Comic Fiesta 2011: KLCC

Pre-Comic Fiesta

While my friends had their semester break, I had to juggle between doing my Concept Art 1 final project and my props. Every week, Cheryl, Misaki, Laura, Mel and I would meet up at college during weekdays to work on our props for our Samurai Warriors 3 (Sengoku Musou 3) cosplay group. This is my first time doing such a big cosplay plan because my previous ones were easy to pull off. I was gonna cosplay Takenaka Hanbei and I have a huge bladed sundial to make.

Not every day would all of us meet up. Sometimes Misaki can't make it, sometimes Laura can't make it, and sometimes I can't make it. Cheryl was always there when any of us are gonna work on our props at college because she was silently elected as our group leader. I started off slow because of the final project but then work continuously after it was done. I spent roughly RM70 over on the specific types of paper and board I needed and also paint which I bought around the week before CF.

Unfortunately I didn't take any progress photos of my sundial. When CF got closer, we had gathered at Cheryl's house to do our props and watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and later on, two days before CF, Cheryl and I went to Misaki's house to work on our props. I was still less than 50% done! Thankfully I went to Misaki's house to do my prop if not I would have no finished it in time. I stayed over at Cheryl's house after working at Misaki's and continued to work on it until Saturday. At Misaki's house I learned the magic of hot glue gun and craft foam.

Friday was the day when everyone would meet up at Cheryl's house and practice our poses with our props. The whole group came together but Antho was running late because thing were not going well on his side. I felt a little bad for it because he was helping me make my tengu-geta and in the end his armor could not fit together. When Antho finally made it, Jean had to go home, so we replaced Jean with a chair. Cheryl mentioned that the same thing happened last year when they had to practice for the Kuroshitsuji group pose. I wasn't in the Kuroshitsuji group last year. The geta Antho made was not stable enough and it fell apart when I was walking in it. I felt really, really bad but he kept saying that the condition of my feet was most important, I had to make sure I don't break my ankle. Antho said he will fix my geta and the plan was to turn it into a normal two-teeth geta.

That night we all had dinner at Pitstop, a restaurant that allows you to borrow and play boardgames there. I had known of this restaurant before but I didn't know it was in Section 17, I had thought it was in SS2.

Kai and Mal also came on Friday along with everyone else but they were not part of our cosplay gorup. They were there to stay over at Cheryl's so they pretty much had nothing to do. Cheryl let them play with her PS3 and Kai put up a show for us in YooStar 2. We discovered that you earn the highest points by speaking gibberish but with the same consonants as the dialogues. After dinner, we continued to work on our props and I took a break from my sundial and played Sport Champions. Antho and Laura also had a try with the game. At this time, I was amazed at how much I was able to finish my sundial, some things were working and some things didn't. When we were practicing our poses, pretty much everything on my sundial fell apart. I was so worried but I managed somehow.

Before I went to sleep (at 3a.m.) the only things I have left to do is to paint in the details of my sundial and stick everything together. I had 95% done. At least I knew I was gonna feel at ease instead of panicking at CF.

Comic Fiesta Day 1

I woke up at 7a.m. Cheryl and Laura had just woken up at around the same time as me and were already starting to get into their costumes. They were gonna cosplay Kuroshitsuji and I wasn't gonna cosplay on day 1. Initially I wanted to cosplay as Kumagawa Misogi, I had the screw 75% done but I had to focus on Hanbei so I dropped it.

I woke Kai and Mal after I had cleaned up and changed into my clothes. After everybody was ready, we all headed out. Cheryl and Laura hopped into Cheryl's dad's car while Mal and I got into Kai's. When we got to KLCC, things didn't go according to how I pictured it.

First of, I had stomachache on the way to KLCC so I had to get to the toilet, all the toilets at the convention center was packed with cosplayers, if I were to make volcano chocolate surprise in there it wouldn't be nice for the cosplayers who are putting on make up, styling their hair or wig and changing into their costumes so I had to find a way to anther toilet. The problem is, the KLCC management were making a big fuss over the number of people and lifts were locked down, people were pushed around to 'control' the human traffic. I somehow manage to make my way into the mall and relieved myself after getting my pre-ordered tickets and goody bags. Amanda hasn't got there yet so I had to claim all her stuff for her: 8 tickets and 4 goody bags. 2 tickets and a goody bag for me and the others were for the people she helped to order.

The main hall was in Hall5 and Hall4 was for ticketing and cosplayers to put their stuff. When I got back to the halls, things had taken for the worse. Hall4 was overcrowded and things seemed like it was going out of hand. The KLCC management had locked some doors to prevent people from coming in from all directions and had only one door open to let people into Hall4. I made my way into Hall5 and looked around with Kai and Mal after trying to find them. We went around, saw a lot of thing we wanted but I ultimately fell for my favor of pins and spent most of my money on them. At the doujin booths, I discovered our lecturer's booth. Charmaine wasn't there so I guessed she must be cosplaying somewhere. While looking around, I found Wee. He had a booth with his friends selling his artwork (and some assignments, hahaha).

While I was out of control, buying pins here and there, Amanda called me while I was buying the L4D t-shit I wanted to buy at Animangaki. Her call made me snap out of my shopping adrenaline because I had to look for someone. I made my way out of Hall5 and called the unknown person to pass her her tickers and goody bag. After I found her, I met up with Kai and Mal again only to learn that the KLCC management had locked down Hall5, preventing anyone from entering. If you come out, you can't go back in until they open the doors again. While we were wandering around outside the hall, we could see the huge sea of people trying to get into the building, thousands of people were still not allowed to enter the convention center and the KLCC management was shouting insults at the hyped up participants.

While all this was happening, chaos was happening on the inside too, especially Kuui who was shouting over his handphone, trying to find his friends who were outside. He kept pacing here and there restlessly. Kai and Mal were getting hungry so I followed them to the cafe outside Hall4. On the way we met up with JuEun and we all sat down together. I spent almost all my money so all I could eat was the bar of dark chocolate in the goody bag. We sat for a while before the management opened Hall5 again to let a batch of people lining up in Hall4 in. People were drove into Hall4 and had to queue up after purchasing tickets to go into Hall5. A lot, a lot, A LOT of people were complaining.

Finally, we gave up waiting and went into Hall4. Inside, we searched for Cheryl and the others and out search did not last long. I got Kin Yen and Ang Yu to sit with us and we chatted while chaos happened outside. We then decided to leave since the chaos with the KLCC management had brought down our mood and went for dinner.

I always seem to not mention the friends I met in the crowds. I met up with Yati and Kuui some time before lunch and Teoh and Yue. Teoh was cosplaying as Detective Conan while Yue cosplayed the same Kuroshitsuji character she cosplayed at Animangaki that I don't know of. I also caught Emma, Jian Leng, Yumi and BlackCatz. Jian Leng was cosplaying Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji, Emma and Yumi were Subaru and Kamui from Tsubasa Chronicles and BlackCatz was cosplaying Eva-Beatrice from Umineko no Naku Koro ni.

We went down to the small food court at the exhibition center, outside Aquaria and had our meal. With my remaining money, I bought a plate of spaghetti. I was really upset over my uncontrolled shopping spree and wasn't able to cheer up. Cheryl needed to pass some stuff back to Yumi and BlackCatz and also get some stuff from them so it took a long time before we could head back because Hall5 was so crowded Yumi and BlackCatz couldn't come out and their car was parked very far from KLCC.

Back at Cheryl's house, we continued to work on our props. Feeling a lot better after some rest and some positive thinking, I continued to work. When my costume came in three days before CF, the paint job on the details were pretty bad so I had to paint over. everything else was pretty much okay. I spent the next 2 hours painting my costume. Taking breaks in between, I played Sport Champions again, resulting a huge pain in my right arm, from shoulder to wrist. Proves that I need more exercise, being a digital art student sure effects my health. Antho came over and passed me my geta which he fixed and luckily he manage to keep it as a tengu-geta. He cut down on the height and added more screws and nails to secure the wood together. He went back to finish up on his armor.

I finished painting my stuff at around 2a.m. and decided to help Cheryl out. She has some problems with her headpiece and fur coat because the coat keeps falling backward and it tore one of the headpiece's "horn" off. Another big problem, we ran out of hot glue sticks. I felt bad because I spammed my sundial with hot glue. Cheryl thought she still had a lot and had previously told me to use as much as I want. I regretted it. Using the last amount of hot glue, Laura, Cheryl and I glued the "horn" back on and secured it with masking tape. After that I helped Cheryl with some of her armor as Laura went to sleep since it was late already. I went to sleep at around 4a.m. while Cheryl said she slept at 5a.m.

