Majority of these corals near the beach are hard corals. It provides shelter and habitat for fishes. Although sometimes I could find soft coral but that’s really rare. To walk among these hard corals, one must be careful not to graze your legs onto one of them. These corals may contain toxin that will cause pain and itching. That’s why you don’t touch coral when diving or snorkelling.

In general, to keep these corals alive, it begin with “Do not touch coral”. It is a delicate creature, and it is actually alive. While the hard coral provides shelter and habitat for the sea life, the soft coral is a food source for these marine life. When it is destroyed, fishes will go further to the ocean looking for a new place to call home and food to eat. This will affect those involve in fishing activities where fisherman now have to go further (more cost on fuel, more time spent on the boat, safety) and it (the cost) will eventually transferred to consumer. That’s why it’s expensive to buy fish in Labuan despite it is an island.

On the other hand, what you consume or use in land may eventually ended in the sea. That’s why you see all those PSAs telling you to reduce plastic usage, do not litter at the sea, using environmentally friendly chemical when washing, etc etc. Most of the time, when I’m out enjoying the beach walk, I will always find a plastic bottle and a plastic bag.

Take care of our ocean.

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I charged my camera battery the night before. Hardly taking photos in 2022. I focused much on work last year. That will change in 2023. I will put more time for my family and friends, and will try my best to keep my day job strictly within standard office hour. I reckon I will be more productive, smart and confident when my physical and mental health in good shape.

There’s no specific theme or target. For me, I will just enjoy the morning scenery and the warm rising sun. And working out my photographic eye.

There was a crocodile sighting in Labuan water mid January 2023. I thought it was a normal thing. Crocodiles will go out looking for food, but if it is as far as going to the salt water, I can only imagine its food source is getting scarce. I heard about people sighted crocodiles in the mangrove forest near the Tanjung Aru bridge where people like to go fishing a while ago.

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May this year bring good health, wealth and good people around us.

If you have a resolution for this year, keep it to yourself first. Telling your new year resolution to other people just only give you a good feeling. After that, it will just become plan because you already felt good telling other people what you wanted to achieve. It indirectly gives you the impression that that friend will / might somehow (hopefully) remind you again on what you want to achieve. Problem is, they may not care. Even if they care, they believe you’re mature enough to take care of yourself and your plan.

Self improvement may need peer support, but it will be you alone that doing the work.

Get better this year because you want it for yourself, not because you want to appear impressive.

Daily habits for a healthy life

• Good quality sleep (8 hours)
• Meditate once a day. The simplest thing to do is breathing exercise.
• Stretching or get up and walk if you’ve been sitting for an hour.
• Do some cardio (jogging, walk after lunch/dinner, jump rope, etc.).
• Exercise (body weight training or get a dumb bell)
• Read at least 10 page a day. Healthy body must be balanced with healthy mind.
• Go outside, touch grass, breathe fresh air under the sun.
• Write, to understand yourself better.
• Balanced diet. Don’t do crash diet. Do it slowly by reducing the portion of carb and increase the protein, vegetables and fruit. Better, try to avoid junk food this year.
• Drink water sufficiently. Some people may not need 2 litres of water a day, but as long as you’re not dehydrated.

All the best and may the wind always be at your back.

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Some may thought it would be difficult to continue studying after you’ve left university more than a decade ago. The commitment you currently have as a working adult, a parent, and some may not foresee the need to obtain a qualification – these may hinder you from chasing your own goal.

Sometimes I find it to be difficult too. The mental stress from demanding job, the power of concentration no longer can keep you stay focus for more than 30 minutes, the awareness to sleep and rest adequately to ensure good health, getting old, and the excuses keep coming.

We are by nature creatures of impatience. It has always been hard for us to want something and not have the capacity to get it. The increased speed from technology accentuates this childish aspect of our character. The slow accumulation of knowledge seems unnecessarily boring.

The 50th Law, Robert Greene

You can deal with these problems, by (in my opinion) having a good critical thinking skill and you’re good at reading and understanding what you’ve read. These are what I keep telling myself to practice on. These are what might shape and strengthen your mental health and endurance.

To reach the end of anything, to master a process, requires time, focus, and energy. When people are so distracted, their minds constantly moving from one thing to another, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain concentration on one thing for a few hours, let alone for months and years. Under this influence, the mind will tend to short-circuit; it will not be able to go all the way to the end of a task.

The 50th Law, Robert Greene

Ignorance is bliss, but if everyone adopt this proverb, we may not have a good force to run this country forward.

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