Cosplaying and Fame – Are You a Model or Hobbyist? April 8, 2013

The inspiration of this post came from this amazing blog post on Nerd Caliber titled “The Pursuit of Cosplay Fame“.

A lot of cosplayers were sharing this post on my Facebook newsfeed, and after reading this, I couldn’t help but to pen down my own opinion about this issue.

This post took me quite a while to write, I did some research, not entirely detailed, but I needed to see more into this issue to actually make a stand about it.

Cosplayer pages had always existed, no one knew when had it started, but even before the event of Facebook deleting cosplayer profiles, cosplayers like Yaya Han and Jessica Nigri already had pages for them to connect with their fans.

Let’s all agree on one thing, cosplaying is attention seeking.

Not in the bad way, but in a way you’re expressing yourself, it’s exactly like a dancer or singer who would perform in front of an audience, you’re sharing something with your audience, in this sense people who are looking at your cosplay.

So in a way, you can’t be surprised to see cosplayers becoming celebrities.

When you try to relate fame with anything, we should probably look at the tabloid news for some idea of ‘how do people get famous?’.

Some earns it by working hard and being awesome at what they do, some were simply luckier than most and born with it, some just got famous for all the wrong reasons…

However cosplaying is different from the showbiz, many of us started purely treating it as a hobby, without any thoughts about getting famous or whatsoever, we invest money in it and expect no monetary reward.

Then came the time when the media started giving cosplay more attention, the general public started knowing about this hobby, and then cosplay became a possible career; people started earning money out of it.

There was this particular long argument on facebook about Tasha from Spcats’ recent StarCraft cosplay.

Tasha from Spcats

Do give the link above a read if you’re interested.

Spcat is a very famous Korean cosplay group, consisting of only a few females, most of their cosplay is of very high quality.

Tasha’s event photo

I can’t remember since when, but after their fame reached a certain level, they started doing paid jobs in cosplay, and there was many criticism about this.

The main argument is, what makes a person a cosplayer, rather than just a model?

Spcat had often been criticised for being just a group of pretty faces, always having photoshoots in the same few sets they have, some inaccuracy of costume details, and at times, people would doubt whether did they make their own costumes or did they get sponsored or were the costumes made by someone else?

Let’s take a look at the more extreme cases of actual models who are paid for putting on costumes.

A model was hired by a gaming company to cosplay as Athena from Saint Seiya for the huge event ChinaJoy, however the costume they provided was really exposing and they forced the mode to take off her safety pants.

Of course as a result, due to her costume being overexposed, the organizers demanded for the company to let the model get out of the event area if not they’ll debar the company from the event in the future.

There are a few key points to take note, the model in the picture, is an actual model, and her purple hair was dyed, she was definitely paid to do this and that’s why she can’t say no to a lot of requests from the company that hired her.

Then there is another celebrity in Taiwan, Sunny Lin, who became famous after she cosplayed the character Boa Hancock from One Piece.

She was praised as an ‘Otaku Goddess’, and had been the endorser of numerous games.

Then there was another case of the exact opposite of what we’ve seen above.

The child actress, Xu Jiao, who was famous for acting as the little boy in the Stephen Chow movie CJ7.

She’s probably more famous than most of the people mentioned above, and you know exactly what happened.

Yep, she’s all grown up now and she started cosplaying.

The above picture is just one of the many cosplays that she had done, mostly collaborated with a famous cosplay group named 304.

Right after posting her cosplay pictures on Weibo(the China version of Twitter),  she received a huge amount of negative feedback.

Most people just mentioned how the group 304 is only using her for publicity in the media, and how she’s using her fame to easily gain publicity for her cosplays, while other people who might be doing a better job doesn’t get the same amount of attention, and in some comments, mentioning how she’s exposing the cosplay community to the mainstream audience who don’t know anything about cosplay.

We’ve seen the two types of extreme cases in terms of cosplaying and fame, models who cosplay for money, and a famous person who started cosplaying.

Then let’s take a look at the inbetweens, those who became famous from cosplaying.

There’s Jessica Nigri, who was already pretty famous before becoming the official cosplayer of the game Lollipop Chainsaw.

Then there is Alodia Gosiengfiao, who became famous after competing in the AFA regional cosplay competition, currently she’s an actual celebrity in Philippines.

Despite being the representation of the cosplaying community, people still have doubts to whether Jessica Nigri and Alodia make their own costume, and worthy of their fame and status in the community.

However there is one person who is famous for her cosplays, yet no one ever questions about who made her costumes.

I’m talking about Yaya Han, I’ve only started following her after the local Singapore event ICDS invited her as a guest, and since then I’ve been following her page and twitter account.

Despite the fact that she gets negative feedbacks all the time, I actually really admire her and believe that she deserve and earned everything she’s achieved today.

Yaya’s april fools prank about selling her costumes, but it’s a nice collage of her cosplays

People can criticise how she doesn’t look good, or how her boobs are unrealistic, but no one could say a word about how she’s not putting in enough effort.

She sews her own costume, styles her own wig, makes her own props, have a passion for all the characters she cosplays…

Taken from Yaya’s fanpage album Yaya’s In Pogress cosplay photos

She’s the combination of both fame and cosplaying, she earns a living out of cosplay, yet doesn’t rely on others or becomes just a celebrity for people to worship.

