Gaara - Everything Burns

I didn't like Gaara when I first watched Naruto. He just wasn't likable. He killed people as if he was disposing garbage and didn't cared about his siblings. It was until I watched the episode on the story of the sad childhood which Gaara had. That made me changed my mindset about him. I grew to love him as a character as time goes on knowing what made him behaved that way.

I just felt like watching some AMV about Gaara today. So I went to the famous YouTube and search for some Gaara AMV. I found one AMV made by a YouTube member named drift07 pretty interesting. The song this member used was Everything Burns sang by Ben Moody ft. Anastacia. The song lyrics matches Gaara's life except that the only flaw was that in the song it was mentioned that it was a "she" while Gaara is a "he". But that doesn't really affect the impact which the AMV made on me. Below it the AMV I been speaking about in this post. The song lyrics is also below for better understanding. Please watch the video and read the song lyrics!

THIS VIDEO IS PURELY FAN-MADE AND IS IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH THE MUSICAL ARTIST OR ANIME COMPANY IN ANY WAY


Gaara - Everything Burns
Made by drift07
Footage from Naruto
Song Everything Burns by Ben Moody ft. Anastacia


Everything Burns (Ben Moody ft. Anastacia) lyrics

[ANASTACIA]
She sits in her corner
Singing herself to sleep
Wrapped in all of the promises
That no one seems to keep
She no longer cries to herself,
No tears left to wash away
Just diaries of empty pages,
Feelings gone astray
But she will sing

[CHORUS: Ben Moody / Anastacia]
'Till everything burns
While everyone screams
Burning their lies
Burning my dreams
All of this hate
And all of this pain
I'll burn it all down
As my anger reigns
'Till everything burns

[ANASTACIA]
Ooh, oh

[BEN MOODY]
Walking through life unnoticed
Knowing that no one cares
Too consumed in their masquerade
No one sees her there
And still she sings

[CHORUS: Ben Moody / Anastacia]
'Till everything burns
While everyone screams
Burning their lies
Burning my dreams
All of this hate
And all of this pain
Burn it all down
As my anger reigns

[BEN MOODY / ANASTACIA]
'Till everything burns
Everything burns
(Everything burns)
Everything burns
Watching it all fade away
(All fade away)
Everyone screams
Everyone screams..
(Watching it all fade away)
Oooh, ooh..
(While everyone screams)
Burning their lies
Burning my dreams
(All of this hate)
And all of this pain
I'll burn it all down
As my anger reigns
Til everything burns
(Everything burns)
Watching it all fade away
(Oooh, ooh)
(Everything burns)
Watching it all fade away...

The MATSURI *(pending updates)* & The Beginning.

Besides The Beginning Cosplay Event at Ngee Ann Polytechnic (The Beginning Official Site for more updated details on the event) I talked about on my blog last time, there's another upcoming cosplay event during the February called The MATSURI. Many of the details are still unconfirmed so I will post a new blog post to update about this event.(I may update in a new post about "The Beginning" along with "The MATSURI" too.)

Details below ripped from forum.
================================================
The Matsuri (tentative updates)
Venue: Vivo City - Rooftop Amphitheatre & Sky Park
Date & Time:
23 Feb 08-Sat (JRock/ Goth/ Visual kei/lolita)
4-9 pm - Jrock Matsuri
&
24 Feb 08-Sun (Cosplay)
4-8 pm - Jrock Matsuri

OR perhaps it might not be held on 23-24 Feb 08 and instead it might be on 15-16 Mar 08.

booths & exhibition open at 11am

any equiry can pm or email to matsurisg@pathz.com, admin@pathz.com, cosplay@pathz.com

Highlights:
JRock Matsuri: Jrock bands, punk/ lolita/ gothic retail...etc

Cosplay Matsuri:cosplay, booths, mass dance...etc

others..
================================================

I think that this is going to be a bigger event than "The Beginning" for it is at a shopping mall and perhaps more public will get to know about it. Is there anyone who's going to cosplay there?? I am not as usual due to the same reasons.....

Cosplayers I hope to see there???

