destiny lies

silver_lined — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:06:50 GMT

I spent most of October in the United States because apparently, I am a masochist. I both loved and hated it equally and spent a lot of time rolling around in the fetal position weeping, because America is strange. (This is an unfair blanket statement, really. Amurrica is really large and the east and west coast are strange in very different ways, but still absolutely crazed.)

It's a long flight to America. Really long. Really really long. I get airsick rather terribly, which means like to fly drugged the gills with a facemask and earbuds and retreat into my happy place. It works for a good six to ten hours, depending, but at some point you wake up and realise the flight's barely halfway over and the despair kicks in.

I flew into San Francisco because going straight to the east coast would have involved about 25 hours of flights which was not going to happen, ever. It was surprisingly a good decision because San Francisco is a lot like Melbourne! Except with even shittier public transport, believe it or not. It's one of the liberal, multi-cultural hubs of the USA, chock-full of super pretentious hipsters and a good proportion of Asians and the occasional man wandering around in the buff.

The naked thing doesn't happen in Melbourne. It's illegal.

However, it is not actually illegal in San Francisco. No one told me this beforehand, but I met up with a friend who lived in SanFran and he took me around. We went to the Castro, the famous gay district, and there was a naked man walking around. See, the thing was, no one else reacted. For one very strange moment, I thought I was hallucinating naked people.

He took me to one of the famous parks, ostensibly for the best look at the San Francisco skyline, but all I really saw were half naked people. Everywhere.

I also did the usual tourist things, like walk part of the Golden Gate Bridge and ride the cable cars UP AND DOWN AND UP AND DOWN because that does not actually get boring. :'D One of the nice conductors took my photo for me and then took a photo with me, and then a cable car driver hit on me and asked me out to dinner.

Oh America.

The best thing, hands down, was finding an alpaca that looked and dressed like me.

There was a bar in the basement of my hostel, because I went to a super classy place, seriously. And in it, I met a lot of Australians because we're goddamned everywhere. One of them insisted that I go out with them, which means at some point, I got picked up, tossed over someone's shoulder, and bodily carried out to a taxi. There is a reason why Australians have a bad reputation overseas. IT IS ALL TRUE.

After three days, I flew out to New Jersey, because it was cheaper than flying to New York, and spent a couple of days there before joining a bus tour to tour a few more states. Bus tours are actual hell. You don't know where you are, most of the time. You get on the bus, you sit on the bus, YOU CRY A LOT BECAUSE YOU ARE ON A BUS.

I make a lot of bad choices when travelling, most of which rely on the kindness of strangers. I wanted to couch surf around America, but was warned off it because it is not exactly the easiest of things to do. However, I did find a site that hooks you up with travel buddies for those minimum occupancy tours, so I travelled with a nice Swedish guy for a few days. It's not actually awkward sharing rooms because I'm so used to hostels and we were with a large tour group so it wasn't as if I were in danger of being murdered. :D YAY.

We went to Washington DC, which is really very pretty.

After they let me off the bus, I pretty much ran shrieking around that entire lake, just because I could. FREEDOM.

Freedom fries is what Amurrica is all about.

And the next day, Niagara Falls! I actually really liked Niagara. We took the ferry and then got ABSOLUTELY DRENCHED because Niagara hates humans.

And then because I am extra stupid, I tried to climb next to the falls and got soaked to the point that my shoes were squelching with every step. ;;;;;;;;;

Don't try this. It's not actually as fun as you'd think.

An interlude here to say that the only thing American wildlife has over Australian wildlife is the OVERABUNDANCE OF SQUIRRELS. EVERYWHERE.

THEY WERE SO ADORABLE. I MADE FRIENDS. I FELT LIKE SNOW WHITE.

And then back to New York, after a stop-off at some 1000 Islands thing and a daring journey into Canadian waters. And some glass museum? I decided that, no, did not want and buggered off to a nearby town to walk around and drink some apple cider. I nursed a sugar induced headache for the rest of the day.

I didn't actually like New York that much. It reminded me of bizarro London, since New York is a very old city and the historical parts of Manhattan are very reminiscent of the heart of historical London. And the amount of complete and utter loathing I felt for the underground in New York echoed the hatred I had for the tube in London.

I did love the Statten Island ferry. Here is the obligatory photo of the Statue of Liberty.

From there, I did a short trip on the bus from New York to Philadelphia for Em's wedding. Em has been one of the longest running internet friendship's I've had and it was the first time in about five year's that I'd seen her in person, after that time in Japan where she was studying abroad and I... had been teaching English in Kyuushuu until my company shut down and thus had all the free time in the world to go visiting, ahaha.

Small town Amurrica (not even that small a town, really) is an education. It's somehow exactly what you'd expect from media portrayals which somehow makes it worse, because you think that everything is being over exaggerated and real humans are not like this but they are.

Walmart is actually one of the most terrifying places in the entire world. These items have absolutely no hint of irony to them, BUT A JOYFUL PATRIOTISM THAT REALLY SCARED THE HELL OUT OF ME.

Pictured: absolute sincerity.

I could not cope. It broke something within me. I think perhaps it was my soul.

The actual wedding was pretty awesome. We spent several nights putting together the party favours and centrepieces and I have about a billion photos because it was an outdoor wedding in Autumn, in Pennsylvania, on a country club estate so everything was beautiful. There was a golf cart that drove through the back during the vows. That only made it better.

American wedding traditions are completely new to me, though. It was a non-denominational wedding, but a lot of what they did felt very traditional. There was a candle lighting ceremony (candles lit by reps of each family, bride and groom use those candles to light one single candle to represent their families coming as one) and a sand pouring ceremony (bride and groom have two different vials of sand that they pour into one vial to make pretty patterns) and a whole lot of symbolism everywhere.

I was exceptionally confused about the sand thing and especially how to transport the vial back at the end of the night - the waiter cleaning up said that the bride and groom were meant to keep it as a keepsake, and he did it at his wedding, but now he was divorced and also, he's a bit of a photographer and did I feel like doing some modelling. Oh America.

You'll notice that I don't really put photos of other people up unless they're random strangers or fire_ban. :'D There are privacy issues and such, so I'll leave off on the wedding photos also.

I spent the entire night introducing myself as Em's imported Chinese labour because I'd only seen one other Asian the entire time I'd been there. :'D And it was at least a little bit true. ♥

The day after the wedding, Em went off on her honeymoon and I went across the country back to California to catch a concert the next day. Unfortunately, my luggage didn't make it with me. I got it back several days later but not before wasting hours at the help desk that night, and having pretty much nothing on me except for my handbag and a suit jacket. We woke up for the concert/convention about four hours after we got to bed.

K-con was bad. Poorly organised, poorly informed and just ill-conceived policies all over the place. I spent most of it in a daze, trying to find some shade to sit in where there were not entirely too many people, and napping when I could find the empty space. However, as a cosplayer, there is nothing that I am as used to as hellish conditions being trapped at an outdoor venue all day while not sleeping the night before and having no food or water.

The definition of closet cosplay, this was pretty much the only outfit I had from wearing it onto the plane. Except for the wig, mask and bunny ears. Airport security frowns upon masks.

I'm a spitting image, okay. I spent the entire day going "FUCK YOU, I'M A BUNNY D<" at pretty much everything /weep

The actual concert was not bad, even though we had nosebleed seats. There was a moment of annoyance when someone at a lower tier had a balloon that she let bob about that blocked the view of the stage, which meant I went down as a bunny, spoke to one of the security to let me through, hopped two rows of chairs, and asked her very nicely to put it down. Sometimes, a rabbit's gotta do what a rabbit's gotta do.

The biggest billed acts go last and have the most set time. So, Exo-M (as an SM act) was up second last and given four whole songs but they don't actually have that many. I pretty much wept laughing when they did Mama, History, Angel... and then everyone excited stage left bar two members who did What is Love. Oh Exo. You promised a December comeback and it's three weeks in. If you come back on the 31st, I WILL SET SOMETHING ON FIRE.

California's very pretty, I think. It reminds me a lot of Australia, except bizarro Australia where things are just the slightest bit not quite right. It's like one of those creepy nightmares where everything is absolutely familiar but there's a subtle, niggling wrongness to everything.

And look! Alien clouds!

I didn't stay in LA the entire two weeks because LA is misery in the city centre. It's a nice place to visit and see, but I don't think I could live there without going insane. Instead, I hopped down to San Diego for a few days (on the Greyhound bus, which is actually as mad as everyone says it is, where I struck up a conversation with a retired Marine who told me his life story and showed me pictures of his family) to go see another internet buddy and seals.

Possibly they were sea lions. We couldn't tell. Nor could we figure out the difference between them. ;;

And did like, other stuff, including being dragged out by one of my hostel roommates to some sort of club where I had the most hilarious pick up lines used on me ever by an exceptionally drunk Texan. I can see now why bad pickup lines are disarming because you don't quite want to stop them since every line they say tops the previous one and the sheer amount of stupid kinda steamrolls your brain. Eventually, my roommate rescued me.

Then back to LA for a little and onto another bus tour.

The bus was very large and comfortable for being a bus but there is only so long that the desert is interesting and after the fifteenth hour, it all starts going down hill.

We went Vegas. I sort of love and hate Las Vegas at the same time.

It's such... excess. Fascinating excess of all sorts and all levels, from the super wealthy squandering thousands like it's nothing, to the tiny human dramas that play out when people who can't afford to lose money just can't stop themselves.

Also, I think that in about 2000 years, when everything is crushed and buried by time, future archeologists are going to dig up the Venetian and the Luxor and the miniature Statue of Liberty and freak out. SURELY, this was some great mecca of learning and culture!! Look at all those tables where you could sit and talk! Look at all those consoles where surely programs of learning were available! They would seriously flip their shit and it would all be so very wrong.

In a strange turn of events, I met up with some people that I met in a hostel in LA, including a Melbournian who went to my brother school. Several years below me, but my school and his school did functions and such together ~~because I went to that sort of posh girl's school that actually did have brother schools and functions, uh~~. We got along ridiculously well, but I think only because we're both the disgusting sorts of people that like going to art galleries and discussing surrealism and the fact that our schools had polo teams and had slightly ridiculous arguments about who had been to more obscure countries.

I should not actually have been surprised that he wanted to sleep with me and kinda expected that I would sleep with him but no. :| JUST. NO. STOP, HUMANS. IT'S BAD.

On a happier note, we went to the Grand Canyon!

It looked strangely not real. Like, I'm not even joking, it looked like the biggest greenscreen in the world.

Our poor tour guide kept on freaking out about the possibility of people falling off the edge, so naturally, a group of like minded individuals and myself went skittering all over the place and frolicked happily where there were no railings.

No one was harmed in the making of these memories, so all good!

Meandered through Hoover Dam, lost a couple of dollars on the slot machines in exchange for free drinks, did some outlet shopping, etc, etc. I missed Halloween by a couple of days but was there for the weekend before it, so went to go frolic in Hollywood Memorial Cemetery because that's what's done during Halloween, right? Drinking amongst the graves, frolicking about dressed as skeletons, all the cultural appropriation, etc, etc.

Still cool, though;;

And thus ends my highly abbreviated adventures in Amurrica. I leave you with this national landmark and say,

God bless.

I think everything in my life can be summed up with "I went here and then this creep tried to talk to me, so I left. It was okay."

[previous recaps: japan+hk | hobbies+fandom]

I HAVEN'T TALKED IN SO LONG, I HAVE WAY TOO MUCH TO SAY.

silver_lined — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:12:02 GMT

I guess this part is about my face and my fandoms, ahaha. :'D

SO, THIS IS WHAT I LOOK LIKE, I GUESS.

I always say it took me until the last few years to really grow into my face. Even though I'm not really cosplaying now, I think last year's intensive ARGH, CAMERAS, WAEEEE really helped. I got really sick of staring at my own face and for awhile, slightly obsessed with photoshopping the hell out of everything to slightly strange and terrifying ends. But now I don't care. It's my face, it's what it is.

I still think, in some way, I'd get plastic surgery if the opportunity came up and I didn't have to worry about the pain or the financial aspects. But that's one of the problems with being female - you're told not only that you should be pretty, but you can be pretty if only you change everything about yourself. And this isn't really a feeling that goes away.

I didn't shoot much this year, but here's a few photos from what I did. Nothing took longer than about eight hours to make if I even made it because I am so very lazy.

SOME SORT OF HOGWARTS THING, IDEK. I would have been a Ravenclaw, though.

Instead, I think I'm Pansy Parkinson, being LOCKED IN THE TRUNK OF A BRIGHT GREEN HATCHBACK.

School uniform Karina Lyle from Tiger and Bunny.

That is a glass Pepxi Next bottle because reasons.

Professor Green from Star Driver.

Funny story about this one, where we got kicked out of the underground parking lot where we wanted to shoot in and ended up in a different parking lot under the exhibition centre which had some sort of sporting convention going on. I'm still sad it wasn't SexPo because then we wouldn't have stood out.

School uniform Rei from NGE.

This photo amuses me to NO END /mean

Reiko from Natsume Yuujincho.

Because my dignity comes cheap, there's actually an MV from this shoot. Jesus.

Karuta from Inu x Boku SS

Tongari corn, imported from Hong Kong.

Black Cat

Bodysuit brigade!

Ms Marvel

The best thing about this weekend was the bright red superhero lipstick, no lie.

a stolen Liu Shan costume from DW7

We are actually bao. :3

Bonus!

A formal wear shoot a friend asked me to help out in. ;Db

IDK, maybe I'm finally growing out of needing to be validated by people telling me I'm pretty, while I'm wearing a metric fuckton of make-up and false hair and eyes. Like, really? REALLY? AM I ACTUALLY THAT SHALLOW. (yes. I really am, goddamnit, tell me I'm beautiful.)

The two comic book characters are a vast difference from my usual fare, but Melbourne held a comic convention for the first time in ever and I felt the need to dress the part. Lazily. Black Cat was literally double sided taped together because I could not be bothered using glue and about two sizes too big. Ms Marvel was made the night before, wearing borrowed gloves, and literally fell apart at the end of the day.

I've always said that it's never quite so much about what you're wearing as with the panache that you wear it. And even when I'm internally cringing from my own sleep-deprived face and doing my make-up exceedingly poorly on the train, cosplaying has taught me how to frount like a champ. Why, yes, I am fabulous, thank you very much.

My (male) group leader on the second day actually told me to get out of the costume contest sign up booth and go work frount-of-house, JUST TAKE OFF THE VOLUNTEER'S SHIRT AND GO BE SKIMPILY DRESSED UP AND DOWN THE LINE AND GO DISTRACT THE FANBOYS. Fuck you, misogyny in comics fandom, you're so alive and well.

(see also: Tony Harris' mouth-frothing hatred about female comics cosplayers and one of the better responses.)

This was also the year that I discovered ice hockey, which I love with a true and sincere sadism. People go thud a lot and the gifs that come out of that fandom are beautiful because hockey players are giant potatoes on blades.

Sometimes, the entire NHL forgets how to hockey at once and it is glorious.

There were matches on, in my city (our tiny little semi-pro national league :'D), the weekend of Comic Con and I was told very strongly by pretty much everyone that skipping out on my volunteer duties and showing up dressed as a superhero was not on.

;n; /sadness

My main new fandom: in a natural progression of my love of jpop for several long and traumatic years (I STILL HAVE SO MANY CDs AND A STRANGE, CONDITIONED LOVE OF CRAPPY ELECTROPOP WITH AWFUL, CONFUSING PVs), this was the year of discovering awful kpop.

I've actually been to Korea before. Just a few days, passing through on the tail end of my trip around Europe (but well, I spend a few days flittering around everywhere because I am that type of person. My travel list reads something like Hong Kong, Australia, China, Japan, the UK (England and Wales), Ireland, Slovenia, Austria, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Korea, Macau, the Canary Islands, USA) but it was over the lunar new year when the entirity of Seoul shuts down and I ended on the outskirts of Seoul, up a mountain, at a Buddhist temple, doing zen meditation and eating the New Year's offerings. They gave me cheesecake. I love cheesecake.

I think all of my travels can generally be summed up as "I went here and it was strange but kinda cool, I guess, but I don't know why I did it."

