Mood: Gratifications

Blogging from my latest toy, the Asus EEE PC 900HA. Finally got my hands on it after half a week of painful waiting. But it’s all worth it cos I managed to get it in time for my birthday :)

Had a great birthday dinner today. Thanks to all the friends who came and celebrated with me.

Naruto’s finally returned from filler hell!! I just watched the one hour special opening (comprising of two episodes because each episode is normally half an hour) of the new series, 疾風伝, which starts off rather nicely with a premonition of what’s to come. I wish the episode weren’t interrupted with so many omakes, but I guess the producers had to extend the episodes to fill up the TV timeslot. 仕方がないな。

Speaking of which, Bleach has also returned to the manga plotline some weeks ago. Now I’ve only watched a couple of them Bleach fillers which aren’t so bad, and I guess I have to watch them eventually to catch up with the new arc because the writers seem to have integrated some elements of the fillers into it. Now I’m wondering if I should bother catching up with the mangas at all.

Finally got my hands on the first volume of The Absolute Sandman!

This is one of the most gorgeous books I have ever laid my hands on. And I thought The Photographer’s Led Zeppelin was yummy. XD

Firstly, it’s humongous!! The graphic novels feel so miniscule in comparison. Definitely not something you’d want to take out of the house — but that’s the point of a collector’s book anyway, duh.

Secondly, the recolouring work is amazing. The graphic novels look so drab when put side by side. Additionally, the printing paper used is so much better; everything seems to pop and come alive now.

The only negative thing I can say about it for now is that when I took my book out of the slipcase, I found some nasty little weird cardboard remains sticking to the leather case of the book. I think it’s something leftover from preprocessing that wasn’t removed thoroughly. Such a pain to remove! There’s some very tiny patches of sticky patches left. Not very noticeable but I shall have to find some way to clean it. Anyone knows what’s the best way to gently clean leather? I hate being such a nitpicker but I can’t help it ‘cos I have the collector’s syndrome.

髪の毛、のびちゃったな！

I’ve been glued to YouTube for the past few days since I registered with it and this is one of the gems I discovered today. A slightly (aged?) Japanese documentary on the Yardbirds. I’m thankful my Japanese is decent enough to understand some of the Japanese commentary but even if I didn’t, the rare footage is a plus. I’ve actually seen some of it before, for instance, the young Jimmy Page playing skiffle on a TV show. Actually, methinks I should dig out my bootleg Led Zeppelin related video (I have a decent amount of these, having been the fanatic) and post it on YouTube when I have the time.

FYI, the person interviewed at the beginning is Georgio Gomelsky (ジョルジオ・ゴメルスキー) who was The Yardbirds’ manager/producer and the owner of the Crawdaddy club.

The lack of posts in the last one month or so is a reflection of how occupied I’ve been in with other happenings in my life: project meetings, watching Smallville episodes and listening to my collection of CDs.

I’ve been so in love with Astor Piazzolla’s music of late. I’ve listened to Tango Zero Hour countless times, and just last week I got the Happy Together OST and La Camorra in the mail. On replay mode is Milonga for 3 [Tango Apasionado] from the HT OST because the musical theme 3 minutes into the song is just so beautiful. The other stuff I’ve been listening to is the Kenshin Seisou Hen OST and the Ashes of Time OST (thanks again Wong Kar Wai). As you can probably tell, Argentine and Asian instrumental music are two of my greatest loves of the moment. In about less than two weeks time, the first of my 2 term essays are due. I’ve only barely started on it, so I think I better get my adrenaline going. Since this is an art history essay on I hope the music will help to inspire

I did it again…

Minority Report was amazing. I’m going straight to the library tomorrow to satisfy my PKDickien needs. Hopefully Valis and Albemuth are there. There’s one line in the show that was driving me nuts: “There is no minority report”. I’ve heard/read that line somewhere before. No, it wasn’t a website or anything that one I’m certain cos I haven’t been searching to read stuff on the show/book on the Internet. On the other hand it may be that I’m a potential precog after all. =P

From one Science Fiction story to another: I just can’t get through reading Neuromancer. Honestly, it’s been description overkill. 50 pages into the book no hint of a plot has emerged. The Amazon review pages are pretty interesting. There are those who stand by the book altogether, others whom like me feel the same way. Anyways…back to the library shelves it goes.

I bought this Mango gown (see below) that I shouldn’t have. It cost close to a hundred bucks (Singapore dollars, thankfully)… I had been eying that one for a while and I should have waited for the sale. Blame my impulse on my brain which was desperately trying to make excuses. Nevertheless, I think it’s gorgeous.

Well, today wasn’t bad at all! I had 2 hours of class in the morning, but they were pretty easy to handle. I’m somewhat physically tired from swimming/shopping on Saturday, then yoga on Sunday, but I’m tired, to put it crudely, in a ‘happy’ way. I guess it’s because the mid-term break’s next week so there’s a holiday atmosphere that’s developing.

As I mentioned earlier, I went shopping on Saturday. And guess what? I bought my first (errrm) skimpy bikini. All thanks (or perhaps, no thanks?) my very persuasive best friend. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned in any of my earlier journal entries: recently I’ve been splurging on swimming costumes since I’ve recently re-picked-up the habit of swimming. So it’s more than a good thing to have at least 2 sets just in case I wish to swim on consecutive days. But this is my fourth swimming costume in 2 months! The first one was a rather decent bandeau bikini (that I haven’t worn yet), and I got it cheap, cheap. $16 for a set. The second and third sets were tankinis (and they’re looong) that I bought for swimming at the pool. Now this one’s a pink/white flora ‘triangle’ piece set that borders on the indecent (in my normally conservative opinion). My best friend bought a identically-cut blue flora set. We’re going to wear that to Sentosa during our term break.