Toxoplasma Heaven

Posted on by scott

Those of you who’ve read Peeps will no doubt remember toxoplasma gondii, the cat-borne parasite that can infect humans and change their personality. An old pal of mine, science journalist and blogger Rebecca Skloot, is a bit of an expert on toxoplasma, having written this article on whether the parasite causes “crazy cat-lady syndrome.” Fascinating stuff.

She’s just posted this charming video of a possibly toxoplasma-positive rat who LOVES its little cat friend.

For those of you who haven’t read Peeps, toxoplasma controls its rat host’s brain, making the poor creature seek out cats in hopes of getting eaten. This is because toxoplasma can only reproduce itself in the stomach of a cat. But as Rebecca points out, if the cat takes the pacifist route and simply refuses to eat the rat, it can stay uninfected.

Your move, Mr. Parasite.

In Other News

Justine is blogging writing advice for all of January. Many great posts and lots of good discussion about point-of-view, generating ideas, and how to get unstuck.

Stephenie Meyer fansite Twilight Moms has declared my Midnighters series its Book of the Month. Join the Twilight Moms discussion here. (Well, you have to be a mom, or at least 25, or married to be a Twilight Mom, but you can always read the discussion.)

163 thoughts on “Toxoplasma Heaven”

  6. Okay, that is one of the most amazing and freaky things I have ever seen.
    I’ll should also have a look at Justine’s blog. I’m reading Magic or Madness. My family friend gave it to me for Christmas this year, and last year they gave me Uglies, hehehe

  7. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
    Poor cat.
    With a face like “get this thing away from me!” it’s hard not to feel bad for the poor cat.
    Toxoplasma gobii for the win! (Wait, no, Wolbachia is the one that wants to rule the world.)

  8. Well, that’s one article I won’t be reading. I hate parasites, they’re gross. And parasites are the whole reason I haven’t read Peeps. I’d like to read it, but parasites are just too gross to me. 😛 I’m sure it’s really good, though. 😀

    Click my name. 🙂
    Or you can visit this blog: http://13andco.blogspot.com

    Please visit both (and comment). 13&Co will be hosting a live blog this Saturday. 🙂

  9. Oh yeah writing advice! i need it!

    and the cat and the rats…
    wow… just… wow. Peeps isn’t that unrealistic 😮

  10. Ohhhh me goodness, that video is hilarious/adorable!! Hehe. Poor little rats. Good thing that one hung out with a pacifist cat.

  11. awww, that cat is so cute. i feel bad for it too, must be annoying having rats follow you around.
    writing advice, i definetly need it.

    ~Aryll-wa

  19. Grammar Nerd to the Rescue!
    “Writing advice. I definitely need it.”
    “Why do Stephanie Meyer and her brainless followers have to ruin everything?”

    Kristina-la: Here’s to that!

    An extra for now. 😉

  20. I not reeded peeps yet, but it gots it for christmas so i might probably soon. I dont know if anyone noticed, but i used way bad grammar in that last sentence, because it looks like that irritates audrey-sensei;)

  21. Actually, that wasn’t me who is irritated by bad grammar. That was Grammar Nerd. She wears a hot pink cape and purple mask, and is in no way my secret identity.

    A panda walks into a restaurant (it can happen!) He orders some fries and a cheese quesadilla. When he’s all done with it, the waitress comes to take his plate away, but before she can walk away, he pulls out an AK47 and kills her. On his way out, the manager runs up to him and yells “What do you think you’re doing?”
    “What I’m supposed to be doing,” says the panda, and he pulls out a badly punctuated encyclopedia and tosses it at the manager. “Look it up.”
    After the panda walks out the door, the manager looks up the entry bookmarked in the encyclopedia. “Pana:” it says. “Eats, shoots, and leaves.”

    Grammar does matter!

    An extra for now. 😉

  24. And Ode to Post 15: Meyer and her Brainless Crew are my untold enemey now. My (EX(jk)) friend introduced me to the clan, and for 3 months (3!!) I fell under their evil spell… but I was rudley awakened by the G*dawful 4th …(i can’t call it a ‘book’, that’s rude ^_^)installment and the chavvy english eejits (not to be racist, it’s where i live) drooling over the display in Borders while other ppl were Trying To Browse …..and now I have seen the light .
    *Amazing Grace cuts in through speech*

    end rant.

    2000 face rank

  25. thats funny cause i just reas that part last night. i sure did miss alot!!! what is that cat’s problem? he is supposed 2 eaat the rat, not make friends w/it.=D

  27. Awww… The cat and the mouse is so cute that I feel like gluing captions to them!

    Holly-wa: I still like Twilight, but BD was a terrible piece of wreck. It reminded me of Frankenstein, constructed out of all those criminal fanfiction.

  30. That is so cool! I can’t wait to read the article! I’m on the school’s laptop! (good lap tops, and crappy food? What the heck.) I’m not sure if the video works, but I hope it does.

    YAY!! Writing advice! For free, and without annoying English teacher rants!! (though my engilsh teacher hardly has good advice)

    Thats fool about the Midnighters and Insane-Mothers thing. (I think it’s creepy that moms are reading Twilight. If my mom read Twilight I would scream) But woot! RECOGNIZE!!

