Hike Hike 2

Red Rocks, Boulder, CO

Old man?

This is my second hike, not far from Mt. Sanitas, can walk there also. The red rocks loop that we took wasn't very challenging, less than 1 hour to the top. But the view was very nice so we lepak for quite sometime on the highest rock we can get to.

That's where we're going

Now we need to climb up the rocks

I don't know how those rocks got up there on the hill but it looks like God just stacked the rocks on top of each other. The arrangement made it look like it can crumble at anytime but it was solid enough for us to climb up.

View from the back macam muka

Macam gaajah

See the arrangement, we can still climb on it though

The view

Another view

Wanna know high we were? compare with the people on that rock

It was really sunny at that time, no clouds in the sky if you see all the pictures.

The whole Red Rocks is burning bright!

Since it wasn't a long way up, on the way down we took a detour and found a river, which was very cold even under the summer sun. And we walked and walked and came to a forest fire prone area and we went through the ash covered forest without knowing that it was off limits. Quite dangerous and slippery the path, going downhill somemore.

Sejuk

My phone can take panorama shots.. haha

Anyway, lil wayne will be performing somewhere near Denver on Hari Raya. 45 minutes from Boulder. Too bad I can't go. Damn. Keri Hilson there too. Double Damn.

Hike Hike

Mt. Sanitas, Boulder CO

So this is my first hike here in Boulder. Quite near to CU campus actually. We walk all the way from home to the mountain and then walk back home again. Exercise everyday, boulder lifestyle.

On the way to the start

Mt. Sanitas took us 3 hours plus to go to the top and back down again. Going up was fun, quite steep in a few places especially near the top. The path up was not bad, a lot of big solid rocks to step on but going down there were more loose stones so if your shoes no grip then jaga a bit lah.

Going up

A boulder

Once we almost reach the top the wind was blowing real hard and the sound it makes is just like the sound of a small waterfall. Exactly the same. Made me think, takkan lah got river on the mountain. Then of course from the top, the whole of Boulder can be seen.

The view

Another view

Floria Floria

So, I went to the Putrajaya Flower & Garden Festival 2011 recently. Also known as Floria, it is a place for you to see flowers. That's all I can say about it, nothing much was going on when I was there, so less talk and more pictures for you to enjoy.

Yes, I Was Here

Everybody wrote something like: " ... was here"

Must have in any events now

A bed of flowers

The bed again.

Hot stuff.

Cool stuff.

A small bird house.

A small man's house.

There was a section where we can see gardens from around the world.

American inspired garden.

Close up. American?

Japanese I think.

Now let's go inside where there's more stuff and... AIR-COND! On the inside you can see exhibitions which comes in many sizes made by various artistes around the world. And again, AIR-COND!

Floating flowers makes a floating flag.

Minimalistic.

Another one.

From Indonesia. See the 'leaf' on top? The artiste got skills man.

From Korea. Simple, symmetrical, stylo.

It wasn't as aromatic as it should be.

And then there is one thing which doesn't seem to fit in with the whole event. I wonder what's the story behind this thing here.

Some homemade tribal thingy.

Actually, this kind of event is not my thing, but when you're bored, impossible is nothing. So me, Sam and Rouffy left after a short while and found other ways to kill time. Still it was quite beautiful, except for the really really hot weather.

Lari Lari

Chi Liang, for you...
After so long i'm writing again, so here goes.

26th of June 2011 was the day I went for the Standard Chartered KL Marathon in Dataran Merdeka. Running around in the heart of KL was a new and interesting thing to me I must say. I ran in the half marathon because the full marathon would have killed me. The half was murdering enough. 21.5 km in 2 hours 41 minutes (official time). The first place guy took just one hour plus. Less than half my time. At least I completed my first half marathon.

Before the race 6 a.m.

So how was it? The first 2 I ran really slowly, just to warm up. Then up to 10 km it was not bad, still ok, still going strong. Maybe because I have ran that far before. But after that my legs started to give way, had to take a lot of walking breaks and I found my self anticipating the distance markers even more. 11.5 km... 12.5.... 13.5... Damn... The distance markers can really psycho you when it takes its own sweet time to appear even when you felt that you ran for so long.

When I saw the 16.5 km marker, I thought "enough lets just run until 19km, then walk the extra 2". So I ran and ran, lari lari and must have missed the 17.5 km distance marker and before I knew it, I was like "aik, already at 19". Suddenly got semangat so I upped the ante and continued running (and walking) till I crossed the finish line.

Finally back here again

Prize giving, top spots kena sapu by Kenyans.

Haha.. kids zone

Really challenging I tell you, physically and mentally. Distance markers can really help you out in the beginning and the end but in the middle it makes it seem like you're not making any significant progress at all. Luckily there were a lot of people so you're never lonely. Plus the cheerleaders cheering you on halfway through brings you back to your senses.

So what I saw on the way? We passed the old KL KTM station, little india (Brickfields), KLCC, Pavilion, and some other not so memorable places. And we even saw a rainbow on the way. Would I do it again? hmmm.. Hard to tell.

