I found a nice meme from kamika's blog!

Year in Review Meme

Take the first sentence (or two) from the first post of each month of 2008. That's your year in review.

January 1st

I met up with my primary school friends today!

Oh yes, I remember having meet-ups with Shahirah and Delfina and Yusrina and Mateen and eating at Fig and Olive. And I also went to Shahirah's birthday party. Qiaonan will always be a sweet, sweet memory.

February 1st

Sometimes I think I'm so psychologically damaged, it's not funny.

Oh man, my emo-ness. I remember how I'd posted that after a very random outburst, where I kind of cried at my parents. I think it was about being pressurized to do everything well. And then when I reflected, I kind of boggled at my own nuttiness and volcano-like outbursts.

March 6th

C++ midterm. ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE.

HAHA. My crazy computing modules. It's amazing I've survived them.

April 6th

I want to make this entry the last one in a long time. Cause I have to stay away and study.

I had a bit of a blogging hiatus back in Sem 1. I think I felt a little suffocated by the knowledge that people I don't know were possibly reading my blog, so I wanted to take a break and continue writing in private, without inhibition. Creativity cannot work under pressure. Eheh.

May 2nd

Nothing imprisons oneself like the exam period.

I was still having exams, but they were ending. My life centers around school. As it should, I suppose?

June 1st

This morning, my dad had a strange mood swing and burst into our rooms at 8.30 with a wide smile and announced that we were going out for a day excursion.

Random outings with family have always been a clear feature in my life. I'm happy for it. :)

July 2nd

SLEEEEEPY. -_-

I was in the middle of my internship thing at IBN. And had to wake up early every morning. Heh.

August 8th

photos! from escape2008 (:

The short chalet stayover we had at Downtown East. 'Twas fun.

September 1st

It's the fourth week of sem. And things are approaching a lull.

Deep into schoolwork again. I'm a boring person, am I not? How depressing. A large part of me wants to go on adventures around the world, I assure you, but just... no means, and all the wrong circumstances.

October 3rd

SELAMAT HARI RAYA!!! :)

This raya was no better than the previous ones because I was so bogged down by work that could only afford 2 and a half days of raya celebrations.

November 1st

Oh dear. Where did October go. I've been getting lazier and lazier to update this place.

I think I always just get lazy to blog during school semesters or stg... cause there's nothing truly interesting happening?

December 1st

Today's math stats paper was keeerrrraaazzy.

