Another round of cool dip

The twins were rather restless throughout the week, having to spend the days and nights inside the house. Thanx to the open burning heartless and brainless people.

So, on Saturday, we went to our favourite stream.....we never get bored of doing this over and over again.

After a few minutes in the floater, Naufal was confident enough to climb out and go freestyle. Shallow waters first and soon after that, syok sangat layan the little fishies in the stream, he did not realize he actually went into the deeper parts.

Alisya on the other hand was too disturbed by the little fishies that like to nibble on our feet. So, she decided to stay on her little boat most of the time! If she's not on her boat, she'll be riding on my back.....and ohhh my back....my baby is really berat already!This time, Alisya did not concentrate on shooting others around her with her water pistol. Instead, she decided to collect rubber tree seeds floating in the stream.

Ohh! Baby Achoncho did not want to miss the fun too.....

Alisya, Mama & Baby Achoncho (submerged!) proudly showing off their catch. Lucky us, we do not have to depend on their catch...else we'd end up having a small bucket full of biji getah for dinner!

Not many people came to our favourite camping spot on that day, not until it was 5pm. We stayed in the water for as long as we want to.....sampai naik biru ler jugak bibir!

My girl tengah tekun berusaha.........too syok in the water until.....

Alamak!!! Too cold already cannot tahan anymore!

Naufal retired earlier than his sister...well, he did the right thing....

Heheheh! Nasib baik gue retired early kalu tidak sure jadik the same case lah!

After we had enough splashing, we took a nap in our hexadome tent. What a relief from the hazy and hectic weekdays. We had a great time together - as always!
.....and I can't think of a better way to spend the weekend.

Go away!

hazedmars?

Today is really bad. Very. From my office, I could hardly see the top of AM Tower, situated a couple of floors below me. The elevated highway is hard to be seen and it's just behind the Public Bank Tower. Around the towers open areas, we can almost smell the haze....you know that smoky scent. In Suria, we can see tha haze INSIDE the building. This is even worse than 1997 (?)...yeah, if my mind serves me well. Sarawak was badly hit at that time. I was there the week after the worst API index was recorded in Kuching. You could not even see across the road!

Took some pix of the moon while waiting for wifey....it looks more like mars!

I really need some fresh air....soon!

802.11* revisited

That's an un-edited version of my little Dino - even the wallpaper is built in one! It looked much different a few hours after this pix was taken lah (thanx to i-symbian bunchies!!)

...but I am posting this one using my old faithful T23 though, in *bux KLCC. (Dino failed to get connected, got some problem with it's Opera shell.)

Been very very very VERY long time since I last used any wi-fi connection, anywhere. Those who know me, would also know that I used to be a wi-fi junkie.....way back when wi-fi was actually phenomenal and war-walking/war-driving/war-chalking is the in thingy for the geeksters or geeksterswannabees.

Was a trial tester for M4X15 long before U70p14 was launched. I was the only one using my own devices.
I got to know later during the final wrap-up meeting (they served free pizzas eheheh!!) that other testers (selected corporate users - who logged into the network once or twice during the months duration of the testing period....oh my....how so heavy users are they!) were given free devices to help them with the heavy task (yeah!! as if!!) of testing the trial network in various locations around town.
...and guess who gave the most comments & suggestions technically and marketing strategically on weekly basis and during the final wrap-up....the host was quite surprised that I can detect what hardwares they used (thanx to some war-driving softies!) when I asked them to change those with some other hardwares that works better. I later (by war-walking) found out they actually replaced the hardwares with the ones I suggested. Well maybe the decision was made not due to my input, a smart know-it-all boss may have made the intelligent decision lah kan!!! FYI, M4x15 was the first mobile service I used but I have stopped using it very long ago, actually...it suxx big time! (If u r reading this Monzt3r2 - sorry dude!)

Well time flies...now (as I wrote this) I can see everybody around me uses wi-fi lappies and some are sporting those small and expensive cute little sub-notebooks....all the lappies I now see around me comes with wi-fi all built-in......furthermore it's on 802.11g now!!! ....and here I am on this very old ugly black box called T23, on 802.11b with the help of a pointy device called Orinoco Silver (fried to Gold my Master Chef Aqil of good-ol-myPDAcafe bunch!) jutting at it's side, how very outdated I am huh?
Some of the lappie owners are now staring at my T23 and Dino too.....(ehehheheh! Hello! How are you? It runs on EPOC-5 Mr Dorkie sir...yeah its ugly and so pre-historik, definitely not for rich pretty boys!)

