New Year Babies identified

I was at FH2O‘s house this morning and had to look in on the little hatchies in a tree. I also wanted to see the ‘black on top and white underneath bird’ myself because I was only 80% sure which bird this is based on Unker’s photos.

I parked under the tree as Francis instructed and shot a number of photos through the windshield. My 80% became 95%. I’m sure it’s some kind of flycatcher, but have to look at my bird book to confirm. When I got home, I found the bird I was looking for.

It’s a skittish bird called the Pied Fantail (Rhipidura javanica) or a “murai gila” – identified by white tailtips (underside), throat and eyebrows. We have one that visits our backyard periodically.

I thought it might be the Little Pied Flycatcher at first, because Francis said it was ‘black on top’, but it’s really brown and not chubby enough to fit the bill.

Pied Fantails are called “fantails” because they flick-fan their tails up and down. According to one website I read, this is to scare flies into flight so that the bird can catch it.

Here’s mum sitting on her brood. If you look carefully, you can see beaks poking out from under her.

I went back to with my dad later because he has a new camera and want to test it out on… everything. Me up on a ladder turned out to be one of them. But I got him back!

Their wing feathers are already growing. It won’t be long before they leave the nest.

He shot the following photo of one of the chick doing a head loll. Note that it has nice blurring effects in the background that I can’t get with my camera.

He also captured a moment when mummy bird was stuffing something down a baby’s throat, but I forgot to copy it over.

Next: Another bird visited while we were there. It’s related to this one, but both are not what we originally thought they were!

Year of the Roasted Pig

The CNY celebration has been pretty quiet for me. On the first day, I collected Sadat from home and we visited Andrea. I get “adopted” for lunch every year because my parents tend to be away and I have to eat at some point.

We then went off to visit FH2O, lured by laksa. It was good laksa. Really good. Especially since I haven’t had laksa in a while.

Sadat felt the need to wash down the laksa with a refreshing glass of water.

We went to visit Maggie and Alan after, and spent the time making fun of ‘Perhaps Love’ on Astro.

I was craving some KFC so we went to the branch at the airport. Joyce joined us. We proceeded to do some serious damage to our wallets by spending a really long time (with apologies to the token male) at the perfume outlet and purchasing various items. I got Lancome’s Miracle Forever, which cost so much, I hardly dare think about it… especially knowing that I’m going to KL next month.

At least I’m gonna go smelling good, damnit.

Why am I going? For this -> Kuala Lumpur International Literary Festival 2007

No, it’s not for work. It’s for me. As a reminder that I started out as a creative writer and that I have stories of my own to tell. I’m sick of writing everyone else’s stories.

Today, I slept till almost noon, watched Pan’s Labyrinth on DVD, and went to Coffee Bean with VelvetRaven.

Tomorrow, I go back to work. Because I always get a surprised outcry when I mention going back to work when everyone else is still on a holiday, let me take this moment to remind you that I work for a newspaper. Most people want their newspaper when they resume work (or even before the get back to work), but most people also don’t realise that other people have to start work a day early so they can get their paper.

This weekend will be eventful.

On the 23 Feb (Friday), SingleTrackMind will be launching his new album [hey.] at Hilton’s senso. It starts at 11pm and entrance fee is RM65, inclusive of a [hey.] CD and first drink.

On 24th Feb (Saturday), we have the Kuching Blogger’s Meet at Oregano, Travilion.

Why I started this blog

It would seem rather belated, talking about why I started this blog almost a year and a half after the fact. But I assure you that this is purely for opportunistic reasons, namely as an entry to engtech’s first contest for wordpress.com bloggers. I found out about it some weeks ago and had it bookmarked since, waiting for the right time to fill in the 200-word blanks. The time is now…

I started this blog as part of my lifelong campaign to deceive.

That’s right… Deceive. Trickery. Pulling the wool over your eyes.

I knew that at some point of my life, I will achieve enough momentum for people to want to Google my name up. Fro mthe beginning, I was aware of what it meant to put my name on the Internet, unlike a lot of people who still think that their parents/employers/colleagues are net-stupid (until their myspace gets discovered and they get into trouble for those embarrassing photos).

Where was I? Oh yes, trickery.

Instead of gaining my momentum as Famous Writer as I intended, I ended up as a feature writer for a local paper. Working for the newspaper is the only way you can make enough money to pay the bills in this town. Writers are not taken seriously here, not even by their employers.

Most people are dazzled by the job perks, like being able to sample all the new restaurants in town or the fact that I sometimes have to interview people I don’t find very interesting at all… like Akademi Fantasia winners. Oh, the free food! The glamour! They forget that after all the eating, I have to figure out how to word my experience in a manner that will fool attract you to try the place out, or try to convey how fascinating Jack AF’s celebrity status is.

I get to sound off about the latest movies in the cinema. Wow, do you get to watch all those movies for free? Yep, I do. You’re interested? Sure. I hope you own your own company and can take the middle of a work day off. I can only give you a maximum of three hour notice and we’ll spend at least half an hour of that waiting to see if we actually get to watch the movie.

So at some point, all of you who are enamoured with my exciting life will get a little nosy and want to see if I have a Friendster or myspace page or if I have a blog. Why, gasp! Looks like you found it!

Before you clap your hand with glee and dive in to see what deep dark secrets this writer has spilt online, let me give you a little preface: I wrote every post with the complete conviction that anyone can and will be able to read it, from my boss right down to my classmate from kindergarten, if they ever had the yen to enter my name in Google. I can tell you that realising that little detail deeply affects what I put here.

Of course, there are some truths to make my life sound more convincing. If a few people can verify that Incident X is real and they were there, therefore everything else I blog about must be true too. BWAHAHAHA!!

Do you see now? My blog is part of an elaborately-constructed web of lies!!1 If anyone comes sniffing, they will only find blatant lies and some truths… just like in this post itself.

Have a nice day.

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