Cosplay: Mangaholix 2009

Mangaholix 2009 was held at World Trade Centre East Pavillion on November 21, 2009.

Complete album here.

We expected a large venue packed with cosplayers like last time. Unfortunately, Mangaholix was a smaller event. I thought it was going to be held at a really classy place or something. The East Pavillion was okay, not a fine convention centre like SMX though. It was more like a giant, air-conditioned tent. (: Still, I’m glad we attended -since we saw Noctis again! But this time he dressed as Squall Leonhart.

Yeahp, I dressed as Tifa Lockhart.. ^^;

Oh, and don’t mind the wrong date on the picture. The camera wasn’t set right lolz. I chose to cosplay Tifa since I wanted to group up with Ponchi and NC. Ponch still went as Cloud Strife while NC switched to Vincent Valentine. He borrowed my wig and murdered it!! Hahaha! Oh, and he looked like a girl… haha, peace ^^. ER also went with us. Last time, he stayed behind with his friends at World Trade because he was more into the Level Up! event.

Here we are! FF characters plus Gilbert Nightraid (omg, I thought it was Nitrate xD)

We went around doing the usual stuff. Posing, taking pics… never gets old (: Oh! And we came up with a new name for ER.. it’s inspired by his wig.. we named him… JUN PYO! Hahaha. It was so funny. He was all game and did the badboy walk while Ponchi played the Boys Over Flowers theme song using his hp. Too bad I wasn’t able to upload the video. It’s all dark and blurry.. ):

There was no cosplay contest or catwalk. The contests were to be held on the following day, but we chose to go on a Saturday since NC couldn’t come on Sundays. Oh well T_T.. I kinda regret not going back. JIN JOSON was the cosplay judge!! Nyaaah! My idol <3.. haayz! And our old schoolmates attended the Sunday event, too.

But! Back to the Saturday event. There weren’t many cosplayers, but those who were there were good. Here’s a picture of another Cloud in his old uniform:

I just love his wig! It made him look a lot like Cloud!

The red-’wigged’ guy from last time wasn’t there. I wanted to take a proper picture with him ): We have one from the very first cosplay event but it’s unbearably blurry. Siigh. Yeah, I’ve been blabbering about him since my last post! Hahaha! *Girlish mode on*. It’s just that.. there’s a spark! Ehem, on MY side at least. There are so many cute cosplay dudes but he’s different. (: I didn’t find him attractive or anything at first! My gal friends were the first to notice his cuteness, in fact. Nyaaah! I’ve never had a crush on a real guy for years! It’s been Itachi Itachi Itachi and online trips. Lolz. xD Oh well, a crush doesn’t hurt anybody :3..

Aight! Since there was no catwalk whatsoever, we spent our time on… mini amateur photo shoots! My ‘church scene’ with Ponchi was… errr, whatever! Hahaha! I had to control myself from laughing. It’s just that.. when you close your eyes and know that someone’s staring at you… brrrr. Awkward. Even though it was just Ponchi, one of my closest friends.. it was still hard not to feel insecure! Hahaha! Well, at least the pictures are okay…

Nyaaaaaaaaaah. Hahahaha! Cloud x Tifa

NC and ER pwned us with their version… T_T

Nyahahaha! Vincent x Gilbert! YAOii!

Like last time, THANKS to all those photographers who took our pictures! It’s always so flattering when you guys compliment our costumes and upload our shots in your profiles (:

Cosplay: Anime Overload Festival 2009

AOF 2009 was held at SMX Convention Centre on November 8, 2009.

Complete album here .

Oh, wow. This event was overwhelming -nyah! I never thought that there are so many cosplayers here in Manila. The first “convention” I attended was… err… so small compared to AOF.  At first, my friends and I got lost. We went to World Trade Centre instead of SMX. Sheesh. We were lucky that there was a cosplay event there too -though it was exclusively for Level Up! cosplayers- or else we would’ve looked like idiots. And good thing the coordinators of that event told us that there really was an anime convention near MoA. Phew. I didn’t waste hours trying to apply my eyeliner properly for nothing!!~ xD

The moment we got into the convention area… my jaws dropped and I started to go on my crazy fangirl mode. Mwahahaha! I mean, who wouldn’t? I was greeted by the sight of this hawt Noctis cosplayer (;..

Eeee! Noctis came to life!! ^^

I squeezed Ponchi’s arm and told him, “I must have a picture with him! I will so NOT leave this place without one!!”. He just nodded. LOL -must’ve sensed my dangerous aura and kept his smart comments to himself.. xD So yeah… after registering for the cosplay catwalk contest, NC, Ponchi and I went to MoA which was right beside SMX. It was horribly jampacked. Like… woah, it would take forever to buy a burger from any of the fastfood restaurants. Hayz… people were already staring at our attention-magnet outfits. It was… well, ‘embarassing’ isn’t the right word. It was FUN seeing people go O.o. Nyahahaha! They don’t know us anyway ^_^V At long last we ended up at the food court. There were lots of cosplayers there so walking around was more comfortable. A kind lady let us have lunch with her since even the food court was filled with people ^_^ I’ll always remember that kind smile of hers (:

I went to the restroom before we headed back to SMX. The lady beside me was speaking in Cebuano… she was talking about my costume! Wahahaha! Nyah, I understood every single word. She thought my style was ‘emo’. LOL. Before I left, she did ask me if what I was wearing was ‘emo’.

“No. It’s… err.. anime!”

“Oh! That’s like another ‘emo’ style?”

“Err, nope. Animes are Japanese shows. And there’s an anime event near here, that’s why I’m wearing this.”

That seemed to clear things up ^^;

We walked around for hours –posing for photographers and taking pictures with other cosplayers. It was so fun that I didn’t feel exhausted or anything, Not even thirsty! xD The whole Akatsuki group was there, along with Harry Potter.. Chi.. the guy who won at the event at SM last week.. Alex Mercer from Prototype.. and fellow Vampire Knight cosplayers. Wow, one of the Kaname Kuran cosplayers was really.. handsome. And tall. Very tall. ^^

Being approached by people who wanted to take my picture was very flattering. I’m sure all the other cosplayers can’t help but think “It was all worth it” when the cameras start flashing at them. Cosplaying is the key to being a one-day celebrity!~ nyahahaha! ^_^ But of course, it doesn’t end there. Getting to know cosplayers, photographers, and anime addicts is the best part of cosplaying. It’s just great to chat with people who have the same interests as I do. (:

Alright, back to the event before this post turns to ‘Kelly’s Philosophical Views on Cosplaying’ -____-;; I was dead serious when I said I wouldn’t leave without a picture of me and Noctis together. Nyaaah! Ponchi cosplayed Cloud Strife, so when Noctis saw him they instantly decided to do some battle poses because their characters were both from Final Fantasy. Geez. Unfair! They have like the coolest shots…

See? He looks SO DAMN AWESOME when he glares. Siigh~

Hmph! You guys think you’re the only ones who could do super cool battle poses?!

Hiyaaa! Come on NicoLE~!! xD

Wahahaha! I’ll die if he ever passes by this post ((= The catwalk made me all jumpy. I didn’t know how to pose. I’m sure I looked like a dancing retard with a gun and a wig on or something… hahaha!! But wow, Ponchi did some really badass moves. His sword was terribly heavy but he managed to spin it around and the confetti went flying. Naks! Too bad I didn’t see what NC did ): When I got down, I had to pose for some people and when I looked back NC’s turn was already over ): But Ponchi said he did some cool taekwondo kicks. *_*

Oh, and now for the part that.. connects to all my other cosplay ‘adventures’… T.T

I got lost. I looked everywhere for Ponchi and NC after the catwalk. I even waited outside the boys’ restroom in case they were in there! NYAH. They weren’t. I asked around if anyone saw ‘Cloud’ or ‘Lee’ from Tekken. Sheesh. Lolz. It was night time already so the area was even more crowded. It felt like I was in Chinatown during shopping season… I didn’t know that my dad was going to pick me up. The original plan was that the three of us were going to take the bus. I didn’t know how to get home! I was seriously getting panicky…

Until I saw a bright red wig. Hah! The guy from SM!! He happened to be NC’s friend. Bingo. He lived at Las Pinas too. I was so frantic that I even thought of going home with someone I didn’t know. LOL. So, being the ‘FC’ that I am, I approached him and asked him to help me look for my friends. He was so shy, so quiet. Lolz. But he was very kind! He didn’t snob me XD He must’ve been thinking… “Uh? Hello? Are we close?” Nyahahaha!! (:

A girl went up to him and she probably asked, “Err? Who’s that?”. He just smiled and I didn’t really pay attention to what he answered and how they parted. I just shot him the ‘Let’s go!’ look. Sheesh. I feel horrible. I was so bossy… =/ Anyways, we walked around SMX for a while and a photographer asked if he could take my picture. While I was smiling at the camera, I glanced at him and saw his troubled look. Stupid me for not realising that he had other people to attend to, and that I was wasting his time by dragging him along and posing when I should be searching. ): Thankfully, he saw Ponchi and NC after that. I said a short ‘thanks!’ and ran up to them.

I didn’t ponder on how I acted towards him until a few days later. Nyaaah. I should’ve been calmer. And I should’ve asked him if he COULD help me. I sorta didn’t give him a choice. Blaaah. If you’re somehow reading this, sorry! ): I know I wasted your time -__-

Hah! Overall, this was a great experience! So I must end this post with happy words! Mwahahaha! Just by looking at these uber cool shots, I become happeh~ ((:

k.a.w.a.i.i

Peace!!~

To all anime freaks out there: COSPLAY!! ^_^ Haha, It’s fun. Thanks to all of those who took my pictures!! And to those who let me take their pictures! Hahahaha!! ^_^

Anime/Halloween Cosplay @SM Southmall

Guess who I cosplayed…

Think! Think! Think!!! ^^

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Yuuki Cross from Vampire Knight!

(Well, the long-haired Yuuki from Season 2 xD)

Why her?

Simply because…

ZERO, HER PARTNER, IS SO DAMN HAWT. DIE KANAME! DIE DIE DIE!! =))

Mwahahahaha!! Peace, Kaname Kuran fanatics V^^V

The cosplay convention was GREAT. I can’t wait for the one next week… at World Trade!! OMG~ hahaha! This was my first attempt… I only had my 4 year old hp’s camera… and myself as the photographer. lolz. MB, LB, and N cosplayed too. The gals wore Lolita-styled dresses while N dressed as Hidan from Naruto Shippuden. Go Montessorians! Too bad YL, AA, ER, and Ponchi didn’t join. They might on November 8!!

Here are some snapshots from the convention:

Lolitas + Yuuki

Group pic!

Congrats for winning 3rd place, Lynn!!

With our supporters! WOOO! LAHBYOH guys =))

And now for my EXTREMELY VAIN/EMO/CRAZY SHOTS.

Errr… the ‘pa-cute’ much shot ((:

I wanted a full-body shot. No one was there to take pics. XD

LOL. I feeeeeeeeeeeel it. =))

Where, oh where, can my ZERO be? T_T

*place suddenly turns red and black*

!!! This could only be… Tsukiyomi !!!

I didn’t forget you Itachi!! <3 =))

Aight! That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll have my weapon Artemis ready for next week’s event! HAH! I’ll be sooo happy on November 8. It marks the end of my strenuous SAT review. YES!!! F R E E D O M . Plus, Ponchi is gonna play as Cloud Strife! Sweeeeet.

So, who wants to be my Zero? *_*

IV-Messina’s Retreat

September 23 – 25, 2009 (Yeah, super late post… I left it as a draft for more than a month!)

The retreat we had back in 6th Grade doesn’t compare to the one we had this week. 4 years ago we only spent a night at St. Scho and ended up getting banned from the place. The nuns went bomb mode. Well, we did act like wild psychos let loose back then. Girls screaming down the hallways, boys running half naked, and.. there was even this story of a flying napkin. Sheesh. I heard that one of the boys brought it and showed it off to his fellow males. Gyahahaha! ^.^ That retreat was fun, but enduring the sermons that followed spoiled it.

Okay! Now for the REAL retreat we had last Wednesday ’til yesterday. It was sooo F-U-N. We pulled off our pranks without getting caught! YAH! Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t just have fun during our breaks -the lecture itself was handled by a really humorous and down to earth retreat master. The teachers assigned to look after us were cool too. They weren’t strict -they simply wanted us to have a great and memorable time. After all, that’s what a retreat is -to escape from the hustle ans bustle of city life. To relax and just laugh for three whole days.

BLD’s Lobby – Thanks to Pat’s cool hp for the pic!!

Before leaving for BLD (Bukas Loob sa Diyos), which is an hour or so away from our school, we had to finish our morning classes. We had to endure a test and a few reports. Everyone was in a bad mood, I mean.. we were all dying to escape from schoolwork already. It’s like doing the thing you hate the most to earn a break from doing it. Oh well, at least we killed of our worries concerning our physics test and didn’t have to carry it all the way to Cavite, right? ^^

Brother MF, our retreat master, walked into the conference room and introduced himself in a not-so-friendly way. My first impression of him was that he was your stereotypical religious lecturer. I was proven wrong a few minutes later. He was instantly on our good side. He was all game to blend in with the trips of our age group. He was really cool. The reason why he appeared all high and unapproachable at first was for him to catch our attention and make us listen. It worked.

That evening, my tummy went nuts. I ignored its pleas for fooood for an hour before I gave in and asked Ponchi if he had some chips or anything (BLD doesn’t sell food, meals are served on a fixed schedule). We had to excuse ourselves and we went up to the boys’ dormitory. The stairs and hallways freaked the hell out of us. Seriously. It was so dark. But it was worth it! I swear I munched down Ponch’s biscuits in under a minute. Oops. PG alert xD. I ate a LOT during dinner. There weren’t any ‘midnight snacks’ on the schedule, after all. I thought I was already okay but right after dinner my stomach started hurting again. I had to stay in the lobby while they watched Click (the cold conference room wasn’t going to do any good to my stomach, you know). I couldn’t believe I was brave enough to take a nap outside on my own.

That night, we girls weren’t able to sleep. We ended up sneaking outside our room and eavesdropping on the boys’ conversation. Woah. Whenever we heard one of the guys say something like ‘go out’ we all run back like guilty criminals to our safe spot at the end of the hallway. Nyahahaha!!

Papers we’ll keep forever!!

Tadah! The Boys’ Room

The next day was Crying Day. We ALL cried. The letters from our parents combined with the melodramatic song playing while we read them were to blame!! Each paper you see on the picture above has a name written on it. We were asked to write why we’re thankful for having met our classmates on those papers. Reading the comments never fail to stretch the corners of my lips (: We watched Bucket List and Magnifico.. both movies were freakin’ tearjerkers! Out of all the films we watched, Bucket List was my favourite. Jack Nicholson was just so cute in it. Even when he was all grumpy and rude, he looked like a teddy bear to me! The twist at the end was very fitting. It was a perfect way to end such a good movie.

When bed time came, we didn’t sleep at all but did the exact opposite: stay very much awake. Instead of eavesdropping, CA and I just cut the detective work and went in the boys’ room and got our hands on their food supply! Mwahaha! But, luck decided to backstab us. DB hurriedly ran into the room, grabbed all the food, and hid them under the bed, while screaming:

“THE ADMIN! THE ADMIN!”

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!” CA and I cried in unison.

My heart doubled up its speed. Seriously. We didn’t want to get banned from BLD, too!! The two of us instinctively rolled down the beds we were sitting on just a second ago. She was under Kimchi’s while i was under JI’s (the bed at the foreground of the picture above). Crap. Gluttony is a sin. It was just like in the movies. I was staring at the administrator’s shoes and the ends of his cream pants as he walked to and fro. Apparently, he was inspecting the aircon which had jammed up.

I could see Soulmate glancing worriedly at me as he passed by my hiding spot. JI was trying to muffle his laughter. Grrrrr. I rolled over to the farthest side of the bed -Ponchi’s. But as I crossed beds, I stopped dead. Inches away from my face was a strand of… of.. pubic OR leg hair -I’ll never know. O.M.G. I had to stop myself from screaming. I breathed slowly and blew it away. Phew. Good riddance.

Five agonising minutes passed and YES. The admin closed the door behind him. CA and I didn’t dare move an inch for a few more minutes and rushed out the room so quickly that even a cheetah’s jaw would drop in envy. The girls heard of our escapade and decided to take the thrill of getting caught, too. HAHA!! We’re all daredevils, you see. So we ran back to the boys’ room and had our open forum. All of us were crammed on the connected beds. I had to fold my knees and lie down on Kimchi’s leg. I discovered he’s gaga over hair. He wouldn’t stop playing with it!! XD I was annoyed at first but eventually let it go since my head badly needed a massage anyway. ^^

The whole batch was so glad and sighed in relief by the end of our talk. Which lasted for hours. We went back to our room past 2am. YAH! The gaps and issues were resolved at last. We’ve been together since babyhood but that doesn’t make us immune from misunderstandings. To me, the reconciliation we all went through was the most important part of the retreat. I’m just so damn happy we took the risk and  to be all together that night. ^^

The next day was… well, no better words to describe it: Pictorial Day!!!

Emo moment with Ponchi!!

I <3 IV Messina.

I love you guys. ^^

‘L’ stars in my self-made shirt

And I won’t be caught dead wearing it in public. I put too much fabric paint that the outlines look like frozen teardrops =/ I copied the design from my shoulder bag.. I think it’s passable -For a shirt to be paired up with my pajamas on rainy nights.

Yerr. The evil round eyes scare kids.

I added a really corny line (I got it from GT, no wonder it’s uber-cheesy. Haha!!) on top of L saying, “Driver ka ba?” and I drew Light at the back and wrote, “‘Cause you drive me crazy.” It’s actually an inside joke. I’ve been fooling around with CA and GT a few months back, pretending to have a huge crush on GT’s macho driver Kuya E. Wahahaha!!

Interviews aren’t THAT scary.

School’s been a pain this year. It’s even holding me back from blogging! Sheesh. I need to vent all the stress out. >.< …

Yesterday I was at the US Embassy. I was, well, hyperventilating while waiting for my final interview. I sat there outside the interview room shaking like a freak. Partly because it was cold.. and mainly because my brain was busy conjuring up embarassing possibilities. Like literally ‘nosebleeding’ on the spot. My gaaahd.

