Another Wondrous Day

The other day was another wondrous day. It was of those small little triumphs of life that don't mean much to anyone else, eliciting nothing more than a polite, "That's nice", when you tell them about it. Yet if it happens to you, then your whole world changes, and your life perspective will never be the same.

Trien and I were lazing around on the futon. She was getting some rest, while I was watching tv.
She started laughing, and turned over and faced me. There was a bemused smile on her face.

"What's happening, Baby?"

"Our daughter is playing again."

She looked down at her tummy, and rubbed it softly in a circular motion.

"Here, let me feel."

She removed her hand, and I replaced it with mine. Nothing happened.

Trien looked down at her tummy, both puzzled, and amused.

"You move for Daddy, Baby," she said to her tummy.

Again, nothing happened, I looked at her, and she smirked at me and shrugged.

Then it happened. I felt a sharp little poke right under my hand. I had felt the baby move before, but this was different. Before when the baby moved, it just felt like the ripples made when you throw a pebble into the water. There was evidence of life, but nothing tangible. This time, for the first time, I felt something solid. There was contact between me, and the life living and growing in my wife's womb. Solid flesh and bone had moved under my hand, a little elbow or a hand. It made contact with me. It made contact not just with my hand, but also something deep within my inner being, the purest essence of what I am.

I looked up at Trien, and she smiled at me like a proud Angel.

"I felt her! I really felt her this time!"

"I know, Honey."

"You get to feel her all the time, but this is the first time I could really feel her move! I could feel her bones beneath my hand!"

I kissed her. My hand stayed there for a couple more minutes, but there was no more movement. I took it away, and kissed my wife, and looked into her eyes. By now my eyes were tearing over.

I thanked her, and held her, and felt more love for her than I ever had before.

There was a life inside her that we had made together. Sure, I had seen the ultrasound scans from the very beginning, watched her develop and grow, and felt the tiny little pulsations of life. This was the first time I actually felt the evidence of life in my physical being, and from my physical being to my soul.

The little life inside of her is living and growing and developing. With God's blessing, I will not leave this world without leaving a small piece of myself behind, a dream of hope for a better world. A dream that she will make a difference in this world, even if just in a small way. A dream for my daughter of a better life than I've ever known, in a better world.

I told Trien this morning that this is the most beautiful gift she could ever give me. Nothing could ever be greater than the gift of life which is growing inside of her now. What better way could she show her love for me, than to nurture the life within her, and give birth to our baby?

Like I said, when you tell other people about it, they respond politely, just the way they should. When it happens to you? There's nothing else in the world like it. It gives my life palpable meaning that it didn't have before. There is reason for my existence - a little life is depending on me.

There will be more of these little triumphs of life in the months to come. My life can never be the same as it was.

Praise God!

Beauty in Ordinary Places

I like to carry my camera with me wherever I go. That's because I never know what kinds of interesting things I will run into, or what I will see that will suddenly strike me as beautiful. Sometimes those things are right outside my door.

Take, for example, these scenes that I have here. I have passed by these places many times, but they never really caught my eye until today, when all of a sudden something, maybe a trick of the light, made them take on a resonance I hadn't seen before. It is very easy to see the beauty so obviously displayed in the Lake Gardens, which are only a few meters away, hidden by trees and undergrowth. It is not so easy to see the beauty in scenes as commonplace as this. Some might see these as scenes of decay, not beauty. Yet even decay can be beautiful. To me, these pictures say something about the endurance of life.

The houses above are located right around the corner from our apartment. They belong to a couple of elderly Chinese people, who seem to have lived there forever. They are old, but still quite sturdy. Both the houses, and the people who live in them.


These seem to be old miners shacks. They are all still occupied, and not just by the elderly, either. They are either remnants from when Taiping was a rough and tumble mining town, or at the very least, from the British colonial days. They constitute a little hidden village, right next to the Lake Gardens and the downtown.



Some of them have been upgraded, with rooms added to the back, cable TV dishes, fairly recent coats of paint, etc.

.

Life goes on in Taiping, just as it always has, and just as it always will. Taiping changes and grows, but life stays the same.

