Kitchen Candy-Candy Princess

There's a manga that I recently read called Kitchen Princess.. It's a story about an orphaned girl who has the sense of taste that moved to Tokyo to fulfill her parents dream to become the best pastry chef. Her ability allows her to taste a food and always remember it forever along with identifying ingredients within it. The girl was soon acquainted herself with 2 attractive boys and becomes the school's talk because of her having such an "ordinary" talent --which they thought was eating.

This lead her to be bullied yet starting to have a closer bond with the 2 attractive boys which leads to even more bullying by a girl who secretly likes one of the boys she's close with. Of course, aside from her dream, she is secretly hoping to find this "flan prince" that saved her from drowning when she was younger.

For some reason, when I was reading this, I immediately thought of Candy-Candy. There were several similarities I noticed in both stories.

Candy-Candy

Najika

Hairstyle
This is just me nitpicking, but they both have blond pigtails. Though Candy-Candy's hair is curly, but.. the way it's tied, with ribbons on top, is similar.

Personality
"Different from other girls" and independent. Always want to make her friends smile. Cheerful, strong on the outside but is hurting on the inside.

Circumstances.
They're both orphaned since young. Living in a orphanage that is in the middle of nowhere with a nice old lady as the head of the orphanage with little children that thinks of her as the big sister.
Went to live in the city, and studied in a school of "rich" people, staying in its dormitory.

Romance

Candy's fake prince.

Are both looking for the "prince" who cheered them up when they were crying at a younger age. Najika's clue was a silver spoon, Candy-Candy's clue was a clothing accessories (that I dont know the english term of). They both found a guy that they thought was their prince and even fell in love with him and he with them.

Najika's fake prince

But he was actually not the prince, so the author killed him off in order for the girls to end up being with the actual prince, if she just moved hearts while he's alive she might be considered a slut, though killing them didn't really justify the idea.

Their destined loved ones, was not their first choice at first due to their first impression, (Najika's guy was cold and anti-her at the beginning, Candy's guy was a man that lived in the woods for so long he grew beard and could talk to animals.) They eventually changed and became a better gentleman before end up being with the girls.


I assume that the Kitchen Princess was somehow inspired by it or without realizing it wrote it similar to Candy-Candy because s/he once read the manga when s/he was younger.
There are a couple of differences, first of all, the book is about cooking which means competition and similar plot idea on several chapters.

The story had a nice idea, and I liked the titling of the chapters but soon it just gets tiring/annoying and it felt dragged so I skipped through a few chapters all the way till the end. The whole romance plot was easy to figure out. It's obvious who she'll end up being with and there was the overly used love square problem where, as usual, the main character always gets all the boys to like her.

Overall the drawing was well done, but I wouldn't continue buying Nakayoshi to keep reading it.. I'd rather just go online and read for free.. yet still think it wasted my time.

Mayzie Grobe, a Sims3 Song.

I always look forward to what Sims 3 expansion pack is going to be like. So far, I have the World Adventure, Ambitions, Late Night, and Pets; all of which are a fun addition to play. Recently, I found a new expansion pack that I like: Sims 3 Seasons. I didn't get to play this expansion pack back on Sims 2, but I sure like the idea of snow!

When looking for information about this expansion pack on wikia, I saw the trailer and they had a very very VERY catchy song playing as the main music. It was written in Simlish. It couldn't have been any more perfect than it was already is. It fits the theme so well and I find myself replaying it over and over again even as I'm writing this.

It actually took me awhile to realize that it was in Simlish, and soon I began to want to sing that song! So, at 5AM in the morning, I took my guitar and started recording. It went like this: strum strum, strum strum, strum strum for a couple of times.. I added in the vocals and had to go through the hard part: figuring out the lyrics.. dun dun duuun!

I tried googling it but didn't seem to find anything except the title which is "Mayzie Grobe" -- a totally awesome title! In the end I just used my headphones and listened to it closely..
I probably missed some "p" "b" "c" "k" and such.. but whatever..

This is the lyrics that I sang for the Mayzie Grobe song:
mayzie grobe, creypaaw (2x)
letsigo truplay
gon zebenay
mayzie grobe, creypaaw (2x)

neeve, menza neeve, nee vazoo bon ze zaycom
neen, zenza been, cobazy...o

mayzie grobe, creypaaw (2x)  
letsigo truplay
gon zibenay
mayzie grobe, creypaaw (5x)

I showed it to my dad and he told me to add some violins on it. I thought, why not? So I did.. and the end result is.. *drum rolls*

Dang, this song is catchy..

HM: A Fan of Fiction

Another post about Harvest Moon again?! Gasp! I must be into this lately!

... Which I am...

Since I joined the UNoT forum, I got pulled in to discussing more about the characters that I'm seeing in my Two Town game and I've fallen in love with them even more. Of course, there has been a lot of fan fiction done between the main characters and the different bacherlor/ettes available in the story. There are also those discussion about rival pairings. It's both fortunate and unfortunate that there is no rival marriage in this game so during these discussion, people are open to imagine their own pairs.

