Got New Bling! (24.09.2010)

Got Braces! and Scott gave me a new nick name - shiny.

It doesn't hurt as much as I expected it to be, but I got a premature contact between buccal cusp of 13 and the bracket on the 44. It's really annoying. Because of it, all other teeth are 2-3mm apart when I attempt to bite together. That means no chewing



of anything. So I have been on congee, soup,and smoothies for a week. I am hoping this will at least help me to lose some weight. LOL

Anyways, I have booked an appointment tomorrow to get this bracket moved out of occlusion. So, hopefully, I'll be able to eat better soon.


The total estimated time for the treatment is 2 years. I'm hoping that my teeth will be nice and move into position within 1.5 yr. So, I will be braces free before I graduate. Wohoo~

Fun!

My Avatar Moment @ Cairns 16th Jul 2010

July 16th 2010, it took us 3 hours of taxi + flight to get to Cairns and almost 3 hours of rocky boat ride to get to the final destination - the Kangaroo Explorer on the Great Barrier Reef.

Every minutes of the 3 days 2 nights spent on and under the boat was amazing. What I saw in the water was just breath taking. Surrounded by hundreds of different and unfamiliar life forms, I had a real-life Avatar moment. This experience really is too much to be described by words. So, hopefully these pictures can show parts of what I see with you. :)

A Year Later...

Haven't been posting any updates for awhile. The last update will be one year old in a week. lol Started to share blog with a couple of my good friends, so I guess it's about time to be less lazy now...

Lots of things have happened this year. Misty was rehomed. Then, we adopted Sooki who soon became BFF with Heelo. I have added two more fish tanks, one 2.5ft divided for shrimp breeding and the other is 4 foot sectioned for fish breeding. Started 3 different feeder worm culture to keep all fishes happy. Also, added a still-water bucket pond on the balcony for plant growing.



Also, both Scott and I have gained another year. We celebrated our 5th year anniversary + Scott's 31st birthday floating above the Great Barrier Reef outside of Cairns Qld. Reef diving is definitely the most amazing experience I have had so far. Highly recommended!


At school, I have gained another year of learning and clinical experience. It definitely has not been easy, but I thoroughly enjoy all the learning activity, especially the hands-on ones!

Biologically, I have grown another 5cm of hair and gained 2kg of weight compare to last year's average. lol

The one thing that has not changed in my life is that Scott and I are still very happy and much in love with each other.
5 years ago in Vancouver BC --> last week at Gold Coast Qld

We really haven't changed much, have we?

Soon more updates to come! Cheers!

Little Bugs

I got crazy little bugs colonizing in my shrimp tank. They are very tiny (>1 mm).

Setting up my 30gl tank

I decided that I need an aquarium to stare at. So, I looked around online and found this lovely setup for sale. 3 footer tank + stand, gravel, filters, heater, light, plus all that chemicals, fish food, and equipment, you'll ever need for a good bargain price. So, I snatched it up.


It took me about 2 months to figure out what plants I want in there and how I would like to arrange them. Many ideas were tossed around....

1. started wanting it to be just a bare bottom tank with some Java fern attached to wires. (Rob, thanks for the ferns!) I had Discus fish before, so liked the ease of bare bottom tank. But realize this looks too stupid and ugly for keeping shrimps.

2. Then, decided to put in the gravel. Found nice river rocks at a the garden in school, garbage bagged some home. Saw a great looking stick in neighbor's balcony, knocked on the door, offer to buy it off them, nice neighbor laughed and just gave it to me. Took 4 days to waterlog the stick. It's sinking nicely now. Now, it look like an average Gold fish aquarium.

3. went to a LFS, and purchased some plants. And through private sale online, I found good amount of Christmas moss. Tied half to the stick and sandwich half in wire screens to make little moss tents on the gravel.

4. A couple weeks after 3., some plants didn't do well. I realized it's because we purchased some plants which were grown in CO2 and high light tank at the LFS. They couldn't adjust to my no CO2, no fert, and medium light tank. So, most of them turned brown, rot away. Even though new healthy shoots formed, but the growth is very slow and most of the main plant rot and polluted the tank too much. So, we decided to pull out all the half-dead plants and put in more hardy plants. Here is the final result. I LOVE how green everything looks now.

A list of what I have in there:
- Echinodorus, Red October
- Echinodorus osiris
- Echinodorus amazonicus
- Echinodorus bleheri 'compacta'
- Echinodorus ozelot
- Christmas moss
- Peacock moss
- Windelov
- narrow leaf java fern
- java fern
- water sprite

These are all low demand, fast growing plants. Also are rather algea resistant.

love my tank!