Archive | PermalinkBaby's Already Getting Gifts!

I feel truly blessed and happy that not only are we having a baby soon, but people have cared enough to gift the baby with all sorts of cool stuff. I had to take pictures and show you the goodies that the baby has received even though (s)he isn't even due for over two months!

Archive | PermalinkFabulous '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!)

Archive | PermalinkI'd Pay Good Money To See This TV Show

So anyway, to cut things short io9 pitched in jest the idea for Star Trek: Captain Wesley Crusher, Starfleet Investigative Services starring Wil Wheaton. Here's an excerpt: Yes, the much maligned ensign should be brought back as the captain of a Starfleet science vessel that warps around the Alpha Quadrant solving mysteries for the Federation. Think of it as CSI . . . in space!

Wil says, "Thanks, but I think I'll pass."

Which is the title of his blog post.

But then, I got to thinking.

CSI... in space!

Well, thinking led to another thing and, voila...

_{It wasn't easy coming up with the script. It took me almost 6 hours to come up with something I was moderately satisfied with.}

Archive | PermalinkA Novel Tale of a Novel Cover

Once upon a time, I went to study on how to repair flying machines.

During my dozens of years (not really, just 2 and a half years) of studying there were many instructors that taught me different aspects of flying machine repairs.

Some taught me metalwork, some taught me electrics, some taught me theory of flight.

One particular person taught me about turbine engines. He was a tall gentleman, he was.

Over the years after I returned home, I've always known from second hand accounts that he's now living in this country. In recent years, I've had the pleasure of meeting up with him again briefly.

Last month, he and his lovely wife came down all the way from Ulu Klang (which is about 10 klicks up the Middle Ring Road) asked me to produce a cover for a science fiction novel that he has written and is about to publish.

So I've used all my turbine engine skills and knowledge* to come up with this following cover:

This is only a draft. It might be used, or it might not. But one thing's for sure, I had a lot of fun conjuring up the painting.

Further details about the novel shall be written as entries unto this website when I get more information about it and its upcoming release.

*_{"...turbine engine skills and knowledge"? Not bloody likely.}

Archive | PermalinkWait! WHO Wears Ten Rings? - An Iron Man Review

I don't monitor Iron Man as close as say Spider-Man or the X-Men growing up. However, I do know what he's all about. I've checked Armor Wars out of Perth Library (again, that's Scotland and not Australia) and read it entirely.

Two of the most iconic Iron Man cover for me is the "Demon in the Bottle" cover and the one where "Stark" in the Stark Enterprises logo is replaced with "Stane".

Earlier tonight, we went to catch Iron Man (on opening day) at Cineleisure. I'm not going to talk about the plot of the movie. It's a basic origins movie with a battle with a bad guy. It's not high literature, but it's a great action movie with lots of fun moments throughout. The Iron Man origin in the movie is transplanted from the original comic book location of Vietnam to Afghanistan.

So, I'm just going to list out what's good and not-so-good about it. And to preemptively sum up things, it's mostly good.

Spoilers ahoy!

I ain't joking. SPOILERS!

Archive | PermalinkA Strange Place To Lie Down and Rest

On the way back from the Sungai Merab area, where the PLUS highway intersects with the ELITE highway right by the exit to Universiti Putra Malaysia, the traffic slowed down considerably. This was strange because I've never experienced a traffic jam of this magnitude before at this particular location.

Which leads me to believe something's up front.

The road curves downward before climbing back up, and I lost sight of the road before me.

Then finally, TA-DAAHH!

But don't worry. The drivers were fine although they looked a bit dazed crouching on the far side of the wreck, waiting for assistance to arrive.

Archive | PermalinkA New Baby For Hanim and Awie

Young Aisyah has a new brother! Abdul Qayyum bin Mohd Zawawi was born to Hanim and Awie at 0715 hours on the 22nd of April. We went a-visiting the newborn and his family and took a photo. Irfan tried to wink at the camera and he's almost got the wink down pat.

Almost.

Archive | PermalinkIrfan Takes Atok's Pictures

As told previously, Irfan likes to use the camera (that is wondrously chimaeraed into the phone by wizards) to take pictures of everything.

Some weeks ago, we went to Sitiawan and lo and behold, there was a kenduri at the Seri Manjong stadium that was organized by the new state government which gave the old state government a run for their money during the recent elections.

During the speech by the local representatives and politicians, Irfan took a couple of good photos of his grandfather. 

..

Archive | PermalinkSo what IS a Role-playing Game Anyway?

I have a Role-playing Games category right over there at the left sidebar on the front page of the site. I'm sure there's a lot of visitors to this site that will probably shrug and say, "I dunno", or half-heartedly answer, "Something like Dungeons and Dragons?"

Well, Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game (RPG is the popular acronym attributed to it), true. But it's more than just D&D and we'll get to that later.

Archive | PermalinkThe Gallery Is Upgraded

After a long time of uploading images and hard coding the html (and later php) files into the Hishgraphics Gallery, I've now deleted the old setup and replaced it with a proper Coppermine Gallery CMS. It took some time to get the hang of the system, but I think I have it down enough to get by. There are still a bunch of stuff from the old gallery still not updated to the new place, but I'll fill it up as time goes by.

Sorry, I don't intend for the gallery to be a community site - that's what this blog is for - so comments and ratings are disabled. Just enjoy the stuff I got on there.

Archive | PermalinkTwenty Eight Weeks

Monday marked the 28th week of the pregnancy. We are now 70% of the way! Another 12 weeks or so to go!! Time seems to just be flying by. The shirt isn't snug over the belly, but believe me, there's a pretty big one under there!

Archive | PermalinkPictures of Lily

Pictures of Lily 

By The Who:

I used to wake up in the morning
I used to feel so bad
I got so sick of having sleepless nights
I went and told my dad

He said, 'Son now here's some little something'
And stuck them on my wall
And now my nights ain't quite so lonely
In fact I, I don't feel bad at all

Pictures of Lily made my life so wonderful
Pictures of Lily helped me sleep at night
Pitcures of Lily solved my childhood problems
Pictures of Lily helped me feel alright

Pictures of Lily
Lily, oh Lily
Lily, oh Lily
Pictures of Lily

And then one day things weren't quite so fine
I fell in love with Lily
I asked my dad where Lily I could find
He said, 'Son, now don't be silly'

'She's been dead since 1929'
Oh, how I cried that night
If only I'd been born in Lily's time
It would have been alright

Pictures of Lily made my life so wonderful
Pictures of Lily helped me sleep at night

For me and Lily are together in my dreams
And I ask you, 'Hey mister, have you ever seen'
'Pictures of Lily?'

Archive | PermalinkSpringtime, Finally!

YAYYYYYY! I think the snow is over (knock wood)! The daffodils finally bloomed, and our party-crashing lilacs (or hyacinths?) have crashed the party again! Check them out:

Seriously, the daffodils blooming always makes me smile!

Archive | PermalinkSteampunk Star Wars

Via Boing Boing, I came across Sillof's Workshop that displays awesome custom made figures... of classic Star Wars characters in steampunk forms.

Unbelievably awesome and of fantastic quality. I wish they were selling this en masse in the stores. Also, I can see an awesome alternate-universe Star Wars RPG campaign running based on these figures with Rebels and Imperials and Jedi with steampunk tech at turn-of-the-20th-century Earth, with clockwork droids and balloon-powered speeders and such.

Check out the figures (as well as other coolness such as custom Dune and Gaslight Justice League figures) at the link above.

Addendum: More Steampunk Star Wars concept art can be found in this thread at CG Society Forums. 

Archive | PermalinkA First To Fall

Look who's lost his first baby tooth... today... on April 11... 2008 Common Era.

When the tooth was loose he was concerned with bleeding, but after the tooth fell out in school he didn't seem too concerned. He was proud of it, even. No blood and pain, he made a point of letting everyone know.

I wish he didn't discard the tooth in school though. It's now probably in a waste bin or down the toilet or something.

Archive | Permalinkƃolq ǝɥʇ ɹǝʌo pǝddılɟ ǝʌ,ı

˙ʞuıɥʇ noʎ ʇɐɥʍ ʍouʞ ǝɯ ʇǝl ¿ɹǝʇʇǝq uıɐɹq ɹnoʎ oʇ ʍolɟ poolq dlǝɥ oʇ ʎɐʍ sıɥʇ sǝlɔıʇɹɐ ǝɹoɯ ǝldnoɔ ɐ ǝʇıɹʍ ǝqʎɐɯ ¿ʇɐɥʍ ɹo pǝʇɹǝʌuı ƃolq ǝɥʇ ǝʌɐǝl ı plnoɥs ¿ʞuıɥʇ ǝldoǝd noʎ op ʇɐɥʍ os ˙uʍop ǝpısdn ǝuıɟ ǝq llıʍ ƃolqǝʍ ǝɥʇ ʞuıɥʇ ı ǝloɥʍ ǝɥʇ uo ʇnq ˙ʎɹʇuǝ sıɥʇ ƃuıpɐǝɹ ǝlıɥʍ puɐʇspuɐɥ ɐ op puɐ ǝsıɔɹǝxǝ plnoɔ noʎ ʇɐɥʇ sı ʇı ʇnoqɐ ǝpısdn ǝɥʇ ˙ɹǝʌo pǝddılɟ ǝq oʇ ʇı ɹoɟ ʇɥƃıɹ sı ǝɯıʇ ǝɥʇ ǝqʎɐɯ ˙ƃolq ǝɥʇ ɹoɟ ǝƃuɐɥɔ ɐ ɹoɟ ǝɯıʇ s,ʇı ʞuıɥʇ ı ʇı ʇnoqɐ ƃuıʞuıɥʇ ǝɯıʇ ǝɯos ɹǝʇɟɐ

˙dılɟ

Archive | PermalinkLegion of Three Worlds

I've always been a Legion fanboy, having first read the Legion of Super-Heroes back in the late 70s-early 80s. Having started relatively late, all that came before was compressed and presented to me by the Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes mini-series.

