a pair of two

since it takes forever for me to upload photos for two recent events (ACGC Tropicana and JRock no Tamashii) i think i'll just blog a teaser post before the actual ones.

ACGC 2009 @ Tropicana City Mall

here is a photo of two cute guys i met - their names will be withheld in case they are stalked for their likeliness. the left one is from sunway uni coll, the right one is from my college.

fraternal twins? brothers? dont they look alike?~

they have never met before ACGC, and even then i did not allow them to look at each other until they were close enough to get this photo. so you can see how their smile are almost similar naturally. (same hair parting too.) XD

JRock の Tamashii @ Republic Bar, Sunway

following the theme of this post, i shall share this with you too:

from left: me and minori at JRock~ (photo by dustyhawk)

in a totally unrelated event, here is someone who i resemble (but only when i have makeup, in a bar/club, and giving that full set of teef smile):

from right: amanda (coursemate) and her pwetty friend~ (photo by amanda)

*continues to edit photos and update the two events in draft*

17" anime lanyards

i just have to add this to my wishlist coz im a sucker for things that i dont really need. but lanyards are an exception! coz im currently using a cheap bright green and firey one (i know, the combination, tsktsk).

these are from ACGstore.com, and there are three designs/series that i would love to have hanging over my neck! (i can help) you can order one (or more!) from lowiesclw here. (only RM7 each!)

Soul Eater

Code Geass

Ikki Tousen (Battle Vixens)

the full list of designs are found here! (bleach, dynasty warrior, gundam 00, hitman reborn, naruto, one piece, shugo chara.) i want the code geass most. oh the joy!

2 wigs + 2 boys = birthday dinner

no, it wasnt a cannibal festival! yesterday, i just restyled my pink and maroon wigs, and celebrated reno and dante's birthday in TGIF's tradition!

thats reno-san and dante margera whose birthdays were in the month of march, along with space-chan and 9gems.

during last night's Earth Hour, we decided to bring out the cake for reno and dante just before 9.30pm (when the lights would come back on). gosh, i've never had a more fun dinner with funny staffs helping us to make the celebration more special. *applaud*

group photo at the table!

nobody knew my camera was on burst mode!

everybody tired of staying in the same pose for ten burst shots!

the TGIF waitress began to move away!

appetizer #1: mac and cheese! (really soft and melt-in-your-mouth~)

appertizer #2: boneless chicken wings with celery sticks and cheese dip (lots of vinegar flavour~)

final group photo before we parted~

reno, dante, beat, guki, clow, stardust, deidara, skypegasus, zyms, zend: i was really glad to meet you guys! reno: i hope you like the present and, happy 20th birthday! dante: gomen ne, i did not know it was your birthday too, but happy birthday yeah! *dances*

oh wait, i left out one guy. who was the guest behind beat in the last photo? ;_;

TheStar awarded me with RM50 today!

kilmenyanne and i were driving to the LRT yesterday morning when i noticed there was HUGE water "fountain" at the petrol station just before we turn off to the highway. i immediately whipped out my trusty canon camera from my backpack (coincidentally, i brought it with me since it contained ACGC photos) and instructed her to drive slower as i take a few shots.

#1: thiiiiis far away...

#2: thiiis close...

#3: final attempt!

right after this shot, the traffic light turned green so i had no choice but to be content with three photos only. i quickly panicked as i needed to send them to TheStar ASAP, but i have no laptop and wifi in the car, nor do i have the camera USB cable! thanks to visha, we managed to view the photos directly from the camera's memory card in her laptop connection but i guess, the images were too large to upload with campus wifi.

after that, i noticed that the photos were rendered incompatible to view after i inserted the memory card back in the camera! so kilmenyanne and i went to her home and used her card reader to email directly to TheStar around 2pm. i thought it has becomed a norm to see broken public facilities in malaysia, so i did not expect them to publish my photo, what more as the winning entry.

today, after i got home, kilmenyanne rang me up and hinted me to check TheStar Thumbnails page. it turned out that my photo has been chosen as the winning entry of the day! *happy*

this page/photo was also featured on thestar.com.my website here.

