Scibbles

A quick doodle whilst I'm waiting for my salmon steak to cook in the kitchen :D yum. I'm not very good with backgrounds, though I must admit my backgrounds aren't normally as crappy as the one here in the image. Today is another beautiful Sunday full of sunshine and blue skies, but decided to spend most of the time indoors (asides from a brief moment where I went out to buy groceries.)

Now I have to think of my summer dissertation topic, and begin reviewing my old notes from the first two terms; exam prep should start soon. At first the intent was to revise today, but then my supervisor is right about taking some time off, feel refreshed, and then tackle the task. Which is why I'm also writing on this blog again.

Alrightio, just got back from the kitchen with my delicious salmon steak with carrots, potatoes, and rice. (No, it is not a weird combination.) Took me four tries to cook the fish to decency (not aiming for perfection here, just edibility); for the longest time I could figure out why the oil was turning brown before the fish was cooked, and why the fish was getting burned and yet the inside was still pink. As first I figured it must have something to do with my timing (when I pour in the oil, when I drop the fish); of if I distributed the oil evenly in the pan; or whether the water content in the fish was throwing me off; of if the nature of the fish meat itself was problematic (it had expired a couple of days ago). It was a puzzle that drove me a little insane for a week. Then my mum tells me that maybe, just maybe, I left the heat on a setting that was too high....such a simple solution.

Just going to dump a few random thoughts I had throughout the term:

-had a conversation with some friends the other afternoon, and one of them were so adamant about her preference for 'classical music' because it was so 'cultured'. Made some of us around her feel like barbarians just from mentioning 'rock music' around her. She's a nice girl really, but with a competitive streak that seems to be applied to everyday settings (think: competitive in terms of colleges, school work, life achievements, personal hobbies, etc). As for myself, I do like classical music; but I wouldn't actively go out their concerts, or buy their CDs. The music sounds nice, but I just don't understand it. More of an alternative rock/pop person here. Not going to force myself to like something just to make myself seen 'smarter'.

-I wish I were a more interesting person. I don't need a more interesting life (because I've had a fairly eventful one so far....lived through the lives of others) but if only I were good at conversations or knew what awesome things to say. Such a people pleaser....boo

-still don't understand the phenomenon known as 'children'. They lack appeal. How discombobulating.

It is going to take some time before I remember everything I want to say, so the rest will be posted next time. Off to get cleaned up, and then for an evening inside a theatre (the rare occasion I actually venture outdoors at night.)

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Still watching Soul Eater; the anime is surprising so far (walking cities...), but it keeps the plot interesting and unpredictable. The manga this month is also lovely but it was very much a build-up chapter; plot was moving, but to nowhere in particular. Grr. The art style makes up for it though. A little disspointed that Excalibur is on the cover of volume 14, since it would have been fitting for Kid to be on it instead....

Shikabane Hime: Aka was a good watch up until the antagonist were properly introduced; then started taking issue with the character designs, and plot holes, and the "what, why the heck did that just happen" moments. Stopped watching Gundam 00 since they started introducing new characters to be killed, and the story in Regios is moving so slowly... same goes for Jigoku Shoujo (it took around 20 episodes before the heroine realizes something was up with herself....even though we knew that was the case from the credits since episode 1.)

I complain too much.

Scribbles

A rough sketch of Blithe with a scar (normally covered by her fringe). The shape and design of the scar might change later, but for now it should reach from the right side of the forehead towards the right ear. She normally keeps it hidden to avoid having questions asked about it (can't remember how she got it, but if asked she'll say it came from a fistfight with a local gang.....despite there being no gangs in her hometown), but otherwise she wouldn't hide it during off-school hours.

Random sketch of an unnamed character; the purple shading are the body markings. I wanted to create and draw a male mythical figure at first, he ended up looking fairly androgynous. Ah, but then they say transgressing gender boundaries is the ultimate form of power....so maybe this works best.

