Visual Kei world welcomes 16 year old Swedish boy

 A good friend of mine sent me this link, so I thought I'd share it!

 Yohio, a 16 year old boy from Sweden is making his visual kei debut with Universal Music Japan in April. He plays lead guitar for Swedish visual kei band Seremedy, which has played at Japan's V-ROCK fest 2011, but the mini-album released in April will be his solo debut.

Read more here

Good on him! I'll be very interested in hearing from him in the future!

This is Shi, nodding approvingly...

Happy Birthday, Ruki!

For those of you who don't know (or care), it was Ruki's birthday on the 1st of Fe. [Ruki is the vocalist of Japanese visual kei band the GazettE, and my idol. He writes the most beautiful lyrics...] He turned 30 - unbelievable to me, since he does not look it at all. Not that 30 is old, though.

In any case, we celebrated with a party. I  forced invited some awesome people around to celebrate! We made a cake - chocolate, with chocolate ganache and cream. And not a strawberry in sight, which is what I usually like with my chocolate cake~ We watched all the PVs I had on my USB on the TV through the Playstation 3, and then watched the concert DVDs I have, which were Nameless Liberty Six Guns (2006) and DIMSCENE (2009). I made my talented artist friends draw pictures of Ruki too, all of which were so awesome... I'm a tad jealous, in fact. I wish I could draw awesomely too... I guess that's something to work on for the new year....

Anyway, I guess it's pretty lame, but I wanted to share the love with other fans of both Ruki and the GazettE. As soon as my phone stops playing silly buggers with me, I'll upload the photo of the cake and candles. It was so cute/funny to sing 'Happy Birthday' to someone who wasn't there. Still, I had heaps of fun!

This is Shi, wishing Ruki much success and happiness in his future <3

Hey there~ It's been a while, I know... Sorry ^^'

So, how have you been - good, I hope? As for me, I've been... lazy. Yes. Lazy. Very lazy. So, to recap, this is what's happened to me over the last 2 months. I promise I'll post something more interesting later, bear with me, please >.<


Wrote my DecNoWriMo novel (yes, a December version of NaNoWriMo). It was a hard task; I started writing a different story, got frustrated half-way through and abandoned it. Then, with much effort and caffiene, completed the 50,000 words on a different story in 2 weeks. Hah. Of course, the furious typing gave me a brief punishment of RSI in my wrists and an exhausted avoidence of the computer for some weeks thereafter. However, I did come out of it with a story I rather like, so it definitely wasn't bad!

I've caught up on the manga and anime I'd abandoned in favour of my exams. I'm now up to date with Kuroshitsuji, Amatsuki, Loveless, Bleach and a few others. I've been watching anime too, recently: Hakuoki (which was... okay, except for the bishies, which were amazing), No. 6 (which I just adore and highly recommend), Uragiri no Namae wo Shitteru (Betrayal Knows My Name, which had an awesome soundtrack!), D. Gray-Man (also very cool), and am now watching Ao no Exorcist. There was a bit of a demon theme in there, I realised. Oh, well, I guess that's okay? There sure is a lot of anime about demons! I watched the first episode of Code Geass, but it didn't grab me - I think it was the art style, as the story seemed interesting enough. I guess I'm just shallow like that (haha).

Otherwise, I've been suffering in the heat. I think I'm going to do a series on how to survive summer heat for Goths and other alternative types...

On happy news, I got into the uni I wanted. Yay! So please be kind over the next few weeks while I adjust. Maybe I should do a series on how to meet new people as a Goth/alternative type? Just gotta get out there and get some experience in it first!

I'm in a great mood today, and wish everyone out there much happiness~

This is Shi, still looking forward...

Freedom~

So yes, freedom at last~

Graduation was yesterday, which was fun. I had my hair done especially for the event - into dreadlocks, which I'm loving. It was done at Wildilocks, which is the greatest hair salon I've ever been to! More on that later, when I have some photos to put up!


This explains the problem I had with my eight inch platform boots:

For more of these Goth Problems (and a laugh or two) head here.

 So, now I have much free time, I'll be doing all kinds of things: a December version of NaNoWriMo, because my awesome friends knew how sad I was that I couldn't do it in November, and waited for me so we could all do it together; photography - fashion, mostly, such as Lolita, Visual Kei, Goth and Punk; painting, which I'm certain will be hilarious because I can't paint; music, with the band, hopefully recording and getting a few more original pieces together; and all kinds of other stuff too... Keep in touch~

This is Shi, looking forward.

Been a while...

So, yes, it has been a long while since I last posted... Let me just say, it was school, as usual, which kept me away. And I expect this will continue for some weeks, but after November, I am free!

I can't wait!

