Saturday, March 31, 2007

Die Schatten werden länger

I got it out from an email by Terrence.
It's from a musical called Elisabeth.


Die Schatten werden länger

TOD:
Zeit, daß wir uns endlich sprechen.
Zeit, das Schweigen zu durchbrechen.
Du kennst mich. Ja, du kennst mich.
Weißt du noch? Du warst ein Knabe,
als ich dir versprochen habe,
daß ich dir immer nah bleib.

RUDOLF:
O, ich hab dich nie vergessen.
Meinen Freund, nachdem ich rufe,
wenn mich meine Ängste fressen.

TOD:
Ich komm, weil du mich brauchst!

TOD & RUDOLF:
Die Schatten werden länger
und doch bleiben alle blind und stumm.
Zum Klang der Rattenfänger
tanzt man wild ums goldne Kalb herum.
Die Schatten werden länger...
Es ist fünf vor zwölf, die Zeit ist beinah um!

RUDOLF:
Zeit, den Riß der Welt zu sehen.
Könnt ich nur das Steuer drehen!
Doch ich muß daneben stehen.
Man bindet mir die Hände.

TOD:
Nichts ist schlimmer als zu wissen,
wie das Unheil sich entwickelt,
und in Ohnmacht zusehn müssen.

RUDOLF:
Es macht mich völlig krank!

TOD, RUDOLF & TOTE:
Die Schatten werden länger
und die Lieder werden kalt und schrill.
Der Teufelskreis wird enger,
doch man glaubt nur, was man glauben will.
Die Schatten werden länger...
Es ist fünf vor zwölf, warum hält jeder still?

TOD:
Was hält dich zurück? Dies ist der Augenblick!
Greif nach der Macht! Tu es aus Notwehr!

RUDOLF:
Notwehr?

TOD, RUDOLF & TOTE:
Die Schatten werden länger.
Was geschehn muß, das muß jetzt geschehn.
Der Teufelskreis wird enger
man muß dem Unheil widerstehn!
Die Schatten werden länger...
Kaiser Rudolf wird der Zeit entgegengehn!

This song is really very emotive, I couldn't help but feel almost tearing when I played it on youtube. Don't know if I can manage to ask someone to help me to get this musical on CD... wahaha~ All your fault la, Terrence, must intro the nice things to me. hehe~ But thanks anyway! Thanks, I really love this song~

For a background behind this musical, and behind this song, and the reason why it's so touching, please read the Wikipedia entry on Elisabeth the musical.

Enjoy~

Thursday, March 29, 2007

我喜欢

我喜欢 is the theme for my new header~
Instead of me being stuck in my ramp, I decided to take on a more positive outlook and bask myself with things I like.

I spent quite a lot of hours doing this thing up and over the course, I made lots of editing, including one very major thing. I was almost done with the header and ready to put it up when I realised one very grave mistake. I left of Chelsea and Werder Bremen from my list of things I like. bah~ tsk tsk Joan. So I had to remove some other stuff to fit these two logos inside. Actually I think I still have a lot of things I like but either I forgot to insert them in or I decided to leave them out. Over the course of time, I might add some other stuff or replace some other stuff I like into the header so watch out for them!

I might even want to make more randomities for the flashing of the title. Wanna guess how many different position of the title are there? hehehe... Actually, not many... Since I got lazy editing the positions and with my dire lack of creativity, I can't come up with nice and good looking patterns.

There are 24 little squares containing a different thing, so let me talk about them right now! hahaha~ I love talking about things I like.

(From left to right, up to down)

Red Rose.
I never was a person who liked flowers very much until I went to Germany and saw really huge and beautiful roses. Red ones look so sensual and sexy. I fell in love with them, especially those opened up ones, as big as my palms. Those roses we get in Singapore are from Cameron Highlands and hence are not as big as those European bloomers. So, I still don't like flowers very much.

Death of Marat.
A picture of a Frenchman. Marat. No, it's not Marat whom I like, it's the painter of this painting that I like. David. Jacques-Louis David. And his this painting Death of Marat is one of which I really like. I saw this painting in a museum in Brussels, but there was a crowd of little students over there when I saw it. I had to wait for all of them to leave before I can come up close with Marat, okay David more accurately. I once said to someone that I don't like the French, I shall take back my words, I love David, and all of his artworks. If I've like tons and tons of money to spare, I'd really like to purchase a David painting, preferably one from his French Revolution era, the other ones before and after are more classical paintings.

Salted Egg Prawns.
The person who developed the cooking of salted egg and prawns is a genius man. I love salted eggs, I love prawns, I love salted egg prawns. This plate is taken from Crystal Jade Lamian Xiaolongbao, Crystal Jade Kitchen's has whole prawns instead of small prawns. I think a lot of other zichar places now are selling this dish after CJ made them famous. I once saw somewhere in some little eatery, but I didn't try it, they have salted egg lobster. wahaha~

adidas Football.
I love adidas, there's no questioning of that. I love football, there's even more no questioning of that. This picture is me trying to tie in my two loves. I took this picture of this gigantic football myself, outside the adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach. It is a replica of the match ball used in the final of the World Cup match in Berlin.

4B.
If there's one clique of people that I love to bits, that's be 4B. Ya, sure, I have other closer friends, but 4B as a whole is my favourite group of people, and with them I shared some very very memorable stuff. From the days when we were in secondary school, and all our subsequent outings, they were all a bunch of fun. And also this group of people never fail to be there always. 12 angels + 21 devils = 4B. hehe...

Werder Bremen.
The strongest attacking team in the Bundesliga. I first came to know of Werder Bremen just after they won the Bundesliga. With the prize money and with their entry into the Champions League, they were able to purchase Miroslav Klose and I followed Miro over to Werder. After getting to know the team better, I realised that they were more than just Miro, I later fell in love with the other players, and more importantly the trainer. Schaaf is an amazing man, he was a Werder player, then became the reserve team trainer, and now finally the full team trainer. A One Club Man. Although their attacking playing often leave gaps behind them, he has been trying to rectify this problem, and I can see Werder's improvement over these couple of years.

Xiaolongbao.
I love xiaolongbaos. I like them juicy with the soup oozing out, hot and tasty and very very yummy. This picture is of one from Crystal Jade Lamian Xiaolongbao, other tasty xiaolongbaos I had are at Yum Cha, the Chinatown one. I don't like those from Ding Tai Fung. Asian Kitchen ones are edible. Yup... The other time I brought my family to CJ there for xiaolongbao, my dad fell in love with them, then about a week later he brought us all there to eat again. hehe~

Wubai.
I love him. I love him so much that he's my ideal marriage partner. I love his singing too of course, and the songs he write and compose. I love his band too. It's amazing~

Chelsea.
I love Chelsea. I love Terry. I love Lampard. I love Jose Mourinho. I love the whole damn team. I like the way Chelsea sticks on and grinds out victories, they're a team, with team spirit, they play as a team, they win and lose as a team. I love them, not because they are a team of multi-million dollar players, I just love them as they are.

Pink Flower.
I like pink. I don't know what flower is that but I like it. It's small and cute and furry and nice, I like it because I like things that are small and cute. Like I'd use a B5 foolscap rather than A4 sized one, and my notebooks are like tiny bits of books. hehehe~ Chibi.

Sun.
I took that picture of the sun myself. It was taken in Kinderdijk in Holland. I like the sun, and I like being under the sun, sometimes, when I'm in the mood. When I'm happy I like to bask in the sunlight and feel as though nature is all around me. It also has a soothing and calming effect on me.

Otto von Bismarck.
Someone asked me why is Bismarck up there. Isn't it that obvious it's because I like Bismarck? He's the creator of Germany, without him, there won't be a modernised and unified Germany. He's also a smart person, able to juggle the politics well. His Realpolitik was the balance of the European Powers. Right after he was ousted by Kaiser Wilhelm II, came the Great War. But yet under Bismarck's era, Germany was able to perfect the strategy of Blitzkrieg and won three wars. Amazing.

Canopy.
Doesn't it remind you of a romantic walk down the park? I think the ultimate romantic getaway would be a slow walk down a canopy of trees, sans birdshit, and holding hands and just take in the nature and the scenery.

Yuki Eiri.
I like manga and anime a lot. I like manga and anime males a lot, and I like a lot of Prince type of characters named Yuki. Someone once said that after watching too much anime and reading too many manga, my image of the perfect men is overtly perfect. But I don't think so leh... Even in the manga, the perfect men will also have their flaws.

Mercedes-Benz.
I love cars, I love German cars, I love Mercedes-Benz. Before joining the Mercedes-Benz competition, and before going to Germany and visiting the Mercedes-Benz museum, I used to think the world of BMW, but now to think about it, Mercedes is not just a brand of a car, it's more than a car, it's a legacy. Okay, I was influenced by the advert.

Sausages.
I love sausages. I eat them like every day. Okay, not every day, but when the arts canteen was still open, I would buy like 4 sausages from the beehoon stall like every lecture. Sometimes I'd even make out of the way trips down to bizad just to buy their sausages. When I was in Freiburg, I'd go all the way down to the Münsterplatz just to buy sausages.

Takeshi Kaneshiro.
He is the perfect creation of the male specimen. Although I love Wubai and want to marry him, I cannot say that Wubai is drop dead good looking, nor him being perfect, but Takeshi Kaneshiro is beauty personified. There's also this mysterious allure around him which makes him even more unattainable, don't know how to describe. He's so shuai.

Coke.
I need coke to put me to sleep soundly, I need coke to wake me up. I think that cokes goes well best into an empty stomach, I think that coke goes well best after a heavy meal, I think that coke is good for anytime of the day. Need I say more about the cult drink of the world? Not even when Aaron Kwok and Faye Wong were spokepeople of Pepsi I swayed. Well, maybe a bit, but not in the long run.

