Scenic Silver Springs

01 February 2015 | sila | | Family Pics
 

While we were in Ocala, Florida on a work trip, the local colleagues recommended that we visit Silver Springs, Florida and try out the glass bottom boats. So that is what we did! It was not far from our hotel (one town over) and quite convenient, and as it turned out, it was really really amazing! We all loved it! So here are some pictures.

Silver Springs State Park

OK, here are a lot of pictures! We weren't there more than a few hours but it really was very cool. We would definitely go again if we had the chance, to experience the glass bottom boat again.

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A Red Sky At Morning

31 January 2015 | Hisham | | Artwork
 

I sometimes draw stuff too.

 

Rafe - 37 Months

29 January 2015 | sila | | Family Pics
 

Adik is 37 months old!

Winky boy!

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78 Months

22 January 2015 | sila | | Family Pics
 

And so, the girl is six and a half years old! 78 months of Yaya!

In the sun
 

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A Legendary Card Game with Marvellous Heroes

16 January 2015 | Hisham | | Board and Card Games, Recent News
 

Before we left the city, the GOKL guys gifted to us Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game.

From Upper Deck!

A box of cards.

We tried to play it when they brought it over the last time they visited, but it was too late for a game, we only managed one round before they had to leave.

Now, after I've located which of the dozens of moving boxes the game was hiding in, Irfan and I finally started playing it.

 

Irfan Gets a Dendrobium

14 January 2015 | Hisham | | Family Pics
 

Atok and Opah came to visit for a better part of the week to see Irfan's first official day in school. They also spent some time with Irfan, visiting some sights in the area.

Some sort of crushed ice drink I gather...

At the farmer's market on Sunday.

Opah took Irfan to an orchid nursery where she bought for him a white Dendrobium, which I believe is the RX-78GP03 third development model of the Gundam.

It's an orchid!

The Dendrobium Stamen is pretty small here.

Now he has a plant to take care of every day and we will learn how green Irfan's thumb is.

 

The one with the no-Graeter's Ice Cream Cake party

11 January 2015 | sila | | Family Pics
 

Thirteen days after Adik's third birthday, we had a small party for friends and neighbors. 

Excited about the party!

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Flood in Pasir Mas

07 January 2015 | Hisham | | Recent News
 

The country was struck by extraordinary flooding last month and many states were affected. There was even flooding a few kilometres from our new place here in Perlis. But nowhere is harder hit than in Kelantan.

Here's the house back in Lubuk Tapah in Kelantan, although thankfully Irfan's Tok Bah and Tok Ma were with us when this occured. Although we were thankful that they did not have to endure lack of electricity and clean water during the disaster, they still desired to return to check on the house, but were unable to because of flooded and severely damaged interstate roads.

Flooding for the first time since the house was built in 1993.

The waters have since receded and they have returned home, departing from Kuala Lumpur. Cleaning operation of the mud deposits is still underway. We are grateful that the flooding in Lubuk Tapah is not as severe as the ones further inland where dozens of houses were completely submerged by muddy waters and in some cases carried off by the strong currents leaving residents with nothing but the clothes on their backs. 

Here's hoping for a speedy clean up and restoration for life to return to normal.

 

First Weekend of the Year

05 January 2015 | Hisham | | Family Pics
 

Our first weekend of the year was an eventful one.

Irfan registered at his new secondary school, which was not far from the house. He would be able to ride a bicycle to it, once we buy one for him.

He might be the tallest one in his class, but I might yet be surprised. He was not the only tall one in his class last year, and neither was I at his age, despite both our above average heights at our respective ages. Here, Irfan and his Ummi pose for a photo before we all drive out to school.

 

EOTE: Adversity of the Unexpected

01 January 2015 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 09 Adversity of the Unexpected

Previously on Edged by the Empire...

Never tell me the odds?

It's the first of January. Irfan didn't spend any of his 15 XP. He rolled up three Light Side Destiny Points, and triggered no Obligations with 99 on the percentile dice.

Ticket to Ride

A pair of grey Aratech 74-Z speeder bikes - modified to have no flight ceiling - flew westward from the city of Shoribus, the capital city of Kabal in the Mayagil Sector, on a personal mission. Smuggler Hondo Pash's sister Yuzy and mother Doro were abducted by his father, whom he recently learned was an Imperial Admiral named Keargan Kanu. To retrieve them, he would have to find Admiral Kanu. The only clue as to where Kanu might be is his secret weapon cache located upon the vast Skolaris Cliff.

As they passed over thick swamps with winding rivers and the occasional gargantuan trees that towered over everything else, Giin Lawquane, the armored mercenary and security officer in the other speeder spoke via his helmet comlink, "Bothth. What if Yuzy doethn't want to come back with uth?"

"I don't know what I'll do, Giin."

"You know. It'th been a while thinthe I conthidered anyone to be friendth. In fact, it'th been ten yearth thinthe I let anyone near enough for me to call them a friend. Hondo, I conthider you, my friend."

"Thanks."

Two more 74-Z speeder bikes. painted dark red and piloted by droids, flew up from the swamp canopy in pursuit. The first droid fired his mounted blaster, but missed. This, of course, captured Hondo and Giin's attention.

Giin said, "You thee, bothth, I only do thingth like thith for my friendth." And he veered to the left then to the right, trying to skew the droid's concentration. Hondo's DL-17 blaster pistol was in his hand as he spun and fired. A red bolt struck one of the droid's arm which jerked down, pulling the handlebars downward. The droid's speeder dropped down and rammed into a large monolithic tree.

The remaining droid was unperturbed by Giin's riding and fired at Hondo and scoring a glancing blow. Hondo, still in control of his superficially damaged vehicle, aimed and blasted at his attacker. The droid's chest erupted in a miasma of sparks and smoke, but he hung on to his speeder.

That's a lot of blast for a blaster.

The BlasTech EE-3 boomstick is a glorious boomstick.

Suddenly, Giin braked and came alongside the injured droid, his EE-3 blaster rifle unslung. The droid, still shaken by the blast, reacted too late. The point blank shot disintegrated the droid, a beat-up Z-X3, he noticed, and the riderless speeder spiraled down and crashed into a wide river beneath them.

The two sped on wondering why they were attacked.

 

EOTE: On the Trail of Dad

31 December 2014 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 08 On The Trail of Dad

Previously on Edged by the Empire...

Irfan had 35 XPs, so he blew it on a couple of more Talents, namely a second Skilled Jockey, a second Galaxy Mapper and Improved Dead to Rights. He was free of any Obligations for this episode after rolling an 81. (His Obligation: Family is 30 and Giin's Obligation: Bounty is 20). Finally the Destiny pool was 2 light side and one dark side.

First RPG session in Perlis!

We still don't really have a table for a tabletop game so we play on our moving boxes.

On his homewold of Blue Nirvada, the young smuggler Hondo Pash, the captain of the Lava Jaeger has discovered that both his parents, long thought to be dead, were still alive and appeared to be mortal enemies. His mother was Doro Pash and his father, the Imperial Admiral Keargan Kanu. Upon Hondo and his armoured mercenary guard Giin Lawquane rescuing his aunt Zosy Pash from Imperial agents, Zosy revealed that it was a trap to capture Hondo. However, when the trap was sprung, Admiral Kanu captured Hondo's 9-year-old sister Yuzy instead, making the jump to lightspeed in a Lambda-class shuttle in space...

Snow swept through and over a black caldera - known as Obsidian Island - that formed a ring-like atoll on the glistening icy, white plain surrounding it as far as the eye could see and the blizzard would allow to see.

Three figures walked through the snow in the open streets of the city in the inner rim of the caldera. Hondo, Giin and Aunt Zosy headed for the Lava Jaeger after admitting local Trandoshan police officer Klikwask - who was badly injured during Zosy's rescue - in a bacta tank at the public infirmary.

"What do we do bothth?" Giin's eeriely modulated voice said through his full helmet.

"We have to find Yuzy."

"How, bothth?"

"I'm going to track Yuzy's comlink."

 

Rafe's 36 Month Birthday (And he is 3!)

29 December 2014 | sila | | Family Pics
 

And so, the boy is now 3 years old! Or as he would say it, "thwee" :-)

A beautiful smile on my not-so-babyish-anymore baby boy

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77 Months

22 December 2014 | sila | | Family Pics
 

77 Yaya-filled months!

Happily making use of her "lumps of coal" Christmas present

Unlike some children, Yaya was completely happy to play with her "lumps of coal" Christmas present. She made a drawing of a cat using various charcoal pieces on regular printer paper.

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First Entry From The North

08 December 2014 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Recent News
 
Irfan gives the new home a thumbs up
Here we are at the northernmost part of the country, over a hundred klicks away from the nearest population centre which could be called a "city".

It awakens! Also, nerd problems.
We live in a kampung, although not in a kampung house.