    Have a nice afternoon/morning!!

  31. Trish-la (Holly-wa): BD was a major let down. My friend calls it ‘Breaking Hope’ which I thought was pretty hilarious. I think she got bored and stopped caring. But this is a much much much cooler author’s blog so…yeah

    Audrey-Sensei: Nice Pan(d)a story. Grammer does matter. Which is why everytime someone ‘can has’, God kills an lolcat. (hahaha)

    Kristina-la: It’s kind of a good thing that Stephenie’s brainless followers (finally!) discovered Midnighters, because more people will hear about it through the scary web of Twilight obsessors (it’s a good trilogy[minus BD, hence trilogy] but calm DOWN) and then more people will read Midnighters and want more of Scott-la’s writing and read Uglies series and The succession books and the Peeps series and everything else. Then whenthey run out of his books they’ll read Justine’s and after hers run out they’ll read Scott and Justine’s friend’s books.
    Its evil. And Perfect.
    (muahahahahahahaha)
    Okay, bye now.

  32. As much as I dislike Twilight Moms (I’m sorry, they just creep me out!) I passionately agree with their pick: I absoloutly LOVED Midnighters!
    Oh, and the parasite stuff’s pretty neat, too!

  33. Jay-Wa – I agree with every word!
    I used to be a brainless twihard until breaking dawn (which sucked melons) came out. Then there was the whole MS thing, when Stephenie acted like a spoiled brat and tried to milk apologies (and money) from her fans.
    Now I’m focusing on being a devoted Scott fan, who so far hasn’t let me down(=

  34. today in school we had to look up a book topic in the card catalog. i picked vampires. then we had to pick 2 fiction books and 3 nonfiction books. my two fiction books were the last days and braking dawn.

    and, the library has some books on display, and peeps is one of them!

  35. cool!what grade r u in?
    cause i dont think our MS librarians would read that
    they didnt let breaking dawn in the library B.c it “inappropriett”
    EK!

  36. my new veiw on twilight:
    ok
    i hate(HATE) being a “follower”
    even when i was little
    like u pick barbie i pick polly pocket
    and so all this hype is takeing off major points for my score on twilight
    that may sound stupid but i think midnighters or UPS(uglies+ haha)or vamp acemy or somen shoud of gotten WAY more attention if twilight got this much

  38. Heyy peoplez! I love Stephanie Meyer, but Scott-la and the Uglies are still my favorite books. And I hate the obbsessive followers to Twilight! There is a group of like three girls in my grade who nickname people with names from Twilight (I am unwillingly Reneesme) wear Twilight stuff everyday (including book bags) and can’t say two sentances without saying something twilight related. (and I’m not over exagerting) And because of ONE TIME! ONE F-ING TIME I SAID “I love the twilight series too” they think I’m as obsessed as they are and they follow me around! It’s sooooo bogus!

    I love Peeps! Usually I’m not into education smartsy stuff like learning about parasites, but I LOVED the little mini chapters on them. my favorites are the wol-something that want to rule the world, and the one that goes into a snail and makes it’s left eye change colors and it’s anntenea start twitching, then waits for a bird to eat it and poo poo it somewhere else where another snail eats it and the cycle continues.

    I like Jay-wa’s plan to make everyone read Scott-la’s books. If Stephenie Meyer has obsessed followers (as much as I hate them) Scott-la should too. I persanaly like his books WAYYY better and the themes are better and easier to find out (yet not uncomplicated, it is a very complicated message.) Sooooo yeah.

  40. Amanda-wa: I think it’s scary how some people are overly obsessed with Twilight. Sure it was good, but it was no future-with-hoverboards-and-specials. I mean come on–Whats the point in living forever if you don’t even have a hoverboard?

    Whenever I see Peeps or Uglies in my library at school on display, I freak out and tell random people what they’re about.
    One of my friends said I was like a recording because I kept telling them about Wolbachia (the one that wants to rule the world) and other parasites and yeah. They find it extremely annoying.

    I’m still happy Midnighters has been discovered!!
    (it won’t be long now..muahahahahahaha)

    Irene-la: MS probably didn’t even get leaked, she probably decided her kids had a good college fund, so just quit. Bleh.

    Have a nice evening/day!

    PS Scott-la is way cooler than Stephenie, personally. I mean, he ate soap.

  41. I hate being a follower also. And i hate being like other people. Sometimes i get so carried away with it i will say that someone is ugly just cause another person thinks they are pretty and/or cute. But i try not to do that. The best way to handle it is just be like, oh, and not say anything. I like being unique and different.

  42. ah but I said mindless followers
    and clearly Scott has none of those….
    hopefully anyway
    but ya this whole Twilight obsession is a little
    scary, I mean it’s almost a cult(minus the carismatic leader)
    next thing you know they will all be klling the selves(but I dought that.)

  43. yeah! this twilight obsession has gone way too far…
    i like the book and everything but it’s just insane!
    i’m walking around at school and these people come up to me and say ” TWILIGHT IS THE BEST BOOK EVER” … like really?
    the uglies series is waaaaay better! =D come on! hoverboarding!
    it would be soo cool to have a hoverboard!….
    but i REALLY hope that we DO NOT become the rusties… O_o that would be bad!
    and i still cant find Extras anywhere! every book store i go to it’s sold out! I finished Specials weeks ago! i cant go on any longer without reading it!

