Buber's gone. He became Drick and had to go.
We are sucky fish owners . . .
Monday, February 28, 2005
And then there were eight
We did it. We flushed our first fish. The toughest thing is that we didn't have to flush a fish because it died. We had to flush a fish, causing him to die. Drick was attacking all of the other fish, especially today. Drick spent the first hour that we were awake chasing Spike and biting his tail and fins. We had to make the decision to get rid of Drick so that our other fish wouldn't die of stress. We bought Drick at Wal-mart and the pet store won't take trade-ins from other stores.
The only problem now is that Buber, who used to be Drick's prey, is now becoming a predator in Drick's absence. Because of Buber's size, however, he is only big enough to annoy the guppies and the neons. We may soon have to get rid of Buber, too.
As responsible pet owners, we should have researched before buying. The tough responsibility now that we own them is to kill the one for the sake of the many. Or even to kill the one for the sake of one that we hold more dearly.
When I fish, I kill the fish to eat it. He was stupid enough to get caught and I was smart enough to catch him.
In my fish tank, I kill the fish to save the other fish. His personality clashed with the society of the tank. So I, being the one in power, decided it was worse to put him into a separated bowl that I knew he would quickly die in and I flushed him so as not to prolong his punishment, punishment for being who he was.
Maybe every Senator should just have a fish tank that they have to take care of and then see where they lie on issues such as capital punishment and mental institutions . . .
The only problem now is that Buber, who used to be Drick's prey, is now becoming a predator in Drick's absence. Because of Buber's size, however, he is only big enough to annoy the guppies and the neons. We may soon have to get rid of Buber, too.
As responsible pet owners, we should have researched before buying. The tough responsibility now that we own them is to kill the one for the sake of the many. Or even to kill the one for the sake of one that we hold more dearly.
When I fish, I kill the fish to eat it. He was stupid enough to get caught and I was smart enough to catch him.
In my fish tank, I kill the fish to save the other fish. His personality clashed with the society of the tank. So I, being the one in power, decided it was worse to put him into a separated bowl that I knew he would quickly die in and I flushed him so as not to prolong his punishment, punishment for being who he was.
Maybe every Senator should just have a fish tank that they have to take care of and then see where they lie on issues such as capital punishment and mental institutions . . .
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Typical Fish Shoppers
Good News: We got 3 more fish and five real plants.
Bad News: Some of the original fish that we got are not "compatable tank mates."
Worse News: We were just about to get two fish today that we really wanted when we realized as we were talking to the pet store worker that these two fish were saltwater fish and we have a freshwater tank. We then told him that we had two Tiger Barbs and a Black Tetra. He told us to make sure not to get Neon Tetras (which we already have) because they will probably get eaten by the Tiger Barbs. We then decided to not tell him about our two Neons or our Guppy. We then asked later if we could get guppies even though we have Tiger Barbs. He thought it would probably be okay. So, we got two new guppies (which is actually good news). Then, we decided we wanted a more brilliant fish. So, we got a small, but not tiny, angelfish. Currently I am reviewing our purchases at aquariumfish.net and am realizing that as an angelfish grows, it will get big enough to eat both Neon Tetras and Guppies. We knew that the angelfish would get too big for our tank in about a year, but not big enough to eat his tank mates!
But, without much further ado, our newest fish:
Spike is our new angelfish. He is mainly black with some faded white and orange stripes. The Tiger Barbs have already tried biting off the ends of his long fins and tail, but he has gotten better at eluding them. He is named Spike due to his numerous tiny dorsal fins in front of his long fins/tail.
Upside and Speckly are our two new Fancy Tail Guppies. Upside likes to chase Speckly, but Speckly doesn't take too kindly to it. Speckly looks very similar to Javier, but is much more deep orange on the tail and dorsal fin. Speckly is very pretty. Upside, however, is not as much. He has a plain orange tail and a white dorsal fin. The flat top part of Upside's body is also white. Speckly is named so because, when you look at him from above, he looks like he is swimming upside-down. Speckly is named so because of the definition of the black spots on his tail and dorsal fin.
I'll stop boring you with my fish (for now). Sorry Josh, pictures are a no go at this time due to limited capabilites.
Bad News: Some of the original fish that we got are not "compatable tank mates."
Worse News: We were just about to get two fish today that we really wanted when we realized as we were talking to the pet store worker that these two fish were saltwater fish and we have a freshwater tank. We then told him that we had two Tiger Barbs and a Black Tetra. He told us to make sure not to get Neon Tetras (which we already have) because they will probably get eaten by the Tiger Barbs. We then decided to not tell him about our two Neons or our Guppy. We then asked later if we could get guppies even though we have Tiger Barbs. He thought it would probably be okay. So, we got two new guppies (which is actually good news). Then, we decided we wanted a more brilliant fish. So, we got a small, but not tiny, angelfish. Currently I am reviewing our purchases at aquariumfish.net and am realizing that as an angelfish grows, it will get big enough to eat both Neon Tetras and Guppies. We knew that the angelfish would get too big for our tank in about a year, but not big enough to eat his tank mates!
