雲の上に。

...i've moved.

I will still be keeping this blog, though. (:

...should I move to Livejournal?

It feels funny to listen to Evanescence again. I just randomly picked a CD. Recently I started liking Within Temptation but I don't have their albums. Their songs are like rock songs with Celtic touches to them.

Yeah lots of things have happened lately, both happy and not-so-happy. I went to the zoo with Faith on Thursday, and we spent a lot of time on the swings instead of looking at the animals. It was a happy trip even though it did start to drizzle and all the animals were lethargic and kept on sneezing (which was kinda cute though). Hmm okay except the Baboons and the Black Bears. They fought a lot.

I think the scariest "fight" which we witnessed was when two Baboons, one of which was one of the Leaders there, started quarrelling. I think the other was some sort of "wife". The big "husband" baboon sat there saying nothing and just looking ahead, and then the female kept on shouting and scolding him. He looked damn pissed off lah! Finally he couldn't take it and bit her on the neck, and it hurt so much that the female could only gape in pain but no sound came out. Her expression looked almost as if she were about to cry. But then later without a word, they patched up and she helped the big guy take out fleas from his fur.

After that, it made me think how similar humans are with the monkeys. (I mean, I guess all living things have things in common too, but at that moment I saw it in the baboons.) Other than the facial expressions, the way they move and sit, the way they quarrel with each other. And I think baboons are better people than us.

This is a video during the Polar Bears' feeding time which I captured:

Sheba is waving :DDDD (Actually I believe it's because she has seen the zookeeper holding up the fish hahhhh.) Inuka wil be sent away when Sheba passes away.
Then I met up with Yana on Saturday, and we took this photo with her camera!
CLICK HERE.

We went to Bras Basah Complex and had a good spree at Popular for stationery xD And I finally tasted たこやき again! 幸せの気持ちなぁ〜〜　ありがとう for the presents, Yana! <3 Oh!! We went to the Central Lending Library and Yana helped me find Daughter of the Forest! After 2 years. X_X

The other thing is that on Friday, I went to work as a store assistant at Chinatown. I have a feeling that the boss never meant to keep us at all. And that day, I learnt what prejudice is. Anyway they were quite 不守信用 because they went back on their promises and selfishly made decisions. Yeah I know in business you have to be selfish, but in the first place, don't employ us.

Sometimes I think that things like trust, pride, unity and all those cheesy words, they don't mean a thing for survival anymore today, because today, MONEY=SURVIVAL. Maybe it's because money is a universally understood thing, so everyone prefers to survive through it, and not risk any other way, since humans are afraid of the unknown.

New Year fireworks at Esplanade Waterfront 2007. Apologies for the shaking because I wasn't looking at the screen more than half the time. (Who would?!) 花火がすごくきれいよ〜
Quanmin and I never did plan to go look at the fireworks, and to me, it had not been the start of a new year. I felt like there were no new goals, only the passing of each day. But then I got tempted by just the mention of fireworks, so we met Jiawei after that, and went off to the Esplanade.

It was unpleasant at the start, stuffy, crowded, and having a terrible time navigating through the 'tai-tai'-ish crowd. But when the fireworks came, it made us forget all that. Except, it all came back when we were making our way home. Anyway, the TV crew was right in front of us, and they was kind of a source of entertainment for having to wait two hours for the fireworks display.

As we made our way home, the crowd was impossible. The Singaporean kiasu-ism spirit began to heat up. As we were making our way into the Esplanade through the tiny door, the crowd behind us got so excited as though they were going to rush for some goodie bag, and started pushing until I was wondering if they would push so hard that the glass walls would break.

I think one of the amusing things about life is that the funny things we see in comedies actually happen in real life. Like people living in the apartments above splashing water onto the people on the street! -sylvia dodges. xP It kind of pissed me off when it happened, but thinking back on it makes me laugh.

But it all felt surreal the next day. Like as if the fireworks were something of another world we entered. A sort of momentary bliss which evaporates the instant that last spark disappears.

I couldn't get sleep last night, thinking about a few things. 例えば．．．
一、仕事の事。
二、大学の事。
三、私の未来。
四、人生の意味。
五、サイレント・ヒウール (Silent Hill)

I didn't watch the whole show, but my dad was watching it, so I caught the last part while having dinner (that was kind of gross). Even though Sean Bean was inside the movie, I don't like watching gruesome movies. I think the thing that scares me is not about how gruesome all the splattering flesh and blood is, but the fact that it surrounds religion, again. (Okay, I'm not very sure about this, because I never caught the whole movie.) I was sort of disturbed by 「The Da Vinci Code」 too, even though I thought it was not really a good movie, because of the extent to which people can do horrifying things because of religion. And I don't know how a beautiful religion can have been made into such terrifying motivation when interpreted by different people.

