I going to be a lawyer for moray eels.

A couple of weeks ago I was covering at a Science University out in Saitama. One of my classes that day is  where there isn't really a plan, it's more of a chance for students to have a free-flowing conversation.  It pretty much ends up me being interviewed (or interrogated) for 40 minutes.  

One student asked me what my favourite animal was. I said octopus and shocked faces stared back at me.  "But, why....?"  I think students usually answer "cat"or "dog" because. . .  "it's cute".  And then I came along and was all like "Yeah but it's got like eight legs with suckers on them, and they're like really, I mean ridiculously intelligent, and they have beaks man!" I think sometimes I get a bit carried away when I talk to my students.

But I have been thinking about my favourite animal and there may be a new contender.  The Mooray Eel.  

I know it is wrong, or not so cool to assign human qualities to animals these days but I don't care.  Mooray Eels are cool because they look badass.  Unbelievably badass.  If you were in an underwater alley, you would not want to run into these guys. Imagine you were a shady dive in Atlantis, where there is just a laptop hooked up to some speakers and you thought "this song sucks" and change it in the middle of the song, and the moray eel is all "That was my song" and then you wet yourself but it doesn't matter because you are underwater.

They are super hardcore, and if I remember correctly, I don't think they got a fair representation in Ariel, the little mermaid.  I think they are way more clever than that.  I am going to become a lawyer for moray eels (also maybe for Ursula too, and that lobster, talk about stereotypes).

Also moray eels hunt with other animals.  They work with grouper to catch prey.  How cool is that?  I think, it is the only known case of two different species working together to catch prey.

So, I think it is an interesting question.  But I think  you should discount answers based on cuteness, but allow answers based on deliciousness. Octopus is delicious. But not moray eels.

p.s. I love teaching at Science Universities.  It is so much fun getting students to tell you about their studies, especially when they are Masters students.  I had a really cool conversation with one student about his project which was using brainwaves to control robots.  That was another fun thing about my last job.  Down the hall from me was the robotics department so you used to be able to watch students test their robots in the hallway. Soooo cool!

I'm way too lazy to have a blog.

Nothing else to it, I'm just way too lazy to have a blog. Or possibly I don't have enough interesting things to write about.  I'm going with a combo of the two.

Oh, and Dinosaurs are cool.  In my job I have to write lesson plans and resources for other teachers to use.  At the moment I'm trying to figure out how I can put as many references as possible about dinosaurs in them.

Lego, elephants and how to behave in public.

I was out to lunch with P (funny bunny) today when he turned to me and said 

"Are you doing that just to annoy me?" 

I wasn't actually, I was occasionally  walking behind him rather than next to him so that people going in the opposite direction could get past.  But as soon as he said this I couldn't stop myself from spending the rest of the walk back to the office walking behind him and copying everything he did.  Prior to  this I had been lunging down the road while P (funny bunny) kind of looked embarrassed and pretended not to know me. 

 It made me start thinking about a conversation I have with myself and/or other people every now and again.  About if you ever stop being an idiot in public, and also about appropriate behaviour for certain situations (weddings).  I have had this conversation in the past with my friend Davy. I hypothesized that when you go to The Warehouse and you don't even think about going into the toy aisle to look at lego then you have grown up.  Davy probably said something very intelligent or witty (he's very intelligent and witty) but I'm not a very good listener so I have no idea what it was.  But I do think it was something about new boardgames. 

I just had another think about lego though and I think the reason why I stopped looking at it was because it isn't as good as it used to be and doesn't encourage creativity as much. Nothing to do with being a grown up possibly.

I might have to think about lego some more, and when I go back to NZ hang out with my nephews (and their toys).

So anyway, I turned to google to try find some answers, but it was kind of boring and my short attention span meant I wanted to watch soapmentaries about hoarders on youtube instead.  I have decided that rather than grow up, I probably just need to act more professionally at work. I will try to refrain from making noises like an injured elephant (a co-worker told me this is what I sound like) when I get frustrated about my projects.  I think it is still ok for me to make noises like a robot though.

 Image: Lyn Gateley

I was looking for an image of an elephant robot but then I got distracted and saw this and I was all "Whoaaaa!!" in my head.  

Also, dinosaurs are cool.