First Semakau walk of the year ^^

Was out stalking shore critters yesterday. Yar, I know... I had to miss the first ReefWalk for this.... Found out later that they saw a nudibranch as big as a person's face (?!) Don't know if I should believe them or not.... Be prepared for a long, long entry!!

We started off the journey in a torrent of rain, with Ron trying to get us to interact a bit more since it IS an opportunity for the trainees to get to know the experienced guides. Got to the landfill area quite relaxed thanks to the light hearted atmosphere. Still raining so we waited in the canteen area. Between Semakau mangoes and table tennis, we had enough to keep us entertained.

Thankfully we didn't have to wait long, and soon we were on our way to the entry area via bus, and had a glimpse of one of the completely filled cells. Nice patch my grassy area over our burnt trash. Mr Poi's a real nice driver, even filling in more information about the filled cell for us ^^

Here we have arrived at the entry area, at the stairs leading down to the last sheltered area we would have.

And looking back at the bus...

Peiya's expression says it all, doesn't it? ^^

A quick intro to some plants and butterflies while waiting for the light drizzle to come to a complete stop.

After bashing through the forest with muddy sploches everywhere, we were greeted by this amazing area of HUMONGOUS reef flat. Tried to take a panoroma of it but forgot to change the settings, resulting in this badly done patchwork photo of part of the reef flat area. So HUGE!!!! Simply unbelieveable!!! Please click on the thumbnail to see the full scope of it. ^^

After oogling at the amount of reef/shore exposed, we started off exploring in drips and draps.

Saw so many things that I can't remember what I saw in what order, so will just present some of them here. The complete range of photos are in my Yahoo! photos.

First up is this little critter ^^ Our ever friendly anemone shrimp. Little fella was scooting around so didn't get a good shoot with its anemone. Oh well. Better luck next time!

Here's looking at ya, baby!! Baby cuttlefish!!! Only around a 1-2cm in length. This was the only decent shot I got of it. The focus on the other one was off.

One of the many nudis out in throves yesterday. Can't remember whose finger I used for a scale though....

Got scolded by E1 for not bringing down my camera the very first time we saw this Gymnodoris rubropapulosa nudibranch just off the breakwater where the replanted mangroves at Semakau while diving.

Not being an anemone person, can only tell that this is a branched anemone....

If you think this is yet another anemone, think again. It's actually a Heliofungiid, a type of solitary free-living mushroom coral. In other words, a hard coral. The tentacles somewhat resemble that of the bulbous anemone that tomato clownfish are associated with. Easily mistaken since unlike most hardcorals, these tentacles are out ALL the time.

One of the most common residents of Singapore's natural shores, the hairy crab.

Yet another commonly seen crab not just in Singapore, but seen them along Paya beach at Tioman Island in West Malaysia. Plese correct me if I am wrong but I *think* it's a sesarmid crab.

Big, fat sandfish sea cucumber. Well, it seems like the edible species of sea cucumbers are named something or another "fish". Also saw the stonefish sea cucumber but by the time I got there, waters too murky to try taking any shots. Oh well...

This fella was found amongst the seagrass field, right next to our zone of death. Can you guess what it is? It's the mouth of a synaptid sea cucumber, and they can grow REALLY REALLY long. Think this one that we saw was 1m-odd.

Another encouraging thing we saw all over the reef flat. Tonnes and tonnes of coral recruits. Something that I have yet to see at Kusu... SOOOOoooo cool seeing so many of them popping up nearly everywhere ^^

Looks like Davy Jones' locks (think pirates of the Caribbean), right? Kinda gross. This is a soft coral, one kind of dead man's fingers. ^^

I spy with my little eye a Fugu!!! This little guy was flopping about in a series of pools. Refused to keep still for a photo and kept mucking up the water.

Guess this was the reason it was so skittery. The photo's blurry but it's an attempt at a close-up of a big ugly laceration on the poor puffer.

Introducing the noble volute!!! This is the first one we saw, rather early in the evening some more.

Close up of the nicely patterned mantle. Love the orange patches. so chio~~~ *fangirls*

Then someone spotted this clump of unusual looking stuff. Looked like some kind of eggs, though only confirmed it with Zee later. These are noble volute eggs!!! A reall first for me ^^ Big thanks to Zee for the ID-ing!!

And this was the bigger one that we spotted just as we were ending the walk. Probiscus and all out, mantle nicely spread. PERFECT photo opportunity, man!!

The icons of the CJ guidebook, the knobbliy sea stars!! First time seeing them, so big!!! Pity we don't get them at Kusu. Big and colorful, definitely appeal to visitors. ^^

Up close with an arm...

And the 5 pinnacles up close... Why do they look so looming?

That's because they are THIS big!!! Practically giants compared to the dull colored common sea stars that are almost everywhere.

This fragile looking feather star aka crinoid is a familiar friend to me. But it's the first time I see one in the intertidal area!! And apparently it's a first for a Semakau walk too!

Samson found this!! A cushion star ^^ Also a first for Semakau walks. So glad I decided to tag along with Ron when he went in search of this cushion star!! Since I also caught a glimpse of a small octopus near the cushion star, though we did end up pretty far fromt he entry point....

Cushion star texture. Why's it so bumpy? It's an echinoderm, so related to crinoids and sea stars and sea cucumbers, and thus the bumpy skin. Darn... just short of a sea urchin sighting....

Dusk starts to fall but there's a bunch of us (kinda led by Ron here) at the far end of the flats... near those evil looking chimneys that are puffing out fumes....

Minus Ron, it's definitely a juxtaposition of nature and urbanisation... Oh those evil buildings in the background.....

Time to head back... See the light at the far end at the edge of the trees? That's our entry/exit point.... But wait, the sightings have nto come to an end!!!

What could this be? Looks like another anemone, but wait! It's pulsating....

It's an upside down jellyfish!!! Or at least it was until we turned it over ^^ It looks greenish because it has algae in it (are they zooxs too?) So they usually are found upside down, so as to expose as much of the algae/zoox to sunlight as possible, thus the name.

With this, the show-and-tell session comes to an end, and by right, that would have been the end of the day for me as well if I hadn't gone over to Marina South to join the rest of the RWers.... At least I got Zee to ID the clump of eggs, got introduced to yet another guide, plus had an interesting ride home with Elain, DW, and Kim Yong in MS's car. ^^ Including this excerpt of the car conversation(s) just for entertainment value (if any):

With just 2 passengers left in the car....
KY: "So where do you stay?"
J: "Boon Lay"
KY: "MS, where you staying now?"
MS(rather nonchalantly): "I'm staying over at her place"
KY: "Oh, OK."
= 5-10 seconds of silence =
KY: "Wait a minute...."
*J & MS laugh*
MS: "No la... Going back NTU...."
Shows what sleepiness does to thought processes.....

Oh, and other takes on yesterday's exploratory walk.
http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2007/01/exploratory-trip-for-semakau-guides.html
http://uforest.blogspot.com/2007/01/semakau.html
http://mantamola.multiply.com/photos/album/7
Til the next low tide then~~~

Click for the rambling...

Overdued post on Pulau Jong....

Finally dived off Pulau Jong sometime after Christmas last year but only just sorted out the photos and stuff today. *paiseh* Just a quick post before I go sort out yesterday's Semakau walk photos... Hee... Thankfully not to many photos to share since I was doing LIT for HX on this dive. The nicer ones are here but the full bunch is in my yahoo albums (also updated more random photos).

Nice big CMR

Yet another nice big fella ^^

Couple of photos of my first cuttlefish caught on camera!!!

Thorny oyster

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movie spree ^^

Seems like I have been spending more time in the cinemas watching movies the past few weeks that I have been in the entire of 2006... Haha... Interestingly enough, all three of them are all non-Chinese movies caught at the JP GV, and I felt they were all more or less worth it. Gonna do a quick movie (sorta) review here with links to the official movie sites, actually more on my impressions than on the actual plot themselves since those are easily available online.... Caught the first 2 with Wai and the last one was with MS... at the very least I now have a couple of movie kakis to catch shows near home ^^

(1) Confession of Pain 伤城
This one is a pretty straight forward usual way of telling a story in a film media, basically the story of a guy through his friend's eyes. Pretty interesting how the entire story unfolded. Rather slow going at parts but the character developments are rather interesting to watch, definitely carrying on the present fashion of making characters more believeable by projecting both the good and bad sides, thus making them more 3D and realistic to us. No real surprises in the plot (at least not to me) though the 2 leads (Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro) did more than justice to their respective characters of best friends ^^

(2) Death Note 2: the Last Name デスノート
Finally get to catch Ryuk and L on the big screen!! *fangirls* Honestly speacking, nothing very special about this Japanese movie except that the plotline diverges from the original manga. Like the change in the plot much more than the story in the manga with the introduction of M and N... Though the pity about L~~

(3) One Last Dance 茶舞
Wonderful mindboggling Chinese movie. Love the filmatography!! It's just like a very well choreographed dance~~~ Francis Ng is just perfect for the role of the gentlemen assasin ^^ *swoons* My favourite scene was the one that was showing Ko at a nightclub chatting up the girls. That entire scene was shown using polaroid photos being stacked on top of each other as the scene unfolds, with the conversation going on as pernormal. Absolutely brilliant I say!! Definitely recommend this movie to all me friends... Just maybe not after a long day since this is more of a thinking show than an unwinding one.... Probably one of the few times that an unplanned movie turned out to be a great choice ^^

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Let the lessons begin....

Only taking one module this semester but the Monday lectures are at 8am!! *whines* Plus the fact that SEA conservation taught by a couple of cynical (though inspiring researchers and mentors) is rather depressing..... Just that my semester has just started on a depressing note and that the rest of the module seems to the same. Probably not gonna be discussing much on marine conservation, except for the one guest lecture that Prof would be doing. Really makes me wonder as to whether what I am doing at the moment is going to have any impact on our environment, be it Singapore or SEA or the world. How does studying the settlement and post-settlement survivorship in Pocillopora damicornis fit into the bigger picture of it all? *sigh* Sounds pretty much like what Wai voiced out before... Can just only hope that whatever little that I am doing is like helping each and everyone of those stranded seastars and whales and dolphins... Just hope that we are not causing unnecessary damage to the environment.... *hefty sigh*

In the meantime, the group project sounds promising. No details have been ironed out so far but it seems that we would be working/proposing some possible modules that Conservation International would provide to developing countries with some aid in the education of conservation. Promising, eh? Degree of practicality/feasibility? I have absolutely no idea... Will just have to see how it all goes ^^

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TADA!!!

Here's presenting the fully functional version 2 of ASHIRA ^^ Revamping this from the original Legolas layout has caused me to learn a little more about CSS along with refreshing me rusty HTML (and has also made me realise that having blogger codes of any kind tends to cause HTML to behave strangely) If and when I find the time to dissect an iFRAMES layout in a bit to do my own, this blog would definitely be ifted up more!! In the meantime, I love this layout that combines God, blue-ness, and the sea, all-into-one.

The copyright is still up since the bulk of the coding is still MyrrhLynn's, though I sadly cannot remember where I got the main picture from. It's cropped from a wallpaper I found sometime back.

*jeeps* Have to wake up early for the first Tropical Conservation lecture tomorrow and I still haven't typed in the data for my experiments!!! Just couldn't resist tinkering with ASHIRA... Especially since it's the start of the new tear!! Not to worry, only taking Tropical Conservation this semester (and crashing a couple of extra modules) ^^ *back-to-work, back-to-work*

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And so the new year begins....

