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July 5th, 2009
09:33 pm - War of the Worlds
I was watching War of the Worlds just now, on Channel 5. Yes, it's the Tom Cruise movie. Which also stars Dakota Fanning, who is supposedly Wonder Child Star, in case you didn't know. She's also acting as Jane in New Moon, as the bloodthirsty, heartless, cruel and twisted little girl vampire who is one of the bodyguards of the Volturi. (Go read New Moon yourself and you will know)
Anyway, War of the Worlds is adapted from a book of the same name by H.G. Wells. I remember reading it when young, but it was the abridged version where you can buy like, 6 kids-version classics (i.e War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn -what kinda name is that man, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers) and i don't remember the entire story, much. All i remember is that it's about aliens invading Earth and that's it. I didn't even remember who triumphed in the end.
So I was watching it on Channel 5 on a wet, cold, rainy and thunderstormy night. Perfect for watching a sci-fi suspense-thriller movie, no? Imagine, in the movie where they had suddenly 'lightning storms' which were actually the advent of the alien invasion, and outside my windows the lightning flashed obligingly. Like with a tempo. Oh and not forgetting that someone in the movie had one line of dialogue that said, "I saw the lightning hit the SAME place 26 times! 26 times!"
Wow they trying to trump The Curious Case of Benjamin Button where that poor old man went around saying that 'Did you know? I was struck by lightning SEVEN times?" Anyway so i shushed my inner Complaint Queen and quietly watched.
The front part, which was the introduction of the story and how useless father Ray (Tom Cruise) is receiving his ex-wife's kids (who are also HIS kids) Rachel and Robbie. Rachel is Dakota Fanning, child wonder and (later on in the movie) high pitched screamer extraordinaire. Robbie is Justin Chatwin, whose name sounds familiar, so i shall google it. And the moment i googled his name, i was like 'Ah sadness man this guy" cos what i see is "Justin Chatwin is a Canadian film actor best known for his role in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds as Tom Cruise's son." When i read further, I felt even sorrier for him, "...and his role as Goku/Oozaru in Dragonball Evolution." OH MAN. Poor poor guy. He has been thrown such a shitty career. Ah well, shit happens.
Alright, moving on to the story. Tom Cruise's ex-wife is acted by Miranda Otto (last seen in LOTR as the gal who like Aragorn but realises he's 87 years old and moves on to hook Faramir instead) and she looks pregnant. Perhaps she IS pregnant, i can't really tell. Anyway she's like the perfect mother who knows exactly what is happening in her kids' life, whereas Ray is the antithesis of her, cos he has no idea that his daughter is actually allergic to peanuts. From birth, and he didn't know. Wow, helluva caring father.
We next see the lightning storms as i mentioned, and apparently the machines carrying aliens start zapping everything in their way. How did those machines even appear, you ask? Oh well, the lightning hit the ground 26 times remember? Maybe the asphalt mutated. Nah. The aliens apparently have been monitoring us for a loooooooooooong time, and they buried machines under the surface of our land, to be activated when they couldn't stand us destroying the Earth any more, due to global warming. Okay scrap the last part, about global warming, i was just kidding- just that almost every movie nowadays is an environmental doomsday commentary as a side plot, you see.
Yeah so they activated and started using their energy/lightning bolts to vaporise people, and if you get caught in the VaporBeam, you basically pulverise into a million pieces. And WOW, but seriously, you know when someone is headlining a movie when ONLY THAT PERSON does not get pulverised/vaporised/exterminated no matter how the surroundings burst into flames and people get thrown into the air and others plucked screaming from the ground. No, you have SLOW MOTION as Tom Cruise runs his very short stature down the road towards the camera and the buildings behind him get blown apart, and people around him get vaporised with looks of abject horror on their faces. Those poor extras. I wonder what they write in their CV? "War of the Worlds --- Role: Random guy with look of horror on face at 13:56 who gets vaporised at 13:57"
Tom Cruise packs his son and daughter off in a stolen car (stolen from his good friend, who refuses to let him drive off with the car and later also gets pulverised) and drives towards ex-wife's house somewhere else. However, ex-wife has driven off to Boston with new husband and hence was not at house. We see the difference between a woman-run household and a man-run household. For one, the guy's household only has one chunk of peanut butter, whereas the woman's household has got bread, at least. And it's got a nicer kitchen to boot. The entire gang of 3 think they are safe at the ex-wife's house, so they hunker on down for the night. But guess what?
Yep, those bloodthirsty alien machines come knocking on the door and basically they see a Great Light outside before electricity goes out. When they open the door in the morning, they find themselves on the set of Season 6 of Lost. Alright, just kidding, but they do see a plane that has crashed in pieces on the street outside and also meet a television crew from CBS (which makes my fave tv show, Numb3rs) who show them freaky footage of "Watch the Lightning! Watch the Lightning!". Tom Cruise watches the lightning on tape and he sees that the lightning actually delivers the aliens into the machines. Like wow. Instant Alien Delivery, call 62353535.
Anyway, after seeing that freakish sight, they find aliens on their heels so they pack themselves into the car again, with dear ol' Justin Chatwin AKA Goku from Dragonball ( I think he's never gonna live that down) being all teenage and hormonal (no, he did not start humping sth) and rebelling against his dear ol' dad. Thank goodness they didn't have those nose-to-nose staring scenes because then we'd see how short Tom Cruise really is. And Justin Chatwin wants to FIGHT those BIG BAD ALIENS! Whereas he thinks his daddy is an asshole and a coward for running away from things that can vaporise you. I guess different people really have different POVs. Cos if i were him, i'd run too.
They go towards the Hudson Ferry Terminal where they stop halfway to give Dakota Fanning a toilet break. From which point onwards she's no longer Child Star Extraordinaire but High Pitched Screamer Extraordinaire, because she doesn't listen to her daddy and goes running to the river, where she sees a hell lot of bodies floating downstream. And then she starts screaming until her dad has to come running to her and hustle her off back to the car. For which i wondered, did she get her toilet break in the end? They never did say/show. Not good to keep it in too long, I always say.
They reach somewhere near the Hudson Ferry Terminal only to find a lot of people on a dark and stormy, rainy night all crowding the area and in desperate need of car, which Tom Cruise has. And it ain't even his car. They blockade the place and we see how ugly human nature is. To get a car, to survive, they break the glass and pull out the poor family. Until Tom Cruise gets his pistol out from his waistband and threatens them, do they relent. However, good times don't last long, cos he's not the only one with a gun. Some other guy holds him at gunpoint and forces him to drop his gun, hijacks his car and attempts to drive off. Meanwhile Tom Cruise and family dejectedly trudge into the diner which is nearby and look depressed. The camera switches to this guy outside in the parking lot who picks up Tom Cruise's dropped gun, still loaded. And the next thing we know is we see the car driving off but suddenly three shots are fired consecutively and the car stops moving. Evidently, the guy driving is killed. Again, ugly side of human nature. While some may think it gruesome, i think it's a really good portrayal. Human nature IS ugly. And this is something that COULD happen, WOULD happen. While dark times bring out the best in some, it brings out the bad in others. SO here we see the bad.
But of course, they continue walking towards the Ferry Terminal where there's a barge loading people and everyone's fighting to get on. Ray (I'm tired of writing Tom Cruise) carries Rachel the Screaming Girl while Robbie the Dragonball follows next to him. They meet some woman who recognises Ray, and intend to go on the ferry together, but TA-DAH cue evil heavy sounding music because the BIG BAD EVIL MACHINES APPEAR! They start zapping anything in sight and head towards the crowd of people. Who of course, start screaming and running and go frantically towards the barge. The captain of the barge is afraid and he tells the sailors to get going and Ray somehow manages to drag his entire family onto the ferry. His son, Robbie shows his heroic side by climbing up the side of the ferry to help people who are clinging desperately on the sides to get onto the ship. As i said, dark times do bring out the best in some. Just not others.
However, good times don't last long again! The ferry moves out into the water, but hey, who said that machines can only be buried under the ground, they can be buried beneath the sea too! So the machines emerge out of the sea, tip the whole ferry over and starts grabbing people using some tentacle shaped thing. It's like the Japanese ideal of tentacle rape. Somehow the people who get grabbed go into the machine and they never ever come out again. How sad.
Ray, Robbie and Rachel (ALLITERATION!) make their way swimming to the banks and they climb up to some ridge and view the horrific sight with...horror. Terror too, i guess. Then they run down the ridge bypassing the machines by merely a hair's breadth. They see the US Army soldiers holding down the fort with bazookas, tanks and a fleet of fighter jets but apparently human artillery ain't gonna work against those thick skulls i mean, hard machine coverings. So Robbie runs towards the army and screams that he wants to help, while his dad follows shortly to glomp him, and basically straddle him so that he can't move. And Ray tells Robbie not to go, but to stay behind. In the end both get up, share a searing, knowing glance, and head off in different directions. One away from the enemy, and the other towards. And so Ray takes Rachel away running again, but they meet some guy who looks a little like the guy from Pirates of the Carribbean who always tags along with Jack Sparrow. he beckons to them and they hide in the underground basement.
Now i think this part is actually the best part of the movie, because it's really really full of suspense and makes you keep your heart in your throat. That's good, because i haven't really had thriller/suspense succeeding on me for a long time, and especially not when i am watching in the comfort of my home on the tv. SO this part was really really good, but really freaky. I was glad for the commercial breaks because i got to go to the toilet and drink water and rest my brain and breathe. It shows the 3 of them hiding underground, and the Pirates guy wanting to break out from beneath and attack 'those bastards' i.e aliens, but Ray dissuades him. Then this alien probe thingy enters their hideout and plays a deadly game of hide and seek with them. They survive it, with useful help from a mirror.
However, after the alien probe leaves, Pirates guy and Ray realise they're on different wavelengths. One wants to fight, the other wants to hide, cos he has got a daughter to protect. Three guesses what happens? Another trio of ALIENS, this time, appear and go into the hideout too. The aliens look NOTHING like E.T despite it being Steven Spielberg's gig. I guess he decided on a new prototype. Which doesn't look as cute or wrinkly, but there's something about the eyes...which looks similar. In my humble opinion, of course.
After the aliens leave because they hear this alien bugle sound which sounds like the Horn of Gondor, Ray goes to kill the Pirates guy because he keeps making noise and hence might attract the attention of more aliens. How ruthless a father can be when trying to protect his daughter's (and his own) skin. He does look slightly remorseful though, which show that Tom Cruise, although short, still has got acting talent.
Suddenly his daughter screams (because she thinks her high pitched voice has been lacking in current scenes), bursts my eardrums, and she runs upstairs. Ray runs after her and out the front door, where the aliens have spewed all the human blood and gizzards everywhere. There's a red mist, a miasma that floats over the land, showing how much blood has been shed and how many human lives lost. And you can see coagulated human thingies that are red EVERYWHERE on the landscape. It's like how vampires die on True Blood (HBO). Messy, red and sticky.
There is an alien machine stalking the place and grabs Rachel because, she STUPIDLY screams. i think they pay her so much so that she can insure her throat and voice, rather than her pretty little face. She is irritating, at this point, i half wished she really got eaten and her entrails spread out all over the land. But no, her heroic father grabs a whole bunch of grenades from the ground where it's fallen out of an overturned tank, and throws one at the machine which has picked up his darling daughter and giving her tentacle rape. The grenade of course explodes harmlessly against the forcefield, but serves well to attract attention. Next time you want people to look at you, make sure you throw the grenade at them AFTER you pull the pin out.
Ray gets tentacle raped too, and deposited into this metal contraption (1 of 2) hanging from the underside of the alien machine's belly. It just sounds and looks wrong. 1 of 2. It looks like some metal eggs basket/holder where loads of humans are also inside. Apparently, the machines has got this sucker which opens up to have a tentacle come down and grab one human at a time. When the tentacle grabs the human, the human gets killed/massacred/digested and then a trapdoor opens at the front where the entrails are poured out onto the landscape. Neat digestive system, except the indiscriminate littering of excreta. Eww.
The tentacle grabs Ray next, OF COURSE, and he smartly takes along the grenades. He's sucked almost entirely into the sucker, but the ARMY guy next to him latches onto his plan and holds tightly onto him. The entire basket of humans suddenly display human solidarity and help to pull Ray back, but with the pins pulled out of the grenades. The grenades then do what tanks and bazookas and whatever else couldn't do. They take apart the machine from the inside.
Perhaps there is some great allegory in this scene where you have some Deep Meaning, like how enemies can be destroyed from within much more easily than by hard knocks alone. (That's why there're so many spies around and James Bond is earning loads in endorsements)
After this, the whole movie winds down. Somehow, the machines aren't in that great a condition. (they ate too much, now suffering indigestion maybe, or worms in their stomach) And so they have lost their protective forcefields. The US Army rallies and defeats the machines, although it's more of a self-defeat rather than a true triumph. Mankind's last stand, and we're standing! Wow.
In the end, Ray brings Rachel back to her mother and they have a teary, moving, touching reunion. Robbie also apparently makes it back alive (again some Deep Meaning that 'if you believe in something deeply, and have faith, it will come true") and finally acknowledges his dad for the father that he is, they hug and all's well that ends well.
The movie ends on a very very interesting note. i mean interesting in a sarcastic way. How did the aliens die? They just suddenly died because....wait for it...
BECAUSE THEY GOT INFECTED BY BACTERIA/VIRUSES that humans have been immune to for centuries. Maybe they got the H1N1. Who knows? But HELLO, this kinda ending is like those primary school compositions where Examples were made of. Those Examples that teachers would hold up at the front of the class, deriding them for being good at writing, wonderful use of language, but UTTER DESTRUCTION DUE TO UNSUITABLE PLOT DEVICE. Plot device = 'It was all a dream."
The War of the Worlds --- It was all just a movie.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/tired.gif) tired
Current Music: A popular 2008 song by a Norwegian female singer
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May 9th, 2009
03:59 pm - I have been doing nothing but saving money. Do applaud me!
The past few days, i have subsisted on a diet of bread with Nutella and cereal with milk for my meals. Dinner is either a bento warmed from the convenience store, or something.
Last night was the first night i had home cooked food in two weeks. I went with JY to her friend's house for dinner. Before going,she warned me that they were crazy. I nodded solemnly like a kid going to a departmental store with her mother for the first time. It's like those "don't let go of my hand, don't wander around, or you'll get lost and kidnapped and sold to Thailand with your arms and legs chopped off and made to beg for money for some nameless faceless syndicate that makes abominable use of children to earn dirty money" warnings you used to get.
Nah, just kidding. But from what i've heard, her friends are really one of a kind. Haha, they are, indeed. Dinner was lovely! We had vege! With muted belechan, but regardless of muted or not, it's still belachan. This makes me hungry for my chinchalok back home. And i wanna eat my buah keluak again. It's strange, though i've only been here for 15 days, how much i miss the food at home. It makes me wonder if i can survive overseas by myself. Maybe in English-speaking countries i can, but in other countries, like Japan, even if i can read the signs and understand, my speech is worse than deplorable. I think even if my sign language can be understood it'd probably take millenia, since people feedback that my sign language is of a truly incomprehensible level.
