ive been busy as fuckkkkkk finishing up my courses. anyway.
the 2.0 version of my website is now public! it still has a long way to go and is pretty obviously a WIP, but i thought it was time to finally share it.
my current priority is to get the homepage to be more Whole. something presentable.
idk what to put here yet man
this gif of my glasses falling off my hat while on mainstage for splatoon 3 at Riptide 2023 was on screen on stage at the Vic Theater in Chicago at The Wozzies presented by Scott The Woz July 15 2024
im not sick anymore!! and im goin back to classess. im in good spirits and ive caught up on most of my missing work, so im doin good. i even accidentally went ahead in my web design class lol.
so as an intro, ive always loved squirrels a lot. one of my fave animals. wonderful critters. and recently the past month or two ive been watching a lot of squirrel videos on youtube. mostly videos of feeding wild squirrels, but ill sometimes watch vids of domestic squirrels post-rehab. im pretty picky and ill only watch something and oogle at the squirrels if im confident the squirrel population isnt being harmed in any way or w/e. point is im a pretty big squirrel fan and ive been extra squirrelpilled lately.
so, w/ me being on a small(ish) uni campus we have a population of friendly fox squirrels. theyre very used to human activity and know that students will sometimes even feed them or at least leave behind food. base-level fear of humans is low.
so this has culminated in me buying a bag of almonds to carry around. partially to feed squirrels that i see, but also cause i need more protein & its just a good portable snack lol. the idea is if i walk by a wonderful squirrel and its not even running away from me, now i can reach into my bag and give it some healthy food that it likes!! and its cute its so cute. but also i tend to sit outside on the benches on campus a lot between my classes bc i dont wanna go back to my apartment. and ive found that this time is great for squirrel watching. so why not squirrel feeding too?!?
today (referring to the 11th) was basically the first day i did this. and dude. i got fucking hooked on squirrels. i was squirreling hardcore. i was the enjoyfulsquirrelwatcher.
i spent like 3 hours outside on the campus wandering around/sitting on benches and watching squirrels. i watched a long-term feud between two chipmunks. i heard many different squirrel and chipmunk noises. and i of course fed some squirrels.
i fed a total of three different squirrels today!! one in the morning and two later during my long squirreling session. they all had different personalities its really true.. the latter two i spent a great deal of time watching and interacting with. the first one, who i've been calling Almond or Sally (ill think of a decent name later lol) was the only female i saw today out of many many squirrels!! and i believe she is pregnant as well, or at least has some babies. her fur was also a bit thin in places, probably losing her summer coat. she was very calm, and even before i started interacting with her she was eating seeds in the same place for like 40 minutes. her movements were gentle but confident. she got a lot of almonds from me and would ask for more! she seemed to realize that the almonds i tossed were easier to find in the mulch than the grass so she would beg on the mulch lol.
the second squirrel, who ive been calling the alpha (he is undeserving of the title) chased away Almond a couple times. fox squirrels are very territorial!! initially, before i started interacting with either of them, he was fucking around in the tree above Almond and dangling eating seed pods and just generally being a goober. he came down the tree to scare away a third unknown squirrel that was harassing Almond. but then he also started harassing Almond LOL. anyway he has a very bright orange belly and tail, and very smooth fur. multiple times he sized me up, looking at me while standing on his hind legs, walking all around me (and under my bench), just really getting a good read on me. despite being above Almond in the pecking order and having a lot of energy, he was very flighty and got spooked easily. very curious about me but very cautious as well. when he asked me for more almonds he was much more direct, coming up to me faster & standing upright.
[do not fret, squirrels generally dont carry rabies and i sanitized after each time..] i handfed mr alpha twice even. it was so so sweet i felt their little paws and whiskers on my hand.... i got a ton of photos and videos. i had such a magical day.... i really want to keep doing this. i already feel like i have a connection with 2 individual squirrels....
im considering making a squirrelwatching page for my site where i can share pics and videos and stories and notes on individual squirrels..... cause literally that shit was so fun and i took so many pictures and vids that my phone died. and look at how much i wrote just now .. ya..
