Nothing can stop Christmas! Be merry!

Merry Christmas, folks! Just got to colour the drawing. Sorry if Santa looks a little scary. Hope Rudolph makes up for it. Santa and Rudolph are well protected by an aura of happiness... or you could say they look more like protected in a snow globe.

Lemmings with a Touch

If there's ever a reason to buy the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar it's Lemmings. Now if Twitter will just let me center the embed. Grrr...

This may be the best app I've ever built pic.twitter.com/Z9WJi7e74G

— Erik Olsson (@valross2) December 11, 2016

Little Rudolph

You know what's coming when you see Rudolph?

Coloured Glass

Sometimes if you look up, you'd find interesting stuff such as these coloured glasses.

A photo posted by Adrian Tan (@ionbuck) on Dec 2, 2016 at 6:50am PST

Mysterious Visitor's Balloon

Yes, a cute floating cow is best paired with a mysterious visitor.

Happy Halloween 2016

Have a great trick or treat. Frankenstein's monster is watching over you.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar - Bright Future

You've pretty much read about the new MacBook Pros with Touch Bar and Touch ID on every corner of the web so lets not get there. I've had no intention to write anything about it but this Cult of Mac post sure peaked my interest! A modified version of watchOS is actually powering the Touch Bar and Touch ID independently under the hood. I suppose this makes sense why the price of the new laptop got to be more expensive than it already was.

What's even more interesting was that this revelation prompted me to revisit the post "Here’s why Apple will never give MacBook a touchscreen" that I've read moments before the one mentioned above. Sir Jony Ive:

“In our view this is a big, big step forward. It is a new system architecture, and it allows us to then create many things to come, things that we can’t envision yet.”

It's integration of macOS and watchOS (and to a certain extent, iOS) but not in the way that boring companies would do. Dual boot is so yesterday! I'm excited all over again about the future of the Mac (and for that matter, iOS devices) indeed!

Toilets - Origins of Great Ideas

I used to doubt that people have their first glimpse of great ideas when in the toilet but the best proof has arrived. Donkey Kong was born when creator and Nintendo legendary video game designer was taking his bath.

IonBuck's impression of a Thinker "Kong" taking a dump

Crocodiles, Alligators and now... Caimans

I used to be confused between crocodiles and alligators. My life gets more confusing now that I learn of caimans.

@stevewinterphoto  I am working on a @natgeo Jaguar story in the Pantanal of Brazil. Here is a male I named Scarface, as his lip is split on his left side - probably kicked by a buffalo. Here he has grabbed a black caiman - the #1 food source of Jaguars here in the north of the Pantanal. This caiman is at least 9 feet or 3 meters long!!! Jaguars are the 3rd largest of the big cats. Found from US / Mexico border to northern Argentina. Jaguars have rebounded in this area where 95% of the land is privately owned. In the past many ranchers would kill the cats when they ate their cattle. Today in this area tourism brings in much more money to the local economy than cattle ranching. So the jaguar population is increasing. But revenge killings of jaguars happen close to this area and all throughout the jaguars range. Also poaching for skins, bones and teeth is growing for the first time since the 1970’s to feed the demand for Asian Traditional Medicine and luxury items from endangered species. “Stop the demand and the killing can too.” @wildaid My first story with big cats was the 1st @natgeo Jaguar story 20 years ago! It has changed my life working with the magical and magnificent cats of the world. Animals have emotions just like we have - they need to eat - we go to the restaurant of supermarket - well the rivers are the jaguars supermarkets, , jaguars mate and have young cubs, moms play with their kids, their cubs which stay close to mom until they are about 2 years old.  50% of our oxygen and 75% of our fresh water comes from grasslands and forests, the homes of big cats.  So if - We Save Big Cats we can help Save Ourselves.  Please visit CauseAnUproar.org to find out other ways to become involved to save big cats! #follow me @stevewinterphoto to see more images from my work with @natgeo and Thanks!! @stevewinterphoto @natgeo  @nglive #nglive #natgeochannel @natgeochannel @natgeowild #natgeowild  @thephotosociety #NGcreative @natgeocreative  #fursforlife #wildlifeconservation #wildlifephotojournalism #BCI #bigcatsintiative  #startwith1thing @projetooncafari @refugioecologicocaiman @pantheracats @pantanalsafaris

A photo posted by National Geographic (@natgeo) on Oct 10, 2016 at 5:32am PDT

Updated Doomsday Prediction?

