I just finished changing the water & cleaning my aquarium. As in just now, within the past five minutes. -- Well, at least of the start of this entry. -- I took some extra time to clean the mineral deposits off the hood so it isn't so grody. The fish doesn't care, no one else will notice but it's something that has been bothering me for a little while. It makes me feel less negligent when I do things like that. Plus, it will help the resale value when I finally sell the thing.
Speaking of which, I want make it known that I would like to sell my aquarium. Everything must go; hood, stand, filters, decorations, gravel, everything. Yes, even little Hydra which is why it must be to a good home and why I am offering the setup to my friends in Live Journal first. The tank, however, does not belong to me so I cannot sell it, but new ones are not that expensive. So anyone who is interested in buying most of what you need for a 55 gallon aquarium please leave a comment to this entry or email me at evil-jim@livejournal.com with "Aquarium" in the subject line. If anyone is seriously interested I will tabulate & list everything I have and come up with a reasonable asking price. Also please note that I have a 10 gallon tank, filter & air pump used occasionally as a quarantine but sits empty most of the time also up for grabs. I need the money for my coming financial uncertainties this spring & I want the space back in my house. Please consider & if you have a friend who may be interested please pass the word.
In other news I got out of work early today. Really early. I even have reason to suspect that if we didn't have part deux of our taco dinner at second break we might have been released even earlier. It's with pay so I don't mind & it was even worth all the hump-busting I did the last two hours to be sure I had everything done to get to dinner & leave on time. It isn't uncommon for us to leave early these days but it was still a surprise being Tuesday night. The norm is to keep busy with orders during the week & get ahead enough to leave an hour early on Friday. But seven thirty on Tuesday? With pay even. I don't mind. It left me some time to do some window-shopping.
I didn't want to go straight home when let out early. I knew I had stuff to do tonight & it would be like getting out of school early on a snow day & going directly home to do homework. So instead I went to Half Price Books, the other two stores I stopped by having already closed. When visiting the parental units lately I've been browsing through Dad's LPs & listening to his albums by Jean-Luc Ponty, an electric jazz violinist with a 30 year discography who has performed with the likes of Concerts Lamourex (Paris symphony orchestra,) the Mothers of Invention & others. I really like him & having listened to his stuff all Sunday afternoon when family was together for Mom's b-day I vowed to start a collection of my own. Alas, I found nothing of the sort in my searches in stores this evening but with the discovery of his official website it should make finding his albums much easier.
Seen but not purchased at HPB east: a comic book illustrating stories of H.P. Lovecraft which I already own, Freak Out on vinyl for about $20 & Uncle Meat, also on vinyl for $20. It's probably good that I don't have a working turntable just yet, and also just as good that I already have both of those albums on CD as well as a working CD player.
I believe I mentioned having visited the parentals & other family this past weekend. Indeed it may seem unusual talking about it only two days after the fact but as long as I'm writing I may as well continue. However, as a side note I would like an explanation of why I keep typing the ampersand (&) instead of a capital "I." Anyway, Mom's birthday happened to be on a Sunday so that is the weekend we decided to observe it. My aunt & uncle brought Grandma down to visit & we did the usual dinner & cake thing. While the rest of my family did the usual painful off-key singing of "Happy Birthday," I did the brand new singing of "Merry Birthday" at the same time. I don't think anyone noticed. I had given my gift to Mom a few weeks prior being a significant RAM upgrade in her computer at SCS -- I'm finding plenty references to it online but not the official website, else I'd link -- but I still gave her a heavy-duty pizza cutter so she'd have something to unwrap. Such a thoughtful son. Since my own birthday is ten days after hers we celebrate them together & I get to do whatever the hell I want when my actual day comes (which isn't really much, sadly.) Anyway, we received gifts & I was very pleased & surprised to be crushed by the new 20 lb 2 volume set of Gary Larson's ultimate The Far Side collection. I had only asked for one of two things for my birthday, & even then only expecting to get one thing if my family decided to all chip in on it, but this was from just my parents. Later, I asked them to inscribe the books for me, one each. They no rest proudly on my couch (the books, not my parents), waiting for me to clear a more respectable place on a bookshelf or table to rest proudly long-term.
I seriously need to reorganized... Holy crap. The song I Am the Walrus just came up on my media player. It's already a great song but what surprised me is that it's on an Oingo Boingo album. Um.... where was I? Yeah, organize. I have a number of areas in my home that are in serious need of reorganization. My CD collection has been foremost in my mind for many weeks now since my newest CD rack is blocking the shelves on my TV stand because there's really no better place for it. Most of my furniture is hand-me-downs from family so I couldn't be picky about where or how I would use it. This has left me with some corners cluttered &/or just plain unaccessible for wont of a better setup.
crabmoon recently pointed out that what I really need (besides a girlfriend) is an entertainment center. She was absolutely right & somehow it had never occurred to me before. Until then I had been silently continuing with the practice of putting stuff wherever I can fit it & just living with it. So I figger if I can get a decent setup to keep my TV, current video game console & stereo off the floor with shelf room for a thousand or so CDs I should be in good shape to start cleaning this dump up. With the 10 gal out it will leave room for another 6 ft bookshelf in my computer room & I already have enough Rubbermaid™ containers to actually organize everything in my back room if I ever get the ambition (ha! Right.) Yeah, I still have dreams of turning the spare bedroom into an actual spare bedroom someday. I just suck at starting.In other news I recently rediscovered why I stopped playing Tron 2.0. Not because it isn't a good game. In fact, not because there isn't anything about the game I don't love. It's the five and six AM bedtimes from playing it all damn night that killed me. And now I've discovered that the GBA title contains an unlock for the original arcade game Tron & has, despite my struggles, made me vow to find & purchase it someday. Bye bye well-rested sleep.
And since you haven't had enough video games, now that we've given
phil_bond his very own Robotic Operating Buddy go and check out the new greatly improved & expanded R.O.B. Wikipedia entry. And don't forget Gyromite. While you go do that I'ma go E V I L O U T -
Current Mood: hamster in underpants
Current Music: Insanity ~ Oingo Boingo
