BLOG (PERSONAL) -- Random Thoughts/Events for This Week (Jan. 16-Jan. 22)

Well, this week has been quite... scattered for me. Maybe I feel a little overwhelmed, many things hitting me or just happening. Things to do, things to prepare, things to think about -- arg, my mind is overloading!!! D: So... this blog will reflect that scattered state -- will just talk about random thoughts and events that happened this week. Again, because it's personal, it may not be interesting to you.

Events this week:

Clothes-shopping with my sister and friends

A while ago, I updated my Facebook status to say: "Just added up all her receipts from Boxing Week shopping... no shopping for 5 months (except for video games and necessities)". Well, I guess I couldn't keep to that... xP We didn't get to shop together during Boxing Week so we decided to shop this week.

Thankfully, some shops still had their sales going on and we did some mad shopping. We hit 5 stores in a time frame of 2.5 hours (that's not a lot of time to check out clothes and try them on). Then we had dinner because two of us didn't get to eat before meeting up. I didn't buy a lot of stuff, but it was an awesome time! I got to try on some ridiculous stuff, like a pink dress full of small red hearts at Jacob's. I can't wait until Spring so I can start wearing some of my new clothes, lol.

Japanese PSN Yen card finally came

During Boxing Week, I ordered a Japanese PSN Yen card from Yesasia.com. Well, it finally came and I used it up almost instantly, buying DLC for iDOLM@STER 2. It was a 10,000 yen card and after my picky, careful purchases, there is only about 2,500 left. I bought 2 songs, 2 costume sets, and a set of accessories. It's a little sad to think about... lol... the card cost me $139 US. And I'm about ready to buy another. Here's a video of one of the songs and costume sets I bought (I totally love the words and the outfit):

Megaupload is GONE

I found out about this from my co-worker on Friday. The Megaupload website has been taken down! The sucky thing is that I got affected, lol. Some blogs ago, I mentioned that I was working on a holiday game for my friends. Well, I succeeded and made it available to my friends on Facebook to download. I uploaded it up on Megaupload to get a download link... so now my game isn't available anymore (I never shared the link on my blog because it used copyrighted music). I don't really like other file-sharing sites because they have way too many pop-ups. So I'm thinking that I'll commission somebody to make some music for me (or I find some music that can be freely used), and I'll try posting it up somewhere -- then I'll share it here as well. I don't know when I'll do that, though (not anytime soon). It just sucks, lol. I worked so hard on the game and now nobody can try it out.

Okay, I'll switch to my thoughts this week. I've been feeling a bit troubled recently -- maybe that's why I haven't been sleeping well, either.

My Thoughts on:

Growing up

One of my New Year's Resolutions has me stumped: "Mature more, but without losing ideals and beliefs that are important to me." The more I think about it, I'm not completely sure what it means. What does it mean to mature? Does it mean dressing more appropriately for occasions? Changing priorities? Coming to expect certain actions/reactions? Reading the world, thinking I am not surprised, this is how the world works.? 

Honestly, I'm... scared. I'm scared that in order to mature, I may have to lose some ideals and beliefs that are important to me, and I don't want that. Maybe I just have some really negative associations towards being an adult. Well... I am an adult, but at heart... It makes me wonder, Do I have to change the way I think about things? Do I have to change? Do I have to leave some interests behind? I get so conflicted, thinking about it. And I don't know what to do.

I wish I could just stop aging right now so that I don't have to think about it. I like the way I think and act right now (mostly), and I don't think it needs to change. But... I am aware that years from now... even now... such thoughts and actions can lead to misunderstandings, our perspectives interpreting things differently...

I feel like a teenager again, thinking about this, lol.

SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act)

Yeah, there has been already a lot of blogs and stuff from many others expressing their thoughts on this subject, so I'm just going to talk about it briefly. I don't understand this bill fully, so I actually have questions about it -- like... would I be affected in any way because of my blog? Whenever I review something, I post screenshots or I link to Youtube videos. Would doing those things cause my blog to be, um, "no longer accessible"? I'll still keep doing it, though. If it happens, then it'll happen (I back up my blogs anyway so it's not gone forever).

One thing I do think -- if this bill passes -- is that there will be less... overall media exposure, which I think will lead to less overall revenue for certain stuff, and well, less innovation. 

When I think about piracy stuff, I always think back to an episode of an anime podcast years ago, discussing anime fansubs vs. licensed anime. This is what I got from that podcast episode: Before deciding to buy a product, some kind of exposure is needed. For me, that is very true (of course, if you can get exposure through legal means, like watching it on TV, Netflix, listening to it in a music store, borrowing somebody's legitimate copy, etc. -- then do that. Piracy is wrong!) How would I know that something is worth my money (or my support) unless I've had some experience with it? Friend recommendations can only take me so far (I have to really, really trust that our tastes are similar for me to blindly buy something based on what a friend says). And unless it's on sale for really cheap, no exposure usually means no purchase for me.

This also applies to other media like music and video games. There are some cool video games I never would have imported or even bought if I didn't get that first exposure (Ouendan series; Daigasso! Band Brothers series; Rhythm Heaven; Puzzle Quest, etc.). Same with music. Glay would have never become my favourite band if it wasn't for that Youtube video I viewed so long ago. It was a live clip and it drew me -- much more than that song's official music video. Watching that live clip before the music video made all the difference (I may explain in a future blog) -- and that live clip is gone now.

If that window of exposure is gone, unless it's made available through legal means (preferably free with ads if needed -- like emulating a TV channel), I'd imagine things would be almost like some kind of chain reaction. Less people would know about it. Therefore, less people would be talking about it -- meaning it would reach lesser people -- meaning a lesser chance of it reaching somebody who may become a huge fan and spend lots of money on it, as well as spreading the fandom further, or even becoming inspired or getting ideas for their own creative projects.

Okay, I stop now. This brief talk has become a bit too long, lol. If I'm incorrect with anything that I'm saying about this bill, please let me know, so I can better understand it.


If you read to the end, thanks! I wish you a Happy early Chinese New Year. Finally, the year of the Dragon! I'm not a Dragon -- my first two boyfriends were Dragons, so I guess I just have a soft spot for them (even though they sort of scarred me for life, ugh). Tigers are cool, too (a lot of my good friends from high school are Tigers). And Rabbits. And Sheep. And Pigs. But Rats are the best! For obvious reasons, lol.

For reaching the end of a really long blog, here's a random photo I took in July last year:

In case you can't tell, it's a cake. For those who are curious, I saw it at T&T.