Friday, January 25, 2002

10:13 p.m.

*chokes* I don't know who you are, but d00d, kangaroo yaoi art?

...do I want to know? Probably not.

Friday, January 25, 2002

09:54 p.m.

Let me rephrase that, just rolled my head and realised that I have a neckache. Damned elevated tvs.

Friday, January 25, 2002

09:17 p.m.

Guess what I'm blogging about today!

Yeah, school. But bear with me- this is funny. Or at least, I found it funny.

See, I love my class. It's a double math class, so most of us are boys, and boys who've been from single-sex schools at that. (For some reason the best secondary schools in Singapore tend to be single-sex, and having come from one to a co-ed school, I can certainly see why.) That's nothing unusual. Many science classes have more boys than girls. What's unusual is that the boys in my class like to joke about being gay! At least half of them have been called gay or called themselves gay in my hearing for the past month, or so.

Now, since I imagine boys might object to being called gay (as the word is sometimes used as a euphemism for weak here) I would first like to say that I think that they're perfectly straight. Um, which is not to say that they can't be gay if they want to be. But, er, just to keep them from killing me too hard if anyone from class ever finds this blog.

So where was I? Uh yeah, the boys. See, they clown around in class, call each other gay, and- when we were taking pictures in class the other day, pose like bimbos (for fun), and two of the guys zipped each other up into the same jacket and paraded around like that while calling each other gay! Then there was the time when two of them went into the toilet and one of them came back dishevelled- shirt out of pants and everything. (The reason why I noticed that was because another person noticed first and asked /why/. And I was amused.)

If anyone reads this and feels offended, I'm sorry. But you really shouldn't tempt a yaoi fangirl like that- I was so psyched after the photo session that when I got home I gushed to my mother for minutes about them. She was amused. But she probably thinks that I've got to the boy-crazy stage now. Have I? I don't think I have. I would gush about the girls as well, just to make things even, but then most of the girls in my class are from my old school, and those who aren't I can talk to like they're from my old school. They're nice and friendly and great people, all around, but not one of the topics I'd gush over. In fact, I think I gush /to/ and /with/ them. They were amused too.

*is just Amused*

Also amusing was PE today. I've been hearing people all over the place complain about JC PE, but so far I had, up till the double block today, been lucky. The first two periods were spent talking and introducing ourselves, the third cut short because the teacher was sick and we had a relief who was really nice, while today's..

Say Tae-bo. T-A-E-B-O. A pseudo Chinese/Japanese/Korean martial arts workout course which involved lots of kicking, punching and moving your hands in ridiculous manners. Led by an American with these really funny chest muscles that bunched up and ended up looking like breasts everytime he did breathing exercises. What was funny was that the starting motions resembled a 'hail', and so I told myself, "Heil Hitler!". Somehow it stuck, and ended with me laughing silently to myself all through the exercise (which might explain why I don't ache now when several others are complaining.) *Punch punch kick!* Heeil Hitler!

..nobody else thought it was funny, though. *pout* Understand me, cruel world!

*coughs* Don't mind me. I'm just euphoric on finally making the weekend.

Tuesday, January 22, 2002

09:56 p.m.

And lo, I'm alive!

Well, yeah, I've always been alive. For as long as I've been alive, anyway.

..no, I'm not crazy. No crazier than I've ever been, which would be.. *cuts off the vicious cycle*

School's starting to pick up for me, or at least I'm beginning to catch up on the backlog of homework. Helps that neither school nor home is an ideal place to practice my instrument, so I don't spend as much time as I used to on band. Trigonometry still gives me major headaches, but thanks to my classmates I at least have an idea of what I have to do to catch up now.

Study. What I'm afraid of, is that I'll try to kill myself with work now, scrape through to university, graduate, and then find myself faced with work that I could have done without much of that education, because that's the only job I could get.

Yay, real world!

On a slightly lighter note, studied with Meia for over two hours at Coffee Bean (I'm surprised that they didn't kick us out, but they really didn't.) and then shopped for New Year clothes. By some strange coincidence, all the stuff I bought happened to be black, something I realised only when I got onto the mrt and went, "..damn."

