Packing List!

Good evening!

Today as you can see at the countdown below, tomorrow I’m departing to Japan! So, I thought today is the perfect time for write my Packing list as I promised you! And about my Japanese practice, I realized my grammar is really off and I’m pretty much tearing who is reading it; because of my poor grammar! So I’ll stop for now until I learn how to write a proper grammar.

うちのグラマーはとってもひどいです。だからとりあえず日本語をかきません。ほんとうにごめんなさい。私はごりがいをかんしゃしてます。

Here the packing list.

http://www.mediafire.com/view/wfttnspuxa10n3a/PACKING_LIST.docx

It will open in a new window.

Of course you can change however you want to suit your need.

I used multiple website, so I don’t remember, if happens you know please leave a comment below. I used this website for the majority of my packing list: http://www.packwhiz.com/l/3761066/tokyo-packing-list

I wrote a destination and the weather, so you will have an idea what to pack, since I will be there for year and half, I’ll experience all the four seasons, but I wrote the current season first. I found it easier in Pack Whiz when it’s divided into sections, and I just added my own stuff. Then why I’m doing a packing list then? I just want to be detailed.

Originally the packing list on that website fits one A4 paper, so I created a detailed checklist; just for fun.

I add a checklist for stuff I want to specifically bring with me. Like belts, sweater, jackets etc…all under the clothes category, so I want to write them so I won’t forget to bring them. So I added a clothes checklist, cosmetic, drawing kit, medicines, papers, religious stuff and home stuff.  Of course you can rewrite them all and write you need, or you can completely ignore it.

For a long-term, you can illuminate the list so you can use white board marker to check.

I’m sorry it took so long to upload a simple article, but I didn’t have enough time to fully sit down and finish it all in one go; I had to complete this in one week.

~Mikan

A Little Time to Spare

I have no idea why I’m writing this but…

Good evening viewers!

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of peoples blogs here in WordPress, there was really awesome blogs out there which I’m hooked on! Some of the blogs I came across saying that they write almost every day or 3-6 times a week! Wow, they really do have time for blogging, that’s great, but I don’t think I will ever do it. When I say I don’t have time to blog, I will busy with life in general, I’ll be reading/ watching/ playing etc.. Even though my blog consists my life, blogging has always been a part of my life, and I’m not forcing myself to write, I don’t have a “Boss” or “Maneger” following me around; simply because blogging is not my job! I don’t get money either, it’s completely free. I really don’t care about money, I care about the information & knowledge & inspiration I give it to you, and nothing else.

However, I love writing! So I usually write once a week, if I had time, maybe more. For my limit is 3 blog posts in a week, I didn’t write more than three before. If I had plenty of time, I could post everyday, why not? It’s fun, but I can’t now.

As most of you already know I will be traveling to Japan to study in October 3, I even add a countdown to the bottom of the page to keep you tuned. Usually I post every week once, but since I will be busy moving I won’t have enough time to spend on my blog. There’s a really neat feature in WordPress that allows you to schedule your blog post, I never tried before, but I will try it now.

I will be writing a bunch of posts and articles [I already started writing them] and they will schedule from now on. Here some the articles that I expected to post:

Drawing app+books+ websites
Travel drawing kit
How to make friends
Desk organization
Beat your fears
Why games?

As the title says, I had a little time to spare and I really wanted to write something. I started to use my planner again, so supposedly I have time more organized now, if you’re interested in my planner leave a like or comment ❤

Actually, I have nothing to do now… But I don’t have anything to write too. Maybe I will watch MGS or study Japanese a bit.

Have a blessed evening 🙂

~Mikan

Pandora Hearts Artbook -Review-

Good evening everyone! I hope you are all doing okay ❤ Today I will do a review of my very first art book, and that is Pandora Hearts artbook by Jun Mochizuki-san 😀

To make it easier for you I will divide the review into sections:

1. General Information.
2. Quality
3. Artbook sections.
4. My thoughts / rating.
5. Where to buy it.

This is my very first artbook review, so I apologize if I missed something. This review will be informative – because I like to be informative- so this will be a long one. Anyways let’s get down to business!