There was also some Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce chicken with damn delicious chap haha. And it's nice to hear Singlish again. Now i understand why many of my friends who go overseas hang out mostly with Singaporeans, even if it's not for the Singlish. But people in an unfamliiar place truly need others of the same ike to survive. I hope that in future if i go overseas i will be lucky and blessed enough to make new and wonderful friends too.
And most importantly, there was LOTUS ROOT SOUP!!! I'm totally a soup person, so it just won me over. Haha. I'm actually writing a review on fellow Singaporeans' cooking skills. I'm actually quite amazed that they can cook cantonese soup over here. I'd have thought it'd be very difficult to get the same ingredients. Forgive me for thinking Japan doesn't have lotus root. Sorry la!
After dinner we watched tv for a while where we learnt how shiitake mushrooms were harvested. Apparently they need thunder and lightning. The animation for even Japanese news/documentaries is like...wow. Haha. And speaking of tv, i've been watching the Japanese Power Rangers (it originated from Japan anyway) and it's called Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. I think JY has watched enough episodes and sung the opening theme song so many times i've got the tune memorised. The ending theme song too. I wonder if that means cultural immersion.
If that's the case, it can then explain my my English sucks. It must be the air here. I come Japan English no speaky. Or something like that, because i remember walking back home from the train station the other day and my English totally just crashed and burned to the point that i decided to speak in weird animal sounds. It was THAT bad.
I've gotta go buy dinner for JY later because she's currently comatose (no, not drunk or anything, really) and it's about time i braved the concrete jungle and applied my nodding and smiling and saying 'hai' and 'arigatou' skills to daily goings ons over here. After all, i'm leaving tmr!
Fare you well,
Rude
P.S I'm going off to watch Coffee Prince now. HEHEHE.
Current Location: Japan!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/sleepy.gif) sleepy
Current Music: Coffee Prince OST
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May 8th, 2009
10:25 am - Oh man i am soooo lazy, but an update for so far.
I was supposed to post about my trip here almost everyday so that it befits my newly found status of a travel blogger. (though i do hate the word blog) Nevertheless, i've been lazy and now i realise i have a backlog of almost one week's worth of recounting to do.
Most importantly, the thing that irritates me most is the amount of money i found missing. As of now, i'm missing about 8107.50yen, which converts into about SGD119.93. Oh man, at least when i spend money here, i get goods or food or services in exchange for it, but to lose money just like that, because my accounts and cash don't tally, severely depressed me for a few nights. It just means that i have to go back home and earn all that money back, and yet it's still gone. It's like a sore wound that keeps getting reopened.
Most of these past few days i have been going shopping or staying at home. Actually, although i went to the major shopping places, i didn't get to take much photographs, because a) it's weird, and b) i am too busy shopping.
Beginning my shopping expeditions (excluding those stuff i bought in Matsumoto):
Sunday: Harajuku
It's the infamous/famous place where there are those people who dress up and stand along the bridge. We purposely went on a Sunday hoping that there would be more people thronging the streets. There's just this long street where it's damn freaking crowded and you don't have to walk. The crowd simply moves forward and you get brought along by the human current.
We took the Fukutoshin line (which is not by the usual provider, JR, but by Tokyo Metro). It's a newer line, according to JY, and i think it's also safer because they probably learnt from their mistakes and installed the chest-high barriers all along the platform which only open when the train arrives and the train doors open. I guess they didn't want more people jumping out into an oncoming train, because then cleaning up would be troublesome. I wonder if some of the Japanese actually think, i wish those people would stop jumping (not because they pity them) because they are making me late for work.
Thank goodness we didn't come out at the usual Harajuku station on the Yamanote Line, because the crowd there is like 100x that of Bugis street on a horrible day. I think Harajuku can seriously be classified as a place like Bugis Street, though it's longer, bigger, and as usual has a special Japanese flavour. After all, this is Japan. The fashion here is vastly different from that back at home. It's why it's so difficult to buy clothes here because although they look nice, it might not fit back home. And of course, i wouldn't buy clothes from Harajuku. They're pricey and not my style. And i have no pictures of the busy street where you float along with the crowd because i forgot to bring my camera out with me. I nearly thought it was stolen right out of my bag.
I was walking along and seeing all those shops selling clothes the celebrities wore. Oh man, and not forgeting the 恋のABO. It's this new song by NEWS that we watched on TV in Matsumoto in our hotel room. And both of us were like WHAT THE SHIT IS THIS, and WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YAMAPI'S HAIR!?!? Little did we know that was to be the beginning of our nightmares...
The entire street started blasting 恋のABO as we were walking past the speakers. Although it's not a superb song, it somehow gets stuck in your head, so much so that even when we were walking to lunch at some other place after Harajuku, it's a restaurant called Jonathan's (Not Benjamin's or Jennifer's, sadly. Haha the reason why we kept going on about Benjamin and Jennifer is because they are 2 swans that we saw in the moat at Matsumoto Castle. I saw one first and thought it looked like a Benjamin, then we walked on and saw another and i told JY is looked like a Jennifer. Jennifer was sitting on a ledge at the edge of the moat, while Benjamin was dragging this entire branch with his feathers?arms?tail? in Jennifer's direction. Putting two and two together (and getting FOUR!) i thought that they were building a nest together or something.
Sadly for them, they were separated by a stone wall, which divided the moat. So i told JY, 'oh no, then they can't be together!" (nice to know i am now shipping SWANS) when she said in a droll tone, "swans can FLY." and i was like "they CAN????" haha. Ooh man i must be channelling bias and my inner bimbo. *horrified gasp* That's the end of the Benjamin and Jennifer story)
Alright, sorry for the long explanation, but apparently there's Jonathan's everywhere. It sells western-ish food. Why the 'ish' is because it sells things like grilled tender beef steak (which is DAMN NICE by the way), and you can add a set that has rice, miso soup and salad. It's like a whole east-meets-west kinda thing. But you ain't seen nothing yet, until YOU try eating a steak with a fork and knife, then using a pair of chopsticks to pick up rice and then somehow combining the two sets of utensils together to eat rice using a fork and knife and miso soup using chopsticks. Seriously, it not only screws with your brain, but also your eating skills. I was like HUH HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO EAT MY FOOD LIKE THIS!?!?!? NO SPOON?!?!?!
Haha. But anyway, the food was super bloody damn delicious. I'd eat it again, except that i'm not that rich. But the beef steak was really tender, not dry like how Jack's is wont to do, and eating it with rice is an interesting change. Like, wow. So that's the food recount.
Then we went on to the infamous bridge, i don't know what it's called. But it's the one with all the people who dress up and pose for other people, mostly tourists, to take pictures. On our way there we also dropped by the Softbank shop, which, by the way, sells Disney Mobile phones, designed by Sharp. It's damn cute! And the Disney section of the Softbank shop had a Mickey mouse face (complete with ears) sofa. Damn cute! The phones in Japan are damn nice. It's very cool and we just don't get the designs or the functions that they have, back at home. Not only that, but rmb what we learnt in IT where they have mobisodes or a few minutes worth of video clips? Forget that.
You can watch TV live on your phone over here. And it's not just tv, it's almost HD quality. It's like...the only suitable word to be used is WTF? Haha because that's my first reaction. My second reaction was, whoa the phone bill will blow sky high. Unless they have some special plan that allows you to watch tv. You can change the channels and watch different things, so i decided to try it out while JY was asking some Softbank guy about her new phone, and i watched this new detective drama which stars the brother of Mizushima Hiro , and Namikiri from Zettai Kareshi. It's very very clear, even on a mobile phone. I'm just so amazed i'm speechless.
On to the bridge. JY said that usually there're more people exhibiting themselves there. We saw some old guy(middle aged, maybe) who was bald and wearing a pink wig, or something, and he was wearing an entire pink getup and looked like something out of a circus. He was posing on one leg for the tourists, showcasing his nail polish, so i thought i'd give him credit by taking a picture. The other people were more concerned wtih his comrades next to him who were really Goth and he was kinda forlorn. Poor guy. I guess black, red and emo beats pink, weird and bald any day.
It's an interesting experience coming here. There are many things that are unacceptable back home, that are acceptable here, and vice versa, many practices that are not acceptable here (like using your phone on public transport and keeping it in silent mode everywhere you go) that are acceptable back home. Similarly, for the fashion. I can understand how JY says that she feels constantly pressured to look good when she goes out, because the people here really dress very well, and they've taken LAYERING to an art form. I wonder if they still layer like this when it's summer and it's damn hot? I do know for certain that wearing like this back home is not...very normal.
I mean, here, if you dress a certain way, there are many who dress that way and hence it's acceptable, or it's considered 'part of their culture'. But back home, if you dress a little unusually, people think you're weird, or crazy, or just some failure wannabe. Here, it's like 'normal'. The difference in attitude is astounding. Though i do wonder how fat Japanese girls shop, when all the clothes sizes here are freaking small. (Jy: "shop online")
Anyway we walked to visit the Meiji Shrine which was built to house the souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken and the shrine was a typical shrine. What WASN'T typical was the walk back out of the shrine to the station. I ended up running half the way and speaking with my lips sealed the other half, thanks to JY and her warning that if you open your mouth, the flies might fly in. There was a hell lot of flies there, which led to me running half the way. I was swatting at flies all the time and was itchy all over. The presence of insects does that to me. Why is it whenever i'm with JY we encounter insects? The caterpillar incident when we went jogging near my house comes to mind. HMPHF. No wonder bias likes running indoors with the protection of airconditioning around her.
Went back and on the way home, went to the supermarket. Hehe. I applied my valuable skills of nod and smile whenever they ask me a question in Japanese. It works, i tell you. No matter what they ask you, just nod and say 'hai' and smile, then when they hand you whatever you've bought, smile and say 'arigatou' hahaha. That's the most important thing i've learnt here.
OH OH OH DINNER!I can't really rmb what we had for dinner. I think i ate instant noodles, for which even after finishing the entire cup i still had no idea what flavour it was. Haha. I ate mango pudding too, but the mango pudding here is nowhere compared to Hong Kong haha. Began my conquest of Nodame Catabile. It's a really nice show.
Monday: Ikebukuro
Shopping, shopping and more shopping! hehe went to Uniqlo to buy 4 shirts of 4 different colours to help my layering back home, then went to ABC Mart (which is like Queensway shopping centre split into many branches) to buy my Adidas sneakers. I got a purple striped one for 7350yen (for which i was cheated cos somewhere in Shibuya they sold it at 4950yen, dammit!) and i wanted to buy a pair of white wedges but they had only the last pair (display pair) in my size and i wondered whether i ought to buy it. I decided to go elsewhere to buy it, which was a good choice because i eventually got it at 10% off. (of course, i bought one more pair of shoes than i originally intended to buy, so i can't say for sure that's a good thing, actually.)
Actually, i can't really rmb much of Ikebukuro that i can describe...because most of the time it was JY steering. I rmb we went to ...Animate, which is the major Anime and Manga place, which sells everything from the books to merchandise to figurines and dvds. I bought a cute Kuroshitsuji something. I want more big-headed Sebastian! So cute! Its cuteness is on par with my big black furry Minnie Mouse keychain.
Then... we went to the Doujinshi alley. *cue thunder, lightning and black clouds* I can totally understand why JY didn't want her father to walk along that alley. Haha. They sell all kinds of things there. Doujinshi...just go wiki it to get a better explanation. But i can say for sure that Japan is in deed the best place for JY. You can be hentai and be regarded normal haha.
Subway for lunch! They have potato wedges on the menu! And they have Cajun Chicken, which is a nice change to all the Cold Cut Trio i've been eating in school. But it is freaking. bloody. damn. expensive. It's more than SGD$10 for one meal. Well, i've ALMOST gotten used to the prices here, but i can't help comparing it to back home, where i can have a meal for $3.50 which is just slightly more than 1/3 of 10 bucks. Even if it's $3.50 i already think it's expensive. Hmphf. Food these days!
Basically it was shopping the whole day, damn tiring. We went to this store called Tokyu Hands which sells everything from drill bits to dustbins to card pouches and watches. haha i bought a pouch for myself to keep my keys so that i can finally throw away the stinking black leather puch which was originally intended to be my handphone pouch. It has served me well, but it's time to bid goodbye. *Throws it away happily*
Dinner!!! As you can see, i exclaim at all the food parts. hehe they make me more happy than shopping, actually. We went to this restaurant called MOMO Paradise for shabu shabu. I've never eaten it before, but i was looking forward to it. It's something like japanese steamboat, i guess, if you explain it in a local context. It's damn nice!!! I can't explain, but since i finally brought my camera, i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Tuesday:
Was supposed to go the the Pokemon centre at Hamamatsucho but in the end got cancelled because it was raining and staying at home on a cold and rainy day is so fun. On a side note, i was also horribly depressed from finding my money missing even more after counting it on Monday night. Stayed home to watch Nodame Cantabile the whole day. Gan~bat~te~ku~da~sai! Or so says Stresemann.
Wednesday: Shibuya and Shinjuku
Was supposed to go to Ebisu as well, so that i could take a picture of the Hana Yori Dango place for Bean,but it was too far and i was trying to save money and you can download nicer pictures online anyway). Hehe.
I wanted to go to Shibuya to take a picture of that road intersection where you always see on news and other stuff, showing like BILLIONS of people crossing. Sadly, it was raining so we didn't get to see so many people crossing the road. Though i saw a lot of umbrellas crossing the road. I was tasked with finding stamps for my uncle, and so we had to trudge through the entire road up some hill and freeze to death in the process, before arriving at a stamp shop.
It looked like my uncle's study, for all stamp collectors in the world must surely look alike. I am happy for my estimation. My uncle gave me a hundred SGD to buy all his stamps and i spent 97.40. YAY! All throughout though, poor JY had to be the translator ("Change please?") and the person was very kind to go running all over the place to find the different stamps. I'm super amazed at how well they know their stuff. I must applaud their dedication and passion to such a hobby, even if it's for profit too. I don't think anyone could work there if they didn't love their job somewhat.
We went to lunch at First Kitchen, which is a fast food joint selling...burgers and pasta. I'm quite surprised at pasta being able to be fast food, but evidently that was the case. I ate some Salmon Mentaiko Spaghetti and Prawn Salad. Very nice! Again, it cost more than 10 bucks but i'm used to it now. Used to it enough that the spending of more than ten bucks on food doesn't make me want to vomit out all that food, or eat onigiri for every meal of every day.
Then, shopping! We went to buy my white wedges and that's how i walked past this other shop selling my Adidas shoes for 4590yen, DAMMIT. I could have saved over SGD30. Rar! But i finally bought my white wedges (which was also the last pair, but i decided i'd buy it anyway since it looks rather clean) and a pair of black pumps with a stretchable strap and it's comfortable, for one, although i will need to wear plasters at the back of my heels. But i really think it's nice, so i am very happy with my footwear purchases. The only thing is how i'm going to stuff all the things i've bought here into my suitcase. Sigh.
Went to Shinjuku to look around, and zoomed in on Books Kinokuniya. We passed by Takashimaya on the way. It looks the same as Takashimaya back home. But oh man, KINOKUNIYA!!!!!!!!!!! I can't place sufficient exclamation marks to convey my love for books. I saw a newly released book which accompanies the [COMPLETE] version of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, with Sephiroth on the cover. I'd have bought it too, despite it being in Japanese, except that it cost 2400yen and HELL NO, I'M NOT THE BANK OF JAPAN. So i had to leave it with a sigh.
I also saw my beloved Junjou but i couldn't buy it cos it was in japanese and anyway i'm not the Bank fo Japan. If i were, i'd consider it. I was so glad to go to the Foreign Books Section because it's my haven. I haven't seen English books for days. By the way, Kinokuniya has a Japanese book smell. It's got to do with the paper they use i think. And it also has the typical bookstore smell, which i love. (call me weird, but oh heck. Books make me happier than anything else in the world, with only a few exceptions, like food)
I realised i've A LOT of books to buy when i get back home. Although i'm still undecided about buying Dead and Gone (latest instalment of the Sookie Stackhouse books), one reason why i would DEFINITELY buy it is because it's got a lot of Eric, according to the forums. HEHE. I also need to buy Maximum Ride MAX! Although since when James Patterson had the series split into The Fugitives (Books 1,2,3) and The Protectors (Books 4,5), i don't know.
I bought a book for about 2 dollars cheaper than S'pore. But i realised it wasn't the book i really wanted. Oh nvm. It's still a book that i like.
dinner!!!!!!! drum roll!!!! We went to Mini India for dinner. Oh man, the curry! The spiciness! Jy says i'm masochistic because i like to torture myself by eating horribly spicy food. I thought the curry rice level 4 at Coco Ichibanya was spicy, but it's nowhere compared to the Chicken Chilli with plain Naan i had at the Indian restaurant. It was heavenly. Ahhhhhh even now, i can feel like spiciness f the curry burning a fiery path down my throat into my stomach. I could write more, but it'd sound wrong and more towards S&M so let's just skip it. It's the spiciest meal i've had since i came to japan. Damn nice! And it was good too, cos it was raining and freezing cold that night, so i had a nice warm burning dinner to help me warm up inside.
Thursday:
Stayed at home because JY had lessons the whole day. Had the use of her computer the whole day. *rubs hands in glee* I finished reading the book that i bought at Kinokuniya. So sad. I should have kept it for entertainment on the plane. Oh well, i shall just watch Slumdog Millionaire instead. I seriously don't know how i'm going to finish stuffing everything into my luggage and hand-carry when i've so many things. And 2 more tops arriving on Sunday. Shit man.
Friday:
It's today! I don't know what i'm doing, except that i can use the computer while JY is gone. Though not to worry, Jy, i'm NOT using it for nefarious purposes. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHHA. *Innocent look*
Off to do other stuff now! Like housework. I am being very domestic here to pay off my room and board. Otherwise i feel horrible for imposing on JY and taking up her space AND tying a clothes line across the apartment which she bangs into everytime she needs to go to her cupboard.
The previous clothesline i tied was even more inconvenient as it separated the toilet and her computer table from the bed and the rest of the room. Even now, i still take care to bend my head when i'm heading towards the toilet only to realise that it's gone now. Haha. Talk about deeply ingrained memories.
I'm glad to be going home soon, so that JY can have her apartment back. I'm slowly but surely sterilising my presence from her computer too, and going back with not just shopping loot but also multimedia loot thanks to her beyond Godlike internet connection. Hehe. I miss my bed at home. And i miss my food back home too. Though i think when i leave, i'll miss Japan and the food and the sights and everything.
Oh JY, i'll miss your craziness. It'll be a long while before i see you again, and for only a short time if you're going on holiday. Sigh. To refrain from getting sad, i shall go plan my trip next year. Woohoo!
Fare you well,
Rude
Current Location: Japan!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/bouncey.gif) bouncy
Current Music: Nodame Cantabile
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May 2nd, 2009
10:09 pm - There and Back Again: An outside Tokyo Trip by Rude
Hogay, forgive me J.R.R Tolkien, for borrowing( in bad form too) Bilbo's tale. But anyway...i went out of tokyo! For 3 days and 2 nights!
Highlights of the trip:
1. I had a bed to myself. Slept on a super single/single sized hotel bed with duvet that was so fluffy and bouncy.
2. Had a GIGANTIC toilet which, as what my mum exclaimed about when she came to Japan ("They have special toilets! It has a heated seat and it will help you wash your butt! You can even choose the type of water spray you want, and the temperature.)
3. Food that we didn't have to go buy ourselves, but not as nice as the ones we could have gotten if we went to buy it, of course.
Hogay, now on with the story. JY and I went to this place south-west of Tokyo called Matsumoto (which as i mentioned before, is NOT the Johnny's guy. Though i did ask JY is Matsumoto Jun was born there or something and she rolled her eyes until they disappeared from view). We had to take a special bus out of Tokyo from Shinjuku station. And the bus is a freaknig four hour long journey.
So as we were taking the bus out of Tokyo, the further you go, the further the horizon that your eye can see. I saw mountain ranges and drank in the sights like i'd never done before in my life (which was true, because Australia doesn't really have mountains, whenever i go to M'sia via Johor i get sick of the palm trees and hence though they have mountains i can't be bothered. And they're not as majestic anyway.) I can't really put in words what the feeling is like because i really really love mountains and rivers and the sky . It's the inborn geographer mentality. I was like OH MAN! The mountain ranges seem to go on forever. I wish we had mountain ranges in Singapore. I told JY i wanted to lug a mountain back to S'pore but not only would it not fit on the plane, it'd totally sink the entire of Singapore because of insufficient space.
Hehe we stopped over at some place which was in the middle of the journey. They had only a 15 minute stopover so that people could go to the toilet and perhaps buy some food. I went to what seemed like the biggest toilet i've seen. Then we went to the supermarket to shop and i saw....
GASP! Furry cute Mount Fuji pouches with jelly/sweets in them. There's the blue version and the pink version and i wanted to buy but i felt it was a waste of money. SO sad!!!! I wanted to buy because it was just too adorable, but jY pulled me away and my wallet was complaining of the big hole too. Sigh. Things in Japan are so expensive. It's daylight robbery.
I am too lazy to type more. Being a lazy rude, i shall re-attempt to write about my trip some other day... like that's ever going to happen. But i did take a lot of pictures and some crazy music videos starring...eh hem. You can watch it when i get back.
Fare you well
Rude
Current Location: Japan!
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Jy NOT playing Tales of Abyss because she ain't here and i'm hogging her comp.
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April 29th, 2009
07:56 pm - I must tell you about my day!
Or lack thereof. Today was probably the most relaxing day so far in Japan because JY had school the whole day and i got to stay at home!!! Watashi no apar-to desu! Haha gets ka-bished in face for awfully wrong japanese. Hahaaha but this is amusing. I think i really need to go learn Japanese again. my japanese is deplorable.
Let's see. What did i do today? Oh well i woke up late! Actually, i woke up when JY woke up because she set her alarm clock, but i lazed around in bed and i guess eventually fell asleep because i was too tired out from the previous few days. After all, travelling for 2 hours to Disneyland is like...travelling to school in NTU except that here i'm probably traversing a distance way further than the length of Singapore.
I woke up around 10.25 am and decided to go wash my face and oh boy, seriously when i wash my face back home, i practically am not awake. Here, when i wash my face, the instant the ice cold water touches my face i'm yowling and bright awake. It's really cold. Maybe they put ice in the water tanks, just for a lark. Or something. The crows once again flew past, just as i finished washing my face and nearly tripped, going AARCK AARCK AARCK. It was such a coincidence that i wondered if they could see into the apartment despite the sliding doors being closed.
The entire day was sad, in the food department. Thankfully after dinner yesterday JY and i went to the supermarket, which says Better Foods, Good Life (or something. I'm really forgetful these days. Must be all that EH HEM Junjou) to buy pasta sauce so that i could cook pasta for my lunch and dinner. Hence, lunch would be one flavour and dinner another.
Breakfast was two pieces of bread with Nutella. I love Nutella and so i applied it liberally onto my two pieces of bread which are expired, by the way. Let's pray that there are no evil side effects to it, like bursting into a canary with yellow feathers, a la Harry Potter.
But though it was sad in the food department, the entertainment department was well stocked. I've been so wholly entertained that althoguh i brought two books here, i haven't finished either! That's like a huge achievement, if you know me. I've been busy putting the advanced internet connection here to good use, of course! Hehehehehehehehehe i shall not elaborate so much on what use i have been putting it to, but i am sure that those whom i've been talking to know all too well. HEH HEH HEH evil smirk. I love the internet here, it's so fast!
Oh speaking of fast, I opened the sliding doors this afternoon to get some air into the apartment and in came this black flying insect. I immediately went after it with a vengeance and my trusty pink towel, flapping hard to chase it out but ended up being led on a wild goose chase around the apartment instead. I think it's gone now, because it felt my scary aura. i think. But anyway, i was thinking to myself that wow, this is really Japan. They're so advanced that even their insects fly faster and dodge better than those back home. Discovery of the day! hahaha.
It's Japanese, it's definitely Japanese.
I got a tremendous shock/surprise at lunch because while i was cooking my Penne pasta with White Cream Sauce and Clam, JY and her friend came back! Before i tell you about the friend, let me tell you about my attempt to cook. Basically, JY has a white saucepan permanently sitting in the sink because it's very convenient to put it there and let it get wet every time you wash something at the sink. Keeps it clean, that way! haha. So i used the saucepan to boil water before i threw in my pasta to cook. And surprise surprise, i found myself hard put to reconcile the fact that i have a POT without a LID! SO i had to go dig for another pot from the denizens beneath her sink and found the lid of another pot which was too big to fit the pot i was using, but since desperate times call for desperate measures, I made do with it.
After pressing the button in japanese for the start button, let me just tell you that JY's stove thingy is so cool! It's the electric kind but it works by induction, so no naked flame for you to see. It's really cool. And it makes me happier cooking on it because i am scared of fire. I think that next time if no one cooks for me i will cook soupy stuff all the time because i hate the feeling of oil splattering on me and giving me boils. Urgh.
The pasta turned out quite nice. Possibly due to the fact that Japanese ready made sauces somehow taste better than the off-the-shelf ones back home, or also perhaps due to the fact that my cooking has improved! (which i HIGHLY DOUBT SO) Suffice to say that the food also probably tasted better because JY's friend and JY are both polite. Either that or their cooking skills are equal to mine and hence we're all peas in a pod.
However, i think the determining factor was actually the liberal amounts of grated parmesan cheese that i insisted on buying last night at the supermarket. It costs SGD 6.13 but it was helluva worth it because i think it made my lunch and dinner better. After eating delicious food for my past few meals, pasta is a nice change but a rather unordinary and undelightful change. Oh well, blame it on the fact that my Japanese sucks and hence i can't go out to buy food from the shops without leaving a trail of destruction in my wake. Hehe.
Jy's friend is from Shanghai, China and she reminds me of my friend from Sichuan somehow. This reminds me, i ought to go organise a gathering for the gang of friends i had in the first three months of JC. (affectionately known as Qi1 Duo3 Hua1) because i haven't seen them in ages!
Her friend's japanese is really really pro. If jy hadn't told me that her friend was from China, i'd have thought that she was local! Or maybe that's just to my untrained ears, but i think she was really fluent and she speaks in a Japanese way. Like they're very soft and gentle and polite sounding. No wonder i can't speak their language so well. i'm Rude, after all. i can't change my spots!
I decided to bathe earlier today since the sun was still out, and hopefully the water wouldn't be ice cold like the previous few nights when i bathed late at night because we reached back late after travelling to and fro from Disney and ALWAYS getting sidetracked by the Uniqlo here and there. Oh my, bathing with warm water in the DAY is just so much better than at night. And since JY wasn't around i've more space in the apartment. Therefore, watashi no apar-to desu! HAHAHAHA. *steals apartment from JY*
Dinner was a sadder affair, partly because i didn't cook my pasta for long enough as i thought it was cooked already. It turned out rather hard. And i think because the pot was too hot, the pasta stuck to the bottom of the pot so when i poured in the sauce and started stirring, everything got heated up really quickly and some of the pasta got burnt! I poured everything into a bowl which was bought from the 100yen shop. I think the bowl is really nice even though it's from the 100yen shop. Which means it's really cheap, if you bother to go look at the exchange rate.
I also couldn't stand the sink being sticky from who knows how many weeks worth of grime, so i went to scrub it. While i was scrubbing, the door bell rang! I thought JY was back even though she said she'd be late. (wow i sound like some domesticated wife man.) Anyway, taking the deeply ingrained teachings of my childhood in mind, that you must not open the door to strangers (which ranks up there with do not follow strangers home), i peeped through the peephole but couldn't see much. So with great apprehension, i opened the door.
And was rewarded for that with the cold blast of wind that blew at me when i was wearing just a tank top and shorts. HEY! How was i to know that i'd need to open the damn door! So anyway there was this delivery guy outside who was very kind and spoke in JAPANESE which i couldn't understand cos he was speaking fast. Though i could understand some parts of what he was saying (like the fact that he was supposed to deliver between 6pm and 9pm and now was past 6pm so he was on time), which was enough for me to know that he wanted me to sign for a delivery, i couldn't reply to say that i wasn't JY and i had no idea what it was about. I half wanted to reply in Malay to see if he understood. haha. Seriously, the only words i know how to say so far are arigatou, gomenasai, sumimasen, ittekimasu, itterashiai and MOST importantly, ITADAKIMASU! Haha but i doubt he'd be much mollified by me telling him the above. So when he saw me going 'ehhhhh to, ehhhh , ahhhh' he helped me by saying "You're not HJY?" so i could simply nod my head and go "hai". HAHAHA.
Then i told him to wait and ran off like a rabbit to my phone to call JY so that she could talk to him. And while i was running for my phone, and calling, which took a while, the guy stood patiently outside waiting. Seriously, the japanese are really polite! Haha i am very very amused by this whole encounter. After he concluded the phone call with JY and passed the phone back to me (in my heart i was like OH NO MORE ROAMING PHONE BILLS!) I got from JY that he was delivering the concert tickets for a DBSK concert that she bought for a friend and that i was to sign for it. So i scribbled my name on the piece of paper and collected the tickets from him and thanked the guy (which is just about the only i could do since i couldn't communicate much else)
I think this experience in Japan where i have to turn to jy for a translation every time someone asks me something has made me determined to go learn japanese when i can learn it. I hate the feeling of not being able to communicate (and hand signs are not considered communication, mind you) so i shall endeavour to do my best at mastering the language. The only thing is that learning is not much use if i don't practise, but who is going to practise with me? Maybe this is why i didn't go to japan to study, not that it was one of my choices anyway. The UK still holds my greatest love. So perhaps i will go on holiday to the UK next year after my professional attachment.
Aargh dammit the stupid link can't be found! I am trying to find a link to replace the broken link that i keep encountering. GAH. Shall go apply my research skills now, to dubious use:) heh heh heh.
Fare you well!
Will be going to Matusumoto tomorrow until saturday evening i think. Haven't finished packing yet, but will go pack now since the stupid thing ain't working.
Rude
Current Location: Japan!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/irritated.gif) irritated
Current Music: JY NOT playing Tales of the Abyss
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April 28th, 2009
03:12 pm - Random entry
Hello again! This is the non-recount part. But anyway today i ate CURRY!!! The curry i ate at Disneyland was disappointing. Hello, sweet curry= not curry. In my book, anyway.
