I had been working from home for almost two months because of the Covid-19 outbreak movement control order. It was bound to end. The order came from up top that the administrative and executive staff had to begin working from our offices on Tuesday, the day after the Nuzul al-Qur’an break. There were, of course, procedures and measures lined out for us to adhere to. So, here I am back in my office. I ran two classes from the office remotely today.
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Theatre Arts Final Livestream
The English Theatre Arts co-curriculum class of 2020 have finally reached the end, which meant it was time for the final performances of their plays. The first and second classes in past years performed live, the former in a classroom and the latter on stage, for their seventh and final week. However, the third class were unable to perform live on stage thanks to the Covid-19 outbreak. Not only it was forbidden to hold mass gatherings (such as a stage play), most of the students if not all were away from campus at their respective hometowns under light lockdown. So I decided for the students to write screenplays instead of stage plays, then film their parts separately. Each troupe had a director, writer and video editor as part of their non-acting crew members. They submitted their scripts for assessment and their videos so I could organise a livestream of their […]
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Images of Week 11
Remote teaching using Google Meet is quite satisfying in its own way, though I do still prefer live face-to-face meetings. The online sessions are enhanced by sharing screens of the slides I have to present, links to videos the students need to view and Google Forms that required filling in. Here are images from Week 11 of the semester; one screen capture per class throughout the week.
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The Expanse RPG: Unforeseen Elements
The Expanse 03 Unforeseen Elements Last time on Scheherezade Tales… After tangling with what appeared to be OPA infiltrators, saboteurs wearing state-of-the-art tech and a figure in the old tunnels enshrouded by glowing blue fireflies, Kazuo Khan woke up in a hospital. He also gained a new cat named Aki. On his way home from the hospital, he stumbled across two rival criminal organisations in an alley. They captured Kazuo when he revealed himself as a police officer… The Abandoned Orchard On days like these, Kazuo Khan wished that he was back on Mars with his sister Jirou. Armed with automatic weapons, the criminals herded Kazuo into an abandoned palmyra palm orchard. It was a large artificial cavern which was once owned by Archean Biotechnology, which funded most of the operations on the asteroid 643 Scheherezade, also known as “Zadi”. Kazuo recalled hearing on TV that Archean had been bought […]
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Art of Wuxia NPCs
Early this year, DwD Studios invited me to produce interior artwork for their new RPG rulebook Art of Wuxia. Unfortunately, I was unable to oblige their request because of work commitments. I did try, but I just could not produce artwork during that stretch of time. So, they had to commission another artist to do the bulk of their artwork. Last month, they offered a smaller number of art to be made for the book; three non-player characters (NPCs). It should not have taken me two weeks to complete all three, but it did. This work-from-home, quarantine situation is taking a lot more out of me than I thought was possible. Click on the pictures above to view larger images. Watch this space for the Art of Wuxia release from DwD Studios!
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ART: Colouring the Tomtar
Recently, I was asked to be the digital colourist for two of Jim Magnusson‘s artwork. I used Krita to apply some hues to two of Jim’s black and white sketches. Click on the images below to view them bigger.
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Outdoors After Two Weeks
I have been cooped up at home for more than two weeks. The last time I left the driveway was to fill up the water bottles with the potable water vending machines. Since then I have been spending most of my time planning for lessons, running lessons, uploading online learning material and monitoring the students’ output. This takes up a great deal of my time. I am used to working from home for fives years before I came to work here. I do not mind working from home at all and could happily spend the rest of my life teaching from home. However, the virtual paperwork and other class management duties has worn me down. I have never felt so emotionally and physically exhausted before in my life, without being clinically depressed. Yesterday, the government has allowed two persons from a single household to travel by car. So Ain and […]
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Remote Teaching Thoughts
After three weeks, I have formed some thoughts on remote online teaching as one is wont to do. First of all, here are the tools I have been using to teach. Tools of the Trade For synchronous teaching, i.e. where students are required to be online the same time as I am, I have been using Google Meet to address them. Also, I have been using Google Forms embedded in Google Classroom for the students to mark themselves as being able or unable to join the class. If there could not, then they should write their reasons why. This is not a punitive requirement because I, and the department, need to know what issues arise during these sessions with which we could improve them. As an aside, I have been using Discord for the last two weeks. Also, I employ our classes’ respective WhatsApp channels (which everyone in the class […]
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Newly Minted OS
The Situation Last year some time, I upgraded the Linux Mint on this laptop from 17.0 to 17.3. In the last couple of months, I pushed it higher, upgrading from 17.3 to 18.0 to 18.3. However, this was where I hit a brick wall. I was unable to upgrade further because of an mdm display manager issue. None of the troubleshooting guides I read solved my problem. Additionally, the 18.3 build I had was noticeably getting slower to boot up AND it froze for three minutes or more intermittently. The freezes were happening a lot when I had a Nemo file manager window open. Saving on LibreOffice also immobilises the machine. This was a frustrating new development. Even more worrisome, because I had to use the machine for online teaching. Finally, I have been wanting to use the latest Discord and Blender programs (among others). There are no new 32-bit […]
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First Tarawih of the Plague Year
Ramadhan Mubarak, everyone. Tonight was Ramadhan Eve. We had our first Tarawikh prayers of the year, during a semi-quarantine pandemic-based lockdown. Ramadhan usually brings joy, but with the outbreak everyone feels fear and uncertainty. The authorities have suspended congregational prayers at the masjid to prevent spread of the Covid-19 disease. This suspension also covers Friday and Tarawikh prayers. Some places in the world do feel a disquieting woe and sadness as thousands die of the plague. What will the future bring to us all?
