Guard Dog, Wild Wolf

When one pictures nights when the full moon presents itself, more often than not they will immediately think of wolves howling away towards the heavens. So much, that sometimes one imagines the crying of the beasts even though there was not a sound to be heard.

Tonight was one such night. Somewhere, within the guarded premises of a human town. One canine perks his ears at a sound familiar to him, a long, long time ago. So long, that he imagined that he had forgotten how it had sounded like.

Howls, long and mournful, like a tribute to the ancestors of his kind; but somehow also deep and filled with pride, proud, to be born as one of the pack.

Pride, which he had thrown away ever since he left his freedom, bound by a human for reasons not even himself can comprehend.

As much as he missed his freedom, leaving the pack was something he had never regretted. In that past life of his he was already a lone wolf, living solitarily in the shadows of the pack; so when he decided to leave he did not have any family or friendship ties to break.

Back then, freedom was like air to him. Giving up his freedom for this human merely meant this human’s existence had replaced the importance of that in his life. Even now if he was to be separated for any period of time from his human, suffocation tormented him. Only by her side can he breathe and rest easy.

He sat up and stared at the moon, willing himself to remember how to howl again.

In the distance, the strong voice of the alpha of his former pack rang through the silence, informing the weaker packs of his existence. Challenging, even, any males who dared to take his place.

He let out a low whimper, as his howl got stuck in his throat.

Coughing, clearing his windpipe, he tried again.

This time, a clear, deep howl.

A warning, to his brother, to not lead the pack too near to the only thing he held dear.

A guard dog may not be able to win against a wild wolf, but that fact changes when one party has something he deems worthy to protect even at the cost of his life.

Internship: Day 15

So early in the morning today I went back to the KK Sports Complex for the finale(?) of the sports day event.

Monkey was there.

Since it was the last day the people manning the JCI booth suddenly appeared with busloads of free bags and gave us some, and mistaking the monkey for an intern of TGC, he got a bag also. Then they also gave me Rm 20 coupons to spend on whatever things that could be bought in the fair, but it so too much and I gave the monkey half.

Harvest of the day: Bread and multiple can drinks aside from the cap and drink already in the free bag. ^^

I interrupt this post for a shot of an eagle-head ray I found in the market the day before but was too malas to upload. LOOK! This is a type of ray!!! HAHAHAHA~

Anyway, back to TGC I had a really really late lunch. Starving tau I tell you. There were some visitors but due to the large number of staff at my usual designated post, I wasn’t needed. So I went pusing-pusing and ended up playing with the snakes.

After that pusing pusing lagi…. And closing time. Went to “Con’s food” for dinner to try the place out. Nice place, but not suited for everyday dining.

I’m gonna go for my second dip in the shark tank tomorrow. YAY ME!

Short, but photos make it better, kan?

Off Day + Internship: Day 14

Actually I don’t want to post anything on off days de, but the game I’m playing is loading sooo slowly (now 29%).

If you guys free play la. It’s training a duck to race punya game. Very cute!.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/sims5000/ducklife3-evolution

Didn’t do much today la. Play game nia. So yesterday I went to explore town lo. I took one of the intra city buses and went pusing-pusing. The bus driver also very nice, I sit behind him ma, then he tell me this place is where and that place is where.

Oh! My game load finish d! Suddenly very fast!

Okay. So yesterday I went out to navigate town, and the bus that I took only went like half of town so now I only know where are some of the shopping malls.

Lunch went to McD and eat, and honestly, I forgot it was Thursday “McD Coke Glass” Day. I went there saw the long queue, nearly wanted to go KFC makan since nobody there. Then I looked at the glass and thought, well, since I’m here, in town, on a Thursday, what the heck? So I ordered McD and got myself a glass. Teehee.

Actually also wanted to go to the central market but very malas la. The weather was so hot. Then when it cooled down it was time to go back d, sebab I takut jam.

Anyway balik, then decided to go swimming. I think my frog is getting better, but I tak cukup tenaga to maintain the free-style for more than 1 lap at a time. ==

Then at night boss took us to Damai food court to have dinner and listen to Prof Steve Oakley give a talk on “No sharks fin soup”: After that, went home, was so goddamn tired for god knows what reason, so slept early.

It’s almost 4. I can be rajin and go swim since the weather is great. Or I can be malas and go sleep. Or I can be both and sit on a chair read book.

Hmm… what should I do?

Okay. The above was typed yesterday. And today I really malas to take picture so these picture is expired d one ah. Tomorrow I’ll take something to post.