After writing last year's Green Lantern Corps epic The Sinestro Corps War, Geoff Johns is back with veteran artist George Perez with something that knocked me unconscious for a minute...

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.

Here's a tidbit from the interview at Newsarama:

Newsarama: Let's just start up front and say what people are probably thinking, Geoff. Three Legions! When someone starts reading Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, is there anything they have to read first? Maybe they should read your Action Comics story that included the Legion of Super-Heroes? Or study up on Legion history?

Geoff Johns: If you want, sure, but you don't have to know anything before you read it. This is Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes vs. Superboy-Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains. Things explode from there, but I’m approaching it like the current Action Comics storyline: You didn't have to read The Lightning Saga before reading that story, and the same kind of thing's true here. So I highly suggest Gary [Frank] and my wonderful Action Comics [laughs], for anyone who hasn't picked it up yet. But no, you don't have to read anything to pick up and understand Legion of 3 Worlds.

NRAMA: But Geoff, you're going to have all three Legions in this story? One Legion sounds overwhelming enough to a new Legion reader, but three??

GJ: But there's a focus on a group of characters. Certain characters will really get the spotlight. A lot of other characters will be in the background. That's what George does. When you have these big epics and you have dozens and dozens of characters, it can get overwhelming, but there's a focus on a group of characters that have their goals and missions that really represent to me the heart of the Legion. And those characters will be getting most of the attention. But everybody will be in there. Just about everybody.

It's like the Sinestro Corps had a lot going on, but it was focused.

NRAMA: So, just like it didn't matter if you knew the name of every Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps member during Sinestro Corps War, you don't need to know anything about the Legion going into this – is that what you're saying?

GJ: If you do, cool, if not, if you’re a DC fan you’ll enjoy this.

OK, all three versions of the Legion will be featured! The two reboots which was done by DC Comics has been made part of the story! I am a happy Legion fanboy! And with Grant Morrison writing the main Final Crisis mini-series... I guess I'll have to spare some cash monthly to pick these up as they get published.

Wait! What are Jenni Ognatz, Lex Luthor and a GL battery doing behind the Time Trapper?

Archive | PermalinkIrfan the Photographer

Nowadays when eating out, Irfan asks for the phone so he can scamper all over the restaurant being an avant-garde photographer of sorts.

He just aims at something he likes and clicks. Next time I'm giving him the phone when we're out in the park or picnic or balik kampung. 

Here are some of the photos he took recently.

Archive | PermalinkAnd The SDF-3 Is Still Missing

Robotech Defense / Expeditionary Force is back in force in the form of the direct-to-DVD movie Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles.

And this time, they're continuing directly from the Robotech The New Generation (the third chapter of the series that was derived from the Japanese standalone series Genesis Climber MOSPEADA) episode "Symphony of Light". In fact the first 20 minutes or so is a retread of the Battle of Reflex Point from the point of view of the returning fleet. However, this also means that the aborted Robotech II: The Sentinels movie and novels (especially The End of the Circle) has been decanonized and considered never happened.

Returning characters include Scott Bernard, the Invid simulagent Ariel, Louie Nichols formerly of the 15th ATAC. Previously non-canon characters Vince and Jean Grant, General Reinhardt and Janice Em are also featured. New characters that pop up include Marcus Rush (brother of Marlene) and Maia Sterling (apparently the other daughter of Max and Miriya).

There are a couple of cameo appearances of Admiral Rick Hunter, leader of the Expeditionary Force aboard the SDF-3... which goes missing, but as I mentioned not as depicted in the novel by the gestalt entity Jack McKinney.

Thankfully, there are no Lynn Minmei shenanigans.

There is a brief "We Will Win" reference in the end though.

SPOILERS follow!

Archive | PermalinkTwenty Four Weeks on the 24th

I can't believe it. Four more weeks have passed since the Halfway Mark! We are now 60% of the way there. I think there's been more progress on the belly in the last four weeks though. What do you think?

I'm feeling pretty good, all things considered. Aches and pains that are considered "normal", sure. Lots of whining to poor Vin, of course, but on the whole both baby and I are doing well. Baby does a bunch of moving around these days, which is a cool yet bizarre experience. Seems like the "flutters" are growing stronger now.

(This post not brought to you from my cell phone since I refuse to get a phone that does all those crazy things! It will only be extra ways that work people can get a hold of me!)