Comic Fiesta Day 2

Before I slept I told Cheryl to wake me up latest at 7.45a.m. no matter what and thankfully Laura did. If not I would have continued to sleep sitting upright after waking up to switch off my alarm and after Laura's first wake up call. After a bath, I got changed into my costume. While at it, Cheryl and I woke Kai and Mal up so that they can get ready to leave the house as soon as possible. We had to get there early. Misaki was already waiting outside so we packed up our stuff, double-checked and left in a huff. First stop was Misaki's house because Misaki's mom had to change cars. Next stop, KLCC.

Early wasn't early enough. A long line was waiting for us. Baddy, Za, Mei and Mel were in line waiting for us already. We quickly got into the line and Cheryl started styling our wigs (and my hair). While that was happening, the line started moving. Yay! The CF committee divided the long queue into 'Have ticket' and 'Don't have ticket'. After some time (with some struggling attempt to keep all my things with me, especially my large sundial and heavy geta) we got into Hall4 and conquered a spot. Jean later joined us but alas, Antho couldn't make it. He fainted at home while rushing his armor and his parents didn't let him come. They took him to a hospital instead and he forced to stay at home.

I got fully changed and since I don't want (and didn't really need) any make up, Cheryl quickly helped me put on concealer and a little face power and I was ready to rumble! But I waited for everyone else. While I waiting, I tried on the geta Antho fixed. If Antho was there, I would have hugged him because I can walk in them but I still can't keep myself balanced. Throughout the time waiting, I wore my geta and practiced walking around several times. Yati, Kar Loke, Kuui and Melvin came. I helped Yati with his Yamamoto (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!) cosplay and after that practiced geta some more. Abby was with her group in a spot near ours.

The place soon got packed with cosplayers making up their own spots to prepare their costumes. Photographers also started swarming the place and cameras started flashing. Soon our group was ready and the moment we strike our poses, a large swarm of photographers and cosplayers ran over with their cameras and took pictures. Wow. So this is what it's like to be in a group, cameras keep coming and you stay still in that pose for some time. It was awesome but tiring at the same time. The rest of the day continued at a slow pace because some of our group members still needed to fix up on their makeup.

While waiting, I walked around in my geta and found Teoh. He was cosplaying as Sora from Kingdom Hearts. Eugene was also there and he cosplayed a character from Valkyria Chronicles. Abby was a character from Tiger and Bunny, I'm not sure if she was Tiger or Bunny because I didn't watch the anime but I know it's either one of them.

Later in the evening, Chia and (Chia came! That's surprising!) JuEun found us took some personal pictures of us. Now almost all of us are using her pictures as our Facebook profile image. Hahaha. Later, Laura, Cheryl, Mel and I went to Hall5 to look around. It wasn't as crowded as day 1 and everything was under control. Cosplayers were mostly outside at the gardens of KLCC. A huge improvement compared to day 1. After a look around, we headed back to Hall4 ready to call it a day. We went back to Hall4 and I walked around to find friends I know through cosplaying and chatted with them before changing out of my costume.

Lost

While we were packing up, Hall4 started to close down. Kuui's luggage bag was left alone after we had packed all our stuff so I stayed behind and called Kuui to come and grab his stuff. After Kuui got his things, I couldn't find the others so I called Cheryl but I got cut off halfway. Turned out I ran out of credit. Using my last remaining credit, I smsed Cheryl and she replied that they were at the food court. The first thing that came to my mind was the food court in Suria KLCC. I saw cosplayers and participants making their way to the mall so I followed suit. At the food court, I could not find any of them anywhere. I started to panic. I went around 4 times with all my things which caught the attention of people around me. Doing the right thing, I sat down and thought for awhile. Then I remembered the food court at the convention center. What a fool I was! I made my way back.

End of the Day

After Za paid me back for the wood for her geta, I got enough money to buy a soup in bread meal. After the meal I fell asleep from exhaustion. On the way back I fell asleep in Kai's car. Honestly, while looking for Kai's car, I was feeling woozy from exhaustion and was seeing a little white. When we got back to Cheryl's house, Kai described it as, "You were like unconscious the whole time you carried your things into the house." I remember falling asleep in a sitting position on the couch the moment I set my things down.

Comic Fiesta 2011 overall I can say is a little disappointing in terms of organisation but my experience was never as good as this. Of course it's thanks to the Samurai Warriors 3 cosplay group I'm in. I'm looking forward to a better Comic Fiesta next year!

After note: I took my camera to Cheryl's house, charged it and forgot to bring it to Comic Fiesta. Dammit.

Work! Work! Work!

It's the semester break already! Sort of... I still have Concept Art 1 while all my other subjects have ended.

While I'm doing my CA1 assignments, I'm also working on my props for the upcoming Comic Fiesta 2011. I'm tired and bored and I feel like sleeping. I'll end here.

Dark Zap

"Il giudizio finale sta per essere emesso, Nessuno può emendarsi dal peccato che scorre nelle vene..."

The song Katayouku no Tori (片翼の鳥) rings loudly in my ears. It tells me that it's now 6.00am and I should wake up. I was half awake and it was hot so I switched off the alarm on my handphone and dozed back into sleep. Hot? If I was fully awake I would have noticed it but I was too sleepy to bother why my room was hot.

I was awaken again by my sister's voice and some annoying flashing lights. I stirred from my sleep and noticed that my room is hot, again, I didn't really notice anything yet but got annoyed by the torchlight my sister was shinning at me. I got up and demanded her switch it off but my sister replied that the power was out. Then only I realised that my room was really hot because the fan was not running.

My sister noted that the whole neighborhood's electricity was also out and sure enough, every house outside my window was dark, cold and seemingly empty. Even the streets that are lighted by the street lamps looked ominous. The only light I could see was a candle light from a house two blocks away and the sky slowly lighting up as the Sun rises.

Being the selfish knuckleheads my sisters are, I had to brush my teeth and get ready to get out in the dark. My youngest sister wanted to give me the only torch in the house but then had a change of thoughts and sprinted away with it.

The electricity came back at around 6.50am before my dad decided to exit the house from the back door because our gate powered by electricity. I had told my parents before that I wanted a side gate so that I can go in and out the house without having to open the darn gate from inside the house and worrying about how to close it if I leave. There are only two remotes for the gate and both my parents are holding them, when they are not around, which is most of the time, I can hardly get out whenever I want to, so when I get the urge to go out and cycle, I can't because no one is home and I can't close the gate if I get out.

Hi, I'm Down In The Ditches Under The Toilet

Nothing much happened recently besides me, feeling all tired, not confident, depressed, down, glum and have lost hope on my animation. I've considered failing it and retaking next semester with my Concept Art 2 but I'll still continue to grasp the rope called 'hope' at it's end to see the outcome. I bet the result won't be pretty.

Awaken From The Slumber(?)

Looking at the calender and my last post, it's been almost a month since I last updated my blog. Just shows how busy (and lazy) I am. Not a lot happened really. AniManGaki was a few weeks ago, I got a Steam account and Team Fortress 2 a few weeks after that, I got scared of Portal and recovered from fearing it to admiring it a few weeks after that, I feel miserable and mentally exhausted now. There is so much to art I want to do but college assignments are taking up my time and I can't wait till the life I have so much time to spend I get bored.

To save myself from dying mentally from assignments, I continued to read manga (duh). I went back to old mangas and of course some ongoing ones. I currently hooked to Love Hina, before that was Mahou Sensei Negima! and before that was Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei. I also read a really one series titled Milk Closet. It's like one of those Narutaru type manga with innocent looking characters with a deep plot and levels of gore.

Overall, there have been a lot of things I haven't been doing that I should be doing. My room, boy, it's dusty as dust. My desk is so messy I can't work there. I want to clean it up but I don't have the time, being in the animation major really eats up your time. It's killing me. I've gotten sick for the past three consecutive weeks with different but similar sicknesses from colds to fevers to diarrhoea.

Last semester I failed Concept Art 1 so I'm retaking it this semester. In the class I'm in for the subject, are a bunch of juniors who I see as a class similar like my current class but more quiet. Lawrence is in that class too so I have someone I can talk to instead of being the lonely senior in the corner of the classroom.

Now, the biggest problem everybody has in class is VST 2. Shooting a short film is no easy task. It's a time consuming giant ball of frustration, madness, anger, depression and disappointment. For me, I'm having problems with 3D Animation 2. We were given three assignments in the first lesson and that is what's making me slower than the others. I can't get this one assignment finished in time. So now I'm very slow, like a snail. I can finish the other animation assignments but this one is my weakness.

Now, everyday I feel extremely exhausted after classes are over. The moment I get home is the moment I fall asleep in bed. I would wake up one to two hours later to have dinner, do some assignments and fall victim to exhaustion again, hence not finishing all my assignments. Above all, I haven't been feeling like myself. I used to be so much more filled with happiness and joy. Now I'm a bucket of exhausted, emo and frustration.

Life pretty much sucks now. Whee. If it was not for Team Fortress 2 and manga, what would have happen to me? Simple, I die, die of being entirely not myself.

