As of last night, the new Transformers trailer went online. This is not the fleeting 2 microsecond glimpse of a silhouette smashing the Mars Rover teaser bit which I caught in the theatre just before Garfield: Tale of Two Kitties. (Yeah, I watched Garfield. Shut up in the back there.) This one shows a whole bunch of Cybertronian aliens, in various modes and transforming. There’s even a shot of the protoform stasis pod crashing down. I am happily surprised that there are no loud rock and / or rap music in the trailer to mark the movie as “cool” to the teens. It’s just a bunch of quick cuts of… well, lots of bits that made me and Irfan very happy as we went to bed last night. It’s not an adaptation of any of the Transformers sub-universes. I’m not even going to go “But Megatron was a gun!” or […]
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Rabies anybody?
While Abah and Mak were visiting with us last year, Abah took an avid interest in the wildlife around here. Here’s a squirrel eating from the container of seeds Vin puts out for the squirrels and the birds. I hope it doesn’t have rabies. 😀
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Irfan Goes To School – After A Fashion
Irfan is now registered as a Standard 1 student at Sekolah Kebangsaan Pandan Indah. He is in fact the 32nd student to be registered at the school for the 2009 intake. There were a few observations that we made about the school when we registered him there today. The school staff seem to prefer Waja as their vehicle of choice. Note to self: Find out why their preference seem to be similar. Is it because of something sinister like a Nyarlathotep cult-like thing that permeates the school? Or is Proton trying very hard to market their cars to teachers? School administration offices appear to look exactly the same anywhere in the country. Same old front desk counter, clerk tables, sofa for visitors and even the cluster of potted plants, which all looks eerily familiar for both Ain and I after twenty years. Apart from the flat screen computer monitors, I […]
Continue readingIn a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 7
After our Grand Canyon outing, we returned to the Embassy Suites hotel in Flagstaff. I forgot to say that not only was Vin’s and my room freezing (the heater was on the fritz), but there was absolutely no hot water. I had taken a VERRRRY cold shower that morning. Luckily the hot water was fixed when we got back, and the heater was sort of working (meaning instead of the room temperature being equal to the freezer temperature, it was about a very cold refrigerator temperature, which coupled with the 20 F night time temperatures (-5 C) did not sit well with us. But at least we didn’t have to wear our winter coats inside our room. Anyway, after good night’s sleep, we got ready for another day of sightseeing. We had breakfast at the complimentary hot breakfast (yayyy scrambled eggs and hash brown potatoes!) before setting off. Basically, we […]
Continue readingIn a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 6
Apologies for the long delay, and finally the continuation of our Southwestern Road Trip. On Day 6, after a cold evening at the Embassy Suites in Flagstaff (Mak and Abah’s room was ok, but our room was freeeeeeezing cold), we went for a day long trip to the Grand Canyon. The Embassy Suites complimentary breakfast was, however, one of the better breakfasts we’d had during our trip! Fresh, made-to-order scrambled eggs, omelets, french toast, etc. What’s not to like? At any rate, the South Rim of the Grand Canyon was about an hour north of Flagstaff, so we set off after breakfast for our Grand Canyon outing. [[image:us252.jpg:Route from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon:center:0]] We got pretty excited when we saw signs and we got closer to the Grand Canyon. [[image:us242.jpg:Grand Canyon in IMAX:center:0]] The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was already closed to tourists for the winter, and because […]
Continue readingWhat Kind of Rich are You?
If you’re a rich person (with more than a couple of grand in cash handy at the bank, able to invest in businesses, buy houses and yachts and other assorted rich guy items), which among these three categories of the financially wealthy do you belong to? Getting rich is a means to an end, which is to help as many people as possible. Getting rich is a means to an end, which would be an uncontrollable sociopathic urge to hurt and leech more from people around you. Getting rich is THE end itself and you’ll do everything to get there, ensure your security to this end even if others around you get hurt. Here are my messages to people of each of the above categories respectively: Keep up the good work. How are you breathing air outside of a Saturday morning cartoon? When the fecal biomatter hits the rotating impellers, […]
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Best Office Space Ever
So after the exam today I headed down to 1 Utama with the new laptop. Using the mall’s WLAN I was on the internet browser connected to the office via Skype in seconds, replying emails, as well as checking up on the work forum. I also took the picture above using the lappy’s 1.3 megapixel webcam, just for the heck of it. By the way if you’re hard up for wireless internet, the benches right in front of the MPH bookstore (top floor) is information supersluice tube. Bathrooms and surau are close by. Who knows… you might even find yourself in a conversation with a friendly passer-by which ends with you yelling at the top of your voice, “Yeah! This is future of office work baby! Go back into your sunless cryp- er, I mean office and sulk!” Meanwhile not far away, a dogfight between an Incom Corporation T-65C-A2 and […]
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For Lack of A Better Game
So out of watching four episodes of Heroes in a single night , a game between Ain and Emma was born. The first to yell out “TIM KRING!” whenever his name came out onscreen wins. That’s eight times in three hours. Once during the short intro and the other when the Executive Producer name appears during the story after the intro… each episode. Not as easy as you might think. You get caught up in the teaser, someone’s bound to forget to yell immediately when the name appears. “TIM KRING!”
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In the Space of Forty Odd Years
I can’t believe it’s been 43 years between the two images below. Both show the same characters. The first was illustrated by the late great Jack Kirby in 1963 ten years before I was born. The second was drawn by Yanick Paquette in 2006. The first has the members of the original class of Xavier’s school horsing around during training – still in their teens. The second shows the same group of people years later – older, wiser and scarred aplenty – just after the events of the House of M and in the thick of the current Civil War storyline in the Marvel universe.
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Stuck in the Jam: A Matter of Taste
Whee! A webcomic! Based on a true story, even. Which happened earlier today. Director’s Commentary mode on (since most of the text is in Malay): Normanis isn’t a standard Malay-Muslim name. I’m guessing it’s an allusion to names beginning with “Nor” (or “Nur“) which is Arabic for “light”. Suddenly there’s a Malay word there “manis” which means “Sweet”. Therefore Normanis is literally Sweet Light. Of course, I’m assuming it’s a female name since I’ve never heard it before. To square off the quip, “tawar” for the conjectural husband and “pahit” for the eventual daughter respectively means “tasteless” and “bitter”. I have nothing against your name Normanis, whoever you are. But thanks for being the subject of a side-splitting off-the-cuff joke while we were stuck in a traffic jam which will no doubt be lost on readers of this entry, and I have only one excuse for all of you: “You […]
Continue readingIn a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 5
We spent the night at the Hampton Inn in Kayenta, Arizona, a very small town that boasted 3 hotels and as many restaurants. Seriously – we thought Sitiawan was small when we were growing up? Kayenta takes the cake. What we in Malaysia used to call a “cowboy town”. The reason that they even had 3 hotels in town was because of their proximity to Monument Valley Tribal Park. Which was our first destination of Day 5! So after the complimentary breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed off north towards Monument Valley. [[image:us200.jpg:22 miles from Kayenta to Monument Valley:center:0]] As we drove north to the border (Monument Valley itself is in both Utah and Arizona), we saw interesting rock formations: [[image:us197.jpg:Rock formations:center:0]] [[image:us196.jpg:Red rock formations:center:0]] If you are sitting there thinking “Monument Valley…what’s the big deal?” here’s the big deal. Aside from being a gorgeous geological wonder, […]
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Early Morning Raid at the PC Fair
Well, to be honest it wasn’t that early in the morning. It was about 10AM. And it wasn’t a raid as it was us moving slowly through the computer exhibition picking out stuff to buy after we, for the first time ever, have the budget to buy computer-related thingamajigs at one of these PC Fairs. There were no tablet PCs sold as far as I can see. Before the PC Fair opened we had a picnic at the KLCC park with the takeaway nasi lemak which we bought at the LRT Corner outdoors restaurant near the Tenth Floor Headquarters. Irfan had little to eat – just some curry puffys and teh ais. He didn’t seem to mind hunger when the super duper playground was within striking (and spitting) distance. And here’s Irfan’s favourite playground in the world, as well as a few other worlds. He calls slides the “Wheeee!” for […]
Continue readingIn a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 4
After a good night’s sleep at the Hampton Inn in Durango and the complimentary breakfast, we headed west from Durango towards Cortez, CO on the US-160. Just 35 miles west of Durango is Mesa Verde National Park, the site of ancient cliff dwellings (back to the Ancestral Puebloans). We would spend half the day at Mesa Verde and head towards Kayenta, Arizona where we planned to spend our next night. [[image:us195.jpg:Route from Durango, Colorado to Kayenta, Arizona – note the meeting of 4 states in the middle of the map:center:0]] Mesa Verde, here we come! I wasn’t sure what to expect but cliff dwellings sounded very interesting. We saw some tepees on the road, inviting us to go into Native American crafts stores along the road: [[image:us155.jpg:Tepees and giant Arrows:center:0]] We saw this huge mesa from far away. Turns out, we had to drive off the main road for about […]
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Tablets Seem Fun To Work With
Tablet PCs, used by the personnel of Stargate Command’s Atlantis Expedition (particularly Dr. Rodney McKay) seem to be cool little gadgets to work with. I wish I can buy one around here. Are there any being sold here in Kuala Lumpur at all? Perhaps the PC Fair at the KL Convention Centre coming up next weekend?
Continue readingIn a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 3
After getting to Taos, New Mexico after dark, we were pretty exhausted from our excessive sight-seeing. We were really glad to find the Hampton Inn in Taos. We spent a quiet night in Taos and bright and early in the morning of Day 3, we headed to Taos Pueblo. Taos Pueblo is a thousand-year-old, still lived in traditional pueblo. Unlike Acoma, it was right by Taos, the city, and we didn’t have to go searching for it for long. We paid our entrance fee into the pueblo, and paid a mere $5 per camera to take pictures of the pueblo. After Acoma Sky City’s $10 per camera, it felt like such a better deal! And they charged a group fee for the 4 of us that was cheaper than the advertized $10 per person rate. Already, I warmed up to Taos Pueblo. 🙂 The day was bright and sunny, clear […]
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What Transpired In Pakistan
Like DSA 2006 back in April, we were at another defence exhibition only this time in Karachi, Pakistan. My apprehension was soon laid to rest as the local organisers as well as the other foreign exhibitors who were great folks whose company I enjoyed. Whenever we got together, there usually was loud chuckling and sometimes there were incredible belly laughs, which I believe began for the first time when we tried to figure out what the acronym “CIP” actually was. Nope, ain’t tellin’. There were Barry and Martin from Australia, John from England, Bernard from the Czech Republic and sometimes we were joined by Jean-François from France, who was our neighbour in the exhibition booth next to us. All of us were ably and excellently cared for by our Pakistani attachés (so to speak) Shah, Shamir and Arsalan. I was chained to the booth most of the time because the […]
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