cookie cutter craze!

last week i was browsing some unique cookie cutter designs, and decided i wanted to bake some cookies but the kitchen ran out of flour and i want new cookie cutter shapes. last tuesday, i took the chance to buy a packet of cookie flour at Daiso when minori and i were out for a lunch date. in the meantime, i fell hopelessly for the macaron gashapon, so i bought one as a phone accessory.

my new macaron handphone strap was randomly spat out from the gashapon machine, and i received the main character on my first and only try. i also bought two cabochon of (pirated) Sugarbunnies and DIY them into rings. it seems i still have one last plain undecorated ring - what should i stick on it?

DaiCon Preparation Guide!

*SCREAMS* i bet you must have heard about DaiCon left and right; north, south, east, west. if not, then you may return under the stone where you came from.

it is official - there are THREE (3) days before the much awaited event. and who cares if i am not an associated blogger featured on the front homepage for DaiCon? i still have loyal readers and random visitors - thank you so much for your support!

only today, DaiCon website has been fully updated about many vital information. but what if you get information overload? no problem - allow me to guide you! XD


DaiCon Preparation Guide!

1. bookmark DaiCon's website - because it looks pwetty. oh and, do some clicking exercise (there are SO many pages to flip click). plus, after the event, i am sure you want to read the front page message "THANK YOU FOR COMING TO DAICON!" (even AFA08 did that.)

2. check event schedule - find out when are which activities you want to participate, and clear your planner for the day! if you are driving there, you may need to know how to get there and what is the visitor's pass for.

if you are going by public transport, you may catch the charter bus service (from Trader's Hotel to MMU Cyberjaya) or by rapidKL bus/train.

3. bring some lots of cash - because they won't use credit card. jeez. of course, you might want to do some shopping at the doujin booths and KKnM! this is the floor plan:

stairs to 1st floor(left) and wall of gashapon(right). (entrance #1 far right, but out of frame.)

daicon booth(left), entrance #2 (centre), info counter(right).

HALF of an undecorated Grand Hall of MMU! far left: maid cafe!

4. pack your bags+1 - casual visitors, cosplayers, and contestants alike: do remember to bring all your necessities (as cyberjaya is a tad far from your friendly neighbourhood anything), forms, CDs, art supply, modelling kit, and AWSM/ELITE tickets for Minorin! oh and, cameras, batteries, phones (to call for help when in case you get lost in Cyberjaya).

remember to bring a spare shirt (as the food stalls are outdoors, so you may get sweaty) and at least one extra bag (for chucking in everything in - you may be tired out by 6pm to arrange things neatly).

5. have fun at DaiCon - and meet me there! XD

although i am not an official member of EMiNA (DaiCon's organizer), you may leave me a comment and i will try to answer or redirect you to the contact us page. otherwise, you better go back to your bookmarked webpage at #1.

a K-ON inspired day out.

*refer to K-ON episode 2*

this morning i was at minori's place to watch her play the piano and her beloved ESP electric guitar. (black and glossy!) after that, we had a "test drive" around her housing area and back. if the car was mine, no prizes for guessing who was taking the test drive. XD

once we were in the carpark of mid valley, we went many many times around for a parking lot. strangely, we bumped (NOT physically, mind you!) into a big white car aka the same person. guess what? the third time we saw him, he was walking to the escalator - which means he found a parking lot first and we did not! and the fourth time... i'll save it for later.

akiko and minori were here!

our purpose in mid valley today was to:

• window shop for particular musical instruments and get the best (aka cheapest) price.
• shop for some unnecessary things to buy.
• have lunch.

to our surprise instead, our day went like this:

• make first purchase! (mine totalled RM2, hers RM2.50) lol.
  
• sweep floor by floor for any gashapon/figures and music instrument shops.
• take note of prices (for guitar, bass, and drums).
  
• withdraw money from ATM. (RM50~)
  
• have quick lunch. (onigiri bento and apple juice~)
  
• buy gashapons! (ultimate action evangelion 1.0 series)
  
• play taiko (my first)!
  

onigiri bento~ (the staff forced us to choose fork&spoon OR chopsticks)

for your information, we spend a splendid amount in jusco... both the supermarket (lunch actually) and arcade (gashapons and taiko). we went to McD for free tissue and straws (for our drinks). then, i managed to roll out the evangelion fourth angel (which probably contained the most parts i ever saw in a gashapon)!

its like fixing a gundam kit! how is the above to look like the below...!

Evangelion 4th Angel SACHIEL.

speaking of "fourth"... the fourth time we saw that man from the big white car (we noticed he was wearing a pinstriped white shirt too) was in Yamaha - while we were browsing for the prices, he was sitting in there testing a classic-looking electric guitar and repeated asked the Yamaha staff, "are you sure cannot give me another 5% discount ah?" i thought, mister you can drive a big fat car in the OPPOSITE direction at the P2 carpark, you want further discount at Yamaha?

anyway, that was our K-ON inspired day out. (except the number "4" which appeared a few times.)

ALIS's next blogtop for eva!

(ignore the impromtu abbreviation of autumn leaves in summer. and pardon me if you accidentally got some dirty thoughts.)

yay~ finally found some time to work on the new blogtop! after the old pinkish haruhi suzumiya no yuutsu gashapon series, i decided to take on evangelion gashapon series! unfortunately...

as luck would have it, i have several repeats of the current evangelion gashapon series.. leaving two more to go - but the one i want most is rei! anyhow, i'll upload the new blogtop without her until i get lucky - like a trade or something. unlike the previous blogtop, i edited my name to turn out embossed - due to the fact i was lazy to get the evangelion red-orange gradient right.

oh and yes, the photoshop skill was terrible coz i simply mashed four individual shots together. i dint have any group photos of them.. yet. (still hopefully waiting for rei!) btw since these are non-scaled gashapon figures, misato is actually larger than the rest of the figures. also, i dint shoot them in macro mode so the photos may turn out noise-y.

shinji and penpen

asuka langley - plugsuit

misato (and her beer can XD)

hikari~

nagato yuki - space captain!

nagato yuki - seifuku bespectacled version

random negima figurine from a random weekend vacation! XD

EDIT: not only that.. by midnight, i've completely redone the whole pinky default blogger template to a greyscale version by yours truly! i know what people think about grey, but im special! XD *wink*

cineleisure damansara - comiworld 2007!

day 1: 18 august 2007
my oh my.. i have a class presentation at 10am and there are three events all happening on the same day/weekend! namely, paradise kiss fashion design competition finals (today) in 1utama, gempakstarz's comic carnival (18-20 august 2007) at sungei wang plaza, and comiworld (18-20 august 2007) at cineleisure! decisions, decisions.

after my gothic lolita presentation, around 1.30pm, i hopped on the LRT with my coursemate and his friend (both cosplaying too) to kelana jaya terminal. there we waited for a little more than half an hour before we caught the (free) shuttle bus to ikano. by the time we arrived in cineleisure, it was a quarter past three o'clock and a stalker had stopped following us. (hey, they made him sound like one, not me!) as my first time going there, lucky i dint cause my two friends to get lost on the way with me. (thanks to BD and anonymous persons who gave us directions.)

when i met up with mizuiro, moomoocow, amaterasu and manjixsama, we split up so to change into the costumes. then, there were mini events on the stage such as appearance of the malay dubbed doraemon and crayon shin chan voice actor, and quiz thingy. (one was hosted in malay and the others in chinese - neither interested me.) while shooting on the move thanks to moomoocow for the batteries, i kept an eye for familiar faces and bumped into a number of them - ayase, kikyo, kenji, may, misao, meamizumo, wild, yan (yen?), and more.. (face recognition overload! >_<)

dear me, i was mistaken as enma ai for the second time i was cosplaying as sachiko. (watch the hair! enma has layered fringe while sachiko has side parting. in the first place, the seifuku has different-coloured scarf.) so then, we went round and round cineleisure, since ive never been there before. guess what i found? tons and tons of gashapon lined up at each anime/manga/hobby shop! luckily i couldnt be tempted - i left my purse in the bag in outpost, which is on the highest floor.
not forgetting the many doujinshi booths, fun & games booth (by animax, i think) and, did i mention gashapon? XD there was one artist who randomly drew moomoocow and correctly guessed his surname! amaterasu picked up half a dozen 'goldfish' from the paper-fishing thing. i wanted to try, but i couldnt pay rm2 with no cash. manjix got himself a shana 1/6 figure (which im afraid it wasnt original from the looks of it - hey, doesn't mean im 100% correct). finally, mizuiro bought me lunch at 5pm (at a pizza place, lower floor) before we left at 6.30pm.

