| Random notes on a good day |
[Jul. 18th, 2009|10:39 pm] |
More for my own reference than anything:
I am totally loving the Autoshoujo Cover Contest. I have two funny ones in the works, and I've got a pretty slick fake manga cover template mocked up on my C drive, but I seem to be stalling out on doing the actual drawings.
I saw an awesome old woman rocking this t-shirt earlier today. She was stopping people dead in their tracks. Too cool.
Also, I got a major haircut today, so maybe I need to update my ancient collection of userpics. I'm still contemplating adding some fuschia pink streaks.
We made jambalaya. It was amazing. |
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| Speaking of magical girl anime... |
[Dec. 20th, 2008|02:51 pm] |
Pretty Cure is coming to YTV!
I wonder if there'll be dolls? Or will we have to wait until it gets picked up in the US?
Incidentally, over in Japan the series has been through five (soon to be six) seasons, and so they're making a crossover movie with all three casts.
Personally I'm hoping all the squeaky-voiced pastel mascot characters have an epic battle to the death. |
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| Sunshine and f***ing lollipops and lights at ends of tunnels |
[Oct. 29th, 2008|08:11 pm] |
I'm tired and cranky today, and there are upsetting things in my little sphere of reality that I can't talk about but, thankfully, they are finally almost done with. So I'm going to talk about random upbeat stuff today.
It looks like Steven Page is going to be OK. Good luck to you and yours, man.
Obama as a Jedi. That painting is totally sweet. Obama is like the Americans' Trudeau or something.
ChocolaTas! They make the best filled chocolates I've ever had, and they FINALLY have a permanent storefront in the Granville Island Public Market. I used to have to wait for the annual Circle Craft artisan's fair to roll around. No more! Woo hoo!
My new favorite manga: Saint Oniisan! Jesus and Buddha, sharing an apartment in the suburbs of Tokyo. Turns out Jesus is a bit of a geek. AWESOME.
Coca-cola with coconut syrup is super delicious.
I don't watch Naruto but the new OP is a total earworm.
Painting class is going well. My shiny black glass jar looks like a shiny black glass jar, and my red bell pepper looks exactly like a red bell pepper. The apple looked like a potato before I ever rendered it, I swear.
Imogen Heap! Turns out I like her music. Looking forward to her next album.
I have a new monitor, and I'm playing Warhammer Online with D. on at least a semi-regular basis. |
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| Random other notes |
[Sep. 15th, 2008|09:49 pm] |
I should note that I picked up a case of the new Re-ment dollie shoes a couple weeks ago but I haven't even cracked it open yet. I don't even know what my problem is there.
I have yet to locate the three new P4F Bratz girls, which is driving me crazy, since I've seen just about everything else in the fall Bratz lineup, but they're the ones I most want to buy.
I am totally snagging a copy of Ouran High School Host Club as soon as it comes out.
I'm gonna be taking an oil painting class! First class is this week.
On another art note: Those Copic markers on Yupo polypropylene paper that I was wondering about? The results were not so good. The results looked like a really uneven and blotchy watercolour painting, which was utterly not what I was trying to achieve.
And for my brother: A recipe for candied Cthulhufruit! Yes, really. |
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| Passing The Torch |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|10:55 pm] |
I busted out the markers again! Yay!
I'm amazed that I haven't already seen this concept on Cagle's political cartoon website yet. It just seemed so... obvious, at least to me. |
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| Guess where I just came back from? |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|09:55 pm] |
SAN DIEGO! For a business conference starting four days after Comic-Con. Yeah, I'm cool.
Actually, it was my first time flying post-9/11. I didn't have any complications from security or Customs (phew!) but I did find the standardized "Yes, we manhandled your underwear" love letter from the TSA in my locked luggage when I got home.
