So, since I'm heading back to school [boo, hiss] in a week and this sem is going to be even worse than the last what with the extra module, I figured I'd better set about restoring my twee good mood while I still have the chance, before college-emo insidiously swallows all. And you know what restores twee good moods? Candy cane hunting on City of Heroes! After half a day of getting stomped by Blights gift-raiding with Axn and Espn, we finally got enough candy canes to trade in for the furry gloves to counterpart the boots we took from the Baby New Year mish, so we took our flyer [Espn] and jumper [Divale] out to the Pocket D truck in the Chalet area to nab the Trucker Badge while the Holiday Event was still open. It is easier for flyers.

[ as taken by a jumper desperately trying not to fall off the edge of the floating chalet island ]

Hopefully we'll have enough time to repeat the candy hunt with our City of Villains girls before the event gives out on the 6th. Gift-raiding also yielded Axn and Espn the snowball fight temp power, which also yielded me this new icon:

Icon! I desperately want more icons, but I desperately need more icon slots even more. Even so, I couldn't stop myself from making a couple of new long overdue football icons for our neglected football comm waiting for impending revival, one of which I'm using on this post - because Rosa might well be the twee'est footballer that ever lived, and if he isn't, I don't want to know about it. As for the other one…well, Rosa might be twee, but he's also quite the bunny, and you know what they say about bunnies, so I'm not putting it in the post as it were…

Another thing that puts me in a twee good mood is BPAL - and when Scrunge's Christmas parcel [also a vehicle of twee-inducement - it came with stockings - that will be covered in-depth another time] finally got here after much delay from our dear postal service, we were treated to the realisation of what happens when you get several decant circle orders [Yule, Long Night Moon, Anniversary, Hony Mone, late Halloween split order] together in one go:

Okay, so the bottles all contain only an imp's worth, 80% of the imps are quarters or halves from frimp splitting and testering with Scrunge, and this is really considered a mere pittance by many enthusiasts' standards, but what a sight it was for us [sorry for making you do so much work, Scrunge. XD;;]. And we'd just gotten the box from Daiso on a whim to make our BPAL outbox for whenever we'd finally gathered enough duds for a small sale/swap - well, it currently serves as our 'yet to be tried' box instead.

And as far as trying goes, we are desperately trying - the Yule/Anniversary scents are coming down on the 15th, and there're a few bottles we would be quite sad to let slip - everyone says it, but El Dia de Reyes really is all that…and, contrary to most of the BPALing world, one of the sisters has us besmitten - but it's Rose Red, not Snow White. We're halfway through, and full reviews will pop up on stereophilic before long, I expect.

All in all, my twee good mood is a lot healthier than it'd been in my last post [though the looming shadow of college does go a far while in setting me desperately inclined in that direction while I still can] - so much healthier, in fact, that I'd decided to step down a little regarding my dad, what with his birthday coming up and all. Hah, birthday nothing - once again, he's engineered his schedule to take him out of Singapore on the big day we'd already made plans and checked prices for. His loss.

Well, so I am posting the birthday swag on [a] Monday [technically]… *is bricked* So I deserved that. XD;; I'll make it snappy and get to the loot!

( UMPC and Pony and Transformers, oh my! [w/ cameo from Tea] )

_______

Once again, fluff and thanks for all your birthday wishes~

Special thanks to those who took the time to post pics…
edaburi with Ari...bittenbefore with Keisa...night_child80 with Caleb and Colette...
aichaku's Glitter Graphic...starsthatshine with Ryo...and aoi_no_neko with a bunny! XD

And thankies to those who did it through MSN and comments…
sukuishi, sassystrawberry, techn0irkyashieru, ruthieangel, afuna
eluneth, erushi, pumabaerchen, kaisuki, starshipangels and lightlybattered!

This Transformers meme was ganked from Far Cry, and by ganked, I mean she made it, and I love it.

Take a picture of your car and tell us/me what it would be like as an Autobot/Decepticon.



( Downgrade | DECEPTICON )

This is the pinkest birthday I ever had. Pink pink pink. I don't even, as a rule of thumb, like pink very much. My favourite colour is grey. But there you go - PINK DAMMIT. And it's allll good.

[Late innit? As it turns out, my essay did eat me: I had to fight my way out of that sucker with nothing but a keyboard and a few loose staples, and now I’m freaking out over my upcoming exams. Of course, what else is new? ...I’ll tell you what else is new – now that my paid account has run out, I’m in massive paid account withdrawal help me please help me arrrhrhg - *cough* Right. On with the post! ← Not any more!!! Thanks and ♥ and *hugs* to the wonderful geheimergarten!]

_______



(  So what am I supposed to do with a pink phone? I term it my pink-and-cream-confection, which works out in short to PC, but, honestly, I just call it Pet... )

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When I do the pics for Mae's birthday cakes, I take three days. When I do mine, I take less than three hours and scramble a lot. It's actually the first time I ever got anything printed on my cake [usually we totally forget about my cake until the day itself...] and Mae pushed me to do something on impulse.

It's waaay unfinished, but I just needed something to slap some semblance of pink on - this was done to, uh, match my pink and cream confection, the subject chosen due to an omnipresent pink shirt. Riiiiight.

I thought the printing was going to be terrible, but it came out really quite prettily, actually.

( +1 for printing detail )

______

Mae worked overtime this year, clocking in with a technical total of five different presents [and a sixth project that shall remain for the time being mysterious]...

( hit for six – get it right here... )
_____________________

Fluff and thanks to all of the below...

Special thanks to the following for taking the time to post birthday images for me~
For a mind-numbingly adorable pic of Reisa from Judy...
The sweetest aww-inducing pic of Ari from Kim...
A snappy pic of Caleb complete with cool framing from Melissa...
And no less than a mind-boggling 18 shots of roses from Prophile!
[Edit: And one from Evildolly too!]

And thankies to all of you who wished me happy birthday in comments, angelbase, lovelycoconuts, sukuishi, mutedhitokiri, crystarlia, pumabaerchen, tom_kiper, aichaku, lightlybattered, me_ya_ri, pho3nix, starsthatshine, hirondelle, ayaweird, cautiverio, starshipangels, eluneth, nekromance, ruthieangel and the inimitable vox_veritas [ver. Joey]! ♥ to you all!

And ♥, of course, to stereophilic. In fact, ♥, ♥, ♥, ♥, and ♥. There. One for each. :D

Today I am turning a palindrome. Boy, am I old.

...Except that for the past year I've been accidentally introducing myself as 23. Since the wossit with the funeral in 2002, I've been unconsciously tacking a couple of years to my age, as I keep having the nagging feeling I've lost a birthday or two along the way.

Great, I'm all set to accidentally introduce myself as 25 for the year to come. :D
_______

Last night we were late emerging for dinner and supplies. The clock struck seven as I rounded the ledge bend by the lifts right outside my apartment and was struck by the majesty of God. A tumultuous cloud mass burned a dark swathe against a corona of flame. The dying blaze of the sun flung desperate rays through gasping mouths in the shadowed wall. "Get the cam!" I cried at Mae [ah, the media-obsessed impulses of my generation]. As she scrambled back indoors, a brilliant bolt striated across the dark. Could anything be more beautiful.

To cut a very long story short, we stood there for fifteen minutes trying to capture a frame of flashing lightning like drowning men. The glorious cloud mass had long lost its shape, now more an looming, undefined menace. Ten or more bolts and glimmers had passed untaken, human reflexes too slow to react. "I'm going to just take on sequential. And if we run out of space before it happens, it's just not meant to be," she announced.

[ please click for frame2 closeup | photo courtesy of stereophilic ]

Maybe we're easily excitable, but what an early birthday gift. [Dinner ended up being at 10.30pm. XD;;]
_______

It's been four years since the funeral; I always say that I remember the number because I count time from World Cup to World Cup and it was a World Cup year that she died. But in reality everything is seared into my mind like setting stone; I don't remember a thing, but I remember everything. We've been busy ever since, as if being busy forever could keep a dark at bay. Four years on and I still don't know how we're really doing, if we could be any better, any worse, anywhere but where we are, a brusque and desperate parody of joie de vivre. But perhaps this is enough, this forever-busy with some part of a grasping core sealed away into an unreachable limbo of 'this is the end'. I have someone to love beyond reason, in that respect I am unreasonably blessed.

My favourite thing in the world is the look on her face when I produce some secret gift or revelation hitherto unexpected but hopelessly wanted. That is why every year for the 16th of May I labour and plot and contrive; my machinations are to her end but obscure a selfish desire in shame. In light of that, my own birthday is of little consequence: but every year I take the occasion to reflect on the two laydees in my life [aside from my gran, who at last count had just hopped onto a train down to KL for a baby shower thing]. I miss you, Mummy. And I love you, my little ham cheeng peng. :D
_______

Enough of the angst, it's time to - party! do my essay. ;_;

I'll have thanks, comment replies, and a writeup on my few prezzies later, because that's what you come here for, dontcherknow. XD [If I don't, it'll mean that my essay ate me. Farewell, cruel adventure game!]

Of my long history of utterly useless yet time-wasting hobbies, the chalk-carving phase from my secondary school years probably ranks the most, well, useless [possibly alongside sticky-tack figurines]. I remember I wasn't the only one, and while the style of the season was personalised rectangular pendants for names, I purloined my chalk bits for rather more unorthodox ventures. My magnum opus was a bowling ball and pin that afforded me endless hours of amusement during numbing math lessons - and when the slender neck of the single pin suddenly [but not unexpectedly] snapped one sad afternoon, I retired from the world of chalk carving without much ceremony. It has been six long years [or possibly seven. or eight].

This past Sunday, I unwisely succumbed when, shopping in Ikea for guest room furniture, we chanced upon the charming Ikea chalk packs - perfectly ordinary chalk repackaged in a snug cardbox board in a colour assortment. This past hour, I finally snapped. Sadly, I wasn't the only thing to snap - the first victim was the stem [again, not unexpectedly] of the potted tulip I'd first started working on. Inconsolable, I embarked on a rather more inexplicable project with the remaining half of the chalk:

Without enough material for protuding bodyparts, I wrote it off as a bust.

For those of you who don't recognise the icon art it's based off, this is the main character from Mae's ingenious [if oft-neglected] webcomic strip Your Brains Here - Mae. [Gee, that was a surprise.] If this is your first contact with YBH, immediately flush out with water and call the poison centre for further instructions please do hop over and peruse the strip archive. It's just returned to life from a lengthy absence, and Mae promises to update more often now [haha]. It features a...distinct brand of humour, 24/7 worksafe nudity, and best of all my scripting Mae's extremely wtf-inducing trademark sack-type kyuu.

...Okay, back to work. *organising guest room*

Edit: Addition with Chai for sizing and hopefully more accurate colour. ...except now that I look at it, the colour isn't really that much more accurate, and it still looks really big despite being pretty small. Agh, okay, it's just a regular piece of yellow chalk. The end.

Today we woke to the sound of rain and no food in the house. The former relentlessly impeded our resolution to march the miles to King Albert Park and possess our groceries, and the motion to wait was tentatively heeded. At 5pm, we came to the realisation that any more waiting would mean McDonald's delivery for dinner, and not being a big fan, we appropriated a disposable poncho and a previously borrowed umbrella, and gingerly picked our way through kilometres of flooded sidewalks.

Mae swore it wasn't far, but bus stop markers later she was regretting her erroneous judgement, and I was regretting my prior inclination to walk the full way. The rain continued. By the time we arrived at the supermarket, we were only slightly human. Dad called, safely ensconced in the Philippines, and we wished him a happy birthday. Ah, dear old Dad. When I'd first told Mae minutes after Mom was taken off the machine to the bitter end that it was his right to consider remarriage and avoid a lonely existence I didn't exactly mean for him to suddenly announce a secret apartment with a Filipino girlfriend and cease coming home for the nights. But even the most perfect gentleman listens to his little head and despite occasional lapses into wrath, I'll concede that there's probably no better way to spend a birthday than indulging that cerebral core.

What are the odds that it could rain all day? We had hoped that the rain would have finally given up by the time we were done with our groceries, but we emerged to dark skies and a torrential release. We crossed streets and took scant refuge under the bus shelter, waiting for salvation. The groceries, most packed into an enviromentally friendly gimmick, pulled against my right shoulder. We peered into the blur of headlights, their vehicular bodies obscured by the rain. The right number never came, but Mae took chance to ask a passing bus, and we went the five or so bus stops back gripping yellow poles and marvelling at the vortex of darkness beyond.

When we finally trod the last sodden yards into the complex, stumbled in through security doors and up the creaky lifts rainblind, we thankfully unlocked the door and tumbled in, dripping puddles on the faux-marble floor. "Grocery shopping in the rain builds character," I dubiously proposed. Then my shoulder fell off and my feet rotted away.

you may tire of me as our december sun is setting
because i'm not who i used to be.

This entry is several days late. ^^;; And kinda stoned-sounding, because my brain is currently functioning more on auto-pilot than anything else. ^^;; But if I put this off any longer, it'll be Christmas before I get to my birthday goodies, so here goes...

I suppose one of the very few benefits to having your mother's death anniversary a mere few days before your birthday is that you get a barrage of very nice birthday wishes you're totally unused to. [Or it could be because of Mae and her Birthday Squad. When she said Birthday Squad, I thought she was kidding. She was not kidding. It's almost terrifying. But very gratifying.] To all the people who wished me happy birthday in whatever way or form, thank you very very much, I really appreciate it guys. *much hugs* It was definitely one of the more unusual and birthday-y birthdays I've had in a while.

Part of what made it so unusual and birthday-y was a lineup of gift [mostly]art of our boys that absolutely *floored* me. I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it again: *squee*

XD I'm going to showcase all of them [with clickable thumbnails] here behind an lj-cut, please do check them out! They're also going to go up on tangled web soon in a new section that's been delayed for forever but will almost certainly be definitely going live in a few days, currently still tentatively titled 'fanworks'. [It's not much of an accurate name, if anyone can suggest an alternative for a section that showcases art/mails to/gueststories/etc. of the boys, please do tell!]

( Birthday giftart makes me happy...very happy... )

Also, we finally got a proper meal alone with our dad. That doesn't sound like much, but it is. ^^;; The mini-outing didn't start out so well, he was unwittingly impatient to get it over with at first and return to thence he came, but after a while he sobered to the occasion and called her to defer their meeting time instead. So we ate at Sizzlers and got routinely sick from being too full from the salad bar. XD;; And a good time was had by all.

For the first time in two years, also, he gave me a birthday present. Next I expect cows to start falling from the sky. ...Okay, so this was a no-brainer - I've been using the same battered phone for quite a number of years, and said battered phone was starting to seriously malfunction. Since my handphone is almost exclusively used for intra-family communication [i.e. dad and Mae], it's considered more or less a necessity. As an odd sort of reward for sticking to the same battered phone for so many years, I was at liberty to choose just about any model I wanted. My phone was actually slated to be replaced early this year, but the sale model on Nokia [I'm a Nokia geek. ^^;;] that caught my eye was due out in the last quarter of the year. By June I'd come to the conclusion that it was a lost cause as the model would likely cost over SGD1K, and I'd rather buy an SD with that. XD;; As my birthday was approaching, and my dad bugging me ever other week to actually get a phone that properly works, suddenly a new model that I actually really liked popped up. It was not 1K and it was released very recently prior to my birthday. [For the record, my previous dream-target will be released end November to the tune of SGD$1500.] I give you the Nokia 6260, baby.

Both my phone and my notebook have screens that rotate an approximation of 270 degrees...I wonder if that's a fetish of some kind...

