thanksgiving parade

went to bed last night and was thinking about waking up early to get a good spot for the macy's thanksgiving parade. i figured i should try to watch the parade at least once while i am in new york. of course i woke up late and only caught the ver last few floats of parade from a distant in times square. maybe next year....if i remember to get up early.

malaysian food...new york style

how can one miss food from back home when you can get almost any kind of paste for any recipe from back home in chinatown and prepare it yourself at home. hopefully i have the chance to try out some of the following this weekend. looks delicious. maybe eat it some fried rice. or maybe with chicken rendang. i have tried the beef rendang, malaysian style of the same brand but didn't quite like it. will try the chicken rendang and find out if it is any good. so many things to do, so little time.

noodle bar

was in chinatown again today for my eye doctor's exam. when done, wanted to go to the food hawkers on east broadway that sell mixed rice for us$4 per-plate but somehow ended up in this somewhat new fancy noodle place on division street just before the manhattan bridge underpass. i think the name is hong kong station. the menu display on the street caught my eye especially where it said us$3 for a bowl of noodles. i scanned through things they have and luckily they had picture menu because the rest of them were in chinese. so, i decided to give it a shot, walked in and point my finger at the picture for pork feet noodle soup....yummy. nothing fancy really, just plain and simple to satisfy my tastebud. they gave me a decent size bowl of yellow noodle and 4 pieces of juicy pork feet. it was only later after i have taken the picture that i noticed from the placemat on my tray, in english, that you could actually create you own noodle with whatever choices they have on display behind the counter. wonder if it would still cost me us$3 for that. another reason for me to go back to this place.

sompoton and sago palm

here is an excerpt from a book written by Thomas Rhys Williams entitled The Dusun:A North Borneo Society. a very interesting story about the origin of sompoton shared to him by the headman of sensuron village during his stay there from august 1959-august 1960. i have heard many different stories about the origin of sompoton. however, i have to say that i have never heard this one before, or maybe someone had way too much tapai and came up with this story.

…There are a variety of more than 30 folktales regarding creation of specific animals and plants. Dao, the headman of Sensuron village, told this story of the origin of the sago palm and the sago “beetle”:

There was a beautiful girl who was asleep in her house in the middle of the day. As the young hunter Saro passed that girl’s house he heard her call out in her sleep, “cut me bamboo to make sEmputan (musical instrument).” So he did that, and took the bamboo to the girl. But when she came onto the veranda of the house, and he gave her the bamboo, she would not take it, saying, ”I did not ask you for that”. But her vagina called out to Saro and said, “it was this girl’s vagina that called out for the bamboo!” The girl was very ashamed of her vagina, she went to the deep jungle and took it out and placed it on the stump of a tree. Then a deer came and rubbed its side against that vagina and left hair upon it. Then the tree stump grew again and became the sago palm and the vagina became the beetle you find inside there. (pg. 15)

what can you buy with RM1?...in new york

this posting is a response to kupi O kaw kaw's recent posting. based on current currency exchange rate us$1 = rm3.60081. so, rm1.00 is roughly about us$0.277115. so, what can you buy with rm1.00 or say, us$0.25 in new york?
...you will get 3 minutes worth of time to dry your clothes in a self service laundromat dryer machine
...probably 2 minutes to pump your wheels at a gas station. some may be free.
...new york post newspaper? or is it us$o.50 now
...5 pages or may be 2 pages from a photo copy machine at office supplies stores or drug stores
...bus fare for seniors? or maybe it is us$0.50?
...oh..not forgetting maybe 10-15 minutes or even less for metered parking
...extra toppings for your salad bowl
...couldn't think of anything else....

when you have to go...especially in new york

man...when you have to go in new york, you better have a place in mind to go. its a hassle to some people like me who goes to bathroom quite often especially in the winter...its the weather. or even for people visiting new york. its good to know that someone is actually taking care the problem of locating a bathroom for me. thanks diaroogle.com. you are a life saver.