oh, the winning entry wins RM50 for the photograph. that means me. XD

new web counter

since i have changed to a new layout as of the 3-column transformation, i decided to ditch bravenet counter as it keeps advertising itself. i mean, cant they just link to bravenet by the counter image??

so now i place my new counter on the top left, and it does not advertise itself nor anything else (other than a humble backlink). hit-counter company, see yet? if you give it easy to us, we'll put you on top of the page! also, since i am so satisfied by the new counter, imma gonna write a post for mywebstats.org! *happy*

in the large competitive world of web counters, why do i choose to use mywebstats.org instead of others? since this is a free counter, more often than not, there are more disadvantages than advantages. but if it bugs you, then get a paid counter lah!

what mywebstats.org offer:

• FREE!
• MINIMAL backlink to website.
  
• NO ads! actually, the choice is yours - you can select visible or invisible ad.
• CUSTOM counter design! DIY or make-your-own counter, with choice of colors and sizes and stuff (if the default designs dont suit your site).
• STATS by hits and uniques, and choice of start digit (so you can continue at the number of your previous counter i.e. 7440).
• REPORTS by traffic (hour, day, and up to 12 months!), website (where traffic come from and which of your web pages were visited) and system (browser, OS, screen reso, color depth, language).
  
• UPDATED instantly! (counter reports only a few minutes behind the actual time.)
  

the thing i like about mywebstats.org counter (obviously other than free, no ads, and updated) is the website report. since i get a lot of hits and uniques, the 10 links on bravenet report fills up too quickly. the new counter keeps track upto 50 links! click here to compare:
- bravenet: recent hits (last 10 only)
- mywebstats: referers (last 50 links!)

not only that, since this is a blog, when i click on mywebstats webpage report (which bravenet lack), i know which posts are most viewed - that means popularity of which posts! if you are curious, my most popular links are this and this with 34 and 25 views each since march 2009 (as of press time).

honestly, these all are good enough for me. what else would you ask from a free web counter?

[WIP] cosplay props & costume

want to get an insight on how i make my cosplay props? i have photos and instructions in 10 steps if you want to try any! as for my costumes, sorry, i cant really teach you that, but you can have a look!

liz thompson - soul eater
thompson sisters hats.
event: future.

incomplete: cut out all the patterns for two hats
completed: patches on back of pants (already sewn the front last CF08)

ryomou shimei - ikkitousen
earring, cross choker, wig.
event: emina cosplay photoshoot.

making the earring:
1. prepare tools (pencil, coin fishing line, paper, compass) and material (i used silver coloured sculpey bought from art friends).

2. yinyang shape - draw "figure 8" with two identical coins (choose the coin according to the size that you want your earring to be). then use compass to draw around the figure 8.
3. cut out accordingly - there should be two pieces, a yin and a yang.

4. peel one part of sculpey (its a small earring but you need a minimum 6mm or 1/4in thickness to bake at 130degreesC for 10-15minutes).

5. put the sculpey between plastic sheet (so that your tools dont get dirty) and roll its flat (remember: 6mm thickness is recommended minimum!)

6. sandwich the flat sculpey between the yinyang cut outs. then cut with fishing line along the border (its okay if the shape runs - you can use your finger to fine tune it later).

7. use a needle to pull the fishing line through the middle and cut out a tiny hole.

8. take an earring hook (buy from art friends) and push it in at the top.

9. place on baking sheet to bake at 130degreeC for 10-15 minutes in OVEN only, NO microwave oven. (depending on the heat in your oven you may take more or less time - but STAY WATCH at all times - when smoke start emitting from your clay or oven, (a) you die from the fumes, (b) your clay is overbaked, (c) your oven is not useable for food!)

10. remove from oven, let it cool, and then varnish (with sculpey's own finish)
completed: earring and cross pendant (for choker, also a baked sculpey) - photo refer to misato below.
incomplete: wig (still need it shorter)

misato - neon genesis evangelion
cross choker (cheated! re-use ryomou's choker).
event: GACC/daicon.

completed: silver cross choker

tsubaki - soul eater
axe-sickle with chain (to ponytail), beige dress-coat with double studded belts.
event: ACGC 09 - day 2.

making the axe-sickle with chain:
1. prepare all the materials and tools (paper, artcard, styrofoam, foam cutter, tissue rolls, masking tape, pva glue, scissors, ruler, plastic chain, and reference image!)
2. draft the weapon in life size on a large scrap paper

3. cut out the foam parts for the blade of the axe-sickle. (i suggest you use pins to secure the pattern on the foam so that you cut straight.) i used 2parts for the short side "axe" and 1part for the longer part "sickle"

4. use masking tape to tape them all together roughly (as you just need to have a look at the overall result)

5. when you are lazy, spray silver paint on the plastic chain (bacause plastic chains come in white/red/yellow - i need it to look like metal) and allow to dry (takes a day or so, while you laze around!)

