testing Blogger 2.0 app + recent sewing

after trying countless third party blogger apps, i decided to try the official blogger app again because there was an updated version announcement on the pc dashboard. i did not expect it was gonna be this good!

blogger app interface has become more user friendly and had really smooth navigation. no more confusing menu and no more single photo limit. its easy and fast to blog and drafts are even synced from/to the pc dashboard.

weakness of the app is that you cannot arrange where the image appears, and you have to key in labels without auto-complete. temporary solution would be to save your post as draft and arrange the images from pc (which defeats the purpose of mobile app).

anyway, recently i spared a little time from uni to do simple sewing projects. first up, a simple organza petti with lace trim. it does not hold much poof but works well if layered. second one is a dress modification. i cut a long dress diagonally to achieve that asymetrical design and sealed the edge with cotton piping.

i look forward to blogging more!
またね(≧▽≦)ﾉ))

Welcoming Myself

It seems as if I have fallen off the face of earth or sucked out of the earth gravitational atmosphere for what seems like an eternity, but it was only truly been 6 long months; not that I was that much active in blogging within the previous year - I was scandalously on Tumblr because Neil Gaiman was there too. Hello, Neil (if you happen to be reading this)!

Despite the lack of words that I put on my Tumblr blog (you may always pay me a visit here for pictorial content: http://tumblr.akikowolf.com) I feel somewhat a lot more motivated and more content to be back on Blogger platform where my words can reign freely - of course, you can have many words on Tumblr as well but I prefer to watch the intelligence revolving beneath Tumblr posts.

Oh, before I wander further... Welcome back, dear Readers! Well, there are about a hundred daily unique visitors to my dead blog, so I doubt you have read me before this post. Nevertheless, welcome. The odds are with you. You might recognise this from my still-active Twitter display photo (@akikowolf) but anyway, here is a picture of me with a frozen smile:
(P.S. please ignore the flourescent error.)

testing BlogIt app

since i have not touched the home PC recently (where i usually update my blog from) and i was experiencing some errors on the Blogaway app, i seem to have abandoned my blog and updating my tumblr blog more than my blogger one.

now that i found a new app called BlogIt, i am curious to see how well it works. does it publish? does it upload images? only one way to find out!

here is a camwhore pic from a couple weeks ago. by now i have already bleached out the pink.

tumblr

i am on tumblr! follow me at:

http://tumblr.akikowolf.com

tick tock! thought thoughts.

tick tock!

with the amount of time i spent on the computer online recently (it was my semester break after all), it generated a totally unequal amount of blogging done over the past weeks and lack of sewing too. tsk tsk, truly a disappointment. it was only today that i felt, time flew a little too fast. then was the moment it hit me that time has been taken for granted again and the new semester is approaching soon - monday!

with time running out, i even squeezed two posts in to one. so let's get started with the first one, which is about the past. well, not the past as in one decade or two millennium ago kind of past, but a recent update.

zombie farm by play forge. heard of it? this month is the first anniversary of the game so the valentine grand prize will be the apple ipod touch 4G - but it would be something impossible to attain since (1) i do not have a facebook account to submit an entry and (2) grand prize is only for USA residents.  though, i would like to win the zombie farm printed tee since they accept international winners with USA address.

thought thoughts.

it's sem break! day 17

lazy day!

there was not much done today, but tomorrow i will be helping mummy to make snowskin mooncakes for this week's mid-autumn festival. snowskin mooncakes are no-bake mooncakes which are simply chilled after removed from the mooncake mould. not only they are delicious, you can save a lot with home-made ones because confectioneries sell them quite expensive due to high demand.

later at night, i was blog hopping. i was reading several lolita blogs at one time including blogs by Caro-chan and Victoria Suzanne. suddenly, one of the articles made me realise something about Bodyline fabric/print. for the past couple months, i have been browsing many, many local fabric blogshops. one of the print from Bodyline in 2008 matched a print i found sold in the blogshops!

the Bodyline JSK+headdress and tote bag print in white.

it's sem break! day 2

it is embarassing to admit, but i honestly did not manage to do any sewing projects today. i was occupied online. very occupied. *serious face* *ter-laugh*

due to unstable server issues over at Bodyline's international site, they have announced an extension for the 50% off sale. there were a few latecomers who were interested to place an order for the sale period, so i arranged a second sale group order for them. (yay~ achieved productivity by one point here: customer service.)

somewhere in mid-day, i was bored and because i can, i went over to my domain DNS to mess around and *POOF* i have a new subdomain. you can view the new blog here: http://shop.akikowolf.com (it looks pretty but it's empty). i do not have an official purpose for it; i just wanted to made sure i had something productive done - learning to mess with DNS settings. (half point for effort here. haha~)

the bizarrest of events

two nights ago i was climbing up the stairs to the first floor and it faces a window directly. that night, there was a surprisingly bright source of light from the sky outside. i walked up to the window, looked out of the window, and i thought the sun had replaced the moon - for the moon was as bright, as white and as round as ever!

the next night, or yesternight, i peeked out of the window again and i saw that the moon was a quarter percent less bright, a quarter percent more yellow, and a little less than a perfect circle. little did i know, i hope now, it could have been lady luck shining on me!

