No, I'm not dead yet.
Just a quick shout out. I'll be attending Comifest. I might crossplay as Shinra from Durarara!!. If not, well, have fun finding me. Also, I'll be buying badges. Like, loads of them.
I just realized, I have an Angel Beats A5 poster in my drawer. It's still rolled up.
Heh. And a whole set of Vocaloid postcards, and quite a few more items from EOY 2010.
Oh well, I'll say hi after Comifest 2011.
Mabel, Cosplayer Wannabe.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Another quiz. For now.
I am a very bad student XD
Once you are tagged, you MUST DO this quiz and tag 20 friends, including the person who tagged you. Copy and paste everything, do it and repost the title with whatever rank you were given.Ranks are given at the bottom of this note. If you have done something in this school which is indicated by the sentence, mark the [ ] on the left side of the thing you have done with a 'x'. Let the game begin.
Level 1:
[x]Slept in class
[x]Talked in class
[x]Not seating at your own place in class
[x]Scolded by a teacher
[x]Litter the classroom
[x]Did not do your homework
[x]Did not submit your homework
[ ] Put nail polish
[ ] Played truant
[x]Did not pay attention in class
[x]Dreaming in class
[x] Goofing around in class
[x] Played a trick on your classmates
Level 2:
[x]Walking around
[x]Late for class
[x]Was a bit naughty (Heh. Define a bit...)
[x] Shouted at the top of your voice during lesson time
[x] Scolding vulgarities in class
[x] Spotted hairstyle seemed unacceptable by the school
[x] Used a school facility without school's permission
[x] Play in class
[x] Singing loudly during lesson
[x]Walking around the class aimlessly during lesson time
[x] Did not greet the teacher properly
[x] Went to the toilet during lesson time without permission
[x]Gossip about teacher
[x] Used the teacher's table as a rubbish dump
Level 3:
[ ] Made a fool out of morning assembly
[x] Wasted the school's toilet paper
[x] Sabotaged someone
[x]Irritated someone
Level 4:
[ ] Forged your parent's signature
[ ] Forged a classmate's signature
Level 5:
[x] Fiddling with your handphone during lesson time
[x]Using school computer to play games without a teacher's permission
[x] Listened to an MP3 player in school
Level 6:
[x] Vandalise the school property
[x]Used the internet
[x]Fought with someone in school
Level 7:
[x]Cheated in a class test
[ ] Cheated in a school examination
[x]Lied to your teacher
Level 8:
[ ] Set fire to something in the school
[x] Locked the teacher out of the classroom
[ ] Played truancy just after coming to school just to take attendance
Level 9:
[ ] Refused to pay school fees
[ ] Cheated the school money
[x] Stole things which belonged to the school
[ ] Bullied someone in school
[ ] Prank called your school
Level 10:
[x] Raised your voice/shouted against a student leader
[ ] Raised your voice/shouted against a teacher
[ ] Raised your voice/shouted against your discipline master/mistress
[ ] Raised your voice/shouted against your vice-principal
[ ] Raised your voice/shouted against your principal
Level 11:
[x] Brought weapons to the school
[ ] Brought real firearms to the school
[ ] Brought a real bomb to the school
[ ] Fired a real weapon in the school with the motive to frighten/kill
[ ] Dressed up as a terrorist to school
Grand total: 40
Ranks:
If you are between 0-10-------------{I am a good student}
If you are between 11-19------------{I am a good student but with occasional trouble}
If you are between 20-25------------{I am an average student}
If you are between 26-30------------{I am a bad student}
If you are between 31-40------------{I am a very bad student}
If you are between 41-50------------{I should have been caned by the discipline master}
If you are between 51-60------------{I should have been expelled from school }
If you are between 61-75------------{I should have been sent to a reformatory centre
Once you are tagged, you MUST DO this quiz and tag 20 friends, including the person who tagged you. Copy and paste everything, do it and repost the title with whatever rank you were given.Ranks are given at the bottom of this note. If you have done something in this school which is indicated by the sentence, mark the [ ] on the left side of the thing you have done with a 'x'. Let the game begin.
Level 1:
[x]Slept in class
[x]Talked in class
[x]Not seating at your own place in class
[x]Scolded by a teacher
[x]Litter the classroom
[x]Did not do your homework
[x]Did not submit your homework
[ ] Put nail polish
[ ] Played truant
[x]Did not pay attention in class
[x]Dreaming in class
[x] Goofing around in class
[x] Played a trick on your classmates
Level 2:
[x]Walking around
[x]Late for class
[x]Was a bit naughty (Heh. Define a bit...)
[x] Shouted at the top of your voice during lesson time
[x] Scolding vulgarities in class
[x] Spotted hairstyle seemed unacceptable by the school
[x] Used a school facility without school's permission
[x] Play in class
[x] Singing loudly during lesson
[x]Walking around the class aimlessly during lesson time
[x] Did not greet the teacher properly
[x] Went to the toilet during lesson time without permission
[x]Gossip about teacher
[x] Used the teacher's table as a rubbish dump
Level 3:
[ ] Made a fool out of morning assembly
[x] Wasted the school's toilet paper
[x] Sabotaged someone
[x]Irritated someone
Level 4:
[ ] Forged your parent's signature
[ ] Forged a classmate's signature
Level 5:
[x] Fiddling with your handphone during lesson time
[x]Using school computer to play games without a teacher's permission
[x] Listened to an MP3 player in school
Level 6:
[x] Vandalise the school property
[x]Used the internet
[x]Fought with someone in school
Level 7:
[x]Cheated in a class test
[ ] Cheated in a school examination
[x]Lied to your teacher
Level 8:
[ ] Set fire to something in the school
[x] Locked the teacher out of the classroom
[ ] Played truancy just after coming to school just to take attendance
Level 9:
[ ] Refused to pay school fees
[ ] Cheated the school money
[x] Stole things which belonged to the school
[ ] Bullied someone in school
[ ] Prank called your school
Level 10:
[x] Raised your voice/shouted against a student leader
[ ] Raised your voice/shouted against a teacher
[ ] Raised your voice/shouted against your discipline master/mistress
[ ] Raised your voice/shouted against your vice-principal
[ ] Raised your voice/shouted against your principal
Level 11:
[x] Brought weapons to the school
[ ] Brought real firearms to the school
[ ] Brought a real bomb to the school
[ ] Fired a real weapon in the school with the motive to frighten/kill
[ ] Dressed up as a terrorist to school
Grand total: 40
Ranks:
If you are between 0-10-------------{I am a good student}
If you are between 11-19------------{I am a good student but with occasional trouble}
If you are between 20-25------------{I am an average student}
If you are between 26-30------------{I am a bad student}
If you are between 31-40------------{I am a very bad student}
If you are between 41-50------------{I should have been caned by the discipline master}
If you are between 51-60------------{I should have been expelled from school }
If you are between 61-75------------{I should have been sent to a reformatory centre
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Quiz
I haven't been on much, so here's a quiz to tide things over.
ANIME NERD
[x] You watch anime.
[x] You read manga.
[x] You buy/collect anime DVDs or manga volumes. (I have the entire set of Haruhi-chan manga)
[x] You own some other form of anime/manga merchandise.
[x] You have referred to an anime character as 'hot' before.
[ ] You have cosplayed. (soon xD)
[ ] You have done so in public.
[x] You have been to an anime/manga convention.
[x] You have created/joined a fanclub for an anime/manga character. (MISAKA <3)
[ ] You have created/joined a hateclub for an anime/manga character.
[ ] You have squealed when you found out somebody had the same name as an anime character you knew.
[ ] You enjoy drawing anime.
[x] People you know, know you as the 'anime' person.
[x] You know that it is pronounced 'mawnguh' and not 'manga' like it is spelled.
Anime Nerd Points: 9
ART NERD
[x] You like art.
[ ] You actually consider yourself an artist.
[ ] When using art supplies, the brand of them matters to you.
[ ] You have asked for art supplies as a Christmas/birthday gift before.
[ ] You give people your drawings as gifts.
[ ] People actually ask for your drawings.
[ ] You are known as 'the art person' at your school.
[x] Instead of just 'brown' or ' pink', you'd be specific; it's 'sienna brown' or 'blush pink'.
[ ] You have taken an art class outside of school.
[ ] You have considered a career as an artist.
[x] Your school papers are always covered in doodles.
[x] You have a favorite artist.
[ ] Your drawings have been framed.
[ ] You carry a sketchbook with you everywhere you go.
Art Nerd Points: 4
MUSICAL NERD
[x] You play a musical instrument. (Piano)
[x] You play more than one instrument. (Drums, somewhat)
[ ] You actually really enjoy playing your instrument.
[x] You've given your instrument a name.
[ ] You've participated in an extracurricular activity for your instrument.
[ ] You are known by what you play.
[ ] You listen to classical music.
[ ] You are wondering whether that refers to the classical music genre or the classical music time period.
[x] You have a favorite composer.
[ ] All of your friends are from your band/orchestra class.
[x] You write music.
[ ] You've had discussions with your friends about music; your favorite
[ ] You have considered a professional career with your instrument.
[x] You are never nervous playing for other people.
Musical Nerd Points: 6
VIDEO GAME NERD
[x] You play video games.
[ ] You've owned more than 4 different video game systems.
[ ] You've had debates over which system is the greatest.
[ ] You play video games every day.
[ ] You have played a video game for over 10 hours.
[ ] You have songs from your favorite video games on your MP3 player.
[ ] You love to talk about video games.
[ ] You memorize the dates for when a new game is being released.
[ ] People know you as the 'gamer' person.
[ ] You spend more time on video games than you do hanging out with friends.
[ ] Your gaming system is in your room.
[ ] You have preferences when it comes to what company your game came from.
[ ] You've had debates over which company is the best.
[x] You keep playing a game until you beat it.
[ ] It makes you angry when you found out somebody looked up cheat codes on the internet to beat their game.
Video Game Nerd Points: 2. Sad, right?
COMPUTER NERD
[x] You use the computer every day.
[x] You have an account/username on some sort of social website.
[x] You go into random internet chatrooms.
[x] You spend at least 2 hours a day on the computer. (MUCH MORE LOL)
[x] You use computer faces; : D xD xP D: ^_^ >.> and etc. (more like overuse D:)
[x] It is hard to go a day without using the computer.
[x] You spend time in online forums.
[x] In the forum/chatroom you use, you are known there by everyone else. (Almost everyone else)
[x] You have friends you have only met online.
[x] You have actually met an online friend in person.
[x] U cn ezly rd 'txttlk.' (Though I absolutely hate that, I can still read it. You just score terribly low on my list, and on laxer forums, I will troll you)
[x] You have said 'lol' or 'omg' in speech that is not online.
[x] You can type really, really fast. (40 wpm on average, faster if I already have an idea what to write, way slower if I'm forcing myself to type even though I have nothing to write)
Computer Nerd Points: 13
Huh. Computer nerd. I didn't expect that.
ANIME NERD
[x] You watch anime.
[x] You read manga.
[x] You buy/collect anime DVDs or manga volumes. (I have the entire set of Haruhi-chan manga)
[x] You own some other form of anime/manga merchandise.
[x] You have referred to an anime character as 'hot' before.
[ ] You have cosplayed. (soon xD)
[ ] You have done so in public.
[x] You have been to an anime/manga convention.
[x] You have created/joined a fanclub for an anime/manga character. (MISAKA <3)
[ ] You have created/joined a hateclub for an anime/manga character.
[ ] You have squealed when you found out somebody had the same name as an anime character you knew.
[ ] You enjoy drawing anime.
[x] People you know, know you as the 'anime' person.
[x] You know that it is pronounced 'mawnguh' and not 'manga' like it is spelled.
Anime Nerd Points: 9
ART NERD
[x] You like art.
[ ] You actually consider yourself an artist.
[ ] When using art supplies, the brand of them matters to you.
[ ] You have asked for art supplies as a Christmas/birthday gift before.
[ ] You give people your drawings as gifts.
[ ] People actually ask for your drawings.
[ ] You are known as 'the art person' at your school.
[x] Instead of just 'brown' or ' pink', you'd be specific; it's 'sienna brown' or 'blush pink'.
[ ] You have taken an art class outside of school.
[ ] You have considered a career as an artist.
[x] Your school papers are always covered in doodles.
[x] You have a favorite artist.
[ ] Your drawings have been framed.
[ ] You carry a sketchbook with you everywhere you go.
Art Nerd Points: 4
MUSICAL NERD
[x] You play a musical instrument. (Piano)
[x] You play more than one instrument. (Drums, somewhat)
[ ] You actually really enjoy playing your instrument.
[x] You've given your instrument a name.
[ ] You've participated in an extracurricular activity for your instrument.
[ ] You are known by what you play.
[ ] You listen to classical music.
[ ] You are wondering whether that refers to the classical music genre or the classical music time period.
[x] You have a favorite composer.
[ ] All of your friends are from your band/orchestra class.
[x] You write music.
[ ] You've had discussions with your friends about music; your favorite
[ ] You have considered a professional career with your instrument.
[x] You are never nervous playing for other people.
Musical Nerd Points: 6
VIDEO GAME NERD
[x] You play video games.
[ ] You've owned more than 4 different video game systems.
[ ] You've had debates over which system is the greatest.
[ ] You play video games every day.
[ ] You have played a video game for over 10 hours.
[ ] You have songs from your favorite video games on your MP3 player.
[ ] You love to talk about video games.
[ ] You memorize the dates for when a new game is being released.
[ ] People know you as the 'gamer' person.
[ ] You spend more time on video games than you do hanging out with friends.
[ ] Your gaming system is in your room.
[ ] You have preferences when it comes to what company your game came from.
[ ] You've had debates over which company is the best.
[x] You keep playing a game until you beat it.
[ ] It makes you angry when you found out somebody looked up cheat codes on the internet to beat their game.
Video Game Nerd Points: 2. Sad, right?
COMPUTER NERD
[x] You use the computer every day.
[x] You have an account/username on some sort of social website.
[x] You go into random internet chatrooms.
[x] You spend at least 2 hours a day on the computer. (MUCH MORE LOL)
[x] You use computer faces; : D xD xP D: ^_^ >.> and etc. (more like overuse D:)
[x] It is hard to go a day without using the computer.
[x] You spend time in online forums.
[x] In the forum/chatroom you use, you are known there by everyone else. (Almost everyone else)
[x] You have friends you have only met online.
[x] You have actually met an online friend in person.
[x] U cn ezly rd 'txttlk.' (Though I absolutely hate that, I can still read it. You just score terribly low on my list, and on laxer forums, I will troll you)
[x] You have said 'lol' or 'omg' in speech that is not online.
[x] You can type really, really fast. (40 wpm on average, faster if I already have an idea what to write, way slower if I'm forcing myself to type even though I have nothing to write)
Computer Nerd Points: 13
Huh. Computer nerd. I didn't expect that.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
750words, and a drop in posts
I haven't been updating my blog much. Well, I've given up on Reverb10 for 750words.com, where all I do is write 750 words everyday, on anything and everything I want.
You know what, let's make the deal simpler. I'll post everyday on 750words. I'll post on the blog for bigger stuff.
Let's go.
Mabel, 750 words a days keeps the creative muscles fit.
You know what, let's make the deal simpler. I'll post everyday on 750words. I'll post on the blog for bigger stuff.
Let's go.
Mabel, 750 words a days keeps the creative muscles fit.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Reverb10 (Day 9 to 10)
Day 9
December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)
Huh. Parties?
Never went to one. Not yet, at least.
Moot.
Day 10
December 10 – Wisdom Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? (Author: Susannah Conway)
Actually listening to my friends, and joining them for AFA and various anime conventions. The most fun days of this year was spent with them, chatting, debating whether to spend the money to buy overpriced merchandise, squealing and chasing down cosplayers we like, and rolling our eyes while other people do that. Yes, we are hypocrites, but it's all fun.
Now, we're quite a tight bunch of friends, and we're constantly chatting. Two of them are doing the final touches to their female!Izaya and female!Shizuo costumes for next year. Come to think of it, I could totally do a Izaya cosplay too. Heh. Now, to find someone to do a Shizuo. Then we can have two Shizuos chasing two Izayas, who are high-fiving each other.
December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)
Huh. Parties?
Never went to one. Not yet, at least.
Moot.
Day 10
December 10 – Wisdom Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? (Author: Susannah Conway)
Actually listening to my friends, and joining them for AFA and various anime conventions. The most fun days of this year was spent with them, chatting, debating whether to spend the money to buy overpriced merchandise, squealing and chasing down cosplayers we like, and rolling our eyes while other people do that. Yes, we are hypocrites, but it's all fun.
Now, we're quite a tight bunch of friends, and we're constantly chatting. Two of them are doing the final touches to their female!Izaya and female!Shizuo costumes for next year. Come to think of it, I could totally do a Izaya cosplay too. Heh. Now, to find someone to do a Shizuo. Then we can have two Shizuos chasing two Izayas, who are high-fiving each other.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Reverb10 (Day 1 to 8)
So, I was bored. Surfing through the NaNo forums like any good lurker should.
And I found this. 750words.com
So, I joined, and started yammering away on my day.
It was fun, it was easy (thank NaNo) and I finished it quite fast.
So, now I joined reverb10. Naturally, I'm compelled to finish the backlog.
Day 1 of 31.
December 1 – One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you? (Author: Gwen Bell)
Writing. Or friends. I'm sticking with writing, because let's face it. I've been doing that for the whole of this year, and like what Stalin said, quantity has a quality of its own.
I started this year with CAP. One of my friends got in, and throughout this year, I've been cheered on by her to get in. I don't know whether I should, or whether I'd get in (Adventure/Fantasy isn't something the judges like a lot anyway), but I had lots of fun writing. All that came into fruition in November, when I joined NaNoWriMo. My characters, with a year's worth of non-stop development was easy to work with. The plot solved itself by 20k, 2 weeks in, and the last 30k was an exercise in developing subplots, and bringing things to their logical conclusion, then a few more steps after that, and pulling characters out of my *ahem*
Next year, friends. Never had many friends, and of the small circle I have, not many otakus.
This year, I met more. Mainly through Facebook. Then we all went to AFA, TC, STGCC, and on Sunday, lots of us will be going to EOY. Met lots of them, and I'm good friends with 3 of them. We all watch different things, but we've been exchanging recommendations. Like Durarara. Hetalia. Certain shows which minors shouldn't watch. The whole list. I'm into the slice-of-life kind of stuff. Odd, yes. Still…
The way I'm writing it, I could exchange "friends" and "writing" and nobody would know the difference. XD
###
Day 2 of 31.
December 2 – Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? (Author: Leo Babauta)
Sleep? Well, I'm not eliminating that.
Anime? Inspiration. Quite a lot, no, all of my characters all are heavily influenced by them. Two of them draw a ton of shout outs from anime. One of them is Japanese. Practically all of them have major traits from them. Three of them have cosplayed. Alright, so they did that to rob a bank, and they're supposed to be the protagonists, but still.
NaNo forums? Hello? NaNo forums? Enough said.
Facebook? Well, that's mainly to stay connected with my friends, and I'm not giving up my friends to write more.
###
Day 3 of 31.
December 3 – Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)
I vote for AFAX. My first anime convention. There are always a lot, but this was the first I attended. I kinda got into the whole thing in January, and said, "Screw it, I'm in, might as well go all the way." sometime in late-June.
It was pretty dull at first, and I went to watch Disappearance in Hall 402. That was when things became fun. People cheered for the movie. The movie premier (complete with subtitles) in Southeast Asia. I would have cheered more, had I not watched the camrip, complete with subtitles from the light novel. The subs were of a lower quality, made up for the fact that it was superior in image and sound quality.
Woo!
It was joy, watching Kyon stumble through, wondering what the hell was happening. Watching Kyon get attacked by Mikuru for being a dumbass in denial. He fought giant cave crickets in pocket dimensions, surely he'd be more open-minded. Watching Kyon fight against himself whether to go back. Watching Kyon decide, and kick himself into the table. It makes sense in context.
Then he gets stabbed by Ryoko in the gut, and almost bleeds to death.
But yeah, no matter what you say, Ryoko has something good in her, even if her kernel seems to be coded around stabbing people. Yuki would know best about Ryoko, yet she still chose to bring her back when she recreated the world. The world. Where she dumped Haruhi and Itsuki aside to form a couple. She still chose Ryoko. Isn't that sweet.
But I'm digressing again. The whole makeshift cinema cheered for Kyon. Winced in sympathetic pain for Kyon. Averted their eyes when he tried to convince he knew Mikuru by mentioning the birthmark on her chest.
For the three hours, nobody cared. They were cheering Kyon on. Haruhi was gone, and that's never a good sign, especially when the girl who tried to kill you took over her seat.
So, the whole thing ended, I bought my T-shirts, and my strap, and I wandered around. Things became boring. Very.
I remembered that I was going to meet my friend, who I shall name Stef for ease. I called Stef, said hi, and started looking for her.
It's not tough. She's still the petite meganekko I remembered. I'll so go after her if I was male. And she was with her camera. Petite meganekko with blue hair and a cynical view on life. What more could you ask for?
