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Hopeless When It Come To Certain Things

With Vivian's 21st birthday around the corner, I've decided to do something really special for her this year. I thought of throwing a nice party and all for her...

However that wasn't the case...

We got too busy with post-AFA and even though I'm on holidays, the rest are still having school with exams around the corner. Not that it's really an excuse but apparently there was a plan to celebrate her birthday within our clique and I wasn't invited. Reason being that it's for a smaller group of people and so I thought, maybe it's for another clique of friends. Only to find out that, seems like majority of the people I know are attending and I'm the only fool who doesn't know anything about it. I guess there are some things that I should not question too much even though the curiosity in me is killing me.

Due to that, there's a slight animosity in the air. We just try not to raise about the issue and move on.

However, thankfully that kind of opened a new option for me. Perhaps it was an opportunity to do something by myself? So I decided to ask her out, hoping to spend some time with her without the rest of the guys around. Yes I know it's been many years and all, but I can feel the freedom somewhat now that I'm able to act freely. You know how it's like you are on a stage and you get to do stupid stuff and not have to worry about how your audiences think or feel? That's how I feel right now. No one to eye on what you're doing and making a drama story out of everything.

With this new independence, I started doing things that I never thought that I would have done in my 23 years. Firstly was to ask her out, after so many years. Or rather, it's been years since I get to ask her out to have some private time alone. All along it has been nothing but group activities or having the fear of what others might gossip and talk about. I've been kind of avoiding that for a long time, but now, things has got to change. Time for a little bit more of self confidence and build up my character. The wait for her answer was quite a painful one considering how irregular she gives a response whenever you ask something through her cell or online. But patience paid off, in a sense, I asked her out for lunch on her birthday itself, but due to family commitments, I decided to reschedule it to either the day before, during lunch so that I wouldn't clash with the other gathering, or the following week. And I waited again... Only to find out that even though she didn't reply me, I guess she already left herself free and was just waiting for me to do the final confirmation. Talk about having to be firm about some things.

I happily went out to scout for a nice place for lunch with the help of a friend, who's happily married and sort of gave me tips. The restaurant was just fabulous. The ambience was nice, the food looks great and the price was reasonable. Got her a present, something that she wanted for awhile but never got around to getting it and there was my chance. Spend an hour trying to figure out what is a good way to wrap the present and I finally did it all by myself. And... This sounds dumb, but for the first time in my life, I've decided to get flowers for her. I'm quite hopeless in that aspect because I didn't know what to get or how many. I never even bought flowers for my mum before! So I did a bit of homework and listening to some advice before I decided. I also learnt that no matter how boyish a girl seems to be, flowers is kind of like something they would like to receive even though they say they don't. Just don't go too overboard with it I guess.

With all the preparations done, all there is left is the actual day. It's like the stage is all set. All there's left is the performance. Once again, for the first time in my life, I actually find myself going through all the effort to do this and it actually feels good. I hope she'll enjoy herself on that day itself. Till then, we'll see...

Post AFA11 Thoughts.

This year was  a lot more bigger and happening compared to the previous year. For the first time, I became an exhibitor with my booth METRONOME, selling the t-shirts that I designed and it did very well! We actually sold out our LiSA and Sena t-shirts and we managed to spread our name more. Prior to AFA was the final assessment at school so all the fatigue kind of piled up very bad, but I managed to recover from it now that I had ample rest and it's now my holidays. So a brief walk through on that happened in the 3 days of AFA.

Day 1 (11/11/11):

• Assessment day! Went to school and submitted my work.
• Went to Upper Thomson Road to eat Roti Prate (I don't kno why but since we had a car ride...)
• Proceeded to Sarah's place after taking a detour to my place to pick up some Wii games and apparently my controllers are missing
• First time for Tanya and Sam to step into my place and it was quite embarrassing to show them my room since I havent really packed it up since my renovation. They seem to like it somehow though.
• Party hard and played Wii like a nutcase. Also decided to hold a class BBQ during the holidays then.
• Went back to school, got my results, which was rather satisfactory.
• Headed home to take the stock for the METRONOME booth and headed down to Suntec to dump the stock there and did stock take.
• Met up with the rest who was setting up there too.
• Vivian looks great in Lat Type Miku cosplay. Totally suits her.
• Headed home in preparation for Day 2.

Day 2 (12/11/11):

• Sales was insane, as expected for the first day of the exhibitions.
• LiSA T-shirt got sold out by the afternoon.
• Got knocked out at Round 3 of WGP through sheer bad luck, but I had a lot of fun.
• Announced my retirement from competitive WS.
• Got myself the PenguinDrum set from Vivian's booth.
• Vivian was cosplaying as Feyris and she was so adorable that I wanted to bring her home.
• Had a blast at the concert. Especially LiSA and FLOW. Live band rocks!
• Died that night and revived countless times.
• Met up with old friends and went to have supper at Kopitiam near SMU.
• Went home dead. Had a total of 6 hours of sleep that night. And the previous night I didn't catch any sleep due to finishing up my work for assessment.

Day 3 (13/11/11):

• Overslept!!! But managed to get to the event somewhat slightly later after opening time
• Business was a lot slower and I'm surprised that people are still asking for LiSA shirts even though the concert ended the previous day.
• Headed to the Anohana Experience show and it was fun!
• Best question of the day, "Why did you have to make Yukiatsu cross dress?"
• It was nice to see the slide show of the whole show, tears just came to my eyes at certain parts of it.
• Awesome to hear everyone singing along to the ED song when it was shown.
• After that it was meet the artist segment for the concert that night.
• Keiko was just so lovely.
• Left the hall and met Digitarou along with Vivian and the twins, Li Chu and Li Min!!! Took a picture with him, told him about the QB shirt that I designed many months ago (the one that he liked when I tagged him), and he gave me a Steins;Gate uchiha and autographed it!
• Crap! If I knew he was there, I would brought the QB shirt and gave it to him!!!
• And as always, Vivian looks sexy in that Kurisu cosplay,
• Rushed to the autograph booth soon after that to get my autograph from Kalafina.
• Because I had four tickets, I felt like a boss just standing in front up close with Kalafina and chatting with them as they took their time to sign the four posters. I felt like I was in heaven with three angels in front of me.
• Keiko is just beyond my words. I love her so much!!! Very funny and nice girl! She was impressed with my Japanese because I got nervous and excited and started to blabber a lot of nonsense. >.<
• Wakana is also very chatty! Kept trying to join in the conversation with me and Keiko.
• Hikaru was kind of quiet, but perhaps because she was nervous.
• Went to watch Sora no Otoshimono movie and I have to say, it was very bad. Too many flashbacks and the rest of the story was rather weak.
• Sold out Sena T-shirt that evening! I can't believe that we actually sold out the new designs. We might need to reproduce more for EOY.
• Went to the concert to see my lovely Kalafina. I was in heaven once again. I screamed for Keiko like a madman and I felt like I had to go change my pants after their performance.
• Sadly the overall concert wasn't as comparable to the previous day.
• Finally it all ended and we all went to Macs at Bras Basah Complex to gorge ourselves before heading home.

WTF?! A Year Has Passed Already?!

Oh.My.Gosh.

I can't believe how fast time flies. Once again, I come back here on a great Moe Day to do a little anniversary update. So much has happened since my last few series of rants. Now that I look at it, it has been a few months. I'm already out of Foundation Year of LASALLE (THANK GOD), and into my Year 1 of Design Communication. Very happy with my current course actually since it's been something that I have wanted to do since my days at Ngee Ann Poly when I realised that I wanted to do something different. First semester of Year 1 should be over within the next month. So all the best to me to finish up my assignments in time for assessment week.

AFA11 next month and this year is something that I look forward to A LOT! Got myself a ticket to the I Love Anisong concert too! Looking forward to see Kalafina! There's too much to name but something I'll have to mention is that, I'll be having a booth at AFA11!

Maybe some of you would be thinking... What? A booth?! What for? Apparently, a few friends and I decided to start a new doujin group dedicated to make anime-related goods. We just started off for about back in June (which is about the same time I was undergoing my low times and when I last posted here come to think of it), and we are slowly trying to make a name for ourselves here. For now we're just doing t-shirts, which was something I brought back from my trip to Japan last year. I'll just let the Facebook Group do the rest of the talking and you can visit us here at http://www.facebook.com/metronomist

So what am I into lately? Just say my inner TYPEMOON fanboy in me has rose once again as I went to read the Fate/Zero novel and it also has been animated. Fascinating stuff. I am all ready to buy the BD and whatnot.

