Bleh

To tell you the truth, I'm actually feeling kinda pissy right now. One cause I've just come to realize the fact that my phone camera isn't quite as good as I thought it was (yeah yeah, I'm hiding behind that- the plain truth is that I'm a sucky photographer =_=), two because I can't colour hair with Copics. Phail.
Number one on my Improve Copic $k!Llz list: Hair. And good lordy, I don't seem to be making much headway in improving. I'm an absolute failure.

Anyway, I made this for breakfast today~~:


What better way to start a lovely summer morning than with fluffy pancakes drenched in golden orange syrup? Yeah, I've been doing a lot of rocket science in the kitchen these days. It's that or being stuck in a game. Haha. Anyway, I was just wondering how to make syrup, so I boiled equal parts sugar and orange juice along with some orange zest, and ta-da~. I actually had plenty of doubts of the taste at first (it's -really- sweet. Period.) and it smelled funny when I left it to cool. But now that's it has cooled off completely overnight, it has this supaaa awesome orangey-gold colour and it smells of a thousand lost Sunkist orange souls XD XD XD XD. It tastes just as good, so boo-yeah. What can I say? I've beginner's luck. It'll probably explode the next time I attempt it XD.

I have this sudden urge to re-read the entire Saiyuki manga. That or return to practicing my phailing Copic $k!lLz. Farewell now~

Sometimes I like Malaysia~

Underline the word like, mind you. It's one of the few times I really mean what I say.

Anyways, yes. Sometimes when the weather becomes hotter than hell down here in the inferno of the world (call me a hypocrite, not knowing enough to know just where the world's furnace of hell really is. A girl should be allowed to exaggerate dramatize sometimes, yeah?), when the temperature reaches its climax (XD) and everyone goes screaming "IT BURNS! IT BURNNNNSSS!!!!!", you tend to yearn for something cold to beat the heat.

Hai, soba des' =D

Cold soba!! =D. Honestly, it tastes really good, even better on hot summer-forever days. I have to say, apart from grilled saba, cold soba has got to be one of my ace favourite Japanese foods.

Okay, to the less-fortunate, soba is a kind of Japanese noodle, one of the three popular kinds you find in Japan, at least (the other two being ramen and udon). It's made of buckwheat, hence its unique, speckled brown colour (Useless information=> Copic freaks, I have reason to believe the colour matches Copic marker E71 XD XD XD). In summer the Japanese eat it cold; the cooked soba lying on a bed of ice, then each mouthful dipped into a special sauce made out of soy, chopped spring onions and a raw egg (yes, raw. It's usually a quail's egg but for the eggier people a regular chicken egg does much justice). In the winter it's served in hot broth, if I'm not mistaken. Whatever the case, I'm for once just glad it's always shining here in good ol' Malaysia, cause that just means I get to eat cold soba all year round =D.

Oh, in case you're wondering where you can get your hands on some of these yummy noodles, you can get them at most major supermarkets, but your chances are better at the Japanese based ones (e.g Jusco/Isetan). For me, I got mine at the new Daiso over at Aeon. Yes, yes, 5 bucks for a pack of soba!! Another 5 bucks will get you the soy sauce for the dip. Awesome, I know. Haha.

Anyways, I haven't much else to say. Lol. I haven't been seeing much of my random happeh acquaintances lately. I'm sorry for being such a bad friend DX. I honestly don't mean to not attend your meetings and to not accept your invitations. It's just that...well, I guess it's no surprise when I say I tend to do the wrong things at the wrong times. Bleh. And trust me, I'm not as great a conversationalist as you might think me to be. I'm bewildered at how my sister can find so much to talk about when she's hours on the phone. Though I suppose that'll be because she's had 10+ years (and counting) of experience spending hours on the phone. Whoa O_o;. Long story short, I'm sorry for being almost-completely-useless to all those whom I consider (and hope to be considered as) friends, and that I promise to try better. Hey, maybe I'll just make a Facebook account after long last =D.

Hah. Scratch that last one.

In this shot, it actually looks like it's sparkling. Lol.

Toodles~

Oh Lol

Hello again!!

