Nasi goreng butter chicken

Emergency Deep Meeting

After a long time of playing Delta Green and Star Trek Adventures remotely with Dan while he was posted in Sudan, I finally had the pleasure of meeting him. An old friend of Ivan, we all planned a dinner meet. Dan picked me up at Aiman & Zara’s house where we would be spending the night, and rendezvoused with Ivan somewhere in the proximity of Kelana Jaya. We talked for some hours about RPGs, Star Trek (specifically “In the Pale Moonlight” and “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges”) and other miscellanea while having dinner. The nasi goreng butter chicken was delicious, but there was so much of it I was unable to finish it. I would have met Dan earlier as he had planned on taking a vacation in Perlis some weeks ago. Sadly, it was the week I got COVID-19 for the second time.

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The ACS contingent takes one final group shot before leaving

Multi-Reunion at Mando Mayhem

Sometimes, being away from old friends can be an isolating feeling. Not this past weekend though. We travelled to PJ on Gray‘s invitation (with Imeel, another GM) to run Star Wars RPG sessions at the Star Wars Malaysia Fan Club‘s event entitled Mando Mayhem. I did not know what to expect as I have never gamemastered in public for visitors before. How fun would it be? Would I need to explain the rules too much that it detracts from playing? Would there be people who would not enjoy the sessions? The four sessions I GMed have been chronicled in another blog post. Day One at Jaya One Besides the new friends I made like Imeel, Hanna, James and Syed, a whole bunch of old friends also dropped by. For the first time, I had three different circle of friends showing up and interacting with each other. There was the old […]

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All in

First Visitors of 2023

Our first visitors for the year were Teik Sing, Michelle, Ashley, Emma and Ezra. Day One As mentioned before, Teik Sing and I have been best friends since we were 7 years old at ACS Sitiawan. Here we are decades later – with homes timezones apart – still being friends, talking about ideas and stories, old and new. I wish I had the resources to someday visit his home and talk shop there. Because Ain had to take care of her parents who had been visiting since last month, Irfan and I went to their hotel to greet them. Coincidentally we were using similar models of cars. First of all, we went to have some lok chin along the Kuala Perlis shoreline. We talked and the kids got to know each other some more. En route back to Kangar, we stopped at Kota Kayang Museum, but it was about to […]

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See you guys next time

Old School Mates in Lumut

Not only is it Labour Day here in Malaysia, but it’s also Hari Raya Aidilfitri! It is very rare for our old school mates to meet up when we return home for the holidays. So it was a welcome pleasure to have met up with these dudes in Lumut. We talked about the future of the county, old times, lost friends and growing old. Never thought we would be talking about things like that.

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One more group photo before we leave

Picnic by the Bendang

Yesterday, a group of colleagues organised a trip away from the bustling metropolis known as Kangar (mm-hmm) to nearby Pokok Sena for a picnic in the sticks. By sticks, I mean the beautiful, recently-launched Loqsakri Agro Farm. First we rendezvoused near Arau along the road to Jitra. Then we formed a convoy towards Jitra, then Alor Setar for brunch at a local kopitiam. After picking up Faten, Zaki led the way towards Loqsakri. The agro farm was welcoming, beautiful and was not even finished yet. There were bamboo huts constructed beside a little canal that separated the landscaped guests’ area and the bendang (the rice field). Although the sun was blazing above, the wind was a cooling, soothing force to be reckoned with. We appeared to have visited just as the padi was at the most vibrant shade of green. The owner of Loqsakri is a cordial, welcoming person who […]

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Ham Slacker character sheet

Ham Slacker Remembered

I have been running Star Wars The Role Playing Game published by West End Games since 1989, two years after its debut on the market. I wish I had saved a lot of the game materials I wrote and the character sheets the players had. I actually began filing my gaming documents beginning from 1991. Not a lot of scraps of papers from before that year survived. Besides this single character sheet from 1989. It was falling apart in my folder, so I had it laminated. According to his player Ming Fang, Ham Slacker – the tongue-tied engineer – was a Twi’lek-Human mix. Is it scientifically possible? Let’s not dwell on that. Ming Fang named the him after Ham Tyler, Michael Ironside’s character in V, and James Tolkan’s Mr. Strickland’s favourite war cry in the Back to the Future movies. Ham Slacker died after a year of play, and Ming […]

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Front cover of the Moleskine

Beacon in the Dark

I received a package this morning. Chris, an old friend from Sitiawan who now resides in Belfast, sent it. It was a Moleskine notebook for Irfan, which looked great. Furthermore, it was a limited edition Gundam cover Moleskine! I am grateful for the gift. So is Irfan, needless to say. But what is more dear to my heart are the notes he wrote for Irfan and I. I had been uncertain whether my friendship with a lot of my old friends at school mattered. Sure there were some that says hi every now and again on text chat or on social media. But for the longest time, I wondered if I did right with the friends whom I ran Star Wars RPGs (and sometimes ShadowRun) for, the ones who hung out with me discussing books, movies and music, and spent their free time obliging this eager nerd with his nerd […]

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This cover takes guts

Lorn Song of the Bachelor

My friend Zedeck sent me his latest tome. It was a tabletop role-playing adventure inspired by the Bujang Senang myth of the last century from Sarawak. The book is digest-sized but its 48 pages are packed with a plethora of descriptions, creatures, maps and illustrations (wonderfully produced by Nadhir Nor). The prose provides the gamemaster the information needed to referee any such campaigns based on this book. However, Zedeck has crafted a well-balanced text. The information hangs between very evocative and economical. It is dense enough for gamemasters to craft adventures and encounters in a fantasy Bornean riverine campaign. But Gamemasters could also easily inject their own ideas in-between the information given in the text. Here are some photos of the book. What is a wet corpse and why is a catfish there? To find out and forge your own campaign from the book, get it at DriveThruRPG here.

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Two families

Dinner by the River

It was near lunch time when I received a message from my schoolmate Sam. He was in town on assignment and he brought his family with him. It had been a while since we saw each other, so we made dinner plans. Well, actually, he made dinner plans as I had been busy with work until about 6 p.m. A rendezvous was set at the Api-Api seafood restaurant by the river in Kuala Perlis. We talked of many things throughout dinner. We reminded our children that it had been 11 years since they last visited our house, a time Irfan could not at all recall. This restaurant was built at a mangrove swamp. It had been a while too since I smelled the smells of a swamp. My friends at school and I used to camp overnight in such a place. Thanks for coming, Sam. Hope you come for a […]

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Friday lunch buddies

A Friday Lunch With Friends

My colleagues have been expressing a long time desire to sample Ain’s bihun goreng tom yam. They loved it when we offered packets of the food to be sold at my workplace. It has been a couple of years since stopped doing so. Recently, Ain invited the ones who has been asking her about her bihun goreng tom yam the most to lunch. Besides the bihun goreng, she also made nasi lemak ayam goreng pandan. They came over one Friday afternoon, bringing with them their own food, turning the affair into a pot luck party. After Friday prayers I took a photo of our guests. Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the spread on the dinner table. Ain was testing her capacity to cook a meal for a group of visitors with this exercise. It was a success. Therefore, we will see if we can do an Open […]

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Creatures of Near Kingdom

Book: Creatures of Near Kingdoms

Wait for the arrival of an envelope. Steal a peek or two a day at your mail slot at work. You will wait a longer than usually needed. When it arrives you are surprised, as if it knows when to spring its existence upon you. It is tightly wrapped in clear plastic. It heaves a sigh of relief as you tear it out of its swaddle. It opens up and reveals its treasure to you. Its treasure are ideas tightly packs in words. It is the CREATURES OF NEAR KINGDOMS book. Clearly, it has evolved into an expert in camouflaging itself in the wild. Its publisher has categorised it as a comic. But it does not look like a comic. Neither does it smell like a novel. To say it tastes like a gaming sourcebook would be unfair to it. When it speaks, it identifies itself. Still its self identification […]

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A Bookstore Then The Next Day Home

Later that night… The night before we had to return home, Cik Su took us to the new BookXcess book store nearby, at a mall which looked pretty impressive but appear to be incomplete. The only other outlet we visited before was at Amcorp Mall. The books there were cheaper than standard retail value because these were old stock copies which were to be pulped. Irfan bought a couple of young adult adventure novels. Irfan also signed up for a store membership card which he hopes to use some day. Perhaps, he offered, he would be able to use the card to order books online at a discounted price. I found a Star Wars Millennium Falcon: Owner’s Workshop Manual for less than half its retail price, but I thought I should save. I bought a much cheaper China Miéville This store turned up the pop culture references level to eleven. […]

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Bye Is

An Old School Buddy Visits

Once upon a more innocent time I went to school, the result of which was I met many other school-age little humans many of which became my friend. I was 10 years old when I first met Iskandar. We were in the same class for a couple of years. But after school we rarely see one another until the Age of Digital Social Media. Recently, Iskandar and his family came to stay at our place for a weekend. Here are some of the photos of the visit. Last year we had an Aidilfitri pot luck at his folks’ house in Sitiawan. Come back soon, Is.

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Nak! Nak! Nak! Nak! Nak! Nak! Nak! Nak!

A Vacation of Some Sort

And So It Begins The vacation began when Ivan came a-visiting from Petaling Jaya via the ERL. I picked him up at the Arau station and he gave me an early birthday present: the Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide, which will eventually be its own blog post. Because of work, I had to spend the first day of vacation grading papers. But we did take Ivan out by the sea where we had some grilled lok ching and laksa. Gua Kelam With me on call for the grading work, we managed to take a trip to Gua Kelam. It was a work day so there were not many people at the park. Here are Ain and Irfan at the mouth into the dark tunnel of the shadowy realm. Once we got to the park grounds on the far side of the cave, Ain identified the spot where Irfan, Ayah Cik, […]

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Iskandar, Gnana, Nazri and I

ACS Sitiawan Hari Raya Meet

Before heading home, word circulated of a pot luck Hari Raya dinner at Iskandar’s house on the first night of Aidilfitri. I had not seen Iskandar since I was in school, so it felt like a great time to meet up with the entire crew, some I’d lost contact with when I transferred away from school when I was 16. We brought the last of Ain’s nasi dagang. The nasi lemak (contributed by the house) was delicious. Irfan, as per his modus operandi, attacked the pizza. So we spent the night consuming organic matter and catching up while Irfan corralled and looked after the little children as he is wont to do. The next day, Gnana and his eldest son came to visit and then we all went to Nazri’s home where Iskandar had just arrived. Apart from having some Hari Raya spaghetti which Irfan loved a little too much […]

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