5th Anniversary Contest: ~Result~

... This is definitely later than it should be...
 Oops?

Hello all, and welcome back to my loverly blog! I hope that your January and beginning of February have thus far been fab and Idol-filled!
 And if they haven't (because certain Graduation Announcements were made, WAAAH!), then hey, let's hope March is a little better, aye? We can all dream, ahaha... waaaah!

ANYWHOO, given that it's been well over a Month since my 5th Anniversary Contest officially ended, I do believe it's high time to formally announce the winner and, basically, to settle your minds on whether or not I forgot about this contest.
 I didn't, seriously. It's just that a lot has been on my mind lately, from anxiety to work, to University and other things. Life is a hectic process, after all!

I also want to clarify that, with this contest and any other I may hold in the near future (I like holding them XD), I do ask for outside help with my judging process. This is to assure that I have more than one opinion on a piece, as well as to choose a suitable winner. Indeed, this is my blog, but asking for other peoples thoughts and views on potential winners helps me to feel a lot more confident in the decision process. It's how I work, and it also results in a fairer judging process.
 My other judges know who they are, so girlies, thank you for looking at what was sent, and for allowing me to make a sound decision! Love you <3

Furthermore, please understand that, whilst I would love to give everyone something for participating, I can't; I am one person who is also a student. A lot of my funds go on rent, food and basic living. So, for this contest, only one Winner has been chosen. I apologise.
 Again though, I hope to hold another contest, so be sure to watch out for that when it eventually happens!

Now... ONTO THE WINNER!!! 8U <3

Okay! Musume Time 5th Anniversary Contest: 'I Am An Idol Fan'

Howdy there, y'all! I think it's about time for something a little different, don't you?

Important information before diving into this post (may be repeated as you go through the post):

• The contest will run from November 22nd 2015 until January 3rd 2016. Entries past the end date will not be submitted.
• E-mail all entries or your questions to: OMTChiima15@gmx.com

It has been five years and a bit since I began this blog, and so I thought that, in order to celebrate not only hitting half a decade, but also a momentous 500,000 page views, I would finally hold another contest for those who read, comment on, support and like my blog.

So, whether you began reading or supporting this blog back in 2010 or you have just begun your venture into my whacky world of Idol love now, be assured, this is a contest for you.

Sadly, it must be noted that, as per every contest held by anyone within this world, there can only be one or two winners. This honestly breaks my heart, because rest assured, I would give everyone something if I could. Sadly, that is not to be );

Regardless of that however, I do wish for you all to give this contest your all, and to enjoy being a part of it, whether you win or not!

So, with all of that out of the way, let's get on to the details of the contest, shall we? Let's GO!!!

The Little Details

~Theme, Format and What It's All About~

So, what's the contest about? Well, if you look back two posts before this, you may just find a post titled 5 Years Here: I Am An Idol Blogger. If you have yet to read it, I highly suggest you do, because it is this very post that actually corresponds with the theme of this very contest.

So, yeah, go read it!

It's pretty simple, actually; for this contest, I would like all contestants to stick to one theme, and to really think about the topics question. The question is this:

"Why Am I An Idol Fan?"

The reason I have chosen this type of question for you to answer for my contest is this; I am interested as both a person and an Idol blogger as to what makes other people fans of something. I have always been intrigued as to why those around me are fans themselves, so I thought that for this contest, it would be wonderful to have you yourself think about just why you are an Idol fan, and what being an Idol fan means to you.

Regarding the format, I actually want to leave that up to you. As human beings, we all have these different ways of showing or communicating to others what we love, so you can actually go about this as you like.

Some examples of what formats you could use include:

• Poetry
• A blog post (must be public)
• A short essay (does not need to be public)
• A simple sentence or comment
• A short video (around 1~10 minutes long)
• Audio (Podcast, poetry reading, etc.)
• A picture with words (poems, sentences, words that describe your love for Idols, etc...)
• Fan art (with words)
• Short comic strips

There are an array of formats that you could choose to use, but these are just a few that I could think of off of the top of my head. Really though, as long as you can do it whilst sticking to the theme and using an acceptable format that I can see and/or hear, it should be fine.

