The Legend of Chinese New Year

Hi guys since Chinese New Year is just around the corner I think it will be nice for us to know more about this super important celebration that we Chinese look forward to every year.

You must be wondering how Chinese New Year came about right? Legend has it that during the first day of the new year a great beast called "Nian" （年兽） or "Year" in Chinese will venture into villages to devour livestock and villagers especially children. Therefore in order to please this mythical beast, the villages have no choice but to offer all the crops and livestocks to it in order to safe their lives.

The legendary monster,'Nian'

This trend has continued for many year but on one particular year a small little girl was out playing while "Nian" was busy eating all the villagers offering. "Nian" saw the girl, instead of eating the girl it ran out of the village knocking down pans and other metal utilities causing a long bang which made it to run faster.



From this incident, villagers knew that the beast was afraid of red color and loud noise. Therefore in order to keep "Nian" （年兽） away from their village, they wil hang up red lanterns and other red color items at their house door and window. They also burn fire crackers to make sure it will not dare to come on the first day of the new year. From then on wards no one has ever seen the beast again.



Actually, no one knew how true this story is but this eventually became one of our custom to wear red color clothes and also to burn fire crackers to celebrate the first day of Chinese New Year. So the next time, don't be surprise if you see the Chinese hanging up red lanterns and other red color decorations on Chinese New Year ok ...

We wish all of you "Gong Xi Fat Cai".

New Year Eve Lunch

Planned to indulge ourselves with good dinner in conjunction of New Year eve despite the fact that there isn't any fine dining restaurants in Kuala Terengganu. However, due to some unfinished business, our dinner plan was brought forward to lunch.

So, we went to one of the well known fast food's outlet (it is indeed a luxurious meal for the penniless students like us). We ordered 2 sets of chicken chops, mushroom soup, and Coleslaw.

The chicken chop was tasty and juicy especially when it's coated with Cajun Brown Sauce.






Everything went well until we saw this:



The 1st thing we did was to shift table.. Although the food was great but this really spoiled our mood.

Need I say more?

The Little Kings

I'll always need to reserve a place for the kittens on my study desk because..
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This is what normally they do when they are bored..

Japanese Carp or Koi

I love to rear ornamental fishes so here is something that i would like to share with you guys.



Photos from Genting Highland's pond

Koi a type of fish that can really take your stress away.Whenever you stressed up or sad just take a walk around a pond which is fill with these fishes. I can bet that you'll be smiling in no time. Trust me ok?

Japanese Carp or better known as Koi are actually from Japan. A little back ground on these colorful fishes. Koi breeding originated in the 18th century in the Niigata prefecture of Japan.



In the olden, days koi can be found on the rice field and thanks to the farmers they are now among the most notable ornamental fish around the World. Koi are normally distinguished by their coloration, patterning, and scalation. Among the major colors are white, black, red, yellow, blue, and cream.

Here is an acticle i would like you guys to read.

Wild Common Carp in Japan Under Threat

JAPAN - Scientists from Japan have discovered the introduction of domesticated strains of carp from Eurasia are destroying the wild carp (Cyprinus carpio)populations.

The scientists, K. Mabichi, H. Senou and M. Nishida from the University of Tokyo and the Kanagawa Prefecture Museum of Natural History, looked at the mitochondrial DNA sequences from 116 wild carp from 11 different areas in Japan.

THe results of the survey, Mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals cryptic largescale invasion of non-native genotypes of common carp ( Cyprinus carpio) in Japan, have been published in a recent issue of the journal Molecular Ecology 17, 796-809.


DNA

Of total 28 haplotypes identified, the authors believe 19 haplotypes are of Japanese native and the rest are non-native domesticated strains. Introduced animals are likely from China and Europe.

The study also revealed that almost half or more of the haplotypes in all of the locations studied originated from domesticated strains introduced from Eurasia.

Mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited and provides no information with respect to hybridisation between native and non-native fish. However, evidence of hybridisation between native and introduced strains of common carp has been reported for German and Uzbekistan populations and "thus, it is reasonable to assume that the native and non-native domesticated strains also have hybridised in Japan. The extent to which such hybridisations have occurred should be examined immediately. Until then, we cannot eliminate the possibility that no genetically pure native strains remain," says the report.

The study reconfirmed the fact that Japanese common carp is the "most basal strain of the species identified to date" and deserves conservation attention.

TheFishSite News Desk February 26, 2008


It's such a pity that in the wild these beautiful fishes are slowing dying out. The work of us "Humans" again. Please play your part to save our environment or else there won't be any left for our children...

Rainbow

When was the last time you see a rainbow?? I guess it must be sometime ago right? We might seen this when we were kids. I remember i used to jump around and get very excited when i was still a kid. How beautiful and majestic it was.


Taken behind my house

The rainbow is a spectrum of light which appears in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. It consist of 7 different colors which are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

I still remember a cartoon show used to say that at the end of the rainbow there is a pot of Gold. The rainbow was the Irish leprechaun's secret hiding place for his pot of gold. This place is impossible to reach, because the rainbow is an optical effect which depends on the location of the viewer. When walking towards the end of a rainbow, it will move further away. Haha i used to believe this how about u guys??





The next time you see a rainbow do take a moment to enjoy this magical phenomena.

Happy New Year 2009

Happy New year to all! Today is the first day of 2009. Many will be enjoying their holiday after a great night of party but for us over here in the East Coast on Peninsular Malaysia it's work as usual. No big celebration over here either. Super boring yet we are still keeping our hope high looking forward to start the year with a BANG !!!!!. Anyway Happy New Year guys....

The Final Hour of 2008

We are now entering to some of the final moment of 2008. We must cherish what we have now and may the new year brings new hope and resolution to all of us.