So JY told me there's this place near her apartment that is a curry shop as it sells curry rice! Japanese curry rice. WE went there to have lunch today before visiting JY's school, Waseda which is about ten minutes walk from her place.
OH MAN THE CURRY THE CURRY THE CURRY! It's the first curry that i've tasted in Japan (i've actually only tasted it once before, but nevermind, hehe) that actually lives up to my standards for curry! It's rather easy to hit that standard, actually:
1. NOT sweet
2. MUST be spicy
I wanted to eat spicy curry, so JY told me that there're different levels of spiciness. There's normal, which is level 1, to level 10 which is like...THE standard to see if you are still alive after that. Of course i'm not that foolhardy, so i tried out level 3:) I had to pay extra cos apparent more spicy means more curry powder/spice thrown in? Yeah but it's beef curry and rice! What can beat that?
I waited for it to arrive, and watched JY eat her salad. I'm super amazed that she ordered salad, until i saw the sauce that she poured oh-so-generously over it. Haha it's a very nice sauce which i ate yesterday at DisneySea. I don't know what it's called...shall ask JY later.
oh anyway i'm typing this on her mac now cos she is in school having LESSONS muahaahha. I am glad that i am on holiday. At least i have no lessons yays! The day is getting warmer. This morning according to the thing on her laptop it said that the outside temperature was 13 degrees Celsius. On the day that i arrived, it was 11 degrees Celsius. So i guess those are the two coldest days in my life so far of the 2 decades i've lived. Wow, momentous event!
Oh another random thing: the crows here, really sound like the crows you hear in those dramas where people say something lame and the sound effect goes AARCK AARCK AARCK haha. When i first heard it i thought someone (like her neighbour) was watching a drama with the sound on damn loud. But it's really the crows! haha and when i first saw the crows flying (they're humongous here, i don't know why) i thought they were bats. I saw one flying over in Disneyland the night before and i grabbed JY's arm and said HEY A BAT! I SEE A BAT! And she was like KA-BISH LA you think batman ah! This is DISNEY! And yeah it was a crow, not a bat. Hohoho. I didn't know that crows could grow so big. This reminds me of the fact that at home, we have more mynahs than crows. And it also reminds me of the botak mynah in VJ. So poorthing.
THe botak mynah story goes like this: according to my GP tutor, that particular mynah offended his fellow mynahs. IN retaliation, they all started to use their beaks to peck at his head, and VOILA! ONE DAY HE WAS BALD!
Ok enough of random botak mynah myth. On to the curry thing! THe salad was nice. Next time i shall order either the tuna salad or the egg one or the mixed tuna and egg one. Hee hee hee. It's quite amazing, cos when i went to sit down at the curry shop, the waiter guy gave JY the japanese menu and he got me an english menu. (which also has tamil?, chinese and korean translations i think) I always thought that everything in Japan is very Japanese, which is true, as they do speak Japanese everywhere which is very 'Japanese' to me cos i can't understand it.
But in terms of the things you see when you walk along the streets, there's english everywhere! The supermarket near her house is called Santoku. I walked in to look around and it's got english words everywhere. Maybe its cos this is near her JY's uni which has got many international students, or it could also be due to the fact that globalisation is indeed really advanced everywhere. The supermarket's tagline is Fresh Food, Better Life (or Good Food, Good Life) OR SOMETHING. I can't really rmb. But i thought i'd see japanese words everywhere. I never thought i'd see Indian, Chinese, Korean, and most of all, English words everywhere!
My eyes have been opened. Oh yeah not just in one way. The japanese tv programs are really...wow. It's no wonder the taiwanese programs make me roll my eyes, haha. Since they copied a lot of stuff from Japan, i thought they made a horrible mistake during the 'copying'. But now after watching some random japanese programs on tv, i just go HUH? WTH?! haha. It's sometimes THAT weird. No wonder JY is in Japan and living happily. It's not just 'hen' (weird), it's 'hentai' (perverted) sometimes. *runs away from JY who will run after me with a carving knife. or a pin*
Okay so my lunch was so nice!!! It was spicy and made my nose run. Not bleed, okay, in case you were thinking 'nosebleed'. I wanna go back there again to challenge level 4, 5 and 7. Apparently there's also the rule that you have to 'pass' level 5 before you can try 6-10. I think they must want to save their skin from lawsuits if people die of over-spiciness. Haha. Perhaps they could add in an exclusion clause, but it'd be rather useless because if it were in Singapore, you can't exclude liability for death or personal injury. Business Law!!! I am applying all my concepts now, but it didn't come to me in the exam. Whyyyyyyyy!?!?!?! I am extremely worried about this semester's marks. I seem to crash and burn at the last part. How sad.
After lunch, we walked out of the shop but i wasn't so cold any more! Thanks to the lovely curry in my stomach, it kept me warm. Or maybe the sun just started getting hot. Who knows?
Random snippet of discovery: THE WEATHERMAN HERE IN JAPAN IS SOOO COOL. The weather predictions here are like, CORRECT 90% of the time. Unlike in Singapore, where you can predict the weather incorrectly 50% of the time and still keep your job. Hence it's actually quite good to be a meteorologist in Singapore, because there is job security from mistakes made in the course of your job. The day i arrived, it was raining heavily and the rain was COLDDDDDDD. DAMN COLD. So i froze to death walking to JY's apartment. The weatherman predicted that the next day (Sunday) would be Sunny. I was sceptical, given my Singapore experience and so bet AGAINST the weatherman with JY. Thank goodness i didn't bet money on it. Haha the weather on Sunday was indeed sunny albeit still very cold, with the strong wind almost blowing us off course when walking. But still, the weatherman is just. DAMN. COOL.
Oh yeah and back to my original story, we were walking down the road (in the opposite direction of the station) to JY's university. Their gates close to form a W shape!!! Wow. Though actually since the W has two 'valleys' in it, it sort of makes it rather easy to vault over the gate, no? Their school layout is really different from those in Singapore. We all have campuses but for NUS and NTU, it's really one separate 'world' where we're enclosed within a certain area of compound. But for them, it's more like SMU because they're a city campus and their buildings are scattered across roads and stuff. It's really interesting.
I just returned home from visiting JY's school and spent my time cleaning the whole apartment. I hung the clothes out to dry with innovative methods (shall not elaborate, but seriously innovative). I also took my futon and blanket out to sun, because it was dusty and ought to meet Mr. Sun once in a while, or they'll turn pale with dust. I also swept the entire apartment except the toilet and bathroom (which by the way, are not together, amazing!) and i FEEL SO DAMN PROUD OF MY HOUSECLEANING SKILLS.
SOMEBODY, EMPLOY ME AS YOUR MAID, GIVE ME FOOD, LODGING AND A STEADY PAY INCREMENT EVERY YEAR, and i will work for you! And i can quit my cca! And i can put 'cleaned houses from australia to japan to singapore' on my CV.
Haha. Okay i think i gotta leave soon to meet JY. So i shall update about DisneyLand and DisneySea some other time. I am feeling very very lazy And i hear the crows going AARCK AARCK AARCK again!
Current Location: Japan!
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Crows going AARCK AARCK AARCK
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10:40 am - Disneyland Narrative
I was too tired to post about Disneyland the day before yesterday. Reason was because we went crazy in Disneyland and stayed there till rather late. On the way home, we were waylaid in the station by the very captivating Uniqlo store, so we went shopping for a while.
DIsneyland Adventures! By Puffy and JY:
Okay stepping out of the station, we were greeted firstly, not by the beautifully sculptured landscapes of rolling greens of Disneyland, but by a gust of freezing cold wind that made extended icicles from my face. So we took a picture from the bridge that leads to Disneyland that had our hair flying all over thanks to the wind.
Disneyland's first sight is just....amazing. I've been to the HK one, but the Japanese Disney is just on the whole, more aesthetically WOW than HK. It's like...i wish i could support it with pictures, but i can't insert pictures here:( I don't have the cable that connects to the computer. Thank goodness my memory card now has 8GB of space muahahahahaha. So i can take pictures like nobody's business and still have a lot of space. MUAHAHHAHAHAHA.
I saw the Disneyland Hotel. It's the high-end one which is damnnn pretty and really looks like Disney. Then there's the Disney Ambassador Hotel which is the slightly less high-end one, similar to the one i stayed in in HK. But anyway if you can afford to stay in either, i applaud you. haha. We went walking through Main Street which has all the shops and merchandise. And they purposely make it such that all roads will lead you back to the Disney castle and then Main Street. You know, the Disney castle that appears with the arc thingy in all Disney movies? It's really THE castle!!!
I took lots of pictures of that castle. And pretended to walk up the steps to open the door. Which was locked, of course. So i pretended to pound on the door and wail "WHY CANNOT OPEN!!! NOOOOOOOO! LET ME IN!!!" haha with JY taking a movie of it. Oh man, the unglam things we do when we become childish. Hehe.
Everytime i saw a furry thingy i would gasp and point, with JY rolling her eyes and ignoring me even though she was next to me. HMPHF! But they have these really cute hairbands which have mickey/minnie ears which are FURRY and trust me they look really cute. The most interesting thing is, all the Jap guys who go visit Disneyland with the girlfriends are so game, they either wear the Disney hairclips with like Donald duck characters on them, or the HAIRBANDS just for decorative purposes. And that's not counting the number of guys i saw who were carrying DISNEY POPCORN buckets and other cute stuff while holding hands with their girlfriends. haha no wonder Japanese guys are in such high demand. I can't imagine any typical Singaporean guy willingly doing such stuff. They'd be like "SIAO AH SO GAY" hahahahaha. Different culture indeed.
It's Japanese, it's definitely Japanese.
We grabbed the map and planned our strategy. Because JY had been here before, she knew what rides were fun and we chionged to the Space Mountain ride first. The queue was long, so we decided to take the FastPass, which is this thing that they introduced. the HK one doesn't have it. But anyway they will indicate a timing for when you can use this FastPass (FP) and you will be able to go take the ride using a shorter priority queue. It's dispensed from some automated machine which are designed in the spirit of the particular ride you wanna take. E.g. Space Mountain FP machine looks Space-ish etc. And you can only take 1 FP per hour so it prevents you from hogging all the rides. Yeah, so we took the Space Mountain FP. Then we went to eat:)
We ate at this Curry House place called ...i can't rmb what. Some Bear restaurant. And they have sweet curry, as well as normal curry. JY ate the sweet curry and i ate the normal one, although i was disappointed that they didn't have the UBER SPICY KILL YOUR TONGUE AND STOMACH kind. Oh well, sadness. After trying my normal curry with pork cutlet (I recently found out that we can't eat pork cos there's an outbreak of swine flu, but somehow i doubt that pork in japan is imported from Mexico...) i tried out JY's cos i was wondering what the difference was.
Jy bought hers cos she thought that the sweet curry would be less spicy (when it's not spicy AT ALL, even if it's normal curry.). So when i tried it, i was amused to find out that her curry was just sweeter than mine but no less 'spicy' (or lack thereof) HAHA. I think they just add in more sugar for hers to differentiate. So now that she knows, she can buy the normal curry next time. This is seriously a good place for her. Nothing here is spicy! I am a sad Rude.
Anyway i also bought this Blueberry Mousse as dessert (besides the ever prominent iced oolong tea which appears to be the Coke of Japan) which i shared with JY. When we were carrying out our tray to the outside tables to eat. the wind was so strong it blew first our receipt, which went spiralling up the roof of the eatery, and also blew our straws away. So when we were eating the blueberry mousse, i kept telling JY to 'hold on to it otherwise it'll fly away!!!!' haha.
The wind here is like nothing i've experienced before. Now i know how they have hurricanes here and storms which i've never experienced in Singapore. It's like, the wind is very strong here. Not only that, but it's COLD. So you basically get blown off AND freeze in the process. Even when i was in Australia for autumn and they had strong cool winds there, i didn't have to layer my clothes like i do here. Everyday when i go out of her apartment i am wearing about 4 layers of clothing, which includes either a very thick fleece lined jacket, or JY's fur-lined long coat with padding inside. To me, it's like winter man.
Jy's only reply is "Winter? This is Spring. And you ain't seen nothin' yet if you think this is winter. Winter is FREEZING. Once you've been through winter, you think everything else is FINE."
I think i never wanna experience winter, if that's the case. Much as i like cold rather than hot weather, i can't stand too cold weather too. So here i am, wearing 4 layers. Please do not tell my parents that it's cold here. They think it's like Singapore weather. Which is sooo not true but if i tell them that it's cold here, they'll probably demand i fly back immediately. Or something. Like fly here to get me to fly back immediately. Which is worse.
After lunch, we went to queue for this ride called Big Thunder Mountain. Which is some roller-coaster thingy. The queue was DAMN long. It went winding in some raised platform thingy and i thought it was short at first, cos i couldn't see the way the line meandered inside the place. Then when i went in i was like WHOA this thing puts lower-stream meanders to shame man. I was attempting to take as many pictures as i could, as well as try to not be scared about the upcoming ride. I hate rides that go up and down and i will never forget the one day at MovieWorld where i took the various rides and for weeks after that felt the same plunging feeling in my dreams. Awful!
But then again, once the ride is over it's not so bad. This ride was very cool! Cos you sit in the car and it brings you through 'Thunder Mountain' which is the theme of the ride. And oh man, the design and detail that goes into creating these rides is just so wonderful. While you're travelling through the entire ride, if you open your eyes, you can see details down to the smallest boulder which is moving, and the various pools of water emitting steam and stuff like that. it's just DAMN NICE man. No wonder Disney is laughing all the way to the bank. But i think they do deserve it.
Oh and the cleaners at the park are quite cute. They all wear tags with their names on them and walk around in their uniform, which does NOT resemble those road sweepers back home. They have a cute Disney-esque uniform which would probably make you proud to be a road sweeper. They had to keep cleaning up spilled popcorn thanks to the strong wind which will blow anything that isn't tied down. JY says it contributes to the aesthetic design of the park flooring. =.=
It was good that the queue time for Big Thunder Mountain was so long, cos we had time to digest our food before we were thrown around on a roller coaster. But anyway, the ride wasn't scary. TO me, it was thrilling, but not scary like i keep repeating to myself IAMGONNADIEIAMGONNADIE, you know. haha.
After we finished Big Thunder Mountain, which was in Adventureland i think, we went back to Tomorrowland to go on the Space Mountain ride, which is seriously the best ride in Disneyland. The thing is, it's not very scary. And it doesn't suddenly drop damn far many times, which makes it good for me, because i really hate those sharp drops. It did have a lot of sharp turns and periods where you're travelling sideways, but i'm fine with those.SO all in all, SPACE MOUNTAIN ROCKS. haha half the time i was yelling and half the time i was laughing at the fact that i was either yelling or laughing. And cos you travel at breakneck speed, plus the cold wind rushing at you, you find that you always tear at the end of the ride even though you don't rmb consciously tearing. haha or it could be due to the fact that i laughed too much.
