Costume fixed

Finally I fixed my costume which was ruined by the washing machine and had all the tassels torn off. Now they are all back. In fact, this time I use some eyes and hooks to hook them up so that I can take them off if I need to put the costume into washing machine again. It's nice to learn something through making mistakes.

Sense of beauty

Beauty really is the eyes of beholder. For instance, I have this pink costume you can see at the left. While most of my Chinese friend thought it was the ugliest and most horrible thing in the world, most of my American friends thought it's such a gorgeous costume. But then I am glad that not everyone like the same thing, or otherwise there will be more fights and wars among people who try to get the same pretty stuff.

A costume is ruined, and it was all my fault

I didn't know why I had an idea that I can wash my pink costume in a washing machine. But I did, and the result was a disaster. Sigh. Now I need to find to find some tassels to fix the costume. Interesting enough, my friend showed me this site about making tassels myself, which actually seems like a good idea.

A Photos of my new costume

Remember I mentioned the costume that I was about to made in Hong Kong like months ago? Well, finally it's done. Honestly there are some stuff that don't like about this costume, but at least now that done it once, I know how to instruct the costume designer to do it better. I will post more photos later when I get time. In fact, I probably will take another set of photo once my new camera arrives. For now, here's the sneak peek.

My Dagger messed up my long glove

I was trying out a cosplay character look with the prop Dagger I brought form Hong Kong, and found that the Dagger torn some part of the long black glove. That sort of pissed me off, but at the same time I was very confused, because I didn't see any share anyway on the dagger handle. How in the world did the handle torn my black glove? Gotta figure it out some day some time.

Didn't brought that 38 inches long sword

In order to make my Martial Art cosplay costume look more authentic, I was trying to buy a sword to accommodate it. Unfortunately, most swords I saw at a store I went to in Hong Kong were at least 38 inches long, definitely couldn't fit in my suitcase. That's why I brought a shrinkable sword instead. The full size sword cost HK$110, which is pretty resonable, and I doubt that I can find it at the same price here in United States. Oh well, maybe next time when I get back that I'll finally get one.

costumes

I am still on the plane now, but if my luggage didn't then lost along the way, then I will have quite some new costumes to use in the coming one year. In fact, almost half of my luggage are various costume related clothing. I didn't really planned on buying that many, but for as the price was right, I thought, why not.

Comment to myself

Comment by myself:

• The shading (like tone and brush) seems very sloppy. Need to spend more time on shading. Do it right, or not do it at all.
• I need to figure out how to create new pen and save it in Manga Studio. The default G Brush is too huge for shading some detail spot, and yet I can't find another default one that does the job.
• Lines are still shaky. Improving, but only slightly.
• Need to do more exercise drawing white lines on the top of black.

More inking exercise

I think beside trainning myself to draw lines smoother, I need to remind myself not to join all the lines all the time.

A little bit ... errr....

This is just panel of a page in a manga that I am working on, but since the content seems a bit H, I don't want to put it here. Maybe I'll create another blog for that later.

Inking exercise

I realized that I am not really good at using G Pen to ink manga, and thought that I need to keep doing exercise in order to master it. So in the coming future I will keep posting my exercise here. Please let me know if you have any comment. I need serious comment in order to improve :-} Thanks!

Nice to have a filled up car and power for home

Just came back from doing voluntary work at senior center, and along the way have my car filled up. It's pretty sweet to have power, water and gasoline back. Prayer, though, still goes to those who are still recovering from the disaster.

The friend I met

I met Rachel at A-kon this year, and I sort of promised her that I would attend AnimeFest so that we could met and chat. Well, there we were.

nerd

I couldn't believe that I could look so funny with my glasses on while crossplaying. By the way, guess which one is me.

Scar on my breast

I found out that there's some minor scars around the around of my chest. It must be the costume being too tight and thus left some wounds on my skin. Must ... resist ... scratching them ...

Feels like wearing makup

It's so strange, but I feel like I am still wearing makeup, wig and costume even though I have nothing on my face, nothing on my head, and I am definitely on my Tee now. That 3 days at AnimeFest really distorted my reality :-P

Thanks, the family of Rich

I really can't express my gratitude completely, but thank you to the family of Rich for giving me a wonderful whole day by allowing me to sleep over for a night, and allowing me to stay with them for the rest of the next day. Thanks thanks and thanks to Rich, Teresa , Nathan, Tonya, Tonya's boy friend (... darn I forgot his name), lovely doggy Chibo and Angel. Thanks.

woke up

Just woke up from a one hour nap. It's 1:40 pm now. I am supposed to be at work, but I took a day off because I don't feel good. Must be a post AnimeFest Symptom.

Finally a pair boots that I can wear a whole day

I brought three pairs of gogo boots from Frankel's Costume. Interesting enough, the web site says that only white is available, but when I went to the store, I found all kinds of color I want. Eventually are brought a pink one for a pink Qipao, a silver one for martial art girl cotume, and a hot pink one for Mongolian costume.

One thing I like the most about these boots are the heads of these boots. They are more round instead of pointy. To me that's great because I have big feet, and round head allow my toes some rooms to breathe. I brought size 10 for all of them, which is the biggest size they can get. Good that they all worked out very well and I was so glad that I brough them and wore them at AnimeFest instead of my red dance boot which was way to tight for being comfortable to wear.

Thanks to Polish Remover

I was not too happy when I realized that the silver boot and hot pink boot that I wore during AnimeFest had some dark marks on it. Seems like they were mostly left by having the bottom of my boots on one foot scratch at the surface on another boot.

Luckily I had polish remover at home. Rubbed the area gently and the dark marks are now gone. Sweet and sweet.

89880

Taken from my car.

Booth

This is the my friend's booth at A-kon. I post it here because I just found that photo from my phone. That's all.

Dream

Last night I had a series of dream, but I didn't remember most of it except the last part which also happens to be the best part :-P . In the dream I was in middle school of some Asian country (probably my home town). I was in the playground and a nice girl came by and chat with me. We were so into it that we start walking while chatting. And then all the sudden I held the girls' hand. The girl was slightly embarrassed but didn't resist (to think about it this is how I realize that it's just a dream :-P). We continue to walk around at the playground.

And then we had to get in line to get back to the classroom. We same a pair of naughty boys being punished while they were lining up, yet they were still making funny face while they were being punished.

