Anime Festival Asia 2008 (Full Review)

Yes, I know I'm friggin' late. But still, it's better than nothing. Post will go in order of of the pictures I have taken. It is the only chronological order I have.

Pre-Event

So you might've noticed that plenty of bloggers out there had actually attending the Media Conference on Friday. Sadly, I was never informed of it so I have nothing. It was to my utter dismay that I had not registered at the Press Section as a blogger to be granted the media pass. But oh well. I learnt from this experience. The hard way.

Day 1.


As planned, I arrived at the venue at exactly 8.30am. This was how the queue looked like then. The first few guys already waiting a the ticketing booth had arrived at 7. Hardcore.

Gordon dropped by later on. By then the queue behind me had snaked two times down the corridor. It was lucky I was already waiting there. Panther and the rest of Team Blue were one of the earlier ones so they had been long since waiting outside the hall gates. A good thing for us, since right after we received our pre-reg tix, it was a big queue jump right to the front of the line awaiting entrance into the event. Saw tueac and xkaonslaught (I think) outside, who got the both of us to do a video segment.


At ten sharp, it was the big rush in. Gundam Exia happily greeted the visitors. Many people rushed to the Takashimaya booth to grab the exclusive greyscale 75-something Gundam and Exia trans-am model kits. I first checked out the Bandai gunpla displays. I would later on return to that exhibit many times over as I undertook my photojournalism roving.






Pretty empty at the beginning.


walked around a while to get myself familiar with the place. The stage was set at the far corner of the exhibition hall; they were holding the opening ceremony that time. To my surprise, the audience was treated with a preview of what's to come later on in the evening:


Mazinger, MazinGER, Mazinger... Z!



Within half an hour, KKnM had assembled a queue of customers stretching all the way to almost the entrance. Spotted two schoolmates in the queue, and they agreed to let me join them in the queue later on as they got closer, in exchange for my give-me-a-discount-since-we-know-each-other skills. actually, it was more of a "if I want to buy this Sekirei shirt and promise that I shall wear it now, will you give me the 10% discount on it?" Yeah, buruburu13 is a really nice person after all.


Maplestory anime lol.



The Toys N Toys booth. I'm sure you all agree with me when I say DO WANT.


Such a sweet, supple body Ryouko has.





This I could use for my room...





Not a lot of people know this, but there were actually serving food at the back of the staging area. Why don't you know about it? I was practically the first guy there, together with Actar (you know me, free food is my weakness and always my primary target of any event. I can smell it from a mile away), and then I attracted the attention of some Team Blue guys, whose sheer size practically attracted about 10% of the present crowd then. Everything was lapped up in a matter of minutes.




Fariz managed to snag himself a Figma Miku & Rin twosome set. They sold out pretty fast. Lucky guy.


Oh, but who is this charming young lady here? Apparently she belongs to some guy...


Mmm... Reiko. As it turns out, I never got a chance to meet her personally and take another picture with her like the summer Matsuri at Central Mall. Sad.


Power Rangers lol.



Missed this guy at Cosfest. Very nice.



Peach ice dessert and Kagamin for lunch.


Booth lady at Toys N Toys. Her face is too long IMO.


Reiko with closed eyes. Mmm... Also, Okawara Kunio-san.


Chibi Medusa is cute.


Her too.


Faust from Guilty Gear.



Some dude attempting to finish building and painting an X105 model within two days.


Gaiafags have established themselves here.



MOAR cosplay.


BAKUC-teh winrars.


BAKUC-teh man.


Koji Morimoto.



Some moar cosplay.


Got the Light guy to hold my wallet. Some girlies were present when I was photographing, and when they saw my wallet it was a chorused "so cuuuute!".


Priceless expression GET.



Yasufumi Soejima autographing session.




Decided to head outside a bit to check out the cosplaying there. Met up with DM and double around this time. Man, even at this time it was still pretty crowded with visitors and ticket booth patrons.



Collateral damage Studios.


Tragic Comedy himself.



Yes, signed by May'N.


Odex has gotten pretty good of late... Tch.



Plenty of manga to be had here at Chuang Yi.


Imaginary Friends Studio.


Artgerm signing DM and double's Pepper Project artbooks. He pulls that wide-eyed expression very frequently, that guy. Maybe it's natural to him. To me it's pretty funny.







