I realize that since I came back to Singapore I’ve been spending a lot, or most, of my holidays with my friends, doing something, anything. This is a good thing, I think, cos’ finally I’m getting some more human interaction in my life rather than just sitting down and facing the computer screen all day, which I still do anyway. LOL.

But back in the US that’s seriously all that I did, locking myself up in my room and doing my own things until I sleep, wake up to go to work and then come back home to repeat the same old thing. I liked it that way back then, cos there wasn’t much else I could do or that I liked to do anyway, and that lifestyle is, I must say, quite the money saver. Cos right now, I’m seriously struggling with trying to save at all cos I spend so much all the time on anything and everything!

See, back then I’d spend like 0 cent on clothes per month. If there was any shopping for clothes at all, I know they were like $10-20 per piece, and only like 6 pieces a year or something. Yeah, I know, I was pretty stingy about spending money on clothes. But now?? OMFG!!! I have no idea what the hell happened to me but since I came back, I’ve been spending a lot on clothes. And worse, Lolita dresses!! @_@!!

Well actually, I am still very stingy when I buy clothes. When it’s my casual clothes, I always look for the sale stuff, or the stuff they sell at Bugis Village where most of the fashion that I like are below $25. The most expensive piece of casual clothing that I’ve ever bought was this $55 er… satin top thing that looks uniquely interesting. Next to that is my $35 three-quarter skirt. So really, I’m still calculative when it comes to clothes but the Lolita thing… O_O…. it’s ruining everything!! >_<!!

So what happened? Remember that I bought a metallic purple Lolita dress thing in New Zealand for NZD 150? And remember that I bought a waloli just earlier this month for SGD 180? And now… I bought that dress I talked about in my previous blog entry too, as well as a pair of Lolita shoes OMFG!!! How much did that cost me? The dress for $250 and the shoes $88. I’ve sworn to myself that that’s the last Lolita dress I’ll ever buy, but I still need a little angel (or devil?) on my shoulder to whack me in the face in the case I’m tempted to buy another one in the future.

So like okay… I’m so fussy about prices all the time and yet I spent so much on 3 Lolita dresses…? Even I can’t believe myself!! *Whacks self* Now that I think of it, I don’t even know how all this started. =_= I mean, how did I learn of Lolita in the first place? Hmmm…. Whatever. So, yeah, all that’s remaining is… a PlayStation 3 and a Wii and a new hard drive…? I’m such a thrifty person…! =_=…….

Anyway, back to the original topic. Yes, today. It’s Sunday and I wanted to meet with a friend, anyone, to go out with. And so I went out with Irene to Orchard Road to walk around, eat and shop. (Shopping! Not again! >_<!) We ate a bit at Takashimaya and then had crepe at the basement of Cineleisure. ^_^! Crepes! I love crepes!

Then we walked to Far East Plaza and along the way we took some pictures. =P At the Far East Plaza, we visited the 2 Lolita shops there (Jesus, I should stop doing that) and shopped around a bit. Well, I didn’t really shop for anything, cos I’m somewhat disciplined enough this time to resist the temptation to shop! LOL. But I got Irene a dress for her birthday, which was like 2 months ago, and I’m glad I finally settled her gift. ^_^! Cos personally, I suck at shopping for gifts and I hate to guess what the birthday person wants because I’m so a very practical person, I’d rather that I get exactly what the person wants so that s/he’s happy and I’m happy, no guessing-and-hoping games required. I know this way there’s no surprise, but the surprise in my opinion is not greater than the practicality of getting the right gift. ^_-! Tee hee hee.

After finishing with Far East Plaza, we went to Wisma’s fancy food court place and had dinner. Man there were a ton of people, and I hate crowds and my feet were hurting. But we managed to find a place to sit anyway and after that we went home. The end! XD!

Well, it’s Christmas and I’m at home…. LOL. How sad, isn’t it? Then again, it’s Christmas and if I’m out, I’ll be drowning in a sea of people and I don’t like crowds. And so here I am at home, wondering what I can do. If you’re wondering why I don’t just call my friends out, that’s because they’re already booked for the day, or they have work. It’s not like I didn’t think of that before, you know.