Suddenly to scene changed to some Japanese action heroine drama. The base station of the "bad guys" were being attacked, and the scene focus on a girl in captive in a channel laying on the floor.

And that's when I woke up.

Ganbade (Do you best)! Tonya!

I just had a chat with my friend Tonya. She's about to start going to beauty school and working her way to become a beautician. Actually she's more into being a hair stylist, but border the scope will help her to explore more career possibility. Well, go your best, Tonya. Ganbade.

Ganbade is Japanese which means "do your best".

Speaking of Japanese, I am interesting in finding some web site that allows me to chat with Japanese. I came across one here. But then I found something even better, which is called My Language Exchange. I shall try it tomorrow.

Cute

I didn't realize that there's cute Japanese anime style model for Poser/Daz Studio until today. The NearMe model sure looks very cute. I hope that they will release more of this kind of cute model in the future.

So I put up a roommate request

I posted my roommate request message at cosplay.com and Animefest offical web site. I'll fall back to my original plan if I don't get any response. We'll see.

Oh, I suddenly realized that I haven't been Twittering for a while.

Still planning on where to sleep during AnimeFest

I am glad that I posted my plan of staying druing AnimeFest in the forum and got some response. I am very interest in finding a roommate but don't know if I can find one that doesn't concern about me crossplaying. I'll give it a try anyway.

By the way, here's my messages:
------------------------------
(Original post)

I am from Houston, and planning to attend AnimeFest on Saturday (Aug 30) and Sunday (Aug 31). Here's my plan:

- Get one night at Hyatt (Saturday night, Aug 30)
- On Aug 30, wake up at 1 am, finish putting on make up at 3 am, drive from Houston to Dallas and arrive at 7 am.
- Park my car at Hotel.
- Attend AFest til the check in hour of my room.
- Check in
- Take an hour or two nap, and Costume change (yeah!)
- Continue happy AFest til next day
- Check out
- Continue attending AFest til 7:00 pm, Aug 31
- Drive back to HOuston
- Sleep like a log at home. Mission Accomplished.

The only puzzle in this whole plan is check in and check out hour of Hyatt. Does any one know?

--------------------------------
(My reply on other's reply)


I think I slept in car for once or twice in my life, and the experience was terrible. Nothing happened to me after that night but I was in ultra bad mood after no getting enough sleep and the frustration showed all over my face, something that no foundation powder can cover up. And yeah no way will I sleep in downtown area.

The check in out time is actually not that big an issue since I only use the hotel room as a changing room and sleeping place. As long as I can find a parking space within the hotel I think I am good. Check out at 3:30 pm and check out at 11 am sounds totally fine with me.

The reason why I do this is actually more to do with "not wasting money" (as in not-spending-$50-for-a-meal-at-McDonald) than "finding the cheapest way". 2 months ago I went to A-Con, paid 2 night of hotel, and all I did in the room was sleeping at night and changing costume once. I looked back and I was like, "I paid $200 for that?" Plus I went alone, and seeing a double bed room occupying by only me, a suitcase and laptop made me feel like kind of a waste.

But sharing a room with others sounds like a great idea. If I can find a roommate then I won't mind staying for the whole conference period. I also don't mind picking someone up in Houston and go to Dallas together. However, I am a guy crossplaying a female character, so I need to find a roommate that doesn't care about that (con attendees seem more open but you never know).

Let me ask around sometime today...

Planning for AnimeFest

I am planning my AnimeFest trip now. Like I mentioned before, this time I will stay in the hotel where the conference is being held, which will be Hyatt in this case. However, I am a bit puzzled by the price. Based on AnimeFest site , they have a "special rate" : $91/night + tax for a Regular Room with 1-2 Adults. But when I checked the Hyatt web site, I got $84 per night, which is even cheaper than the so called "special rate". Strange.

I am thinking of attending Aug 30 the whole day and Aug 31 til 7:00 pm, and then drive back to Houston on Sunday night. The biggest challenge willing driving from Houston to Dallas, since I will wake up at 1:00 a.m., put on all the make up, and start driving at 3:00 a.m., arrive Dallas at 7:00 a.m. , and start my day at AnimeFest on Saturday. I have a very strong feeling that I will have a very good night sleep on Saturday night :-E .

I also need to figure out when I should check in Hyatt on Saturday and check out of Hyatt. One thing I know for sure though: I don't have to carry load of stuff all the time anymore, and I can change costume more frequently this time. Yeah!

I definitely need to arrive at 7:00 a.m. (or even slightly earlier) in order to get parking space. It will be very lame to bring all my luggage from parking lot blocks away to the hotel.

Dreaming about crossplaying?

I had a series of dreams last night, but one of them really worthy noting. In that segment, I was entering a dance competition by wearing the female Mongolian gown costume. Interesting enough, I didn't recall myself dancing at all. I felt like I just kept rushing running from one location to another location. That sort of experiment echoes more with my experience back in the A-kon.

Xinjiang Girls - Daz Studio Scene

I almost done with texturing the clothing for a XinJiang girl. What left now is creating a Xinjiang hat with texture. So far I am OK with the result, although I may redo the boots again when I get time. See for yourself below.

TV

After getting used to pausing TV while watching the shows online (either thru hulu.com or ... you know ...), I found watching network TV thru regular TV a painful experience. Nevertheless, I used the $40 government couple and got myself a Digital TV Converter so that I can watch network TV if I choose to. The signal quality is way better than what I got from analog signal. But the lack ability to pause the TV while I need to really tickle my nerve. I am so used to watch content in my own term, not in the way the TV network wants me to.

Plus I still have a habit of channel surfing even with with only handful of channels. That's kind of ... sick.

Suck at it

Every once in a while, I will ask myself why I am still doing ballet when I am obviously suck at it. That question usually came up when there's one of two smart students, usually teenagers with years of training, attending either the intermediate or the beginner class. Today there are severals, and one of them was a younger man. So my ego shrink even further then used to.

My ration mind absolutely knows that I shouldn't care about the others, that I should just focus on my own problem, improve and grow in my own terms. But my emotional side still got tingled. I have a pretty big ego, and usually only do stuffs that I am good at, so that I can gain satisfaction from achieving success.

Ballet, or dance in general, is something that I suck at, and yet I just keep doing and doing. I have several theories about why I have such a behavior. None of them really make sense.

On the bright, the shame will makes me remember what step I did wrong, so that I can practice a bit when I am at home.