As some of you knows, there's a 99.99% that I will be going to the SOY cosplay'08:"The Beginning" at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. I think that a good cosplay must seems to be quite natural and not over the top. In my opinion, having a good cosplay must have excellent choice of costumes and equipments using the correct materials and colours so that it looks as close to the anime/manga/game as possible. Also, you must be of the same kind of build. I hate it when hair and makeup are over the top so that it looks hilarious. The way you speak,act,expressions you have, and the aura you give out must be the way the character does it. I think sometimes less is more and being more natural might be better than one of which is not.So I am hoping that lots of really good Cosplayers will go there...then at least I will be able to get lots of pictures!!! What characters do I hope to see at the event? Below are just some of the characters that I hope will be cosplayed nicely. Hoping that the number of failure cosplay will be very low...

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children
Cloud Strife


How could you do without Cloud? He's so handsome!!! But it might be tad tricky to pull him off for you must be handsome(at least the features must be evenly spaced) and your hair must not be overly gelled. Some of the cosplayers I saw who cosplayed as Cloud out way too much hair gel in their hair making it look incredibly weird and sticking out all over the place. Your hair needs to look soft and touchable...not rock hard!!!

Tifa Lockhart


=====================================================
Nice cosplay of Tifa
This one tries to mimics the original pose in the movie as shown in the picture above.


Another nice one...


====================================================
Tifa is quite a beauty and she has a incredibly unique aura that I just can't put my hands on. You have to have that type of aura in able to really be like her.

Vincent Valentine


Always the mysterious one. Once again, I tend to find that people with an mysterious aura might do well for this for its not just about the clothes and costumes cosplaying. You have to act like them. The expressions and the aura will undoubtedly help.

Reno

================================================
Nice cosplay of Reno
I think that this one is quite well done for the hair is not over the top.

================================================
I find him as the "action guy" in the movie. It seems that he is always the one who talks the most and yet does not really gives not a lot of help. He's quite a laugh. You just can't find a moody person cosplaying him ....

Naruto
People who are cosplaying as characters from this anime/manga are commonly found and yet very little of them have totally outdone themselves.

Naruto Uzumaki


============================================
Nice cosplay of Naruto
The hair colour and style is not exactly the same but I love the fact that how its not so full of gel and looks really natural.

===================================
A very bubbly and optimistic person and thats what makes me love Naruto. His keep trying attitude makes me really admire him.

Gaara

He used to be a child who had hopes for the world. But when the situation make him realized that nobody loves and care for him, the only way was to only love and fight for himself. Thus, a teenager full of hatred for the world.(But of course in the later part of the story he learned to love again.) I actually despised Gaara when I started watching Naruto. But after I watched the episode on Gaara's sad childhood life, I pity him and finally understand what made him behave that way. I admire him one way or another.

Rock Lee



Another one who is so optimistic and have the never say die spirit. Very cute and bubbly....enough said.

That's all the characters I can currently think of...below are some good cosplays of characters from Naruto...
Shino Aburame




Neji Hyuga



Devil May Cry

I got to know him when my brother bought the PS2 Devil May Cry game. He was on the cover of the package he's just so cool!

It's incredibly hard to look and be exactly the same as the character is. But if you want to cosplay, why not try to strike lottery first? But it's still possible to cosplay by stretching your budget if you do know how to sew incredibly well. Then you can make your own costumes.

SOY cosplay'08:"The Beginning" Presented by Japanese Tsubasa anyone??

Yes yes yes!!! My computer was returned back to us on around 14 Dec 2007 after being sent to the shop to reformat(T.T)....I lost all data but at least I got my computer back!! Almost two weeks of no internet access!!!