Of course, with any contest I am sure to do, there is always the chance that I may post it or link to it on my blog (with full credit, of course), so if you feel shy of your work or do not wish for it to be shared, please let me know when you give in your entries.

It must be known, however, that when a winner is chosen for contest, their entry will be posted here for others to see.

The Rules and Requirements
~Yes, No, What?~

Of course with any contest, there are rules to abide by, so without further ado, here are the rules:

• ONE entry per person.
• Do NOT create multiple accounts in order to further your chance of winning - that's called cheating, as well as highly unfair to those who truly want to do their best.
• You can be of any age to enter this contest, however if you are under the age of 18, parental consent must be given. I do not wish for you to get into trouble from your parents for receiving CD's from some weird Blogger by the name of Chiima.
• Do NOT give in entries that contain explicit, indecent or harmful material / content.
• Try not to go into too much detail regarding personal experiences or details. This is for the sake of privacy.
• You can, however, give insight into who inspired you to become a fan, whether they are family members, friends, bloggers, youtubers or otherwise.
• Please do NOT comment your entry. Send via the email address that will be provided at the end of the post.
• Keep to the topic given.
• Hand in by the deadline. Entries past this point will not be accepted.
• Provide any links for crediting purposes (blog links, twitter, deviantart, websites etc...)

As well as rules, there are also these to go by, too:

Entry Requirements

• To title all contest entries with the subject line: Okay! Musume Time 5th Anniversary Contest - this is so that I do not mistake it for spam.
• Have a username or your real name.
• Write either in the title or entry post that it is a submission for the Okay! Musume Time 5th Anniversary Contest.
• Please use a valid e-mail address for the contest.
• To provide a valid shipment address and your real name for if you win this contest.
• To have parental consent if under the age of 18, and to state you have this consent in your entry to me.

With that said and done, please e-mail your entries to: OMTChiima15@gmx.com

The Prize?
~And the Deadline, too~

With all of the messy stuff out the way (the rules, the theme, etc), let's get onto the part that you all want to know about; The Prize itself.

For whoever wins this contest, I will purchase a CD single of your choice and ship it to you from CDJapan. The single of choice can be readily available, or it can be a pre-order. Any bonuses that it may with will also be yours.

The only thing to keep in mind when choosing your CD of divine choice, however, is this:

1. I will only purchase singles, not albums (this is due to the fact albums may go over a certain price, and result in handling fees) (They also expeeensive)
2. It must be a Regular Edition copy
3. Available to ship to your country
4. Still available to purchase (you never know, it could be discontinued!)
5. Not overly expensive (I'm not made of money, really!)

The choice is up to the winner, as I know my readers have their own tastes, and would love to choose for themselves as opposed to me choosing the prize for them. Honestly, as long as I can acquire a copy from CDJapan and so long as I can ship it to your country, I will buy it for you.

Postage and Packaging will also be payed for, so do not fret! I will also keep in contact with the winner in order to make sure their CD arrives safe and sound!

Also, the deadline?

The contest itself will run from November 22nd 2015 until January 3rd 2016. This gives contests just over a month to think up and write or create their entries. The plan was originally 2 weeks, but given it took me over 3 months to write my own post, this seems a little fairer.

Other Comments?

Aside from what has been said, there is nothing much left to say other than this; Have fun with it, and really think about what makes you a fan. Take inspiration from my post, or from other sources. Get creative, enjoy creating it, and love Idols as you do so!

If you have any questions regarding this contest, be sure to either comment via this blog post (no other), or by e-mailing me at the e-mail address provided here.

And of course, to everyone who enters, good luck!

Until next time, please stay happy, love Idols, and definitely think up an entry!

Lots of Love,

Chiima~

Okay! Musume Time's First Contest: Results!

