OP
OP
Oof.
What are you doing today?
- Thread starter connorlindeman
- Start date
Lanpenn
Fish Fanatic
It seems that my brine shrimp is doing better, at least for now (okay, I believe that it is the 4th time trying). Without the formalities of academic research (even because is not possible...), I am trying to culture microorganisms in another container (about 3.4 liters). In this container, I added so much rice bran. The water from this container is so cloudy, with color tonalities between yellow and green. By smelling, it is a not-so-pleasant odor, but I don't know if is hydrogen sulfide. When I mix the water, indeed the smell turns extremely unpleasant. This is probably due to the gas liberated by the anaerobic bacteria. I will try to take some pictures.
Then, I started adding a little of this cloudy water to my brine shrimp culture (why not try to feed my natural food?). After around 1 liter was added, the culture turned cloudy and the brine shrimp culture began to smell like a swamp (although far better than the hydrogen sulfide smell), curiously disappearing after a few days. There are still couples mating (ovoviviparous) but I'm not certain about the artemia's future.
Although there are several articles showing rice bran as a good feed for brine shrimp, I have been trying here and the results don't so fine... maybe because I didn't treat? I don't have any idea of how I would get defatted rice bran, since I suppose that the solution I get by squeezing the soaked rice bran in the coffee filter is enough. I also found out how the benthic algae protect water from direct sun, and it is a very interesting discovery for me.
My betta is still eating tiny BSFL... he must be missing the lovely shrimp.
Then, I started adding a little of this cloudy water to my brine shrimp culture (why not try to feed my natural food?). After around 1 liter was added, the culture turned cloudy and the brine shrimp culture began to smell like a swamp (although far better than the hydrogen sulfide smell), curiously disappearing after a few days. There are still couples mating (ovoviviparous) but I'm not certain about the artemia's future.
Although there are several articles showing rice bran as a good feed for brine shrimp, I have been trying here and the results don't so fine... maybe because I didn't treat? I don't have any idea of how I would get defatted rice bran, since I suppose that the solution I get by squeezing the soaked rice bran in the coffee filter is enough. I also found out how the benthic algae protect water from direct sun, and it is a very interesting discovery for me.
My betta is still eating tiny BSFL... he must be missing the lovely shrimp.
Truth: I stayed in Queens during the bad years. Saw a car with Quebec plates parked. Passed by next day still there , up on blocks -wheels/tires gone...
Yesterday I was in a pretty foul temper most of the day, and I'm not human in the mornings until I've showered and ingested those first two cups of coffee.
Brief backstory: Parents owned this house and the same landline number for decades now, and they've been on the scammer lists for scam phone calls for many, many years, despite the fact they'd never once fallen for any of the scams. But I have a hefty dislike for scammers due to the way they target the elderly, the vulnerable, and will rob an elderly person of their life savings if they possibly can.
I sometimes enjoy watching scam-baiting videos - Kitboga is a great one, genuinely hilarious guy, who raises a lot of awareness about the various tech support/Amazon/IRS demanding gift cards etc scams that are out there. I used to warn my folks about the common ones, and always to check with me if they were concerned about a phone call. I've wasted the time of FB romance scammers before, just copy/pasting the odd poem or lines from their own scripts back to them will often keep them hooked for ages. But haven't done that in years, since I avoid FB whenever possible anyway.
But while I've never gone full on hunting to scam bait them, they'd sometimes ring almost daily. If I was in the mood and not immediately needed, sometimes I'd have fun wasting some scammers time. Pretend to be an elderly woman and jabber on at them as they try to convince me to let them access my computer remotely (never, ever do this! Not without a virtual machine and some real tech skills, anyway), until they give up out of frustration. Or I'll play along until revealing I know the scam they're trying to pull, whatever. I happen to know a few words of Hindi, but only the swearwords, sadly. Occasionally I might try earnestly asking them if they ever feel guilty, stealing money from frail old people, what their mum would think if she knew, that kind of thing, but it rarely works, and it's just sad, so pretending to go along with it for a while before letting them know that I'm not actually an 80 year old woman who made millions breeding rare cats is usually more entertaining.