Exams again. Wow. BORING LIFE, MUCH? Haha.

~~~

Am off to Cik An's place for a farewell-cum-new-year party in a while. So... Happy New Year! To a beautiful (and less boring?) 2009!

Talking to Eunice online and we're discussing the sad state of world affairs. And I've been driven to tears because, my goodness, if we only let ourselves learn about the devastating truth of things, we will discover much to be shameful about, and much to be angry about. Eunice gave me something to read.

Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth and Politics

Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn't know it.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

Like I said to Eunice, we need a Batman of the world; someone, or some force, to clean up the streets of Earth from the hypocritical figures of power, and restore some dignity to humanity. I keep feeling like faith in Obama will be futile - because campaign speeches are always that: campaign speeches. Will Guantanamo Bay finally be shut down, for instance? Do you believe it? And Obama is no superhero with extraordinary abilities. He is still a man, who will no doubt be tied down by the never-ending evil forces I believe reside in the White House, and his scruples will be powerless, should he truly be an honourable man. I should have some faith, eh?

This kind of makes me realise why I love hero novels or stories very much. We all love the honourable dude who stands up for truth and justice, no matter the cost to his self. I've been reading my Sano Ichiro series, as usual; how horribly corrupt the bakufu, the samurai military government is, but how Sano constantly tries to embody true honour as much as possible despite threats to his family and existence. I want to believe that positions of power are still occupied by such persons. Too much to ask, maybe? :S Or is it a definite, that absolute power corrupts absolutely?

Whatever it is, I think, as we both discussed, we should first cure ourselves of ignorance. Let's not be mindless people, I say. It's the first step to constructive action.

Something else: A CNN documentary on genocide, titled Scream Bloody Murder.

My next entry won't be a depressing one, I hope.

Exam results have been released. CAP has officially stagnated, I think. It hasn't been dropping much at all for the past few semesters, but I haven't successfully raised it either, like I've been meaning too. :( Am fighting the rain cloud hovering over my head. I want to keep fighting for a CAP raise in the next semester! MUST NOT GIVE UP.

---

Yesterday, I went to watch the movie, Ip Man, with family. AND IT WAS AWESOME, AMAZING AND AWE-INSPIRING. I am so getting the DVD.

First, a little of synopsis:

Ip Man was the teacher of the famous Bruce Lee, and the master of the now world-renowned Wing Chun martial arts. The story revolves around his life during the World War II era and how he came to embrace his destiny as a martial arts teacher. Ip Man was initially content to practise on his own and not to take any disciples, but what he came to face during the war made him realise that he could do a lot more to help others.

The Wing Chun was just freaking AMAZING. AMAZING!!! I've always said that I appreciate well-done action movies - this one just takes the cake. This one rates number one on my list right now. Donnie Yen pulled off a wonderfully charismatic persona -- the can-melt-your-heart-with-his-honour kind of hero. And when he does his fighting duels: I just want to wow and wow constantly. We were wincing and screaming during the fight scenes, I tell you. Just beautiful.

FIVE STARS, I say!

This is so funny! XD A KAT-TUN commercial for LOTTE candy:



HAHA. You know how their initials make up the group name, right... Making someone be the hyphen was fantastic. >.< Seriously, JE has such crazy group names.

BACK! At first I was going to type a full, chronological written account of the Japan trip, but I figured that I already have enough on my plate with the photo album and video project. So I figured I'll work on those first and when I'm done with my video, I'll post it up here! And if I have time, I'll supplement it with random postings where appropriate. :)

But briefly: Jap trip was memorable, enjoyable and I was depressed the day we had to leave Tokyo. Japan is definitely one of my favourite places in the world, and I hope I'm saying this free of my JE bias. It really is one of the cleanest places, firstly. The public toilets are unbeatably superb. They're almost always spotlessly clean, no matter the location of the toilets or the number of people to have utilised it. Not to mention the amazingly clean streets too. What's with Singapore constantly trumping its clean streets? Japan has very clean streets too what. It's no big deal, if you want to compare cleanliness with Japan.

And the people!!! Nyah. I love them. The typical salesperson is one of the nicest anywhere in the world. Politeness and respect always take priority, and the never-ceasing greetings of 'Irrashaimase!' in shops always make me smile. And generally, people go the extra mile for service. It is so heartening. I don't know if I'm exaggerating, but there's this underlying spirit of 'Ganbatte!' and putting one's best foot forward at all times.

Human traffic is the scariest thing in Japan. Osaka Station was a freaking nightmare to walk through. The crowd comes from all directions and heads in all directions as well. I always felt like screaming when I walked past the ticket gantries and people in dark coats rushed out in intimidating purposeful strides, while poor tourists like us weathered our way through. Not to mention the confusing train lines. No English some more. Made us go wonky at times. But we survived. And figured things out. I wasn't that difficult, really.

Mount Fuji was gorgeous x 1000000000. We stopped at only the first station, but we got to walk into the edge of snow-covered forest, so it was awesome anyway.

Here are a few photos:





And then of course, coming across JE posters and merchandise was fun. :P And did I say Maki was everywhere? Haha. She's awesome. Her adverts were big and plastered on buildings - in Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Ginza etc. Then we found a life-size cardboard Maki and took a photo with her! :P


We went to HMV later and found an entire shelf of Johnny's! And we got NEWS' Color, which was cheaper by about S$18. We also got a Potato mag, just because.


And then in Asakusa St, we found a mini-idol shop! @.@ Complete with posters, keychains and uchiwas. We were so tempted to buy a Yamapi uchiwa but then decided against it at the time, thinking we'd find more in Harajuku, but we didn't get them in Harajuku either! REGRET, I tell you. Anyway, how I spotted the shop was cause the exterior of the tiny shop was hung with like a mini-Yamada-shrine. :D I exclaimed, "Oh my god! It's Yamada!" See that whole hanging wall of photos, next to my sister? They're all Yamada, or Yamada with HeySayJUMP photos. It is scary when you think that this kid is only 15.


Okay, I'll end here for now. And a peek at our Japanese lunch at Mt Fuji:

Today was spent alternately eating and spazzing and nothing else. Went out early to meet Yu Jie in Bugis, and we went to get swiss rolls and puffs from Kandahar St, just because. Then we had supposedly a "small" lunch at Banquet@Raffles Hospital. I had Wanton Mee and Yu Jie had Yong Tau Fu.

(NB: I am influenced by Pi and am therefore recounting my food experiences. :P)

After that, Yu Jie insisted I try Jap dessert, so we went to Ministry of Food, and I tried the Mango Sundae. AWESOME MUCH? It's one of the yummiest desserts I've ever had. And I showed her my sketchy Jap trip itinerary. And how I can't decide between Ginza or Roppongi on the last day.

