J-Tunes

In the spirit of firefly's YouTube posts which have benefited me greatly, I decide to start recommending songs here too. ^_^

(Since I'm still on J-fever, the recommendations this time round will be tuned accordingly.)

This one is pretty ancient, as it came to me through a long and winding backwards road, which I might feel like writing about some other time. The catchy theme song from Nobuta o Produce, sung by the two male leads, with the PV full of prancing boys -- but the mass dance effect was probably forgivable when it came to the stage-crossing flips that were kinda cool.


修二と彰 - 青春アミーゴ
Shuuji to Akira - Seishun AMIIGO (Friend from Youth Days)




Kobukuro... where have I been all this while not to have discovered them sooner? Beautiful songs. Beautiful harmony. And really good vocals. (I know PVs don't prove much, so go check out their live performances on YouTube if you are curious.) I certainly don't mind the pretty sing/dance/act visual-oriented idols that this country manufactures nowadays (see reco #1), but this, now, is the kind of music that touches.


コブクロ - ここにしか咲かない花
Kobukuro - Koko ni Shika Sakanai Hana (The Flower that Only Blooms Here)




コブクロ - 桜
Kobukuro - Sakura

跟自己的约会

If you know you can trust yourself
you will feel relaxed
and unmoved by praise and blame.
Regardless of what others say,
you are content.

Those who do not have a firm foundation in practice
can easily be sucked in
and their perceptions are warped as a result.

When you understand this matter
you will be truly untroubled.

Nothing that happens is wrong.
Everything is Dhamma.

- Ajahn Chah -

The one thing I'm missing right now... that trust in myself.

Aaa yosh, strive on with diligence! o_(>_<)_o

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

"Your life is an occasion. Rise to it."

心の友

Got this from Eka. I usually despise the practice of rewriting lyrics for foreign language songs, but I like this arrangement so much, it is readily forgiven.

Delon and Mayumi Itsuwa - Kokoro no Tomo


Here's a short clip showing them singing together (live on stage).

That kind of vocal is close to making me regret that I never followed Indonesian Idol. =P

Kacang Hijau

sepotong ingatanku adalah ruangan kecil itu,
ramai di jangka lima belas menit antara kelas,
tiga empat suara kita di sepi usai sekolah,
kauhitung untung rugi dan kuisi petak-petak kaca.

tempatmu yang kusinggahi kala hujan,
menghafal biologi sambil kaumasakkan mi instan;
kartu ulang tahunmu pun kubuat sendiri,
di sela liburan kausurati aku dengan kertas warna-warni.

ingatan masa itu yang tertinggal saat ini
kumpulan wajah-wajah, kilasan kesan suasana
selalu kulihat kamu dalam seragam abu-abu itu,
tak peduli di suatu kota kau kini seorang ibu.

entah dari mana kita dulu mengira
di usia itu cuma ada satu macam cinta
kalau memang kurang romansa yang kita tidak punya
maka terserahlah mau disebut apa,
nyatanya sampai sekarang kaulah yang paling dalam terasa.

Scamothology

Received an email alert from NUS Security today on the latest scam method to watch out for, as several staff and students have received strange calls. I copy below the content of the letter from the Police to the public (probably on announcement boards that we don't have at our place since I never knew about it ^^0).

---

Date: 18 Oct 2007

Dear Sir/Madam,

Crime Alert: Phone Scam Involving Impersonation of Court Officials

Over the past few months, there were numerous cases where members of public fell prey to cheating scams such as the foreign lottery scam. A recent variation used by culprits involves the impersonation of Supreme Court officials to dupe victims into parting with their money. Generally, the culprits would accuse the victim of being involved in criminal offences such as money laundering. The phone call is then transferred to an accomplice who would instruct the victim to transfer money that was deemed to be ‘gained by illicit means’ to a bank account in order to exonerate him/her from the criminal charges.