Most of the times she would label the photos as ‘Modeled by me’, she sees herself as a model of the costume, giving modelling in cosplay a whole new definition.

Now that we have seen all sorts of cosplay fame, I suppose we can get to the actual discussion.

I know, that really took a long time.

What defines a cosplayer?

We can’t put in attributes like making our own costumes as a must, because in the community itself, we have many cosplayers, regardless of age and experience, who doesn’t make their own costumes, and would rely on online sources or tailors.

So then why are we criticising these cosplayers, who happen to get famous, about where their costumes came from?

Then there is another question, what separates a cosplayer, from a model?

This question is easier to answer, in my opinion, a cosplayer chooses what to cosplay, they know who they want to be, they have a passion for the character they’re portraying, they become someone else when they put on the costume, and they will feel happy when their love for this character is recognised by others.

A model doesn’t care about what character they’re doing, they just need to look good, that’s all.

Fame always comes at a price, and a word of advice for the cosplayers out there who wants to become famous.

1.Don’t attempt to become an actual celebrity through cosplay, it doesn’t work, it worked for Alodia, but it might not work for you. Very few people achieved mainstream fame through cosplaying, most of the famous cosplayers’ fame is restricted to just within the huge Otaku community globally.

2.If you can’t take criticism, might as well don’t even try to become famous. Because there will be criticism, there will be people calling you names and trying to make you seem less worthy than you are. It comes in a package, you can’t avoid it. If you have a very fragile heart that would break into pieces after hearing anything bad about yourself, then just don’t even try.

3.Don’t forget why you started. Don’t just cosplay because that character happens to be popular. Don’t forget that little joy you had when someone comes up to you to tell you how much they loved the character you’re portraying. Don’t let the magic of that die off.

In conclusion, there is no point wondering whether Spcat made their own costume, because they are gonna get famous no matter what, no matter how commercial they are, people will love them.

Let’s all admit it, they’re visually pleasing, they’re very beautiful ladies, and that itself will make them famous, regardless about their costumes or whatsoever.

The more important thing, lies within yourself.

If you don’t like the fact some cosplayers don’t make their own costumes, make your own costumes, invest your love in it, reap the reward by being proud of what you did.

If not, you’re just a giant hypocrite. 8D

——-

This post actually went way out of point, my initial intend was to talk about all the cosplayer pages and how people rate each other based on the number of likes they have, but then the Spcat incident happened, and I can’t help but evaluate this issue.

Then the above happened, and now this post is about all the famous cosplayers I know of.

Actually I’m not 100% happy with the result of this post, I got stuck so many times I was literally crumbling into a ball out of frustration.

I might make another post soon about sexy cosplayers and why they don’t deserve the harassment they get, because that’s what’s been appearing on my Facebook newsfeed lately.

Also, school’s starting in one week’s time, so… updating will get REALLY slow again.

I’m sorry ;v;

[Movie Review] Oz the Great and Powerful – Painfully Cheesy March 10, 2013

NOTE: SPOILERS

IMDB: 7.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 60% fresh

Disney had been known for two things, fairy tales and a good ending no matter what.

It’s no surprise Disney would touch on Oz, after all what’s better to attract the audience other than the nostalgia of our childhood.

Unfortunately when Hollywood attempts that, they often fail.

This movie shares several similarity with the 1939 classic Wizard of Oz, especially from the way they started the movie in sepia/black and white, then transit to color when Oz entered the world of Oz.

However it failed it’s attempt to be a valid prequel, instead it felt more like a stand-alone new franchise.(since they’re already making a sequel)

No doubt this movie is a visual extravaganza, burst of colors, beautiful costumes, amazing effects, I almost regretted not watching this in 3D.

They presented the world of Oz well enough to live up to it’s name, the costumes were good, the citizens of Oz were adorable pleasant people.

If I were to describe the movie in just one word, I know just the perfect word: cheesy.

You know there’s got to be something wrong with this movie when the actors and actresses themselves looked awkward on camera, I’m not even talking about Kristen Stewart sort of awkward, I’m talking about actually being awkward about what they’re told to do.

Rachel Weisz, an Oscar, Golden Globe award winner, looked awkward on camera. Perhaps she’s just not that great of an action star, but whenever the two wicked witches were supposed to summon their powers from their hands, it doesn’t feel very natural, especially so for Evanora since her powers are green colored electricity.

James Franco also felt painfully awkward on screen, it’s worst because he was supposed to be awkward, but he made it extra awkward with how awkward his awkwardness is.(it makes sense, trust me)

Every character felt one-dimensional, especially Mila Kunis’ Theodora.

She’s naive, she’s kind, she fell in love, she’s heart broken, she became wicked, and swore revenge…

The heart break and the process of her becoming wicked really didn’t felt like such a big deal.

Then right after she turns into the Wicked Witch of the West, she started screaming and screeching, becoming a completely different person, with little to no connections to her original self.

That was very hard for me to bear through because I love Mila Kunis, and I love Wicked Witch of the West because of the musical Wicked, instead this movie just ruined both of them for me.

They also gave a very weak reason to why the wicked witches were wicked. In fact they only showed Theodora becoming wicked, they never explained why Evanora was wicked, instead they simply told us, ‘yes she is wicked, she’s evil, she deserved all this’.

I was expecting a prequel of Oz would explain more than just how Oz gets to the land of Oz, at least touch a bit on Evanora’s history, and not make Rachel Weisz look like a one-dimensional villain.

