Of Friends: Past, Present, and Imaginary

I feel like writing, so this time you'll have to bear with the long rambling plain prose instead of the cryptic poems -- most of which probably only understood by Eka who knows the background story in my life, anyway. xD
>> [INSERT] Voltaire: "Anything too stupid to be said is sung." =3

Met my namesake today -- my high school schoolmate, used to be the president of the student union ('Ketua OSIS' =D). That was one of the qualifiers people distinguished us with back then. Ah, nostalgic. Surprisingly it didn't feel strange referring to her with my own name. ...Well, I do like my name. xD *narcissistic much?* (Mom and Dad, おつかれさまでした! =) *bows*)

She's visiting for the long weekend holiday, and I met up with her together with DIsk. Updates, updates, people's (and our own) marriage status/history, reliving of old nicknames.. We Indonesians are really quite creative (and fearless) in conjuring up outrageous nicknames huh.

Eka joined us for a while since I had a prior appointment with her, and I was glad that all of us had a lively talk despite my usual practice of keeping my different cliques separate from each other (Eka knew DIsk but not my schoolmate). I think the indifferent me should learn from her some of that interest and curiosity about other people's lives. ^^0

Eka and I then set off on a hunting journey for the camera she wanted. It occurred to me that we are quite some geeks, lol, though we fancy slightly different ranges of gadgets, probably. I don't know much about cameras and that plus my natural neutrality has triggered Hady's skepticism over my 'usefulness' in Eka's buying process. I wonder if the need for moral support is a feminine concept that most guys do not practice? xD Even then I think neither Eka nor I have much of this feminine trait in us; she only calls on my support when it's something very expensive and I mostly only ask for technical opinions. (I'm painfully slow in deciding on a purchase, but that's a different issue, right.)

My small reunion has also triggered the talk about our own schooling pasts, and Eka was amazed at how different our lives could have turned out if we had made different decisions regarding our entrance to NUS. I might have known her brother instead of her! Ahaha, I guess we had a very fruitful talk today. Like, on the possible reason that we click well with each other. In Japanese personality terms, I'd be an M and she (as well as certain others I'm close with) would be an S? =D (I do hope I'm not treading on dangerous sub-context here. xD)

In a way, interacting with these 'S' friends has made me work on my laid-back attitude towards issues that are important to them, made me improve personality flaws I wouldn't have bothered with otherwise. And despite the occasional discomfort, it is probably a subconscious appeal that makes the relationship interesting and pulls me further towards them. I could only hope befriending me has something of similar benefit to them, probably to train their tolerance and patience towards laid-back people like me? Ahahaha.
>> [INSERT] Christina Aguilera: "Makes me work a little bit harder... so thanks for making me a fighte~r!" =D

Eka blogged about her tendency towards the negative and I guess I'm kinda the positive polar there (hopefully)... though I'm still not influencing her much. ^^0 I aspire for positiveness, I admire positiveness, and I think I still can't stand people who are too negative, but it's curious that I did find someone close to that ideal but that never pulls me as strongly as other aspects in my less-positive proved-and-tried close friends.

In this aspect, I'm very much a my-pace person -- I do things at my own pace -- even though I think it might not work for everyone's situation. My life has been very, very fortunate. I have my down and distressed moments too, certainly, but they pass soon enough; I cross the bridge when it comes, things come to me in time. Reading Eka's blog about her worries, I do think there are worthwhile worries that we should worry and then do something about... just that these haven't been very difficult for me, with all the help I've been getting and all the 貴人 I've met, bless them. Well, in the same spirit as above, I hope knowing people with serious worries will keep me from getting complacent. =S

Now, some celebrity news, since I find myself caring about them. =))

Ayaka, whom I'm a half-fan of, is now married to Mizushima Hiro, an actor I only knew from Hanakimi drama. I thought she was too young for it, but apparently the boyfriend proposed because she'd been battling a disease she only revealed recently, and he wanted to better support her in the treatment as her husband. She's always impressed me as someone mature, and while I don't know much about the guy, this clarification surely convinced me that she has married a really good person. The sad news is that she'll have to put her career on hold to concentrate on the treatment, after this year. I'm certainly looking forward to the comeback of that talent! Winding Road is now all the more uplifting when I'm down with my own insignificant troubles.
>> [INSERT] ayaka x Kobukuro: "Up ahead on the winding road, the self I dreamed about on that day is waiting for me..."

Then... Good Friday was Tsuyoshi's 30th birthday. Lol, it makes me uneasy to be remembering the birthday of someone I don't even know in person, but he did make it a big affair by releasing a single plus an album and holding a special concert on that day. The album music in general isn't much to my taste, but the single has beautiful (if rather emo) lyrics and the whole sky theme he uses for them easily gets me sold. Oh, the inexplicable charms this man has over thousands of us. xD
>> [INSERT] Tsuyo-shi: "[I] can't say, can't heal, can't erase, [the fact that] I love you..."

Lastly, I've started to follow American Idol again. =D At first out of curiosity for this Adam person firefly has been speaking highly of, and to a certain extent, the need to keep up with the conversations of some close friends, ahahah. Well, I soon think highly of him, too. And of Matt, whose performance I can always appreciate, somehow, no matter what the judges think. I have to stream the show on campus though, since I don't have a TV, and when I graduate this month I'll have to tap on all my leeching skills to find it online, I guess. ^^0

Long weekend, long long post. Submitting my thesis next week and will be moving on to the next stage of my research life. Yosh~