coriander in pho

not a food blog

green leaves on tree in park

  • Bring it back to the 2000s

    I have been busy redesigning this blog after several obsessive visits to Neocities. I thought Neocities was just another website hosting place, until I found out that it’s not just a website hosting place. It literally a place where 2000s blogs thrive. I even found most of the bloggers are using imood! (and yes, I’m so tempted to re-sign up! I did)

    I just love how unapologetic the Internet and the blogsphere were back in its heyday. True that folks with interests in blogs, anime, mangas (those three were usually intertwined), and 1st or 2nd-generation KPop stars were deemed as outliers back then, but that was when things were genuine. We read blogs of someone battling with mental health and sadness and cheered them on, we also followed someone’s classes and exams, and everything was mostly with pure intentions and friendship. Blogs were diaries and opinions, instead of “5 Ways for You to Have Summer-Ready Body!” or any SEO-related articles. Bloggers experimented a lot back then; colorful explosions of JavaScript, iframes, glitters, and <marquee> were the “it thing”. Suffice to say, I’m so so glad to see those online diaries and musings and writings are coming back. I know they never left, it’s just that… It’s beautiful to finally find them again, you know? It feels like meeting a long lost friend.

    On my blog, I added some pixels/tiny pixels as I really love them, hahah. I also used Bitmap-style font (“rainyhearts“) in some areas, and I really need to find time to make myself a clique/pixel banner! I also found out that to give the “retro” vibe on your site (that overlay diagonal transparent lines), you can use 100% CSS. I mean, the last time I worked on such thing, I had to create a transparent image on Adobe Photoshop to be set as an overlay image, hahah. How the technology has advanced! This is what I use for this blog:

    body::before {
content: "";
position: fixed;
inset: 0;
background: repeating-linear-gradient(45deg,
  rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02),
  rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.05) 1px,
  rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03) 3px);
pointer-events: none;
z-index: 1000;
}

    I took the code from itinerae‘s website with some adjustments (and refresher) from CSS Tricks.

    I also added background image and worked on the layout. I really love itinerae’s and rem’s planet’s designs and layout! Their blogs are so pretty and I love the small details on it.

    I’m so excited to blog again, thanks to the bloggers on Neocities.

  • Red onions

    I found a couple of red onions, tucked under regular onions, sprouting in my kitchen. I did realized them have been sprouting for quite some time, but just now I found the time (and the will) to plant them, in case there will be green onions later on.

    I also took the time to tidy things up in the balcony. We are moving into a much hotter, and much much more humid, weather recently, which means some placement rotations are in due time.

  • “Abdijiwo” by Retno Widya

    She handed me the comic book, “finally! It’s a shame that the publisher didn’t make it available outside Indonesia, hahah!”

    This is a comic book, Indonesian comic book, titled “Abdijiwo” by my sister.

    I honestly don’t have any words to write here, other than an immense pride of having my own little sister publishing a work, her own original characters (OCs), under one of the biggest — if not, THE biggest — publishers in Indonesia. “Abdijiwo” is a fantasy comedy comic, telling a story of a boy named Surya and his soul servant (abdijiwa) named Raden, and Raden’s adventures in finding other soul servants that were scattered all over Indonesia so he could go to the afterlife. The story is peppered with Indonesia’s local lore, ghosts, and ghouls in such an entertaining way. I particularly love how her drawings follow Indonesia’s traditional designs. This work initially started as an online comic under LINE Webtoon Indonesia, which I once wrote about here: ‘Abdijiwo’ by Retno Widya

    Unfortunately, the publisher didn’t continue the contract, so there is only one edition of the comic. That said, if you would like to get this comic, you can look for it on online marketplace or indie bookstores.

    Also, in case you want to check the initial version of “Abdijiwo”, you can check it on LINE Webtoon Indonesia here.

  • “Temberang” — Mimi Fly

    I love how this song is filled with pantun (Melayu poetic form).

    Berbolak balik berdolak dalik, lidah bercabang
    Always twisting your words, making excuses, speaking with a forked tongue.

    …

    Kau memang suka jaga tepi kain orang
    You really love to meddle in other people’s business.

  • “I was born in the wrong era”-thingy

    Translation:

    “Who likes to romanticise living in the colonialism era?

    You might want to learn the story of Pinah; a 10-year-old native Indonesian girl, taken away to the Netherlands to be a slave and treated cruelly” — Source

    This reminds me of a Threads post, saying something along the lines of “a lot of us thinking that we would be part of the upper class whenever we are watching period pieces (“Bridgerton” series and the likes). In reality, most of us would be the lower class, peasants, or even worse. The servants? They were actually lucky and doing good in life.”

