Sunday 30 June 2013

A1 Chinese Radio: Him Law (羅仲謙) Fan Signing

HELLO EVERYONE! QUICK UPDATES:
  • The last month has been uneventful as always except for the fact that I celebrated my birthday on the 21st (my actual birthday is on the 24th) with my closest friends. We went for hotpot, and it was pretty awesome, but I'll talk about that another time and upload pictures too. 
  • I just signed onto this blog to see that we got a lot of views/reads for my EXO post. Avid K-Pop fans out there, I'm guessing? Thank you so much for that. It's actually the most amount of views/reads on a post that this blog has, I think. Maybe I should just do more K-Pop related blog posts from now on. (Edit: That post is now at around 9k views?)
ONWARDS TO THE MAIN POINT OF THIS POST...


I'm going to try and be as eloquent and use the least amount of profanity as possible on the following description of my day yesterday. If I swear, please excuse me because I was about to cut a bitch yesterday. 

Yesterday, my friend and I left our homes at 10:30 in the morning to hop on the bus for an hour long bus ride to Splendid China Mall to meet Him Law, a popular Hong Kong actor, for his autograph session. Let's start my rant here. Why did we leave at 10:30, and not earlier for an event like this? Why didn't we line up outside the mall two days ahead of time? Okay. So Him Law... ain't no Justin Bieber. He may be popular in Hong Kong, but outside of that little area, I don't think many people really knows who he is. Now, I would have left home earlier, but I had learned my lesson from last year. On June 29th/30th of last year, Raymond Wong (黃浩然) was invited to come to Canada (also by A1 Chinese Radio) for a fan signing. Being an avid fan of his work, I dragged my friend to leave early in the morning with me at 8:30AM. When we reach Splendid China Mall, no stores were open, and we actually ended up reaching there before the set-up crew for the event. This time though, we had a plan! We left at 10:30, got there around 11:40, ate lunch, and we stood in line at around 12:20. We were about the 20th people in line (as opposed to last year when we were probably 5th). 

NO BIG DEAL, right? It's not like the people at the front of the line got any special perks. We knew that; we were here last year. NOPE. After waiting in line for almost 2 hours, a volunteer at the event started handing out posters for people to hand to Him Law to sign later. Awesome, right? They thought ahead this year! Last year, no one got posters until late into the event. When I had went to grab a poster last year, I actually got yelled at by some ignorant man telling me to not cut in line. WTF... I am standing in front of the person handing out posters and am in no way in a position that indicates that I was prepared to cut in line. But whatever. WHAT MATTERS IS... this year, they're handing out posters early! NOOOPE. They were only handing out approximately 10 posters, and only the people at the front of the line got them. I don't know how absolutely stupid these event planners were, but did you expect only 10 people to show up to this event? I mean, if only 10 people did, then you might as well not host the damn thing. IF I HAD KNOWN THAT THE FIRST 10 PEOPLE GOT POSTERS, I WOULD HAVE BEEN HERE EARLIER. UGH. Okay, fine. I'll let that slide. Him Law will just sign my mini autograph ticket! If you think that worked out, you are sorely mistaken. Why? Because they took back the mini autograph tickets. HOW CHEAP DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO COLLECT BACK THE TICKETS YOU HANDED OUT? IT WAS LITERALLY 1/20TH OF A STANDARD 8"x11" PIECE OF PAPER. But what did the hosts have to say about this? "Just go over to a newspaper stand nearby and buy the SingTao newspaper! The cover is a picture of Him Law!" What do you possibly benefit from that? It's not like you get no damn commission from the newspaper stands for sending people to buy your newspapers. So, I bought the newspaper. It's cool; it didn't cost that much anyways. What did I see when I got on stage for the signing? Mini-posters beside Him Law's arms in case you have nothing for him to sign on. If anger could kill, I swear that everyone at that mall would be dead except for Him Law and I.

Deep breathes, girl, deep breathes.

