It has a been a tumultuous winter since I last updated my LiveJournal, during which I let my subscription lapse. Now that Spring is here, I've found the few precious moments needed to reactivate my paid subscription and start writing again. More to follow.

I'm not going to audition for the Coast Guard. I wish I could, but the cons outweigh the pros at the moment. I guess I'll have to wait around for another Army premiere band spot, and hope to win that. I think I lost my chance to be clarinet instructor at the School of Music. I won't get into the reasons why, because honestly I don't know... but I hope it's for the best.

On a happier note, the 1812 concert tonight was a smash. I got to play principal again! I haven't done that in a couple of concerts. It was amazing. I think I had 10 or 12 really exposed notes tonight, but I looked forward to them the entire time. It's one of the wonderful things about being principal... I get to share part of myself when I play solos. It's not an egoistical thing, nor an egotistical one, for that matter. It has a lot less to do with myself than it does with the music I'm sharing with people. I don't get that when I'm playing second. I'm back to playing second next week. It's going to be sad. I work so hard for so many years to get a job and hopefully be principal somewhere, but working hard for something and deserving it doesn't seem to matter to the right people at the moment. I won't get into my opinions on all of that... "professional development."

It was sad when the concert was over. It's too anticlimactic. I honestly perform to the best of my ability, and if things go well, I have the most amazing time... I'm truly happy for part of my day. I almost don't want to leave... I want to stand around or go out for drinks or something. Sometimes, rarely, but sometimes, somebody is nice and says something good about my playing. Again, it's not about me... it's about hoping somebody else enjoyed the music as much as I did. Those kinds of comments really touch me more than anything.

So really, I hate going "home" after a concert. It's where I'm happy, so of course I don't want to leave after a concert. Then I eventually leave and have to walk through a police station and crawl back up to my attic, where I don't know if our CSM has been creeping around our rooms looking for reasons to go all BCT on us. It's really depressing. I'm an adult. I hate the barracks. It's so demotivating, it destroys whatever good I felt during the concert. I know how I feel is under my control, so I get over it... but that is tiring. When will I not have the energy to put up with this crap any longer?

So. I probably won't be where I could be the most useful and have the most impact on the military. I still live in a barracks. I haven't won a premiere band spot yet. This things add up to one big fat ETS.

I'm getting my new queen mattress set tomorrow. I already have a sheet set ready to go. I'm picking up the bed on Saturday. I can't wait. Two good things this week: Principal on 1812 concert, and a new bed. I'll stop crying now.

I've thought about this quality a lot since joining the Army, though I can't say I've had any fantastic revelations, despite my seemingly concentrated efforts to do so. In the past few weeks we've recited the Army Values roughly a million times, and I've had plenty of opportunity to think about morality and values. Not only my own, but those of everybody around me.

The Army's take on it:
Integrity:
Do what is right, legally and morally.

Dictionary.com's definition:
ingtegrity:
1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
2. the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.
3. a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition

Doing what is right. Adherance to moral and ethical principles. Honesty. An unimpaired condition. The state of being whole or undiminished.

Do I have integrity? I hardly care whether or not the Army believes I do or not, but for the time being, I need to consider the Army's point of view in addition to my own and whether or not they match. I believe I had integrity before I joined the Army; integrity is nothing new to me and it's nothing that I needed the Army to spoon feed me by any means.

I'll start off by saying that I feel like an asshole here at WLC. Not because I'm particularly mean to people, because I'm not, but because every morning I feel I have to wake up and play a part which is not me at all. I have to get up and I change the way I talk, I say things I normally wouldn't say, and I generally try to fit in by pretending to be something I'm not. I know people can tell that I'm pretending. I have to behave the way I did in middle school and high school, when I was a lot less developed as a person. I'm a LARP. Live-Action-RolePlay.

I play by the rules, I do as I'm told and I try my best to meet written standards. My main focus is to ride through as unnoticed as possible and get everything done so in two weeks I can get back home and come a lot closer to being myself and doing my job the way I'm used to doing it. I suppose in this way I adhere to moral and ethical principles - I follow the rules.

