𝒫𝓇𝑜𝒷𝒶𝒷𝒾𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓎, 𝓊𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓇𝓉𝒶𝒾𝓃𝓉𝓎, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓂𝑜𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈

Well, well, well, huh? Episode 6 of Class de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta has left me intrigued about how the plot will develop now that the protagonist Maki's father has appeared. Daddy issues, daddy issues!

(๑ ￫ܫ￩)

                          (๑ ￫ܫ￩)

                                                          (๑ ￫ܫ￩)

                                                                                         (๑ ￫ܫ￩) 

                                                                                                                             (๑ ￫ܫ￩)

                                                                                                                                                         (๑ ￫ܫ￩)

It's been a while, hasn't it?

ヾ( ^^ゞ)

Hi, lol.

I've always been bad at greeting people and starting conversations, even if I'm talking to air. The reason for this post is to say that everything is... "okay," you could say. I don't know if I should describe myself as being in a state of redemption, passivity, or surrender. I say this because I know that very important things (with negative processes and consequences) are happening in the background. 

I suppose it's a combination of everything. But I must also say that other things have improved. Well, at least, I can say that my relationship with my mother is improving. I've learned to listen to her and basically not just see the negative side of her interactions or the way she tries to influence me. She's a human being, and at this point, it doesn't matter how she did things or what she should have done. She's sick, and it's not the time to keep complaining. The least I can do is lessen her suffering because I'm worried it will get worse in the future.

This has also meant less friction with her at home. I don't know if it's because I've been taking care of her since her surgery, so I've somehow taken on a more "useful" role at home, or if it's simply because I've tried not to comment on or question any of her decisions or "micro-injustices" towards me, and just let it go to avoid stress. Keeping the cortisol down, as the meme goes.

My computer has continued to malfunction. I don't think I've mentioned this, or maybe I have in another post, but if not, I'll give you some context: they detected physical damage to the graphics card due to overheating. And well, apparently, that's been a real pain to fix. Not to mention impossible, since it's a part that can't be replaced in laptops, and I'd have to get another one.

Logically, with my own health issues, my parents' health problems, and other problems related to finding a way to make ends meet (business), and the fact that I've been terrible with the final project and I'm not even the genius who just needs a shot in the arm... well, I've come to the conclusion that it's not worth it (well, I don't deserve it) to buy a new computer. As it is, I'll just keep going downhill.

That brings me to the final project. 

Progress? Minimal. 

But at least I managed to finish the measurements I had pending and use some R Studio to create an interesting graph that isn't just text. That's made me feel like I haven't completely abandoned the final project. My problem with it now is that I sent a letter regarding project execution permissions (sampling ethics, that sort of thing), and the maximum response time was supposed to be two weeks. It's been 18 days and all I've received is spam from strangers inviting me to dubious influencer courses.

................................ So tomorrow, I'm going to the registrar's office at my university, feeling incredibly anxious, to ask what's going on. But my final project topic isn't well-received at the university, I think, because of its small sample size, its descriptive nature, and the fact that I'm basically not contributing anything worthwhile. Honestly, I chose this topic because it didn't require long (and expensive) trips or lengthy permits, but unfortunately, the "stopping factor" is precisely that it's not seen as a groundbreaking topic "that will change the country's perspective."

I don't know, I'm going with the fear, and perhaps also the expectation, that they'll tell me anything and everything regarding those permits. From "Oh, we didn't receive it, maybe you sent it in the wrong format" to "Yes, we received it, but the topic is so bland and trivial that we decided to ignore it. Send all the letters... and maybe we'll help you." Which would be the end of it, because then my topic has no future. And it's too late to look for another topic. If I do, I'd have to bet on graduating at least in 2028. Hell no!

(●´□`)

I don't know, honestly.

I don't see much of a future for myself. I'm dealing with that, and also with finishing some books I've tried to write (more like compilations of information; I've concluded I'm terrible at writing original things). I've seen that they're long projects, so I don't know if any of those books will ever see the light of day.

Because of all this, I've also put my illustrations on hold for a bit. I have part of the draft for illustration 21; I had it all ready at the beginning of the month. But I guess I got mentally exhausted—I mean, I had a mini-collapse and managed to escape it—because illustration 21 is complex, and I don't quite remember how I managed the information to make that drawing. But the Protista Project is currently the most solid thing I've done as DOTkamina, so I'm working on getting motivated to continue it and not let it become just another dead project.

Sometimes I do wish my life were simpler. Financial stability, so I could have a style of worry more like the characters in a rom-com where the biggest concern is whether that girl likes you or not. Well, I do have that worry... a deeper, more painful one. But with all the context I've mentioned, it's buried under more urgent priorities. All this while I'm out on the street looking for rare medicines, while I see people my age with partners or friends, enjoying life to the fullest. And then I feel like I've aged too much and that maybe my best time (of carefree days and untouched dreams) is already over.

...

....

......

.........

...........

If it happens that I become just another lifeless NPC in society, at least I'd like to make some more progress on my illustrations (which, as I said, are the most solid thing I've built). The more I have done, the less I'll feel like "I should have done more while I could, instead of overthinking."

I guess that's all I wanted to say. 

Wish me luck tomorrow in my search for answers at the Secretary's office. 

If the situation becomes truly impossible or unfavorable, perhaps I'll write another post addressing the emptiness of the digital world. 

....... Which, ironically, is my second home.

