There's no internet in my home...

I miraculously survived close to 2 weeks without internet!!

The lack of internet in my last 2 weeks, along with some other things, kinda dampened my will to draw these last few days, so sorry for the lack of updates. Anyway, with my internet addiction satisfied, I've pretty much bounced back up! =D

Also I've got an announcement to make for you people in Kuala Lumpur, if you're free this Sunday with nothing to do and you have an interest in art/anime/manga/games/chat/nothingbettertodo, please do drop by Berjaya Times Square's food court from 2pm onwards for Comic Fiesta's "Coffy Time"!

For more info, please visit http://forums.comicfiesta.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5150

So in a nutshell :

Date: May 2nd 2010
Venue: Berjaya Times Square food court
Time: 2.00pm until 6.00pm. (Actually, till the time everyone leaves.)

I'll be there. Drop by for a chat (or a Pokemon battle XD)!

GACC 2010 4-koma

OMG like one month late!!! Got a few friends requesting this to be posted so I finally got it up, sorry it look so long guys =(

By the way I kinda had no internet last week. Stupid TMNut.

Anyway I have quite a bunch of photos stocked up that I wanna share, but they all belong to different events so will make a few photo posts before comic ones.

So, in GACC 2010 I participated in the 4-koma competition, which unexpectedly, I won. Did not see it coming really as my awesome senpai was in the same competition along with another close friend who I know can draw well, so I expect to fall somewhere below theirs. Anyway, the theme was Boys and Girls. I did this:

...which is based on the Gaijin 4-koma meme. XD Nothing really new, everyone knows the yuri/yaoi fad is famous amongst otakus/fujyoshis. I don't even want to explain what those terms mean, it's not a thing to be very proud of and I'm sure most of you guys can put 2 and 2 together (or Google can help you do it). So you can see, I'm kind of surprised I won.

This was what my senpai did, he didn't win, but I think it deserves to be seen:

Do click the images for a larger version.

I wanna be the very best... at naming.

So there's only 2 things taking up my daily time recently... work and Pokemon. Now Pokemon is not a hard game, so why is this girl taking so long you wonder? Probably because of the fact that she is a girl, and currently a mentally 10 year old girl.

I'll take on the Elite Four for the first time and head off to Kanto tonight... hopefully...

Pos Malaysia Trolls!

Aaaaaand the second comic of the week! =D

Those few wondering what I was ranting about 2 days ago about the Malaysian post... you'll know what happened now.

The situation is, I've been waiting for my NDS Pokemon Soul Silver game to arrive in mail (due this week). I've been camping my postbox around the time the postman delivers everyday since the past week.

I forgot the Pokemon game wasn't the only item due to arrive this week.

I don't know why they send two different guys (both slips have different signatures and postman number) at two different times for two packages that are very similar in size (too big la konon! The one I had to pick up was the lighter of the two!). If you noticed the first slip tells me I can collect the package on the same day he issued the notice, that means he didn't have the package on him. The second slip says I can only collect the package the day after, that means the second postman has my package on hand with him. RRRRAAAAAAAAAGGGGEEEEE!!!!!11111

The second package really was my Pokemon game. Went there early the next day to collect.

Outer box on top right, contents on bottom row. Chibi Lugia plush not part of the package. =D

Now excuse me while I turn into a 10 year old girl again.

Fabric Paint Fail

Hey peeps, sorry for the lack of updates and comic entries last week, been busy until last weekend which was Games, Anime and Comic Convention (GACC) in MMU, Melaka. Might do a GACC entry later but first, to make it up for the lack of updates I'll be doing 2 comic entries this week! YAY! =D Let's start with the first:

This is when I was rushing my costume for GACC:

*table flipping is just an expression, the above table does not exist in my room in real life*

I took a photo of one of the red triangles instead. There were blue and red ones, all pretty much screwed up. I totally didn't factor in the cloth's ability to absorb liquid (even under masking tape).

What's worse, is the cloth looked the same front and back because the paint seeped through, so I sewed the piece inside out (not that it would matter,but it adds to my frustration).

JLPT Level 3 : PASS!

日本語能力試験３級：　合格！

I know, Level 3 is like primary school level, but hey it's still a step forward! =D Will be taking on Level 2/N2 this year! Just collected this cert 3 days ago!

Also yesterday went for the screening of Evangelion 2.0 : You Can (Not) Advance at Cathay Cinemas e-Curve, Damansara!

This is the 2nd movie of the new retelling of the Evangelion series, and the first time I went to a screening with a huge group of fans. It was a different experience, as usually we are expected to shut up and watch movies, but with a group of people with the same wavelength, there were unanimous "oohs" "aahs" "oois" and "NOOOOOOEEEEESSSS!!!" at parts of the movie. It was really enjoyable. Thanks to Linkinstreet for helping us with the tickets!

If you're a fan of the series, or just want to watch for the heck of it, the movie is still on at Cathay Cineplex in e-Curve. Do support and go watch! It may be hard to grasp if you don't know much about the series, but it was a great movie experience. I'm in love with the soundtrack and visuals, though it's disturbing at parts.

Now if only Summer Wars would air in Malaysian cinemas...

Escort Quest : Japanese High School Students Pt. 2

Sorry I couldn't update earlier, internet was on/off the last few days.

Day Two (kids from Osaka high school)

Quest giver : Evian (acquaintance from Japanese language class)
Quest details : To escort 4 Japanese high school kids around KL.
Quest conditions :
Japanese kids must not take any damage.
End the quest with no less than 4 kids.
All 4 kids must survive.
Time limit : 2.30pm - 5.30pm (seriously wtf why so rush one?!)
Party members : Evian, Aaron, Shana (me)
Quest route : KLCC > Sungei Wang > Pasar Seni (Central Market) > Dataran Merdeka canceled due to rain LOL> KLCC

Woot all boys this time! XD

If there's one thing I can guarantee, it's that we cannot leave KLCC at 3pm, go to the three mentioned places and return before 5.30pm. NO. EFFIN. WAY.

You should've seen the disappointed faces when we first arrived at Sg. Wang and told them all they had was 45 mins to shop. We were secretly hoping it would rain, and it did! You have no idea how happy we were that we can skip Dataran Merdeka because of the rain (the 4 boys included, they were happily shopping in Sg. Wang).

We returned to KLCC foodcourt for dinner, and thank goodness these guys have no fear of our water. They were willing to try local food (except durian, seems they were warned beforehand XD). We recommended them the chicken rice, 2 of the 4 guys bought to try and they liked it. The other 2, I saw them go to McDonalds (I was puzzled because they said they wanted to try food not found back in Japan? =/ ) so I thought they'd be fine ordering food by themselves, so I went to order my own food and went back to the table. They returned with...

...double patty Prosperity Burgers. These buggers are SPICY, HOT SPICY not the fragrant kind of spicy. Even I cant handle them. Black pepper + onions + meat + bread, that's all you get. No veggies to help neutralize the spicyness. The rest of us non-Japanese at the table can just imagine their faces when they take that first bite. Most Japanese can't handle even a little bit of spicyness. Later when they saw the other groups queued up at McD, one of our boys ran over with sweat on his brow and tears streaming (after eating about half of the burger) to warn the rest of his friends to never ever buy that burger before it's too late for them as well.

If my guy friends were this guy they'd probably let their other pals buy the burger and watch them suffer along. "Suffer together-gether" konon.

I felt bad not stopping them earlier when I saw them at McD's so I bought them Ais Kacang, Mango + Longan Snow, and a Lin Chee Kang. KLCC's food courts Ais Kacang tastes really artificial, the Japanese boys commented it tastes like medicine. The Mango + Longan Snow dessert, they loved it. The Lin Chee Kang however... they despised it LOL.

The feared Lin Chee Kang, dark waters of the unknown...

