Dead Dwarf

Dead Dwarf Originally uploaded by Jepster . It's been a while since I last updated this blog since the 23rd of Nov. That's when WoW started and I have been devoting almost all of my spare time to it since then. It would have been strange if all I could talk about is my character in WoW but I couldn't think of anything else to write about. Hehe. So instead of boring you all with details about Jepprox (He's now level 19 by the way and travelling with a good looking giant crab), I will endeavour to put up entries totally unrelated to Wo…

Longing and sadness, uncertainty and regret.

I am very sorry that I haven't been updating my blog regularly these past few weeks. Truth be told, I was a bit distracted. It's just that something has been preoccupying me all this time and now that it's over I feel a bit depressed. It is really hard to let go when something that has been a very close part of your daily life is finally over. The funny thing is that I would sometimes catch myself thinking about the way it used to be... remembering the good times... reminiscing on the past... the places we went to... the different people we …

Seafood anyone?

octopus Originally uploaded by Jepster . A friend of mine recently told me (jokingly I suspect) that she was craving for seafood so much that she was almost willing to eat those jellyfishes I featured in a previous post. I don't think I have ever tasted jellyfish before. I do remember that at one time, I ate at a restaurant offering it but I did not taste it. Somehow I had this mental image of eating a tentacle then my tongue would swell to 4 times its size. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that I'm not that adventurous when it…

Road Trip! Leg 1: a boat ride with noisy kids from hell

An image of a ferry with cars being transported. Image generated using Opera's Aria AI. In Cat Carrier Originally uploaded by Jepster . The first part of the trip went on smoothly. I took a half day's leave so that we could leave earlier. The starting port is just a few minutes away from the office but our travel agent booked us an earlier trip for the first boat ride so that we would not be in a hurry to catch the next ferry. We left after lunch and arrived at the port 10 minutes later. After processing all the required formalities, (we needed…

Swimming with Jellyfishes

Jellyfish Originally uploaded by Jepster . This is my favorite underwater picture. Of course I wasn't exactly underwater when I took it. In fact I was totally dry and trying to keep my digital camera steady against the glass of the aquarium. I couldn't use flash since the light will just scatter in the sediment rich water or else if the camera wasn't touching the aquarium, the flash would have just bounced off the glass. The room was also a bit dark but fortunately the jellyfishes were slow moving enough not to create too much blur …

Road Trip!

My brother, Brat, and I will be taking a road trip to our hometown. It's not such an easy task considering our hometown is not on the same island as where we live. In fact, the trip will take approximately 17 hours, and that's assuming everything goes according to plan. The trip can be divided into four segments. The first leg will be a 2-hour ferry ride, followed by a 3-hour drive, then a 4-hour ferry ride and the last leg will be a leisurely(?) 5-hour drive to our parents' house. The remaining 17 hours are spent waiting for ferries to arri…

Another party, a bit of ranting, barbecue and "the revelation"

For somebody who is a self proclaimed anti-social I seem to be attending a lot of work related parties lately. Just the other week, our department scheduled a welcome dinner for the 2 new guys that will be joining us in the department (the *German guy* who just left was their previous manager so they will be reporting to my boss). This get-together was also supposed to be an opportunity for the department to do some "bonding", whatever that means. The invitations (actually it was an MS Outlook meeting request) were sent out early the previous …

Of reptiles and organizing photos

Reptile Originally uploaded by Jepster . Since I seem to be posting a lot of animal pictures recently, I would like to add this to the series. I have no idea whatsoever what it is beyond that it's a reptile and it's green. Just like the picture of the turtles, I took this picture when I was in Berlin. It was kind enough to approach the side of the glass enclosure and pose for the camera. This reminds me of another lizard photo I have somewhere. I will try to search for it and post it here. One of my biggest problems is how to effectively c…

The Amazing Askal Archon

Info booth Originally uploaded by Jepster . Woohoo! Askal Archon, my super hero character in the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) City of Heroes ranked 3rd in the Top Victors in Steel Canyon for the month. Yeah you heard me right. Not for the week or for the day, the whole month! I feel so happy. I know it's strange. It's like I have this feeling of accomplishment. My hours spent vanquishing dastardly villains finally paid off. Sorry, it occurred to me that you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. To put it …

More Turtles

Turtles Originally uploaded by Jepster . Turt's Relatives? They could very well be. Several red eared sliders from Berlin zoo. When I first saw them, I was surprised on how big they were. Turt was significantly smaller back then but now she's about as big. The turtle habitat at the zoo inspired me to buy Turt a bigger tub to give her more space to swim about. I also put in more rocks and a halogen basking light for her to dry on.