I met up with her, and she was looking for another guy, named Gabriel. According to his description, he'll be easy to spot, because, in his words, he wasn't cosplaying, but everybody just assumes he is.
Damn, he was right. He vaguely looked like he was from an anime. Just one that nobody knew. Gabe kept insisting that that was his casual wear, and we left it at that.
We went for lunch, because her friends were off at 402 watching something. Most probably waiting for Kaname. It was like her big brother and big sister was watching over her. Hmm… Stef/Gabe?
No, I shouldn't be thinking about that.
Focus!
We went to Burger King, got the food and went off to eat outside 401 while we waited for Stef's friends to come out of 402. We chatted about Durarara. Stef was thinking of cosplaying as female!Izaya, while her senior cosplayed as female!Shizuo. Because she was a major Izaya fangirl. Can't blame her. He's a magnificent bastard, as TvTropes would put it.
She's just a tad too short. Give her a loli character, and she could pull it off well. Give her a shota, and she could crossplay, given enough encouragement.
Never mind. Mini!Female!Izaya then. I'm thinking of getting her a hardy, pink, clamshell disposable handphone so that she could do the whole "stomping on handphones" act.
Where do we get a fake trashcan anyway?
So, her friends come out of 402, and made a beeline to the food. Quite a lot of conversation, including one where Gabriel mentions how Stef and I would make a nice yuri couple, because we look similar, except that I'm the older sister who teaches her sex ed.
Go to hell, Gabe. I'm so not doing that. But yeah, acting out implied yuri is fine with me. Hugging, BST, UST, all that's fine. I asked him to crossplay as Miku or Rin first. We agreed. He crossplays, I do implied yuri with Stef.
We hang around there for a while more, then Stef decided to change back into civvy. The wig's a mess. We went downstairs to the third floor, where there was a ton of cosplayers, with at least 2 Mikus, and half a dozen Bleach characters. And many more.
We sat around, near the escalator, just chatting, watching cosplayers, and Gabe suddenly ran back upstairs to look for nekomimi.
Well, what the hell?
We went up to Hall 404, because 401 was shutting down and 402 was going to be used for the concert. There were a ton of cosplayers there. A Lelouch was chatting with a Konata, who was cosplaying as Haruhi (yes, a girl was cosplaying as Konata, cosplaying as Haruhi). The Konata!Haruhi had a daughter with her, cosplaying as chibi!Haruhi.
She was very cute.
Gabe went back to look for nekomimi, and we sat there, again, chit chatting. At some point, we started teaching Stef yaoi terminology.
Completely uncalled for, and extremely awkward when her senior started wondering aloud whether I'd be the seme or uke if Male!Stef and Male!Me got together.
Right. Try not to say that out loud. Especially when you start by pointing out that both of us are ukes.
We went for dinner after that, at a food court. It was mostly silent, except for the constant encouragement we gave to Gabe at pursuing crossplay. It came down to Miku (complete with Grade S zettai ryouiki (He's a Type B tsundere as far as we're concerned)), Ritsu (long enough hair, and he's energetic enough) and Kyonko.
We split off, afterwards, and Stef, her senior and I went back together.
Oh well.
Not very vivid. I digress too much.
But that. Was. Freaking. Long.
###
Day 4 of 31.
December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)
Wonder? Sorry. Too cynical for that usually. It's less of wonder, more of general excitement.
It's simple, really. TvTropes. We had a series of heartwarming Hetalia fics, all derived from that infamous Hetalia kink meme. Except that it was used for good. Link here.
Nobody Dies, an awesome fanfic. Link somewhere in my previous posts.
Basically, pure awesome creates wonder. Which quickly forces me to note it down for future use.
For example, ADAM fighting Cthulhu in AGE!ND. Antimatter bombs deployed against Israfel, and Devastator used against the other Israfel. An ingeniously small-scale nuclear device against the Israfelim infestation. Weapons from an alternate dimension. Using said alternate dimension as a weapon. Weaponizing technobabble. A three-man army (alright, two, since one of them can't really fight) beating up two dozen men and winning with nary a scratch. Shooting a giant crab into space with a Gravity Gun.
The list goes on and on.
So, wonder, excitement, whatever turns me into a squealing fangirl stems mainly from TvTropes. Who said TvTropes would ruin your life anyway?
Liars.
###
Day 5 of 31.
December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why? (Author: Alice Bradley)
Let go. Heh. Nothing.
Then again, I didn't start with much. My friendship with people *coughKellycough* is slowly drifting apart.
Note to self, EOY. Find her during EOY. Introduce her to my friends. At the very least, it'll slow down the drift.
Hopefully. ::sadface::
###
Day 6 of 31.
December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)
This is easier to answer. My NaNovel. 131 pages of great fun. Excluding that, 3D papercraft dolls of Rin and Gumi. Both are vocaloids that I love. Kakure Otaku de Gomennasai's my favorite Gumi song, and Rin is Pantsu Nugeru Mon.
Right… Let's move on to something else for now. I already mentioned my NaNovel earlier, and the papercrafts took me… 3 hours in total? The head's a pain to glue to the face, but once that's done, it's easy. The artist's DA name is desubunny.
I want to write an interquel for my story, so I'm looking for an app to do that for my computer. Failing that, my iPhone. We'll start in March or June.
###
Day 7 of 31.
December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)
Community?
NaNo forums. I always did prefer lurking. NaNo forums was the exception. It was so… communal, for lack of a better word. The MLs hung around. The Reaching 50,000 forums was filled with crazy ideas that could work. Reference Desk was filled with awesome people calculating ridiculous stuff. Dare threads in the genre forums were filled with stuff I might have taken to advance my plot.
Found quite a few like-minded friends from different countries.
And yes, cosplaying is easier when there's Halloween in your country.
###
Day 8 of 31.
December 8 – Beautifully Different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful. (Author: Karen Walrond)
What makes me different? I love anime and manga. I'm a fan of yuri and yaoi. My iPhone is filled with anime songs. I write a lot, and I daydream about my characters. My crazy, yet awesome characters who can't seem to follow a plot without lampshading the hell out of it, or "improving" it with firepower and/or explosives.
I expect one of them to shout "BOOM FOR THE BOOM GOD" sooner or later.
It's just amazing, when I know what my classmates talk about. They're more casual readers and watchers (does such a term exist?), and when I can chat with them about it, it brightens up our day.
Mabel, Reverb10-ing
And I found this. 750words.com
So, I joined, and started yammering away on my day.
It was fun, it was easy (thank NaNo) and I finished it quite fast.
So, now I joined reverb10. Naturally, I'm compelled to finish the backlog.
Day 1 of 31.
December 1 – One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you? (Author: Gwen Bell)
Writing. Or friends. I'm sticking with writing, because let's face it. I've been doing that for the whole of this year, and like what Stalin said, quantity has a quality of its own.
I started this year with CAP. One of my friends got in, and throughout this year, I've been cheered on by her to get in. I don't know whether I should, or whether I'd get in (Adventure/Fantasy isn't something the judges like a lot anyway), but I had lots of fun writing. All that came into fruition in November, when I joined NaNoWriMo. My characters, with a year's worth of non-stop development was easy to work with. The plot solved itself by 20k, 2 weeks in, and the last 30k was an exercise in developing subplots, and bringing things to their logical conclusion, then a few more steps after that, and pulling characters out of my *ahem*
Next year, friends. Never had many friends, and of the small circle I have, not many otakus.
This year, I met more. Mainly through Facebook. Then we all went to AFA, TC, STGCC, and on Sunday, lots of us will be going to EOY. Met lots of them, and I'm good friends with 3 of them. We all watch different things, but we've been exchanging recommendations. Like Durarara. Hetalia. Certain shows which minors shouldn't watch. The whole list. I'm into the slice-of-life kind of stuff. Odd, yes. Still…
The way I'm writing it, I could exchange "friends" and "writing" and nobody would know the difference. XD
###
Day 2 of 31.
December 2 – Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? (Author: Leo Babauta)
Sleep? Well, I'm not eliminating that.
Anime? Inspiration. Quite a lot, no, all of my characters all are heavily influenced by them. Two of them draw a ton of shout outs from anime. One of them is Japanese. Practically all of them have major traits from them. Three of them have cosplayed. Alright, so they did that to rob a bank, and they're supposed to be the protagonists, but still.
NaNo forums? Hello? NaNo forums? Enough said.
Facebook? Well, that's mainly to stay connected with my friends, and I'm not giving up my friends to write more.
###
Day 3 of 31.
December 3 – Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)
I vote for AFAX. My first anime convention. There are always a lot, but this was the first I attended. I kinda got into the whole thing in January, and said, "Screw it, I'm in, might as well go all the way." sometime in late-June.
It was pretty dull at first, and I went to watch Disappearance in Hall 402. That was when things became fun. People cheered for the movie. The movie premier (complete with subtitles) in Southeast Asia. I would have cheered more, had I not watched the camrip, complete with subtitles from the light novel. The subs were of a lower quality, made up for the fact that it was superior in image and sound quality.
Woo!
It was joy, watching Kyon stumble through, wondering what the hell was happening. Watching Kyon get attacked by Mikuru for being a dumbass in denial. He fought giant cave crickets in pocket dimensions, surely he'd be more open-minded. Watching Kyon fight against himself whether to go back. Watching Kyon decide, and kick himself into the table. It makes sense in context.
Then he gets stabbed by Ryoko in the gut, and almost bleeds to death.
But yeah, no matter what you say, Ryoko has something good in her, even if her kernel seems to be coded around stabbing people. Yuki would know best about Ryoko, yet she still chose to bring her back when she recreated the world. The world. Where she dumped Haruhi and Itsuki aside to form a couple. She still chose Ryoko. Isn't that sweet.
But I'm digressing again. The whole makeshift cinema cheered for Kyon. Winced in sympathetic pain for Kyon. Averted their eyes when he tried to convince he knew Mikuru by mentioning the birthmark on her chest.
For the three hours, nobody cared. They were cheering Kyon on. Haruhi was gone, and that's never a good sign, especially when the girl who tried to kill you took over her seat.
So, the whole thing ended, I bought my T-shirts, and my strap, and I wandered around. Things became boring. Very.
I remembered that I was going to meet my friend, who I shall name Stef for ease. I called Stef, said hi, and started looking for her.
It's not tough. She's still the petite meganekko I remembered. I'll so go after her if I was male. And she was with her camera. Petite meganekko with blue hair and a cynical view on life. What more could you ask for?
