Once upon a time, I bought a Wacom Graphire 3 graphics tablet. With its stylus I made many a drawing, til its USB cable died screaming. Actually it died quite some years ago. In the interim, @plasticstitch had told me he had an unused Bluetooth-connected Graphire tablet and sent it by air mail to me where I made many more drawings. This device acted finicky with a Linux operating system, and I was using an Ubuntu distro. One day I upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 by dint of installing the Ubuntu fork named ArtistX 1.0, and the device refused to talk via Bluetooth to the tablet. Today I bought a new tablet, a Wacom Bamboo Pen. Its matte-black housing looks sleeker than the silver-hued Graphire. I’d prefer to have purchased a Wacom Cintiq 24HD, but the Bamboo Pen is the only one I could spare cash on. Incidentally it’s the cheapest […]
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Five Years Already?
Exactly five years ago Vin and Sila got married. Happy fifth anniversary, you guys! May you guys be blessed with another hundred thousand centuries of happiness, and then some.
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Edumacation. Make it Happen.
One thing about looking for rezeki in Malaysia at my age, it’s difficult to do so without at least an undergraduate degree or a diploma, and I have neither. Although I have experience in some fields, I don’t have any official certificate telling potential employers that it’s worth paying me whatever amount of money a month to do whatever job. I’ve had potential employers tell me during job interviews that I have the skills they need but they’re unable to hire me because I had no degree. Some HR requirement standards or some such. I have tried to obtain one before, but it was in a field that I should have taken when I was younger and had no work and family commitments to think about. So I’m back in the game, pursuing another type of degree. One which I believe is better suited for me at my age, which […]
Continue readingHappy Birthday to my Favorite Brother!
Happy birthday to you,Happy birthday to you,Happy birthday dear Yooooooope (that’s Hisham, in case you were wondering),Happy birthday to you! You are my most favoritest brother in the whole galaxy! Happy 437th! And a p.s. Happy belated birthday to Yong as well. Sorry lewat again.
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An Awesome Trip To The National Museum!
I haven’t been to the Muzium Negara this century. So we thought we’d take a drive there with Irfan who has requested a visit there for several weeks now. Unfortunately someone (well, two humans) made an illegal u-turn at a stop-light, causing the column of cars behind them to brake immediately. It was no problem for us, really. I braked on time. However, the guy behind us did not. But I’m thankful, cause this is quite a minor fender-bender. A quick talk, and we’re off again. No fuss, no muss. I mean, it’s not like it’s a major accident which causes a person to break their leg, blood everywhere with bones sticking out of wounds at odd angles. Or an accident that strips the skin and flesh off the shin of a person. Or an accident that smashes a person’s patella, requiring many surgery session to remove the small bits […]
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Ashley’s Sister Emma Auspiciously Arrives
Let’s all welcome young Emma-Grace Ting ChangXin who was born on 26th October, at 3.555 kg and 51.5 cm. News has it her big sister Ashley-Joan has already requested to carry and help feed her. Congrats to Michelle and Teik Sing!
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Irfan’s Fighting Fish
Our recent foray back to Kelantan during Aidilfitri rewarded Irfan with a new responsibility. A Siamese fighting fish, given to him by his Tok Cik Mi. I told him don’t, because the car is not really equipped to physically hold a live fish travelling eight hours at night, rocking and rolling over the mountain road. Irfan would be (and was) asleep for most of the trip because of our nocturnal journey. Despite all that, the fish survived all the way to Kuala Lumpur. The following week, it survived a two-way journey between Kuala Lumpur and Sitiawan, which was nothing compared to its previous adventure. Today, Irfan and I went to an aquarium shop and bought some stuff to beautify the fish’s otherwise spartan living environment. What else does a fish need in its aquarium? A phone extension? Hair curlers? Drapes?
Continue readingShudde M’ell Loves You
As Ain and I was walking on the beach on Lumut, we spotted this little creature on the sand. It had been deposited at the high tide mark, and it was presently low tide. Since the sun was about to climb into its maximum scorching position, I balanced the little dude on a driftwood twig and dropped it into a stream that flowed out to the sea. Any ideas as to what this worm is? [[image:annelid01.jpg::center:0]] [[image:annelid02.jpg::center:0]] Wherever it came from, I hope it didn’t leave its kettle on when it left home.
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Yellow Avian Mascot at Work
When we first found the new office after some scouting last December, there was a bird hanging about, chirping its song at the rear window of the place. It was mostly yellow with black markings. Its eyes were red with black pupils. More often than not, it’s been there each morning or afternoon whenever I’m at work. Any idea what species this critter is?
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And Now For A Word
We interrupt your regularly unscheduled pogrom (you know the one I’m talking about) to bring you the latest news. It’s more of a picture of where I’m working, rather than the news. It’s a photo of where I’m currently working from… at this moment… while monitoring stuff. Now that’s roughing it. Also, don’t ask how I’m connected to the interwebs.
Continue readingIn Ike’s Path
You’ve all heard about Ike and the devastation it wreaked in Texas and other places. Well, Ike came through here last Sunday. It was very strange – bright sunny day, and huge wind gusts. We lost power around 2 or 3 PM, and when my wireless router finally conked out after the TV and all other appliances died, we felt totally cut off from the world. Never mind that we still had the phone and the cell phones. It just felt so weird. Luckily Vin has a little battery operated transistor radio – we caught the end of the Reds game (very windy there too!) and then at the post-game program, heard that over 700,000 Duke Energy customer had lost power. That translated to about 1.5 million people in the Greater Cincinnati area without electricity. Also that the wind gusts translated to a Category 1 hurricane, basically. Can you imagine […]
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Packed Lunch is Packed
After only bring in sandwiches for snacks at kindergarten, Irfan brought an awesome looking packed lunch in his schoolbag which consisted of awesome meehoon goreng that Ain fried earlier in the morning He finished it off at lunch. I love the little fork and spoon set attached!
Continue readingA Letter To The United States
I don’t usually write long letters nowadays thanks to the internet, which allows you to communicate immediately to family and friends with concise information almost everyday, if need be. This has the result of never requiring to long letters to tell other people the various things that happen to you in a single long document. Recently I’ve had to write a pretty long email to Irfan and Alya’s Atok and Opah who are still in Ohio playing with little Alya. I should try to summarize the email here, however I will just let you read an excerpt from it. From the Federal Highway we decided to take the Sprint elevated highway that would cut across the University Malaya hills to PJ. As we went up the highway a speed sensor tagged the car in front of us at 65kph. It moved sideways into the left lane and slowed down. The […]
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Welcome Alya Jean Renstrom
Last night Vin called to tell us that Sila has given birth to a beautiful baby daughter named Alya Jean Renstrom weighing 8.9 lbs at 10.39am Eastern Standard Time at the Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, Ohio. Truckloads of congratulations to Vin and Sila. Sila is fine and I talked to her as well over the phone last night, but she’s still in the hospital and Opah Alya’s her company for the night until Vin and Atok Alya return the next morning. I’d like to have waited for photos to announce the birth, but I’m late announcing it as it is. Again, congratulations!
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This Summer’s Opera Report
Unlike last year, this summer we did not purchase season tickets to the Cincinnati Opera. Not because we didn’t want to go to the opera or anything, but since opera season is during the summer, and since the baby might be presenting his/herself right smack during the opera season, we decided to play it by ear. As it was, I had to convince Vin that if we went to the opera in June, we would STILL make it to the hospital if I went into labor. 😉 We went to see Madame Butterfly in mid-June. It was gorgeous, and beautifully performed, and at the end I cried and cried (of course). No sign of labor. 😛 We had seen a performance of it with Mei and Colin in England (community theater version) and so we were familiar with the story and the music. But this performance, done by professionals, really […]
Continue readingWTF???
And I say it again…WTF?? This creature has been wandering the backyards of our neighborhood in the last few weeks. Where did it come from? Why is it here? Why hasn’t it been caught and made into dinner????? It’s pooping on our driveway, big old tahi ayam crap! Whose up for a good chase? Grrrrrr… [[image:chicken1.jpg:Chicken in the backyard:center:0]] [[image:chicken2.jpg:Close Up of said chicken:center:0]] As a consequence, we had to stop putting out birdseed for the birds and squirrels since this chicken was taking advantage of it. Grrrrrr
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