thunkgeek.com

Has anyone else noticed my tendency to move on to new projects before really finishing current ones? Rhetorical question.

Anyway, since I have been sadly lacking in postage on this site the last couple of weeks I thought I’d make mention here of my latest project. Erica and the kids went to the pet store a couple weeks ago and came home saying that they wanted to get fish for Christmas. So, being the geek that I am, I have been researching fish. Good gad there is a lot to know. I went into this thinking that I just didn’t want to end up with a nasty tank and several dead sea-creatures on my hands after a couple of weeks. Now I found out that there are intricacies layered upon subtleties all held up by a foundation of commonly held misconceptions. Seems no matter who you ask you’ll end up getting a different answer on how to get a tank ready for fish (didn’t know you had to do that), what fish to start out with (didn’t think it mattered that much… just pick some neat looking ones), how many to put in the tank together. All kinds of variables and they all have an effect on each other. My programmers mind wants to write a piece of software to keep track of all of it, but of course, its a natural system, so it would likely be impossible to track very well.

So, I guess I’ll try to chronicle here on the site my progress in the quest to bring part of nature into our humble abode. Now that I’ve done a bunch of research I am at the stage of trying to find the best way to get a 20 gallon tank and all the assorted life support apparatus. I don’t think I can afford anything bigger than a 20 gall and the consensus says to start as large as practical. I’m looking at any store I can think of that might sell fishy stuff for kits and separate components. So far I have found several possible kits all in the $100 range. Some are more attractive than others. We’ll see.

Boy, I guess it has been a while since I posted. Whoops. Been kinda busy, and at the same time life has been a bit boring… not much to report. I guess I could comment on the political scene: My reaction to the first presidential debate was to pull my fingernail off. Actually, I smashed my nail in the door of my truck a couple months back, but it didn’t fall off on its own. After a couple of months of it being tender all the time, looking terrible, and threatening to be ripped off by any one of a number of daily activities, i.e. getting dressed, lifting things, playing with the kids, etc., I decided it had better come off. In the end it wasn’t nearly as painful as I had anticipated. Of course, it still doesn’t look too great, but I think it is a little better than it was before. The new nail is about 2/3 of the way grown out.

My reaction to the second debate? Meh.

This is one of the most idiotic stories I have ever heard. Evidently the kid likes hunting. He looks like a good, safe kid, he’s even got the breech open on his gun in the picture. Talk about your stupid, knee-jerk, left-wing, idiot reactions. I was on a yearbook staff in high school, and let me tell you, if this sort of picture were the worst “deviation” we had to deal with in the senior picture submissions I would have been happy.