second bite of the cherry

Here are the photos from the second trip into my "backyard jungle". brought along my DSLR, but again lacking the real macro lense, talking bout macro lense, my bday is close, and here is what i would love to have




if you got me this then you don't have to got me anything for the next 5 bday and still got invited to my bday party (if i ever held one) hey there is nothign wrong with wishfull thinking rite?!




lets the picture tour begin............

the entrance

these stuff were planted by the illegal aliens, my best guess is casava, but can't be sure at all. any idea anyone?

could be a rat's pit, racoon's pit, or snake's pit, i try to poke it with a long stick but nothing came out, maybe they are nocturnal

variety of different flowers and plants



bug's eyes view



bee!!! macro photog fav. this dude (well, again can't be sure a dude or a chick) is having his afternoon tea and i come bugging him



caterpillar or some sort




variety of small insects that are too small to be proper photographed unless you buy me the lense above.


macro photog all time fav!! flies having sex!!!

you will understand the caption better after you see the last photo of this post.
(click for bigger pic if you can't read)


then i know i gotta leave when i see this.

me walking in there was prob like a friggin all you can eat buffet to this blood crazy lil mozzy. they were all over me and having too much fun sucking my blood they didn't seems to care when i smack em dead. They prob overweight and too heavy too fly anyway from what i see.

imaging all these mozzy all over the place, millions of them, whenever they are hungry they prob fly over to my house and suck at whoever blood they can get their disgusting mouth on.....ahhh if only i can get my hand on one of those fogging machine...................................

a (very) lil escapism (but very fun)

whoaaaaa its been so long that the last time i blog the internet is yet to be invented, well obviously thats not true since i need the net to blog and without the net........ahhhhhh u get the zist (isit just me or my humour is getting cheesier and cheesier??)

well wat make me finally start typing again u ask?! i found a little place for a little adventure - not really just found it, i know its there for like 2 years and been wanting to explore it since forever - and whats even better is that its literally only 5 seconds (yes you read right, i did type seconds and not minute) from my front door!

so its this place between 2 high wall along the side of the residential complex i live in, for those of you playing from medan its cemara asri and you might notice there is a giant sewage or a rather small river (im not sure which) going all the way on the side of this complex, and there is a high wall right on the side of this river/sewage and then another wall further inside which serve as the wall directly to the street of my house, and this hidden paradise is between these 2 wall.

i've been wanting to explore that little place since forever, and at the spur of the moment i did it this evening. After walking for a few minutes and discover that its so large i go back in the house and bring my mountain bike...i didn't bring along my DSLR as its a spur of a moment thing and im happy that i didnt as some of the terrain is rather tough and i actually did fall off from my bike, so you see i cant have a heavy DSLR dangling from my neck while i did all this. so all this pictures is taken with my rusty Sony Erickson k800i

some of the part are narrower than this but with taller plants and stuff

car tracks, some of the local people around this neighbourhood been coming in here and plants stuff, i guess its the deal between the big boss that build this complex and the local people as to keep them being a "good lil boy". the same case with the huge and beautiful mosque right at the entrance to this complex, build by the owner of the complex as a form of "bribery" if you like for the people around the area.

this little no man's land (well not really, as i already said some of the locals did come in here and plants stuff, hell they even build a small settlement hut - as you will see in later picture-) go all the way to the big empty land beside the mosque and lead to the main street. there you can see the mosque on the left of the pic.


and here is the mosque that i took few months ago at about 2am in the wee hour, and when medan had their regular power blackout, hence the nice and dark sky




going the other way around heading deeper into the complex the access is not that friendly as this is what i end up with, but i wont be much of an adventurer if a lil dirt and some wild grass can stop me from my track, so i keep padling aways crossing all this wild unknown plants with all kind of equally wild and unknown insects and other living creatures




as you can see i can't go anywhere further, as this is surely too much for me to get across, at least when i come in here all prepared and fully geared up it might be a different story, which i will certainly try again another day, but still i doubt i can get trough this extremely high and thick bush.



and here is that lil hut build by the "farmer" that grow some of the stuff in here

