Fever

Long time no blog. And now I'm writing to whine because I missed my Kath on AI tonight. Why does TV Mobile not broadcast it anymore? I'd been hoping Kellie had performed first, I wouldn't have regretted missing that. =P (Wuh, that sounded a bit harsh, didn't it?)

Didn't find any download link that worked either, so I suppose I'll be couch-potatoing for the encore telecast this Sunday. But anyway, glad I was in time for Elliot. He owned the night, man. One of the few who can put their emotions into the vocal. And to think his is the only song I haven't heard before tonight, too.

So while I'm at this, why not add to the millions of biased reviews you can find on American Idol? =) Let's see.. hm, pasca-Elliot it's rather hard to be impressed. Kellie... you know what I think about her. She's been bland these few weeks, will we be seeing her off finally this week? The winds do not seem to be blowing that way, but we've lost Mandisa to the same winds after all..

Paris did well, as usual, but no sparks for me, as usual. =P Taylor, I usually enjoy his performances, but this time he was as Simon said, uptight. He's been strong on the votes so let's hope he stays on tomorrow too. And Chris, that guy is really smart in the song choice department. Eka and I have been worried, like, him and Andrea Bocelli? =P But I think Bryan Adams is his best bet for this theme. Still couldn't help but compare him to the original and felt the gap, but I think his vocal on that last part was moving.

When I was browsing around for links, also saw the news that my former fave Lisa will be (or has been, if we count the production date) guest-starring in The O.C.. Well, good, I'm following that series too. =) The episode supposedly airs this week in the U.S. so it'll be a while till I get my paws on it.

So that's all. Pending for Kath this Sunday, though I think I'll have been down from my high to be blogging about it then. The reviews I read haven't been encouraging, and from the bits I've seen on the recap I am quite prepared for disappointment. But what the heck, love her anyway. =)

To close off, since Winamp happens to be playing my current song fascination at the time of writing, here's Stars' "Calendar Girl". As heard on this week's CSI advert. =)



If I am lost for a day, try to find me
But if I don't come back, then I won't look behind me
All of the things that I thought were so easy
Just got harder and harder each day

December is darkest; in June there's the light
But this empty bedroom won't make anything right
While out on the landing, a friend I forgot to send home
Who waits up for me all through the night

Calendar girl who's in love with the world
Stay alive
Calendar girl who's in love with the world
Stay alive

I dreamed I was dying, as I so often do
And when I awoke I was sure it was true
I ran to the window, threw my head to the sky
And said whoever is up there, please don't let me die

But I can't live forever, I can't always be
One day I'll be sand on a beach by the sea
The pages keep turning, I'll mark off each day with a cross
And I'll laugh about all that we've lost

Calendar girl who is lost to the world
Stay alive
Calendar girl who is lost to the world
Stay alive

January, February, March, April, May
I'm alive
June, July, August, September, October
I'm alive
November, December, yeah all through the winter
I'm alive
I'm alive

Diction

Saw a banner from inside the bus this morning:

"Makes everything seem so yesterday."

It's wonderful what they do with words nowadays (I sound so old). As long as you do it right, go ahead and define your own grammar. =))

(Not sure whose it is and if it's the exact quote; will edit this after I get a second look.)

Edit [20/04/2006]:
Ok, got it now. It's an Mitsubishi Outlander ad.

情緣

Re-discovered this flash clip that Vincent 'Mara' sent to us quite a long time ago. Given the messy state of my mind right now, felt that every sentence was very true and was such a valuable advice.

Attempted loose translation below, corrections will be highly appreciated. =) Credits inside the clip.

[Edit:] The link above is no longer valid; here's the link to the YouTube video instead.



情緣
Affinity


心境常歡樂
Let the mind often be joyful
緊握情難播
When grasped tightly, it's hard for love to spread
少分相思
Have less yearning
多一分擁有
And more cherishing what we have

嗡 阿瑪惹尼 祖文地耶 梭哈 (x4)
Om amarani jiwantiye swaha
[Homage to the Buddha of limitless life]

月兒的圓缺
The changing shapes of the moon: once full, once deficient,
劃出了你我
Illustrate the situation of you and I
情緣已過
When affinity has passed
微風輕吹走
The breeze lightly blows away

落葉細說愁
Fallen leaves well describe sorrow
從容得自由
Attaining freedom at their own pace
情緣已過
When affinity has passed
平靜人享受
In peaceful silence we savour

In Passing

How many faces have I passed,
how many names?
Once familiar, once dear,
now lost in a sea of memories.

Random faces, random names,
bring them to surface again,
but imprints remain imprints
and the past remains a time that's been lost.