Moon.
As much as I love the sun, I love the moon. I like nights, and during the night I love the moon. I'd love to one day go out into an open field and just bask in the moonlight. I took this picture of the moon too, set my camera to zoom in on the moon. I like the orangey hue of the moon, it's like night but not too night. 可惜 月有阴晴圆缺. But then again, maybe that's also the beauty of the moon.

Germany.
And all this German. hehe~ If you can't see properly, that's a German flag, I took that picture and I like it, I like that it's fluttering in the wind. I loved Germany ever since I studied on their history. They are the most amazing nation, won three wars, lost two world wars, yet able to get on its feet again and take the world by storm, well, take the economic world, a least.

Food.
I love food. I love eating. There's nothing more I can say about it.

Gummi Bears.
Someone asked me what are the red and yellow things, erm... They are gummi bears, they are a pair of gummi bears kissing. Yes, I love gummi bears, I love the colours red and yellow, and I love kissing, well, the idea of kissing actually, okay, maybe I love the idea of two people in love kissing, okay maybe maybe whatever... Aren't the bears so cute?

Sake Sashimi.
Not sake as in Japanese alcohol, but sake as in salmon. I like salmon, raw and smoked. Fried ones are also nice, but the really good ones are the raw ones. I dip them into shoyu, okay, I soak and drench them in shoyu and eat them. It tastes so good, almost melting in the mouth, if the salmon is fresh.

Joan Ang.
Need I explain.

I wrote the Chinese characters of wo xi huan myself, with ink and paper, then uploaded it to tinker with photoshop. Nice anot my handwriting? okay, this isn't the best example of my handwriting, but well, I think it looks kinda nice, the colours I chose on the black background. I like red and yellow as I said earlier on, and blue is the colour of Chelsea.

Share with you something really dumb. My first attempt with the word xi was wrong, after I wrote it, I realised that the word looked a bit too long. I then realised I added an extra 口 somewhere in the middle. So dots lor me. Think I too long never write in Chinese already.

Okay, so tell me how does my header looks. And remind me if I forgot to add in anything I like~

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The Past Came Back to Haunt

The title explains it clearly. I had a tough decision to make, to answer affirmatively, negatively, or to ignore. The wisest choice, of course, is to ignore, and hopefully everything will be all right again. But my fingers itchy, I replied, negatively, of course, but still, a reply is a reply.

So now, I'm like totally mindfucked and unsettled and in a mess.

一个人
杨乃文

雨下个不停
冷风儿吹
我心是雨水
慌乱没有起点
慌乱没有终点
飞舞在烟漠之间

溅湿了衣裳
迷惑了眼
到此为止吧
不想和你争辩
爱上你是从前
层层回忆将他洒在雨里面

驶向那白色地平线
浓雾漫在眼前
悲伤它总是一瞬间
浸湿了我
折磨着我
为何你始终不曾知道

只要你一个人了解我就够了
我已经付出全部爱和自由
只要你一个人了解我就够了
孤独它占据我心中已经太久
只要你一个人了解我就够了
泪已经流干
一切都太晚太晚

驶向那蓝色地平线
浓雾漫在眼前
悲伤它总是一瞬间
浸湿了我
折磨着我
为何你始终不曾知道

只要你一个人了解我就够了
我已经付出全部爱和自由
只要你一个人了解我就够了
孤独它占据我心中已经太久
只要你一个人了解我就够了
泪已经流干
一切都太晚太晚

一个人只要一个人

雨下个不停
冷风儿吹
我心是雨水
飞舞在烟漠之间
溅湿了衣裳
迷惑了眼
到此为止吧
不想和你争辩
爱上你是从前
层层回忆将它洒在雨里面

The other songs playing at the moment are Jolin Tsai's 《孤单的人总说无所谓》 and Emil Chau's 《寡妇村传奇》. I've put up these songs before so not putting them up again. I've changed my MSN quote to a verse from the latter song, but I altered a word and changed the entire meaning of the song. Don't know if anyone can spot it anot.

Anyway, speaking of that song, I realised that it wasn't Cindy nor Peiyi who recommended it to me, Cindy said that she never even heard of it before. She suggested it was someone else, but I thought it wasn't him because all along I thought it was a female who recommended it to me. In the end, I asked him and he replied affirmatively, so I guess it's more on that I subconsciously just didn't want it to be him.

Speaking of him, I was at AS1 walkway when a mutal friend who didn't know about our falling out, asked me something about something. She assumed that because of him, erm... She thought I'd be going because of his involvement, but I said I wasn't and she appeared to be rather shocked. I guess no one would have foresaw that our falling out would come so drastically. I guess that makes it two pasts coming back to haunt.

Then that day as I came home, the mp3 shuffled played all the sad songs. I think I need to load more happy songs into my mp3 player already.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

England Crap

I am not a fan of England. I support the German national team instead. I try to tell myself that everytime England plays, but somehow, somehow, there's this softspot inside me that really wants England to win despite my love for some other team, despite my hatred for some English players from rivalling clubs.

I don't know what happened to England over the past couple of months, okay, the past year or so. Eriksson, though highly criticised for keeping some old, out of form, star players on his team, at least have been producing some pretty decent results. Since the failure of England in the World Cup 2006, and seeing how ineffective some players are, I did wish that the next coach would do some radical changes to the team.

But when the coach was revealled to be Mr McClaren, I was highly disappointed. Compared to Eriksson, McClaren's credentials are far far worse. I don't know what to expect of him, perhaps, at the very least, to maintain Eriksson's not so spectacular track record? However, it seems that following the dismissal of Eriksson, and the dropping of several old, out of form, star players, England is playing only far worse than before.

Before, they weren't playing at their club maximum potential. Now, they are playing like an S-League club, with no team work, no cooperation, no sense of presence on the field, and highly ineffective. Really, is it that necessary for England to hire an English coach? I don't know how a true Englishman would feel, but I don't think it's all that all necessary. If between two equally good coaches, just that one is an Englishman, the other a Swede, I'd think it'd be better to hire the Englishman, but if it's so obvious that the Swede (just a random example, similarities are your own imaginative associations, okie?) is so much better than the Englishman, might just as well, hire the betterman for the job, and in the meantime try and groom more better English coaches.

The main problem with McClaren is his use of players out of position. He basically screwed the whole midfield left right centre. England's midfield is a total mess, like MESS.

It has been proven since the Eriksson days that Gerrard and Lampard, no matter how good they are individually on club level, they cannot work together on the same midfield. The only possibility of them playing together in midfield would be to play it in a flat 4-4-2 formation without a holding midfielder, or playing on a 4-5-1 formation with both Lampard and Gerrard in the middle. I don't care if Gerrard does play on the right occasionally for Liverpool or whatsoever, I think he just cannot play on the right.

Or better still, just screw the whole Gerrard-Lampard partnership. Keep a holding midfielder, ie Hargreaves, since he's the only somewhat decent player on the pitch. Okay, I'm going to say this. Yes, Joan the Chelsea fan is going to say this. McClaren, please drop Lampard from the team. Okay, I've said it! Lampard may be god in the blue jersey, but really, he keeps misfiring for England, is a tad too selfish, and doesn't have the right sort of communication with his team mates.

A problem with England, is that the national team is not a team but a group of loosely collected stars who hate each other and filled with lots of club rivalries, and WAG factionalism. Damn the WAGs. I don't see any other national team with a group of WAGs swaggering like those of England. They create more trouble than club rivalries.

Back to Lampard, he's not the same player for England as he is for Chelsea with the biggest problem lying in that he doesn't have the same calibre of team mates in the English national team as he has in Chelsea. Chelsea emphasises on team work, his team mates will pass him the ball, and he can trust his team mates with his ball, and his team mates are all world class players. In England, his team mates don't really trust him with the ball just as he doesn't trust his team mates with the ball, and he ends up being selfish, and the stress probably causes him to misfire too. It's different. Lampard is a team player, not an individual player.

Gerrard on the other hand is a more individual player than Lampard. We see in Liverpool where their fate lies solely in the hands (or legs rather) of Steven Gerrard. Therefore, despite all my love for Chelsea and all my Chelsea players, I have to say sorry, Lampard just cannot make it in a lousy team. Maybe that will give Lampard some double take if he decides to leave Chelsea, I'll find that it'd be difficult for him to succeed in another team other than Chelsea.

There's also a big problem in English strike force. England don't have an out and out star striker who is reliable. Rooney is not an out and out striker, he's more of the hole player, and he's also not reliable. The out and out strikers like Owen and Crouch is like disappeared, half dead, spoilt, Johnson, Bent, Defoe don't have much international experience, Walcott, Nugent, who are they? NUGENT??? Siang lai eh???

Another complain about England is the lack of a natural left footer to fill in left side of the pitch. I don't think one can help in sourcing a natural left footer if there isn't any one good enough for the job.

Most importantly, for a team to play this badly like England, there needs to be some really important player on the pitch to make a difference between a 1-0 from a 0-0. Face it, England, you need Beckham. As much as you guys hate him, it's very apparent that the freekick skills of Beckham is much needed to make a difference between a goal and no goals at all. You don't need to let him take any penalties, but the freekicks would really do a difference. It'll be a boring game to score goals from deadpieces, but well, for the three points, for the victory, there isn't much of a choice.

Either that or England have to cultivate an actor from the London School of Theatre to do some really good divings and get some important penalties, just take a cue from Mr Ronaldo for all the examples. Penalties are goals too.

Really, McClaren really needs to be more radical to get some results. England does have some really good star players who looks really good on paper.

In the meantime, I shall get my Germany tank top out from my wardrobe and call myself a Germany football fan. I didn't buy that 30€ tank top for nothing. I know that at least some other football team still knows what does team sports mean.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Seven Deadly Sins

Picked this up in someone's blog archives.

