the unbearable lolness of being

After months of putting it off here it is at last: post-con sales post for the ~50 copies of Drops in the Ocean I had reprinted recently. I'm sorry it took so long to get this up! Here is some information about the book.

• It is a rather ambiguous* story about a wish made in an aquarium, and how it was granted (or not?), and features a grumpy talking rabbit
  
• It is 28 pages long (22 pages of actual story, of which 8 are in colour and the rest greyscale)
  
• The colour pages are not as bright as in the previews (after CMYK conversion)
  
• It is 7" x 10", quite flat, with laminated covers, the paper used for the pages is kind of thin (Sorry to be anal, I felt I should mention all this because this is not CF and you can't flip through it before buying)

( Page previews )

The book is US$7 (I am going to pack it in a bubble envelope) and shipping via registered mail (2-3 weeks, with parcel tracking) is roughly $6 for the US/Canada, $5 for Europe and $4 for Australia/Asia. Afraid I can only accept Paypal at the moment or money transfer to a Malaysian bank account.. Btw if you are in Malaysia forget the above, it is RM15, though you'll have to let me know if you'd prefer registered mail, Poslaju or pickup (the last is FOC but you will have to encounter my stupid cat face)

To order please email hwei (dot) lim (at) gmail with:

• 'Drops order' in the subject line
  
• Your paypal email (to help keep track)
  
• Your physical mailing address (and your name to go on the envelope)

I will reply to your email to let you know how to settle it from there.

Thanks so much and sincere apologies to everyone who kept asking patiently after this book over the past four months. If you do place an order, thanks so much for your support and kindness! I kept a list of everyone who asked about it so if you did at some point and only come to this post after a few days no worries as I have reserved you a copy in case you are still interested (it is okay if you are not, I'll update the list as time goes by)

Cheers
hwei

*This is a moot point, all my stories are somewhat ambiguous

( a surprisingly action-packed last few weeks )

So. I'm back in the tropics now and it is 8 days to Comic Fiesta and counting! My books will be ready next Friday night!! The printing company is full of angels!!! I will be sharing a booth with KC and Amei and Wrats!!!!! hopefully I will not pass out from excitement and not too many people will be scared away and I will get to meet new friends!!!!!! And I should go easy on the exclamation marks, and look up what number our booth is. Yes. I will make a proper information post after work. I came back to SO MUCH WORK it's not funny

The Basara story is still wip 6/12 :D; I will probably just print it myself last minute as a mini-comic or.. put it online... Also while I managed to explain the ocean book to the printing company with lots of vague handwaving, I do not know how to even begin explaining the concept of Basara, let alone "modern-day sengokujidai AU in which Ishida Mitsunari is an angry schoolgirl"

( on that note here is a basara fanart dump from the past few months. sorry tumblr folks who have seen all of this already )

Ok back to work. It is my first week back and I am already feeling like someone who defuses bombs for a living. A KANCHEONG SPIDER

1) Actually this was a good strategy; the avalanche of guilt I got off this splurge prevented me from spending any more money for the rest of the trip

2) So surreally WKW-ish it is deserving of its own post, although the fact that I immediately thought to write about it as a story right after it went down is very illustrative of how "people who write about their friends may end up with no friends"

Y: "Do the things you don't want to do the most, first. That way you don't have to think so much about not wanting to do them"

M: "Don't allow yourself to eat until after you have finished your work"

B: "Everything is choice. You're only as useless as you choose to feel and choose to be. Now go get me a juice"

I have a lot of trouble sucking it up and clearing my to-do list without falling into a headless chicken state of despair and panic. Fortunately a few good kicks in the ass usually do the trick and there are always reliable, beloved, somewhat okra-like volunteers

BRB PUTTING MY GUNS ON, BY THE POWER OF THE SUN, etc

Not so long time ago in a community not that far away a couple of MIND BLOWING drabbles were written based on a magnificent idea regarding the hypothetical romance of two anthropomorphized MMOs. (I can only imagine their meeting: of how they did look each other up and down, and L2 did disapprove, and WoW did say 'hi baby').

