Comic Fiesta 2010: What A Joke!

This year's Comic Fiesta was worse than the last one.

Officially the biggest waste of RM15 this year, and considering all the stuff I've bought this year that I didn't really need, that's saying something.

5 reasons why it sucked even more than the previous one:

1. Venue. Having an (relatively large scale) event with this many people attending on the 14th floor of a building with only a few lifts working? You gotta be kidding me.


2. Space. The name of the venue was damn misleading. "Manhattan Ballroom", fuiyoh! I think the multi-purpose hall in Taylor's Lakeside might be bigger than that.


3. Crowd control. So many people packed into such a small space? I rest my case.


4. Cosplayers + photographers. Do you know how much leg room these people take up? First of all, you have all these cosplayers in their fancy outfits prancing around a small, confined space. Then you get the photogs standing in front of them trying to snap pics. Then in between these two you have this "no go" zone. That leaves... approximately 1 feet of space for the rest of us people who are just trying to pass/walk/escape the madness.


5. 14th floor. Really, people CF organizers? You decide to hold an event like this, with the crowd turning up bigger each year, on the freaking FOURTEENTH FLOOR of a hotel building? Ignoring the staircase (if there's even one there), you can't even get the bloody escalators to work on this particular day, resulting in everybody squeezing into the lifts shared by hotel guests and room service waiters alike.

Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised. It is Malaysia, after all.

If they were so good at organizing events, the annual AFA would've been held here instead of in Singapore. Which I plan to attend every single year until I lose interest or am unable to get there due to whatever reason.


P/S: This is my 100th post. =_= Kinda wasted on a rant update, but I couldn't take it any longer when I saw all those "omfg cf2010 was awesome i can't wait for 2011 to get hit on the head by a flying poster/be crushed while getting through the crowd/ squashed and fighting for a place in the elevator again!!1!!1!" comments.

P/P/S: Sorry if you were offended by this rant/post. I have the freedom to write whatever I want here since it's my personal opinion of this event on this particular year.

FYI

Just a small update.

Some of you might have noticed that I've "vanished" off the face of the earth. Well, okay, not the earth, just Facebook. And MSN.

For those who didn't, well, thank you very much too. Nice to know you've been keeping an eye on me.

I've deactivated my Facebook account for the time being.
And I won't be online in MSN unless it's for something really really urgent.

Anything, you can contact my mobile. It's with me most of the time.

I would like to go sing k or watch movies or anything that involves me going out with a minimum of fuss, so yeah. Ask me out. I need something to distract me from the thoughts in my head and the temptation of the internet.

Kthxbai.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Okay, so I'm posting something here just for the record. And to set something straight.

And that is...



Dev Patel is definitely NOT Prince Zuko. No. Freaking. Way.

What are the casting directors, blind? You can't just slap some fake-burns makeup on his face and say "Nah, here's your Prince Zuko, Mr. Shyamalan".

I mean, come on. I thought Hollywood was better at casting young, unknown hopefuls who miraculously fit the description/drawing/animation of a character.

So there's all this 'controversy' about them initially casting Jesse McCartney for the role, but then the fans got all bitchy because he was white. Frankly, I think Jesse would probably do a better job.

See what I mean? Besides the hair colour (which can be easily solved), he totally has the prince-with-a-tortured-past look. Not to mention he is totally hot just like Zuko in season 3 of the animation.

Or they could have checked under 'cosplayers'. Maybe then they'd find this guy.



The rest of the cast? Not much to say there, although I guess the kid playing Aang is pretty cute.

Recap: Laura likes Zuko from the animation, not the Dev Patel version. In case you didn't get it the first time around.

Germany is ♥

Germany, Germany, I love you! ♥

So they defeated Argentina 4-0 in today's match. Didn't expect the Argentinians to concede defeat without scoring any goals, but there you are.

Now I'm hoping for Germany to be the champions this year. Somebody please beat up the Spaniards. But it's hard to say; most of the favourites are already out - England, France, Italy, Portugal, Brazil.

Oh btw, I absolutely love the German goalkeeper. He's totally awesome, the way he saves goals and hugs the ball.

A Great Weekend

I sure wish every weekend could be so... fulfilling.

Saturday was a girls' day out slash farewell for one of my high school friends. It's so rare for us to have any opportunity to talk to each other, and even if we did, it was usually in twos or threes. Well, that day we had at least a couple of hours worth of 'girl talk' and all 6 of us were in it, so it was great. We definitely have to continue this particular conversation, preferably over some drinks and at a sleepover or something. In fact, one of them suggested that we organize a girls' night out, to initiate one who had never tasted alcohol before and as an excuse for us to get tipsy together. =/

Again, I indulged in my newest hobby - shoe shopping. Today's was a pair of really cute 3-inch velvet heels with a ribbon at the side. It was only after I got home that I realized I have so many shoes but nowhere to wear them. Or rather, nowhere suitable to wear them without looking like I tried too hard (or maybe it's just me; other people wear heels all the time and don't look/feel weird). =_=


Today was with a different bunch of people - the RO group. It's hard to believe that it's been almost a whole year since I saw them all. Midvalley today was crazy packed, not only with humans but also animals of the furry variety. We had lunch at Sushi Zanmai (why is it that every time a gathering is held there we all inevitably end up in Zanmai?) then went to the Pet World exhibition. A lot of kitties, not enough doggies. =(


Met some new - okay, maybe not so *new* - people at MV today. Ryo Kenzaki (who had a tarantula booth O_o), Ah Yian, Michael @ Hata @ Ru's new bf, and Civen (or Civet (?) Omg I can't remember; sorry! T_T). The rest of the usual group were there, of course. ^^ I had a really good time catching up with them and all the *coughgossipcough* news. Didn't get the chance to go shopping or anything, since Bryan kindly offered to send me home. Good thing I did; the KTM and LRT were packed like sardines. What else can I say? A white Suzuki Swift is so cute and pretty comfortable. XD

Got home really tired and straight fell asleep when I went to lie down on my bed.

P/S: It's the Germany vs England match right now. I'm rooting for Germany. *crosses fingers*

Hypo... Okay, I Deserved It (Sorta)

Free hugs. Random picture. Me likey. ♥

Morning, everybody!

Do I sound chipper today? Well, I sure wasn't doing anything of the sort a mere half an hour ago.
In fact, I was in half-panic, half-'omg-i'm-gonna-die' mood. Yeah, things like that kinda make you reconsider your perspectives. ^^"

So before I get ahead of myself and start thanking miscellaneous people in my pathetically short life, I'd like to recap what happened this morning.

I woke up a little past 6 a.m. this morning. I'd slept early last night, since my only meal for the day had been a small bowl of noodles for brunch and I didn't feel like working on my assignments while running on no fuel.

So then my mum comes in and asks me if I wanna accompany her to market to buy breakfast or whatnot. Sure, no problem. I brush my teeth, wash up, change clothes and we set out. It's all fine until mum stops to buy newspapers and fruit. One minute I'm looking at bright, juicy oranges and the next everything turns black and white, with really high contrast. Imagine everything around you being in photo negative mode and you kinda get the idea. My head is spinning, my chest feels really painful and I'm having difficulty breathing.

'Shit,' I thought, 'why here, why now?!'

I was having a freaking hypo attack in the middle of the morning market. What the hell?

Hypoglycemia or hypoglycæmia is the medical term for a state produced by a lower than normal level of blood glucose. Hypoglycemia can produce a variety of symptoms and effects but the principal problems arise from an inadequate supply of glucose as fuel to the brain, resulting in impairment of function (neuroglycopenia). Effects can range from vaguely "feeling bad" to seizures, unconsciousness, and (rarely) permanent brain damage or death.

Just a little fun fact for you. *shot*

So we rushed back home (we'd already bought what we wanted, so... meh) and after lying on the sofa for a while, I felt okay enough to have breakfast. So here I am, typing my first post in who-knows-how-long.

