Friday

I worked and then went to the convention afterwards. I went with my bf Ariel and my sister Jen.

COSPLAYS~

Jen as Katarina from League of Legends and me as Catherine from the game Catherine.

We checked out the dealer’s room first and a few things before eating dinner at Swiss Chalet. The service was slow but at least the server was nice. I guess since we didn’t go to the restaurant in cosplay (I heard sometimes they give crappy service to cosplayers). After that we attended the second half of an event called “Anime Hell” which is a 2 hour audio/visual event of funny videos related to anime/Japanese product advertisements/random internet videos/poking fun at randomness of anime. Ariel didn’t remember going last year………. but enjoyed it a lot.

After that we went to karaoke, which has a short and out-dated list to choose songs from. A lot of people got smarter and chose to bring their own CD or USB with a song to sing. This lolita girl sang 2NE1 “UGLY”

And then at the end someone in the audience yelled at her “YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL~!!!!”

Ahahahahaaaa~ Listening to the original now, I realize that this song is pretty BLAND and that girl sang it higher and made it sound better than the original group.

I sang “Just Communication” from Gundam Wing…

(Sorry no vid of me)

I was like shaking the whole time and when I finished my friends were like “wow you totally memorized the whole thing trololololol” and I’m like -______________-;;;;;;;;;;;

I realized now that I have serious anxiety when it comes to that kind of thing. I’m okay for public speaking, but not singing in Japanese.

After that we went back to our room and derped around for a while. I had to finish a piece for Ariel’s cosplay so yea.

Saturday

Woke up at 8:00 AM after 4 hrs of sleep (and only 2 hrs of sleep on Thursday night) Showered and got ready to go to the Anime North Idol audition. Last year I never got to audition because I came around 10:30 AM and there was no more space.

This is where things get kind of crappy for me…….

So I felt kind of weird after karaoke the night before feeling so shaky especially since a couple of girls came to karaoke and more or less performed their Anime North Idol A+++++ game to show everyone up D= (sorry if you’re one of those girls reading this, I’m totally jealous of your talent and bravery)

So the audition is supposed to be 1 minute long, and I hacked my song to a 1minute audition CD…. but they wanted more D=

Not to mention as soon as I got there I felt that anxiety again. I sang well, but performed crap. Since I never sang any of the chorus they didn’t have a chance to get into me and my song either I think.

It’s safe to say I didn’t make finalist. I won’t be trying again next year either, but I’m glad to have tried and realize now that I can sing, but not perform. I know now that I tried and I just wasn’t good enough out of everyone who auditioned, since they only chose 7 finalists or something like that.

I actually took a nap in the afternoon from extreme exhaustion and then after that my socks failed hardcore, and my shoes too.

Me and Ariel as Vincent from Catherine… lol

After that I bought a lot of stuff…….. hahaha

Later in the evening we were supposed to meet up with some people to go to dinner, but Jen didn’t feel well so we just hung out in our room and watched some TV, until 9pm when the Jpop dance was.

The dance that we stood in line for until about 9:30 only to be checked hard core like it’s an international air port. Everyone was required to empty pockets/check bags/be waved down with a wand…. it was crappy but I can’t say I’m surprised after what kind of BS happened a few years back with incidents related to sexual assault of minors/drugs/alcohol being smuggled in…. people setting papers on fire outside -_-

I’m all for partying in your own room, but ruining an all ages dance is just…… stupid. I’m a serious advocate of the younger convention attendees who begged their parents to go and convinced them it was a safe environment only for older attendees to ruin it and jeopardize those attendees ability to attend the next year. That’s the difference between a comic convention and anime convention… the median age is much older at a comic convention.

I didn’t really enjoy the dance that much anyways. It was more like Jrave part2 IMO….I miss the days when they played the Gravitation OP and at least a few DDR songs, but I guess now no one gives a crap about that, only BigBang ad Happy Hardcore or whatever -_-

Sunday

Gave up on cosplaying and slept for a full 8 hrs over night…

Mainly a day to go shop in the dealer’s room and hang out.

The convention center ran a BBQ outside for $4 hot dog or hamburger and a drink. Pretty sweet considering the lineups for most other restaurants and the obliteration of the cash flow due to dealer’s room.