Anniversary Code: 157

On the last week of July on a Sunday (it's been awhile, I forgot the date) 157th Petaling Scout Group had an anniversary barbeque party at Yu Feng's apartment.

Thanks to my sister, the two of us got there an hour late. Well, not like anyone complained about it besides me.

When we got there, my sister and I were escorted to the poolside by a security guard. There were a whole bunch of kids playing, screaming and splashing about in the pool. In that instant, I identified them as the junior scouts in the troop and my gosh, there was like twice the number of juniors I have ever seen still in the troop at this time of year in my history of being in the troop.

I saw my juniors (the juniors I'm familiar with) and went over to them. Sean, Maverick, Kin Yen, Jia Jun, Yu Feng, Haziq, TV, Wern Kit, Darren, Jeremy, all of them were there (almost), it was great to see them again. Really took my mind off some stress.

I sat around with them and chit-chat a little. I'm still not that much of a talker I realised.

The anniversary was potluck themed so the juniors brought food from home. After buka puasa, we all helped ourselves to the food. It was dark by then. The rest of the night was just sitting around, eating until full and catching up with each other. Yee Ying, Dawson and Raymond was there too, they came later in the evening.

The night ended with a cake and a birthday song for the troop and also Jeremy's birthday. Thinking about it, there is a lot of history to me in the troop. Most of it was a sad nightmare that Dawson doesn't want the new generation of 157th Petaling wants to know, much like 37th's history too but seemingly worse. Never will I be thankful enough for the Hawk Rovers (Rover H) to come to our aid and rise our troop to what it is today.

盆踊り2011・エッマの家・映画ナイト

Bon Odori was actually like a month ago... I didn't have time to blog but here it is anyway.

About a week before Bon Odori, I had asked around the cosplayers in my class if they were going. Cheryl, Nicole and Baddie were not sure if they can go but Emma and Jian Leng had decided that they want to go and on top of that, Jian Leng was gonna stay over at Emma's, so I took the opportunity to ask if I can stay over too. He agreed and informed me that Yumi's going as well. After some planning, we were ready and excited for the big day to come.

After Julian's class (Concept Art) I had to stay back to see Benny regarding my 3D Modeling progress. Emma left for a date with Yumi and Jian Leng skipped his 3D Animation class because he didn't feel like showing Chloe his incomplete animation. Chloe is such a bitch, I know how he feels. I just sat around, fiddling with my 3D Modeling in the 'vacant' 3D Animation lab filled with seniors using the computers to render their assignments. I took a short break and closed my eyes for a while when Benny called me. He said I can see him earlier and with that I headed to the Animation Department to see Benny. After Benny gave me his critique and some tips to improve my set modeling, I went back to get Jian Leng. We're heading off to catch up with Emma and Yumi!

After taking the bus to Asia Jaya, Jian Leng and I waited for Emma and Yumi. They later came on another bus and we followed them on it. We were going to Taman Sea Park to stay a little at Emma's aunt's place for a while. There, Emma and Jian Leng taught me Chinese mahjong. It's quite similar to Japanese mahjong, just without all the specific planning and techniques and it's easier to count points. Later, we got a larger set of tiles, we then played Taiwanese mahjong. Taiwanese mahjong is almost similar to Japanese mahjong, again, it's easier to count points and you don't need that much planning. Still, I prefer Japanese mahjong, it's more exciting but also more frustrating.

After dinner at a vegetarian restaurant in front of Emma's aunt's house, we left when Emma's mom came to get us. We then headed to his house and we settled in. At night, we went out for supper at a restaurant near Emma's residence. When we got back to his house, we did some of our assignments and then went to sleep.

I woke up in the afternoon. Jian Leng, Emma and Yumi were already awake. After cleaning up, we went down to have lunch, instant noodles. Emma's dad nagged Emma to bring us out for lunch at the nearby but we declined because we were thinking of our assignments and also Bon Odori at the same time. Emma's parents and siblings went out. While chilling around, Yumi found an anime DVD titled, Kamisama Kazoku. I've seen the title before but never watched it. Yumi wanted to watch it so the four of us crammed in the living room and played the series. Emma, Jian Leng and I did our assignment while watching the anime. While the anime was going on, Yumi's friends came over and they went to put on their yukata.

Soon, Emma's dad came back and took Yumi and her friends to the stadium first. Emma, Jian Leng, Gabriel (Emma's brother) and I waited for his return and finished the whole series of Kamisama Kazoku. Denise had messaged me that she will be going so I had looked forward to see my dear junior.

Emma's dad dropped us outside the stadium where he previously dropped Yumi and her friends. We met up again and we headed into the stadium together. Near inside the entrance, I saw a group of the Bunny Squad members. Why wasn't I surprised. Haha. Yumi and her friends split up and we were back to our group. First we headed to the food stalls and started our purchase. I didn't bring enough money so I had to hold back my gluttony. And I still owe Yumi RM7 from our last Singapore trip. She doesn't remember though but I reminded her anyway.

While we settled down at a grassy spot to feast, Denise called me to find me but it was very crowded and the reception was bad. I told her my location and hoped that she could find me. Oh well. The drumming soon started and the dances continued. Yumi got all of us to get up and join the dance. Soon, we were all laughing and dancing around the stage. Even though it's my second time at Bon Odori, it's my first time dancing the dances. It was really fun.

Evening soon fell, we walked around, sat around, I took pictures and tried to spot Denise. I had tried to call her but she didn't pick up. Probably because she had her phone in a bag or something, she was wearing a yukata after all. Unfortunately when I manage to reach her, she said she had already left and apologized. Oh well. It was also unfortunate that Yati and SenzO couldn't go. Wayne was lazy to go. Haha.

After Bon Odori, we went back to Emma's home. Emma's dad then took all of us and the family to have dinner at the restaurant that the four of us went to the previous night. Emma told his dad that I eat a lot so his dad ordered a lot of things. Darn. Now I'm known to two of my friend's parents as a guy who can eat a lot.

The next day, Emma's dad took us out for lunch at a pan mee restaurant. Since Emma's dad already knows that Jian Leng and I eat a lot, he kept insisting us to order a second bowl, he added, "When you eat, you have to eat until you're satisfied, don't be paiseh.". So Jian Leng and I were 'forced' to order a second serving of pan mee.

Yumi went back to her home after lunch. Back at Emma's house, we worked on our assignments. I did my VST movie analysis assignment and had to watch 2012 twice. In the end, now, I have watch 2012 five times and from 'My favorite movie', it became, 'I'm sick of it'. Curse you VST!

Later at night, Emma's dad took us to eat at the same restaurant again. Again, he had Jian Leng and I eat a lot. Emma's dad is really generous and nice but also strict and stern at the same time. After dinner, we continued our assignments. After I've done my audio and plot chart, I didn't feel like doing other assignments so I watched Tonari no Totoro and Paprika. I had always wanted to watch Paprika ever since I saw a the movie trailer on television in a movie review show, that year it was released. Now that I got watch it, I really love the movie. It's story is awesome, the concept is amazing, the movie itself is colorful and vivid, the music is like a hypnotic trance that matches with the movie! My favorite scene is the parade scene in the dream world. It's so lively, so colorful, so ...ominous. I had dedicated a poem for this movie in a previous post, using some lines from the movie and the song, Parade. I went to sleep at around 4a.m. after the movie.

PS: I don't really know an English translation for the word "paiseh". "Embarrassed" maybe?

Break

Finally my semester break has arrived. It was a really, really rough ride through Year 2 Semester 2 in The One Academy. Almost near the end of the semester, I was really demotivated, depressed and pessimistic about most of my assignments. I almost felt like giving up. I have a strong feeling that I might fail one or two subjects due to the drop in quality of my assignments. I had done quite a lot of thinking and I found that I might actually not enjoy what I'm doing now but I have chosen this path and now that I'm in the middle of it I should continue this journey.

While the semester was going on, I had been restraining myself from doing any personal artworks, doodles, sketches, and sort so that I can focus on my assignments, which was pretty bad that it sort of drove me to insanity. Unable to draw anything that was on my mind on paper was horrifying! Every time I start doodling a bit, I would quickly restrain myself from it, holding down the urge to draw. It was suffocating, I felt like I was gonna burst from the chains I placed upon myself. This might be the reason I was so negative about myself.

Well, now that it's the semester break, I plan to indulge myself in doodling and drawing. I also planned to do some digital painting to improve myself and maybe some 3D modeling and animation exercises to improve on that part too.

Even though it's the semester break, we still got things to do. Especially Visual Story Telling. We have to find actors, improve our storyboard, do more discussions and plan ahead for our short film.

Since yesterday, I had been feeling a lot better now that I can really relax without feeling guilty about not doing any assignments. Also, I get to catch more sleep. Now, it's like putting down two huge boulders I had been carrying around. I can't wait to see what activities are installed for the Birds to do this semester break!

Glutton's Oath

Glutton by day, glutton by night,
I eat all the food I see within my sight,
I never get fat, food be my might,
Nothing can stop me, not even the Green Lantern's light!

そのパレド

Follow the joyfully ominous parade,

happily singing and dancing as they do their silly march,

the confetti will dance around the shrine gates,

the safely net of the ocean is nonlinear,

the ceiling fan brings a message releasing epithets,

the response is sunny,

driving people into insanity,

to march to the end of this parody of utopia,

the story called liberty,

forever in sleep,

never to wake again,

just an empty shell,

the parade of lunacy is coming,

and it is in your name.

パプリカ

Wish

I don't remember since when I had stopped bothering about what I want for my birthday. Every year when someone asks me what I want for my birthday I would say, "Anything.", or "It's okay, I don't need anything." or "My family an friend's health.". Sometimes I would random say something I want but it usually gets off my mind over the time because I didn't really want it or it's not something I want badly.

Today, I found something I really, really, really want.

Black★Rock Shooter character, Strength a.k.a. STR Figma!!!!

Have I mentioned before? My most favorite BRS character is STR. Reasons being, she's loli, she's moe, she is almost expressionless and I love her weapon, Ogre Arms! (Also maybe because she has white hair.)

STR Figma, after more than 10 years of not wanting something so badly, I wish I can have her to keep on my shelf.

I would also love it if I can get STR Nendoroid too. Ahahaha.

Questions

"Is this your life? Doing assignments all day, all week?" my mom asks.

Honestly it's not but what can I do? I'm in The One Academy, I'm in an arts college, in an arts major. That's what life is like when you become an art student. You're life makes a huge turn into a group of human behavior and lifestyle completely different from the norm.

Now it's my turn to ask myself, "Is this the life I want?", "Are sleepless nights, impossible deadlines and heartless clients, the future I want?".

Signs point to "No". I feel like quitting the art industry.

But I don't want to quit either.

Am I now stuck in what they call 'limbo'?

Wanting and not wanting something at the same time?

What should I do?

I want to continue until I graduate The One Academy but at the same time I don't want to hear my mom who doesn't understand the life of people involved with the art industry nag at me.

"Lazy, lazy lazy! Not helping with the house chores!"

People might exaggerate but when I say that if I have to choose between eating, sleeping, bathing, going to the toilet, and assignments, I can only choose one, it is almost not exaggerating.

Sure I have to time to do other things but honestly, if I don't take the time to relax and do what I want, I will honestly lose my mind. I might go crazy. I might just lose my sanity.

She still pesters me about do house chores.

I really don't have the time. If I continue like this, I will fail.

I almost did. I don't want to ever.

Left Hand Not Right Hand! ARRRGGHHH!

Cosfest X.1 10th Anniversary 2011

My first trip out of Malaysia without my parents and my first anime convention out of Malaysia, I went to Cosfest X.1 in Singapore with Cheryl, Nicole, Yumi and Jean. This also means it's my first time going out to an event (and out to a country) with a group of girls with me being the only guy. Harem manga much? It doesn't end here.

This trip to Singapore made me learn and realise how beautiful Singapore is compared to Malaysia, how easy it is to go from one place to another, how green the country is and also how expensive the food is. I constantly had the RM1 = 2SGD in mind. Despite that, I didn't have food problems. In fact, I would still have a lot of money if only I didn't go into fanboy mode.

Pre-Cosfest

After class on Friday, Cheryl, Nicole and I each went to buy lunch. I went to Giant and bought bread for breakfast for my stay in Singapore. We met back up and waited in class for Nicole's dad. We got our bus tickets to Singapore from Jean the day before and Nicole's dad will be driving us to Tasik Selatan where the Bandar Tasik Selatan (BTS) bus terminal is located. We got in and waited for our bus at the gate we were directed to. Excited and nervous I was, I couldn't wait to touch down in Singapore.

The three hour ride in the bus wasn't much of a bother. What surprised me was that half-way through the trip, our bus stopped after a toll and the driver came in and called out all the people going to Singapore. We were going to switch buses because the other bus goes to Kovan, our destination faster. Which was great. The second bus we took has better seats, and a better atmosphere.

Going into the Causeway Link and the Customs, I was nervous and constantly worried about it, kept on worrying about missing out some procedures or something. It went well, now I got more confidence to go into Singapore alone (still preferably with friends or family though). After all that, we went back to our bus and proceeded to head to Kovan.

When we got to Kovan, we found Jean and Yumi waiting for us already. They got to Singapore earlier than us because they didn't have class. We got together and had dinner there. After that, we took the MRT to Pasir Ris where our chalet, Costa Sands Resort and where Cosfest is held. Changing trains and boarding them took us almost about an hour before we got to Pasir Ris. Jean took us to the chalet and we all settled in, relaxing our bones and stretching out our limbs. Two of Jean's friends came to our room to have a chat. After chatting, we took turns to bath and then we went out to buy supper at a 24 Hour mart outside Costa Sands. We bough some instant noodles and snacks and then went back to our room. After supper we got ready for bed. Alarm was set to go off at 7.30a.m.

Cosfest Day 1

I woke up wondering what time it is and why the room was so dark, partially because I was still blur and didn't remember that I was in Singapore. Suddenly Nicole's alarm went off,nyanyanyanyanyanyanya, "Oh, I'm in Singapore.", I rolled back under the sheets. I woke up to the second wave of Nyancat after I dozed off a little. Still staying under the sheets, someoneelse's alarm went off too and then I pulled my head out of the sheets only to turtle myself back in to the presence of light rays from the Sun. The girls have gotten out of bed and started getting ready for the day. I lazed around for a bit and then I got up and get myself ready too.

When I was done, the girls were putting on their makeup and costumes. I waited for a while watching them put their makeup on. Honestly I was quite fascinated. After awhile I got bored and started to feel sleepy. After checking the time, I decided to get into full costume. Nicole helped me out and then I continued to wait. Cheryl insisted that I go to the event first but I refused because I doubted that I can make my way their safely as I was half-blind from wearing my mask. It soon rained so I laid down and watched the fan spin until without realising it, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, the first thing I heard was an unfamiliar voice talking. I got up and someone said, "Whoa, that's scary.". I was a little confused and thirsty. Cheryl introduced me to the unknown voice. In a second I figured out that this girl is Jean's friend who will be staying our room, then that makes another two more people missing. Then they said something about a pair of twins. That means everyone is here already. I stood up and told Nicole that I want to take off my mask because I got thirsty. The girl was surprised because she assumed I was a girl as my face was hidden and everyone else was a girl in the room. A quick introduction, the girl is Harenai and the twins, unfortunately I can't remember their names, we kept calling them 'Twins'. I think one is Wei Li and the other is Wei Xing. Anyway, the two of them is another case of Pei Jin and Pei San, the pair of twins from my class. The three girls are Singaporeans and had a discussion of cultural differences for a while.

After drinking some water, I sat around some more feeling somewhat sleepy. The rain had stopped while I was asleep. I had slept an hour and the girls were still not ready yet. They still had a little more before we are ready to hit the event. I waited patiently until they were all ready and I put on my mask again with Nicole's help and we headed out. Harenai and the twins stayed as they were not ready yet.

Making my way out, I had to keep an eye out on Cheryl's bright red dress and Nicole's Peach cat. Cheryl, Yumi and Jean were cosplaying characters from Kuroshitsuji, Madam Red, Ceil and Sebastian respectively. Nicole was cosplaying her original character. The event place was big so I couldn't identify how many cosplayers there was but the moment I stepped into the event hall, I could feel the amount of spirit in that hall. It was epic! It was not like any event in Malaysia, the spirit was intense and I could tell that everyone was really excited.

We walked around for a bit and in less than three minutes, people started asking Cheryl, Yumi and Jean to pose for photos. While I waited for them to be done, people started asking me for photos. Honestly I was happy because there were more people who knows 20th Century Boys than the people here in Malaysia. As I walked, I could hear people saying, "Tomodachi! Tomodachi!" and soon enough someone would ask to take a picture. Even though I was cosplaying my vest version of Tomodachi, because I didn't have a coat my size and had to borrow Yumi's vest, people still had a positive acceptance for my Tomodachi cosplay.Really, really happy.

Most of the time in the hall, I couldn't see much. The lighting either was too bright or too dark. After walking around for a while in the main hall, Cheryl said that she was shocked that there were no doujin booths around. We wandered around a bit and then made our way to another hall which Cheryl said was not open last year. Inside was all the booths that Cheryl was looking for. The reason for this change was probably because Confest was celebrating it's tenth anniversary, hence the spacious divide. The event place overall was very, very wide. Compared to the events in Malaysia, this is wider than Comic Fiesta 2009. There were a total of over thirty thousand participants and it didn't feel like it! That was how spacious the whole event was. Malaysian events need to learn from this.

