All my life I’ve loved the idea of the Star Wars universe. When I discovered that there was a Star Wars Roleplaying Game published by West End Games back in 1987 I was excited. But this won’t be about how I got into RPGs, but the review of one of the best SWRPG supplements ever: Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments From The Rim Here is a list of why this supplement by Simon Smith and Eric Trautmann rocks: It’s a well-written book. It has tragedy and humour all packaged up in the entries and the vignettes in the book. The characters to be used as Non-Player Characters (NPCs) have fantastic backgrounds. Parts of the book are designed to actually make you chuckle, not in a non sequitur humour kind of way, but well within the context of its universe. It’s diverse. It shows you a dozen aspects of life in the […]
Continue readingWhich Transformer Are You?
It’s Athena’s fault. Suddenly I’m 84% Optimus Prime! Optimus Prime Optimus Prime is the heroic leader of the Autobots. He is the personification of courage, strength, and integrity. His personal motto is that “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.” Like Optimus Prime, you are good by nature. But beware because mischievous thoughts sometimes tempt you. You are inspiring, confident, and a natural leader. The Autobots have chosen well. In addition, you enjoy being one step ahead of your friends as far as trends and technology. I AM 84% OPTIMUS PRIME Take the Transformers Quiz
Continue readingThe Return of SWAG
[[image:swaglogo01.gif:SWAG banner:left:0]]Five years ago today, a bunch of tabletop roleplayers and artists and web programmers who met by chance on SWRPGNetwork’s Holonet Forums and shared a common dream (well, two really) finally launched the Star Wars Artists’ Guild after months of planning. One of the founding members was me. The Guild was created in order to create Star Wars artwork for the RPG, whether it be D6 or d20 or even if you made GURPS or Wushu or Fate games out of the setting. Today, in the hands of Kris Vanderwater, SWAG is relaunched (using Drupal replacing the old pMachine as its content management system) and all that’s old is new again. Thanks for your effort in relaunching the site, Kris, and Happy 5th SWAGDay. And also thanks to everyone from Bob Rogers, Chris Curtis, Derek Jones, Daniel Falconer and all the others who helped conceive and ran it initially […]
Continue readingPacific Northwest: Part IX (Journey to Vancouver)
I know, it’s been a long time and I haven’t finished posting our Pacific Northwest story. Here’s the next installation. Just a quick recap to remind everyone where we were: we had said goodbye to Vincent and been handed off to Lilian, who we would drive back up to Vancouver. Here’s Lil, as we drive by Boeing on our way north: [[image:pacnw115.jpg:Bye bye Boeing:center:0]] The day was still gloomy though: [[image:pacnw116.jpg:Cloudy skies:center:0]] Here we are at the border. The Peace Arch park: [[image:pacnw117.jpg:Peace Arch Park:center:0]] [[image:pacnw118.jpg:Bye bye USA:center:0]] [[image:pacnw119.jpg:Big tree by the border:center:0]] Our first glimpse of Vancouver: [[image:pacnw120.jpg:Vancouver!:center:0]] We ate lunch with Lil, but then it started to rain. We dropped her off at her place and met David and Miriam. [[image:pacnw122.jpg:Bye bye Lil:center:0]] [[image:pacnw121.jpg:Looking upwards:center:0]] Then we headed to our hotel. No point going sightseeing when it’s so foggy and rainy and ugh. Some pictures at the hotel […]
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Green Lantern Corps – Roll Out!
You know that one of the lifeforms in the universe that most deserve the Green Lantern Corps power ring is the guy depicted on the left. He has no self-doubt. He has no quantifiable fear. The only thing he’ll pause to is to see if an upcoming battle will have unacceptable collateral damage. But if the collateral damage is acceptable, any enemies (Sinestro Corps, I’m looking at you) will have a Lantern-powered energon sword stabbed at their faces. Click on the thumbnail to see the full version. Click here to see a bigger version at deviantArt.
Continue readingFootball Season has begun (American Football)
Oh dear, oh dear. What shall I do? We are at the point in the year where the NFL season (first official game was last night, Saints @ Colts) overlaps with the MLB season. Cubs and the Bears both will be playing! Vin is very happy! Me?? Sports overload! Help!!! Tolong!! Ayuda me!! [[image:47.jpg:The beginning of football season:center:0]] [[image:48.jpg:Sila takes a big hit! 2 sports to watch at once!:center:0]] *pictures taken in LA at Universal Studios last year
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The Old Daycare Gang
When Irfan spent two years in daycare with his Opah Cik just across the highway in Pandan Jaya, I always meant to take a picture of him and his fellow daycare buddies but never got around to do it. However recently, we went to Opah Cik’s place to deliver some of the eatables we brought back with us from Pasir Mas and I thought, How nice that phones now come with cameras attached. So I got them together and snapped the following photo. Here’s Irfan flanked by Ika (left) and Afzan (right), both are about a year younger than him. Yes, Irfan’s is really very tall for his age.