Oh, and you know what? I think I'll leave the thanking people part for another day.

Cheerios!

Abandoned

Just a heads up for all of you out there who (occasionally) read my blog.

I have been, and will be, neglecting to update this blog because I will be concentrating my thoughts in another blog. Going through a rough patch right now, so most of the stuff in my head is pretty personal + confidential.

I'm sorry, but please don't expect any updates of any kind soon.

xoxo,
Laura

An Unexpected Trip

I thought today was gonna be another one of those "blue Mondays" that everybody dreads.

8 to 12 went on as scheduled: sit in class → try not to sleep while lecturer drones on → take occasional notes → wait for end of class/lunch. After lunch, went up to the library to kill the 2+ hours before IDM. Turned up early for IDM as usual, since the previous class had finished and we wanted to get good seats up front.

Then the unexpected happened. Mr Julian walked in and said, "I have good news and bad news for you guys. Which one do you want to hear first?"

(Most of the class, in unison) "Bad news." LOL

I guess he was kinda startled by our willingness to have the bad news first, but he just made himself comfortable sitting on the computer desk, then said, "Okay, the bad news is there's a talk in 20 minutes at the lakeside campus. The good news is, class is cancelled for today."

There was a 2-second pause for us to absorb the news before all hell broke loose, with some exclaiming "Yay!!", while a few others (who were much smarter) asked "So we have to go and listen to the talk?"

To which the answer was, of course, yes. -__-"

So a whole group of us SOC semester 2 and 3 students hopped onto the bus, while others drove there in their own cars. We all arrived in time for Mr Paul Southern, the director for Microsoft TV, Video and Music (Asia) to start his talk. He mostly elaborated on TV stuff, so it was kinda hard for us to relate, since we don't have interactive channels and stuff. Suffice to say, it was interesting, but we didn't get an Xbox each, lolz.

I'm really tired right now. The talk ended a little later than expected, and it was raining when we were finally released from the lecture theater. I'd SMS-ed my mum saying I was at the lakeside campus listening to a talk, but they went to LCS to pick me up as usual. AND it was raining. AND the bloody bus was late. FML Needless to say, my first ever visit to the new lakeside campus wasn't all that satisfactory.

It was better after that though. Went for a simple dinner, then to pasar malam to buy some stuff. Oh wow, nobody got into a mood this evening, amazing!

Anyway, as I was saying, I'm really tired out today. Luckily tomorrow's [super boring] class starts at 10.

Ninja Joe

Before we start, no, Ninja Joe is not a shop which sells clothes. It also does not sell samurai swords or katanas. It is not an anime/manga shop. It is, quite simply, a fast food restaurant.

You must be thinking, "OMG, finally! Another food post!" and promptly scroll down to drool at the food pictures.

Let me elaborate a bit on my day so far before we get to the main course, mmkay?

Well, today I went to LCS with my mum and dad to pay the 2nd semester fees, and then dropped by SS2 for him to do his stuff. While sitting in the car waiting for my dad, I was looking around and suddenly saw a very familiar car parked just 2 cars away from ours. Turns out my 2nd brother was there too, since he had half the day off and was killing time there. -__-" So while my dad was waiting for the cobbler to finish 'repairing' his slippers, my bro and I went to the 100 Yen Shop to have an ice. We shared a green tea-flavoured one, which tasted really good (I don't like red beans though x_x).


After that, my parents and I went to Tropicana City Mall to buy some groceries at Carrefour. Since it was at the LG floor, we decided to stop by Ninja Joe to try out their pork burger. ^^ The menu selection wasn't complicated. You only have to choose from 7 flavours (I think), how many burgers you want, a choice of lemonade or honey green tea for drinks and a few other side orders. We ordered 2 burgers (RM9.90): original for me and black pepper for my dad. I added the fries + green tea combo (RM3.50), while my dad just had a lemonade(RM2.50). The burgers came out pretty fast (it is fast food, after all) but I had to wait almost 15mins for my fries. It was totally worth it though, as they came out piping hot, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

My original flavour burger and honey green tea drink.

