Omiyage from Singapore

A big thank you to Kodomut for sending this small but wonderful package to Vancouver. I actually received this 2 weeks ago, but I couldn't find the time to take pictures until now. I was surprised when Kodomut sent a message asking for my address... Stalking! LoL, just kidding. I did find out that he was going to send me his cards, but I thought it was just the cards, but I got more than that!

First, here are the cards. One big postcard size, Danny Choo's new business card and Kodomut's mini business card size. (Kinda making me want to make my own business cards now ^^;) But when I turned the big card around...

I read this! Many times I've written cards like these with other people for their birthday or if they're retiring at work, but I've never received one before. Hmm... I did receive it after Christmas, but I forgive you for being late, lol!

A big, big thank you to Kodomut, Shazzsteel, Eclair/Saiseki, ScorchNRoses, Zh3us, Ex14/Joel and YuKi-To!!

 And wow... Do I talk about knee pits that much? XD

And I also got two more MEIKO Puchi Nendoroids! Thank you again! I'm not sure if it's just ScorchNRoses who sent them, but thank you to whoever gave them. You just can never have enough MEIKOs!

So on my computer desk I now have 4 MEIKOs! So cutesome! ^o^

And to respond to some of the things that's on the card... YuKi-To: Yah, kapan2 kalo gua ada duit banyak XD. Joel: Yep, I saw you on Twitter! Lastly to Kodomut and ScorchNRoses: I enjoyed them (as seen below)! :D

Taking Center Stage

This topic came innocently enough from a children's colouring book at Boston Pizza where I had dinner a few weeks ago. I think it was a quiz to determine what kind of job you'd like to have in the future for children or such. It seemed like a forgettable conversation, but somehow it stuck in my mind.

One of the questions was: "Do you like to be the center of attention?" My naturally meek and modest self said, "no", but my brother said, "yes, since you have that blog of yours". The result: "You're a rock star."


Me? Center of attention? Rock star?? Never could see that... But does it mean the fact that I'm mulling it over means it's somewhat true? One of the purposes of a blog is to bring out your thoughts on certain subjects or for some it's like a diary of what happened in their life. Of course that's what I do as well, but from the get go, my blog was meant to show off unique items and projects I've been doing; from my custom Gundam projects, the Saber Lily 4koma, to the semi-stop-motion videos I've made. But does that really mean I like to be the center of attention? I think of it as challenging myself to make these posts as good and unique as they can be so that perhaps they can get some attention. I can't see myself as the center of attention, however; I'd be too shy.

What do you think? Do you think I really like being the center of attention? Does having a blog mean you like to be the center of attention? Do you like to be the center of attention? :3

Anyway... I was looking up "stage" on Danbooru to find a proper image for this post and encountered this MEIKO picture drawn by Ino again. So I figured it's best for this one to take center stage, yes? You can see the video of Ino drawing MEIKO below (original video from NicoNicoDouga).

MEIKO's Birthday

November 5th is MEIKO's birthday! And to celebrate it this year, I made a special art based on MEIKO's Nostalogic. I've been wanting to create this kind of art on Illustrator for a while now, but I figured planning it for her birthday would be best.

Unfortunately MEIKO just doesn't have the same popularity as Miku, Luka, Rin & Len or even KAITO sometimes... So finding merchandise of MEIKO is quite a challenge... And I thought, "why not make my own?" I was hoping the MEIKO shirt I made on Zazzle would arrive by now, but it hasn't... It's basically the first photo in the post on a shirt and I'll wear it proudly!

Nostalogic was a song created by Yuukiss. He doesn't create a lot of songs, but he's one of the best composer that uses MEIKO, in my opinion at least. What would MEIKO's birthday be without some of her songs, right? So in honor of MEIKO's birthday, Yuukiss created a new song and video using clips of Real Life MEIKO aka Yumiko, called Fairy-Taled... Enjoy!

The oneesan of the Vocaloid family is 6 years old this year. She looks good for a 6 year old girl, eh? ;) Since it's her birthday after all, let's go all out and post more songs and more pictures! The next one shows the "mature" MEIKO, if you know what I mean. ^_~

The next song shows off MEIKO's cool voice and I'm so glad I found the art that was used in the video. Gorgeous!

Next up is somewhat related to the picture above... It's MEIKO's own 3DPV, Silent Snow!

I had to put this picture in... So sexy!

The next video is not really a part of her birthday celebration, but it's still awesome looking. It was only on NicoNico, but I uploaded it onto Youtube... But I didn't draw it ok? ^^;

Not a lot of MEIKO's birthday songs are uploaded to YouTube yet, so I can't embed them here, but feel free to look them up on this link for NicoVideo that looks up 【MEIKO生誕祭2010】.

 For now enjoy these last few pictures while I go look up more MEIKO videos on Nicovideo :P

Oh wait... There is one more video on YouTube that you might be interested in that's related to MEIKO's birthday...

