hongmeihua

Entries from my blog are cross posted here. Anything else is most likely marked as friends only.

It's ok if we don't know each other that well. Just comment with the name I know you by and how I know you (example: owner of a certain site, met through forums, etc.)

As Christmas is nearing, I've been thinking of what I want, and I've realized that there are some new electronics I want and some I want to replace.

Point and Shoot Camera
I like to replace my P&S every 3 or 4 years, and it was time for a new one. I decided to get the Canon Powershot SD940 (in blue) to replace my SD600. It came in today! I've played around with it a bit, and I don't actually like how the new function menu looks. But, I do love that there is a noticeable improvement in picture quality.

SD600 (old camera)


SD940 (new camera)


Both were taken in the macro setting with no flash. Other than resizing and the watermark, there has been no editing in Photoshop.

( The rest of the list is here )

Well, I guess I have a lot of expenses to look forward to later XD;; But! It'll be fun to have new things to play around with =D

...to my boyfriend! Like every year since we've been together, I made him a special cake related to a video game. Past years: Jigglypuff, Kirby, and Companion Cube.

What did I do this year? I made...

THE SANDVICH



No, I didn't misspell it. It is indeed a "sandvich", which is an item in Team Fortress 2. My boyfriend loves that game, and I also think the sandvich video is funny, so I decided on that this year :3

The bread pieces are made of yellow cake, and some of the left over cake was used to make the tomatoes. The lettuce, cheese, and meat is just rolled out fondant. All the cake pieces are also covered with fondant. I'm pretty happy with it! I think my fondant technique is getting better. I crumb coated and refrigerated the cakes for a day before covering this time. It made it so much easier. I'm not sure why I didn't do that on my past cakes!

Anyway, we're celebrating with friends at a BBQ place for dinner. Looking forward to it! I love Texas BBQ so much XD

Happy November! I hope everyone remembered to adjust their clocks for daylight savings =) October was a busy month for me, but I'm hoping November won't be. There were 3 "major" events that happened in October.

Company user conference
On the 22nd was my company's 2nd annual user conference. It's a 2 day conference where our users can come get training and ask questions about our product. It went well, though it was tiring. I'm used to just walking into work at 10AM, but I had to be at the conference by 7AM. I am so not a morning person!

Happy Anniversary
The 29th marked my boyfriend and I being together for 4 years! We decided to just stay in and cook dinner together. We made pasta with a spicy cheese sauce, and then had brownies and ice cream for dessert while watching a movie. Nothing special, just a relaxing night :3

Halloween
This is what really made my month busy. I had to finish both my costume and help my friend with her's. I went as Sakura from Street Fighter, and my friend was Ms. Pacman:


We stopped by a party then went downtown. 6th St. is lined with bars, and the street is closed off to cars at night so people can walk around. On Halloween, it's always packed with people walking around in costume. Since Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, it was insanely crowded. It was still fun though, especially to see some of the creative costumes people came up with XD

Anyway, for better pictures of my costume, see this entry on my cosplay blog :3

With Halloween coming up in a couple weeks, I've started to do more work on my Sakura (Street Fighter) costume. Here's my progress so far!



I finished the skirt, which actually took me 2 tries. On my first try, I finished the skirt completely, only to find that I didn't account for hip room, so the fit didn't look right. Instead of trying to fix it, I started over. The red Converse sneakers are also new shoes that came in just recently. What's left is: make the top, style the wig, make her fighting gloves. Hopefully, I'll be done in time!

I also finally put content onto the Costumes section of my Cosplay blog. My next project after Sakura's costume with be not one, not two, but THREE Code Geass costumes, which will be worn in June. I'm making a Suzaku costume for myself, Lelouch for Jess, and Lloyd for Jack. You can see the outfits on the bottom of this page. I... um... have a lot of work to do. Yeahhh.

Sometimes I feel like I strive for practicality and cleanliness so much that I want to make something impractical, messy, and... well, on crack. (No, not me on crack, the layout.) Thus, I decided to change shattered-wingsNET's layout.

It's inspired by (and uses lyrics from) Franz Ferdinand's Ulysses. Though simple looking, it surprisingly took me a long time to make due to choosing lyrics and images, then scanning and editing the images, and finally coding and formatting everything to have the right placement.

