clt : my entire Yoko Kanno collection = Bebop, Esca, Arjuna & Maaya Sakamoto's songs

Just watched the first half of Battle Royale 0____0 I think I watched it with my jaw hanging in the air the whole time (and biting my nails once in a while ^_^;). It's a very violent movie. It's a Jap movie, BTW. The story is about this class of 9th graders who just happened to be "lucky" to get selected to play a game devised by the government, where all of them are kidnapped during their school trip, dumped into a secluded island, and forced to play "Survivor" by killing each other off. Great reviews (along with analysis of how the movie mirrors Japan's current society problems) can be found here, here, and here. Watch it if you can get a hold on it. It's certainly different than your regular box-office Hollywood movie. I think pirated and legal VCDs of it are already sold in Asia. I've seen a big banner of it hanging outside a cinema here in Singapore, though... So I guess it'll be playing in theatres here soon? *shrug* Didn't pay attention to whether there were any dates printed on it.

I need to get up early tomorrow morning to do my presentation slides coz we have a meeting about it on 11 am, so I'll just continue watching it tomorrow. Maybe I'll watch a light anime episode or read a manga before I go to sleep. Just so I won't have nightmares.

Do you notice how different a song can be when listen with your earphone on? I still have my earphone on and suddenly Cowboy Bebop's Blue sounds so much better with the bass guitar and the percussion heard clearly. No kidding, the bass guitar is beautiful! *_*

knockin' on heaven's door on Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 12:52 a.m.

What I get for leaving my normal daily school (and hall) life to spend the weekend with my parents.... *sigh* I have somehow conviniently forgotten all the things I have to do. *sigh* Hello, Monday. Thank God I drugged myself with a can of Nescafe just now. *is on Hyper mode right now LOL*

Reins, I've sorta been going to your log quite often to ogle on your layouts lately and it amazes me how often you change your layout ^^; Zor(r)o is very much flattered, indeed! LOL. Anyway, uh, yeah, *whispers* I have an unhealthy obsession on Oujirou now. I have the urge to screencap all of his appearance now 0.o
Steph, Oujirou is from Angelic Layer. You didn't know about him? Well, thanks to you, the urge to make an Oujirou shrine is getting stronger by the minute.

*sigh* Back to work.

knockin' on heaven's door on Monday, October 29, 2001, 02:55 p.m.

Oh great I just spilled my Chocolate Milk Tea on my favourite cream-colored pants out of my greediness in getting the pearls up the straw >_<

I'm still at the apartment, BTW. 'Tis damn noisy here. so many people in the house, each one of them trying to talk to each other at the same time. And then there's the TV (with cable!). I got to watch Utada Hikaru Unplugged again this afternoon on MTV, with bigger screen and better sound system. Whoo. (Have I mentioned there's a lot good food around here?)

The more I think of it, the more I like Oujirou. Okay, I admit. I'm totally obsessed about him now. Oujirou-samaaa.... *dreamy sigh* Is there a shrine for him, BTW? *goes searching and hopes that she'd find one so she wouldn't decide to make one* Anyway, went to Kinokuniya yesterday and today, out of hope of spotting Amakusa 2 or HanaKimi 16. No luck, but I did spot : Shaman King 16, Chobits 3, KareKano 12, Asuka December (which is selling fast!), HanaYume 22 (which were unwrapped so I could read the HanaKimi installment Muahahaha!). I ended up buying KareKano 12, BTW.

Kee, ooh Sanji! I haven't met him yet, but he sure looks cool.
Zeruel, Spike & Faye!!!!!!!! *_* Love it!
Mika, *glomps* I love your layout too! I used the same Shinichi pic once, but the results were not half as good as yours!
Pei-yi, from what I heard, Kino is selling Chinese manga at a cheaper price. I was complaining about their Jap mangas, of course.
Rose, I didn't mean you were old by calling you that, of course ^_^ Maybe "honorable"? I miss Spike too~~~!!
Steph, ah, I remember those drawers! But the Kino here at Taka doesn't have drawers anymore. It has STORE ROOMS. And believe me, they're hiding many things in there (among which are Hanakimi 12-15!!) Frankly I missed Maruzen. It always kept its store room's doors open, plastered with arrival schedules, and one could just pop in to enquire about the newest arrivals. *sigh*

I'm reading Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland now XD I've never read the original story, the Alice in Wonderland I've always known is the Disney's one ^^; But funny thing is, I keep imagining Eriol as the Chesire-Cat (complete with that leer, I mean, grin) and Yukito as the White Rabbit XD XD XD

knockin' on heaven's door on Sunday, October 28, 2001, 10:23 p.m.

