stern warning

Dear self,

I have noticed you have been spending an increasing amount of time surrounded by fillies whose skills in speaking English (on most cases) surely made decoding secret messages easier.

Your musical surrounding around them doesn't amount to much consolation either, songs being sung in another hip-gyration inducement language.

You are therefore charged to ban all Japanese and Chinese songs from your playlist, and prescribed to take aural refuge in the form of songs à la Gaga, Florence et al. This may well prove a most fitting opportunity to expand your backdated digital music collection.

Generate the necessary ka-CHING! to finance these imperatives.
And, as always, work on your portfolio.


Love,

Marsha.

Affair

Seeing this PV reminds me of this series.
It's a style that's been popular for some time now. I don't know for how much longer this kind of white-based aesthetic sense will last, but one thing I know is... I do enjoy it.

And, on a consumptive note, the Motorcycle is dead and this is in.
(I wonder if Alma Leather stocks stingray skins.)
Colour-wise, pastels go with many things and I recently had a medium-term morbid fascination with mouse-grey... which I've been trying to shed off. Not because it's a shade I deem childish or overly corporate, but because there are so many other colours out there, waiting to be picked and used. Never mind the more recent green overkill I'm putting myself through, which I also try to outgrow.

(radio ennui)

There's a radio at work... which normally plays during the day or whenever there are people around... and which I inevitably listen to if I were in the production area.

The song selection is Indonesian contemporary pop (with sprinkles of American pop top forty). Nothing against the genre; it's simply sappier and has decidedly more sentimentally melancholic... if not tilting towards suicidal or social obnoxiousness. Some of the more popular lyrics were:

"pilihlah aku jadi pacarmu"
(choose me as your boyfriend)
"kau hancurkan aku dengan sikapmu"
(you destroyed me with your behaviour)
"Tuhan tolong jangan berikan dia jodoh yang lain"
(God, don't give her another love [of her life])

And humans, being [sometimes] the creatures of habit they are, absorb these sensory stimuli.

..........

At the end of the day, working with a blaring radio within hearing range can seriously make you question the integrity of your musical taste. Well, I do.

(plonking orgy)

The list of CDs-to-buy-in-Japan had just gotten longer.
Depapepe is in the list.

Highly recommended songs/items are Night and Day, Summer Parade, Pachelbel's Canon, Over the Sea, Sky!Sky!Sky, Wake Up! and Snow Dance. I'm sure you'd have your own pick, so take your leisure in listening to whatever catches your fancy.

No, I haven't got any fixed plans to go to Japan, but anyway...

The Desperadö

My addiction to Suemitsu and the Suemith is here to stay; at the moment it seems to run for good.

Yue Ya Wan

Being tens of thousand of miles away from my housemates, one of the last things I would expect is to hear the song they asked me to learn being crooned over a disc seller's sound system.

But then, listening to it unexpectedly is amusing, methinks... ^__^

De-Lovely

My sister has a... weakness.
Whenever she comes back from the cinema, she would be most predisposed to share about her excitements and, unavoidably, the storyline of whatever movie she just watched. This situation has happened to a number of must-see movies (I could accurately recall her blabbing about these three blockbusters), and De-Lovely was no exception. It usually takes me several years to un-memorize whatever voluntary reviews she shared with me, after which I would start the hunt for movies on DVDs.

Let's say she was very impressed with De-Lovely she immediately proceeded to purchase the movie's soundtrack CD. I have listened to the CD's tracks to death since then, and have come to love some of them. The songs gave me a definite (if not slightly hazy) idea of the movie's major story arc. However, I still had lots of "huh? Shouldn't it go this way..." moments while watching the movie. The songs - which have a general upbeat jazzy mood - concealed a darker struggle the characters had to deal with. And yes, I find this concealment idea interesting...

All in all, it was good entertainment. To forget today's the last day of the proms! And it's held not far from where I live... D: Luckily, I still got to see the fireworks. Also, I blabbed about the proms on this blog at this time of the year last year - wow o.O

Finally, I'd say I'm utterly thrilled with the level of service Amazon doles out to its customers. I purchased the De-Lovely DVD late Thursday afternoon, and received it through the mail today... just in time for Saturday night movie-watching.

It does make me feel relying on eBay for better price (nominally) may turn out to be false economy - I'm still waiting for my copy of this book to arrive! There are only three weeks of vacation left, and I'd like to try out a number of things this book instructs upon, so having the book in hand as early as possible helps.