In other site related news, I have yet another new site! Sort of! After seeing Gel start a Project 365, I've been wanting to try it too. So, I made a tumblr where I add the photos twice a week. The idea of this is to take a photo everyday, not necessarily of yourself, to document your life. I love taking photos, but I imagine it'd get tiring having to do it every day. We'll see how it goes XD;;

Recently, I got to see Metallica live in concert, so I'm really happy to be able to cross them off of my "bands I must see" list. There are a couple concerts left that might interest me, but my concert schedule for this year is pretty much done. Perhaps I will write a post later to recap the shows I've been to in 2009 :3

Something I've noticed that's become popular lately is Vocaloids. Vocaloid is a synthesizer program that comes with a voice blank that you can use to synthesize singing in Japanese. They also have a character vocal series, and my favorite has got to be Rin and Len. Not only do I think they're cute, but I tend to like songs sung by them over the other characters.

So... when I saw nendoroid versions of them, I. Could. Not. Resist. I bought them immediately. They came in just yesterday! Each comes with 3 facial expressions, 1 blank face, 2 extra legs, 1 extra arm, and 1 prop.

( images here )

Eeee, aren't they adorable?! XD Here are a few songs done with Rin and Len's voices together:

Magnet | Cantarella | Meltdown | Adolescence | Romeo & Cinderella | Trick & Treat

They have several others, and you can also find different versions of these songs with different characters mixed together.

It's nice to have a 3-day weekend! I didn't have work today since it's Labor Day. It came at a good time since I went out of town for an Anime convention on Friday, so I got an extra day of rest when I got back on Sunday.

On Saturday, I went to AnimeFest with Jack and Jess. Since the last con, I've improved our Neku and Beat (The World Ends With You) costumes by remaking several parts, the most major being Neku's wig and shoes. So, we used those costumes again, and Jess went as Misa (Death Note). I took a lot of pictures at the con, and we got new Neku and Beat ones too, so click the thumbnails below to get to the galleries!



I didn't buy a lot of stuff this time, since the last con I went to was only a few months ago. I did buy this awesome CD folder though.



Anyway, that was a fun con! Thanks to Jess, we did another Neku and Beat photoshoot that she directed and took for us. I'll end this entry with a few of my favorites from it!

( Picture previews here )

My parents and brother arrived in North Carolina today after 2 days of driving. My brother is moving there to study for a PhD in Pharmacy at UNC. We're less than 2 years apart in age, so we've always been close growing up. Though I'll miss having him around here, UNC was his top choice for graduate school. I'm happy for him that he got in and is able to go!

Anyway, I got a lot of nifty goodies lately, so I thought I'd share =) A couple weeks ago, my brother took a trip to Taiwan and Japan and bought these Engrish shirts. I love how they don't make sense XD Click the thumbnails for the full picture.

( See pics and other stuff here )

Other than that, nothing much has been happening in my life, mainly work. I've had to work some long hours last week due to a release coming up. I also know that the next few days will require me to stay late too. Oh well, that's just how it is sometimes!

I'd say it's been years since I last was really into Anime/manga. For the past 5 or so years, I've kept up with a few yaoi series, but nothing else really. I was recently at a Barnes and Nobles and decided to just buy a couple manga while I was there. I ended up with Katekyo Hitman Reborn and D.Gray-Man, both of which I liked. That has sparked my interest in Anime/manga again! I already have 2 online orders of manga coming in.

In addition to that, it made me realize I haven't touched my Netflix account in a while, even though I'm still paying for it. I logged in to see I've had a DVD since December. Yeah, I've had the same DVD for over 7 months. So, I've turned in the DVD and upgraded my account to have unlimited streaming. This let's me stream Netflix to my TV through my Xbox 360.

This brings the question of, any recommendations? I tend to like shounen and shounen-ai/yaoi series.

Other than that, my co-workers have decided that next week we'll be doing a taco week, where every day we go to a different quality taco place for lunch. We've joked about it for a while, and now we're finally going to do it. So far we have TacoDeli, Torchy's, El Chilito, and Maria's Taco Xpress picked out. We just need a 5th!

Anyway, I'm excited for tomorrow. My friends and I are seeing Tool live in concert =) Should be a good show!

Packing right now since I'm leaving for California tomorrow. I will be vacationing there for a few days ;)

But before I go, a meme! Stolen from Tammy!

Q&A: The Photographic Interview
1. Where are you from?
2. What does your fridge look like
3. Who is your favourite person?
4. What is your favourite food?
5. Part of your daily routine.
6. What colour are your eyes?
7. What relaxes you?
8. What does your letterbox look like?
9. What do you have planned in the next 12 months?
10. Where are you on a Sunday night?

