Good morning <3

It soothes my heart to see some life inside my home. Bert is my therapy visje. <3 Though his tail is still in recovery, he seems to not be the fish I ordered. He seems to be of the cheaper kind, actually. I ordered a red crowntail (because I couldn’t choose the color of the veiltail, which was cheaper and I consider prettier), and he seems not to be that. He is still in recovery so I’m not sure yet, but he seems to be a veiltail. (Annoying to not get what I ordered, but veiltail is pretty.) Regardless of what he is, I love him and am glad I’ve been able to save him.

He comes from a fish farm, thus fish “fockery” basically. And given the state he was in when he arrived, likely lived in dire circumstances. If this were a betta caught in the wild, I’d feel bad for caging in a creature used to being free. But for this betta created and sheltered solely for capital gain, I’m glad I’m offering him much better living circumstances. He seems grateful for his new home. Now he’s silver spoon fed. :p

Also, I really wonder if the plant I bought at the pet shop and the plant I got from the fish farm are of the same kind. I assume it’s not the case. Furthermore, I’d like a snail (both for cleaning purposes and because then Bert too has some life inside his home) and the pet store doesn’t sell that so I guess I’ll have to look further for that given that I’d rather not order from the fish farm anymore. Anyway, my picture montage of the last few days:

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The fence making process was an “omg I just want to be done” one, so the rhombuses started to become larger and the “+”-es became “whatever, as long as he doesn’t fit through it”. But then, installing the first top bar, I ended up cutting away too much and the thing did not cover the entire width span of the aquarium anymore. So the new (and aesthetically better looking) fence I’ll be tackling with wool today, in a similar way as I made my dreamcatcher. Unfortunately they didn’t have purple wool, so it will be just black (instead of black and purple).

When I, 2 days ago, realized that I needed wool to make the fence, on the day itself I was too tired and not in the mood to be in the noisiness and eyes of the great outdoors to buy wool, so I decided to take a nap and work on the interior of Bert’s home instead.

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There was much to learn from this. First off, for the gravel, I rinsed it with cold water and stirred it with the broom of a mop, then let it soak in hot water to get potential dirt loose, stirred that again and rinsed it with cold water again.

I also crafted a weight that keeps Bert’s planted forest in development in place, with not rusting iron that I coincidentally had. I put the plants in and then threw the gravel in over it with about 25% of the aquarium filled with water. I was filling the aquarium using Bert’s mayonnaise jar to fill an empty flower pot (for no water dripping on my carpet) and filled it using the jar and a measuring cup. I filled it with ice cold water. The thermostat was off through the entire makeover process.

I put the java moss in Bert’s temporary jar to add some life to it. (The mini aquarium I ordered has gone AWOL.) The jar was filled with water from the aquarium. He hated being so limited in his movement in that jar, so I took the moss out and moved fast to end his suffering as fast as I could.

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This time, in the bucket, I stirred the gravel with my hands and used warm bath tap water. (I use the bathtub for drainage. I clean it before use every time anyway. (I do tend to keep most items of Bert and I separate, though.))

As for my carpet and the larger bucket: I make sure that the outside bottom of it is dry every time I place it on the carpet. I used two satéprikkers as chop sticks to get the plants out, letting it drip on kitchen paper as I walked to the kitchen. The sponge was used to clean the inside of the aquarium and with that unfortunately put an end to his bubble nest. I hope the next one he makes will not be close to the window of his aquarium. (If he makes a next one. Like in my advantage he’d not make a bubble nest at all because then I feel less bad for not being his wingman and getting him some bxtches. But if he doesn’t make one then that’s a sign something isn’t good with him sexually. He isn’t the strongest of fish (like his ancestors are focked through (he is estranged from his Asian roots) and his tail seems dry which I hope will improve over time) but still he should at least want to try, I guess.

Because the aquarium was empty, this time I was able to install the gravel more neatly, in such a way that there was no gravel in the plant (weighing it down). Also, I changed the way I placed his rocks now in such a way that it’s standing more steadily. It makes his cave less high, but (especially after pouring water from the grey bucket onto it to see how steady (stevig) it is) it’s now even more certain that his cave can’t collapse on him.

Pouring water into the aquarium always messes up my set-up. (It creates a huge crater in the gravel and spreads around the purple marbles.) So I use his fish net to arrange things. (I forgot a marble behind the java moss, but I think it looks cute aesthetically so I didn’t change it.)

The first time catching him with a fish net, by the way, took me like 5 minutes. I was extremely hesitant and careful, because from my guppy days I remember killing one by pressing him in between the edge of my net and the window. Bert is too fast, so cornering him in between the window and the net and then sliding it upwards is the only way to catch him.

When refilling the aquarium two days ago, I used ice cold tap water (especially because I thought/think using warm tap water adds gas to it), then let the thermostat do all the work and let my protesting Bertje in his jar out mid-process. Because I was tired of seeing him struggle and I figured the water in the jar had turned cold as well. But the cold temperature made him lose a lot of energy.

The next morning I was in doubt whether to let him adjust and maybe recover by letting him adjust to the temperature some more. But then I figured the water change really had to happen asap. Imagine being stuck in an ice cold room with some awful chemical gas in it that impacts the amount of oxygen you get. The gas would then be the primary problem.