Am I getting ... fat?

Last Saturday I was trying out my Anna William set costume when I suddenly found out that the red Qipao I had couldn't fit me! That is kind of crazy consider that it was fitting me fine 2 months ago. (It was also kind of tight back then but still :-< ...). So I tried and tried and finally fit in. But I had to really hold up my breathe.

So it seems like my chest is getting BIGGER than before. I wonder if it has anything to do with the ballet training I had these days. This is not a bad thing since the rest of my body doesn't change. Still ... it's strange :-m .

Oh, that also means that I don't have a set of Anna William costume anymore. Guess I will go for my Mongol dance costume for AnimeFest then :-I .

Spent an hour trying o make her eyes not so shiny

Working on Daz Studio again, and still got issue. So I posted the question on Daz's web site.

------------------------------------------

This happened many many times and I was too lazy to ask around until now cause I am fed up with it. Whenever I render my character with Daz Studio 2.1 using the software rendering, I always got my character's eyes super shiny. It's like cat eyes, and makes the scene look very strange.


What did I do wrong? I already go to the surface tab to change the eye surface's Lighting model to Skin. I changed the Glossiness to 0%. They didn't changed a bit. The eyes are still as if light shined out of it. And it's just wrong :-E

Since I didn't see any complain about it, so I am pretty sure that I DID something wrong. Any suggestion?

$180 suddenly becomes $300

Just found out that the boot priced $180 (in my last post) suddenly jacked up to $300 (maybe the seller saw the competitor's high price). And now I am very confused about who stealing photos from whom. All three sites look very strange to me now. And as the result, I may shop at NONE of these store because they loss the credibility. They all claimed that they took photos from actually product, but now I started to really doubt it.

Research result: boots

I did some research on footwear for martial art costume (武俠服裝), and found the following sites with the following price:

• 黑色膠底長筒雕花皮靴 (NT$2980, or HK$814) [Link] [Image]
  
• 影視級黑色布靴 (NT$2980, or HK$814) [Link] [Image]
• 影視專用靴子-男快靴-高幫 (RMB$180, or HK$205) [Link] , Interesting, for the same photo and such selling at high price here: (RMB$300, or HK$341). IN fact they both looked like rip off of the 黑色膠底長筒雕花皮靴 above.
• 古裝女俠必備靴子*龍紋錦緞古裝戲鞋 (RMB$120, HK$137) [Link] [Image] I kind of like this product mostly because the price seems nice, also the maker has a blog so I feel like I am supporting a living person.
• 古裝翩翩公子靴 (RMB$180, or HK$205) [Link] [Image]
• 江湖俠客靴 (RMB$160, or HK$182) [Link] [Image]
• 黑色古裝布靴 (RMB$150, or HK$171) [Link]
• 古裝女俠必備靴子 (RMB$110, HK$126) [Link]

So far I think I am lean toward "影視專用靴子-男快靴-高幫" and "古裝女俠必備靴子*龍紋錦緞古裝戲鞋"

Alipay support Visa

Seems like Alipay also support paying with Visa.

Getting on China online shopping mall

I found a lot of online store selling Martial Art costume, and most of them belongs to the online shopping mall at taobao.com . The problem is that in order to shop at Taobao.com, I have to have an account at alipay. There seems to be a way to do it with Visa, but getting an Ranmanbi account at 香港招商銀行 seems to be the most easiest way. Problem is that the bank seems to have only one branch in Hong Kong. I also don't know how much effort it will take to get an account. I also need to make sure that when I create an account, it has to be a Ranmanbi account, otherwise it won't work with alipay.

I also realize that I have Bank of China Visa card, and I was told that it should work with my account. Someone said that they tried and didn't work well. Still I think it's worth trying anyway.

Be Kind Rewind .... Sigh

As much as I love Michel Gondry's odd ball music video and some of the his movies (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), "Be Kind Review" would be a total flop without Jack Black's energy carrying through the movie. Somehow, the story, while ok interesting, seems too far fetch that makes the chracters seemed too flat. The movie is like a good gimmick that would probably last 10 minutes as an extended version of music video, but far from capable to carry though a 90 minutes movie. It's an OK rental, but I will definitely shoot myself to death if I pay full price at thearter to see it.

researching

I spent a whole night last night doing nothing but researching on how to get martial art TV drama costume. I really was shocked that it took me that much time :-E.

Finding martial art costume

I posted this message at the forum:

-----------------------------------------
尋找訂造武俠電視劇服裝的地方


我現在身在美國, 參加過一次Anime Convention後,發覺美國人對中國服飾有極濃厚的興趣, 想用cosplay 展示中國武俠文化, 再加上自己從小已經很渴望 Cos 武俠電視劇的角色, 所以開始四出搜查, 看看有沒有專造武俠服裝的店舖。

我找到了幾家台灣專造武俠服裝的ONline Store, 衣款和布靴的設計也不俗,但價格頗貴, 也不知運費怎樣計. 況且我會在九至十月左右回港 for vacation, 心想如果能夠八月尾落 order, 九月回港 or 到深圳 pick up, 可能比較化算。

造服裝的地方各有專長,例如造旗袍的未必明白舞台上用舞蹈服裝的需要,舞蹈用的布靴也跟武俠電視劇中用的布靴不一樣, 所以想問大家知不知道有那些在香港或深圳的店舖有造武俠劇服裝的經驗?

我知這個問題似乎很偏門, Still, Thanks in advance!!

Message at Hong Kong cosplay forum

I posted this message at a Hong Kong cosplay forum.

------------------------------

為了找武俠電視劇服裝,來到這個論壇,又看到這個主題,忍不住想說一兩句。

我現在身在美國,在香港的時候,從沒有參與過 Cosplay 的活動,因為覺得自己大年紀, Cos 起來並不像真。想不到來到美國,在朋友的鼓勵下,不單是首次出席 Anime Convention (A-kon 19, 可能你會在 Gallery http://www.a-kon.com/bm/News/the-a-kon-19-photo-gallery-page.shtml 中找到我的怪相), 還反串一個自己在創作中的故事人物 (一位新疆舞娘,為了救自己的涵子子生妹妹,結果...)

起初我到達會場,發現 Cosplayer 們超認真,雖然自己也化了兩小時化妝準備, 始終覺得比不上人家的好, in fact 我已經沒有 concern whether I pass (how much people accept you as a female, see Wikipedia for detail) or not 的 issue.