( Answers are here )

Well, I'm back in town now from my short trip to Dallas. Tina and I arrived at Jack's house Friday night with KFC and a 2lb donut. Fried chicken and a huge glazed donut, please tell me that is the best gift ever.

The next day, we went to A-kon. Tina wore my Dawn costume (Pokemon), and Jack and I debuted our The World Ends With You (TWEWY) costumes. I was Neku (orange hair); Jack was Beat (black beanie). I have to say, this Neku costume is my favorite so far. It was comfortable to wear, and it has huge pockets I could use. I also felt like we had more picture (and um... hug) requests than usual. Click the previews below for the image galleries! I wish I had taken better pictures at the con, but a lot of it was rushed since people were asking for my pictures too. For details about how I made the costumes, see my Cosplay Log.



Of course, I can't leave an Anime con without wasting my money in the dealer's room, bringing my Kirby count up to 6. One day... I will have them all!



Amusing notes from the con:
- Several times, we were asked, "Where's Rhyme?" or "Where's Joshua?" Oddly enough, no one ever asked for Shiki.

- We ran into a Rhyme and a Minamimoto!

- There was a TWEWY photoshoot on Friday that we couldn't make. 4 different people told us about it. They ended up having a photoshoot without a Neku. I might have been the only Neku at the con?

- Was talking with someone when Tenchi Muyo came up. She asked how old I was, thinking I was too young to know about that series. She was surprised to know I was 24, and showed the "I thought you were 16" face.

Before leaving Dallas on Sunday, we decided to go to the aquarium. I'm too lazy to go through those pictures and post them right now though. Perhaps another time!

Yesterday morning, I noticed a van with a big company logo on it parked next to my car. I think nothing of it until I leave for work a little after and saw the van gone and a business card on my window. Looking around, no other car had it. My first thought was, did he leave contact info because he hit my car?! I inspect my car multiple times, not finding any dents. My car was also dirty, so I couldn't tell what was a scratch or just a dirty mark.

Confused, I shrug it off and get into my car to leave for work. That's when I take a closer look at the card and realize it's for a mobile car wash service. The guy was probably driving around my apartment's parking lot looking for dirty cars to place his business card on. Yeah, gee, thanks. He won't be getting any business from me =P

Anyway, it's funny how at work, I'm totally organized and always get my work done on time or early. Yet, in my personal life, I lack that. I realized recently that I have less than a month before A-kon and thus, have been working on my costume a lot lately. I'm pleased to say that I now have... NEKU SHORTS. [View reference]



I am still missing belt loops, but I'm waiting for the belt to come in first. I have been posting progress each step of the way on my Cosplay Log if you're curious as to how I made it! Next up, time to make the shirt!

Well, I mentioned my new computer in my previous entry, so now I'll show it off! Except for the power supply, we bought everything from Newegg, and my boyfriend and I put it together ourselves.



Processor: Intel Quad Core at 2.66GHz
Motherboard: ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX
Graphics: GeForce GTX 260 896MB
Memory: 6GB DDR3 RAM
Space: 1TB partitioned into 2 drives, each with its own OS for recovery

A couple notes on the stats. It hasn't been overclocked yet, so the 2.66GHz is the default. It will definitely be over 3GHz later. I'm just not sure how much over yet. Also, since I'm not willing to deal with Vista or 64bit XP, I'm on 32bit XP which only recognizes about 3GB as memory. If Windows 7 is good, I'll upgrade to that later.

( More pictures )

1. I played a lot of WoW (World of Warcraft). I finally started the game a couple days ago and created 2 characters: a night elf druid and a blood elf priest. No worries though! I don't think I'll become so addicted to WoW that I forget about my life outside of the game. I just tend to get into the game a lot when it's new to me ;)

2. My favorite Girl Scout cookie is probably the Caramel Delites/Samoas. So little of them come in a box though! They're gone almost instantly. My friend, Tina, and I decided to try to make them ourselves with a recipe that she found. They turned out pretty well!



It is a lot of work though and the caramel is a bit hard to spread. Our only complaint is that the cookie part was too buttery and sugary. It still tastes good, even if it's not exactly the same.

3. With Tina's help, I finally put up my Blik bamboo wall decals onto the big mirrors we have. I love them! I feel like buying more for my walls now.



