Fish Tales

Haven't done an aquarium update in a while. Lots has happened. Mostly death and destruction. The large male orange gourami managed to kill all the swordtails (three males and one female). The other two orange gouramis also bit the dust, one of them after I'd put the big guy in a holding pen overnight, since he was spending all his time chasing the four small blue gouramis. He's fast & relentless, not at all like a typical gourami. Being isolated for 2 days calmed him down somewhat.

A little before he went into isolation, I saw two tiny swordtail fry swimming among the floating plants, so for their protection I put them in a breeder bin (it's fine mesh netting in a frame which hangs inside the tank). They appear to be doing well, and are no longer bait.

The shark and the remaining neon are also holding their own, as are the two plecostemi. So now the count is:

Gold gourami: 1 male
Blue Gourami: 1 lage female + 4 small probably all female (maybe one male, hard to tell at this age)
Shark: 1
Plecostemus: 2
Neon: 1
Bettas: 1 male, two large + two small females


And lots of plants, both natural and plastic. The bulbs sprouted fine, but the leaves started to rot almost as soon as they grew out. I've added some aquarium fertilizer to the water, we'll see if that helps. They have plenty of light, both from the tank and indirect sunlight from the window.

I think I'll leave off buying any more fish. Not sure how long this hobby will last.

Gas Guzzling

It's not just that finding gas at $3.11/gal is now a bargain, and how we're being gouged by the oilcompanies. It's how the nation was set up.

According to the US Department of Energy, gas was selling for around $1/gal for most of 1991-1999.

Toward the end of 1999, it rose to $1.27 and continued to climb slowly until Sept. 2001, when it peaked at $1.52. Then it dropped back to about $1, where it held steady through the new car sales season. March 2002 it started going up slowly again, but not enough to panic the SUV sales trends. Then prices started a steady rise, reaching about $2 in October 2004. By this time I think most folks who wanted a big gas guzzler had bought one, confident that gas prices would go down again, or at least stay relatively stable.

But in August 2005 it jumped to $2.50, then $2.90 in September. There was a slight dip back to the $2.50 range, and now we're up at $3 and more.

The numbers show that the consumer was lulled into a false sense of security, and after they had invested in expensive fuel hogs with huge gas tanks, the price was yanked up. Demand was created artificially by the cheap supply, and is being kept high by the guzzler cars, which are too expensive to keep but hard to sell.

It's All in the Timing

Cousin Shana emailed me the full wedding weekend invite, and now I know why hotel rooms are so scarce in Brighton (Hove, actually) for the August 5 weekend.

It's Gay Pride parade day.

Also, the reception will be at a theater, where we will have buffet and Karaoke. I am just thrilled. Imagine a busload of people who teach musical theater, their family and friends in a Karaoke fest. Too much fun. It will be interesting to see what songs they select in Merry Old. I wonder if they now any of Zander Nyrond's stuff.

Hats

A charming woman, perhaps it was britgeekgrrl, was talking to me at BayCon about hats. Cleaning out my backpack I found I had printed out the home page for my favorite hat shop, but had not given it to her. Probably was not britgeekgrrl since I think she was busy being Foggy at the time. Anyhow, here's the link to Berkeley Hats.

Meme of the month club

gakked from several folks
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