6. wait lar. lazy day.
incomplete: axe-sickle with chain

nemu kurotsuchi - bleach
butterfly, vice captain badge, red bauble-like hair-tie.
event: ACGC 09 - day 1.

making nemu's vice captain badge:

1. prepare the tools and materials needed: thick artcard, normal/tracing paper, pva glue, scissors, life-size pattern (downloadable from here).
2. make copies of the pattern on tracing paper (i used plain paper) until you are sure that is the size that you want. (explains why i have two captain symbol cutouts above.)
3. trace pattern onto the artcard.
4. cut them out accordingly.
5. arrange the patterns properly (double check your kanji is not reversed).
6. glue the back of each piece of pattern starting with the number twelve (in kanji) and captain symbol.
7. get a white armband.
8. attach the badge to your armband with masking tape (you could use more permanent options).
9. wear the armband and badge up the left sleeve of nemu's gi.
10. you are ready to go!

making the butterfly:
gather all your tools and materials: paper, artcard, scissors, double-sided tape. trace the butterfly on paper, then cut it out and place it on your hand to make sure you have gotten the right size. trace the butterfly on artcard, cutout accordingly, and make two folds up the middle neatly. finally, stick double-sided tape under the butterfly and peel off 'smooth' tape when need to use. carefully remove the double-sided tape when no longer sticky, and replace with a new strip.

completed: 12th vice captain badge, shadow butterfly

* i'll upload some MORE photos later. very the tired from full-day photoshoot with EMINA.

site under construction - again!

please be patient - i am currently experimenting with three-column blog template. you, on the other hand, may experience distorted layout and mis-matched color scheme.

i hope its a lot neater with the widgets all organized into two. the font size needs to be fixed though. hmm.

much, much, much special thanks to:
- webtalks for the 3-column ms moto blogger template!
- customtemplates for the helpful tips on How To Save Your Blogger Widgets!

the disappearance of akiko's post(s)

apparently, when i click on "publish" a post, it does not get published AND the post disappears off "edit posts" page! luckily, i copy+paste the text and started a new post, click publish, and same thing happens! on the third try (copy+paste into new post) i saved it as draft. then i clicked "show drafts" and guess what?

i saw three identical posts - draft and including the two that i thought had disappeared! before i publish them it *again*, imma testing with this post. *cross my fingers* (but if the previous post get published, the presstime is before today.)

oh, i also changed the entire blogtext font size. shrunken it. cuter deshou? coz everytime i view in 800x600 in IE, my blog looks like a kindergarden book - the texts were so bloody HUEG.

EDIT: yay! "disappearing" post has been published successfully! read here.

music events in march!

three live performances, two japanese bands, six jrock bands, seven more local bands, and lots of music for everybody!

Groove In Motion II
Date: 1 March 2009
Time: 4pm onwards
Venue: 歌丽城 Launge, Jalan 21/19, PJ Seapark
Fee: RM15
Bands featured: Hybrid, Armistice, Zounds, Zeolite, Nao, AsnaiveKiller, D'Chimie.

Anime-Me IIDate: 6 March 2009
Time: 8pm - 12am
Venue: Fahrenheit, Desa Sri Hartamas
Fee: Free
Bands featured: John's Mistress (KL), Samurai (Japan)

JRock の Tamashii
Date: 21 March 2009
Time: 6pm onwards
Venue: RepublicBar, Sunway Pyramid
Fee: RM25 (presale 1-15 March) or RM30 (gate sale)
Bands featured: Mage (guest artist), Kawaii Sakura, Gemini, Flicked Mind, Miniature Garden, Strawberry Jam, Drako'Zen, Endless Eternal.