Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Fantasy Golf PANGYA Portable

Fans of the kawaii online game Pangya, REJOICE! The very popular Korean game now has a PSP version!

And it's remained very true to the original online game.

The PSP version of Pangya features a story lines per each character, starting with the infamous Nuri and Hana. All the characters (as well as several new ones who have yet been revealed) are present in the PSP version, but you have to unlock each one as you finish their stories and play various competitions.

What's more, Korea has released limited edition PSPs, figures, mugs, and PSP accessories available in Papel's Box Set. Whether this will be released internationally has not yet been revealed, but PSPHyper mentioned that it may be released in Japan.

I'm a Pangya Online player myself. It makes me wonder if this game will take advantage of PSP's Wifi and have online competitions? The graphics are really awesome though, and you can do all the trick shots in game!

Here are some of the items included in the box set:



That PSP is very pretty. I'd love to have a decal placed on my pink PSP. *_*



Now Papel can carry around your PSP for you! Only... he can't follow you around like he does in game. x3



OMG KOOH!!! I want!!! ;~;

I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting the original UMD of this game. I wonder if they'll release an English version since this is a popular franchise worldwide?

And finally, here's the trailer for the game. Enjoy, and Pangya! x3

Disorganized Thoughts of WebManga and Coffee

shijiroSo I'm finally getting to the interesting parts of this webmanga... and frankly, remembering what had happened is beginning to hit me with a sense of deja vu. It feels so surreal that I'm beginning to realize that Fact is most definitely stranger than Fiction. @o@;;;

Thank goodness for vacation time that allows me to ignore what I should be doing and work on the stuff I want to do~ <3

Shiji smiling like that is more than a little creepy to me for some reason. Perhaps the previous page was creepier but @___@;;; He looks so successfully out of character! If you're catching my drift. :3

Now I can work on the next page~ the long awaited page~! *^_~*

Also, the taste of instant coffee is mesmerizing. *_* I'm beginning to prefer instant over brewed since it has a somewhat smoother taste. So is that just me..?

Friday, December 26, 2008

Bye-Bye Christmas...

Christmas has come to an end. I'm glad I got to finish my Christmas Card for A.illusions just minutes before it officially ended! Haha~!

In case you're wondering what the Chinese text means, the translation is in my Deviant Art. ;)

My actual Christmas day was a little more complicated. I keep telling myself he's being an angsty teen, but gah~! I still think he's a spoiled brat who needs spanking! Grrr~~~

Maybe it was because I was pretty much spoiled until 4th(?) grade, but... ugh... I don't remember talking back to my parents or my older siblings. @o@;;;

gundam 00 fanart - mary parphacyAnyhow, I was glad we went to Burgoo in SM North for dinner. Despite the sour company, the food was great~ I shall keep in mind that Mother loves angel hair pasta... just like myself. :3 Angel Hair Tomato basil with mushrooms and olives is a definite recommend! For as you can see... I lack the pictures to share because we finished it as soon as it hit the table..? xD

We were lucky to get seats by the window, and even luckier to see the fireworks from Trinoma! Too bad no amount of luck could cure a sour grape. ._.;;;

Oh, and that image on the right is Mary Parphacy from Gundam 00, season 2. I got to draw a quick sketch of her while waiting for our food in Burgoo. I didn't get to finish since Mom was excited about the food and stuff. :3 And the crayons were all dull pointed, gah... it was hard to put any details, if at all. ;~;

She looks cute with a Santa Hat though. :3

All in all, I guess my Christmas wasn't too bad. I was kinda surprised that a little mouse on the kitchen counter was all it took to take away my bad mood as well as my Mom's. xDDD We both got surprised when the little critter waltzed right past us without missing a stride. Maybe God didn't want either of us to be a sour grape on His special day.

..and I got to take a picture of my haul~!



I got a pink Haro pillow from my Uncle (the same uncle with the Toy Workshop); Coffee Meringue, lollipop necklace, Maisto Power Racer, and a P500 Toy Kingdom gift card from the office; PLDT my DSL and Sun Cellular cellphone straps from my Aunt, and, most importantly, angpao from Mom~!