I followed the group as they spazzed at artworks and stuff. The girls tried to show me the stuff on display. I could make out some stuff but things were still blur. After going around, I had a brief idea of what I want to buy. After we finished our round around the doujin booths, we made our way out to do some photo shoot. Since I couldn't see anything, I waited for them to finish. We then decided to go back to the chalet and take a break. At the chalet, I took off my mask with relief. I finally got to take a proper breath.

Yumi and Jean started photo shooting BL shots of Ceil and Sebastian. Because they were girls, I didn't receive much impact from the yaoi poses. I got the privilege to use Jean's DSLR to snap pictures. At least I got my hands on a good camera, my camera is epic fail. After snapping the pictures, Jean asked if I wanna do a photo shoot as well but I was lazy and didn't want to put my mask back on so I passed the offer.

We all went back to the event grounds again. This time I can see everything! Cosplayers here and there! Photographers here and there! The place was so big! Err.... It was smaller than what I had pictured in my mind when my mask was on... But it was awesome overall! With Jean's camera in possession, I went fanboy on a bunch of cosplayers. It was the first time I ever chased a cosplayer down. Usually I would be shy and miss the chance but I didn't! When Nicole and I saw the Gold (from Pokemon Gold and Silver) cosplayer, we looked at each other for a second and then made a run for it to grab some shots. I later chased a Phoenix Wright and then decided that I shouldn't make Cheryl, Yumi and Jean wait for me. We met up with the twins again and then we headed back to the chalet.

Getting out of costume and relaxing around, taking turns to bath. The twins went out to join their friends for barbecue at the pits outside the chalets. While we freshen up ourselves, it rained heavily and the twins came back. The twins didn't really get to eat anything aside from a single bite of a sausage so we asked them to join us for dinner at a restaurant called JustAcia.

The rain stopped after awhile and we headed out after the twins were ready. At JustAcia, you get to have free flow of drinks and dessert when you order a set meal and everything on the menu is a set meal, equals bottomless drinks and dessert no matter what meal you order. After I finished my sambal salmon fillet, I nom on loads of ice-cream until I got the mango flavored ice-cream. Bleh, I didn't like the taste and I lost the appetite to proceed. Poor me. I was also trembling from cold from eating so much ice-cream.

After dinner, we headed back to the chalet. After a short trip back to our room, we made our way to see some of Yumi's friends. They stayed in a bigger chalet behind D'Marquee. We sat around in a circle and chatted for some time. We later excused ourselves and left for bed.

When we got back to our room, Harenai also came back. We packed our bags ready to check out the next day and then went to sleep soon after arranging ourselves. I got a bed to myself again while Jean and Harenai slept on the floor with a sleeping bag, the twins got a bed to themselves and Yumi, Cheryl and Nicole shared the big bed. It was cold so I wrapped myself in the sheets.

Cosfest Day 2

I woke up feeling a little hot being wrapped up like a sausage bun. Feeling woozy and still sleepy, I made my way to the toilet and later slumped back in bed still tired of running and spazzing about the day before. Harenai and the twins were already awake, meaning it was either 6.30a.m. or pass 6.30a.m. because the twins said that they will wake up at that time. Nicole's alarm went off and I continued to laze in bed covering myself under the sheets shielding myself from the Sun's rays again. The girls soon got up and I stayed a little longer under the sheets. After awhile, I got up as well and freshen myself.

I was not gonna cosplay on this day so I got into my casual attire and sat down to watch television. There was this cartoon titled Grossology. The logic was flawed and as the titled suggests, it is really gross. In this episode I watched, the villain, Frederick Follicle, has overgrown living hair and uses his hair to attack and sort. Disgusting as it is, Frederick uses his overgrown nipple hairs to attack, his nose hair to push buttons and his ear hair to move about, much like Dr. Octopus's robot arms. Flawed logic, Frederick stole a gun that removes all hair from a person's body, the victims of the gun however, turned bald but still had their eyebrows and eyelashes. I was disappointed.

After that was Kamen Rider O-Den. It's funnier than the Kamen Rider I watched before (I don't really watch Kamen Rider actually, honestly, I'm surprised that young adults enjoy Kamen Rider! One of the twins sang along with the opening song and she's older than us by a year!). Epic fail as the show was English dubbed and the dubbing didn't match the bishounens. Yumi was spazzing over the bishounen actors but was disappointed by the voice overs. Damn, why can't dubbers get the voices right?

After everyone was ready, we took our bags over to Jean's friend's room because we were checking out as we only paid the chalet room for until afternoon. After that, Cheryl, Nicole and I went to the event grounds together. Yumi, Harenai and the twins stayed behind to finish getting into costume and Jean helped them.

The three of us were surprised when we saw almost no cosplayers around D'Marquee. Turned out that the event starts at 12p.m. We got there at 10a.m. The doors however were already open so we went in and sat around for a bit. There were some cosplayers inside already getting into costume and makeup. I tried to take a picture of a Heavy (from Team Fortress 2) cosplayer but my camera can't get good lighting and because it's an old model, I can't change the ISO or the aperture. I decided not to take any photos then because it'll be a fail anyway.

When more cosplayers came in, the three of us made our way into the doujin booths hall. I went fanboy and started shopping. I bought a bunch of badges and two t-shirts. I got some badges for Cheryl, Yumi, Jean and Nicole each as a gift. After the shopping, we met up with Yumi, Jean and the twins again. Hanging around for awhile, we went got separated again and Cheryl, Nicole and I made our way to the cosplay event hall and sat down near the stage area to wait for the other girls' return. When everyone got back together, we left to get our bags to leave because we had to catch a bus to go back at 3.30p.m. The twins left the same time with us, just that they left for home.

The five of us made our way to the MRT station and took the train to Woodlands were we caught a bus to go back to Johor. After going through Customs and Immigration and the bus ride, we got to Johor Bahru but we were clueless on how to find bus back to KL because we didn't book a bus to go back (supposedly to save money). Going through quite the adventure, we manage to get to a bus terminal and got a bus ticket back to KL. The bus however was freakishly slow and our bus only departed at 8.00p.m. which was way behind schedule.

Because we were not confident about the bus service and I was the only guy, I felt the responsibility to make sure all the girls were safe. I stayed up through the ride until at one point I fell asleep after getting too tired. The bus got back at Tasik Selatan Bus Terminal at around 1.00a.m. Because it was late, I stayed a night at Cheryl's house along with Nicole.

Despite the depressing ending, my overall experience of traveling to Singapore and back was awesome. I really, really enjoyed myself thanks to Cheryl, Yumi, Nicole and most of all Jean for guiding us through the whole trip. Also, thanks to the twins, Harenai, Jamie and co., Judas and co. and everyone who participated at Cosfest X.1 2011! I can't wait to go back to Singapore again for another event.

Edit: I found out that at Cosfest I have been using the wrong hand (I used my right hand when it should be left) for Tomodachi's pose. Epic fail. I feel so disappointed in myself.

Green Cycling

It's been quite some time since I blogged because I was kinda busy these pass few days. Like really, really long.

Weeks ago (like last month I think?), I attended this Green Cycling activity held by Setia Alam. Apparently my family was one of the winners for the recycling activity and we won a bicycle. To claim the prize one of us had to cycle for a cause. My dad told me to cycle so I did.

The cycling activity was held at the big park in Setia Huh. Besides the cycling there were some booths selling food and health related stuff.

When we got there, my mom quickly went to register our family name. We got our free bike and I had to wear this Setia Green Cycling t-shirt in conjunction to the event. The best part is, WE HAVE A NEW BICYCLE!

My family left before the cycling started because they had to send my sister to tuition. After warm up exercise, we started cycling. My parents who were stuck at the traffic lights (for the cyclists to pass) tried to take a picture of me when I passed by but they said I was too fast and missed me; I was a small dot in the far end.

After I finished, I met with my mom and sister soon after and we had some of the free food. While we were having our meal, the bike stunt performance came on. We watched for a while and then we decided to go home. But my mom suggested that we do some rock painting. I reluctantly joined my mom and sister but I later enjoyed it a little. The rock painting was free by the way and you can take your rock home. I painted three in total, a floppy cube design (Rubik's Rock), a Voltorb and a car. The car was pretty cool because the outline of the rock looked like a car.

After that we walked home with our new bicycle. Yeah.

27 June: This post has been dragged on for almost a week now. Screw this, I'm posting it the way it is now.

A-void

That night after the second day of C2AGE FIVE, my mom took my sister and I to Atria to buy some groceries.

There, I saw this stand selling some Rubik's cubes. Being an active cuber, I went to take a look. By golly! There were Void Cubes, and these cubes looked promising compared to the ones I saw at Sunway Pyramid. So I picked one up, it was scrambled and it has a worn out price tag on it, RM15 it says. I gave it a try and the moment I turned one side I wanted to buy it because it was smooth!