**ANGER**

1. Who did you last get angry with?
My sister. I'm always angry with her for convenient reasons.

2. What is your weapon of choice?
Sword. If I know how to wield one properly, that is.

3. Would you hit a member of the opposite sex?
Yes. If the situation calls for the use of force, of course.

4. How about of the same sex?
Perhaps, but we girls have another way going about fighting, haha... We can claw, we can bite, we can do all sorts of things.

5. Who was the last person who got really angry at you?
My sister. For the same reason I got angry with her. But really, most of the time we aren't angry with each other, and neither do our anger last long.

6. What is your pet peeve?
Indecisiveness, or what I call the Zhang Wuji-syndrome.
People standing too close to me, I'm allergic to human.
Assumptions, misunderstandings, narrow-mindedness.

7. Do you keep grudges, or can you let them go easily?
Forgiving is easy, but it's more difficult to forget. I don't keep grudges intentionally, unless it's something really bad.

**SLOTH**

1. What is one thing you're supposed to do daily that you haven't done in a long time?
I don't really need to do anything I don't want to do.
Household chores, perhaps. Schoolwork, maybe.

2. What is the latest you've ever woken up?
I can wake up at any time, any hour of the day I want. The most common would be to wake up in time for dinner, at about 7pm++.

4. What is the last lame excuse you made?
Can't think of anything lame, but convenient excuses would include, I don't know, I can't remember, I'm not feeling well, Maybe later.

5. Have you ever watched an infomercial all the way through?:
Ya, but seldom, especially after the invention of the internet. There are better ways to waste time, like reading people's blog archives, thank you very much.

6. When was the last time you got a good workout in?
The other day when I swam 2.5km.

7. How many times did you hit the snooze button on your alarm clock today?
Today is Sunday, go figure.

**GLUTTONY**

1. What is your overpriced yuppie beverage of choice?
Tequilla Sunrise.

2. Meat eaters: white meat or dark meat?
White. I don't take red meat.

3. What is the greatest amount of alcohol you've had in one sitting/outing/event?
Couple of beers and a couple of cocktails, and some red wine. No, wasn't drunk.

4. Have you ever used a professional diet company?
No. But I often try out the Protein Diet thingie, but that's just an excuse for me not to eat rice.

5. Do you have an issue with your weight?
Yes, I gained 8kg from two Germany trips. I want to lose those extra kilos.

6. Do you prefer sweets, salty foods, or spicy foods?
Salty.

7. Have you ever looked at a small house pet or child and thought, "lunch"?
Only the fish, nothing else, and they aren't goldfish, it's proper edible kind of fish.

**LUST**

1. How many people have you seen naked (not counting movies/family)?
Not many.

2. How many people have seen YOU naked (not counting physicians/family)?
Not many.

3. Have you ever caught yourself staring at the chest/crotch of a member of your gender of choice during a normal conversation?
Don't think so, at least not in a normal conversation.

4. Have you had sex?
No.

5. What is your favorite body part on a person of your gender of choice?
I don't have a favourite.

6. Have you ever been propositioned by a prostitute?
No.

7. Have you ever gotten tested for an STD or pregnancy?
No.

**GREED**

1. How many credit cards do you own?
Zero.

2. What's your guilty pleasure store?
Popcorn Pop in Esplanade. I'd go there everytime I'm feeling down and browse through the movie posters, I'd buy some movie handbills for the retail therapy. They cost $5 each, so it's quite affordable compared to the posters, but I'd also buy the cardcases too, so it adds up. It's a good thing I haven't been there for quite some time.
Kinokuniya. Either mangas or fiction or history or German books, I like, and I buy. And I feel good.

3. If you had $1 million, what would you do with it?
Straighten my teeth again, damn my stupid dentist.
Spot removals by laser.
Learn driving, pass driving, buy car.
Eat eat eat.
Slimming slimming slimming.
Buy surprise presents for people.

4. Would you rather be rich or famous?
Rich people are famous, famous people are rich.
Maybe famous but not notorious. Famous, then I use fame to create wealth.

5. Would you accept a boring job if it meant you would make megabucks?
Yes, then I can use the money to indulge in something I like. Besides, I can always skive on the job and hang out online every work day.

6. Have you ever stolen anything?
Don't think so.

7. How many MP3s are on your hard drive?
Not many, maybe about 1.something GB.
But I've got a lot of MP4 videos from animes. hehehe~

**PRIDE**

1. What’s one thing have you done that you're most proud of?
Surviving alone in Germany, travelling alone around some parts of Europe.

2. What's one thing have you done that your parents are most proud of?
I don't know.

3. What thing would you like to accomplish later in your life?
Publish my book.
Go on a road trip in Germany.
Have a couple of children.

4. Do you get annoyed by coming in second place?
Don't think so, unless the first place winner is doesn't have my capabilities, or I wasn't at my maximum potential.

5. Have you ever entered a contest of skill, knowing you were of much higher skill than all the other competitors?
Once, at an abacus competition. I won.

6. Have you ever cheated on something to get a higher score?
Tests, spelling, games.

7. What did you do today that you're proud of?
I haven't done anything today yet. Oh, I woke up at 12+pm as compared to my usual late afternoon timings on Sundays.

**ENVY**

1. What item (or person) belonging to one of your friends, would you most want to have for your own?
I can't think of any at this moment.

2. Who would you want to go on "Trading Spaces" with?
I'm quite satisfied with what I'm with at this moment.

3. If you could be anyone else in the world, who would you be?
Jose Mourinho.

4. Have you ever been cheated on?
Yes.

5. Have you ever wished you had a different physical feature?
I wish I was thinner, taller, bigger boobs, higher cheekbones, sunken eyes, longer legs, less acne, but well, it's just a wish.

6. What inborn trait do you see in others that you wish you had for yourself?
Can't think of any at the moment.

7. Do you wish you'd come up with this survey?
No, why would I?

8. Finally, what is your favorite deadly sin?
Sloth. Gluttony sounds good too.

Actually, shouldn't anger be wrath instead?

Friday, March 23, 2007

German Class Jokes

This will be a short one, and the jokes are in German, so the bulk of you out there can just ignore me. I just want to note it down because it's really very funny! And I've some time to spare.

In class just now, I was writing a short passage for an advert for a chair. I described the chair as being comfortable and healthy to use, "bequem und gesund". Shawn the clown looked over at my paper and said "ungesund" which means unhealthy. diaoz...

Frau Niemann heard me protest to Shawn and asked what happened.

Then she told us another joke from her other German class. She was discussing the difference between the akkusativ and dativ "in die" and "in der" with a student. "In die bibliothek gehen" means going to the library, but "in der bibliothek bleiben" means staying in the library, there's a difference in position and direction.

Then came another student who cut in and said "Inder und Inderin". Oh man, even as I'm typing this I'm laughing out lor. Inder is a male Indian and Inderin is a female Indian.

Then I shared with Frau Niemann what happened just before the class. Shawn came over to class while I was sitting outside waiting for time to pass and he asked me if he was late, so I said, "Niemand ist hier." He rushed into the room straight because he thought that I said "Niemann ist hier", he thought I meant that Frau Niemann had arrived before him.

Then Frau Niemann was like, this isn't the first time such things happened. She said that she often received emails greeting her as "Frau Niemand". diaoz... If you don't know, "niemand" means "nobody".

And she also said that some students mix her up with Frau Neumann, another German tutor. She gets emails for Frau Neumann and Frau Neumann gets emails for Frau Niemann. diaoz...

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Joan in the Kitchen

Gabriel brought me to the German supermarket on Tuesday so I could get my fix of Schwarzwälder Schinken or Blackforest Ham, and while I was there I got a pack of cheese sausages too, and because I was too paiseh, Gabriel helped me ask the lady if they'd bring in fresh white asparagus during the asparagus season, and indeed they will from mid April to mid June, so mark down in my calendar (yea, right, like I have one) and I'll make yet another trip to the German supermarket and buy the fresh white asparagus and more Schwarzwälder Schinken. (phew, one long sentence, noticed that?) They'll cost me a bomb, but I'm sure it'd be well worth the price even if I've to cook it myself.

I miss Germany, I miss Freiburg.

It's been seven months since I last ate this man. And I used to like eat it every day for four whole months when I was in Germany. The Blackforest Ham was so cheap there, and it costs so much here in Singapore. One small pack which allowed me to eat four pieces of those bread costs $7+++, but I tell you, it was so good, so good, so good. Luckily I managed to save some butter if not I don't know how am I to eat those bread. Ya, I very seldom eat bread and I don't eat butter at home, I don't eat butter because I don't eat bread, so we don't buy butter, so, you get it la... Anyway, the butter I used was koped from the hospital when my grandfather was still sick. He never ate it, so I brought them back, cannot waste mah...

The main point today isn't about the ham, it's about my dinner. Knowing that I had sausages, I decided that I was going to cook tonight's dinner, after all the parents were out and I'm hungry, and it's been a long time since I last cooked. I really like cooking, but I hatehatehate the washing up part, which makes me often too lazy to even bother to cook. But some times, certain foods, I have to cook myself because nobody else know how to cook it. wahaha~

I came home to my younger sister who has already eaten instant noodles (how sad her life is) so she doesn't want anything else, so I started making the food I like. Seeing the commotion, the sister came in to the kitchen to watch me cook, and started bitching about everything possible.

Let's face it, everyone knows that I'm the most lup sup person on earth so that's no big deal, but but but the sister has OCD and is a cleaniness freak. The fun part about this mismatch is that everytime I want something from her, I just have to threaten to hug her (after she has bathed and before I bathed) and she'll agree to everything I want.

I took out the frying pan and heated it up on the stove immediately. "Why you never wash the frying fan?" screamed my sister. I ignored her.

I took out the sausages, opened up the package, took out some kitchen towels to dry them. "Why you never wash the sausages?" yea... That's something my mother always nags me for not doing but I've never had lausai because of this so why bother.

