Aquarium and Pond

I have three different fish tanks in our house: a 20 gallon aquarium, the goldfish tank in the knockout on the porch, and the koi pond outside. Here is our maintenance log:

Snails to the Rescue

 

We added Black Japanese Trapdoor Snails to the koi pond today. They have a huge amount of algae to chow down on!

Leaving Home

I heard a great interview with Anthony Hopkins yesterday on Weekend Edition on NPR. All his life Hopkins has been writing music, parts of which were recently recorded by a symphony orchestra. Hopkins great up in Wales. At one point Scott Simon asks him about getting an autograph from Richard Burton. Hopkins answered:

Yeah. I went to his house, he used to come back to Wales and there was this great movie star. And he signed my autograph and he said do you speak Welsh? I said no. He said you're not a true Welshman. He was teasing but he scared me. And I remember thinking; I want to be like him. And I just want to be famous. I didn't know what to do because I wanted to escape from the desert of my own mental whatever it was - emptiness. And so I became an actor. 

I love that phrase, "the desert of my own mental..."  There was nothing wrong with his home or Wales. But he had to leave to make his own future! Since I have been back to Lewiston to visit after many years, I realize that was/is a great town. Yet, I needed to leave for myself, and I'm glad I did, too.

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Christmas Cactus

Yes, it's after Christmas. But this is the time that our Christmas Cactus has chosen to bloom. The blooms did actually start developing before the holiday. I will be adding pictures every few days. The porch is chilly, but it gets good light. The plant seems to be happy there!

Changes in North Korea

When I heard of Kim Jong Il's death the other day I first thought of how strange North Korea is. One report said it was a "hereditary communist" state. If that is not an oxymoron, I don't know what is. Perhaps is is more appropriate to think of it as a  paranoid, super-nationalist state.

I couldn't help but think of the all the American soldiers who fought in the Korean War and patrolled the border over the years. Both my father and father-in-law fought in the war. No one was ever the same after that. While I am happy that South Korea is free, it seems like unfinished business with North Korea still  in an isolated deep freeze. Perhaps they will thaw out some day.

Tinariwen

I am listening to the latest Tinariwen CD, Tassili. It's great. I saw the band last week on the Colbert Report. It's a very mellow sound. When I lived in Burkina Faso we used to see Tuaregs begging in the streets of Ouagadougou. They had been forced to leave the desert because of the drought. I'm glad to see some of their culture!

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Return to A Space Odyssey

I finished rereading 2001 and 2010 A Space Odyssey after many years on my Nook. I guess it's appropriate to read it on an ereader. I always enjoy Clarke's optimistic view of the future. There are no true villains. The characters struggle, but reason through problems. It doesn't mean they will be happy, just that they will do the best that they can.

 

I did prefer 2010 the book over the movie. The movie introduced a silly USA vs USSR controversey at one point, where the two crews separate. It was never very believable. Here the unknown schemes of the advanced beings bring the true unknown mystery.

 

I like how HAL was redeemed in 2010. It was fitting that Bowman chose him to accompany him before the Discovery was burned up.

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