Funny Pissed Off Humor

I came across this site on one of my journeys through cyberspace. I seem to have a gift for finding wierd but interesting sites. This guys website has humor with an angry, pissed off attitude. Being from New Jersey, I thought it was pretty funny, but I know it will not be to everyones taste. Probably the only other people who will enjoy it will be fellow Jerseyites, those who are angry at the world, have sick senses of humor, or are heavily medicated. Which, of course, covers just about everyone in New Jersey.

This one entry really got me laughing.

The humor might not be right for you overly sensitive politically correct types. Here's an example of some of what you can expect:

I was searching for shitty telecom companies the other day and Qwest came up as the first result (the 2nd through 6th results linked to Verizon). So I clicked the top link and saw this:

"Finally," I thought to myself, "a site that sells chubby black women." Unfortunately, after hours of searching there were no black women to be found; only DSL and local phone service. Here are some other photos I found on corporate websites, and what I learned about the world based on the images:

So if you are feeling really pissed off today, have a look!

Pregnancy Progress- Week 27

This is week 27 of our pregnancy. Yup, I am pregnant too, since what affects my wife affects me also. We are in this thing together, and will get through it together.



Trien's tummy seems to grow larger every day. There is no chance of disguising her condition now. I can't see how those teens who give birth in secret can hide it. It would take a lot of work and some pretty naive people not to see the signs, from what I can see. Still, it does happen all the time.

She has gotten so big that it is no longer comfortable for her to wear the black pregnancy pants we got for her in KL. These have an adjustable elastic waistband, and soft material around the top. The pants still fit her, but she complains that they don't feel right anymore. They hang too low on her tummy. The white ones we got at the same time are still Ok, because she says the waistband isn't as wide as the black pants, and so it is less uncomfortable. She decided that she wouldn't wear the black pants anymore, and would still wear the white ones. Then she said she would mostly wear the mommy dresses we bought, or that others have given us.

So what did she wear to meet me at the Internet cafe yesterday? Of course, the most uncomfortable looking athletic stretch pants that she has laying around! Now, I know there is a long convoluted explanation for that, which makes sense to her, but would have me scratching my head and just nodding my head when she asked if I understood. So I will just accept that the expensive comfortable looking baby pants are no longer practical, while the cheap uncomfortable looking pants are just fine, thank you. There is something contrary about my wife's ways that I've just come to accept. I just nod my head and say I understand.

As her tummy grows, so does her problems getting to sleep. She has trouble getting comfortable in bed because it is hard to find the right position to get comfortable in. It is like trying to sleep with a basketball strapped to your abdomen. She also says it is a bit difficult to breathe when she lays down at night. It is easier to breathe if she lays a bit upright. Another problem is that because of the baby's position, the distribution of weight in her tummy is uneven. If she lays on her right side, it feels like the whole baby has slid down there. If she sleeps on her left side, there is less weight, and she can get better support by using her "hug pillow" under her tummy.

Last night, she complained she wasn't comfortable. Even though we had the bed under the open window, and the ceiling fan on, she said she was hot. I know you will say, "Hey John, you guys are 4 degrees above the equator", but it does get fairly cool here at night, somewhere in the mid 70's. Sometimes we even close the windows because it's too cool. Anyway, we moved the bed away from the window, and next to the other window, closer to the ceiling fan. That still didn't work. We have a couple of old foam mattresses we borrowed from school to use on the bed at our old place. We put one of them on the floor by the bed, and within a couple of minutes she was fast asleep until morning.

The baby's movements are getting stronger and sharper as she gets bigger. It is easier to see and feel her movements. If Trien is asleep, she will sometimes wake up and tell the baby that mommy is trying to sleep. She doesn't wake all the way up most of the time. What will really wake her up is when the baby starts moving her elbows, or what we think is her elbows.

Our daughter is now moving her whole body, like she is doing baby Kung-Fu. She moves her arms, her head, and her legs, sometimes all at once. She likes to do this when we play music, especially if it is a bit loud.

Now Trien is starting to slow down. She can't walk as fast as she used to, or as far. Before it was no problem for her to walk into and all around town. Now, it is hard for her to walk back. She can still do it, it's just that it takes longer and she is more tired than before. Still, she is looking forward to going swimming with her friends at Bukit Merah Laketown Resort on Monday.

Finally, her cravings are back. She wants Inasal. I don't know where we can get a barbecued suckling pig prepared Visayan style here in Malaysia. I doubt anyone knows, or that there is such a thing. She wants her friends currently on vacation in the Philippines to bring some back. Good luck to that!


