Mandy's World

2010 Meme

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 08:15:36 GMT

I saw this on kawaiisyaoran 's journal, and I was going to post into the actual page tsutomu.livejournal.com/674453.html but I felt that it would get lost and I don't know if I'd ever find it. So here's a letter to myself (duplicate copy), which will still probably get lost. But nevertheless, I'll find it one day.

Dear future self,

How are you? You've just completed your first year of university. How was it? Are you enjoying the degrees as much as I enjoyed the subjects when I was in college? Or are you going to change your degrees now? No matter.

I hope that you come out of 2010 with the smile on your face that you always have, and not filled with problems like university and boys (sigh) and work. Speaking of work, I wonder if you're still working at the pharmacy. I'm still enjoying it, but tell me if that changes, okay?

I hope that you manage to fulfill your short-term goal of getting your butt over to the US to visit Momo and go to the convention with her. $5000 remember? That's all you need. Haha, that's more talking to myself now, rather than my future self.

By the time you read this and respond to this again, you'll either be 19 or going on 19 very quickly. How was being 18? Did you go clubbing at any time? If so, did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it to future Mandys?

Well, I hope you enjoyed 2010, and I'll be there with you as a memory of past times in college, where we decorated the walls in the quad with apple stickers in the shape of a tree and got really stressed out by IB.

Love you

umamandy

Looking forward to Wednesday

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:44:01 GMT

For various reasons:

1. My last exam of the year
2. Brawling with Shazzle afterwards
3. Gonna go to the Wednesday cadets and visit friends
4. Getting my work uniform (though, technically I could get it today)
5. Kobato comes out
6. (related to 5) Ginsei Ginsei Ginsei~~~ <3
7. Kimi Todo also comes out.
8. (related to 6 and 7) Two episodes of Namikawa Daisuke~~

I reckon... Wednesday calls for a Goodberry's celebration.

Movie Review: 5 Centimeters Per Second - a chain of short stories about their distance

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:08:03 GMT

I decided it'd be worthwhile to take a break today from study and pick it up tomorrow, so I watched the first movie I found on animecrazy.net. Turned out to be 5 Centimeters Per Second, which is a movie I had heard about briefly. It's by Shinkai Makoto, who directed The Place Promised in Our Early Days, which I've seen in stores.

The story is split into three episodes. The first tells of the childhood romance a boy called Takaki and a girl called Akari had. But when Akari's parents move away from Tokyo, they spend a year writing letters to each other before Takaki takes a series of trains to meet her. But because of the snow, the trains are delayed and he doesn't end up meeting her until 4 hours after the promised time. Nevertheless, they kiss under the sakura tree and spend the night sleeping side by side in a shack (they're 13, nothing icky will happen)

The second episode takes place when Takaki is in high school. A girl called Kanae likes him for his kindness, but his longing for Akari makes him grow distant. He starts to have dreams where he is standing with a girl looking over at a planet moving. Finally he realises this girl is Akari. The day Kanae decides to confess she likes him is the day where she realises that he never really looked at her as anything more than a friend and he has big hopes and dreams, and so she gives up.

The last episode takes place in 2008, when everyone has already grown up. Akari is engaged to someone, and Takaki is still thinking about her and dreaming about her. One night, provoked by finding the letter she wanted to give Takaki 10 years ago, Akari has the same dream as Takaki, of when he came to see her that snowy night. When Akari goes to Tokyo to presumably visit her fiance, she walks past Takaki just as the barriers for the train lower. Takaki notices this and waits for the trains to pass to see if it was her, but when the trains go, the woman had left. He smiles and walks away.

I won't say I cried, because I didn't. But it was sad. One part of me really sympathised with Takaki, but probably the reason why I didn't cry was because the other part of me wanted to slap him and say 'it's been 10 years, honey, move on.' Thing is, though, that was the point of the story; the fact that this man could not move on and that made him an emotionally cold person. I don't think Kanae moved on either, which is really sad because if he had actually looked at her and realised she liked him, maybe the two of them would have been happy =(

The art was amazing. Seriously. It was beautiful and had heaps of detail. And... that's all I have to say on that front.

I really can't think of any downsides to it other than 'it wasn't happy,' which is to be expected since it's not a happy story.

I reckon an 8/10 and chocolate cake.

Less than a week

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:52:31 GMT

6 days till IB exams start. O_o... actually I'm a lot less stressed than everyone else is, and I'm less stressed than I was last week. I think I was just dying from being surrounded by ~~douches~~ people who didn't understand that I wanted to study. Now that I'm on study vacation, I'm surrounded by my fellow IBers who understand that I need to study, so if they don't, they have the maturity to not bother me (unlike a person I mentioned in my previous post)

Also, I feel like I know ... maybe not everything, but enough, so I'm calmer.

Still, 6 days is still less than a week

Movie Review: Up

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:23:51 GMT

So, went to see Disney Pixar's Up the other day with a couple of friends. It was a nice little gettogether with people I've seen maybe 5 times since we graduated high school. Hm... back onto the movie itself. To be honest, I don't know what to think about the movie. It was really good, but somehow, I walked out of the theatre feeling like something was missing. Maybe I just had overly high expectations (it got 5 stars in the newspaper, so I probably did) but it was a little disappointing.

