MFBA

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MFBA 12 Step Recovery Program





Step 1 of MFBA


“We admitted we were powerless over buying more fish—that our lives had become unmanageable.”

Admitting one’s struggle with fish buying use can be challenging, but once they do acknowledge their struggle, the recovery process can begin. Of course, it helps to have someone nagging at you at the same time, you know, like a significant other, mom or dad, your kids—if you can still afford them by this time. Feel free to ask your neighbor to castigate you every time buying fish is mentioned.

Step 2 of MFBA

“Came to believe that a power greater (GPF) than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

More Fish Buying Anonymous believes that people struggling with fish buying use can benefit from believing in a power greater than themselves (GPF) to recover. Those working the 12 steps of MFBA are free to choose whatever higher power (GPF) works for them, including pizza and beer. Wine for those with discerning tastes and soda pop for those on the wagon. See if your neighbor who regularly frowns at all the pond stuff will fund this higher power (GPF) for you. Can’t hurt to ask.

Step 3 of MFBA

“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of GPF as we understood GPF.”

In the 3rd step of MFBA, a person consciously decides to turn their will over to a higher power of their understanding, or to the learned vetted members of the forum. Generous donations accepted by either the OTG or the Michigan subchapter. All charity will be verified by current Treasurer. I believe it’s brokensword’s turn this month…

Step 4 of MFBA

“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”

This step requires self-examination that can be uncomfortable. Honesty about how a person’s struggle has affected themselves and others is necessary for helping maintain recovery. And here’s where generous portions of libations comes into effect; the more the merrier and step 4 will be a cinch! That said, you may have to stop looking at the fish auctions while you pour one back.

Step 5 of MFBA

“Admitted to GPF, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”

This step involves admitting to past poor behavior, which may involves sharing with their fellow significant other, mom or dad, and/or a group like GPF’s OTG. Get into the details, let others know the type fish you continue buying, it’s size, the color(s), how well they’ll compliment what you have in the pond already. Stuff like that.

Step 6 of MFBA

“Were entirely ready to have GPF remove all these defects of character.”

The fishaholic admits that they are ready to have their higher power remove the wrongs they listed in Step 4. The OTG is especially adept at this, so feel free to call on their experience. Defects can include not knowing how deep your pond is, the fact you never heard of a bog filter, saying stuff like ‘here fishy fishy’, continually losing the corkscrew or bottle cap opener, and thinking your waterfall will be too loud for the neighbors; TOO LOUD FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS!!! (can’t believe I just wrote that without laughing out loud! Neighbors? Who cares about neighbors—you got a WATERFALL in your yard!! Jus’ sayin’!)

Step 7 of MFBA

“Humbly asked GPF to remove our shortcomings.”

Step 7 of the 12 steps of MFBA is about humility. When a person is humble, they have the opportunity to gain new perspectives that support their recovery journey and avoid nature centers with ponds, pet stores with aquariums, and neighbor’s ponds you’ve had your eye on for quite some time! And that envy is what’s gonna get ya, so stop! There’s PLENTY of auctions out there, PLENTY of pond centers where they’ll be glad to take your money and in return hand over a prized fish they just…oh, oh, losing it now—got to get back on the recovery program…must resist, must resist…

Step 8 of MFBA

“Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.”

In this step, a person writes down all of the fish they have wronged through their buying. This is not a step to make amends, but to help a person understand what they are ready to make amends for in step 9. Of course, overfeeding is NOT one of these amends! And have we talked bog filter yet?

Step 9 of MFBA

“Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure themselves or others.”

Many fishaholics work with the OTG to figure out the best way to complete this step. Making amends could include re-homing all those fish you just KNEW you had to have. For some people, making amends is simple netting of favorite fish and sharing with a GPF member if it is not possible or safe to share with the whole forum directly. Don’t even consider how much it’s gonna cost you to air mail that bag of water filled with all those colorful fish you so painstakingly purchased through all those years…sigh, okay, yeah; mail ‘em on out, g’wan, just get rid of your babies…see if I care…

Step 10 of MFBA

“Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.”

This step helps teach a person to remain committed to their re-homing program regardless of how many gallons in the pond. Using the 12 steps of MFBA and the practice of taking personal inventory helps keep people present in their recovery process, not to mention supporting the local pizzeria and liquor store. You know, one might conclude that to be part of this MFBA, it might be a good idea to sign up for your local AA, too. Possibly. I’m not sure. Seems like it would help. Oh, crap, I think I may be flunking this whole recovery program altogether. Must. Get. Help.

Step 11 of MFBA

“Sought through wishful thinking and anxious sweat to improve our conscious contact with GPF, as we understood GPF, praying only for knowledge of GPF’s will for us and the power to carry that out.”

Step 11 involves creating some kind of denial practice or routine that helps a person stay connected to their higher power (GPF) to support their recovery. This denial can take the form of helping newbies on the forum get more fish for THEIR pond, instead of yours. Feel free to suggest the largest and fastest growing varieties. Make sure they’ll be seated next to you at the MFBA meeting as quickly as possible. Live vicariously through others’ ponds! The shared delusions will keep you going.

Step 12 of MFBA

“Having had a renewal of wallet as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to fishaholics, and to practice these principles with everyone else’s ponds.”

This step encourages members to help others in their recovery. Some members may choose to guide others as a way to help them buy more fish themselves and share their message as they continue to work the 12 steps of MFBA.



Naww, what a bunch of horse hooey; g’wan, hit the interwebs! Jump in the car and go visit your local nature center, ogle the ponds they’ve set up and you wish yours looked like. Take as much time as you can drooling over that fancy finned obstacle to Nirvana. Salivate over all the colors and shapes, take note of EVERY variety you DON’T have now…and then, start grinning—you got the POWER! USE IT! STEP (hell, take 12 of ‘em—you’ve earned it for reading this far!!) up to the counter, wallet/purse open, the ticket to your dream just moments away…Tell ‘em you need the 50# bag of fish food, no more piddling 5 pounders! Start tacking up posters on local poles and shops, extolling the virtue of DONATING their fish to YOU, to your POND…give out your phone number and address to anyone who’ll listen—ESPECIALLY to online forums—let them know you have lots and lots and LOTS of room for MORE and MORE and MORE FISH…oh, the delicious ecstasy! Tell them…LET’S GO PONDING!!! Round up the family, grab the car, ignore that neighbor, get out and





(producer’s editorial note) we’re sorry, we’ve taken back control of this self-help document that IS intended to help all those with delusions of grandeur. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and mis-information that might have been propagated from this missive. If we knew this was going to happen, we’d have shut it down immediately. Truly, mgt is regretful of the whole fiasco. Hopefully the proprietors of said higher power (GPF) won’t look askance at this effort to ‘help’ and instead, forgive this moment of lunacy.



And don’t worry; we’ve taken steps (didn’t need 12 this time) to secure this kind of blatant idiocy won’t happen again. For those wondering, don’t worry either about brokensword; we got him set up in the ‘home’, a nice comfortable zero-gravity chair parked next to our big, clear, picture window that overlooks our center’s local pond. He can look at it, but no way can he get to it. And we’ve cut his internet feed, stopped his cc, told the liquor store to deliver only once a week, and given him a flash drive of all the fish he’s every bought in a slide show that plays on a loop. He seems happy. We’re not sure because every time we check on him, he stops grinning and feigns a dopey look that makes us a bit suspicious. There might need to be more therapy but we’re at a loss to figure out exactly which kind at the moment. If any readers, having made it this far, have any suggestions, please contact us at;



MFBA

42 Pondhouse Way

Dreampond Hills, Mi

48001

USA

ph # 1-STO-PBUYING or 1-786-728-9464

all donations cheerfully accepted.



Remember, you can DO it! YOU can STOP BUYING MORE FISH!



Thank you.



MFBA mgt
 

j.w

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Man @brokensword you have a lot of vented up text flowing around in that brain of yours. Then there is those people who have free beautiful fish to give away that need a new home or they might become sushi in the giver aways next meal if you don't rescue them :D
 
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Man @brokensword you have a lot of vented up text flowing around in that brain of yours. Then there is those people who have free beautiful fish to give away that need a new home or they might become sushi in the giver aways next meal if you don't rescue them :D
heh, didn't know I'm a writer, also, didcha? Gotta put it somewhere when not working on the novel. WHICH I vowed to finish this year, btw, so you'll all get a break from my nonsense pretty darn quick! The forum CAN be distracting, so...

and yeah, pretty sure the MFBA would sponsor you...;):p:cool::oops::eek::rolleyes:
 
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j.w

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heh, didn't know I'm a writer, also, didcha? Gotta put it somewhere when not working on the novel. WHICH I vowed to finish this year, btw, so you'll all get a break from my nonsense pretty darn quick! The forum CAN be distracting, so...

and yeah, pretty sure the MFBA would sponsor you...;):p:cool::oops::eek::rolleyes:


View attachment 145400
Nope didn't know you were a writer but guess I should'a figured so. The last pond forum I was in a guy in there was a writer also and I got to be a fictional character in his book. I got a copy of his book sitting on my bookshelf. He's on this forum but never comes around much. His pond name is Bullfrog but I tried doing a search on his name and couldn't find him. His posts are still on here tho. He lives in Mexico but is from Texas.
 
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it shows! What do you write about?
well, current novel waiting to be finished is about a management team that takes care of a run down seedy hotel where the inhabitants come and go, drop off their problems on undeserving staff, MOST of which are underpaid but hardly neglected, and one in particular gets all the scrub jobs like washing down the halls after a load of puppy terriers (or is that terrors) go scampering past because you know, can't have the Upper Bosses get his panties in a bunch whilst one room in particular houses a screaming demon of a resident, someone that HAD to be put there because, well you know, just couldn't follow the rules and got scissor happy.

THEN, there's the garage--oh let me tell you the stories coming out of just THIS part of the castle. Did I mention this resort is more like a castle than a hotel? There's lots and lots of cars, most of which get randomly set loose to roll on down the driveway (and it's a steeeeeeeep one, don'tcha know!) at unsuspecting passersby, who end up fleeing the scene to be chased by this one big guy--a hulking brute of a man who's really just a teddy bear inside but don't tell HIM that--on a motorcycle, some sort of pig bike I think, and its just by sheer luck the runners don't get smacked by either the camera around his neck or the hollowed out log he's got strapped to the back as he shouts for them to 'MOVE ASIDE!'. The hilarity of this scene is magnified by all the spellcheck substitutions and missing words!

But don't worry, we got tales of lovely ladies who spend all their time either neck-deep in lotus tubers, wondering 'now, where the heck (she don't swear, so...) did all these SNAILS come from while another keeps calling out tortoise names like they're little kids. Thing is, they smile as she does this, so maybe the stories are really true about this one...and we have the Walker, the one that starts off EVEN before the sun rises and as the mushrooms are all calling it a day, she's still heading uphill, 40 miles or so, her eyes sweeping left and right in scythe-like precision, just knowing there'll be a rock, or some stainless steel saucers waiting on the side of the road, just for her. What she's gonna do with all this stuff is like chapters and chapters still waiting to be mined, let me tell you! There's a husband but he's not allowed to notice the junk, oops I mean treasures, is piling up and up and up...he MUST be a good guy in the story just for putting up with all this, hey? I DID need to find a like-able protagonist and not sure yet, but he may be the only one. I was going to use this king-like figure, but all he does is give machinery and tools as gifts to the Queen and well, no one's gonna believe that.

Along about a third of the way in, there's this new character, can't speak a lick of English, has all sorts of shorthand notations as a means of communication for which the Boss gets the head lackey to deciher, because well, you KNOW he's the one that's most overworked and underpaid...I digress...there's something about pizza but notice, there'll be NO evidence there was ever any toppings, though, he did bring up something about a new goldfish. I don't think I'm going to even hint at what happens to the goldfish and the pizza--seems like a way to sidetrack this great story so far, doesn't it? Yes, so, no goldfish chainsaw mimicry, okay? There's some furtherance of the residents of Castle On The Hill--did i mention it's name yet? Yeah, well, so, there's no moat yet, but it is guarded by a super-smart heron and a bright orange lil digger machine; this chapter I called 'Revenge of the Kubota'. I can't give you all the details now--you need to read the book--but suffice to say, a blue-purple version gets slain, all it's grease and feathers splattered up and down the hill, all the way from coast to coast, from somewhere in hidden Maryland all the way to the PNW, somewhere the Walker is now shivering in fear. Why you ask? Well, let me tell ya; she just found out BEARS are harbored right down the road and you know what? She's just realized a flimsy net just ain't gonna do the job! A flimsy way to create tension but you know what? Works for me!

Whew, I'm out of breath; are you? Sure made me hungry just writing this summary outline...hey, Boss; any of that pizza left? Not even going to ask about the beer--I heard there was some 'yacht-supplying' lately, so don't expect there's much left in the cellar...

Anyway, IFN ya got down THIS far, NOW you're primed for the serious sh*t; so, yeah; I write. Got 6 novels done so far, mostly Sci-fi, urban fantasy, based loosely (sorta maybe; you didn't hear it from me) on some parts of my life sans real names etc. This one I started 3 years ago as a challenge to myself; I told my wife I'd write something SHE'd pick up in her category of the bookstore, sooooo, hence my procrastination--hard to put the passion I like into a project when it's not exactly calling me like the previous novells, but I'm stubborn; I WILL finish AND do all 5 edits THIS winter, before work starts up again in the spring. I do better with deadlines; keeps me BIC (butt in chair)!

Current nove is about a young woman that breaks off her wedding and flees to England to start again as a newspaper obits writer. She wanders into an antque book store on assignment only to find her life will change, and not in ways she could imagine. Oh, there's a gnarly bookshop owner, a bookstore that has attributes like the TARDIS, an enigmtic owl that haunts in its own way, a quiet but dapper bloke that always seems to be in the bookstore when SHE's there and starts a small fire, and a gangly old wolfhound to oversee it all. There's some wisdoms and curiosities with the waitress across the street, some investigation of meals typical to UK but strangely weird to Americans, and new-made friends that stretch the languge barrier, considering both sides speak English!

I think I have like 8 chapters left, give or take, and I'm almost to the third act which SHOULD write itself, as it's the middle act that always slows me down (still need a bit of staging BEFORE the end).

IF you REALLY REALLY want some sort of 'better idea what brokensword does', there IS a link in my siggy, should you feel brave enough to pass that way...jus' sayin'! There's sample chaps, some synopsis (synopsi?) of my earlier stuff, a bit of poetry which begat my moniker, and of course, lots of pond stuff.

Alright, USUALLY, I go and REREAD what I post but this one? Naww, you're just going to have to read with half an eye closed when you encounter any/all typos and missed words...

Damn, I'm parched...okies...off to the fridge!
 
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I don't know but we might all need lawyers :p
you know that play 'Let's Kill All the Lawyers'? ah, so, toooooo late! Btw, besides being my squire, Dime's got the legal lowdown, so don't mess with him! heh heh (can you hear the dulcet yet earthy tones of the Godfather, asking you about the matteresses?)

Since my laterst procrastination is already outlined, you'll have to wait and see for the NEXT novel for any GPF inclusion. Sowwy JDub!
 
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j.w

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you know that play 'Let's Kill All the Lawyers'? ah, so, toooooo late! Btw, besides being my squire, Dime's got the legal lowdown, so don't mess with him! heh heh (can you hear the dulcet yet earthy tones of the Godfather, asking you about the matteresses?)

Since my laterst procrastination is already outlined, you'll have to wait and see for the NEXT novel for any GPF inclusion. Sowwy JDub!

View attachment 145407
We have our secret ways here every one of us and don't forget @addy1 is a great shooting gunslinger and has a giant mean tractor! My neighbor makes Dulcimer's if that's the same as Dulcet so we can out tune you all the way to Carnagy Hall If all you have is mattress's and Dime, who might be easily swayed by a promise of some very pretty long tailed fishies then you better fill your pockets w/a bit more rocks :smuggrin:
 
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We have our secret ways here every one of us and don't forget @addy1 is a great shooting gunslinger and has a giant mean tractor! My neighbor makes Dulcimer's if that's the same as Dulcet so we can out tune you all the way to Carnagy Hall If all you have is mattress's and Dime, who might be easily swayed by a promise of some very pretty long tailed fishies then you better fill your pockets w/a bit more rocks :smuggrin:
heh heh, givin' me a run fer ma money, hey, JDub? Noooooooo problem!! smirky smirk! And you'll see I DID include her killer kubota but can't mention the gunslinging as this novel AIN'T a western, dontcha know?

ohhhh DIMMMMMMMEEEEEEEE @Dimelius ; care to weigh in???? Gauntlet's been thrown again!!
 
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j.w

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heh heh, givin' me a run fer ma money, hey, JDub? Noooooooo problem!! smirky smirk! And you'll see I DID include her killer kubota but can't mention the gunslinging as this novel AIN'T a western, dontcha know?

ohhhh DIMMMMMMMEEEEEEEE @Dimelius ; care to weigh in???? Gauntlet's been thrown again!!

View attachment 145421
Watch it, he's a sucker for the long finned beauties! Oh boy Dime wouldn't this one go great w/your light colored long tale?

1639694371477.gif
 
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Watch it, he's a sucker for the long finned beauties! Oh boy Dime wouldn't this one go great w/your light colored long tale?

View attachment 145427
wow, JDuB; that' a GREAT anigif. Don't suppose you have any other fish this detailed in their animation, do ya? I figure you'd die if you got one of the butterfly gf, hey? This one comes close! I MAY take a swipe at animating this one's body just enough so you don't notice it ain't movin'...give me some time...

@Dimelius ; ya gots ta admit, the Queen here sure knows how to get to you, hey? Better bring your 'A' game next time 'round!
 
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j.w

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wow, JDuB; that' a GREAT anigif. Don't suppose you have any other fish this detailed in their animation, do ya? I figure you'd die if you got one of the butterfly gf, hey? This one comes close! I MAY take a swipe at animating this one's body just enough so you don't notice it ain't movin'...give me some time...

@Dimelius ; ya gots ta admit, the Queen here sure knows how to get to you, hey? Better bring your 'A' game next time 'round!

View attachment 145428
I have tons of fish that move but not as real looking as the black one above.
You may already have these:
1639696667856.gif
1639696687701.gif
1639696709358.gif

I hav
 

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