Over all I ended up getting:

• Volumes 4 – 7 of Stepping on Roses by Rinko Ueda

(There’s 2 more volumes to come but they haven’t released in English yet)

• Some items for friends which are secret cause they will probably read this blog….
• Tallgeese III HG model kit

• Kitty paws~

• More buttons. I had Peach and Piccolo but I lost them T___T so I got Rise from Persona 4 and also Catherine, the same as my cosplay~

• A small cat plushie ;o

I don’t have much pics of cosplayers because I was lazy and honestly don’t know what half the costumes are any more since I’ve been watching mostly harem animes for the past couple of years. I wanted to get the DVDs of Shuffle, but I didn’t have another $30 to spend…. T____T

Anyways I’ll post my cosplay pics of other people later… this is already teetering on 1000 words post so I don’t want to bore you any more.

Again I’ve been busy with real life stuff like working all the long Victoria Day weekend. It was pretty hectic and I still don’t get any free time until Thursday and then I’m going to Anime North in the evening on Friday. SO that should be something exciting for me soon.

I’m just trying to finish off some cosplay items and hope to god my top comes in the mail before the convention.

My cosplay for this year is going to be Catherine from the game, and my bf will go as Vincent <3

Yeah I’m going as the evil one, but I identify better with Catherine because she’s cute and sexy. My Favourite combo. Katherine is kind of boring to me, I know someone will get mad at me for saying I don’t like the ‘smart cool girl’ better, but I just don’t. I played for the Catherine ending the first time I played.I also enjoyed Katherine’s ending, mainly because she uses her smarts to her advantage heh

I didn’t know I’d enjoy the game so much, but it was really cool… I wish I was playing right now~! I hope more people will know who I am this year considering last year I went as Sia from Shuffle! So mainly pervs knew who I was. Mostly people wanted to take my pic because of the sailor uniform. Actually I was also mistaken for Shana from Shakugan no Shana a few times too.

At first I just wanted Ariel to dress up as Vincent so I could make the sheep horns and he could run around with a pillow, huhuhu~

I may try to put together the pajama version of Catherine too if I have time.

Other then that, I went to a Blue Jays game last Friday… it was pretty fun considering at first I didn’t want to go. I haven’t been to a baseball game since I was in grade 8 in 2001.

The weird thing is that it was Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Mets… the same teams that played last time I went. My teacher in elementary school, Mr. B was from New York so that’s why. The Mets are his team.

Last time Toronto lost D=

BUT THIS TIME WE WON HARDCORE~

We didn’t even bother staying until the end because it was in the bag something like 12 – 3  lolololol

The Jays haven’t won the World Series since 1993, so maybe they are finally making a comeback.

The hardcore fans were both funny and irritating. On the subway being all drunk and pumped for the game you could turn up your music full blast and still not be able to hear yourself think. But the way they yelled insults for the opposing team and “you can throw better then that” remarks… were funny.

Yep we got some poor sap to take a photo of us….

I spent the rest of my weekend working and hanging out having a few drinks at home. ^^;

I have this serious fear that one day I will transplant the plant upon bringing it home and it will die the next day because it hates me so much. So far that hasn’t happened thankfully due to the extensive root systems the nursery managed to achieve, obviously much much better results than me.

My garden has now grown to:

6 Snap Dragons

6 Red Lettuce

1 Parsley

1 Strawberry

 3 Begonias

The sun light is kind of scattered on my balcony so it’s hard to make a nice arrangement. In the city of Toronto I’m lucky enough just to have a balcony worth going out on, or even live in an apartment that doesn’t have another condo in front of it. I’m on the side that receives morning sun light so that’s pretty cool too. I tried to choose plants that will be happier in cooler conditions since my plants won’t get scorched by the afternoon sun past 12:30 PM or so.

For the most part the balcony is used for the storage of our bikes and a couple of other things, but we do have some stacking chairs too. I was cleaning up a bit today from when I took the pics above you can see the recycling bin and stuff in the picture >_<

I got a couple of cool solar lights yesterday to make a nicer design.

I had wanted the string of lights with blue dragonflies, but they didn’t have that design so I got the butterflies.

It came with a HUGE solar panel… OKAY maybe like 4″ long X_x

The best thing about this one is that the butterflies TWIST on rather than just caps that can blow away in the wind and make me sad. Not to mention dangerous for anyone below who might get hit by that plastic object traveling down from so far above.

I also got some lamps to stick in the planters which look like mushrooms ;o

They’re really cute~~

I can’t really think of what else to do with it right now. For a first year starter garden I think I did pretty good.

~*~*~*~*~

I also went to H&M recently and I found…..

A STRAW HAT IN PINK x BLACK.

It’s silly because I already own this hat in a normal straw colour, but I had to have this one too… perfect for gardening, or becoming a crazy hat lady. ;o

*cough* Maybe you remember this one???

That was last year’s Cherry blossom season. Yep I’m wearing a wig in this pic…. I look so sophisticated with darker hair….. HAHAHAH yeah right~

The weather is so nice, I love going out without a coat these days ^O^V

I received so many nice gifts in one box of awesomeness~

Some may think it’s weird to connect with someone from so far away, but I feel like I will always have somewhere special in my heart for such a wonderful girl and friend <3

We’re seriously like twins living our lives in completely different countries. She always used to tell me how much she likes Canada, and now… I feel like I’m a wannabe Australian too. Oh well grass is always greener, right?

Anyways back to the awesome.

She sent me a cute plushie of a kangaroo ;o We used to talk about all the dumb things people ask about Australia, mainly having to do with the Crocodile Hunter (R.I.P Steve Irwin) stereotype.

REALLY CUTE AND SOFT~~~ CRIKEY~~

Boing Boing~ WHAT A BEAUT trololololol

<3 So much LOVE~

I would have never guessed unless it was written in the card to look into the pouch… inside was a pair of earrings O_O

I wore them today and they were so pretty~

Australia and Canada are very much the same and very much opposite. We’re always living different seasons, which is kind of difficult. Whenever I want to spend lots of time outdoors she is huddling indoors and sad, also vice versa. I’ve heard the winter is much more mild there than here though. This is why fall and Spring balance it out, they’re the best seasons for both of us because they’re the less of the two extremes.

There was supposedly some limited candies for the summer (which is already over in Australia T____T)

She also gave me some gummy starburst candies, which were really unique… who would have thought they would ever put pineapple and spearmint candies in the same bag? ;o

I’m actually not sure what the two circular ones on the bottom are supposed to be… mango and kiwi??? Either way they tasted good.

Usually they use naming the flavours as part of the packaging, but maybe that’s just because people in North America can be pretty dense sometimes.

As a side note, the spring is really starting to gear up into really nice temperatures. Even when it rains I feel like there is still some kind of beauty in that. In general I think I’m really healing from the past and banishing a lot of negative energies. I’m growing just like the flowers on my balcony, and embracing life with a positive outlook. I can’t say I didn’t have a lot of help along the way, but also I had to make a commitment to myself to become nicer and more open and kind again, fearless of the possibility of getting hurt again.

All in all I have a lot of people I care about and a lot of people who care about me. I became a lot more closed off since moving to Toronto and I think it’s the intimidation of a much bigger world spectrum, but now I’m much more open to others and realize how what I do every day can only help make the world a better place.

Kay no more motivational wishful perfect world talk from me~

THANKS AGAIN HARU-CHAN YOUR’E THE GREATEST~~~ <333333333333333333333333333333

…and I’m already planning for your birthday HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA *is shot*

Yes, a singing competition.

I practiced for 2 months with my song last year, but unfortunately I didn’t make it there early enough to even try out for the ‘audition process’… I also felt really small and lacking in ‘star quality’ once I saw some singers practicing dance moves and everything O_o

The one thing I did notice is some who were practicing had chosen songs with weak vocals. If you watch anime you know those EAR BLEEDING high pitched voices some of the singers and female characters use.

Now people are asking me about this year and I’m not really sure if I want to try again. I’ve been suffering from a cold for the past two weeks and Anime North is at the end of this month. I don’t know that I have nearly enough time to prepare a song.

Anyways if I did participate, I’d have to choose a song.

I’d also have to memorize all the lyrics in Japanese

AND sing it well.

~*~

Anyways I decided to go through my music and see what kind of options I have at this point… I know I have to choose a song soon if I’m gonna go for it.

WARNING SOME VIDS MAY BE NSFW

“Hold On Me ~Koi no Mahou~” by Kaori Utatsuki

Plus: I really like this song right now and the music is very catchy and interesting  Minus: weaker vocals…..

“Tori no Uta” by Lia (AIR anime OP)

Plus: It’s a good song with only some minor pitch issues for me Minus: The song can drag on and some of the instrumental is tacky.

“∞ Mirai” by Hashimoto Miyuki

Plus: More interesting pitches to throw around and exciting song Minus: I don’t know this song aside from casual listening

“Kizuite yo… I Love You” by Lily.

Plus: Another song I really like. Not too high pitched Minus: need to find the lyrics aside from what I memorized on my own

“Second Flight” by KOTOKO and Hiromi Satou (Onegai Twins anime OP)

Plus: I know the song well and it’s one of my best Minus: having to sing a duet on my own as well as finding the capacity to do so… eh it could be worse.