直到自己一次又一次聽到女孩子們叫道 "Ahh! You look so cute. Can I take a picture of you?" 自己才放心下來,更發覺 cosplayer 們 all very nice and friendly, 攝影的人也很有禮貌。Cosplayer 們看到大家 Cos 同一個角式, 反應是……衝上前互相抱擁,大叫"Objection!!" (大家大概也知道她們 crossplay 那一個 NDS Game 吧 :-} ) 跟著又見大批人大跳 涼宮春日, 又有 US Characters, 亦有 J-Anime Characters, 無分你我。

可能由於我找到這個Forum 後, 首先看到的是 "守望相助" section, 覺得 "How come it's so different from the experience I had last week?" 不過也很高興看到大家在面對無知的白眼時, 一於無視, 盡管用自己的努力,心思,創意,表達一個屬於自己的美感世界, 將來你們回頭看這一段青春的, 絕對可以無悔。

Effort

I got hugged a few times last weekend at A-kon, and strangely enough, I suddenly became very shy and didn't know how to response :-P. (As a foreigner I was not used to hugging anyway ...)

No matter what role you try to cosplay, it's the effort that count. When you cosplay, you have to do your best to portrait the character you try to role-play, regardless of gender. For instance, it took me almost 2 hours to put on makeup in the morning before I went to A-kon last weekend. I almost wanted to give up after failing to put on fake eyelash the third time. But then all the effort paid off after I heard girls calling me "ahhh!!! You are so cute!" several times. I personally think I was really not that pretty that day, but, hey, thanks for whoever gave me encouragement that day.

Worn out heels on my high heel boots

When I brought my pair of boots back when I was in Hong Kong last year, the sales throw in 2 replacement heel tips for my boots. I was like ... why do I need that.

At then, during A-kon, I wore that pair of boots on the street the first time in my life, and and found that with my way of wearing it, the heels were seriously worn out within JUST ONE DAY. That makes me sort of decided that I should NEVER wear that pair of boots on the street again.

I think I need to shop for boots if I ever need to wear a pair of boots on the street again .

Still need to reserve a MAC make over session

I am still not too happy with the makeup I did last Friday morning for A-kon. That's why I am still thinking of scheduling a private session at MAC and use it as a learning session. Also I want to see what it would be like when everything done right.

(Or I may give up on doing make up when I find out that even the professional artist at MAC couldn't turn my face into something decent.)

A-kon 19 photos already start showing up

I am so glad that I didn't spend a lot of time taking photos at A-kon 19, because tons of people did much better job than I do. In fact photos start showing up at Flickr already.

Didn't get a chance to wear earring

I just realized that even though I brought the whole set of earrings with me for use at A-kon, it turns out that I didn't wear any of them, mostly because ... I just forgot. That and all the costumes that I brought with me but didn't get the chance to wear makes me wonder whether I should bring less next time when I go to convention.

Well, there's always the first time for everything. Next time I will be smarter.

Creative people are all very Self aware

M. Alice LeGrow kind of reminds me about myself: talkative when in the right mood, and very self aware. Maybe it's the ego of creative people, we (see, I am grouping myself into the bright people's club) tends to self-reference what we said before, as if everyone cares and remember everything I said, and thus got the punchline based on the reference.

Left over food saves my day

I was hungry at Friday night when I got back to motel from A-kon. We didn't get a chance to have dinner because of the schedule: first it was lining up for the concert, and then the concert itself, and finally the Rocky Horror Show. So I drove back to motel and just when I started to consider whether I should go out to have dinner at 2 a.m. or not. Then I realize the I didn't finished my lunch earlier that day, and the to-go bag was still in my bag.

And that's what I ate they night. When you are hungry, even crap taste good.

This is why people pay $200 instead of $75

Before I went to A-kon, I was wonder why people will pay $200 for a night at Sheraton Dallas Hotel (the place where the convention was being held) when they can get a room for $70 at a motel 10 minutes driving distance away.

Well, I found out why in the hard way:

• Morning traffic sucks. 10 minutes driving distance turned into 25 minutes driving.
• Parking sucks. I need to park my car 5 blocks away. That really hurt my high heel boots (more in coming up blog post).
  
• Carry stuffs around sucks. Without a car parked near by as a mobile locker room, I have to carry a lot of stuffs around. That hurts my enjoyment at the conference.
• No costume changing sucks. Without a room in the hotel, I can't change costume at ease. Sure I can walk up to my car, bring the second costume, and then go back to convention, find a restroom, and then change, bring the undressed costume back to my car, and walk back .... See, this is TOTALLY clumsy. Not to mention how filthy restrooms are. I won't allow my costumes touch restrooms floors like that.

So next time when I try to have a full experience of an anime convention, maybe I should also consider living at the hotel.

Try your very best to resist scratching your itching legs ....

Here it happens again. 18 hours after I shaved my legs, they were starting to itch like hell. I controlled myself and wait until I got back to the motel on late Friday night, and then I scratched my legs like a mad man. That caused a lot of red marks all over my legs but i didn't care because it was darn itchy. It was so painful that .... I went into sleep. And then I was OK next day I woke up. See, my instinctive defense system in my body surely knows how to protect myself. Once again, sleeping solves every problem.

Still if you can, you should resist the scratching. And here one idea that works for: using a tow to soak cool water and then rub it on your legs. It works fairly OK.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

The great thing about Late Night with Conan O'Brien is Canon O'Brien's improv capability. Throwing him in any situation and he can make fun out of it. The reason I suddenly said these is because I am watching the show at hulu.com now, and found that even the shows during the writer trikes days are still very funny.

This makes me very worry about the upcoming Jimmy Fallon era of Late Night show.

Critisim

During the session with M. Alice LeGrow at A-kon, Alice reminded the audience how important it is to receive comment on the work you produce. People who can't take criticism won't produce good work. That rang a bell in my head because I had quite some fragment work (writing, sketching, art work) done but never shown to the public. So in the near future I should put them not only in blog, but also some armature writer site and get ready to be harshly criticized. What does kill me will only make me stronger.

You don't really think much while spending during the trip

I am now calculating how much I spent on the 1 day 2 nights A-kon trip. This sounds boring but I am a control freak, and that includes my finance. The result is pretty much I expected. In fact I didn't buy any souvenir during the trip at all. And yet I still feel like I spent more than I usually do when I was at Dallas.

