milkypink [dot] net

notice of content division

milkypink — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:33:06 +0000

So, I’ve finally decided to segment my online blogging life and this blog has been more or less split in two!

milkypink.net will continue to exist as a personal blogging space for talking about random things.

miuofstars.net will take over Japan-related subjects, such as dolls, figures, games, manga, and anime. in addition, I’m making an effort to maintain it as a bilingual blog. I’m nowhere near fluent in Japanese, but practice has to happen somehow, right? XD; I’ll probably also post things from my upcoming trip to Japan there, as well. I haven’t yet decided whether I’ll copy over entries from tokyo-shoujo.net yet or not. I may well repost the 2008 trip reports on mos.net with photos included, though XD;

I’ve already copied over the relevant posts from here to there, but I won’t remove them from this blog (although I may link them later, not sure).

Sorry if this split makes things more annoying for anyone – I figure there are people who want to read about specific subject-related stuff and skip all the personal junk XD; everyone is still welcome to follow this blog, I’ll continue to post non-Japan reviews and maintain my 365photo task here so it won’t be completely neglected!

small update

milkypink — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:51:35 +0000

So I’ve fallen behind on 365photo stuff (again -_-) but that’s mostly because I’m running around trying to get ready for my trip to Japan at the end of the month

I’ve posted a bit on figure.fm and the community has been incredibly friendly and helpful so far! I’m sure there’s some nastiness lurking that I haven’t encountered yet, but as of right now I’m pleasantly surprised by everyone’s willingness to bring their knowledge to the discussions – even to people who’ve barely posted at all yet, like me!

While on figure.fm, I mentioned that I was interested in attending Osaka’s Home Town Dollpa that will take place on my second full day there. Still poking through the information on the HTD site, I hadn’t quite grasped what was required to go. Members (both in English and Japanese!) let me know that I might need a Volks Membership Card and the Guidebook for that event, as well as how the limited lottery system worked. I’d had some vague idea about Dollpas back when I was reading the Den of Angels forums regularly, but didn’t seriously consider going to one so that information was filed away in the back of my head and forgotten XD;
The responses came quickly and the tone didn’t feel at all condescending. (Some even wished for my success in obtaining a chance to buy DD Sakuno!)
As you can probably tell, I’m seriously impressed by the figure.fm community at the moment XD

In other news, I’ve been wavering on buying a new monitor – the Samsung P2570HD is top on that list, having basically every type of input I could want, removing my need for a separate TV (or continuing to endure with my 15″ Japanese TV, which, while it works, is not exactly what one would call “high quality” XD; ). It does have a DTV tuner which I don’t particularly need as I don’t watch much on cable directly (hulu is my friend!) but maybe it’ll be fun to play around with later~
My 19″ still works, and I do like it, but it’s 5 years old now and the resolution is sort of low (1280×1024, yes it’s not widescreen). I’ve toyed with the idea of having both hooked up to Emi at once… three screens for one computer…

The monitor will likely be my next big purchase, as other things that have caught my attention aren’t available and/or don’t exist yet:

I still want a 64GB iPod Touch, preferably with a camera, which rumors are speculating will appear this Fall (likely also equipped with the new A4 processor that the iPad and iPhone 4 are using)
Panasonic released the specs for the Lumix LX5, the successor to the LX3 that I’ve seen bloggers using (Danny Choo, Puppy52/Chun and Xiaxue just as examples – I know Xiaxue’s moved on to a different camera, and I think Danny uses his GF1 more now, but my point still stands). I’m still not quite ready to jump into the DSLR deep-end, even with the skinny micro fourthirds cameras that exist, but I don’t know if the LX5 would be too much of a lateral move for me or not. Mainly I’m interested in the low-light capabilities. Well, we’ll see how I feel when the camera’s been properly reviewed…
DD Sakuno, a limited release at HTD6Osaka. Mostly I like her headmold which I want to steal to stick on a DDdy body for a girl I’ve been considering creating in MDD form but I think she’d be mad if I made her into a smaller body… Plus then Aryanna can have a fullsize friend! >_> I wonder how the face sizes will compare… hopefully it won’t be too jarring seeing them next to each other! (Arya’s got big eyes and is borderline 2Dstyle herself so I’m thinking it should be okay~)

I’m only holding back on the monitor purchase because I don’t need it, but I’ve been researching it and currently there’s a nice deal going on that I’d like to take advantage of…

I think I’ll make a post later about something that I’ve been thinking about for the past day or so: writing to the audience, or, adjusting your style to fit in with a community. (I’ll probably start writing it now, but it won’t post until tomorrow. Got to spread out my inspiration or else I’ll have twenty posts on one day and then nothing for the rest of the month…. )

186-190

milkypink — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:18:54 +0000

186

tried some Pinky:st headphones on Kagamin~

187

started reading Hogfather not long after I got home

188

Every time I go on vacation I feel like I come back sick…. >_>

189

Read all of All She Was Worth in four or five hours XD;

190

behold! sparkly crab earrings! (no, I don’t know why. just… enjoy them XD)

Hogfather & All She Was Worth

milkypink — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:22:58 +0000

A couple of mini-reviews of the books I’ve read lately:

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

The 20th book in the Discworld series (and yes, I’m reading them in order – I find they tend to make a little more sense that way), about average Discworld length, possibly a bit longer than that, and focuses on Death (and his granddaughter, Susan). I tend to prefer the books involving Death, so that automatically makes it interesting for me, but I found Hogfather to actually be a bit creepier than most of the Discworld novels I’ve read. I can’t quite pinpoint why (although it might’ve been Teatime). Reading it now gave an additional “Christmas in July” feel so I’m not sure if it would have seemed less strange and/or more appropriate if I’d read it in December XD;

All She Was Worth – Miyuki Miyabe

This book was written by an author I’d never heard of previously, but happened to pick during a particularly ambitious book-buying spree on amazon. (I have two more books by completely new authors still waiting for me.) I don’t quite remember how it got recommended to me, I imagine it was through a (Haruki) Murakami page. ASWW is a fairly straightforward detective novel, in the sense that the protagonist is a detective and spends the entire time trying to unravel What Happened. Naturally there are some additional scenes, giving background on the protagonist and his life, but that’s generally overshadowed by the investigation and the information learned about the subject’s life and personality. I was a little disappointed that there was no shown confrontation at the end, as it felt a bit like things were left hanging. I suppose you can come to the conclusion that everything unfolded just as the detective had discovered it, and I suppose the motive for the actions was clear enough… but I somehow still prefer to hear it straight from the character’s mouth. It wasn’t a bad ending, just not my preferred one. (Also, the fact that there were at least three or four blank pages at the back of the book didn’t help any, but that’s a publishing/printing choice, I believe.)

I should note that I read these two books in quick succession, as I seem to always do. Hogfather at least took a couple nights to work through, but All She Was Worth was read from beginning to end last night XD; That was unintentional, but not unprecedented. I’m wondering whether to wait a bit before starting on In the Miso Soup or Out (I’ve also got Kinki Lullaby and Jingo but I’m saving those, one because KL’s the last Billy Chaka book and Jingo because, well, I just read a Discworld book.)

I always welcome book recommendations and questions about books that I’ve read! Feel free to leave a comment here, or on my 2010 book list page

181-185

milkypink — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:10:57 +0000

catchup part 4!

181

Mandalay Place (shopping area between Mandalay Bay hotel & casino and the Luxor) sign

182

the Luxor, as seen from my hotel room in Mandalay

183

Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay

184

a statue at Mandalay Bay

185

my foam pillow~ so glad to have it back (didn’t take it with me on my trip. bad idea – I hate down pillows >< )

176-180

milkypink — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:05:35 +0000

catchup part 3!

176

logo on my pink Seagate external hdd

177

Pinky:st Nagato’s stand

178

heartkey doublering

179

photo taken mid-flight on the way to Las Vegas

180

souvenir booklet from Penn & Teller

171-175

milkypink — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:00:51 +0000

part 2 of catchup!

171

went out to eat, and this was my appetizer – bacon wrapped dates :9

172

my macbook circuitboard necklace (need to fix the electric tape on it again…)

173

Geneva cookies :9 mmmm~

174

whiteout tape from JetPens

175

Pucca bandaid case

166-170

milkypink — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:58:41 +0000

playing catchup, 5 at a time this time~

166

key necklace & new journal

167

I decorated a notebook for writing down writing related things in. so far… I haven’t used it XD;

168

I’m bad at getting rid of excess candy… this is from Valentine’s

169

pink Hello Kitty watch that I bought at the Strawberry Sanrio store back in 2006.

170

my bluetooth headphones that I use with Emi

160-165

milkypink — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:10:14 +0000

160

Pinky:st Tsuyura… with different hair XD;

161

Got my new camcorder~ it’s so tiny!

162

I’m amused by the trend of a single manual for multiple similar models of a single product…

163

headaches suck…

164

the lens cover to my camcorder

165

strawberry & regular latte from the tokidoki l’amore print

150-159

milkypink — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:08:56 +0000

Okay, let’s continue playing catchup~

150

Mr. Goodbar mini chocolate, wrapped in holiday paper… I should probably get rid of it

151

my stash of watch batteries… XD;

152

Brought Kagamin with me to dinner. She spent the whole time reading…

153

Random stationery item XD; it holds papers & has a little notebook inside.

154

These came in the package from Dollmore…

155

the strap to my mashumaro nyanko pencil case~

156

there was a fox in the yard!

157

I rarely take any cold meds, but sudafed is what I take when I can’t breathe. Unfortunately, the packets have a habit of disappearing after I’m done being sick and then reappear at random points later… I’m not sure if these have expired. Probably XD;;

158

Kagamin wearing Waitress!Mikuru’s outfit~

159

white hair barrette~ (yes, totally random… XD;)