This is what Trien is craving for.


All together, so far so good. Only about three more months to go!

My 31st Post

Ok, my goal this month was to average one post a day. I had something else I was going to post here, but Trien showed up at the Internet cafe, and is hungry. I know better than to keep a hungry pregnant mommy waiting too long, so this will have to be my 31st post instead. That way I will reach my goal, and Trien will be happy.

Cheers!

The Best Ice Cream in Taiping

Continuing my tour of the culinary wonders of Taiping, today I look at the hawker stall that serves the best ice cream in Taiping. It is located in the same complex that I wrote about in my post about "The Best Roti in Taiping." If you take Bukit Larut as north, then it is located in the southwest corner of the complex, the second stall in from the road.

It was after drama practice. I was walking by the Lake Gardens, waiting for Trien, so we could eat dinner. That's when I saw Jesse, the guy from New Jersey who lives in Pokok Assam, which is just outside of town, talking to a western couple. He left before I could catch up with them, but eventually I caught up the couple.

When I taught in on Jeju Island in Korea, any time you saw a westerner, you talked to them, because there were so very few of them around. Its a habit I've gotten in to, and haven't been able to break. So I introduced myself to them. They were Australians, and had lived in Taiping for a few years before going back home. We chatted while I was waiting for my wife, who hasn't yet broken the habit of being fashionably late, (at least fashionably late for a Filipina, which varies considerably from what us Americans consider "fashionably late").

When she arrived, we chatted for a couple minutes before they had to leave. They asked where we were going, and we said we were going to the circus grounds hawker stalls to eat. They recommended the place pictured above saying it had the best ice cream in Taiping.

They were right. The place has great ice cream. There are crudely painted pictures on big plywood signboards of the creatively named ice cream dishes offered. The best thing to do is to see what interests you, and ask what is in it. The owner speaks excellent English, so don't worry about any communication problems. He can tell you exactly what is in each item. They all have ice cream, of course, then some variation of fruit and topping. When I say fruit, I mean lots of fruit, both fresh and canned. I had a banana split, Trien had some wild exotic confection, and it was well worth the 8 Ringgit total we paid for them. If we had the same thing in Kl, we would have paid at least twice as much for something not nearly as good.

I repost the map below to remind you where the hawker center is located. Click on it to see the full sized version.

Bon Appetit!

Bush Pictures

All from the viral emails website.

The Most Dangerous Animal in Malaysia

I doubt this is a native species, but these guys are so cute they are dangerous. I have no idea where they came from, but I don't think they came running out of the jungle. They must be tame, as they let me get really close. They were roaming around the school, near the workers hostel where we first stayed when we moved to Taiping. As far as we know, nobody there or in the teacher's quarters keep rabbits.

I'm just lucky Trien didn't see them, otherwise we probably would have two new pets!

It's Interesting, Jake . . .

I have gotten to know Jake, who is from Taiping, through writing this Blog. He writes his own Blog, Stupid Malaysia, about the corruption and stupidity in the Malaysian government, and how difficult it is for non-ethnic Malays here. While I have come here to work, escape an unfair system, and for peace of mind, he has gone to the USA for the same reasons.

It seems that in some ways, at least, we are living parallel lives.

Jake has put a posting in his Blog, about how ironic it is that we went to each others countries to get away from what we both see as immoral and corrupt governments.

I left the USA, because life wasn't good for me there, and I needed a change of scenery. I had lost my job, broken up with my girlfriend, yada yada yada, and was stuck in a rut. Most of all, I felt that I could not live there anymore and give my implicit support to a government which I consider corrupt and immoral, despite all its trappings of self righteousness.

Plus, I hadn't been treated well by the government in the USA, in part because of my political activities and beliefs. I was watched, and had my phone tapped. Me, an ordinary law abiding citizen, whose only offence was some unpaid parking tickets. Yet still, The government felt I was a threat, and treated me as such.

Not that the government here is much better, especially in its treatment of non-bumiputras.
Jake does a good job of exposing those things in his Blog.

