So a fellow blogger Dinah (read her blog here) in the good spirit of competitive blogging (is there really such a thing? I totally just made that up) said and I quote "The first to post about a cat story wins! Lol". So here's a story about cats! Hahahaa!
To say that my family are all cat lovers is an understatement. At one point, we had well over 20 cats (kittens included). They had their own little hut almost the size of my room (8 x 10 ft - ish) and about 10 ft tall. The males would've been separated from each other to avoid fights, and we'd let them roam the house compound in the late afternoons and while cleaning up the hut.
My dad is the one who's most obsessed about cats. His current favourite is a male Maine Coon he named Preemo. Healthy and lazy, he just recently moved back into the hut in his own large cage. When let out, sometimes it would play with us, sometimes it would chase the chickens (playfully), but most of the time he'd be hiding around my mom's flowers. Wanna see him in action?
ROAAARR!!!
Gotcha!
Cats are naturally curious - even if the cage itself is familiar
Here's Preemo playing in slow-mo
Dad also has other breeds - and this one is a British Shorthair named Wocup. Sadly it has passed on but not before proving the family with solemn company and moments of hilariousness - some were caught on camera!
If you're somewhere in Kuching, and since the festive season brings about reasons to come over for a visit, I would love to show you in person what the cat hut looks like! So hit me up in the comments below and we'll work it out, ok?
I love the idea of spending the day out with friends while spending next to nothing - a walk along Waterfront, a jog at Pustaka, an afternoon at the beach or a picnic, just take your pick I'm almost certain to be there. It may not be ideal to be outside in the scorching sunny weather that is Kuching especially when fasting (mild dehydration and stuffs) but still doable. And just this afternoon, I along with a group of friends joined in on a community program aptly named "Sungkei Lua" - a local dialect formally known in Malay as "Berbuka (puasa) di Luar" or English "Breaking of fast outside".
The local Sarawak dialect is a whole different book altogether, but the phrase sungkei lua - sungkei meaning breaking of fast and lua (of luar) meaning outside carries the understanding that one or the group agrees to not break the fast at home and usually at foodcourts, diners or restaurants. This time though, lua is not in the traditional sense where the venue was set at Padang Merdeka - a massive, iconic field smack dabbed in the heart of the city.
The informal event was put together by Fazli and his fellow mates from The Collective (read about them here) and OrgKampong.com (read about them here). I was not able to really interview him in details, but I am under the impression that the inspiration to call up the whole of Kuching to come to Padang Merdeka for the breaking of fast was probably sparked from our neighbour in the peninsular where event of similar fashion has been held before. In any case, kudos to Fazli and his team for taking the initiative. The format was potluck - everyone would bring their own food and sharing is very much welcomed, the dress code was traditional Baju Melayu for boys and Baju Kurung for the ladies.
On a personal note, it was awesome to see Kuchinglites flocking to Padang Merdeka in support of the event. What's even more heart-warming was how friendly we are (yes we, I include myself and my friends too) to each other - Muslims and non-Muslims gathering together and at one point were exchanging food among the different groups! How awesome it is to be living in a city that is Kuching.
But there was that one bit of mentality that pretty much had me and my friends worried and fear for the organisers - some of the less responsible groups brought fireworks - the one that is obnoxiously goes BOOM!! and freaking the life out of everyone - to the event in the hope of "firing things up" and "in the spirit of celebration". Now I'm all game for the spirit of celebration but seriously, annoying fireworks that does nothing but scare you half-dead isn't the way. Plus, it could land the organisers in a heap of trouble too, and may ultimately cause further event of this manner to be dis-allowed or banned altogether! A simple bit of fun for a handful of immature teens, but the rest of us responsible adults are the one paying the price!
But, in any case, the mood was good, the venue was perfect, the weather was fine and all was well. I for one, managed a picture under the gynormous cotton tree that has been part of Padang Merdeka longer that I can even remember! I hope events like this gets put together more often and not just limited to breaking of fast but also other festivities as well!
Imagine Star Wars C3P0 and R2D2, imagine Wall.E and EVE, imagine Marvin the Paranoid Robot (from The Hitchiker's Guide to Galaxy?), David Swinton from A.I, Sonny from I,Robot, Data from Star Trek! Well some may argue that one or more of the listed are cyborgs, not robots, but hey, if some genius out there managed to build one, and build one for the consumer, aren't we all game for it?
I'm sorry Google Glass, your capabilities really astound me but you're just too expensive for such a small device that achieves the same tasks as my Android smartphone can. Move over Siri, you're so uptight sometimes. Welcome Jibo, the world's first family robot.
Cynthia Breazeal and Jibo
Created by MIT roboticist Cynthia Breazeal, Jibo is a finalised version of a work-in-progress, with developer and consumer version scheduled to be available sometime in 2015. OMG I can barely contain myself! It's finally here!
It's not just a tool that you use, it's your helpful partner!
Yeap, that is what sets Jibo so far apart from other consumer technology approaches for instance smart-homes etc. Implementing emotion and intuitiveness as the core of its design, Jibo "learn skills" rather than "installing apps". Of course the whole idea is to develop a platform on top of which developers can program skill algorithms and machine learning capabilities (hopefully), but consumers in general are not interested in those technobables.
The initial skills that Jibo has are oriented towards coordinating a busy family, especially one that does not live together under the same roof, helping with communications and bringing contents to life such as warm and friendly greetings and reminders. A key feature was the camera as a social tool. Whereby with a physical camera be it a high end DSLR or a phone camera, it is a tool and you remove yourself from the action but with Jibo, it can help to take the photo for you without much hassle of finding a substitute person and everyone can be in with the action.
The consumer wants a helper that integrates into their lives - managing the household to a certain extent for instance turning on the lights at night when someone walks into the room, changing the air-conditioning temperature, taking calls and messages and reading aloud emails and alerting scheduled items - and not just that, the consumer also wants to do all these with the feel of interacting with someone.
Jibo is just that. In different instances Cynthia was quoted to say "putting a warm personality on a lot of the things that we use or apps for today" and "Jibo is one of the first of its kind to humanise way of relating and experiencing technology". It is capable of recognising individuals through visual (face recognition) and audio (voice recognition), a great way to personalise experience with Jibo itself.
I am super excited that Jibo is going to be out in the consumer market soon, and that Cynthia has taken the crowdfunding route to collect funding for it. To keep up with the latest news on Jibo or to get one for yourself, visit www.myjibo.com or add the blog to your reading list at http://blog.myjibo.com/. You can also contribute to the Jibo project through IndieGoGo.
In the mean time, check out this awesome introduction video of Jibo!
*Disclaimer: Photo and Video are owned by respective owners. I do not claim them to be mine.
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Rainforest World Music Festival 2014: Day 2 - The Learning
Whenever a warrior enters the battleground, he comes prepared. Me, having explored the festival ground earlier yesterday, finding my way around is a little easier and better planned. It was really very difficult to decide which workshop to go to by giving up another workshop, but a decision had to be made.
Kalakan members Thierry Biscary and Jean-Michael demonstrating how to play the txalaparta
For one, at 2 pm, there was an interactive dance workshop called Foot Stomp at Dewan Lagenda, and Knock on Wood, an exploration of the txalaparta of the Basque country by the members of Kalakan (a personal favourite, I might add). There's also Chehera Chitra, a face painting ritual and tribal handicraft making of Karala demonstrated by members of the Karinthalakoottam group at the Iban Longhouse while the Ding Yi Music Company played chamber concert pieces in the Theatre Stage. I weighed my options and decided against my personal favourite to join Foot Stomp - I like to dance as much as I like listening to music as well.
Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys leading the Foot Stomp workshop
The Foot Stomp workshop was an interactive demonstration on Clogging. I would personally associate it with tap-dancing cuz I'm simplistic that way and for something as enjoyable as dancing, lets not get too much into the technical details (Might I add there's Google and Wikipedia and all sorts of creditable information available in the internet). Gordie Mackeeman and his Rhythm Boys led the workshop and it was honestly no wonder why he was nicknamed crazy legs - I mean they move like crazy! The good kind of crazy, of course. He also did this while playing the fiddle!
Blessed with sunny weather and breezy afternoon, I exited Dewan Lagenda to make way to the Malay House where I plan to catch The Voice workshop at 4. Although it was an hour's wait, I decided to make way anyways knowing the Malay House has very limited capacity. That was when I passed by the Iban House just as the crowd dispersed after Chehera Chitra facepainting workshop looking incredibly wicked! Owh I missed it! Were you there? Did you get your face painted? Is this your photo? Let me know in the comments!
Photo courtesy of STB
I arrived early to the Malay House to the sound of Kamarul's voice of the Geng Wak Long group from Kelantan. The workshop's name is Awok Awok - refering to the chorus in a dikir barat performance. Again, being local, I grew up listening to it's melody and even performed it a couple of time back when I was studying. However, from the perspective of a visitor, this is something totally new - and for them to not only just see but also be part of the crew, I guess it was an amazing experience. I mean, just look at their faces!
Highlights from Awok-Awok workshop
I'd like to again thank STB and all the organizing teams and sponsors of the Rainforest World Music Festival, the media team, the volunteers, and the amazing visitors for being such a good sport especially in the Geng Wak Long's Awok Awok workshop! Y'all literally rocked the house (yeah, the Malay house was built on stilts and wooden planks for floor it was really shaking in tune to the dikir barat). erm... I would also like to apologize to fellow blogger Aliey (read Aliey's blog here) for taking up her spot in the workshop. Story goes that she arrived a few minutes after I went up - which by then was already a full house - and the gatekeeper stopped her because I was already upstairs. Moushiwake arimasen!
After the exhilarating Awok Awok workshop was the workshop I've been meaning to attend since the first day of the festival! The Voice - featuring beautiful and unique vocals from around the world like Stuart Giddens from Blackbeard's Tea Party, our own local girl Opah from Nading Rhapsody, Shigeri Kitsu and Kazuki Kunihiro from Ryuz, Maria Mazotta from Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino and from Dhaka Brakha the enigmatic Nina Garenetska. Unfortunately, for fear of karma coming back to bite me in the behind, I decided to let my fellow blogger Lindy (read Lindy's blog here) up the house instead. (yeah, I'm nice that way >.<) She was nice enough to record and share a video!
Shigeri Kitsu & Kazuki Kunihiro of Ryuz
And here are the ladies of DhakaBrakha
When all the workshops ended, most of the crowds gathered in front of the Jungle Stage to join in the fun of the Drum Circle. Here's a snippet courtesy of Lindy! Thanks gurl, you're the best!
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