Last day of 2012, Page 366 of 366

Page 366 of 366, the end of a chapter in my book. I shall make the best of 2013, instead of wishfully expecting 2013 to be good to me. :)

It's been a busy year, yet I don't feel like I'm actually enjoying my life for this year. It seems that everything is stagnant and monotonous. Therefore, I shall try to change that in the new year with a set of goals that (hopefully) can be achievable by the end of 2013. Cheers everyone and happy holiday~

The day has come... And Happy (冬至) Winter Solstice Festival Everyone~!

So, it's finally 21/12/2012. THE DAY! As expected, all sorts of social media are being annoying (Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to name a few) and my day has passed by quite uneventfully. I shall await for the next doomsday date. Hah!

Anyways, today is 冬至. In English, it's called Winter Solstice Festival and is one of the most important festivals in the Lunar Calendar. To celebrate this festival, families usually gather together to roll glutinous balls called tang yuan. It's made of glutinous rice flour that is slightly mixed with water, which are then rolled into tiny balls and boiled in a sweet broth. My aunts boiled them in a sweet broth mixed with pandan leaves and ginger. Tang yuan can be filled or unfilled and also of any sizes, depending on personal preferences. You can also add food colouring to the tang yuan. My family made them in 5 colours: red, yellow, orange, green and brown. Somehow, I'm still not sure why, but my aunts insisted that during the first time we eat tang yuan on Dong Zhi, we have to eat it by the order of red, yellow, orange, green and lastly, brown. Then, we can eat any colours we want. I'm not sure if any other people did such practice as well. The way I see it, everyone just made tang yuan in any colours they want. I mean, I've seen people posted pictures of the tang yuan they made in blue and purple colours too.

Well, congratulations to everyone who survive doomsday, and let's try to survive the next one. Also, a very Happy 冬至 to everyone.

P.S. Pottermore's first 7 chapters of Prisoner of Azkaban has been released yesterday. I personally think there's too little moments in most of the chapters. But still, do have fun finding things. :)

Aeschylus Quoted in Robert F. Kennedy's Speech

I was reading a book Great Speeches: Words that Shaped the World by Edward Humphreys and John Boyes this afternoon. While skimming through, I found the speech that Robert F. Kennedy made on Martin Luther King's death. It's quite an inspiring speech, which talks about peace and equality. In his speech, Kennedy quoted Aeschylus.  His version:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget

falls drop by drop upon the heart,

until, in our own despair,

against our will,

comes wisdom

through the awful grace of God. 

 

 

 

Freedom at last!!!

I am now finally, truly, free from coursework and exam for the year 2012!!! A great burden has been lifted from my shoulder and now I can freely do whatever I want~! There has been so many things that I want to do that I don't even know where to start. ._.

Obviously, since 2012 is coming to an end quite soon (I'm not talking about 21/12/12), I am unable to complete those challenges I had proposed few months ago. Never mind. I intend to have a fresh start next year (yeah, I always say that). Hopefully I can catch up all those Shinhwa stuff I intend to save before their next year's comeback. And so many K-dramas to watch! Argh so much thing to do, so little time. ._.

Back to manga world

I have been going back to reading manga~ Lately, I have been reading:

1. Kitchen Princess (halted till further notice)
2. Love So Life (excellent series!)
3. Gakuen Babysitters (was on my way to find any similar manga to Love So Life when I found this little gem)
4. Koi Dano Ai Dano (don't really remember how I ended up picking up this series, but I sure don't regret it, I've read till the latest chapter, as well as latest Chinese translation and even the raws, though I don't understand a thing)
5. Arakure (read finished! Really nice manga~)
6. Hibi Chouchou (Such innocence~! Such sweetness~! Such fluffiness~! So much cuteness~! I simply can't!)
7. Warau Kanoko-sama (prequel to Koi Dano Ai Dano, it's quite okay. It does give some insight and background on how the characters came to know each other, as well as the circumstances of Kanoko)
8. Nanaco Robin (an okay series, quite entertaining! XD)
9. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (love the stoic heroine~ Though I'm actually rooting for the second male lead... Yamaken... You're kind off a douchebag yet I love you so much, you silly tsundere)
10. Horimiya (Another must read manga! Definitely not a typical shoujo manga! A cool-headed heroine and a nice & friendly male lead? *thumbs up*)
11. Various one-shots from Omari's Sister
12. Pochama Ni (You can read it from Omari's Sister. Only two chapters had been released so far, but it talks about the relationship between a chubby girl and oh-so-hot-yet-weird guy. Quite a heart-warming manga~)
13. Otomen (Hi. La. Ri. Ousssssss~ I totally cracked up at every chapters! Definitely must read!)

P.S. Obviously, Hibi Chouchou has rendered me into a blubbering, retarded, fool. Lol.

I'm still high on my manga-reading spree. Now, I'm downloading Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn. I'm also trying to find any manga that are kinda similar to Koi Dano Ai Dano and Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun. A manga that has a stoic heroine... or a heroine with a rotten personality. I also want to find manga where the male lead is a tsundere.

Hakamori Majo Bianca and some other Halloween One-Shots

Thanks to the incoming assignments and group presentations, I have officially lost my "valuable" free time to watch my movies, dramas and spazzing about Shinhwa. It's been weeks and there had been plenty of time to actually do my assignments yet the ideas are not coming out. Naturally, writer's block is anyone's worst enemy. Procrastination as well... as usual. So, I finally fully succumbed to procrastination yesterday and took some quality time to catch up on some one-shot manga from one of my favourite manga scanlation sites, Omari's Sister. Suffice to say, there has been quite a bunch of new release just in time for Halloween. And since it's related to Halloween, the one-shots that had been recently released are, naturally, somewhat gory and creepy. Especially this one one-shot: The Memoirs of a Sadist by Ogura Akane. I never really read true S & M in manga. In fact, I tend to avoid those mangas. And... I tend to be quite picky when it comes to manga. Yesterday just happens to be my one of my few supremely open-minded days.

