A quickie on Rosa parks...

Hi All,
I'm sure by now that you've heard about the passing of Civil Rights pioneer Rosa parks. Well, it seems they're having trouble with her funeral arrangements. Yeah, you guessed it. They can't seem to get her casket into the BACK of the hearse! (insert your own rimshot here...)

We shall overcome....

B.

BTW, I'm planning on walking in the 2006 Arthritis walk. If you'd like to make a donation to support me or possibly even join my team I'd appreciate it!

Picture this!

Hi,
For the past year or so, people have suggested I place some of my photography online and make it available to others. Initially I was leary of doing so, but now I figure, 'What the hell!'. SO I put a page at my website where I will feature some of my photos. I will add more as life and time allow. You can see them @ www.wbrianmurphy.com/Artwork
Here's an image I've just put up...



I hope you all enjoy them. They are available for purchase as 8 X 10s. And a portion of each print sold will go to the Red Cross.

Later,
Brian

Tank Update...

Hi All,
We'll, here's the scoop. The royal gramma died. He just stopped eating and apparently gave up. One of my clownfish dies as well. It seems that the PH is low on the tank. So I'm in the process of correcting it. My remaining clownfish, Clarabell, is not looking too good, either. So we are trying like mad to make the tank more hospitable for the inhabitants. But Clarabell isn't eating, and looks weak. We shall see. I've added a power head to increase the gas exchange (increases O2 in the water and decreases CO2) by making more surface turbulence. My flame angel is doing well, and the Coral Banded Shrimp (Scampi) is thriving. But I think he's been eying the flame as a meal. The angel's fins on her underside appear torn/jagged, as if nipped by the shrimp. So, I think Scampi's going back to the fish store soon. But the flame keeps going back to the shrimp to get cleaned, and that is when she gets nipped (gender made up by me).

I've got all kinds of weird stuff growing on the live rock I purchased. A button polyp a-parently and possibly a tubeworm. But there's also a ton of algae growing. many different types. also some plants are coming to life. I don't know which of these are good and which are bad. So I'll ask around online and see. I have a growth of emerald green 'stuff' on the floor of the tank. I don't care for the look of it. have to find out how to make it go away.

The book ("Destroyer World: New Blood") is at the printer and I should have it in my posession for purchase in a few weeks. Check out www.warrenmurphy.com/products.html for more info. Once it's available it'll be posted there as well as on our newsletter. You should go join and check it out.

Well, that's all for now. Let me go finsh taking down the wallpaper in my kitchen. BTW, I firmly believe that whoever invented wallpaper should be killed. If he's already dead (probably), we should hunt down his ancestors and at least hurt them. And anyone who goes to buy wallpapaer should have to have photographic proof, or a letter from their psychiatrist certifying that they've had to take some down. Nobody who hasn't taken it down should be allowed to put the vile crap on their walls. I don't care how pretty they think it is. And I don't care that they own the home they are putting it up in. At some point, I am going to buy their home and will instantly be repulsed by the color/pattern/crap they've put on their walls. It's not fair to me (and my wife) that we have somehow become the official rehab crew for homes with excessive wallpapering. Well, we're passing the baton on to some other fools. Hey FATE, NOTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT: We will never again buy a home with ANY walpaper in it. EVER! And I mean even contact paper on the cabinet shelves!

Later,
Brian

New Madness...

Hey Folks!
For those concerned: The "coming soon" "Destroyer World: New Blood" book is at the printer! Looks great, reads great. I can't wait to see how its accepted by the readers! Once I have it, I'll post how to geit it here as well as the newsletter and at the various fan sites.

Now that that's been put to bed, so to speak, I decided I needed a new hobby. I mean, the astronomy, RV camping, publishing, dieting, photography, cover design, order processing/fulfillment, website design/management just haven't been enough to do, I guess...

Seriously, I've always wanted a saltwater aquarium but was afraid to start one. Well it seems to be a good bit of work, but nowhere near as hard to do as it apparently6 used to be. The fish are spectacular to look at and fun to watch. Very relaxing, too. (The relaxing part I've heard about from my wife. I've been working the ED this week/weekend. 3 nights in a row with multiple gunshot wound victims. After work I've been relaxing with a nice glass of cabernet {at 7 am!}, and falling to sleep shortly after that.)

I have a 29 gallon tank. I am using an Emperor 280 filter (made by marineland). I have a SeaClone 100 protein skimmer. I put in a small bubble wall for aesthetics. There is 15 lbs of live rock (from Fiji??) as well as a 3 inch bed of crushed coral and live sand. The tank seems to be handling the bioload well so far. Eventually, I'd like to make this a true Reef tank with the addition of corals and the like. But for now I am satisfied with a FOWLR (fish only with live rock) tank.

Tomorrow begins a 6 day stretch of days off. And I'm looking to enjoy the tank. So if anyone else out there has a saltwater tank and want to send me any easy to raise, hardy coral, feel free! I've had the tank running for about a week. The only fish in it currently are 2 clownfish (pic), a Royal Gramma (pic), a Flame Angel (pic), and a Banded Coral Shrimp (pic).

