When the Real World Marries the Virtual World, Part 2

To say that it is hard to not be judgmental AFTER watching the video would be an understatement. When the link was sent to me and I heard the premise, I even went : “I thought that was something pretty normal in Japan.”

I mean, I can get the sentiment, I guess. To like something that is purely fictional (*ahem*Legolas*ahem*), so much so that you wish that they were real, that you could meet them for once in your lifetime, hey, even date or marry them (What would I not give to meet an Angel-type[Buffy reference here] in my lifetime . . .).

And then I watched the video of the person who did end up ‘marrying’ a character from a game . . . and I ended up with rather mixed feelings.

Not to mention, also a whole new way to look at my Nintendo DS.

I can rather emphatically say though, that despite my probably whole-life obsession with the virtual/fantasy world, even though I want Konami to come up with a Love Plus Girl’s Side now (I’ll probably end up on the floor giddy from too much laughing) – I wouldn’t actually want to introduce my husband through a DS screen plus carry him around (totally should be the other way around. The carrying, I mean.)

When the Real World Marries the Virtual World

I just HAD to post this up under the category of ‘Otome Game Ramblings’ even if it’s not about otome games per se – I saw this video at Youtube and yes, I JUST HAD TO SHARE IT.

Apparently this is what some friends of mine are worried will happen to me (LOL) since the CHOSEN FEW know that I am into dating virtual people in games (no, I’m just polishing my Japanese the fun way. Honest.)

Looking at this video though always reminds me that Japan never fails to amaze me although it’s ‘weirdness’ factor is slowly ebbing away on me since I have come to accept it as ‘normal’ behavior when it’s news about ‘otaku’ out of Japan.

I’m still formulating my thoughts around this since I watched the video (and thoughts of Chobits and Zettai Kareshi are reemerging in my mind but I guess like Chobits and Zettai Kareshi through a screen)  and will probably go on a little rant in the next post but I can honestly say : Yeah. I may be geek-exemplified, but I don’t think I’ll be that geek for a longer while yet (as in, actually marrying a 2D character in a ceremony).

My NDS Lite and I will keep a very clean player-console relationship, thanks.

Would You Prefer a PDA or PDAs?

I would say. . . the PDA. Hands down.

Or the Sidekick. The Juicy Couture limited edition one. Been in love with that thing ever since seeing Claire from Heroes using one. That thing is love.

LOVE

Yes, yes, I am a victim of media advertising and product placement and consumerism and am made to want what I really do not need and I am a complete perfect example of the Materialistic Generation.

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I don’t care.

Besides, I just *want* it. I’m not *buying* it. There’s a huge difference.

And I think I just completely went off topic.

Let me think what I was going to say before I got distracted by the Juicy Couture website.

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Oh. right.

I was out last Friday playing the good girl by accompanying my relatives (my mother, an aunt, and a cousin) on an outing (seriously, I play the good girl all the time – my friends are not going to buy me stuff *bricked* You know I still love you guys! Right?! Right?!?!), and we were having lunch in a coffee shop when suddenly behind me two high school kids who were about fourteen or fifteen appeared, and sat down behind me.

Now I didn’t exactly see what they did considering I had my back to them, but I sure got a running commentary anyway that fully let me know that I had a show going on behind me.

You know, the Public Displays of Affection kind, or according to my elders, the overly TOO MUCH Public Displays of Affection kind.

High School Survival : Malaysian Edition : Appearance

So I had to think long and hard about what to write for this week because after Orientation and basically telling everyone to suck up high school and life and keep chanting to self about ‘RULE #5 : What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger‘ because, well, life usually sucks but we just have to try to make it as interesting as possible without getting on each other’s nerves such as posting random blog posts about how much high school life should pretty much suck and don’t believe fiction movies and fall victim to the scam of expecting too much thanks to Western movies especially if you live in the Asian region.

As I recalled hardly anyone appreciated my singing talents back in high school.

Um. Right.

Anyway I finally thought of something to write this week when I was arguing with a certain someone of the previous generation who is all for the way high schools are in Malaysia and I was like ‘OMG, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS LIKE AND I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW GLAD I AM TO BE COMPLETELY OUT OF THERE.’

Apparently I still have many annoying surly teenage hormones running rampant around the place.

We were arguing about school rules, regulations, activities and the actual necessity for the inane ones. You know. Like how we have Ten Commandments and ‘RULE #6:Thou shalt not kill even if thou feels like doing so‘ and all that, only we have things like uniforms, exams, grading, rules about appearances, behavior, and stuff.

I remember feeling pissed-off about what in my opinion were the craziest school rules and regulations, some of which I claimed that they were ‘trying to deaden our creative membranes in our brain cells so we grow up to be capitalism victims who just go by rote and watch TV at night to convince ourselves that life isn’t really that bad when The School is trying to bring us down ‘ (I think I got that off some book), even sarcastically referring to my high school as boot camp (and various other unflattering terms).

