Welcoming Baby Edgar!

Just a quick post to say that the parasite in my belly has moved out (regrettably through Cesarean as he stayed breech thanks to cord being around his neck keeping him in place and my blood pressure went sky-high), though if you've been following my Twitter you'd have already known this days ago... >_<;

Meet Edgar, the new family member terrorizing everyone else to do his bidding for the next decade.

This was a really lucky shot. I wanted a smiling photo but caught a wink!  SHUTTER CHANCE!

It was a hard journey, but one I was happy I made and grateful it went by pretty smoothly despite the rocky start and the sudden surgery. Here's to a great future in our family!

I is stupid DERP

I seem to have this issue when uploading this image to Blogger. It gets auto-resized a little. The actual width is 500px, and I've been tearing my hair off since last night trying to figure out what was wrong. Gave up eventually and left it alone since it's still legible. 

But yea I am sometimes this stupid. orz

Wrap-Up : 2012

Man was this entry loooooong overdue. *sweeps off 3 inches of dust from the blog*

A lot of changes in life for 2012, many times I wanted to actually blog about it (even this wrap-up was meant for 1st January 2013!) but lost motivation here and there (and a few doses of laziness added into the mix). To summarize my 2012 in a few major points (warning: more text than pictures) :

Inspiration...? Take two.

Initially had another strip in mind, but it didn't turn out to my liking, took me quite a while to come up with another. Was drawing blanks until this happened.

Now I shall run to bed. ><

Inspiration...?

...I swear, I really had some extra free time and was going to draw an update.... then it hit me.

The colour strip is not permanent, I just thought having colour this time adds to the flavour better. ><

I have one more strip in mind which I hope to kick up here before Diablo 3 hits. Here's to me not procrastinating!

Brace yourselves, Diablo 3 is coming. IN TWO DAYS.

Wrap Up : 2011

2011 wasn't a very good year for me.

I promised myself I would bring this blog up again, but I didn't manage to update it as much as I wanted to.

I finally got a job, and I was determined to stick with it to fix my life, but I lost that job in September. The next 2 months I tried to go for interviews in a different line, looking for one that will want a Japanese translator, but my major being Animation and Multimedia Design made it hard because most Japanese companies locally are construction/factories/accounting/banking jobs. I couldn't land jobs I was hoping for. Luckily, someone wanted to hire the team I was in with in my previous job to a new place, and this job starts January 3rd. I hope this one stays.

My home lost our very first furkid, Hazel our Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

I couldn't clear all the debts I promised I would. I seem to have problems saving money. It's like every time I manage to save a sum, something breaks down and I need to fork out to repair it. Kinda like the scenario in Pixar's UP. =/

I didn't manage to make a proper doujin for Comic Fiesta nor cosplay as I wanted to.

I got hit by UTI twice. After managing to stay clean for slightly over a year.

Despite all these, 2011 has brought me a mountain of experience I didn't gain in 2010. I got to work with Japanese stars, even though only for 2 days. I learnt a lot more from my job, as short term as it was. I made a whole lot of new friends and got closer to those who were already friends. I became aware of a lot of my capabilities and my limits. I found new places within my town which I never knew before, and by my own discovery by just walking outside. I got to know myself a whole lot better, and I saw new doors open for me, and new goals setting up.

With this, I leave behind all the bad in 2011, and will be bringing all the good I've gained to 2012. May 2012 be a better year for me, and for all of you. Thank you Eric my beloved husband, my friends, my family and my fellow readers here for being there through the harsh journey through 2011. I hope to still have your support for 2012!

Happy New Year everyone!

Comic Fiesta 2011 Wrap Up!

Yay finally some free time after some much needed RnR!!

Those who know me personally know I'm also part of the committee of Comic Fiesta. This year, we had the biggest (...well we say that every year LOL) CF ever, held on 17th and 18th December 2011 in KLCC Convention Centre. I know Day 1 was pretty bad and there's plenty of sources online elaborating that so I will skip that and just focus on what I did and where was I during CF.

Eric can be cute too sometimes...

Ok it's been a while and I noticed my banner (and probably some old comics) are missing probably thanks to them being hosted at kimag.es. Will find time sometime next week to sort them all out. In the meantime, have a short comic. =D

Was gonna continue with other pet related comic first but I couldn't resist drawing this scenario.

Surprise from Hazel

Finally, a comic! It's been ages... I have some old ideas to draw out, but since I just did the memorial page, I'd like to start with the Hazel related ones.

I also have some questions I'd like to ask everyone regarding this blog and it's comics, so if anyone could spare a few minutes to answer them, you have my thanks and appreciation. Questions after the jump.

On with the comic strip! :

And now, the questions! (please click the text below):

Remembering Hazel

Sorry I took so long with this. A tribute to our beloved Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Hazel (lotsa pictures)

Clearing the Dust

I know, I've been away for much too long, and it's sad that all it took for me to come back was a slap in the face with some bad news. More on that later, first and foremost an update and explanation on what the hell was I doing for a year.

Last year the trigger that stopped me from updating for a while was I got hit with a case of vertigo (it makes you believe you're a spinning top all the time even though your legs are stationary) and at the same time the place I hosted images at - kimag.es, went down and all my blog images with it for a few days, and that upsets the hell out of me. At this time I thought of getting my own domain and server, so that I'd never have to see my blog go down like that ever again. I hastily signed up and got a domain, but with absolutely no idea how to use it. I fiddled with it but I'm just not good with custom layouts.

Soon it was shoved to the back of my priority list as I'm running low on money and freelancing alone just doesn't cut it when you're married and have a house, car, bills etc. to pay. A talk from my husband prompted me to go out there and get a new job, which I did. That took some time to get used to and 6 months down the road I'm finally out of probation and managed to clear some amount of the house debts.

I finally gave up trying to attempt to build a domain without much knowledge and hired a friend to help build it, but he was quite busy so my project kinda took a backseat. Few more months passed and the domain expired. It was here I realised I jumped way too fast, I should've taken small steps and I missed this blog. I want to come back and I have some backlogged stories I want to draw. But being the procrastinator I was, I kept putting it off until today.

Today, my husband and I have to do the dark deed of putting our first furkid to sleep. Hazel, our Corgi, has been in and out of the vet for about a month with kidney failure. She's only 2 years and a few months old, so her getting kidney failure was a huge shock for us. It seems she was born with it, but we didn't notice her symptoms all this while because it just seemed like nothing was wrong. We thought her drinking a lot of water was normal for a hot country like Malaysia. She had to be hooked on drips every few days just to survive the last month, and few days ago even the drips weren't helping any more. Last night she was brought home for the last time, and in a few hours we will be bringing her around to say her goodbyes.

The main reason I came back here for now, is to make a beautiful memorial page for her, which I will get to tonight or tomorrow.

After that, I will be dedicating my time to this blog again with comics. If you're still here reading this, I apologize for my year of absence, and thank you for still being here and reading this. Thank you.

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.