Oh well. Guess I'll have to wear some really red stuff to compensate. Lucky that my immediate family isn't really traditional, even if my paternal grandmother might possibly have kittens. Why should black be an inauspicious color? White is just something that reflects every frequency of visible light, after all, and black something that absorbs it. So, in retrospect, black has more to do with light than white? While red is either the fastest refracted color of light, or the slowest, I can't remember. Then again black retains heat best among all colors, and it' always darned hot on New Year's day here..

But on the subject of clothes now, darn if men's clothes aren't so much more comfortable than those meant for women. Pity most of the pants I looked at were much too big. I am just too small.. and since I am very much female thank you, no dirty remarks! =P

Otherwise, I close with one of the questions in my Economics homework (regarding the construction of a new MRT line and Opportunity cost):

Suggest three other ways this $5 billion could be spent.

Isn't it pathetic? I didn't know what to write.

Sunday, January 20, 2002

10:16 a.m.

Anyway, I should be leaving now for band practice, so I'll make this short.

Wish- /really/ wish my parents would make up their minds on whether I've got a curfew or not. I know that already they're more liberal than most of my friends' parents that I've heard of (or maybe not, now that I'm in JC and parents apparently seem to think nothing of going out everyday and staying out till the crows weep in the night), but it's really weird to sometimes be out at 9 or 10 and get a "ok, come home soon, honey?" and then call home at 8 sometime and get a "It's school. Come home NOW." (It wasn't. It was a saturday, and I was trying to forget about school for a while.)

I mean, I used to get home at 11, 12 a few years ago, and they didn't really say much?

..damn the handphone. And now I shall go frenzypack stuff to get to the darned center, or be Horribly Late. More blogging about Day Finally Out From Hell later. (That sounds terribly junevile, but hey.)

Thursday, January 17, 2002

08:12 p.m.

It seems that with each passing day of school I feel more and more stupid. Math again. Why on earth did I think that I'd be up to double math? Why did I think that it would be /interesting/?

But enough of whining. When they told me that JC life was worse than secondary school, I didn't believe them, and now I guess I'm paying. They (seniors, friends, teachers) also said that the first three months of JC were the honeymoon period, so to speak, but sad to say, if I'm this busy now, how on earth will I manage later?

Bleh.

I generally like the environment around me, though. Lots of friendly people around- love my class! , and the sense that even though you're suffering, at least one person out there is going through the same hell as you.

...or does that sound mildly sadistic? Evil? Selfish? All of the above?

Actually, I think what my college does is throw people in at the deep end of the pool and wait for them to find their own way out or drown. >.<; It even happens in band- the first time I went for practice yesterday, we played a piece with lots of running notes, with less than an hour to get the hang of it through sectionals, after which the conductor made us play through at something close to full speed. Listening to people in their individual practices, I wouldn't have believed that we could play it through with any amount of coherency, but strangely enough, when we finally got together as a band, we did.

Gawds, that sounds cheesy, but it's true.

And, on a totally different channel altogether, certain experiences have led me to believe that babies feel some sort of unexplainable attraction to my hair. Nothing hentai (please, they've probably not learnt to walk yet!)- but it's not the first time that I've sat down in a bus or train and have the baby clutched in the arms of the nice lady next to me grab my hair. Nothing like this happens to anyone I know, and my hair isn't even particularly outstanding. Some people would say that it's outstandingly messy, but hey, it's black, as it's been for as long as I've had hair, and it's clean.

Babies. Yet, I let them get away with it. Why? Because although they are scheming, shrewd little creatures who really aren't what you'd call aesthetically attractive (by the normal definitions of the phrase as applied to hom sapiens sapiens) they are ugly and adorable.

Damn it, I wouldn't take this sort of thing from anyone else. But I do, anyway.

Tuesday, January 15, 2002

06:15 p.m.

So I, um, feel really dead now. And stupid, because I can hardly keep up with class. Math class especially.

Math Class: JabberjabberWORSHIPME!
Me:*uncomprehending stare*
Math Class: Hah, take that, all ye unfaithful heretics!
Me: *is buried under a ton of homework and her own failure to even /prove/ half of the questions in her math tutorial*
Me: *whimper*
Me: Waaaah I'm going to fail everything and go straight to sweep the roads!

And I take double math. Which means I have maths class EVERYDAY. Plus half my grades depend on math.