Just to sum it up, life has been pretty interesting in some aspects. School is pretty interesting. I'm not working as much at The Animal Clinic (have I even mention that before?), even though it was amazing how I could work so many shifts during my foundation year. I'm trying to create my own path and get some decent work when I graduate. I guess important thing is to just quickly get over with school, get my degree and start to head out into the real society. Hope to settle down soon too...

Yes. I am still in love her. She's just so amazing, I cannot take my eyes off her. Nothing much has change inside me towards her.

Time To Move On And Not Dwell In The Past

Had a nice long chat with a lot of people over the past few days and I am really glad that I did. I guess I've kept too many things bottled up inside me for too long. But I feel a lot better now that I've let it all out. I really need to appreciate with what I have with me now. Time to move on and to stop dwelling in the past. Time to catch up on everyone who's been ahead!

Trusting With Faith? Or Just Being In Denial?

I would never have thought that I'll be back here writing so soon.

I ended up up waking up shortly in tears after trying so hard to sleep. Seems like some things that have been bothering me for awhile have finally decided to haunt me with a nightmare.

Ever have that feeling of losing something and there's nothing you can do about it? And at times like when you have your doubts but still decided to just believe in it. It's either you have faith in it, or you have just decided to do it in denial so as not to feel unsure and to run away from your doubt.

I'm feeling very lost now.

23 years?!

Yes, it's been half a year or so since I posted. Got quite busy with school and also at work to update here. Not that I expect people to actually come here to read it, but I guess being on a hiatus already have made some people give up on checking here unless they are on some feeder.

Past 2 days was a blast. Went to JB for Gamehub, walked away 2nd for the WS tournament and back to Singapore for the following day to get 2nd for the team tournament. Despite not playing as often, I guess my touch is still there.

So, I've turned 23 today and I feel another year older (or rather I AM older by another year). Foundation year at Lasalle is over, I'm taking my 3 months break and working at The Animal Clinic to get some decent income and to have some savings. Also started trying to start my own brand label of indy tshirts. Taking it slow and easy for now. THe first sales of the "QB" shirt at SOY was quite a success and now I have more business partners to work together with.

Priorities have sort of shifted for me too. The once younger me who yearned for a companion when I was in NS is all in the past. Of course it doesn't mean that my heart as wander off elsewhere. Like I've mentioned, nothing much as changed. I still love her as much as I've always did, or even more over the past 5 years.

All I want to do now, is to enjoy life, finish up my studies and meanwhile, try to build up or look for something that I can continue off as a career when I graduated. I still wish I was more active and working in the anime related industry like some of my friends.

Nothing much has changed I guess or even if there was, I guess I will never know or realise it until someone points it out to me.

Guys at TCG are a fun bunch of people though we do have the usual subgroups, but I do feel that the social links to some people have grown stronger over the years and I regard them as brothers.

Will try to update here more I guess. This feels like a good place to do some advertising for my works and let off some thoughts once in a while.

The Last Day

Back in Singapore! The whole trip was awesome overall and I'm already missing Japan already. Anyway, updates on the last day there.

2nd Jan

• Woke up early to visit the post office with Vivian to ship her Kyon doujins back to Singapore and spent time alone time with her by having a nice stroll back together with her.
• Got back and finalised the packing of our luggages and checked out.
• The rest went to visit Akiba for some art exhibition.
• I stayed behind with Vivian and spent the afternoon watching TV.
• The show we watched was really funny. It's basically pranks being played on celebrities and their reaction is so exaggerated sometimes.
• The guys came back and we started to carry our heavy load to the airport.
• Was stranded on another carriage with James from the rest and we just did some chatting. It's been so long since we talked for so long since our poly days.
• Got to know a girl on the train and apparently she's also Singaporean. Guided her to the airport along with us since she was taking the same flight as us.
• Checked in, weight limit was safe, all is good to go.
• Spent our remaining yen on souvenirs and back to Singapore!
• I really miss Japan. I would want to come back here soon again. This first trip, is an awesome one. Hopefully we can do it again.

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year to everyone! And not only I've spent Christmas in Japan, I also spent the new year here too!