May I warn you that The Memoirs of a Sadist is not for the faint-hearted or to those people who are extremely squimish.  This one-shot took S & M onto a whole and extreme level. I don't even think those two characters' relationship will last for long. It will come to a matter of time where the guy, Natsukawa, ended up accidentally killing the girl. Furthermore, I do pity Natsukawa a lot. He ended up being driven to this path by Sakurai, up to the point where he is unable to turn back anymore.


On to a lighter note, there is this cute and funny Halloween one-shot called Hakamori Majo Bianca by Yamazaki Aroe. The heroine is not those typical cutesy innocent girl nor those tsundere type of female leads. Bianca is this awkward, gloomy witch who is entrusted the task of a grave keeper for a prestigious grave which lies some of the most powerful sages of the Underworld, which also include Bianca's Uncle, the Great Lord Girrick. Bianca does look gloomy but I find her cute. ^^

This one-shot consists of three chapters so far, with Chapter 2 being scanlated already. I do hope this series would go on for at least few more chapters. I want to see more interaction between Girrick and Bianca. I'm totally in love with Girrick. Heh. I guess I'm just too drawn towards charismatic and confident characters. Plus, he's quite hot... for someone who is dead. Sigh, if only he really isn't her true uncle, I would totally ship Girrick and Bianca. Actually, I'm already rooting for the uncle now. Guess I never really have a liking towards beasts. *stares at Zela and Jacob from Twilight* Except the Beast in Beauty & the Beast. But then again, he does have a huge library. *swoons at the thought of the library*

Ahem. Yeah. So, I absolutely recommend you guys to read Hakamori Majo Bianca for some cute fluff in our otherwise stressful reality of life. Cheers~

Signs of being a Bibliomanic

I was finding some arguable topics in the Internet just a while ago and came across an interesting debate article: Why We Collect Stuff. As I read through the opinions posted by different authors, one author gave an example of a famous historical figure whose love for collecting went out of hand. His name is Sir Thomas Phillipps. According to Wikipedia, he was an avid book collector who had the largest collection of manuscripts in the 19th century. His severe condition of bibliomania ended up putting his family deep into debt.

While reading this article as well as various other related Wikipedia links, I paused and thoughtfully think of my own book collection. While my situation is not as severe as Sir Thomas Phillipps, I can't help but think that I do have signs of bibliomania. Whenever I entered a bookstore, there is a 95% chances of me purchasing at least one book. And I tend to visit the bookstore after my classes and just idling around to not go home early. Worst thing is, I have yet to read most of the books I purchased. Now they are just sitting prettily in my overcrowded but small bookshelves. Not to mention my seemingly overflowing bookshelves back in Brunei.

Now that I think about it, rather than being interested in reading the mass amount of books, I seem to find more pleasure in *gasp* buying and collecting books.

Let's just hope I'm being overly dramatic here. =)

Japanese Journalist Killed in Syria: My thoughts

Now, I just turned 20 years old and I'm not exactly very knowledgeable in the areas of politics and world peace. Frankly because I'm just not that interested in these topic. It irks me, for some reason. However, after stumbling upon a news of a Japanese journalist killed in Syria, I felt compelled to share my thoughts and opinion to these matters.

I was watching the news halfway and they showed this video of a Japanese lady, a journalist who is reporting in the midst of violence and shooting. I later found out that this was in Syria and the video shown was the last clip of her reporting. She was shown to give some warnings to the people nearby of armed people coming and even interviewed some civilians along the way. Somewhere in the middle of the video, she was missing and later a clip showing people carrying a body wrapped in a long, black plastic bag in the hospital. That body was her. And her name is Mika Yamamoto. For more detailed information, Click this link.

I have no idea why I was particularly intrigued by her death. It's not like she's the first ever journalist to be ever killed. I've seen and read some news of reporters and journalists that lost their lives while reporting at these dangerous countries. Perhaps it was her appearance and her gender, a lady who spoke with a polite-sounding voice and the fact that the clip was actually her few hours before the very end of her life.
In another news article, a rebel fighter said, "I hope that these countries that have not been moved by Syrian blood will be moved by the blood of their people." He's been upset by the lack of action from other countries and international bodies, so it's understandable that he uttered these words.

I guess what drawn me to this particular news was that here is a woman, who had been through and reported at least two notable wars. She wanted to report to show the world of the sufferings behind these wars and conflict that can easily be overlooked by leaders and politicians around the world. I respect her bravery, as well as other journalist and reporters that risked their lives, and some that died while on duty, to go these conflict-filled and dangerous countries for the sake of showing the world the reality and grueling truth of the suffering of the people and how severe the war is.

I really do not understand why war occur, just as most normal people do. Why would war even happen in the first place? Is it for the people? For freedom? For the nation? For the people? Yet these all came at the expense of innocent lives. What is so good about war? That the invaluable lives of people are traded? Will war ever end? Can we even prevent war from happening in the future?

It's choongjaeday :)

It's choongjaeday, a.k.a Jun Jin's birthday today. That's the chosen trending word for this year. Sadly it only trended in Singapore only, unlike SmallChilliBongDay, which trended at least both in Singapore and Malaysia.

There's this fanproject where we can send either messages (in any language), pictures or videos to a @Shinhwa_Updates in Twitter and they put all of that into a birthday video tribute. Keke, nice to see my message's not left out.

2012 Happy Birthday Junjin! My message is at 7:35 ^^. Credits goes to ShinhwaForeverSF

I actually summarized that message because I was afraid I might have got carried away and wrote a letter instead of a message. =.= So, I'll just write my full message here instead.

Park Choong Jae, you, who lived up to your other well-known name, Jun Jin.
I must admit, when I first know Shinhwa back when I was a mere 14 year old girl, I hated the sight of you.
I thought you were too cocky and arrogant. For this, I must apologize my young and immature self, for you are much, much different from my first impression.
This year, when I looked at the very first new pic of Shinhwa's comeback, I was struck by your easy smile and handsome looks. This is before I'm obsessed with Shinhwa again. As I watch more old and new videos, as well as Shinhwa Broadcast, you turned out to be someone who is quite happy-go-lucky.
Though you looked extremely handsome and manly, yet you love to do aegyo and many other weird stuff for the sake of variety and laughter.
Though your Shinhwa members tend to make fun, teased or pranked you, you take it all in without bothering much.
Your trusting and slight naive nature... Your competitiveness... There are so many sides of you which I had failed to see few years ago.

