This is the Moth Place

Hello, and welcome once again to my beautiful blog. You may notice something different today - yes, a new banner, a new title, and a new URL. I've been thinking for a while about cultivating a slightly more appropriate and perhaps more spooky atmosphere here, and so, here we are: MOTH PLACE.

A metamorphosis.

My new header banner takes its moth from a 1705 set of illustrations by Maria Sibylla Merian, via the Biodiversity Heritage Library at the Smithsonian, and the Public Domain Image Archive. Immediately I feel a collage-y, and slightly mysterious aesthetic is evoked. It's better this way. We are entering a new world.

These bugs are just like me.

Congratulations, for you have arrived at the sort of place where moths may lurk. Where flickering lights glow, and where nights stretch on forever. Gather around the morsels of light and clutter. Stretch out a feeler. Raise a wing.

This is a Moth Place now. The only one. 

Please update all links as needed to either:

https://mothplace.blogspot.com/ or https://mothplace.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default (this latter RSS feed format is needed for Blogger's Blog Roll sidebar widget to update properly, just in case you're a Blogger user who didn't know about that particular quirk).

The Woodchuck Question

I've been thinking about philosophy, and all of the great questions about life that we all love to ask, and I'd like now to answer one of the burning questions of our time: how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

First of all, it's important to know what a woodchuck is. It's the same thing as a groundhog, so perhaps we can look at one of the most famous groundhogs (maybe the most famous groundhog), Punxsutawney Phil, for our answer. This little freak was born in 1887, and maintains a freakishly long lifespan by imbibing a mystery juice that apparently extends his life (do not question this). So, realistically, if chucking wood is a part of his life, he has probably done quite a lot of it in that time.

Phil doing his thing, via groundhog.org.

But the shocking truth is that these creatures do not chuck wood, in any shape or form. They just don't do it. Even Punxutawney Phil. Fish and wildlife technician Richard Thomas took it upon himself to come up with a sort-of answer to this question anyway, substituting wood for dirt, a substance that is often displaced by groundhogs when they dig burrows in the ground (via BBC Science Focus).

An idiotic little baby, via the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

This genius claimed that groundhogs have "thick strong legs" (just like me), and did some calculations based on their average weight and the average size of their burrows to arrive at an estimate of 700 pounds of dirt displaced through the act of creating a beautiful home. We can safely assume they could shift roughly that amount of wood too, if they needed to. Maybe.

A proper bloke, by Dawn Scranton.

Supposedly, the name "woodchuck" is a sort of bastardisation of an Algonquin word, "wuchak", but this origin is a bit murky. In any case, the woodchuck isn't chucking any wood. But if it could, it would be a lot, probably.

Behold: Doraemon

I have a very special little Doraemon that I bought from a BOOKOFF Super Bazaar in Matsudo, just outside of Tokyo, for ¥400 (about £1.86), and today I would like for you to gaze at him. Look at this guy. Isn't he something?

There is something glorious about BOOKOFF, a meticulously organised second hand chain you'll encounter everywhere in Japan (and that has selected stores in the USA), but entering a Super Bazaar (that's an extra large version) is even better. These larger stores have huge aisles dedicated to particular goods. I love perusing the toy section and encountering fifty million reduced Pokémon plushies. I love looking at all the pin badges and not recognising any of the ugly anime characters. I love checking out the ultra reduced manga shelf, full of random twelfth volumes from unreadable slop series. It's amazing.

But when I found him, sitting there politely, awaiting my clammy hands, I knew I had to have him. That beautiful Doraemon. And here he is. In my house. Chilling with me. Love this guy.

I've also made him into a pngtuber avatar to use on streams where I don't have a webcam, and quite frankly, he is beautiful and perfect for such a thing. When I play video games, I can be a bouncing soft Doraemon. The world is good. The world is right.