And since it’s Christmas, I started thinking of all the things I want/plan to buy eventually, which is quite a lot. Too bad Santa’s not gonna give me any of it. >_>;

So, first, I definitely am getting a PS3 this February, whenever DMC4 comes out. That one is simply a must no matter what, although I do hope that perhaps the cost of a PS3 would drop again. =P And a month or so after that when MGS4 comes out, I’ll get that game as well. =D

Next, there’s the Nintendo WII. This one’s been a pain in the ARSE to get. Now I simply regret not getting it back in the US when I could have, although at that time I had entirely no desire to get it since there wasn’t really any game I wanted to play that bad on the WII. But now I do, kind of. There’s Resident Evil 4 which is an eternal classic; you can never get bored of it. And there’s RE: Umbrella Chronicles which I want to be able to play at home anytime I want rather than hoping that my friend has her weekend off so that I can go over to her place to play it. Lastly, there’s No More Heroes that’s coming out in February. It’s a game by Suda51, the creator of Killer7, hence the reason I want to play it. It looks and sounds ridiculous but that’s precisely why I want to play it. =P Look at me and God Hand. I hope you get the point already. =P

But then, even though I want the WII I’m so not ready to pay SGD 659 for it when it’s only worth USD 250. For those of you who’re wondering how much that is in USD, I’ve calculated for it to be USD 453. You can almost get a PS3 for that. And so, that is why the WII is still something I want, but which I’m not sure if I’ll really get just yet.

Third, it’s this Lolita dress (LOL) that I saw available for ordering through the store I bought my waloli from the other time. I was O_O when I first saw it. The black, gold and white is just a beautiful combination, but alas, apparently someone already owns it and the store girl said that only one person in Singapore can have that exact same dress. =/ Hell. But then, she said there’s the black & red one of the same design, and though I’ve not seen exactly how it looks like, there is a chance that I will buy it, cos’ I really like this design, A LOT. Then again, I prolly will have to slim down first before I can wear it, cos urgh… >_>;; And oh, the shoes. This dress will so totally require me to buy matching shoes. =_= GUHZ. Anyway, we’ll see if I end up getting this.

Fourth, there’s the internal or external hard drive. Well, I don’t really need one, but since my current external hard drive (EHD) once again killed my computer’s firewire port capabilities (I dunno how and why, it just did), I can’t access my data in my EHD, and I WANT those files. And since it’s a really weird EHD which you can’t just pull the hard drive out of, the only way to get someone to perhaps kindly use his/her computer to transfer my data to another working EHD is to buy a new EHD from them so that they’re willing to do that extra service for me. So it’s not like I have a choice but I dunno how this will really work out. Argh!! I’m pissed off!! Why does the firewire have to die again!?!? It’s been the third time godammit!!! *breaks chairs and tables*

Well, that’s all I can think of for now, and already it’s gonna cost me a lot. >_>; Whatever, so long I’m happy, right? =P

Boo! I'm back to post some pics I took this past Saturday during the End of Year cosplay gathering. This is the second time I've been to EOY, the first time being 2003 when I went only to meet with two friends who were cosplaying. That was four years ago man. o_o

Anyway, so this year I went to check it out with some friends, and this time I wore something for it. No, it's not cosplay, cos' I'll never wear those things. Well, it's more like, I'll never make those things (to wear them), cos' I don't know how and I can't be arsed to bother! @_@ Too much effort and monies required, it's not worth it for a lazy cat like me. So instead, I wore street fashion this time, and by that I don't mean normal street fashion. I mean like goth, punk, lolita, visual-kei, etc. =P And this was what I wore ^_^!!:

It's waloli, which means it's Japanese-style lolita, which is highly popular everywhere now. But these dresses aren't cheap, they never are. Typically they are about the price I paid for the purple lolita dress that I bought in New Zealand, and this particular one I'm wearing was $180, even though my friends said I got ripped off cos' they got their stuff for $130-150 (though theirs aren't waloli). But okay, whatever. I like how it looks on me, so I'm gonna forget about the money.