Park Choong Jae, you have been through a lot in your life... and from such a young age even.
Yet you continue to move forward, through the ups and downs.
With that frequent smile on your face, you braved on and even joked around along the way.
Just to put everyone, your loved ones, Shinhwa members, fans, at ease.
With that, I have come to respect and adore you.

On this special day, may all your wishes come true. I'm sure currently you're glued to your phone, messaging to that special someone, no? ;) Hopefully this special someone would ended up to be your loved one for the rest of your life. I look forward to hear happy news from you, you who deserved it more than anyone else.

Park Choong Jae oppa, saranghae. ^_^

Mini pic/gif spam.

All pics and gifs do not belong to me, I took them from Tumblr. Credits to the original owner~ :)

Another Pensive Mood...

Ever since I came to stay in Penang, I have been spending most of my time in front of my laptop and cooped up at home. Since I'm somewhat in a pensive mood, I shall try to recount what have I been doing, why I ended up like this and what I really want to do in my life.

I live with my relatives and almost everyday is pretty lively, with all my cousins and aunts visiting the house on an almost daily basis. They do have a close-knit relationship, even though my five aunts tend to argue with each other, especially my 2nd and 4th aunt. I'm not used to this sort of lifestyle. In Brunei, I live a quite introverted lifestyle. After school, I will stay in my room for most of the time, blasting music from my laptop, trying (but failed miserable countless times) to rearrange my stuff and tidy up my room, reading my book whenever I'm in the mood, have my nap... I did almost everything inside my room. I don't even eat dinner with my parents, we don't have that habit of eating together. Mom gets hungry easily, Dad comes home quite late from work, and me, well I may be asleep, so we usually eat separately at separate times. I do go out sometimes, hanging out with my friends, especially during Form Sixth where most of us are separated and we tried to meet up whenever someone came back from overseas. My parents and I don't go out too, like going out shopping or just travelling. I don't like that therefore I'm always the one left at home. At the time when we moved to a new house and I had my own room (like finally), I discovered there's a WiFi service at my house area and I finally have Internet in my own house, when I was 16 years old btw. So I was really fascinated by the Internet starting from there on.

I came to Penang for my degree studies. My parents, especially my Dad, seems to think it was the best possible decision for me. In Penang, it's quite an extroverted lifestyle here. Youngsters tend to went out after classes, especially college/uni students, who most of them have driver's license and their own transports. Whenever I opened my Facebook, I saw my coursemates' status or uploaded photos. They usually went out together or with their own friends, living life and having fun.

And me?

I have to look after my brother, who has epilepsy and is also really naughty. I do not have much friends too, which is why I seldom went out. My friends, have their own friends too, and boyfriends, and work, so they do not have much time for me. That's okay. I don't blame them. My only haven is my laptop, my books and Shinhwa (recently). My aunts tend to scold me about this. I know. Really. I know that this is unhealthy, that I should go out, try new things... do something, rather than rotting at home in front of my laptop.

But I think and think again, what can I do? First, there's slight language barrier, I can't speak Hokkien nor do I understand much of it. And most of the people here preferred to speak in Hokkien. I do not own my own transport, can't really go anywhere. Third, I have to look after my brother, as I had mentioned in the above paragraph. My 2nd aunt always scolded me, saying I should go out... the way she scold me is really spiteful. She's the main reason why I'm so unhappy here. Until now, I still can't seem to warm up to this place.

There are many things I really want to do now and during my 20s. I want to travel around the world, especially European countries. I want to buy a decent camera and take pics of all the scenery when I go travelling next time. I want to learn archery, learn another language, especially Korean, Japanese and French. I want to learn how to cook, I want a bookshelf where I can proudly display my vast collection of books. I wonder when I finally can take flight away from this oppression and finally be free to make decisions of my own. I do hope at least by the end of this year, I will be able to find a part-time job, make my own bank account and finally be able to buy Shinhwa albums and DVDs online. Lol.

It's SmallChilliBongDay!!!

It's SmallChilliBongDay!!! It's this year trending word in commemoration for Shinhwa Lee Min Woo's birthday. Why small chilli, you may wonder? Why, watch Shinhwa Broadcast (specifically Ep 19) and you will get your answer? XD It's a quintessential ShinChangs trolling. Haha~

I admit, few years back I never really liked Minwoo. I thought he was kinda cocky for some reason (WTF WAS I THINKING BACK THEN). Now, I love him and the rest of the members just all the same. His eye-smile are to die for. Sigh~ And he's ships himself with every Shinhwa members. King of fanservice, not to mention his dancing skills. Seriously jjang!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FOREVER OUR COOL GUY!!!

Me: Minwoo oppa-ya

???

Me: Happy Birthday~! ^ ^

^_^

Kanji b!

Thanks! :D

Me: I got a present for you! ^ ^

HOOOOOOOOOO!!! (this gif is too epic XD)

PRESENTS!!!

Me: Close your eyes~ ^^

Ok.

Me: And your ears too~

Ok. 

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?!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: YOU'VE BEEN TROLLED HAHAHA!!!

T T

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 Few days later

I'm gonna do a runway~

Me: WOOT!

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It's M Style

Me: !!!!!!!!!!!!

Stupid! =P

Me: T T

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 Ok, time to get real.

Me: KYAHHHHHHH OPPA-YA!!!!!!!! DAEBAK!!!

Psh.

That's why I'm Lee Min Woo. *charisma*

Disclaimer: Picture all credits to the original owner. I'm just borrowing these and by no means claim them as mine. :) Cheers~

There comes a time...

"There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Officially Entering Life in Twenties

It's my birthday today. Well, it's a pretty ordinary day to be honest. Bought myself three books and one bookmark as a present to myself, went to Starbucks and found out I got to redeem a free slice of cake this month, so got myself a blueberry cheesecake. I must say, it's pretty good! The blueberry jam wasn't too sour, it was just at the right taste. The cheese wasn't too concentrated and the bottom base biscuit part was not too hard. There's some slight crunch yet soft enough while eating it. It's even better than Secret Recipe's one.

