Saturday, December 30, 2006

Year in Review 2006

This looks pretty interesting, and it gets me to go look back all my past blog entries for the year~ Yes, another meme ahead.

Write down the first sentence of the first entry in the past twelve months:

I had a chat with a very good friend of mine, let her remain anonymous. She wanted to apply for SEP so she asked me for some tips. I finished watching 40 episodes of 天龙八部 this Chinese New Year. If I were Roman Abramovich, I wouldn't buy over Chelsea Football Club. Remember I said in some previous entry that I'd be watching Stalingrad this weekend? I just got back from Straßburg or as the French spell it, Strasbourg. 24 Weird Facts About Me. I first read something about it on someone's blog, but that person never stated much, not even what happened, just that something happened. Hello, I'm on my housemate's computer. It's quite misleading to title this as Wubai's concert since there were extras like Zhang Zhenyue and MC Hotdog, but anyway, I was there for one sole purpose, WUBAI. The groom is the son of my grandfather's tenant. After a long tiring day, she slumped down into her seat on the public bus for a one and a half hour journey back home during the peak hour. I'm feeling so sucky today that I can't get any studying done.

12 sentences there~

Movies Movies Movies

Before I start with my little double movie session, I'd like to share with you guys my first review written for IMDb.

Colic
I happened to chance upon the trailer and I thought that the premise of this story was a very fresh and interesting idea and the film seemed pretty interesting, that prompted me to catch this film without reading any prior reviews about it. It was only after watching the film and having a good impression of it that I read some pretty bad reviews about this film.

The premise of the film is very interesting, incorporating the supernatural and medical research to create a very real feel to the film. And there's a strong plot which sadly quite a number of horror films lack. The acting and emotions of the lead actors and actresses were very well executed, and their love for their child and the extent they went to protect their child was very touching. The supporting cast was very likable, which made the twists of the film very sudden and very shocking. The background music aided in the suspense of the film and provided an eerie enough atmosphere.

One thing different about this horror film that I liked is the tone down on the use of 'ghosts', in place was just the effects of the supernatural forces. I also like the use of in-your-face graphic images which was also something scary, and horror-filled on its part. The style of the film reminds me quite like The Eye.

In all, I feel that this is still a good film to recommend and a fresh change of the usual horror films palette offered.
***end***

I wrote this entry because of this review by A Nutshell Review. Luckily for me I read his review after watching the film, and hence did not fall for his almost inaccurate description of the film. I sure was glad I watched this film and I'd put it alongside The Eye as one of the better horror films, and I'd put it at the first place for my favourite horror films, but that's because I haven't watched many. It's still better than the likes of The Ring, Dark Water which are the better ones already. I shan't even mention here the crap ones I've watched. I felt compelled to write the review because I was afraid that the only review up there was a misleading one, but as I checked the user ratings, it seemed like I'm the only person who felt that the film was good.





At time of this blog entry being written, there were only five votes and one of them is mine, and it's very obvious which one is mine from the demographic details of the voters, thank you very much. It shows very clearly that yours truly is 18-29 and live outside the US if you take the presumption that this person here is a female. Maybe it's because me being a female that I could feel more for the emotions of the film, especially of those of the different characters caring so much for the baby. Guess it's some kind of maternal instinct. Did I mention I got my A- on my film module from writing my exam comparing the kampongs of Bujang Lapok and Homerun, and issues from Eating Air, and without any studying and watching those films only once and it was during the screening times instead of like right before the exams. wahaha~ I think I shan't be studying anymore~

Anyway, I thought it was quite surprising that Colic seems to have been screened only in Singapore, either that or the Thais don't visit IMDb. Still only for five Singaporeans to vote seems to be a little too few based on the amount I think Colic spent on promoting the film. wah lau, the trailer was on TVMobile so often that I even dreamt of the film based on some premises of the trailer lor, not even of the film, merely the trailer only.

Okay, put this aside, I still have two more films to talk about. I went for a double movie session with my sister because our mother had movie vouchers, I can't really call it a marathon since it was only two movies, but it was indeed fun watching movies and not paying for it. The films we chose we major releases and was clearly selling out on a Thursday afternoon even. damn... Don't these people need to like go to school or go to work? I hate it when there are so many freaking people in the shopping centres, worse when these people are irritating ginna-kias who make a lot of noise and can't behave themselves. Kids should neither be seen or heard man, they should be locked up at home doing assessment books. yea yea... I have much disregard for kids.

Night at the Museum

I saw the trailer (yet again on that green channel called TVMobile) and the cast of Owen Wilson attracted me. It's quite a furore online because Owen Wilson was uncredited for reasons yet known. I still have great dislike for Ben Stiller, as much as my dislike for other actors of that genre (see Stephen Chow), but I thought the crass humour for this film is very much toned down than his other films such as Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers. The premise of the film was also very interesting, almost magical, like a dream come true for all history students or history lovers. I think there was a time when I had imagined myself to be in that position, to be able to communicate with people from the past to get to understand them better. But of course, the execution of the film was lame, as usual since most of the plot is devoted to the main premise, the building up and the climax twist was lame. But still it was an enjoyable film, for one to relax a while and forget about everything else.

Larry is your typical comedy lead character, sort of like Jim Carrey's roles in his comedies, divorced/separated, the ex has a new guy in her life and that guy is in every aspect better than the protagonist. There would be a son or daughter somewhere, but mostly it's a son, the child loves the father but is continually disappointed by the useless father. Enter the plot, the protagonist suddenly becomes someone interesting, the plot twist, the child is no longer disappointed, the protagonist either gets a new girl or gets back together with his wife. It's a happy ever after ending.

But the pull factor of this film unlike other comedies is the visual effects of the main premise, the effects of all the stuff coming to life in the museum and that was the one thing I really liked a lot.

***spoilers ahead***
The T-Rex was damn cute, just like a playful dog. He likes to plat Fetch, he even behaves like a dog listening to his master. And the part he played at the end, leaving those tracks in the snow was plain hilarious.

My favourite was of course the Yankee leader and the Roman leader. Their rapport was so there that they just crackled me up being there. They were miniatures so the special effects made them look so small and cute and Larry in contrast was a giant, which they played to that effect with Larry. It was funnier at the end when they made up to complete that task, they drove a remote controlled car over and across the snow, crashed that, and came crawling back in the deep (to them) snow. They were so chibi, so kawaii~ yea, and Owen Wilson was so shaggelicious.

The Easter Island stone figure was also quite cute with him "gum gum" and "dumb dumb" talks. I like the part which he shouted to get the attention of everybody in the museum by saying something like "my dumb dumb wants to talk". lol~

The whole cast of the characters appeared in the film were really good, and the part of the pahroah was also very surprising. I think the most surprising part was that he was so good looking, and he spoke English ("I went to Cambridge" haha...). Attila the Hun was also damn funny. I think all of them are really good.

But I hate Dexter. Don't ask me why, I hate characters like that.
***spoilers end here***

For the magical experience of seeing history come alive, and seeing the shuai shuai Owen Wilson, and all the punch lines, I give it 3/5 stars. I haven't decided if I should rate it a 6 or 7 stars for IMDb but it'll be along those lines.

After a short rest outside the cinema, I got myself a jumbo hot dog combo for the next movie. I tell you why I hate some people so much. The woman in front in front of me was so sua ku, she was about a middle aged auntie with ginna-kias but I didn't see those kids. She ordered quite a lot of stuff, took out some money and wanted to pay, but after tabulation it turns out that the money she took out was not enough and needed to take out some more. She held up the queue for so long just for us to see her digging out some change. wah lau... I hate hate hate people who hold up queues and are so bloody damn slow. But she was not the worst lor, the ginna-kias in front of me were lagi best sia. They were about 12 years old, a very rough guage since I'm bad at this, two boys one girl, one boy was paying. He order the special combo set then at the last minute decided to add in nachos too, but after the tabulation of the price, he realised that he did not have enough to pay for everything, the other boy and the girl for some reasons unknown to me did not want to pay or had no money with them too. So that boy had to return the nachos. I was like wtf, want to buy stuff makes sure have enough money la. Kids like these should just go home and watch TV instead of paying to watch movies man, can also free up some cinema space for other people. grr...

Death Note: The Last Name

One must watch Death Note the understand the sequel. It's also better if one has read the manga to understand the concepts and premises of the film. Hence, to all manga fans, I must say, all the reviews for this movie are all bullshit.

I was so disappointed with all the film reviewers (I don't think they are honorable enough to be called critiques since their minds are so narrow) who can't understand the premise, or can't see the the connotations of this premise. I think some reviewer at 8 Days called that a teen flick with dangerously dark premise. Number one, it is not a teen flick. It is what anime/manga fans come to call it as live-action and one of the most difficult made for film kind of manga adaptation. For the film they have even made the characters older, in the manga they were high school students, but in the film they were university students. They are not young. Their age is such because that it the norm for manga. Nobody reads manga to see characters over the age of 20, nobody, period. I think stupid reviewers just don't understand the cultural differences. Somehow, I somewhat think that the first mentioned reviewer for Colic above would lie in the category of this mainstream reviewers. I guess there's a generation gap between the old and the young.

Number two, it is an adaptation of something that is already very immensely popular, and if one doesn't understand the popularity of the original, there is no way that he can understand why the Death Note franchise is not a flick but a blockbuster.