The story's about Mr Frederickson, an old widower who wants to fulfil his and his wife's dream of going to Paradise Falls in South America, where their childhood hero had run off to. Unfortunately, life kept getting in the way, and after his wife died, he grew into an irritable old man. But after he is told he has to move into an old people's home because he's a 'menace to society' he decides to fulfil the dream by lifting his house up with ... apparently it was 62 000 or something... helium balloons. He's well on his way, when he realises that he's accidentally picked up a traveller from his porch: a boy scout called Russell. They go through a storm in the air, and end up lost, but funnily enough, at Paradise Falls. Problem? They're on the wrong side to where Mr Frederickson wants to lay his house. The helium's running out, and so they have to walk a floating house across the cliff face to the other side.

While walking, they meet a dog who can talk (Doug) as well as a multicoloured bird who likes Russell's chocolate (Kevin, despite being a girl). However, they also meet someone they did not expect: Mr Frederickson's childhood hero Mr Munz (I think that was his name). It turns out, Munz has spent his whole life here with his dogs trying to find the bird for whose skeleton he was called a fake. And when Russell points out that the skeleton looks like Kevin, Munz thinks that Mr Frederickson's story about wanting to move his house down to the falls for retirement is a cover-up to find the bird and win credit for the discovery, so Munz decides to get rid of Mr Frederickson. Kevin saves them, but ends up getting caught in the process, so everyone decides to help save Kevin because her chicks are waiting for her. They do save her (after a battle on a blimp) and Munz falls off his blimp to his death. Mr Frederickson thinks its time to go home, but before his downfall, Munz shot the balloons, popping enough of them so that the house can't fly anymore. So the heros leave Kevin behind, and fly back to the States and Mr Frederickson's house lands exactly where he's always dreamed of.

On to comments. It was fun watching this in 3D, but wearing 3D glasses over normal ones is a bit taxing on my button of a nose. Um... everything stylistically was great, voices, animation, music. They all fit beautifully. And the consistent 'squirrel' joke was great. I guess maybe the thing that didn't click was the storyline. For one, it felt really obvious (like, I knew from the opening scene when you see Munz's shame story that he'd be there at Paradise Falls). I just sincerely felt the lack of originality in the plot. I mean, I grew up with Pixar turning something really strange and not-really-movie-worthy into something amazing (like Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo) and seeing this was like a step backward. In a way, it feels like they spent too much time working on the 3D animation than on the plot.

For another thing, when Carl (Mr Frederickson) and Ellie were... what? 8 or something? Munz was like late twenties early thirties. So why is it that he looks YOUNGER than sixty-seventy year old Mr Frederickson when they get there? Wouldn't he be like 90 or something?!

So, wrapping up, Up's a decent movie, but definitely not the quality of what I've seen of other Pixar movies. It just didn't have the impact that some of their other movies did (my sister apparently cried in it. where and how?). I'm giving it an 8/10, but more because it wasn't so bad to earn a 7 but not good enough to earn a 9. I'll just meet halfway. It gets a cake rating from me.

Trivia Nights and memes

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:14:35 GMT

So, I reckon I'll hit a double whammy (did I just say that?) and talk about last night and do the meme that Momo sent me.

Last night was our school's trivia night. At the last minute (like seriously, yesterday lunch time) the IBers organised a table and decided to go. It was technically an 80s themed night, but because we organised at the last minute, we just went in normal clothes.

So, it started off with.. me waiting for ages for the next person to come... and then when he did come we ended up waiting for even longer for everyone else. Lolfail. But eventually everyone showed up. There were 8 rounds, including questions about the school, questions from random faculties (it saddened me that we got the maths question wrong), questions about our city, questions about music, spelling questions, and well, generally trivia questions. I have to say, I failed the music bit (because my music list is barely in English) but the one song I did know the singers properly was the one song no one else knew. Thanks to my mummy and daddy raising me on The Seekers XD

We ended the night with a dance-off, which we came equal first, but they gave the prize to another team >( Our dance was like choreographed and everything. Grr... Though, we were pretty sexy. (hey, we were thrusting at the audience)

There were also quite a few 'who am I' competitions which no one knew the answer to, and heads or tails. There was also a 'sit down if this applies to you' game which the first criterion was 'sit down if you chase pigeons'... everyone stared at me when I sat down and I was like 'well it's me, what do you expect' which resulted in several nods and 'good point's XD

Well, we were winning the entire time and ended up winning the night by enough points that we didn't need the bribe (we tried to bribe them with $20 when a team got 0.5 of a point ahead of us... they didn't accept the bribe and we just said take it was a donation *wink wink*)

So, onto Momo's meme. Comment 'you should be studying, Mandy' on this page and I'll respond with (well of course some conversation) and 5 questions I've been curious about you. (that sounds grammatically incorrect, but hey) You post the question on your own journal and pass it on.

Momo's questions:
1. How did you get into Cardcaptor Sakura?
Originally it was Cardcaptors (I know, shock horror) in year 4. And my sisters and I got really into it and tried to find episode summaries. We ended up finding summaries to Cardcaptor Sakura and I fell in love with it (and this Syaoran character who was lovely, but I never got to see it on Cardcaptors). I started to detach myself from Cardcaptors when I realised bits had been editted quite grossly. Then, in year 6, I found the 12th volume of CCS in a records store (which also sold manga... and then become a simple comic book store), bought it, and I've been in love ever since.

