Ironically enough...

... I seem to be spending less time on the Internet even with all this free time on my hands. It happens all the time. I can be in the midst of the most gruelling, time-consuming assignments, and yet I still find time to blog. Then here comes the holidays, and you would think I'd be spending 24/7 online, yet I can't bring myself to sit in front of the laptop for even 10 minutes. Why? As much of a paradox as it might sound, I think it's actually because it's the holidays that I find it so hard to come online. It's like, with all this wonderful time to spend on other more lazy activities (re: TV, playing computer games, doing nothing), it just seems like such a hassle to use the Internet. It doesn't help that my laptop has serious lagging issues everytime it's hooked up to the Web. Speaking of which, it's nearly 2 weeks since I last blogged. Shocking, isn't it?

But it's been an eventful first 2 weeks of my holiday. I've been to Hornbill Steamboat with my coursemates (2 Fridays ago), the new eatery where Italiano's used to be with triSh and Vivian after watching Madagascar 2 (last Thursday), and even India Street to accompany triSh on one of her photoshoots. Had great fun pretending to be tourists too. That was just this morning, and we even had lunch at McDonald's! What great fun! Tried the shaker fries "move it move it" thingy, and well, let's just say it's not as good as it's advertising. Interestingly enough, I've also been accepted to work onboard Doulos for 2 weeks, starting the 11th of December. It's on some sort of volunteer program, and I'm looking forward to kitchen duty. I just hope they'll trust me enough to let me stir the pot. triSh will be onboard too, and between us I'm sure we could come up with some good pasta, right?

My craze with anime seems to be getting more interesting too. Currently I'm in the midst of watching Saiunkoku Monogatari, Ouran High School Host Club, and Bleach. I'm not going into details here (due to the risk of driving the remainder of my blog readers away) but I suppose I should say that it's quite hard for me to come across anime that really do pique (and maintain) my interest. I find the majority of anime rather silly and plotless, so it's rare for me to find one that actually has a good plot. It's something akin to digging up gold nuggets, I suppose. You dig through the pile of dirt, and every once in a blue moon you find something worth keeping. Does that make sense? It doesn't matter if it doesn't. I'm just trying to fill up this blogpost. Teehee.

So that's it this time. The next time I blog would probably be, well, next year? I hope not. Cheers you all, and happy holidays.

What a wonderful feeling

Thus ends the mental torture of one week's worth of exams. Such a relief, but such a pain too, to agonize over my performance this semester. I talked with my gang of friends last night, and we all unanimously agreed that this has been the worst semester for us, in terms of our carry marks and probably final grades. Sigh. But it's over, and I'm not complaining in the least. Almost two months stretch before me, eight weeks of not having to do anything but eat, sleep and slowly rot.

So last night, some of us celebrated the end of the exams by having a steamboat fest of sorts, as we always do each semester. It was ferocious, the way we literally attacked the food. Lamb, chicken, prawns, clams, fish balls, prawn balls, crabsticks, sausages, mushrooms, chocolate ice-cream, the only thing missing being nuggets, which I'm still quite upset about. Why no nuggets? What happened? Did they decide to quit their job and run off to Hawaii? Where did they disappear to? These questions still resound in my mind.

When I got home, I vegetated in front of the telly for a bit, just catching up on all the shows I'd missed. Not that I missed much, considering the amount of time I still spent watching telly every night of the exam period. I think I watch more telly during exam week than any other time. Why is that? Denial? Fear? Or just plain laziness?

Anyway, to get on with the rest of the story. Last night, to kick-start my holidays, I watched the first five episodes of Ouran High School Host Club. I must say that my first impression it was that it wasn't as good as the manga (especially as I was expecting a much deeper voice for Tamaki, and I thought he would be much more macho, manlier and charming). But you know how it is, when you picture something in your mind as you're reading, and the animated/movie version of it doesn't quite live up to what you were expecting. The mind is a powerful thing, I say. But after the first episode I grew to like the anime, so that's 5 down, 21 more to go, and loving every moment of it. It helped that I had an ice-cold drink to accompany my watching.

And it's Saturday today, and I'm happy it's the holidays. If only holidays lasted forever. But they don't, so I'm gonna treasure every minute of it. Cheers to you all, and happy holidays!

It's just one week!

That's what I keep telling myself this whole week, and it's probably what I'll keep telling myself the whole of next week too. It's been a great two weeks off from uni, but I'll be having my final exams the whole of next week, and it's torture just thinking about it. Truth is I haven't started studying. In fact, I haven't even started locating my notes. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I even have any notes. How?

Anyway, it's not like this blog has many readers, but this is just a shoutout to the two or three of you that I wouldn't be blogging from now till the end of my exams. Just so I can stay focused. That's the plan, anyway. Knowing me, I'll probably get distracted from studying by the sound of the air-con or something. Or even the sound of the wind. Or something. But I will be back, as soon as my final paper's over.

So until my next post a week from now, cheers!

Dinner for one

This week alone I've prepared my own dinner twice. Don't go feeling all sorry for me now, it's actually something I look forward to, as it's probably the only chance I get to cook, which would come as a shock to many. So, yet again, I will describe my Maggi mee cooking process.

I always gather all my ingredients before I start the actual cooking. No point letting everything boil into nothingness while you go searching for that elusive egg or two. And I have a habit of crushing up the noodles (I think this makes it easier to eat with a spoon - lazy me). And I separate the eggs (yolks one bowl, whites one bowl), the reason for which will be explained soon. So once I've got all the ingredients ready, I fill a pot with approximately 2 centimetres of water (depending on the size of the pot), which I know is very little (and not following the actual instructions on the back of the packet), but then again this is creative cooking we're talking about. I let the water heat up a bit, just till I can see little bubbles forming, and then dump in one packet of the soup mix. Again, the reasons for all these specifics will be explained soon. Patience, my hungry friend.

When the soup heats up a little more, and then I dump in the egg whites and turn the fire to its lowest setting. I do this so that the egg whites don't poof up and spread throughout the soup. I want the egg whites to stay in one solid mass. So then I just watch the soup and eggs until they solidify. Then comes the fun part. Moving as fast as I can (actually the speed of my movements don't really matter, I just think it sounds more dramatic), I dump all the previously crushed-up dried-up noodles into the pot. Ahhhh... The sound of the noodles as they hit the pot and sizzle up... Nice. This is where the barely-enough-to-cover-the-noodles 2-centimetre's-worth-of-water-now-evaporated-to-1-centimetre soup comes into play. I like my noodles to be dry, so by the time the noodles absorb the soup, there's really not much liquid left. Then I leave the noodles to fry up a bit. Sizzle sizzle smoke smoke. Nice. What happened to the egg yolks you're wondering? Well, truth is I don't like them all cooked up. Like them as raw as they can get. So I just leave them at the bottom of the bowl, roll them around with a bit of seasoning from the second soup mix packet, and gently spoon the steaming noodles over the raw egg yolks. Leave them to just heat up a bit, just warm enough not to taste icky and cold.

Then comes the eating part. Before I actually devour the whole thing up, I use up the remainder of the second soup mix packet to dust the top of the noodles. Salty, I know, but very delicious. And later when I eat the whole thing up, at the bottom of the bowl lies two beautiful treasures, the two warmish raw-ish egg yolks, which I poke and mix around with the last few spoons of noodles and there, yummy yum. Slurp slurp. What a beautiful, satisfying, totally enjoyable meal. I love cooking my instant noodles this way, but I've come to the realization that Maggi mee curry flavour is the best fit for this style of cooking. Better still if it's the Kari Letup version, so much more flavour and kick. Maggi mee can really be an art form if you know what to do with it. Not that I'm claiming I know how to cook, but I think I'm quite good at cooking up a pretty fantastic Maggi mee. And it never fails to put a big smile on my face. Nice, isn't it?

Boleyn and the Chipmunks

No, that's not the name of a new show, or a new band. It's just shorter (and much sweeter) than saying "I watched The Other Boleyn Girl and Alvin and the Chipmunks two nights ago". Which I did.

The Other Boleyn Girl was pretty interesting, though I thought the two actresses (Scarlett and Natalie) should have switched their roles. The movie's basically about the entire Boleyn family, and how their greedy ambitions finally ruined them. Of course, the two Boleyn girls are the main characters, but then again, I think all that death and destruction should be shared equally amongst the entire family, excepting the mother and brother. For those of you who know the Anne Boleyn story, you know this movie is a period piece about ancient English times. No point spoiling the fun for you though, so I'll just say that Anne Boleyn's daughter became Queen Elizabeth. Wouldn't it be fun to flash a message on the cinema screen after this movie is over, saying something like "For the sequel of this movie, kindly proceed to watch Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett". Then at least the audience wouldn't be left with this horrible feeling of suspense.

I watched Alvin and the Chipmunks next, and I was quite disappointed with the way the chipmunks were drawn. But this was only at the start, and I kinda got used to their looks after a while. What I'm wondering though, is how they managed to change Jesse McCartney's voice to Theodore's? Maybe they forced the voice actors to inhale lots of helium gas before they recorded the movie. That would probably mean inhaling lots of helium gas, seeing how the movie's about an hour and a half long. It's a good plot though, as we get to see how the chipmunks ended up living with Dave. Jason Lee was pretty good, Alvin wasn't given as much screen time as in the cartoons. Here, the attention falls mainly on Theodore, who really is a very adorable chipmunk. Remember what I said about getting my own chipmunk? Well, even better if they can sing in three-part harmony.

