In the face of today's society, where smattering of terrorist attacks erupt here and there from time to time, I had become quite immune to news of terrorism. I mean, it is so frequent, especially in politically unstable countries, that there is no longer an element of surprise or sympathy.
But strangely, when news of foreigners being indiscriminately killed by terrorists in Mumbai broke out, it evoked fear, pain and sadness in me. As the hours crawl by and the figure of foreigners killed in cold blood continue to rise in leaps, this great magnitude of sadness gripped my heart. How can innocent lives be lost to cold-blood murder?
I pray for the souls of the innocent, who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. I pray for the safety of the hostages, who are still at the mercy of the killers and clinging on to a hope for life.
The cold-blooded terrorists must be damned. They have just robbed more than 150 families of their loved ones, orphaned hundreds of children, all without a single trace of remorse. What have our society become of?
Never did I expect to ramble up to 200 entries when I started this blog.
I love writing. Toyed with the idea of a writing career even. (You know, in high school when we were forced to fill in the blank for "Cita-cita Saya" (Malay: "My Ambition") in our profile records and after reading a pile of really good novels in Literature Class I got all fired up to write one myself.) But often, I find myself 100 steps ahead my penning down of thoughts. Writing would then slow my speed of imagination and retard the rest of my cognitive function (I'm a lousy multitasker, yes). So, I'll just keep thinking and leave writing to the pros.
I digressed.
When I started Miharu's musings, I really just wanted a virtual space of my own and pen my thoughts on matters in the reality. Like raving over a recently read book. Or releasing squees over the currently airing animation (well, nobody in real life is interested in all the technicalities and artistics of my anime talk...) Like bleeting frustrations over my study-cum-work life. Or bitching about the last person who riled my nerves. Or shouting out happy feelings that are too much to contain.Though initially it was more of jotting down of my emotions on recent happenings in life, inadvertently, writing each entry became a musing to me. (Pun not intended) As I put my thoughts in writing, I see in black-and-white my emotional and intellectual self and revisit those impressions to put things in perspective. Unwittingly, Miharu's musings evolved true to its name.
Of course, it is also a journal that keeps my friends abreast with my current status and incredibly, helps me keep touch with old friends. I never expected readership, but thank you to readers (if any) who do read my unexciting entries.
Along that line, I opted pseudonymity as I preferred writing and looking at my blog as a detached person. To me, it's like shedding off my reality mask and expressing honest thoughts without having to worry what other people in real life would think. Admittedly, I'm not the assertive kind and though I hold my views, I find myself rarely sharing them in real life simply because I feel the real world is, most of the time but not always, too shallow for such ruminations. I feel reality is most of the time hypocritical and lacking depth in thought and sincerity, hence it is simply bothersome, not to mention tiring, to assert honest views in such a community. For that reason, I often am unwilling to discuss blog entries in real life; blog is where my pen personality dominates and thoughts are uncensored to hypocritical standards.
"The most potent muse of all is our own inner child."
Like many in (and out of) the scientific community, I'm aware of the Nobel Prize being one of the most honorable recognition of a scientist's career. Every year we applaud and appreciate the achievements and contributions (though most of the time, belatedly) of the Nobel Laureates in their respective fields. The Nobel Prizes awarded are for Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace; as well as an associated award named Prize in Economics. You can review the list of 2008 winners here.
What I wasn't aware of was the existence of Ig Nobel Prize, the parody of Nobel Prizes. Ten 'prizes' are awarded annually to commemorate achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think".
Now, before you think this is a joke or fiction, all the achievements are real scientific work published in peer-reviewed journals. I kid you not. It is a funnily serious matter. What I couldn't quite comprehend was how they obtained funding to do this kind of stuff, for example, awards for:
1991 Chemistry - Jacques Benveniste, for his persistent discovery that water, H2O, is an intelligent liquid, and for demonstrating to his satisfaction that water is able to remember events long after all trace of those events has vanished.Published in Nature 1988.
1993 Medicine - Nolan, Stillwell, and Sands, for their painstaking research report, "Acute Management of the Zipper-Entrapped Penis." Published in Journal of Emergency Medicine 1990.
1995 Psychology -Watanabe, Sakamoto, and Wakita, of Keio University, for their success in training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet. Published in Journal of Experimental Analysis Behaviour 1995.
1997 Peace -Harold Hillman of the University of Surrey, for his lovingly rendered and ultimately peaceful report "The Possible Pain Experienced During Execution by Different Methods." Published in Perception 1993.
1998 Statistics -Bain and Siminoski for their carefully measured report, "The Relationship Among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size." Published in Annals of Sex Research 1993.
1999 Managed Health Care - the late George and Charlotte Blonsky, for inventing a device to aid women in giving birth -- the woman is strapped onto a circular table, and the table is then rotated at high speed. US Patent #3,216,423.
