Countdown to the New Year

I just spent the entire weekend playing Mario Kart wii at my friend's house, eating good food and celebrating a late-Christmas the way it is supposed to be spent (in other words, doing nothing productive at all). I'm now completely addicted to the game, and after returning to my college I started dreaming of karting last night (dreams of karting right off the Rainbow Road...curse you, impossible course!). Of course, sweet victory tastes better when you're connected to the wifi mode and beating other real people elsewhere in the world...

But I'm feeling rather down after leaving my friend's house-- it felt like I could be living that sort of life (in a nifty house full with techno gadgets, close to the train station for London, having a flexible routine for work and free-time) that if I didn't have school, and if got myself a job and earned enough money to rent a house and find nice flatmates to share it with. It's the ultimate way of life for people in our age group! To be relatively carefree and settled...

...I'll cheer myself up by sampling all those chocolates I bought from Montezuma's in London.

A scribble of Kidd in Venetian dress-- not sure if I'm going to ink and colour this one (and yet I have a colour scheme in mind), but I might if I have time. This is going to be a quiet week, since the rest of my college friends left for home and no new anime episodes for my favourite series are going to be aired. I guess I should get working on my proposal and essays.....eurgh.

Get Ready for 2009!

On one hand, I'm eager to be spending some time with my friends in London. On the other, I don't feel like walking out to the bus station at 7:35am (just because I don't want to have to park my bike next to the cemetery for three whole days....one of my friends got her bike stolen there before). Ah well, better call it a night and get some snooze-time in....before waking up at the appalling hour of 6:55am. Tragic. At least the SunJar (my one and only Christmas present this year) will make my evening relatively amusing....

Happy Holidays

Well, 2008 is drawing to a close; and what a year it has been. Good things (Obama, my graduate school placement, undergraduate graduation) and bad things (world economy, Summertime illnesses) have happened, but let's just all look forward to 2009 coming right around the corner. As for myself, I reckon I'll be staying indoors or going to the college pub to celebrate the new year...I'm past the days of going out for a countdown in crowded areas. My health and my level of sleepiness does not permit me to wander far from home after 11pm....

Smile Darkly

A quick doodle of Aein, who is smirking darkly. He looks healthier here, but normally he is super pasty and sickly-looking....and nosebleeds constantly.

Anyways, happy holidays to all, and enjoy the winter break before the workload comes crashing onto all of us again....yes, Spring will be busier than the fall. Drat, some much for a sweet reprieve...

Scribbles II

Kidd from Soul Eater (I left the three stripes off from his hair because I wanted to add those on computer instead)

Katsura from Gintama (Zura or Zurako?)

More Kidd from Soul Eater....might actually get around to inking and colouring this one later

Scribbles

Ue and Aein, rough draft of a larger image

Blithe, Edel and Aein

Aein, rough draft on line paper in pen

Ue in sketched poses (the right is his usual expression)

Ue and Aein (ten years ago)

Levante Lalune outfits (rough draft of design)

Edel and Blithe, testing out perspectives

Winter Break

I know it has been a while since I last posted, but things have been very busy. Work, term travels, etc etc. I just got back from Italy (photo above of Venice...a long story) a week ago, and I am pleased to be back inside my apartment room. Our travel group was literally bombarded with water from rain and....the acqua alta (high water), the annual foe of Venice. A good thing I brought rainboots (because we really had to use them in the duration of our stay), but unfortunately the others in the group didn't bring any sort of water preparation. So eventually most of us got sick, and I even had to bail out for a portion of Rome (top photo) because of the flu....

...and lets just say I almost got a stomach ulcer from the trip. It was fun, but navigating around (especially in Venice!) drove me crazy. And after hearing those flood alarms in Venice, I doubt my mind will be calm for a while...I think that was the first time I've been exposed to a siren (excluding fire alarm drills and earthquake drills). And it was especially not fun to have a map in hand when all I wanted to do is use both hands and grab my throbbing head to stop it from exploding. My fever was terrible, I finished off half the box of medication in one night. There was probably some limit as to how many pills I can take in 24 hours, but I decided to see if more medicine= speedy recovery (I must put a disclaimer here and say that no one should be as stupid as I...always follow the instructions! I just got lucky this time).