After November, I will be doing some photography stuff, hopefully, so look forward to that. I know I am; it's been ages since I've had a great excuse to take the camera out for bit ^^


This is Shi, counting down 'til the End of November!

PS. As for my wrist, it turned out to be "traumatic arthritis"... I'm not sure I am the one traumatized, or my wrist was, or if it was the nuclear medicine people... or the doctor... but it's much better now, just in time for exams!

Clumsy

Yes. I am very clumsy. Last week I feel, and of course, as you do naturally, I guess, I put my hand out so I wouldn't land on my face. So my face remained safe (yay!). My hand - not so much. I landed quite heavily on my right wrist. It hurt like @#$%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not my wrist. I don't know if
there is something wrong with
this one... or if it's fine too.

 

 

 

Used to such falls, I thought I'd quickly recover. Not so.  This week, it still hurt like @#$%, and I pretty much can't use it. Not to write - it is my write right hand (Yes, I know, I use that pun too often. It's not even funny.). Not even to type. I can't even hold a frickin' coffee. And in such a sorry state, I headed to my doctor. She promptly sent me for an x-ray. The lovely student radiologist informed me that it was fine. No breaks. Not even a tiny fracture.

Yay! I thought to myself before I wondered... then why does it hurt so damned much!? It's gotta get better soon, right? Apparently, strapping and slinging is the way to go until it recovers enough to resume normal functioning.

This is Shi, cursing clumsiness...

Manifest!

 

So, we ended up going to Manifest after all! We went on the Friday so we could enter the FRUiTS competition... and we won! Best hair and makeup! The judges were impressed that we used our own hair (which is suitably crazy for Visual Kei) and Billy, my partner-in-crime, had very impressive body paint. If only I had taken some photos!

There were lots of Lolitas in the competition and they were all so cute! The lady who won Best Outfit was so lovely, she had put together her outfit very nicely - she was a Punk/Goth Loli. Ah, she was a sweetie. The lady who won Best Overall had a really impressive techno-angel costume; it looked like something from an anime or manga, or a display piece at a really awesome rave.

While there, we bought some manga - of course. Billy got Aphorism and we went halves in a new manga we found called Karneval. It's pretty good so far, so check it out if you can! I also got volume three of Koisuru Boukan (The Tyrant Falls in Love). I wanted to get volumes one and two at least as well, but I couldn't find them. It's one of my favourite BL manga ^^.

It was so much fun! I wish I could go again, and more, but I had work today and a uni Open Day on Sunday (probably, if I can figure out how to get there...). Thanks again, Manifest staff, for another great day!

This is Shi, about to read volume three of Tyrant despite not having volumes one or two... ^^

Novel Revising...?

Okay, so I'm considering re-revising my NaNo novel from last year. I started revising twice previously, but have stopped. I really want to get the damn novel decent though! It desperately needs revision...

Of course, life is never straight forward. Firstly, I haven't finished my Camp NaNo novel. I mean, I wrote the 50,000 words, but I didn't finish the story. And I think I've touched it twice since the end of July. It needs finishing! But without NaNo as an excuse for crappy writing, my inner editor is tormenting me. Also, I should be studying. Damn school! I've been forced to miss some days because of illness, and now I feel really, really behind. But I don't want to not write either, I think I should be able to do writing and school, right? I mean, other people play sports and have hobbies and socialise.Why shouldn't I be able to manage it?

And yes, I'm still sulking about Manifest. For a while, I got over it, but just recently I had a hopeful bout of "maybe I could manage it if I just rearrange this and this and this...". And to the blues that my band played at the school talent competition thing on Friday and... well, I don't wanna say sucked, but it was... not good. As I said, I'd been sick, so we had one 30 minute practice before school on Friday and that was it. I should have organised more rehearsals, sick or not. If I had, it would have been better. Erk, I feel so awful about that. My last year and I can't even pull off an awesome, hell even decent, peformance.


Yes, so, back to the crux of the matter. What should I do: start revising my NaNo novel, or finish my Camp NaNo novel? What would you do? Advice is always welcome <3

Manifest 2011

Manifest is in 2 weeks. I really wanna go! But I can't, because of family committments.

Not the version we were planning, but awesome picture.
Miku's hair is slightly green here, but I love the butterflies.

If I had have gone, myself and my sister would have been in cosplay. (Yes, I love cosplay. I love costuming. I love wigs. I love makeup. I love dressing up. I love acting. I love photography. Mostly, I just love the way things can really come together and be awesome.) If we were going, she would be Miku and I would be KAITO, the Vocaloids. I wanted to be Gakupo, but I'm too short, *laugh*. We were planning on doing the Magnet versions, simply because in Year 12 I don't have heaps of time to sew.

I guess its a good thing we aren't going. You know, because of the time and effort that I don't have right now.