Scammer yesterday caught me way too early in the morning for me to be amused, so I only acted like an ancient cackling crone for a minute or two before revealing I know why he wants me to "be in front of my computer", that I'm not falling for a washing machine insurance scam. He's immediately furious and cusses me out in Hindi, so I return the favour, and that only makes him angrier. Not ready to disconnect the landline yet, so he called me 4-5 more times yesterday, usually he said nothing, just could hear the call centre chatter in the background. But meant I watched a couple of Kitboga vids yesterday for the first time in a while, which made me laugh and put me in a better mood!
I expected him to keep calling again today, so when the phone rang at 8am, I figured it was bound to be him, no one else calls before business hours like that, and sure enough, it was him, but different fake name, different scam, obviously same scammer. So I just leaned back with a heavy sigh and said a bad word in Hindi, almost under my breath. Anticipating another annoying day of hang ups from this dude until he gets distracted/bored/fired.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?" Uh oh. Scammer rage.
So I switched tones completely.
"Oh! No, I wasn't saying anything to you, I was talking to my cat. I named him *bad word in Hindi* He's so cute! Come here, little *bad bad Hindi word!*" and scammer was so taken aback, he burst out laughing. Which made me laugh.
He's called back twice since then, lunchtime I was busy and said "I'm sorry, I'm in an appointment now, you'll have to call back later, George. Love ya, bye bye byeeeee" and have to briefly explain to St Peter's Hospice person why I'm telling a tech support scammer I love them, haha. Yesterday he was ringing back to back just to be annoying, but today he did wait for a few hours after I said I was busy.
Now he just called to say it's the end of his shift, and he'll speak to me tomorrow. Quite friendly and happy sounding, I think I've intrigued him by being furious and nasty yesterday, then just matter of fact but silly today. He's not actively trying to scam me now, and when I said "finishing this early? Although, I don't know what time it is in India right now", he told me the right time, said he's going home now, and I the background noise in this scam call centre was super loud with different scammers shouting at their victims, so I told him his coworkers are really noisy given it's so late, that they need to calm down.
I think I made a scammer go from loathing me, to falling in love with me, within 24 hours. New record.
Brief backstory: Parents owned this house and the same landline number for decades now, and they've been on the scammer lists for scam phone calls for many, many years, despite the fact they'd never once fallen for any of the scams. But I have a hefty dislike for scammers due to the way they target the elderly, the vulnerable, and will rob an elderly person of their life savings if they possibly can.
I sometimes enjoy watching scam-baiting videos - Kitboga is a great one, genuinely hilarious guy, who raises a lot of awareness about the various tech support/Amazon/IRS demanding gift cards etc scams that are out there. I used to warn my folks about the common ones, and always to check with me if they were concerned about a phone call. I've wasted the time of FB romance scammers before, just copy/pasting the odd poem or lines from their own scripts back to them will often keep them hooked for ages. But haven't done that in years, since I avoid FB whenever possible anyway.
But while I've never gone full on hunting to scam bait them, they'd sometimes ring almost daily. If I was in the mood and not immediately needed, sometimes I'd have fun wasting some scammers time. Pretend to be an elderly woman and jabber on at them as they try to convince me to let them access my computer remotely (never, ever do this! Not without a virtual machine and some real tech skills, anyway), until they give up out of frustration. Or I'll play along until revealing I know the scam they're trying to pull, whatever. I happen to know a few words of Hindi, but only the swearwords, sadly. Occasionally I might try earnestly asking them if they ever feel guilty, stealing money from frail old people, what their mum would think if she knew, that kind of thing, but it rarely works, and it's just sad, so pretending to go along with it for a while before letting them know that I'm not actually an 80 year old woman who made millions breeding rare cats is usually more entertaining.
Scammer yesterday caught me way too early in the morning for me to be amused, so I only acted like an ancient cackling crone for a minute or two before revealing I know why he wants me to "be in front of my computer", that I'm not falling for a washing machine insurance scam. He's immediately furious and cusses me out in Hindi, so I return the favour, and that only makes him angrier. Not ready to disconnect the landline yet, so he called me 4-5 more times yesterday, usually he said nothing, just could hear the call centre chatter in the background. But meant I watched a couple of Kitboga vids yesterday for the first time in a while, which made me laugh and put me in a better mood!
I expected him to keep calling again today, so when the phone rang at 8am, I figured it was bound to be him, no one else calls before business hours like that, and sure enough, it was him, but different fake name, different scam, obviously same scammer. So I just leaned back with a heavy sigh and said a bad word in Hindi, almost under my breath. Anticipating another annoying day of hang ups from this dude until he gets distracted/bored/fired.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?" Uh oh. Scammer rage.