(warning: seriously long stretch of text.)

$$$

yay~ the second Nuffnang cheque had arrived last week... now, time to renew domain! (silly girl, who shares their cheques in full view of the public? well, you cannot duplicate it if i already deposit the cheque to my account.)

oh, but, one-year or two-year domain renewal? hmm...

Nuffnang cheques for my domain!

1 july update: Nuffnang tells me that the cheque is on the way!

congratulations to myself! haha~

my blog has earned RM124.50 since August 2008 from Nuffnang (minus RM2, as each withdrawal transaction costs RM1) until now. it doesn't matter that many other Nuffies earn fivefold compared to mine.

the first cheque was from my previous blogspot URL, while the second cheque is from my current domain URL. today is one month since i requested for my second cheque, which will be arriving in July.

this is my first Nuffnang cheque in 2009!

you might wonder, what might i spend the cheque on?

Pos Malaysia postage services and their differences

as a seller providing online shopping services (and selling some second-hand items), i have been using "pos express" and "pos laju" to reach my customers. since march 2010, i have been taking a break from providing online shopping services to concentrate on my final semester studies and also to refine my services.

now that i have returned to the usual business, i have heard of this e-parcel gaining popularity among other sellers who uses this postage method. however, there are also many people who are confused about what is the difference of e-parcel postage compared to other Pos Malaysia services (pos daftar, pos express, pos laju) whether you are a seller or buyer.

(click image for full view.)

thus i have decided to do a quick read around about what are these methods all about, and simplified my understanding in the table as you see above. so now, whether a seller or a buyer, i hope the table has helped you understand what method of postage is most suitable for you! you may share the table with people whom you feel would benefit from the information, but do NOT remove the credits to my blog!

p.s. yes, i am back with Bodyline Japan shopping services! click here to find out more~

past cosplay & ACG events of 2009 (part 2)

part one (january until may 2009) of the same post is found here.

time to clean up the cluttered events list! here are past events ranging from june until december 2009 in malaysia!

• may 29 - june 7: MOVIE CARNIVAL @ SUNWAY PYRAMID new wing, orange & blue atrium (10am-10pm)
• june 6-7: DOUJINFAIR 2009 @ LEO'S CAFE 3rd floor, lowyat plaza (12pm-6pm) Entry RM5/day
•  june 6-7: IchiBANZAI @ KDU penang (11am-7pm)
• june 12-14: GAMES & GADGET 2009 @ MID VALLEY EXHIBITION CENTRE level3 (11am-9pm *8pm on sunday)
• june 27-28: ANIMANGAKI @ SUNWAY UNI multi purpose hall (9am-6pm) Entry RM8/day OR RM5/day/cosplayer
• july 3-5: GameHub @ PERSADA johor
• july 11-12: DAICON @ MMU grand hall, cyberjaya (11am-6pm)
• july 11-12: COSFEST VIII @ DOWNTOWN EAST singapore
• aug 15-16: GACC2009 @ MMU exam hall, melaka (10am-7pm)
• sept 26: Asaban Fest @ TAYLORS UC main campus, ss15 (11am-11pm)
• sept 6-27 (sunday only): ANICOM @ SUNGEI WANG PLAZA t-hop 6th floor (3pm)
• oct 10: Animax Event of the Year @ BERJAYA TIMES SQUARE boulevard (11am-6pm)
• nov 14-15: Anime Hanabi Festival 祭 @ BERJAYA TIMES SQUARE 6th floor (10am-8pm)
• nov 19-22: ACGC FINALE @ KLCC hall 5 (11am-7pm) postponed indefinitely
  
• nov 21-22: AFA09 @ SUNTEC CENTRE hall 403-404, singapore
• dec 19-20: Comic Fiesta @ SUNWAY PYRAMID

Happy new year 2010! -resolutions-

the new year seem to have arrived without doubt, continuing since the beginning of time, going on tirelessly and effortlessly.

thus, it is now time for some new year resolutions! let's get started~

1. be on time! i'm almost always late for everything. late to wake up, late to get ready, late to go, late to start, late to finish up... this year i vow to be on time! (you might notice i did not mention "late to bed". haha~)
2. save money! i know i spend a lot of money, so i have to save even more! i will do my best to save RM10 at the end of each week, consistently, so if i spend RM5000 a year (no matter equal, more or less spent), i should save at least RM500.
3. no breaking the piggy bank for monies!
   
