Saturday, September 22, 2007

Today is Tom Felton's birthday!
On the other hand, Bleach: Memories of Nobody is UBER NICE.
Please watch it for the rampant overtones of relationships, the cool fighting and nice bittersweet plot ending.
The uber badass (term of endearment) is not much of a worry though. But it just kicks butt to see Kenpachi(plus Yachiru), Hitsugaya, Yumichika, Madarame, Iba, Hisagi, Matsumoto, Kira, Soifong, Renji, Rukia (we see her shikai! Woot) and Byakuya-hime there to kick other people's butts. It's just very nice.
Ichigo actually looks good for once. As in, well, he's always frowning and pissing people off, so it's nice to see a pensive, vaguely wistful and angsty Ichigo once in a while. The manga doesn't have much of those with his mum.
And what is with that purple ugly dress, Rukia?! Byakuya-hime would be so disappointed in you! His first sentence was great: 'Do not be upset that your clan will be extinct' though he had only two lines in the entire movie.
I think.

Posted by norbert at 9/22/2007 02:05:00 AM

Friday, September 21, 2007

‘Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that has.’ Margaret Mead
Yes, well, Ratatouille has a nice French song as its theme, which is called ‘Le Festin’, which means ‘The Feast’. (Yes, it’s remarkable/scary how efficient I can be when I’m obsessed about something.) Today Rachel, Fariha and me/I watched the movie about a rat, which reminds me of Terry Pratchett’s reply for his book ‘The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents’ – how the producer hadn’t wanted to do the movie because ‘no one wants to see a movie about rats’, on which Terry Pratchett remarked that the producer should regret it, as it’s like saying ‘no one wants to see a movie where the ship sinks in the end’.
But alas, we did something really quite stupid. See, the movie was at 4.10pm at theatre 4. We reached there in time and entered the theatre, only to see that the show had already started. Okay so we sat down and watched it happily – until 5pm aroundish.
Then we realized that something was wrong.
We had entered the wrong theatre and watched the right movie at the wrong time. So we went out and entered the correct theatre only to watch the same part again.
It ended around 6pm and it was really quite good, the movie, aside from the fact that we watched the exact same parts twice without actually knowing what went on in the first half of the movie.
(I am getting the song as I type this – I am quite happy – I’ll be posting the lyrics and translation. Might not be perfect. I don’t know a word of French and the translator couldn’t listen properly to some words.)
Aside from that little disappointment, the movie had its wonderful moments, especially at the end, when Anton Ego gives his critique. I like one of his sentences – ‘Not anyone can be a great artist but a great artist can be found anywhere.’ Colette was wonderful as well; I love her French accent. And Brad Bird, the director did it again! For The Incredibles, he voiced Edna Mode, the superhero designer because ‘no one could do her voice to his satisfaction’ but he said that because he was free and available. In Ratatouille, he voiced Ambrister, the assistant of Ego – though I liked the health inspector more. His drawling is wonderful.
(I got the song! It’s quite cute – really floaty and almost whimsical)

Thursday was interesting as well – went swimming again for the first time in a year! Felt fantastic when I jumped in and kicked off – it was great to be back into the water again – though I would have died before jumping into the water a couple of years back.
I was doing actual lapping with Rachel and Yuanhan, Vincent and Jinken who tagged along just came for the sun-tanning and random kicks they get out of doing weird tricks in the water.
So for me, going to the other end was freestyle and coming back was breast stroke. So it was unfortunate enough for me to see everything, and I mean everything, that they were doing.
When I first came back, Jinken was doing the doggy paddle. It is extremely disturbing to see an almost full grown guy do the doggy paddle, especially when you know who it is. It was Jinken for goodness sake. I stopped and gulped a lot of chlorine.
I chased him out of the water.
The second time when I returned, Jinken was doing handstands in the water. Not the nice ones, the ones where he’s struggling to stand by kicking his legs ala the flipside camera you can take underwater.
This time, I chased Vincent and Jinken out of the water.
Third time back was the best – ultimate joke of all. The duo sank under water and assumed the Bodhisattva position before rising again in a sea of bubbles. I couldn’t take it. I stopped and turned and laughed a lot, swallowing a lot of chlorine before I returned with my eyes closed.
Then Vincent ran away, because it was his idea.
Vincent’s version of running away is highly entertaining. What he does is that he goes to deeper water and huddles underwater in a fetal position. This completely confuses me, because I merely need to swim over and rap his head really hard, or poke him really hard and he rises again in a flurry of bubbles. Ridiculous, really.
Hence we had a lot of fun in the swimming pool. I am quite happy – I got a bit darker!
After swimming we went to Subway where we had a snack and some fun. Vincent was complaining about Subway’s prices, Yuanhan argued with him on that and everyone knew that Jinken naturally got the most expensive meal. I tell you, no one can talk to Vincent without arguing with him. Fariha was saying today that when she and Vincent were SGLs for Orientation, they argued about everything; food, teams, games, the works – to the point where they stopped talking to each other. Then the next day, everything would be okay and the whole cycle would repeat again.
Vincent then began a tirade on the entire US crisis about the Estate prices and stuff. It was quite interesting but Economics just sidles past me with a grin and a shrug.
Then he had the brilliant idea to put his napkin across his face in such a manner that reminded us vaguely of bandits. Jinken saw him doing it and copied it and they took a few pictures with that and the Subway wrapper. I call that advertising.
As usual, Vincent said something to annoy me again, and since I was eating ice, I remarked that I had ice, a straw and the fact that he was sitting directly opposite me. Vincent grinned and replied that he had ice, a straw, the fact that I was sitting opposite him and, get this, a big mouth.
Everyone cracked up then – Vincent finally admitting that he had a big mouth is one of the most priceless moments in ODAC history because he has NEVER admitted to having one before, though we all know it.
Rachel was kinda disappointed that we didn’t record down that momentous event.
Alas, we can’t have all things in life, Rachel.

Ah prelims are over and I am currently slacking this week away by doodling, going online, finding manga, songs, reading random stuff and being completely and utterly bored. It’s quite relaxing. But I mustn’t slack too much! It’s disgusting how we’re getting back our results and knowing how (badly) we’ve done. And it’s called being realistic, not pessimistic. But well! All is not lost! I shall just have to read my notes more. Though this is probably the third or fourth time I’m doing so already. And I've been randomly listening to songs as well, you should really go and see the MV for Nickelback's If Everybody Cared, which is a good and meaningful song.
Smee! Send me UVERworld's Shaka Beach Laka Laka! It's such a random and nice song! XD

Ratatouille – Le Festin by Camille
http://community.livejournal.com/rat_a_too_ee/9793.html

Les rêves des amoureux sont comme le bon vin
Ils donnent de la joie ou bien du chagrin
Affaibli par la faim je suis malheureux
Volant en chemin tout ce que je peux
Car rien n’est gratuit dans la vie.

Éspoire est un plât bien trop vite consommé
À sauter les repas je suis habitué
Un voleur, solitaire, est triste à nourrir (this is a pun off of 'triste à mourrir' and 'nourrir'; see here)
À nous, je suis amer, je veux réussir
Car rien n’est gratuit dans la vie.

Jamais on ne redira que la course aux étoiles, ça n’est pas pour moi
Laisser moi vous émerveillez, prendre mon envol
Nous allons enfin nous réga….(ler) (the 'ler' is the end of the verb but isn't actually sung. I think it's more implied; you can still tell what's meant)

À la prête fin enfin nous (prends ce... / danse.....) (see here for a discussion on what the word could be)
Et sortez les bouteilles, finis les ennuis
Je dresse la table, demain nouvelle vie
Je suis heureux a l'idée de ce nouveau destin
Une vie à me cacher, et puis libre enfin
Le festin est sur mon chemin
Une vie à me cacher et puis libre enfin
Le festin est sur mon chemin. . . .



The Feast (translation of Le Festin)

The dreams of lovers are like good wine
They give joy or even sorrow
Weakened by hunger, I am unhappy
Stealing on my way everything I can
Because nothing in life is free.

Hope is a dish too soon finished
I am accustomed to skipping meals
A thief alone and hungry is sad enough to die (This isn't a direct translation at all, but it's the best way I could think of to explain the pun)
As for us, I am bitter, I want to succeed
Because nothing in life is free.

Never will they say again that I cannot shoot for the stars;
Let me fill you with wonder, let me take flight
We will finally fea . . . (st).