Darn...maybe I just don't belong to this cafe anymore (a very frequent daily customers after office customers, the crowds were friendlier and we helped each other in whatever way we can, even the manager from a few *bux branches knows us as buddies....those were the days!)

Nevertheless I enjoyed wi-fi, since the early days until now....(must admit though, now it's not as fun as the early days where wi-fi ready cafes are not many....and some places charged bombs for wi-fi access....that's where we'd luuurve to go war-walking and try 'inviting ourselves' into leaked network.....if your are one of us you'd know the intentionally broken English-ed slogan "All your 802.11* ARE belong to us" - hehehhe heheheheh!!)

Poor geeksters just get things done....don't really care about doing it with style and flashy state-of-the-art toys...those who just care about having flashy toys are better off as catwalkers....

Can we have one haze free nature please?

The haze around Saujana Impian area was really bad this weekend.....thanx to some stewpeed people nearby....if only we could group these idiots together and let them breathe the air they have conveniently polluted.....brainless bastardos.
We went to Sungai Congkak in our attempt to get some cool splash, capture more greens in our sight, be together with 'the original nature' and to escape polluted air.

Baby Alisya & Mama on the hanging bridge

The campers

Fooooooodzz!!

Well..the attempt was successful indeed! I'll let the pix below do the talking...

Ant on a leave

Dried Moth

Ayam!

Floating Biji Getah

Hotspring

Buah Rambai

Buah Tampoi

Baby Achoncho's choice!

Back from kampung

Kampung kids

Last Friday evening, we decided to go back to kampung and fetch Naufal! Aiyerrrr sooo long oledi Tok Mak & Tok Abah been delaying sending him back maaa!

Durian trees (tau tak which one?!!) near our hut

Since it's the fruits season, we have plenty of fruits around us. Pulasan is our favourite, next to durians. Apart from pulasan and durian, we have rambutan, langsat, cempedak etc etc etc.

I waaaannnt!

I like these!

Rambutans

Langsats

They had a great weekend.....and since we came back using my old car, we could not stock much fruits....and if you are a kampung kid, you'll know that it's definitely nothing like eating it straight from the trees!

UNdead machine

Finally, last Friday, the dead ThinkPad became UNdead..... and I am Rm950 poorer!

The MoBo was fried, but the rest of the components are as good as ever. My prayers are answered, the thousands of my kids digital images are stored in this machine and I have not completed copying all of the files in CDs when the MoBo decided to kick the bucket.

I must admit I have been spec hunting for MAC machines and some types of laptops...but I guess it's a blessing in disguise having to allocate that budget to fix this baby instead. No regrets at all, simply because I got lots of other priorities, while I am just not the type that would upgrade just for the sake of having the latest, coolest, expensiv-est gadget. Well, most (actually all!) of my tech-toys are outdated anyway and though those iBooks and the new T-series are definitely in my wish-list, this T23 can still do what I want to do with a laptop/PC. It is (still!) my first laptop ever. Refurbished and up-spec-ed a bit, I got it online, paid in cash after testing it over lunch, back in 2003. It has delivered almost 2 years of hardwork now.

Some people can afford to get latest specs machines, while some others would just get the best they can afford in order to get the job done. Whatever machine I am using, I will always remember that it is my servant, not the other way around.

...and this particular servant, has always been my good old buddy! Time to sleep now, buddy!

Thumbs up!

...I'm good in here Mummykins & Daddykins!

That's our kid! Alhamdulillah coming to 5 months now....notice the thumb is up! KUDOS Baby Achoncho! We cannot really see if Baby Achoncho is a he or a she, but Baby Achoncho is doing fine and developing well, Alhamdulillah.....

FRIED T23!

I have been using my T23 for more than 2 years and have no issue with the machine - hardware part of it. When it scomes to the softwares, fooking microshit windows have always created problem for everybody lah kan? (Anybody who denies this is either a MAC user or have never really used microshit to the fullest.......or use laptops as a show off items probably)

The weekend marks the end of my T23, thank you to fooking microshit instability. Microsoft is a real bastard….the patches and updates is really getting out of hand.