I’m still open to more suggestions, These are just my ideas so far. If I’m gonna do it I need to pick a song FAST.

There’s so many other songs I wish I could do, but I’m limited to these rules:

• Song has to be at least 75% Japanese
• Memorize lyrics
• Length has to be 3 mins min – 6 mins max.
• MUST used official karaoke track (can’t just make your own with mad skillz in sound editors T___T)

Is it because we want to do it all?

…Or because we’re really kidding ourselves that we have more than 24 hours in a day?

Maybe we don’t want to let others down.

Perhaps an extra activity to make yourself appear cool in front of new people?

The fact is sometimes you need to accept that some things are just not possible and admit to yourself that you can’t do it. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the progress I’ve made in my job over the past two years. My other co-workers seemed to press the idea that “even if there’s 2 minutes left you have to do it for the customer.” Which makes sense within reason, unless it will cost me an extra 20 minutes to clean up the mess I made related to providing service in those last 2 minutes.

Can you walk into a salon 2 minutes before they close asking for a hair cut?  Debatable, because they may be a commission-based worker or the owner and can authorize themselves to stay over the allotted time in a day. Not all workers have that kind of flexibility though. In many cases there aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up, so all that can be done is work in the time allotted and leave at quitting time, since you’ll probably have to work a similar shift the next day just as hectic.

Still it’s hard to tell people “No” when they are very expectant or pushy, for example charity workers canvassing the streets in your city or town. Sometimes even if you care about their cause you’re in a hurry or they are just too annoying and you’d rather donate in another manner rather than talk to them in order to fill their ‘quota’.

….Then again it’s your money to decide if you want to give or not, and they should respect that.

In the end I know I’m a very people-pleasing oriented person. I know I’ve grown in my ability to serve others in which I view it as a good humbling experience rather than “them vs. me” AKA the customers are evil approach. With my own family I listen to both sides of the argument, but ultimately tell each party what I know they want to hear. Which is very difficult when you CAN’T tell the person what they want to hear…. YES.

My best advice is to then:

• Evaluate how possible or impossible it would be to change that “NO” to a “YES” (Never say yes to anything unsafe, uncomfortable, or illegal)
• When it’s possible, try to take a positive approach to problem-solving, or referring to people who can make it happen.
• When impossible, be sincere and realistic about it. Especially if the answer is a “not right now, but maybe next week.”
• Practice methods of saying it, and try to understand how you can make your life work best so you’re not stressing out over too many activities.
• Don’t always view “Yes” as a favour to others…. we all have stuff we don’t want to do but have to, you’re probably not as hot stuff as you think. Try to feel humble and calm about doing tasks, not saddened and violated of your free time/good will
• ….Unless your caring nature IS being used against you… in which case you know which two letters to use ^^;
• In the case of someone trying to convince you of something you’re not comfortable with or even sure if it’s legal, stand firm in your beliefs and don’t be convinced otherwise if you think it will compromise your safety or integrity. Try talking it out, but if it’s not possible ask for advice or get away from that person entirely.

For Teens\Unsafe Conditions

When I say “Stuff you don’t want do do” I mean things like chores. NOT activities that could constitute as abuse.

In normal cases, whatever your parents are asking of you at home is usually way more easy than what you will ever experience in your future career. They don’t OWE you money to do chores around the house or look after your younger siblings until they get home from work. You already get a free place to live, meals, and other needs met from your parents. They work at their job to provide this for you, something you will never get back, or deserve, once you move out and have to pay all of those things yourself and find out how hard you need to work for it.

Your parents are trying to teach you lessons of discipline and how to value what they sacrifice for you as parents for your happiness and education. In the future if you can’t resolve some problems it could end up costing your future company a lot of money and you a job, not just a fight with your parents where you lock yourself in your room for a few hours then get over it. Learning to deal with difficult people and holding your tongue is a lot about what being an adult is about.

Special cases being where your parents/guardians/friends/classmates are abusive mentally/physically/emotionally. If you have an adult family member or friend you can trust, tell them about your situation or even a councilor at school, they can tell you what counts as abuse and what counts as just parents being strict. Your safety is important, if someone tries to get you to do something you feel uncomfortable you shouldn’t agree to it, EVER~!

Remember, in Canada you can always call Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 (free and anonymous, 24/7), also if you don’t feel comfortable talking, or need to be more secrative, they also provide online service through message boards: http://www.kidshelpphone.ca/ I used it before to ask some questions a few years back, they usually answer in a way that makes YOU think  about your options when you feel helpless, rather than handing you answers that will try to sway you one way or the other.