お誕生日おめでとうめーちゃん！

MEIKO - Nostalogic (single edit)

I think it's almost obvious that MEIKO is my favourite Vocaloid after the lengthy MEIKO post a few months ago, the plastering of MEIKO on my Twitter account and avatars. So it was pretty easy to find what I like on the net... and that is how I discovered that there is a new version of Nostalogic; my favourite MEIKO songs of all time! A fellow tweeter, UntoldHero, found it for me and I was in shock and in awe!

 

Nostalogic version of MEIKO. I'm thinking of making a shirt out of this MEIKO.

Why? Because Nostalogic is created by Yuukiss who is known for getting the best voices out of Vocaloids, but a lot of his works are either short versions or unfinished. Just like the first edition of Nostalogic.

So the fact that there's suddenly a full version (called a "single edit") of Nostalogic was a total surprise for me. I did not expect it at all!

The popularity of the short version of the song danced by a "Real MEIKO", Yumiko, probably triggered the creation of the full "single edit" version of the song. There seems to be another name, Rose, who worked on the lyrics, so I wonder how much more did Yuukiss worked on the music or the lyrics after the "radio edit". Either way I'm VERY glad that it was actually made! Not only that, but Yumiko has been recruited again to do the full video... I'm just melting here! Not even the bearded lady in the middle of the video can rain on my parade :P

The video was originally posted on March 1st on NicoNicoDouga and it already garnered almost 160,000 views as of this post! I really hope with this video and song, MEIKO can enjoy more time in the spotlight ^_^

MEIKO baby, you're the best!

Loot from Boxing Day & Before Christmas

Once again it's another outing for Boxing Day shopping! Hoping to get some good deals and perhaps even win $500 gift card from Best Buy, an electronic & entertainment store. This has been the second time I'm going there really early. Once again I didn't sleep the night before. So I woke up at 10 AM on Christmas morning and did not sleep until the 26th... or should I say 27th at 12:30 AM.

But before I leave for the Boxing Day shopping madness I finally opened one of my Puchi Nendoroid Vocaloid box. Kyourin said, "the first Vocaloid you unbox is your lucky Vocaloid". And guess what I first drew from the box: MEIKO! Oh yeah, looks like it's starting to look like a good day!

Yeah... Maybe not... First of all, it's very cold, very foggy and very slippery! I planned on going to the Best Buy in Coquitlam, but I don't really know the way, so I thought I'd use the GPS. Unfortunately the fog cover is too thick to get through the satellite in the sky. So I had to go to where I know, Richmond. It's a bit farther than what I planned though.

Sorry for the super exposed flashy picture... It was still dark at 6:30 AM ^^;

So I arrived at 5:30 AM. 15 minutes to spare before they do the draw. They gave out a ticket with numbers on it. The last 4 digits on my ticket was 4410. The winning ticket was 4510... AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! I was hearing the number as the person went along the line and heard how similar it was to my number, but I guess luck just doesn't happen that easily. Anyway the line moved fast thankfully. Although I only found one of what I was looking for at this Best Buy. I asked for the other one, but the employee there doesn't know anything about it...

I also realized I forgot my phone... I planned on picking it up before moving to my next destination. No time for that! The next store opens at 7 AM! Next is Superstore, an all-around store that sells groceries, furnitures, drugs and electronics. My main goal was to see any cheap games... Nothing but crappy games though. So I went for the half price chocolates instead. ^^;

Next store, or mall I should say, opens at 8 AM. This is where I spent the most money. I also did find the other game I was looking for at Best Buy here. I saw the Rogue (Shunya Yamashita ver.) figure at Metropolis Comics & Toys... but I thought I should hold back on my purchases. It wasn't much of a discount anyway. The main target here was Sakura Media. They didn't disappoint. Got all the DVDs I wanted at a discounted price! I was already dazed and hungry in the last shop, so I had no choice but to go home before I collapse in the mall XD

So anyway... here's the whole Boxing Day purchases. Two manga, Honey & Clover Box Set 1 & 2, Spice and Wolf Season 1, Gundam 00 Part 3, House of the Dead: Overkill, Madworld & a memory stick.

Close up of the purchases from Best Buy(s). The memory stick is for the PSP, pretty good deal for $23. I'll be using that to watch anime on the PSP. The games were $15 each. Two of the games I've kinda wanted but thought they were too pricey before. Oh and MEIKO's just here to brighten up the mood.

These are the purchases from Sakura Media. There were a lot that I could've bought but this one store purchase was over $200 already... So no figures either even with the additional 10% off discount. That's that for Boxing Day. Sorry no pictures of the chocolates :P

The following purchases are bought before Christmas during my excursions to research the Anime Stores Around Vancouver 1 & 2.

These two are from Book-Off. I've been kinda wanting to get that Kamen Rider 555 book for a while. I know it's old, but Kamen Rider 555 has been my favourite Rider for a while now. I misplaced my North American copy of Rumble Roses... so this was quite a nice find to get the Japanese version since I didn't like the dubs anyway.

And lastly are purchases from Soul of Anime. I could not resist that MEIKO cushion! I know it's not official product, but it's nice to have MEIKO on there. Once in a while is ok, right? ^^; The other one is a Valkyrie from Macross Frontier with Tsukasa painted on it. My fave Lucky Star girl on a plane! How cool is that? On the left wing it says "balsamic" in Japanese. Very cute ^_^

Now MEIKO gets a deserved break sitting on my desk after working hard posing for the photos. Thanks MEIKO!

Knee Pits

The colloquial term for the back of the knee, or if you'd like to be technical about it, popliteal fossa. It's the area where your knee bends. Since it's similar to where the arm bends at the shoulder, the arm pit, this area is also called the "knee pit".

The above photo of Kanu in cosplay is by Ren of Zark&Ren on Cosplay.com. Look through more of their cosplay at their site!

Please be wary that there may be some picture that are risque and NSFW...

Let MEIKO show you the knee pits (circled in red) that I'm talking about.

Gorgeous China dress... beautiful MEIKO & knee pit.

Knee pits are also visible through knee/thigh high boots.

Misaka's knee pits are very well drawn here!

And why am I talking about this? Well for years, I had thought I liked the body part I liked on an anime character is her thighs. Which is why I liked the thigh highs that anime characters wore... but I realize that the part I look at closely is actually the area where the knee bends. There doesn't seem to be an official name for knee pits in Japanese, like "futamomo" for "thigh". If there is one, then I don't know it.

What the girl, Eimi, doing in the bottom right panel is called "hiza kakkun". "Hiza" means "knee" and "kakkun" is the noise of the knee crumpling from knees hitting the back of the knee. Somewhat related to the knee pit topic, especially from one of my favourite manga, Beauty is the Beast. Closest thing I can find in Japanese for "knee pit"...

Yuji Shiozaki's Ryomou got some of the best knee pits in the business!

But why do I like them? I'm not quite sure why. There must be some thing about the shape of them. The muscle connecting the two joints... The crease that shows where the knee bends... Or the dimples on either side of the muscle in the middle... I don't know, but I know when I see kneepits of an anime character drawn this way, it's definitely the first thing I'll see. The more detailed it's drawn, the more I appreciate the art.

So apparently the reason why I like thigh highs, loose socks, or boots, is because the way they accentuate knee pits...

Not so visible, but for one of my favourite characters, she looks great in those thigh highs!

Loose socks are great, aren't they?

Cammy's one of the first that I remember to show of her knee pits in a victory pose.

Figures are also great works of art that features detailed knee pits. Such as the Maid Saber from Alter. You can see her knee pits covered by the thigh highs. Or the Gothic Lolita Ryomou figure based on the picture previously shown above. The Franco Il Nero pictured below is another great piece.

Tsukino Azusagawa from Yakitate Japan got some great ones too. One of my favourite figures!

Ok, most static figures are pretty good for knee pits... let's take a look at Revoltech Fraulein Haruka Hasegawa from Moyashiman and Figma Yuki Nagato from Haruhi Suzumiya series.

ARRRGH!! Never mind, forget it!

GYAH! I don't need a close up of it >_<

Ah, that's better...

First thing I notice about this picture of Angol Moa? The knee pits of course.

Now, I don't really think this is a fetish because it's not something that I think about sexually. It's something that I look at because it's beautiful... Or is that the same thing? NO! I deny it! It's the appreciation of beauty not something that you think of when you're by yourself and feeling the urge... The beauty of knee pits transcend that of a mere fetish!

Mogudan draws some of the best knee pits... Most of his art is ero doujinshi, so this is one of the cleanest ones I could find...

Umm... sorry, over dramatic. There are a lot of pictures of knee pits that are in ero positions unfortunately... So it can actually be difficult to find something clean to post here. It's also quite rare to have characters drawn from the back and their knee pits being shown. When there are knee pits visible then most likely there will be an upskirt picture as well...

Izurumi also draws knee pits quite well... A lot of his are ero doujinshi too...

It's difficult to find something clean to understand the beauty of knee pits... but when it's there, I don't think I can't take my eyes off of them. So without further words... I present to you, The Knee Pit Gallery.

Rei in a plugsuit sorta shows them off... or is that part of the plug suit?

Cosplay of Rei looks good too ^^

Not so visible under Yui's pantyhose here, but it's not too bad.

Just barely there, but I can see it!

Ikki Tousen seems to be a good source...

Ishikei's art really showcase the knee pits... But again, a lot of his art are ero doujinshi ^^;

That's all folks! If you see great arts of knee pits, show me! :D