Back at the Toys N Toys displays.


Mmm...






Ending off the day with Aniki. Very soulful performance by a very talented and likeable superstar. He even agreed to do two encores on behest of the audience. Sadly I was suffering from a severe case of sleeping legs and dizzy head by that time, and had to take a premature leave.

Allow me a deep breath before I resume on Day Two.

Day 2 is done too.

I knew it. Guess I won't be covering much today either. I got home at only about 10pm last night (it's 2am on a Monday at press time), and I needed plenty of time to tone down, upload another truckload of pics, and Facebook. Not gonna gripe about the potential-blog-networking people I missed today like Soshi, Windbell, TJHan, LianYL, etc. (because why I have this obsession is really strange to me), or the cosplayers I missed capturing, or the lack of space in my camera to capture a rather hilarious Hare Hare Yukai attempt, or the noise in most of my camera shots (actually, that is something worth griping about. Only exception is at full tilt 12X optical zoom. That is excusable).


Yes, I did manage to get Figma Tsuruya today. Review will come soon I hope. That makes her my first Figma, or mainstream brand figure for that matter, instead of Figma Ryouko which was as planned. I'll just have to wait till next month then.


I just so happened to wear the same Sekirei shirt as yesterday, and this time I was the only person I know wearing it (unlike yesterday, when I spotted at least two others with that shirt). If you saw the Red Sekirei emblem on a white shirt, that's me. Yeah, you probably might not have noticed the 5 yen coin, so I wore the shirt instead. LOL.



A lot of new cosplayers came in today, as expected. Some were here for the cosplay competition, no less. I must say, most of them were a lot better than those from yesterday.


Another round of display shelf photography. It would seem the guy at the lonesome corner of some Gunpla demonstration booth had managed to finish constructing and painting his X105 in record time.





The finale of the day was of course, the exclusive May'N performance, which I think is pretty messed up, considering how Mizuki Ichirou is much more better (IMO) and yet has made plenty of appearances throughout the program, while she only makes a single appearance, accompanied by an incompatible sound system (to her remarkable voice that is) and a really drab (REALLY DRAB) 'autograph' session. Yeah, at least you had your moment of fame Darkmirage.

Oh by the way, regarding them May'N pics, they are not mine. I just happened to chance upon somebody's photobucket and nabbed some. I heard from somebody that he took it somewhere close to the VIP back barricade (obviously not a VIP ticket payer now. Smart dude he is), with enough crowd cover on all sides to avoid getting caught by security. Apparently he went full zoom, sports mode, continuous shoot mode. the result? A few really awesome pictures.

So don't arrest me. LOL. It's not my fault.

Some more pics to go into my next post. the rest can be found at this offensive guy's Photobucket.

Day 1 is done.

Today was simply one of the best times I've ever had in an event like this. I must first thank my mum for letting me use the camera for today, my sailing teacher who excused me from training for just today, and all the fun guys who kept me company during the whole event.

I've just uploaded the whole truckload of pictures I've taken for today, about 100+ in total, having trimmed down on the useless/bad snapshots. It would simply be a waste not to post any single one for you guys to check out, so I'm gonna do it slowly with my Photobucket account. Just not tonight; I'm tired as hell (can't believe I yawned so many times during Aniki's concert) and my feet are in dire need of a massage.

...

Well, whatever. Just a few pics for tonight, kay? Main article should come in two days or so. That is, if I can still remember today's events, and if I have the motivation to post everything up here. Just to outline:

- Took tons of pics, with plenty of figure displays, gunpla, cosplayers, booths and stage performers.
- Put my newly learnt camera skills to the test. My shots have improved tremendously IMO. Thanks to Gai and Gordon for their guidance.
- Hung out with Team Blue, Gordon, Panther, Gai, TP, Fariz, EJump, tueac, Actar, Kumo, double, Kurogane (briefly), Darkmirage (briefly), Tragic Comedy (briefly)
- Got to play around with Gordon's very own Kagamin Figma. Now I know why she's so popular.
- Took PLENTY of pics of Reiko the MC and Aniki. I think Reiko's really cute.
- Bought me a Sekirei COSPA shirt, at less than $40. Thanks a billion, buruburu13!
- Planned to buy Figma Tsuruya tomorrow. Looks like she'll be my first figma instead.