My thanks to my "mystery parent" from the office. :3 Now I got an image of my dream car. xD I was glad my "child" seemed to have accepted my gift well. xDDD My *cough* dear *cough* child, it is harsh of me, but you shall never know me! Roflmao~

Thursday, December 25, 2008

How I Spent My Time Waiting For Christmas~

As with most of the working people in the Philippines, half the day was spent in the office, not really doing much work, but chatting amongst our colleagues comparing who will be having what for their Noche Buena Feast later that night...

I looked forward to something else in particular.

christmas village


Yes, to those familiar, I went to my Uncle's Toy Workshop again on Christmas Eve. And he had a lot of new toys on display..!

coca cola items


He had his Coca-Cola collection up for everyone to see. I'm pretty sure Bong would love to see these up close. I didn't get to do any macro shots since my camphone can't take pictures up close.

pikachu invasion


I also got to take pictures of some of the items I missed, like this Pikachu collection. There were so many that I lost count! I think I missed a few of them in this shot too...

gashapon / candy toys


And for all the otaku out there stumbling upon my blog, a collection of random gashapon! I can't tell which series they're all from, but I saw a few of Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley from Evangelion. Kitajima Maya from Tenjo Tenge in her two forms were also there, and... is that Agito/Akito from Air Gear wearing a maid outfit??? O_o;;;

diorama


This is probably one of my favorites in the collection. I love tiny food displays, as well as study desks. There was a laptop and cellphone on the desk and the drawers were filled with stationary items!

diorama close up


It was a nice way to spend time waiting for Christmas to arrive. I keep going back to the same displays taking a second look to check out the items I missed. Uncle is planning to open his collection to the public for about P100 as entrance fee.

He also told me one of the 2 major local news network will be interviewing him on January. A pleasant New Year this will be for him! Congratulations, Uncle!

Merry Christmas, everyone~ Oh, and I'll post my new Haro pillow from Uncle when I get the chance to clean up the memory space in my phone. xD;;;

Monday, December 22, 2008

Evening Light Showers

As usual, SM ends the year with a bang... literally.

fireworks display at sm north; december 22, 2008; 7:00pm


I was waiting for my brother to pick my up at the North Station when I heard fireworks. Apparently, certain SM's will be having fireworks around 7pm for a good 15 minutes everyday until the end of this year.

I'm not too sure about this info since it's hearsay, but the fireworks display a while ago was beautiful. Most people stopped to watch the fireworks, even if they were climbing up the stairs to the MRT Station.

It was a nice thing to see after a stressful day at work. ^_^ Too bad this is the only shot that turned out pretty nice.

FYI: I've been advised to put copyright text on my images since there's a lot of stealing going around. It would be best for everyone to do the same~

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Updates Have Their Rewards

a.illusions' danaanI finally got to kick my OC (obsessive-compulsive) self out of that next page and just winged it. Technically, it's not the characters that were giving me troubles but the background.

Did you notice the brick wall pattern all over this new page? Well, it was suppose to be on page 073 as well, but I was too lazy to do the pattern on the actual drawing. I finally went ahead and made a digital one that I could use and reuse in future pages. *o*

I can't believe the backgrounds, which look so simple, took me nearly 2 hours to do.

Anyhow, I kinda like how Danaan-chan looks in her debut page. :3 I was sniffling all through out toning and shading this page that my head hurt. ;~; It's a good thing dear brother was kind enough to give me some cake (or sansrival to be precise) since the virus came from him in the first place.

betty's sansrival


You can tell I couldn't wait to eat before actually taking a picture. :9 My nephew asked for a few bites as well. x3 I share~ I share~~!

Highly recommended dessert for this Christmas. :3 Or perhaps for any occasion. I love their sansrival because of the crunchiness and the icing isn't too sweet.

Now I can get some more sleep to drive this cold out of my system. ZzzZzz...

Saturday, December 20, 2008

My New (and First) Crocheted Hat

So, thanks to Yarrow influencing me to get back to crocheting, I went ahead and asked my sister to buy me a few larger hooks for making hats and scarves and the like...

I actually enjoy crocheting as a hobby, but I've never made anything that I can wear myself.

Oh wait, do Belldandy-like gloves count? I made those before using lace thread and hook. o_o;;;

Anyway~ I liked Yarrow's hat, so I decided to grab the pattern (which was apparently by Dot Matthews) and see if I can make it myself.

mokona wearing my puffy slouchy crocheted hat - top view


Yes, that is a black Mokona plush (and I have a white one too), and yes, even though I don't like the color green, I made my hat green.

Why? Because there seems to be a sort of yarn shortage here in the Philippines...

How do I know this? My first try on this pattern was with using a gray colored yarn, but since I needed to buy 2 more balls of the same color to finish and there weren't any despite going to 5 different stores, I just gave up and winged it with a green one.

mokona wearing my puffy slouchy crocheted hat - perspective viewIt makes me wonder if my sister will take my hat from me if she sees this. o_o;;; She's the green monster after all...

I don't like how the puffs came out since I went with a 3 strand(?) puff than 4. I didn't read the instructions properly, so I didn't know it had to be 4, heh... o_o;;; And since puffs were a pain to do and I had read about the mistake after I finished 1 row of puffs, I decided to leave it as it is. I ended up using a 3 puff for the 1st and 3rd row, and a 4 puff in the 2nd row.

Another thing is... I thought this hat would be too small for me to wear, but the original pattern fits my head. o.o;;; It's a bit snug, such that I'm sure it won't get blown off by the wind unless it's really stormy, but I wouldn't mind making a slightly larger one so that it'll be slouchier~

It's also a heck of a lot warmer than I expected it to be. o_o;;; Winter hat, it is. Philippine hat, it is not. But I might end up wearing it to go to the office once anyway...

Still pretty happy at how it turned out, seeing this is my first try following text instructions (which didn't make any sense at all and I went ahead and did it the way I thought it should). I want to try making amigurumi next... I tried making one using the lacy crochet but gave up since I had no patterns to go on at the time...

A.illusions plushies would be nice...

mokona wearing my puffy slouchy crocheted hat - top view


Mokona looks like she's enjoying wearing my hat~ x3 *nods nods* She's SO CUTE!!!

I wonder if I should put these pictures up in my deviant art? o_o;;;

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

I Feel Special~ :3

I got a nice surprise in my email today...

delifrance's secret santa email

Aw... I'm special to someone~ x3 But, the coupon was received today but it's only valid until December 14..? ;~; Wah~ And there's no Delifrance in Robinson's Galleria!

Makes me sad. :( But thanks to whoever that person was who sent me this~ :3 Even if it's just a marketing person from Delifrance or something like that. It's the thought that counts after all, and you made my day today~! *hugz~*

Now I'm looking forward to the Christmas Party. x3 Probably the only one I'll go to again this year. I got my Kris Kringle ready and my costume too~

..and I'll be sure to kick anyone who makes fun of me where the sun don't shine. >E

Merry Christmas~! :D

Trip Down Memory- er... Lovers' Lane?!

I went over to UST to get a hold of another copy of my transcript the other day. I have to say, the school has changed quite a lot over the past 4 years.

I didn't have time to take a lot of pictures, but here are some I thought people might find interesting.

an empty lot behind the ust library

This is the area behind the Library. I don't really remember what was behind this area before, but I'm sure there was a kiosk or something there... I don't remember this area to be so open before. But it looked like a good place for the performers of Paskuhan to practice their dance moves. :3

Walking towards the main building from the Dapitan gate, I noticed what used to be 2 floors of parking space had a 4-story building now. I'm assuming it's still being used as a parking space, but I didn't get a good look to tell.

the student center in front of the ust library

Finally, after placing my request for a transcript, I walked back to the car and got a good look at the new building in front of the library. There used to be an open area there with some statues, and now it's been replaced with a Student Center. I think the building has "Tan Yap" on the entrance. What that means... well, your guess is a good as mine.

