art, hunting for beetles & more
I'm in need for some lighthearted stuff. I finally finished a painting from a few months ago, and did a quick gouache doodle in my notebook using the Google captcha look (but slightly wrong).
Gonna redo that on proper paper some time with taping off sections, nicer letters and the correct amount of squares; but I think that is so fun, I can think of so many things to draw in this design.
I really wanna make (and post) more art.
Over the weekend, we hosted friends for some MtG. Baked a cake, bought some snacks, and made a huge portion of spaghetti. Look at his cool shirt:
and my other friend's cool phone case:
Generally, MtG is the best thing that has ever happened to my social life. I've never had a hobby where I just clicked with so many people I met through it. Seems to attract my kind. Everything else was hit or miss, or I often stood out because of some identity aspect or upbringing. And it makes socializing so much easier! No awkward silences, you can all just focus on the game, and have chitchat on the side, if wanted, not forced.
You never have to ask yourself "Shit, if I ask them to hang out, what will we do? What do they like?". You can just invite them to play and go from there, finding other shared interests. If you wanna go meet new people, you can just go to an LGS. You don't first have to build rapport to do some activity with someone, like it would otherwise be; you can just go to the store and sit at a table. Nothing has to grow into a proper friendship. Sometimes it's just enough to talk to someone for a couple hours for one evening and then never again. That still combats loneliness and social anxiety. And when you invite people over and host at your place, it feels so good to feed them and make them have a good time, and is a great excuse to keep your space extra tidy.
I've lived in my current area since 2019, and I was just never able to build a network locally. Covid happened, and all kinds of events or Bumble BFF meets just left me empty. All I had later was my wife (who has been living here for 3 years now) and her friends (who live very far away), and we can only visit each other sparingly. So it's been nice how we have made more of an effort to find people here by visiting multiple LGS and my wife starting to participate in a weekly tabletop event.
It feels like these are one of the only third spaces left. Which can be unfortunate depending on how expensive the game is and if there are any participation fees or table renting fees, so it is not ideal; but it oftentimes is cheaper and more fun than staying for hours at a cafe and ending up having talked to no one. :)
On another note, I spent time trying to spot some specimens of my favorite beetle, the European stag beetle. I have seen them in my area before (and always report sightings), and it is just the right time of the year.
Here's an older gif of one of my interactions last year (I was trying to get him off the street, and he was intimidating me):
I set out to find a bigger one, with more impressive mandibles, and maybe even spot an oak tree with multiple on it. :) They love oak trees.
I was already lucky on the first area I picked; the stag unfortunately wasn't. Just about 15 seconds earlier, a bike that passed me had run it over partially. I could see at the scene that it was fresh. Crushed a few legs and broke a mandible off. I flipped him and sat him into the bushes away from the path, but he kept flipping and squirming, unable to function. No hope for that guy.
I took the mandible with me. It's now on my shelf.
I am very very sad that I wasn't there even half a minute earlier to save him. They are an endangered species and need to be protected (which is why you should report their sightings, alive or dead). It's very hard for them to survive because they are so huge and therefore easy prey, and they lay their eggs very deep into the ground, buried below dead trees, preferably oak trees that have a fungal infestation. After hatching, their larvae can take 3-5, sometimes up to 8 years of development in the ground before emerging and trying to find a mate.
In general, while my area is lucky to have so many stags that you can find some if you go looking, the food situation doesn't seem to be optimal for them. The better the food, the bigger their general body and especially their mandibles, so starvation can actually cause the males to remain very small with tiny mandibles ("Hungermännchen" in German). I have seen some impressive sizes online. Ours are only okay-ish in size.
I'll keep looking in other areas over the next few weeks :)
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