*PHEW* finally managed to change my blog layout. The year-end break has been real short, and somehow packed (I have no idea how I managed to busy myself), so I just used one of MyrrhLynn's layouts that are available on her Daystar website. Back to simple table coding, so no more messy scripts lying all over ^^ At least this time round I sorta understood most of the coding, though I still feel sorely out of practice~~ Slightly cheery-er, greener color scheme to start me year off! Loads faster too!! Too tired (after making sure all the linkies and stuff work) to actually make something that is more uniquely mine but managed to find quotes and user pics that actually match nicely ^^ Just wait til I have time to fiddle around again.. if ever that is!! *grr*

Good news is that the link to the photos is sorted out. Just a common link to the albums page of my yahoo photos but that should be it... At least til I fiddle with Picasa and see how it compares... And before I forget,

HAVE A REALLY BLESSED YEAR AHEAD!!!

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Underwater adventuring...

I know that this is kinda overdue... Been having a number of dives throughout the exam period and am just so glad I got me underwater cammie ^^ Uploaded the photos onto my Yahoo photos account but have yet to sort out the links on the blog... In the meantime, just go to the link there to see all the albums.

And here's the video I took of a crinoid swimming while we were at Raffles Lighthouse around a month back ^^

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Crumminess....

Exams maybe over and the lab back into it's nice neat state (in time for the safety check on Monday) but still feeling a little down. Tried reformatting Delphine yesterday since she seems to keep eating up my C: memory like nobody's business, but somehow managed to mess that up... Gonna try again tomorrow after I borrow some recovery CDs (while waiting for my own ones to come in). Some how am always depressed when Delphine is not in working order. Shows how addicted I am to her...

Just ended an uber long mentors meeting, and while checking the latest news online, and found out that the Sentosa IR bid went to Genting. Don't know if I should be elated/jubilated or heartbrokened that there would soon be whalesharks in Singapore.... Here's the report.

Since this would probably be my last blog entry til Delphine has been re-formatted and back in her happy state, just wanna congratulate Li Ling and Kim Yong on their wedding this weekend~~ Photos would be up once I get Delphine up and running (hopefully this by Mon), and get to organise my online photos properly...

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Couple of interesting Hokkien spoofs...

It's quite interesting what can turn up on Youtube ^^ Click to find out!!

Hokkien Bond
Lord of Hokkien

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just one more paper to go...

The past few weeks has seen me sitting alone in lab early in the morning... Just wanted to type a quick entry before settingoff for *yet* another dive at Pulau Satumu today. Do hope that the visibility would be as good as the last time ^^ Slight currents expected though

Somehow this sem's exam period doesn't feel *quite* like exam time to me.... So unmotivated to study... Have a nasty feeling that I am gonna end up with Bs for my Biophysical and Samurai modules, and can kiss my 2nd Upper goodbye~~~ Only left with Marine Biology next Tue but most of my days from now til then have stuff on. Today's dive would be to get more practise with coral ID-ing with urchin-mummy and our very own coral grandmaster!! And diving along with us would be this Canadian dude working on zooanthids at Kuroshio, Japan. He's gonna be giving a talk tomorrow on zooanthid phylogeny ^^

Really looking forward to the day ahead, especially I will be catching Happy Feet with some of the labbies ^^ Hee~~

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60 Years of Asian Heroes

Have yet to edit my first bunch of underwater photos nicely... Probably only get that done after my exams, especially since Youtube doesn't seem to wanna let me upload my video that I managed to take of a crinoid swimming *sigh*

In the meantime, came across this TIME article on 60 Years of Asian Heroes. Guess Singapore's sole claim to fame in this kind of articles would only be our very own Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew. Not surprisingly, some Nobel laureates also got dubbed "hero", such as Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (Peace prize). The winner of this year's Nobel peace prize, Muhammad Yunus, also made it into the list. A number of Japanese also made it to the list, ranging from film directors and architects to business leaders and the creators of instant noodles and Nintendo. Real glad that Miyazaki Hayao made the cut *fangirl squeal* ^^ Here's the listing of the Japanese dudes (why no dudettes?!) who have been dubbed heroes by TIME magazine:

(1) Miyazaki Hayao (STUDIO GHIBLI)
(2) Kurosawa Akira (director of 'old school' samurai flicks)
(3) Tange Kenzo (postwar architect)
(4) Morita Akio & Ibuka Masaru (the people who gave us SONY)
(5) Ozawa Seiji (maestro)
(6) Ando Momofuku (where would we be without instant noodles?)
(7) Hanae Mori, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake & Rei Kawakubo (designers)
(8) Miyamoto Shigeru (Nintendo)
(9) Oh Sadaharu (baseball)

So that's the current affairs update for now... Gotta hit the books again!!

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Last week of semester!?

CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAP!!!! It's the last week of lessons already!!! Aaargh!!!!!!! Need to organise notes and MUGMUGMUG!!! Please excuse me...Just needed a little rant-it-all-out therapeutic session before I take the plunge and finish up my samurai term paper.... It's worth 30%, and I have absolutely NO motivation whatsoever to do it properly. Guess I can kiss my 2nd Upper goodbye, and really sit down and think about whether I wanna continue with reef restoration research in Singapore (as opposed to running off to Australia/Okinawa/California to work on crinoids ot whalesharks). Can see why Wai has so much trouble sorting out options. Haha... Still have one semester and my thesis to go though. The good thing about staying with NUS (besides having funding for reef restoration stuff and TA-ship), assuming that they wanna keep me, is that there's also SPS mentoring (that would take up a chunk of my time but gets me paid)... Downside is that Prof would be away teaching in USA during my first semester of post-graduateness (if I stay on and do Master's immediately that is) Too many "ifs" floating around me head now.... Really need to concentrate on the "now" and get through this semester with minimal injuries!!!

