Here's that sneaky Current Designs Suka still teasing me by staying well out of my reach and it's in pink (some would call it magenta). Pink would so clash with my red PFD.
I've heard this boat is hard to demo and finding it so for me, but those who have give it good reviews. I'll catch up with it eventually. Smaller paddlers seem to have to work harder to meet up with their boats.
Suka means fast in native Alaskan (Inuit), so of course, I'm going to like it. I'm also admiring the secure hatches on the Current Designs boats and other boat models after easily popping off the super soft and sticky Kajak Sport rear hatch on my new Maelstrom Vital and piercing a big hole in it at the same time with my kayak knife (still secure in its plastic sheath on my PFD) while practicing a simple cowboy scramble re-entry up the back deck in calm water.
I sat there straddling my fantastic new boat on a beautiful day thinking, "Great, I've rescued myself, and seriously compromised my boat! My secured kayak knife easily pierced my hatch cover like butter when I pulled myself up over and across it and I didn't even feel it. Good thing I noticed it. Wow. I've done this maneuver on other boats no problem and no damage. If I was out camping for a few days or alone for a day paddle in rough water or heavy rain, what the heck would I do? My rear compartment would fill up with water. With my Maelstrom boat, do I need to bring spare hatches or plastic and duck tape for temporary repairs every time I go out? All the gear in my rear hatch would be wet too."
I also sat there for a while longer suddenly remembering all the boats I've seen, and also owned that had very secure hatches. "Hmmm, so that's why! Who would think this could happen!"
The manufacturer (Kajak Sport) says their rubber hatch covers are "extremely durable". I beg to differ. The really soft ones don't seem to be! They are super easy to put on and take off though! The Maelstrom boats have oval rear hatch covers. You might want to take note of the model number because you may have to buy a new one just like me, which cost $67.
I've never had a damaged hatch cover before and certainly don't feel very secure with these. You can't repair them either, only temporarily patch them up until you get home and order a new one.
So now my attention is suddenly turning to hatch covers. The ones on the Suka are looking pretty good to me right now. I wish I could buy something sturdier and more secure at least for the back hatch of my Maelstrom. In the meantime, I bought a soft round rubber key protector and attached it to the tip of my kayak knife sheath to make it less pointy.
Happy paddling and finding your perfect paddle mate(s)! The Baffin Paddler
It's hard to believe how high the standards in popular arts were just a few decades ago.Top Tier CartooningGreat IllustrationSomeone Who Can Do BothA Hilarious CombinationGreat Cartooning, Draftsmanship and Design CombinedThese all came from one generous blogger.http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/
My "realistic" drawings are about as bland as bland can be. I'm ready for when Filmation starts up again. My goal is not to learn to draw realistically, but to understand why things look a certain way in general logical terms so I can then simplify and cartoon them.I gave myself a double problem with these studies. I want to add some hairstyles to my pretty girl palette and am using a Japanese
Here's some excellent "illustrative art" to contrast with all the great cartoony art I admire.I don't know who this is exactly. I just stumbled on his work through links at commenters' blogs.I love his compositions, his poses, his design sense - and especially his trees. He has a nice combination of style and observation.I'd say this is draftsmanship on a much higher level than what most
Boy, talk about "Man Cartoonists". Jim Tyer is the definition of one. This guy had the power to shoot his pure funny thoughts straight from his brain through his pencil to hit the paper unfiltered by preconceived rules, model sheets or second-guessing. He just drew what he felt - and he felt that kids deserved fun.That's kind of how I draw storyboards, but I always intend to "fix" things later in
More stiff caricaturesThese hotties would surely make Disney fans swoon in cartoon form.That Taylor girl really does have an interesting head, but I haven't quite nabbed it yet. It might be too unique for animation, though.Since anmated fairytales are in dire need of new designs for the lead romantic characters I thought I'd work on some. I am basing them on live action celebrities with proven
I was out with an ex of mine this afternoon and I could honestly say that it was nice meeting up with him again. We chatted, bitched and joked about old times with a cup of coffee and over lunch as well. I noticed that the both of us have grown older and wiser. Well, I'm still immature in some sense and he still have his boy-ish attitude but there are the slight difference here and there. I wasn't the 17 year old boy who dated this guy and he is not in his 30s. It's funny to know that the both of us are in different stages of our lives, and it's also nice that we can put the past behind.
