Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Tarantula's Prey

After 5 months of fasting, without any food and drinks, my tarantula finally molted.



Don't be surprise when a tarantula can goes up to 5 months without eating and drinking anything. Tarantula doesn't grow like animal or human, when the time is right, they'll grow by shedding and replacing their old exoskeleton with a new shell, and the process is also known as molting or ecdysis.



Tarantula will then start to fast in preparation grows longer in duration when the tarantula ages. The last time my tarantula molts was around 6 to 7 months ago.



Just as the tarantula underwent this stressful stage of molting when the tarantula is in the most vulnerable state, it is then left for a week or two for the fangs to harden before it can pierce the deadly weapons into prey's fresh and inject venom to paralyze the victim.



After months of waiting, finally I get the chance to watch the tarantula has its first blood after the molt. As cruel as it sounds, I enjoy the scene. I'm not some sort of freak or there's a screw loose somewhere in my brain, but the way the tarantula hunts amuse me. The tarantula will wait silently, feeling the vibration from the web underneath the legs as the prey walks by. When the prey reaches the attacking distance, in a split second, the tarantula just "fly" and inject the venom into the prey's body. Everything happens will just a blink of an eye.

Here's a video to feed you eyes :P

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Top of the Silo

The highest silo in the factory I am having my industrial training in, Silo 4 to be exact, stands up at the height 20 stories. It stores cement which later will be loaded into tankers and trucks underneath. I have been waiting for the opportunity to go to the top and today is the day.



Walking up the stairs was a big challenge for a zero-daily-exercise man, me. Running up the stairs to the top of the silo without stopping shouldn't be a problem five years ago when I was a state swimmer. That was the past when unlimited energy kept flowing out of me. Now, I had to walked up the stairs slowly and steadily, while gasping for some air.



Remember that I told you about a day when I need to climb a 15 stories high silo up and down three times? Well here it was, standing on the same level when I took the picture. This is the second highest silo in this plant.



Looking up, this will be the height I need to climb to reach to the top of silo 4 *gasp*



Upon reaching, I slightly peeped down to see how high I had climbed out of curiosity. The only thing that separated me and the ground was just a metal mesh. Looking at the ground, my leg went a little bit numb and my asshole shrunk, stopping the green watery poo from flowing out.



Automatically, I walked slowly and softly, afraid that the metal mesh fell apart and down I went, straight to hell. My hand grabbed my handphone as tight as possible that I can even crushed an egg with the same force. Imaging my handphone slipping out my hand and crashed to the ground sent a shiver down my spine.



Looking down the metal mesh, the tanker appeared so small, smaller than the gap of the metal mesh. I admitted that I actually threw some stones down to see if I hit the truck, or better still, the driver. Now, I know why birds like to poo or pee on people's head.



Despite the scary height , it offers a great view of sceneries, without any blocks other than the tiny weeny dust.



On the left, we have the shortest silo in the plant.



The Sarawak River, an important path for the ships to load and unload the goods.



The Kuching city, with Mt. Santubong standing majestically at the back.

If I'm to attempt suicide, jumping from a high rise building is definitely not in my list for ways of suiciding.