So, I was trying to replace the ceramic membrane of my external CO2 diffuser, twisted the stem wrong, and ruined the seal. Rather than futzing around with another external diffuser, I ordered an inline diffuser. Then I also had to upgrade the canister filter because the inline diffuser only fits on a 16/22mm hose (rather than 9/11mm one). The Eheim 2211 has a 16/22 hose on the intake but not on the outflow, but it's better to put the inline diffuser on the outflow rather than the intake because it'll put less stress on the impeller, and because this way the diffuser is only exposed to filtered water. 

Anyways. Installing the Eheim 2213 was a breeze because I got to keep the existing intake hardware (the 2213 uses 16/22 hosing on both the intake and outflow). However, having the double taps and the inline diffuser as close to the canister outflow as possible made it a bit of a tight squeeze in the cabinet.

The end results, on the other hand, have been amazing. One less piece of equipment in the fish tank, a far more even distribution of CO2, and likely better CO2 diffusion (though I can't confirm this visually, because I can't trust my drop checker to stay suctioned to the inside wall of the tank. But yeah. Amazing. I should've saved the money, trusted the process, and used an inline diffuser right off the bat.  

 Dessa - Fire Drills


Phrases I dislike include "gentle reminder," "how are you," and "ask" used as a noun. None of em grind my gears like "stay safe." Yeah, I know it's never meant maliciously - quite the opposite. But how is anybody supposed to live inside the boundaries of safeness?

One of the assessments that my kindergarten teacher made was that, although I was great at reading and writing and numbers, I needed to learn to take risks. That is something that does not come naturally to me. Being safe is easy. Taking risks is hard. But staying absolutely safe would mean I never climbed an 80 foot tree, whizzed down a county road on a bicycle at top speed a hundred kilometers from home, or met some of my best friends. 

Rather than wishing for someone to "be safe", I'd rather wish them a life full of risks worth taking. 

Delain - Burning Bridges



Delain won the gold Kewpie doll for uncannily good timing when they released Apocalypse & Chill in February 2020. Shame on me for missing it. I've always found Delain a wee bit scattered and their albums have never quite clicked for me, either in concept or execution. But I immediately grokked Apocalypse & Chill. It felt a bit like the time I heard The Unforgiving or 1989 or Transatlanticism for the first time. It turns out I like a concept album about global warming as much as demon hunters and difficult relationships. 

Then immediately after that I realized that all but one of the band members had left, and that the remaining guy was continuing Delain as a studio project only. That was a big ol' kick in the head. They might as well be broken up now. But at least Delain got to go out on a high note.