But, without much further ado, our newest fish:
Spike is our new angelfish. He is mainly black with some faded white and orange stripes. The Tiger Barbs have already tried biting off the ends of his long fins and tail, but he has gotten better at eluding them. He is named Spike due to his numerous tiny dorsal fins in front of his long fins/tail.
Upside and Speckly are our two new Fancy Tail Guppies. Upside likes to chase Speckly, but Speckly doesn't take too kindly to it. Speckly looks very similar to Javier, but is much more deep orange on the tail and dorsal fin. Speckly is very pretty. Upside, however, is not as much. He has a plain orange tail and a white dorsal fin. The flat top part of Upside's body is also white. Speckly is named so because, when you look at him from above, he looks like he is swimming upside-down. Speckly is named so because of the definition of the black spots on his tail and dorsal fin.
I'll stop boring you with my fish (for now). Sorry Josh, pictures are a no go at this time due to limited capabilites.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Fish!
So, we got some fish! Six fish to be exact, although there's already been talk of getting more!
Javier is the Fancy Tail Guppy. Like the name implies, he's pretty boring except for the brilliance of his tail. He has already seemed to claim the left half of the tank. This side of the tank has the two fake plants and the water filter that came with the tank. Javier was named after the owner of Dean & Deluca on Felicity.
T is the Black Tetra. He is slightly longer and MUCH taller than the other 5 fish. He is slightly psycho and always wants to "expand his borders" (i.e. he doesn't realize the limitations of a plastic bag or a glass tank). He is also slightly territorial, but is definitely outnumbered. T was named after Booker T. Washington, especially as a Black Tetra for Black History Month.
Drick and Buber are our two Tiger Barbs. Drick is slightly larger and the orange fins are more pronounced. Drick and Buber got into the first fight since their new home in the tank. T stepped in and broke it up, but Drick definitely could push harder against Buber. Drick was named after Frederick Douglass, abolitionist ex-slave; Buber was named after Martin Buber, Jewish Theologian.
Augie and Franklin are our two Neon Tetras. While they were still in the bag, Augie seemed to have a more yellow-orange tail and Franklin seemed to have a more red-orange tail. Now, we can't tell the difference. They like to play tag, stay closer to the bottom, and will venture into the left side of the tank, away from the security of open waters and the water heater. Jen Isler named Augie after Saint Augustine, and Alli Isler named Franklin after FDR.
When we get more, I'll let you know. It will probably be my next blog.
Javier is the Fancy Tail Guppy. Like the name implies, he's pretty boring except for the brilliance of his tail. He has already seemed to claim the left half of the tank. This side of the tank has the two fake plants and the water filter that came with the tank. Javier was named after the owner of Dean & Deluca on Felicity.
T is the Black Tetra. He is slightly longer and MUCH taller than the other 5 fish. He is slightly psycho and always wants to "expand his borders" (i.e. he doesn't realize the limitations of a plastic bag or a glass tank). He is also slightly territorial, but is definitely outnumbered. T was named after Booker T. Washington, especially as a Black Tetra for Black History Month.
Drick and Buber are our two Tiger Barbs. Drick is slightly larger and the orange fins are more pronounced. Drick and Buber got into the first fight since their new home in the tank. T stepped in and broke it up, but Drick definitely could push harder against Buber. Drick was named after Frederick Douglass, abolitionist ex-slave; Buber was named after Martin Buber, Jewish Theologian.
Augie and Franklin are our two Neon Tetras. While they were still in the bag, Augie seemed to have a more yellow-orange tail and Franklin seemed to have a more red-orange tail. Now, we can't tell the difference. They like to play tag, stay closer to the bottom, and will venture into the left side of the tank, away from the security of open waters and the water heater. Jen Isler named Augie after Saint Augustine, and Alli Isler named Franklin after FDR.
When we get more, I'll let you know. It will probably be my next blog.
Oh yeah, I have big news too . . .
For those of you who haven't heard already, Katy and I have a new addition to the family. We got a fish tank. We also bought six fish, but I'm not sure that they are going to be an addition to the family. They might not survive the transition from the bag into the tank. Will they survive? What will we name them? What kind of fish are they? Stay tuned . . .
Friday, February 25, 2005
Writer's Block
I'm not sure if this can happen, but it seems as though I have writer's block on only my second blog. I feel like I have so much to write until my figures reach for the keys.
C'mon, Tom, think. Think. What would Jesus do?
Hmm, oddly enough, that question just doesn't seem to work in this case.