I also have to counter the point of views of the reviewers that the pace of the film is hurried. Of course it has to be hurried. To consolidate like 12 volumes of manga into two movies has just got to hasten the pace of everything. But this is not unintentional. Like most other made for film anime/manga movies, there is a presumption that one has already read the manga before watching the film. Remember the cultural differences that the ordinary reviewer cannot understand.

Really, the magic of Death Note is that unlike most live-actions, this was tastefully done without looking like a cosplay event. The characters were real, even more real than the manga or anime figures. The choice of actors and actresses were also good. I love Fujiwara Tatsuya, he was the Shuya in Battle Royale, it's seems so magical to see him all grown up now.

I don't know what has that Today reviewer has against the premise of this film, for one, I think that this premise is very interesting and of course naturally one which is very dark and there's a lot of creative room to play around this premise, hence this manga series. Really, if there was such a killing weapon such as the Death Note, what would one do to it, and how is it that it can be made to its fullest use? Maybe the only flaw in the movie was the emphasis on the battle between the two geniuses. For a manga and anime, it's possible to focus on that because of the difference range of audience. The movie audience just has too many lau kok koks who think that have two kid geniuses too ego tripping for them. bah~ Stupid adults.

Really, if there was ever a battle between Kira and L, I think I'd be in the Kira camp. But of course, as Kira is but human, he also errs. For a Kira to be really perfect and kami-sama like, he shouldn't have taken on the bait by L and started all his killings of the police people. Of course, killing his girlfriend, attempting to kill his father, making use of the Shinigamis and Misamisa, I guess those are all his failings as a person.

Then again, it's also because of his failings that we can see Light as a person rather than as Kira. And we can like him for being a person than a Kira. Oh well...

Going to watch this film with my sister is a bit of the hassle since her brain works so slowly that she can't keep up with the story even those she likes it a lot. She kept asking me questions about the Shinigamis and the Eyes and the part when Misa when "Yagami Tsuki?". Still, in all, I gave it 9/10 on IMDb, the only failing is that the film consolidated all the Ls into that Ryuzaki one person (I know, they don't have the time), and all the squashing of infomation into such a short amount of time.

Now it's back to the anime~

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

That Time of the Year Again

I have been off the loop, I know I have been, but I didn't know I was so off the loop until just now. I glanced through my MSN list and noticed that my friend's nick was saying about something to do with the bidding of modules. For a moment I thought he was talking about advanced bidding. But the unease in me grew stronger the more I thought about it.

So, I asked a friend the question. When is bidding starting?

Guess what the reply was? Okay, if you are a student unlike me, you'd already know the answer. BIDDING STARTED ALREADY!!! wahahaha~~~ Luckily it was only round 1a, so not really like I missed out on bidding for my modules.

I went down to my IVLE and checked. I've got all the modules I advanced placed. yea... There was this advance placement thingie a couple of weeks ago, I did it at the very last minute. At first I just did it for fun, I thought later can drop modules, but in the end I didn't drop any, so I guess I'll stick with those modules I advanced placed. Saves me the trouble from CORS bidding, saves me the few minutes of my life which I might have shortened if I went to CORS.

Anyway, I've three modules under my name already, all my major mods which I'll be doing next semester, I think. Of the three, I did half of two of the mods last year before I left for Germany, so I think I can cut some slack. But with the onset of next semester, I think I really must sit down with some profs of mine to consider my future. To work or to go on the next year. If I want to continue, I must need the modules to do and from what I see now, I might need to beg some profs to open up modules if not I can't get enough credits.

Let's take a look at my workspace~

Does saves me the possible gek sim-ness I might get from CORS bidding.

But that also tells me that I have to endure yet another semester of Farrell. hai... He's getting a bit old already. erm... Not him physically aging, but more of me getting more tired of getting the Bs from him.

Yes, I got another big fat B for my Farrell module this semester. Considering that both my essays were Bs and my project was B, it shouldn't have been unexpected, but I so unexpectedly managed to spot correctly both the questions I did! I thought I had a good chance of scoring for that paper.

Well, well, getting my grades just proves to me that I can get my exams WITHOUT studying. I put in a grand total of one hour for studying and got two Bs, one S and one A-. wahahaha~ The only bad result I got was for a non-examinable module, so it wasn't my fault that I did badly for that due to my non-studying methods. Actually, now to think of it, had I not S/Ued that S module, my CAP might have risen. But well, to late for regrets. I'm very happy with my A- module~ I didn't study, didn't rewatch any movie, went shopping the two days before, and crapped the paper, and my A-. wahahaha~

Okay, the the normal folks out there an A- might not be such a big deal, but for a mediocre who started holidaying in the reading week, this is a big deal. Okay, granted, I think my project which I got an A- for and my daily work which I think I should have aced it should do good to my final grade, but my mid term test was not well done, I had only about 8 or 9/15 only. hai... Now to think of it, had we not added that courtesy thingie in out project and got an A for it and I did better for my test, I could have had a higher grade, well, hypothetically, that is.

Still, no regrets for me, no studying, but the time was put to better use. I watched all the Survivor and Amazing Race episodes and read all the manga and watched all the anime, and bought that dress I love so much, no regrets.

Now, what breadths and GEMs should I do next semester leh?

Because I'm Bored...

Fill in every question and don’t post w/o filling in every blank with at least a word.

1. Never in my life have I: bungee jumped even though I've always wanted to.
The close I came to was those doin doin mini-reverse bungee thingies sometimes held in carnivals or outside shopping malls.

2. The last person I kissed was: that person lor.

3. The one person who can drive me nuts, but then always manage to make me smile: that person lor.
Still can got who leh?
By the way, to conclude last night's emo outburst, things are better now. I feel lighter. Oh well~

4. The high school I go to is: Dunman High School

5. When I’m nervous: I talk crap.
Ich bin ok; du bist ok; wir sind ok. alles ist ok!
Thinking of these stuff, hai... I didn't do well for my German 5. It pulled my CAP down yet again. If not for all the German modules, my CAP would be so much higher now, but then, somethings cannot be replaced. I really must buck up. MUST!

6. The last time I cried was: last night lor.
Last blog entry described until so clearly liao.

7. My hair: what people called virgin hair.
I've never permed nor dyed my hair.

8. When I was 5, I: went to Zion Kindergarten in Serangoon Gardens.
Anyone else went there too?

9. My Christmas last year: saw me sending personalised e-cards for the first time.
This year saw me not sending any sort of greetings for the first time since I was 12.

10. When I turn my head to my right, I see: my gym ball.
It's supposed to be outside but I had to bring in to my room because some people were killing my gym ball during my Christmas party. I hate relatives like those.

11. I should be: hungry soon.

12. When I look down I see: my pillows and my laptop.

13. The craziest recent event was: my grandfather relating to us his travel tales, and me having to translate them to English so that my cousin wouldn't be left out in those funny shit.
I think I'll give them a proper entry some other time, they're worth more credit.

14. By this time next year: I might be working, but I'm dreading that day to come.

15. I love: to eat.

16. I have a hard time understanding: why my parents are such nice and generous people.
I told them how I felt about it, and they said it's because I'm a selfish prick that's why I couldn't understand. Actually, I think it's just because I'm a biased prick, and the people my parents are nice to are people I dislike. I don't question them being nice to people I like.

17. One time at a family gathering: I called my aunt's husband by his given name.
It was a slip of the tongue, but that just shows how much respect I have for him (or not, rather).

18. You know I like you if: I say so.
I try and hide my feelings as much as possible, unless it's great dislike, I'm very obvious when showing my dislike for someone. For a normal friend-friend like, I'll usually say it if I really like a lot, if it's a love-love like, I'll never say it.

19. Take my advice: because I've been there, done that.

20. My ideal breakfast is: scrambled eggs, sausages, ham, bacon.

21. If you visit the place I grew up: you'll need to go to many places. For two years I was in Europe, mainly in the UK, but we travelled a lot, the other times of my childhood was in Serangoon Gardens, with my weekends in Jurong.
I can't remember much about Europe, only fragments of memories. Serangoon Gardens is a quite lok kok place back in the 80s, there weren't any Coffee Bean or Cafe Cartel not people sitting at the sidewalks chatting and seeing life go by, it was dark, warm and dirty.

22. Soon I plan on visiting: somewhere.

23. If you spend the night at my house: you'll see me awake the whole night.

24. The world could do without: auto flush toilets.

25. The most recent thing I bought: other than food would be that pair of Disney Princess sunglasses for my little cousin.

26. My favourite brunette is: nobody.
Can't think of one at the moment. John Terry, perhaps?

27. The animals I would like to see flying besides birds are: nothing.
I hate anything that flies and is living. Crap.

28. Last night I: had a sad dream.
Okay, I mentioned last night so many times already. If you still don't know what happened last night and don't want to scroll down to read, here's the link.

29. My birthday is on: 25 February.

30. Tomorrow I will be: not thinking much.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

4 Missed Calls

I woke up feeling trash no thanks to a bad dream without closure. Sucks... It kinda sets the tone of the mood for the rest of the day.

Yesterday my family hosted a Christmas party, of course there was the usual opening of the mahjong table (kai tai, open table?) I played one wind of five games only, I fed three rounds, won once, and the last one was someone else zhimo-ing. I had such bad luck that I didn't want to continue playing. I played another two games that night and lost my budget. I can't remember the last time I lost so much in mahjong, I usually am a big winner. By the end of the day, I was cranky and tired.