2000 Chemistry - Marazziti, Rossi, and Cassano, for their discovery that, biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. Published in Psychological Medicine 1999.
2001 Economics - Slemrod and Kopczuk, for their conclusion that people find a way to postpone their deaths if that that would qualify them for a lower rate on the inheritance tax. Published in National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. W8158, 2001.
2002 Physics - Leike of the University of Munich, for demonstrating that beer froth obeys the mathematical Law of Exponential Decay. Published in European Journal of Physics 2002.
2003 Physics -Harvey et al of Australia, for their irresistible report "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces." Published in Applied Ergonomics 2002.
2004 Biology - Wilson et. al, for showing that herrings apparently communicate by farting. "Pacific and Atlantic Herring Produce Burst Pulse Sounds." Published in Biology Letters 2003.
2005 Economics - Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for inventing an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people DO get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday.
2006 Physics - Audoly and Neukirch of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, for their insights into why, when you bend dry spaghetti, it often breaks into more than two pieces. "Fragmentation of Rods by Cascading Cracks: Why Spaghetti Does Not Break in Half". Published in Physical Review Letters 2005.
2007 Physics - Mahadevan (Harvard University) and Villablance, for studying how sheets become wrinkled. "Geometry and Physics of Wrinkling." Published in Physical Review Letters 2003.
And the ten Ig Nobel Laureates of 2008 are:
Archealogy - Araujo and Marcelino of Universidade de São Paulo, for measuring how the course of history, or at least the contents of an archaeological dig site, can be scrambled by the actions of a live armadillo. Published in Geoarchealogy 2003.
Biology - Cadiergues, Joubert, and Franc of Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse, for discovering that the fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than the fleas that live on a cat. "A Comparison of Jump Performances of the Dog Flea, Ctenocephalides canis and the Cat Flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis." Published in Veterinary Parasitology 2000.
Chemistry - Umpierre, Hill, Anderson (Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School), for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and to Hong, Shieh, Wu, and Chiang (all of Taiwan) for discovering that it is not. Published in New England Journal of Medicine 1985, and Human & Experimental Toxicology 1987.
Cognitive Science - Nakagaki, Yamada, Kobayashi, Tero, Ishiguro, and Toth, for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles. "Intelligence: Maze-Solving by an Amoeboid Organism." Published in Nature 2000.
Economics - Miller, Tybur, Jordan of the University of New Mexico, for discovering that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating. "Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers; Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?" Published in Evolution and Human Behaviour 2007.
Literature - David Sims of UK, for his lovingly written study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations." Published in Organizational Studies Vol.26, 2005.
Medicine - Ariely (Duke University), Waber (MIT), Shiv (Stanford University) and Carmon (INSEAD), for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine. "Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy." Published in Journal of the American Medical Association 2008.
Nutrition - Zampini (University of Trento) and Spence (Oxford University), for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is. "The Role of Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips." Published in Journal of Sensory Studies 2004.
Peace - The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity. "The Dignity of Living Beings With Regard to Plants. Moral Consideration of Plants for Their Own Sake."ECNH.
Physics - Raymer and Smith (University of California), for proving mathematically that heaps of string or hair or almost anything else will inevitably tangle themselves up in knots. "Spontaneous Knotting of An Agitated String." Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2007.
Says who scientists aren't funny people? Have a good laugh!
We've got Garfield checking in to our cat shelter.
Siren has been missing for several months now, and according to Mum, she's mostly like drowned in the monsoon drain. I'd think she eloped with the tomcat from the adjacent lane though.
But this new kitten has a special coat. I've never seen a stray that is orange. Very reminiscent of Garfield. I wonder if it indulges in lasagna too.
Although it's kinda nice knowing there's another 'pet' hanging around, it can't seem to really replace the affection we had for Siren. She's like... a first love. Adopted at infancy and watching her grow into adulthood, it's like nurturing a seedling with affection and care. And there's a kind of loneliness and sadness when she's gone (eloping with some tomcat!!)
I supposed that's why I never want to keep pets. I've got a bad case of Empty Nest Syndrome.
Then recently, I digged up an older masterpiece by the master himself.
雲のむこう、約束の場所 （２００４年）
After watching two of his movies, my first thought was - graphic orgy. While it differs amongst anime fans, I believe Shinkai captures his audience primarily with his bloody gorgeous graphics and seamless animation. To me, there's no better word other than 'beautiful'. I can just fall in love with the graphics alone.
As for his storytelling, I'm inclined to think it's not one many people can appreciate. It's hardly action-packed or incredibly climatic, but I love his subtle style. He drives home thought- and emotion-provoking notions using ubiquitous elements: wind, clouds, birds, sky, flowers, dreams, music. He threads everyday moments - the wait for trains at platforms, the setting of the sun, the morning flight of the birds, the silent fall of the snow, the whisper of the summer wind - to deliver impactful scenes, enabling the audience to make an emotional connection. Hence, I find his style of storytelling leaning towards a more romantic yet thoughtful style. His stories are akin to onions; you need to peel off layer by layer to appreciate the essence of his ideas.
