Another one of my tetras died. It was gasping so I isolated it. It looked like it had 2 little bumps on its side. So now from 10, I'm down to 6 tetras.

Two other tetras became ill. I quickly isolated them but I don't know if it is going to help. I have read that once Neon Tetra Disease gets introduced into a tank it is very hard to get rid of. The others seem fine for now but the disease spreads by spores. Once a tetra consumes a spore it is infected. All my tetras are going to die! T_T

I've been planning this for a long time. I'm feeling a bit more ambitious this time and will be attempting a planted AND warm water aquarium!

Last week I went to Big Al's to buy gravel. I ended up buying FloraBase substrate and a whole bunch of plants as well! There was a sale on and some other guy bought a lot of plants and I thought I might as well get some too.

I bought 3 bunches of Java ferns, 1 hygrophilia polysperma, and 2 plants I can't identify maybe some type of Vallisneria or Lilaeopsis macloviana and Limnophila aquatica or Cabomba caroliniana. I hope it is not the latter because that is hard to grow! I shouldn't buy plants that aren't labeled. I asked the store person but he didn't know either! X( But I bought it anyways because it is a pretty plant. XD

I didn't have anything to attach the Java Ferns to so I just kinda left them floating about in the center of the aquarium. But today my dad help me find his BC Jade from his old aquarium. He used to have a 55 gallon aquarium at the old house. We can still see the indentation the weight of the water made on the floor!

It was my first day of work today! And I have my own little cubicle. I just got shown around the office and now I'm learning Flex. Looking at demo apps and following the tutorials online. I think Flex is very neat. It let's you do a lot with little coding. I like it.

Sat Dec 23
We left Vancouver for Las Vegas late last night (we took off at 8:15 and landed at 10:28) and took a shuttle to Alamo to rent a van. There were only two vans left and we ended up picking a teal Dodge Crystler over a silver one. This year we stayed at the Aladdin Hotel which is just next to Paris. They are doing some construction so there was a discount or something. I think they are building and extension and some towers.

Our room as down the hall from Uncle Adrian's not like last time where we were neighbours. Karen got some tape from Auntie Maria to tape our dad's mouth shut. It supposedly stops him from snoring. Karen is really sensitive to noises and can't sleep with Ba's loud snoring. It doesn't stop his snoring completely but it does muffle some of the sound. But apparently during the night the tape fell off and Karen left to sleep in the bathroom! But by that time early birds started taking showers and the plumbing was terrible so there was a lot of noise of water rushing through the pipes! Poor Karen.

Like last year we got up at 8 to go to the M&M store (AGAIN! Karen's obsessed!). But before we left Karen had to put all her dimes and nickels (she had a lot) into the vending machine just outside our room so that she could get quarters back! Heehee I thought it was ingenious...for the first few dimes and nickels. Then I just got impatient of waiting for 10 minutes! >:(

When we finally got out of the hotel (taking the FRONT exit this time) we stopped by some sovenier stores to look around. We ended up buying postcards and keychains. Karen gave the poor lady all her change and rolls of pennies. lol

The M&M store was decorated in a Christmas theme this year. Last year it was Star Wars. We watched the 3D show again then Karen bought SO MUCH STUFF! 60 Dollars worth of stuff. It was at least 60 since if we buy $30 worth we get a 0.5 pound of M&Ms for free and we paid separately to get two bags! She's still sore about not buying enough to get the free plushie last year. xD

This time we went over to the Coca Cola store to look around. But then we were out of time so ran back to the Aladdin to meet our parents and Auntie and Uncle. But as usual Aunt Maria wasn't ready! We found this sign on the door:

When everyone finally got ready we headed to the Spice Market Buffet in the hotel after waiting around indecisively. Heheh while in the line we had our eyes on some Strawberry tarts in the dessert section and when we were seated we made a beeline towards them. Food was ok but we took a lot of crackers (for later!) heheh. I didn't eat too much lox or smoked salmon this time. I was sick of it from last time! That's what I get for being greedy!