Then someone messaged me.

The last time something like this happened, I caved in, but this time there was no way I could cave in, I was this cranky and tired, and I just hosted a party, there was no way within my physical abilities. Besides, there was no excuse I could give either.

I twice declined and made it clear. When the tactics of the last time was used, I knew anymore exchanges of messages would make me feel worse and unable to resist. I took the more effective method of ignoring.

I was already lying on my bed half-asleep with the last SMS came in. I ususally don't turn my phone to silent mode, but this time I did it so that I could have an uniterrupted sleep. I fell asleep in about two seconds at the grand early time of 11pm.

I woke up at 3am.

First thing I did was to take a look at the phone, I knew, I knew things wouldn't stop just like that, I expected like another message, or a missed call. Turned out to have 4 missed calls. It was pretty scary. I ignored it and went back to sleep, but I guess the trauma already affected me.

The dream opened with me returning the missed call. A lady picked up the phone, I asked for the correct person, but she replied coolly that that person was missing. I tried to enquire more, and that person coolly answered all my questions. At first I thought she was his wife, but after hearing how she answered my questions, she definitely wasn't, but I didn't know who she was. I think I made another call to the same number again, this time it was a Thai transsexual who picked up. I don't know what I was talking to him/her about, but it seemed to be something to do with doing touristy stuff in Singapore. The conversation dragged until I got fed up and finally asked about where the owner of that handphone was.

I don't know what happened, but a JC classmate of mine appeared, I wasn;t in contact with him, so I don't know why it was him. But he offered me the information I needed, and told me that the person whom I was looking for was dead drunk in some house party in Jurong. I had to rush there immediately. But I don't know why I appeared in the middle of town without my wallet, without any money or cards. I wanted to loan some money from my friend, then decided to ask my friend instead to come with me, so that I can have some help if needed to take care of the person who was dead drunk.

After some hasslings and stuff, we decided to catch a bus then catch a cab somewhere else. We had to cross a road to the bus stop and we had to jay walk across. A policeman came out from nowhere and caught us jaywalking. He grabbed the edges of my shirt, which was a low cut singlet which I wore over a halter bikini, and somehow, he was holding onto the straps of my singlet and bikini and hence exposing my breasts. I was traumatised. I was so traumatised that I started crying and shouting that he was exposing my breasts. He then grabbed my face and started lecturing me so close to my face that traumatised me even more.

I woke up in tears. Nothing was said about what happened to the dead drunk person, which made me feel even worse.

I woke up at 4am. So I guess the course of the dream only lasted about an hour. I returned the missed call, but the caller switched off the phone and I got the Singtel woman instead. I replied by SMS.

After that I went for a bath, yes, at 4am in the morning, thank you very much. This is coming from someone who just had a relapse of her old injury no thanks to the cold rainy season. I'm just so screwing my physical body over and over. Coming online and reading blogs, and blogging eased me up a bit now. But I still have tomorrow to deal with when I get my reply.

Then there's also the sinking shit of getting the result. I'm so scared. This is the only semester which the total amount of time I spent on studying adds to one hour. And that one hour, all I did was formulating points to spot questions. Although I successfully spotted two questions, enough to complete the paper, I am still very worried. Guess what I can only do now is to cross my fingers.

I've enough of shit in the last 12 hours already. It should turn for the better. It better...

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Away

Joan will be away from 6am later until the end of the week. She will be uncontactable via MSN or email, if anyone wishes to contact her, the safest bet would be to drop her an SMS and she will decide if she wants to reply. Do not call her as she would not be picking up calls and incurring autoroam charges. No emails will be replied during this period of time as she would not even be bringing her laptop with her.

She won't be reading anyone's blogs nor will she be leaving any comments in people's blogs. Comments left in her blog shall also not be read until she returns, so don't be too worried if she doesn't reply you.

She will not be buying anyone any souveniors since she isn't going anywhere interesting. There's probably not even anything for her to buy. Besides, she didn't bother changing currencies and will only be leeching off other people, so don't expect anything from her. Conversely, you might want to buy something for her while she's gone and provide her with a little comfort from home. Thank you very much.

Okie, good day folks. Till then~

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Plans Fell Through

I wonder why do I still make plans when all my plans all fall through anyway. Just a couple of days ago, I made plans to meet my friend but at the very last minute, I had to postpone it due to unforeseen circumstances, then today, all the plans that I made all fell through.

I wasn't planning on sleeping this morning, I actually wanted to stay up and wait for the sun the turn bright and go for a swim to get rid of all the excess fats that I'd gained through all the eating during the holidays. Then, I wonder if it's some superior being up there who wants me to be fat, the weather turned cold and perfect for sleeping. And I went to sleep.

When I went to sleep, I thought maybe I'd wake up at around midday since I wasn't that tired nor was I that in need of sleep. I could wake up at around midday and head down for a swim, hoping that the weather would clear up. After the swim, I'd head down to my grandfather's place for dinner. Nice plan right? Well, put it simply, I woke up at about 4pm to a big thunderstorm.

It wasn't only that I've already woke up later than I've planned, but that thunderstorm just makes sleeping so nice and snug. I dug deeper into the covers and continued sleeping like a pig. I forgot all about dinner. Okay, I didn't really forget, but I thought since it was raining, I can't possibly take public transport all the way down to Serangoon Gardens from East Coast, right?

I finally got out of bed, at the timestamp posted on this entry. Well, I can't make it down to the dinner because they've probably finished eating already. The grandfather eats early, so that he can drink coffee in the evening. So I'm stuck at home alone with the parents slated to go for their own dinner later so they won't be back anytime soon.

The father told me to order pizza. I had just ordered McDonald's at 4am this morning, and now order pizza, erm... Even for lazy Joan, this is too much phone delivery lor. And I'm a bit low on cash after this morning's breakfast.

Now, actually, I am supposed to be going out with my friend tomorrow, for pizza, since I was complaining I was craving for it since like this morning before I ordered my McDees. erm... After ordering pizza for later, I think I can't fit in any more pizza tomorrow, right? Now I need to think of something else to crave for tomorrow and hope that my friend doesn't mind that too. wahaha~

I'm not really that hungry now, but the parents won't be back until about 10pm or so, so should I order pizza later or should I wait for them to come back. hai... I was craving for chicken rice when I woke up lor. Stupid Cindy lor, yesterday, and the day before yesterday, keep saying she want to eat Five Star Chicken Rice until I also want to eat Five Star Chicken Rice.

I'm now so bored, don't know what to do since all my plans fell through already. I also need to know how am I going to sleep later since I had so much sleep today and I need to go out tomorrow so I definitely need to sleep and wake up early tomorrow.

I don't know if anybody noticed, but I changed my side picture. I changed it because I thought the old was was quite fat, it's not that I lost weight since then, because I haven't, but I found this picture of which I looked thinner than I am. wahaha~ But it's still not a very recent picture because lately I've changed the colour of my blusher but that picture doesn't reflect that.

I usually don't do photoshops to pictures which are of me in make up, but there was something wrong with that above picture which kept bugging me despite me knowing that that was me without photoshop. Then it struck me, that photo was flipped. It's a mirror image of me instead of an image of me. I don't know how that error occurred but I think it is sometime when I added in that frame that my photoshop when bonkers or I did something which I don't know what I was doing.

Anyway, please tell me, which one is nicer, then maybe I shall change the side picture to something that's more reflective of me.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Contacts or Not?

I'll have to leave the house in 15min to be in time to meet my friend, but it's raining outside, and I'm still pondering over the biggest issue. I had an eye infection yesterday, but it has subsided by nightfall, it's still okay today, but I need to go out later, so, should I wear contact lenses or should I wear my ugly spectacles instead?

I hate wearing spectacles, in fact, I've never worn them out before. I might go to school without make up, without dressing up, but I have never, and will never go to school in spectacles, well, unless some choy choy unforeseen circumstances which I wish would never happen.

Reasons I shouldn't wear contacts:
- My eyes don't feel that confident enough to take the risk.
- I need to preserve my eyes lest something happens tomorrow. I need to wear contacts tomorrow.
- There is a possibility that I still have the infection despite no obvious symptoms.
- My mother says I shouldn't wear.

Reasons I should just go ahead with the contacts:
- I'm vain.

Hmm... Reviewing the pros and cons, I think the decision seems to be clear what I should do. Dang, I just I should just cross my fingers and pray nothing goes wrong. After all, there's a saying which goes, tomorrow's problems shall be solved tomorrow.

bah~ I can't stand myself. Despite me being so vain, I feel so ugly inside me...

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

What Time Do You Sleep?

(edited something, but not really that important)

I knew that there was something wrong with my sleeping habits based on two separate events that occurred today, erm... actually, more precisely, it should be yesterday.

The second event was just before my mother went to bed, she turned to me, and said, "Later if it rains remember to close the windows."

Technically speaking, there isn't really anything wrong with the above sentence, but put it into context, she's going to sleep, and I'm not. It's just before midnight. The sky doesn't look like it's going to rain anytime in the next hour, at the very least. Rewind back a couple of years ago, she used to say this to me before she sleeps and I'm still in the living room, "Later before you sleep remember to close the windows."

So basically, the mother was assuming that I wouls be going to bed after she wakes up, hence, by then she could be able to close the windows if it rains.

