中秋節快樂!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival (and that's what the translation say in the subject)! Took this photo at Jaya Shopping Centre - The Heart and Soul of PJ. I suppose it was the heart and soul of Petaling Jaya once before but after a few visits since its launch, I'm quite worried that it might not last because it's always (too) peaceful there.

There are just too many shopping complexes these days and there might not be anything that makes Jaya special. Thankfully there's TGV cinemas there and I'm glad the place still looks clean and nice. I really want the place to succeed because, after all, it brings back much memories (all good ones, I'm happy to say) before the original complex was demolished and finally rebuilt to what it is today.

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Sep 27, 2015 at 7:45am PDT

Call it corn or maize as you wish but do you know if it's a veggie or a fruit? Hah!

Whatever you choose to call it, corn is never my favourite but what interest me today was is it a fruit or a vegetable? The first search result from old faithful Google came up with that it's actually both a vegetable and a fruit and can be categorised in the grain category, even:

Corn seed is actually a vegetable, a grain, and a fruit. Corn seed is a vegetable because it is harvested for eating. (Usually sweet corn when grain is harvested at the milk stage.) Corn seed is a grain because it is a dry seed of a grass species. (Usually field corn when harvested after the grain is relatively dry.) Corn seed is a fruit because that is the botanical definition. More details follow. Corn (Zea mays) is sometimes called a vegetable grain. Corn is a monocotyledon with only one seed leaf like grasses. The easily identified "grains" (or cereal plants/grasses) such as wheat, oats, and barley are also monocots. A grain is defined as the harvested dry seeds or fruit of a cereal grass, or the term can refer to the cereal grasses collectively. Field corn that is harvested when the seeds are dry would thus be considered a grain. Sweet corn when harvested before maturity is usually considered a vegetable. It is grown to be eaten fresh as a tender vegetable rather than as a dried grain suitable for grinding into flour or meal. A vegetable is defined as a plant cultivated for an edible part or parts such as roots, stems, leaves, flowers, or seeds/fruit. If you want to be very precise, all cereal grains could be called vegetables, but by convention we separate the cereal grains from the rest of the "vegetables" such as peas, lettuce, potatoes, cabbage, etc.

Malaysia's 99 Speedmarts Have a Origin Story Worth Telling

Wheelchair-bound, can't speak English and only six years of education but Lee Thiam Wah owns 175 of mini mart 99 Speedmart to prove that he can and will overcome those obstacles. Forbes offer a glimpse of his life story.

Firm and Bouncy

Some friends and I were talking about butts and I've came out with a quick stick man sketch intending to show a dude with a firm and bouncy butt doing the flying kick just like Van Damme in those 90s movies. Alas, my not up to standard skills instead came out with a dude with oversized balls, it seemed. XD

Who Killed the Cupcake?

Who? A Croissant Squad Investigator is on the case. He detected some traces of chocolate flour. He will send some samples back to the lab for DNA analysis.

To be continued...

Shivers, Batman - First Impressions of Paper by 53 for iPhone

Was shivering from fever and guess what came to mind? Drew this with the newly released iPhone version of Paper by 53. Don't laugh! It's a big deal for me to be able to draw a Batman lookalike!

I was thrilled when I heard a iPhone version was on the way because up until now I've still not found the ideal drawing app for the small screen. If anyone can, I guess 53 could. They did a great job with the iPad version.

First impressions were it is still difficult to draw on the small screen. Probably that's why iPhone 6 Plus exists. The worse part was the iPhone version does not sync with the iPad app. That was kind of disappointing. However, all the drawing tools were the same and I like the undo better than the iPad one where you need to go in circles with two fingers. And now it's possible to take photos or import one in to doodle on.

What I didn't like the most was the zoom. There was just one level of zoom. If you wonder how it works with the Pencil, well, I don't know. I don't got no money to own one yet. :(

Note: The halftone dots were done using the Halftone app.

Another Abstract Attempt

No matter what I can't seem to get the abstract thing right. This looked more like an old photo than anything, huh?

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Sep 8, 2015 at 8:59am PDT

Just how many "species" of cupcakes are there on Earth?

I think the cupcakes boom had only just begun! And check this out. It's officially Instagram without the square format.

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Sep 6, 2015 at 5:07am PDT

Return of the Oreos

Before I started sharing my Instagram photos here (before I discovered Instagram has an embedding feature, that is :P), a "Mr. Oreo" once made an appearance:

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Apr 11, 2012 at 7:06am PDT

Now, he's back... and with a vengeance! This is what sequels are about. Return with more of the same! :D

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Sep 4, 2015 at 8:47pm PDT

Balloon Weightlifting

Inspired by today's event, I'd say if you leave it to kids, weightlifting balloons will become an official sport. A game changer in the Olympics even.

Drawn with the iPad app Paper. I'm glad that such an app exists. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to share my thoughts graphically through my limited drawing skills. I'm fascinated that the previously iPad only app will be coming to the iPhone soon. It would be interesting to see if the developers could make the app work as well as it did on the iPad.

Rust in the Sky

Even the sky can get rusty sometimes. Taken while traveling on the highway.

Siri vs Google - The Jicama Wars

I interrupt your daily reverie to report that today, when I asked “Siri, define jicama”, Siri searched the web for "G" instead. After some light cursing, I launched the Google app for iOS and asked to “define jicama”. The correct results came flooding in.

It means:

ji·ca·ma

hikəmə,ˈhē-/

noun
the crisp, white-fleshed, edible tuber of a Central American climbing plant of the pea family ( Pachyrhizus erosus, family Leguminosae ), cultivated since pre-Columbian times and used especially in Mexican cooking.

Let the truth be told, Siri lost not because it didn’t know what jicama was but because I’d pronounced it wrong in the first place. It’s “hic-ca-ma” and not “g-ca-ma”. Google won because it actually knew that “g-ca-ma” was the wrong pronunciation of jicama and yet gave me the right results.

Well, there has to be a reason why Google is where it is today, right? :)

View image | gettyimages.com

Nature Balances Itself

I believe that nature will always try to balance out life on earth and I've got two evidence that I found at the same area on the same day. One is vegetation will grow on gutters... well, that's most probably when it was clogged up. Second one is vegetation growing out of a man made structure.

Nature rules!

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Aug 18, 2015 at 6:22am PDT

Can you feel the power?

Can you feel it? Transmission towers are by no means any construction marvels by today's standards but I bet without it, there won't even be this post or the photo below.

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Aug 14, 2015 at 10:21pm PDT

Nation First

In the midst of all the crazy, logic defying things happening in Malaysia, it's refreshing to hear something that is rational.

"Malaysia must come first before anything else. The interest of the country must be above everything else." - Lim Kit Siang, opposition. 

"What is the use of being favourable to the opposition but not to Malaysia? If the economy is not favourable to Malaysia, I don't think it helps anyone." - Lim Guan Eng, opposition.

via The Malaysian Insider.