This is what the inside of the burger looks like: bun, lettuce, tomato, mayo and pork patty.

It was absolutely delicious! The size of the burger was pretty small compared to the others we're used to seeing, but the patty was very tasty and succulent indeed. It's not as dry as beef and definitely has more texture to it than chicken. They put a little too much mayonnaise, in my opinion, but it enhanced the meat's flavour and went very well with the lettuce. (I'm sorry to say that I gave the slice of tomato to my dad because I don't like tomato, lol)

Mmmm... Yummy!

The late-but-tasty fries.

That's all for now. I'd give this fast food joint a 4.5 out of 5, simply because it serves PORK burgers.

A Good Day

Oh wow. Today I actually felt like I did something productive around the house. O_o

No classes today. I woke up around 9, lazed around on the bed until 10, then went down to get breakfast. I hadn't had my yoghurt breakfast for a several days now, so it was pretty good to get back into the routine. I couldn't find the container of pear cubes in the fridge, though, so I added a piece of dark chocolate to sweeten it up. Turned out surprisingly yummy; the dark chocolate ball with praline filling went really well with the sourish taste of the yoghurt.

Then I remembered that there were 4 pieces of sushi waiting for me in the fridge, so I unwrapped them and popped them into the microwave oven (if any of you are freaking out over me reheating sushi... well, all I can say is, I dislike eating cold food x_x). Tasted alright, until I started having tummyaches for the next 3 hours. =_= Just great.

Note to self: Consume sushi on day of purchase.

During lunch, I surprised myself by asking my mum if she wanted me to mop the floors or anything. Yes, shocking I know. I actually offered to mop the floor! If my mum was surprised, she didn't show it. She just told me to mop upstairs, so after lunch, I armed myself with a mop-bucket, a pull-the-handle-to-squeeze-out-water mop, and a grim determination to do it until I was satisfied with a job well done...

...and I must say, I am pretty pleased with the results. 3 bedrooms and 1 hall upstairs - I swept each and every one clean before I started mopping, which makes it less of a mess when doing the actual mopping.

Napped for a couple of hours after taking a nice long shower, which felt good. Listening to classical music when reading a good book or drifting off to sleep is total bliss. The calming notes and soothing melodies are so relaxing, like a cool breeze on a hot summer's day.

Well, it's almost midnight. Time to hit the hay, and hopefully I'll wake up a bit earlier tomorrow morning, and do something else that's productive around the house.

Mistaken Nationality?

Sometimes you remember random moments that are just so random, you wonder why you even remember them. O_o

I don't remember being categorised as anything but Chinese all the time I've been living in Malaysia. I look obviously Chinese - not the single eyelid look for me, nor the skin as pure as snow. The older I got, the more I could not be mistaken for anything but Chinese, or at the very least, Asian.

Nationality, however, is another matter entirely. I've been mistaken for an ABC (Ang moh country-born-Chinese), Singaporean and Japanese in the past.


ABC - I don't like ice kacang. (Off topic, I know) Would you believe it, I actually had rosy cheeks when I was a kid. Oh, and the chubby cheeks to match (although I still have those, FML). I think it was more because of the hot weather than any miracle of the skin, except when I was holidaying somewhere cold. It probably didn't help that I only spoke (mostly) English and Hokkien. There's a photo of me eating noodles or something during a trip to Singapore, which my dad's friend took, where I look positively ang moh-ish. O_o Can I just say it was a trick of the light?


Singaporean - No duh. This is pretty common, I guess. You talk like you know what you're doing, you walk like you know exactly where the hell you're going, dress a bit nicer, and the person behind the counter automatically assumes you're not from KL but probably Singapore.


Japanese - I'm like, "what the heck?!". I still get mistaken for a Japanese sometimes when I'm walking around alone in KLCC, especially when I hang around Kinokuniya's Japanese book section or Isetan supermarket. I remember overhearing a bunch of girls saying (in Mandarin) "She must be Japanese" while furtively glancing in my direction. I was trying not to laugh out loud.

