Wha, me attitude? Not Ossie the Octopus

This week was a nail-biter for Bratworse and I. On Sunday, the crabs seemed listless, Ossie didn't make an appearance and we got really worried.

For the next three days, we could see Ossie moving in her den, but never out nor showing any tentacles. I started doing daily water changes of 20% on Saturday, but the ammonia levels still remained high.

Sunday through Wednesday, every day, twice a day, I'd stare into her tank, removing any thing that might produce ammonia in hopes of trying to control the levels. Tuesday, I decided to leave the light on inside her tank while we were out in hopes that some bacteria would start growing. Tuesday, I also stopped the daily water changes.

Finally, Tuesday, I got the ammonia levels down to .25 but the nitrate levels were rising (seemed to have skipped the nitrite stage). But further good news occurred. Her tentacles batted away a nearby shrimp that was close to one of her entrances.

Both Bratworse and I breathed better that night and the next day, Bratworse saw her tentacles when she was cleaning out the tank.

However, we were most concerned because we couldn't really find any evidence of feeding. Yes, it seemed like the hermit crab population was dwindling, but was it because we couldn't find some of the crabs? Yes, the ghost shrimp we were putting in seemed to disappear too, but was it cause they were drowning and bristle worms were getting to them?

By Wednesday night, we had convinced ourselves that Ossie was doing worse, even though the levels of ammonia had remained at .25, the nitrate and nitrite wasn't rising and I was buffing the water to ensure the ph at above 8.0. Sad and disheartened we went to bed.

The next morning, after a little disturbance, we finally saw a tentacle, proving that she was alive. (It's amazing how pms will work to convince one of the worst possible scenario).

Last night, we had decided to buy some frozen shrimp since we weren't convinced she was hunting for herself (despite the fact that we can only find 7 of the 15 crabs). Bratworse hovered over the top of the tank for half an hour, holding a shrimp with chopsticks, near the various entrances of her den. Suddenly, she let out a shriek. "Ossie grabbed the shrimp!"

A tentacle had darted out, grabbed the shrimp and was trying to drag it down the crevice. Excitedly, Bratworse waited for a while, but the shrimp was too big for the hole. So, I took over, and got a smaller shrimp. Sure enough, Ossie grabbed that and pulled it into the hole as I tried to stuff it down.

10 minutes later, Bratworse got another shrimp and was waving it around the entrances. The older shrimp comes flying out the bottom entrance (we realized that that's her trash chute) and a tentacle reaches out and drags the new shrimp into a hole, effectively plugging it up.

Then when we put the older shrimp near the crevice again, a tentacle darts out, pulling that one into and plugging that hole up. As we continued watching, two tentacles came out the bottom hole, and pulled two shells over the entrances.

Well, that told us!

Laughing, we left her alone, feeling much better. Three hours later (after SEVERAL rounds on Fight Night Round 3), I went to go check on her. And there Ossie was, hanging in her crevice, giving me the eye. I shook Bratworse awake and we watched her hanging there for about 5 minutes before letting her sleep.

This morning, ph was down but everything else was the same. I will try to get some pictures this weekend.

A New Addition

I know it's been a while since I wrote, but the world's been a bit discouraging, y'know? I mean, with a government that admits to law-breaking, and getting away with it, with all this injustice in the world, I just felt that if I kept writing about it, I'd just never stop being in a rage.

But this past week, something took me away from all that.

We have a new addition to the house: Ossie.



See her lurking there behind the rock near the glass? The eyes are on top and the mantle (a bulbous shape) is towards the bottom.

She's an octopus. Why did we get an octopus? Beats me. But we did end up with one, and we're loving every second of it. We've been having a bit of trouble getting the levels just right in the tank, but we're apparently doing something okay today.

One of the things I did this afternoon was let the sun hit the tank directly for about an hour. This seems to have stimulated some growth on the rocks which seems to have stimulated the crabs.

Another reason we think things are going to be okay is, we got to witness Ossie hunting!

