Archive | PermalinkThe Vacation Is Over - For These Younglings

Round Five of the Star Wars Artists' Guild Member Theme Art Contest is almost over, what with September starting tomorrow and all. So here I am after some hours of pencilling on paper, scanning and finally digitally inking and colouring the illustration for contest participation.

The theme is The Vacation Is Over. I can't think of a more brutal wake up call than when the newly-named Lord Darth Vader marching into the Jedi Temple on Coruscant with the 501st "Vader's Fist" Legion and slaughtering everyone, including the younglings during Revenge of the Sith.

(Read more at your own risk)

Keywords: artwork,star_wars,swag

Archive | PermalinkBumblebee Is Watching You Poop

I've refrained from posting any leaked Transformers live action movie bot photos... until today when I saw this image of Bumblebee from this site (who will almost certainly be a Chevrolet Camaro, instead of a classic VW Beetle) evidently, with great intent on watching you poop.

Keywords: movie,transformers

Archive | PermalinkGalaxy Games Online Files For Download

After Phil "Grimace" Hatfield introduced me to Galaxy Games Online, I've long thought of customising some .ggo files for use with the old West End Games' Star Wars RPG.

Galaxy Games Online is a program that allows you to run and play pen and paper type role playing games over the internet using a chat window and a dice roller. One feature available on the program allows us to create our own .ggo files, which can be customised player character sheets, dice rollers and even a virtual book where we can write down our house rules, all readable from the main program. You can even create your own random name generator, which is easily adaptable to other uses such as random encounters or random locations.

Here for your download are four .ggo files compressed neatly in a zip file.

• SWD6 Template - An empty player character template with a tab for each attribute and a text field for each skill.
• SWD6 Template Lite - A truncated version of the above file where you put all your skills into one text field.
• SWD6 Daye Azur-Jamin - An NPC created by Kathy Tyers which appeared in Star Wars Adventure Journal #10.
• SWD6 Dice Roller - A collection of macros that allows you to roll D6 dice and view the results in the chat window within the range of 1D to 13D+2.

So, what you have to do is download the .zip file here (right click and Save File As... , Size: 16KB), unzip and put all files in Program Files > Galaxy Games > Galaxy Games Online > samples.

Of course it would help if you had the program installed and were using it to game online.

Keywords: computers,rpg,star_wars,the_internets

Archive | PermalinkToll Tickets Trawls Trenches Twixt Teeth

Do you know what's one of the best things about driving along the PLUS highway (or the North South Expressway in English) after you had a good meal, especially if you got bits of gristle and such uncomfortably stuck between your teeth?

You can use the Expressway's toll ticket as a very effective toothpick.

It's thin enough to get between your molars. It doesn't disintegrate easily by moisture (or saliva, if you will). It bends easily and can get into angles and corners that would put a Hound of Tindalos to shame. Plus after you wipe the edge of the toll ticket the crud disappears like magic.

It works much better than a regular namecard. OK, don't ask about the namecard.

Sure it's disgusting. But man, does it work like a charm.

Keywords: travel

Archive | PermalinkMakan Angin Puerto Rico Bab 3

Continuing our adventures in Puerto Rico. After our late night of kayaking and swimming in the bioluminescent Las Croabas lagoon, we had our late night feast and collapsed into bed. Unfortunately we had to get up pretty early to have a good breakfast before we head to catch the bus for the El Yunque rainforest tour.

Our tour guide/bus driver's name was Jesus (hay-soos) a.k.a. Chipi (seriously, this was his nickname, he said). It was a 45 minute drive to El Yunque. After Chipi made sure everybody who had signed up for the tour was on the bus, we set off. 2 of the guests were from Mexico (I think), so we had a bilingual English-Spanish tour, which was fun.

(Read more at your own risk)

Keywords: critters,travel,vacation

Archive | PermalinkAbang Long's Wedding

Last weekend we were back in Sitiawan where Abang Long, the second cousin of Sila and I, had his wedding in Kampung Permatang. The bunga manggar above marks the occasion of a wedding at the house.

The pelamin in Wan Alang's living room, where the bride and groom will sit. Later when they were sitting there I was unable to see anything or take any pictures because of the crowd.

The grand meal set up for the groom, the bride and the bride's family. Some tasty stuff there.

(Read more at your own risk)

Keywords: balik_kampung,family_outings,irfan,wedding

Archive | PermalinkMakan Angin Puerto Rico Bab 2

Now that we've covered the hotel we stayed at in Puerto Rico, we can move on to the activities. We planned to do 3 different activities:

* Night-time kayaking at a bioluminescent bay

* El Yunque Rainforest

* Walk around old San Juan

Because we ran out of time and decided to take it easy and relax rather than push the activities for the 3 days we were there, we skipped the walk around old San Juan (a reason to go back and visit Puerto Rico!). But we did do the first 2 things on our list.