Tourist sure is great for economy.

One day to recover

I am so glad that I have this Sunday to recover from A-kon. I always need one whole day to get myself together after a trip in order to gain back energy for regular work day.

Not much cheaper with greyhound

I found out that using Greyhound to go from Houston to Dallas doesn't really save much. It still takes $40 for one way. Plus there's a lot of advantage driving:

• I can arrange my car in whatever way I want.
• I can go whenever I want.
• I can bring whatever luggage I want.
• I guess to an extreme, I can even sleep in my car.

So I guess I will stick with driving by myself if I need to go to Dallas again.

Driving to A-kon

I found that a trip between Houston and Dallas used up 5/6 of my tank. That means the trip to and from A-kon 2008 costed me $35 one way, or $70 both way. I wonder if there's a cheaper way to go to Dallas.

By the way, it turns out that 4 hours driving is not too bad if you pick the right thing to listen. On my way from Houston to Dallas I chose Podcasts, which doesn't work too well. But when I drove back form Dallas to Houston, I listened to Harry Potter Book 7 audio book, and it was proven to be a fantastic choice. I was attracted by the story and the drive felt much shorter.

Of course, the 12 pack of Coke that I brought before the trip also helps a lot.

Hit or miss exercise

I was thinking of doing an exercise called "Hit or Miss" once everyday in order to train my English communication skill. Here's how it works: for any given question, answer it in one short sentence.

The reason I came up with that idea what that I found explaining things in wordy style most of the time, and found that it irritates people and make people less willing to chat with me. Not that I encountered something bad at A-kon, but I am such a self aware person. Being a software engineer, I am so used to fixing bugs when I find one.

Since I find a bug in my bug, I want to fix it :-P .

GPS

I was seriously considered getting a GPS device before A-kon because of my track record of getting lost during trips. But now it's proven that I can survive a long trip solely using maps printed out from Google Map site. I was still slightly lost when I tried to exit freeway to go to the destination of A-kon, but eventaully I made it by spotting the huge hotel name at the top of the building and navigate accordingly.

Once again, once iPhone 3G released (or official unlocked iPhone released), I will get one and use it as a GPS device.

Bleeding

I was nose bleeding this morning but it's OK now.

Biggest mistake: bring work to A-kon

I shouldn't have taken the task of writing a lyrics for a friend right before the A-kon. Result: I had to continue working on the lyrics during the downtime at A-kon (mostly while I was waiting for my friends to show up, or waiting in line). In fact I was STILL working on the lyrics yesterday while I was in theater waiting to see Houston Ballet's performance Three Classics, Five Tangos.

I still hope that I can meet the deadline, which is 12 hours later.

Meeting M. Alice LeGrow

I had totally no idea what I was looking for when I walked into the a panel session hosted by Ms. M. Alice LeGrow. All I knew was that:

• I was tired and I need to place to sit down.
  
• I perfer something that gives me more insight and information about how manga industry works in United States. And the panel topic "What's going on in the industry" sounds like something I was interested in.
  

So I went in the room, stay through the session, and was glad that I did so.

• She's such an hyperactive and interesting speaking even though she side track form the topic she was talking about like ... A LOT!
• She mentioned about a great book called Writer's Market which gives you all you need to start breaking into the industry.
• She constantly reminded us how important it is to meet your publishing schedule in order to continue stay in the business.
• She's much prettier in person than in any photo of her I saw online.
• She mentioned an indie comics that she loved called Thieves & Kings. As much as she enjoyed about indie publication, she reminded us the importance of getting an agent, and working for a publisher instead of going solo and independent. I found that really insightful, because she mentioned a lot of value added by the publisher, including having some professional editor to clean up your script and story plot and marketing people who knows how to make your story reaching out more audience.
  

Last word: Buy her book.

When will I learn to memorize names properly?

Ah .... I met quite some people at A-kon but I forgetting people's name even though their faces are clearly marked in my brain!! Why can't I learn how to use pen and paper? Here's a post I put on cosplay.com:

---------------------

Ahhhhhhh! I met someone right in front of the Rocky Horror Show entrance door getting ready to get in with my friends, and I FORGOT that girl's name! She wore a pink wig and mentioned that:

- She didn't know how to pronounce my forum name (oh, you can call me Xin or Sin :-P )
- She saw me at the Gravitation message thread on cosplay.com site.
- She gave a hug (so sweet!)

So if you are that girl, I am so Sooooorrrrry that ...

- I was slow that responding your hug. Hugging is such an uncommon thing in my culture, and I am still learning the American way :-<
- We didn't get much time to chat as I was worrying that I may lost my friend in the dark theater and want to get in with them.

Gomenasai!!! Could you leave me a message when you see this? Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!! And darn it why do I have to leave on Saturday?

Finding an Uygar Exchange Student I met a A-kon 2008

Here's a message that I posted at Cosplay.com forum which about my desperate seraching for someone I met at A-kon:

------------------------


I am very sorry if this is the wrong place to post this kind of message. Please direct me to the right spot if she. But when you are desperate, you gotta go all out.

I met a Uygar Exchange Student at A-kon on Friday at around 2 pm. We started chatting right at "Escape Reality clothing" booth on the ground floor, and we exchanged email address. Unfortunately, I lost her email address. So I am trying to find a way to contact her again.

The reason why I am so desperate is because the girl I met came from a place called Xinjiang Uygar Autonomous Region (sort of in China), which is EXACTLY the regional costume I was cosplaying at A-kon. Now imagine you love Sailor Moon so much that you cosplay Sailor Moon at A-kon, and then the lady who CREATED the Sailor Moon character came by and told you how much she appreciate your costume, and even exchange email address with you. And then later that night you found that were stupid enough to lost that email address. Yep, you got it. That's my feeling now.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photo of her, instead I only know these from our conversation:

- She speaks fluent English even though she was only in this country for 1 to 2 years.
- She didn't cosplay that day.
- She came because her friend dragged her to A-kon (she didn't even mention whether her friend was cosplaying that day)
- Her email has yahoo.com domain .
- She's an exchange student from Uygar (at least around that area)
- She was attracted by my yellow costume and asked where I got it.

So could someone who know this girl ask her to email me with the email I gave her? Thankkkkkkksssssss!


I know it is kind of hopeless to find someone this way, but then may be the idea "Six degrees of separation" really works.

