February Wishlist and Monthly Goals!

You’re right when you think that it’s not yet February until next week. But since I’m totally excited with the ‘next month’ sort of, here is the usual list of my monthly goals.

Darker Than Black

But first things first. The month of January in year 2009 brings a lot of sweeping changes in my life. All right, I don’t want to sound so mawkishly sentimental, but it did. Well, anyway, to digress, there were lots of papers to pass in this month (as usual, the research papers, essays and critical analysis of the stories, novels, movies and the like). January is also the month for Dimples birthday bash (a classmate of mine) and we went to Mintal to celebrate (the Ichigo gang). On my Animax schedule, however, there’s that premiere of new anime shows like Ghost Slayers Ayashi and Darker than Black (gash, I love this one!).

Now, the love month of February is now fast-approaching, and here I am trying to figure out what would be the best monthly goals to achieve in this red-letter month. As usual, I’m going to update my post every now and then, and hopefully, I could come up with more poems this month, as the ratio is one successful poem after 50 attempts to do poetry (1:50). Yes, that’s painstakingly what poetry is all about. Hopefully, this month I can read some interesting books because I’ve been reading the required books for these past few months. I sometimes wish I needed a break. But summer is still three months away and within that long span of time surely there would be unforgettable experiences to undergo.

The red-letter month brings in the premiere of the anime Red Garden and Nodame Cantabile on Animax. Of course, I’m keeping

Nodame Cantabile

myself crossed for the episodes. Laughs. Not to mention, I have to finish my short story for my fiction class. I’m still on the 5^th page, but the story is getting nowhere – it has gone stagnant and I can’t seem to advance the plot again. Totally problematic, and hopefully I could fix it soon.

Here’s my detailed list of must-haves this month (such petty wishes):

1. USB – the USB I bought last year is out of my league. I don’t know what happen, but it certainly caught Trojan horses somewhere. So I need to have a USB this month, since I’m dealing with lots of papers again and I have nowhere to save them except my ipod. Huhuhu.

2. Hard disk drive – yep, for my netbook.

3. lots of hangers – didn’t I tell you that I’ve frequent washing clothes nowadays? Yes, big deal, so I need hangers for my personal convenience.

4. new shoes – probably any good, tough pair of shoes in Bankerohan, or somewhere in Uyanguren.

5. stamp pads – I’ve been wanting this for a long time. Anything cute though.

So bye for now, and cheers!

Healing Arts

I think you would agree with me how relaxing it is to undergo a complete body massage. Why though? It relaxes your tired muscles, and allows you healthy flow of blood throughout your body. What’s more, it gives you that calming and soothing peace of mind.

It is also a well known fact that being a physical therapist, masseur, or masseuse is in demand through out different places all over the world. I think that knowing the art of

So What’s High School (Part 2)

Academics Phenomena

Study! Study!

There is a certain kind of academic competition in high school that is definitely different in the academic competition that we usually have in college.In my opinion, most of these competitions I’m talking about are quite destructive, quite shattering for those people who are perfectionists and achievers.

I’ve experienced something like this in high school.I’m just an average student; sometimes I can roll the ball, sometimes I fail to hit it.But the thing is, you put so much premium on how good grades would affect your overall personality as a teenager, and you tend to believe that the possibility of this could make other people envy you, or you can have as many friends or suitors if you like.Competition is tight and quite intense at this moment – most teenagers wouldn’t want to let their guards down against their so-called ‘academic enemies’.I think that’s normal.Everybody goes through that, even if it’s only a brief moment of it.