So, at the event, there were a lot of chairs that were surrounded by these gates that went around where people stood, as pictured below:



So you're thinking... that should fit almost everyone who's standing outside the gates, right? NO. Do you know who took all the seats? VIP members. Do you know where the VIP members are? Probably shopping around the mall, NOT IN LINE, because they already have guaranteed spots. You're exaggerating! How many VIP members can there possibly be! Enough to fill the entire seating area. So aside from getting posters, what benefits do the first few people gain? Absolutely nothing. You think you're coming here early so you can get great seats at the front. You'll be up close and personal with your favourite actor, but no. You're stuck still standing for another couple of hours as the event goes on. Oh, how old were these VIP fans? Average age range: 40s-60s. I mean, fan girling doesn't have a limit, I understand. But when the average age of everyone standing in line is 15-25, and the actor is 28... nah, I don't see anything wrong with that AT ALL! -rolls eyes- But it's fine. I'm not going to rant too much about that because I can't guarantee that I won't be like this when I'm middle-aged as well. All I want at this point is to just take a nice photo with Him Law. Screw the rest.

I'm going to take a moment out of this post to dedicate my annoyance to the people standing in front and behind me. So, two-girls-behind-me... YOU'RE LOUD. Let's put it this way. When I think you're loud, you must have serious issues. Because let's face it, as a Chiu Chow girl, it's in my damn blood to have the whole room hear my voice when I speak. But you know what, there's a time and place. If you scream for the people singing before the event, that's cool. If you scream when Him Law walks in, that's cool.  If you just got a fabulous picture with Him and you're screaming as you run off the stage, that's cool too. But to literally scream like crazy over a lame joke your friend told you, IN MY EAR, you best be glad I'm not one to pick fights with people. What I wanted to say to you? "Can you kindly not scream over the most idiotic of jokes? If I'm not allowed to judge you for your clearly special idea of what is humourous, then I sure as hell can judge you for you manners. Has your mother never taught you to use your indoor voice? There are hundreds of people waiting in line in a quiet mall. If you must laugh oh-so loudly, I'll even grant you that. SO LONG AS YOU DON'T DO IT IN MY HEAR." Then, they had to audacity to be pointing and whispering about me. I mean, go ahead and do that. I'm blogging about you anyways. But have the common courtesy to do what when I'm not looking right at you. Then, the two-girls-in-front-of-me-accompanied-by-one's-boyfriend, you guys are BIG. No, I don't mean "fat" because that would be offensive, right? Plus, who am I to be calling you that when I'm heavy myself? What I mean was... they were extremely tall, and had really broad backs. So if you could kindly stop stepping backwards into my face, I'd have appreciated you a lot more. What started out as a good space between us somehow turned into my face being pressed on their backs. Plus, with them being so tall, I felt like I was standing next to Mt. Everest and I swear the air pressure changed a bit. So, to the four people on either side of me, thank you so much for making yesterday that much more memorable.

Let me just insert some pictures as I cool myself down...



Fast forward to the actual moment when I get to "meet" Him Law...

Now, I use the term "meet" loosely. I guess that's even a stretch in itself too. I barely even got to "see" Him Law, and this is why.

Before I continue, let me mention four people to you. As I don't know their names, we'll call them:
  1. "Man in Black T-shirt (MIBT)"
  2. "Man in Yellow T-shirt (MIYT)"
  3. "Woman in Green T-shirt (WIGT)", and 
  4. "Annoying Woman (AW)"
So as my friend and I were standing in line approaching the stage where Him Law was, we were planning on how we were going to take our picture with him. Keeping last year in mind, we knew MIBT was going to rush us, and our photo was going to end up horrible. I saw people hand their phones/cameras to their friends, and their friends would take the picture for them. It'd probably be a lot better than if MIYT took the photo. Let's all keep in mind that you're not allowed to go behind the stupid table and take a picture. No. You lean across a table and try your best to match your face's angle to Him Law's and take a good picture where you don't look as if you're both staring in different directions. This itself was just ridiculous. I mean, why are you rushing everyone so much? Everyone literally gets 3 seconds with Him before they drag you offstage. I WANT A GOOD GOD FORSAKEN PHOTO. I WILL GIVE UP HIS AUTOGRAPHED NEWSPAPER FOR IT, OK?  

