One Ring to Seal Our Love

And, dear, this is our ring.

One Ring to show our love, One Ring to bind us
One Ring to seal our love, and forever entwine us

Well, not really. 'Cos I can't read Tengwar. The engraving on the ring is no other than the same script found on the One Ring.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them

Still a far cry from my references (Reference 1, Reference 2) but come on, this is the first time I really manage to draw something by myself. It'd probably look better if I can get the map to reflect more on the ring.

The font used for the bump map is Tengwar Cursive Truetype Font. Map of Middle Earth used in this rendering was retrieved from the internet as well.

Experimenting with Blobby Particles

Some simple renderings with Maya. This time, experimenting with "blobby particles". Again, refer to the video tutorial on The Gnomon Workshop.

The Eyeball Gallery

(For a comprehensive guide on how to create a realistic eyeball, refer to The Gnomon Workshop.)

Was thinking of creating eyeballs of various iris colours. Unfortunately, Google image search didn't come up with satisfactory candidates (low resolution, iris partially covered by the eyelid, bad exposure etc). So, I skipped to the next step, which is to alter the shape of the iris and the size of the pupil.

In the first row, you can see that the first one has a convex irs, the second one more of a flat iris, and the third one with a concave iris. Next, in the second row, are eyeballs with varying sizes of the pupil.

Now, moving on to the next project...

Stop Playing with that Eyeball

The preliminary result of two nights' work. An eyeball constructed from scratch using Autodesk Maya with the help of a four-hour long tutorial (from Gnomon Workshop). Lots of topics covered, including image-editing in Adobe Photoshop. Recommended even for beginners. (Heck if I could do it, than anyone can. All you need is some patience.)

Be warned though, since image rendering may take a hell longer than you think. I left Maya to render this particular photo (1000px by 1000px, Production quality), and after I was done brushing teeth and getting ready to bed, it was only half-done. That's how long it took.

Shit, time for bed. Gotta stop playing with the eyeball. More tweakings later.

Oh, that's Malaysian alright

A few days ago, at my workplace, I bumped into the Japanese old man who owned a sushi shop on the opposite side of the station.

"Malaysia, eh? Your prime minister has a lot of-" he then made a gesture - rubbing the thumb over the index finger and middle finger.

I immediately registered what he meant. But just to confirm, "You mean the former prime minister?"

"Former?"

"The current one is Badawi. The former one, Dr M," I explained.

"Ah, Dr M. Yeah, yeah. The doctor."

Our prime minister has "a lot of money". And when a politician is said to have "a lot of money", it has only one connotation...

That's what Malaysia is known for, in the eyes of this Japanese old man. Funny that he wasn't aware that Dr M is no longer the prime minister. Perhaps, "our prime minister has 'a lot of money'" is more of a common knowledge, than "Dr M is no longer the prime minister". And from this foul impression the man has on Malaysia, one may take another step further and wonder how many others are sharing the same thought as him.

And oh, what is it with the recent scandals involving the big guys in the Malaysian government? (Pak Lah: ACA must probe those named in A-G's report - The Star, 14, September 2007) Youth and Sports Ministry paying RM224 for a set of RM40 screwdrivers?

And oh, what is it with the dog-catching competition by Selayang Municipal Council, which offers prize money up to RM15,000? (Selayang dog competition scrapped - The Star, 15, September 2007) It's a relief that it's scrapped following a public outcry but no one should be retarded enough to come up with the idea in the first place.

What's wrong with Malaysia nowadays? Almost everything! Oh yes, of course the government is very well aware of that. It just doesn't appreciate being told in its face that it's doing something the wrong way. Anyone who has the slightest concern about Malaysia would be shaking his head every time he reads the news. But a typical Malaysian knows it's better to keep his mouth shut because once you criticize the government, you're immediately being labelled as "unpatriotic".

"Uh-huh? You have complaints? Too bad, live with it! 'Cos we don't welcome feedback." That's why we have ISA (Malaysia: Detainees held without charge or trial - Human Rights Watch), remember? To protect our nation from idiots who make too much noise! It is only when occasionally, an outsider (like Michael Backman) stops by, and points out, "Hey, that's not right!", that we are jolted back to our senses. (Then, we jump at him crying, "Who are you to comment about us?")

Now excuse me but I'd like to proceed to complaining about the recent Merdeka celebration (or rather, non-celebration) in Tokyo.

Craving for some Malaysian food, I was looking forward to the Merdeka celebration at the embassy. There was a celebration last year (albeit at a small scale) so I presumed there'd be one this year too. Besides, oh god, it's the 50th anniversary. There should be something grand!

I mailed several seniors to find out about this year's celebration, but no one seemed to know anything about it. Aghast but still refusing to give up hope, I googled for the embassy's website. There was something about a 4000-yen Malaysian food buffet but what the heck, nothing about the Merdeka celebration! That was a day before national day; if there was any celebration, there should be news by then. Maybe there was a celebration. Maybe they thought, "Well, less people more share" and decided to keep it to themselves.

But I eventually convinced myself that there was no celebration. Otherwise, why, I ask, would there be no announcement even on the website?

My initial disappointment soon turned into bewilderment then into a boiling rage (for it invoked every bit of patriotic sentiment in me). Come to think of it, it was the 50th anniversary. The 50th! Malaysia gained independence exactly half a century ago on that day! It was the National Day! A day for celebration (and most importantly, for food), for crying out loud!

But what are those people doing in the embassy? Oh I forgot. As long as they sit in their offices, it's Malaysian law they're following - the Malaysian way of doing things.

Yeah, and we're told to be proud of being Malaysians. To be proud of our Malaysian way of doing things; the way we manage our government.

Maya Basics

Kryptos's Shrine is under construction...

Tremble with fear, thou feeble mortals, for his dominion shall soon expand till the ends of the world. And then, upon the completion of his Holy Shrine, he shall rule man with wrath!

Nah. Just fooling around with some Maya tutorials...

Gah! Worms!

Meguro Parasitological Museum is claimed to be the only one of its kind in the world. I'm not that surprised, considering that no one sane would possibly enjoy watching worms.

Well, I went, anyway. But that's no reason to question my sanity. Let's just say, I was curious.

The museum's kind of small. Free admission, for some obvious reason... Two-storeyed, but nevertheless houses plenty of specimens - gross worms pickled in jars... Eew...

(Scratch, scratch elbow...)

Worm-infested stomach-or-liver-or-whatever-internal-organ-I-don't-know...

(Scratch, scratch neck...)

Some 300 ringworms, pickled... Mmm... Bee hoon...

(Scratch, scratch butt...)

A dog heart infested with parasites...

(Scratch, scratch left leg, scratch, scratch right arm...)

And oh, on the second floor... The main attraction!

A 8.8 meter tapeworm retrieved from a Japanese guy in 1986. Said to have ingested the worm larva with sushi. (Make note, make note. No more sushi.) It was less than an inch in size at larva stage. (Notice the little circle in the photo.) The larva took merely 3 months to grow into 8.8m. Imagine hanging one end of the worm from the third floor; the other end would almost touch the ground. The guy only realized about his wormy companion when part of it, uh, slipped out when he was doing his business in the toilet. The worm was later flushed out of his intestines by some medicine.

Eew... Creepy worms. I'm still itchy all over the body after the visit to the museum.

(Scratch, scratch left knee...)

Okay, no more visits to the parasitological museum.

Hungry, hungry. Signing off for dinner. Ciao.