Oz and Glinda the Good got together at the end, proving Theodora that everything her sister said became true.

The love between Oz and Glinda felt forced, I swear even Snow White falling in love with the prince made more sense than this.

It’s a shame that James Franco wasn’t that much of the cowardly Oz I was hoping for, the entire time he was this playboy caught up in a giant cat fight between the three witches.

I must also mention how much I didn’t like the wizard, right after finding out Glinda was the ‘wicked witch’, he immediately sides with Glinda without a single doubt, just because she looked like Annie she must have been the good witch?

Despite being the main cause Theodora became wicked, Oz barely felt sorry for it, if this was the original with Dorothy as the main character, I forgive that, but Oz is the main character, and main characters are supposed to do more than that to earn our respect.

It could also have served as a good lesson for kids, ‘when you do something wrong, apologize, and never lie to others when you know it’ll hurt them’.

The two side kicks are cute, but I believe they could have put a little more effort in making the flying monkey cuter.

I love monkeys, I could stare at them all day long, because of how beautifully innocent their eyes look, but this movie did not manage to capture that.(on this part Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters did better)

The china doll was adorable, but I would give more credit to the visual effects team who made her so realistic, from the way light reflects on her body, to the lines that shows every pieces of her.

That is pure art.

Even though the visual effects was beautiful, this movie didn’t felt as magical as the original.

This is another very common thing about prequel/sequel/remakes of a classical movies, no matter how much the visual effects had improved, the modern version just doesn’t feel as magical as the original.

Another example is Tim Burton’s modern Alice in Wonderland.

The very well done part of the movie has to the connection between Kansas and Oz, in which the flying monkey is a counterpart to Oz’s partner, the china doll being the little girl who wished Oz could let her walk, and of course Annie and Glinda.

That was really well done, and I would applaud the script writers for that, unfortunately the rest of the story was falling in pieces, the writing hardly made me feel enthusiastic or overwhelmed with any feelings.

To be very honest, this movie was a huge disappointment to those who grew up with the original.

I understand that there was a lot of hurdles Disney faced with touching on a classic that currently belongs to Warner Brothers, thus the lack of ruby slippers, actual terrifying flying monkeys, or even the slightest hint that Dorothy might appear in the future sequels of this new franchise.

I don’t have any idea what the sequel is gonna be about, perhaps the witches? Or even another prequel to what happened before Oz appeared?

We’ll only find out when the next Disney Oz movie comes out, meanwhile, perhaps we could pick up the original books by L. Frank Baum and immerse ourselves in the actual magical world of Oz.

Overall, 6.5/10.

Worth it for the effects, the storyline needs a lot more work, if you’re a loyal fan of the original, this won’t be what you’re expecting.

Also, was it just me, or did the witches all had to have their boobs and cleavage shown? Not like I’m complaining but that was definitely done on purpose right?

One more thing, my boyfriend was shaking when this movie kept referring Thomas Edison as the man who invented many things… but truth is, people who worked for him invented those things, not him.

Now I’ll post up the ticket stub if I watched a movie in the cinema~

[Movie Review] The Last Stand – Another Action Movie That Tried Too Hard February 25, 2013

NOTE: YES, SPOILERS, DUH

IMDB: 7.0

Rotten Tomatoes: 69%

I’m usually a person who don’t say much during movies, and I hate it when people around me talk, but for this particular movie, I almost banged my head on the floor as this movie unfolds it’s terrible logic.

First, I must mention how robotic Arnold Schwarzenegger reads his lines.

I’ve not seen much of his movies, except Terminator 2, which was awesome, and suits him perfectly.

Then I watched this movie and I realised, he is just like that, it wasn’t his acting.

Look at him, how is this not T-101?

I was half expecting him to say ‘Hasta la vista, baby‘ at the end of the movie after he captured the bad guy.

That wasn’t the big problem, we all know Arnold Schwarzenegger, and so we’re not especially surprised by that.

The one thing that got me very annoyed was how the movie tries too hard to be serious.

It was trying to reach a level like Mission Impossible or James Bond, when in actual fact, no one came to the movie to watch that.

I can tolerate, in fact, even enjoy a brainless movie, I can look at bad guys getting kicked in the ass for no apparent reason except to be simply told that he is evil, I don’t need to know his background story to enjoy watching him getting hit by the main protagonist.

So when the main antagonist of the movie tries to explain about death, about a story how his niece, who was very close to him, tries to shoot him in the head, hesitated, and instead got killed by him, I couldn’t help but wonder, was that really necessary?

There was no conclusion to the story, he didn’t explain why did his niece do that, maybe he killed her best friend’s parents? Or she found out about what he had been doing and couldn’t get over her own moral values?

But the story ended there, he killed her.

The bigger problem was the entire concept of the hostage in this movie.

The leader of FBI can let a whole SWAT team go face the criminals and die, yet couldn’t get over the fact his own FBI agent was captured and might be killed.

The movie would have ended in just 20 minutes, if he had done the right thing, which is to blow the car up.

That guy at the back who knows about cars, that guy you assume is a small character(and he is), was the only person who made sense in the entire team of ‘elite’ agents.

Why can’t you kill her? You have to answer to her parents? Dude she is a FBI agent, you don’t become a FBI agent and not expect death to come to you sooner or later.

