Power / Girl Got Game

I haven't had such strong a dislike for any manga since Fruitsbasket, or maybe disappointment might be a more appropriate word to use.

I've been reading scanlations for the past couple of weeks whenever I've the time. I'd browse through titles, then look up interesting ones in Wikipedia and look through the gist of the story before deciding to read a particular manga. I thought Power sounded interesting, a bit like Hana Kimi.

Summary
"Kyo Aizawa is very excited about getting to attend Seisyu Academy, which is famous for its adorable girls' uniforms. Her spirits are crushed, however, when she opens the package containing her school uniform to find a boy's uniform.
Her father explains to her that, as Seisyu Academy is also famous for its boys' basketball program, he enrolled her as a boy so she can fulfill his own dream of becoming an NBA basketball star. To make matters worse, she has to stay in the boys' dorms, and her roommate is the same boy she came to hate at tryouts."

Sounds cool right?

But urgh, it was much too much of a poor ripoff off Hana Kimi. And with a plot like this, there's bound to be much comparison with Hana Kimi.

First, the main characters have nothing appealing compared to Hana Kimi's characters. Aizawa is too dumb and bimbotic that she doesn't get my sympathy. Eniwa is dumber and immature, and the artwork done for him wasn't too good looking, so he totally doesn't have the X-factor. And that is when I haven't even tried comparing him to Sano. Sano is in a class of his own, the perfect man class, no fictional character can even come close, not to mention Eniwa. Even Edward Cullen has to bow down to Sano Izumi!

And yea, the artwork isn't good. Hana Kimi's artwork was really impressive, even for the first few chapters. Usually I've noticed that in long running series, the first few chapters don't have good artwork, but as the series prgresses, the art gets nicer. But Hana Kimi's art was all along very beautiful. Power just sucked, even the last few chapters weren't any improvement.

The breaking point of urgh-ness is the plot. The romantic development between the main characters for Power wasn't convincing. There wasn't much explanation for their falling in love other than, ooh he looks so cool when he plays basketball. Erm, erm... Erm... And for Eniwa, I still have no idea how he fell in love with Aizawa when he so clearly stated that he loves basketball more than women, and he thought of Aizawa as a bother.

The plot progression is also a big muddle. There was this totally senseless plot twist in Power that left me with a big huh. The whole part about Yura was totally unnecessary. It didn't help further the romantic development, it didn't cause any lasting impression that changed the characters lives, it didn't anything. Hamaya and his nudity also served no purpose in the plot. And it wasn't comedic, it was totally lame.

The finale, was the ultimate lame fest though, nonewithstanding the lameness of the earlier chapters.

Kare Kano and a Dumbass

Kare Kano and a Dumbass

My sister just returned from her Taiwan Immersion Programme. Before she left for Taiwan, I got her to help me to buy the full set of Kare Kano. My budget was S$80 for a brandnew set and S$30 for a 2nd hand set, my only goal was that I wanted the FULL set. My sister is a smart girl, well, worse come to worse, I can don't get it, it's not a need, just a want of mine.

Anyway, while she was there I had a dream one night and dreamt that she forgotten to help me look for that set of manga. When I woke up, I SMSed her to remind her again. The next day, she replied me saying that she had already ordered the whole set. Bingo.

Then when she returned to Singapore, she was hestitant when I asked about the manga. At first she lied that her dumbass exchange buddy from hell didn't go and collect the manga although the books were already fully paid. I told her that she had to get that dumbass to send the books back to Singapore on her charge definitely. But after some probing, I realised that she was lying.

I had my manga.
I like Kare Kano because the story is really touching, not in the grand plot kind of way, but there are many different arcs of plots, and each of them is touching on its own. And I really like the beginning and ending parts. The middle can get a bit boring, and the timeline might be a bit confusing, and there are some gaps in the timeline. Still, there are several arcs which can make me tear up.

Reading from a book is different from reading online. Reading online I tend to skim though, and sometimes due to alignment problems, it's not easy to follow through the whole page. Flipping the pages back and forth to enjoy the juicy parts can get a bit tedious too. Anyway, now that problem is free from me~

But wait...
Don't get too happy too soon...
Can you spot what's wrong with the picture?

Damn! Book number 3 is missing!

My sister did had to have that dumbass collect the manga for her because she had other activities. And that dumbass didn't bother about the missing book at all. Is she dumb or not, tell me? I wanted my sister to get the dumbass go get the missing book and send it back to Singapore for me, on her charge of course, but my sister said that when she found out about this error she was more than livid, I can imagine. Right now, my sister has broken all contact with that dumbass. Life is too short to get oneself involved with dumbasses, horrible ones of course. You can read more about miserable time stuck with the dumbass here, and her happier times when she was away from the dumbass.

Actually, the missing book was not the fault of the bookshop because the books came with a note from the bookshop telling us that this book has stopped reprints, and the bookshop asked if it was fine if we were given a second hand book, or that we could wait while they tried to find the missing title for us. There's the receipt there because my sister had already paid in full, and we at the very least needed a refund. Then there's a note there, telling us about the situation.

And what did the dumbass did about the whole thing? Nothing! She just left without a refund, nor a second hand book. Crappy...

It was really too bad that my sister had to leave the next day, and there wasn't time to go down to the shop. Apparently, my sister had also wanted to go to the manga shop earlier during her 18-day stay in Taiwan, but everytime she wanted to go in she would be stopped by the dumbass who would want to go somewhere else and she just forcefully made my sister do everything she says. Asshole.

But all is not that gloomy. You see the plastic bag from Comics Connection?
I decided to pop by Parkway and look for the missing book today. I'm anal about numberings and stuff, the idea of me holding onto a set with a missing book irks me more than having a few books not in running order out of a set with many books.

I was a bit scared that I couldn't find the missing book, since after all, I had the Tongli version one, which meant that it was out of print already. So the only possiblity of me having it is that it is the old stock that haven't been sold, or that I had to get second hand one, which isn't a big problem actually. Singapore being much smaller than Taiwan, and Tongli being a Taiwanese publisher, I really didn't know what are my odds of getting the missing book.

