Sonia's Journal

Hmm. Artwork which sells for thousands of dollars which are essentially portraits of BJDs. Photo-realistic portraiture be it of people or objects, I've got nothing huge against, although I find it a bit... I dunno, unimaginative at times?

But where several commercial/brand photos were used without permission?

You decide:
http://miaowkitten.livejournal.com/23975.html

I do have a lot of family and friends out there, thankfully none of them seem to have been affected so far - everyone is being sensible and staying indoors or out of the main city areas where the trouble is happening. But thank you for the concern. I do wish all the best to those who are finding themselves in difficulty - please stay safe.

Nicked from von_pud  and I'm putting a thumbnail image on here to encourage more people to look at the link.



This photo leapt out at me from a series of beautiful, yet tragic shots of the Californian wildfires. This one just took my breath away - I don't want to sound flippant but it looks unreal, pretty much exactly like a screenshot from Fallout 3. Which is supposed to be set in apocalyptic wastelands 200 years after a nuclear holocaust. Life imitating art. Very scary.

My prayers to those affected by these fires.

How much would you be willing to pay for a:
B5 (7" x 9.75" or 176x250mm, so it's BIGGER than A5)
glossy, litho printed
perfect bound
laminate cover
FULL COLOUR silky inner pages
64 page comic digest?

I was thinking US$12.00 / UK£8.00 is very competitive.

Or should I charge a little more, like US$15.00 / UK£9.99?

hint - AyaTakeo, in print across 3 volumes, ohohohoho

Now the autumn is here (and the weather is cool, not too hot or cold) it's perfect for carboot sales! In between my frantic working hours, I noticed my tray of stuff that needs to go is full again :3

The Cowley Park & Ride car boot sale is still going strong, every Sunday 7am-1pm, £10 seller fee. If you've got a bunch of stuff, and are happy to let things go between 50p - £5 (though the most popular prices I was able to sell at were £1-£3) then you can make around £50-£100 ^_^

I'm thinking 23 Sept as the only sunday I've got free this month (and perhaps the Saturday before, 22 sept to go blackberry picking to make jams :3)

Would anyone be interested in joining my husband and I in selling? And if you have colleagues in the area who may be interested, please pass this on!

You will need a collapsible table/racks/boxes/picnic blanket to display your wares. It's good to go in a group so that you can guard against irritating/not very honest traders who descend upon you before you even start setting up, and toilet breaks are easier too. There's always a burger van nearby so you can get drinks and food. Would not bother with pricing up everything, just saying to any passerbys that your stuff is cheap should reassure them to look in the first place, and then you can offer a price when they ask. Also, price things a little more expensive at the start of the day, and get cheaper as the day goes on.

Suggest stocking up on supplies/cash on Saturday, as the last time we did this, we forgot that Sunday morning the Milton Tesco was closed XD

I truly, truly love my relatives, the love, life and laughter they provide. The tasty food, and the fun. I miss them all the time, and always want to visit them when I have the chance. ^o^ Much much love to Anne (my cousin) and her new hubby Benjamin. And thank you so much, Uncle Paw and Aunt Maggie for looking after us, and Paula (my teenage cousin) for your leet Manga knowledge and support.

I will post pictures soon! Once I'm done with the Heidelberg and Boston ones T_T;;

=-=-=

On a more sober note:

This trip has been the last straw... I have been disgusted by the Malaysian government, its policies, bureaucracy (who would have thought, the most amount of trouble I had ever received at an immigration checkpoint was on the Malaysian side!), racial discrimination, hypocrisy, and religious intolerance, that I will be renouncing my Malaysian Citizenship as soon as I obtain my British Citizenship. Thank you, Johor Bahru checkpoint officers, for making up my mind. My only regret is that I would also have to give up my Thai residency status as well, as that is linked to my current Malaysian passport - I know a lot of money and time and effort went into that, but I live here now, there is no point me keeping it.

Annoying that British Citizenship will cost about £655 (by today's fees) and taking a strange test that requires I know about obscure Scottish traditions and exact ethnic minority percentages.

I hope that having a British passport may be worth the visa fees (and related hassle) in future!

like_milk brought this to my attention. It is an hr-long documentary about animal exploitation. I'm not trying to preach to you, but if you don't know where your meat, clothes and pets come from, this may be very informative. (This is mainly more applicable to the US than the UK, but it is still significant)

Earthlings (on Google video)

There are some very distressing images within this film. But I don't really want to hear, as mentioned in the film, "Oh, don't tell me, you'll spoil my dinner". Watch when you're not having dinner!

If you want to find more info on it, or check out the DVD, go here:
http://veg-tv.info/Earthlings

For the record, I am not a vegetarian. I own a pet. I have leather and fur clothing. I enjoy horse racing.

But I know my products, and I know where most of them have come from. My meat is free-ranging, allowed to mature naturally, organic and small holdings produced, slaughter of those animals are done in small, local abbatoirs to minimise travel and stress. I know first hand what it is like to raise animals and slaughter them myself - my family used to keep chickens. My pet cat was originally from an animal shelter. Most of my leather has been sourced within the UK, although I admit I should be more vigilant about my shoe leather. My one item of fur clothing is a rabbit fur bolero - whilst I do not know the living conditions of the rabbits used, I at least know that rabbits are domesticated and abundant - unlike the wolves, minks and foxes kept in small cages. Most likely I will not buy another fur unless I have more information. I used to work with ex-racehorses, and before a race, I research the horses' backgrounds and stables - if a horse doesn't want to run, it doesn't become a racehorse (they aren't forced) and racing standards are strict on excessive whipping. I disapprove of any form of animal testing and animal entertainment which utilises wild animals in acts unnatural for them.

I personally have never seen animals as beneath me, I have always thought of them as other beings with personalities and souls (although I sometimes think they can be potentially tasty beings ^_^;;). Animals are just like us in that they all have things to do, and do it in their own way. Some are lazy buggers, some are freakishly hyperactive. Some are naughty, and some are nice.

Those are just my opinions anyway. You don't need to justify or defend yours to me, although I am curious as to what you think.

For UK people who would like to know how to get hold of organic and free range food, try this website as a start: http://www.ukfoodonline.co.uk/

I have a very wide range of music tastes. So much so, that it really it hard to try and say what my favourite music is. I was intending to make this a fairly short post, but what the hell. Let's explore my musical tastes. Cos I'm narcissistic and feel like telling you.

( Click to find out tons about what I listen to and why... )

Just texted mum. Apparently, business is as usual in BKK, but BPS (my international school) is still closed today. Tanks are here and there, but more people are going about their business. Quite a few rules set in place by the interim govt. where prices of products are not allowed to increase right now, or vendors will be subject to high fines, which is good thinking. Army are still rounding up any strongly pro-Thaksin people they are aware of. Thaksin landed at Gatwick last night, he's staying in London for now, probably with his daughter studying here.

Hmm, seems there's been yet another attempted coup, this time whilst the PM Thaksin is away at the UN conference. My family should be okay, as they live in the suburbs of Bangkok, rather than the centre, where all the tanks are rolling in...

If you know anyone who is planning to go to Thailand within the next couple of days, I would strongly recommend not going unless necessary, or only if staying out of Bangkok.

UPDATE: My mum has texted me to say that Bangkok is under a curfew at the moment, so she's stocking up food at the nearby supermarket now.

I remember the last time there was a coup, it was about 1992, and I remember eating lots of tinned food, and hearing machinegun fire outside my window. I've moved from that house since, so hopefully, the private estate my house is in will be well sheltered.

I hope you're okay, shari! T_T

UPDATE 2 18:35:
Thailand has cut off international news stations. My mum just texted me to say so. So I'm trying to keep her informed of whats happened via text. Army has declared martial law. But has also requested all military personnel to report to their bases. This indicates that they want to prevent any violent counterattacks by officers still loyal to Thaksin, so this is a good move, at least this may nip any violence in the bud.

I went to a wedding last Friday of my school friend, Ariane. She really has been the glue of keeping together alumni from my International school in Bangkok, Thailand (Bangkok Patana). I met up with some people who I haven't seen for at least 3 years, some were more around 6, others even longer!

Ariane, James, I hope you have a wonderful life together! ^__^

And if any of you are checking up with me now, Hello to Saartje, Jon, Arran, Tracey, Anne-Marie and Nick (and your ladyfriend, but I'm going to be honest and say that I've forgotten her name! XD)

It was a beautiful wedding, the church ceremony was held in a little church on a hill in Kent, and the reception and party was held in a hotel by the sea.

What was so poignant about this, was that Ariane's father died of cancer last year, but just before he died, he was able to gave her away in a blessing at the nursing home he was based in, exactly one year before this ceremony.

What was really weird was that I bumped into an anime old skool, who was friends with the groom - he'd been to shinnekai and all that stuff, and even chatted to Laura years ago! He went to Expo last year in May, and I've bugged him to get in touch with the new scene a little more XD

Hello! My hubby Matthew is playing his cornet at an upcoming free concert in St Ives, Cambs. Any cambridgians want to come? St Ives has very nice little cafes for cream tea...

csd brass (cambridge)

Date:
02/07/06
Time:
2.30pm - 4.30pm
Price:
Free Event

Box Office:
For more information please call 01480 388248
Venue:
The Waits, St Ives
Details:
Relax to the sounds of summer! one of a series of concerts from Riverside Music Festival

Let me know if you can make it! Then I can tell Matt so that he can give the organisers some idea of numbers, in case they want to know. I don't think tickets are needed, as it's free, but it would be good to know in advance who can come.

If you are male, you may not want to read this ^_^;;

If you are female, and don't want to even think about your period, then I guess you can ignore this as well. But I plead, if you are female and are of menstruating age, please read this.

PERIODS
Think about it. Once a month, over 40-50 years of your lifetime. That's about 550 periods.

SANITARY PADS
How many do you use each period? Maybe around 4 per day of your period (3 during the day, one at night)? And your period lasts about 3 days average (mine lasts longer, but hey). That is 6,600 pads, or 413 packs of 16-pad packs.

COSTS: At an average of £2 per pack, a total of £826 over your lifetime.

ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE: Long term, and permanent. Those blasted things have lots of plastic - they go straight to the landfill, they are non-recyclable. And just think - almost every female around you generates 6,600 used plastic based pads.

EDIT: Tampons are discussed further down in the first two replies ^_^

( My initial thoughts about the damage I was doing )

( Biodegradable Disposable Pads )

( THe argument for Re-usable Pads )

( REUSABLE PADS WHICH ARE TOTALLY CUTE! *love* )

I hope I haven't completely bored you. But I really want more women to be aware of the environment/financial impact of wearing the normal plastic-based pads, and the fact that there are fantastic alternatives out there (which are really cute to boot!)

This month has been very busy for me!

Bristol Comics Expo - 13-14 May
http://www.comicexpo.net/
I had lots of fun at this, and was around the Sweatdrop Studios stand and the Tokyopop stand. I was involved in the Rising Stars of Manga panel on Sunday, and the Sweatdrop Studios workshop straight after.
Wearing:
Saturday - Metamorphose chain belt venetian dress with innocent world blouse
Sunday - Innocent world, blouse and skirt

Bournemouth Russell-Cotes Museum 18 May
http://www.russell-cotes.bournemouth.gov.uk/html/manga.html
With Emma Vieceli, we taught manga workshops all day at the gorgeous museum. We had just enough time to grab a quick bite of sushi and chat in the marque in the afternoon to celebrate the launch of The Japanese Drawing Room, By Sean Michael Wilson and Sakura Mizuki, commissioned by the Museum. We had to leave early to get back to Cambridge though, so we missed out of the Jpop bands T_T
Wearing: Metamorphose ribbon front jumperskirt, white high neck blouse from fanplusfriend

Bournemouth Central Library 25th May
http://www.russell-cotes.bournemouth.gov.uk/html/manga.html
With Emma, this time the workshops were held in the Library. An ultra cool library indeed, with tons of manga available! We had a really great group, and I loved working with them.
Wearing: Pierre Cardin white blouse, high waist bustle skirt from fanplusfriend, bustled jacket with cape from Innocent World.

London Expo 27-28 May
http://www.londonexpo.com/
This was a very busy Expo indeed! Saturday - I was at the Sweatdrop stand for most of the morning until the Tokyopop Rising Stars of Manga presentation on the main stage at around 12noon, then I was signing books from 12.30-2pm at their stand, then had a little meeting to go to, then chilled a little longer at the Sweatdrop stand. On Sunday, I arrived around 1pm due to horrendous traffic, and then stayed on the Sweatdrop Stand most of the time ^_^
Wearing:
Saturday - Black one piece with white edging and buckle strap apron with white rabbit motif, MA/MAM
Sunday - Delilah black one piece, lace front, side ribbon lacing and tiered side skirt, Milky Ange

Japanese Embassy, Manga Invasion panel & exhibition
http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/event/big_sypmanga.html
What a fantastic turnout! over a hundred visitors to the Embassy for a panel featuring industry names and myself and Emma were exhibiting with both Tokyopop and Metromedia with our Manga Shakespeare titles (I'm working on Romeo & Juliet). We were very relieved that the Japanese Embassy fully supports and recognises the talents of foreign manga artists.
Wearing: Baby the stars shine bright black one piece, high neck and low waist with bow details.