But damn, I just entered the EOY grounds not too long and already I saw someone who wore the same thing as me, almost exactly. The only difference being his obi is colored and the line is black, while my obi is black and the line is colored, so I have more black altogether. And yes you didn't read that wrong, it was a HE who wore that lolita dress. Aye, he's Singapore's resident crossdresser, and he's like pretty wellknown in Singapore's cosplay society. Not that I care, but I was a little disappointed to know that I'm not the only one wearing that particular waloli. (He's the person on the right in the 3rd pic below.)

Anyway, I saw a loooot of other walolis around as well. Many are really pretty, I'm jealous. =( Still, I like mine, so arrrgh. Whatever. And there were a ton of punk dressers too, and some visual-kei. Unfortunately I didn't go around taking their pictures cos' I was too lazy. ^^; I was more interested in looking at the cosplayers... cos those are main highlight of such events, always. =) And so, here are some of the impressive/weird-ass ones that I must show... =P

The left picture is a cosplay of some character from an anime called Rosen Maiden, I think? I don't know the anime but that's what I saw people wrote. It's gothic lolita-ish, and that crossdresser used to cosplay this same character too. O_o;; The other two are obviously gundams. Man, when I first saw it I went O_O!! It's incredibly awesome. I won't hesitate to nominate it as the top 5 best cosplays in this event. I pity the guy inside it though, he prolly can't do anything while in that costume. Like yeah, no toilet, no food, no drinks, no sitting, and you can't do anything when you sweat. @_@! (I also like that special ops cosplay in the tactical suit. It reminds me of MGS and Hunk. XD!)

1st pic: Some... character I dunno. >_>; But the costume looks good, so it deserves to be posted. =P 2nd pic: This is Kikumaru and Inui from Prince of Tennis (wow this feels ancient). It's hilarious cos that guy really can't see through those painted glasses, which is how Inui's glasses are like even though they're not painted. LOL. 3rd pic: I have no idea who/what that is. I took that pic just cos it looked so... O_O! Yet another guy who can't see a thing, cos this time he's really all bundled up. O_o;; Some sort of bondage thingy I guess...? Creepy. ^^;

1st pic: A very cute pic of Yachiru and er... I forgot the other's name (12th squad vice captain). ^^; Yachiru is perfect, although it'll be even more perfect if she's like 5 years old and 3 feet tall. XD 2nd pic: Zaraki and Yachiru. Now that's how small Yachiru should be. I like Zaraki's eyes. Hahahaha! 3rd pic: Noitora in all his weirdass glory. The spoonhead's a little small but the big, bigass weapon is great. Wonder how he fits that thing in even his own room. o_o; 4th pic: Auuw~ Someone's cosplaying as Gin~~! *o* The hair's awesome, the slit-eye smile's great, and the body size is perfect (Gin is pretty skinny) but the head's unfortunately a little too round... >_>; I know I'm asking for a lot... but that's because it's GIN!! *Fangirlies* Ulquiorra's not too bad, and whateverthehellhisnameis is well... he can't go wrong. LOL. But hollow Ichigo... >_>;;;

Aahh... The Trinity Blood team. They're an impressive bunch, especially the girl with the blond hair and wicked black spear (the red scythe one is also damn wicked!). I think they're also one of the most popular teams in this event. You just can't stop staring at their costumes. It's so intricate. @_@!

The Ouran High School Host Club teams. XD I think there were two different teams, though the one that got the most attention was the one with the tall and good-looking Mori who carried Honey-senpai on his shoulder through most of the event. LOL. They totally did a wonderful job on that, cos' it was so cute everyone kept taking pics! It's also their team that had Nekozawa in it. =)

LMAOOOO!!! The Transformers duo, Optimus Prime and... er.... who again? O_o; Anyway, they're a pretty hilarious pair, as you can see from the pics above. It's creative how they transform themselves but at the same time the fact that they're out of proportion (especially fat Optimus) just makes me laugh nonstop. LMAO. Still, they deserve praise for their effort and originality.

