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What an awesome past weekend!
The weather was perfect too for the anime convention.
My sister and I headed up to the con at 7:30am and arrived by 10:30am. When we arrived, the only parking spaces at the Congress Centre was pretty far. We were gaping at the long line-up for pre-registered visitors, but the line moved really quick so it wasn't much of a wait anyways.
I picked up nearly the entire series of Kekkaishi and three volumes of Pumpkin Scissors (both animes were superb by the way). I couldn't resist buying Flower of Life all complete 4 volumes worth and Pluto volumes 1 and 2 as well as 20th Century Boys volume 1 (the live action flick is incredible).
The Beguiling was the dealers table I went to first since they have great prices and deals (no pun intended). They were very organized and all the mangas were basically listed alphabetically, in new release section, clearance, and oversized. The guy who helped me gave me an additional discount to an already buy 5 get 1 free, since I was purchasing a lot of manga from them. He let me place them aside since they were so heavy to carry around. All in all, this dealer is highly recommended. By the way, I also visited their main store in the downtown region quite a few times. They have a great assortment of art and graphic books as well as novels, from very obscure and unknown to pop culture. Here is their official web site: http://www.beguiling.com
The Labyrinth was the only other dealer I went to since they had a huge variety of yaoi manga but I had a horrible time trying to purchase with a debit card. Only one person was designated with the debit machine and unfortunately, no one knew who was holding it. I was so annoyed that I was going to give up paying for them and just leaving, but I really wanted Flower of Life volume 4. Fumi Yoshinaga's works are amazing... After asking five employees at that store and walking up and down the aisle of tables, I finally found the official idiot who held that all important debit machine. The Labyrinth has been at the convention for many years now and they're still disorganized. It was difficult to look for other manga other than yaoi since they were in shojo or shonen sections but titles were not in the right place. I wish they were listed alphabetically. But, in a positive note, they do carry a lot, and I mean a lot, of manga. If you have time and patience, you'd more than likely find tons to buy.
I bought ten adorable bunny magnets from a dealer "Dragon Mango". I loved their art since I discovered them in my first con when they were in the artists room. For the last several years they have moved into the dealers room so the price of their magnets have went up a little bit. Two years ago, I bought a cute bunny figure which to this day is still sitting in my dashboard. You should also check out their comics at their offiical web site: http://www.dragon-mango.com
I was disappointed that there weren't many goth/glam/vk people on the weekend. There were lots at the con about four years back. I took photos of some really great cosplayers, from Pikachu to a Vulcan to an Anbu to a Noh face. When I find the time, I want to share those photos from this con and from past years as well.
Besides the con, we picked up my brother since he got off from work to go shopping at the Chinese malls. We didn't purchase much, just strolled around a bit before going to have bubble tea at TenRen's (my favourite tea place other than the Green Grove). I had a cold almond milk green tea. It was delicious! I did get Gary Cao's music dvd and Endy's cd.
Since my brother is backpacking in Peru in the next couple of weeks, I bought him some first aid equipment and insect bite ointment. He'll definitely need the ointment in the rainforest.
I got a free cellphone this weekend from my brother. He had a Samsung model which he thought he lost so he bought himself another cellphone. Later, his friend found it in his car. So he ended up with two phones. He decided to keep the new phone and give me the older one. It's newer than the model I currently have which doesn't even have a backlight or camera. I just can't activate the phone my brother gave me till August when his contract term ends. Woo hoo! I like receiving gifts!
My sister and I stayed at the Delta for one night. Upon entry, the room was stuffy and the air conditioning was barely cool. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep at all in the heat and the creaky hard spring mattress didn't help any. The two reasons I like Delta over Holiday Inn Suites is that their wireless internet is faster and they are cleaner.
While driving back home, the plastic ring that goes around the windshield nearly fell off and was rippling through the air at 120km/hr. The cars around us slowed down as this was happening. We ended up pulling over along a side county road to fix it till we reached the next service centre. It has happened before but on the opposite side of the windshield. I have an appointment with my mechanic this Wednesday to repair it.
Overall, the weekend was a blast and went by way too fast. I wish it was longer but I had a great time and hope to do it all over again in the August anime convention.
Yea! Can't wait!!
Today I had a doctor's appointment. If you remember from another post before, I had mentioned that I found a doctor in the city who was taking on new patients (the city I live in has a doctor shortage). It's been over seven years since I last had an actual physician visit instead of a clinic emergency.
