Archive | PermalinkGungan Slicer, A SWAG Request

My first official completed SWAG request since this blog went live is done. The artwork was requested by Acheron and he wanted a picture of a Gungan slicer (a Star Wars term for a hacker, is all).

So, here's a purple skinned Gungan like Captain Tarpals, wearing a headgear with a comlink and a blaster pistol, quickly typing on the keyboard to retrieve some restricted data from a computer database.

Hopefully, he isn't discovered by guards any time soon.

As a bonus, here's a SWAG blog (Swog?) entry of the picture taking it through three days as a work-in-progress in this laptop, from its pencil work in Painter Classic to what it turned out to be.

Archive | PermalinkLaptop Problem, and then a Solution

I still haven't replaced my home workstation since it crashed and burned back in April. I've been using this work laptop 100% for my computing and browsing needs since.

It used to work great until a couple of months ago when everything (in the Windows partition, mind you... Ubuntu still works fine) suddenly seemed to be work slow. The problem was very apparent when video and audio were running. Not all the time, but enough times to really annoy the shart out of me.

Also, another annoying symptom is that it takes 10 minutes for the laptop to finish its startup cycle.

But now... no longer.

Archive | PermalinkIrfan: Five Years After the Day

Tonight was Irfan's 5th birthday, as can be noted via the photo of his cake below. See? It's in the shape of the number five.

Five. Five candles, ah ah ah. But yeah, Ain noted that it looks like the letter 'S'.

Archive | PermalinkWhich 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.

Archive | PermalinkFragments From The Rim

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:

Archive | PermalinkThe Return of SWAG

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 on SWRPGNetwork until it had its own home on the net, to all its contributors and fans throughout the years that kept it alive.

Here's the new link to my SWAG Gallery.

A little secret: The reason why I always remember SWAG's Anniversary is that it's exactly a week ahead of Irfan's birthday! Yaaay!

Archive | PermalinkPacific 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:

Archive | PermalinkGreen 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.

Archive | PermalinkFootball 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!!

*pictures taken in LA at Universal Studios last year

Archive | PermalinkThe 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. 

Archive | PermalinkAugust Reading List

Books Read

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (started in July)
Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman
Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
Company by Max Barry
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Dead Souls by Ian Rankin
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Books Bought

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey
First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

Archive | PermalinkThere 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?

Could it be she's looking up at Tok Bah?

Archive | PermalinkUnder 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.

Here's the Irfan and Grandparents photo!

Archive | PermalinkPacific 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: