It was early in the morning when we sent Irfan to school as usual. I took the following photo of the sky in front of his school upon dropping him there. Click on it to expand. We then took the long way round back to the house. In hindsight we should have just made a u-turn and headed home the way we came. Only when the mechanic removed the tyre from the hub could we see this screwdriver shank. It had pierced the tread complete and had been rattling inside the tyre as air was escaped. Bye bye, Republic credits.
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Another January Weekend
Last weekend, we went for a drive. This weekend, it was time for the farmer’s market. There were a bunch of fresh produce Ain wanted to pick up at the market. She knew of cheaper locations to purchase some of the things here, but it has been a while since we visited this market. Lots of green grown were sold here that we could consume to keep our biological avatars running without any errors. Ain pokes a papaya. All this fish gives me an idea for an epic RPG campaign. (No it does not.) There were also flower growers selling their wares at the market. After acquiring the items that needed to be acquired, we headed home where Ain began to cast her sorcery in the kitchen. She used some sort of cosmic powered transmogrifying spell to turn some eggs, greens and mayonnaise into cole slaw. The cole slaw was […]
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One January Weekend
We decided to take a drive on Sunday. Headed north, we then stopped at the restaurant overlooking the dam for lunch. But first, a photo to preserve the moment since we have no access to the quantum informational layer of the universe. It is weird that we need to absorb and grok the information using spectral patterns of a certain frequence of electromagnetic radiation reflected off the menu and into our occular organs before we could figure out what to order. Can you imagine the sheer amount of quantum information that was formed and being formed, while interacting with each other in this photograph? I wish I can see the Casimir effect occuring between Ain’s sagu madu and its bowl. A billion years ago a star exploded. Today the potassium and phosphorus ejected into space during that celestial event contained in the French fries would be eaten by Irfan. I […]
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Fourth Form Kid
I am amazed at how far this boy has come, from when he had difficulty in learning at primary school to being able to be liked by teachers at his new school here. Now passing the end of year school holidays into the fourth form, he has been accepted as a library assistant at his school, as I was at his age. I doa for the best of opportunities and in the good and honourable execution of his endeavours in the years to come.
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A Feast Concludes the Year
The Welfare Club of the workplace organised a little feast for CIL’s staff members. It was also a pot luck so Ain made her fusilli pasta goreng tom yam to add to the table. It was also a Friday morning, so we all recited surah al-Kahfi. There was even a birthday cake to celebrate those born in December. All in all it was a fun morning at work. Photos of the day follows:
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Year End KL Trip Part Three
Previously: Moving Day Day 5 The next day was the housewarming. Guests came, there were prayers and then food. And the kids of course played everywhere. Later that day, I went to rendezvous with Ivan and Phil to talk about nerdy stuff. Also, role-playing games. That night Irfan and Aiman watched Ayah Cik Farid put the TV in its proper place at the new house. Irfan used our media external hard disk drive that we named Promethium to test playing videos and music. Day 6 It was the last day of our trip to Kuala Lumpur. Ayah Cik and Cik Ma took the entire family to breakfast at a nearby restaurant. After breakfast, we headed back to pack up our gear. Before we left we took more family photos. The drive back was not too bad. There were a lot of cars, but no real jams. Not even at Pulau […]
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Year End KL Trip Part Two
Previously: Arrival at KL After we reached Nia Nia’s house with Aiman, it was time for the littlest cousin to join the fray. She was happy that her Abang Irfan and Abang Aiman came visiting. Grandparents Tok Bah and Tok Ma as well as the cousins’ uncle Ayah G had been there for a day before we arrived. Together we were to help Nia’s Team move from this house to their new house further down south. It was a Friday so we all went for Friday prayers at a nearby masjid. Before the television was boxed up, Nia continued to watch her favourite videos. Earlier, Irfan watched Bright on Netflix. Nia celebrated her birthday days before our arrival, so we got to taste a bit of her birthday cake. Nia overlooked the boxing operations to prepart for the move. I also got to meet up with Shide. We went out […]
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Year End KL Trip Part One
The last time I was back in Kuala Lumpur was November 2015, more than two years ago. I have not been back there since because, let’s face it: it takes a lot of resources for us to travel there. One of the reasons we were able to go back the last time was because of a paper miniature art commission that required an extraordinarily high number of designs. Without any sudden increase in art commissions we would not have the money to travel down south that far. Thankfully, I had extra teaching commission for an extra programme at work that would sustain us for the month. DAY 1 We have scheduled this trip this time because it was known that Nia Nia was moving house and we volunteered to help. We began our drive at daybreak. I had the wheel until breakfast just south of Changkat Jering after which Ain […]
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A Last Jedi Review
No Spoilers Here We saw The Last Jedi last Wednesday on opening night. I went in with zero expectations. I did not read spoilers. I had no fan theories. All I wanted to do was to catch a Star Wars movie. Director Rian Johnson crafted quite a densely packed and layered film. After that, I needed some days to process what I saw and how I felt. As I wrote elsewhere, Star Wars has long ceased to be just movies for me, but a living universe. Stories in this universe serve as windows into this inspiring universe. Even The Phantom Menace could not do me wrong in this manner. This is because I myself have crafted a ton of Star Wars story outlines that turned into actual stories in my RPG sessions. However, my thoughts returned to a conversation about failure, and also a brief reunion of loved ones. I […]
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On The Airwaves
One of my students Clement is not only running his own radio show at the university, but he has also experience in the radio broadcast industry. He had been asking me to be a guest om his show. So there I was talking about English learning and role-playing games with students on an actual radio show. Another one of those things I never thought I would be doing three years ago when I first joined the university as a translator. Besides Clement, the other students co-hosting the show were Indhu and Jolene under the supervision of Mr. Fadli, who also took the photos below. Clement has plans to expand next semester. Watch this space for more updates.
