Blog For Free!
Archives
Home
2005 July
2004 December
2004 November
2004 October
2004 March
2004 February
2004 January
2003 December
2003 November
My Links
flaring, 1st edition
Aquamaniacs
Andaloo
Apples & Oranges
Dangerkitty
Dirt Dirt
Dreamer
filbert
Ftrain
The Logodrome
lynne
News Trolls
Rhetorical Device
Making Light
Rosie
Sillygrrl3
Susan of Pudlin
Squee
Textism
tBlog
My Profile
Send tMail
My tFriends
My Images
Sponsored
Blog
Blogarama
Review My Site
Weblog Directory
|
| threatening flora |
| 02.25.04 (2:47 pm) [edit] |
I'd never been to the desert before I went to Tucson, Arizona, recently. When I was riding from the airport to the hotel, being slightly delirious from the travel and being up since 3:00 am, I was amazed by two things: one, the sheer numbers of people who were running red lights (including my driver) and, two, the palpable threat emanating from the various plants I could see from the car, all of which appeared to be transplanted from some hostile alien world unsupportive of human life.
At one point the driver stopped (he had to, there was another car stopped in front of him) and just outside my window was an enormous saguaro surrounded by a prickly pear, dominating the sidewalk where people were trying to walk. We passed a school (at 50 miles and hour) situated in the middle of fields of cacti, planted in a neat grid, that looked able to shoot foot-long spikes into truant students.
My hotel was nicely landscaped with coldly belligerent flora which I nearly fell into in my haste to exit the vehicle, and even my hotel room was decorated with fabrics and fake paintings depicting the evil things.
By the end of the trip, I had to admit that the various unfriendlies could could be beautiful in a stark, severe, and bleak kind of way. From a distance.
This photo has taken outside Tubac, AZ.
|
|
|
| |
| National ID cards |
| 02.24.04 (3:30 pm) [edit] |
Five reasons why they should be rejected from the ACLU.
...the creation of a national I.D. card remains a misplaced, superficial "quick fix." It offers only a false sense of security and will not enhance our security -- but will pose serious threats to our civil liberties and civil rights. A National ID will not keep us safe or free.... Read more...
|
|
|
| |
| Do you have identification? |
| 02.23.04 (5:32 pm) [edit] |
The want to be just like the jackbooted thugs in the movies: Your papers, please?
Next week the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case to decide whether or not all Americans must have identification on them at all times...
Pay attention; this is important.
|
|
|
| |
| as of now |
| 02.23.04 (5:50 am) [edit] |
|
In Virginia, there is a building code that states that all residential bathroom doors should swing *in*-- into the bathroom. So my Groovy Gold Fishroom, which used to be the Groovy Gold bathroom, had a door that swung in; it took up around 25% of the square footage of the room. I'm using the past tense you may notice. This is not wishful thinking. As of this morning I got Fed Up, and took the door off the frame, turned it over and re-hung it so it opens Out (into the Useless Foyer). Now I have 25% more floor space in the GGFR. Hmmm, gotta buy more shelves.
|
|
|
| |
| Aunt T |
| 02.19.04 (6:05 pm) [edit] |
Poking back through my inbox, I found Aunt T's email describing her African itinerary. When I received it, I was running around having blood drawn, but I remember feeling mildly envious. Now I read and think, I could never take this trip; this trip would kill me! They'd have to bury me somewhere in the Serengeti.
With highs of 20 and 30 degrees here and a "wintry mix" of snow, sleet, and freezing drizzle predicted for tonight, I?m finding it difficult to imagine but fun to prepare for a climate of 70 ? 80 degrees! I may not be able to send email to you while in Tanzania but you can follow me on route on a trip of my dreams!
Feb. 4-5 New York to Amsterdam to Arusha in Tanzania
Feb. 6-7 Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park
Mt. Kilimanjaro is 62 miles northeast of Arusha. It?s the world?s highest freestanding mountain at 19,340 feet. We stay in a lodge located in a cloud forest on the slopes of the mountain.
Feb. 8-9 Ngorongoro Crater
This crater is 114 miles west of Arusha in northern Tanzania. Violent volcanic eruptions reduced it to a spectacular caldera. We visit Olduvai Gorge where the Leakeys discovered hominid fossils. We trek wildebeest, zebra, lions, elephants, rhinos, hippos in the crater and hope to see a few exotic birds!
We visit a colonial style British tea farm.
We interact with Maasai herdsmen.
We are entertained by traditional Maasai music and dance.
We stay in a lodge with views into the crater.
Feb. 10-11-12 Serengeti Park
This area stretches from the Ngorongoro crater to Kenya and Lake Victoria. It is made up of plains and woodlands. We are there for the Great Wildebeest migration which includes zebra, hyena and gazelle, also looking for giraffe and elephant and hopefully, exotic birds! We eat lunch at a farm owned by German colonial descendants. We stay in a lodge with animals roaming around outside, separated from us by a fence. Here we have traditional safari-style meals in the bush!
Feb. 13-14-15 Zanzibar
We fly to this island located in the Indian Ocean about 25 miles off the Tanzanian coast. We see grand Arabic-style houses, minarets, bazaars, and white palm-fringed beaches. This was also the home office of Dr. David Livingstone. As for wildlife, there are red monkeys and blue monkeys and black & white monkeys as well as giant tortoises and hopefully, exotic birds! We stay in a historic, restored beachfront hotel with views of the Indian Ocean.
Feb. 16-17 Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam to New York
|
|
|
| |
| perspective |
| 02.18.04 (6:14 pm) [edit] |
My Aunt T, my mother's sister, loves to travel and has spent most of her life saving pennies so she can take amazing trips. She's also taught overseas, in France and Iran (pre-revolution) and probably other places. She's a very interesting person.