  47. He He. I listened to your music. It was fun.

    I dont have a blog but if i did i would write something like this:

    I dont understand why some people think that one day there could be time machines. I mean if you REALLY think about it, its not logical. Okay, besides the point that time isnt really an efficient way to travel. Just hear me out on this:
    Say i made a time machine and I claim it works (lets pretend it does). If i were to use this machine to go back to 1920, i wouldnt make it. Why? Cause I wasn’t even ALIVE back then. And if i put an old man in there and shoved him pack some years he wouldnt remember what he was doing there because at that point in time he didnt have a clue that he would be traveling back in time. See, it doesnt make sense. Oh, so you want to tell me that you would make it back in time? Yeah, let me hear (or read) you explain that one.

  48. Ban-la: You have an interesting view on time travel. The way you explain it seems more like your only sending your conciousness back in time to your past self.

    Personally, I believe the whole theory that if you travel back in time, you were meant to. And so everything you do in the past is meant to happen and doesn’t alter the future (present) from what it was when you left because your actions had existed in the past the whole time. Like Harry Potter when he sent the Patronus across the lake, saving himself in the past. But he never would have been able to save himself in the past if he hadn’t already done so. So, time travel is just a big circle when you think about it. (I hope that made sense) 🙂

    Click my name. 😀

  50. hehe I live ona hill too so with all our rain Im fine
    sigh….with all the snow we got I don’t I will be plaing soccer
    for a very long time 🙁 this sucks.

  54. Irene-la: I have a funny Twilight mom story. My mom (who is not a twilight mom, nor am i a twilight girl) was at a basket party (they buy stuff from their friends, don’t ask it’s confusing). Anyway, she told me there was a product survey everyone took. One of the questions was “Something I want more of in my life:” and tons of the moms wrote “EDWARD!” *sigh* My friend’s mom was trying to defend twilight against me. She was all “But he’s so articulate!” No. He uses big words and no contractions. That is not all it takes to be articulate.

    Also, I started reading the series right as Breaking Dawn came out, and everyone told me what happened, so I was like “wtf????” And never read it.

    Eva-la: I don’t like being a follower either, but if I like something that everyone else happens to like, it only mildly annoys me. I tell my friends, you can’t be unique in everything. Oh, and I loved Polly Pockets and Barbies. I had a Polly Pocket Amusement park and a three story Barbie house that was bigger than me. Good times…

    Kate-la: New Moon was my favorite out of the first three books. For a few precious chapters, Bella showed a glimmer a personality. It was fleeting, but I’m pretty sure I saw it.

    An extra for now. 😉

  55. yay for toxoplasma!
    i took Peeps on a trip recently and freaked out my cousins by reading all the even numbered chapters to them. hehehe…

  57. lol I started talking about the one with the snails
    and their eyes and the birds eating them ad so on
    on the way home from school. my friends thought i was nutz

  58. twilight?
    moms reading twilight?

    0_o

    if you just want a romantic, decent read, fine…

    but if anyone claims it’s brilliant literature >.<

  59. Well i can say this is a relife. I have finally move my best friend from Twilight onto The Midnighters Trilogy and Thank Goodness for that… I went along with the obsession for a while but honestly I’m thinking she took obsessed to a whole new level… I’m just glad she absoloutly LOVED Midnighters… I’m glad because i can finally talk about the books with someone! But this is a really good thing. More and more Twilight fans will move onto Midnighters and that means maybe not a Breaking Dawn Movie! Yay! I swear if they make that movie it may be taking things a little too far….

  60. Aww, that is so CUTE! If I had a rat like that I would force my cat to play with it. Maybe that cat is a vegetarian, and hence cannot eat the mouse. Or maybe it just doesn’t want toxo…

  61. my mom might read Twilight, so that means i might have a twilight mom. i m not reading twilight ever, even though everybody’s like “its soooo good! u would love it” and i always say “how would you know? maybe i will hate it with a passion because i hate it now, so maybe reading it will bring my hate 2a whole new level!!” then they usually leave me alone.=D

  62. I hate Twilight to the moon- wretched cardboard characters, stupid plotlines, brilliaaannnttt messages to teen girls, and sexist. Whoop-de-freakin’-do.

  63. Actually New Moon was my favourite in the series. Maybe it was the Bella-zombie thing that was really really lovely. Or maybe it was because cliff-diving only comes in fifth to hoverboards, nanos, pretty surge, and walking around in blue time with special powers (not in order).

    Andrea-la: Good to see that you have sorted stuff out. =D

    Oh yeah, I’m reading Nana now. It’s a manga by Yazawa Ai, and as those who have read Bogus to Bubbly will know, it is manga that Scott reads. One of my best friends have already read it, and was such a fan that she went and bought the Ren locket from a cosplay shop. So I was totally convinced to read it. And it was good. Really really good.