Ballad of the Pimp (Japanese) - Maya Miki and "Jenny Diver"; The Threepenny Opera

My Reading List 2006
1. 金田一:鬼火岛之迷
2. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
3. 改造野猪 - 白岩玄
4. lighthousekeeping - Jeanette Winterson
5. Ten Nights of Dreams/Hearing Things/Heredity of Taste - Soseki Natsume
6. The Beggar's Opera - John Gay
7. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
8. Princess Diaries 6 - Meg Cabot
9. Princess Diaries 7 - Meg Cabot
10. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
11. The Knight's Tale - Geoffrey Chaucer
12. Fortune's Slave - Fidelis Morgan
13. The Little Prince (re-read) - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
14. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
15. The Fellowship of the Ring (re-read) - J.R.R.Tolkien
16. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

It has been a most unsatisfying year for movies but a rather satisfying one for books. :) I don't read much, but I greatly enjoyed what I've read this year. And I shamelessly tell you that I cried after The Little Prince and Charlotte's Web. The most page-turning books were Fortune's Slave and Northanger Abbey.

Surprise, surprise! I just said that a Jane Austen novel was page-turning! I mean, yes, I love her novels, but at the start, whenPersuasion was my very first Austen novel, I didn't appreciate as much as I do now, and to me it had been a bore. But only after studying it with a little more depth did I realise how amusing Austen's novels are.

I finished Northanger Abbey last night (past midnight, rather). It wasn't exactly a romantic book, ("...though Henry was now sincerely attached to her, though he felt and delighted in all the excellencies of her character and truly loved her society, I must confess that his affection originated in nothing better than gratitude, or, in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought." -Northanger Abbey) but it was certainly an amusing one, filled with Austen's usual sarcasm, irony and anti-climatic sentences added to the end of paragraphs. I caught myself smiling to myself quite a few times while reading, and totally enjoyed that feeling. (:

It wasn't as easy for me to sympathise with the heroine in this novel as compared to Anne in Persuasion, and....I don't remember why. But only after she was removed from Bath and gone to Northanger Abbey did I subconsciously sympathise with her quite suddenly.

Northanger Abbey holds a very different overall tone as compared to Persuasion or maybe even Pride and Prejudice. Maybe it's because the heroine is pretty young, at 17 years of age, but the writing style seems to be faster, more forceful, more "openly" energetic and more "directly" opinionated. (I mean, of course Austen shows pretty strong opinions in her novels but she wrote it more openly here, without needing to read between the lines sometimes.)

It's not my favourite plot (to which, the back of the book cover had a description not exactly more than half true) but it's still a good read. I nearly picked up Sense and Sensibilty or Emma, the seemingly more heard-of titles among Austen's novels but Northanger caught my eye and after I read the description of it I decided to buy it. I felt cheated by the description! BUT still, I liked it. It's funny. Really.

And then I read Charlotte's Web, for the first time, when I'm past childhood. While I was watching the movie, there came a point when Templeton told Wilbur that he was to be killed and eaten in Winter, and this little boy wailed VERY loudly in the cinema, crying out, "NOOOOOOO!" until his mum had to carry him out of the theater. It was a very..."broken" film, as though they were just visually translating the book, (whatever the book said,they just put it up, without a good enough flow or a nice, constant pace) but the part which saved it all was when Charlotte was about to die, and when Wilbur went home and they all looked up at the corner of the door where shreds of Charlotte's web still remained. I was about to cry, but from the corner of my eye I saw my dad looking at me (and I later found out he really was trying to catch me crying! ) so I decided to hold it. Grrr. That was one of the two things which saved the movie. The other was its soundtrack and credits. IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL SOUNDTRACK. The movie was only an hour plus long. They didn't really focus on the issues which would strike older readers/viewers more - like the part about the Queensborough Bridge (something like that) and the thing about spiders' web being miracles themselves, so I guess the target audience was KIDS. They really just visually translated the whole thing! Without any emphasis on any scene except when Charlotte was dying!

"Why did you do all this for me?" he asked. "I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you."

"You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing."
-Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White

Is it safe now?
Try and stop me.
-'Closing In'; Imogen Heap.
ps: GOMEN! To Vicky and Ruby, for not meeting you two because something cropped up. :(

Virgin Birth For Komodo Dragons: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061220/sc_nm/britain_dragons_dc

すごいね〜 And what perfect timing for such a discovery so near Christmas! (Except, mating their own mother...?) Reminds me of the song 「Ordinary Miracle」 by Sarah McLachlan, which is on the Charlotte's Web soundtrack. At first when I heard it, I didn't know why the song was titled "Ordinary Miracle", until I read the book:

'Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider's web?'

'Oh, no,' said Dr Dorian. 'I don't understand it. But for that matter I don't understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.'

The world is full of miracles which we don't see!

I'm going to catch the movie on Friday with my dad. (: PIGS. I hated spiders before I read the novel (which is why I can't stand to play the Chamber of Secrets PC game anymore), but after I read it, I got to admire spiders, even though I still don't like them.