Jake went away from here, and found peace and contentment in the USA. Good for you, Jake!
I have come here, and I see all sorts of corruption and injustice all around me. That gets me really pissed off, but I am only a guest here. I will have to move away from here soon, because the immigration laws won't allow me to get permanent residence or my wife to work. Not unless I can come up with $150,000 US, and then they will welcome me with open arms, and palms outstretched.

Malaysia could be a great country, and a great place to live. Yet because of the narrowmindedness and corruption of the "Little Napoleons" who are in charge, it never will be.
Which truly is a shame. Because if they were truly intent on promoting the "racial harmony" they like to spout on about in this country, there wouldn't be a brain drain, and Malaysia would be a the major power in ASEAN politics.

Jake has made me think. I am not just a citizen of the USA, I am a citizen of the world. To quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

My Encounter With Malaysian Wildlife: The Flying Snake

I was walking home from school on Friday, when I saw one of the cats that hang around climbing up the chain link fence in the parking lot, intent on something. Something had caught these stupid cats attention, which with these cats could only mean a potential meal. When I Say stupid, I mean stupid. They all look the same, so they probably are inbred, with some inborn mental defect. Usually, I don't mind cats, but for some reason I have a hatred for these particular ones. Probably because they serve no useful function, other than laying around by or in the dumpster, gorging themselves on the garbage when the monkeys aren't picking through it, and walking around like you don't belong in their apartment complex.

One of them had climbed up the links on the fence, and was looking intently at something. The others were sitting there waiting for their pal to bring it to them. Feeling the way I do about these cats, of course I had to go investigate, and shoo them away.

What was it that had them so fascinated?

It was a snake, a long thin one. I didn't want it to become their next meal, as they are fed well enough from all the garbage they eat from the dumpster that they don't need to torture and eat what might potentially be an endangered species. I chased them away several times, then ran upstairs to get my camera so I could get some pictures before they came back and the snake was eaten, or otherwise disappeared.

I ran in the apartment, and grabbed the camera. Trien asked what I was doing, and knowing the way she feels about snakes, I just said I had to get a couple of pictures of something downstairs. If I had told her that I was going to take pictures of a rather long snake in the parking lot, she would never leave our apartment again.

I was in luck. When I came down, the cats were gone, and the snake was happily making its way along the top of the fence. I was able to get as many pictures as I wanted. The snake watched me. It was wary, but not threatening or aggressive. Still, I didn't get too close to it, or try to be Steve Irwin.

I was careful, because didn't know what kind of snake it was. Here in Malaysia, snakes of all different types are plentiful. We have everything here from 9 meter long pythons, to king cobras, vipers, you name it. I am no herpetologist, so as far as I knew it could have been an extremely poisonous carpet viper or something like that.

Later on when Trien and I came down to get something to eat, the snake was gone. It was only after I saw it was gone that I told her what I had been doing. I showed her the first picture of the snake, and she refused to see any more.

I don't know if the stupid cats got it, or it climbed up in the tree, but it wasn't there anymore. While Trien has gotten over her fear of monitor lizards, and even enjoys watching them swim in the Lake Gardens, snakes are a different thing. The mere mention of one sends shudders up her spine.

Later on, I went to the Internet cafe, to see if I could find out what kind of snake it was, and if it was poisonous.

What was it?

As far as I can tell, it was flying tree snake, specifically a paradise tree snake. They are not poisonous to humans, only to geckos and the other small prey they feed on.

Their unique feature is that they can flatten out their bodies, and fly from tree to tree.

Later on, when I told Trien that it was a flying tree snake, she recognized it right away. She said that when she was growing up, there were many of them in the trees in and around her village..

No wonder she is so scared of snakes. I would be, too, if the snakes around my house came flying out of the trees!

Doctors Report- Our 26th Week of Pregnancy

We went to see Dr. Jeya yesterday for our monthly checkup. I couldn't wait to see those cool ultrasound scans of our baby in the womb. For me, that's the whole highlight of the visit. I like to see them so much, I usually ask Trien if we can go earlier than our scheduled visit. I want to see the baby. If I ask her a couple weeks before, of course she says no, even though she's as anxious as I am to see what our daughter looks like. If I ask her a couple days before, she'll sometimes give in, and we can see our baby on the screen.

Trien and I told Dr. Jeya about the gas pains, which made her and the nurse burst out in laughter. I know they really look forward to seeing us, as we are usually good for at least a couple of chuckles. That was probably why we got to go first, even though there were a couple others in frot of us. They needed the comic relief. Anyway, after they composed themselves, Trien had the ultrasound scan.