After dessert, we went to buy my DV cassette tapes and then went for coffee and tea at TCC. (I had my hazelnut latte again and Yu Jie had the Special Breakfast Tea.) And we sat with my laptop for at least three hours, spazzing. I think the TCC staff were kind of, "Are these two girls nuts, sitting here for so long, laughing at their computer screen???" Mostly, I made Yu Jie endure my yamaki-biased rant (how Yamapi looked so happy during Kurosagi times and can they please get together already or at least make Kurosagi Season 2!) and we gushed about Tomapi and like how their friendship is awesome. And then digressed a little bit into the gossip of non-idol people and did you know that so-and-so used to be quite unbearably infatuated with so-and-so but now it's so over? Haha. It was fun.

Then we started playing Facebook games. XD Madness. I got Yu Jie hooked onto Word Challenge. It's crazy addictive.

That was Duckie's obsession surfacing into her word game. HAHA.

ANYWAY: I am leaving for my Japan trip tomorrow! So won't be around from 12th to 19th Dec. :) See you when I get back!

We did a birthday slideshow for my mum! :D Much fun this was.



Also: Tegoshi was on Arashi's show!!! I almost fell over in unbridled happiness when I came across the youtube vid. >.< Here. I have started to love Arashi a lot more now. Like a lot. The part of me still in love with NEWS is half-afraid that Arashi might take over. :s BUT NO. NEWS still takes precedence, I think. Ahak. Because when sis and me went shopping (for mummy's present) today and stopped by comic con, finding NEWS pics gave me jolts of excitement, but Arashi pics had less of an effect. Haha. But really. I am loyal like that - NEWS shall always be THE Johnny's group for me. :)

Three separate entries in one day! Eheh. I just have much to say, I guess, and multiple fandoms to give attention to. :P

Speaking of which, finally started on my Supernatural Season 3 DVDs, and I MISS DEAN <3. And Sam. And Bobby. And gosh, I love Supes. It is funny. And awesome.

So anyway, have been going out every day since exams ended. And yesterday, met up with Eunice and Yujie, spending the entire day randomly spazzing over JE (sorry, Eunice... :P) and trashing out stuff and talking about every other thing, and getting The Tales of Beedle The Bard:

I'm almost done with it. And just reading the first few pages gave me a feeling of nostalgia so strong, I was compelled to pick up Philosopher's Stone on the spot to start rereading the entire HP series. But rereading Lymond is enough to handle at the moment, I think. Not to mention the thousands other things I supposedly want to do this December break. You know what, I realise I have a crazy number of fandoms :D and I like it this way.

Later on in the day, the three of us wanted to get dessert and we were going out of Borders and I saw some dudes dressed in yellow robes drinking Ice Blended Coffee at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

Me: Are those monks?
Yu Jie: No lah, I think they're llamas.

Okay, I suppose it doesn't sound funny at all now, but I was bursting into laughter when Duck said that! Because yes, although she meant lamas as in the term given to 'Tibetan teachers of Dharma', upon hearing, I took it that she meant the clippity-clop-hairy-animal llamas and proceeded to laugh uncontrollably all the way to Cedele (where we had pancakes with ice cream). Can you try to see the funny in this? I saw two men, asking if they are monks by way of profession, and Yu Jie replies, that, no, they're furry four-legged animals instead! XD

So anyway, the difference between lamas and monks is that a monk can be a lama but a lama cannot be a monk, as in a square can be a rectangle but a rectangle cannot be a square. :P Okay, I'm being deliberately silly. Basically, the wikipedia link up there says that lamas are special Tibetan monks, who have attained higher levels of spirituality. The Dalai Lama is but one of many possible lamas. So yes, dear Yu Jie, you're right, they could be lamas. But they're definitely monks. I win!

LYMOND SPAZ (There are major spoilers ahead, if you care.)

So. I had like 2 and a half hours of sleep last night because I was reading Lymond. At first, I was reading Ringed Castle. About a quarter way through, I reached the Lymond/Guzel part, which kind of blew me away (although, yes, it's not like it's the first time I'm reading this). I remember saying to myself: Nobody can write sex like Dunnett. Haha, really. I mean, how can it seem like such beautiful prose and at the same time, be so... nyeeah, there's no other word - erotic?

Here's part of it (the paragraph before this, although written beautifully as well, was more explicit and uh... this blog was never meant to go beyond PG-13, so am excluding that):

Her needs over the years had become complex. Her passions, over the years, had found such force that one fulfillment could hardly assuage them. Couch to cushion to carpet became soft and desperate stations, moving from urging to torment to investment once again. And with an odd, detached insight, giving and withholding, exciting and loitering, he knew how to find her appetite, and force it into violence and withstand it without mercy, until she was aware of nothing in the world but her famine. And then of nothing in the world but the exquisite act which occluded it. And towards dawn hunger, fed and fed, at last allowed her to lie dispossessed in dreaming calm, satisfied.

So after reading that, I was like this @_@ and I felt a crazy impulse to just get to the Lymond/Philippa parts instead. Because hello, Lymond/Philippa is the ultimate fictional OTP. HANDS DOWN. And their love is heart-wrenching and beautiful and inspiring and ohmygod, I was desperate for beautiful quotes about their love! So, then I started flipping the pages of Ringed Castle speedily, stopping only when Lymond's and Philippa's names were spotted within a page of each other and scanning for the good parts and devouring them.

And when I reached the last page of Ringed Castle, I still wasn't satisfied and so I traipsed down to the bookshelves at 4 am to get the next volume - Checkmate - and continue my quest for Lymond/Philippa. My eyes were almost burning from tiredness actually, but I was caught in some crazy OTP fever or something and couldn't stop. And oh god, Checkmate is awesome for the love quotes. When I read the part where Philippa realises she loves Lymond but cannot dream of being with him (thinking he loves Guzel, and his adamancy about returning to Russia, among one million other reasons), I wanted to cry. It was heartbreaking.

Subconsciously, she had divined what he might be. That night, turned upon herself and not outward to others, the elements of his identity had been delivered to her, served upon gold, as the bread and meat and wine of a festival.

For an hour, blended with all she could offer, something noble had been created which had nothing to do with the physical world. And from the turn of his throat, the warmth of his hair, the strong, slender sinews of the hands, something further; which had. Though she combed the earth and searched through the smoke of the galaxies there was no being she wanted but this, who was not and should not be for Philippa Somerville.

Backtracking to Ringed Castle: Lymond's falling in love with Philippa is even more precious. Because he'd been so horrid to her, in my opinion (haha, I was already rooting for them and I love Philippa to bits), when he fell in love with her, I was like, 'HAH! Serve you right! You love her, now whatchoo gonna do!' XD I love how he thought he was completely invulnerable against such fluffy emotions, so that when love happened, he was utterly shocked with himself. Fantastic. Here's the part where Philippa gets knocked unconscious at the House of Revels and Lymond had to bring her back to Lady Dormer's.

He looked at her. The long, brown hair; the pure skin of youth; the closed brown eyes, their lashes artfully stained; the obstinate chin; the definite nose, its nostrils curled. The lips, lightly tinted, and the corners deepened, even sleeping, with the remembrance of sardonic joy... The soft, severe lips.

And deep within him, missing its accustomed tread, his heart paused and gave one single stroke, as if on an anvil.

And to finish, the best ever line to substitute 'and they lived happily ever after':

'We have reached the open sea, with some charts; and the firmament.'

Doesn't that simple line just describe the boundless future for Lymond and Philippa at the end of the series? Oh, Dunnett, you genius and gift to the literary world. I am in constant awe of you.