Caught 「太陽の歌」 with Vanessa yesterday. (I refuse to acknowledge that the title is translated into MIDNIGHT SUN!) But it was quite disappointing. Although that 「Ｓｔａｎｄ　Ｕｐ！」 guy was quite amusing with his バカ faces. I kept wanting the toilet though, which was really frustrating. We had cakes at TCC (again hahh!) and stoned for a while... It wasn't the movie I was looking forward to, actually. =x Just wanted to do some catching up. I felt quite sad that after As started, we never got to see each other anymore. (I mean, yeah we see each other in the exam hall and say 'good luck' but that doesn't count!)

Been wanting to exercise but there's always some reason which stops me from doing so. And I feel darn bad to Faith. Really. I owe you a favour for having postponed it again and again.

I don't think I'm getting 「I album」 , because I am entirely broke! I owe people money... ごめん！！

Tomorrow's the dateline for the fanfic contest so I better finish it off later! But when I read it and I think of the storyline, it's not...just not up to my previous "standard" (if I even had any!) I think I read too much of Jane Austen and Charles DIckens and Tolkien that I started to concentrate on details and became too longwinded. I can't work with word limits.

life is like a gift they say
wrapped up for you everyday
open up and find a way
to give some of your own
-"Ordinary Miracle', performed by Sarah McLachlan; Charlotte's Web OST.

　空風の帰り道　−　Ｍｒ．Ｃｈｉｌｄｒｅｎ

Random start, but I was thinking of using yaplog, since it has 5gb of space and OMG MAGICAL MAKER. But then they have a character limit of 5000 for each post, and for this long-winded お婆ちゃん here, it's definitely not even half enough. And I feel attached to this fc2 blog already.

edit: check out my new photo blog. <3 It's not exactly a "photo blog" entirely, but yeah, more of photos with people in it. ...because I like to use the agical maker function. xD

I met Vicky, Cindi and Sky yesterday! 本当にありがとう！　It's really the best birthday outing I've had in a decade. LOL. And thanks for the presents. すきすき！ ごめん！ I was so shy and quiet when I first met you all! We ate at Ramen Ten, and had cake at TCC (is it called 'The Coffee Connossieur'...?) 美味しい！！！

Cindi works as a tour guide, and she gets to bring Japanese school boys and girls around Singapore.. LOL she shared her experiences with us and it was SO SO SO HILARIOUS! (And, er, as expected, I burst into my usual laughter again. ) LOL and then we were talking about fanfics, and Vicky was telling us about a deserted island story.. HAHAHAHA that was darn funny too xD

Oh and I really liked the Nobuta candle-blowing activity. Cindi drew candles on the tissue (shucks I forgot what it's called) and after i made a wish and blew out the candles, she covered the candle flames with another tissue

Guess what, I bought another dress. Can you believe this? OMG. i've been spending too much on clothes. Anyway this one is entirely black, with a red belt. It actually looks like my brown one, the first dress I ever bought, except that this belt is hard and the one on my brown dress is a self-tie ribbon. My mum didn't scold when I got home, can you believe that? I was staring at her, waiting for her to scold me and she didn't. Speaking of buying stuff I also bought a Kinki Kids poster HAHA. And guess what, although it's small and unofficial, it's actually my first KK poster. X_X

We all went to take purikura at Heeren:




*For Vicky Cindi and Sky, the original scan sizes are here(click to enlarge):

MY FACE ALWAYS LOOKS THE SAME LAH. I am so so so UNcreative in poses. We messed up a little on the first machine, and in the end we all got very huge purikura prints xD But it didn't matter, because who wouldn't mind having another go? xP (Honestly whenever we go out in a group of at least four, there's NEVER such a thing as taking neoprints at only ONE machine.)

The nicest thing about fangirling/fandom is actually not the part about "drooling" over pretty boys. It's the community. (: You have no idea. x)

The Shores of the Swilly - Sinead O'Connor

By the shores of the Swilly, two children at play
The king of the castle, the queen of the may
Just me and my sister, in a world of pretend
Where the sun would keep shining, the day never end

By the shores of the Swilly, now with kids of our own
Another year over, and see how they've grown
Then we'd watch the last sunset, and walk arm in arm
Till I see you next summer; God keep you from harm
And if I was a flier who crashed now and then,
she would put me together and fly me again.

And if I was a flier who crashed now and then,
she would put me together and fly me again.
By the shores of the Swilly, with an aching inside
I'll watch as her body is raised from the tide
Her life has been taken, and I'll never know why
but I feel in that moment, a part of me died
-to my grandmother, and to "Eomer".

In Dreams
(sung by Edward Ross)

When the cold of winter comes
Starless night will cover day
In the veiling of the sun
We will walk in bitter rain

But in dreams
I can hear your name
And in dreams
We will meet again

When the seas and mountains fall
And we come, to end of days
In the dark I hear a call
Calling me there,
I will go there
And back again
It always brings tears to my eyes. A reason not to skip credits. (: And also Ben del Maestro on Forth Eorlingas and Minas Tirith:

(I couldn't find the Minas Tirith track on radio.blog.club.)

Harmony of December - KinKi Kids

乾いた北風が　ひゅるり落ち葉を集めてる (The dry north wind gathers the fallen leaves)
「今夜は雪が降りそうだね」うれしそうな声で ("It seems like it will be snowing tonight (da ne)" (says) a voice which sounds happy)
いつもの公園に　今日は静かな夜が来る (Within the usual park, today it'll be covered in a quiet night)
つないだ指がとてもやさしい　ふたりきりの温度 (Our intertwined fingers are especially gentle, from the warmth of us both)

ふと気づけばいつも隣で笑ってる (Unexpectedly I noticed someone who was always beside me smiling)
僕の心に咲く花 (A flower bloomed in my heart)

君に会いたい　いま会いたい　離れた一秒も (I want to see you, right now, even if we were only separated for only one second)
僕の想いは　夜空彷徨う白い羽根さ (My thoughts are wandering up to the night sky on white wings)
君を抱いて　羽ばたいて　永遠よりも彼方へ (I want to hold you ___________, longer than forever (?!) )
消えないでいて　この恋よずっと (It cannot be erased, this love is forever.)

忙しそうな街に　埋もれない優しさがある (in the busy streets there is an unburied gentleness)
道を行き交う微笑み見ると　(Walking along the streets to and fro (??) many smiles were seen)
良かったなって思える (I thought, 'That's great na..")

君の願い事が叶うように僕は　(Your wishes were sent to me (????))
そっと守っていくんだ (I quietly protected them)

君に会いたい　いま会いたい　離れた一秒も (I want to see you, right now, even if we were separated for only one second)
僕の想いは　夜空彷徨う白い羽根さ (My thoughts are wandering up to the night sky on white wings)
君を抱いて　羽ばたいて　永遠よりも彼方へ (I want to hold you ___________, longer than forever (?!) )
消えないでいて　この恋よずっと (It cannot be erased, this love is forever.)

何度もキスを重ね　12月を奏でよう (No matter how many times we've kissed repeatedly, in December 'it will be played' (??!!))
君との日々に　僕は生きているよ (On the day I was with you, I was born)

君に会いたい　いま会いたい　どんな言葉よりも (I want to see you, right now, more than any words can express)
そばにおいで　君がいるなら　ただそれだけで (Run to me*, I only wish for you to be here, that's all)

君に会いたい　いま会いたい　離れた一秒も (I want to see you, right now, even if we were separated for only one second)
僕の想いは　夜空彷徨う白い羽根さ (My thoughts are wandering up to the night sky on white wings)
君を抱いて　羽ばたいて　永遠よりも彼方へ (I want to hold you ___________, longer than forever (?!) )
消えないでいて　この恋よずっと (It cannot be erased, this love is forever.)

乾いた北風が　ひゅるり落ち葉を集めてる (The dry north wind gathers the fallen leaves)
「今夜は雪が降りそうだね」君とふたり…uh ("It seems like it will be snowing tonight (da ne)" You, and just the two of us.)

shucks my translation sucks like nobody's business. makes me feel like taking proper lessons. But what about Italian? How on earth do you translate Japanese into English where it ends off with a 「だね」？！ It's like, something you understand but just can't explain it in words. And * it's not really "run to me", I think it's more like, literally translated, "come to my side/come beside me", but in English it just sounds.........weird. And what's 「12月を奏でよう 」？ Shucks. Help.

In the future when I change blogskin again, the translation probably can't be seen because it's coloured in white x)

Skyちゃん said that in this performance on Music Station, Tsuyo had a sore throat and his voice sounded husky and weak. And as usual 光ちゃん expresses his constipated voice! LOL. Jk. (: Waiting to watch the rest of Music Station.

Anyway.

...

"Merry!"
"What!"
"...I'm hungry."
"Pippin! "

this is a very random edit:
someone posted this thread entitled "BEST Sounding Language?" in A-Baka, and I realised I haven't written on this in my blog yet, so, being the lazy girl that I am, I decided to post my reply in my blog too. xP For some reason, I felt that this post was the most "out-of-place" of all I've posted on A-Baka.

i think that's kinda hard to answer. cos... like what Kazanko mentioned, every language is beautiful in its own way. There are things that another language cannot express, like Chinese and Japanese can say "Jia you!" or "Ganbatte!" but in English you can't 100% perfectly translate that. (You can't say 'add oil' or even if you say 'you can do it', it's really not the same still.)

but if not for comparing beauty, my favourite languages are English, Japanese and Italian. English, for me, is because , er, yeah I speak it, and I love love love <3333 English literature. It's like the language comes alive and hits you in unknown ways. =x

