Silver

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This is Mushu, my SILVER Arowona or Dragon Fish. Their scientific name is Osteoglossum bicirrhosum which is Greek for "bony tongue" and "two barbels". This species is an ancient fish, they have been around since the Jurassic Period, and have stayed pretty much the same since then. Native to South America, they are also known there as "monkey fish" because of their ability to jump out of the water to catch prey, which usually consist of smaller fish, crustaceans, insects, and even small birds! There are also Asian, African and Australian species, and they come in a variety of colours: black, red, gold, green.

Happy Photohunting Folks!

TECHNORATI TAGS: saturday photohunt, saturday photo scavenger hunt, memes, silver arowana, fish

Wordless Wednesday VII

TECHNORATI TAGS: wordless wednesday

Another Bad Hair Day

I was going to wait until May, when it gets warmer, but Nermal had some really bad knots in his fur that I decided to give him an early haircut. He just seemed so uncomfortable all the time, like he wanted to scratch himself everywhere. And forget about brushing them out, they were just too far gone. After the initial annoyance with me.... he actually seems to enjoy the freedom from all that hair. With the hair, he would do 5 minutes of cardio with his paper ball, before he would take a nap. Without the hair, his paper ball exercises go on for 30 mins! This is important, because as you can see from the next picture, he needs to work on loosing that Buddha belly....Happy ! To visit more participants, click here:

TECHNORATI TAGS: cats on tuesday, cats

Osteoglossum bicirrhosum Part 6

Mushu shoots...he scores!

WARNING: If you are a goldfish lover, please do not press play as Mushu can be rather brutal when he's hungry.

For goldfish lovers like Ghee, I bought some minnows so you too can enjoy the wilds of the Amazon, without feeling too bad for the cute fish. Don't feel too bad about this minnow and his compatriots, they were convicted of the near-death beatings of over a dozen innocent goldfish. So I had to sentence them to death by Mushu....

Happy Mushu Monday!

TECHNORATI TAGS: arowana, silver arowana,aquariums, fish

Wild

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These are pictures of sweetie and a bunch of fish in a WILD feeding frenzy. I took them on a snorkeling trip in Puerto Galera, Philippines in 2005. I included the second picture because I also think that sweetie looks pretty wild in a bikini! It's also a bit of an experiment, because I don't think she reads my blog. She claims that she does. So if she really does, I'll probably be hearing about this picture in the next day or so. Let's see what happens :)

Happy Photohunting Folks!

TECHNORATI TAGS: saturday photohunt, saturday photo scavenger hunt, memes, snorkeling, puerto galera

Friday Ponderings

I felt compelled to write something today since I have an entry every day this week, and Saturday is the photohunt, so let's make the week complete....

I received an email today updating me on Comet McNaught. I have been desperately trying to catch a glimpse of it since the beginning of January. Unfortunately the skies over Mississauga have been cloudy whenever the comet was visible. Also, the comet would appear very close to the horizon minutes after sunset or minutes before sunrise, and I just didn't have a good view from where I am. It was even visible during the daytime around Jan 12, but again I was disappointed by the clouds! Oh well, it's no longer visible here in the northern hemisphere, but if you are in the southern hemisphere, you are in luck! If you haven't seen it already, or heard about it, try to catch it in the WSWestern sky right after sunset. If you're from down under the equator and you happen upon this blog, please let me know how it looked. Here's a pic from Mark Eriksen in Merredin Western Australia that I found at skytonight.com: Awesome! Kudos to the photographer! After passing the sun, the burn-off produced that spectacular tail! Apparently, the comet's tail has gotten so large that it may be visible in the northern hemisphere tonight, but there's too much light pollution in my area, so I didn't even try. Oh well, there goes a perfectly awesome light show, I'm bummed....

I was hoping to go out with the telescope this weekend and do some last minute star gazing, but I don't think the weather will be co-operating.... I hope it clears up. On Monday, I will be going back to class for a month of intensive studying, so I'm trying to get a little more rest and relaxation activities out of the way.... this includes blogging. I've been purging myself with this blogging obsession of mine since the Christmas holidays, and at times it seemed to become like a snowball rolling down a snowy hill. I joined so many memes and it's been fun, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep up in the coming month.... I'm certainly gonna try though. I don't think I will be able to visit as many bloggers as I have been, so I hope y'all understand. I've met a lot of interesting bloggers from all over the world, with varying views and lifestyles. This blogosphere however, just emphasizes to me the fact that it's such a small world we live in.... In spite of all the cultural and ideological differences and misunderstandings rampant all over this globe, when we look up, we see the same moon and the same stars, and the same vast universe of which we are just a small and seemingly insignificant part....

One more thing, I finally got bored of my boring template.... I like simple and I like black, but every blogger I know (Ghee, Sasha, Leah, Tina, Shoshana etc.) has changed their template once or twice or more since I met them, so I decided to at least put a header :)... just a reminder that no matter where your travels, adventures, wanderings or even ponderings take you, it's a small world and an even smaller blogosphere.... Cheers bloggers, see y'all on the flip side, please wish me luck, or say a prayer for me, whatever your belief system may be.... I need all that good stuff :)

TECHNORATI TAGS: comet mcnaught, blogging

Thursday Thirteen Ed. #6

Thirteen Musical Instruments I Have Laying Around: Piano Acoustic Guitar Flute Bass Guitar - complete with broken G string.... Recorder - I've had this since grade four.... Maracas from Mexico Kulintang - a Filipino instrument comprised of a series of gongs, akin to a xylophone.... Harmonica Bunkaka - another Filipino instrument... made of bamboo, when hit against your palm, it will make a "boing" "boing" type of sound.... Bamboo Flute - a variation of the recorder I guess.... Alto Saxophone Reed - okay, this isn't a complete instrument, it goes into the mouthpiece of the sax. I used to play alto sax as a secondary instrument in high school. I never got a sax of my own, but I kept my reed.... A Steel Drum from Grenada - just a miniature.... it makes a clanging sound when you hit it though .... Nermal's Bell - probably one of my favourites. It's music to my ears when I come home after a long day, and I hear it speeding to the door to greet me... Happy Thirteening Thirteeners!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
I love Aruba I love Greenland I love Lesotho I love Burundi
TECHNORATI TAGS: thursday thirteen, memes, musical instruments

Wordless Wednesday VI

TECHNORATI TAGS: wordless wednesday

Nermal Tuesdays

A while back, Gattina invited me to join "Cats on Tuesday", a meme she founded. So I decided that whenever I post about Nermal, it'll be on Tuesdays. Besides, Mondays are for Mushu, Wednedsays are Wordless, Thursdays are for Thirteening, and Saturdays are for Photohunting. That leaves Sundays for resting, and Fridays for everything else... oh meme, oh my!

So here are thirteen things about Nermal.... oh wait, it's not Thursday.... oh well:

1. Name: Nermal de los Angeles
   
2. Nicknames: Nerm, Nerms, Nermie, Nermalio, Nermalito, Taba, Fats, Fatty, Guvn'r
   
3. He'll be 5 years old on March 22.
4. He's a Persian.
5. He was born in Malate, Philippines.
6. I couldn't leave him behind when I came home to Canada, so he endured an almost 24 hour flight to get here...poor little guy.
7. He has a lacrimal duct obstruction OS that was not ammenable to surgery, according to the vets, that's why he's always tearing in the left eye.
   
8. He had one brother and two sisters.... Nermal was the last one to be sold by the breeder.
9. When I first saw him, all I noticed was a big ball of fur, and instantly fell in love.
   