So as we're heading upstage, I told my friend to take my iPad (she forgot her camera) and take a photo in a "selfie" way. That way, we're in control of the camera and we know when to snap the photo so that it looks good. We even came up with a backup plan in case the "selfie" method didn't work. If we're not allowed to take the photo ourselves, we'd let each other take it. As we're walking up the stairs, WIGT saw my friend holding my iPad with the front-camera on, and told her that she's not allowed to take photos herself or with the help of me and that MIYT was the only person allowed to take photos. OK PUTA REALLY, EH? HE'S THE ONLY ONE ALLOWED? SO WAS I HALLUCINATING WHEN I SAW OTHER GIRLS TAKING PHOTOS OF THEIR FRIENDS WITHOUT THE HELP OF YOUR USELESS STAFF?

Ok fine. So you'll take my picture. I'll hold it in. My hair was neat, I was wearing a nice outfit, and I practiced my smile. Oh yeah, thank you for taking the picture as I was blinking by the way.

But it's not like I got to say anything, because AW was rushing me off stage before I even had to time to collect my autographed newspaper and iPad.

 Let's just break this down into questions, ok?
  1. Why am I not allowed to take my own photo? 
  2. Why am I not allowed to let my friend take my photo?
  3. Why were others allowed to let their friend take their photo but not me?
  4. Why are you incapable of taking the photo when my eyes were open? 
  5. Why can't you let me collect my belongings before you rush me offstage?
  6. Do you think I'm deaf when you guys repeated over 60 times that everyone must immediately leave the stage after the autograph/picture?
  7. If so, are you insinuating that my friend and I, along with the rest of the people you rushed off stage, are somehow disabled? Hard of hearing, or perhaps we're not intelligent enough to comprehend your simple instructions? 
  8. If you're going to insinuate that I'm disabled in some way, may I do the same? Are you blind? Can you not see that I'm grabbing my stuff and heading in the direction to get off stage?
and that would conclude my rant...
excuse me as I get annoyed over another problem in my life. 

- Dee 

 P.S: Update soon. Another K-pop related rant or should I upload photos of my uneventful life? Hmm...


Let the Memories Begin

WAY back in May (the 3rd to the 10th), my family spent a week in Orlando, Florida, where we danced with minions, flew across town with Spider Man, and spent some quality time with Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh.

Our journey started bright and early Friday morning.
Yes, that is a bear shaped pancake.
We drove down to Buffalo, New York, and stopped by Galleria Mall, which was GIGANTIC and everything was priced so prettily. My sister bought some nail polish from Sephora, and then we frolicked over to the airport.

Our awesome plane
FREE STUFF (the first time, I got Coke (but I forgot to take a picture)
This is technically the snacks I got on the way back...
The flight was about two and a half hours, and was pretty chill~
When we got to the airport (IT WAS A PRETTY ARSE AIRPORT), we had to take a tram from the gates to the actual airport part, where security and our luggage was.

The tram!
We grabbed our luggage and got our rental car and headed out of the airport. It was POURING rain outside, and so it took us about 30 minutes to get from the airport to our hotel villa thing. On our way we picked up some Wendy's and it was probably the best tasting Wendy's I've ever had *A* .. We also got some nasty tasting "iced tea" which was blech. Apparently, Nestea and/or Brisk doesn't exist at fast food places down in Florida.

Our lovely car
My sister and my bedroom (yes, that is a pineapple shaped lamp)
We had a little balcony. (yes, that's another pineapple shaped lamp, but it's harder to see 'cause it's considerably less 'ripe')
Our beautiful toilet (and washroom) 
Our little kitchenette
My parents kitchen and a peak into their washroom
The overall suite was split into two, so my parents and brother got one side and my sister and I got the other. There were a lot of pineapple shaped objects. Like the table legs? Pineapple shaped. The painting? All of pineapples (there may have been one of a monkey). The ceiling border in the 'living room area? PINEAPPLES. This place really had a thing for pineapple. Within our kitchen, we also saw this ginormous bug that crawled out of the coffee maker @_@ omfg. SCARED ME SHITAKELESS. Not something you expect to see when charging your mp3. I didn't get a picture of it 'cause I was too busy freaking out that there was a bug, almost the size of my fist, crawling around our counter top.

