Andres Iniesta! loveliest name I've heard and an incredible player. He deserves all the praise coming his way. He's been my favourite player since he came onto the scene.
Visca el Barca!!!
]]>I had warm salad with fish and chips and fuzzy navel for the first round of drinks. I'd love to have fuzzy navel again. It was peach, orange juice? lemon? and with a bit of vodka I think? Well I'm not much of a drinker. I only had two glasses of water after, a few sips of cyder from the others and later on ice cocoa at moss burger.
We left for home after 11:30 pm and bumped intoU-san on the train. I've not seen her since Dec so it was great to catch up.
I was tired, I had blisters on my feet (new shoes) and in need of a shower (uncharacteristically warm day for spring) by the time we arrived home, but it was all worth it. A good day it was!
]]>Having grown up in a christian environment, you'd think that surely I'd know how easter date is determined. Well, what need have I to know, there's the calendar and of course the church... Lent is about 40 days before Easter. From wiki:
Easter falls at some point between late March and late April each year (early April to
early May in Eastern Christianity), following the cycle of the
Moon. After several centuries of disagreement, all churches accepted the computation of the Alexandrian Church (now the Coptic Church) that Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, which is the first moon whose 14th day (the ecclesiastic "full moon") is on or after March 21 (the ecclesiastic "vernal equinox").
I've had Michael Flynn's novel "Eifelheim" on my mind the past few days. I read it sometime back and thought it was good. I won't give the plot away, but if you enjoy mystery/scifi/fantasy/christian fiction/history with a bit of philosophy thrown in, you'd probably like this one. I'll add one last bit, the events in the book took place during the black death that swept through Europe 14th century. I thought Eifelheim the novel would at least provide some interesting theological perspective , if not wholly appropriate reading for easter.
]]>I now have 2 solid major plots for my book, and it only took a second for my brain to catch hold of the idea. This is definitely an improvement after my long bout of depression. Next step will be rewriting the synopsis. However, I think it will be easier this time around as I am confident where I want to take the story. I can't wait to start writing the actual thing. O wait, it may not be so easy... There are 2 different timelines, with interconnecting events. I will have to write the synopsis for the first timeline, then the second, then intermingle, entertwine them in the third which will be the real synopsis, I guess. Well, one step at a time.
In other news, baked cocoa bread today. Very good, home made bread are always oishii!
]]>'tis late I know, but better late than never. May this year brings you success, good health, the peace of mind, and may all your beautiful dreams come true. Forgive my ever increasing lateness, my total lack of care, my ever neglectful of the "real", forgive my failure as a friend, a sister, a family, a human, all that I am, all I've been and not been. Forgive my failure and irresponsibility of 2006. I thank you from the bottom of my soul for being there, knowing, or unknowingly, your presence in my life be it in physical or spirit or in other forms unknown or yet to be understood has helped me weather the storms,I am grateful and blessed, thank you, thank you so much for being with me through the years.
This is too important to be left unsaid, so here goes.
For the first time, I'm able to write and come up with ideas without having to go into my melancholy mood. In the past, ideas only come when I'm feeling depressed, which means, once I'm back to normal, they are gone and the urge to write fades away, so it was hard for me to make use of those ideas I gained. This time it is different. I'm happy with what I'm doing and I can let my mind and imagination run free unconstrained by the black mood, so I'm free!
So let's see how that will effect my writing. I'm going to try to write my very own fantasy epic. I'm really excited about it. At the moment, I'm done with outlining plots. However I still need to tidy up the ending. Hmm, maybe next time I'll try coming up with the ending then figuring out the beginning later on. Reminds me of this quotation: "Being a philosopher, I have a problem for every solution".
I spent most of today creating the evil dark lord in my fantasy world. It was not easy. It took me 3 days to come up with a credible dark lord. Now I realised how useful those psychology classes were, and possibly I may have to dig up my notes from time to time, but I think this dark lord of mine is evil enough.
I'll try to post my progress as I go along.
Next thing to do: read and research rise and fall of the Roman empire and Greek civilisation. I'm not going to write historical fiction, I just want to use this part of history as a guide and tweak here and there to make up the society of my world and everything related to it.
Suddenly, history and anthropology/sociology are beginning to be fascinating subjects, I'll just add another one in, creative writing.