NEWS RANT

Oh mannnn. There is rumour that Kusano might come back to join NEWS. The wonderful 6-membered group dynamic will be disrupted! :( NOOOO. I AM SAD. Please don't disturb the wonderful balance anymore, Johnny! NEWS is at a good place now: Yamapi has always had Ryo, TegoMass forever and KoyaShige best friends for life. You add Kusano in and then... what? Please please please don't. I think the six that have stayed together have achieved a level of camaraderie that is separate from what NEWS used to be. D: Please don't destroy this. Okay fine, I learnt to love NEWS without Uchi and Kusano, so I'm a little biased. But my argument is still sound.

ALL PAPERS DONE!!! :D Oh, sweet freedom. I think I like myself best at moments like this. Because I'm all promises and plans of great and ambitious projects. My videos. My language studies. My book reading. My cleaning. Etc. :)

Also, my cousin has given birth to her daughter! She shares the same birthday as Duckie (who has also come back home). Yay. Happy times.

Today's math stats paper was keeerrrraaazzy. Like seriously, mad. Okay, I suppose it's my not having grasped the concepts better and having like almost zero practice that screwed me, but omg, I BLANKED OUT so much. When I reached question 2, I was like this: @_@ and going, "Eh, I should know this, why don't I know this, how do I do this..." And five helpsheets were no help, man. I was just getting confused everywhere. And then I skipped question 2 to go to question 3, and in restrospect, I think I shouldn't have done that, because at the last minutes when I scrambled back to question 2, it seemed somehow doable, if only I'd invested the time. And when I reached question 3 and it was equally stumping, I had to tell myself, "Okay Shamiah, no panicking and running away from this question. Just squeeze your brain and do this. DO THIS OR DIE." And so I spent nearly like 50 minutes making sure I got question 3 right. Then I went to question 4 and started panicking again because frak, why does it look so complicated??? And the thing about math is that you just cannot do it when you're not calm and thinking, so question 4 was only partially done before I started panicking again and looking at the clock and flipping back to question 2 and wondering if I could pass the exam with the questions I'd managed to complete. I think I did complete enough to scrape a passing grade (provided I didn't do something stupid or overlook anything), which means that overall, the best I can hope for for this module is a B grade. -_- But then again, miracles can happen, so... maybe a B+? HAH. XD I've always been a dreamer.

So now, I still have biophysics. Which is an insane module. Whose concepts are like misty white vapours in my brain. (Something about three-dimensional random walks, and movement across membranes and pressure and the activation of nerves?) The only consolation is that it's open book. So Allah and Rasul help me tomorrow. SOMEHOW. I can do this. I can do this. GANBATTE.

Thinking about the Mumbai attacks can cause severe depression, I think. I just. DDDDD: am utterly sad. And disappointed. And angry. And just D: x 100000. I think the rest of us need to be told, "Ganbatte!" That we can survive this somehow. That it'll be better someday.

Database exam was okay. But I realise I still don't really really get the point of relational calculus and relational algebra. :s It muddles me. I really want to try learning mySQL, apache and PHP by myself this break. Just cause. It'd be cool to be able to create my own database system. And yes, I suppose it'd be handy for honours project, if it crops up or stg.

On happier things: Tego and Maki are apparently really really going to appear together in a movie!!! XD Yaayyyy. Source here. The movie is an adaptation of the English novel, "Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac" by Gabrielle Zevin and directed by Hollywood filmmaker Hans Canosa. News were all rife about Matsuyama Kenichi (L from Death Note) and Horikita Maki co-starring again... but how could they not mention Tegoshi earlier??? Wouldn't he just bring more anticipation for the movie? Haha. Tegoshi is apparently going to play the nerdy best friend? Not sure. This movie has now become a must-see for me. Think I might go get the book too! :D YAY. BORDERS shopping spree, Eunice? I already have three books on my reading list this break! -- The Fire Kimono, Tales of Beedle the Bard (!!!) and this one.

Maki's JE infiltration continues. Haha. Oh GOD. You know what we would love??? A TegoMaki photoshoot! Then we can perhaps confirm the wholeTego-looks-like-Maki-and-vice-versa issue. gosh. A field-day for fandom. XD I would so buy the mag even if I dont understand a word of it.

Computing Paper (on Database Systems) tomorrow. It is amazing that I'm actually hoping for my computing module to save me this semester. Another of the ironies of life. Need to just study a little bit more on the relational calculus and relational algebra... and how to decompose relational schema into BCNF. :S Oh please please let me do well enough in this one to compensate for what sucks in the rest.

Also, I am infinitely glad that there are only a few days or so left in this week of cooped-up-in-the-house-cause-of-exams business. Because the number of distractions are just piling up! Nyeeah. For one, I'm realizing that it's only about two weeks left to my holiday trip and I haven't done the shopping and hair-cutting that I've been meaning to get done before I leave! And of course, NEW SHOES. Cause right now, the only usable shoes I have are a pair of golden-coloured heels and my tattered sandals.

Not to mention, my typical list of things-I-want-to-do-after-exams-end have been sitting on my desktop, tempting me like crazy. Can't wait!

And have I mentioned my brother's new PS3 plugged into our TV??? DISTRACTION x 1000, thanks. We can connect to the net and play streaming sites on it! Sis tested youtube and veoh and even mysoju already!!! XD oh the wonders of technology.

Been watching Innocent Love and Scrap Teacher slowly. I'm leaving Ryuusei out for the moment because I know that one will want to make me keep watching non-stop or stg. Innocent Love is slow but not uninteresting. Scrap Teacher is, I think, actually a rather ridiculous story with a very unrealistic premise -- a school on the verge on shutdown gets saved from the inside by three mysterious transfer students. But I watch anyway because it has laugh-out-loud funny moments that make it worth it somehow. And of course, I watch cause of HSJ and Yamada and Yuto. XD

WHY IS YAMADA ONLY 15?!?!?! I AM IN DENIAL. My brother and sister were like, "Can you please stop! You will go to jail. No, to hell." XD But seriously. How can he only be 15 and look so... like that!!! TOO MUCH PRETTY. GROW UP FASTER, PLEASE. So it would actually be legal and normal for me to spaz about you.

I don't know why I'm doing this. I don't know why I'm awake at such an ungodly hour - 2 am - during the supposed exam week, for god's sake. And it's not like I'm watching a drama or reading nice fics (although I did find a good one... that turned SLASH into the third chapter, so I had to bail out. -_-") or keeping myself otherwise obsessed. I'm simply refusing to sleep and staying awake wiki-ing silly things like Hokkaido (or Ezogashima as it used to be called in 17th-Century Japan) and googling blogs for yamapi, maki, kurosagi, myself and now Lymond. (I recently discovered the wonders of google blogsearch. I concede; google rocks.)

LYMOND PIMP POST (Click here to know more about Lymond.)

