Day: December 1, 2007

Crankypantsing, Photography

Saturday Fish Blogging

Shelly

I finally got around to buying my poor fish some aquarium plants this morning. I briefly considered getting a Betta (I just absolutely adore them), but was too disgusted by the way the fish at PetCo looked. One entire display of Bettas was dead, and another was about 75% dead, with the live ones looking near to it. Their fins were all clumpy, which is from some disease that I can’t remember the name of.

I realize I got there at opening time, and that the little PetCo elves were still running around doing cage cleanings and feedings, and I’m sure they would’ve pulled the dead fish off the floor eventually. But, that’s not the problem. That many dead fish indicates that something is very wrong.

Ugh. That is just one of many reasons I don’t shop there unless I really need to. If there were anywhere near me that carried aquarium supplies (and that didn’t sell puppies and kittens!), I’d shop there. As it is, PetCo now has ferrets, in addition to birds and rodents and lizards. And the cashier said that the ferrets had come in sick, too. Not cool.

So now I feel even worse about spending $30 at their store. I shouldn’t have done it, but I was starting to get a serious guilt complex about my poor fishes’ naked aquarium.

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The fish weren’t fazed one little bit by me groping around in their tank. That surprised me. As soon as the plants were in, they started exploring them, and when they were done with that, they went back to scrounging for leftovers in the marbles. They’re awfully good fish.

Next, to procure a plecostomus. I think there’s probably enough algae and crud accumulated now to make a decent habitat for one.

Art, Crankypantsing, Journals, Meta, Paintings

Blue d’Anjou Pears

Shelly

Blue D'Anjou
Blue d’Anjou Pears (detail left & right)
acrylic on 90lb Stonehenge paper
9 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches

This spread was done with just acrylic on paper, with the addition of a little bit of acrylic medium in a few spots. Mostly, I worked with the paint without diluting it, because I tend to prefer a bit of texture (you can see it in the detail views).

Non sequitur alert!

What do you say when a coworker walks past your desk and helps himself to a handful of Kleenexes? Seriously! I was at a total loss for words, and that just doesn’t ever happen to me! I have an evil temptation to buy him a box of tissues and leave it on his desk, anonymously. It would be worth it, except that I have a feeling that anyone who is that oblivious to what is and what is not socially acceptable would be unlikely to get the point.

Grrr.

And with that, I believe I have fulfilled my NoMoPoblano (or whatever the hell it’s called) commitment, and without having to resort to fluffy padding, either. Alas, I didn’t quite finish NaNoWriMo, but I gave it a good try. Getting sick didn’t help, nor did having my image database crash and having to rebuild it[1]. I also didn’t manage to do a pear a day, but I’m still working on it, and I’m not worried about completing the project. That, I can do.

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1. On that front, things are going well. I have everything (I think) uploaded and sorted, and about 90% of it is cataloged. Whew! That was a long, tedious, and thankless job.

It’s also a good lesson in why it’s important to do regular back-ups. Or, back-ups at all. I r st00pit. I am religious about making multiple back-ups of my files, but not my databases. Oops!