#141 - HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes in 2017!

My best wishes to you and yours. As the new year begins, please note that I will primarily now be blogging at pikeygypsy.blogspot.com. Bookmark/follow over there for almost daily updates.

Even more frequent will be my image posts to Instagram. You can follow me both there and via my new Twitter at @jacobipix.

I have updated ExoticFauna.com, but until I start marketing my eBooks it remains a one-page site. My new website is MJacobi.com. Both sites will evolve during 2017. Watch my blogs and social media for announcement of 2017 eBook releases.

A few days ago I received my print copy of my newest release – Journal of the British Tarantula Society 31(3). Although I create the Journal (edit and design/layout) and also write for it, it still is always a treat to actually find the air mail envelope in the mailbox and finally hold the print issue in my hand. The current issue's cover feature article is mine and details why I believe the tiger spiders from near Kandy, Sri Lanka are P. subfusca, whereas those from the montane Nuwara Eliya region are a different species deserving a new name. Hobbyists get that backwards and now most label "highlands" as subfusca and "lowlands" as "sp. lowland" or, worse still, "bara". Incorrect. Read my article ...

I have plenty of content for the March Journal, which will be the first issue of Volume 32. Yes, thirty-two years of quality content and a publication that has progressed to be a fifty-page full-color magazine that is the finest found in arachnoculture. The sister publication, BTS Newsletter, will soon see its fourth release.

Again, best wishes for an absolutely fabulous new year. I hope you'll follow my adventures and message me during my travels. If you want to treat me to a cocktail and have me toast you with a shoutout on social media check out the Donate buttons on my websites.

Cheers, MJ

#140 - NEW BLOG

Hello y'all,

I've decided to keep Kiss My Big Hairy Spider going even if the page visits certainly have diminished. I think it is still a great place for me to blog about issues that are specifically arachnid related. However, yesterday I made my first post to my new blog. Pikey: Boondocking and Shunpiking; the Gypsy Life is my new home for tales from the road, both my adventures in the United States and my travels abroad. As some of you know, I am taking my field trip activity to a whole new level in 2017. I have bought a brand new truck and RV and soon will leave Chicagoland for full-time living all across America. I will be blogging almost daily as I chase reptiles, arachnids, birds and other wildlife across the beautiful United States. The plan is to spend most of January in southern Florida, return to Chicago in early February because I fly to Borneo and Langkawi, Malaysia on February 8, and then - after returning to Chicago in late February - I will head south again and make my way west along the Mexico border. Weather will dictate my path as I strive to keep the temperature range between 50 and 80ºF. By July I will be up in the Pacific Northwest where I used to live and then will head to Alaska. During my 2017 road trip I will have many adventures, but my focus will be on photographing and writing about the arachnids and reptiles of the U.S. for future eBook style projects, articles and lectures. I also will be photographing birds and other wildlife for similar use. Personally, I will also be just enjoying life and working on my music. I have rekindled my interest in songwriting after composing what I feel is the best song I have ever written in celebration of a special lady's birthday. I've created a Soundcloud channel for my music and all of my projects can be accessed through my new primary website - mjacobi.com. I will revamp exoticfauna.com as well during the coming year as it will host the eBooks I will be creating. So please check out the new website and give it a bookmark and make sure you follow the new blog. Pikey will be the place I post regularly now, but if I just want to talk about arachnids I will post here as well.

Thanks for reading, MJ