FAREWELL

"Free the Frog! Free the Frog!! Amphibians around the world unite!!!!!" Dee, my co-worker, made this petition to let Shrek go free in an e-mail. "How dare you? Dee!" Just kidding...

Actually I really do think this is time. Tomorrow will be a good day to do so because the forecast said it'll be a rainy day, an amphibian day.

Funny thing is I didn't make much connection with fish in my two aquariums, but somehow letting Shrek go seems to trigger some uneasiness. I guess we call this attachment. Eight months is long enough to create a bonding. Or perhaps it's the fact that I'll be going to Hong Kong with my kids for three weeks next Tuesday, YEEEEEEEHA, so I can certainly relate how Shrek feels about being with its species, should I say "the other frog is calling!"

Before we go, Shrek wants to show off his worm-eating skill. Enjoy! And by the way, I think Shrek is actually a female because he didn't do any callings at all.

Ahem... remember Andy William? "B-O-R-N F-R-E-E, AS FREE AS THE WIND BLOWS...."

FREEDOMMMMMM!!!

What would you do if your kids decided to run away because your house is too small? Not once, not twice, but three times. Three times! Would you buy a bigger house, or you simply let them go.

In my case, I think of the latter. Of course I'm not talking about my kids. I'm talking about Shrek, my froggie. He escaped from the aquarium three times in the last four days, hiding in the toilet corner, under the entertainment center, and on top of the aquarium. You may wonder how he pulled it off. Simple. First, he is no longer a small froggie. Second, as the previous video shows, he jumps up like a launching rocket. Third, I keep the filtration and heater's openings open and I didn't know he is so determined to go. Sounds like the movie "Finding Nemo," isn't it?

In fact, his escape coincides with my recent thinking if it's time to let him go back to where he was. After all, my duty to keep him alive has already achieved, so keep him captivated in an aquarium seems to serve more of my own interest than his purpose of existence. Not to mention he has outgrown my aquarium. If that is the case, how can I justify to keep fishy friends in my aquarium then.

So what would you do if you were me?

Shrek, a launching rocket!

My body got so excited when Spring comes, that's why my blog is like missing in action. Hey, don't blame me, I have a life to live other than taking video of Shrek! After all, who can resist the warmth of the sun, the smell of the greens and the touch of the light breeze of Spring after three months of hibernation? Anyway, it's been quite some time since the last post, but you know, a good video takes time to make. Shrek is in action of course, but this time I see him like a rocket launching.

Watch:

A small "JAW"

Over the weekend, I had Chris Beck, a close friend, working together on editing the slow motion of the previous movie clip. May, Chris's wife and a co-worker of mine, was shaking her head, saying "oh, you boys..." as she looked at us cheerfully celebrating our not-so-profound success in the editing, at least by professional standards. She is right, boys will always be boys. No offense, May!

You know what? After editing the sound effect in, the clip is no longer just a frog feeding on a cricket like the previous one. It's almost like watching the great white shark chowing down a seal in "JAW", or the tyrannosaurus swallowing the lamb in "JURASSIC PARK." Even I myself feel the chill of the violence in the name of "the strongest survives."

Speaking of that, it does exist in our world in different aspects. Gun shots here, civil wars there. How about Wall Street bankers gaming on our financial system while corporations and crooks violating business ethics for their fat pockets. Or the rich keep getting richer while the poor struggle in putting food on the table.

We're almost like the crickets trying to get fed while avoiding being eaten alive. Having said that, our prospects are much brighter than the crickets because we are not confined by where we are in our own food chain. One day, we may be at the bottom, who knows on another day, we may rise up to another level if not straight up to the top. Or vice versa as we have witnessed those falling down hard in the last 12 months.



Chris, thank you for your help.

Video credit: me

A dream

Picture this: a bald eagle is descending in high speed right above a lake, then extending its claws to grab a fish right out of the water. And in seconds, it flies away without a trace. It's so breathtaking.

Or a slow motion movie clip of a lion's deadly hunt in safari, which turns out to be an incredible escape being pulled off by the prey itself, will never fail us. One way or the other, we have that "WOW" moment.

As you know, I'm no film director, but I like taking NOT low budget, but NO BUDGET movie shots of my leopard frog with my crappy point and shoot camera, dreaming one day I could be one of those National Geographic photographic journalists shooting footage of an elusive wolf pack hunting caribous in Alaska or part of the BBC natural history camera crew shooting documentary of two snow leopards going after mountain goats in Pakistan shown in the "Planet Earth" series.