View from our porch

Sunset from our porch
There is a mango orchard less than fifty metres away. Beyond the mango orchard is a rice field. Between that rice field and another one a hundred times bigger than it is a canal with plenty of fish.

A far cry from the city.

Path through the rice field
I love the sound of insects at night, the patter of rain on the roof and on leaves of nearby flora, the immediate friendliness of neighbours.

Shh!
Maybe we're not using the right bait
 

I don't miss city traffic one bit.

This cat will never know KL traffic
More to come.

 

Rafe's 35 Month Birthday

30 November 2014 | sila | | Family Pics
 

One more month before Adik is 3!

Happily eating Nutella

That photo was not taken on Adik's 35-month birthday but it was so cute I had to include it. The makers of Nutella can feel free to contact us if they want to use that photo. Not! Also, if asked, I will categorically deny that I am writing this entry on the first day of 2015. I deny it, I do! ;-)

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Final Entry from the Tenth Floor

28 November 2014 | Hisham | | Recent News
 

The blog is not headed anywhere. But the subtitle "View from the Tenth Floor" will be changed starting today as we will no longer be living on the tenth floor.

Nasi arab in front of Sekolah Derma

A breakfast in Kangar in October.

The last two months has been a whirwind of activity.

I have accepted a job offer in Kangar and we'll be moving there - five hundred klicks away - shortly.

This has been a blessing, as we have been wanting to leave Kuala Lumpur for many, many years but there was nowhere to go, not without a job there to ground us and provide us security there. Now there is an opportunity for us to leave the city. A new job beckoned us.

The visit to the Cave of Dramatic Lighting was the only hint of the upcoming change, during our prospecting trip to visit the new employer and workplace.

We will be leaving behind the Tenth Floor with a lot of memories, the only home Irfan ever knew... until now.

 

Star Wars Rebels Experience

24 November 2014 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Star Wars, TV
 

Mid Valley Megamall held a Star Wars Rebels Experience exhibition last Sunday, commemorating the debut of the series on local TV.

I didn't think I was going to make the exhibition because college assignments had to be submitted by midnight. I had one more to complete and submit. But when it was announced that the deadline was pushed back 2 days, we headed for Mid Valley at Point Five beyond lightspeed.

I wonder if the MFTAS is to scale as well.

I saw the big helmet at the South Court all the way from the Centre Court. Irfan poses before it for posterity's sake.

Stormtrooper on the prowl

The Five-Oh-First was on site to ensure no rebel agents disrupt the proceedings.

The Inquisitorious also do mall appearances

The Pau'an Inquisitor was also around being all Lucius Malfoy-ish.

 

Alterkine RPG Aliens

23 November 2014 | Hisham | | Artwork, Role Playing Games
 

I was commissioned by HermaDolph to illustrate ten alien species artwork for the Alterkine role playing game.

Behind the scenes story: I completed one piece of this series before the 8-year-old Linux laptop I've been using for work finally died. Details will be told in a future entry. I completed the rest with a underpowered netbook which took longer than it usually did.

In any case, here they are in alphabetical order:

Candebreth

Edekin

Grandrite

Kaubeth

Keliswen

Medurr

Neryak

Perakor

Saremwen

Watchi

Check out the Alterkine: Player's Handbook at DriveThruRPG here!

 

76 Months

22 November 2014 | sila | | Family Pics
 

76 months of Yaya!

Bloooooooooooood
 

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Eclipse Phase: The Viking Funeral Undertaking

09 November 2014 | Hisham | | Eclipse Phase, GOKL Actual Play, RPG Actual Play, Role Playing Games
 

Static. A disjoint in time, and perhaps space. Venus is a thread in another wisp of memory.

I see red and grey skies over the maglev as it speeds toward the city of Ashoka through the dry, rocky Martian desert. I used to be Hokusai the neo-octopus artist, on the run from Nine Lives the soul stealing crime cartel. Now I walk on two legs in a ghost morph, in a physical body optimised for stealth operations. With me is the female async Quill, her telepathic mind percolating with a thousand paper cranes.

Back in Valles-New Shanghai, we are the only two members of Fastball Express hypercorp who answer the VR call from one Mr. Miyazaki. He gives us the time and invitation for an upcoming Zanzibar marketplace that would occur in 30 hours in Ashoka. There a neo-gorilla named Winston will be attempting to sell something valuable and rare: a handheld controller for a Pandora Gate.

My cover is Shankar, a game hunter. Quill is Devi. As soon as we disembark, Shankar and Devi blend into the Ashoka afternoon crowd.

A Martian city