I dug around in the box holding the cubes on sale to find others. Most of them were the normal 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube, some Bump Cubes, Fisher Cubes, then I dug up something epic. It was an Edges Only Void Cube. Jumping guacamole! I HAVE TO BUY THESE! I didn't have enough money so I asked my mom for some. *Insert innocent look*

When I checked, the Edges Only Void Cube was RM35 so I decided to take only one. Wait a second! Thank my lucky stars because the saleslady told me that all of the cubes are RM10! Fish cakes! That was my lucky day. So now I have both the Void Cube and the Edges Only Void Cube sitting on my desk.

I solved both cubes the moment I bought them. Only the Void Cube parity error got me when I tried solving it for a third time. Now, I know how to fix the parity error. The Void Cubes still entertain me but as usual, I'm looking forward to others.

C2AGE F.I.V.E.

Comics! Cosplay! Anime! Games!

Together you get C2AGE!

The last time I was at C2AGE was in 2010. This year, C2AGE FIVE (Cosplay, Comic, Anime and Games Exhibition, Freeing Imagination via Entertainment) of the year 2011 was held at Tropicana City Mall for two days. Being myself, I went there for both days despite my assignment workload.

Day 1

Yati and I met up at Centerpoint McDonald's and then hitched Wayne's ride to Tropicana City Mall. We got there in time for the opening of C2AGE FIVE, we met up with Kin Yen and Ang Yu and I see a lot of familiar faces. After the serious speech for a non-serious event, the place went wild and performances were in queue. The three of us did not cosplay on this day because we did not plan to. Walking around and snapping pictures, I eventually got tempted to cosplay and started considering if I should.

Yati and I entered the noodle eating competition after hearing that the grand prize is RM200. Boy we should have not participated. The rule was to eat as many bowls of noodles in ten minutes. Heck, after Yati finished four bowls, they ran out of noodles. I couldn't gobble up because I got nervous only had three bowls. There was dissatisfaction among participants but we did not bother to make complaints. The only complaint was the deciding of the winner because the judge declared a guy who ate five bowls the winner when there was a guy with six. The crowd who was watching the competition argued with the judge and they cleared things up later, Yati and I were too disappointed to pay them any attention. Wasted RM10.

Jun Ee and Eugene were in a band performance under the band, R.M.T. (Royal Milk Tea). I think this is the Taylor's Lakeside Campus Anime Club's band because I remember them performing before at Taylor's Anime Festival last year. Jun Ee talked to me and he was a little upset because his guitar string snapped half way during the performance. Seeing them perform made me wanna form a band too, joining a band is fine with me, I just wanna sing!

Sometime in the afternoon, Kin Yen and Ang Yu called Wayne, Yati and I to join them to play some interesting board games from overseas in one of the booths, Comics Mart (They have a shop in Mid Valley Megamall). We played this game called Bausack (I think it's from Germany) where you stack various shapes on top of one another to form a tower and avoid toppling it over. Later we played this board game which's name I can't remember (I think it's from Canada because the language on the box looks Dutch to me) that's got something to do with mice and cheese. You play the mice, going around this interactive board looking for cheese. It's a memory game and you could lose mice if someone forces your mice to drop into a hole by pushing the board's tiles. Really fun. We played this game several times. We also played this other game. (No idea what language and where it's from and what's it's name!) It's like dominos with a twist and it's a game based on luck. You roll a set of dices and you have to get these certain number to get the tiles. You also have to roll 'worms' as this game is domino's with worms on them. We played only one round because we found it not very entertaining.

While we were playing those board games, the Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! song came on, marking the start of the Grand Freeze. A NyanCat went around the event area as cosplayers and people who know of the Grand Freeze stayed still. The NyanCat was made with cloth, cardboard and broomsticks, somewhat like a dragon dance. After the song was over everybody went back to what they were doing. Yati and Wayne complained about how a lot of people were still moving.

After that we did a lot of stoning until 6p.m. Yati and Wayne went back and I was left. Amanda sat with me, bored as well and we chatted a little. Kuui came over and I played with his guns. Haha. My dad later came and picked me up. Wayne, Yati and I decided to cosplay on the next day.

Day 2

I got there really early after my dad dropped my sister at tuition. I sat at the tables to wait for the event to start. This time I had a better look around the booths, I ended up buying a few stuff, eating away my money. I bought three new badges and the C2AGE FIVE t-shirt. Wayne and Yati got there at around 12 and the three of us headed to the toilet to get into cosplay. I brought my Tomodachi mask and I borrowed Wayne's sweater vest, result is my variation of Tomodachi. Despite me saying that I wanna improve my mask, I did not do it. Somehow, I did not have a lot of problems with my mask through the whole day. Once again in my Tomodachi mask, I sight was badly reduced and I can say, almost the whole day, I was unintentionally photo bombing cosplayers and bumping into people, stepping on people's shoes, et cetera. I even accidentally knocked someone's jaw when taking a photo with him. Sorry man.

Sometime in the morning before Wayne and Yati arrived, these two boys, younger than me asked me to join their group to participate in the C2AGE Human RPG Game as they were shot of one person. At first was unwilling but after some persuasion and a short consulting with my conscious, I joined them. Turned out one of the boys, Bryan, recognised me as my sister's older brother. The other guy, Joshua is from a different school. Well, I tried my best helping them while in my Tomodachi cosplay and I did not regret joining them.

Joshua entered the sushi eating competition, which required you to eat as many inarizushi in 10 minutes. Heck I should have went for that instead of the noodle eating competition! I can gobble sushis in twos! And those sushi are inarizushi! I can gobble three in one go! Regret, regret. Well, as Joshua eat his sushi, Wayne, Yati and I walked around. Wayne later followed Abby around because Wayne was cosplaying Byakuran and Abby was Mukuro. Yati followed me around and soon I went to rescue Wayne when he sent me a message calling for help. Turned out he was glomped by a group of screaming KHR fangirls. Their screams could be heard from across the event area. My gosh.

Somewhere around lunchtime, Bryan was competing in the drawing competition. So I helped Joshua complete our remaining quests on the list. We walked around and around looking for a 'witch' to complete this quest we were on and because I was wearing my mask, I couldn't really see well, I even lost Joshua a few times, he was thoughtful to make sure I was behind him. Together we manage to complete all the quests in the list. All's left if for Bryan to finish the drawing competition. Because we finished the quests, I got to leave them and walk around again.

After going round and round, round and round, I got really, really hungry. We went to this Taiwanese restaurant and eat what I would say fairly spicy noodles. Wayne was piping though. He couldn't withstand the spiciness. Me as well, did sorta have a hard time, I accidentally chocked on some soup and it sent steam up my nose. At the restaurant was the fangirls from before. They did not scream or anything but they gave Wayne a marshmallow, Byakuran's signature item. After the meal, they took pictures with Wayne outside the restaurant. Haha. Yati was saying how he was right about the fangirls leaving when we leave. Honestly, Wayne carries Byakuran's character perfectly, if I was a girl I would also go crazy.

After the meal, the ending ceremony was closing in. Bryan called me and we met again. He told me that we got first place in the Human RPG Game because we were the only participants that day. Wow! What a twist of events, things turned out better than expected because I have never won anything in Human RPG Games before. As Bryan told me about our victory (I didn't really help out that much though), cosplayers started scrambling onto the stage to dance Caramelldansen and the start of the event para para ending. After Caramelldansen, came on Cirno's Perfect Math Class. I danced, duh. I knew this dance. It was the first Japanese dance I learned and I screwed up badly. When I realised it was so embarrassed and disappointed in myself. When I got off the stage I realised my legs were trembling, ah, it's the usual stage fright. Luckily was still in cosplay so no one except my friends who know it's me, knows my face. Hahaha! Not until they find out... The following dances included Renai Circulation, Saikyou Pare Parade and others.

After the para para was over, it was the prize giving ceremony. When our names were called, Bryan, Joshua and I went on stage. I screwed up again when I failed to shake hands with the guy who was giving the prize and another time when I failed to respond to the cameraman who told me to get into character for the picture (I was still in cosplay). After we got off stage, Bryan and Joshua checked out the prizes and they decided to give me the Kid Flash action figure that was probably the most valuable item in the bag. We shock hands and then we went our ways. I stayed around to watch the rest of the ending ceremony. I didn't see much though because I still had my mask on, it was hard to see anything beyond one arms length with the lack of lighting as the Sun went down.

Over all, this year's C2AGE has more participants than the last time and it feels bigger as there were more booths. Somehow, I felt that this is the best experience I had cosplaying Tomodachi compared to the previous times. After seeing and talking to Eugene, I find that Eugene has changed. He is not the super blur, anti-social blockhead anymore. Now he's more expressive and sociable and not to mention, he's aware of his surroundings. Wow. A big change in two years. I am actually surprised.

Well, my next event would be Cosfest X.1 in Singapore. Hopefully I can pull of another cosplay there. Before that, I got a major money saving plan to execute. Time to cut down on lunch and snacks.

Me at C2AGE FIVE, day 2.

More pictures will be up.