    … and that stuck with me ever since. Especially with Indonesia’s history.

    “We are standing on the top of our ancestors’ bones, blood, and graves”-indeed.

    The featured image is a painting by Nicolaas Pieneman, depicting the arrest of Prince Diponegoro, a Javanese prince, by the Dutch. Please note that Nicolaas was a Dutchman and this painting was commissioned by De Kock/De Kock’s family, hence the painting depicted a victorious colonizer and how De Kock, the general who arrested Diponegoro, portrayed as “a loving father who has to send his misguided son (Diponegoro) away”, despite the Dutch was the one who betrayed Diponegoro by luring the prince to a “peace treaty meeting” and arrested him instead.

    Do you want to see the one that made by an Indonesian? Here it is: “The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro” by Raden Saleh.

    He appears to be struggling to control his anger – as would be expected from Javanese gentry – while the Europeans’ eyes are static and avoid the eyes of others

  • Neocities

    Saw this site mentioned the other day on Slack: neocities.org.

    Scroll down and you will see “Featured Sites”. Never knew it brings back early 2000s, and it makes me so, so happy.

  • Post-bedtime

    My son, a teen, has been doing the “night-time tidying up” task; that is, tidying up, cleaning up, fluffing the pillow, all those stuffs, in the night time before bedtime.

    That said, with a teen handling house chores, it also comes with some “rizzed up friends”.

    “Mom, Mr. Ducky is falling asleep in front of the TV after a party, alongside with The Ball.”

    Or, “mom, Mr. Ducky is really cool.”

  • Health update

    Back in February, I did something. Not exactly an extravagant thing, but still interesting nonetheless. It was this:

    It was Ari (my husband) who tried it first out of curiosity, even though he felt the need to do so because his family has a history of diabetes. He then told me that he bought himself two sets of glucose monitoring device; “one for you,” he said.

    The device is exactly what it says: Continuous glucose monitoring system. You will get a device that will be injected into your upper arm, and the needle will pick a blood sample from the bloodstream and read the glucose level. You will be able to see the numbers constantly, 24/7, on an app on your phone.

    In case you are worried about the pain: Don’t be. I’m terrible with injections (despite me going to TCM for acupuncture every month!), and the process was really quick and pain-free. I only heard the whoosh sound when Ari injected the device, and it was done. Once the device is injected, you will need to scan the code on the pamphlet on the box to sync the device with the app on your phone.

    The company is Ottai, specifically: Ottai Technology (Wuxi) Co., Ltd., which is based in Mainland China, so if you are wary of China surveillance due to the global political climate and, you know, having China-related app on your phone, you really don’t have to use this device. Since I’m generally okay with it (as my government has been doing a shitty job in protecting the citizens so the whole thing has been a “what-the-heck”-thing), I don’t have any concerns about this device and the app.

    The device timeframe is 2 weeks, so you will need to replace it every fortnight should you need it. In my case, I used it for only 2 weeks and decided not to continue. Mostly because I’m satisfied with my glucose readings (it’s always within normal range) and I didn’t see any risk of diabetes for now. I did having fun in checking the graph, though!

    Screenshot: February 20, 2026

    You can see the spikes occurred after mealtime. Those spikes are normal (our sugar level in our bloodstream always increases after a meal), and what the doctors usually want to see is how fast the spikes go down. I also noticed that whenever I have a high-fiber meal, the sugar spikes are always within the normal range/not too high. This fact helped me in ensuring to get myself high-fiber meals and reduce my sugar intake. Also, since I wore the monitor during the month of Ramadan, I quickly learned that a simple iftar meal (iftar is the time when muslims break their fast in the evening/sundown) did wonders for my glucose level and reduced the extreme spikes.

    In case you are curious, these are the meals I have been taking:

    I also have been experimenting with salads, and my current favorite is tabbouleh. Also, you might have noticed in the pictures above that I’m using a portion-lunch plate. I got it from the Nitori store in Suria KLCC, and it has been SUPER helpful in maintaining a healthy food portion. The Malaysian Ministry of Health has been promoting the “Sesuku Sesuku Separuh” campaign: Divide the plate into three sections: A quarter for carbs, a quarter for protein, and half of it for veggies. I have to tell you: My meals never been this colorful (and much to the joy of my dietitian!)

  • Urban rainbow

    Seen at Tasik Bandar Sri Permaisuri, Kuala Lumpur.