EDIT: Before I forget again, saw my first cuttlefish in Singapore waters while diving near the breakwaters at SJI yesterday!!! Pity the crapped up vis but it was still pretty amazing!!!

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CNA provided a source of amusement and worry....

This article and video provided some source of worry in lab yesterday. (Other than the fact that none of us in lab followed the news over the weekend that is...)

70 divers help clean parts of seabed at Pulau Hantu
(here's the video with the interviews...)

The first thing that came to everybody's mind when we read/heard "We used to find a lot of construction materials, long poles, metal bars and rods." was there goes all over experimental racks!! Especially when the video showed them bringing up the some nets, AND OUR LOOSE ANGLE IRONS!!! Prof was chiding us for like having all sorts of structures all over our severely stressed reefs, and that we sould expect this kind of stuff to happen. Oh well. The good thing to note is that: (1) the navy dude used PAST TENSE when he mentioned the metal bars and stuff, probably meaning that they didn't take up many on Sat, (2) they seem to be collecting the unsecured loose bits around, (3) Singapore visibility would probably have prevented them from finding ALL our racks, and (4) personally I highly doubt if they brought lift bags and stuff to bring up the many many heavy structures we have (though them being the navy may mean they DON'T need them) and the POC/urchin-mama thinks that they should have enough sense to leave what seems to be experiments in process alone (but then to most people, those structures would just look like some weird stuff in the sea!!). We would find out after POC/urchin-mama and faviid go there today. *darn* If only I did not have this last assignment to do... would love to go and see what Hantu is like now...

Experimental gripes aside, it IS rather heartening that other fellow Singaporean divers are trying to make a difference/raise awareness of the plight of our local seas by doing this kind of clean-ups once in a while. Good job to those 70 of you!! (though we would like that our racks are left alone ^^) Hantu IS one of the very few places left in Singapore that recreational divers go to for their courses and stuff, and braving the silty waters in a clean-up attempt is really good of them but what about the trash on all our other reefs?

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Thanks Abby~~~

Sir David Attenborough was in Singapore to film some parts of "Life in Cold Blood" at Sungei Buloh. recently!!! *goes into fangirl mode* Didn't get the chance to meet him in person, though Wai and Abby did. Some photos and stuff on Wai's blog, HERE. Anyways, Abby was nice enough to make this photo of us mucking around in the mangroves with Sir Attenborough ^^


Definitely makes up for not being able to meet him... Should make good use of my Kinokuniya membership card and grab "Life on Air" or the Blue Planet book one of theses days....

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It's that time of the semester again...

Somehow this semester, all my 3 modules all don't have any mid-semester tests/quizzes but have tonnes of papers and projects to do, and since I have yet to start on ANY of them... Just can't seem to get out of this procrastination rut... Gonna stay staying over in lab like at least once a week in an attempt to get stuff started, and staying over with a fellow labbie tonight.. Thus marks my lab residing weeks... Pretty amazing that there are 4 of us still in lab at nearly 9 at night, with 2 other coral labbies staying late to do work too... Haha.. Dinner was the usual lab hodge-podge of food, and other than less traffic, it DOES seem like lab during the day...

Oh wells, better get started on stuff and not waste this time that I am scrapping out to do work... All those assignments and stuff I need to prepare for my project as well... Will ramble on some more if and when I cannot sleep....

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It's been a while since I last did any quizzes...

You Have a Phlegmatic Temperament

Mild mannered and laid back, you take life at a slow pace. You are very consistent - both in emotions and actions. You tend to absorb set backs easily. You are cool and collected. It is difficult to offend you. You can remain composed and unemotional. You are a great friend and lover. You don't demand much of others. While you are quiet, you have a subtle wit that your friends know well. At your worst, you are lazy and unwilling to work at anything. You often get stuck in a rut, without aspirations or dreams. You can get too dependent on others, setting yourself up for abandonment.

What Temperment Are You?

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first of two fieldtrips this semester...

Only having 2 official fieldtrips for 2 different modules this semester. Today's trip was to Underwater World. Difficult to be enthusiastic about it since I have been going down REALLY regularly the past 2 weeks, all just to look at my P. damicornis babies~~~ Anyways, the only "highlights" of the trip was the commentary by our respective TAs (funny how ours could remember all the scientific names of the fish and rays and sharks and wat-nots but have the common names slip his mind...), as well as the group competition on filling up the quiz (that turned out to be mainly weird marine biology non-related stuff....) Glad to say that Sponge Bob managed to complete it first!!! Porifera rules!!!

And since the UWS tickets also came with entrance to the Dolphin Lagoon, went over with YL to take a look at out very own Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins aka pink dolphins due to the curious coloration that occurs in only the adults. The juveniles are still normal dolphin grey. Compared to the image projected by many other aquariums/marine theme parks, the dolphins here are in a sandy lagoon (as natural as any other lagoon in Sentosa that are more-or-less manmade) instead of in some pseudo-tank. It's still an enclosure, just a more "natural" looking one (kinda like how our zoo structures their habitats). Nice to see that, and relatively encouraging. The size of the enclosure and the sandiness of it's shores. Won't mind working there short-term or on a temp basis. Work there for long, sure heart break one. (Please excuse my Singlish~~) The dolphins respond to all those cues from the trainers, and I just can't help but wonder how their feelings are actually like when signaled to do those tricks.... There's also the observation that there weren't any full adults there (at least we didn't manage to spot any), so we wonder if any of the dolphins are rehabilitated back into the wild... Seeing dolphins in the wild is so much more rewarding that seeing them do parlor tricks for the amusement of tourists.... Will just have to try my luck at dolphin spotting when we go diving tomorrow instead~~

Hmm.. Would be interesting to try and find out WHY this indo-pacific humpback dolphins are PINK!! Such a shocking coloration, especially when most uniquely colored animals have some sort of toxin or poison in them.... Usually camouflage plays a larger role in the coloration of a species... Perhaps this is due to the lack of natural predators, so they just lose their pigments and the pink is from the blood? *shrugs*

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it's been 3 weeks?!