We'll see how it goes with my trustworthy T23. It has been working too hard (hardware, not the fooking software at all) since the lightning took the life of my server....I still need to either rebuild it or cannibalize it, whichever is cheaper. It is time for me to decide - what to have as the workhorse+ main storage device at home and what to have as a mobile working device - this Netbook can do stuffs but for my digital photog I need a real machine - either running on MAC, LINUX (not really?) or (ohh my GOD not this one please!) Windows. As for now, I will be working on my Blogs using my Netbook as always but posting will have to be done using my office machine & connection (read: slow and unreliable). Possibly I'd get a MAC soon.....walking the talk...microsoft can fookoff and die!

Microsoft suxxxxxxx!

I HATE THIS!

Another stupid updates / patches from Microshit.
Ohhh!!! These are for our own good desu ne??
Well, I really have doubts, like millions of others out there too....
One thing for me though, it is an excellent definition of the word "annoying".
I wonder why those who converted to MAC / Linux, vast majority (read: ALL!!) of these bunch never have any regrets.

......think I seriously need to migrate to MAC / Linux / Open Source.

Rain drops

Rain drops on Level 74

Just finished some artworks for Kimster's project and realized the pix I captured above is quite unique (for me lah as an amateur photog). The rain drops actually contains the reflection of the whole city....but I kinda failed to "compose" it perfectly....well, there are some limitations on the d-slr type I am using....not that I am thinking of moving to a proper DSLR range lah!

.....I tried to write something on my Baby Dinosaur today but could not continue. Tried a couple of times but was too sebak to continue. It's nothing much - the contents - but as I wrote it, I felt like I really miss our family members who have left us. The feeling was so strong.

The rain drops reminded me that I have lots more to learn (not just about d-imaging but about life as a whole actually), and everything is just temporary.....tomorrow when I am back in my office, those rain drops would not be there....but those tiny drops left me with something to ponder.

Renault F1 Colors

COLORS of TEAM SPIRIT

That's my gurl with her new wristbands....orange ones to match her funky sandals...blue & yellow ones to hammer the fact that she is a hard-core Renault F1 Team Spirit fan!

Today I am 33

The twins, a year before......and I am the luckiest father in the whole world.

Am a bit sad cuz Naufal is not here to celebrate with us but he's doing fine in kampung....since the grandparents really want to be with him, we'll have to sacrifice a bit lah. Tok Mak said he's eating a lot and never stops playing with the cousins. I'd expect him to gain a few kg in another week!

Today Mama belanja us - Alisya, Baby Achoncho and myself - at her favourite steamboat restaurant. I'll let the pix do the talking!

Mama's fav

Alisya's fav!

Boiling!

Done!

Let's eat!

Happy B-day ayah

Bintulu Revisited

BINTULU REVISITED

A view from my room

Traveling again! I wrote this paragraph while on night the flight to
Kuching. Should be arriving by midnight and the next morning we'll be taking the flight to Bintulu.
It has been years since I been there...(familiar phrase huh?). Last visit was on iP58 ticket (it was not iP58 yet, still incubation mode in the corporate centre).
Had to go to 48F alone and deal with the whole management & working team on certain issue. As I recall correctly, it has something to do with m17c0 insisting on having real-timebroadcast of urea product loading and weather monitoring online, tagged to delivery system and total integration to the back-office environment. Sounds bombastic...but whatever happened after
that, I can't blame it on the system.....

Nevertheless, I did enjoy my stay and interaction with the 48F people, they were the friendly type of people that you can easily work with, if you know how to navigate yourself properly lah!

Bintulu was still a quiet town at that point of time. It's not going to be 48F this time but its mln6, on the other side of the hill. Frankly I do not know what to expect tomorrow but what I do know is I am really missing Alisya!

She sent me to the airport but did not get down from the Scenic. I called Mama while I was checking-in and heard Alisya crying for me! Oh my!
It's going to be a long 3 day trip!

Day 1: 20050706

The Plant

A short stay at Crown Plaza and we are now waiting for our flight to
Bintulu. During my marketing years, I have never stayed in this hotel.
It has always been the Hilton. It was a short night so there's nothing much to say, only that I realized there's a 7-11 across the road, at the Waterfront.

We arrived quite on schedule and I was quite surprised actually, at first I thought we have arrived in Sibu! The airport is no more in the middle of the town. It took about 20-30 minutes from the airport to mln6.

We were stationed in a cabin together with Abdillah the leader of the team that we are supposed to assist. I worked with his twin Abdullah when I last came to Bintulu.
Worked thorough the day and at about 7:30pm we decided to call it a day.
Had dinner at Kidurong Club (thanx to Abdillah!) and then off to check-in at the hotel.