It was nice that the guards thought I was a student who was passing her final project or something like that. :3 They didn't think much about me not having an I.D. and told me to remember to bring it next time.

Frankly, I remembered security to be a lot stricter. Maybe it's because Paskuhan is around the corner?

Of course, what trip to UST would be complete without Almer's?

almer's famous sizzling porkchop

Almer's Canteen's sizzling porkchop was still as good as ever. The meal cost me P45 + drinks. This was a favorite spot among Fine Arts students since we had to work around a tight budget.

You'll find Almer's in one of the eskinitas along Dapitan. I believe it's the street between Wendy's and the Bus Terminal. x3 But since my sense of direction is anything but reliable, please do correct me if I'm wrong.

EDIT: Well, I'm not wrong-wrong, but thanks to Mirage, Almer's street name is "Alfredo Street". You have to go past Chowking to see the tiny street. :3 Thanks, Mirage!

I want to eat there again. ;~; Delicious food is hard to find these days. It may be a canteen, but the food sure doesn't taste like it was from an ordinary canteen.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Super Stardust Portable

Sometimes, a surprisingly "simple" game turns out to be the most addicting one.

My nephew introduced me to this game last Sunday, and I really didn't think much of it until I had actually played it.

super stardust portable title screen


The game is very simple. You're a spaceship, sent to a planet to rid of the asteroids and alien ships disrupting the peace in that planet. You have 3 weapons, the rock breaker, the ice splitter, and the gold melter. You can also boost your ship out of harms way for a limited time and detonate a bomb to blast everything within range.

screen shot of super stardust portable


It kinda reminds you of Galaga back in the FamiCom days, only your ship gets to move up, down, left, and right.

Did I mention your so-called "enemies" can come from any direction too?

screen shot of super stardust portable's ship destroyed


..oops.

So far, it's an incredibly addicting game. There are 2 levels of difficulty to keep you asking for more carnage.

Now I know what a lone Gundam pilot feels like. >.<;;;

More screen shots available in File Front.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Another Organizer for Another New Year

I finally finished my 16 cups of Starbucks today to get a red planner (thanks to the people on Plurk all voting for red instead of black) for the year 2009. This picture is one of my favorite illustrations found inside the planner.

inside illustration of my red starbucks planner / organizer 2009

Yeah, I gave in and got the red one instead of the black since it had that "unique" factor. I still think the planner for the year 2007 was the best so far, but I like the color pencil-like illustrations in this one.

I'm a little disappointed that this year's booklet for the stickers didn't have that extra flap to add your name to the list of donors to the Spark of Hope charity. I wonder if the organizer was just a marketing strategy this year? Hm...

I wonder if I'm actually gonna use this? Haha... This year was the first time I had used an organizer (which is a bit empty in some months), so whether or not this will be filled with notes and/or illustrations is a bit of a mystery to me.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

All I Want For Christmas...

megatokyo hoodie ob3y pirogethTechinically, I want a lot of stuff for Christmas. Some more than others, but well, it never hurts to write about the stuff I want to keep me focused on my goals.

I've been a fan of Megatokyo for years... Ever since I had met Fred Gallagher in person, and after he encouraged me to upload my work online, I've followed his webcomic all through 1100+ pages.

Which is why I value the books I have from him and my Megatokyo shirt very much. ^_^

Now this hoodie isn't even for girls... It's a guy's hoodie, and I know there's a girl's shirt with the same design on it, but... I like hoodies. :( So I'm thinking of whether or not I should get my sis to order this for me.

It has Pirogeth on it staring at you with the words "OB3Y" in Japanese written at the bottom. I have no idea whether this should be considered moe or trap or both, but I'll let you guys determine that.

$36 for a hoodie is pretty expensive. >.<;;;

Ah... I guess I should sleep on this and think about it more... Would it be so wrong to wear guys' clothes, I wonder?