After lunch, we headed out to the van only to find that the steering wheel fluid had all drained onto the ground! So we couldn't go anywhere while we waited around for the adults to phone Alamo and complain. After 3 hours we finally got our replacement but by that time it was too late to do very much so we headed out to Macy's to do some shopping! I love Macy's. XD

We then watched Sirens of Treasure Island. "Ahoy!" "Who are you calling a hoy?" HEEHEE! It was a funny show. I liked it. I wouldn't mind watching it again but I would like to be in the middle. We arrived late so we were in the back to the side. I couldn't really see the men's pirate ship.

Then we had wonton noodles for dinner and went to bed.

Sun Dec 24
We woke up early again but as before Auntie Maria wasn't ready so we took Ba to the Bellagio to look at the Christmas decorations. Nothing spectacular; it was almost the same as last year.

For lunch we all drove to the Wynn but the line was MILES long so we left and ended up at Monte Carlo were there was no line. I like to eat the mashed potatoes. Mmmm.

After that Uncle Adrian dropped us off at the Mirage with Ba and we when to Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden! We saw Bottlenose Dolphins, white lions, white tigers, leopards and regular tigers. I could stay there forever. Those cats were so beautiful!

We wanted to catch the moving statues at the Forum Shops but we were too late! It's a maze in there! Too many shops! And they make you walk ALL around you can't even cut across to get to where you want.

Since we didn't get to watch the show we went across the street to Harrah's to ask where the trollies were except the stupid people didn't know anything and not even what Circus Circus was! We asked a dealer but he didn't know anything so he called over his floor manager but he didn't know what we were talking about either! He thought we were speaking in some foreign language. CIRCUS CIRCUS! Stupid! He said do you speak Cantonese? And we were like uh my dad does and Ba said English is fine. We FINALLY got directed to the loading bay where buses were and found the Strip Trolley but they had raised the price by $1.50! So we paid $19 in total.

We stopped by the Hilton to look the Star Trek Gift Shop. xD Karen bought the little Klingon plushie keychain that she wanted to get. Now the Trip and T'Pol dolls have 3 children! Heehee! But apparently a Tom and B'Elanna doll will come soon to take away the klingon man. XD

Stopping at the Hilton proved to be a big mistake as the Trolley did come at all. We waited like an hour before walking to the Stratosphere to take a look. We took the wrong way and ended up circling the building in the outskirts of the strip. Freaky. Good thing we weren't mugged! When we got to an entrance to the Stratosphere there was nothing there but we saw the trolley leave us behind. X( So we waiting 15 more minutes to take the next trolley to Circus Circus.

Circus Circus is just like PNE except smokier. *Cough cough* The games were cheaper though and Ba played a game; one of those rolling ball horse races. And he lost. LOL he wasn't very good at all. We watched a 15 minute acrobatic show. The lady was making her debut swinging around in rings up high. Karen was disappointed being not able to play any games since she wouldn't be able to bring any of her prizes home with her. xD

After that we headed back to the hotel. Ma couldn't come back yet because we took all the keycards! But we found out that they were out in the street. Santa Clause was driving down the strip giving out presents! Ma said Auntie Maria went crazy and yelling to get the dog plushies and ran out into the street to get them too! She wanted the get one for each of us but everyone else was too afraid to get one. Mrs Clause recognized her and didn't want to give her another one. But she said it was for her other daughter. And Santa said ok. Heehee.

Mon Dec 25
On Christmas morning, we flew to LA. The wind was with us so we were 20 minutes early. We rented another van then went back to the airport to wait for Francis and Krystal to arrive from San Fran and John to pick them up. There was a lot of miscommunication going around on where we were supposed to meet each other and we ended up driving 'round and 'round the airport. Eventually we found each other and John took us to McDonald's for lunch. We all had Filet-O-Fish without the tartar sauce. Mmmm.

Karen and I sat with Francis and Krystal and caught up. We haven't seen them in two or more years. More for Karen since she never went to San Fran with Ma and me.

