You might remember me mentioning a while back that I was getting a free skin from Ciao! My bella!

A few days ago Emily contacted me and asked me what I wanted. I had originally asked for an aquatic theme, but she suggested a holiday skin and I jumped all over that. She sent me a great layout and after a little tweaking of the colors, came up with a skin that I just love.

If you'd like to see the Neurotic Fishbowl all dolled up for the holidays, just click here.

Thanks, Emily! I love it! And here I was thinking that this place was never going to get gussied up right for the holidays!

.: 118 words at 11:26 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (4) :.

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After getting such a kick out of all the Happy Bunny stuff that I found online, I decided to whip up a new skin featuring Happy Bunny. Because if "cute by psycho" doesn't say Neurotic Fishbowl, I don't know what does.

.: 42 words at 02:18 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (10) :.

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After not adding a new skin to this site in over six months, I finally finished one that I've been thinking about since the Blogathon. It's very retro and I owe a lot of thanks to Pixel Decor. Why don't you see what I'm talking about?

.: 48 words at 08:04 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (7) :.

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*Brought to you by guest-poster, Kimberly of KMF.n and erraticfrog.com (don't visit the URLs because one site is closed and the other is currently offline).*

So, today I was sitting here merrily re-working a site I was just wrapping up. Next thing I know, a message pops up on Yahoo! from someone I don't know...

As a quick aside:
I have the following on my "Latest News" for Yahoo! Messenger: I am sick to death of men messaging me with some variation of the following: Hi I am married and looking because I have problems with my wife....blah de blah DO NOT send me s*** like that, OK?This is because of all the lurkers only uncloaking long enough to ask if *u have any pics* well, overdone and boring. Yes?

So this guy pops up on Messenger and says: I am just messaging you because even though we have no marital problems, I just happen to prefer cheating on my wife. :) You going to ignore me now?

So I reply: OK, I'll give you a giggle point and abstain from banishing you to the seventh ring of hell. Will that do?

The he goes on to question me about my "quote" which is: "what matters most is how well you walk through the fire." by Charles Bukowski.

He asked me what I meant by it, and how I could base my life on such a philosophy.

Well, as opposed to simply relaying the entire chat word for word, I figured I would just share with you all, my affinity for this quote and what it really means.

Basically, how I take "what matters most is how well you walk through the fire." is word for word. There's really nothing to do with the beginning or end of everything, but how you go through it.

What ARE you talking about?
Say you have issues. Do you become a raging drunk, druggie, suicidal or do you stand fast, and bravely tread the path, no matter what? Do you stand tall, and though the proverbial coals burn your feet do you go on or do you cave in, like a small child with a sunburn?

It is the journey which I believe makes the person. We will all face our own trials and tribulations in life. We may succeed, or we may fail, drastically. However, isn't the real issue how we walk the walk?

The philosophies of Zen, Buddhism, Rosicrucian and even Christianity tell us that it is the way that counts. The walk which we decide to walk, as opposed to the end that matters.

So he asked me:
How can you live every day that way. "Don't things just drive you crazy sometimes?" My only answer to that was "Strap on the asbestos boots and get going..."

Meaning:
We all have problems. We all have issues. What we need to learn is how to decide which battles are worth fighting and which are best left for the rats. Either we can save our strength to fight the battles which are worth fighting while allowing the less important things to fall to the wayside so that when we must, we can stand up and fight to the death the battles worth fighting to the death. (To this the reply was: "I feel like I am chatting with someone due for a Pulitzer" to that I replied: "Not really, you're talking to someone who knows the difference between what's worth her time and what is not. It's that simple.")

He went on to question how *I* know what's worth it and I answered thusly (again, not a quote, but the gist of the thing, as his was a more specific matter): Basically, you have to learn to decide what is REALLY important. What REALLY matters. What are you fighting for and why? Is the end result worth the ardor? Is it? If it is, then fight for it to the death. If it is not, then stop. Basically, if you are willing to die to see a situation set to rights then it is worth the fight. If what you are fighting for is not worth the life, thus the energy you put forth to continue the battle then it is not.

It is defining these things to oneself which makes one aware and conscious as to what's a worthy reason to fight and what loses it's worth the moment you let it go.

The next thing he said was: "Thank you. Your words meant so much to me, and I feel like I am already able to try and see things more clearly. I am glad I sent you a message even though it was clear that you were bored of my type."

I told him that I was not bored of his type, whatever that might have been, but that I was bored of people always looking to find something better than they had without even posessing the ability to ascertain what was really wrong with what they had to begin with.

Most people just don't know what's "wrong" or "missing" from their lives. Sometimes I truly believe that nothing is wrong or missing, just that maybe they're looking with the wrong eyes.

What do you think? (Seriously, I'd like to know, so do feel free to comment! I am not insulted easily ;) )

.: 897 words at 09:01 AM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (1) :: All the Voices Say... (4) :.

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I loved the Daily Zen template that Eka offered up at Miz Dos Graphics, so with a little tweaking it is now skin seventeen here at The Neurotic Fishbowl. You can test it out here.

.: 37 words at 07:14 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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I've been wanting to use a layout from the CSS Colouring Book for quite some time and I finally found a few minutes to fix the issues that I was having and I now have a new skin. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Oh, yes, before I forget, thanks go to Cis for suggesting that I use that lionfish photo in a skin. I took it at a fish store last July and don't know why using it in a skin never occured to me.

