A wee announcement: On Friday October 9th at 7pm, I’ll be sharing art and stories at the Pinole Artisans group - it is a warm and wonderful group of artists. Come hang out if you’re in the SF East Bay!

Have you ever noticed that you can feel when someone is looking at you even when you are not looking at them? There’s that creeping sense of “I feel like I’m being watched.”

We seem to possess this innate sense of presence. We can tall when ‘somebody’ is there.

Back in the prehistoric times, it could be quite bad to have eyes on you, because that meant you were being tracked by a predator, or even a bunch of predators, like a pack of hyenas or something. My friend Mike talks in his workshop on Presenting With Confidence (the next one is soon!) about how this can be why people get stage fright - it’s about not being safe up there because hyenas.

So we have a deep instinct for other beings being around.

It is always great-slash-dumb in horror or thriller movies where the person goes into the dark house/warehouse/underground lair and calls out “Hello? Is anybody there?” And then they proceed to turn on their flashlight, and now they are like this lit up pre-victim walking around. I’m sure they do this on purpose so we will go “Oh no! The thing is going to get you!” Just like the little kid who is definitely going to open the door and let the monster in.

It can be so delightful when a critter of some sort shows up. We have these lizards in our yard who pop out and start doing their pushups, and scramble about.

We startle each other! It’s such a surprise when something alive comes cruising in. There it is, a critter! Maybe it is your cousin, or a snake, or a big bug.

Everything gets more interesting when a critter comes around.

Neptune Road

The story of people salvaging a life on a terraformed Neptune

Things Of The Week

Here’s a neato way to use tech to save and teach an endangered language

Do you love art books? This is an incredible resource.

It is super fun to pull these fellows around and watch them change - you can alter the grid, too (be sure and click the Twerk button!)

Featured Thing

Today’s Sloth and Manatee pages are from Ocean Adventure, available at Radiator Comics!!

Okay! That's enough nonsense for now.

May you see a critter, may a critter see you, won't you be my neighbor? - Betsy

“Wherever we go, we are friends” - Sloth and Manatee