Atok Irfan took some fantastic night photos from the balcony of the tenth floor here, something I couldn’t have done without a tripod. You can see the Menara Maxisegar and the Menara MPAJ in the first picture. Click on the thumbnails for larger images. Thanks to Irfan’s grandfather for the beautiful photos.
Continue readingAuthor Archive: hisham
Ubuntu Adventures: Survivors of the KDE Desktop
Last time I wrote about the Linuxification of the home PC, I mentioned that I turned my Ubuntu into Kubuntu by installing the KDE desktop. It turns out I prefer the old GNOME desktop and the Nautilus file browser more, so with the command line in Terminal, sudo aptitude remove kde-desktop and POOF! A KDE holocaust. Lots of K thingamajigs were culled and removed from the operating system. We’re back to the regular Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake. Here is how my desktop looks like now: However, I did retain a couple of KDE applications which I can’t do without, survivors of the culling so to speak. Amarok Still a fantastic music organizer and player. I spent a couple of hours earlier this week reorganizing my tunes on Amarok, ensuring the ID3 tags for each music file aren’t screwed up. I used EasyTAG to edit by batch the ID3 data, and […]
Continue readingOn the Topic of New Daughters…
Gary and Amy both went out and gotten for Stephen a new baby sister! Welcome to the world, Madeline. Don’t worry about it; you’re in good hands. You have the best parents and brother to take care of you.
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Best Text Message I Got Today
Not 2 minutes ago I received the best text message today. Heck, it even might be the best text message for the last couple of weeks. It conveyed a sense of joy. I can’t stop smiling now. The message was from Teik Sing and it read: Baby Ashley-Joan was born @ 3.54am, 2.89kg, 49cm. Congrats to Teik Sing and Michelle. Now the fun (as well as the barf and poo cleanup) begins. We’re both almost at a full circle, man.
Continue readingMarvel’s Civil War in 30 Seconds
[[image:nextwave11.jpg:Warren Ellis you sly dog you….:left:0]]Civil War was announced as the Marvel Comics crossover event for 2006-2007. Written by Mark Millar and pencilled by Steve McNiven, whose art I admired since his Sentry story arc on the New Avengers and two issues of Ultimate Secret it was going to be a total revamp of how super-powered heroes will be regarded by the government and the general public in Marvel’s Earth-616. Superhero Registration Act and whatnot. I thought I wouldn’t read too much into it and get the book once it’s been collected into a trade paperback. However, issue #7 was released and it’s difficult not to hear the online rantings of almost everyone if you’re a comic book fan. Anyway if you’re not physically, psychologically or radiologically allergic to spoilers (SPOILERS! Once again in caps for your attention) check out this Civil War in 30 Seconds post from Chris’s Invincible […]
Continue readingKneel Before Bill Cosby
So there I was watching Superman 2 (the theatrical Richard Lester version, not the brand new DVD release of Richard Donner’s version) and I just realised that when the good General said the iconic line, “Kneel before Zod!!!” he really meant kneel before Bill Cosby, which is pretty cool.[[image:zodcosby.jpg:Shenanigans in Perry’s office:center:0]]
Continue readingA Couple of Checks and He’s Seaworthy
No fear of taking a leap into the deep end of the swimming pool: check No fear of submerging his entire body and head underwater with eyes open: check Ability to stay afloat without using any flotation gear: check Moving on and in the water under his own power: check No problems breathing while all of the above are occurring: check It’s official. Irfan is now ready to explore the undersea realm. (Well, not really seaworthy yet… but he really can swim.)
Continue readingNot Really The Eye of Sauron
The Eye on Malaysia is its name and we went for a trip to Taman Tasik Titiwangsa for a look and for a ride. Well, Everyone else took the ride. Ain & I did not because Irfan didn’t want to take a ride on it. We thought we might go later and at night to see the city skyline after dark, which might be beautiful. Unless there’s a citywide blackout. In which case, the lack of a pretty landscape might be the least of our problems. Here’s the Eye on Malaysia, which seem to conceptually rip off the Millennium Wheel (or the London Eye). Welcome to Malaysia. Leave your originality at the door, thank you very much.[[image:eye01.jpg:It’s plainly labeled:center:0]] You can hardly contain the excitement of riding the giant, vertical metal merry-go-round. I’ve never heard anyone referring to it as a Ferris wheel at all which saddened me.[[image:eye02.jpg:The Expeditionary Force:center:0]] […]
Continue readingNot Usually Found On Roads
So the other night I saw something on the road – placed squarely flat on the asphalt – that I’ve not seen before on any roads. It was because we had to drive to Ain’s sister’s house at Taman Bukit Kinrara. We took the Middle Ring Road 2 westbound. The traffic suddenly slowed and moved as like treacle for a kilometre. Then I saw the thing I’ve not seen before on roads. The stretch of road coming downhill from Cheras bent to the right, squeezing between the Giant Supermarket at Connaught and the great big Chinese cemetery. There were people – drivers who had stopped – standing near it, and they too were standing on the road and not on the curb – not that there was a curb by the side of the road. The thing on the road wasn’t big nor small, but it was noticeable enough under […]
Continue readingBut Dopey He Aint, Thankfully
So I arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from Bangalore by way of Chennai (which I was told used to be called Madras, by the way) at around 1540 hours this morning. I was early enough to jama’ qasar my Isha’ with my Maghrib before Subuh began. Tonight while putting him to bed, Ain & I came to the conclusion that Irfan (like most kids his age) are 2/7th (or 0.28571429) of the Seven Dwarves (as told by what is now known as the Disney Company). Why? Cause he’s both Grumpy and Sleepy at the same time when fighting his lethargy.