Alot of things during the trip annoed me, and I felt it was inappropriate to voice them out during travelling (plus, it wasn't as though my companions didn't have tensions between them, so if I said anything it would have made things worst). Now that I've been in the presence of others for 7 days straight, I've decided to spend Christmas and Boxing Day alone. All alone in my room, just enjoying the silence.

Just spent Christmas Even eating curry and going online. And doing alot of reading.
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Death the Kidd in a simplified version of a Venetian dress (what is with me putting him in dresses all the time?)...I really haven't drawn anything in ages! I recently read the latest chpater of Soul Eater, and I can't believe Kidd got swallowed up like that-- now we have to wait until January to find out what happens. The anime is also progressing along nicely, and the plot is starting to deviate from the manga story-line...so now I'm just curious to see how they end everything. Only about another 20 episodes to go!

Still catching up on Xam'd (animation quality still going strong!) and some Gundam 00 (this season seems less interesting than the previous one, but that is just a personal thought). I've pretty much given up on Jigoku Shoujo (given up since season 1)...

Election Night 2008!

Obama won! I doubt my absentee ballot was counted in the end (I doubt California would have voted for anyone else), but I'm still happy I voted. Now sleeptime for me, since I actually stayed up watching the results.

October Blue Skies

Sorry for the absence: a lot has happened since I left Hong Kong on the 29th of Sept. Flew to the U.K., settled into my parent's temporary apartment there and then slowly unpacked my things at my new dorm. And then my parents left, which I was fine with at their send-off; but ended up to be a one-women-sob-fest once inside my room. Bought a bike to get around town, and called most of my U.K. friends (I knew them from highschool in H.K.)...started reading and writing essays for classes....well, lets just say it is a good thing I'm kept busy otherwise I'll be super depressed.

Or is there even a reason for me to mope around? The town is gorgeous, the people I've met are awesome....maybe this will be a better time than my undergraduate experience?

But here is the thing; I don't know if I'll have time to draw this term. Alas, alas....but school comes first. At least winter break in in seven weeks....

Unbalanced!

An old sketch I did while studying during sophomore year. I can't figure out why I can draw backgrounds using pen/pencil+paper, but when it comes to using my wacom tablet I just end up creating a mess. It's not even a matter of applying pressure, since the tablet is pressure sensitive and OC adjusts to that. I think it's a matter of mood and motivation when having a piece of paper in front of you.

So unsymmetrical, I'm surprised he hasn't coughed up blood yet. I started the drawing as a background study, but somehow ended up like this. Kept erasing things over and over again and I just got sick of it. I'll definately try again later on, but as for now....I'll just stick with this.

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Damn, I hope there isn't another typhoon coming around to H.K., otherwise I'll have to delay my flight to the U.K. next week. Not like it'll create an inconvenient setback in terms of attending introductory programmes on campus, but it just means I'll be awfully tired.

As anyone can tell, I'm getting over my reluctance to leave the 852. In fact, I'm rather excited to leave home and see what else is new in a different country; perhaps the idleness of Summer is finally losing it's appeal? Nah, can't be. I'll end up whining for a break again as soon as the assignments, essays and readings crash in.

Still nervous as hell.

Work in Progress: Small Talkings

A tad messy, but I haven't really had the energy to clean up my linework. At least I got the postures to look semi-decent. This is a rough draft of an image I'm going to finalize later (another image in the WIP pile? Alas.) Always though Kidd and Black Star would make an intresting friendship, since they're both crazy but in different ways.

