Yep, I'm still alive. I just haven't been blogging much. Sorry about that, faithful readers. Or should I say bored webizens.

I've been busy lately because I got to start my JOB early (wasn't supposed to be until June), plus this weekend, my brother's birthday was Saturday, Mother's day was Sunday, I was pet/house-sitting two very energetic cocker spaniels, and got my smog check Saturday morning. So of course, I don't feel like I had much of a weekend. I think I'll make up for that this following week by partying as much as I have cumulatively since 2007 - Sunday is my birthday, and before then I will probably be going out to dinner with some co-workers, and with some old friends. For my birthday I'm going to see Prince Caspian (just re-read the book), and out to dinner at one of those Japanese grill restaurants where they make the food in front of you. And having yummy chocolate pie for dessert. Yep, I have it all planned out.

And now for the more entertaining part of this blog - the part where I impart on you some of the random musings of my rather silly brain.

After house sitting and watching some episodes of an old TV show that will be named later on, I realized that two of the television characters I find most dreamy have quite a lot in common:

-Very intelligent/large knowledge base
-lonely
-gentlemen
-time travelling
-sensitive
-nearly asexual
-have many faces...

Hmm. What characters am I talking about? Am I aware that a couple of those characteristics aren't realistic... at all. (And yes, I've been watching WAY more tv lately than I was at Purdue).

Well, the show I was watching with the spaniels was Quantum Leap. (and Sam was the one I was talking about, not Al) I should watch reruns of that one more often.

Sam Beckett

Yes, that's Scott Bakula. But I the actors are not what I'm looking at as much as the characters they portray...

And, the other character is The Doctor from Doctor Who, currently:

The Tenth Doctor

Because everyone likes to look at pictures. Yay Wikipedia.

Today our Sunday morning service met at 10 am instead of 9 and 10:45. We were told ahead of time that it would be a sort of groundbreaking event. The pastor in charge of the region of the denomination (American Baptist Churches of the West) gave a sermon that, I think, will mend the major problems we've been having as well as greatly improve morale for the pastors and elders.

He began by telling us the story of Eli and his sons from 1st Samuel 2:12-36. He went to great length telling us about Eli's sin, and what God honors and dishonors (v. 30). Then he went on to tell us about how, since the regional headquarters is in the same town here, he has prayed for our church frequently since he's been here. He explained some of the church's historical problems - how it had been like a "country club" for members (there were only about 90 people attending when pastor Mike came about 4.5 years ago - now he's built it up to 400+), how pastors had been mediocre at best, and how whenever they showed any leadership at all, the church chewed them up and spit them out. He really didn't mince words. Then he read a letter that had been sent to him anonymously. It was hateful and slanderous toward the leadership of the church - at one point you could hear one communal gasp of disbelief going around the sanctuary. As he said, that sort of infectious behavior is not welcome, and if whoever wrote it wanted to live that way, they had better find some other church to infect.

Then he gave anyone involved a chance to repent before God (nobody did, even with the promise of anonymity - I suspect the culprits {I have no idea who was involved and don't really care to know}). And followed by having the congregation (whoever would) commit to doing the following whenever they heard anything about another member: say "That's nice. Now I'm going to tell him or her what you said and that you said it." Pretty good policy if you ask me. Then he had the pastors and elders stand at the front of the church and enlisted us to come up, shake their hands, and tell them "As you serve God, I support you."

The whole thing as WAY overdue, but very much needed. When I came back here last summer, most of the members I knew were gone. From then until now, the elders and pastors have been stressed out about all the gossip and divisiveness to near the breaking point. I should know, my dad's one of the elders. Pointing out and doing so much to exterminate this corruption is an answer to many many prayers. Now, as the speaker said, we should be a Blues Brothers church - "On a mission from God" to reach out and save the lost of our community. Praise the Lord.

This evening I fully intended to go to the meeting of the Bay Area chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK). I left right after eating dinner with my parents, music pastor, and his wife (first time we've had company in a looooong time). The place the meeting was this month was the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek. As is my habit, I got directions on Google maps, wrote them down on a piece of paper, and then took that with me.