I was actually already prepared to drop by a few bookstores, if I couldn't get it in the smaller ones. I was already planning trips down to Kinokuniya, and possibly calling them up or sending emails to them, or just something. I had to get the book, even if I paid S$10 for it.

Well, in the end I paid $7 for it. Almost double the price for what my sister had already got for me from Taiwan no thanks to that dumbass.

But I am Joan, I can spend a lot of money for something that I deem worth it even though it's real value is lower. But I am Joan, I get what I want despite the cost, well, as far as I can afford, I'll make it mine, and my affordability range is like quite high. erm...

At first I saw on the shelves there were only books 1, 2, 19, 20. Then I looked around I saw the book 3 but published by Chuangyi instead. I'm a suckler for sets. It must be of the same set, must be the same range, must be nice and neat. So I askedd the shop assistant, and she took out a ladder, climbed up, and there was another row of books hidden behind the visible row. I didn't realise that there were another row of books, I thought the shelved seemed quite narrow. And she pulled out a black with dust old dirty book 3 for me! ahhh...

I was a bit hesitant with the dust because it made me sneeze, and asked if there was another copy, but it was the only book 3 left. I'm still a happy girl though~ It's shrink wrapped la, so after removing the plastic, I still have a brand new book. And best of all, A WHOLE SET~

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I picked up my copy at Times at Tampines Mall at about 9am half expecting a long queue forming outside the bookstore, well, I didn't really expect that, but the parents were sort of expecting that, my reasoning was that there are plenty of bookstores scattered around Singapore, so there isn't a need to queue for a book which one can get anywhere. The only bookstores I expected to have queues were probably Borders and Kinokuniya because they are the major bookstores. But then again, I don't understand why people are buying from those bookstores because the other bookstore chains are selling them cheaper.

Anyway, fact is that I held onto my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so the other people, the other hooha, all don't matter at all.

I held onto my urge at checking up on all the spoilers littered in the world wide web, hoping that that would render my Harry Potter journey to be as pleasant as possible, but I couldn't resist that very convenient arena for me to gain access to spoilers, but luck wasn't on my side and all the spoiler sites I went to were all temporary closed because Rowling threatened legal action against the leaking of spoilers.

So the moment I laid my hands on the book, I started poring through it even though I was in the car and reading in a moving vehicle always gives me a big headache. I read in the car, read in the hospital when visiting my grandfather, read in the restaurant while having dimsum brunch with the extended maternal side of the family, read while with Someone and bored him to tears since even though I was there I was technically not there, I was flown of to the magical world of Harry Potter. I read when we went out, read on a stone slab in Raffles City, read on the bus, fighting off the headache. The only time when I resisted reading was when I was having dinner with Someone's friends. Ya, I might be a brat, but I had the decency to give some face to Someone. I was left with a couple more chapters when I reached home, so the last few chapters were read in the comforts of my bed. Just about another half and hour of reading and see off the last few deaths.

The completion of the book is a bit deary on me. It's like, it's all ended just like that, it's a very surreal feeling, the last time I had this sort of feeling was after I read finish the entire set of Hana Kimi manga. It seemed so surreal that everything ended, but everything has indeed ended despite me not wanting it to end but wanting to know how it ends. And I must say that the ending is somewhat a tad bit disappointing. Maybe it's all the hype, and the magical genius of the earlier books, and the sheer lack of pages of this latest to the collection.

The moment my hands gripped on the book, I knew it was going to be disappointing in that the plot won't pan out well because the book was just too bloody thin to make this magical experience a truly remarkable one. There were just too many unanswered questions about the horcruxes and with the introduction of the Deathly Hallows, there was just way too much to explain, and 600++ pages just isn't enough. Call me a book Nazi, but I need the indulgence especially when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was so long. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was shorter, but because there isn't a need to wrap everything up so it was okay to leave more answers dangling.

I'm itching to talk about the contents of the story, so ***spoilers alert***
(click select ALL or left click mouse and roll over the empty space to read the spoilers)

I think there are just too many deaths in the book and most of the deaths are deaths that do little to the advancement of the plot. The impact of the deaths were not explored, and for some of the characters, the means of which they died were a bit unclear. Like Lupin and Tonks, they died without a clear explaination of how they died, I was like so blur because I didn't really remember them dying. Also the most major death, Fred, was not explored in deeper context like how that death caused an impact on the Weasley family, or and on George in particular, or even if the Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes actually continued on. To me, everything that happen must happen for a reason, and I don't see a reason in the deaths of Lupin, Tonks, Fred.

The only death that I understand and support is the death of Snape. Yes, Snape is a good person, but he deserves to die because only with his death that the plot can advance. And indeed, my guess that Snape was in love with Lily was correct. haha~ But saying it only now doesn't really carry much weight, but I still like that feeling that at least one of my assumptions was right.

Still, much of the book was too skimmed over, sort of like the film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which I managed to catch it on Monday. If you watched the film after reading the book, you'd understand what I mean. There's too much telling of what happened rather than giving details on why it happened, so it's like this this this happened, and that that that happened, and hence like this like that and therefore the end, quite rushed. The Deathly Hallows was unfortunately also like that and as I mentioned earlier on, little explanation was provided and most of the impact the events had were omitted. And this was especially so in the minor recurring characters. Only Harry Potter, Hermione, Ron and Dumbledore were explained in great detail. Much of Voldemort was explained through the perspective of Harry, while Snape was only explained via his pensieve and that's it.

***spoilers end here***
For more spoilers, there's always the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows wikipedia page.

In all, I'm glad that everything was wrapped up neatly and leaving no possibilities of another Harry Potter book, but still, there's space for fanfics and imagination. wahaha~

Yup, I'll go read the book again and again see if there's any minor detail that I missed out from reading in the first round, and while I'm at it, I'll patiently wait for the next two Harry Potter films to be released. I think Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would make better films than the Order of the Phoenix because the page to minute ratio is smaller, well, hopefully they would be better, because after the first four films, the Order of the Phoenix was much weaker than the rest.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book): 7/10
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film): 7/10

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.