The fall anime season is about to start, and obviously tons of anticipation going around for Gundam 00 (as for myself, my interest only develops after I start watching....can't judge from previews and commercials.) I'm surprised to see several titles on the list...mostly Jigoku Shoujo. I honestly thought that series was over, but it'll be interesting to see how they ressurect the dead/vapourized character.

Polos and Jeans

Image of Nicoli Hatchson (nicknamed 'Mane' because of his hair when untied). Very dedicated towards wearing polos and jeans, and interns in the school infirmary. (The jeans in this image didn't turn out the way I wanted, but this is only a rough draft of the character-- will definitely redraw this image later on with a background.)

To the right is Blithe's brother Monday (also interns as the school medic), and the character on the left is just one of his patient-friends. He's one of those over-protective brothers who unfortunately is deemed 'useless-in-a-fight' by his younger sister. But really, it is the sentiment that counts.

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So I got a haircut this weekend, and there is nothing like making small talk with the hairstylist. He's not a horrible person, but then he brought up the fact that I was so pasty despite the 852 Summer filled with glaring sunshine. (Awkward answer of "....I was born looking this pasty. Sorry.") At least my mum and the hairstylist have good conversations.

Still nervous about flying next week (gaspage!), but my suitcases are mostly packed and surprise-surprise, I don't have that much to bring. Granted, I've already shipped two medium boxes of books and extra clothing-- but books are impossible to carry on plane since they're super heavy (and darn european flights have so many luggage weight limitations.

Banners

Since my blog has been started for over a year, I think it might be time to put out some banners. No need to comment if anyone choses to link, though an email with your own website would be nice (so I could add your website back.) The three choices here cover Furies (original art); DGM (Kanda!) and Soul Eater (Kidd and a skull....how morbid.)

Art Dump

Faces One; face studies, basic

This one I did during my research on the 852...sometimes I draw political images, but this probably isn't one of them.

Faces Two: All about contact

I drew these characters from a series I read a while ago-- don't exactly remember the name. Will find out later. Drew this one in pen back in 2007...

Another pen drawing of Furies characters, featuring the older designs of Blithe.

Mooncakes on Monday (technically Sunday)

Work in progress (again!)....of Kidd. I still need to neaten the outline and etc....I really ought to draw with a specific process instead of flipping back and forth. I just read the RAW for the newest chapter, and I'm amazed how the art style has changed over the past few months. The fight scenes are so much more awesome to read...which makes me wonder whether or not Bones is going to animate that chapter later on (seriously, how are they going to fit everything from the manga into 51 episodes?) But back to the current chapter; it was very interesting to see that Kid's hair isn't permanently like that... wonder what he'll look like in the future?

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The aforementioned Mid Autumn image-- Mid Autumn was on Sunday, though we were given Monday as a public holiday. (And a rough image of Maka, because I haven't drawn anything of her for a while). Obviously I had no idea which direction to take the image, hence the electic elements here and there. Ah well.

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And I forgot to mention the Legco election outcome. Everything turned out relatively fine, with the democrats (not the pseudo-ones) winning enough chairs to veto any bad ideas coming from the government. One of my favourite politicians got another term there, so its bound to be another 4 years of amusing government meetings and arguements all over again. Heh.

NANO!

Guess what I got as an early birthday present (a really early birthday present....since its not until January)! My dad decided to buy it because it was cheap, and because he wanted to take it for a test-drive first...so right now he's just browsing through the photos and albums, turning the thing 90 degrees every now and then. But I get to use it when I head over to the UK. Apparently I wasn't the only person on campus who ordered one, since the delivery guy had an entire truck full of ipods that had to be delivered to students in dorms.

And Happy Mid Autumn to everyone! Mooncakes for all. Shall post something related to that soon enough.

Scribble

Look ahead to see what's behind! Just a quick doodle of [young] Kidd before running off for another hotpot session tonight at TaiPo. I don't understand why it's so much fun to have hot foods during summer, but really cold stuff in the winter. Maybe my family has masochistic tendencies when it comes to eating....