I know, I know, it takes a lot skill and hard work to put a collection like that together. And I admit I wouldn't have that kind of patience and talent to pull it off, but still, it doesn't deter me from creating my own version of a "controlled" documentary of my leopard frog.

Beware, this clip is not "G" rated, but it's nowhere near X's though. Watch:




If you like this one, you surely would like the slow motion version that will be posted in a couple of days, stay tuned.

Is Shrek the Shrek in "Shrek"

The answer is I still don't know.

It's already Spring. I have been wondering if Shrek actually feels the urge to... ahem, mate. However, the tricky thing is Shrek has been living comfortably indoor through the winter, does it even know it is Spring now?

Without going through the hibernation process to trigger its biological clock, does Shrek, still has the instincts to call for its princess if it is a male leopard frog, or to look for the frog prince if it is a female.

Maybe I can steal an idea from Dee, a co-worker of mine who is a frog lover. Her cubicle is filled with pictures of frogs. Some are on the wall, some are hanging from the ceiling. I should call her "frog lady" from now on, nah!

Anyway, my idea is to tape a whole bunch of frog pictures around my aquarium as "stimulants" and see if Shrek will react to its fantasies, I mean its instincts, to make calls 24/7. If it does, Shrek is definitely the Shrek in "Shrek." If it doesn't, it might be a Fiona, and I should go to a nearby pond to round up a male for her.

Spring is a good time for happy ending... I know, I know, I'm just over my head.

Can't let go

Me: Shrek, you look very hungry! You just can't let that cricket go free, can you? Enjoy while it last.

Shrek: Hey hey hey, what do you mean, Mr.? You don't bail me out anymore?

Me: Well, sorry Shrek, you got crickets from me but who got my lunch? My house is currently under water, but the bailout doesn't seem to help us at all. Also, pay cut is on the horizon, not to mention my tax dollars is going to AIG executives' bonuses!

Shrek: Oh no, All Is Gone?

Revisit the chilling thoughts

Yes, it's mid-February and the daylight is already longer. Some of you couldn't wait to pull the Hawaiian shirt out of the bottom dresser, but being a naysayer, I would say "not so fast." Daily high is still below or right at the freezing and in the low twenties in average at night. I don't need a groundhog to find out if Spring is here, the frozen little pond in my backyard tells me it isn't yet.

Speaking of my little pond, I can't help but giving myself credits, yes, again, on saving Shrek's life. "No big deal, man," you may say. And you're right, maybe I'm a little narcissistic. However, as I read the news on Feb. 12, which was the 200th birthday of two famous historical national icons - Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, I also found out that 2008 was named The Year of Frog, which was a global campaign to raise public awareness and understanding of the crisis of amphibian extinction. What a coincidence? How appropriate on my rescue action, eh! Honest with you, I didn't really know about that until last Thursday.

Now, compare this photo with the one above, which one you think Shrek would like to be in if he has a choice?



See this link for more info on The Year of Frog campaign

http://www.amphibianark.org/yearofthefrog.htm

baby fish update

If you read the comments from the previous posting "Oh babies", you know one of my followers, Chao, suggested that I could have a TV interview on Ann Curry's NBC morning show. You know what? I counted the baby fish in the aquarium again last night and I found seven of them. Yay... the mother fish, a platy, is just one baby fish shy of tying the record of Nadya Suleman who gave birth to her Octuplets.

New video

I have posted a new video at the bottom of the previous post if you missed it. If you haven't read the post, read it before watching the video clip.

OH, BABIES !

Sometimes life happens.

Ahem, don't get me wrong... I already have two kids and my will doesn't have extra space to add any extra names. But things got a little out of hand, a few babies did came out of nowhere in my house just a couple of days ago. "What?" "I didn't do anything, they're not mine!" Sounds familiar?

OK, let me explain. There's no secret of it. Just think about when I have ahhhh..... two fish that have big bellies and the chance that they give birth to a few fishy babies is nothing new. Of course, I'm grateful to have a few little fishy friends hanging around in Shrek's neighborhood. However, whether they can survive and grow up is all up to the law of natural selection.