Oujirou is HOT! *_* Oujirou-samaaaaaaaaaa~~~ daisukiiiiiii~~~ *fangirl squeals*

*cough, cough* Anyway, 'tis time for me to go. I'm going out to shop, check out new releases at bookstores (yeah, my ideal way of spending the weekend), and meet my parents. I'll be spending the night over at the apartment.

ps : Angelic Layer ep 14, Blanche vs Hikaru, has the best action scene! (and Wizard shows some of his moves! *kyaaaaa--!* oh sorry, that's ep 13 ^^;)

knockin' on heaven's door on Saturday, October 27, 2001, 02:31 p.m.

Current pressing issues :
1) Amakusa 1637 : Amakusa 1637 vol 2 should be out today. I've pre-ordered it at Kino. Let's just hope they get it here SOON. PS : Seiryuu.nu is down again for this month due to excess bandwidth so Summer Moon can't be accessed for now. Sorry!
2) Hanakimi 16 : *malicious gleam* I am going to march to Kino next week and demand them to hand a copy to me and hopefully this time they won't be as stupid as last time. *rolls eyes* I shall not trust them anymore. Who knows what they're hoarding in their store rooms!!! I'm itching to raid those store rooms now >_<
3) Kinokuniya : while we're on the subject of our beloved & despicable monopolist bookstore who is the sole supplier to every fangirl needs.... you're absolutely right. In Singapore, the price generally is 1.5 times the original price. In Indonesia, it's twice. (And sure, I'd help you with Econs if it's within my power, er, knowledge XD)
4) Subaru's eyes : he could have multi-colored, rainbow-colored, lollypop-colored eyes and he'd still look hot. (CLAMP will make sure of that.) Besides, 98% of a manga content is black/white?
5) Reideen : they. look. cool. nee-chan. bishounens. *drool* I. want!!!
6) Popping new layouts : Zeruel's is cool!! I like the colours. And yes, you -have- improved a lot since version 3 *admiring* // I have no comment for someone who changes her layout 3 times a week // Kenchan, I don't really like pink-peachy colours but well, that's just me. It's a nice layout.
7) Cowboy Bebop : When you have to fall from high places, do it with style and appropriate BGM = scenes using Green Bird and Powder (which is a very Arjuna-ish piece). I think the Green Bird scene is one of my most memorable anime scenes. There's even a site dedicated especially to the song 0.o
8) Surprise? No, not really : My parents are coming here tomorrow. My mother just called to say that. Actually it was only my father who was supposed to come with his friends to play golf here *rolls eyes* I figured mother wouldn't be able to ignore the chance of coming here again and I'm right. Ah well, at least I'm ensured to have good food for the next couple of days.
9) Today : I got through today alive, with zero pain, angst, depression or bad mood. Yay. Thank you God. Quiz went well, despite lugging heavy textbooks around. I got my first quiz back and I got a perfect mark! *happy* Went to get a Hepatitis B immunisation shot today. Ouch. ^_^x -- I'm not very talkative today, huh? I only have fragments of sentences in my head and I don't have the energy to form a coherent sentence. Tired, man. My English deteriorates noticably when I'm tired. It's even worse when I speak. The only English word I can utter is, "Huh?". I need sleep @.@

knockin' on heaven's door on Friday, October 26, 2001, 11:35 p.m.