Booo!

Pumpkin Originally uploaded by Jepster . It's fast approaching halloween and I thought it would be nice to put up some decorations. Every year, kids from the compound go house to house knocking on doors to ask for treats. Notice the "No Solicitors" sign on the top of my door? It's my way of saying: "Have a happy halloween kids but sorry no treats from me ." Actually I will be out of town for the holiday weekend but the kids probably don't know that and would think I'm keeping all the goodies to myself. I was in th…

Purple Sky

Purple Sky Originally uploaded by Jepster . An interesting picture of the sky I took a few years back. The central cloud formation looks like a bird in flight. I was in a vehicle with tinted windows which explains the purple shade. And in case you were wondering, no I wasn't driving.

Finally! A cat's blog

I am pleased to announce that Brat's blog is finally up. I have been snapping at his tail for a long time to finish it but he refused to release it untill he was fully satisfied with the overall look and feel of the site. He could have just chose a standard blog template just like what I did but noooo... he just had to have a custom built design. Oh well, cats are naturally picky I suppose. View Brat's blog at bratkun.blogspot.com . I have also conveniently placed a quick link to his website in the sidebar. For you cat lovers out there, yo…

I'm watching you!

Owl Originally uploaded by Jepster . An example of my attempts at wildlife photography.

Oktoberfest *hic* (excuse me) and balloon animals

Every October for the past 5 years or so, a german colleague hosts a beer drinking fest for the rest of the employees. We had this year's activity a few days ago which also coincided with our colleague's send off party (he's off to greener pastures so to speak). Lots of german sausages, sauerkraut, pretzels, cheeses and other dishes with weird sounding names. And of course, free flowing beer!... :) There were also a lot of activities. Beer drinking contest, armwrestling, a contest on who could pound a 6" nail on a piece of lumber the…

Earthquake! Waaaaah!!!

Last Friday evening, while I was chatting with my brother and sister through IM, a strong earthquake shook the building I was living in. The earthquake was strong enough to topple some books on my bookshelf and cause my computer table to give off a disturbing creaking sound. Probably what distressed me more was the fact that I couldn't afford a new 19" monitor at the moment (I could imagine myself using my nephew's 14" monitor with the words "comuter" scrawled at the top with a blue marker * shudder *). I immediately left the…

Not much photos

Candles by Jep via Flickr A friend pointed out that I haven't posted any new photos on this site. I have to agree with her. All the photos that you see here are in fact recycled. Most are available in my other online photo gallery. The truth is that I haven't used my camera for a very long time. I thought starting this photo blog (yes my original idea for this site was for a photo blog) would somehow encourage me to start taking pictures again. I'm looking forward to having a new digicam. That should do the trick. Hmm... perhaps I should cha…

Turt the Turtle and the great flood

I woke up the other day and found my room flooded! I have 2 pet turtles (Turt and Jr.) and I keep them in a large plastic tub with an external activated carbon/anthracite filter. Sometime in the middle of the night, the filter got clogged up and began leaking into a small pail I strategically place beneath the filter for just this situation. When I woke up the pail was full of water, but so was the rest of my flat. The submersible pump was on the bottom of the tub and it managed to suck out most of the water. The turtles were scurrying about, trying t…

Of mobile phones and work-life balance at the office

A recent activity at work made it necessary to give out my mobile number to my colleagues so they could contact me in case I am needed at the office. At first, I was a little hesitant. I wasn't too keen on people from work calling me at night or on the weekends, but they assured me that it would be used for emergency purposes only. There was an impending strike at work and they wanted a quick way to "call me in." That's when I started to get "work spam" on my mobile phone. I would get an SMS (text messages) about an after-of…

Brat the Cat

A photo of our cat. He's a male persian cat. He seems to be getting a bit moody lately (scratched me a few times quite recently while I was petting him). Probably because he's getting very old. Hehe. I heard that Brat will be putting up his own Blog sometime soon. I will post the URL when he does. Watch out for it. Here's another picture of him doing his thing hehe.

My very first entry :)

Testing flickr Originally uploaded by Jepster . This is my first ever entry to my new Photo Blog. There's no particular reason why I chose this picture. It's the first picture I found on my PDA. It's a picture of a compact car rental in Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands.