When everything is over...

I am going to reward myself with a good holiday break. If possible, I want to visit Isobe, Tocco (BABY), Maki/Asuka (AP) and Ai (IW), drive through the snow again and re-visit Love Hotels.

I think... I really deserve it.

This is... the craziest Christmas of my life. My Import Store, Black Alice, EOY and Yui Makino. Peak seasons, maximum work, all together.

Talk about stretching your capacity.

Wooah~

Running EOY is simply no joke. I spend long hours replying emails, planning, strategizing, running auditions, persuading, leading people and a ton of other things. Very often, I work late into the night, clearing work from BA, EOY and my online store. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are the most busy seasons for me, and my work stacks with one another.

I just had dinner with Yuan Le and Hao, planning the final performers for EOY. It really is not easy. Some of the performers are so good that we have problem axing people off. As much as possible, we try not to, but there are still a few that we have to remove. This year's performances are going to be a lot better, but probably pretty much different too.

Sometimes in the course of running for EOY, I kinda understand why STAC decided to throw the towel in. Very often, there will always be idiots who say or do something that really demolish your spirits. It's really discouraging at times, given the amount of work that organizers go through, especially 2 months prior to the event. I cannot imagine having a full time job, and doing EOY at the same time. I almost *think* anyone will die.

It's so much blood, sweat for that one moment, that one day. Yes, it's hell lot of fun, but it also is a hell lot of work.

Of course, I am not superman and I delegate a lot of my work out, and like what my cousin, Barry says, the chairman's main priority and job is to make sure the tickets sell, because if they don't, everyone's screwed. As long the ticket sales are properly handled, almost everything will fall into place nicely because money can solve a lot of problems.

But on a general note, it has been very encouraging though, with many people supporting us. It really, really means a lot to my entire team. It's a small team, but they work really hard. People like Yuan Le, Hao, Ophelia, Jiemi, Shi Hai & Marcus really make my day sometimes.

But the good thing about running something like that gives us privileges like this (Yes, she did this specially for us; I requested for it):


I think having a Christmas dinner with one your favorite artistes is probably like a dream come true.

Perhaps if we put it back in context... imagine if you're a big fan with Gackt, and you get to eat Christmas dinner with him. Wouldn't that be awesome?

With such privileges comes great responsibility though. I am extremely grateful to all people that have been so supportive of me, many whom so believe dearly in the dream for EOY2009.

Seeing EOY materialize from nothing in Dec 08 to Nov 09 is unbelievable. It has grown beyond what I had imagined, in a totally different scope that I have ever dreamed off. I get to meet one of my favorite artistes, run my favorite cosplay event, do my highly desired Loli fashion runway, plan it with my buddies, showcase people's talents and keep the community's favorite (probably) cosplay event alive. Indeed, God is able to do above and beyond more than what we can ever ask or imagine.

39 days till EOY.

I promise... it'll be a blast. It's going one hell of an unforgettable, magical EOY.

I am so glad... that it didn't disappear last year, and that I was given a chance to run EOY. It was as if all my years of business and sound experience was for that moment.

Perhaps God had schemed it all along.

My iPhone's home button has been a little cranky for the last couple of months already. I don't know what's wrong with it, and I contemplated to go fix it at an Apple Care shop. My warranty has also busted, which means Apple will charge me a premium for repairs. I went to do some homework online, and decided to open up my iPhone and clean the connections.


My iPhone. You need to remove the 2 screws at the bottom, and use a GPS suction cap to pull up the LCD. It's the black thing in the top right hand corner of this picture.


Here's how the iPhone looks like when it's opened. There are some cables at the top, so don't swing it open by force or your iPhone will GG.


Tools required, with the most important being the toothbrush. Cleaned the home button area, and while it isn't working 100% now, it's like working 90-95% of the them.... almost working like a gem.

Problem fixed... without going to Apple.

Been a long time since I bought myself CD's; here's one minor artist which makes some of the nicest music that I've ever heard:


Artiste: MissWonda
Album: Wonderful Tangent

I've been searching for this track for like almost a year already, and some kind hearted soul finally told me on YouTube:
http://www.ecreators.net/Tim/2009/MilkywayGalaxy.mp3

I think... I love opening mail packages as well.

About slightly more than a year ago, I fried my MacBook by placing it on my room's bay window back at Mom's place at Telok Kurau. It was cooked by a heavy downpour, which caused a roof leak and flooded my entire room. It short circuited my logic board, and I brought it to Apple Care, who later quoted me a repair fee of $1,300, which was almost the cost of a new MacBook.

Upon hearing about the demise of my Mac then, my girlfriend (now my wife) gave me her MacBook to use.

I don't know why, but I kept my fried MacBook in my home. Just about a month ago, I bought a new hard disk and tried to reboot it again with my OS 10.5 hard disk, but it didn't work. Then just a few days later after that, my mom told me about a ridiculous TV program on how to revive it a mobile phone that is short-circuited by water. She even showed me the TV program on Mio.

I don't know what gave me the inspiration, but I decided to try it on my Mac. Honestly, I didn't expect to work. I'm sure you'll find it ridiculous as well.


Here's the agent: Methylated Spirit. You can buy it from hardware shops, and it's the very same thing that nurses use on your arms before they poke you with a needle.

I know this sounds ridiculous, but I submerged the entire MacBook into methylated spirit, which means all the logic boards, LCD panels, CD drive, speakers and every part of the Mac. It was soaked and dripping all over with the alcohol. It was definitely drunk.

Leave it to dry, and attempt to boot it. And to my horror, it actually booted the next day, except that my back light for my LCD was fried. I bought a new one off Screen Country, a site selling LCD monitors for $170 including UPS shipping. If you change your MacBook's LCD at Apple, it will cost you $950.


Here's my fried LCD panel.


Here's how a Mac looks like when it is dismantled.


Another shot. 3 things like I like in life are in this shot: Ubuntu, Mac & Yakult.




Here's my new LCD panel that I bought. Apparently the default Apple unit uses a LG LCD panel, but I was given a Toshiba one. I plugged it in, and...


Viola! The LCD panel and backlight works. Now let's see if it boots.


It works! This is a cloned version of my OS Leopard. Now to put everything back in. I ran into some trouble with the hinge, but finally got it in with the help of Ling. There were some minor chips and knocks, but my Mac that was once pronounced dead by Apple is now revived.


Scarily, despite dipping the entire thing in alcohol, the speakers, Wi-Fi, all ports, track pad and keyboards all work. The CD drive is not working though; I'm not sure whether it was previously fried before. I haven't tested the iSight yet.

And... the old Mac is revived, and Ling has a laptop to work with. I bought a new adapter as well, so that she'll be able to use it at home. I never expected that we would be able to use that Mac again.

Anyway, I think I've fallen in love with Linux. Google Chrome loads so darn fast here, probably because Chrome is written primarily and optimized in Linux. And the OS (Ubuntu) is darn pretty too:


Desktop.


My pretty themed Google Chrome.

I think this is really a great OS. Comes with players, office tools, browsers, FTP's, image editors, email clients and everything else. Most of all, everything from this OS is free.

And, I really love this mp3 track.

It's been really long since I last wrote an entry here, and October has been really a busy month for Black Alice and EOY. Speaking of EOY, we are less than 2 months away from our big day. It's really happening very soon.

Black Alice was involved in the Japan Fair at Isetan from 20-25 Oct, and we also had a fashion runway for our clothes. One of my favourite models of the day (I love how she smiled for me!):


You can view the YouTube video here:


It was really amazing, and I really loved it. Alanna was the one that planned and coordinate it together with the Isetan people. I think this was probably the first proper Loli fashion runway in Singapore.

During the weekends of our Japan Fair, we also had some activities such as the Lolita ambassadors introducing Loli fashion, craft events and photo taking sessions. Here's one shot of our lovely Loli's:


More pictures can be found here:
http://gallery.me.com/blackalice

We were featured in Straits Times for the Japan Fair, and I also did an interview with MTV Asia over the last week, and on Sat, MTV Asia was also there to film our tea party at EKAC, where we had like... 29 Loli's in a small cafe. I was totally amazed with the number of Loli's that turned up despite the last minute notification. Halloween is like an annual event for us, and I really enjoyed the tea party, and am really glad that we can find a place given the short notice.

Our classical Loli clothes were also featured in "The Women's Weekly (Singapore)" in Nov 2009 issue. It's a 3 page article on some nice, cute recipes; really amazing. It's really quite a nice warm, fuzzy feeling seeing your dresses being showcased in a magazine.

I also had a call from Dewi, who was previously with MyPaper, and she mentioned that she wanted to write something about us in the NVP Newsletter that she is now currently involved in.

I was also busy with picking and interviewing new staff for Black Alice, and Aeth/Momo has now joined Black Alice as our staff, as Jolene/Jasmine/Feli has joined another jobs/return to UK. Just recently, I was also busy with the release of Yui Makino as our guest artiste for EOY this year:


I was also busy with liaising with Gatecrash and finalizing the ticket sales and everything else. AND! I was also planning and organizing the audition people for this coming week.

Just earlier today, I was invited to attend Project Breakout's auditions for the bands together with Chan, Cedric and Emerson. It was really quite an experience seeing the bands. I also met up with Jolynn. I'm a meddlesome sound man by default, so I like to meddle with people's EQs as well, especially when they sound muffled. I must say that some of the bands were really quite impressive.

We have our own EOY auditions in a week, so it'll be another busy week ahead.

Wow, what a crazy Oct it has been... but it sure is one hell of a fun time.

And it's been so long since I blogged that I'm running the latest Apple OS Snow Leopard 10.6 and Ubuntu 9.10, and it looks pretty amazing. It's not like foolproof (unlike Mac), but it's actually a very pretty OS. I've also downloaded the development version (pre-beta) of Chrome as my browser and Google does an amazing job. It's the prettiest browser on Linux so far that it makes Firefox 3.5 so outdated. Of course, it's not a stable release, and I had to manual install the Flash Shockwave package.

I was also busy meddling with my settings on my Mac so that I can access my files while in Linux or Mac. Basically I've made my OS(es) cross-compatible so that I can read my emails, do my work, and sync everything together, despite whichever OS I am logged into.

Just yesterday, I was waiting for Ling to finish her wedding dinner, so I had some time to burn (about 45 min). I didn't have my laptop with me, so I enter a cybercafe for like $2 an hour.

I opened Firefox, logged into MobileMe, and all my calendar, mails and contacts are there. Turned on Gmail, and all my emails are there. Anything I reply in MobileMe or Gmail is automatically synced to my Mac and iPhone. Open Last.fm, and played my favourite tracks; Open Basecamp and all my project files are there.

I realized I even have iDisk and Ubuntu One so that I can easily upload/download files if I really needed them.

Porting most of my stuff like online across different platforms and OS's makes it possible for me to do work almost anywhere in any place.

And ah... my Last.fm is playing our Loli runway music for this year.

I suspect 2009 will end with a blast. It has probably been my best year yet.

I think that God has just been simply amazing.

I had a pretty tough day today; I really did lots of work. It's about time to sleep; really tired. Ran around and met lots of people. Had a great time catching up with Dusty over lunch as well; been so long since I last saw her.

I have another appointment at 11 am tomorrow morning at Cathay.

I'm going to reward myself by buying OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 tomorrow at PS. It'll cost $48, and it'll enable me to do a fresh install on my Mac. I want to fix up my new 320 GB hard disk (I'm running out of space on my 120 GB currently), and dual boat OS X and Linux Ubuntu 9.04 on it.

Speaking of which... I'm actually writing this from Linux.

Alright, it's time for bed. I'm really tired.

I'm typing this from my new OS, Linux Mandriva. My desktop runs both Windows 2000 and Linux Mandriva. In about 48 hours, I'll probably erase this OS, and try Linux Ubuntu 9.04 instead, which is a more popular distribution of Linux. It's supposedly better as well. Red Hat is probably the most popular one, but it isn't a free distribution. For those who don't already know, Linux is primarily a free OS with many different distributions, mostly under the GPU (General Public Use) license.

Not only is this OS free, it's virtually virus-free and loads fast because it has a different architecture. It comes pre-loaded with Firefox, music players, image editors, OpenOffice tools, etc. Basically it's like a collection of freeware placed together, written by thousands of different programmers who believe in the power of free. You can use it right out of the box.

I wanted to the try the Linux OS because I love experimental stuff, and I love to use/do things that people don't usually do. I know this doesn't sound rational, but I really want to buy a netbook like the HP Mini or LG/Acer ones (those that retail for $599), format the Windows out, and run on Linux instead. I secretly think.... that would be so cool.

I used mp3 players before it was popular (64 mb Creative ones), iPods (2nd generation with mechanical scroll), HP/O2 PDAs, Mac and I've even ran an experimental 64 bit version of Windows (it's no longer available; our typical Windows runs 32 bit). I've also tried things like Windows Advanced Server, to things like running an Apache server to self host a website with ASP and Perl.