General Information:

Pandora hearts is actually a manga by Jun Mochizuki who also created Crimson Shell (2006).

Pandora Hearts is the first long series by Jun Mochizuki and was very successful as soon as it was released in Japan, considering both sales and critics, which awarded it to be turned into an animation series in 2009. A clever mix of fantasy and mystery mingled with supernatural inquiries,

So this is how the art book looks.

It has two covers, one that’s on the artbook itself, and the other one works as a decorative for the artbook and you can slip them both easily, and it works as a protection for the artbook.  Jun Mochizuki Artworks ~Odds & Ends~ was published in (2009).

It doesn’t have page number, but it’s very thick book! It is 1.5cm and less than inch.

I brought it 150.00Dhs, which is expensive.

Quality:

This artbook is dwelling in very nice high quality paper; they really did a great job! The very first cover is not completely black –which is very nice- it’s a very dark cool gray and had very light almost gold transparent design. There is a diamond cut out along with cool gold design surrounding it, and the diamond cut out shows the second cover that has the main character Oz showing through. The title as well as the diamond design is slightly embroidered and shabby, I really like it! And it’s a high quality paper and it won’t rip easily. Like the covers, the pages are high quality and all the artworks are high-resolution, and some arts have cut outs too which is so cool. There are no ripped pages/ fingerprints/ dirt/ weird white dots…etc.

Artbook sections:

The book has no dividers, but you can guess if you moved to another section.

There are three sections, the first one is a bunch of cool artworks and it’s the biggest section of the book, roughly 3/2 of the book are artworks by Mochizuki-san. The artworks are mixed of illustrations and colored/ white and black manga pages.

The second section is Mochizuki-san sketches, and it’s less than the first section.

The third section is where the artist comments/talks about her drawing, and it’s just few pages.

The very final two pages have the artist message and one last artwork 🙂

My thoughts / rating:

I assume anyone who bought art book from any artist mean they like their art and they want support them, and I’m one of them. I mean who don’t like having their favorite artist artworks? I bought it not only for fun, but as studying material. I bet a lot of people won’t agree, because it doesn’t have a lot precise drawings like head shots, clothes details, face expressions, different angles…etc. They are true. This art book doesn’t contain any of these. However STILL can be a studying material, at least for me. I have to say I love drawing other people art, and I find copying (Never trace!) helps me understand how things are drawn, not precisely but roughly! So what I will do, I’ll combine what I’ve learned/ understood from the artbook with other books/lessons to make it a lot easier for me! It’s weird like you’re taking a quiz without studying, if you failed, you will view your correct and false answers and then focus on the things you got incorrect to make it correct. (Don’t do it in quizzes though).

Overall, I really do love this book for many reasons, it’s honestly expensive, but it worth your money especially if you consider studying her art like me.

My Rating for it: 10/10.

 

Where to buy it:

I brought mine from Dubai mall in a bookstore called Kinokuniya 150.00Dhs. You will probably find all anime/ manga related stuff at the very back, the even have figures.

Pandora Hearts Art Book Odds And Ends Jun Mochizuki Art Works (In Japanese):  http://www.amazon.com/Pandora-Hearts-Mochizuki-Works-Japanese/dp/B0056B0NXW

Pandora Hearts Art Book Odds And Ends in English (My version): http://www.amazon.com/PandoraHearts-odds-ends-Jun-Mochizuki/dp/0316298115/ref=pd_sim_sbs_14_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0S47JR4XM0DVH36HSQG5

Jun Mochizuki 2nd Artbook – PandoraHearts: There is. (I wish I bought it TT_TT) :

https://otakumode.com/shop/555afa18dfdec9761bc022aa/Jun-Mochizuki-2nd-Artbook-PandoraHearts-There-is?lang=en

You can find a free downloadable one too, but I prefer to support the artist 🙂

 

I hope you enjoyed all the pictures and find it useful ❤

I’ll see you next time.