Hysteria not helped by the fact that the General Paper teacher, when we had our first lesson today, talked of getting C4s and below like they were nothing. (I mean, even when they're trying to scare you teachers normally talk of Bs, at least!)

My one bright spot in school? The fact that my Econs teacher talks sort of like Wakka. Or maybe the resemblence is greatly exaggerated, since her way of speech really is quite normal, to think about it, only.. whenever she finishes a sentence with "ya?" I have to stop myself from laughing like a crazy loon right there in class.

Dammit, I have to stop making fun of Wakka.

But it's so fun, ya?

Sunday, January 13, 2002

09:35 a.m.

Watched the end of Final Fantasy X yesterday, courtesy of Meia.

Square, I want to kill you. Yet, I love you. Yet, I want to kill you. Yet.. eheh.

And, you know? I still don't completely get the ending.

Friday, January 11, 2002

08:54 p.m.

Um. Telling me that Auron reminds you of Vash simply because they both have the same trenchcoat is likely to give me heartache.

Friday, January 11, 2002

07:41 p.m.

Eh? Er, that wasn't directed at you. And the "characters" I was referring to.. are limited to fictional personages, ya? (Real-life 'fic isn't something I go for usually unless it's done as a joke, just because it's a preference of mine.)

On a somewhat different note, I am alternately amused and scared by my Economics lecturer. He's got a sense of humor, and I find his lectures /interesting/, which is more than I can say for the math ones where I fall asleep taking notes, but he is darned scary when he shouts at the class when you're not expecting it. One simply doesn't expect someone whose normal inclass behavior is so..congenial to be capable of such violence. Which maybe should be a lesson to me, but hey.

Also read "The tale of Murasaki" today, a book I enjoyed a lot. Apart from being lush and employing some very beautiful imagery, it also had some exquisite wordplay in both poetry and prose. Translations of Chinese and Japanese works in English often have that quality, I find. (I'm now interested in learning waka, ancient Japanese poetry, but knowing me, the chances that I actually will are less than nil.)

But the thing that really drew me in were the shocking bits. The book isn't written to make a strong impact; it simply is, and lets you draw your own conclusions about it. I'd expected the characters to hold different values and views from this age-(anyone would) but I was really struck to find out in which ways we're similar to them, and which ways we're not. Some things we hold as rules today, I've thought of as universal truth, but apparently it wasn't so. Like rape, for example. To say more would be spoiling.

Me wanna Wakka. Ya?

Wednesday, January 9, 2002

04:51 p.m.

*checks referrer logs* Snape Bishounen? *coughs*

Right, people, "bishounen" is not a word that one should use to describe Snape. By the conventional description, anyway, which usually denotes any creature with attributes ranging from pretty with big doe-shaped liquid shining almond thickly-lashed amethyst chocolate heart-breaking soulful crystal blue-as-the-sky eyes, willowy lightly-muscled slim strong wistful to.. well, you get the idea.

What's more, Snape is very clearly meant by the author to be anything /but/ bishounen. She's writing from Harry's view, much of the time, and he views Snape very much as any schoolboy would be expected to view a hated schoolteacher. Dragging out my copy of the book, the author writes of Snape as "a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin".

Not a very attractive impression, hmm? Eck. And while I do adore Snape, especially in the movie, and you can view him however you wish to in your own heart of hearts where I certainly won't be able to do anything..

Technically, he cannot be considered bishounen. Even if you think that he's the sexiest thing since Sirius turned sixteen (or something likewise), he's just not /pretty/.

I don't understand why people like to make their favourite characters out to be what they really aren't. It's all fine to look deeper into the character and discover qualities that generally people don't catch unless they take the time to think and reread/rewatch material about the character more seriously, but when you give him qualities he/she normally would not have or develop, it's simply not the same person anymore. I mean, what's Snape without his general surliness and meaness? Or his pride? (Man definitely would not want to be caught by /anybody/ angsting like a teenage girl, I think.)

..and then suddenly he washes his hair and lets a bit of flesh peek out from underneath those robes and suddenly- *poof* sexgod!

While I'm on that vein, I might as well point out that convict-Sirius was never described as handsome while he was newly escaped. Sure, in the fourth book he gained weight and was beginning to look more like his former self, but the descriptions of him don't sound very appetising in any case. Sirius before or after the events of the books, however, I guess, is a totally different matter. (Can you argue with the type of person he is portrayed to be?)