Oh I also miss the dark skin girl who was in dark blue QiPao and chatting in Mandarin Chinese with me while I was rushing food court to get dinner, and then the pink wig girl who I met before the entrance of Rocky Horror Show .... Ahhh!!! Why didn't I bring a camera, or at least bring out the best ancient techology called pen and paper... Ahhh!

Father, please forgive all the mistake I made during A-kon knowing that this is the first convention of my life. Amen.

Arriving Dallas

After 4 hours of solid driving, I am finally in Dallas now. I am in my motel room, using their WiFi. Seriously, I still much prefer living at home. Never really enjoy the idea of either living in hotel or motel.

Packaging

I took a half day off this morning so that I can complete packing my stuff. I still find it strange for spending so much effort just on a one day event, an event that kind of put myself into a strange an odd situation. By then, I seemed to be able to justify everything in the name of research.

I finally plucked all my extra facial hair last night, and it was such a relief. I always hate the feeling of having hair above my month, and couldn't help but touching them. Have them all off kept me from being distracted from work.

One great thing about driving my car to the convention is that I don't have to worry about pick and choosing stuff to bring with me for out of town. Whatever I feel like, can go ahead and bring them with me regardless.

anxiety

It's so strange, but I have so much anxiety that I didn't even have energy to pack up my stuff, do laundry, or even eat last night. Just like before, though, sleeping seems to be the cure for majority of my problem. And I am feeling so much better now after a good night sleep.

Mostly I think it's the anxiety of not finishing everything on thing. The work in the office is still in the unsolved mystery stage. A lyrics work has to be done before Sunday. And then packing up for a convention of a strange world that I am still not totally prepared to get into.

Reading tons of post on the cosplay site makes me think of a few thing. For instance, it's nice to be a teenager, because everything has a plan B: ask my mom/dad. For a grown up, there's no such a plan B. You an entitle to all the action you take, and you take your own responsibility. This can be a double edge sword.

Fit in

Suddenly feel the sadness that through out our life, we spent so much time trying to fit in, trying to be accepted. The rich, the beauty and the smart ones got more chips on their acceptance game, but eventually that simply mean means they will move into a more competitive arena while they try to be accepted by the other beautiful, rich and smart people. Even the so called outcast has their own set of acceptance rule within the in group, which makes it even more sad if you become the outcast among the outcast.

Living in a cocoon only works for a certain while. Sooner or later you can't stand it anymore, and start walking back to the pond, only to realize that while you were away, they took the time to sharpen their edges, and now you found yourself having even more hard time fitting in.

Fabric Glue

I was looking around trying to find something to mend costume I case I need it at A-kon. And then I found this Aleene's® Super Fabric™ Textile Adhesive Glue , which seems very nice except that it's not on sale at Walmart (which I was told available locally). So I continue searching around and found that it's probably available at Michaels. Maybe I'll check it out sometime tomorrow.

Third time was the chime

It was such a nightmare last night when I tried to practice putting on fake eyelash last night. I tried and tried and it failed. 3+ hours wasted, plus one side of the fake eyelash was ruin. I went to bed with headache and frustration.

Today I continue my study on learning how to put on fake eyelash. I think I got it nailed this time. And alone the process I learned some tidbits that works at least to myself:

• Avoid putting on eyeshadow before putting on fake eyelashes. The powder seems to make
  

  

  it much harder to keep the eyelashes to stay on.
  
  However, I did have some luck to put on fake eyelashes even after putting liquid eyeliner on first. So both naked eye or the eye with liquid eyeliner worked for me. Eyes with Eyeshadow put on failed.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Don't wait until the glue totally tried up before put them on. I tried so many times and they failed like hell. Eventually I put the glues on an eyelash, waited for 30 seconds to 1 minute and then I put it on. I tried that method twice and both worked pretty well.
  
  
• Don't try to forcefully pull tried glue form the edge of the eyelash. You may ruin it. And in fact that's exactly how I ruin a fake eyelash.
  
  
• A good lamp and a mirror is a great help for the process. In fact I will bring this set to A-con to make my putting on of eyelash as painless as possible.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Be very very patient. The more you rush the worse the result. And with the eyes tensed up, it will be so much harder to put on eyelashes.
  
  
• I accidentally brought a full set when my old glue was actually working fine. In fact, it's the EXACT SAME BRAND. Oh well.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Use the eyeliner marker I mentioned before (in the photo) to slighly tap the area which fake eyelash was applied in order to make the fake eyelash blend in better.
  
  
  

Great that they are not expansive

I listened to my friend's advice to get some metallic color lipstick. So I got this Maybelline A22 Metallic Mauve from Target for $6. Well, not as great an idea because the color didn't seem to stick out on my lips. Sigh, great that it's not that expansive.

I also brought this $6 Mascara. I haven't tried it yet, and hope that this doesn't suck as much as the lipstick.

Shoes, and I hate high heel shoes

Today I brought a pair of pink pump in order to match my pink qipao. Couple of things I learned form the process.

• These pumps look OK but really not that comfortable. But I guess pumps are usually not comfortable after all.
• Colors look different when seeing in real life. It turns out that the pink color looks LIGHTER than the photo on the web site. At first I thought it will match my dark red qipao, but now I seems like it works much better with my light pink qipao.
• I should get 9.5 instead of 10. The 10 will still work fine with the padding I add, but it maybe even better if I get the 9.5 I originally got. I swapped them before 9.5 seems to tight when I tried it on bare foot. But when I tried my 10 with my feet on pantyhose, I suddenly feel like my feet were slightly deeper into the toe area, and thus left more room on my heel area, makes it slightly too easy to slide out. But then, the problem seems to be fixed after I put in some padding.
  
• Another reason I got 10 was because while the 9.5 was perfect fit on my left foot, I found it too tight on my right foot. yeah my feet are different in size, makes it very painful to my shoes.
• Once again, I am thankful that I don't have to wear these high heel daily. It so painful. my pair of boots, which is in 9.5, is much comfortable to wear.

Dreams about making movie

Whenever I have dreams while I am sleeping, it's always something wired and interesting. Like last night I had dreams about making movies. And there were NOT about me making movie, but instead a lot of artists from Hong Kong and America taking about making their own independent movies, including the fat dude from SuperBad. I just wonder why the hack will I have that kind of dreams.