Hi, if you read this message then i didnt make it, pls tell my mum that i love her dearly. no, not really, im not dead yet, so pls don't go and tell my mum that i am. seriously.....im alive and well, put that phone down!! (as if u know my mum's phone number)


this is not a set up, i really did fall from my bike, luckily i manage to jump off it before i fall down to this big hole right next to it.



my house were always felt like a lil jungle as every now and then i found wild animal roaming around the area, some of my regular reader (im not even sure i got a regular reader as im a very irregular blogger) might remember the post about a big racoon that i found in the middle of the nite. what...oh u never read that one? since im such a nice guy here is the pic




and there is this moneter lizard that practically make nest in one of my storage room. i never did found the rest of his (again, cant be sure if its a he or she) family though, hmmm maybe one day i will be surprised by a meter long moneter lizard....


this lil thing later turn into bees, these damn bees make nest all over the wall of my house, this one is broken open by me. hey i don't want all of them succesfully turn into bees and attack me later on



and here is a rather tame finding, this little dude just hanging out in the middle of the street where all cars crusing by, i was just saving his life when i pull him(wait, i never know for sure if its a he or she) aside and later on into my car and drove back home. but i then set him free again a few days later.

ohh and my neighbour did see a cobra crossing his house before, so there goes the list of wild animals that live with us.

damnit i really lust over an ass kicking macro lense rite now, especially with all kind of weird but beautifull creatures all over my house, if im lucky i might find a snake there at m "jungle backyard". well i will definately go back with DSLR and take more shoot, will post again soon...keep checking back (pretty please)

Halo of the sun

ok..here are those pictures of the halo of the sun. Thanks a bunch to Dian who excitedly call me and then half screaming she goes "go outside and look at the sun!!". i gotta admit for a split second there i thought the sun is exploding into dust or something.

Turn out there were this huge halo forming around it. And as an aspiring photographer it won't do justice if i didn't snap a few.

enjoy (click on the pic for larger view)





here are some technical data for those interested:

1st of all this is 12.30 pm and the sun is shining on its full glory, no matter how fast the speed and small the aperture you use without a help of a filter you will get a wash out pic.
And since i don't own the super black ND800 i just have to make do with all the less dark ND i got, and end up with 3 filters on my lense!! which is ND4x, ND8x, and CPL!!
(ND= neutral density, which is basically a dark filter to reduce light into your lense. CPL=circular polarizer, for reducing glare and enhance blue tone in the sky)

F/11 speed was 1/60. the thick filters i used and the frontal super bright sun throw off the focusing a lil bit, so gotta focus it manually, and later or bring in the shadow in PS to show more detail and tune up the saturation a lil bit too.

hump like a bunny

Errrr...no, its not me who is humping like a bunny. In fact nobody is humping like a bunny in this post (not even the bunny is humping).

Ok, so i just got myself a bunnies as a pet. Still longing for a pet after (reluctantly) giving Sydney - my golden retrieval - away and still unable to have another dog I settle for a much smaller but equally adorable bunny!! actually the other reason is that i got myself quite big a garden on my house and i just imagine how cute it would be if i got some bunnies running around on those green grass.

ok, so here are some pics of the little bastards, i only had them for 4days now....believe you me more (tons more) pics will follow.

Oh and i still haven't named them yet, am planning to keep a total of 4 eventually, so if you got any ideas for bunny names then holler it over here.

P.S the grey one is male and the white one is female



the creator of the chosen names will receive the prestigious THANK YOU TROPHY!!!

WE ARE THE CHAMPION!!!

yes Manchester United did it!! We won it in a heart attack inviting penalty kicks out. I am not gonna tell you the story of the match as it will be everywhere.

I made a promise i will wear United's shirt for a whole week before the match, and it will stand!!

i did it back in 1999 when we do the treble, at that time i only got one united's shirt (and a fake one....ssttt!!!) luckily for me (or others around me i should say) i got plenty to choose from this time around!

well, if you see me without it come up to me and ask for a free meal at a restaurant of your choice. Except for tuesday nite when i got a job and the *ehmmm* "friend" who is the EO for the wedding FORBID me to wear it!! damn u *******!!!!