The real reason for the rant? HP fic. My purpose is not to tell anyone how they should write/portray characters; only to make a point. See italicized sentence.

(If I really wanted to make anybody change anything, I would bring in the rant about how everything seems to be about sex and the popular conception of love nowadays, and perhaps it's always been this way but isn't that rather primitive since what real need do people in today's society have of making sure /their/ genes survive unto the next few hundred generations? The "let's have children, it's the best way to let our species thrive" philosophy doesn't quite hold through nowadays, I observe, since so many of the more sucessful people don't seem to have as many progeny as the less. And how egotistic and pointless it is to want to have your own genes preserved and propogated on this planet forevermore after you die. Since love seems always to lead to sex, and sex leads to children. I speak only about the largely hetero- on the surface, at least, part of the population. And I have nothing to say about the yaoifics which brought life to the words "malepregnancy", and where at least one half of the pairing sounds suspiciously like a bouncy teenage stereotype girl.)

Otherwise, I had a normal school day today, being traumatised by the amount of studying and background work Economics seems to require as a subject, and also by the amount of work everybody seems to have finished.

School seems to consist of three types of people- those people who mug openly at school and at home, those people who deny that they study hard in any way or form but do it anyway, and.. did I mention three? The third type's me, I guess. I study at school because I'm not particularly interested in bridge/poker/taiti anymore, and because I feel uneasy about the type of gossip people seem to be getting up to. But when I get home, I hardly touch my books.

..or maybe I should quit doing aimless things on the computer and do something to earn the mugger comments I get at school.

Monday, January 7, 2002

07:00 p.m.

There's something oddly appropriate about Winamp pulling "God hurts those he loves" on Lucifer. Or the other way around, but why quibble about that?

My winamp is a Yuki Kaori fan.

Monday, January 7, 2002

06:24 p.m.

Hello. My name is Aine, and my brain is dead.

Well, um, actually no. There are probably several other people who would be thinking otherwise, though. If JC is this draining when I actually only had one lecture, what on earth will I be turned into when school actually gets into full swing?

Truthfully, though, I lied. I actually went to two lectures today, crashing the biology one, because I was free till twelve. The lecturers seem bent on making us quit the courses- or at least scaring us into studying heaps so that we won't do as badly as they expect for the first few tests. I like them. They're sadistic and witty and very funny. And they can tell their jokes with absolutely straight faces. Plus, the bio lecturer had a picture of a euphonium on one slide, so I wub him.

Otherwise, blew over $50 buying books and manga yesterday. I was looking for my testimonial and results slip for my teacher, see, and I came across this award for music that I won in secondary three. I quit music the next year, so the award didn't really mean much to me, until I discovered a voucher for $40 at Borders inside the envelope. Wheeeeee...

Masako-chan: Angel Sanc has an oav, three eps long (which sort of functions as an appetiser to the series), while the manga has ended its run at 20 volumes..

Sunday, January 6, 2002

09:30 p.m.

Very short entry because I have to leave off comp to little sister.. to people who don't worship Studio Ghibli:

There is a tanuki movie (not Miyazaki) that they made. Find it. Watch it. (This goes specially out to you.

Friday, January 4, 2002

07:56 p.m.

School? I hate you.

After that all I will say about orientation to me is that they're offering meat to vegetarians. No, really.

Headache..

Wednesday, January 2, 2002

08:51 p.m.

First day of school:

ARRRGHHHH Lemmeoutlemmeoutlemmeout! *takes a deep breath*

Well, actually- it wasn't really bad. Just not the sort of thing I enjoy. I refer to the customary Orientation, where people seem to spend all their time bumming around trying to figure what it is they should do next, making their throats all hoarse and raw, cheerfully insulting members of the opposite Orientation team, and of course, obligatory games and mass dance.

Do I sound bitter? I'm sorry. I don't want to be an ingrate to the counsellors who really worked hard to arrange this thing. I'm guessing much of my apprehension is really nerves; that and maybe my itching over how much of the cheering and work seem so /pointless/. I was okay most of the morning, but then skipping breakfast and having lunch pulled to around three in the afternoon tends to put me in an uncharitable mood especially if there are other things I'd druther do.