10. When I got him home, I noticed his bad eye and multiple fungal lesions all over his body.... I'm glad I didn't notice it before, and was glad that I rescued him from that fungus ridden place.... I understood why he was the last one sold. I bathed him daily with an anti-septic wash and applied a clotrimazole cream until all the ring-worm was gone... in the process I also got a couple of those fungal lesions myself, and so did his gf Fluffy. We all eventually cleared up.
11. He's afraid of hamsters.
12. I woke up one morning to screeching parakeets.... I found Nermal inside the bird cage just sitting and watching the birds from a distance.... he was that small, now look at him!
13. He's always hungry.
    

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More about Nermal here.

TECHNORATI TAGS: cats on tuesday, cats

Osteoglossum bicirrhosum Part 5

Mushu Misses....

Happy Mushu Monday! Stay tuned, next week he won't....

TECHNORATI TAGS: arowana, silver arowana,aquariums, fish

Technology

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If you know Star Trek you might recognize this as a Transporter. It's an old toy I dug out of my closet.... yeah, I'm a nerd...so what? I put C3PO and R2D2 inside it to demonstrate. It breaks you down into sub-atomic particles and re-assembles you at your destination. Okay, it's just science fiction TECHNOLOGY, but maybe one day it could be reality.... then I'd never be late again! Beam me up Scotty!

Happy Photohunting :) Live Long and Prosper.


TECHNORATI TAGS: saturday photohunt, saturday photo scavenger hunt, memes, star trek, star trek transporter, star trek toys

Thursday Thirteen Ed. # 5

I'm sure we've all heard of the health benefits of antioxidants. They are known to protect the body's cells from the damaging effects of free radicals (whatever that means! That's another Thursday Thirteen maybe?). Suffice it to say, the damaging stress these free radicals place on our cells have been linked to cancer, ageing, heart disease, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, etc. In 2004, Wu X, Beecher GR, Holden JM, et al. published "Lipophilic and hydrophilic antioxidant capacities of common foods in the United States" in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry (52(12):4026-37). So this week, as per this article, I'd like to list: The Top Thirteen Antioxidant Rich Foods in the Common North American Diet Which I Will Try to Eat More of: Small Red Bean (dried) Wild Blueberry Red Kidney Bean (dried) Pinto Bean Blueberry (cultivated) Cranberry Artichoke (cooked) Blackberry Dried Prune Raspberry Strawberry Red Delicious Apple Granny Smith Apple Bonus: okay, they listed 20, so here are the rest in descending order: Pecan, Sweet Cherry, Black Plum, Russet Potato (cooked)!!, Black Bean (dried), Plum, and Gala Apple. To your good health Thirteeners! Happy Thirteening :)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
I love Aruba I love Greenland I love Lesotho I love Burundi
TECHNORATI TAGS: Thursday Thirteen, memes

Osteoglossum bicirrhosum Part 4

I first blogged about Mushu No. 5 one year ago today, so here's an update on him a year later.... He started out at a length of 6.5".... and today, he is a little over a foot long.... Considering the fact that his tail has not grown back completely, he should be a little bit longer. I purposely stopped feeding him live food because his growth rate was just too rapid to be sustained by his tiny 20 gallon tank. He actually loves his pellet food, and displays an equally voracious appetite for them.

