Fish...UPDATE

SUCCESS!

Yesterday evening I managed to catch the two pairs I wanted. They look the healthiest and have the best colour out of the seven Tbarbs in my tank. It only took afew minutes after their introduction to the spawning tank before they started to spawn. Hopefully I will be able to raise a few fry again.....

Fish..

Most people who know me realize I am an avid fish keeper. Those of us who own an aquarium(s) always investigate bigger, better setups and more elaborate ways of provide a stable environment for those little (or not so little) critters to happily live out their lives in front of us.
I have been keeping fish for almost four years now and my primary tank (140L) is considered mature and stable. It has been running for almost two years since an upgrade from a 90L tank, many thanks to John for "giving" me his old tank and inhabitants that has started me on this fascinating new hobby. I have a heavily stocked tank, some would say over stocked but in reality it depends on your filtration setup and how well it can handle the pollutants and mechanical filtration. People that stop by our humble abode have always commented on how clear and clean my fish tank water looks and at the same time say, " man there is a lot of fish in there". Since this larger tank set up two years ago I have only lost one fish. A silver shark and a big one upwards of 20 Cm, but not because of my lack of care. These fish (of which I have two) are easily agitated and are prone to sudden darting movement when startled. Sure enough one night whist we slept soundly in our bed one of my sharks committed suicide and rammed himself into the side of my tank. He was found floating the next day....
My quest to get bigger and better has hit a snag however, our house is pretty full and my thoughts of a nice HUGE 350L plus tank are now on hold. We simply have no where to put this monstrosity of a tank. Hence, I have set up my first 90L tank again in an attempt to satisfy my need for more...I am trying to get a pair of my Tiger Bards to breed. I have been successful in the past with this species and raised a small brew of fry of which I still have one, now mature, male in my large community tank. My first go round at fish romance this week appeared to be positive. I conditioned my tank by feeding lots of protein, blood worms etc to get the juices flowing. I then isolated a female and introduced her to the breeding tank. The next day I introduced a male to see what would happen. Over the course of a few hours they started to exhibit typical mating behavior. So I just left them alone hoping to see small eggs all over the plants during their encounter. But I do not see any at all as of today. I think I will have to try again with another pair...you have to get the water conditions just right for spawning to be triggered, so it looks like my quest continues...

Chernobyl...

I was surfing around the other day and I decided to visit the S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl (formerly oblivion Lost) site. I am eagerly awaiting this FPS game and in my quest for more knowledge about the reactor and the nuclear disaster that occurred (I am a Physicist after all..) I stumbled across this dramatic website.

The site is basically from a young Ukrainian women who is one of these adventure seekers. Elena decided to take a motorcycle ride threw the "dead zone" or exclusion zone around the reactor. In particular the ghost city of Pripyat, only a few Km from the actual reactor. This city had a population of 45000 people and was evacuated the next day after the reactor explosion. It is pretty Erie to take a look at the photos of what appears to be a regular town totally evacuated.

You can check out the site here http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

to move or not to move...

Well, things are work are starting to stir up. I think my wife and I are overdue for a transfer; I am really looking forward to a change but at the same time we are definitely in our comfort zone here in smaller town AB. I do desire a change of pace after 6 years in a smaller center doing important but now long since not challenging work.
A move into a large center like Calgary would mean allot of pluses and some drawbacks, longer commutes, higher prices etc etc....So I guess we should be careful what we wish for. I think deep down inside I am a "small town" guy...well small city guy for sure. Brooks is just shy of 15K people and Cowtown is just shy of 1 Million....I think that is a little too big for my liking. Being from a city of 250K to me is just perfect. Large enough to have lots to do and all the attractions but not so large you get lost in the shuffle. Well, a move will either happen next week or in 5 months....only time will tell now.

Hills and Valleys

Life sure has a way of making you think. Up to last Sunday everything in our world was putting along fine. Happy, no real worries then...tap...tap on the shoulder. Life's little problems force you to turn around and see what all the tapping is about. One of my close friends came to me in desperate trouble...more trouble than I have ever known anyone to be in. That began the Sunday (God's day..yeah right) from hell. Then shortly after that my wife gets a phone call from her mom in Bolivia (yes my wife is from South America and all of her family still lives there), informing her of more political unrest in the country. Now, to us Canuks, political unrest is...hum how did the Liberal commies screw us again? how much money is missing this time?? In Bolivia, political unrest is how many people were shot? what city is burning? Who assassinated the President??
So needless to say our little comfort zone was soon shattered by the realities of the world around us. No longer could we proceed in our little bubble we had created, sheltered from the issues this planet and our society create two fold. Luckily the issues in Bolivia seem to be settling down a little, and as for my friend, only time will tell.

RCMP..

Yesterday was a sad day in Canada, especially in my Province. Four RCMP officers that were guarding a grow opp were shot in a gun battle with at least one of the queers growing that stuff. They even had the Militia on standby in Edmonton with a platoon and two armoured units. This is the worst multiple killings of Officers since the rebellion over 100 years ago.

A very sad day indeed.

PVR

Man, I love High Definition tv (HD), its the cats meow. Now with these new DVR's I can record any program and watch another one at the same time. It records HD content (and SD) onto a 120Gb internal drive in my dual tuner STB. I must say I love my 50 inch Hitachi and now I really feel like I have some control over whats on. I can watch what I want, when I want to watch it! Long live Motorola and their fancy little box...

gaming...

Well, since my better half gave me permission to put together a new machine, I have been turning my eyes square finished Doom3. Yes, yes I know please do not email telling me how much of a goof I am because I STILL have not finished Doom3. Part of the reason was due to my limited hardware on my 'old' gaming box which, in my defence is quite old. I have not done anything with it in almost three years. We all know 3 years in computer time is like 10 years in human span. It seems time dilation does exsist and computers and morse law are prime examples of that. But I digress...so, I put together this new machine. My first venture into Athlon, AMD 64 with...wait for it.......and ATI x800pro AGP with 256Mb.. Needless to say my Doom experience has greatly improved, my 1.6A P4 with a 64Mb vid card just didn't have the steam to keep me airborne. I stuck my old HD's from my workstation into it and put 1Gig of DDR ram into it and I am smoking!

I finished HL2 in oooo about a day and I am about 50% threw D3. Can't wait for S.T.A.L.K.E.R

hum..

I used to blog long before bloggin was cool. Now everyone seems to be getting into the game. Thats fine, so be it. It used to be so uncool to put your thoughts down on paper into a journal or some other form of diary style writing. Now, we can push everything into html and poof, the whole world can see your musings.

enough for today