Update

This is by far the post with the most boring title ever I have posted.

So classes have resumed. It is my second year, second semester (trimester) in The One Academy of Communication Design.

Before that, I went to Sunway Pyramid with Kin Yen and Ang Yu. We played bowling, went ice skating and I gave them a "tour" of my college.

Yay. First day of class I and dozed off. Good job, me.

And I was sitting right in front of the lecturer.

It's A Safe!

I did it! I passed! I get to move on to the next semester safely!

More sleepless nights to face. Let's do this!

I Haven't Been Posting Stuff Have I

Just as the title says, I guess I've gotten kinda lazy. Recently I attended EMPACT. I wanted to blog my experience but I guess I got lazy over the pass few days. Also I went on the cycling activity with the Birds again and I also got lazy to blog about it. Now, I'm still kinda lazy to blog about it. Still I should say something eh?

EMPACT was held at the BUBS building next to the BU Community Hall for two days. Over all it was a blast. I had a lot of fun there learning first aid. On the first day we learned how to help people who need CPR or Heimlich maneuver. On the second day, we learned how to help people who are in shock with broken bones, burns, and the sort.

As for the cycling activity with the Birds, we went to the botanical gardens in Putrajaya. After that we stayed two nights are Wee's. Went to the night market and bought four huge bags of soya milk. It was fun.

Oh yeah, I was also put in OTP (Option To Progress) because apparently my last 2D animation assignment was not good enough for me to pass. Yeah, I agree with my lecturer on that, my walk cycle animation was crap. Really. So I had to redo it. The Birds helped me out at Wee's house. I really, really, really owe them all one. I can't really sit still yet. Getting OTP means I have a chance of failing so I gotta cross my finger and hope and pray that I don't fail. Seriously it would really suck if I failed.

Whatever. I was looking forward to go out with Marcus and the others but my dad didn't want to drive me down to Petaling Jaya on Labour's Day because my sisters don't need to go down. Darn. Well I'm looking forward to an ice skating outing with the Bird and a movie outing with Josh and the others. Most importantly I'm looking forward to passing and getting on to the next semester.

Home Crash: Wilson

Moving in, Movies in.

Tuesday, the Birds gather and meet up at Sunway Pyramid. I went there early so I had time to spare. Wilson got there and took my bag to put in his car. I went ahead and had my hair cut. Later, everyone met up at the cinema where we bought our tickets to watch Rio.

My first impression of Rio was "Meh.", but I change my opinion. Rio is off the hook! It was a splendid movie with catchy songs and a fair storyline. The thing that hit the roof was the the villain, Nigel is voiced by Jemaine Clement! The Nigel Song, was so full of Flight of the Conchords, the rhyming and all, Mal and I spazzed in the cinema. Kai was not amused, I guess.

After the movie, we had dinner out at a coffee shop after dropping our stuff at Wilson's house. Later that night, we watched Grave of the Fireflies. Unfortunately it was English dubbed. Really, really, spoiled the feel of the movie. Still, Laura, Chia and I cried. Mr. Anderson said before it was a very touching movie and that it'll make anyone cry. The others did not cry probably because of the bad English dubbing. We later played some games until 3a.m.

IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZOR!!

Wednesday, we all wake up early and have breakfast together. Today we will be going to MidValley Megamall to meet up with some of our classmates and lecturers to play Galactic Laser Tag. Laura, Mal and I got into Kai's car and we got kinda lost, missing a few turns and we passed by the mall on the highway. Luckily we manage to make it back. Our lecturers, Julian, Honda, Charmaine and Benny joined us today. It was so awesome having our lecturers join us! Well I'm lazy to type out the details so you can check it out at this website. For all of us, it was our first time playing this game, except for Andrea as she had played before. We were all so excited.

We bought three games. In the first round, it was a free for all. So we just went in and started shooting at each other. I sucked, literally. When we got out, I was in the second last place in point ranking. Yeouch! My aiming was poop. In the second round, we were to get into groups. Of course, we split into Fluffies and Birds. The lecturers also split themselves into our groups, Julian and Honda went with the Fluffies and Charmaine and Benny with us, the Birds. When we went into listen to our Marshal's briefing, we learned that a third team will be battling against us too, they are a bunch of small Caucasian kids. This time I got better but my aiming still sucked. I learned that I can camp and snipe from the third floor. Up there, Chia and I worked together to shoot everyone else. We got out with the Birds in the lead with the most accumulated points. In the third round, we mix up into two groups along with the kids, so this time it's Red Team versus Green Team. I was in the Green Team. The moment the game started, the Green Team, without telling each other, formed a fort on the third floor and started sniping everyone else downstairs. It was an epic battle with the Green Team coming up in first place and much to my surprise, I got the highest points among everyone else. I guess camping and sniping is what I do.

We later had lunch at McDonald's together. Everyone was tired especially at the knees, almost everyone was limping at the stairs. The Birds split here because Kai had to take Mal and Laura home. I followed Kai while the others went back to Wilson Manor. When we got back, we took a bath and started playing games on Wilson's Xbox 360. I fell asleep half way and later woke up when dinner was served. After dinner, we played more games. By the time we got kinda bored, it was only 9p.m. We went back up to Wilson's room and we played some flash games. SenzO showed me this thing called MS Paint Adventures and I was reading one of the adventures, Problem Sleuth. It was full of ridicule and brain wrapping madness. I don't remember when but I fell asleep in front of my laptop. Later, either it was Kai, Chia or Wilson, woke me up to move me. I fell asleep immediately after moving.

Last Day

I woke up really late. It was almost 12p.m. Everyone except Wee had aching knees. After everyone had gotten up, we went down for lunch, except Wee. He ate his earlier and stayed in Wilson's room to read comics. After lunch, Kai suggested we do the Gaijin Yonkoma I had talked about before. Chia was up for it and he talked Wilson into it. Awesome! We went up and set up the camera and chairs. The shooting was great. One shot each and I was already at Photoshop and I made our first Gaijin Yonkoma panel. I'll post it up tomorrow. I hitched Wee's car back to Sunway where my dad picked me up and I slept the whole way home and slept some more until night.

Today

My knees are still sore.

Tetris Terrace

It's been awhile since I went back to Tetris Friends and when I did, I put everything back in order, yeah, I put myself back in first for each of the games (excluding Tetris Sprint SP). Also, I have put myself first in all the categories in Tetris Battle. I'd really like someone among my friends to challenge me by taking my first places.

BRING IT!

I CHALLENGE YOOOOOOOUUUUUUU!!!

Semester Break

It's the semester break and we have 3 weeks to have fun, fun, fun before we go back to college. Our lecturers have been telling us about practicing drawing and stuff, not to forget everything when we go back. I've been thinking of doing a project using my tablet because all I've been doing with it are doodles and sketches or simple drawings. I had thought of drawing a realistic-looking Pokemon? I don't know.

Before the semester break, I had been inducing myself in all sorts of Japanese videos thanks to WTF Japan Seriously. You can find the webpage it's www.wtfjapanseriously.com/ . Some of the videos are awesome, some a just weird and some are so artistic you go 'WTF?', hence the site name. I watched a few clips of a surrealistic movie titled Funky Forest and I had the worst mind fuck I ever had. I had no idea what I was watching but what I do know it's suppose to be art. It's thanks to WTFJS that I found a new favorite song artist, Genki Sudo, an ex-mix fighter who becomes a singer and a dancer. He does real awesome dances and his MVs include running around the city in slow motion. Here I also learned more about Takashi Murakami, a Japanese artist who's famous for his super flat work and also sculptures. My lecturer mentioned him a year ago, where I learn about Hiropon and My Lonesome Cowboy.

Well, all the artsy stuff aside, I'll be having fun, fun, fun for the coming week. The Bird's are gonna be staying at a member's "nest" for a few days. Activities are laid out and planned. Also I'm gonna be attending an EMPACT course this coming Saturday and Sunday.

It's Sem Break Bitches! Boo Yeah!

Title is self-explanatory. Vulgarity is used to express epic joy. No ears were harmed in making this post.

Tucked In, Sleep Tight, It's Time To Dream About Pokemon Tonight!

After the unfortunate earthquake that hit Japan, Pokemon Global Link's server shut down and Pokemon trainers around the world could not get access into it. Today, I found out that Pokemon GL is back and running. Know that mean means? It means it's time to explore the Dream World!

Today we don't have class so I basically was at home the whole day, alone. And today I basically did almost everything Pokemon. First I watched the thirteenth Pokemon movie, Zoroark: Master of Illusions, of course, I watched the original Japanese movie. It was awesome! Despite the fact it's always Ash and his busy body ass that's get involved with all the chaos and what not.

Later on I found out that Pokemon GL is running again. I nervously and excitedly got my Pokemon White linked and explored the Dream World. I tested this by putting my Patrat in. It was really a refreshing new adventure. On top of that I got a Tangela from the Dream World.