This morning my dad called me and at the same time informed my 4th aunt that it's my birthday. I had no expectations from my aunts anyways since they only celebrate the Chinese birthday. On that day then they will give me red packets. So I guess my 4th aunt told my other aunts it's my birthday today because my 5th aunt called me and asked me what cake flavour I like and whether hazelnut is fine with me. I was kinda flustered and kept thinking "!!! DAD!!!" In the end she bought it anyways and then we had a really awkward mini birthday celebration for me, with three aunts and two of the cousins I'm most awkward with. Also took some pics. Gah so awkward!!! XD But then I appreciate the effort. ^^;; And the cake is pretty. Maybe I'll edit this post next time with the picture, since the pictures were taken with my 2nd aunt's Ipad.

In the afternoon I kinda got depressed actually. I was at the mall on the way to Starbucks and I kept seeing some senior citizens. It got me thinking. Due to personal reasons, I don't actually plan to get married. But then when I'm old in the future, no one will be able to take care of me. I would be slow in movement and have to use a cane to support myself while walking. Thinking about these made me really depressed. But enough about that for now!

So now, how I'm planning to spend the remaining hours of my birthday?

Why, some Shinhwa videos marathon would be lovely! Go Go Go *imitates Hyesung's voice*

"Your life is a gift from the Creator. Your gift back to the Creator is what you do with your life."

Billy Mills

The Chamber of Secrets has opened. 4 chapters to be exact. And stay tune, myHogwarts!

So Slytherin won the House Cup for the first year and they were awarded exclusive access to the first four chapters of The Chamber of Secrets in Pottermore, 24 hours earlier before it's made public. Now, it's already opened to the public and I, naturally, already explored the four chapters.

I must say, Pottermore definitely had improved. They had included mini-games in some of the moments (two to be exact). If within four chapters, we already have 2 mini games, can you imagine the possibilities of more mini-games in the remaining chapters? I shall remain positive. =)

I'm also loving the new information by J.K. Rowling. Again, she never fail to amaze me with her brilliance in making what seems like a mundane information into something really interesting. And Malfoy fans, rejoice, we have more insight and history of this family so do check it out.

On the other hand, myHogwarts is finally about to be opened to public! To be exact, it's today. But then I read somewhere in Facebook that the courses won't be implemented until further notice. I believe maybe sometime in September? Shame, that's basically what attracted me to myHogwarts anyways, the classes and assignments. At least the library remains. Gonna check it out to see how it is, but since the classroom feature won't be available until, at most, September, don't think myHogwarts gonna keep my interest for that long. Oh! But then there's book discussions... hmm, ok maybe I shall stay there longer and meet new people. ^_^

Quote of the Day: Can you really...

“Can you really give an explanation on why one person falls in love with another? Isn’t it something that just happens?”

- Noh Hee-kyung (Korean screenwriter)

Changed my blog's background, so what's next?

Ok, I had done some changes to my blog, using an orange scheme this time. Inspired by my re-newfound love for Shinhwa of course (Shinhwa's official colour is orange ^^). I'm not that fully satisfied of how my header looks so maybe I will modify that next time. Shall add more songs too to my playlist. Love the new playlist. Simplistic and function wells~

Since March, I've been bookmarking tons of Shinhwa-related stuff in Google Chrome. And I've yet to sort those bookmarks out till this day. I think I have thousands of bookmarks... -_- *shudders at the thought of tackling those*

Few months ago I also proposed a challenge to myself. Well, that's not going well too since I'm too busy with Shinhwa updates everyday. Though I must say, now that Shinhwa is back, I have more reasons to smile. Additionally, whenever I'm depressed, I would just watch any Shinhwa's video and my mood would improved~ ^^

July... SHOOT! Missed out blogging during the month of June =.=

Oh shoot! I thought I posted one post in June. Ugh, time really flies. I've been way too preoccupied by Shinhwa these past months. It's insane! I can't believe I'm back to my extreme fangirl-ism life. Ah well, I do hope Shinhwa will be the last and only group I stan. ^^

It's the month of July already. Time really flies (I wonder how many times I repeated that phrase in my blog posts lol). Within days I will finally turn 20. To be honest, I'm not really that enthusiastic about this. Firstly, I'm going to be 20 years old, a young adult, yet my character and personality are still like a child. ._. Second reason, I have no idea when my parents will finally be able to come to Penang again, it's really frustrating how they came up with so many excuses and broke promises so easily. Luckily, I'm used to it, or at least, expected such behaviours from them. Third, I'm kind of in a "hiatus" moment with my college friends (they're all either busy working or dating -.-), and we kinda promised not to celebrate each other's birthday this year (that's because we missed out one of our friends birthday). But then, they have other friends to celebrate their birthday with. And me, very sadly, only have them as my friends. My friends from Brunei (the ones that are currently studying in K.L. in particular) usually had given me false hopes that they'll be coming to Penang for holiday. Yet, in the end, there's no news or any more updates, and hence, the topic is buried and lay forgotten. I don't blame them though, honestly, stuff might have happened. But I would have preferred if they don't tell me at all if they're unsure. I rather be surprised at the unexpected rather than disappointed from expectations.

Ok, enough ranting! Since my birthday falls on a Wednesday, in which I have lecture classes in the morning, I shall spent my birthday in Starbucks with my laptop, a hot cup of coffee (maybe caramel macchiato?) and a slice of cake. As a birthday treat for myself... well, I wanted to buy books, but I have tons of books I haven't read yet. It's crazy how I carelessly spent my money on books every time I visit the bookstores! There has gotta be 20, 30, or even more books which I bought this year and had not even read! Maybe I'll just buy one expensive book then. ^^;;

P.S. I wonder if it seems very pitiful that I listed out my plans of celebrating my birthday... alone. =P

Movie Review: The Avengers

This post is long overdue. Due to my obsession with Shinhwa and countless downloading, I had been stalling to type this review. Well, without further ado, LET'S START!