Static on a wig

I was a bit annoyed by the static on one of my wig. I guess I brushed it too much, and that the quality of the wig is not particular great. So there were some hairs floating in the air, and that really didn't look. I sort of inspired by reading this article, and so I tried brushing those hair with some water, and it seems to work. I know, though, that eventually they may dry and fly again, so maybe I'll just put some hairspray in the morning of A-kon, and see if it helps.

2nd attempt of putting on fake eyelash ...

I still remember my first attempt of putting on fake eyelash a few days before last Halloween. That was a bad experience. and the result was terrible. Today night I gave it another try for the sake of a A-kon preparation. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I thought. At least they stayed at where they should be.

I will give it another practice this weekend. And this time I will add liquid eyeliner and eyeshadow, and see how it works out.

Aftermath of shaving

The itching of my legs were bugging me even 3 to 4 days after I shaved. It affected my performance in my ballet class and it made my work day slightly more painful. It's the fifth day after the shaving now and I finally feel better. But then it may be also the side effect of having 8 to 10 hours of sleeping last night.

Parking

I hope someone still read this thread :-m ....

As my preparation to A-Con continue, I started to think about transportation. I will drive my car to Dallas, and thinking of parking my car at Hotel Garage. Based on the A-kon web site, it's $12 per day, which is OK consider that I can use my car as a mobile locker. I am planning to change costume in the middle of the day, and the last thing I want is carrying the second costume everywhere I go.

But then I also realize that the A-kon site seems to encourage people to use public transportation. Hmmm .. what should I do ...

Her straight forward makeup advice

In order to better prepare for A-kon, I showed some photos I posted on our gallery and let my friend to criticize. I was a bit surprised that she gave me quite some straight forward comments, which I totally appreciate her honesty. Here's the exact quote from here:

Eye
- do round eyes, don't make a tail at the corner of your eyes
- Use more eyeliner on the upper lip
- use fake eye lashes and mascara
- Make your eyes look big
- don't draw the lower eye line
- Go for Smoky Eye look, using a lot of purple

Lip Stick
- Don't wear cherry pink lipstick
- Pick silvery pink lipstick instead

Overall
- Your makeup makes you look old, kind of like a old hooker


She pointed out that the lipstick I used was too old fashion:


And instead I should take one of these:



She also suggested me to go for a look like this:



And finally she urged me to use fake eyelash.

All these mean that I need to do some shopping in the coming 48 hours. Is there any favorite brand that you can recommend for:
- lipstick
- fake eyelash
- eye shadow

I prefer something that works well instead of something cheap. Basically something in a reasonable price range. In the meantime, I'll probably take a trip to H.E.B. and see if there's anything reasonable that I can try.

Bloody beauty

After A-kon I need to spent a weekend to play with splashing inks on paper, scan it, and then turn them into some flower like blood stink. I am working on a story about two dancers fighting (martial art x Chinese dance) and I need blood shed like in a romantic way, like flowers. I saw people did that by splashing ink on paper, scan it, and the Photoshop the black ink into blood red. I want to do pink instead of blood red.

Sigh, maybe a high concept that I don't have skill to cope with, but I have to try it.

Itchy

The side effect of shaving my legs and everywhere started to show in the last two days. My legs was itching like hell yesterday. It's better now, and still annoying.

MAC Foundations I used today

Test drove MAC Full Coverage

I like doing everything according to planning. And based on my calendar, I would test drive MAC Full Coverage that I brought (technically it's a free sample after purchasing the power foundation) today and at the same time test run all main costumes I prepared for A-Kon.

The test went well, I was impressed by Full Coverage's ability to conceal those ugly beard shadow especially under strong lightling. In fact, I was actually disappointed when I looked into the mirror after I put it on and told myself, "darn it, it looks just the same as my old concealer. But the magic happened when I compare the photo I took this time with the photos I took last time. Full Coverage does great job under spotlight.

Character

This is the character I drew, which also a character that I will crossplay as.

Eye browse

I spent a whole hour to pluck my eye browse, plus doing the aftermath, like cleaning up the restroom and so on. And then it took me another hours to shave my leg.

It's a lot of work but I think the end result is pretty OK. I am sort of talking today as the pre-A-kon testing and try to make sure that everything is relatively OK.

By the way, the Schick Quattro Titanium free sample that I got was much better than I expected. I used it shave everywhere and so far I was pretty satisfy with the result. It seems to make sense to pay more for a razor.

Once again, my blog as my notepad

I got some foundation from MAC. In case I forget later, let me write it down:

Product Name: Full Coverage
Color: NC20
Description: Oil based Foundation

Product Name: Select Sheer Pressed
Color: NC15
Description: Powder based Foundation

Crave for job satisfaction

There wasn't a lot of serious work to do at work in the last several weeks. Believe it or not, that actually depressed me. I felt upset when a work day passed and I didn't accomplish something concrete. That why I am in relatively good mood today as I solved some technical database problem. The process was pretty painful and the frustration actually drove me into sleep (:-p) 2 to 3 times, each about 5 to 7 minutes. But eventually I solved the problem and I wrote down the solution both on my blog and in a email to my teammate.

Now that's a good work day.

Bracelet and necklaces

This set of Bracelet and necklaces is a gift given by my dance teacher before I left Hong Kong.

MAC Studio Tech

I heard some great things about MAC Studio Tech, which supposed to work better than putting on tons of concealer. It sounds even more convincing when a previous dance group member recommending it. However, I am pretty confused by the whole MAC product line. They have MAC Studio Fix, MAX Select SPF and so on. So I guess maybe go directly to the counter and ask for advice, maybe?

Mongolian Dance Boot

I brought this pair of red boots when I was in mainland China. They are dance boots for Mongolian dance, something I really love. It's a bit unfortunate, though, that they are slightly too tight for me to wear them for more than 1 hour. The sales at the store said that they never had any female dance boot larger than 40. So now I stuck with European size 40. ....

Boots that fit

Among all the boots that I have, I like this one the most mainly because it fits me the best. It's in European size 41, and I can wear it for a whole day (which only happened once in my life), and still don't feel pain on my feet. I can't say the same to my other boots, though.

Black boots

Like my earrings, I brought this pair of boots when I was in Hong Kong. I like the leather like generic look, but it's slightly bigger than my size. I asked the sales if they had European size 41 but she said 42 was all they had. I liked the style so much that I brought it anyway.

Nap

Just woke up from an hour nap. I always think that my crave of sleeping is my sign of being old.

Great laugh with 30Rock and Colbert Report

I finished watching 3 episodes of 30Rock and an episode of The Colbert Report. I always love 30Rock and the political satire in the Season 2 Episode 15 (Jack goes to Washington) was just dead on. "No, it's not leaking. We checked." speaking while the ceiling was leaking .... that's exactly how the government handle problems.

After all, Tiny Fay was a co-writer of Weekend Update back in the SNL days. Writing political puns should be an easy thing to her and her crew.

And then I was laughing out loud while watching Colbert Report May 7 2008 about a person who totally disclose his daily life online as a practical gesture to give a finger for the government putting him in the terrorist checklist. You know, the main reason why The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are popular is because our government simply enough joke material daily that all these shows need to do is present the reality. So fun .. but ... so sad....

Earrings

Inspired by a friend, I am putting photos of stuff from by wardrobe, with a bit of back story about where and how I got those items.

I am starting with these several pairs of earrings. I got them when I was in Hong Kong, shopping with my friend a few days before I left the city. Getting earrings for myself is a pretty challenging task, for I don't have a earring holes on my ear, so I need a way to convert regular earring with nail into clip-on. It turns out that my friend's colleague knew how to do it, and she promised to send the converter earrings to me. But then months passed by and I still hadn't received my earrings. I checked with my friend and she was sorry about not having time to send the package out. Eventually she sent them out with souvenir she got me during her Xinjiang trip.

So here they are, not anything particularly spectacular but I like them.

Graphic card

I am running GeForce 8300 GS on a Quadcore 2.4GHz Dell. Good enough for Daz Studio (a nice a virtual world crossplayground.) I am so willing to pay for a better graphic card, but too bad Daz Studio doesn't take advantage of hardware graphic card when doing final rendering.

I only happy when it rains

I play guitar and drumset. Wearing black boots and skirt playing "I only happy when it rains" by Garbage is awesome.

And I don't quite understand the idea of having fun playing Guitar Heroes or Rock Band. But then I have fun playing Dance Dance Revolution even though I do ballet and a bit Jazz and HipHop. Oh well...

My Wii

I suddenly realized that I haven't turned on my Wii for almost a month. So I turned it on, and check to see if there's any update. Nope, there's none.

.... Nintendo really needs to think about how to use Wii's net capability more effectively. Right now it's pretty tiresome.

Maybe a game of Super Mario Galaxy before I turning it off.

So I decided to go to A-Kon 2008

I decided to go to A-Kon 2008, the first convention I've ever attend in US. This will also be my second time crossplay in public, so I have to say that I am feeling very excited. This is also the first time I go out of town driving all by myself, which is great since I have a few audiobooks that I never get chance to finish. This will be the chance to finish them all.

My biggest concern, though, is that I have a terrible sense of direction, just like Ryoga Hibiki in Ranma 1/2. In fact, I am seriously thinking about getting a GPS for this trip. Thinking ... still thinking ....

Support

I am very lucky that I have a few friends, all female, who know my crossdress secret and being very supportive. Too bad that they are not around me now cause they are in Hong Kong and I am in Houston. Last year, me and one of them booked 2 hours of dance studio time and she taught me a solo Mongolian dance for female. That was probably the only time I dressed that gown in sort of public.

I wonder if there's any club in Houston that I go with my night gown.

And, nah, I don't have enough friends here to throw a party, plus my roommate will kill me for doing that :-E .

How often do I dress up?

How often do I dress up?

But based on my record (somehow I am very obsess in documenting my life), during the last 6 months, I dressed up twice each month. Usually I was very emotionally aroused before the session, and then get very tried afterward. Plus I am kind of obsessive compulsive, and always take a shower, put everything (boots, gowns, gloves...) back to the right drawer, folded properly, or even did laundry to clean everything (I love the clean smelling of clothing). So a dress-up is always time consuming to me.

QiPao

My mom saw me in QiPao back when I was a teenager, and she didn't seen to be troubled by it. In fact, last year I was trying out my Mongolian gown in my room when she came in trying to ask me some question. "Your dress costume looks so pretty" she said, literally.

I remember she said something like "I have two daughter" a few times before. So to a certain extend I think she accepted it and even support it.

P.S. I remember that I gave her a green qipao as a mother's day gift years ago. I wonder if she's still keeping it.

Joining the community

Last night I looked into finding a discussion group or chat room for people who crossplay in Houston area. I found one, but thought that it's more lean towards "cross" than "cos". And then something striked me: why don't I join Crossplay.net and take a look? So that's what I will do tonight (it's 8 a.m. now and I need to get to work).

Besides Crossplay.net, I also came across Yamicon , I wonder what conference it is, but at least it seems to have a section for crossplay. I guess I am crave for a place or an event or something that allows me to crossplay in public instead of just in my living room. Some club in Houston maybe? (but my friend told me something like I will be attacked dressing like that, or something. So I am a bit worry."

Wig, clean

I woke up this morning and found that the wig I washed yesterday afternoon was already dry. I touched it and really like the clean feeling. I guess I am a little bit obessessive complsive after all.

I didn't do anything particlarly special, just regular shampoo and water, washed the wig gentlely like washing real hair, and then hang it up for drying.

But I found that I shouldn't brush a wig too much because it will create some static, make some hairs sticking up like hanging in the air.

Cleaning Wig

After finishing a photo session a while ago, I went ahead to do the laundrary and washed a wig.

It's been 9 years since the last time I washed a wig because .... well, let's just say that my last attmept of cleaning my old wig was disastrous to say the least. Actually I didn't even know if I am doing it right this time. Basically I soaked the wig into cold water, use shampoo to generally wash it, and now I have it hanging on a string. Nothing particularly magical, but all handle with care ... sort of.

Restocking foundation

I know for almost a year that I almost used up my foundation, and very much looking forward to get some when I get back to Hong Kong for vacation later this year. I tried finding match color ones here in US. The attempt failed and I got stuck with some useless foundation. Besides, my friend in Hong Kong has better eyes. After all, she still have dance performace frequently, and obvious knows about makeup better than I do.

Identity Crisis?

Yeah, I am just starting, although I've been writing blogs for years, this is the first I have a blog for my another side. It's mostly inspired by Emsy Chan and his couragement of expressing himself. Thanks dude.

I guess with my lack of ability to remember stuff (it takes a lot of time and effort to hide your secret identity), I will be exposed soon. But ... what the hell ...