It is such a wonder to read about other Lymond fans. Because Lymond is such an inaccessible book for people who can't endure small font, 500-page novels, incomprehensible references and dialogue riddled with French and Spanish, Lymond is always understated. I always feel like nobody knows it enough when dang it, it should be acknowledged as one of the best book series ever created, alongside the likes of HP. Actually, I don't think they're even comparable because they're not all alike in genre, nor in intensity. While Rowling awes people with the over decade-long research she invested to create the world of wizards and muggles, her work still seems dwarfed to what I know Dunnett went through to create Lymond. Dunnett lived in the age of typewriters, before the advent of the internet, and she kept stacks of notes about Lymond and had over 500 books in a private library for research (correct me if I'm wrong). I mean, Dunnett travelled to Turkey to visit the Topkapi palace for her book! Talk about dedication. Talk about authenticity. Talk about the creation of an absolute masterpiece. Her work is inspiring. And we're not talking about a fantasy genre here --- this is historical fiction; one of the toughest genres to succeed in, I think. Because while you want to create an exciting story, you still have to stay true to history. It is no mean feat.

I don't think there's any other work of fiction I reserve such reverence for. While I love HP to bits, it doesn't quite give me the same feeling of awe. And while HP's world is rich and beautifully detailed, nothing can compare to the feeling of anticipation of rereading the complicated series that is the Lymond Chronicles. Yes, rereading. Because the story is so complex and so deeply intricate, that there are still layers of secrets yet to be understood by readers. Every new read offers a new experience, a new level of understanding and new insight. It is that fascinating. AND MY - the political intrigue. Droolworthy. (Not to mention Lymond himself. Ahak, how could I forget.) And the beautiful prose and dialogue. I swear, Lymond quotes are part of my 'important axioms of life'.

A sample: "Lack of genius never held anyone back, Only resentment and daydreaming can do that."

Anyway, what sparked off this Lymond rave was finding this lady's blog, who had somewhat the same reaction as me when reading the 4th book, Pawn in Frankincense.

I quote (Link here):

This is embarrassing to admit, but at one point, I screamed “Traitor!,” threw the book across the room, and began wailing in grief. My bewildered husband tried to comfort me, saying “But it’s only a story.” Only a story? For the past six weeks, it had been my life.

:DDDDD Raise your hand if you've flung a Lymond book before! HAHA. I have! And I shall never forget it because, hello, flinging books?!?!?! Never happened before Lymond! It is mad. But Dunnett is more genius than human, or something, I'm guessing. I remember, I was sprawled in bed, face stuck in book, then that horrible part in the book happened, and I cried out and threw the book over the edge of the bed and sat horrified in bed, with tears streaming. I didn't wail, haha, but I was crying a mad amount.

If you've reached this far in my entry, congratulations! Are you convinced about this book? It is a reading experience not to be missed, please. If you're looking for a book to get into over a nice holiday break, keep Lymond in mind. (Forget Twilight! Read Lymond! Btw, how is it not nuts that the Twilight movie raked in 70 million USD in the opening weekend?!?!?! O.o That's almost three times the amount that Quantum Solace made. God.)

And oh god. This overly long entry just proves how much of a biblio-geek I am. The extent of love I have for imaginary things and inanimate objects is quite boggling. I have much love to share, apparently. Don't worry, I love people to bits too. I just don't pimp about them here. 8D Maybe I should; oh wouldn't that be fun.

EXAM RANT

Been berating myself about the way the first two papers went. For my Protein Structure paper, I couldn't recall silly things like the PHD method and whether an alpha helix would register positive or negative signals on the chemical shift index. Not to mention that by the time I got to Part B of the exam, I was running short of time and started panicking and answering things in a horribly slipshod manner, and the last question killed me good. Was supposed to figure out the amino acid sequence and I just @_@. FAILED. I couldn't. IT KILLS ME. Because I figured out the sequence during the CA test but for the finals, I just SUCKED. What is wrong with me.

The Stochastics exam yesterday was possibly worse. I thought, at the end of it, I could perhaps scrape a decent grade, then I talked to Yiping and realised I'd answered the entire last question wrongly. -_______________- I understood that it was an irregular matrix and therefore the limit distribution didn't exist, but apparently, the matrix did converge to a certain value at infinity... and I actually wrote that the matrix didn't exist?! How could I be so dumb!!! Of course, the matrix existed, I was calculating it halfway. I was almost ready to tear my hair out in frustration despite my tudung, okay. Yiping looked really apologetic too, like it was his fault I'd answered stupidly, haha.

EEEEESSSH. Nobody makes me angry like I do myself.

Finally completed Code Blue.

So yes, after wallowing in misery for a bit, I finally watched the last episode of Code Blue. Okay, it doesn't come close to being my favourite show, but I have to say, Code Blue was a good show. The finale actually made me cry! The theme was so relatable, I suppose. Especially during this exam time. Fujikawa finally got to attend to an emergency via Doctor Heli (the helicopter service, haha) and was all fired up to prove himself a capable ER intern. But after it all, when he went back to the hospital and was alone, he called his mum and had a teary conversation about how the only thing he could think about were the people he couldn't save. He couldn't recall anything else. It was the saddest thing. It's like, he finally got to do what he wanted, but he felt like he couldn't do enough.

I suppose I sound incoherent (I'm not in the best state of mind for blogging, I think). But it's true eh. It's not so much the destination that matters, but the journey.

Okay, should try to get back to studying.

Also, am stuck on Tegoshi's rendition of Sunadokei. 8D His voice is so awesome.

WARNING: 'TWILIGHT' BASHING.

I just have to add my two-cents to all of this Twilight talk. :P (Although I shouldn't even be spending a second doing anything other than my last protein review or study. As usual, I am guilty.)

For some reason, I've been coming across a lot of Twilight bashing. You know, that supposed best-selling trilogy by Stephanie Meyers (Did I get the name right?) about some love story between a vampire and a girl? Apparently, you either love the story or you hate it with a vengeance. And I'm seeing more of the latter from my credible sources. (Sources! hah! what am I, a PI? XD)

I haven't personally read the book, although my sister has, and according to her, aside from the rather exciting beginning, it is the sappiest thing on earth. Worse than the staring between Max and Liz in Roswell Season 1. (AND THAT WAS BAD, OKAY. The sappy quota of Max/Liz is quite unparalleled.) Okay, whatever. I don't like passing judgment on something I haven't examined for myself... but hearsay has put me off reading this book. Now the greatly anticipated movie adaptation is about to be released in theatres everywhere. And the hate just increased, I think. :P

This is funny. They're from xcry's LJ here.



I didn't know there were people who were so nuts. To wish for a Jap version?!?!?! Haha. Please, no, Yamapi.



No words. -_________________- To equate Twilight (or anything else) to HP must be blasphemy. And I think this is what most people are annoyed with. You have some fans who go, "Twilight is so amazing! Edward is amazing! YOU HAVE TO READ IT." And then Twilight turns out to be more hype than substance and it's an insult to HP, hello.

You know, MAYBE Twilight is a nice read, on its own. And maybe it is a very good book... FOR KIDS AND TEENS. Just don't go comparing it to HP (of all things!), which was a story loved by all ages, and claim its greatness even to waaay experienced readers and adults who've seen the same vampire-human epic love plot recycled one million times in popular media and fanfiction. -_- Keep Twilight to its rightful status as teen-love-story novel, then maybe the hate will stop.

Doesn't this just remind you of the whole High School Musical phenomenon? Most people don't get why that was so great either.