We got quite a surprise. What Trien thought was the baby's head, turned out to be her butt, and what she thought was the the baby's butt, turned out to be her head. Our daughter has literally turned upsidedown. So when Trien was having her gas pains, and asked our daughter to move her butt, she was a good girl and did exactly what she was asked to do. When she said "No, move the part down there," our daughter did that, that was her head, not her butt! When Dr. Jeya showed us how the baby was positioned, then things started to make sense.

We have a good daughter. Even in the womb, she does as she's asked!

The ultrasound scan wasn't as exciting this time as it normally is, because of the change in postion of the baby's body. Of course, being turned the way she is makes her more difficult to see. Her head is turned toward mommy's back, which meant we couldn't see her facial features, or much of anything else.

All we saw in the scan was an indistinct, amorphous mass, that Dr. Jeya said was our baby. A couple of times I could make out a leg, or an arm, and I did see her heart beating, but nothing was easily recognizable. There was something round that she said was our baby's head, and said it looked normal. She took measurements of it and said that our baby's growth was normal. That was a relief for Trien, because she is worried about having a huge baby that would make delivery as pleasant as being forced to watch C-Span.

As for me, I wasn't too anxious. I wasn't expecting to find our daughter had suddenly grown another head or anything. Our baby was still a girl. There had been no sex change in utero, or anything else. Not that I have any problem having a daughter. In fact, I am really looking forward to having daddy's little girl. The only problem I have now is waiting for her to be born!

The blood work we had taken last visit came back normal. Which means we don't have AIDS, hepatitis, jungle rot, cooties, or any other kind of infectious diseases, and neither does the baby. That's a relief! Not that I was expecting anything like that, but as with any kind of test, there is always some anxiety before you get the results.

So everything looks good. Mommy and baby are doing fine. It's just daddy who's going stir crazy, waiting for her to be born!

Week 26 of Our Pregnancy

The other night Trien gave me a big scare. She was laying down in bed, and got up to get some coco butter to put on her tummy, to stop the itching and to prevent stretch marks. When she did, she had pain in the lower right part of her abdomen, about where she says our daughter's butt is, somewhere close to her appendix.

That put me in a near panic. After two previous misfires, of course I am very concerned about her physical well being. She lay back down, and I immediately sprang into action, to attend to her needs. I asked her what she needed, and she said she didn't know.

So I went into the other room to pray. I was nearly frantic, worried that she might be going into premature labor, the placenta was detaching from the uterine wall, her appendix had to be removed, or some such disaster was in the midst of happening. I figured the good Lord was the only one who could help us now. I spent a few minutes begging him to have mercy upon us, and heal whatever condition was causing this pain. And why not? Prayer, and the good Lord, have certainly done miracles for me. My doctor in the USA will testify to that.

After composing myself, I wiped the tears from my eyes, asked her what she needed, and rubbed her tummy. She wasn't sure what she needed. Maybe the baby was in the wrong position. Maybe she was pressing on the wrong place, and if she moved, the pain would be gone. Trien started talking to the baby, and asked her to move her butt. The baby did move, but moved what Trien thought was her head instead. Then Trien pointed to the area that she wanted the baby to move, and asked her to move a little bit. Again, our daughter did as she was asked. Still, the pain was still there.

Our monthly check up was the next day, and Trien asked if we could go in the morning, instead of during the afternoon. Go in the morning? I was ready to call someone to take us to the hospital right then and there. If need be, I was going to stand in the middle of the road around the Lake Gardens, and force someone to stop and take us to the hospital.

Then she said she thought it might be gas. My solution? Go make some ginger tea. Trien's reaction?

"Do you know how to make ginger tea?"

Of course I do. I was the one who introduced her to it, and taught her how to make it. I put in a little honey, she drank it, and felt better. A few minutes later she went to sleep. As for me, it was a while longer before I was able to do the same.

The next morning I woke up and got ready for work. I asked her how she felt, and she said she still had pain, but it was better. She said there was no need for me to take off work to take her to the doctor. Not that I would have missed anything anyway: there was no teaching today so the kids could clean up their classrooms and dorms before they headed home for the midyear vacation.