The other part of the longer Dictionary.com definition is the part that bothers me. "A sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition." I don't feel sound or unimpaired at all. "The state of being whole, entire, or undiminished." I'm not whole, I'm not entire, and I'm not undiminished. I have to put a damper on myself to remain an unnoticed blotch in the field of ACU print. I have to pretend to be something that I am not; I'm really bad at it and I can't help but feel that it's obvious that I'm a liar. The two things I can tolerate the least are hypocrites and liars. I'm a liar. I have no integrity, in this case.

It wouldn't usually bother me, but the Army has forced me into a retrograde spiral into my past, a past where I lied to myself and everybody else, where I tried so hard to be something I wasn't. It's forced me into a less mature version of myself, and that bothers me. So many years, so many problems... so much depression and so much work to get to where I was just before I joined the Army. I was proud of myself, unashamed and ready for anything. Now I'm struggling to move forward in my personal development, and it's difficult. I'd forgotten just how hard it is to wade through shame.

As the people immediately around me get to know me, the less I feel I have to fit into any sort of mold, so that helps. It shouldn't take that much effort, though. I wish I could walk to somebody and have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of. I wish I could walk up to somebody without feeling diminished or impaired and able to keep my integrity.

I suppose I should look to Nietzsche for guidance in my current situation: "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." I should probably add my own thought: What doesn't kill me, I throw into my ever-deepening well of cynicism.

So this second week was a lot easier than the first. It was just routine garbage, though it started out kinda crazy on Monday with some retarded inspection by somebody high ranking. It was retarded because they had a preinspection... for a preinspection... for the inspection. That was after being inspected on Saturday. Saturday night, on which I had to stay up late fixing my own broken ceiling and broken ceiling tiles. Talk about bullshit. But that's over now.

Wednesday I gave my "class" on treating an open chest wound. Not too bad, and actually the content nor my familiarity with the subject mattered, it was all about how to deliver a class the Army way. So I was nervous for nothing. I could've had some cheap slides with whatever crap on them, and as long as I followed my little script and got all the checkmarks on my evaluation, I would've passed. Of course, I tried harder than that an actually gave an interesting class, I think. Good for me. I passed with a 90, the ten points off were because I didn't give a written quiz and because I didn't take written accountability. Somebody else in the class got 100. They didn't give a written quiz nor did they take written accountability. I wonder why the different standard? Life isn't fair, especially not at WLC, so I'm not going to question it, but it does irk me just a little bit.

Friday was a run day in PT, and that's the day we had to do our PT class evaluation. My partner and I did alright, I'm sure we passed, I just don't know what my score was exactly. Again, as long as it's a GO, I'm passing and I'm getting out in two weeks. Imagine me giving unit PT if you want a good laugh. I've managed to avoid calling cadence since I've been here, and I plan on keeping it that way for the rest of the time here.

Right now I feel fantastic, and I know why. I started a second ago by listening to Bach's Great Fugue in G minor, then I moved on to the first movement of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, now I've been looping his Festive Overture... it's so exhilirating. It has to be one of my favorite pieces of music. Bach, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky have to be my favorite composers of all time.

On a slightly less postive note: I haven't checked, but I think I'm gaining weight here. I hate DFAC food, and I hate being limited to eating three times a day, especially because it's not the best thing to skip a meal here because it's very possible that I won't be on pass to get something to eat later to make up for it. I'd rather nibble on stuff all day, sort of like nature intended. I'm gonna get home and be horrified at the way I look or something, I just know it.

I'm really anxious to get back to VA. Though I don't have anything too terribly exciting going on there when I get back, I do miss my freedom and being able to do my job as a musician. This hooah army role play crap is not my cup of tea. We have a week left of class, that includes the land navigation evaluation on Thursday and Friday, then we have a week scheduled in the field. I seriously doubt the "field" will be so terrible, so I'm hoping it's just a fun outing where we do some tasks and drills, and then suddenly it will be recovery time and outprocessing, then graduation and return to reality.

Oh, and the area surrounding Ft Knox blows.

I think I have an opportunity... the Coast Guard band has a clarinet opening. Now I'm going to be all restless here at WLC! I was settled in and not having a terrible time. I think I'll be fine, I'm just now really excited about this audition! The only thing is that New London, CT is really small... but it's close to NYC. I'm going to go for it, and I'm going to put as much work into it as I can... I really need this job.