If there's something this phone can't do [that it really otherwise should, at least], I don't really want to know about it. I love it, luv, in a way I haven't loved phones in a long time. To top it off, as my phone is minty fresh in the just-released wave, I got the 'welcome pack', which doesn't quite say 'welcome!' so much as 'here's a free USB plug-in for the phone memory card - say hi to data transfer without having to buy an uberexpensive PC cable that allows you to, among other perks, have a full mp3 as your ringtone~'. Currently, I use the phone for just about anything...other than actually calling and/or SMSing people. XD:;

I love this phone so much, I'm ready to forgive my dad for skipping out and buying me a cheap neighbourhood bakery cake instead of my customary once-a-year-only uppermiddleclass fare. And not staying for a slice of cake. At least he did the whole birthday song thing. Oh well. Dinner and phone. Next year I'll go buy my own cake ahead of time.

Also, here I'd like to say thank you very much, to all of you who commented and comforted in the death anniversary post. It really means a lot to me. As much as I know I really shouldn't angst, at least that once a year, it's almost a necessary evil and I know that she'd rather be missed and remembered than shelved and forgotten. My mother never grew up in some ways, and part of that manifested itself in an odd tendency to displays of ill temper on festive occasions. It was as if she felt indignant that things were getting happy when she wasn't at the center of it, and often birthdays and Christmas were hotspots for family upheaval. This was especially true in the earlier years just after I came back to live with my direct family, until we came to recognise this trait of hers that she was likely not consciously aware of and was especially careful to try to make sure of her contentment during such occasions. In some way, I like to think that the phenomenal coincidence of her funeral date being on my birthday was an odd reminder of this - so I can never be as happy as to forget her on this day. And I never will. Anyway, thank you very much for your patient tolerance of my angst! XD;; I know how tiresome I get around this time of the year. ^^;;

This would be the end of a very long entry, save for one thing. 1. Neither Mae nor I tend to treat the art we give each other on our respective birthdays as the gift proper [for her birthday this year, in addition to the official gift art, I'd tossed in another sketch, two customised MLPonies, and the 1st Ruka outfit], and this year is no different for her. 2. I often for the heck of it just gift myself with a piece of especially indulgent art on my birthday. Thus, the next post, due in a bit, will finally fully cover the story of the couple of teaser pics I threw on in the previous post, with a heck lot more photos... Stay tuned. >D

on verge of tangled update. bidding not going so well. life going moderately worse.

Can't sleep. The Peeps will get me.

San is coming at 11-12pm. If I sleep now, I'll never be able to get up in time. ^^;; Pulling overnight shifts always sounds a lot easier before, well, actually pulling them. Mae doesn't have such compunctions. She's been asleep for hours. After making me complete her cosplay pages. Which leaves me with two complete cosplay pages and no entry in her lj. Which means it serves her right if I pip her apple. [Or de-pip.]

Obviously the Hong Kong trip post hasn't happened. I think I have around five incredibly long ljposts half-written that hasn't happened. This one has an excuse. Mae had a cosplay on Sunday. When Mae has a cosplay, the world grinds to a halt and I never get to sleep again. This time round, the world ground to a halt trying to make foam look like metal.

[She's the git in the middle. That arm's supposed to be metal.]

If you don't know who's she cosplaying, you probably don't actively watch anime. ^^;; For the interested, the proper page with way too many photos of Mae and associated parties is here. The above was resized for my lj's benefit.

You don't want to know how much of my virtual blood is smeared over that costume.

I have many gripes. Indeed I do. I was near tears that morning as we made our way down to the carpark, and I went 'did you bring your hairnet' and she rushed upstairs and never emerged wherein upon my investigation she was kicking around our computer room going 'it must be here because I saw it around the place a couple of days ago'. This was almost enough to cause me an instant stroke. I shall not elucidate. Needless to say, there was no hairnet. And the wig. Which should have been styled three days ago. I hacked bangs and the distinctive antennae into it at the con itself. I regret the distinct lack of the thinning comb which was supposed to have been packed by Mae but was not, which is largely why the bangs look chopped. Oh my heart.

Also - the watch. The watch that used to be a cheap HongKong-knockoff with an embossed train a cm thick on the cover. That now instead has a hell-ugly hippogryff on it as per state alchemist regulation. Because I suffered to break out the paper clay that I hadn't touched since I was in kindergarten and made face-shaped penstands for relatives to viciously stab pens into the eyes of [the mouth held an eraser],and poke at it with wood-working tools. And even has the appropriate inscription scratched into the inside. Duration of work - one painful night. Number of times it saw the light of day at the con - one. Here. Why? Why do I bother? Why did she ask? Some questions have no answers.

Many gripes. Like how spray-painting foam metallic causes over-inhalation of toxic fumes. And how I hate getting glue all over my fingers. And how there's no use making me spend a whole day on writing the script if her group members forget the lines and totally forget the storyline and screw up the presentation.

But, you know.

Fully articulated craftfoam metal arm with switchable blades = l33t!

...I spoil her, y'know.

[If you wanted to know about the con itself. XD;; I'm sorry. Our camera gave up. Something was seriously wrong with it [interesting fact : the first time our camera got itself into serious trouble was at the same event last year.]. But you didn't miss much. It was dark, noisy, boring, and largely unimpressive. So what else is new.]

...More interestingly, Mae finally got her long-overdue Hyoutei 'Oshitari' regulars jacket. At 4am last night, we went 'aw hell', and I gave her the full faceup treatment, did her hair, and clambered into all kinds of odd spots to cam-fangirl till dawn.

...If you don't know how wrong this is : Mae is 150cm tall. He's 178cm. Some of the photos turned out remarkably well, though... XD;; Full page of fangirling here.

As a warning, she also finally received her long-awaited Rikkai jersey. If you thought the Oshitari shots were bad...

That's all for now.

...Oh, alright. Here.

Despite the fact that all our limbs were falling off from Cosfest fatigue the day before, we still rushed down to Domuya on its first day back. Can't post stuff about the inside, Jacky and Candy want the honours for that. But here's the view if you deign to enter Riverside Point from the scenic river route. [We went in through the back. -_-;; Which was under construction. -_-;;;] A hugeass banner of the very lovely lady Rin in her very lovely navy wig and her very lovely full kimono. I can't think of anything I'd rather see more. To give you an idea of how big Domuya is now, Rin and to her left [your right] is the store proper, to her right is part of their staffroom. The store is lined with display tables for the dolls. None of them are behind glass. In one word : kickass. We're definitely going to start living there.

...6am. Only about, oh, I don't know, six more hours before San gets here...

...But luckily, I can't take myself seriously. [Apologies to FMA. XDD]

Was just thinking about how lovely and pensive Tsuki looked in the yukata [incidentally, he dislocated his waist joint and momentarily lost his ID plate...and my intention to take a pretty pensive pic of him collided with my weakwilled willingness to show off his legs, and lost miserably. XDD;;], and decided to take a picture for posterity to show that Yes! Indeed I Am Working on My Hong Kong Report! &andtherewasmuchrejoicing; ...Of course. The screen took blank. XD;; I really am working on that report, and it really is coming along nicely. ^^;;

Have also been watching Sweden vs. Holland, and if you haven't heard the news, Holland is through on penalties. Fantastic! The game was arduous at points, but I was largely transfixed [if frustrated]. I'm actually especially partial to both Sweden and Holland, but I'm a huge fan of the Netherlands playstyle, and had bet my emotional well-being for the night on the Holland team. While I've been pushing for the Czech Republic to take the trophy [Go, Czech!], if they crash tomorrow, I'll be pushing for Holland. XD

[...Inci-incidentally, that yukata is apparently marketed as a girls' yukata. XD;; That's the way the yukata crumbles, Tsuki. X3]

Well, unfortunately, I'm not dead yet. ^^; I was very busy after the Japan trip with a. cousin's wedding, b. a week of 24hr doujinka'ing, c. relative in ICU, and d. intensive catcus-plush making + emergency make-up familiarising + hairspray expertise + clothesfitting and editing for Mae's Hisoka cosplay. CosFest was last Sunday, and my uncle lives, so I suppose I have time to squeeze in an lj entry before I do some [unpaid] secretarial work for my dad and attempt to bake a chocolate fudge pie. This post will be broken up into easy-access sections...

