We actually didn’t get to walk around Hilo too much, because neither Vin nor I was in the mood for a walk in the rain. It rained the morning we left Hilo: [[image:hi64.jpg:Rain, rain, go away:center:0]] So we hit the road, to the other side of the island where the mountains block the rain. Going up the coast, it was still pretty rainy until we were pretty close to Waimea. [[image:hi65.jpg:Blue skies, yayyyyy:center:0]] There is the obligatory stop for malasadas (a portuguese donut, VERY yummy!! ono kine!). [[image:hi66.jpg:Locals say only this place’s malasadas are excellent:center:0]] Waimea is pretty elevated. It’s where the Hawaiian Cowboys are. You can see pine trees along the road here: [[image:hi67.jpg:On the road at Waimea:center:0]] There are plenty of pastures and meadows with cows, and horses. [[image:hi68.jpg:Pasture with Kohala mountain in the background:center:0]] Strangely enough, even this high up, there’s some cacti: [[image:hi69.jpg:Teddy bear cactus along […]
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A Time of Reunion
We don’t get together that much these days, but when we do the survivors of the ACS Sitiawan, SPM 1990 batch, create one hell of a ruckus when we sit around the table talking about… well, anything that comes to mind. Earlier tonight, a bunch of them fell upon the Tenth Floor for a gathering and of course, to eat. There was also talk about peeing or hocking a loogie onto passers-by or the swimming pool below from the window and/or balcony. However, some sort of decorum was maintained since there were kids in the room. Apart from our household, the roll call included: Teik Sing (with Michelle and Baby Ashley-Joan), Shahar, Tern Lik, Nguk Lui, Alvin and family, Hudson and Kok Soon. Ain cooked two variations of bihun goreng, both of which were tasty. Teik Sing bought appetizers and desert, Shahar bought some kuih, Hudson brought chips and Kok […]
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Irfan’s Sports Day
Precipitation did give us a break this morning. The sun shone brightly. Since we’re not too far from the equator relatively, a shining sun means sweltering and scorching heat. Tear glands were overtaxed in their efforts to cool off meatbag human bodies. However, Irfan’s school sports day did not yield to the heat. Participating with Irfan’s school is its sister school, where the kids wear violet-and-yellow as opposed to Irfan’s blue-and-yellow uniforms. There no real competition, just the kids all having fun doing the stuff they’re doing in the following photos. In other news, Irfan seemed to be under constant attack by a smaller kid who likes to push him around. From my observation Irfan just avoid the blows until he gets hit then he pushes the kid hard, which dissuades from further attacks for the time being. If this keeps up, I’ll have to write an entire entry around […]
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A Birthday At Irfan’s School
It was supposed to be sports day today at the kindergarten. Unfortunately the heavy rain had other ideas, so instead the school proceeded with the birthday party of a boy, whose mother I discovered was my classmate in Perlis. Small world. The principle postponed sports day for tomorrow. Hopefully precipitation gives us a break. I’ll take more photos tomorrow. It’d be interesting seeing a bunch of hyperactive 5- and 6-year-olds running around competing for something. Below, Irfan poses before the humongous cake. It’s a 6 there not a 9. The cake being conveyed from car to the kindergarten. Look at them Smarties. Irfan awaits the eating of the cake. The troops assemble for the singing of the birthday song. Yeah, that song. The one everyone’s familiar with. Finally Irfan reveals to his mother his uncanny ability to eat cake.
Continue readingHawaii Day 5 – Volcanic Adventure
In the late morning of Day 5. we drove to Kilauea, which is an active volcano on the big island. Kilauea has been continuously erupting for some 24 years! Pretty amazing stuff, and we had decided to do the Crater Rim drive and drive around Kilauea Caldera. [[image:hi57.jpg:Me by Volcano House:center:0]] First we stopped by the visitor center and Volcano House to pick up some literature on the volcano and map out our plan for the day. We had originally thought to take the Chain of Craters road down to the ocean and hike to the edge of the lava to see if we could see where the lava meets the ocean, but we’d gotten a late start to the day and decided to do the drive around the volcano for the day. Here’s Vin at the viewing area of Volcano House: [[image:hi53.jpg:Vin with Kilauea Caldera in the background:center:0]] [[image:hi54.jpg:Don’t […]
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You Rolled Poorly
Some weeks ago I wrote an entry on role-playing game motivational posters. Last night I discovered a website that allows you create your own by uploading your own pictures and entering your own lines of text. (Doesn’t even have to be about RPGs, even.) So here we are with my own RPG motivational poster.