I think she never see a football jersey before, its any way as classy as some t-shirt, i never wore a suit at a job anyway.

ah whatever................WE ARE THE CHAMPION!!!

Up the oil go

I guess its time to bring those old bike out from the garage, dust away penthouses of those eight legged freaks, scraps away the rust, pump the air in those rubber donuts. And start peddling my way through traffic from hell.

Yeap, the Indonesian gov are ready to announce the oil price raise in a few days, and as for now in all gas station all around Indonesia you can only fill up your vehicle to a certain amount. If im not mistaken its Rp.75.000 for a private car, that work out for just 16 litter of premium. Ahhh i guess i have to make multiple pit stop st gas station then.

On another note, this is surely not gonna be taken softly by the people, police forces has been stationed randomly across gas station for precautions, and those potential uprising has cost me my second trips to Samosir in 1 month, my travelling friends got red flagged by their parents because of this issue. For me, i think its more reason to leave town, go to a small island away from it all.

oh and, talking bout biking, i really admire this group of people from bike 2 work in Jakarta. They are groups of office working people, they work all day in suit and tie and all, and yet they all bike 2 work, with the air pollution in Jakarta and safety issue. My hats off for them.
check them out: http://www.b2w-indonesia.or.id/

electricity cost is rising, oil is rising, everything is rising, the only thing going down is my moral....

TANK 1990!!!!

I recently bought a cheap game console as i wanted to play those "old fashion, easy, non addictive" game.

I am not much of a gamer, certainly won't waste my time and money on those PS3 or Xbox . Sure those new breed type of game is cool and all, but it takes so much of your concentration and time to play and it make you addicted and sometime want to yank your hair right off your skull because you just can't seem to pass a certain stage.

So i go out and purchase this V-com!! dasyat game-nya dasyat mainnya!! (errrr..if you say so) It cost only Rp.140.000 with "tons" of game already inside the console.

of course we ripped off the PS joystick design, we are indons!!!!

I get back home and turn it on and turn out its actually not tons but errrrrr......let just say its astronomical, it has 999999999 games !!!!! yes...correct, nine nines!!

count the 9!!

but those bastards! its actually the same game repeating itself for like a gazillion time!! so you actually only got like 10 different game!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

It sure was fun playing all those game that the last time I played should be some 15 years ago. But for the easy part is sure wasn't, as i get beaten 5-2 at the soccer game! beaten by a game probably older than me! blahhh....now thats pathetic.

the actual game when im beaten 5-2 is not shown here to avoid further embarassment

But then there is one game i had in mind when i purchase this console, and it didn't come with it. Have to go out back to the store to purchase additional catridge, another downside from buying cheap stuff kick in, it's one of those many in one catridge and you don't get to see the list of the games inside!!! so seeing that they all cost the same i decide on the one with the most game, 85!!

And again, its the same game over and over again!! BUT..............i got the game i wanted......wait for it........................wait...............

TANK 1990 a.k.a BATTLE CITY!!!!

and talk bout non addictive, i play for 6 straight hours the 1st nite!!!! till 5am in the morning!! aih yay yay...i think most of you would had play this game before or at least know about it. You need to kill all other tanks and protect your "pancasila" you know, those birdie in the middle. along the way you need to collect stuff like star, gun, one up, bomb etc, to make your tank faster and meaner, because it just not fun playing with a tank that move like a crippled old lady and shot its rounds like, well crippled old lady trying to kick a football.

and as you can only manually selected your stage up to 50 but can play to eternity and beyond, you would try to play for as further as possible and when you reach a milestone and you are dead........errr...you feel like yanking the hairs out of your skull!!! not a very healthy game afterall

and since me and my girlfriend (its easier to play as a team) play untill stage 88 the very 1st time ever its just set a very high standard for us to break, we spend the next days and nites playing and trying to pass 88, now thats what i called addicted.

after about 5 straight days we finally broke the duck, surpassing 88 way beyond, and probably a little too much, we played till stage 124!!!!

now thats an amazing record breaking...but it left us contemplating how to break the 124!!!


If you don't see me around much lately...you know why