If she was a civilian, okay, I understand, she would be an innocent soul trembling, but… she happens to be an FBI agent, I believe she’s went through enough training and seen enough things to not act like a normal civilian.

This movie once again made FBI looked like the most useless team of people on the planet, 5 people could do the task that an entire team of elite made up of at least 50 men couldn’t. Really?

Also, the FBI hostage, did she get the job by having sex with the leader? Because her level of intelligence definitely seem lower than a normal human being.

Was she really expecting to be living happily ever after with the antagonist? Did she really not know that he was going to push her down the car? She’s dealing with one of the most dangerous criminal on record, yet she lets her guard loose to the stage she’s asking for sex from him.

I was hoping that she was just working undercover, pretending she sides with him after receiving the money, but instead later kicks his ass.

But that never happened, she was a bimbo even till the end of the movie, playing hard to get, flirting furiously.

Once again, how did the leader of the FBI suddenly suspect that she was working with him? I thought a moment ago you still couldn’t bear to plant a bomb on the car because she’s in there.

The death of the young police officer was unnecessary, I get it, you want to make it seem sad, serious, a huge issue.

Come on, we all know that at the end of the movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger is gonna kick that guy’s sorry ass, why? Because he is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It’s also ridiculous, how his two best friends, after winning the battle, started spinning in circle, happily in love again, completely forgotten about his entire existence.

It would have been more appropriate if he only ends up in the hospital, telling them to go get that bad guy, and at the end of the movie everyone visit him, he would be happy to see his two best friends happily together again, and his respect for the sheriff multiplied, becomes a determined youth, striving to be just as awesome as the sheriff.

You don’t mention a youth with aspiration, then let him die in the lamest way possible, without even saying any last words that meant something.(no wishing you two lover best friends back together is not meaningful)

That’s one thing Jackie Chan actually does well, he knows who to keep alive, he make sure his movies are pure action, no matter how bad the story is, the ending makes the audience happy.

They also didn’t make good use of the two comic relief characters, Johnny Knoxville’s character didn’t live up to the expectation, except the flair gun part, that was awesome. However I was still expecting him to showcase how passionate he is about guns, how these knowledge become a huge advantage… but that didn’t happen.

From the moment Luis Guzmán’s character took swords, I was hoping, he’s gonna slice the enemies and stab them, showing them that traditional weapons can be just as deadly and bad-ass, but that didn’t happen either.
(Correct me if I’m wrong about these two parts, maybe the cinema in my country cut out certain parts of the movie)

Overall the movie was a pathetic attempt on all aspects.

I heard that this movie was the director’s Hollywood debut, and that it’s pretty important to him. But if you ask me, his past movies were a lot better than this. Maybe he just lacked a good script, as I noticed that the directing didn’t have any problem, the graphic visuals was pleasant. I really hope Hollywood give him another chance.

This was also Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first lead role since Terminator 3, not a good start if you ask me, but he is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his name itself would bring people into the theater.

Overall, 6/10.

Worth watching for the action, but just try to tolerate the stupid logic from the script writer(s).

The Female Body Size and Confidence Issue – From Guys’ POV? February 20, 2013

Note: I’m not gonna bother to censor any of their names, when you post a comment on a public page, jolly well expect it to be public else where too. I’ll only censor names when conversations are held in a place the other party expect it to be private, like a private chat, or facebook profile.

You can actually consider this to be just a rant.

You can also skip down directly to my opinions on such issues, and ignore this long argument.

Just a while ago, I got into this argument with a guy on the Singapore Poly’s confession page, about whether a fat person love and respect themselves.

Here’s the original confession,

 

Of course, being the Aries I am, I posted a reply.

Some people try to defend the person’s thinking, but I countered it either way.

Then this guy came in, his thinking is almost identical to the person who posted the confession.

My reply.

This guy continued to counter me, but in a way which I believe religious people would.

Then I gave my final reply because at the end of the day, all these argument provided for me was running in circles, just the same thing over and over again.

—————————————————————————————————————————

I really wish I could speak like TheAmazingAtheist, have a good quality camera, and do this on Youtube instead.

First and foremost, they are guys.

To all my male readers out there, if you’re a guy, don’t try to act like you understand girls well enough.

Because you almost never will, and unless if you’ve been inside the brain of each and every girl on this planet, don’t try to act as though you do.

You can understand the few girls that you’ve dated, your sister, mother, or even grandmother, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

There are times even girls do not understand ourselves, but we see through things females do a lot easier than you can.

What seem confident about a girl to you? How much skin she dares to show?

Let me tell you, the more a girl flaunt her body, the less confident she is.

How is that even possible?

Because she’s fishing for you compliment, she wants to flaunt it so as to feel loved and wanted.

Surprising huh?

A true confident lady don’t need to flaunt anything, she don’t need to show her body to you to prove that she’s confident, confidence is an attitude, not an action.

Now moving on to fat pride.

Almost everyone on the comment section assumed that I’m fat… Well I can’t exactly say am I fat or not, but for those of you who had seen me in real life, you can be the judge.

I’m not thin or fit, that’s for sure.

The people on the comment section kept repeating one thing, which is, ‘Fat people have no self love and self respect, they don’t love their body’.

How do you love your body? Love itself is very abstract.

Let me use an apple as an example. I love this apple, so, am I gonna eat it, or not? Because I love it, but love it as in, eating it? Or preserving it and hugging and and taking care of it?