Okay, here we go.
Top 5 Stupid Things I've Done Because I Was Convinced That Was What Good Christians Do:
5. After my attempts to do a speech in high school about how the inventor of the urinal deserved the Nobel Peace Prize were thwarted, I gave a speech about Billy Graham's recovery from a hospital visit.
4. I gave a speech about Creation versus Evolution, which was based solely on a 2-page pamphlet I got at a Christian bookstore.
3. Without understanding probablity or even basic logical fallacies, I made the claim in a paper that the probablility of Creation was almost certain since the probability of evolution was such a 1 in a billion chance (I got my real "1 in a ____" chance from that 2-page pamphlet)
2. Before track meets my senior year, I would ask guys on the team if they wanted to pray with me, although I knew that they would say no. But at least they knew what I was doing . . .
1. In my AP US Government class, we held a mock election. I represented the Pro-Life lobbyist. During the debate section of class, I ran a commercial that I had made in my Electronic Media class. The video was close to 30 seconds long, consisting of 2 pictures of aborted babies every second. The final screen said something like, "Vote Republican," or "Vote for _____ running for election" because they represented the Republicans. (Honorable mention goes out to my stubborn support of Alan Keyes in class)
While some of these are stupid to do in general, my main point is that they were stupid to do on the basis of the belief that good Christian boys and girls were supposed to do them.
Feel free to comment on my stupidity, offer you own stories of stupid things you did in high school for beliefs you held, or get offended that I called something you hold to stupid.
C'mon, Tom, think. Think. What would Jesus do?
Hmm, oddly enough, that question just doesn't seem to work in this case.
Okay, here we go.
Top 5 Stupid Things I've Done Because I Was Convinced That Was What Good Christians Do:
5. After my attempts to do a speech in high school about how the inventor of the urinal deserved the Nobel Peace Prize were thwarted, I gave a speech about Billy Graham's recovery from a hospital visit.
4. I gave a speech about Creation versus Evolution, which was based solely on a 2-page pamphlet I got at a Christian bookstore.
3. Without understanding probablity or even basic logical fallacies, I made the claim in a paper that the probablility of Creation was almost certain since the probability of evolution was such a 1 in a billion chance (I got my real "1 in a ____" chance from that 2-page pamphlet)
2. Before track meets my senior year, I would ask guys on the team if they wanted to pray with me, although I knew that they would say no. But at least they knew what I was doing . . .
1. In my AP US Government class, we held a mock election. I represented the Pro-Life lobbyist. During the debate section of class, I ran a commercial that I had made in my Electronic Media class. The video was close to 30 seconds long, consisting of 2 pictures of aborted babies every second. The final screen said something like, "Vote Republican," or "Vote for _____ running for election" because they represented the Republicans. (Honorable mention goes out to my stubborn support of Alan Keyes in class)
While some of these are stupid to do in general, my main point is that they were stupid to do on the basis of the belief that good Christian boys and girls were supposed to do them.
Feel free to comment on my stupidity, offer you own stories of stupid things you did in high school for beliefs you held, or get offended that I called something you hold to stupid.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
And so it begins . . .
This is it. I've found a new addiction. I've moved on from Halo (mainly because I gave up Xbox for Lent). Katy and I are still addicted to Carcassonne, but we can only play that 3 or 4 times a day. We are still addicted to Felicity (Sophomore Year), but if we don't pace ourselves, we will watch an entire season in less than two weeks.
Reading books is a hobby that has always been difficult for me; not because I can't read, but because I can't focus for the period of time it takes to read a chapter nor for the length of time it takes to finish a book. I can read close to 1/3 of a book in a short period of time, but if I set down the book for too long, finishing the book becomes a daunting task instead of an enjoyable pasttime. I have enough daunting tasks (thank-you's from wedding and wedding pictures from 7 months ago).
So, here I am.
I have to admit, this idea has been brewing off and on for the last 3.5 years. I'm not sure if I had seen High Fidelity yet, but I can specifically remember a conversation I had with my brother (www.inessentials.com) about putting together our own internet posting of Top 5 Lists. We would pick a topic on Monday and e-mail it out to friends (i.e. Top 5 Songs By Gospel Singers Turned R&B). By Wednesday, they would e-mail us back their lists, along with reasons for their choices (when reasons were needed) and any Honorable Mentions that needed to be stated (either because the person felt bad leaving them off the list, or because they needed to prove that they knew more possible answers than the five they gave). By Friday, we would post/e-mail everyone involved to give them the compiled list.
This, like all other genius ideas of two college men in huge transitions in life (one beginning his first college summer, one beginning his last), never came to fruition.
Shortly after, however, the less lazy of the two put together his own blog site. With no motivation to proceed on his own, the other waited . . . until now!
