(FYI: that's not an "XP" that's an unhappy tongue-sticking-out face; see, XP)
Anyway, a few years ago I read a line in Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest that has stayed with me. It goes something like this: "the greatest weakness lies in unguarded strength." Well, this has, unfortunately proven itself to be true on more than one occasion.
Around Easter I was shopping at Pacific Mall/Market Village and was pleasantly surprised to find some Mashimaro stuffed animals on sale. Okay, overjoyed is more like it. At any rate, I ended up buying a big one for only $13.99. Now, if you've read my blog on pirated stuff, then you'll know that I don't agree with it. Considering that, I've made it a point to find out how to tell fakes from the real thing. The most obvious clue, I've always said, is price; if it's too good to be true, then it's probably not real.
Open mouth insert foot. I really should have known that finding a genuine one foot tall Mashimaro for less than $50.00 wouldn't happen. Not to mention, being in Pacific/Market Village, I should have been far more wary and less naive than I actually was. I mean, if they have fake cds, dvds, and even clothing, why not fake stuffed animals? What can I say, I was too confident in my ability to distinguish between fakes and the real thing, so I got punished. -_-;
So how did I finally clue into my error? Well I visited a friend, saw her Mashimaro, and commented the deal that I got, and she mentioned that it might be fake. Naturally, I was like, "d'oh." Shortly after my brother got me a little Mashimaro (the one with the plunger on his head =Þ) and I was almost positive that my deal was actually a rip off, or more accurately, a knock off. Then I ICQed my friend and gave her the description of the tag on my little one (she had done some "research" into how to tell the difference between real ones and fakes) and when she said that it sounded genuine, I knew that the one I had purchased was not, because the tag looked totally different. *sigh*
Plug of the Day: The Official Mashimaro Site: It's in Korean, of course, but it's still pretty easy to navigate. Click "episode" to view the Mashimaro (animation) shorts, and the third choice from the left is the download section, or something. You can also press the little clock on the bar partway down the page to access the sitemap, which'll give you some English descriptions.
Actually, if I had looked through the site earlier and seen the wallpapers, I would have been able to tell right off that the Mashimaros that I saw in Market Village were fakes, because the real ones look quite different. ^^;; Ah well, hindsight's always 20/20 right?