That’s the giant flaw in their argument, how can you define how another person love something else.

A person love his or her body because she simply love and accept everything of themselves, or a person love his or her body because they’re taking care of it?

I hate arguing about abstract things, such as God.

Because there’s no basis to what you’re saying, no real life example, no hard solid evidence which I can counter.

You’re giving me a thinking, an ideal, like making me a castle in the sky, and expect me to jump onto it.

The entire time, these guys were trying to tell me what sort of girls attract them.

Guess what, I don’t give a fuck.

The other guy even tried to do it on a personal level, by telling me I’m unattractive to him.

Guess what, I don’t give a fuck.

I have a boyfriend, so why the fuck do I care? As long as he loves me for me, he thinks I’m attractive, I’m not gonna give a shit to what other guys think.
(Which is the direct evidence my previous post about weight and size issues is valid, the opinion of someone we love is way more important than a stranger’s)

It’s funny, because throughout my argument, I’ve never said anything like, “you should date fat girls, you should be attracted to them’.

The entire time, I was trying to explain that every living human being can have self love and self respect, regardless of their size, race, age, sexual-orientation, anyone can love themselves, why are you saying these people don’t?!

Simply because they don’t follow your lifestyle? They’re not like you?

So can I say that, a guy who takes half nude pictures of themselves and post it online have no self love and respect for himself? Because that’s exactly what he did.

I clicked on his profile, and I see himself taking half nude pictures of himself.

I’m gonna say, you have no self respect for your body because you’re showing it to the entire world.

But no, that’s just my opinion, I can’t force it on you.

In fact that’s not even my opinion, for those of you who still don’t realise it, I’m simply using it as an example.

Yet the entire time, they’re trying to tell me, oh I love a girl who train herself, who lift weights, who stay fit.

Yeah, so the fuck what? I didn’t mention no shit about girls you’re attracted to, you can say, you love girls with D cup boobs, and I won’t give a single fuck.

Because that’s your opinion, something I won’t even bother trying to control or change, why would I? Who are you to me? Not like you’re my 12 year old daughter falling in love with a pedophile.

Actually, I do understand why they keep mentioning it, they’re trying to seek reassurance from me, try to get me to say, ‘yeah those girls are the best, fat chicks are not worthy, everyone should date fit chicks’.

You, my dear reader, should know that I won’t.

I adore fat people, I adore them, I adore how chubby and nice it is to hug them, I fucking love it when they have poise and pride, when they’re happy to be who they are.

I adore fit people, I adore their dedication, I adore how they can be the perfect anatomy model for my drawing assignments, I love the determination in their eyes to reach their own personal goals.

One last thing that got me very annoyed is that, these guys thinks that, if a girl is fit, she must be really confident, if a girl is fat, she must have no confidence at all.

Now, if you’re a guy, let me lead you to explore the female brain a little, if you’re a female, let’s just review on this thing we can all agree on.

99.9% of the females on this planet, are not 100% happy with themselves.

Which brought about the famous Dove advertisement, that told all the ladies, you’re beautiful for who you are, and don’t think otherwise.

If you don’t know about it, here’s a video.

Dove realised one thing, most ladies aren’t happy with themselves, they want to become someone else, usually someone on TV, or megazines, someone who they believe is perfect.

No matter how fit, skinny, plump, fat, tall, short a girl is, they won’t be happy with themselves.

If you think that the lady in a club, her make up is perfect…

Have you ever think about this, why is she wearing make up then? If she’s confident about herself?

If she work out, is she really trying to stay fit, or just because someone told her they don’t have her size for a beautiful dress she saw in a shop?

This is one thing most guys always don’t understand, females are like that, and if your girlfriend ever ask you, is she fat?

Don’t, don’t you dare, don’t you ever tell her, ‘yes’.

The answer is always NO.

Unless if you want to cripple her confidence for the rest of her life, and make her hate herself.

Anorexia and bulimia exist for a reason, people die from it, our society is hard on us, and yet these guys are still trying to tell girls, ‘you’re fat, go work out, if not I won’t even giving you a second look’.

You’d be surprised how many people agreed with the confession, liked it, shared it, hailed the guy who posted the confession as a hero.

You don’t ever, EVER talk about a girl’s size like that, and act like you’re justified.

There are girls, who have the BMI that is considered underweight, who STILL think they’re fat.

And here you are, saying, ‘fat chicks don’t deserve my second look’.

Did you know that, girls who consider themselves as fat, aren’t limited to just girls who are overweight?

Even skinny girls will cry about how they think they’re fat, even the fit girls might feel like they’re not ‘fit’ enough.

The dream girl these guys are looking for, is a mere 0.01% of the entire female population, and might become extinct if these guys continue with their attitude.

I believe those guys barely knew much about love, and you might agree or disagree with me.

But if you love someone, and they grow fat, if you’re giving them up simply because of that, no, you don’t love them.

Love is beyond superficial things like looks or money, love is a choice you make.

You choose to continue loving that person, no matter what they become, no matter whether do they lose a leg or completely have their face ruined, you love them anyway, and never give them up.

That is love, despite the fact I’m a non-religious person, I have a huge respect for the Roman Catholic marriage vow, which is the following.

“I, ____, take you, ____, to be my (husband/wife). I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

In good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, that is love, not something like, ‘the moment you grow fat, I’ll want to give you up’.