Oh dear, just realised that I have gone blog-less for 3 weeks!! Hmm... What has happened since the last entry is that I have gone to Tioman (for my nav course), done tonnes of work dives in SG (though I somehow managed to escape doing any at all this week in spite of it being mid-term break), lost and found a dive slate at Kusu, and promptly lost my handphone (on the same day as finding the slate!!!).....

On top of all this, this week has been spent travelling to Sentosa EVERYDAY, to go Underwater World to count my Pocillopora damicornis larvae~~~ Been counting near to a thousand of them daily for the past 2 days... Now all the people working on corals have unofficial titles thanks to Angie.... Coral taxonomist (DW), Coral ecologist (HX), Coral conservationists (Angie, Wai), Coral master (Karenne), silt guy (Eugene 1)... And me? I'm the coral nanny... Feel like asking for a testimonial if I every decide to work in an aquarium (looking after me little ones, the fragments at the level3 aquarium, Angie's little soles, and occasionally, PY's crabbies....) In a way, it's a good thing that I don't have any pets of my own. Definitely won't have any time (or energy) to look after them...


Would be undergoing OJT on the upcoming ReefWalk on 8 Oct (Sun). Do sign up and join me!! For more details and to sign up, go to http://www.bluewatervolunteers.org/ ^_^

Also, the Sunday after that, 15 Oct, the Hantu bloggers are having another dive trip. It's SGD80. Go to the Hantu Blog at http://www.pulauhantu.org/ for more details and to signup!!

Yep, yep... Oh, one last thing. The latest issue of FiNS is out!! =^-^=

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beware of stingray!!

This may be a little late, but I still don't know if I should feel amused, bemused, or saddened about this entire incident. Steve Irwin has had his fair share of close encounters with all sorts of dangerous animals, especially crocodiles, and he met his (untimely?) end at the sting of a ray... He HAS been accused of going too close to animals while filming his documentaries, but I guess all those other animals didn't have any toxin on them to inject him with, plus I really wonder how they managed to get him on to the boat since divers are NOT supposed to ascent too fast or risk DCS... Though honestly, it's a bit of a joke to die of stingray toxin since they are rather shy creatures, and generally not known to be superbly poisonous. However, since he was filming for "Ocean's Deadliest" the ray he encountered was probably one of the few that had toxic stings? Plus the fact that he was unfortunate enough to be stabbed right in the heart (another indication of him being WAY too close)... Oh well, guess it's a mix of largely bad luck and a bit of too much foolhardiness... Wonder if he ever felt that he was invincible with all his experience in handling dangerous wildlife...

So the world mourns the loss of one charismatic wildlife documentary presenter. May not always agree with how he conducts/stages he exploits and stuff but he HAS brought nature to millions of couch potatoes and has contributed to the spreading of wildlife awareness... And so the world learns that stingrays CAN kill.... What a thought to remember as we go diving in the Singapore murk tomorrow...

Steve Irwin killed by stingray
'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin killed by stingray on Great Barrier Reef
Australian 'crocodile hunter' Steve Irwin killed by stingray

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Shower of blessings~~~

Since Sat, things have been great!!! Did our LIT training dives at Hantu on Sat, and hitting the sea after one month sure was great for all 5 of us from lab. SUre, the water is not the usual clear, blue that most divers would be used to, but it was rather interesting exploring a part of Singapore's reefs! Many happenings (yesh, me dive buddy would have LOADS to tell you!), rather trying trying to ID fish in the half-murk, though there were a couple of cool stuff spotted. Like this CUTE bumpy nudibranch with a main turqoise coloring, and a guppy at the guppy hole with it's partner shrimp digging away (probably didn't see me due to the muck!) Can just go on and on but since the more technical points are in my divelog, and the longwinded-non-technical points are in my diary (yes, it's still exists), shall not ramble on any more here...

Then there's Mon, Delphine is revived and back, safely in my arms too!! Though I probably should re-format her real soon (not this week since I have just too many things to do...). Just so happy to have her back, then can hide in room and do work and play and all the things I do with her~~~ Oh, and HY got her call that she got into SPF on Mon as well!!! *jumps for joy*

And to top this all off, THE DIVING SUSPENSION HAS BEEN LIFTED!!!!! Meaning the cloud of gloom can be finally lifted off of lab~~ *bounces* And since Wai and I don't need to meet Martin on Thu anymore, I can go join the rest of the labbies for diving on Thu~~~ And I would be going off with HX to Tioman on Fri for our navigation course. Pls, there's pizza for dinner tonight!! Life just can't get any better, can it?

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so gonna miss you....

In the midst of all the paperwork and medical checkups and trying hard to get the lab un-landlocked, Delphine decided to AWOL on me today... And since she needs to go for a checkup at the service centre, I would be laptop-less for a week~~~ *cries* Rather trying for me since it's like term-time AND my laptop is for work AND play, I wonder if how I am gonna survive this... The service centre better get it all done within the week, man!! Thankfully UROPS taught me to backup stuff, so the super important stuff like my Honors readings are on me thumb ^^ Main problem I would be facing (other than a lack of entertainment) would be not being able to charge my shuffle..... Guess this would be a good time to do my textbook muggings and pack my room....

