I will learn

Goodbye Google Plus

G+, You will be missed. Hundreds of friendships blossomed over there. Many carried over to other social networks. Once I attended Google’s gMalaysia Conference. There, I spoke a bit on Google Plus as the primary platform for my freelance illustration work. Here are some of my old G+ entries just for kicks.

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Spaceballs!

My 10 Best Drawlloweens

I discovered an activity called Drawlloween that someone made up to draw things daily in October in conjunction with Halloween. There is a list of topics, which you can see at my Google Photo album. Naturally, instead of spooky stuff I turned it into an absolute nerdfest. Eyeball is of course the pilot slang for an Imperial TIE fighter, just like squints are TIE interceptors, dupes TIE bombers and bright TIE Advanced. It’s actually Herman Munster reading Promethean The Created rule book. Elsewhere in the album (But not in this blog post) are Michael Morbius reading Vampire The Masquerade and Jacob Russell readying Werewolf The Forsaken. It’s not a nerdfest without at least one obscure G.I. Joe reference… … nor without Matt Trakker and Miles Mayhem. Barfolomew: “It’s not that we’re afraid, far from it, it’s just that we’ve got this thing about death… It’s not us.” How many XPs […]

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I should have also drawn the Lawgiver

Day of Dredd

Earlier this week there was a drive via online social networks for a sequel of 2012’s film Dredd starring Karl Urban as Judge Dredd. Known as Day of Dredd, there were many posts and tweets about it across the internet. Even Psi Judge Anderson actress Olivia Thirlby herself made a thank you video for fans who helped with this drive. Dredd was an enjoyable, very tight, very focused story with just the right balance of grittiness and the absurdness of the future social dynamics of Mega City One. Its violence is very explicit, assaulting viewers with the atrocities of the film’s villains. It sets the tone for the grimness of the situation of having Dredd and the rookie Anderson trapped in a vast but somehow claustrophobic Peach Tower residential block by Ma-Ma, the local drug lord played by Lena Headey. Of course the dire circumstances only serves to  accentuate how […]

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Human Fly 15

The Human Fly: Cornered

Here’s my second submission to Cornered blog, as curated by Calamity Jon Morris. This time it’s The Human Fly! I had issue 15 way back when which taught me that The Human Fly was a real guy in real life and there was an elevator going up the Washington Monument. Click here to view the Cornered entry! And go check out the other Cornered entries as well while you’re there! Click here to check out a larger image at deviantArt.

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Zero-G, Lightspeed, Mass Master and Energizer

Power Pack: Cornered

Power Pack is one of Sila’s favourite comic books back in the day. When I thought about submitting art to the Cornered blog where artists reproduce corner art from comic books, I figured, “Why not Power Pack?” Here they are: Alex, Julie, Jack and Katie Power! Click here for the Cornered blog entry. Click here for a larger image at DeviantArt.

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Sixty Symbols

From the Sixty Symbols Introduction page: Ever been confused by all the letters and squiggles used by scientists? Hopefully this site will unravel some of those mysteries. Sixty Symbols is a collection of videos about physics and astronomy presented by experts from The University of Nottingham. They aren’t lessons or lectures – and this site has never tried to be an online reference book. The films are just fun chats with men and women who love their subject and know a lot about it! I don’t know about you, but I am going to enjoy watching these videos. Click here to view the fascinating and easily-understood scientific talks they have there. [[image:sixty-symbols.gif:Sixty Symbols:center:0]] 

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Hishgraphics H

The Interactive Dan Brown Plot Generator

Do you wish to write and be as successful as bestselling authour of titles such as Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown? Don’t fret, because now you can thanks to Slate.com’s The Interactive Dan Brown Plot Generator. All you have to do is to select the city and then the arcane organisation whose devious plot drives the story, and voila! You have an automatically generated plot which can serve as a blurb for your back cover! I chose “Dallas” for the city, and for the ancient and mysterious organisation I picked the Kiwanis Club: An ancient puzzle at the heart of Dallas. A ruthless cult determined to protect it. A frantic race to uncover the Kiwanis Club’s darkest secret. The Forgotten Mark When world-famous Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to the Carousel Club to analyze a mysterious rune—imprinted on a gold ring lying next to […]

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Holiday by the sea - Day 1

365 Days of Stormtroopers

Thanks to the Official Star Wars Blog, I’ve come across the photo-adventures of a pair of hapless Imperial Stormtroopers on Flickr, TK-479 and TK-455, as they undergo a series of entertaining adventures. The photos are taken by Stéfan Le Dû, who will release one photo a day for a year. Some of the scenes are downright hilarious. Here is a selection: Above: This explains the anonymous messages Luke’s been receiving. It got so bad that he had to hurl his phone on the far side of Nirauan. Above: The Imperial fleet could use a few good carrier pigeons if the HoloNet craps out. Above: You can’t go on vacation without an astromech droid to navigate your camper. Above:  Do you need hats if you’re wearing friggin’ helmets? You do if you want to get the chicks on the beach. Above: He’d better get the hell out before a horse shows […]

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There’s News, And Then There’s News

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city… KUALA LUMPUR — Amid an excited Malaysian public, Proton today launched the first of three variants of its latest model, the MPV Exora.[[image:cheap_exora.jpg:Cheap car is cheap:right:0]] The ‘C’ variant (for Cheap) comes without the frills traditionally included by car companies, like engine, transmission, seats, doors, windows and steering wheel. (The other two variants, “Premium” and “Standard”, will be launched next month) Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abdin Tahir said that the MPV was designed for families which were conscious about doing things economically. “While the other two variants, with the usual package that includes items some see as ‘basic’ would be sold at around RM80,000, the ‘C’ variant is sold at below RM5,000. For more news like that visit Nose4news, a clever Malaysian news parody website. “Abominable Snowman seeks name change”? “Loss of Life main cause of death among males, females”? “Crime industry announces 400,000 job vacancies”? […]

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Garth, Imra and Rokk

They Come From The 31st Century

Every year since season 4 of Smallville, I used to check out the first few episodes to see if it grabbed me. But the novelty was gone, and even the inclusion of Kara Zor-El in season 7 wasn’t enough to sustain my attention. Season 8 however is a whole new ball game. I’ve not missed a single episode. Inclusion of new character Davis Bloom that eventually turns out to be Doomsday – which reads terribly as a concept on paper, but is pulled off adequately. A new job at the Daily Planet and a burgeoning romance with Lois – including humorous lively banter instead of the unbearable melodrama with Lana. More DC Comics characters as guest stars like Plastique and Maxima. And after the mid-season break, for the first time ever: the live action appearance of none other than the founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, flight rings and […]

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Hishgraphics H

Classic Conversation

When Shane and I start chatting, we mostly chat geeky. But sometimes it goes way up to epic. It’s about time I blogged about my usual chats with Shane This didn’t really escalate to epic level, but it’s a taste of how our conversations usually go: Hisham: Hey… what would have happened if there were no clouds at night in Gotham City? And Gordon needed to shine the batsignal? Shane: Wouldn’t it hit the atmosphere anyways? Hisham: Still needs something flat for it to project onto. Shane: Good thing Gotham is a dark, fictional city Hisham: With a flat, fictional piece of plexiglass across the sky. Shane: POLLUTION! HA! There! Axis Chemicals has been pumpin shit into the atmosphere for decades Hisham: Well, never let it be said pollution was good for nothing. Shane: This is classic Shane/Hisham convo right here. That last line? Amen. Note: Edited for clarity.

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Crew

Bridge Crew of the NCC-1701

….”No bloody -A, -B, -C or -D.” Paramount has been releasing a number of images from the new Star Trek movie, directed by J.J. Abrams the past 24 hours or so. The shooting of the movie has been kept top secret that production photos from it has been scant. This new batch of pictures have now circulated to half a dozen different sites on my RSS watch list and forums. The first I read of it was here, at AICN. Here are two photos from the deluge: Above: “I have a hunger, Jim. I want what’s inside your brain.” Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Above: “Jim, I’m a doctor… not a Rohirrim. And why do I smell weed coming from Sulu?” I’m not much of a Trekkie since Deep Space Nice ended, but my interest is piqued because the movie will be directed by J.J. Abrams, creator of Lost and Fringe – […]

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Dice

Teaching Kids to Roleplay is Only Natural

I have been GMing some very simple scenarios with Irfan. Mostly it’s been dungeon crawls through caves with traps and obstacles, trying to find his way out. Today I read this article from Geekdad written by Daniel Donaho, which has some ideas in how to make things more interesting when playing with children. Here’s an excerpt: The Early Years (4 – 7 years) Is four-years-old too young to play an RPG? Not if you have a couple of older children (say 6 or 7) play with. Of course, if you want children to abide by all the rules exactly and have a detailed knowledge of movement and encumbrance rates and initiative then you are setting yourself and the kids up for failure and a pretty uninspiring time. The focus at this age should be on the “role-playing”, rather than “roll-playing”. You need a game that will take anywhere from 20 […]

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On The Topic Of Names

Because of Wil Wheaton’s post at his blog who wished that his name could be turned into a cool analog like Cherie Priest, I decided to check out anagrams of our own names on Wordsmith.com. So as not to get too short a word in the anagram like “a” or “an” and have too many results returned, I set the maximum number of words to be 2 and the minimum number of letter in each word to be 3. For my own name I entered “Khairul Hisham” because I get zero results from my full name and I entered Ain’s full name without the ” binti”. Apparently I am MAHARISHI HULK and Ain is NONHUMAN RITUAL. Cool beans. When the maximum number of words is increased to 3, I also get HIM RAKISH HULA (can one be dashing and stylish with a hula) and HUH SHARIA MILK (so, drink up) […]

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