Okay, to my family, there shouldn't be anything surprising about me sleeping after they all wake up. I've been doing that since my holidays started, erm... since the reading week started. I've been sleeping at about 10am though sometimes earlier sometimes later a bit. It screws up my bio-clock, especially when I have papers, I didn't know what time it was better for me to sleep to wake up in time for my paper. For my 9am paper, I had quite a bit of problems. I woke up at 5pm the day before, and napped at 9.30pm for about an hour, then I slept at 12.30am and woke up at 3am. I was awake all the way since then.

To me, I can still cope fine with my sleeping hours until this incident that happened today which made me think twice if sleeping in the morning is actually advisable.

I was supposed to meet a friend at 5.45pm last evening, then we would meet our group of friends at 6.45pm. I set my alarm to ring at 3.30pm, giving me adequate time to snooze, bathe, dress up, and travel. I woke up at 3.30pm but promptly fell back into slomber. Before I knew it, I heard a message ring tone and read the message from my friend saying that she would be late, she could only reach at 6pm. A quick check at the time, 5.30pm, and I'm still in bed. erm... In the end I left house at 7pm and reached Vivo City at 8pm. This was the wake up call I needed.

But then hor, I'm still online now, and show no signs of going to sleep soon. Why am I not learning my lesson?

I always thought sleeping after midnight was the norm for university students like me, heck, I always thought it was the norm for students, heck, for people in general. But I had to meet one fine guy who said that he sleeps at 10pm. I never thought it was normal for a student, a 22 year old student (ed: that person corrected me and said that he is in fact 23, but it doesn't really matter right? hehe... We all know that I'm 20 years old~) to sleep at 10pm and wake up at 5.30am. If I were awake at 5.30 it only means that I haven't slept. Heck, 10 o'clock sleeping time only means to me that I sleep at 10am.

So, the golden question is, what is the normal time to sleep and wake up?

There was this period of time which I slept before midnight and woke up naturally without alarm at about 8+, but that was because I just got back from Germany and was jet lagged and I had rough patches and didn't want to hang out online for that long a period of time. Even though I wanted it to last that way, it didn't last for more than a month, by the mid of the semester I was back to normal and started skipping my morning 10am lectures. Ah well...

Some of my friends who stay at home would say that the mothers would nag at them if they don't sleep early, and nag at them if they don't wake up early. I guess my mother is so sick of nagging that she doesn't want to care about me already. She stopped cooking lunch since I won't be awake to eat them. She only makes dinner, unless I say that I'm going out, then she doesn't bother about it unless my sister is eating.

I think I'm naturally a nocturnal person. But sometimes I think maybe it's because of something else that makes me so nocturnal. Remember Perhaps Love? That guy suffers from insomnia because he cannot get over with the girl. I think I can't sleep at night because subconsciously I don't want to sleep. I tire myself out before I finally get into bed. I think I tire myself because I can fall asleep within minutes of climbing into bed. hmm...

I once read an article which experiemented with people and put them in a sealed room to observe for 40 days. Without access to time passage, most people's bio clock lasted about 26 hours, so a normal person's day cycle without knowledge of time passage is about 26 hours per day. If that is so, I think I can explain my increasingly late sleeping hours.

Maybe I should try that experiment one day.

I Have No Life

150 thing I have or have not done before. The bold ones, are those I happened to have done.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
>hills only leh...
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
>hai... If only I could...
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
>will be something I want to try one day
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise

14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
>this was cool, okay, I didn't grow it, my dad did... hydroponics kang kong. damn cool~
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
>C and D right?
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
>I used to, really. Then erm... I got lazy... hehehe~
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day

60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Rio Grande River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
>sharks fin can anot ah?
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a radio show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
>considering that the number of US states I've visited amounts to zero...
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
>This was cool. I was in France, met this boy and his father. The father was a Portuguese who married a French, he didn't speak English and I couldn't speak Portuguese nor French. The conversation was like:
he: Japan?
me: (shake head) Singapore.
he: (pointing to himself) Portuguese. (pointing to his son) Portuguese and French.
me: (pointing to his son)(raising my fingers, one, two, three)
he: (pointing to his son)(raise his fingers three)
me: (holding up my camera, pointed to his son)(nodding questioningly)
he: (nodded vigourously)(carry his son and posed)
It was a damn interesting experience.
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

I haven't done much in my life. Oh well...

Monday, December 11, 2006

Onegai Twins!

The latest anime I finished watching.

I was bored and wanted to watch something online. I didn't want to watch something incomplete, so I thought the synopsis for Onegai Twins, or Please Twins sounded quite interesting. A photo with a boy and a girl, twins, playing in an inflatable in a house by a lake. The problem arose when three people show up at that house carrying the same photo claiming to be one of the twins in the picture. More problems came up when the two girls find themselves falling for the boy and the boy himself falling in love with both of the girls, creating an incestrous problem.

It's 12 episodes long with an OVA special, so it's 13 episodes altogether. Unlike how I usually watch anime, which I would watch everything in one sitting, I broke this anime into a couple of sittings to watch. I don't find the story particularly engaging, rather, it was slow and indulgent.

One thing I hate about people is indecisiveness. The boy in the story, Maiku, is one such guy. Okay, he's not really indecisive, but he was clearly torn between the two girls. I cannot stand these sort of plots with these sort of guys. I call it it 张无忌 Zhang Wuji syndrome.

The two girls each have their distinct characteristics. Between Miina and Karen, I should say, I prefer Karen. ***spoilers*** Maybe it's also partly because Karen turned out to be Maiku's sister that disappointed me. I'd rather have a situation in which neither is his sister, and at least he can have an orgy with both, instead of having to end up with one particular person, and even if he did end up with one particular person, I hadn't wanted her to be Miina. Okay, Miina has a good points, but somehow, I just prefer Karen. ***spoilers end***

Because Onegai Twins is a spinoff from Onegai Teacher!, the supporting characters have a history and they are funny. Their comedic appearances help alleviate the over-indulgence of this anime. And it also includes some yaoi and yuri elements which might not rub well with some people. I was a bit tired of the yuri-ness in some parts, like having Miina and Karen to bathe together. It's a bit overbearing to see them bathe together every night.

But in all, this 13 episode anime can be concluded simply into one 6-minute long mini music movie. I had this feeling after like the second episode, and after watching the whole series, that song from that music video kept running through in my head. Let's welcome Fish Leong's 宁夏 Ning Xia~



It was just like what happened in the anime, especially that the whole events from the anime occurred during summer.

I think there should be more interesting things to watch online. Anybody has any fun anime to recommend me to watch? If not I shall wait a couple of hours for the next episode and the final leg of The Amazing Race 10 to be released. I'm rooting for Tyler and James, and under no circumstances do I want to see the Bamas winning, no no NO. But then again, from all my years of watching reality TV, only once did my favourite player won the million dollars, only Tom from Palau managed win, the rest all flopped, but still cross my fingers anyway~

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Kare Kano

Kare Kano, or Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo, or His and Her Circumstances, or Tales at North Hills High, or 男女跷跷板, or 他和她的故事, or 彼氏彼女の事情

That's the thing about translations, they just screw up the title. The original Japanese title is 彼氏彼女の事情, or Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo, but to fans it's simply shortened to Kare Kano, and that will be the title I'm using. The English translated version had carried the title to be Tales at North Hills High because the setting was at North Hills High School, but perhaps due to fan objections or fan demands, or something else, the title was changed to the direct translation of the original Japanese title to be His and Her Circumstances. The official translation in Taiwan and Singapore is 男女跷跷板, but some online fan groups doing scanlations translated it to be 他和她的故事 which is the direct translation of the Japanese title. Because of all these trouble in translations, I had a hard time locating this scanlation to read.

Yup, I'm currently reading this manga now.

I first came across this manga when browsing through mangas in Kinokuniya. Cindy brought this title up and said it sounded interesting. I copied the title and wiki-ed it that night and decided that it was interesting for me to read. erm... There was no way that I can possibly afford to buy the whole set of this manga, so I turned to online scanlations. Really, those Chinese are so absolutely amazing, and it's times like this that I really appreciate my ability to read traditional Chinese, or even Chinese in the first place. Those who don't know, I buy a good deal of my manga in English.

Side note, speaking of English manga, I had a so wonderful time reading FMA in English. I tried to read DGray Man in simplified Chinese but my eyes went @@. I think I can't read shonen manga in Chinese because of my disability to comprehend and digest fast. Shojo in Chinese isn't that bad, no fighting scenes. Also, the names make my eyes go @@, in FMA and DGray Man, the characters have Western names which sound totally awful and difficult to read in Chinese and it makes my eyes go @@. Anyway, I was saying, I took out my FMA and re-read them, and read the new ones I bought after I came back from Germany and I must say, reading shonen manga in English feels so good. I almost forgot that it was originally in Japanese. And for the heftier price, it's $8.50 compared to English shojo by Chuangyi priced at $7.90, I realised that the translation was better, that's why the quality was better. Some translations of Ouran High School Host Club was so bad that my eyes went @@ again. I think, the translator for shojo are mostly Singaporeans while the translator for FMA was a Japanese, I think la...

