Pixie 2

I really didn't like how the other Pixie drawing turned out, so I decided to take the time to actually smooth out the lineart, attempt to shade the hair, and redo the pose. This one looks much better.

Blog update

Hey!

So as you can probably see, the blog has been given a complete makeover, with a gorgeous new theme, new URL, new title, and most important, a blogger with a new determination to make blogging regularly a thing in her life.

When I first started this blog, I meant for it to be personal, a place where I could write my own thoughts freely. However, after some thought, I decided a public blog probably wasn't the best place to put all my internal ruminations. I keep a paper diary for that kind of thing.

So what do I have planned instead? Well, hopefully, lots of posts with stories from my life. When I go out and do something fun, maybe I'll blog about it! If I notice something funny happen in my day, I'll blog about it. I want to write more reviews: reviews of games I play, books I read, TV shows and movies I watch. Maybe I'll share some of my crafting projects. I want to share shopping hauls and outfits of the day. Basically, I want this to be more of a documentation of my thoughts and my life. I want to be taking more pictures, remembering more events, and I hope that this blog will be a way for me to do so.

I'm looking forward to a future of blogging, and I hope you enjoy reading!

A guide to buying from Yesstyle

I'm kind of addicted to shopping, and one thing I love shopping for is clothes. One of my favorite places to buy is Yesstyle.com, an online retailer based in Hong Kong that sells Asian brands of clothing.

I really love Yesstyle because my own fashion style leans more towards the classy and cute style of Asia, but buying online clothes can be risky; you can't see or feel the clothes, you can't do try-ons, and usually you can't do returns, or it's a hassle to return things. So whenever I buy I'm always super careful with what I choose to get.

I've made ten orders with Yesstyle, and I've only ever been disappointed once. When I first was researching Yesstyle, I was scared to order because I'd heard so many horror stories about the site. But after a few orders I learned a few tricks that have kept me happy with my purchases and I thought I'd share them to help some other people out.

So what are my tricks for buying cute asian clothes online?

1. Don't buy clothes with inherent risk
This is always my first rule. What do I mean by inherent risk? I mean clothes that are difficult to buy even when you can see and feel the product in front of you. Things like shorts, shoes, pants. In other words, clothes that require a very precise fit. Since you can't try the clothes on, it's best to avoid things that have even a chance of not fitting properly. When I shop on Yesstyle, I tend to only buy tops or skirts. With those types of clothes, there's a bit more leeway on the fit so it's not as much of a risk.

2. Be careful about material
When you're buying clothes online and you can't feel the clothes, it can be hard to tell the quality of the material. A good general rule of thumb is, "You get what you pay for." That is, more expensive clothes will have higher quality material. There are some cheaper brands that are still excellent quality, but it can be hard to tell until you've bought it. Knits are generally good, as are hoodies and sweatshirts. Be careful about fabrics like chiffon and lace as well. Stock photos are often deceiving, and these two fabrics can easily look or feel cheap in real life. There is also the danger of sheer fabric being too sheer. If you're really eagle-eyed you might be able to tell from the photo, but it's not easy. If you're suspicious or would rather not risk it, just skip it.

3. Measure yourself, and be aware of asian sizing
It may surprise non-Asian shoppers that on Yesstyle, the majority of clothing does not have sizes. Most clothes are one size fits all, or "free size". However, be aware that this one size fits all is geared towards young Asian women, who are generally shorter and have petite body frames. Yesstyle lists measurements of the clothing on the item's listing, so before you buy, measure yourself to see if what you're buying will fit. On the other hand, the measurements can sometimes be inaccurate, so take the measurements with a grain of salt. At 5'7", I am much taller than most Asian girls so this is something I'm always aware of when buying from Yesstyle. I recently bought a dress that fit perfectly on the top, but it was so short on me that there was no way I could wear it without tights or leggings underneath. On an Asian girl of more average height, she probably would have been fine. 

4. Check the brand

One of my favorites!

I don't want to sound like a snob, but I usually only buy from a few brands I trust. I have bought clothes from Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese, and Hong Kong brands and I can say that usually, Korean brands have the best quality clothes. They are also more expensive, but again, you get what you pay for. The others are of a lower quality that is by no means bad, but not excellent like the Korean brands. The one time I was truly disappointed by a Yesstyle purchase was a skirt from a Taiwanese brand, and as a result I now stay away from Taiwanese brands.


5. Be patient and wait for sales

If you want the higher quality clothes but can't afford the higher quality price, just be patient. Yesstyle has brand-wide sales all the time, and there's usually a discount code or promotion floating around that you can take advantage of.