After spotting the first one, I couldn't help but spending the next twenty minutes trying to get an accurate head count, but I gave up after counting only five of them. I realized that there's no way the mother fish can beat Nadya Suleman, the 33-year-old woman who lately captured the headline news by giving birth to octuplets. If you don't quite know how to pronounce it, try to pronounce "octopus" first.

Wait, but she is a single mom and already have six children! And those young children are raised pretty much by her mom Angela. Well, you can fill in the rest of what you can think of.

The last thing that I want to say is, yes, sometimes life does happen, but in this case, lives ARE made to happen. I don't know. What do you think?




Here's a snapshot of the mother fish.

Size matters

One of my followers asked how big Shrek's neighborhood is, i.e. the size of the aquarium. I hope he isn't planning to file litigation against me on frog abuse. Just look at how big Shrek has grown and you'll know he's just a happy camper there.

OK, it's a 30-gallon aquarium. The filter is a cheap underwater filtration system that costs 15 bucks or so.

Good question!

Shrek: Am I fat?

Lewis: You want an honest answer?

Shrek: Yes.... wait, no.... arrrrrgh! O... K...

Lewis: Your weight is equivalent to the top 50 percentile of the obese population in the U.S., how about that?

Shrek: That's it? Whew! I feel better!

Meet the neighbors III - Shadow

Shadow lives in the dark side, but not Darf Vader's kind.

It belongs to the family of African knife fish. I don't know about its relatives, but Shadow is extremely shy. It hides itself in a cave, or tunnel, or some place that is dark all day. It's as if it's anti-social. To be a little more politically correct, let me just say it's aloof.

I wish I read more about this fish before putting my money down. Why would any hobbyist wants to own a nocturnal fish. That defeats the purpose of having fish in an aquarium, doesn't it? Nobody will wake up in the twilight and try to flash for where this fish is hanging out. In Chinese, we call this "late night ghost," mostly refer to people who are active during nighttime.

Anyway, over a week or so, I thought about the term aquarium. It doesn't exactly reflect why I put the frog in in the first place. I like diversity in this little indoor "pond." I want to see different characters in this neighborhood, which may create argument sometimes, but that's what the world we're living in right now. Culture is a beautiful thing, so why do we need to separate them apart as long as they live in harmony. After all, Shadow doesn't bully others. In fact, it's a good dancer. When it swims, its tail will capture your appreciation of its movement.

The bottom line is if everybody is well-fed, they're happy, they don't ask for more. OK, OK, I'm an Utopian. They're a little bit territorial sometimes. What about Shrek? Well, I've observed long enough for this conclusion: he's not a good fisherman, but a good hunter. So his neighbors are safe.

Calamari tastes really bad? Sure?

You probably disagree, but let me explain.

To many of you, there is only one kind of calamari that tastes really good and I like it a lot too. Am I being an idiot? No! There is another kind that you don't know of really, really, sucks.



In Chinese, Calamari is similar to a dish called "stir fry squid," which is also a saying for "being layoff." Ah ha, now you couldn't agree more.

My mood tonight is on the down side, not so much because of the death of the crab, but the announcement of my seven co-workers who are on the chopping board and seven more on the buyout offering list. Compared with thousands and thousands of workers that have been let go in corporate America in one single day, you may ask what the big deal is here.

These seven positions are in the first wave of layoff, yes, but precedent to this, there have already been four rounds of buyouts which chopped away about 130 (maybe more ) out of about 400 employees in the newsroom alone. Now, you tell me if this is a big deal percentage wise.

Sigh...

Oh, crab!

These days, it doesn't seem there's any good news whatsoever. Other than Obama who has inaugurated as the President of the United States for a week or so, there's basically no one single good news I could cheer about. All I see is only dark clouds. It almost feels like our country is in the center of a hurricane.

Just when I tried to avoid being bombarded by all the headlines by burying myself in Shrek's neighborhood to find some comfort, the unexpected strikes again.

I woke up one morning and found one of the Crabbie twins doing a claw stand. Cool huh! Not really. It didn't move at all. I'm not a detective, but judging from the crime scene, I don't suspect it's a homicide cuz its whole body is still intact. Nobody in the neighborhood is strong enough to make that killing except Shrek. But if it were Shrek, there won't be any remains found, right? I guess I'll have to put it in the file of "Cold Case". If you think there are other suspects, let me know.