(Read more at your own risk)

Keywords: travel,vacation

Archive | PermalinkMakan Angin Puerto Rico Bab 1

Now that I travel so much less for work, I have the desire to travel for pleasure - or as we say in Malaysia "makan angin" (literally "eat air"). So a couple of weeks ago, Vin and I went to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a long weekend. We left on Friday very early morning and got home again on Monday evening and stayed in Puerto Rico for only 3 nights.

I must say, it was a very convenient trip, especially for East Coasters - it was about 4-5 hours flying time (shorter than going to Hawaii) and you stay in the same time zone so there's no time funkiness to contend with. Travelocity had a really good deal for flight+hotel stay that ended up being only slightly dearer than just the round trip flight to Florida for that weekend. And, best of all, Puerto Rico is in the Caribbean which means that even tropically-bred girls like me can swim in the sea with no temperature issues whatsoever! I am incredibly susceptible to colds if exposed to cold water (freezing rain, the Atlantic ocean anywhere north of Florida, etc.) so if the water temperature is not above 70-75 F, swimming is completely out of the question for me. So the water temperature in Puerto Rico was just absolutely perfect for me.

(Read more at your own risk)

Keywords: critters,travel,vacation

Archive | PermalinkIrfan Gets a Haircut

Today I acquired the means to extract the photos in my cell phone, which have been percolating in its memory for almost two months. Some time last month, we took Irfan for a haircut at the barber's. It was the third time for him at the place, if I remember right. He never goes first. I have to have my hair cut before him.

But when he sits in the chair, he's one docile kid, peering intently at his own reflection in the mirror as his locks come off.

(Read more at your own risk)

Keywords: irfan

Archive | PermalinkIllustration Friday: Play

For the topic of "play" for Illustration Friday, we have a digital painting of two baby dragons at play, like kittens trying to wrestle and bite each other attempting to gain upper hand over the other.

Click on the thumb below to view a larger image.

Or click here to view it at deviantArt.

Keywords: artwork,illustration_friday

Archive | PermalinkLando Pulls a Marvin Gaye

I rarely post YouTube links here. But this one is somewhat hilarious I just had to give it its own entry for posterity's sake.

This is a conjectural scene that took place in the hangar bay of the Home One before the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi.

Click here to view it.

Keywords: funny,star_wars,video

Archive | PermalinkClear View From The Tenth Floor

It has been pretty hazy and smoggy this past week, except when we headed back to Kelantan in the weekend. It might have contributed to me coughing up a storm to the point of even laughing pains me. Earlier today, it seemed like it was going to be the same old evil, soul-sucking grayness blanketing everything as far as the eye can see.

I took the day off today to rest because of the coughs and perhaps I wasn't getting enough sleep this past few days. Yesterday was the worst. It felt like I was barely conscious the entire day and would collapse at any time.

(Read more at your own risk)

Keywords: kuala_lumpur

Archive | PermalinkAs We Turned the Corner...

It was a fine sunny day as we sped southbound the Gua Musang road from Pasir Mas to Kuala Lumpur. There were still thirty kilometres or so from where we were to Gua Musang. Sparse but sometimes breathtaking limestone hills flank us, each hill seemed ankle deep in the greenery of oil palm trees.

The radio was on full blare with Raihan's Puji-pujian and the road was following along a curve. Suddenly, a shocking sight was revealed to us.

(Read more at your own risk)

Keywords: accident,balik_kampung

Archive | PermalinkIrfan In Pasir Mas Once Again

Irfan's grandfather was discharged from the hospital two weeks ago and we would have been there sooner to visit if not for work and exam (as mentioned in the previous entry). He's feeling much better now, although getting Irfan's Tok Bah to rest is next to impossible as he's used to being on his feet and running errands.

Meanwhile, Irfan was running about in and about the house, burning off but never exhausting his seemingly boundless energy reserves until near midnight.

(Read more at your own risk)

Keywords: balik_kampung,irfan

Archive | PermalinkLesson For The Semester

Yesterday was my semester finals. There are a few good lessons I learnt this semester.

1. I procrastinate til the last moment before I really study, thus activating my panic button right around 6 hours before the exams begin.

2. I should start to study a month before exams.

3. I realize these are all lessons I've learnt before in previous semesters, and things always go apeshit at finals.

4. I accept it as status quo and go back to sleep until about a day before my next semester finals. Wheee!

It's just past 0500 hours. Right now, we're all heading for Kelantan for the weekend (and the couple of days before it); and Sila and Vin are headed for Puerto Rico soon.

Vaya con dios, alls y'all.

Keywords: rants

Archive | PermalinkNot Really The Dark Side, But Still Evil

Okay, I'm just gonna post this... because I can.

As found at the RPG.net forums. Apparently, it's a photoshop, but it's still worth a chuckle or two. But if your sanity is still up for another one, I have to say this one is definitely NOT a photoshop.

Keywords: funny,star_wars