I have guinea pigs!

Two males! whooo...

I've been too busy to post. I had to post something here so I don't lost the account. I will resue more posting when I have time (hahahahaha.) Now that we have a house I have no time.

Free Punk Rock

Only sick music makes money today. -Friedrich Nietzsche

About a month ago I spent almost an entire evening purusing download.com's free music collection. Up until that point I didn't even know such a thing existed. I knew there was "free music" which usually comes with various virii, pornographic spyware and the threat that the RIAA may come and break your legs as a result of downloading some song you only want instead of buying some overpriced CD where five sixths of the money goes to anyone other than the artist. So, I find this wonderful option of downloading free music that I can really take in my car and play to listen to without the threat of going to "sleep with the fishes," and I spent a good 4 hours just downloading whatever I can find. The greatest thing is that eevrything is categorized by category and sub category. Just the punk section of the rock category has about 15 subcategories. AWESOME! Anywhere that has both Garage Rock and Anarchist Punk as optional download categories is just great.

I discovered several bands that I really like. Mostly people no-one has ever really heard of but really creative and good sounding. Some of which may be more popular then others but one band I found I particularly like is semi-local. They're called Dead End Drive In and they're from Muncie, Indiana. They're a horror punk rock group. The sound is not finished as the songs I downloaded are basically demo style but that's part of the glamour of punk rock. It sounds better when it's raw and unfinished. I like raw and unifinished punk music. It's comforting to hear something how it's meant to be heard with all is distortion and bad amps. Anyway, Dead End Drive In rocks and you should check out their webpage/Myspace if you like that sort of music. http://www.deadenddrivein.net/

Currently Reading Dry: A Memoir By Augusten Burroughs see related

They've given you a number and taken away your name.

Currently Gaming Animal Crossing: Wild World By Nintendo see related

"What's white and yellow and gots 100mpgs?"

This is my latest purchase. I got sick of paying too much for gas. It may be my main summer vehicle from now on. It's top speed is around 38mph and yes it gets 100 miles to the gallon of gasoline. That's a 1 with two 0's. It has a 1.3 gallon tank and a 49cc engine. Plus, it's just damn fun. I do actually have that colour yellow one. The one I wanted was blue with a hibiscus pattern but the dealer wanted way too much for what it was. I found a deal on a used one that only had 675 miles on it. For a scooter that's a summer's worth of riding. It was well loved and they cleaned it up for me. You can't even tell it's used. Yes, for those of you who are saying "AHHHH Death!!!" I wear a DOT approved helmet whenever I ride it. Which I haven't ridden it that much yet, mostly around the neighborhood and town. I really love my scooty.  It would be nice if Indiana and the rest of the world were a little more economically and ecologically conscious. I await the day when everyone has to ride these to their in town jobs and there is a scooter lane on the road. My car is pretty good on gas but even when it costs $30.00 US to fill up a Dodge Neon that gets a wonderful 29mpg city it's time to rethink the way you do things. So many people could ride scooters or motorcycles to work if there were more oppertunities and more accessibility (ie a "bike" lane.) Granted in the winter the whole car thing would come back but just think of what could happen if everyone rode something that got 50-100mpg instead of 10-20mpg just through the summer months. I am here to start the scooter revolution. We as a country have relied and built our way of life around this monsterous vehicles that require we dump wads of money into them and ruin the enviroment while doing it. It's time to change. I want to be able to scoot myself through my neighborhood and get my groceries, medicines, go to school, work...anything. A re-tooling of the way the American system is set out. I would bicycle to work if I could but it's not feasible. In other states there are bicycle lanes. Just because it gets cold here for a few months doesn't mean we need to become slaves to our cars, trucks and SUVs. I say the American neighboorhood needs to come back and the American suburb with it's sprawling mini-marts and everything just far enough away to have to drive has met it's end of days.

It's a........fish! (?)