Her most recent trip was to Africa, and last night I received an email reporting that she was home safe, which read in part:
I'm home again. I got here about midnight last night after having changed planes several times - 30 min. ride from Zanzibar to Dar es Salam where we had six hours to wait, then a seven hour flight from Dar es Salam to Amsterdam where I had 6 hours between planes and took a great bus tour of Amsterdam from the airport- tall beautiful old houses along the canals. Then I continued on an seven hour flight from Amsterdam to New York. By this time I was very tired and four hours between planes in New York although time was taken up by changing airports! Then 30 minutes flight to D. C. I couldn't find transportation at the airport. It was now 10:30 p.m. so I took the metro and found a taxi home.
I am in awe of this description. I thought my trip home from Tuscon was tough. I took a plane from there to Salt Lake City, then from Salt Lake City to Atlanta and finally from Atlanta to Charlottesville, which is still an hour away from home but I slept on my friends' couch that night. I was annoyed that there was a three hour delay in Atlanta. That was nothing!
I think that Aunt T must have slept on the plane, otherwise the airport change in NY would certainly have been fatal. I can't sleep on planes because I know that, if I sleep, the plane will fall out of the sky. It is only my waking state that keeps the plane in the air.
|
|
|
| |
| today's my birthday |
| 02.18.04 (7:47 am) [edit] |
|
I'm 36. It really snuck up on me this year. I haven't made any plans.
|
|
|
| |
| oh, so cool |
| 02.16.04 (3:37 pm) [edit] |
|
I found this very nifty site: All Consuming. If you sign up (free) you can make a reading list and then have the books you're reading displayed on your blog. You can see what I'm reading on the right, just under the calendar. OK, it's an egoboo, but I justify it with the protest "I love to read! Who wouldn't want to know about it?"
|
|
|
| |
| illuminating rejection letters |
| 02.14.04 (2:46 pm) [edit] |
|
I've spent a good while today goofing off and reading this post on the Making Light blog by Teresa Nielsen Hayden which attracted my attention with the tagline "Language, fraud, folly, truth, history, and knitting. Et cetera." I like knitting. I found a delightful and revealing look at writing and publishing: makes me glad I'm not doing either. But in a good way.
|
|
|
| |
| home again, home again |
| 02.13.04 (4:36 am) [edit] |
|
That took much longer than expected! But I'm home again now and the trip went very very well. The doctor's appointment was a successful start down a good path, and the extended stay let me see a part of the country I'd never seen before. Thanks so much for your encouraging thoughts; I feel like this has been the start of a very good time in my life. I'll tell more later, but now I've got to detox the fridge!
|
|
|
| |
| Picture of the Day |
| 02.02.04 (10:45 am) [edit] |
All week long, Aquamaniacs is featuring Bettas in their Picture of the Day feature. You can see a new picture of a member's Betta each and every day. Very Exciting!
:wink:
|
|
|
| |
| fish sycophant |
| 02.01.04 (1:43 pm) [edit] |
I told no-name fishie how many admirers he has and how everyone thinks he's a beautiful boy.
He nodded sagely and said, "Of course." There was a long pause as I waited for some greater acknowledgement.
"Anything else? Do you have food for me?" he asked.
"Well, you haven't told me your name yet. It's been weeks and I think I'm going to just have to give you one."
He flared as brief fishie-sniff flare and paced sullenly around his tank for a moment.
"All right," he paused. "I'll tell you."
"My name..." he cut himself off to examine a plant.
"Yes?..."
"My name...is Splash." He laid the name before me like a jewel.
"Splash..." I hesitated.
"Is there a problem?" he asked.
"Oh no! Splash is a good name!"
"Yes," he said
"Not really what I expected..."
"It's a good name," he flared.
"Yes, yes! It's a good name. I like it! I'll tell everyone you're not bleach-spill anymore," I hurried to say.
"Is dinner soon?" he asked.
"No."
He sniffed.
|
|
|
| |
| big time algae |
| 02.01.04 (12:27 pm) [edit] |
The Groovy Gold Fishroom has a bad case of algae.
:(
One tank was so cloudy with it, I couldn't see the fish. The water conditions were healthy-- 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, trace nitrates-- but I was to see my fishies. So I've been scrubbing tanks all day. Since the room is a sort of modular set-up for breeding with no substrates, I can do clean-up with heavy chemicals. This process involves moving the fish someplace else, scrubbing the gook off the sides of the tank, adding bleach to the water, draining the tank, refilling the tank [repeat ad nauseum], rinsing with extra chlorine neutralizer, refilling with 78 degree water, putting the fish back. Moving the fish around is kind of like one of those sliding square puzzles with one empty square and when you get it right the squares make a picture.
So, dealing with the individual filters on each tank is frustrating, and I've begun to think longingly of a centralized filtration system. Instead of cycling and filtering each individual tank, all the tanks drain into one big sump that's filtered and then the water is pumped back into the tanks. That's a pretty big project, but it's gotten as far as the "doodling about it" stage. It could happen.
|
|
|
| |
|
I'm reading:
Aquamaniacs
Picture of the Moment
Betta Links
Betty Splendens
BC Betta
Bettas R Us
Biloxi Bettas
Classic Bettas
Jeff Hiller
Phil Lafferty
Majestic Bettas
Sailor Johnny
Jim Sonnier
Aquarticles
Dr. Tim's Library
Hypertextbook: Mendelian Genetics Chapter Directory
DIY CO2 Systems for Freshwater-Planted Aquaria
Member of
|
|