Beyond The Clouds, The Place Promised In Our Early Days (Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho) is a moving story set in the times of war between US, Soviet Union and Japan. It follows two boys, Hiroki and Takuya, and a girl, Sayuri, and how dreams, promises, and parallel reality held the three of them together.
A subtle, romantic science fiction dramatic animation delivered in beautiful graphic art. I think only Shinkai Makoto can achieve this wonderful bittersweet aftertaste.
Have you ever felt truly happy for someone? The kind without a single trace of envy even though their achievement or reward is something you had dreamed for yourself?
Of late, I had a few experiences of such child-like happiness for other people.
First was when I came to know of my childhood friend's engagement. I was incredibly elated that she is a step closer to holy matrimony with her sweetheart of many years. Although surprised by the news, my heart was bursting with sincere happiness for her. I'm just so so so happy for her. Congratulations Gracie!!!
Then came the news that one of my high school classmate's safe delivery of her baby girl. I haven't heard from her for such a long time and now not only she's married, she's got a baby girl! I'm just so incredibly overjoyed she has given birth to a lovely baby. Congratulations WM!!!
I can't really find the words to express the feeling of happiness that filled my heart when I received the news. It's like, from the bottom of my heart, I'm just plain happy for them. And I'm not even envious, just truly happy. Man, I feel like a grown-up.
It feels like Christmas digging my music archives. The pop songs from my schoolgirl days in the '90s totally transported me back in time to those days of Scouts gathering performances and nights of campfire free dances. That Spice Girl 'Wannabe' dance. That Britney Spears moves. And memories of us girls mooning over boybands... we actually tailed the band 98degrees all the way to the airport check-in gate. No kidding. I still keep the collection of personally autographed postcards in my treasure box.
A wave of nostalgia washed over when I bumped into this on Youtube:
It's so cheesy and wonderfully nostalgic at the same time.
But this takes the cake. It makes me feel 13 all over again.
Was trawling a health bazaar in campus with my colleagues, YN and LB, when we passed by a stall with this really HUGE palm banner peppered with testimonials in all possible languages. As my colleagues pressed me to read a Japanese article hanging from the banner, the chirologist uncle, who was till then sitting languidly with no customers to serve, snapped his head around and asked to see 'the fish' in our palms. As if to convince us, he held out his palm and pointed knowingly to a Stickman-sketch of, what we were told to believe is, a fish. Really, it's just lines on the palm that so happen to criss-cross to give the man an illusion of a flipper.
As he scrutinized our palms, he confidently threw us into default categories with his diagnoses.
To YN, "You are a very efficient and strong-willed person. Your boss won't sack you, you will sack your boss." YN stared at him, both incredulous and amused.
Turned to LB and said, "You are a dreamer. And will have problems with your relationship." LB looked undecidedly wary and bemused.
Finally he took my palm and said, "You know how to enjoy life. And you are highly adaptable. Yes, you are adaptable." He nodded. I stared at him, looked at my palm, and then back up at him.
At that point, a customer called out to him and he disappeared back to his stall, leaving the three of us staring after him, unsure whether he was for real.
Maybe he was just 'fishing' business afterall.
No olives.
It baffles me to no end the quality of service at certain fast food outlets. I was putting my order at a sandwich bar, where you can ask for your preferred bread and fillings. So, when I got to the 'filling' section, this was what transpired:
Me: All vege, but no onions, more lettuce. Sandwich lady: Okay, no onions, no lettuce. Me: No, no, no! No on-ions, more let-tuce. Sandwich lady: Okay, no onions, no olives. Me: .....
For your information, we were standing only about an arm's apart.
Wanted to blog on this for almost a month now, but hadn't the time.
"Mulder, why are we here?" "To find the truth, Scully"
Okay, just in case you didn't know, I was and still am a big X-Files fan. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, I was one of those booked the TV and couch on Sunday primetime, indulging in an hour of paranormal and Mulder-Scully-ness. Everybody else in the family can have TV at anytime, except X-Files time. I just love watching Mulder & Scully (or is it David & Gillian) chasing after monsters, aliens, conspiracies, mutants,.... and whatnot.
Gruesome yet thrilling monster-busting. Scandalous government secrets. An odd pair of investigators with contradicting yet complementing characteristics. Scary yet funny. What's not to love about X-Files?! In fact, Scully's embodiment of intellect and science fascinated me to the extent I considered a future in scientific research. (Oh wait. I amin scientific research!)