I even joined in and thought of some good pairings and why they were good with each other. However, there were more of the "who's your favorite bachelor/ette"discussion that made me think of how the "rivals" would feel when the main girl stole their love pair.

Soon enough I began to have ideas on a couple of pairings and I decided to try to write for my favorite bachelorette: Reina and who would better pair with her than Cam?

Because of this I made an account in fanfiction which was really the same deal with my current fictionpress profile and posted my first ever fanfiction! I decided to title it Dandelion because *spoiler alert!* that is the flower that will be a significant part of the story.

This is the summary of the story: Reina, the botanist, already accepted that no one would understand her passion for plants until she met Cam, the florist, and learned his passion for flowers. However, with the cheerful Lilian always hanging around Cam, will Reina have the chance to approach the quiet florist?

Something like that.. I'm having my friend work on the cover artwork for it. Hopefully I'll be able to post it when I finished with the next chapter.

Eek! I'm so excited!

Typical Manga Story

My sister is a manga collector.. or at least she has TONS of manga in our house and when I'm bored I ended up reading some of the books.. However, it seems like most of the books I chose to read at random has a similar story / character personality and ending..

1. Girl always gets the boy.
No matter how stupid / "ugly" / silly / mean / uninterested the girl is or no matter how anti-girl / uninterested / anti-social the guy is, the girl for whatever reason, always gets the guy.. No matter if the guy is engaged, or married.. somehow, the guy would end up falling for her.

If the guy is one of those loners, the girl would always "charm" the guy and be something different so that the guy will fall in love with her. Even if the guy is a common playboy and the girl is the exact opposite of his type, he would end up liking her and stop being playboy.

It comes to the point that the story becomes stupid that EVERY MALE CHARACTER falls in love with the main girl (if the story has multiple guy characters) even if the other guy was only pretending to be a rival.

2. Guys have stupid reasons not to be with her.
I once read a manga where the guy decides not to be with the main girl (that likes him so much she follows him around like a stalker yet it's considered sweet and cute because.. y'know it's a manga) because he wasn't able to "protect her". He came to that conclusion because she was kissed by another guy -- which was her own fault for wanting to follow him to a middle of an all boys dormitory -- and this, of course hurts the girl's heart etc.. and when confronted, he just said that he couldn't protect her and that she found another protector that is better than him (who is the guy that kissed her in the first place.) WTH!?

Usually, guys rejects the girl because they think they're not good enough for the girl.. it's a common reason.. which is stupid. If they think they're horrible then .. stop feeding her love soul and move away or something (which is probably a stupid solution but I was pretty pissed at the guy being all nice to the girl in the first place anyway). I mean, you never know if you're perfect for each other or not if you don't try, right? And it's not like good relationships means zero problems. Fighting is common in relationships, just learn how to deal with them properly.

3. The guy is always smart / hot / attractive.
Even if the main guy is a glasses nerd looking man, he'd be portrayed as a cute boy and would still get votes from girls. Unless it's a boy manga, I've never seen a chubby guy that gets chased around by lots of girl.. I mean, I've read a few short romance stories.. but then sometimes they end up being skinny in the end..
The girls are also pretty much skinny and proportional.. there are that are slightly chubby but not super obese and even if they are obese, they will try to diet.

4. Debts is cleared by engagement.
When the girl is deep in her debt, suddenly out of nowhere, she is now engaged to this rich young man and her debt is cleared! Sometimes she has no other choice, and sometimes her parents are the ones that insisted.. Of course the guy isn't interested in her because she's still a "kid" or not sexy enough to be taken advantage of.. and for some reason, this pisses off the girl because in the end, despite hating him, she'll fall in love with him. Surprise!

5. Overused personality.
Typically, the girl is always the bubbly type.. or she's a clutz.. often gets her skirt hiked up by the guy and gets all embarrassed yet she's cool about chasing the guy all around. Or the girl is quiet and gets misunderstood by the people but she's able to open up to this one guy and they end up falling in love, she gets stronger with his help and be more confident etc..

If the guy is bubbly, the girl is usually anti-social and the guy will drag her into doing silly things that'll open up her heart and make her see how fun the world can be..
If the guy is anti-social, it's somewhat the other way around.. and the guy will be paired with a clutz girl.

6. Over-reacting!
Girl characters often have stupid reasons to be heartbroken by their past.

They were rejected because they were ugly -- so they do a 180 personality and look change yet still scarred by the memory when she sees the rejecting guy..
They were double played by a playboy -- so they don't trust guys anymore, or they hurt guys and gets revenge.
They often misunderstood situation and end up thinking that the guy cheated on her / likes another girl just by seeing him walking with another girl. How shallow / stupid can they be?! Do they really not trust the guy that they'll run away and cry after seeing such a horrible scene. "Why is he together with that girl?" Well, she's his sister. Or they work together. Stop being stupid!