Then I clipped up the opened package with those handyclips and stuffed them back into the fridge. "You have to use rubber band for raw food!" screamed the sister yet again. "Mummy only use the clips for cooked food, raw food need to use rubber band."

"Why?" I asked. "I'm clipping only the exterior of the packet, not say will touch to food itself."

"Mummy say one!"

"Crap la..." then I ignored. Tying with rubber bands is so tedious, someone so lup sup like me won't do it lor.

*continued nagging from the sister*

Then added the oil, lowered the fire, waited for it to heat up. And I remembered why I don't cook as often as I'd like. I hate the smell of liquid gas. It makes me giddy. If I want to commit suicide it'll be very convenient, but as for now, I'd really want an electric stove. Can someone buy me an electric stove, and an electric grill? Pweety please~ My mother says we have an electric grill, but I think that she meant that we have a teppanyaki. We never used it anyway.

Then I added in the sausages. It splattered, but I siam-ed in time. "You didn't dry the sausages well la." the naggy person nagged even more.

"I did lor. I took two pieces of kitchen towels somemore."

"You should press it hard on the sausages, all over them rather than dabbing the sides only. You so lousy la you."

Crap... I'm not hurt and my sausages are cooking so talk so much for what, not as if that the naggy person is cooking instead, nor that she wants to help me cook instead.

Then I got a plate and likewise skipped the washing part and straightaway dished my sausages. "Why you never wash the plate?" Bah, I'm to tired to argue. The food goes into my stomach and not hers so why talk so much.

Seeing that I have some oil left in the pan, and two sausages doesn't make a dinner, I decided to fry some eggs. I took two eggs out from the fridge, out of politeness I asked the nag queen if she wanted any too, negative, so nevermind. Meanwhile, while I cracked the eggs in a bowl (I can't do it straight in the pan, I don't know why), I left the stove on with the oil.

"Why is this place so stinky ah? Wah lau... You didn't open the window! This whole place is so smokey lor. Go open the windows!" screamed the nag queen.

"You nothing to do you go open lor." answer me. Like I'd do something so out of the way.

Then after frying the eggs, I added the remaining two pieces of Blackforest Ham inside the eggs. I had wanted to scramble the eggs but forgot to shred the ham, so I thought I was going to make omelette, but well, my brain couldn't decide what I was making to the end product was scrambled eggs with the ham sticking out like a sore thumb. The omelette was an utter failure.

"You shouldn't stirfry the eggs la, you should let it harden then put in the ham then fold up the egg. Like that now the ham looks like shit like that..." yadayada on and on.

The end product.
Looks more like breakfast than dinner though. I can dish up loads of nice breakfast, and I really enjoy a nice breakfast be it western or chinese, but the problem is that I'm seldom up early enough for proper breakfast. diaoz... Actually on the bus I had wanted to make eggs in a basket but I had too much bread this afternoon so I decided to give the carbos a miss, maybe this weekend when there's not naggy people around then maybe I'll do what I want to the kitchen.

Really la, that stupid girl, think she's my mother or what, whole day nag nag nag. Oh yar, just now while I was eating, she was complaining that I didn't close the kitchen door, and neither had I opened the kitchen windows and those whole house is smokey, blah blah.

I ignored her and started telling her about this coming April when it's the Spargel (asparagus) season, I'd go down to the German supermarket and buy more asparagus and blackforest ham and will stirfry them with egg and some other ingredients and it's so yummy. My German housemate taught me that, and I've been so in love with that dish ever since. It's the only thing that I've cooked for people (two of them on different occasions somemore lor) and they said it was nice. wahaha~

This is how my favourite German dish looks like~

Can't wait for this April~
Anyone wants to savour Joan's lovely (unhygenic, but I assure you won't lausai one, I never had lausai from my own food ever before) cooking, please make prior arrangements with me. I only charge the cost price of the cooking ingredients~ wahaha~

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Announcement

I've decided to rename all my labels and give them more appropriate and understandable names. I don't know how to mass change the labels, so I'll be doing to tedious way out by manually editing every single post, which was also what I did when I added all the labels to all my posts some time back. Yes, I know I've too much time on my hands, so I need to think of ways to occupy my time mah...

Those who are on feed, erm... I guess you'll be spammed. hehehe~
I'm sorry~

I've currently also doing up a new header. Actually it's almost completely done but stupid me forgot to include Chelsea and Werder Bremen into it, so I'm either redoing it or maybe make more changes to it. The unveiling of the new header will be postponed until I'm free, I guess. But this is the most accomplished example of gif animation I've ever done leh... I've shown previews to some of my friends, and am in the process of getting more feedbacks. MSN me if you have a lot of free time on your hands ba, then can help me think of what I can do to improve.

Unconsciously

They sat side by side, chatting, talking, discussing, engaged in their little conversation, quite oblivious to everything else happening beside them. Other chatterings were ignore, background noises faded into the darkness, if the whole world were to be kept at a standstill, they would still be together. Or at least, that was what she thought.

Of course, she had no idea what he thought. She had no idea if he thought the same about their little conversations. She had no idea if he saw her as important as she saw him to be to her. She had no idea what he was thinking under the farce of his outlook. Even though she wanted to know what he thought.

He rested his left elbow on the armrest just as she rested her right elbow at the very same armrest. She was conscious of their elbows touching each other, but she liked what she felt. Of course, she didn't know if he felt the same too. If time could reach a standstill for her, she wanted to be holding his hand, no wait, she wanted him to hold her hand for eternity. This was an impossibility however. Time to them was limited to a couple of hours a week, and even in that couple of hours, he seldom physically touched her, their contact was kept to a superficial minimal.

She knew, he didn't feel the same way about her as she felt about him.

As they continued their little conversation, subconsciously, as she spoke, she ran her fingers over his arms, slowly caressing his arm. She didn't realise what she was doing. By the time she realised, her hand was already tenderly rubbing his arm. But he showed no sign of acknowledgement. Did he realise what she was doing?

She started resenting the fact that he didn't show any sign of response. Somewhere deep in her, perhaps, she wanted him to return than little physical gesture although she knew that it was quite impossible. Inside her, she still hoped. No matter how dim that glimmer of hope is, she still carried it down. It was this little sort of hopes that motivated her to stick onto him, continue her adoration for him.

Maybe he did felt her little touch after all, at the end of the day. Little gestures, little hints, and the fact that he knew that she adored him greatly. She really wanted him to appreciate her. Sure she did like the feel of his skin on her fingers, but what matter most to her that he appreciated that. She really wanted...

He leaned forward to her for a little kiss as they parted.

Yes, she thought, maybe he did really noticed her after all.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

心碎了无痕

《心碎了无痕》

闭上你的眼我的爱人
吻住你吻住疑问
你的心也变像落叶飞远
我宁愿瞎了眼看不见
求求你千千万万不走
空的心假的意
欺骗我都无妨
我会小小心心的等待
从施舍从怜悯变成真爱
相爱难恨亦难
我的心碎了无痕
吻著你心就不会疼
永不怨永不变
永不永远也不问
伤更深情更真

I always thought the title of this song was 《心碎了如痕》 because I thought that was sadder, but sometimes, things aren't so sad. Maybe I'm the one who wants myself to be sad, maybe things aren't that sad in life actually.

I've made a little decision, one decision that I made some time ago and I held out for about 6 months. This time I'll count how long I can hold out again. Life will be good. I'm too tired already. I'm contented like this. Maybe this is also what I want.

I took out an old journal and started writing stuff in it again. The last dated entry in my that journal was in March 2005. Two years have passed, two very long years. A lot have changed over this past two years, I won't say I'm glad all these have happened, but I'd say I've no regrets. I couldn't bear to read what I've wrote before, but I did take a short glance at it. Well, what should I say, the people I've wrote about then are no longer in my life. I wonder if the people I wrote about that day will still be in my life two years on.

Blast from the past.

A Game

I was with my friend in town today. We met just before 5pm, and headed for an early dinner. The plan was actually to sit down, slowly eat, chat, catch up, and then probably do something else later at night. But we ended up finishing dinner at 6.45pm, the sky was still bright, we didn't know what to do. So we decided to take a walk down Orchard Road and hopefully burn all the fats from dinner. Because we were bored, I thought of a game to spice things up.

The who knows more people game!
Rule No. 1: It can be anyone you know, friends or relatives.
Rule No. 2: You must call out to the person and say hi to him/her.
Rule No. 3: In the case of a big group of people, only the one/s you know is counted.
Rule No. 4: The one who has a bigger head count at the end of the night wins.

I thought of this dumb game after we met Sheena at Ichiban Boshi. She was there with her family. Actually, I saw her parents and one of her sister walking in first. Her father was so recognisable man. Even though it's been a couple of years since I graduated from TJ, he still instills that kind of fear I have for him, especially after my sister just got caught by him a couple of days ago and she was relating her horror tale to me. *shudders* I was once caught by him for a really stupid thing, I wore PE shorts to school without a skirt. I stay so near to school lor, I walk to school in the hot sun lor, why would I want to waste one skirt just to go back to school on a holiday somemore. I wore that pair of shorts to my make up lecture and my teacher also never say anything.

Okay, bah, the main point isn't about my gripes. Anyway, a couple of minutes later Sheena and her other sister did walk into the restaurant. hehehe~ So, meeting Sheena made me wonder how many more people I'd meet, hence the game was conceived.

