The Daily Rick

Dropped by the local aquarium store today and picked up some pretty Red Wag Platys for the tank to break 'er in. New Tank Syndrome will hit in a week or two wherein the tank will do its very best to kill the fish. If they make it, we'll add a few more and that'll be that. Small tanks can't handle too many fish, no matter what the tanks in the store look like.

Here are a few photos showcasing the new fish and, of course, Abe Sapien. They're all getting along swimmingly (pun intended).







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I began tackling a small project today. I've always been an aquarium enthusiast having worked in a tropical fish place a decade or so ago. I've been wanting to set up a small tank but, you know, financial blah blah blah. Well, it turns out that Lindsey's sister had a tank that she got bored with and has since abandoned and Lindsey's dad was nice enough to let me have it.

I picked the tank up from Lindsey's grandmother's place and dropped by one of the numerous tropical fish spots in Burbank to grab a couple more items.

As I was pondering this new thing, I thought it might be cool to drop an Abe Sapien action figure in there. I thought I might have to buy another one since I would still like to have a dry-land version in the apartment. Well, the action figure gods dropped by my place that day and when we got home, I found Abe on the floor with a broken arm. He'd never taken a header before (unlike like the old Hellboy figure that committed suicide every 5 hours) and I figured this was fate saying "throw this fucker in the tank."

I spent a couple hours today setting up the tank and all that stuff. Then I set about the task of figuring out how to get Abe in the tank and have it look good. The tank came with a requisite rock that I thought would be good support for Abe. I made a small hole in Abe's ass (yeah, you heard me) and used a piece of wire hanger to attach him to the rock. All this was done without adhesive of any kind since the wire stuck pretty good to Abe and the other end found a home in one of the convenient little pores on the rock.

After a bit of wrangling, I got it in there and I must say I dig it.

Here's a widescreen shot of the tank. It's just a 10-gallon. I hope to upgrade in the future.


And a couple of semi close-ups...


The bubbler I added underneath Abe does a decent job of hiding the wire hanger bit. You can see it clearly here, but with the bubbles going it's hidden fairly well.


Abe's mighty cool in there, looking as if he's floating.

I hope to design a custom backdrop for the tank as well. Haven't figured out what that'll be though. Good thing too that Lindsey has access to a laminator at her work for this.

And tomorrow, fish!

Lindsey and I may go to Priscilla's tonight or maybe a late movie. She's on vacation for the next week or so. Sweet!
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Yesterday I surprised Lindsey by taking her to the Los Angeles Arboretum, just east of Pasadena in Arcadia. It's located right across the street from the Santa Anita Race Track. The Arboretum is basically a zoo for trees. It's a massive place located on the old Rancho Santa Anita. Just about every tree from around the world can be found here. It's obvious why the place is a popular movie location for Hollywood. It's a great place to spend the day walking and not thinking too much. Lindsey and I were there a good two and a half, three hours. We actually sort of got lost at some point and the sparsely peppered maps were of no help. But we just kept walking until we found civilization again. My camera ran out of power pretty early so we didn't get to photograph some of the better sights on the property. But we still got a few.



I took about 10 or 12 or these photos before I got one that came out in focus.


The Arboretum is littered with peacocks. They're beautiful and kinda creepy.








Lindsey Whiteside: hopeless romantic.


This last photo's my favorite. We should have taken this as an omen, maybe, but nothing too horrible happened to us.

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Congratulations to Shika and Ari for their great art show yesterday. Lots of people, lots of fun.

And now, young Hellboy.

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Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have been a grown-up in the 50s. Maybe I'm in the Navy and I work in the radio room of a submarine or something.


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The Guilt Tip.

If you're a server at a restaurant and you've ever argued that people should always tip, you're wrong. Tipping is not a right. Now...I'm not against tipping. I'm only against automatic tipping. Tips should be based on the quality of service you get. One time, we went to that little restaurant at the Los Feliz golf course for lunch. The waitress we got, a typical Los Feliz hipster, was about as pleasant as a hate crime. She had the personality of a blank cd and came by to check on us once in an hour. After we all decided to tip her accordingly (one dollar) she chased after us and chastised us for tipping her horribly.

The fucking balls on this woman.

No, bitch. You don't get 15 percent of our check for 15 percent effort.

Do not get sucked in by the guilt tip. Tip accordingly.

And now, the Wonder Twins.

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