2. If you went to school one day and you saw Syaoran sitting in the back of the classroom, what would be your first reaction? (lol)
Well, the first reaction would be to doubletake because I wouldn't believe it. But then I'd probably run up and hug him and be like 'I love you I love you I know you have no idea who I am but I love you!!!!'

3. Have you ever/do you have any pets? Whooo?
Nah. No pets. I do look after my sister's cat, Roly, sometimes. But he hogs the bed XD

4. Do you like ice cream? Favorite flavor?
Why, yes. I do like ice cream. A lot. My favourite flavour... hmmm.... probably cookies and cream. It's a delicious creamy and oreo-y flavour XD And it's good, because in Australia it's coming to ice cream weather

5. How many years have you been taking Chinese?
Hm... I usually say 'since I was three' but it's more like I learnt in preschool, moved preschools and stopped learning for a year (subsquently the only words I could remember when I was 4 were '我打你的屁股' as well as the typical 妈妈、爸爸、姐姐。。。), and then retook it in primary school. So, it's a kinda rough definition between 13 and 15 years.

Well, there you go ^^

Anime Review: Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:53:31 GMT

I should have done more of these, as I spend so much of my life watching anime. (if not studying, I'm watching anime) But anyway.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is indeed talking about the lives of 3 people after an earthquake in Tokyo of magnitude 8.0 (for comparison, the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004 was started by an earthquake magnitude 9.0; ten times stronger). The main character is Mirai, a middle schooler with a very 'everything sucks' attitude towards life. Then there's her little brother, Yuuki, who's 8 and although he's always happy, he's been quite lonely for a while since his sister (who he loves more than anyone) was always studying, and his parents were fighting. The third character is Mari, a lady in her late 20s with a daughter that she's trying to get home to ( her husband died a few years back). The anime tells the story of Mirai, Yuuki and Mari trying to get back home when they become stranded at Odaiba. As they go, they see all the disaster that's been wrought by the earthquake and the different responses people have. Most importantly, there's the growth of Mirai as a character from being downright annoying and selfish in the beginning to really ... nice...? well, willing to help people in the end.

There's a lot of good things about this anime. It's not a saga but its impact is amazing (actually, I get bored of sagas pretty quickly). The voicing is perfect and the story is really well told. The producers acknowledge that the anime was based on a lot of research, so the earthquake bits are great. Though, I had to laugh when Tokyo Tower fell. It was a little 'looooooom'-ish. It probably would be in real life.

The best bit, however, is the character development. I've never actually seen an anime portray a trauma beyond screams and tears and 'please stop!!'s before, but this was so scarily realistic. It was amazingly well done, and the hints left around the place were enough to make me go 'hang on...' but not enough for me to fully realise what had happened. I'm spoiling a lot at the moment, but trust me, it's a great scene. Made me cry a lot...

Another nice thing is that Mirai, Yuuki and Mari meet characters who don't appear later on in the series with such divine purpose. I don't know, I've just seen too many anime where a girl and a guy meet whilst in some insane problem and suddenly they're perfect for each other (shoujo... geez). It's not very realistic. And yet here, there were so many characters who they told their story to and that finished it. No reoccurances, no meetings up after the earthquake. Because in real life, very few people do put the effort to do that unless they knew them from beforehand. I just liked the realism.

Probably the only thing I didn't like was Mari's mouth. As in the artwork of it. It just... was really ugly and I wanted to squish it. Maybe because I have a big mouth and I don't like the look of it. I don't like big mouths. XD Other thing was that the opening theme wasn't that great. But the end theme really reminded me of Yuuki. Just his 'we can get through this' attitude.

So, all in all, amazing anime. Seriously, one of the best I've ever seen. I reckon I need to find the next anime that's filling its spot, because the past two anime that have been in the spot have been great (Eden of the East was showing before Tokyo Magnitude 8.0) This is definitely a 10/10 for me and well duh it's chocolate cake.

Movie Review: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:33:21 GMT

The other day, my friend and I went to see Ponyo as a 'congratulations on finishing your last exam of the session' treat. We had to go see it in English (I'm not being racist, but I don't like watching dubs of anything. I lose a bit of the meaning when I watch it in a language other than the original... like watching The Others in Spanish... sounded really ridiculous because they couldn't pronounce some of the names and the context was lost a little)

Anyway, story. A little boy called Sosuke finds a goldfish stuck in a bottle on the shore of the cliff on which he lives. He saves the goldfish and calls her Ponyo. She's actually a magical goldfish and has a human face. They have fun playing together (even to the point where Ponyo manages to speak and say she loves Sosuke... very cutely ^^) until Ponyo's father 'kidnaps' her and takes her back to the ocean. There, we find out that he has a plan to make the world have much more water (or something, it wasn't too clear) as punishment for the humans who polluted the sea. He tries to get Ponyo to fall asleep, but she is so powerful that she manages to grow ~~human~~ chicken legs and hands, as she had previously tasted Sosuke's blood. She escapes, becoming more human as she goes, and goes to find Sosuke. With her, she brings a typhoon. (a bit complex to explain). Sosuke's mum works in an old people's home, and when the typhoon comes, she leaves Sosuke and Ponyo in charge of the house while she goes off in the night to check on the old ladies. In the morning, Ponyo and Sosuke go off to find her. They find her car empty and abandoned and worse yet, Ponyo seems to be getting really tired and turning back into a fish. Actually, because of Ponyo getting super powerful before, the world has gone out of balance and Ponyo's father is now only concerned with putting the world back in balance. So he tells Sosuke that his mother is safe (which she is) and that if Sosuke comes with him to speak with Ponyo's mum, they can save Ponyo and the world. What's the deal? Ponyo needs to become human and Sosuke has to promise to stay with her. Which he does. So happy end.