No, that’s not love, that’s just attraction.

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That’s end of this long post about somethings in life I just can’t agree with, sorry if you hated it, thank you if you loved it.

Also terribly sorry for my long absence, I’m being honest here, was REALLY busy with school, barely even had time to sleep, but right now it’s my holidays, and I hope I can squeeze more blog posts out of myself.

2012 Review & New Year Resolution January 7, 2013

Finally, a new post!

I’m really sorry guys been REAL busy with school and assignments, so I could only squeeze this post out when it’s already like 7 days past new year.

Well, at the very least, it’s still January! 8D

Okay, let’s start with a review of 2012.

First of course would be my cosplay.

Here is a picture of the compilation of all the cosplay I had done during 2012, you can actually see how much I had improved and changed in a year’s time.

Now to focus on each and every cosplay.

The first event of 2012 is of course the Febuary Cosfest.

Taken by Larry Fenestra

For day 1, it was the Magnet version of Gakupo with my adorable friend Aki, who was doing Len.

I didn’t like it that much, to be very honest, I was really pissed with myself about how cui I looked, how short my shirt was, how my figure wasn’t manly at all…

Camwhore 8DDD

But it was enjoyable because I had my friends around.

Day 2 I cosplayed as Anarchy Panty, it was a weird decision, because I almost never want to cosplay as overly mainstream characters.

Taken by Jelly with Stef’s camera

But somehow it just…happened.

I have Clandestine as my cute Stocking, I made her stocking sword for her, but screwed up my own panty pistol. OTL

Taken by Baka Gomi

It was fun, I had a lot of pictures, but…

My eyes were suffering at it’s worst state from irritation, and so I couldn’t complete the costume with contacts.

It was pretty frustrating, and from then on I barely ever wore contacts again.

Then it was Secret Police, once again something that just happened, and I was like… pretty cui for the shoot.

But met a few new friends and they’re really nice and awesome people~

Taken by Jim Lek

After that was the July cosfest, which I finally went out with my Sonozaki Mion costume.

Taken by Jelly

I met a few people who actually still remembers her.

It’s upsetting because Higurashi had always been a classic in my heart.

I was too harsh on the eyeliner… Way too harsh.

Taken by Kim Jim

But you know what, surprisingly my eyes were tolerant towards the contacts.

That didn’t last very long though, for the second day, Musubi, once again contacts were killing my eyes.

Taken by 8-Bit Wonderland

Musubi was in fact, a break through.

It wasn’t just because I gained a lot of attention from it, and started getting a lot of coscards on that day, it was because it’s the first costume I didn’t buy or tailor.

Taken by Yun Yan

Okay, my mom made it, she’s amazing, the best mother ever, if I wasn’t her child and I’m a guy I would totally marry her, and it’s not because she cooks and cleans the house for me.

I loved Musubi’s costume to DEATH, LITERALLY.(okay not quite)

Taken by 8-Bit Wonderland

For Musubi, I went for a shoot with Alex from 8-Bit Wonderland, I have to really say, I really really really fucking love his photography.

I was kinda cui on the day though, a lot of things screwed up…

I hate myself.

Anyway after that for a long time I didn’t cosplay much, until STGCC.

Actually my maid Luka was brought out for a shoot with Cure, right before July cosfest.

Taken by Cure

However it was with a very different make up style, and most of the photos are already on my dA.

It was a very last minute anyhow cosplay, I bought the maid costume initially for Maid ver. of Saori from OreImo, but it’s in the wrong color…

And then came AFA, the so-called biggest event of the year, once again, one day was cui, and the other was pretty awesome.

Taken by Jim Lek, I have no idea what’s the name of the Haruhi coser o___o

Day 1 I did Asakura Ryoko, I disapppointed myself to the maximum.

Day 2 was Nagae Iku, and it was fucking fabulous.

Taken by Krisage

I love Iku’s costume, because she’s so classy.

She doesn’t need to show legs or boobs, even though she probably does have some boobs, she covers everything up and yet she still gets loads of attention.

Taken by Symple AndMeek

I’ve met a lot of new friends because of Iku, mostly people who love Touhou.

I’m very new to the Touhou circle, so there’s a lot of things I still need to learn about it.

One thing I can be sure, it won’t be my last Touhou cosplay.

That sums 2012 up, and I must say 2012 was an enjoyable year for cosplay, I love all my friends, those who loves sticking together with me during events, and those who will say hi and stop for short chat during events, things always gets better when you guys are around.

Also my boyfriend who is literally my slave for every event and photoshoot, carrying my heavy bulky bags around all the time, I love you, and thank you so much for doing this for me.

A big thank you to all the photographers who took photos of me and doesn’t get pissed off when I request the high-res photos from you guys, thank you guys so much.

That’s all for the cosplay part of the year review I suppose.

Next would be the blog part…

As of 7th January 2013, I have a total of 47,495 views on this blog.

That is amazing, I love you guys so much.

No matter do you love me, or hate me, I thank you for actually reading this blog.

As for those of you who follows me, check back frequently, I must sincerely apologize for updating so slowly and disappointing you guys so often.

I wish I could delete the posts in the past(cause they’re so embarassing, I used to type like a 13 year old), of course I can do that, but there is a voice in my head telling me, those post are a part of this blog after all, it shows to your readers how much you’ve grown, so…. yeah, they’ll be there for quite a long time.