Speaking of which, I just bought a 320 gb hard disk for $83, and a case for $28. My goodness when I bought my 120 gb years ago, it cost me about $160! The price of hardware/bandwidth is just dropping towards zero.

Maybe perhaps future generations of Netbooks will be distributed for an even lower cost when bundled with a free OS like Linux. I suspect with the increase in the ease of Linux (you'll be surprised), it'll slowly creep in just like Mac OS X / Apple did. Never underestimate the power of free.

And if you're wondering why I'm still using 2000 instead of XP or Vista, it's because till date... it's probably the most stable Windows OS that Microsoft has ever created. It has... almost never let me down. I cannot count the number of times that XP has failed on me.

Alright, it's time to go install Linux Ubuntu. I'm curious about this distribution. Perhaps my next entry will be from there.

I don't behave like one, but maybe... I really am a closet geek.

Today (Monday) wasn't such a busy Monday like last week... last week was totally insane. I have no idea why as well, but it was crazy. I was supposed to do lunch with Cedric this afternoon, but it was postponed last minute to tomorrow instead. It's Fish and Co tomorrow!

Was kinda busy planning and organizing stuff throughout September; it hasn't been easy recently. Lots of planning for EOY and Black Alice, especially now that we're headed towards to the end of the year. There's the runway to handle, and there's also the big EOY. On a side note, Isetan hasn't been making things very easy for us as well. I like it when everything is laid out clearly at the beginning, and that everything promised is delivered. To me, my word is very important. If I promised something to someone, I want to be able to keep my promise, and deliver it, even if it is inconvenient. I just hope things get better from here.

I met up with NTUVAS and managed to liaise with CDS for the involvement of EOY, and am glad that I managed to touch base with them. There are still more plans in planning for EOY; I guess things are constantly changing and moving until till the day of EOY itself.

It was also the end of my RT last week, and I took my IPPT. Actually, if I tried really hard, I'm pretty sure that I can pass my IPPT, but if I were to do so, there will be a few disadvantages:
1. I won't be able to do RT with Roy, Drix and Hao next year.
2. I won't be able to keep fit for next year, seeing how lazy I can be.
3. I won't get paid for next year's RT.

I think... most people hate RT, but I find it pretty enjoyable. Going back to camp 2 times a week to train, meet up with friends, get paid and have dinner together is quite rewarding, actually.

I've worked on EOY for like... 10 months already. 2 more months, and it'll all be over, and then the cycle will repeat itself again. But, I'm not complaining.

It's tiring at times, but it's one hell of a fulfillment. The artwork thingy caused some shaking, but I'm glad things are fine now. I guess every time you step out to do something, there will always be the nay-sayers and people who pour buckets of water on you.

So far, there has been a lot of people who have been very supportive of this year's EOY, and I will try my best to live up to the expectations of this event. In fact, I hope to exceed it.

Alright, it's almost time for dinner; my wife's cooking. I can smell the soup from my room; awesome.

Today I want to write about an irrational behavior that we are all guilty of.... the price of ownership. It is a social phenomena, something that we all are guilty of. We all know that it is there, but we have problem registering that. It's like if something was given for FREE.... FREE is an irrational behavior.

You see, as humans, we place value on things that we own of a significant value higher than of what others perceive of it. That is also the reason why every time you want to sell something, chances are that you feel that people low-ball you and give you a ridiculous price. Houses, cars, musical instruments... it's all the same.

Recently I wanted to buy a GruppeM intake for my car, and there was this seller that kept wanting for $1,300. I told him I can only do $1,100 at most, but he was insisting on finding a buyer for $1.3k. A couple of weeks ago, he PM-ed asking if I would do $1.2k, but it was too late. I had found another set for $950, because although rare, the intake was simply not worth that much.

Another example, Lolita dresses. You hope someone will buy your favorite dress at $500, but someone only quoted you perhaps $350 for it... and you feel offended. Phones, iPods are everything else are also included.

Then again, you may wonder... "but there are really people who are willing to pay so much!" (or perhaps you did)

That is because these people have imagined themselves driving their dream car, play their dream guitar, wear the dream dress. In essence, they already placed themselves in the position as... the owners of the item(s) that they are going to buy already.

That is also why bidding can be a little dangerous... have you noticed that when you lose a mBok bid, it is always by perhaps 100 Yen?

It's a simple example of the price of ownership... when we start bidding; we always almost imagine ourselves having it, and keep trying to outbid the other buyer, resulting in buying an item more expensive than you thought you would possibly pay.

It even applies to things like domain names, websites, and the like.

I'm guilty of it too... technically if I were to sell my Type, I will probably ask for $93-95k, but in reality, the price for it for a non Type R owner probably is around... $85k or so.

It is just one of the irrational behavior that we as humans have. We tend to overprice everything that we own.

Reference: Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely

It's been a long time since I really sat down and write about my thoughts, inspirations and thoughts that I have been going through. The unfortunate thing about opening your blog to the public is that... there are just some things that you cannot write. When people are reading your blog, they judge you and character based on what you write. Most of what you do in real life is negated.

It is the same with Facebook pictures, EGL picture posts and girl blogs. People judge you based on your looks. If you're pretty, lucky for you, chances are that you'll be well loved. If you're not so blessed with the looks or size, well, I don't have to elaborate.

2009 has been quite a crazy year. I thought I learned a lot in 2008, but I realized that I learned even more in 2009. Year by year, my capacity gets stretched and stretched. What I thought I can never do in 2007, I did in 2008. What I couldn't do in 2008, I did in 2009. Sometimes, I wonder what will happen in 2010.

Some people think that I'm blessed, and that I pursued very hard to have what I have today. While that is true, it was also by chance that I met the correct people, was at the correct place and was presented with the correct opportunities. Some people call it luck. Christians call it God. But whatever it is, it's pretty much the same thing. I always say that my life is blessed by God watching over me.

I must confess something. Sometimes, I think I am invincible, and that nothing can stop me. I envision big things, dream about crazy things, and I strive with all my effort to pursue them. I persuade people to believe in my cause; very often I succeed, sometimes I don't. I meet people, share with them my inspirations, and try to influence and persuade them.

It's like overtaking a car. If you don't overtake a slow moving vehicle, you will most probably be safe. But if you skill is insufficient, and you attempt the overtake and fail, it can be disastrous. But if you never try, you will always be stuck behind. Take Tiger Woods for example. His father persuaded him to practice his swing since he was 8. He kept practicing and really believed he could be the best.

While it is true that for every success story, there are thousands of failures. But without that pursuit, Tiger Woods would never have emerged the individual that he is.

I am visionary, and I like to spend time dwelling with thoughts, dreams and I am great with imagination. I love to imagine things like EOY being packed with many people, with fantastic performances, with a complete sellout. I can even imagine moving to bigger places, and have a slight picture of what holds 5 years from now.

Perhaps it scares some people sometimes, but I guess that's how life is. We're all wired differently.

While I do have big inspirations and dreams, my intentions are pure for Black Alice and EOY. I love people, and I love talent. Profits are important, but they aren't everything.

I hope that everything I do, will always bring a benefit to the community that I serve, the people that I lead and everyone else around me.

In my pursuit, I definitely offend some people. I gained lots of friends and support, but along the way, I've lost some as well. It's all part and parcel of the entire package. When you decide to lead, you will meet both the good, the bad, the ugly and the damn ugly.

Sometimes when I count the cost, it can be a little crazy. The cost of people around me, the cost of taking my CPF money, the cost of taking my insurance cash vouchers, personal cash for Black Alice and EOY, it really scares me sometimes.

But if you ask me if I were to live my life all over again and what I will do....

I'll just live it again exactly in the same way.

4 months till the end of 2009; I'm really looking forward to EOY. It's my first mega project, and I really want to thank everyone who has believed in me, and pledged to support me.

I assure you that you will not be disappointed.

My dear readers, I love you guys. You guys are always a constant source of inspiration for everything I do.

I was over in Melaka for GACC 2009, and it was a little smaller than I expected though. There were more random people than cosplayers, but I must commend on the emcees and the registration process; it was really well done. I also headed to KL for a one day business trip, and overall it was a very fulfilling trip. Drove about 800+ km in 2 days.

Just one photo of my favourite cosplayer for the day:

After fumbling with Google Base today, I then realized that I have been updating the wrong database to Foogle. No wonder I don't see the quantity of my total items increasing.... I have missed out a lot on the new item updates, with quite a few going expiring over the last few weeks.

I've been updating the old database to Froogle (since v2 update which was months ago)... who knows how much sales I have lost during that period.

Managed to fix everything today, and I hope all things go well from here. Let's hope sales increase for MIS after I have fixed Froogle. I think I must have lost hundreds/thousands because of this error that I overlooked.

Had an awesome tea party last week at Oomphatico's:



Complete gallery: http://gallery.me.com/blackalice#100326

Everyone had loads of fun... thanks to everyone who managed to come down! It was really a beautiful place. Felicia and Alanna were the hosts of the day, and they did an amazing job. The National Day game was crazy.

I'll probably write more about it in the BA LJ, but for now, I'll need to go get ready for lunch. I'm meeting Kunming at the Botanic Gardens; lol, what a scenic place he chose for lunch.

I had an extremely crazy week; really tired from all the running around that I have been doing. I went to the Embassy of Japan with Yuan Le and Hao on Tue, ran around many places on Wed for business errands, and on Thur, I was doing a sound setup for Wayne's wedding rehearsal.

Then on Sat, it was Wayne's actual wedding, so I have to actually setup a full system of speakers, mics, musical instrumentals and a mixer. I had to pull cables and set everything up. Wow; that was really quite tiring. Normally when I do sound, I tap into their existing setup and make a few alterations here and there; seldom do I have to setup speaker stands, run cables and stuff like that.

Wedding well though; I think I did quite a good job on the sound system on Sat. Freaking tiring, but I still think that it was good. I was like... the music director or something. Woot~

Was church's 20th anniversary yesterday; had really a long service, headed home to rest a little, before running out to have dinner with my parents. I later went to meet Wilson, and was supposed to meet Mao at Downtown East, but they ended really early around 11+ pm. I managed to play a couple of DOTA games with them around 1+ am though.

Also just met up with AFA09 for some discussion earlier at BA. Apparently, the organizing committee for AFA09 has changed from Dentsu to Sozo, so this year's AFA will probably be a little different.

And through the grace of God, I met with Yuli, a food stylist for Singapore's Women's Weekly last week. She later introduced me and Black Alice to another stylist for a shoot (I think it's a fashion shoot).

You really don't know who you meet. It's amazing how everything links up with one another. Luck? Perhaps.

But isn't that how randomness all rules our lives?

I love my work. It's loads of fun meeting people from all walks of life.

It's been a long time since I blogged. I don't write as often these days, and I realized that one of the side-effects of opening your blog to the public is that sometimes, you can't just write anything at will. As humans, we're all entitled to our own opinions and ideas, many of which some people might feel offensive.

Not that I have anything offensive to say now though. It just passed my mind.

The weather has been really good to me lately (I love windy and rainy days), but unfortunately, that's not too good of a news to my sunflower, which is dying from the lack of sunshine. I just transplanted it, and I hope it survives. Surprising as it may sound, I actually pretty like taking care of flowers and plants.

Maybe perhaps I like lots of cute, sweet and pretty stuff. Flowers included.

I'm meeting up with the Embassy of Japan later to see how we can work together for EOY. I have no idea what the content of the discussions will be, but I hope everything goes out fine. Yuan Le, Hao and probably Ophelia will be with me tomorrow. It's going to be an exciting day tomorrow.

Actually, I secretly hope that I can get the ambassador of cute, Aoki Misako to come for EOY. I bet all the Loli's will love it if she will be able to come. It's a little tough, but I think... it's no harm trying though.

I'm really looking forward to this year's EOY. There are a lot of things planned for this year's EOY, and I'm sure that it'll be a blast. There are also many changes, and most of time, I am persuading people to believe what I envision and hope for EOY2009. Of course, I can't please everyone, although I try my best too.

It's really challenging sometimes.

Some people love people. Some people are neutral with me. And, some people dislike me. I guess this is the price to pay for doing what I like, and for what I believe in. I can never comprehend why some people behave the way they do; it disappoints.

Oh well, hope everything goes well later. There are more important things to worry about.

Cosfest 2009 was good, but it didn't seemed as crowded as the previous year. It was still filled with lots of uncles and aunties though, which I personally feel that they contribute nothing to the event, except cynical stares.

Rest of the pictures that I took can be found at:
http://gallery.me.com/blackalice#100318&bgcolor=black&view=grid

There are these 2 girls whom I always see at the events, and they have been wearing the same dresses for 3 years already. At every event Cosfest and EOY, for the past 3 years, these 2 girls have always been wearing the same black dresses with a patch of white lace at the bottom.

I have no idea why they do that, but seeing them wear the same black dresses for 3 years really is an eyesore. I mean, we are humans, right? There should be some sort of progression. At least wear something nicer with each passing year. A dress requires to have a certain cut in order to look nice, and not hang from your body to almost your ankles and with a line of white lace. It may be forgivable 5 years ago, but this is already 2009. Everyone's costumes and dresses are all so pretty already. Don't they feel out of place?

In anyway, details for EOY has been released. I'm still feeling a little anxious, but I'm sure things will work out well. It's really going to be quite a challenge as the date draws nearer, but I'm sure everyone will have lots of fun.

On a side note, it makes me wonder whether there is any justice here in Singapore's motor insurance industry. It's filled with lots of dirty rats and idiots, who definitely needs to be axed.

My head hurts a little.

Been a while since I updated; slightly over than a week.

Ridiculously, this fever is still persisting a little, but on a general note, I'm feeling better already. Thanks so much for everyone's concern. Apart from my not-so-good stomach, I really almost never fall sick. I eat proper meals and have sufficient sleep. I have no idea why this sickness hit me so hard.

I so what want to drive out, eat lunch/supper with people, chiong DOTA with friends, go party, cycling with Ling and perhaps even catch a movie or two.

And, welcome back Feli! When I recover, please let me treat you to lunch!

Sunday is Cosfest, and I hope to see everyone there then.

Initially, Ling was supposed to accompany me to KL to attend Animangaki, but she caught up with a slight fever so she ended up staying at home, for fear of being quarantined in Malaysia (that's a scary thought).

I drove a total of 700+ km in a single day (2 ways), and arrived at the event just before 12 pm. I stopped once just outside KL for a petrol stop and for lunch. Pumped a total of about 140 RM of petrol (est. S$60) for the entire trip. My current oil tank has a mixture of Esso F1, Shell V-Power and Esso 8000 now. Unfortunately, I was caught for speeding (easily settled though), and I was averaging around 140 km/h, and tried my top speed of 186 km/hr for a while (my ECU has a speed cut at 185 km/h).

And I must say that my new GPS toy is AWESOME. It is a fantastic Malaysia navigation tool. I didn't even get lost at all, and got there earlier than predicted!

Met with the president of Animangaki / SUAC for a short talk, and my estimation for the entire event turnout was about 1,000 people.

Also met up with Aiko at Sunway College to pass her her bonnet.

It's been a while since I took so many pictures during events, and the album can be found on Facebook located at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=271240

Just 2 of pictures that I took during the event (more at Facebook):



The second group of girls really surprised me, because upon asking them for a group shot, they later asked me to help me take pictures of them as well and I was handled with like 4-5 cameras.

What was more amusing is that when I passed one of them my Black Alice namcards (I ran out of EOY namecards, and I haven't said anything about BA yet), they were like.... "BLACK ALICE!!"

My goodness. The Malaysians actually know about our shop here in Singapore. They later asked for a few more cards which I gladly passed to them after getting more from my car. One of them even told me that she went to the old BA at Red Dot Building, but was closed and didn't know how to get to the new location.

That was probably my most surprising discovery on my trip... that word had actually spread so far. Just yesterday, I received a call from Pamela representing Yishun Country Club on an interest on whether I would want to open a BA cafe.

Wow. How did these people hear about us? Perhaps it is the little things that make all the difference. Word about Black Alice seems to be spreading a little, and I'm really happy for Loli fashion as a whole. What also shocked me was that Pamela did not refer us as "cosplay", but rather "Loli fashion".

Wow. Talk about general public education.

I pray that the day will come... just like anime was so commonly mistaken as "Japanese cartoons" previously, it no longer is now. People know what anime is. That the day will be when Loli be commonly known as Loli fashion, and not "cosplay". We're still a little far, but bit by bit, I think we are getting there.

God bless the Lolita.

Monday was the last day of my Pre-Advanced II Japanese classes; kinda sad if you ask me. The earliest that we will be resuming lessons will probably be end 2009 or early 2010. There is another class available, but I don't really like the teaching style and culture there though.

There are full time lessons, but I don't think I'll be taking those up again.

What I really want to do now is to teach though. Unfortunately, RP/ITE hasn't gotten back to me on possible teaching positions. Some people have been asking me why I would want to take time to do teaching... do you have too much time? Is the common question that they ask.

I love imparting knowledge to youths, and to people. Perhaps that is also the reason why I start BA, why I decide to take over EOY and why I want to pursue teaching. To many people, it sounds ridiculous, but I was heavily influenced by GTO back in my secondary school days. Of course I don't imagine crazy things like smashing student's homes, but rather by being a positive influence to them. I'm sick and tired of half past six teachers... I met so many in my Poly days.

I still have some free time in the afternoon normally, but I hope it wouldn't be this way for long.

On a side note, I'm heading to KL this Sunday to attend an anime event called "Animangaki", and will probably also be attending another event called GACC in August (Melaka). Will be there to see how events are held there, get some contacts and catch up with a band that probably will be coming to perform for EOY2009. Hopefully it'll be an insightful trip.

Man, June is already almost gone and July is just around the corner. EOY is really coming up very soon. In less than 3 weeks, I'll be announcing details of EOY, and I'm sure the public will have many questions for me. I just hope that I have a fantastic answer for every one of them.

Had a haircut at Mazu earlier as well, and also left reservation items for our customers at Black Alice. Angelic Pretty has been a little slow at replying lately, so I hope they get back to me quick so that the next series can be released as soon as possible.

Kinda excited about my KL trip this coming Sunday. I love road trips.

Alright, it's time for dinner. Ling has prepared a nice meal for both of us.

Perhaps some of you have never heard me say this before, but....

Ling is a good girlfriend, but she is a fantastic wife.

Ling and myself went for Natassya's graduation at Swisshotel yesterday (Raffles Design), and I must say that I was very impressed with the design skills of the students that graduated there. We also met up with Jourdan, Edric & Leah. Jourdan was really busy with collecting name cards... he mentioned somewhere along the lines of: "consolidating talents to hire" for his company.

We later went for the runway done by the graduating design students; wow; impressive.

Another thing that I was very impressed was that Indonesia girls are really very pretty. Raffles Design has a lot of Indonesia students (both my friends Natassya & Willy are), and as a result, there were a lot of Indonesians gracing the graduation ceremony. Some of the girls really look lovely. Their make up, hair and fashion sense puts our Singapore girls to shame.

Jourdan later told me that in Jakarta, all the girls groom like that. That was one thing that I never knew.

Street Festival was a little hot and humid, but it was still good nevertheless. But somehow, it doesn't really feel as fun as the previous years. I don't know if it is because I am growing old, but I have a feeling that the reason is partially linked to the mixing of cosplay and Jrock together. The idea doesn't stick. I still preferred it when it was simply just Jrock, punk, Loli and that sort of thing.

Speaking of which, I saw some really いたロリ(Ita-Rori's) during Street Festival. いたい is the Japanese word for "pain". If you want to do Loli, please do it properly. Please don't use 15,768 meters of lace and call it "Loli". It's not. Lace != Loli. I only hope that these people would go learn more about the fashion. How can people actually make clothes like these and sell?

Ok I better stop. I sound like some chief examiner of some Loli exam or something.

Of course, that was just a very small number. I saw lots of pretty Loli's; probably one of the prettiest ever during Street Festival. Weirdly though, there weren't many people who were dressing up; there were significantly a lot more casual people this year. Nevertheless it was probably the smoothest and most well executed Street Festival, and the bands' standards really increased over the years. Thumbs up to Cedric and Emerson for such an awesome event.

Street Festival Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87509&id=90512457182

You know, I always drive past Drama Center @ National Library. And each time, I will always say... "this is the place where EOY2009 will be held... it's an awesome place."

Just a couple of days, I decided to take a picture to capture the thought:


Every time I drive past the structure, I always imagine how EOY2009 will look like; how the events will be going, the number of people attending the event and how much it'll be a blast. I have a feeling when EOY2009 is over, I'll probably be so happy that I'll drop tears of joy.

On a side note, it was my Japanese teacher's (Matsuyama-sensei) birthday last week, so we celebrated by buying a cake for her during our lessons:




Matcha cake!

It's a pity that our classes will all finish on 22 June, which is just next week. I hope that when my Japanese classes are over, I will be given a chance to teach part time perhaps in ITE, or in a Polytechnic. It has always been my dream to teach.