Lin Chee Kang is a drink made from sugar with a bit of sugar cane, snow fungus, dried longans, barley and gingko nuts (toppings vary depending on places). It tastes kind of bittersweet, like most Asian "tong sui". Each of them only took one spoonful, and I had to drink the rest. (>_>)

You know how normal Japanese are known to be the absolute honest-to-goodness people? Here is where I found out they can be just as Malaysian as us. Apparently in Japan (or maybe just the part they came from?) McD's don't have unlimited Coke refills. They were pretty ecstatic when we told them about it. They told me they only get one refill, and it's usually half a large. So, they decided to refill their 2 large cups, return to our seat, empty their bottles and fill them with Coke, send their other 2 friend to ask for another refill, and fill more of their bottles with Coke. I think they went for about 3 refills before I stopped them afraid that the waiter would be on to it. I heard their Senseis emptied their hotel room fridges to avoid them spending on alcohol (they could've just asked the hotel staff to remove just the alcohol, but for some reason they removed ALL), so they're stocking up for the night. I don't know what they're gonna do with all that coke though.

All in all we had a lot of fun with this group despite having less time to spend with them. They were much more talkative and dared to experiment compared to the girls from the day before. So in summary, when we ask these Japanese what they learnt about Malaysia, we were told :

1) Malaysia is OHMYGODEFFINHOT.
2) Malaysia is full of pirated goods.
3) Malaysian food is not clean/interesting. (too bad we couldn't feed them Bakkutteh)
4) Malaysian stuff is very cheap. (our currency low compared to yen =( )

If the opportunity arises, it would be nice to do this again =). Hope their stomach didn't get upset over the prosperity burgers.

Escort Quest : Japanese High School Students Pt. 1

Last week, Aaron and I were invited to partake a special quest for 2 days. I'll be splitting the whole story into 2 parts : Day 1 and Day 2.

Day One (kids from Hiroshima high school)

Quest giver : Evian (acquaintance from Japanese language class)
Quest details : To escort 4 Japanese high school kids around KL.
Quest conditions :
We must bring them to 4 key areas and take pictures as proof.
We must contact HQ at various checkpoints.
Japanese kids must not take any damage.
End the quest with no less than 4 kids (wouldn't hurt to pick up extras though nyuhuhu)
All 4 kids must survive.
Time limit : 8.30am - 5pm
Party members : Evian, Aaron, Shana (me)
Quest route : Berjaya Times Square > KLCC > Pasar Seni (Central Market) > Jalan India > Lot 10 Isetan > Sungei Wang > Berjaya Times Square.

One particular guy so happy to be surrounded by girls... especially 4 Japanese lolis.

I actually wasn't going to go for this one because I wasn't feeling well the night before, but after my sleep I was feeling fine so I rushed and caught up with them at Central Market. They just finished visiting the Indian Temple near Central Market, which unfortunately was under repair or renovation (the temple). The kids had to take picture of the temple covered with scaffolding instead.

My party members told me they went through Petaling Street earlier, and as they went through all the stall/shop staff on the side were throwing lots of "kawaii!!" at the group. The 4 girls were shy and a little scared by all the attention, while us guides were baffled at how the vendors knew they were Japanese just by looking.

All through the trip, the biggest complaint was the heat. The girls would all say "Atsui!" (hot) each time we set foot out from somewhere with air-con and "Suzushii!!" (cool) each time we entered an air-con area.

One of their key photo areas for some reason is the Isetan inside Lot 10 (I thought Isetan was in abundance in Japan? =/ ) and because they couldn't stand the heat, we thought we'd eat in the food court in Lot 10 instead of the intended Jalan Alor. If you haven't been to Lot 10 lately, they renovated the LG foodcourt and Isetan supermarket, it's got a huge selection of good food now. We were showing the girls around the food court but it was then that we learnt this group of girls were told something from their teachers.

Me : Is there anything you cannot eat? Spicy stuff, seafood, anything?

Japanese Girl (JG) : Almost everything we don't think we should eat... spicy food, fried food... preferably no meat... and tomatoes.

Me : ...tomatoes? You can't eat them?

JG : Yea, tomatoes.

Me : ...how about shaved ice (ais kacang)? I'll buy you guys one to share? It's famous here.

JG : No thanks.

Me : So you don't want to eat anything here?

JG : ...because it's dangerous.

Me : ...dangerous? How so? O_O

JG : We heard the water is not clean like Japan's water... so we're advised not to eat in food courts...

Me : ...I see.

In the end, they bought sushi and bento from the Isetan supermarket (which probably was made with the water they're afraid of).