  64. I like Twilight. I’m one of the people who read it when it first came out, so I wasn’t just in to it cuz it was popular. I don’t like it nearly as much as I did then. But I still think its alright. But I think breaking dawn ruined the series, it SUCKED. Terrible horrible awful suckage. Twilight was my favourite, then Eclipse, then New Moon. Cuz I HATE jacob. Hatehatehate him. So yeah. But I’m not an Edward obsessed fangirl either. Jasper Whitlock Hale Cullen all the way peeps.

  65. My teacher gave us an assinment that we had to pick a topic and one of then topics was “write about your favorite book character” so i did. Guess who wrote about? ZANE! My beloved (i say that while wearing my Team Edward T-shirt. What a disgrace.) Anywho, im tired on the outside but my brain is running 200 mph. I need to slow my roll.

  66. Audrey-Sensei: It’s cool to see other people’s opinions on the books (and other books,) because you think it’s really great. Until everyone rips it to shreds. New Moon probably was the best, and at the time I was freakishly obsessed with Twilight but afterwords it was like ‘Oh. Vampires aren’t real.’ Then you kinda feel crappy.
    Just like when I found out Specials and Hoverboards are far far away. (or not…)

    Trish-la: My friend loves mangas. Just the ones with parental advisories on them..but YAY! I’m happy it was good, I want it now! (Nana) Cosplay sounds so fawesome.

    Ash-la: A breaking dawn movie would be a wreck. Mostly because Stephenie said it herself. With the you-know-what. (incase anyone wants to read it after you guys dissed it.)

    Julie-wa: Definitely NOT a good piece of literature! Amen.

    Andrea-la: Nice post..

    Kenzie-la: Nice rants!

    Bran-la: It’s Ironic that you brought up time machines! For english we had a prompt (what would you do if you had three wishes[and you can’t wish for more wishes]) I wished for hoverboards, a sneak suit and a time machine. However, everyone was like ‘it’d be cool to go back in time!’ and I was like WHY would you want to go BACK in time. The Future is where its at!’
    And it does make sense why you couldn’t go back But whats to stop you from going forward? You may not exist in the future, but hey maybe they’re’ll be jet lag.

    Dahlia-wa: It makes sense in a confusing way. 😀

    Peace everybody.

  69. Aaaaaaaw, poor kitty! XD
    I liked the Twilight series (although Breaking Dawn was a bit anticlimatic), but I’ve liked it a bit less since it became so popular…. Plus, Twilight MOMS?! I’m sorry, it scares me a little bit. Like my English teacher who insist on lecturing us about reading appropriate level books while she goes on reading young adult novels so she can “relate” to us or something *shudders*. But now I guess no one can deny that at the very least, Stephanie Meyer has good taste in trilogies :wink:.

  70. i agree with you, have you read the host by steph? its better that the twilight series. i really didnt like breaking dawn… everything felt too rushed! it was like first she’s pregnant, then the baby’s born, then it’s all of a sudden christmas?
    i know how you feel… my english teach does the exact same thing!
    and the twilight moms freak me out a little…they should read books meant for their age…ADULTS not young adults!

  71. Jay-wa:it would b fun 2 go 2 the future. if i had a choice 2either go 2 the future or the past i would most definitely go 2the future.
    since we r still kinda disgussing Twilight i must say that i’ve pretty much heard all the stuff that goes on in Breaking Dawn and i also hear its boring. i went bowling on Saturday and this lady came up&asked me what happens@the end of breaking dawn because she didn’t feel like finishing it.i said i haven’t read it yet. she probably asked me because i was reading.=D

  72. haha! i woke up at 5:30AM this morning for NO REASON!!!!!! i am SO over-tired in a hyper way!!! well, i guess i did need to wake up KINDA early cuz i need to be at school by 7:00….because of MUSIC CAMP! i’m excited. for school, i get to go on a weekend music camp. tee hee! i’m excited.

  73. Ashely-wa: Future is so much cooler than Past. You learn about the past in history, so yeah. At first Breaking Dawn isn’t boring, and the ending is kind of good (someone should have died) but it goes extremely fast.

    PrettyxMindedxRusty, Becca-la: My teacher doesn’t try at all to relate to us. Which is good, because we all laugh at her anyway. Old people should be able to read YA, but only if it’s not something extremely ‘teen’. Like Uglies, everyone should read it. Twilight is okay for the hormone-crazed teens.

    Andrea-la: Music Camp kind of sounds fun. What do you do there? (besides play instruments, I mean)

  74. After a fierce lobbying effort, Chicago’s Wm Wrigley Jr Co began selling Orbit in Singapore on May 20, 12 years after this famously fastidious nation of four million outlawed the sale of gum. The ban came after someone stuck a wad in the door of a high-speed commuter train, causing a rare delay in scheduled service.

    I found this on the internet (^^^) and according to that, thats why gum is illegal in Singapore. (it also had 999,886 hits. Weird)
    And only pharmasists can sell it.
    Huh.

  75. yay!!!!weekend starts now!!!!=D i m not doing anything this weekend, so it may b boring, but i wil try 2 make it fun.

  77. Ashley-wa: Amen to that! I didn’t think I would make it through the week! Though you know how we’re supposed to get super chilled air from Canada and stuff? My debate teacher thinks we MIGHT not have school because some people have died of exposure! That’d be cool not to have school…
    P.S. Sorry I spelled your name wrong on the 73rd post! I’ve been anti-spelling all day.