---

For the n-th time, saw someone's face in passing, thought it was an old friend, realized it wasn't, and wondered how the real person was faring. How hard is it to keep in touch?

Very, apparently, when we don't care enough.

Rimi

Bought two Natsukawa Rimi's CDs yesterday, てぃだ　～太陽・風ぬ想い～ (Teida ~Taiyou.Kazenu Omoi~) and 風の道 (Kaze no Michi). I was especially looking for the song "Sayounara Arigatou", but didn't find an album with that one in it. I figured it should be pretty recent since I just saw the MV on Channel V end February. Her latest album in that store (in Singapore maybe?) is Kaze no Michi (2004), but apparently there's an even later one in 2005, 彩風の音 (Ayakaji no Ne), and the song is in it. Still looking out for that one. (This I found out from The Cherryblossom Garden site.)

Bought them from Sembawang after I watched a movie in Cine with Eka yesterday. I'd wanted to choose one of those albums but she asked why not take both, so I did just that. =D (After all finding Teida took quite some effort so...) Pretty happy with the decision, overall. Kaze is an easier listening, my taste as I thought it'd be. A few tracks in Teida are a bit... unusual, I guess. If you know the local artist Joi Cai Chun Jia, Teida has "Nada Sou Sou", the original Jap version of her song "Pei Wo Kan Ri Chu", and Kaze has "Kana yo Kana yo", the original Jap version of her other song "Wei Zhi De Yi Hou".

Then later on yesterday I went into HMV in Citilink, still in search of "Sayounara Arigatou". Didn't find it there, but saw that they have a higher price for Kaze no Michi. Made me apprehensive about buying from there in the future =P but I really don't know if that's just for this one item, and they do have better shelving arrangement that makes it easier to find older releases.

---

(8) Current favourite:

Diana Krall - Love Is Where You Are

Overhead Bridge

He seemed to have it easy going down these stairs, but whoever comes down these stairs must have climbed those on the other side, so there's no reason to be jealous.

Papaya

Power food of the decade. =)

So the story is, I found a problem in my work this afternoon, something I've actually done a write-up and implementation and all, so it was like, 0_0. Skipped lunch and went to discuss it with my colleague and we came up with some possible hacks but all were pretty messy, so we dismissed them and decided to just change the assumption we were working on and avoid the problem.

Then I went for my belated lunch. And biting into a piece of papaya under a mini-tree, I thought of a solution. Well, still need to verify that, but that's not the point.

Okay, so the point is actually yet another story. Last year my former colleague and I were rushing for a deadline, and we were working into the evening. I was rather anxious about it and ready to skip dinner, but he insisted that we ate our meals first, and with some proper fruits. He bought each of us a piece of papaya, saying, "Eat papayas, it will energize you."

Turned out he liked papayas because where he came from papayas were not as delicious as how we had them here. No problem with me, I like papayas too. And that incident becomes my memorable moment with papayas.

And that's why I find it amusing that I should think of something while eating papaya. Maybe it is just a coincidence, maybe it is actually the whole meal, maybe it is the papaya. And that reminds me of a quote...

"Eat more [of the cakes], and you will be clever for a while, because of the sugar."
-- Shigure Okawahara, from the manga "Hana Yori Dango"

(after which Sakurako actually retorted, "You ate all the brain food, and that's the best you could come up with?" ^_^0)
Maybe it is the sugar, after all. But don't hold me to it.

Temperature

I've seen the (belated) (American Idol) light, and it is that while Ayla was cool, Katharine is hot. =D I think my taste changes with my mood. Most probably because of what she sang last night. And she is one of the few remaining finalists who smile a lot and in that unrestrained joyful manner, a trait I'm definitely weak for.

Things are going pretty well considering the feeling of "still so many things to do" that keeps haunting me. Pretty stupid that I worry everytime I think of it, because I still don't like to rush while I'm working on them. I like to get lost in the details. =P

On the other hand, felt like I'm losing touch with most of my friends and also my sister, and that grayed me a little (see previous post). Everybody's busy, I guess. Felt like I should be more outreaching, but that hasn't happened yet... But Yesie found me last night and we had a nice, fun catching-up talk, and that brightened me up considerably. Thanks, girl. ^_~

Gray

It's a good weather
for melancholy.

I've been unhappy,
so I was unkind,
and it made me unhappy
all over again.

Do I blame it on them?
Do I blame it on hormones?
Do I blame it on circumstances?
Do I blame it on me?

It's a chronic disease,
this need to find a culprit
for every single thing.

But no matter what the answer
that I end up not finding,

back among these walls
I cannot see the sky,

and artificial sun
brings no emotion to me.