One thing frustrated me. I finished the storyline for Pokemon White already and new adventures await me. Pah. More like imba trainers are waiting to pwn me. In the last battle before the game's storyline comes to it's end, the Pokemon's level you fight against is level 54. If you have played the Pokemon games since Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, you'd notice the ridiculous difference between levels of you last battle before end of storyline and after storyline. These new trainers you battle carry Pokemon above level 64 and their strengths are over leveled. A 10 level difference! It's outrageous! It's absurd! It's imbalanced! How the heck are you suppose to face them without having to battle retarded low EXP giving wild Pokemon? This has never happened before in the previous games! And this, is what I believe to be Pokemon Black and White's weak point. Really, I was so frustrated and displeased that I lost to a mere NPC trainer twice! Even the EXP give-away Pokemon, Audino can't give me enough EXP to level up as fast as I could in the previous games. Now, all I can do is bear with this shit and fight fodder Pokemon to level up SLOWLY. Dang it! I hate to level up slowly.

Well to cool things off, I got some of those downloadable contents for Pokemon Black and White and also one of the special Eevee evolutions that was on give-away. I had to play this Pong-like game to get them and after a whole lot of tries I finally got my hands on Espeon. Thing was I kept getting Jolteon. Not that I don't like Jolteon but the special Espeon seemed like more of a promising choice for me.

I also downloaded a whole bunch of Pokemon TCG wallpapers. Haha! MacLappy is looking pretty awesome right now~

Quickdraw!

Hell yeah. I finally got my Wacom intuos4 tablet. I did some doodles for practice, like Julian said, "You need to get used to the tablet." and he also said before, "You need to get used to the markers, they are your friends.". But yeah, you can see the doodles I drew at my DA account.

Today I also bought the books on how to draw manga that I longed for a long time. Pun intended.

The book series, How To Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style are really helpful in not only in drawing manga but also realism drawings as the tutorials in the book use them as references. I only have looked through volume one only so I don't really know what to look forward in the other volumes. Oooh! How exciting! Not like I will actually draw myself a manga.

Well semester break is around the corner, three more days actually. The Birds have been planning on what to do in our three week holiday. Our lecturers however told us to continue practicing on our drawings and stuff. Charmaine told us to construct something in Maya and Julian told us to draw, draw, draw, keep drawing. For the past of this semester have been quite a ride for us. Sleepless nights and now sleep deprived but still surviving, I don't know about the others but this is actually fun behind all the frustration and depression and confusion we faced. Oh well, everyone said the same thing, "Year two, semester two is gonna the be the hardest time of your life in The One Academy.". Heh. Gotta buckle up for the next wave then.

Okay, back to my walk cycle animation.

白: ポケットモンスタ

So the other day I got Pokemon White Version and I, for the first time, spazzed so much I felt like an idiot later that day.

Why did I spazz? White (and Black) is like the breakthrough for Nintendo hand held consoles on 3D Pokemon game play. It's like, I don't know how to put it in words but it's freaking awesome!! 3D all over the place! There's even angel panning view and perspective changes throughout the game. It felt like I have heaven on Earth but no, I'm still in TOA, that's like hell on Earth.

In Pokemon Black and White, you are in the Unova region and the Pokemon you find there are all new and there are no recurring Pokemon from the previous generations until you beat the Elite Four. Which means this is whole new! I am like totally a stranger to this babe! Anyway, the Pokemon designs in Black and White are very Japanese based, somewhat like Gold and Silver. The names are also kinda weird and sorta hard to remember. Heck, I'm gonna own this region too. Just you watch!

I was kinda disappointed regarding the touch screen functions because in HeartGold and SoulSilver, you can interact by using the touchscreen function thus no need using the D-pad. On Black and White however is like Diamond, Pearl and Platinum again. You have to interact using the D-pad and the touchscreen is used in battles (and the new C-Gear, which I don't really use).

Overall, IT'S FUCKING AWESOME!

Unfortunately, following the 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan, the opening of the English Pokemon Global Link site was postponed and so I don't get to explore some of the more new and awesome features of Pokemon Black and White. Hopefully Japan can recover soon from the quake. The disaster was horrible! I followed the live news online the day it struck and I felt really sad.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to more exciting adventures in this whole new awesome game! Yeah! Pokemon for the win!

Fade To White: 白

For the whole of last week I have been staying over at Wilson's house because my family had their holidays while I didn't. First off, my parents wanted to go back to Penang to see my grandparents because my grandfather fell down a few days before. Second, my dad had a free stay at Genting so, you get the idea.

My dad dropped me at Wilson's house on Sunday along with all my stuff that I needed, clothes, assignments, bla bla bla, light box, stuff. And that night we were joined by Kai who had to find a place to stay because he did not want to drive home and get caught in a jam. During my week long stay, Kai stayed as well. Whee~ A lot of random things happened in that week and some inside jokes were created. That's right, nigga nigga fuck that bitch.

Most of the time Wilson's mom will buy dinner for us and there was two nights when Wilson's mom cooked dinner. Her food are delicious! Seriously, Wilson's mom's curry is good! Some nights Wilson, Kai and I will have dinner on our own, usually at Sunway Pyramid.

During my stay at Wilson's house, I was pushed beyond my limits to do my assignments. Normally I would have gone to sleep or laze around but Wilson pushed me to keep doing my assignments. He kept giving me words of encouragement or sometimes tickles me. I don't know why but I got my tickles back. There was once upon a time when I was immune to tickles. Sigh. Maybe it's because no one tickled me for so many years?

Starting my stay on Sunday, I did not get enough sleep from that night until Wednesday. That's right, three days of almost no sleep. I only got about twenty minutes of sleep each night to do assignments. Mind you it was not only the amount of assignments we have at college but also the fact that I kinda procrastinated. Finally on Thursday night, Wilson, Kai and I kicked out our feet and relaxed. We played games that night, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Left 4 Dead 2 and Silent Hill: Homecoming. We kicked the sack at around 3a.m. that night. Hahaha.

On Wednesday, Wee came along to stay as well, planning on doing our 2D Animation assignment together. Instead, Wee was so tired he slept almost the whole day! We even woke him up for dinner but he said he wasn't hungry and went back to sleep. The loud laughter the three of us made through the night and morning did not wake Wee up at all. He later woke up at 5a.m. when Kai, Wilson and I wanted to sleep. What's funnier was I did not know the time and was shocked that we were going to sleep at 5a.m. I exclaimed in surprise and Wilson and Kai got mad at me. Hahaha.

The original plan was that I go home on Sunday but Wilson asked me to stay another night to do our Photography assignment and our Figure Studies assignment. On Sunday night, Wilson's parents took us out for dinner at a Chinese hocker restaurant to have Western food. Kai also stayed the extra night with us but he did not have dinner with us, he had dinner with Malini because he went to her house to do assignment and learn a few stuff on how to do our 3D Animation assignment. Screw Maya. It's an awesome program but it's a pain in the ass to get things working and right.

On Monday, Kai and I take our leave from Wilson's house. That night, Kai and I were talking about how we miss staying at Wilson's house. Seriously it felt like we were brothers already. Hahaha. The both of us stayed another night with Wee again at Wilson's house a few days ago. Heh, I bet we are gonna stay over again when our semester break arrives.

A Day Out

I went out with Rin yesterday at Sunway Pyramid. We had planned this about a week before when the school holidays did not arrive.

Wilson, Kai, Chia and others were going for this talk thing that was held in college so we went there in the morning. Rin and I planned to meet at 10 but she was late so I had to wait for her. When she got to the Pyramid, we went to the ice rink first. It was the second time on ice for the both of us, except the last time I went ice skating was last year and Rin's was three years ago.

Once again with my fast learning and quick recovery capabilities, I got used to the ice and then I guided Rin along the ice as she couldn't get used to it yet. I sorta taught her how to move on ice but eh, my teaching skills are close to nil so I guess I couldn't really convey my knowledge to her. Still, Rin manage to skate alone. Yay~

After skating for about two hours (there were breaks also), we went for lunch at Papa John's for pizza because I had a coupon that I wanted to use before it expires. After our meal, we went to look for a purikura booth because Rin wanted to take some pictures.

Unfortunately we couldn't find one. The place I knew had purikura was under renovation so we headed to the arcade and played some games. We played Detona, DDR, Mario Kart and finally that Fate/Stay Night game I lost on the last time. With my mashing abilities improved, I beat the shit out of the opponent but I lost when Archer came on. Damn, I really hate Archer.

After the arcade, we walked around for a bit and then we went to Daiso. We looked around in Daiso and I picked out a container so that I can keep my charcoal in it. Rin's mother called her so I took her to the lion head entrance. We talked a bit while waiting for her mom to arrive.

After Rin went home, I reunite with Wilson, Sim Yen, Kai, Mal, Chia, Wee and Ann Nee in college. We then went for dinner together at Popeye's excluding Wee who went home.

I will be waiting.