Hishgraphics

25 Random Songs

Gary writes on Facebook:

This is another one of those Facebook memes. You turn your music player to random and write down the first 25 songs it spits out. I'm not a big tagger, but if you want to do it, go for it.

Okay, Gary. I will go for it.

1. There's The Girl - Heart
2. Central America - Bear McCreary
3. Can't Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon
4. The Weaver's Answer - Family
5. Kissing You - Des'ree
6. Atomic Al's Merry Melody - Bear McCreary
7. Lovefool - Cardigans
8. Two Boomers - Bear McCreary
9. Softly Whispering I Love You - The Congregation
10. Streets of London - Ralph McTell
11. Cold As Ice - Foreigner
12. Me and You and a Dog Named Boo - Lobo
13. Us and Them - Pink Floyd
14. Small World (Part One) - Huey Lewis and the News
15. Got to Get You Into My Life - The Beatles
16. Private Army - Yoko Kanno
17. Battle Strategy - Kevin Kiner
18. The Thousandth Landing - Bear McCreary
19. You Got To Hide Your Love Away - The Beatles
20. Yousei - Maaya Sakamoto
21. Test Flight Delight - Yoko Kanno
22. Have You Ever Seen The Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
23. B'omarr Monastery - Kevin Kiner
24. Octopus's Garden - The Beatles
25. What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted - Jimmy Ruffin

 Many thanks to Amarok for randomizing my playlist. Click on the thumbnail to view a screen capture of Amarok in action. And, yeah that's a different playlist in the image.

25 Random Facts

So, Gary tagged me on Facebook, therefore:

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose up to 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag up to 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1. One of my old hobbies is fishing for antlion larvae out of their sand pit traps using live ants.

2. At 9, I was shushed by a guy behind me when watching Raiders of the Lost Ark.

3. I last GMed a Star Wars The Roleplaying Game session face-to-face in real time in late 1999.

Classic Conversation

When Shane and I start chatting, we mostly chat geeky. But sometimes it goes way up to epic. It's about time I blogged about my usual chats with Shane

This didn't really escalate to epic level, but it's a taste of how our conversations usually go:

Hisham: Hey... what would have happened if there were no clouds at night in Gotham City?

And Gordon needed to shine the batsignal?

Shane: Wouldn't it hit the atmosphere anyways?

Hisham: Still needs something flat for it to project onto.

Shane: Good thing Gotham is a dark, fictional city

Hisham: With a flat, fictional piece of plexiglass across the sky.

Shane: POLLUTION!

HA!

There!

Axis Chemicals has been pumpin shit into the atmosphere for decades

Hisham: Well, never let it be said pollution was good for nothing.

Shane: This is classic Shane/Hisham convo right here.

That last line? Amen.

Note: Edited for clarity.

SWAG Request: Rhen Sannin

Shane's about to start a Star Wars RPG campaign and requested his major NPC Rhen Sannin, the freighter captain from the Star Wars Artists' Guild.

After giving some time for any other guild members to pick it up, I decided to claim the request earlier today... so I got to practice with the tablet and Painter Classic again, which is always good.

After some hours, here's Captain Rhen Sannin all made up and prettied, complete with blue milk on the side, cyborged limb and a datapad.

Click here for its SWAG entry page.

Hope this artwork gets some milage in your campaign, buddy.

Only You Can Save The World

I was tagged with a meme by Lil at iFantabulous some time ago and I finally got around to writing (and illustrating) it today.

What I have to do is to fill out the form with 5 lines below to reveal my secret superhero identity and come up with an image of my alter ego.

So, a superhero, eh? Here goes nothing.

Zarin and Lily

In case anyone was wondering how Lily took to having Zarin around for a few days, she was totally comfortable with him. (These are pictures that Zarin took - guna sikit ya, Zarin?).

