Last few months I had been locked in mortal combat with a termite infestation at home. Last month, the pest control people came and finally they were vanquished. But the damage done was irreparable. Lots of my books and notes had to be thrown out, including a folder filled with my water colour paintings from when I was in Form One. Below are scans of three of the artwork that were destroyed. These were recent paintings though. I don’t have any records whatsoever of the older paintings. 🙁
Continue readingDaily Archives: 2005-05-05
Irfan the Water Baby
At two and a half years old, Irfan has absolutely no fear of water. Unbidden, he will kick off his shoes, run to the edge of the pool, do a little sing and dance routine (seriously) and jump right into the deep end with a big splash. Recently he started using a child’s life preserver, a full body jacket now, not the small arm band things you see him wearing here, which sprung a leak last month. Every weekend he goes nuts whenever he learns that we’re going to air lompat, which is his term for the swimming pool. I guess I’m quite grateful for his lack of fear for water. It would be quite easy for him to learn to swim later on. Here are more pictures of Irfan the paddler from way back in January 2005. Click on the images to expand them.
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Neil Gaiman’s Nebula Awards Speech
The creator of Lord Morpheus aka Dream aka Oneiros aka Orpheus’ Father aka the Thirdborn of the Endless was at the Nebula Awards in Chicago, Illinois last week and he gave a pretty awesome speech which like all of his written works (novel, novella or comic book) is an enjoyable read. If you like books and reading in general, I urge you to read Neil Gaiman’s journal, where he writes of the happenings around him (including the time his daughter hijacked his journal) and answers letters from his fans in a witty and fun manner. If you’re wondering here are the results for the Nebula Awards, which also includes Fran Walsh, Philipa Boyens and Peter Jackson for the Best Script Awards for Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King. Here is an excerpt from his speech: Gene Wolfe pointed out to me, five years ago, when I […]
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Camping in ACS 1986
Back in 1986, when I was a First Former, and a Scout, the yearly school session were divided into three terms. During the two term holidays of that year, 1st Troop Manjung organized camp outs in the school grounds. We usually camped out in front of the new canteen, where a new tennis court stands now I’m told. The first campout we I got the Keris Gangsa badge. The second campout I got the Keris Perak badge. I never got the Keris Emas badge. Well, those were the days. You want pictures? You got pictures. I wish we had more photos taken then.
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Homemade Computer Generated Landscapes, You Ask?
You’ve seen it in the movies and television. Camera swooping down on artificially-made terrain. The terrain resides in the mind of the computer, and so does the camera. If you ask, can I do this on my home computer? Can I generate an artificial landscape and have it look near-photorealistic? Can I make green fields and snowcapped mountains and beaches and islands and desolate rocky coastline? The answer to that is yes, with Terragen. And it’s freeware! Just download, install and you can start to build landscapes like this nifty sunset snowscape I made: It’ll take some getting use to. But when you can figure it out, the results are spectacular. Try it out.
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