Forgive the graininess. Still learning to work this thing in Program mode. Seems ISO Auto is still too much after all.

Tomorrow's the day.

Pics unrelated. Just a few more pictures to complement yesterday's post. Kagamin is indeed really adorable, but I'm mostly just waiting for Figma Ryouko to come out.

Yep. After nearly 2 months of waiting, having pre-registered on the first day of announcement, AFA 2008 is finally just a day away. I have already made the necessary arrangements: Canceled my sailing CCA for Saturday, secured my mum's Canon Powershot (at long last) for use during the event, freed up space in it and put in fresh batteries, and made plans with Gordon to queue early and grab our pre-reg tix.

Truthfully speaking there's nothing much in particular I'd wanna do there, except absorb the atmosphere and take pictures. I should think there would be quite a lot of cosplay going down so that would make for pretty worthwhile photo-taking. Hopefully I can spot a few other bloggers during the event and hang out a while. I promised Sharon (buruburu13) to drop by at the KKnM booth, hopefully she would've gotten Danny's Nendoroids by nao. She really is a very nice person. There might be some stuff at the Akiba section that I might be interested in getting. Just gonna take a quick look over at the Singapore Arcade Showdown section, which would probably be largely inhabited by the die-hard no-life arcade gamers who, despite being really good at arcade games, fare no better at anything else in life (you can tell, I'm a hater). Might or might not check out the anime sections, but I'll definitely be at the Planet Mech area. And I most probably won't be staying around to watch May'N or Aniki either.

So yeah. We'll see how it goes then.

Meeting the man Himself...

Hey there.

So I'm here right now at the backseat of my dad's car, typing this blog post on Notepad while I have a lack of access to a stable Internet connection amidst a pang of heartburn from gobbling a quick dinner, and motion sickness from typing in a moving vehicle. We are currently commuting to the airport, where my family shall bid farewell to my uncle, aunt-in-law and grandmother who had come from the Philippines to visit for a week.

If you don't know by now, my blood is a mix of 1/2 Peranakan (3/4 Chinese, 1/4 Malay) and 1/2 Filipino (inclusive of 1/5 Spanish). It would just so happen that an aunt on the maternal side is also a Japanese citizen, and that meant I have the rare fortune of an actual Japanese relative, of whom I had the pleasure of entertaining her corresponding visit to Singapore as well (she had flown back just last night). More about my relatives, and 'me and my Japanese cousin', later on. Tiny tinge of cous/in/cest alert!

She just so happened to miss tagging along with me to one of the more important events of my life today (more so than my birthday even), a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet with Blogger maestro Danny Choo, a mna whom I have respected and looked up to for a very long time now.

As usual, I had no access to my mum's Canon Powershot, so I borrowed my uncle's Sony Cybershot. It was to my misfortune that his camera happened to be low on battery and memory. That's okay though, it's Gordonator to the rescue. Kind sir offered to lend me his super awesome DSLR to snap a few shots of the event.

*Excuse me while I hold back the urge to vomit.*






Danny was an immensely nice guy, no different from his Internet persona. I arrived pretty early (received the complimentary Trexi toy above from the registration counter; not really my kind of thing), a very 'Un-Singaporean thing to do' according to Animax manager Gregory Ho, and the man even took off a bit of time preparing his famous Macbook to chat for a short while with me. Kagamin was present too of course.



I was touched to hear that he had remembered me when I introduced myself as AK. To be one out of the many dannychoo.com members to have had an impression on him is saying a lot to me; It was a great confidence boost. I was doubly surprised when he noticed and commented on the 'lucky go'en (five yen) coin' hanging off my neck. I have been keeping it as a personal treasure from a Japanese friend of mine, and had worn it today after a very long time, admittedly in vain hope that it would make an impression; unexpectedly it did. I was very glad for it.