So back to my headline, what I found interesting was that my ex has recently been single. He broke up with the guy (who is also my friend) about a month ago due to the fact that he didn't want his ex to commit any form of sin after the holy pilgrim trip that his ex went to in Jeddah. His ex is a strong believer in Islam and prays about 5 times a day. I for one was sort of uncomfortable hearing this claim because as I see it, homosexuality isn't sin and being gay doesn't mean we are bad people or do bad things. My ex went on to say that his ex accepted the fact that he was born gay but that doesn't mean he should abandon the teachings of Islam.
My ex claimed that his ex wants to get married one day. I feel sorry for the woman and him for marrying each other. However, what irritates me most is the fact that my ex decided to end his relationship due to this matter. Religion, a very sensitive issue to everyone, is not bad. In fact, it is a very good thing as religion only teaches people how to do good. However, religion's teachings are also flawed, and needs to be modified or re structured to suit the evolving world. The claims made by religion are unproven and biased but people still believe in it whole heartedly.
Being Gay isn't a crime, being gay isn't a sin, getting married to a woman and telling her that you're straight and not gay is a sin. Lying to yourself and to your wife is a sin. If he was honest to himself in the first place and look at life differently, he could have a good and honest relationship with religion instead of having a fake one with lots of lies and suffering with it.
Relationship. This particular word is in trend right now. Well, it has always been in trend. Many people want to be in a relationship, even after a rough breakup and they claim to not want it, they actually secretly do. But of course, there are the small amount of people who really don't want to do relationships.
My best friends are in relationships now, Anne Yusof, Cassandra Wong, Evelyn Saw, Tessa Decena, Allysa Shim, Jennifer Pedersen & Inessa Ngu. All of our other half are so different compared to one another. I was comparing all of our other half and they all look different, good looking, kind in their own way. And it's the first time that all of us, the "G" word gang are all in a relationship.
It's good, knowing that none of us are single. We're all growing up i guess. I won't say that we'll now get married, but I am gonna say that we are sort of ready to settle down, in a sense whereby we're starting to look for that special person that we want to go through life with. We have been in and out of relationships, but now we're all in a relationship.
I really do hope that one day, all of us can be back home in KK with our other half, having drinks and partying together. I know that at that time, we'll all have fun and it would be such a nice feeling to be back together with the one we care about all at one place.
People keep asking me, "Who is the Baffin Paddler?" I'm not sure either. But here's a clue.
I may add more to this page as I find out. I hate definitions.
People say now that I own a Maelstrom Vital 166, I'm no longer the BaffinPaddler. Is that so?! We'll see about that.
I still own a Boreal Baffin. It's the first boat that made me stop, wonder, think, and want to learn more about paddling. I really had no choice either. The Baffin is a great boat, but it weathercocks so badly in wind, any wind, big or small, that I had to learn strokes and edging quickly. I hate the skeg wheel on it too, so I made peace with this boat by taking up a Greenland paddle. The Greenland paddle allows me to quickly and seamlessly adjust my strokes to compensate for the weathercocking of the Baffin and stop fiddling and cursing the skeg! And the Baffin is a great boat for rolling, except for me.
See, the Baffin has done so much for me and my paddling. I've had such great times with it in all kinds of water and it's also annoyed the heck out of me. A balanced relationship for sure!