Continue readingFinally Playing with PHP
Referring to some help sites and pulling back the curtain to look at source codes, I finally got the nerve to save some text files which I wrote on a text editor as php files, which I usually always do in html! Not really ground breaking stuff; all I did was to include the navigation and the footer parts into the main files from separate php files. Later I’ll see about learning to link the php files to a (gasp) MySQL database! I should have started to learn this stuff earlier. It would have gone a long way in teaching me stuff that would help me in my project paper for college. But in the meantime, both the Hishgraphics Gallery and the workplace website are now fully php-ized! Yeah, they look the same from 2 days ago, but the Legos I used to build up those two sites are all […]
Continue readingVillain-o-rama – A Spider-Man 3 Review
[[image:dualityspidey01.jpg:The black costume:center:0]] As previously reported, we caught Spider-Man 3 at Digi IMAX theatre on opening night. But first a non-spoilery rundown of the movie based on early press releases and trailers. Peter will be asking MJ to marry him, but before that there are a few small problem. First, of course, is continuing the tale across the last two movies is Harry Osborn’s desire for revenge against Spider-Man for his father Norman Osborn’s (a.k.a. the Green Goblin) death. Then there’s Eddie Brock, a rival photographer who will stoop to nasty methods to frame Spider-Man for a position as the Daily Bugle’s staff photographer. His character starts out as a nice guy but a series of unfortunate circumstances slowly strip away the guise and finally reveal himself for what he truly is. In the midst of it, Flint Marko an escaped convict on the run who unwittingly finds himself in […]
Continue readingHawaii Day 4 – Sayonara Honolulu, Hello Hilo
So after 3 nights in Honolulu, it’s time to go. We ate our last fabulous Hilton Hawaiian Village buffet breakfast (free continental buffet, $5 to upgrade to the entire buffet thanks to the Hilton Honors membership, and well worth the money). We relaxed on the beach, took a last dip in the waters of Waikiki beach, and went around the hotel taking last minute pictures. We also said our goodbyes to the beach and the sun for a few days, for we are off to Hilo (the rainy side of the Big Island of Hawaii). [[image:hi35.jpg:Orchids:center:0]] First off, some pictures from around the hotel. Statues of real people as well as gods: [[image:hi34.jpg:The guy who built the hotel, I think:center:0]] [[image:hi36.jpg:Legendary goddesses in the process of tapa making:center:0]] [[image:hi45.jpg:I forget who this was:center:0]] [[image:hi41.jpg:Don’t mess with this chick – garang!:center:0]] Some of the trees and plants that caught my eye […]
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Irfan Webs An IMAX Theatre
It’s May 1st. Some might say it’s Labor Dabor Day. Others would say it’s the first day of the general release of Spider-Man 3, beginning 2007’s run of monumental summer movies which will eventually bring us At Worlds End, Shrek the Third, Order of the Phoenix, Rise of the Silver Surfer and Transformers. We just got back from Sitiawan after spending 3 days with Irfan’s grandparents there (and having the sotong celup tepung as well). Irfan made a new friend in the form of Opah Irfan’s friend’s grandson – one Amir from Melaka who was also on vacation in Sitiawan. Today, we got home, grabbed Ain’s two aunts and headed right for Berjaya Times Square where we would be watching the IMAX presentation of Spider-Man 3. There was another reason for the excursion to Berjaya Times Square, and that was Irfan’s Cik Su’s birthday. Labour Day for her is literally […]
Continue readingHawaii Day 3 – Hanauma Bay and an Old Friend
The morning of our third day in Hawaii was bright and sunny. We enjoyed yet another marvelous buffet breakfast at the Rainbow Lanai, then we packed our stuff and headed out. We wanted to make sure that we would be able to park the car and spend some time snorkeling and swimming at Hanauma Bay! We got there around 9 AM, and this was what was waiting for us: [[image:hi23.jpg:Hanauma Bay:center:0]] It was a gorgeous day – and the parking lot was pretty empty when we got there. Plenty of space for us! And just look at it! We could look down at it from the parking lot, and what a view. We both had to get our pictures taken: [[image:hi24.jpg:Vin with the Bay in the background:center:0]] [[image:hi25.jpg:Don’t pay attention to the girl marring the view:center:0]] We paid our entrance fee (free to Hawaiian residents) and watched a 10 minute […]
Continue readingIrfan’s Political Affiliation….