I don't know for sure, but I think my obsession over DT Draco and Harry during a large part of my teen years affected me forever. I've been rewatching Tantei Gakuen Q on DVD lately, and the Kyuu-Ryuu relationship, like I've mentioned before, invokes feelings and affection I thought I'd reserved for the Draco-Harry friendship in DT. Eeeep. I love Harry and Draco, and I love Kyuu and Ryuu. It's that close male friendship thing that just gets me somehow. But not just between any two random boys. Between two very smart ones... who are both equally good in many ways, such that they're almost more rivals than friends, but then they're still tight friends! Nyeeeeah. How do I describe it to you. :S



Here's a fanart banner for the famous but controversial fanfiction Draco Trilogy, quoted from The Times as a "gem of such superlative quality that it enhances one's appreciation of the [Harry Potter series]". It was written by Cassandra Claire/Clare (whose LJ I hounded for years, haha), who was once a Big Name Fan of the Harry Potter fandom, and is now a rather big-shot writer (apparently her first YA fiction trilogy got onto the NY Times Bestsellers List!). Not bad. She's made it in the literary world despite all the accusations of plagiarism. Maybe I should overcome my old grudge against her and read her book anyways. Just to see how it is. --> Here's Cassandra Claire on Wiki.

Tantei Gakuen Q! A drama about kids training to be detectives and their friendship. :) LOVE IT.



Of course, Tantei Gakuen isn't just great cause of Kyuu and Ryuu, but cause the entire team of Class Q is adorable to the max!!! I love them. Objectively though, having watched the second time round, their acting is quite stilted at times (they're still kids, I suppose!) except for Shida Mirai who acts as Megu (the only girl on the team). I think she's the best of the lot.


And here's Kyuu and Ryuu in a squabble in the episode I just rewatched this afternoon. Ryuu tells Kyuu, "Let me go!" But Kyuu says, "I won't let you go!" Ah, love Kyuu and his pure heart. Basically, Ryuu has a dark past and wants to run away from everyone because of it, but Kyuu being Kyuu wants everyone to work and stay together. <3

One of my favourite vids EVER: Aiba speaking English!!! XD I absolutely love this. I've watched it like a million times by now, I think, and I still love it. Watch it and have yourself a laugh. Seriously. WATCH.

It cracks me up every time, how he thinks the animals understand english or stg. I can't even decide which lines are my favourite:

"Danger. Very very danger."

"Very cuticle!"

"You are crazy."

HAHA. Ah, love Aiba. :D

I really love this vid! Jiawen posted it first on her LJ, but everyone should see this. :D It's called Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrmann (a music video from the nineties). It's some really nice advice about life and being young.

Thank you, Mr Baz Luhrmann, for saying that it's okay not to know what you want to do in life, even at 22, or 40. :) Most interesting people don't, apparently. I've figured that I'll just do what I can, the best that I can, and cherish my youth and the here and now. And the people I love. <3

and start wearing sunscreen? :P I usually can't be bothered.

seriously, man. what the ffff. -______- Apparently, hotmail and gmail are hard-headed rivals. I can't seem to log in to both at once. If I'm at blogger, signing in with hotmail, I immediately get signed out of gmail. And vice versa. Let's be friends, I say. The world should be big enough for all of us.

State of schoolwork = very precarious. But I have vowed not to let studies control my happiness, so I have concertedly remained happy and bouncy, and not let my grade spell life and death for me. yoshi. To happier days, and a happier future.

This past saturday, my family went to settle our japan trip expenses - and it is finally confirmed! :D My family will be off to Japan (Osaka and Tokyo) this December, and if you've been following this blog, you can undoubtedly guess how inordinately excited I am. It's at the level of smile-till-my-cheeks-feel-like-bleeding excitement. I think I haven't been this excited for a trip since Egypt. Or maybe Switzerland. Or even London. I mean. I am UBER x 10000000000000 excited, okay. eeeeeek. >.<

My parents predictably started to lament how expensive the whole thing was and how this would definitely be the last expensive holiday they're going to pay for us. The next time, it'd be on us. My dad actually made me pinkie promise to bring him on holiday every year once I start working. XD Like we actually did the pinkie squeeze. I was so damn tickled. Hey, really, I have no qualms about bringing my parents on holiday; if I get a decent job. That's what I'm worried about, dear parents. If I get a well-paying job.

Haha this was funny. And true. Oh, Obama. I hope you survive all this, seriously.

The Onion posted (Link here):

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."

My bro just bought PS3, claiming that the graphics and high-definition is out-of-this-world (okay lah, I saw it and I kind of agree), and extorted $100 from me and sis, because we have to chip in with the cost. -_- But until he connects it to the wireless system and I can watch youtube on my plasma screen, I won't feel like the $100 is worth it. Ahak. Also, for the millionth time, I wonder why men love all the war games and violence and guns. I can appreciate it to some extent, I get the excitement... But aren't there more fun things? Adventure games? More colourful settings maybe? Haha.

Now that the euphoria of Obama's victory has died down a little, I'm feeling this impending dread; the all-too-familiar feeling of fear of disappointment. The whole thing is almost fairytale-like, or legendary; if Obama gives good on his promise and lives up to the world's hopes, he'll be forever known as one of the big heroes of history, in the same league as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. And right now, it feels too good to be true. So I'm torn between being hopeful and trying to save myself from crushing disappointment. :S

SIGH. Waiting on the world to change.

YAY. OBAMA. YAYYYYY! :D Hello, America. Thank you for being sensible. Let's see Obama restore some faith in America's credibility to the rest of the world.

The sun is looking bright today.

:)

First of all, I get that google rocks and everyone loves google, but seriously, their monopoly of the internet grates my nerves. Like when I was logging in to blogger, the sign in page immediately assumes I'm using my gmail account just cause I suddenly decided to put my previously dormant gmail account to use this afternoon. I mean like. Presumptuous much? I still use my hotmail; the same one I created at 12 years old. Something wrong with that, google-san? Like I still use my blogspot. I have unwavering loyalty lah okay.

Secondly, Maou is just awesome. I am thankful for being pestered to watch this show (though at the detriment of schoolwork). I feel like I haven't come across such a twisted story in a long time. It's together in the league of Pawn in Frankincense and Wideacre and Wuthering Heights (all of which are mind-bogglingly painful stories as well) and omg, I just can't stop watching. All the tortured characters. @_@ I feel like screaming at the tv, "STOP THIS MADNESS, PEOPLE!" Everybody's killing everybody and everybody's lying and the unraveling of the truth is just jaw-dropping. It's an amazingly crafted story, with an ultra creepy villain who invokes both disgust and sympathy. My sentiment for Naruse reminds me of my feelings towards Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights; they're both equally pitiful and unbearably frustrating.


Watch Maou here.

Oh dear. Where did October go. I've been getting lazier and lazier to update this place. I'm having a horrible sluggish phase or stg.

