Via Sacred Squid

The Internet, it seems, is a nigh-infinite source of cephalopod related material. If you, like myself, are a ceph-blogger that has gotten behind on things, the thought of diving back into the fray can be rather daunting. However, I have so much cool material I am dying to share with you, that I’m taking the plunge anyway!

If you are reading this blog, you already know that cephalopods are awesome…and why they are awesome. (And that is why YOU are awesome!) However, it is always nice when someone, such as BoingBoing contributor Maggie Koerth-Baker, expertly summarizes the amazing features of our squishy friends. This pithy video is the short version of “Those Fabulous Octopus Brains,” a 30 min presentation she gave last August for a University of New Mexico IGERT symposium.

If you want to see the original full-length presentation, you can find it here.

Via Laughing Squid and BoingBoing.

I know I’ve let this blog languish a bit recently, and I thank you for sticking with me. Over the past few months I have collected literally hundreds of links to cool examples of cephalopod art, photography, and miscellaneous awesomeness. Over the next week or so, I plan to flood your RSS reader with a veritable swarm of new posts (although I guess “shoal” might be a more biologically apt term). I also haven’t forgotten about the Architeuthis Across America project…I just need to get my house in order first.

from Adam magazine (July 1976)

(Via Randsom Signal Annex, via ERROR888, via Pulp International)

Once again, the various trials and tribulations of life have, of late, consumed my time/brain/blogging energy. I hope to get back to at lest a semi-regular blogging schedule very soon.

Thank you for bearing with me. Your patience will be rewarded.

(via grottu, via fymorticiaaddams)

Sorry for the lack of posts these past few weeks. My life has been rather hectic of late, with job interviews, Halloween preparation, and far too many side projects. I’ll working on getting things back on track…answering emails, responding to comments, and (*gasp*) making new posts. If you’ve contacted me recently, and I haven’t replied yet, I promise I WILL get back to you soon!

In the mean time, I hope everyone had a good Halloween! If anyone has any photos of cephalopod costumes or jack-o-lanterns, they’d like to share, please send them (or links to them) to indiesquidkid@gmail.com.

I’m starting to think there might be an Octopus Day curse, at least as far as this blog is concerned. As I write this, it is 11:11 (make a wish!), so it still counts, right? (Of course, who knows what time it will be when I finally click “Publish.”)

One of my goals for this blog is to maintain the most comprehensive list of cephalopod-focused (or at lest ceph-friendly) blogs possible. Over the past year, I’ve encountered a veritable shoal of Tumblr blogs dedicated to our tentacled friends, and here are three must-subscribes for any octopus enthusiast. I’ve included a sampling of recent content from each blog, and you can click on the images to see the original posts.

1. Fauna:
http://rhamphotheca.tumblr.com

White Spotted Octopus (Octopus macropus)

White Spotted Octopus (Octopus macropus)

Coconut Octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus)

Coconut Octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus)

Angel Octopus (Velodona togata)

Angel Octopus (Velodona togata)

Blue-ringed Octopus (Hapalochlaena sp.)

Blue-ringed Octopus (Hapalochlaena sp.)

2. [Octopoda]:
http://octopoda.tumblr.com

Mimic Octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus)

Augustus A. Gould, Mollusca and Shells, 1856, Argonauta geniculata; Octopus megalocyathus

Augustus A. Gould, Mollusca and Shells, 1856, Argonauta geniculata; Octopus megalocyathus

icarus

"icarus"

Underdog by Devin McGrath

"Underdog" by Devin McGrath

3. Octopus Watch:
http://octopuswatch.tumblr.com

"The Sea"

steampunk octopus

ninja octopus

Did you know it was October already? Well, it is  (despite everything my brain is telling me). Not only that, tomorrow is the 8th, which means, of course, that today is Cephday Eve!

icad2010

This year ICAD is being hosted by Danna Staaf over at The Cephalopodiatrist blog.

Go to www.cephalopodday.org for more information.

Just like last year, the festivities are spread out over three days:

Friday, Oct. 8 is Octopus Day

Sat., Oct. 9 is Nautilus Night

Sunday, Oct. 10 is Squid Day

Unlike last year, I plan to actually get my ICAD posts up ON TIME! :-)

I apologize for the lack of posts these past weeks. We’ve been having major issues with our home WiFi network, and it is taking much longer to diagnose and fix than should be permissible in polite society.

Also, I’ve been busy fighting an uppity squid, Nemo-style.

Yeah, that’s it…

Welcome New Readers!

August 31, 2010

cuttlefish at the Atlanta Aquarium|photo by Natalie Metzger

A salty salute!|Atlanta Aquarium cuttlefish|photo by Natalie Metzger

Last night I discovered that PZ Myers recently linked to last week’s Dr. Aquaman post, a simple act that sent a surge of traffic to this humble cephalo-blog. So, if you are one of the 3,000+ new visitors, I say WELCOME PHARYNGULITES! (Or is it Pharyngulists? Pharyngularians?) I salute you in the manner of our people, and I invite you take a look around the place. Here at Indie Squid Kid, it’s Friday Cephalopod every day! (Well, more or less. I haven’t been my typical prolific self lately, what with my busted thumb and all.)

Like it says up at the top of the page, I’m a collector of all things tentacled—squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, Cthulhu…I love them all! Within this blog you’ll find many examples from my own collection of ceph-stuff, as well as items trawled from the deep reaches of the Internet. Don’t know where to start? My Eight Awesome Octopuses article was pretty popular, and if you like that, why not take a swim with Ten Sensational Squids? Additionally, I’ve got a few (semi)regular features you might want to check out: T-shirt Tuesday, Wednesday Comics, and Flickr Friday. You may also be interested in some of my past theme weeks, such as: Art Week, Movie Week, Music Week, Action Figure Week, and Cthulhu Week. Sometimes, people even send me Sightings.

So, welcome again to any and all new readers. Feel free to leave some comments if you like, and, if you think you might want to stay while, please consider subscribing.

Thanks, and stay tuned for more tentacular content!

(via Cephalolove, via Pretend Parades)

I had surgery on my right thumb last week, and, since it’s my dominant hand, I’ve been unable to do much of anything but watch movies and take naps. It looks like I’ll be living life as a lefty for at least another week, so updates to this blog will probably be a little sporadic for a while.

In the mean time, if you are jonesing for a cephalopod fix, check out any of the fine Internet-based publications in the Ika Maki list, page right.

(“Ika Maki” is, by the way, Japanese for “squid roll.” As in sushi. Sooo…it’s like a blog roll, but for squid! Get it?! Um, yeah..anyway…talk to you soon. I hope!)

Sepiadarium austrinum

Sepiadarium austrinum

[Image originally published in Cephalopods: A World Guide by Mark Norman.]

PZ Myer’s Pharyngula is a blog about evolution, development, and a myriad other aspects of the biological sciences. Myer is a fellow cephalopod enthusiast, and every Friday he posts an image of a cephalopod (such as the one shown above, from today) as part of a feature called, oddly enough, Friday Cephalopod.

Pharyngula is a member of the ScienceBlogs family, the source of many of the subscriptions in my blog reader.

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