Coles Notes version: Even this long after 9/11, I find the conspicuous patriotism really creepy and coercive in tone (At one point, I was told that public display of a Canadian flag was deemed potentially offensive to the rank-and-file American attendees). ZOMG, you Americans have liquor on sale in your drugstores! Horton Plaza Mall has a floor plan inspired by M.C. Escher. The San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park were amazing, and each merited far more time than we were given.
Also, we've been given an absurdly short deadline for a massive annual project. And I am not the rate determining step in the process.
I did finally see the Rhythmic Gymnastics Sasha at that drugstore. That's one of the dolls that I don't think I ever spotted at home. Also, the lone souvenir/magazines/snacks shop in the terrible SD airport terminal featured a hilariously ugly Carnival Cruises doll. It was a dollar store almost-Barbie packed in a clear mini backpack, wearing a red and white striped swimsuit, with browny-orange eyeshadow and blackish-purple lipstick. |
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| Pom poms and kale |
[Jul. 22nd, 2008|09:55 pm] |
We don't have a Wii yet, but it's a certainty in the long run, especially since I like DDR type games. We Cheer might convince me to take the plunge. Although I'd pay double if I could avoid the domestic kiddie-pop soundtrack. I just hope I can figure out what the timing and speed cues are. Think the character generator will have glasses as an option? Yeah, right!
And hooray for pirated episodes of Project Runway on the Intertubes. I'm so glad I don't have to wait months to see it on a domestic channel, and I can hit the pause button and stop to wince if someone tries to... say, make "girlicious" into the new "fierce." Tch. Doomed.
Anyways, I spotted some new stuff at Walmart. Including the NN dolls, with Cloe, Yasmin and finally a Jade. The Costume Party dolls: Princess Cloe, Wicked Witch Meygan and Pirate Yasmin. (found on TaoBao!)
Princess Cloe is much more inventive than I would have expected for such a cliché concept, with a Marie Antoinette-Lolita thing going on. On the other hand, Meygan's costume is really weak. It almost looked like a mustardy-gold colour variation on the Holiday Elf getup, with a black hat frosted with prismatic glitter. The Meygan doll herself is cute though, with gigantic, curly ponytails. Pirate Yasmin? As good as expected.
NN Sasha in box. Can't remember if I've seen this before. |
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| Bratz catch-up, and Wall-E |
[Jul. 3rd, 2008|09:34 pm] |
OT-ness to start: Go see Wall-E, folks. It's amazing. I can't believe that Pixar managed to sneak this thought-provoking, post-apocalyptic, anti-megacorporate, satirical sci-fi movie into the Disney release stream. And the beautiful ending credit sequence alone brought me to tears.
That said, the few people complaining that it's too environmentalist? Only if you think that poisoning the Earth is so utterly impossible — and insidious — a premise, that it shouldn't even be broached in speculative fiction. Much like Harry Potter and his evil Satanic witchcraft! </snark>
Go visit the Buy N Large website. Check that Privacy agreement first, though, it's a doozy.
I could probably ramble on about that movie for several hours.
Well, anyhoo. Back to our favourite non-biodegradeable mass-produced plastic entertainment product!
Wikipedia:
# Magic Hair Color: Cloe , Cianna , Leah
# Wild West: Cloe , Fianna , Sasha , Yasmin
# Be-Bratz 2nd ed.: Cloe , Yasmin , Sasha
# World: Cloe , Yasmin , Nerva |
Cianna? Is that an actual name, or a typo like (presumably) Nerva?
And someone made a Yasmin page.
eBay:
More Motionland stuff! Those Wild Wild West dolls, which I had originally found as pic-less listings on Walmart's site, are actually Kidz dolls, it looks like. Yasmin, and the horse.
Snap-on Kidz Concert Sasha, Cloe, Yasmin.
And a basic Katia that I can't place. The dress is lovely though.
Taobao:
Aubrey, in box.
And Destiny.
