Can I keep my aquarium in my bedroom?

The important thing is a nice even level service on something strong enough to take the weight, which could well be a chest of drawers in a bedroom.  Certainly you do have to check it will take the weight you want to put on it.

You will probably be OK sleeping with the noise of a quiet filter. One should never switch the filter off for the night and then switch it on again in the morning.  And neither can you do that to the heater. The light you do switch off, and then it is a question of either remembering to switch it on in the morning or having a timer switch.

Just make sure there’s still room for the bed!

There is nothing unhealthy about sleeping next to a fishtank, if that’s what you are worried about. As long as you keep it clean. The exception is if you keep an octopus as this will wait till you go to sleep and then lift the lid, sneak out and get on your face like that thing out of alien. Just kidding.

 

My own case

I personally have been sleeping with a tank filter in the room working all night for maybe twenty years or more as indeed I did as a boy. I rarely get disturbed by the filter noise – only if it is lying against something which reverberates. If you have this problem then either use suction pads or adjust the position of the filter vis a vis the hood.  This is actually a good argument for avoiding the kind of tank sets where everything is built together.
Continue reading “Can I keep my aquarium in my bedroom?”

My betta fish is making a bubble nest, but I have no other fish, he’s the only one. Why is he making it?

He doesn’t know that he is in captivity. He doesn’t know you don’t have any intention of giving him a female. He only wants to be ready if one turns up.

Either he has worked out that he depends on you for everything, and his internal monologue is as follows:

“This big monkey gives me my food, fresh water and everything else, so when he sees I am ready to breed, he will also provide the female”.

Or else he has gone through a kind of utilitarian monologue in his brain, saying to himself:

“The existence of a desire for something predicts that it exists. I desire food when I am hungry and food comes. I desire for there to be an existence of God, and then God comes to me in my dreams. Now I desire the existence of something else, I don’t know what it is yet, but I know it must be something to do with that thing up there I got strangely driven to build out of my sticky saliva, and air. And when the thing that it is for comes along, I’ll know what it is.”

 

Continue reading “My betta fish is making a bubble nest, but I have no other fish, he’s the only one. Why is he making it?”

Do Polish people know that in the Islamic world, Poland was, and is still in some countries, named as Lehistan?

The Legend of the Slavic Brothers

“The Three Heroes” by Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926)

They certainly do know this. Usually they would spell it Lechistan, though. It hearkens back to an old legend of three Slavic brothers Lech, Czech and Rus. They were having a drink of local beer in Poznań when they realised that they each wanted to father a nation. In order not to get in each other’s way they decided Czech would go south and Rus would go east. Lech on the other hand would stay in Poznań and look after the local brewery, which bears his name to this day.

Protoplast

He regularly would become plastered on his own product, and thus became known as the “protoplasta Polaków”. Among his achievements is setting up a capital city in Gniezno, a form of the old Polish word for a nest, and from this nest the Polish nation was fledged.

Czech and Rus fathered the nations named after them, while Lech fathered the Polish nation. He became the patron saint of Polish beer, and of big moustaches, and of smashing up invaders such as Islam or Communism.

Various Lechs and Leszeks

As well as a full-sized Lech you also get diminutive ones, namely Leszek, although linguistically speaking, Leszek is a lexicalised diminutive of Lech. You can add it to your lexicon, or Lech’s icon if you happen to be honouring the Patron saint, whose saint’s day is on the 28th February with another go on 12 August if you missed the earlier one.”

Continue reading “Do Polish people know that in the Islamic world, Poland was, and is still in some countries, named as Lehistan?”

What are the best and worst things about Poland?

Well I have to admit that the air quality is reckoned to be the lowest in Europe. Earnings are still lower than they should be because we let in about a million immigrants from Ukraine pretending to be refugees. And not everyone goes to church. People could pay more attention to recycling and some laws are in need of change in order to help the charity sector and also the tax laws could do with a bit of modernisation. The foreign interests in our media and whining expats who try to make Poland like their own countries also are not great. I’m also not a great fan of closing shops on Sundays as some people go shopping to relax and the shop people can always have another day off. Business needs to be treated with a little bit more respect by government.

Other than that, no beefs, really.

Continue reading “What are the best and worst things about Poland?”

I caught my dad saving photos of women showing their cleavage. I even saw him several times peeking/taking a picture of our neighbour in front of us. Worst is we’re from a Christian family. Should I tell it to my mom and sister? What should I do?

My answer to this rather trollish question was as follows

“You can ask him yourself why he does this and whether he can look you in the eye and say it’s not something to be repented of.

Do not cause trouble in your family by sharing it on. Go direct like a man to your father.”

A cleavage-sporting cucumber, yesterday.

One Roman Catholic reader responded to my comment as if I had asked the question, and gave one of their answers

“You should explain to your Dad that if you could catch him then so could your mother of sister and suggest that he goes to the Priest to confess his sins. The Priest will be able to grant him absolution.”

Continue reading “I caught my dad saving photos of women showing their cleavage. I even saw him several times peeking/taking a picture of our neighbour in front of us. Worst is we’re from a Christian family. Should I tell it to my mom and sister? What should I do?”