Every time I look in the terrarium, I see an abundance of life.

The slugs have taken over, and signs of new ones appear every day.

Some, like this tiny one, like hovering near the top of the tank; when I remove the lid, they are right on the edge. I haven't noticed any escaped creatures, but while the lid has a snug fit, I suspect they could slide through if they really wanted to.

Speaking of life, peek to the lower-left of this shot and see the small wormish creature crawling away. I'm thinking it is a baby millipede, although I'm not positive.

Christmas edition:

Tom Waits - Johnsburg, Illinois: A beautiful piano/vocal track from the live Big Time album.

Thuja - Track 6: I'm very glad these Thuja songs appear on the Random Eight as I never seem to think of playing them otherwise. This one, from The Deer Lay Down Their Bones is particularly fun.

Neil Young - The Rolling Stones Beneath the Earth: A distorted guitar under vocals from the Dead Man movie.

Tom Waits - Bottom of the World: It must almost be Christmas, and the iPod presents the best Tom Waits has to offer.

Six Organs of Admittance - Black Wall: Two weeks in a row from this droning collection of guitars and haunting vocals.

Paul Westerberg - Can'tn Hardly Wait: The old Replacements track recorded by Paul from one of the live compilations; still a great slice of the fantastic band.

Material Issue - There was a Few: Yet another goofy pop song.

No Age / Bob Mould - Chinese Rock: A nice recording of the Ramones tune from the collaboration at the recent All Tomorrow's Parties festival.

Smart cats, we do not have.

With nearly two feet of snow on the deck, we opened the door (to our otherwise indoor cats) and let them explore the snow. Still coming down, Coco started the exploration by stretching her neck WAY out to see what was invading her deck.

The she did the following:

1. Sniffed
2. Got wet
3. Got mad
4. Ran away
5. Hid
6. Apparently, got madder
7. Charged the snow
8. Got wet
9. Repeat 3-8 until we closed the door.

Watching this all, Ozzy thought he could sneak up on the snow. But in the end, it brushed him in the face, and he ran away in fear.

Not pictured, Sasha at least stood her ground, if not terribly impressed by the white onslaught.

We got hit with a bunch of snow today, probably over 20 inches. Even for a native Western Pennsylvanian, that's a good bit of white stuff.

The birds spent all day digging for feed on our deck. Coco Cat spent all day watching them. I spent a good deal of time snapping pictures.

Galaxie 500 - When Will You Come Home: If Galaxie 500 is anything, it is consistent with a driven, indie-rock sound that, like this song, often ends with a frenetic guitar and drum wall.

Tom Waits - Small Change: From the older blues sound, complete with Tom's wacky lyrics and vocals, but without some of the strangeness that followed years later.

Talking Heads - Life During Wartime: I can just see David Byrne running.

Six Organs of Admittance - Wolves' Pup: Not sure when I bought this one; I falls into that category of endless droning sans vocals which seems popular in certain circles these days. This is a little two minute interlude and probably not reflective of the entire album.

The Paper Chase - Wait Until I Get My Hands On You: The ever miserably enjoyable band.

Lou Reed & John Cale - Forever Changed: From the memorial album to Andy Warhol, this collection captures Reed and Cale at their collaborative best.

Philip Glass - The Photographer Act 2: Let the repetitive keyboards begin.

Vibracathedral Orchestra - Stole Some Sentimental Jewelry: Instrumental wackiness!

It is possible he doesn't realize it is still winter. About a month ago, all of the large millipedes disappeared, burrowing underground. Recently, one guy reappeared and has been munching moss every evening.

Perhaps he missed having his picture taken.

American Music Club - In the Shadow of the Valley: Typically, subtly dismal song from Mark Eitzel on the very compelling San Francisco album.

Jeff Beal - Justin at Mr. Chin's (Justin's Theme): Quiet, eerie track from the Carnivale soundtrack.

Matmos - Semen Song for James Bidgood: You'd be hard pressed to find stupider song titles than what is on the The Rose Has Teeth In the Mouth of the Beast (which is actually a kinda neat album name). But the tunes are interesting; this one is a bit slower and quieter than most, fitting what is turning out to be an creepy Random Eight.

Archers of Loaf - Strangled by the Stereo Wire: The opening track to the ever fun All the Nation's Airports. Good tune to open the album, albeit not creepy.

The Locust - Teenage Mustache: Yell yell yell thrash thrash thrash.

Pixies - Tony's Theme: Silly song from the live comp released with the Pixies were dead and never coming back (remember those days?).

Blind Willie McTell - Broke Down Engine: My soft step into the world of blues.

Amon Tobin - Sticholonched: You can do many worse things on the web than downloading the freebies from Amon Tobin's website. This is one of those, and like most of his work, is just nifty.

I'm not real happy with these, but this was my first experiment capturing falling drops of water.

The last one is my favorite just because of the little baby drop a few millimeters above the larger bubbles.

If nothing else, the exercise spawned some new ideas to try at a later date.

Teletubbies - Teletubbies Say "Eh-Oh": There's a tradition in my house that when I'm sick and lying on the couch, strung out on cold / flu medicine, I put on a Teletubbies DVD I bought ages ago and just ride the trippy. I know there are more weird-ass children shows than Teletubbies (Boohbah, for one), but the Tubbies always put me in a happy state of mind. I bought the Soundtrack a while back without quite the same results of the DVD visuals, but it is still pretty goofy and gets me good, frightened looks if I'm chuckling at the songs while listening with my headphones.

Cheer Accident - Exit: A transitional song from the Enduring the American Dream CD.

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey - She Was The One: A great acoustic, dismal song from the previously mentioned Mavericks CD.

Unknown - Ahi Al Aqil (Oh, People of Reason): From the Choubi Choubi! Folk and Pop Sounds From Iraq CD, a fast, unusual track (at least, to my ears).

Rovo - Kyokuboshi: Still on a massive Boredoms kick since the show we saw in September, Rovo serves as a good segue to music that isn't the Boredoms. Founded with members of the original crazy band, Rovo is an instrumental method of chaos, but perhaps more musically inclined than the Boredoms.

The Ex - In The Event: It is never really a stretch to say The Ex can be a little odd, but this track, consisting of disjointed playing and seemingly spoken word ramblings, is even more peculiar than most.

Stewart Copeland - Samburu Sunset: From the enjoyable The Rhythmatist CD. On a similar note, I signed up to read Copeland's recent autobiography which isn't nearly as fun as his music...except for the story where he avoided getting eaten by a tiger by playing the drums loudly.

The Replacements - When It Began: From the last CD as the band was fizzling a bit, but still a good memory of a great group.