Photo Paint!

Since I don't have a sticker picture machine of my own, I decided to play on Paint and make my own little random pictures out of the photos that N and I took the day we went sticker-picturing :P They're kind of very elementary, since my command of Paint is rudimentary and I didn't want to devote hours to this :), but here ya go!

Right before we got into the water

Wading!

bffs!
i'm actually kind of proud of the last one :P

Go Cross Campus - IVC!

Next tuesday begins the second annual Ivy League Championships on gocrosscampus, an online risk-type game that pits various factions against each other. When you join a game, you choose a team based on some sort of social affiliation - in this case, it's by what school you attended, but past "fun games" have had themes like relationship status (single, taken, divorced etc) and star sign (virgo!). A current "fun game" is based on a world war ii do-over - it'll be interesting to see how history rewrites itself!

Anyway - once you join a team, you build up "vitals" each day by logging in and energizing. You also get extra vitals for conquering territories, for having x many connected territories etc. Each team elects commanders who are in charge of writing up a plan of attack (or defense, depending on strategy), contacting other teams, and rooting out the spies in the team. It's a ton of fun! I first got into GXC last year during the very first Ivy League Championships - unfortunately, Columbia got fourth (boo!), but i'm hoping this year that we do a little better! Penn's leading right now with a massive recruitment drive led by their administrative team, but hopefully in the next couple of days Columbia will surge ahead (the more ppl you have the better - increased numbers -> increased armies -> kicking ass). Our map this year seems to be a distorted version of new england - which I'm kind of sad about, I've been playing on the Manhattan maps which are awesome!, but Columbia has a decent position, and hopefully decent allies. I'll keep updating as the game goes on - but if any Columbians read this blog - join and play!

Tokyo Juliet

I mentioned that a little while ago, I watched "Tokyo Juliet." I was really excited to watch it - it had both fashion and my favourite Taiwanese actress, Ariel Lin, in it. And it introduced a really cute guy in it - now my favourite actor, Wu Chun. I love both because they give such stirring performances in all the dramas that they're in - when they're on screen, you can feel the chemistry between them and their partner radiating out. This drama is also what started my Fahrenheit craze :) Anyway...to the drama!
"Tokyo Juliet" is about a young girl, Lin Lai Sui, whose goal in life is to become a famous designer - a designer more famous than the leading designer of the time, Chu Xing (Simon Yan). She holds a grudge towards Chu Xing because he stole a design that she had drawn at the tender age of five and turned it into an award-winning collection - a collection that jump-started his career and made him one of the most popular designers world wide. Sui holds particular resentment towards Chu Xing because he wooed her mom away from her dad with this collection, causing an emotionally scarring divorce. In turn, Chu Xing vows to destroy her career in fashion...

One of Sui's physical characteristics is that she has wonderfully straight long black hair that has never been cut. She wears it this way as a tribute to her childhood love, a boy she met at a party right before she drew her design, who comforted her when she couldn't find her mom, and praised her long doll-like shiny hair. This memory is one of Sui's most cherished - everytime she thinks of the boy, she feels warm inside, and realizes that the world isn't a terrible place after all. It's her shield, in a way. At fashion college, which is the starting point of the drama, Sui meets a charismatic upperclassman, Liang (played by Wu Chun <3), who gives her same warm feeling. Of course, being a T-drama, Liang turns out to have been that boy from long ago - he recognizes her instantly, and cultivates a friendship with her. The two become close, and Sui reveals her secret about Chu Xing to Liang. Along the way, she also shares that she's in love with Liang...Liang vows to always protect her from Chu Xing, but says that they can never be together, because he is actually Chu Xing's son. A little family background - Liang hates his father for abandoning his mother and remarrying a female model (Sui's mom) so quickly after his mother's death. Because of this event, he refuses to design for females...until Sui comes along. After some drama, where Liang sacrifices himself to prevent Chu Xing from harming Sui, the two get together, and work hard towards realizing their dreams. There are a couple of love rivals, and a lot of cool fashion shows and exhibitions, but the core of the story centers around the couple's struggle against this powerhouse designer.

Ultimately, Liang reconciles with his father - right when Sui is given the chance by an anonymous backer to confront Chu Xing in a fashion face off. Liang withdraws his support from Sui, and she, realizing that his love is more important to her than her vow, runs away from her work and friends. After a period of solitary thinking, she decides to fly to Rome and pursue fashion there, but Liang goes after her and persuades her to stay. He inspires her to continue designing, but refuses to leave Chu Xing. So they agree to separate until the contest is over. Chu Xing's designs are elegant and refined, but in the end, Sui's passionate designs win out. This is actually one of the saddest parts of the movie - I had a healthy dislike for Chu Xing throughout the entire show, but in that last fashion show, I felt so sad when Chu Xing realized that he had lost both his son and his career to Sui. The series ends on a happy note - Sui opens her own store, carrying her own designs, and the couple live happily ever after.

I really really enjoyed this drama...I know a lot of people don't like the dramas where the main characters get together near the beginning - they like watching the chase and the struggle, but I love watching couples with that intense bond between them. Nothing can break them up (except in Love Contract, and that was only because she was in a coma). Wu Chun is also amazing :) he's so sweet and has the most communicative eyes. Dreamy.