Tuesday Blurbs

I have a knack for creating weird looking things. Here is my warped version of Snow White-- it'll be so much fun if I could design these things as an occupation (I know there is a job like that, but they're super competitive and unpredictable....if you don't create something popular all the time, you're dead in the industry.) But if I do happen to be able to contribute a character to the fuzzy-mascot industry, that would really be great.

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Here is a rough draft of Erebos Rose's outfit; the hoodie idea was already in my head, but the gold bangles and necklace only came to be after having dug through my sister's jewelry box (to be fair, I was looking for my sister's USC flash drive, and once she even had it inside a tissue box....so no surprises I'm searching in such random places.)

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I'm so tired after having ran around Hong Kong for the past four days. Meeting relatives, friends and other people I-think-I-know before I leave for the UK. Was worried about meeting people in such hot weather (because I sweat bucketloads under direct sunlight and in high humidity places), but most of the people I met were also from abroad....and were also sweating profusely. So to any local HK person, we just looked like a group of people who went swimming. Delightful. As sad as I will be to leave HK on the 29th, I'm also glad to be out of the horrid weather....and to the rainy gray skies of England.

For crying out loud, it's September already; cool breezes are supposed to have arrived! Why are we still having a heatwave now....don't recall the temperatures ever reaching so high for such an extended period of time. Reaching the 30Cs was a rarity back in the highschool years-- whereas this year everyday was over 30C. Normally by mid-autumn festival we can don on our long-sleeve shirts already. Speaking of mid-autumn, the festival is on Monday and I have every intention of going to the lantern parade on campus. I got a goldfish lantern as a gift this year, except the thing feels too damn flammable and I'm too scared to put a candle inside...so I'm using a torch instead. Not environmentally friendly, but I would like to have my hand remain ...noncrispy. Woot, Mooncakes! Woot, Full moon! Eurgh, and children.

Might go crazy if I see a horde of children carrying plastic lanterns (the electrical kind with the music players included...)

Geez....I must have spent half my summer postings here complaining about the effing weather in HK. I love the city, but would totally relocate the entire thing (infrastructure, people and the land itself) to an area with a colder climate (everyone looks good in winter coats....that's an axiom!)

Lunchtime

I remember when my pre-school teacher would call for us to eat our lunches inside the classroom. Whatever it was that they fed us, I'm surprised I managed to survive on it (I was a picky eater when I was young, with alot of requirements about what foods were 'clean' and which ones just looked too gross to ingest...it got to the point where I would only eat boiled eggs.)

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It's raining today, which really isn't helping me get out the door to head to a group dinner. So unmotivated. Something about rain and thunder that makes you want to stay indoors and just sleep the day away.

I also hate that students are going back to school now on campus, which means there is more competition over who gets a seat on the university school buses (the buses used to be so spacious during the Summer, but now it's jammed packed with rude-and-loud students, smelly post-basket-ball-game guys, and people with really-large-backpacks-backpacks-like-they're-refugees.)

Week (not over) in Review

I'm finally going to draw DGM stuff again, after a prolonged hiatus on the from the series in general. Here is just a warm-up image testing colours and composition etc. Maybe I should have done this for the Valentine's Day cards I sent out last year....but no matter. Even if I did use this image, Kinko's (only the Kinkos around my old university campus) printing would have messed it up anyhow. Happened twice before....either the staff print the images onto the wrong sort of paper, or they go crazy on the resizing business and mess up the resolution of the images....gr.

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I am still angry on Monday after getting my visa back. I'm angry that I can't get angry at the British Consulate staff members. I mean, those people work 8 hour days, 5 days a week, and it must be stressful for them to sort out documents of hundreds of people. But that doesn't really excuse them for losing my passport when I went to collect it; or the fact that they told me to sit down and wait but then forgot that I existed....until closing time.