The popcorn there seriously smells nice. So we went to buy some and it cost 300yen per regular popcorn. There's the souvenir bucket thingy but it's a waste of money. Haha nice to know that although we're kiddish, we haven't exactly lost our sanity yet. We still know how to BUDGET! Cash budgeting! Raw materials purchase budget! Cash receipts budget! Cash disbursement budget! Okay ignore me i am going mad.
Current Location: Japan! Near a crazy spicy curry shop
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/hungry2.gif) hungry
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April 26th, 2009
11:29 pm - 2nd Day in Japan!
Hello again, i am like some travel blogger now. Haha but i know that those of you who actually bother reading this LJ, which is like an audience of, say ONE, will like to know what i did for today.
Basically, the day started off at midnight when i woke up and realised that where i was sleeping was super freezing cos it was on the floor and the floor is COLD. Like freezing cold. Haha i wish for my lovely bed at home! But anyway tonight i have resolved to move my bed elsewhere where there is the heater so that i won't be so cold. And i am wearing 4 layers now. i am wondering how i am going to survive when we go to Kamikochi where i think it's even colder. BRRRR! Even australia in autumn wasn't this cold!!! And this is spring!
It's Japanese, it's definitely Japanese.
Anyway yeah so when i woke up this morning around 7am(cos we have to wake up early to go Disneyland otherwise the queue is like freaking scary) and it was COLD. I could hear the wind blowing outside cos the windows were shaking. Then we went to wash up and I finally used my face cream haha. Otherwise what's the point of bringing it if i don't use it? My face is getting awfully dry. I think i need moisturiser. The wind here is so cold it's leaching all the moisture out of my face. At least i don't get the 'head is burning up' feeling here, not because i no longer have a hot head, but because the air plucks out all the heat from my brain almost immediately.
Okay i am done editing my student's personal essay. If you trust me, it's not very good. Which is an euphemism for not good at all, actually. I don't understand why some people don't know that things just aren't supposed to be written in that way?! Okay anyway ranting aside, where was i?
Yeah i woke up to find JY on her bed happily watching POWER RANGERS. Which is the 33rd season now. LIKE WOW. It's not old, it's simply the new season, though the entire franchise is damn old. And...it's quite nice! I shall go watch it when i go back to S'pore HAHA. Oh no, this is bad. But it's really quite a nice show! And their Power Rangers Shifu is acted by the Hana Kimi Vice- President of the school who always acts like a klutz. Now he's the SHIFU. Like wow, hello panda!
Okay that made no sense ahah. It's Japan getting to me. i am going crazy and becoming one of the Denizens of the Deep. Except Japanese wouldj probably pronounce it as DEEPU. hahahahahahahah. I am amused by myself.
After the Power Rangers we watched Kamen Rider. Another long-lived show. It was rather entertaining, but i am more concerned with the fact that my JUNJOU has not entered my hard disk drive yet. HEAR THAT, JY? I hope the heater is hot tonight:)
Oh and BeyBlade after Kamen Rider. Now you know the Japanese tv schedule on Sundays. Interesting, no?
Okay the we went to walk to the station again at Takadanobaba ( i am trying to pronounce it right AND fast) where we took the Yamanote Line (NOT Yamagote, as i typed yesterday. Spelling = 1 wrong boohoohoo. Oh no i shall stop the boohoohoo-ing cos it sounds like Bean) to Tokyo and switched to the Keiyo Line! And we alighted at Maihama where Disneyland is.
There were a lot of ppl on the train. Then when it came to Maihama, guess what? Almost the entire train got off. Oh! And speaking of trains, there's something very interesting. Haha everyday many ppl kill themselves by throwing themselves onto the train tracks where there are oncoming trains and they commit suicide. They can do this because
1. They wanna die
2. The trains are so on time that they can totally predict when to jump
3. They might be foiled in their attempt by someone further up the line who jumped and made the train delayed cos the train station ppl have to clean up the body and peel whatever is left off the track
I was telling JY, hmm maybe the train drivers have little to do over lunch but compare their body count. A sample conversation goes like this:
A: Hey, so what's your body count?
B: 3.
A: 3 only??? Oh yes, i forgot that you're a new driver. Haha my body count is 5!!!
Okay that's very bad. But according to JY they have Ren2 Sheng1 Shi4 Jian4 everyday. And the poor station ppl have to clean up. I think it's like a common occurence. Maybe they should not make the trains so on time so that people can't predict exactly when to throw themselves onto the track where others can prevent them from doing so.
Okay back to the Maihama. We saw the DISNEY HOTEL and OH MAN ITS SOOOOO DISNEY. The HK one just looks like a HOTEL, but this one looks like a DISNEY hotel. There is a MAJOR difference. You rmb the Disney movies where the castle always appears then this shooting star will suddenly appear in a graceful arc and leave behind a glittering, magical trail? YEAH I SAW THAT CASTLE HAHA. And everytime we walked near it JY and i were like humming the Disney theme song.
Basically, we did a LOT of stupid things. Oh! I shall elaborate on the FOOD first, hehe. I had curry rice for lunch. It's sweet and thick. Give my my Devil's curry or indian curry anytime. I want to eat curries with a kick. But JY said she will bring me to the place where they also sell curry rice with different levels of spiciness. I shall CHALLENGE IT. MUAHAHAH.
Dinner i had...oh western food haha. It was a restaurant at the Pirates of the Carribean ride. DAMN NICE! It doesn't have lights, but is illuminated by orange lanterns hung from the ceiling and each table has their own candle lamp. So we had a candle light dinner haha. The food was okay, cos i felt my steak wasn't really cooked, but the broccoli was delicious and the dessert was AHHHHHHHHHHHH SO NICE. I am fainting from the mousse i ate and the dessert from dinner. SO nice and SO pretty! Haha i never said i wasn't superficial. I go for looks. AND taste.
Okay starting from the start of the day, i shall name the rides:
1. Thunder Mountain
2. Space Mountain
3. Haunted Mansion
4. Swiss Family Treehouse (not a ride, just an attraction)
5. It's a Small World. I swore not to go on it but it had a short queue!!!
6. Pirates of the Carribean (oh man i LOVE Barbossa and Jack Sparrow!!!)
7. Grand Circuit City (dont' ever take my car if i pass my driving test. It's proven that i suck at driving even if i can't crash. But JY sucks even more so i am comforted by relativity. We laughed till our stomachs ached.)
I cannot explain how many stupid things we did. But it's all captured on image and video which you can see when i get back. Ohhhh man. It's appropriate for blackmail already i think. HAHAHAHAHAH.
I am too lazy to say all the stupid stuff that we did. But oh yeah i must say my Japanese sucks. Tomorrow we're going back to Disney, and i think i shall pretend to be MUTE haha so that i don't need to talk. At most i just nod and smile and BOW and say ARIGATOU! Haha that's all i've been doing. And the word i've heard most often coming out of Jy's mouth today is FUTATSU cos she's hanging out with me and so we're TWO. Not one. Learnt new word! Not really, but yeah. I hear it alot.
I also encountered a guy who works at the drugstore INSIDE the train station. He speaketh Englisheth! Woweth!
As you can see, i've gone mad. If i can rmb what happened today, tomorrow, then i shall update like mad when JY goes to school. If not, then too bad haha.
Fare you well!
Rude
Current Location: Japan!
Current Mood: DAMN SLEEP!
Current Music: Jy playing Tales of the Abyss AGAIN
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April 25th, 2009
08:03 pm - First day in Japan!
I have decided to post updates of my Japan trip everyday or as often as possible so that i won't end up like the Australia trip posting it halfway and then not bothering to continue chronicling because there is just too much to write.
Oh well, let's start with pre-trial preparation. Erm, i mean pre-TRIP prep. I must have been dreaming too much of my Business Law module. It's strange the way my brain organises information. It simply refuses to give me info when i need it most urgently, like in an exam, and chooses to allow random snippets of informationt o resurface at random moments, like during my 7 + hour flight to Japan early this morning.
I packed my suitcase only yesterday!!! Hence i ended up forgetting to bring some stuff, like a pen to fill in the disembarkation card with, and a notebook to write down my thoughts. So thank goodness i have internet here. But i must refrain from doing anything on facebook or my 'work' email just in case they find out that i have internet access.
Wow i can't believe that going for a trip, a well deserved trip, mind you, had to be so shrouded in secrecy. Poor poor me. I should just quit my cca. But shhh please do not tell the people that, if you know them, because they are really nice people, just that i absolutely HATE doing work even if it's simple work. That's just Lazy Rude for you.
Anyway, so i packed yesterday then spent the afternoon suddenly throwing together an out-of-Tokyo trip with JY that was totally on the spur of the moment, We decided to go out of Tokyo for 3 days to this place called Kamikochi (it sounds edible doesn't it) where there is nice scenery. And we're also going to Matsumoto (WHICH IS NOT THE JOHNNY'S GUY OKAY) where we're going to see some castle that is supposedly one of the 3 ancient castles of Japan, according to its wiki page Hehe.
At night i had trouble sleeping so i called bean for awhile. Thanks to my flight being 7 over hours and i wanna reach Japan with time to spare. I had to take the 6AM flight out of Changi Terminal 1. Which basically means that i have to wake up at THREE FREAKING AM. Jy, if you're reading this, BIG SACRIFICE!!! Haha just kidding.
Peeling myself out of bed after only sleeping for one hour, thanks to the fact that i simply couldn't sleep and i have no idea why (anxiety/anticipation) and when i finally got to Changi there were A LOT OF policemen there at the Northwest Airlines counter. I have NO idea why, but it was rather intimidating. And the policeman at my counter asked me a whole lot of questions like:
1. When did you pack your luggage?
2. Who packed your luggage?
3. Did anyone send you bobs, explosives or other devices which may cause destruction?
4. Where did you leave your luggage from the time you packed it to the time you brought it here?
5. Are you carrying any dangerous weapons or bombs or explosives?
I was like 0.0 huh where the he ll did this come from? Poor me, first time flying alone and they come to intimidate me like that. Not that i was really scared. Just bewildered at the sudden need for some extreme security. But anyway i cleared that. So i went to eat some kaya toast at the airport, which compared with Ya Kun, is NOWHERE near the standard and they dare to claim to sell kaya toast when i didn't see any trace of kaya at all.
When i went in, i thought i was early cos they said boarding was at 5.05am. So i went to the internet kiosk to send emails to various people. Then i went to dump my water. By the time i walked to the boarding gate, it was last call. Haha lots of things happen the first time i am flying. But anyway i was still in time. And when i boarded the plane i found my seat just fine.
Hey! It's not bad for it being the first time i am flying alone and only the third time i am flying by plane! So anyway, this american guy sat next to me. He looks A BIT like the french guy in Antique Bakery. So if you wanna know what my seat neighbour looks like, go watch Antique Bakery! But of course the Antique Bakery guy looks much better. And the person wasn't very nice at first. But later was quite nice. And he kept laughing like crazy at the Jim Carrey movie he was watching. So i made an 0.0 face as best as i could with my horribly sleepy eyes.
You know, the worst thing about flying alone ain't the ALONE part, it's the LONELY part. I was so bloody damn freaking bored by the time i was halfway into my first movie on the plane (Northwest has quite a good in-flight entertainment system, better than Cathay Pacific though Etihad was still best) that i wanted to grab the guy sitting next to me by the collar and yell TALK TO ME I AM SO BORED!!!
I had to survive 7+ hours of sitting alone on a place seat trying to stay awake cos i wanted to watch movies and also trying not to move around too much cos the guy sitting next to me took up the arm rest and i had no space to put my arm:(((( poor poor rude. And i also had a buttache from sitting for so long on the plane. Even though i went to the toilet 4 times in the entire flight, i still didn't have much reprieve from the buttache or the leg cramps. If I can't stand the little leg room, i really pity all those big guys out there with long legs. No wonder so many people want business class these days.
i watched The Day The Earth Stood Still, starring Keanu Reeves (looking like he did as Neo in a suit) because i wanted to watch it but didn't have the time. It was okay, but the experience could be better if only my earphones were better:( After that i really really really wanted some shut eye, but i scrolled through the list of movies and saw Slumdog Millionaire, which i also wanted to watch, and The Duchess, which stars Keira Knightley in yet another stunning period epic and Ralph Fiennes! It's Keira + Voldie. So i watched that instead of Slumdog Millionaire. I figured i'd watch it on the plane ride home. And i have a whole list of stuff i wanna watch on the way back.
The Duchess was much much better than The Day The Earth Stood Still (which i didn't get alot of it cos of the eating thing and the buttache thing and the can't really hear thing) because firstly, it's about the English aristocracy! I love reading about dukes and duchesses:) Secondly, Keira Knightley is really stunning as the Duchess of Devonshire. Apparently it's based on a true story of the 5th Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana. Her husband is played by Ralph Fiennes who's practically Voldie now, and boy was he horrible to her. So basically you'll really pity the Duchess. But i think it's nicer if you actually understand the ways of how people, especially the aristocracy lived in that period. Because otherwise some things might not make sense. Overall, it was a really good show. I'm glad i watched it on the plane! But i don't think i will buy it as a DVD. No money!!! need to save for all the books that i wanna buy and all the movies i wanna watch during this summerblockbuster season.
Anyway when i finished watching The Duchess i was really so tired that i tried falling asleep or at least just close my eyes so that they wouldn't be so tired. Then when i woke up it was about 1 hour to the destination. Throughout my entire journey, watching the flight chart at the front showing the hours to destination and the flight path of the plane, it just struck me again how true my readings for Understanding Culture and Globalisation were. There was a piece written by this guy called Ulf Hannerz ( i think) on Cultural Complexity, and he mentioned that plane rides are decomposed into simply a passage of time, rather than a traversing of distance. If you're on the plane, your whole trip is based on the 'number of hours to destination' and you hardly pay attention to the fact that you're crossing national and cultural boundaries. I really comprehended the meaning of his piece now that i have had the chance to experience it.
As JY told me just now, she used to (and still has) this feeling that when you get on the plane, it takes off and hovers, then the world beneath is rearranged in a frenzy constrained by the number of hours to destination and the people down below have a hard time rearranging the buildings to make it look like your destination. "40 minutes left! Quick, throw in that building!"
Haha I was so bored i even watched a bit of Madagascar 2. I love King Julian, he's freaking crazy. Then all too soon it was time to descend and touch down in Narita Airport. i called JY from the moment i disembarked and it was actually quite easy to navigate the airport. Again some cultural readings come to mind but i won't bore you with it. I tell you, the customs queue was sooooooooooo damn long. There was a bunch of people speaking cantonese in front of me in the queue so i thought that the whole of HK had come to Japan, only to see them holding a Canadian passport. Wow. Globalisation and migration again.
FINALLY i managed to clear customs where we had to take fingerprints and smile at the camera for a digital photograph. No idea why. But i went to collect my bag and walked out of immigration to see a BEAMING JY waiting at the gate for me. haha the big smile on her face was so hard to miss i think even if i got lost the smile would sorta bash its way through. Or something.
Then she told me that "hey, today's suddenly rather cold so i brought some warm clothes for you." and we went to the door to test the temperature. WHOA IT'S LIKE A BLAST OF COLD AIR hit my face. it's the kind of cold where if you exhale you can see your breath!!! Never experienced that before so i spent the time at the station blowing air out of my mouth and asking JY if she could see it. haha that was very lame.