When I was in high school, I admit that there’s nothing more important in my academic life than achieving high scores (or passing scores – applicable to math).I would gripe over low test scores in contrast with my other classmates, and this made me really terrible.I would study real hard at night, memorizing terms that never really etched in my brain the way they should be.Memorizations were just a momentary academic drift that’s purely cerebral, just for the sake of answering the teacher’s objective questions.Students would raise hands in class – academic battles include shouting, debating, confrontations and interruptions. I began to join clubs to get extra curricular points, not minding that a club can be a nurturing niche that would enrich your perspective in the same interests that holds the essence of the group.For me, clubs were only for the heck of it, and I won’t mind what would be the philosophical undertones – it’s just a matter of achievement and popularity in terms of academics.There is no such thing as personal and essential growth as a person in high school.You could realize that there exists something like that – even just a glint – when you get a little mature.And you are lucky if you get to mature early in highschool. When I reach college I begin to see things clearly.A little maturity and more experience do matter.

So What’s High School (Part 1)

Identity Crisis and Insecurities

When I was still in high school, you could just imagine how excruciating it is for me to stare in front of the mirror and look at my face.I have lots of insecurities, especially in high school: no long legs to boot, no slender body to flaunt, uneven skin tone and pimple marks.These are mainly the reasons why I usually walk slouching my shoulders because I’m not confident when passing by corridors.I would feel uncomfortable meeting new people,especially if I notice that their eyes are to travel from my head to foot.Or at least, maybe I’m just overly emotional and self-conscious – after all that is what high school is about: mood swings, unstable feelings, sudden insecurities and first loves.

I studied in the city’s public high school.I’m the youngest in the family and my older brother and my two sisters also went in the same public high.The good thing about public high school is that there is a wide array of people going in and out in your teenage life: you get to meet them and mingle with their different personalities (but mind you, there are much more ‘difference’ in terms of people personalities in college than in high school).I was not the kind of girl that easily gets in the group – I felt comfortable at the backdrop watching other people having fun, meeting up, talking and falling in love.Through out high school, it’s always like that.I was not a notable member in any of the academic clubs in high school – I only ventured out to be a writer for the school’s publication in the later years when I was able to pluck up the courage to contribute my petty writings.Nevertheless, I also joined CAT organization in my fourth year, and I could say that it really helped me in building the leadership that I never thought I had.

Well, it’s true that in high school you may feel like you are a liminal – like you don’t belong either the groups.You felt like it’s something like that.You felt you’re squeezed.You easily broke down when you see your crush talking animatedly with another girl, and get occasional monthly mood swings that you couldn’t pin down why.You also felt frustrations when dealing with the volcanic zits popping in and out in your face – like they were tiny zits of hidden anger you could not express.Things like this are so like high school, and this is usually and generally true among people out there.

Identity crisis usually happens in the later years of gradeschool, extending into hurly-burly life of high school.Initial and instant bouts of ‘young jealousies’ happens here.Insecurities are likely. For my part, it would be the pimples.Gosh, how I hate pimples.As I was not used to it before, I felt helpless and I felt embarrassed what to do with them.Now I felt lucky for the younger generations because pimple treatments are all over the place – books, self-help magazines and internet.

Now, I’m over with those high school stuff. I think so. Laughs. There are lots of things interesting and quite different in college: prospect jobs, serious relationships, beer bottles, or even all night parties.

All Natural

Amidst the technological innovations that we are currently enjoying,  it is totally amazing that the some of the newfound trends in healing ailments can be natural.  The ancient people living long long time ago (waaaaayyyy back) undeniably utilized the healing prowess of wonder leaves, barks or any parts of trees and plants.  Now, using technology, we have commercialized the usage of these natural healing wonders for effective mass production and consumerism.  It is totally wonderful to live longer in this world.

Most probably, especially in the rural areas, people are still reluctant to take the medicines and to undergo any medical check-up because they still rely on the ‘traditional’ way of healing themselves.  True enough, scientists and medical practitioners alike have come up to fuse technology and the natural healing wonders that can be found in nature.  Other people would opt to have approapriate exercise routines and diets.

Cancer, is probably one of the most destructive diseases for the last centuries, and the whole world is thankful that currently we have medications for this disease.  Colon cancer, (in fact, the third most common cancer) can be cured naturally.  While I was streaming the internet, I came across a site that contains well-informed colon cleanser reviews and more information about colon cleanse in general.  You may also want to try the all natural colon cleanser, for better bowel habits if you like.