1. Stairway to Heaven [japan trip]
2. My Cousin's Wedding
3. Random Acts of Cruelty [scholarship and a laptop, no change]
4. 24hr Doujinka'ing
5. One Death per Family, Please. [uncle in icu]
6. Where were you when the Brains were Passed out? [plushie-making]
7. The Show Must go On [Cosfest]
8. Martha Steward has Nothing on Me [baking]
9. A Matter of Life and Death [football. what else?]
10. Some Angst about my Dead Momma
11. Some Philosophy about Life and Angst
12. Stuff I've Drawn while I was Gone [that's all you're here for, innit?]
13. EndGame

1. Stairway to Heaven
I wish we could say that we were thrown into paradise, bought everything we wanted, and were happy for the rest of our lives. Instead, what happened is that I discovered another strange complex I have that will likely scar me and make me unable to live with the rest of humankind. XD To set the scene, our hotel room was directly opposite the local branch of Animate. 8 storeys high.

Yep. There's heaven on earth. [To clarify, Animate sells current merchandise on floor 1, shounen ai doujinshi on floor 2, hentai doujinshi on floor 3, merchandise on 4, more merchandise and shounen ai games on 5, manga on 6, anime and cds on 7, and runs a convention hall on the 8th. There was a Koei fest on the time we were there. That means Angelique and Harukanaru Toki no Naka de. *__*]

Well. My new complex goes like this :

Floor 4
Mae : I *have* to get this! [Fudomine shirt, etc. etc.] Whoah. Expensive. O_o
Djinn : What? No, that's not bad! Clothes are always expensive! Get it! You'll be cosplaying Kamio next year! Gryffindor scarf? You really like it? Get it! It's okay! It's the last one, and you've always wanted to make those Quidditch robes!

Floor 5
Djinn : *stares wideyed at Jewel Garden, Dynamite Darling, and other shounen ai games she'd sworn to get*
Mae : *wanders over* Hey! Jewel Garden! You wanted that, right? Why don't you get it?
Djinn : *indistinctly* Nah...it's too expensive...you still have to loop back downstairs to pick up the Gryff scarf...it's okay...

That night
Djinn : *thinking disconsolately in bed* Jewel Garden... Dynamite Darling...

So on so forth. So the score ended up - Mae : Multiple cosplay items including two sets of wings, TeniPuri Gameboy cartridge, ParaPara game + sensors [last gasp buy at 50%!], etc. Djinn : Uh. Heheh. G-pen? ^^;; Oh, right! A pretty new GraphGear! [Mechanical pencil].

Luckily doujinshi is a shared interest. XD By far the highlight of the trip was the acquiration of 15 doujinshi. Though it's not half as much as I'd have hoped to get, I didn't actually expect to get any at all, and it was an incredible soulsearching experience. Because I'm really too lazy for my own good - here's a recount of something I told San in an email :

'About the doujinshi - largely TeniPuri, because it's by far the most popular doujinshi fandom in Japan right now. My eccentric tastes mean that I don't really care for 99% of all readily available doujinshi, and readily available doujinshi is all that sells outside of doujincons. I was lucky enough to be in a hotel opposite a La Shin Bang and Animate, the
former of which is a bit of a doujin specialist [most if not all titles, however, only have one copy], and the latter of which sells popular choices, so between the two, I got four Kamio-centric [largely BeKami] doujin [tenipuri], three RyoTezu [tenipuri], three BeOshi [tenipuri, all 18+ ^^;;], two Yamabuki-centrics for Muromachi [tenipuri], and in a surprise find at La Shin Bang, three Fred/GeorgexPercy [Harry Potter, one 18+] by the same author. ^^;;; These were all the doujin I could find that catered to my tastes [the rest were largely too mainstream, for e.g., the Naruto ones were all KakaIru, SasuNaru, and KakaSasu, all of which I would not touch with a very long stick], save for a few RyoTezus that were individually too expensively priced, and now regret not getting. ^^;;

The pride and joy of my collection is 'Cry Sour Grape', a fluffy Be/SenKami by Satsuki Utsubushi of Medaka no Gakkou, who's one of my absolute absolute favourite TeniPuri fanartists. XD It's the one doujinshi that I went to Japan with the burning desire
to buy. ^^;;'

When I finish rounding up my doujinshi summary list, I'll post fuller details. XD

In conclusion? Animate is heaven on earth, Japan is lovely, I want to go back. Now. NOW! Er. The trip was actually quite disappointing, our tourguide was an egocentric idiot, and we had far too little free time [you can imagine that Animate wasn't exactly on the itinery]. Next time we go back [and I hope we actually can...], we're braving it alone.

2. My Cousin's Wedding
All that's really noteworthy : 'My eldest paternal cousin got married. While I don't like socialising with my paternal relatives at all, she's a nice girl, and cried at my mother's wake, so I was much obliged to do a pretty wedding drawing gift for her. The catch was, her wedding was on the day right after we returned from Japan. As a result, 1/8 of this was drawn on the plane, 1/25 at home, and the rest frantically during the wedding banquet. Fixed and digitally photographed this at the dining table - this blur little piece is the only salvageable pic of it. She and the entire extended family loved it, but I can't help feeling that I messed it all up. ^^;; I do quite like the roses though...even if they look unfortunately black.'

Picture will be attached below.

3. Random Acts of Cruelty [scholarship and a laptop, no change]
After the upgrade to MOE Teaching Scholarship, both my applications for the Scholarship and Award were bizarrely rejected. Just as I was celebrating the fact that I could now take Lit Major and Japanese Language Minor like I'd planned, a letter informing me of the bestowment unto me of the National University of Singapore Scholarship arrived. Curses. Foiled again. -_- Since I'd applied, but had heard neither hide nor hair from the NUS scholarship committee, interview or otherwise, it was a 1+1 to suddenly realise that, you know, technically NUS is part of MOE. *d'oh* In pure technicality, the NUS Scholarship is far superior to the Award in terms of money paid, and to the Scholarship in that it requires no bond, but is similarly a full college scholarship, but frankly, I think it's a load of balderdash, and I'd really wanted to just study what I wanted to study. -_-;;

The one good thing out of it though, is that my dad was held to the promise that he'd get me the notebook of my choice if I scored a scholarship. XD Notebook of my choice was the Acer Travelmate CT110. :] I'd been looking at laptops since the beginning of the year, with quite a strict list of criteria [but not much choice, seeing as I'd wanted a tablet convertible], but every time I set my eyes on the CT110...I...forgot...everything...

Nevertheless, I was quite hesitant about the buy, and circled both Challenger and the assorted shops in Sim Lim Square quite a number of times. But on the make it or break it day, we arrived in Sim Lim Square to the last day of the Microwarez Acer Roadshow. I took it as a sign and I'm now the fawning owner of an Acer Travelmate CT110. ^_^~<3 [Other competitors were the Toshiba Protege and the Fujitsu Lifebook [which isn't a tablet, but is very small], but the former was much bigger and had no bundled external rom drive, and the latter was too thick...and what is up with the funny sized screen? O_o] It's lovely, and has handwriting and speech recognition. 512RAM, 40gig hard drive, promotional extra battery, and I'm set to go. The only thing it's missing is an ISP...but that can only be rectified in August earliest. -_-;;

4. 24hr Doujinka'ing
For the fuller story, please visit...

Our brand-new doujinshi circle homepage. ^__^ [Uh...please? ^^;;] But for the short of it :

Sakana-san's Doujin of Doom
Mae : Ooh look. Sakana-san's asking for GGXX doujin submissions for something that's to be released at CosFest!
Djinn : You're crazy.
Mae : ^_____^ *typing* Sakana-san, my sister and I are going to submit doujin for your GGXX anthology...
Djinn : O______________O

'SiN participated in the Guilty Gear XX Doujinshi Anthology organised and published by Sakana-san of Neko House. Djinn contributed a 10 page short comic entitled 'The Last Dance', and Mae contributed a 3 page 4-coma spread entitled 'The Adventures of Bridget, Pro Spinner XX'.'