I wonder what kind of horror stories their sensei told them about our water, but it's true though that if you didn't grow up here, your body may have effects from our water (my kid Canadian nephew and his family was hospitalized for food poisoning after staying here for 2 days, the doc said it's because they're not used to our local water, since their mom who is my sister in law wasn't poisoned even though they all ate/drank the same things). I guess it's better safe than sorry for them, but we told them that tourist heavy areas and good hotels should be fine because they have reputations to maintain, so don't worry too much.

The tomato thing was still a mystery to us, but we guess they must have been told horror stories about pesticides too.

Problem solving fail

I broke the nose pad thing on my glasses sometime earlier this year...

Sometimes I doubt my IQ of 120+... the tissue damn uncomfortable and it blocks a small part of my vision.

I put up with it for like a day before realising how stupid i was.

Pig meat

Last Sunday, my jimuis (the sisterhood since primary school days) were dropping by my place for CNY, so I thought I'd offer to cook lunch (yes Shana actually cooks, isn't that just mindboggling? This girl hasn't cooked anything before she got married! But got cook since got married lar so this isn't her first time in the kitchen XD) so off shopping for groceries I go with Eric and my advisor Aaron.

I'm SO SORRY Muslim lady cashier! Super blur case la me. (*A*)

For those who don't know, Muslims aren't allowed to handle pork in Malaysia.

So what did I do with the pork? I made Japanese curry rice! Ta-daa!!

Turned out better than I thought, considering this is the first time I made Japanese curry. Thick and a little sweet. I got the Jimui's Stamp of Approval. XD I still have a pack of roux left, when to make another batch?

Also last Sunday it was one of my jimui's birthday! Happy birthday Mei Sin! Hope you enjoyed the day =)

Birthday girl in the middle, and it's a no-brainer to guess which one's me.

Valentine's Chinese New Year 2010

Sorry I couldn't update more often, with Valentine's / Chinese New Year coming so close and so much stuff to take care of. Blog will update more often after this holiday!

Have some Palmtop Tigers while you wait. =D

Click for fullview:

This one I took with my handphone so... it's kinda grainy. No need to fullview this one. ><

Palmtop Blue Eyes White Tiger RAWR

Wish all you peeps a prosperous and a "full-of-lovey-dovey-goodness" Valentine Chinese New Year! =D

Flymas.mobi, as easy as Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V!

My entry for Nuffnang's flymas.mobi contest. So last minute, was doing it on/off for 3 days. ><

Animation : Flash MX 2004 (ancient isn't it?)
Music : Macross Frontier OST2 - イヌミミランカ　(Inumimi Ranka)

...I swear I've never cheated on my assignments, EVER.

Was browsing Nuffnang the other day and that's when I first heard of flymas.mobi. Apparently you can book your flight, check flight status, and check in using only your phone! I'd like to give it a try sometime (too bad yours truly doesn't have an awesome phone with large screen and 3G )

You can go to http://flymas.mobi to check it out!

When I got this idea Eric thinks most people wouldn't understand Ctrl+C (Copy) and Ctrl+V(Paste), but I have faith in the internet savvy Malaysians... you guys faham Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V right? RIGHT? If not then you guys just learnt a new keyboard shortcut from me! =D

This is one of those contests where I hope I get 2nd prize instead of first. I'd prefer to be able to go to Tokyo instead of Istanbul. *fingers crossed* Wish me luck!

Shio is Spidercat

I keep that window closed each time I use the bathroom now.

Three Little Bastards Darling Furkids

Wish I had a better pic, we have not successfully gotten all 3 to look at the camera, ever. Best is 2 out of 3. But I like this picture. =D

I have some comics in store, but a few involves the little buggers parasiting the house so this will be a simple introductory post for the three furry kiddies we share our home with. We'll start with the order they came in to the house.

Hazel

Breed : Pembroke Welsh Corgi
D.O.B : 13th April 2009
Gender : Female (spayed)
Characteristics :
- Is a bimbo. Large chest, sexy walk, cute butt, low intelligence (despite her breed supposedly is the 11th easiest dog to train >_>). Well I guess there will always be not-so-smart ones... she's one of them unfortunate doggie souls.
- Dojikko. She bumps her head often. I hope that's not why her intelligence stat is low (*A*)
- Loves human feet. They aromatic and tasty.
- Scared of EVERYTHING pointed in her direction (except human fingers and feet). She even runs from a picture book we were showing her.
- Shows an angry face when approached by other dogs, but is actually an act and she can not fight at all. Hopes to scare away other dogs (usually fails, so in the end Hazel will run)
- Doesn't like to be carried/hugged/belly-up.