The Kind of Reader I Am

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Literate Good Citizen You read to inform or entertain yourself, but you're not nerdy about it. You've read most major classics (in school) and you have a favorite genre or two.
Book Snob
Dedicated Reader
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

I'm labelling this in books because I don't think this meme is that accurate, based on the questions that was posed, and also I'd like to make use of this opportunity to talk about the kind of books that interests me.

I have a weird taste in books. I like wuxia novels as much as I like manga and as much as i enjoy (academic) history related non-fictions as much as I enjoy crime novels as much as I enjoy some other crappy stuff. I'm a fan of Harry Potter but I don't really like all fantasy novels per se, nor children's books. I've never read any of Dan Brown's books even though I can't say I never will. I think I'm more of a free-reader, I read things that I want to read and not things people are reading or things that people think I should read. Hence even though I like reading about history stuff, and can read a book by Stephen J Lee for fun, I don't bother going about doing my assigned readings. I think I'm the only person in the world who can claim that my favourite authors are "Liang Yusheng and Donna Leon". I don't think anyone else can be so much in love with these two people's writings than me because these two styles of writings differ so much.

For quite some time now, I think the best book that I've read so far is The Angels of Russia. My favourite Chinese book would be 萍踪侠影录. I have certain tastes about these stuff and more specifically, I have certain tastes for authors.

I usually start off by reading a book and if I like it, I'd continue and read other books by the same author and if I like them all I'll read them all and read more of them. I also like reading books that come in a series but each have their separate story line. Donna Leon books are feature the same main character but a different crime happens for each book, there's a whole slew of supporting whose characters and personalities are built up over the many books and their significance there, but unlike Detective Conan, there isn't a main holding plot or big secret that one has to uncover.

I like reading wuxia novels. I usually have trouble reading large chunks of Chinese because they make my head pain, but I can lap up to those Chinese wuxia novels and just read them. Because of reading wuxia novels, I'm able to read traditional Chinese, and able to read in the up-to-down style of writing. I remember the very first wuxia novel I read was Louis Cha's The Return of the Condor Heroes because of the corresponding period drama starring Fann Wong and Christopher Lee. From there I started reading other Louis Cha's wuxia novels but all of them failed to impress me more than The Return of the Condor Heroes. I don't know when was it that I also started reading other authors of the wuxia genre, Gu Long and Liang Yusheng. I hated the former more than Louis Cha, but I fell in love with the latter.

Gu Long takes a very condescending stand regarding the use of women in his novels. All of Gu Long's women are either prostitutes or have been/will be raped by some lesser character, either that or they are plain slutty, their presence in the novel is mainly for sex. The kind of protagonists of Gu Long are also not the kind of protagonists I like. I started out with The Return of the Condor Heroes, hence I always use Yang Guo as the benchmark. I like young dashing protagonists who learns a whole slew of skills are the story progresses, meeting a whole range of good and bad people are his adventures continues, he falls in love with a woman and is true to her until the end of the story. I hate Gu Long's protagonists in that the men never fall in love with only one women. In this respect, I also hate Zhang Wuji of The Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Slaying Sabre even though Zhang Wuji fulfills all my other criteria for an endearing protagonist. Okay, I do like Zhang Wuji, but he frustrates me a lot. In fact, everytime I meet an indecisive man, I'd call them as having the "Zhang Wuji syndrome", especially when their indecisiveness is pertaining to relationships.

There is however on Gu Long book that I like a lot. The only Gu Long book that I like. 流星.蝴蝶.剑 attracted me because of the style of writing is interesting. If translated to English, it would read as a piece of writing writtn entirely in present tense which makes it so engaging. I first caught the movie by TOny Leung Chui Wai, Michelle Yeoh and a cameo by Jimmy Lin. But erm... The movie doesn't do justice to the book. Other than this exception, I seriously dislike all other Gu Long's novels, including the famous Lu Xiao Feng stuff and Xiao Yu'er stuff.

I'm trying to think which is the first book of Liang Yusheng that I read, but I can't seem to remember. But a couple of his more famous books that have been adapted to screen includes 白发魔女传 and 云海玉弓缘, both of which never fail to bring tears to my eyes when I read them. ***spoilers*** Both do not have a happy ending. Sometimes I wonder if I prefer happy endings or sad endings. Because I list these two books as my second and third most favourite after 萍踪侠影录, I thought that perhaps I prefer happy endings to sad endings, but of course, I must admit there is a certain sense of beauty in a sad ending, be it Lian Nishang's utter disappointment in Zhuo Yihang, and Zhuo Yihang's eternal pining for Lian Nishang, or Li Shengnan's death and her very beautiful last line (from here "只望你将来在鸳鸯枕畔，月下花前，能偶尔的想我一下，想起曾经有过一个非常爱你的人，那我就会感激你不尽了！"), and Jin Shiyi's corresponding revelation that it was her that he loves most. But well, let's just say that, it's nicer that Zhang Danfeng got together with Yun Lei in the end. ***spoilers end***

I was reading an article about Liang Yusheng some time back, in that article he stated that his favourite novel was 萍踪侠影录 and Yun Lei was his favourite female character because he wrote her based on his love for his girlfriend (or was it his wife). I think this is also what attracted me to the writings of this novel, everything seemed so emotional and fill with feelings.

Another thing that I enjoy reading are memoirs. Okay, I don't just read everybody and anybody's memoirs but I like reading memoirs of people I like. As a discerning historian, I understand that memoirs are self-serving and completely biased, but to me it doesn't matter since I like them and I'd be glad to lap up on everything that blows the people I like out of proportion. One of my favourite memoirs would be that of Chin Peng. I'm currently in the middle (okay, in the beginnings) of the memoirs of Otto von Bismarck. I'm slow in reading that because I bought the German version and my German is still quite bad, but I promise I will slowly improve it and complete that book before I die. wahaha~

I'll really like to talk more and give a greater in depth overview of the books I like to read some other time, but I guess my attention span can only bring me this far.

