Arzakem's Biotopia

Just about 10 kilometers from our place is a fish farm that has been breeding tropical fish for aquarists and fish fans for a long time already. I had the chance to visit it as I was searching for newer species for my ponds. It was a wonderful trip and I was longing for more foot energy though because I haven't visited everything as it was just plain enormous. It was also incidental since I saw the largest Pleco in the farm. It was about 30 inches and it just costs 50 PP or about one dollar. I wanted a Pleco for my pond but not a monster like this. Anyway, I bought the shorter one though it still costs the same. Romaing around, I saw all types of Cichlid. Cichlids are actually not only very beautiful fishes but they are perhaps easy to breed and are not very demanding fishes. There were peacocks (Oscars), Angelfish, Auratus, Pindani, Ice Blue, Yellow Labs, and Zebras. There were also live-bearers like swordtails, guppies, mollies, and platys. There were also bettas and they're ...

I was surprised yesterday by my cousin's new pond entity - a common river eel. He took the eel from a river about 22 km from us. Actually he wasn't the one who caught this. He only paid some kids on the area to catch something for him. He was surprised when they came back with the eel. If he hadn't paid for it the eel would surely find its way cooked and eaten by these kids as this is a usual catch for them. Talks of larger eels stimulated our interest into going back to the place again. Let's just see if there's something bigger waiting for us there. Eels can live on ponds as long as there is water movement and rocky crevices where it can hide in solace. I've had fire eels in my aquarium 2 years ago and it's fun to watch them pop their heads out to look for food. My cousin supplied apple snails to feed it. I doubt it takes that but normal fish pellets could be better alternative. This eel is about 18 inches long. A Big-headed slimy pet.

Got this from unexplained-mysteries.com and it made me laugh.

Last night was irritating - imagine a road traffic to hold you for about an hour. And there's that strong rain that soaked me up while I crossed the streets. Moreso, I never had any jacket with me because I thought there won't be any rain since it was about 30 degrees Celsius yesterday morning. When I arrived home, I forgot to bring the DVD I was supposed to watch. "There goes another boring day...", I thought while slowly losing reality in 40 winks. Morning arrives and I woke up in one of the best morns I've ever had. Birds chirp, roosters cock, and those turkeys cackle from our neighbor. Immediately I grabbed my phone and took some shots...click... Here comes the sun, do-do-dodo, here comes the sun... I sure hoped that coconut trunk could have grown leaves. These carps are having coffee while that clam is waiting for cookie crumbs to fall over. I thought these clams won't survive but they did. It's a nice addition to my species-rich pond. This Albino Osc...

My post would be worth giving tribute to a woman who has inevitably brought forth racial equality in the most powerful of nations. A woman of great courage and fair judgment, she will be missed and honored by the world as one of history's most important persons. I only hope that what she died promoting would forever be in our minds and that we may never get back to what we were before. I would always consider racism as deeds of barbaric and uncivilized nature. People like Mrs.Parks make us think better and go on living peacefully and beyond wars.

Life has been cruel to me - all I can afford taking pictures is a Motorola e398 and it's not a digital cam. Huh, but that wouldn't stop me from taking pics with everything. And should I tell you that my cat is also named Moto? That's a revelation - I'm promoting Motorola mobiles and cool-named Cats. Great week it was... here are proofs: This is Moto. And he's looking at me (of course dumbo!) I should call this "The Mysteries of Creation" (???????) Raining Friday. I believe this road leads to nowhere but getting wet! What could be ruining a beautiful natural shot? A view at the pier after island hopping Moto on a watchful eye over my tropical fish pond And this is my Flowerhorn fish. Not named yet. Maybe I'll call him Rola. I'm no professional photographer and I still wear glasses so don't ever judge my picture takes. Send me a digital camera if you won't stop complaining. :)

The Star Wars saga is over and the book is closed. Somehow, it brings me to some realizations that Lucas' mindpot had been cooked and served to us in terms of character unknowingly. Do not fear! Yes indeed to the padawans of the multitude, Yoda whispers in the wind, "do not fear, fear begets anger, and anger begets aggression". Actually, it's a reference to all religious that classify themselves as "God-fearing". Will fear bring anger? That might be of no sense but if you fly for a bird's-eye view of the current sociological climate, it would seem that anger springs from too much of being "in fear". Afraid of losing power, a politician resort to ordering the massacre of his people; afraid of losing business monopoly, a conglomerate would absorb the few small-scale striving workers; afraid of being sent to a hellish place, a pastor would lead his followers to his personal infallible theories; afraid of losing everything, a man would willingly s...