But I wasn't into kpop then, which is probably a good thing because kpop fandom is fucking insane. I really love it but at the same time, I thought being a jpop fan was the height of crazy. No. It's not. You haven't even begun to touch crazy until you cross an ocean because the depths of love there are terrifying. They have a term for DERANGED STALKER FANS because it is so common. Half the male idols think that compulsory military service is a breeze after being out in idol bootcamp which is their years long training before debut. They live together in dorms. Half of them aren't allowed to have phones. It's stipulated in their contracts when they can date (age: 30+) and when scandal hits them, the backlash goes SO FUCKING OVER THE TOP TO THE POINT OF SUICIDE PETITIONS. I MEAN, WHAT. WHAAAT.

The idol industry has always fascinated me from when I was into jpop. Everything is so carefully manufactured and managed. More than Western music, you're really being sold a carefully crafted image and it's flawless, the frounts they present to their fans. The fantasy that they sell more than their actual music, the way they're so completely packaged. It's fascinating in a horrific way. And I know that the personality of each idol differs but, it's as equally unrealistic to expect them to be completely honest as it is to accuse them of being 100% fake.

Though I do kinda think of them as one big soap opera with unlimited amounts of canon material. *___* These humans, they're not quite real to me. THOUGH I DO LOVE THEM FIERCELY, IN A WAY. UH.

I'm going to leave you with some PVs that I feel encapsulate my love of the ridiculousness that is the kpop machine.

B1A4 (considering B2ST is pronounced 'Beast,' this one broke my brain a little trying to figure out how this could possibly be an actual word, but no. They're actually bee-one-aye-four.)
Catchy. But also, objectively awful. If you watch only one thing, LET IT BE THIS: Beautiful Target.

B.A.P (which stands for, no joke, Best Absolute Perfect ♥)
EVERYBODY SAY, 'HATE YOU!' ONE MORE SAY, 'HATE YOU!': Power.

Block B (they had a scandal which ended up with people SIGNING A PETITION FOR THEM TO COMMIT SUICIDE AND SENT ONE OF THEIR MEMBERS INTO THE HOSPITAL FOR A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN BECAUSE KOREA IS FUCKING INSANE)
The song that they wrote during their period of scandal-induced hiatus for self reflection: Nilili Mambo.
The song featuring their signature Gorilla dance and also, shirtflapping: Nalina (+ dance ver.)

EXO (the quintessential supergroup with 12 members, split into two subunits to move twice the volume of cds from obsessed fans)
The best use of engrish ever, bar nothing: MAMA Chinese | Korean

Girl's Day (I find it a little hard to connect with most girl's groups because they're so heavily sexualized that I end up feeling like an exploitative creep. But Girl's Day are actually insane.)
The one with the hardcore dance battle and the catchiest, most ridiculous chorus: Oh my god!
The one where love is a battlefield so it's best to sabotage the competition: twinkle twinkle

/sobs;;

Also, it's nice to be kinda part of a fandom again and start writing even though what I write is utterly terrible and I don't know how to make friends on tumblr. *________* LIKE, WHAT IS THAT THING, HOW DO I DEAL. HOW DO I STOP BEING FOREVER ALOOOONE /SOB

Next post: America~!

silver_lined — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:23:37 GMT

Today, I saw someone I thought I knew on the train but wasn't quite sure I had the right person so I did what any other socially competant person would do and reached for my phone to surruptitiously message to see if she would pick up her phone so then I would knowwww.

However, thwarted. Didn't have her number.

BUT I AM A DETERMINED PERSON. I messaged a friend about my dilemma, who messaged me back with her number.

So at this point, there were two options:

1) sms ">:D HELLO, I SEE YOU." except if I didn't have her number, she probably didn't have mine and that would be REALLY CREEPY.

2) embrace the creepy. CALL. AND IF IT IS HER, BREATHE HEAVILY AND THEN WHISPER "i can see youuuu~" IN A LOW RASPY MANVOICE.

Sadly, before I could enact any of my plans, we accidentally made eye contact (BECAUSE I WAS STARING) and she recognised me.

... such is life.

HEY GUYS. LONG TIME NO SEE.

silver_lined — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 06:04:32 GMT

So I haven't updated this thing in pretty much years, which is terrible because at some point, I was counting on this being a permanent record for when my memory gave out which it already is because I cannot keep a thought in my head for longer than five minutes.

Thus, a recap of my year. Or something.

So I have an anxiety disorder which gets all tangled up in rather extreme depression which means that life does not actually happen for me most of the time since being able to get out of bed and pretend to function normally is a pipe dream. I've been in therapy for a VERY LONG TIME and also on various medications because that is what one does when one is ill and would like to get better very, very much but progress is indeed difficult.

On the plus side, I have stopped hiding in University, failing all my subjects and decided to cut my losses and run off with whatever degree they'll give me. :'D So, hurrah, I am officially graduated.

I did not do the ceremony because closure is apparently terrifying, AHAHA. :| But my diploma will at some point be mailed to me and I shall be set adrift upon the world.

This year was also the year of travelling after being stuck in the country for TWO WHOLE YEARS OMFG. I hate being stuck in one place for too long, because it gives you entirely too much time to dwell and I get vaguely suicidal. (I am not, actually, at this point in time actively suicidal which is so much of a plus point, I cannot even begin to say. SO YAY.)

First, Japan!

I went to Japan for about two and a half weeks in March because of a friend's wedding and also, because I love Japan like burning. I lived there for almost a year and did very little of the things that I should have, but Osaka is the city closest to my heart after Melbourne. It is also dirty and a little bit ugly but whatever, it is mine.

I flew into Tokyo for a week to go shopping and see the sights and pretty much spent the entire time revisiting my old haunts and going ;n; at everything that had changed. And then mainly hunting for doujinshi for people because that is why one goes to Japan, for the animated porn. I stayed with Hannah, who I dearly love, even though I speak to her once in a blue moon, and imposed shamelessly.

After about a week, I needed to make my way down to Osaka for the wedding. But there's direct routes to Osaka or the scenic route and I am a disgraceful traveller. People ask me for recommendations and I'm like, please don't; I travel like a hobo backpacker and sleep in bus shelters and sometimes in overnight McDonald's and it is a wonder that I have not actually died yet. AN ACTUAL WONDER. But this time, instead of taking the local trains for like, ten hours on a 1500y ticket, I did the night buses.

I love night buses. I understand these things are vaguely uncomfortable for people who are not five foot tall asians, but I'm perfectly fine on them. Which means I will do things like take an overnight bus from Tokyo to Hiroshima, arriving at like, 6am in the morning and then RUN FREE.

Nothing is open at 6am in the morning. Nothing. However, the Hiroshima Peace Park is an actual park, so I went and sobbed all over the statues and monuments and buildings and then went inside the museum when it opened at a sane hour.

I cried a lot. It was vaguely ridiculous. Also, when I was standing around looking at some flowers and marvelling at the resilience of life, some guy came up to me and started talking about how the flowers were pretty and how I was also pretty AND IT WAS WEIRD, OKAY. SO VERY WEIRD. Maybe I got mixed up, though, because my Japanese is super basic and for about six months of the year I spent in Japan, I believed a lot of people came up and asked about the time INSTEAD OF IF I HAD TIME, DID I WANT TO GO FOR A DRINK, HELLOOOOOO THERE ;DDDDD so better safe than sorry and I brush off most people of a certain age bracket and gender.

Then, after that, I went and trundled off to find my hostel and dropped off my tiny wheely suitcase to catch a boat. This is like, 12pm or something, catching the ferry to Miyajima and being hideously amused because Motonari from Basara and all the other ridiculous Sengoku references and a REALLY GIANT FLOATING TORI. And deer. Everywhere.

It was cherry blossom season when I went, so there were loads of people EVERYWHERE and Japanese people are sane, law abiding folk who walk on the path and I am the type of person who goes HEY, LOOK, A BEACH and merrily frolics on the sand while people stare.

I am also the type of person who climbs mountains;;; IF THERE IS A MOUNTAIN, I AM FUCKING THERE. In my bright red dress and knee high boots with absolutely no freaking tread on them. But the view was pretty.

Also, at low tide, you can walk right out to the tori! It doesn't float then, because the water is gone! HOWEVER, I WAS THERE FOR SO LONG, IT WENT FROM LOW TIDE TO HIGH TIDE.

Basara Motonari's stage is actually based in this shrine, no joke kjajkajkwhejkawwe ALSO, THERE WAS OKUNI'S THEATRE ROOM, OR SOMETHING, AND IT WAS ALL VERY WEIRD.

Everything was pretty. Oh Japan.

I stayed the night in the hostel, then was gone the next day during A MASSIVE FREAKING FREAK TYPHOON OR SOMETHING in a bus down to Kyoto, where I wondered around for a few hours, looking at nearby temples and gardens and playing around Kyoto station, which is huge and futuristic and half of the outside decks were closed because THERE WAS A TYPHOON.

This temple was close by, so I went to gawk at it. IDEK what temple it was.

Skywalk. Shiny. Kinda like walking into a sci-fi movie.

Then I hopped on another overnight bus to Matsuyama. Again, I got there around 6am and spent a fair bit of time kinda dazed at the station and trying to get myself into some sort of semblence of order. And then took a tram that looped around most of the city and decided to visit a bathhouse. To be specific, the oldest working bathhouse in Japan, which Spirited Away was inspired by.

I think most people don't like being naked in front of strangers but it kinda helps when you'll never see them ever, and also when you're actually half blind without glasses on. You don't actually see anything and the ostrich mentality sort of applies - I DON'T SEE YOU, YOU DON'T SEE ME, EVERYONE'S HAPPY :||||

It was quite pretty and I got to wear a yukata.

After that, it was like... 10am or something, so I went around and climbed mountains and found temples and whatever, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT ONE DOES IN JAPAN, RIGHT?

Cherry blossoms! EVERYWHERE.

And then there was a castle! To get to the castle, you sit on this... chair lift thing. Which has no safety belts or anything, you kinda just... hop onto it and clutch the bar and hope you don't fall off onto the nets which would probably save your life, ahaha.

The castle was pretty damn cool. Except it had the tiniest, steepest stairs ever to get to the top floor which were I even just a LITTLE bit fatter, I would probably not have been able to go up.

I love castles. I love samurai. ;;; EVERYTHING WAS AMAZING.

And then, shopping and wandering around for another four hours before hopping on YET ANOTHER night bus, but this time actually to Osaka. I ended up in Osaka at like, 5am, and went to find an Internet Cafe so I could catch up on my email and whatever AND SLEEP FOR SEVERAL HOURS BECAUSE THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH YOU CAN STAND SLEEPING ON BUSES. And getting into places at 6am really, really makes you want to kill everything.
In some ways, Osaka feels like coming home. These are the paths I walked every single days, the shops I used to visit, the little corner stand selling that cabbage thing, my favourite takoyaki stall, etc, etc. I love that place. I love pretty much everything about that place, including the weird and dodgy parts, which I never really noticed despite staying in and working in some of the dodgiest areas.

My hostel was this four story building which rented out mainly three-tatami private rooms with no bathroom. There were two showers for the entire building, which were terrible, and two open stalls next to each other with flimsy shower curtains. The sign on the front said that women were to inform the front desk and LOCK THE DOOR SO THAT NO ONE COULD GET INTO THE SHOWER ROOM if they wanted to use the shower, while men could just mingle freely.

(The other international guests that I met were nottttt happy about that. Most of the guys took to locking themselves in also.)

However, they had an option where you could get a voucher from reception and GO TO ANOTHER DODGY HOTEL AROUND THE CORNER and use the ofuro. Their public bath. I love baths and I can not take them in Australia because a little voice in the back of my head starts shrieking about WATER SHORTAGES and DROUGHT and YOU ARE A BAD PERSON, so I took them up on this offer and spent several hours each night in the company of naked women.

And then rolled around on the common room floor back at my hostel, since the ofuro pretty much melts your bones. I made friends. At some point, a group of us stayed up half the night talking - a Brit, an American, a Canadian and me, the Australian. It was a little bit like a bad joke. And then another night, the Hong Kong expats banded together with our varying levels of Cantonese, being from four different countries. I love hostels. You meet the funniest people in them.

Everyone else from my hostel complained about seeing drunk people everywhere, but I kinda somehow missed them even walking home at 11pm at night. But I lived in an area that was known for its homeless and being completely dodgy when I was in Osaka last, so I guess I'm good at ignoring those things. All I know is that whenever I speak to an Osakan about the places I've lived in in Osaka, they get a horrified look and tell me to run awaaaay. But the Japanese version of dangerous is vaguely laughable, so I've never minded.

I guess my highlight was Osaka Castle, which was pretty much razed to the ground in several occasions and very little of the original structure remains. HOWEVER, I STILL CLIMBED AND SAT ON THE WALLS and made ohoho noises thinking of the stupid fic I'd written set here. :'D

Also, there was a wedding. XD;

Here are photos of a completely different wedding I inadvertently crashed.

I made my way back up to Tokyo (direct! KINDA. BECAUSE I MISSED THE BUS WHEN IT WAS IN OSAKA AND HAD TO CATCH A TRAIN TO KYOTO AND THEN CATCH THE BUS FROM THERE AND IT WAS ALL VERY STRESSFUL, BUT AMUSING) and spent a bit more time shopping and packing and visiting the ramen museum.

It's like walking into an episode of Amatsuki, I swear to god. EVERYTHING IS FAKE. AND UNDERGROUND;;;

And then there are juggling hosts jkahaekjkjwe /crying.

And then off to Melbourne, with a three day stopover in Hong Kong.

I'm not close to my Hong Kong roots. I speak Cantonese at the level of a really stupid seven year old and cannot, for the life of me, pass for a Hong Kong person even though I was born there. I avoid that place like the plague, though my parents always offer to send me back for the holidays. (No. Just... No. :||| I don't care if the shopping is good, I don't like it there.)

But desperate times and all. My grandma was getting worse and my grandpa also has alzheimer's, so I wanted to go see them. My grandpa can't actually recognise me, or form new memories so even though I pretty much continually told him who I was, he didn't remember. It's pretty heartbreaking and really very scary. But I managed to go see her in the nursing home, even though she didn't really recognise or understand either.

She died later in July. That was the last time I saw her alive.

I went back to Hong Kong for the funeral in July. It takes a while for a funeral to be arranged - you need to rent out the hall and get the musicians and the master of ceremonies and Buddhist funerals are really, really complex. They're interesting, in a way, all ritual and ceremony and I don't think I quite understood what was going on for most of it. I spent a lot of time in the back room where the furnace was lit, burning stacks and stacks of paper offerings and crying.

Also, on that day, a level 10 typhoon actually struck Hong Kong. Which was vaguely terrifying because we were halfway up a mountain where the funeral hall was, and things went on until about 10pm at night. Trying to get down from the mountain was awful. Getting everyone together for the traditional dinner afterwards was hectic. Then trying to get back from the restaurant home... public transport started closing because of water damage, roads were blocked because of trees being blown everywhere, and there was a typhoon on our heads.

The car that we were in on the way home was stuck for half an hour because there was a tree down. We sat there and waited until two policemen showed up in a car and bodily dragged some of the branches out of the way, while in the pouring rain and uh. That entire night, I think, was a little bit surreal.

The next morning, we went up the mountain again to collect the body and around the mountain to get to the crematorium, and there were more rituals and ceremonies and a lunch where the things that were meant to be eaten were eaten and proper rites observed. Being asian is a little bit amazing, sometimes.

Most of Hong Kong is a blur of shopping and eating, to me. But I did go to Macau for a few days, along the casino strip, and stared at all the pretty things and drank a little too much and ate all the food in the world. And managed to see most of the touristy things, EVEN IN THE AFTERMATH OF A TYPHOOOOON, and got chatted up by an on-duty museum guard for the second time in my life.

Life is kinda a little funny at times, I guess.

If anyone wants to stay in touch, I'm on tumblr these days so drop me a message and lets be frieeeends.

MANIFEST 0811 - DW7/5 + Beastmaster&Prince

silver_lined — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 08:14:22 GMT

YOU KNOW WHY MY SELF CONFIDENCE IS IN TATTERS?

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE I HANG OUT WITH AJKJKAJKWE :'D :'D UNREASONABLY GOOD LOOKING PEOPLE ARE UNREASONABLY GOOD LOOKING. /SULKS FOREVER

EVERYONE. SO UNREASONABLY SPLENDIIIIIID.

For much of the day, though, my fellow genderbend buddies were not there, so uh. SPOT THE ODD ONE OUT, HEY. (L to R: Sarah Wei, self, hithluin, fire_ban.