Yes I am well aware that I suck at drawing with Paint thank you very much.

Anyway, I thought I’d post up some of my . . . favorite . . . high school regulations and activities in Malaysia that tried to kill my inane creativeness way back in the day as I can now sit back and laugh about how for five years in my life I was tortured to have every creative juice in my veins out  . . . but THEY OBVIOUSLY FAILED.

So this isn’t really anything about incorporating High School Survival Skills in Self per se (please look towards the previous post for that), more like just ranting about the System and how it is Soulless.

This one’s about how we are supposed to look in high school.

This post is probably only amusing to myself as I take a walk down memory lane once again (I need a break every now and then too!), so you have been forewarned.

Hoops and Yoyo

I found this so darn cute (read: ugly but adorable) I just had to share it here.

Normally I detest sending and receiving e-cards, but e-cards like this will definitely put a smile on my face.

People, meet Hoops and Yoyo, Hallmark’s creations.

With them on their main website giving you a warm welcome, I immediately fell in love with their irritatingly funny humor (clickety clickety click click), checked out their downloads (now I have a brand new wallpaper and several possibly-very-irritating-but-I-still-love-them ringtones for my phone), and their extremely funny e-cards (check out the Office series!).

So . . . I’m spreading the Hoops and Yoyo luuurve to my readers and here’s a Hoops and Yoyo e-card from me to you to remind you that . . . well, I’ll let Yoyo do the talking

Stay ugly but adorable, everyone.

P.S. I am completely a victim of consumerism and am now feeling tempted to go and get one of these products featured, especially the soft toy of Hoops.

Hallmark, you’re good.

Real Rode Review : Naoya’s Route

Since I’ve already done full-on fangirling plus ranting on four of the guys in Real Rode on this blog I figured I might as well do the same for the rest too. At the very least, I figured I should do one for Naoya because I heart him.

So I just recently finished Naoya’s routes (I don’t know what is it with people and my PS2 gaming – they always kill my fangirl mood especially during the cute scenes by asking me questions or another =___=), one for the Black Prince route and one for the White Prince route.

I had to go through two routes for Naoya’s route because the ‘Another Ending’ is located in  the Black Prince route, and the ‘Happy Ending’ is located in the White Prince route.

All in all I spent 6 hours or so on Naoya.

Oh, and I finally realized how far apart my life really was from what people thought of me because I was gaming on Real Rode at home when my mother asked me :”Do you even understand what they are saying? They’re speaking Japanese, right?”

I was like. “Er. Yeah. I do.”

Otome games ARE the reason why I even kinda-sorta-maybe understand Japanese anyway, so even if I do give up otome games/anime/manga in the future for some reason or other my roots into Japanese culture still started off with . . . weird geek pop culture.

As for Naoya in Real Rode, he’s Nina’s boyfriend who got sucked into the game Rode along with her as well.

I already thought he was the perfect boyfriend before I started off on his route (which basically can be seen throughout all my previous ramblings about how I feel like I’m cheating on him with all the other routes and I don’t even want to); after playing through his route in both Black and White routes, I think . . . that he is still THE perfect boyfriend.

Yes, his Black route Another Ending included.

Dare ni Demo Ura ga Aru ~true or lie~ Review

I had truly meant what I said the other day about this year being less on otome gaming apart from killing my backlog of games.

Still, if the Universe decrees it that ‘thou shalt play thy PC otome game Dare ni Demo Ura ga Aru and put thy backlogged games still on backlog because they have been there for sometime now, what’s a few days more?‘, hey, who am I to argue with such an Almighty Force?

This mighty force *ahem*, on the other hand, hath just finished playing so here’s my fangirling thoughts on the game for those without a Japanese OS/access to the game.

AS ALWAYS, LONG MAJOR RAMBLINGS OUT OF THE GOODNESS OF MY HEART (LOL) AND MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

The Stigma of Otaku

LOLOL Keo here’s the blog version of what we discussed yesterday!

Anyway, so basically yesterday I was talking to Keo about Dare ni Demo Ura ga Aru and the character Mikado Rihito (voiced by Midorikawa <3), and his route in the game Dare ni Demo Ura ga Aru.

Keo did a review on the game here if any of you are interested in knowing what the game is about (judging by my blog stats, oh yeah).

Basically Mikado is this HOT ‘princely’ guy with the HOT voice (yes I’m biased but whatever) with a whole gaggle of fans after him, but during the route-play he is revealed to be an ex-fat cosplaying otaku and suddenly the whole high school turns on him, with the girls and guys saying he had cheated them with his ‘princely’ act because he wasn’t very princely as a fat cosplaying otaku.

Yeah I was basically ranting about how wrong it was because what the heck, he’s hot NOW and he’s nice NOW and he’s a great guy NOW and people are judging him based on something on his past? Seriously I mean if he RAPED a small kid or something then I’d understand the judging but just because he was fat/cosplayer/otaku?

I mean, I don’t go around telling other people that I’m into anime/manga/gaming too. If the people who don’t know found out, what are they going to do? Throw eggs at me too?

On the other hand, if they do, I’ve got a great lawsuit on my hands.

Then in one of my playthrough as Nina in Real Rode in Naoya’s route (yes, I know I am taking forever but you know, the TV is not exactly in my room and it totally kills the mood when someone else is in the room with me when I’m on the PS2 . . .and one route takes me at least 3 -4 hours. . . ), Naoya kept questioning Nina how she knew so much about the world of Rode and she was hemming and hawing about answering.

Anyway she finally did answer and she told him that she was afraid to let him know that she was into gaming because, well,

“Girls who like gaming are kind of . . . odd, aren’t they? And I was afraid of our friends judging, especially since I’m your girlfriend and you’re so . . . popular.”

Basically I was laughing like mad at this point because . . .well . . girls who like gaming are kind of odd, aren’t they?

Hmmmm~ I wonder who?

Anyway it totally got me to thinking about how odd it seriously was that in these games people who are ‘otakus’ (which Google Translate says means ‘geek’, ‘nerd’, ‘enthusiast’) of varying degrees  are treated (Mikado) or thought (Nina) they would be treated badly if they reveal they are into things like anime or gaming.

Okay, so basically the first thing to be registered is,

1) Otakus don’t look like otakus, hence having ‘cheated’ the other people who NEVER thought they’d be into things like that.

2) Being an otaku is a stigma.

Well, I think those things are pretty much an ironic thing to find in a GAME (the domain of otakus) itself in the first place.

Then there’s the question of – “What makes an otaku an otaku, and what makes being an otaku a stigma?”

The Chocoholic’s Short Guide to Staying Fit

I know, I know, how ironic the title sounds.

I’m practically addicted to chocolates, the food of the Gods (and amour), and I probably have no say in how to stay fit, lose weight, be toned, etc, etc since I am not exactly qualified, but here’s the thing.

I have noticed a trend in the past five years in my MSN chats, and the topics there usually revolve around romance (i.e. I read and play too many things connected to romance for my own good), the future (i.e. I’m ambitious and a dreamer to boot),family and friends (usually some drama of some kind or other), financial matters (self-explanatory), and . . . interestingly enough, losing weight.

I swear variations of this thing has been on my New Year Resolution’s list every year. Staying fit, losing five pounds . . .and I suppose my addiction to chocolate doesn’t help matters much.

This is exactly what I need. A hot dietitian to motivate me.

Needless to say my New Year’s Resolution for 2009 about extra weight went out the window especially after I discovered the joy of certain snacks (White Chocolate Tim-Tams*drools*).

And now there’s 2010 . . . does losing weight have a part in my New Year Resolutions?

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Pretty much guilty as charged, actually, though I labeled it ‘Staying fit and healthy throughout the year’ so I don’t feel like I keep breaking promises to myself year after year (it’s sad enough people keep breaking their promises to me as it is).

And. . . since I keep getting and will always get statements like “Choco (yes, my nickname is choco amongst my friends – told you all I was a chocoholic), I need to lose weight! Let’s lose weight together!” and “Choco, I gained X amount of kilograms! Oh no!”, I thought I’d do a mock (read this. Burn this into your eyes. MOCK: defined as to imitate, esp in fun by the Free Dictionary i.e. do not take this seriously for yourself and if you do I am not in the least bit responsible – sorry but I have legalese paranoia) guide to losing weight and keeping fit ala Otometeki Koi Kakumei Love Revo the game (the premise of which is about a 100 kg girl losing weight, dating, and possibly getting a boyfriend at the end of the game), and point all ye who ask about my exercise and eating regiments for 2010 right here.

Disclaimer: Unlike game, hot guy not guaranteed at the end.

Otometeki Koi Kakumei Love Revo Review : The Quick Version

Well , if any of you notice,  my previous photobucket images for Love Revo have completely gone thanks to a little naming change for the album a little while back. You’d think I’d have caught on sooner, but oh well.

So I’ve removed my old posts on Otometeki on Wakatsuki and Masaki since I HATE seeing that This Image Has Been Removed or Deleted thing, and will now attempt to write a Otometeki Koi Kakumei Love Revo review for all the guys : in a  QUICK version, none of my fancy rambling posts.

Story Summary

100 kg heroine, Hitomi, a rich girl living in an apartment owned by her dad with her brother, starts 2nd year of high school life. The top five hot guys of her school suddenly all move into her apartment at the beginning of her school year, adding to the harem of the school doctor, the best friend, and the brother already living in the apartment.

Said five hot, eligible high school guys propels Hitomi to lose weight with their mostly unflattering comments, and premise of story is set.