Oh crab, rest in peace!

Feeding frenzy

Happy Chinese New Year! It's an OX year in Chinese Zodiac... my year. How old I'm? How about doing a simple math here: (60-48) x5 -12=?

Oh yes, a co-worker hosted a celebration last night with yummy Chinese cuisine that you won't find in even an authentic Chinese restaurant in Minnesota.

The words got out that I'm writing a blog about a frog. Alright, alright, I admit that I promote it heavily in the party. Regardless, I got great response, some with intriguing expressions on their faces as if saying "ahhhhh, a big kid." No offense.

And a kid came up to me asking if I could show her the video of the frog in action. Of course, this is a blog for both kids and adults. Here is a new video of Shrek having a feeding frenzy as well. Enjoy!

Next time, we'll re-visit Crabbie twins, stay tuned.

Feel free to write comments or feed backs.

A silly froggy story

Well actually, I'm not going to tell you the story. Instead, I think you can make up a better silly story than I can offer you. Reason? Your imagination is far better than mine. You are still not convinced? Why don't you try this link, you'll be amazed by how funny you actually are when you finish this froggy story. Just fill out the form with some key words and there you are, a future stand up comedian. Voila!

http://allaboutfrogs.org/funstuff/java/madlibs/madlibs1.html

Meet the neighbors II - Crabbie Twins

Shrek likes food fresh and raw, period. He'll go after anything that moves.

However, the last thing he would like to gobble up would be these two new comers – ladies and gentlemen, the Crabbie twins.

However, even if Shrek is starving, I doubt that he has the gut to go after them. Trying to eat this eight-pointy-legs-and-a-pair-of-heavy-duty-claws creature, Shrek would spit it out in no time. If he did, I would do a C-section to get them out of his belly. Ahhh... maybe not.

Have you ever wonder why crabs don't walk front and back but walk sideways? They are just like a lot of insects with legs on both sides of their bodies, right? Never thought of that before? I don't blame you.

If you put your hand on the table, how will your fingers move? Mostly just bend and bounce them up and down, especially while you are thinking this silly crappy question, right?

Ding ding ding, now you got it! It's their joints that limit the movement of their legs. Since the rotation of each joint max out no more than 180 degrees along the vertical plan but not the horizontal's, they can only move their bodies to the left or right, but not the front and back.

Also, the bending of their legs helps squeezing themselves into holes or crevices that are smaller than their body width to escape predators.

It's fun to watch them walking in the water, isn't it?

Nevertheless, crabs are really tasty, yum yum!

More about these Crabbie twins to come.

Let's play a game!

Recently, I exchange e-mails with a childhood friend whose aunt, also a close half-relative of mine, passed away. I was a little sad, but thinking she had lived a long life, though may not be perfect in some ways, it's time to let her go. She slept in peace.

My friend and I also talked about how much fun we had when we went hunting for critters in picnics or at beaches -- insects, fish, crabs, amphibians, you name it. Yup, those were the days. Something in me will never change. I'm still doing it when I'm on vacation with my kids.

For that reason, I want to give you guys a game to play on Shrek. I want to see if you have hunters' eyes. I have two photos of Shrek's neighborhood and he's hiding, but not 100 percent invisible. If you have a watch, you can time yourself to see how long it takes you to find him.

The answer will be posted at the bottom of the previous post, "Do frogs yawn" later.

Ready? Go.

Do frogs yawn?

I'm not sure.

You'll be the judge after watching Shrek's videos.



Not only is he opening his mouth wide, he's also rubbing his eyes, stretching his legs, not to mention he looks REALLY bored. If it's you and me showing these signs, it's time to hit the sack, isn't it?



And it turns out when a frog looks like it's yawning, it's actually shedding its skin, and they do it quite often when they are in juvenile stage, according to experts. And strangely enough, they would eat their own shed skin to get the nutrients back into their bodies. Nothing get wasted!

Contrarily to frogs, we waste food, we create tons of garbage, we pollute our own planet, and we don't save for the rainy days... the list goes on and on and on...

No, I don't mean to trash homo sapiens, or to suggest that we should live like a saint, I only think we should live responsibly under all circumstances.

Tomorrow, we'll have Obama-elect as our new president, he's going to govern our country with respects and dignity, way way better than Bush. "Anything goes"should be a thing in the past, "We the People" are better than that. Make a pledge to do something good to your neighbor, to your community. Make the country a better place for everybody, as Obama has always embraced in his speeches.

