3.30.2008

miami





i went to miami in 2004. drove all the way from new york to miami. its a short trip to get away from the cold weather of new york to celebrate new year 2005. unfortunately, on new year's eve, the rest of the country had a perfect weather condition for fireworks and everything, but in miami they had to cancel it because thunderstorm. we ended up spending our new year's celebration indoor.

jackson




i found these old pics today taken in 2003. jackson was a 7 year old yellow lab that my friend got paid looking after him but i ended up spending more time with him than her. he walked into my bedroom while i was sleeping, licked my hand and never left my side for the next 5 month or so. he was fat and overweight and had to take tonnes of medicine for some unknown reason. i mean tonnes of it and jackson hated them all. i always took him for a drive, ran around at the field and took him for a walk at the beach. his favorite game was to fetch tennis ball and could play for hours non stop. he would fetch the ball and drop it in front you and waited as far as he could from you and waited for you to throw the ball; back and forth. only when he got really tired, he would drop the tennis ball and sat down with the look on his face saying "its your bloody turn to catch the ball now. i'm beat". that's how i knew he was tired. and that's how he lost so much weight. sometimes at the field i let him wander on his own, but whenever i called he would ran back to me and his mouth would be covered with horse manure since we normally have some of it at the field as mulch, and with the look on his face saying "what? i didn't eat anything". most of the time i forgot to give him his medicine. however, when i had to take him in for his doctor's appointment, the vet always said he was in excellent condition ever without knowing that i never gave him his medicine. unfortunately, jackson's owner died in a house fire about 2 years ago. jackson ran away and couldn't be found for few days. finally, he came back and the neighbour found him and decided to adopt him. none of us were around when that happened. i would have adopted him in a heartbeat. in case you haven't notice, this is one dog who loved to pose for the camera.

3.28.2008

moma

Museum of Modern Art or commonly known as MOMA has a free admission day every Friday and I always wanted to check out the new building on 53rd street between 5th and 6th Avenue. So, I managed to gather few of my lower level students to check it out with me. We got there at 4.30 pm and were in line for about 45 minutes in order to get the ticket and check our coats and bags. That place was packed with some pretty cool collections and art pieces but didn’t take many pictures since I was half asleep because I didn’t get enough sleep from the night before. We only covered 4 floors of the museum and decided to come back time and cover the rest of it some other time. My next outing trip with my students is the Museum of Natural History for next Friday and baseball game at Shea Stadium on April 11.

shock-o-lot

There is something about live performance that I always enjoy whenever I have the chance to watch one. I suppose it’s the intensity of the singer while trying to belt out his feeling through each guitar strum along with a lyric that occasionally drowned by the loud drum, or maybe it’s the emotion and energy that the singer pour into the performance in trying to thrill his audience, or maybe it’s the audience themselves who are so into the music that the performer draw his or her energy from. There is just something about it that couldn’t put my finger into. Schocholautte (pronounced as Shock-O-Lot) is one of those band that can carry a tune in their recording and able to apply the same quality of performance and ummph while on stage. Apart from few an unruly drunken audience, the rest of the audience seemed to have a good time and enjoyed the show at Niagara; audience that comprised of few yuppies (they are the drunk ones and trying to act cool), your typical lower east crowd and others who looked like they just stumbled into the show and there to check it out. Overall, I would say the show was great. I am not big in the Indie music scene in New York but as I said before they do have few catchy tunes that got my big fat head bobbing for about 50 minutes. That to me means “I am having a good” and “I like it”. No, I did not stay all the way to end of the show since I have to wake early in the morning, and boy, so much for wanting to get home early. The trip home took me longer than the time I spent at the show, 2 hours to be exact. That’s the bad part about riding the subway in New York City during wee hours of the day. Train running on a different track, construction work etc. Will write more about that later. Right now, I'm off to bed.

3.27.2008

Schocholautte

i'm going to watch a jam session in manhattan tonight. my student who is from thailand is the bass player for the band. i don't really want to go tonight but me and my big mouth said "yes, i will be there" to my student. the show wouldn't start until 11pm (aaargh). i probably going to be there for an hour and then head home. he gave me one of their cd and few of the songs are actually good. i'll let everybody know what i think about the show tomorrow. in the mean time enjoy the video and visit the link below to their page at myspace. my student is the "mat rock" with long hair.

Fuerza Bruta NYC

i found this video shots of fuerzabruta on youtube. you can see from this video some of the scenes from the show. notice the intensity of the show from the background music, the performers' body and facial expression, plus reaction from the audience. and you just have to be there to experience it all. by the way, in this video there are scenes of the performers on the floor mingling and dancing with the audience. those were not drunk or unruly audience ok. it was part of the show.:)you wouldn't probably see it in the video, but at one point during the show the performers would spray water at the audience and everybody just start dancing, what more with the hard thumping music, lights and the excitement. boy, it was fun. young and old, everybody just want to jump.

3.26.2008

apple store





had to go to apple store on 5th avenue today to get my ipod check with the apple technician. god, that store is always busy and packed. the last time i was in that store was in december when i thought it was busy and packed because of christmas shopping. lo and behold, the place was packed today too. sat out of the store to take few pictures of the store. very interesting design. its like a glass entrance and stairs with apple symbol right above your head while entering the store right underneath the water fountain. pretty cool actually. the ritz is right across the street and the surrounding area is busy as usual right by central park.