FRANKLY, I AM NOT SEEING WHERE THESE TWO DESIGNS MEET >____>;;;;;; But well, I think I managed to capture the spirit of a grumpy, elderly archer.

With my deadly flower theme and everything. Good god. Please ignore how epically I am falling out of my top in every single photo because for some reason, clothing does not like staying on me. :< At least nothing fell off except for my shoulder guards at several points.

Though you know, apart from a creeper photographer or two, THE ONLY PEOPLE that really commented on it was girls :'D :'D Many many girls. Also, I only got chased by three or so 'free hugs' people, so I am counting this as a win, though it's more than last year because FIERCE DOMINATRIX apparently is less huggable than NAKED FLOWER FAIRY.

Jo's jacket was huge~~LY SPLENDIDDDD~~ and useful for hiding behind, anyway :'D

Once again, Manifest was blessed by the presence of the Perth Crew + sinnatious.

OUR FAMILY PORTRAIT. 8D Note how I am awkwardly sitting back because leaning into kaorismash meant being poked in the chest by dragons. Splendidly dressed agentlerain and sinnatious as Hana and Sakura from Gate 7 looked right at home with us while idk, guys, GRELL CAN CREEPER ANYWHERE.

This photo amuses me endlessly, because I thought it was just hithluin and kaorismash in the frame, so I am just... spaced out. XD Ridiculously. ALSO, MY WEAPON IS A SAD AND PATHETIC GOLDEN ARROW BECAUSE I RAN OUT OF TIME TO MAKE A BOW ;AAA; fire_ban had to fletch it for me, even. I think it turned out rather well for airdry clay, a dowel, cardboard and cheap feathers.

At one point, we kidnapped a splendid green chocobo to be our spirit animal.

And then we slaughtered and ate it.

Thank you to lainex for the Dynasty group photos :'D EPIC AS ALWAYS, LAINTOGRAPHER ♥

I love having the Perth people around, but they do kinda highlight how ridiculously lazy we Melbournians are. XD; While Jiang Wei, Zhuge Liang and the Gate7 pair valiantly wore their ridiculously complex costumes on Sunday, Jo, Kaori and I were done with narcissism Saturday and ready to move onto cbf Sunday.

By which I mean, Jo and I made my entire costume Saturday night/Sunday morning. 8Db PREPARED, THAT IS THE COSPLAYER'S WAY. (Or, rather, Jo finished hers several weeks ago, and the rest of the group got their tailor made and uhh. When pressed, Jo and I work very fast;;;)

The series: Beastmaster & Prince - the Snow Bride.
The premise: ... my harem turn into animals. No, really. Really.

Thank you very much to agentlerain for the Beastmaster photos, which she took in her epic Hana costume, running about in her million layers of kimono and trailing obi and just general incredibleness for what she was willing to do for a photo. ;; AHH, INSANE PHOTOGRAPHERS SO INSANE.

My harem. I am rather unimpressed :|
(L-R: beanie_nup as bunny, animesque as lion, fire_ban as wolf, surealistic_des as duck)

idk, guys, the animals are a lot cuter. :|||

Though sometimes, Jo turned into her dog :'D

THis is my favourite shot of the entire weekend because, AHAHA, animesque HAS THE GIRL AND PUPPY IS VERY MUCH NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT. :'D

Being the token girl is kinda fun except when you FEEL LIKE YOU'RE IN A WEDDING DRESS THE ENTIRE TIME.

Except like, Jo and I are the poster children for stereotypical lesbian couples, idek. :'D

+ THE FAMILY PETS. ;Dbb

FIIIIINAL GROUP SHOT.

gif are amazing. :'D

And that's it for another manifest, thank god;;; THESE THINGS ARE EXHAUSTING.

july is always the busiest month;;

silver_lined — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:11:26 GMT

HELLO WORLD, NOW I AM OLD.

And also, apparently, a hooker. 8Dbb

This month has already been somewhat ridiculously busy with two and a half birthday parties and a cosplay meet already.

The first birthday was the wonderful cosmic_kath and you are ALL jealous because we played pass the parcel and decorated cookies and LIFE WAS GRAND even though I was tightlaced so hard into my corset that my hips were bruised the next day :'D Sob. Wild west theme because Kath always throws the best partieeees.

COWBOYS. ~~INDIANS~~ NATIVE AMERICANS. AND A SALOON GIRL.

The week after that was MelCosPho7, one of the Melbourne Cosplay Photography meets that happen every couple of months. I was plaaaaaanning on doing Lamento but, no. My laziness and inability to make things meant being ghetto is much more appealing so I joined the Midnight Navy group after stealing Jo's Hetalia Japan jacket and modifying it crazy with safety pins.

... Do not ask why I already had thigh high white pleather boots in my wardrobe. /SOB. Also, that pose was hella uncomfortable jkjkajkwe.

Midnight Navy is a tiny tiny obscure series that has crazy rules for everything including a set disclaimer: Japanisches Kaiserreich Mitternacht Marine is a comic by Rokuzaki, and can be found here. If you do not know of the disclaimer, please read it here.

OUR GROUP OF THREE. Two American planes [reibird and animesque] and my poor submarine self.

Poor Linc was my prop. 8D

That line down my back? 8D Safety pins where the jacket has been taken in about 5cm, ahaha. ALSO, THOSE SHOES HURT SO MUCH.

I love this photo kjjakkjwe Also, that's actually normally how I wear my hair except not um... as a wig.

Amused forever, though I was kidnapped at some point by a mad photographer who dragged me underground and posed me until I cried.

While the lighting is lovely and golden and everyone looks really comfortable uh...

IT WAS ACTUALLY THE DEAD OF WINTER AND WHEN WE WERE NOT POSING, I HAD MY JACKET AND SCARF AND DIED A LITTLE. Photography tricks = A+.

The next day, while we were all recovering and tired and grumpy and DYING, we had twenty two people over to Jo's house for my birthday and kaorismash's SURPRISEEEEEEE PARTAY. In planning for over a month, we gathered money, intel, and shipped things from halfway around the world in order to pelt Kaori with a billion hibirds.

A BILLION HIBIRDS. We signed the eggs instead of a card >:D

Apparently, while I was herding people into the study to sign the eggs, Kaori was herding people into the ajoining living area to sign my things. There is no door between these two rooms. :'D JO FORMED A BLOCKADE OF LAUNDRY RACKS SO NEVER THE TWAIN SHOULD MEET meaning the real hero of the day would be Jo trying to organise everything, ahaha.

My stash included a PHOTO ALBUM THAT IS ENTIRELY FULL OF MY FACE, OMFG WHYYYY.

Also: hairy gay cowboy porn, dead frog magnets, playboy bunny stripper cuffs, a chalkboard pig, fluffy headphone ear muffs and a CAMERA SO I CAN STALK EVERYONE ELSE.

I began immediately :o

MY FAVOURITE PHOTO. surealistic_des molesting a reibird.

I love this camera SO MUCH. :'D It even does panorama!

Everything else will be up on fb except for this WONDERFUL PHOTO OF HOST CLUB lainex THAT EVERYONE MUST SEE.

♥ FOREVER.

Thank you again to everyone who came along and helped celebrate and enabled me to be such a creeper. >:D NO BIRTHDAY COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER. ♥

Photo credit to Elaine Ho and An Chau, as indicated in the file names ♥

SUPANOVA [04-2011]: SENGOKU BASARA

silver_lined — Wed, 04 May 2011 10:32:24 GMT

SHADOW HAND TO THE FACE.

This will forever be known as The Costume With All The Buckets because between fire_ban and I, we used about eight buckets of varying sizes and drilled over 600 holes with the electric drill.

By which I mean,

Jo was fabulous, kthnx.

Also, everyone thought she was a boy. She had fangirl. Fangirls that followed her around, wanting to touch her bare and manly chest. Fangirls who came up to ask for a photo who, after speaking to her with her girly voice, were very disappointed and also somewhat confused about the orientation.

I don't actually blame them because that manly six pack [bronzer! and an eyeshadow brush!] was very convincing jkjkajkwe

Sadly, our Basara group whittled down from over 10 to just seven. But, we did bump into another Yukimura!

His face is best described as: o___o;;
[but isn't he adorable? kjajkjkawe. ahaha, SO SO STARTLED.]
From left to right: kaorismash as Nouhime, self as Oichi, o___o;;, orenjimaru_sama as Mitsunari, fire_ban as Yukimura and animesque as Keiji.

I was very distressed the entire day also.

MOSTLY, BECAUSE I COULD NOT SIT.
I built my armored skirt out of buckets so they uh, flared properly and were nice and stiff and like... Not as tragic as it could have very easily been - but buckets don't actually have any give to them.

Surprisingly, someone recognised me from Manifest last year. I guess the hair and the uh... lack of pants. ;; Or something.

And then we got on stage.

I am not sure why we got on stage. It was a terrible idea and also, a terrible skit and featured moments like this:

Where Keiji is terribly startled.

And then, Yukimura is terrible dead.

Much to my confusion.

Sasuke is a very good ninja, though.

;A; Forever alone...

... Except that when he was dragging Yukimura to the side of the stage he uh... tugged. A bit too much. AND YUKIMURA FELL OFF THE STAGE WITH A VERY LARGE THUD.

I... there is video. No one is allowed to see, because we were awful and it sadly did not capture the visuals [ONLY THE AUDIO. OF. A VERY LARGE THUD] and ahsahjdhhjahjjhajhhjawe YUKIMURA FELL OFF THE STAGE LOLLING FOREVER.

We're all perfectly in proportion here. XD By which I mean, every single person was 25cm shorter than their character was meant to be, but given we're in proportion to EACH OTHER...

Also, Sasuke is my favourite ninja and I own him because, AHAHAH. >:D Yukimura sold him to me for six yen. [<- true!]

I have claimed him because, with my high maintanence costumes, I spend most of the day unable to do anything for myself and he did everything including do up my shoes for me. ♥

The next day, because we were VERY TIRED and some costumes are woefully uncomfortable to wear,

Jo went as Minato from P3.

And me? I guess you could say

Her ultra creepy snake persona. ♥

Unfortunately, not a very good one ;A;

DEFEAT ;A;

My group! Okami, mk II.

Also known as 'You guys look great! ... So, where are you from? 8D;; ... . . . never heard of it... but uh, you guys look great!'

Third time I've worn this costume, now. 8D Because a few weeks prior, the cosplay community as a whole were asked to help out at a fundraiser for Japan.

At the Okami shoot, we did our thing for the Prayers from Cosplayers vanity site so we thought, money where your mouth is! And put our ridiculously flashy hobby for a good cause.

+ the organiser! 8Db

IT RAINED ON US. AND WAS ALSO FREEZING, OH MY GOD. SO SO FREEZING.

But well, we had our buckets and [after an hour or two] our signs and shamelessly asked people for money for about five hours straight ;A;

By which I mean, some of the more confident ones went up and asked for money.Miku shoved the bucket in the face of anyone who asked to touch her wig.

Kaori and I stood on a corner and waited for people to come to us, as the most highly visible idiots around. 8D; You want a photo? PAY US D<

But I think, the universal favourite was Kirby.

For being AMAZING. Though, the tiger was also very loved. We probably should have all gone in our kigurumi and just been furry at people until they gave us all their cash.

Perhaps next time. D<

But I know none of you are really in for the photos so much as my terrifyingly humiliating exploits and sort of amazing stalker tendancies so, let me tell you about the guy behind us in the cosplay comp.

Vega. Street fighter, or something. Who knows. I care not, only that he would actually maybe look decent in this costume - Guan Suo, the metrosexual husband-to-be of ninja stalker Bao Sanniang.

And I only realised in hindsight, so, I did not creeper onto him at the con ~~because everyone scares me and I don't like talking to people, omggg ;A;~~ ~~Or maybe because I am a snob and just stick to the three people I know XD;~~

THUS, MY CAMPAIGN.

The mX is our trashy free tabloid that comes out at about 3pm on weekdays, in time for the afternoon rush and EVERYONE who catches public transport or passes through the city during that time reads it. It has a small section called 'Here's looking at you!' where people who creeper on others on PT can leave anonymous messages to 'the cute girl in the blue t-shirt on the 5:32 Lilydale train from Flinders ♥' but well...

btw, I decided against being a COMPLETE AND UTTER CREEP because AS IF I WOULD DO THAT EXCEPT FOR THE HILARITY VALUE HJKJAKJAWE.

Also, a week after the con, we were invited out to celebratory drinks for the Japan Fundraiser. I... I tend to tell stories. And when I tell stories, I tend to embellish and flail and like...
...
...
...
...
... people really shouldn't listen to me.

By which I mean, there were conversations where I said things like, "I am stalking this guy, you see." and "Well, I really want to dress him up and stalk him more." and "WELL, YOU COULD CALL IT A COSPLAY CRUSH IF YOU LIKE. But, more like, he'll fit the costume! I should know- he was naked :o" except with a lot more hand gestures.

So, after drinks, one of the guys went home, went on facebook, and found him for me.

...

I do not even know, world. IT IS CRUEL.

...

I just. ...

Saa.

And then I facestalked him, he added me back, I creepered onto his dA and he is, frankly, not as I remembered him and also draws really terrifying gory/grotesque art and NO ONE IS TO SPEAK OF THIS EVER AGAIN KJJKAWE.

The end ;A;

Photocredit mainly to Elaine Ho lainex and Neil Creek as the filename or watermark apply. :3

... too many photos. 8D Next time, the story of the Kigurumi shoot and how a bunch of tiny asian animals ganged up and killed a white girl. ♥

OKAMI 19-03-2011

silver_lined — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 09:18:34 GMT

THIS EYE THING, IT IS GETTING TO BE A HABIT, ISN'T IT?

*STAAAARE*

:'D At least it's only minorly soul sucking. Um.

SO, AFTER MONTHS AND MONTHS OF PLANNING AND UNTOLD EXPENSE AND LIKE, DRAGGING HOME 20m+ BOLTS OF SATIN (150cm width, FML. I AM 153CM TALL) ON THE TRAIN SO EVERYONE COULD HAVE THE SAME FABRICS...

Our Okami shoot finally happened. ♥

AND MAN, WE LOOK SO DAMN AWESOME TOGETHER. *PREEN*

Zodiac order: Rat (Shiina), Cat (kaorismash, Ox (animesque), Tiger (Darren), Rabbit (fire_ban), Dragon (lainex), Snake (self ;Db), Sheep (surealistic_des), Rooster (azdvmc), Amaterasu/Dog (beanie_nup), and Boar (Jenny). (THE HELL IS HORSE (sloobeast) IN THIS PICTURE?)

People kept on asking us if we were a promo for a movie, or something. I guess we did kinda look it, because there were a LOT of us and since these costumes are not practical at all (MOVING. WALKING. THESE... THESE ARE SAD, SAD DREAMS WHEN ONE IS IN A MERMAID SKIRT AND HEELS ;A;) we colonised one of the public bathrooms in Melbourne Central (which, as the name implies, is a shopping centre right in the middle of the CBD) and got dressed, did make up and rolled about there for about three hours. Linc and I also invaded the supermarket because while Amaterasu is mummy to us all, Ox is the defacto leader and ahaha, I am the older sister type ;D WE GOT MAJORLY GAWKED AT BECAUSE, WELL;;;; WELLLL. (We also got an assortment of snacks and cheese&bacon rolls, ahahaaa. *feeds the world*)

Then we moved to the gardens where spent quite a bit of time loitering there, also, while fixing make up and putting in contacts and all the other bits and bobs. :'D

Playing make up artist is pretty fun, though. >:D I wouldn't mind doing it mooooaaar if people would let me near their faces with my paints and potions. EXCEPT FOR HOW, I CANNOT HANDLE DOUBLE EYELIDS. I'm very very much monolidded and over the years, I have developed my own way of doing make up which pretty much involves eyeliner, eyeliner and more eyeliner and people with double eyelids, they... crease and fold differently to my eyes and I get horribly confused about how the line will look with their eyes opened as opposed to closed jkjkawe.

We're like ONE BIG HAPPY SPLOTCH OF RED ON WHITE.

People like to take their wedding photos in the gardens. (This building is where I also sit my University exams so um, loool.) And it's just a really nice, big public space - which means we attracted a lot of attention. People would stop and take photos on their phones and this one lady kinda circled us for five minutes, taking photos until she finally came up and asked to take a photo WITH US. Melbourne is very accepting ♥

SOLO SHOT. 8D LOOKS LIKE MY TOP ACTUALLY HAS FALLEN OFF HERE, BUT I SWEAR TO YOU THAT IT HASN'T ~~PROBABLY~~.