The best is definitely kept for last. The incident that takes the cake was when my dad, brother and myself were all mistaken to be Japanese. We were at KLCC and my dad was taking a shortcut through Isetan, with my bro and I hurrying along behind him. After going through the entrance, I noticed my brother smirking beside me, so I asked him what was so funny. He replied saying "Oh, you didn't hear what a couple of those salesgirls were saying when we passed by the clothing department?"

"No."

"They were whispering to each other and saying that 'those three' (meaning us) must be Japanese."

So I admit, both my dad and brother do look sorta Japanese. Dad is short and (slightly) round, but he can pass off as both a typical Malaysian or Chinese or Japanese citizen. [In fact, a Japanese man once mistook him for a fellow countryman on the Eurostar or something when he was young, and thought it was very arrogant of him not to return his bows until it was made clear my dad was not, in fact, a fellow countryman.] My second brother, who is one head taller than me and on the skinny side, can definitely pass as Japanese, which was proven when he went to Japan. I, on the other hand, absolutely lack any Japanese characteristics, except for the fact that I was somehow obviously related to the other two.

So yeah, I'm baffled. And this random memory of a random moment in time has stuck with me for a very long time, lol.


Oh well, it's easy to fool people into thinking you're not a Malaysian. One, dress nicely (and not in those lala zai fashion). Two, don't speak like a local. Say 'lah' and you're busted. If you can muster an English accent, even better. Three, act + dress + walk + talk confidently. Don't wait for the Starbucks person to ask you if you'd like a "Tall, grande or venti" and never go "Huh? I want a medium one". Four, be polite. Say thank you and smile at the cashier after your transaction is done. Thank the waiter for refilling your glass. It's proper etiquette, after all. Five, never ever be a litter bug. How hard is it to hold onto your rubbish until you see a litter bin in a shopping mall anyway?

Don't shoot me for that up there. It's just my personal opinion.


Okay, so that's about it from me. This post went on longer than I expected, but that's not surprising. I'm bored and there's nothing for me to do. I have something to do but I'm too lazy to do it now.

Heartless

You know what?

I sometimes think of myself as a heartless bitch. (That felt good!)

I don't like little kids. They're scary, and I have no idea whatsoever how to communicate with them.

Babies are better, since all they do is sleep. (Hopefully)

People my age... Uh, better I guess. Topics of conversation are slightly easier, unless they speak a whole different language.

People older than me (okay, those aged 30 and above)... Well, they usually ignore us "youngsters", so I'm totally fine with it.

I guess it's just that I feel more comfortable by myself or with just a small circle of friends. I like to watch other people, observe what they do, how they react, etc. Maybe subconsciously, I'm just trying to learn something from people's interactions with each other.

Oh wait, that's irony for you. Me being an Interactor in high school and all.

Oh, and last of all, Sao Lee, if you're reading this...

I'm a bitch because I haven't finished Part II of your present yet and I have no idea what content to throw in and I really need some inspiration/ideas. =/ Oops!

First Post of 2010

Hey, it's been a while. It's already the 2nd month of 2010 and here I am posting my first entry for the year.

It hasn't been such a great year so far. I've been sick, I've been sad, I've been disappointed... but there's also been some laughter mixed up in it, so I guess that's okay. Of course, a little retail therapy goes a long way.

It's been on my mind long enough. Every post in my blog(s) are my thoughts at that particular moment in time. I guess that's why most of us blog anyway - to set free our thoughts and ideas, share our experiences, in the hope that it'll bring us some relief. Well, that's definitely the case for me.

I've had this song stuck in my head for the past few days. It's Brian McKnight's "Back At One".

One, you're like a dream come true
Two, just wanna be with you
Three, girl it's plain to see
That you're the only one for me and
Four, repeat steps one through three
Five, make you fall in love with me
If ever I believe my work is done
Then I'll start back at one

All I can say is... Wow ❤