No, please do not read the older posts just because I said that.

Anyway, once again, thank you for following this blog, I will try my very best to provide a wider variety of entertaining/resourceful posts in the future.

Next… Perhaps, that’s all for year review?

My personal life is boring, just filled with Red Bull, tea, coffee, staying up late to rush for assignment deadlines, hating on myself for being such a lazy potato…Yeah.

Now moving onto New Year Resolution…

1.Get slimmer
Need to lose weight, I want abs, I want nice legs.

2.Become better at what you’re learning
If I ever get two pets in the future, I’m gonna name them Maya and zBrush(or Brushy because zBrush sounds like a weird pet name)

3.Be more motivated
I always hate myself for being such a lazy person, if only they have some medicine for laziness.

4.Be more friendly to people
I am a bitch, and I always admit that, but this year I gotta become more friendly, people always told me I look really scary before they get to know me.

5.Try to become less socially awkward
For those of you know had seen me in real life, you know how hard it is for me to strike up a conversation and not awkwardly want to die.

6.Actually get enough sleep
Sleep? Actually what is that? There’s such a thing as sleep for FMS/DVFX students?

7.Improve on cosplay
Be it props making or make up, I need to become better, I hate looking at myself in photos and cringe.

8.Start learning how to draw digitally
Since I’ve bought a Wacom tablet for my course, I might as well make it useful.

9.Eat healthier
Believe it or not, there was this particular period in my life that I ate instant noodles everyday.

10.Try not to die
Yep.

I’m really curious what are your new year resolution, and how was your 2012.

Leave a comment below if you want to share.

Anyway, happy belated new year, and wish you all the best for 2013.

The AFA 2012 Experience November 13, 2012

For those of you who are looking for a detailed coverage of the event, unfortunately, this post will not be the one.(Sorry =w=lll)

This post will be talking about my thoughts and feelings about the planning of the event and everything.

First off, for those of you who had went to the previous AFA, you should know that AFA had always been held at Suntec, however due to the renovation at Suntec this year they had to find an alternative location.

Compared to Suntec, Expo’s convention halls seemed to be much bigger, the halls didn’t get too crowded to the stage you could barely walk.
However, unlike Suntec, Expo have fewer food outlet choices, some of the toilets can be crowded all the time.

The cosplayers attending the event greatly appreciated the open space in Hall 7 that’s kindly given to them as a place to slack and just laze around and get their photos taken.
Once again, as most of you know, back at Suntec it was the level 3, however level 3 may not always be available, so this time they did an awesome job at giving the cosplayers a comfort zone.

That was my thoughts about the event area.

Let me just give you guys an idea what exactly can I talk about in this post.

I bought the stage tickets for both days, but barely watched anything except the cosplay competitions.

I didn’t attend the Madoka movie nor the Anisong concert.

Neither did I join the queue to buy any merchandise or get into the maid/butler cafe.

Why? Because I’m broke. 8D

I’ll most likely be speaking from a cosplayer’s point of view, regarding how cosplay friendly AFA is getting.

I went to the event at about 12pm on both days, programs at the stage would have started already.

I went to the Expo hall 1-6 area to change, and it was a disaster.

The aunties attending other conventions were getting impatient with the cosplayers, the toilet was small, and easily crowded.

Note, this doesn’t only happen during AFA.

Expo’s toilet are almost always crowded.(I know because I like going there for book sales or IT show once in a while)

I’m not quite sure about the toilets WITHIN hall 7 and 8, since I only got in there after 4pm, when most cosplayers would have all been ready.

However the toilets within hall 7 and 8 are not that upgraded, and even smaller.

On the other hand, actually, Suntec Convention Center’s toilet isn’t any better. So, this isn’t exactly a complaint to AFA’s organizing team, but to Expo and Suntec.

Upgrade your damn toilets, trust me it’ll be appreciated.

The flow inside the convention halls were smooth, not as crowded as last year at Suntec.

Every booth is worth stopping at and spent some time checking out their cool stuff.

It’s a rather stress free environment, there was this karaoke booth that’s really fun, though I didn’t try but my friends did, and they enjoyed it a lot.

As we all know the SAO booth’s merchandise were sold out within a day, and K products was selling fast too.

This year they brought along a lot of famous cosplayers, some of which we are familiar with, some of which we know of, some of which we don’t…

Gotta be honest on this one, but there’s just too many guest cosplayers to the stage their value gets kinda degraded.

Remember when it was just Kaname? That was the time when he was treated like a real star.

However, this year, because of all the famous cosplayers around the world, it wasn’t so special…

Of course, all of them are awesome, I really love their cosplays.

It’s just the way they were presented to the audiences.

Anyway, the singles competition was awesome, I think it was like a gathering of all the best cosplayers of the day on stage.

Congrats to the Saber cosplayer from Philippines, sorry I didn’t catch your name, but if you’re reading this, I just want to let you know that my friends who absolutely loves Saber loved your cosplay to the maximum.

The Regional Cosplay Competition was just as awesome, enjoyed watching all the performances.

Congratulation to Team Singapore, Section 8‘s Shinji and Raistlin who was the champion, and everyone who had worked hard along with them to achieve this result.

I remember seeing on facebook about AFA publishing the competition requirement way too late to the stage they had to rush everything.

Hopefully next year AFA will improve on that.

