One fine day, Irfan Shafiq went a-walking about the hallways of the mall known as One Utama. Movie Carnival 2007 weekend was just around the corner. So there were plenty of well-known characters loitering about the concourse of the new wing of the mall. One of the most remarkable things there would be this here thing in the following photo. A Transformers movie Optimus Prime! It’s not on sale yet for another two more days. Apparently the guy bought it off eBay. A stellar looking toy! Not too far away, Irfan got his photo taken with some famous Cybertronians in their latest guises, Optimus Prime and Megatron… ….as well as the gang from Far, Far Away Land… … and the family from the Evergreen Terrace in Springfield, USA. All the way from Zenn-La is the former astronomer turned Herald of Galactus, Norrin Radd. Because he was positioned at a high […]
Continue readingMonthly Archives: May 2007
Bread 2006 (September through December)
Let’s take a short break from the vacation for some bread. These are breads that I baked the final 4 months of last year. I know, I should have really written this entry a long time ago. But here goes. This first bread is called Onion Caraway Bread. My second try at this bread. [[image:bread194.jpg:Onion Caraway dough:center:0]] Let it rise: [[image:bread195.jpg:Onion Caraway, risen:center:0]] Then bake: [[image:bread196.jpg:Onion Caraway Bread, baked:center:0]] It was a nice, oniony bread, with not too strong a caraway taste (I’m not too fond of caraway seeds, to be honest). Next we turn to the brioche again. I first tried brioche earlier in the year, and using the same basic brioche dough, I made a couple other variations on the bread. The first is called Raisin Brioche: After the dough has been kneaded, but before being rested in the fridge overnight, divide into 2 parts. Add raisins to […]
Continue readingHawaii Day 8 – Hotel Hopping and Sunset
We requested late checkout so we could enjoy ourselves on our final morning at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and we wanted to go snorkeling in the lagoon. Look at the difference in the pictures between yesterday and today, due to the sun: [[image:hi104.jpg:Fantastic hammock location:center:0]] So until 2 PM Hawaiian time, we enjoyed ourselves to the fullest, starting with a bout of putt-putt golf (my first time and it was rather embarrassing, so no pictures OK?). Time to snorkel! I took a bunch more pictures on the way to the lagoon: [[image:hi100.jpg:Canal:center:0]] [[image:hi102.jpg:Passenger boat on the canal:center:0]] The hotel grounds covers pretty much this whole bay. You can walk from end to end in a big curve, or take the train like we did on our first day here, or you can also catch one of the frequent passenger boats that pass by and […]
Continue readingShepherd’s Pie
For some reason today I’m a bit rajin to write and publish entries on the blog. Must be the prospect of the 3-day weekend coming up! Woohoooo! I’m a bit backlogged, but here’s a quick review of Shepherd’s Pie which I made earlier this year. First, cook the beef and tomato mixture on the stovetop (with peas, and other veggies too). Make sure you cook it in an oven-safe pan. [[image:sh-pie1.jpg:Meat mixture bubbling on the stovetop:center:0]] Make some mashed potato (this I made from scratch), spread it over the meat mixture, and pop it in the oven until the potatoes are crusty and a bit golden brown: [[image:sh-pie2.jpg:Baked shepherd’s pie:center:0]] Then you can section it off and serve: [[image:sh-pie3.jpg:Pretty slice:center:0]] It’s not really too pretty because the slice didn’t stay together too nicely when I lifted it off the pan. Seen here, it’s served with Buttermilk Bread (which I’ll get […]
Continue readingHawaii Day 7 – Lazy Day at the hotel
Day 7 dawned beautiful and sunny. We decided to have ourselves a lazy day. I believe there was some post-breakfast napping, some reading on the lanai (balcony). We can see this statue from the lanai: [[image:hi85.jpg:Meditating Buddha:center:0]] In the afternoon, we decided to veg out by the pool with our books. It was a little bit cloudy so the water seemed a little too cold so we didn’t do too much swimming. Here’s what some of the grounds of the hotel looked like: [[image:hi86.jpg:Lagoon:center:0]] [[image:hi87.jpg:Bridge over the lagoon:center:0]] [[image:hi88.jpg:Hammock by a coconut tree:center:0]] [[image:hi89.jpg:Sea turtles sign!:center:0]] [[image:hi90.jpg:The Ocean Tower from the other side of the lagoon:center:0]] The sea turtles sign – we’ll talk more about sea turtles in the next entry on Hawaii (Day 8). Here’s some of the view of the ocean: [[image:hi91.jpg:See? It’s cloudy:center:0]] [[image:hi92.jpg:But still quite beautiful:center:0]] We walked by the Dolphin Quest while they were doing […]