  78. Gum is banned in Singapore…?

    0.0

    Sounds like orthodonist country.

    AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

  80. guess what?? we had some australians come to our school for today!! us californians were totally fascinated by their accents…
    Also, i saw that symbol of medicine on a documentary we just watched, and it actually looked like a guinea worm, it had a snake face. I pointed and yelled “IT’S A STICK ON A WORM!! I MEAN A WORM ON A STICK!!! YAY!!” and my parents didn’t get it cause they didn’t remember my gruesome tale of parasites…or maybe they just didn’t want to.

  81. Jay-wa:thats okay that u didn’t spell my name right. 2tell the truth i didn’t even notice.tehe! this sucks! i would have had a snow day 2day if i had school. there is like 9inches. @least its saturday=D

  83. One of my best guy friends asked me out last night and I told him I’d think about it. I like someone else, but I’m almost sure he doesn’t like me so I think I’ll tell him yes. He is kinda sweet…

    I like the parasite chapters, but I don’treally talk about them a school.

    A worm on a stick? Yum.

    I need braces. 🙁

  84. Haley: That’s awesome Australians came to your school! Are they exchange students? I thought the guinea worm was extremely cool.

    Ashley-wa: I KNOW!! (about the snow day thing) The cars in front of my house are moving vastly slow! Grr. I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it to saturday!

    Amanda-wa: Once you get the braces off people will notice your smile more! Thats what happened to my friend! And it’ll be really nice to have popcorn and gum afterwords. Ant Quaker makes popcorn-flavoured rice cakes, which are good, if you really really NEED pop corn.
    I always find it nervous-making when people ask me out…I hope it goes well!

  85. Jay-wa: I think they’re exchange students, there’s like a whole class who are touring america or something like that. They’re from…don’t remember the name of it…starts with an M…grr can’t remember but it’s near Sydney.
    Amanda-wa: I don’t like braces…but i like headgear even less. >.<
    exactly, i find it nervous-making when people ask me out too (which has only happened once…i gaped at him like an idiot for like a straight minute while my brain exploded… :-P) but yeah, good luck with your predicament.

  86. CLICK MY NAME!!! The Live Blog has officially started. The story, if I do say so myself, is quite hilarious. You will be laughing the whole time, and scratching your head at the end wondering what you’re laughing about. 😀

  88. oh my gosh. i just got back from weekend music camp! it was so…..amazing. sorry, but there’s no other word to discribe it. well, actually there is. God. we felt God. it was just so amazing. we had a church service like thing at the camp and….wow. God was there. It was amazing. We started with just a regular camp-church thing. It ended as much more than that. We sang praises to God, just like any church service, and I didn’t totally believe in God when we started…..or at all, really, but by the end…..by the end, i decided screw logic, screw science, i believe in God. It was just so amazing. I’m word-missing. “Here I am, at a loss for words, but the funny thing is, it’s okay.” so anyways, what happened was….well, i don’t really know what happened. We started by singing, then the teacher read us a devotional….and then…..we just started crying. Everyone. Even the boys. We were just all crying, and hugging. None of us really knew what was going on. We just felt something so powerful….wow. Just thinking of it makes me start crying again, because it’s so amazing. We all clustered together, and prayed. For about an hour, we prayed. Two girls kinda were “in charge” (okay, not really, but they were “leading”)….they started the prayers, then we did popcorn prayer. haha. I’ve never been involved in a popcorn prayer when some of our prayers are twenty minutes long. Then we just hugged and hugged and hugged. Then we got all happy and sang about ten more songs. Somewhere in there we all ran outside (not bothering to put on winter jakets even though it was cold…very cold) and rolled around in the snow. We went outside and shouting God’s praise! We then went inside and sang MORE. Then cried some more. Then I wrote a song about it. It was cool. Here are the song lyrics:

    Here we are,
    Pouring out our hearts to God,
    Crying in the process.
    Here we are,
    Singing to God,
    Giving Him our loses.

    Nothing can destroy our faith,
    No one can destroy us,
    Nothing can hurt us now,
    No one will harm us because,

    God is making us strong,
    Putting us together,
    Now it will not be long,
    Cuz we’re crying together,
    That we love the Lord.

    Here we cry,
    Praising God,
    Learning to trust eachother.
    Here we cry,
    Feeling a thought,
    Learning to trust the Father.

    Nothing can destroy our fatih,
    No one can destroy us.
    Nothing can hurt us now,
    No one will harm us because,

    God is making us strong,
    Putting us together,
    Now it will not be long,
    Cuz we’re crying together,
    That we love the Lord.

    Hear us now,
    Answering the Soft Voice,
    All as one.
    Hear us now,
    Sharing out faith,
    About God’s Son.

    Nothing can destroy our faith,
    No one can destroy us.
    Nothing can harm us now,
    No one can hurt us because,

    God is making us strong,
    Putting us together,
    Now it will not be long,
    Cuz we’re crying together,
    That we love the Lord.

    This change is real,
    This change is real,
    This change is God is us.

