the last nite

now it has come to this kind of time. finally, the awaited day is only a few hours away. in less than 24 hours, i'll be off the land.

so, how actually did i spend my last few days before flying off? going out at most days!

well, i read books. manga can still be considered books, right? so i read the whole series of '20th century boys'! actually i reread it, but in hard copy this time. when i read it before, it was all pixel-ed and i had to stare on the screen for so long, of course, it's comprised of 23 volumes after all, topped up with 2 extra volumes which concludes the whole story. it's really interesting!

the nice thing is i find myself reading manga in japanese so naturally now. that makes me so happy. i did set my goal of getting myself able to read manga and watch drama as soon as finishing my JAD program. prior to reading this one, i finished reading pluto too, both from the same mangaka-Naoki Urasawa! his works are simply fabulous and amazing. the story will hook you on and the suspense never fail to keep you jumpy. well, both of this is sorta heavy for some readers. it's a seinen manga after all. all this thanks to JFKL Library, i need not to pay a cent! except the transportation cost.

and more about books, i bought another one today, the temptation is far too high, i just gotta have it in my possession. rather than buying, i was using the voucher i got, all thanks to my bro who made a big purchase the other day which entitled him for a rm50 voucher after spending rm500 in kinokuniya-see how this store could scrap money out of you. this one is called 'You Shall Know Our Velocity' by dave eggers, mostly i was attracted by title, but then when i tried reading it a bit, i find myself hooked already. the one i just bought the other day is still unfinished though, the one i've been coveting for so long-'Stories'all new tales edited by neil gaiman and al sarrantonio. but from my recent tendency of getting immersed in reading while commuting, throughout the 7-hour flight tomorrow i could finish most of them i think.

now let's hope i could finish these two soon coz i'm alredy eyeing on japanese novel next

the last book i just finished was good too, in fact great. now that's another haruki marukami's in my list. but this particular book titled 'Underground' is kind of special because it revolves around a real incident. he probes into the tokyo gas attack that occurred at tokyo subway in 1995 and publishes the interviews he did with some of the people involved in it-the victims and the part of organization that's apparently behind the attack. it gives the view inside the incident firsthand from the people at the scene from their perspectives and the effect long after it, mentally and physically. once something had already sunk in the mountain on the past, one can still be affected by it no matter how much it weighs in the present.

i'm so impatient of getting 'waltz' manga once i reach nihon. i've been refraining myself for more than a year already when i always saw them at the rack in kinokuniya

wow, that's long when talking about books alone!

so, i also watch an anime. it's actually from a year or two before but i hadn't had the chance to watch it. it's 'Eden of the East', partially because the character design is the same like honey and clover, added with a strong story, this makes the anime among the top of my list. i pretty much had babbled abt the same stuff here, so to avoid the post from getting so long-winded, i better end it now.

lastly, a little member of our big family who i can only see again in 2 years time. it's my cousin's newly-born baby deep in sleep after getting so worked up in the night. see you again, zikri!

wishing everyone a safe flight!

christmas+new year holiday

though i don't celebrate christmas, it doesn't mean i escape from being happy for it, i got holiday!!!

so, for this short interval of holiday we have, despite having schoolworks in hand, i prefer enjoying it to the fullest.

checklist 1: my sis's reception

the last time we got the whole family united was how many years ago i wonder, and this time it's quite a special occasion as it's the celebration for my sis's wedding. i haven't met her for nearly 2 years actually. well, when my dad said it's not gonna be that big of an event, it still ended up not to be that small. apart form my close relatives, there were also lots of others like my parents' acquaintances which majorly unknown to me. with my dad's recent road accident, a lot of guests were coming. and to add to that, i'm sure they're just curious to see the groom. they must've expected some truly caucasian-look guy, but believe it or not, my bro in-law can have the look of any ethnic, contrary to that expectation LOL.

this was captured at the end of the event, so unfortunately this does not exactly include my whole close relatives. funny when endou-san joked with me whether i can really remember all of my cousins' names, of course i do! ok, not their full names though :P (this is only part of relatives from my dad's side). if we were to combine the whole relatives both from my dad's and mom's side, the lens just won't fit. hahaha

checklist 2: a bit of KL walk

believe it or not, i've never been to KL Tower for twenty years i've been living in its vicinity. this time, for we were showing KL around to my bro in-law who finally set foot to Malaysia for the first time, i got the chance to be up in the air above 200ft (or do i get this wrong?). definitely, i won't refuse to go there again, or better, to go to any other towers to watch such a spectacular sight. it's amazing! apart from that, we also went around other places such as pavillion KL and KLCC. well, i don't know much places of interests in KL if you were to ask me besides the numerous shopping complexes it possesses. but still, next time, i'll be getting to the KLCC bridge for sure.