So today is day 8 of WLC at Ft Knox. The first few days were terribly depressing, as I showed up almost day late because of some misunderstanding with the person at work who books travel arrangements. So I show up completely embarassed, starting the entire month on the wrong foot.

I've started to forget the first week already - it's just my way of dealing with the entire situation. I'm sure with proper questioning I'll be able to recall some important details, but until then, it's blocked out forever.

I did relatively well on my PT test. I got a 242, which isn't as high as my highest of 250, but the points were spread a little differently and one also has to consider that WLC is supposed to be the hardest PT test one will take. My breakdown was as such:

63 perfect pushups
60 situps
14'29'' 2 mile run

That's the fastest I've ever run the two miles, though I guess it still doesn't truly count as a run because I still walked about four different times in the second mile. I'm pretty sure I can get my pushups and situps back up to where they were last october by the next PT test, so I'm going to work on that when I get back and hopefully be exempt and not have to bullshit PT in the mornings becuase I go in the afternoons anyway.

In the next few days I'm being graded on giving a class and conducting PT for a squad. Piece of cake. If only time would go by faster. Extend to the left... march!

So, in my unemotional verification of cutoff scores for SGT this month, I didn't notice that when I clicked on "JUN" I was clicking on cutoff scores for June, not cutoff scores published in June (for July).

I walk into the band hall today on my way to the gym and somebody informs me that the cutoff scores were published... and that I made the cutoff. July 1st is next Tuesday... hopefully the day I get promoted.

I'm still a bit incredulous; I was already looking forward to not being a SGT at WLC simply because they really shouldn't expect as much from a SPC. At least not in my mind. Oh well, I don't mind the paycheck. Only thing is that now I don't have any reason to be bitter and not reenlist.

It's a good thing I bought all of my rank back in February :)

Again, I wasn't promoted this month. I went to the air show at Langley today. I hope there is an Air Force band with a clarinet opening when I ETS.

Oh yea, I just found out a few days ago that I'm going to Warrior Leader Course in July. I'm not even a Sergeant yet and I'm going to WLC before several other people who have been promoted recently. Lucky me. Too bad my paycheck won't reflect this. I hope I can take my clarinet.

It's been a while since my last post of this type. Sometimes, or rather, almost all of the time, tiny little words that we take for granted can be the hardest to define. This one I find particularly interesting, because I occasionally hear it used in ways in which I myself would never use it. There are two people at work who do this, and I notice every single time they speak this way around me. Now, what prompted this post was what I felt to be a hypercorrection from the word "still" to the word "yet." It's actually not much of a hypercorrection, just an instance where this person stated that the word they wanted was "yet" by clearly correcting herself, switching to one of the uses which I'm not accustomed to.

These two people use "yet" where I would normally use the word "still." "The bananas are green yet."

I wonder if it sounds pretentious? I can't tell, it just attracts my attention for some reason.

So here it is. I believe their usage is reflected in #4:

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yet¹ [yet]
–adverb

1. at the present time; now: Don't go yet. Are they here yet?
2. up to a particular time; thus far: They had not yet come.
3. in the time still remaining; before all is done: There is yet time.
4. from the preceding time; as previously; still: He came here on a vacation 20 years ago, and he is here yet.
5. in addition; again: The mail brought yet another reply.
6. moreover: I've never read it nor yet intend to.
7. even; still (used to emphasize a comparative): a yet milder tone; yet greater power.
8. though the case be such; nevertheless: strange and yet very true.
–conjunction
9. though; still; nevertheless: It is good, yet it could be improved.
—Idiom
10. as yet. as1 (def. 31).

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¹Source:
yet. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/yet (accessed: June 03, 2008).

Yesterday I got a piece of equipment for my 30 gallon aquarium in the mail, and so I had to go to a hardware store to purchase some plumbing supplies to set it up.

On the way out the door, I met a friend and we had a short discussion about our single soldier situation, specifically living situation and why we need Better Opportunities if Equal Opportunity mattered so much. We discussed things like furniture and storage spaces and what was lost upon joining the army. He also had about 10 grocery bags. I don't know how he fits that much food into his dresser drawers and refrigerator.