4. more kitchen time! and i don't mean eating and cleaning the dishes! i want to learn more baking and bento-making because they are fun to make~ plus, they make me happy. =^__^=
5. practice bass guitar regularly! recently i have joined a cosplay band who plans to make our first live performance in april this year. other than the dust, you clearly see why i must practice more so that i can learn to play better.
6. earn my first RM100 cheque from Nuffnang. okay, i know its not my first cheque, but it would be my first RM100 cheque. i hope akikowolf.com will increase its value by RM20-50 each year from ad revenue~ that means i need to blog regularly!
7. complete my past and present cosplays. i am in my third-fourth-ish cosplay year now and i believe i must have a dozen or more costumes by now. however, not all are completed 100%. so, that means no more new characters this year (or until i am done with the past costumes)!
8. keep up my online shopping service. there is a super duper marginal profit from the online shopping service that i provide. i dont plan to make it big, but maybe i should make it less charitable and more business-like.
   
9. *to be continued, if any*

Blogger jump break... finally!

just last night, kclee informed me that his site went haywire but i said i saw it fine. then he pointed out the Read more link on the most recent post and that the sidebar was pushed to the bottom of the page.

first i was, OMG BLOGGER HAS JUMP BREAK NOW? (after some digging up, i read that the feature was available since 09-09-09.)

then i started to deduct that the width of the layout column was too small after adding the break, thus the sidebar moved.

tsuzuku means "continued" in japanese. often you will see this word at the end of j-dorama episodes.

however, once i started to test it on my own blog, i began to encounter similar issue too. but my problem hardly affected my blog asthetics at all. in fact, i did not notice it until i scrolled all the way down.

thank you for your support!

by 21 june, my blog ALIS has finally been visited and read by more than..

10,000k unique visitors+readers!

thank you so much to everybody! i sincerely appreciate your support for the past two years plus that i have been blogging and randomly changing layouts and adding more annoying sidebar clutter as time goes by.

i also want to use this opportunity to thank you guys for helping me to collect...

my first RM50+ from nuffnang ads!

i have requested for my first cheque on the 25 june, so i should be receiving my precious nuffnang letter by the end of july, as all earnings are only checked out on the last day of the month when the cheque was requested.

and guess what? that means i finally have funds for my own domain in the near future~ before we go there, i want to take the time to...

thank blogger for hosting my weblog!

as for my domain, i have a few ideas floating in my head, and probably will choose one based on something i heard on K-ON anime. however, if you have a suggestion (.com, .net, .org) please leave me a comment! i plan to get a dotnet domain.

once again, thank you for reading! you may follow me at other freelistings at:

• @ Deviantart
• @ Photobucket
• @ Twitter
• @ Youtube
• Comic Fiesta Forum (CF)
• The Cosplay Club (TCC)

past cosplay & acg events of 2009

i was just wanting to remove the past events (in chronological order top to bottom) that have graced the whole first half of the year 2009 from the sidebar list, so i thought i had better place it somewhere else... for instance, here. XD

• jan 10-11: Youth09 @ PWTC kuala lumpur (10.30am-9.30pm)
• feb 14: MINI ANIME FAIR @ UKM kolej keris mas, convention room (11am-3pm)
• mar 5: BUNKASAI FESTIVAL @ UCSI north wing campus (1pm-11pm)
• mar 6: Anime-Me II @ FAHRENHEIT desa sri hartamas (8pm-12am)
• mar 15: SEALONLINE LAUNCH & BY2 @ BERJAYA TIMES SQUARE lower ground floor (1.30pm)
• march 19-22: Hotlink Games & Anime Festival @ BERJAYA TIMES SQUARE
• mar 21: JRockのTamashii @ REPUBLIC BAR sunway pyramid (6pm) Entry RM25-30
• mar 21-22: ACGC @ TROPICANA CITY MALL (11am-9pm)
• april 14-16: GACC lite @ MMU main hall, melaka (10am-10pm)
• may 16: C2AGE @ HELP UNI bangsar (10.30am-6pm)

events that i have attended from the list above are:

1. march 15: SEALONLINE LAUNCH - cosplay: ryomou shimei (ikki tousen). but i have to say i was more of working instead of a visitor to the event, and my booth was passed to ywsmokona's members.
2. march 19-22: HGAF - cosplay: none. i have to say i was not very excited about this event. i only went to have a peek on friday, i never actually 'attended' the event.
3. march 21-22: ACGC - cosplay: tsubaki (soul eater). the reason that i was not at HGAF was because i paid full attention to ACGC instead. joined the cosplay competition with skypegasus and opened Unicornz booth as usual.
4. march 21: JRockのTamashii - cosplay: n/a. the other reason i did not have time for HGAF was because i also attended a j-rock music event on the same weekend! i was with minori and we drank this huge glass of alcohol. hahah~

apparently i have been attending events in march only so far in 2009; as for may and june, i'm afraid i have to say i wont be able to attend any events (especially because they are all on the weekends) as i will be working again. its been so long.

[ ALIS ] March report

"wah, since when did your blog become so boring must have monthly report wan?" you might think. but no, i simply adore my web counter to mywebstats.org which i last reviewed here. so i am showing you what information i managed to collect with the counter after almost a month. (its interesting yo~)

---

By traffic: Month

Date	Page Views	Unique Visitors
March 2009	1138	747

since i was blogging a lot less in march, i suppose i'll have to be satisfied with 700+ uniques instead of the average 1k previously. oh well, at least 1k+ hits to console myself with. D:

---

By system: Browser language (top 10 out *of almost 70*)

Browser Language	Unique Visitors (%)
English / United States	63.3%
English / United Kingdom	22.6%
French	6.1%
Japanese	3.4%
German / Germany	2.7%
English	1.9%
Spanish / Spain	1.9%
German	1.7%
English / Malaysia	1.6%
Portuguese / Brazil	1.5%

hah! i had not realised that the french and japanese visits my blog too. but since it can record up to 50 languages, these are the languages that did not make up most of my readers (less than 1.4% or minimum 5 readers): Polish, Chinese, Italian, Russian, Turkish. i guess the language barrier does not matter in the cyberworld. XD *note: not all languages represent the country of origin*

---

By website: Referer (*out of 130+ links!*)
most of them are images.google.com and google.com multinational extensions. making to the top 50 the entire list were about 30 blogs (most, if not all, are friend's blogs).

OMG. i made a HUEG mistake. i just counted. mywebstats.org records way more than 50 data per category! (i assumed it was 50 coz i could not care less to count.) please forgive my inaccuracy. all you people must start loving mywebstats.org NOW. *bow*

anyway, one item that got me puzzling was this (ranked at about #80+ today, but has been recorded since march):

Traffic by Referer	Unique Visitors
daiconnews.com	1

---

well, there are many other categories in each traffic, system and website, but we dont want a long post long, right? (perhaps i'll next research how many words is best for a post, minimum and maximum. XD)

[scheduled] April's Fool!

my my, look at the time. we certainly had a long day today no? of course my post here was a hoax. you dint think i was going to give up at the last minute, right? the thing about me is that if i say i will, then i will. like the prime minister (pak lah) said on TheStar front page today, we both have problems with punctuality. in my case, sure i will do something, but more often than not, i will be done a little later or past the deadline.

oh, Comic Fiesta forum had a really boring april's fool day too, as you can see from the below screen shots:

the most boring CF forum!

the most boring CF members!

daicon got pwned by ninjin too! XD

also,
Paris Hilton organises a Cosplay Competition like so her style! - Isn't that super Cool ?! LIEK TOTALLY~
Recruiting ELITISTS for CF09 Community! - Volunteers will +cool by 100.

btw, CF forum as of midnight:

only one subforum survived the boredom title!

hope you had fun getting rickrolled.

quitting.

hi emo post here.

i have been thinking for a while now. just so you know the timeline, i started my diploma in may 2007, and now am in the final (sixth) semester before i graduate.

since i have been struggling between studying for my diploma and working part time, i am putting my foot down and i dont want to study anymore. media studies is irrelevant to the mass communication industry, and it is not even close to the field i thought it was when i first registered. the people in my class are horrible - nobody bothers me, talk to me, help me, or do any work for assignments. they are just a whole bunch of crappy people who are afraid to speak up to me just because i am their course rep and not bat an eye until i do everything. yeah you heard that right, i am not the assistant course rep anymore.

after tomorrow, i wont be going to classes (coz today i will be going to the college to submit forms for withdrawal from this course). i will continue my part time work and take up short courses that have offered me scholarships (flight attendant training and baking course - specialized in baking only, no cooking melc, you might want to try this when you are back). next year, i hope i'll be flying in JAL (as they are not accepting malaysian stewardess until 2010).

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?