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.