A more practical description of events would be - 5 straight days of dawn to dawn drawing, inking, erasing, screentoning, again and again and again. Just thinking about it exhausts me. O_o Aagh. The most ironic thing is - I don't even like GGXX and Anji as much as I should. ^^;; GGXX has some incredible art, and is a brill vs. game, and just a hell load of fun...but that's mostly just what it is.

Three pages will be attached below. Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

5. One Death per Family, Please. [uncle in icu]
[Parts excerpted from mails to San. ^^;;]
My eldest uncle on my father's side [who had total kidney failure] landed in the ICU in a coma and heart problem. I don't like socialising with *any* of the relatives on my dad's side, but I do like this uncle in a 'poor nice man [incredibly rich] with a domineering wife'
way. Not that he usually even deigns to talk to us. But I'm not too fond of his family, who though for all intents and purposes are generally nice folks, didn't even turn up for my mom's funeral or wake. I especially dislike his wife, who is generally petty, malicious, and heartless in the face of finance.

My dad told us that his wife had called, all subdued, from the ICU, without much detail, except that he had collapsed, had an additional heart problem, and was in a coma [we later found out his lungs filled with fluid, etc.]. I told him to expect the worst - he'd done much the same thing the day my mom died. I'm not really Christian, but I prayed he would live. He still had a lot of things he'd intended to do, and while his children are both older than us, they're much more useless and immature, and I can't imagine them at the wake in any good light.

He woke up the next day, and could talk, and he's currently out of immediate danger, though there's internal bleeding the fucking useless doctors can't trace, he's current lost all control in one of his legs due to a fucking useless nurse's careless tubing insertion, and he seems to be suffering from some delirium. The coma might have permanently affected his brain, but that's subject to further observation. Me, I'm just glad he's alive, 'cause when there's life, there's hope.

But I'm fucking pissed with his family.

He's in a C ward. He's in critical condition, just out of the ICU, was touch and go for a couple of days, still could kick the bucket any minute, and he's in a six-patient, non-airconditioned ward, in a bed right next to a window where the sun beats in relentlessly, with construction drills and piling going on right beneath the window, and where the nurses couldn't really care if you're dead or alive, and doctors take a cup of coffee before responding to your emergency call.

And he's a fucking rich business magnate.

Dad : ...Why don't you transfer him to an A ward?!!
Wife : I don't know if the insurance covers it.
Children : *looks away from my dad's astonished stare*

Dad's brothers and sisters : Why don't you transfer him to an A ward?!!
Wife : *angry now* I decide NOT to transfer him to an A ward.

In all truth, that's nothing really unexpected, the woman has infamy for her heartlessness and miserly ways. But this is her husband, and she'd nearly lost him, and she won't transfer him to a ward with better care and comfort despite the fact that he's practically dying because she doesn't want to foot an extra couple of hundred a day?! They're richer than Creosote, they have property all over Singapore, they have company branches all over the world, the poor man just bought a 10 grand grand piano for his beloved daughter, and a couple of hundred a day would bankrupt them?! My dad says just selling a single house would be enough to foot a couple years worth of A-class ward bills. I say just selling the fucking piano would do the trick.

It makes me so fucking angry just to think about it. When my mom was in hospital, there were no A wards left, so my dad had her transferred to an A+ ward. Our insurance didn't cover it, our income wasn't shabby, but it was nothing to raise an eyebrow at. We'd expected a five month ride. But none of that mattered next to ensuring her utmost comfort in the period of her distress. We didn't expect her to die in two days.

My uncle is older than my mom was, and in more pain than she was even when she died, richer than hell she was ever, and he's stuck in a C ward, unable to move despite the heat and the noise.

I wish I could say that she has some esoteric reason for her refusal, but there's really nothing on this earth discernable. What could be more important, when in such a critical situation, than the comfort of your loved ones? If you're not going to use your money now, when will you? If he suddenly dies, how the fuck will she feel? We did everything we could for my mom, but I still feel like it wasn't enough. -_-

...I'm all sworn out now. ^^;;

6. Where were you when the Brains were Passed out? [plushie-making]
We made a plushie!

Riko from Yami no Matsuei, Mae was cosplaying Hisoka. It may have been a plush, but I could've sworn we were resurrecting Frankenstein's monster. Procedure : two layers of cloth, stuffing, stitching, and a hell lot of glue. Add felt, carefully weathered pot and treated yarn to taste. Time taken - three times as long as costume days. As predicted, Riko attracted droves of squealing, poking fangirls.

Plushie-making is exhausting. -_-;; [And I promised Mae I would make Kumagorou at the end of the year for her Shuuichi cosplay. O____O My mom had just died! I didn't know what I was thinking!]

7. The Show Must go On [Cosfest]
I'll post a pic of Mae as Hisoka when she uploads a properly face-centric one. For her dumb junk-cosplay, I had to figure out how to knot ties, spray gold hairspray naturally, and apply gothic make-up in a real hurry. -_-;; Also stitched up her sleeves and stitched out the tags on the backs and sides. Shirt was dyed for preference, and, yes, it is a reasonable likeness.

The cosplay itself bordered on sheer unbelievable ludicrity at times, and for me was largely notable only for the release of the Guilty Gear XX doujin as referenced above. Ten pages in a 60pg Guilty Gear XX doujinshi organised by Sakana-san, with 7 comic contributors and 8 illustration contributors. I'd been worrying about it for weeks, but my part didn't print as badly as I feared, and I think it was a pretty decent showing. ^^;; Of course, the realisation that all local doujin are literally stapled-together pages of half-paged photocopies somewhat dampened my wonder. There were at least two other doujin debuts at different booths, but with the colour cover and Sakana-san's organised GGXX cosplay team pimping it, I think the GGXX doujin won out by a mile. The first run's all sold out, with more willing takers. Other plus points were really good band performances by Mizeryfree and Defuse at the end. Defuse actually did Datenshi Blue [Kaikan Phrase] for their opening number. XD Brownie points.

8. Martha Steward has Nothing on Me [baking]
Aforementioned [previous posts] oven works. I started out with cake mixes, and the monster awoke. -_-;; A few of my favoured from-scratch cakes are allrecipes.com's Aunt Anne's Coffee Cake, the one with streusel topping, and Millionaire's Shortbread, which looks pleasingly like hotel-fare with the drizzled white chocolate. I don't do cake mixes anymore, but still pitch for Betty Crocker's fudge brownie mix [particularly with the cream cheese marbling], and cookie mix in an edited Mrs. Fields style, both of which are quick but good for filling Mae's daily lunchbox.

Baking is addictive. I wonder how I'll cope when I have to stop when uni starts. -_-;; [I'm currently baking an average of three times a week.]

9. A Matter of Life and Death [football. what else?]
I really miss footy. *gloom*

One doujinka'ing night, it was 4am. On a whim, I checked the Yahoo! Sports pages, and lo, Marc Viven-Foe was dead. It seemed like it was only yesterday I saw him playing for City, and all of a sudden he was dead. *gloom* I'd like to think that at least he went playing the game he loved, but just thinking about his poor family receiving the stunning unexpected news makes me sad.

So many people die every day. Depressing business, death.

In the face of this, Becks moving to Madrid seems like a silly, trivial affair. By the time he'd left, I was sick of the whole mess, and just wanted the stupid man out of the news. But there was this night I unexpectedly dreamed of Gaz, and woke up feeling a little 'eh'd by the whole Becks in Madrid thing. It's just such a pity. -_- They used to do everything together. Gaz used to babysit Brooklyn. XD Oh well. I guess this means the fics get much angstier. >]

Having said that random mess, I really can't wait for the new footy season to start. *_* I wish that university didn't start before that.

10. Some Angst about my Dead Momma

[Mae, don't read this. I warned you. Don't come complaining to me that I made you cry.]

I'd been hoping I was past that, but the dreams are back. It's a rather poor trade, seeing as I have chronic insomnia and can never fall asleep till at least 6am, that I still have various nightmares till when I wake up. I don't so much mind the dreams about dying, what not, but dreaming about my mom really puts a dampener on things.