    This love is real,
    This love is real,
    This love is God in us.

    God is making us strong,
    Bringing us together,
    Now we are one,
    In the name of the Son,
    Because we love the Lord,
    Because we love the Lord.

    anyways. it was really cool. we were all just shouting praise to God, and hugging eachother. wow. i’ve never had an experience like that in my life. i’m holding onto this forever.

  91. About the travelling to the past or the future thing, I think I would rather travel to the past. Alot of what we know about the past is guesswork, based on facts. Some distorted by propaganda and others happened when nobody was there to watch and take it down. Going back would help solve of some of the mysteries. Actually, I it’s more of watching back into the past, rather than actually go there. Kind of like in ‘Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Colombus’ by Orson Scott Card.

    Dahlia-wa: I only read the live blog like after everything was posted, but it was still quite hilarious. I think it would have been better if I had been reading it ‘live’ though.

  93. Andrea-la:wow……that was an awesome story. glad u r back in faith. great song 2!!!!

    hope u all have a good sunday!!!!!=D i get 2 go 2my brother’s hockey party(he’s 6) at a bowling alley.

  94. T&Z: OMG!!! those pictures on that website were so good. did u draw them? i can barely draw stick people and when i try 2 draw anything else, it just comes out looking retarded.=D

  98. that chinese building was awesome, serallena!
    and great artwork, Tally&Zane! i wish i could draw like that…
    I love bowling, but i have to have bumpers 😛

  99. hey!!! i m back from bowling now. i think my highest score was like 105 w/bumpers. i suck at bowling,but so does my sister Brianna who i bowled w/. i beat her by like 7 points. i also had a like 10 pound bowling ball which felt like a million pounds. it was a lucky ball tho, i got 2strikes w/it. anyways…..i gots 2go do homework(or not) =D

  100. I have many rats and that would be so cool if they could get along with each other like in the video.

  103. ya cat would do that to
    one time we were raking leaves
    and we raked up a dead rat
    it was very very disscusting.
    He never ate them though(but he was getting old)

  104. i don’t have a cat…or a rat…or an octopus, for that matter.
    i REALLY don’t want to take finals this week…

  105. happy monday everyone!!!! i hate mondays because monday is the 1st day back 2 school after the weekend.=D

  106. I’ve dealt with dead rats before… not really rats, they were lab mice… and it was during dissection practical in biology.

    Nice drawings, T&Z, love them alot.

  107. Kait-wa: (says) Narnia is real. (shes next to me.)

    At my school, people dissect cats. Weird.

    Tally&Zane: Amazingly Fawesome pictures!!!

    CullenMindcaster: (awesome name) And I’ll be sure to check out the site later.

  108. Andrea-la: I’m glad to see that you’re feeling better about your god stuff. Yay! And hey, since when has logic ever made sense?

  110. GAH!!

    How dare you people hate twilight and how dare you hate Jacob!

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Sorry people I just want to scream at someone I’m so sorry it had to be you.
    The Twilight Movie sucked like monkey poo (ha as I listen to the soundtrack rob pattinson is not my version of edward) again as i listen to Never Think By none other than rob pattinson

    okie dokie

    I dyed my hair burgundy it looks freakish awsome

  112. I disected a chicken arm today ok I’m reading breaking dawn so before I get into it vote should I continue or not? (yes i will follow your advice)
    Polls.
    Should I write in Aliza’s point of view or Tally’s?Aliza = is main character (or was if you vote tally) BTW *the book i’m writing*

    Should I continue to read BD?

    Should I read Eragon? I got it today but don’t know if I should waste my time.

    <333,
    Eclipse

  113. Eclipse: The Twilight movie was a train wreck. (wholly) But I thought the books were good (up till BD.) Though, the best part of the whole movie was Emmett in his ghetto out fits!

  115. BD is pretty good Up to the end. And yes you should read it so you appreciate the other books a whole lot more.

    All my friends (that’ve read it) really enjoyed Eragon, so sure.

    I would do Aliza ’cause it’s fun to mix it up!!

  118. Eclipse (Mrs. Emmett Cullen Jacobs Black): Wow, that’s a long name to type.
    You should Definitely read Eragon. It’s a really, really good book. Plus it’s one of my favorite books to re-read.

    Click my name.

  119. I didn’t like Breaking Dawn at all. Except for when Alec came in cuz he has the most frickin awesome power EVER. Eclipse(…) How could you LIKE Jacob?! EW. He’s an evil narcissistic self-pitying arsehole that for some reason everybody either loves or feels bad for. UGH. Sorry, no offense to you. I have crazy friends that like Jacob, so I don’t have a problem with it real, I just don’t get it…yuck.

  121. i think it was either in bogus to bubbly or on this site that scott was talking about octopi having super awesome camoflauge and it said in parentheses “(that person sitting next to you? secretly an octopus).” and i kept telling people that today. a few of them looked at me funny, one looked at the person next to me and said “well, that explains a lot…”

  123. it was quite funny. i don’t know why that line specifically popped into my head, but oh well.
    also, i wrote it on this random paper full of weird randomness me and my friends in spanish wrote and left on the desk. so, in fourth period today, someone will have looked at a piece of paper on their desk with yaks, spanish words, octopus accusations, and one “you people are crazy! (but that’s why we’re friends)”. they were probably insanely confused.