In the close future we will finally (dance / take this....??)
And take away the bottles, the troubles are over
I set the table; tomorrow is a new life
I am happy at the idea of this new destiny
A life spent in hiding, and now I'm finally free
The feast is on my path
A life spent in hiding, and now I'm finally free
The feast is on my path. . . .

Posted by norbert at 9/21/2007 09:54:00 PM

Saturday, September 15, 2007

THERE IS A GOD.
Well, okay, there has always been a God. But still. It’s umm, figurative. A matter of speaking.
…
Okay, fine. THANK YOU, GOD.
Really, I am insanely happy to have recovered from my bout of painful swallowing and the mild cough which came after that. I am dying to eat chicken. I haven’t had it for at least 2 weeks. (Actually, I had it today.)
And chocolate. But I had that yesterday. And it was quite delicious and wonderful, to eat chocolate again.
Chocolate is good. Makes you feel really high and happy and random and hyper and –
Oh man, even Jinken commented on it on the day of my Bio paper, that I was tra-la-la-ing around and being generally very high and random.
It’s all that pent up energy! I’m like really high on oxygen now. It’s mad and insane and random but really nice. I haven’t felt this good in weeks.
… Aside from the fact that I am in the midst of my Prelims now. It’s really weird. On one side I am like ‘IT’S THE PRELIMS LIKE OH MY GOODNESS IT’S THE PRELIMS!’ and on the other side, it’s ‘Ah, it’s only the Prelims’. So I’m pretty conflicted and I feel like an IDIOT.
I feel like I should study and I feel that I shouldn’t. I don’t know how to say it.
Okay, I do.
I DON’T WANT TO STUDY.
*wail*
But I shall have to gut that out and sit down and study! Really! I can’t get by like this forever! I shall study. It’s really…
Hmmm. I read Skip Beat! recently. That is, I read from the first volume to the 16th volume in 3 days. Wednesday night was volume 1 to 4, Thursday was volume 5 to 10, and then today was 11 to 16.
(NELLYN YOU SHOULD BE STUDYING)
Yes but really, the main lead is quite inspiring and very cool. Aside from the traditional shoujo stuff, it’s really quite good – like how she uses acting to really bring out her qualities and everything.
And she has cute demons. They’re extremely efficient in cursing people to do what she wants for them.
But the later volumes are a bit creepy!
Sigh. I shan’t bore my nonexistent readers with this.
And Smee! I think you’ve converted me to an UVERworld fan! Ahh!
This is weird! As in, I’ve liked bands before, here and there but ahh! This is weird!
I shall go and reflect on life and Oreo cheesecakes. That shall be my greatest wish now. To eat an Oreo cheesecake. I don’t remember eating them at all. I shall have to try it one day.
Now to reflect, and to study Chemistry. Monday’s my last paper! Let ligands not affect my soul with their negative charges!
(Actually, not all ligands are negatively charged. There are the ones that have no charge at all, but decide to hang around and annoy Chem students like me with their nonexistent charges and desire to cling onto the poor metal ion.)

Extra random bit:
Wait wait! Now I shall entertain you with amusing questions from my Biology paper. I tell you, they are very amusing people, the Biology section in my school. They ask the weirdest of questions.
For example, there was this question about this sort of bacteria that gives you some sickness that I can’t really remember the name now, I know it starts with S, it’s either Salmonella or Shigella or Staphylococcus aureus but it think it’s the last one – but anyway, they were saying that the bacteria resided in your large intestine even after the person’s cured and there’s no visible symptoms.
Weird question arises: Explain how the bacteria can be transmitted to infect others.
First reaction: Ah. Crap.
Really! As in – well, really!
So we were all confused and thinking of how to phrase it nicely, because it’s painfully obvious how the disease can be spread (you really don't need bio sort of knowledge for this) – then I just gave up and wrote: Having disturbing habits like not washing your hands after visiting the washroom.
As in, really! How are YOU going to phrase it?
We were discussing it after the paper – how does one phrase it nicely and tactfully so that no one gets insulted in the marking of the paper?
Ah I was random again for the paper, one question; I had no time and just wrote down ‘I forgot’ as the answer. It was a 2m question…
And today’s paper 3. I swear they ran out of questions to ask us.
It’s an applications paper – you don’t ask us about theory stuff like why DNA behaves this way!
And here’s the answer to the question on everyone’s mind – how do stem cells differentiate into other cells?
Answer: So, to generate cultures of specific types of differentiated cells—heart muscle cells, blood cells, or nerve cells, for example—scientists try to control the differentiation of embryonic stem cells. They change the chemical composition of the culture medium, alter the surface of the culture dish, or modify the cells by inserting specific genes.
I got so irritated that I went online to check.
I wrote down: Uh, stimulation of some genes? *Prods*
Yes I wrote down *prods* because I didn’t know what else to write! I was contemplating writing that the scientist would call the nucleus and ask it to differentiate nicely.
Ugh but I just made it in time so no time to change.
End extra random bit.