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This Will Be The Awesomest Movie Of 2007
Ironhide twists and jumps away from the path of the incoming missile, and as he falls in slow mo he fires off a missile of his own. Holy shit! This will be for me THE movie of 2007. The recent Transformers trailer than was released last week dropped a couple of jaws. It had a close-up of Bumblebee transforming, Optimus Prime transforming with the classic cartoon sound effect, Starscream jumping up and transforming into an F-22 in mid-flight, Megatron about to stomp on Jazz in mid-flight, and Bonecrusher expressing his distaste for the public transport system on a bus. As a fan of the cartoon series and the awesome 1986 animated movie, I have no expectations of this live-action movie being a faithful adaptation of them. In fact how can one be a faithful adaptation of Transformers cartoon when you have Generation 1, Generation 2, the Marvel series, Energon, Armada, […]
Continue readingHawaii Day 6 – Journey to the Kona Side
We actually didn’t get to walk around Hilo too much, because neither Vin nor I was in the mood for a walk in the rain. It rained the morning we left Hilo: [[image:hi64.jpg:Rain, rain, go away:center:0]] So we hit the road, to the other side of the island where the mountains block the rain. Going up the coast, it was still pretty rainy until we were pretty close to Waimea. [[image:hi65.jpg:Blue skies, yayyyyy:center:0]] There is the obligatory stop for malasadas (a portuguese donut, VERY yummy!! ono kine!). [[image:hi66.jpg:Locals say only this place’s malasadas are excellent:center:0]] Waimea is pretty elevated. It’s where the Hawaiian Cowboys are. You can see pine trees along the road here: [[image:hi67.jpg:On the road at Waimea:center:0]] There are plenty of pastures and meadows with cows, and horses. [[image:hi68.jpg:Pasture with Kohala mountain in the background:center:0]] Strangely enough, even this high up, there’s some cacti: [[image:hi69.jpg:Teddy bear cactus along […]
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A Time of Reunion
We don’t get together that much these days, but when we do the survivors of the ACS Sitiawan, SPM 1990 batch, create one hell of a ruckus when we sit around the table talking about… well, anything that comes to mind. Earlier tonight, a bunch of them fell upon the Tenth Floor for a gathering and of course, to eat. There was also talk about peeing or hocking a loogie onto passers-by or the swimming pool below from the window and/or balcony. However, some sort of decorum was maintained since there were kids in the room. Apart from our household, the roll call included: Teik Sing (with Michelle and Baby Ashley-Joan), Shahar, Tern Lik, Nguk Lui, Alvin and family, Hudson and Kok Soon. Ain cooked two variations of bihun goreng, both of which were tasty. Teik Sing bought appetizers and desert, Shahar bought some kuih, Hudson brought chips and Kok […]
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Irfan’s Sports Day
Precipitation did give us a break this morning. The sun shone brightly. Since we’re not too far from the equator relatively, a shining sun means sweltering and scorching heat. Tear glands were overtaxed in their efforts to cool off meatbag human bodies. However, Irfan’s school sports day did not yield to the heat. Participating with Irfan’s school is its sister school, where the kids wear violet-and-yellow as opposed to Irfan’s blue-and-yellow uniforms. There no real competition, just the kids all having fun doing the stuff they’re doing in the following photos. In other news, Irfan seemed to be under constant attack by a smaller kid who likes to push him around. From my observation Irfan just avoid the blows until he gets hit then he pushes the kid hard, which dissuades from further attacks for the time being. If this keeps up, I’ll have to write an entire entry around […]
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A Birthday At Irfan’s School
It was supposed to be sports day today at the kindergarten. Unfortunately the heavy rain had other ideas, so instead the school proceeded with the birthday party of a boy, whose mother I discovered was my classmate in Perlis. Small world. The principle postponed sports day for tomorrow. Hopefully precipitation gives us a break. I’ll take more photos tomorrow. It’d be interesting seeing a bunch of hyperactive 5- and 6-year-olds running around competing for something. Below, Irfan poses before the humongous cake. It’s a 6 there not a 9. The cake being conveyed from car to the kindergarten. Look at them Smarties. Irfan awaits the eating of the cake. The troops assemble for the singing of the birthday song. Yeah, that song. The one everyone’s familiar with. Finally Irfan reveals to his mother his uncanny ability to eat cake.
Continue readingHawaii Day 5 – Volcanic Adventure
In the late morning of Day 5. we drove to Kilauea, which is an active volcano on the big island. Kilauea has been continuously erupting for some 24 years! Pretty amazing stuff, and we had decided to do the Crater Rim drive and drive around Kilauea Caldera. [[image:hi57.jpg:Me by Volcano House:center:0]] First we stopped by the visitor center and Volcano House to pick up some literature on the volcano and map out our plan for the day. We had originally thought to take the Chain of Craters road down to the ocean and hike to the edge of the lava to see if we could see where the lava meets the ocean, but we’d gotten a late start to the day and decided to do the drive around the volcano for the day. Here’s Vin at the viewing area of Volcano House: [[image:hi53.jpg:Vin with Kilauea Caldera in the background:center:0]] [[image:hi54.jpg:Don’t […]
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You Rolled Poorly
Some weeks ago I wrote an entry on role-playing game motivational posters. Last night I discovered a website that allows you create your own by uploading your own pictures and entering your own lines of text. (Doesn’t even have to be about RPGs, even.) So here we are with my own RPG motivational poster.
Continue readingFinally Playing with PHP
Referring to some help sites and pulling back the curtain to look at source codes, I finally got the nerve to save some text files which I wrote on a text editor as php files, which I usually always do in html! Not really ground breaking stuff; all I did was to include the navigation and the footer parts into the main files from separate php files. Later I’ll see about learning to link the php files to a (gasp) MySQL database! I should have started to learn this stuff earlier. It would have gone a long way in teaching me stuff that would help me in my project paper for college. But in the meantime, both the Hishgraphics Gallery and the workplace website are now fully php-ized! Yeah, they look the same from 2 days ago, but the Legos I used to build up those two sites are all […]
Continue readingVillain-o-rama – A Spider-Man 3 Review
[[image:dualityspidey01.jpg:The black costume:center:0]] As previously reported, we caught Spider-Man 3 at Digi IMAX theatre on opening night. But first a non-spoilery rundown of the movie based on early press releases and trailers. Peter will be asking MJ to marry him, but before that there are a few small problem. First, of course, is continuing the tale across the last two movies is Harry Osborn’s desire for revenge against Spider-Man for his father Norman Osborn’s (a.k.a. the Green Goblin) death. Then there’s Eddie Brock, a rival photographer who will stoop to nasty methods to frame Spider-Man for a position as the Daily Bugle’s staff photographer. His character starts out as a nice guy but a series of unfortunate circumstances slowly strip away the guise and finally reveal himself for what he truly is. In the midst of it, Flint Marko an escaped convict on the run who unwittingly finds himself in […]
Continue readingHawaii Day 4 – Sayonara Honolulu, Hello Hilo
So after 3 nights in Honolulu, it’s time to go. We ate our last fabulous Hilton Hawaiian Village buffet breakfast (free continental buffet, $5 to upgrade to the entire buffet thanks to the Hilton Honors membership, and well worth the money). We relaxed on the beach, took a last dip in the waters of Waikiki beach, and went around the hotel taking last minute pictures. We also said our goodbyes to the beach and the sun for a few days, for we are off to Hilo (the rainy side of the Big Island of Hawaii). [[image:hi35.jpg:Orchids:center:0]] First off, some pictures from around the hotel. Statues of real people as well as gods: [[image:hi34.jpg:The guy who built the hotel, I think:center:0]] [[image:hi36.jpg:Legendary goddesses in the process of tapa making:center:0]] [[image:hi45.jpg:I forget who this was:center:0]] [[image:hi41.jpg:Don’t mess with this chick – garang!:center:0]] Some of the trees and plants that caught my eye […]
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Irfan Webs An IMAX Theatre
It’s May 1st. Some might say it’s Labor Dabor Day. Others would say it’s the first day of the general release of Spider-Man 3, beginning 2007’s run of monumental summer movies which will eventually bring us At Worlds End, Shrek the Third, Order of the Phoenix, Rise of the Silver Surfer and Transformers. We just got back from Sitiawan after spending 3 days with Irfan’s grandparents there (and having the sotong celup tepung as well). Irfan made a new friend in the form of Opah Irfan’s friend’s grandson – one Amir from Melaka who was also on vacation in Sitiawan. Today, we got home, grabbed Ain’s two aunts and headed right for Berjaya Times Square where we would be watching the IMAX presentation of Spider-Man 3. There was another reason for the excursion to Berjaya Times Square, and that was Irfan’s Cik Su’s birthday. Labour Day for her is literally […]
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