cuci kain

laundry day. unlike the old days when i used to soak my clothes overnight in a "besin" or "baldi" and then the next morning, quickly "berus" each one of them, rinse and then hang them all out in the sun to dry. hours of work. well, we did have a washing machine but as far as i know we only use it to spin our washed clothes in order to extract the water out before hanging them out in the sun. well...those were the days. now within 2 hours you get clean and fresh sock, jocks etc. and no i don't have to do it everyday, only every other week. i wouldn't be surprise if they have self service laudromat like this in malaysia these days.

backyard - red & yellow

a wet and dreary day in new york. my backyard, on the other had, looks red and yellow like its on fire. couldn't really catch it with my lousy camera but when you step outside you can feel the intensity of the colors.

itm - kuala menggatal

recently, i heard some stories or comments about the deteriorating condition of the old itm-kuala menggatal campus. last i heard, due to shoddy construction, the old campus of what used to be the main and vibrant area campus was left without any proper care. also heard that there were plans to tear down the complex. so, luckily i took a detour and went to see the campus in 2005 just to have a final look before they permanently bulldozed the whole place.

the parking lot of what used to be our padang kawat kesatria too. man, i remember those days when i had to march around the parking lot in my starched uniform..kiri..kiri..kanan..kiri. oh, and i still remember very well how to report to the komander or cikgu-cikgu...90186494...siap sedia untuk diuji. i think...something like that.

walkway to the dining hall...i think, or commonly known as "kawasan bertiang".

classrooms block...the top floor was the best floor. always breezy and also had a nice view of the surrounding area. i only used the back staircase, far left side of the pic, during day time. i would never used it at night. something about that part of the building that seemed so spooky.

had my etr presentation in one of these rooms.

ahhh...room 406 of block e. what used to be my old room. good times.... and had some delicious midnight maggi snack on that desk too.

our wonderful bathroom. i remember during our "evening rush hours" when some students were rushing to go to their evening clases after dinner, some of them would fill up those sinks and scooped water with our own "gayung" and took a cold water bath right there.

i have to say though that the view from bukit itm is fantastic. although, one couldn't help noticing how some of the surrounding areas has changed quite a lot. the cleared area at the bottom of the first used to be just miles and miles of green trees. look at it now. guess, that's what one would consider as "kemajuan".

limputung, papar - pics

thought i post a pic of my last visit to limputung. totally about these pics up until my previous postings. this is the alun's family residence, well what used to be. i remember seeing an old pic taken on the front porch with my grandfather. wonder what happen to that pic.





below are pictures of resting place for both my grandfather and grandmother of my mom's side. i just realized that they both passed away within 2 months apart. didn't notice that when i took the pics. both were laid to rest in limputung's cemetery, less than a mile from the house.

late marcus brahom's residence - limbahau, papar

found this interesting piece of information on wikimapia about my late grandfather's house in limbahau, papar. wondered who wrote it and how much of it is true. need to verify this information. click here to view limbahau, papar.

limputung, papar

i was surfing on the internet in the other day and i think i was googling for limbahau, papar and stumbled into wikimapia. i noticed no one had labeled our old family house, my mom's side, in limputong, papar. since everyone else around had their houses labeled and marked, so, i said why not. i just hope i got the right house. click here to to go alun's residence in wikimapia.

taking a break

earlier last week one of my students suggested that we take a break on friday and play scrabble. everybody seemed to agree with it and i figured why not. so, few students brought some snacks and we spent the whole period playing scrabble. i guessed it through fine but probably have to get a bigger board.

2008 ing new york city marathon - what to wear

brave heart costume


wig and funky shades


he called himself mr. coat man (while carrying champagne on a tray)


some kind of super hero costume with nemo on his head


flag bearer


robin hood


colorful wig


more wigs


pink flamingo hat and pink tights


lizard (...i think)


he runs on dunkin (...literally)


vote obama tees


batman and robin

or basically wear nothing at all. couldn't get a clear pic of him. he was wearing the borat's bikini and a wig with mullet. imagine running 26 miles in the thing, 50 degrees temperature and your thong wedge between your ass cheek. boy, his ass will be sore tomorrow. check out all the looks he got in the first pics. i will try and look for better pic of him online. i'm sure someone have taken a good pic of him.