Renewing the Aquarium

New Plants
Photo info: FUJIFILM XF1, 6.4mm, f/1.8, 1/125 sec, ISO400
New Plants

Last month, the last of our aquarium fish passed away. It was an algae-eater, who lived for several years… pretty amazing! But now that the aquarium was empty, I decided it was time to clean it up a bit before buying new fish. I got rid of all the fake plants (some of which were falling apart) and bought a couple real plants. I’ve never grown plants in an aquarium before, but I read that there are some benefits and not a whole lot of care. To start, I bought a couple from the local pet store chain and planted those. So far, they are doing well! Growing at a moderate pace, with new leaves forming.

Next, we bought some new fish – a plecostomus, a rainbow shark, and two platys. We didn’t know it when we bought the female platy, but she was pregnant, and after a day in the aquarium, gave birth to four babies! (Two of which have survived) The next week I went out to get some more plants and visited a smaller local shop. They had some plants for sale, but the ones I wanted were small so they gave them to me free of charge. I offered them money but they said I was doing them a favor by taking them. Woohoo! So now we have a nice little garden going, which provides some hiding places for the baby platys.

The final addition to the aquarium is the Pirate’s Cove centerpiece. When we bought it at the store, the cashier took a look at it and said, “Classic”. I have to agree.

I’m pretty happy with the new plants and fish and hopefully they will continue to have healthy lives.

Scary Signage
Photo info: FUJIFILM XF1, 6.4mm, f/1.8, 1/350 sec, ISO400
Scary Signage
The 10-gallon Tank
Photo info: FUJIFILM XF1, 6.4mm, f/1.8, 1/170 sec, ISO400
The 10-gallon Tank

Home Cooking

Japanese Curry
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 16mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO800
Japanese Curry
Homemade Shumai
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 35mm, f/1.8, 1/350 sec, ISO400
Homemade Shumai

I am so happy that my family is back from Japan. Besides being reunited with them, I missed my wife’s home-cooking! Last year, she had cooked a huge pot of curry and froze it for me to eat while they were away. This year I wasn’t so lucky… but that made the “homecoming” curry even better. She also brought back some really cool steaming equipment and made some delicious shumai in it. Yum!!!

Finally Finished Amachan (あまちゃん)

Amachan

 

At long last I have finished watching Amachan (あまちゃん), an asadora that aired in 2013. Right now I am enjoying/suffering through my bachelor summer while my family is in Japan for a month, so I have a lot of free time in the evening to spend in front of the TV. So I picked up this drama again at around week 12 (of 26) and finished it yesterday. I really enjoyed it! The characters are pretty funny and the look into the life of a fledgling idol (not sure if it is accurate or not) was interesting. I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t seen it already. It makes me want to visit the seaside of Japan! I miss the ocean so much. 🐠🌊

My New Pilot Hi-Tech-C Coleto Pens

Last summer while I was in Japan, we went to the stationery store and I saw these cool multi-ink pen components. I think my wife created one but for some reason I didn’t make one. But I do like taking notes using different colored pens and instead of carrying around three pens for a total of three colors, I finally decided to get a multi-ink pen. After a little research I found myself at jetpens.com ordering 2 pen bodies, and 8 inks to load into them. There were a few different brands and models and I went with the Pilot Hi-Tech-C Coleto pen system. For the first pen, I went with a plain clear body, which I filled with a standard set of colors – red, blue, green, violet, but for the other pen I got a light blue body and a brighter set of colors – “Clear Blue”, “Apple Green”, “Baby Pink”, and “Apricot Orange”.

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Pens
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO320
Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Pens

These two pens are AWESOME! I love writing with them. Having all these colors literally at my fingertips makes note-taking a lot more fun and the notes are much more organized. I’m pretty happy with the colors I chose and how they look together on paper, but of course now I want to get a third body for even more color options. It’s fun!

On a side note, I did buy one other plain black pen (you can see it in the picture). It’s a Zebra Sarasa model, with 1mm tip. I love the super-thick strokes it makes. For the multi-ink pens, I went with the thickest available, which is .5mm.

Check out this video about the Pilot Hi-Tech-C Coleto pen system and order yours today!!