Had to do some McGyver action cuz the lock on the luggage decided to be stubborn and denied the code I set much much much earlier. This is the second time and I can't open it at any combination (1000 of it!). Good thing I had a Swiss Army knife and the set of screwdrivers mentioned in my other posting. Off with the lock and I will have to buy Mam a new bag for that!!

Nothing much to see since it's already dark so.....off to bed!

Day 2: 20050707

Work!

Woke up early but could not convince myself to walk around and take some photos. Maybe later in the day. It's almost 7:30am, sun is shining brightly, a good sign perhaps for another long day.

After breakfast we took a cab to the OPI cabin and work started....the system was slow and the lappies are nothing to be proud of when it comes to
reliability - (I HATE ACERS!).

We had a big lunch - Abdillah's treat (again!) and then we went for a quick tour of his house...big one and got it quite cheap pulak tuh!
The furnitures ohhh my.....we cannot believe the price he paid for those custom made beds, dining tables, study tables etc.....I wanna move to Bintulu lah!!!

The hall

Customized dining set

Che Lie - the unpaid interior designer

We worked until....past 10:00pm! Then we went for a good dinner. Mama called cuz Alisya cannot sleep and she talked with me for a while. Abis dinner, off to the hotel, packed the bag and dozed off around2:00am. What a day.....

Day 3: 20050708

Final hour before departure

Yaayyy!! I can smell the weekend!

Went to the plant for a short briefing to the OI manager with the team then off we go to the airport.

The plane is descending now and insya-Allah within an hour or so I would be hugging Alisya! If only Naufal is at home too!

To conclude, I found Bintulu is pretty much the same quiet town.
Never had the opportunity to lepaks at the town actually, a rather packed - if not hectic - trip.

Well...maybe next time Bintulu!

The Lumix

The Lumix

Panasonic Lumix FZ10-K

The first camera that I ever used was a Kodak Disc that came free with a Yamaha Electone Organ my parents bought for me. (Yeah I took music lessons when I was young, did quite well actually considering I am the only Malay dude who gets to represent the district up to state level competition). As far as I can recall, the Disc was quite "fashionable" at that time cuz while others lug the ordinary bulky point & shoot camera, the Disc is rather small and squarish, pretty much like some Sony models available nowadays, only bigger and less techy-er of course!

Then, after it got more and more difficult to get the film disc, our parents decided its time to get a decent camera. It was and Olympus and it served us well, until Angah lost it if I am not mistaken and replaced it with another one (by now I could not recall what camera it was).

Those were the early exposure to photography for me.

My first ever experience with a SLR was when Bawal let me use his Konica (if my memory serves me well lah). Bawal is quite a good photog, very creative, in fact I can say he was really advanced since his artworks as I can still recall, do seem still rather amazing even since we have the Adobe and other softies.

A real exposure on SLR and photog techniques came about when I was in my one year matriculation. To' Kent taught me a lot. I did quite well especially during one project trip into some remote part of Cameron Highlands. Kent had to be sent out due to dengue fever he caught and being the only photographer he decided to leave all his stuff to me and it was my responsibility to produce good result for JHEOA archive...and take care of the expensive Yashica and lenses Kent bought with his own money!

I wish I was allowed to have a copy of the whole images I captured.

Moving on....I never actually bought a camera until I decided to get a decent 2MP Nikon point & shoot for my wifey as her birthday present - it was about time too since Alisya has just arrived! Before that Nikon, I had a Samsung film with superb zoom and very robust. It costs (at that time) RM800++ but I got it free from a lucky draw on PEMSB family day. Lucky me!

The Samsung served us well, till I bought a Nikon Coolpix P&S 2megapix for wifey. The Samsung is now with my parents, still going strong.

So, when I finally decide to get a digicam for myself, I did the usual “ritual” of searching, analyzing, forums joining etc…so that I will get the correct choice within my limited budget.

To cut it short, after about 3 months of the “ritual” I got myself a Panasonic Lumix FZ-10K, a black one, which is rare in this part of the world (yes, the black ones are available but not easy to get due to the decision to market the black ones to more cooler climate regions).

The FZ-10K is always with me on every trip I go…so far it’s the best digicam for me. Cud have bought a DSLR but I am still a novice in digicam/photog…..and I am happy with the Leica lense of the Lumix!