New addition to the family

We received a fish tank from a friend for Christmas. It also comes with the maintenance package as we have no idea how to keep a tropical fish tank.

It's been 3 weeks since we put in the first batch of fish. During this time, we've lost quite a lot of lives, and added 3 more batches. Experienced friend continues her warning for us not to get any more fish until the tank is stabilized. Of course, one doesn't heed warnings and must learn the hard way.

So much has happened, and everyday there's something going on with the tank. It's almost like watching a soap opera on TV... so we adopted the FISH TV name for our fish watching hobby. I'm also starting a blog to document these dramatic episodes, yes, it's called: Fish TV. Words cannot do justice to the fun and excitement of fish watching. You'll just have to get one yourself.

Of course, there was a bit of sorrow as we watch these little lives lost. Yet, I find myself comparing this with human lives. It can be a little frightful to realize the similarities, and rather interesting to discover how life goes on regardless of what had happened.

What is it that makes us different from the fishes? We also live in a huge tank, swimming in our own waste. People are added to population, and they die. Everyday, it's swim around, eat, swim around more, play, eat, swim around. Life goes on. Once in a while a big hand comes down and change the decorations around, disturb the tank a little. Sometimes just a little scare, and sometimes result in casualties. And from time to time, chemicals are added to the tank to help calm the stress; sometimes salts are added to balance the water environment in an attempt to keep the fishes alive. They are not very vocal, yet, you can somehow sense they are in distress. We are more vocal, but our caretakers (politicians) sometimes choose to ignore us.

We are small in terms of lives in a Cosmo. Just as we watch feeder fish cramped in a tank, not knowing how small they are and soon to be someone's dinner. Then on the larger scale, bigger fish, cows, pigs, chickens, and many others, are also part of that. What about us? Are we part of that? No, we don't see us being eaten up in most cases. But with the cloning technology, already there are movies about people being raised so they can be killed for their organs. So what's keeping them from selling off the flesh as dinner meat?

Ok, now I'm feeling a little uneasy. There must be some meaning to being alive. Who am I? What am I? Where am I? Perhaps one day I shall find the answers, and find my true self. In the mean time, I shall enjoy watching the fishes and living my life.

Post Christmas Shopping

I've been doing a lot of shopping lately. Seems this would be the best time to get great deals on presents and things that I normally wouldn't buy at retail.

Trouble is, where to put all this stuff for another 11 months before they can be given away? We bought a tree about a month ago, and now it's on sale for only 25% of what we had paid. It really doesn't make sense, considering some return policy is 90 days. Some people would take advantage of that, and just "borrow" the item for a while. It's wrong, but sometimes you'd wonder, why don't they just keep the low price all the time? Make it not worth the time and money to "borrow" instead of buying.

I'm still reading the book on Wal-Mart. That was the original idea: every day low prices. However, that comes at a price. Target for a while was getting really expensive in comparison, but now they are back on track. Thanks to the "dollar items" there are now many Dollar Stores and dollar days even in the grocery stores.

Problem with shopping is that everything looks great in the store, but once we get it home and have no room for the new purchases, we wonder if all these are necessity items. Of course not. We are all buying into the advertisement, the desires, and people telling us that we need more, more, and more.

Sad. But, people with clutter are the ones keeping me employed, so I guess the cycle just goes on and on.

Happy New Year 2007

New Year Resolution:

Start something new.

Well, here we are, starting something new -- the Blog.
It's rather interesting how I thought I had a lot of things to share with people. Yet, now that I'm sitting down typing, I don't know what to say, or more accurately, don't know where to start.

This year shall be very interesting, as I have plans to do things that are not under my controls. Perhaps you will get to share some of that experience, given that I post them.

Life is an adventure, if you make it so. Let's start the journey.