checklist 3 : new year countdown at Singapore!

this is what i looked forward the most. what makes this so exciting is that it's like our siblings' retreat~ well, it's actually was kinda a honeymoon trip for my sis and her husband, but we also tagged along for the later half of their trip. they had arrived there earlier so we only stayed for a night there to catch the countdown fireworks. it really was a wholesome trip after all. i love it go out with my sis as she would always suggest to stop for food every once in a while. in fact, we had 4 snack stops besides the main dinner-seafood! Singapore is really a nice city. it's clean! (in contrary to some city i'm used to) some people say you can see the city at its dirtiest during new year celebration, yet what i witnessed was that the road-cleaning-machines were already at work barely hours after the countdown. well, how i exactly saw those operating at those hours was because we were actually down at the streets to walk from where we watch the fireworks to our hotel which we reached at 4:30 a.m. lesson i learnt: if you wanna watch fireworks, book hotel nearby the venue. there were just no cabs available for us at the time so we had to drag our feet from clarke's quay to orchard road. nevertheless, it was an interesting night walk.

checklist 4: drama

i got to complete some of the dramas during the break. secret garden is by far the most anticipated drama. oh my, they're really brilliant actors/actresses! adding to that, as a girl i can't be escaped to be enchanted by the hotness of the actors~~

checklist 5: books

i borrowed a few books from sensei the other day and i got to go through 2 of them. 'nihonjin no shiranai nihongo' is so funny! and i got a lot of new infos as well, those things related to that complicated language. it's actually a manga strip collections, accompanied by few compositions regarding particular topics. and interesting read. and the other one of the same genre is 'rikei no hitobito'. truthfully i'm still halfway for this one. nevertheless, it gave me a good laugh how the mangaka puts the life of a science-stream people. for some parts, it might not get to you (the joke), but if you think further, you'll find how amusing it is.

the done list 2010

*in the end, due to some miscalculation, this entry was up later than i planned, it's already 2011*

long ago, i've thought of making this kind of entry where i would list out all what i've read and watched throughout the whole year. well, and this kinda made me torn whether to post this here in blogger where my real life are much more enclosed or the other channel i use in my livejournal account where it encompasses more on the subject of my fancy-for instance my fandom on flumpool.

but then, i don't sense the line distinguishing the two of them, what i like is pretty much what makes up my life, isn't it. like how i learn and improve my Japanese language skill majorly owing to engrossing in too much dramas. or how i maintained my English skill from rusting away by reading novels-though i don't think this really worth much praise.

so much of an intro there. basically it's a list of books i read, dramas and movies i watched in year 2010-listed chronologically.

novels i read:
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett
The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
Ahiru to Kamo no Coin Locker by Isaka Kotaro
The Chronicle of Wind-up Bird by Haruki Murakami
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Children by Isaka Kotaro
The Newton Letter by John Banville
The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton
Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
Noah Barleywater Runs Away by John Boyne
The Little Prince by St. Exupery (reread)
[manga]Maou:Juvenile Remix (the whole 10 volumes)
Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo
Rikei no Hitobito

novels halfway read (hopefully soon to be resumed):
-American Gods by Neil Gaiman (carried on from the previous year)
-The Graveyard by Neil Gaiman
-The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett
-Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom

movies watched(as in going to cineplex):
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatball
The Vampire's Assistant
Sherlock Holmes
The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus
Case 39
Alice In Wonderland 3D
How To Train Your Dragon
Clash Of The Titans 3D
Woochi
Kaiji
Kick Ass
Shrek Forever After
Letters To Juliet
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Inception
Shanghai
Salt
The Last Airbender
Devil
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps
Harry Potter 7:Part 1
Rapunzel: Tangled
Tron

movie watched via other channels (dvds or in the comp):
Satorare Movie
Jyuuryoku Pierrot
Ahiru To Kamo No Coin Locker
Oto Na Ri
Honokaa Boy
Fish Story
A Cheerful Gang Turns The Earth
Dream
Big River
Ai No Mukidashi
Rookies Sotsugyou
Platonic Sex
20th Century Boys: Our Flag
Black Gaisha Ni Tsutomerundaga Mou Genkai Kamo
Go
Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu
My Girlfriend is an Agent
Tada Kimi wo Aishiteru
Children
supposed to be a lot more but somehow i lost track of them

Dramas watched (complete episodes):
Bloody Monday 2
Boss
Samurai High School
Tokujou Kabachi
Hello My Lady(Korea)
Iryu2
Shinzanmono
Team Batista 2: General Rouge No Gaisen
Sunao Ni Narenakute
Mother
Hammer Session
Hotaru No Hikari 2
Gold
Atami No Sousakan
Unubore Deka
Shibatora
10nen Saki Mo Kimi Ni Koishite
At Home Dad
Keizoku 2: Spec  -my top drama of the year
Himitsu
Nagareboshi
Ogon No Buta
Perfect Report
Yankee-Kun To Megane-Chan
My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (Korea)
Gakeppuchi no Eri

Dramas watched halfway or yet to finish:
-Tsuki No Koibito (not that aroused to watch till finish)
-Liar Game 2 (this just so monotone in a way)
-Angel Bank (the wordings just too hard)
-Tumbling (still not past the first 2 episodes)
-Moyashimon (too much bio terms with no available subtitles)
-Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo (interesting but internet not that allowing)
-Natsu ha Nijiiro ni Kagayaku (boring?)
-Face Maker (maamaa, okay for relaxed watching)
-Iryuu 3 (still watching, waiting for subtitles)
-Freeter, Ie Wo Kau (still watching, waiting for subtitles)
-Shiroi Haru (skipped here and there during 1st episode, perhaps not now?)
-Secret Garden (Korea) (still airing)




of only i could offer as much attention towards my studies......

feel like my money been cheated off

well, not exactly so, but in sense, yes. i was such a bloody fool for not giving it a full thought b4 draining my money away.

and on top of it, it's not even a thing i can enjoy. nor it for a charity.

it was some sort of supposed-to-benefit-you-in-time-you-need-it. of course the chances are hardly there!

i'm generally weak when someone urges me and pushes me where eventually i'll just give in to whatever they're leading me to. and now, someone i don't even know made me 'invest' for whatever i doubt will become of use. so, it's just plain waste. feel like some kind of character in drama where their money been swindled off.

and a lump sum of it.

i'm a fool, ain't i??

now, more than i hate that stranger who led me to that particular cause, i'm hating myself. fool, fool, fool, fool!

arrrghh. and this is money we're talking about.

some may say they're just paper scraps, but it's not something you can just throw away foolishly. even burning those are useful as a source of fuel when you are out freezing.

anyway, before that regretful act i did, i'm pretty satisfied with another purchase of the rest of my "maou:juvenile remix" collection. now, i've cleaned that manga series off the racks of kinokinuya. it only took me a week to completely buying it all when i initially thought i'll buy it gradually, perhaps only 2 volumes per month. alas, i already posessed the whole set by now. manga is dangerous.... or more generally bookstore are dangerous! hahaha, i spent more of those 'scrap papers' of mine in bookstores rather than on clothes or shoes or whatever normally girls would be crazy of.

yosh! Maou : Juvenile Remix complete!

holiday sure exhausts money out of you.....

oh, and today, after somewhat a decade, i tried entering exploring petrosains again! okay, a trip alone sure is not as interesting, nevertheless i enjoyed quite a lot of it. i can get engrossed for so many hours....

guuzen to ka hitsuzen

it was a blessing in disguise

when i was already exhausted of being in inactivity for more than a week, i at last took a fresh air outside, away from my house to where my friends were supposed to be waiting. i just can't help from being a bit excited when they said they were going karaoke. yeah, though it was a long haul from my house, can you believe it, 20 stations? and one transit where the waiting is just as one could expect from ktm.

well, finally i arrived after all. without knowing it was somehow cancelled.

to window shop on your own is just as interesting. ok, not really, if you don't know what to window shop. but still, subway's as delicious as i remembered it. to any hungry stomach, it undeniably is. so, i just walk around,and around, and around with no aim in mind, and i got bored. so, on the way back home, i guess, why don't i take a detour to kl? kinokuniya always is a nice place (aside from the fact it's located at the crowded klcc). and on the way, i managed to stop by a cd shop and bought 3 dvd- i wish they have those in pirate dvd, it won't hurt my wallet as much.

no fail, klcc is crowded despite it was a weekday. but then, i just find my cove and what a heaven to feed my obsession. ok, this time, no flumpool (i've already bought that magazine they have on rack). and i browse around for others that might catch my interest. and i remembered isaka koutarou.