When the series ended (beautifully) at season 9, as a fan, I was devastated at the notion of discontinued X-Files fix. Imagine my elation, when this second X-Files movie was released. Finally some Mulder-Scully after 6 years. Thank you, Chris Carter!
Mulder and Scully googles 'pedophile priest'
So I spread the love of X-Files and towed all my lab colleagues to the cinema for some Mulder-Scully goodness. Frankly, I was a tad disappointed by the plot of the movie. It was not as powerful as the series, but hey, for a stand-alone X-File, I think it was not bad. Nevertheless, I felt it could've been better. The climax was too short and the element of Dr Frankenstein is... not X-Files-worthy kind of paranormal. However, it was well above the X-Files standard of gruesome. There were many scenes I could easily tag with the label "GROTESQUE".
"I can't look into the darkness with you anymore, Mulder."
The best element of the show is, yet again, Mulder and Scully. It feels like homecoming watching them again, as pair with conflicting ideas who counter and complement each other. You just have to hand it to David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson for the sterling performance. After 6 years hiatus, they still exude every molecule of Mulder-Scullyness in every possible nuance. The relationship was so well played, it appears the dynamics between the two leads did not fade one iota.
"I'm done chasing monsters in the dark." "I need you in this with me."
Another aspect I find wonderful about this film is the foresight of Chris Carter to tell the story in the flow of time, and at the same time so exquisitely capturing an air of timelessness. In the movie timeline, 6 years has passed by since Mulder and Scully escaped as fugitives. The movie didn't just pick up where the series left, which is great because it leaves you wondering what the hell happened to Mulder and Scully in that 6 years. We see them aged, we see their lives changed, we see the level of their relationship developed; and yet, the essence of them is still there, unchanging. I find this balance of forward-progression and stand-still very intriguing.
Iconic Mulder-Scully shared look.
While I love this movie nuts, it's not exactly over-the-top fantastic; except maybe, for the dynamic performance of David and Gillian. I have one complaint though: that Scully should never had used Google to search 'Stem Cell Research'. That is pretty unprofessional. They could have scripted her to use scientific literature databases like PubMed or something. Except for this blooper, I'm all over the movie.
Nevertheless, I want to believe that we'll get a third movie which will deal with the December 22 2012 dead-line postulated in the final episode of the final X-Files series (The Truth). I'm dying to know whether the aliens will invade the Earth and turn us all into a slave race.... and how Mulder and Scully's son, William, may have a hand in this.
The 29th Beijing Olympics opened at 2008-08-08, 8.08pm.
Honestly? I don't really care.
My athletic-sense is zero and I never held interest in sports longer than the Omega advertisement on TV. Especially in an international sporting event tainted with politics and pollution.
However, I get caught in the tide. Very easily. With the olympian fervor going on, it's difficult not to get excited about the Games. Especially when your country has a good shot at winning a gold medal; and the unbelievable record-breaking trails.
So I watched the Opening Ceremony. Impressed, I was. The fireworks especially. And the performances were pretty cool. Except that I personally think that the use of humongous number of performers was akin to an overzealous hammering of the notion that the host have people power. Literally. "Don't mess with me, I can outnumber you in a blink."
But I digress.
Nonetheless, I was awed by the show. Had new found respect for the country that has been struggling so hard to prove herself in the eyes of the world.
Until news came pouring that the glossy performance was rigged with piracy.
Fake child songbird on stage.
Fake fireworks.
Fake ethnic child performers.
I do not particularly care about the latter two piracies, but the first really disgusts me. Had a pretty girl to fake the performance simply because the original talent had no looks deemed suitable to be on stage? What kind of message are they trying to send across in a G-rated international event?
The opening ceremony aside, competitions thus far had been amazing. In that we are witnessing some really marvelous sportsmen and sportswomen. However, it's swimmer Michael Phelps of USA who had grabbed the thunder of the Beijing Olympics 2008.
Phelps, the new God of the Pool
Golds in all 8 swimming events he participated, of which 7 were world record-breaking, and 1 by 1/100 second victory; giving him a total of 14 Olympic golds. This is the new history.
Not to be outdone, Kitajima Kousuke of Japan emerged as the Asian superstar in the pool, with 2 golds, in what I understand was a performance Asians were very proud of.
Pride of Asia in the Pool
Closer to home, Malaysia managed to enlist into the finals of badminton men's singles via Lee Chong Wei's brilliant performance. Thanks to him, Malaysians were given an opportunity to be hopeful and to be proud of in the international arena. He pushed his way into the finals, and like many Malaysians in the motherland and all over the world, I eagerly followed the finals match. How can I be not excited, when the athlete from my homestate is playing for gold in the Olympics. The catch, however, is that he has to play against the person seeded above him: Lin Dan of China.
