Must admit, you're pretty brave sitting/lying there allowing things to crawl all over you without freaking out. When you were in the Marines on TDY in Iraq did you have an encounter with a camel spider???
Completely respect that How friendly are rats? Are they similar to ferrets? I've heard both are quite intelligent. Haha, same here. If I could, I'd have a Noraha's Ark filled with all kinds of creatures! :love: I would love to spend 6 months living amongst the Eastern Gorillas......and taking tons of selfies with King Kong, lol.
I didn't do Iraq. I joined in 08' and all the big stuff had already been accomplished there. Deployments there around the 07' time frame weren't very eventful. I did go to Afghanistan where there was a lot going on. There were camel spiders galore Funny story. They only come around during certain seasons (which we were in midway during deployment). One day we're sitting in our mud hut and my rack is close to the door. I see this giant camel spider crawling up the door frame two feet from me and I grabbed my rifle with a quickness and shot to the back of the hooch. I made one guy really mad because he thought we were being attacked, and everyone else reacted to my movement like we were getting ambushed at the patrol base xD. There was a point where I woke up in the mud hut one night, turned on my headlamp to get something out of the little dug out hole/shelf in the wall I was up against and there was a huge camel spider just looking at me. That was the last night I slept indoors for the rest of the deployment. Those things are absolutely foul, atrocious, and terrifying. I also sat on a scorpion during a scouting mission on top of a mountain. Didn't know until I got up and looked down and there was the flattened corpse of the fiend underneath me xD.
Generally they're really friendly and love playing or a cuddle. But they're also quite the little individuals as I guess most intelligent animals are. My first one was really friendly and loved to be picked up and held and would fall asleep on my lap or burrow into a sleeve, down my top or into my hood (if I was wearing a hoodie) and take a little nap. But she was kinda...clingy. I've heard that is common when you have a single rat. A few years after I had her I had two more. One of them was similar but a little more independent and would go off and explore the house on her own for hours until she just disappeared. I'd often find her curled up in the craziest places that I have no idea how she got to taking a nap. The other one, from the same litter, was the polar opposite, very introverted, kept herself to herself and was quite bad tempered. As for intelligence...wait a minute and you can see for yourself. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LMgkGesoVI"]Truth About Rats: Rat Tricks - YouTube[/ame] Just keep away from tall buildings and biplanes. I'm not really working at the moment and I'm constantly thinking about bailing for a while and doing something in SE Asia with orangutans...
Ah, sorry about that. I was under the impression that camel spiders came from Iraq; I knew that you were in the military so was curious if you ever had an encounter. Which you obviously had...but in Afghanistan...just 1,384 miles from Iraq so yeah, pretty close. Lol Lol, leave it to you to ruffle everyone's feathers due to a spider. You're lucky if you sat on a deathstalker and won the battle; apparently they're one of the most dangerous species out there in the Middle East. You must have sat on him with extreme, unknown precision
Yep, that's the exact type of scorpion I sat on. Did you know if you set them in a ring of fire they sting themselves to death. Anyways, it didn't stand a chance against my rump. I drop it like it's hot. ::brushes shoulder off::
You should while you have the time to, that would be an experience of a lifetime. :O :O :O That's incredible. Did you make that video? If so, you did an amazing job covering how playful, intelligent and affectionate Rats are. They are super cute, too! I can imagine how fun and entertaing they are to have around the house. When you have friends or family over to visit, are they social or do they keep to themselves?
Hahaha Not a clue! Suppose stinging yourself to death is far better than being tortured by slow, burning flames? I did hear (never attempted it while living out in AZ for a few years), that if you draw a circle around a scorpion, it wouldn't leave the circle?
No, that's not my video, just something I found on youtube ages ago. Mostly they were friendly with other people. But I always got the feeling they would act in different ways according to people's reactions to them; if the person was scared or grossed out, they would keep away. If the guest was intrigued or happy to see them...they would be really friendly and eager to meet them. A lot of people say rats are like dogs but in a small package...there is some truth in that. They really are great little creatures.