As growing up individuals, we have exposed to all kinds of food, drinks, chemicals and the like, and the next thing we know, we have accumulated unhealthy substances in our body.  I think it would be better for us to live a healthy lifestyle, without being party poopers.  How?  That famous mantra “Prevention is better than cure” still works.

Cheers to healthy living!

We Were There

Yano and Nana

I could still recall the time when I first saw an episode of the anime Bokura ga Ita, and I could say that I really got hooked to it. It is a shoujo manga, dealing with young teenage love and relationship, and how it develops into a much more mature love when the characters Yano and Nana reach the adult stage.

It’s a romance manga written by Yuuki Obata, and it was serialized in Betsucomi released in 2002. Then, an anime adaptation of the famous manga was released. The anime version follows the plot of the manga until Yano leaves Nana. But don’t worry, to all Bokura Ga Ita fans, the manga is still ongoing, and mind you, the plot is getting interesting I could hardly wait what would happen next.

The story starts of with Nana, a 15 year old high school girl who told herself that she would never fall in love with the campus crush Yano like two-thirds of the class. For me, she is very fragile girl because she always ends up being confused with her own feelings, but nevertheless, she is cute as much as Yano is concerned. Later, as the story progresses, she begins to get curious on Yano, to the point of knowing more about him (Yano’s past, and Yano’s ex-girlfriend, also named Nana) and eventually falling in love with him. Yano, a popular and the typical highschool heartthrob, falls in love Nana too, starts dating her, and affectionately calls her Nana-chan. Not to mention, he is the usual flirt that mostly occurs in appealing guys.

Nanami Takahashi

At the surface, we know Yano as extremely sociable to all kinds of people, especially to girls, but deep inside, he had a hard time dealing and trusting them because of his traumatic experience with his first girlfriend. This is the reason why that when he’s still dating Nana, he is too possessive with her. At some point, Yano is caught between either the present girlfriend Nana or the memory of his ex-girlfriend who died in a car accident. Yano’s ex-girlfriend, also called Nana, died in a car accident with her ex-boyfriend, and the thought of this, made Yano (unknowingly) emotionally bruised. This in turn affects the relationship that he has with the present Nana.

Yano Motoharu

Yano’s close friend, Takeuchi, is the kind of guy that you can hold on to in times of trouble. He is much kinder and more emphatic than Yano, and most of the time, when Nana is having problems with her relationship with Yano, Takeuchi is there to console her. This is the reason why Takeuchi falls in love with Nana too, starting at that time when Nana is dating Yano, until the present series. But as a close friend in the background, he doesn’t messes up with the relationship of his beloved Nana and his bestfriend Yano. Instead, he warns Yano that he hurts Nana she wouldn’t have any second thoughts to sort of ‘snatch’ her away from him. True enough, that’s what happened later on the manga series.

Another character in the story is Yuri Yamamoto. She is a classmate of both Yano and Nana-chan. She is the younger sister of Nana Yamamoto, who is Yano’s ex-girlfriend. Nana Yamamoto is older than Yano when she starts dating her. Yuri, her younger sister, (and very unlike her sister) is so passive and extremely unsociable. She falls in love with Yano even before Yano is dating her older sister. A week after the tragic incident of Yano’s ex-girlfriend, it is revealed that Yuri actually slept with Yano. That event made Yuri develop an extreme hate to Yano, because she felt that she was ‘used’. She becomes a love obstacle between the relationship of Nana-chan and Yano.

Bokura Ga Ita

In the manga version, the story continues until the characters enter their respective choices of university. Yano and Nana both parted ways because they attended to different universities, and both promised to keep in contact with the other. But what happen is that Yano fails to contact her almost all the time when he is staying in Tokyo. He completely cuts off all the communication with her. Nana, who is naturally emotionally unstable, feels heartbroken and confused. Unknown to Nana, Yano encounters lots of problems in the busy skirts of Tokyo: financial crisis and his mother’s death. Because of the loss of communication, Nana decides to leave her feelings out for Yano and starts moving on with her painful experience. She starts dating Takeuchi. At the present manga release, they are 21 years old. Later on, it is revealed that Yano is now actually living with Yuri Yamamoto.