And BTW, it looks like multiple users are posting auctions for all those new Bratz items on Taobao... all with the exact same slightly blurry photos. Scammers aplenty! |
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| Shoes shoes shoes |
[May. 19th, 2008|09:40 pm] |
Squee! I finally found the Re-ment Shoe & Bag Collection sets at the Re-ment shop in Aberdeen centre. I snapped up a full case set immediately.
I've only opened a couple sets so far but I have no worries... everything looks great and fits my Blythes nicely. They're just a little on the roomy side. The red satin umbrella opens and closes, to boot.
Yesterday I was out shopping at (snobby) Park Royal again, hitting the Whole Foods for my beloved coconut yogurt and whatnot, and when I saw the Le Creuset cookware I remembered the itty bitty shokugan variety. Sigh. (Why can't I just want fancy-ass material things for my own, flesh-and-blood, non-vinyl self, like normal people?)
Did I mention that Eat Vancouver is next weekend? Nom nom nom! |
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| Snacktime: First thoughts |
[May. 10th, 2008|10:34 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | bnl, random_fun_stuff | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  weird | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Barenaked Ladies - Pollywog in a Bog (Yes, still) | ] |
OK, so on Thursday night I picked up the book edition of Barenaked Ladies new kids' album Snacktime (with the CD tucked into the back.) Sure, I could have downloaded it off of iTunes days before, but I like getting something solid to look at too.
I haven't quite listened to everything on it yet, because... well, I could listen to something new and unknown, or I could just listen to the sublimely catchy "Pollywog in a Bog" again. And again. And againannagainannagainannagainan... (Surely I'm not the only person who does this?)
And then there's "Ninjas." I have a sneaking suspicion that this song was recorded expressly for the purposes of inciting people to make funny Anime Music Videos for it.
Have I mentioned how tremendously glad I am that BNL are indie now? Because Warner always pulled annoying "secret unmarked first-pressing bonus track" nonsense. |
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| Now that the Iced Tea of The Damned has finally worn off... |
[Apr. 16th, 2008|07:31 pm] |
Well, I didn't win the BNL contest, but I did get name-dropped on the website! W00T. Thank you, BNL and/or Nettwerk! The eventual winner was of course Cartoonie and her awesome piece, although she must have made multiple submissions, because lil' Tyler's looking a bit... I dunno, prettier? (That doesn't sound quite right)... in the winning entry. I'd love to see version 2 full sized!
One bit of minor wierdness: All the other "honorable mentions" are under their real names, but I'm listed as Girl on The Left. But I entered and even signed it under my real name. I wonder what that's all about? Did they lose my original email? Or is my nick somehow recognizable... more recognizable than my real name, anyways? (Dear God, what if they subsequently found this blog... and they've leapt to the conclusion that I'm some sort of freaky doll-collecting, BNL-obsessed, out-of-control otaku lunatic on a wild-eyed vitamin-drink bender!!??)
*Deep calming breath*
Still, it's nice to get a little validation. I had fun sitting down with the pens and markers again, and maybe I can use that to motivate myself to get rolling on the goofy webcomic that I've been talking about doing on and off for the past bajillion years. (My family is SO SICK of hearing me talk about it, it's not even funny anymore!) It's just that the first chapter or two, before the fun stuff starts, is a bit dull from an artwork perspective. Hey, maybe I'll whip out those magical Copic markers again and render the first chapter in glorious color instead of screen tones. That might be fun!
I fell compelled to note here (perhaps against my better judgement) that I do have a tremendously silly half-finished BNL doujinshi comic buried in my art archives somewhere.
But in my defense, it's totally not yaoi, I swear to God. |
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| Off topic venting: I wish I could be less of a friggin' BNL fangirl sometimes |
[Apr. 1st, 2008|10:01 pm] |
I'm a big Barenaked Ladies fan. Have been since high school. I last saw them at one of their recent gigs in Coquitlam at the Boulevard Casino, just under a month ago. And I entered their drawing contest:
Although I knew going in that I didn't have a hope of winning against some of the vastly superior stuff in the competition.