Since this post so long d, I malas want to add more la. Today morning, go market, then in the afternoon, went to a complex sukan where the sports ministry is having some sports day to jaga a “No Sharks Fin” booth.

End of story.

Sorry ha. Very malas hari ni. Want sleep d.

Internship: Day 13

Today there was a booking for 95 primary school students so I wasn’t needed to go to the market. And tomorrow is my off day so if I don’t update anything tomorrow and the day after, you know it’s because there’s nothing interesting. Planning to go round town esok, so see how la.

Anyway back to the 95 primary school students. There were 4 groups and they were horrible except for one under 6 years (I think) punya. They just made me reinforce my beliefs that I DO NOT like kids and I’m never gonna have them.

The other highlight of the day was I went in the SHARK TANK!!! YAY!!! There was a green turtle in the tank and when I came in WAP the feller gave me welcome bite. ==

So I was struggling to control my buoyancy and clean the glass at the same time until feeding time came. Then the other diver who came with me went up to get the fish and the fish la. Today I malas want to upload so later ha.

I think I should upload picture la. But later la. So now new resolution is to upload a picture with each blog. Anyway I WAS IN THE FEEDING SHOW WEH!!!!

The green turtle seems to love me cause when I tried to go out, it bit me again. And according to a staff, he was playing with the bubbles I blew out, something he never did with the other divers.

Haha.

Hoping that I won’t get lost masa merayau kk esok. ^^

Internship: Day 12

I didn’t go to the market yesterday but I did today. I think the more times I go the more depressed I become.

Do we really need all these fish?

The market had a lot of fish. Those mud crabs, that I was struggling for MONTHS at a time to collect samples back in Terengganu for my final year project, they were sold here, baskets at a time, all large, all alive and most of all ALL CHEAP.

1 kg went for rm16 –rm20 back in Terengganu, and 1 kg is maybe 3, 4 crabs? The guy here was calling out rm10 for maybe 10-13 crabs in a basket.

OMG.

Then there were the fishes, all so goddamn huge. I mean, these are KL restaureant sized fishes but here, imagine a tuna the 1 metre long. Or a grouper, the same size. I serious! Allt the fishes found here are monstrous! So big!!! And NORMAL people buy them!!!

Last but not least are the sharks I see everyday. Apparently they were caught right after they were born.

ARRGGGHH!!!!!!!!! This is depressing.

Anyway, back to work, the normal people weren’t there and since I did the feeding show twice. I think I’ve got a flow but I need to find a way to end it. the second time I thought I was pretty good. Hee. But none of the staff were watching, so I couldn’t be sure.

Another first today is that I led a Penang group on tour. I don’t know. They seemed okay at first, but after a while they started to be obnoxious. Kept asking, do you eat this, do you eat that? OOH I ate this!! OHH that’s delicious!!!

==ll

Haih. Because of them I was talking non-stop for like 2 and a half hours? I’ve never talked that long without stopping before. PLUS I was staining my voice so I seriously needed to drink something. I hope something got through to them though.

After that I was freaking tired and since the 4 o’clock show was brought forward for the Penang people, there wasn’t supposed to be another show. But a couple walked in and boss wanted a simple show for them. So I went and got ready but they never showed. The diver pun only put on a wet suit and some fish and fed them really really simply. Then left. So lucky la, today close early ^^

Then I reached home at 5. Wow. The weather is so nice! But tomorrow I am scheduled to go down the shark tank so YAY. There’s supposed to be a crowd in the morning so I guess the dive would be in the afternoon?

Looking forward to the dive ^^

Going to play pool/bowling now. Haha. Ciao!

Internship: Day 11

Today I didn’t end up going to the market as there were no transport, so I stayed behind to do the normal fish technician stuffs. Feed fish, chop fish, and today a NEW event: Check and clean filter pumps.

Being a large aquarium, these filter pumps are not your average aquarium pumps that aquarium hobbyists put in their living room. They used filter stones of different sizes to filter the water. And the filter stones used are coral rubble. ^^

Today was a slow. Slow. SLOW day. There were two entries in the morning and no one came in after 12. I was supposed to practice my feeding show presentation at the 4,00 show but since no one came so there was no show. I’m gonna do it tomorrow at 11.30, probably, if the person who does the show normally doesn’t come in. So yeah, kinda looking forward to that. ^^

Then… oh! I neglected to mention that a senior works here! He’s from the first batch of Marine Biology students! Haha. That’s all I can think of telling about him.

Em. Then because there was nobody in, work ended at 4.30 and I got home by 5. Then boss asked me to go swimming at 5.30. Actually I was really really malas to go, but boss ordered, so, haha.