Yano and Nana-chan

Actually there is more to the manga than what is written here, so be sure you’d get to read it. But I couldn’t deny the fact that the anime version is the perfect rendition of the emotional gravities that one should felt in the story. This is one tragic story filled with love, unexpressed emotions, mixed confusion that leaves everyone victims of their own feelings. Totally complicated, if you ask me, but this one is worth your time.

I love the theme songs of the anime. The opening song is Kimi Dake Wo (Only You) by Mi, and the notable ending songs that I like are: Aishiteru (I Love You) by Mi, Kotoba (Words) and Suki Dakara (Because I Love You) by Izumi Katou, Koko ni Ite (I’m here) by Kaori Asou and Futari no Kisetsu Ga by Nozomi Sasaki.

Paradise Kiss – The Kidnapped Yukari Plus the Equal Opportunity Lover George

Paradise Kiss

The Honey and Clover season 2 rerun on Animax just ended last week. As usual, it got me teary-eyed because of the bittersweet Takemoto’s sentimentalities, but I think that the ending was really an essential part of the whole anime package. This is probably the reason why Honey and Clover is one of my personal favorites.

Now, I’m glad that Paradise Kiss is having its rerun again in Animax to replace the Honey and Clover timeslot. Paradise Kiss is another shoujo anime, just like Honey and Clover, but it deals more of fashion, in line with love and character identity. In fact, I’ve read a lot of community forums about Parakiss and Honey and Clover fans, and this is probably because they are both shoujo manga comics about love, relationships, and young adult’s lives in general.

Well, Paradise Kiss was originally released as volume manga series (written by Ai Yazawa) distributed by Shodensha’s Zipper magazine in Japan before it was adapted into a 12-episode anime version by Aniplex (Girl from Hell, Fullmetal Alchemist, Darker than Black). It revolves around Yukari

Yukari and George

Hayasaka, also known as “Caroline”, and how she comes in terms with love and relationships through her dream of being a fashion model.

Yukari (voiced by Yu Yamada in Japanese and Julie Ann Taylor in English) is a high school student who is bored and tired of going to school and having to undergo what she thinks as the routinary and meaningless academic life. For me, she’s the kind of girl that wants to experience what’s out in the real world, as teenagers usually tend to be tired with school (yep, I’ve experienced that too, haha) and wish at some point to work or to venture out in the real world. Yukari, even though it’s animated, is a beautiful woman – she has beautiful eyes, and long legs to boot – perfect for a model. This is probably the reason that when another character Arashi readily concluded that she was a perfect model for the new fashion line that he and his friends wants to release in the public. Yukari claimed that she was “kidnapped” sort of, and meets the Parakiss crew headed by the ultra hot university student George Koizumi (voiced by Kenji Hamada in Japanese; Patrick Seitz in English), the punk rocker Arashi Nagase (voiced by Shunsuke Mizutani; Derek Stephen Prince), the cute Miwako Sakurada ( voiced by Marika Matsumoto; Jolie Jackson), and the high class crossdresser Daisuke “Isabella” Yamamoto (voiced by Chiharu Suzuka; Mari Devon). Arashi and Miwako are dating, while eventually, as the anime progresses, George and Yukari hooks up.

Yukari is a simple high school girl in the earlier episodes, typical teenager who falls in love with her classmate, a character named Hiroyuki Tokumori, and dreams to marry this guy in the future. She was not really appealing (at least in the earlier context of the anime) but when she meets the ParaKiss crew she had a complete physical transformation. At first she is reluctant to be a model, and considers the idea to be really ridiculous, but due to the invisible power that George has (hahaha – something in him that’s soooo appealing!) she decides to quit school for good and model for ParaKiss full time. Quite a risk, no wonder it really made her mother angry. She begins to fall in love with George in extremes (really!) – a give-all sort of kind of love. The kind of love relationship between the two of them gave her the experience that enabled her to know more about herself.