For those of your who don't know Bryan and I have been keeping  a 28 gallon fish tank since late September. It was Bryan's birthday present. The tank has had it's ups and downs. The great ich plague of October, and the recent bout with some sort of bacteria but all is well know. I've learned a lot over the last few months. I never really knew much about aquarium hobby until now. I've realized over the course of the fast few months that normal people keeps cats and dogs. You let them out or change the litter, feed then, and wash them. They're mostly happy pets if they're treated properly. However, if normal people keep furry housepets, nerds keep fishtanks. Aquariums are a wealth of nerd happiness. They involve design (plant arrangement), chemistry (water chemistry and changes) and an over all large amount of research to maintain and take care of. One cannot simply buy a tank and through some fish in. First of all, those of you who have had fish, know that the tank before you put anything in has to sit. Secondly if you throw too many fish in the tank at once you'll end up with a bunch of dead fish, especially in the beginning. The tank has to go through a whole chemical cycle (which I'll spare you the boring details but if you want to know google: aquarium cycling.) Our tank took a little longer then usual to cycle because all of our platys got the dreaded ich. The only thing to survive the original setup of 3 platys and a swarzti cory was the cory cat. We love our Cory.  Anywho, fast forward to recently. We now have a tank occupied by our original cory, an albino cory, 4 adult platys (2 male, 2 female) two clown loaches and a small leopard sailfin pleco. They're very entertaining to watch and aside from water changes and checkups to make sure they're ok (which take all of "Ok, Cory's fin looks better now) they take care of themselves. Platys are live bearers ie. they have babies or fry rather. Our resident Minnie Mouse platy has been fat with babies probably more then a few times. With us working and being out of the house the odds of us catching her when she's near ready to give birth is almost impossible. We could stick her in the breeder for a day or two but that's not the best situation for her. Bryan and I had mostly given up on the changes of ever actually catching her at the right time or rearing any fry. Little did we know we were quite wrong. Friday night I said "That's it, she's so fat and she's breathing heavy, the other fish are harassing her, she's going into the box at least until we get back from the grocery store." Bryan has always been leary about putting any fish in that box as we have used it as an isolation tank and have had a fish die in there. I think he belived in a "bad vibe." This time he agreed and so I got the net and we put her in the breeder box and immediately there's a fry in the box. I excitedly say "BABY!" Bryan responds with a curious question about how she could have one already. Then out comes another one. The breeder box is designed to let the fry drop and has a V shaped insert so they fall and mom can't eat them. This only works as we quickly found out if the fry don't swim up by mom's mouth. SLURP. Platy fry #2 becomes a snack. "NOOOO! Damnit. Don't eat them" I proclaim. At this point we decide to just leave her and her childeren to take nature's course because I have to go buy cheese for church on Sunday. We return from the store and there's two fry sitting in the bottom of the breeder where Micky can't get to them. We were happy with two since this would be our first time as platy grandparents. When one of the fry swims up between the V shaped thing and the wall of the breeder. SLURP! "NOOOOOOO. Damnit. That's it take her out. ONE is better than none." Bryan and I decide that even though she doesn't look like she's had all her fry we can't risk anymore of them being saved and then becoming a snack. We feed our little one and go to bed.

Next morning I come out into the living room where the fish tank is. "HONEY I SEE ANOTHER BABY!" Bryan, "WHERE?" Lo and behold a little baby platy has managed to escape being eaten through the night (or most of the morning) to wedge itself between the breeder box and the wall of the tank. There was a short discussion on how to retrive something the size of a piece of pocket link out of 28 gallons of water with 4 hungry adults and the other fish. We settled on the turkey baster which after some platy fry wrangling we managed to suck up and put in the baby box. Yay! Babies! I go off to do some of my morning routine and return to check on our babies and I spot another fry taking refuge between the leaves of one of our fake plants. "Honey there's another one." We manage to repeat the wrangling through the tank. Altough we though this one had become a snack at one point we spotted it again and managed to suck it up and release it into the box as well. At this point we have to go do Saturday stuff so we leave and hang out with friends do errands etc. Bryan goes out with Glenn and I chill with Jeremy and watch a movie. I get home at like 10:30. The whole day I'd been nursing a sore throat. (Doing that "I am NOT getting sick. I am NOT getting sick. thing) I turn the hall light on to check on the fish and fry and I spot two more outside the box. I'm too tired and way sick (nor could I do this alone and Bryan is sleeping away) and say "If you guys manage to hide all night I'll come get out in the morning.) This morning I found another one who got sucked up to join his or her siblings. We have a total of 4 platy fry now. I doubt either of us will find anymore in the tank but one never knows. Bryan and I are looking forward to our little platys growing up and seeing what color they turn.