So, I started off ambitious. Slam the top seed in his home ground and bring us our first gold. Maybe not so harsh. Just bring us our first gold. But Lin Dan is a great player and not ranked top seed for nothing. Okay, play 3 games and win 2 with slim majority. Lin Dan had been playing pretty effortlessly so far. Fine, silver medal, but play 3 games. 21-18, 18-21, 20-21. Alright, silver with 2 games still okay. 18-21, 20-21.
Ultimately, we lost 2 games: 12-21, 8-21.
I had wanted that look in the finals
Pretty disappointed that it wasn't a good game at all. Lee Chong Wei made a lot of errors, the most vexing one being the gold medal point: Lin Dan got it free due to his mistake. Sien. Lee Chong Wei didn't appear to be in top form, but to be fair, Lin Dan was really good. He simply outclassed Chong Wei. The smashes were evil. And during the first game, he had Chong Wei running all over the court whilst he appeared to barely break a sweat running.
Oh well, a silver is better than none. Thank you, Chong Wei. At least, he made it to the final game.
Thus it appears while my athletic-sense is zilch, I do still enjoy watching sports. Heeh.
～みはる～
Disclaimer: None of the images are mine. All were google-d.
Of late, I seem to have a knack for picking really emotionally wrecking books.
The Kite Runner.
I never intended to pick up this fiction although my friends had given raving recommendations, well... at least not yesterday. But I had time to spare while waiting for my Japanese lessons, so I loitered around the Bestsellers section of Kinokuniya. And thought, why not read a chapter?
Six chapters later, I was queueing at the cashier paying for this Khaled Hosseini debut. And finished it in one sitting.
It's been a long time since I've read a fiction so riveting it vexed me out, so raw it hurt me hard, and so painful it cried me down. I finished the book with puffy eyes. Damn.
The Kite Runner is a story revolving around Amir, a wealthy Pashtun boy, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's Hazara servant, in a backdrop of politically-morphing Afghanistan. Playmates from birth, a tragic childhood incident haunted them into adulthood, driving them apart. Wiki's got a lengthy review of the book, so I'm not going to do it here.
What moved me most about The Kite Runner was Khaled Hosseini's style of storytelling. He didn't use fancy words or alluring phrases to impress. It was straightforward and to the point, yet so emotionally evoking. I personally think his scoring point was that he used themes so human and universal: longing, fear, cowardice, loyalty, love, jealousy, shame, guilt, forgiveness, redemption. In short, emotion.
His depiction of Hassan's loyalty was so altruistic it made me cry. That Hassan bore no resentment towards Amir for the sexual assault he had to go through and his sincerity to Amir regardless the stark contrast in their status,... my tears flow for the pureness of Hassan's humanity was not valued by the person he so loved most.
As good fiction does, the story was thought-provoking. It pained me when Amir didn't stand up for Hassan when he was sodomized by Assef. As the story was written with Amir as the protagonist, we get to follow the emotional turmoil he had to go through as he battles the demons that haunt him after the incident. And how he finally redeems himself.
Personally, I think that what Amir had done was unforgivable, regardless whatever he does after the incident to redeem himself. The damage was done, and "I'm sorry" will not reverse the sexual assault that has happened. At the same time, I don't think Amir is to be blamed. In fact, I don't think there is anyone whom we can lay the blame on.
Amir had made a decision at the alley where Hassan was facing off Assef. He had two choices: to step in and prevent the assault, or to stay rooted and watch the assault proceed. Amir had decided on the latter. And for that, he had to bear the consequences of making that decision, which was to live with the fact that he could have saved Hassan from emotional (and physical) scarring but opted not to. And bear the shame and guilt for as long as he lives, alone. In retrospect, even if he had made the first of the two choices, that is to step in and prevent the assault, he would also have to bear the consequences, such as getting himself bashed up or assaulted by Assef instead.
Why then, had Amir decided on the latter over the former choice? This is where I think the environment factor comes into place. Amir was brought up in that precise environment, nurtured in that precise culture, exposed to that precise conformations of that precise society he lived in, all of which leads to his decision. Amir's decision was a consequence of the his upbringing, i.e. the result of the actions of other people all his lifetime. In fact, I think it doesn't apply to just Amir alone, but every character in the story: Hassan, Assef, Baba, and so on. Therefore, I think at that state at that time, Amir's decision was inevitable. Rather, it was a result waiting to happen, a result of all the actions in the past.
It brings home the point of which I have been mulling over quite a while. Life is living with the consequences of the actions you take. At every moment in time, we are making decisions, consciously and subconsciously. And every choice that we are presented with brings with it consequences that we have to carry, significant or insignificant. But how do we know which choice to make? Which is right, or wrong? We don't know. There is no right or wrong. We make decisions based on our rationale, our values, our thoughts. And our rationale, values, and thoughts were molded by the environment we were brought up in. And the environment we live in is a continuing consequence of actions by our families, friends, enemies, society.