Of course, there's that evul thing about sizes too. @_@ I'm not entirely sure what size I am in men's wear..!

Oh well... How sad that I can't spend a lot this Christmas. ;~; But I suppose it is for the best. *keeps telling herself that*

Kokoro wo Yasumeru Otona no Nurie DS 2

I got myself a layout change for the coming Christmas season... :D I'll be sure to change the header image to something more Christmas-y later tonight... if I find any that is.

And if you want a new blogspot layout, you might want to check out Free Blogger Templates. They got great layouts that need no XML/CSS editing unlike some templates available on the net. Just download, upload, and you're done! And don't forget to backup your widgets! xD

kokoro wo yasumeru otona no nurie 2 - relax your heart: picture painting for adults 2Anyhow, good news to all those aspiring artists who own an NDS out there! I stumbled upon this new game now available in Japan. It's apparently a picture painting game where you can draw better quality paintings than "Colors!".

From the screen shots of sample art pieces made by a group called "The Vippers", you get to choose the medium you prefer (oils, watercolor, or color pencil) and zoom in to add all those extra details.

I would give you the site where I got these images, but since I got them from a friend's plurk, the site is... not safe for work. >.<;;; So I took a few to post here that are safe.

I'd prefer very much to keep my blog kid-friendly, but if you really want the site, leave me a comment or something and I can direct you to the plurk post.

moe girl and moe neko girl details

Some of the images you really can't believe that they were drawn on the NDS. I mean, why would anyone want to strain their eyes detailing on such a tiny screen? So says the one who draws using Colors!

moe girl with white tiger

Gotta love the cute white tiger! What awesome hair detailing! *o*

And for those of us who can't afford to buy this game and/or can't understand Japanese, there's always the Pic-to-Chat alternative.

lucky star and kuroshitsuji pictochat fan art

..those guys are good. ;.;

Monday, December 8, 2008

Manga Messiah

I'm willing to bet a good number of people have heard about this already, but I think it's worth writing about.

manga messiah coverI went to Powerbooks yesterday, originally to look for that elusive "This Journal Will Actually Change Your Life 2009". I found it eventually and browsed about while thinking of whether or not I should spend P720 to help save some trees when I found myself staring at this book...

I had seen this once before and thought to myself, "meh, I don't like the art at all!" But then, seeing it again made me realize something...

I was jealous.

I wanted to do something like this before... To turn the Bible into a manga, but what stopped me was that my drawing style consisted of bishounen (beautiful boys). I don't dare draw God in such a way... so much more his 12 disciples. The last thing I want is for someone to interpret my work as shounen ai / yaoi when the story is about God.

..but I'm kind of regretting that I stopped myself now. His Good News is being spread like wildfire and yet I have done nothing to do what He's asked.

Anyhow, I bought the book, which I found to be cheap at only P175 when it's full colored and printed in Japan. Is it bad that I find Archangel Gabriel pretty as well as Messiah and the 12? Mary is cute too. ;.; It's well worth it, though like the Bible, the material is too heavy to read all in one day.

Maybe some time in the future, I will have the chance to do something similar too.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Resident Evil: Degeneration

I got a hold of the new Resident Evil movie from the office, so I decided to write up a short review on the film.

resident evil: degeneration title

The movie was pretty good, although the animation was a little rough in the beginning. It looked like they had focused more on making the main character's movements and features look realistic while leaving the crowds' movement similar to the games.

leon scott kenedy from resident evil: degeneration

Nevertheless, the storyline was built up pretty well, and fans of the game are sure to enjoy seeing Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield in action. Leon's got himself a lady in this picture, Angela Miller, who's features remind me of Angelina Jolie.

angela miller from resident evil: degeneration

They even have similar names... Hm...

g-virus infected curtis miller from resident evil: degeneration

Curtis Miller probably had the best animation of all when he infected himself with the G-virus. You can practically feel that slime on his skin. =.=;;; *gross!*