Okay. I've calmed down considerably. I finished my report and had my presentation this morning. *phew* I have quiz in less than an hour and I've sorta-finished reading all the chapters. (Understanding what I read is a different matter, though). I've gotten some tips from my friends who had class on Wed that the quiz is open-book, but the problem is the answers aren't in the textbook but in the textbook of another module!! So, I'll lug the two textbooks to the classroom today and they're both thick and heavy @.@ Oh, my poor back and arms! I've been having this paranoid thought that the tutor might change the format of the quiz to a close-book one today, though....... *sweatdrop*

Tin-sama has mentioned it : the Utada Hikaru MTV Unplugged. I found it inside my friend's computer while looking for this sadistic (so my friends say) cult-hit Jap movie Battle Royale and got distracted by it ^^ It's fabulous, BTW. I like the Unplugged version of her hits and I think she should released them on album coz I'd surely buy it! ^_^x Her accompanying instrumentalists are very good *_* I've been playing the file several times on my 'puter just to listen to the songs. My highlights have got to be Parody and Automatic. But Hikki herself was behaving rather strangely.... 0.o That's what I think anyway. Or maybe that's just the kind of person she is. I don't get to see her very often on screen, apart from her music videos. Another thing is, my file seems to have been ripped straight off from MTV Japan so there are these interesting Jap commercials in between, mostly about a particular singer's new single or album. And I don't know who all these singers are! 0.o Interesting, indeed.

knockin' on heaven's door on Friday, October 26, 2001, 01:06 p.m.

knockin' on heaven's door on Friday, October 26, 2001, 12:12 a.m.

I watched X OVA by mistake last night before going to sleep @.@ I was just making my daily routine computer-browsing when I found out that my regular dealer has downloaded X (he has such an excellent taste XD XD) and found that he had episode 0 and episode 1. I've watched 1, so I copied ep 0 to see it and found out that it's the OVA. Oh well. Basically there's nothing to it, it's just a very loooong preview of the TV series.

Anyway, feeling better this morning when I woke up. Went to class to listen to a complicated lecture on fiscal and monetary policy accompanied with dozens of curvy graphs. Went to the Bio poster exhibition (our term project), look at other groups' posters, and got ours marked by the tutors. Some of the groups are having their presentation now and my group mates are watching them, but I came back to my room to rest for a while because I still have a Bible study tonight, a project meeting at 10 pm, and study for tomorrow's quiz. This week is really a busy week for BizAders. My friends showed up this morning at lecture without sleep after working on their project the whole night. Another friend was complaining that he has three consecutive project meetings today from 5 pm till don't-know-when. D-day is tomorrow. Sigh.

knockin' on heaven's door on Thursday, October 25, 2001, 03:51 p.m.

Today I had no class but I did have a project meeting, which I failed to show up for because I felt too sick (I had a pounding headache all day long). I did woke up early this morning to work on the project and my group mates had to call me, message me, and email me throughout their meeting to talk to me. Anyway, I've been sleeping the whole day. I look awful and I feel awful. I'm trying to finish my part of the project now, so here I am surfing numerous articles, editorials, economic reviews & reports, and websites on Japan's economy. But I found many interesting sites on Japan which I don't have time to read thoroughly, so I'll just post the links here to remind myself to go back to it and for anyone else who might be intested: 1 2 (I posted the link before, but I still haven't read everything in there... I'll get back to it and read just what this liquidity trap really means @.@) 3. My group is actually focusing on UK and Japan, and me being me volunteered to do the Japan part and left the boring UK analysis to my other group mate. Heh heh. But to be truthful, UK economy is in a better state than Japan now. Oh well. And, hey, I'm done with my part now!

Lookie! Rose, the venerable clique-mistress of Hardcore has a very spiffy Bebop layout. It's fabulous *_* On the subject of Julia, I really don't have a high opinion on her LOL Poor Spike to have fallen so hard for her. Ah, but then again, we are simply not being let to know what kind of person she really is. Geh. As for Electra, I want to know about her past. *pouts* Bebop just makes me crave for more.

Steph, I'm feeling much better now, both mentally and physically. Thank you =D *glomps*
Catherine, it's okay. It's just that you don't find that kind of sakura anywhere else =D
As-chan, too bad for me? You mean you're not going back to Indonesia so I can't ask you to buy anything for me? You are, right? ^_^; Hmm, I need to watch more One Piece. Unfortunately my man here is missing ep 4 and I don't want to jump straight to ep 5.
Charlene is hooked on GnK! LOL. Perfectly understandable. (But to wheedle money and rely on old debts? 0.o)
Ashley, oh wow, I can join the Spike fangirl club then??? *hangs banner from the roof*
Anne, jElex is raising its manga price AGAIN? I am going so broke when I go home. You know that everytime I came home, I spent close to Rp. 300,000 on mangas alone? Not to mention I sometimes felt the urge of reading something Jap so I'd run to Kino and buy something at their outrageous price. Hrmph. Our consumer surplus is being taken, I tell you! To hell with monopolists! XD XD
Fel, in that case, Gramedia bookstores seem to be the obvious choice =D (But the price, the price!)