Well, I got royally lost. I would say that I've never been that lost in my life, except I was about equivalently lost on my way to a friend's wedding last spring. This time, though, my directions vanished about the same time I got lost. I pulled over several times to look around for them, and couldn't find them anywhere in my truck. Eventually I stopped at a gas station for directions - they didn't know where Lindsay is, so they gave me a phone book. I only managed to confirm that the street I thought it was on was not the street it was listed on. Then I looked through  my maps - I didn't have one that covered Walnut Creek (if I were trying to drive to Utah, I'd be ok though). After 40 minutes of driving around, at least a dozen U-turns, and most the rest of the gas that was in my tank, I gave up and headed home. I wish I had had the presence of mind to copy down the names and phone numbers on the meeting flyer for directions, but I never looked at it with a pen to write that down. So, I guess I'll go to my first AAZK meeting next month. I'm kind of upset that I missed this one.

If anything, this proves that horoscopes are a load of manure. I happened to glance at mine this morning (something that is surprisingly rare considering I always read the comics and they're on the same page). It said something along the lines of "travelling will be a pleasant experience for you today." Ha! The only time I left the house was to go to the AAZK meeting and that was far from pleasant.

Merry Christmas!

I'm surprised I haven't seen any forum threads about what people got for Christmas, but I thought I'd just post here. Maybe people are curious, and at the risk of sounding materialistic, I'd like to share anyway.

At the zoo I was surprised to get a couple things: a calendar featuring the animals I work with from my supervisor, and a goodie bage of candy and a tangerine from one of the other zookeepers I work with.

From my brother and sister-in-law I got a C.S. Lewis book (Surprised by Joy), and a bunch of fun hair clips and headbands and such, which I never seem to have enough of

From Grandma L. I got two turtleneck shirts!

From Grandma C. (which really surprised me because she died a couple months ago) I got a book that was on my Christmas wish list - Eternity In Their Hearts by Don Richardson (the story goes that my mom picked it up from their house when she was helping her dad clean it up to move to an apt.; she thought my dad would enjoy it, then saw it on my list and hid it until today!)

Karrie sent me a little box of chocolates and a cute card.

Sarah sent me a card and Applebee's coupon.

From Mom and Dad, a lot of stuff, including a very nice digital camera (!!!!!), 3 CDs (Switchfoot - Oh! Gravity., Sanctus Real - Fight the Tide, and Anberlin - Cities), a bunch of clothes, including blue jeans (previous to now I only had one pair that wasn't falling apart), some makeup, a homemade cookbook with Mom's recipes and a quilted cover, and a calendar with baby animals. I'm a happy camper

I gave Mom a sweater and a mini fan, Dad a pair of shearling slippers, my brother a fleece jacket, and Dasha the Enchanted soundtrack (we saw the movie and she loved it, plus I figured it'd drive my brother nuts), send a card to Sarah and a small package of gifts to Karrie.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take some more photos!

So, we have three aquariums and a paludarium (that was until recently an aquarium) at my house. The big aquarium is my mom's (sort of), and the rest are mine. I didn't take any pictures of the big tank, partly because it needs a really thorough algae scraping. But, I got pictures of the others, and some of the fish.

This is the 10-gallon planted aquarium. It houses one chameleon fish (Badis badis), and three cherry barbs (Puntius titteya), plus a bunch of plants, like Egeria densa, Echinodorus tenellus, Microsorum pteropus, Cyptocorne spp, Aponogeton spp, Anubias barteri, Anubias nana, another Anubias of unknown species... sorry it's a bit blurry, no tripod.



The male cherry barb



Another pic, with the two females hiding next to the heater



Badis where you can see his general appearance



A better shot of his face




Next tank: 10 gallon guppy tank, all the plants are plastic

Two of the young males




One of the same males and a female




And finally, the paludarium, a cross between an aquarium and a terrarium. Water and land are separated by a piece of plexiglass sealed with silicone sealant. The land portion is a layer of gravel for drainage, then topsoil for the plants. One piece of aquarium wood is held down by a rock, and the one plant is a maidenhair fern (will be getting more plants later, including a jewel orchid). The water section has some topsoil in it also, which is causing the water to be quite turbid (murky). There are a lot of aquatic plants in there also. There's also one Badis, which I have seen twice since I put it in the other day. The "waterfall" in the back is made out of a slate tile, and a small water pump. I need to get a black background for the tank so the cords don't show up as well. There's some filter floss for mechanical/chemical filtration stuffed behind the slate, and a heater in the back there also. There's also a digital thermometer probe, leading to the little doohickey at the front of the tank.




Looking into the murky water:




I hope you enjoyed the pictures and could at least make out some of the fish and things in them!