My previous layout focus series: Bijo ga Yajyo is actually licensed! I didn't know about it until recently, when I started thinking about the new layout. Needless to say, I'm quite happy to hear that. Coz now everyone who wanted to know about it can just go out to buy it and read! And then join me in thinking how cool Wanichin is. Haha. Really, do give it a try, the story is pretty cute, imo. XD I voted in the federal election and the outcome was as expected. I can't say I like C, because I don't, but I don't totally dislike a C minority, b/c they'll have to do good to stay in power. I do agree with some saying that if nothing goes terribly wrong, this gov will be around for some time... I guess we all have to give them time to see if they'll do any good. Oh, a big part of why I don't like C is coz SH looks fake and ebil. And I really hope he's not like bushes.... >.> Oh, the person that always pops up out of nowhere is indeed in _the_ course (not in my section thou, I think?).... =___= How do I know this? I was asking the instrutor a question at the end of class (I went to the other section coz I want my schedule to be a certain way), and when i finished, I looked in front of me and there's this body blocking my view, so out of habit, I glanced up and then :O there's the _face_. =__=||| Why do I always run into this person? This is already the 2nd time in the new semester and the sem is only barely started! H and karin should know who I'm talking about...... >.> Next next, I can eat a box (6pc.) of those sushi (of mixed varieties, from T&T) really fast, especially when I'm hungry. I buy them really late, coz there are days when I get off school really late and by the time I get home, it'll be closed to midnight. So these sushi, if I buy them, becomes my dinner. XD I don't think it takes me more than 10 mins to finish the box. :3 They're really tasty too! However, no matter how much I'm tempted now to try sushi buffet, I know I'm still not cut out for it. Reason is the rice in sushi is really filling, and it doesn't take me long to be full. :x But! I'm willing to go if the price is reasonably affordable! More Japanese related things, I finally find out what donburi is, they look pretty good, but I don't know if they're tasty. :T Takoyaki is still my wuv. XD One of these days, I'll also want to try okonomiyaki. :D Made a booboo at the layout, more like an oversight, so had to make some minor changes. :T Speaking of layouts, J's new layout is VERY pretty, and professional looking. It feels like a home, and I really like the colour scheme. :D Bro found out about the show I was and still am watching.. and he said it's dumb, which in a way, is. Haha. I'm slowly trying to make him watch it. Hehe. XDDDDD And lastly, Happy Chinese New Year! 祝大家新年快樂,身體健康,學業進歩,心想事成,and恭喜發財lor~ :D

*spoilers everywhere, read at your own risk!*

Brokeback Mountain - Went with H and her sis to watch at one cheap tuesday some time ago, and I finally get why HL is the main actor and JG is the supporting one after watching the movie. I was wondering before seeing it, because I thought they were equal leads in the movie. But the story seems to more or less revolves around E. He is the conflicted one who causes grief to pretty much everyone in his life. J is more the wifey type... Heh. And for the end, althou it is sad and all, I can't help but think he deserves it. This is definitely an art house film. XD No wonder Ang Lee wasn't expecting it would make any money.

I laughed (and so did other audiences) at the part E's wife saw them kissing behind the stairs(? forgive my fuzzy memory). A normal reaction, if you put yourself into the wife's shoes, would be shocked -> hurt, but I just couldn't help it. ^^;

What I find memorable is the part when J's wife answered E's phonecall about J's death. It seems to imply that all along she does care about J, and possibly still love him, even thou you don't see much of that husband and wife bond between them. And I guess it pains her to finally confirm that there really is a "fishing buddy" and is bitter that the memory of Brokeback is indeed more cherishable than all that she had with her husband.

I didn't cry, but I did get a bit misty at that part. Cause it is just so disheartening. I couldn't brawl thou, due to various reasons: I wasn't able to engross myself into the story, and like the story I read, it didn't touch me to the point where I would cry. Not that the acting wasn't good, but the whole movie experience was rather different. I think I still prefer to see happy and fun movies in the theatre. ^^; I find the movie somewhat slow, and most importantly, I don't understand the constant mumble jumble cowboy speak. But I did feel the shirts together in the end gives the movie a perfect wrap up, as it symbolizes the regret, the grief, and the last attempts at all that could've been.