Alright then, have a good weekend ^__^

Be Thou My Vision

I feel obliged to do a post on this very day (yes, 17 August!)

To make a long story short, I was actually about to fall asleep when the song started playing. It reminds me of the smell of Melbourne. Absurd, huh?

There are a couple of things I want to blog about too, but since my brain is largely on passive rest mode I'd have to keep them for another day. Enjoy your day ^__^

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought, by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light

Be Thou my Wisdom, be Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, I thy true son
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise
Thou mine inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only lie first in my heart
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art

(grinagog)

Just to make it brief: I'm having a PV orgy! This post is going to be splattered with a lot of music videos. No, I'm not gonna blame it on cr (yes, because of youu...) but Nodame Cantabile is one good lot of entertainment. The classical music reference alone is worth listening too, along with alien-sounding sound and visual effects. Hopefully my dad buys into this...


Allegro Cantabile - if there was one song that got me hooked to Suemitsu & the Suemith, this was the one. It's like refreshing tonic for the soul... I see this one as a pick-me-up music and the MP3 stays in the mobile phone. Anne thinks the PV is murder on white piano.


Konna ni Chikaku de - last post's title. The blame goes to some cr guy and wikipedia, but the singer's voice is appealing. Her ethnicity is interesting, too: she's half African American, half Korean... and sings in Japanese with no trace of engrish (extra brownie points for her ^^ ) She vaguely reminds me of Kurara Chibana.


Sagittarius - a newcomer, having first heard of it within the past 48 hours. It comes from [what I see as] an 'approved of' artist/musician. I haven't got a file, but I reckon my housemate (who is bound to return by the end of the month) would be able to get me the CD... there should be no major problem.

(I'm trying to work out some illustrations out of these musics...)

By the way, it seems like grinagog (sans derogative sense) is quite illustrative a description of my mood right now...

Lastly, which one of these three songs do you enjoy the most? Take care! ^__^

Might Have Been Her

I simply feel compelled to post this photo and the lyrics.
Have a good day :))

Everything I know
Tells me she's everything
That I could hope for
Everything I know
Tells me I can't let her walk away

I took my time to find the words
I hope she'd feel the same

'Cause I want someone to share my smile
To share my pain
To be there when the sea turns gray
To share the joy
For better or worse
And I thought it might have been her
I thought that it might have been her

Wonder if she knows
The way I saw her soul
Light up my life
Wonder if she knows
of the pain I feel tonight

Katamari Holiday

Even though it's a day late to blurb about what happened on Wednesday, I'm doing it anyway.

OK, first things first: my normal attitude to Valentine's. Regardless of being dateless or not, I consider Feb 14 to be a day purposedly created by chocolate manufacturers and florists to generate half of their annual revenues (really.) Red roses nowadays have become a hot issue in England, particularly because of the carbon footprints created in growing and sourcing these roses from areas such as Africa and South America (I'd have lilies anytime, thank you.) Furthermore, there are 365.25 days in a year when you can express your care for that special someone, so why do it only for one day in a year? :q (calad's thoughts are pretty much on the same line with mine.)

Secondly: why I acted differently this year. Quite recently a friend ditched/was ditched by her boyfriend and she was feeling down, hence I arranged a dinner outing so that singletons (fresh ones in particular) wouldn't need to spend their evening wailing for their lives. All plans went well... until *somehow* almost all of the girls found romantically-charged dates to spark up their evening. At the end there were only three of us: KY, Mag and myself. We had fun eating out and hopping from one cafe to the other... who says being single on V-day means misery? :p




One thing I learnt from this stray occasion is... never eat out unless you really want to have the ambience of eating out! The queues were 20mins long (it was the restaurant's no-booking night), and service was... mediocre. It took us frantic hailing for about 15 minutes for us to order, before a further table chat of 20 minutes on oh-so-hungry-where-is-the-food wait. Paying took us 10 minutes. All these tell me something about planning for any sort of outing on Feb 14: either come in really early at five or really late at ten for dinner if you want decent service. Next year if there's anyone who wails for not having a date, I'll just come to her place and cook there instead.