We got her at the Midvalley Pets World event in 2009. Husband always wanted a dog, and we both love Corgis, so we caved. I LOVE her fluffy neck. Oh and that walk. Her sexy walk. XD She's toilet trained, but will still pee on the feet wiping cloth in front of our bathroom, so be careful when you visit us.

Kuri

Breed : Yorkshire Terrier mix
D.O.B : 9th June 2009
Gender : Female (to be spayed)
Characteristics :
- Spunky. GAR. She challenges dogs larger than herself, jumps off places 5 times her height, approaches random strangers without suspicion... basically she's got balls. Balls made of steel.
- Loves the human face. If you're within attack range, expect some heavy dog tongue action.
- Possessive. If you're giving attention to any of the other pets, SHE WANTS SOME TOO. She'll wedge herself between you and the other pet. Even if the human isn't us. She just loves us humans.
- Excellent jumper. Even our bed is not safe.
- Is more intelligent than Hazel. She trolls Hazel pretty often, and Hazel falls for it. EVERY TIME.
- Even though she challenges Hazel and Shio, she's the lousiest in fights. But damn she's got high stamina. The cat usually gives up even though she's actually better at fighting.

Kuri is Japanese for chestnut. We wanted to keep a tradition for our dogs to be named after nuts, but "Chestnut/Chester" was too masculine. We adopted her from someone else as a friend for lonely Hazel. The first thing she did home was to try and boss Hazel around. She's currently a little on the plump side because Hazel for some reason wouldn't eat until Kuri does. But if it's treats/tasty rare occasion food then Hazel no give face la. 99.8% toilet trained.

Shio

Breed : Chapalang/Mongrel
D.O.B : ??? estimated May 2009
Gender : Female (to be spayed)
Characteristics :
- Likes affection. This is the first cat I have that loves to sit on our laps/chest. She demands attention on a daily basis.
- Chatty. She has a very large plethora of meows. Our personal favourite is "Nyap". Sounds like she's trying to bark. XD "You gonna get nyapped" is the house meme meaning the cat's gonna get'cha.
- Excellent climber. Not like climbing trees, I've seen her climb window grills like humans climb a ladder.
- Loves to go inside plastic bags and under blankets.
- Will attack unsuspecting human feet as they walk by.

Eric's a dog person, I'm a cat person. I really wanted a cat. I first met this cat downstairs at our condo. She's not afraid of humans, and seems like she was abandoned recently. She had a lot of wounds though, possibly from other neighborhood cats. At first we didn't intend to take her in, but we agreed that if we see her a second time we would, and we did. We wanted to name her after her color, Vanilla was one option but I knew I would be really emo when she dies later in life and I LOVE the vanilla flavour so I didn't want to make that connection. Oreo was too masculine. In the end Shio (which is Japanese for salt) was decided because well, "Salt" seems really wrong as a name. All future pet cats will now be named after spices.

And there you have it folks! Will get a comic up in a few days, work's kinda catching up.

To Aru Otome no Yume (A Certain Maiden's Dream)

Otome la konon. XD

About this time last week (8th-10th January 2010) KL had it's first (?) chocolate fair in Midvalley. Once again our heroine (and the unfortunate husband) kena con.

Dreams crushed. Zetsubou shita!!!

Okay la the giant chocolate fountain is impossible. XD

I had the impression that the chocolate fair was going to be a slightly more "posh" event with lots of international chocolate makers, and I was really disappointed with the available products. The imported ones are mostly the same as those we can already find in supermarkets here. Not to say I'm against local chocolates, but I was hoping to taste chocolate not available in Malaysia by other means than this fair. A lot of booths don't even have samples for tasting.

The hall was not decorated, the whole event looks "cincai". They also only took one hall (wedding expo took the other and the outside stage area). Overall the size was really small.