I'm currently blogging on my new computer that my boyfriend and I built last week. Right now I'm waiting for one last part to come in. The heat sink I originally bought didn't fit in my case, so I had to get another one. Whenever that comes in, I'll post pictures and blog about its specs!

Though I have a lot of hobbies, it's mainly been narrowed down to 3 now. I'm always up for gaming, but I often lose motivation to work on my websites or cosplay. It's like a see saw between the two. When I'm working on a cosplay, I'm not working on my sites and vice versa. However, motivation to work on either one always comes back eventually. Art, in terms of drawing/painting, is something that hasn't come back to me in a long time.

( Paintings and such )
Though a very simple piece, it feels good to be painting again. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that my paints will lay around collecting dust for years again afterwards.

Tagged by Megori! What's in my bag?



Sometimes I stick my DS or a Rubik's Cube in there too. I carry around too much stuff! I'm supposed to tag 5 people, but just have at it if you want to do it =)

The other day, my boyfriend and I decided on the remaining parts to build my computer. Everything came to about $1,000 after shipping. This freaked my credit card company out, and they declined the charge thinking it was fraud. This freaked me out because my order didn't go through. I called them immediately and got it cleared though. Now the total costs stands at around $1,400 when I include the other parts I've already bought. It'll be worth every penny! Now to wait until they arrive...

I decided to start a cosplay blog: Cosplay Log. I want to log my progress in more detail but don't want to spam my LJ or blog with it. I've started on my costume for A-kon, which is Neku from The World Ends With You (TWEWY). This will be my first "cross" play! A conversation I had with my boyfriend:

boyfriend: *playing TWEWY*
me: Hey, I'm making a Neku costume.
boyfriend: Ok.
me: It's for me.
boyfriend: What?!
me: Bet you'll never look at Neku the same again.

He disapproves now XD;; Oh well! He'll just have to deal with a girlfriend that sometimes dresses as a boy =P

Our turtles no longer scatter away when we get close. They do, however, seem to look at us with suspicion.

I got tickets to Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction. Sweeeeeet. Next up is to get Metallica tickets!

I went to Video Games Live on Saturday, which is a concert that plays orchestrial video game music. It's nice to be a female gamer. When I went to the restroom during intermission, the men's restroom had a long line. There was none for the women's. Har har har.

I fail at Ikea furniture. I got a cabinet for underneath my desk, and I made all of the drawers backwards. Whoops. (I had to re-do them.)

I'm finally on the last chapter or so of the Watchmen. I was told that my friends who read it, loved the movie, while ones that didn't, did not enjoy it so much. I'll probably watch the movie on Wednesday!

It's a good thing yaoi manga are plastic wrapped. When Eva sent manga to my work place, I was so tempted to read some Junjou Romantica. (Thanks a bunch for them though XD)

I discovered an awesome new snack thanks to a friend: Wasabi Tempura Seaweed snacks. It's like 3 good things all combined into one. Amazing. But, I ate them all =(

Due to the lack of a better conclusion: END.

I am finally done moving! It's felt so busy lately. Both my boyfriend and I took a day off when movers came to move our furniture. I also worked from home a couple days to take care of stuff at the previous aparment and spent some of my lunch breaks shopping for miscellaneous things needed at the new place.

I'm looking into wall decorations now, like art and frames. I plan on buying wall decals from blik. We have 3 huge mirrors in our living room area, and I think it'd be cool to put these bamboo decals on them. I also like the idea of putting a Threadless decal above our bed.

Recently I decided to buy a Notebook cooler because my personal laptop seems to heat up badly after a while. While at Fry's, I just picked out the cheapest, decent looking one, and well, it ended up being great. I got this Antec one for $15. It fits my 14" laptop well and is amazingly quiet. Even its "high" setting is barely noticable.



Now for other computer talk! This is what I have for my soon-to-be computer so far.



The monitors are 22" and 20" (my boyfriend took the other 22"). I recently got a power supply that was on sale, and a friend was awesome and gave me an extra "gaming grade" mouse she had. Not pictured is the video card mentioned in my previous post because it ended up being defective and sent back. Whenever I get the replacement, I'll start ordering the remaining parts.

Anyway, after cleaning our new place a bit, I'll post pictures!

Yes, starting off your work week by doing a meme instead of actual work is um... always nice! *slacker* XD;; Taken from Megori.

( And stuff )