The other night, I dreamt that she wasn't dead yet, but supposed to be dying. I dreamt that I cried and begged her not to die. I dreamt that she didn't say anything, but I dreamt that if I completed this bizarre quest, she would live. The last thing I remember about the dream was being halted in the middle of the quest, and imminent death. :\ Oh well.

I generally try to file these things into some abandoned cabinet portion of my mind, but truth be told, I have a lot of...whatchamacallit? Unsolved Resentment. The first time we ate durians after she died, I was gripped by a terrible numbing sadness. I remember some months before it happened, she looked out the car windows and saw durian booths, and she wanted to eat durian, but because we couldn't find a parking space, we didn't, and just agreed to buy when we had time. Of course, she died first. And I really resent the fact that she never got to eat durian before she died.

And there was this cookbook she bought two days before she was admitted into the hospital, and she was flipping through it in bed, and saying that it was great, because it told you what not to do, and that she'd do a couple of dishes from it when she got better. She died four days later, and she never even got to use it. And I really resent that, and I can't even look at the damn cookbook anymore without wanting to sit alone for a while somewhere.

I remember her being so earnest and sorry that we had to cancel the China trip because of her hospitalisation, and I laughed and said that it was okay, she was the one who'd been the most excited about it, and we can always go to China some other time. I resent that she never could.

I resent that her colleagues got to see her the day she died, and I didn't. I resent that I wanted to go, but they said no because of my econs exam. I resent that everyone refused to tell me that she was dead when she was. I resent the doctors who messed up and indirectly caused her death. I resent the relatives who went into hysterics at her wake, when I was there, and had to joke and offer drinks. I irrationally resent the people who came up to me and said I must be strong and take care of my sister, while I smiled, and nodded, and clutched her hand in one, and history notes in the other.

I resent the fact that I cried in public after the last rite, when I'd held out for the entire wake. I resent the fact that I can no longer sleep at night. I resent the fact that I can't be alone and mentally rational without sealing off every facet of emotion. I resent the fact that I can't pass temples and worst of all Singapore Casket without feeling some cold grip of irrational fear. I resent the fact that I bewilderingly can't allow myself to talk about it or anything without some form of wry joke or putdown. I resent the fact that I feel my angst is a great disservice to others, and I resent the fact that nevertheless I can't stop thinking about it. I resent the fact that I stamp down all irrational thoughts of 'if only' and 'it could have been', and yet keep dreaming 'perhaps's, 'if only's and 'could have been's that leave me empty and disconsolate. I resent the fact that I have to cram happiness down my throat like a drug.

I especially resent the fact that I can laugh all day, but spend nights alone wide-eyed and pained, whispering 'must not be sad, must not think must not think' like some kind of fucking lunatic.

And more than anything, I really really really resent the fact that despite everything, she never expected to die, but she did anyway. And she never saw it coming. I remember her trying to swallow the horrible hospital food, and vowing to be strong, and saying, thrice, 'As long as you don't not have a mother anymore.' And I really really resent that she said that three times and it happened all the same. She never thought she would die.

Right after it happened, I spent all day talking about how it was probably lucky it happened like it did, that she would have suffered too much and how she was so afraid of pain, to think about all the things she'd already seen and done, and how lucky she already was to have accomplished so many things she wanted to.

But sometimes, when I really being honest with myself, I don't give a damn about all of that. I'm really sad, really really sad. And I really really miss my mom.

...Okay. End rant.

11. Some Philosophy about Life and Angst
This topic was badly timed, seeing as I'm all drained now and can't even remember what I wanted to say. :\ Er, let's see. Right. As per San I have much the same tendency to be harsh with chronic angsters who don't actually have much to angst about, but seeing as I'm still not sure how much of it is angst envy from not being able to angst without feeling really bad and stupid about it in the morning, I tend not to pass judgement. ^^;; Also, I'm pretty aware that happiness in my case is more than a forcefed drug than anything else, so as far as I am a proponent of 'Be happy! Be as happy as you can as often as you can, 'cause you never know when you can be happy again!', I'm not sure how trustworthy this kind of advice is, coming from me. :\

But, dude, that's not the point of my intended philosophising. XD

If you've spent as much time inadvertantly staring at countless journals wherein people angst to death over their lives, detailing cutting, burning, lynching, whatnot, you'll find that not a lot of these people actually have real tragedy in their lives to angst about, or more importantly, that one life is much the same as the next. Now, is this a reflection that people are just egocentrical and are never satisfied with their lot [which is probably true too, but not so stupidly dramatic as the next point], or does this really and truly prove once and for all that life sucks. Twenty million people, give or take, can't be all wrong. >]

Think about it. X3

12. Stuff I've Drawn while I was Gone [that's all you're here for, innit?]
I'm done with my lameness for the day. ^^;;

Now for what most of you are probably here for [then again, who am I kidding. XD My art sucks.] : Art links. I'm really too lazy for my own good, so these link to the deviantArt pages with my comments. Do me a favour and CLICK ON THEM to see the properly-sized versions. Except for the oekaki, which couldn't get bigger than that if it tried. ^^;;

Here we go! :

JPBook Coverboy - done on plane. long story inside. ^^;;
Aforementioned Bridal Card - above story is inside. It explains a lot about the picture quality. ^^;;
Don't. Stop. Now. [R warning!] - don't look if you don't like yaoi. ^^;; It doesn't really *show* anything, but it implies plenty...

The Last Dance pg 1 - Page one of the aforementioned doujin.
The Last Dance pg 7 - Page seven of the aforementioned doujin.
The Last Dance pg 8 - Page eight of the aforementioned doujin.

That's all, folks.

13. EndGame
...I can't remember what I wanted to put here. O_o Er, well. I hope I'll be updating my lj a bit more. Missed all you lovely folks. ^^;; ...Did you even notice I was gone?

And uni's starting in a week. I don't know what to say except for : augh. *hands you gun* Kill me now.

I started this entry at around 3pm. It's now almost 12am. O_o Go figure.

It's late. But I'm done. I suck. The scan wasn't too great, and the reduction took away some detail. In terms of the art itself, I still suck at anatomy, I just suck on the overall, and frankly my hands were shaking too much to bother about it properly during and after the match. [Not that I think it would have been any better otherwise, but it was really annoying.]

That said, people who know how I draw will know how incredibly exhausting and difficult this pic was to do. I truly suck.

[In case it isn't obvious, they're lying down, Hanagata's right leg is up, and the words are carved in. ^^;] It's been a bad day. One of those kind of days which are...er...bad. Really bad. [Detailing tomorrow, because 2am is not a safe time.]

But, look. There was one single morning glory left at the temple at 7.30am.

Morning glory --> vine flower --> FujiHana. Yep. Happy [belated] FujiHana Day 2003, everyone. Signed, your friendly FujiHana no Gakusha.

Urk. Lost this post just now due to malfunctioning computer. If at first you don't suceed... This post contains 1. the amusing anecdote of our daring escapade at the Manchester United building [accompanied by blurry pictures containing young Gaz and Becks [yes, with the lank, brunette hair, posted just for you. :P]. 2. er. My Little Pony. 3. Football. [More specifically, the Liverpool game last night and the Man U game before that.] 4. a link to something with pictures of that cosplay thing where you can cringe at my horrible sewing. 5. anime soundtracks, PSX games and a bit of manga. 6. stuff. Just in case.

1. The amusing anecdote of our daring escapade at the Manchester United building takes place on the beautiful day we spent alone in Orchard [shopping for Mae's cosplay materials, admittedly, but still.]. It was one of those giddy, blissful, ridiculous days, where you don't sit down to eat lunch, but share a small loh mai and takoyaki down the street, finished off with pie chou for dessery. This we did, starting out from Takashimaya [where she got me a bagel. and we placed an order at Kinokuniya for TeniPuri 10.5 [one of those obligatory series guides Jump titles always seem to have] which has since arrived.] with a blurry aim of Orchard Point in mind - and totally overshot because we were too busy eating and laughing to look right. After the distance of a multitude of bus-stops later, we looked up to find ourselves at Forum, a street away from the Manchester United building, which, though on our itinerary, we had no idea how to get to from Taka. Barring the fact that we would later have to retrace our path, what luck. :] So we snuck in and began our operations.

