Abrams Bloodbath Week

06 May 2006 | Hisham | | TV
 

Apart from the release of Mission Impossible III this week, J.J. Abrams seems to have both his TV series Alias and Lost slated for bloodbaths where major characters die violently in surprising turn of events, and those who die do so in similar ways within each show even if they don't die at the same time and place.

And there are four more hours to each series until their respective season finales... and for Alias the series finale.

Cue Michael Giacchino music for both opening titles

A fine week for television.

No, I ain't posting spoilers.

 

Wild Ginger

05 May 2006 | sila | | Books
 

Following Perdido Street Station, I went on to read a smaller book called Wild Ginger by Anchee Min. A completely different genre than my previous read, Wild Ginger is the story of a girl growing up in the 60s and 70s during the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China.

 

Comp Copy Number 1

03 May 2006 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Role Playing Games
 

The Game Mechanics
The complimentary copy came in the mail today, the first RPG book in which I had a hand in creating: Future Player's Companion published by The Game Mechanics and Green Ronin Publishing. Thanks to Gary again for recommending me for this gig and everyone at TGM (Stan!, Marc and JD) for giving me a chance illustrating part of the book.

The feeling of holding the book in hand and flipping through the pages is great, although going through my artwork in the book I would like to say the first batch of pictures for the first PDF I drew looks embarassingly bad. The final batch, even with its shortcomings, are the ones I'm satisfied with.

 

Perdido Street Station

03 May 2006 | sila | | Books
 

Since Hisham updated the blog and enabled sort by categories, it became woefully clear that our Books category is sadly lacking. Which is a shame, considering that Hisham and I are both avid readers.

I've decided to start blogging about the books I'm reading as sort of a book review (while trying not to put out too many spoilers). I finished reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville on Sunday. Let's start here, shall we?

 

Cake on the First of May

02 May 2006 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Food
 

May 1st is Irfan's Cik Su F's 19th birthday. Her sisters, including Ain, chipped in for a cake for a little get together. The cake had oranges and strawberries and mangos and kiwi fruits and grapes. Irfan also wanted in on the cutting of the cake, as usual. For the main course, Ain made bihun goreng, which was delicious.

It's all gone now. Snif snif. :\'-(

 

Illustration Friday: Under The Sea

29 April 2006 | Hisham | | Artwork
 
Here's another Illustration Friday artwork for the weekend, entitled Under The Sea. It's fully made in Photoshop within 40 minutes and with me about 45% conscious. So what's under the sea? It could well be what's in this picture.

 

Surrounded by War Machines

28 April 2006 | Hisham | | Recent News
 
It was a long, tiring four days at Defence Services Asia... and here's a collection of my personal photos of the event. There I was trying to sell the map generator and pilot task management system while surrounded by missiles, rifles, tanks and other things that can blow you up. It was a great experience and can't wait to get another opportunity at doing it again.

 

Check It Out

27 April 2006 | Hisham | | Recent News
 

Click on the thumbnail to see a work related image.

I'm in a newsletter!
 

Phoenix: Part II

27 April 2006 | sila | | Family Pics
 

To continue our adventures in Arizona, Becky took us to Sedona where we decided to climb up a rock.

This rock, in fact:

Cathedral Rock

Well, it wasn't as straightforward as that. Before the climb, we did wander around Sedona and viewed some more art galleries and open hacienda-styled malls.

 

Illustration Friday: Robot

22 April 2006 | Hisham | | Artwork
 

I pencilled, inked, scanned and colored this piece in around 3 hours. Not just a robot, this model of humanoid artificial intelligence is also a transport to school, a bully deterrent, an escort through a minefield, a full-spectrum sensor and communication suite, and a piano tuner.

 

More Word of Noumenon

22 April 2006 | Hisham | | Role Playing Games
 

Abstract Nova website has been updated with more tidbits on the upcoming Noumenon RPG, where one of the two vignettes I wrote will be published. The book will be released in June, but the month before that a character sheet and a sampler will available for download.

GamingReport.com also has a news report on Noumenon:

There is a place outside of normal existence called the Silhouette Rouge, a place where the conscious and subconscious merge, where the real and unreal are one in the same. The Sarcophagi, creatures lacking memory and identity, are imprisoned within this place. They walk the Silhouette Rouge hoping to divine its secrets for only revelation and enlightenment can grant them release.

Noumenon is a role-playing game of mystery and abstraction. Players assume the roles of the Sarcophagi, strange insect-like creatures trapped within the Silhouette Rouge. During their adventures, players will encounter bizarre entities and explore strange locations. The Silhouette Rouge, Noumenon’s setting, is detailed enough to spark the imagination yet open enough to allow customization. In Noumenon, player cooperation is key. Noumenon uses a domino-based task resolution system that enables player to build upon each other’s successes.

