'K, that's enough crabs.

OH SHIT, CRABS!!!!

[	mood	|	irritated	]
[	music	|	Sneaky Bat Machine - Boneshaker	]

Ready comprehension. This is an incredibly useful tool. Reading comprehension allows you to follow written directions, read a book without getting completely lost and confused, and prevents you from looking like a mentally disabled ape during typed conversation. If this is such a handy skill, why is it that so few people possess it?

Case in point: My dad. He just bought a GPS so that he can map out places on the lake where he has caught a lot of fish before (expensive toy, I know, but that's beside the point.) The problem is that he can't actually use it. It comes with a very easy-to-read manual, which even has a section called "HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL", and yet he still can't understand it. All you have to do is look at the index, find what page the information you want is on, and follow the directions on that page. This is not hard. At least, it wouldn't be hard if you had the ability to comprehend what you're reading. My father, sadly, does not. This is why he gets me to help him with his stupid GPS, and why I get extremely frustrated with him. It's so easy to understand the manual that I feel like I'm helping an adult to tie their shoes. What's worse is that dad seems to think there's something "wrong" with the GPS. Oh there's something wrong with it alright; what's wrong is that you won't take the time to carefully read and understand the manual! Christ, if you just follow the directions, it will do exactly what it's supposed to do! This is why, if I ever buy something that requires assembly, I try to put it together myself before dad gets home from work and tries to help. When dad helps, we end up having to start over and redo everything at least once.

Another prime example of where reading comprehension would come in handy is on the Fish Forums. Since this is the "friendliest forum around" I am careful to avoid insulting people as thoroughly as they sometimes deserve to be insulted. In one thread someone severely overdosed their fish on ich medication and said they thought the water looked too blue (well yeah, you used 10 times the amount you should have) so they changed some of the water out. Someone replied:

"you have to put the ick cure back that you to[ok] out! add a few more drops (if you didnt already) cause your not suppost to do a water change that early!"

...And it had already been stated that the medication came in tablet form, not liquid. I told the original thread starter that they had used too much and that changing some of the water was the right thing to do, and corrected the above post that the medication was in tablet form. The same person as above then replied:

":P oops just read it :P hehe sorry... well then crush some tablet up to replace the tablet you took out ;)"

Great job catching the bit about it being tablet, now how about realising that you don't replace the medicine you took out when there was too much to begin with. Again, I corrected and told them the original poster said he had used one whole tablet in a 1 gallon bowl and that one tablet is made to treat 10 gallons.

"i didnt know he put a whole tablet in there 0.o wow"

Well I can understand why you wouldn't have known; he only said it in the very first post. It's easy to miss something that blatantly obvious.

Seriously, what happens to people like this then they get out in the real world? What happens when they have kids? How can someone like this function without harming themselves or others??
I think the obvious answer to that last question is that they can't.
I mean, I have my moments where I space out and misread something, but those moments are few and far between, and I usually catch my mistake before I make a complete idiot of myself. This is the point where I just thank God that I was lucky enough to be born with a working intellect rather than a skull full of pudding.

[	mood	|	nerdy	]
[	music	|	Daler Mehndi - Ho Jayegi Balle Balle	]

I'm so nerdy that I just spent several hours mapping out a trihybrid cross punnett square and evaluating the results. I actually enjoy this stuff. If nothing else, this reassures me that I've chosen the correct career path. I'm a biology major with concentration in genetics planning on becoming a genetics researcher (though in what field I haven't yet decided... hopefully it involves fish.)
Take a look at my amazing nerdiness. The explanation behind this horrible monster I've created is that I was thinking of breeding a crowntail doubletail plakat betta, since I've never actually seen one, but the combination is possible in theory. I would breed a crowntail with a doubletail plakat, then breed siblings from that spawn together (the resulting fry would be phenotypically just regular deltatail bettas, possibly combtail, but they would carry the gene for all three traits). The link is an evaluation of the spawn produced by breeding those siblings.

[	mood	|	ecstatic	]
[	music	|	Josh Groban - All Improvviso Amore	]

I went to the betta show this weekend, and it was AWESOME. I got to meet wuvmybetta from the Fish Forums, and she was really nice. Apparently another forum member, FalconStorm, was also there but neither of us recognised the other, haha. I may have even talked to her and didn't know it.

The show was smaller than I was expecting, but also a whole lot of fun. It was like a nerd convention where a lot of people knew one-another and everyone felt connected by their common interest. Not too formal and fun for everyone. There was an interesting slideshow and presentation about wild species, which has resulted in my being interested in mouthbrooders. The auction was the best part though, because everyone was waiting excitedly for the fish they had written down to come up for bid, not knowing if anyone else was interested in it or not. Even when two people were bidding against one-another it was all good-natured; no hard feelings. A lot of the show fish weren't for auction because there's a big convention coming up that a lot of them will be showing in, but out of those who were up for auction, I got the two males I really wanted, three beautiful females, and a pair of gorgeous wild-caught Betta imbellis. Megan got a wild-caught hybrid (mostly splendens) plakat male, an incredible rainbow male, and a lone male imbellis. She also got a female Betta smaragdina that someone else won but gave to her as a female for the wild-caught hybrid.

Another cool thing was that there was a guy named Marc (I think) from Singapore who had flown in to present some fish from Singapore and Thailand and help judge. I think he was there in part because he was working to become a certified judge. He had a lot to say about the history of some of the gorgeous fish he brought with him, and that spiced up the auction and added interest.
Next time there's a show (which may be as soon as this fall) I may try to go and help with getting things set up. I can tell it was a lot of work to organise all the fish and keep things running smoothly. Of course, it would help if I lived closer to Dallas.

[	mood	|	confused	]
[	music	|	E Nomine - Fundamentum	]

I wish I would stop having those weird dreams where my teeth chip or fall out for no reason, but I have to dispose of the random skeleton in my passenger seat before I can drive to the dentist so no one suspects me of murder.

Alan Rickman is usually there too, but he never notices me.