1st Jan

• Woke up early to head to the shrine at Asakusa with Vivian and Jin.
• A lot of people, did our prayers and drew our fortune. Apparently my fortune for this year is rather decent.
• Then went around eating a lot of food. Time to burn those extra yen since we're leaving tomorrow.
• Vivian left us as we headed to meet Terence and Shawn for our last evening in Japan.
• Raided Akihabara for "Day 4" and I ended up buying another two more doujins. Both of them are Oreimo doujins. One had awesome art of Kuroneko and the other was Kirino and Kuroneko love.
• Went to eat awesome ramen near Terence's place.
• And after that, we went drinking at an izakaya.
• Drank, snacked, chatted and played WS through the night. We ended up missing the last train, orz...
• And so I took my first cab ride in Tokyo. Expensive ride is expensive, but the cab driver was nice enough to not charge us the midnight rate.
• Got back and took a nice long shower before heading to bed.

Comiket 79

3 days of Comiket. Lots of action and it was a damn good experience.

29th Dec

• Took the first train over. Queued up for 3 hours before we could get in.
• All I see is tons of queues.
• Never planned to get anything and end up queuing most of the time to help people get stuff.
• End up queuing for Unisonshift, Nitroplus and Kyoani.
• I actually queued for almost 3 hours for Kyoani and they limited the purchase to one item per person.
• Luckily a nice lady in front of me was nice to help me buy another Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu set for awesome Nagato Yuki.
• And so I spent most of the time outside the hall rather than inside.

30th Dec

• Day for the fujoushis, lots of girls around.
• Went to explore around the commercial booth. Bought myself a Kirino shirt from Kamikaze style. Also got myself TamStar Records Collection vol.0 and supercell tribute -Stowaways-.
• Stood like an idiot for 20 mins watching upcoming anime trailers.
• Took more freebies and went to the doujinshi booths.
• Tons of BL stuff. Some of the stuff are actually good, but of course I didn't get any.
• Vivian bought tons of Kyon doujins while the the rest got more Touhou stuff.
• Left the rest and brought the loot back to the hostel while the rest got ready to camp overnight for Day 3.
• Headed back to rest for a bit and went to Card Kingdom for the Monthly Tournament.
• Used a Phantom deck and showed the Japanese that soul damage is serious business.
• Culture shock by them, got 4th in the end. 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 lost. Quite a good experience and I like their system for organising.
• Seems like Vivian decided not to camp in the end as she hasn't fully recovered from the last time. It also started to rain, so I didn't bother going back to join the guys to camp since there isn't much stuff I want to get and partially also I wanted to stay behind and look after her.

31th Dec

• Took a new route, lots of competition as everyone pushed and trampled their way through.
• It's scary how some of them have good stamina.
• As expected of the new route, we actually reached the venue faster than the other route we've been taking for the past 2 days.
• Got separated from Vivian because of the crowd. but met with Shawn in the other train.
• I almost died of suffocation and lack of oxygen in the train.
• Caught up and somehow wasn't too far behind the abandoned Vivian. Went to hijack the queue and companied her.
• Lots of pushing and shoving once again, tried my best to fend off the attacks.
• Got in and started to rush to buy stuff for Vivian. And I actually bought the wrong stuff, orz...
• The rest of the stuff were fine.
• Got distracted a lot of times and end up queuing for stuff on impulse.
• To make matters worse, my brain says to buy one, but my mouth always says two.
• End up buying more stuff than I planned to. My initial plan was just to get tabgraphic and T2. Ended up getting other stuff like Essentia's set and more random doujinshis because the art was good.
• Went back to the hostel and it's time for recovery mode for "Day 4"?

Nabe Night

Didn't really do much today. All we did was eat, cook, eat and eat.

28th Dec

• Somehow talked about fast food restaurants and decided to give KFC a go.
• No spicy recipe there, but oh well~ It's Japan.
• The chicken is damn oily. So oily, I'm never going to eat it ever again.
• Decided to explore a bit of Asakusa.
• Bought my first taiyaki. Uguu!~
• And off to the supermarket to buy ingredients for our Nabe night. =D
• Fruits are like on steroids here and are expensive.
• Booze is cheaper here compared to Singapore on the other hand.
• Back to the hostel and our chef, Eddie, prepared the nabe session.
• The food was great and hopefully we can do it again next time.