Ok, you win.  I'll write a blog.  Now and then I'll post a pretty picture from a far flung place and add a little story, or some other spark of curiosity.

I'll start with this shot of sponges, tunicates, coral, hydroids, and algae.  This scene is altered only by a point-and-shoot camera flash.  It's one of many reasons why I'm a complete and total sucker for muck.

This photo was taken in Lembeh, Indonesia, May 2009.  This spot was where "muck" diving was first popularized by an enthusiastic diver named Larry Smith.  When everyone else was being wowed by coral reefs, he and his fellow pioneers found unassuming and altogether alien critters in the sandy bottom. They made stars of sucker-studded players like Wunderpus and the Mimic octopus.  Sea squirts were suddenly charismatic.  The closer you look, the more patient you are, the more beautiful muck can be.