Still, it kinda makes me sad. I was looking foward to it all year.

August, too?

Okay, I know this is gonna sound crazy, BUT


I want to Camp NaNo in August too.

*cries*

I just write so much better under the pressure, with the graph and the forums and all... But I have so much school work. What do I do? What do I do?

Someone help me.

Camp NaNo - The end!

Write. Right, so I discarded the blog-every-day part of my schedule in favour of adding those precious words to my wordcount. Let me summarise my last days of NaNo in pictures.... (you know, 'cause they are worth 1000 words an' all...)

My word count was low...

...very low...

Such was the state of my page...

And my inspiration/muse looked like this...

Then there was this...

and this..

and this too...

And all that coffee led to this... (scary, right? Yeah, I thought so too...)

Ta-daaaa!!! It was done!!

So it says there that my wordcount was 51,000-ish, which was great on my word doc, but the Camp NaNo site said it was only 50,069 (which was also great ;})... I wanted to get a screen cap of that, but... alas... *tears*... it had been taken down for the beginning of the August session...


 In any case, the most important picture of all:

Oh yeah. I celebrated with a well-deserved milkshake.



PS. I'm considering doing August too...

Camp NaNo: Days 23 - 26

Okay, so now I can't even manage my blog. Fricken hell!

Wordcount: 38028.

ARGHHH!!! I hate school sometimes!! Interfering with my writing!!... In any case, I managed to do 2,000-ish words last night - go me! I still am about 3-4000 words behind! I've really gotta step it up.

(How the hell was this so relatively easy last November!?)

This is Shi, with this expression: O.o

Camp NaNo: Days 18 - 23

Well, I didn't update every day like I wanted to. The reason is, schools started again. In a fit of depression, angst and procrastination by sleep, I didn't write anything. My wordcount has stagnated at: 33149

Now, guess who is behind?? That's right!! Me!

So I'm going to try to catch up over the weekend, and study, and do all my homework, and clean my room, and learn a new song on guitar for a performance in 2 weeks.

This is Shi, deciding to engage in a liiiittle bit of procrastination...

Camp NaNo: Day 17

Whoops, forgot again!

Wordcount: 30099

Let me see, what happened yesterday.... ah, yes. I finished the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time game, which awesome and kinda depressing. In honour of my victory over Ganon, I made celebratory Gold Skultulas - spiders with coffee-flavoured energy drink instead of soft drink.

They were quite disgusting.

After that, I did some writing. I think I mentioned that I just skipped the part of my NaNo novel that was giving me grief, and moved on. After a dramatic war scene involving much research, I called it a night. But now I'm sure sure what I'm doing. It's a new chapter, but I'm not sure if I should write more about the war or skip to a different part. I mean, I can and definitely will rewrite it, but... I like the story to still flow well in the first draft.

Hmm, a dilemma.

This is Shi, wondering what to do next, exactly....

Camp NaNo: Day 16

Wordcount: 29163

I skipped the chapter I was having trouble with. Now, my main problem is that I don't remember much about medieval warfare. I used to know so much! Mostly from just reading tons of fantasy books, and a general interest, but it's all been pushed out of my mind by the constitutional rights of Australia and the anatomy of the brain.

Yeah, I really need to do some homework too.

This is Shi, really wishing the holidays weren't nearly over.

Camp NaNo: Day 15

Wordcount: same as yesterday.

Today was very unproductive. *sigh*.

This is Shi, deciding to make tomorrow much better.

Camp NaNo: Day 14

Wordcount: 27282


*cries in corner*
Why is my story so stuuuuuuuuuuuuuupid? Why has my plot abandoned me? WHY AM I DOING THIS?

This is Shi, in despair....

Camp NaNo: Day 13

Wordcount: 26284

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! What's happened to my plot!?!?!? Where did you go??? Why have you abandoned me???!?!?!?


This is Shi, about to go bait some traps for her plot.

Camp NaNo: Day 12

Wordcount: 25172

Well, I didn't really write much yesterday... I did something else instead....

I got permanently inked.

Yep, that's right. So I basically gave myself the day off. I do have to catch up a little now!


This is Shi, aching a little but determined not to slack off.

Camp NaNo: Day 11

Word count: 24392

Well, just finished off that dramatic death scene. Actually, I just wrote the funeral scene, but it was pretty intense. Sometimes I hate killing characters - leads to so much angst, y'know? Anyway, this death was very plot-worthy and absolutely necessary (so I don't feel too bad about it...).

Still, death scenes = intense. I listened to Mozart's "Requiem in D Minor - Lacrimosa" while writing the scene. Hope that atmosphere comes across a little.

Now I've just got to switch to depressing romantic scene....

This is Shi, going through iTunes for suitable music...