By the way, I am very very sad to announce that I had yet missed another Cosplay event!! GRRR!! Just when I vowed to attend the very next event! It was held in the EXPO on 15 Dec 07 (Sat) and I knew nothing of it until the very next day when one of my friends asked me if I did attend the cosplay event which I knew nothing about. Gosh. Luckily she was kind enough to send me photo....and I am glad to say that I found a forum that have all these cosplay events updates so I will not miss another cosplay event again! There's a cosplay event going on 26 Jan 08 (Sat)! I think that I am going and I hope that Elie will go with me too! Of course if you wish to go with me as well, just contact me! =^0^= I am not going cosplay by the way!! I wish to but its too expensive and my parents will not allow me. T.T I will just go there and take pictures using my camera!!!(MUST remember to charge it) My first ever cosplay event ever!! I am so excited!!* *as you can see by my high number of usage of exclamation marks... (^.^)Y*

Details below:ripped from forum.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone!! We, the Japanese Tsubasa Club in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, are proud to present, SOY cosplay’08: “The Beginning”!!!

And yes, SOY is pronounced as soy in soy bean, but we ain’t related to any soy products. SOY means Start Of Year as it should be the first cosplay event of the new year. And why “The Beginning” ?It is due to the fact that, this will be the first standalone cosplay event that we are hosting. We hope to make this a yearly or bi-yearly event, so please come down in your costumes or with your cameras and support us.


Some details about the event:

It is a FREE event. NO entry fees and it is open to all! You dun need to be a student from Ngee Ann to come and join in!!
There will be a solo and group cosplay competition. And there will be prizes!!! The rules and more details about the competitions will be up soon.
And like any other Cosplay events, there will be booths set up for rent. Rental fees and more details on it will be up soon.
There will be a bag storage system so you can drop off your bags with us while you have fun at the event, but note that there will be a fee for the bag storage, details in the time to come.





----------------------------------------------
Date: 26th Jan 2008 [Saturday]
Time: 11am to 7pm.
Location: Ngee Ann Polytechnic, The Atrium [block 1]
No entry fees!
Website: *not ready yet, will post it up when it is ready!*

-----------------------------------------------
How to get there?
Please try to come by the Main gate.
These buses stop near the main gate: 74,151,154,61,75 and 184

You can take 74 from dover MRT (heading to towards Hougang/ west bound)
154 and 184 from Clementi MRT (opposite of the Macdonald)

If driving, Come by Clementi Road.


If there are any personal, private or official queries and questions, Please email pr[at]soy-japtsubasa[dot]net
-------------------------------------------------------

My computer is spoilt!!!

Everyone out there! Just for your information, my computer is spoilt so I wouldn't get a chance to go online unless I use my school libraries computer or I get my computer fixed(which I hope that its soon). But as for now, I am either waiting for my brother's friend to get it fixed(but he's busy at the moment)or for my dad to bring to to some shop and get it fixed. So I wouldn't be able to reply to your emails or tags so quickly and if you have anything to ask me, its best to call me(you know my number)or sms me. One major bummer about this is that if I have to get my computer fixed, it seems that the only way to get it fixed was to reformat it. Guess what? Idoitic me didn't do any backup for my newer files even after that last lesson which the computer was spoilt by the very same person(or so it seems) and I lose all my files. Noooo~~!!! I do not wish to lose all my UGLLIES news,series pictures,wallpapers etc,songs,bookmarks and files!!!

By the way, the only thing that can comfort me is that I have bought and finished reading EXTRAS from Borders using my brother's gift card. But that would be another story to tell in another post...probably when my computer is repaired. Then I will post the pictures of my trip to New Zealand up too...

P.S By the way, EXTRAS is indeed an excellent book(although I couldn't get use to the idea of e new main character at first However, if I were to choose between UGLIES trilogy and EXTRAS, I would choose UGLIES trilogy. I am sort of undecided about EXTRAS...however if I was given the choice to choose to or not to buy it, I would buy it for it worth the read and this let you see things from a different point.) and guess what, some of the events take place in the future Singapore too!!! ^0^

Many thanks....(my trip to NZ)

Thanks everyone for your well wishes for my trip to New Zealand and back. Many thanks to(in random order) Vivien,Elie,Emeline,Adelyn and Suven. Sorry if your name is not mentioned here for I can't remember all of the names. I just saw some of your well wishes only yesterday and today. :P Elie has requested for me to put up the pictures I taken during my trip to New Zealand. I will do so tomorrow after I finished charging my camera battery and uploaded the pictures into my computer. It might take some time for I have a couple hundred pictures and videos together. I will pick some of the higher quality pictures and put it up on my blog. So keep a watch out on my blog this past few days!

