short fat guy online

    This is a test to see if I can play Flash video.  I’m interested in this because I can’t watch WMV or QuickTime files at work, but Flash video can get through.  However, I’m not too thrilled by the results of these experments.  For instance, the Fishcast video below has been compressed to a small iPoddish 320x240 window but still tallies up to an overly healthy 33.7 MBs.  Meanwhile, the original QuickTime version has a bigger 480x360 window yet still has a much smaller file size of 12.2 MBs.
    Regardless, here’s the Fish in Flash (...before he got flushed). 

Seeing as how I blogged about this a while ago, I figured I’d submit this follow-up.  Below, in video form, is a tribute to the long hard final days of Fish VI.

Fish VI seemed fine when I left him on the morning of Friday, October 21.  But he was behaving differently that night and the next morning.  He was listless and instead of just sleeping on the bottom of his vase he looked like he was flattened.  Over the nexr days I would check on him and find he had barely moved; in fact, I would think he had died, until he finally stirred when I tapped the glass.
    His water was needing cleaning but I hated to bother him.  I was afraid moving him might be too much and would finally kill him off.  I hated to think leaving him in dirty water would finish him off too.  I finally put him in fresh water on Thursday, October 27 (when the following picture was taken).  I moved him into the old cube, the original house of my first bettas.  I ended up leaving him there.

He spends so much lying on the bottom that he wouldn’t need too much room; and besides, less water meant it would be easier for him to get to food.  Another concern of mine was that it was tough to feed him.  His food would float at the surface, out of reach, until it would rot.  I managed to get some food to him most recently by gently stirring the water.  He panicked and tried to struggle against the sudden current, but at least it caused him to rise up as well as causing the food to swirl past him where he could snap it up.
    And that’s how it continues to be.  I keep expecting to find him dead, but he’s still showing signs of life.  He’s looking worse each time though.  His dorsal fin droops, his tail is curled up.  In fact, it almost looks like he has back problems since his tail fin hardly moves.  He lunges about more than swims.  I’m also noticing him listing to the side, which is a sure sign the end is nigh.  And, he’s exhibiting a mild form of the fishy dementia I’ve seen before—where, out of nowhere, they’ll suddenly burst into activity and zoom about madly—although Fish VI’s movement is obviously more limited than Fish III’s or Fish IV’s at the end.
    He’s still hanging on though.  It’s hard to believe Fish VI has lasted this long.  It would be impressive if it weren’t so sad to watch. 

I’m making another change to my database so some entries might be affected.  I stayed up till around five this morning editing half the database, so at least all entries from 2005 and 2004 should show up correctly.  Anything older than that will show up, but without a title.
    To distract you, here’s some more v’log content: a video review of my latest toy...
    [2 and a half minutes.  6.3 MBs.  QuickTime H.264.]

   The weather being almost close to decent Saturday, I remembered what I’d said last year about waiting for it to get warm again before buying a new fish.  I also remembered how my fishes’ longevity seems to correspond with the success of the Star Trek movie franchise.  I swung by the fish store this afternoon, so here he is: ladies and gentlemen, please welcome “Fish VI: The Undiscovered Country”...