After we had turned off the lights for about 1/2 hour, we decided to check on her. Bratworse went to use the flashlight, covered with red cellophane and discovered Ossie outside her den. I convinced her to turn on the inside lamp, which was still the red bulb and to our surprise, Ossie didn't budge. After about 20 minutes of observation, we think we figured out why she wasn't moving. She was munching on something - we think it was a snail that had been hanging out near her den.

Well, I tried to snap a few shots of her but one time, I left the flash on. Three seconds later, she was back in her den. We turned off the lights for about 15 minutes, then turned the red light back on, and found her poking her tentacles out of her rock playfully, as if to entice the ghost shrimp we had put in earlier. That trick didn't work as the ghost shrimp had found a safe haven in a little plastic cage ball I had put in for Ossie to play with.

As we watched, Ossie came out of her den to hang inside an enclave in her rock. From what we can tell, this is her favorite place to hang out, so to speak. She must've hung there for 40 minutes (yes, we watched the entire time) before deciding to move.

One of the things we had done was add backing to the back of the aquarium. She seems to have loved this. She glided along the back of the next rock until she reached an overhang I had set up. Slipping up the back, she perched there, tentatively reaching a tentacle out to inspect the plastic cage ball. A shrimp hung near the top of the ball, seemingly oblivious to her presence.

Ossie gripped the ball with one tentacle, then struck at the shrimp at the top of the ball. Twice, she attempted this, but both times, the ball thwarted the attempt. She flung the ball away from the rock so that it could float around the tank (it had been hung up by the top of the overhang, thus giving the shrimp a stable haven).

For a while, Ossie perched behind the overhang, waiting for the shrimp to swim by. One shrimp found safety above the pump; the other swam with the floating ball. At times, the shrimp would swim close to where Ossie was waiting to spring into action but never stayed long enough or near enough for her to strike. She moved closer to the top of the overhang but by the time she was near the tip, the floating ball had gotten hung up near the pump.

To my eyes, it looked as if one of the shrimp was actively swimming to hold the ball in place.

With both shrimp hovering safely out of reach at the water pump, it seemed Ossie reached the end of her patience. She glided along the back wall, then lept for the side of the pump. A strike of the tentacles was followed by a brief struggle, then Ossie swam back to the overhang with two quick flicks of her mantle.

Bratworse and I quickly assessed the situation. One of the shrimp was still safely on top of the water pump. The other was swimming around the top of the now freed ball. It seemed it was three strikes and Ossie was out.

Ossie didn't even bother to slide along the rocks. It definitely looked as if she was miffed and was stalking off along the back wall towards her den. She hung in her crevice for a few seconds, then slid insided her den. Bratworse was about to turn off the lights when I said wait a few.

Sure enough, our sulking Ossie slid back out, and hung in her crevice for about 10 minutes. Then she went to hang out back and that's where the photo comes from. A few minutes after the photo, we decided to leave her alone.

There are plenty of crabs for her to eat. It seems that she has taken to grabbing all the crabs and throwing them into a corner. How else to explain that when we turn off the lights, they are scattered, and when we wake up, they are stacked in the corner. Alive, but stacked.

She seems to be enjoying herself for now. I had the eeriest feeling, she was watching me as much as I was watching her, and that somehow, we had passed the test.

Will keep you all updated.

Pissing Off the NRA

I'm a betting woman and even if you gave me 500 to 1 odds on the current Administration pissing off the NRA, I wouldn't have taken the bet.

There was no way in hell that these guys, with their chickenhawk, shooting fish in a barrel attitudes, could ever piss the NRA off unless they were arrogant beyond belief, careless and inept.

Apparently, this Administration managed to do it - piss off, perhaps not the NRA itself, but certainly many members of the association. And exactly due to their ineptitude, carelessness and hubris.

Power in Numbers

There's been a reason why I haven't posted as much, well, several reasons why.

Mostly it's because I've taken to watching this seismic shift that's unfolding before my very eyes. What shift?