Kare Kano

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

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

Yup, I'm currently reading this manga now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AMVs, Youtube, Animes, Mangas, Wuxia Novels

Quite a weird title, but I've so many unrelated things I want to say, and this is the only way I can think of to link all of them up together. Of course, I can separate them, but well, I'm Joan Ang, the girl who writes long long blog entries and make all of you read everything, although I know nobody actually does read everything. bah~

Just now I was watching my fix on youtube when I realised something to my big big horror. My Chinese deproved by a lot. I now hereby conclude that I've returned every of my Chinese back to the gutter where it was supposed to be.

I've always prided myself as one of those effectively bilingual people, who can speak, read, and write effectively in both English and Chinese. By now everyone should know that I speak, read and write English. If you don't then I suppose you need to get your eyes checked because you are now staring at cold hard evidence. A lot of people may not realise that my Chinese is better than what I let people realise. Not wanting to speak in Chinese to people is not because I don't speak it well, but because I just don't want to speak it to you.

I know some people share this same habit as me. I don't like to speak in Chinese with people I'm not close with. If I meet someone new, I'd definitely speak to the person in English. But between close friends, the medium of communication is mostly Chinese. Even with the girls (except of course Rozie), I'd sometimes lapse into Chinese because to me, Chinese is more intimate. I'd even sometimes lapse into Chinese with Jasmine. To me, these comes naturally with people I feel comfortable with. With the, I'd feel so comfortable that I don't make an effort to think. In my laziness what comes out is often imperfect English and quite a bit of Chinese.

English to me is a proper language. Although I seldom speak proper English on MSN, I cannot argue anything in Singlish, when I argue, proper English naturally comes out of me. I think it's the processing of my brain. When I think about stuff, my brain processes entirely in English, but when I'm lazily chatting about mundane stuff, my brain shuts down and Singlish and English without grammar comes out of me. Chinese is somewhat the same. I speak in Chinese without the need to think, but that's not pure Chinese, that's just Singapore version of Chinese. If I think and write and process Chinese, I need to use my brain. Most of the time I'm too lazy to do it, so I just treat it that my Chinese sucks.

Okay, I think I'm starting to digress. Anyway, my point today is about me reading mangas in English and Chinese. I'm sure by now after writing so many blog entries about that time I thought Rin was pregnant, you guys should know that I prefer to read English mangas instead of Chinese. But, counting the number of sets of English and Chinese mangas that I own, I actually have more Chinese than English mangas. For one, my entire collection of 52 volumes of Detective Conan are in Chinese. I thought I had no problem understanding it.

I thought.

After watching English subbed animes, I realised that I missed out one very important clue to the identity and motive of Vermouth. All along, I knew Vermouth had a soft spot for Shinichi/Conan, and it's possible that she knows that Conan is Shinichi. And I know that she knows Yukiko personally, and they are very close, and I know of her part in the New York case, but but but I didn't know that she was that Japanese serial killer. dang~ Remember the long silver haired Japanese serial killer in New York, the one Ran and Shinichi faced, and he almost wanted to kill them, but he almost had an accident and they saved him.

Well, after that I thought he died. I thought he was shot by that Shuichi Akai guy. But after watching several episodes of Detective Conan with English subs, I found out that actually Vermouth was that Japanese serial killer. She went undercover to locate Shuichi Akai and wanted to kill him or something, but she failed. That also explains why she let Conan off when she could have killed him. And why she called him "Cool Guy" and Ran "Angel". Because they saved her life!

I don't know what's wrong with my Chinese. Or is it that I only can't read Chinese in manga because I can still read my wuxia novels and understand them totally. yea... I'm a big fan of wuxia novels, especially those by Liang Yusheng. I've a few of those back at home. And I've downloaded a couple of ebooks from the net sometime back. I've read those ebooks straight from my computer screen and I understand them all. So why can't I understand my manga?

Anyway, speaking of downloading wuxia novels, that day I was browsing though my external hard disk drive and spotted a downloaded wuxia novel by Liang Yusheng that I've no recollection of reading it. It was only after I opened it that I remembered why I hadn't read it. hai...

Okay, I went to wiki Liang Yusheng, so I'll start my story from what I've found out. Apparently Liang Yusheng said that his favourite novels are 《萍踪侠影录》, 《女帝奇英传》 and 《云海玉弓缘》. Coincidentally, I own all three of these books~ As in I have the hard copy books lying on my bookshelf back at home, not the pirated kinds nor the downloaded ones. I bought the books with cold hard cash in a bookshop. And granted, my all time favourite novel is none other than his favourite of the three, 《萍踪侠影录》. I did like 《女帝奇英传》 but I didn't like the ending. I can't remember much about the story now though. Damn... I must go back home and read them once again, but I do remember that that is the first part of a series of four novels, following that are 《大唐游侠传》, 《龙凤宝钗缘》 and 《慧剑心魔》 in that order. The problem with these sort of novels is that the characters are repeated in another novel and they well, aren't that appealling becase there are other more appealling characters.

Take for example 《萍踪侠影录》, follows that is 《散花女侠》, well, the female protagonist sort of became a not so important character, and there was one more that follwed where the female protagonist just sort of disappeared from the male protagonist's life even though she's supposed to be his wife. But anyway, I still like 《萍踪侠影录》 by itself~

But then, even though I like the story of 《云海玉弓缘》, I cannot bring myself to like too much because of the other novels that follows. The main character in 《云海玉弓缘》 is this guy called Jin Shiyi. He's recurrent in many other other novels, and some not in a very favourable light. He appears also in 《冰川天女传》 where he acts at the antagonist as he tries to spilt the two very much in love leading characters. I first read that book, and didn't have a very good impression of him. But of course, my mind totally changed when I read 《云海玉弓缘》 and read the story of Jin Shiyi and Li Shengnan. But there're a few more stories that follow, and I've read one of them before this, and hence I know the ending of this story even before I read it.

