My general impression of the game so far? I like it. Instead of just tedious farming, I really adore the addition of Sun Stones in the game. It’s practically the sole reason why I am actually interacting with the villagers – of course, other than courting my favorite dude (*ahem*Will, anyone?) The characters are simply adorable too, I mean just LOOK at Eliza, she may be narcissistic, but you have to admit she’s pretty damn cute. (Haha, yes I love cute games what more can I say. )

( HM:SI rant )

I still have not pre-ordered my copy of Grand Bazaar, shall do it asap. I wonder if I’ll still get the bonus item (horse plushie)… I hope so lol, it’s so adorable!

Follow @ovxii for future magazine scans!
Please Note: This is the Chinese version of Popteen August 2010 issue, it is not the full magazine. I highly recommend that you purchase a hard copy for much more (+ clearer images XD)! Feel free to share these, but a credit back to http://ovxii.com would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

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Who doesn’t go back on their words? I am sure everyone has done it at least once, even I have (numerous times, but nothing I would define as “serious” – ie. not small things like I will do the dishes tonight, I won’t eat junk food before dinner, I will return my library book eventually etc.). But what annoys the hell outta me is when people do it one too many times, especially when it comes to more important things such as a plan, a trip, a change in attitude or behavior, a goal… Maybe once or twice I can let it go, but pushing it beyond that is essentially asking me to blow up in their face.

Now, when I say “go back on their words”, I mean it as when someone tells you something they will do, or something they will stop doing, and then just when you least expect it, they break their words in half. Despite how sincere they were at the beginning, in the end it’s all just sugarcoated promises. Which brings me to another point, and also something for you to think about: what’s your perception of a “promise”? Does a promise actually need the phrase “I promise…” in there? Because I am beginning to really think that the next time I am told to expect something, I should just pretend it’s not gonna happen.

That way, when it actually doesn’t happen, I would be less disappointed.

P.S. I was going to blog about something completely different today, but I just had to let that out… Harhar, feel 10x better now. THIS is why I keep a blog lol! So anyway, my regular (happier) posts will follow shortly – it’s been saved as draft instead.

wanted a cartoon-y layout with some form of “me” in it → and since me = piggy (nickname my boyfriend calls me) → him = monkey (that’s what he calls himself even though he denies that fact) → pig gets bombed out of the monkey island – just because I wanted a 3D effect → island will be a pudding-looking-thing surrounded by the sea→ the island will be full of monkeys → none of them likes the pig and thus bombs her out of the island. The end! >o

And there you have it, this beautifully*cough*hand drawn layout. It’s also my first time illustrating an entire layout without the use of third-party tools (except my tablet, obviously). I am still a complete beginner in shading with photoshop, so please excuse the funky shadings.

On the other hand, yes moved domains again. I am afraid of like copyright issues on the last one. If anyone’s interested in adopting it please let me know, otherwise I am putting it on sale at my registrar. My old domain is called palumpolum.com. Again, I am sorry blogroll buddies! Does it help if I tell you this is the last time I am changing my blog domain, last time!

I am also thinking of starting some twitter contests in the very near future. Basically they’ll be about a couple days in length each and prizes range from Korean stationary to beauty products. If you want to be the first to hear about them, follow me @ovxii! Here’s a preview of what some of the prizes might look like:

P.S. I never checked this layout in other browsers besides Firefox. Hopefully it’s not screwed up.

Follow @ovxii for future magazine scans!
Please Note: This is not the full magazine. You may purchase a hard copy for much more! Feel free to share these, but a credit back to http://palumpolum.com would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

→ DOWNLOAD ←

Recently I have been re-reading some Chinese internet novels, last time I read these was back in highschool. Sure brings back memories… I remember staying up all night reading these books, tearing up every time. Haha good times…

These books are written by the Korean internet novelist 귀여니 (Guiyeoni), or 可愛淘. She’s amazing. Period. I haven’t paid attention to her recent releases though, so I have got a lot to catch up on – more like TEN books (! – just checked) But first I need to get my hands on her books first, since they are only being sold in Asia, I have to order them from taobao.com via panli.com (basically a shopping service that helps you order from sites like taobao – which by the way, only accepts Chinese bank cards and credit cards – and shipping them to international addresses).

A mini review of panli. I have been using it since last year. Ordered a ton of crap with it already: stuff ranging from stationaries to health/beauty products to Japanese/Taiwanese magazines. It’s a lifesaver for people like me who doesn’t have a Chinese bank account. The only downside though is the insane shipping prices, I mean it is cheap technically since I have large orders and they are generally really heavy (especially the magazines and books…). I typically spend around 100 USD on the items and another 150-200 USD on shipping. Note for this particular example, I probably had 20 magazines in there (each weighting around 600-800g), which would usually cost me around 20-30 bucks if I buy it in Toronto, so I guess it’s still worth it? I don’t know, still a huge dent in my wallet but I just can’t stop myself. Actually, I just paid for another batch of magazine orders recently lolol, I’ll post an update once I receive the package. Oh, and an alternative to panli for those who can’t read Chinese is taobaonow.com. Used this once last summer, it ships a bit slower though, since it’s like owned by one person or something.