An image I drew for Lunar New Year, except I forgot to post it (or finish and colour it, for a matter of fact). A tad late to do anything about it now. Got a red pocket from the club I joined, except inside was one chocolate coin. Would have preferred some usable currency here...I'm a tad short on money.

Oh wait, my friends still owe me money from the Italy trip. A little miffed that it's taken over a month to get it sorted, though it's understandable since everyone is super busy nowadays. Or maybe I'm more miffed that no one brought the topic up again until someone else was nice enough to give a little reminder to all....

Am feeling a little better today. Managed to get some work done, though I'll still have to go back to the library tomorrow to continue with my reading. The endless reading. Hopefully the weather would have settled a bit by then and the road condition wouldn't be too slippery....otherwise we'll have a repeat of Thursday (toppling over onto my side when biking on snow).

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In random news, I'm glad DGM is making a return soon to Jump, but sad to see Meister go so soon. I normally don't like shounen sport series (especially of the football variety), but this one seems to be promising, and the cast is pretty good. Alas, maybe next time the author will have better luck with the rankings. Other series I've recently adopted again would be Gintama. The series never fails to make people laugh...goes to show that super-art skills (not that the one in Gintama is bad) isn't always needed for something enjoyable.

As for anime....now that Xam'd is over (I must confess that the ending wasn't anything like Eureka Seven, but given the 26 episode span it would be impossible to wrap up everything in the storyline so neatly. Still, I enjoyed the last episode), I'm probably going to try watching Shikabane Hime, or maybe Chromed Shelled Regios (the light novels were pretty good). Soul Eater is still the weekly highlight though...how will that end? Only another few episodes to go!

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.

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.)

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.

It's August; no countdown yet?

That the rate fashion is going (changing fast, going in circles), I wouldn't be surprised is overalls made it back onto the streets bigtime. Personally, overalls should only be worn if i)you're working in construction/other manual-labour-intensive jobs ii)you're under the age of 12. I already saw some jumpsuits last time I was in Causeway Bay (bear in mind it is summertime right now, and people drink plenty of liquids so toilet-trips are frequent; so the jumpsuit makes no logistical sense at all!) Or maybe such worries of the overall-revival is pointless. Afterall, I remember some people in L.A. tried to reintroduce the trend but were pretty much ignored.

Not going to explain the title to this post, because it'll just make me depressed. And I've managed to escape the bouts of melancholy so far this Summer (save once), so I would appreciate not having it return. Yet. Save the mopey-ness for when I head over to the U.K., and I have to start living by myself again.
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And I just started watching X'am:d Lost Memories by Bones. It's made by almost the same team that brought Eureka Seven, so there were worries that the plot would be too similar, that the characters would resemble the last series too much. Let's just say that's not the case here. It's supposed to last only 26 episodes, so not sure whether the scale of the plot is going to be as grande as Eureka Seven at all-- but things look interesting so far so it's probably going to be the most interesting series of the Summer.
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EDIT:
The previous illust (Thought Puddles, see last post of July) was too messy, so I decided to draw Aein again (albeit as a 'scribble' instead of 'illust'.) As one can tell, wasn't too bothered with the outfit design here...but do like the colour scheme.

Scribbles (and WIP!)

The WIP: This image just just a rough draft....and I'm actually inking it as I'm typing this entry. It's such a pain, since I accidentally whacked my hand against the MTR railing yesterday and now putting pressure on the third and fourth fingers is proving to be a difficult feat. But yes, an image of a younger Maka, Black Star and Kidd together! I know the storyline has Kidd being the last to join the group and only meeting the other two after the prologue, but its fun to imagine what would have happened had they all met earlier (bloodshed, most likely). Tried to draw them in character.

The scribble: Chichi to Ko. I love the fact that while the son is so uptight and worried, the father has such a whimsical way of doing things. It's surprising to see the Maka and Black Star teams getting so much character development in the manga, yet the Kidd segments aren't progressing much...not counting the rift that could happen between him and his father since the Reunion Express fiasco.