And today, I've decided to stay home despite the offers to watch a late evening fashion show. I was told I need to put in more fabric and textiles into my research, which turned out into a day of making something that resembles a cabbage rose... and which made me think of Chanel's move to obtain Lesage is strategically sound. Honestly, that fairytale good ol' poor shoemaker is really lucky to have an army of crafty leprechauns to help him do his orders every night - I'd love to have that, too!

(I just have this thought that Lesage in reality is a factory chock full of crafty leprechauns, human-sized.)


Also, today's song hails from a videogame called We ♥ Katamari. This is my motivator song - it makes me stay put at what I do! Probably it's the prospects of stress-free holiday after the COMPACT scheme interviews that really makes me stick my head into what I'm doing, but anyway... it stops me from singing along and helps me do what I need to do :p

Alright, it's time to bed for me: hard work starts tomorrow at 7AM! With 13 days left to pack my portfolio, there are lots of things to do. That's life, isn't it :)) Take care!

Remembering You

This morning I returned from showers to this song. I haven't listened to it for some time, and it hits a chord... I don't really know why though (finding out why is for brain exercise later in the Tube.) The song was featured in Chronicles of Narnia.

Hmmm... I wonder whether there are any recently-released, epic-style movies that are worth watching. It's not like I have all the time in the world to manage to watch three movies, but it's nice to know and keep in mind.

Enjoy the song, everyone ^^

From the first moment I heard Your name
Something in my heart came alive
You showed me love and no words could explain
A love with the power to
Open the door
To a world I was made for

And I watch as the cold winter melts into spring
And I'll be remembering You
Oh and I'll smell the flowers and hear the birds sing
And I'll be remembering You, I'll be remembering You

(a smiling face)

Got this song, finally. Finally! ^____________________^
(Apparently getting this song puts me in a bliss. Tee hee.)

In case you were wondering why this song puts a wide smile on my face, it's because of a number of things... some of them being my first time hearing the song, a post in this blog and the nearly-a-year wait is over. Thank you :D

Enjoy!

Wish I was a punk rocker

I love this song :))

Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In '77 and '69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late into a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

When the head of state didn't play guitar
Not everybody drove a car
When music really mattered and when radio was king
When accountants didn't have control
When the media couldn't buy your soul
And computers were scary and we didn't know anything

Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In '77 and '69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late into a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

When pop stars remained a myth
And ignorance could still be bliss
And when God saved the Queen she turned a whiter shade of pale
My mom and dad were in their teens
And anarchy was still a dream
And the only way to stay in touch was a letter in the mail

Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In '77 and '69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late into a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

Kelembutan Pagi

Since there wasn't enough time for me to procure a French visa, I delayed my trip to sometime in late November (after I hand in my works) or early January. Sigh.

I went to Staines on Tuesday to stay over at my uncle's house (note that the term 'uncle' used here refers to the Asian concept of treating with respect a person with little or no blood relations to you.) I love the place! Not only the house is new-ish, the family was lovely, too. I wasn't time-rich enough to spend three nights at his place, but it was definitely a good stay. The food was a winner, and so was the bathroom! :D I'm going to stay over at his place during a no-class weekend, fingers crossed ^__^ I was also inspired enough to watch Dor and Omkara, two Bollywood movies with stunning frames that were thoughtfully shot. These two movies may inspire me, I believe :))

Staines (and the journey to London Waterloo station by BR) reminds me of suburban Melbourne and the commuting trips I used to take to uni. I would sit idly, perched next to a window, enjoy the sun and watch the world go by. The house in Staines has a couple of leaf-shedding trees around it (I could see one standing smack-bang on front of the room I slept in), so I think it's really cool. There are no trees on front of my house - why is the whole pedestrian walkway thing paved without a single hint of greenery!

Enough blab for now. I enjoyed the stay and the 50-minute trip to London Waterloo, anyway.

As for work, I am running around with lots of ideas but not enough materials to make things happen. I'm finding out the way I think is pretty weird for my class group. It might mean either I am not as weird as the majority of art/design students are, or I am significantly weirder than I have imagined myself.

That's all for now; gotta go and do so many things! (Sometimes I wonder where all these energy and time I need will come from. Would anybody tell me please?) Take care!

