Look who's baaaaack!

I went to my happy place (re: the fish store) over the weekend. Picked up a couple of things and one of them is the queen beotch of my tank -- Heatha tang! You might wonder why I call this fish the queen beotch. Yellow tangs are very aggressive towards other tangs/sturgeon fishes in an aquarium. This fish just kicks the other fishes asses. She's the ruler of the tank. She swims around spreading her fins and looks very obnoxious. She's a real beauty though. Very attractive fish. the last yellow tang in my tank got stuck at the side of one of the recirculating pumps inside the tank.

I also picked up this clown tang. I haven't decided whether it's a he or a she and I haven't named it either. Any suggestions for the name? Sorry, the picture is a little bit blurry. It's unfortunate that some of my fishes do not know how to pose for a picture.

Aside from the fish, I picked up 3 different acropora (hard stoney coral) mini colonies. The colors in these pictures really do not do justice to the coral.


I've never seen anything as purple as this piece in person. When i saw it at the store, I just had to have it in my tank.


This another sweet piece. It has this blue-ish purple-ish hue to it. If you look closely, you'll see my kole tang (also unnamed) behind this coral.


This one's very colorful. It's almost bright yellow. I really like this piece as well.


Here's another full tank shot taken tonight by Arvin. I've added more rocks and moved some stuff around. I still see a lot of empty spaces though. My tank is far from being full in my opinion. My hunt continues for more corals that I can put in my tank!

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

We went to watch the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee last night. The premise of the show is these adults who play the role of kids competing in a spelling bee. The performers were wonderful. The show was hilarious! I was laughing a lot during the show. I've never heard of most of the words that they were asked to spell like for instance: syzygy, yeoman, crepuscule, chimerical.

The show had a lot of funny lines. My favorite was when Marcy Park (one of the participants in the contest) shouted out: Jesus, I always knew you were asian! LOL!

Lot's of catchy tunes and truly an enjoyable show.

Rent (The movie)

I picked up a copy of the Rent DVD. I missed it when it came out on the big screen few months back.

They did a good job making the movie and keeping it in its musical format. The actors and actresses were great. Such wonderful voices! I felt something was missing from the movie though. I still like the stage version a lot better. Nothing compares to watching it live on Broadway. It's an experience in itself. I love feeling the energy and enthusiasm radiating from both the performers and audience in the theatre and sadly enough, this is something that could not be captured on film.

It's been a while since I last watched Rent on Broadway. It's one of my favorite musicals. I was singing along while watching the movie. Gotta love having subtitles on the DVD. I was actually singing the correct lyrics instead of butchering the song! I already butcher it enough with my singing.


I know almost all of the songs in the show. I've overdosed on Seasons of Love long time ago. This is my favorite song from the show:

Finale B

There is no future
There is no past

Thank God this
Moment's not the last

There's only us
There's only this
Forget regret or
Life is yours to miss

No other road no other way
No day but today

YD: Yoohoo, Green Chick!!!

Ciao Bella!

Hello, it's me, Jack the yellow lab. I've had so much fun blogging last time and I still have a lot of things to say so I am back. My mommie has given me Expilict un-Spoken Permission to write on her blog. I think that's what you humans call as ESP. I'll be prefixing all my blogs with YD as in Yellow Dog so that you won't confuse my blogs with my mommie's blogs.

A nicely framed poster has magically appeared on our wall. I still haven't decided whether the green goes well with our orange walls (I better say that it does look good or else my mommie might get upset at me and won't let me blog anymore). The poster has this picture of 2 women with hats. One of them is white and the other one is green. The white chick is whispering something to the green chick. I wonder what she's saying that's making the green chick smile. Oh, and then there's something scribbled on the poster using a silver sharpie and a pink sharpie. Different handwritings so obviously it's from 2 different individuals. Sorry, I'm just a dog so I don't know how to read the scribbly thingys. Teehehehehe...


Somehow, something tells me that it has something to do with the music that is blasting over and over on the stereo. Even I, the yellow dog can memorize it already. It goes like this:

It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!
It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!

Apparently, so it seems, one of the chicks fly. I'm guessing it's the green one. I've always wanted to know how it feels to fly. I've tried putting on my superdog costume but unfortunately, I still didn't fly. I have also tried the AHVEN, TATEY, AVEN TATEY AVEN AH MAY AH TAY ATUM AH MAY AH TAH TAY MAY TU SE SAY TA levitation spell I found off some libretto on the Internet but it didn't work. Maybe I'm pronouncing it all wrong with my doggie accent. The best I have done so far was fly from the floor and on to the couch when some guy who was a visitor of ours was sitting on it. Yep, the person sitting on the couch saw 85lbs of dog! I gotta find this green chick and ask her what her secret is. Y'all know what they say, "Ev'ryone deserves the chance to fly!"

So if you know who the green chick is, can you please ask her if she would be willing to share her secret with a nice somewhat well behaved yellow doggie?

Arrivederci per ora! I don't really speak Italian but Google is my friend.

Amore sempre,
Jack il lab giallo

Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

I finally finished Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West book by Gregory Mcguire. Originally, I wasn't too sure if I was going to read this or not since I really loved the musical and I heard that the book is so much different. I decided to just get it over with just read the darned thing.

This book wasn't an easy read for me for 2 different reasons:
1.) I have a preconceived notion of how some of the charcters looked like and what their relationship was with one another. I was imagining the characters in the book to look the same as the characters in the musical. I had a hard time going along with the charater descriptions in the book. Take for instance Elphaba. In my head I see Eden Espinosa in green. It doesn't really work for the book since she's much prettier than the descriptions in the book and her features are so much different. Plus the fact that in the first part of the musical, Elphaba was this very naive and vulnerable girl and it wasn't played out this way in the book. She was more of a skeptic and quite fiendish from the start in the book. I know I should've separated the book from the musical however, I could not help it since I saw the musical first and I really loved it.

This is Eden in green:


2.) The pace of the book was really sloooooooooow. I enjoyed the first part of the book that talked about Elphaba's childhood up to the point when she was at Shiz. I wasn't really too thrilled with the middle part of the book. I was so tempted to skip the middle chapters but I promised myself that I was going to read the whole darned thing. It just dragged on and on and didn't really start picking up until Part V: The Murder and Its Afterlife when Dorothy appeared in Oz and things started to pick up and became interesting again.

If I had to rate the book, I would give it 3 stars out of 5 just for ingenuity. The book has such a wonderful premise. I applaud Gregory Mcguire for taking the fairytale Wizard of Oz, shaking it up and making the story stand up on its head. It's a completely different view of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wizard of Oz. They writing style is a little bit dry and oftentimes boring as hell. In the middle part of the book, I can only go through several pages before my eyes would start to roll towards the back of my head. If I probably haven't seen the musical, I would've given up after the first part of the book.

The book is so much darker and has a lot of political tones and some sexual scenes which is absent from the musical (well, of course!). The musical is a very loose adaptation of the book however, I enjoyed the story in the musical a lot more. I liked the fact that they concentrated more on the friendship of Elphaba and Glinda. Hey, what can I say, I'm shallow. :P

This book would've been wonderful for discussions regarding good and evil in the Philosphy of man class that I took in college. It brings up questions such as: a.) What is evil? b.) Does evil exist? c.) Is a person born evil or is evilness thrust upon them? I guess I could try to find discussion groups for the book but I just don't feel like reading it all over again at a much slower pace.

My favorite quotes from the book that are pretty much absent from the muscial are the following:

"People always did like to talk, didn't they? That's why i call myself a witch now: the Wicked Witch of the West, if you want the full glory of it. As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway, why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention" --Elphaba

"People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us. It's people who claim that they're good, or anyway better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of." --Boq

"Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny." --Princess Nastoya

I'm putting down my notes here regarding some of the differences of book from the musical that I'd like to remember without having to read the book all over again. If you have plans on reading the book, please read this blog no further.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

* Frex did love Elphaba although not as much as he loved Nessarose. He considered Elphaba to be the strong one among his kids and she didn't need any type of protection.
* Boq knew Elphaba before they met at Shiz. They were in the same play group when they were little.
* Fiyero is married with 3 kids. So pretty much, Elphaba was having an affair with a married man. There were rumors that Glinda and Fiyero had relations but it was just rumors.
* Avaric is not Fiyero's servant.
* Elphaba is allergic to water. So it may be true that water did melt her when Dorothy threw a pail of water at her. Not with the intention of killing but instead of saving her from burning.
* Fiyero was murdered. It's a little bit unclear whether it was because of Elphaba or because he was a Winkie prince.
* Chistery was not the wizard's monkey servant. Elphaba saved the monkey from being killed by the dog while on their way to Kiamo Ko. Later on she was trying to teach the monkey to talk.
* Elphaba found the Grimmerie at the floor of a wardrobe at Kiamo Ko. The wizard only got hold of the Grimmerie through Dorothy after Dorothy killed the witch and went back to Oz with proof that the witch was dead. Dorothy also brought back the green elixir bottle back to the wizard and not Glinda.
* It was Glinda that placed a spell on Nessarose's shoes and not Elphaba. Glinda was more of a secondary character in the book. There really wasn't that much about the friendship between Glinda and Elphaba in the book.
* Boq was more of a primary character in the book and Glinda was a secondary character.