I should note that, while drawing, I was having trouble figuring out where Steven Page was wearing rings in recent photos, and in the end I think I just guessed. There may have been a good reason for that.
'Cause now there's word that Steve is separated from and divorcing his wife (Ouch!), and is now seeing someone new over these last few months, whom he brought with him on their latest Ships & Dip Caribbean cruise.
Edited to add: and here I originally chronicled some petty but upsetting gossip that I saw month-old scraps of on a variety of BNL fan forums. It occurred to me later that I was merely perpetuating somebody else's mean-spiritedness, one way or another and if everyone better informed than I had unanimously dropped the topic as Not Worthy Of Discussion, then I should give it the same consideration.
As for why I was so upset about something so dumb? Read my next post. <end edit>
I'm still feeling quite inordinately rattled by all of this today, as if all this personal upheaval and e-drama involved people I actually knew personally. I'm also slightly flushed and queasy. I'm wondering if someone spiked my herbal tea with caffeine or something. Or if (Heaven forbid) I'm catching the Killer Flu From Mars from my workplace. |
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| Nakayoshi wierdness: Ribon no Kishi returns, and Stitch busts a move |
[Mar. 5th, 2008|07:49 pm] |
I aten't dead! (Computer issues. Vastly blown out of proportion. Never mind) Not that there's been a lot to talk about on the doll news front, even despite Toy Fair.
I can, however, still talk about manga. Right?
I've been getting sucked into Shugo Chara, so I ended up springing for the new air-shipped, fresh-off-the-plane issue of Nakayoshi from the Japanese bookstore, just to see if I could discover any fresh spoilers with my comically limited Japanese skills.
There was an abundance of ads for a new series starting next month:
Sadly, it took me about three days to realize that the title of this upcoming series was "Sapphire, Ribon No Kishi."
As in, they're doing a remake of Osamu Tezuka's "Ribon No Kishi," of all freaking things. Basically, the most influential shoujo manga ever. The place where those saucer sized eyes originally came from!
On one hand, maybe the classic story is due for a modernization of sorts, because the original story was a product of the 50s. As I understand it, Princess Sapphire is given both a male and a female heart through a celestial cock-up, and that male heart was held responsible for her being courageous and strong and generally not a twit.
On the other hand, it's Osamu Tezuka they're messing with. How can anyone expect to improve on Tezuka? And does she really have to be sucking on her epée in that pic? Blech.
Now I'm just hoping that Viz gets around to releasing the original before this gets licensed and turns out to be some sort of train wreck.
Oh, and for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tikistitch's sake, I scanned a pic of a whole cluster of cute Stitch goodies. I think they're some sort of points-redemption prizes or something. You see, there's another series debuting in the same issue, which involves Mickey, Tink and a random cavalcade of Disney characters (Stitch to be included in the future, it looks like) teaching an earnest pink-haired girl to win hip-hop dance-offs against malevolent b-boys twice her age, with the help of magical collectible trading cards.
God, I love this crap. |
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| And now, I feel embarrassed for Newsweek |
[Jan. 7th, 2008|06:49 pm] |
Newsweek discovers: ZOMG Girlz read comix LOL! Or as they put it, "Holy Hot Flash, Batman!" (Ouch.) I don't begrudge Gail Simone a bit of press, but the rest of the piece is so appallingly clue-impaired that I'm sure it'll keep When Fangirls Attack LOLing it up for days.
This bit made me nearly laugh out loud:
Manga, a Japanese style of comic featuring huge-eyed characters and often including elements of fantasy, has spawned a female-oriented subset, shojo manga, some of which outsells regular manga.
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Ah yes! Shoujo manga certainly isn't the normal, regular, manly kind of manga!
Or this:
Simone believes that despite being written by a man for most of her life, Wonder Woman has always been a strong female character, and the writer doesn't plan to insert a feminist agenda to the strip or tone down the superhero's overt sexiness.
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A feminist agenda? To Wonder Woman? Perish the thought! |
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