For Japanese, well.. other than JPop, I love the Japanese culture, so therefore, the language as well. I love how Japanese songs can paint hills and skies into pop tunes and ballads and various other types of songs, unlike, for example, Taiwanese boybands (no offense) who sing, "I love you, you love me," etc etc. For people like me who have not entirely grasped the language, on first hearing it sounds like those i love you you love me' tune but then when we really sit down and 'try' to translate (of course as mentioned there is no perfect translation), we realise they sing more than that! <3

For Italian, I feel that other than just plainly romantic (oh but they sound lovely in love songs!) I think to me it sounds really passionate (of course, different people see this passion in language differently, because it is really up to each individual to define). I fell in love with this language after listening to Josh Groban's songs and watching Roberto Benigni's films. (Only two films though.) There is a passion in Josh Groban's voice in his Italian songs, and when Roberto Benigni speaks of the bird in the forest etc etc, this one bird can be spoken of so passionately, so greatly, that it is no longer a bird, but a fascinating creature woven out of the passionate voice and beautifully magnificent words of Benigni in Italian. (:

wow i didn't mean to write such a long post. but yeah inconclusion there is no ONE/TWO/THREE/ANY NUMBER of language(s) that is/are the most "beautiful". After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder xP therefore i guess it's more of like, what's your favourite language. yeah. ^^;

That colour in the background always reminds me of Anne Elliot. It's like a sort of dull and melancholic yet rich and elegant red, full of suppressed passion, waiting to be polished into a bright, flamboyant red. Just like Anne. (:

I got that Snoopy figurine from some store in Wheelock Place which sell ultra-adorable collectibles. (: How could I pass up on a Snoopy collectible? xP That red leather diary book at the back was bought from Kinokuniya. The entire book is so... so...Literature-ish. (Tell me a better word to use. )

And a photo I captured at Orchard Road:


-photos by Sylvia;
entirely unedited.

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

...the whole quiz was only on the Majjor Arcana cards...? Anyway, I got this from Kelly's blog. xP OMG I miss sis-in-law!

Suddenly feel like reading up on Greek mythology again. It's fascinating :DDD But I don't know what books there are on it, and I don't exactly like the jumbled up information online. The Illiad is still untouched in my cupboard. ...because I'm reading LotR now. And hey I want to read the original fairy tales too.. after Louisa told me that they were never meant to be so beautiful and bright in actual but were modified for children. Wow.

(on the Fool tarot card)

The conventional explanations say that the Fool signifies the flesh, the sensitive life, and by a peculiar satire its subsidiary name was at one time the alchemist, as depicting folly at the most insensate stage. When The Fool appears in a spread, he would be a signal to strip down to the irreducible core, and interrogate whether The Querant’s self vision is obscured. It may also be a warning that significant change is coming.

Some comparisons can be made in universal literature, the Fool would be considered the youngest son or daughter who accomplishes great feats despite the older siblings apparent better position. Cinderella, Psyche, Cordelia (from King Lear), all the third sons of kings in fairy tales who succeed when their older brothers do not; the Grail Knight who may be destined to locate the Holy Cup, where greater and wiser men have tried and failed; the one teetering at the edge of Nietzsche’s abyss, at the cusp of dreadful knowledge that will pull him or her out of the cave or even Hamlet before he decides to embrace his destiny.

There is a dog who appears in most versions of the card. The dog, for example, would symbolize the natural world, one path to knowledge and a valuable ally.

Although it cannot be seen in all modern cards, The Fool is often walking off a cliff. This raises the question "Is The Fool making a mistake, or is The Fool making a leap of faith?"

A quote: Gandhi said once, “If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of Truth, you must reduce yourself to a zero.” The Fool can be seen as that Zero who can swim in the deeper waters up mentioned.

Another issue surrounding the fool is "Who is calling him The Fool?"

Lol, I scrolled down and read the last 3 paragraphs and was thinking of King Lear immediately. Then I read back on the previous few paragraphs and caught King Lear' and Cordelia's names there. x) Ever since I started studying Literature and getting to know Shakespeare's works (shamefully, I have ever only read three of his works and have seen none on the stage itself, but only of videos), my admiration for fools grew. (:

But my favourite character in King Lear would have to be EDGAR! <3 At the start I didn't have a good impression of him, because he was gullible, and did what he was told to do. At that point, my favourite character was Cordelia. But as Quanmin said, throughout the whole Lear experience, Cordelia has appeared just a bit too perfect. Still, I love Cordelia. One of the scenes which moved me to tears even just from reading the script was when a gentleman came in to report Cordelia's response to the letter to Kent. Even though we do not hear and see the action from Cordelia herself, just from the gentleman's speech, we can see Cordelia trying to suppress her feelings and the immense pain she felt at that moment.