Me and my friend left Wisma and walked down Orchard Road all the way till the end at about Delfi there. We stopped by Borders to go to the toilet. And we went into adidas at Pacific Plaza to try on a dress, okay, I tried on the dress. It was fabulous, but at $159, I decided to give it a miss.
Head count of that stretch of road:
Joan 0
Friend 0

We crossed the road hoping to change the environment a little, so we walked down that stretch of road back to Shaw Centre.
Head count of that stretch of road:
Joan 0
Friend 0

We went into Shaw Centre to try our luck in the shopping centre since shopping centres are always packed with throngs of people.
Head count of that shopping centre:
Joan 0
Friend 0

We decided to walk down back to Wisma, and walk down that stretch of road. Halfway, we decided that we were too tired from walking and wanted to find a place to rest and have dessert. So we walked down to Cineleisure.
Head count of that stretch of road:
Joan 0
Friend 0

We went into Cineleisure and went to Cafe Cartel for desserts, and to catch the Man Utd vs Bolton match. I'm a Chelsea fan, Friend is a Liverpool fan, we both wanted Man Utd to lose, but they didn't. Damn it...
Head count of that shopping centre:
Joan 0
Friend 0

After the match we decided to go back. Actually, wanting to catch the Chelsea match I decided to go over to my friend's place. We walked down from Cineleisure to the bus stop at Orchard Point to take 14, but decided to head down to Meridien instead where we could take either 14 or 36.
Head count of that stretch of road:
Joan 0
Friend 0

First Conclusion: We are both lonely pathetic people with no friends.
Second Conclusion: Our friends have no lives! They don't go to town at all.
Or maybe it's just that we are not fated to meet any friends lor. hai...

It's closing to the end of the semester already, it's the time when all of us are swamped with essay deadlines, projects, tests, revisions for the final exams. Even couples our age seem to prefer lounging at home sleeping, watching DVDs, nua-ing or doing other stuff, than actually hitting the streets. The effects of being an old fogey. Oh well~

Do try out this game when you're out with your friends next time ba. See who knows more friends, see whose friends are more happening, see whose friends are nua-ers... hahaha~

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Burnt Out

Ahhh... I'm so burnt out. But it's a good kind of feeling though, at least I'm not whiling my time away reading trashy manga or watching trashy anime. And at least this busy feeling of going out is keeping my mind away from other irrelevant stuff.

Let's see, the highlights of the week.

Monday: typical Monday though, can't think of anything interesting that happened that day. Went to school late because I woke up late because I slept too much during the weekend. Had German tutorial and Cold War lecture. Used my break to read trashy manga. Oh, and I encountered that guy in the library. And I went for Union Camp interview. I feel so old among those young and motivated people, but I shall prove myself to be enthu too, after all I waited so long for this chance for me to remain in Singapore during the summer holidays. I must lose all the weight I gained in those Germany trips before the camp lor. If not I'd really be one of those typical fat and old lau seniors.

Tuesday: I had boring Physics in the morning, a solemn Imperialisms lecture after that, and my Physics tutorial after that. Imperialisms lecture was really a heavy affair on Tuesday because the topic was Japan during the war years. Hearing what DuBois described of the brutalities of the Japanese, I really don't know how I can actually enjoy my trashy mangas, and indulgent melodramas (more on that later). The biggest highlight of the day was that I completed my Physics assignment. Okay, it's not really that big a hooha, since it's only like half a question, but that I did it myself, without help, and I handed in on time, albeit by email. It's still encouraging.

Wednesday: Dental appointment. Have I ever said I hate my dentist? bah~ Don't want to go into the angry stuff, should talk more about the happy stuff. I went out~ Bought the 优克李林's concert tickets. Do you know that they are called Ukulele in English??? I didn't lor, it's such a weird name. And the happiest thing is that I ate MOS Burger~ wahaha~ It took me like so long to fulfill my cravings for fast food. I love the Chicken Teriyaki Burger, with lots and lots of mayo sauce~

Thursday: Went all the way back to school for project group meeting because this was the only time everyone was free. But the meeting was highly efficient, so it was over in a jiffy. I'm a bit not used to it leh... Think the last project group I had was last semester's Singapore Film project, we ALWAYS went off topic that we named our group Offtrack. haha~ And just went I thought about our project group, who was I to meet but dear Stephanie. So qiao lor.

Offtrack a bit, last Saturday as my dad sent me to school for the Fingerprinting Practical, he talked about some kind of Huiyi Qigong stuff. And then as I made my way to the science laboratories, me and Shuyi met this other girl doing the practical too, and her name incidentally was called Huiyi.

It was freakier on Wednesday, as I was taking bus to town, I met this guy on the bus who looked a lot like Uncle Kah Hoo (one of the my father's cousins), only that that guy was shorter and fatter and his head was bigger. I thought to myself, if I were to meet Uncle Kah Hoo or Uncle Kah King (also my father's cousin, Uncle Kah Hoo's brother, and they're staying together) outside, would they recognise me? Actually, being the older one of that generation, I'm quite familiar with them although we don't really talk. Later in the day as I was walking from Heeren down to Far East, guess who I met? Uncle Kah King. Serendipity sia...

Anyway, my point is that, I was really excited that I met Steph just when I was thinking about our group. hahaha~

Continuing with my Thursday tales, I watched a Japanese film. At first it felt a bit weird with the memories of Tuesday's lecture still ringing in my head. The bloody brutal Japanese, and then here I was crying all over some sappy improbable love story between two Japanese. Somemore, the grandmother made a reference to the war somemore, but by that time I was too caught up with the plot that my tears were streaming down like waterfall. So paiseh lor when I left the cinema.

But the main main main highlight of the day is not any of the above mentioned things. I ate Carl's Junior!!! wahaha~ I didn't know that there was Carl's Junior in Plaza Singapura lor. At first I had sort of decided eating takopachi (crap, Japanese food again! Damn those Japanese, I can't seem not to leave their crutches despite that lecture), but I saw Carl's Junior. I so love the Charbroiled Chicken Club. It has real bacon in it sia. The diet plan seems to be in the bin by now... haha...

Friday: Which is today. Physics lesson was boring as usual. But I told my plan about the term paper to my project group mate, so I'm a bit satisfied with it. German lesson was quite okay, we talked a bit about future prospects. I told my class about mein große Traum, and they all laughed at me, even Frau Niemann. But I tell you, that's probably the coolest job ever man... Then, the main highlight of the day was that I decided to give in to my craving tummy and made a long walk down to Bizad and buy sausages. Cheese Sausage. Käsewurst. yum yum. As I bit into the sausage, the cheese was like oozing out all over my teeth and my god, it was good man. Another little happy thing about today is that I picked up a couple of books to start on my Imperialisms essay. Two weeks in advance, and there were so many so many books out there. A far cry from the usual when I rush my paper like two days before and there are no books out there other than the lousy ones or the RBR ones. Forensic Science class was interesting as usual. Dr Christopher Syn whom we met on the HSA field trip before was the guest lecturer today and he is interesting. haha~

But well, I had a little disappointment before the end of the day, and let's just say that the disappointment was just a bit. I thought I would be more disappointed, but luckily, because of me already being so burnt out, and after having so much fun in the past few days, I just feel too tired to have any feelings of disappointment. jiayou Joan!

Saturday: The plan for tomorrow is that I'll be heading down to school for yet another project meeting, but I haven't prepared much stuff for tomorrow yet. I feel a bit bad seeing some people putting in so much effort into the project and I'm like giam chye like that. Must do that before I sleep.

After project, I'm going out, and I'll be buying more trashy mangas. And highlight highlight, I'll be going to Ichiban Boshi! haha... I thought about that place because I missed my Singapore Film group, we used to like hang out there for hours discussing about everything, also got discuss about the project la. haha... But then hor, Japanese food. I think of the brutalities of the Japanese during the war, and their until now refusal to apologise. grr...

Oh, and I forgot to add this very major point. My dear dozent from Uni-Freiburg finally decided that I can have my Schein. Mind you, it's dated 13.3.2007, like almost a year since my exchange programme lor. bah~ And I also finally cleared my transfer of credits. All sent over to the Dean's Office already. Whatever's to happen there is beyond my ability to control liao le. woohoo~ The feeling of being freed from my shackles~

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Horror in the Library

I hadn't wanted to blog this out actually because I was afraid it's quite incriminatory to guys, but after relating my horror tale to two guys and the both of them gave me the same horrifed expression, I thought perhaps, it's not really that incriminatory to guys in general. Just to that inconsiderate person I had the unfortunate chance to come across.

I was in the library that day, waiting for time to pass. I brought a couple of my own mangas to read, but it seemed like everyone in the library was mugging which really freaked me out since I'm allergic to studying. I decided to find a nice quite corner so that no one can notice that I'm not mugging but reading some frivolous stuff, I didn't want anyone to be jealous of me.

So I picked out one of those single tables to rest upon. Most tables in the Central Library are double tables which can seat four people in a square, but the one I picked was at a corner, and it seats only two people. Usually when a person occupies a table, not many people would want to squeeze with them, it's like an infringement in space, unless the library is really packed, then really got no choice. So I thought no one would share the table with me. But honestly, I didn't mind someone sharing the table with me. Just that I hadn't expected it...

I was happily reading my manga, totally engrossed in it, not lifting my head up to see much of the surroundings. Then suddenly, the table shaked. I ignored it because I was too wrapped up in the fictional world. Then the table shaked a bit more, and there were knocking noises, then the table started vibrating continuously, then a loud windows start up tune rang. Unable to control my curiosity, I looked up. This guy set his computer infront of me and started using it. Really, even though I hadn't expected to share my table to anyone else, I didn't mind it, so I went back into the manga world and ignored his presence. I sat back on my chair so that I didn't touch any part of the table and not be affected by any movement on the table. It was also more comfortable leaning back.

I went on reading my mangas. Suddenly, I smelled this wave of stinkiness. It smelled like stale gym socks. I tried to ignore it, and concentrated hard on my manga. But after a while, I really couldn't stand that smell anymore. Although I knew it was rude to look around and search for the source of the smell, I lifted my head up and wanted to look around. I needn't have to seach far, once I lifted up my head, I saw this guy right in front of me.