So I switched tones completely.
"Oh! No, I wasn't saying anything to you, I was talking to my cat. I named him *bad word in Hindi* He's so cute! Come here, little *bad bad Hindi word!*" and scammer was so taken aback, he burst out laughing. Which made me laugh.
He's called back twice since then, lunchtime I was busy and said "I'm sorry, I'm in an appointment now, you'll have to call back later, George. Love ya, bye bye byeeeee" and have to briefly explain to St Peter's Hospice person why I'm telling a tech support scammer I love them, haha. Yesterday he was ringing back to back just to be annoying, but today he did wait for a few hours after I said I was busy.
Now he just called to say it's the end of his shift, and he'll speak to me tomorrow. Quite friendly and happy sounding, I think I've intrigued him by being furious and nasty yesterday, then just matter of fact but silly today. He's not actively trying to scam me now, and when I said "finishing this early? Although, I don't know what time it is in India right now", he told me the right time, said he's going home now, and I the background noise in this scam call centre was super loud with different scammers shouting at their victims, so I told him his coworkers are really noisy given it's so late, that they need to calm down.
I think I made a scammer go from loathing me, to falling in love with me, within 24 hours. New record.
Lanpenn
Fish Fanatic
Let's see how are my shrimps going? Ok, let's see.
Probably a mix of cyanobacteria, algae and other microorganisms...
Since it was becoming too hot, I moved the recipient to a place that takes less direct sunlight.
Note how the algae mat acts as a wall against direct sunlight.
Scammers are a terrible pest. When I was living in the United States, since I was looking for a job, I usually attended the calls (even that the fact that I had serious difficulty for listening to calls in English), but most of them were scams. Since this pest is almost as successful as ants, I installed TrueCaller and, then, I receive calls only from relevant people (here in Brazil we mostly use WhatsApp). Although I love to talk to the public and present things, I hate to attend (and to do) calls.
Probably a mix of cyanobacteria, algae and other microorganisms...
Since it was becoming too hot, I moved the recipient to a place that takes less direct sunlight.
Note how the algae mat acts as a wall against direct sunlight.
Scammers are a terrible pest. When I was living in the United States, since I was looking for a job, I usually attended the calls (even that the fact that I had serious difficulty for listening to calls in English), but most of them were scams. Since this pest is almost as successful as ants, I installed TrueCaller and, then, I receive calls only from relevant people (here in Brazil we mostly use WhatsApp). Although I love to talk to the public and present things, I hate to attend (and to do) calls.
WhistlingBadger
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Here's what I'll be doing this weekend. If anyone is passing through western Wyoming, do stop by and say hi. And bring your dancing shoes.
(and yes, that's really the name of our band, and yes, it made sense at the time
)
(and yes, that's really the name of our band, and yes, it made sense at the time
)
Ferb! I know what we’re going to do today!Here's what I'll be doing this weekend. If anyone is passing through western Wyoming, do stop by and say hi. And bring your dancing shoes.
(and yes, that's really the name of our band, and yes, it made sense at the time
View attachment 338667
Aka “babe please take me on a road trip to Wyoming”
Did a thing 
Just finished all preps for this coming Sunday's AquaTerra Event. All small containers labeled and all I need has been put together. So, tomorrow evening I only have to catch those livebearers.
Lanpenn
Fish Fanatic
Okay, I didn't tell you, but I went to the test for pedagogical methods (trying to get a job as a Biology teacher). For several weeks, I didn't continue my journal, so I need to think about writing...
Regarding this exam, the time for teaching is up to 20 min (up to or should be at exactly 20 minutes?). The class I gave took about 12 minutes, a thing that bothered me. Several people have registered for the civil service exam, however, only me and another person arrived before 8 AM (however, I don't know if other people arrived later). Since I was punctual, I finished first. Before starting my class, it was a lottery of subjects: Nervous system, Hereditary laws, and Respiration (fermentation, photosynthesis, and aerobic respiration). I had to teach about the Hereditary. If I talked more about how it was Europe in the 19th century, maybe my class would be longer...
