Random thoughts~

Living in Malaysia has it's pros and cons, though you could figure that out for yourself. One of the cons is that visual kei is not popular in Malaysia (in general). The people usually would listen to local, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese, but very few of them have the interest in visual kei. Some might say who would be interested in guys dressed like girls playing music they can't even interpret. Initially I was that kind of person, but for once I just downloaded the song without Google-ing the band's pictures, and I kinda liked it. Visual kei is divided into a few other categories, such as oshare kei. Check out this Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Kei

Visual kei bands are usually quite easy to spot - usually with flamboyant hairstyles, clothes you'd probably never wear everyday and usually pretty heavy eye makeup. Visual kei artistes usually have really pale skin, and there are no hard-and-fast rules to it, it just is. There are many fans around the world, some (like me) who tries to incorporate the visual kei style into our daily wardrobe. One thing about visual kei is the abundance of accessories - as long as you do it right, you can pile on as many as you like. I've recently only started to purchase 'visual kei accessories'. What you'll need are reference pictures of your favorite visual kei band (it's usually a band, thank you Mana~). Usually what you're looking for is right in front of you - I got my first visual kei-ish necklace from Colours, which was also one of my Christmas presents.

Speaking of Christmas presents, I only got about 3 to date this year, though the past few years' present aren't a lot. Two were from my aunt, the other from me to myself. My first present - the necklace. The second one - my 'WARNING: RECKLESS COMPULSIVE SHOPPER' T-shirt. The last one, from me to myself, freshly purchased today at Sunway Pyramid, is the 120 Pro Palette!! I've been eying the Coastal Scents 88 Palette for more than a year now, costs for them are RM80 at the minimum, and the 120 Pro Palette (used by my favorite local creative-preneur, Haze Long) at more than RM120, I think.

Just today I've been to Sunway Pyramid for the first time in a couple of years, I think, mainly to look for my makeup brushes. I've just started eying the Sigma complete kit, so my sis said maybe there's a cheaper alternative to the brushes. We went to a small shop called Lash Bar (forgot which floor it was on =P), which sold the 77 Palette, 88 Palette, lip palette, etc; 3 brush sets, individual brushes, false lashes (the main selling point, note the name of the shop) and brush rolls. Check out this site: jamiechin.com (the post where she bought the 88 Warm Palette from the same shop).

Practically speaking, the brushes there would be cheaper than the Sigma brushes. The brushes there (the labels that I saw anyways) are around RM24, while the Sigma ones (not calculating postal) are RM27 after conversion. I didn't ask the prices for the brush sets, but for sure they were cheaper than the Sigma kit. As for the palettes, the 88 Palette was priced at RM45, original Coastal Scents product. The original price is around RM80, I think, but after postage and stuff, it totals up to around RM100+.

The thing is, now I'm worried. I just searched the 120 Pro Palette on Google, they gave me a link to a beauty blog. And according to that blog, the palette is found on eBay, made in China and is basically a no-brand product. I'm like WTF?! I thought it was Coastal Scents!! Anyways, I've bought it and hopefully I'll have a use for it. There was something else I wanted to get actually - a rabbit-pig ceramic piggy bank, RM19.95 at Mini Toons, but cash is short and I don't need such a big one anyways, so I let it pass and see whether I still want it later.

Yiee is going for her NS next week (or I think it's week after next, anyway, it's soon) and we just had her farewell dinner tonight (technically speaking, it's last night) at Shapa Shapa Shabu a few doors down from Old Town White Coffee at the new shops in Seri Petaling. It seems that every time we plan a dinner outing, it'll have something to do with steamboat - 100'C, Shabu Garden, and now Shapa Shapa Shabu. The thing is, I forgot to take photos before I started eating. Some blogger I am, but I did manage to get a pic of the restaurant logo.

The main reason why we chose that particular restaurant was because Yiee herself ate there before and supposedly there were 'lengzais' around. I went in and was 'what lengzai?' The food was alright, though there were more greens than I would have liked; the Chinese mushroom had a weird taste to it; the taufoo pok was downright stinky. The soup selection was alright, the sets were all tempting, but I was pretty disappointed with the drinks section of the menu. There just wasn't much ... variety.

What we did was eat, chat, gossip, argue a bit, send stuff from phone to phone, exchange some food, and the gang's food rite - make something yucky out of the leftovers then take lots of pictures. Basically, from 6pm, we ate for an hour, then spent the rest of two hours chatting and gossiping even more. After paying the bill (mine totaling up to RM34.80 plus tax), we walked along the entire row of new shops, many of the units still under renovation or just still not sold yet. Due to insufficient change, we walked to New Lucky Restaurant to hopefully get some change. In the end, we got the change from Anne Yeng's mum. I still owe JW RM1.60. Ish...

Mum drove me home, and speaking of mum, she hasn't seen my left ear since I got the latest piercing. Just the mention of another piercing and I already got scolding, so imagine really getting more piercings - I might just be murdered in the middle of the night.

Even after watching Final Fantasy VII Advent Children numerous times, I still don't completely understand the story. Perhaps it's because of the subtitles. One things for sure though, FFVII is one of Square Enix's best creations, apart from VIII, X and X-2. And the soundtracks are absolute heaven, as is the general story lines, though sometimes you would wish that the story would go on longer, and the some of the endings less sad.

My nails are getting that orange tint already, due to the coats and coats of nail polish. I've switched from bisque with mixed glitter to light khaki pearl and now my nails are hot pink (talons, actually). For some reason I've never really like blood red nails, they just look a little too ... mature for me.