I made sure to bring all my pain & sinus medications so that the doctor can write scripts for them. That way I can label all my boxes for the flight to Japan. The airlines required all medications to be labeled. They're not medications I take on a daily basis, just when needed for my allergies, hayfever, and back (spine) & knee (patella cartilage) pain. It's important to have on hand when I'm in a foreign country and can't find what I need in a pharmacy there.
I also got four x-rays taken of my knees due to cartilage deterioration. The doctor told me that they'll contact me when my MRI has a date scheduled at the hospital. It won't be till months later since there's only one such machine in the city. I requested the MRI since it has been about 5 years since the bone in my spinal column changed in the S1 and S2 nodes (which affects the nerves that runs down the legs and feet). I wanted to start fresh with this doctor so she can tell me the straight facts about my condition.
Since 6pm tonight, I have been fasting. I have blood work to be done at 8am tomorrow so it's a 14 hour fast. The doctor wanted to check my iron, glucose, Vitamin D, cholesterol, et cetera. It's been over 10 years since I last had blood work done so I'm nervous about the results.
I've cleaned up the tags on my blog (located on the right-hand side of the screen). There were too many and was getting cluttered. I hope you like the neater look!
As of now, I have to sleep early. The lab is opened at 8am.
Good night everyone!
It's been a while since I last was on.
I was tired of the dark layout so I decided on a lighter tone version with a really adorable girly chibi face.
The links are now on the right-hand side of the site. When I have more time next weekend (I won't be working), I will make more changes.
As for now, I hope you like the new look!
Yesterday, my siblings and I finally booked hotel reservations for our Japan trip. We haven't done that for Tokyo yet, just Osaka. We'll be staying at a five-star hotel "Swissotel Nankai" since it had such a great rate that week ($131 per night) and also had awesome reviews from past hotel guests. I admit, I gave in when I saw that there's a McDonald's down the road. haha :)There's also guided English tours which will be great to use.The only downfall is that the Internet is not free which I think is stupid since it's a five-star hotel. I'd probably end up paying for a half-hour use every other day just so I can talk to my family using Messenger.Oh, got to get to work. Can't believe it's Spring and there's still snow and ice on the ground. I want it to get warmer!
I have no idea why or how I became so drabby and listless lately. Ever since the end of February, I felt like I had no energy. I guess it doesn't help that the weather is pretty gloomy. Combine that with a lack of consistent sleep at night. Ugh...I went with my family on a small weekend vacation out of the city. I went shopping at the Chinatown and bought some Jay Chou and Mayday cds and dvds. Ate out a lot and had a great time overall. Now I can't wait for the anime convention in May. I'm going to have a blast. Spending money on manga and food. Yeah!My family and turtles are doing well, except I'm concerned about my father. He is over 70 years old and has been showing signs of memory loss, confusion, worsening of eyesight, et cetera. He refuses to get eye operation done and wear eyeglasses during driving and walking. What can we do as children? Sigh...I have so many music videos and live performances that I want to share but there's no time to post it. Will do that soon... hopefully...
"HAPPY CHINESE (LUNAR) NEW YEAR!!!!!!"It's now nearly 2am Monday. I just got back from the temple for the lunar new year celebration.The lion dance was nice. My brother-in-law took a video of it. When I get it from him, I'll have to upload it to my YouTube account. Before the lion dance was the prayers for how to live your life well according to Buddha. Then after the lion dance were the hymns. It was long! The book of hymns was well over 50 pages.Then, it was time to pluck the orange from the tree and receive the red-pocket from the monk. I saw my oldest sister trying to grab a red-pocket that was hanging from the tree and so I tried to do the same. One of the workers at the temple saw me and slapped my hand, scolding me not to do that. She was pointing at the monk standing nearby (which so happened to be my brother-in-law's father). It turned out that the tree was for decoration only. I felt like a ninny. I just got scolded on the new years day. I can feel my luck slipping away.... I think my oldest sister and I were the only ones doing the wrong thing.(i need to pray more often now...)Besides that awful event, we had dessert and spring rolls in the cafeteria downstairs. It was really good. I had the three-colour-drink (mung bean, red bean, yellow bean, all in coconut milk) and it was quite refreshing. The spring roll was crispy. I love spring rolls!! Only my older sister didn't have anything because of her wheat allergy. Besides, she had to go home to drink her herbal cold medicine. Ewwww, I wouldn't want to be in her shoes. hahahahaGotta go to sleep now. Will post up some pics/video later. Good night!