day 2: 19 august 2007

sunday. mizuiro chose to stay in - and perhaps, it was a blessing in disguise. (we dont know how would she accept three gundam boxes tailing her all day.) we, moomoocow, amaterasu, manjixsama and i, and roamed cineleisure armed with a camera shooting cosplayers (and ourselves - i was costuming haruhi suzumiya, not cosplaying). interestingly, there were a number of pointy-ear characters around:

unidentified girl, pet shop of horrors (frontmost)

unidentified armoured guy (cosplay reg.07)

nekomimi meido (far right) & nekomimi random (ritsuka-loveless?)

inuyasha

there was a large bleach and naruto group. in couples, inuyasha, gundam seed destiny, gintama, code geass, twin lolita (kurozakuro?), etc. small groups of pheonix wright: ace attorney, random ninja, and gundam boxes. there was a cosplay competition at 4pm, but i did not participate.. i'll leave it to your verdict that i wanted to join i but my registeration was late, or i purposedly registered late so that i wouldnt be able to participate. anyway, there were 10 finalist out of perhaps 30 applicants?

cosplayers were assigned two random items each on-the-spot; use it to show and stay in their character. among the items were death note, large inflatable sword, pink umbrella, tamborine, green inflatable poring, obi, "kawaii ne" placard, and plush cow.. (memorably disected by mayuri kurotsuchi dont you feel moved, moomoocow?) please may i have the chii persocom ears, thank you.

i can only wonder who won the cosplay prizes coz i was busy being robbed at an eatery on the third floor - rm2 for the same (or better) currypuff i can get outside for half the price. also, slow and steady wont win the race when you have hungry customers. it took them as much time to get a coke for amaterasu as i use to make four bowls of instant noodle, one-by-one. =_="

at the end of the day, the gundam boxes received scratches from nekomimi meido and nekomimi random (ritsuka?), and flyers pasted on them by cat talez (singapore english manga distributor of chuang yi publications in malaysia - i want my blaue rosen 3! <3)>

Confessions of a College Girl.. II

before i move on to the actual blog post, let me upload these photos that were meant to be released in mid august.

these are my ultra dear harry potter novels coz i dont have any books more expensive than them!

the goose feather pen. my friend received the peacock feather pen and it was almost one metre long. *envy*

group photo! my beloved haruhi gashapon set I & II.

this is asakura ryoko, version: with knife.

presenting.. haruhi, version: white bunny! (i want the one with black stokings though! black/red bunny.)

XD dont ask me why do i spend money and time on these stars. i wish i knew what were the adults giggling about when they heard about me and my stars. count: 500+

i took the liberty to shoot from the cafeteria at college coz i had the camera to take a group photo as required in one of my assignments.

comiworld at cineleisure damansara on 18-19 august 2007! day 2: gundam boxes from haruhi's yellow director's 'cone' sneaky view. XD

destination: photoshoot pt2!

well, actually there wasn't an official part 1 but this is really the second shoot for my gashapon figurines. the first one saw the line up of tsuruya, mikuru and nagato of suzumiya haruhi no yuuutsu (SHNY) but i never had the photos uploaded or even edited. so, now that i have GSD gashapon collection, i decided to round them up for "part 2"!

the SOS-dan line up! a note to SHNY collectors: is there anyone wanting/willing to trade their haruhi (standard or non-standard) for a standard mikuru? (i meant the Bandai PVC gashapon.) from left: mikuru (non-standard), tsuruya (standard), nagato (non-standard). i have explained about them in memopad.co.nr, read "monitors... figures..." for reference. i only wanted haruhi.. Haruhi~~~!!! *total obsession for seifuku*

MIKURU~ help wanted. she will stay trapped in there until somebody pay (trade) me the ransom: HARUHI~! the above is a standard mikuru, so i don't mind if you trade me a standard haruhi (i absolutely don't mind the ponytail version haruhi though).

above is the group from GSD, minus lacus clyne because of two reasons. one, there were no more standing space. two, i actually forgotten to put her into the picture (literally) since she hadn't a partner to stand with. from far left, meer campbell, athrun, gilbert gwendal, taelia gladys, sting oakley and stella.

now this is lacus clyne. the only reason to start GSD collection... well, perhaps the second reason? the other reason would be meer and athrun, coz they both look so good standing next to each other! have a look:
all photographs were taken by yours truly, akiko, in wolf's studio (that's me, you half-wit). please do not steal the images! what in the world did "permission" came into existence for anyway?