You're yawning now, I know. I'm yawning too, but not shedding my skin, don't worry. Just a sign that I want to go home after work, that's all.


• These are the answers for the post "Let's play a game" above.

Meet the neighbors I - Ben

Shrek has some friends living in the same block.

Let me just call them fishy neighbors. It may take a few posts to introduce all of them.

First, this little guy, Ben, has a few black stripes on the body. Its official name is Botia dario. It's in the loach family. Some people call it Queen loach, some call it Bengal loach. The latter seems to fit its appearance better because it has the stripes like a cat. However, its temperament doesn't suggests it's gentle at all, especially when it comes to feeding. It'll chase its neighbors from one end of the block to the other.

Don't worry, although Ben isn't friendly, he won't hurt others much, he's more like a "paper tiger" instead. His favorite meal? Small snails. When he sucks the snail out of the shell, it'll create some loud "clicking" noise. Interesting, isn't it?

His heritage? He's from the hill streams of Bangladesh.

Deep freeze

For Shrek, he would have been hibernating at the bottom of the lake by now if he was in the wild...

Tonight is probably the coldest night in this winter, -14 F at 9:30 p.m. With wind chill factor, it's more like -25 to -40 F, equivalent to -35 C or so. Well, I choose to live here, so I deal with the cold. I don't complain much about it because I have embraced it since I came here for college almost twenty years ago.

But what chills me tonight is actually the breaking news on Avista, the company that owns my newspaper Star Tribune, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Well, to our readers, it's breaking news, but to us, we have this in mind for a few months already. Still, it doesn't make it easier for everybody who is still working diligently to make the deadline every night.

I wish I could be like Shrek for a moment, just stop doing nothing and hibernate for a little while. No need to find food. No urge to mate. No worry of anything.

Photo credit: David Joles, my co-worker who shot the photo that ran on our newspaper today.

How about "Shrek"?

The thing is my friend has kept asking what the froggie's name is... Since I don't even know if it's a male or female, I can't give it a name...

However, one way to find out is to wait until Spring time in which a male frog will call (for love) to attract a female. If my froggie doesn't call then, I'm afraid I may have to intervene to find her a Prince frog this Summer.

But for now, let me just assume my frog is a male, and its name is "Shrek." Fair enough!

Photo illustration: Me

Are you annoyed?

I woke up in the middle of the night wondering where the chirping sound coming from, then I realized it was the crickets inside the insect box. I put my ear plugs on, turned around and got back to sleep.

The next morning, the crickets were still chirping and it was getting louder and louder. By just listening to the patterns, there seemed to be two different crickets chirping, one after another. Out of curiosity, I took my camera and taped a closeup video to see how they made the sound.

In animal kingdom, it's always the males dancing around or doing beautiful callings to attract females. The crickets are no different, except there are three other conditions for which they chirp – first, while falling in love. Second, while bullying each other, and finally, alerting others danger approaching.

If you watch the video, you'll know both crickets are rubbing its own wing against the wrinkles on the other wing to make the sound. And you can tell their chirps are aggressively aiming at each other, obviously a power struggle. It's so amusing to see it in a close up.

Misfired!

Well, as good a hunter like my frog, it's not always one hundred percent successful.

One time, I was so proud to show my friends how good a hunter it is, and it misfired three times and I was like an angry football coach yelling at a kicker how he could miss a 10-yard field goal to seal the win in a playoff. What a disgrace when that happens, you know!

This clip is just a perfect example of "when it's too easy, the chance of missing it is not unimaginable." How true!

Quick fix b/4 my vacation

I was on vacation after Christmas for nine days and the two days before my departure, I'd been scratching my head on how I could keep my frog from starving to death... and my girlfriend's idea popped up -- use duct tape to tape the whole insect box on the wall of the aquarium and keep a small opening so that the crickets can climb out onto the grassy area but keeping the frog from going in for a feast. Also, I wrapped the inside of the box with grocery bag paper so that the movement of the crickets won't trigger the frog to knock down the box into the water. Who knows, a desperate frog may take drastic action to survive... better be safe than sorry.

Turned out it was a successful execution. I was back Sunday and the frog was still happy moving around, no sign of stress or hunger. How many crickets were left in the box? One.