Posted by norbert at 9/15/2007 12:32:00 AM

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

HEAR YE HEAR YE, DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS LINE IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BORED OUT OF YOUR MIND BY A PISSED OFF TEENAGER.
This stinks. Royally. Big time. It’s the damn ultimate insult of all and so insanely stupid that stupid doesn’t even begin to cover it.
It is of the ultimate insult to be sick and dying of hunger when the house is stocked full with delicious snacks and biscuits and fruits and goodies to tempt the fat girl out of every thin girl so much so that she comes out dancing to what, ‘Hoist the Colours’ from PotC.
(I’m sorry. I just uhh. Got distracted.)
But no. I have to lie here at home, wasting away in the light of all the damn good food around the house that I can’t eat because it hurts my throat to even drink WATER.
H2O. One of the most harmless compounds (I nearly said elements) on this Earth, only if you’re not an alien and you don’t inhale/take in too much of it. Else osmosis comes into play and you go splat, faster then one can say ‘Uh oh.’
I am dropping kilos like Galileo drops bricks from The Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is that disgusting.
That’s all good and dandy when you don’t want to eat but when you’re like me, who doesn’t really bother about the weight-gaining process when it comes to eating; it’s terribly, horribly insulting to just see the food disappear before your very eyes, not because you were eating it.
Oh my goodness I am waxing lyrical about being sick.
This is stupid.
It wasn’t so bad the first time round, at least the ball of pins and needles moved from the right of my throat to infiltrate the whole throat (which made me feel less lopsided and more on terms with it) and it went away when you ate hot stuff (yes my beautiful bowl of fish noodles).
But this one insists upon sitting on the right of my throat, refusing to budge an inch, no wait, it DID move to expand further up and out so much so that my tongue hurts now too and my right ear is half blocked by I have no idea what. Shoot, is that bad?
So talking becomes another painful topic.
Not to mention you can’t eat.
I have not eaten a full meal in two days. Well today was worst, I didn’t even eat finish a single meal. It was porridge.
I wanted to cry.
Here was food, delicious and hot and just waiting for me to eat it (Re: Hoist the Colours, Falalala) but no. It hurts to open my mouth, it hurts to chew, it hurts to swallow and best of all, it hurts when you’re not even doing anything with your mouth.
It’s no longer some ball of pins and needles, it’s become this huge spearhead of pins and needles. So the pins hurt and then the great spear point pokes you as well and it’s hell from then on as you repeat the process.
I have realised how many times in a day I swallow, to get rid of saliva, random stuff in my mouth, to drink blessed water.
It’s like an infection.
And the doctor had the gall to say yesterday: ‘Oh, it’s just a minor inflammation, see it hasn’t even expanded through your throat yet, no tonsillitis or anything, no worries.’
Woman. I cannot swallow my saliva without wincing in pain. What, no worries?!
It’s throbbing. I can feel it. *wriggles fingers*
And I feel just so damn weak. It’s annoying. I can’t eat and I am weak and I need to study. I spent today doing a bit of Biology and Chemistry and the rest of the day lolling about in a semi-alive state.
My prelims are coming! This is ridiculous!
Now watch me as I loll about some more on the internet before I accidentally get shot or something.
On a happier note, today’s Spongebob Squarepants episode featured ‘The Camping Episode’. It was nice to hear the ‘C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G’ song again and watch Squidwald get chased around by the Sea-Bear and the Sea-Rhinoceros.
On another happier note, I found this interesting PotC fanlisting which gives you funny quotes from all three movies at every page. I just love Jack Sparrow.
Do not talk to me about food. I will eat you. Or give you to someone who will.

Posted by norbert at 9/04/2007 09:16:00 PM