So, there are... hilarious character bios for these characters that yobanashi translated for me, after I wept and whined and shamelessly begged for her attention because she is my favourite and I ♥ her lots.

My character, Snake, is the weepy oblivious type who cries all the time. Ox has a ridiculous crush on her and can NEVER SAY THE RIGHT THING except, he's the only one who can make her stop crying - by making her crushingly angry.

BASICALLY?

OX IS A CREEP.

A REALLY REALLY BIG CREEP.

But we managed, like, a semi uncreepy photo.

SEMI. THAT CREEPSTER. D:<

Dragon is also my ~~senile lololol~~ grandfather so we were having nice family style shots AND THEN, I DON'T KNOW, GUYS.

INCEST IS KINDA WRONG.

ALSO, CAT IS THE SPOILED TYPE WITH A BROTHER COMPLEX.

but, well, my little sister ♥

My favourite photo of the entire day was an experiment with the sunset and lighting. ♥

Dramatic! DRAMATIC SILHOUETTES. I am sad we didn't manage to get everyone staggered down the road for it, but, well, it's still a nice effect.

What a ridiculous project. I sewed my costume in about three nights and by the end of it, was feeling so hateful. XD Never made a mermaid skirt before, and the top was just an exercise in frustration which, eventually, ended up with my using a line of masking tape to keep the ruffles together and double sided tape to keep it up. jkjkawe LIFE IS HARD.

BUT WELL.

OKAMI IS LIKE, THE HAPPIEST FAMILY EVER, OKAY.

BONUS: WHACK AN OKAMI.

Because tsundere!Rabbit has a lottttt of rage *cower*

And will kill you all. ♥

Photocredit to Lisa Blackcrane or as the watermark dictates. Round up of posts from everyone else will be put here when people finally get around to making them, ahaha.
azdvmc here (flocked)
beanie_nup on dA and lj (flocked)
kaorismash on dA.

I... still need to do a write up of animesque's Hetalia White Day PV but, one day. ;;;

ANIMANIA 03 2011 // REBORN!

silver_lined — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:28:32 GMT

HI.

I'M GOING TO EAT YOUR SOUL.

Man, who needs photoshop when make-up, circle lenses and false eyelashes will give you GIANT SOULESS EYEBALLS OF DOOM.

So this weekend was Animania Melbourne, one of the tiniest, crappiest cons in our fair city. Of course, we went and spent a lot of effort on costumes ;A;

Or, rather, everyone else did. I borrowed the magnificent efforts of sloobeast, though I couldn't wear it half as well. Lal Mirch, future version. Though I think I'm rather small enough to pass for the baby version :0

It also had no pants.

ACTUALLY, A LIE. :'D THE PANTS ARE VERY SHORT SHORTS AND ~~UNFORTUNATELY~~ CLEVERLY concealed beneath the cape of doom. Also, I tend to sprawl.

OUR GROUP WAS HUUUUGE. ELEVEN PEOPLE, OR SOMETHING RIDICULOUS LIKE THAT.

First gen:

sloobeast as (THE FABULOUS) Daemon Spade, Rei as G, and surealistic_des as the incredibly dashing Alaude.

AND OF COURSE, LEADER.

animesque looking exceptionally manly.

And the slightly less flamboyantly fabulous, but still extremely wonderful tenth generation.

aomarine as Gokudera, adzvmc as Ryuuhei, and fire_ban as Tsuna.

+ the girl that he likes!!

kaorismash as Kyoko.

Tsuna doesn't need girls, though :0 He has his biggest fan, Gokudera.

Not pictured: Mukuro and Hibari, who both ran off before the shoot and didn't come with us to have lunch where I managed to get my hands on a camera and with the help of Desu's incredibly elegant hands, captured a touching moment.

ALL IN ALL, A FAINTLY HILARIOUS DAY.

MY HIGHLIGHT, THOUGH, WAS KIYO.

KIYOOOO. I AM ENAMOURED WITH KIYO, EVERYONE KNOWS THIS. HE IS MY FAVOURITE.

Embarrassingly enough, it appears I actually already knew Kiyo. He was the Mad Hatter who won King of the Night opposite me in my fabulous pantsless Zhou Tai, whose feet I stepped on as we waltzed and who I ditched on the dancefloor when my wardrobe majorly malfunctioned and my hip skirts fell off.

I... am more amused by this than I should be, but when I was chatting with Kiyo (by which I mean, FLAILING AT AN EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH PITCH AND SPEED AT HIM. LINC TELLS ME MY EXPRESSION OF UNHOLY GLEE WAS ACTUALLY FRIGHTENING), I was suddenly struck by the thought I had seen him before. Unfortunately, he had already recognised me and had to politely clue me in that I had pretty much accidentally stripped in his arms.

KIYO, GUYS. KIYOOOOOOOO. KJAJKJKWE.

Then, because I am a ninja creeper, I found him on facebook and friended him and hassled him into agreeing to do a photoshoot with me when I fix up Nene properly ♥ SCORE. I WILL THROW ONIGIRI AT HIM AND IT WILL BE FANTASTIC JHAJKKJWE I CANNOT WAIT.

Photo credit to animesque for the larger ones, and surealistic_des for the smaller, or as watermarked. For more photos and a slightly less crazed POV (WAIT, NO, THAT WAS DEFINITELY A LIE), check out Desu's write up.

silver_lined — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:44:46 GMT

IN THE CONTINUEING SAGA OF, MY LIFE IS REALLY VERY PATHETIC AND MOSTLY HILARIOUS, LET ME OFFER YOU A FURTHER GLIMPSE OF MY FACEBOOK WALL.

*BREATHE*

If you recall, last post I talked about rewearing an old costume of mine, Zhou Tai, which first made its appearance at Manifest, 2010.

While at Manifest, I was asked by this girl to take a photo with her.

This photo. Afterwards, I was tagged in her album and very amazed.

Because, you see, she uploaded the photo in her professional fan-following Facebook page. For fans of her adult work to follow.

I am just so... I DO NOT EVEN.

Meanwhile, I have been cheerfully hacking and slashing my way through Sengoku Basara, which has stolen my soul even more than SW3 did, because the... girls are more kickass? I like the character dynamics, or something, which is terrible timing as the SW3:XL gameplay vids are trickling out and I haven't watched them yet.

Surprisingly, after playing her, I find myself really liking Tsuruhime which I was not expecting at all.

It helps that her thing with Fuuma is alternately the sweetest thing ever and also, hilarious.

(And Ieyasu totally wants to set them up on a Sunday matinee movie date, with chaperones. ALSO, HIS FACE. So appalled and slightly distressed jkjkawe. Watch from about 3:05. Actually, listen from about 3:20, watch from 5:30, because I hate the way this player does things. So inefficient and hardly using Tsuruhime's haxx range and ridiculously amazing basara attack.)

ALSO, MOTOCHIKA BEING LIKE, A FIVE YEAR OLD IS NEVER NOT HILARIOUS. This person doesn't have Tsuruhime's green route but there is the end of her blue route. Watch allll of it because their interaction is one of the funniest things ever. ~~Also, nothing is more amazing than RANDOM ADDED FUUMA.~~ You also get the beginning of the Motochika forces official cheer. It starts off with Motonari roaring to his men, "WHAT DOES THE 'MO' IN 'MOTOCHIKA' STAND FOR?" and at some point, goes to 'CHI' for "CHISELLED, CAPTAIN, JUST LIKE OUR JAWLINES AND ABS."

Motochika was the biggest surprise for me. I thought he was SO COOL and then you play through and eventually realise he's a giant nong. :'D

I am also really loving Magoichi and Oichi, even though nothing has emotionally effected me as much as Ieyasu's red route ending with Mitsunari. But, randomly, Mitsunari and Magoichi? Surprisingly awesome together ~~though, this needs a bit of context to really set up their crazy ass dynamic jjkkjawe~~.

Magoichi also refers to Date as a crazy turkey. And he calls her Boss Lady. This is like, plus a billion points on all sides kjklawe.

I did enjoy how they set up Magoichi and Oichi as polar opposites. One given over to despair, the other too afraid to ever grieve. You feel for both of them in the different ways they have to live on and bear their burdens. Somehow, I think Capcom actually did a better job of producing a cast of rounded, well-thought female characters than Koei but well. 8D I'll probably change my mind once I replay SW again.

silver_lined — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 02:19:46 GMT

My life, as told in facebook status updates + selected comment exerpts:

07/02/2011 00:03
EITHER I LOST A CONTACT LENSE IN MY EYE OR DOWN THE SINK :'D FREAAAAAK OUT.

07/02/2011 15:00
‎"Hello, ___ Health Clinic :3 How can we help you?"
"Hi! I think I have a contact lense stuck in my eye. 8D Should I come see a doctor or go to an optomotrist?"
"Uh... please hold!"
"♥"
On the plus side, I did want to go get my eyes tested. :'D
WILL THEY DO THAT AT THE SAME TIME? xD if so, how convenient for you kjawe.
WELL. .... WHO KNOWS. XD; SAA, PERHAPS, ONE THING AT A TIME. Or well. Maybe they'll just shine lights down the sides of my eyeball. <- The internet says eye doctors deal with stuck contacts all the time, in about four minutes, but worryingly mentioned forceps.
MAYBE YOU CAN ASK FOR AN ACTUAL APPOINTMENT WHILE YOU'RE THERE. xD freak, forceps are just generic pinchy things, aren't they? IT'S NOT AS IF THEY COULD STICK ANYTHING ELSE BACK THERE. (toothpicks, looool. eyedumpling jkahae.)
SAA. :'D CALLING THEM WAS VERY QUICK AND PAINLESS except the guy was obviously doing the rote thing with the asking for details and asked for my name twice, and then was all "... wait. No, one of those should be your address :|;;;"
"Your first name?"
"Karen. :3"
"And your name?"
"... That... was it? :3;;;;"
"... Perhaps where you live, instead. :|;;;;;

Also, has found that putting in another contact helps....it found me my missing contact in my eye ^_^;;
;;;;; WAIT, REALLY? DOUBLE CONTACT?

ahhhahahahaa, i'll let the doctor at me with forceps. :'D Since, I tried the rolling and rolling and rolllinggggggg and a billion eyedrops and then when that was not enough, half a bottle of solution.
well, once i put it in and blinked...i was like..heyyy, there's something else in my eye..*rubs rubs*...*out pops the first contact folded over*

although...mind u, since then I've had like 3 dreams where i have contacts that got lost in my eye....and then i cough and find them in my mouth o_O! (totally not helping i know XD)
YOU HORRIFY ME.

07/02/2011 17:00
‎... Doctor thinks I'm paranoid and it probably just dropped out;;

07/02/2011 23:38
CONTACT FOUND AND NOT IN EYEBALL. INVOLVED USAGE OF A TORCH AND CRAWWWWLING AROUND THE BATHROOM FLOOR. DIGNITY, I HAS NONE BUT AT LEAST I HAVE MY CONTACT.
... Which means that phantom OH GOD THERE IS SOMETHING IN MY EYEBALLLLLLLL feeling really was just paranoia dsjshjhjsahdhshedywsyhhj

MY LIFE, GUYS. MYYYY LIFE.

In between that, I used like, half a bottle of solution and whoooole lot of eyedrops and felt a phantom contact in my eye ALL NIGHT LONG. And sat through an embarrassing visit to the optomotrist where I had to explain that, yes, my contact is very large and pink and, yeah, you'd probably be able to see it in my eyeball if it were there but if it's not in my eyeball, then where could it beeee? jkjkjkawe

But, well, I am an idiot.

In unrelated news, this conversation actually happened with fire_ban's mum because I appear not to possess more than three brain cells.

"Your hair looks really different! :0 Did you do something new with it?"
":< My fringe is growing out and I am unkempt."
"Noooo, did you straighten it or something?"
"Well, I accidentally got toothpaste in it over here but..."

^ And then we were cut off by Jo's laughing fit;;;; (On the other hand, toothpaste. ;; Makes your hair smell minty fresh!)

We also watched Yukikaze which is full of crazy and more crazy and quite a bit of gay, despite the main pairing being Plane x Pilot, in that order. I... did not understand it all because there was a bit too much crazy. And also, the full title is BATTLE FAIRY YUKIKAZE and it is SET ON THE PLANET FAIRY where the FAIRY AIR FORCE fights against the EVIL ALIENS 'JAM'.

... It possibly destroyed my three remaining braincells and thus, I am left with none. :'D

And because knowing me, I am not going to update for a good long while, so, some photos and stories of cosplay related shenanigans.

We were invited, as part of the local cosplay community, to attend the opening night of RMIT Gallery's Japan: Kingdom of Characters exhibition to provide uh, some sort of local flavour or something, god knows. Which means, two days of dressing up like idiots.

Wednesday: fire_ban and self as Lu Xun and genderbend!Ma Chao. We look like Christmas baubles and this amuses me like crazyhouse jkjkawe.

Done before with different make up and an unfixed up headpiece, Tiger General Ma Chao and PET TIGER kaorismash. This photo has been photoshopped to death unlike the others so, um. :'D I don't, actually, look like this.

Thursday, I pulled out the other genderbend!DW costume because it is, sadly, the most impressive one I have and WE GOT TO MEET PEOPLE FROM THE JAPANESE CONSULATE AND IT WAS ALL VERY MORTIFYING THOUGH THEY WERE VERY NICE. :'D MY SHAME, LET ME SHOW IT TO You.

Not actually that many cosplayers. Notice I am being a diva and am right in front and center ~~BECAUSE I AM A FIRE TIGER AND APPARENTLY, MY ZODIAC IS ALL ABOUT THE BURNING AND THE PASSION AND THE DRAMA AHAHHASSKJKJAWE;;;~~

My eyes are very very red :'D And my boots are very very high heeled. Hilariously, some lady came up to me and asked if I had a card? I was very much "...?" because, what in the world for? if not, say, as an escort service. (I have never had as many people come up and talk to me as when I borrowed Kaori's Sheryl costume which, Jo assures me, is because I looked like a hooker. :< Am in a Sumeragi sandwich of Kaori and Jo, there.)

It's a pretty attention grabbing costume, though. :'D That sword is about only seven cm shorter than me when I'm barefoot.

Saa. What an idiotic hobby. I quit it forever.

silver_lined — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:21:52 GMT

So, I am ill.

Faintly ridiculously ill, where I am on antibiotics, the doctor was throwing around words like "bronchitis" and "don't give me that look, you lungs are inflamed." and writing down notes to the tune of "looks unwell" after I gave him very dubious =_____= looks. (No one wants bronchitis. It is a scary word.)

Also, I have taken refuge in the lounge where I refuse to move from my lordly seat which includes sleeping, which I am forced to do in one to three hour periods, sitting up. Swallowing sadly triggers my gag reflex; lying down makes my lungs revolt. I full accept that this is so pathetic that it's tipping over into hilarious because various members of the family have come home to my sitting up in the dark with a hooded scarf wrapped securely around my neck and the hood drawn down over my eyes.

It also has bright button eyes and bear ears.

Anyway, I am a little surprised and impressed that no one has screamed. I suppose I am a somewhat fearsome sight in the near dark, before reality intervenes. Truly, my family's willpower is strong.

Meanwhile, I wrote almost a thosand words of Sengoku Basara fic while in the thrall of a slightly delusional fever and rereading over it is a little bit amusing and mostly worrying because it appears I harbour tendancies towards mass slaughter of the world when not quite lucid.

Spreaking of Sengoku Basara, I have been playing it entirely too much and it is taking over my soul.

My previous favourites, Keiji and Yukimura, don't have very good storylines in this. Keiji is an idiot who gets owned left, right and centre by Magoichi who is strong, resourceful, independent and most of all, actually intelligent while Keiji drools all over her and makes terrible choices. I didn't expect to like Magoichi but she's... a character that can be admired.

While I generally take issues with all female character designs, I have to say that Capcom actually did a fairly good job on portraying all sorts of different sorts of female characters for SB3. There are only really three: the strong and independent Magoichi, the lost and sensitive Oichi, the sparkly but determined Tsuruhime and none of them is reduced (like Kasuga) to just a sex symbol. There's also Matsu (non playable), who is down to earth and family centered but also a person that sticks to her values and beliefs. (Alternately, I can say that they didn't miss a stereotype, but given the guys are equally um... yeah, I think I'll just be pleased that there's more than a token chick and how they all, in their different ways, are kinda amazing.)