Was literally the last person sitting in the office at 5:00pm (closing time). The people at the counter only noticed me when the security guard asked why I was still sitting there by myself. Then the people behind the counter remembered that they were supposed to be looking for my passport....a task they should have been doing [but forgot to do] when I first approached them at 3:30pm. Ended up leaving during Central rush-hour....what a nightmare.

But the upside of the day was seeing some really weird people inside the office area. There was this girl in front of me that dressed like a hooker; a black long sleeves shirt, short leopard print skirt and 4 inch heels. Top all that with at least an inch of foundation and some serious hair dye/perm job. It's a wonder her face didn't melt in the 30C weather-- then again she had brought her minion to carry her purse and fan her (another duty of said minion was to help the girl up the stairs...she couldn't walk up with those heels on.)

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My new bicycle decided to die on me on Tuesday, thanks to a busted front tire. The dude at the shop said it must have been something really sharp that pierced the tire, since the inner tube was damaged but the outer layer was unscathed. It's probably caused by a piece of the rubble left behind by the construction workers, but it doesn't really matter. Bike is back to full health (fixed for only 35HKD....I recommend Chap Shing Bicycle shop for cheap stuff and good service. Located on 39 Yan Hing Street, Tai Po), and I'm flying across the parking lot giving car-owners heart attacks by swerving really close next to their BMWs and Mercedes. (This is why you should only drive a Volvo/Honda/Mazda/Toyota when you're living in a residence filled with active young people and kids.)

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On a more personal note, my friend and I recently realized that we both have some serious guilt issues. We're always guilty about people we've treated poorly in the past (in highschool we were complete a-holes), and we're guilty the way we drain our parent's finances and time every single day. We also guilty about some of the friends we've wronged before, which lead to some broken off ties nowadays-- but we've learned how to suck it up and live with it, since it can't be expected that you're liked by everyone to begin with.

After some discussion at Starbucks, we are left more confused than ever. Living with a sense of guilt is pretty nerve wrecking (and anxiety inducing....and has led to many-a-sleepless-nights), but there also is no point in remedying past wrongs after so many years of non-contact (what are we supposed to say: "hey, remember me? Sorry I was such a b*tch back then. No idea what was running through my head. So anyways, what's up with you"?). If only we could offer an apology to people in the past, we would; but would the apology even hold the same meaning now as it would have then? And then there are the people who don't need apologies, but rather will initiate contact with you again with no conditions whatsoever and still be chummy with you...which makes it even harder, because whatever crap you did to them in the past is always lingering there like some invisible barrier.

'Friendships' and the like are so confusing as a concept; don't get me started on 'relationships-as-a-couple'. Some of my other friends fight with their other-halves all the time, and things always ends with tears and lots of over-the-phone-consolation-at-night...don't really understand why they bother being with another person in the first place. It's an awful lot of trouble, isn't it?

Or maybe we're thinking too much about this entire business? The above rant isn't supposed to make much sense, I'm just rambling whatever was discussed this week combined with what was running through my mind. My thoughts are in such a disjointed state that coherent points aren't being made in those paragraphs anymore....

Rabbit Hop

A new image to commemorate my new laptop being in official use! I am still a little heartbroken over the extra money spent on this laptop, but it doesn't really matter when it's still a great and usable device. My only other woe? It's vista. Open Canvas threatened not to open several days ago, but the problem vanished the moment I downloaded the wacom vista driver...hopefully that is the end of that.

But there is always something unnerving about using a new version of Windows software....I'm so used to XP I feel like they shouldn't have changed anything at all. Of course, that's really up to the people are Windows, who do what their increasingly large bank accounts tell them to do (I'm joking. Gates does a lot of charity work around the world.)

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In other news, the Hong Kong legco elections are coming up (Sept 7th), and alot of the current candidates are looking not-so-fabulous. It's not that they're scandal ridden, it is more that they don't seem likely to be able to improve anything. They keep promising to control inflation, look out for the middle class; but how exactly will they do that? And there are candidates who even declare themselves 'independent' but are actually affiliated with government officials from the mainland-- seriously, what are we suppose to think?