After lunch we followed John back to Aunt Martha's house and said hello to everybody then we went to our hotel the Quality Inn. It was a seedy gaudy pink and greenish place, much like the setting for My Name is Earl and where MURDERS happen! LOL. Our room was kind of damp and smelly so we turned the fan on full blast! So after we dumped all our luggage in the rooms we went out to the Zen Buffet for dinner with the entire family plus some other people we don't know. Naturally, there was nothing to eat.

Tues Dec 26
Boxing Day! Too bad we weren't in Canada to enjoy it. *grumble* Nobody seems to know what Boxing Day is in the US! Why it is only the single most enjoyable awesome day in the whole entire year! I can't BELIEVE that Francis and Krystal have NEVER heard of it!

Last night Karen ditched me to sleep with Krystal. The OTHER woman. XD She can't sleep with Ba snoring so I got the entire bed to myself. I think I slept better than when she's in bed with me. One of the other nights she punched me in the eye while she was sleeping! "Accidentally". Puh.

Anyways us kids and Ba woke up at 7am for the free breakfast (I love free breakfast!). We had to wait forever for Aunt Maria so we hung out in Francis and Krystal's room. We were watching Back to the Future and Karen was playing on Francis' Nintendo DS.

We went to a Dim Sum place for lunch for Uncle Anthony's birthday then went shopping at Macy's again! lol. We picked up a lot of shirts because it was super discounted plus on top of the discounts we have a traveler's discount!

For dinner we went to Tofu House. I love it! All that tofu! So delicious. I was so full afterwards. They also had an ice cream machine where you can get little tiny cups of ice cream. heheh.

Wed Dec 27
Yay! Today we went to Universal Studios! Aunt Maria got 50% discount for four people and $10 off for the rest of us. So it was like $51 for our family. I think I would like to be a part time travel agent! HAHAHA! We went on the Studio Tour first and it was really interesting. They had added new stuff since the last time we went, like the Fast and the Furious cars.

Next we went on the Back to the Future ride. Ma has bad memories of this but we dragged her along anyways. We sat in the front of the car this time because I wanted to know what the Doc was saying on the little screen. lol.

It was kinda cold so Ma and Ba went back to the van to get jackets and the rest of us went on the Mummy ride. Heehe they could have went on with us but Ma hates rollar coasters so avoided this one at all costs. Heehee. Before the ride there props and stuff and spooky voices whispering. Then there was that hole in the wall. Francis put is hand in it and it sucked up his arm! AHHH! I wanted to know how it felt but he wouldn't tell me and I was too scared. Hahahha. We also pushed Francis to touch the cursed book. hehehe. He touched it twice and a spooky voice said something about doom and stuff. I told him to touch it again so he gets uncursed. LOL. Karen and I sat in the middle seats with Francis and Krystal sandwiching us while Meighen, Aunt Maria and Uncle Adrian sat in the back. All of us were screaming and screaming but it was very scary just projects pictures or something. Hahah it was so fun.


To be continued...

Gosh, I haven't updated it so long! This term has been hectic. It has been the busiest ever. Taking four computer science courses at once was definately a big mistake. There were so many assignments and projects. Managed to finish them all though. lol. I made two text adventure games (One in Prolog and one in Haskell), a Gmail plugin for Eclipse, and a Restaurant POS system in a team of 8 people!

I haven't done as well on my midterms as I have hoped. So definately I have to do well on my finals. I kinda slacked off the past two days though. I wanted to just relax. I am going to really study tomorrow. My first exam is on Friday. It's the AI course. It is such a hard course! I don't think that I will be pursuing the AI field anymore. I have no idea what the prof is talking about. But it was a somewhat fun course. On the last day we had the Great Wolfman Shearing! You can watch it here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49TmxNPhXnw Yeah our prof is not a rational agent. lol

Had some weird dreams again. But not as weird as the floating fetuses...One about a dragon and its rider and one was about these creatures that had the job of protecting mankind from some other creatures but they were not liked at all. Then there was some pokemon-like creatures and there was a revolt because people were being nasty to the protectors...Ok that makes no sense at all to who ever is reading this.

