CaTZ's Den

Gaming Mom

My mom is no gamer... She can't even play Tetris (too many button she says). But lately.. she's been hogging on my DS a LOT.

First it was Brain busters: Logic.... and then Quickspot... now... Planet Puzzle League!!!
She even express interest on 'that Nintendo waggle machine' - looks like fun she said.

She even played Planet Puzzle Leauge until 3.am last night ..er ... today :P I HAD to beg her to stop playing.

Big Surprise!!! and THANK YOU!!!

Today, just before I went to lunch.. I got a big surprise waiting for me
There's a package waiting for me.

At first I didn't notice anything strange... I got a lot of package lately... mainly the games and or toys I've ordered a couple of months a go.. So I just opened without thinking... and inside there were....

Two Karen Kong CDs!!!

This is a very surprising moment! I know she once contacted me to send me her newest single as a gratitude for translating her newest single 'Akan' from Malay to English... but what I didn't expect is that the package actually arrive and there's also a copy of her FIRST album there.

Is no secret that I'm looking for that album quite frantically, even asked a friend of mine from Singapore to look for it to no avail... and now... I got it!!!

After ripping the tracks to my PC, and upload it to my phone for listening on the way to lunch... I have a pretty good experience in listening to all the songs... My personal favorite is 'Kekasihku'... the others are great (Ku tak upaya is her biggest title in this album I think) though her rendition of La la la Love Song (A Malaysian version of Long Vacation theme song which titled - Na Na Nada Cinta) doesn't match with the rap background vocal she's using for MY taste (but it was good during 'Kekasihku'). Overall pretty good.

Her newest single 'Akan' turns out pretty good. I saw her demo video and reserve judgement until I hear the final piece... which doesn't disappoint.

So again... if you reading this Karen, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! and I wish you luck to all your endavour..

The breathtaking Sempu

Just last week, jus exactly a week after Bromo, I went to this small island on south Malang, right next to Sendangbiru beach called "Sempu"

The road there is not as far as to Balekambang, and the road is definitely smoother.

When we arrived, the weather was nice. The sea was calm, and we have to cross to the island by renting aboat

Sendang biru


The calm sea

Before I continue, I think I need to explain what we're doing here.

My friends Suryo, is helping his cousin to shoot a pre wedding picture set here. He was told that we can find a really beautiful scenery here,

a trapped body of sea water in the middle of an island,

in the expense of a bit of a walk... as it turned out... that bit of a walk is ONE F&%# hour of trekking through a forest!!! Here we go... 24 minutes after walking 17 minutes later... 24 minutes later... almost there... 5 minutes later, FINALLY a sign of progress!!!

...and here we are!!! it's truly beautiful as described. What we're at, is behind a tall rocks beside the sea. And there's a 'hole' on the rock there, so when the wave hits, the water spilled to the island but trapped by the rock itself, and thus a small detached (but still deep enough for quick dip) body of sea water is there.

The view is trully amazing

I climbed the cliff to get a better view of things, and it is... beautiful, both the view to the sea and to the 'lake'

This one picture deserve a mention here. Not because it's beautiful, good angle or anything, but I waited like AGES for the wave to splash and most of the time, just when I turn my head around, the wave splash and when I have my camera ready, the sea just... sit there :P

So, after an exhausting journey back... our trip ended...

My final say is, that this is a better place for pre-wed photos, much better than Balekambang... but only if the group and the bride are willing to take the exhausting trek through the forest.

and for those who decide to go... make sure you were a very comfortable SHOES, and carry your sandals with you when you walk at the beach...

Sunrise at Bromo

Bromo, one of the recommended view to see the sun rise in java.

Where the weather is extremely cold for us Indonesian, and the path is steep and uncomfortable (not to mention expensive) and where you have to pay Rp 3000,- for a small glass of hot tea.

It's pretty cold when we arrived. Some of us never went to Bromo before, and caught off-handed by the weather :) We're having difficulties to setting up our camera due to the cold

The sun about to rise, we're getting ready to capture them...

SUNRISE!!!!

When the fog cleared, we finally get to see all the mountain range from what we're standing (which is called 'Penanjakan'). Pretty breathtaking view, don't you think? By then, the weather has been pretty good for us, and it feels sooo nice too

Pretty far below, you can see a Hindunese temple, right near the foot of the mountain. We didn't get to visit the place though, so enjoy the bird eye view of it! :D After we climb down the mountain, we crossed the desert to visit a small lake in the area. We can't directly view the lake from the car so we had to walk... about 20 minutes to reach it

The Lake was okay though, not as beautiful as we wanted, but we get to play around on the tall grass, taking picture, and all that stuff.

Oh well, it was pretty fun though, here, enjoy the rest of the pictures I took

Okay you know what??

I found out the problems with the blog posting on Friendster... turns
out ou... it wasn't friendster fault

the problem lies with FIREFOX

I try the same post using Safari and the html codes works like a charm.

no auto convert thing to WYSIWYG sh!t$

and I'm happy :D

you hear me???