It's my friend's birthday too. I don't really think she reads my blog but I'll just give her a birthday shoutout anyway. To you know I really meant about you, HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Really miss you lots~

Ok, on to my mini review. Honestly speaking, I watched this a few weeks ago so my memory of the details of the movie is quite fuzzy. I watched the trailer of this movie once and that was few months ago if I'm not mistaken. Once I saw Robert Downey Jr., immediately I'm interested in this movie (I'm a huge fan of him). Unfortunately, I totally forgot the title and did not realize the movie The Avengers IS the movie which Robert Downey Jr. starred in.

The Avengers cast include Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson (I totally didn't recognize her, although I kept having the impression of seeing her somewhere. I should seriously remember her face and not her blond hair and hot red lipstick), Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson (another good reason why I want to watch this movie too when I watched the trailer long ago).

Let's talk about the plot. So the plot of the movie is about this protagonist from an alien colony (is that the right way to describe him? ._. Excuse my ignorance, but I have no idea what the comic storyline is all about) named Loki came to Earth to seize the Tesseract, some sort of powerful energy source, and also to colonize Earth in order to prove his worth. So S.H.I.E.L.D decided to recruit The Avengers.

For me the plot was quite alright. It's a superhero movie, what much can I say about it. Gather some really extraordinary superheroes, put in a dash of conflict, some sad moments and eventually some kick-ass action and teamwork, defeat the villain, voila~ It did turn a bit heart-wrenching for me near the end, about Iron Man. I shan't spoil the scene, but I'm sure most people watched it already. Lucky it turned out to be hilarious. Dialogue-wise, well, Captain America was bordering to slight corniness but then he's the ancient one after all. Iron Man got some witty dialogues, as expected of the character played by Robert Downey Jr.~ Also the humour was quite well done.

I must say I was really sad about Phil. =( I almost cried though I controlled my tears. Sigh.

Overall it's a great movie. Though I still considered Battleship to be the best movie I watched so far, The Avengers came close second. 8.9 out of 10.

Movie Review: Lockout

Watched this last month, few days right after I watched Battleship. Yes, I was on a movie spree after my assignment.

Me and my friends chose to watch this movie quite spontaneously. We had no idea what this movie is all about yet we were desperate to watch a movie so we opted for this. Didn't realize it's a sci-fi movie.

Anyways, I'm not gonna make a thorough review on this movie. Mainly because it's kinda forgettable to me. The plot is not really that brilliant. The script, the dialogue and many parts of the movie are pretty predictable. For instance, when the President's daughter was hiding beneath the table, I just knew that psycho prisoner would suddenly appear, combined with shocking BGM. Which was why I wisely lowered my head, knowing what will about to come. Another typical scene is during the ending where the real culprit is finally revealed. I'm not gonna spoil on how the scene went, but let's just say, if you have a good eye and noticed the discreet but quite obvious hints, you'll know who is really the bad guy. Honestly though, I think the audience would be able to figure it out halfway through the movie anyway.

Another scene which I most certainly must complain about is when the two main characters fell from the err... prison? They were dropping at an accelerating rate, which, in reality, would have burned these two to death since they fell from the frigging outer space onto Earth. YET!!! They arrived on Earth really fast!!!! And they conveniently fell onto one random road of the United States of America, where the authorities were all already there waiting. This is just my major complaint. The rest of the movie was ok. Some of Snow's (the main character played by Guy Pearce) comments were pretty smart and funny. I love sarcasm.

I would rate this movie a 5 out of 10. Not a movie I really liked, compared to Battleship, but not something I hate as well. It was just ok. Nothing special.

Movie Review: Battleship

Assignments has been sucking the life out of me... but now that I finally submitted my assignments, IT'S FREEDOM!!! To celebrate this beautiful day, I went to watch movie, Battleship.

I wasn't even aware what this movie was all about. My friends really wanted to watch this so I just went with their decisions. By this time, I pretty much don't care whatever movie I watch (it's seriously been a long time). Due to some tardiness and tiny problem, we missed the first few minutes of the movie.

Two words to describe this movie: EPICLY AWESOME!!! XD

I shall gather my thoughts and feelings right from the beginning till the end. So, first we are shown to the Hopper brothers, where the main character, Alex, is shown to be a pretty hopeless fool. I mean, he tried to impress a girl by breaking into a convenience store, tasered by the police and crawled all the way towards the girl, just for a chicken burrito. Gotta say though, he succeeded impressing the girl because fast forward to few years later, he's with the girl, fretting on how to ask her father for her hand in marriage. He was also in the navy, though still somewhat a fool. He gets too easily offended, where he tends to follow his feelings rather than logical reasons.

And then, there's the scene where the aliens finally arrived, killing and destroying many people and infrastructures they deemed threatening. I thought we would never ever see the aliens' looks until the very end. Well, it wasn't that much of a big deal, apparently, when they uncover how it looked like. The only significance is their eyes, which can't take in too much sunlight. That's why they wore those helmets which acted as some sort of super sunglasses.

I actually thought the fight scenes between the alien ships and the navy ships were pretty awesome. Sound effects were effectively used and put, CG was quite okay too. The dialogue they have in the movie was somewhat funny, especially when it concerns about Hopper. There's not much character development, the only character development we had was when Hopper's brother, Stone, died and Alex became the captain of one of the ships. He was reckless at first, ordering his crew to shoot at the alien ship without considering the consequences. The other surviving navy ship was the Japanese, headed by Captain Nagata, was hit by the alien ship and after being shouted by one of his crew members that there are survivors in the water, Alex finally came to his senses and instead, ordered his crew members to save the survivors. It had been said by several key people that Alex has the potential, but he tends to waste it. After he calmed down, the truth had finally sunk. He is the new captain and will be responsible for any decisions he made. I guess this can be considered as significant character development.

Actually, I was surprised to see Rihanna in this movie. I didn't know she acted in a film. ._. Guess I need to update my entertainment world news... For a rookie (I think o.O I'm not quite sure), her acting was okay.

I would rate this movie an 9 out of 10. It's an awesome movie! :D

Happy 14th Anniversary Shinhwa!

Today is Shinhwa's 14th Anniversary!!! Though I'm only a fan for several years (and only recently I became supreme-fangirl mode on them again), I could confidently say that I would be their fan for life. Their bond, their friendship, their talent and their frankness had attracted me and there's no way for me to get out of it. They are much older than me (11-13 years age gap) but I don't care, I've always like older men. XD

Today is also their concert in Seoul, celebrating their comeback and their 10th album. I was following the updates in Twitter throughout the whole time the concert was held, since there's fans updating with pictures and reporting live, so that's good enough for me. I really hope by the time their concert DVD is released, I already own a credit card and could just purchase online. TT_TT Even now, I'm regretting not bringing one of their concert DVD I left in Brunei to Penang, and only God knows when I would be able to go back to Brunei. -_-

CREDIT: AbsolutShinhwa.wordpress.com

[CREDIT: MNet Special Shinhwa Page + Shinbiz.com/forums (infiniti512) + Soompi Shinhwa Thread (kpopchild)]

*Faints from hotness overload*

Album Review: Shinhwa - The Return

I never wrote an album review because I don't tend to listen the whole album at the same day. However, today is actually the day Shinhwa's 10th album, The Return, is released online and I'm really excited that I actually waited till 12 a.m. Korean time (which will be 11 p.m. in Malaysia) just to go to the Korean music sites and listen to the 1 minute preview (I was unable to purchase the songs because I don't own any credit card, damn! TT_TT). I really want to support Shinhwa on their comeback but I really had no choice but to download the album illegally. Ugh, once I have a credit card, the first thing that I would buy from online would be Shinhwa's albums and DVD concerts.

However, I have been straying from my original purpose of this post, and without further ado, I shall start with my whimsical review of each song in the album. :) Be warned, I'm not exactly really familiar with all those musical and song-related terms so bear with me.

1. On the Road
What a fitting song to kick start the album! It's a faster paced type of slow song. Love the acoustic touch of the song. Looking at the translation, it's definitely quite sentimental (On the Road translation). It's almost  as if this is their welcoming song, welcoming all the members and the fans, now that they're back together, they and the fans would continue on the journey to the future~ The more I listened to this song, the more I like it.
Rating: 4.5/5

2. Hurts
Shinhwa's ballad title song. It's such a pleasant surprise that they have two title songs in which both differ from each other in genre. It's great that Shinhwa is trying to showcase their wide range of musicality (is that even a coherent sentence?). Here is the link to the translation: Hurts translation. Ballad is Hyesung's specialty but this song actually focused more on other members' parts, which is good. As much as I love Hyesung, other members deserve more parts too. This ballad is much more depressing compared to the other slow songs in this album. The slow rap part adds quite a nice touch to this song.
Rating: 4/5

3. Venus
Shinhwa's title song, electronic and autotuned. I was so worried when I first knew that it's gonna be electronic type of song. Thanks to the "weeds" that kept sprouting in the K-Pop scene, where all the "weeds" sang overtly autotuned songs, I was pretty turned off by K-Pop already. However, thankfully, Venus did not have any abuse of autotune, in fact, it was moderately done and the members' voices are still distinguishable. Not exactly my favourite title song from them (it lacked the brilliance that Brand New has), but compared to other autotuned title songs being thrown around in the current music scene, Venus pawns. I'm sure once the music video is released (next week), I'm gonna like this song even more. (Venus translation) I can't wait to see how was the dance choreography of this song looks like.
Rating: 4/5

4. Red Carpet
Another electronic and really modern song, perfect for clubbing, and much much more sexier and hot. Don't believe me? Look at the lyrics - Red Carpet translation. I'm really loving the rap part of this song.
Rating: 4/5

5. Move with Me
Loving the beat and groove of this song! This song is reminiscent of the 90s type of songs and many people commented that it seems like M's type of music, which I agreed. The beat, their voice and the rap are just so smooth and I can't help move my body along the song. (Move with Me translation)
Rating: 4.5/5

6. Let It Go
Another one of my favourite songs in the album. The piano adds a lovely touch to the majority of the song and the chorus is absolutely vocally brilliant. I love the part where they go "let it go, oh oh oh oh, let it go, oh oh oh oh oh, let it go, oh oh oh oh, baby let it go (I just can't go on)". My ultimate favourite part of the song. I must say Hyesung sounds awesome in this song. But then, he always does. (Let It Go translation)
Rating: 4.5/5

7. Stay
An upbeat and cheerful song~ Yet the lyrics doesn't seem to be that cheerful (Stay translation). I don't know why, I felt that this song sounds more like a remix rather than an original song, not to say that it's bad though. It doesn't sound like a song to be taken that seriously, rather it's more for fun.
Rating: 4/5

8. Welcome
I'm only neutral towards this song. My least favourite fast song of the album. The good thing about this song is, again, the rap part.
Rating: 4/5

9. Be My Love
The very first song that caught my attention while listening to the 1 minute preview in Korean music site. Until now, it's one of the higher ranked song from the album in my personal list. Disco type of song, the lyrics is just so sweet and cute at the same time, on the verge of being corny and cheesy (Be My Love translation). But I don't mind cheesiness. XD From this song, Andy's rap really had improved. I'm hoping they would perform this song or have some sort of dance.
Rating: 4.8/5

10. Re-Love
Another one of my favourite songs. Love the tempo and the members' voices here, especially Dongwan and Minwoo's voices. (Re-Love translation) This song is more like a typical boyband slow song.
Rating: 4.5/5

11. Breathin'
It seems like a fitting song to be the end. The tempo and melody seem to convey that everything would be alright in the end. There's something reassuring about this song. If that even make any sense. Here's the translation: Breathin'. Excellent harmonies, vocal, rap, melody, background music and every possible musical terms that are used for description.
Rating: 4/5

OVERALL, an excellent album~! It is highly recommended that you listen in the order that it was presented in the tracklist. It's easy to tell that Shinhwa put every ounce of effort in producing this album. Sorry for my lack of in-depth analysis of the song. :P Truth to be told, this review seems more like spazzing rather than a true review.