I guess the doomsday visualised in the Terminator series need an update. The evil AI could very well be borne out of smartphones.

Head Bashing!

Grrrrrr!!! It's one of those days!

Mysterious Visit to a Mysterious Desert

We interrupt this program to inform you that some visitors are spotted at a mysterious desert.

11 Malaysian Words Recognised!

In the midst of all the bad press in the international scene the past few years, I'm proud that my country has got 11 of its commonly used words recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary. I've not been to a mamak nor a kopitiam lately but these are just two of the 11 words that I've grown up with as a Malaysian and been using unashamedly in my English sentences.

The other words are ang pow (can't wait for the next Chinese New Year holidays!), bodoh (stupid!), char kway teow (just had it for lunch last week), chicken rice (I shall have this for lunch today to celebrate such an auspicious moment), aiyoh, aiyah (both used to express a sigh, disappointment, distress when forgotten something, or etc, etc. stuffs like that), atas (up), balut (wrap) and rendang (another yummy dish).

via The Sun Daily.

Some Kind of Shrub

No idea what this is. Created when attempting to draw a bunch of leaves with some realism but err... as you can see it didn't quite come out that way.

Gold Fish, Gold Fish

Inspired by this article about very evil pet owners dumping their gold fishes into rivers after they grew tired of these lovely and joyful creatures. DON'T THROW YOUR FISHES INTO RIVERS OR THEY WILL GROW BIG AND COME BACK TO EAT YOU!

Mysterious Visitors Join the Olympics Fun

Sports and the Olympics are truly universal.

It was a Nokia

A mobile phone from the not too distant past... A Nokia.

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Aug 11, 2016 at 9:55am PDT

Mysterious Aliens Enjoying the Waves

It's amazing how tough these tiny visitors to our planets are and their preferences for sport.

Mysterious Visitor

An alien visits the Orient.

Mysterious King of Fruits and the Mangosteen Sidekicks

Once upon a time, where there were durians, there were mangosteens but these fruits that will stain your clothes purple had been less visible lately.

Mysterious Bunny with the Golden Tooth

Looks like this bunny was caught by surprise.

Mysterious Eco System

Where there's life, there's a ecosystem albeit a mysterious one.

Family Ties

Just watched a few episodes of Family Ties and the comedy is still as fun as I can remember from way back in the 80s.

Magic Lamp

Get ready, the genie is about to appear.

Mysterious Bandaged Ninja

A mysterious ninja and his shurikens. He might have injured his finger throwing one.

Mystic Morning Tree

This tree appeared to be magical to me and flickr's tender filter further enhances it. Only seen it because I was doing the graveyard shift that day. Morning sun is a rare thing for me. If I have the choice I would be still in bed.

Mysterious Fireflies and Bats

Fireflies and bats. These mysteriously came into my thoughts while doing a 4-hour drive back to home. There's a plump bat and there's a slimmer one. Those fireflies come in many sizes.

Mysterious Man In Waiting

There is this mysterious man that's waiting for something or deep in his thoughts. Somehow, the shadowy figure reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock!

Happy Father's Day!

Two sketches of the same thing using the always awesome drawing app Paper.

Super Powered Salted Pepper

These steely looking stuff somehow reminded me of some superheroes that need to hold one up to transform into their powerful alter egos.

Mysterious Monuments

They just appeared... in my head!

Cracked - Donuts

I heard a story about how donuts were invented. A crack appeared and to stop it from getting bigger, donuts were built to hold the land together.

Cracked - Octopus

There was a crack on the ground and an octopus appeared.

Cracked - Wild Flowers

The earth opened up and wild flowers appeared.

The Superbug Evolution

Based on what I understand from two articles that I read on the same day (one from Reuters and the other via Forbes), the American superbug has evolved and is now resistant to antibiotics while another superbug - this one created - will consume hydrogen and carbon dioxide to produce fuel.

One deadly and the other beneficial. I have faith humans will overcome the deadly bug soon.

Follow the Toast

Lots of toast and they all point to the left where the treasure is.

Friends

Friends without borders.

Happy Mother's Day!

Have a great day, mothers of the world! Take great care of her, for those that are not mothers.

Flowers, Lemonade and a 3

3 things. The number, flowers and a lemonade. That's all you need for afternoon tea.