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Arau Dinner with Atok and Opah
Before Atok and Opah headed back to the hometown, we thought we would take them out to dinner in Arau at a roadside eatery knows as Big Tas’Tea. We had nasi ayam chicken chop and pizza and yogurt drinks and a bunch of other neat consumables. Who knows maybe we will be able to take them there again in the future.
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A Quick Jump to Perda
Cik Su F spent an extra night with us. Then we headed south towards Perda to attend a wedding on Ayah Cik Farid’s side of the family. Atok and Opah remained home as they thought the trip might exhaust them. Ain drove with Cik Su sitting shotgun. Irfan and I goofed around in the back together. She drove all the way to the hotel in Perda where Nia and family spent the night… and the uncle in the red shirt in the photo above awaited. After Nia was all prepped to attend the wedding, Ayah Cik taught Nia about numbers using the hotel signage. Irfan took a photo of us at the hotel lobby. Soon Nia joined us at the lobby with her favourite hat. We drove to the hall and then got a group shot of the entire contingent. A difficult effort, because the sun glared down brightly, preventing […]
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Nia Meets Atok and Opah Irfan
It was one of those occurrences where several plans overlap and Atok & Opah Irfan come to visit the same time Ayah Cik Farid, Cik Ma, Cik Su F and Nia Nia came to visit. Thus began several days of Nia entertaining Atok and Opah with her brand of activities, which included singing and dancing to the Baby Shark song, as well as asking them to draw for her in her book. Nia insisted she carried her own luggage. Soon, she was looking for Abang Irfan and tried to figure out what her cousin was doing. Also, she remembered playing badminton several months ago and thought she would hit airborn shuttlecocks some more. Obviously, she was forbidden to indoors. Atok and Opah helped to draw some of Nia’s favourite things in here book, namely “fish”, “flower” and “elephant”. I also drew a duck in it once. Our entire adventuring company […]
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Cover Art: Dark Side of Loridian
I recently made the cover art for DwD Studios’ upcoming adventure module for their science fiction roleplaying game FrontierSpace entitled Dark Side of Loridian. It looks a little bit like this: I am also tasked with drawing several interior artwork which I will post here after the product has been released.
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Students Take Centre Stage
Narrator: Previously on Hishgraphics Blog… Yesterday, my theatre arts students completed their course. In conjunction with the final session, the students and I organised the inaugural Performance Day for the course. We began at 2pm. Ain brought snacks and kuih for the students. Irfan was our videographer, using the department’s camera. The students had prepared for two plays to be performed for the event. The first was “The Midnight Class” where a pair of students find themselves in a replacement Mandarin language class late at night. However, they soon realise that they are the only two students in the class who are… not dead. “The Midnight Class” had a total of 10 speaking roles. The roles were based on the character building exercise we had over the duration of the course. Some lines made the audience chuckle, especially the punchline to the “Why do they call you Jenny?” line. Even […]
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Mini Six: Rescue in the Rainforest
Mini Six: Doom Agents 03 Rescue in the Rainforest Last time on Doom Agents, four operatives sent to investigate the Eternitech factory deep in the South American rainforest located by the Amazon river had been captured by Eternitech’s security forces led by Hideo Eguchi. After an enemy flashbang grenade did its job in the store room where they were laying an ambush, the four agents found themselves each tied to a chair in the Eternitech factory floor, specifically on a conveyor belt that would lead to a shredding machine. Dramatis Personae Agent Trolala Zelimkhanov, a Chechen driver – Nasha and Nurul Ain Agent Nancy Nassirian, an Iranian fixer – Athirah and Sabrina Agent Adam Mbokota, a South African shooter – Syafiq and Weng Zun Agent Adrien Nicolas, a French hacker – Malvinder and Asyraaf Agent J. Johnson Jonathan, a Nepalese hitter – Alif Agent Harry Wilson, a British talker – […]
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