Countdown till Shinhwa's Comeback March 2012

Shinhwa is currently the longest-running boyband group in Korea, currently in their 14th year. In fact, this month is their 14th anniversary, in which their highly anticipated 10th album would be released, as well as concert tours.

Ain't this a lovely picture of them? :)

I first really noticed Shinhwa in Battle Shinhwa (I admit, my sentence structure kinda sucks). I had known them but was never interested. After watching Battle Shinhwa, which my friends forced me to watch, I was charmed by Andy. Then I bought their albums (sadly, pirated) and listened to most of their songs and I became a fan. =D I've only been crazy crazy about them for a short period of time, unlike DBSK, SS501 and 2PM (though I no longer am a fan of 2PM), I was usually a mild fan of Shinhwa, just listening to their songs.

However, thanks to the countless disappointments I experienced by the other groups that I had mentioned above, not to mention that it's been so long since we've last seen all 6 members together (since they're enlisted in the army at different times) and so much hype around their upcoming comeback, naturally, I read most of their news, and then I watched some of their old videos in Youtube, then listened to some of their songs, and then *BANG*, I'M A SHINHWA FANATIC AGAIN!!! XD I'm still not done watching their videos in Youtube, though I'm trying to restrain myself, all thanks to my assignment which I had not touched at all (-_-).

They also set up their own company, Shinhwa Company (so cool!!! XD), and is currently (well, starting from today actually), their own show, Shinhwa Show. They're also actively participating in shows and interviews to promote their comeback. Naturally, I'm super super excited.

Apparently, their title song from the new album is "Venus" and their concept is sexy and hot modern vampire. Oooh la la~ I've seen stills from their mv and looking good. I swear these guys don't age. :)

P.S. I wonder if the members had girlfriends at the moment, or someone they're interested in. Rather than being jealous and possessive about them having girlfriends, I've been thinking that they should seriously settle down and find someone special~ :P They seem to be good father-material anyway.

Starbucks drinks that I've drank

Recently, I've been frequenting to Starbucks to do my assignments or hold meetings with my group members. I'm not really a big fan of coffee but seeing so many coffee lovers here in Penang, and the fact that there was no Starbucks in Brunei, I just had to try Starbucks (being an international brand and all that) and also trained to acquire a taste in coffee. So far, I had tried:

1. Iced Caffe Mocha - This was the first drink that I ever ordered from Starbucks. For a non-coffee drinker like me, the slight bitter taste of the coffee was too much for me to bear, but eventually, I was ok with it. Would definitely ordered it again in the future.

2. Iced Green Tea Latte - My ultimate favourite Starbucks drink! I was checking out the reviews of this drink online and most of the reviews were negative. So I guess this is based on personal preferences. It's a bit too sweet but I still love it all the same~

3. Hot Green Tea Latte - Disgusting. I would never order it hot ever again. -_-

4. Hot Caramel Macchiato - Yummy! I was quite hesitant to order it because of the caramel. I'm not the biggest fan of caramel, but then my friends had recommended this drink so I thought, I should just try it. Well, it was really yummy! The caramel was not too overpowering and sweet, it actually complemented the drinks really well! Definitely going to order this drink on my next trip to Starbucks.

So far, these were the only drinks I ordered from Starbucks. I'm planning to try most of the drinks in the menu, especially Java Chip Frappucino. But for now, my favourite drinks are Green Tea Latte and Caramel Macchiato~

All the images in this post were from Google Image.

2012 CHALLENGE 1: I want to read 10 books this year!

I had been procrastinating way too long. It's time for me to get more organized and gain control of my ever-spiraling life! I shall call this the great 2012 CHALLENGE!!! I shall make a series of challenges with their own themes and I shall review on my progress and result once completed. My first challenge is dedicated to my hobby: reading.

I have been buying too many books yet I never really had the time to sit back, relax and read. I have given myself too many excuses, like I'm too tired, assignments, research, chores, back-pain (o.O)... Well, GOODBYE EXCUSES IT'S TIME TO FACE ON THE CHALLENGE!!!

For the very first time since I made my Shelfari account, I just realized that we're able to set a reading goal. LOL! Epic fail for just realizing this now. I've set my goal to read 10 books this year. Considering the fact that I'm a degree student now, and assignments and presentations predominantly ruled my life, I dare not set a higher target. I may amend my goal if I've completed it.

I'm planning to make few others challenges but not too many, maybe just two or three more.

Till then!

The smell of rain~

I just love the smell of rain~ Don't you think that the smell of rain, especially after it rained on the pavements of a hot day is absolutely exquisite? Today, I found out that there's actually a term for it!

petrichor (PET-ri-kuhr) - the scent of the dry earth or pavement after a rain.

J.K. Rowling new book and latest tweet

As all Potterheads already know, J.K. Rowling has recently announced that she will be releasing a new adult-genre book later this year. To say I'm super excited is such an understatement. I'M BEYOND ECSTATIC!!!

J. K. Rowling actually has a Twitter, though she rarely tweeted. In fact, her last tweet was about pen and paper being her foremost priority therefore she won't be tweeting much. Come to think about it, most of her tweets were about pen and paper being her priority. Anyway, about one day (I think) after news of her new book broke out, she finally tweeted, "As you may have heard, I have a new book out later this year. Very different to Harry, although I've enjoyed writing it every bit as much." (J. K. Rowling's Twitter)

To prove that she's moving on from Harry Potter, her official website, www.jkrowling.com, is "currently being refreshed and redesigned, and will be relaunched later this Spring."

Fans interested for latest update could subscribe for further announcement.

The overwhelming and uncontrollable addiction of non-stop purchasing of books

"The overwhelming and uncontrollable addiction of non-stop purchasing of books" is an extremely rare type of addiction where symptoms include excessive urge of purchasing books at the sight of it, without even finish reading any of the books that the addict had bought in the past. There had been severe symptoms where when anyone tried to stop the addict from purchasing more books, the addict would then start to scream and verbally attacked people that tried to stop them. Fortunately, most of the reported cases showed that it's a mild disorder which could be easily cured under the watchful eyes of selected psychiatrist, therapy, breathing exercises and meditation.