Argh, this is the day that I ave seriously been dreading, for the pure fact that I am crap at choosing winners! I seriously want to have everyone win, I'm that sort of person, but alas it is not meant to be, as I am not made of money... Dx

Anyway, this is it! The contest results! The post where I reveal the winner of a CD of their choosing, Regular Edition only, as a part of my thank you to the readers who had all helped me to reach that amazing 50,000 views that I never thought I would reach! Seriously, everyone, thank you!

The judging itself was extremely hard, even with my sisters help, but in the end I (finally) decided on a winner, though the topic they did (out of the three given) which hepled them to win actually surprised me, because I didn't expect anyone to win under this specific topic. I will get into more detail in a little bit, so that you understand me a little more!

Anywhoo, I had better post the winner before I dither away into nothing and leave you all hanging, because yeah... you need to know, guys! So I'm sorry for keeping you hanging!

The winner of my 50,000 views contest is Phob, who entered a post on her Top 5 People and Top 5 songs, reviewing each of the songs she chose and giving her reasons for why she liked them.

So, Why? I really liked the review, and this is coming from someone who pays zero attention to four out of five of these singers. I am not a fan of any of them, to be honest, but this review was a great read. I was surprised by how much I liked it, actually! Even though I like girl groups, I was pretty engrossed in how much the writer liked these five singers, and I liked her reasons why too. She really captured the essence of the review and helped me to understand more about the singers and the songs she chose, and I became interested in them all.

Phob has a certain way of writing which is really interesting, and really caught my attention. She made me want to know more about these singers, and I wanted to listen to all the songs. She left a strong impression with her writing, which is why she is the winner of this contest.

Now, Why am I surprised a review won? Because I only received three reviews as entries, and honestly, I thought that a banner would win - but I was extremely impressed with how Phob expressed herself, and whilst there were other entries which were amazing and really caught my attention, this entry left the strongest impression on me.

And so, with the reasons written in black and white, congratulations to the winner! I will send you an e-mail shortly asking for your address and any other details for your prize! Please be ready and waiting~

But...

I actually have another winner, a runner-up actually, though admittedly, this prize will be smaller, a photo from eBay (because I know that they are a fair price there, unlike Hello Store USA which charges more shipping fee than it does for the actual product) of a member you like from a group in Hello! Project (or another Idol, if I can find them!). Anyway, the runner up is a banner this time, but seriously, it was a hard freakin' choice...

The decision for the runner-up prize was quite hard, because I had two banners that I really liked and wanted to win, but in the end my sister helped me to decide on this one, meaning that Ran-chan is the runner-up for this contest. The banner she created is extremely colourful, with shadows of the Morning Musume members in the background, as well as the girls themselves in the front. The most interesting part of the banner is definitely the writing though, it looks like it was hand-drawn, which must have taken some time itself. Ran-chan really did a great job on this banner, and the time and effort she spent on it really show., which is why I think that she deserves the runner-up prize.

I will send an e-mail to both winners, and will send their prizes as soon as I can. Keep an eye on your e-mail inbox's girls!

xoxox

And now, before I leave you all, I want to share with everyone the rest of the entries. I will start with the reviews I received:

I received two other reviews, the first by Meika, and the other by Magiko. Meika reviewed an Indies Idol unit called Candy Kiss, with a great amount of research and detail put into her review. I enjoyed her description of the group and song, and the time and effort she put into the review. It was a wonderful read, and introduced me to a new group! I always appreciate Indies Idol unit reviews, because it opens a fan to new and fresh girls we wouldn't know about because they really aren't that well known in Japan or overseas!

The second review by Magiko was on Morning Musume's recent single, One Two Three, and was a detailed look at not just the single, but also the covers, members and costumes. I enjoyed her review and how she was honest with her views on the single and the members themselves. For her first review, Magiko is quite the talented blogger, and I look forward to future reviews from her!

I will next reveal the entries for the drawings I received! There were only three entries, but I was really thankful that the girls (or boys?) put their time and effort into each of their drawings!