I have sent an email to Danielle, my host student for 5 days in New Zealand, yesterday but there's no reply yet. I hope that she will reply soon!

I am one shade darker and sun burned(1st degree). You can never underestimate the UV rays of the sun in New Zealand. That's because as the air in New Zealand is not so polluted, there's nothing to prevent the harmful rays from coming in. To think that my mother was still wondering why sun block and cap is included in the packing list which the school gave us. Some patches of my skin is in darker shade while some are in my lighter shade, the shade I was in when I left Singapore for New Zealand. The reason was because I was peeling from being sun burned and my darker shade of skin peeled off along with it. That's great since I prefer me in a lighter shade. I do not like getting tanned. For me, I prefer me being fair with a nice rosy shade on cheeks. Not those kind of ghostly fair. That's a part of my definition of pretty girls/teenagers/woman. I guess that's all for today. Am off to eat my very late dinner now! =^0^=

I AM BACK IN S'PORE!!

I am back in Singapore!!!
Finally after 14 days in New Zealand, I am back in Singapore. I arrived today, 27 November 2007, at about 6.30am. More details will be posted later for I am going to eat my dinner now!! =^0^=

Celebrating Deepavali@Indrani's Hse

Yesterday(10 November 2007,Saturday), was such a fun day! One of my friend, Indrani, invited me to her house for a sort of celebration for Deepavali. She told me to go to her house at around 2pm after giving me her address and the name of the LRT station that was nearby her house. After alighting from the LRT station, one of my classmates saw me and asked if I was going to Indrani's house too. We both waited at the LRT station for Indrani to lead us to her house. Upon reaching there, I noticed several familiar faces. I sat on a chair beside the sofa and began snacking on some tidbits that were laid on the table.(I especially like a small ball that was really crunchy.) Small wine glasses filled with F&N drinks was given to us. The colours of the F&N drinks(namely grape and a yellow coloured drink which I don't know of the name) l=in a wine glasses made it look especially like we were drinking some kind of sparkling wine. After Indrani's brother's friends have eaten, I went to sit down at the dining table and her parents immediately started filling my paper plate with rice, curry chicken, mixed vegetables and also prawns. This was the first time I am eating Indian food so this was an eye opener for me. Indrani's parents seems to be afraid that we do not have enough food on our plates, and kept refilling them. We had to stop them from doing so as we were too full to eat. This scene reminds me of a shop in Japan that sells noodles in a bowl. You have to finish all the noodles in the bowl and shout "Stop", put on the lid to prevent the waitress from refilling the bowl again. In chinese it was called 一口面. After that horror movies like Evil Dead 1 and 2 was played on the TV. Around 5pm+, after we finished watching Evil Dead 2, we went into Indrani room and she helped us to do henna for free(Starting price is around $5 and the longer it is the more expensive it is). Indrani draw really fast and is able to finish one within 5minutes. She just uses imagination and draw on the stop. This is my first time having henna and I never imagined it to be done by my friend. After that, she poured some medicated oil on the design to make it last longer. Meng Yun, who was also going to New Zealand, bought a tube of Henna($1.50) from Indrani as she wanted to show the New Zealanders. I intended to do so(as in show the New Zealanders my henna) and wanted to buy a tube of henna to try to draw some designs on myself for fun. I found out from Indrani that it can be bought from Rivervale Plaza. After that, I took some picture and we left her house at around 6pm+. I waited until around 8pm before washing off the henna as I hope that the design will not fade when I am at the New Zealand host family.

+-+PICTURES+-+

The Artist(aka. Indrani) at work!


Henna Design on Meng Yun


Henna Design on ME!


No flashlight Henna Design on ME!


Henna Design On ME After Washing



What do you think of the design????

EXTRAS Number One!

Please read my first post here, the second post at here, and third post here to get a idea of what this UGLIES Series is all about!