  124. Haley~Hyperness is ICY: that octopus thing sounds really funny. if i did that people would think i m crazy& since there r only 100kids in my grade, they all know who i am&stuff, so i would get made fun of till the end of the year. spanish class is really fun(only on mondays) because i sit next 2 my friend Kayla(yes, we have assigned seats) and we always talk about sharpies. i luv how sharpies smell……mmmmm……so this one time i m pretty sure i got high on a sharpie in spanish because it all of a sudden looked like it was raining in the spanish room& i couldn’t stop laughing. =D

  125. i hate the smell of sharpies…and the smell of icy-hot patches. my friend (in spanish again) had one, and she made me smell it. my lungs automatically closed upon smelling it…smelled pretty bad cause that usually only happens when i smell cigarette smoke…

  127. I need a good book right
    now. I hve nothing to read
    (Im almost done Love is Hell and Scotts story was amazing)
    but I need something …soon

  128. SYMAPATHY!
    ive been thro taht a few times=.[
    but thats y i have UPS(Uglies pretties+ speacials) and twilight+ to get me thro those tough times;D

  129. OMG! Andrea-la! AKKK!
    i just read ur post(88) and i almost cryed(i really have no idea y tho, i think i have a problem that if u talk about crying i cry)
    i just think its really cool seeing u um, deny God and then a (about) week later u um, accept? him;D
    that is very happy-makeing;D

  131. Kristina-la: Have you read anything by Anthony Horowitz??? He is an amazing author, I love the Alex Rider and Gatekeepers series. James Patterson’s YA books (Maximum Ride and Daniel X) are really, really good too (they’re quite funny). I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You by Ally Carter, Kiki Strike: Inside The Shadow City by Kirsten Miller and Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe are also good. 😀
    That’s really all I can think of at the moment. Hope it helps. 🙂

    Click my name. 😀

  132. Kristina-la: Have you read anything by Anthony Horowitz? He’s an amazing author, I love the Alex Rider and Gatekeepers series. James Patterson’s YA books (Maximum Ride and Daniel X) are really good too (they’re quite funny). I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You by Ally Carter, Kiki Strike: Inside The Shadow City by Kirsten Miller and Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe are really good too. 😀
    That’s really all I can think of right now, hope it helps. 🙂

    Click my name. 😀

  133. lol thanks
    I’ll check them out
    and thankfully a lot of new books are coming out this year
    so I will be good but I just have to hold on til then

  134. Kristina-la: I heard you were looking for something to read. Here are a couple of ideas.

    Hacking Harvard by Robin Wasserman
    Bloodline by Kate Cary
    The Fallen by Thomas Sniegoski
    Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
    Airhead by Meg Cabot

    There are a lot of books I could recommend, but I decided to keep the list short.

    Click my name and visit my blog.

  135. Haley: I think that’s hilarious!

    Kristina-la: Here’s some stuff you could check out. I separated them into two sections, the first few are usually found in the YA section and the second is in the adults section. But the Ender saga can sometimes be found in the YA section, though.

    House of the Night series – P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast (they are fine once you get over the first 2 chapters)
    Spindle’s End – Robin McKinsley
    The Black Magician Trilogy – Trudi Canavan
    Pendragon Series – DJ Machale

    Ender Saga and Bean Saga (they are companion series of each other) – Orson Scott Card
    Age of the Five Trilogy – Trudi Canavan
    Kay Scarpetta novels – Patricia Cornwell (If you are into murder mysteries with all the autopsy included)

  137. Ya I’ve been meaning to read more of Robin Wasserman’s books
    after I read skinned(which was really good and I hope she is almost done book 2)
    also I’ve been meaning to read seven deadly sins even before
    I knew about skinned
    but ya I will definatly check that one out
    I need to go to chapters.
    oh and thanks for all your seggestions without them
    I might have sunk so low to read the other Twilight books(which Im not up to, I’ve been putting it of because 1. there were better books out 2. I just didn’t want to and 3. it’s a waste of money and I dont feel like going to the library)
    I got sick of them after the second book(shows you long of an attention span I have)

  138. my rat ate a bag of mine the other day. her name’s tally, actually. would tally youngblood ever eat a bag?
    i wish i had a cat. i love kitties. i would name it godzilla.

  141. T&Z: Sorry to hear about you hamster’s passing. =( I got quite upset when my fighting fish died (not because of any fighting or anything)

  142. this is definetly the blog to go to if you want book recommendations…
    Runemarks -Joanne Harris
    Life of Pi -Yann Martel
    Evolution, me, and other freaks of nature -Robin Brande
    The Blue girl -Charles de Lint
    Tales of the Otori (all five of them are awesome…)
    The King’s Swift Rider -Mollie Hunter
    Dragonhaven -Robin Mckinley

    sorry about your hamster, Tally & Zane!