We took the Narita Express from the airport to Shinjuku, then transferred to the Yamagote Line which goes to somewhere near Jy's house, which is a station called Takadanobaba. YAY i got all the spelling right! Suffice to say that i was wrapped in 4 layers of clothing and i am very very glad that my mum isn't here to check the temperature or she might think i became a popsicle or something.
Lugged my luggage through the cold icy rain and wind to JY's apartment, dragging it up to the FOURTH floor with JY's help. And wow her apartment is really cosy and nice! I'm sleeping on the floor on a futon but it's quite nice:) and i made a makeshift clothes line since JY hasn't bought a clothes rack yet. So now there's a raffia string tied from her toilet door handle to her computer table and it sort of separates her room into two now. I took a picture of it, it's hilarious. Haha.
JY brought me to this ramen shop near her house which she claims sells the best ramen she has tasted so far. i totally fail at understanding whatever they are saying so i just left it to jy to order my food for me. Though actually there's english on the menu. but the FOOD IS REALLY NICE!!! it's also the nicest ramen i've ever tasted. The ramen in Singapore...it's like ramen? what ramen? You call that ramen?!
Now i'm hogging JY's macbook and she's playing her games. But i think she should go do her essay so i am relinqushing the computer back to her. And i shall sleep early since tmr we're going to....
DISNEYLAND! LAND OF THE MOUSE! Wheeee i love Disneyland. And we're planning a UK trip next year. YESSSSS i hope it comes true!!! I really wanna go to the UK. Shall start planning and saving now.
Will update more tmr if i'm not too tired! Japan is really different, yet not all that different from Singapore and other places i've visited, which though few, still seem to capture most of the world's civilisations. Interesting times, fun times!
Fare you well!
Rude
Now JY is playing her pS2 on the tv. I think TEOYC will wish that she was here since she likes Ikuta Toma so much. The moment JY switched on the tv i saw Ikuta Toma on screen in some variety show. haha.
Current Location: japan!
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Jy playing Tales of the Abyss
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March 14th, 2009
11:17 am - Hinglybuff buff!
I'm typing this now from JY's MacBook (or at least, she hopes it will finally belong to her). It's really cool! I can't clearly list out all the cool stuff it has but i i am sure JY will be happy to do that for me. Nevertheless (remind me not to use this word again, because i used it billions of times in my Biz Law and Accounting Written Assignment and I'm now scared of it), I still love my dearest Fujitsu keyboard because it is so lovely to type on.
I'm typing this from JY's house because i stayed over last night. Decided to stay east just in case i had to be called back to school for 'work'. But thankfully even though i checked my mail late last night there was still no sign of a summons to go and contribute my services=YAY no need to go back to JUNGLE survival camp for one day!!! WHEEE!
Jy also forcedfed me Merlin. As in, she made me watch some video clips from there. They look promising. In case you didn't know, Merlin is some British tv series about King Arthur's sorcerer/helper and they are apparently gay. Scrap that , it's just her crazy imagination running wild. To protect myself from being corrupted by her, I also borrowed Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat, which i've been wanting to read for a long time:)
I think that months of not updating our LJ has seriously left me at a loss for words. I find myself hand-tied (as opposed to tongue-tied since i am not speaking) because i know not what to write! Except that my brain is being cooked thanks to millions of late nights and not being able to sleep due to work or reading or whatever. Sometimes i really hate my school's syllabus. They're driving us crazy!
I have heard so much from ppl elsewhere about their syllabus, and trust me, no one has it as bad as we do. Maybe it's really true then, that if we can survive here, IN Singapore, IN my jungle of a school, then we can survive the piranha-infested waters ANYWHERE. Didn't you hear? We have an amazing tradition:
At convocation, we actually get, in addition to our pictures taken in silly hats and flowing robes and a scroll, a free t-shirt on which is emblazoned in neon green font- WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU ONLY MAKES YOU STRONGER.
Alright, so i was kidding, but it's seriously sounding like a great idea to me! I just might suggest it to the student union or something. Hopefully they'll take me up on my offer.
Meanwhile, the projects that i have due are:
FM ESSAY 5 (urgh it's not freaking done yet!) (and due on Sunday 11.59pm wth)
Accounting tutorial presentation (NOT AT ALL TOUCHED. WONDERFUL) (due on monday 8.30am shitcrapdamn)
Communication Fundamentals peer and self evaluation (also known as CF, which can stand for great many things *waggles eyebrows*)
IT project, very confused.
IT presentation, still untouched.
FM ESSAY 2
Communication Fundamentals group presentation
Communication Fundamentals Individual Test
Accounting Quiz 2
Globalisation Quiz 2
IT Quiz 2
---All due in the next 3 weeks or so. One wonders WHY exactly i have panda eyes to the extent i look like i got punched?
That ain't all, just all that i can rmb. Oh and after we are done with all these?
.
.
.
.
.
.
The wonders of our examinations are upon us! Unlike last semester, this semester's exams are all closed-book except for my Business Law, for which it's really not much help if you don't know where to flip. And what's worse is that there are billions of formulas for the SAME things but they differ slightly in FM and ACC which is just absolutely bloody great.
You'll find that i'm ranting mainly about the bad stuff in school. Have i mentioned anything good so far? While many of my friends overseas talk about how fun and fulfilling their lives are, i am unable to identify. How sad. Is my university life going to be this sad?
I have to go now!
Ciao!
Rude
Current Location: Jy's House
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Nothing
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March 12th, 2009
11:39 am - Hello hello hello
I wonder if there are people who still pop by here seeing as it has been stagnant since goodness knows when. I think it's been stagnant since my second semester began. The tremendous pressure of school has scared me off our dearest LJ.
I am typing this in school on Bean's laptop! My own laptop is too bulky and heavy, even though i love it loads, but there are some things that love can't cure, for example size and weight?!
It's taking a long time to get into the groove of typing and wording my thoughts because right now there are alot of distractions around me and i can't think! But i can relate what happened over the past...3 hours.
Basically, today was the first time ever in my entire life that i was filmed on camera while presenting. We had an individual presentation where we had to pretend to be an intern at some company which was intending to go green and come up with initiatives to help the company achieve its objective.
I dunno exactly how i did, though i think i do have to cure my habit of looking at the screen. Bean says that i should also look more at people. But anyway, this sounds like what you're doing in business skills no? Presentations and more presentations. The reason why i keep looking at the screen is because the typical lazy rude is too lazy to memorise her script, and anyway i don't believe in memorising scripts because it leaves less versatility on the spot to be spontaneous and react to changes quickly. Maybe you can rmb that when you're presenting, though i'm sure that bias the one and only invincible lizard will be able to find her own way to overcome whatever problems you may encounter.
I'm switching between first and third person so often that i'm confused! Oh and basically school has been mundane and routine, if you count the twin deaths in my school as routine. Well, at least it wasn't like that 17 year-old German gunman who killed 15 or 16 of his fellow secondary school friends. What is the world coming to, these days?
I'm glad that laptops have screens because people sitting opposite you can't see whatever i'm typing. There is someone i totally can't stand sitting opposite me right now and that idiotic person ALWAYS likes to stand behind me whenever i'm opening my email inbox or any document. I freaking hate that kinda thing because to me it feels like an invasion of privacy whenever ppl do that. I also feel like strangling that person but i think i ought to have some kind of pity on grasshoppers. (That person looks a bit like a grasshopper or a frog. Whatever it is, it can hop. The person gives a hop-py feeling)
I think that the previous paragraph might just amuse Bean because she knows exactly who i am talking about. HAHAHAHAHAHA.
I practically took two days off doing work since i finished my accounting written assignment on tuesday afternoon and went for my CCA meeting. Guess what? I found out in the meeting that i am supposed to be a facilitator for some financial literacy camp, when i didn't even know of the existence of such a camp! Oh well, i suppose it might be fun, though tiring, and maybe if i manipulate it well enough, it can appear pretty in my CV, but that will take loads of bullshitting skills on my part.
Also, i'm starting to wish that i didn't have to join a CCA. At least you enjoy tennis and it's kinda your way of earning your keep in hall because then you get priority to stay, and it' not for your CV, whereas i must admit the main reason why i am in a CCA now is purely for the CV which might or might not turn out nice. Basically right now it's like shit and i think i'm wasting my time, especially with exams coming and all the stuff i have due week after week after week, there is no time at all for a single breather, a time for rest, and whatever time i have now to do stuff that i wanna do, like read books, is time stolen out of working time.
I shall attempt to revive this journal somehow, perhaps when i am extremely free in Japan when JY is in school and i don't need to clean her apartment or anything. I will return this laptop to Bean now so that she isn't so bored!
Sorry Bean!
Ciao!
Rude
Current Location: In the Jungle
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/apathetic.gif) apathetic
Current Music: Some random guitar music LIVE
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January 2nd, 2009
11:44 am - New year, new Rude
Hogay, there can't be much of a change in how Rude actually behaves, i suppose. After all, if i suddenly become polite that would be a horror, no? And i wouldn't be living up to my name!!!
2008 has passed. 2009 has arrived. I wonder if 2008 was on average a good year or bad? I think it can seriously be classified as 'It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." Even though i borrowed that from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, well, it really characterised MY 2008. I spent a very happy first half of the year, even though i was working, because it was a very nice time back in my alma mater. And i made some new friends too, so i was very happy. Even though there was the uncertain spectre of A Level Results hovering around, and after that, applications for university ensued, accompanied by all the hustle and bustle of course registration and scholarships, i think it was a very good first six months. Not forgetting the fact that i had never had such a long holiday before, and probably will never have again, until i retire or something. Make hay while the sun shines, no?
The second half of the year...hehehe not so fruitful. School started even before the semester started, with all that preparation with orientation camps and such, plus moving into hall and the like. My life became far more busy and complicated. Since i am not like Bias, who welcomes challenges and changes with a high degree of nonchalance, as i view change with a great bucket of anxiety and apprehension, the transition from slacker-Rude to once-again-school-Rude was not smooth. I hated school for the first time in my life, i think. Even back when i was in J2 and things got rough, i didn't hate school, because i still at least studied/did things that i liked. But now in university, i seriously have no idea where my time has gone?! All that 4 months of meetings and projects (which actually in retrospect isn't a lot, given what is being thrown at me in the coming semester) and work (which i never did, especially for tutorials. I think my tutors must hate me too. Haha.) just flew past in the blink of an eye.
I feel weird because all my friends left right and centre are having really fulfilling lives in their respective universities. In fact, they are living true to the word that university is the best time of their lives. I don't feel like that is the case for me. Maybe it's because i get more and more anti-social as i grow up. I try to avoid as much of those gatherings and stuff as i can, because i don't feel close to the people in my classes. But then again, it's a self-perpetuating vicious cycle because if i don't get out more, then i won't be able to make more friends and secure new experiences, no? Thus, one of my new year resolutions ought to be that Rude should get out more. And yet still do all the things i want, when i want it, how i want it, where i want it. Alright, there goes my resolution to be less self-centred too. Hehehe.
I think that i ought to be more actively experiencing my university life. Right now i'm like a wraith skulking in the shadow, shying away from the light. (Sorry! Too much LOTR does that to you.) It's true that once time passes you by, it never looks back. Therefore i should really embrace the Carpe Diem (Seize the Day) spirit and really make something out of my life. I want to have some achievements to show for my time in that jungle of a place, which i am sure I will not like very much while i am there, but will sorely miss when i am out in the shark-infested waters of the working world in the future.
The Rude of 2009 will also try to be more independent. I have been relying too much on my friends, like Bean, and i fear that i cannot stand up on my own. What ridiculousness it is that i can't stand eating alone in school, or walking to school by myself (when i DO stay in hall). I really ought to stand up on my own feet without help from others, because as we grow older we all must learn to be independent. School is still fine, but our lives will definitely diverge in the most unpredictable of ways, in the future, in the working world. If we don't break out of the mould that we are used to, our comfort zone, then we won't learn anything at all! I'm not saying that i cease my friendships, rather, that i ought to learn how to survive on my own too. Because this is simply part and parcel of personal development, after all. Rude must be independent! Only when i am truly independent can i trust myself to be truly dependent, because even if what i depend on is no longer dependable, at least i can stand without needing support from elsewhere. This applies to all aspects of my life, not just my friends, because i know that one day in the hopefully very distant future, i will be alone in this world without my close family too.
I must learn how to be less of a control freak in every aspect of my life. It is probably why i was so unsettled in the initial stages of university, because everything was uncertain, and i like to make sure that things are certain. Maybe i'm seriously not much of a risk-taker. Though that's weird, because i DO like adventure. (That is a different meaning from being adventurous, for the sakes of Jy and Bias-no matter what my horoscope says!, i shall be extremely specific) But i shall resolve to stop trying to control every part of my life and let things take its course. Sometimes acceptance of fate (not resignation, of course) is necessary. If you try to drive everything in your life the way you want it, it will probably turn out perfectly...horrible. I must live my own life the way i want it, yes, but i cannot make people around me live their lives the way I want them to live it. Therefore i am sorry to all my friends who have experienced my overly domineering ways in 2008 and have gotten irritated/pissed off/upset, and i will attempt to change that aspect of my character. *Bangs head against cupboard, like Dobby from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. "Bad Rude! Bad Rude!" *
I pray for good, new experiences in this new year, so that i can broaden my horizons. I pray also that i know how to work smart (and hard, but more smart than hard) in order to settle my academic obligations and maintain my scholarship, so that there is less financial burden on my parents and their financial situation is not very good. I have never been rich, but i have no intention of becoming poor. Maybe that's why i will keep giving tuition, rather than spend my time in CCAs in school. I feel that that is what i ought to be doing now. And i will continue on that course because i am committed to it, and i want to see it flourish. I shall see how the year turns out, and balance my life along the way. Oh yes, and i hope to double my bank account balance by the end of this year. Which is a lofty goal, but one that i am committed to. Maybe some of my friends think that i am too money-minded ever since 2008 began, but i'd like to think of it as growing up, and maturing to understand the considerations of what growing up means, of which financial independence is ultimately important. I think some of my friends have also gotten the same revelation as i have, and i can see them now actively trying to save money. Let us endeavour together! (A shout out to Hydrogen, JY and TeoYC, even if they do not see this.)
Actually, there are many many thoughts and reflections about the past year, as well as even more hopes and aspirations for this year. However, i think i am too lazy to finish typing out all of them, so i shall keep them in my head instead. If you wannt know more about it, you can always ask me, hehehehe. This year is shaping up to be a great year in terms of movies and shows i wanna watch...so i hope i am not disappointed!
One last comment. I can hear a loud clarion call from many people who hope that i am more polite this year and henceforth, because i am horribly scary when rude and fierce. I can also hear one lone voice in that crowd shouting "NOOOOO PUFFY, YOU CAN'T BE POLITE, OTHERWISE YOU'LL NOT BE RUDE!!!! NOOOO PUFFY! Although not strangling me would be nice, no?"
Ciao!
Rude
P.S I hope that all my friends here and overseas will experience a wonderful year ahead. Be at peace, safe, healthy and happy!
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/contemplative.gif) contemplative
Current Music: Nothing but the howling wind
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December 28th, 2008
05:50 pm - hmphf. not in a good mood.
Ever since i returned from buying dinner, i have been in an uber bad mood. Maybe it will lift after my dinner (a hungry rude is an angry rude). But i have no idea why a sudden cloud of irritation just came over me. So i am in a bad mood now.
Dissection/analysis of bad mood:
1. The year is ending
2. Gotta go back to school( although i have already resolved to be a good student who will try her best not to skip anything and also conscientiously and diligently do her work, and also study smart, not study hard)
3. There are many uncertain things in my life right now. I hate being out of control
4. I have not bought the dvd set i wanna buy--- 射雕英雄传 with 胡歌and Ariel Lin. I wanna watch! It appears to be quite good
5. I want to buy Blackadder, all five seasons of it, but it is not a good idea since the exchange rate is not in my favour right now
6. I need to earn more money for my family (and myself) because right now the situation appears bleaker and bleaker
I am irritated at having to list so many things. Some are dumb irritations/worries. But others are wholly real. In fact, they are too real for comfort, sometimes, that they might just keep me awake in the middle of the night. Oh yes, did i mention 7?
7. Examination results are probably gonna be released either 12 midnight (today/tmr depends on how you look at it) and it might not be good news. Hell, i don't even know what i classify as good news because i don't dare to think about it. University is a whole new ball game. It's also the first time that i have felt so lousy at academics before. Maybe it's because i am not studying subjects that i well and truly love, and hence excel in. I hate the feeling of failure even though i know that it's gonna be a very good friend tha ti have to get accustomed to for the rest of my life. I can only hope that my good friend failure, as well as Despair and whatever other shit negative emotions, will only drop in for a quick coffee and get on their merry way to harass other people and screw up their lives. Hehe. Vindictive little rude is back. I can almost see the horns above my head, and that cute little swishy tail sticking out back.
It's good to be able to write an entry on the lj with my usual crap and rubbish bringing out the irritation manifesting in my everyday life. I have no idea why i am so irritated with some things today. I just am. Maybe i should go read more of my primary school tutee's narratives in order to cheer myself up.
I am off to eat a (hopefully delicious) International Buffet at Carousel (Royal Plaza on Scotts) tmr. With Bean and LCY. I hope the meal doesn't disappoint, for then it'd make me...disappointed (and sad that it burned a hole in my pocket for nothing). It is hopefully with a celebratory feeling that i turn up for that sumptious lunch, for otherwise i fear, even with my enormous appetite, i might not be able to stomach so many blows at one go.
Food, food, food!
You'd better make me happy, or else i will go buy the entire of Borders. Hmphf.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/weird.gif) weird
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December 23rd, 2008
07:12 pm - Hello hello hello!
I am here to update about my annual christmas party, which some people missed. Actually, this year was a rather sad party in terms of numbers. I rmb when i was in sec 1, only the PokePpl appeared. Then when it came to sec 2 and onwards, bean came too! Sadly, this year's turnout has been the lowest yet since... sec 3 i think. Cos JY isn't here. I didn't ask Mani since i have no idea where she is; TeoYC was sick; Saili didn't dare come alone since TeoYC was sick, and Soph, MuHu and Hydrogen are overseas. So the only people that turned up were Bean, Liwei, Younice, and Bias appeared after work.
It began as a sad sad day, because my usual party on the 23rd was switched one day forward to the 22nd. Little did i know that this would bring about a host of problems. For one, my father thought that my party was still on the 23rd. So he ordered the Jack's Place cake to be collected on the 23rd. Also, my father suddenly told me that there was no gas! No gas means unable to cook any food. (Hogay, he told me he had no idea how much gas was left, but that it could run out any time) And on top of that, the HDB people had scheduled the changing of water pipes so we had no water supply from 9-5. Ain't that the most conducive of conditions you ever heard, for a party? The best ever, no? No cake, no gas, no water. Wow.
And on top of that, we sent our maid back because she was really causing my parents a lot of trouble, and who knows what else she did. So anyway, these past week i have been playing the part of the maid, cleaning the house, mopping the floor, sweeping everyday and washing clothes and dishes. It's been awfully tiring, with great emphasis on the AWFUL part. I know that every time when i have exams i say that at most i can go be a maid if i fail my exams, but i think i will have to re-think my future backup career path. It's really back breaking work. My back feels as if it has been broken in ten places, with the same torture being repeated day after day after exhausting day. It's worse than Prometheus being tortured daily in Tarturus for revealing the secret of fire to mankind, and it feels even worse than Tantalus' punishment. Sigh.
Back to the story. Since i have no maid, we have to do the cooking ourselves. I really appreciate Siti last time for being able to churn out fried rice and other types of food. After attempting to cook lunch, i can see why i am absolutely not cut out to be a chef. If i were a bystander, i'd be laughing my head off because the process was so amusing.
Firstly, bean came earliest, so we decided to cook spaghetti for lunch. After all, we thought, how hard can preparing spaghetti be? It's just a matter of boiling water, then dumping the spaghetti in water, then heating up the canned sauce, and then serving. Voila! Spaghetti!
Yeah, right. As if it were that easy.
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December 14th, 2008
07:09 pm - A few thoughts about the weekend past
Actually i have lots of things to talk about. Just that they are all random and unrelated. Here goes:
1. I can't find the address AND phone number of the tutee's house tmr. And i haven't prepared anything to teach for 2.5 hours. Great! Righto!
2. I started writing a short narrative yesterday during one of my tuition sessions with my student because i was waiting for her to finish this comprehension passage that i set. (She said she totally didn't understand it and got 3/15. Not bad, i suppose. ---I am being sarcastic here)
Anyway, i will attempt to finish writing that story though i have no idea how it will turn out. Right now it looks and reads like shit. But i have con-fi-dence!
3. I was watching Twilight the movie just now. Even though i will watch it this friday with a few friends, i couldn't resist the temptation to go check out what it was like. Thus, the majority of this post will be touching on my reactions to the movie. Spoilers ahead, for those who haven't read the book!
The beginning of the movie (besides opening credits), is a strange scene. It shows some deer hopping around (or should i say prancing, since Christmas season is near?) and Bella narrating the story of how she moved from a big town to a small town. I quote Jy's comment here, because i feel that it is most apt.
JY: What, is this BAMBI or something???
HAHAHAHAHAHA. I must say, that made me laugh. Lots of other things made me laugh too. Thanks to bias and JY, my initial love for the story/series got sorta short-circuited because of their funny/cynical/sarcastic take on some points in the story. I am not casting blame anywhere, in fact i think it sort of brings me to see the entire series from an objective point of view. While i have not, and NEVER will be, a Twilight fangirl, i must reiterate that the story is indeed worth reading, no matter how many detractors slam it.
Anyway, back to the movie. I can't really remember what happens (oh no, this is a bad sign, isn't it?) but i remember that my first reaction when i saw her classmates, namely Eric (the first guy. I never knew he was Asian!), i was... floored. Shocked. Appalled. My swirling inner thoughts repeated the litany of OHMYGOODNESSWASHEEVERTHATGAYINTHEBOOK?WHATDIDTHEYDOTOHISCHARACTER???!!!
Which translates into English as : Oh my goodness, was he ever that gay in the book? What did they do to his character???!!!
Just watch it, trust me. You will definitely have the same reaction. The Eric in the movie looks as if he has a screw loose AND is permanently on crack, because he says woozy things and does woozy stuff and looks woozy and weird.
Then of course, skip forward a bit and we go to the scene where WHO ELSE! but Edward (the main protagonist) and his family of vegetarian vamps appear. Oh boy, that was a scene worth freeze-framing. Not so much for the sheer eye candy overload (his siblings are quite good looking, though i think the father looks best, but that's just me and my old people obsession.), but because the way that Edward appears, last of all the Cullen siblings, is obviously the director's way of prolonging the fangirls torment/torture.
According to today's The New Paper, in which there is an article entitled "6 reasons girls love this guy", where the 'guy' in question is Robert Pattinson aka Edward Cullen, the above-mentioned vamp, i quote: "Edward's first appearance, where he saunters through the school cafetaria in slow-mo, was greeted with noisy hysterics from a bunch of teenage girls sitting in the middle of the theatre."
Erm, let's just say that maybe my view of that scene was biased because of the article, such that when i too encountered that scene, i burst into hysterics too, only that it was hysterical laughter, and not from sensory overload. I am sorry, but that is just the way it is. I think Robert Pattinson looks best in the film when you can't see his eyes, when he isn't moving, and when he isn't acting, or attempting to act sinister. (Which basically means if he just stands there like stone, but never mind) I just went HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA and couldn't stop.
Then, they switch to the scene later, when Bella personally encounters Edward for the first time, in the Biology lab. I'm really really really apologetic to all those Twilight fangirls out there, but i burst out laughing again. I really cannot express how funny that entire scene was, to me. It's beyond words.
There is the famous scene, in which all my friends who heard about the book before they read it (unlike me, who bought the book long before it became such a cult phenomenon. I dunno if i got a better deal, because technically if it's not so famous, it should have been cheaper. But then again if it's so famous, they will over-publish and hence it might turn out to be cheaper. The jury is still out on that.) were asking me about it. Namely, the scene in the book in which Edward finally takes of his shirt for the first time, and displays his 'sparkly' body to Bella. I knew that there was gonna be that scene in the movie, because they can't possibly cut it out, and also because, i think, hype-ing that particular scene is enough to induce rabid, screaming fangirls to turn up in droves to see the first scene (and only scene) in which Robert Pattinson/Edward Cullen is topless. Actually, not even fully topless. He just opens his shirt a bit in order to let the sunlight in, which by right should reflect off his oh-so-manly and "perfect" (i quote the book!) chest.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA i am sorry once again to say that when i saw that scene, i went "Oh, that;s it?" Because it was really anti-climactic. I think even the fangirls were disappointed. I can half imagine them going, "Huh!!! No!!! Take off the shirt entirely! What's with only unbuttoning!" That wasn't my main concern, actually, that disappointed fangirls would claw at the screen with desperate hands, trying to get more of it, but that they really didn't put much effort into that scene. For one, i was really expecting Edward to SPARKLE like diamonds. But he didn't! Such an important scene in the book, and they didn't bother putting in enough special effects to make him SPARKLE enough? I suppose it IS difficult to make human chests/stomachs really sparkle, but some effort, at least, please?
Well. All in all, my reaction was -.- and HAHAHAHHA. Which has been my reaction so far.
THEN comes the awwwww part. I was actually rather impressed with this scene in the book, because i think it managed to involve the reader's emotions very well. Naturally, i am referring to that initial (and memorable, go-down-in-literary-history kind of memorable, for fangirls at least) love confession by Edward, which involves that famous line, "and so the lion fell in love with the lamb".
I have a feeling that that line will go down in history, because the new generation of readers were brought up on Twilight and not Pride and Prejudice, and it will one day go head-to-head in competition with historically remembered ones like "Oh Romeo...Oh Juliet!" and 'You jump, I jump".
Okay, so the 'you jump i jump' thing was a little random, but i think we all know of its existence, even if i have absolutely no idea where it's from. Haha.
Hogay, let's just skip to the scene in which I had fun tweaking a little. It's a scene in which Bella finds Edward in her room for the first time, when he has actually been sneaking in to watch her sleep (that sneaky guy) for the past two months. (Imagine what a 'normal' guy would have done. *Shudders*) And so the dialogue is as follows:
Bella: How did you get in?
Edward: Through the window. I've been coming in through the window to watch you sleep for the past two months.
Bella: Why?
Edward: I like watching you sleep, it's uh...
---and then he pauses here for a while, which allows my overactive and yet sarcastic-funny brain to insert a line of my own, like
Edward: I like watching you sleep, it's uh... it's a voyeuristic tendency of mine.
Of course, he doesn't really do that. But the original dialogue from the movie is a little boring and stilted. He just finishes with "It's uh...kinda fascinating".
I think my version was so much snarkier. Who doesn't like snarky, anyway? Haha.
Okay, the rest of the movie just carries on rather similarly to the book, and it's nothing much to talk about. I must say, i felt that the movie didn't manage to bring out the best elements of the book. I've no idea if it's because of the acting (it wasn't lousy, but it wasn't wonderful, either), or th scripting, or the directing. The script feels like the kind of General Paper summary that we used to do in school, except that out of maybe 8 marks it would probably only score a maximum of 4, because it's that kind of standard where you know you have to bring out those main points, and you do bring them out, but they somehow just don't mesh wholesomely together into a fluid paragraph. Know what i mean? The movie feels like that. It feels like a lot of random, yet necessary scenes pieced together and it's on the whole rather disappointing, in my opinion. Of course, that's just me.
I am happy with some characters though. The two main lovebirds aside, and their usual I-love-you-I'm-not-afraid-of-you-no!-I'M-DANGEROUS-BUT-I-LOVE-YOU-TOO dialogue, i think tha Alice (Edward's sister) and Jacob ( my fave chara) turned out rather well. I think that the Jacob guy has got potential to be a good actor. Go go go Taylor Lautner! I pity the guy acting as Eric because i think even fangirls of the series will hate him. Poor poor guy.
The best looking, in my opinion, are Edward's father, Carlisle Cullen, and the uber bad guy and antagonist evil vamp James. I think he looks best! Plus he acts evil very well! Unlike some people, who try to act sinister, and it's OBVIOUS that they are ACTING sinister. Which defeats the purpose. Though i must say, Robert Pattinson doesn't really need to act much sinister. He gives off the I-am-Lord-Voldemort-good-looking-version vibe perfectly well. He should have acted as Tom Riddle in Harry Potter instead of squeaky clean Cedric. Though maybe it's that hidden sinister quality in him that has inspired all those HP fangirls to write evil!Cedric fanfics online. Hmmm...
That's about all the happy news for the weekend. I shall resume brooding over my pathetic and miserable next semester timetable now.
Current Location: At home smirking over the word DAZZLE
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/amused.gif) amused
Current Music: Nothing
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December 6th, 2008
09:31 pm - Another 'serious' entry
Although this is the second 'serious' entry in a row, which would make seem like i'm on a roll here, well i just felt like i should put my thoughts down. After all, one can't always be jokey and without a care all the time.
I just finished reading a book today. I was forced to read it because it was the literature text for my seconday two tutee and since i have never read the book before, i went off to Popular to buy it. Cost me twelve bucks, and it's a book that i wouldn't normally buy, because it isn't the kind of books that i like to read. However, after reading this book, it brings me back to the days of when i was in primary school, where i read books like Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe), Friedrich (by some guy whom i can't rmb. All i rmb is calling the book 'Fried Rice' instead of its proper name), The Wave, and A Proper Little Nooryeff (Jean Ure). These books all give me the same 'feel' as the one i completed today, The Outsiders by S.E Hinton.
Actually, even though Bean gave the book a huge stamp of approval, i was really rather reluctant to read the book because i tend towards more trashy storylines nowadays. They are more scintillating that other stories which deal with serious themes or try to impart certain morals and try to be our 'teachers' in everyday living. But i must make an exception for this book. I suppose that's why this book is a literature text. (I definitely know why the books i read these days will never find their way onto the "Classics" shelf in a bookstore. I am ashamed.)