It's a really complicated story to sum up. As you probably figured. Trust Miyazaki-sensei to come up with one of those stories where every little bit matters. It's really good in terms of plot. And I liked the subtle themes of 'look after the ocean.' And Sosuke and Ponyo were two very cute characters. ^^

I will admit, the dub wasn't that bad. The voices were really good. (not like Yuki from Furuba... wtf he's not meant to sound manly. If you can't stand non-manly men, then don't dub the show) I really appreciated that they called him 'Sos-ke' rather than 'so-SU-ke.' Oh God, if anything hurts my ears, it's that. But it was really awkward that they went in and out of using the -san honorific. I mean, it's great that they wanted to stay as loyal to the Japanese as possible, but if it doesn't fit in all the time, don't use it. Talking about the 'meanings lost' thing above, one that I really noticed was Ponyo saying she loved Sosuke. In Japanese, it would make sense that she was trying to say 'Ponyo loves Sosuke' the entire time, but in English the 'love' literally came out of no where. Oh well. Can't be helped. =PSo, just summing up. It's a brilliant movie. Absolutely loved it. It's an 8.5/10 and I'll give it a chocolate cake rating! =D Can't wait to see the next Studio Ghibli film... has anyone realised how old Miyazaki-sensei is though? I think he's in his seventies now O_o

Highschool Romance Manga Template

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:49:06 GMT

I'm sure everyone who has read shoujo manga will recognise this template, but I just felt like pointing out how many highschool romance manga follow the exact same template!!!

1. Introduce girl and guy. Some circumstance makes it difficult for them to 'get together'

2. Various 'adventures' occur resulting in 'kaaa's at the end of each chapter.

3. Around 1/3-1/2 of the series in (this always marks the turning point), they get together. However, if the circumstance previously mentioned isn't still a problem, another one arises.

4. Few more little adventures, just so that life isn't just 'omg him this him that'... usually the result is that that way of talking occurs anyway XD

5. Further along in the series, the rival appears. Sometimes two! ... No I'm going to correct myself, often two. However, the male rival is usually the more forceful, stealing kisses from the girlfriend and the boyfriend just happens to see it.

6. Boyfriend gets really upset, breaks up with girlfriend. Girlfriend gets really really sad and begs to be taken back. Boy admits that he can't live without her.

7. More little adventues.

8. The problem mentioned in point 1/point 3 makes its climax.

9. The two resolve it with the power of their love and they live happily ever after.

If you're not convinced, I can think of 3 manga off the top of my head: Special A, Love Com and Marmalade Boy (and possibly Ouran and Fruits Basket, but I gave up reading Furuba because of all the angst)

Here, take a lookie.
Special A
1. Welcome Hikari and Kei to the stage. Kei has liked Hikari for 10 years, but she only sees him as a close friend a fierce rival for first place (which he always wins). Oh, note the difference in social status. Kei is the genius son of multinational corporation's director, and Hikari is the daughter of a carpenter.
2. Blah, it goes on for 40-50 chapters before anything suggestive occurs.
3. Round chapter 40, Kei confesses his love, and chapter 50 or so they start going out. Kei's super important grandpappy doesn't approve since she's a commoner
4. Blah.
5. When they start 2nd year highschool, a boy called Iori appears and he falls in love with Hikari. (gave up reading the manga around 60 just read summaries, this is chapter 70 or so so yeah) He tells her to break up with Kei.
6. Kei gets all jealous aboutthe time Hikari's spending with Iori and either breaks up with her or gets really upset. Point is, it dies.
7. Blah
8. Kei's grandpappy forces (I think, I'm sure he had a hand in it) Hikari's parents to move to some other city. Hikari needs to change schools
9. They prove their love for other, Hikari's parents move, leaving her with the house.

I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point. To be honest, I'm sick of reading this occurring each time every time. What will make me keen to keep reading even if it has these points is the comedy. If the comedy's good, it'll be worth it. Like, Love Com was funny from start to finish, so I finished it. Special A started off funny and then it just disappeared and I felt like I was reading Marmalade Boy with non-early-90s hairstyles. Marmalade Boy, when I read it again, was sap. Ouran puts a greater emphasis on the idea of 'family' and that's the other reason I really like it.

Writer's Block: Do Not Open Until 2059

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:00:22 GMT

If you were to make a time capsule today to be opened in 50 years, what would you put in it?

View 508 Answers

To be honest. Me. I'd want to see what happens in 50 years, where it's not gradual and barely noticable. XD

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:36:35 GMT

Well, what can I say about the most long-awaited movie of the year? I don't particularly know, I was enjoying myself thoroughly up until the end, when I reached a point where I was really unsatisfied. But, okay, here goes.

As everyone knows, Harry is in his sixth year at Hogwarts, with all sorts of trouble all over the place: the hunting of memories (whoops sorry, memories implies that several were shown) of Voldemort, as well as romance flipping all over the place. Meanwhile, Draco (who has actually grown to be REALLY good looking) is stuck spending his free periods staring at things in the Room of Requirement, and sending apples and birdies to his lover at Borges and Burke's XD (to the point where I inwardly started imagining a letter coming back saying "yes, the passage works. Stop sending me tokens of your love"). Eventually, Harry coerces Slughorn to give him the memory of the Horcrux method and Dumbledore and Harry set off to find it and destroy it. (see http://umamandy.deviantart.com/art/damn-128571813 for my take on it) Harry finds out it's fake after Snape kills Dumbledore in place of Draco.