Anyways, you don't care about all that. TO DOWNTOWN DISNEY! We went Saturday afternoon to look around after buying groceries and such (i.e. ice cream sandwiches, cups, and t-shirts).

They finally changed the LEGO displays! Here's a cool ass dragon. Yes, it's made of lego.
Well, they changed most of it.. this guy's forever grinning from the water
Toy Story! Another awesome LEGO display.
Snow White (there were more LEGO displays inside too~)
I just thought this dinosaur was cool haha
Inside the dino store. It's like Rain Forest Cafe, 'cept... prettier *A* 
This was a gigantic store full of Disney merch. There were two other entrances but Stitch's was the best. If you stood there long enough, he'd spit on you, LOL
Blown glass hand made dragon
Blown glass hand made Beauty and the Beast rose
ICE CREAM that looked delicious, but we didn't get any :(
The next day, we went to UNIVERSAL'S ISLANDs OF ADVENTURE~ We spent both Sunday and Monday there~
Giant tower thing (Y)
Fantastic 4 Cafe
In the Spider Man ride


The entrance to the Dr. Seuss section
Live reading of the Lorax, with songs and dances by some of the Seuss characters
Entrance to Jurassic Park

Part of the Dinosaur display there
Poseidon's Mountain
Honeydukes in HP world
A not so great picture of the castle
The four houses of Hogwarts
The Sorting Hat!
The best meal I had all week
Butterbeer awesomeness xP If you ever go, get the frozen one, a billion times more tasty~
GIANT CHOCOLATE FROG
The old Weasley car
We rode basically every ride in Islands of Adventure except the water rides, mainly 'cause none of us wanted to get wet. We spent Monday, the sixth in HP world 'cause it was my sister's birthday and she probably loves Harry Potter more than I do. Islands of Adventure was a lot of fun and a lot of walking @_@

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we spent our time in Disney World. We went to MAGIC KINGDOM and HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS.

The magical tram that brings us into Magic Kingdom
Cinderella's Castle, ofc
I just found this entertaining LOL
Fast Pass. They let you into like a VIP line so you don't need to wait like 5 hours for a ride~
Alice in Wonderland shaped bushes
The Main Street Parade


Tigger looking joyfully annoyed LOL
IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL ride. Equally as annoying as I remember it.
Ariel on her ship
Beauty and the Beast's Castle (actually a restaurant)
Entrance to Magic Kingdom, night version (also the entrance's train station)
Hollywood Studio's centerpiece, Mickey's Wizard Hat!
Yup, that is Hannah Montana's multicoloured shed, haha (found in the prop house at Disney's HWS)
Darth Vader and a storm trooper 'cause why not
My kickass score on the Toy Story ride (I'm yellow !)
Entrance at Hollywood Studios, night version
 At night, we watched the Wishes show and the firework display in Magic Kingdom. The Wishes show basically went through every animated Disney movie and projected scenes and pictures onto Cinderella's castle. It was awesome to see, and the firework display was fantastic! The next day, we saw the FANTASMIC! show in Hollywood Studios, which was epic, though I wish they had had spotlights, but that's besides the point.

On Thursday, after a very lengthy and boring timeshare presentation, we went to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!

THE UNIVERSAL BALL
How to make a Minion
A dancing minion
A sign in the Spongebob store that I found entertaining
My loot! This is what I ended up taking home from the whole trip
Well, I ate the frog... It was delicious, haha. And my magic card was Salazar Slytherin
This sign confounded me the entire trip. I finally figured out it meant Pedestrian Crossing LOL
The airport hotel. THEY HAVE PALM TREES. IN THE AIRPORT.
My wonderful pins that I traded (and bought) throughout the trip, hehe~
A HP postcard ~
The trip was amazing and I loved every second of it~ I can't wait to go back again some day. Hopefully I'll be spending a little more time in Disney than Universal next time, but I really enjoyed the rides, the stores, and the parks. All in all, it was a great way to start a very monotonous summer break xD

-Alikiya