Blingy.. finisher medal... The most solid and heavy medal I have

Scam Scam

I got an interesting message in my phone the other day, from some weird number :+628991814415. I think its an Indonesian number trying to scam me. Here's the message,

Ni ayah guna fon police
tlong bgi credit maxi$
30 ringgit ke nombo baru ayah 0128112857
Ayah lgi ada msalah kat balai police.
Ta payah call, sekejap ayah call

Damn dumb rite. Takkan lah people will fall so easily for this kind of scam. Plus it is highly unlikely for my father to message me in malay. He doesn't even know how to use SMS. I remember hearing about this scam on the radio once and I think they randomly send this to any maxis number. Indonesian phone scams memang top ah.

So if you feel bored, maybe you want to try calling my "ayah" and say hi. And standby 30 bucks just in case lah.

Book Book

My Thoughts:

This book is about two women growing up in Afghanistan while the war was still going on in the country. The author does two things in this novel, first is explaining Afghanistan's history, political turmoil, etc; and the second is portraying how women experience life in a "male conquered" society. Women are treated like mere objects and I truly pity the female characters in the story, Mariam and Laila.

The main character Mariam is a harami, an illegitimate child. As she grew up, her mother keeps on telling her that you are a harami, you'll never find happiness. Because of what her mother said to her during her childhood, she didn't really care about what happened to her later on in the story. See what a mother can do.

Throughout the story,Mariam and Laila was constantly abused by their husband (polygamy) and the author describes the scenes vividly so you can't help but feel for them. For example, he whips them with a belt, he forces Mariam to eat stones, he throws them against the wall, he even locks them up in completely dark rooms without food or water for days. Of course the author writes in it a more detailed way.

They try to run away and seek help from a guy but then he betrays them and they were sent back to their husband. So what else, abuse.

Laila then met her childhood lover one day, but unfortunately her husband found out. So, abuse. They fight fight fight then Mariam also join. He got out of control and almost killed Laila but Mariam came to the rescue and killed him instead. Guess what happens next, Mariam was given a death sentence even though she was just defending herself. Why, because in that country at that time (in the story) what happens in one's household is none of the authority's business.

See how women are being treated. This is just a few paragraphs, try reading the whole book then I'm sure you'll feel how I feel.

Here's one line I cannot forget from the book: "Just like how a compass always points North, a man's accusing finger always points to a woman." How true is this statement? What do you think?

Brrrr Brrrr

What is brrrrr? It is actually the sound a bird makes. And who knew the word is even in urban dicitonary.

So moving on, meet the birdman!!! Yes, he calls himself the birdman.


He is actually the boss of Cash Money Records. Boss of Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Jay Sean, etc. You can check out his Wikipedia page if you want. But I don't want to talk about who he is and all. Its just that I noticed something about him that I find quite funny. After going through youtube all this while I realized that he appears in other peoples videos a lot. A LOT. He doesn't rap or anything, he just stands there, show face and go. Look at these screenshots:

Birdman & Jay Sean

Birdman & Lil Wayne

Birdman & Drake

Birdman & T-Pain

Birdman & Lil Twist

Birdman in Chris Brown's video

If you noticed, he rubs his hands together in almost all the videos right. Standard boss' pose lah I think. I have come across more videos of him standing around rubbing his hands, but I think this is enough to prove my point. Boss mau tunjuk muka, what to do...

Dengue Dengue

Finally back after 2 months...

So I had dengue recently and it was quite difficult to find understandable stuff about dengue on the internet, so here is the why, how, when and all that in layman's terms.

First of all, when you kena dengue, you feel sad all the time. Sitting on the chair while looking at the tv. Looking not watching. So sad. Then your blood platelets will go down. Normal safe level is 150 x 10^3. Mine went down to 25 and there's nothing you can do about it. It just keeps on going down down down. If it goes this low and you injure yourself and start to bleed then there's a problem, so jaga jaga a bit. If no injuries then relax lah no problem.

The only thing the doctors ask you to do is drink fluids ( water, milo ais, 100 plus, etc.) and take panadol. Why water? Actually if you don't have enough water then your blood becomes too thick. Then for some reason your blood cells will burst and plasma will leak out and you can die. Leak from where to where I don't know but it will leak. This is the main problem. So the 3.5 liters per day they ask you to drink is for blood concentration, not platelets.

Next there is panadol. Why? Simply to bring down the fever so that your body cells will function properly at the proper temperature. Makes sense right? So eat your panadol on time and use koolfever.

Around the 6th day of dengue, suddenly your fever will be gone. But platelets will still go down. Next 2 days it will go up and once it goes up it won't go down anymore so no need to worry already. But then your whole body will be itchy and there's no use scratching because its on the inside. So pandai pandai lah tahan.

So that is how I survived dengue. Hopefully you know how it works now. And one more thing, after everything is done, for the next few days, you'll look like a lobster and feel high all the time as if you just smoked weed and got a tan at the same time. So don't be surprised. Just a reminder. And marilah kita bersama-sama cegah denggi...