Yadda yadda.

Okay, don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the movie. A lot. For one, it's about 10 times funnier than its predecessors (or however it's spelt), and the innuendos were a delightful treat for the ageing-with-the-actors audience. The actors (bar one, but I'll come to that later) are amazing and the teenagers are growing up to be really really goodlooking. I'm talking about everyone here, males and females. ^^

However, the problems that have been in all the movies have resurfaced. The obvious one is the cutting out of stuff and putting stuff in. I mean, what was the point of Bellatrix and Fenrir destroying The Burrow? It's only Harry, Ron and Hermione who go to live at Grimmauld Place.

And the other problem surfaced has been there since the third or fourth movie, but maybe it's just me (and it's not something that can be changed now) but THE ACTOR OF DUMBLEDORE IS LIKE GRUFF OLD BASTARD WHO CAN'T BE EMOTIONAL!!!! Like, in the fourth movie he pushes Harry against a wall and is like "DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET, HARRY?" when in the book, Harry's not meant to see how menacing Dumbledore is until the end of the book. Grr... in this movie, his 'scream' of 'kill me' when drinking the potion is more like a challenge then a cry of despair. For goodness sake, he's watching his brother be tortured! And I'm sure it specifies in the book that he pleads. Oi... and then when Snape is pointing the wand at Dumbledore, it's a half-hearted 'Snape. Please.' D= At least try to make it seem like you're not reading lines in a script? I read that as a complete break in his character (old man, wandless, surrounded by death eaters) and he would have been pleading for his life, but here it's a 'go ahead, kill me, please. Not like I really care anyway.' -_-

Okay, I could go on for ages about how I dislike this actor. But I shan't. Because, hey, Dumbledore's dead! Who cares anymore?! (that's seriously the emotion I felt when I was watching it, unlike in the book where I was crying)

But, take away these issues, and I did enjoy the movie. I'm giving it a cake rating, with 7/10. ^^

Randomly talking about anime and manga

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:57:41 GMT

I haven't talked about anime and manga in a while. But what can I say, there's not much out there at the moment that's really tickling my fancy (eg: the only anime I'm watching this season are the continuations from last season). And as for manga, I've read up to the most recent chapter of the manga I enjoy and then they're on hiatus or whatnot. *sigh*

But, of the anime I am watching, I'm seriously seriously enjoying Valkyria Chronicles. It's the anime that makes me go 'omigosh what's going to happen next?!' And, I'm enjoying it so much I'd actually go out and buy a PS3 just to play the game... if I had the money... or the time. Nevertheless. Fanatics of the game aren't liking it (because it's not following the game chapter for chapter), but since I've never played it, I'm enjoying it a lot. There are things I know happen in the game (like Isara's dying) but I want to see if and how the anime producers will make it happen.

Maybe I should say what it's about. Right, well, it's about a war going on in Europa over ragnite which is fuel. It's between two kingdoms, the Federation and the Empire. Caught in the crossfire is a small country called Gallia and when a village is attacked by the Empire the members of the village guard go join the militia to fight against the Empire.

That's the general gist, but obviously it focusses on a few main characters, Alicia Melchiott (a baker), Welkin Gunther (a biologist who is the son of the great General Gunther), Isara Gunther (Welkin's adopted little sister) and Faldio Landzaat (Welkin's friend from university... If I recall he's a geologist). Among other characters.

The good thing about this story is that although it's a war story and I'm not particularly used to war stories, the tactics and plans aren't so rich in jargon that if you don't already know what so-and-so means, you're lost. Frankly, the only word I had to learn was ragnite. Another thing I really like (probably the girl in me coming out XD) are the relationships. There's a Faldio -->Alicia --> Welkin love triangle going on and for the second time in my life (out of all the love triangles I've seen) I'm actually wanting the couple that won't get together to work. Ie, it's pretty implicit in the opening theme that Alicia and Welkin get together, but Faldio is so much freaking cooler!! Plus, he doesn't completely lose his head for 4 episodes when he realises his best friend likes his second-in-command.

The other couple I like is the Ramal (or Lamar or Lamal or Ramar) and Isara thing. Why? Ramal reminds me of Syaoran from CCS. (in the corner, Isara's in the cloak)
Visually he looks like Syaoran, but moreover he's got that 'I don't know why, but I want to be around this girl and I want to make her happy' thing about him. And better yet he's got the 'I-It's not like I'm worried or anything!' thing that Syaoran has during volume 4. =P But, as I spoiled earlier, there's a particular event I want to see coming up, because I want to see how the anime portrays it (or if they even show it) and more importantly how he reacts to it. *is excited*

The one downside I have with this (though it's also a good thing) is that the villain is barely appearing, because there's so much focus on character development. But oh well, they are going out and fighting nearly every episode, so it's okay.

Generally I'm giving it a chocolate cake rating and a 9/10.I was going to write about Ga Rei as well, but I think I'm just going to say that I loved it heaps as well.

well this is just peachy

Sun, 17 May 2009 03:54:46 GMT

I might need an operation on my eyelids. I've got a cyst in my right eyelid that keeps getting infected. The doctor says that since this isn't the first time I've gone to see him about it, I might need to get the cyst removed. If you even look 'cyst removal' up on google, you'll probably see why I'm so scared. And that's going to happen to my eyes.