Look around you. America and Americans are waking up. I, being a resigned idealist, had wanted the slumber to be over sooner of course, but the fact is, we are waking up to the fact that we're being tools, we're being saps and we're getting tired of it.

There's powers in numbers and the numbers are starting to stack up against the Bush Administration.

There's the numbers involved in Iraq. Billions spent. Hundreds of thousands wounded. Thousands killed. And those are just the numbers involving Americans. Then there's the worst number involved, that elephant in the room that is just starting to appear to people: infinite involvement.

There's the numbers involved in Katrina. Hundreds of thousands displaced, a large percentage never to return to their roots again. Billions in property damage. Minimum wage of $5.15/hour cut but restored after furious outcry. You probably can provide better numbers than I can.

There's the numbers involved in the corruption scandals. See TPM and its related site for information on that. They cover it extensively.

There's the numbers involved in George Bush's personal life. Approximately one year AWOL from the National Guard. Over 400 vacation days. Seven minutes of being dumbstruck while our nation was attacked and he was our commander in chief. Number of falls from bicycles and for that matter, number of incidents that happened while he was on his bicycle.

There's the numbers involved in the confirmation of Alito. 72 to 25 BRAVE senators. Twenty-five senators who listened to their constituents.

Lastly, the numbers in deaths and wounded. There are of course, the deaths and wounded from 9/11. And then the military deaths and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. As this number grows, the seven degrees of separation will ensure that sooner or later each one of us will be touched by these senseless (yes senseless!) deaths. May this number never get here. Then there are the journalistic deaths and wounded. From Daniel Pearl to (may she get home safely) Jill Carroll, to the civilians and media people accompanying them... sooner or later each one of us will see a name we recognize, felt some kinship with. For many of us, it is Bob Woodruff.

All these numbers are seeping into the national consciousness and all of them add up to one big headache for the Bush Administration.

Me, I'm just sitting back watching these numbers emerge with escalating frequency, wondering when the numbers will finally add up to several indictments (some of which have happened already - hi Jack Abramoff! Hi Duke Cunningham! Hi Scooter Libby!) AND ONE nice impeachment.

Thank You Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer

Today, I am very very proud to call these two ladies my senators.

Both of them heard our voices and voted no on cloture for Alito. Boxer, of course, came out swinging first and declared her intent days ago, maybe earler than that. Feinstein, bless her, changed her mind and heard us.

I called Senator Feinstein's office on Friday. When I tried around 3:30 pm, the Los Angeles office (as referenced by Sen. Feinstein's website) seemed to be a wrong number, the San Fransciso, Sacramento, and San Diego offices were busy but I managed to get through to her Fresno office.

I managed to stammer out my reasons for wanting Sen. Feinstein to vote no on cloture, saying that dang it, I want the opposition party to start acting like an opposition party and as someone who voted her into office, I want her to represent me.

Thank you both, ladies. For the first time in a very long time, I feel like I'm being represented.

BTW, in case you don't realize why this vote today was important, first off, go read Digby's post, then bookmark Digby. He manages to rise above the Hullabaloo. To make his point short, the score today of 75 to 25 is like a bowler with an average of 120 bowling a 700 series. The improvement/change is remarkable.

Comparing Market Forces and Hijacks

This past Saturday on KCBS here in the Bay Area, CA, Bratworse and I heard an editorial that basically compared the oil companies profits to the housing market. The guy said in effect, don't blame the oil companies if the markets make it that profitable. You don't blame your neighbor for driving up the housing market and you don't begrudge him his 500% profits if the markets bear it, do you?

Both Bratworse and I shook our heads, disagreeing with this sentiment.

This morning, it finally hit me why the comparison doesn't work.

The comparison works ONLY if the following conditions in the housing market were met:

1. The houses were all owned by a handful of corporations;
2. Blocks of houses were slowly disintegrating and NOT being replaced;
3. And, there were no rentals available to people.

See, what drives the housing market are HUGE numbers of people willing to participate in a free market situation.

