I've moved!

Exactly what it says on the cover.

The content of this site will be moving there as well, but it will look prettier and more organized.

New link is HERE

Or alternatively, you can type krystaman.wordpress.com on your search engine of choice to find me~

NEL: My cat. Warning: picture heavy

Not Enough Love: Artemis the Cat

Today, I'm introducing you to Artemis (a.k.a. my kitty that loves my dad more than me). She's officially nine years old. 

What'cha doing? (Why aren't you writing?)

 She can usually be found in boxes.

I'm pretending you can't see me.

And whatever furniture my dad likes to use...

Pretending...

Excuse me? 

But occasionally, she'll hang out with me! (Only when I'm about to leave for work.)

Again?

Not enough love: Aphorism

Not to be confused with the wikipedia definition, but it definitely applies here. In Japanese, words in kanji can be used to mean several things and the author uses it to great effect.

Aphorism by Kujo Karuna is a manga that takes place in a prestigious high school whose students are guaranteed to be successful in life upon graduation. Unfortunately, it is also a high school that accepts only the students who can see the floating island in the sky.

Upon acceptance, our protagonist Rokudou Momiji and his class is told to write a single word (in kanji) on a piece of paper with no other information than that it will determine his future. Since he met a pretty classmate that he wants to impress and feeling inadequate about his lack of smarts, athletics and height, Momiji writes down the word for 'change'.

Then monsters appear out of the ground and attacking/killing students.

The teacher (being really unhelpful) tells them that the word that they just wrote is their weapon and they must use it to fight off the monsters. For example, the person who wrote down the word 'knife' can manifest a sword and use it to kill said monster. The person who wrote down the word 'fire' can create fire and use it. The possibilities are only limited to the word that the student had written down.

As a writer, I thought the concept is interesting. We, who lives in the western world and uses English, have so many different words that means the same thing. However, in Japanese kanji has multiple meanings to the same word and the reader uses context to get the meaning.

I would be very happy if someone licensed this and start selling in Canada. *cough* Viz,I'mLookingAtYou *cough*

What kind of word would I have written had I not known that I would be fighting for my life in the next minutes?

What kind of word would you have written?

You can read Aphorism here.
If you can read Japanese, you can buy Aphorism as soon as I find a proper link for it. (Amazon does not count as a good link.)

Not Enough Love: Yu Wo

So after a long time of not posting... I decide to start posting again.

Errr... I'm not Kakashi, so simply put. It's me, being lazy.

Anyways, so I'm starting a Not Enough Love section, where I (almost?) weekly put up a recommendation on stories that just don't get enough love.

Legalities are definitely going to get a way in this as I will recommend things that may not have been licensed to be bought in North America, so as soon as I know where or how to get said product, I'll update the posts.

First up is my favourite Taiwanese author, Yu Wo ( 御我 ). She writes light novels (in the Western side of the world, we call them novellas) with a strong focus on fantasy and sci-fi.

I first encountered 1/2 Prince or 1/2 王子 when I was surfing through the net for interesting (non-licensed) manga to read. I mean, look at the gorgeous art!

image from goodreads.com

It is the year 2100 A.D. With the arrival of the game 'Second Life', the realism level in virtual reality games have finally reached 99%.  Feng Lan, our female protagonist, has gotten into an argument with her twin brother over whether or not female gamers can be strong without using their female "attributes". Due to the high realism levels, gender switching is banned, however Feng Lan became the first and only transvestite in the game because she is the first player into the game.

Hilarity ensues as Feng Lan (under the username Prince) suffers from rabid wolves fangirls, crazy suitors friends, family issues (her brother didn't recognize her in the game and sees her as a rival hot guy out to charm ladies), and gender confusion. So much gender confusion.

An important note: This story was written in 2009, during a time which homosexuality is still considered a taboo in Taiwan. Therefore, please try to understand that jokes on sexual orientation is meant to be light-hearted.

You can read the stories for free here. The author has given permission for her work to be translated and placed on the site.

A new Year and new books!

Nanowrimo, New Years and Christmas has come and gone, but I still remain! Mwuhahaha. Ok, I'm fine now.

