I think the bioinformatics practical is extremely irritating. EXTREMELY. No matter how many different ways you phrase the question "how different is informatics from computation", my answer would still be the same, hello. >:| So stop asking the same thing!

Another wonderful thing about Shimizu Shota - his songs make wonderful background for a bout of sobbing. Very nice. I feel soothed as I cry. I've been working too hard on being strong, that I forget how crying is good. It is cleansing. I feel better already. And then after a nice cry, you turn on some Arashi to get your spirits up! :D Ahak. See, Jpop meets my needs. Yoshi! Now I can face ttw's ridiculous bio questions again. Not that I'm crying about bio; I'm not that much of a nerd. :P

I've been listening to Shimizu Shota on repeat, almost the entire day. I've lost count the number of times I've played HOME. Gosh. He's so good to listen to. @.@ I am ADDICTED. (Scroll down to a past entry for a sampling of Shimizu!)

About schoolwork: I am afraid for bioinformatics. Also, for drug design. :s The practicals and projects seem formidable. Only my USP Human Relations module is truly enjoyable. The previous lesson, we discussed prototypes of men and women. And then we read this account of a murder, and we ranked the different people involved by the amount of blame they deserved, and everyone had very differing ideas. It was super amusing. :P

Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all. ~ Toni Morrison

Yu Jie was right about obsessions. Why do they always have to crop up during semesters. It'd be great if they could all wait and accumulate during the breaks, so that I don't drive myself to distraction during the times I'm supposed to be working. Then again, I'm always obsessed about one thing or another. :S Oh, time management skills, where art thou!

Got back from Kelantan yesterday evening. And met with a mountain load of undone work. I've made a list. And it's scary to even look at it. Nyeeah. But I shan't be depressing any longer.

Kelantan was sweet but rushed. It seemed like we dropped off, said hi and gave hugs and then left, waving madly from our car windows. It was extremely short, but still hectic and fun and I liked meeting with the kids and seeing kampung life and eating such GOOD FOOD (I need to diet badly, I think). The weather was rather unbearable though. There are a number of interesting things to mention including the state of Pakcik Mail's ancient van which looked ready to fall apart from old age and rust. We took a trip in it to Pakcik Mail's house from the hotel and Ahmad and I spotted a hole in the floor of the van. It was amusing. Also: cockroach encounter on everyone's parts. Funny in retrospect, but of course, panic coursed through me like electric current when I spotted it next to the vanity mirror at midnight, while I read a bit of The Queen of Attolia. I did a hurdle jump across my sister who was lying next to me and became annoyed at my panic, and made a mad dash for my dad's room. I ran out into the hallway in my pajamas, not caring at all and knocked on my dad's door. XD It was funny; he thought something horrible had happened and his eyes were red from sleeping but he came to our room anyway and flushed the roach down the toilet. Thank goodness. Other cockroach encounters by the others include roach in a cup and roach on toothbrushes. O.O Imagine my shudders. They were violent.

We also tried sugar cane, in its most original form! Cut into pieces and then just chewed on. It's like candy. Awesome. No wonder pandas love this stuff. :D Mami Bi also cooked her amazing mee goreng for everyone there, and the ladies learnt from her. Awesome, awesome. The little girls were very clingy but adorable and kept begging me to keep taking photos. Ah, nyah. It was a sweet experience.

My sis, with Adam, Wahidah and Adlina, outside Pakcik Mail's house. His van is in the background.

We drank fresh coconut juice! Look at Wahidah: she couldn't stop doing the peace sign once we taught her to.

At the school canteen, where we had our mee goreng feast.

Doing jumping shots with the nice 'tar-road-in-the-middle-of-the-forest' background.

The morning we were leaving, the road was suuuper empty (4 am) and we had such fun taking photos in the middle of the deserted road.

Ja! Got work to do. HAVE to get to it.

I am still so totally in love with Nodame Cantabile. I need to pimp it. WONDERFUL REVIEW HERE. Beware though; it's slightly spoiler-filled. And she kind of goes a bit over the top with her raving of Tamaki Hiroshi, XD haha. But otherwise, I agree. I adore this show to bits. And cannot wait for the future movies.

Also: Am going off to Kelantan over the CNY break, to visit Pakcik Mail's family. It's been ages since I went. I think the last time I was there was during secondary school times. So it'll be nice to go back. So, won't be around for a bit. Will probably post again near the end of next week. JA!

And Happy Chinese New Year. :)

:D I am amazed right now. Because I'm using the BioSLAX OS. It's basically an entire operating system (like Windows or MAC) for bioinformatics. And it's just! :D Quite cool to have an entire OS just for my module and bioinformatics in general. They have a lot of stuff already installed like JalView which I remember painstakingly installing during my little research experience at IBN last year. And like every other bioinformatic tool out there. Mukya! :D It feels exciting. I feel like a pro. I want to learn to be a pro. Mukya! (You can see I am still in post-Nodame excitement; Nodame says "mukya!" a lot.)