The medical checkup today was OK, since it was basically checking the normal vitals and like reflexes etc., plus the filling up of a questionaire. Now all that's left is the HUMOGOUS sorting out of safety porotocols etc to make OSHE happy... The basic guidelines are up but seems to be insufficient... Oh well. My part in this mess is to sort out the basic First Aid Kit for both the lab and for the field...

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To ward away those back to school blues....

Here's something boliao for everybody to try ^^

[Do NOT push the red button].

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And so the semester begins....

Have had a total of one lecture this week, since the GE2018 lecturer is on MC, and I had to miss Marine Bio due to the compulsory medical examination we had, and I still need to go down to UHWC again tomorrow morning for urine test No. 2 since some protein was found this morning... Week was normal, except for the fact that we probably cannot dive for quite a while... even if we get the green light by next week, it now depends on how many of the *ancient* regulators and BCDs have been serviced/replaced... And just when I thought there was at least the LIT training dive to look forward to (and the sea to return to), just heard news that we *might* hafta postpone it!!! *sigh*

That's when I turn to blogs like Tony Wu's to cheer me up ^^ So fun!!! Wanna be at Tonga and see humpback mother and calf pairs too~~~ Not exactly at the pinacle of chirpiness but at least there's something to smile about for now.... Just wanna be able to hurry up and do trial dives in Singapore and recce possible nursery sites~~~

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Finally a morale booster!!

After goodness-knows how many semesters of seeing my CAP continuously go down the slippery slope of oblivion, it finally rises!!! *bwahaha* Yet another wonderful advantage of taking 4263, it's a CAP booster!! What more can you ask for in a module? You get to hang out/chill out for a week at Tioman, have tonnes of fun "exploring" habitats, NO exam, and get nice grades!! Wish there were more of these modules to take since I still need to YANK up my CAP if I wanna do my Master's in NUS without needing to work for a few years... But looking at this module's result, it doesn't seem THAT hopeless after all ^^ Just hope that my choice of modules this semester are good, and that I hit a few more As....

More photos have been uploaded to my Yahoo! albums, and here's a LONG overdue photo of my openwater group with Martin, our instructor and Pris and Mark our assistant instructors ^^ Just click for the full view!!

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Week of Ups and Downs...

What a week it has been... Was gearing up (literally and figuratively) for diving in Singapore tomorrow, but it is not to be~~ The whole lab is landlocked with a temporary suspension of all diving activities organised by lab, thanks to a case of DCS (decompression sickness aka bends for the un-initialised) so nobody gets to dive for a while... Prof is trying his best to get this removed since just about nearly EVERYBODY in lab needs to dive (in varying degrees that is) Poor Wai was kinda walking around looking rather depressed and worried (and a little stressed) today since she was banking on tomorrow's session at Raffles' to finish what she could not do on Tues... Do hope that all this gets sorted out soon. Not fun having everybody (including Prof) stressed and low morale...

And on to the "ups"... Got my basic gear (minus the wetsuit, since I am borrowing Jani's in the meantime...) on National Day eve~~~ *bounces* Spent just about all the leftovers of my 'ang pow' money on it, so poor Martin had to count the rather many notes.... *toothy grins* Also had quite a bit of fun copying some of the Chek Jawa cartoons that Ria did onto my mesh bag ^^ Now just need to sit back and hope to hear good news soon~~~ With the gear shopping, it feels like Absolute is turning into my third "home" (after my actual home and lab), at least for this month... Went last week to check out gear, this tues to collect gear, earlier today with HX, and next tues to try out a wetsuit that Martin managed to scout out. Funny how he called me on my handphone just as HX and I realised that he was not back at the shop... And I definitely would be in the shop at least once next month since HX and I are planning to do Underwater Navigation whilst saving up for Advance in Dec....

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LIT training course 01

Why am I blogging when I have like less than 3h to finish up my fish survey report, print it out and get to NUS to hand it in?! Just goes to show how much of report writing I can suffer from before I need a break.... The fish report is like a third done (thankfully the nightmarish freshwater one is all wrapped up!!), no time to recheck my graphs... Just gonna put them in like that and hope I don't die too badly.... And why am I in such dire states? All due to LIT training that we had last night, resulting in me reaching home at 10.40pm and two reports to finish....

Karenne's doing the first few sessions, and learnt of quite a few more survey methods briefly last night at the NParks Biodiversity Centre @ Peirce Rd. Not the most accessible place but still not too ulu... There's another session tonight, same place, same time, to continue on the LIT codes and stuff. Thank goodness I still remember a little of what Zee went through with us last year since I would be near to dead tired by then... So basically for this course, it's NIE, NParks and MBL people all being trained together to do reef surveys, and our first training dive is on the 19th... So there's like 4 days of diving for me this month!! Don't know if I should jump for joy or not.... Should stop my rant here... Need to finish my report....

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As the break fades away....

I really should be working on my report(s) for 4263 but just had to have an entry on this rather good book I came across in the library last week ^^

Was hunting around for some books on swimming when I came across the section with dive books. There was the usual array of books on dive sites all around the world, as well as books for beginners. And it was here that I found Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World by Tim Ecott. (No, it's not a book on tips on improving buoyancy!!) Initially, I thought it was just gonna be a series of dive anecdotes by the author, but it turns out to be this and more! It makes real good light reading material, and starts off with a little history about diving, and how the equipment started off prior to Jacques Cousteau's aqualung; a bit on how sponges were harvested and processed into their usable products; how the cause of bends was found out with more understanding of human physiology; divers pushing depth limits, resulting in the dicovery of nitrogen narcosis.... Have only read half of it, and am enjoying every bit of it. As far as I can tell, even the details on holothurians (the humble sea cucumbers) and sharks and physiology stuff is rather accurate. This is one author who HAS done his background reading. Definitely a good, informative book on mankind's fascination with the deep blue ^^ Do hunt it down in the library when you can!! The Dewey decimal code is 797.23 ECO-[REC].