1) Met up with Lin a week ago, spent a few hours at starbucks chatting (we talked a lot, a lot!) and on the way back to Buona Vista MRT, guess what -- I bumped into Mr Darren Lai!!! (Didn't I say before how Buona Vista is the place to bump into old acquaintances?!) He was like, "Oh no, I know you, but I can't remember your name..." Haha. No surprise. He used to mix me up with Shafia anyway, I think, cause our names start out similarly. We chatted for a bit. He said how he didn't like RJ much anymore because Raffles has started to feel like a company instead of a school (I AGREE.) with all the through-train business and everyone being in the same place. He asked where and what my classmates were doing and I offered him what little I know. He says hi to all S03D people. So, any So3D people reading this, Mr Lai says hi!!!

It's strange how Mr Lai is the tutor I remember best from JC. Or maybe not so strange. Because I sucked in chem. And Mr Lai was chem tutor and therefore I had much reason to be wary of him. Wahah. Although he wasn't scary as a person really. But I just remember feeling really, really, really horrible about my chem grade everytime, more so because Mr Lai would look disappointed in people like me and not because we're dumb but because we're lazy and don't do tutorials. And I can't stand disappointing nice people. Ahak. And I also remember playing congkak with Mr Lai and his baby daughter during racial harmony in J1, at the old campus. Somehow, those times seem really nice now.

Like they say, there ain't no easy day, except yesterday.

2) I was going to be emo here, but then I realise I don't want to be emo in front of people anymore, so I shall desist. :P

3) BEWARE, MUCH RAVING AHEAD: I have a crazy, crazy girl crush on Horikita Maki. Nyaaaaah. I adore her so muchmuchmuch!

She is an awesome, awesome young actress. And she has this amazing androgynous appeal - she can act like a boy like WOW. @_@ The above image is from the movie 'Tokyo Shounen' which I watched last night (thanks to express delivery from Duckie in London! :D) and which would have been rather unwatchable without Maki. Her character's split personality transitions from guy to girl were impressive; she didn't need any physical gestures; it was all in her eyes. Her face would freeze up and her eyes would glaze over and harden, and the innocent, carefree girl Maki acted as would turn into a creepily mean guy in a few seconds. It's quite amazing. The guy-Maki was rude and haughty and had a gangster-ish, male gait. Somehow, Maki has the actions of a guy down pat. Speaking of which, Hana Kimi totally wouldn't be half the success it was without Maki as Ashiya Mizuki, no matter the rest of the harem of good-looking boys from Osaka Gakuen. Maki striked gold with her 'boy' roles.

Also, it doesn't help that, in real life, she is the sweetest, most demure, respectable, and adorably quirky girl in jap showbiz. If I were a guy, that's it, man. Haha.

4) Dr Heli Kinky drawings :P. Hehehehe. They're too cute and funny not to share. Credits to the people at Baidu. Basically, this is Yamapi's character from Code Blue. Love how the hair has all the standing ends. Heee.


5) 2 more weeks to the end of sem!!! Don't know to feel scared or happy. Ahah.

Somewhat done with my second protein review. :s But I still feel very... worried. Work is such a pain.

I can tell this entry is turning into an unproductive ramble (when is it not, eh?), so you can go now, and save yourself some time. Ahah.

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Um, just wanna post a HeySayJUMP vid.



How is it that HeySay gets such a cool vid and NEWS gets a cartoon-y one!? Okay, maybe it's in the context of the song, but still! This PV ekes coolness. Why can't NEWS have more cool. JE needs more cool and less lame sometimes (although the lame is part of why they're so entertaining), and this worked. Also: wow. Yamada and Yuto all grown up. @_@ I don't think I need more things to spaz about, thank you.

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Why did the APEX raya thing not happen? Sad. But I was too busy anyway to go ask or anything. My head's been such a mess lately. And the semester has reached the typical breaking point - the time when work is stretching everyone thin and everyone is just waiting eagerly for the term to end.

I think I need some shuteye. Finally finished referencing the protein review at 12+ last night. Only slept at 4 am after composing crazy long email to Duckie (hello, I really cannot wait for you to come back home already!) and then woke up at 9 am groggily to tutor Faisal with math. Some rest would be good.

Yu Jie] Toma roasting corns as a boy says:
watching for the 29349399439439th time!
so OTP it hurts says:
ARE YOU INSANE.
so OTP it hurts says:
OVERDOSE.

I'm not gonna lie and say I'm still sick. Am not at all. Think I'll wake up fit as a fiddle again tomorrow. And so now I have no more excuse about pushing aside my protein work. It's just agonizing: looking for information, and then realising just how much of it there actually is, and having to figure out what's important and what needs to be written down and what doesn't. And deciphering a million acronyms like MX and EM and SAXS and SCDS which all stand for crazy long names for protein elucidation methods. And having to read up on each of them because I really don't understand how they work. This is so crazy.

And it so does not help when JE is just at the edge of my thoughts every time and I'm ceaselessly wondering if Yu Jie has spammed my inbox with more emails filled with spaz and links and translations from Baidu. By the way, Baidu is a treasure trove of untapped JE information. The english-speaking fandom cannot catch up. I think my brain needs rest from all the over-the-top squealing and fangirling. Too much excitement kills. :P But since when have I ever taken care of my health?

Oh, the joy of roping people into your fandom. :D Have you ever tried it??? It fills me with crazy excitement.

Just ask me to talk about any of the things I've fangirl-ed about. I think you'll be so shocked at how much more alive I become. It is insane. Haha. Like the time I bumped into Izzati on the way home and I started to tell her about Lymond, and she went like @_@. She had to hush me and say, "Okay, okay, relax!", cause I think my eyes had started popping out from the excitement of telling her of the awesomeness of Lymond. >.<

And am also slowly dragging Yujie into the wormhole that is JE. Haha.

Yu Jie: ohgod save me from this demented obsession, shamiah!

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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Okay, on a totally separate thing: Eunice's birthday! On friday, Oct 10th, once I was done with my rather traumatic biophysics midterm, I went over to have sushi (again!) at Downtown East with Eunice, to celebrate her 21st. :) I handed over the singing card from the birdieocracy to her.


Success! I think she was happy with the card. We had good sushi. I totally love sushi now, that I'll actually crave it at times. How could I have missed out on such awesome food for all my life before this? And me and Eunice talk like we always do - non-stop. About everything and anything. About people's boyfriends and like 'why can't people be sane when they're in a relationship?!' (I suppose love does weird things to your head.) And bashing about Sarah Palin. And the stupidity of people. Ahak. We indulge ourselves at times like this. Awesome lunch/dinner.

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On something else: I've mentioned in passing how my littlest cousin has grown very prettily and is now the best-looking boy in my family (IMO! :D) and looks like Ikuta Toma! Haha, maybe just a little. Anyway, photos from the Sakura lunch back in May, when we celebrated Mother's Day together.

My brother is the one in the black shirt, and Ikuta lookalike is in blue.

Emo shot!

I think the resolution here is quite bad. But basically, I made the boys cam-whore for me. :P Using my camera's multishot function.

