Manifest 2009

Thursday, and I'm in the middle of finishing my assignment for Business Finance. What a headache. Annuities and Capital Market Lines and lots and lots of formula. Not exactly my cup of tea, but hey, I'll manage.

Manifest was waaaay awesome. This was my first time attending! Instead of Melb Uni, like last year, they had it in the Melbourne Showgrounds this year. Had to wake up at 7am to prepare, and catch the tram to the Showgrounds. Tram 19 to the city, and then waited nearly half an hour for Tram 57 to Manifest. Unfortunately, the wait was rendered useless as when the tram came, it was filled to the brim with otakus! T_T Instead of cramming in, we took a Maxi cab with 3 other guys stranded at the tram stop like us. And they paid for our fare! Yatta! ^_^

Once there I went to register, get my pass, and then made my way to the Auction. Here, people who want to get rid of their anime-related stuff can have it auctioned off to other otakus. Some things of note: pimp juice, Ouran High magnets, tons of manga, figurines, as well as.... an inflatable Pocky. Evan bid and won a Toradora illustration book, a beautiful and high quality work *envy* while Emir won the Saber illustration book (at a high cost!) which put him into shock.

After that, the next event was the Anime Idol, where finalists sing to win the title of Idol. Not bad, the best singer was the Azumaria cosplayer from Chrono Chrusade, who sang the CC OP. The guys went wild over her, she having a good, somewhat childish voice, and a moe look, which all lolicons rave about. Halfway through they had a break, and invited the audience to come up and dance the Lucky Star OP. Of course, the guys all turned as one to me and went "GO", since I actually learned the dance steps, and in the end I caved in to peer pressure T_T.

The Activities Hall was really cool, with many traders selling anime-themed wares. Had a great time looking around, and got myself K-On! bookmarks, a simple Mokona keychain, and... a pair of cat's ears. Cute! Met up with Nat Tan later and went DDR with her too!

Overall, a great weekend, and if anyone is interested in photos, check out Facebook. Most were taken by Mani.

Nathan, Emir, Evan and Chee Yean, Mani as photographer

Life trudges on, and now it's August. It's currently Week 4 of the semester - in another 2-3 weeks I'll be sitting for my mid-sems, and I'm waaaay unprepared for it! Time flies too fast when you have plenty of things to do. Not that I'm as busy now as last semester. No more Cafe and Play for me. No more committee work, thank you. I'll just enjoy being free and available and stress-free. Sometimes, a break is needed to recharge and to relax, before plunging in to the next big challenge out there.

I'm already considering moving out of IH next year. I've been thinking about it for a few months already, but now I've made my decision. Goodbye IH, hello my new place. I took a look at the rental properties offered and their prices to check out the average rent I'll be paying. Boy, it sure is expensive for one person to live on her own! The cheapest option, of course, would be to rent a house, and cram as many people as possible into it (we're talking sqeezing two people to a room, and sticking someone in the garage). But I'd prefer a small place, with just another person. I enjoy my privacy too much to sacrifice it. Currently I'm in love with a beautiful apartment in Swanston St, just down from the uni. It's a tiny two-floor apartment (how awesome is that??!) and it's offered at a very very very reasonable rate. Now I just need to go find myself a housemate. E is out, as he's moving in with his friends. I'd love to have him, since he can cook. (Yes, I'm pathetic.) Hopefully he'll remember me from time to time - I have too little close friends now to lose them. Oh, and cross my fingers that the apartment will be still around until the end of the year.

One of my wishes came true. I finally got a soft-toy! Not that I didn't have any, but this is the first time someone actually gave me one. It's an Aspergillus oryzae (see Moyashimon the anime, and you'll know what I'm talking about). I pretty much freaked the kind giver out by tying a huge blue ribbon around the oryzae's head to change it into a her :D

This weekend would mark the beginning of Manifest (Melbourne's Anime festival) and a birthday party that I'm currently planning. Maybe there'll be updates later :) For now, toodles!