You'd be the perfect person to ask... What about the concerns that are raised in regards to how rats carry and spread disease? Is there truth to that with captive bred rats or just amongst the wild ones that live in sewages, rummage through dumpsters, etc? When my mother was in H.S. she had worked as a waitress at a restaurant along the waterfront in South Boston. Late one evening after closing she and a fellow waitress took the trash out to the dumpster; my mother happened to be walking about 10 feet ahead of the woman oblivious to what was occuring in front of her due to where she was located under the light. The waitress behind her saw what was happening and yelled, "Come back, a cat or something is running towards you"! My mom was startled, couldn't see, dropped the trash and ran back up the side of the pier, stopped, turned around to see what was behind her and low and behlod it wasnt a cat, but a rat the size of a cat!
Nah. Rats are incredibly clean animals and spend a hell of a lot of their time grooming, getting manicures, showering etc I can't remember what % of their time is spend grooming but it's a lot, like 90%. So pet rats are fine. Wild rats are a different story. They're scavengers and opportunists, so like to hang out in the filth that humans leave and find their dinner there and that will obviously expose them to all kinds of nasty stuff. IIRR, rats didn't spread the plague, the fleas that hopped on rats for a ride did and that was made worse by the unsanitary conditions of the time. I could be wrong but.... Haha. Great story. Wild Rats can grow pretty damn big and can have a hell of an attitude. My mate had a pet one, huge thing, male, who would bully the cat, kick its ass and steal its food. The cat was terrified of it, but the rat was fine around people. I've never seen a rat in the city until I moved to Helsinki a year or so ago and I've lived in a few far bigger cities. Dunno what's up with that.
The only logical explanation would be that these city dwellers were caught in a blast of gamma radiation So what brought you to Finland? What a gorgeous part of the world you live in. Are you able to see the Northern Lights from Helsinki?
I started my day with deadlifts this morning. It's been a good day. Lots of inconveniences, but with a general feeling of well being. Clearly I need to deadlift in the morning more. That's the only logical conclusion here.
After going through the recent thread in the Internal Martial Arts section . . . I think Internal is the new Ninjutsu xD
Sounds about right. Around here one of the species of wild rodents, the Deer Mouse is known to carry Hantavirus which can be spread to humans and can make you really sick. Some people have died from it. Back in the 90's there was an outbreak in the Seattle area and it had everybody pretty freaked out.
I removed my Facebook account a while ago, but I have a second one that was created for the soul purpose of playing Tetris Battle which I no longer play but sometimes I get on it to check up on a few different people. Tonight I made the mistake in Facebook stalking my ex wife. Apparently she's been both cheated on and had a miscarriage. The former I'm certain of, the latter might be copious posting/post liking for support of somebody else. :dunno:. I'll never message her to find out or offer any kind of support to her but if that did happen to her I hope she's been able to deal with it. It's funny that sometimes people ask why I talk about her with such hostility sometimes, and while I was both deeply hurt and angry about how I was treated while I was injured as well as her suggesting we divorce, I intentionally work on being hostile to make sure I never let her back in my life in any way, shape, or form. I have to, because I'm not naturally that way towards people and I have to look out for myself. For now, anyways. I'm just not equipped to let somebody that did the sort of things she did to me into my life and be able to function normally, I probably never will be given my personality. Looking at the things she posts really made me feel sad for her. If you can imagine the cliche, insecure Facebook poster who posts all those life awareness epiphany memes, that's basically her now. "Never push somebody loyal to the point of no longer caring" was so frequent due to her being cheated on, and I just wonder if it goes over her head that she was probably cheated on because she doesn't treat the time of those close to her as a priority and is about as emotionally available as a rock. The worst part was the frequent, teenage angst, self-empowerment memes being posted at 28 years of age screaming of insecurity : /. I can just imagine how angry and hurt and lonely she's probably been. I'm pretty confident in saying that because I knew her pretty well. I think I'm pretty lucky that I'm both comfortable being alone regardless of how much I want somebody else in my life, and that I'm better able to recognize and wrap my mind around not allowing somebody in my life to try and help them out of instinct when I know they're hurting . . . and be ok with it. I wonder if she'll go her entire life succeeding in the professional world and remain being a poor quality person. Sorry for the "too much info nobody cares about rant." It's 1 AM, I've been procrastinating for about 8 hours on cleaning the house and prepping my sister's room who is coming down from Virginia to stay for work for a while, and I needed somewhere to vent. Had to manage the feels. Unlucky you MAP population
I'm sorry you removed your Facebook, it was entertaining to me at least :] I'm also sorry that your ex is going through rough times. I'm glad that you're able to keep yourself separated from that. As for rants at 1 am, well, you know I've been there. Glad that I can return the favor.