I met up with her, and she was looking for another guy, named Gabriel. According to his description, he'll be easy to spot, because, in his words, he wasn't cosplaying, but everybody just assumes he is.
Damn, he was right. He vaguely looked like he was from an anime. Just one that nobody knew. Gabe kept insisting that that was his casual wear, and we left it at that.
We went for lunch, because her friends were off at 402 watching something. Most probably waiting for Kaname. It was like her big brother and big sister was watching over her. Hmm… Stef/Gabe?
No, I shouldn't be thinking about that.
Focus!
We went to Burger King, got the food and went off to eat outside 401 while we waited for Stef's friends to come out of 402. We chatted about Durarara. Stef was thinking of cosplaying as female!Izaya, while her senior cosplayed as female!Shizuo. Because she was a major Izaya fangirl. Can't blame her. He's a magnificent bastard, as TvTropes would put it.
She's just a tad too short. Give her a loli character, and she could pull it off well. Give her a shota, and she could crossplay, given enough encouragement.
Never mind. Mini!Female!Izaya then. I'm thinking of getting her a hardy, pink, clamshell disposable handphone so that she could do the whole "stomping on handphones" act.
Where do we get a fake trashcan anyway?
So, her friends come out of 402, and made a beeline to the food. Quite a lot of conversation, including one where Gabriel mentions how Stef and I would make a nice yuri couple, because we look similar, except that I'm the older sister who teaches her sex ed.
Go to hell, Gabe. I'm so not doing that. But yeah, acting out implied yuri is fine with me. Hugging, BST, UST, all that's fine. I asked him to crossplay as Miku or Rin first. We agreed. He crossplays, I do implied yuri with Stef.
We hang around there for a while more, then Stef decided to change back into civvy. The wig's a mess. We went downstairs to the third floor, where there was a ton of cosplayers, with at least 2 Mikus, and half a dozen Bleach characters. And many more.
We sat around, near the escalator, just chatting, watching cosplayers, and Gabe suddenly ran back upstairs to look for nekomimi.
Well, what the hell?
We went up to Hall 404, because 401 was shutting down and 402 was going to be used for the concert. There were a ton of cosplayers there. A Lelouch was chatting with a Konata, who was cosplaying as Haruhi (yes, a girl was cosplaying as Konata, cosplaying as Haruhi). The Konata!Haruhi had a daughter with her, cosplaying as chibi!Haruhi.
She was very cute.
Gabe went back to look for nekomimi, and we sat there, again, chit chatting. At some point, we started teaching Stef yaoi terminology.
Completely uncalled for, and extremely awkward when her senior started wondering aloud whether I'd be the seme or uke if Male!Stef and Male!Me got together.
Right. Try not to say that out loud. Especially when you start by pointing out that both of us are ukes.
We went for dinner after that, at a food court. It was mostly silent, except for the constant encouragement we gave to Gabe at pursuing crossplay. It came down to Miku (complete with Grade S zettai ryouiki (He's a Type B tsundere as far as we're concerned)), Ritsu (long enough hair, and he's energetic enough) and Kyonko.
We split off, afterwards, and Stef, her senior and I went back together.
Oh well.
Not very vivid. I digress too much.
But that. Was. Freaking. Long.
###
Day 4 of 31.
December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)
Wonder? Sorry. Too cynical for that usually. It's less of wonder, more of general excitement.
It's simple, really. TvTropes. We had a series of heartwarming Hetalia fics, all derived from that infamous Hetalia kink meme. Except that it was used for good. Link here.
Nobody Dies, an awesome fanfic. Link somewhere in my previous posts.
Basically, pure awesome creates wonder. Which quickly forces me to note it down for future use.
For example, ADAM fighting Cthulhu in AGE!ND. Antimatter bombs deployed against Israfel, and Devastator used against the other Israfel. An ingeniously small-scale nuclear device against the Israfelim infestation. Weapons from an alternate dimension. Using said alternate dimension as a weapon. Weaponizing technobabble. A three-man army (alright, two, since one of them can't really fight) beating up two dozen men and winning with nary a scratch. Shooting a giant crab into space with a Gravity Gun.
The list goes on and on.
So, wonder, excitement, whatever turns me into a squealing fangirl stems mainly from TvTropes. Who said TvTropes would ruin your life anyway?
Liars.
###
Day 5 of 31.
December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why? (Author: Alice Bradley)
Let go. Heh. Nothing.
Then again, I didn't start with much. My friendship with people *coughKellycough* is slowly drifting apart.
Note to self, EOY. Find her during EOY. Introduce her to my friends. At the very least, it'll slow down the drift.
Hopefully. ::sadface::
###
Day 6 of 31.
December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)
This is easier to answer. My NaNovel. 131 pages of great fun. Excluding that, 3D papercraft dolls of Rin and Gumi. Both are vocaloids that I love. Kakure Otaku de Gomennasai's my favorite Gumi song, and Rin is Pantsu Nugeru Mon.
Right… Let's move on to something else for now. I already mentioned my NaNovel earlier, and the papercrafts took me… 3 hours in total? The head's a pain to glue to the face, but once that's done, it's easy. The artist's DA name is desubunny.
I want to write an interquel for my story, so I'm looking for an app to do that for my computer. Failing that, my iPhone. We'll start in March or June.
###
Day 7 of 31.
December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)
Community?
NaNo forums. I always did prefer lurking. NaNo forums was the exception. It was so… communal, for lack of a better word. The MLs hung around. The Reaching 50,000 forums was filled with crazy ideas that could work. Reference Desk was filled with awesome people calculating ridiculous stuff. Dare threads in the genre forums were filled with stuff I might have taken to advance my plot.
Found quite a few like-minded friends from different countries.
And yes, cosplaying is easier when there's Halloween in your country.
###
Day 8 of 31.
December 8 – Beautifully Different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful. (Author: Karen Walrond)
What makes me different? I love anime and manga. I'm a fan of yuri and yaoi. My iPhone is filled with anime songs. I write a lot, and I daydream about my characters. My crazy, yet awesome characters who can't seem to follow a plot without lampshading the hell out of it, or "improving" it with firepower and/or explosives.
I expect one of them to shout "BOOM FOR THE BOOM GOD" sooner or later.
It's just amazing, when I know what my classmates talk about. They're more casual readers and watchers (does such a term exist?), and when I can chat with them about it, it brightens up our day.
Mabel, Reverb10-ing
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Endless Eight
No, not really. The only similarity was how I was running around Singapore for a good 6 hours. All without touching any of my cash.
So, started today at 11am, off to Liang Court to check out Kinokuniya. Orchard was a bit too crowded for my liking. I stopped at Newton, following Google Maps, and took 54 for 9 stops.
And I ended up outside SJI. Crossed the road, headed for the opposite direction. The damn bus came after 10 minutes. 18 stops later, I arrived opposite Liang Court, crossed the road via overhead bridge, and went in. To see Moe Moe Kyun at the foyer.
What.
...
And thus, I went to Kinokuniya, wondering why the hell they were there. As it turned out, it was MMK mobile. Unlike that song by GUMI, I didn't see my father going in. Spent quite some time chatting with my friends on FB whether I should blow some money on overpriced food. In the end, I chose not to.
Too bad for all you yuri fanboys out there.
After a while, I remembered my reason for leaving the house and left. After stoning for an hour near the stage, listening to the (mainly) K-ON soundtrack.
Went to City Hall, for the second time in 3 days, and checked Funan mall. Rapid Culture and La Tendo's there, and I wanted to check the prices of the Ritsu nendoroids I missed on Sunday at TC. Dammit. I wasted my money on Eva purchases. Forgive me, Ritsu!
So, they cost more than the $50 at TC. Here's to hoping that they cost cheaper or at least the same at STGCC or EOY.
Next stop, Pan In The Box. Small place, but very promising. That, and a friend recommended it as one of the first few choices for anime merchandise.
They don't have Ritsu. Mio, yes. Yui, yeah.
That sucks.
And now, I'm on to my next location, Kurocha. Sells WS cards, which I might pick up after EOY, and I spied quite a few K-ON nendoroids from their pics of WS players.
Therefore, Kurocha. A bit out of the way, but I'm hoping they've got better prices. So far, RC takes the cake with $62. Which is still way out of what I have in my wallet, $20. Stocking up on money on Thursday night from my mom. She gave me $100 for AFA. :D
I'm hoping for something around that amount too. My mom trusts my judgement enough. That said, I'm also looking out for a Manami nendoroid/figma/figurine. I just prefer meganekko.
Either way, I've gotta go home and ask for more locations. There can't be only 4 shops in Singapore, right? I know there's one in Yishun (could be Comic Connection at the cinema next to Yishun MRT), and there's Otakuhouse at Plaza Singapura and Suntec. Fine. I'll visit them some other day. They're not a cheap place, and SgCafe doesn't like them a lot. Still, they've got a good variety, and that increases my choices.
Checked Kurocha. $68, and rather difficult to find. Lucky for me, I have a pretty good sense of direction, so it won't be in the future. Hopefully.
So, they win. For 6 more dollars, a figma instead of a nendoroid. Of course, that'll wait till after STGCC/EOY.
Lol, Overlord Jeremy Tan. He's a nice guy, I give you that. Overlord, or any form of lordship, well, he isn't that kind of material.
And it's now 4.30pm. Right. I'm going home.
I should go check STGCC for wallets. My current wallet is running out of space for my cards.
I saw a Haruhi sling bag at Pan in The Box. My god, it was cute. Want. So. Badly. Still, budget. I need it for this weekend, so that wouldn't be a good idea.
Note to self: Go back and download Go Go Maniac and Listen! off YouTube. For some reason, I missed them completely.
Well, screw it. I'm going to Otakuhouse to check. I missed my stop at Paya Lebar anyway.
I doubt it's cheaper than Kurocha, but at least it's more convenient. Also, gotta check out key chains and assorted trinkets.
74 dollars. Alright, $73.90. No.
Dammit. I'm hungry. Completely forgot about lunch.
Grabbed a double cheeseburger from McDonalds. Finally, I'm going home. Just another hour or so to go. Hopefully spent sleeping.
Mabel, Contented
No, not really. The only similarity was how I was running around Singapore for a good 6 hours. All without touching any of my cash.
So, started today at 11am, off to Liang Court to check out Kinokuniya. Orchard was a bit too crowded for my liking. I stopped at Newton, following Google Maps, and took 54 for 9 stops.
And I ended up outside SJI. Crossed the road, headed for the opposite direction. The damn bus came after 10 minutes. 18 stops later, I arrived opposite Liang Court, crossed the road via overhead bridge, and went in. To see Moe Moe Kyun at the foyer.
What.
...
