Messed Up Matsuo Design Upgrade!

Hello guys! Tonight's post won't be about my experience with Big Bad Wolf Book Sale (Not yet at least). But it's to officially mention in my blog that I have finally changed the design of my blog to a much more clean and modern look with a hint of funkiness and craziness like the person that I am.

The beta design of this blog was all yucky and brown. Like mud. And unmentionables. Take a look

Now after much tweaking and dwelling in css, xhtml, and whatnot,  I present to you the official version 1.0 of the revived Messed Up Matsuo! (Which is nothing fancy, I just standardized the spacing, gave a new header page, repositioned the date, adjusted the alignment and added some more widgets!) Have a look:

Hope that this design upgrade will ease reader's reading experience and more of my personal updates are situated on the right-panel of the blog. For family, friends, art enthusiasts, and anyone out there, thank you so much for dropping by and I hope you guys have a super day!

Cheers,
Matsuo.

P/S: What do you guys think?

Big Bad Wolf is back!

That's right, the Big Bad Wolf book sale (BBWBS) is back! This year, there will be over 3 Million books on sale! I'm not talking about some 20% or even 50% discount here, it's the Big Bad Wolf! Books you buy for about RM100 or even RM200 outside will be around RM10 to RM30! That is such a huge price drop! Come over to Mines International Exhibition & Convention Centre (MIECC) from 7th - 23rd December to see it for yourself, or maybe pick up a book or two!

Click the image above to go to their main website to learn more!

As for myself, this is going to be my second year at BBWBooks and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna love it! Currently I'm pestering my friends and colleagues to come and join me at the event, Hope to have so much fun there!

Here are some pictures I found from Google from last year's BBWBS that might help you get in the mood. (Note: All images are grabbed from other sites, so click on respective image to go to the source!)

...I'll try and take pictures myself this year, I'll go around the place and take pictures for the blog. Thank you. And please do show your love and visit the sites I grabbed these images from. You're awesome. Thank You.

So what are you waiting for? They will be open from 6:30 AM Friday 7th December 2012 until the end of Sunday (That's 63 hours straight!) so for those nocturnals you will be able to come after your daylight sleeping. See you there!

click the image above to see a larger version of the map or see the video below if you can't read maps properly.

Cheers,

Matsuo. 

Disney: Stop using your children's characters to promote dangerous body images.

Dear SumOfUs.org -

In October of 2007, my 3.5 year-old daughter Celia was diagnosed with A.L.L. leukemia. Within four hours, she was in the hospital, being administered her first blood transfusion.

It was a painful three years on the path to recovery -- living out of the hospital through near death experiences, bone marrow biopsies, blood and platelet transfusions. The chemotherapy. The tears.

It’s almost indescribable how you feel, as a mother, seeing your child locked in a hospital ward, isolated from the rest of the world, in pain and simply hoping for survival. Overwhelming powerlessness doesn’t come close.

But through it all, Celia’s sense of wonderment and joy remained and her imagination kept her strong. She would take refuge in fantasy -- which helps when your immunity is so low you’re denied access to visitors or excursion from the hospital -- and in particular, specific Disney characters. Minnie was her undisputed favorite.

After every spinal tap, Celia would wake from sedation and demand old Disney tapes of Minnie and Mickey be put on. When she lost all her hair, she proudly wore the Minnie cap with ears like so many other kids. When she grew so huge from the life-saving steroids that she could barely walk, she would cling to Minnie Mouse.

After three years of treatment, Celia was cleared for travel, so we packed her chemo in an icebox and went to Disneyland. Wearing hospital masks with a little Minnie face on the front, she demanded we go meet her beloved characters, so she could give them gifts she had made them while in hospital. I was bursting with pride -- my little girl, with so much courage and more than a little help from Minnie made it through her fight with cancer and wanted to show her appreciation. The Disneyland workers in the costumes that day took me aside and explained that, while they weren’t supposed to talk to anyone, they couldn’t help but thank me -- it was the first time anyone had given them a gift before.

We still have pictures from that day everywhere around the house. And Minnie is still a big part of Celia’s life.

So when I saw the SumOfUs petition hit my inbox, it was personal. I was shocked, and thought, "what have they done to her?!" I cannot imagine what impact seeing a drastically smaller Minnie Mouse would have done to Celia's self-esteem as she battled cancer. When Celia saw the image, she burst into tears and asked if Minnie was sick like she was.

Minnie is simply not a skinny character. And when massive corporations like Barneys and Disney get together to manipulate a character in that way, preying on the love and trust children have invested in that character, they're trading real and lasting damage for a quick marketing hit.

When I tried to explain, Celia was angry, and argued that Minnie doesn’t belong to adults -- she belongs to children. I think Celia’s right. I think what Barneys and Disney have done is cynical and malicious and abuses the image of a wholesome, beloved character. And I’m proud to be standing up against it.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story,

Risa

Source: SumOfUs.org

I personally believe that the girl has a point, and I'm helping to spread the words. Though I do believe everyone should be creative and fashion, (of all industry) feels the need to potray everything as skinny as possible (I could only imagine that size S is the cheapest to produce hence the need-to-be-skinny gimmick) but there should be a fine line between "that's okay" and "that's enough". And this campaign between Barney and Disney is just a little bit over the "oh no you didn't" line. Help raise the awareness and sign the petition here. At least do good today as tomorrow others would do good to you.

Cheers,
Matsuo.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Nikola Tesla

source: The Oatmeal

Uhuh. Uhuh. Don't you wish he's still alive by now?

Ellen's Tearjerker; Be kind to one another.

These couple of videos made me felt like there's a group of ninjas cutting up a batch of onions in front of my eyes. I was really inspired, and these videos proved it that we're supposed to do more good. And like Ellen DeGeneres said it herself, be kind to one another. I approve. Enjoy!

And I decided to post more of these videos in the future just to help my blog readers in general to see the importance of being kind and spreading happiness to others. Zappos call it the 'wow effect', Oprah call it the 'a-ha moment', Disneyland made their motto "the happiest place on earth" (and owning up to that slogan too!) all to seek happiness.

Cheers!

Messed Up Art Dump #001 Pokémon Fan Arts

To start off my morning I decided to share with everyone artworks that I've made between September - October 2012. Please enjoy.

Pokemon is a Copyrighted Trademark of Nintendo and Game Freak
Fan Art & Art by yours truly

Please enjoy!

Shell and Lego brings the Ferrari models. Now available in Malaysia!

Shell has teamed up with Lego to bring the Ferrari models into their store! This is a very rare occasion and as a biker I have no way to pump RM40 of petrol into anything. Hahaha. But I can still dream of owning it right? Anyone care to help me out here?

Lego fans, what are you waiting for? They even pack it so it looks like a standard Lego packaging in a polybag! Whoot! Definitely a must for all Lego enthusiast.