First night, already that kitkat made herself comfortable right in the middle of Zarin's bed:

Zarin's Visit

So Zarin (atukku!) spent a few days with us (May 16-22) during which time, I regret to say that even though I brought my camera everywhere, I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. Too busy chatting and hanging out and eating. What to do? I haven't had this kind of time to hang out with Zarin since our college days (and since Zarin came for the 10th Year reunion, that's as many years since we've had the luxury of hanging out like this).

We did plan some activities to do (other than hanging out!). On Saturday, we went to watch the Cincinnati Reds play against the Cleveland Indians (Interleague Play).

Sorry Zarin, I borrowed a few of your pictures for this entry...

Thirty Two Weeks

Time seems to be flying on by! We are now at 32 weeks, as of this past Monday. 80% of the way there now! Feeling big and getting bigger...

Fabulous 'Friday' Five Meme

So Athena tagged us and since I've been so bad about blogging lately, I decided I would take it on! . Plus, conveniently, it IS Friday! So here goes:

DO YOU PREFER…

1. To watch or participate?
Participate, preferably. I hate sitting around while other people do stuff.

2. Malls, catalog shopping, or the Internet?
NEVER Catalog shopping. Malls for clothes (must...try...stuff...on... woi, gua not kurus like last time, ok??), and Internet for other things (Maggi mee, Spices, sometimes books, etc.)

3. A bath or shower?
Shower. I tend to take a shower anyway after a bath - I don't feel clean sitting in the water after a while. And I'm too hyper to be able to enjoy and relax in a hot bath. Sometimes I even work in the shower, that's how hyper I am.

4. To talk to people by telephone, in person or by e-mail?
Depends on who lah! Kidding, kidding. In fact, these days I talk to people mostly by IM since so many of us are hooked up from different time zones and locations. I do a lot of telephone talking for work, and certainly tons of email for both work and fun. Nothing beats hanging out with my friends in person lah, but since it's so hard for all of us to converge somewhere and get together, that is a pleasure that I don't get to enjoy as much as I would like.

5. Typing or writing?
Typing. Always. I complain if I have to fill out a form by hand these days...

Hmmmm... who to tag??

1. PurpleD (kena balik, yo!!)

2. Eliza

3. Simple American

4. PrecioussssPearl

5. Hisham (OK, I don't really read enough blogs to fill this tagging thing and the others that I know have already been tagged!)

Perth - Part 4

It's now our third day in Perth, and it is one day before EJ and Indra's wedding. We start off the day when EJ came to pick us up in a rental van. We then drive down to Cottesloe where Hsu and David are staying.

Perth - Part 3

After our nice outing, we hung out some more with EJ until he dropped us off at Mei's place - he was off to the airport to pick up some more people. Can you guess who they might be? In the evening, Mei, Colin, Vin and I piled into the mini and drove to EJ's for dinner. BTW, when trying to fit Vin and 3 other people in the mini, always place Vin either in the front passenger seat in front of Mei, or behind the driver's seat if Mei is driving. Everyone has plenty of room with this arrangement!

Here are the pictures at EJ and Indra's place (please mouse over the pictures for captions):

Perth - Part 2

After a good night's sleep, Vin and I were ready to tackle the first full day in Perth. While poor Mei and Colin had to go to work, EJ picked us up and took us to see the sights.

Perth - Part 1

Just a short entry on our arrival in Australia. We arrived in the late afternoon in Perth, and my best friend Mei picked us up from the airport. We stuffed the luggage and ourselves into the mini (Note: Vin fits quite nicely into a mini cooper!) and headed to Mei and Colin's place. We settled in, and then met up with Eu-Jene, Indra, Colin and some of Mei's work friends for drinks and then dinner at EJ's favorite restaurant: Uncle Billy's.

Malaysia Trip - Part I

I know I've been quiet. I don't know why but somehow I sort of slipped into a bit of a hibernation period. I haven't really done very much, haven't swept the floors either (that's next on the list). I really have to get started on sharing the pictures from our awesome 4-week trip (3 weeks in Malaysia, 1 week in Australia). So here it is, the beginning of the sequence. These are the pictures that I took the first few days we got home.