However, what drives the oil market are a few companies holding the entire populace hostage.

BTW, I predicted that there would be record profits here. Nice to know that no matter what happens, the fat cats will still get fatter yet, eh? NOT!

Mid-Life Crisis

I think I finally reached my mid-life crisis.

For the past five years, I have wanted nothing but turmoil-less life.

For the past two years, stability in the Cholotto household has pretty much been reached. Yeah, we quibble and we fight. Yeah, there are times when Bratworse can strangle me, and there are times when I would consider stopping the car and leaving her whereever we might be. However, the times that are peaceful, loving and supportive far outweigh the bad times.

As for my professional life, I wanted a life of ease, of no stress, of having a job (not career). Well, I managed to hook one of those jobs. I get to work a 38-1/2 hour week, go home and forget about work, work at my own pace, what else should a woman ask for?

Well, it turns out that my wishes don't seem to fulfill me enough.

I'm bored and need some new challenges. Bratworse wants me to write. I kinda do too, cause there's a euphoria that comes with writing. But at the same time, writing scares me dreadfully.

*sigh*

Hope Bratworse can put up with my listlessness and put up with the fact that I'll be perking up on Feb. 14th, but because of Fight Night Round 3 release and not VD.

Pride in Our Youth

You guys have to check this out.

Alberto Gonzales went to Georgetown to speak... and the law students there stood up and turned their backs to him in silent protest, and a few more wearing black hoods came in bearing this sign.

America isn't lost yet.



Don't worry guys, not enough people come to my site to hurt your site so hope you don't mind that I borrowed your image. I'm just so proud of my fellow Americans here.

Why I Live in California

Reading this article about a policewoman who had to BEG to leave her benefits to her partner, I am once again reaffirmed in my belief that California is the place for me.

Yeah yeah, I know California doesn't allow same-sex marriage yet, but at least, if I put down that Bratworse is to get all my life insurance (if I had any), this state would recognize that we are a union.

*sigh* Imagine giving over 25 years of your life to a community, and then having to BEG that community to ALLOW you to leave your benefits to the person of YOUR choice.

Oh yes, America IS the land of the free. (Hope the sarcasm dripped off my words and off your screen).

The Best Thing to Happen to a Writer

Is what I'm doing right now.

Last week, the publisher of washingtonpost.com who was involved in a live chat about their "ombudsman" (I use quotes because though that's the actual title of her job, she's actually doing the job of Republican Shill) - well Jim Brady dropped a one-liner that in the midst of all that heated talk, was the only one to heat me up.

He said that Dan Froomkin would be back at his job on Tuesday. That's today!

Me, I can't wait. I'm very very happy for Dan Froomkin and his wife and new son, but I've been jonesing for good reporting. And it seems that the only CONSISTENT place of that happening (aside from blogs that is) is Dan Froomkin's column.

As for you Washington Post people who say he's a column and thereby cannot be considered as a "reporter", I say this to you. If you can consider Deborah Howell to be an ombudsman (who is supposedly there to respond to readers and how does she do it? She throws a hissy fit and refuses to respond. You know, I'd give her several red marks on her annual review.) I can consider Dan to be a reporter. At least he cares about whether his words will come back to bite him in the ass.

So Welcome Back, Dan! I'm refreshing the damn politics page until I see your column up.

[update] IT'S UP! Gawd, I feel like such a groupie.

Bwahahahaha - he slipped in a little dig

"But McClellan's continued attempt to portray the Abramoff scandal as bipartisan doesn't exactly help his credibility on the question of White House meetings. His assertion flies in the face of the facts and is a Republican talking point espoused only by the most partisan or most credulous."

GO DAN!

Too Good Not to Pass On

Can't.... stop... laughing....

Go! Go read this.

Current Obsession

"Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?"

"The same thing we do EVERY night, Pinky, try to take over the world!"

Disconnection Doesn't Just Happen in the White House

Just got a call:

"Hello, is Mr. H.... in?"

"No, I'm sorry he's not, he'll be in later this afternoon."