I grew to like Edgar more during the A Levels. LOL. Queer timing. But what touched me was when I did the context question, out of not wanting to attempt the essay questions, I analysed and re-analysed Edgar's speech, and I wish I could have time to weep. (Darn I sound so emo.)

Edgar:
Come on, sir, here's the place. Stand still. How fearful
And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice, and yon tall anchoring barque
Diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge
That on the unnumbered iddle pebble chafes
Cannot be head, it's so high. I'll look no more,
Let my brain turn and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.

Edgar takes such great pains to describe the non-existent cliff to Gloucester! (I could have read into it too much, but as Mrs. Gan says, reading itself is a creative process. =x) It's as though while he is supposed to sound scared, we can hear this tinge of pain in his voice. While he describes the cliff, it sounds so far down, "so high", but yet so near because of the references to "beetles" and "mice", which are small not because they are far away, but because they are in comparison to humans small. This seems to parallel the distance and relationship between Gloucester and Edgar, because Edgar is so near yet so far, as he is right beside his father, but he cannot reveal his identity to his father.

While Edgar speaks, his speech gradually changes into verse form, and it makes him sound much softer when in his father's presence, and we can see that he has gone through a learning journey of self-discovery, which he is trying to help Gloucester get through as well.

Although Edmund is really charismatic, by the end, Edgar is better loved and more attractive (in my opinion) because he needs no pretense to conjure up those magnificently beautiful and impactful words -- they come from his heart, whereas Edmund plays his charisma to his advantage to gain power.

So far, this is my favourite Shakespearean play, and the language is so powerful, the images so vivid, that they could make me cry any moment even when I am in the best of spirits.

...hmm why did I suddenly plunge into a discussion on King Lear?

I don't think Chinese characters would show up so I print screen-ed instead.

I took lots of photos recently (as in, not of myself, but of stuff I bought etc), but I'm lazy to edit and post them up.

My dad got me that dress from Pull And Bear which reminded me of Tsuyoshi, but I didn't get the purple one though (which would REALLY have been Tsuyo-style!) because I think the brown one suited me more. Purple was just a bit too loud. I never seem to look good in purple. Every single time I go out with my dad I feel guilty because I spend without thinking! Get me a job so I can give my parents money.. Guess what? He bought me December's Duet magazine! Uwaaa. And then we went to Daiso and he picked up this cute froggy ashtray for himself and I got random stuff like bells and 和風 origami paper. And my mum actually sponsored $50 for that dress.. Deep down inside I was really touched. Not for being able to buy that dress, but for my mum actually wanting to pamper me deeeeep down inside. Suddenly the dress became really insignificant as compared to this feeling.

Boo. I really want to earn money and pamper my parents now.

I have been addicted to green tea recently.

Oh, and I went out with my gang, minus Esther cos she was sick , on Thursday, since Waiyan had to fly off to Hong Kong the next day. We had lunch at Sakae Sushi, haha. I want some more.

Estherrrrrrr, we haven't gone to Vivocity together yet.

But for now, I have overspent in merely 3 days. It's the post-As spirit.

兔ちゃん tours the kitchen!

-photo by sylvia.
당신은...나는 바보입니다. - Goong OST

Adult onlies see that the experience of growing up as the only child has given them many positive qualities. They're capable, reliable, a good friend to others, sensitive, thoughtful, considerate, organised and responsible. And some themes have emerged very clearly too.

As children, most wanted more children to play with and were fascinated by larger families. Very few rebelled in their teenage years.

The intensity of the child/parent relationship, its potential invasiveness and lack of privacy has often led to feelings being locked inside. As adults, many have difficulty now expressing deep feelings in close relationships. Despite the independent image, they are still emotionally dependent on parents, or their memory.

An issue that looms large for everyone who has not already lost both parents is the loss of the last one, leaving them alone with no one, with whom to share family history.

The loneliness of the only child comes full circle.

[http://www.onlychild.icom43.net/]

Only child have this tendency to have just a few close friends and do not have as socially intense lives as others. It's true that maybe we suffer no less or no more than the people with siblings, but in this world where the world is cruel and would possibly leave one alone, it's terrifying for only child to think that they might be abandoned and left alone to the world one day.

Why do you envy us as only child(s)? I have heard so many people tell me, "You are so lucky! You are an only child! You can have everything you want! You don't need to fight with your sibling!" Does that really sound so fortunate? Actually, some of us secretly think the opposite, we think siblings are blessings. So what if they piss you off for stupidly minor things? At the end of the day, there's still someone there. But when you're an only child, all the gold and diamonds in the world won't replace that loneliness. Then tell me, what's so good about material gains? When your parents don't understand, who do you talk to? Of course there are friends, but they are not immediately there, and to throw every single thing on them, isn't that unfair?

So can you all just stop saying "you are so lucky because you are an only child"? Are we so lucky? I'm not saying that having siblings is lucky, but that it's a little bit more comforting to know that you have other people there along with you.