Watched Obama's full inauguration address just a while ago, because I slept incredibly early last night (at 10.30! :O) so missed it live. And I thought I was already immune to Obama's charisma; he more or less talks about the same thing every time. Unity and forefathers and sacrifice and hard work. But dang it, he has this knack of pulling the best phrases from thin air, and it's so freaking inspiring, that I cried anyway. And it's just this whole idea of building a better world and unity of humanity that just resonates in everyone, not just Americans, that overwhelms one with feeling. Because, really, most of us, if not everyone, wants world peace. Ne?

---

My sis discovered a singer called Shimizu Shota quite a while back, and because sisters influence each other greatly (that's why we fangirl almost the exact same things), I have come to like this guy too. He has an awesome, awesome voice. I categorise him together with Siti Nurhaliza, Sami Yusof, Jean Baptiste Maunier and Tego too, I guess. People who are just meant to sing you know, because no matter what they sing, they're just so good to listen to. I feel like I can never get tired listening to his songs. And it helps that the songs rock too.

This is my favourite, I think. HOME, by Shimizu Shota. <3 The song is so good, I promise. It doesn't matter if you don't understand jap; music is universal, you'll understand anyway. Eheh. :P



---

My sis has requested I do a synopsis of Ryusei no Kizuna for her Jap Club's Notice Board. -_- I should be paid. Seriously. Fine, I like raving about stuff anyway, but I should still be paid. Because I WANT A JOB. Can someone reccommend me a well-paying job please. I need to save some money.

Sawajiri Erika really got married. (To that 44 year old dude, no less.) O.O I really thought it was still at the rumour stage or stg. I don't know. When people near my age get married, I still get seriously weirded out. Because I still feel like I'm too young for something like this. Too young and utterly inexperienced.

Oh well. Does this mean Sawajiri is out of the entertainment scene for good? No loss for me. :P I sometimes think she was just born to play Aya in 1 Litre of Tears and then that's it. :P Like how Elijah Wood was born to play Frodo.

Anyway, TODAY I will attempt to be really hardworking. To fight old pangs of despair I thought I had thoroughly overcome.

READ NOBUTA FIC HERE: Clover

It's full of nostalgia and sweetness. I adore the Nobuta trio. I feel that burst of love for them, the way I feel a burst of love for the HP trio. :D How can I accurately describe the feeling... It's like coming home, I guess. It's familiar and wonderful and liberating. When I know I'm with my friends, I feel the same way. You know, you feel like, I can be completely me. And there's this comforting knowledge that no matter what you do, it could never be so wrong.

When I sit and talk with my cousins; the boys; basically the people I grew up playing with, it feels the same way. It feels like home. It's really quite a special thing to have known each other forever since we were born. And to have known who was the absolute scaredy-cat among us. Who was the nuttiest. And having conversations filled with, "Oh, do you remember the time he broke his thumb! And do you remember the other time - !"

There are times I feel like Nobuta and I feel like looking at the sky and just smiling, because I'm glad that somehow, I came to have people I cherish like this. (And I did just that last night, when I was walking home after four lectures in school and despite being exhausted and all.) It's like that mole analogy - how is it that a mole, digging blind and all alone underground, manages to find its mate, you know? :) Fate and miracles.

I just finished watching Nodame Cantabile. (Watch it for yourself HERE, I urge you.)

OhGOD. I'm trying very hard not to spaz. I love it so much. It's one of the best Jdramas ever for me; up there with Nobuta and Hana Yori. I don't understand why I didn't watch this sooner. And I don't just love it; it's really, objectively, very very well-done. You know... how some shows are well-done but I don't love it so much; and there are some shows I adore to bits but aren't exactly great productions. But this one. This one. O.O It's seriously good; seriously. It just had the perfect elements of everything for me. It had the whole Hana Kimi or manga style of crack comedy - with crazy kyaa-ings and weird characters - but at the same time, there's like amazing non-slapstick humour too; ridiculously-insane-made-me-laugh-out-loud dialogue. And all the beautiful friendships formed. And just. Chiaki Shinichi was played superbly, I think. The way he transformed throughout the story seemed so natural and effortless and real. And although Nodame irked me a little with her incredulous mannerisms, she grew on me like she grew on Chiaki. And the Chiaki/Nodame pairing is just all kinds of entertaining. XD The drama just built up nicely and ended perfectly and ohmygod -- THE MUSIC.

THE MUSIC. This drama is making me regret my absolute lack of knowledge of classical music and like DUCKIE, teach me something! :O Haha. I don't know much about orchestras and performances and possibly I am slightly tone deaf, but the finale performance of Beethoven Symphony No. 7 was amazing and made me feel like squealing and when they finished I clapped quietly but enthusiastically in my bed, trying hard not to wake my sister at this ungodly hour. I really didn't want this drama to end. :( And I watched it within two days too.

I give this drama five hearts. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Hee.

Hello friends. Come sign a petition for a ceasefire in Gaza HERE. Avaaz will be compiling a million signatures to urge Obama to do something once he steps into office on Tuesday. It will also be sent to various other authorities like UN's Ban Ki-Moon and the league of Arab nations and maybe, something can be done to stop this evil.

Nights like these. When I'm taking a breather from fandom and I'm not msn-ing and spazzing. I try hard not to blog hop. (Tonight, I am succeeding!) For me, blog hopping is just one of those things you know is bad for you, but you end up having some any way. Like candy, or chocolate, or heroin. Because as we've ascertained, blog hopping is a depressing affair. It is dispiriting to see other people's happy faces plastered on my screen, as they flounce around in some big, wild party. Am I sadistic? Maybe, eh. It's just. I like to live in my bubble. And looking at other people breaks that bubble. I like to know only of my business, and my friends, and fandom.

Oh, Obama is coming into office real soon, right? I hope he does something ASAP when he steps in. I can't stand listening to the news anymore or receiving all the depressing chain emails of the suffering in Gaza. It's sickening to keep hearing of how the world is protesting and facebook-ing about stopping the war but nothing is really being done to stop Israel's crazy, evil rampage. Seriously can't stand it. The helplessness is sickening. I can't stand myself. I watch the news. Feel sickened. Then move on with daily life. Watch the news. Feel sickened again. Move on with daily life. @.@ It's just. Sometimes, I just don't want to know anymore okay. Because, what can you do. Seriously. I am sick of it. It's like when you know... you just need to do something. But what. whaaat. It's just. eeeeeeeeeeeyar. Stop being evil, damn it!

Been trying to convert portions of my Jap Holiday video into shorter wmv files. Here's one of the Shinkansen ride. We were going from Osaka to Tokyo on the third day, and my mum was kan-cheong as ever so we were waiting on the train platform extra early and it was frigging cold. And so I occupied myself with filming the train that came by before ours.

Song is Push On! by NEWS, of course. :P

OMG. WHY IS IT SO FRAKKING IRRITATING. I can't find any good references on QSAR! Other than the fact that it stands for Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship, I know little more about it. And I'm supposed to be giving a lecture on QSAR sometime this semester. -__- Okay, there's still loads of time, but dang it. This is just frustrating. Every book I google up on the net is not available at the national library. And I tried looking at the school's science library too, but that came up with nothing as well. I need to do more thorough searches. >:| Man. This is frustrating.

School restarted yesterday. It was four lectures back-to-back for me, from 12 to 8, and let's just say I had brain-shock or stg, because it's been some time since I did work. Halfway through combinatorial bioinformatics, my headache started. And my head throbbed throughout the rest of the day until I got into bed at about 10. It dissipated as I watched Ryusei. Haha.

I loved Ryusei no Kizuna. :) Was very impressed by it. The entire cast. And the amazing blend of humour and mystery and family drama. I mean, this drama really made me laugh out loud at many parts. So MUCH wonderful crack. And awesome acting by Nino. To be honest, the last episode was a slight let-down. I'd expected a more wow ending, but it was still nice, I guess. Enjoyed it all very much. A WONDERFUL REVIEW HERE.

I feel like now that the sem has restarted, my mood to blog will progressively get less frequent.

A quote from cynicalism's fic: "Yeah, what do you say we go back to my room and do some math: Add a bed, subtract our clothes, divide your legs, and multiply."

XD whaaaaaat.

Right now: my brain = jumble of thoughts. This is why some people blog; to sort out their thoughts. Granted, why do it publicly? I guess it's nice to be heard. Especially if you're some small fry with no power or influence, and you just want to shout a little, "Hey, I may have some good ideas to share too, you know!"

Last night, the family discussion was BLOGS. And how like apparently the entire world knows my blog. And by entire world, I mean the entire Bafadhal clan or stg. Plus people I've been to school or work with throughout my life. And their friends. Seriously, at this stage of my life, I really don't care much anymore. This blog has been with me as I grew up, and for that simple fact alone, I'd like to keep it. And hello, it has a wonderful URL!!! It's like I'm the only Shamiah or the first Shamiah in the world. :D Also, also, also: somewhere in the back of my mind, I'm aiming for a place in the Guinness Book of Records for longest-running blog ever. (I don't know how realistic this is. Heeeh.)

