Balaenoptera musculus

Life makes me smile when things seem to happen in random relation to each other. Like how when my mind started wandering from exam town, I did the Star Trib's cryptoquip. The answer was "life was never made brighter by burning the candle at both ends." I'm thinkin, good point Strib, good point. I really don't want to stress about this test. I've already studied for about 4 hours today. Its time to relax. Of course, it could be that I'm just looking for an excuse to procrastinate.

But then again, last night the bf and I watched the squid and the whale. First off, amazing movie. Fictional accounts of disfunctional families will always find a warm home in my heart. But then as, once again, I surfed the net in procrastination, I came upon this little gem:

BAH! SQUIDS! WHALES! WHY NOW??? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN???

(ok if you can't read that, go look at achewood.com - everyday. that site kicks ass)

And yet, as I dig back into my 6th grade blue whale obsession, I seem to recall that there is no way a blue whale would ever try to eat a squid. It doesn't have teeth! It uses it's 300ish baleen plates to scoop up krill. Krill are like shrimp. Little tiny things really. They don't fight back when eaten. They don't shoot ink. Lies Chris Onstad, lies!

Other cool things I remember about blue whales:

1. They are scarily huge. I used to imagine floating in very deep, dark, cold water. My flashlight only lighting the next 4 feet in front of me and really, only useful to the creepy creatures lurking around as a beacon for their next meal. And then all of a sudden, I pee my pants and drop my sad little flashlight because a gigantic rubbery big blue thing brushes up next to me. Since its so dark, I can't make out it's borders, but I know from the research I did that it's as big as 3 of my school busses put together. In my mind, I freak the the fuck out. Then I shake myself out of it and feel the need to play outside.
2. They are the largest animal EVER.
3. Their tongues are as big as elephants.
4. Their hearts are the sizes of small cars.
5. A baby could fit into it's aorta. My thumb could fit into your aorta. ew.

In other news, I was munching on a bag of carrots while studying and apparently I lack the "stop eating now, you are full" button in my head. Who binges on carrots? My stomach hurts. My esophagus even feels full. I kind of want to barf.