Some kind of a bicycle

I'm sorry, folks. Things happen when I resist sleep. Here's some sort of bicycle because I just felt like drawing one but can't quite figure out how to draw it.

I Missed World Penguin Day 2016

I've got an angry one here because I missed its day! Happy belated World Penguin Day!

Random Colour Pencils

After seeing photo after photo of wonderful abstract colour pencils, finally I get to photograph mine. Really random stuff without any repositioning.

Happy 2016 Earth Day!

Have a great day, Earth. Don't get too stressed despite the fact that it's kinda hot and a little hazy here. Rest well and fight again tomorrow.

Fresh and Dry

It's not always fresh green nor is it all dried brown. Life's kinda like that, too. And did you know palm leaves are called fronds?

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Apr 20, 2016 at 8:44am PDT

3 Fluffies

I have no idea what they are looking at but it was just a spur of the moment that I felt I needed to draw them. Drawn with Procreate Pocket because I can't afford the iPad version.

"Underwater World"

These are actually decorations of a Baskin Robbins ice-cream cake. I had way too much time waiting for the staff to find a box to put one of the larger ice-cream cakes in so I just went and snapped away some of the decorations on the cakes and this is one of 'em. In the end, I saved my money because the staff came back (after what felt like a few hours) about 20 minutes later to inform us that they were out of boxes. That's not business, is it?

First Feather

My first ever drawing of a feather. Inspired by a photo I came across on Instagram. 

Code Blue

very interest colour coding of a stack of pallets by the road side. I wonder who's got such... artistic tastes.

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Apr 3, 2016 at 12:51am PDT

April's Cockroach

Saw a really big cockroach yesterday which prompted me to attempt to sketch one:

WhatsApp - Abused and Misused

Seriously, there's really nothing wrong with WhatsApp (or any messenger apps) but it's how society abuse it. Had I complained about this before? I can't remember. If I had this shows how much I really hate how some people use it.

A little background: WhatsApp had become THE messenger app of the century because of its popularity in the mobile world. I had tried others such as Line, Viber and WeChat and deleted all of them except WhatsApp because I can't stand all the notifications coming from everywhere.

Since smartphones conquered the world, people had resorted to WhatsApp instead of SMS because mobile data, though most of the time finite, is still perceived to be cheaper than charges per message (I guess to the point where telcos had started to offer unlimited calls and SMS in their packages). Wifi is generously available everywhere, too.

I can't begin to complain about how e-mails were abused but that was the past. The present invasion of mobile messengers is a much more pressing issue!!! Since my nature of work deals with a lot of projects simultaneously, co-workers and bosses have this love to create group chats for each project, sometimes even duplicates because they forgot they created one in the first place! Imagine my battery life wears out by noon just because of these chats!

As if calls way after work hours and weekends were not enough, messages about work just keep popping up in the notification center. Argh! And this prompted me to create the following parody of a real scenario. Poor victim of society tried to quit one of those above mentioned group chats but keep getting invited. Well, at least I had fun doing that.

ps. I never knew Apple's "Do Not Disturb" mode could come in so darn handy these days! At last, peace on earth once again, even if only for just a few hours. I am sane again.

Happy Easter!

Have a great Easter! Here's a bunny with some eggs:

It's all about the sloths

When I first saw this Zootopia trailer I couldn't help thinking how familiar things are with the government agencies (I'm sure this IS the intended message) albeit a little exaggerated. The movie's got awesomely 99% fresh the last time I checked Rotten Tomatoes.

The Mighty Frangipani

I've always wanted to take this photo every time I walk under a kemboja tree and finally I did it today.  One of these days I'll snap one with clear blue skies.

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Mar 22, 2016 at 6:22am PDT

2016's Hottest Day

According to our meteorological department, today is the hottest day for Malaysia. Stay cool, stay hydrated. Don't dry up like this:

Drawn with Paper by 53 but the sun was further smudged using Pixelmator, all done on the iPhone.

Earth Hour 2016

Intended to post this way before Earth Hour but one thing led to another and I've missed the opportunity. :(

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Mar 19, 2016 at 1:32pm PDT

Not Just a Drop of Coffee

An extraordinary drop of coffee power that can fill up at least 8 cups. 

And here's a blank one for your colouring pleasure if you had one too many cups of coffee: