Via Boing Boing, I came across an amazing webcomic known as Robot the Robot. Each issue is a flash file and it opens like a regular book, that is to say it has two facing page each screen. Click on the left page to leaf back the book, click on the right to leaf forward. The stories have a façade of innocence with a hint of underlying darkness. The characters are some of the weirdest and quirkiest I’ve seen in a webcomic. I heartily recommend it to everyone.
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Ain’s Graduation Aug 2003
In August 2003, a thousand families flocked to Universiti Malaya to see a family member graduate. Ours were there to see Ain graduate (with a 11-month old Irfan in tow), finally getting her bachelor’s degree in Economics. What I didn’t know was graduation events can have some pretty exciting moments too. Like the time the university guards blocked the road to let the graduates travel from their staging ground at the Bangunan Peperiksaan to the where they were supposed to receive their scroll at Dewan Tunku Canselor. Out of the dozens of vehicles blocked, a single biker tried to run the blockade, right before the thousands of people there. So the guards grabbed hold of the perpetrator and pulled him right off his bike as he passed them. Other guards dragged his bike. They forcibly returned him to where he was with the rest of the waiting bikes and cars. […]
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Termite Damaged Paintings
Last few months I had been locked in mortal combat with a termite infestation at home. Last month, the pest control people came and finally they were vanquished. But the damage done was irreparable. Lots of my books and notes had to be thrown out, including a folder filled with my water colour paintings from when I was in Form One. Below are scans of three of the artwork that were destroyed. These were recent paintings though. I don’t have any records whatsoever of the older paintings. 🙁
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Irfan the Water Baby
At two and a half years old, Irfan has absolutely no fear of water. Unbidden, he will kick off his shoes, run to the edge of the pool, do a little sing and dance routine (seriously) and jump right into the deep end with a big splash. Recently he started using a child’s life preserver, a full body jacket now, not the small arm band things you see him wearing here, which sprung a leak last month. Every weekend he goes nuts whenever he learns that we’re going to air lompat, which is his term for the swimming pool. I guess I’m quite grateful for his lack of fear for water. It would be quite easy for him to learn to swim later on. Here are more pictures of Irfan the paddler from way back in January 2005. Click on the images to expand them.
Continue readingNeil Gaiman’s Nebula Awards Speech
The creator of Lord Morpheus aka Dream aka Oneiros aka Orpheus’ Father aka the Thirdborn of the Endless was at the Nebula Awards in Chicago, Illinois last week and he gave a pretty awesome speech which like all of his written works (novel, novella or comic book) is an enjoyable read. If you like books and reading in general, I urge you to read Neil Gaiman’s journal, where he writes of the happenings around him (including the time his daughter hijacked his journal) and answers letters from his fans in a witty and fun manner. If you’re wondering here are the results for the Nebula Awards, which also includes Fran Walsh, Philipa Boyens and Peter Jackson for the Best Script Awards for Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King. Here is an excerpt from his speech: Gene Wolfe pointed out to me, five years ago, when I […]
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Camping in ACS 1986
Back in 1986, when I was a First Former, and a Scout, the yearly school session were divided into three terms. During the two term holidays of that year, 1st Troop Manjung organized camp outs in the school grounds. We usually camped out in front of the new canteen, where a new tennis court stands now I’m told. The first campout we I got the Keris Gangsa badge. The second campout I got the Keris Perak badge. I never got the Keris Emas badge. Well, those were the days. You want pictures? You got pictures. I wish we had more photos taken then.
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Homemade Computer Generated Landscapes, You Ask?
You’ve seen it in the movies and television. Camera swooping down on artificially-made terrain. The terrain resides in the mind of the computer, and so does the camera. If you ask, can I do this on my home computer? Can I generate an artificial landscape and have it look near-photorealistic? Can I make green fields and snowcapped mountains and beaches and islands and desolate rocky coastline? The answer to that is yes, with Terragen. And it’s freeware! Just download, install and you can start to build landscapes like this nifty sunset snowscape I made: It’ll take some getting use to. But when you can figure it out, the results are spectacular. Try it out.
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Blackfoot Country – Kampung Acheh
Kampung Acheh used to be an isolated spot for my buddies and I to spend weekends. Thick mangrove swamp, mudskippers and crabs scuttling on the mud and sometimes, a hint of sea snakes making their way on the water. One corner of Kampung Acheh was what we used to call “Blackfoot County” on account of the occasional bodies of waters that dotted our journey from the red dirt towards the river. If you stepped on these large puddles (or small lakes) your foot will sink deep into the mud and when you pulled it out it would be all blackened by whatever that lurked under the mud. Sadly, the entire area is off limits to us these days. So here are some pictures from one of my forays there, with good friends Khoo Teng Hoe and Danny Lee.
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Simon Taylor – A Terrific Artist
Simon Taylor is a friend of mine from Manchester, UK. We share (and mix together) the common interests of art, role-playing games and Star Wars. His skills as an artist is head over heels better than mine. Here are three samples of his coloured artwork. The first is a Dungeons and Dragons character. The other two are Star Wars. Fantastic stuff.
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Tales from the Duck Side
Remember the time when you were a little child and whenever you need to cross the road, an adult would have to lead you? Did you think you were safe? I have here undeniable proof that it can well be dangerous to be led across the road by an adult.
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Haze of February 2005
Kuala Lumpur, and most of Malaysia in fact, were wreaked by this local regular event known as the haze. Caused by rampant jungle blazes from local and / or neighbourly sources, these sudden drop in visibility and sudden rise in respiratory problems can be somewhat infuriating. The dark skies over on the left side of the second image was a tell-tale sign of rainfall. But that was what it turned out to be: just a sign. It drizzled a bit about ten klicks away in PJ. Blech.
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Pangkor Island
As teenagers, my schoolbuds and I liked very much going on camping trips to the beaches and sometimes the islands near our hometown of Sitiawan. The most famous tourist spot is the Island of Pangkor, which according to lore translates as Island in Siamese. So what I was saying in effect was the Island of “Island” but let’s not go into that. This group of pictures documents the last time ever a bunch of us had the time to actually take an impromptu trip from the port of Lumut to Pangkor, and spent a great day there at Coral Beach. Someday I hope we’ll be able to do it again, albeit this time, with our wives and children.
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Picture of a Second Birthday
Last September, Irfan celebrated his second birthday by eviscerating a cake as seen in the attached image. This year perhaps we’ll celebrate his third by watching Firefly. But he better not aim to misbehave.
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The Net.Guide to Spleens
About 2 years ago, I wrote an e-book on a whim along with lots of help from Ryan Lee and Gabriel Johnson. It was called the Net.Guide to Spleens and it can be used with both the D6 and the d20 versions of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Download it here from Google Drive and have fun using it in your campaign, or just reading the stupid stuff I came up with. Artwork I drew for the supplement
Continue readingPivot 1.0..
If you can read this, Pivot is working.. Yay! Addendum July 6 2008. This seems to be lifetimes ago. Addendum September 20 2018. This seems a thousand lifetimes ago. (We’re now migrated from Pivot to WordPress.)
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