Yeah, I pretty much abandoned this place, didn't I? XD Can this get any more retarded? Back in the olde skool days I blogged as if there was no tomorrow, even during periods when I shouldn't be blogging. Now that I (kinda, more or less) have all the time in the world I drop by and leave a nonsensical entry every month =P.
Anyways, it might just interest you all that I've broken up with Gackt. LOL. Kidding kidding. I'm waiting as patiently as I can for his latest single, Ever. Whooo~~~ Gackt-sama is finally going to release something new! =D. Uhm, I haven't been doing much with my life, really. Driving lessons and the Prince of Persia trilogy have been taking up all my time this past weeks, more on the latter, of course XD. To think I'd wasted all those good brain cells trying to solve ridiculous puzzles and pulling off retarded acrobatic stunts. But it's more or less over; I've finished the 2008 game and I actually did not bother to play The Two Thrones because I was a bit fed up with the storyline by then.
So...uhm, I made more lemon curd! Gave it away to as a birthday present. Bought a fancy jar and even made swanky labels to go with it. I'm telling you, it was dang pro-looking, haha.

Curd of lemons. Lol.

I went on a lemon curd making spree that one day, because my sister was going away to Sarawak for a week and she wanted to give curd to her friends. Which was a bit stupid, because lemon curd is sure as hell not part of the local flavour, and besides she'd already bought an overload of kaya. But, oh well. Oh, and I watched Prince of Persia, Shrek and Toy Story 3. TS3 was AWESOME I tell you. Mainly because I've been a fan since I was a kid. I think my sister and I were the only ones in tears at the end, haha. Can't help that. When you've been brought up knowing your toys are real, voice-acting them and making up endless adventures for them, it's no surprise you'd end up crying at the end of the movie XD. That's what is called a heart, so there.

Oh, oh, Saiyuki fans!!! I was reading the omake of Saiyuki Reload Blast, and big LOL. Cliche as the personality switch is, I bet plenty of Saiyuki fans would be eager to read the omake. I mean, come on!!! In all my 9+ years of knowing and loving Saiyuki, I never thought I'd live to see this:

Behold, the great Sanzo-sama, reloaded (lol, pun wholely intended)

Now would you fancy that, he actually looks good with that happy beam XD.

Hm...other than that, I guess I've nothing else to ramble about. I'll be off then. Farewell for now~ <3

Why hello there~

Boom. Yeah, back again, babeh.

To tell you the truth, I'm not actually bouncy happy now, but I decided that May's done in enough of its days already, and this blog is in need of some updating.

So, yeah, two days after the previous post (XD), I went off to the comic store up on Aeon's 2nd floor during my break. Originally I intended to buy the set of Saiyuki Reload (but I didn't in the end- it was only up to the eighth volume) but ended up spending many minutes debating on whether I should purchase the Saiyuki Reload Original Reproduction Picture Collection instead. It must've looked pretty odd, me walking round the store deep in thought XD.

Didn't ponder for long, not after the salesgirl told me they only had one in stock.

=D

I'd actually expected it to be a graphic book like the Salty-dog series and Sugar Coat, but man was I deluded. It turned out to be this awesome awesome awesome set of 24 37cmX25.7cm glossy pictures *insert fangirl squeal here*

The 24 sides of Saiyuki awesomeness~

And the great part is that I've only seen a couple of them, so it turned out as a nice surprise. Man, Minekura-sensei's $k!Llz are just gawd-awesome, haha. And dang! Goku is totally showing signs of growth; in earlier pictures he looked all happy kiddy- now he's supaaa yummeh XD XD XD. I realize Minekura-sensei tends to give him the more dynamic poses, perhaps it's because he's just hawt. Lol.

(Holy crap when was the last time I fell for a nonexistent character again?! Was it Dante/Nero? Or Iori Yagami? Oo;;)

Anyway, a couple of days later after that, I went ahead and practiced my anatomy/Copic $k!Llz after long last. Haha, no, the real reason I went a-drawing was that I found some new human models to draw. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Ah Choy- the servant the Loo family wished they had =D.

Sibling love~

That's Ah Choy on the right. No, that's not his girlfriend, it's his younger sister. It all started when my dad and I started ordering around this (imaginary) servant to the jobs we were supposed to be doing, i.e sweeping, mopping, the dishes. I'd actually imagined Ah Choy to be one of them old-fashioned Chinamen with the braid and cap and brown samfu and little round glasses. Then one night (while doing the dishes, I'd like to add) I couldn't help but let my imagination wander and I thought, "What if Ah Choy wasn't the old-fashioned Chinaman we thought he was?...". Sketch-hour later produced a handsome young man with six-pack and sexy hair and I could only grin and think "Yup, that's Ah Choy, all right." Between my dad and I, we got Ah Choy's story all planned out and sounding like some awesome action-packed manga XD. Technically the plot's classified (Loo family members only, sorry XD) but we've agreed that Ah Choy's a handsome dood with kickass kung fu up his brown sleeves disguising as a common house lizar- I mean, servant (XD) in order to escape his 'dark past'. He's also in search of his younger sister whom he was separated from, and he found her eventually. Yeap yeap.

Riight...after doodling Ah Choy out, I went and made myself some lemon curd! Traditionally lemon curd is meant to be eaten with scones, hence the need to purchase scones from Coffee Bean the next day after work.

I made the curd at 12am...round there. Lol. I did it on the spur of the moment, really. The recipe's easy-peasy; eggs, lemons and sugar. It's the process that took absolute ages- stirring the mixture non-stop over the fire (to prevent the egg from cooking and you end up with a lemon omelette). The results, however, were very satisfying, when you pour out this wonderfully thick, custardy lump of golden lemony goodness. Man, it was as if the sun was shining at one in the morning when I was finally done with it XD. And it tasted awesome too- all sour-lemony though I think it was a bit eggy, must remember to put one egg less the next time I make it.

Afternoon tea, anyone?

Went up to KL on the 7th to get my sister back and and and~~~~~~

*holy music*
(Ignore the cluttered background by the way)

Bwahahahahaha. Yes yes, it's salty-dog VI, babes XD. I haven't spent at all this May; making up for the crazy load I splurged on this (and Reload volumes 3 and 4- English version, mind you. The Kinokuniya guys must've thought me a mad fan). But anyhow I'm glad I did because the book's AWESOMEEE~~~~~!!!! There're a couple of images from Bus Gamer, more on Saiyuki Reload, and a pretty decent amount from Gaiden. Though I don't quite approve of Minekura-sensei relying on CG more compared to older drawings. It's not that I don't support CG and technology, but...let's just say I'm old-school, yeah?

This is an unnecessarily long post, isn't it? =P You must be bored by the load of crap I'm rambling. Okay, let me just finish it off with my latest drawing, completed just today:

Blue Horse

Has anyone heard of SaDingding? She's this awesome fusion-folk singer of Chinese-Mongolian descent. She has an amazing vocal range and an even more amazing music-style. She seamlessly blends traditional instruments, Buddhist scriptures and mantras together with dance-electro beats and electric guitar. I was inspired to draw this picture after listening to her song of the same name from her 2nd album, Harmony. I'm not quite sure how Dingding imagined her blue horse, but, well, this is how I imagined mine =D.

To those totally unfamiliar (and perhaps many of you would be), the pattern on the horse is called willow-pattern! It's actually from Chinese ceramic-ware, where the design is painted on vases/pots/crockery with cobalt dye, if I'm not mistaken. These blue pieces were very popular with the Dutch, so much so that the Dutch actually came to produce their own sets of 'delft blue' ware, greatly inspired by the original Chinese pieces.

Personally speaking I never actually had an overly-obsessed liking to the willow-patterned ware, simply because I found the blue and white a bit too boring (hence the reason why I prefer the more bright colour combinations of traditional Nyonya-ware) but somehow when I tried to visualize the 'Blue Horse', I couldn't think of anything better-suited than this. I suppose, having grown up living and breathing together with antiques, the patterns have been set deeper into my mind than I thought they would =D.

Anyway, I've typed far too much, therefore I shall stop now. Oh, news! I'm going to stop working in Papa John's end of the month, so if you want to catch a last glimpse of me running madly in a green shirt, hands laden with pizza paddles, plan your trip to these last weeks =3.

Off I go nao~

Next graphic book (this is a Saiyuki ramble post)----->

Minekura-sensei's Salty-dog VI =D.

Gah, what on earth have I been doing with my life away from the Saiyuki world eh? XD I remember how I got totally bowled over by the awesomeness of Gensomaden when it first came out on AXN back in 2000/01. Gosh, is it ever easy to forget your first love? Saiyuki was the first anime that drew me into a whole new (then very under-populated) world. It also drew me into the deep dark netherworld of yaoi *coughcough* but let's not go further than that. Haha.

Anyway, completed the reading of Gaiden yesterday, and DANG was it stupidly sad. Should've expected it but my little mind with half a brain actually thought that there would be a happy ending. Crap, I should've known Minekura-sensei will never shy away from dramatic-climatical scenes. Bah.