Sticker photos make life better...really!

I'm in a blogging mood today, so I'm going to write another entry :) Went out today with my best friend N from high school, who's doing a law program in Singapore this year. It's been awesome hanging out with her again, and I love that though we've barely seen each other since high school, we're as close as ever!

Anyway, today was kind of a disaster! N came over to my area, and we took a bus to one of Singapore's largest malls, VivoCity. We walked around a bit, splashed around in this wading pool on the top floor (she has the photos, but as soon as I get them, they'll be up :P), and then decided to go for lunch. Disaster 1: There were bugs in our food!!!! We had ordered a plate of roast chicken and a large hokkien mee to share, and we were barely midway through our food when we noticed a bug on our table. With some unease, we swept the bug off of the table and continued munching away, but within a minute, we saw more bugs crawling on our plate. Being the insect phobic girls we both are, we dropped our chopsticks in horror, grabbed our bags, and left. Without lunch. We were too freaked out to get more food, so we decided to leave Vivocity behind us and take a train to Bugis to do some real shopping.

At Bugis - which is an outdoor street shopping area - we felt a lot better, and wandered around picking out cute tops. I love Bugis - week to week, fashions are different, and it's hard to be bored. This week the theme seemed to be ruffled office shirts and colorful tube top sprinkled with flowers. N found a really preppy but cute pink long button-down top with a collar and grabbed it. She wanted to see how it looked on, and so we ran into the nearest indoor mall and tried on her top...which ended up being much too small in the shoulders for her. Disaster 2. We ran back to the stall, and after some hard talking, managed to get the vendor to agree to an exchange. N picked out a flowery tube top...but remained in a kind of funky mood from the whole encounter.

Walking around, we saw a sticker photo store and decided to make ourselves feel better by taking pictures :) It was a little stressful, actually, because we had to use Japanese machines (where you get to write on the photos after you're done taking them) as opposed to the Thai ones that we're used to. We messed up a lot and couldn't find the erase button, but we felt much better after the scribbling process. Took a few random shots of the pictures at the store.

Yup, there's nothing like sticker photos to make one feel better after a lousy day!

Hana Kimi

So a while back, I was talking to a friend of mine in New York who revealed that he was sneakily watching Japanese dramas to brush up on his language skills. He recommended that I watch this drama called "Hanazakari no Kimitachi". To be completely honest, I didn't really pay that much attention to the recommendation - I am a total T-drama fan and have no time for J-dramas :P

A couple days later, I was looking up dramas that my favourite T-actor, Wu Chun of Farenheit, has been in, and came across a recent drama in the forums called "Hana Kimi". It also starred Jiro Wang of Farenheit, and Ella of S.H.E. - two other people I love, and so I immediately started watching it.
So this drama is based on a manga - as many good dramas are! - and features a fat girl, Ruixi (Ella), who sheds 30 pounds after watching a special feature about a high-jumper in Taiwan whose main characteristics are determination and perseverance. Against her best friend's (Julia) wishes, she returns to Taiwan to enroll in his college so that she can see him high-jump live. The catch? The high-jumper, Jian (Wu Chun), goes to an all-boys athletic college. On her first day at college, Ruixi meets Xiuyi (Jiro Wang), a soccer star and incredibly friendly person, who introduces her about the school and helps her settle in as she tries to fulfil her goal. But Jian has quit high jumping, and looks unlikely to return to it...Meanwhile, within her first week on campus, Ruixi is involved in a small accident; Jian sees her (they're roommates so they're together a lot), and carries her to the doctor's office. He realizes that she's a girl, but decides not to expose her until he figures out her purpose at the school. The doctor realizes the same, and becomes Ruixi's confidant at the school.

As time passes, Xiuyi starts feeling attracted to Ruixi, and struggles with his sexual identity in a hilarious way - is he gay? Jian and Ruixi become close friends, and Ruixi motivates Jian to start high jumping again. Lots of things happen, and we watch how relationships develop. Xiuyi confesses his love for Ruixi (to the doctor's amusement. The doctor is actually gay), and Jian starts becoming extremely protective of Ruixi. Julia comes from the US to stir things up, and in the resulting fallout, Xiuyi falls in love with Julia and Jian admits (to Julia) that he's known Ruixi's true identity since her first week and won't expose her because then the two of them (Jian and Ruixi) will have to separate. After some more drama, Jian and Ruixi decide to reveal their secrets to each other (hers is that she's a girl, his is that he knows and likes her), but in the end, nothing happens. The series ends here. The ending is pretty crappy, but that was because a part 2 was planned and the producers meant to resolve things in the sequel. "Hana Kimi" became one of the most highly rated and watched dramas in Taiwan, and everyone looked forward to the sequel...

But then the Japanese decided to produce their own Hana Kimi - the version that my friend from NYC watched. They strayed from the manga a little more, and ended their Part I with everyone knowing about Ruixi's secret and with Ruixi returning to the US. However, in the last 20 seconds of the drama, they reveal that her all-boys school is coming to California for a field trip, paving the way for Part II. Due to the success of the J-drama and other factors, the copyrights for Part 2 of the manga and script have been denied in Taiwan - resulting in a cancellation of the sequel to the T-drama. NOOOOOOOO! I was absolutely devastated when I found out!!!