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On The Way To Work At Bangalore
From the hotel to Yelahanka Air Force Station, I took a cab. For three days I took the same cab. It was a four wheel drive vehicle. The driver’s name was Mallesh. I had his cellular phone number and when I heard it rang there was a Tamil song on the other end. It was he who sent me to the airport after everything was over. And I was happy with his service. Anyway it takes an hour (and sometimes almost two if traffic’s really jammed up) to reach Yelahanka from the hotel and vice versa. I took plenty of photos over the course of several days. Here is a small collection of them. Bear in mind that my travels never took me anywhere near the city of Bangalore (unless it was the trip to and from the airport) so it was mostly rural countryside photos and small towns along […]
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Arrival At India
Two Friday nights ago, I got a call saying I had to be in Bangalore by Tuesday for work reasons. I said there was no way for me to get the visa and ticket done for me to be there by that time, so Tuesday was postponed to Thursday. Visa was impossible to obtain on a weekend. The following Monday, the preparation to obtain the visa (a set of three photographs, etc.) was done. However, since we also had to take Irfan to the doctor’s that morning, there was no time to reach the Indian High Commission by noon to submit the visa application form. After that, with Ain’s help I booked the ticket to Bangalore (by way of Chennai). On Tuesday, I spent from morning to the afternoon waiting for my number to be called so I could submit my application form to the counter at the High Commission. […]
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Alternate Universe Irfan’s School Friends
If Schrödinger’s cat meowed in a totally opposite way once upon a time, Irfan would have had totally different school friends from the ones he has now. So, I’ve tried taking photos by tripping the light fantastic (after a fashion) and using quantum visual camera with the Heisenberg compensators at level two. What I got was a series of photos of Irfan playing at friends’ house as if I’d never choose to leave my old job and move to Kuala Lumpur. Very interesting.
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Irfan Goes To Cherating
For the Thaipusam / Federal Territory Day holidays, we went for a free night’s stay (plus one extra night of paid stay) at a resort at Cherating in Pahang. It was not realy in Cherating, but further up north towards Chukai, in the seaside hamlet of Chendor. (Don’t ask about all the ‘Ch’ names at the towns there, I don’t get it either.) It was a resort by the sea, pretty clean, homey and had a relaxing atmosphere. I’m gonna let the pictures tell the stories and I’ll be over there listening to MP3s if anyone needs me. By the way, the free night stay was an belated anniversary and birthday present to us from Cik Emma. Many thanks to her for booting us out of the house so we can enjoy some fresh air outside the city. Irfan loved the bedsheets. After discovering the superb swimming pool, we had […]
Continue readingTok & Opah Irfan Comes A-visiting
Last Saturday, my parents (also known as Irfan’s Grandparents) came to spend several days with us. It was the first time, they saw Irfan all dressed up ready to go to school with his memory bag prepared for battle. It was also fun for them to be seeing Irfan spelling out words, writing the alphabet and reciting bedtime and mealtime doas. His claim that W was an inverted M is quite amusing.[[image:zippy01.jpg:Watching TV:center:0]] Sunday morning, Ain, Irfan and I took Tok & Opah Irfan for a visit at Sungai Congkak. Irfan as usual loved the river and liked seeing leaves go over the rocks in the river. I also showed him beautiful blue dragonflies, water skimmers and vibrant, green algae growing out of roots of the tall trees at the riverbank. Tok Irfan took some great photos.[[image:zippy03.jpg:Irfan on the rocks:center:0]][[image:zippy02.jpg:Good luck getting me out of the water:center:0]] Irfan also had […]
Continue readingIt’s That Double Celebration Time of the Year Again…
… where I wish my sister Sila a very happy birthday and my parents (and Irfan’s grandparents) a very happy anniversary, both from Irfan, Ain & me. May this year bring more joy and happiness into their lives. They’ve been the best family ever and I wouldn’t want my life with them in the past 34 years to be different in any way whatsoever.
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