P.S. This post is entirely fictional and by no means were there such disorder exist. Nevertheless, if you really do, or suspected that you might have this disorder, I would wish you good luck in curing your disorder.

Movie Review: The Wedding Diary (结婚那件事)

Another movie review! I've been doing a lot of that these past few weeks. o.O Anyways, today's movie is The Wedding Diary starring Penangite Ah Niu and many other Malaysian, Singaporean and Hong Kong actors and actresses such as Elanne Kwong, Kara Hui (love her!), Zhu Hou Ren, Marcus Chin, Chris Tong, Shaun Chen and Maggie Theng.

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This movie is about Ah Niu's character, Wei Jie (蔡伟杰), and his never-ending budget crisis on planning the best wedding ever for his bride, Elanne Kwong's character, Zhi Xin (芷欣). Wei Jie comes from a poor Hokkien lower class family in Penang whereas his bride is a rich daughter to a wealthy Cantonese Singaporean family. Obviously, these two families would clash at some points. Not only that, Wei Jie and his father's relationship had some strain, so does Zhi Xin and her mother, where Zhi Xin always felt that her mother had been very cold towards her father, Colin Chong. (There had been some jokes on the names of the fathers, really funny XD). So pretty much the entire movie was centered around over-budgeting, social class, pride and relationship, both romantically and familial love. Not only does this movie contained much humourous scenes, but also touching scenes such as the one between Wei Jie and his father. I almost cried on that scene but I tried not to. The girl beside me cried though. The next scene was even more hilarious, when Wei Jie visited his father and saw the blanket draped over the body and he began to cry out anguishly. Immediately, the "body" turned out to be an Indian guy who was pissed off at Wei Jie for making too much noise and disturbing his sleep. Damn that was sooooo funny!!! XD

Overall, this was a nice romantic comedy movie, highly recommended. 8 out of 10!

P.S. Most of the scenes shot in Penang, especially the ones shot in Georgetown, are quite near to my house and my college! It's a wonder why I didn't saw the cast shooting nearby.

Viz Media took down MangaStream's Scanlation

As many avid JUMP series manga fans may have known already, MangaStream recently made an announcement that they will immediately cease scanlating Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and some other prominent shounen series, thanks to Viz Media. For more information, go to this link: VIZ Media Licensed Series Dropped. I find one sentence that really pawned, "So long as their product continues to be slow, awkward and inferior to something a ragtag group of nobodies can churn out in a few hours - fans will continue to look to scanlation groups and aggregators for their weekly fix.". OWNAGE! XD

That sentence had much truth in it. Considering that the Big Three were some of the mangas that were forced to be dropped, and with Viz sluggish translation and release, combined with the power and high demand of the fandom around the entire world, sooner or later someone would start getting the raws and get together with a group of translators and what the you know, a new scanlation group is born.

Viz Media could have made some sort of negotiation with MangaStream, instead of just blindly shutting them down. At the current time, MangaStream scanlation had been pretty decent, not to mention very fast. And, most importantly, they actually deleted the past chapters, leaving only few of the recent chapters to encourage readers to support the mangaka and buy the manga instead. So, in a way, they are kinda helping the manga industry and should be respected for their decision on deleting old chapters of the manga. Unfortunately, Viz could not see any of their effort. Pity. A partnership of some sort would have been very beneficial to both parties. Oh well, I wonder who is going to scanlate the new chapters from now.

List of books that I've recently purchased

I've bought a couple of books the past week after acquiring my RM 200 book vouchers. I am fully aware that the book vouchers were supposed to be used for textbooks and stationery, you know, stuff that are related to your studies. However, my college and most of the lecturers there discouraged the students to buy textbooks (too expensive, besides what would be the use of our library if every students owned textbooks) and I had sufficient amount of pens and other stationery that could last me for a couple of years since in my course, we don't really need to copy much notes. I'm not sure whether my lecturers wanted us to buy files for our assignment (since my semester had just started like, only few days ago and the assignment questions had not been released by the university in U.K.). Even if there is a requirement for files, I would think it may be too late as the vouchers expired on 31st March. I thought of buying a huge stack of papers since we had to print stupid load amount of notes (why can't we just read from our laptops, why else would they sent us the notes) not to mention lotsa assignment coming up soon. My house still had some supply of white papers but the thing is they're not that white anymore (-_-) and all of our assignments are going to be sent to my course's university in U.K. for moderation. So I'm just gonna use my remaining voucher to buy some useful things then.

Anyway, so I've bought some books, using both my own money as well as RM 150 worth of book vouchers, at Popular, Komtar branch. So many people were using their vouchers too, the college and university students.

- 河两岸 by 许友彬

- The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

- To the Moon and Back by Jill Mansell

- Septimus Heap: Darke by Angie Sage

- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

- Girl in the Cellar The Natascha Kampusch Story by Allan Hall and Michael Leidig

- What's New, Pussycat? by Alexandra Potter

I haven't read any of these books yet as I'm still reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I may paused The Lost Symbol and start any one of these books. There was one book that caught my attention, a Chinese book about this author visiting various bookstores around the world. I assumed it's about her experience and the people she encountered. Really pretty book and expensive too, RM 68. I'm still thinking whether I should buy. I'm also considering buying 那些年，我们一起追的女孩 if it's a Simplified Chinese version. I didn't get to watch the movie with my friends (I had to look after my brother in the morning) but my friends loved it and judging by the public response, it's really good. Another book that caught my interest was Perfect by Ellen Hopkins. Actually, it was the cover that attracted me, it seemed like it's going to be a depressing story. I'm still searching for the book that I'm super interested to read, which was The Boy from Baby House 10 by Alan Philps and John Lahutsky. I've read an article about the boy and his story really intrigued me. With all the depressing incidents that happened, he managed to stay positive and get a happy ending in the end. Sadly, I only get to go to Popular and not Borders nor MPH, which are both too far from my house. Well, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that I would be able to find that book in Popular.

This is what I did when I was super bored in the past...

All of these images had been coloured by me in GIMP.