After school I went back to our apartment to throw some water on my body and change my shirt before we headed out to the makan stalls by the Lake Gardens for lunch, and then to the doctor. I asked Trien how she felt. She said she was fine, and that it was just gas.

"How do you know it was just gas?"

"I farted a couple of times this morning, and I felt better."

She has gas pains, and I'm ready for electroshock therapy, in need of large doses of psychotropic drugs, and find God.

When she gives birth, it looks like she won't be the only one screaming!

Hopefully, we'll both survive it!

Pictures of the Day: Rugby in the Rain and Monkey Crossing

I had to wait to go home from work yesterday. First off, we had a meeting. Mr. Wong had to gave a thirty minute presentation of a three day workshop that he had to give to local primary school teachers. It wasn't easy fitting three days of material into thirty minutes, but Mr. Wong did his best. At the end of his presentation, he was all hyped up and out of breath, but he made it through only a little worse for thewear.

After he finished, Puan Zuraidah had to give a presentation on how we are supposed to do and mark our oral evaluations of the students. In my case, that is the lowest set of form one students. I don't mind doing speaking evaluations, as I had to do them every month for my students in KL, and also to evaluate incoming students. They are more fun than sitting there watching them do written tests.

Just as soon as I was going to leave, it started raining, as hard as it usually does here in the tropics. Which meant that I had to hang out in the staff room until it finished, and slog home through the soggy ground by the Lake Gardens.

After it stopped, I passed by the athletic field near the front gate. These guys pictured above were playing rugby in the waterlogged field, and having a great time doing it. In New Jersey, we would call what they were playing , "smear the queer", which I know isn't politically correct to say anymore. We would get a football, and throw it up in the air. Whoever caught it had to run, and everyone else had to try to tackle him.

I was really good at it, so good that when I caught the ball, I had to turn around and close my eyes. Then everyone else would hide. When they said they were ready, I had to turn around and run, while they jumped out at me from behind trees, bushes, cars, or whatever, and tried to tackle me. Even then, they still couldn't get me down, because I was quick, fast, and when you put a football in my hands, I run without fear.

To me, the most fun you can have playing football is in the mud, sliding and slopping around, and getting all dirty.

These guys couldn't play in mud because, hey, this is the tropics. Everything grows like crazy here. There are no muddy athletic fields here, because you tear something up, it grows back right away. Okay, there are rice paddies, but there aren't any locally. You have to go to Kedah, the rice bowl of Malaysia, if you want to see that.

It didn't matter that they weren't the best athletes in school, they were just having fun for funs sake. No competition, no trying to see who was the strongest, the fastest, or the best, nothing.

That's the way it used to be when I was really young, but I lost that sense of playing just to have fun. Wow! You know, I'll have to try that some time!

Then, this morning I was walking to school. As I came around the bend, there was a troop of monkeys directly in my path, waiting for the traffic to pass so they could cross the road.

Now, these long tailed macaques aren't big, but you have to respect them. Yeah, they may be cute, but they are wild animals, and you have to respect that fact. If they feel cornered or threatened, they will react accordingly. If you get too close, they will snarl at you and make threatening gestures. They may be small, but they are strong. I wasn't about to go walking right into the middle of the troop. So while they waited, I waited, too. While waiting, I got out the trusty camera, and took a couple pictures.

The first picture shows that, "It's good to be the king". While the others are waiting to cross, the "headboy" is having a little ook-ook with a female. It seems that he can just have his way with any female any time he wants. In the meantime, a couple of the young monkey's are taking big chances and running right in front of the passing cars. A couple of them just missed becoming road pizzas by millimeters, and gave out the monkey distress call after making it safely. I know there is an object lesson there somewhere, but I will let you come up with your own conclusion.


After the "headboy" finished, he took his position at the head of the troop. That didn't stop a few of the younger ones making suicide runs across the road. The majority of them, though waited for him to make his way across, and followed him. They all made it across safely, with no problem. Again, I know there is another object lesson there, or allegory, make of it what you will.


It's good to slow my life down sometimes, and notice things around me. When I do that, I find there are plenty of life lessons all around me. Sometimes I can learn more in a few minutes of quiet observation, than I can by reading a book, or taking a class. Then there is always something that connects deep within me, and I know that God has spoken, if only just in this quiet, little way.