I noted down what I wore to each event so that
1. my loli friends can have some fun reading
2. so people will know if they saw me or not!
So it's not just a vain thing (okay, maybe a little ^_^;;) but quite useful too.

Thank goodness May is over though! What with the house move at the beginning of the month, and getting a cat, life has been extremely tiring.

Back to work on Romeo & Juliet now.... (official website: http://www.metromediauk.com/publishing.html)

Yo.

Exhausted from Bristol Comic Expo, happy about networking and promo! Fantastic weekend, great people and support was displayed!

Have a lot of work to do! But I will do it on time *yosh*

I've made about £220 off selling stuff on ebay this week o.O;; I did list about 45 items, and out of them, 30 have sold so far, and 8 will sell. Woo! But that means doing lots of wrapping today XD

Hmm. There was recently some drama on egl regarding the true essence of lolita. Essentially, a girl was arguing that lolita fashion is getting bastardised, and misrepresented by bad behaviour. Then she proceeded to tell us all to read Novala Takemoto's guidelines on how to behave. XD However, she wasn't very well behaved herself!

I've replied to her now, and in doing so, explained my feelings on the subject. I thought I'd share.

( Read more... )

With regards to other things than loli, as I feel it's been dominating recently!!

My house move is finally winding down.

I am tired, as I did lots of work until 4am last night, but I am better now ^_^ I should be able to reveal more publicly what current project I'm working on soon.

I bought lots of kitty things, because I will be adopting Tiggy, soundslikebuuu and like_milk 's cat. Tiggy seemed to like me, she stared at me lots, but let me pet her. And she spent ages sniffing and licking my fingers... although that was part of my cunning plan to get her to like me, as I made sure I made salmon sashimi earlier that day XD

Bristol Comic expo is this weekend! Look out for me there. ^_^ http://www.comicexpo.net/

My husband's grandmother died on her birthday, which was the same day as mine. T_T She was a nice lady, very particular in her ways, but very nice. I will miss her. She died somewhat peacefully, after a day with her friends. She was found in her chair, with the windows open, probably to listen to the birds outside. Unfortunately, it is an unexplained death (she had some complications, but was reliatively healthy/had them under control, she still lived in her big house on her own), so there's going to be a post-mortem, which has upset alot of my in-laws. The funeral will probably be next week.

And that's it really.

I'm hungry now....

I only weigh myself when I'm at my parents, or my mother-in-law's house - I don't actually own any bathroom scales, as I am normally of the opinion that if my tightest jeans/skirt/little black dress still fits me, I'm fine... But sometimes, things fit a little more snugly, and that is not so easy to detect unless you haven't worn your tightest clothes for a while.

But I did weigh myself around about Christmas, and I was the heaviest I had ever been! T_T People don't usually believe how much I weigh cos I'm 5'7" and a size 10, but weigh between 9-10 stone (around 60kg at least). BIG/HEAVY BONES DO EXIST!!! XD

Anyhow.... after Christmas at my parents, I was about 65-66 kg *cries* but now... I weigh 59kg!! YAYS! Being an artist helps you lose weight XD

In UK, my normal working day goes as follows - ( Read more... )

I find that if I wake up earlier than 9am (like I used to work back when I worked in an office, I'd get up 8.15am) my tummy rumbles alot and I get unbearably hungry by 12.30 so I end up snacking. And because I ate so early, I'd be shivering with hunger by 5.00pm and very grouchy by the time I got home to cook. Which sucked.


But - these methods help if I have to wake up early:
( Read more... )
To be honest though, my weight can change as much as 2-3 kgs in a day, I don't know how... And I used to be able to eat so much when I was younger... now I get full a lot quicker.... but I can still eat more than any of my lady friends, and more than quite a few of my gentlemen friends, and more than Matt quite easily.... of course when I totally pig out at one meal my tummy goes into Wolf mode, and then shuts down and doesn't feel hungry for over a day after...

Yo, yo!!!

I have updated my website - it is now VALID HTML 4.01 Transitional and CSS2!

I have also implemented some changes to the navigation system so that it runs beautifully on both Internet Explorer and Firefox. I'll see if I can test it out on Opera downstairs....