I excused myself and buzzed on over to the Home Depot to get what I needed. I was looking through all of the plumbing parts looking for some very specific things and putting bits of PVC together, and not finding what I needed. Out of nowhere, a younger woman in very professional clothing and some clipboards and other materials came up to me and started a conversation. She was a Home Depot employee, and apparently they were going to people in their stores and offering some sort of design assitant service. She looked at me and asks me when I was planning on remodeling my kitchen or bathroom (or something like that). Not a morale booster.

So I answered, "Unfortunately, I'm not doing that any time soon."

"Oh, so you just redid them?"

"No... I live in a barracks."

She responded, "Oh... well we can help you line your footlocker!" starts to laugh and walks away still laughing.

I wanted to trip the bitch as she walked away. So instead I left and went to Lowe's, who ended up having everything I needed in one place.

I'd like a Better Opportunity, or better yet an Equal Opportunity, the opportunity to make a real estate investment just like almost everybody else I know. I'd like the chance to keep my dishes in a kitchen (without being stolen) and not in a dresser drawer right above my movie collection. I'd rather have that than special permission to use a pool table or the chance to raise money to pay for a trip that I won't be able to go on because I'm actually needed in my unit. I'd rather have the resources to allow my family to stay with me if they could afford the trip from Texas in the first place. I hate the fact that I can very well ETS in 2010 and not have anywhere to go and no furniture to use. I don't even own a bed anymore!

The Army has great benefits. If you're married. Maybe I'll ETS and wedge myself into an Air Force band. I hear Langley has several people retiring in the next few years. I might lose rank (if I make E-5 by then...) but I'll live like an adult again.

Oh yea, I didn't make Sergeant this month. The points were 100 points above what I have. Hope is waning.

I'm rather upset at the moment. It seems to me that I can tell which seahorses were wild caught and which were captive bred. I didn't think any of them were captive bred to begin with, but I guess I was wrong. The small spotted brazilian seahorse died, and I think the larger brazilian is on it's way out, as well. It's quite saddening. The two atlantic seahorses are doing fine, in fact the little wild caught boy is swimming around now like he owns the place (I still think the female is wild caught, she's just too big to be captive bred). I guess the precautions I took to remove any sort of wild pathogens from the little boy weren't enough, because the ones I now think were captive bred all seem to have stopped doing well and are just dropping like flies. The little brazilian won't eat anymore, and I'm afraid she's going to starve. I'll try getting some live food later today to see if I can help her make it through whatever is going on right now. I might have to stick to wild caught seahorses, now that I have him in there. It's another sad day. I'm ashamed.

The smaller of the guppies has disappeared. I think it's safe to assume it's dead. I don't think I can say, though, that it died because of the transition to saltwater, especially because I can't find it, dead or alive. Looking at the large Atlantic seahorse's mouth, I think it's possible she was eaten! It didn't occur to me that I could use anything but newborn guppy fry to feed them... but now I'm getting the idea that I should run to the store and buy more and use the smaller ones as fun munchies. Hmm...

This three day weekend was a wild roller coaster, in more ways than one.

Wed or Thursday I removed my flat tire and replaced it with the donut spare so that I could go take it to get fixed. The first place I tried had no time that day, so I had to come back some other time.

Friday I went to a recital in Williamsburg with a friend from the Norfolk Navy band. It was David Shifrin playing some trios with violin/viola and piano. Very good recital - inspiring. Upon reaching the gate at Ft Monroe, I reached for my wallet to pull out my ID, and I noticed that it was GONE. No wallet. Anywhere. Not in seat, glove comparment, the floor, the door, nowhere. I started to freak out, because I had EVERYTHING in there. They let me on anyway, because the guards know me.

Saturday I went to the bank to cancel my cards and get some cash, which they do for me even without my ID. I just answered some questions about my account. I finally went to get my tire repaired, but it took them all day, and then they took my cash like I had given them a five instead of a ten. I made him count out the entire register, and I was right. Saturday night we had a ceremony at ODU. I call several box offices and try to see if I can get a hold of anybody to ask about my wallet, which is still missing in Williamsburg. Of course everybody is closed.

Sunday I went with the same Navy friend to Busch Gardens, which was nice because I was planning on going by myself if nobody wanted to go with me. We rode everything and had a great time. She had to pay for my food, though, because I paid for parking and my ticket then I was out of cash and had no wallet, haha.