I've been playing Gaia a lot too. It is all Mei's fault! She started playing and now I'm addicted! And I'm eating a lot of jellybeans. Coffee jelly beans...mmmm.

Sleeptime. Finals begin on Friday.

Amazing.

It's almost the end of the second week of school and already I'm behind in everything.

Co-op jobs are closing everyday and I don't have the time to write cover letters not to mention that my cover letters and resume sucks. I don't know why I was ever in English enriched since I apparently have no idea how to write at all. It is amazing that I ever passed English in highschool. Yesterday I went to the library and borrowed some resume/cover letter writing books. Hopefully I will learn something from them.

Some courses it is not my fault that I am behind since the bloody textbooks have not even arrived yet. How am I suppose to keep up with the reading when there is no textbook to read? The UBC bookstore should get their act together. They should have all the books available at the start of the term!

I'm wondering how I will ever be able to get through this term!

Ok this isn't what I do at work. It was only during the slow periods when there was no one around. I might just make a full picture of the tiger. I'm quite pleased with the result.

The pictures are doodled with pen on the back of a stack of playland ride passports at the PNE. The dragon was the first one drawn then the tiger the next day.

LOL. My captain saw the tiger and said it was cute. whoops.

I got my employee evaluation today. It said I am suitable for rehire. Heheh. That I am very polite and have a great attitude. =D

Tomorrow is my last day. I'm relief. Just like the first day. So it all comes round in a circle. Karen is going to go and see all the shows. And we're going to eat our last candy apple from the market place this year.

The day after school will start and I shall have to start applying to co-op jobs. Hopefully I will get hired. Another summer has gone and another school year is starting. Time flies by so fast. It really does.

Now the white minnow fry are actually big enough to take semi-decent photos of. They move around quite a bit so I have to take photos at night when they are drowsy. xD

Not all of them survived. There were three that were deformed; their tails were on crooked so they couldn't swim properly. I named them Quasi, Modo, and Esmeralda. Sadly all of them perished, the last being Esmeralda. Oh well 'tis life.

So now there are only about 9-10 left. Still a lot. There also might be 4 others in the parent's tank. Sometimes I see them, sometimes I don't. I think I'm just going to leave them in there.

I have high hopes of the other 9 surviving. I bought actual fry food from the pet store...though the flake food I crushed myself seems to be finer than the power fry food. Still it is fresher and probably a more balanced diet for my babies so I'm not complaining about the price. It also smells really good. lol.

Also Axel moulted! At first I thought he had disinigrated but I looked closer and it was just is empty exoskeleton.

Axel is doing well. He is not starving as I had previously thought. Quite the opposite! He has plenty to eat and plenty to choose from! I have an unwanted algae bloom in the tank. Fuzz algae was introduced with the plants I bought. Then brown algae and green appeared and green dot algae! Oy. I think my lamp is too bright! And not in the right spectrum. It is too yellow. And I may be guilty of overfeeding...Time to do some water changes.

I am SO EXCITED today! Why? Because my fish made BABIES! They probably laid the eggs a while ago but today I saw small fry swimming in the tank! So I scooped the five I saw out into another container. Just in case the parents might eat them. (I've read that they won't but why take the chance?)

When I can home from work I saw that there were more! I counted a least 13 fry! 8DDD I am so deliriously happy!!!!!! Yay!

I was making food for the fry during work. I was crushing flakes into fine powder.

I forgot to write about work...Well now I work for the PNE! I am a ticket seller and have been working for 4 days. It is my very first job ever! (Working for my uncle doesn't count.)

This is it! I am officially certified as an open water diver!

We had 5 confined pool dives at the UBC swimming pool previously and this weekend we finally went into the ocean! We went to Wytecliff park on Saturday and Copper Cove today. We saw lots of sea stars, fish, crabs and some sea cucumbers today.

But aww we wanted to go see the anemone wall! But the instructor that took us on the second dive of the day only spent 17 minutes with us! And we only worked on our skills. Dive #4 was supposed to be a sightseeing tour. We even changed our tanks because we told that they were going to take us down longer. :(

Anyways, diving is so fun!...in the water. Because what kills me is the getting into and especially OUT of the water. Once I fall down in the shallows there is no getting back up again. My legs are just too weak. LOL.

