I like octopuses! I just think they are fascinating, and slightly creepy, animals. They are so different from most animals that I can't help but be intrigued by them. For that reason I like to compare them to aliens. I keep thinking it would be fun to write a science fiction story where aliens come to Earth and they don't make any attempt to communicate with humans, but rather go right into the ocean and base their explorations from there.

But as much as I love octopuses, my family likes to give me octopuses even more! Not the real ones, mind you, but little fake ones. I have gotten countless knick-knacks, stuffed animals, shirts, and more in the shape of an octopus. How did this start? Well, years ago when our family had a writing group, I thought it would be funny to have an octopus make a cameo in most of the stories I wrote. People reacted positively to that, and then started buying things that had octopuses on them to give to me.

Here is one such gift: wall octopus. This one came from my brother, and just showed up in the mail one day. (Not the first time that had happened either!) It is cool, and I hung it on the wall in my bedroom. Now whenever I look at it I am reminded of that scene in the 1990 movie Arachnophobia where the guy sees what he thinks is a giant spider on his wall at night, and when he goes to attack it turns out to be a wall hook! I had a good laugh at that in the theater back in the day!

Anyway, I just wanted to share one cool item of decor that I have in my house. More to come later.