Update 11th March 2008.

You know, if this thing actually got any traffic at all, I'd probably update a lot more often. Possibly on the same scale as my DeviantArt account.

Went to Kinokuniya yesterday with my Mangacom team members Zhang Quan and Bowie (Mangacom is an ACS Life Sciences competition where each team creates a manga based on the theme "Man, Molecules and Machines". We got the merit award, worth $100 in Kinokuniya vouchers. Pretty good for a rushed job). There was a 20% off offer for Kinokuniya members, and we just happened to have a membership card and $100 in vouchers between us, so...

My haul for the trip.

The total cost of the five books you see above was $26, plus a few cents.
Items:
1. Lucky Star volume 5 (Kadokawa Comics) - $7.82 (before discount)
2. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni [Onikakushi-hen] (Ching Win Comics) - $6.63 + $6.51 (before discount)
3. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni [Tatarigoroshi-hen] (Ching Win Comics) - $6.55 + $6.54 (before discount)

No, I haven't finished reading them yet. Lucky Star is complete - that's about it.

In other words, my shipment came in yesterday. S$81.20 of stuff you will never find in Singapore. I immediately ripped it apart - then put it back together to take pictures.

EMS box - notice the "Japan" stamped all over the box.

The EMS box the shipment came in. Nothing much to see, but this very box took almost an entire week to reach my house. Actually, it took an entire week, 7 days exactly from when I sent in the payment.

Item came wrapped in a Japanese newspaper. Pretty standard fare.

Bubble wrap inside as well. I'm pretty sure nothing broke, what with the cardboard outside, the newspaper and now the bubble wrap.

Items were just as expected. Nothing more, nothing less. But it still felt pretty epic - I was finally in possession of something I've been looking forward to owning for a year.

Pretty cool. Two game CDs and one music CD.

Items purchased:
1. 東方妖々夢 ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom (Team Shanghai Alice) - US$17.99
2. 東方文花帖 ~ SHOOT THE BULLET (Team Shanghai Alice) - US$14.99
3. 蓬莱人形 ~ Dolls in Pseudo Paradise (Team Shanghai Alice Music Collection Vol. 1) - US$9.99

At the moment, I haven't actually touched any of the items, aside from Shoot the Bullet. Just the feeling of having it is epic.

Then of course, there's the art column I always have. Today I'm featuring... myself.

Ho Wei Rong
howeirong.deviantart.com/

Syameimaru Aya - Digital + Traditional
I guess it's because I never actually bother to properly advertise this place, but my DA gets more traffic than anything else I have on the Internet. This most recent piece is for my submission to Another Dream, a Western Touhou doujin release. It might form the cover, and it might not.






























And that concludes the update for today. Let's seriously hope someone reads it. If you do, 谢谢.

Update: Anime and art.

Actually, I'm kinda off anime at the moment, except for Lucky Star because it's done by - who else? - Kyoto Animation. Currently I've dropped Hayate no Gotoku because I am not really interested in continuing with it, but I've started with Nagasarete Airantou, which has the basic premise of a guy stuck on an island of girls, with the normal stuff ensuing.

So now for the introductions!

Kuridoki (http://www.kuridoki.deviantart.com).

Singaporean who (if I remember correctly) won Mangaka 05 (check the '06 posters, they feature one of her works). This is her latest featured deviation, Saber from Fate/Stay Night, which apparently will go on sale at future anime conventions (I believe one convention is Cosfest). Featured once in the Straits Times, through a letter submitted by her father(?) after the featured LifeStyle article on manga (which I still have in my cupboard somewhere). Check it out. :)

























ml-11mk (http://ml-11mk.deviantart.com/)

Apparently, from the random remarks I heard by people in AEP (namely seniors and the teacher), this guy used to be from AEP in my school as well - or rather, is in the JC section now. Of course, I felt greatly depressed for a while after that. Of course, from what you can see in this picture, his digital painting is great stuff. Some of these really great people come around once in a while - the person on top flagged this digital painting as a must-see. Go see his other stuff.










These are, once again, top-of-the-line (in my eyes) deviators who deserve the recognition they are getting. And as you might have noticed, I do actually look for stuff other than anime.