That is why the Lord Buddha preaches of the cause and effect: karma.
. . .
Like I said, the book was thought-provoking. And it gives me material for reflection. The verdict is The Kite Runner is one hell of a fiction that you shouldn't miss. Evocative, as Chicago Tribune put it.
And the tagline gives me goosebumps no matter how many times I read:
A window to the minds of the Japanese, whose lives were derailed simply because they took the wrong train, wrong carriage at the wrong time. How the Tokyo sarin gas attack changed (or not) their lives.
Imagine just another Monday, catching just another routine rush hour train to work. And just another passenger beside you dropped 2 packets of lethal sarin on the floor of the train carriage. That could be the last Monday of your entire life.
Underground is a chilling account of how the biological terrorism changed some of the perspectives of the victims and the people close to them. A particularly heartbreaking account is that of a pair of siblings, Shizuko & Tatsuo Akashi's. Shizuko was rendered temporarily vegetative, and has since regained consciousness, but have yet recovered from the brain and muscular functions damaged by sarin. The attack robbed her of her speech, memory, mobility and her future. And her brother Tatsuo bears the mental and physical burden of the tragedy that had so wrongly befallen upon them.
However, Shizuko and Tatsuo perservere; trying to move on with their lives and coping with the tragedy. Their story provides us all material for rumination. As Haruki Murakami puts it thoughtfully:
"...what does it mean to be alive? If I were in Shizuko's place, would I have the willpower to live as fully as she? Would I have the courage, or the persistence and determination? Could I hold someone's hand with such warmth and strength? Would the love of others save me? I don't know." -Haruki Murakami, Underground
Tokyo mode (Tou.Kio. Mou.D) Meaning: Fast-paced activities occurring continuously with no break over 24/7. Synonym: Damn busy.
-Source: MiharuDictionary.com-
I've been in Tokyo mode lately. It's like, I wake up early in the morning and do stuff, and do stuff, and do stuff, and bam! The day is over, time to sleep. And then the cycle repeats. Where did my whole day go? This is what my typical week's like:
Monday Grow bacteria. Cook dinner. Japanese homework (i.e. Code Geass). Tuesday Grow more bacteria. Practise violin. Japanese homework (i.e. Vampire Knight). Wednesday Grow that damn bacteria. Cook dinner. Practise violin. Japanese homework (i.e. real JLPT2 homework). Thursday Would the stupid bacteria please grow already?! Practise violin. Japanese homework (more JLPT2 questions) Friday Kill bacteria. Practise violin. (more) Japanese homework. Saturday Grocery shopping. Practise violin. Violin class. Kill more bacteria. Cook dinner. Japanese homework. Sunday Travel to city. Japanese class. Lunch. Wait 5hrs. Japanese JLPT2 class. Dinner. Travel back. Conk out. Monday ... it's Monday AGAIN?!
It's not like I'd complain being occupied all the time. I actually love being occupied all day long. It's just that it's so... Tokyo mode. So damn busy.
Therefore, I'll just do highlights to the nice (or not) things that happened recently.
Japanese class
(Okay, Japanese things are always nice to me :P) After a month of waiting, there's finally vacancy to the last level of Pre-advanced Japanese class for me.
It's high time that I re-attend the classes before my Nihongo goes rusty again. Since it's one of the higher level classes, the class is naturally conducted by the most senior Sensei in school, MZ-sensei. Now, I've seen anxiety in the face of my former classmates when they saw MZ-sensei, and I thought she must be a very scary person. But in my first lesson with MZ-sensei, I find her VERY interesting. Military-style training conducted with an out-of-world wacky sense of humor. She tells tall stories with such seriousness and humor that newbies like me spend half the time deciding whether her stories are lies or not. (It appears her jaded students can easily decipher her fake stories from true ones....)
Then again, MZ-sensei is stricter than other teachers, so it'll be a lie to say it's a stress-free lesson. And thanks to my enthusiasm, I've landed myself in a double-dose of MZ-sensei per day by enrolling in the JLPT2 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test 2) prep class that takes place in the later part of the same day. This prep class is far more demanding than the regular Japanese lesson, as MZ-sensei speeds through the required syllabus in 1.5 hours. In ONE breath. By the end of the day, I'd be totally drained of mental energy. Tired, but happy to be learning.
MZ-sensei, 楽しいレッソンをありがとう！
Work
There's nothing nice about work because my prima donna bacteria is not growing properly. Prima donna, that prokarytic existence!! As my boss would describe, "It needs precarious coddling, and it's moody."
What does it think it is? Royal princess??!
... unfortunately, it is. TT_TT
Surprise visit
Mum and Dad came over last weekend for a surprise visit! So glad to have them here, because I've been missing home lots. Since I've used up all my annual leave and can't go home, Mum and Dad brought home to me. Figuratively. Didn't do much, but spent all the time lazying around in the hotel room as a family. Listening to cat stories. Apparently Siren, the stray pet, has reached the rebellious age.