But, my new Malestrom Vital 166 is the boat that gives me hope for learning how to roll. There are things I like better about one boat or the other. Sometimes when I'm out on the water, I find myself wishing I could fuse certain aspects of them together and create one perfect boat. But, I'm still the BaffinPaddler. And I'm still looking for that perfect boat. The looking and the journey are part of the fun. There's still so much to find.
Some people also ask me, "What is your blog about? Recipes?" Yep, that's a remark from a guy. Ha! Come find out. But if you do have any good kayak camp recipes, send em to me. I'll create a Kayak Camp Recipe section on this blog just for the guy paddlers! Maybe even publish a book, so send me pictures of your successful and not so successful creations and the rights to publish them too. Then I can pick out what you can cook for me! I can't camp cook (yet) and will rely on you to do that for me!
Don't you just love people!
If you want to hire the writer for your event, website, or blog contact me at baffinpaddler@hotmail.com or writersbloque@hotmail.com
Happy paddling and looking for your perfect paddle mate(s)! The Baffin Paddler
P.S. Hanging out sideways in a sea kayak is one of my favorite things to do. Don't ask me why. If the boat does not hang out sideways well, it's not for me. The boat should tease the water and want to play! Despite all that, I don't like whitewater boats at all! It's long, sleek, and fast for me.
Here's a sweet baby blue Maelstrom Vaag hanging out in beautiful Sandy Cove, Newfoundland and it just found a slinky black Vital paddle mate. The two paddle best together I think. I can attest to that. My white and blue Vital paddles sometimes with a red Vaag.
Although I find it odd to be seeing so many black kayaks out there. I'm so fond of the lighter brighter colours. Anyone ever see a pink kayak?
Happy paddling and finding your perfect paddle mate(s)! The Baffin Paddler
In my insatiable search for illustrations for my posts, I often find images that I'm dying to share but haven't yet found room in a particular post for.Here are some of these magnificent treasures that speak more than words could say...UNDERWEAR GOD: "I better go arrest that lady for indecent exposure! I don't care if she is the first girl the Lord made. I'M the new God around here!"You can
So I was invited to my Friend and Miss Malaysia Universe 2009, Joanabelle's Charity Gala for her Association called Jo-B Care. For those of you who don't know her, Miss Joanabelle Ng was Miss Malaysia Universe 2009 and she comes from Kota Kinabalu Sabah. She is quite hardworking and really caring at the same time and this whole event is actually quite surprising coming from someone like her.
I was lucky enough to be among the guests of people like Thanuja Ananthan (Miss Malaysia World 2009/2010), Soo Wincci (Miss Malaysia World 2008), Levy Li (Miss Malaysia Universe 2008), Nadine Ann (The Current Miss Malaysia Universe), Ben Ibrahim (TV Host), Evonne Teah (Sabah Supermodel), Wilson Tan (Malaysia's Top Male Model), Models, Celebrities to name a few.
The event itself was quite nice, drinks were being served and light fingerfood were also given. Performances here and there by several multicultural Malaysian Artistes were also held in conjunction with the whole One Malaysia concept and after party drinks and dinner after were also held at Michael Angelos'. I was lucky enough to be seated next to Levy Li (Miss Malaysia Universe 2008) and her boyfriend Anthony. I wasn't sure that it was her until she was being mentioned. Apparently she's quite educated, persuing her degree in Boston, United States. I pictured her as a girl who couldn't speak English, but she spoke it fluently.
As usual I had too much too drink and my friend told me that I was blabbing too much. Hahaha! But oh well, I'll behave myself if there is a next event :) xoxo
It's on Showtime (or one of your sports channels) for only $25.If you haven't seen Fedor yet, you're in for a treat! He is a fighter/scientist with no emotion. He just analyzes his opponent while taking a few punches and kicks and then he destroys him with efficiency.Support manliness!Fedor's Cartoon Drawings:
I thought I better warm up with some real men in case my Emo studies affect me somehow.I love UFC and have sen all these guys fight many times, but it didn't help me today.These are all super stiff and didn't capture their souls.It's probably better to draw them in action or still frame them.I wonder why you never see animated features with manly male heroes like these?Ugh. I gave up on the men
I haven't done caricatures in awhile, so I thought I'd warm up by doing some of the current teen heart throbs.Because you never know when Jeffrey might call me in to design the latest romantic emos for a picture.As you can see, I'm out of practice.I don't really know who these people are, but they certainly have interesting heads.I love this head. I have been fascinated with it for some time
I strongly recommend to every growing cartoonist to do warm up exercises every day. Athletes warm up before stressing their stiff joints, musicians practice their scales every day before jumping right into their performances and I think cartoonists can benefit from limbering up their pencils and brains before they attack their work. I should follow this advice and I did this morning.PRACTICE THE
So I've been lacking exercise lately. I still do three days a week though but my food intake has increased over the past few weeks. I started eating carbs and enjoying life. But this week as well as the last, I've been slacking on my gym visits (although I visited 3 times last week) and i'm starting to feel quite guilty from munching on too much carbs and food and alcohol. But I'm excited about heading back to Kota Kinabalu soon though:)
Sorry for the short update:)
xoxo
Jeffrey James
P.s. Photo was taken during Sherliza and Adrienne's birthday party in Skybar. I worked that look man!
There used to be a school of cartooning I think of as "The Man Style".By "Man" I don't mean "manly", muscular, macho, athletic or anything like that. I mean the style and point of view reflects how men see the world. Men who have to work for a living, who had a tough childhood and had to sweat for everything they have, who have seen the ugliest parts of human nature, yet still can find amusement
Harvey Eisenberg's natural style was fairly traditional - basically very rounded characters like 40s animation: Tom and Jerry. When he started having to draw comics using Ed Benedict's more stylized angular characters, he went through a transitional period where he tried to adapt.His clean compact and controlled compositions were evident right away, but he had some trouble figuring out how to
Zoran, a frequent commenter posted some great Calvin and Hobbes strips awhile ago and I've been meaning to link to them.I stopped reading comics strips in the 1970s when amateur artists began dominating the papers, but now and then I would notice a small handful of strips that stood out as the last lights flickering in the dim twilight of post-hippie decline of western culture.One was "Shoe" by
Yay for me!!! Probably one of my FUNNEST advertorials EVER coz I was invited to try MAKING ROCK CANDY!!!
Sticky is Singapore's first handmade rock candy store!
You've probably seen them before as they are situated in the busy basement of The Central (next to Clarke Quay mrt), and I confess to have stood there and gawked as the Sticky staff created rainbow candies in their open concept kitchen!!
It is FUCKING FUN!!!!
Once you step into the store it's like so brightly coloured and happy looking and smells so good your mood can't help but perk up!!
And yes I delibrately dressed to look like their store hahahaha I HAVE RAINBOW SOCKS
Jars upon jars of rock candy!!
What's so special about rock candy?
It can be customised to any design you want!!
Perfect for weddings and gifts and parties.
(4kg minimum batch size for customization, also can customize letters on lollipops for smaller batches!)
I love the colours of the candies in the left bottle!
Lollipops!!
Sticky's really popular with the school kids coz their prices start at $2.90 which is really affordable.
Wearing the super cute Sticky cap they gave me!! YAY!!
AND WE START MAKING MY VERY OWN CUSTOMISED CANDY!
First translucent candy is boiled in a huge pot and poured onto a metal surface to cool down.
It is super hot!
Here's co-owner Jamie explaining to me how to mix in different colours because I CHOSE RAINBOW!!
I saw it among the samples and I fell in love with it!!
Rainbow is the chioest design although it requires much more effort coz of the many colours needed. But totally worth it!
Btw Jamie owns Sticky together with his chio wife and they brought Sticky into Singapore for 2 years now.
Sticky brand has been around for 10 years and originated from Australia! It's a famous international brand! They have stores in Malaysia and HK's branch is opening soon, so if you want a franchise be sure to contact Jamie.
Super a lot of flavours to choose from so I chose WATERMELON! Yums!
Mixing in the pink!
And white/blue/yellow/black
I put on my gloves and I am READY TO HELP!!!
The gloves are crazy thick coz beneath the metal surface are stoves with huge fires so that the candies don't harden.
Mixing it up so the whites are even!
And here's our palette!
Decided to just let Jamie do the hard work...
Since he seems to like it...
There he is, cutting up the candy with a hilariously big pair of scissors, into different colours and kneading them. It's hard work!!!
Ernest, in black, is teaching me how to mix purple!
TADAH!! If you think the purple looks nice later you'd know who to credit.
Put on EVEN thicker gloves coz I wanted to help Jamie mix the white on this scary hook but as it turns out...
It is FUCKING heavy so I didn't.
You guys should see him doing this man, mad fast and the candy keeps drooping down due to the weight and you have to flip it up again.
Amazing flying candy!
A lot of gawkers, erm, gawking coz it's really quite fun to watch! Or maybe they looking at how chio I am. Either or.
AND NOW FOR THE EXCITING PART!!!
We are gonna form the word "XIAXUE" in the candy!!
This requires a lot of 3D conceptualizing skills because you have to form the words in a cross section of a long... thing. Hiyah a bit hard to explain just see the next photos.
Jamie cutting out the pink candy for making the "X".
Super swift lah he is like lao jiao. -_- Before I could even comprehend what's going on he is already done. And anyway must be fast coz the candy will harden wtf so stressful.
I specially drew a cross section for you guys to understand!! That's how Jamie did the "X"! Honestly man I think this really requires some skill to get right coz not only do you have to visualize, you also have to take into account that the candy is heavy and will droop etc!
I'm trying to imagine how to do a "Q" now and it's killing my brain. FML I give up. Mensa should include this in tests.
And this is how the X looks like!! Believe it or not when its stretched out uber long it will retain its shape and look like a TINY PINK X!
MY TURN!
Mike, if you are reading this, this (above picture except in real life) will also be what you will be seeing if you cheat on me. Snip snip!
I am sad to announce that I failed to make a satisfactory "I". WHAT! It's hot and it's slippery and it easily goes out of shape ok!
HERE'S THE "A" I MADE!!
Just kidding Jamie made it. :(
SECOND TRY!! I do the second "X"!
See? Good stuff
TADAH!! NOT BAD RIGHT!! Confirm better than JAMIE'S LOUSY PINK X~!!! HAHAHAHAHA Ok better not joke about that wait he throw hot candy balls at me. Actually he also did most of this. :( sadface
That's Ernest arranging the pink and green letters in a neat way!! My OCD approves.
At this point I tried to make the "E" and I dropped it on the floor (it's SLIPPERY!) so everyone's laughing at me!!
Wasted candy. Oh well...
I gave up the hard work and let Jamie and Ernest finish the rest.
See, got so many people staring!
SO... At this point I saw a fucking intricate PANDA inside one of Jamie's candies (try conceptualizing that - brain explosion), and I was like,
"HOW COME MINE SO BORING ONLY GOT WORDS INSIDE?!"
So I demanded a crown in my candy!! (Actually I asked nicely but just to pretend I have a feisty personality...)
Anyway so yeah and he said "Erm, ok, we never did a crown before... But let's try it!"
And so Jamie started work on a crown and... THIS IS WHAT HE CAME UP WITH:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
It looks like a dude you just punched in the face coz he is ugly and he is really unhappy to get punched. And he is oily although he does have very white teeth.
I didn't have much faith that the crown was going to turn out nice but well... You'd see in a bit!
Digression, took a pic of Ernest's shirt.
Completely lazy I just left the guys doing the rest of the work and watched them from outside AHAHHAAHA...
Seriously though look at the huge white thing Ernest is rolling... I can't do that lah!!
AND THIS IS THE RAINBOW EXTERIOR!!
So exciting omg!!
Hey it looks Jamaican.
And it is pulled into a thin roll.
End result:
. . . . . . . . . . . .
MY VERY OWN ROCK CANDY!!
And the crown is mad cute!!!!!
Next time I'd give Jamie something more challenging and ask him to, erm, design a... what's complicated? Maybe organs. Like candy-sized replica of lungs/heart/pancreas etc and all must be anatomically correctly placed and have a good sizing ratio.
But that would be an awful looking candy.
Maybe suitable for a hospital's Dinner and Dance. Ah!
So cute!! I lovesss it
AND FREAKY YUMMY TOO!!
Why? Coz Sticky uses quality SIS sugar only - and all flavours and colours are imported!
Seriously I couldn't stop popping them in my mouth.
YUMMY!!
And super gorgeous
YAY JOB WELL DONE!!!
Time to chop up the candy! This part is super easy and fun. Using a chisel just gently hit the candy and it breaks!
The staff does it SUPER FAST it's pewpewpew and all done.
So pretty!!
Love
I tried it too!
Gave up after a bit. Eating is much more fun!
Me with the Sticky crew!! That's Jamie's wife Kristin on my right. Or is it left? Right in real life left in photo. Anyway they are both very nice. And just had a baby girl too. Congrats!!
Kristin had the boys also make me some MINI rock candy which is like the cutest things ever!! Basically just standard sized rock candy stretched thinner. SUPER KAWAII!! And can still see the words clearly.
One jar for momo, one jar for Mike to put in his office, and the mini ones for me to eat! :D
I love their packaging!
Wait what is Kristin stamping for me?
It's a loyalty card with damn cute stamps!!!! My fav is the panda!! Or strawbie!!
Anyway with every $10 spent you get a chop and freebies on the way. Go for the Trucker cap man it's really damn nice!!!!!
My Sticky card :D :D :D
When you get 24 chops you become a STICKYFIED CANDY JUNKIE as seen above!!! So cute the name. I superimposed the stamp on my card (they forgot to stamp for me! hmpf!), it's obviously not so big lah.
And candy junkies get 10% off, always! :D
Thanks Jamie and Kristin for the super fun day!!
Here's a video of how the candy is made in Sticky if you are interested!!
I'm am so gonna get Sticky candy for my wedding (the Chinese one)!!! Their skills are excellent, quality is superb, and it tastes damn nice!!! Also if you have some unfortunate long name they can even go up to like a zillion letters!! Actually their longest ever made was 26 (wtf how to squeeze into a candy) so I suggest all my long-named readers go challenge them heeheehee!!
And of course rock candy is also for sale in different flavours and designs, not only for customization. So if you are having a candy craving go give them a visit!
PROMOTION!!
As you can see I have like a zillion of the Xiaxue candy left over and they are still in Sticky so while stocks last, anyone who spends $10 and above at the Sticky store (in Central Mall's basement), will get a packet of my candy FREE!!
All you have to do is snap a shot of this following photo and show them!!
Just snap with your phone or digicam, don't need to print out.
If you don't like it, eat me. HAHAHAHA sorry couldn't resist that. Geddit? Coz "I" am on the candy? LOL!! Ok lame.
Want to order some Sticky now? Check out their super cute website:
Erm as of NOW they have 11,670 fans and I have 11,934. This is highly embarrassing. They have so many fans one!! In fact, what am I doing advertising for them when they should be advertising for me wtf. HEY HEY JOIN MY PAGE TOO!! LOL
Anyway go join their page they have a "STICKY FREE CANDY DAY" where as long as you bring your own container/bag, they give out a scoop of candy, free!! And a lot of other updates like new flavours and good deals! So shiok one wtf.
p/s: Most pictures are taken by Jonathan from Nuffnang! If you think they are ugly blame him LOL
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