So, when my brother tells me, "So-and-so reads your blog, you know!" I tell him, "-_- I had already guessed." And don't give me horrified looks. (He squawks, "You put my photos on your blog!" Muaha. Why should he care. His girlfriends put a ton of his photos on the web. I have more right because of blood relation. :P) I am also learning to deal with the fact that I am crazy on my blog and this does not seem be very in sync with how I appear in person, and that this surprises some people. And yes, I do get embarrassed sometimes that CRAP, THE ENTIRE WORLD SEEMS TO KNOW ABOUT MY JAP OBSESSION although I swear, I always try to suppress my spazzing by at least ten-fold. But haiyah. Whatever. I am an uncontrollable force. :P

You know, I thought I had a point to all this blog discussion, but eh... no. Ahak.

---

On Friday, Eunice and I watched Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, to celebrate Eunice passing her driving test! :D Our verdict: VERY VERY cute but incomprehensible. XD HAHA. For instance, what creature is Ponyo exactly??? She started off as seemingly some undifferentiated ectoplasm in the sea. But has magical powers. IT'S JUST SO FUNNY AND CUTE, but honestly, we don't get it. HAHA.

Here is the Ponyo Song! With Jap subtitles.



And this one is the full song with Eng subs.



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Promo pics of Nakushita Kioku, the TegoMakiMatsuKen movie! (God, I can't believe I just wrote that, haha.)

Here: http://pics.livejournal.com/calledinvain/pic/005gbt6g

Someone said at helloyourself: Occasionally, Tegoshi can look manly. Somewhere, D is choking on her tofu soup.

Someone else said: @ a certain angle, Tegoshi does look a little Yamashita-esque.

WAHAHA. Yes, Tego is manly now. Nyaaaaaah. I am seriously amused. And I've always suspected that Tego tries to be like Pi. :P Nevermind, Pi, imatation is the highest form of flattery. Heh.

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Kak Naz is over at our house now, and we've established that chibi me looks like chibi Aaliyah. :D We compared baby photos! Haha. I was a cute baby. What happened, man. Haha.

A bit of randomness today:

1) I hate the comfort driving centre website. It keeps stalling. -__- And I am seriously losing enthusiasm for driving.

2) I am lazy to check with the Science Dean's office if my Drug Design ISM form is okay or not.

3) Woke up this morning to my sister shouting that HSJ was on MTV. Yay! Your Seed was playing. When will I see NEWS on tv, I ask you.

4) JDorama progress: Ep 5 of Innocent Love (which gets uploaded at snail's pace, dang it.) and Ep 6 of Ryusei no Kizuna.

5) Still have not started on holiday video! ahhh!

6) Also, was laughing away when I voted for Colin as Mr. Harvard Freshman this morning. Just - it is funny! XD Who would have thought! Colin = Mr Beauty Pageant. At least, they don't discriminate against height, I say.

7) A crazy quote from the people at helloyourself: It's not like we operate on the Giant Panda rule of cute: just because they are, you can't smoosh them together and hope for babies. Ahahaha. Omg. Whaaaat. XD

8) I want several things: dvd of the NEWS winter con (plsplspls, Johnny!) where yamapi apparently moonwalked (I have to see that!); also, yamapi on VS Arashi!!! I cannot wait lah. Also the release of Nakushita Kioku, the movie TegoMaki are gonna be in - when is it happening! Most of all, I want the miracle of a yamaki drama/kurosagi season 2. -_- If that happens, I dont know... I'll do something crazy in happiness. I'll bake a cake for everyone. I also want NEWS to have their own show. :(

And I want to RAISE MY CAP. Dear Allah and Rasul, help me help myself.

9) Getting slightly nervous about the new school sem. Psyche up, friends!

Ja.

Being a parent is like being the Dark Knight. (Yes, I'm referring to Batman - you watched the movie, right? If you haven't, GASP. Please do.) That's what I decided after watching Kak Asmah and thinking about my mum (and other wonderful mums out there) and recalling a memorable quote from Everybody Loves Raymond: If your kid doesn't hate you, you ain't doing your job well. (Something along those lines. Raymond answers his dad, with a deadpan face, "Then let me congratulate you on your resounding success." Haha!)

Why is a parent like The Dark Knight? Because like the Dark Knight, a parent has to do the necessary evils; make the difficult choices. Be a freaking monster, metaphorically, if need be, so the kid knows to be disciplined, knows what's right from wrong and knows he can't get his way all the time. Essentially, make your kid hate or fear you, if that's what it takes. Yes, I believe that if you spare the rod, you spoil the child. Really, parents. Be the Dark Knight. So your kid turns out right. Let's have less of spoiled brats in our Primary 1 classes. I've seen them. They're horrifying. And I had always wondered where all the good kids had gone. Now, I'm thinking the right question should perhaps be: Where are the Dark Knights?

I haven't had the privilege to be a mother yet, but I've already started to understand how wonderful my mum is. And how special a mother is. (Daddys too, but always, always, and always mummys more.)

And anyway, at the end of the day, you know The Dark Knight always wins.

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.

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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.