So I decided to watch some of the J-drama to see if it was something I could get into - then at least if they made part 2 of only the J-drama, I could still have something to look forward to. But the J-drama is quite different from the T-drama. Storylines are much more condensed, and characters seem barely developed as compared to the T-version. J-dramas are generally much shorter than T-dramas, which is one probable reason for the lack of character development and sub-plots. Character interactions also feel a lot more shallow than in T-dramas and so watchers of J-dramas just don't get to know the characters well. I suppose that if I had started out watching J-dramas, I would feel that T-dramas went into too much detail and had meandering plots, but now I live for the subtleties of T-dramas and am amused by most of the sub-plots. The almost abruptness of J-dramas just don't sit well with me anymore - I am almost more interested in watching the characters live and interact than knowing what happens. Seeing the chemistry of the actors slowly develop heightens the enjoyment in a series, I suppose. And so I am deeply disappointed in the Japanese Hana Kimi, and am extremely upset that there will be no Taiwanese sequel. Even so - Hana Kimi was wonderful to watch, and even faced with no prospect of a sequel, I would watch it again, crappy ending and all :)

飛輪海

Since my addiction to Taiwanese drama serials, I have become increasingly attracted to their soundtracks. It all started with "They Kiss Again" - during really romantic or heartwarming moments, they would play this song "你 (You)" sung by one of the main leads, Ariel Lin. Ever since then, I've paid special attention to a serial's soundtracks - often there are some really nice songs. And even when they're not particularly special, I still love them, because I associate the drama with those songs.

So in one of the dramas I've watched - "Tokyo Juliet," which I haven't blogged about yet, I heard this really nice duet. I youtubed the video, and it turns out to feature a band that the male lead was in, named "Fahrenheit" or "飛輪海". Adore it! It's called "I Only Have Feelings For You" - the girl in this is Hebe, from a popular Taiwanese girl group.



I also love this other song of theirs, another duet, this time with all the members of S.H.E. It was featured as the opening song in another drama that I just finished, "Romantic Princess" and is called "Love Nest (Xin Wo)."



Lastly...a video of just the band themselves! They're all pretty popular, and have all acted in dramas. My favourites are Wu Zhun (lead in "Tokyo Juliet" and "Romantic Princess" hehe) and Jiro Wang (male second in "It Started With a Kiss" and "They Kiss Again"). <3 This song is called "Ai Dao," or "Liking" I think...My translation's still not the best :P

iPods...

I've had my classic clickwheel iPod since I was an innocent little first-year in college. I've always been the clumsy type, so my dad got me a hard plastic case to go around it. The case has protected my poor iPod from thousands of potential breakages and scratches, but it also makes the iPod look and feel a little like a brick. Especially since it's a second generation iPod - it's sleek for it's time, but it's still a little heavy. I love my iPod, but I think it might be time for me to get a new one - the new models are much thinner and lighter - and let's face it, more stylish. Other perks - a much longer battery life (mine currently runs for all of 6 hours, MAYBE) and the ability to play videos...which means that I can watch my favourite taiwanese dramas on the go haha.

So I was looking at the different types of iPods last night, and I like both the Classic and the Nano.

IPOD CLASSIC
The new iPod Classic (formerly the video iPod, I think) is really pretty. It's pretty thin - much thinner than the version I have now, and has a nice 2.5 or 3 inch screen. And apparently it's had abit of a feature overhaul - well in four years, Apple's got to have done something, right? I've heard that it's much easier to manipulate songs and the equalizers and all of that cool stuff on the new iPod. It also has a ton of more storage space (80GB or 160GB) - I only have a little more than 9GB of songs, but videos probably will take up a lot more room no? And the battery life is 30-40 hours long - which is leaps and bounds ahead of my worn-down battery! On the negative side, a review says that the new iPod doesn't work with any of the old docking platforms - which is a problem since we have so many of them! - and doesn't have the best sound quality. The latter is okay with me - as long as I can hear the song, and it's not distorted, that's fine. Sells for around USD 250.

IPOD NANO
The iPod Nano is also an option. Originally I clicked on the review as kind of a joke, but after reading its specs, I'm starting to seriously think about it. It's smaller than the Classic, which is awesome, but I'm not sure that I like how wide it is. Nonetheless, it has all the features of the iPod, with the exception of a marginally smaller screen and a smaller clickwheel. It's battery life is around 24 hours...not bad. A big negative is that it only has 8GB of storage...It's less than USD 200 though, which is nice.

Overall, I think the iPod Classic is a better deal, and has most of what I'm looking for. I'm not someone who needs to be able to wholely control and understand my technology (though a little bit of customization is okay :P). I'm looking for a simple little mp3 player that plays the music and videos I want to hear, that I don't have to charge every 10 minutes, that holds all that I need to store in it. I use iTunes, so there's really no point for me get a non-Apple mp3 player. Yup, an iPod Classic it shall be - as soon as my old one breaks.