Anyhow, not a bad film to watch, although I can't say I'm not disappointed. I mean, you can't compare the animation to Final Fantasy's 2 3D movies, Spirits Within and Advent Children, and the English voice acting seemed a little off at times. I think the character's movements were based solely on the games and not on RL (real life) acting.

claire redfield from resident evil: degeneration

I got mixed feelings for this film, but I'm leaning more towards the negative side... Let me know how it works out for you.

frederic downing from resident evil: degeneration
This is my happy face. Lol~ xD

..I Phail as a Web Mangaka, I Kid You Not!

renka looking worriedSo the updates have gone back to PHAIL lately, but I'm telling you, this time, it's not my fault! There was just a lot of stuff that needed to be done in the house before the parents came home a few days ago, so the busy schedule was busy.

I'm planning to set up the gallery section for A.illusions soon. I'd also like to set up the Chinese version of Karma for online reading, but I'll have to ask Renka for that. :)

Similarly, work has been crazier than usual... Why do the right people tend to hide at the times you need them the most? :( But at least we got some progress done. I'm just sad they won't hold off 24/7 operations for the holidays. Oh well...

I made a Kuroshitsuji Fanart over at Colors! (also available in dA) I won't be posting it here since I'm lazy and I'm not too happy with how it turned out, you can view it for yourself by clicking on the links above. :D

I need more time for sketching practice.

I also edited page 71's script thanks to some awesome comments from the A.I. community. The forums are back online by the way, so feel free to visit whenever you can!

And now for some manga quotes that I find to be incredibly insightful:

"You know what? I was really uncertain. I honestly didn't know if it was smart to turn the thing I love into a 'job'. If I made it my work, then I'd have to do it even when I was tired... when I didn't feel like it... Would I still love it then? Would I be able to keep that love alive? I wondered it... I dunno... Maybe I should save what I love best. Keep it like a hobby..." - Keiichi Morisato

"It'll be fine! Maybe loving something isn't always fun... but if it's something you feel for deeply, you'll never hate it. Not ever." - Belldandy

Goodnight all~ ^^

Friday, December 5, 2008

No White Christmas Here...

Philippine weather has officially gone whack. It's nice and cool and rainy for one minute and hot and sunny the next minute. That is what headaches are made of! =.=;;;

Dihya and I have been going to the mall for the past 2 days since his girlfriend is caught up with work or something. I like going out, but it's making my sleeping schedule fall way off schedule. ;.; I need more coffee just to wake up and get myself to the office. *sniffle*

The good thing about it is, I only have 4 stickers left to complete my Starbucks Planner. ;3 So I'll probably be getting that next week. I want the red or the black one since I think the blue one is a little bland. I just can't decide which to get between the 2 colors. ;.;

Should I go for red or black?

There's that other option of getting a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf notebook/journal too. But that's another 12 cups of coffee, so I'll have to think about it. The notebooks are not really my type anyhow, but we'll see.

Also...

gundam 00 pvc soma peries / mary and lockon stratos

Mary!!! Please ignore that my camera phone can not capture the details of this awesome PVC. ;.; I'm contemplating whether or not I should get Wang Liu Mei, but I like her better with pigtails. The PVC available has her with Chun-Li's hair style. And besides, I have no idea what she's up to. Wang Liu Mei has been a mystery since the first season of Gundam 00, making me think she might be the true heir of Aeolia Scehnberg.

Speaking of conspiracies, is it me or is Soma Peries changing to Mary seem... too easy? I have a feeling that Soma is allowing Mary to control the body they share so that she can get a better idea of what the Gundam Meisters are up to... even to the point of analyzing the Trans-Am system since she's already there.

Remember, what Mary sees, Soma Peries also sees, and vice versa.

So the plot thickens... *nods nods*

This picture gives me more reason to buy a new Cam-Phone. I'm thinking of getting the SE G900 when the prices go down after Christmas... I hope there's a Christmas bonus waiting for us this year. ;.;