TV Drama in Taiping

I was walking home last week, when I saw some activity in the Lake Gardens by our place. The road passing in front of our apartment was closed off by some RELA officers. There was a box truck parked by the side of the road, and a bunch of people milling about. Of course that meant that I had to go and see what was happening.

It was a film crew. In New York, there is nothing unusual about that. Taiping, despite its picturesque location, doesn't see much of the media, unless they are there to do a report on the zoo. I figured it would be cool to see how Malaysians do things.

It was the same as on any other set anywhere else in the world. They had put up a swing set as a background prop. There was a director, a couple of actors (although at first I couldn't tell who they were), the usual crew members, a photographer, and a few curious onlookers. The onlookers didn't seem too curious though. Most of the passersby barely even gave the proceedings a second glance, and the joggers barely broke stride.

The ones who bothered to stop and have a look were some Malays. There were a couple of families and a few people hanging around watching. The families must have been there for a while, as they had a picnic, and the kids were kicking a ball around and doing what kids normally do. Except during filming, when a production assistant made sure they kept still and were quiet.


(The white building visible behind the panel truck is in our apartment complex.)

The two actors were Malays, and they were filming a drama in Bahasa Melayu. When I showed some of my students the pictures, they identified them as Tony Youssof and Siti Shariza. They couldn't tell me much about them, other than Tony Youssof had done a commercial. They didn't know what they were filming, other than some kind of tv drama.










The kids don't get to go out from our campus without special permission from someone in charge. They were a bit disappointed that something like this was happening, and they couldn't get to see it.

It's probably better for the film crew that they weren't around. Otherwise, they would try to get into the middle of every scene, start acting, and want to be "discovered". How do I know this? Because I like to teach by example, and they get plenty of practice being hams in my classes!

My Article Has Pictures

Ok, I got a "pee review" on my Uncyclopedia article, by a fifteen year old kid from New Jersey. Which is cool, because that is basically what I am, at least at heart. You might question the wisdom of taking advice from a fifteen year old, but what the heck, I'll take it where it's given. Besides, at least someone takes the time to read my stuff. Maybe I have found my target audience, or at least one that understands my stuff.

I made some changes, mainly by adding some pictures. I hope it made it funnier. I'm still not done playing with it. The next step is to cut it down some, as the review said it was a bit long, and I agree with that. If anyone else wants to help out, with the article, go ahead.

I also started work on another article. The links in red are links to articles that haven't been written yet. I know my OCD won't let them go unwritten. It looks like I will end up writing a whole series of satirical articles on the Barnegat Bay area before I am through, whether I want to or not. That is, unless I can get my OCD under control. If I can do that, then I will probably end up writing a whole series of articles about something else!!!

Happy Birthday Steve!!!

Today is my brother's 44th birthday.

Steve, I am proud of you. Despite the fact that we had one of the worst childhoods anyone could ever imagine, you made out all right. It makes my heart glad that you've made a good life for yourself. A pretty wife who is the worlds best cook, a beautiful genius of a daughter that you adore, a job you are good at and like doing- not many people have it as good as you. Count yourself as blessed.

I know we've had our differences in the past, and sometimes took things out on each other, but I am glad time has done its work, and healed old wounds. It's nice to be in contact, and have a brother again. It's nice to be a brother again, too.

Here's hoping you have many more years of the happiness you deserve. I'm not a drinking man, and neither are you, but if I was, I'd be raising a glass in your honor right now. Or more deservedly, the whole @#&*ing bottle!

So here's to you, Bro!

Cheers!

Monkeys and Monitor Lizards - My Daily Encounter With Malaysian Wildlife

Every day at work, or on my way to or from work, I have an encounter with the local wildlife, mostly monkeys. This certain morning, I was on my way to the canteen, to see what they had for breakfast other than fried mee or nasi lemak. A monkey was sitting on the gazebo, watching me. I had my camera handy, so I took a picture of him. When I did, he stuck his tongue out at me!


Later on after work, I was passing by the Lake Gardens on my way home. There were some large dark simian forms with long tails running toward the trees. (No, it wasn't George W. Bush and his advisers. I got close enough to make sure). It was a small group of Dusky Leaf Monkeys.