Anyway, although the story is rather removed from the drone of our times, as well as our wonderfully protected, insulated, squeaky-clean environment of Singapore, i am rather amazed at how moving and poignant the story is. Not to be flip, but using death as a tool to suck readers into the story is something that many authors use, to varying degrees of success. I cried when i read The Clay Marble, Sing to the Dawn, and i teared a little bit when i read The Outsiders. It is that moving, that touching a story, to move a hard-hearted rude.
The story also lead me to think about other stuff. Much as i was feeling apathetic about my examinations just past, i also knew the iimportance of having to study and get good grades, but i trapped myself in a cycle of self pity and procrastination, which hindered my ability to constructively focus on the task at hand at that point in time, which was to study for my last exam paper. Then, the weekend before i went for my examination, i was in the car with my parents, my oldest aunt on my dad's side, and my cousin sister (daughter of that aunt).
My cousin sister was talking about how her back hurt so much that she couldn't sit up straight or move from a sitting position to a standing position. I wasn't really paying attention because i was absorbed in my book, but i did hear snippets of conversation. I found out that my cousin sister, who has polio, and hence can only walk via calipers because her legs are deformed, had some growths on her spine and these were pressing on her spinal nerves making it difficult for her to walk and get up or move around with ease. And all the time i could see the pain in her description, i also saw the pain in her face. Yet in her tone of voice, i couldn't detect anything like that. Maybe there was a little bitterness in her voice, when she said 'Why did the pain have to come now, when i am still working? Why couldn't it come later, when i have retired or something? Like ten years later? Then at least i'd still be able to work and earn money for the family."
This got me thinking hard. My cousin sister is well known in the family for being a miracle. She was diagnosed with polio when young, and she maintained a cheerful disposition towards life despite this major setback to her ability to live a normal life, as most of us live it. Then when her father died when she was barely 5, leaving her mother to bring up 3 children all alone, with one of her children having such a serious medical condition, my cousin sister still said, in her precociousness, "Mummy, don't worry. We can do it."
Now that she has lived for forty over years with her condition, smiling and laughing her way through all the ups and downs in life, having to deal with a condition that none of us can even begin to imagine, i think of what courage she has over the years, and what strength she has had to tap on in order to live through all these difficulties and trials cheerfully.
How selfish i am, on the other hand, to always make my own troubles sound much worse than they really are, in a bid for self-pity, or perhaps for others to take pity on me, when pity isn't due. Sometimes, even though the situation might not be so dire, i do find myself thinking the worst of it, or even worse, making a mountain out of a molehill. Yet when i look at my cousin sister's situation, and her having to face the possibility of a highly dangerous spinal operation which definitely won't come cheap, i find myself ashamed to have even procrastinated all that much, for complaining about how difficult my life in university is, when out there, there are many people who have a far more difficult life than me, and many of them are still gritting their teeth, moving forward and greeting each new obstacle as a challenge to be overcome.
Compared to the troubles of others, what a tiny fish in the gigantic ocean i am. It is only when you have seen the ways of others, and reflected on your own, that you truly realise the universe for how vast it is.
I cannot express what thoughts and feelings clearly on that matter. Maybe some people might think that i've gone mad, or that my way of thinking might be a littel screwed up, but seriously, i think that i should learn how to be less self-centred, so thati can view the world in a different light. After all, a change in perspective can't be all that bad. It can enrich my life more one day.
Though i know for sure, even if i say this today, when tomorrow dawns, i might be back to my old self-centred, self-righteous Rude again, instead of this reflective mood. But i do know that even if i can't keep up that open-minded way of thinking, at least having thought these through will help me to remember to stick to the straight and narrow path, so that i don't go too far off the rails into the realms of oblivion.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Nothing
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December 5th, 2008
10:13 pm - Wow this is really pissing me off!
You know, i am really happy to be a tuition teacher. Apart from being able to earn money so that i don't have to get any allowance from my parents and hence maintain some modicum of financial independence, there is also the fact that ever since i went to relief teach at my alma mater, i found that i DO have a passion for teaching, because it truly is a fun thing to do (when things are going your way).
However, i ABSOLUTELY HATE IT TO THE POINT OF OBLITERATION when some people, such as ...oh, for example, interfering mothers with nothing better to do and an unhealthy interest in the academic lives of their children, waltz their irritating way into my line of vision. It doesn't do their kids any good, that's for sure, and it definitely only earns them further enmity in my book.
Not just my line of vision. They also enter my scope for potential annihilation of existence. (I can't possibly spell out any intention to end their lives so explicitly, which is why i am winding and meandering my way around that minefield) I tell you most solemnly, if they do not REMOVE their irritating, meddling selves from my vicinity RIGHT NOW, then alright! Their kids are not going to be taught with the most of my ability to teach and impart knowledge.
While i can revenge myself on such people in other way, like the seemingly easy way of simply raising the price of my services, i was not brought up to extort money. Not that raising the price is considered extortion, but i also do not like to charge such a high price without consideration to their financial situation, though i am pretty sure it is quite good. Therefore i did not contemplate raising my fees. However, maybe i am starting to feel a twinge of regret now. After all, revenge is sweet. Hit them where it hurts the most- their pockets.
In the end, in this practical and realistic world, you can't afford what you can't afford. Based upon that reasoning, if you are unable to afford the 'hefty' tuition fees for you dearest kid, then why even bother trying to secure a tuition teacher? This is a simple principle, of course. But naturally, we all know that there ARE idiots in this world. Who knows, they just might be sitting next to you right now.
Meddlesome parents are a dime a dozen. I have encountered one in the mother of one of my tutees previously. She is irritating and controlling and i truly pity her brilliant daughter who has to be saddled with such a narrow minded, exacting and demanding mother who will one day simply smother rather than aid her development into full bloom. Such potential is wasted because of such dominating mothers (or parents) and it is really a sad story for future generations to mourn. Where are the days of old, where parents gave their kids free rein, at least in terms of academics, and it was the children themselves who spurred themselves on into the realms of success?
I am not advocating that parents ignore their kids, or neglect them. Simply a reminder that in the future, i hope that people of my generation will be smarter than these stupid predecessors who have made such dumb mistakes, and not consign another generation of children to disaster, to premature stress, to hyper-and-unhealthy-competition, or heaven forbid, child suicides. It is not an unimaginable consequence in today's world. And while those parents i mentioned earlier may not be as bad to the extent that they drive their kids to suicides, they do drive teachers, and other onlookers like US, to lament the impossibility of freedom for their poor pathetic children.
I am once again glad that i escaped the jaws of tuition in my pre-university days, not so much from my individual brilliance in the academic field, but more due ot my absolute obstinacy in allowing my parents to hire a tuition teacher for me. Sutbbornness aside, there was of course, also laziness involved (but that will be a story for another day) Much as i am a tuition teacher, it doesn't mean that i condone all those parents who send their kids for tuition just for the sake of joining the Joneses, because that is an ineffectual way of ensuring your child's intellectual development, if you ask me.
My last rant as to why i was so pissed off? That idiotic woman called me and wanted to settle the final details of when i would traipse off willingly to her house like a sheepdog without brains and give her daughter tuition. I have absolutely no problem with her daughter. In fact, i would have preferred it if i could have handled the entire transaction with her faughter, who by now is an almost EIGHTEEN year old, definitely capable of making her own decisions. However, sadly for that poor girl, she is either content to let her deplorable mother keep her underfoot, or she is being tugged by her mother's puppetstrings and hence unable to have the autonomy of making decisions for herself. In the past few months that this tuition deal was being negotiated, i have NEVER even heard a single PEEP from the daughter about her own wishes. If everything is done and arranged by her mother, then what is the use of having a daughter with individual ideals, personal will and OH MY GOODNESS, a healthy, working brain!
Her mother actually REFUSED to give me her daughter's phone number, insisting that she be the middleman. Wow, i feel as if i just entered Mafia territory. Maybe i should get my Mafia friend to help. But anyway, she gave me her house address and also attempted to give my directions by bus. I will give her allowance for the fact that she doesn't know how streetsmart i am, but seriously, if a tuition teacher (or any adult with a working brain) doesn't know how to find her way to the house from just the address and a STREET DIRECTORY alone, then they aren't worth paying that money to, in my opinion. DOES SHE THINK THAT I AM AN IDIOT AND I NEED TO BE SPOON FED DIRECTIONS??? Especially the, "Oh if you don't know how to get here ah, then you drop at that bus stop and ask those people walking around. They will know where my block is one lah." Well EXCUSE ME FOR MY ENGLISH, but that IS part of the reason why I am going to be your daughter's GENERAL PAPER tutor. Hello???
P.S and one last thing about irritating mothers. Is it any wonder why, when i was EXTREMELY bored to the point of ...well, boredom, that i started looking through my handphone's contacts list and was puzzled to find a contact entry labelled as 'Irritating Piece of Shit', only to realise that in a fit of irritation and anger sometime in the past, thanks to ANOTHER beloved counterpart who was irritating as hell about her daughter, who is another tutee of mine, kept calling me EARLY in the morning to discuss details of tuition timings which had ALREADY been decided???
Looks like that entry is going to have a companion soon, known as 'Irritating Piece of Shit 2"
Rude.
What can i say? That's my name, AND my nature.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/pissed.gif) pissed off
Current Music: Nothing
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November 29th, 2008
10:18 am - HELLO HELLO HELLO WORLD!
OH well, okay so i know the world doesn't see this lj, which is good. But given my ego, haha it's fitting, no?
Anyway, HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!!!!!! Can't you hear me bouncing up and down already? I'm sure you felt the ground trembling. Yep, that's me! :):):)
Actually, holidays are much awaited and much treasured...to me (and the billion other people on this planet who have to work or study. We share the same pain. Sigh.
I figured i should update since our lj has been on extremely long hiatus ever since the exams started. Not that i studied much for it and hence am not going to do well, but oh well, what's done is done and cannot be undone, right? So all i can do now is to indulge in the dvds and books and whatever else i have bought. As well as catch up on my readings of the Economist and Fortune (even after all that degeneration of the brain, i still read stuff that might potentially cure my brain cell depletion! Go me! I am such a good girl. Awwwww) and news too.
I think i need to sleep more too. This holidays must not be full tilt shopping and feasting and going out and buying stuff (even though that's been the pattern so far...) because
1. I am BROKE
2. I am tired and i need my sleep
Therefore, my dearest self, please remember to sleep early and wake up late!!! And not stare at the computer for too long, or worse, not sleep at all ! (Like what i did last night) Man, my living habits are all gone to hell.
In other news, I want to renovate my room! Not so much as hire someone to entirely make it over, but more of maximising my current space so as to find more place to put my stuff and remove the things that are falling apart, or have already fallen apart since the day i inherited the room. Seriously, i don't understand how my parents can actually stand living in this pile of never changing, decrepit looking furniture and STUFF! I can't find a word more all-encompassing than stuff because my parents keep things all the way from the '60s, or at least, that's what it appears to look like. And all these stuff have no use whatsoever, yet they are keeping it. If i had my way (and sufficient money, of course), i'd refurbish my entire house and make sure that loads of rubbish are thrown out since they never see the light of day anyway!
I can't stand living in a dirty and old and ugly place! I will rearrange the stuff in my room so that the next time anyone sees it, it will appear different (and hopefully better) and i will feel happier living in such a space. After all, it's MY room and i should get to do whatever i want with it, no?
I have to go now to sleep. Too tired since i didn't sleep much last night. I think over the years, i've accumulated sleep debt which amounts to years.
Ciao!
The Rude is Back!!!
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Stupid drilling downstairs
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September 22nd, 2008
07:53 pm - Long time no post
Wow, i really haven't been here in a long time. It's holidays now! Though with the amount of shit work and assignments and projects and whatever not due after the one measly week break, it's not a holiday at all. In order to escape from reality, i have taken various steps to achieve my goal.
My first step was to go to the library to borrow books. As of saturday night, that is, one day after i went to the library, i finished reading 2 books! As usual, i read damn fast, but i somehow can't translate that amazing power into reading and understanding my textbooks fast. That is sad.
My second step was to continue watching this show that i had started watching online, which has 32 episodes and in less than three days i have watched till episode 25. Now i am at episode 30 part 4 which means i still have 2 episodes and one part left to watch, before i finish that series.
Third, in order to keep escaping from reality, i make my overseas friends call me to talk for hours about the state of drains and other drainage systems in and around my house, as well as the drainage systems overseas. After analysing for hours, including doing much research over the internet, including sites such as wikipedia and youtube, we have concluded that the drainage systems of the world have been dreadfully constructed, seeing as there is much slime preventing anyone who falls into drains from climbing quickly and efficiently out of the trap.
Fourth, i have also resorted to RE-watching this anime that i watched last year during my A Levels period, and mind you, it's DURING my A Levels, during which i finished TWO seasons of the anime that has in total 78 episodes. All this while trying to escape from the reality of integration and differentiation and sum to infinity. Wow, i really should have become a psychologist so that i can psychoanalyse myself. I think that anyone trying to psychoanalyse me will have a field day. Good luck to them. Oh, and the anime is at times sad and at times cheerful that I have weird mood swings due to this anime. But it is nice:)
On top of all these! I have also been typing this entry in the hopes that it will buy me some time before i have to face the fact that i have a billion things due and a million thousand things to prepare, research, type up and study for. Oh great. Here comes my world crashing down around me again.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/sad.gif) PANICKED
Current Music: KKM audio track which is playing in the background
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September 2nd, 2008
09:53 pm - Haha good luck trying to understand this
Dear Waibin, I don’t really know how to tell you tins, but I’ll join the monastery. I think I realized it when I saw the shrunken head and I saw you ignore Manchester United’s goalkeeper. I’m sure you’re scarred enough to understand that your Honda sucks. I’m returning your memories from the military service to you, but I’ll keep your neighbour Martin as a memory. You should also know that I told in my confession today about our friendship. Good luck on your short term leave from jail. -Rude
Haha confused? Anyway here's jy's to go with it.
Dear (i dunno who this is) I don't really know how to tell you this, but I'll join the monastary. I think I realized it when I changed tennis shoes with George Bush and his wife and I saw you sit on my mustard souffle. I'm sure you're ashamed enough to understand that Santa doesn't exist. I'm returning your ring to you, but I'll keep the results of your blood sample as a memory. You should also know that I never openly mocked our friendship. Go burn. -Jy And look! Here's younice's! Dear Whoever, I don't really know how to tell you this, but I'll join the monastery . I realized it when your dog ran amok In your closet and I saw you castrate my penpal in Ghana. I'm sure you're masochistic enough to understand that we're cousins. I'm returning your ring to you, but I'll keep your neighbour Martin as a memory. You should also know that I always wanted to break a new life as a clone. Go burn And bean's, of course! Dear Whoever
,
I don't really know how to tell you this, but I'll join the monastery. I think I realized it last year outside of Chicago and I saw you pull the toupee off Manchester United's goalkeeper. I'm sure you're ashamed enough to understand how awful I've felt. I'm returning your ring to you, but I'll keep David's tricot outfits as a memory. You should also know that I never openly mocked to hate the Boston Celtics.
Good luck on your short-term leave from jail,
-bean ( Haha this is how it works )
Current Location: Home! Happy though there's a stupid sprained ankle in my way
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Nothing
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rudebias's journal