I'm a gold member. In other words, I've spent way too much money here

If you sign up with their rewards program, you'll automatically get 3% off everything in the store, and the discount gets larger as your membership level increases. You'll also get coupons for reaching new membership levels. Also, the prices on non-sale items aren't fixed and fluctuate pretty often, depending on supply and demand, according to Yesstyle's FAQ. I recently bought a sweater from Yesstyle, and when I checked the listing the next day, the price had dropped five dollars. What I usually do is browse from time to time and save things I like in my cart, then wait for a discount code to come out. Then I buy. 

6. Read the reviews

This may sound like common sense, but it's very important. Not just to look at the average review, but to actually read what people have written, because the number of stars isn't always indicative of quality. When you read the actual reviews you'll get a lot more information, when people say things like, "It was nice, but the color was darker than the photo", or, "It's not as thick as it looks." Some people will even say how the item fits on them and give their height and weight, so you can use that for comparison. Reviews are often essential in my decision on whether or not to buy something.

7. Expect things to sell out

Items on Yesstyle sell out surprisingly quickly. And once it's gone, it's very unlikely that it will be restocked. Keep this in mind if you do the "browse once in a while" shopping method that I do, because usually after a few weeks, items I've saved will be no longer available. In other words, if you see something you really love and have to have, don't wait too long before buying.

8. Check availability

This isn't really related to making sure you're getting good quality clothes, but a lot of the bad Yesstyle reviews I've read complain about the slow shipping, so I thought I'd add a final tip to make shipping faster. Yesstyle has two availability statuses, "Will ship in 24 hours", and "Will ship in 7-14 days". If you want your clothes to ship quickly, only buy things that say they will ship in 24 hours. That means that the item is in stock in Yesstyle's warehouse. If you choose something that says it will ship in 7-14 days, that means Yesstyle has to order it from the brand retailer, which takes extra time. I've only ever ordered 7-14 day items twice, but both times my order was gotten together and shipped out in a week, which is pretty reasonable. Usually Yesstyle ships that night or the next day, and the package gets to me in about week and a half, give or take a few days because of customs.

...And that's all! I hope my tips make your Yesstyle shopping excursions a little more stress-free and help you get some adorable Asian clothes you love! I have an order coming in soon so maybe I'll do a haul post once it's here. This package will also be the first Yesstyle order I've bought and used Express shipping, so I'll be able to comment on how good that is as well. See you next time!

First Impression | Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Ah, Luigi's Mansion. This game I remember well from my childhood, because it was a game that actually scared the cuss out of me when I was a kid. I'm still a little scared of it today. I could never play the original Luigi's Mansion myself, and I never played that game all the way through; I watched my dad play it instead. But when Dark Moon came out, I figured it would have to be a game I got because it looked fun and because I'm an adult and shouldn't be scared of video game ghosts anymore.

Even if I was scared of the game as a child, I've always loved the Luigi's Mansion games for having King Boo as the main villain and Luigi's nemesis a la Mario and Bowser. Boos have always been my favorite Mario enemy and King Boo is an awesome bad guy. Whereas lately Bowser has been reduced to more of a comic villain, King Boo gets eviler in this new incarnation and it's great. Just look at him in that official art. He's cunning and sneaky and scary, and he feels legitimately threatening.

I like the fact that this game has a bit more of a plot than the first Luigi's Mansion, and the missions make it easy to remember what you're supposed to do next. In the original game I'd play for a bit, come back, and completely forget what I was supposed to do next. Having gameplay broken up into discrete missions removes that, but I do not like not being able to save in the middle of a mission, which means I have to play the whole thing through at once, which I sometimes don't have time for. If I can't finish an entire mission at once, I can't just turn it off and play something else without losing all my progress. This can be annoying, especially if I'm stuck on a puzzle and want to stop for a bit.

The mechanics themselves are pretty easy to get a handle on, and some new elements have been introduced that make ghost hunting a lot easier, such as being able to get a power boost to the vacuum, or being able to dodge enemy attacks while sucking. That last one in particular is a life-saver, since in the original you were completely at the mercy of the other ghosts that would gang up on you as you sucked another up. However, you still can't change directions when charging the flashlight, which is a major annoyance to me. 

The puzzles are also pretty inventive, so far I've played through one and a half mansions and very rarely are the puzzles exactly the same. That's an impressive feat considering there are only three main gimmicks in the game, the vacuum, flashligh, and dark light. Each mansion is an individual and very distinctive, which adds to the inventiveness of the gameplay.