Lunches and Snacks

Had lunch with friends yesterday in Central, and it's so strange to see some of them working real jobs now. One of them wore a power-business-suit with proper heels and make-up, which was a little intimidating at first....and it took a while to get used to. Anywho, managed to find a nice place in Central for lunch, and the bill totaled to less than 100HKD per person...a pretty good deal considering Central is one of the most expensive places on earth. Everyone around us in the restaurant wore suits and carried blackberries and were busy making business deals....while my other friend and I were donned in jeans, shirts and hoodies. So out-of-place...not that I mind. DEVIATE!

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Anyways, I went to apply for a UK student visa yesterday and it was hell. I arrived at 9:40am (thanks to my dad who went all the way to Admiralty even though his meeting was in North Point), handed in the relevant forms to the people and waited until 11:40am before they called my name. And that was only to pay for the visa, the actual photographing and fingerprinting procedure wasn't until 11:55am. As if the wait wasn't bad enough, I started going crazy during the wait. Thought they called my name once, but there were two people talking at the same time over the comm that I wasn't sure and sat for an hour wondering whether I made a mistake or not.

And then some lady announced to everyone that we had to have banking statements dating at least three months prior (and I'm sure that wasn't on the Consulate website when I read the list of required materials!) so another bout of worrying came. My dad told me it should be fine since the officials could hardly care less about what you provide as long as they know who you are generally, but the anxiety isn't completely gone.

And I still have to go back to the office on Monday to get my passports back.....fabulous. They told me to arrive at 3:30pm, but I'm not keen on waiting for another two hours and then braving the Central rush-hour masses (people queue up, but it's still crazy.)

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My mother came home with this today; some kind of bean bun with chocolate. Looks too cute to eat. Still pondering whether that is a unibrow on its forehead or just its hairline.

People, People, Everywhere

So I finally managed to get into the Computer Convention last night (after a failed attempt on Saturday-- too many people, and it would have taken an hour to get inside the building!), and apparently people have nothing better to do during weekdays. What happened to work and school? I'm still on my Summer holiday so that's a pretty good excuse to be browsing for computers on a Monday evening-- but what excuse does that middle-aged old man have?

Alright, I'm just being harsh because the amount of people and the noise was very stressful. In fact, the din left me temporarily deaf and I only began hearing things again this morning (it was worst than the music at Club C...back in the day.) Speaking of clubs, the convention was like a nerdier version of Lan Kwai Fong; the ratio of men to women were about 6:1, and there were plenty of posers all around. Electronic posers, mind you-- people who act as though they know 'all-that' about something just because they read the back of a box before you did.

But there were highlights to the convention, and they come in the form of cheap electronics. Snagged myself a pair of nice earphones (because my old ones that came with the i-pod died on me...damn you, Apple! And my warranty just ran out too); a digital photo frame; and various USB memory sticks for way under 10USD. Some heartbreak did happen as well....saw my Wacom tablet and my new Fujitsu laptop be sold for about a thousand dollars cheaper than the retail price which I got mine for. The again, I bought my wacom tablet more than half a year ago, so maybe that might explain the price drop..... but still, the laptop price! Nevermind, doesn't change the fact I have an awesome laptop.

And finally had my first share of Peking Duck [for the summer] last night; absolutely wonderful. I can see why tourists requested that the Beijing chefs bring some over to London for the 2012 Olympics. Wait until everyone finds out about the Nanjing Duck...

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Now that Maka and Chrona's fight is pretty much over, I'm eager to get back to the rest of the Kishin arc-- starting from next week. And after the next couple of episodes, maybe we'll even see a new opening sequence...

Next Station

An image of Aein and Blithe together getting ready for the next station: London! Well, this applies for the Olympics but also for myself...grad school starts on October 1st.