Have a nice relaxing evening.

 

~Mikan

How to Spend Summer Vacation

A late topic to share, but it’s never too late to have fun!

I bet every summer, all we do is sit at home browsing internet and social medias all day, and when you do that it’s fun, but when you think about, you’ll realize how boring your days were. Today I’ll give some idea how to spend your summer so every day will be a little adventure!

1. What most people do on summer vacation is traveling. Traveling in summer is very common all over the world, because it will push all your worries and relief stress, plus you can get so much fun there doing various activities. You don’t have to travel to very far place of expensive place to have fun, as long as the city you want to go have fun elements you can enjoy and have fun, travel there. There’s a lot of places and cities you can travel and experience another culture, if you want to travel to place like that, I recommend Bali 🙂

Check this website for cheap flights: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Flights-g294226-Bali-Cheap_Discount_Airfares.html

I personally did not use it before, so you must do your own research about it before paying J

However, because traveling is very common during summer, be aware that everything will be expensive as well very crowded.

2. Another common way to have fun in the summer is of course beach! There’s a tons of stuff you can do in the beach, and that’s includes swimming, eating, playing…etc. You can call you friend or family to hang out in the beach and eat melons or lunch there, you can play there like volleyball, and play with your little brother with sand. You can have so much fun in the beach, especially if your friends around.

2. Next is Movie Theater! Movie Theaters never slips from anyone’s mind! It’s summer, let’s go and watch a movie! It’s a very nice way to kill time while having fun watching movies with friends or alone with popcorn. Check this website for Most Popular Feature Films Released In 2015: http://www.imdb.com/search/title?year=2015,2015&title_type=feature&sort=moviemeter,asc
3. Amusement Park is very popular during summer, but it’s very boring by yourself, so go there with your friends and family and have a fun day there with all you’re might!
4. Simply hang out with friends! Anywhere is acceptable; with your friends everywhere is fun, whether is restaurants, beach, Movie Theater, sleep over…etc. You will have fun, and you know that already.
5. Get a part-time job or volunteer! Another way to have fun and gain experience and some cash 😉 there’s a lot of people who get a part-time job to kill time, and get a lot of experiences and earn money. If you’re not allowed to work, you can always volunteer. Search places in your local asking for volunteers, you will have fun meeting new people, gain experience, and obviously kill time.

I looked for Ideas to part-time job for you: http://www.moneycrashers.com/part-time-jobs-high-school-students/

It’s for high school student, but that does not mean you can’t do it J

If you don’t know what to volunteer for check this website: http://www.youth.gc.ca/eng/topics/jobs/volunteer.shtml

However, not every day you will go outside, or simply you’re an indoor person. Don’t worry there’s still so much things you can do at home.

1. Do a Makeover.

Your room is a mess after finals, there’s so many junk everywhere and you’re lazy to clean it, today is the day to get it clean. Cleaning is not fun, but you have to make it done before you mom start shouting you, right? Play some music, and don’t think about anything and start cleaning right away. Cleaning might be not fun to do, but decorating is fun, you can’t decorate while your room is upside down. You can look online for ideas and DIY you can do to decorate your room, aside from changing the bedding and painting the walls.

2. Learn something new.

For example learn a language. There are language courses online you can register, but it doesn’t have to be a course, you can search online for books, or free books to download, or you can look for tutorials or lessons on either Google or YouTube. There’s endless way to learn without paying money.

