My fish.

There was video but Blogger won't let me upload it. I am looking for someplace free to host it. Anyway.

The small darting fish are Zebra Danios. After observation I believe 3 are female and 3 are male, and I think they may be "getting in the mood" if you know what I mean. The blue and red blob is Gary, the Betta fish. In the picture below he was distracted by his reflection, which he then attempted to attack. Lately however he's been driven to uprooting my plants which is something I did not know Bettas did. I know its him because I caught him in the act one afternoon. He also likes to sleep on the filter intake upsidedown which more than once has made me think he's dead. The fish is gonna give me gray hairs.

All the plants are live: 1 Hornwort (which has more or less gone nuts), 2 Java Ferns, 3 Jungle Vallisnera (which Gary has uprooted several times. . . I don't think he likes where they are placed) and 4 Green Hedges.

The filter is a Penguin brand 330. It's a biological filter meaning the water is filtered over a biological medium. It provides a nice current.

name my fish

I finally got my fish. 1 betta (named Gary. . . . he's very shy right now.) and 6 Zebra Dainos. The Dainos need names, so use the thread below to name them. I think the big one is male and the rest are females, but i'm not sure. Gender neutral names are cool too.

Pictures of my new "children" soon.

econ

All this talk about the dollar tanking (which I understand somewhat) and trade deficits (which I don't get at all) and inflation and corrections and structural whatchamawhozetts makes me wish I had taken an Econ course while I was at school.

I do have one free elective next semester. Hmmmm.

thoughts

I've finally gotten around to digesting last Tuesday.

From where I sit (considering the fact that I'm broke, and the insurance I have covers hangnails and thats about it, I'm a double minority, and I live in a Blue State), it looks bad. It looks really bad.

Not that Republicans are in power. I really don't mind the Republicans I am friends with here. We argue over the issues, well most of them, but that's about it. A few of them voted for Kerry. What looks really bad is that the fiscally conservative Republican Party that I respect appears to be dead, replaced by a reactionary pseudo-Protestant party. And that reactionary party, drunk on its newly granted "mandate," has its scapegoat in its sights. Moderates within its party will be cowed or purged. I read today that they're going after Specter and Chafee got his spanking already too.

Abortion? Gone. I expect sales in wirehangers to increase.

Gay rights? Dead. 13 states already have voted not to respect the human dignity of its citizens. Pennsylvania politicians have begun making noise in recent days. What a nasty little wedge issue. The sad thing is : that "values" that people voted for is just a code word for just this type of nastiness. Couched in a selective reading of Christianity (which they claim to take literally), they find the one thing that makes people uncomfortable and harp on it. Nasty. Evil. Bush will push for that amendment in his second "mandated" term and we'll be worse off because of it.

I wish people would actually read their Bibles. And if they insist on Leviticus, I hope they don't eat shrimp.

I hope that the moderates and the real compassionate conservatives retake their party.

Now on to the Democrats. This is going to be harsh kids.

What the fuck are you people doing? You've become elitist and fat. Why did we lose? Because we're seen as the party of Urban folks. Because we're elitist. We're the Hollywood Party. We're the New York Manhattan Party. Because we no longer appear to appeal to the common man. We're losing our blue collar roots. We're no longer populist----the Reactionary Right has taken that---and we all know what happens when Reactionary Right takes a populist approach. I'm not spelling it out. Just think about it. This is why we got fucked last Tuesday. Unless a change happens soon, we'll be fucked on Election Day 2006. If there's an America recognizable left in 2008, we'll get fucked then too.

Time for change Democrats. Time for a party alignment. If the Reactionary's want a purge, take their victims. Welcome them. Counter their nasty little wedge issues. Expose them. No more Mr. Nice Party. Go for the jugular. We're out for blood. We can React too.

That's what I have to say about last Tuesday. That's my advice. I hope someone sees this and takes it. Otherwise, we Democrats will have to go into the West and diminish.

Update: Charlie Crystle had something similar to say.

If anyone knows how to get that Boot Bush thing off my sidebar( I tried removing the code, and it screwed up the entire template), let me know through email.

Fun trip. Could have been better if it was President Kerry instead of President Bush, but you win some, you lose some. I have ideas as to why the Democrats lost big. To be honest, I'm not suprised. But I'm jetlagged and exhausted, and the significant other is taking me out to an early dinner so I probably won't write anything about it until Monday or Tuesday (probably Wednesday - - - I'm working 40+hrs this week to pay off my trip to Nashville.)

Laters.

I'm going to bed. Then I'm going to Nashville tomorrow and I won't return until Sunday.

comin down to the wire


Not much to say except perhaps our long national nightmare might end tomorrow night/Wednesday morning. Or it might not. I'm hoping it does and I'm casting my vote tomorrow morning for John Kerry.