Day 12. Oh, lookie there, I've got a bite

I have very little use for fishing. Mostly, I'm terrified of snagging myself with a fishhook and having to push the barb through my skin in order to cut it off with a pair of pliers so that the hook can be pulled out. Seriously, one of the scariest things I've ever experienced was sitting in a boat with my dad and my uncle and my two brothers and having fishing rods and hooks flying all over the place! And I was stuck there, I couldn't escape it. The best I could do was close my eyes and hope for the best. I mean, its not the worm or the touching of the fish that freaks me out - its the hooks.

Seriously, I mean, look at this!! This is my worst nightmare in comic form:


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

I kinda like fish though. In pet form. For my 12th birthday (after much hinting and begging and pleading) I got a 10 gallon starter aquarium. It has held many fish over the years. Most recently, it was the winter home for our goldfish 'Flipper'. Flipper started as a tiny little 1/2 inch thing that I had planned to feed to my pet turtle (until the turtle ran away). Not expecting the fish to actually survive, we threw it into our outdoor rain barrel for the summer. He happily swam around, ate mosquito larvae, and grew quite large. Flipper was about 7 years old and the length of my hand when he finally went to fishy heaven. (He was cremated in our furnace because he was far too large to be given the royal flush!)

Anyway, I took my fish tank with me when I moved and it has been set up and running for about 3 weeks now with nothing in it. When people ask, I tell them that the fish are just small, and then they spend the next 5 minutes looking for them! (haha, that's a lie because we all know that nobody actually visits me!)

So, today, I visited the pet store and came home with 9 fish. (they were having a buy 2, get 1 free sale) I got 4 fancy guppies and 5 small neon tetras; with plans to eventually get a beta and one or two algae eaters. Oh, and maybe a female guppy - but if I do that, I'll eventually have a whole tank of nothing but guppies!

Here's the kicker though: When I dumped the neons into the tank, 3 of them swam to the bottom of the aquarium and vanished into the rocks! I mean, who does that?? And they were gone for hours! Even now, 5 hours later, there's still one missing. I don't know where it went - its just gone. Oh well, I wasn't terribly attached to it anyway.

In other news:


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

My camera is off to the shop to get fixed. again. Apparently, after you take 15,000 images or so, things start to wear out. Of course, they do that on purpose so that you have to upgrade by purchasing a new camera. I hate consumerism.

But, if I can manage to take it in for repairs just 2 more times before mid-July, they have to give me a new one. Its part of the extended warranty Lemon Policy. Here's hoping my camera breaks! :S