Betta Battle Pt. 2

I finally managed to get a decent picture of my new fish!!! He doesn't stop moving around long enough for me to get a good shot so I had to film him and extract a picture that way. Nothing but trouble this one, huh?

Anyhow... introducing... Romeo!

Betta Battle

For those of you who don’t know, I am obsessed with Betta fish (Siamese fighting fish). I have consistently had two of them at a time for the last 4 years (each usually lives about 2.5 years on average) and I had a couple previously as well.

A couple of weeks ago, one of them died after a LONG battle with something I could never really identify. Jack seemed to be sick since the day I got him a year and a half ago (when the last Pirates of the Caribbean came out – hence the name). A couple of days after he died, after sanitizing his tank and preparing it for a new fish, I went to a pet store that I do not normally buy from although it is the same chain I go to. They have 48 hour guarantees on their fish and unfortunately this fish barely made it 36 hours! Long story short, the conditions they had him in and the conditions I put him in (the right ones) shocked his system. Anyhow, they told me that I could bring him back but I couldn’t get there for a number of days due to a knee injury preventing me from driving. So what did they tell me to do? Put him in the freezer! Yes, that’s right… in a bag, in the freezer! No refund without a fish in hand; don’t even get me started! Anyhow, then the person I talked to on the phone wasn’t there that night as he said he would be, naturally, so I had to have a battle as to why I was there four days after the fish died. Eventually they agreed to give me a credit note instead of a refund and I left without buying a new fish from them because I didn’t want to go through all of that again.

Fast forward to this past weekend… I go to the shop I usually get my fish from and find the most beautiful Betta I have ever seen – no joke. I asked a sales person how much he is and he said that since he was a “show fish” he was twice the price. It was “Black Friday” weekend so I thought I would get a discount but no, he was twice the usual price. I didn’t care, I wanted that fish! As I was debating for a second, someone walked by and asked me if I was buying him. YES! Decision made, he is mine! He kept walking and said “enjoy!” as he walked away. I asked the sales guy if he could hang onto him for me for a minute because I wanted to look at the others too because I was debating getting a second fish from them (yes, even though I had one at home still). He said sure… and not a minute later he came to tell me that another guy sold my fish! I turned around and, sure enough, he was in a bag ready to go! I looked at who was buying it and it was the same guy who told me to enjoy! After a minute of protest he let me have him and my sales guy joked that we were in the cutthroat world of Betta fish! No kidding! I took my fish, went to the cash and was then told they won’t accept my credit note since another store issued it! At this point, I didn’t care; I just wanted to get out of there!!!

It is now two days later and I am happy to report that the new fish is very happy in his new home. Due to the drama that ensued over this fish I debated calling him Shakespeare, but decided on Romeo specifically instead! He was worth the battle! Now, if only I could get a decent picture of him!

Benefit Of The Doubt (Dr. Phil)

Dr. Phil McGraw has written a new book titled “Life Code: The New Rules for Winning in the Real World”. I have not read the book yet but I did watch the episode yesterday where he introduces the book for the first time and I have to say I am intrigued. His website describes the book as follows: “It’s time to learn how the world really works, not how you wish it worked, not how it should work, but how it really works. If you’ve been doing everything 'by the book', and your life still isn’t where you want it be, you’ve been reading the wrong book.”

On his show he covered one topic that struck a chord with me – benefit of the doubt. The show was taped so I sat down and typed this verbatim. These are not my words, they are Dr. Phil's.

“The world has changed, so the rules have to change right along with it…

There’s something we’ve been taught that just doesn’t hold anymore. What my parents taught me, what your parents taught you, just doesn’t work anymore; at least not like it once did… benefit of the doubt. We teach people that it’s a good thing to do, that it’s the Christian thing to do; it’s the positive thing to do to give our fellow man the benefit of the doubt. Why would you do that? Why would you give somebody you don’t know the benefit of the doubt? If we said “Ok, here’s what I want you to do... go out in your life and JUDGE everybody negatively” you’d go “I’m not going to do that”. Then WHY would you go out and judge them POSITIVELY?

How about we don’t do either? 

How about we don’t give people the benefit of the doubt? 

How about we just collect information and make an INFORMED decision in our lives instead of giving people the benefit of the doubt?

I don’t know who made this up or sold it but it doesn’t work anymore… but there is a rule you’ve got to have. You’ve got to LISTEN TO YOU.”

Most people I know either love or hate Dr. Phil, but think about this for a minute. Don’t think about WHO said it, but WHAT was said. Personally, I couldn’t agree more!

I think I might have another book to buy!

Friendship

“It’s been said that everlasting friends can go long periods of time without speaking and never question the friendship. These types of friends pick up like they just spoke yesterday, regardless of how long it has been or how far away they live and they don’t hold grudges. They understand that life is busy…
but you will ALWAYS love them.” 

I completely agree with the quote above and I have a number of friendships that seem to carry themselves that way, but sometimes I can’t help but question a few of them that are like this. There are some “friends” that I am sure I could call right now and we could carry on as though we just spoke yesterday when we haven’t talked for weeks or months but when I really think about it, it feels like that is only because we don’t really have anything between us; like, we have a very superficial connection. In some cases I think it is because I may have misjudged or misinterpreted some of those relationships and I am hoping to work those out over time, one way or another, but in other cases I just know that I was wrong about the friendship altogether and now it’s time to walk away.

I think it started when I realized that, in many cases, I was the only one who was actually making any sort of effort. I would call, I would e-mail, I would text, I would plan and I would “chase”. And, often times, I would also be the one getting “stood-up” and I would be the only one who felt bad about it!

I have confronted a few of those people over the last little while and some of them were genuinely sorry and have been making more of an effort lately. One person admitted that they are simply unreliable and not to take it personally, but promised to try harder and definitely has been which I really appreciate! And others, well, as one now former friend once told me when confronted: “we never really were that close and we were only friends because it was convenient at the time”… only I had apparently missed that memo over the five years we were joined at the hip! Live and learn, right?

And, no, I am not just pointing the finger at others! I realize that in a couple of cases I am also to blame and I am trying to rectify that now as well! See? I CAN look in the mirror and see my OWN faults!

I guess as I get older I feel more interested in quality and not quantity when it comes to relationships with others. I would rather have a small handful of amazing, close and deep friendships than a hundred superficial ones. Who has time for that? Some of those friendships have developed over a long period of time and others are more recent, but I value each and every one of them very much!

Oh, and to my BFF… I will ALWAYS love you, no matter what! And we need to make a phone date soon because I miss you!

Obama Wins Second Term!

"I wouldn't be the man I am today
without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years ago" 

Barack Obama

Yay America! You did good! Yes, I realize that I am Canadian, but I am far more interested in American politics for some reason... well, their elections at least. 

And, while I am on the topic of elections let's talk about Donald Trump for a second. You know... throughout the end of the race he was nothing but a BULLY; offering millions of dollars to a charity of Obama's choice if he produces even MORE documents proving he isn't from Kenya! Get over it already! Honestly, in a way I wish Obama would have given the proof just so he could have chosen an anti-bullying program to donate the money to! And you gotta love Mark Cuban... his response to this nonsense? He offered a million dollars aid to hurricane Sandy victims if Trump would shave his head! Now that was funny! Ah... celebrities and politics... at least they make it entertaining!

So, Obama won, Trump had another public meltdown about everything (courtesy of Twitter), and the world goes on...