The first entry was from Momo, who drew this picture from the inspiration of Sayumi mothering the 10th generation members, with Haruka being the baby (who looks a tad grumpy? xD), Haruna being the older sister, and Ayumi holding a toddler who is Masaki. This picture is seriously cute, and I love the motherly theme of it! It really does seem like Sayumi has become a mother to the new members, eh...?

This was an entry from Phob, who drew a picture of Takahashi Ai. The drawing is pretty, and I like the detail that has gone into Ai's eyes and her hair, too. The style is quite anime-ish, and I really like that. Whilst I don't know if there is a background story to the picture at all, I can really see the effort that Phob put into the entry.

The last entry was by Meika, and it is a drawing of the darling Eripon! I was surprised to receive another drawing entry, actually, but I was happy to see Eripon in there, smiling away! The drawing is so cute, and I like the detail that went into her shirt. You can really see that it is Eripon, which my sister thought was good, and whilst this isn't the same anime style drawing like the other two, I think that this is a wonderful little drawing that must have taken some time to finish up!

And finally the banners. This was obviously the topic that most people chose because it is one which people do admittedly find easier to make. I had seven banner entries for this contest, and this was the toughest category to vote on. Even my sister had a hard time judging!

First off is Meika's banner, and I was absolutely amazed by the style she used for her entry. Meika created this manga-themed banner of all the Morning Musume members. Whilst the banner is quite simple, it must have taken a lot of time and effort to get the detail just right, and I really like the style of it. As someone who used to read manga daily, the concept is nostalgic and meaningful for me as well. This banner was the one that I had a hard time choosing between with Ran's. I really like this banner, so much that I wish I could give Meika a prize, but alas tis' not meant to be D;

Magiko-chan entered with this banner before her review, and I really fell for this banner. I loved the simple concept of it all I'm a sucker for simplicity, I admit and liked how she simply chose Haruna's eyes and nothing else. The font is also really eye-catching, as well as the overall texture of the banner. Magiko gave me something quite simple, but extremely pretty!

Momo entered with this banner - my beloved Koharu in all her glory! I absolutely adore Koharu, and I know that my readers know that, so to see a banner filled with her beauty was a wonderful surprise! I really like the dark and edgy style of the entire banner that Momo created, with writing that captured the look and feel of the background as well. Now, allow me to bow down to Koharu!!!

This banner is from Phob, who created it from my love for Lord Gaki-sama! I like how the banner itself looks like a news headline with the way the writing is styled and how the photo's are coloured differently, though my  little peeve of this banner was that the same picture was used throughout, though the way the images were coloured or set was different each time, with the centre picture keeping its size.

Time to fawn over Gaki-sama now~

Next up is Nia, who actually sent in more pictures than she should have, though my sister chose this one out of the ones Nia created. Nia has a certain love for the Creeper, Mayu Watanabe, and I like that she used an image from Otona Jelly Beans, adding sparkles and all that good stuff to it to give it more PAZAM! The picture is simple but really cute, and I like the added sparkles! Simplicity at its best!

The final banner actually comes as a little set! A banner and a background, and this is from Kioku-chan, who used the silhouettes of the Morning Musume members from One Two Three as well as another image of the girls to create her banner! I actually didn't see the silhouettes, but after seeing it fully, I came to really appreciate the effort and thought that was put into this banner. It looks simple, but there must have been a lot of work put into it! This banner was a serious contender for the winner, because the overall look and finish is really unique and different to the other banners.

Here is the background that comes with it, and honestly, this was what I was waiting for with the entries - for a banner (or in this case, a bg!) to include my little tag line, Winking Wota!, though no one really did put the tag line in until Kioku put it in, so thank you Kioku-chan for including it! This really did make me so happy!

And with that, all the entries have been shown! To everyone who entered, thank you so much! I really appreciate everything you guys gave me, and I am really sorry that I can't give everyone a prize! Hopefully I will hold another contest at some point, and hopefully you will all enter again!

To those who didn't win, I'm sorry! Please don't feel bad, or mad... or sad, because I hope there will be other oppurtunities for you all to enter another contest!