Bizarre, indeed. And intriguing enough for me to wait eagerly for a comp copy of the book to arrive some time next month, or June.

And if I'm really lucky, I'll even be able to run it some time. *sigh*

 

A Marvellous Group of Zombies

21 April 2006 | Hisham | | Comics
 

Captain America! Spider-Man! Thor! Hulk! Iron Man! Giant Man! Wasp! Power Man! Wolverine! Storm! Cyclops! Captain Mar-Vell!

These are some of the greatest heroes ever to walk the Earth within the Marvel Universe. Each possessing a variety superhuman powers, together they are an unstoppable force in the pursuit of justice and the downfall of evil everywhere.

So what happens when all of them die and resurrected as living dead, flesh-eating, zombies?

 

Phoenix : Part I

20 April 2006 | sila | | Family Pics
 

In March, Vin and I took a trip out west to Phoenix, AZ to hang out with his cousin Becky and her husband Phil. Coincidentally, Phoenix is where the Chicago Cubs have Spring Training. And even more coincidentally, in March, they have Spring Training games against other teams that do Spring Training there!

OK maybe not quite so "coincidentally," we were there, taking advantage of Phil and Becky's wonderful hospitality. ;)

 

Browse by Categories

19 April 2006 | Hisham | | Hishgraphics.com
 
After a long time I finally got around to reading up and writing a "Categories" block for the weblog. Now, you can check out the last 15 posts (or less, if the count is less than 15) what Sila and I have written in whichever categories it's listed under. See? Over there. It's in the left column, just under the "About" block. Second block from the top. See? Neat, eh?

Oh, and I still haven't gotten around to trying to fix the missing pajeri terong post. Stay tuned for more reports of my failure to restore the entry.

Edit: Rejoice! For the Pajeri Terong entry is back on the weblog! Many thanks to hansfn and Bob from the Pivot Support Forum for their suggestions.

 

Holy Crap... I Broke Something!

17 April 2006 | Hisham | | Hishgraphics.com
 
Specifically, by altering some php code manually on the file, I seem to have caused Sila's Pajeri Terong entry to disappear, or perhaps eaten by cacodemons at the very least. The PHP file is still there in the database directory, but somehow I can't get it to be published on the weblog. Damage control is currently being carried out. Hopefully we get to see the pajeri again in the near future. God knows we need more images of pajeri (aubergines or pineapple) on the net.

 

Fleep

15 April 2006 | Hisham | | Comics, Trawling The Net
 
Fleep by Jason Shiga is not a webcomic.

It's a story published not to its conclusion by AsianWeek but now collected in its entirety at Jason Shiga's website. It's a story of one man's adventure upon waking up entombed in a telephone booth. The tale starts out looking as if it's fantastical and Twilight-Zone-esque, but like the best of stories there's more to it than meets the eye, and by the end all plot points are resolved and takes you by surprise.

 

Hishgraphics Is Under Monster Attack!

11 April 2006 | Hisham | | Humour, Trawling The Net
 
Click on this link to witness the onslaught upon our website.

 

Pajeri Terong

09 April 2006 | sila | | Food
 

When we were growing up, Hisham's favorite food was Pajeri Nenas (holy cow! No Wikipedia listing for this!!). Pajeri is a kind of spicy thick gravy, sweeter than a curry but similar to a curry, containing different spices as well as kerisik).

I had never made this dish myself, and finally I attempted it. But instead of Nenas (pineapple), i used Terong (eggplant/aubergine) to make Pajeri Terong.

 

The Quest for a Fregg

08 April 2006 | Hisham | | Friends
 
A fregg is a perfect fried egg, according to my buddy Ben Flood-Paddock of Brighton. And he has put up a page that would chronicle the quest to create such an egg. To read about and view the pictures of his endeavour (and a couple of pictures of my own freggs there) go to Chrome Eggs on his website Colonial Chrome.

There you will also find some wonderful deckplans of ships such as the Skipray Blastboat, the CEC R10 "Republic Cruiser" transport, the Haor Chall "Sheathipede" shuttle and the Wild Gundark freighter type: the YZ-900.

Anyway, stay tuned for more pictures and tales on the journey to achieve the ultimate fregg.

 

V For Verisimilitude

04 April 2006 | Hisham | | Movie Review
 

I saw V for Vendetta on Monday. Therefore I shall write about it here.

With spoilers.

You have been warned.

I only read the comic for the first time last year, so I never really connected with the background of the millieux presented by Alan Moore in the book. I understand why there was a need to alter it in the movie, giving it a more up to date topical setting and tying it with current events.