Best weekend ever. Thank you, Mum and Dad!
New phone
I've got a Nokia 6500 slide for $0. I love the fact I got a $188-worth phone for free.
Thanks Sis for recontracting so that I can get that free phone. Muaks!
Socializing
Watched 'KungFu Panda' with AM and co. a few weeks ago. Went for the company, not the movie particularly. The movie was nothing to shout about; although funny here and there, the story was terribly lame and predictable. But hey, what can you expect of a children's cartoon? Nevertheless, the company was great as it had been sometime since we last got together, catching up.
And then, sometime last week, my lab had a dinner outing to celebrate our boss's birthday. We had a very filling seafood dinner, complete with black pepper(!) crab. The food was nothing to rave about (I've had better seafood back in hometown), but the company was fun. After stuffing ourselves, we had some girl talk, before the two attachment students in our lab lured us all serious scientists into REALLY lame games. It was absolutely hilarious watching my serious colleagues trying to follow the game, in all it's lame-ness. We spent like half the night lame-ing.
Violin
I had long realized my pinky is shorter than most normal people, and in practising my exam pieces, I've finally experienced the difficulty of having a stunted pinky. But, I'm practising hard. And I love the songs! Especially Moon River from Breakfast At Tiffany's. The dreamy quality is difficult to express, but so nice to listen to.... my tutor playing it.
がんばります！
Although frenzied, Tokyo mode is not all that bad afterall, considering the vibrancy and enjoyment it brings.
*Ok, I'm going to swamp this post with lots of videos, so be warned.*
When my friend first recommended me to watch this video, I rolled my eyes and said, "It's just another kid trying to sing in another one of your reality pop idol competitions."
I was so WRONG.
Connie Talbot is not just another 7-year-old trying to sing in a competition. Connie Talbot is an angel sent to spread the joy of music.
It's no surprise why people cry listening to her. Connie has a voice purer than the mountain stream, sweeter than the heavenly harp, and so beautiful that no words can describe. She has the voice of an angel.
And what do you get when Connie meets Ee Eun? It's God's angels delivering the gift and joy of music.
A blind 5-year-old pianist and a sweet 7-year-old singer.
I don't do this often, but this is one of the rare moments where I willingly fork out money (at bad economic times!) for exorbitant cinema tickets, just to spend two hours drooling over the most dashing, coolest man ever walked on Earth.
Of course I'm talking about Kaneshiro Takeshi. While every female would have her preference, not one would refute he's cool. For his age, he's dashing. Handsome. Suave. Dashing. COOL.
*cough* I'll leave my Takeshi-fangirling at that.
Thank's to Sis's recommendation, I did not miss one of the best movies of this year. Kaneshiro Takeshi's latest Japanese movie, entitled 「Sweet Rain~死神の精度」 (a.k.a. Accuracy of Death), took to screens since March in Japan and since last month in other Asian regions. Being the movie-retard I've always been, I had no idea there was a new release by Takeshi. When I realized it is a Japanese film starring Kaneshiro so-dashingly-cool Takeshi, I wouldn't be able to sleep if I do not catch it in the cinema. So, we did. Plonked ourselves in a cinema in the city centre for a 2-hr dose of Takeshi.
Sweet Rain is a film of 3 intertwined short stories, spanning half a century. It follows a Shinigami (Death God) by the name of Chiba, played by none other than Kaneshiro Takeshi, whose job is to interact, for 7 days, with the person who is shortlisted for dying. By the end of the 7 days, he will decide whether to 'proceed' with or 'suspend' the death of the death-candidate. For Chiba, if he feels the candidate has fulfilled his/her purpose of living, he will proceed with the death. Otherwise, he will suspend the death, thus allowing the candidate more time on the land of living.
The first story takes place in 1985, where Chiba was assigned to judge whether a 27-yr old OL (office lady), Fujiki Kazue, is fit for death. If anything, Kazue seems to fit the bill for death. Depressed, surrounded by death, and apparently stalked by some weirdo who longs to hear her voice multiple times a day, Kazue feels life is meaningless and would probably be more than willing to die (much to Chiba's relief). However, during the 7 days of judgement, her interaction with Chiba brought a little light back to her life, and in an unexpected turn of events, she wound up being scouted as a singer. For the first time, Chiba 'suspended' a death.
The second story takes place in our generation of 2007, where Chiba judged a middle-aged yakuza for death. It wasn't so much his interaction with the death candidate Fujita, but Fujita's underling Akutsu, which was central to this story. Akutsu looked up to Fujita as a father figure and would sacrifice himself to prevent Fujita from dying in the yakuza internal conflict. However in his meeting with Chiba, Akutsu was given a painful lesson of faith, courage and reality of death. While Chiba 'proceeded' with the death, it was a death out of expectation (a bit lame if you ask me, but well, he had to die... somehow or rather).