"Oh, does he check his voicemail often?"

"Yes he does."

"Okay, can you tell him that So-and-So called and can you tell h -?"

"Umm, excuse me, but he checks his VOICEMAIL, not me."

"Oh, can you transfer me please?"

I did not realize that my title has become 'voicemail'.

Santa, I Know It's Early, But....

Please Please Please, can I have one, no, two of these please?

Impressed with Di Fi

Okay, I must admit right away that I am not too big of a Dianne Feinstein fan. I'm much more enamored with Barbara Boxer and her gumption, and honestly, Feinstein's ties to corporate money makes me ... shall we say, carry grains of salt with me whenever I hear her proposals.

But reading ReddHedd's account of DiFi's questions for Alito... well color me impressed.

My Type of Holiday Story

Intolerance, take that!

The WH Forgot to Add "Sir" or "Dame" to the Names

Here's the list of official recess appointees by the White House?

What is that you ask? You see, usually in the normal course of events, the President asks Congress to approve of his appointees. This is part and parcel of what is known as "checks and balances." The writers of the Constitution wanted to make sure that no ONE person could just say this guy is going to run things and that's that. (Check here to see the AP piece on this, it's even scarier than I thought.)

The purpose of the recess appointees is for emergencies that happen when Congress isn't in session - as in someone died and the position needed to be filled immediately.

However, this list? This list is what I call the Bypass List. The White House ran into snags in Congress with these appointments, and so they're bypassing Congress to make sure these people get in. (This is more like a checkmate and inbalance)

Remember, this is the team that appointed Michael Brown, just cause he was the college roommate of the former FEMA chief.

Feel safe? Feel protected? Welcome to the New America, home of King George.

Off the Wall Question #1

In high school all those many years ago, one of my teachers - in the introduction of students to teacher - asked us to describe ourselves in one word.

So! How would you describe yourself in one word?





















Now for the real off the wall question: Did you use an adjective or a noun to describe yourself? I was the ONLY person in a class of 30+ girls who answered it with a noun, not an adjective. I said I was a dreamer.

Was I the only weird one? No, don't answer that.

Want to Get Caught Up in the Abramoff Case?

I love blogs. Where else can you find such in-depth reporting as this special page about Jack Abramoff and his connections? So, when your rube of a neighbor says that oh, Jack Abramoff gave money to BOTH democrats and republicans, this is the page you sent the rubes to, okay?

Just remember this. The WHOLE idea of the K Street Lobby was to set up lobbyists with direct ties to the majority party. The intent? Why bother courting people with no power?

And who has been the majority part in Congress this past 10 years? Give you a hint: It's the party who obsesses about blue stained dress, about non-existent WMD's and comatose women.

An Aspect of Being a Female Asian I Don't Like

So to bring in the new year, Bratworse and I fired up the Sims 2 on both her computer and mine and created new characters to play (screw) with.

Well, I didn't like the direction mine were going in, so I made up new chars on a more populated neighborhood. As I was creating them with Bratworse's help, she asked, "Can I make the house too?"

My initial reaction (which is typical of any Asian females) is "Sure, why not?"

As she started to get into laying down the foundation for a huge-ass mansion, something inside of me spoke up. At first I didn't recognize it because we were taught from birth to never pay attention to those voices. But as it grew louder, I realized I was getting disgruntled, and it was coming out in passive aggressive ways towards Bratworse.

Finally I turned to her with a guilt-ridden face, "I'm sorry, you know how I said it was okay for you to build the house? Well, I didn't realize it, but it's really not okay, and I want to build it but now I'm feeling extremely guilty for even asking for it back."

Thank the stars that Bratworse recognizes this is a major part of me I'm working on. She replied with a "Don't worry about it, and stop feeling guilty!" She knows I have an extremely hard time saying no to people, and then on top of that, to voice what I actually want.

Under her breath, she muttered, "No wonder you were getting pissed off at me in the past about stupid shit like this."

I like having an understanding partner.