Author: Mark Alexander

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Downsizing

Except for one year—1993—I’ve owned a freshwater aquarium in one form or another since I was a child. About three weeks ago I made a decision that I had been questioning up until last night. No, I didn’t get rid of my tank altogether; I downsized from a 29-gallon to a 17.

This 17-gallon, all-glass tank which had a built-in filtration system in the back had captured my eye on my last trip to The Ocean Floor.  Faced with an upcoming semi-annual “big clean” teardown of my existing tank, I decided it was time to pull the plug and downsize.

The moment I got it home, I had buyer’s remorse. I hadn’t realized exactly how much smaller it was. Still, I was determined to make it work. My old all glass 29-gallon tank was just getting too damn heavy to haul outside every six months to clean. (I could’ve gone with a new acrylic tank of the same size and a fraction of the weight—which I’ve owned in the past with great success—but the front of the acrylics always end up bowing out after a few years and they scratch so damn easily.)

After getting the 17 set up and the few remaining fish I had transferred into it, I knew I’d made a grave mistake. The 4-year-old red tail shark that I had raised from a tiny 2-inch juvenile to a 5-inch behemoth was definitely unhappy in the new surroundings.

After stewing over this for a week, I decided that if I wanted to keep the tank (and frankly there was no returning it at this point) I needed to let go of the shark. I transferred him into a big plastic bag and took him back to the Ocean Floor (where I’d purchased him initially), knowing that even if they didn’t give me any money for the beast, at least he would end up going to a good home.

Turns out that once they saw him, I did get a store credit, which allowed me to buy a few smaller fish that are quite happy in these surroundings. The only problem remaining was that the water had gotten kind of cloudy and the tank was growing brown algae like crazy. A few days ago I decided what  I needed to do was tear the tank down, install the under-gravel filter from my old tank, and start fresh. (It had been my experience over the years that either an under-gravel or an external filter didn’t work well enough on their own, but in combination guaranteed crystal clear water.)

I was not looking forward to this, despite the tank’s much smaller size.

While I was out a few days ago getting anti-algae solution, I picked up a box of carbon filter media and when I got home threw one of the packs in the rear filter, hoping this would at least help somewhat with the water issue. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much.

But then something happened. I don’t know if it was the added filter pack or if the tank’s nitrogen cycle finally kicked in, but since yesterday morning the water (even without an under-gravel filter) has been crystal clear. I’m taking a wait and see approach at this point, hoping that no further intervention will be required beyond normal maintenance until I do the “big” clean six months from now.

 

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Feel Good Music

I have a feeling it’s going to be a Herb Alpert and post-mindless-stuff-and-nekkid-menz sort of day, because I need a break from the awful that’s assaulting me everywhere online for the last several days.

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Just Because

This image has always appealed to me. Unfortunately I can’t find a high-resolution copy worth printing and framing.

Many years ago I had a past life regression.  The vision that came to me was stepping off an egg-shaped shuttlecraft into a deserted field of waist-high grass. In the distance there was a single tree, and beyond that, rolling, forested hills. I was part of a galactic survey team and we’d just touched down on a previously unmapped planet. It was my first surface recon mission and what struck me was how green everything was—because apparently wherever I’d called home the vegetation wasn’t green. I was dressed in some sort of white leather-like suit with a simple breathing apparatus attached to my face. As far as I could tell, I was human (or at least very human-like). I didn’t actually see my face at any point, but I had two arms, two legs, and five fingers on each hand. I got nothing more from the regression than that, but it kind of shook me nonetheless.

I interpret this picture as the crew of just such a mission aboard their main starship.

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Quote of the Day

If Iranian hackers want to pull off some big-dick energy shit, they should wipe out US Student Loan debt. Poof! Make it disappear. If the debt disappears, the US will lose this debt as leverage to recruit for the military.” ~ Unknown

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Thank You, John!

Back in November of 2018, about six months after acquiring a set of the classic Technics Micro Series components, I wrote of my frustration in locating the special connector that came with the preamp back in 1979 that was used to elegantly connect the preamp with the power amp and the tuner. It was, of course, possible to use regular RCA connector cables, but it was messy in comparison.

Back in 2007 when I sold my last set of Micro Series components to my buddy John, the set included one of these connectors. (If I ever thought I’d own another set of these components, I would’ve held onto it, knowing even then how rare these things were, but I was enamored of the behemoth Kenwood receiver I’d acquired a couple years earlier and could never see myself getting rid of it.)

A year ago John casually mentioned that he wasn’t using the tuner any more—much less the connector, so I immediately asked if I could buy the connector back from him.

“Sure,” he said. “If I knew where it was.”

He had recently moved to a new condo and much of his “junk” as he called it, was still in boxes. I asked him every few months if he’d run across it, but he was still unpacking and hadn’t seen it.

Then out of the blue last week I got a text from him that said, “Found it,” and a picture:

I asked how much he wanted for this piece of Unobtainium and he replied, “Just cover the shipping.”

It arrived today, and I am one happy guy.

Before
After

Elegant. (I consider Technics the Apple of its day.)

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Released 43 Years Ago Today

This was probably the third disco album I bought after venturing out to my first gay club. (The first being Thelma Houston’s Any Way You Like It and the second, Cerrone’s Love in C Minor.) I’d never heard music like this before, and I was hooked.

In many ways it seems like only yesterday, and yet…a lifetime ago.

Giorgio Moroder: From Here To Eternity (1977)

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Understanding the Cost of Covid

I was listening to the news this week and one of the anchors said that we needed to put the 137,000 people dead in four months into a context people can understand.

He said to imagine those 137,000 dead people were airline passengers. Losing 137,000 people in four months would be equivalent to 50 planes a week crashing, for four months, with all on board dying.

50 PLANE CRASHES A WEEK. For four months. All on board, DEAD. He said if planes were falling out of the sky at a rate of 50 per week, not only would people be horrified, but they would expect something to be done. The government wouldn’t be shrugging their shoulders and acting like it was no big deal.

I thought this was a great way to put it. No one would or could ignore that. No one would call it a hoax. No one would question the “science”. No one would ignore it for four months. People would want answers and they would be afraid to get on a plane until something was done.

Planes are crashing around us and no one is taking it seriously.

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