Sui Generis

I realised something. Sitting in the departure hall of terminal two in Heathrow two hours early, I read a book -- Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto -- to kill time. Opposite me are a British (I think) couple, probably in their fifties, with eyes peering through their spectacles at the ipads held between their slightly stubby fingers. And here I am, reading a small, thin novella, 150 pages, with a glaringly pink cover. As my own tired eyes (five hours in the bus is no joke) and foggy mind struggled to comprehend the printed words, relaxing and unwinding, a thought, quiet as a passing whisper, struck me like a gong. I've always enjoyed reading physical books where I can touch, flip its pages and smell them, feel its weight in my hands. Electronic devices like tablets have been introducing new features with each new model; the feeling of flipping a page, the sound of flipping the page, all without the hassle of weight and with extra capacity. But, obviously the very experience of reading an...

I do suppose it's that time of the year again, where reflection is, I would say, the most adequate to do. 2015 has been a blessed year. When I mean blessed, I mean for myself. I've been given crazy opportunities to travel; far more than I can ever dream. It may have given me a brand new perspective in life -- a new mind, perhaps. At least that's what I hope I've acquired after all that. Thinking back on the year, I do suppose I've achieved a lot. I graduated with a second-upper; made my family, friends, and myself proud. I traveled parts of Europe; an experience I never imagined myself doing. I spent ten beautiful days in Japan; a dream I had convinced myself wasn't going to happen, but it did. I was accepted for that Masters degree; an opportunity I've never considered taking, but did. Wonderful relationships were made, celebrated and mourned over; a truly humbling experience. The world is also not without it's fair share of increasingly frequent...

It's true what some people say - when you lose touch with a person, your feelings dissipate along with that lost connection, especially if the relationship between those two people was a superficial one prior to the separation. Even more so if you've harboured feelings for that person, and you can feel it fading against your will as time slowly creeps past you. Even though it felt like it's been two weeks since you last talked to them, you realise that it's only been two days, and you feel this gnawing sensation in your brain, wondering what you're doing with your time wasted over thinking about something that only has a five percent chance of actually happening in reality, instead of the fantasies you conjure up as you try to your greatest efforts to fall asleep in the dark. In those moments of 'dead time', those moments when you're not wanting to do anything productive - being on a dull train ride, waiting in line at the cashier's, standing in...

Literally. I am surviving without internet. It's been 10 days since the internet has been cut off, but it has felt like 10 weeks (hence why I have not been updating). Friends ask me in shock how I'm coping and what the heck I could possibly be doing with my time, I just shrug and tell them, "hey, I can sit for 12 hours playing fallout 3/Skyrim/Sims 3. No problem." then proceed to roll my aching shoulder from sitting too long in one setting. After having a chat with a friend last night, only was I told and reminded I could still access the university libraries with my card and ID. I slapped my forehead in sudden realisation. 'Why didn't I even try the library?!' So here I am in the computer lab happily soaking and basking in the joy of internet usage and wifi. Another thing, at least my (now ex) housemates left me food in abundance (thanks guys!) Now I have more rice and spaghetti than I can ever eat in a whole year. (It's only 5 bags of 1kg rice a...

Here's just my two cents after some pondering. It's no secret that the world only, truly and actively look at beings who are successful, popular, beautiful and whatever I may have missed out but belongs on this list. I've observed that people enjoy reading about the lives of others. Call us kepoh (being a busybody) but that's just being human I suppose. Now, how I came to even have this thread of thought in my mind was when I thought of how to boost viewers on my blog. True, I don't post enough or have many interesting topics. So does that make my life mediocre, too plain to be noticed? I don't know. I'm not upset or wallowing in self-pity if anything, I'm simply curious. I follow popular blogs like cheeserland , lashes and strokes , and more personal ones by friends. I often wonder how people like Cheesie or Xiaxue (S'porean blogger) achieve such high reader counts. Time definitely had something to do with it, but asides from that, what else? Che...

Lengthy post below. No, I did not attend E3. In fact, I didn't know what it really was (shame!) until this afternoon. So I've been playing my Steam copy of Fallout 3; a Christmas present from 2014 (you know who you are!). I had previously stopped when I first started during Christmas season because I found the game somewhat scary. I mean, come on - post apocalyptic America with radiation all around and freaky mutated life forms roaming around waiting to eat you? Sounds like a wonderful place to be. Also, I was very used to Skyrim's combat system and so when I was introduced to V.A.Ts (Fallout's combat system) I couldn't get used to it. I was more accustomed to first-person, CoD-style point and shoot combat. Not to say this doesn't work, it does. But it's pretty shitty, to be absolutely frank with you. The aim is terrible and every time I miss when it was clearly aimed at the head (I always aim for the head. Exploding heads are satisfying) I go "COM...

I've seen many people; observed them and their uniqueness that make them distinctively them, and I often ask myself: what are you doing with your life? Finding out little things about people (be it in a stalkerish way or asking directly like how a normal person would) is one of the most fun and exciting parts of knowing someone. And when you find out certain interests that you and that person in question share in common, you feel a sense of joy errupt in your soul, maybe a little bit of relief, as though finally, someone is interested in the same strange blend of things as you are - finally someone can understand you. I digress. Initially I wanted to go on about how uneventfully normal my life is. How ordinary are my various (half-baked, mediocre) skills I have attained over the years of my living here on Earth. All this I've forced myself to think about after finding out the aforementioned little things. Such talented people with bright minds and dare I say it, raw talent. ...

I literally stopped before going to the next episode to write this out with tear stains still drying on my cheeks. This episode was amazing, to say the very least. It talks a lot about the human nature of jealousy and the urge to fend for one's self when put in a dire situation. It also talks about gratitude and the sincerity of the heart, and the many ways one could interpret and perceive that. Tokuzo's sincerity lay in providing for his wife and unborn child, and that is what's driving him to do better and better every day. I envy his determination and discipline. This episode was quite emotional for me (as you can observe on your own), not entirely, but from the middle towards the end. Here we see friendships being tested all in the name of jealousy, and forgiveness all in the name of friendship. Not sure if that makes sense, but it sounds pretty deep. Haha! Anyway, In this episode we see the development of Tokuzo's vegetable slicing ability - and I've got t...

As I prepared my dinner, (two waffles smothered in butter and sprinkled with some brown sugar, and a big juicy orange) I thought happily about finally being able to watch 佐藤健 (Satou Takeru) acting again. Then, as I made my way up the stairs to the attic that is my room, I quickly found the first episode and prepared to be blown away by awesomeness. But- let's just say, this drama is not what I initially thought it would be. I will now present to you, my review and thoughts about the first episode of 天皇の料理番 (Tennou no Ryouriban - The Emperor's Cook) Guess who's who! Right, first off, apologies for any spoilers. Second, this episode is over 94 minutes long - rivaling a Sherlock episode. I've not checked the length of the second ep, so this one could just be long because it's an introductory episode (more like a mini movie. heh). Adorable Vicious manslayer Look at this cutie 佐藤さん plays as Tokuzou, the bumbling village idiot. Yep, you read it rig...