Well, the Beijing Olympics are over, and I'm still nursing a headache from last night. Might have been the noise my neighbours were making during their celebrations, or it might has been that I stayed up too late (ended up watching movies- plural!- after the ceremony ended.)

The closing ceremony was pretty nifty, with lots of fireworks and shining lights. The London segment was interesting, though they were pretty much dwarfed by the scale of the other performances. The dancing was very energetic (tempted to use the word 'flexible) and creative. Leona Lewis was a confusing choice to represent London, and the poor girl didn't really have much of a performing moment; not with the awesome guitar drowning her voice out, and the cameraman focusing mostly on the guitar the entire time. (She's still a good singer though, nothing really changes that.)

Nonetheless, since I'll be in London in 2012, definitely will go to their opening ceremony and see how they convey their youth culture to the world. Might as well celebrate the fact that I'm almost past my youth, and must party while I still can.

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Death and stuffed animals....morbid stuffed animals. Afterall, he's not really about unicorns, 'plushies' and anything that seems approachable.

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And hurrah, I got my D-Grayark book today through the post! Scans posted online does it no justice. I did my maths; it's cheaper to order books online in Japan and have them ship it over to the 852 than to buy the book in Sogo HK! I don't understand where those extra charges come in; tax? Import fees?

In other news I'm getting my UK visa this Thursday, and I'm almost peeing in my pants. The guidelines on the website are effing scary; I can't bring anyone else with me, I can't arrive more than 15 minutes early, and I have no say in anything. I remember going into the U.S. embassy and I almost coughed up blood with the eerie silence and the stares from the security guard and other officials.

Scribbles

I hated yesterday's image so much I had to draw something else...kept staring at the image and had to take it down. So here is a spin-off of Chapter 52's cover page: 無敵! At first I had no idea how to finish off the image, but then monochrome seems fitting. And the asymmetry...how strange seeing it paired up with the character. I scrimped a bit on the background.

Bruises and Cuts

Just read the latest Soul Eater chapter (had to get the Chinese scanlations instead of the RAW...took me forever to understand what was going on). Now I'm left pondering what happens in the next issue. Couple of spoilers ----->Eibon [sans mask] actually makes a surprise appearance this time around, while Free and Kidd decide to cooperate to fight Mosquito. That's pretty much the summary of the entire chapter 52. Their fight was really awesome though, and who knew they would work so well together? But will they really die from those injuries? One of them is an immortal, the other is...a god? Who knows. Damn cliffhangers.

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The plot in X'am:d is progressing at a nice pace, though I still have my suspicions whether those 26 episodes could really cover everything and include character development. On the other hand, Code Geass R2 is progressing way too fast. I didn't really like any of the characters in the beginning, but after the series became an extermination-fest, things got interesting. I'm sort of left wondering if the only people left standing at the end would be the antagonist and the....well, other antagonist. (There aren't any good people in the series...they're all mentally warped.)

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Oh hell, why did TVB hire a bunch of random people for their Olympics coverage? Not only are they guessing the rules half the time, they're making pointless commentary about each other. Not to mention that one of their correspondents they sent up to Beijing can't speak Mandarin properly (seen her guess her way through several sentences before.) Not that ATV is any better, but at least they get experts on their show to explain what constitutes a winning move by the athletes. Too bad I hate the rest of the channel (as in the television series, and misc. crappy programming.)

Spin and Dropkick

Hell, I love designing these little dresses, and I would make these for my younger cousins/stuffed animals if only fabric wasn't so darn expensive (unemployed and saving up for tuition right now.) Anyways, tried to draw out Chinese textile patterns here, but the pixelation of the images might have messed up the outlines. I love Chinese and Japanese textiles...whilst the latter is prized for its simplistic graphic designs, the former has such a rich and organic quality to them. Of course, I also like Indian textiles and Scottish plaid....and basically most fabric patterns (except animal prints, neons and metallics.)

The image is of Maka and Kidd...with Maka ready to kick some serious posterior soon.