Anyway check out those books if you read Chinese or Korean!

Current To-Do List:
1. Tweak layout
2. Close Paperskies.net
3. Move my joined fanlistings + QBee Quilt to this domain
4. Notify blogroll of new domain
5. Add Twitter plugin for comments

Oh and if you haven’t noticed already, I will be using my RL name – which is Sophia – in this blog from now on. :P

Current asian dramas I am following…
In The Eye of the Beholder (秋香怒點唐伯虎) -TVB- | Information

I have always been a fan of costume dramas, and this one is no exception. This drama is actually really similar to the one Stephen Chow starred in back in 1993, except with a few plot modification and twists. Moses Chan and Johnson Lee are a great acting pair and they totally cracked me up throughout the drama. The level of humor in this though is definitely not as great as the Stephen Chow one, but you should watch it just to see how the witty Tong Bak Fu goes about in solving problems.

Tou Xin Da Sheng P.S. Nan (偷心大聖 P.S. 男) -SETTV- | Information

I found out about this drama from a friend. Only 6 episodes are aired since late February, so I don’t really have much to say about it… However, it is still pretty interesting to watch the character developments. I like how I am learning something new each episode, you can never predict what will happen next. Most of the actors/actresses in this drama are all new to me, especially Lan Cheng Long, he’s just plain hot /haha.

Down With Love (就想賴著妳) -GTV- | Information

Another new comedy, this one’s a very light and cheerful drama starring Ella and Jerry Yan. Ella’s acting never fail to make me laugh, she’s like the perfect person when it comes to playing tomboys. The story is like any other typical asian drama: poor girl meets rich boy, and after a series of encounters they fall for each other, but then there’s always something preventing them from being together… Etc etc, then happy ending. The story is OK-original, so if you also like Ella definitely give this a try!

Smile, You (그대, 웃어요) -SBS- | Information

It’s been a while since I last watched a family drama. Watching the two families in this drama trying to adjust to life living under the same roof, it’s hilarious at times and occassionally frustrating – especially when you see the commoner family get bullied by the spoiled ex-chaebol¹ family. What makes it interesting is the fact that the family the chaebol family moved into is actually their ex-chauffeur’s. There’s also the romance portion, but I haven’t reached that point yet. :P

Fated to Love You (命中注定我愛你) -SETTV- | Information

I am sure at least some of you have heard about this show, I remember watching a couple episodes when it was just aired back in 2008, but eventually stopped because I got tired of waiting for new episodes. My first impression on the show was their opening theme: all the fluffy clouds and pinkness, I thought it was so cheesy and probably appeal to girls only (you can imagine how surprised I was I found out a bunch of my guy friends were watching it too). Anyway so I recently started watching it again from the beginning, so far so good! I really like the heroine, Chen Xin Yi; because in some ways, her and I are quite similar.

Anyway so those are pretty much the dramas I am following at the moment. Wow, this post took me like 5 hours to write ’cause I kept getting distracted with work stuff (wrote this at work hahaha); I don’t think I am gonna write another “impressions” post in the next little while, so hard to get my words together.

1. Korean term for a large conglomerate formed by cross-ownership and often under one family’s control. – definition taken from BusinessDictionary

Probably have to stick teacher’s college somewhere in there, not sure how that’s gonna work though… I also want to re-learn French, just because I am a language-freak. Oh, and hopefully living in a big, comfy house with my family and kid(s)!

I think the most exciting part is the family part (lol /daydrams). What about you?

Up to now, I only finished the first chapter of the game, Raindrops. Took me about 3 hours, mainly because I enjoy exploring the towns and talking to every single townie I could find. The battle system is time-based, each player character gets about 5 seconds to attack. I haven’t gotten that many attack variations as of yet, but their light and dark attacks are quite interesting since they change depending on whether your character is in the shadows on not.

The graphics IMO are amazing – especially the detail of the towns and surroundings. I especially love the character design, I mean they are adorable – big eyes, round face, and pretty hair. The cutscenes are quite realistic, and did I mention the bright and soft colors throughout the game? They really add to the overall enjoyment of the game.

One thing I didn’t like about the game was the slowness of each cutscene, I cannot fast forward each dialogue without skipping the scene completely. I sort of wish they added a way to just display the entire piece of text with a press of a button, but the downside to that would result in the skipping of frames in the scene. That’s pretty much my main complaint, otherwise I am enjoying everything else (so far at the very least)!