Dalam kelembutan pagi
Buana berseri
Dibuai bayu dini hari
Sejuk di hati

Kusambut pagi sendiri
Tanpa kau melati
Namun tak kulupakan dikau
Satu denganku

Padamu angin ku bertanya
Mungkinkah abadi
Bahagiaku kini
Ku pasrah Ilahi

So Long Self

To act in a civil manner is no easy thing when one is not treated as an equal.
Sometimes I stopped wondering why there are people who don't act their age - they just exist.
One often does things based on the 'heat of the moment' and regret the decision later, when smears on relationship and reputation are near impossible to be wiped away.

But above all, I love today's song... and I'm going to do things the way they should be done.

Stop right there because I know what you're thinking
but no, we can't be friends
And even though I know your heart is breaking
this has to end
And come to think of it the blame for all of this
simply falls on me
For wanting something more in life than all of this
Oh, can't you see

So long self
Well it's been fun but I have found somebody else
So long self
There's just no room for two so you're gonna have to move
So long self
Don't take this wrong but you are wrong for me, farewell
Oh well, goodbye, don't cry
So long self

Don't feel so bad
There'll be better days
Don't go wait now
Goodbye on me
Just go away, go away

So long self
Well it's been fun but I have found somebody else
So long self
There's just no room for two so you're gonna have to move
So long self
Don't take this wrong but you are wrong for me, farewell
Oh well, goodbye, don't cry
So long self

Farewell, goodbye, oh so long self

I Like Bananas

The monkey family would be so familiar to this song. Bananas, bananas... to be honest, eating ripe mangoes in the middle of spring is actually very very good! As with previous springs, the nap quality's good as well.

We overdid the nap: me and my mum. I just woke up some 20-odd minutes ago, woken up by that "it's slightly too bright for 7:30 in the afternoon" feeling, and realised that we were supposed to be up by 5:30 and have an afternoon walk with the dog. My watch's off as well - in the sense that it needs a new battery. I'm not trying to blame anything other than me and my lazy head on overdoing the nap. My mum is still doing it though, and she needs a lot of rest while she's here, so let's leave her as she is.

Well, just want to drop some lines on the song; it was a favourite at PeKa. I don't know whether there is an MP3 of it lying around somewhere in the webspace. Please tell me if you find one. It's a never-ending song. If you know the song, please sing it! Anyway, here it goes. Take care!

I like bananas
I know that mangoes are sweet
I like papayas (PAPAYAS!)
but nothing can beat
the sweet love of God

Well, I was walking 'round a circle five miles an hour
Tryin' to find my way back to the Heavenly father
The world tasted sweet but soon it turned sour
and then I let God in and receive His power
(one, two three!)

Blue Eyes Blue

What a sad song.

I have never realised the extent of emotions the singer was trying to pour out from his heart when he was singing. I should say I even underestimated this song at first. Listening to it makes scenes flash before my eyes; the dream hounts me still.

Sorry is not a word that can be taken lightly. It involves having two hurt parties; one was hurt by another's actions and another is hurt by seeing how the actions inflict pain on the other party. How one should use the power of sorry, that is still questionnable. Some are successful in doing so, and others to no avail. Never say forever in a euphoric stage. Only say forever when completely sane, and even then a large dose of reality needs to kick in. As one of my lecturers once said, make sure your conditions fit into the model's assumptions.

There are some things that would be great if expressed in a manga. The storyline is pretty much completed, the events a clear picture, but the characters are still little more than a blur. Some details are coming into life (hair, eye, preferred costumes, mannerisms) but not to the extent these characters are ready to take a life of its own. My hands need a lot of training, especially with ink and G-pen (Kyuubi suggested Machiko-sensei in Kemang but I'm still unsure whether I'll be able to make it). I'm very proficient with pencils and eraser, but I'm still on a venture stage, which means I will have to do pretty much everything by myself. There are many things to learn, although I've come a long way since the two-volume, grade-four notebook manga I wrote. Should I found it on my upcoming trip back home, I'd crack up and probably post a few pages' worth of scans.

Right now I'm training my heart to be puncture-proof. We get a few nicks and nails along the way, but by no means these should rip one apart. Will I need a year away? No-one knows. Waiting for the best answer is long, and putting the answer into practice arduous. Following Jesus is no easy thing.

Also trying to dig up things from 615-150. Yes, I disliked IS much, but it didn't stop me from doing full-on CSS-based pages. It might come in handy in decorating this blog.

End of story; right now priority number one is to do well in these exams.

It was you who puts those clouds above me
It was you who make the tears fall down
Only you who broke my heart in pieces
It was you who makes my blue eyes blue...