That picture is of Copper Cove where we dove today. We have to walk down a fight of stairs to get down there. And that means carrying HEAVY tanks up and down that. My biceps are definately bigger than when I started.

Even though I'm certified and can dive on my own now, I'll still dive with two other people: a buddy and someone to help me get out the water and carry my tank. HAHAHAH!

One of the males my friends got for me is dead. I think the other male killed him because he bullies the female too! I searched online for the cause of this aggressiveness and turns out I should keep at least 5 white clouds together with more females than males.

So today I went and bought 3 more FEMALE white clouds. Heheh I said to the staff I want the fat ones. Heehee.

Yeah so he's still bullying but I think there is a female that is not afraid to bully him back so it's all cool...so far.

Heehee. Do you see the Axel, the shrimp on the log? He is SO CUTE! I love shrimp. He might be starving though because I don't have any algae yet. Gotta get him something to eat!

Where have I been these days after I got off school? Well! Setting up a new aquarium in my room! Teehee!

I bought the tank at the end of July and have been adding things to it until now.

At first it was only filled with some Java moss and gravel and a temporary female betta that my sister bought. She named her Ferrari (I think). She's a pretty red colour. I actually saw her and told Karen about it. Karen's wanting buy a male too but all the petstores don't have any blue ones that Karen likes or they are of not very good quality. Petcetera's fish section is in a particularly dismal state. My my have they've gone downhill.

On Friday, Winnie, Vicki and Michelle gave me 3 white cloud minnows (the fish I wanted) for my (belated) birthday present! Yay! Here's them when I brought them home. I think the two on the left are males and the one on the right is the female. :) The males are VicVic and Winifred. xD My friends wanted me to name them that. Hehhehe. I don't know which is which since I can't distinguish between the two males.

And the fish and the tank today after some plant additions and an artificial log. I bought the plants today along with an Amano shrimp. The fish are up at the top there. Ferrari got moved to another tank in my sister's room.

The Amano shrimp is so cute! I'll probably get another one. We'll see how well this one fares.

I am so excited this is my first aquarium that has REAL plants in it! The plants I have are Sagittaria subulata and Java moss. I bought some liquid fertilizer for them but I think I should also add tablets in the gravel and get a better light. I'm just using my desk lamp right now. The tank doesn't come with the light and to buy it is an additional $34.99! That's too much for me. I haven't even started my job yet and I'm spending all my money away.

I just read my contributions in that story again. Heheh. What's with me and eating things? I must have been starving. And I think I was...

Anyways. Off to the Stats final!

Ooo it has been a while since I posted. I wrote a lot in my written journal. But it was mostly about dreams I've had. They are always so crazy.

These days I don't have a lot of time to remember dreams and record them. I am so busy this week! I started scubadiving lessons on Tuesday and have my second lesson is tonight. BUT I have a final tomorrow and another one on Saturday! Crazy! I haven't even started studying for Stats tomorrow. But we get a cheat sheet so hopefully by the time I finish making it I'll know enough to pass the final with a decent mark. And I have until 6pm tomorrow to cram in everything.

Heheh today was the last day of CPSC313 and I didn't really pay attention at all. I kindof drifted off and then started playing a story game with a group of friends. Hehehe. I got to keep the story 'cause Andrew was going to throw it away. Here is the story: (the colours respresent the different people who contributed to the story. The yellow colour is mine.)

Today was the worst day of his life. John had never done this before. In a freak computer science experiment, John was shrunk to the size of a hair follicle. Next he was transported into the armpits of his professor's armpits. John had never been in a smellier place in his life. It reaked of rotten eggs.

Then he really found some rotten eggs and started eating them until the smell went away. He was kind of stupid because then his socks started to smell so he ate his socks. Then a beautiful woman came in and John thought, "Wow. You smell nice."

She said, "Thanks jerk."

That was the last time he ever complimented a girl. He thought,"Right now all I wanna do is pee Oh god I wanna pee, so much!"