3.24.2008

Fuerzabruta Trailer

went to watch an excellent show last friday the show is produced by the same group of people from argentina who did de la guarda. i saw de la guarda about 7 years and thought that it was something different and interesting. so i decided to check out the show with a friend of mine. the show was fantastic. the best part of the show was when they had the water show right above your head. the whole show was accompanied with heart thumping music that didn't stop throughout the whole show. at one point there was water coming down from the ceiling and those who were interested can get wet and dance if they want to. and you eventually become a part of the show. the whole show was a bit short and you wish that it will not stop but it still worth the trip. the trailer and video recording that i posted in this page is nothing compared to the real thing.

view from 31st floor - millenium hotel, un plaza

i was finally able to upload this short video shot taken from the 31st floor of the un plaza hotel. remember i was there when a group of malaysian delegation made a working trip to new york.

3.23.2008

good old days




those were the days when digital camera was not even out yet. so, i had to rely on disposable cameras to take the above pictures. now i ended up with tonnes of pics that i really wish one of these days i have the time and hopefully energy to scan and store them properly. these are pics of some old friends back in the days in sunny and wonderful syracuse, new york. sometimes just by looking at old pics kindda makes you think and say to yourself how you wish you knew everything back then what you know now; or something like that. anyway, i guess there's no point turning back but to remember the wonderful time back then.

long island city




the number 7 train was delayed the other day coming back from work. and we were told to walk from jackson vernon avenue stop to queensboro plaza which is not that far to catch a queens bound train. once i got out from the station i realized that i had never been to that particular area of queens and always wondered what is it like outside the station whenever we passed the station. so, since i had my camera in my bagpack, i decided to venture around. once i was on the street level, i immediately walk straight towards the view of manhattan not even sure where it was going to lead me. the area looks pretty decent to me. i noticed a few big fancy building around; women pushing baby strollers around, pre-k school, some fancy restaurant, new high rise apartment building and new ones that are being built. later on i found myself right by the water's edge with this fantastic view of midtown. i realized that i am probably at the western most point of long island where the new york state parks created the gantry plaza state park .
looking towards manhattan, you are looking at midtown with clear view of the united nation building. it looks like this place used to be an old slipyard or something and now turned into this gorgeous park. the important feature about this park is that the pepsi cola sign which is an iconic symbol of new york city. every movie about that you see about new york city might have seen this sign. some interesting facts about it. apparently it was built on top of a factory that used to bottle soda. however, the factory was torn down recently in order to make way for luxury condo. few people decided to save that sign and install it right next to the park. the area around its current location closed due to construction. it looks like they are almost finish with the work. so, hopefully it will be finished by april and i will walk down there again and take more pictures.

3.22.2008

easter






easter usually marks the arrival of spring; denotes the end of winter. it also marks the time to start thinking about your garden and colors of spring. here are some pictures of flowers taken few years ago.

3.21.2008

good friday



i got the day off for good friday and had to make a quick trip back to southampton early this morning. it was sunny today but very windy and cold. on my way back to the house i stopped at the field where we planted all the grasses just to take some pictures before we cut all the tops off and let it grow back for spring. i also took a video shot on my way back from the field to the house. i will put it up in my next entry.

3.19.2008

jump




we took this pictures some time in february. a friend of mind who is an aspiring photographer wanted to test her new camera. so, instead of renting a studio to do the test, she decided to invite few of her friends to spend few hours with her to play around with her camera. and then bought us few drinks in a bar right across the street after we all got tired from jumping all afternoon. we did this in a public atrium where the lighting is good enough for her to take pictures. my knees were aching for the rest of the day after doing all the jump. we took a lot of pictures but these are few of the best ones. she was supposed to cut our picture and paste it on a different background. but the last time i spoke to her, it is still work in progress.

3.16.2008

palm sunday












went to church this morning. thought i take a picture of the church aftermass. will try and find more information about the church and update this page. i think i read some interesting facts about the church. for now here are the pictures of the church itself, rectory and parish hall.

3.15.2008

spring is here













this winter has been really mild without any major storm at all. i guess we are lucky this year because it seemed that other part of the northeast are being hammered with one storm after another except for new york city. well, we did have one some time in february but it was nothing really. i love snow and it just doesn't feel like winter without major snow shoveling to do. anyway, saw on the news today that they said major snow storm could still happen any where between now until april. let's hope so. i just bought a pair new snow booths and just looking for a chance to try them. temperature has been really mild too. here's some pictures to show you first few signs of spring.

3.14.2008

new york public library



yesterday i felt like having japanese food for lunch. since it was a nice day, i decided to walk over to 41st stret and 5th avenue where they have a japanese takeout selling mostly japanese food. prices are not too bad for a light and healthy lunch. when i said healthy, i meant there is no fried or oily food. i bought a lunch box where in it they had fish, rice, some kind of mashed potato, japanese pickles and some kind of seaweed. most of the time i don't know what i am eating in japanese restaurant but as long as it looks edible, its fine by mine. the fish was excellent. looked like they steamed the fish and boy it was good especially when you squeeze some lemon on it. i should have taken a picture of it. i forgot that i had a camera in my bag until i walked out of the place. anyway, here are some pictures of the new york public library on 5th avenue around the corner from the restaurant.

3.13.2008

view from 31st floor
























when the malaysian delegates were getting ready to head to the airport late afternoon, i decided to go up to their hotel room and check out the view which was on the 31st floor of the millenium hotel at the un plaza. the first picture is the view towards east of manhattan looking over the united nation building. whereas the other 3 pictures are looking towards west of manhattan. as you can see it was cloudy that day and rained quite heavily.