*Argh, my head is killing me. I knew this was a bad idea.*

The process began with an address by Animax CEO (?) Gregory Ho, regarding his soopur seekrit plan to utilize the blogs of those who have come to be educated with the way of the dannychoo to promote their very own original anime production, LaMB (here's where the blogging competition comes in, see? They hid the details in the e-mail that was sent to me earlier). This was the Animax Awards entry from some one or two years ago, by a lazy bum Filipino (that makes me equal to half of this guy, if you know what I mean) which did not win the award but attracted the attention of Animax SEA, who promised some time ago that they were going to blow it up into a full-scale anime themselves. The end product? Webcomics, user-generated content, music videos, advertisements, lots and lots of hype-generating stuff. I expected nothing less from the organizer of this event. He knows how to run his business well. Then there were the usual promos, webcomic features and ads, been there done that. And finally, Danny's talk managed to get underway.

Indeed, as I am currently engaging in a blog improvement process, this talk came in quite handy in pointing me the right direction, which is of course the dannychoo.com direction. I was introduced to things I've never heard of before, like Search Engine Optimization, Affiliation, etc. which I so happen to be only drabbling in. I shall definitely set to work with putting the things I've learnt today to good use, in appreciation of Danny's taking his time to present this talk.

Danny Choo's presentation skills have improved dramatically since his first live speech in Germany. There was this one post he made regarding giving speeches, and I did notice that he had himself implemented the speech strategies identified in that post, strategies he had learnt from other speakers, into this talk right here. There were the occasional 2D girl breaks, the humour jabs, and the well-known 3D vs. 2D girl poll was thrown to the audience at one point. Very impressive stuff indeed.



After the talk, the audience of mostly 'amateur bloggers' (including me) as quoted by TJHan, were invited to network with each other and exchange name cards. I don't have a namecard, which is a real pity, but I did manage to retrieve a lot, from Gordon, TJHan, Alafista, Darkmirage, Nipah, Tragic Comedy, Cavalock and Danny Choo himself. TJ even invited me to join him, LianYL and gang for a game of TF2 some day. Heheheh.

I got a chance to take a few more photos, and with Danny's permission even spent a bit of playtime with Kagamin. She would be the very first Figma I have ever played with. :3 I'm such a noob. I also caught up with the bunch for a good hearty chat about friends, blogs, anime and the works, and promised to exchange links. Yay, moar publicity for me. :3

*Oh shit. Nearly threw up. I could almost taste the foul digestive juices at the back of my tongue.*




You know by now just how I am obsessed with being 'unique', don't you? I didn't bring a notebook or pen or anything to get his autograph, instead, I brought the right shoulder armour of my Gundam Astray, and a Gundam Marker. The end result? Danny Choo's autograph on my Astray, plus a complimentary from a rather uneasy Darkmirage. DM is either not very good with Gundam markers, or he's got a pretty dull signature.

For the record I do not consider Danny Choo as my idol, and I refuse to call myself his fan. Rather, I prefer to think that we are comrades, even though is may be of a higher rank than me. I do not worship him, but I hold him in high regard, and accept that he is willing to extend a warm friendly relationship and even guide me along my path as a blogger. Also, he can do an amazingly convincing LotR Gollum impression, besides the different accents he easily switches around with during his presentation. Respect, brudder.



The talk ended on a rather wet (read: rain) note. After another Animax interview, a group photo of everybody who had stayed behind (thanks for the pic Alafista), and a mad dash for the remaining free food (the only primary reason I attend events like these), we bid our goodbyes and went our own ways. Gordon and I headed down to KKnM (my very first visit there after I relinquished my boycott against them) to pre-order my set of Clannad After Story 2009 calendars. Very nifty place indeed, it's good everything you'd ever want and more. Even the store owner Sharon turned out to be a very approachable and friendly person. Nice place. I wondered why I abstained in the first place.

Kinda tired right now so I'll only upload the photos I took with my Cybershot, while I wait for Gordon's batch of photos to come in tomorrow. Then, another blog post. Bah, how pathetic.

By the way, for all those of you who attended the talk and are still wondering, the codeword is R5D421B. Lulz.

P.S. Yes Panther, I noticed you didn't come, and I understand why.

*Yes, Terminal Three! Now to get me some free internets, and a sink to puke into.*

*Updated on 20th november 2008 with more pictures, amidst mouthfuls of yesterday's buffet leftovers. Ymm, one day-old snacks.*

First Chemo for my blog's Cancer.

For all those of you who got redirected from the old URL, welcome back.