The Royal Gramma just hides under a rock all day. The rest of them are fairly playful with each other. The shrimp is nocturnal, so it's behind a rock all day. But when feeding time comes around he (his name is Scampi) he makes sure to come out a grab some! If anyone has any tips to share, or advice to give, email me.

Well...'Tanks' for stopping by!
Brian

BTW, the images I've linked to here were found via google and are copyrighted by their owners. I will replace them with images of my own fish once I take some!

Asinine in Atlanta...

Anybody following this idiot?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050527/ap_on_re_us/fugitive_crane

Well it seems some yahoo has perched himself on top of a crane and is threatening to jump. Something about being wanted for the murder of his girlfriend or something...

One thought crosses my mind; "Can't we just shoot him down?"

I mean he wants to die, and if he's killed his girlfriend we want him dead...

...sounds like a Win/Win situation if ever there was one, no?

If shooting is too harsh, though and we really want him down (do we?). How about this; Take away all those safety airbags they have put all over the place underneath him. Then tell him to get down or else. After 10 seconds start shaking the crane. He'll come down. If he wanted to die, he would have jumped already. He doesn't want to die, he just wants to be not guilty. Tough shit. You're guilty. Get down and go to jail! Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 dollars, and certainly do not bother trying to hold your pants up. Don't worry, your cell mate, Bubba, will keep you safe, like he does all his girls...

One thing about people who want to die, well they die. Period. The don't call their families or their boyfriend/girlfriend and tell them they just took a lehtal dose of "tylenol cold" to say "goodbye". The 'call for help' we hear so much about is actually a call for attention. The ironic thing is that the fools that choose tylenol (or whatever your favorite brand of acetaminophen is) to feign suicidal ideation with (thinking that it's a drug we give kids, "It must be harmless!") are shocked when we tell them that they might have severe liver damage from their act.

They wonder why we have an attitude in the ED when they come, pretending to have psyche issues, when the ED is full of people just like them. The shame of it is the effect they have on the real psychiatric population; you get so tired of dealing with the "Look-At-Me"s, that when a real patient in crisis comes in, your compassion and coping skills have already been obliterated. Not fair to them, seriously.

Anyway, enough psychiatric crud.

Let's get back to shaking that crane...

B.

A Sneak Peak! Destroyer World: New Blood cover...

Hi all,
As promised here's the cover for the soon to be released book of short stories from Ballybunnion Books. There are some great stories in here. And they are all written by fans of the series. The's an intro by my Dad, Warren Murphy. Initially, it will be exclusively available at the www.warrenmurphy.com site as well as the www.destroyerworld.com site. But after the initial run is finished, it will be available at Amazon.com, also.

Here's the front cover for "Destroyer World: New Blood" :




I'll keep you posted when it comes available. If you are reading this and you are one of the authors who submitted a short story for this collection, please email me. I need your email adress as well as your mailing address.

Here's a look at one of the books that we recently released. It's titled "Destroyer World: The Movie that Never Was". There are still some copies of the pre-release, numbered and signed editions available at www.warrenmurphy.com/products.html...

Book and church and stuff...

Well,
I sent the "final" edit of the book (Destroyer World: New Blood) to my Dad for his approval. Well... I guess sometimes final isn't the right word to use. Several quick fix formatting issues remain. I'll have it done this week. Some of you have asked if I was planning on blogging the whole book. Not at all! I meant the cover would be posted here.

I'll get back to work on these issues once I return from NJ. We were away for my nephew's Confirmation. (Congratulations Tyler!) Should be able to finish it up this week, then get Dad to recheck it and then to the printer!

Now, about the confirmation...
While I was sitting in the church minding my own business while catholicism was performed all around me, I got to thinking; The Priest got through one of those verbal tennis matches where he speaks, and then people who have seen the show already deliver the appropriate answer. (Kind of like the audience in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"!) Well at the end the Priest does the "Amen" ending. That's where it hit me; With the newly appointed Pope (you know, ...Das Pope) being a former Nazi Youth, will "Amen!" be changed to "Javol!"? That would be in keeping with my belief that Das Pope might be just the thing Satureday Night Live has needed; a topical, current events driven character that's new and original! I can see Das Pope speaking to the masses in Vatican City, speaking german. Seeing the famous papal posture with the 2 arms raised in blessing changed to a single arm raised with elbow straight.

I think heard that Mercedes is working on a new Pope Mobile. I think it's a customized version of an E 500 Sedan with a bubble styled roof, to accomodate the enormous Pope Hat. Anyway, see what my brain works like? There's the reason why 3 weeks from now when someone makes reference to the communion that I will have no recall of it. In my mind, I was at the Vatican, goose stepping with the masses out front.

Another thing weird there. This was the church I attended as a child. Actually it is the church I was supposed to attend when in actuality my sister and I went to the corner drug store (Marra's in Secaucus), or the a nearby burger / soda joint (Henkel's) instead. Henkel's was great. They had some fantastic pinball tables down in the basement. Putting coins in them was kind of like putting money into the basket at church, no? Anyway, the weird thing was there was all this singing at the church. I'm just not used to that. I was like a rerun of COP ROCK! Way too much singing. forced into places where singing needn't reeally be. We were so moved by the service that we had to go to the party afterwars and sing Karaoke!

Hallelujah!
B.