Welcome to the Awsome Blog Special Wildlife Edition. In this issue I will show you some of the amazing creatures found in and around Building 8. I know this issue is a little later than the promised deadline, but time flies when you're killing time.

In the lead photo here we see Stephen D. modeling some of the gear we use when dealing with wild animals. Notice the two-layer protection over the eyes and the extra large torx wrench for when things get messy. Also, note the extension cord in the background. Other items used in our hunts include flashlights, shoes, pants, plastic forks and empty coke cans with the tops cut off. Some of these supplies are more vital than others (pants are more vital than plastic forks, for instance), but whenever possible, we try to have as many of these things as possible.

This is a rather disgusting animal. I'm not sure what it is, but some of the guys here noted that it is somewhat similar to a camel spider. I have pictures of two specimens of this species, one that we captured in a red plastic cup in the dining room, and another that I found in the hallway outside the men's room. The one in the cup was injured by some unknown force before we caught it and died in captivity shortly afterwards. The other met a crushing defeat at the hands of my flip-flop.

Here we have the Black Widow shown in the previous issue of the Awsome Blog. As I said before, it was found in the workshop behind the building. Here it is shown with the tip of my hopefully spider-bite-proof leather gloves for scale. You can see how large the spider is by holding up a quarter and imagining a leg span that reaches just beyond the edge of the coin. Of course the spider met a swift and shocking end soon after the photo was taken. And by that I mean the spider was shocked. I mean... none of us were surprised...

Naturally, we try to be very careful around these animals since severe injury and possibly even death can occur when dealing with these spiders. This is where we use our plastic forks. They provide us with something to prod the spiders, and are slick enough for the spiders to simply fall off when we give them a shake. Using these tools we are able to guide the spiders into empty coke cans, which are too slick for the spiders to climb out of. Usually if a spider is left in a can long enough, it will make a web and we can keep them as pets until they starve to death, or we simply get bored of them and deal with them in some other way.

Still on the subject of black widows, I found this one in my room one night. It is about the same size as the one we found out in the shop, except instead of hiding in a remote doorjam, it is hiding on the wall next to my dresser. I didn't have any of the usual tools to deal with it at hand when I found it, so I used a textbook instead. If you come visit my room inside of Building 8, its imprint still adorns my wall on the spot where it met its end. Some may find that a little disgusting, but I kind of like it. It adds character to an otherwise bland converted office.

Like many of you, I vastly prefer harmless lizards to poisonous spiders, so upon finding out that lizards eat poisonous spiders, I caught this lizard and released him on the second floor of Building 8 where all the residents have their quarters. Including the tail, this little guy is about 8 inches long, and has been doing an excellent job of keeping the living quarters free of bugs. I have not seen a single creature with more than four legs since the lizard moved in. In fact, we see the lizard with increasing regularity as it gets more and more used to our coming and going. We live-in workers have come to think of him as a sort of mascot and pet for our work here. Though he has no name as of yet, I'm sure one will be given soon.