Rafe’s 8 Month Birthday

Another whirlwind month filled with stuff to do, places to go, and people to see has passed.  And Adik is 8 months old! [[image:2012_0829_rafe16.jpg:Yes, yes I am:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions So Adik is still commando crawling and starting to crawl over low hurdles (e.g., 1 pillow, 1 outstretched leg) but still has trouble crawling over anything higher than that. He’s terribly funny when he learns to do something. He yells a wild war whoop when his attempts finally succeed, and then he goes around and repeats the thing, practising his little heart out. Adik is very determined, and it’s so funny to see him putting his game face on. We still have to keep him from being trampled by his sister, but he is starting to stand his ground against her. He keeps going after the things she’s playing with (after she’s grabbed it out of […]

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Void Vultures cover

Void Vultures Photos

The artwork commissioned for Void Vultures has been released for some time, but I haven’t had the time to download and print it out. I created a cover using Inkscape with a pair of creative common-licensed images via Google, printed it and bound it. Here are some photos. I have yet to run the game though. When I do I’ll have a report written here on the blog. Click here to download Rüls of the Void and Derelicts of the Void for free.

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Irfan with Ascension cards

Ascension: Chronicles of the Balik Kampung

So, just before Eid, Ivan came around and gave us another gaming gift. This time it’s the deck-building card game Ascension: Chronicles of the Godslayer by Gary Games. We brought it back with us to Sitiawan for some gaming. Extradimensional demonic monsters are passing through interdimensional barriers into the world of Vigil. And it’s up to players to build their decks and employ their cards to kick the monsters in the butt, and win by gaining the most Honor points! Sometimes, my hand is usually full of the guys in the following photo. They only have Rune points which does me no good when confronted with the bad guy-fulled centre array which looks like the last photo in this blog entry. I keep getting dealt into these situations. Strangely, when my hand is full of Power cards, the centre array is inexplicably filled with Heroes and Constructs. Irfan and I […]

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49 Months

And so, another month has passed. Time does not march on, it flies faster than a speeding bullet. Four years and a month old. The darling of our lives, la reina del punto azul, the director of our plays and part-time adorable tot, part-time berserker dictator. [[image:2012-yaya49month-02.jpg:Arrrr mateys!:center:0]] * Mouse over pictures for captions We had yet another eventful month. It does seem like we hibernate and do nothing much for 8 months out of the year and then we pack everything in in the warmer months. This month, we have driven to Florida (pics to come, someday) gone through Ramadan, and celebrated Eid. It’s been another fun and action packed time. However, even though Yaya is now four and despite her promise that she would start eating “grown up food” after she’s four, it has not yet come to pass. Alas, the toastivore can not yet be swayed. But […]

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The Renstroms appear onscreen

Salam Aidilfitri from Sitiawan

This year we spent Eid-ul-Fitr in Sitiawan. Here’s a photo of everyone during Eid morning. Then later that night, we had guests over the internet in the form of the Renstroms. Yaya and Adik also joined the fun. Adik wanted to crawl through the computer screen to join us, but Yaya held him back. EID MUBARAK!

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Salam Aidilfitri from Ohio

Eid Mubarak and Selamat Hari Raya, maaf zahir dan batin from us all! [[image:2012_eid_yayaadik03.jpg:Siblings’ first raya together:center:0]] [[image:2012_eid_yayaadik04.jpg:Hey, what happened to my feet?:center:0]] [[image:2012_eid_yayaadik02.jpg:Singing Raya songs or asking for duit raya?:center:0]] [[image:2012_eid_yayaadik05.jpg:Love Kak Yaya:center:0]] [[image:2012_eid_yayaadik01.jpg:Eid Mubarak y’alls!:center:0]] Missing all the family and friends in Malaysia. Also the ketupat and rendang. 😉

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Transforming into a Tiger: An Additional Birthday Story

A short addendum on becoming and being a tiger on one’s fourth birthday. [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-09.jpg:Happy Tiger!:center:0]] You know what to do for captions, right? You begin with face paint and instructions to do what the face painter tells you to do (remember that listening isn’t exactly Yaya’s strong suit right now): [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-01.jpg:White goes on first:center:0]] [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-02.jpg:Then a layer of orange:center:0]] [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-03.jpg:Some yellow for depth:center:0]] [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-04.jpg:Painting in white above the lips:center:0]] [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-05.jpg:Blackening the muzzle:center:0]] [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-06.jpg:Finally the stripes:center:0]] [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-07.jpg:Transformed Tiger admires herself in the mirror:center:0]] Tigers like to be at the zoo with other tigers. [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-10.jpg:Tiger with white siberian tiger in the background:center:0]] [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-11.jpg:Tiger communing with her own kind:center:0]] [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-12.jpg:Tired Tiger goes home:center:0]] And most of all, Tigers love their fathers! [[image:2012-yaya4thtiger-08.jpg:Happy Tiger and her Papa:center:0]]

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It's a copper!

Call of Cthulhu: Stark Raving Mad

Episode 2 Stark Raving Mad For several weeks, Irfan was asking me if I could run the continuation of his first Call of Cthulhu game where he roleplays SFPD Detective D.J. Stark. Finally I had the time to sit down and write prep notes for a short session. Irfan got into Detective Stark’s shoes, trench coat, shirt and tie, and then got right into it. The game started out where the previous session ended: Captain Greta Hack gives the bruised and battered Stark a week’s off after he shot his turncoat partner Lee Wilson and rescued Paige Riordan from the vicious underground creatures. Stark really has a Glock 9mm, not a revolver Returning to his apartment, he was ambushed by one of the foetid, muzzle-mouthed creatures in his kitchen. He felled it with a shot. The rest ran out the corridor and down the staircase. Stark pursued, but he was […]

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