Use your best discretion and remember that learning how to say no and stand up for yourself  is an important life skill. Always do what makes you feel the best about your decisions and consult others as needed~!

So far I’ve only planned to go to karaoke with my coworker on Tuesday but some other things I’d like to do this summer:

• Go to Rouge Beach as much as possible
• Revive my VN project which was previously dropped
• Go to Niagara Falls again
• Work on my tan
• Go to karaoke more
• Attempt to grow strawberries ^O^
• Resume my frozen Japanese studies (outside as much as possible of course)
• Use more photos in my blog posts

NO MORE HOMEWORK~!!!

I got some flowers from Ariel as soon as he got back from his trip ^w^ (all my favourite colours~)

On Tuesday my mom came and we went to High Park to check out the Cherry Blossoms~ It was great to go with my mom because last year I sent her a photo from my phone and said she should see them in person. So when she said she would come here and do whatever I feel like doing I thought its the best choice after traveling to walk around and something free~!

(She has all the pictures of me held hostage on her SD card) IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL THIS YEAR~~~ Not cloudy and kind of cold like last year when I went T___T

She also bought me more flowers and a strawberry plant to try out, which I have gotten to FLOWER already~!

Wednesday I had a class and we presented our digital portfolios X_x I’m a bit sad to say that I’m pretty much low on the bar of talent in my class, which is why I’ve decided against going into Graphic Design now. (Maybe I’ll post my compiled work if I feel like it.)

Thursday was my birthday and I attended classes from 8 AM – 3 PM, because our last guest speaker didn’t show up. Otherwise I would have had to stay until about 4 or 4:30, blehhhhh~~~~

Afterwards I went to Tea Shop 168 with a few friends and had some curry beef balls omnomnom. Later I went out to Swiss Chalet for dinner with Ariel and our friend Luis. They even put candles on my cheesecake~ <3 Later on we went to a pub that looked okay and had some patio beer. They carded us at the door and the girl said “I never would have guessed you were an 80s baby” I’M 25 NOW!!!

Friday was the last day of school and I handed in my last project. My teacher said that a lot of people hugged her already so I did too and asked for an A in her course hahahaa~A lot of the rest of the day is just history! Me and about 7 other people went to our usual ramen place, Ajisen for dinner. We bought some drinks and headed to my place for what can only be described as a very wild party with lightweights. I think all together we crammed about 12 people into my 1 bedroom apartment some how. One guy ended up locking himself in my bathroom for hours on end and another passed out diagonally on my bed. I had to work later in the afternoon, and obviously I was pretty hung over. I usually don’t party like that, but I wanted to try it at least once.

All in all I still enjoy drinking in moderation, not 5 drinks + vodka shots kind of thing >______<

I also managed to spill 3 drinks both mine and others on myself, mainly from wild hugging and flailing….. derp.

What do you think?

Ariel went to a convention in Chicago, so I had the house to myself and as many hours of TV as I can stomach.

Of course I DID go though that stage of thinking: MAYBE I SHOULD GO SOMEWHERE AND PARTY AND DO SOMETHING TOTALLY OUT OF CHARACTER~!!!

…….Then I took a nap.

Yesterday I stayed home most of the day relaxing, doing some stuff around the house, and chatting on Skype with Faranora, for like… 4 agonizing hours.

She kept taunting me with Easy Mac when I was like starving T_____T The weird thing is that I never HAVE tried Easy Mac before. When I went out to the store to get sushi I bought Easy Mac too. Its okay, but I felt disappointed in the taste compared to the stove top one. That and I also chose the one in the pouches and had to wash my own bowls from home D=

I also got a new box of baby wipes to clean my makeup off and it came in a special Tangled-themed box. I’m definitely going to keep this one and buy the re-fill bags for it from now on.

Today I had to work, but it was rainy so I actually finished all my tasks EARLY~!

After work, I planned to go get more supplies for my ‘garden’ that never seems to start. I ended up at Home Depot, and bought some snap dragons that have already bloomed because professional gardeners are way more awesome than me. I couldn’t get anything to grow larger than 2″ tall right before it fell over and died. According to the internets, it means my soil grew fungus that was killing my plants T____T  I bought some new soil to try to grow a few different items this time, hopefully it works. In the mean time I can at least enjoy my snap dragons~

You can see the new table cloth for summer time here too O_o

By the time I got around to taking pics it was already dark so I just hauled the box in from the balcony and placed it on the table.

Now it’s Sunday night…… and no one is partying, but I will be soon~ My birthday is this Thursday and then I will be a quarter century old :O