It was thought-provoking that George was a bisexual (so he says) and asserts himself as ‘an equal opportunity lover’.

ParaKiss

The anime adaptation was released on October 2005, and it was directed by Osamu Kobayashi and Nobuteru Yuuki. However, the directors still consulted the mangaka Ai Yazawa for clarifications and expectations for the anime adaptation. The anime was aired all over Japan through Fuji TV, and through Animax, it was widely broadcast in East and Southeast Asia. I haven’t read the manga – at least not just yet- to see and compare if what are the major and minor changes in the anime. I’ve seen what Gokinjo Monogatari looks like (it’s a manga comic written by Ai Yazawa, and Paradise Kiss is said to be a semi-sequel to it), and I think that it was really interesting.

And of course, not to forget, I love the theme songs of the anime. I managed to download them in the internet and I love to jive in with the melody. The opening theme song of the anime is entitles “Lonely in Gorgeous” by Tommy February6 and the ending theme is “Do You Want To” by Franz Ferdinand.

From Horoscopes, Hunger Issues to Chucking Out the First Three Pages

(this is how scatter brain I am)

It’s not possible to be friends with everyone, so why even try? Just be yourself.
Romance is on your mind right now and that could be just as simple to create as it is to imagine. Whether you’re single or long-coupled, you can make something sweet happen quickly.

I admit I’m a frequent horoscope reader. Nah, just for the fun of it though. Anyway, most of the horoscopes I’ve been reading all this time feels like they’re inspirational messages (except quite a few) so definitely no harm done. At least horoscopes serve their purpose in entertaining people and egging them to do good things.

I posted an excerpt from the daily taurus horoscope at the above portion here, because I was so amused with it. Okay, I’m not defensive really, and I admit that romance (or should I say, emotional indulgences for the matter) is swirling randomly in my mind at times. Anyway, I just couldn’t help but wonder how many Taurean girls out there in this planet would feel the same way. Or how many other star-sign peeps also feels the same way as Taureans do.

Oh, I’m actually indulging in my thoughts again. Never mind.

To digress, I’ve been busy a lot lately. I just finished studying one of my major subjects for tomorrow’s quiz, but ironically, I haven’t finished my story for my fiction class for a week now. I have to do something about it later tonight though, I need to have the utmost concentration I really need right now. Right now, I’m fixing schedules again, so that in the next few days I won’t scatter my must-do’s all over the pages.

Last week was really one of the heights of PG Era. We were all hungry for banana’s sake! When I still thought about it I’m kinda alarmed at the state of hunger in the boarding house. Weeks after weeks of noodles and eggs and canned goods! Gah, I felt hungry all the time, most especially in Fiction class (noontime). One night, (I think that was January 08) we went to Mintal to eat our dinner because we were super hungry – all of the kampo girls haven’t eaten our breakfast and lunch, and we mainly went through cups of coffee and some star breads. I figured out that time that it’s one of our worst weeks, but nevertheless we went through with it all together – haha!- eating street barbecues and chilling in the Mintal park after.

Aside from hunger issues in the house, I still have to contend with the academic pressures I’ve been having this lately. Our Fiction class professor last time gave us some pep talk, egging us to write our stories already and now we are all pressured. Of course, we’re afraid. Haha.

First one would be to finally finish my short story for fiction class. It is really difficult to begin the story, mind you. All I did one night is to sit down with a pen in my hand and grope for some raw materials in my head to write – “grapple the demons” – hah, I remember, from my Fiction class professor. Right now, I’m in my third page, but the story isn’t going any further. And to think that the short story genius Anton Chekov once gave a piece of advice to writers to throw away the first three pages of the story for them to be able to begin in the middle! Oh great, bless my three pages…

The second book review, another requirement in one of our major class, is fast-approaching so I really need to find a book to review now, probably anthology of poetry or perhaps a novel. And it should be written by a Filipino writer of course, because it’s a requirement for our Phil Lit class. I have to choose a book as early as today so that I won’t cram later by the end of the month (major no-no!). And finally, I have to jumpstart my technical paper (about literature) some time as early as today, to choose a particular research problem or subject topic about this and that. I have something in my mind though, but I have to deliberately make plans on how to go through with it, or consider whether it’s feasible enough to do it a short period of time.