The orientation itself seems to be based on made-up Greek themes; the groups have vaguely Grecian names like Skythus, and stuff. The counsellors call themselves Zeraii, or something- which I'll look up later when I get the chance. My guess is that it's something military.

There's also a storyline which revolves around ice, fire and "radiant runestones". (for those who know, I got put into ice faction, and Luce would have a cat.) Amusingly, they played the star wars theme, resulting with me and Kai reciting "Long ago, in a galaxy far far away.." every single time they came on. And the funny thing is, those words /fit/. My guess is that tommorrow we'll be going around the school looking for these "radiant runestones".

Orientation. *sighs* Why can't we just go to the work straight?

Methinks I will have trouble when I actually pop the little bubbly cocoon, yes..

Friday, December 28, 2001

04:06 p.m.

But before I go, the people talking about LegolasAragorn slash? I haven't seen the movie yet, but I read the books a couple of years ago, and ?!!!! If you've read the books, wouldn't Legolas Gimli be more appropriate, given the circumstances?

Friday, December 28, 2001

03:28 p.m.

I want to whine.

I mean, I feel like whining, I feel like ranting, I feel like having a really large-sized kid's tantrum, only- I really don't have anything to whine about. I was irritated at the computer earlier, because someone put in some net-nanny or some such program and I couldn't even load the first page on the list, which happens to be the website of my ISP Singnet, nor hotmail, which more people than there are in my entire country use as an email provider, and I had the most horrible time getting my sister off the computer despite her agreeing on before hand with me that I'd get the computer at 3, /sharp/. And then there was the entire business with getting the new password to the computer to work because my sister just /had/ to erase a few letters of it to make life easier.

That counted as a rant, I guess. Arrghh. Oh well. I'll go play Diablo 2 or something later, I guess, and take my fury out by meaningless computer bloodshed.

Otherwise, these few days my life has been peachy. Sort of. Unless you also count the fact that there's a lot of chicken in it, flat chicken, the remains of the Christmas dinner my Aunt made that is supposed to be meat but somehow ended up with the texture and (vague) taste of cheese.

I tell my mother that I'm going on a diet, oh ye~sss..

Hee. Watched Spirited Away yesterday, with Meia. I would put the Japanese name here, rather than the English one, which doesn't seem to be a direct translation, but I forgot it. Sen to Chihiro no Kami-something? Sen and Chihiro's Awesome Adventures? =P I really liked it, despite what the people in the row behind us were saying towards the end. >.> If you'd rather throw away your money than spend it on the movie, I'd be happy to watch it again for you.

Spirited Away's good, although I don't recall the other movies I watched by Studio Ghibli being so strong on pure romance. (That doesn't crop up for much of the movie, though.) They even managed to sneak in bits of the "the earth's going to hell because of humans!" theme. *hopes that her Dad gets the DVD*

And I've been reading Inuyasha, which I like! (Inuyasha, girl's best friend- pet, protector, and romantic love-interest-with-an-interest-in-main-character-that's-more-than-it-seems.) Only, I stopped at book 5, which ends on a cliffhanger. Why-o-why-o-why? Nevermind, I'll pop over to CC later to get a copy.

If that ends in a cliffhanger.. well, I remember getting Angel Sanc. It was during the prelims, and Meia and I were sitting on a bench somewhere near Kino, just reading. We bought them two books at a time, always meaning to stop at those two, but in the end we stayed there and read until we ran out of money. ^^;;;

Ep. Going to battlenet now.

Tuesday, December 25, 2001

02:41 p.m.

Merry Christmas! *pops out champagne*

Er, the sparkling juice, not champagne, because I'm a minor and I get drunk very easily.. not that it matters, eheh.

My family doesn't really celebrate Christmas, not being particularly religious or the type that goes out together a lot, but we had a nice dinner at a restaurant yesterday, and shopping afterwards. Bought myself a couple of things- and amused myself by reading random things. Such as the label on a bottle-

Rinses
Cleanses
Smooth
Sterilises
Soft
Lubricates

Given the last bit of the description.. I guess people can tell what I was thinking. My brother was looking at me weirdly when I suddenly smiled. (We were at the optician's, and the bottle was one of saline solution, or something.)

