Info AquaScape

Hi, it’s A Gamer’s Wife, here with my last Wed post for a while. At the beginning of the year, I challenged myself to release two articles per week for the month of January as an experiment, and the conclusion is that I’m definitely not ready to increase my upload schedule permanently. :) So starting in February, I’m going back to my regular once-a-week Saturday releases that you can always expect. For my selesai bonus post of January, I’m going to talk about my preparations for my first fish convention, Aquashella in Dallas . It looks like so much fun, and I really hope to learn a lot and come back with some cool swag. But I definitely have a few unique challenges since my channel is semi-anonymous and there’s sure to be a bunch of FishTubers and their fans there. So how do I keep my privacy while still enjoying myself? First off, I’m probably not going to be wearing sunglasses inside the whole time, so inevitably my face will probably show up on camera somewhere. (True face...

Happy new year! Was your 2017 as crazy as mine? Last year I... Stopped being a full-time stay-at-home mom and started working again Sent my first kid off to kindergarten Celebrated our 10-year anniversary Burned out on work-life balance and had to relearn how to fun Took a break from fish keeping and then came back again Despite all the trials and changes, it's seriously been the best spiritual season of growth and transformation I've had in a while, and my relationship with God has been so sweet. I've become more confident in who I am, more chill with my expectations and workload, and just... more able to relax and do nothing again. God let me dig myself into a low, low place of my own making – a slave to my to-do list – and then began "Operation R&R" to heal my soul. I'll talk about it sometime later, but as a result, it's shaped (and shortened) my new year's resolutions for 2018: Get 8 hours of sleep Start a habit of family devotions T...

There's an art to making friends as an adult. Many studies and articles have been written about how easy it is to make friends in school because you're in constant proximity, but as adults we get busy with life – work, travel, the kids' soccer games, family commitments, etc. Our social circle (I'm talking about real friends, not social media followers) get smaller and smaller, and before you know it, your life has somehow become more isolated and, well, boring. Starting from Square One When Mr. Gamer and I moved to another state to be closer to family, I was suddenly dropped into a world where I worked from home and knew no one except my husband and parents-in-law. Video chats with my old friends back home weren't cutting it; I was painfully lonely and desperate to meet new people. Over the course of three years, I developed a systematic method for finding and making friends when you're starting from zero. Obviously, this technique may not be for ever...

Sticking by my soulmate "for richer or for poorer" (Source: Christopher Michel ) I always imagined my husband would be someone like my dad – tall, gangling, wears glasses, has a solid job as an engineer. Mr. Gamer is tall with a sense of humor, but that's where the similarities end. He's barrel-chested, has perfect eyesight, and holds an insanely unstable career as a video game developer. In the first four years we were married, he worked at four different game studios. Let me tell you how each of his jobs ended: Game got canceled Studio got bought out Studio closed Game got canceled  As you can see, the success rate of video game studios and their products is not great. Why does this perpetual cycle of job loss happen? This guy answered it better than me (pardon my paraphrasing): Since the industry is project-based, job length tends to be directly associated with product development cycles. Companies tend to dump staff once a project ships since they d...

Taking a quick break from the unapologetic night owl and I’ve long given up on changing his ways. In fact, I even gotten used to and fall asleep faster going to bed alone - no one's tossing and turning and snoring next to me. (^_ ) Mr. Gamer's and my schedules are off by several hours, but for our family of four, that's just the norm. The only duduk masalah is having, well, one-on-one time with each other! With mismatched bedtimes, our shared waking hours are shorter and usually occupied with taking care of our two young kids. By the time they're down for the night, I'm exhausted and ready to hit the sack myself, whereas Mr. Gamer still has a third of his day left to burn. Without meaning to, we can easily become two ships passing in the night, roommates that share chores, childcare, and not a lot of romance. (◞‸◟；) I've heard of this parenting practice called couch time where you spend at least 10 to 15 minutes every night having meaningful conversation...

Hello. My name is Anne, and I am a former aquarium addict. Oh my goodness, that sounds so terrible on paper. You're probably thinking of some kid's fish bowl with an upside-down lone goldfish dying in murky green waters. No no, what got me into aquariums was the vision of creating a living piece of artwork. Can you imagine having the top tank in your living room? O___O Jaw-dropping aquascape vs. algae-covered hot mess (Sources: Aquarium Info and Aquarium Care ) Here's the timeline of my descent into madness: 2015: The "My First Betta" Phase My son was gifted a betta fish for his birthday, and I was determined to do all the right research and provide the best environment for my, er, his new pet. Unfortunately, that studying led me down the rabbit hole of all these other cool tankmates I could potentially keep with the betta... why have one fish when you could have 20? Checklist: tank, gravel, colorful decor, filter, heater, fish... we're ready...

I've always been a collector of new hobbies. I think it's because my parents were immigrants and they were fascinated by this American idea of "extracurricular activities." In their country, getting good grades was everything, so their days consisted of going to school, attending after-school classes for more tutoring, and then returning home to eat dinner and do homework. They never got to do anything! So once I was born in the United States, they signed me up for every type of class imaginable. One year of ballet and tap dancing, one year of gymnastics, summer camps for art and science, team sports like soccer, music lessons like piano, public speaking and second language classes on weekends, etc. Because of my parents' enthusiasm for making sure I was well-rounded, I developed a lifelong love for trying new things. As a child, I collected stamps, did cross stitching, and owned a parakeet. In high school, I listened to musicals, competed in science fair, and j...

I can't believe I get to stay home every day and take care of this bundle of joy! I did it! I took a leap of faith and told my boss that I'd like to extend my 3-month maternity leave for at least 1 year until I finish nursing Rosalina. K's job seems somewhat stable at least for the next 6 months (they're looking to hire him on soon, which means health insurance benefits, baby!). Plus, my mother-in-law isn't able to babysit as much anymore, so it just wasn't worth it to pay for childcare when I really, really  want to be there for my kids when they're younger. I love having a little girl... she's literally my living doll that I get to play dress up with. While it may have seemed nerve-racking to pull the plug with my company, I was scared to death about telling my parents. Yeah, the same parents who both worked their entire lives and paid for my engineering bachelor's and master's degrees. The same mother who told me when I got marrie...

Probably the #1 reason why most parents get their kids into modeling is because of pride and the belief that their children are the cutest things on two legs. As for me, I was completely driven by financial reasons. Before Dexter was born, K told me an interesting story about an acquaintance who was in the US military and, while stationed in Japan, was approached about baby modeling for his daughter. She ended up earning more than enough for her college fund. So armed with only a little Internet research, I decided to try it out for our firstborn. Here's what I learned in the process: 1) Location, Location, Location Sorry, if you don't live near one of the major advertising headquarters (e.g., New York City, Los Angeles, Miami), your opportunities for making the big bucks will be limited. However, other cities still need talent for local ads, so if you're interested, it won't be hard to join a modeling agency. Agencies need a lot of people in their line-up because...