His hair was all wet.
His face was all wet. I could see all the droplets of water, on his forehead, sides, all over.
And the most horrifying thing was that his eyes were closed and he was breathing hard.
He was sweating like a pig. Really. And that's still an understatement.
He was sweating like a pig!!!

I freaked out la, but I couldn't do anything. I went back straight to my manga and buried my head in it. But the smell because worse, I think also partly because of my psychological reaction, and I couldn't concentrate on my reading.

Then I tried inching away from the table and slunk down as far back into my chair as possible and tried to position my head as far away from that guy as possible. I got so far away from that guy until I could see the bottom of the table. And guess what I saw? I saw his feet!!! He took his feet out of his shoes. OMG... I almost puked.

I won't be that bad if he was wearing slippers since slippers can air out the feet a little and there isn't much difference in a feet with or without slippers, but shoes? Without socks, and taking them out? Oh gross. I almost puked when I saw it. I tried to hide my gaze from the feet and leaned forward onto the table, but the sweat smell was too strong, so I tried to rest my head on my arm hoping that I can smell my washing detergent smell instead of other weird smells, but it was useless.

The physical smell wasn't that much of a significance anymore since the psychological trauma already affected me very badly and I was imagining the smell to be worse than it actually is. I couldn't read any more. And I still had some time to waste before I can leave the library and head to my next destination.

After sitting there and struggling through two more pages, I finally decided that I've reached the threshold of my limit. I gathered my stuff, walked three tables away and plonked down at a new seat. I didn't bear to look at that guy there anymore. But the girl I sat opposite to saw me walk over and sit down. She gave me a weird stare. I didn't know how to react to that and just buried my head back to my books and breathed some cool stale air-condition air.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Autobahn Speed Limit

Highway speed limit plan irks Germans
By GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press Writer
Sun Mar 11, 1:52 PM ET

BERLIN - An EU official called on Germany to give up the famous freedom of its highways and impose speed limits on the autobahn to fight global warming — a demand that drew angry responses on Sunday in a country that cherishes what it calls "free driving for free citizens."

The call came as the German government makes action against climate change a priority of its current presidencies of the EU and Group of Eight.

Still, the German environment minister showed little enthusiasm for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas' suggestion and a group representing the country's auto industry said it needed "no coaching on efficient climate protection from Brussels."

Many stretches of German autobahn lack speed limits — traditionally a cherished freedom in a rule-bound country. However, the growing concern over carbon dioxide emissions is putting that tradition under renewed scrutiny.

"There are so many areas in which we waste energy in a completely senseless way and burden the climate," Dimas told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

"A simple measure in Germany could be a general speed limit on highways," he added, according to the newspaper. "Speed limits make a lot of sense for many reasons and are completely normal in most EU states, as in the U.S.A. — only in Germany, strangely, is it controversial."

The commissioner did not suggest a specific speed limit for Germany but in most European countries the highway speed limit is either 75 and 80 miles per hour. Britain, Latvia and Sweden have the strictest speed limit with 70 mph, according to an official EU Web site.

Dimas' comments drew a slew of largely negative responses Sunday on the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung's Internet site. One respondent described the debate as a "farce" and questioned the environmental record of Dimas' native Greece.

Another demanded "free driving for free citizens" — quoting one of Germany's most popular and well-known slogans.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has said Europe should take a leading role in combating climate change to set an example to the U.S., China and others, last week steered an EU summit to a bold set of measures to fight global warming.

Among several initiatives, the EU is planning to push for an increased use of energy-saving light bulbs to slash energy consumption and reduce the effects of greenhouse gases.

In Britain, the opposition Conservative Party said Sunday it is considering new taxes on air travel. In the Bild interview, Dimas also said that the EU Commission wants to raise the rates for European and trans-Atlantic flights.

However, Merkel has brushed aside previous suggestions — most recently last month — that a general speed limit on the autobahn would help fight climate change.

Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Sunday that he has "nothing against (a limit) for reasons of traffic safety" but argued that the restriction would not encourage manufacturers to produce more environment-friendly engines.

"This is a secondary front and a trivialization of the climate problem," he said at an event in Hamburg.

The German Association of the Automotive Industry, which represents an industry that includes such famous names as Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche and DaimlerChrysler, said Germany needed "no coaching" from Brussels on how to protect the climate — "above all when the proposals are only symbolic."

"The German auto industry will act on climate change where there is real potential for savings" of vehicle emissions, the group said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Transport Ministry, Dirk Inger, said a study by a federal agency had found that an overall autobahn limit of 100 kilometers per hour — or 62 mph — would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by only 0.6 percent.

Each 5 mph a car drives over 60 mph reduces fuel economy by 10 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Inger also contended that, among European countries, only Germany had succeeded in reducing vehicle emissions.

"Symbolic politics doesn't help us move forward on climate protection," Inger said. "That goes for Mr. Dimas too."

Germans may be becoming receptive to the idea, however. Last month, a survey by the Forsa institute for Stern magazine found that 60 percent would favor autobahn speed limits to cut emissions, while 38 percent would oppose them.

The Feb. 1-2 survey of 1,001 people gave a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

"I like to drive fast on the autobahn — sometimes I drive up to 200 (125 mph) — but if it is for the sake of the environment, I don't mind slowing down," said Thorsten Einig, 36, an information technology product manager in Karlsruhe who owns a BMW.

"I think anyone with half a brain understands that we all have to change our habits in order to limit the greenhouse gases."

-

I don't think that the EU should impose a speed limit on Germany's autobahns. The autobahns belong to German and whatever Germany wants to do to it is their own business and the EU should not be poking noses into other people's butts.

The autobahns are a highlight of Germany, the Germans take pride in it, the other non-German Europeans bring their cars over to Germany to take on the autobahns. I really see no good reason for this speciality be taken away from Germany. The reason cited in the article says that by lowering the speed of the cars there's be less gas emission, however as the German minister refuted, this lesser emission is a very low percentage. Coupled in with the fact that lowering the speed means that the car would take a longer time on the road, and the longer the car is on the road simply means a longer duration of the emitting of gases.

That point is just so lame.

I bet that the EU official only wants to safeguard his home country's car production industry because as we can see now, Germany is a leading car producing land, they not just have good and fast cars but also cars that can withstand a lot of things. It the roads of the land which allows the cars to be tested not just by the car companies themselves but also by the consumers.

We were just talking about this issue in German class last Friday. The German government would never be able to successfully petition for the establishment of a speed limit on autobahns in Germany because of the pressure put on them by the leading car manufacturers. Think of Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagon, Audi, Opel and all the likes, and the amount of power they have in their hands from their economic power. Do you think that these companies will allow anyone to try and destroy them? No way!

As Frau Niemann very cutely put it, if speed isn't a factor on the autobahns, no Germans would be buying German cars anymore, they can all get Japanese cars instead.

Actually, not all the autobahns have no speed limit. It's only the A-single digits autobahns that don't have speed limits, and well, because the autobahns are so numbered, there aren't really that many autobahns without speed limits after all. It's only that these autobahns are really long stretches of road and road and more road linking up the whole of Germany, that it seems like a lot of German roads have no speed limit. A fun thing to note, quite a bit of the stretches of the autobahns are congregated at the south of Germany, ie Munich and Stuttgart area, ie where BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz are. hehe...

Really, one day I want to go back to Germany and go on a road trip, probably alone, or with a partner who can share my carefree spirit and interests. I'll rent a fast car and go on the autobahns, and see how fast I can go. hehehe~

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Fingerprinting

Forensic Science is now becoming one of my most fun module for the semester even though I'm struggling to cope with the continual assessments. Other than the written work part, the class is fun and interesting, the group of people I'm doing the module with is also funny and cute, a far cry from other modules which I do alone, and most importantly, all the optional stuff organised by the lecturers and tutors make this module so fun to learn. Indeed, rather than a studying module, this has been a learning experience for me.

Until now, I've been to both the field trips organised by the class, and yesterday morning, I went for this lab session to do a hands on experience with fingerprinting. I'm quite lucky to be able to be slotted into this lab session because I didn't sign up for the class through conventional means. I missed the deadline for the IVLE groups signing up, also because there was a screw up with the IVLE groups. I wasn't that all enthusiastic then so I didn't bother to address the problem. However, later I realised that Shuyi was going for the lab session alone, so I thought maybe I could join her, and also because A/P Stella Tan said that the session would be very useful so I emailed the TA and got myself a place covering some other person who backed out at the last minute.

To cut the long story short, this session was a blast. I learnt so much that can't be taught by books. And through the speaking with the tutors there, I learnt more about the topic on hand and the rationale behind fingerprinting. I think not just the students got to learn a lot more about the methods of the collection of fingerprints but the tutors learnt a lot too. The fun part of the photofest started with the lecturers documenting our learning process, but as we went on, my group started taking out our handphone cameras and taking pictures of all our exhibits, then Prof Stella started taking group pictures of us and the exhibits. This is called having fun while learning. Quite a pity the last semester people didn't get to do such interesting stuff. hehehe~

We went through four methods of collection of fingerprints in lab today. The first one is the use of Ninhydrin, some sort of weird chemical. First we sprayed the colourless liquid thingie on a specimen, then we microwaved it. It came out after microwaving with purplish prints on the specimens. This is a very effective method in the collections of prints which have been around for a very long time, it can apparently detect prints from ten, twenty years ago.

This the Ninhydrin thingie. The class was split into groups of 25 then sub divided into groups of 6-7. My group of 25 used up like half the bottle of that thing. It's like finally seeing where my school fees were going to. Previously in Arts the school fees seems to be wasted on paying for lecturers only, but now, in this class, there's at least some use of the school fees, like the gloves we wore, the disposable lab coats, all these materials.

This is magnetic dusting. Inside that can is magnetic powder, the magnetic rod can stick up the powder onto the tip and it looks a bit like a brush. I first thought that it was a brush instead of merely a rod and the magnetic powder were the bristles of the brush. haha... Suaku me... So we use that rod to dust the surface of the specimen to locate the prints.

The print taken from that method is very clear and distinct. But of course, since the magnetic powder is black in colour, it's best used for materials which are light coloured so that we can see the print. Personally, I prefer this metod the most because it's the least troublesome one and can detect the clearest and most distinct prints. Wonder if we can get a can of that magnetic powder and start dusting my stuff on my own anot. hehehe~

This is the dusting of normal fingerprint powder, the one I took a picture on is the white powder which can be used on dark coloured surfaces, but there's also the black fringerprint powder to be used on white surfaces. It's something like the magnetic powder just that it's not that cool. hehe... The brush is like some normal brush to dust lightly over the surface of the specimen. The print would then appear. But these powders can only detect fresh prints. Actually, we can also do this at home with normal powder and dust for prints, just that the prints we get might not be that clear because these fingerprint powders have been optimised to the best effects, whatever that it. I only know that the powder is supposed to detect the oil off from our fingers onto those surfaces, to leave the ridges of our fingerprints.

To document and keep these prints, we use a sticky tape thingie to stick onto the powder of the prints and keep it as shown in the picture there. The prints of this method however is blurry and not that clear, couple with the fact that most criminals when committing the crime don't bother to leave us with nice clear prints in tact, I personally thing that this is quite useless. hehe... But to the police, it can help to narrow down suspects.

The last method we tried out was superglue fuming. The picture shows some weird chemicals that can help induce the fumes of the superglue which can leave marks on specimens that has fingerprints on them. Apparently, it's one of the more common methods used by the police because that can fume the whole room at one go. However, we of course can't fume that much, only on our specific little area of created specimens. It's quite lame since our prints are very nicely marked because we were careful to make sure that we left our prints all over.

This the set up, it's quite blur because we were the last sub group to use that set up and the plastic bag has been fumed by all the other sub groups before and everything's a fog. It's so funny because after all the years of being an arts student in JC and Uni, I forgot what's that stand thingie called. When I asked my group mates, they were like "It's a (edited for spelling mistake)retort stand.", momentarily I really felt very stupid. Oh well... More proof that I'm definitely not made out for Science.

This the specimen. I thought that it's very clear that a print has been detected by the ridges of the print isn't that distinct, so I don't really think that it seems like a very efficient method. But of course, it's probably that my group didn't do it that well, the police might be doing a better job than us. hehe... Some of the prints on other materials also didn't really come out to be that obvious.

It was fun la, the whole session. BUT THEN HOR, what we watch on TV is like so different. There's no such thing as getting clear distinct prints on every possible thing, and also, apparently the matching of fingerprints detected to a person is very labourious and difficult. Because our database only contains thumbprints of every Singaporean, and the ten fingerprints of everyone who has been detained before, so if a clean criminal comes about, it's very difficult to identify him based only on the fingerprints. Also, the software system of matching fingerprints is bullshit. The tutor said that on a normal day, an input of a print can come up with 40-50 matches.

So, really, if we want to commit crimes, there isn't really a need to wear gloves. lol~ Just make sure that our hands are dry and not oily, maybe can put powder or some drying agent. hehehe~ And also, don't be a good citizen and volunteer your prints for database purposes. lol~

Thursday, March 08, 2007

My Sister's Keeper


My Sister's Keeper
by Jodi Picoult

I'm the reader in the family, I read anything from trash to literature, English, Chinese and German. Usually I'm the one picking out books for my sister to read in hopes that it would improve her command in language. But here is one book that was introduced to me by my sister. I've just finished reading it, and hell yea, that was one invoking read. The words of Jodi Picoult touched deep into my heart. Maybe it's because I'm a sister, and I'm close to my sister, or maybe it's because the both of us are healthy.

The blurb: (I think it does a better job of introducing the book that what I can come up with)

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?

The story opens with Anna saving up money, even to the extent of pawning her locket for that mere $20. The writing of the plot is in such a way which makes the reader unable to predict what was to happen next. And this style isn't only in the opening chapter, as we move on more and more plots are weaved in such a way that the readers know that it's important that this happened but we are not revealled the reason. One of such that got me pondering - and I hadn't got it right - was the reason for the service dog Campbell had.

As we progress towards the end of the story, there were quite a couple of twists that even the usually the spot on reader would be able to guess correctly but failed with this story. I'm not going to reveal much about the twists because that would spoil the story. In fact, I wouldn't even recommend visiting the Wikipedia site because spoilers are rampant there. And this piece of writing won't be as touching and beautiful with the spoilers.

One thing very interesting about this piece of writing is that there isn't a single narrator. It's sort of like a diary style with different narrators for each chapter. I usually do not like this style of writing in literature because I can't really follow the different emotions and feelings and innermost thoughts of everyone at the same time, probably because I'm a person who can get very immersed in a story and such changing of narrators usually break the emotional immersion I have in the story. However, I find that the use of this as a plot vessel in this piece of writing is highly effective. One thing different about this piece of writing is that it involves a whole lot of people rather than the main character Anna herself, and the knowledge of all these people's innermost thoughts is important in understanding the whole premise of the grand scheme.

When I first read the first few chapters, and the blurb of course, my whole mind was sympathy for Anna and thought that her parents were unfeeling, biased pricks, but through reading what they've been through, and the reasons for the choices they'd made, I can understand where they are going at although I don't agree with all the choices they made.

The subplot of this story of the relationship between Anna's attorney Campbell and her guardian Julia was also one very interesting and thought provoking subplot. It all seemed so superficial in the beginning, but as the plot twisted and we are revealled the reasons behind Campbell's actions, suddenly everything fell in place. He's relationship with Julia, his willingness in accepting Anna as a client even though Anna couldn't even afford one hour of his fees he charged.

This book also made me rethink about the relationships we have. The relationships with my parents and with my sister. These is this part of the story that struck me quite hard. Everytime Sara (the mother) runs into problems, the first person she'd turn to other than her husband was her sister Zanne. Zanne became the one who looked after the kids for her in urgent need even though Zanne is a very busy career woman. And looking at Zanne's willingness and immediate reaction to these calls of help, made me appreciate even more that I know that I've a sister I can count on in times of need. It's the same for Anna, she has her brother and sister whom she knows would do all they can to help her.

Another moral issue that made me rethink was the issue of creating such lifeforms for the use of organ replacement. In the case of Anna, she was created a human, so she does have her rights. But let's look into the future, into the era of human clone for the use of organ harvesting, would the clones be given equal human rights? Wait, or even, are clones human?

This is one good novel I highly recommend. It's best to read it in one sitting with a packet of tissue.

There are talks that this would be adapted into a film. I don't know know if things would materialised, but I'm a bit jittery about the whole thing. Many good print have created horrible screen adaptations with plot alterations. If this were to be adapted, I'd really like the screen version to stick to the plot and details of the print version.

PS: I'd really like to go on more and to discuss about the details and the plot twists of this book, but I really don't wish to spoil the story because it's really really a very good read.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

疯狂的骑士

I don't know why but these two songs kept ringing in my head the whole of today. It's weird because I've never heard 《疯狂世界》 proper before, I only hear it when people sing it during KTV session. I never liked May Day even though I like rock bands. It's weird. It's even more weird since I do not like Jolin either, but 《骑士精神》 is one of her very few songs I don't mind. Must be the workings of the continued hautings of Rough Patch.

《疯狂世界》
如果说了后悔是不是一切就能倒退
回忆多么美活着多么狼狈
为什么这个世界总要叫人尝伤悲
我不能了解也不想了解
我好想好想飞
逃离这个疯狂世界
那么多苦那么多累
那么多莫名的泪水
我好想好想飞
逃离这个疯狂的世界
如果是你发现了我
也别将我挽回
想了你一整夜再也想不起你的脸
你是一种感觉写在夏夜晚风里面
青春是挽不回的水转眼消失在指间
用力的浪费再用力的后悔
我好想好想飞
逃离这个疯狂世界
那么多苦那么多累
那么多莫名的泪水
我好想好想飞
逃离这个疯狂的世界
如果是你发现了我
也别将我挽回

I don't know how long more I can stand without cracking, without bursting, without thinking about you. Sometimes I wish I can be totally free from your shackles, but it's so difficult. Friends who know about this problem advised me to leave, I know myself that I should be the one leaving, and not to look back again, but I can't do so despite knowing that that should be what I'm doing. 我好想好想飞 逃离这个疯狂世界 那么多苦那么多累 那么多莫名的泪水. Just this morning, taking the early bus to school, I had on my shades, it was there only because I was tearing under the shades. I'm really tired waiting for your message, waiting for your calls, waiting for nothing in the end.

《骑士精神》
当我看见左肩破损的战衣
盔甲后的你表情带著笑意
想要对我说
外来的袭击即将离公主远去
那些令人刺耳的声音我不听我不听
偏偏我又容易受影响容易伤心
没有用微笑的表面不停骗自己
他们的语气好笑的攻击自卑的心理
四年来带著各种面具想让你我孤立
莫名其妙那些话语
莫名其妙那些话语
如同沙子掉进眼里不用哭泣
莫名其妙那些话语
莫名其妙那些话语
不如下档电影值得注意
我不要王子苦苦守候的故事
梦幻不实我不希望你是王子
因为瑰影童话结局为战而死
故事开端结局会因你而真实
像骑士的忠贞
不畏惧邪恶的眼神
这过程一直放在我心底就像
挡在你胸前的盔甲
保护著我让我心疼
骑士们发挥出你们的精神
就这样强悍的骑士撑到最后
骄傲的公主的要回家整装再出发

I wonder if I can finally get out of this rump, look ahead of me, be happy without any shadows behind. I don't know if it's my problem or just that I'm unlucky. 我不要王子苦苦守候的故事 梦幻不实我不希望你是王子. I know there's no way I can trust you, but that doesn't matter, because you never wanted me to trust you. How sadder can I be?

