If you had asked me 10 years ago or so, I would say my new experiences will be declining gradually the older I grew. There would be less chances for me to do new things. I am pleased to report that I was wrong. In the last year or so I have been involved in a number of things I never thought I would be involved in with regards to my professional life. Last weekend I accompanied the entire language department for an Enhancement Workshop. The workshop was held at a hotel on Langkawi Island. It had been some time since I was at Langkawi and we have not been there since moving to Perlis. The ferry ride took an hour and they played a Jackie Chan movie on the cabin screens. I think there was a lion in a sports car or something? I fell asleep en route as […]
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Tabletop Games Expo at UniMAP
After almost two years in Perlis, there arose an opportunity to host a tabletop game exhibition here at the university. Gray, a gamer I knew and interacted with online back in Kuala Lumpur, planned a KakiTabletop Northern Tour. This tour would take his team and himself from KL to Taiping to Prai to Penang to Perlis and back down to Ipoh before returning to the Klang Valley. We thought it would be great to hold a tabletop gaming exhibition to introduce tabletop games – boardgames, card games and role-playing games – to the students of this university and the local community. If you remember I even once ran Mini Six for one of my classes last semester as a speaking exercise. After proposing the event to the Centre for International Languages, we had the green light to go ahead. With the help of colleagues, we scheduled the Tabletop Games Expo […]
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Some Sort of Translation Workshop
Then it came to pass that I have to present a talk at the department’s inaugural Basic Translation Workshop. Public speaking is not something that comes to me easily. Despite all the training afforded to be by over 25 years of gamemastering, it still affects me negatively as I was extremely introverted growing up. I did not know whether it felt more harrowing about to give a talk to strangers… or to people I know, such as my fellow workmates here in this case. After several days burning the midnight oil producing the slides and rehearsing, it was time for me to dive into the deep end of the pool. I was creating new slides less than 30 minutes before the talk was scheduled to begin! And I would not have be able to do it without the help, suggestions and support of my colleagues in our Translation and Language […]
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Lost in Translation
We had two weeks to spend in Kuala Lumpur because of my course. Let’s get the unpleasantness out of the way first: I had the flu for two days in the first week, then three in the second. It was unpleasant not just because I felt like a popsicle all day but also because it was expensive, but I did not miss a day of class. During the weekend that marked the midpoint of our adventure in KL, we spend the night at Kak Nor’s house where Irfan played to his heart’s content with his cousins! On Sunday, I went to continue the Modesty Blazing Star Wars Edge of the Empire campaign, picking up where we left off 14 months ago when I still lived in the city. Ain and Irfan bought a Corellian VCX-100 freighter which I put to good use during the game earlier. So the intensive translation […]
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Set Course For The City
And so it was that the workplace booked me on a two week course. The course was to be held back in Kuala Lumpur. You know the city: Irfan’s kampung. We drove southbound and spent the night in Sitiawan before continuing on to Kuala Lumpur after a breakfast with Irfan’s Atok and Opah. We stopped at Sekinchan at a restaurant where lunch was to be had on what appeared to be a kotatsu. A novel thing, and it helped that the food was delicious. We arrived in the city and headed for Cikma’s place where we rendezvoused with every sibling of Ain (and their family) where Irfan was reunited with his cousin Aiman once more. Then after, we headed for the building where the course was held way across town from Cikma’s place. Ain had discovered that the place had accommodations for course attendees and they were affordable. Because of […]
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Hi New New Office
After a week or so of having no office while hardware transportation was being carried out, I have finally moved into the new new office out in the boonies. It is a bit warmer than the old new office, but I do get fresh air. But only if I open the window. And only if there is no life-choking haze from the evil Malaysian agricorps burning the Indonesian jungles across the strait.
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Bye Old New Office
This was the office I was assigned to in the last 8 months or so. Now it has been cleared out – no more books and RPGs on the shelves – as the entire department is moving from town to deep in the boonies.
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What? A Nasyid?
Way, way out from the left field comes a blog post about nasyid. I was assigned to sing in the department’s nasyid group for an interdepartmental nasyid competition despite not having to sing in public since 1987. Here is a screen capture of a video of our singing, which is linked below. We took a team photo after our performance. Ain took the video, some photos and lent her support. The team ended up at fifth place out of twenty, which meant that my unholy, discord screeches were not strong enough to pull the team down. Check out the video of the team’s performance here. After 15 years of eking out a meagre living in the city, I am now starting to live in stranger – more enjoyable times.