I guess that's not all. Maybe the fictional life of Felicity Porter is affecting the "real" life of Tom Yenter. Felicity tells her friend Sally, who lives in a hand-held tape recorder, everything she is thinking. It's like hearing her thoughts, but more realistic. I mean, really, isn't it more believable that Felicity would send candid thoughts by mail to her distant French tutor than for the audience, who can already see everything going on, to hear everything that is going on.
Enough nonsense. At least for one blog. Now I can spread nonsense throughout the world with my blogs. The world is my burrito.
Which no further ado, my first Top 5 List:
Top 5 reasons to have a blog -
5. You have no hobbies besides video games, Carcassonne, Felicity, and other fictional worlds.
4. You have very few friends with whom you can hang out on any type of regular basis, besides your beautiful wife.
3. All the cool people are doing it.
2. In a conversation, you only tell the other person what you think A) is important and 2) is of any interest to them. In a blog, either you have something that is so important that you think everyone and their address book should hear what you have to say (and you realize that even you don't forward the chain-letter e-mails about little Billy needing a liver transplant that he can only get if you e-mail everyone you know about it) or you realize that it is not important enough to actually tell someone during a real life conversation. In the latter case, it doesn't matter if it is of interest to them. All that matters is that you said what you wanted to say, whether anyone cares or not.
1. Blogs are the new e-mail. Instead of e-mailing people useless information until they block your e-mail address, they can now choose when and what they read that you feel was important enough to take up your time and electricity to share with others.
Hopefully, my future blogs will make me, and other bloggers, sound less pathetic than we can tend to be. (Look, this is only my first blog and I'm already including myself into the community of bloggers. I feel at home already in the infinite cyberspace that Al Gore invented)
Please leave comments so I can figure out how those work.
Reading books is a hobby that has always been difficult for me; not because I can't read, but because I can't focus for the period of time it takes to read a chapter nor for the length of time it takes to finish a book. I can read close to 1/3 of a book in a short period of time, but if I set down the book for too long, finishing the book becomes a daunting task instead of an enjoyable pasttime. I have enough daunting tasks (thank-you's from wedding and wedding pictures from 7 months ago).
So, here I am.
I have to admit, this idea has been brewing off and on for the last 3.5 years. I'm not sure if I had seen High Fidelity yet, but I can specifically remember a conversation I had with my brother (www.inessentials.com) about putting together our own internet posting of Top 5 Lists. We would pick a topic on Monday and e-mail it out to friends (i.e. Top 5 Songs By Gospel Singers Turned R&B). By Wednesday, they would e-mail us back their lists, along with reasons for their choices (when reasons were needed) and any Honorable Mentions that needed to be stated (either because the person felt bad leaving them off the list, or because they needed to prove that they knew more possible answers than the five they gave). By Friday, we would post/e-mail everyone involved to give them the compiled list.
This, like all other genius ideas of two college men in huge transitions in life (one beginning his first college summer, one beginning his last), never came to fruition.
Shortly after, however, the less lazy of the two put together his own blog site. With no motivation to proceed on his own, the other waited . . . until now!
I guess that's not all. Maybe the fictional life of Felicity Porter is affecting the "real" life of Tom Yenter. Felicity tells her friend Sally, who lives in a hand-held tape recorder, everything she is thinking. It's like hearing her thoughts, but more realistic. I mean, really, isn't it more believable that Felicity would send candid thoughts by mail to her distant French tutor than for the audience, who can already see everything going on, to hear everything that is going on.
Enough nonsense. At least for one blog. Now I can spread nonsense throughout the world with my blogs. The world is my burrito.
Which no further ado, my first Top 5 List:
Top 5 reasons to have a blog -
5. You have no hobbies besides video games, Carcassonne, Felicity, and other fictional worlds.
4. You have very few friends with whom you can hang out on any type of regular basis, besides your beautiful wife.
3. All the cool people are doing it.
2. In a conversation, you only tell the other person what you think A) is important and 2) is of any interest to them. In a blog, either you have something that is so important that you think everyone and their address book should hear what you have to say (and you realize that even you don't forward the chain-letter e-mails about little Billy needing a liver transplant that he can only get if you e-mail everyone you know about it) or you realize that it is not important enough to actually tell someone during a real life conversation. In the latter case, it doesn't matter if it is of interest to them. All that matters is that you said what you wanted to say, whether anyone cares or not.
1. Blogs are the new e-mail. Instead of e-mailing people useless information until they block your e-mail address, they can now choose when and what they read that you feel was important enough to take up your time and electricity to share with others.
Hopefully, my future blogs will make me, and other bloggers, sound less pathetic than we can tend to be. (Look, this is only my first blog and I'm already including myself into the community of bloggers. I feel at home already in the infinite cyberspace that Al Gore invented)
Please leave comments so I can figure out how those work.
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