Saturday, March 28, 2009

Ah, no wonder

I had fallen in love with Lacrimosa from the first beat. I've never heard of the singers, a group called Kalafina. So, I went to Wiki them up.

"Kalafina is a Japanese band formed by composer Yuki Kajiura in 2007 to mainly perform theme songs for the anime Kara no Kyoukai."

Ah. That explains a lot. Kajiura. I love the way she mixes strong beats with Gregorian chants, piano and violin solos coupled with orchestra. Beautiful.

I had Canta Per Me, A song of storm and fire and Materialize on my songlist for close to years now. Heh.

Time to check out the rest of the Kalafina's songs.

Lacrimosa



暗闇の中で睦み合う
絶望と未来を
哀しみを暴く月灯り
冷たく照らしてた

君のくれた秘密を標に
蒼い夜の静けさを行く

Lacrimosa
遠く砕けて消えた
眩しい世界をもう一度愛したい
瞳の中に夢を隠して
汚れた心に
涙が堕ちて来るまで

幻の馬車は闇を分け
光のある方へ
夢という罠が僕たちを
焔へ誘う

空の上の無慈悲な神々には
どんな叫びも届きはしない
Lacrimosa…

僕等は燃えさかる薪となり
いつかその空を焼き尽くそう

Lacrimosa
ここに生まれて落ちた
血濡れた世界を恐れずに愛したい
許されるより許し信じて
汚れた地上で
涙の日々を数えて


2nd ending of 黒執事. The last episode aired last week. Not sure if I enjoyed the anime series, many times I preferred the book, the characters being less dodgy in it. Loved the ending of the anime though. Heh. Now I like Ciel in the anime. Muahaha.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

What a lucky day!

No, I'm being sarcastic.

I pride myself in being a fairly considerate person. I rarely or don't litter. Today, however, was the bomb.

3rd day of my best friend. Female friends will know what I mean. It's one of those days that all you want to do is lie in bed, with a hot water bottle and go to sleep. But, it's a Wednesday, one of the busiest days of my week.

Feeling particularly cramped and pissy, I bought a pack of Sampoerna. (Decided to forgo the chocolate this week.)

So there I was, puffing away outside the bus interchange in one secluded corner. Finished, I looked around for a bin. Interchanges no longer have bins thanks to the terrorist shit, and the nearest one I could see was 3-4 mins walk away.

I threw the butt into the drain.

Boom! $200 fine.

I'm never, never, ever smoking again.

Darn it. There goes my book money.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Simple rules of money and itches

Oooh! That is IT! Enough is enough, I've had it with people who keep saying I am rich and yet they earn more than I do. If they say that and leave it, it is okay, but every single one of them will slip into this self pitying, envying mode that makes me want to fling them out onto the road.

Spending, is a very simple piece of logic that people don't quite seem to get.

If you spend on what you DON'T need, you won't be able to spend on what you WANT.

For example. I can drop $20 a pop for a book when I want to because I never take cabs. (Unless for emergencies.)

Not clear enough?

A few more examples.

My handphone bills are never over $50 (again, unless I am overseas.)

I don't have a car. (Seriously, do you NEED one in Singapore?)

I buy a bottle of wine to enjoy at home when I feel the urge to drink.

Restaurant going happens only when I have additional money to spend.

I think thrice before buying something. Need, Price and Need. (With the exception of books of course.)

And guess what? I'm happily living on an income of less then $30,000 per annum!

So don't say I am rich. Evaluate on how you spend instead.

In fact, unless you don't have
-A handphone
-A car
-A PC with internet access
-A PSP/PS2/PS3/Xbox
-A credit card
-an monthly income of more then $1000,

you are not POOR! Calling yourself poor is an insult to poor people out there.

SO WAKE UP! And stop complaining/bitching.

P.S I've never called myself poor. Just occasionally broke, because, like all humans out there, we sometimes overspend :P


Speaking of overspend, there are so many sales on this weekend! There's the Kinokuniya Cardmembers 20% off 12-15 march, Charles and Keith Warehouse sale at 21 Tai Seng Road 12-15 march, and the IT fair at Suntec over this weekend. Thank goodness I have been thrifty for the past two weeks.