And thus, I went to Kinokuniya, wondering why the hell they were there. As it turned out, it was MMK mobile. Unlike that song by GUMI, I didn't see my father going in. Spent quite some time chatting with my friends on FB whether I should blow some money on overpriced food. In the end, I chose not to.
Too bad for all you yuri fanboys out there.
After a while, I remembered my reason for leaving the house and left. After stoning for an hour near the stage, listening to the (mainly) K-ON soundtrack.
Went to City Hall, for the second time in 3 days, and checked Funan mall. Rapid Culture and La Tendo's there, and I wanted to check the prices of the Ritsu nendoroids I missed on Sunday at TC. Dammit. I wasted my money on Eva purchases. Forgive me, Ritsu!
So, they cost more than the $50 at TC. Here's to hoping that they cost cheaper or at least the same at STGCC or EOY.
Next stop, Pan In The Box. Small place, but very promising. That, and a friend recommended it as one of the first few choices for anime merchandise.
They don't have Ritsu. Mio, yes. Yui, yeah.
That sucks.
And now, I'm on to my next location, Kurocha. Sells WS cards, which I might pick up after EOY, and I spied quite a few K-ON nendoroids from their pics of WS players.
Therefore, Kurocha. A bit out of the way, but I'm hoping they've got better prices. So far, RC takes the cake with $62. Which is still way out of what I have in my wallet, $20. Stocking up on money on Thursday night from my mom. She gave me $100 for AFA. :D
I'm hoping for something around that amount too. My mom trusts my judgement enough. That said, I'm also looking out for a Manami nendoroid/figma/figurine. I just prefer meganekko.
Either way, I've gotta go home and ask for more locations. There can't be only 4 shops in Singapore, right? I know there's one in Yishun (could be Comic Connection at the cinema next to Yishun MRT), and there's Otakuhouse at Plaza Singapura and Suntec. Fine. I'll visit them some other day. They're not a cheap place, and SgCafe doesn't like them a lot. Still, they've got a good variety, and that increases my choices.
Checked Kurocha. $68, and rather difficult to find. Lucky for me, I have a pretty good sense of direction, so it won't be in the future. Hopefully.
So, they win. For 6 more dollars, a figma instead of a nendoroid. Of course, that'll wait till after STGCC/EOY.
Lol, Overlord Jeremy Tan. He's a nice guy, I give you that. Overlord, or any form of lordship, well, he isn't that kind of material.
And it's now 4.30pm. Right. I'm going home.
I should go check STGCC for wallets. My current wallet is running out of space for my cards.
I saw a Haruhi sling bag at Pan in The Box. My god, it was cute. Want. So. Badly. Still, budget. I need it for this weekend, so that wouldn't be a good idea.
Note to self: Go back and download Go Go Maniac and Listen! off YouTube. For some reason, I missed them completely.
Well, screw it. I'm going to Otakuhouse to check. I missed my stop at Paya Lebar anyway.
I doubt it's cheaper than Kurocha, but at least it's more convenient. Also, gotta check out key chains and assorted trinkets.
74 dollars. Alright, $73.90. No.
Dammit. I'm hungry. Completely forgot about lunch.
Grabbed a double cheeseburger from McDonalds. Finally, I'm going home. Just another hour or so to go. Hopefully spent sleeping.
Mabel, Contented
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Japan
Day1
Day 1 consisted of us traveling. Hanada Airport's a nice place. Can't say the same about who's coming along. Alright, I expected this, but I still don't enjoy the prospect of so many kids. I like kids. This group, on the other hand, is filled with ChaoticNeutrals. Two of them tried to open the emergency exit of the plane. At cruising altitude. Once I get back, I can do the appropriate calculations to see when I'd die should they succeed.
That said, it's still nice to be here. Single digit temperatures aren't that bad once you cover your ears. It feels like you're in a giant air conditioned room. That's the size of Japan. Fantastic. Some of the kids look like penguins.
I checked the rooming list. Nice. At least I'm not the odd one out. There's a 12 year old girl too.
Note to self: Find her. XD
So, the plane was decent. Sat next to some Japanese dude going home. Looks like he's in his early 40s. Didn't talk much, because his English isn't very good, and my spoken Japanese is atrocious. Understanding it is a different story. But I digress. Dinner was nice, being Singapore Airlines. I don't like soba noodles. Had a decent tailwind of around 100 to 200km/h, so we got here about an hour ahead of schedule.
There was Hatsune Miku on the airplane playlist. XD
Dunno what the guy sitting next to me thought of me, though I know that Japanese frown upon otakus. Another reason why I prefer it there in Singapore. God, this change in location really screws up the pronouns. It's no longer here in Singapore, it's "there", or "back".
That's it for Day 1 of 8.
Day2
Woke up one hour too early. Damn you, internal clock. It's only an one hour change.
I'm screwed if I travel any further.
I need to learn katakana. I can barely read what's on the schedule, mainly because of all the katakana (24, if I remember correctly), I only recognize 7 or so, and that's not very useful when reading signs. I can work out what each means given a proper transliteration, like a list of movies in Japanese and English, but it doesn't encompass everything. So, yeah. Gotta learn.
Gonna go for breakfast soon.
Breakfast was decent. Went to Mt. Fuji, and promptly learnt why people climb only in summer. It's cold. Very cold. And we were only at the fifth station. Alright, so it's more than halfway up, but it's still cold. Without the wind, it's like single digits above zero. Once the wind comes in, it drops to single digits below zero.
I certainly didn't enjoy the freezing fingers and ears. Other than that, it was fine.
BUT, I didn't go to Fuji-Q to see EVA-01. Damn. So, Akihabara's a must now. Or at least, get some merchandise, like figmas or CDs.
Went for lunch, checked out the ice caves. Some parts are terrible for anybody more than 1.2 meters tall. I'm part of that group.
Found the 12 year old. Let's put it this way. Her weight to age in years chart appears to be y=10x.
Checked into our new residence for now. It's not a hotel, per se, but it's not a brothel, so I'm fine with it. Tomorrow better be nicer. I came mainly to feed my... hobbies. And to feed the pockets of those smart enough to print an Ore no Imouto design on a shirt and sell it for a lot more than otherwise possible.
I settled it with some buddies. We get one Haruhi, K-ON, Index/Railgun, Durarara, Ore no Imouto, and a few more for future animes. And, we get rich. Splendid.
And, that's Day2 done.
Day3
Breakfast. Meh. We did fishing in the morning, followed by people slicing the fishes open from what I assume from the urethra to the gills. Then everything in there gets dug out, then they are impaled. Then they're salted, smoked and eaten.
Delicious. And interesting. Yes, I'm unstable. But my point about its tastiness still stands.
Went to a farm, cursed the freezing wind, milked a cow, cursed the freezing wind, rode horses named Arashi (Storm), cursed the freezing wind, went into the shop, cursed the freezing wind, ate ice cream, muttered comments about the inanity, and yes, cursed the freezing wind.
Have I mentioned how much I hate the wind?
Yes, yes I did. About half a dozen times.
Had a small campfire, where I got picked to light the fire. And that means I was happy. Very. Except for the part where I had to say something. Since I was told to say something about Singapore and Japan, and the first thing I thought of was the highly cliched "To friendship between Singapore and Japan", I gave it my best LargeHam impression. Damn right, I had fun. Dinner was decent. The fireworks were too. HANABI.
And yeah, we're packing stuff 'cause we're moving hotels tomorrow.
The 12 year old's sister, a 10 year old girl is way nicer. The easiest way to describe her looks is like Ritsu, with a white hairband. And yes, I do find Ritsu cute. A bit clingy, but I like her.
End Day3.
Day4
No complaints. I played Hare Hare Yukai on taiko drums, I won a Kagamine Len figma at the arcade, I saw a ton of Grade B and A zettai ryouiki, and I got myself winter clothing. XD
There were Rebuilt!Evangelion iPhone covers, but they were iPhone 4s, so none for me. I wanted Asuka or Mari's covers. Maki, mainly, because I still prefer Asuka to have Soryu as her surname, not Shikinami. My NaNoWriMo character is named Soryu, after her, not Shikinami. It just doesn't have the same effect.
Imagine this. There's a man about to be interrogated/tortured. He's in a dark room, and there's no light. A door opens, and light shines in. A male silhouette appears, and a man speaks in a creepy and threatening tone, "Hello, there. Call me Mister Soryu."
Or would you rather he say "Hello, there. Call me Mister Shikinami." Not as threatening, if you ask me.
I've got what I came here for, so, I'm ready to leave. But, there's Disneyland and Disneysea. So, that's for the next two days, followed by a free day. Then back to Singapore on an overnight flight, and I'll catch up on Ore no Imouto.
So... My (new) hotel has a public bath. A public onsen.
What.
And of course, a more private shower room for guests not inclined to flaunting their bodies in front of strangers.
Right...
I won't be in the public baths then. It's called child pornography. Well, I'm technically a teenager, having crossed puberty, but the point's that I'm under 18 and/or 16. I'm 14. The age of consent is higher in most countries and under international law.
Dinner was pretty good. We went to a nearby shopping center, where almost everybody decided to choose the same shop. Quite amusing. Said 12 year old also appears to be an otaku. Gotta ask her tomorrow about her anime and preferred ships.
I get the feeling that her sister, the 10 year old has a crush on me. Odd, but I don't mind. She's a nice girl. And on the idealistic end of the sliding scale. She can't get into GEP, and she's aiming for 290.
All I can say is, get more cynical, or more of your dreams will be crushed by the world. I need to get more idealistic, so that I'll stop crushing my dreams before I get to throw them out to the world. NaNo was a great start.
Battleship Yamato is finally releasing their live action movie.
For those of you who don't know, let me spare you the trouble of Googling. It's the future. Mankind's in deep trouble, as you might have guessed. An alien civilization contacts Man and says, "If you can get people to our planet, we will give you tech that will fix your current issues."
So, Mankind digs out Battleship Yamato, retrofits it into a space battleship, arms it to the teeth as per its original design, and sets off. 30 episodes, 30 days. Three guesses whether mankind succeeds. The roadshow's tomorrow, though I don't think I can catch it. My dad downloaded the whole series already, since it was in his era.
I just realized. If we both like K-ON, and she asks what character I like most, I'll say Ritsu. And it'll be quite awkward, since her sister isn't exactly subtle with her attraction.
Day4 ends here.
Day5
Disneyland.
Boring. Third time here, second in slightly more than two years. Nothing much that I haven't seen. Thunder Mountain fits in that small category. It's a high speed roller coaster with sharp turns and short drops. Boring. I saw someone that looked, sounded and had the same name as Sugita, Kyon's seiyuu selling smoked turkey wings. Knowing my luck, it is him, and I hadn't got an autograph.