Monday I call the college in Williamsburg where the recital was held and they say that the hall has been used several times over the weekend and nobody has turned anything in. My heart sinks - I had no Mil ID and no DL. I couldn't get a Mil ID without a DL and my DL was from TX, and it was going to take a long time to either drive home and get a new DL or fill out the proper forms for Mil personnel to get a new one through the mail. And I didn't have a Mil ID so I couldn't prove I was in the Military. I didn't even think about getting a VA DL.

So, me being the stubborn person I am, I drove up to the recital hall in Williamsburg (my third time in that town this weekend!), praying the whole way and lean down to look under the seats, hoping nobody saw it because it's a thin black wallet. There it was! It had been sitting under my seat all weekend! Needless to say, I was the happiest person ever at that moment.

So I celebrated by driving home in rush hour traffic and stopping by a store to get a Pygmy Angelfish Centropyge argi. I love it! The shy little damsel doesn't seem to like it, though. It's pretty upset that it's in the tank... but oh well!

I'm pretty sure I got the guppies pretty close to true seawater specific gravity over the past week, so I decided to go ahead and place them in my salt tank. So far they are acting like normal guppies... two little females. If they survive a few days I'm going to take one of the two males I have and convert him as well, so that they can have babies to feed the seahorses! I know, it's mean, but it works.

He is still doing fine. He's eating frozen mysis regularly, I think he's going to do really well.

On a sadder note, the little Tiger tail female did not make it. Sad day. To be expected, unfortunately. Oh well.

I am truly blessed! The male seahorse I caught at Buckroe Beach a few days ago has not only survived, but is doing well exploring his new home, ignoring the females, and has even started eating frozen mysis shrimp! I couldn't have asked for a smoother transition!

So far all of the seahorses seem to be doing fine in their larger 10 gallon tank. They will be fine there for a while until the 30 gallon is fully cycled. I should've just started with the 30 gallon... oh well. I started with just one, and I fell hard and fast for them again... I should've predicted this would happen.

I've also read some articles and seen some pictures of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) that were converted to saltwater. Now, I've converted different mollies (Poecilia sp.), but never guppies. I usually manage it within about an hour, so I'm taking some juvenile female wild type guppies I have in one of my tanks and converting them to full saltwater over about a week. I've got them up to 30% seawater over the past two days. Two more days and they will be up to 50% seawater. They are doing fine so far; they naturally are found in slightly brackish waters anyway. I know, I'm strange.

On another note, I ran tonight. I AM going to do better on this next PT test. I'm going to max my pushups for sure and quite possibly my situps, and if I don't improve my run, it will at least be easier on me so I don't feel like I'm having a heart attack at the end.

I moved the little starfish from the quarantine tank into the 10 gallon tank that's newly cycled. My plan was to see if survived overnight, then I could start to move the seahorses over slowly.

In this 10 gallon tank, I added 10 little blue-legged hermit crabs and two turbo snails while it was cycling. They made it just fine, and the hermit crabs were fun to watch (the 10 gallon is right next to my desk) the past two weeks. I was worried that maybe they would start to pester the seahorses, so my plan was to move them to another tank if they got nasty.

So this morning, I moved the large Atlantic female, because she needs the room more desperately than the other four little seahorses. She's doing just fine, and she is eating. Now, I've been worried because I haven't seen her eat frozen shrimp, so I'm going to have to go collecting grass shrimp this afternoon (thank goodness I live on an island!)

To my surprise, and great delight, she's more active than she was in the smaller tank. Actually, I've been laughing for a good while now. One of the crabs was scuttling past the seahorse with it's little shell, and the seahorse stretches out as far as she can while still holding onto her coral to get a closer look. Then, she EATS IT! POOR CRAB! I could not stop laughing! She snicked it up (that motion they make when they eat a piece of food) and the shell was hanging out of her mouth for a minute or two, then finally I guess the crab let go as snicked repeatedly and finally swallowed the thing, the empty shell falling to the ground. The other crab is hiding in the plants at the moment. I think it would be best if it learned to avoid anything looking like a horse!

In conclusion, I think the tank is safe to receive the other seahorses. I will do that this afternoon and tomorrow morning as well.

On another note, the male Atlantic survived the freshwater dip and formalin bath, even with my stupid mistake which I will write about later if he makes the transition to the main tank ok. He's moving around the tank, so he should be fine. I hope.