For any one who’s learning Japanese like me, you can try Japanese from zero. You can find in Amazon.com right here: http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Zero-Techniques-Students-Professionals/dp/0976998122. Or for free from YesJapan.com: http://www.yesjapan.com/

3. Discover a new hobby.

Try doing different stuff everyday. Try poems, drawing, swimming, sewing, singing…etc. Try them all and if you start liking any of those stick to it. It will be a life changing: p

I tried sweet once but it didn’t work out for me as a hobby, but I’m sure other people will. I learned how to make sweets from Joe’s blog: http://www.joepastry.com/joes-recipes/

4. Join contest/competitions/tournaments.

If have a skill or a hobby, and you want chances to do it in another way or more often, join various contest and completions. It will definitely kill time and have fun doing what you like, whether online or not.

You can easily find contest and competitions everywhere really, but you can look at Deviant Art if you’re an artist: http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/ , and: http://contests.deviantart.com/

Tournaments might not be available all time, but if you search online you will find a couple, like chess tournaments. I tried to look for a chess tournaments and I found one for free right here: http://www.chess.com/tournaments/.

5. Start a new project.

Projects are fun to do. I did a blog post about a long time ago; you can check it for more details: https://yumenomichi.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/projects-can-you-start-a-one/. But I did wrote it in 2012, very bad writing skills ^^” *trying to hide my shame* But anyway, a new project is very fun, but you have to keep at it.

These some of my favorites and I personally do it and enjoy it.

If you need more check out WikiHow: http://www.wikihow.com/Beat-Boredom-over-the-Summer

I hope you will have the best summer ever!

Pictures are drawn by me 😀

~Mikan

Enjoying What We Have

People are greedy. They want everything, and buy more, and have more. There’s a fine line between ambition and greediness. Ambition is a strong desire to do or achieve something, while greedy is having or showing an intense and selfish desire for wealth or power. Why we meet greedy people more than ambitions?

I red in an article long time ago that one of the human nature is being greedy and selfish. Greed and selfish is characteristic can be change with will. Who doesn’t like money? We all love money, but how we actually describe this kind of love? Is it greed, or just an ambition? I let you answer this question.

Wanna try something? Then Let’s play! Do you know a game called The Sims? I love this game so much, there’s no story in it, and it’s basically a life simulation. You can create your own characters, build their home, furniture it, make them work to earn money…etc. This game is on PC, PlayStation and wii, maybe more. So it will be very convenient if you only have PC or laptop. purchase it, you only need the original, no need for expansion packs, any Sims you like: The Sims 1 (It’s too old, probably won’t find it), The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and The Sims 4 the latest. Create your character and buy or build a home, select a job and you’re ready to go.

Play for a month, and tell me what do you feel, and how the situation goes. I’ll tell mine, I build a house and I was poor to begin with, so the building cost so much money, so I needed to find a job. Every Sim have zero knowledge, so they need to learn from books, and most importantly, cooking book! You may not able to afford TV in very beginning to learn cooking, so books are helpful and free from any bookshelf you pursues in the build mood. Without food your Sim may die from hunger or burn a stove, so be careful! I get very excited when my character gets the salary, and collecting money little by little, and get over the moon when I get promotion! These little joys, makes a very different mood to me and to my character, I feel am a successful employee, and everything seems to be improving! My house gets nicer and I can buy more expensive item.

Again play for a month, but use the money cheat and have 1 million simelones! And play like you did before. TRUST ME you will get bored after one week! You have nothing! You don’t chase after something; although you got the money you wanted by a click, you’ll feel empty and hollow, which made your character life very boring and repetitive. Your job will give more money and you will be wealthier, but you are already wealthy! What you will gain by more and more? Obviously selfishness, greediness, emptiness, hollowness, and sadness.

You can easily changes those characteristic if you have the will, if you get rid of them you will be 10 time happy then you were before! Enjoy what you have, you may be poor, but enjoy this time, like the feeling of getting a couple of coins with sweat! Be ambition not greedy.

Don’t be afraid to ask people to help you and join you, actually these will makes things more interesting than being alone.

Have faith in yourself.