Lots of Yui-esque stockings. Of the remainder, many Grade Cs, and many schoolgirls.
I'm waiting for the 1.30 parade now. Boring~
The parade, however, isn't. Took quite a few pictures. Slightly more than fifty, as a matter of fact.
Same for the next parade. And somehow, the day ended.
It's 5.30pm, and I'm at the Tomorrowland restaurant. In front of my dinner. Quite a few people sleeping on the tables, which are actually quite nice. I'm not, because I've got my music and this entry to type up.
I haven't met, or even seen a single family, apart from mine. My mum wanted me to go for LASIK once I'm old enough. I rather keep my meganekko appeal, thank you very much.
Come to think of it, should I cosplay? My parents, although supporting, are just poseurs. They try their best, but yeah. When the only things you've watched is Battleship Yamato, you tend to be terrible at imitating in the first place.
So, cosplaying will be kinda difficult. And I can only go for characters with glasses, since I don't wanna use contacts.
So, who wants me to try Gendo Ikari, manipulative bastard extraordinaire?
I can already do the tented hands, complete with the white gloves, and the two-fingered glasses lift.
Tried out my new beanie today too. Awesome. I look like Danny Choo also. As a bonus, it kept me warm, and my earphones fit inside quite nicely too.
Tomorrow's Disneysea. Once that's done, I'm settled for the trip. I'm trying to get to NaNo's TGIO party, but my flight arrives at 7am, so it might be a bit dicey.
Here lies the end of Day5.
Day6
Disneysea. Smaller, but the rides are more interesting. Still, I went for them already, so it becomes small and boring. My wound from excessive taiko drums is healing. There's a nice scab I want to remove, but it's still a bit sore. Once I return to Singapore, it should be fine.
We kinda finished all the interesting rides (relatively speaking) before lunch, then met up with the large family to go on rides together. Yes, I'm pairing myself with the obvious choice, just for fun, and just to drive up the UST.
The trumpet/military band was awesome. Everybody went to take pictures with the saxophonists and trumpeters. Only one person went to take one with the bass drummer. A rather cute bass drummer, as a matter of fact.
There isn't enough love for drummers. They keep the band running to the correct beat. They become even more important in a military band or parade, because they're in charge of keeping everybody moving to the correct beat, no matter how loud they are. Some are painfully loud, others quiet enough so that others can remain in the spotlight while loud enough to be audible by everybody in the formations, if they're paying attention.
The last kind of drummers get the least recognition, but they're the best. In a military band, you're there to listen to the bagpipes (who only seem to play the same few tunes), trumpets and other wind-based instruments. The drums, not so much.
Enough ranting.
We left at 5pm, then went for dinner. Arcade was next on our stops, and I saw a Maid!Mio at a shooting game. 30 shots for 500 yen. It appeared that we only needed three accurate shots.
First shot netted me a block. So, two more to go. How hard can this get?
Twenty nine shots later, the two blocks were still up, despite at least a dozen hits to each. Damn you, arcade.
My dad and I gave up.
We went to the bookshop next, and I, like Yuki at the library, floated to my favorite section. In my case, the manga. There were the first 45 books in the Bleach manga, countless Naruto books, all 12 Death Notes, first two Durarara mangas, the first 10 Evangelions, two Disappearance of Nagato Yuki, first five Haruhi-chan, first two Ore no Imouto, first 7 KissXSis, and quite a few yaoi manga I didn't recognize.
I got the 5 Haruhi-chan manga, and promptly remembered that I needed to brush up on my katakana. Took quite a few pics, which along with everything else, will go on FB.
Costed me about 2000+ yen. I wanted the KissXSis, until I remembered that it'll be very awkward reading them on the MRT. Evangelion's incomplete, and I already finished Death Note.
So, that's gonna be hand luggage. Along with my Kagamine Len figma. Yes, we can skip Akihabara, 'cause I'm more than happy with what I've got. Still, I'd like to have a Maid!Mio. There was also a Maid!Tsumugi.
Nah, Mio > Mugi.
So, I've got a list of stuff to do once I get back. First, Haruhi series wallpapers from Danbooru (all hail the absurdres tag). Second, instrumental versions of Lucky Star songs (and change the artiste on Kagami's to Hiiragi Kagami). Third, revise katakana (or make small katakana table for wallet).
And NaNo's TGIO party. Can't forget that. I shouldn't bring Tupperware, because my parents think I'm going for tuition. I can just tell the teacher I was too tired from my holiday.
Which will most probably be true. Right, off for a shower, then packing.
Tomorrow's free, so let's see what we end up doing. Personally, I'd like to sleep in, but we're checking out at 8.30. There's a program about AKB48 at 1am, but I ain't staying up to watch. Sleep is still important.
Day6 has ended.
Day7
I just realized how much I want Nagato's headphones. You know, the white bunny earphones?
They're awesome!
Anyway, got to a bookshop just before the flight. It's quite interesting. No mangas for me this time, because there's nothing I'm interested in. I went to get a magazine, mainly for the Kirino nendoroid. There was an Evangelion clock too, but nah... I don't need a clock, and you can never have too many figmas/nendoroids.
As far as all of you are concerned, I went to Akihabara.
I got a Chibi!Mari from Rebuilt!Evangelion. Yay. That's going on my bag. She looks so cute!
Also, a set of 5 bookmarks. There's Ore no Imouto, Toradora, Haruhi-chan and two more I don't recognize.
And of course, I uh... convinced my father to buy me the seventh KissXSis manga. It's blackmail material.
I look like Danny Choo. An odder version, but a resemblance nonetheless.
So. Hanada Airport. I'm at the gate. There's an hour to go before the plane arrives at the gate. Should I watch a movie before sleeping, or should I even sleep at all?
Sleep, it is. I'll make a playlist first, of course.
And there we go. Day 7. Day 8 technically begins in the airport too, but I'm not writing about my dreams. They're getting weirder and weirder. One dream I had was about a movie that (obviously) doesn't exist, but I had innate knowledge of. I was a nameless bystander who stopped following the plot, and I could see the direct consequences to every action I made. The movie ended with me killing the antangonists with a stimulant-induced heart attack, and the protagonist getting tortured to death by a mook he attacked.
It was very interesting, to say the least.
I bought an EVA-01 from the airport. It's about 15cm tall, just big enough for my shelf.
I don't think I'll go to TGIO. I need to catch up on a lot more sleep than expected. Next year, next year. I should write an interquel/prequel for my novel and the 2011 novel.
For interquels, I can write it from the point of an enemy Major, Major Andrew, from his role as a security head racing to find the intruder, to him dealing with the Dominion Carpark Explosion, to leading an unplanned attack on the protagonists' base with two men of the same rank, and discovering friends in unlikely places. Then he gets backstabbed, and Andrew weighs his options, as his former comrades declare him a traitor, and set his men on him.
Wonderful. Lots to write about.
For a prequel, we could explore just how the whole thing began, with all the blackmailing, threats and more. Just for once in my life, I'd like to write something with more layers and gambits than Death Note. This'll be the perfect time. Every character could try to further their goals by second-guessing each other, and we could have more than one scene where a character boasts, only for someone to quote Death Note and say/mutter, "Just as planned!"
And of course, a ton of shoutouts, accurate statistics and awesomeness. I promise each novel would have more CrazyAwesome. My first NaNovel had two dueling giant mecha, and a character killing a giant crab via explosive decompression. In the span of a few thousand words. No MarySues were created in the production of my 2010 NaNovel, though quite a few MarySue tropes were played straight, deconstructed, or discussed to varying degrees.
Look. MarySues aren't superpowered characters. They're characters without equivalent challenges. Almost all of my named characters, if dumped into most stories, would be GenreSavvy enough to find the BigBad in a day or two, hunt him down, and invoke ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill.
My characters stay normal, because they're facing each other. Some of them have exoskeletons to complement their intellect and strength in unarmed and armed combat. Some have an army or a fleet at their command. Some are just ManipulativeBastards/MagnificentBastards. Whatever they are, they know about the Second Law of Plot Dynamics - ConservationOfNinjitsu, and they seem to be tropers, or at least, they're GenreSavvy enough to know if they're entertaining/interesting, they won't die.
God, I write a lot when I'm bored.
Still, this trip has been really useful, and not just for the merchandise and the winter clothing. Bump of Chicken has a new single.
And for my bases. The protagonists' base should be more angular, and gothic. I'm basing it of the night Tokyo skyline, since it's the closest the world has to a technological city. At night, lights will blink along to satellite arrays, all pointing at various constellations, geostationary satellites, or towards places beyond the horizon. Weapon systems will be concealed in the trees, bushes and along the beaches. Not on the beaches, since I glassed one of them with a 43MT explosion from a kilogram charge of antimatter, spread out over fifty canisters of twenty grams each. It's actually 42.96MT, but I'm putting it as 43MT, because people don't care about the exact size when the explosion destroys two giant robots before they can even attack.
The antagonists' base will be more rounded in comparison, and more hidden in the natural vegetation, so that from a cursory inspection from sea, it's only an uninhabited island. From a different angle, it's an naval base. It'll be based mainly on rural Japan, with picturesque hills, small turrets disguised as bushes, rocks and small wooden huts. The main base would be mainly underground, with two large parking lots guarded by machine gun nests, with an electrified fence surrounding it. One now, after I blew up one of them with several tons of smuggled military explosives and some other stuff to form an ingeniously rigged small-scale implosion type fusion charge. Anybody who does their research knows it's bullshit, and I make no attempt to hide it. I lampshade how they and everybody somehow don't get killed by the heat, radiation or overpressure. The guy who created this in-story shrugged, agreed, and continued as though nothing happened.
Watched Hanamizuki on the plane. It's an awesome movie.
God, I'm tired. Right. I'm finally home though.
Whee.
Day 1 consisted of us traveling. Hanada Airport's a nice place. Can't say the same about who's coming along. Alright, I expected this, but I still don't enjoy the prospect of so many kids. I like kids. This group, on the other hand, is filled with ChaoticNeutrals. Two of them tried to open the emergency exit of the plane. At cruising altitude. Once I get back, I can do the appropriate calculations to see when I'd die should they succeed.
That said, it's still nice to be here. Single digit temperatures aren't that bad once you cover your ears. It feels like you're in a giant air conditioned room. That's the size of Japan. Fantastic. Some of the kids look like penguins.
I checked the rooming list. Nice. At least I'm not the odd one out. There's a 12 year old girl too.