[[popup:voteofnathan01.jpg:(thumbnail)::left:1]]… is not really known from this photo of him, because we really have no idea which party Nathan Petrelli belongs to. But hey if you want a good quality in a congressman, why not settle one with the ability of flight, no? Not to mention a brother who can absorb and retain powers of other supers.
Continue readingHawaii Day 2 – Lazy Day in Waikiki
After a refreshing night’s sleep, we both woke up early local time (around 12:00 noon Eastern time) and went to have a big buffet breakfast (we LOVE the buffet at the Hilton Hawaiian Village!). It was nice and relaxing, sitting at the Rainbow Lanai. The day promised to be beautiful and sunny. Already, we were feeling holiday-ey and summery, and laaaazy! Check out this hibiscus (bunga raya), the state flower of Hawaii (of course, the hibiscus is also the Malaysian National flower!) [[image:hi22.jpg:Yellow Bunga Raya:center:0]] After breakfast, we walked around the hotel and saw a bunch of different animals right in the hotel area. There’s a lot of open air areas, ponds, and vegetation all around: [[image:hi06.jpg:Shy flamingo:center:0]] [[image:hi07.jpg:Blue Macaw:center:0]] [[image:hi08.jpg:Red and Blue Macaw:center:0]] [[image:hi09.jpg:Green Macaw:center:0]] [[image:hi10.jpg:Penguins and Turtles:center:0]] [[image:hi11.jpg:Molting Penguin:center:0]] [[image:hi12.jpg:Big turtle and little turtles:center:0]] [[image:hi13.jpg:Green lichen turtle:center:0]] [[image:hi14.jpg:Cicak with funky red sac that inflated – or maybe funky […]
Continue readingHawaii Day 1 – Arrival
So, on April 12th, we said good bye to Lily (who was staying home with daily visits from Carey, the pet-sitter – more on this at a later post), packed our bags, and lit out from one of the worst March/April I’ve ever experienced in this country to head to warmer climes: Hawaii! It had been raining and at times flurrying (that’s snow!) for days prior to our departure, not to mention temperatures were below zero (in April in Southern Ohio!!!), so we were glad we’d scheduled this trip to Hawaii when we did. However it did take a long time to get there. We flew out of Dayton, first to Atlanta (2-hour flight) and then from Atlanta to Honolulu (10-hour flight). Not as long as the flight home to Malaysia, but still, a very long way away. Plus the fact that we first flew east to Atlanta increased our […]
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A Noumenon Review at RPGNet
I rarely write for my supper, so when I see a good review for something which I participated in I get very elated. Noumenon, the RPG published by Abstract Nova, was reviewed by Jocelyn Robitaille at RPGNet on the 30th of March and I missed it… until just now. For an idea of the RPG setting flavour, take a read at the reviewer’s first couple of paragraphs, “Imagine J. J. Abrams’ Lost mixed with Alex Proyas’ Dark City and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, but written by William S. Burroughs and with a pinch of Silent Hill thrown in for good measure. Now, picture a game that makes Nobilis look like D&D in terms of how easy it is to grasp. Combine those two pictures in your head. Are you there, yet? Good. “You now have a rough idea of what Noumenon is like.” I am proud to have contributed […]
Continue readingSunburn Is The Least Of Your Worries: A Sunshine Review
[[image:sunshine01.jpg:The shieldship with the bomb:left:0]]I just saw this movie on a THX screen and it was quite a ride. I liked it very much. Absolutely no spoilers ahead. Danny Boyle directs this movie and what he did was create an atmosphere that doesn’t not really accentuate claustrophobia or xenophobia. What Sunshine has instead is a layer of despair and hopelessness which barely registers but hangs over the proceedings like a thin film. You can almost feel the despair being radiated by the characters and the situation mounting as the movie progresses. Sunshine gets right to the point with Cilian Murphy’s voiceover. It’s 50 years in the future and the sun is dying, and with it the slowly-freezing Earth. The crew of the Icarus II (a shieldship right out of the pages of Dark Force Rising, heh!) has been tasked with the delivery of a Manhattan Island-massed bomb which would theoretically […]
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