what an astonishment when i recently knew he not only has his works done as movies (he's a novelist, and oh, some of the movies were mentioned in my previous posts, they're great ones), there are also manga!! and what makes me happier than to find those on the kinokuniya's rack. okay, i did make a teeny effort to read those magz i've bought so far but it's just too texty. and kanji bakkari, maa, soon i'll be able to stride thru those smoothly i guess. but now, manga seems more like a greater deal. and to top it off, this one that just caught my interest-"maou:juvenile remix" is a shounen-manga, means there are furigana for like every kanji. hahaha. somehow, i love to be spoiled. well, of course they come with a cost especially when my hands resisted to not take only one, but two of them.

what happened afterward did caught me by surprise. true, i knew some of my friends are here, but i don't expect to run into them (klcc's big, man). and of coz, i don't expect i would even spend my evening till late with them there, and to have such a marvellous dinner together with our dear sensei. it was wonderful. i might have gone to klcc numerous times just to hang out, but i never set foot in those restaurants it's mushroomed with. so hard to be on budget all the time. but then, the dinner we had last night was fantastic, not even a full course but a memorable one. 1st, coz it was also as celebration for our bday boy yesterday, raziz! we had cake and delicious food. of coz it's good! it must be for how much the price it's worth. and we talked, and chatted and had fun. truly fun. i think we were the noisiest party in the whole restaurant, sorry about that, but we can't help but to laugh every now and then. and it's fun to teases our bday boy when he's nearly in tears. well, no more crybaby now he's twenty. and also to kuga-sensei whom we at least want to give present to before our farewell, she's really an interesting teacher i would remember for lifetime. i'll miss her.

my legs all sore from a day worth of walking but my heart is so full of relish.

and to check my cimb account, i have 5 transactions during yesterday alone. shopping is relieving!

and i am in dilemma, i definitely want the rest of volume for the manga i bought yesterday, but then, it'll definitely cause a financial worry on the other side. to add,  my dvd tht's due to come soon also requires money. aaaahh,

BLOODY MONDAY:manga and dorama

continuing from the previous entry, the next series i instantly took in favour is 'Bloody Monday'. even the title itself sounds terrifying. yes, it is because in the story, a whole nation is threatened by a deadly virus meant to cease the existence of its massive population. the dorama is based on a manga. so, beforehand, i already read the manga and i know, i should watch this! not only because the main star is attractive (the one plays Ren in gokusen 3), the plot is exciting too, always making me on edges.

to compare the manga and the dorama, the story is intact but there is a slight changes in the details and arrangement of events and the matter of decency. it was a shonen manga to begin with, so some exposure of 'those' thingy is originally high than the dorama which must fit to various audiences. the first episode of the dorama unexpectedly took long enough. i watched in mysoju and there were 6 parts of it in which each parts spans more than 10 mins. the protagonist, takagi fujimaru is only a highschooler but he posesses such an amazing skill in hacking, allegedly a legend. supposedly, about 2 years ago, he had sworn to his father-a member of a special division in the authority, never to do hacking again. however, due to some circumstance, he actually do it once again when one of his teacher went over the limit. this case differs from the manga where ths suspended students are a couple who were caught kissing. the trigger to kitagi's involvement is the suicide attempt by the suspended girl. in the dorama, a girl who worked part-time is suspended, after the teacher made an offer to the girl to give herself to him but the girl refused-coincidentally, takagi noticed the girl ran from the teacher's lab and caused his suspicions. so, i think this beginning is not so strong. progressing to the centre of the story-about the virus plan, the opponent side reveals more figures than in manga while both focus on Maya, the women who approaches takagi as a teacher. in addition to that, the drama features the existence another hacker on the other side that is as good as takagi. while takagi is using his famous alias, Falcon, the other one is Bluebird. before that, the time when his father was framed as a murderer making him a fugitive, the resulting course of events differs too. in the dorama it seems that his own whole division suspects him in the murder. there is a woman who would come to takagi's house and and be by their side, however the dorama features her as the observer from the division instead of someone trusted by takagi's father who believes in his innocence like in manga. here. takagi is left with no one to trust.

[manga volume 1]

talking about trust, in manga, he actually has a circle of friends who borrow their strengths while takagi struggle to discover the truth. in dorama, he is alone, only the double-faced maya with him. the whole story starts when takagi decode a file about a christmas massacre that whips out a whole town in russia, a small trial of the effectiveness of the virus. it was a request from his father initially as a part the division he works in (also known as third-i). when his father has become a fugitive, he is told to forget about it, yet he decode that after all. in the manga, this was the time his friends-the newspaper committee knew about the whole things and offer their support. in dorama, he directly pass it to the woman from the third-i which stays suspicious of his father. the next sequence of event where takagi's sister, haruka got kidnapped resolved differently too. in the absence of anyone by his side but the woman from third-i, he tried to save his sister in a less stylish way than in manga where it involves his friends who includes a prodigy in karate and archery. the term set by the kidnapper is the same which requires him to haack into a power station system but the action brings different meaning in manga and dorama. the manga concludes the goal from that term is purely to make sure takagi does the hacking while in dorama, they actually in need of the info from the hacking for the next turn of event which is truly shocking. they cause a stir in a shopping complex after causing a blackout and spreading fumes from an unknown box. this by itself contains some actions. all the important figures in third-i (again, in dorama, they truly suspect takagi's dad) and takagi himself gathered in the midst of confusion. the situation was really panicking with fear of the virus threat. there was quite a chaos there. however it was finally resolved but it ended that the affair at the complex signifies that the opponent had already got hold of falcon, in what way, i'm that slow to figure out by myself.

either way, it's undoubtedly an excitable turn of plot for both manga and dorama. a definite must watch. honestly i prefer the manga for its emphasis on friends' element and a more laid back attitude of takagi, but the dorama itself is a fabulous show full of suspense and actions. another episode made me anticipating more and more. really looking forward to the next one.

Ah! that butler

About months ago, i don't remember clearly when, but it was my first time entering the japanese books section in Kinokuniya KLCC. Naturally, a manga-lover like me would be drawn to the manga racks. i was truly fascinated by the vast amount of mangas which i hopefully soon be able to read. it was like taking a cat to the fish market, i guess. Just imagine how excited i was but only due to the language boundary and a bit of financial instability, i was hindered from indulging in my insatiable obsession. So, while wandering and pondering, among the abundance of colourful glossy covers of variety of mangas, my eyes were hooked on one particular manga. the artwork was really fine and magnificent, just the way i like it. I never heard or read about the manga before, it was my first time seeing it. The title initially made me laugh by my own mistake in reading it. It was 'Kuroshitsuji' (black butler) yet i read it as 'Kurohitsuji' (black sheep). I was euphoric with the idea of having it in my possession and more than that if i were to be able to understand what it was about perfectly. Disappointingly, it was a matter i couldn't overcome at the time. So, i just went away not forgetting the beautiful illustration on the lustrous shiny cover. Besides, the one i saw was volume 2/3, so it was like no point even if i bought it then.


The next time i went to Kinokuniya again, it was quite a long time after the previous visit and I already searched about it on the Net. Wow, it was quite famous and luckily it got some scanlations. Having read a few starting chapters, i was really eager to search for it again. Who would forget the beautiful cover and where it was located. I really hope there was volume 2 in store as the scanlations only went as far as the ending of volume 1. The story was really catchy and i can't wait to read the continuation. I was really fond of the artwork and still am. The butler is so mysterious and you can't help but be amazed and mesmerized by him. The 12-year old master too would attract your attention by his attitude. The funny elements were made complete by the good-for-nothing chef, gardener and maid. It was really a good read. To my disappointment, the only availables ones were vol 3 and 4. I could't get a clue of what happened in the story even if i really wanted it that bad added with the struggling in translating it with my lousy japanese language proficiency. it was not worth the trouble. So, again i had to walk away with such a reluctant heart. [oh yeah, the handsome man in black swallow tail is the butler Sebastian]






so, naturally, when i happened to know today of its new scanlation release, i was full of ecstasy. Not only that, the rumoured anime adaptation has also aired in japan and the fansub for the 1st episode is now out. Expectedly, the anime is quite as good as the manga. The starting plot just follows the storyof the manga yet, at the very beginning of the anime mentions about the contract between Sebastian and Ciel(his 12-year-old master). The animation is quite good. i really mean it because i usually prefer manga version over anime as i think anime alters the beautiful artwork of the original one. Well, for the fighting scenes, i have to wait for at least another episode as the 1st episode doesn't have one at all, just portraying the intelligent mind of Sebastian. Ah, i think i'm starting to infatuate him more and more.[screenshots from episode 1]



more interesting, as the pronounciation is in japanese, sebastian = sebasuchian, ciel = shieru






http://www.kuroshitsuji.tv/