Note to self: Find her. XD
So, the plane was decent. Sat next to some Japanese dude going home. Looks like he's in his early 40s. Didn't talk much, because his English isn't very good, and my spoken Japanese is atrocious. Understanding it is a different story. But I digress. Dinner was nice, being Singapore Airlines. I don't like soba noodles. Had a decent tailwind of around 100 to 200km/h, so we got here about an hour ahead of schedule.
There was Hatsune Miku on the airplane playlist. XD
Dunno what the guy sitting next to me thought of me, though I know that Japanese frown upon otakus. Another reason why I prefer it there in Singapore. God, this change in location really screws up the pronouns. It's no longer here in Singapore, it's "there", or "back".
That's it for Day 1 of 8.
Day2
Woke up one hour too early. Damn you, internal clock. It's only an one hour change.
I'm screwed if I travel any further.
I need to learn katakana. I can barely read what's on the schedule, mainly because of all the katakana (24, if I remember correctly), I only recognize 7 or so, and that's not very useful when reading signs. I can work out what each means given a proper transliteration, like a list of movies in Japanese and English, but it doesn't encompass everything. So, yeah. Gotta learn.
Gonna go for breakfast soon.
Breakfast was decent. Went to Mt. Fuji, and promptly learnt why people climb only in summer. It's cold. Very cold. And we were only at the fifth station. Alright, so it's more than halfway up, but it's still cold. Without the wind, it's like single digits above zero. Once the wind comes in, it drops to single digits below zero.
I certainly didn't enjoy the freezing fingers and ears. Other than that, it was fine.
BUT, I didn't go to Fuji-Q to see EVA-01. Damn. So, Akihabara's a must now. Or at least, get some merchandise, like figmas or CDs.
Went for lunch, checked out the ice caves. Some parts are terrible for anybody more than 1.2 meters tall. I'm part of that group.
Found the 12 year old. Let's put it this way. Her weight to age in years chart appears to be y=10x.
Checked into our new residence for now. It's not a hotel, per se, but it's not a brothel, so I'm fine with it. Tomorrow better be nicer. I came mainly to feed my... hobbies. And to feed the pockets of those smart enough to print an Ore no Imouto design on a shirt and sell it for a lot more than otherwise possible.
I settled it with some buddies. We get one Haruhi, K-ON, Index/Railgun, Durarara, Ore no Imouto, and a few more for future animes. And, we get rich. Splendid.
And, that's Day2 done.
Day3
Breakfast. Meh. We did fishing in the morning, followed by people slicing the fishes open from what I assume from the urethra to the gills. Then everything in there gets dug out, then they are impaled. Then they're salted, smoked and eaten.
Delicious. And interesting. Yes, I'm unstable. But my point about its tastiness still stands.
Went to a farm, cursed the freezing wind, milked a cow, cursed the freezing wind, rode horses named Arashi (Storm), cursed the freezing wind, went into the shop, cursed the freezing wind, ate ice cream, muttered comments about the inanity, and yes, cursed the freezing wind.
Have I mentioned how much I hate the wind?
Yes, yes I did. About half a dozen times.
Had a small campfire, where I got picked to light the fire. And that means I was happy. Very. Except for the part where I had to say something. Since I was told to say something about Singapore and Japan, and the first thing I thought of was the highly cliched "To friendship between Singapore and Japan", I gave it my best LargeHam impression. Damn right, I had fun. Dinner was decent. The fireworks were too. HANABI.
And yeah, we're packing stuff 'cause we're moving hotels tomorrow.
The 12 year old's sister, a 10 year old girl is way nicer. The easiest way to describe her looks is like Ritsu, with a white hairband. And yes, I do find Ritsu cute. A bit clingy, but I like her.
End Day3.
Day4
No complaints. I played Hare Hare Yukai on taiko drums, I won a Kagamine Len figma at the arcade, I saw a ton of Grade B and A zettai ryouiki, and I got myself winter clothing. XD
There were Rebuilt!Evangelion iPhone covers, but they were iPhone 4s, so none for me. I wanted Asuka or Mari's covers. Maki, mainly, because I still prefer Asuka to have Soryu as her surname, not Shikinami. My NaNoWriMo character is named Soryu, after her, not Shikinami. It just doesn't have the same effect.
Imagine this. There's a man about to be interrogated/tortured. He's in a dark room, and there's no light. A door opens, and light shines in. A male silhouette appears, and a man speaks in a creepy and threatening tone, "Hello, there. Call me Mister Soryu."
Or would you rather he say "Hello, there. Call me Mister Shikinami." Not as threatening, if you ask me.
I've got what I came here for, so, I'm ready to leave. But, there's Disneyland and Disneysea. So, that's for the next two days, followed by a free day. Then back to Singapore on an overnight flight, and I'll catch up on Ore no Imouto.
So... My (new) hotel has a public bath. A public onsen.
What.
And of course, a more private shower room for guests not inclined to flaunting their bodies in front of strangers.
Right...
I won't be in the public baths then. It's called child pornography. Well, I'm technically a teenager, having crossed puberty, but the point's that I'm under 18 and/or 16. I'm 14. The age of consent is higher in most countries and under international law.
Dinner was pretty good. We went to a nearby shopping center, where almost everybody decided to choose the same shop. Quite amusing. Said 12 year old also appears to be an otaku. Gotta ask her tomorrow about her anime and preferred ships.
I get the feeling that her sister, the 10 year old has a crush on me. Odd, but I don't mind. She's a nice girl. And on the idealistic end of the sliding scale. She can't get into GEP, and she's aiming for 290.
All I can say is, get more cynical, or more of your dreams will be crushed by the world. I need to get more idealistic, so that I'll stop crushing my dreams before I get to throw them out to the world. NaNo was a great start.
Battleship Yamato is finally releasing their live action movie.
For those of you who don't know, let me spare you the trouble of Googling. It's the future. Mankind's in deep trouble, as you might have guessed. An alien civilization contacts Man and says, "If you can get people to our planet, we will give you tech that will fix your current issues."
So, Mankind digs out Battleship Yamato, retrofits it into a space battleship, arms it to the teeth as per its original design, and sets off. 30 episodes, 30 days. Three guesses whether mankind succeeds. The roadshow's tomorrow, though I don't think I can catch it. My dad downloaded the whole series already, since it was in his era.
I just realized. If we both like K-ON, and she asks what character I like most, I'll say Ritsu. And it'll be quite awkward, since her sister isn't exactly subtle with her attraction.
Day4 ends here.
Day5
Disneyland.
Boring. Third time here, second in slightly more than two years. Nothing much that I haven't seen. Thunder Mountain fits in that small category. It's a high speed roller coaster with sharp turns and short drops. Boring. I saw someone that looked, sounded and had the same name as Sugita, Kyon's seiyuu selling smoked turkey wings. Knowing my luck, it is him, and I hadn't got an autograph.
Lots of Yui-esque stockings. Of the remainder, many Grade Cs, and many schoolgirls.
I'm waiting for the 1.30 parade now. Boring~
The parade, however, isn't. Took quite a few pictures. Slightly more than fifty, as a matter of fact.
Same for the next parade. And somehow, the day ended.
It's 5.30pm, and I'm at the Tomorrowland restaurant. In front of my dinner. Quite a few people sleeping on the tables, which are actually quite nice. I'm not, because I've got my music and this entry to type up.
I haven't met, or even seen a single family, apart from mine. My mum wanted me to go for LASIK once I'm old enough. I rather keep my meganekko appeal, thank you very much.
Come to think of it, should I cosplay? My parents, although supporting, are just poseurs. They try their best, but yeah. When the only things you've watched is Battleship Yamato, you tend to be terrible at imitating in the first place.
So, cosplaying will be kinda difficult. And I can only go for characters with glasses, since I don't wanna use contacts.
So, who wants me to try Gendo Ikari, manipulative bastard extraordinaire?
I can already do the tented hands, complete with the white gloves, and the two-fingered glasses lift.
Tried out my new beanie today too. Awesome. I look like Danny Choo also. As a bonus, it kept me warm, and my earphones fit inside quite nicely too.
Tomorrow's Disneysea. Once that's done, I'm settled for the trip. I'm trying to get to NaNo's TGIO party, but my flight arrives at 7am, so it might be a bit dicey.
Here lies the end of Day5.
Day6
Disneysea. Smaller, but the rides are more interesting. Still, I went for them already, so it becomes small and boring. My wound from excessive taiko drums is healing. There's a nice scab I want to remove, but it's still a bit sore. Once I return to Singapore, it should be fine.
We kinda finished all the interesting rides (relatively speaking) before lunch, then met up with the large family to go on rides together. Yes, I'm pairing myself with the obvious choice, just for fun, and just to drive up the UST.
The trumpet/military band was awesome. Everybody went to take pictures with the saxophonists and trumpeters. Only one person went to take one with the bass drummer. A rather cute bass drummer, as a matter of fact.
There isn't enough love for drummers. They keep the band running to the correct beat. They become even more important in a military band or parade, because they're in charge of keeping everybody moving to the correct beat, no matter how loud they are. Some are painfully loud, others quiet enough so that others can remain in the spotlight while loud enough to be audible by everybody in the formations, if they're paying attention.
The last kind of drummers get the least recognition, but they're the best. In a military band, you're there to listen to the bagpipes (who only seem to play the same few tunes), trumpets and other wind-based instruments. The drums, not so much.
Enough ranting.
We left at 5pm, then went for dinner. Arcade was next on our stops, and I saw a Maid!Mio at a shooting game. 30 shots for 500 yen. It appeared that we only needed three accurate shots.
First shot netted me a block. So, two more to go. How hard can this get?
Twenty nine shots later, the two blocks were still up, despite at least a dozen hits to each. Damn you, arcade.
My dad and I gave up.
We went to the bookshop next, and I, like Yuki at the library, floated to my favorite section. In my case, the manga. There were the first 45 books in the Bleach manga, countless Naruto books, all 12 Death Notes, first two Durarara mangas, the first 10 Evangelions, two Disappearance of Nagato Yuki, first five Haruhi-chan, first two Ore no Imouto, first 7 KissXSis, and quite a few yaoi manga I didn't recognize.
I got the 5 Haruhi-chan manga, and promptly remembered that I needed to brush up on my katakana. Took quite a few pics, which along with everything else, will go on FB.
Costed me about 2000+ yen. I wanted the KissXSis, until I remembered that it'll be very awkward reading them on the MRT. Evangelion's incomplete, and I already finished Death Note.
So, that's gonna be hand luggage. Along with my Kagamine Len figma. Yes, we can skip Akihabara, 'cause I'm more than happy with what I've got. Still, I'd like to have a Maid!Mio. There was also a Maid!Tsumugi.
Nah, Mio > Mugi.