Wow! EXTRAS is number one on the New York Times Children's Best Sellers list!*Even though the UGLIES Series is categorized in the Young Adult Science Fiction, they just place it in the Children Best list *

At first EXTRAS was Number Two as it was released.(Below)




But when then a recount was requested. In the end, EXTRAS is at Number ONE!(Below)



Another amazing thing is that even though UGLIES(published in August 5, 2004) and SPECIALS(published in March 2006) had been published for more than a year now, with the help of the release of EXTRAS, both had jumped back to the list!*Maybe people think that EXTRAS is a good book and want to read the other books in the series as well*

Below: UGLIES and SPECIALS in the New York Times Children's Book Review list!


This news is about during October 18th, 2007 to October 23rd, 2007.

UGLIES Quartet(International Covers!)+UGLIES Trilogy BOXED SET

My dear friends. This is going to be my third post as to the topic on UGLIES Quartet. For those who haven't read my first and second post, you are strongly advised to read it before continuing with this post. Otherwise you will have no idea on what is this post about! You can read my first post here and the second post at here.

Some might wonder that why sometimes its called a UGLIES trilogy but yet it has four book in the collection? This also result to some places you find people calling it as the UGLIES Quartet. The UGLIES series,meaning the books UGLIES, PRETTIES and SPECIALS, and EXTRAS are counted as UGLIES Quartet. Originally, the UGLIES Series was meant to be a trilogy only, with UGLIES, PRETTIES and SPECIALS counted in the collection. However, with the release of EXTRAS, some might count it into the trilogy, thus changing it into a quartet collection. However the author argues that it is not officially part of the trilogy, but a companion book because it will not focus on Tally Youngblood. The main character in EXTRAS is instead a fifteen-year-old girl named Aya Fuse living in Japan several years after SPECIALS ended. Thus, I shall refer to the UGLIES trilogy&EXTRAS together as UGLIES Quartet as it is easier to refer to.

So this post is just basically to show the different covers of the UGLIES Quartet. Which one do you like best?

Let's start with the first edition covers which were the US covers that were first published by Simon & Schuster. It was then before other companies started releasing and translating the UGLIES Quartet in different languages and covers. Personally, I like the US covers better than the UK covers which are also published in the language English.

US COVERS

Below:US UGLIES Cover


Below: US PRETTIES Paperpack Cover


Below: US SPECIALS Hardcover Cover(Published first before Paperpack version)



Below: US SPECIALS Paperpack Cover


Below: US EXTRAS Hardcover Cover


Let's go on to the UK Covers. All the UGLIES Quartet are released in Paperpack edition.

UK COVERS

Below: UK UGLIES Cover


Below: UK PRETTIES Cover


Below: UK SPECIALS Cover


Below: UK EXTRAS Cover


Next is the Japan cover for UGLIES! The Japan version of UGLIES is a novel version with only some pictures inside. Don't mistaken it as a manga of UGLIES!!!

JAPAN VERSION

Below: Japanese Cover of アグリ-ズ (a gu ri- zu)(UGLIES).


Below:Character Information Page for UGLIES main Characters. Rightmost is, of course, Tally (タリta ri-). On the left-hand page are:
upper right: Peris(ペリスpe ri su)
upper left: David(デヴィシドde vi shi do)
lower right: Shay(シエ shi e)
lower left: Dr. Cable(ドクタ-ケke-ブdo ku ta- ke- bu)


Below: Here’s the party scene, with Peris(ペリスpe ri su) in his tux and Tally(タリta ri-) clutching a pig mask and looking crumpled in Japanese UGLIES Cover.


Below: Shay(シエshi e)on hoverboard in Japanese UGLIES Cover


Below: アグリ-ズ (a gu ri- zu) Japanese Cover of UGLIES book two(which I think is PRETTIES in this case.)




Next, Taiwan Traditional Chinese Edition Uglies Cover!

Below: 醜人兒(Uglies)


Let's move away from the Eastern countries and on to the Western countries!

From Right to left:UGLIES,PRETTIES and SPECIALS GERMAN Cover


From Right to Left: UGLIES and PRETTIES Italian Cover(Notice that for the UGLIES cover, its the same picture as the US UGLIES Cover?)