I'm just begging that when I see the doctor in two weeks after the antibiotics finish, he says that I won't need the operation. I'm terrified though that he will say I need it.

Annoying women

Fri, 15 May 2009 21:46:36 GMT

It's amazing how a bad day can arise from two very stuckup women. This happened a few days ago, but yeah it annoyed me.

On our school's open day, we were told to take the parents and prospective students around the school. That was all good with me. Then my friend and I got our group. One of the ladies immediately says to me 'listen, I don't have much time for a tour, I want to talk to science and PE' and all the while I'm just thinking 'well if you don't have time for a tour, leave.' PE and Science are on opposite sides of the school. But I asked my friend (who's really quiet) if it was okay if we visited science first. He said it was so we went that way. When we got to science the lady was like ' where's the staffroom', so I showed her it, while showing the other people the chemistry class. I left the lady alone and stayed in the classroom. After a while, I was like 'we should get moving.'

As I was walking past the lady in the science staffroom I decided that I should see if she was coming. And then, to my EXTREME frustration, I hear her practically harrassing two of the science teachers about how her son doesn't like science but she thinks he should do it just to get into the school. And then she was like "and even though we live in the school's catchment area, I don't think we'd get in. I had to write the application for my girl's entry into [my school's feeder school] in both English and French (it's a French school) and we only just got in." First thing that pissed me off? There's no 'only just got in.' You receive a letter saying 'you are going to such-and-such a school', it doesn't say 'you only just made it into such-and-such a school.' Second thing: It is the law here that if you live in a school's catchment area, the school is required to take you if you want to go there. And I was telling her this and she just said 'yeah, so they say, but I've heard a lot of stories otherwise.' Bull. Absolute bull. Urgh.

When she finally finished talking to the science staff about something we all told her should be told to student services and also on the information night, not now, she says (paying no attention to how annoyed the three of us were) 'right, take me to PE. My son loves PE but I think he should go here.' Obviously the 'but' implied that he didn't want to come here and that he was aware that our PE department is one of the worst in our city. Thank God that the PE teacher was away, because she was getting really on my nerves. Add that to how guilty I was feeling leaving my friend by himself to tour the school.

The lady made me cart her off to maths and then history. Only by history did she seem to realise that I was really annoyed at being told to take someone on a private tour when 90% of the teachers were -shock horror- teaching and she couldn't talk to them about her son who did the Brevet but didn't like maths and blah blah. I told her this would have been better if she went to information night, not the day where you're supposed to look around and see the school. Finally, finally she said that she should leave, after finally listening when I said she should have talked to student services about enrollment.

I went looking for my friend's group, but couldn't find them so I walked over to where the organising teacher was and told her what happened. She was like 'yeah, you'll always get the really annoying mums who demand this and that for their not-so-brilliant son and when he does get in and finds out he's failing all his classes, she blames it on the school.' (we're a government school, but we always come first or second in end-of-year ranks and so we have a reputation for having a really difficult program)

The other annoying encounter occurred either that afternoon or the afternoon before.

I'm on my L plates at the moment, and I'm trying desperately to get my P's, so I'm pretty much begging dad to let me drive from school to home and around the place.

One day, dad told me we were low on oil and that we should go to the petrol station to fill it up. While there, the price at the station was 94.9 c/L with a discount, so we took the opportunity to fill up some petrol. But because the price was so low, there were tonnes of people. So I patiently parked the car in line. Both filling-up things were taken, but then the one in front left. Dad asked me if I was comfortable driving through that really really narrow area between the car in front, who was about to leave, and the edge of the station. I said no, because I was so close to the car in front.

Then, the middle-aged lady behind me drove past me and took the filling-up thing in front. I was mildly annoyed because we don't live in a city where it's necessary to be quick; like, the traffic jams here are for about 10 minutes. But I dealt with it and waited for the person in the second filling-up thing to leave and I took that one. I filled up the petrol and dad went off to pay for it. The lady came over and the following conversaton ensued:
"sorry about taking that spot. But I decided if you weren't going to take it, I would."
"don't worry, I don't mind."
"oh, but I'm not worried."
Wtf? Way to be really rude to someone who was just trying to be polite! And then she drove off. By this time, dad had just paid for the petrol and was coming back. I noticed with some gloating that the in-his-twenties man was being patient enough to wait for me to leave first.

Urgh. We discuss how bitchy the female sex can be, and I understand and accept that. What I don't get is how rude and stuck up some adults can be to kids, and then complain that kids are good-for-nothing failures.

Reasons why I don't date

Sun, 10 May 2009 02:38:54 GMT

The main reason, which emcompasses all these reasons, is that I am too similar to Madame Bovary and have read way too many things involving a partner that is so perfect he is beyond reality.

Pretty much, if someone wants to be my boyfriend he has to be better in looks, personality and general ability to make me squee than:
Obviously number 1:
And I mean, he'd have to be better than ALL the Syaorans. Not just one of CCS Syaoran, or clone Syaoran or 'Syaoran' or CCS-Syaoran-when-he's-in-Tsubasa. ALL of them!