She is a GREAT swimmer. Right now I’m trying to polish my frog and free style, and after that I’ll ask her to teach me the back stroke and butterfly. ^^ Then she did a really cool water treading style which had was REALLY hard although she tried explaining the theories to me.

So, conclusion, I’m gonna,try to go swiiming, to practice and to build up stamina. I’ve seen her go 20-30 laps around the pool, making it look so goddamn easy. Wow. Haha. I was already out of breath after half a lap. ==

So weekdays I’ll go swimming if I get off work early la. Here very nice, after 5pm there’s no sun and I can just swim until 7pm only it’ll get dark.

Internship: Day 10

As per usual, every morning for the next 6 weeks I need to be in the market every morning to see what kind of rays/sharks end up on the table. Today, there were SO many rays at the market today. They were all squished into big square containers. I estimate 60-70 rays of different species in the market this morning.

Which got me thinking. Do we need this much fish?

Its getting so sad to go to the market everyday. I mean, all those baby sharks and all those rays? How long can the wild population last like this? I mean, it’s hard to convince people to go vegan, I for one, can’t imagine life without meat. But the magic word of these human dominated times is “sustainable”.

So how do I go about telling them? The people I talk to are middlemen. The people who actually catch the fish are out of my reach. I’m already afraid of the fishmongers getting angry at my daily photo taking as it is. ==ll

Okay, so after the fish market survey there is the afternoon there is the feeding show that I was supposed to do. That guy really wore the Chinese kungfu costume. And…

Jeng jeng jeng…

Comments were: Very good, for a first attempt. Not loud enough.

Personally, I’m not really happy with myself. I went into the show with everything I wanted to say, with the flow with the fact with the everything. Then I started, the diver came out, the audience got distracted, and that threw off my flow. Then while I struggled to get that flow back, as my voice was barely loud enough for it to stretch way to the back, I was passed a mike.

Okay. Use the mike.

Then the thing died on me.

Tried getting it to work. In doing so, lost my flow.

The rest of the show was done looking at what fishes were visible and just blurting out all the facts.

Luckily I was able to find an opportunity to step down and bring a conclusion to the show. So it’s not THAT bad I guess.

I can do better. Haha.

Then in the evening there was this birthday party, so many little bothersome kurang ajar brats came up to site. And there were so many stupid kids running around unsupervised and grabbing everything the wrong way although I tried to tell them not to. ==

I hate kids.

I really do.

I had no idea what to do, talking to them was no point cause they was too excited to hear me; and anyways my first reaction was to just take a stick and bash them so I had my hands full trying to control myself. ==

That’s it for today. Gonna sleep now. ^^

Internship: Day 9

I actually didn’t wanna update today cuz damn tired d but I’ll give short-short one la. Very membazir, because actually today many interesting things happened, but I’m not gonna elaborate la.

Very basically and simply:

Morning go pasar, ada shark ada ray. Ada Scylla tranquebarica yang bigger than py monster last time.

Afternoon: make bet with staff. He wear like Ip Man tomorrow, then I’ll do one feeding show presentation for him. Clean aquarium tank, very high, very tiring.

Evening: Go watch movie and eat half price cake at hotel with another part-time staff. Handphone died. Charging now. Sleeping soon.

Sorry ha sangat short but I nak tidur sudah. Nite everybody.

Internship: Day 8

My Google chrome crashed today. I know, I know, this has nothing to do with my internship but I just want to type that. Geram! I was doing research ni!

Today’s market was unexciting, not much to see and not much that’s new. There’s even a stall that I suspect was selling leftover sharks from yesterday cuz that’s the only stall that had ys’s hammerhead sharks. There were plenty of small spotted rays on sale though, and I think the vendors are starting to recognize me. Hopefully they won’t get mad at me until I finish this project la.

Afternoon while no one was in, I figured out a new thing to do to pass the time. I go to the shark tank, stand in front of it, and mentally recite what I would say if I were to give a show on shark feeding. I mean, I’ve memorized all the facts the others give but it’s just a matter of how and when I present those facts. Still working on that, cuz before I get a chance to complete the mental presentation, someone walks in and interrupts me. ==

Erm. I did a fish dissection today. Nothing much, just that the gills are brown instead of red. But not sure if that’s the cause of death cuz the fish was frozen and defrosted prior to dissection. There was a school group today but I wasn’t in charge so I kept out of the way. Well honestly I did try to lead them but… the group did not pay any attention to me so I gave up.