Below: UGLIES Polish Cover


By the way, I am thinking of getting that boxed set since that exclusive content is a glossary of ugly slang and bubble-speak written by Scott Westerfeld himself!!!

Below: USUGLIES Trilogy Boxed Set(UGLIES, PRETTIES&SPECIALS)


Below: US UGLIES Trilogy Boxed Set(UGLIES, PRETTIES&SPECIALS) LAY OUT.


IF you want to know about the story of UGLIES series, then read this BBC online news article on the future human species here. The upper class human is just very similar to the PRETTIES in the UGLIES series.

That's all for today!

UGLIES Quartet: Introducing Uglies Movie.(also fake pretties)

My dear friends. This is going to be my second post as to the topic on UGLIES Quartet. For those who haven't read my first post, you are strongly advised to read it before continuing with this post. Otherwise you will have no idea on what is this post about! you can read my first post here. Ok, this is going to be the post on all about the UGLIES movie estimated to be released in year 2008!!!! It is going to be distribute by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, the company that released "Eragon" also a movie made from the story of a novel. IF you don't know about the company Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, look at the picture below and I am sure you will recognize it.

The production company will be Davis Entertainment, that has produced some movies such as "I, Robot","Garfield,Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties","Eragon","Garfield Gets Real" etc. You can find Uglies on Internet Movie DataBase(IMDB)here. Indeed, IMDB have posted several false project before. So is this real? There's a article on Variety talking about Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation going to make a movie on Uglies. If you can't view the website, never mind. I have taken a screenshot of the article which can be viewed here. It's worth mentioning that IMBD is not the only site that have Uglies as an upcoming movie, but also other sites like The Movie Insider and Hollywood.com. However, I do not know how credible these sources are. Also, it seems that Mr Westerfeld himself didn't admit or having posting anything about the possibility of an Uglies movie in his blog. Or perhaps it was just that he was bound by a contract or something. But you can go to his blog post titled The Big News where he talks about the Variety article. This is as close as having Mr Westerfeld admitting and confirming on Uglies might be made into a movie. If you ask me do I want to have a movie of UGLIES? Of course! But it must be an excellent movie. It must not be a product which they changed the story here and there and then claim that this is a movie based on the novel Uglies. I presume that they will be needing a lot of editing considering how high tech life in the Uglies story is. I think that having a movie of it(assuming that it's well made)will be good for it allows even more people to know the Uglies Quartet and perhaps they would like to read the rest of the quartet. Not many people knows about Mr Westerfeld, unlike J.K Rowling, whom lots of people know of.

Meanwhile let's quenched our thirst for an Uglies movie with this fan made Uglies & Pretties Trailer(BELOW) made by an user named TheHatchChild334 on YouTube. This is made according to some events happening in the novel of UGLIES.


If you have read UGLIES and PRETTIES, watch the video Pretties made by an user on YouTube named laylaylayla. This video shows some events that took place in the novel UGLIES and PRETTIES.


While we are on the topic of Uglies and Pretties, let's talk about some fake Pretties in our world shall we? Have you ever thought that the pictures and cover magazines featuring a particular star is really pretty? Have you ever thought that they are really that pretty? Well, i am sad to say that you are wrong sometimes. Most of the pictures you found of the pictures or magazine covers of a star had been tampered with. Using make-up,lighting and photoshop, they can air brushed a star to make it look perfect. Don't believe in me? Watch the video below.

Now do you understand why stars always look so perfect? I dare to say that quite a number of us normal people without make-up can actually be prettier then most of the stars without make-up. Without make-up and photoshop, most of the stars are actually normal looking people like everybody else. Let me show you picture of some stars that are normal looking in real life. All pictures taken from here.
Below: Jessica Simpson


Below: High School Musical Star Vanessa Hudgens


Below: Extreme Makeover


Of course there are some stars that are naturally pretty.
Below: Reese Witherspoon(I am not totally sure if she really don't have any makeup on.)

With the right clothes,make-up,lighting and sometimes a little help from the photoshop, you can look gorgeous as well. But I think that the most important would be being beautiful inside. It's no use having a beautiful exterior and being ugly inside for people will sooner or later notice it.