meh.

Movie review! (Haha, what rubbish.)

I just finished Ponyo (yes, I know it's a little late, but I assure you I'm watching Arriety as soon as I can), but I didn't really like it all that much. Which is an unusual thing for me to say about a Ghibli film - a Miyazaki/Hisaishi one, at that. I guess it's because I was supporting the so-called bad guy all the way?

But really, the so-called protagonist was the one who nearly brought about the end of the world - though in her defense it was done unwittingly - and it was the misunderstood antagonist who kept trying to restore the balance, with no help from the clueless supporting characters who all believed he was evil.

JUST BECAUSE HE LOOKED CREEPY.

And in the end, HE apologised. Bloody hell.

MEH.

...It was a decent movie, I suppose. I just wish she learned, at the end of it, how much trouble she caused. But no, everyone's happy because the love between two five-year-olds proved true, never mind that our homes were destroyed and the town is hundreds of metres underwater.

AND HER FATHER APOLOGISED. WHY?!

I'm sorry, I just really had to get that out of my system.

do a little double-take

One month ago.

I discover, quite by chance, that someone I've never had the taste for actually writes in a style I enjoy reading.
"Heck, this person can write?" is my disbelieving statement. But yes, that person can write, and much, much better than I can.

Slap yourself, me, and let's get on with life.

On the same day, I also find out that another person, whose only merit to me before this is a rather boring niceness, is wonderfully gifted in art and design, in a way I can only ever dream of being.

Slap yourself, me, and let's die of shame right here, right now.

That was a month ago. Today, I talked to that first person I mentioned. I think life is a little bit nicer now. :)

Have you met Oswald?

Everyone meets Oswald sooner or later.

No one likes Oswald, but Oswald just can't get enough of us. He's the worst of uninvited guests: dirty, conspicuous, obscenely unattractive and disturbingly intrusive into your personal space. Some people manage to keep clearer of Oswald than others, though - they're probably born with it.

Oswald is a bit of a paedophile. You'll notice that it is mostly young, pubescent people that suffer from Oswald's unwelcome affections. Also, Oswald is bisexual. It doesn't matter what gender you are, Oswald will come after you anyway. And neither does it matter if you're ugly or beautiful - when Oswald's on you, none of that will matter. Oswald leaves a mark on you that can never be washed off, no matter now hard you scrub; the faces of those who have been ravaged by Oswald are never quite the same.

There are many different ways to deal with Oswald. Some people force him off (squeezing), some use anti-Oswald products (cleansers and clearing creams), others ignore him and pray that he'll go away in time.

Personally, I favour the Anything Goes method. This method is simple: I do whatever takes my fancy whenever it feels right. No obligations, rules or authority. The problem is, my skin, not being the most intelligent of my organs, tends to interpret "Anything Goes" as the short form of "Anything And Everything Comes But Nothing Ever Goes". As a result, Oswald and his whole brood (including his great-great-great-niece a dozen times removed) have been camping out on my face for quite a while now.

...

This post is so pointless and shallow, it's a pancake.

looky!

.

This BIG fellow was just outside my front door a little while back. Needless to say, I refused to get close enough to get a picture, so photo credits actually go to Tay Chee Yong (haha). I wondered for a bit why a spider, as it so obviously was, would have four legs - then I realised they're just in pairs! Haha, silly me.

"...your human heart will falter, and that is what makes you human."

- Bishop Labrador

On an unrelated note... I love George Carlin, almost as much as I do Terry Pratchett. :) Rest in peace, you clever old man.

(This is a little early, though; the anniversary of his death isn't for another three weeks.)

within temptation

I wanted to do another long post as part of my recovery programme, but I don't have anything to write about that will make up so many words. So I'll stick some song lyrics in here instead!

Are they themselves to blame?
The misery, the pain;
Didn't we let go?
Allowed it, let it grow
If we can't restrain
The beast which dwells inside
It will find its way
Somehow, somewhere in time

Sanctus Espiritus
Redeem us from our solemn hour
Sanctus Espiritus
Insanity is all around us
Sanctus Espiritus
Is this what we deserve?

See why this band makes me emo?

I'm thinking of attempting an AMV using another WT song, since their songs are so very epic-sounding. Incredibly well-suited to any emo videos, really; I noticed yesterday that almost every line from Hand of Sorrow fits some scene or other from Kuroshitsuji :D and yes, I have indeed watched the whole series enough times over to recall from memory exactly which scene would fit.

But... I think I'll put it on hold until the actual semester break comes. I'm certain that it'll take a damn long time, what with the knowledge of the obsessive perfectionist I'll turn into.

Fufufu. I can't wait! xD

this post is not so pointy.

I've developed a taste for shounen manga in the last month. My soul is weary from all the stereotypical shoujo titles out there, with their pretty art and "cute" protagonists. For crying out loud, even the school's female boxing champ is actually a tsundere with some mega moe moves under that rough-tough exterior.

See, here's the thing. Both shounen and shoujo manga are formulaic, that's a fact. To have a mangaka whose concept breaks through the formulae is wonderful, but that only ever happens when the infamous blue moon shows itself. So a mangaka will generally stick to the tried-and-tested formula and apply it in his or her own settings.

The trick to standing out and selling hotcake-style lies in the application. The mangaka has to take the basic, universal formula and craft a story with it as a base. In short, the mangaka who creates the most compelling world and characters is the one who gets popular. This is, of course, ceteris paribus - assuming the levels of storytelling skill and art are constant. For example, a mangaka who creates a detailed depiction of an alternate universe will have one up against another who might be less clear about things like social systems and such. Right?

And here's the reason why shounen manga makes for a more compelling read than shoujo. The most popular shounen manga (i.e. Naruto, One Piece - and let's not forget the legendary Dragon Ball) are all fantasy titles. The mangaka creates a whole world that has its own social system, manner of dress and sometimes language. The potential depth allows for one hell of a lot more progressions than a world grounded in reality can produce, hence the extremely long run they enjoy (shounen manga are almost always hundreds of chapters long, while your average shoujo manga has under fifty). Think Tolkien. The detail in his Middle Earth was amazing, no? Of course, there isn't a manga out there that has anywhere near that much detail, but the point stands.

Now, shoujo on the other hand... I should stress that not all shoujo manga is vapid and fluffy, but a vast majority are. These manga exist mostly to cater to schoolgirls, and therefore the story is more often than not set in a school environment. The point is to make the story relatable. This is painfully limiting, as there are only so many things a sappy schoolgirl can do. Thus, the shoujo manga's setting is one that is restricted by reality's rules - though the characters are a different matter. The male lead is almost always totally unrealistic.

=.="

Ahem.

So within which of these limits is it most possible to pull off all sorts of stunts? Fantasy or reality? In which can a formula be applied with the most variance? And that, my dear fellow insanies, is why shounen manga can run for years and shoujo manga usually doesn't.

That having been said, Kaze Hikaru has been running for 27 volumes and counting! It's not your normal shoujo manga, though. Far from it! :D

I now follow about seven shounen titles, and I'm planning to look for more! Hee.

p.s. By the way, shounen manga is also more dependable, since it's released on a very regular basis.
p.p.s. Plus, the outfits in said fantasy worlds are fantastic!

pain.

Me wants a longish coat.

I really want to write a long post. I'm convinced it will make me feel better - mostly because that would mean that I've understood enough about something to write about it. But of late I find myself unable to go beyond five or six lines, and even those few lines are just about meaningless. I haven't been able to write anything lately, not even the dialogue shorts I used to do every week. I don't know if it was the overall change in my mood this year that caused it, but the point is I can no longer write - at all, not even badly.

Maybe it was the decadent indulgence in manga and Photoshop, and too little reading, that caused it. I find my tendency to seek whatever I seek in pictorial form increasing, and I can't be bothered to read chunky bits of text. I stopped relying on my imagination alone to picture something described in words, instead looking for pictorial representations rendered by others and accepting those as though they are definite.

I want to return to words. I don't want only my right brain to be stimulated. This post, short as it is so far, took me half an hour to construct; even then, I couldn't articulate anything properly. My head actually hurts when I make an attempt to write, groping in the dark for the right words and trying to keep a firm hold on the thought itself. How different this is, when I consider the fact that I used to spill stuff out in the same manner that I would use when speaking.

Wait.

If I think about it, I don't actually speak as much as I used to. Is that why? It's strange, but I suppose it's one of the many, many things brought about by the year's change. I know it's already been six months, but I still haven't got used to the fact that we're no longer in uniforms and sitting on floors on a daily basis. Everyone is moving on and looking towards the future, but it's hard to do so when there are so many gaping holes in the patchwork and no new pieces that can fill them up.

I'm much the same as I was, but only because what's missing was never known to most. Has anyone noticed, I wonder, that I've been somewhat subconsciously talking more about my dictractions (which are, by the way, manga) now? I'm sure that hints at something, though I haven't yet figured out a way to put that into words either.

You know what? I have decided that, to restore my interest in words, reading is in order. And what better books to read than Sir Pratchett's?

Well, the therapy commences tomorrow. For now, sleep would be nice.

A long post. I did it. Oh, sweet relief.

I want to go to Taiwan.

Hmm.

An Indian anthropologist, Chandra Thapar, made a study of foreign culture which had customs similar to those of his native land. One culture in particular fascinated him because it reveres one animal as sacred, much as the people in India revere the cow.

The tribe Dr. Thapar studied is called the Asu and is found on the American continent north of the Tarahumara of Mexico. Though it seems to be a highly developed society of its type, it has an overwhelming preoccupation with the care and feeding of the rac, an animal much like a bull in size, strength and temperament. In the Asu tribe, it is almost a social obligation to own at least one if not more racs. Anyone not possessing at least one is held in low esteem by the community because he is too poor to maintain one of these beasts properly. Some members of the tribe, to display their wealth and social prestige, even own herds of racs.

Unfortunately the rac breed is not very healthy and usually does not live more than five to seven years, for it has a tendency to throw its shoes often. There are rac specialists in each community, perhaps more than one if the community is particularly wealthy. These specialists however, due to the long period of ritual training they must undergo and to the difficulty of obtaining the right selection of charms to treat the rac, demand costly offerings whenever a tribesman must treat his ailing rac.

At the age of 16 in many Asu communities, many youths undergo a puberty rite in which the rac figures prominently. The youth must petition a high priest in a grand temple. He is then initiated into the ceremonies that surround the care of the rac and is permitted to keep a rac.

Although the rac may be used as a beast of burden, it has many habits which would be considered by other cultures as harmful to the life of the society. In the first place the rac breed is increasing at a very rapid rate and the Asu tribesmen have given no thought to limiting the rac population. As a consequence the Asu must build more and more paths for the rac to travel on since its delicate health and its love of racing other racs at high speeds necessitates that special areas be set aside for its use. The cost of smoothing the earth is too costly for any one individual to undertake; so it has become a community project and each tribesman must pay an annual tax to build new paths and maintain the old. There are so many paths needed that some people move their homes because the rac paths must be a straight as possible to keep the animal from injuring itself. Dr. Thapar also noted that excrement of the rac cannot be used as either fuel or fertilizer. On the contrary, its excrement is exceptionally foul and totally useless. Worst of all, the rac is prone to stampedes in which it runs down anything in its path, much like stampeding cattle. Estimates are that the rac kills thousands of the Asu in a year.

Despite the high cost of its upkeep, the damage it does to the land, and its habit of destructive stampedes, the Asu still regard it as being essential to the survival of their culture.

Does this sound familiar?

+++++++

I know this is all over the internet, but still. Hmm.

Caramell Dansen

So friggin cute. Even if the screen were blank, the music is cute enough!

(^^,)

Ciel's just an added bonus here, haha.

they say it's the best medicine.

"SOMA-SAMA!"

"AGNI!"

"SOMA-SAMA!!"

"AGNI!!"

"SOMA-SAMA!!"

"AGNI!!"

I couldn't not laugh.