Gah, lots of mosquitoes here. I’m out now. Cheers!

January – Monthly Goals, Wishlist and Resolutions?

Now I couldn’t even remember what’s my December wishlist like, but anyway, it’s almost halfway the month and I still haven’t written my list. But before starting things off, I’d like to thank Gecel for a new calendar planner she gave me for this year, I’ve been planning to buy it last month because it’s the easiest way to organize things. I really like it, and I do have a special interest in those stuff. It’s really cool that I’ve seen my other classmate using planner too, surely, that would make all our lives monitored even through the pressures in school.

I haven’t really thought about a new year’s resolution, a really serious to-be-followed one, not even at this point, though I did think about not eating junk foods for this year. But I realized that I’ve done it successfully in year 2006 and 2007, and I don’t want to go through the same painstaking resolution again (oh c’mon, I can’t stand Nova and Piattos, and all kinds of cheesy chips!). And I don’t want to chuck out the idea that I don’t want any new year’s resolutions again ever in my life as it seems to be in everyone’s mouths that it’s too overly dramatic in a sense. So what I just want to do for this year is to study real hard and avoid procrastination. The usual thing we promise every start of the semester, but hopefully, things like this are not really meant to be promised for the sake of it. Even if you don’t promise things for yourself every year, it takes a lot of determination and problems (like failing grades, wasted lives) to finally have a fresh start.

Sorry, for blurting my personal ideology, i do recognize it’s getting boring. Lol. This month calls for a lot of papers to write for school and a time to really manage my tight schedule, so that I won’t cram in the next few months (second semester hell week – final exams week and deadlines). Lots of poems to make and I have to jumpstart my fiction story and finish it eventually. Plus, technical papers and book reviews to write. And exams. So it’s a full blow this month.

Amidst that I still have the usual wishlist. For this month, I’d like to buy a new USB – my usb’s not functioning now and it really irks me because I need it at this very moment. I’d also like a hard disk drive for file storage, and new shoes and new sandals. Hopefully, I can buy envelopes to reorganize my readings – they are definitely all over the place and sometimes I can’t seem to find the stories that I ought to read for this day and that.

But things are cheery as of the moment, and I think I have to get on with the flow.

My New Fashion Milieu

Hi! It’s been a while since I’ve been online. You see, I’ve been indulging myself  into new things lately (since it’s new year after all). So i have the liberty to change whatever the usual-me-as-it-goes drama, and here i am changing my lines of fashion.

First off, would be probably my bag. I have a very intense liking for back packs, which is the reason why I seldomly wear handbags (“almost never”). But this year, i resolve to be more feminine, (haha, surprise, surprise) and i’ve been browsing a lot of new styles of current fashion in the internet. And now, a total transformation surprise, I wear different handbags, and it came out as a surprise too, that when i look myself in the mirror, i can see a different me all through out.

Next would be the usual plain white t-shirts and jeans. I’m starting to wear a lot of blouses and shorts (most of them i wear back home). Haha, better start where things should be before venturing out for school.

As for the shoes, there are lots of websites all over the internet that offers hip styles and totally chic shoes! It was so amazing i feel like chucking out my  usual boring shoes that I’ve been wearing for the past years.   A cool site like ShopWiki offers guides in choosing among wide array of shoes whatever and wherever the fashion in you fits.  I especially like that  red killer style stiletto shoes – something to make my friends go gaga about.  Laughs. Now, I’m wearing more feminine shoes and high heels, although sneakers and comfortable flip-flops never cease to amaze me.