Open letter from my computer

Why the hell are you always in front of me? You look at me more than you look at anything else. I could not remember a day that you were never in front of me. If there was such a thing as having a reflection burn in, I would have the imprint of your face smack dab right at the center of my screen.

You oftentimes complain about lower back pain and stiff shoulders. Well guess what? It's because you sit on your butt all day long! Good thing thing the chiropractor's office is just round the block from work. You've had carpal tunnel syndrome yet you don't cut down the number of hours that you spend tapping on the keyboard. Whatever you're doing must be very important or not but I promise I will never tell!

You my dear are addicted to the web. No doubt about it. You spend countless hours on the Internet just poking around or going to your countless message boards. I am pretty sure that you will suffer from withdrawal syndrome if ever your Internet connection is taken away.

You want me to do what? You are way too demanding! You take multitasking to the nth degree. You like spreading the love around, no wonder I am not your only computer at work. You're such a control freak too. You always need to have full rights on everything you manage or else you won't manage it at all.

Please, get off me and do something else!

Love,
Your computer (you never gave me a name)

Tough week

I am so glad this week is over. This has been such a tough week for me. I felt like screaming several times at work out of frustration. Actually, I did scream but not in anyone's face. I normally do not swear no matter how pissed off I am however, this week, I think I broke all records. I've never heard myself swear so much in 1 day! I also got really good at giving the 1 finger salute on both hands to my computer's screen. A lot of my pet peeves seemed to just appear out of nowhere. There were just too many fires to put out.

I kept on listening to Another Day (sung by Kitchie Nadal) just to get me going. Here's my favorite part of the song:

Like a spiral staircase down I go losing every step
I sense an earthquake I.L.U.
Don't even know how to say
When will it break
Today is gone but tomorrow will be okay
I'll wait another day

Hopefully next week will be better...

My Obsession

No, it's not Wicked the musical! :P

I became a reef aquarium enthusiast about 2 years ago. It all started with me wanting to get a gold fish bowl when we were still living in a small apartment. We had an aquarium when I was growing up but I never really had anything to do with it. I've never kept fish in my life. At the time I was thinking about getting a pet fish, I went on a business trip to NY and my co-worker Heather (she has a 72 gallon freshwater tank) told me that if I wanted to get fish, I need to start off with at least a 20 gallon tank since it's easier to keep the water stable. At least if the heater got busted, the bigger tank, the longer it would take for me to have boiled fish. One day, she took me to this fish store during lunch time. They had this saltwater tank on display and I just fell in love with it. That's when I decided that I wanted a saltwater tank. Heather told me that if I wanted a reef aquarium, I would probably need at least a 30 gallon tank. When I got home, I dragged my hubby to the fish store to look at aquariums. I was originally going to get a 36 gallon bowfront (curved front -- looks really nice) but when we got to the store, Arvin liked the form factor of the 46 gallon bowfront compared to the 36 gallon. So, we ended up buying a 46 gallon bowfront tank. After several months, I filled up my 46 gallon tank with mostly soft corals since my lighting couldn't support the hard stoney corals. I know, wrong move but I didn't know anything at that time. Anyways, I decided that once we get our own place, I was going to get at least a 90 gallon tank.

My current tank is a 100 gallons. Yep, it's HUMONGOUS! But I still want something bigger. Maybe a custom 1000 gallon in wall tank (Hopefully once we get a bigger house). My current tank is 5 feet across and 22 inches tall. It's predominantly hard stoney corals which take forever to grow (I'm learning how to be patient since only bad things happen quickly in a reef aquarium). I have some soft corals as well but it's not that much since I am hooked on the hard stoney corals even though it's harder to keep them. I view it as a challenge. The tank is still a work in progress. I still need more rock (maybe another 100lbs or so) and I can still see a lot of empty spots.

Right now, I only have 8 fishes in my tank. I have 2 clown fishes, 1 kole tang and 5 blue chromis. I used to have more however, my fish seem to have the habit of committing suicide (jumping out of the tank) whenever I am out of town. I've had my clown fishes for about 2 years now. I've named them Ernie and Bert. They're supposed to be a mated pair. They are asexual at birth and one of them is supposed to turn into a female. I don't know which one is the female and which one is the male. I somehow have made the conclusion that my clown fish are gay, hence the Ernie and Bert names.

I went to the local reef club's coral frag swap today and scored several nice pieces. I actually won twice during the raffle draw. I'm so happy! I've never won anything at a raffle so this is a first for me. Very nice corals. Would've cost a lot if I had to buy it from the fish store.

Here are some pictures of of my obsession. I don't recall ever showing anyone pictures of my tank ever since I moved everything from the 46 gallon bowfront to my current 100 gallon tank. So here you go. All pictures were taken by Arvin. Thanks sweetie! These pictures really don't do justice to the colors of the tank. You NEED to see it in person. You can't even see the shimmering effect of the metal halide lights in the picture.

My prized pink ricordia (this is quite rare)


Rose bubble tip anemone (yes, it's Nemo's home)


Left side of the tank


Center of the tank


Right side of the tank


Acropora mini colony (I won this at the raffle)


Frogspawn


Acropora (I grew these from 2 one inch frags. It's almost a mini colony now)


Staghorn (Really looking forward to the day when this starts branching off. It's going to be really sweet!)


Any reef aquarium enthusiast would tell you that it's an expensive hobby. The equipment, test kits, fish, corals cost a lot plus the equipment consumes a lot of electricity (it's 80% of my electric bill). My dad once asked me how much I've spent in this hobby. Ever since I started, I've never kept a tally of how much I have spent. I feel that it will take the fun out of the hobby once I start keeping track. It's so worth it for me though. It has helped me decompress when I feel stressed out. There's nothing more relaxing than watching my aquarium. I love tinkering around with stuff in the tank and I love seeing the corals grow. I feel a sense of accomplishment when things start thriving in my tank. I love it!

Yes, I am obsessed with this hobby. :)

The Yellow Dog Blogs!

My mommie has been slacking off on her blogging. She's taking too long to find a topic that she wants to write about and she's been busy with a lot of things. Her co-worker Auntie Heather told her one day that she has to write something about me however, my mommie's too darn lazy these days so I figured I would hijack her laptop and write the blog myself. Hehehehehe....

First off, let me introduce myself. If I'm going to be a permanent fixture on my mommie's blog, you definitely need to know about me. :) My name is Jack. I am 16 months old. My birth certificate says that I am a purebred male yellow labrador retriever and I was born on October 5, 2004. My doggie daddy is a black labrador and my doggie mommie is a yellow lab. I have 8 siblings. My mommie and daddy picked me out of the litter because I was the fattest and the cutest puppy!

My mommie originally wanted to call me Max however when she saw my sweet face, she changed her mind and thought that my face was too sweet and Max was too tough of a name for me. I did not have a name for about a day or so. My mommie and daddy had a list of names that they were trying out but they could not agree on a name for me until one day, while watching a TV show that had the tick tick boom boom music and a clock ticking all the way up to 24 on the screen, they decided to call me Jack after this guy called Jack Bauer. You know, it's confusing for me sometimes since these voices on the TV keep on calling this guy Jack and I keep on thinking that they're calling me. I come over to the TV and try to sniff their butts to figure out if I know them or not and they don't even say hello to me. Such snobs!

I was about 8 weeks old and weighed 12 lbs when I first came to live with my mommie and my daddy. Lately I have been eating a lot and I sort of just grew big but I am not fat or anything. I have big bones and huge feet. I am just a big lab. My mommie could no longer carry me and both her and my daddy complain whenever I step on them. My mommie says that I am no longer a lap dog and I can only put my head on her lap but not sit on her lap because I'm too heavy. Last time I went to the vet, I weighed 93 lbs. Pretty impressive, eh? BUT I am still pretty much a puppy. I think like a puppy and behave like a puppy because I am a puppy and will be one until I am about 3 years old.

You can say I am an educated dog. I have graduated from Pet Smart's Doggie Kindergarten Class and the Advanced class. I know how to do the following:

1. sit
2. down
   
3. stand
4. stay (sometimes)
5. heel (sometimes)
6. train my mommie and daddy to let me out the back door when I want to go out by scratching on the nearest door
7. give my daddy this stare when I want another scoop of that tasty dog food
8. high five
9. give me five
10. kiss my mommie (sometimes when I feel like it --she says I'm stingy with my kisses)
    

I am a highly motivated dog as long as you have food with you. I will do anything for food! If you don't have food and you want me to do something, my mommie says that I have selective hearing.

I own a basket full of tennis balls bought from Costco. It helps a lot that I have scattered the balls all over the house since it's easier for me to look for them once my mommie or my daddy tells me to go get my ball. Aside from tennis balls, I go crazy over my duck. It quacks whenever I bite down on it. It does not fly or run away from me. I think it likes when I play with it. However, it has been replaced several times since once in a while, I try to tear it apart and it starts spilling its guts out -- not good at all since my mommie takes it away from me and puts it in the garbage bin. Poor duckie. My mommie buys me a lot of toys. Lately, she bought me this frisbee shaped toy. I think the thing is broken. It does not fly at all! All it does is go in circles on the floor for about 2 hours when it is turned on and is very noisy. My mommie calls it Roomba. She absolutely loves the thing since it seems to be sucking all of the hair that I shed on the floor. I keep on wondering whether it is my toy or her toy. I have yet to figure this one out. I love toys however, I would really love to have one of my daddy's socks but he yells and screams at me whenever I go in the closet and borrow one of them. I love how it smells. ;)

My mommie is now telling me to go peepee and poopoo outside since we're going to bed pretty soon so I have to go now. I promise I will be back to tell you more... :)

Until then.

Love lots,
Jack the yellow lab

Hot Seat Day

Today was my hot seat day on the Judith McNaught Bulletin Board. Click on the title to go to the bulletin board posts.

I would suck as a...

Ever wonder what your profession would've been if you're not doing what you are currently doing?

I thought it would be good to compile a list of jobs and write down a reason why it was such a good thing that I didn't go into that profession.

I would suck as a SINGER
Considering I am off key most of the time. I sound the same in every song that I sing when I am in the shower. It starts raining when I sing. Heck, I even have a hard time talking! I'd rather listen to music and let the pros do their job. I don't take criticism so well. I do have utmost respect for people in the arts -- no matter how good they are, someone is bound to criticize them but they still keep on going. The world would be a sad place if they stopped performing.

I would suck as a CONCERT PIANIST
Yes, I was sent to piano lessons since I was about 8 years old till I was 15. I swear to you, I never memorized a single piece. It was pathetic! I managed not to go to any recital in 7 years! I am amazed at how I managed to do it. I think I eneded up chatting more with my piano teacher than actually playing the piano, so yes, I would definitely suck at this.

I would suck as a TAXI DRIVER
I am pretty bad when it comes to directions. I always manage to get myself and my hubby lost whenever I navigate. I can read a map (I think!) although I have a hard time trying to figure out which way the map should be facing. I know, there's the GPS now however, how many taxis have you seen that are equipped with a GPS?

I would suck as a GOLFER
I admit, I have a full set of clubs somewhere in our garage. Only the 7 iron has been used. That's the only club that I can actually hit the ball with. Plus, I could not find the logic behind hitting a ball and then running around trying to look for it. Anyone want a full set of clubs?

I would suck as a NORDSTROM CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE
I don't think I can keep a smile on my face if someone is yelling at me. I would be so tempted to yell back. I like to be the one doing the yelling and not the one getting yelled at. It's amazing that 2 weeks have passed and I haven't yelled at any of the vendors that we're working with. It used to be a daily occurence. Some of the products just suck big time!

I would suck as an ACCOUNTANT
I can't even balance my own checkbook. I had one accounting class in college and I almost flunked it. I can't do my own taxes (I'd rather pay someone to do my taxes). I can't count money. But one thing's for sure, I CAN spend money.

I would suck as a WRITER
I can't stick to one topic. I'm probably not feeling well if I did. Plus I can't think of anything really interesting to write about except stuff that I have here in my blog. Writing an essay that's at least 1000 on one topic in college was torture for me. I go off on different tangents. I tend to rant and blabber so being a writer is out of the picture.

I think I am convinced that there is nothing else in this world that I can do aside from my current line of work. I've been working in IT for about 9 years now. I love what I do. I love the different challenges that I face in my job.

I am such a geek...