As mentioned before, I decided to change my blog URL. This one is much simpler, and just came to me on a whim, after some fruitless searching for another blog theme to follow. AKXD is simple to type, has a certain technical ring to it, no doubt, and it has a similar essence to xkcd dot com (highly recommend you to go check this out; you'll enjoy it better if you understand Internet memes and witty humour), but truthfully, I only chose it because it is the acronym for my full name.

Blog theme's change too. If you ever chanced upon weeaboo.com (which I get the common feeling you haven't), you'd notice that the definition of a 'weeaboo' is very distinct and crisp; there are 'criteria to satisfy', and I just don't see myself meeting these requirements. I experience true-type weeaboos time to time, and I can clearly say that, even though I had acted they way they do before, today I have more than transcended that level of mental comprehension. As a matter of fact, come to think of it, my very usage of the term 'weeaboo' had all along been a misnomer, an exaggeration, a satire of the person I once was. And many people have told me before that it is not healthy to keep digging up the past and lamenting about it.

A change of tack is at hand. I am weeaboo no longer.

For a very long time now, mind you.

and now I have freed myself from self-insult and abuse.

what's next for me? The immensely tedious task of tracking down all locations where I have recorded my past blog URL: user accounts, link exchanges, etc. and make changes accordingly. A daunting mission indeed, especially for a lazy bum like me. But this is one mission which I have found the true motivation to undertake.

I leave you with my current wallpaper.

Another general blog post.

I took a bit of time off to take a close, examined look at the current status of this blog, to find ways to improve it so it can start looking like a mainstream Internet blog, and nab more viewership. I figured that I still wasn't doing it right yet. I initially started this blog as a place to pen my thoughts of the days' events into words, kind of like a diary. It did not matter to me then if anybody read it, as then again it was kind of like a personal diary to me.

But, over time, as I received continuous exposure to the Internet, I found myself assimilating into its intricate culture, picking up idiosyncrasies, hanging out with the crowd and exploring new places. I learn new things every day, stuff from 4chan, Encyclopedia Dramatica, dannychoo.com, forum communities and so on. It eventually dawned on me that, taking after the many other people out there who own such fascinating and crowd-pulling blogs, I too would want to bring up my blog to higher levels, to provide scintillating insights about the world to intent listeners, discuss events with a hint of morbid humour, and so on. Blogging would be so much more fun that way.

So here I am, noting down all my intended improvements to this blog.

1. I am still rambling too much about too many things all in one post. I am supposing it is the fact that I do not post very frequently, as a result leaving me having to clump topics of discussion over a wide spectrum of topics and daily events into a single post. If I want to grab an audience I have to be crisp, concise, and to the point. One specific point, that is.

That said, from this point onwards I shall follow that certain layout for my blog posts. One, and only one topic per post.

2. Comments is still rather tedious and stuff. You have to be linked to a seperate page to make a comment. Gordon has told me about this before, and that was why he made the switch to Wordpress. Incidentally, I do have a Wordpress blog too (under AnimeBloggers, who unfortunately can't care less about my hopeless situation), which is currently collecting the dust of nearly one and a half years due to me not knowing how to get it up and running the way I want it. While I still do get a fair share of replies (which is very few actually), I kinda get the feeling this complicated commenting system is deterring a lot of my other readers.

3. Layout is drab. It was kinda neat when I first did it many months back, but I think it's time for a change. There are also plenty of interactive elements I've always planned on embedding into this blog, aside from the ones already provided by Blogger: I'll have to handle that at a later date. I can afford to add music, mascots, clocks, etc. All I need to do is master the HTML.

4. My publicity needs improvement. I welcome anybody who wishes to exchange links with me, so we can all expand our viewer traffic. Email me or drop a comment; I simply have too little blog links on my site. At least I do know that a lot of my readers come in from dannychoo.com, and I have added that site in my list of live Feeds. Additionally, I've been trying to improve the situation of my Google Ads monetizing initiative: The thing just isn't working at all, nobody's clicking on them and I'm just not getting any income.

5. I'm considering changing my URL: I realize that 'bokutachinosekai' is really quite difficult to type for most, nobody ever bothers about its meaning, even the meaning itself is a bit lame. I have learned that if anyboody want a blog with high viewership, he needs a simple URL. dannychoo.com is simple, darkmirage.com is simple, gordonator.com is simple. That's the kind of URL I need. What do you suggest I change it to? I don't have many ideas on that part. I know it can be something catchy, that relates to me well, and all that. But I just can't think of anything original.