The best moveset, however, is still Fuuma for pure flashy, lightning fast, zips across the screen and teleports in a puff of black smoke and then dissolves into a cloud of shuriken fun. I am also rather partial to Oichi's shadow hands because there's just something sort of awesome about how completely creepy they are. I would cosplay her only if I could figure out how to rig up shadow hands. Moving shadow hands. ~~That molest people.~~

A unsurprising secret is: I like the characters that the characters I respect like. Which means, sadly, I have fallen into the trap of actually liking Mitsunari in SB because Ieyasu likes him so much and their story is seven different kinds of heart breaking and I want something to make it all better.

Which is to say, I've only played Ieyasu's red path and not finished any of Mitsunari's, but I cried embarrassingly soggily over Ieyasu's ending and expect fully to do the same for Mitsunari's. If anyone spoilers me, I will throw the mother of all fits because I am sick and grumpy and know no reason. But they are adorable and for some time, served under Hideyoshi and I am hoping that Mitsunari has been with Hideyoshi and Hanbei since he was a cute, round chibi as opposed to a lanky, pointy weapon because that would be adorable and I am easily brainwashed by pixiv.

Where is the fic, fandom? Wheeeere?

Apart from this, I am enjoying the dating sim way of different paths, though the filler battles are amazingly annoying. Also, unlike the shared battles in SW, each stage is exactly the same for the different characters which means there is no variation in how you tackle a map. Which is unfortunately kinda boring after the sixth or tenth repetition. There's also very little in-game dialogue and interaction, with most of the character development at the cutscenes, or between stages - what little in-game dialogue there is is generally at the boss battle, and spaced out til forever so I sometimes accidentally miss it. Each path is ridiculously long, eight or nine battles, which would be acceptable but for the ridiculous amount of filler. Saa, can't have everything.

I am enjoying it. I want to finish off Mitsunari's red path, and then start on the alternate paths for Oichi, Motochika, Ieyasu and Mitsunari. And also play Yoshitsugu. HOURS of entertainment, that game.

Of course, SW still has a large chunk of my heart and I suspect the new DW is going to make me shriek but well. I am a fickle beast and sadly fall in love at the drop of a hat. Alas.

Also, in a strange and remotely hilarious crossover of fandoms, Kinki Kids have announced they're doing the next ending song for DW7. It's called Time and will likely be released in the next two months, pre-dating the game release. Ahahajkwjeakwe.

Now, who wants to write me fic with Koichi as an avid gamer, playing through DW and SW and even Basara and sympathising lots with Mitsunari's "I don't need it." whenever he eats a riceball to get health?

silver_lined — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:19:46 GMT

Last night, yobanashi mistakenly introduced me to the 2009 taiga drama, Tenchijin.

I am fairly sure she regretted it but, guys, this drama is amazing.

If only for Mitsunari.

I am fairly certain I had a really undignified hysterical fit when I found out who the actor was. Oguri Shun of Hana Yori Dango fame, who also starred in Tokyo Dogs as the cool, straight-laced cop and Crows as the delinquent thug and jkakjjkwe.

At least he's beautiful. :'D

However, I am far more enamoured with the actor who plays Yukimura.

Did anyone else recognise him? Because that is Tezuka-buchou of second gen Tenimyu fame, Shirota Yuu.

I cried laughing, especially since he's not nearly as good looking when the camera pans out a bit and you see the creature living on his head masquerading as hair.

Maaan, every time I write reboot, I'm going to be imagining this as Yukito, sob;;

And then I spent the next two hours watching tenimyu videos on youtube.

Yudan sezu ni Ikou with like, the most adorable Momo ever and interim!Kaidou between giant scary first-gen Kairou and doujinshi Kaidou of the fourth cast! But, Shirota Yuu can sing ♥ Unlike incredible Stoneface!Tezuka on the first cast who looked so much like Tezuka but was hilariously off key. :'D

And here! A Shirota Yuu solo, singing Yume wo Tsunage which is A REALLY YUKIMURA SONG. CRYING LAUGHING.

BONUS. IN CASE YOU THOUGHT SHIROTA YUU HAD ANY DIGNITY AT ALL, HE WAS ALSO TUXEDO MASK IN THE SAILOR MOON MUSICALS.

And now, because Hyoutei will always be my favourite school since they reminded me of my ridiculous private school, a few other songs:
Koori no Emperor because Hyoutei are goddamn pimp.
Ore-sama no bigi ni Boogie Woogie because they also have no dignity.
And my favourite tenimyu song ever, Season ~~which is entirely because Atobe gives his team a proud papa look and it is adorable~~.

AH, NOSTALGIA.

kinky cosplay porn :3

silver_lined — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:50:30 GMT

I meet up with my high school friends about once a month for dinner, gossip and excitable shrieking which inevitably happens when a group of twenty-somethings get together. They're some of the funniest people I know and not just because collectively, we're full of all of those private catholic schoolgirl neurosis stereotypes and quite the pastiche parody.   

(Sadly, my schooling? Was all about the stereotypes because we had straw hats and pinstriped pinafores, bitches. And in summer, would sit in the sun on the circular drive, this giant oval driveway that sat in front of the 19th century converted mansion -> convent -> school that's heritage listed.

My school was fabulous, okay?

These types of places do tend to produce a uh, certain kind of girl. For example, body image is something that comes up a bit and sadly, not in the normal "I AM SO FAT ;A;" sort of way, but in a utterly pragmatic "I have hoof feet and cannot wear ballet flats." sort of way.

Sadly, this sentence actually was spoken.

Followed by, "No, I'm not complaining or anything! I just have really small but wide feet, so they look like hooves. I don't really care so I'm okay with avoiding flats and open toed shoes." because she sincerely, utterly, 100% believes that she has hoof feet.

Girls. XD But I think we all have at least some sort of major illogical hang up about our bodies, though perhaps not so obvious. I'm not telling mine. People would just laugh ~~at my hoof feet~~.)

So let me tell you about L.

L is gorgeous in that super model height, delicate features sort of way and stinkingly rich, with an attitude to match. Not that she isn't lovely sometimes but the phrase harmlessly self-centered comes to mind. She stays in university in order to stay on the uni touch rugby team and take part in some... organisation that puts on dance shows and galas and such.  

Recently, she participated in bikini-clad jelly wrestling.

With great determination and surely, natural talent, she reached the finals to face off against a porn star. There are some special rules in jelly wrestling, such as if the match goes over time, one can win by crotch-facing the opponent. It's exactly as it sounds: win by shoving your crotch in someone's face.

  So that's L: pretty, athletic, had a semi-naked porn star shoving her crotch in her face, and occasionally completely un-ironically talking about pop culture being degrading to women. I'm sad I missed this dinner but on the other hand, I don't think even L would have asked me this to my face but in my absence, in a quiet lull to the conversation, she says,

"Is Karen a porn star?!"  

  just_confused was there and totally, on my behalf, was going to say yes since if an old high school friend believes you do kinky costume porn, I say milk it for all it's worth. Unfortunately, another friend of mine is not actually a dick so cleared up the misunderstanding - I had a photo with a porn star but not because we were doing porn together.

I could have backed it up, too.

A quick reminder of what Nene looks like.

And then why that pose is not advisable on real humans. *sob*

That camera is focusing on somewhere that is not my face.

I think the first one is worse than this one, actually. Which kinda just makes me RAAAGE over how much I need to work on the costume in order to make it, uh, halfway decent looking. Belt is the wrong colour (couldn't find dark brown vinyl, used black), body suit needs re-dying and trim and the breastplate joints are crap ;; Maa. Oh well.

For the record, I am wearing tights. Pantyhose. Something on my legs besides ribbon, but they were kinda nude coloured. Thus I look kinda nude.

And in the interest of group solidarity, animesque and fire_ban having a mighty grand ol' time and being drunk off their faces. :0

100% alcohol free!

Scarily, Jo...

...looks exactly like chibi Hanbei. Down to the eyes. Down to the eyes.

And Linc?

Smiles a LOT like chibi ~~sleazy~~ Motonari.

But my favourite shot?

Pervert!Motonari ♥
Photoshop work by fire_ban. The base photo was Linc's pervert face and the thought bubble is actually edited around a doujinshi cover, which was being held behind her head, unknowingly. ;D My shiny ninja skills come in handy. The text? Sadly directly translated from the doujinshi, ahahhwejhjawe.

All photos the work of the indomitable lainex who set up an incredibly pro photoshoot day with reflectors, white backdrop and all, then tirelessly slaved over photoshop to make us all look fantastic. :0 Her professional portfolio can be found here so go and check it out~ ♥ You can find MOAR of us in the cosplay section. There's even a photo where I don't look indecent! :0!

My. 8D I certainly seem like a functioning person, most of the time, don't I? ♥ In reality, I am the closest to falling to pieces that I have been in the past year or so.

23-24 Oct Cosplay weekend

silver_lined — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:29:09 GMT

REALLY REALLY REALLY GIANT IMAGE HEAVY, GIANT I SAY, GIIIIIANT. BEWARE.

Guys, I am sorry I get emo all over your flists! ESPECIALLY WITH ALL THE PEOPLE FROM MUSOU MEME. :'D I DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF ME NOW, AHAHA.

To make up for it and to prove that sometimes, I do wear pants and things that cover my ass, some photos from this weekend as courtasy of Edward Wong and lainex.

I'm going to go ahead and toss some photos of fire_ban and animesque also, given we have plenty of mutual friends and they might not have been planning to set themselves up for embarrassment. Also, memefriends, you have the right to see how strange they are. ♥ Consider this a public service >:D

Why embarrassment, you ask? Why, because of the kigurumi PARTAAAAAAY.

Gif by kaorichan from Kimberly Doris' photos.

Sadly, we do not actually just do this randomly but there was a cosplay photoshoot day organised. Other people came in things like Vocaloid or Vampire Knight or, you know, things with dignity but we all rocked up in furry suits.

SOMEHOW, THERE WERE MANY MANY LOTS OF US.

The rest of the kigurumi photos are from lainex

We romped around the park for a while, being wild critters and all, and frolicked in the bubbles.

I live to traumatise animesque

Unfortunately, fire_ban has no shame, though.

I TELL YOU, MY FACE ALWAYS LOOKS A CROSS BETWEEN MOURNFUL AND TERRIFIED. I spent half an hour on my raccoon inspired make up and sadly, it just looks like I lined my eyes to make them massive.

After romping, we went to a shopping complex to grab lunch in the food court. Mind you, this is the middle of downtown. Then, we hung around and were exceptionally stupid.

AT LEAST WE'RE COLOURFUL, RIGHT?

Small children loved us. As in, we had several parents ask us if their children could have photos with us, ahahaaa. Such hilarity. XD;

Most commonly asked question: "Are you guys going to a Halloween party? :000"
Most commonly answered lie: "... Yes. Yes, we are. :|"

The next day was AXIS POWERS HETALIA DAY which was somehow all across the globe.

Due to my bad planning, I had only made the skirt and still had the entire top to do which means from about 9pm to 5am, I was frantically cutting, pinning, sewing and glueing everything into something vaguely resembling wearable.

Since we like to play to our strengths, Jo and I went for the Asian Invasion theme. This time, we took the train in and while the costumes SOMEWHAT look traditional enough to pass as um... weird, but not giant furry suits, they're still rather attention grabbing.

Taiwan + Korea.
I like to think of this as a perfect visual representation of our friendship. Or maybe this one.

Hetalia day was surprisingly HUUUUUUGE.

And we had almost all of Asia! Just missing Hong Kong and Thailand ;A; (Though tdei will always be my Hong Kong!)

I think we looked pretty spiffy, though. Or, more to say, hilarious.

Most of that was due to Jo's face.

I was just kinda pink.

NO, REALLY, JO'S FACE. And one of our photographers from above, lainex being severely traumatised as Japan.

For Lain, I was torn between that photo and this, for being perfectly in character. *cry*

And Linc as Denmark :9 and surealistic_des as Vietnam (SO COOL) and beanie_nup as Finland to round us off. >D

Most common question: :0 So, what are you girls dressing up for?
A giant blatant lie: OH! Some international festival. ♥ We all represent a country and it's to show international unity!!
This would not have worked at all if we were any other countries and in vaguely military-esque outfits but well, Asia. We're all about the traditional, ahahaha.

Exhausted now. :| No more dressing up forever, kthnx.

RADELAIDE ANIMANIA ROADTRIP 01

silver_lined — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:41:25 GMT

OH RADELAIDE.

The hilarity made it worth it but it was a very long and tiring trip jkjkawe. SAD.

We started off at 4:30am on the Friday morning, and reached Adelaide about 11 hours later, 3pmish Friday afternoon. Miraculously, we did not get lost but that would be more because of the GPS than anything else. :'D

I spent most of the 11 hours glueing 6m of gold trim to my armor and belt, when I was not passed out asleep. Because I am a spoiled brat, I claimed the front seat - which really was not helpful at all, given I had a box of costume in the leg space and sat cross legged the entire time. XD; Unfortunately, I am small enough that I don't really have legs (and even with the chair pushed alll the way forward, short enough to prop my feet on the dashboard with room to spare :'D I like to thnk of myself as travel sized.)

We'd booked two double rooms at Annie's Place, a moderately priced hotel. Or, a twin and a double, both with private en suites because no one really wants to uh... try to get into embarrassing costumes while sharing a room with six strangers. :'D Sob.

The rooms had walls covered in pictures of naked women. :| No joke. And in the bathroom, an entire wall was mirrored. Somehow, this was the wall backing the bathtub and shower, meaning that bathing was an experience and then some. Sob. Jo and I shared the tiniest double bed in the world XD Linc's feet would have dangled over the edge, but given I am a fearsome 153cm and Jo towers over me by less than 10cm, we're pint sized and convenient.

The water in Adelaide is not safe to drink. :'D Because, clearly, there's something in the water. It actually feels like you're showering in a swimming pool because of the chlorine. Nrghhh.

Friday afernoon/evening, we went out to eat and explored Gouger St/Central Market a bit. :D AND WENT TO THE KAWAII FASHION STORE. WE SAW beanie_nup's WANTED ITEMS, F-CUP COOKIES. YOU EAT THEM AND YOUR BREASTS BECOME F-CUPS. GUARANTEEEEEEED.

Night was reserved for frantic finishing of costumes and sleeping the sleep of the dead until all of 6am, when we then proceeded to take three and a half hours to get ready.

ENTIRELY WORTH IT BECAUSE DEAR FLIST, FEAST YOUR EYES ON THE ADELAIDE WCS REPRESENTATIVES IN ALL THEIR GLORY.

MORE MAGNIFICENT THAN WORDS CAN SAY, RIGHT?

We trundled in late and spent a bit of time going ??? until we bumped into a familiar figure from Manifest! Diao Chan ended up being one of the cosplay judges and nudged us off into the right direction. While Jo and Linc were being registered, Desu spent time fending off enthusiastic glompers (a reoccuring theme the entire day) and I sat around looking dazed and uncomfortable in way too much spandex, armor and gold.

And then I got dragged into the cosplay competition.

Quite literally, too. XD The four of us were sitting around, fixing up Jo's weapon and costume and everything and one of the organisers came up to us and the conversation went a little like

mc: SO, YOU TWO ARE IN WCS. BUT YOU TWO, ARE YOU IN THE COSPLAY?

self: :0? Naiiii?
Should I be...?

mc: YES. ♥ COME OVER AND SIGN UP.
self: ???

And was bodily dragged over. XD; I have never been in a cosplay competition. I have never WATCHED a cosplay competition. I um. Was entirely unprepared.

I spent the marshalling time happily flailing with the girl next to me. I think I was the oldest person in that room by a minimum of five years. XD; God. Yuna, who went on and did these slow, gorgeous twirls and poses and THERE AND THEN I DECIDED THAT I WAS GOING TO MOVE ENTIRELY TOO FAST FOR THE CAMERAS.

BECAUSE I AM A NINJA, YOU SEE. HURHURHUR.

But people have very good cameras. :'D Somehow, I am just a little blurry in this, as opposed to UNSEEABLE.

The costume is a bit fail. XD; As in, majorly fail.

BUT SHE IS A FAIL NINJA ANYWAY, SO LET'S NOT GO INTO THAT.

