Last Day for Carnival Submissions!

This is the last day of the month (and also the last day to submit to the Darwin is Dead Carnival).

In my business, it was a very significant day. Vendors are paid month to month and have quotas from quarter to quarter. Thus, I put in about a 12-hour workday full of angst and excitement and negotiation. The technical term for my state of mind now? I am FRIED!

Therefore I intend to wait a day before I answer my various commmenters, or try to put together another post full of quotes and so on. I am just beat like a drum. It appears that I made the biggest deal of the month for my company on this, the last day, and that is a very good thing. But I am glad it is over and I can try to relax now.

One way I like to relax is to watch my fish. We have three tanks. The small ten-gallon holds a Pumpkinseed (bluegill) fish who we call "Mr. Personality" who is not yet a year old. He will very soon outgrow his tank. I bet we can keep him for at least ten years.

The second tank has a few live-breeders, all Swords and Platys, it is a 29-gallon tank. I have some juvenile Plecostomus and a couple of Botia/Loach fish in there. The live-breeders are colorful and the special moss we have in the corner helps provide cover for baby fish. We will probably move Mr. Personality into this tank and buy a new one for the live-breeders.

Both of those tanks are downstairs, where we have the big screen TV and the surround sound stereo and two couches, a loveseat and a church pew (!) from one of my previous churches. This is where the teens and pre-teens like to hang out and where we go to watch movies, or 24, etc.

The third tank is the one I watch most often, the one in my office upstairs. It is a 55 gallon tank with a few Barbs and Tetras, some Corydoras Cats, a Red-Tailed Shark, two upside-down African Catfish and two Plecostomus. The Cory Cats, there are six of them and they sometimes tend to herd, they are the James Browns of the tank, the hardest workers. The Barbs and Tetras often school, but the Barbs also engage in many oddball activities. They like to float almost in a headstand, which looks rather odd, and they will also do a mating dance in which they "kiss" and spin in blurring circles. I have also seen them line up to put their bodies in the flow of a bubble stream and be flung up to the top of the tank.

The Red-Tailed Shark likes to "herd" the Tetras and Barbs into the East half of the tank, for some reason. He will chase them into that end, and the ones who do not go willingly he will chase all over the tank until worn out. We really don't know why. He gave up trying to herd the Corys and Plecos and now ignores them as if they don't exist.

My Plecos are both over seven years old and both almost a foot in length each. They have learned to come up to the top of the tank when I open the hood, to get first crack at whatever food is served up. But when it is worm cubes, the Cory Cats have learned to come up to the top of the tank and fight with the Plecos for control of the cubes. These learned behaviors are at odds with the normal behavior of both species. Corys usually stay at or near the bottom of the tank, other than the occasion in which they take a breath. They are abdominal breathers, and once every hour or two they will rise to the top to grab a breath. They resemble "scrubbing bubbles" normally, continually working hard to find something to eat at the bottom of the tank, industriously sticking their noses into every crack in the process. When they want a breath, they wiggle like they are getting incredibly angry, and then shoot up to the surface to take a quick breath and just as quickly dive back down to the bottom.

The Barbs and Tetras have learned to be more aggressive when worm cubes are presented, for if they don't rise to the surface and "hit" the cube they may find that the Plecos and the Corys will get it all. Needless to say, a worm cube or two makes for a big happening in my largest tank. Only the upside-down cats stay out of the fray. They like to move and feed nocturnally even if they are too big to hide out during the day now. They each have a hiding place and their bodies stick out from behind their place now, places that covered them completely when they were only an inch or two long. Do they know or care?

What does this have to do with anything? Not sure, but the fish relax me when I take a bit of time out to watch them. So this post is kind of like an internet version of watching the fish. My mind wants to relax.

I realized today that I have attended nine years of post-high school higher education
classes in my lifetime. Three years of normal, secular universities (at three schools, non-consecutive) and three years of seminary (at one school, consecutive) and three years of technical training ( at four schools, non-consecutive) and out of those nine years, I had to work while going to school during seven of them. I have three certificates and/or degrees from these institutions but my resume in this regard sounds like that of a scion of a rich family who becomes a professional student rather than go out into the real world.

I work in the Internet industry these days. It is dog-eat-dog and it is constantly changing. What you knew last year is generally defunct today. One has to scramble to stay near the cutting edge. There is extra reading to do, seminars, all of that stuff. Hoping that such activities help stave off Alzheimers...

In terms of knowledge, I considered what some of my commenters had said and I will say a few things about that. I know far more about Biology than the average guy, but far less than the average Microbiologist. I know more about Math than the average guy, but less than a Mathematician. In the sciences, I am familiar with them but not a master of any of them. I love History and Literature but don't claim real expertise in either field. I believe it is Dan S who pointed me to a posting by a science writer who warned against going beyond "my tether" in the field of science and it may be that I have, indeed, gone beyond from time to time. I think I have a couple of posters who fervently would agree with that assessment!

My expertise, other than within my profession, likely tilts toward the Bible. I have done a great deal of study of that book and taken classes in the doctrines, the original languages and even the events surrounding the compilation of the texts of that particular book. In addition, I am pretty good at trivia in general, music and sports trivia in particular and can do a reasonable impersonation of a Sabremetrician in baseball. I was reading Bill James before reading Bill James was cool...and that ceased being cool ten years ago.

So how did I wind up with a blog that seems to be mostly about science? (some commenters have called it a "hilarious anti-science blog?") Gee, it seems that creation science is a hobby of mine and because I began posting about that it has turned into the major conversation on the blog. Discussions with Darwinists have taught me a great deal (mostly about Darwinists, but also some of the ideas they have transmitted) and caused me to further study the positions I take and the information I value in this one area. I really had a great post I wanted to make today but being mentally exhausted it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Anyway, to the readers, to the guys who comment, for a minute let us forget our various positions on issues and just be who we are. Hi, I am a father, the lover of a great woman, a friend to a few, a sports nut, a trivia buff, a reader, a lover of movies and music, a writer of poems and songs, a singer (who has been paid to sing in the past, thank you very much), a lecturer (who has been both paid and comped to speak at conferences and events), a grandfather (dude, you must be OLD), a teacher, a writer of sorts (who once used to be paid to write) and owner of a sarcastic quick-wit who loves puns and stupid jokes. My wife and I kid about my current title, "The Mouth Of God" regarding the blog as it now stands. Yeah, I am a big mouth all right. I admit it, though.

I know what it is like to hit the winning home run, and what it is like to miss the shot that would have won a championship. I know what it is like to hold my child immediately after birth and cutting the cord, welcome him or her into the world. I know what it is like to be praised and to be humiliated. To stand before a large crowd and receive thunderous applause. To face the prospect of bankruptcy. To bury a close relative before his time and mourn. Life, right? Ups and downs.

We pass comments back and forth about issues, usually. But for this one day, for this one post, if you have a comment why not tell me WHO you are. Forget your politics (Yes, I am a conservative but you likely knew that) and your scientific stance and all of that. Who are you? One of my commenters turns out to be a gifted artist. Another is a music buff who can rock out on the guitar. Another is a gifted martial artist. Yet another turns out to be able to frame a picture with a camera and make it a piece of art.

Just for today, forget Darwin and Behe and all of those guys. Who are you, what do you love to do? I promise to get back on point tomorrow, really!