Continue readingAugust Reading List
[[image:notw2.jpg:The Name of the Wind:center:0]] Books Read Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (started in July)Turtle Moon by Alice HoffmanQueen of Babble by Meg CabotCompany by Max BarryThe Name of the Wind by Patrick RothfussDead Souls by Ian RankinDoomsday Book by Connie Willis Books Bought Doomsday Book by Connie WillisKushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline CareyFirst Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde This is the second installment of my Nick Hornby-inspired monthly accounting of books read and books bought. The easy things about the Books Bought list in August was that I ordered them online from the Science Fiction Book Club. Not too much to tell there – except that Kushiel’s Justice and First Among Sequels are both sequels of series that I’ve read with great pleasure, so I’ve been looking forward to getting them. I don’t usually like books with too many sequels. For instance, I greatly enjoyed Dune, but not so much […]
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There Were Trees, Fruits Grew Off Them
The previous weekend, we were all at Pasir Mas where Irfan’s cousin’s kenduri transpired. However the kenduri photos are still in Cik Emma’s camera so we have instead for this post photos of a bunch of folks (namely Irfan’s Tok Bah, Abang Kie, Emma, Ain and I) invading Tok Bah’s orchard. The invasion would end in the acquiring of several large baskets full of dokong and manggis! The English name for manggis is well-documented and known to us since we were young. However, I can’t for the life of me find out what dokong (also spelled dukung) is in English. So, what could Ain be looking up at? Anyone? Anyone? If you look real hard you can see a plastic bucket among the leaves. Tok Bah is filling it up with the dark purple shells of manggis filled with sweet, juicy white flesh within. Next tree over, bunches of dokong […]
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Under Water And On Ground
Last week, Atuk and Opah Irfan came a-visiting to spend some time with their favourite grandkid. (No competition… he’s their only grandkid for now. Right, fellow Hishgraphics blog writer? For now, right?) I took the following picture to show them the camera capability of the phone, including the Bluetooth transfer of the image to the laptop. I love the Bluetooth function. Makes life much easier. Though I have to check whether it also turns my teeth blue once in a while. Then, Atuk took Irfan to the field to play football, also exclusively known as “soccer” to the humans of the United States. It seems like Irfan has the style down pat. Irfan proceeded to display his aptitude for travelling in water to Atuk and Opah. I can’t believe he’s now able to paddle and float his way across the deep end of the pool. His head is submerged most […]
Continue readingPacific Northwest: Part VIII (Addendum: Artsy Seattle)
Now that my little spate of patriotism is over, and it’s September (Happy Labor Day Weekend everyone! And YAAAAY to Monday being a holiday!), a little addendum to day we spent walking around Seattle. Aside from the cleanliness, as has been remarked upon by several people, there was a lot of artwork displayed in and around the city. They’ve also architected the city to be sort of artsy and functional at the same time. I took a bunch of random snapshots and decided to group them together in this entry. Just look at this cool fountain: [[image:pacnw85.jpg:Fountain where we had lunch:center:0]] Please hover over the images for the captions. [[image:pacnw84.jpg:More Lavender:center:0]] [[image:pacnw83.jpg:The Pacific Science Center:center:0]] [[image:pacnw88.jpg:Monorail coming into the station:center:0]] [[image:pacnw90.jpg:Sculpture and building:center:0]] [[image:pacnw91.jpg:Water sculpture – there’s a walkway through the waterfall, so cool:center:0]] [[image:pacnw97.jpg:Taking pictures of pig sculptures:center:0]] [[image:pacnw98.jpg:Arrr Matey – Vin and Vincent and the Pirate Pig:center:0]] [[image:pacnw101.jpg:Reminds […]
Continue readingHari Merdeka ke-50