Nrgh, must lose weightjkjkkjawe. THESE COSTUMES ARE KINDA VERY UNFORGIVING, SOBSOBSOB. Though, hilariously, BECAUSE THE BODYSUIT IS SO TIGHT, MY CHEST WAS SQUISHED A CUP SIZE SMALLER AND THE ARMORED BRA, IT DOES NOT FIT. Maa, because I am kinda super curvy, it's hard to make anything fit properly jkjkawe.

I am happy with how my hip armor falls and mostly okay with the shin guards. The arm guards are a bit fail and the shoulder guards kept moving out of place but saaa. :'D you do what you can.

I whirlwinded onto stage, and at the end, jumped off stage bypassing the stairs altogether. The MC was like "ARE YOU SUGAR HIGH?" and I was all, "I AM IN CHARACTER, BITCH. >:0!" and then proceeded to embarrass myself when we were all waiting around backstage for the solo cosplayers to be called, since the Yuna and I were happily flailing in a corner and had to pissbolt onto stage after everyone else was already lined up and posed.

Afterwards, the WCS! Because I am a ninja, I helped set up the stage and then had to run for Desu and our bags once the skit started. Fumbled for my phone. Set it to video instead of camera, and scrambled for a good position.

The skit was wonderful ♥

I missed less than 10 seconds of intro completely and was in position before the action actually started. Clearly, I am the fasted ninja blur EVER.

I CANNOT FIND A PICTURE OF DESU THOUGH SHE WAS STOPPED FOR PHOTOS MORE THAN THE REST OF US PUT TOGETHER D<

But one of animesque!

And one of fire_ban!

The awards ceremony was the last thing before we were all unceremoniously shooed out of the venue and it was a LITTLE embarrassing that we managed half the awards between three of us. :'D As usual, I made an idiot out of myself from sitting on the inside and having to climb over a row of chairs to get out and to the stage and then forgot to grab all my prizes because I was so flustered jkjkjkawe.

ALL IN ALL, A HILARIOUS CON.

I am sorry that we missed rhett but some things cannot be helped!

MORE LATER. MAYBE.

Manifest 2010 photowhoring!

silver_lined — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:53:28 GMT

SO HI.

Double eyelid tape, a hella lot of eyeliner, claret eyeshadow and I think TWO types of foundation? I don't actually look like this. :'D

So, this is who I was supposed to be.

Actually, more like this one:

Girlverse!Zhou Tai.

And this is how I turned out.

It was sadly the only costume that I finished and that was in stages. At Amaranth, the cosplay ball, it was sadly missing a box on the head and a wig.

However, I was very stompy. >:E

And also, entirely because of surealistic_des, won the title of Queen of Amaranth in an exceptionally mortifying beauty pageant style competition where they strutted you up, MADE ME TWIRL SO EVERYONE COULD SEE THE HIP SKIRTS AND LACK OF PANTS, asked us retarded questions ("What would you do if you were stuck in the future?" "-____________________- become a historian.") and vaguely embarrassing ones ("Name one of the two celebrity guests at Manifest this year!" "... . .. ... . .. that.. . . guy .. . .who does that Yugioh thing on Youtube?" "THAT'S RIGHT, LITTLE KURIBOH. 8D WAVE, HE'S IN THE AUDIENCE." "... fml </3") and made us dance on stage for the audience's amusement (solo. One by one. To no music. Thank god for stupid otaku injokes and Caramelldansen, LONGEST FIVE SECONDS OF MY LIFE.)

Also, an incident where my skirts fell off.

I think I would be much more traumatised if the skirts actually hid something. You don't really see if in the photos, but when I stomp at high velocity (AS I ALWAYS DO), they flare out like crazy and I am all but naked anyway.

INCIDENTALLY, THERE ARE NO LESS THAN FIVE CREEPY PHOTOS OF MY ASS THAT I HAVE FOUND ON FACEBOOK. EYEWITNESSES TELL ME THAT MANY MORE WERE TAKEN. STALKER OTAKU, THAT IS NOT COOL.

The next day, I acquired a box on my head! And a really long sword! Sword was almost 150cm which, incidentally, is only 3cm shorter than I am barefoot.

The day after that, I ACQUIRED A QUAN (azdvmc)

AND A GROUP ♥

EVERYONE WAS SO MAGNIFICENT JKJKWE.
(animesque as Sun Ce, fire_ban as Lu Xun, surealistic_des as Zhou Yu, beanie_nup as Inahime, thesundaywriter as Motochika)

I am mainly posting this so rhett can see us coming in Adelaide and run screaming away.

VERY VERY MAGNIFICENT.

But animesque is wearing a wig, and a goatee.

And fire_ban is wearing a wig and painted tangerine.

I have on make up about an inch thick, god jkjkawe. TWO types of foundation, eyeliner, eyeshadow! EYELID TAPE.

AND surealistic_des WILL BE PRETENDING TO BE A NORMAL PERSON DDD< WHAT IS THIS, DESU. COSPLAY WITH US.

These are quite possibly the least helpful photos ever, since we'll all have different haior and eyess jkjkjakwe. GOOD LUCK SPOTTING US, OHOHOHO.

We took lots and lotttts of photos. And since I am stupid and didn't have my sword on the last day, I decided to go for EXTREME POSING. Here is a pansy example.

There is literally a progression of shots from many different cameras where the only thing that changes is the angle (a little) and my face getting steadily grumpier. My thighs hurt for TWO DAYS afterwards since whenever we would pose, cameras would start flocking and I can only hold that for two minutes at the very most before I start shaking.

Since everyone else has already posted their photos of the amazingly epic cosplayers that were elsewhere around the con, I think I'll just leave it as photowhoring of self. ;Db

One more photo!

WITH A PORN STAR. NO JOKE. SHE IS ACTUALLY AN ADULT ENTERTAINER AND LIKE, I FOUND HER PROFESSIONAL BIO ON FACEBOOK AND JKAJKJKAJKJKJHKJKEJKJKAWE. I AM AMAZED AND YET, NOT ACTUALLY SURPRISED, BECAUSE SHE WAS WEARING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING :00000

Sadly for me, this is on her professional facebook account photos jkajkwe. And I am tagged in it.

... My life, guys. My life.

ALL IN ALL, A FANTASTIC MANIFEST AND I HAD SO MUCH AWESOME FUN MEETING THE PERTH PEOPLE AND ACTUALLY GETTING TO KNOW SIN. GUYSSS, WAI-CON, RIGHT? ;Db

silver_lined — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:47:31 GMT

SO I AM ALONE IN THE BIOMED LIBRARY BECAUSE THE REST OF MY PRAC GROUP DECIDED TO SLACK OFF AND NOT SHOW UP. (Actually, one girl came, and then like... she went shopping. kjjkkjawe.) HOWEVER, I AM IN AN UNCOMMONLY GOOD MOOD BECAUSE, WELL.

My day so far, told in one-sided email excerpts:

0846 MY BUS WENT STRAIGHT PAST ME AND I GOT SO ANNOYED I TOOK THE NEXT BUS THAT CAME BUT HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT GOES. UH.

1022 joface. D: the price of the mac breakfasts went up. I was very distressed.

(so then I went and got subway and like, oh my god, SO MANY QUESTIONS HKJKJAWKE. AND SHE WAS SHORT AND SOFT SPOKEN AND I AM SHORT AND LIKE, THE GLASS PROTECTOR THING IS VERY VERY THICK AND IT WAS KIND OF AWKWARD.)

1051 and then i was walking through melb central and like. XD there was a guy with those old people shopping trolleys and THERE WAS A DOG INSIDE IT. LOOKING OUT. LIKE :3 yo.

1153 cryface, I went around like >:) all day today because, like, stupid dog in trolley was hilarious jkkjakjwe.

1202 IT WAS KINDA AMAZING. XD DOG. TROLLEY. it was like, one of those uh... some sort of large terrier and it was VERY INTENTLY peering out at its owner, all >:3?? because the guy was sitting at Hungry Jack's eating breakfast and dog was all, HELLO OWNER.

Clearly, life is a 4koma. (I am procrastinating harrrrd but I am going to get all my micro notes typed up and then like. Forget about them while I slack off tonight.)

People! Talk to me. 8D How are your days going? ♥

MANIFEST

silver_lined — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:03:19 GMT

Surprisingly, it is on us once again. ;A;

Early bird reg is still open, $40 for a weekend pass and like... some change for postage. I'm getting tickets for advamc, animesque, fire_ban an I. Does anyone need me to get their ticket while I'm at it?

You have until tomorrow night to get back to me. 8Db

ALSO. RAISE OF HANDS AS A SHOW OF INTEREST FOR AMARANTH. Tickets are $75/pp for 5-9 people, $68 for a table of 10.

SUUUUPANOVAAAAA.

silver_lined — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:43:55 GMT

So I think I slept for like, 12 hours after Supanova after I returned home for the first time in over three days. ;A;

A con in the same city should not be so difficult to get to and from, but factor in all the cosplay clothing and props and suddenly, you have a small suitcase and look like you're trundling off to a week long camp. Or, in my case, the same sized suitcase I used for a month of travelling across three timezones and seasonal variation (Canary Islands do not require the same wardrobe as Istanbul in the middle of winter jkjkkjwe).

I had three different pairs of shoes.

Stolen mainly from lainex ;Db

Saturday was d.gray-man day, in order to fit in with lainex and fire_ban's fantastic JasDebi costumes.

I like the entire black and white theme going on. 8D; It's strangely striking.

Behind the scenes, three and a half hours of painstaking dark foundation application and my hours of poking myself in the eyeball trying to put my damn contacts in ;;;;;

I love coloured contacts. Mine are sadly not prescription, though, which means I spent the entire time staring vacantly at people with an exceptionally vapid expression. I imagine it would have been quite disquieting.

kaorichan was also blind, blue-eyed and wearing black with massive sleeves! People kept on asking us what series we were from and we were like ".... O_O, nooooo. </3"

beanie_nup has photos of the Saturday gang so I'll only steal the one XD;

That night was spent doing the last minute handsewing of my goddamn hems. XD; Stupid triangles and idiotic sleeves. Thank you to lainex for having Jo and I over the weekend! ♥

The sleeves, by the way, are held up with an ingenious combination of tying the purple cord so tightly that it cut off my circulation, and sock glue. *cry* SOCK GLUE.

I actually had the most satisfaction smiling blankly at people and saying "I'm from a dating sim! ♥!" every time someone asked me what series I was from. And then grabbing Jo and being all "And she's part of my harem! ♥! I should have six of them, though. :(" and watching people's smiles freeze.

Though clearly, I wear the pants in this relationship. (The pants that I was very securely safety pinned into along with six things tied around my waist. I could not breath, I swear.)

Also, there was a animesque in her Cao Pi costume, who I spent the entire time molesting happily.

BECAUSE SHE WAS SO SHINY KJKJAWE.

Speaking of molesting, advmv was doing some terrible things to a blow up doll.

;A;

There was also a naked boy that st with us, who was very naked. It was vaguely distressing and I did not get a photo because kjjkkajwe naked. There was also semi-naked fantasyprone as the female version. 8Db

There was a chick dressed solely in like, skin coloured underwear and three strips of duct tape. And another girl who did the skin coloured undies and bandages. I did not take photos because that would probably constitute kinky porn. Reeeeaaaally kinky porn.

To awkwardly change the subject, here is lainex looking amazing. 8D;

Her make up skillz are seriously leet. ajkjkjkwe.

On Sunday, kath, sloobeast, naked boy, animesque, fire_ban and I went out for dinner, all dressed rather disgracefully. I went down to the supermarket to pick up snacks in costume, also, which was vaguely hilarious because small children like me and were very impressed at my samurai ninja ways. And shiny sword.

It sadly was not as impressive as last year, though, where we managed to convince several people they were hallucinating.

All in all, a weekend well wasted with only a minor vehicular incident and plenty of gawking! ♥ I love con weekends. >;D

ALIVE. REALLY.

silver_lined — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:25:28 GMT

Oh Melbourne!

Every time I'm away for a long period of time (which is often) I forget how much I love my crazy pretentious city with its stunning lego architecture and random modern art tossed about. (And sometimes, like that exhibition at fed square with the sadly movable boxes, stolen and then left on random street corners. Ahahaaa.)

I've been back for a month and a week and it is already the fourth week of Uni, much to my disgust and no little horror. I have ten hours of lab a week in which I do things such as have screaming arguements with my lab partner over basic maths and lunge over the benches to forcibly remove the wrong pipettes from people's hands. Microbiology is really damn ghetto which amuses me far more than it should considering it's my major.

On the plus side, they've given us fluoro yellow smocks to wear that we're not allowed to take out of the lab since we're officially biohazards and covered with genetically modified organisms. Last week we played with HIV proteins.

Last week, I also managed to spill a suspension of human cells infected with plasmids carrying HIV proteins which is a lot more disgusting than I can actually put into words.

HeLa, the immortal human cell strain that most labs work with, was taken from the cervical cancer tumor of Henrietta Lacks unbeknownest to her or her family. She died in 1951 from said cancer. It was also a groundbreaking case in which the courts ruled that our discarded tissues or other bodily material is not actually ours anymore and could be commercialised without consent or knowledge. Yeah. Go patent law.

(I am also doing a subject that deals a little with patent law, intellectual property and how Men At Work were sued because a flute rift from the bridge in the iconic song Down Under mimicked one found in a song about kookaburras. You can not make this up. God.)

My other subject is Science: Revolutions and Evolutions where we have clashes with the teaching class that has the room before our tutorials. Unfortunately, their class is twice the size of ours which occasionally leads to us being exiled onto the lawn outside where we get no work done at all because it's generally warm, sunny and really nice so we all lay on our tummies and roll about contentedly while our tutor tries to get us to focus on how Galileo was a bit of an overrated dick.

Truthfully, I am enjoying uni. I have a shiny student planner from a rival uni that fire_ban stole for me which still gives me kicks and a pencilcase in the shape of the cat that unfortunately has the same shaped eyes as I do. Everything is grand but for the looming threat of graduate position applications and how graduation is right on the horizon and approaching at an accelerating clip.

D:

That is almost okay, though, because I have a shiny new fandom to distract myself with by writing truly retarded fic. It's all surealistic_des's fault. ♥

Basically, Koei's Dynasty Warriors series of games is very loosely based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novels, which is in turn loosely based on history. Really loosely.

My favourite character is famous for saving babies and peasants. His most famed exploit involves riding back into the midst of a battle to save his lord's wife and child and fighting his way out again with the child tucked in his breastplate. In the game, there is a cut scene where he is holding a baby and making stern faces at the approaching enemy army and declaring he must go and find his lord. It makes me sad that this is actually my type.

It helps that he's ridiculously shiny and that all the game designers have giant fanboy crushes on him to the point of lovingly rendering his CG art with bottom lashes and rougher skin on his chin to indicate he shaves. Oh Koei. ♥ Your production values focus on all the right things.

The kingdom of Shu is known for being all about virtue and justice and occasionally tossing babies to the ground. Not my favourite character, who saved the baby but when he handed the baby back over to his lord, all ":D I HAVE SAVED YOUR CHILD, MY LORD. ♥" his lord famously tosses the child to the ground with an anguished "YOU COULD HAVE DIED AND I WOULD HAVE LOST A VALUABLE GENERAL." Oh history.

An actual conversation:

self: ;A; I like Shu. They save peasants.
jo: You would. Saving babies! Tossing babies!
self: ;A; ~~there could be worse national sports.~~ ONLY THEIR LEADER.
jo: And saving old women!
self: I did not >>
jo: You sort of did.
self: Her motorized scooter stalled in the middle of the road, what was I meant to do? ;A;
jo: Not run back into the road to push it to safety? ♥
self: YOU STOOD ON THE OTHER SIDE AND LAUGHED.
jo: >:3

fire_ban likes Wu. They're best known for setting things on fire in increasingly inventive ways. Somehow, we typecast ourselves.

(On a side note, the closest I came to saving babies is when a toddler accidentally rushed onto the train and separated herself from her mum on the platform and latched crying onto me while I was dressed in full Rinoa cosplay. And wielding a gunblade. She didn't speak English.

genunique was there too and the entire carriage mobilised themselves in a state of high panic, coordinating us to stay with the kid at the next station to wait for the mum, using the emergency intercom, and sending some athletic twenty something to sprint down the platform to talk to the driver when the train stopped.

It was pretty traumatic all around. ALSO, GUNBLADE. KJJKKJAWE. WHY DON'T THESE THINGS HAPPEN WHEN NOT EMBARRASSINGLY DRESSED?)