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Damn, I'm being prank-called by some brat with nothing better to do. My father picked up the phone the first time, and the second time I did....and she basically told us to eat something-out-of-the-toilet-bowl. Not amused. If the brat doesn't cut it out, I'm getting the phone company to trace the effing call and grill that kid. While you can choose to have your caller ID omitted, the phone company has a record of everything, so it'll only take a minute to find everything out....this is why one should always do their research first [on how to make a clean getaway] before annoying the crap out of other people.

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So nervous about graduate school. Still nervous. Oh so nervous. ARGH. Need to watch Olympics to ease my mind....synchronized diving this afternoon. Just the preliminaries, but it's still diving. On another note, while I can understand why people are passionate about freeing Tibet (to be honest, I share similar sentiments), I think demonstrating next to the site of the Olympics is a no-go. Demonstrators will not earn local support for their cause because they; disrupt the Olympics (something that is very important to the locals); have entered the country under the pretense of being tourists (and ended up protesting, thus displaying deception); it is considered very rude to be a guest in the country and yet try to speak out about politics.

Good thing that these protests are happening on a small scale, otherwise it really will increase the us vs. them mentality in different countries involved. And then I'll be totally effed where ever I go, since I have dual nationalities and residency rights...and people will be asking me which way my opinions go (like they did in the U.S. this May). Grrr.

Warm Weather, Cold Fuji Apples

My friend came over today and made me watch the entire Mononoke series (as well as the three chapters of Ayakashi)...and what a fabulous series it is! Was skeptical about the animation techniques and the character designs, but it all proved to make each episode so addictive to watch. Especially love the direction and how the plot progresses, how each frame is composed, and especially the ideas with the fight scenes. So many colours, so much more awesome.
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Alas, last Sunday a level-5 fire occurred in Mong Kok, and two firemen (and two civilians) died because of it. And the media showed footage of one fireman's daughter cry non-stop in front of the fire station later that day, as well as the entire family in mourning ;____; (heartstrings!). Not surprisingly, many 852ers also bought flowers and paid their respects in front of the burnt building...it really is good to see everyone in Hong Kong is expressing their appreciation for everything the firemen did. Firemen in general really deserve more status in society...they put up with fires, rescue people in rural areas and fish surfers out of the waters during typhoons. I hope the 852 government will do building checks more regularly now so things like this never happen again.
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In a lighter topic, I must thank whoever introduced men's volleyball/gymnastics/synchronized diving to the Olympics. Never knew how much fun it would be watching all the athletes run across the television screen, while we (indoors with air-con) snack on fuji apples (bought 24 of them in one go because they were on sale) and just...gawk.

Scribbles and more

The new chapter of Soul Eater is out today, but I haven't read it yet. Yet to see what happens this time- who will fight who? Anyway, just a quick scribble here of the best comedy duo in the series. (Someone's suit is getting stained by grubby fingerprints, and someone else is going to get beaten to a pulp.)

I don't draw Maka nearly enough; which is strange, considering she is one of those female characters in a series which is likable and has a spine. So prepare to see how doodles of her here later on. Drat, I should really head to the beach to cool off in this weather, but not bothered to call people out+pack+travel+clean out sand from shoes later on.
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So the Olympics have started, and I have got to admit that the opening ceremony was awesome. Especially loved the segment where the people in scholar-garb were paying respects to the word '和'. The colour pairings between the costumes and the environment was wonderful, and never expected to see the torch be light that way. Some people thought the entire event was too flashy and over-the-top, but people are entitled to their opinions and mine happen to be different.

Now, time to watch the diving events....love watching people spring off those boards. And then flipping the channel to the men's gymnastics. (There are so many perks to living in almost the same time-zone as the Olympic host city....live broadcasts!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Check out the geological characteristics of 852! They say 852 used to be infested with pirates during the imperial period, and I think I see why; too many caves and coves and natural ports to hide in. Awesome, I would love to explore these places when I have the means and the time someday....