If there's anything you want to add to the list, feel free. Consumer feedback is a very good thing. That about sums it up for now. But, if you must really know why I suddenly decided to call for change... (No, it's not about the new President of the USA)

I opned up my e-mail inbox yesterday to this:


... Yeah, now you know. I'm such a fag.

And now, I end off with this picture, and this quote which I cooked up just a few minutes ago.

REMEMBER REMEMBER
THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER
THE WHITE HOUSE OBAMA GOT
I SEE NO INTENTION
WHY THIS STATE ELECTION
SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT

DC's Blogging Workshop!

Look here.

Been invited to give a small blogging workshop in Singapore with Animax Asia (I had nothing to do with the design of that landing page!) and would love to invite Singaporean bloggers who are dannychoo.com members to attend.

In the workshop I will cover such topics like:-
- Userbility and design
- How to monetize
- Nettiquette (sharing)
- How to generate traffic
- Tools to help bloggers
- Take questions
- And more

Yep, the man himself will be coming down to the little red dot for some much-needed education and improvement to the Singaporean blogger situation. I've already signed up at the website, so I can learn a bit more about what he's been preaching about in his website this whole time, as well as to finally meet the man in person. :D So psyched. Remember, registration ends 14th November, and it's on a first come first serve basis, so if you're a regular blogger in need of tips to improve your site, do sign up.



Yeah, don't be like this guy.

Team Fortress 2!

That's right folks, AK here has found himself yet another activity he can generate unproductive hours on!

The real way one should play TF2.

However, I do still get dragged down by immense lagging, even in the low latency servers. I blame the lappie once again. Almost all the games I run through with System Requirements Lab declare that everything in my computer meets the sysreqs, except that shitty Intel Graphics Processor graphcard. It is the sole reason this comp keeps failing epicly at sysreqs.

Looks like it's gonna be a whole of LAN for me again. I'm starting to get better at the game already, all it takes is a willingness to part with $1.60 per hour of smooth gameplay with fairly respectable sound, graphics and hardware.

As it turns out, mum just got her Canon Powershot Prosumer back from repairs, and she's not ready to loan it to me just yet (look, it wasn't my fault it went caput, bro was hogging it the whole time to do his camwhoring). I don't expect any photojournalism soon. Ish sadded.

Reminds me, I should post a rant about my brother one day. Of late I've been getting really pissed off at him for various reasons (mostly the inconsiderate things he does). then again, I'm still as lazy as ever to do something like that. Besides, I don't think I should be acting that negatively. So yeah. A rant about my brother, in one paragraph.

I decided to pick up the Sekirei manga, having watched the first few episodes on Crunchyroll (anime hardly ever satisfies me as much as the manga does). My progress has been slow, as of now I'm only at the second chapter. Despite this, I've got more than my fair share of ecchi already. Looks like Sakurako-san is really liberal about the boobaga, there's no 'censorship' (like how Akamatsu Ken-san does it) whatsoever.

I've been making plenty of trips down to Toys R' Us lately. I had recently decided to relive my deprived childhood by buying as many Star Wars action figures as I could and playing around with them (in more mature terms, creating dioramas). So far I've got me a bunch of Episode III clones, a handful of Confederate droids (I can hold them alll in one hand), and pretty neat Captain Rex and a General Grievous, both from the same series. This should make for some decent fan-made storytelling. All I need now are some vehicles, and substantial background elements to create an environment.

Also Star Wars-related, my friend has finally persuaded me to get my own Clone trooper armour. Having admired Danny Choo (link at left) and other Storm/Clone trooper costumers for so long, yet put off by the immense capital and effort one had to put in, I finally made myself submit, just so I can have better things to do in my time rather than Facebooking all day (which just got even worse, now that I've added plenty more applications to my playlist). I would expect to pay about $1200 in total for a full suit (see below; this is what I'm making), as well as a lot of careful attention when cutting parts up. I've already started work on the soft parts (non-armour accessories), but it hasn't been looking to good. And I don't have a camera to show it. ARGH.