Maybe the highlight of the day is that there is this really funny song. In Chinese is “后来” dunno who sing. But if you know the song, imagine sung in Malay, and the lyrics are talking about geckos. Seriously damn funny. ^^

What else ah. Nothing la. Cannot remember d. I’ll try to write a daily post la. If too short I decide to write something about the place instead of my intern work time. E.g. the staff, the fish, etc.

Okay la. Remember oh ppl, if nampak my msn available can disturb me.

Remember ah.

LOL.

Internship: Day 7

The highlight of today is the trip to the market. There were hammerhead sharks in today!

Oh yea. I’m not supposed to be so happy about this so yeah. There were the usual black tips and also a some lemon sharks, all with their fins cut off. It’s just so sad la.

Also outside the market there were 7 huge 20kilo manta rays going for… RM1 per kilo! So cheap! They were all sunbathing on the floor, dead, bloody.

And yet again,today was a really really slow day. Nothing much happening. We even closed up early today, 4.30om. Ah… so boring. I can’t even dive until she-boss gives the okay. ==

What else ah… nothing lo. I’m losing interest in updating this d la. Nmaybe I’ll kumpul kumpul everything and write it at the end of the month la.

Internship: Day 6

Okay. Today, summing it up in one word, was BORING. Not many people came, and half of which was unappreciative of what I’m trying to tell them. Most of the employees are off today, and the place was deserted and empty. It was so boring that I nodded off once or twice in the late afternoon.

But that left the whole place really empty, and I was able to go to the Shark Tank and stand there to see how it feels like. It’s like, wow. I can’t imagine talking there to a crowd of people. But that’s not to sat I can’t. Maybe I’m just not used to the place. Cuz last time back in uni all presentations were carried out with some kind of table, rostrum, etc. This? This is one big open space in front of a see through glass.

Standing there I think I can handle the factual stuff, just the presentation. That, I know I will get better through practice. However I hope I can be the one behind the glass, diving and feeding, and not the presenter, haha.

Okay. That was the afternoon part. Finally today morning I went to the market. Only one fishing vessel came in today so there was not many fish and therefore demand is high for low supply and so prices were skyrocketing.

Wait. That wasn’t what I went there to do. I went there to survey the fisheries. Oh My God the tuna there was SO big. Then there were some stalls selling barracudas!!!

I was there to see what species of sharks and rays were caught and ended up on the table. Sharks were hard to identify as all the fins were chopped off, and without fins it’s a lot harder to identify the shark. So I took some pictures to see if I can compared them to an ID book I have later.

Rays were even worse, none of the rays on the table was whole. They were all chopped into little tiny pieces and placed on plates for sale. I took pictures of those as well, but I didn’t realize I needed to photograph the patterns behind them so the pictures are actually virtually useless.

This much said, I now know how to take better and more proper pictures so I’ll put that to practice tomorrow. Part of my internship is to visit this market every morning to monitor the volume of shark and ray landings. Different from Terengganu, this place does not have turtle eggs. It seems the locals do not eat those, preferring shark fins and ray meat.

Could the reason behind this difference be the population ethnicity?

Oh yeah. It was a slow day, so we closed at 4.30pm. Right after we declared closing, a wedding photographer came with a couple to take wedding pictures.

The bride had to be wearing 3 inch stilettos!!

Aiya. Kalau I pakai tu, belum jalan pun sudah jatuh.

This couple not nice to look at. The one back at the apartment is better entertainment. Hahaha…

Aiyo. This blog cannot let them discover weh… I’m gonna remove my facebook link to my blog now since ada staff yang nak add me.

^^

Internship: Day 5

Okay, so today, before I do anything else, I’m gonna start on this. The pasar trip didn’t come to realization cuz there were not enough space in the transport. Then she-boss said to go tomorrow, so I got assigned to wash a really dirty tank. Halfway through she came and said, ok, I’ve found transport, let’s go! But since I tengah wash tank tu, jadi tak jadi pergi lah.

So then she asked to meet her at the swimming pool back at the apartment for swimming lesson. Apparently my breathstroke and freestyle punya coordination is all wrong and she corrected me on that. Then suddenly I got myself a swimming session every week Tuesday. Haha.

Rushing back to The Green Connection for the afternoon feeding, so kesian, the animals kena go hungry one hour because of that, I don’t know if it’s my way of feeding, or the volume I’m feeding, the animals in the turtle rescue tank started to fight over the food. Especially 52(the name of the biggest hawksbill turtle) started bullying the other two smaller hawksbill and the bamboo sharks in the exhibit for the fish. Or maybe they were too hungry.