So far I haven't had any major frustrations with the game, which is great, but for some reason it's not really grabbing me like Fire Emblem did. However, that's not to say that it's not a fun game. It's great for passing time, but I don't find myself wanting to play more than a few missions at a time. At the moment I just play one mission per day, which is enough for me; some of them can take really long if you don't figure out the puzzles right away. Without saying too much more, this game is a good time killer, a nice step up from the original, and a cute, quirky addition to the Mario games.

First Impression | Fire Emblem: Awakening

This last Friday I had to stop by my university bookstore to pick up my textbooks for this quarter. It's impossible for me to go into a bookstore and not stay for at least half an hour to peruse, so I wandered upstairs to where the store also happens to have an electronics section. With a shelf that has "GAMING" in nice, prominent letters over it. I've been pretty starved for video games lately, so I went in just to see what they had.

What they had was a game I'd been wanting for a long time: Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. And Fire Emblem: Awakening. I'd never played a Fire Emblem game before, but since Lucina and Robin are going to be playable characters in the upcoming Smash Bros., I'd been thinking of giving it a try. And so before I knew it, I left the store with both Luigi's Mansion and Awakening.

I played both of them when I got home that night, and a first impressions post on Dark Moon will be coming soon. First, I'll talk about my first impressions of Awakening.

So far, I like it. It's a very different type of game from others I've played in the past; I've never played a strategy RPG like this, nor have I played any other Fire Emblem games before. I was worried that it would be too complicated to learn, but the in game tutorials are easy to follow so far.

I have no idea how the stats or different weapons in this game work, but I'm hoping I'll learn as I progress. The way the characters move and battle reminds me of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, since you can only move a certain amount of spaces per turn, and attack in turns.

What's really drawing me into this game is the story. I absolutely love the animation used for intro cutscenes, and I wish all the cutscenes could look like that. The scenes using the chubby sprites just don't covey the scene that well, although using character art over the dialogue helps. The voice acting is also great, which is a relief, because fully-voice acted video games are not always stellar. (I'm looking at you, Xenoblade Chronicles and Super Mario Sunshine). The characters are also interesting, if a bit stereotyped right now, and wow, Chrom is really attractive. There's a lot of characters though, so I wonder how much development is going to happen.

First Impression: Chrom is really hot.

I've already been spoiled on one of the major plot twists of this game but it doesn't really matter since I know next to nothing about the rest of the plot, so hopefully I'll be able to enjoy the rest of the story as it unfolds.

So far I'm really enjoying this game and I can't wait to explore more into the world of Ylisse. Sorry I don't have much to say, I've only played an hour into the game so far and everything is so new to me that I don't have much of an opinion yet. Maybe I'll post an update when I'm a bit further in. Looking forward to it!

Goodbye, Quizilla

The end of an era

Today I learned of a heartbreaking fact: Quizilla is shutting down for good. I'm actually quite sad about this. Writing my silly little fanfictions and taking quizzes was my life for a good part of 2007, and although I now look back and cringe, I still have a lot of fondness for the site and how it introduced me to the world of fanfiction and fandom communities.

After learning of this, I logged into my old account and salvaged my stories. I copied and pasted them into word documents so I could save them, because again, I have a lot of fondness for them, and rereading them gives me a good nostalgic laugh. A quick tumblr search revealed I am not alone in feeling this way, as dozens of posts lament the end of Quizilla, a site, which gave many of users (me included) their writing start. It's just funny, how a site that hosted so many of our old shames and cringe-worthy writings can still stir up these feelings. 

I actually wonder what demographic was using Quizilla recently. I would say that 2006-2009 was the peak of Quizilla's popularity, and the majority of the users then seemed to be in middle school, and are now in the end of high school/college. However, back in 2007 when I was using Quizilla, there wasn't much in the way of other sites for fandoms to gather. Today we have Youtube, tumblr, deviantART, all of which are infinitely more popular than Quizlla when it comes to fandom communities. So who was using Quizilla for these last five years? Still middle schoolers?

Anyways, Quizilla, you were my first step into the crazy world of fandoms. Even if my writing was the worst, most terrible drivel to come out of my brain, I still have a crazy sense of love for you. I'll always remember the hours spent updating my Naruto OC fanfiction and taking Seven Minutes in Heaven quizzes (girls only, of course). 

It's been real, Quizilla. Godspeed.

If you want to read my post about revisiting Quizilla for the first time in years, check out this post.

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