1st pic: Damn, I thought this was the RE4 merchant! I was so happy to see him that I actually called out to him when he walked past giving him a thumbs up saying "Awesome!" and he looked at me as if I'm crazy. Alas, I had to come to realize that he's not the merchant afterall but Shino from Naruto!! GAH!! >_<! I didn't think of that ^^; Oops. 2nd pic: Past and present Sasuke. Present Sasuke looks surprisingly good. =P I think I bumped into him a couple times in the event thinking he looks pretty but I wasn't able to stare into his eyes to tell if those were simple red contacts or the sharingan contacts (if it even exists). @_@ 3rd pic: The Akatsuki team... half present for. XD

1st pic: Zhou Yu and Xiao Qiao from Dynasty Warriors. The Dynasty Warriors cosplayers always have nice costumes. 2nd pic: Spongebob and Patrick! What the fuck? LMAOO. It's so hilarious they totally deserve the attention. 3rd pic: No idea who, but s/he sure looks good. *Drools* XD! 4th pic: Zidane and Freya, very awesome cosplays. Zidane is practically perfect, and Freya is a rarity. Poor thing can't see behind that mask though. 5th pic: Tifa from FF7AC. All is good but... are you sure she wears those shoes? O_o;; I don't quite remember...

Obviously these aren't real people. The event had lots of these dolls displayed, and for those of you who've read my San Francisco trip blog, you might just remember that I've wrote about it once before. I forgot what these dolls are called but personally I call them the ridiculously-sissy-and-expensive dolls. No offense to those who love these things but who the hell has money and the willingness to spend thousands for these dolls that can't do nothing but sit and have you stare at it? O_o;;; And the shocking truth is, there're A LOT of people who'd pay for them cos' they say they love it!! @_@ These people would get just two words from me - You're insane. They say that these dolls are unique cos not only are they damn pretty (er... not really >_>), you can customize their anything and everything (from eyes to hair to clothes), which is also why they're so expensive cos everything is sold separately, and at a high price. =_=;; I still don't get it though. I'd rather someone give me the money they spent on it than to receive this doll as a gift.

Anyway, later, me and my friends just sat around a table by the cosplay grounds, talking and taking pictures of ourselves. LOL.

Also, I told them that we should pose in the gangster style, like squatting down and 'smoking' or putting a leg up and stuff. LMAO. But alas, they were too eek-ed at the idea (damn, I seriously think it's unconventional and that's why it's awesome) and kept telling me not to ruin the lolita image. Whatever, I still took some anyway =P And more at home too. Mwahahahaha!!! (I'm missing some more pictures from my friends' camera)

The whole event ended at 6pm and that's when we left to go to Orchard for dinner and to take some neoprints! Hehehehe. But really, we didn't do anything during the event. Oh okay, I bought a lolita choker but other than that I just walked around looking at other people's cosplays, and the rest of the time I was sitting down by the table talking with my friends. LOL. That's typical EOY. =P

So okay, at Orchard we went to Cineleisure where it's common for freaks like us to hang out. LOL. But since this is now no longer the cosplay grounds, wearing what we're wearing is bound to attract a lot of attention... so we'd better get used to the turning heads and staring eyes soon (you can notice them stare at you even if you look at the floor as you walk!). LOL. I'm just glad I'm not the only freak in the group. XP

Anyway, we had dinner at Pastamania... >_>;; Bad pasta as always... and I was only hoping that maybe this time it wouldn't be that bad. Guess I was wrong to give it a second chance. After dinner, we went to take some neoprints, like 3 times, cos the first two times were somewhat screwed. That took us a while but it was fun =) [There'll be more neoprint pics but I haven't gotten them from my friend...]

Then, we went to K-box (karaoke) where we spent like 4 hours singing. @_@ Sadly, the songs selection was really old and bad, and all the songs I wanted/can sing aren't available. They've got more Chinese songs than anything, and I don't sing Chinese songs =_= Lame. So we stayed out till like 3+ in the morning and then I took the taxi home. End of story. =P