I've written about this before. You can read the full posting here. But if you are too lazy to click that link (it doesn't matter anyway, that's a mostly picture blog entry), I'll say it simply here. Jin Shiyi was torn between Li Shengnan and Gu Zhihua. I don't like Gu Zhihua, but from a later story, I know that the son of Jin Shiyi calls Gu Zhihua his mother, so obviously Jin Shiyi didn't end up with Li Shengnan. In the end of 《云海玉弓缘》, Li Shengnan sacrificed herself, and Jin Shiyi realised that he did loved her and left Gu Zhihua. If the story ended there, I'd now proudly say that 《云海玉弓缘》 would be my most favourite novel ever ever.

But But But.

Five paragraphs up, I said that I downloaded a book but never read it, yea... That book chronicles the love story of Gu Zhihua and Jin Shiyi after the death of Li Shengnan, and twenty years after her death, the both of them got married. Fuck~ With him ending up with Gu Zhihua, how can I like him? And to factor in that he once liked Bingchuan Tiannü from 《冰川天女传》 and had even tried to cause a rift between her and Tang Jingtian, how can I still like him??? But I still do, only when in 《云海玉弓缘》 though. Maybe it's because I really like Li Shengnan...

I like tragic characters, and love that is not meant to be. That's why I like yaoi, because it's not meant to be. Speaking of yaoi, I'm now hooked onto xxxholic and I strongly suspect that there might be more to Watanuki and Domeki's relationship. Hints of Shonen-ai, I hope.

I've been following youtube for latest episodes of xxxholic, and also Tsubasa Chronicles. Youtube is really one amazing portal~ But right now I can't watch the latest episodes of both. Tsubasa Chronicles 32 is a RAW version, meaning it's not subbed while xxxholic 11 is Chinese subbed. I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and watch it RAW or Chinese subbed or should I wait. hai... Every day I log onto youtube and check if there are new episodes that it's fast becoming a habit already. I'm really addicted to these sort of things, and the thing is that the latest episodes aren't even out yet in Japan. bah~

Actually, I can read Chinese, so what is it that is preventing me from wanting to watch xxxholic 11 Chinese subbed? I don't know... I guess I'm afraid ba... Afraid that I might read something wrong. Or maybe I just prefer to read English subbed. For one thing, I prefer to hear and read the names of Japanese characters in Japanese, so in this respect I don't like reading Chinese, since I tend to pronounce the names in Chinese rather than in Japanese when doing so. hai... But I'm really itching to watch. sucks~ I'm hoping that after I finish with this blog entry I'd be too shagged to watch anything. So this entry shall be a long long one to wear me out if not for anything else.

I just made an AMV of Tsubasa Chronicles. I think I'm becoming an otaku already. wahaha~


This is my first AMV, and my second/third time using Windows Movie Maker.

My first time using Windows Movie Maker is to make this thing.


And this thing...


They both seem like they are essentially thing same thing that I don't know if I'm supposed to see them as my first and second effort or just my first effort. Either way, A Song of Storm and Fire is still my first AMV. I'm thinking of making a second AMV, of xxxholic. Still conceptualising my theme, hopefully I can turn my concept into reality~ And slowly join the youtube league of AMV makers~ wahaha...

But the thing about me making AMVs is that I don't have anime clips that I can work on. The only anime I have is Full Metal Alchemist, which I don't think I'd ever make any AMV with it since the whole thing is about brotherly love. hai... Even in the movie, Edward made the decision to leave Winry for Alphonse. Like that how to make AMV? Okay, it's still possible to make lots, and if you run a search in youtube you'd still find a lot, but the thing is that Joan is a sucker for love stories, so she can't make AMVs talking about brotherhood, unless she turns it into a incest-shonen-ai thingie and scare everyone away with it.

Posting stuff on youtube, I've always still been quite low key, but recently one of my videos attracted a few comments and bashings. I think I've been totally misunderstood.

It's this video...

The one where I was imitating Goebbels.

You can watch the video here and read the comments too.

I don't know what are some people thinking. I've already said that it's Joan being stupid, yet they still comment that the video's stupid. Then some people think I'm neo-Nazi or something. Nazism is still quite a taboo topic, but that doesn't mean we cannot talk about it at all. The point of my speech when I did that imitation is that I wanted to try and recreate that kind of atmosphere in which Goebbels made his speech so that people can understand why the nazi party was so popular. It was because of the oratorical capabilities of the Nazis, especially Goebbels. But of course, the video turned out stupid.

Another thing I never understood and those people who commented I think they never even thought of it is the reason behind Goebbels pledging total loyalty to Hitler. This is turning pretty heavy from here... woohoo~ Goebbels started out as someone who greatly opposed Hitler. The early nazi party was factionalised into the north and south, Hitler was from the south, the then party leader and Goebbels were from the north. People always associate Hitler with the Nazi party that most don't know that Hitler didn't found that party. yea... The founder of the party was the persom whom Goebbels aligned himself with. But at that time, Hitler rose in popularity that the northern faction felt threatened, especially the party leader.

After some event, which I think I shall skip describing, Goebbels swore loyalty to Hitler. The question now is why. The official answer is that during a speech, Hitler amazed Goebbels with his rhetoric. But is it only so? Goebbels is a doctorate, a person of higher education and higher social status, as compared to Hitler, the person who was rejected from all the art schools he applied for and didn't even have an Arbitur, an A level equivelent. So why was Goebbels willing to be the servant of Hitler?

Oh well, I don't have all my reference books with me now, so I can go on and write paper about this over here, I can only give my own personal view without any basis, and say that it is most probably because of Hitler's oratorical capabilities. But then again, Goebbels seems to educated to be taken in by pure rhetoric, and he's just a capable as Hitler in rhetorics, so then this might not be a valid reason after all. sigh~

The mysteries of history, I guess~

I'm effectively tired now, but I still have some more stuff to do. I think maybe I shall sleep first then continue my stuff later tomorrow, or should I now? hmm... I promise, I promise I'd do up my travels pretty soon. I've got like pictures from 8 towns lor Konstanz, Singen, Triberg, Luxembourg, Brussels, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Kinderdijk. hai... But right now I'm fixing up my travel journal, so my photoshop's tied up. I've created a photo album in that travel journal portal and am uploading ALL my photos, the only problem is that I have to resize all my photos, so it's very tedious.

I'll post the link of that travel journal here sometime soon. As soon as I get a decent journal up first.

Until then~

Rin

What is Rin?

Or maybe to be a little more precise, I should ask, "Who is Rin?"

She's a character from Fruitsbasket, a manga I'm reading now, there's also an anime for that series. Her real name's Isuzu Sohma, but everyone calls her Rin cos "rin" is the sound for a suzu, bell, furthermore, Rin suits her better... She's a girl who loves passionately but for some reasons have to leave the one she loves in order for him to live a better life. She grew up as a girl without proper family love and hence she doesn't fully understand love, yet she is so passionate. A complex girl who wants to seek solace but doesn't dare to show her fraility. Below is a series of quote from Fruitsbasket 14 regarding Rin...

"Are you blaming me?

Maybe I should try talking to him again. But no matter how many times I go to him, will I keep getting stonewalled?

I just wish I'd been borned inside Haru's heart. That way we'd always be together. If Haru were to die, I'd die right along with him. But if we did that, we'd never be able to kiss, or anything... Haru... But I... Haru...

- I keep seeing that scene... that nightmare... I've got to wake up!
+ I've got to find it...
- I've got to open my eyes...
+ I've to to find a way...
- I've got to end this... I've got to end this once and for all...

Even though I was such a burden, you tried and tried and tried. And in the end, you snapped. Never again... Nothing will ever be the same again, you said that, you didn't want me anymore. I'm so afraid... so afraid... I just can't stand it anymore.

Whenever stepped into the house, that uncertain feeling would overwhelm me. Were they in a good mood, or a bad one? I waited for that day that it would all just blow over. Like an unfeeling 'object', like a cold hard rock. Hoping that maybe they'd forgive me. Someday, you'd forgive me, won't you? Things will return to the way they were, right?

Every time when I struggled to find answers to the questions that could never be answered Haru would appear in front of me. He'd bring me out into the sunshine and we'd talk about all sorts of silly things. We'd have our meals together, and he'd come to visit me in hospital. Haru would always seek me out. Whenever Haru was by my side, all my pain and suffering disappeared.

I love Haru. I can't live without him. Without him I'd lose all sense of security... I won't feel safe anymore... I don't want anyone but Haru. I want Haru, I want all of him. That desire just keeps getting stronger and stronger.

But my kind of love, will only destroy Haru in the end. If Haru were to hate me, and leave me... If he were to disappear from my life...

I lost all sense of reason. I loved him too much. Even though I knew it was wrong, I couldn't let it go. I felt so distorted inside. Why must it be so complicated? Even as we held hands, and our bodies touched, I wanted him, yet I was afraid. When I thought about what Akito might do if he ever found out, I just got more and more terrified.

But Haru, he told me that he wants me. Even though I've been told many times that I'm not wanted. At least there was one person in my life who wanted me. I feel so happy. Such a wonderful feeling of contentment. I was content(sic). Thank you. You made me so happy. But it's enough, it's enough now, Haru. From now onwards, it's your turn to find true happiness. Release yourself from me, from Akito. I want to free him from his barriers. Haru's tru happiness lies beyond me. There's a whole wide world out there to explore and discover! Even if it means that my life will be empty from now on. I'm willing to let it go.

I hate you...
But it wasn't my intention. It was the only way I knew to express it. I don't want to see innocents like you tainted and hurt...

I hate this... That's why, to her, I didn't want to get close. She's the sort of person, the sort of girl you'd feel like pouring your heart out to. Just like that time...
Looking at her made me feel like crying. I wanted to run to her, to lay my head in her lap and tell her all my troubles. Like a child finding solace in her mother's arms...
Maybe if I told her of all the weaknesses that is in my heart, that way, I'd find forgiveness and understanding. Perhaps I will be accepted for who I am...
It's just too much, too much to bear. I'm so pathetic! People like me only know how to latch onto people like her. We yearn for them and feed off their hope. That's why I can't allow myself to fall back on old habits. I'm fine alone. I must keep going by myself...
It doesn't matter if no one understands me. Doesn't matter if everyone hates me. Doesn't matter if I'm all alone...
I was so sure of my decision. So determined not to cry anymore... and yet...
I'm sorry... I'm sorry for weeping on your shoulder... for being so helpless... so weak... I'm sorry...

I don't have the strength to stand on my own anymore...

That morning, we watched the sun as it rose quietly, bathing everything around us in its warm radiance. Even places far away were touched by its glowing rays of light.

Together for always... No one seems to see that beyond this door, she's quietly crumbling. I can sense it somehow. If it comes to that it will be irrecoverable. I hope someone will appear before her, someone who can unlock the door, just like Haru was there for me. She really needs someone like that in her life.
Someone who knows and fears loneliness will always have love for others..."

I think deep down I'm indeed a very lonely person. Yes, I have family and friends and many people physically by my side, but there's also something I seriously lack and this void in my emotional self cannot be filled up by my family and or by those friends I speak of. It's not that they are not important, cos they are, but just that I don't know how to describe the difference.

There is just this void in me, just like Rin. The loneliness and the fear of loneliness...

Consuming me...
Engulfing me...

And me wanting to break through all that...

Unlike Rin, I have no Haru by my side, I cannot seek solace even from him, much less others. If there was one thing I could change in my life, I think i'd turn time back and not waste my time on an x, instead, probably I'd open my life out... maybe...

Rin...

Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismark
Gedanken und Erinnerungen

Finally lay my hands upon it! After years of pining... And it's the Deutsch version one somemore! wahaha~ Too bad I don't think I can understand much of it, but it shall be my motivation. All for him~ wahaha~

It set me back by €24,90, but I can say it's damn worth it cos it's hard cover and, it's my dream to own it! wahaha~ I'm still delirious with joy, oh my oh my... I paid for it with Masters so didn't really feel the pinch of the money leaving my hands, but for BISMARCK, it's well worth it! I must say!

I got myself a red retro, funky minidress on Saturday when I was at Colmar, France! Well, the idea that I was in France gave me an excuse to spend money, to buy fashion! woohoo~ I wanted to pay by Masters cos I thought the pain of money leaving me wouldn't be that great, but well, my Masters couldn't get through so I ended up paying my Euros.

