I’ve been on an anime roll for some time now. I watch mostly shoujo anime that involve magical girls or bishounen or romance or any combi involving the first three mentioned.
Recently, I completed うたの☆プリンスさまっ♪ (also known as Uta-Pri for short). I must say the story line is a bit blah (with a weird-ass principal), but who cares? There’s great music and great looking bishounens. *kyaaaaa~~~*
Day 06 — A song that reminds you of somewhere
The NSAC song! Yes, that was our theme song. NSAC 2011 was the one and only NSAC I took part in. All the hours that we put in, even if we didn’t conquer the regionals, we placed at a good fourth place. Until now I can still remember the nights we spent at Greg Hall. Even if we disagreed with one another’s working styles, I could see the determination in our eyes on the day of the regionals presentation. The tension was in the air, we felt the same nervous feeling. At that moment, we were one. It was awesome.
Now, everytime I hear this song, my mind goes back to those days. It has become a song that tells me not to give up — that no matter what, the show goes on tonight…
It ‘s been about one and a half months I’ve started working in a permanent job now. Boy, has it been a tough ride. The first two weeks were like heaven — not much to do. Then, the work came pouring in. Some days I am left feeling a little overwhelmed, but all I can do is tell myself to carry on. I think part of how I am feeling stems from the fact I am a newbie. Sometimes I feel like I’m feeling my way around in the dark. There are times when I am kicking myself for doing things so slowly, but right at the back of my mind I have to remind myself that it is all part of learning. The good thing is that my boss and colleagues are nice, but sometimes I just can’t help feeling a tad dumb because they seem to know what to do all the time.
That’s it isn’t it? I complain a lot, but at the end of the day I hang in there and everything turns out fine. I amaze myself at the end of it all. I’m not a quitter. No matter how bad it is, I will always remember what the late Prof. Goodman said. He told me that if I felt I didn’t understand something, someone else probably had the same question but wasn’t voicing his/her doubt as well. That made me feel a whole lot better — that I wasn’t alone in the dark. I also remember what my ex-colleague told me. It is precisely the things we are afraid of that we must do. If not, we will forever be in our comfort zone and not learn new things.
Yes yes, I can do it. Go me.
I can’t believe it’s already been one year since Most Promising Minority. It was and will always be a great memory. One year ago, I was sitting around in the library trying to figure out my statistics homework when I checked my email and got that surprise. I never thought a rather ordinary nobody like me would get it because 1) I wasn’t someone really active in clubs and held posts; 2) I was an international student and it was open only to U.S. residents. Thinking back now, perhaps I was really something. Steve told me to think about it: I am one of the 50 students chosen nationally, plus I’m an international student which is very rare. I like to think that I got it because I stood out from the rest. Everyone was either into account management/planning or creative, but I was into the facts and figures. Anyway, at the end of the day, it made me feel like I actually owned it. It was my hard work and doing that got me the award.
I want to share this video from the AAF website with everyone. Whatever is said in it is true. It IS a chance in a lifetime and you WILL meet great people.
I may not be holding the coolest advertising job on the planet now, but MPMS really opened my eyes to what was out there. It showed me that getting the award was just the first step, I had to put in a lot of effort and hard work to make things happen especially since there were 49 other great students out there. It made me discover a lot about my strengths and abilities. It taught me to reach out for what I want in life based on my capabilities. I met great people and made friends who inspired and encouraged me to keep doing my best.
Now, that greatness has to be passed down. The 2012 awardees have been announced. You guys deserve it because you went out all the way to get it whether it be in studies or activities. You deserve it because you knew you could make a difference whether it be in the advertising industry, in your studies, or in your activities. You deserve it because you bothered to try hard enough. Congrats! Have fun in New York. Learn all you can while you’re there.
Went to the birdpark on Wednesday with KS and family. Erm…when was the last time I went there? When I was in primary school? School excursions and consent forms…nostalgic. Anyway, I think I enjoyed the penguins and owls *pictures meowzy here* the most. I also learnt that the boy attracts birds (and bird poop for that matter) because a lorikeet landed on his shoulder despite him having no bird seed to attract them birds.
月曜日、家族は日本に行く。私は行きたいけど、仕事から行けない。まぁ、仕方ないさ。来年行けるかも？
I start work next Monday. Hello early mornings. T_T でも、仕事は絶対頑張ります！ ^^V
Argh. I remember helping to vote for this and was very happy when our school won. Then, the disappointment came when I realised the party would only be this Fall. Dang.
I recently completed watching 会長はメイド様! Ah yes, I must say I’m a sucker for 少女 anime/manga.
Typical 少女 anime with cute/pretty girl, charming guy (to die for), and a happily ever after ending. What puzzles me most is the way the guy is portrayed when pursuing the girl. I think it does happen in real life too. So someone please tell me why do guys like to tease girls they like so much? I think it’s rather confusing for the girl no? One minute you’re so sweet making my heart race and the next minute you’re irritating the hell out of me. Why? 教えてくださいよ~~~
Hahaha…I guess that’s why they say “men are from mars, women are from venus.” Guys say girls are complex creatures. I think guys are rather complex creatures too. Hahaha..
PS: By the way, I’m reading the manga too since the anime is only half-way through the manga’s contents. However it seems that earlier volumes of the local publisher, Chuang Yi version are out of print already. I’m missing volumes 1, 2, 5, 6. Anyone willing to part with those books?
Following the graduation of Ai-chan, つんく♂ has decided to add more girls to his famed group, モーニング娘。. I find that a little fast since the 9th generation members have barely blended in with the other members, but I guess つんく♂ couldn’t bear seeing モーニング娘。 become a smaller 8-member group compared to rival AKB48. Of the 9th generation members, I think only Erina has managed to blend in well and beginning to look like a star. Despite everyone cooing over talented Riho, I think she’s only so-so. Yes, she does look cute and has the best singing voice among the 9th generation members, but in terms of star appeal…nope, not quite there yet. Perhaps Kanon’s redeeming factor for now is her cheerful nature and the ability to make people laugh. I’m sorry to say this but Mizuki is the only one who doesn’t look like she fits in. Don’t care whether she had some experience as a Hello! Pro Egg, she just doesn’t fit in.
But who knows? Things might change in the future like how Berryz工房 changed. Risako started out being cute as a button, but now she just looks like another pretty girl — nothing too wonderful. In fact, Miyabi has grown up to be the pretty girl with the star appeal instead. Even captain Saki is beginning to bloom and draw more attention. Oh, but I’ve digressed.
Presenting the 10th generation members of モーニング娘。:
Kudou Haruka (11), Satou Masaki (12), Ishida Ayumi (14), Iikubo Haruna (16)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ9z4m6i6zk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k6-78W1Olw
Of the new members, I think Haruna has a good chance of standing out like ex-C-ute member, Erika — not so much of singing talent, but of height and beauty. Haruka looks promising too being a little cutesy girl. Masaki needs a bit of an image change, but I’m sure it’ll come in time. Ayumi looks odd, but she seems rather enthusiastic when singing and dancing. Just hope she doesn’t turn out to be like Koharu — trying hard to gain attention to the point of being rather annoying.
Those who didn’t make it need not despair. There’s still a chance with rival AKB48 and judging by their popularity now (seems to have surpassed モーニング娘。), all’s not lost.
Oh hey! Isn’t that Satou Sumire and Kashiwagi Yuki? Both seemed pretty good during their 8th generation モーニング娘。 auditions so I have no idea why つんく♂ didn’t choose them. While both have managed to secure places in AKB48, I think they would have fared much better in popularity if they were in モーニング娘。 simply because it’s a much smaller group, but I guess they are happy where they are now. I mean, there are pros and cons. They get an older sexy girlfriend image in AKB48 rather than モーニング娘。‘s young girl image. And Yukirin is captain of Team B in AKB48.
That’s what the F1 cars remind me of when they are zooming down the track. We had narrowly missed the chance of going to the F1 race, but somehow fate decreed that we would watch our first F1 race (in style no less) this year. Yup, we got sky suite passes thanks to DBS.
Our trip to the sky suite started at the banks of the Singapore River at UOB Plaza where we boarded the private ferry and got ferried across while enjoying the sights and sounds (of the F1 cars) of the Singapore city nightscape. The excitement was definitely building up as we heard the cars zooming right across the bridge above us. The minute we reached the sky suite, we “burst” out onto the balcony to take in the F1 race experience. Boy, was it LOUD. No wonder they said earplugs were a must. After the third car zoomed past, we were scrambling indoors because our eardrums couldn’t take the noise anymore.
Entrance to sky suite
In the sky suite
Out on the balcony with the view of the pit and Singapore Flyer in the background
Dinner was served in the sky suite which we found the food standard only so-so. Frankly speaking, I think only the fish was good (besides the plate of truffles on the table). Oh well, food wasn’t exactly the top thing on our minds. After dinner and exploring the place a bit, we decided to move up to the open-air lounge only accesible to sky suite pass holders. There, we got a nice view of pit and track below. It was also there that we chose to watch the qualifying round that night. It wasn’t the actual race day, but hey, the passes were complimentary so I’m not complaining.
If you asked me how was the experience, I would say it was exhilarating. I thought I would get bored after awhile watching cars doing the same thing again and again, but I was surprised I didn’t feel that way. While some might prefer a different view of the track, I liked the view of the pit because I love watching the engineers and pit crew scrambling around to change the tires. Definitely a tough, high-stakes job.
Here’s a little tidbit to end of the post. It’s Ferrari’s Alonso going round the track.
A bit of an overdued post, but here’s my two cent’s worth of the SCANDAL concert…
It began with a bit of chaos with the queue. Sis, Jie Yu and I arrived at 1.45pm to join the unofficial queue outside the theatre at LASALLE. Yes, it was an unofficial queue thanks to a note right where the entrance to the theatre was that said no queue was to form before 3pm. But hey, Singaporeans are Singaporeans and we will queue when needed no matter what. There was a “chunk” of people in the middle — read: fan club forum, SCANDAL Heaven — but that didn’t bother us too much. There were a few people not in the queue and standing at the side which kind of irked us, but we still kept our cool. After all, we were armed and prepared with boxes of food, mats, and Monopoly Deal.
At about 3pm, a security guard came to tell the us that if we all cooperated and formed a proper queue (sans chunks of humans), he would let us into the theatre at 4pm. What happened next was annoying. People who were not in the queue took the chance to shove themselves into the haphazard “queue” while others who were right at the back took the chance to close the distance between themselves and the entrance. In other words, it was their unspoken cue to cut the queue. We found ourselves pushed right to the back of the queue. No, we were not about to give up the few hours of queuing just to find ourselves pushed out of the first 200 people bracket. (Note: the first 200 people who bought merchandise would get a ticket to the meet and greet session after the concert.) To make things worse, 4pm rolled around and there wasn’t a soul in sight to let us into the theatre. I wanted to talk to someone in the organizing team…like NOW. I must say that the event was poorly organized because there wasn’t any official person in sight. Finally when we managed to get hold of someone (think she was a LASALLE staff), that lady bitch wasn’t even the least bit helpful. She answered like she was annoyed that we even complained about the situation and asked for something to be done to improve the situation. She said she would get hold of someone from the organizing team and get back to us, but lo’ and behold, she didn’t even bother to get back to us. We were left standing like idiots right outside the LASALLE office door.
So alright, what do we do now? Some random dude from the front of the queue came to ask us why we were standing in the middle of their queuing party — probably meaning why were we cutting the queue. That was when Sis said that she’ll let out her inner bitch if she had to. Talked to the dude about the situation and finally we came to an agreement that as long as we don’t cut in front of their party, he didn’t care if we cut the queue. And so that was what we did. You know how they say “if you can’t beat em’, join em’.” Shaz and his two friends came later, saw us, and joined us after asking if they could.
After that whole queuing fiasco, we managed to secure front row seats! (Rejoice! Rejoice!) It wasn’t so much of how I could be much nearer to SCANDAL, but more of not having some random tall person block my view. Hell yea, it was good being in the front row. We were at the left of the theatre which gave us the clearest view of Tomomi. I must say that I was a bit lost with the songs they sang because I haven’t kept up much with their songs. Hey, when you’re a full-time student, you spend most of your time studying to earn those As. And although I would have much preferred to be at the right side of the theatre to be closer to Mami, being on Tomomi’s side wasn’t that bad too because she noticed us and threw her pick to us! Her aim wasn’t great as it fell at the barricaded part, but we managed to get the attention of the photographer to retrieve it for us. Oh! Oh! They sang 「瞬間センチメンタル」! And no, I’m not an FMA lover neither did I get started on SCANDAL because of the anime.
We found out later at the meet and greet session that Tomomi was focusing on Jie Yu most of the time because she said 「見えた! 見えた!」 excitedly when Jie Yu shook her hand. Rina commented 「可愛い。」 when she saw my outfit and Mami said the same too! <3 I only managed to blurt a mere 「マミも可愛い。」 before I was hurriedly “pushed” forward by the security guards. It’s true, Mami is cute because she has long natural straight hair and thick dolly bangs that I long for and can never have.
To end off the entry, this was our biggest present from the concert.
This was what I wore to the concert. Same thing I wore for my first J-Net fashion show…
And what would an entry be without some videos. The video that got me started on SCANDAL. Although they cannot replace ZONE, they have their own songs to make them a great girlband of their own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtFGnRtr-Iw
My top 3 SCANDAL tunes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkz0K1NIff8