You see, the thing about the Man U building is that they have two touch-screen display systems on the largely unguarded second floor [merely a ledge for fake trophies, Phil[and some others]'s old boots [why Phil? O.o], and a caged off registration office for membership] with a wealth of player pictures outdated by five years, give or take a few, some of which appear to be utterly unavailable on the net. After our discovery of this a few months ago, we'd sworn to return when we'd obtained a digital camera. No prizes guessing what for. Er. *cough*

This is the part where I state that, had we known it was against the rules to use video cameras in the Manchester United building, we'd still have done what we did all over again - but a damn lot faster. As it was, we still got around a dozen pics, with our favourites of the lot being some of young Gaz and Becks, which I will post here because 1. you'd probably like the presumably rare, if blurry shots of lankhaired, brunette Becks. 2. Posting pictures of Gary Neville makes one a weirdo nut. Posting pictures of Gary Neville with David Beckham automatically transforms the pictures into pictures of David Beckham, and makes it okay. 3. Why we're crazy about young Becks and Gaz at all - I have a undying, allconsuming, melty-puddle weakness for their schoolboy footyness single-handedly caused by Gaz in the Youth Team '92 video, where his clingyness to young-god-eqsue Becks stole my soul. There. 4. This isn't a reason, but don't expect much [or anything at all] from graphics awkardly taken with a vidcam off a monitor under disastrous lighting conditions. This whole thing is probably no more than a lame attempt to make my journal seem more interesting than it really is.

To kick it off :

Alright. Fine. This is cheating. Becks is [99% certain to be] the one behind Gaz, right at the back lording it up. I know this with the dread certainly that can only come through watching the Man U Youth Team '92 VCD so many times that one can, with much horror and very unwillingly, name a good number of the idiots in the tub I don't care the slightest bit for [i.e. Get down, Switzer, you're blocking.]. Don't worry, Becks' face gets to show up in [most of] the rest. I just used this as a top pic because I've always wanted to have naked young footballers on my livejournal.

( 5 or so more this way... )

...That last one was taken when the salesgirl [the rat in the registration booth squealed on us, I tell you.] rushed up to inform us that the use of video cameras were not allowed in the Manchester United building. We later would insist that we were thrown out, but, really, we just packed up and strolled out. But following the more sensationalist version, here's the obligatory deprecatory Gaz-fangirl joke of the day. Background info : Mae, in true evilness, delights in wearing to town a [red England kit] Gary Neville jersey [in all its resplendent 'G. Neville 2' splashed across the back in white glory] with - get this - a spiffy pair of black spandex tights with a flouncy short black spandex skirt attached with the very intention of freaking out the male population frequenting Orchard Road. There are very little people wearing jerseys who can resist turning back to check the back of any other jersey-wearing person, and there are many people wearing jerseys in Orchard Road. [She also takes an inhuman delight in dancing ParaPara[Paradise] in this unholy combination for maximum nightmare inducing [especially as she does it very very well...].]

obligatory deprecatory Gaz-fangirl joke of the day
Mae : 'I mean - how many people can say they got thrown out of the Manchester United building wearing a Gary Neville jersey?!'
Me : 'I don't know. How many people can ever say they were wearing a Gary Neville jersey?'
*bada-bing-crash-boom*

Ha ha. Well. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Er. Right. Thus concludes the hum'rous anecdote.

2.The last notable thing that happened on our Orchard trip was when our Dad finally picked us up [at the finally gotten to Orchard Point, where we'd finally bought all her cosplay stuff.], and was cajoled to the Far East Plaza we missed on foot in an attempt to find the wings Debdeb told Mae about. The wing finding didn't work out as it was too late and shops were closing right left and center. But as our Dad abandoned us for the washroom for a second before the car ride home after a hor fun/bee hoon dinner in a little diner, we turned to find four My Little Pony ponies in a collectors shop window. O_O This will be hard to comprehend. Well. Mae and I have a bit of an obsession for My Little Ponies [much in the same way that we have a bit of an obsession for Super Dollfies. Pretty things we can't get but desperately want to. Arh.] that was stirred and peaked late last year, and was only curbed by massive doses of pragmatism. [I'd always adored the damn things as a kid, but a largely destroyed Mint Dreams that belonged to Mae and a Princess Moondust are the only remnants of a collection we never had.] While it's largely possible to pick up old My Little Ponies in western secondhand stores, things like that are sparse in Singapore, and it's a long-distance relationship that would never work out. To prove my obsession, there was a period of time during the stages leading up to the A'Levels where I doodled MLP-styled ponies incessantly in lectures. The last one was this [for a contest I never had the time to enter in the end] :

...before the exams caught up with me. Right. So imagine our sheer O_O ness at the sight. Of the four, two were pink [my number 1 uh-uh colour for an MLP] and one was mouldy, but there was a chartreuse-haired [for some bizarre reason, I have a bit of a thing for chartreuse-locked MLPs. I can never figure out why. Bright green-yellow is usually not at all on my list of likes.] white pegasus that was in restorable condition that I thought was sweet. Wandering in, the first thing we saw was a Carebear tagged with $50. And that was on special offer. Without much hope, we inquired about the price of the ponies. The guy drew the chartreuse-haired pegasus I had my eye on out from between Action Man figures and quoted $16. "$60?" said I. "One six." said he, patiently. My dad chose that moment to emerge from the washroom. Mae and I exchanged looks, shooed him away 'for a second', and...er... well :

We haven't cleaned it up yet, but there aren't any difficult marks, so it should be fine. It's a Surprise, from one of the earlier MLP ranges. This is the part where you go : 'the idiot girl bought an old rubber toy for $16'. Well, :P It's one of those things that you know is a bad idea but you know you'll regret not doing as soon as you don't do it, and you'll never get another chance. And I'm quite happy about it, so thank you. ^^

3. Football. About that Leeds vs. Liverpool game yesterday, I have one thing to say : WRGSRTYSVVESWHEEE!!! Or something to that effect. *sighs in froopy bliss* I think I spent more time pacing around frantically in sheer anxiety than actually watching the game, and I mostly remember everything through a hazy veil of alternation between wild ecstacy and wild panic, but I still have some largely coherent things to say. I think. Er. First, I was not very surprisingly estactic when Mikey scored that goal in the late 11th minute. Barring the fact that I'm estatic every time 1. Mikey scores 2. Liverpool scores [through anyone]. 3. Liv is ahead in the first 20 minutes, I was really thrilled by the way he more or less set the goal up for himself. And the finish. Weave in - bam! - weave out. :] Fantastic stuff. And what can I say about Danny's goal? Breathtaking. It absolutely floored me. *revels in memory* I wouldn't say in any way that the game was at any time onesided [though I think [through my hazy veil] that we looked the better team, especially in attack], and when Viduka sunk that goal almost right before halftime, it worried the blazes out of me. So when Stevie scored that third, I was practically on my knees. And what a setup Mikey did for that one. Awesome. *bouncebounce* So that coloured me one very happy Liverpool fan by the end of the night. *happy happy* This is the stuff good times are made of.