]]>Last tuesday 21 March was a national holiday in Japan because of the equinox. I wonder if any other country has a day off on this date? I'm pretty sure I came across equinox in my school textbooks though much of what I learnt in school have pretty much escaped my brain a long time ago. Anyway, I lookked up equinox on wikipedia to refresh my memory. There was nothing much apart from the scientific explanations though which was a little disappointing. I was expecting to find more on history and how it's tied with myth and legend, culture etc, just like the eclipse of the sun and moon, that would be fascinating reading, doubtless I'll find it somewhere else on the internet. Anyway, if you want to read about it on wikipedia, here's the link:
]]> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox]]>I'm in a better spirit this week compared to last and have been somewhat busy.
First let's talk about last week. The first half was rather depressing. There was a slight misunderstanding/miscommunication related to work and that contributed to bringing down my mood. I believe that matter has been peacefully resolved but I need to do something about the situation at work. I'm not satisfied with my current task. Proof reading and research is all well and good, but if you have to do it again and again on the same subject, it gets boring after awhile. Maybe that's why I feel sleepy at work nowadays. Well that's over and done with, so let's move on to what I've been up to for the past 2 weeks:
2. Reading
I'm almost to the end of "a feast for crows" the fourth book in a song of ice and fire series. I'm dreading the end, because I will have to wait for another 9 months for book 5. This is a good serie, everyone, go read it. It's almost as good as the wheel of time but darker with less magic. I have the uplift saga audio book a science fiction by David Brinn, but the beginning doesn't sound as good as the reviews proclaimed, so I think I'll skip this book and move on to either Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell or Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy. I also saw another book which sounds somewhat intriguing, The saga of the 7 suns or something. What I really want to read though is:
Judas Unchained by Peter F Hamilton
The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
The Darkness that Comes Before by Scott R Bakker
Prince of Nothing by Scott R Bakker
and the 3rd book in the series which I can't remember the title
Preferably in audio book format. O, did I mention that the reader of the uplift saga is as boring as the book?
2. Japanese conversation class
The first class is this friday at 10:30, I'm looking forward to it. I hope my instructor knows how to keep me awake. I wish it's a group lesson though. Maybe in later stages they will let us practice with each other. I'm going to record the class with my DAISY player. Speaking of japanese conversation, I finally finished volume 5 of "japanese for today".
3. I met up with Umeta-san last friday, and fun was had. We talked about our winter vacation, work, weather, food, local culture, lucky and unlucky numbers/age, favourite numbers, and in between, Umeta-san explained how to use some words, read to me the contents of the text book I'll be using for my friday class, and the event calendar of the CIFA. So far, I don't see any interesting upcoming events. O, in Japanese culture, the unlucky ages for women is 19, 33, 37 and 60, and for men, 42 and 60 (there is more but I can't remember the others). So, to avoid bad things happening to you when you're at this age, you go for some prayers at the new year for protection throughout the year. Interesting isn't?
4. Another trip to JBL
Last friday, M and I went to JBL to fetch the new DAISY player. It's slightly bigger than mine, a smoother surface, and I'm sure with some extra features since it's supposed to be the latest version, but I'll have to ask M about that.
5. Moss burger
Yay, everyone congratulate me, I went alone to Moss burger and ordered whatever I ordered all by myself, I'm quite proud of that. With head held high, I confidently walked into the place and ordered onipote, moss chicken and spicy moss burger, and it tasted soooo good!
6. Visual basic
I've joined the programming class of trainers corner. We're learning visual basic 6. At the moment, the class is at a standstill because some of us found out we were using a different version of VB from the other participants. O well, I have nothing to say about this course, (shakes head dismissively)
7. Almost to the US
I guess it was my fault. I should have done it earlier. M and I were planning to attend the CSUN conference in LA and maybe drop by in Texas on the way, but I made up my mind too late, and now it's too late. With the hassle of the visa application and all, I won't have enough time, so sad sad, I never learn! Hope to go next year.