Why apologise? We all gripe from time to time However, today is a new day for you. And though I don't know you very well, I am going to talk to you as if I were talking to anyone else in my life. In order to put yourself first and move foward, you must put her and her problems behind you and that means no stalking her FB page. Even though you once shared a life together, loved and cared for her she is no longer your concern and you will not get over that hurdle unless you stop going back. Of course it's natural to feel sympathy for her or anyone who has lost a baby, but that's about as far as your sympathy for her should go. While you obviously don't need a reminder, the way she treated you and your marriage is the main reason why you are still picking out the thorns today. Granted, you are responsible for putting up with it for as long as you did but I believe your love and loyalty was immense so it overshadowed a lot of things. *You* (generic you) own and are responsible for what you put out into the universe and sometimes Karma is a bitch. Treat others the way you would like to be treated. I wholeheartedly believe that - not just from what has been done to me but from what I have done to others in the past (not horrific things mind you, but enough to make me wish that I handled things differently). You live and if you're lucky enough you learn from your mistakes and wrongdoings just as much as you do from other people's mistakes and wrongdoings. It's never too late to grow and improve as a human being. Never. I don't know her, but maybe...just maybe...she will learn from this life lesson. Maybe by being hurt (cheated on) she will do some self reflection and self improvements rather than taking the easy route by feeling sorry for herself. Yeah, being cheated on stinks; sometimes you just get yourself involved with an ass, other times people who emotionally or physically reach out to another person is because love, support, attention, emotion, compassion, intimacy, etc. isn't available or is withheld from their partner. Now, I'm not saying that's the correct way to go about it but we all have different coping mechanisms and breaking points. Going by what you say about your ex (and this is just a wild guess), but I'm willing to bet that she was the same exact way in that relationship as she was in yours.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said. ^__^ I'm not as far along as I would like to be in having grounded myself, but as long as I don't try to force anything and go at my own place I'm pretty damn grounded. I know I probably sounded whiney which maybe made me come off as I'm not "over" her, but I am. I have a habit of Facebook stalking just about everyone in my life, or looking them up through different means. I'm a bit of an information gatherer and know a lot of things about a lot of people I'm sure they wouldn't like for me to know. Just call me Mr. Creeper I guess : P. Part of the reason I looked her up was more of that inclination rather than really wondering what was going on with her. Looking her up is a sticky situation though given the emotions involved. I think it's ok in increments, as it helps invoke emotions for me to work through because if I have zero exposure to something I'm not going to be able to dredge the feels up to work through them. Then there's no progress at all. Anyways, it was 1 am and I was mentally weak >: O! I'm just going to go on living and looking like a barbarian, transforming my body back into something strong again, growing my mental fortitude, and working. And apparently MAP posting too. I need to get to a point where I can start doing martial arts again. Fighting helps me out a whole lot, but I have so much responsibility with the business and continuing to gain ground against my PTSD. I can't just add something physical that could throw me through a loop because people depend on me to get work and get paid . Took me a year just to be able to start lifting weights again. :cry:
