Saturday, March 29, 2003
03:16 p.m.

Watching Guns & Talks again, this time subbed. It's much much better than the previous one. And the bonus isn't disappointing, either. Oh, and the right poster boy is Jung Woo after all.

Feels rather disconcerted when I noticed my (and others') highly agitated state this afternoon. But in other news, my journal isn't lost (thanks God!), although as I have suspected, they haven't checked it.

And today, in the bus, I met another male-claiming-to-be-female-with-breast-cancer. I wonder if they have this scripted. Or maybe they even have a database. You know, Scenario #6, #8, and #13 for Extra Catastrophe? Because what he (or she, whatever) said was just practically the same. Even the sentences were verbatim. Same 2 points, same right side, same cropped hair, etc etc. World.

Think will start Artemis Fowl 2 now. Or finish the synopsis.

Saturday, March 29, 2003
03:14 p.m.

I'm starting to be very sleepy during afternoons. And after afternoon nap, I still get sleepy rather early, around 9/10 pm. Is this my body's way to protest my learning style, or I am really really sick?

In other news, what I wrote on my journal wasn't a lie; I exchange fluency with quality (and lately, grammar). Sigh.

Wednesday, March 26, 2003
02:10 p.m.

Watching Oscar last night, I start thinking, should I get Adaptation? It seems good enough, judging from the kind of awards it got. And Renee's dress was so pretty. Pity she didn't win. And speaking of winning, Spirited Away won (no surprise there!), but Hero didn't. Oh, and I got my hope: Gollum also won.

And why my monitor suddenly stretches itself? Every font now seems like Verdana.

About the animes, Wolf's Rain starts to bore me. It would be cooler if the pace was faster. And Spiral is getting more and more intriguing. As usual, no information about Blade Children (it's already episode 16, for God's sake!). Instead, we get that Eyes (or is it Kanone?) is smarter than Ayumu. Or so it looks to me.

Study now.

Sunday, March 23, 2003
10:32 p.m.

Take the Anime soundtrack Quiz

Sunday, March 23, 2003
10:19 p.m.

cold.. or are you?
Find out what bishonen you are.

Sunday, March 23, 2003
10:00 p.m.

At least I finished reading it. Maybe if I repeat this sentence over and over I'd feel less guilty.

Went to Gramedia again, and lo and behold, there's Hikaru no Go 11. Impressive, because I only bought volume 10 5 days ago! This publisher sure works hard. Not that I'm complaining, judging from the cliffhangers. And about the content: I went "Argh" at the end of Book 10 because of the cliffhanger, now I go "Argh" because of Isumi. Feel very sorry for him.

And what is this about Sai's unsettling feeling? Is this a premonition?

And Sotsugyou M 3: if volume 4 is so f'kin teasers, this volume is outright and blatant gay.

And the other title of the ChickLit? It's Jemima J. And they plan to publish The Nanny Diaries too. If before I noted the tendency of having male chara as the detective, now it seems that this ChickLit genre is full of diaries.

Oh, and the best thing today: one of the 4 books's couple have the very same names as my friends, who are really a couple.

Sunday, March 23, 2003
12:17 p.m.

And after LOTR, here comes the Very Secret Diaries about the Iraqi War. Both are really funny, especially the "Sam will kill him if he tries anything" and "Still not king/still the prettiest" part. The fangirl!Tony is also fabulous. Go read them. I am waiting for the Osama one.

Sunday, March 23, 2003
12:17 p.m.

And I bought Rurouni Kenshin 25 and Q.E.D. 1. Yahiko has really grown up. His spirit is very remarkable.

About QED, it's interesting enough to collect. The story's plausible, and the deduction is quite structured. The more interesting fact is that it features a male main chara yet again. Meitantei COnan has Shinichi/COnan and Heiji. Kindaichi has, well, Kindaichi. Spiral has Ayumu. And QED, even if the main character is actually Kana (the girl), the one who solves the problem is Toma.

Speaking about detective stories, no matter how they have their own uniqueness, they still have the same basic facts. First, the male deducter. Then the female accompanier (Ran and Kazuha, Miyuki, Hiyono, and Kana). The females have this tendency to hit the male (and most of the males fear it). There's also the police officer, often beaten by the male chara in solving the problem).

And also, even not all of them have it (or maybe it hasn't been shown), the story has a looming Big Plot. Conan is haunted by the Men in Black. Ayumu has this Blade Children (still know nothing about it!!) and his brother. Kindaichi doesn't seem to have it, because, as the title says it, it is a collection of Kindaichi's early cases. QED, as I'm still in the first volume, I don't dare to speculate.

And I need to get my mind out of the gutter. Maybe I should stop reading those fangirlism about yaoi in Wolf's Rain.

Sunday, March 23, 2003
12:16 p.m.

I can't believe it. They release Guns & Talks! Complete with the making of and music video! Without dub! Wow!

And Gramedia decides to release 4 novels simultaneously. As a series under the genre 'ChickLit'. The disclaimer says that it's for the "single and happy" ones. Well, it should be obvious, judging from the titles released: Bridget Jones' Diary, Diary of Mad Bride (not the precise title, just glanced at it), Shopaholic Confession (again I just remember the word Shopaholic), and another one I didn't even remember looking at. But aside from the content, must you classify them as that? Or is it already an oficial genre? I feel it restricting; what if someone who's not single, yet happy (or even not a chick!) want to read it, just for the laugh? Or maybe the disclaimer is just made to make the targeted readers feel better about themselves? Because, you know, someone single is usually unhappy?

Or maybe, it's just the Smug Married's way to smite the Singletons. ;P

Saturday, March 22, 2003
03:32 p.m.

Read About A Boy. Very good characterisations, especially Will's. And the journey to the enf of the book is nice and well planned too. I especially like Will's line of thoughts, and Rachel's reasoning about life is pithily expressed. Overall, a charming book. I'll keep an eye for Nick Hornby's other stories.

Still haven't made progress.

Friday, March 21, 2003
03:52 p.m.

And I got Guns & Talks trailer. And Jae Young (the actor's name) played the cool hitman. And I'm so confused now. But probably the right one is the trailer.

The trailer is more action than the silly parts, BTW.

Friday, March 21, 2003
03:42 p.m.

I really should start reviewing the book.

Bought Spiral vol. 4 and Wolf's Rain 2 yesterday, plus Recca 20. And apparently, I missed the newest Kenshin, as my sister not so kindly told me.

Saw the covers for Harry Potter 5 (links in The Leaky Cauldron). The UK version are beautiful, and the US one is really intriguing. Harry looks much older, but in a good way, although methinks GoF cover is by far features the cutest Harry. From those candles and the fonts, it seems that this volume is really darker.

Well, I'll have the UK version for myself, and my sister and I can have the US illustrations by the time Ms Srisanti finishes reading and translating it. Her translation is admittedly good, albeit some misses which can be too faraway (Hagrid's charming bong'sewer was taken literally and translated as "sewer"! Seems that she couldn't find the equivalent of bong.)

Thursday, March 20, 2003
11:02 p.m.

And yet another ridiculous quiz. The more ridiculous thing is that I keep posting them.

My goddamn rock solid ghetto shiznit name is Ass Machine T.
What's yours?
Powered by Rum and Monkey.

Thursday, March 20, 2003
10:14 p.m.

I'm an irredeemably eejitous, liberal, not-too-generous, not-too-selfish, pathetically simple-minded, dribbling child!
See how compatible you are with me!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Um...dribbling? The child part I don't mind, but dribbling?

Tuesday, March 18, 2003
10:11 a.m.

Argh. Persentation is not too good. Really hope the writing score will cover it up. Argh. Must rehearse.

Tuesday, March 18, 2003
09:57 a.m.

It is foolish to not memorise the table. It is pure luck to be able to get half of the content right.

But when you give announcement to study the first 3 chapters, please don't make a question about something that is in Chapter 12. And my journal's whereabouts is not certain too. I'm so not making another 8 entries in one go again, especially when I'm supposed to have my well-deserved break. Why don't you make an arrangement so that this person handles a, b, and c, while that one handles the others? It is so much easier to handle, both to the lecturers and the students' benefit.

Guns & Talks
It is funny. Won Bin is adorable. Jung Woo (or Jae Young--various reviews on the net always mangled these two. I'm pretty sure it's Jung Woo though, the subtitles said Chang Wu. It's the sniper I'm referring to.) unexpectedly becomes my fave character, although the other three are also charming in their own way. But, the ending! I didn't get it at all. Of course, it could be blamed on my copy, which was dubbed in Mandarin. It's okay if the dubbing was good, but the dubbing was so horrible. Besides the usual flat tone, they just overwrote the original voices with the dub, so we could hear both the original and the dub at the same time.

But without the dub, I think I might still don't get it. Why the police, after tirelessly following them, suddenly decided to cancel the chase? Is it because Sang Yeon's surrender in the end? Because his constant bravery in front of (or, more accurately, behind) death (I found the interaction with the child was so endearing)?

Also, (and this can be blame fully on the dub) did they abandon killing after that? Why the bicker in the end? How could they accept the girl? Maybe as their cook?

Nevertheless, aside from the weak resolution, this movie is really entertaining. Some of the memorable dialogues:
Jung Woo (in a confession): I have killed 5 man.
Priest: Oh, a basketball team?

Jae Young (the bomb expert): I don't want to kill!
Sang Yeon: Fine, make him a smoker then.

And of course, the left-hand scene and Ha Yeon's declamation of the meaning of love are just priceless. Really priceless. Sang Yeon's actor (Shin Hyun Joon) really knew how to make tortured face like that.


My Sassy Girl
I must say, although I enjoy Guns & Talks very much, this movie is more superior to it as a whole. Good plot, nice story, and (for myself) an unexpected ending. I really want to find the original story, but I guess it's in Korean.

That's said, but actually I still can't comprehend what kind of man could accept total domination (bordering on abuse, even) like that. And he didn't even love her or anything at first.

Still, thumbs up for the main actor. I heard that this movie was Cha Tae Hyeon's debut, and his acting had been that good. It is clearly apparent that he put a lot of effort into this movie, not to mention a lot of patience to accept the abuses. Especially the high heel scene. And Asian's films is getting bolder and bolder too. I've seen Cha's and Jet Li's behind now.

For Jeon Ji Hyeon: the hair. Damn, the hair. Other than that, she's just fine.

And for the person writing the online review about this movie and terming Cha's face as 'constipated': I second you.

Sunday, March 16, 2003
06:16 p.m.

Oh yes. Finally it's done.
Final verdict: 3488 words, 15 pages (incl cover and bibliography), and now it's 6 pm. Can I manage?

On the less stressful thingie, I went to UI Book Fest on Friday and bought Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Il Principe. Got Il Principe for 15.000, although judging from its look, I should keep bargaining. Oh well, it's the content that counts. Although I also wonder when I'm gonna finish all of those books stacked in my wardrobe.

Another amusing referrer I got is "SIA Stewardess Interview". I looked on Yahoo to find out why my page is included in the hits, and it turned out that it's the combination of Sia Tiauw Eng Hiong, JKR's interview, and my complain about GAruda's stewardess calling me Mam.

Think will post this and study. Maybe will write reviews tomorrow. Hope there wil be no essay.

Sunday, March 16, 2003
10:23 a.m.

Watched My Sassy Girl. Really good. Will write more later.