Anyway, Chuangyi didn't translate Kare Kano in English, and I don't want to buy the $20 US versions, and buying the Chinese ones doesn't really make sense when I can just read it online. And that is what I'm doing. But then another problem. I was reading happily during the holidays, erm... paiseh, during the reading week, when the remaining volumes weren't able to be loaded. Think there's something wrong with the servers hosting the images, and I got stuck at volume 14. Luckily there was a break in story and it wasn't so much of a cliffhanger. The story structure of Kare Kano is that the first 10 volumes were about the female protangonist, the "her" in the title, then a break of 3 volumes which talk about the history of the side characters, then from volume 14 is about the male protagonist, the "his" in the title. So it was just nice that I stopped before I started reading about the "his" story.

Then I got hooked onto another manga, that shall leave it to another time to discuss. Then my friend gave me another link to another manga website. I couldn't find Kare Kano in it because it listed it as another title that I hadn't known of previously. I managed to find it somehow or another, but I don't like this website because the pages load very slowly and I can only read one volume each night. I can't even read it in the day because the loading in the day is worse.

However, the more I read it, the more I like it. I like the way the mangaka describes emotions, and I like the characters.

I like shuai guys with issues. I think a guy with issues it like adding a some sort of mysterious charm in him that makes him more alluring. Hence I like Arima Soichiro, the male protagonist. Before reading the manga itself I read the wiki page and learnt of all the spoilers, so I knew about his problems, and i knew about him. It made me like him even more knowing that it would take Miyazawa Yukino, the female lead ***spoilers*** to help him out of his issues because I'm a sucker for these sort of love relationships.

Another side note, I like reading spoilers, whether it's about a story or reality TV, I need spoilers because I hate it when things don't go the way I want it to be. Had I known the ending of Furuba, a very classic example, I'd never have started reading it. But then, I started with the series very early and no one expected that the ending would be like this. So now I just try to stick to things that are complete whether it's manga or anime, and make sure that I like the ending before I start it. To me, it's not the product, or the ending that is the most important, it's the process, the getting there part that's more interesting.

***spoilers***
Because I read spoilers from Wikipedia, I knew that Yukino was going to get pregnant in her third year, so I was so tense whenever they have sex. I think I'm hentai, I keep thinking when are Yukino and Soichiro going to have sex and which sex encounter it would be that's going to get her pregnant. lol~ And I was having problems understanding if they've even had sex. I think it's my Chinese, or it's just me. I thought they had sex sometime during their first year, but I'm still not sure. There isn't any naked scenes or lines that say that they have had sex, but there was a scene which they were in bed together, and before that there was this imagery of her losing her hat. I know in manga if there's a sex which a petal drops it means sex, but hats? I wasn't sure.

And to exemplify that I'm more hentai, I started speculating about Soichiro's past. It was clear that he was abused by his biological mother when he was very young, but somehow reading volumes 15 and 16, it seems to hint that there is more to the physical abuse that torments him. I kept thinking that he was sexually abused. Okay, I've my reasons for thinking so. First, his mother's a socialite, a mamasan in some club, and was sexually promiscuous. Second, his mother was sexually abused when she was a child. Third, his mother was 20 when she had him, and his father 17. Fourth, Soichiro himself is a jealous, control freak, which led me to think that he might feel for Yukino in a sexual way too. I mean, he couldn't control himself, and they had sex at such a young age, there must be a reason for it. But it seems like I'm wrong. He was just physically abused, although there is also a more emotional factor in the abuse that torments him, but that's not such an interesting story to satiate my hentai-ness.
***spoilers end here***

Okay, it's 7.25am now, should I read another volume of Kare Kano or should I read another manga offline, in it's hard copy form, or should I watch some anime, or should I go and sleep?

Birth Date and Love Life

Your Birthdate: February 25

Calm and understated, you struggle to express your love with words.
Over time, your partner learns to recognize your passion by the actions you take.
You're good at wooing someone slowly, without them even realizing it!

Number of True Loves You'll Have: 2

Number of Times You'll Have Your Heart Broken: 2

You are most compatible with people born on the 7th, 16th, and 25th of the month.


hmm... I've a couple of questions, does true love means reciprocated love? If it doesn't, then I guess I've used up my two loves already. The first one was that X whom I've mentioned here and there a couple of times in the blog. Let's count the number of years I was so infatuated with him that it became a habit for me to love him, and it sort of ruined my whole growing up. I haven't met him since JC1, think I met him outside somewhere. But I might have a met him again once recently in school, a fleeting flash of his face, or it might have been someone who looked like him. The second one is of course the rough patch. (notice the tense I've use when describing them? hehehe...)

If true love means reciprocated love then I guess I haven't met anyone yet. Or maybe true love is just some philosophical definition. Was X a true love? Philosophically speaking, I don't know, sometimes it just seemed to me that I was just too infatuated, or too stubborn to consider other options. The notion if rough patch is indeed a true love is also a question for thoughts. He is definitely not someone I'd want to make commitments to if, well, if he wants to, and also I don't think I'd stay true to him. Okay, not even saying if, I had lied many times, went out with other guys, mades loads of excuses, did a lot of things I'd think I wouldn't do to someone I love. But then again, well, but then again.

True love, a rather quirky term...

Broken heart... I've my heart broken well, quite a number of times. When X said that line "I know who you like" in that fucking cocky tone, I knew my heart was broken. It still disgusts me to think about that incident, I know he's an arrogant cocky guy, but that tone of his voice when he said that line just left a very bad after taste. grr... Then there was the rough patch. I don't know why, but recently a line Rough Patch told me back in July 2005 kept recurring in my head. I kept it deep in my memories and never thought about it for more than a year when I don't know why it suddenly came back to me. It's the way he phrased his words that just pains me whenever I think about it. He wasn't cocky, in fact he was very honest. I think that was the only time he actually sounded honest and truthful, and sweet and caring, and really true.

But other than those two incidents, I can still think of others which well, broke my heart. hmm... Maybe not breaking of my heart, more of bruising my ego. lol~ Those are the guys I've been telling those who are willing to lend me a listening ear during the rough patch time, well, those other guys not the Rough Patch. Rough Patch was just part of the rough patch. hehe, getting a bit complicated here.

Being compatible with people borned on the 7th, 16th, and 25th. Digging deep in my memories, I can't think of anybody whom I've had crushes on whose birthday falls on any one of those dates. So maybe if anyone whose birthday happens to be on anyone of those dates if you like can drop me a message? hehehe... *wink wink*

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Blogging After 500

This is the 501st post. It's a bit weird, feeling a mix of emotions in me.

Over the past couple of years, there's been a change in the style of my blogging every after a period of time, and I think now I'm heading into another style of blogging. At least I know, I've stopped posting pictures of myself for quite some time already. Okay, the main reason is because I've gained a lot of weight, but not just that, I think I'm growing old. I feel so jaded to do anything.

I've also been labelling my posts as you can see in the side bar. Each post comes with only one label, so there are no repeated labels and hence some posts might not fully conform to the label. I haven't finished labelling all the back posts so quite a few of the earlier posts are labelled, yet.

A brief introduction on the labels,

anime - Clearly regarding anime. I'm still thinking if manga should come under anime or books, because some manga ties in with anime, but I think unless a manga ties in with an anime, I'd label manga as books. ie, a manga without anime is a book, but if a manga has an anime, it becomes an anime.

books - Clearly regarding books. See paragraph above for classification of manga.

emo - Emo-ramblings/rantings kind of posts. Mostly regarding my bouts of depression and my rough patches and the relationship problems.

films - Clearly regarding films. Full length anime features are classified as anime even though they have their own IMDb page and they open in cinemas in Japan. I get them off fansubs and because I'd also have watched the tie in animes, so they are classified as anime.

food - Clearly regarding food.

football - Clearly regarding football. Not just Chelsea stuff even though I mostly like to talk about Chelsea, but also other aspects and/or clubs of football.

mememe - It's everything to do with me. Memes, announcements, clarifications, anything to do with the blog, or anything more in depth regarding myself.

musings - Musings is from the root word Muse, something that sparks me to write. Mostly are stuff that help me exercise my writing skill, can be an observation I made, or just some pure short writing regarding something non-essential. I try not to write in first person, don't know why, but I prefer writing that way.

peeps - Anything to do with people around me. Friends, families, my outings with them.

ramblings - All my ramblings. And also stuff with cannot be classified using the other labels, or maybe I might come up with new labels next time, or maybe I'll relabel them, don't know what the future holds...

school - Clearly regarding school. My life in school as a pathetic student.

shorts - My short stories. Not all of the short stories I write are posted in the blog, none of my long stories are up too, my ideas are also not posted. My fanfics are up though, all classified as shorts. erm... Another thing to note, my short stories are not necessarily very short, they are classified as short stories only because they aren't able to be classified as a full length novel, hence the considerable short definition.

songs - Clearly regarding songs, usually with lyrics.

spoils - Things I've bought, things I own, things that spoil me~ It's sort of like me boasting of my stuff.

stage - Theatre pieces and/or dances that I've watched. Also my experiences doing theatre work.

takes - This is a category to file the entries I've written which has a specific topic on hand, sort of like my takes on stuff. I think it's the more sensible stuff I write for the blog.

teevee - Anything I've watched from the googlebox. Recently I've been catching some dramas, real life dramas on some online streaming like youtube, yup, they are also considered teevee. So the Survivor and Amazing Race posts are all there~

travelogues - The logs from my few trips in Germany and the surrounding places I visited. Okay, there are still some backlogs which I haven't posted, I don't know if I'll post them, we'll see how. I don't think I'll make any more trips in the very near future. Trips to Malaysia do not count, not as if I'll be going to Malaysia anyway.