~Mikan

You Are Here

Good evening.
Sometime I hear people, complaining about their parents. He’s dad is cruel monster, he doesn’t love him, he’s treating him like idiot child. Complaining that he’s mom prefer to work long hours day and night rather than listen to her son or daughter daily conversations. Many people have that kind of relationship, some will ignore it, some will face it, some will run away.
But…Have you ever thought why this happened? Have you ever analyzed your situation? Have you search for reasons? Maybe you did, maybe not.
Your parent born from an older generation, some thoughts and basis from the older generation planted and grew within them as they grew up. And you, you born in modern generation, most your thoughts and basis came from the modern generation -plus some from an older generation due the fact they raised you- So it’s normal they don’t understand you sometimes, in the same way sometimes YOU don’t understand them too.
That the reason you often hear “Parent care in their own ways”.
Most likely they will force you to understand their basis rather than trying to understand your thoughts. Of course some will try to understand you, which is great. However either ways they don’t really mean you’re the bad boy here, it’s “Their own way of caring” The way they believe it’s the safest way for you to live this world. They’re not careless nor heartless, they just have a different way than yours.
Don’t be mad, it’s frustrating and I know, but try to them understand is actually is an excellent choice, but half right. How so? So in order to make them understand you, you must understand them. I can’t tell how, because you know your situation, and I don’t. It’s OK to say that you don’t understand, or let them explain the reasons or whatever it. Accepting or not is another matter.
Perhaps you father work day and night for money to feed you, to give you a gift, to give things he didn’t own, to give a better life to live. He’s doing that but he doesn’t necessary tells you. Maybe he just want you to enjoy more. There’s a lot hidden reason. He doesn’t want to share them with you. But in your case, you saw a heartless father, while you know nothing about his reason and motive. Even though, personality plays role as well, and it makes you surely misunderstood everything.
Like I said. Find, analyze, search and finally solve.
Yes again that is one side, I know the same problem exist in the dark side. Where parents they don’t love their child, and treating him like outsider, not even a proper treatment for an outsider. They hurt him violently, the always giving him less food, and make him starve for days. This side exists.
But let me say this to you, whatever side you live in, you absolutely cannot deny the fact they loved you, that’s mean they can love you again and forever. Do not lose hope.
Oh there’s something else I want to give it to you, I don’t know if you know this but… Do this for me. It’s the least thing I can do for you.
Roll your one sleeve so your wrist show.
Pick the prettiest ribbon you can find, 20 cm is fine, whatever width you prefer.
Tie a ribbon around your wrist.

“You are the most wonderful gift they ever received”

Yes, you are.

Love you parents, because they care and love you.

Stay safe and sound.

This article idea come from Chris Brogan blog, you can check it out here: http://chrisbrogan.com . The article picture is free from unsplash.com and I edit it using picmonkey.com.

-Mikan

 

Earning a Habit

Good Day everyone!

How are you all I missed so much ❤ I want to talk with you about a small topic, and that is how to earn a habit. Now, by earning a habit it makes a lot easier to to things and maybe faster as well. you can be more organize if create a tidying habit, it will be more easy if you hang your clothes habit than tossing it on the floor. It can bring success too.

But to create a new habit and earning one, you need motivation first to start a new habit. or else you may end up giving up. then repeat. like if you want to make tidying habit, you must tidy so often and repeat tidying everywhere. you make start from your desk and gradually move to you closet, and then dresser, drawers, and then the whole room, then the other rooms.

if it’s simple it won’t take long. if it’s complicated it may take a bit longer, despite of period of time, you will earn a habit by only following two simple step. More importantly you have to keep it up!

Thank you for reading!

I shall talk to you soon!

Have a nice day ❤

~Mikan~

I Missed Ya!

Good afternoon everyone!!

I missed you soooooo much ❤ ❤

How are all? I hope you’re doing fine.