(The Defender's Guide may be reprinted or distributed, in its entirety, without alteration, but not for profit. All distribution must be made free of charge to the recipients. Anyone displaying a copy of the Defender's Guide at another web site is advised to check back periodically to see whether a new edition is available.) Defender's Guide to Science and Creationism: IV: Evolutionary Biology Mark I. Vuletic [Last updated 17 January 2005] Introduction While creationists may disagree with one another about the age of the universe and the age of the Earth, they are unanimous in rejecting evolution. Strictly "biological" arguments are dealt with in this section, but arguments related to the fossil record are discussed in section V, and moral, theological, and philosophical objections are treated in sections VI and VII. Index of creationist misunderstandings 4.1: The perfection of structures like the human eye is proof of creation. 4.2: "Irreducibly complex...

When I've watched FF: Spirits Within years ago, I was a little desperate - this ain't the Final Fantasy movie in my mind. But seeing FFVII: Advent Children is a masterpiece and this might be the one final fantasy we've been waiting for! The movie itself captures my nostalgic moments of playing it in the good ol' PSX reminiscing my casual irks defeating Final Weapon. It was like being into the world off FF7 again - seeing familiar faces, places, summons, and even ubiquituous moogles. When Kadaj, the lead antagonist character, summoned Bahamut and seemingly would want to summon another, I admit I had wished it was Leviathan. Anyway, the excellent piece is movie-long and wouldn't leave you longing for more. But I still wished there were more and it was longer, like a 3-CD set game. For a list of familiar appearances, I have listed it below. And if you're someone who grew up playing the game and living up to defeat and finish Sephiroth off, here's your final f...

A month ago I saw this man, he was on his bareskin clothing. He's got scars all over his body and he's howling and talking to himself. Lately on my way home, I saw him with hands on his pocket and wearing a jacket and with a hidden face he walked past by me. Folks in the neighborhood treat him good-for-nothin' and his wife went away defeated by her purpose of bringing her husband back to reality. He doesn't care. A few years back this same person used to borrow Nintendo rom cartridges from me. I'd laugh thinking old people also had time for playing. He'll play with his youngest son till their thumbs would ache. He's proven to me a few times that he's a man of few words. He doesn't talk long and he just say what he thinks. That's particularly rude for me, though. Gone crazy he could be but that does not remove my respect to a man who once saved his eldest son's life in no regards to the condition that he could be paying it for his own. So many...

Ok, here goes another simple flash clock that can be in your blog like mine. For a good example of this clock, see my current clock on the right. Currently, I'm still working on my flash templates for blogs. It's just a very busy month for me and I can't seem to find more time for such. I'm not a complicated Flash coder so sorry if you find my clock bland. Anyway, it looks simple and fit for me. :P For the codes, please see my previous post. Type 2 Red and Type 2 Blue Here are my links: Type 2 Red: http://my.opera.com/arzakem/homes/files/2red.swf Type 2 Blue: http://my.opera.com/arzakem/homes/files/2blue.swf Please download my flash files and upload it on your own server because at any time I might be removing it when I ran out of space.

Would you like these clocks on your blog? (See my sidebar for working clock. The following are just still images) If you think they're cool you can put it into your site by putting the following tags on your template e.g. your sidebar or wherever. [Note that you must change the line in red with the URL of the clock you liked as given below and that you can personalize the size of the clock by changing the values in red]: <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width=" 176 " height=" 200 " name="clock" src=" PUT-LINK-OF-CLOCK-HERE " bgcolor="#FFFFFF" quality="high" swLiveConnect="true" allowScriptAccess="samedomain"> </embed> Links for each clock: A. Red Clock URL: http://my.opera.com/arzakem/homes/files/redc1.swf B. Blue Clock URL: http://my.opera.com/arzakem/homes/files/bluec1.swf C. Purpl...