I felt so dumb when I first stepped into Colmar. I was thinking that I couldn't buy anything cos I didn't change francs with me. Then I stopped and wondered where could I go get francs changed. Then it finially dawned on me that hey... Europe's all using the Euros and what I have with me isn't Marks but Euros. *pengz* Think I'm still living in Bismarckenzeit... wahaha~

Russian Literature

Russian Literature

I just finished reading this book of abridged collection of Russian short stories by celebrated writers. And from my previous knowledge of Russian tales, I must say that Russian writing is certainly not my cup of tea.

My only previous knowledge of Russian writing before reading that collection was the tale of Ivan and the Firebird. I don't know if any has heard it before cos I'd mentioned it to a group of people before but they never heard of it even though I thought that that was quite a classic.

Well, the story goes that once upon a time in Russia, there lived a Tsar with three sons, Ivan (apparantly, in Russian it's pronounced as "ee-farn") being the youngest and his favourite. This Tsar had a prized apple tree which grew golden apples in his large picturesque garden. However, one day, the Tsar found out that one of his golden apples was stolen. Someone had entered into his garden and picked the golden apple from his prized tree!

The Tsar was so angry that he summoned his eldest son to guard the tree the next night hoping to catch the thief if he returns. That night, his eldest son fell asleep in the middle of the night and when he awoke, another golden apple was missing. The Tsar was so angry with his eldest son that he dismissed him and ordered his second son to guard the tree the next night. That night, his second son too fell asleep while guarding the tree and when he awoke, another apple was missing. On seeing this, Ivan stepped up and volunteered himself to guard the tree the next night. The Tsar was pleased that his favourite son was son anxious for him and granted his wish.

Night came, Ivan sat by the tree forcing himself to stay awake to catch the thief for his father, but he found his eyelids getting heavier as time passed on. Ivan went over to the pond by the tree to wash his face and chase away his urge to sleep. Just as he arrived at the pond, a huge, bright bird flew past Ivan towards his father's prized tree and plucked off an apple with his beak. Ivan ran after the bird, but the bird soared high into the dark sky leaving Ivan grasping of of its tail feathers.

The next day, Ivan reported the matter to his father. The Tsar was very amazed with Ivan's tale and when he saw the feather that the bird left behind, the Tsar thought of a Firebird that a neighbouring King owned. He wanted the Firebird for himself.

Immediately, the Tsar called for his three sons and told them that whoever catches the Firebird and presented it to him would become his successor. With that, he dismissed his sons in search for the bird.

Ivan took his best horse and rode in the direction of the neighbouring land where it was rumoured that the king there owned an extraordinary bird called the Firebird. As night fell, Ivan found himself deep in the woods and right in front of three paths, one turning left, one turning right, and the last one heading up front. Besing the crossroads, lay a sign that read: "To the left, you will lose your horse; to the right, you will go hungry; to the front, you will die."

After thinking for a moment, our dear Ivan decided to turn left and hurried down the path. Not long later, a grey wolf pounced out onto Ivan causing him to fall off his horse. Sure indeed, his horse cantered deep into the woods and disappeared. Ivan was left without his horse.

The Grey Wolf came up to Ivan and apologised to him for scaring off his horse and offered to carry Ivan on his back to his destination. He brought Ivan to the land where the Firebird came from and advised Ivan when stealing the Firebird, touch not its cage. Ivan promised to do so.

However, after Ivan stole the bird, he caught sight of a beautiful gold cage by the side of the bird. Forgetting the Grey Wolf's advice, Ivan reached out for the cage, thinking that only such a fine cage was fit for such a fine bird. The moment Ivan's hand touched the cage, he heard loud ringing of bells sounding. Then out rushed the guards and the king himself. The King on seeing Ivan threatened to send his troops to invade Russia unless Ivan promised him something in return. For the sake of his reputation and his country, Ivan agreed to the King's threats. The King wanted Ivan to get for him the fine horse that could travel a thousand miles in a day for him from another neighbouring country. In return, the King would let Ivan have the Firebird.

Upon learning about Ivan's failure, the Grey Wolf brought Ivan to the land of the fine horse and advised Ivan when stealing the horse touch not its briddle. Again, Ivan promised to remember the words of the Grey Wolf. However, after stealing the horse, Ivan noticed the golden briddle with many precious stones set around its sides. Without thinking, Ivan reached out for it thinking only such a fine briddle was fit for such a fine horse. Once his hand touched the briddle, the King and his men came rushing out to the stable seeing Ivan with the fine horse. The King agreed to let Ivan have his horse if he could win the hand in marriage of the beautiful Princess in the next country for him.

Ivan went in search for the Princess with the Grey Wolf's aid and finnally found her. This time, the Grey Wolf went in to steal the Princess instead. And the three of them continued their journey backto the land of the fine horse.

However, on the way back, Ivan fell for the Princess and upon reaching the land, he refused to let the Princess go. Seeing this, the Grey Wolf decided to masquerade himself with his magical powers as the Princess and present himself to the King in return for the horse. He told Ivan to leave as fast as possible and when the next time he thought of the Grey Wolf, it will return back to Ivan's side.

The plan worked well and Ivan took the horse back to the land of the Firebird, but Ivan liked the horse too much that he didn't bear to exchange it for the Firebird. On seeing this, the Grey Wolf agreed to masquerade himself another time as the horse in exchange for the bird. Similarly, the Grey Wolf promised to return to Ivan's side when he thought of him.

With the beautiful Prinecss, the fine horse, and the Firebird with him, Ivan made his way back home. Along the way, Ivan decided to take a nap. While Ivan was alseep, Ivan teo elder brothers passed by and saw him with a Princess, a horse and the Firebird. Immediately they felt jealous of Ivan and plotted to kill Ivan and sieze his stuff. Their plan worked and they headed straight back home leaving Ivan dead.

When Ivan did not think about the Grey Wolf again, the Grey Wolf felt something amiss and came after Ivan. When he saw Ivan dead, he summoned a passing crow to bring him some water from the end of the world to revive Ivan.