Anyway, some of the labels are sort of dead already. Travelogues have died out, unless I dig out the old photos and do backlogs. I've sort of retired from my theatre stuff and I seldom like reviewing about theatre because watching them already saps my energy. yea...

I project that the posts that will be up in the very near future would more or less be about my gripes about school and my life, and my sad life watching anime and reality teevee. Damn... Amazing Race 10 is concluding and I'll be damn bored. I really want to change my style of writing and perhaps inject a bit of humour here and there, but I realise that people don't get my humour and I am very disgusted by lame jokes and stuff. Ah well...

Also, if you're reading till here, I've a short notice to put up. I'm currently off MSN. I still sign in but appear offline, I don't talk to anyone online, so if anyone wants to contact me, sms me, try not to call me, I don't feel like talking, but I'll be prompt with my replies if I'm not asleep. Can also email me. I'm online when I'm awake and at home, and I'm always at home. I haven't been out lately, feeling too jaded. But it's refreshing to spend so much of my time with my family.

Maybe it's time to make full use of my holidays. Watching anime reading manga and watching whatever shit online is not making good use of my holidays. I've been trying to write but feeling so tired. And I don't feel like going out. I've been broke the whole of this month. argh...

Friday, December 08, 2006

Five Hundred

wubai-header

In celebration of my 500th blog entry, this post shalled be dedicated to my most favourite singer/composer/lyricist/musician of all time. Welcoming Mr Wu Bai 伍佰 and his band China Blue and their latest album 纯真年代. It has taken me more than three years to reach this big five-oh-oh. I know, in terms of quantity, I'm still not up there along with those people who blog a few posts a day, but to me, I'm very satisfied with all the entries in this place I call the home of my heart. Sharing this wonderful occasion with such a wonderful person is such an wonderful feeling one can have, although the pun is a bit lame, but nevermind... hehehe~

To be honest, with Wubai's official website down after his release of the latest album, I wasn't kept up to date with his activities. In fact, I didn't even know about the release of this album until after a series of coincidental events. It just happened about a couple of days after the album was released, I was searching Baidu for Andy Lau's 《冰雨》. The search resulted in another song of the same title by Wubai. It listed the song as a song from the album 《纯真年代》. I can say that I'm very familiar with Wubai's discography and can list out all his album titles, especially those with all-original compositions, but I never heard of 《纯真年代》. At first I thought it might be a Hokkien album which I might have missed out in my memory because he just had a concert recently and there was no mention about a new album being slated and/or released.

A couple of days later, a friend casually asked me if I heard the latest Wubai song. With that about mentioned incident at the back of my head, I asked if the song was 《纯真年代》, affirmitive. Oh well... That answered that lingering question in the back of my head.

Naturally, after realising that my dear dear idol had released a new album, I just had to get my hands on it, don't I? I went down to Marine Parade after one of my exams. I thought perhaps Marine Parade with a couple of CD shops and its proximity to home, and also I needed to collect my contact lenses from my shuai shuai optician. But but but, the CD was all sold out. Schade. One of the shop assistants was like "the distributor didn't bring in many copies", "so all sold out already". Although I felt quite disappointed, I was also quite happy that all his albums were sold out, because it only meant that PEOPLE BOUGHT HIS ALBUM! HE HAS HIS STABLE OF FANS~

Anyway, I had to go down to bigger CD stores like HMV to get it, I decided. After another exam paper, I went down to Citylink Mall's HMV to get it. hehehe~ And I finally lay my hands on it.

Although I also finally did manage to get through his official website and saw his album, I didn't listen to the songs because I wanted to listen to it on my own player. Although I got a preview of his album cover from the world wide web, when I picked up his album with my bare hands, the first thing that struck me was that HE'S DAMN SHUAI. His latest haircut really suits him very well, I noticed this from his concert last September. And I think black really suits him very well~

The only thing that bogs me, how come the words for the title written for the album cover is in simplified Chinese. On the other hand, the words written in the background is in traditional Chinese. hmm... A bit weird, but I don't care, as long as Wubai is there and he's so shuai can already~

After buying the album, I sat at Mos Burger in Raffles CIty for a quick lunch while looking through the song booklet. Other than that he switched labels after the album 《泪桥》 and that his distributing team changed since then, his hasn't changed much of his other producing teams and/or marketing teams. His art direction was still done by Akibo Visual Studio, they never fail to amaze me with their album covers for Wubai, always make him look so shuai~

And as usual, every single song was produced by his Moonlight Music, and every song was written and composed by the man himself, and arranged and performed by him and his band. In fact, they were also featured in the song booklet too, and also in a couple of MTVs. I just went to sing KTV the other day and dedicated all the new Wubai songs to sing and also to watch the music video~ SHUAI!!!

For those who don't know, China Blue comprises bassist Hsiao Chu, or Ken and he's sometimes known as, keyboardist Da Mao, or Big Cat, and drums Dino Zavolta. Hsiao Chu is the one with long hair, often wears shades and a cap. Da Mao is the youngest, should be 33 this year. He's the smallest size and often sports shades, he's the only one I think I've never seen him without shades, only sometimes the shades are lighter though mostly darker shades. Dino is the biggest one, I think he's Latino though I never knew where he's from. It's amazing because when in concerts in Singapore, he always greets the audience in English. He also once sang back up vocals for Faye Wong, in her 《王菲》 album, the one with 《流年》 in it, Wubai and China Blue produced 《两个人的圣经》 which had this opera vocals in the background, Dino was the one who did it. I can't tell what language he sang but it sounded like a language from the Iberian peninsular.

Anyway, I personally feel that this album shows Wubai's growth in music making and music writing. Wubai has been into writing his own songs, composing his own music, having his band arrange the piece and them to perform it, and he produced the songs by himself. It's the kind of do-everything-himself kind of album. I have to give him credit for it, because he's the one who makes the final decisions and he can call his album his. Not everyone can do it. In fact, just check out those trash bubblegum pop singers and what they are selling, all marketed stuff. Even those so called music geniuses or 才子s, how many of them actually do their whole albums themselves? Not even Jay Chou lor.

The general direction of this album is one that mixes happy and sad together, there's a sort of progress in the songs, the first couple are all happy motivationals ones, while the later few are the more emotional songs. I don't know if the more emotional songs are what Wubai really likes because he has been quite disapproving of his more popular emotional songs, but well, I like them. His more happier songs are also not bad though, and he shows maturity in his lyrics, which is a really good thing. Music style is also quite varied, his last album was a bit too Techno-rock, noisy kind of stuff, the previous album was more transitional, and every song sounded like a title song. This album he brought back the simpler kind of music that is more heart tugging. A bit upset is that since 《流星》 in 《梦的河流》 he hasn't had any songs with voice overs. I liked those.

Now for the detailed introduction of the songs in this album...

Track 1
我只要…

你想开什么样的车子
你想住什么样的房子
你想穿什么样的衣服
你想要什么样的牌子
你想要用多久的坚持
换取心中理想的消逝
你想你是不是会觉悟
世界完全不照你意思
追寻着它若没有它就没意义
追寻着它若有了它也没意义
追寻的意义在于追寻那追寻
呼吸的快乐就是呼吸那呼吸
我只要和我相爱的人在一起
死心塌地
我知道我幻想的都不可以
没有关系
一生你吃多少条茄子
一次你要多大的面子
一辈子你想要有多少个孩子
一棵树要多少片叶子

This is a fast beat song with heavy drums and quite loud. Some parts of the lyrics might sound a bit 无厘头, but thinking about it closer, it feels like life is just like that. For an opening song, it brings up the energy level, but I don't know why, but I felt a tinge of disappointment. I think this can be classified as one of the new generation Wubai songs which I although don't find it bad, but I can't really appreciate it.

Track 2
纯真年代

现在你是不是一样感觉被伤害
所有的童话故事都已不再像昨天
关灯这样的日子依然没有改变
真心只有剩下一丁点
相信的意义正在那进出之间
心情的好坏变成来去无限
我也有想过是距离将它浓缩
时间变得紧迫
你觉得应不应该
抗拒莫以名状说不出来
隐藏在平静后面那份忍耐
我时常没有顾忌大声把它喊出来
这样又好像变成是谁的错
轻松我看着天空
明明就很沉重何去何从
能回头我早回头
我还在等待什么
我要我要我要跳进水里面
那里有个永恒青春的小孩
寻找遗失已久纯真的年代
有没有下雪我干嘛感动
未来朦胧眼耳朦胧
你想我要什么
躲在里面我要很久不出来
纯真年代
像个小孩
ha ha ha

This is a light hearted sounding song, but using it as his title song, I think there's some meaning that Wubai wants to convey. Like 《白鸽》 which he listed as one of his favourite songs, it's one which has a motivational meaning behind it, but this song is much more lighter than 《白鸽》 so I think it also means a different thing, like a change in musical direction or style. Or maybe it's just a gimmick to evoke nostalgia.