ARZY the Archer Fish Lately I've been engrossed with my aquarium fishes. It's a great stress reliever considering that I work 12 hours and commute 32 kilometers every day. At home I have a pond and an aquarium that I put my much attention nowadays second to my PC. No more guitars and that concludes my post last July. This night I made a flash movie for my fish and I started with Arzy, my archer fish. He should have a partner but the poor thing died when I put them both in my pond. Arzy got well and he's a great shooter. Last Sunday, I was surprised when he spit-shot me while I was watching him. See my swishmax-done flash for Arzy by clicking here to download or view. CHICO the Betta Here's my majestic fighter. Actually I have many fighting fishes but I like Chico most. He's definitely not afraid of anything, even Oscar the Cichlid. Bettas or fighting fishes are abundant here in my place and cost very cheap. Chico had been with me for 4 months already and I made a ...

Now I just got tired of looking into my former "lifeless" Blogger template. Moreso, I needed to change and improve my dirty old CSS-infused template. Actually, this CSS-infused Template is a sort of Mr. Frankenstein to me - being made up of so varied CSS stylings I took from other templates. Okay, anyway, here it is and I don't know if you like it. Well, conceit as I would always do but I really liked it. I mean it's "alive", it has sound and you can turn it off anytime, and it has that gloomy look. I was experimenting for almost an hour already and finally it's done. What got me into much reencoding was when I tested it to too many monitor resolutions. I'm planning to create free templates (CSS/HTML) with Flash content like this. Sound's good? What do you think?

Yesterday we succumbed into an emergency. My aunt next door was quivering and wasn't responding to us. Immediately she was sent to a hospital about 7 kilometers away. I was really surprised considering my aunt is a strong woman even at 62. It was such a revelation to me that every person doesn't have a clue about how healthy we are really and just at a sudden be crawling into a hospital. Life really is a mystery and more to death. Somehow, we are glad she is okay now and just this morning, my brother who was watching over her on the hospital exclaimed that she is okay. I recalled my hospital rush yesterday and I just couldn't get a clue either to what I witnessed - it seems that there are more nurses and doctors than patients there. We were galloping on the halls of the hospitals and we couldn't see anybody around. The wards are in 4 beds but yet only one sets of the 4's are filled. So why surprising? The hospital we admitted my aunt is a hospital labeled as "p...

It has just been announce - tomorrow we have a "national strike day". Jeepney drivers, operators and other concerned NGO's will be back on the streets but in opposite directions with the thousands of students, workers and employees willing to go to school or go to job yet without any means of going there. If some have their own cars and other transports yet there will be vigilant "strikers" swearing to get the streets free of movement. I don't like strikes. Why? Because "strikes" are bad for business - that I learned in college. Let me blurt out with my personal observations... Strike means no class tomorrow. Students get blunt for a day; Strike means no money for drivers of passenger vehicles; Strike means violence (always a case here so don't argue); Strike means business is down; Strike means discontent; Strike means injustice; Strike means higher transport fare and lower peso-value; Strike means politicking; Strike means the rich gets riche...

This is actually something I should have posted weeks ago but I just had no time. It's about a seminar I attended together with some colleagues. Actually, I believe I was just forced by our principal to attend. Being the youngest in the faculty really is a pain. With all the bullyings, they always work for me. The seminar, which was held in another school about 18 kilometers from us, was about the introduction of what the trainers call "Learning Intervention Materials". Not really a super-unique, stellar idea, but this is just worth a try. This so called "learning intervention materials" are actually teaching aids that are targeted basically on the most difficult parts of the lessons taken from each grading period. Before you would make such teaching aids, there are some things to identify first. The steps if you would: &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp#1. Identify the question from the periodical exams that got the most mistakes. &nbsp&nbsp...

[ read this on my Opera Journal ] The Intramurals has just got over and I'm picking up pieces of confetti on the floor. Looking closer, of course, it wouldn't be confetti but cement sacks torn into bits! Oh no, not my room again. This time the Public Works are totally bombarding my room with a smear-up campaign. But anyway, it's for my students own safety. You see my classroom is part of a 4-room edifice who seems to be a good example of how Corrupt Projects always happen in constructing Public Buildings. I could easily apply for the "2005 Search for Leaning Towers" with my classroom. This is why I am always worried. Inside the classroom, you'll easily sense that somehow the room is like inclined to the left in a few degrees. Hopelessly I just tell my students to refrain from jumping. Seems like the cavalry has arrived. Our congressman funded for the repair (I could label it as a scaffolding! anyway thanks.) of the 4-room building. This time, they are making...

