Howdy From Az

[bassbonediva]

Hi all! I'm new to this forum, but not to fish-keeping. I've had bettas for over two years now and last year branched out into the wonderful world of tropical communities. At the moment, I have ten tanks up and running, but six of those are betta tanks (a 3-way divided 10gal, a 6gal, two 5gals, a 2.5gal and a 1.5gal). My big tanks that are running at the moment are: a 46gal bowfront coldwater community with one ryukin goldfish, six leopard danios, six white cloud mountain minnows and six gold barbs; a 29gal tropical/semi-aggressive community with seven tiger barbs, three (soon to be four) peppered cories, a South American bumblebee catfish, a bristlenose pleco and two otocinclus catfish; an 18gal tall tropical community that isn't finished yet with one flame dwarf gourami and two panda cories (going to add either six neon tetras or six Von Rio tetras when I have the money); and a 20gal long that is housing the plants and fish that are going into my 55gal when I get it set back up (my 55gal tropical community crashed severely last month when my 5" featherfin catfish died and because he was behind my driftwood, I didn't find him for almost a week and by then the damage was done). Hopefully today I'll be getting the pool filter sand so I can set my 55gal back up. Anywho, that's my fishes.

In other aspects of my life, I am a college student studying to be a high school English teacher (hopefully will be graduating in December). I live in a tiny town in northern Arizona that most people FROM Arizona have never heard of. lol I have a 6-year-old son (one of the bettas is his), a 3-year-old aussie/st bernard mix named Cash and an 8-year-old arab/saddlebred cross named Dakota.

 

[OldMan47]

That is indeed an interesting fish profile. Welcome to TFF BassBoneDiva.
I can never remember all the rules that I learned in high school about writing so I merely go with what seems right. The rules of using commas and similar things has changed a lot over the years, so I would have a tough time in today's high school. I do seem to make myself understood but the details of high school English escape me most of the time. In the old days, I was in high school over 45 years ago, commas were used far more than I see today in even professionally written pieces. On the other hand, text speak is so compressed I think it probably has no rules. If a reader can figure out what is being said, it must be good enough is the only rule I have discerned.

 

[bassbonediva]

Text speak is one of my biggest pet peeves. My niece had me proof read a paper for her last year (she just graduated from high school) and it had text speak all over the place. I love the English language and literature, so being an English teacher was a no-brainer for me. I'm also an aspiring novelist, which keeps me busy in addition to everything else.

 

[OldMan47]

Good luck with the novelist angle. I have contented myself with having some of my ramblings published by club newsletters. I am now the proud editor of a national organization's several times a year publication. It is a thankless volunteer job of mainly assembling things into an organized whole, adding a bit of my own work to fill the open spaces and sending it all to the publisher to print and distribute.