Since I was free I decided write a new post<3

I was really active at Inastgram more than any other social website especially Deviant Art, i don’t know why but I feel I don’t have a big motive to post a new drawings every time a draw, I don’t have enough time to go the scanner and then submit. Inastgram is more quicker to my tight time. But I hope my followers will motivate and encourage me to post again ❤

Enough with that! I want to talk with you more important things.

Soon…I will buy a new desk!!!! Finally!! Because my current desk is soo tiny and all my staff are messy on and under the desk, which makes me very uncomfortable while drawing and making videos and even my own study, and I end up sometime writing on my legs. and the chair is broken as well and make it worse. I going to find a bigger desk with a lot of storage units. So once I’m ready I will start making videos. Seriously, I can’t work in such environment !

And about the novel…I’m really late with it! Probably I should start the deadline system up again! I’m still on chapter 7, honestly I told you before, re writing a story is much much and much more harder that writing draft that’s tired me from thinking of new ideas!!! 

And I’m starting to learn Japanese language, and I mastered the first 10 letters from Hiragana which is:

あ　い　う　え　お　か　き　く　け　こ

I always spend a little of night time and learn new 5 letters everyday if I could.

I reaally excited for the weekend to buy a new desk!! and probably buy a containers too. 

It’s 5:40PM I should end this post, thanks for reading and have a wonderful night!

OH! Do you have any ideas for this week article? Think about it!

 

~Mikan~

How to draw background (part one)

Good afternoon!

It’s 6:25pm, I just uploaded my awaite YT video how to draw backgraound:

I felt it will be better to have another part of this video While I’m editing the video. The video is soo long and I put all the information and explanation you need to understand well and able to draw. I’m not perfect in background, beside this is my second time drawing a background. Let’s learn together!

Sorry there’s a word mistake in the video, I tried to corrected but it tells me error everytime! So the first word if I remember is “hanged” I didn’t mean hanged, I meant hang it. And “size fits”, only “size” .I do not know why I put fits in the first place =_=

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Atsuhisa Okura- How to Draw Backgrounds:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kdihB…
The book my big bro bought from Amazon.com

Drawing backgrounds isn’t hard once you have the basic lines right, the picture I drew have two point, however, the lines doesn’t follow the picture, that makes me confused If anyone know please tell me.

Tomorrow I will wake up early this time!4:00am ! I need to wake up 4 o’clock tomorrow so I will have enough time to write my novel. Today I wake up 7:45am T_T and start filming 10:00 and finished 11:30. Then I charged the camera and start editing the video after lunch at 2:15pm. Then I finished 4:00pm. The uploading took 1 hour. and it’s 6:40 now. I’m so tired -_-

Today was really full! Oh and I found a reaaaally beautiful topic! I will write it and see when I can publish it tomorrow. I don’t feel to move now -_-

I will just eat my dinner and watch Sket Dance, before bedtime I read manga or anything, and TRY to wake up early! Help me god!

Well I’m off to have some rest…

Goodnight to the country if is already night.

Much love,

~Mikan~

Win

Yes I’ve won!

My results came out really really good! I’m so happy. Sorry I didn’t write soon because I was so happy to be free like this ^^” sorry. I missed so much.

I bought new camera yesterday! I can film anytime! However, I didn’t draw too much during the school, so my hand getting harder, I mean it’s not very flexible. I need to draw more to get my skills back ^__^ Then I will start making videos again.

The novel process going pretty well since the vacation started. Now I’m writing chapter eighteen, I only write 2 pages and half, and I will continue today.

Yeah about the articles, I need to start writing it T_T and make a video about too.

If you have anything, share it with me, okay?

I’ve been craaazy about playing (virtue’s last reward) game on PSP VITA. it’s survive game, the story and puzzles are coool. I got many idea from this game for my novel.  I will continue writing the cell novel again too.

I will be active again in DA and start drawing everyday, please look foreword for it. Thank you!

 

Have a nice day!

~Mikan~