I decided that it was a decent day to go out and look for interesting things along jetties and beaches, just for fun. I also want to work on my tan :P.

The first thing I notice is that it's way too cold outside to be doing that kind of stuff! Maybe it's because I haven't really done anything like this since I left Texas, where I don't have to wait so long for the weather to get warm enough for me to be comfortable getting wet. But I decide that it's not too bad, and I suck it up and get my feet a little wet.

First I'm looking along some pier ruins at Buckroe Beach, just a couple miles down the road. Nothing interesting, just lots of neat little barnacles and a crab or two, which are really nothing I would want to keep in my aquarium. I walk along the beach and find the usual rocks and dead seaweed. Farther down I see that there are some giant boulders lined up as some sort of barrier or jetty, so I go to investigate, hoping to find an interesting snail, or God willing, perhaps a small starfish or urchin. At this point I had already, as was inevitable from the beginning, been splashed by waves so I didn't care about getting wet at this point, and actually, so I go into about a foot and a half of water and start to look down at the sand around the rocks and the lettuce-looking algae that's growing all along there.

This is where it gets surreal. I'm looking at some green sea lettuce, not too closely, as my hopes weren't very high of finding anything interesting, and I see a piece that's slightly off color, swaying in the waves along with the rest of it, maybe two inches long just like the rest. I think to myself "That almost looks like a seahorse," but since I've only ever caught a seahorse that large once in my life before, and on that occasion it was in the Gulf of Mexico using an 8 foot seine net, I didn't think anything of it. I always catch my wishful thinking and squash it because I always wind up disappointing myself.

A wave rolls by and I don't see it anymore, and I almost keep walking along, but for some reason I decided to look at the same spot for a few more seconds. The water moves the whole patch of seaweed, and I see it again. It can't be! I reach down in the water, and gently pull it off. I can feel that it's not a piece of seaweed... I pull it out of the water, and there, sitting in my hand, is a beautiful male Atlantic Seahorse. I almost started crying! That sort of thing NEVER happens to me! I've NEVER found a wild treefrog, I've NEVER caught a dominant male wild Variatus platy without hours of dip-netting in Mexico, I've NEVER just pulled a seahorse out of the water without hours of digging through seaweed in a giant net. I must be one of the happiest people alive right now! This is exactly what I've been looking for!

He's the cutest (at the moment, anyway) little boy seahorse I've ever seen! He obviously grew up around lots of seaweed because instead of just being spiny like the other seahorses I have, he has lot filaments growing off of his head and body so he looks like a piece of seaweed. I'm going to give him a freshwater dip and some medications so I can eventually put him with the other seahorses. Because he's wild caught, I'm going to have to take a little more care with him - he needs to be "de-wormed" and treated for external parasites and possible disease before I dare put him with my girls. Something tells me they are going to love his company, though ;).

I'll some video of him later when I have him in more water so it will be easier to see him. Yay!

I really need to make a seahorse icon.

This is the video of the newest Brazilian seahorse. She's adorable! I'm wondering if she's still too young to have developed male characteristics or if she really is a female. I guess I'll have to find out at what size they become sexually dimorphic. Anyway, here "she" is with the happy little Tiger Tail seahorse:

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I found the cutest seahorse at a different fish store today. As much as I needed another female seahorse, I couldn't resist this one. There were several others, but like I said, I really only wanted this specific one. She's a really young H. reidi, and fortunately for me, she is already accepting frozen shrimp right along with the other seahorses.

As an update, the first seahorse I got, the first H. reidi (Brazilian) is now named Stella. I was on the phone with Kelly and she named her for me; the name was nice, and it stuck instantly. The large Atlantic seahorse was named by Kelly as well, but I can't remember what the name was, so perhaps it wasn't as appropriate. Now I just need names for the tiger tail and the new little girl.

I'll add a short video tomorrow of the new Brazilian. She's adorable - she's white with dark brown spots.

I'm thinking of adding a 10 or 20 gallon sump to the 30. I'm kind of cheap, though, and might end up not doing it because I don't want to pay for an overflow system, but I'm not sure if I have the motivation to make my own. I might wait a paycheck or two and then just buy the damned thing. I could even use any plastic tupperware container, so that part of it can make up the cost of the overflow. We'll see.