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A Little Seraphim
During the plague year, Irfan rediscovered his drive to build Gundam plastic models. He decided to purchase a GN-009 Seraphim Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam 00. It was smaller than the usual Gundam as it was part of the Seravee Gundam. This mobile suit which belonged to the private paramilitary organisation Celestial Being only showed up for a few seconds in an episode of 00. Only thing for Irfan to do now is to get a Seravee so they could dock together.
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Sandrock Custom A Year Overdue
Irfan was very committed to studying and working hard for his SPM examination last year. He was so committed that he put off building a gunpla that he bought early 2019. Just like that, his passion for gunpla building returned and before too long, he had the XXXG-01SR2 Gundam Sandrock Custom (Endless Waltz version) completed, curved giant swords and all. I believe he found the semi-quarantine circumstances quite conducive for building Gundam models.
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Papermini Video: Clone Trooper Skirmish
In this Star Wars D6 paper miniature shenanigans, a trio of clone troopers stumble across a lone Pyke guardsmen. All three can roll their blaster skill dice before the Pyke can shoot. However the third player has a sweet tooth.
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Remote Teaching
One thing after another throughout my life, I have needed to familiarise myself with matters that I had never considered before. Because of this excellent plague year, I now teach my course online for the rest of the semester. After a two-week break during a worldwide pandemic quarantine, the university found its bearings. Thus I was ordered to begin teaching week 7 onwards through the interwebs. I taught my students from Irfan’s room in the back. So far it has been good. I still wish that I had an audience to interact with. No, that’s not right. I do have one, but I wish I could meet their eyes to judge their growing understanding of the lesson. In the meantime, I have set up my “studio” so to speak. I address my classes via Google Meet. However, the laptop which runs on 32-bit Linux Mint 18.3 has a slight defect. […]
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The Expanse RPG: Nine Lives More Or Less
Today was the second time running The Expanse role-playing game with Irfan playing former-Martian Congressional Republic soldier Kazuo Khan, now a police detective on the asteroid 643 Scheherezade also known locally as “Zadi”. Looks like it is becoming a campaign after all… The Expanse 02 Nine Lives More or Less Last time on Scheherazade Tales… Scheherezade Safety and Security Concern (S3C) detectives Kazuo Khan and Margarid Bohn followed up on a lead that suggested a bomb threat on the Gertak Lembu township’s water tanks. Later, they got into a firefight with Outer Planet Alliance operatives. After dispatching of all but one opponent, Margarid went to get backup because of jammed communications. Despite weakened from being exposed to vacuum, Kazuo climbed into an empty water tank. Inside, he found a recently-opened hole in the ceiling that led into old mining tunnels. He discovered an ancient ship stuck deep in a tunnel, […]
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Outbreak Outage
Besides having this Movement Control Order because of this virus outbreak, we also learnt last Thursday that we were going to have a water outage. The powers that be announced that it would last 3 days from Saturday to Monday. On Friday, Ain and I went looking at shops to find one that would tide us for the duration. Thanks to my colleague Rizal, we found a hardware store that sold lots of them. We spent minimum time purchasing the container, then headed back home as soon as possible. It is now Sunday morning, the container is full and standing by, and we have another 24 hours plus change left according to the waterworks maintenance schedule. So far, so good.
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