The Daily Adventures of Mercat

YAY! My betta is here... I was afraid it was sick, because the little booklet said if it had red stripes in its fins it may be sick. But I think it was just stressed as it seems to be doing better after a few hours. Hopefully it will be much better when I get it some more space!

So yeah, how I said I'd named it The Loch Ness Monster? I wanted to. I really did. But little betta screamed his own name... yeah, so I reverse-referenced him (kind of like that reverse-euphemism thing in Xkcd comics, lol) and named him Captain Nemo-- because he has a weak fin. Yeah, which makes it NOT stupid. =D He's not a clown fish. =P Plus 20,000 Leagues is awesome, and Captain Nemo was supposed to be Polish. Kick. Ass.

LINKSPAM!

At first, this scared me. The Simpsons have a movie coming out. I thought, "Oh no, it's jumped the shark!" But watch the trailer. Yeah. =D http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/thesimpsonsmovie/trailer/

This sounds cool, check it out: http://www.thememoryproject.org/

This is awesome, too, for the soldiers overseas: http://www.letssaythanks.com/ThankYou.html

(And yes I am so lazy as to be just stealing Cleolinda's linkspam today. Phooey on you.)

So, yay, Captain Nemo! I hope he survives to be a strong betta. <3!

Well, I pwned my religion test and found out that getting a 63 on my math test (worse than I expected!) brought me down to an 81, but that's still NOT THE LOWEST B-. WTF, UD.

Anyway, went out to Meijer's to look for fish stuff--sadly, I don't think I can get good but cheap stuff, so I have to head out to the pet store on Sunday. By the way, fish ARE allowed and my mom pointed out two families who would probably be willing to babysit over the summer (assuming I make Phantom, and did I mention only TWENTY-TWO days left? FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK), so I went ahead and purchased one... if I can get a tank and start cycling it asap, then hopefully it will be fish-ready when they come on a week from Tuesday. I want to give it a well aquascaped tank, but that's going to cost a lot of money. First, the tank (2 gallons, probably), then some kind of water heater, plus soft gravel and silk plants-- and any decoration has to be soft enough that if you were to rub pantyhose over it, they would not rip. Yeah, Difficult, expensive, and bad-looking. SO. I don't even know what internal theme I want to go for yet, anyway, though I do have an external one.

So, The Loch Ness Monster will arrive not long before I head off to camp...urrrgh. FUCK, I NEED TO FIND A BABYSITTER FOR THAT.

Atfer that religion test, man, I felt sooo good. And this day has just gotten...blah. The game was meh, and I missed movie night so I could buy hand-warmers at Meijer. I don't really get to hang out with David and Kyle and Bill much, and they were having a movie night and I came back at 10:30, but I am SO fucking paranoid. I didn't want to walk in late, and I didn't want to walk by the hall not knowing where I was going, exactly. =( So hopefully they will just come to my movie night and I will get a sillier movie so it's not always the same people coming.

Bleh. Crap, I need to find a time to practice tomorrow...

MSBAs, hopefully my hs buddies will put me in a good mood, because I'm not in one now.

Ahh, the humidifier is doing its job quite well...

So now I don't know if I can get the betta... they need sooo much care (it will be time consuming with all the tank changes, plus I need to get a bigger tank and a tank warmer b/c my roommate needs the room cold for health reasons), and you can't put fun stuff in their tanks because their fins would probably rip on them, and also I would need to find a babysitter for it FOR THE ENTIRE SUMMER. Someone who would be EXTREMELY responsible for it, and I feel bad because that would mean THEY would have to find a secondary babysitter if THEY go on vacation. So I guess I could always find someone whose parents never take them anywhere.

So...if you know anyone who might want to babysit a fish all next summer, let me know. I would really like to get a fish, and I need to figure it out by tomorrow! *le sigh*

So, pretty much as soon as I posted it hit me how I will name the betta fish. And yes, I also learned in the last half hour that it's "betta," not "beta." Damn greek alphabet. Anyway.

From "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao," which is one of my favorite movies: Dr. Lao owns a tiny goldfish in a bowl, as one of his wonders-- he insists it's the Loch Ness Monster. Of course, I don't want to ruin part of the movie for you, so just borrow it from me sometime.

Also, Ursula Vernon (one of my favorite artists) has this slightly-recurring character, or type of character, which are some type of mage, or something. Wait, I'll go find the page to make this clearer.

OK, I think this is original image. I can't find the phrase I was looking for, which was "just don't ask about the goldfish."
The original?: http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/u/r/ursula/donkeyfish.jpg.html
The second: http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/u/r/ursula/donkeyfish2.jpg.html
Another of the type: http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/u/r/ursula/packrat.jpg.html

Hmm...and this was an inspiration some time ago, from deviantart when I was looking for Ursula Vernon's stuff. Her descriptions are usually better there, as well.

Ah-HA! I found the piece I was referring to, but I didn't find the Deviantart one, which I will keep looking for. So here's the one with the quote...ish: http://www.metalandmagic.com/modules.php?set_albumName=anthromorphic&id=wombatgear&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

AND HERE WE HAVE... the goldfish one that triggered my memory of Dr. Lao's fish: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/10232003/?qo=8&q=by%3Aghostmoon701&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps

Ahem, SO. (I've been working on this post for a few good hours, through lunch and my classes. So that explains the rambliness and why the times are wrong and whatnot...ex, the post is marked 12:11 pm, but now it's 2:09.) I love Dr. Lao, so that will be the main inspiration for my fish, but I have also projected it onto Ursula Vernon's fish. (She is one of my favorite artists. =^n.n^=)

So, I was thinking, all right, it's the Loch Ness Monster. Only, I was like, OK, I think in the movie it has a name, so I will call it that, and for now it was something like Nessie. And then Nessa popped into my head, and I was like, hey! That's awesome, I can work Wicked in there, too. Only it's a girl's name and the fish is probably a male. SO. I'm just going to go with "The Loch Ness Monster" as the name of my betta.

And aparently I need to find a larger tank and also get some kind of tank warmer... as my roomie keeps the room about 55 and the tank needs to be in the 70s.

So, anyone know much about bettas?