Cryptomonas paramaecium (Ehrenberg) Hoef-Emden & Melkonian 2003 = Chilomonas paramaecium Ehrenberg 1831

This organism is a hoax. It has supposedly already been reclassified as another species of Cryptomonas campylomorph form (no cryptomorph has been found), but in any case, AlgaeBase still considers it the type (lectotype) of the genus Chilomonas, since it was previously considered part of that genus, different from Cryptomonas. There is another name used, which is "Chilomonas paramecium", instead of "paramaecium". It appears as such in Clay (2015).

This species belongs to the family Cryptomonadaceae, order Cryptomonadales, class Cryptophyceae (commonly called "cryptomonad algae"). You know where this is going: cryptomonad algae are then included in the subphylum Rollomonadia, phylum Cryptista, subkingdom Hacrobia, kingdom Chromista. 

The kingdom Chromista is related to the clade Archaeplastida, which includes algae that are relatives and ancestors of plants. You might also encounter another classification, where the phylum Cryptista is included in the clade Pancryptista, which is related to Archaplastida, and both form the large CAM clade. But that's not really important; the point is that Cryptomonas paramaecium is another distant relative of plant ancestors.

Reminder that it is free to use under CC BY-SA 4.0, non-commercial, attribution required (DOTkamina 2026). The sources I used and read for the creation of the image, as well as the text where I explain, are these:

• "Chapter 18 - Cryptomonads". Brec L. Clay, 2015. Freshwater Algae of North America (Second Edition). Academic Press.
• "Cryptomonas paramaecium (Ehrenberg, 1832) Hoef-Emden & Melkonian, 2003". Martin Kreutz. Real Micro Life 2021.
• "Revision of the Genus Cryptomonas (Cryptophyceae): a Combination of Molecular Phylogeny and Morphology Provides Insights into a Long-Hidden Dimorphism". Kerstin Hoef-Emden and Michael Melkonian. Protist, Volume 154, Issues 3-4, 371-409 pp. 2003.

As I mentioned, C. paramaecium has a campylomorph form. This means a simple furrow without stomata and an almost sigmoid cell shape, although in this species, the shape is usually more ovate-elongated and slightly wider anteriorly. The vestibulum has a vestibular ligule (this ligule is absent in the cryptomorph form in another species). The furrow is quite small compared to others.

Most notably, it lacks chloroplasts and pyrenoids, instead possessing leucoplasts with starch grains and nucleomorphs (one in each chloroplast). Therefore, it doesn't have a red or green pigment to give it color; it is transparent (though under a microscope it appears grayish or glassy). In this image, I've used various grayish to bluish tones and other minor colors, but it's important to remember that the objective is more didactic than realistic.

Dimensions: 14–28 µm long × 10–13 µm wide × 8–10 µm thick. However, Clay (2015) attributes larger sizes to it, 20–40 µm long and 10–20 µm in diameter.

Other observed features include the contractile vacuole at the anterior extreme of the cell, two Maupas bodies located approximately in the cell's central region, and the gullet surrounded by ejectisomes (few are illustrated in Clay (2015), but more are seen in the micrographs by Kreutz (2021).

According to Kreutz (2021), flagella are slightly shorter than the cell and the same length, but in the illustrations from both that source and Clay (2015), they are depicted as shorter relative to the cell, and I have represented them accordingly, choosing to make them approximately half the size of the cell. Although both are equal in length (again, in the illustrations in Kreutz (2021) and Clay (2015), they are not depicted at the same lengths), I have chosen to represent the longer flagellum slightly longer than the shorter (ventral) one.

I have drawn the endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, and the single reticulated mitochondrion. The shapes of these structures are speculative. In the case of the mitochondrion, it's a predicted reticulated shape based on what Santore and Greenwood (1977) explains, where it's mentioned that Cryptomonas has a single mitochondrion with numerous branches distributed throughout the cell, concentrated in areas like the gullet. It's assumed that these mitochondrial branches should have different thicknesses in various sections, but in my drawing, the width of these branches is almost uniform.

According to Kugrens et al. (1987): unlike other species, the flagella do not follow the basic type 1 flagellar arrangement (long dorsal flagellum with two rows of mastigonemes, each with a terminal filament; short ventral flagellum with one row of mastigonemes, each with two unequal terminal filaments). Instead, there is a type 4 flagellar arrangement. In this arrangement, there is only one row of mastigonemes for both flagella. The nature of the terminal filaments is the same as in type 1 flagella. Therefore: long (dorsal) flagellum with one row of mastigonemes, each with a terminal filament; short (ventral) flagellum with one row of mastigonemes, each with two unequal terminal filaments. Additionally, at the terminal tip of the long flagellum, there are four "terminal hairs".

Both the mastigonemes and the additional filaments and hairs can only be seen with an electron microscope. Don't expect to see them with a light microscope. Even the flagella are sometimes difficult to see with a light microscope. I almost forgot: both flagella are located on the right side of the vestibule. That's from a dorsal view. In a ventral view, they appear to be on the left, but that's just an illusion!

I have nothing more to say in this post about this organism. In theory, this was supposed to be the entry about Giardia duodenalis, but I had some anatomical questions about its microtubules and I'm investigating it to see if I need to make any further corrections. 

Anyway, that's how, with this organism, I've reached illustration number 20 out of the 100 I have to complete. But hey. It's more fun to say I'm 80 short than 96.