Maybe after writing hundreds of songs for oneself and other people, there is a need to breakthrough. In terms of music and style, I can say that 《纯真年代》 in terms of music and composition, is really one breakthrough piece for Wubai. And best of it, it's a well-liked one. My friend asked me for the song because she liked it. hehehe~

Track 3
两个寂寞

一样的想我
一样到以后
是我窥见你的心
我不能说
触动了自我
用一样的温柔
晴雨交替的日子里
想陪你走
不能停止从你世界的滑落
明明知道你我是两个寂寞
相爱不能聚首爱情又是什么
没有你的日子我不好过
清清楚楚在面前是两条路
看着你我愈走愈远愈模糊
我们伸出了手却碰不到你我
我开始怀疑我心破了洞
想你是这么做
我猜的透
只能想像彼此的拥有
两个人的寂寞都保留

This is one of the typically Wubai kind of song. After listening to the first two songs, I was a bit afraid that this album would deviate too far from the typical Wubai, but luckily, there was this song to remind me of my familiarity. I like this kind of songs, sad and emotive. And it showcases the strength of his band~

Track 4
cherry lover

我对你动了情移了心
不经意的话都说不停
彼此间的空气没有动静
我在等你给我答应
你圆润的嘴角好似在笑
叫我可以继续往前跑
可是你说不好他你没忘掉
我心酸酸地在哀号
you are my cherry
cherry lover you have a chrry heart
you are my cherry cherry lover
好不好把他忘掉吧
我想你的时候像小河流
心弯弯地泪都快要流
你想我的时候像暴风过
每一通电话都讲很久
想恨你的时候都不敢做
如果没你日子怎么过
你讨厌我的时候却一直念我
其实酸酸地在说爱我
这不是个相逢游戏
追赶跑跳可惜了美丽
还好我有超强的勇气
但是我早不属于我自己
cherry 好好爱我
cherry 相爱不容易
请你给我个回答
让我当你的唯一吧

This is also one of the lighter songs which has a catchy tune and it stucked in my head after a couple of times listening to it. When I first saw the song booklet I was a bit surprised, I think it's like the first time Wubai incorporated English into his lyrics, at least as far as my punitive memory serves me. I usually do not like songs which has English lines because usually the English there only for gimmick purposes and sometimes the English just sucks. Think that stupid May Day song 《恋爱ing》, it's just totally disgusting. But well, this one isn't that bad, I guess. At least there's not fundamental errors.

Track 5
海市蜃楼

墙上画雨点朵朵
风中沙卿卿我我
绿洲的树都烧了火
我的眼睛看不到我
救救我轻轻说
我不是在一个海市蜃楼
眼前的恐慌就是生活
没听错
用言语将我抹去
飘回我应有的大地
眼前的混乱就是生活
别胡说
飘回我应有大地
没听错别胡说
救救我救救我

This can be categorised as one of the same kind of songs like his 《海浪》 from the album 《泪桥》. I think it's sort of some kind of style which he stretches the notes of each word but the background music is very fast paced and noisy. I don't really like it although the chorus doesn't sound that bad, but I guess it's a kind of personal preference.

Track 6
冰雨

天空的雾气已开始在累积
心中的顾虑也慢慢消失去
我来的时候受过风的折磨
你说你要走你已经消瘦
相同结果相同理由
早就已经发生过
不同的我可以接受
注定面对生命安排
站在最远孤独的角落
这个时候开始下起冰冷冷的雨
落在身上却感不到一丝丝凉意
美丽的人儿呀我就要消失去
不要问我为何总有眼泪的痕迹

Another one of those typically Wubai songs, and I love it~ I don't know if it's the lyrics or the melody, or is it the combination of the lyrics and the melody. It's so sad and emotive that I can just feel for the song, the lyrics are also so well written that I can picture the scene out there. I sang that song in the KTV the other day, it's so nice to sing also~

My sister though was a bit skeptical. She didn't like Wubai refering people as 人儿, but I'm okay with it, it sounds okay mah~ hehehe... But I really like the part which says 这个时候开始下起冰冷冷的雨/落在身上却感不到一丝丝凉意, it's so sad... I don't know why but this songs reminds me a bit of 《泪桥》. Maybe it's the feeling, also a bit of the melody, but the music arrangement for 《泪桥》 has more keyboards in it.

Track 7
彩虹

慢慢掉下来
满天的棉絮飘在我俩中间
我看着你一闪闪的不见
是微风吹进我屏息的眼
慢慢走过来
移动的树都转到我的背面
将我遗忘那无声的夏天
要回忆起我必须再一遍
光线的尘埃
急促的舞动关于你的形容
若下起雨它变成了彩虹
若我哭泣它飞上了天空
有时候我会想起你
想起你我心颤抖不已
你现在好吗没有我好吗
还是你已经有了另一个家
有时候我想忘了你
那必须将我自己一起抽离
没有痕迹的脚步
我才会变孤独
将你挂起来
你是我心中的温柔的弧线
是阳光穿透水滴的美艳
我坚信不是偶然的相逢
七色彩虹

This song reminds me of 《夏夜晚风》, very simple in music, but yet very touching. In fact, this reminded me so much of 《夏夜晚风》 that I recommended it to a friend who likes 《夏夜晚风》 and she really did like this song too. It's just the keyboards and a bit of the guitar. I really like Da Mao's keyboards. Ever since 《泪桥》, I fell in love with Da Mao, and after seeing him perform 《夏夜晚风》 in the concert I further sustained my conviction.

But personally, I don't really like songs that are too slow, not say don't like, but I prefer other kinds of songs ba...

Track 8
不过是爱上你

难道爱就这么沉重
以为它像轻飘飘的解脱
旋转木马情节的小说
总在华丽的瞬间从头
难道情就是这么迷惑
以为它像你纤细的指头
划过了我屏息的眼眸
怎会变成我需要去挣脱
不过是爱上你
不过想在一起
在一起不分离
猛烈的冲撞就封住了心窝
本来我就是一个人来
也习惯一个人
又何苦你要给我那样的吻
或者我醒来也不该当真
你偷走我的灵魂
你不是纯粹那么隆重
是他安排的人
我现在一直对自己这样否认
绝对我不能当作没发生
是谁在暗地里说

I'd consider this as a typical Wubai song, but there's a little twist to the ever-familiar kind of melody. I love this song. This can be considered my most favourite song in the album, although I also love other songs too, but this lyrics also tugs my heart. One thing interesting, in the line 是他安排的人, the traditional Chinese words write the 他 as the God the 他, not this normal 他. Okay, maybe not God as God, but as some superior being, or some force of come kind.

This music video was also very nice. There's this girl fraternising with Wubai. I was so damn jealous lor... If only I can be that girl there fraternising with him, I'd give anything sia. I sang this song twice in the KTV the other day.

Track 9
一个梦

一种声音一首歌曲
一个日子一段回忆
一段恋情一段友谊
还有一个我一个你
慢慢陷入全都付出
就像跳入深深海底
真情的海今生的债
我在期待什么结局
云压下来雨泼过来
渴望躺在你的怀里
安慰我吧还来得及
为了一个梦我心底
就在我惊乱发狂胡言说话
是否你将那玫瑰
别在我俩的秘密
哦……
带着珍惜我要远离
到那天涯没有消息
再见过去如此而已
ba la……

This is the kind of motivational song, but I don't know why it doesn't really touch me much. Maybe because it reminds me of Emil Chau's 《朋友》, don't know why I thought of that, but there's this sense of nostalgia in the song that the singers wants to evoke but although I'm old, I'm still not old enough to appreciate nostalgia, I guess.

Track 10
秘恋

静静躲在什么的后面
讲着一些天国语言
明明就是一定有什么
发生你们两个之间
没发现我都看那边
装做都看不见
wu wu
就是会有奇怪的笑脸
收起在我转身以前
电话响起你就故意
一直跑到离我很远
根本都不想埋怨
喔~秘恋
就在我身边
贴着我的脸
是否只是你的对我考验
那只是耀眼
告诉我一点
我已准备好了面对面
你就是我生活的终点
我知道这样非常讨厌
所以我也不要很明显
让你知道我心被恋
慢慢的一整天
喔…我是真的爱着你
为你(为你)怎样都可以
告诉我(告诉我)是我想太多
你(你)还是要爱我

A bit light hearted, a bit 无厘头, but I don't really like this kind of love songs. It's not sad, not really that happy, doesn't really evoke much feelings from me. Maybe I'm the kind who prefer tragic or some more emotive kind of song. Or maybe I'm just jealous. lol~ When listening to this song, an image of his wife just popped up in my mind. ahh... Those wives, can't stand them, but well, have to accept them, but I can still be jealous what. Sometimes really can't stand myself for thinking like that, but what to do, can't think of anything else in a situation like this mah.

Track 11
你是我的花朵

留心脚步看得清楚
有很多可疑的因素
呼喊你让你糊涂
考验我爱的程度
高楼电梯霓虹深处
舞动在人群很拘束
拉着我不要飘走
我在你背后挡风
喔你是我的花朵
我要拥有你插在我心窝
我要保护你一路都畅通
就算你身边很多小石头
我要爱着你不眠也不休
不管你心充满多少困惑
我绝对不会对爱你放松
你是我所有快乐源头
我和你将会到达那开心乐园

When I first heard this I thought it reminded me of Cherry Lover, just that with a bit of Techno infused in it. Then I watched the music video. I changed my mind totally. This is not Techno, this is called Retro. lol~ Must go watch the music video, it's so retro that it's sort of cute. In the music video, Wubai and China Blue attempted to dance, imagine the kind of crappy agogo dance. hahaha~ The design of the title in the MTV was also the kind of Retro kind of font. Then there was the image of the flower, very Retro like. The use of colours too~ hahaha~

After watching the music video, my whole idea of the song changed a lot. I didn't really think much of it previously, but now hearing it, it's quite cute~ hehehe... A kind of whole new image change for Wubai for this song.