SEE! Save when you need to and you can spend when the time comes! I call it smart shopping.

A new itch: The new super duper mini iPod Shuffle with 4GB memory.

I want one! This little toy is $128. Nice price for the mini-ness and the memory. My Sony Ericsson W910i has been taking quite a beating from me. I think it's dying. Or, I should just wait 'til my contract ends before signing for a new plan with an iPhone. (See?! Decide carefully by thinking ahead!)

Now I'm starting to show the world my thought processes. -.-'''

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Batam Pic?

Was just going through the weird pics and vids we took when me, Fi, Kat went to Batam last week. Stumbled on one I took myself and it reminded me of Amelie.

Amelie
The weird pic
No, really, I swear it wasn't on purpose!

A pic from our room balcony, (you can see construction going on the left, they are building a new wing)
Me likey the pool~

Monday, March 2, 2009

My most hated sentence

I think I have figured out which sentence I hate to hear students say, from a teacher's point of view.

"Huh... it's so hard/difficult!!"

Especially when they utter it even before trying to play it. I've heard this sentence at least ten times today and it's seriously starting to irritate me.

I'm gonna ban all my students from saying that sentence.

How can it be hard when you haven't even tried it?!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Return and rules

Returned from a 1 night trip over at Batam, Harris, Spa included.

The trip itself was good, the Spa was -very- nice and the people at Harris were fantastic.

But I'm feeling inexplicably foul.

I don't understand why.

Either
1: I returned home to a lot of work left hanging
2: I returned home fairly broke
3: Work
4: Broke
5: I expected it to be fun-ner (if there was such a word)

Bah, I think it's bad timing on my part. Life doesn't seem to go the way you plan, no matter how you plan it.

Still, all the knots in my shoulders are completely kneaded out and I never knew I had such vampirically pale skin after a good scrub down.

Definitely going again, just for the Spa and Pool.

Harris is good.


Ack, feeling used again. When will I be able to spend time with humans who won't take advantage of my time/money/emotions?

It's tiring to keep watching out for my own well-being. Do everyone spend their entire lives like that? I certainly hope not.

I've had had enough.

-Ask me, never expect from me
-Talk with me, never at me
-I won't be around if you've never been around.

Three simple rules.

Monday, February 23, 2009

A little pat

Taught at school, and had a most rewarding lesson thus far today.

One of my kids, a young girl. When I first took over her lessons, she was one of the students who always had a terrified look plastered on their faces when they enter the studio. Like I'm a fire-breathing, ten-armed, blue-skinned monster. Asking her a question will always make her whimper, getting her to learn a new song was like giving her a death sentence.

You get the idea.

Today, after we had the practical lesson (where she had been very enthusiastic about perfecting the song we learnt last week), I sat down to mark her homework. She stayed at the piano and played songs we learnt previously. On her own. Flawlessly and with very obvious enjoyment.

At that moment, it felt like a pat on my back.

This girl had been phobic about playing in front of me. And most kids usually don't bother replaying old songs they learnt long ago.

But she played, every single one, in the book. It was like a mini-recital of her own.

I'll never forget that moment.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Enough!

Wake up peeps!

Constant complaining, moaning, groaning, bitching, swearing, cursing your life or your situation never makes anything better.

Don't get me wrong, everyone bitches once in awhile.

So watch what you say, always think before you say anything. Do you complain too much to the people around you?

If you do, ENOUGH!

Constant whining just makes you lose your friends.

Take a deep breath, think about something happy to talk about instead.

How beautiful the sunset was today, your latest buy or accomplishment that made you happy, something funny your family or pets did. No matter how minor it may seem.

Share the love and joy, not the pain.

Everyone has pain, don't impose yours onto others unnecessarily.

Talk WITH people, not TO people.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Heh

Heh... was trying to figure out my expenditure this month and realized that I went over-budget. Like waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy over. Luckily the VS spree didn't have the clothes I wanted in stock.

Or I'd be eating grass for the rest of the week.

Muaha.