Because of DW fever, though, the Melbourne PoT fandom group have rearranged themselves into various craft projects. fire_ban makes strangely adorable plushies of REALLY FAT KIDS EATING ONIGIRI.

Actually, birthday presents for surealistic_des who had a fantastic EATING PARTY NOMNOMNOM over the weekend. ♥ Thank you for having us over, Des, it was lots of fun 8Dbb

I am sure I have more to say but well, WALL OF TEXT already thus I shall leave you with a group shot! AS STOLEN FROM thesundaywriter.

I swear I am actually wearing pants. Probably.

because I am making an EFFORT for you guys, seriously.

silver_lined — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:22:53 GMT

I kind of never want to leave Turkey. Istanbul is incredibly beautiful and four hours going around Gallipoli was nowhere near enough.

Caveat: As with all my previous photos, the only camera I use is my crappy 5megapixel cameraphone, which does not really believe in focus or good resolution. Which might be why I post so few photos. 8D;

Turkish people are the friendliest people I have ever met, even beating out the Irish in sheer helpful and amazing. Unrelated to this, it's also the first time I've been hit on by a museum guard while he was working. It's actually the first time I've been hit on by a museum guard, period but I think the while he was working just adds a whole new level of hilarity to it.

I'm staying in the historical quarter, which mainly means there are a lot of very large and important mosques to stare at.

The Blue Mosque sort of breaks my heart. It was, incidentally, the first monument I visited after being ambushed on the street by some guide, being dragged to a shop for a drink of tea, and then taken about the Old City quarters for an impromptu tour while he worked on getting me to trust him enough to go out for dinner and drinks.

The informative tour was quite nice. Not so much the other things and my escape was quick and possibly exceptionally awkward and rude.

Opposite the Blue Mosque is the Ayasofya, a 1472 year old third incarnation of a church first built in 4th century AD that was turned into a mosque in the 15th century.

I have to admit, I fell in love a little with the low hanging chandeliers that can be found in all mosques.

Because the mosques were built a mindblowingly long time ago, the lighting was naturally all oil lamps and candles and the large mosques are exceptionally large spaces so it was more practical to have the lighting very low so that worshippers could actually see.

It is unfairly stunning in this day and age. Actually, Istanbul is unfairly stunning after spending the night in an airport and travelling over 60km to get to your hostel via bus, ferry and tram.

It did not help that the moment I cleared customs and the restricted area of the airport, someone jumped on me and tried to get me to take a ridiculously overpriced shuttle bus into the city. But I am all about doing things the hard way and puzzled out the public transport system all by my lonesome. ;Db (The ferry is still my favourite thing about Istanbul, ever.)

But after several days gallivanting about with various people from my hostel, I decided that if Turkey is a once in a lifetime thing for me, I am bloody well going to go see Gallipoli.

(And then, because I am also utterly practical, I went and bought a few packets of tissues because I cried when reading the description in the guidebook. I am totally the soggiest kitten in a teacup in the world.)

Needless to say, I spent the entire time pretending that I wasn't crying and went through an entire pocket pack of tissues. If you look a bit closer, the gravestone closest actually has a Star of David instead of the usual cross on about 99% of the other Allied graves.

We also visited some of the Turkish monuments which were startlingly beautiful.

This one dates back to only 1993 as Turkey was too poor to put money into such things until a relatively short while ago. It commemorates the 57th battalion, who were wiped out entirely as the first force to face the ANZACs upon landing. Hopelessly outnumbered, they were ordered not just to fight but to go and die so that in the time, other troops could come to take their place and to always hold the line. Not a single soldier was older than 26. None of the bodies are actually buried there, but lie in the mass graves in the valleys.

It's hard to be certain where each solder has their final resting place.

The youngest solder was only 14 years old, on the Allies. His grave is unknown but his name on the memorial plaques is always marked with a poppy for rememberance.

He died a man & closed his life's brief day ere it had scarce begun. Aged 17. The Allies were from all walks of life, from 14 up to their 40s but the amount of graves for boys younger than I was sobering.

I went around and read most of the gravestones of the cemetary plots we visited, though we didn't go to them all.

Every single one was heartbreaking.

A legend for many of us Australians is John Simpson and his donkey. He was only 22 and came over as a medic. Back home, he used to give children rides on a donkey and had the bright idea to commandeer a donkey to help move the wounded.

He was only there for three and a half weeks before he was shot but in that short time, he became an iconic figure for courage and compassion.

A Turkish monument with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's words of peace, spoken in 1934 towards the Allies.

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...
You are now living in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours...
Who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears;
Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

I'm a little overwhelmed. I stood on Anzac Cove and looked up at the Sphinx, looked over the Valley of Shrapnel where the gunshots never ceased. I ran up and down the trenches and peered into boltholes, trying to imagine what it was like on the front lines. The museum shows the melted bullets that collided in mid-air, in the heavy fire that never stopped. The front lines, at points, were only eight metres apart between the fighting forces.

I am glad I saw it. I am.

PHOTOS. OH MY GOD, PHOTOS.

silver_lined — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:35:08 GMT

so hey ;Db

That, I have to admit, is some severe inadvertant myspace angle going on. To be fair, it's hard to choose an angle between hideously flattering and just plain hideous when taking photos of yourself squinting into the sun while sitting on a thousands year old alter stone in the middle of Malta.

There was likely lots of blood spilled. I am halfway between thrilled and grossed out, which is entirely as it should be.

There is a field of some sort of vegetables outside of the fence. I had to wait for the bus for aaaages and ended up sitting on the side of the road perched on a falling down stone wall, next to some prickly pears and watching the horizon waver in the heat. Good times.

For me, Malta was all about scrabbling into, over, and sometimes around ancient ruins and that time where I inadvertantly got myself stuck outside the city walls of the fortressed city of Valletta. (A note: fortressed cities have very few openings to get in and out of. Sometimes, it neccessitates scrambling around the very tip of the islet the city is situated on, over rocks and ruins and dodging 6ft high sea spray so it is at times better to turn back instead of deciding that if you've already climbed through rocks, there's no way to go but forewards.)

Sometimes, the ruins are amazingly convenient to get to, such as the 5000 year old temple inside a hotel.

You have to go through the hotel lobby, ask the staff where the ruins are, and they will direct you to the left, through the cafe, take the doors to the gardens on your right and go past the pool. I happily climbed allllllllll over them but sadly did not realise I had an audience until accidentally looking up to see an entire line of half a dozen builders on the roof of the hotel block surrounding. They waved.

At some point, there was a boat tour and a hop on, hop off bus tour. Malta is disgustingly gorgeous.

The local guides were all very awesome. Sadly, they all thought I could not speak English and when someone is speaking very slowly and clearly to you, it is too heartbreaking to tell them different. It helps that I generally look bemused and slightly bewildered all the time. One of the guides actually started repeating numbers and drawing them on his hand. Other times, they kept offering me the Japanese audio track commentaries which really would not have helped.

(It is a rule, every asian tourist is Japanese. It is also sort of true, because I was almost mown down by a large Japanese tourist group while in the middle of the bus terminal in Valletta. There was the little, uniformed woman leading the tour with her little flag speaking into a walky-talky while the rest of the group had ear pieces. It was all at once exceptional genius and really very strange.)

Malta is incredibly Catholic, due to the fact that Saint Paul shipwrecked there and spent three months living out of what is called St Paul's Grotto, which was previously a cave turned Roman prison. There are holes in the bare carved rock ceiling where ropes used to be threaded through to hang up the prisoners while they tortured them. There is also the tomb of some bishop or another down there, so watch where you step. As with all majorly Catholic countries, they tend to like their martyrs, so sometimes you get on a bus and all around the front surrounding the driver are religious icons and pride of place, a picture of Mary, mother of God, being stabbed in the heart with a golden knife.

The buses are old, rickety and drive around with the doors permanently open. I have jumped out of a (slowly) moving bus. It is sort of awesome.

This is the bus terminus. The buses do not cross the island in a grid, but all roads lead to Valetta, the capital (HERITAGE LISTED) city. Almost every single bus goes to and from the central bus terminus, a circular collection of bus bays where the numbers are completely random, located outside the city gates. It is chaos. Chaos is a kind word. It is a giant jumble of buses parked randomly, sometimes backing into their bays as it is one way.

Surrounding the bus terminus are a collection of snack shops, selling savory and sweet pastries. Malta is only a stone's throw away from Sicily, so the Italian influence on their cooking is strong. Which pretty much means their cakes are so cheap and absolutely to die for. I must have eaten about six a day. At least. NOMNOMNOM. I like to order through the system of 'that looks interesting therefore I will point at what I think I want and eat it'.

Sometimes, this ends up being a cheeseburger pie which is exactly what it sounds like: a burger patty, cheese, tomato sauce, onions, in a pie crust. It was not as good as you'd kinda expect it to be. This method involves a lot of hit and miss. Other meals, I'd walk into a cafe and ask for the Malta special. Every meal was pretty much a surprise.

From the bus stop, across a... well, it is a bridge, I guess. Over a moat/ravine, there are the city gates.

At some point, I found myself on top of them, behind the letters, with no idea of how I got there or how to get down.

I really loved Malta. I think in about fifty years, I shall retire there except for the fact that there are stairs everywhere and I would likely break my neck. But, still, a lovely place to visit.

I shall not go on about Dublin and London because I think I've already said what I wanted to, as well as Slovenia far back, so the next stop of significance was Wales to visit hawksface.

Wales was full of snow and epic ruins.

Also, sheep. Also, snow. It took me about six hours to make a normal four hour coach ride because of the hideous weather. I was also snowed in a few days after Christmas trying to get back. ;A; Never the less, castles!

Aberystwyth. It was very pretty. We also popped over to Cardiff where I geeked out happily over the Techniquest science museum and bonded with a Melbournian who worked there as a guide. There was a sadly unsuccessful hunt for Ianto Jones because the Welsh accent is decidedly hot.

Long walks in the snow are very nice theoretically but it takes determination to continue thinking that when your toes have gone numb. Very very numb. And the only good thing about frosted over cars is the ability to scrape smiley faces in the ice and hopefully make someone's day a little more sparkly at the expense of frozen fingers.

From Wales, it was over to Morocco. Marrakeesh, which is the most terrifying place ever to go as a solo traveller and I do not recommend it at all. AT ALL.

I stayed near the Djama el Fna, the main square, near the souks - the windy maze of markets where people got terrifyingly aggressive about getting you into their stalls. For luck, they tell you, so it's best to just ignore them and walk on, or else they'll drag you in, sit you down, make you a cup of mint tea and insist on doing the touristy things like show you how to put on a turban, Berber style.

As you can tell, I was hideously impressed.

Clearly, I am Asian. Morocco does not get THAT many Asian tourists and the ones they do get are mainly Japanese and Korean. The rule of thumb appears to be Japanese, thus I got shouted at a lot in Japanese.

It is not, contrary to belief, more convenient to nod and walk off if they ask if you're Japanese. ;; I really did think my days of being followed by slightly creepy men speaking in Japanese were over when I left Japan, but no. (It would not have been so bad if I actually understood them but sadly, their Japanese is on the whole better than mine.)

After a few days, I trundled off to the Sahara to see a man about a camel. Because I am not entirely lacking in common sense, I joined a local tour that also took us to see gorges!

It was very pretty. And also, very large.

We camped out overnight in the Sahara. There was a sunset

and a sun rise

and more importantly, camels!

The desert is stupidly beautiful and also, so cold I kinda wanted to die.

Camel!

Unfortunately, to get to the desert from Marrakeesh, it takes a surprisingly long time. Like, twelve hours by bus long.

Why do I always look grumpy in photos? :| Maa.

Upon getting back and being hit by the TIDAL WAVE OF HUMANITY that is the Djama, I went and got tattoo'd.

Henna, natch. ;Db People in Spain kept asking if it were real but sadly, I am not so hardcore.

From Morocco, to Madrid. The highlight of my visit was the authentic(!!) ancient Egyptian temple that was transported over in 1968 as a gift from the Egyptian government for Spain's financial aid in saving some of Egypt's cultural heritage and monuments. This temple would have been flooded due to a new dam, so they took it down, shipped it over and rebuilt it.

I
In other words, you wish you were my size so you too could fit into the tiny little passage ways and hidey holes and crawl about into the treasury and hidden crypts on your hands and knees. The people staring as I did it were just jealous.

I stayed at a renovated 17th century Spanish palace turned into a hostel. The roof was quite spiff.

The most disconcerting thing about Madrid is that parts of it reminded me of Melbourne. That, and about three old men came up to me, said something in Spanish, smiled, and walked off. I don't even want to know what that was about. ;;

The logical progression from Spain would be to Portugal, but I took a four hour flight detour and hopped back over to London to catch up with my bff from Japan who I worked with for four months and saw every single day of those four months, and also incidentally to see sloobeast who was on a far crazier jaunt about the continent than I. I think I spent a total of 50 hours in London, and 18 of those at the airport but it was worth it. ;Db

I flew into Faro, Portugal, which is a tiny little seaside town quite overrun during summer but all but deserted during the winter. Like the rest of Portugal, Faro did not believe in pavement or flat surfaces to walk on, but these mosaics of paving stones that looked charming but were quite tough on the feet.

And, being a seaside town, there were GIANT STORK'S NESTS everywhere. This is the gate into the old city.

There's a stork's nest on the highest point.

The sunset was also startlingly beautiful and in my habit of walking to whereever I like, I happily skipped down the end of a very long pier and watched the sun set.

It was also impressive from the marina.

One of my faaaavourite chapels is also found in Faro, which I love purely because of the OMFG WHAT THE HELL SO CREEPY KJJKKJAJKHJAHKHAJWHJEHJWAE factor.

The Chapel of Bones.

Apparently, when expanding the church that this chapel is found in, they had to dig up part of a very large old graveyard, full of monks. They decided to use the bones to build a chapel in which to meditate about death and the afterlife in using the bones which is just so many levels of "..." that I cannot begin to say how utterly creepy it is.

There are also tombs in the floor. Many of the sculls are broken or smashed and the femers are being eroded away, which just adds to the general air of ".... urk."

From Faro up to Porto, Portugal's second largest city. There's a saying somewhere that Lisbon shows off, but Porto works and it's a strangely beautiful and medieval looking town but bustling with people.

Everything about it is impressive, from the old cathedrals to the skyline, studded with old churches.

Built on a river and a few km away from the harbour opening, Porto is famous for its many bridges, the most well known being the Dom Luis I.

The building you see behind it, up the top of a hill, is a very pretty church which you should never walk up to get a closer look to because it is decidedly awkward to find that it's the local Lover's Peak and full of couples making out.

Doubters will be happy to know that while I did happily trundle down the coast on a cold, stormy day to watch the waves

I did not cross the DANGER U WILL DIE DDD: barricades. See? I am learning.

I figured out that by the time I get home, I'll have flown 18 times in a little over 6 months. That is, quite frankly, ridiculous and I'm afraid to think that flying has become commonplace.

But it's hard to forget that it's awe-inspiring that we can take to the skies and fly. Through clouds and rain and stomy weather, there's something magnificent about the sky. I watched the sun rise over the curve of the earth and I think that in some way, every day is a bit of a miracle.

This was flying into the Canary Islands.

The airport is right on the coast which makes coming and going a little bit of a religious experience.

I ALSO THOUGHT, A LITTLE, THAT THEY WERE GOING TO TACKLE ME FOR TAKING PHOTOS INSIDE THE AIRPORT. I AM GLAD I WAS WRONG;;

Gran Canaria was beautiful. Heart stoppingly, awe-inspiringly, magnificently stand on the shore and stare out seawards for hours beautiful.

I went there by day and by night.

Late enough that the restaurants and bars were closing but the lights never turn off. It gets sort of creepy pre-dawn, when it's only a few early morning joggers and the cleaners, performing all those unseen duties to keep an island paradise as pristine as it is.

I woke up early and trundled down to watch the sunrise, walking through the silent streets in the dark. It was cloudy and overcast and I lay in one of the sun lounges to wait for the morning light to break through but it took a bit longer than anticipated, so I fell asleep until one of the workers came over to do a bit of rearranging, stumbled upon me, and it's hard to say who was more surprised (or shrieked the loudest).

Though the clouds were thick and dark, little patches of light managed to shine through.

I went back in the afternoon, with all the crowds and walked along the beach ankle deep in the waves.

