He Had A Sword

[[image:hirosword.jpg:Meanwhile back in Las Vegas:center:0]] Actor Masi Oka, who plays Hiro Nakamura (the character of the new NBC series Heroes) is one lucky guy. Not only does he play the only character on the show reacting positively to his superpowers (with the abilities to freeze time and time travel), but you should read what his day job is when he’s not acting. I am at awe.

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Starfleet Officers

From Thirteen Years Ago

Sometimes rummaging through your old stuff that you haven’t touched for years can surprise you in a good way. Yesterday, upon cleaning house I stumbled across three artwork of mine which I made back in 1993, several thousand years before my first foray into the digital medium. Click on the titles to view them in their entirety on deviantArt.

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After That We Took Some Pictures

A belated Eid Mubarak from Ain’s kampung at Pondok Lubok Tapah, Pasir Mas. We spent a week here, and had plenty of good food to eat. The morning of Aidilfitri, Tok Ma made Nasi Dagang – Terengganu Style – but there are no pictures of that. The second day, Ain made Laksa Johor and there are no pictures of that either. For most of the rest of the week we didn’t travel out much because of the horrific traffic jams which were practically everywere. We didn’t even go to Kota Bharu, which didn’t mean we didn’t try. After the Aidilfitri prayers that morning we took some photos. Irfan put on his best action hero intense look. [[image:eid_pmas01.jpg:Intense Look of an Action Hero:center:0]] More family photos: [[image:eid_pmas02.jpg:Irfan with Tok Bah:center:0]] [[image:eid_pmas03.jpg:Family:center:0]] [[image:eid_pmas04.jpg:Irfan’s maternal family:center:0]] Later Irfan and I took a walk outside in the yard and the sun gave ample opportunity […]

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And Now For A Word… Or Four

Today is the last day of Ramadhan and tomorrow is Aidilfilti. We’ve just had our last sahur for the year and now the sun is slowly rising in the cool morning air of Irfan’s Tok Bah’s house here in the outskirts of Pasir Mas. We arrived here at noon yesterday, commandeering Irfan’s Atok’s car which he left with us before flying off to Ohio earlier this week. As you can see they’re having lots of fun (and awesome food) in the previous post. We planned on beating the massive holiday traffic by leaving long before the terminator crosses our location, at 0300, or 0330 at the latest early Sunday morning. Unfortunately we woke up at after 0400 because of the amount of work done the previous day taxed us physically. (Damaged car tyre was switched with the spare and we assembled a new bookcase, which I hope will be left […]

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On To The Far Side Of The Planet

Tok and Opah Irfan boarded the flight that would take them to Singapore, then hopskip to Tokyo, Chicago and finally Cincinnati where Ayah Cik and Cik Dik would be waiting to bring them to their house in Middletown, OH for a month at the United States. This would be their second time in the US. To prevent being late for the flight because of breaking of fast, we left after 6 PM from the Tenth Floor, headed for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) which is strangely enough a million light years away from KL, but maybe that’s a subject for another entry. We broke sawm driving through Putrajaya and ate dinner after Mahgrib prayers at the Dengkil R&R on the PLUS Highway. And no, I didn’t need to pick my teeth en route. Anyway… pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words: [[image:kliasendoff01.jpg:Irfan recharging for his high energy expenditure […]

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Irfan at Centrepoint

Centrepoint Bandar Utama, that is. While waiting for his mother to finish work, Irfan took the time doing his usual thing, running about amongst the greenery and going up and down the escalators. I thought I’d put the camera phone to good use. One thing I’ll say for Centrepoint’s garden is it’s really well kept. Shame about the crap people throw into the koi pond, though. [[image:cpoint01.jpg:Going down:center:0]] [[image:cpoint02.jpg:Coming up:center:0]] [[image:cpoint03.jpg:Running up the ramp from the basement car park:center:0]] [[image:cpoint04.jpg:Sitting still long enough for a camera shot:center:0]] [[image:cpoint05.jpg:Playing on the rocks in the garden:center:0]] [[image:cpoint06.jpg:Jumping rock to rock on the artificial waterway:center:0]]

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The Sixth Year

It’s been six years since Ain & I were married. More than 10 years since we first met. Overall it’s been a great six years. It wasn’t a perfect six years. It’s been one hell of a rollercoaster for this and that reasons. But I’m still in love with her as much as the days before we were married, and I feel some measure of pride over the life we’ve built. For that I am very grateful to the Almighty for His joys, including the one known as Irfan Shafiq. There is probably many more years of riding this rollercoaster, but I hope we’ve learnt much and matured enough to allow us to determine what’s important in life, endure the ride and make the right decisions. [[image:anniv2006.jpg:Happy Sixth Anniversary To Us:center:0]]

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Giant Purple Dinosaur? Not Really

In the Jann Tosh / Mon Julpa story arc of the Droids series the heroes encounter a 3-metre tall monster called a durkii in a dungeon pit, not surprising since the durkii was apparently a pet of the evil Tammuz-an vizier Zatec-Cha. It was large, purple and had an unpleasant demeanour, but had no stats. I hope this entry rectifies that oversight. At least in D6 terms. [[image:durkii01.jpg:Purple Dino?:right:0]] Durkii Type: Large bipedal predatorScale: CreatureDEX 2D Bite attack 2D+2 Tail swipe 5D+1PER 3D Search 4D+2STR 4D+2 Brawl 5D+1Special abilities:Bite: Damage STR+1DTail: Damage STR+1Talons: Damage STR+2 [[image:durkii03.jpg:Playing with Artoo:left:0]]Capsule: The durkii is a large purple-skinned creature that walks upright on two legs and has a tail that ends in a hard, flat surface, which it uses as a weapon against an enemy or a prey. It is known be a fearsome and ruthless predator. However, it is also believed that the […]

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Meanwhile on Taris…

[[image:zayne01.jpg:Zayne Carrick:left:0]]I’ve never played Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) computer game before, where I’ve read Taris was first featured. However, when I heard Dark Horse Comics would be producing the Knights of the Old Republic series on four-colour print, I was dubious. Reading through the first story arc of the series written by John Jackson Miller entitled “Commencement”, I discovered that in terms of numerous minute elements in the story, this series has the most Original Trilogy Star Wars flavour in comics. The story is simple, a young Padawan Zayne Carrick, part of the Jedi Academy on the city world Taris in the Outer Rim, isn’t the best of Padawans. In fact he’s been screwing up task after task on one assignment: to capture small time Snivvian black marketeer Marn Heirogryph, who believes Zayne has the ability to leave behind wreckage strewn after him. Unfortunately for Zayne and his […]

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Blue Harvest

Blue Harvest

I’m a bit late for last month’s SWAG Theme Art Contest, entitled “Blue Harvest”. The subject matter alludes to the working title for the movie Return of the Jedi during its filming, to throw rabid Star Wars fans off its trail. It’s also the name of a fanzine in the early 90s, which I contributed some art and writing to. So what’s blue and likely to be harvested in the Star Wars universe? To view a bigger image, check out its entry at deviantArt.

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Frack! Is Today Friday?

Cause if it is, it’s time to get back home to the starboard landing bay. It’s time to find out what happens to people left with the rag tag fugitive fleet and on the Cylon-occupied New Caprica. The last ten minutes of the previous season’s finale was quality mindfrack. Because of the total tangency to the status quo last episode, I can see this being the best season premiere or the worst season premiere ever. [[image:bsg_bay01.jpg:LSO better be doin’ his job:center:0]] The odds are certainly against it sucking. So say we all. Update Oct 09 2006: Occupation and Precipice – A Non-Spoilerific Review Those were the two most intense episodes side by side ever. Characters: One of the best ensemble cast ever, where everyone (even minor characters like Jammer and Duck) has something to do that adds dramatic tension to the storyline. There must be almost two dozen regular and […]

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More Fodder For My Viewing List

When I have time to spare, I don’t really sit down and watch TV like I used to in days of old. So I haven’t seen every new series that’s come out on TV this season, but two’s caught my eye so far: Heroes and Dexter. Rising Stars on TV? [[image:heroes01.jpg:I believe I can fl- … be a smudge in the alley:left:0]]”Rising Star” refers to the comic series written by J. Michael Straczynski. A number of people in the world, mostly unrelated to each other seem to be developing different superhuman abilities, such as flight, accelerated healing, precognition, telepathy and teleportation. And there seem to be a conspiracy behind the entire affair which has yet to be revealed. Each has his or her own story – a small part of a puzzle – which is slowly coming together with one another, forming a grand storyline which might or might not […]

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Hishgraphics H

Into the Second Week of Ramadhan

It’s now the second week of Ramadhan. If anyone asks (and you’d know the answer to this if you’ve asked me) it’s been more tiring than it’s been hungry. The myth that you’re wiped out and floored by the hunger was totally dispelled when I was fourteen and playing hockey in the mornings during fasting month. And again, when I was seventeen and whacking tennis balls against the wall after school at 3 PM in the hot sun – though I was wiped out after that. However, this year I find out I can barely stay awake after 10 PM. I wonder if it’s because of the job I’m working now. I’ve already missed 2 nights of Tarawih & Witir prayers. I remember less than 10 years ago completing a full month of them at the mosque, even. And this year, for Aidilfitri, Tok & Opah Irfan will be in […]

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A Trekkie I Was Til A Threshold I Crossed

I used to religiously catch every episode of Star Trek whenever it was on the air to watch episodes a couple of times. The Original Series. The Next Generation. Deep Space Nine. They were all my regular TV consumption. Even when I was working in the East Coast and out of the station’s broadcast area, Atok Irfan – long before he was designated Atok Irfan – taped the shows for me for my viewing when I was on my 5 days off period from work. It was during the middle of the second season of Star Trek: Voyager that I finally realised something. There were some good stories, but I discovered that I could live without watching any of the episodes. The writing on Star Trek seemed to be becoming bland, repetitive and uninsipired. Once the science fiction concepts were concise and served the stories well however hokey it might […]

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Really All It’s Quacked Up To Be

So what’s one animal you can think of that’s not a maneater, can’t overrun the entire world and physically incapable of killing humans on this planet? I’m thinking… ducks. So it came to pass I started thinking of a silly RPG sourcebook which will be available for free download named The Apocalyptic Invasion of Flesh-eating Mutant Ducks RPG, which will employ West End Games‘ D6 game engine which was used for its old Star Wars RPG system. Here’s an excerpt of what I have so far: Everything happened in less than one day. One minute everything was normal. Suddenly, in a veritable orgy of down and blood, a billion ducks turned on and attacked everything alive within their sights. It was an inconceivable massacre. Within 6 hours half of Earth’s population were overrun by quacking and pecking waterfowl and died horribly. At least a billion of these were devoured to […]

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Satellite Photos of the Tenth Floor

Once upon a time I checked what the Google Maps‘ satellite photos had of Kuala Lumpur. They weren’t pretty impressive at low resolution. Today I checked them again and I found that this is no longer the case. It’s possible to even see individual cars on the highway. Click on the thumbnail below for a picture of our apartment building and its surrounding environment. [[popup:satmap01.jpg:(thumbnail):Pandan Indah and such:center:1]] Take a look below for a close up of our building, which is the one on the left. You can even make out the swimming pool on the left side of the building. [[image:satmap02.jpg:I’m mooning the satellite, can you tell?:center:0]]

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