The final story was fast forwarded to the future in the age of 2028, where humanoid robots are already a norm. In a remote coast, lives a 70-yr old dignified hairdresser obaachan (grandma) Kazue, who coincidentally is Chiba's next job list. Interestingly, Kazue was not entirely surprised to receive her unannouced guest Chiba, and she even correctly guessed his Shinigami profile (you just HAVE to look at Takeshi's expression here. Priceless). She is willing to 'go' with him (i.e. accept her death), but before that, she requested that Chiba realize her last wish in the living world. The normally cool and collected Chiba is suddenly placed in a tight spot (human subjects never mess with Shinigamis, what more ask for a favor), as he tried his best to fulfill her wish, which was to gather as many elementary school boys for a free haircut as possible by the day after tomorrow. It turns out, Kazue wanted to glimpse the child of her estranged son before her death. While it wasn't directly shown that Chiba 'proceeded' or 'suspended' the death, I think it's pretty clearly implicated Kazue died a happy obaachan.
Sweet Rain ~ Shinigami no Seido Trailer
This movie is a great alternative to contemporary movies which boast complicated plots, adrenaline-pumping action, twisted characters and elaborate settings. The soothing theme and laidback concept, complete with dashing actor and capable actresses, makes the movie a very pleasant watch. Although simple, it was not lack in entertainment. Emotions were rightly placed at the appropriate scenes and it gives a very refreshing slice-of-life feel. I particularly love the nuances implicated in the movie. The director used rain, blue skies, coin toss, sunflower, and music to finely thread the three stories together very tastefully. By virtue of these elements, we will learn that the hairdresser obaachan Kazue was the same young Kazue who's life Chiba spared in the first story, and lived a long and fulfilling life, learning to put up with the pain and mistakes in life, such as leaving her son Akutsu in the hands of a yakuza in the second story, and yet able to experience the joy of cutting his child's (her grandson's) hair in the epilogue. Simply ingenious and uncomplicated.
I like the idea that Chiba learnt the meaning and precious value of life through his meeting with Fujiki Kazue. It is very heart-warming. In their initial acquaintance, all was gloom and doom for Kazue and Chiba. Every time Chiba's on job, it would definitely be raining, hence he wistfully wonders to Kazue as to when he will actually get to see the blue sky. When he meet the 70-yr old her, he finally get to experience the warmth of the wide blue sky with a jaded Kazue chiding him that a Shinigami like him who sees death everyday would find it difficult to understand the preciousness of life to the living being.
As many reviewers mentioned, this movie will definitely be popular with the ladies because of the eye candy. Um, I mean, Kaneshiro Takeshi. He's so seamless in his act that you wouldn't realize he's been away from Japanese silverscreens for more than 6 years. Furthermore, you'll never find another more good-looking Shinigami than Takeshi. I mean, if you had to come face to face with Death, let it be in the form of Kaneshiro Takeshi and you'd probably die happy. What I was trying to say is, he looks really good in the movie. If you don't watch for the story, just go watch him. It's worth the money. Plus, he's really good with the subtle wit. His naive and innocent antics were pretty funny and lightening.
Oh, I love his side-kick black Retriever. The dog-boss communicates with him! It's really funny. More so if you read Japanese because the punch line is.... Japanese.
Bottomline is, it's really worth watching. I'm waiting for the DVD.
Thanks to the ever corrupted BN government, the people of Malaysia now face at least 41% increase in fuel prices, with increasing electricity tariffs, food and consumer goods prices in the roll. Let's not forget the skyrocketing inflation, impending decrease in investment and job opportunities, threatening rise of social ills and crime - all ready to be unfolded in the background of political unrest.
...I'm far too angered and disappointed for words. This is just plain daylight robbery. How do these corrupted beings squander the rakyat's hard earn money (a.k.a. tax) in the day and sleep soundly at night beats my logic.
Thanks to you, my dear government, for bolstering my resolve to remain overseas and not return to the slumps of Malaysia.
～みはる～
Visit Malaysiakini for updates on fuel and what-not hikes.
A friend of mine sent me these photos that had been circulating around the network. It's so cute I just have to put it up here.
You don't see so many young ones together this often. They look like a heap of soft toy on the floor. If you flip their backside, you might see a tag that reads "Made in China".
This one had me squealing... Look at the little one on the right, raiding the drawer; and the one at the back, toying with the tank cable. It's like a panda kindergarten!
Little Raincoat Girls
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Little girls in raincoats are so cute.
[image: Photobucket]
Saw a little girl decked in a mini-raincoat and carrying a mini
strawberry-shaped umbrella on ...
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