Continue reading82 Months
82 months of Yaya! [[image:2015-yaya82month-13.jpg:Yaya and Adik:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions I’m feeling pretty proud of myself in that it’s not yet the middle of July (only the end of June) when I’m writing this entry! I will count this as a win! 🙂 May was another full month. We were in Florida for work the beginning of May and we also ended May in Florida. Which was a lot of fun (albeit tiring). I’m trying to keep the pictures in the monthly entries less beachy and have some beach-related entries, but there are a few that may have crept in to this entry because I liked them so much. Food status: No new foods. ‘Nuff said. Reading status: Yaya may even be reading some words faster than Adik! Go Yaya! She still spends a lot of time doing art and definitely enjoys doing arts and crafts. […]
Continue readingScenic Silver Springs
While we were in Ocala, Florida on a work trip, the local colleagues recommended that we visit Silver Springs, Florida and try out the glass bottom boats. So that is what we did! It was not far from our hotel (one town over) and quite convenient, and as it turned out, it was really really amazing! We all loved it! So here are some pictures. [[image:2015_silversprings_36.jpg:Silver Springs State Park:center:0]] OK, here are a lot of pictures! We weren’t there more than a few hours but it really was very cool. We would definitely go again if we had the chance, to experience the glass bottom boat again. * Mouse over the pictures for captions We start with some photos that we took while waiting for the next glass bottom boat tour to begin. [[image:2015_silversprings_01.jpg:Hanging out on a bench:center:0]] [[image:2015_silversprings_02.jpg:Bit bundled up as although it was sunny it was in the […]
Continue readingRafe – 37 Months
Adik is 37 months old! [[image:2015-adik37month-09.jpg:Winky boy!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions As mentioned in last month’s entry, we are now moving to the smaller entry for Adik, where we just round up his month and choose photos from the entire month rather than documenting how he spent the actual day. However, yes, I am finding it difficult to limit myself. So for this month’s photos, I have included a few from his birthday trip to the Boonshoft (Dayton Children’s Museum). But before we go to the photos, the monthly roundup. Food status: still good. He tries stuff, likes Asian food, even asks to go to the Straits of Malacca (which warms the cockles of this Malaysian girl’s heart) and comes running for noodles. However, he does seem to be anti-fruit and anti-vegetable. Argh. He does eat veggies if it’s in the noodles or in his favorite Vietnamese […]
Continue reading78 Months
And so, the girl is six and a half years old! 78 months of Yaya! [[image:2015-yaya78month-09.jpg:In the sun:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions January turned out to be a crazy busy month! I started a new project at work and had my first solo trip away from Vin and the kids (to California!) so that was exciting, thrilling, scary, dramatic, disturbing and in the end, not as painful as we anticipated! In the end, the kids are getting older and do not need their Mama around 24/7 any more. However, it was quite an adjustment for everyone. But on top of this, we had Adik’s birthday party, and we spent almost 2 weeks in Ocala, Florida for the new project with side trips to Silver Springs and St. Augustine Beach. So it was a very busy month and also a fun month! Food status – sadly, due to […]
Continue reading76 Months
76 months of Yaya! [[image:2014-yaya76month-01.jpg:Bloooooooooooood:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions OK since it is almost January as I sit to write this entry, I feel like I can barely remember what November was like. It was busy. We spent two weeks in Tampa, Florida (including another quick Clearwater Beach getaway), then it was Thanksgiving and we had a houseguest and went to Elkhart, Indiana. So it was a busy busy month. Reading status: no change. Still the same. We are still trying to gently encourage her. She does like it when we read to her. It will come together for her, inshallah. Food status: Yaya tried a few more things in November. This includes:* croissants (she’d tried this before but for breakfast at the Hilton Clearwater Beach, she ate them like crazy, dipped in butter)* fresh juiced orange juice (Becky has a juicer and Yaya helped prepare the […]
Continue readingHalloween 2014 Spooktacular
So since dressing up in costumes is one of Yaya’s favorite things to do, Halloween is something she has been looking forward to for a while. Despite the non-candy-eating child that she is, she loves to go trick or treating and we often play “trick-or-treat” games at home. So here are our Halloween photos! [[image:2014_halloween_15.jpg:Jack-o-lantern says Boo!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions This entry is organized into three sections: 1. Trying out costumes2. Let’s carve a pumpkin!3. Trick or treat! So we begin with trying out costumes. The plan was to have Adik wear Yaya’s old Tiny Pteranodon costume from 2011. Yaya wanted to be a witch. So we are trying the costumes: [[image:2014_halloween_01.jpg:Yaya Witch watches Adik Pteranodon flap his wings:center:0]] [[image:2014_halloween_17.jpg:Yaya Witch complete with broomstick, Adik Pteranodon’s head is starting to fall off:center:0]] [[image:2014_halloween_18.jpg:Happy Yaya while Adik fiddles with his costume:center:0]] So then Adik said enough and […]
Continue readingRafe’s 34 Month Birthday
Two more months until Adik turns 3! He is now at his 34th month! Whee! [[image:2014-adik34month-01.jpg:Adik loves the Nutella jar!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Adik’s reading skills just seem to keep improving. He is retaining words and recognizing them again. He is also able to approximate the sounds of words that he is not familiar with by looking at the letters. We are constantly amazed by the words that he knows. He loves reading the names of the authors and titles of my books, for instance, and so it did amuse me when he read “The Causal Angel” by “Hannu Rajaniemi” with no issues when I pulled it out of the amazon box. Speech-wise, Adik continues to speak in complete sentences and is more and more expressing his own ideas. He now joins in our conversations about the dreams we had at night (sometimes what he says […]
Continue reading75 Months
75 months of the girl! [[image:2014-yaya75month-09.jpg:Yaya smiles in the shadows and light:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions October has been pretty action packed. We have been back and forth to and from the new gig (Tampa, Florida) twice in October, and everyone is pretty much travel weary by now. But Yaya and the Adik have done well, despite all the carting around. We managed a weekend getaway to the beach (more later), Vin attended a wedding and we saw some friends, and of course there was Halloween. Busy month all around. In the food status section, Yaya has also had an action filled month of trying new foods! She tried: * Superman flavored ice-cream (red / yellow / blue kind of berry or tutti frutti sort of flavor)* Blueberry pie (she liked mostly the filling but was surprisingly not fond of the crust)* Fresh Blueberry (she did not […]
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