.: 91 words at 12:02 AM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (5) :.

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Inspired by the ever-talented Kristine and given the perfect image by the pin-up queen Robyn, I've created a lovely Valentine's Day skin. It's got a little bit of skin to it to be just the tiniest bit naughty. Enjoy!

.: 41 words at 01:57 AM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (6) :.

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Kristine was talking about her new gorgeous Valentine's Day skin which reminded me to tell everyone that there is a Valentine's Day skin here too. It was the first skin I made right after I started blogging.

I would love to do a light, pink girly skin, but I don't know if I'll have time before V-Day, especially since I'm currently working on another one. :-)

.: 66 words at 01:13 AM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (2) :.

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Taking advantage of Robyn's Red-tag Sale, I snatched a PSD of her Shirley Manson header and have produced a new skin that really tickles my fancy. You can view the end product here. Enjoy.

.: 36 words at 06:18 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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I feel like it's late Christmas here at The Neurotic Fishbowl.

You probably noticed the wonderful pin-up skin that Shelia made me and I put up just last Friday. This weekend she took the cutest little almost nude cowgirl and made another skin for me, this one completely CSS based. It's now live and you can take a peek at it here. That damned tart is just too good to me!

.: 72 words at 10:58 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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Courtesy of that damned tart, I know have a skin filled to the brim with pin-up goodness. It's a bit saucy, just like me, and deserves a look. Check the new skin out and let Sheila know how fabulous she is for making it for me. Sheila also has lots of other fun, saucy graphics for blogs at Tart Graphics, so go take a look at what kind of mischeif she can make.

.: 75 words at 12:03 AM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (2) :.

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The Neurotic Fishbowl has a new skin courtesy of Trish. It's a blogware set that she offers up free to use as long as you link back. She was even nice enough to make a custom header for me. You can try it out here. There are a few things that look a little strange since I had pretty much had no idea what CSS was when I set my blog up. If you see anything too funky, please let me know.

.: 84 words at 03:49 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (6) :.

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I've always loved the way Christine shows off the last images from her photolog Pixelog, so I copied her idea and with a little help from Kristine created a skin that shows the last ten images from my photolog Picture Fish. Go ahead and test it out!

.: 50 words at 12:21 AM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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I made a skin a while back for Christine that features a door surrounded by flowers since she just loves images of doors. I took a little time this weekend and changed it up to fit The Neurotic Fishbowl since our blogs follow the same basic set-up. If you like, visit the door to the neurotic fishbowl that is my life.

.: 62 words at 11:37 AM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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Thanks to the generosity of my co-worker Tod Gilpin, I have a new skin for The Neurotic Fishbowl. It's uber-cool, so go give it a whirl.

.: 28 words at 07:17 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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Kristine, a talented Scripty Goddess if there ever was one, made a new skin for her blogplates a while back based on the Goldfish Crackers from Pepperidge Farm. She was sweet enough to personalize it for The Neurotic Fishbowl. Now you can visit the Skin Selector and make it your skin. Thanks, Kristine, for the lovely skin and for all of your help!

.: 65 words at 02:43 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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Woo hoo! Thanks to Christine, The Neurotic Fishbowl is skinnable once again! I haven't had a lot of time to test, so if you see any problems, please let me know. Yeah! I am so happy! :-)

.: 38 words at 03:27 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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With the first day of spring being only a little over a week away, I have made another new skin for The Neurotic Fishbowl. It is based on a desktop image that Dawn Mikulich created. I had been searching high and low for an image that captured springtime, and as soon as I saw Dawn's desktop, I knew it would be perfect. She was kind enough to give me permission to use it, so please visit the skin selector and check it out. Also, feel free to leave any feedback if there's something that you think should look different. Enjoy!

.: 100 words at 02:22 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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I am pleased to present another new skin, one that I think is just beautiful. As many of you probably know, Mena offers, from time to time, a coloring contest where participants take a black and white .gif and use something like Photoshop to color it. I went to go view the entries to the lastest contest and absoultely fell in love with the winning entry. April's entry was so beautiful that I had to e-mail her and ask permission to make it into a skin. She was so sweet and granted me permission. After tweaking it all day, this is the result. Please go take a look and let me know what you think. I'm really proud of it. :-)

.: 121 words at 05:21 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (5) :.

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Thanks to the talented Brandy, The Neurotic Fishbowl is now available in pear flavor! Go check out The Neurotic Fishbowl Skin Selector and choose skin number three for a taste!

.: 31 words at 11:07 AM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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I am currently messing with the new skin and it is FUNKY! It's skin #4, so just ignore it for now. Thanks!

Update: The skin itself is working now, but I need to go in and tweak the colors. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

.: 48 words at 04:20 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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The new skin is up and running, so check it out. It's basically the fishbowl layout with different colors and a different image, but since it was my first attempt at skinning and I was really just trying to figure out the CSS, it accomplised what it needed to. I may go through and make new titles for it later and tweak the colors a bit more. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to leave them!

.: 78 words at 04:34 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Just a note, but I am trying to create a new skin for the site. It's not going to be very impressive, but I am mostly just trying to figure out this whole skin thing. :-) If you see some funky stuff, please bear with me!

.: 46 words at 11:43 AM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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