Last night I finally got around to watching some Bleach episodes. About a year ago I started this addiction to Youtube, and most of my time was spent on watching Bleach. Then I grew some extra brain cells and came up with the bright idea of getting the episodes from my coursemates. I did, but I never managed to find the time to watch them, not until last night. So today, I'm going to continue watching more Bleach episodes. I think I'm in Season 4 now, but it's getting a little draggy. I think the previous seasons were more exciting, but we'll see how the season progresses. I've got such a long way to go to Season 8, but I'll try my best.

Well, that's it for today. I wanted to post this yesterday, but then somehow, in some strange way, I got sidetracked by the television. So here's an advice for all serious bloggers out there: trash your TV. As always, cheers!

Mini Movie Marathon

It's Day 3 into my 2-week long study break, and boy, has it been a well-deserved break. This semester has been everything short of plain torture, so I thought I would help my brain recover its original tin kosong status by watching something that really wouldn't involve any brain cells - I decided to spend the next few days catching up with the present by watching some movies!

So this project (which I'm calling my Mini Movie Marathon) started last night with a Disney movie that I've been wanting to watch for a very long time now - Enchanted! How best can I describe this movie? It's like, have you ever watched a movie and wished you'd written the script, or read a book and wished you'd thought of it first? Well yeah, this was what this movie was to me. And I must say, this movie lived up to all my expectations, maybe even more. I think the perfect actors were found for the roles, and really they were all superb. It's really very hard to pinpoint who did a better job, what with Amy Adams perfectly incorporating all the quintessential Disney princess mannerisms - check out how she moves her arms, her wide-eyed stares, and twirling and dancing - and James Marsden (aka Cyclops) really made a good Disney prince. Although really I can't quite recall all the other Prince Charmings being so, er, bimbo-ish. And Patrick Dempsey was simply fabulous. Grey's Anatomy doesn't do him any justice, but this movie really did reveal his suitability as a reluctant romantic hero kinda guy. I say from now on, just put him in this kind of romantic comedy movies. He really is very good. I think the character who stole the scene everytime he appeared was the chipmunk though. Pip (the chipmunk) is really too hilarious for words. Adorable, too. Where can I get a chipmunk of my own? The facial expressions he uses, the little game of charades... I want my own chipmunk. I really liked how the Disney-style cartoon was used at the start and end of the movie too. I think I even foresee a Disney animation spin-off in the making. The songs are really sweet and memorable, two of my favourites being True Love's Kiss and So Close. The first I like because it really is styled in the traditional Disney movie soundtrack way, and the second I like because... Look, Jon McLaughlin has a superb voice, and he can make any song sound good, even better if it happens to be a really romantic love song. It helped that I watched him performing it at the last Oscars. I think he has lots of leading man potential. If I were a Disney movie director I'd cast him in the very next one. I liked the way the movie spoofed off a lot of the Disney movies as well. There are references to so many old Disney cartoons that really, watching Enchanted is like watching little snippets of them all at once. I even managed to find a website that lists out the many similarities between this movie and the other Disney cartoons.

Then the Mini Movie Marathon continued this morning with me watching the first three episodes of Heroes Season 3. I only have one word to say - superb. Okay, I have more to say, and here it is: I think the pilot this time is much, much better than that of Season 2. So many twists, so many little surprises. I was really quite upset when Season 2 was cut short, what with the writers' strike and all, so I was really happy when I found out there would be a Season 3. I wouldn't write much, because I don't wanna reveal any spoilers. All I'll say is that in this season, the baddies aren't necessarily all that bad, and the goodies aren't that good either. Next came Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which I've also wanted to watch. I think this one is actually better than the first, but maybe that's because they've got elves (not the nice, pretty, LOTR ones) and other mythical-looking creatures. Although I must say watching Prince Nuada fight is like watching a Jackie Chan or Jet Li martial arts movie. So familiar, especially the part where he bangs the spear on the floor. I found the most touching scene to be the one with the Forest Elemental, and it was really quite sad to see it die. In fact, I think the movie has an underlying eco-friendly theme, something akin to nature conservation and all. You can almost see the whole movie as symbolizing the lost of nature at the hands of man's modernizing and urbanizing ways. Especially the part where Prince Nuada says something about the Forest Elemental being the last of its kind. Really sad.

Well, that's all I'll say for this post. I think I've said more than enough. I'm looking forward to later, when I'll watch more movies. So till tomorrow, this is cheers and goodbye.

Colours of Autumn

Well, I've changed my blog template again. This time I've chosen something to suit the lovely months of autumn. And yes, I do realize there's no such thing as autumn where I am, but that doesn't mean I can't dream of it. I've always liked autumn the best, so when I saw this blog template I thought the colours were just perfect. I've changed the music too, so now it's playing a couple of songs from the soundtrack of one of my favourite anime's at the moment, Honey and Clover. I do seriously think this anime has got one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. There are so many more beautiful songs, and there's just no way to play them all here, so I selected two of the calmer, more wistful sounding ones. And I suppose that's it from me today. You'll hear from me real soon, what with my study break here! Cheers!