On a separate note: Garu seems to be quite used to me as well. Today he kept following me around, although I was rounding the exhibits. So cute!

Also today boss took us to dinner. Wao. 4 persons, 5 dishes. Inclusive of prawns and sotong. The supreme pork chop is REALLY good. If ada chance bawak ppl go eat there. Remember I say boss and gf very sweet? Now I think they two very also cute together la. They oh, keep trying to ask me drink beer only. Bad influence. Haha.

Em. So that’s all the report I can think off for today. Well then.

Off to the pasar tmr!!

Internship: Day 4

Ah. What should I say today? Normally my posts are typed more or less right after I return from work but today for some reason I was really tired (although today was no different from the days before) and had a nap RIGHT after I returned home.

More like flopped onto the bed and fell immediately asleep. LOL

Erm. So this morning one thing interesting was I saw Garu, a male black cat, VERY beautiful, VERY manja, VERY cute go look at a hamster tunnel exhibit. He just planted his butt there and stared and the hamsters running around through the glass, occasionally pawing it.

The rest of the day, I hung out at the “Touch and Feel” section. That place seems like the main place I can be found at the moment cause there’s nothing for me to do anywhere else. Sometimes, when I feel bored and extra hardworking, I’ll walk down to the turtle exhibit and look for people. Failing to find people I’ll just hang out with the staff manning the snake exhibit. And play with snakes. shhh… don’t tell my boss(es). haha.

I was told today that I would have extra assignments to do: one, to make a poster about the biology of sharks and two, I’m no longer gonna do any morning feeding cause I’ll need to go to the local market and get information on the local fisheries, which, at the end of the internship I have to write up a report.

Guess I’ll have something to write about tomorrow. Day at the market! haha.

I need to learn how to let go and enjoy myself more.

I also need to research on that feeding show in case they suddenly spring it on me. But the way I see it, I’m the fifth in line so unless they really want me to do that show, there’s not much chance of me doing it. BUT, everyone other than my boss seems to really want me to start trying… hmm.

Aiya. My posts getting shorter and shorter hor? Come la come la. Anything you all want to ask just ask la... XD

Internship: Day 3

Wao. I memang teramat sangat semangat ni! I suppose it’s cause it’s the first week, and many new stuff are happening, so many there’re many stuff to write about also. Hmmm…

I wonder if I can just continue writing a post a say like this then at the end of the internship just copy paste into the internship report that I’m supposed to be writing?

Anyway as I said yesterday there was a large group of locals coming today with the main aim of joining the coral replantation program they have here.

Tomorrow they’re gonna shift those artificial coral blocks back to the sea, but since I’m needed here for more briefing, I don’t get to go! Ahhhh~ I wanna go dive and replant coral also~~

Anyway. Today was the first day I’m working with nice-boss. I clocked in half an hour earlier today cause he needed to arrive early and break corals for the huge coral replanting group that were expected to arrive later in the afternoon. Scary-boss is still scary, and I didn’t see him often today, but when I did, he was talking to other people and his tone was somewhat the friendly type.

I forgot what I was doing in the first half of the day, probably walking around looking for visitors or manning the “Touch and Feel” section. Then came the major assignment of the day, manning the turtle exhibit. It was abit hard cuz the people who came where of mixed races, and I had to use BM most of the time. My spoken BM being of a limited vocabulary, I ran out of things to say pretty quickly. But that was okay, cause the three groups of people were more concerned in finding sharks to look at than looking at the three very cute hawksbills that were under my care at that moment. So I pretty much ended up explaining the supporting creatures in the tank: fish and lizard shark, just cause they were more visible to the visitors than the turtles are, and they tend to look at moving things.

They are more interesting than boring turtles eating sand. ==ll

Anyway, to people who DID listen, I was talking more on turtle biology: what they eat, where they live, how many types etc.

I still find I work better with small groups of people. Like <6? But no more than 10.

Today’s fish feeding show was a bit more unique as she-boss was doing an extra on fish bombing and coral protection so ada special sikit lah. I really like listening to her talk lar, the accent is very nice to hear.

Then today nice-boss and gf bawak go dinner again. aiyo, I also like tengok-ing they two together la. so sweet! haha. very nice people. nice-boss also has a lot of wisdom words as well.

Sometimes working with these people I get a bit stressed while talking to them, cause I’m not confident that I can deliver what they are expecting of me. or at the very least, what I think they are expecting of me cuz I don’t know what they are expecting actually. but I’m sure it’s more than what I am showing them now.

But okay, I’ll work on it. very hard. XD