Bye, Bernard

Well, Bernard has moved on to the great aquarium in the sky. Crazy to think that Bernard knew me longer than C does. I freaking love that fish.

March 2012 - March 2015

A lot of people have asked if I'm going to get a new fish. I would, but since me and C are most likely moving this fall, I think I'll just wait and get a new one wherever we end up living. But it makes me sad every time I look at the table and he's not on it anymore :( 

I remember the day I brought Bernard home. It was a Thursday, and I'd just had my Evolutionary Biology lab on sexual dimorphism (why male and female animals display different colors/feathers/fur etc.) In this lab, we put betas next to each other and saw what would create the biggest anger/puffing of gills fit between the two. Originally I had a bright red fighter I dubbed Spanky. My TA came up and was like "Hey, if you want him, you can have him. We're trying to get rid of all of these fish since we don't need them anymore." I was like sweet! Fish! I would love him forever! I had one more class (stupid Physics), so after that I came back to the evo lab and Spanky was gone :( I had written my name on him and everything. The TAs were like "Yeah, um, we don't know, people just took what they wanted..." and I was disappointed. I was looking through the rest of the fish to see who was left, and if I'd even want any of them, when I saw a little dark blue fish that seemed smaller and shyer than the others in the very bottom container behind all the other fish. I just really really liked him, randomly enough, so I took him home and dubbed him Bernard. And in the end, I'm sure Bernard turned out way better than dumb Spanky.

Were you wondering where his name comes from? Wonder no more! Remember that one movie, Megamind? And that one guy in that movie who does this? 

Yep. That's where it's from. Bernard, the passive-aggressive angsty librarian-man. It just seemed to fit. Other names that got tossed around were Metallica (that's when I was in my hard-rock phase) and Lassiter (Psych, anyone?) But in the end, Bernard just seemed to fit better. 

Bye, Bernard. You were the flyest fish that ever swam into my life. 

-K