This Christmas, my family gave me a sweet new setup for him, so I'm happy to say that Mushu No. 5 has finally made the big move into a new home.... Surprisingly, he didn't put up much of a fight at all. In fact, not a even so much as a splash. I simply scooped him up with a plastic grocery bag, and gently released him into the new tank. He slipped into his new surroundings very effortlessly, and seemed pleasantly surprised at all the new space. It is a 75 gallon tank with a length of 48", so he's got a lot more swimming space. This also means that I will be giving him live goldfish or minnows every so often again. I don't want him to grow too rapidly though, because I don't think I have the space for an even larger tank just yet. In their natural habitat of the Amazon River, Silver Arowanas can grow to the length of 47" or 1.2 meters. In captivity, they're more likely to grow to about 39" or one meter. If they are not given adequate space, they may develop deformities. Mushu has actually developed a slightly prolapsed operculum or gill covering. Presumably, this is from the fact that he would often swim backwards in the smaller tank. The operculum appears to be in better condition now that the length of the new tank is four times his body length, at least, it is not getting any worse. His old home has been converted into a tank for Aiden, which also serves the double purpose of being the home of Mushu's future prey.... (Mushu: mmmm, goldfish....)Looking at this tank makes me wonder how he survived for so long under such cramped conditions. I'm also raising a Pleco or janitor fish in this tank, until it is large enough not to fit in Mushu's mouth. I had gotten a new janitor fish (Phillipe II) thinking it was too big for Mushu to eat. I had even made a cave for it, just in case he needed to hide from Mushu. However, one day, Phillipe II went missing, on the same day, a large bulge appeared in Mushu's abdomen...

I'm hoping that the extra space will also allow for his tail to finally heal completely.... I'm no longer convinced that he sustained the injury trying to escape his cramped quarters by jumping, as I witnessed him swimming in circles trying to catch his own tail.... Seems like dog-like behaviour? I really must be a dog person, coz my cat behaves like a dog, and now my fish! Hopefully Mushu will be more content with all the space, that he won't feel the need to chew off his own tail anymore.

TECHNORATI TAGS: arowana, silver arowana,aquariums, fish

Memory

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This is one of my favourite baby pictures with me and my mom. It was taken over 30 New Year's Eves ago. I don't really have any MEMORY of it being taken, but from the look on my face I must have been pretty wary of that roman candle. Two generations later.....

and that picture takes on new meaning, as it reminds me of a time when the image I had of my mother was of a much younger and physically stronger person.

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't
own it, but you can use it. You can't keep
it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it
you can never get it back.”

Harvey MacKay

Here's to my mom and moms in general! Happy Photohunting Folks!

TECHNORATI TAGS: saturday photohunt, saturday photo scavenger hunt, memes, photography

Thursday Thirteen Ed. #4

Last week I was tagged by Toe, payback for tagging her :) Her tag entailed listing "10 things that I would never do". She also suggested that I do it as a Thursday Thirteen, so not only did she tag me, but she got me to do 1/3 more work than the original tag! You're a smart cookie Toe! So here are Thirteen Things I Would Never Do: Say "Happy TT" ever again, or use "TT" as a short form of Thursday Thirteen... TT in the Filipino language may be construed as referring to a male anatomical appendage, so it'll be Happy T13 from now on from me :D Stop blogging.... I dedicate this one to Leah. Spend too much time blogging and surfing the net.... I gotta be more disciplined lest this becomes some form of addiction. Whore out this blog to the advertisers. Go to a nude beach, or more specifically, be nude at a nude beach.... I've been to the one at the Toronto Islands.... not nude of course. Drink tequila ever again.... just smelling the stuff brings on flashbacks of a really bad alcohol related party incident in high school.... Become a smoker. Drink and drive. Tell the haircutting lady to use a 1.5 shaver to cut my hair ever again.... I meant to say 2.5, but it was too late when I realized my mistake! Have LASer In-situ Keratomileusis performed on my eyes..... assisting in hundreds of these procedures has turned me off to the idea, plus I'm not a perfect candidate. Dance like nobody's watching.... sorry, can't do it. Lose faith. Tag anybody ever again... maybe.... Happy Thirteening Thirteeners, and a Happy T13! Thursday Thirteen Participants: Rashenbo, Gina, Michelle at Scribbit, Raggedy, Shoshana, Chickadee, Incog, Leah, Tony, Laurence

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
I love Aruba I love Greenland I love Lesotho I love Burundi
TECHNORATI TAGS: Thursday Thirteen, memes

Wordless Wednesday V

TECHNORATI TAGS: wordless wednesday