He felt hungry so he looked around for some food. He found a watermelon growing on his head so he plucked if off and ate it. But it was kind of moldy because he sweat so much all the bacteria from his head made the watermelon go bad. But since he was hungry, he ate it anyways.

What happened next was totally unexpected. His face in total agony as his stomach bubbled and his sides shook. Falling to his knees, his eyes turned blood red. He fell flat on the floor dead. And out of his ruptured stomach came the thing.

It was a baby chicken! All those rotten eggs turned into a chicken. So this chicken grew up and turned into a real boy. He was soo happy. He got up onto his two feet and gave the boy a candy.

The boy was so happy to find out that his dad actually cares for him. He started to like his dad and as the time passed he started daydreaming. He imagined that his dad was hopping about dancing! He burst out laughing so that his dad thought that he was crazy and ran away from him. He laughed so hard that all the overripe fruit growing on his head fell off. Nothing else to do but eat them. So he did.

And that was the end of that story.

Andrew closed the book to the greatest novel ever written. It was
definitely bestseller material.

With a satisfied sigh, he stood up and thought about the wonderful
use of time in his boring computer science course.

Heeheehee! It might not make a lot of sense because we weren't allowed to see what the other people wrote except for the last sentence.

Well that's all. I have to start studying for Stats now. In an hour I start my diving lesson. EEE!

Subject: NASA and the Bible For all the scientists out there, those who think they are and for all the students who have a hard time convincing these people regarding the truth of the Bible....here's something that shows God's awesome creation and shows that He is still in control. Did you know that the space program is busy proving that what has been called "myth" in the Bible is true? Mr. Harold Hill, president of the Curtis Engine Company in Baltimore, Maryland and a consultant in the space program, relates the following development. "I think one of the most amazing things that God has for us today happened recently to our astronauts and space scientists at GreenBelt, Maryland. They were checking the position of the sun,moon,and planets out in space where they would be 100 years and 1000 years from now. We have to know this so we won't send a satellite, up and have it bump into something later on in its orbits. We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite, and where the planets will be so the whole thing will not bog down. They ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries and it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red signal, which meant that there was something wrong either with the information fed into it or with the results as compared to the standards. They called in the service out and they said, "What's wrong?" Well, they found there is a day missing in space in elapsed time. They scratched their heads and tore their hair. There was no answer. Finally, a Christian man on the team said, "You know, one time I was in Sunday School and they talked about the sun standing still." While they didn't believe him, they didn't have an answer either, so they said, "Show us." He got a Bible and went back to the book of Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement for any one with "common sense." There they found the Lord saying to Joshua, "Fear them not, I have delivered them into thy hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee." Joshua was concerned because he was surrounded by the enemy and if darkness fell they would overpower them. So Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still! That's right-"The sun stood still and the moon stayed-and hasted not to go down about a whole day!" (Joshua 10:12-13) The astronauts and scientists said, "There is the missing day!" They checked the computers going back into the time it was written and found it was close but not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua's day was 23 hours and 20 minutes-not a whole day. They read the Bible and there it was "about (approximately) a day" These little words in the Bible are important, but they were still in trouble because if you cannot account for 40 minutes you'll still be in trouble 1,000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits. As the Christian employee thought about it, he remembered somewhere in the Bible where it said the sun went BACKWARDS.. The scientists told him he was out of his mind, but they got out the Book and read these words in 2 Kings that told of the following story: Hezekiah, on his deathbed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah who told him that he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked for a sign as proof. Isaiah said "Do you want the sun to go ahead 10 degrees?" Hezekiah said "It is nothing for the sun to go ahead 10 degrees, but let the shadow return backward 10 degrees." Isaiah spoke to the Lord and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees BACKWARD! Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes! Twenty-three hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in Second Kings make the missing day in the universe!" Isn't it amazing? References: Joshua 10:8 and 12,13 and 2 Kings 20:9-11. Forward this to as many people who you believe would think this is equally as cool.

THEY TRADED AULD AND BERTUZZI! >>>>:(