*sigh* I'm bored and lonely. *sighs some more*

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Somewhere between all the family dinners and sleeping, I managed to get out of the house yesterday. I was supposed to meet Jobert at his house in Makati by 4:30 pm and since I left my house at 2 pm, I had enough time to wander around Makati and visit the shops I haven't seen in a long time.

~oh yeah, for those interested, here's the kouhaku site if you want to know who's performing on NHK during New Year from 7:30 - 11:45 (that's Japanese time, so if you're watching it here, subtract one hour)~

I guess it wasn't my day as someone was always blocking me when I passed by A Different Bookstore and Powerbooks. In the former's case, a dad was hanging over the shoulder of his daughter. In the latter, a lot of people are doing some reading and happened to be leaning on the SF&F shelf.

I guess the trip to Tower Records was interesting. At the ground floor of their Glorietta branch, there are some anime OSTs (Original Soundtracks) being sold. Of course they happen to be pre-sold (read: used) but hey, the price range is somewhere between P350 ~ P1200 and the CDs are still in excellent condition. Among the titles I saw was the YYH Battle Music, a Gundam ZZ two-disc set, Silent Mobius radio drama, Silent Mobius 2 OST, Gatchaman OST, Gatchaman OAV OST, a collection featuring Osamu Tezuka's works like Astroboy (Tetsuwan Atom) and Leo the Lion/Kimba the White Lion (Jungle Tantei), Dragonquest, Lupin 3 OST, an out of print Ranma OST, numerous Sailormoon soundtracks, and even more numerous Dragonball Z CDs. Suffice to say, I got one CD, the OST to Sailormoon S since I really love when Sailor Neptune players her violin, which is in one of the tracks. All for P350.

And I know I should stop buying people gifts but when I saw the Grand Theft Auto soundtrack vol. 1 ~6 at Tower Records (and later at Music One Greenbelt), I knew JM/Joan would love it. Of course me being indebted at the moment to a lot of people, I just got them Vol. 1. ^^ The CDs are being sold for P425 so if you haven't completed your collection... (hmmmm, I wonder how long before either JM or Joan will post a comment about this)

Since Jobert told me to meet him at his house at 4:30, I knew that didn't factor in delays yet. Still had time so I went to Greenbelt... once I figured out how to get there.

Anyway, Greenbelt was weird architecture for a mall. The groundfloor zigzags all the way and there's an escalator that leads to the parking and another one to the department store, which I assume is inaccessible from the outside. I had to look for another route in order to see the shops located at the mall's 2nd and 3rd floor.

An interesting shop was the hobby store there. Unfortunately, when I arrived, they were closed since someone was having a children's party. Drat. And I thought there might be hope I'd find a game of Mindtrap here in the Philippines. There's also a bookstore there but it smells of Bibliarch (in the Philippines, there are only really a few bookstores: National, Goodwill, Booksale, A Different Bookstore, and Blibliarch... everything else is derived from them) even though it has another name. They sell essentially the same stuff from the LotR books to this entire shelf on books on art and graphic design. The shop is also selling paints.

And of course, there's Music One at the 2nd floor. At least they have a World section, although didn't see much JPOP except for a title or two, mainly because it was released domestically.

Ran into Mitzi and her date, and later into Sacha with her date. Is it me or are all the cute girls taken? Either way, I'm doomed to the life of a bachelor.

Got home really really late (at around 3 am) since Jobert had to pick up the rest of the party (oh my God! I'm talking like I'm in an RPG), eat (which took quite long since the people in front of me ordered something like a dozen drinks and meals, aside from the fact that they were indecisive as to what to get), navigate to Dennis's home (where we played at the network gaming owned by his relatives), and bring us all back home.

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Hmmmm. Right now, there's something bothering me that I'm not exactly in the mood to greet the people I'm supposed to greet a Merry Christmas via email. Oh well. Merry Christmas minna-san! ^^

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Call me a spoilsport but Christmas tends to be the longest and busiest time of the year. As usual, lot of time is killed by attending parties, listening to my relatives gossip, and stare at food that everyone's too full to eat.

It's also when my inbox gets flooded when people attempt to get into Christmas cheer by sending all sorts of attachments.

Anyway, spent most of yesterday recuperating from the weekend. Had the pictures of the con developed but I don't have a scanner, so I can't upload them anywhere either way.

I was well enough in the evening to travel that Justin fetched me from my house and we picked up Jobert from the airport. I guess it's shocking to see that he has long hair as well.

Speaking of long hair, I've been mistaken for a girl several times now for the past few weeks that it's not even funny. And yesterday, it was a joke that me and Jobert look alike, with our hair quite long and all.

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Today was a bad day. I'm not talking about getting only 6 hours rest or the fact that I have a cold that my hankie's so wet and I ran out of tissue. As usual, the one thing that can actually bother me is my crush. *sigh*

Simply put, I'm getting mixed signals. As usual, she doesn't say hi or wave when I see her during the con. And when I call out to her, I'm not sure she doesn't respond because she either can't hear me or chooses to ignore it.

Anyway, she didn't want me to take her picture, even though she allowed it when others were asking. *sigh* It's not that I couldn't get pictures of her but rather she doesn't want ME taking pictures of her. It's just like the fact that she doesn't give me her phone number. *sigh*

Then again, it's not unusual for Christmas to be depressing for me. *sighs some more*

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Here's the day 2 report of C3.

Despite me not being early, I managed to enter at the start of the con since they opened late. I arrived at Megamall at 10:30 am but it didn't open until a few minutes before 11 am.

The main highlight of the day was the cosplay event. There were two batches in addition to yesterday's winners. I was stuck in the dressing area since while I'm not a cosplayer, I've been the cosplayer's assistant for the past two years. Helped Robert out in his Centurions (Power Extreme!) costume and played the baggage lackey to pretty much everyone in OAV.

Highlights involve a cast who did the Flame of Recca villains, the Genei Ryodan group, Sadako from Ring (which actually freaked out the emcees), the blue soldier from Cat's Trail (it's actually Choi), four characters from The Sandman series, some Final Fantasy characters, and well, a trio who did Battle Royale but didn't get a lot of clamor from the crowd (although the judges did credit them by allowing them to reach the finals), and an alien hunter.

So who won? Among the twenty eight finalists (fourteen from yesterday and fourteen from today), the judges (which comprised a lot of pinoy artists like Pol Medina and Arnold Arre, as well as James Palabay and Sherwin from Anima Anime). The emcees stalled by asking the cosplayers interesting facts, like how they made the costume or how they did the special effects. There was even an impromptu skit featuring alien vs. Sadako.

Third place was a tie between the alien (Kero) and Honya (who has a fancy gimick which is basically exhaling smoke from this mask). Second place went to this girl who cosplayed as the girl from Pasig (still don't know the name). She's attractive and I think her boyfriend is the guy in the Kubori Kikiam outfit since they kissed on stage. First place went to Krizelle in her fighting vipers outfit. So this is what, her second time to win first place?

Other events during the day involved lots of signings (Pol Medina Jr. had his work cut out for him) and well, a lot of people taking pictures since the cosplayers were twice the number as yesterday's.

I think a lot of people will agree that C3 (please, don't say C3 Con... C3 already has the "con" word in it) is an improvement over the previous anime conventions. It might not be the best but the progress is evident. I mean once the line got started, entering the con was fast. Bodyguards everywhere ensured that no one would make trouble (although one guy did get away with punching Mao in the cheek and then quickly running away), especially around the oversized Tammy plushie. Food was available inside the con so people didn't have to resort to going out. And also, you can take pictures nearly anywhere unlike a previous convention where there were only certain areas you can take pictures of. And of course, a couple of freebies and guest signings. Music was loud, but not loud enough that it disrupted everyone's concentration if you covered your ears. Dressing up for the cosplay was still a nightmare, but at least there's a dressing room inside the convention. The emcees could have been better (the lady was even pronouncing Rorouni Kenshin as Ru-ro-u-ni Kenshin) but they were lively and managed to make the audience laugh. The stage was also big and people didn't squeeze each other to pieces (although there was some crowding).

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