Now that the busy holiday season is over, I have more time to write. So my dear readers (who I think are non-existent so far...), I'm back with a resolution to keep up with this blog while writing more of my stories every day. I have found a calendar* and I have decided that I would put up a sticker for every day I worked on my story.

Your Audience

I find the questions ‘why you write’ and ‘who is your audience’ is two similar questions, but mean something completely different.

As a Reader, Criteria in Choosing Books at the Store/Library

I'm the kind of person who goes shopping with a specific list and picks up random things on the way to checkout counter. This applies to my reading habits as well. Usually, I go to the library to pick up five or six books... and walk out with more than a dozen. But for every book I decide to take out, I leave a few more on the shelf. They have drawn my interest, but overall, I decided not to read them.

But why?

Happy Heat-Haze Day!

Even though the appointed time has already passed, please watch out for incoming traffic and heavy falling objects.

For those who don't know, or aren't familiar with Japanese songwriters, Jin (Kagerou Days series) and mothyP (Servant of Evil series) are perhaps two of the most brilliant storytellers using pictures, music and lyrics ever. I mean, ever.

What had happened?

Life happened, the product of being a lax writer. I'm writing at 2:47 in the morning because I realized how long it had been since I last wrote.

Since I last wrote, many things happened:
- I got older.
- I'm almost done school. A whole semester flew past in the span of me uttering 'what happened?'
- Moved everything back home from my university (4 hours away) in the span of one car ride. Was very squished and forgot to return some books to my friend.
- Missed AnimeNorth due to a lack of funds. Sadly, I will miss AnimeNorth next year as well due to BEA being on the same weekend.
- Found a day job - in a restaurant. Now have even more respect for people working in the food industry, especially waiters and waitresses in the buffet style restaurants.
- Working on version 2.5 of Cyndia
- Transferred most of my stash of 'memory souvenirs' into a scrapbook... at least until my glue ran out. (Will write more on this later)
- Started looking for Canadian author's conferences and expos... so far, I found a whole bunch in Vancouver.
- Learned how to clean a frozen yoghurt machine.

The last one happened yesterday. It was interesting, watching the machine go 'hum.... glub, glub, glub' before and after you take out parts of the machine to clean it.

Staying positive

As a NanoWrimo, I sometimes see posts where my forum friends stress themselves out over Thanksgiving in America. When that I see that happening, I am thankful that Canadian thanksgiving was last month. (Then I feel bad for that, since it would be like seeing someone fall off a cliff, then I drop a boulder after them.)

I suppose it is fitting to start with A Debut

This weekend, I had the honour of attending a traditional filipino debut.

A debut is a filipino traditional coming-of-age party and considered one of the most important events for filipino women. Middle-class and higher families would save up money to throw a grand party on their daughter’s eighteenth birthday to celebrate her birthday and also to introduce her to eligible bachelors. Traditional rituals such as the 18 Roses* and 18 Candles** takes place throughout the party symbolize her passage from childhood to adulthood.

The lavishness, preparation, the budget and hard work involved with the planning of this party could be compared with planning a wedding. Freshly cut roses decorated every table, utensils and napkins set immaculately, glasses of drinks filled with orange pop for toasting awaited every guest. Huge platters of food were laid out in a buffet style and guests came in with elegant dresses and crisp tuxedos. A DJ and his sound system occupied a corner of the room, right next to the dance floor. There are even tickets for alcoholic drinks available for the persons 18 and up.

Despite all these grand luxuries, I was struck most by the people who came together to celebrate this debut. The young lady’s family worked so hard to make this party despite the stress of work, university studies, or a combination of the two. All those sleepless nights, all those times worrying about venue, all the times cooking (at least half of the dishes), all the people who took the time to travel through terrible weather and long distances so that they could chip in and help out or to celebrate, it’s amazing.

I wish that her dreams will come true. (Not the nightmares though, when I talk about dreams, it’s about her life-long goals, her dreams jobs and such. Not the weird dreams you get with unicorns goring into dementors and throwing pineapples at Voldemort at five in the morning.)

* 18 male family members and close friends are to give a rose to and waltzes with the debutante. The last person the debutante waltzes with is her father.

** 18 candles are lit up and to be given to the debutante by 18 female family members and close friends. They are to say a speech and their well-wishes to the debutante.