Oh this is darn funny xD

HAHA. There are other funnier ones such as the Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin ones.. "Get your own room." LOL.

Was feeling lonely so I started to talk to myself through doodling again and I drew this! :D
other sketchbook doodle(s):
[Chae Gyung]
The song I used for the previous video on messages to my classmates was 「空風の帰り道」by Mr.Children. I liked that song so I, er, tried translating it... It's not very good, because I never really took Japanese lessons but generally this is what it means.

空風の帰り道 (A Dry Wind Blows On The Way Home) - Mr.Children

空っ風が吹いたから(A dry wind blows)
少し手をつないで歩こうよ (We walk a little while holding hands)
花や草木に習い僕ら(Following the flowers and plants we)
かるく揺れながら (Lightly sway along)

昨晩見にテレビの中 (Last night I saw from the TV)
病の子供が泣いていた (A sick child was crying)
だからじゃないがこうしていられること(it is not the reason, _________)
感謝をしなくちゃな (I am thankful)

今日の日が終わる (Today has ended)
また来週に会える (We’ll meet again next week)
「さよなら」は悲しい響きだけど (“Goodbye” has a sad sound to it but)
君とならば愛の言葉 (With you it’s like words of love)

悔やんでも嘆いてても (Even if we _____ or moan)
時間は過ぎてしまうから (Time has passed by, so)
花や草木に習い僕ら(Following the flowers and the plants)
黙って手を振ろう (Quietly we waved our hands)

今日の日が終わる (Today has ended)
また必ず会える (But we’ll meet again)
「さよなら」は悲しい響きだけど (“Goodbye” has a sad sound to it but)
僕が言えば愛の言葉 (I say it as words of love)

空っ風が吹いたから (The dry wind blows)
ポケットに手を入れて歩くよ (I walk with my hands in my pocket)
花や草木に習い僕は (Following the flowers and the plants, I)
向かい風を受けて (Feel the wind blow against me)
一人でバス停まで (Alone at the bus stop)
空っ風の帰り道 (On the road home when the dry wind blows)
ソメイヨシノ - Domoto Tsuyoshi
(Wow I haven't listened to this album in MONTHS.)

Lots and lots of random photos!
I guess I kind of missed summer (er yeah it's summer all year round in Singapore huh) so I played around with my camera, yukata and windmill. xD Ididn'twear the obi so it's all loose! xP The railing photo was taken at Vivocity. I think the outside is my favourite of every place at Vivocity な〜 And the origami dragon I made is really disgraceful can !! But I still like that photo anyway.

ふふふ〜 I miss using my camera... 早くよ、I want that photo outing with Loulou and Esther... Maybe along the way we can go to Fort Canning Park or something (the one near Liang Court) and catch an old ah peh sleeping there Or Bukit Timah, or wherever with pretty things to take photos of!

I miss fish roe sushi at Meidiya... 食べたい！！

Ooh time for dinner.

Un Dia Llegara - Josh Groban

PS...

You're lying right!!!! This looks entirely like TEGOSHI!!!
(It's Yul from Goong by the way.)

わぁぁぁぁぁぁぁぁぁぁぁぁぁぁぁ〜 Somebody stop me from changing blogskins! I still like my previous though.

I'm almost done for European History. That is, content-wise. But I am so dead for econs and SEA History! Super tired. And I'm still slacking. When am I going to learn? Some miracle might save me. I feel that a laminated certificate isn't "life" but it is for life, no matter how unfortunate that is. What's my 12 years of studying going to churn out?

Guess what? I'm addicted to Goong!! I must be the last person in my clique to have got hooked onto it (hm except Wai Yan, but I don't think she likes Japanese/Korean dramas). But I forced myself to stop at the third episode because I needed to finish up Russian Revolution. Oh, and do a bit of Econs. I actually think that when Yul gets emotional and looks at the ground, he looks like Tegoshi. The same baby face xD

When I look at the Jyannis boys, I get motivated to study, because even people like Tegoshi who hate studying can get into Waseda! And Sho at Kei-o and Yamapi and Keii-chan in Meiji University... Then there are people who never 'completed' their education (is it ever possible to complete education?) have made it... But when I think again, the people who have gotten into these top five Japanese universities have worked a hundred times harder than me, and even if they couldn't go to university... They were in JE already, they had a pretty much stable job and future (as long as they don't do anything wrong), and they don't have to worry. Or else if -touchwood- they had to pick another path, they would probably be well-trained by the challenging industry. University for them is an alternative route.

But for me, it's almost the only route. Because there's nothing I can really do other than studying, at present. Then I ask myself, why am I not working harder? In this world, to survive, you have to be useful to society, and not yourself. I don't know, people say you can fulfil both, but it's not that easy, is it?

Youthful Days - Mr.Children

見て見て！　アリスのファイルよ！　きれいでしょう？　紀伊国屋に見つけたんだ。　すごく嬉しいですよ！
I bet there's grammar mistakes in there but who cares?

I'm having a bit of a cold. I guess it's because of the weather, it's been raining recently.

I went to Liang Court to 勉強 with みちゃん yesterday! 楽しいです！ We met "big shot" people haha. And also a person who talked really loudly when she was talking about 「Ｄｅａｔｈ　Ｎｏｔｅ」, as though she was showing off that she knew a lot about Death Note. HAHAHHH.

At 紀伊国屋 we saw 「Ｓｎａｐ　ｎｏ　Ｓｈｉｎｇｏ」 and Tsuyo's photobook, both of which could not be opened to be browsed through...

<--this will forever remind me of MASSU. HAHA! The ブタ-lover.

When will お金 drop from the sky so that we can get to 日本？？！

Boo I really admire (yeah correct word to use!) みちゃん’ｓ 折り紙 cranes! Darn. Let's get that 折り紙 book and after our 大変 times we can have some sort of er..... 折り紙 festival! Haha! I want to fold that onigiri. It really amused me to no end. Heh.

山下智久 doesn't smile in photoshoots anymore... Actually, I kind of missed his skinny face.

We were at 明治屋 before we went home, then we paused and heard KinKi Kids Pretty old songs, but very happy too ! We heard that song that goes, 「愛されるよりも．．．」...something like that. And yeaaaaahhh there was Jetcoaster Romance which I secretly like a lot! It makes me really happy. Oooh and not forgetting 夏の王様。 「オエオエ！」(To which みちゃん replied, "Oh eh 个屁啊!")

Random Things:
1) I want to watch Sample Bang again.
2) みちゃん only just knew recently that Uchi was imitating Winnie the Pooh on 堂本兄弟！ -akira SHOCK-
3) I still want to write fanfics.
4) I always manage to miss NaNoWriMo every year. (National November Writing Month)
5) I forgot the hand actions to News Nippon, Kirameki no kanata E, Teppen, Venus and Sakura Tasuku Uta.
6) I miss watching Shounen Club.
7) I miss the Nobuta season when Pi kept acting drunk/baka on Shounen Club.
8) I miss baka Jin.
9) I am still convinced that Ueda is a girl.
10) Happy birthday to both Koki and Esther.
11) I got Hiro-chan's file for my birthday present! (From みちゃん!)


12) I owe her two years' worth of presents.
13) Tell me who kept saying 「まじで？！」 Was it Pi?
14) KEN-KEN!
15) I miss calling Tammy "Mrs.Yamashita"!
16) Read one of Shige's jweb entries on Binan No Nikki, and Keii-chan gives the most amusing road directions. x)
17) I miss reading jweb entries ! Used to read every one posted up.
18) I miss Keii-chan!

Before I end, I want to say...
OMG I WANT 「Ｈａｒｍｏｎｙ　ｏｆ　Ｄｅｃｅｍｂｅｒ」 single!
Yeaaaahhhhh it sounded more like a 春 song. But it's okay, I love KinKi Kids' songs like that. (:

　虹を見たんだ　そこで世界は変わった。
(僕らの音　−　Ｍｒ．Ｃｈｉｌｄｒｅｎ）

* read it from right to left.

"So what if you fall down?
You can still stand up again, isn't that a good thing?
When you fall down, look at the sky
The seemingly endless blue sky is above you
Can you see it smiling at you?
I'm stil alive."
-木藤亜也

I cried when I read this in 「一公升の眼涙」。 (Sorry for the lousy translation, but if you understand Chinese, then fantastic, ignore the translation! )

GP was an entire flop! That must have been the worst AQ I have ever done in my life. But it is over. Our next war is on next week's Friday, prepare your guns PENS!!!

I'm getting cold hands and cold feet. I don't know what's going to happen after this whole struggle is over. I try to tell myself, there are other things I can do even if after the effort, I don't make it through. (I hope I do make it through, of course.) A certificate isn't everything, money isn't everything. But no matter what I tell myself, I know that deep down inside, I am not so flexible and open-minded.

I don't want to think that I have wasted 12 years of studying. I want to tell myself that it was a very amazing experience because throughout, I had the chance to study my favourite subject, Literature. And my feelings about Literature being my life has never changed.

And I want to pursue it. I want to go deeper into books. But this strange 'new' world is so obsessed with a piece of laminated paper that we have all forgotten the joy of studying. We are like loyal fans (to put it in a nice way) of glossy, "majestic" certificates which we wear as our masks. When we glue it to our faces, no, we NAIL it to our faces, people drool and go, "Ooooh you're an extremely intelligent person right?" And of course, the grades and quality of masks vary.

In any case,
翔ちゃん、やまぴ、けいいちゃん、お願い！Please pass your べんきょう spirit to me!!