8. Chocolates and exercise
I've been eating a lot more chocolates than usual, and less exercise. I resumed jogging today after skipping 10 days! I'll do my best to jog 15 minutes everyday from now on. Did I mention that my colleagues have been giving me lots of bitter chocolates? Keiko-san gave me some nice bitter chocolates from Venuzuela and my sweet wonderful neighbour bought me a box of delicious bitter chocs. So, if anyone wants to give me a present, the ideal present would be a box or boxes of bitter chocolates or an interesting fantasy/science fiction, preferably in audio book format, but first make sure to ask me what book I want. I have a list.
9. A stroll in the morning rain
This morning, M showed me the way to Tazukuri building where my class would be held. I'm pretty sure I can find my way to the ninth floor, but I'm not so certain I can find the office, nevertheless, have no fear, I'll get myself there promptly at 10:30, rain or shine. It rained all morning today, and I think it's still raining even now. The wind was somewhat strong, so i got my hair wet, and came back cold and shivering. It's amazing how fast my hair grows. I trimmed it in December when it was a little past my waist, about 3 inches, and now it's almost to my hips.
10. Upcoming trip
I've signed up for a sightseeing tour to Kyoto next week end. I'll update more on that once I know more details. M will not be going with me, so I'll get the chance to do something daring? hehehehe.
Let me take this opportunity to congratulate my dear friend on her successful interview. I wish you all the best and godspeed on your preparationn to Penang. Remember, if you need someone to "bla bla bla" I'm here!
That's all for today. Take care everyone.
FIFA World Cup in 3 months time, Go Brazil!
]]>Yes yes I missed my update deadline, but it's here. Actually I forgot that it's valentine today, I don't care for it much except for the chocolates, this day should be called chocolates day instead, anyway it's been twisted around already, it won't make much difference, I don't have to make sense!
I went whole wheat bread shopping with my colleagues today and got the one from Hokkaido. This would be my first time trying whole wheat bread in Japan. It seems that corn/brown/dark bread is not popular over here, what a pity, because I love corn bread or what we call whole meal bread in Malaysia so much. I could buy the breadmaker and try to bake bread myself, but I think I'll buy instead, more so that now I know where to get it. Anyway, continuing with the story, we went to the bakery halfway between the Shonandai station and the campus. I love bakery, what sweet delicious yummy smells. Besides the bread, I bought some blue berry bagels as well and that was what I had for dinner, bagel and mango pudding.
]]> and now I'm going to try summarising last week.1. I had a terrible stomach ache caused by my cooking. I think it was too spicy!
2. M bought for me a 512 mb memory card. Now I can transfer my audio book to that and play it on the DAISY player. I love audio books! Time flies faster when I listen to my stories while doing housework. Pity not all books have the audio version, but from now on I'm going to try to get hold of as many audio books as I can.
3. I'm reading a new fantasy series called the song of ice and fire by George R Martin, not as good as the wheel of time, but much better than a lot of other fantasy series out there! I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who's in need of a good fantasy series. The audio book narrator is good! I may talk about this in another entry. This book gave me nightmares though. I dreamed a corpse was attacking me. I had it 3 times in a row in a single night. I don't remember much now, except the part M waking me up every time after it. It was strange because as soon as I went back to sleep I had the dream again, almost right away.
4. I went to JBL and registered myself with the library. So now I can borrow books and access JBL's online catalogue. I'll make full use of it!
5. I went to CIFA (Chofu International Friendship Association) and registered myself for their japanese conversation class. I'll be starting on the 3rd of March. I'm looking forward to it very much. I will be taking this class for the next 6 months. CIFA organises gatherings and other activities as well and I hope to drop in a few and maybe make some friends.
6. I'm still maintaining my exercise although I do it on alternate days now. I found out that exercising everyday makes me more hungry and wanting to eat more snacks. This new method seems to work. I'm back to my usual weight.
7. I've been doing anagrams. Quite fun. Go to www.zonebbs.com for it and some other games. I made a friend from Malaysia and another from the US and we are swarping books.
8. My japanese class is going on splendidly. I'm almost finishing volume 5 of my text book.
That's all I have for this week. Take care!
]]>From now on, I'll do my best to update this blog weekly. Like I said before, I'm in the process of reconstructing my site, ideas are hard to come by these days, my brain has gone into hybernation. Another thing, there's something wrong with the server I think. I was hoping to update the index page at least, but It wouldn't let me upload files. I'll have to check again.
]]> I have come to the conclusion that the contents on my homepage do not reflect my updated hobbies and interests, so I am going to remove them. The truth is, I feel that I am too old for those stuff, I need to put something more practical, and not things that have been blown out of proportion. The site made me sound as someone who thinks too high of herself, and the world is laughing and she is the only one who does not know it. When I first build that site, life was fresh, young, but things are different now. My outlook on life in general has changed a lot, and I find that things I used to enjoy now seem childish, like my writings for instance, I don't want to be a writer and I have given up on trying to write a book. From now, I write because I enjoy writing, whenever I have the time and whenever the idea comes, no more, no less. I need to broaden my perspectives. At present, I am still not sure what the new contents would be like, but I'll be working on them. Nothing stays the same, that's both wonderful and troubling.Nothing earth-shattering happened this week. The usual at work, with a little problem with the Braille display and JAWS thrown in. It's still winter, as cold and windy as ever. Conversations over lunch with my colleagues have been refreshing, and fun as always. Kumoi-san commented that my japanese has improved. Maybe, I have, I have to! nowadays, I find it easier to catch jokes, so maybe I have. Everyone at work is busy trying to do whatever needs doing before 31st March which is the end of FY in Japan.
As for me, I'm just enjoying life, reading books and the other usuals, mainly eating snacks, housework, exercising trying to burn down the fat gained from the snacks, going to my japanese class, and thinking about what I want to do in life, what a mix! O yes, one of my new year resolution is to maintain my exercise, so let's see how successful I turn out to be in this. I want to go back to school, hopefully next year, when I have earned enough money to start me off. Till then, I'll work hard on my japanese and polishing up my english and malay, who knows, I may be able to use that to earn some extra cash. Lately, I'm somewhat worried about my mental condition. I'm not exactly going mad, I hope I'm not, well I'm sure I'm not! I've been feeling even more solitary and reclusive and unresponsive than usual, and this is not good. I need something to motivate me, people to push me, to criticise me. I've always been good at motivating myself, but lately it's been more and more difficult to do that.
Well, this is long enough, just to let whoever reads this know that I'm now back to earth.
]]>I went to work on my own yesterday. I lost my way 3 times at least, but I arrived safely at the office. I'm not too proud of it though, because I had help. I will write about it this week end.
I worked from home today, and I'm happy to report that I managed to finish whatever it was I was supposed to finish. Basically, it was the research thingy on the 3 Thailand universities my office people will be visiting this week end. I'm glad I finished the work before the meeting. Yes, there's going to be a staff meeting tomorrow on the project. Possibly another meeting on friday if it's necessary to have one. I told my colleague I'll go to work if it's not snowing on friday. It's forecasted to snow on friday but I hope it's wrong.
Tomorrow will be another cold day. May even snow. Temperature goes up to 7 probably. I hate going to work on a cold day, but I will go no matter what.
And now it's time to sleep. Need to wake up early.
]]>The weather was great today. The sun was out, with a little breeze, not as cold as previous days. I enjoyed my trip to Shinsen, and another great session with Umeta-san. Let's see, we worked some more on pronunciation today. It was fun. I'm really looking forward to her visit this saturday, should be a lot of fun.
The good news is I found my way and back ok from the house to Kokuryo eki, but the bad news, I lost my way at Meidaimae station. I was walking to and fro trying to find the stairs to the platform to Chofuhomen, and this lady asked if I was all right. So I told her where I wanted to go. The ending, one of the station staff guided me to the right platform and stayed with me till the train came. When I got off at Kokuryo, there was another staff waiting for me there to make sure I was all right and ready to help if I lost my way again, but I didn't needed any this time. So, there was no further adventures. I think I made another friend today. She lives in the second apartment building, but I've forgotten her name. I was walking past the second building and she came over to talk to me, mostly about the weather. It's so wonderful to be able to communicate, to give the right responses, to talk intelligibly, instead of haing my way through. I really think my japanese is getting better. That's wonderful.
I watched on CNN that KL is heavily blanketed in haze today and that the quality of air has been declared unhealthy. Take care guys, drink lots of water.
Anyway, got to go. Need my beauty sleep so I can function properly at work tomorrow.