Who knew I’d have to stop myself from giggling throughout the whole interview. At first, it didn’t seem so strange that the consul greeted me in Tagalog. But when he began asking questions.. wow, he’d beat my Filipino grades any day. He was kind too, asking very basic questions and ending the whole thing in five minutes. Being a minor has its perks ^^ Now I’ll just have to wait for my immigrant visa ^^

Mom plans to book me a flight to LA this December. I’ll be flying alone for the FIRST time. I’m excited! But, my morbid brain won’t stop flashing scenes from Air Crash Investigations. Rawr. I wanted to go for Cathay Pacific since doing so will add up points to my Asia Miles. Dad wouldn’t allow me to stop by Hong Kong alone though, so I’ll probably take PAL instead. If everything goes as planned, I’ll be able to carry my baby sister Winter Margaux soon! Oh my god. I love her name. I love her. I so want to be there when she’s born. ^^

The Running Man

For the past two weeks, it has been cloudy. Yesterday wasn’t an exemption. Nothing noteworthy happened at school. The hours dragged on ever so slowly. I couldn’t wait for our last class to end. Right after finishing my make-up class (I had to watch 2 Physics videos with EC since we were absent last week), I dropped my bags at home and accompanied IC to her place. Her older brother joined us and we were then off to the village parish. Ponchi was already there.

His aunt’s funeral was the second one I’ve attended this year. I’ve only seen four corpses in my whole life. I barely remember the first time I did. The time interval of the last two couldn’t be less than five years. 2009 has been a year of mishaps so far. Three of my friends lost someone dear to them and my best friend had to undergo a sudden surgery just recently. But, my afternoon walk with Ponch after the funeral was like.. how do I put this.. hope after all the bad things rushed out of Pandora’s box. Oh my god. That was lame. But really, I couldn’t think of a better comparison. ^^

They say that heading home right after attending a funeral brings bad luck. I followed the ‘precaution’. Who knew I’d be so superstitious? Ponch offered to walk me home since he needed to get his books which he left at school anyway. We ended up having a short ‘roadtrip’ -if you could call it that. We took the long way to school and talked about random things. It was cute how he described my ‘dark side’ to be not at all dark but funny. I scoffed at him a couple of times, pointing out that I bully people too. It was a very pleasant walk.

The boys were training for their basketball matches when we arrived. It was nice to see how dedicated they were. If the sudden and tragic loss of Ponchi’s young aunt didn’t happen, he would’ve been there too. Before returning the keys we borrowed to the guard, we promised one other that we’ll steal a key for each after we’ve graduated. We’re gonna’ follow kuya JC’s batch: take souvenirs like soccer balls and gate passes before leaving Monte for good!! ^^

While walking home, I noticed that although the sky was quite dark since it was nearing 6pm, the clouds were actually clearing up. I recalled something and told Ponch,

“Hey! When I was a kid, I actually saw this huge mermaid-shaped cloud. Anyoned could’ve spotted it with ease. It really looked like a mermaid.”

“Yeah right. It’s just your imagination running wild.”

“No!” and then I looked up at the clouds, trying to make out a shape but couldn’t.

Ponch lifted his hand and pointed, “See that? It’s a running man.”

At first, I couldn’t see it -or him. And then I did. The figure was so tiny compared to the huge cloud partially concealing it. I smiled and pointed too.

People who passed by us stared and probably mistook us for SPEDs. Hahaha!

Wait. Wait. Wait. This is oddly familiar. Ponchi, weather, walking, SPEDs. Hah! I remember. Wow. It’s almost like deja vu. Last year, in one of my earlier blogger/blogspot posts, I wrote an entry about us and the events are somewhat like what happened yesterday. It was raining sometime around July or August last year yet I still walked home despite not having a jacket or umbrella. Pshh, rain doesn’t kill anyway. I then heard Ponch calling me and I arched a brow at him because he was running under the rain without an umbrella either. He ended up walking me home and for some bizarre reason, we sang ‘I am your brother~ your bestfriend forever~’ by Reynaldo Lapuz. My gahd. I bet the downpour doubled that night…

There’s my first serious WordPress entry. Yay! I have Ponch to thank for it. (:

Getting used to WordPress

This is my first entry.. I’m still getting used to WordPress. I find the interface and features to my liking. I’m in love with greys and blues. Alright! Time to mess with the layout a little more.. hmm.. too bad I can’t use CSS for free here.