Now about that Man U game vs. Fulham. Well, the fact that Fulham isn't exactly the most threatening side in the world takes the gloss off the 3-0 win, but it was a fun, enjoyable-type game anyway, with the bonus that Gaz was captaining again. :] It looked to be another one of those slow United days at first, but that penalty goal of Ruud's, I think, transformed the game. I was hoping and hoping when Ruud stepped up for the penalty [a little silly, considering that I've never actually seen Ruud miss a penalty], and it turned out alsright. Of course, it being United, winning with a penalty is as good as a defeat, so it was a bit of a relief to see Ruud score again, with an incredible beaut of a goal too. The third one was the icing on the cake, if nothing very special, though I have to say that it was magnanimous of Giggsy to knock that one to him. I do like seeing Ruud score, him being one of the few United players I actually like. I do wish Ole could get to score a couple soon though. He hasn't scored for a while and that's distressing, seeing as he's another one of the few United players I actually like. Right. Who am I kidding. The part you knew would happen - my Gaz highlights of the match. ^^;; 1. While I wasn't so thrilled with the yellow card, I was very thrilled with the way Becks was so agitated with the ref in a way even Gaz wasn't [and the part where Gaz backed into Becks to keep him away from the ref for a bit blew my mind. Fwee.]. 2. During the first goal celebration, where Gaz runs up a bit later trying to get to Ruud. [Ruud trying to push Rio away really amuses me too. Sadly, I just don't really like Rio. At all.] Becks, already anchored to Ruud's right, looks over at Gaz's arrival, and puts an arm around his shoulder to pull him in. Fwee. 3. During the second goal celebration. This is my obsession point. ^^;; It really started in the early stages of our Gaz-obsession, when Ruud shrugged Becks off his back after a step when he jumped onto him after a goal, but let Gaz cling on for as long as...well...the camera stayed on them when he jumped onto him in a later game. [I haven't seen Gaz jump on many people, but he tends to jump on Ruud quite a bit for no discernable reason.] Since then, we've taken an active interest in the number of times Ruud's shrugged other people off but let Gaz stay. In this goal celebration, first Giggsy runs up to Ruud and jumps on his back, Ruud drops him. Butty runs up to Ruud and tries to jump into his arms [egads, that sounds so wrong.], Ruud doesn't even attempt to catch him. Later on, as an enterprising cameraman who has my eternal gratitude turns the camera back to the celebration scene after the goal replay [I was already squee-d out at this point from Gaz bouncing up all excited and happy], Gaz hops onto his back, and Ruud obligingly lets him stay for as long as...well...the camera stayed on them. *happy happy happy happy happy* Yay. :] Good man.

So I had a pretty good football weekend. ^^ [Well, I wasn't so thrilled about Arsenal regaining the lead, but at least Everton lost. Not. At all thrilled that Rooney scored. But what can you do? Not so happy about Newcastle's big win margin either, and all ouched out for Man City. Glad that Southampton somehow managed to equalise again, though.]

4. A bit about that cosplay thing I sewed my eyes out for. Cosplay is more or less where you dress up as an anime/manga character. Originating [actually...orginally as a hentai form] from Japan, and big in America, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it's gained increasing popularity in Singapore in the past few years. And Mae happens to like it. A lot. In a way I don't. The cosplay competition that she got third prize for was sponsored by a local anime distributing company [that I don't like. Very much. At all.], was restricted only to titles that the company distributed, and involved a few stages of character roleplaying as well as skill/accuracy of costume. Through some freak incidence, we don't have any non-blurry pics of Mae in costume at all. Through some freak incidence, this certain guy famous for his caustic con reports does. And here, you can see my horrible sewing in a series of photographs peppered through his report [which is a pretty amusing read, anyway.]. Look for the one with the pink hair and kitty ears. That's Mae. She's the first solo pic, the fourth pic on the second page of the report, which can be found here. The one labelled 'Kizna Towryk, from Candidate For Goddess'. She shows up quite a bit through the report because of the guy's inordinate fondness for nekoshoujo. Guys.

5. I've run out of steam. O_o Will cover a bit of our trip to Johor Bahru. Let's see...the anime soundtracks. The anime merchandise shop in Holiday Plaza is finally moving [we don't like the place very much...I don't think they have any business. Every time we go there to check out the new posters [once a year or so...], salesgirls mob us with bad recommendations.] and they were selling off their last few anime CDs at RM5 each. That's a whopping $2.50 per disc, ladies and gentlemen. For discs that usually cost at least $17 on a really good day. *bliss* There weren't many there, and a lot of them were the usual crap stacks that most people wouldn't spare a glance at, but somehow, I managed to dig out the first and second Cowboy Bebop OSTs [brilliant, obviously. :D I always liked the Cowboy Bebop BGM in a way I never even really liked Jazz very much.], the first and second Shoujo Kakumei Utena OSTs, and the Shoujo Kakumei Utena : Adolescence OST [the BGM's fantastic, but in a hilarious twist of fate, the chorus singing drives us crazy in a horrible Eastern 50s way.], and, star buy of the season, the 3 disc Persona Original Soundtrack that we'd wanted to shell out $70 for when we first saw it [the only other time we saw it] last year but couldn't because we didn't have $70. [This, by the way, is the soundtrack for the first Persona game] Mine, all mine for $7.50. It's almost sinful. *relishes* I haven't had the time to listen it yet though, because I want to sit down properly and really listen to it. What can I say? Persona is likely my favourite PSX game bar none, and Kazuma Kaneko is only, oh, say, my idol, no biggie. The lyrics booklet is really nice, though. It comes with small character bios. Mm. Right. On to the PS2 discs. Of the bunch, real notables would be 1. Guilty Gear XX - I always adored the Guilty Gear art, and XX doesn't disappoint. 2. SNK vs. Capcom 2 - I've missed playing with Kyosuke [likely my best fighting game character ever], and this at least comforts me a bit about not having A DC and thus Project Justice. Wonder why Kyosuke and Beni have a special face-off though. O.o 3. Grand Theft Auto : Vice City - Mwahah. XD 4. Virtua Cop Rebirth - Fweee! VCop was my first gaming love, but...er...we never had a Saturn. It's what awakened my strange fascination for shooters, and I suspect what instilled in me a strange penchant for police-based yaoi/slash/shounen ai [that's sadly not very fulfilled by FAKE.]. The gallery blows my mind in all kinds of happy ways...but also makes me wish I have a Guncon, because playing shooters with a Dualshock is...painful. And yields little gallery shots. 5. Space Channel 5 - As stupid as I feel saying this, it r0x0rs. I wish we'd gotten Part 2 too. Lastly, about manga - We picked up the last two volumes of Chobits, a random volume of Dragon Voice, and the latest two volumes of Bleach. 1. Chobits. I know and I know and I know, but really seeing Kaede there just threw me all off O______o. I like Kaede. O______o Who came up with this bizarre alternate Angelic Layer business? 2. Dragon Voice. '...Looks like Harlem Beat.' Mae suddenly comments. She's right. It's the same artist. Who, we find, knows all about basketball and nuts about the music industry. Dragon Voice is ridiculous. O.o 3. Bleach. I'm sold. :] We've had an eye on the series ever since Ishida Uryuu [Quincy Archer Hates You. That one line made me buy Book 4. That Ishida is on the cover with glasses and an expression of high pontification has nothing to do with it. Oh no.] made his appearance, and what with all the [in fangirl view] incredible slashy type stuff by the end of Volume 6... But, no, it's a pretty good series anyway, and the art attracts me in a strange, extreme style way.

6. That's all folks. It's currently 2.30am. I suck at lj-entrying. O_o I'll probably have time to reply to comments tomorrow because Mae is going back to school and I will most probably have nothing to do all day but pine miserably until she comes back again.

Kitty pictures! XD Even though I wouldn't say a 5 month old Ragdoll looks anywhere near a kitten anymore...not that he ever really did. O.o

Yep, after two whole days of horror! pain! frustration! at be-virused computer, I've finally managed to get the little critters under control [I hope] and got the Cam<->Com connection to work. [It's a long story that will likely be recounted in a later post...whether you want to hear about it or not. |] And now I present the long overdue afore-promised kitty pictures! ...Er, in bad lighting conditions at 2am. ^^;; The one above is the best one, and I suspect because it's in sepia.

Reclining Cat. [No, we didn't choose the pillow cases.] Nothing much, except that it was the only shot where you can see him in full.

All hail the Livercat. XD Incidentally, that scarf can be said to be the last thing our mom ever bought us.

Here's a snazzy promotional shot for the Prince of Tennis anime. Cleverly arranged to allude to a certain well-known drug, indicating the addictive qualities of this excellent series.

A visiting photographer catches one during the press conference that takes place after the promotional photoshoot.

Our cat reads manga. Really. It's one of those phenomena that you get only in our household. And, yep, that's Prince of Tennis.

That's all, folks. Show's over. ^^;; The next post will concern all the stupid little things that happen in my life that I always have the compulsion to present to the largely uncaring public. Till then.