I love Syaoran for his strength. His desire to do what he deems as right is just overwhelming. The fact that he doesn't stray from what he needs to do is really inspiring. And I love how devoted he is to Sakura. He also has awesome fighting skills, but that wasn't why I fell in love with him.

Number 2:
I wish I could find a manga pic of him, but they seem to be in relative scarcity at the moment. Yes, the guy'd have to be ten times the prince that Tamaki is.

If Tamaki existed, I'd probably be a Kyouya kind of girl for him. (almost tsundere) There are times when Tamaki's antics annoy me (eg chapter 70) but he really knows how to be sweet. And I like him when he's thinking seriously.

Number 3:
Watanuki too. (Can I also say I'm really happy that he made it onto the cover of a TRC deluxe edition?)

I guess it makes sense that I love both 'Syaoran' and Watanuki. But I love that his motto is pretty much 'to do as much as I can'. Having someone who do everything in his power to help the people he cares about, no matter how much they hate him for it, is a really good kind of strength. And of course, he's not beautiful without the random outbursts of insanity!

At the moment he'd also have to beat:
Takizawa-kun from Eden of the East. Simply because.. well, he seriously makes the squee meter go through the roof. I also like that, among the Selecao, he seems to be the one who takes 'saving Japan' seriously and actually has things he wants to do. Sending the NEETs to Dubai to understand what real hardship is like was a really good way to make them appreciate the society they live in. I mean, it's a bit horrible, but if the results worked, then yay! And he's got something in his mind again.

And, for good measure. they'd need quite a bit of Mr Darcy's style. XD

There are other people who I'd set as the bar, but really, at the moment, it's those people.

My parents are going away for a few months. I get the house to myself =O

Getting impatient

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:29:04 GMT

I'm trying to be patient for the second episode of Fullmetal Alchemist to come up on the Madman website (I reckon I should watch the legal streams if they're going to show it) but eguehh... I went on to the website today to check and they said it was up. But then, after going through the ads, it says this 'sorry, we can't find the video'. It makes me sad. Because I'm trying to be good and watch it legally, but it's taunting me now. T_T

Originally I was going to download this series, but since the streaming came out, I decided I wouldn't *is desperately trying to keep her resolution*

"A question I'm often asked is about..."

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:56:44 GMT

I'm going to say this aloud. I love that line. Why? Because regardless of how you say it, it sounds sarcastic! To me, if a salesperson says "a question I'm often asked is about..." I immediately think 'yep, no one's asked you that, but your employer told you to tell the audience this piece of information.' I got this idea from walking in the shopping centre yesterday, and there was this aisle saleswoman selling magic cloth or something, and whenever someone came up to talk to her, she'd put on the microphone and start this speech involving the sentence. It amused me greatly.

But then, there are stupid things that all heads of organisations want their lackies to say. Even at St John. We're expected to know that St John Ambulance descended from the Knights Hospitaller in case anyone asks it. But, who knows who the Knights Hospitaller were? And if I were to bring that up in St John promotion the response would be "oh that's interesting... who're they?" and then I look like a dolt while trying to remember who they are.

Philosophy is taking over art

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:12:37 GMT

Today was absolutely terrible! Why? I had a philosophic revelation, that once I had the spiral start, it just didn't stop. After I pretty much swore to stay inside the 'cave' and not think amazingly philosophically until the end of this year. And I wanted to write it down and express it. But --oh God, this made it worse-- to quote Virginia Woolf 'women can't write fiction without money and a room of one's own'... what's that got to do with anything? That you need to ability to sit down and think to be able to write anything. I tried writing this before spanish, but then a guy in my spanish class started talking to me. So I got completely distracted. Urgh, terrible.

So I'll try here.

I was sitting in the art room, watching my friend paint a picture which was based off me--well, the shape of the blob was of a person sitting crosslegged with a hat on-- and, no matter how flattering it is to know that a painting by the best artist you know is based off you, I got distracted by the pictures in the art room. What particularly interested me was a series of sketches of a vase of flowers drawn by different people. What fascinated me was that, by looking at the sketches, I could tell that at the time, there was a vase of native Australian flowers placed on a tablecloth and that the students were told to sketch what they saw. But the fact was, each picture was different. And I'm not talking about the quality of the pictures, because obviously some would have looked nicer than others. But the details... some people had added in the table cloth, some people sketched the vase practically floating in mid-air. Some sketches were darker than others.. and stuffed just continued. I was just staring.

And then I started looking at the other pictures. And there were two pictures which were obviously of the same origin: a girl leaning against a mirror and the angle of the--
I'm gonna break for a second to complain that if I want to write something good, the next lesson is to turn msn off and shut the door
--picture showed what would have looked like two different girls. In one picture, the girls looked like they were in late teens: their faces were sharp, their eyes were small and it looked like they were wearing makeup. In the other picture, the girls looked like they were barely twelve: so their faces were rounder and their eyes were bigger. Fascinating in my opinion. What did these two artists see? What were they thinking as they drew those pictures? What did these drawings mean to the artists, if anything at all? Because they obviously meant different things, since the pictures came out different.

I saw similar 'problems' all over the art room. Drawings based off the same things, but looking so different. And then there were just the stand-alone pictures. I wondered what everyone was thinking as they drew. It took all my self control not to ask my friend what she was thinking as she painted, since I didn't want to bother her.