I've got nothing to do lately so I pour some brains out on a marvelous software like SketchUp . For those of you who has never met the software yet, it's pretty CAD-like, it's 3D, and what's so cool with it is the short learning time. You can draw a pretty good design quickly and with less effort. What's more, you can apply textures in your creations. Download more textures from their site above or you can use your own photos as textures to make your work look realistic. All its features are just what you need from any CAD software. Only thing, I don't know how to create spheres or maybe it just has no functions for it. Hmm? Anyway, here are my creations (the first one is my Drugstore design with my logo on the side and the second one is my transparent 2-storey computer store plan). Design 1. Arzakem's Drugstore Design 2. Arzakem's Computer Solutions Believe me but it took me just about 5 minutes for each design. Now, how do you find them?

She will be missed. Certainly. Damé (read "dam" with a goat's mee) left us almost 5 years ago. But she is missed and will always be. She was a charming stocky woman of humble height and complexion as brown as her garden soil. Her legs would arc like bows pressured against the ground. She had that noticeably black thick hair that would unfurl into a wavy length reaching her shoulders. She had finely-drawn pencil brows above her dark deep eyes that would give you an inch of fear in a single look. And who would ever forget her faved fashion - stripes and tucked in just above the belly? Damé wasn't really a charming woman, but she was my fifth grade teacher. But this is not how I remembered my "maestra". There were much more to those thick dark lips. There is more to those casual pinches she gave us. There is much more intimacy in what my "maestra" taught me than any other teacher I have ever had. Frankly, it wasn't the high grades either. She taug...

It has been barely a month since the doctor diagnosed me as Type II Diabetic. So what has changed? No nothing, no vows, no promises, no diet rules, no exercises, no nothing. Somehow, I just got well from bed after a three-day struggle with what I believed to be complications. But I don't want to start this page with the uneasy sureness I just declared - that what kicked me down was really a diabetes complication. I had always been allergic to temperature changes, pressure, and discomfort. I had always known that to be inherent to me way back since last month when I took the FBS test (Fasting Blood Sugar they say) with a rocketing 400 blood sugar level. Huh, that's great, I'm diabetic, I thought for a while. It was raining that time, so I had to get the result from a clinic downtown with great effort as I have to cross an alley while getting wet at the same time. Does the weather know that I'd be shock with my results and its delaying my knowing of it? Funny. I remembere...

How would you like a roundtrip to the moon for a hundred million dollars? Definitely, who wouldn't want a trip to the moon? Imagine the following benefits: a. becoming history's first lunar tourists; b. the chance to be closer to your inner wildthings than anybody else; c. be one of the passengers of the world's most reliable spacecraft, the Soyuz; and d. the chance to find out how it is to be really departed from your dear ones (no more naggers Well, of course you can also discount the following disadvantages: a. becoming part of a big experiment on finding out what happens to tourists if they are sent to the moon; b. undergo a training like every other astronaut and would-be astronauts. I don't really have an idea but they say it always gets closer to hell; c. of course, lose a hundred million dollars on the process which could have been your best car ever or your tenth trip around the world with all the luxury; and d. I think you'll be spending more time photogra...

If you would, you can download this short film from Pocketmovies. This is the link: "Meeting Agnus" . This "movlet" just makes me think somehow a little bit lonely. So what is this about? Just relationships my friend, and no more. Somewhere back in time, I used to believe that the measure of a man's life can be mathematically checked by counting the number of people he left as friends minus those he'd encountered as enemies on the time of his death. Somehow, nobody can count for you. We always deserve our personal views and opinions. And nobody can always have a clue on counting which is which and who is who. It's like a balance scale - make more friends and less enemies or else you'll get negative. We'll why be afraid of getting negative? Let's insert the religious Hell scare here and you'll know why I was much afraid of negativity those days. Negativity isn't really a certified word in this. I just made it up from my Math lessons a...