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This weekend has been a total waste with regard to schoolwork. I spent the whole of yesterday out raya visiting. Then when I got home, I fell sick. Still feeling a little under the weather. Had a little flu, and my throat feels like the Sahara. And the whole of today was an open house affair with little gap between guests, and though I intended (key word being 'intended') to do some work and even printed out my stochastics assignment worksheet, I ended up playing with Aliyah who is so uber pretty (and who apparently looks like chibi me - I am flattered :P) and pouring drinks and chatting away. I love family. And I love cute babies. And I am still feeling heck-care about school at the moment. What with Yu Jie being online and distracting me about Maou. :P

This is pretty little Aliyah, my cousin's daughter. She's so prettily fair; like pink fair. So cute. And pretty long lashes, shielding uber kawaii eyes. And gosh, I love her eyebrows; they're perfect.

Oh, why are you so pretty.

I'm ending this entry here. With prettiness. Why am I so lame. Okay, ja!

Matt Damon, one of my favourite actors, talking some sense about Sarah Palin. I think 'Bad Disney Movie' is a good description of the situation. LIKE SERIOUSLY. IS THE US SERIOUS ABOUT PUTTING THIS WOMAN IN POWER??? And the rest of the world has to be more aware of how much world peace is in jeopardy right now. Oh my god. This is just so scary, I can't believe it. right you are, Matt Damon - this is just ABSURD.



She also said she would never second guess Israel's military decisions or moves??? Does she need me to hate her more??? Goodness. GOODNESS!!!

I hate it when people say how Palestine rebels are evil and mad for proclaiming their desire to wipe Israel off the face of the earth; wait, wait: no, I'm not condoning that Palestinians and Israelis let the animosity persist and fight each other forever; quite the contrary. Everyone, deep inside, wants world peace, eh? I just want people to realise and understand how the Israeli state got created in the first place. -___- Do you know? Do you, do you? (If you don't, I suggest you find out.)

Then you tell me who the bad guys are. Sarah Palin. Stop talking crap.

I can't seem to spare time and effort for my blog these days. So I'm going to make this quick. This is the adorable Upin and Ipin from Malaysian TV, going through the ins and outs of Ramadan. SOOO CUTE. Links to the other episodes are easily available. :)

Tengok, jangan tak tengok! This is the Terawih episode. I love the part where Upin scolds Ipin: "Tengah sembahyang mana boleh cakap!" HAHA.





Slew of random Raya and Ramadan photos.

Spot the Ikuta Toma-kun lookalike below :P! Haha. I swear, my cousin looks like Toma. He's the one nearest the bottom right-hand corner. My littlest cousin, now all grown up and prettiest of the boys in my family. Sis and me have taken to calling him Ikuta-kun in code. Ahak! >.< (I wonder if Yujie is protesting vehemently now. Haha.)

I hate how I'm the smallest and therefore get shoved to the front of the picture everytime! I look so out of place.

And here's a bit of APEX @ Irsyad!

This was during the iftar (= break fast) together on 26th Sept, if I recall correctly. It was damn nice lah, eating and praying out in the open. Look at all the bags of porridge and dates all nicely arranged.

Then we had APEX phototaking and farewell, cause the kids were going to have PSLE already. We spent about an hour saying goodbyes and cam-whoring, mostly. What sweet memories APEX gave.

I think someone commented here: "Eh, macam models untuk First Lady seh!"

Totally love this shot. And we have so many variations of this, cause we spend like don't know how long draping ourselves around the flag poles. Haha.

That's all for now. And that took longer than I meant to! Argh. INFP again eh - I Never Follow Plans.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA!!! :)

I should probably be putting up raya pics (close to 300 from the first day itself, I tell you! *LE GASP!* oh, the hazards of the digital camera era.) but since when have I done what I should be doing? Just thinking of putting up the photos here, waiting for blogger to upload it and all, already makes me impatient. So. When I have the mood to put up some pretty here, then I will.

But now. I am feeling a little happy and a little high because for the first time in a long, long time, all birds (a.k.a my friends) are in attendance for an msn convo, reminiscent of old secondary school days. It is a wonderful feeling. :D and as usual, crazy conversations abound. Times like this, I feel like I've never grown up, and I never will.

I had a good day today. Because my second driving lesson went well. And am looking forward to more driving. And Eunice and me had a crack of a time coming up with the theory that girls may be known to love romance and sappiness, but the ultimate truth of it all is that, guys are the true saps. Really. Just think about it. Do you have a father/brother/friend/boyfriend who secretly loves Cecilia Ahern novels, sobs over the tragedy of Jack and Rose from Titanic or listens to sappy ballads on repeat before they sleep? Come on, I know you know a guy like that. And if you think harder, which gender has been churning out sappy love poetry throughout history? Men, of course. Female poets rarely wax lyrical about the eyes of their paramours being like stars in the heavens or comparing their lovers to flowers or the moon or other splendours of nature. I mean, just look at Sylvia Plath and her scary and morbid themes. Most of the time, men are the ones going on and on and ooooonnnn about how I can't live without you and you are the sunlight in my universe etc.

And ladies just look on in wonder and go, oh, okay. *blink blink*

This just so corroborates my theory that men are also extremely needy. Ahak. But I shall stop here before I ramble endlessly and inadvertently offend the opposite sex further. Not that I have ever consciously acknowledged the fact that I may have non-female readers. Hm.

yes, I should be studying, but no, I haven't.

As usual, I'm in my usual pattern of discovering frakking amazing books and uncovering new obsessions at a time when I should be mugging. Then again, when is it not a time for mugging? -_- And I know people are in their right minds when they see me stuck in a book and say, "You're reading a novel?" in a tone that better befits the phrase, "Are you sure you aren't digging your own grave here?"... but I still can't stand it. What's wrong with my feeding my insatiable curiosity? :( I stumble upon something fascinating and devour it accordingly. It's only natural.

I can't help but feel that pure muggers are hypocrites. You know. People who study so damn freaking hard and bury themselves in books for pretty grades. And they specifically pick modules that are easy to score so they can get them pretty grades. They're making a travesty of knowledge and education. It makes me angry. I know everyone studies to get a good job anyway, and there's none of that idealistic notion of learning-for-knowledge's-sake (much as I wish it), but at least have some semblance of respect for knowledge! And don't openly treat knowledge as a mere tool for societal advancement!

Why do I rant so. I amuse myself. (Damn, why doesn't blogspot have stg similar to an LJ cut? If it did I'd put that whole paragraph under a cut.)

Anyway, the new book I've discovered, in line with my Jap phase, is the Sano Ichiro series by Laura Joh Rowland. It's a series of mysteries set in 17th century Japan, where Sano Ichiro, the shogun's Most Honorable Investigator, uncovers deadly political secrets and solves murders, while narrowly escaping death at every escapade. The female protagonist and Sano's wife, Reiko, is also a kick-ass, sword-wielding, sharp-tongued and unconventionally-educated high-class lady, in the same league as Veronica Mars and Philippa Sommerville. She helps Sano with the investigations when she can. And didn't I just say the other day that how much I like the female lead usually dictates my continued fondness of the story? :) Reiko is awesome. I love her. Needless to say, the series has me in thrall, and in little more than a week, I've finished four of the thirteen books Rowland's released. They're really unputdownable. Some people have criticised that Rowland's more skilled at the development of her characters and their lives than the mystery plot, but I'm not nitpicky. I'm more than sufficiently entertained.