Sometime, I want to try this experiment. Find an ordinary object in my room and make sure it has the same place over the course of a year. If I'm happy, I draw it. If I'm sad, I draw it. If I'm angry, I draw it. I want to see how my emotions affect my expressions in art and if this means anything about bias and subjectivity of art. Which is why some (stupid) philosophers think art isn't knowledge. As I said in my TOK oral 'knowledge is anything that is true for any one person or collective of people at any one time.' I think that matters more than being able to support it.

Surprisingly, I'd look forward to doing an experiment like that. Particularly because my still art is terrible XD

Writer's Block: Things You Don't Want to Know

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:39:26 GMT

If you knew that a friend's significant other was cheating on him or her, would you tell your friend the truth or keep it to yourself?

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Oooh.. that's a toughie... I probably would tell them, because unless the significant other was a mastermind at relationship concealing, my friend would find out anyway. But I'd have a hell time trying to find the nicest way to say it.

Forgive me, I'm crappy with this kind of stuff.

Ouran Chapter 70

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:09:35 GMT

I can't read Japanese and the Chinese scans haven't come out yet, but I've seen the scans for Ouran chapter 70. Credit to adrianna for uploading it. www.krysyuy.net/forums/index.php just go around that website and take a look around. And.. um... lesse.

It starts off with the date that the Ouran members take the winning team on. Hikaru and Tamaki are fighting to the point where Haruhi gets annoyed. Ahh... guys in love are so cute =P Kyouya's talking to Kaoru about his research on Kousaka... and much more interesting to the plot, Kousaka visits Ranka and tells him that Haruhi should leave Ouran for some reason (Tamaki's family name came up, but I don't know what it said). At least, that's what I think it says. When I get the Chinese scans, I'll read it through more properly.

Tamaki's imagination of what he wants to do for Haruhi's birthday is so cute... but why does he keep thinking of proposing? He was thinking about giving her a ring. Lol =P Like I said, guys in love are so cute.

Writer's Block: Passing Time

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:23:04 GMT

When you're stuck in a boring class or meeting, what's your favorite way to keep yourself entertained (or at least from falling asleep)?

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This is simple. Most classes I do enjoy, but at the moment I'm disliking Chemistry. So I pass the time in that class by poking my friend who sits in front of me. He's like a jellyfish! blublublublublub

I don't really enjoy conics either, so I spend my time staring blankly at the bored. I haven't written anything in that book for a week =P

So… this is awkward

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:37:34 GMT

I’m trying to write from Windows Live Writer onto my LJ. I wonder if this will work.

So that’s I’m not just writing a one-liner, I thought I’d inform people of my maths tests results, since I’m actually happy with the turnout.

Core: 24/32 (75%)

Options: 25/44 (56%)

Sure, they’re not ideal, but I actually thought I’d get less than 40% for the options test, so knowing that I got over the 50% mark is really encouraging (it really shouldn’t be, though. XD)

Edit: what I have discovered is that I can't make private or friends only posts with WLW, so I'll just stick to LJ, I reckon.

Book Review: A Room of One's Own

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:15:23 GMT

Technically I haven't finished this book, but I hate it. I don't think I've ever hated a book more. It's Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. According to Wikipedia, it's an extended essay. Still, I hate it. It's pretty much Woolf ranting that she thinks women should in order to write fiction, have an income and a room of their own, which is all well and good in theory, but her arguments are like 'well this is what I think would have happened, so of course it's a great argument.' It does follow a (crappy) storyline, which is that a woman is invited to Oxbridge University for some reason, and then she starts thinking about the oppression of women because of the way she's treated by the men. She goes to London to research why, and how women were viewed in the past, and why women barely wrote anything... and that's seriously the story. The rest is her supposed researching.

But yes, the reason why I say supposed is that she makes up the story of Shakespeare's sister, who was (in her mind) as creative as Shakespeare himself, but because of the fact that she was a woman, she wasn't allowed to write like Shakespeare was. She gets told to marry some guy by her father and since she doesn't want to marry him, she runs away to London to try and be an actress. Everyone scorns her and eventually some other actor rapes her. And bearing his child, Shakespeare's sister commits suicide. It's a sad story, and lovely or whatnot (not really) but WHAT ON EARTH DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH WOMEN NOT BEING ALLOWED TO WRITE FICTION?! She ran away from home, lived on the street outside the theatre and begged for work as an actress. Excuse me if someone thought she was a prostitute. =.=

Also, within the arguments for feminism, I sense that Woolf didn't like Jane Austen all that much. (I'm an Austen fan, by the way) She implies that although Austen writes with good form, ... I think it was Emily Bronte wrote better because she was more creative. But the reason why Austen is great is that she writes what she knows and comments on it. You'd think Woolf would have a bit of respect for Austen since Austen also supported feminism.

Honestly, I can't think of anything that I like about this book... half the time when I'm forced to read this, it's going straight past my head. It's not even a lullaby-book like Kidnapped, it's just frustrating. >=(

Writer's Block: More Island Time

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:56:16 GMT

You're packing your bag for that other desert island—the one with no electricity—what 5 books do you take with you?

Submitted By mika_uriah

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I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be taking books, lol.

give generously

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:04:49 GMT

Give to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal. For those of us who have no idea what it is like to have your lives torn apart by a natural disaster, just try to imagine what it would be like seeing your house destroyed and people you care about die. And for those of us who have experienced a bushfire or some other natural disaster, remember how horrific it was. Give generously.

181 people have died. That's the highest death toll Australia has had ever.