I was shocked by the blunt ooxx at the beginning, even thou you wouldn't think I would be. (So, as a side note, and advice to karin: this movie is not for you. ^^;; It also has some nudity. :T) But since my visualing and reading works separately, the impact of reading and actual seeing is very different. In the end, I was too embarassed to look at the screen, and had to cover my eyes. :P But, as the time moves along, I got less uncomfortable with the kisses (plural, but there really aren't that many), which are.. I think.. nicely done? Haha.

In terms of story, I really like the way it ends. In a way, I can't bring myself to feel very sad, coz everything was E's fault. :P In my mind, it makes total sense that he would be alone, because one thing that's consistent with this character is pushing people away. On one hand, he's confined by society's view, but it's also in his nature to alienate. Yes, it is sad and tragic, but he's human, and flawed.

As a movie, I really like the score. I was kinda miff that it didn't win in the GGA (lost to "geisha", which was composed by John Williams, whom I heard is a great composer). But I find the music fits the melancholy atmosphere of the movie perfectly. And even thou the theme song won, I actually don't recall hearing it (plus, when I heard the small clip of it in GG, I didn't really like it), so that wasn't very consoling.

Recently I've come to realise that some Chinese directors do really make an effort in good movie making, and I am quite glad to see this also in Ang Lee. His shots of the scenaries made the mountains such a carefree, yet lonely place, and his use of colours just rightfully portrays the bleakness of it all. For those who can read Chinese, Ang Lee was at a HK movie discussion panel recently and this newspaper article mentioned some of his views on the making of this movie. After reading it, I can't help but wish there are more of these directors in the movie business making good movies.

My only regret after seeing this is that I read the story long before I saw it, so I wasn't able to have that very raw first impression. In a way, I am glad that I read it, coz I honestly don't understand, nor can I hear half of the words that were mumbled out of HL's mouth. But since I read the story before, I knew more or less what to expect with the storyline. The only parts I don't recall were the times that J went to look for "companions", and that J went and took up house with another in the end (althou I did know of these parts b/c I was spoiled by someone's review already), and then there's J's wife's expression/reaction to E's phonecall. Is that a fresh take, or originally in the story? I didn't read the story very carefully, so I might have missed it. But I wasn't too shock of J's decisions, he is the needier of the two, and it is only inevitable.

As for my movie experience, the theatre was actually not as packed as I thought, even for a tuesday, but there were a lot more guys than I expected. I think most of them came with some female companions thou. Heh. XD I was a bit disappointed that I didn't brawl, coz I even brought tissue paper just in case! But I ended up not needing it.. :x Don't know, I think it wasn't heart-wrenching enough for me (or maybe I'm just numbed by too many past fic reading ^^;). I guess you have to have gone thru the emotional pain of losing something or someone you hold dear to understand it.

As a final note, I think I'll want to see it again, but only when it comes out on dvd. I need the subtitle to help me understand the dialogues. Heh. Underworld: Evolution - Haha, oddly enough, I want to see this, but only on tv. XD I saw the first one on tv during my ny trip a few months ago. And I must say, it was oddly entertaining, albeit for all the wrong reasons. Haha. It was a good way to pass an hour or so of time in the middle of the night, mostly by laughing at it and pointing out things that don't make sense.

I'm curious to know who'll win the war and how long it'll take. XD (Yes, I'm aware that most people (guys) want to see it for another reason. Hoho.) The way the first movie ended clearly left it open for a sequel. If you've seen it, you'll know what I mean. At the time, I was wondering why they left it like that, so I was half guessing there will be a second Underworld. What's surprising to me is that people actually like the first one enough to have the second one made. Did it actually made a lot of $$? Anyway, I wonder if there'll be some actual/coherent plot in Evolution, or just more fighting? I'm thinking it'll be the latter, hence I'll wait till it comes on tv. The wolves and vampires in the first movie were scary thou. ~_~ Pride & Prejudice - I still haven't seen it. :T *bummed*

Phew~ *wipes sweat off forehead* After weeks of layout torment, and I do mean _torment!_, I have finally managed to get this baby out. I did say before that the layout for this year will be a bit late, it just turns out to be MUCH later than I thought. This *looks around* is the reason I've been MIA. I want to post in the new year with a brand new look, therefore, even thou things happened, I had to hold off on blogging until this is done.