Dang.

Oh, rumours have it that Gaiden's going to be made into an OVA or something. Holy cows, Saiyuki fans rejoice! For now we shall have the sun-gold (pun wholely intended) opportunity to view the sad scenes all over again, now in 100% technicolour animated pixels!!! XD. Though sad or not, I am sure as hell not going to miss out on this one. I've missed out enough, dangit. Next up: I shall leap up onto Hakuryuu's back and fly to Kinokuniya and get Saiyuki Reload 9. When's the 10th coming out I wonder? =_= Hurry up, dangit.

...By the way, I hear that Form 6's starting up soon, huh? May 10th or something? Hehe. Have fun, Form 6-ers! I myself have uncertainties of when I'll be going off. All I know vaguely is that it'll be somewhere in June. I think. Oh lols, my future suddenly seems all black and misty.

Anyways, working at 4 today so I shall now go amuse myself by watching Saiyuki Burial on YouTube. I LOVE how the animation turned out for this latest installment; the drawing is amazing and everyone looks consistently hot. Haha. Right, I'll stop rambling. Off I go now.

P.S: Happy Labour Day everybody! Labour Day, May Day, whatever you call it. Anyone read Howl's Moving Castle? May Day being the day where all the young ladies get courted by young men or something. Lol. Ja~

RE-VAMP [unfinished dream]

*nods*

Okay, I believe that it can be better, but for now I'll leave it as this, eh?
A whole lot brighter (and pretty-pastel; I suppose I can never actually escape the female within me even if I wanted to XD) than the previous one, and everyone'll probably notice the fact that 'My God' Gackt has been taken down. Lol. Yeah, Gackt-sama's a thing of the past now. Haha. Right now, I'm really listening to this awesome fusion jazz trio DIMENSION.

They're old, but heck, with age comes a whole load of experience and talent.

I've known about them for a long long while, ever since Saiyuki Reload/Reload Gunlock where they made most of the awesome jazzy soundtrack (I'm still addicted to Sanzo's theme). Just got curious, then rooted out a couple of their albums, including their latest album 22 (which I didn't really like). It's odd, but the further back I go, the better I like them. Their 2003 album Memory ~Waltz for the Forest~ is really pretty, and a couple of other albums from '05 and '01 are amazing too. Sax-lovers you have got to listen to these guys ;D.

Anyways, I've been sick sick sick (it was the mother of all bloody sore throats, I tell you), but much better now, thank Akito-sama. Gosh, I've been off work a week =_=. Hope they don't miss me too much over there, haha. It all started with the little sniffle-fever, which promptly got worse after I went up to KL for a LKW interview (upgraded my diploma scholarship to a degree, boo-yeah). Was suppose to go to Kino but I ended up feeling too sick so we went home the morning after. Gah. I am so going to Kino on my next off. I shall then purchase Saiyuki Reload 9 and Salty-dog VI because I can. Bwahaha. Yes, my insane craze for the Saiyuki series has returned after years and years of exile. And I don't think I can ever actually get over it. Long live Minekura-sensei!!! =D.

Right, nothing much else to spout about, so I'll leave you all with my latest drawing, entitled Sordid. Wash your eyes off it, then.

Sordid~

No idea what gave me the idea to draw it, but I did, so yeah. Very graffitti-nature inspired and with a more minimalistic colour-palette. Was definitely trying to improve my retarded Copic $k!lLz (no, really, I feel as if I'm letting my Copics down. I spend a fortune on them and yet all I come up with are doodle-daubs toddlers can achieve). Quite happy with how the odd-girl's skin turned out, though. Woot.

Anyway, this is a good enough update to keep you all entertained for a while, eh? Gosh, last post for April. Haha. Apologies for the inconsistency. I will make an attempt to cure it.

Off to read Saiyuki Gaiden. Farewell~

'Lo

I have a sudden manic urge to do some changes with this blog. Take down the whole black-emo thing and put up something brighter with decorative splashes of colour.

Yeah, why do I have this recurring sense of deja vu that I've mentioned this once in a previous blog entry? =_=.

Anyway, I just think that blogs (or mine, at the very least) should be nice and happy and not filled with nonsensical emo rants. Haha.

I shall go off and see if I can come up with something pretty =3. Will be back, folks.