And sometimes they're not even together! She just has a crush on him so she gets heartbroken since all this time, she thinks he belongs to her. Well, no! You haven't confessed to him so why the hell do you think you're the only special one?
Of course, the guy will then clear up the whole mess and confess that he actually likes her too, etc, happy ending.

See, these overreacting is what caused people to kill themselves over a break-up or cheating bf/gf. It's not worth it and mangas aren't teaching any different. Nor movies. Nor media.


Overall, there are still a few good romance manga with an interesting plot: Kare Kano, Beyond the Blindfold, (and if you're into classic manga) Pop corn, etc. Some even have a fantasy theme to it like From Far Away.
With the price of manga going up compared to the old days, why isn't the quality of the stories increasing either? It seems a waste to buy a manga that has a predictable ending where the girl gets the guy.

HM: Pretty Umbrellas

Recently, I've been playing a lot of Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns for the DS console. It's not my first time dipping into the world of Harvest Moon because I've played 3 HM games before this current one. Several of the features that I've found new to myself includes:

• Half day weather change
• Alpaca
• Pets herding your animals for you.
• Dates and flower events (instead of heart)
• Moving between two towns.
• etc...

I think Harvest Moon has had rainy days before in the game but there hasn't ever been an umbrella usable in the game ... until the Two Towns!! Sure, in the end the umbrellas are pretty much useless. It's only useful to add points on how good of a farmer you are. I haven't played long enough to know if you'll get anything for the high points but.. there are different "farm" titles that you'll get throughout the game as you increase points.

There are a few umbrellas that you can buy. The local shop triplets sells them to you and each town has 2 different designs. However, there are other (prettier) umbrellas that I wish I could buy..

 

Jessica's own special umbrella.

 

Georgia's green with pink(?) stripe.



Laney, Rose and Grady have
white umbrella.

Cheryl's favorite "bought by Ash"
purple and white stripes umbrella.

These are the different umbrellas you'll see when you play Two Towns. It seems to be much more appealing in the picture than in the game itself.. maybe because I can't have them! Grass is greener on the other side... Well, I have a farm and you guys have.. stone floor..! So I bet you're jealous of my green grass! --says me to avoid heartache.

Meanwhile, the umbrellas that we're able to buy are these ones here:

Ash's umbrella. Similar to his

sister Cheryl.

Cam's blue with yellow stripe,
similar to Georgia's.

   



The two young children in Konohana.



 

There you have it, the different umbrellas available in Harvest Moon Two Towns. They're useless but ain't they a pretty sigh to see when you're walking around the town, with the faint rain noise filling your ears through your earphone.. Now I shall go back and play!

Tips Tips and More Tips!

Nope. I'm not about to give tips on anything when in fact I'm going to talk about those tips giving articles. I stumbled -- and by stumbling, I mean right on my face Yahoo! News article when I open my mail -- across a site that provides notes and tips on how to do things and I couldn’t help but check what people write in tips on dating. I read some of it and it just makes me laugh.

The tips would say something like: “Avoid putting too much food for you two to eat, it will make him think you’re an eating machine!” or “if you just developed the pimple on your nose, wear some make up so he doesn’t see it” and, the most frequent is “Make sure you do not smell offensive”

It seems like the people they’re trying to impress are that shallow. “Ew, you smell like garlic. I don’t like you.” or “I don’t want to see you again since you have that pimple.” How stupid/shallow could that person be? Somehow, those tips are making us feel self conscious that normally makes us uncomfortable. Having pimple is normal. It’s not a disease. It’s not something to be ashamed of. Pimple can happen from having oily skin and dusty areas but we can wash our face to help reduce that. But hormones also cause it and we can’t escape that.

Shouldn’t we look for a person who accept us for who we are and not cringe and the fact we have pimples? Or we have lots of snacks? Or we happen to like garlic-y food? If they do, that means they respect us and we should do the same. Do we stop liking someone just because they have too many pimples on their face, or because s/he forgot to put deodorant and has been sweating the whole day? Are we that shallow?

I do believe it’s nice to make a good first impression. But, wouldn’t that set a standard? We’re humans. It’s normal to have ups and downs during our life where we can be the most awesome humans and suddenly drops to the lowest creep. As long as there’s a balance, I think that’s still okay.

I’m not saying that it’s bad to want to be perfect all the time but aren’t you tired? (unless you’re a butler or someone who works under a royal/important people then you may want to keep things perfect)

How long would it take for someone to finally snap from having to keep things perfect and just want to slouch, slump on the sofa and say “I’m tired.” For those who doesn’t accept that attitude, what’s wrong with you? S/he’s not a robot. S/he can’t be perfect ALL the time. Give her/him some slack! Don’t be shallow.

Well, I just meant to write this because I want to share my opinion. I’ve seen movies and people that expect the best out of everyone all the time and sometimes I just want to say otherwise. This is the only way I can do it, I guess. So. Here’s my opinion ladies and gentlemen. It does not smell like garlic.