]]>My saturday has been quiet so far, nothing exciting, just another cold day. There were a few things I planned on doing earlier on, but somehow I didn't feel like doing any, so the morale of the day, stop planning things you can't accomplish hehehe.
]]> So let's see, at least I got to do something - I had french toast for breakfast, or a sort of. It was good that I only did 2 pieces as they didn't taste too good. Then I spent quite sometime writing emails to friends in KL, so that took most of the morning. I did a little housework too, you know the usual.Then, I went through my music collection just to see what CDs I brought from Malaysia. I have quite an interesting bunch actually. I think, if I were a DJ I'd be able to juggle a good mix. I have ten or more instrumental CDs - piano, violin and chinese instrumental. I have several classicals too, gospel music, new age music, oldies. I have ABBA, Celine Dion, West Life, Air Supply, Michael Learns to Rock, Mariah Carey, Charlotte Church, christmas carols, hymns, Scorpion, malay songs, japanese songs, tagalog songs, dusun songs, Debbie Gibson to mention several.
Speaking of japanese songs, I got a new CD today. It's a group called Begin. If you enjoy easy listening, you'll like this one.
ok I had better post this one before the pizza arrives.
Have a good day to all my friends.
]]>I met so many interesting strangers today.
]]> Umeta-san and I had another of our english-japanese lessons. So I made myThe second stranger materialised as I was going down the stairs to catch the
train to Meidaimae from Shinsen. We chatted a little and she asked if I'm a
student which I replied no. I was telling her about my work and I ran out
of japanese, so had to tell her nihongowa choto mada wakarimasen. Then she
said egogawakarimasuka? and when I replied wakarimashita, we continued the
conversation in english. She speaks english very well for a japanese. She
showed the violin she was carrying. She said that she'd just finished
performing violin in a meeting. She said she is a violinist by proffession
and that she gives violin lessons at her apartment. Just before she got off
at Shimokitazawa, she gave me her business card and I gave her my email, so
we'll see. I have a feeling that something interesting is going to come out
of this.
The third stranger helped me find the right platform at Meidaimae. I think
he is a european. I don't think I look too foreign, but the english
conversation on the train gave me away. Anyway, he was another kind
stranger, though I'd call him a kind, cold stranger.
Well, I have another reason to be proud of myself. I switched to the right
train without having to ask someone. The kindly cold stranger left me on
the platform as his train was already there. I listened well to the
announcements on the platform and got on to the right train. You know, it's
not always easy to listen to the japanese announcements. Usually, I am
almost sure that I heard correctly, but felt the need to confirm it with
people just in case I don't end up taking the wrong one, but I did it today,
by myself.
The fourth stranger was a deceiving stranger. I was walking home from the
train station and maybe I was thinking of the day's events that I didn't pay
attention to where I was going. I guess she meant no harm. At one
crossing, I almost collided with her bike and she pointed me to the wrong
turning and thinking I was still on the right track I kept walking till I
noticed I was on unfamiliar territory. So I turned back but I was totally
disoriented by then.
After a few minutes of fruitless attempts to get back to my original route,
some high school students approached and asked where I wanted to go. So I
said I wanted to go to the train station and there (4 of them) accompanied
me, but as soon as I recognised the roads, I thanked them and said I'd be
fine from there. I walked for a couple of metres and turned back. A few
minutes later, the students came back and told me the station was the other
way round. I didn't know how to tell them that the station was my landmark
so I said I'm going to a friend's house. I guess they must have thought me
strange.
So, there you have it, mostly helpful chatty strangers, but also the cold
and misleading ones. O well, another experience.
Yesterday, I decided to go for a walk. It was a little cold, but I was
feeling extremely adventurous and brave. So I walked to the train station
and on the way decided to test how useful my japanese So I went into 7-11
and asked for kantorimamu which is a kind of snack. There were some phrases
the cashier used that I couldn't understand, but the important thing was I
got to eat kantorimamu! He was so patient and helpful throughout the
transaction. I think I'll go there for some more snacks. Maybe potato
chips next time. So all the way back, I got this silly grin on my face and
I didn't care who saw it or what they thought of me because I was so proud
of myself. You'd feel the same if you are in a foreign place, with little
knowledge of the language, and blind on top of that. I'm not blowing my
trumpets, but I think I've just crossed another hurdle.