HAPPY!!!

Balekambang

Two weeks ago, I went to Balekambang, a bit remote beach in south of Malang. That is, pretty far away from where I live. I went there with a couple of friends, one who suddenly got into this photo taking hobby and he decided to 'kidnap' me to hunt for photos. The trip is pretty far, we start out at... 9.30 from my house... and after 2 (or more) hours, we stop by in Malang to have our lunch and my friend had to take care of something.

This one I took on a cliff where the guys is taking a leak

Malang was... fresh... i never felt an air so clear for a couple of years now, maybe it's a curse living & working in a big capital city? Who knows. It was refreshing though, last time I went there was three years ago... So anyway After two more hours ride, we finally arrived there.. Not what I expected though... not really clean blue water I find... and besides, it was a bit cloudy and just killed of our purpose (we wanted to get the sunset photos - it's the closest nicest beach to Surabaya :( ). SO we ended up just taking random pictures of sea, and cloud, and sea.. Though Balekambang wasn't so nice as I expected, it doesn't stop couples to do their pre-wedding pictures there. There's at least three couples that are doing the pictures. One even went so far as setting up a small... thing (dunno the words) for the pictures

A somewhat sunset view of the beach and a... thingy

So we would've finished around 6, but some setbacks made us stay longer. We park the car to close to the beach, so the sand beneath the car gave away when we tried to leave, so we kinda.... trapped. It's not until two other camera men from the pre-wed groups help us to literally drag the car out of the sand :) We finally arrived back at Surabaya round 10.. not without stopping at Malang to eat a wonderfully nice & spice red rawon... recommendable. Everyone in the area should try it out

Well, today's plan is to go to Bromo for more photo hunting of a sunrise. With bigger number of gang :D Just wait for the photos!!! Here are the photos I took during the event. I apologize for the quality. It's just a camera phone and incomparable to what the guys used :P

Problem with blog?

Okay weird, now I can't post the blog that have html codes. So far, have contacted friendster about it, but no word yet...

dang... using ecto isn't helping either

I know the code exist, it's just hidden by the typepad layer... geez

So long, and still the same

Yeah So, nothing new today, is just that today I meet up with a couple of old friend from Uni, well.. not really. They're just in the same uni with me, though not in the same Major, but all three of us have something in common that binds us together (what is this? a spin off LOTR Novel? Lol!!) which is: Drawing Manga!!.

Ok first, introduction.

Ciek, and..... geez..... that loudmouth just deleted the picture I took using my mobile. Anyway, you guys can check his friendster here he have a very good skill in drawings, ever the loudmouth and never afraid to speak up his mind, and that's a good thing for him (although not enough people in this country appreciate that kind of feat). And the other one is a bubbly girl who is a Clamp (the comic book team, not the moves :P) lover, named A Yin. She's also have a very good skill (although a bit Clamp-centrique) but a bit lazy. Though, in that laziness, she already made 4 comic published under Elex Media Komputindo (and very cute though you can see from the photo I took).

We ended up having dinner together at Pizza Hut. Getting a poor service for my taste. In the end, pretty enjoyable day :P. There's nothing better than sit with your friends, catch up, and talk about things. Past work, future plans, and stuff. For instance, Ciek is getting married on November, A Yin is going back to Bali to help his aunt with her business. Looking foward in meeting them again :D

Indonesia best Ice Cream

If anyone should ask "what is the best ice cream in Surabaya?" (and most probably in whole country), my answer would just be: Zangrandi!!! This is ice cream franchise is really-really old. A colonial-taste ice cream than goes wayyy back during the dutch occupancy..

My Favorite? Soda Ice Cream with Durian Flavour!!! You can almost taste the natural flavour of the durian inside the ice cream (they are made from the real fruit). The way the ice cream melt in your mouth... and the aromathic after taste... that made you wish you shouldn't wash it away with the fresh water (but requried if you want to keep your teeth healthy :D)

Anyone there who never visit Surabaya before, and happen to be in the area, please visit this place, you won't regret it!!!

Spiderman 3

I just watched Spiderman - 3 today. It's a movie than almost everyone and definetely most comic geeks are waiting to see, right? The last two was awesome, this one should be better, right? I'm a comic geek. So I should praise this one like the second coming (or third-whatever), right?

Wrong.

No, is not like the movie is bad or anything, it's just I found it....lacking.

It's still a good film, an enjoyable one, but not perfect, or over the top.

Maybe my expectation was too high, or maybe because I know almost everything about Spiderman as I grew up with him.

But it's just..... meh....

Maybe it's because there's too many character going on in one screen, in the previous two, there's only one villain that Spidey would deal with.
This time... it's THREE. While they are cool villains though because of the screen time, the characterization is no where as perfect as Dr. Octopus in Spiderman 2
Personally, there's too much spiralling falling down scene in this movie when they're fighting (but that just me :P)

So if anyone feel the same, or have anything to add, just drop me a comment :P