If you have an idea for what prize I could give out next time, how about a suggestion? I know some people prefer CD's, some DVD's and others photo sets or something. So, yeah... what could be a potential prize for y next potential contest? (100,000 views I think XD)

Anyway, congratulations to the winners! I will be in contact with you soon! :D

Chiima~

50,000 Views Contest!

I HIT 50,000 PAGEVIEWS! OMG Thank you SO so much T____T

I love this blog, I love writing on it and I really love it when I know that people like my posts - if they actually like my posts, that is.

So, of course I am incredibly happy that I have hit 50,000 page views! This is a major milestone for me. Whilst people may prefer considerably more views, I have never received so many page views for any of my blogs that I created - so to see that this blog has garnered this many views, it makes me incredibly happy and I just can't help but feel extremely proud of myself and the blog itself. I honestly never thought that I would have come this far, or gained so many incredible readers in the short nearly-2 year run that this blog has had.

I honestly wouldn't have gotten this far if it wasn't for the fantastic readers I have, as well as all the help Ray gives me with his Recommended Reading posts on Idolminded - ever since he started to post about my own posts, he has really helped me to gain viewers, and without him I probably wouldn't have hit this amazing amount of blog views today!

So, as a thank you to all of my readers and followers, I will be hosting my first contest on this blog to thank everyone, because everyone who reads my blog has made up the amount of views I have right now, and I really want to give something back to you all.

~It's Contest Time!~

This contest is for my readers! It is my way of thanking everyone who reads this blog and has helped me to get to 50,000 page views!

Prize

The Prize for this contest is a CD - it's actually up to you what CD you would like to purchase, as long as it is:

1) Regular Edition
2) Available to ship to your country
3) Not overly expensive (Hey, I'm not made of money!)

Originally, I planned to purchase the Regular Edition of One Two Three/The Matenrou Show and give it away for this contest, however as I have a diverse amount of readers, I know that not everyone would be happy with that - so I thought that freedom of choice would be the best option. However, if I was to narrow the prize down, I would choose these two singles as an option for the giveaway, providing they are in stock:

However, I would like to give everyone the option of what CD they want - but as I said, it needs to be a reasonable price for this contest.

Now, concerning the winner...

There will be ONE winner!

HOWEVER, if I find that there are two people deserving of the prize, there will be TWO winners. If I do just so happen to choose two winners, then the first prize winner will get to choose a CD of their choice, whilst the second place winner will be able to choose from a selection of CD's such as One Two Three/The Matenrou Show or Otome Senso. It depends on what is in stock, really >___<

The reason why there is the chance for two winners: My sister has said that if we find more than one winner, she will pay for the second prize. So there ya go ^3^

Okay, I had better get onto what you guys need to do in order to enter for the contest!

You have Three options to choose from for this contest - you can do one, two or all three of them, but only ONE ENTRY per category per person!

1. Create a Banner for my blog (cos I always change it so I wanna see what others can come up with)
2. Write a review for a song or music video you like
3. Draw a picture of your favourite MoMosu member or all of MoMusu!

Now, I would like to set out a rule or two for everyone to follow.

Rules:

1) If you are under 18, please ask for parental permission - I don't want your parents thinking that strangers are sending you random things and asking questions!

2) Do not use multiple accounts to send in entries! This is unfair to honest contestants who truly want to win something, so do not do it!

3) Send all your banner and picture entries to ChiimaTime@hotmail.co.uk with the subject title as [CONTEST] 50,000 Views. This is so that I don't mistake it for spam! If you are writing a review, send me a link to your blog through the comments or an e-mail~

4) This contest starts on 12th July 2012, and will end on the 12th August 2012 - so a month from now!

Also, you will need a username and valid e-mail address for the contest, and if you win, a valid address for shipment.

If you guys have any other questions regarding the contest, please feel free to comment and ask!

Good luck everyone, and thank you once again for helping me make it to 50,000 views! You don't even know how happy I am...

Btw, I am on 51,000 views since I hit to big 50,000. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Chiima~


PS Just so you know, I'm nervous cos I've never done a contest before D8