Critically Endangered
Around the World in 80 Days - Day 37
If you were to look off the starboard side of the steamship we are on with Phileas Fogg, you might see Taiwan. Not far from the southern tip of Taiwan, just to the east is a little 17 sq mile volcanic island. These crabs have only been seen a few times in one area of the island. The crabs have not really been studied that I can find. I found a very brief description that said their size is less than an inch for the largest ones. They are facing declining habitat, but unfortunately there are no conversation efforts or protected areas in place for them.
I'm listening to all the Sherlock Holmes books, narrated by Stephen Fry. It is quite a lot of fun. I'm almost done, trying to decide what books to listen to next. I have to have noise while I do quiet things like painting, because of my tinnitus. I have had tinnitus for most of my life because of having had hundreds of ear infections. I noticed it was getting a little worse, so I went to the doctor. He gave me some medication that he said he'd heard often helped. Well, I react to many medications in a weird way. For instance the cold medicine that makes most people drowsy will make me wired. My mom found me pacing up and down the stairs at about 3 in the morning, one pupil dilated and the other just a tiny little one. We stopped me having antihistamines after that! The medication that was meant to help my tinnitus made it much much worse. Over the course of a week, while my husband was out of state because of work, I was averaging less than an hour of sleep a night. I was really no longer able to function. I stopped driving because it wasn't safe, my husband had to come home early, and I was a total mess. I'd burst into tears if anyone just said "how are you?". I never wanted to take sleep medication because I had heard some could be addictive. I finally had to break down and go on some. Once I was able to get some sleep I started learning how to deal with the constant noise. I got to where I could sleep if I had a CD with ocean noises playing and a fan near my head too. I can still hear my head over the sounds, but I am now able to ignore it if I have other noise to listen to. Right now, the noise I have is Stephen Fry. I am really enjoying the books. I used to mostly listen to Youtube videos or podcasts (music is too distracting to me, it makes me want to dance), but I've been wanting to do more intelligent listening materials so I save the fun podcasts for when I'm shopping and have books while I paint. Next book I'm leaning toward is Dickens' "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". I'd love to know your favourite books.