Eric was questioning why does a fruit juice stall exist in a chocolate fair. I bought a cup of orange/starfruit juice from them btw, and it was really BAD. It was diluted and mixed with sugar water.

The event was free entry. If you'd ask me, I would rather pay a small fee and have better chocolates there than free entry with not much products.

Kenny Roger's Red Day

So Kenny Rogers had this promo where if you show up wearing red and order a quarter meal, you get a second quarter meal free! How could a penniless artist resist such temptation? =D So off I went, dragging the husband along to Jusco Setiawangsa (because this silly girl thought that Kenny Rogers would have less traffic, Setapak's one should have even less traffic but she wanted to shop after eating)...

In the end we had Pizza Hut.

Oh here's my horrible Frankensteined photo of the queue (this picture is cropped incase people doesn't know, click for full view of the image):

My Apple With Avatar

Before you read : MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!

Ah Ferngully Dances With Wolves Pocahontas Avatar, so many different reactions to this movie from different people. I have friends who cried watching it, who critiqued every scientific fault, who was so dazzled by the glowy-ness, awed by the soundtrack, and some watched it more than twice. I think it's not that bad but not that great, as it is after all a cliche story, with cliche characters (including a tsundere heroine) but I do so love the soundtrack. But this movie also pisses me off at places, and one part made me want to flip a table and slap someone. It's not about the transmision from HQ going through that magnetic flux and not get interference, let alone went through that flux, it's not about the ridiculous spinning lizard (which I find amusing btw), it's not about the lack of variety of fauna.. it's this particular scene (with a dash of exaggeration):

So... Jake returns on a bigger flying mount, and she's all goody goody with him again? The loss of Hometree, Father, other Omaticaya did not matter anymore? I kinda expected more emotion at this part, like Neytiri would be torn because the guy she hates is the Chosen One, and she would be more angered and confused, and question Eywa "WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE HIM?!", etc... but I did not expect her to accept him without questions. Sure the Toruk Macto is a legend, but he's also at that moment Jake, the guy who broke her heart and let his kind destroy her home. Maybe they ran out of movie time and decided "Bah they'd get together again later anyway, let's cut off the emotional part because no one's gonna care if Neytiri's character has depth!"

So remember kids, as long as you get that epic limited edition mount, your girl will forgive you for your shiny new ride!

What happened to Jake's first Ikran anyway? Maybe he fed it to the Toruk to seal the bond...

A Fresh Apple

If you think this is a blog about apples, apple recipes, apple pictures, cracking apples, crackers, apples and crackers, or how some loony girl is crackers for apples, you're not gonna find that here, so move along. =D

Hi there, this is Shana a.k.a Kiraneko in many other places on the web, this is my fresh new blog. What will I blog about? I guess random bits of everything I encounter in life : games, food, art, pets, life. I will no longer update my LiveJournal account, but will check there occasionally for friend's updates. For now this is a all-rounder blog, I might create an artblog later in life.

A little bit about me... I'm Malaysian, female, atheist, 25 going on 26, born December 19th. I love cats, board games, video games, tea, good food, happy movies, drawing, anime, comics (eastern and western), looking at pretty scenery, reading, and the color apple green. I'm happily married, a freelance artist and has a head full of stories I wanna create. I don't think I'm creative enough to be special, but I hope to believe my mentality is not normal.

I guess since it's still January, and this is a fresh blog and all, let's merasmikan this by posting my 2010 New Year resolutions! (which 90% will probably not be achieved)

1) Get a new tablet... Intuos 4 is looking really gorgeous... but damn the price tag!
2) A nice set of Copic markers (also the problem is money)
3) Print my own comic for CF2010 (which I said I would make since 2 years ago)
4) Draw more, update on DA and pixiv
5) Lose that spare tyre.
6) Cook more. (yes I can cook! albeit amateurish skillz)
7) See more of the world. (or go to Tokyo again)
8) Sucessfully cosplay something. (did not cosplay for 4 years)
9) Learn not to fail makeup.
10) Destroy my skin less.
11) Don't leave games unfinished... especialy RPGs
12) Complete those I left unfinished.

....and I think plenty more will surface later.