Sick gold fish and Matt-ism #3

Have you seen our goldfish? They're HUGE! They currently reside in a 50 gallon tank. The orange one is Little John (he used to be the biggest fish). The white one is Sushi. His orange stripes used to be more prominent. Looked like sushi to us. Don't worry. We have absolutely no intention of eating our fish.

Little John got sick again. We put in peas (the veggies help. When they try to eat the pea and spit it out it helps digestion issues. Matt describes it best when he says it's like popping your ears, but for fish.) and cleaned the water thoroughly. Well, Matt takes care of the tank. The water, the filter. I really appreciate him taking care of that. Like the rubix cube next to the tank? It's a clock and thermometer. We turned the heat on with the winter coming on and it got the water too warm. Now I wear socks instead of changing the temperature and the fish don't get sick. The sacrifices I make for your fish. Where's the gratitude?
Yesterday Little John wasn't swimming much. Sushi would stay next to him, sometimes help him get out from the corners. It was cute. Now Little John is swimming all over the place, bumping the sides. It's freaking out Minion (our algae eater. He's full grown... a whole inch long! You can see him, the little line in the bubbles, toward the top of the tank.).

It's nice to see Little John swimming again. He swims by the filter a lot. Matt says (Here's Matt-ism #3) "It's like a treadmill, but for fish."

Matt-ism #2

My husbands loves nothing better than to discuss (some would say debate, but I'm going to say 'discuss' as it implies a lack of hostility) heavy or controversial topics. We enjoy to discuss things in a way that it's an intellectual exercise, rather than one side trying to convert the other. Unfortunately, when Matt gets into a discussion with his peers, it turns into a debate.
Have you ever observed a debate? Do you notice that you can tell when a participate has lost the argument (this happens to both sides when observing a political debate, so let's just stick with science here) when they become defensive and emotional? Losing the argument doesn't mean their original point is the losing side, but their defense of it is now void because they have abandoned logic for emotion. This is why a discussion about global warming always turns into a heated debate with (at best) one side using logic and the other using emotion. Maybe instead of saying "using emotion" I could say they become "preachy". Ever observe that? Instead of a discussion it starts to sound like one person is trying to convert rather than persuade?

So, for our Matt-ism of the day:
"Nothing says 'crap science' like an overly aggressive, preachy atheist."

He would love to have a discussion about global warming or creationism with an atheist, provided they don't get aggressive or preachy. (Seriously, he loves to learn other points of view, and having someone intelligently articulate a different point of view than his, he finds really exciting.) Let's have a real discussion about things we disagree on rather than argue with a I'm-right-you're-wrong attitude.

End of soapbox.