Track 12
一千万个理由

站在那风吹的角落
嘲笑风儿的浅薄
世界如此的辽阔
为何只对我诉说
又不是情话慢慢说
要是细语我会懂
过去我是答应过
难道我们要哀愁
静静的捂上我耳朵
不要徘徊我身后
我都已经在漂流
难道你没有出口
我有一千万个理由
证明爱你的是我
关于那天我的远走
有个拉长的漩涡
爱你爱你的是我
离开那爱你的漩涡
等待风儿的放手

The style of the music for this song is a bit like 《彩虹》, simple, with the guitar and the keyboards, but very much sadder. The drums and bass comes in later just as the song goes into the chorus, and it just sounds so sad, the whole combination and the slow pace of the melody. This is the kind of song which is so sad, that it can lower one's spirit as long as one thinks of the song. *sigh*

Track 13
翻白

想要问问你你心在哪里
是否被月亮吃掉了
银色的月光翻白了夜空
闪亮的河水晃晃动
白色的夜空听不到你那
甜温的声音难过了
喘息的律动浮沉的光波
拉出我爱你的初衷
呼吸停止的时刻
翻出感情的颜色
清澈的透明伸长了树影
我的渴望就像月光流

This is a nice parting song, and it continues with a bit of Retro feel to it. The lyrics reminds me of Faye Wong's 《无常》 because of the use of the scenery and also the mood of the person when describing the scenery. But the melody and the music for both songs are vastly different.

On the whole, this album doesn't disappoint. I know I can't ask for an album filled with all his emotive sad songs, because that's not him and I don't think I can tahan the emotional strain if I've like so many of those kind of songs in one album. Another thing I like is that there is so many songs in the album~ hehehe... Wubai's albums usually have more than 10 songs, usually about 12, maybe also due to him not producing an album that often compared to those young upstarts so having more songs is nice. And the most important good thing, unlike 《泪桥》, this is not a copy control CD, so I can rip it and upload it into my handphone in mp3 format~ yay~ It's so sad of 《泪桥》 that I don't have any mp3s of any song in that album, and I cannot listen to the song outside my house.

Please people, buy the album and support Wu Bai and China Blue okie~


That's Hsiao Chu, Dino, and Da Mao blurred in the background~

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Barcelona vs Werder Bremen

UPDATE!: I'm so bloody disappointed with the final round of Champions League matches. There's no major disappointments at all! Teams that look that they might cause a major upset in the end didn't upset at all. I was hoping that Werder and CSKA could knock out Barca and Arsenal, or maybe Porto to win over Arsenal, and maybe Benfica to win over Man Utd and knock them out, but in the end, grrr... Just look at the stupid tables, all the first and second seeded teams all got through lor. The only consolation upset would be Celtic through over Benfica, but it's not considered a major upset, like knocking out only of the top teams. Now we have like got all the Spanish and English teams through, and the Italians, freak, we still got four bloody English teams in the game lor.

It'll be tomorrow by the way, just want to get my thoughts in about this. Oh my god, my insides are starting to churn, I'm so nervous. I haven't been so nervous since a very long time. The last time I was this nervous was during this Chelsea vs Barcelona match. And it's pretty weird that I'm nervous over a match which Chelsea is not playing. hehehe~



To those who doesn't know about this, the club which I support only second to Chelsea is this club, Werder Bremen. I fell in love with this club in 2003/4 when I started learning German and surfed though German football websites and it so happened that that year Werder Bremen won a double of the Bundesliga and the Cup competition. Following that year, which sank my commitment to Werder was the €5million purchase of Miroslav Klose. I never looked back. Werder was the team I supported in the Bundesliga although since then they haven't won anything again. hehehe~

Werder is an attacking team. Its strike force it the best out of all Bundesliga team, even Bayern München's goal scores pales in comparison despite them picking up the trophies for the 2004/5 and 2005/6 seasons in the Bundesliga. I admit that in Werder's quest for goal, they often open up gaps in defence, which contributes to them not being able to win as many matches as they'd like to, but as they grow in experience with Champions League matches, and the exposure to teams outside Germany, they have been improving in the defence over the years.

Also, it does help that Werder has a stable of very shuai looking guys, tall, blonde, blue eyed, and are national players. hehehe~ I might be a die hard football fan, but don't forget I'm also a girl.


In goal, Werder usually has Tim Wiese. He's young and lacks big match experiences, hence he has been guilty of fumbling in crucial Champions League matches last season and the season before. Because he has been improving over the past seasons, as with Werder improving in their standings in the Champions League, I think he'll do well for Werder.

Over at the other hand of the goal post, we have Victor Valdes. hehehe~ I've talked about him a couple of times. I love him, he's the only player from that team that I love, well, mainly because he's the only good looking guy. But in terms of football, Valdes remains in queue behind a long slew of other Spanish nationals for goalkeeping, and Barca has been all along quite weak in defence. Hence, comparatively, I won't really say, Barca has the upper hand in goalkeeping.


In defence, along with Naldo, Wome, and Fritz, we have Per Mertesacker, that guy in the above picture. He's a German national, and I used to own a Cola bottle with his picture plastered on it. He's the key in Werder's improving defence. He's also that person who headed in the goal against Chelsea two weeks ago.

He'll be compared against the more experienced Barca team comprising of captain Puyol, which I have to admit, Werder might be a bit lacking in comparison. Puyol is the only Barca footballer whom I respect as a footballer (note, I like Valdes only as a shuaige but not as a footballer). Puyol and Valdes are like the very few remaining Catalans left in the globalising world of Barcelonian football. Personally, I don't see Catalans as Spanish even though they play for the Spanish national team, but maybe it's just me.

In the midfield, we have

Torsten Frings, another German national who shined in the 2006 World Cup and established himself as one of the leading German nationals. He plays a more defensive role in in midfield not unlike Makelele and will be seeing himself up against players like Edmilson from Barca tomorrow, but I have every faith in him to be the better player.


Tim Borowski is another player I really really love, and is almost my most favourite player in the Bundesliga after perhaps Miroslav Klose. Let's first not talk about his super shuai good looks, but he's one tall and strong midfielder who just emerging in this game. Give him another couple more years and he'll be real good. Quite a pity he mostly plays as a substitute in the national games usually coming in for players such as Ballack, Frings and Schweinsteiger.

Other midfielders prospected to be featured tomorrow are Jensen and Diego. Diego is the next Ronaldinho. He plays in his postition, but he's much younger. He's like three days younger than me, so you can see how young he is~ hehehe... Still, the next Ronaldinho is still not as good as the real Ronaldinho, so, cross our fingers for the new generation to kick the butts of the older generation ba... As the old Chinese sayings go, 长江后浪推前浪, and 青出于蓝而胜于蓝.

Werder has an effective strike force that well, I can even say is almost the best in the world. It's not about the individual or summed together quality of the strikers, but the combination, and their effectiveness when working together that really brings out that potent lethal knock out. From the K und K strike force of Miroslav Klose and Ivan Klasnic in the past two seasons, this season's injury to Klasnic has forced Werder to try out to great results the potency of the new emerging strike force that too cannot be reckoned with of the likes of Zidan and (a personal favourite) Aaron Hunt. Forerunning tomorrow would most likely be

Klose and Hunt


Aaron Hunt young and good looking, a pity the picture above doesn't do him justice. See him on the pitch, he's good~ He's not really a full national yet, mostly playing for the U21s, but with his maturing, I see him soon to be together with the likes of his other Werder team mates in the German national team.

Compared to Barca's aging Gudjohnsen and Guily, with the former having left Chelsea for his new team, there is a very obvious age disparity between the two teams. We'll now have to see which will emerge as the winner. I really hope it's Werder~ not just because this would mean victory for the North Germans, but also a kick in the ass for the Catalans. wahaha~

Also, I'd like to talk a bit about this one club man...

Thomas Schaaf, the trainer of Werder Bremen is a through and through one club man who played only for Werder in his playing days, and going through the ladder in coaching Werder, guiding the B youth team, A youth team, the reserves, finally to the full first team. He really worked his way up in the Werder ladder, making him through and through the Werder man. His tactics has also been very impressive, especially the K und K formular last season. Painting him to be the saint, he's one guy with a really good temper, which I think is one trait lacking in many trainers.

For this very once, I'll say, this game matters more to me than the Chelsea match. Chelsea is already through to the next round, and Levski Sofia isn't really a very matchable opponent. If Chelsea loses, it's only because we're preserving our energy for the heavy schedule of football next week. Even if we win, it's not really something that's very impressive since Levski is like the team very one pushes balls into.

Oh well... *cross fingers for the match tomorrow*

PS: This is my 499th post. Watch this space for my little celebration of the 500th post coming up soon. I'm so excited~ 5-0-0 leh... A very big number to me, hope you guys are as excited as I am to see what I have in stall with you for the commemoration of the big 5-0-0 post~ wahahaha~~~