I think it's sort of silly to walk outside of the water on the beach. I'm a pretty determined frolicker, even on my own, jumping over the waves and digging my feet in the sand and just generally appreciating being there and ignoring everyone around me.

I fell a bit in love with the place. Not to live, but a short holiday - though I don't think I'll ever go back again. I'm not sure that any of these places are where I'd ever go back again. I think that sometimes, life is about moving on and leaving places and experiences behind.

But now I am back in London for two days before flying off to Turkey! I am so exhausted that I am going to sleep for a week when I get back home. XD;

Before I forget, Morocco! :D

silver_lined — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:11:38 GMT

I have about a billion notepad files scattered across my desktop with the beginning of long, rambling and not terribly interesting descriptions of my travels (which, sad to say, are merely travels and not quite adventures).

I also have a billion photos of buildings and interesting angles of arches against sunlight that absolutely no one wants to see. :D; Thus, I think I shall refrain and post only bits and pieces of this and that.

Since my last post MANY MANY MONTHS ago, I visited Malta, London, Wales, Morocco and am now in Spain. I think I'm coming down with an awful sore throat of the hacking blood variety. As of this moment, I am sitting in a 17th century Spanish palace - restored and transformed into a frightfully civil hostel - smelling distinctly like camel leather from my ever so manly satchel that I bargained down to less than half price from a Moroccan vendor, with henna across my hands that kind of makes me look like someone took a permanent marker to me. :D; Some girl commented on how awesome my tattoo was and, well, I wish I was the type to get strange flowers and curliques over my hands but no. It would hurt.

After Morocco, Spain seems very normal. I think I should have just stayed an extra week or two, though Morocco was actually very scary. It'd be much better to do with company and lots of it. I did manage to meet a few people in my (tiny, dirty, scary) little hostel that were nice to hang around with and took a trip into the Sahara which must be one of the more exceptional things that has happened in my life.

In chronological order, though, what happened first was the Ill Advised One Night Stand. I am cutting for special TMI factor and lots of facepalming OH MY GOD, YOU IDIOT moments. :D; However, this is my blog and full of my exuberantly written nonsense. I'll write what I damn well like.

Long or short time readers will know that I am avowedly asexual. I kinda have this sort of academic curiousity about it but really, I am so-so on the actual realities. For one, it seems messy and leads to all sorts of emotional entanglements that are probably better off left undone. But, sadly, being the sort of person that makes snap decisions and then acts on them (HELLO JAPAN. EUROPE. EVERYTHING.), I thought it'd be best to see what was so uh, compelling about the other side.

Actually, it wasn't so much a snap decision. I contemplated picking up someone when I first begun my trip but backed out at the last minute from complete and utter lack of physical interest. Like, above and beyond the normal lack of interest. Also, sweaty. Ick.

This time, I didn't even set out to pick up. Actually, I didn't realise he wanted me until he kissed me, which is sort of... wow, Karen, new heights of obliviousness. Especially since at that point, I was finishing an essay that I'd cloistered myself in the hostel lobby for two days writing, at about 2am and he was staying up with me. Purportedly to protect me from this tiny little weaselly guy on the staff who had a huuuuge crush on me to the point of trying to force his way into my hotel room - I had like, at least 10kg on him and perhaps about the same height, I totally could have taken him. It was a bit... It was not expected since he hadn't slept the night before and looked so tired, but I thought he was just being nice. But, no, it was because he was somewhat desperate to get laid ahahaaa.

Given I liked him well enough and had no SJHKKJAKJWE PHYSICAL REVULSION DDD< reactions, it sort of wasn't worth my while to say no. I think this isn't nearly the beginning of what is wrong with this entire encounter but like, my god. XD I can never be trusted to think of what is sane and reasonable. I told him I was inexperianced and he was all, "I do not believe you, you're too hot." and it was a bit ".. . ... . . you have me in bed already, stop with the flattery."

I actually do sincerely think that guys are a lot sappier than girls. Like, whatever, it is nice and all to be complimented and whatever, but there is a time when it becomes a bit cheesy. Every few minutes he'd stop and be all, are you okay? Which, I promise, were I not okay, I'd be kicking him somewhere it hurt. We didn't actually end up going all the way because, eh, it would have hurt and I am not that curious. Moderate curiousity means it is only okay when it's easy and convenient.

The entire time, he kept on being all 'You have fantastic _____' and 'You're so hot' and so on and so forth which was... nice, I guess. I did have fun even though it was hard to keep from laughing too loud as to not wake up the guy in the next room. This would have been doubly mortifying given that I actually knew who it was and spoke to him a few times. (Nothing can make taking socks off sexy. Or peeling someone out of their tights. Or trying to fit two people, one of whom is 6'4" onto a tiny single bed. OR, BUTTON FLIES kjkjkjawe. I lol'd. Lots. Also, Brits and their sardonic eyebrows sjajkjkawe XD)

Afterwards, he looked me in the eye and said, QUITE LITERALLY, "I'm glad we had this connection. Whoever you end up going all the way with will be a very lucky boy," to which I flounced off to the bathroom muttering something about sex toys and doing it myself. Because, really, gag me with a spoon. There's nothing I hate more than platitudes and fake promises - both of us were in it for one thing and making more of it is a terrible fallacy that I try my very best not to fall into.

It was... an experiance. He's more of a traveller than I am, so he's still in Africa and I'm in Europe. When he's in Europe, I'll probably be in Asia and then Australia. It was, truthfully, a strange and brief connection. In other news, I no longer have anything to be curious about so, go that. :D; I don't think I'll be rushing out to do it again.

It is sort of... One night stands are generally not good ideas. They mess with your head, in that because this happened physically, something emotional should likely follow. And when it doesn't, there's this strange feeling of disconnection. I am unsure if we're meant to be friends now, or awkward aquaintances or what. Perhaps it would be easier to just ignore each other. All in all, not an idea almost-first-time. XD;

Oh well. I will move on and persevere. It's not as if it wasn't entirely my own fault. Or, more to say, I will blame the circumstances and a tangle of fortunes and leave it behind. It's not as if what happens on vacation is the equivalent of real life.

After! He walked me to my bus at like, 6:45am so I could go on tour to the Sahara. (Off to see a man about a camel, don't you know? ;D) Because I am lazy, here are exerpts from several emails and comments.

The desert is not surprisingly actually very very far. As in, twelve hours if you drive straight far. Twelve hours and across mountain ranges and valleys and the sweeping flat plains.

Unfortunately for my timing, there was snow on the mountain ranges. Lots of snow, as in the day before the roads were closed because you wouldn't be able to get through without dying a tragic plummeting death. However, it had cleared a... little. As in, snow plows had gone through to push all the snow to the sides.

We still got stuck on the Atlas mountains for aaages. Hours. Many hours. Some of them were behind a caravan stuck in the snow trying to get past a truck. There were shovels and a giant crowd of drivers and what could have been an avalanche when the caravan was finally dug out and the make-shift workteam was all \o/ GLEE. It actually felt a lot safer driving through with THAT much snow given we'd likely not go plummeting to our dooms as opposed to getting stuck into a snow bank a metre high and just as thick.

(I slipped on ice and bruised my hip at the rest stop. ;A; On the plus side, in all of five minutes, I met a Singaporean studying in London who offered to show me around next time I'm there. Ahaha, travellers. I love this hyperconnectivity that comes with being in a different country.)

The first night at the hotel was SO COLD and I almost got kidnapped by a tour group of Moroccans from Rabat and Casablanca by wandering into the common room at the wrong time. Only the driver spoke English (badly) and he was all "COME. SIT. HERE, SMOKE WITH ME. YOU ARE WELCOME. NO YOU SAY NO. SIT." and grabbed my hand and pushed me into a chair and then there were musicians barring the way out and jkjkakjjkawe. It was vaguely terrifying. Meanwhile, the girl from Uruguay that I shared a room was waylaid by the driver's friend who tried very sincerely to convert her to Islam. He also gave me the uh... hookah? To smoke? And I was all ".. . .. . .. . ... .. . *smoke...?* *coughdie*" because it is very sweet and steamy and ick.

THIS OTHER MOROCCAN WAS ASKING US WHY WE DIDN'T DO DRUGS IN ASIA. AND IT WAS LIKE . .. .. . .. because it is illegal? :D; Maa. The Spanish half of our group was all ":3 we like drugs, yes." and it was all very awkward.

The next day, after freezing extremeties off in the night, we drove MORE AND MORE AND MORE into gorges and canyons and then finally to the edge of the desert where we were unceremoniously put on camels and sent out to watch the sunset. Camels are like riding couches except that couches don't tend to move. The only hiccup was they kept on telling me to sit back, but then I couldn't actually reach the hold bar.

This was only minorly annoying because, seriously, you sit back and can pretty much dance without feeling like falling. It's relaxing. Also, camels are vaguely terrifying because they are VERY VERY LARGE. I was holding something for a friend while she got up on her camel and then it was actually hard to reach up and pass it back to her. Maa. ;;

Tents in the desert are not, actually, very nice to sleep in. They are cold. Very very cold. Beautiful starry night and clear skies where you feel as if you can look out into forever, but all the heat leeches out in a heartbeat (specific heat capacity ftw) and getting up in the morning was a lot harder than I want to admit.

That night, we were herded into the main tent for a bit of a singalong and Moroccan drums. I do like the Moroccan drums. There's something exceptionally satisfying in hitting things to make a sound. Our tour guide was all "8D HERE, TRY THIS." and then played fast enough that his hands were blurs in the dim lighting, but one of the Korean girls played the traditional Korean drums and was all "... D< HERE, YOU TRY THIS." and made the guide cry manly tears on the inside. There was also a uh, riddle telling session which was interesting in that half the group only spoke Spanish, the other half were English second language only, and the guides were not exactly fluent in either. Also, I accidentally convinced them that I didn't speak English that well (I DON'T KNOW HOW. IT'S NOT LIKE I SPEAK BROKEN ENGLISH, IT IS VERY GOOD AND AUSTRALIAN ACCENTED.) so half the time, one of the guides spoke to me in Japanese while he knew I was Chinese. He even referred to me as 'China' so I don't even know.

Apparently, fun fact, Japan was the first and for quite a while, only Asian country that could get visas into Morocco, which is why so many vendors automatically assume Japanese. Then Korean. China is a distinct sad and lonely third.

Afterwards, we climbed a dune to lay back and look at the stars and it was all very suss and uncomfortable with one of the guides being all, lets share this blanket and let me put my arm around your shoulders, lets go see the camels alone and sjkdjakjwe. Urgh. Escaaaaaape. I mean, seriously:

Berber guide: SO, DO YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND? 8DDD
Self: (Are you... in the Sahara. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. YOU ARE DOING THIS IN THE SAHARA.) ... yes. :| Very serious. Four years.
Berber guide: Ahh, but you are so beautiful, surely you must have 100 boyfriends! Do you want one more?
Self: ... (...) ... No. :| Thank you.

In other news, I have worked out the entire details of my fake relationship and the photo of Jo and I on the background of my phone comes in tremendously handy. Just saying.

There is also this giant story with this other Moroccan guy who was exceptionally skeevy and kept on telling me about how he could bring a woman to multiple orgasms. I don't even want to know.

The night sky was worth it. But, really, Moroccans can take their Asian fetishism and go drown.

Most of the rest of the trip was many many hours in a very small bus. I think we had it better than the other tour group, though. with had nine people in a seven seater, so two of them (the Melbournian boys that I very casually sidled up to during lunch one day and insinuated myself into their accents because, HOME. MELBOURNE. Those flat, obnoxious vowels and upward lilt, it makes me happy to hear) had to sit up front. One of them was pretty much on the gear stick, so every time he fell asleep, he potentially sent the entire bus to their collective doom. Our buses stalked each other through various rest stops so I forgot to get contact details until it was too late, sadly. They were rather hilarious in this married couple sort of way. I liked them lots.

Coming back to Marrakesh was pretty much like getting hit in the face with a tidal wave of humanity. Especially walking through the square again. I really don't recommend that girls visit Morocco on their own - maybe two or three girls together would be better, but one is rather terrifying. I got propositioned a lot and I didn't like going out to eat because if I was standing at a tea cart, someone would come up and talk to me. And it is not cool.

My last night, I decided to be brave and get a new hotel because I didn't like the one I currently had. I looked up a few online and decided to go trekking about to find one that looked promising, but instead got waylayed by some uh... hawkers? Or something, the people that stand around with pamphlets and such, and decided to stay in this tiny, seedy little hotel with outside showers but private rooms with a basin.

Unfortunately, this tactic meant I didn't actually have a clear mental picture of where I was except SMALL AND SEEDY ALLEY of which there are MANY in Marrakesh. After my first shopping session where I bought all sorts of leather goods and had to trade in my tiny wheely suitcase for a smaller leather bag, I tried to go back and walked straight pass my turn. Luckily for me, the same boys were out front and recognised me (AND TRIED TO CHAT ME UP. SJHJHAWE NO, I DON'T WANT TO GO OUT FOR DRINKS WITH YOU) and it was very OH RIGHT. HERE IT IS. HAR HAR.

The hotel staff didn't speak very good english and my french is nonexistant, so we just smiled at each other a lot. :D; That was nice.

Shopping in Morocco is an experiance where you have to bargain everything down to about a fifth of the price. If not less. Terror tactics and bullying and just walking away. It's kinda scary, though, and the amount of people that are like ";D I WANT TO MAKE U HAPPY COS U R SO HOTTTT." is kind of terrifying. Also, one man offered to bring the price down more in exchange for kisses but it was like OKAY BUT NO GOODBYE and skittering into the maze of the markets and far away.

Currently, I am in Spain. :| I am not sure what to do with myself here, given it is all.. it is very, uh, normal? I am going to galleries and will take a trip to Toledo tomorrow, perhaps, and am all over museums. However, I'm getting kinda run down and sick, so nothing too exciting. ;;

PHOTOS TO COME AS SOON AS I GET BACK TO LONDON AND HAVE MY CORD AND ADAPTERS. :D;;; Oh, memories. XD;

I owe a lot of my writing style to PG Wodehouse. This is... strange and uncomfortable. Hn. Also, I think that my twitter often gives a better glimpse of my life as it happens than LJ, which requires things to be planned and written in full. Performative spaces. :D; I wish I could convince myself to write without thinking of audience.

silver_lined — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:43:45 GMT

Ireland, sadly, is not as interesting as the other parts of Europe because I am by nature the quiet, solitary homebody sort and not prone to getting so drunk that I almost die from alcohol poisoning and humping anything that moves (slowly enough that it can't run away) unlike the majority of the Irish first years I've met.

But I sort of like to view my life like a series of challenges. What happens happens and you just need to avoid having cliff edges crumble beneath your feet. Sometimes, it happens.

Sometimes, you ignore the warning signs.

And sometimes, you really shouldn't ignore the very graphic warning signs about being swept away to see.

Climb a gate.

And walk down a reaaaaaaalllllly long causeway.

I only turned back because they got all SERIOUS about the gates and started putting up spikes.

I thought this was pretty unsporting. :/

But really, the gorgeous sunset was sort of worth the pain and strife and hobbling about on my greviously injured knee.

Unfortunately, I am too ninja to be captured.

Also, this is a nice picture of a very large rock. It was randomly set in a circular little park, had no signs and is possibly used for virgin goat sacrifices beneath the full moon.

Though the guide did say something about how a lot of weird rocks were moved about during the last ice age and just left there. The Irish are strange folks.

Personally, I am fond of the cliffs.

Though they're apparently deadly.

And also their beaches.

Which totally did not stop my going down the exceptionally steep, old and rickety steps down to the shore anyway.

Ireland is kinda a picture post card. :D;

With God!

And stony hills as well as grassy knolls.

That of course, I climbed. Even on my traumatically injured knee. (Traumatically injured because in my infinite wisdom, strolling down a pier, I managed to slip and almost die on seaweed, skinning off a huge chunk of knee and since I am the type of explorer most likely to be seen in the news since I like to wander about on my own, proceeded to spend about an hour sitting and sulking over it. Before limping to a pharmacy and then afterwards, eating an entire packet of chocolate biscuits. I am weak. So, so weak.)

But really.

You just can't be too unhappy standing on a cliff edge.

♥
Please ignore how terrible I look in the photos. XD; Being a billion hours on the bus does not agree with me. At ALL.

I will um. Write up a proper update, yes. XD; Soon. About school! And life! And the people I have met! :D;;; .. .. ... .. soon. >__>