.
First, I tried to feed the juvenile female Monocentropus balfouri. She immediately raised herself into a treat pose. This specimen is very skittish in my experience, so no surprise.
After a short while, however, the spider relaxed and rested on top of the morio worm.
I feed my tarantulas mostly morio worms: larvae of the darkling beetle Zophobas atratus. I do crush the head to prevent the larva from burrowing into the substrate and appear later as an adult beetle.
After I had fed the Monocentropus balfouri I dropped a pre-killed morio worm with the Pterinochilus murinus, Acanthoscurria geniculata, and finally Tliltocatl albopilosus; one larva each.