Dog Year

This is the year of the DOG. Why is that so? Cause it's all right there in the Chinese Lunar calender.

According to Chinese legend, the twelve animals quarreled one day as to who was to head the cycle of years. (Why only twelve? What happened to the elephants, hippo, crocodiles, kangaroos, etc?? Maybe they're across the river already.) The gods were asked to decide and they held a contest. Whoever was to reach the opposite bank of the river would be first, and the rest of the animals would receive their years according to their finish.

All the twelve animals gathered at the river bank and jumped in. Unknown to the ox, the rat had jumped upon his back. As the ox was about to jump ashore, the rat jumped off the ox's back, and won the race. The pig, who was very lazy, ended up last. That is why the rat is the first year of the animal cycle, followed by the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and the pig last.

The rotating cycle of twelve animal signs was a folk method for naming the years in traditional China. The animal signs for one another in an established order, and are repeated every twelve year cycle.

Anyhoo, dog year maketh dog sites popular, here's two more ~
DogBlog & Herbiesphere

Happy Lunar New Year to all you Woofs out there.
新年快乐, 恭喜发财, 万事如意!

Trail of Evidence

Early signs of first time dog owners are surfacing around the common areas and lift lobby.

Doggie poo hoo hoo. The appalling thing is, it's there!

Not near a tree or on some spot of grass or a fire hydrant, it's just right smack in the middle of the common walkway and infront of the lift. Horrible, loathsome, awful, stinking, dismaying, grosssss!
I hope they step on it on their way back.

Ah, I'm gonna catch up with my CSI on TV now.

Puppy cries

The mournful cries of a puppy jolted me out of my sleep. Someone got a new puppy!

For a moment, in the dark of the night and in my dazed state, I thought I was having a dream about Mocha and Pepper when they were still little puppies. But that half-howling yap was loud and all too real, and at freaking 5.30am, I had only just gone to bed at 4am. What luck.

I guess someone must have thought that it'd be good to get a dog for some dog luck in the new year.

Going verbal

I've been distracted by going verbal, hence the lapse in recent entries.
Plus I've been busy trying the darnest hardest to find some island hideaway for the Lunar New Year period.
Being too picky and rather cheapo, I dun think I'll be able to find one in time, so I might just be stuck on the same trapical island hideaway.

On the one hand teaching sessions for schools have started again and I find myself in a class again with the same ole bunch of kids from last year, since it's quite apparent most of them passed their year end exams.
The downside is, they din seemed to have grown up mature... same ole same ole *haiz*

Bought a book from Borders recently, to help motivate me to plan for my travels and possibly photography expeditions.
1001 Natural Wonders you must see before you die
So I finally found out why Lake Tahoe have waters that's so freaking crystal blue all year thru, besides the fact that noone freaking litters there. You'll find that on page 84, if you happen to flip thru the book at Borders.

Lastly, a phrase from the intimate stranger ~
"... they never tire of wanting to learn something new about the other; and they never, never, tire of loving the same thing about the other every single day."

Lady Rain

And it rained on the 8th day, since 2 am and now it's been raining for exactly 24 hours.
Doesn't look like this incessant rainfall is going to cease anytime soon.

At least all this raining makes for a cozy weather for a good sleep.

Drawing Lines

Boundaries don't keep others out, it fences you in.

Pandora's Box

So the first day of the year went by and it's now officially day 2 into the year 2006. It had been an amazing, peaceful and happy Sunday today, hopefully the first of many more good days in the year ahead.

Reflecting back on the events of the past year, I realised a few things and in retrospect how some of these events have helped me to be a little more certain on some issues I've been faced with, though still not on any absolute level, I find myself more at peace with it ~ I had inevitably opened my own Pandora's Box and if you know the legend, closing the box won't changed the eventuality. Then there's this other thing about self-fulfilling prophecies, that is, I am my own worst adversary.

For all that I've done and all that I've failed to do, it would all still lead to the same consequence. So that's that...

On this first day into the New Year, I'd like to be thankful for some simple things that have started coming back into my life:
~ being excited about a lot more books
~ feeling exilarated about being able to cook
~ resisting the numerous temptations to buy more DVDs
~ taking up a new water sport (yet to, nothing absolute)
~ being passionate about my ideas again
~ meeting up with new people
~ being able to make a concious effort to keep depression at bay
~ making money without working (*LOL* I'm not telling)
~ being happy