Purikura: Vandalism ( Rant )

Vandalism

Purikura machines can be found everywhere now. It's popularity is growing each and everyday. Having your photos taken at a Purikura machine is a great way to keep a special memory with our loved ones. We are to get to pose however silly as we like in the machine because we have our privacy, but some people abused this respect to the consumers and vandalize in the machine. 

As you can clearly tell in the photo, it's not pretty. I'm upset and very frustrated with what some people do with the poor Purikura machine. These names do sometimes appear in Purikura and I have to cover them up with sticker. Small matter? A cute little sticker can solve it so it's "no big deal"? I don't think so.

During my meet ups with Sara, I came to know that the people who are in charge of distributing the machines and the people who are taking care of the machines go through a lot of trouble to cleaning up the Purikura machines. Have you ever tried removing pen ink, marker ink, highlighters and liquid paper from cloth? It's what they have to put up with when vandalism occurs. It takes up time, effort and money to clean it. Sometimes they have to but new cloth to cover up the mess because the vandalism is that bad!

They say " The customers are always right " so does this mean it's their job to clean up your childish mess? Does it mean that it's your "right" to vandalize and spoil the fun for others?  As much as I love Purikura, I don't work for a Purikura company. I'm just as much of a customer, a consumer as anybody who pays to get their picture taken in there and I have the right to take photos in a clean booth just as anybody else. 

It upsets everyone to see vandalism ( your names ) appear in their pictures. Best friends my butt, I mean, seriously, who the hell is "Xiiao Lemon Luii" or "Ti Miq"? Oh wait, I know who she is, I found out. And if you, Miss Lemon, and the rest of your gang are reading this, you should know that the Purikura company knows who you are too. You have been leaving your names on a lot of Purikura machines and also links to your FaceBook profiles, shamelessly telling people to add you with a smiley. That's just all wrong. Your not the only ones who are doing this, online shops are leaving their links on the Purikura background too. Are you kidding me? Do you expect consumers to respect you for leaving your shop names like this? With vandalism? Even couples are doing it. I love you, you love me, let's show our love to the world and mark our territory here. If you love Purikura so much, just rent one for your wedding day. It's possible. I don't know who is Cheris and Joseph, Grape and Voon, Yii and Weng. Do you know these people? What are you thinking about? Write on your Purikura when it's time to edit. The mentality of some people. 

I know you had fun in the machine and you really wanted to cherish the moment, but scribbling your names at the background is not the way. I'm sure you know that you can edit and write your names on the Purikura right after the shooting is over. Write your name then. Your causing trouble to the workers and people who take Purikura.

Let's think about it this way:

Scenario 1:
I am a Purikura lover. I take Purikura almost every week. I get very excited when I see Purikura machines, but when I get in to face the camera, I see names of people I don;t want to know all over the place. In Malaysia, we call this feeling of sudden disappointment "potong steam". Alright, as unhappy as I am, I still take Purikura because I know that I can cover the vandalism with stickers when I edit the Purikura. Just because I didn't say anything ( up till now ) or complained to the people working there, doesn't mean that I'm fine with vandalism on things I love.

BUT

Scenario 2:

What if I am new to Purikura and I want to give it a shot. I go in the booth to make sure that I really want to try it, but I see all these scribbles. I am disgusted and I don't want these names behind my in my photos, so I change my mind, I don't try it out because I didn't know that I could edit the photos.

And like that, the Purikura company loses a potential customer. If the vandalism keeps up, someday, the shop keepers are going to be watching you pose in your "used-to-be" private time in the Purikura machine and I'm sure nobody would like that. The shopkeepers might get tired at a point too and stops stalking their customers and the vandalism will be right back up again. This is not true of course, it's just a possibility, but this is the truth and will happen: if vandalism still occurs, no one would take photos in the booths anymore, the company will lose income or lose faith in the people in the society and eventually pack their bags, there will be no more Purikura in Malaysia and above all IT'S YOUR FAULT!

So if you really love Purikura, think rationally, and please stop this non-sense. I speak on the behalf of everyone. It's public property and it's for entertainment. Vandalism is not at all entertaining and I think even you can relate to that.

Thank you for having your time to read this post. I hope that you can spread the word out about vandalism and share this post to hope that this comes to a stop. It's our right to have a clean environment to have fun. Let's restore the faith in Purikura in Malaysia together. Gambateh!

P.S. This is the second part of the post. It's an update after I have posted the first part publicly and tagged Xiiao Lemon Luii and Ti Miq on FaceBook.

Unhappy People

Haters gonna hate, but some people just don't want to admit their faults and want to take revenge in the dumbest ways. I went to Mid Vally MegaMall during Animax Carnival 2014. Of course, we took Purikura there. I saw my name appeared on the walls of MeroMero 2. It says Fuck you Angel Bling and Angel Bling + Someone I've never met ( in a heart ). This person or these people have problems. I tried to take a photo of the vandalism but it doesn't show in photos. Somebody tried to remove it ( Most likely, the staff of MollyFantasy or KAGA Amusement ).

I went to the Puirkura machine in 1 Utama and my name was there too. All big and fake with my name spelled wrong. Oh look, a fake signature. 

I didn't bother much about. All I did was to let the people from Kawaii Pix know all these new vandalism is not me. They knew who did it. I did too. But it was a childish act that they did so I didn't bother about them.  However, I'm guessing my name could be in Metro Prima and Berjaya Times Square too because the culprit has been there.

Who did this

If you actually bothered to click on the two names which were linked to FaceBook, You'd realise that Xiiao Lemon Luii's profile is unavailable. Well, she changed her account on FaceBook and is now Xiiao Lemon. She also has another account under the name of 韩筱慧 ( Xiiao Lemon ), which is her more commonly used account. She blocked me after I share this blog post on my FaceBook timeline and tagged her. But I had my ways of finding her. 

Ti Miq remains the same because 1. She's not even using her real photo on FaceBook. 2. Most likely she's a fake account of Lemon. Other than Ti Miq, I happen to come across a few of their friends who seem to know a thing or two about the vandalism. I'm not going to mention their names, but just to let them know, I know who they are. There is no hiding. Lemon tagged them in posts and I've seen these other people going into Purikura machines around town and taking selfies and photos of their Purikura. They posted it on FaceBook. 

Am I being fair to these innocent people? Is my way of thinking about this situation too much? What I know is that most people in Malaysia would talk to their friends about their problems. Especially shameless people and people who are very defensive. So imagine this:

Now, you take Purikura with your close friends and enjoy the times you've spent together. Then, you decide to share your happiness through vandalism. "So what? No biggie, everyone is doing it." was what you were thinking. One day, a random girl on the internet (me) tags you on FaceBook because you did vandalism in Purikura machines and says that you are wrong. What would you do? Think that this person (me) should mind her own business and go around writing her name? Would you go through this little revenge plan by yourself or with your friends? I know I'm being judgmental but this is my hypothesis. She would at least tell her friends or close friends if something like this happened. 

If Lemon, you didn't put my name everywhere, talk to me about it on FaceBook. You're more than welcome. And if the friends of Lemon or Ti Miq are reading this, let me ask you this "Why?" Why vandalize? And why not talk to me? If it's a language problem, I can communicate in Chinese with you. What you've done is unmoral and you should know that. I'm sure you've heard of 'moral'. The government made it a compulsory subject to study for SPM.

Call me mad for all this research or 'stalking' as you call it, but I want to know the truth of who did this and the answer's pointing towards Lemon now. I'm not asking for trouble but I'm posting because I have the right to know. So if you think I'm not going after this, you're dead wrong.