I started this during christmas break, so I did have a few days before new years to work on it. However, throughout the whole layout building process, I just wasn't very productive. It's like the eating advice, eat less but frequent, my layout comes out at small chunks at a time, even thou I was always working on it.

Everyday, or almost everyday, I would work on this graphic here or that piece of code there, and if I didn't like the look of it, I would scrap and redo. Almost every piece or element here has gone through one or two changes. Hence it took me weeks, and not days, to finish with something I can finally put on display.

At first, I had planned on getting this out on the first day of school because.. I didn't want to put it off for too long and have it nag at me when school starts. But well, as you can see right now, that plan didn't work out. ^^;; In fact, almost all "original plans" I had at the beginning just went down the drain. I think, the only thing here that is unchanged from the beginning is the picture.

I was 90% certain that I would use, or highlight (whatever you want to call it), this series for 2006 partly because of the blurb I said over there *points to the right*. This manga just gives me such a happy feeling that I want to keep with me as I go through 2006. But.. I guess you wouldn't be able to tell from the colours of the page. ^^;; (and karin, you were pretty close to guess this could be predominantly blue, but it is actually very purple, not my favourite colour, but one thing leads to another, and in the end, it seems to match...) However, with this colour scheme, I'm afraid I would feel it an eye sore months from now. It is so heavily cool that I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to stand the sombreness of it all. I sure hope it won't come down to that.

My initial idea was sort of spring-ish, so it could represent a "fresh" start of a new year. But the colours of the picture stand out so much that I end up not being able to keep with the soft and light theme. I suppose I could tone down the colours, but I didn't want the picture to be treated as a background, thus losing my intented focus on the series.

Another item I wanted to incorporate into the layout was the argyle shape, since I find it classy and preppy. However, many of the patterns and colour combinations I tried didn't look good at all. So in the end, I compromised with the rotated square pattern, which also happens to be another shape I'm favouring at the moment. I am also concerned of argyle being out of style during the year, so to be on the safe side, just in case North America -- always the last to catch on to many trends -- decided that the style is no longer mainstream, I wouldn't be stuck with an outdated look on the blog. :P However, I may be worrying over it too much because argyle doesn't seem to be out of style yet in the east. It's definitely been around for quite some time, I saw evidence of the trend on clothes from 2004!

Another block I went into was how to decorate the entries. I don't want it to be simple and boring, yet I also don't want anything too fancy. After visiting some JP sites for inspiration, I decided to try pixel art for fun. :D In the end, it is still simple, but the touch of colour brings attention to the page (I hope...).

Last but definitely not the least of my problems, the actual css coding was extremely time consuming (and frustrating), mainly because I am a css newbie and was doing a lot of trial and error before getting the look I want. I think, after this is over, I'll be looking up some css tutorial to learn a few proper rules. I also was trying to make the layout compatible in both FF and IE. That was definitely the most frustrating part. In fact, to this day, there are still some minor bugs that cause the page to look funny in IE. Hence, I would still advise y'all to visit here with FF, because the page looks the prettiest there. Oh, and I know that FF1.5 is out, but I don't have it, so I have no idea if there'll be any differences in page rendering, hope there isn't any thou.

Finally, to be honest, I'm not a 100% happy with the layout, partly b/c I actually feel it a step backward from my previous designs. This is my first time coding a whole entire page in css, hence I am reluctant to have a complicated look that I can't code with. Furthermore, most css designs are rather clean, thus I feel my layout is less fancy than before, and may even be borderline-boring. :T Note that I haven't done any special edits/effects to the picture. But I digress. This is the first time over the last few weeks that I have the "done" sign in my head, so I'm not going to ignore it and have decided to make the layout a go. :) Hope no one was expecting much from this! :P Oh! And the new counter started count months ago, it will be replacing my no longer working previous counter.

Tata for now, next up: new year post 2 of most likely 3.