new start.

Hey, welcome to cerulean-ASH. Yes, URL change for the first time in ten months. (A brand new record for me, I think. Haha.) Purpose of link switch- a) I decided that yellowandbluee was no longer relevant, since unfortunately my Arashi stripe has decreased drastically since I've been focusing on my studies. Not sure that a lot of people got my last link anyway... huh. b) I wanted something more 'in-sync' with my life right now; but, as always, I'm not going to explain my link since it's not like anyone around here cares. Lastly, c) My dad reads my blog!

Now for the most part I'm cool with that last bit, seeing as my dad's not really the holier-than-thou kind of father who still thinks I'm ten or something. He knows that I swear when occasion calls for it, that I have a boyfriend, so on and so forth. Nah, it's just.. You know. The principle of the thing. Dad, reading my blog. /shudder

Um, so, okay, second week of trials have come and gone. It's hard to think that this will be the last exam I'll ever sit for within the walls of 5 Marikh. Next round will of course be held in the examination hall, where the tables are so spaced out and uniform you feel so utterly.. alone. You feel like it's just you and your trusty navy blue Pilot 0.5 pen, versus that evil stack of white paper laid out innocently on the desk. (Well, that's what it felt like for me during PMR heh.)

Biology was a love-hate thing for me, especially the Paper 1. Chemistry on the whole was a bit of a mind-raping (I could not comprehend how they turned a simple thing like preparing soluble salts into that monster of an essay!), but I think I'll scrape through. Physics is yet to be done, and I've got the whole weekend lined up with study schedules and whatnot. /prays for determination to stick to timetable/

Sejarah... was just, bad. I screwed up one of my essays. Don't really want to think about it. T_T

Hn... Yeah. There's nothing to say, right now. Ida's raya gathering is clashing with Ed Board dinner, so... yeah. Huh. You know what, let's cut the "informational" tone where I drone on endlessly about certificates and college days and government exam papers with bad English, and start talking about something mundane. Just to take my mind off.. 'things'. /starts ramble/

I took a breather from the JK music scene. Mostly because... I have the attention span of a three-year-old when it comes to these things. And also because there's just too much going on in there, but at the same time, nothing's happening. Y'know? Or maybe that's my die-hard Cassiopeian soul, blanching at a world of Kpop music devoid of DBSK. :| Either way, I stopped getting into it. And.. I reverted to my English ways.

Don't get me wrong- I still don't listen to Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber or whatever bland cookie-cutter American (well, one Canadian there if I'm not mistaken..) artist that makes up the Western music industry. It's more like, I've been scouring my brain for what I used to listen to before I got into the whole Asian shiznit.

Some stuff I ended up reminiscing over with Shiva in class the other day, the many "phases" of our childhood-
1) The Linkin Park phase
2) The Hoobastank phase (lo-ong one)
3) The Simple Plan phase
4) The MCR phase
5) The Eminem phase (like, during his Slim Shady days, no shit)
6) The Hilary Duff phase! She was the first album I ever bought.
7) The Avril Lavigne phase. Because every girl goes through an Avril.
8) The Westlife/N*Sync/Blue/Backstreet Boys phase. Damn! xD
9) The Spice Girls phase
10) The Jesse McCartney/Ryan Cabrera/Nick Carter/John Mayer/Justin Timberlake phase. Can somebody please tell me where all the good male Western singers went? :S
11) The Stacie Oricco phase

Other stages, suffered in silence include:

- My Akademi Fantasia 'moment'..............
no I'm totally serious! My aunts, cousins and myself were totally devout watchers of the first season of Akademi Fantasia. My sister even voted for Vince a couple of times okay? (Yes, I just had to get that embarrassing fact out there! :P) But then the concept got old. And after Zahid didn't win I was just kind of 'bleh'. My AF fix quickly led me to discovering a lot of Malay music that was NOT M. Nasir or Siti Nurhaliza (though I adore those two singers to bits and pieces), like from Glen, Ella, Anita Sarawak... the works.

- My Indonesian grunge bands phase.
Remember Sheila on 7? Peter Pan? Yeah man. They were epic. If you look around some drawers in my room, please don't be shocked when you find CDs with "Hit #1 Indonesia" or something. And while when I was younger, I loved their songs as good music, listening to the songs again now I have come to understand & appreciate the hidden depths of all the lyrics. I listened to "Sephia" again and it almost made me cry! And "Seberapa Pantas"! Totally had a Rossa phase. And Ratu. And Cokelat.
I still remember that this was the only stage that carried on into my Form 1 days, 'cuz I had this one senior from marching who taught me how to love Indonesian ballad groups, e.g. Tangga! Oh, and remember when everyone was obsessed over the song "My Heart"?