And for those who are interested, here's the Amazon link to it:

p/s. On a sidenote, am getting my basic dive gear!! Too bad the Atomic Split Fins cost near to 200 after discount, so would be getting Tusa Imprex fins instead..... Now, back to my reports...

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Done with travelling... for now that is!

Just got back from Tioman last night. The week we spend there for 4263 was rather fruitful. Learnt quite a bit of stuff about data sampling in various habitats, and managed to get 2 dives on Saturday as well!! ^^ Just a quick run down of my week while waiting for me to sort out EVEN more photos (have yet to settle the ones from Japan and Dayang... *groans* No idea when this would be done since there's still our presentation and 2 reports for 4263 and honors stuff to do while doing our usual CORS bidding...)

Monday (17 July)
Reached Tioman in the afternoon, settled into our rooms (roomed with Jaime, Peiya, and Huiwen), everybody did a cursory "swim/snorkel test" to see if anyone was hydrophobic. The visibility could have been better but it's great to be back in the water!!!

Tuesday (18 July)
We started our set of fieldwork at the mangroves with Jeremy W at 0730h. Started off by trying to take mud/sand core samples, but that only yielded like half a crab which we probably killed during the hammering process, so the experiment was changed to Uca counting in quadrats along both sides of the stream. Basically this first day of data collection was very trial-and-error for all the 8 groups.... Still, we managed to finish mid-afternoon, giving us time to snorkel!! heehee... Our group was probably the only group that had the chance to snorkel (and actually did so) everyday! Did help that my roomies and NUS groupmates are mostly waterbabies ^^ Had our nightwalk in the mangroves that had Gwynne catching Cerberus sp. for us to see, spooky (apparently) abandoned boats in the mangrove area, as well as octopus porn in the intertidal area....

Wednesday (19 July)
Did our next sampling at Sungei Paya under JC's watchful care for our freshwater habitat. This consisted of catching fish and crustaceans after agitating them into our nets via the rain dance/rock-and-rolling. All the crazy names and stuff, it WAS rather fun to splash about in the cool stream and wondering what we would get as the nets came up. Though Gen and I weren't very amused after one net produced 175 Caridina brachydactyla, a handful of crabs and some other random stuff.... JC didn't let us off with "TNTC" either.... At least we are semi-experts at ID-ing freshwater shrimps.... Ended our sampling at a same COLD pool near some rockfalls. Had the ENTIRE group from Lat, Ngan Kee, Tohru, JC, Bryan, Genevra, Jeremy, Huiwen and me dunking ourselves into the cold cold cold water. Some of us even tried the natural cold shower slightly further up. And this was ALL before lunch.... It was onto calculations of the bidiversity indices in the comfort of an air-conditioned room ^^ Helped Kathy drown (and preserve) a red-eyed reef crab in the middle of it all, and with the analysis done, it was off to snorkelling we went!!! Started off with Bryan, Jeremy, Huiwen and I, but some how our bunch got mixed in with some of the snorkelling TAs (Jeremy W., Eunice, and JC). The good thing about snorkelling with TAs is that they not only point out stuff to you, they also ID some of it ^^ Also found out that JC took his OW with Absolute a couple of weeks before mine... haha, such a small world.... The nightwalk yielded one caught dogfaced watersnake (my pet for the day ^^), as well as a couple of Giant Malayan Frogs, sighting of a few fireflies, and not forgetting the catfish that decided to get a taste of Dr Yeo's finger ^^

Thursday (20 July)
Went up the hill in search of reptiles and amphibians with Ming, Heok and Lat, didn't see many, though we sure got our share of a workout. Nothing much can be said of the day, except for the climb up and the interesting "shrine" under Mother Willow that had mineral water and cigarettes as offerings. Gecko eggs were also rather abundant near Mother Willow. Had the afternoon free for snorkelling again, and I managed to spot a black tip reef shark!!! Too bad none of the others did. The nightwalk we had has GOT to be the craziest we have had through the week! Went boulder climbing/scampering around the small isle just off Paya beach. AT NIGHT. WITH SLIPPERY ROCK OYSTER encrusted rocks at the base. All in search of seasnake(s) that were laying eggs at the higher areas... Was freaking out at quite a few of the more challenging areas. Managed to get through them thanks to help from Gen and Ming, as well as only thinking of moving ahead one boulder at a time.... SCARY!!! Couldn't avoid the rock oysters at the end, and JUST had to go slip on a rock and ram my left leg into some.... nice long cuts all over as my battle wounds (soon to be battle scars) And after this, we all agree that Ming is one heck of a crazy, half-mountain goat TA!!

Friday (21 July)
Last day of actual data collection and work, and our group had fish surveying with Jeff, meaning SNORKELLING!!! One FULL day!!! Which also meant sticking wounded left leg into salt water.... Stung a bit but it was still good to be in the water, half drifting and counting and ID-ing fishies (sorta) all day long. At least I got to practise recognising fishies ^^ So bad at ID-ing fishies... Forgot sunblock for the entire day, so now my back is a full shade darker that my arms, as well as slightly burnt... [Bring on the aloe!!] Best part, NO nightwalk!!!