For the two days I was cosplaying as Asakura Ryoko from Haruhi Suzumiya’s Melancholy, and Nagae Iku from Touhou Project.

Like most people would have said, most event are better on Sunday, and that is true for me during AFA.

Pathetic camwhore photo in the toilet ;____;

Saturday was so-so, my wig was in a mess, I took a while to search for the stage area, very few photos taken, couldn’t meet up with my friend who was doing Haruhi…

Awesome shot by Symple AndMeek, probably gonna end up on my dA if I get the high res >w<

Sunday was better, I was solo-ing as Nagae Iku, one of the Touhou characters which I started liking after a friend introduced her to me.

A lot of Touhou fans came to me and shared their love for Touhou with me, totally awesome.

When I was leaving the stage area, a friend(which I didn’t recognise, sorry) and his friends were screaming “IKU! IKU!! IKU!!!”, that was the moment when you realise that Iku’s name is just awesome.

A reader of the blog came to me and told me he was following my blog, have to give you a special mention because you totally made my day.

Ended both days with dinner at the fast food joints outside Expo area, saw lots of cute puppies because of the pets convention going on that weekend.

Things I wish could be improved…

Mainly for the stage area, during the RCC, when a team is performing, they need the screen on stage to be turned into the animation/video they’ve made.

But, the small screen for the audiences sitting at the back area is turned into the animation too.

The thing is, we can see the big screen on stage perfectly, but it is the humans who are performing that we can’t see.

For me, who is 170cm tall with heels, it was still okay, but for my friends who are slightly shorter, even when they’re standing up they can’t see much.

So… next year, maybe they could disconnect the two screens for a short moment, and just connect it to the camera who will be focused on the cosplayers who are performing.

That’s all I can complaint, this year’s AFA is indeed organized well, they’re getting the hang of it after 5 years of holding the event.

Of course we would also appreciate a cheaper ticket price, but I suppose that’s not very possible at the rate they’re going.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the event too, and if you couldn’t go for it, there is always next year!

Maybe, just maybe, AFA will soon come to your country too! Since they have been moving to Indonesia and Malaysia, there is a chance they will soon start holding the event at other Asian countries too.

Also, for my other readers, if you happen to see me during any events, don’t be shy to say hi to me, I’m a friendly person and I definitely won’t kidnap you and sell you away~

Coverage of Cosplay by Photographers I Really Like:

Some of the following albums still need updating from the photographers who are processing the photos~ Please be patient~

8bit Wonderland - Day 2 / Day 3

Black Rabbit Photography - Day 2 / Day 3

Brian Lim Photography - Day 2 / Day 3

Shiro Ang Photography – Day 2 / Day 3

A.R.C. Photography – Day 2 / Day 3

 

Stories About Men – Why Feminism is Necessary October 27, 2012

When you’re born a female, there’s a ton of shit you have accept.

Such as bleeding every month after you went through puberty. What happens to boys when they go through puberty? They just grow hair and start masturbating.(Girl grow hair too and that’s where shaving and waxing comes in, which only makes matters worst)

But that’s not the main thing I’m talking about.

If you have been following my blog, you should know that I love movies.

I love all sorts of movies, and I’m not extremely harsh on giving reviews.

At the same time I love making movies, that’s my life aspiration, to be able to become a filmmaker.

So during the holidays, some of my coursemates in Poly made this video, a short film about mafias and fights and stuff like that.

By posting this video here I’m definitely not degrading them or criticizing them, I thought it was a brilliant amateur film, and I’d love for them to include me in the production process one day.

Here’s the film.

Despite the fact that I thought it was good… There was this one big problem I spot.

Did you spot it too? I bet you have since the title of my post already gave you the answer,

Yes, there was zero female characters in there.

This was my comment to them on the facebook group for our course.

Yes, my inner lesbian was weeping like a little kid who just dropped his ice cream on the floor.

However no one took special notice of my last sentence, they just thought it was a joke!

Which half is, but then it is an actual problem.

A problem that exist even in Hollywood.

There is this particular YouTube channel called Feminist Frequency, which comments on sexism existing in pop cultural.

There were two videos about sexism in movies, and here’s the videos.

She gave attention to The Bechdel Test which I never knew existed, and I’m so damn happy that I know about it now.

So let’s give my friends’ film a short and simple Bechdel Test.

1. It has to have at least two [named] women in it 
2. Who talk to each other 
3. About something besides a man 

You see how big this problem is? There could be at least some seductive ladies sitting beside the two bosses, or a strong female who is part of the organization…

But… I doubt the thought of putting any females in the film ever crossed their mind.

My course, which happens to be kinda like, an art course, has at least 5 females(there’s a total of 23 people in the course) who are really attractive.(not inclusive of me I look like shit in school)

Yet the thought of including these females in the film did not cross their mind.

Don’t get me wrong, I still loved their short film, and some of the other movies I loved failed the Bechdel Test too.

Why is it so big of a problem?

We exist in a world filled with both males and females, and a minority of others.

Yet, in movies, or simply, pop cultural, the roles of females, were mostly either surrounding men, or completely about females and what men think they do.

I can’t exactly call myself a feminist, I just support the idea of it, as a female.

It’s unfair, admit it.

Don’t tell me bullshit like females should just bow down in front of males because this is how it should be.

I’ll only accept that if you came out of your father’s ass instead of your mother’s vagina.