In 2001 Jim Janssens was the FO of the USS Odyssey. Jim had an aquarium in his quarters, with a goldfish, named Phlox. Bram, known as one of the silliest people in the fleet, topped himself in silliness, by actually posting with the goldfish as a character. The following are two consecutive posts pasted together about the adventurous life of a goldfish...
Subject: Phlox
(NRPG: imagine some Jaws-like music in the background when reading this <G>)
Phlox was moving around a bit slowly, and decided that he would swim around counter clockwise today. He had circled the large stone in the middle of his territory about three times when he spotted some movement at the surface. Phlox slowed down and looked up, the movement has stopped.
~Where did it go?~ he thought, and started swimming a bit higher, very carefully and staying close to some large leafs. Five minutes later, there still was no trace of anything that could have caused the movement he saw, and Phlox decided to go back to deeper water, and swim some more circles around his stone.
Halfway the second circle he stopped, ~Wait a minute, didn't I already swim this way around earlier today?~
Phlox turned around, and started swimming around the stone clockwise.
~This is much better, can't swim the same circles all day!~
NRPG:
This post is for all people who think nothing exciting happens inside an aquarium...;-)
The large two-legged airbreather that lived outside his territory had brought him his dinner again. He had almost eaten everything when he noticed it. One piece had floated into... into The Corner!
Phlox had only been in The Corner one time; he had just been swimming around, and he had swum into it, not knowing something was wrong. At the same moment there had been a lot of noise, and a lot of red lights had started flashing. Not knowing what to do he had swum into the solid water that kept the deadly air outside, and he had had a headache for 4 days. Also the red light with noise had returned a few times since that day, often followed by periods of darkness, other flashing lights, loud noises and sometimes violent shaking.
Phlox was certain something was wrong with The Corner... but there was a piece of food in there, caught in a plant. There had to be a way to get the food, without getting into The Corner.
He swam from side to side a few times, sometimes looking at the piece of food in The Corner, thinking about what he could do. Suddenly he got an idea. He approached The Corner, but he didn't cross the border which was indicated by the Purple Pebble. Phlox turned around, so his tail was facing the plant with the food. He started swinging his tail violently, and he used his other fins to stay at the same location. After a while, he stopped, and looked at the result of his actions.
It had worked! The piece of food was freed from the grip of the Corner Plant, but it still floated behind the PPB (NRPG: Purple Pebble Border).
~Phlox, you coward...~ Phlox thought, ~Just get that piece of food, show The Corner who's boss around here!~
~May the Great Fish protect me~ he thought, and gathered as much speed as possible. As swift as an arrow he darted over the PPB into The Corner. He grabbed the food, and rushed back into the safe area on the other side of the PPB.
~It's one small swim for a fish...~ he thought, while he was eating the last piece of his dinner.