Just borrowed a couple of books, bought more manga, collected a series of novels, and stalked out a couple of halfway decent drama series. Maybe I should immerse myself in some fiction and remove myself from reality. Maybe I can then forget thinking about you.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Hana Kimi 花君

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e
花ざかりの君たちへ
For You in Full Blossoms


The live action version, 花樣少年少女
weekdays 7pm Channel U
or get it off Youtube, just search for "Hana Kimi"

Let's just say that, had I not have read the manga version, I would not watch the live action, and as all dramatised versions of print material goes, there will always be disappointments. Face it, there will never be a live action which surpasses the quality of an original print version, unless in a minority case that the original is based on a short story.

I read the manga some time back, and when I heard about this Taiwanse adaptation, I was a bit excited, until I heard of the cast, I was sorely disappointed. At first glance, I don't know any of the cast other than Ella, at that time I had no idea who Fahrenheit was. I think Fahrenheit came out during the time when I was in Germany so I haven't heard of them. Based on how those people looked and what I know of them from the manga pictures, there are loads of disappointment.

The first big upset was Ella. She looks nothing like Mizuki (Ruixi). Mizuki, in the manga, was a small androgenous looking girl with long (for a guy) light coloured hair. Ella's hair was in a men's style and jet black. Also, Ella is bigger boned than Mizuki should have been.

Wu Chun as Izumi (Quan) was also a big upset. Izumi is tall, strong, and has this wavy locks of jet black hair, but Wu Chun wasn't as big and strong as my interpretation of Izumi, and his hair was too little and too light for my liking. And I didn't think that he looked as good as I thought Izumi would have looked.

The only person I was somewhat confortable with was Jiro Wang's Shuichi (Xiuyi). THey both look equally stupid and funny, just that I was a bit upset that Jiro Wang's hair was not as light as Shuichi's. The whole point of Shuichi's hair was that it was yellow, bright yellow, and it would be a focal point to talk about as Kagurazaka (Shenle) and Julia would make fun about him based on his hair.

Surprisingly, after I got down to watching the live action on youtube, I fell in love with Wu Chun. Not surprisingly, the more I watched, the more I detested Ella's interpretation of Ruixi. I can't stand the way Ella exaggerates the expressions and acts dumb/cute, it's not Mizuki at all. Mizuki is a soft, gentle, yet strong willpowered character, sometimes she might be a bit careless and mindless, but she's not dumb, and she doesn't exaggerate. Watching Ella, I was wondering how could Quan actually fall in love with such a detestable character. On the other hand, Wu Chun is damn hot. The way he stares into the eyes of the camera, oh man, it's so swoonful. And he also has this hot bod, just that his tattoo is a bit distracting everytime he goes topless. And another bit I don't quite like of Wu Chun is his speech, it reminds me of how Shu Qi talks, they can't pronounce the z and zh, c and ch well.

A little note here, to distinguish between the manga and the live action, I'll use their different names. When I use the Japanese names, I'm talking about the manga, and the Chinese names for the live action.

***possible spoilers***

The live action generally follows the plot and the happenings of the manga quite closely, but with two very major alterations, both of which I dislike. The first major alteration is Mizuki/Ruixi's background. Mizuki was never fat before, so Ruixi's story of losing 30kg just because of Quan is all fluff. Nonetheless, Mizuki did go through a period of being discriminated against back in California, but that was because she was Asian, not because she was fat. And also, instead of Izumi being her driving force to get out of her depression, it was Julia who made friends with her and encouraged her to get back onto her feet. Mizuki's affections for Izumi was only based on the reports she watched and read, prior to meeting Izumi, there wasn't actually much role of him in her life.

The second major alteration is Izumi's background and the arc about his family. Izumi's father never hit his mother, in fact, the whole accident was rewritten in the live action version. The live action's arc was that Quan's father was injured, and was in depression, and vented it out on his mother and him and his brother, then his mother met with an accident and died, and he left home. The manga's arc was not his father's fault at all, it was more sympathetic to the father, in it the accident that his parents met with killed the mother and injured the father, the father blamed himself for his wife's death and fell into depression. The misunderstanding between Izumi and his father has nothing to do with beatings and severe trainings, it was more to do about training methods. The method Izumi's father used to trained him was one which though could have promising results was also dangerous in that it could physically injure him if not executed well. Izumi was more cautious than his father and did not want to undergo that training method.

Other than the alterations in these two arcs, there's still a lot more to pick on the live action.

I mean, just look at Mizuki and Izumi, how can they be compared with Ruixi and Quan? Seriously, Mizuki is supposed to look small beside Izumi, but Ruixi looks fat beside Quan. I really do not like the choice of Ella as Ruixi, i know I'm in no position to say that Ella is fat because I'm fatter, but as a viewer, I'd like the female lead to be better looking. Heck, Mizuki is not even supposed to look androgenous, she's a girl, she's just supposed to have her hair shorter and her chest flat and her male character is supposed to look androgenous and even feminine.

When I first saw Dashu in the live action, I was sorely sorely disappointed. Taiki is so much more shuai than Dashu. Not just the looks factor, but the whole charm of Taiki is so much different from Dashu. Dashu is just some weirdo with a third eye that can see ghosts and stuff, but Taiki isa really cool guy who has more than just an eye for ghosts but also ESP sensory and he's an expert in Yoga and he makes it cool. He's more sensitive also, always there to give a listening ear to Shuichi and to advise him. Another alteration in the live action is that Dashu thinks that Ruixi is a male. In the manga, Taiki never mentions that Mizuki is a male because he knows that Mizuki is a female, right from the start he could sense that, but he never said anything about it because he knew that she had a reason for concealing her identity and Taiki was sensitive to that. Taiki had so much charm that in a favourites poll, Taiki topped other characters such as Minami, he came up I think either third or fourth.

The three RAs was also a bit of a disappointment. I think it's more to do with height. In the manga, the three of them are supposed to be very tall, and hence very awesome, but in the live action, the height difference wasn't that big. In fact, I think Nan looks shorter than Quan when Minami is supposed to be like 4cm taller than Izumi. I'm a bit disappointed with Oskar also, he was so funny in the manga but his part in the live action was so patchy and almost nothing came out of it. Tennouji was also misinterpretated, he's a tough on the outside but a big softie inside, same with Kujou, but Wang Tiansi and Jiu Duan were like only one dimensional characters. And the whole issue about Tennouji's name being Megumi was made into a joke was irrelevant in the live action. Tennouji's a very masculine name and fitted the image he had, but Megumi being a unisexual name was a bit out of the place and when Kujou called Tennouji Megumi, everyone didn't know who he was referring to.

The arc about Minami's first love was also not delved deeper in the live action. In the live action, Nan's first love just came, and Nan just explained briefly about things to Ruixi which didn't explain much either, nor did it explain about the personality of him after his heart was broken. After that love story, I really felt for Minami, but after Nan's story, I didn't feel anything for him.

Meitian is damn cute, as cute as I thought Umeda would be. hehehe... Just that I thought he'd be just a bit more loud and showy. Although the image of Meitian is a bit different from Umeda, the hair and the glasses, Umeda has short blonde hair and glasses while Meitian had long locks without glasses, I thought that Meitian had already channelled in the spirits of Umeda. He's so hilarious, yet also I saw the other dimensions of his softer side. But a little pity that Meitian did not incorporate Umeda's signature action, the kicking action. If not it would be more hilarious. haha~

A disappointment was Hara's Yuan Qiuye. Hara is supposedly the tallest person in the whole manga at 191cm, but in the live action, Yuan Qiuye was quite short. It's a different kind of feel I think, the live action probably doesn't want to have two similar characters together, but in the manga, it was all right for Hara and Umeda to be of the same character mould. I thought because of this a lot of fun disappeared from Yuan Quiye's character.

I think it's because of the lack of actors that fit the racial make up of characters, there was a bit of racial differences of Julia and Shizuki in the live action. Julia was supposed to be a pure bred Caucasian rather than a mixed race as shown in the live action. Shizuki was supposed to be a half-Caucasian in the manga, his mother was an American, but Jingxi in the live action was thoroughly Asian even though the arc that he and Ruixi have different mothers still hold. Shizuki was supposed to be damn tall and damn good looking, but Jingxi was quite a bit disappointing. Wayne is damn short la, don't understand why he was chosen to act Jingxi. And his acting isn't that good also. Oh, and speaking of Wayne, the other day I was watching this other Taiwanese variety programme, I thought Evonne Hsu looks a bit like Wayne, now to think about it, I think if Evonne Hsu cuts her hair and binds her chest, I think she'd make a better Mizuki than Ella.

If to say that Hana Kimi the live action made me fall in love with something, I'd say that it succeeded in persuading me to buy the entire set of Hana Kimi the manga. The more I watch the live action, the more I like the manga story, and the more I want to own it. So how leh? Should I buy the set? If I buy it, I need to buy it like soon, because in conjunction with the live action, Kinokuniya brought in a whole lot of stock. Any later, I might not be able to get it.

UPDATE! I just finished with the last episode of the live action. It's sucky, crappy and full of bullshit. Shuichi never had anything to do with Julia after she left, he loved Mizuki with all his heart until the very end. Totally disappointed. And worse was Taiki's revelation of Mizuki, it isn't supposed to be like that. But then hor, the "chi chap kor chi chap kor" was damn funny, ya, it was so lame that it was so funny. I went on laughing for the whole video. hahahaha~ "chi chap kor". For those who didn't get the joke, in Hokkien, seven is a homophone for clean, so when he cleaned the ten dollars, it meant that he has made a seventy dollar out of the ten dollars.