They usually stay high up in the trees, and are shy. (The monkeys, that is, not Dubya and friends). When they come to the Lake Gardens, though, it seems like they will come to the ground and chase each other around for fun for a short while, before heading back to the trees and hanging out. I have tried other times to get a decent picture of them, but because of the shadows and their movements, I was never able to get a really clear shot. This guy was sitting in the perfect angle to the sun, and held still long enough for me to get a good picture.


After that I walked across the road, as they are doing work on the curbing and the sidewalk, and I got tired of climbing around the piles of rubble the workers left everywhere. Then I saw a big monitor lizard, being jabbered at by a common mynah. It must have measured five feet from nose to tail. Pretty impressive, but not as big as the ones we saw when we visited the Perhentian Islands off the coast of Terangganu. Those ones were massive, the size of large crocodiles. I swear, the biggest one must have been seven feet from nose to tail, and weighed more than I did. It was like being face to face with a real dinosaur, and Trien was terrified.

This one, though, was a midget, comparatively. It would have been easy for me to pick it up with one arm. Once he saw me, he ran for the riverbank.


Next I ran into this smaller monitor lizard. It was about three feet long from nose to tail. This one wasn't so eager to get away from me. It let me get pretty close, and posed for me, before it started moving away.


I could almost swear that it wanted me to take its picture!


What's a walk around the Lake Gardens without an encounter with one of the local troops of long tailed macaques? These guys seem to be taking note of the license plate number. Maybe they got a particularly nice treat from these people, and want it for future reference.

















These guys were doing what monkeys usually do, being curious and playing around. The one on the silver car is hanging upside down by his feet from the roof, and looking in the window. I checked it out, and the window was shut, so he couldn't get in. There must be something awfully interesting or tasty inside that car. He spent the whole time I was there looking in the window like that!

It's all just part of the daily routine, but an interesting one, nonetheless.

Uhhhh . . . I Think We Found Our Guy

Something I found at Viral emails. Is it me, or does this guy look surprised?

My Uncyclopedia Article

Ok, I have been writing my article for about a week now. It is not finished, and I am still playing with it. I will probably be editing it and rewriting it for months, like I do with most stuff I write. What the hell, I might as well let other people see what I am doing and get some feedback on it. Here is the link to my entry in the Uncyclopedia.
Let me know what you think!

Our 25th Week of Pregnancy

Ok, we've now made it through the first week of the third trimester. Trien's tummy is getting big. It looks very cute. Her fellow Filipinas tell her that she is not that big for six months, and that makes her feel happy. Still, she is worried about getting fat.

When I married her, I wasn't asking for a supermodel trophy wife. I just wanted a super wife, which is what I have. I tell her all the time, "Don't worry about getting fat, I'll still love you even if you do get fat." The most important thing is that her and the baby get enough of the right nutrition, and in the right quantity. She hasn't been gorging or dieting, and seems to be eating a normal amount. It's just that when your body is undergoing all these changes, it's normal to get a bit paranoid.

The baby is getting more and more active now, and not just because she is getting bigger and therefore the movements are easier to feel. The periods of activity are getting more frequent. They aren't necessarily lasting longer, it is that she is getting active more often. Unfortunately, one of those new times of activity is right after we turn out the lights. You can almost set your clock by it. Bedtime comes, we get settled in, and boom! The baby starts doing the rhumba in double time.

Of course this means my wife has more trouble getting to sleep at night. That means we both have trouble getting to sleep. It is no longer comfortable for my wife to sleep on her right side, because that's where the baby's head and body are. She can only feel comfortable on her left side, where the feet are, or laying upright on her back.

Getting to sleep now entails a lot of shifting around, moving pillows, and getting her tummy and her "hug pillow" (which is really an oversized bolster), in the right position. She twists and turns and flops around all over the bed, and I end up sleeping on my side with my face scraping the wall. On the other side, there is either her or a pillow in my back. It's not unusual now for me to wake up, and her feet are by my head. The other night, the only way she could get comfortable was to sleep crossways on the futon which serves as our bed, with her feet hanging over the edge. I had no choice but to sleep the same way, and I have to admit, it was pretty comfortable. It was pretty disappointing the next night when she went back to sleeping her normal way, and I had to go back to drooling on the wall.

The thing is, I know it is only going to get worse as the due date gets closer.
I can ride it out though. It's just another one of life's great adventures!