Filling the aquarium the second time I used lukewarm tap water. For Bert to more easily adjust to the later water temperature of 26 degrees Celcius, regulated by the thermostat. Using lukewarm water also gives the thermostat less work to do.

Now, though my heart is already more at rest given that he seems to like his home and the water quality is all right, I will be working on his fence. The fence I’ll be putting on top of his aquarium for when I’m asleep or outdoors. But first, I’ll be working on my unsubscription letter.

14:51 (02:51 PM) CET

My unsubscription letter:

Antwerpen, 13 januari 2021

L.S.,

Door middel van deze e-mail wil ik graag mijn lidmaatschap van Forum voor Democratie per direct en anders per eerstvolgende vervaldatum na dagtekening opzeggen. Hieronder vindt u een overzicht van mijn gegevens:

Namen: Dominique Daniëlle Elia
Lidnummer: 66140
Wettelijk geregistreerd adres: Bachstraat 123, 2901JZ Capelle aan den IJssel, Nederland
“Tijdelijk adres”: Copernicuslaan 30G apt. 7.5, 2018 Antwerpen, België

Ook verzoek ik u de incassomachtiging per direct te beëindigen.

De reden van mijn opzegging is de inhoud van de meest recente algemene ledenvergadering. Mijn verwachting was dat een vergadering een plaats van hoor en wederhoor zou zijn. (Zoals op een forum.) Het was echter meer een soort formele afsluiting van wat van tevoren al vast stond. Twee standpunten van de partij zie ik als een fundamenteel probleem dat zo serieus is dat ik liever mijn lidmaatschap opzeg dan dat ik de rest van de standpunten wel blijf steunen.

Allereerst vind ik de politieke agenda die Forum voor Democratie voor Suriname heeft zorgwekkend. Dat het land een voormalige kolonie is wil niet zeggen dat Nederlanders dan direct het recht zouden moeten hebben om zich daar vrij te kunnen vestigen en zichzelf te kunnen verrijken. Dat staat haaks op de rustige Surinaamse cultuur (waar zelfs de armsten veel woonruimte hebben), die met dit standpunt ook niet gewaarborgd of gerespecteerd wordt. Naar mijn mening zou ieder land zelfvoorzienend en onafhankelijk moeten zijn en geen immigranten moeten importeren. Ik dacht dat Forum voor Democratie daar ook voor stond. De structurele vernietiging van de cultuur gerelateerd aan mijn etnische afkomst (ongeacht het feit dat ik alleen de Nederlandse nationaliteit heb), kan ik niet steunen.

Het andere standpunt waarom ik me liever van de partij dissocieer, is de spontane steun voor de aanleg van een hogesnelheidslijn van Flevoland naar de noordelijke provincies van Nederland, die tijdens de vergadering zelf werd voorgesteld. Ik dacht dat de partij alle vormen van Nederlandse cultuur wenste te waarborgen. Door de aanleg van een hogesnelheidslijn wordt de conservatieve rust in de noordelijke provincies van het land verstoord en ziet dat er binnen de kortste keren ook uit als het abnormaal drukke centrum van Amsterdam. Als mijn stem op Forum voor Democratie zulke zware neveneffecten met zich meebrengt, dan stem ik liever niet. (Dit stuk tekst is natuurlijk te uitgebreid voor een opzegbrief, maar ik moest dit gewoon even gedeeld hebben.)

Ik zie de bevestiging van mijn opzegging graag tegemoet. U kunt de bevestiging per e-mail versturen naar d.elia@docis.international of naar mijn “tijdelijke adres”.

Met vriendelijke groet,
Dominique D. Elia

17:55 (05:55 PM) CET

Where is my Pewdie Petje??? I just saw his last video, which is unfortunate because that makes it very unlikely to ever catch up on him reading Epictetus. So I guess I’ll be waiting for the review…? If spoiled it’s unlikely that I’ll read it.

The first time he did that, a corner to the right, he swam down extremely fast and hit his head to the gravel really hard. Like I hope he doesn’t have a concussion. 🙁 Now, when he does the movement, he “jumps” away before he hits the ground. So I guess he’s learning.

As for my unsubscription to FvD, I said that my Catthierry could end up not being my Catthierry anymore, but I actually can’t do that. He has to hold back a lot of his views to get the support of a larger audience. He even seemed surprised about the amendments that were discussed during the meeting. My unsubscription thus means nothing against him personally. (Like I expect he prefers rural areas to remain rural as well, for starters.) I just don’t want to support a party with agenda items that are in direct conflict with my own political views.

I’m postponing fence making to tomorrow. Today’s extensive update, making pineapple tea with both pineapple and apple in it (it’s the best <3_<3) and writing the unsubscription e-mail have drained all my energy. I caught up on some baby, because I didn’t watch him yesterday, and will wash some dishes and make stew now.

For yesterday, by the way, according to my meal plan, the plan was light carbs, but when doing time consuming things I prefer to cook in such a way that I have enough for more than one day. So I made egg fried rice with vegetables and bacon instead. Basically a nasi hybrid, given that I used soy sauce and the sambal trassi my mother sent me. It was delicious. <3_<3

In fact, I think I’m not even going to make stew. I’m going to feed Bert and myself and then go to bed. Good night x

On being able to talk to and not able to talk to, let me just say that we just have very different views and given that they’re high on the anti-Trump stuff I’ve never appreciated my exile more than I do now. And my apartment looks fxcking amazing.

21:00 (09:00 PM) CET