Together, the Grey Wolf and the revived Ivan quickly headed back home. Upon reaching home, Ivan heard of news that his eldest brother was next to be the Tsar while his second brother was getting married.

Ivan quickly went to the Tsar and related his account of events to his father.

Thereafter, Ivan lived happily ever after as the Tsar with his bride, horse and the Firebird.

Well, I never liked Ivan. And I think that he's not worthy of all the glory, everything was given to him by the Grey Wolf. This sort of anti-Hero, I think, applies to most Russian writing,from what I've read. It seems like all Russian protagonists are all of dubious character. Even the celebrated Pushkin whom I've heard so much about when reading Angles of Russia [look back in my previous book revie] writes about such pathetic protagonists.

I don't know, but I don't like these kind of characters. It makes me wonder though, are all Russians as such? So anti-heroic...

Then again, the only Russian that I know is probably Roman Abramovich who is well, you can see him as anti-heroic the moment he bought Chelsea as though it was a commodity and the way he buys his players.

Okay... I'm exaggerating. He's not the only Russian I know. I know lots of other Russians, like, ya, Stalin and I must say, he seems very Russian. We can see a little shadowof Ivan in him.

I have nothing against Russians, in fact, I like Russia, but I just don't like the anti-feelings I get after reading a Russian character. I think I'll just stick to my usual stuff...

Try reading some Russian translated pieces if have the time. Russian pieces are rather thought-provoking, especially in terms of human character although it is rather biased, but can still try it and let me know if you liked it.

The Angels of Russia

The Angels of Russia
by Patricia le Roy

From the blurb: On a study trip to Leningrad, literature student Stephanie meets Sergei, an enigmatic young dissident. Stephanie had fallen in love with a fairy tale image of Russia -- full of palaces and aristocrats; Sergei offers to show her how different the reality is. Even in the supposedly enlightened days of Gorbachev, Sergei is in constant danger because of his political beliefs. So when he asks Stephanie to agree to a marriage of convenience so that he can leave the country she is unable to refuse him.

Despite the platonic nature of their relationship, Stephanie finds herself increasingly attracted to her mysterious new husband. But when Stephanie introduces Sergei to her Aunt Marina, a Russian defected to Paris whilst accompanying her father on a political mission, he appears to know more about Marina's past than Stephanie. Could Marina be the real reason why he has come to Paris? As it becomes increasingly clear that Sergei is harbouring more than one secret, Stephanie is forced to question whether their first meeting was as accidental as it seemed...

Although the blurb focused on the mystery of Sergei as the book's selling point, what got me so hooked on this book was not about Sergei and Marina, but more of Stephanie and Sergei. Stephanie had a fiance back in Paris before she went to Leningrad, but her relationship with her fiance did not seem to be very close. She was increasingly attracted to Sergei. And Sergei, even with his mission on hand, found himself increasingly attracted to Stephanie.

Two people, knowing their love for each other and knowing of the other's love for them, but not being able to be together because of their personal reasons, that damn sad. From Stephanie's point of view, she knew that even if Sergei loves her as much as she loved him she could not openly express her love for him as she had a fiance and he knew that too. Although she did not have any love left for her fiance, because of family and peer pressure, she could not break of the engagement. As she couldnt commit herself to Sergei as much as she wanted to, she tried to control her rising emotions. From Sergei's point of view, not only Stephanie's fiance stood in his way, he had a big secret that he kept from Stephanie and he knew that this secret had to be kept from her. He also knew that the eventual outcome of his secret would harm her emotionally.

For a slight moment, the outcome of the story reminded me of the usual Andy Lau/Aaron Kwok/Ekin Cheng Hong Kong triad movies of the 90s, but in this setting of 80s Leningrad and Paris, both places of romantism, love, and regret, somehow the impact was much stronger than what Hong Kong can ever produce.

The author also made use of much literature and history weaved into the story. I mean, Stephanie was after all a Literature Masters student doing her thesis on Pushkin and the effects of the Decembrists on his Literature and Sergei was very much interested in the Decembrists which became the main topic of their long platonic conversations. But what struck me most was the author weaving in the ancient tale of Ivan and the Firebird as the opening of a chapter in the middle of her story.

The tale of Ivan and the Firebird by itself is a story that puts one into a long heavy thinking mode. Its presence in this story made me think harder on the effect it had in shaping our thoughts of Stephanie and Sergei.

Im starting to feel drawn to Russia... For more on Russia, you can look into my archives on the review I did for Russian movie The Return. Try look for this book if you feel drawn into my review. Joan Ang gives it 5-stars and 2 thumbs up!

Chin Peng

yesterday i went down parkway mph, wanted to buy the biography on chin peng... goodness! it's sold out! does that mean that Singaporeans are a bunch of pro-communist people? or is it just some people (i think you need more than just "some") quite pissed of with the hype surrounding lky's birthday and bought them in protest? and he can say that singaporeans are an apathetic bunch of people... okok, don't shoot me off like that, i'm not anti-lky, its just that he shouldn't make such sweeping statements like that...

okay, let's see, say, parkway mph would bring in about 50? or, 100? of those books on chin peng, and they are all sold out, so that makes 50-100 households in the east reading them and when multiplied by say, 2 adults in the family, that makes quite a bit of communists around, don't it? by the way, i still see many Hillary Clinton biography in mph, so does it mean than there are more communists than capitalists in Singapore? taking that the US is an icon for capitalism... umm... food for thought...

another communist issue, taiwan is having some kind of anti-china campaign now... sounds funny (as in haha funny, not weird funny)... i mean, personally i think that taiwan should just be part of china, rather than making such a huge fuss over all the differences... see how well hong kong is doing as an SAR with all the advantages of being in a big stable country... haiz... just don't know what's in the minds of those funny (as in weird funny, not haha funny) taiwanese... they even catergorised china history as foreign history! i mean aren't they not they sons of the yan and huang?!

ya, another thing, politics aside, anyone bought the biography n chin peng? can lend me? and pls continue commenting about the story "sealed in time"... only yanling proposed some endings, so i'm waiting for you, yes, you!