fishie’s aquarium

I’m sure I say this every time I make a post: Yes, I know, I’m neglecting this blog. I have many good excuses, though. For one, I’m sick of the bastard bots submitting comments. Luckily I have it set so that ANY new commenter gets filtered, but it’s frustrating when ALL the comments are spambots. I probably just need to get off my ass and update my WP version and maybe the newer version has SOME kind of way to prevent bots, but damn if it doesn’t and I have to move all my posts or resign them to the black hole of blog-dom.

Second, I’ve been “busy”. Last post I made was a few weeks after I started my new job. I got a new cat, impulsively moved a few months afterwards, and have generally been not so motivated blog-wise. I’ve still been making stuff (some pretty awesome stuff too, if I might add), but most of my time has been spent on one (actually, a few) major project(s) since August.

I present to you the best thing in the world (please excuse youtube’s fetish with darkening all my videos):

This is a planted 55 gallon freshwater community aquarium. As it is at the moment, I have 2 dwarf gouramis, 6 glass catfish, 3 zebra loaches, 9 tetras, and a clown pleco. I uploaded a few more aquarium pictures in my youtube account, so feel free to watch to get some better video of some of the fish. This isn’t my only aquarium, but it is by far the largest and the most labor-intensive. I also have a 5.5 gallon tank that has 5 white cloud minnows and a ghost shrimp, and a snail tank that has more hydras (seriously!) than snails in it. I might move the snails to the minnow tank and have a hydra tank.

Plecosaurus Rex

This beautiful snail fell victim to the loach-pocalypse :(

This is Stumpy. Yes, I’m naming my fish, and I am able to tell two of the glass catfish apart from the others (I can also tell the gourami apart and I’m working on the loaches, although the minnows are collectively named Phinneas.)

Also, since discovering the manual focus feature on my otherwise mediocre waterproof camera, I have been able to take some pretty sweet pictures. Here are some pictures from the Seattle Arboretum I took yesterday, on a lovely wet afternoon that turned into a retina-scorching bright afternoon before turning back into a “holy crap it’s pouring so hard the water is overflowing over the curb onto the sidewalk” afternoon:

I posted them in my other journal without a lock

But more closely on topic for this journal, I bought lots of yarn while I was there and more importantly, did LOTS of knitting too.

The hot pink fuzzy coat from hell is taking shape. I’ve got the body completely done, and I’m making progress on the sleeves. Problem with the sleeves is, my yarn gets a LOT shorter when it stretches, and it’s hard to measure their length when you’re sitting in a car.

This was my progress when I was in Santa Cruz:

I did get a little bit of the watermelon shirt done, but not enough to take a picture of.

I bought pretty yarns:

The entire haul

Schaefer Laurel (two 400 yd skeins) in Katherine the Great

Blue Heron Egyptian Mercerized Cotton (one 1000 yd skein) in Raspberry

Maggi Knits Maggi’s Linen, 5 120 yd skeins in hot pink, 2 in variegated orange/olive greenish-brownish

And two blue cascade fixations for a CHRIS THONG. Har. He’ll wear it too, I’ll make him.

So I had subtly mentioned in an earlier post, I have been making octopus themed items for a swap. My partner has officially received, and I am officially posting.

I had a hard time not keeping these to myself.

First Crochet Project Ever: Octopus Beanie. I used the Boy Beanie Pattern from the Happy Hooker for the main body of the hat, and did the octopus embellishment free-hand with no idea of what I was doing. Came out pretty well, eh?

Second Beading Project Ever: Octopus Earrings

A little of trial and error was needed to figure out the tentacles, but I figured them out pretty well. I only needed two of the bigger beads for this project, but I could only buy the beads in sets of 14. So I figure I’ll make 6 more pairs of these and try and sell them. Hrm?

First Stenciling Project Ever: Octopus Shirt

Wheeeee!

This was a pain in the ass to get started, but it ended up not that bad! The stencil is in four pieces, with two layers, and was cut into a giant piece of tagboard. I mixed some fabric medium into normal acrylic paint, and HOPEFULLY it will hold. I still have the stencil, so I’m going to make another one for myself :3 Stenciling is cool and all, but the tagboard only seems like it will take so much more paint before it dies. Next stop: silk screening

I got a lot of knitting done on my California Trip, bought a lot of yarn, etc. But as I said, later.

Yesterday was the lowest tide of the year. Of COURSE I went to the beach. As a result, I got to see lots of things that are normally ONLY underwater without having to dive in the 40 degree water again.

The moon snails had been getting busy. Lots of eggs all over the place.

Have you been getting busy Mr. Moon Snail?

Lots of starfish were to be found hanging around.

As well as deflated anemones. They look a lot better in their natural underwater habitat.

I get crabs every time I go to the beach. Oops.

Did I mention the anemones look a lot better underwater?

They do. These ones are sad. Ew.

Cucumbers! I had to tickle them a little.

Oops! I’m sorry Mr. Cucumber I didn’t mean to scare you! Put your guts back in your body plz!

The highlight of the beach trip?

:D

I actually went with the hopes of finding a nudibranch, and there one was!

itty bitty nudie

A chiton with fashion sense!

It was a good trip, but would have been much better if every public school in the state wasn’t having field trips there. Elementary school age kids shouldn’t be allowed into fragile areas like the beach at SUPER low tide without better supervision. I’m sure several hundred beautiful sea creatures are now ex-sea creatures due to the little fucks. One of them tried to run off with the moon snail I took pictures of. WTF???? I hope that kid either learns better or comes back in his next life as algae.

I almost forgot how much I like this photographer. Especially the picture he took of this kelp:

I really want to know how photographers manage to take good pictures. I used to just think there was no hope for me, until I got a somewhat decent camera. I’ve since taken a couple decent pictures, but not very many. What am I doing wrong? My biggest problem is not being able to see the good parts of any given photographic moment, and I’ve got this OCD-esque collection habit where I don’t want to get rid of anything, so cropping photos is almost beyond me. Then there’s that touching-up thing people do with photoshop. Not for me, no sir.

I’ve still managed to luck out though. One of my favorites so far:

Seems like most of the time when I’m trying to take a picture, I’ll miss the moment. Or my subjects are camera shy

I’ve got two expensivey waterproof cameras! I should be taking pictures like the algae guy! >:(

The first time I came across this I didn’t have enough money to even consider buying one, so I kinda shoved all of it out of my mind. I really like the artist though, so I remembered her name and website.

I found it again tonight though.

And there are too many that I like enough to want to buy.