I admit it - I was pretty exhausted and didn't take as many pictures as perhaps I should have, plus then the camera battery conked out and all kinds of excuses. We were only in Malaysia for 2 and a half days before we had to set off for Perth. So we stayed on the 10th floor (enjoying the view) with Hisham and the rest of the family.

Starships of the Galaxy by Uncle Gary

Another one of Irfan's Uncle Gary's writing project has been officially been announced by Wizards of the Coast, which is Starships of the Galaxy for Star Wars Roleplaying Game - Saga Edition Core Rulebook the third edition of the d20 gaming rules.

The book was a collaborative effort between Gary, Owen Stephens and Rodney Thompson.

I've seen the Saga Edition Core Rulebook on display at Kinokuniya the other day, but I haven't bought it yet. I've heard good reviews about it and maybe someday I'll get a crew together to sit down and play it. Heck, I've only played the d20 revised core rule book version via a Play-By-E-Mail game that didn't really finish.

Maybe I'll start a new crew beginning with this little guy beside me not really quietly playing with the N-1 fighter I got 8 years ago free with a Happy Meal.

But the real question about the book is: does it have the stats and a write-up for the super awesomely fast Millennium Hawk in there?

You can't have a starship book without the Millennium Hawk for sure.

Meanwhile, Gary's brought me to the attention of the planet Irfan at the Star Wars Wiki, which is the planet he named for our Irfan back in 2004 in the article in the now-defunct Polyhedron magazine. Here's an old Hishgraphics blog article mentioning it. I've actually tried once looking for the entry for Irfan at the Star Wars Wiki, but it was more than a year ago so the article might not have existed then.

And On The 501st Post, Shane Meets Apollo

Yes, really.

Awesome wikked.

Take it away, Shane:

Today was the Winnipeg Comic Con.

Richard Hatch was the big reason I wanted to go. JUST to get a pic of him and I together and an autograph. I did that very early on in the day, think I was third in line. I knew later he had this acting/improv/rpg character creation session.

I went, thinkin that there was gonna be a million people and I'd get stuck in the back and not even get to interact with him. The room turned out to be very small, and there were only about 50 people. Me, sitting up front. He starts asking why people are here. I raise my hand. Suddenly, I'm talking to Apollo. One on one....I'm mentioning about being a GM and wanting to crerate better stories. He then talks about how RPGing and being a GM is harder than acting sometimes.

We do some warm up exercises, one of which is to get us warmed up, Richard is up on two chairs yelling 'FRAK!'. We yell 'FRAK!' back to him. He then yells 'FRAK OFF!'....we return the favor. He then yells 'FRAK YOU!' and we yell back 'FRAK YOU'...as best we can, between roars of laughter. He then starts stretching his legs saying 'It's the Tom Zarek workout hour'....I laugh till it hurts.

He then starts doing some improv situations with the crowd. First round, I get passed by. No biggie. Second round, passed by. The second round begins and I'm sitting watching, it's starting to go slow and the people in it aren't very good. Suddenly, there's a voice behind me 'Do you want to go up and be the mafia guy?'.....it's Richard in my ear. I get up and start the stereotypical mob boss voice. Richard is in tears.

The next improv round, Richard pulls me up again. Before we know it, the two hour time limit on the room is over and the next seminar is going to start. Richard thanks us, and tells me how funny I am. I poo. Right there. Great con, great day.

If you ever get the chance to meet him, DO IT!

One day, Shane. One day. Best 501st post evar!

Pacific Northwest: Part XI (Vancouver - Night)

After walking around Vancouver, we were pretty tired, so we met up with Lilian for a spot of dinner. Come see what we had!

Which Transformer Are You?

It's Athena's fault. Suddenly I'm 84% 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.

Pacific 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:

Pacific 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: