Swimming, just keep swimming. I have four fish. One of them has been swimming in circles. I thought it was dying, and maybe it is. It swims all around the tank, almost upright, some times diagonally, sometimes upside down. The other three fish don't seem too bothered. They don't avoid the circle swimming fish. Sometimes they school with it, sometimes they don't. Just like before.

It seemed like its fin on one side was paralyzed. I fed them and they all ate. Now it seems to be swimming more upright. Reducing the nitrates and cleaning the water seemed to help. Some kind of infection perhaps. Too many nitrates? I wonder if it will live?

I've always been interested in the sphinx. I suppose that must tell you a lot about the sort of person I am. Or maybe it doesn't and I just think it should. Smarmy old sod that I am. When I was young I made a sphinx out of clay. It had a Horus canopic jar between its paws and all. It was crude and simple but somehow more honest. I have to keep that place in mind as it is very hard to be serious about being compelled to do such things. I also made a Medusa mask and a small statue of Sekhmet.

I always thought to write off my juvenilia because of how crude everything seems in the formative stage of such a difficult skill. Being so hard on one's self is part of being driven, but it also becomes self-censorship.

So, excuse me as I begin to unleash.

I think the dream project would be to design a large, stone sphinx. Granite maybe. I've never worked with stone (let alone granite) on such a scale. I picture it being at least 10 ft at the wingtip. The Lions at the Vancouver Art Gallery are definitely the scale. Maybe there would be a whole pride of these things.

For now a dream, and perhaps an indulgent one.