I just posted this on craigs list for 175.00. I’ll sell it to anyone I know personally for less, (say $125.00?), especially if they are gonna use it for a really good use, like a laptop that their children can use - the Solid state drive makes it solid enough for occasional dropping.
Dear little sister,
Yesterday was Sunday and you didn’t come over. My week is incomplete. That should probably never happen again. How can Paul watch Cops without you? he can’t!
Love,
your completely codependant sister.
Our new betta fish, named in honor of my japanese penpal, Mr. Takeyo. I hope he feels loved when he finds out we named our newest pet for him.
I put cardboard on the top and packing foam around the base to keep the water temperature from cooling too fast. The drip can take 2 hours and the tank water is about 80 degrees. No way could that little holding tank hold that temp on its own.
One of the fun things about having an empty aquarium is you can do tests with ammonia and chemicals that would be cruel with fish. I was curious to see if Ammo-Chips work.
I have them on hand for hastily set up hospital tanks where I don’t have a cycled filter or need to use meds that would harm biological filtration. I got them after an experience of having a goldfish in a hospital tank and she blew off so much ammonia while being sick that I couldn’t keep up without regularly shocking my already stressed fish with huge water changes, hoping to avoid a similar situation in the future.
So today I added enough clear ammonia to register an API test reading of 1.0 – incidentally at the same time my seachem alert was only registering .05, important information if I plan on using that meter as a warning for ammonia spikes. Note to self: react to ANY seachem reading because it’s higher than the meter shows.
I then added ¼ cup of Ammo chips to a nylon sock and hung it in the output stream on my biowheel filter. I’m curious to know if this alone will bring my ammonia readings down.
Yes, I know I am messing with my cycle, starving beneficial bacteria, blah blah blah. It’s an empty tank. And it’s an experiment, not a plan for fish keeping. So all you superior fish nazis that like to shame beginners out of the hobby on answers.yahoo.com with your snotty replies can back off. Did I mention I think you guys are mean and not helping the poor newbie? Be nice. You were new too, once. Did you make no mistakes? And did anyone attack you or did you have a kind person who taught you the ropes with grace?
Post Script: since I could not resist moving a betta from one of those little cups to a new roomy home today, I cut the experiment short with a 95% water change before adding my new pet. I plan on taking this experiment up again using an empty 3 gallon tank. It’s all so very fun, this water chemistry thing.
This is the kind of stuff I do for fun:
This will someday be a betta tank, I think. It’s currently going through a fishless cycle, and acclimating a floating plant that I added on Saturday. (The one that came with a hitchhiker snail that Hannah has named Bob) Mommers is also making a 2 sided stained glass piece for the back and left sides.
What you are looking at is a video screen capture from the right side taken with our ASUS eee PC; a 7″ Linux machine that I got in Thailand for keeping in touch with Paulers on skype. It’s a great traveling netbook, but, sorry Linux geeks- I prefer being able to use Netflix and Coffeecup software, so I’m not a convert and this tiny computer gets little use. So now it is my own personal aquarium cam.
I’ve made a user called fishy.dopkins on skype and set the account to automatically answer when I call. Now I can pull up video of my betta tank at will. And I do, often, even though it’s empty. Imagine when it ACTUALLY contains a fish…
I love audible audio books for their ability to save your place when you leave them and start right up where you left off when you come back to them on an iPod. A regular MP3 or AAC won’t do this, it always starts at the beginning again – very annoying when I was halfway through a 40 minute sermon and have to try to scroll to where where I left off.
So here is a fairly simple way using iTunes to get that feature out of the MP3s you rip from an audio book CD or the sermons you download from Faith Community’s website.
1. Change your import settings to “convert to AAC” I know- you prefer MP3- good choice. We will change the setting back once our project is finished. If you have never selected your import settings in the first place, you are already ready for step 3, because iTunes default is “convert to AAC”. May I suggest, however, that you switch to MP3 importing when this little process is done? It’s a better quality file and can be played in any player. AAC is proprietary to iTunes.
2. This step assumes you already have the file you want to work with loaded into iTunes. Right click on the file in your library select “create AAC version”
3. Right click on your new AAC version and select “show in windows explorer”
4. Do you see the file type at the end of the file name? it should say .m4a
a. If you don’t see the file extension: uncheck the box that says “Hide extensions for known file types” in the view tab of your folder options.
b. Now, do you see the .m4a? change it to .m4b (you can change a file name by selecting the file and pressing F2)
c. You will get an error that says “If you change a file name extension the file may become unusable. Are you sure you want to change it?” select yes.
5. Double click on the file you are working with in iTunes. You will get an error that says “The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?” click yes and select your new .m4b file.
6. Don’t forget to delete your Mp3 versions of the new m4b files or you will be confused on your iPod about which is which.
7. Sync your iPod
8. Don’t forget to switch back to Mp3 importing when you are done!
This method suggests a future work-around: use AAc importing for audio book CDs and you only need to change the imported files to .m4b. EASY!!!