My sister's watching Gremlins on tv now. Can I mention that those green small things really scare me? I think I'm scared more easily by little nasty things than by big nasty things. Especially when they're lining up in rows and doing the cancan.

But you know the really scary thing? Christmas carols.

Saturday, December 22, 2001

09:43 a.m.

Just out of boredom, I took a test.

Take the "What kind of Squirrel am I Test!"

You know the scary thing? It's usually quite true. Usually.

Went out with Kaori and Meia and Jo-chan yesterday. Supposedly we were supposed to meet at nine. /Nine/. But people were hours late! Hmmph.

Ah well. We watched some episodes of Star Ocean yesterday too, the general thing being, "it's up to volume four with subtitles and we didn't know?" But rather sadly.. Ow.

For one, it was the Ashton episodes, which I've been waiting to see for a long time now. Only Ashton.. wasn't quite Ashton. The clumsiness and bad luck and fruitiness were there, of course, but.. it just wasn't Ashton. His character was handled rather inappropriately, I thought. Think, Sailormoon? For the first part at least, and that was the best part, IMO.. Seki definitely brought out overtones of his Shuuichi voice for this one.

But you know, when people mix comedy (cheap slapstick comedy at that) with a woman pining for her jerk of a lover (what kind of person just goes off without telling his lover where he's going? Even if the why of it is explainable?) you get laughs. Not because it's funny, but because it's so /baaad/. The background music doesn't help either, because even though they are done really well, it just doesn't fit the series. Oh, it fit the original /spirit/ of the series pretty well, but the anime is just..

Oh, and they turned Xine (Jine?) into a /chicken/. Kept expecting the bird to flap about and drop giant egg bombs when Claude-tachi fought it. Whoever does Star Ocean EX? NOT FUNNY.

Played a little D&D, though, which I discovered was much fun. Even though my luck was lousy and my character got lousy stats. Why do people always assume Fire Deities are mostly male?

Thursday, December 20, 2001

02:12 p.m.

Last night, while I watched Initial D, my sister was sitting in front of the television doing something weird to her nails. (Recently, she got this manicure set that sort of reminds me of electric toothbrush with interchangeable heads.)

Sister: Jie(Her nickname for me when she's in a good mood), how come you always watch those shows where they always try to act cool?
Me: Eh? They're street racers, full of testosterone. You can't expect them to.. to sit down like you and do their nails!
Sister: Men can do their nails too. Right?
Me: I guess. But, please don't give me weird ideas. I can't see those tough street racers sitting down like you are just to do their nails. They are macho. They're full of testosterone, and, er, hot-headed male pride. I just can't see them sitting crosslegged to do their nails.
Sister: I can.

Damn. Now I see what I think I shouldn't be seeing. Oh well. Speaking of Initial D, I got myself four more volumes of the manga yesterday. *pause for a typical fangirl kya*

I'd almost forgotten how good it is. Sure, if you're used to shoujo manga art, the art's not what you could consider pretty. Still, I find that it has its own draw. Shigeno-sensei is very good at bringing out the emotions in the characters, and sometimes the manga art has this intensity that isn't present in many other prettier pieces of work. Take the many significant *looks* that Ryousuke can give, for example, or Wataru in book 12. (Wow. Can you feel the testosterone flowing off him?) I'll scan some, when I get the rest of my manga back.

One peeve though: the sheer number of gratituous panty shtos that were present in book 16. Look, everybody knows that Natsuki is, or was, a ho. A sweet, naive, silly ho, but when did she start flashing everybody every five pages of the manga or so? The part where Takumi and his father spat out their beer at the same time was cute, though. Shigeno-sensei~! Oh well. It is a shounen series, after all. Still. -_-;;;

One scary thought that occured to me while reading- which might say something about the nature of other series- was the fact that if Itsuki were female, he/she would most likely be Takumi's designated love interest. And Itsuki is, for the first season at least, one of the most irritating characters in the cast- loudmouthed, which gets him /and/ others into trouble more often than not; stupid; and proud without any reason. He likes to put down Takumi too, which could be a result of their close friendship, but..

That description sounded a lot like some shoujo manga heroines to me...

Thursday, December 20, 2001

09:07 a.m.

And then, oop, I find out that the date for the postings release is actually tommorrow. So I've been all nervous and butterfly for nothing. Er. I feel stupid now.