Kami yang merantau jauh mengingatimu di hari kemerdekaan yang ke lima puluh. Lima puluh tahun kami rakyat Malaysia tidak perlu tunduk kepada penjajah. Lima puluh tahun, Merdeka! Walau jauh di mata, namun tidak di hati. Selamat Hari Merdeka, Malaysia! [[image:malaysia_flag.gif:Flag image obtained from google image:center:0]] *chewah – boleh tahan tak? berkurun tak pakai Bahasa Malaysia standard 😉 Dan, sebagai penutup, lagu Tanah Pusaka. Satu-satunya lagu patriotik kesukaan saya: Sungguh gemilang negerikuYang kupuja oh tanah MalaysiaDi merata duniaHarum semerbak namamu oh Malaysia Aman makmur kaya-rayaSelama-lama hidup maju jayaOh tanah pusakaNegaraku yang berdaulat dan merdeka Tanah pusaka bertuahBerbagai bangsa didalamnyaHidup aman dan berjagaBertekun kerja dan berjasa Musuh melanggarku gempurSungguh rela kugugur keranaKau tanah pusakaBiar putih tulang jangan putih mata [Translation: We who are journeying far remember you on this your Fiftieth Independence day. Fifty years that we Malaysians did not bow to any conquerors. Fifty years, free! Although we are far away, […]
Continue readingPacific Northwest: Part VII (Walking Around Seattle)
After the Space Needle, the first thing we did was get ourselves an early lunch at the Bite of Seattle. It’s a big food fair where tons of local restaurants manned little booths and we got to taste a bunch of different foods pretty cheaply. It was a smorgasbord of delights. I ended up eating fresh shrimp rolls, pad thai, and a bunch of other little snacks. However, it turns out, I was so busy looking through all the booths and foods that I didn’t actually take that many pictures! None of the stalls! Just this one of Vincent and Lil while Lil ate her lunch: [[image:pacnw86.jpg:Vincent and Lil by a funky fountain:center:0]] It took a while for us to decide what we wanted, but since it wasn’t even noon yet, it wasn’t too crowded so we didn’t have to queue up for too long to purchase our food. We […]
Continue readingPacific Northwest: Part VI (Seattle and the Space Needle)
I meant to blog more over the weekend but I got distracted with other stuff (don’t even ask me what because I can’t seem to account for too much of the time, except I did watch 2 movies at home on Saturday night). But excuses aside, here’s the next part about our travels in the Pacific Northwest. We picked Lil up at the train station, and then turned in for the night. The next morning, we had breakfast and went off to see Seattle! But on the way there, we saw a semi truck that was on fire (did Starscream manage to score a direct hit on Optimus Prime?). The EMTs were there and firemen were putting out the fire. I whipped out my handy dandy camera and got a quick shot of it but after the last of the flames were put out: [[image:pacnw74.jpg:Fire’s out:center:0]] Then, our first glimpse […]
Continue readingDog Days of Summer
August has been a gruelling month in Southwestern Ohio. We might have seen a lot of rain in the Pacific Northwest when we visited, but from when we got home to this past Monday, we had not seen one drop of rain at our house! Grass is turning brown. Record high temperatures have been seen. Today’s high, for instance, is 99 F (34 C) and yesterday’s was 101 F (35 C). Humid like Malaysia. It did rain on Monday, and wasn’t too crazy hot on Tuesday, but we’re back to the heat now. So yeah it has been HOT! This is the kind of heat that makes up the “dog days of summer“. Defined as the period of time between July and September (roughly) when Sirius (the dog star) rises and sets with the sun. It also corresponds to the hottest days of the year in the northern hemisphere. And […]
Continue readingPacific Northwest: Part V (Lavender Farm and Back to Seattle)
So many things to blog about, so little time to actually do it! Picking up the travel from the Dungeness Spit, we drove east to Kingston to catch the ferry back to Seattle. On the way there though, we kept seeing signs for lavender farms so we took a quick detour: [[image:pacnw61.jpg:Lavender Farm:center:0]] So we stopped for some pictures: [[image:pacnw64.jpg:Vincent photographing the lavender:center:0]] [[image:pacnw62.jpg:Fragrant and pretty:center:0]] [[image:pacnw63.jpg:Lavender!:center:0]] [[image:pacnw65.jpg:Vin in a field of lavender:center:0]] There was a little gazebo in the middle of the field, with lavender lemonade. Except the lavender lemonade didn’t really taste like lavender, just like lemonade… But nice and cool to quench our thirst. Plus it was free, so who’s complaining, right? [[image:pacnw67.jpg:Vincent in the gazebo:center:0]] [[image:pacnw66.jpg:Lavender Kings:center:0]] After we bought some lavender products (lavender caramels which again, did not taste like lavender, lavender sachets, etc.), off we went to the ferry terminal. Unlike our trip to […]
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