And my mind was indeed blown, and buoyed by the wind under the wings of this unholy love, and an extended saga of BOTH great hilarity and powerful emotional metaphors, I may have drawn some stuff. FOR WHICH I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE

( Except for the stupid pun about parties )

So there. The brilliance and the blame lie not with me ಠ_ಠ

PS. Finished Kavalier and Clay, or, I spent uncountable hours floating in A SEA OF BEAUTIFUL WORDS, also aughh escapism, loss, illusion, COMIC BOOKS, I have been stunned into forgetting how to express myself

Hegemons always resent heaven, because only hell awaits us at the end of our path. - Guo Jia to Cao Cao

The Ravages of Time ((火鳳燎原) or as I like to call it, THREE KINGDOMS OF BADASS, is a Hong Kong comic based on the Romance of Three Kingdoms. It is full of (hundreds of) characters (spanning multiple, sprawling storylines) who can beat up entire armies, sometimes armed only with a hoe; pull spears out of their own bodies and wield them saying "thanks for the weapons", throw horses across the battlefield, eat their own eyes, crossdress super convincingly, etc.. Yet for all these oddities, Ravages remains IMHO the most complex, clever, engaging and unbelievably human Three Kingdoms interpretation you can find today.

( Most importantly it has the best portrayal of Guo Jia ever. Cut for spoilers up to 318 and scary fanart )

PS. I had this post typed up last week, but before I posted it a lot of very kind and well-meaning people crashed my webhost (in the best of all possible ways; thank you for your many kind words), placing me in a state of shock, disbelief, and extreme mortification. I wanted to hide under my bed all day, except there was a lot of stuff under it already so I couldn't. But so far all seems good! No one has emailed me angrily to complain, also more pressingly I have not had to explain Sengoku Basara and/or ojisans to any RL friends whom I know follow Mr Gaiman's twitter. The feeling of relief is pretty intense. Although I will work hard to draw some proper Sandman fanart by way of apology

PPS. Speaking of Sengoku Basara, "Ishida Mitsunari" is a front page pixiv tag! I invite everyone to celebrate by mentally picturing our beloved ▽-kun as a belligerent kemonomimi with fox ears and huge fluffy tail. In fact why isn't this his alt costume.

PPPS. Okay I am a huge nerd I found the meaning of Mitsunari's crest and am sobbing. DOES HE NOT UNDERSTAND THIS IN BASARA OR SOMETHING

So Sex Machine is a band who remind me of beagles and/or cocker spaniel puppies: silly, adorable and absolutely nuts



The chorus is pi to about 20 decimal points. At first I was wondering "why is he reciting numbers WAIT LOLOLOL" -- But from the little I could understand it's really sad, about going around the world, asking "where could you possibly be?.. At most we're only ever 20,000km apart."



On the other hand this one is just a love song, even a monkey would be able to tell. Even I can tell

*

I can't not mention this. Here is KG's ending for SB3 (niconico), a shining beacon of hope amidst the doom and gloom of the others. ( Commentary: obv full of spoilers for KG`s ending, idk which route )

州･ω･)人ζ･×･ζ

州･ω･)人ζ･×･ζ

州･ω･)人ζ･×･ζ



I will never unsee Mouri's ･ω･ face now.

( Well it was called Sengoku Basara, season 2, episode 4. My feelings for it are obviously 1) wrong, and 2) full of spoilers )

Ok that was excellent stress relief, back to work

So Joseph Gordon-Levitt grew up. In another 20 years I predict he will become the most beautiful ojisan

( inception post mortem SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER DO NOT CROSS THIS LINE unless you really want to know why I was very engaged by the movie but felt kinda let down when it was over )

( best.. best scene )

back from coupla weeks in Japan and some days in Redang. with the exception of the Kaiyukan, the Ghibli Museum and MAISEN'S KUROBATA TONKATSU (I could have eaten this like, every day, except I probably would have died from cholesterol poisoning), I would have gladly spent three weeks in Redang instead. glassy blue water, soft white sand, mysterious islands beautiful in both sunlight and storms. you could just swim out from shore and see baby sharks and a million fish in about two minutes.

but to our great dismay we found that half the corals on the north end of the beach are dead/dying now. they were healthy, if not thriving, two years ago. the fish are unnaturally tame and almost aggressive, nipping your bare arms and legs if you tread water for too long without feeding them! and the island was crawling with loud and obnoxious holidaymakers, local and foreign, who clearly did not understand that their presence in this beautiful place was a miracle. something to treasure and appreciate and attempt - however pitiful our efforts might prove - to preserve. it echoed what I felt about the whale sharks in the Kaiyukan, seeing them swimming in slow clumsy circles, their great eyes rolling past bewildered and lost.

I don't think enough people understand. it's not our right to see these beautiful things. when we do it is a privilege. and something always suffers for it. for us to appreciate their beauty the sharks lose their freedom. for us to visit Redang Island, and to swim in its waters, the reef and its citizens gradually lose their lives.

anyway YS says I humanize everything too much, and whale sharks don't understand the concept of freedom, and everything in the reef eats each other anyways. enough about marine conservation. sorry I've been out of touch for so long. will get back to everyone I need to get back to, post travel sketches/photos, and log into game servers. really!