Modus Operandi

2. The scammers usually operate in pairs (male and female) and would call the victim to inform him/her that he/she had failed to attend a Court hearing to answer criminal charges. The call would usually contain some of the following content to mislead the victim:

i. The female culprit would call the victim up and accuse the latter of being involved in a commercial crime such as money laundering or in unlicensed money lending. In some instances, the initial call was in the form of a voice message which required the victim to “press 9” before the call is transferred to a female operator.

ii. The scammer would question the victim as to why he/she had failed to attend a court hearing to answer to criminal charges. This would be followed by the transferring of the call to the male accomplice.

iii. The male accomplice would then impersonate a Police officer who will use various names. In order to add credibility to their claims, the culprit would quote genuine judges’ names and provide legitimate contact numbers to the Supreme Court Information counter or Quality Service Management.

iv. The male accomplice would also ask for the victim’s particulars, which includes his/her NRIC number and bank account details for verification purposes. On two occasions, the culprits(s) were able to provide some of the victim’s details such as the bank account and credit card numbers.

v. The culprit(s) would stress the importance for the victim to deposit the ‘dirty’ money into a specific account which would presumably ‘exonerate’ the victim from the charges he/she faces.

Crime Prevention Measures

3. The Police would like to advise the public to note the following:

i. Ignore any notification calls from unknown persons who claim to be government officials. All notices to attend court hearing would be notified by post or accompanied by an official letter.

ii. Police or court officials would not ask anyone, especially those who is in connection with a criminal case, to make any transfer of funds to unknown bank accounts.

iii. Do not give your personal details such as NRIC and bank account numbers to anyone over telephone or e-mail.

4. Those who receive such calls may wish to pass on such information to the Police at a Neighbourhood Police Centre. Alternatively, you may also contact Community Involvement Division at 6478 2135 for more information.

---

Eight

It's our eighth reunion this year, and eight of us managed to come. Eight is a good number, no? =D Some of you will know why I think that (nothing to do with the Chinese belief of auspicious things). After the record-setting attendance of 19 (?) last year, you'd think it would at least follow some normal curve...

Forgot to bring a camera to the event. -_-|| Somehow I have very little awareness of my possession of that thing (maybe cos I've gotten it free). Ata please remember to upload the photos ya. Don't worry I will remind you for it. Huhuhuh.

Agree with firefly's opinion on the low attendance. For all it's worth, there were last-minute unforeseen circumstances too (some of whom had really wanted to come) and the honest timing issue, so that's not as discouraging as it seems. =P

Admittedly while asking around for confirmation I already had this assumption in my head (that not everyone really wants it) though of course I wouldn't hint on it and encourage the negative response. =D For twenty-four people to feel the same about something is quite unreasonable to expect really.

I have priorities myself, and they don't always follow the queue of obligations. It's probably a bad thing when I was late for appointments because someone was sharing an emotive conversation with me, and I didn't want to break the momentum. (Too heart-ruled?) Low maintenance as they could be, all relationships consume time to a certain extent, and the choices had to be made.

But half-heartedness can be problematic to manage, as we would make compromises and sacrifices only when we feel strongly for something (unless it's a personality trait..) and when I was in the wrong mood I really felt like saying, it's okay if you don't want to come, I understand really; just tell me that so I can focus the planning effort on those of us who want to.

Sorry for that confession, ya. ^^0 It is not a right thing to do, of course, because even while not enthusiastic about it, most of us will still make efforts to connect, either out of care or simply social awareness. And that connection is the important thing, which is why we will still have our ninth (with better planning if I could).

(On this point I'm also feeling bad for not making time for someone whom I usually would.. ah, I've been defeated by money*! >_< )

Am I putting pressure on people with this talk? Hope not. I too might be a reluctant manager who wanted to avoid the responsibility. =P I feed on people's energy and enthusiasm, and I might get impatient when I felt there wasn't enough support that I mistakenly expected.

人間だから、御免ね。


* quoted from Nobuta wo Produce, which, by the way, is a strange drama for managing to be a crack (or is it just the Japanese sense of humour?) while having surprisingly good morale points.