My Betta's tank:
Regarding this exam, the time for teaching is up to 20 min (up to or should be at exactly 20 minutes?). The class I gave took about 12 minutes, a thing that bothered me. Several people have registered for the civil service exam, however, only me and another person arrived before 8 AM (however, I don't know if other people arrived later). Since I was punctual, I finished first. Before starting my class, it was a lottery of subjects: Nervous system, Hereditary laws, and Respiration (fermentation, photosynthesis, and aerobic respiration). I had to teach about the Hereditary. If I talked more about how it was Europe in the 19th century, maybe my class would be longer...
My Betta's tank:
Lanpenn, you are one smart cookie. And that room with your betta tank is cool-
Lanpenn
Fish Fanatic
Thank you, although I never heard or read about the expression "smart cookie".
This was one of the last pictures of how my culture is going:
There are more couples as well as nauplii. Hope they do success on the fair I will present this week. Still trying to figure out about best methods of feeding them.
Lanpenn
Fish Fanatic
Okay, unfortunately, I didn't pass the test. The person who passed got a score much better than me and... he is already a teacher, probably for several years, while my best thing was to give practical classes to teens, involving my brine shrimp (once again). The only way I could pass the test was if the competitor also missed the day (only me and he went to the test day!) and I got a slightly better score. Unpleasant things I want to detail in my journal. I didn't believe in any "fate", even that it may be possible to get a "good side"...
Despite this unpleasant thing, today I presented my products at one of Brazil's most important agricultural shows, the Femagri. I had to commute for about 63.25 miles (round trip). El Niño remained, the car without air-conditioner (and windows closed to save fuel, although with the vents working) and my presentation would go from 11:30 h - to 14:15 h.
Since I have some experience packing live aquatic organisms, I did the same for the lovely shrimp. Almost ready for the trip, I realized that the bag was leaking... leaking salt water, you know. So, I placed several bags to mitigate the problem, by "dressing" them in the main bag with the creatures, because I was in a hurry and I hate arriving late (despite this being common in Brazil). Besides them, I also brought my BSFL with some compost. Despite terrible roads (as well as speed bumps) and the car jumping thanks to its 1980s suspension, the poor creatures were alive when I arrived at the show (and they were alive when I returned to my "home" town, being transferred to the culture again). After some hard work by bringing the box under the powerful Sun, I arrived at the stand and arranged my work.
The thing was simple, without any sophistication (no air pump, just an old container with water from my cultivation). However, several people became curious about artemia, from different ages. Some took pictures of the brine shrimp, and others also asked me about what would be these so exotic crustaceans. I tried to summarize. Most of the time I said, "These are artemia, small crustaceans that live in salt water and are used as live food for ornamental fish". The youngest was the most interested in the animals, by far. Despite the place being extremely hot and some challenges, I think that it was a productive thing to do. Okay, there were pretty girls (far better than Tinder), but maybe they were more interested in agricultural machines than my simple Anostraca. The BSFL, on the other hand, caused repulsion (one thing that I expected...).
Despite this unpleasant thing, today I presented my products at one of Brazil's most important agricultural shows, the Femagri. I had to commute for about 63.25 miles (round trip). El Niño remained, the car without air-conditioner (and windows closed to save fuel, although with the vents working) and my presentation would go from 11:30 h - to 14:15 h.
Since I have some experience packing live aquatic organisms, I did the same for the lovely shrimp. Almost ready for the trip, I realized that the bag was leaking... leaking salt water, you know. So, I placed several bags to mitigate the problem, by "dressing" them in the main bag with the creatures, because I was in a hurry and I hate arriving late (despite this being common in Brazil). Besides them, I also brought my BSFL with some compost. Despite terrible roads (as well as speed bumps) and the car jumping thanks to its 1980s suspension, the poor creatures were alive when I arrived at the show (and they were alive when I returned to my "home" town, being transferred to the culture again). After some hard work by bringing the box under the powerful Sun, I arrived at the stand and arranged my work.
The thing was simple, without any sophistication (no air pump, just an old container with water from my cultivation). However, several people became curious about artemia, from different ages. Some took pictures of the brine shrimp, and others also asked me about what would be these so exotic crustaceans. I tried to summarize. Most of the time I said, "These are artemia, small crustaceans that live in salt water and are used as live food for ornamental fish". The youngest was the most interested in the animals, by far. Despite the place being extremely hot and some challenges, I think that it was a productive thing to do. Okay, there were pretty girls (far better than Tinder), but maybe they were more interested in agricultural machines than my simple Anostraca. The BSFL, on the other hand, caused repulsion (one thing that I expected...).
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