So, I've got a list of stuff to do once I get back. First, Haruhi series wallpapers from Danbooru (all hail the absurdres tag). Second, instrumental versions of Lucky Star songs (and change the artiste on Kagami's to Hiiragi Kagami). Third, revise katakana (or make small katakana table for wallet).
And NaNo's TGIO party. Can't forget that. I shouldn't bring Tupperware, because my parents think I'm going for tuition. I can just tell the teacher I was too tired from my holiday.
Which will most probably be true. Right, off for a shower, then packing.
Tomorrow's free, so let's see what we end up doing. Personally, I'd like to sleep in, but we're checking out at 8.30. There's a program about AKB48 at 1am, but I ain't staying up to watch. Sleep is still important.
Day6 has ended.
Day7
I just realized how much I want Nagato's headphones. You know, the white bunny earphones?
They're awesome!
Anyway, got to a bookshop just before the flight. It's quite interesting. No mangas for me this time, because there's nothing I'm interested in. I went to get a magazine, mainly for the Kirino nendoroid. There was an Evangelion clock too, but nah... I don't need a clock, and you can never have too many figmas/nendoroids.
As far as all of you are concerned, I went to Akihabara.
I got a Chibi!Mari from Rebuilt!Evangelion. Yay. That's going on my bag. She looks so cute!
Also, a set of 5 bookmarks. There's Ore no Imouto, Toradora, Haruhi-chan and two more I don't recognize.
And of course, I uh... convinced my father to buy me the seventh KissXSis manga. It's blackmail material.
I look like Danny Choo. An odder version, but a resemblance nonetheless.
So. Hanada Airport. I'm at the gate. There's an hour to go before the plane arrives at the gate. Should I watch a movie before sleeping, or should I even sleep at all?
Sleep, it is. I'll make a playlist first, of course.
And there we go. Day 7. Day 8 technically begins in the airport too, but I'm not writing about my dreams. They're getting weirder and weirder. One dream I had was about a movie that (obviously) doesn't exist, but I had innate knowledge of. I was a nameless bystander who stopped following the plot, and I could see the direct consequences to every action I made. The movie ended with me killing the antangonists with a stimulant-induced heart attack, and the protagonist getting tortured to death by a mook he attacked.
It was very interesting, to say the least.
I bought an EVA-01 from the airport. It's about 15cm tall, just big enough for my shelf.
I don't think I'll go to TGIO. I need to catch up on a lot more sleep than expected. Next year, next year. I should write an interquel/prequel for my novel and the 2011 novel.
For interquels, I can write it from the point of an enemy Major, Major Andrew, from his role as a security head racing to find the intruder, to him dealing with the Dominion Carpark Explosion, to leading an unplanned attack on the protagonists' base with two men of the same rank, and discovering friends in unlikely places. Then he gets backstabbed, and Andrew weighs his options, as his former comrades declare him a traitor, and set his men on him.
Wonderful. Lots to write about.
For a prequel, we could explore just how the whole thing began, with all the blackmailing, threats and more. Just for once in my life, I'd like to write something with more layers and gambits than Death Note. This'll be the perfect time. Every character could try to further their goals by second-guessing each other, and we could have more than one scene where a character boasts, only for someone to quote Death Note and say/mutter, "Just as planned!"
And of course, a ton of shoutouts, accurate statistics and awesomeness. I promise each novel would have more CrazyAwesome. My first NaNovel had two dueling giant mecha, and a character killing a giant crab via explosive decompression. In the span of a few thousand words. No MarySues were created in the production of my 2010 NaNovel, though quite a few MarySue tropes were played straight, deconstructed, or discussed to varying degrees.
Look. MarySues aren't superpowered characters. They're characters without equivalent challenges. Almost all of my named characters, if dumped into most stories, would be GenreSavvy enough to find the BigBad in a day or two, hunt him down, and invoke ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill.
My characters stay normal, because they're facing each other. Some of them have exoskeletons to complement their intellect and strength in unarmed and armed combat. Some have an army or a fleet at their command. Some are just ManipulativeBastards/MagnificentBastards. Whatever they are, they know about the Second Law of Plot Dynamics - ConservationOfNinjitsu, and they seem to be tropers, or at least, they're GenreSavvy enough to know if they're entertaining/interesting, they won't die.
God, I write a lot when I'm bored.
Still, this trip has been really useful, and not just for the merchandise and the winter clothing. Bump of Chicken has a new single.
And for my bases. The protagonists' base should be more angular, and gothic. I'm basing it of the night Tokyo skyline, since it's the closest the world has to a technological city. At night, lights will blink along to satellite arrays, all pointing at various constellations, geostationary satellites, or towards places beyond the horizon. Weapon systems will be concealed in the trees, bushes and along the beaches. Not on the beaches, since I glassed one of them with a 43MT explosion from a kilogram charge of antimatter, spread out over fifty canisters of twenty grams each. It's actually 42.96MT, but I'm putting it as 43MT, because people don't care about the exact size when the explosion destroys two giant robots before they can even attack.
The antagonists' base will be more rounded in comparison, and more hidden in the natural vegetation, so that from a cursory inspection from sea, it's only an uninhabited island. From a different angle, it's an naval base. It'll be based mainly on rural Japan, with picturesque hills, small turrets disguised as bushes, rocks and small wooden huts. The main base would be mainly underground, with two large parking lots guarded by machine gun nests, with an electrified fence surrounding it. One now, after I blew up one of them with several tons of smuggled military explosives and some other stuff to form an ingeniously rigged small-scale implosion type fusion charge. Anybody who does their research knows it's bullshit, and I make no attempt to hide it. I lampshade how they and everybody somehow don't get killed by the heat, radiation or overpressure. The guy who created this in-story shrugged, agreed, and continued as though nothing happened.
Watched Hanamizuki on the plane. It's an awesome movie.
God, I'm tired. Right. I'm finally home though.
Whee.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Happy Birthday, Yui!
Now that that's out of the way, I've been collecting high-quality wallpapers for my computer. The kind where my computer has to scale them down to show them in their full glory. The kind where they're at least 1.5MB, and each dimension is at least 1500 pixels. The kind where the biggest wallpaper is 254 megapixels (the damn thing almost crashed Chrome), and the smallest is 7.35 megapixels. The kind where you can see it's highly detailed, when it's scaled to fit screen. The kind which forces Google Chrome to kill the pages, because of the size. Most browsers, when built, weren't designed to handle such size.
It's also from Danbooru. Don't get me wrong, it's still filled with highly organized porn. Still, the absurdres tag is a godsend. lucky_star absurdres. 16 pages of extremely high-quality wallpapers. Some are definitely NSFW, because they show Kagami and/or Tsukasa in NSFW poses and states of undress.
But, my point stands. Awesome wallpapers.
According to my computer, the Lucky Star Wallpapers take up 129.6 MB on disk (129,418,824 bytes) for 76 items. 1.7MB on average.
To compare, my desktop contains 8.36 GB on disk (8,356,438,645 bytes) for 2,885 items, most of it in a single folder, which is extremely well-organized if you ask me. Well, except for all my text files, but that's a different story. That's 2.9MB on average, and that's because of Haruhi season 2 and Lucky Star. Once I get my hands on my external hard drive, that average will shoot up.
Well, I'm leaving for the airport soon in about an hour. Bye Singapore, hello Japan!~
Mabel, Wallpaper Freak.
It's also from Danbooru. Don't get me wrong, it's still filled with highly organized porn. Still, the absurdres tag is a godsend. lucky_star absurdres. 16 pages of extremely high-quality wallpapers. Some are definitely NSFW, because they show Kagami and/or Tsukasa in NSFW poses and states of undress.
But, my point stands. Awesome wallpapers.
According to my computer, the Lucky Star Wallpapers take up 129.6 MB on disk (129,418,824 bytes) for 76 items. 1.7MB on average.
To compare, my desktop contains 8.36 GB on disk (8,356,438,645 bytes) for 2,885 items, most of it in a single folder, which is extremely well-organized if you ask me. Well, except for all my text files, but that's a different story. That's 2.9MB on average, and that's because of Haruhi season 2 and Lucky Star. Once I get my hands on my external hard drive, that average will shoot up.
Well, I'm leaving for the airport soon in about an hour. Bye Singapore, hello Japan!~
Mabel, Wallpaper Freak.
Friday, November 26, 2010
I have completed NaNoWriMo.
Woot!
I wrote a 50,119 word story, and I've established a sequel hook. Alright. I've also got the new K-ON!! songs in my iPhone. For some reason, only Azusa's songs have lyrics. The rest are empty. WTF. But, eh. I wrote 10k words in 2 days, and I am very happy. My fingers weren't, towards the end, but it's not my problem.
I'm addicted to Ritsu and Azusa's songs. Also, I'm making a list of the tropes, and putting them on my TvTropes page.
So, I'm leaving for Japan on Saturday, which explains my 10k words. Yes, plenty of pictures will be taken. All of them are going up on FB, so look out for them. Hopefully, we'll pop by Fuji-Q for EVA-01, or Akihabara. I'm fine with either, so long as I get my dose. If I get to watch Ore no Imouto, then all the better.
Well, nothing more to write about. I rushed the last 10k words out on Wednesday and Thursday. So, I've got a BolivianArmyEnding, and I've set up a cliffhanger for next year to jump off.
The main way NaNoWriMo benefitted me was my typing speed. You try writing a ton of words at one shot not once, but everyday for thirty days. Eventually, some words become second nature.
Mabel, WINNER!
Woot!
I wrote a 50,119 word story, and I've established a sequel hook. Alright. I've also got the new K-ON!! songs in my iPhone. For some reason, only Azusa's songs have lyrics. The rest are empty. WTF. But, eh. I wrote 10k words in 2 days, and I am very happy. My fingers weren't, towards the end, but it's not my problem.
I'm addicted to Ritsu and Azusa's songs. Also, I'm making a list of the tropes, and putting them on my TvTropes page.
So, I'm leaving for Japan on Saturday, which explains my 10k words. Yes, plenty of pictures will be taken. All of them are going up on FB, so look out for them. Hopefully, we'll pop by Fuji-Q for EVA-01, or Akihabara. I'm fine with either, so long as I get my dose. If I get to watch Ore no Imouto, then all the better.
Well, nothing more to write about. I rushed the last 10k words out on Wednesday and Thursday. So, I've got a BolivianArmyEnding, and I've set up a cliffhanger for next year to jump off.
The main way NaNoWriMo benefitted me was my typing speed. You try writing a ton of words at one shot not once, but everyday for thirty days. Eventually, some words become second nature.
Mabel, WINNER!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)