Just to let you know why the change - it's because I was recently hired to do some website consultancy work... where I had to create over 100 static pages conforming to W3C and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Prioty checkpoints 1 & 2... over 4 days.... my eyes and fingers went slightly nuts.

So... just so you know...

I DON'T use any form of CMS (content management system). I DON'T use graphical editors either (like Dreamweaver or Frontpage). I do all of my coding in text editors. Namely, Notepad 2. I get highlighted syntax, and some html tag completion as an option. But otherwise, that's it. It FORCES you to be ultra clean and efficient!!! OHOHOHOO!!!

This is essentially my workspace when I'm working on a website:
( Read more... )

Yes, I am a total html-markup fascist. And I'm not implying that people who can't code in this fashion aren't capable of good design or are stupid. But... YOU FEEL SOOOO GOOD when you've just finished typing several dozen lines of pure text... and then you view it as a webpage, and it's come out exactly how you want it to!

And I still can't help feeling a little smug. XD

As I sit now with my cup of tea and some baklawa to munch on, before I resume work on the cover of my upcoming graphic novel, I had a burst of concentrated thought downstairs in the kitchen as I was making myself a cuppa cha.

I take my tea with one big spoonful of sugar, nearly equivalent to 1.5 teaspoons. As I dropped this in and stirred I suddenly thought - is the dissolving of sugar in tea an endothermic or exothermic process? This is a VERY important question (see bottom for why).

Endothermic - when it lowers the temperature of the solvent
Exothermic - when it raises the temperature of the solvent

The reasons why reactions have these effects are to do with 1. the intra-molecular structure of the substance in question (covalent bonds) and 2. the intermolecular bonds of the substance. In order for a chemical/physical reaction or state change to take place, some degree of energy is needed to break apart the bonds between both the solute and the solvent. Then upon fusion (inter and intra-molecular in some cases) with the solvent, some energy is given off as new bonds are formed. It is the differences of energy taken in/given out that cause the changes in temperature.

Hmm, so does sugar decrease the temperature of your tea when it is dissolved? I did not have a thermometer to hand, so I shall theorise based on molecular structure.

Sugar is C₆H₁₂O₆ in it's plainest formula, as a Monosaccharide. Table sugar is a Disaccharide, sucrose, based off a combination of glucose and fructose. And the way they stay joined together is through a glysidic bond - so they look like C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ = 2 C₆H₁₂O₆ − H₂O

Water is H₂O, and forms Hydrogen bonds between each molecule. Now, this is actually a very strong bond to break in the chemical world, but sugar's glysidic bond is very similar (hydroxyl ending). These both are polar bonds (i.e. have polarity like a magnet) hence why sugar will have a spontaneous reaction with water (i.e. dissolves without assistance).

We also know that this dissolution of sugar into water is merely the spreading of sugar molecules amongst water molecules, not actually the bonding of water and sugar to create a new chemical substance. All molecules remain intact. Therefore, only inter-molecular bonds are being broken, and intermolecular bonds are being formed. If we theorise that these energies are roughly equal (as type of bonds are so similar), then we are left with one more fact - sugar is a solid substance, being dissolved in a liquid. This is a change of state which requires heat (think about butter, or an ice cube - it needs energy in order to melt). This reaction is most definitely endothermic.

THEREFORE - Dissolving sugar in your tea is endothermic.

Why is this question so important? Because I like my tea brewed and stewed to perfection. Normal English brekkie/all-day tea requires an optimum temperature of as close to boiling temp as possible. If sugar brings down the temperature, the flavours don't come out as well, and only the tannins and bitterness do. So, strong-tea drinkers of the world - FINISH BREWING YOUR TEA BEFORE ADDING ANY SUGAR!!!

So I didn't get a 7/7 in International Baccalaureate Chemistry for nothing!

My next chemistry lesson will be about explaining why sugar prevents scaley tea.

EDIT: PROOF!!!
http://www.concord.org/work/software/ccprobeware/fast-temperature/probing-temperature.html

Halfway down, Figure 10, sugar dissolving in water - 3.5g of sugar dissolved in 35ml of water reduces the temperature by about 0.5 degrees!! So there.

It is cute, and cool.... and didn't cost me too much to upgrade to, about £90.... not bad considering it already costs about £250 to buy SIM free and if buying with a new contract can already cost up to £100.... X3

It's own dedicated website:
Nokia 6111!

I'm getting it in black, of course!