Finally reached level 10 in Forumwarz. Currently waiting for episode II. If you're a fan of the Internets, memes and everything, you should consider giving this game a go too. You play as an 'agent' who visits forums and literally pwns them by posting non-related griefing business. It works like a turn-based RPG system, complete with items, equips, shops, interactive NPCs, and achievements (the best part)!

Not forgetting studies, now that the promotional exams are done (Ds for Chinese and Math, Es for Physics and Literature, and an S for Chemistry, KI unknown as of yet), the focus has shifted to KI (and fooling around in the school library). Oral Presentation is the next target, and the timetable for the next two weeks counting down to OP is practically filled with nothing but preparations. I shouldn't worry too much about the speaking part of it, just I'm having problems coming up with ways I can up the standard of the presentation by injecting jabs of humour here and there. Much as I try to be a comedian (seeing people listen and laugh at my comments is what gets me through the day happily), I tend to fail at come up with funny stuff.

My Japanese is languishing. And I can't do anything about it except attempt to converse with my Japanese friends, with embarrassing results. I just wish I had more time and freedom... And less laziness.

I should seriously start learning not to feel so pathetic with myself all the time, and just live and let live. I keep scrutinizing myself and revisiting awful memories of failure in hopes that I can improve myself one day. It doesn't seem to be working though. To think that I know what I'm supposed to do, yet I'm still too LAZY to do it. Oh well, one step at a time. First step would be updating this blog with some incredibly long post. That oughta warm my blogging spirits up.

TL;DR My life story currently. Nothing much that is interesting, just had to update this blog. In other news, the near future looks... Unpredictable.

Good Smile Company's English Website Release!

*Clears the dust*

After yet another long period of absence (again, mostly due to Facebook, studying, and my most recent return to AnimeB.com), I come back to blogging with this great announcement. Great only if you're an avid collector of good Smile merch (figures and the like).

As you might've read from my contemporary blogs, the English Version of the Good Smile Company has finally been set up, thanks to the translators at dannychoo.com who offered to help (I did chip in, but only very little due to my insignificant command of the language) and Danny Choo himself, a loyal friend to the people at Good Smile, who set up the site. Learn about all your latest Revoltech and figma releases (I intend to get Figma Tsuruya and Ryouko end of this year btw) and drop by at Danny's corner where he will be reviewing his own Good Smile figures (given too him for free, damn). Do drop by to visit whenever you're free, yeah?

...

For lack of anything else better to say today in this post, apart from my concerns that I'm absolutely not ready for the final exams, I'll just be posting all the random pix I draw over MSN Messenger.





And a certain hand I happened to start a game of Hearts with:



You can tell. I'm bored as hell. Although, I did find plenty to do in my spare time, stuff which I can actually talk about on my blog. When I have the time. And when I'm not feeling lazy. Stuff like Touhou Hisouten (Scarlet Weather Rhapsody). Or all those Japanese-themed events I so happen to miss just because I don't even know of their existences. Or my lack of funds. Or the Stormtrooper outfit I intend to build one day. Or the Star Wars Expanded Universe story I'm writing (when I have the time, and when I'm not feeling lazy). But whatever. Nothing else for now.

Metal Gear Solid teasing in Bad Company trailer

Enjoy.

Captioned!

Follow Danny Choo's awesome stormtrooper life in Tokyo at dannychoo.com as he talks about daily living, hobbies and a bit of life lessons, with his masterful and upbeat photography and his vivid storytelling. Follow the feeds to your left.

Joining the Crowd

Seeing that a lot of people at DannyChoo.com have posted their wallies, I think I'd follow suit. Oh, the nostalgia. Found it at 4chan, here's the original if you want it.

Additionally, you might've noticed my newest 'mascot' by now, Foxkeh the Firefox (get the Foxkeh theme from Firefox add-ons if you haven't yet; it's cute, can attract the ladies, and is also highly user-friendly) promoting Firefox Download Day 2008.

I myself only got wind of this early this afternoon. You have around 24 hours to join approximately 1 million people across the globe to pledge your support for Mozilla and download Mozilla Firefox 3 (I've been beta-testing it for quite some time now, I can very confidently say it's a lot better) and set a world record for the most downloaded content off the internet! Just click on Foxkeh (and help my cause along the way) to find out more information. Thanks!