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And I must be the last person to hear about this, but an Eureka Seven movie? I can't believe they're actually making one! It's bound to be a good watch-- studio Bones can do no wrong. Sort of worried what the movie would do to the entire series itself, since they ended it with everything wrapped up neatly together (such a bittersweet last scene)...then again, it could potentially make the entire series even better and add more depth to the plot.

And I'm wondering when the Gurren Lagann movie is going to be finished (was there even a movie? I was trying to keep track of too many things and some news slipped from my mind).

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And the most random thing of all; I need a pair of board shorts. I'm not kidding. I just realized that I have to go to the beach soon and right now my entire closet consists of denim jeans. Oh, wicked college years, why have you converted me into a permanent denim-jeans wearer? You have blinded me from the range of other articles of clothing.....;___;

Countdown to Graduation: 19 days

Overview of the entire image...foreground is Erebos 'Nano' Rose and Aein; background (top to bottom) is Blithe Bauhinia, Edel Clementine May and Tileon Buvare, and Levante 'LeLa' Lalune.

Okay, the image looks a little wonky right now, but I'll fix up the errors later before colouring the entire thing. (This is why I love drawing on the computer; errors can be changed by a simple click on the 'eraser' function and you can edit stuff for hours. I mean, there is still a skill level required for fixing stuff, but at least its much easier nowadays).
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I've noticed that my 'Work in Progresses' rarely leave that stage. I wonder why that is....I guess I have a short attention span and I always jump to new stuff before the old one is finished. OR, it could be that I simply had too much work to do this semester.

And bloody hell, where did all the time go?! A little over two weeks and we're being kicked out of school, never to venture into the lovely libraries hoping to finish a last-minute paper, roam the lush school grounds under the influence of frozen yogurt at noon, or sit next to the fountain and grimace as the water sprays all over our food. Good times ;___;.

Just woke up from a hour-long nap, and is currently feeling groggy, depressed and even more tired. I hope I'm not going to worry myself sick for graduation....that happened during my freshman year, which pretty much torpedoed any potential for me to develop a large social network with my fellow freshman (I was sitting in class alone for the first two weeks, away from the crowds just so I wouldn't get them ill with whatever it was I had). Nonetheless, I'm still proud I managed to make some very good friends while in college- I've also lost friends, but thats besides the point.

And is it wrong to wish for a simple life and a simple job after getting a degree? Not that I want to sit back and mooch off the world; I'll contribute something of course. But the idea of exiting an institution of education and delving directly into an institution of employment is really intimidating and restricting. I'm so spoilt and demanding....
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One anime I am looking forward to this season would definitely be Soul Eater. I was surprised by how much I liked it, considering how I didn't like the manga style at first (though granted, the style became much better and more detailed in the later chapters). Having colour added to the series sure helps create that sense of dynamism the fight scenes convey. Plus, the animation quality really is stellar. I just hope it doesn't get a beating in the later episodes...like Eureka Seven. As much as I liked all the episodes of Eureka Seven, there were scenes where the proportions just looked off.

Hm, and I can't believe they're airing Code Geass on Cartoon Network...I would have thought the series was a little too nationalistic for their tastes. The animation quality is very high, but the dubbed voice actors....well, lets give it another episode before I decide whether it is of the Naruto-standard (not a compliment!) or.....actually, I've never heard of a good dub before so I can't draw an example.

Anime Love

Gurren Lagann.... at first I was skeptical about another mecha anime, but forget the over-done premise of boy-finds-robot-and-meets-girl-and-saves-the-world; the bloody animation style is awesome! The fight scenes are dynamic, the characters are well designed and have interesting personalities, and the plot is much better than what I expected. On the surface the entire series is humourous and light-hearted, but there are moments were lots of deep insight and developments takes place. Its like the Eureka Seven of 2007 :D

Too bad there are only a few episodes left before the entire series is over.

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Rossiu in episode 23