  144. T&Z: sorry 2 hear about dead tally. my friend once had a hamster that lived like 8weeks, then died.

    Minaaa: i don’t think the real fictional character tally would eat a bag. =D

  145. Minaaa (ashley-wa): It would be hilarious if Tally (youngblood) ate a bag…*time warp, I get smacked down by some invisible force..hmm…*

    Tally & Zane: Sorry to hear about your hamster…unless it’s not really a hamster and that’s just a code word for future-special..I’M ON TO YOU!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA (sorry, I’m kind of delirious..)

    Haley: Blue Girl ROCKED! It was trippy and amazing.

    (woo! Book recommendations!)

    Skinned was uh-mazing, and of course How To Ditch Your Fairy.

    Everyone have a nice whatever-time-of-day!

  146. For debate I’m making a bunch of crazy bills.
    There’s one about Toxoplasma, another to segregate Men from Women, and the last one is to make the conspirators of the ‘Landing on the Moon’ scheme be punished by law. Heehee.

    Any one else have some off-the-wall theories?

  147. Hi,
    I was kinda hoping that Scott-la would read this, even though its not Toxoplasma-related( although it IS an interesting post!)
    I recently read an article in Focus Magazine (BBC Science Journal etc.)
    on the eye-screens that you posted about. It had the same purple gloved picture as well! Anyways, this was a back issue printed a couple of months after it was posted here….so, not only in Westerblog ahead of times, but Prettylife has infiltrated the BBC!! Mwhaha!
    and secondly:
    I was given a Waterstone’s voucher…but my local one is pitiful, so the sales rep. told me that I could spend it online. Is there ANY way to buy HTDYF there? I couldn’t find it…X_X
    THIRDLY!!
    (and lastly)
    We had finals this week, and my friend had JUST finished reading Extras. So she passed me a note with a drawing of a Series 10 hoverboard ( I called it series 10 so her ‘different’ drawing would seem on purpose.. sigh.) and she has been speaking PrettyaTalk at a mile a minute…she’s such a Bubblehead *smirks*
    *******
    Any grammar, spelling and emoticons are not the result of the writer’s limited I.Q, But her rubish touch-typing skills.T_T

  148. Jay-wa, HOW’D YOU FIND OUT! Gah!My theory is that Tally was halucinating that Specials were chasing her like crazy so she thought she had to run/hoverboard faster and faster and faster. Cuz she died from running too fast on her lil wheel and had a heartattack….

  149. Good morning all,

    First, I appologie for my english. I don’t write english usually.

    I discover Scott Westerfield’s books two years ago and, always I red them, I am in an other world, an other time and an other land…

    So, I am very desapointed to not find “PEEPS” in french (I live in Paris). A lot of comments, about the book, are available on some blogs.

    Do you think that this novel will be translate soon ?

    Regards for all of you !!!

  150. My rat’s still toxoplasma negative. It’s been five months and she’s still terrified of my cat, especially after he tried to bite her ear off. Which is good news for me I guess, since I don’t have to make sure she’s keeping an appropriate distance from him. He still likes to sit in front of her cage though.

  151. Lol! I was watching this while Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” was playing…the lyrics were jarring in a cool way against the video. 😀 And, by the by, that is one uber-awesome vid. (Sorry ’bout that accidental lapse into poser-sk8r-jargon. It just slips out sometimes. ^^)

  152. Yes, though I’ve only just started Peeps, I was intrigued and a little bit frightened by your spin on Toxoplasma.
    I actually HAVE Toxoplasmosis, which was indeed transferred to me in my mummy’s tummy by a stupid cat.
    Luckily for me, it just means half blindness in my left eye (if I look at you with just my left eye, there’s a big black hole where your face should be. But I can see around you like your shoulders and maybe the top of your head – and yes, how many fingers you’re holding up, unless you’re holding them in front of your face or whatever the thing I’m actually LOOKING at is.)
    It sometimes flares up in both eyes and I go temporarily blind for about a month. Yes. That’s as fun as it sounds.
    I found out a couple of years ago that I have some toxoplasma in my brain too. But I don’t know what it’s doing to me. Cue suspenseful dramatic music now, shall we? So there ya go, a real life toxoplasma story for ya.

  153. I can’t believe they’re making an Uglies movie!! Me and my best friend, Zoe, are the real world Tally and Shay. We look like them, we fight sometimes, and we met under unusual circumstances (not quite as cool as in your books, but still very odd)

    So anyway, we also act and would kill to be in the movie.
    email some info about casting if u have some time

  154. I have a good idea for a novel. You can use it if you want. You have my permission.

    13 year old Carly May moves into an old mansion in the middle of nowhere. She goes into the woods and finds all this weird old stuff. Books with ancient lettering, creepy jewelry, etc. She takes it home and hides it in her closet. Suddenly weird stuff stuff happens to her. She has creepy dreams and constantly wakes up screaming. She finds out that the stuff belonged to witches and they need it back. She runs away from home to return all the stuff. Halfway through her scary adventures, she meets a pixie named Zoe Bellseller (weird name, huh) who tells her that the witches are pure, lying, evil. They need the stuff Carly found to bring down the human race and return the world to the time of witchcraft. This results in Carly having to slay witches and all their allies (vampires, etc.) and save the whole world.

    It’s part of a weird dream I had last night. I thought it would make a good book so I’m sending it to you. Hope you use it after your done with Leviathan.

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