- Why "ASHIRA"? |
- Photos |
- Videos |
- Dives |
- 海楽園の旅人
Friday, 16 February 2007
Ghost Rider
Ponders
juanicths
at
23:42
0
scritch-scratch
Happy Chinese New Year!!
Really need to increase my productivity rate since our mid-semester break is half eaten up by the CNY celebrations/holidays, and there's my AOW and the Hantu bloggers anniversary dives in Mar. Not to mention whipping my thesis into shape and finishing our tropical conservation project by the end of Mar as well. Would get to know the results of my summer internship application by mid-Mar, so there's that to stress over. After finding out that there's another summer field studies thing that I also wanna go for, I don't know if I would be happy if I get to go California. Nowhere near completing the exploration of SEA diversity and stuff!! *How?* For all my ranting, might not even get into either summer prog since they only have like 10 vacancies each... Oh well, if you see me with like no hair in April, you'll nknow why. ^^
Anyways, here's wishing everybody a happy (and relaxing) Chinese New Year and mid-semester break as we usher in the year of the pig!!! Also to good weather on the 19th for our ReefWalk at Kusu ^^ SO nervous. First time guiding!!
Ponders
juanicths
at
16:28
2
scritch-scratch
Saturday, 27 January 2007
An Inconvenient Truth... Again!!!
Date: 2nd February 2007 (Friday)
Time: 7pm – 9pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 16, School of Business
Date: 8th February 2007 (Thursday)
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 28, Faculty of Science
Ponders
juanicths
at
17:23
0
scritch-scratch
Friday, 26 January 2007
Life is short...
I may not have known you long or very well but you have made an impression on my life. Your smiles, your cheerfulness, your entire sunny disposition really brightened up my day. Especially when going for SPS stuff at the end of the day. Can't believe that you are gone. Gone just like that. Not knowing what happen, just a couple of impersonal emails received today, to inform us that you went away on Wednesday 24 Jan 2007. I do hope you went as painlessly as possible, even as I join the many who have found you dear and would miss your presence. Really regret not meeting up with you after those couple of semesters together at SPS. Really. Your presence HAS made a difference in my life. I may not be able to remember the exact topic of our discussions, but I always went away thinking and pondering more. Really never thought that I would never get a chance to even say hi anymore. Even as I try to wipe away these tears and get on with life, I do hope you are at peace and that your family would pull together. God bless....
Ponders
juanicths
at
15:00
0
scritch-scratch
Sunday, 21 January 2007
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. ^^
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.
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.....
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 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~~~
Ponders
juanicths
at
18:01
1 scritch-scratch
Overdued post on Pulau Jong....
Couple of photos of my first cuttlefish caught on camera!!!
Thorny oyster
Ponders
juanicths
at
16:19
0
scritch-scratch
Wednesday, 17 January 2007
movie spree ^^
(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 ^^
Ponders
juanicths
at
15:27
0
scritch-scratch
Monday, 8 January 2007
Let the lessons begin....
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 ^^
Ponders
juanicths
at
13:31
0
scritch-scratch
Sunday, 7 January 2007
TADA!!!
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*
Ponders
juanicths
at
21:58
0
scritch-scratch
Saturday, 6 January 2007
And so the new year begins....
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,
Ponders
juanicths
at
22:58
0
scritch-scratch
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Underwater adventuring...
And here's the video I took of a crinoid swimming while we were at Raffles Lighthouse around a month back ^^
Ponders
juanicths
at
12:06
0
scritch-scratch
Friday, 8 December 2006
Crumminess....
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...
Ponders
juanicths
at
19:10
3
scritch-scratch
Wednesday, 6 December 2006
Couple of interesting Hokkien spoofs...
It's quite interesting what can turn up on Youtube ^^ Click to find out!!
Ponders
juanicths
at
19:15
2
scritch-scratch
Wednesday, 29 November 2006
just one more paper to go...
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~~
Ponders
juanicths
at
07:20
1 scritch-scratch
Wednesday, 22 November 2006
60 Years of Asian Heroes
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!!
Ponders
juanicths
at
08:37
3
scritch-scratch
Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Last week of semester!?
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!!!
Ponders
juanicths
at
08:21
3
scritch-scratch
Thursday, 9 November 2006
CNA provided a source of amusement and worry....
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?
Ponders
juanicths
at
07:47
1 scritch-scratch
Wednesday, 8 November 2006
Thanks Abby~~~

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....
Ponders
juanicths
at
14:16
2
scritch-scratch
Tuesday, 10 October 2006
It's that time of the semester again...
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....
Ponders
juanicths
at
20:45
0
scritch-scratch
Monday, 9 October 2006
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. |
Ponders
juanicths
at
13:01
0
scritch-scratch




































