suggested method of shipping for shipping newbie?

[finneganswake]

Great article!!! I've been trading frags locally but am now to the point where I'm interested in trading with people from different locations so as to, um, diversify my portfolio:rolleyes:

Short story long, I don't have an oxygen supply in my apartment, and I'm not yet to the point where I'm planning on stealing one from the nursing home down the street, so I'm intrigued by the dry shipping method. If I were, say, to ship just a single frag of an sps coral, would I just get a styrofoam box, put the frag in some wet paper towls, and send as is, or would there be anything else that I need to do?

On a sarcastic note, thanks for having this article printed two days after I accidentally left a few frags of my tub's green with purple polyps birdsnest outside the tank for an hour:( I threw them straight into the trash, not even imagining that they could survive that long in the air.

[EricHugo]

Well, again, as I said in the article there are variations is sensitivity to exposure; for example, the Oculina didn't like it, but no problems with others. Yes, a very light wrap jsut to keep the tissue moist and then sealing in a bag or close-top container to prevent evaporationand hypersalinity of the wrap should work wonderfully for you.

I would also say that while I have made a point of showing some extreme durations, the faster the specimen gets from A to B the better. I.e. scheduling last minute pickups for first thing in the morning deliveries, air cargo, etc. is alwasy better than really prolonging any transit duration, no matter what method is used.

[finneganswake]

Originally posted by EricHugo
Well, again, as I said in the article there are variations is sensitivity to exposure; for example, the Oculina didn't like it, but no problems with others. Yes, a very light wrap jsut to keep the tissue moist and then sealing in a bag or close-top container to prevent evaporationand hypersalinity of the wrap should work wonderfully for you.

I would also say that while I have made a point of showing some extreme durations, the faster the specimen gets from A to B the better. I.e. scheduling last minute pickups for first thing in the morning deliveries, air cargo, etc. is alwasy better than really prolonging any transit duration, no matter what method is used.

Thanks a bunch. It's awesome that someone in your position in this field can take the time out to help someone like me. Much appreciated:)

[EricHugo]

Just wanted to add that I just bought Finnegans Wake to read. Should be quite a journey...what's the story behind your screen name and your interest in the book?

[finneganswake]

Originally posted by EricHugo
Just wanted to add that I just bought Finnegans Wake to read. Should be quite a journey...what's the story behind your screen name and your interest in the book?

Quite a journey indeed. Any book that's written in approximately 80 languages is a monumental experience. Have you read any other books by Joyce? My screen name comes from the fact that Finnegans Wake and Ulysses are my two favorite books. I even named my daughter after one of the characters (although once you start reading FW, you'll find that character is an extremely loose term)--Annalivia.

Here's some advice for a first-time reader of FW. You basically have two routes you can take--the assisted route and the gonzo route. The assisted route consists of getting a guidebook (my recommendation, if you can find it, is "A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake"--although there are some errors in it, as it was the first guidebook written, it's style is such that it is very easy to use) to help you through what is an unbelievable difficult book to comprehend. I'd read the guidebook first so that you have at least some clue as to what's going on.

Now if you really want to appreciate the book, go the gonzo route. Blast through the book without any help. After MANY days (you absolutely cannot make a quick read of this book) of reading, you will have finished the book and probably understood absolutely none of it. It will literally make zero sense. THEN go get a guidebook, read through it, and try reading FW again. You'll see that what looks like the ravings of a lunatic is possibly the most rigorously thought out and tightly logical book ever written.

One word of warning--this book is almost as addictive as reefing. I've read it cover to cover five times and have still barely broken the surface. I've bought obscure books by 16th century Italian philosophers who influenced Joyce to see if it would help me understand FW just a little bit more. I probably own at least 10 interpretations, and the great thing is that they are all completely different yet make absolute sense within the framing of the book.

If you need any assistance with reading it, feel free to PM me anytime! I love seeing people read this book--it's unlike anything else ever written and will absolutely change the way you look at literature.

[Hugo Borneman]

I have listened to a long series of lectures by Terrence McKenna on this book and it was what prompted me to delve into it, and everything you have written here, in a nutshell, recapitulates those lectures and my interest in the challenge. I'll be in touch ;)

[finneganswake]

Originally posted by Hugo Borneman
I have listened to a long series of lectures by Terrence McKenna on this book and it was what prompted me to delve into it, and everything you have written here, in a nutshell, recapitulates those lectures and my interest in the challenge. I'll be in touch ;)

Great! It's good to see people willing to take on a challenge like this instead of reading books you buy at the supermarket. I look forward to hearing about your experience with it.

Take care.

[Hugo Borneman]

Hi, this is Eric's Dad, he was visiting and responded using my computer but forgot to use his EricHugo address. He knows of your message and will probably respond after he gets home.

[sihaya]

FW is an awesome book (as far as I can tell... I never got around to finishing it though... now adays it's hard to "get in the zone" for this kind of thing).

I really enjoyed reading what I did though. But it's hardly like "reading" in the common sense... it's more like looking at words as it they were being used to detail a sculpture.

Interesting bit of trivial... James Joyce was a med school drop out... like yours truly. ;)

[finneganswake]

Originally posted by sihaya
Interesting bit of trivial... James Joyce was a med school drop out... like yours truly. ;)

Yeah, he was in school with the person who inspired the Buck Mulligan character from Ulysses.