Oh man. :') And I haven't even started talking on the GARGANTUAN influence that my dad held over my earlier taste in music, even when we were living in PJ. I think it was through constant exposure that I grew to love artists like The Carpenters, ABBA (I still remember watching the Mamma Mia musical in London when I was little), Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Norah Jones... And, my strongest Oldie love yet, Shirley Bassey.

Huh. I'm a bit saddened to think that I can't remember anything else that I listened to before Japan and Korea became my entire music scene. Hopefully, I'll have more time after trials to further this musical Renaissance of mine. :)

For lack of a better topic, let's discuss Naruto. Non-anime people, you may consider this post as wrapped. :D

There is still a disappointing lack of Uchiha, Kishi! >:( Yes, I appreciate the 100,000 Zetsus you took the precious time to draw, but STILL! I don't want to look at Kabuchimaru's ugly-ass face, and HOW HOW HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO SHODAIME T_T AND YOU BETTER NOT HURT YAMATO, OR SO HELP ME I WILL [insert appropriately scary punishment here].

And, alright, not for the first time in my life I'll admit that the plot is moving way too slow. There are way too many revelations that are giving rise to more questions instead of answering the pre-existing ones, and Naruto's getting way too much hax, and and and YAMATO'S GOING TO BE TROLLED I SEE IT IN MY EYES ALREADY OH THE PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!1111ONEONEthrowsdramaticbitchfit

Anyhoo, not to gloat but I've got the whole Bleach & Naruto manga at my fingertips, locked up in a pretty little .zip file somewhere on a hard-disk with my name on it. ;) Well, not technically at my fingertips since my brother's adamant to give it to me after SPM. Kuso. -___________-' Realized that I missed around 10 chapters in the Kage arc AND I'M NOT EVEN SURE WHY. I was so sure I had been consistent in my reading, but at some point or other I realized that I was obviously missing a chunk of story somewhere that everyone else had already read.

Meh, it'll be a pain to have to find out which chapters I missed, but I guess it'll just be another thing I have to do 'After SPM'. Everything is 'After SPM'. Life will begin again 'After SPM'. Rainbows will burst forth and the angels will sing, 'After SPM'. Or that's how it seems now anyway. Hahah.

Oh, speaking of hard-disks... Not too sure if I've already mentioned it, but that's my second brother's "present" for me. One huge-ass (I forget the actual space) hard-disk, filled with anime of my choice. So far I've asked for Naruto and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. (Yes, yes, I know I said I didn't want to watch Brotherhood because everyone looks 'fatter' but after reading a few incredibly delicious chapters of FMA manga I decided the chance to see this masterpiece animated forrealz was too good to pass up. So I'll just be.. closing on eye and ignoring the fatness, LOL.)

To be honest, my brother originally offered an iPhone or iPad or something akin to that, but I didn't really.. w-ell. Let's just say I turned him down.

Now wait, wait; don't get the pitchforks and start the "ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE" angry mobs just yet. I turned the offer down, because.. well. I don't know how to say this without offending a certain category of people, but here's the deal. As high maintenance as I tend to come off sometimes, I really don't like spending vast amounts of money for trivial objects.

And for me, as someone who has berated others on spoiling their children silly with gadgets aforementioned, I thought it would be hypocritical of me to accept my brother's offer, even as an after-SPM gift. Besides, I've got Itachi. I've got my phone. I don't really have an aching burning need for anything else except Fazlan but that was a given since 12th November 2006. :)

And when the time comes that I actually DO salivate over a piece of technology (not because "everyone has it" or "the commercial for it looks really cool", but because I can finally, truly appreciate the beauty of the machinery and design)--- I'd rather have the satisfaction of buying it with my own hard-earned cash, over having someone just hand it to me in a box.

Besides, I'd much prefer a gift that I KNOW I'll use for a long time, or is equally meaningful some other way. Like, if we (the whole Astaman clan) just settled our differences in a civilized, adult manner- and go away for some Redang trip as a family. And then pigs would fly. /snort

iPhone? iPad? More money? Nice things man, but that's all they are- things. I want my family to be one unit. I'd really like that. Just.. Yeah. I'd really like that.

And so, on that pseudo-Freudian (finally figured out proper usage of this term! Hah!) note, I bid you good night and a merry weekend. Heard that the finals are coming up for the rest of the school. Forgive me for scoffing, but...

SCOFF. Finals. Pah. At least finals aren't the first big step towards achieving your parents' dream of having you graduate before you turn 22 years old. At least finals' results won't boil down into what college you go to, that little slip of paper containing how many doors of opportunity will close or open for you, containing all the expectations of the two people you want to be acknowledged by the most.

p/s First post of October. Dude, where did the year go?

p/p/s A whimsical little quote from Yan's mom. "Before this, you were running a marathon. But it's the final stretch of the race! It's time to sprint, sprint, sprint!" - in reference to studying for SPM. HAHA. It's a weird metaphor, but oddly.. inspirational. Thanks, Auntie!