indiboi.com

Tuesday night while cleaning one of my aquarium filters I inadvertently bumped the needle valve that controls the CO2 bubble rate.

Within an hour and a half of the CO2 turning on Wednesday morning nearly every fish in my 75 gallon aquarium had died.

The only survivors are a pair of blue gouramis and two corydoras catfish.

I should have checked the bubble rate as a matter of standard procedure, but did not realize that an imperceptible bump could change the needle valve so dramatically.

I’ll be restocking the aquarium, though part of me did want to just give up on the hobby. If nothing else this gives me the opportunity to keep different species of fish than I had previously. I’ve had cardinals, neons, glowlights, and harlequin raspboras as my schooling fish. I’m considering perhaps black neons or cherry barbs to take their place, though I’m not sure at this point.

My method to lose weight is working. I’m down fifteen pounds and have lost four inches from my waist.

The method, incidentally, is Wii fit in combination with cycling (though I’m still not going great distances) and most importantly tracking my food intake on livestrong.com/thedailyplate.com. I’ve not really done much of the Wii Fit over the last month, been focusing on the cycling. I’ve also apparently not given any thought to writing about my weight-loss adventures until now.

It turns out that I, officially, have a wide ass… the bones that is. I had my ass measured with the ass-o-meter! I needed to get a new saddle for the bike because of that. I’m still tweaking and making minor adjustments, but at least I’m closer than before. It was pretty terrible when things would start going numb around the two mile mark, which was what prompted new Ergon GR2 handlebar grips and the Specialized Avatar Gel saddle. I’ve only had the saddle since yesterday, but it is immediately obvious that it is an improvement over the stock saddle.

I’ve also purchased new tires, Serfas Drifters. They are also a dramatic improvement, and while I don’t particularly care much about speed, they give me approximately 3-5mph over the standard knobby ones without any increase in effort.

Provided I stay on track, I’ll be back at the weight I was immediately prior to quitting smoking. I then have another significantly smaller chunk of weight to lose in order to get to my lowest weight. Considering I was still a bit chunky then, I figure I could stand to lose even more after that. It’s just this big process. I’m not denying myself anything, not pushing myself to work out like a maniac… just making changes that I’ll be able to stick with for, well, the rest of my life. It is basically learning to appreciate moderation.