Saturday (22 July)
Finally a day all to ourselves and our gimmicks!!! Spent the morning snorkelling at the Marine Park near Tekek and at Renggis. Spotted another black tip at Renggis and this time Huiwen and Peiya saw it too!!! So I was NOT hallucinating! Somehow the 3 of us were part of the crazy group that decided to fight the current a whole bunch at Renggis, resulting in tired little us that set out to dive after lunch.... "Jie Lo Mi" and Jeremy joined us for 2 dives at (no) Lobster Bay and 1-3 Bay... Loads of gorgonians, whip corals, gobies, nudibranchs... Saw a large angelfish and moral eel too. And my buoyancy doesn't seem to suck as much as I thought it did. Then again, we were diving at nearly double the depth that I did for most of my OW dives.... Had to add another 2 lbs to get down some how, but at least I was able to control how close I was to the corals ^^ *jumps for joy* Though I did feel like screaming at half of the other divers who had stuff dragging THROUGH the soft corals, or were happily LANDING ON corals!!! Peiya also took a real funny photo of the 2 of us... haha... Reached back real late, just in time for the group performances, and Ling Han's group had a real interesting "Tioman the Musical" for us ^^ Had a bonfire on the beach, and stayed up late teaching (and playing) bridge to (with) Jie Lo Mi (along with Jaime and Peiya)

Sunday (23 July)
Had a slow lazy morning. Breakfast, stamping of divelog, last minute souvenir shopping... The ferry came early at 1100h instead of 1200h but somehow it went to Tekek, then Berjaya, Tekek again, and then to Paya again. While it was going to-and-fro, caught most of "Shinobi" on the overhead TVs, and was giving the gist of the story to JC since the subtitles were in Malay.... Reached NUS near to 2100h (slight jam at Woodlands checkpoint, Malaysian side that is), and lugged some stuff back to lab.

Thus ends the one week of fun and excitement in Tioman. Hopefully would include some photos soon....Need to get back to reports and presentation....

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pirates 2...

Caught Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest this morning with Kat. Rather fun thrill ride of a show, though the plot IS simple (but then again, since when does Disney ever make movies with cheem plotlines?) Great seeing Kat back after a year of absence, and it was fun chatting and kinda catching up, despite me having to rush back to NUS for 4263.... Love the show, though the end REALLY left a whole buncha untied ends, thus ensuring attendance for Pirates 3 which is coming out next year (boy do I hate cliffhangers in movies, as well as the sudden popping up/reviving of previous characters...) Orlando Bloom still can't act for nuts (I mean, show SOME expression when your fiancee is kissing someone else for goodness sake!!) though he sure packs a punch in swordfights... Keira Knightley kicks ass!!! 'Nuff said ^^ Definitely NOT your stereotypical damsel-in-distress!! And Johny Depp, the serendipitious, fast-talking, witty Captain Jack Sparrow is THE man making it a more-than-average entertaining show, savvy?

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yesh... i haven't been updating~~~

okies.... this marks the return of my life as a blogger... *gosh!! haven't blogged for a MONTH* main reason why I haven't been updating is that I have no idea where to start organising my 1gig+++ worth of photos that I took in Japan... Most of them being scenery or flowers, then there's Dayang (and I only managed to get photos off Mark.....) So, updates on wat has been happening since my last post..... Going backwards from today...

1) 1st BWV AGM as a registered organisation!!! Have no idea why I went for the AGM (other than the email that MS sent to tell the ReefWalkers abt it...) Everybody seemed to know everybody else lor... But it was a gd way to meet the other pple (not from lab) that are involved... Plus got a lift all the way home!! Thanks DW!!! So now we haf Zee and Abby as our chair and vice respectively, and they are both busy with finishing up their theses ^^

2) started on the field studies mod last wed, heading out to Tioman on Monday (17 July) ^^ We actually have a free day on Sat, and I do hope the weather holds up and I can go dive (and get more prac on my buoyancy~~) This just means that I haf gotta go change more money to dive... Can't wait to save up and get my own equip, man~~ The lectures have been quite rushed, and I just hope that I can rush out our 2 indiv reports by 04 Aug... Need to start reading up on stats as well... Need to do some basic stats for our reports, and I DEFINITELY need to quite a bit for my hons that I wld start work on when I get back from Tioman....

3) finally went for basic openwater!! *jumps for joy* did our 5 dives at Dayang 30Jun-02Jul.. photos would be up once I bug the rest from Belle and HX... the trip was a whole bunch of fun thanks to HX, Belle, Yanmei, K-yang, Isaac, Dan, ZF, as well as the instructors and DMs from Absolute (Martin, Mark, Pris, Yao...) Great pple, and all the pple staying at the resort gathering to watch World Cup on Sat too~~ Funny how everybody seems to be at Dayang at the same time. Weidi was there w another diveshop, Andrew was doing advance, even Gill's Jacki was ard.... To my OW group, "Peeps! Thanks for the great fun, and it's time to start saving for advance~~~"

Not many underwater photos since Mark only brought his digicam dn for the last leisure dive...

PHOTOS~~

Juan is finally diving!!! (With Pris just below, a demo of our multi-layered diving ^^)


Quick demo on mask clearing ^^


Bumphead parrotfish (aka reef luohan) with 2 other smaller fishies...


One of the turtles that we saw on just abt EVERY dive (except for the first one that is)

4) The internship w JTB was a blast!! 3 weeks of doing all sort of paperwork, booking of tour groups, plane flights, train tix, packing of goodie bags.... it has been a real great experience.... just too much for me to say everything here, so I guess it would hafta wait til I put the photos up on my yahoo albums, and add my comments in the captions ^^ and there was also the drastic change in hairstyle btwn Japan and Dayang.... hee~~

And coming up, there's Youth Sunday on this Sunday!! In the choir again, but Min's solo is absolutely gorgeous~~~

p/s. reminder to self. must try and blog in PROPER english. The rate I am going, my english is just gonna go down the drain and I can just forget about JET altogether~~~ *whines* And just for the fun of it, this is how much my blog seems to be worth at the moment, in spite of me NOT having any ads or anything... Maybe I should just put some up and get my blog to earn soe money for me *ponders* Should go bug Watson and Walt on how to go about doing something about it...

My blog is worth $3,387.24.
How much is your blog worth?

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