Pardon me. I'm an economist-wannabe. LOL. Didn't I say I'm more of an Arts person than a BizAd person? (Pure Econs is taught in the Arts faculty here, while BizAd teaches... well... Business >_<) I feel like eating chocolate... can I? *stares at a bar of chocolate and ponders*

knockin' on heaven's door on Wednesday, October 24, 2001, 10:00 p.m.

Was happily surfing Anipike's new sites instead of doing my projects. One presentation over, it went fine with some expected glitches, but that's okay. Got the flu virus from John, who's my group mate for today's presentation. He's been sick since Sunday and here I am now with a pounding headache and muscle aches >_< Oh, back to new sites. While signing the guestbook to this nice Soujirou shrine, I had a nice surprise of seeing J signing before me. LOL. Small RK world. This is a pretty Kodocha site. I like berry much! (Speaking of Kodocha, ep 90 & 91 are out at KTP) I love this Naria & Eriya site. The simplicity is neat. I haven't watched One Piece more than ep 3, so who's this guy Sanji? He looks cool, though. Ah, and a lovely Karen Kasumi shrine.

Zeruel, thanks for the comment on the layout! I'm glad you like it. I'll be looking forward for those Bebop layout of yours =D I'm happy to see many Bebop layout around these days hehehehe...
Nee-chan, maybe not draggy but slow-paced? Anyway, I just feel totally bored watching it XD Oh and I heard an interview on a radio about the movie Jelangkung when I was in Jakarta last July. It sounds interesting! It's really filmed in famed haunted areas, and the director was sorta relunctant in telling anything about whether anything spooky actually happened 0.o I like the layout, BTW. Spooky, but cool. Heh heh heh.
Fel, where do you live? These days Gramedia book stores have good manga stocks. I know a place near my old high school (Tanjung Duren area) which sells for a cheaper price and you can get old numbers there too.
As-chan, and I'm going home on X'mas! Are you going back to Jakarta too? Scryed layout! *_* I've only watched ep 1 but I like it!
Elyse, I'm glad you're okay. I'm more glad that you turned to God! XD He is wonderful, yes =)
Catherine, the sakura looks a lot like the ones I used for my old Tomoyo IASC layout!

Hmm, I just remembered that my father's coming here this weekend. Wonder if I can make my mother shopped mangas for me. Hrn. My best friend lives in Bandung now so I can't ask her to shop for me anymore. Boo-hoo.

knockin' on heaven's door on Tuesday, October 23, 2001, 07:52 p.m.

I'm feeling so angry that I don't think I can actually get myself into rehearsing my presentation part for this afternoon's class >: Things like what happened in class this morning just reminds me how I hate studying Business and how ill-fitted I am in the faculty.

Krap.

knockin' on heaven's door on Tuesday, October 23, 2001, 10:42 a.m.

Been concentrating on my projects. I'm going crazy here. Anyway, while listening to my group mates did the dry-run for tomorrow's presentation, something just sorta clicked in my head. Our presentation is about Taiwan, you see, and one major issue is that Taiwan has been admitted to WTO and is expected for formally enter before the end of the year. For clueless people, being a member of WTO will mean that Taiwan will have to (among other things) comply with international intellectual property laws now so.... it means NO MORE CHEAP ANIME OST CDs! *gasp!* (You know, those Sun May CDs?) Or, most probably, there'll be a considerable price hike, though it might not be as ex as the original Jap ones. But anyway, it might take a couple years to get there, though. Piracy is definitely NOT an easy thing to get rid of. I don't know about Chinese-translated, Taiwan-published mangas... are they legal? If not, they might face the same fate.

And thus we end our presentation. Any questions? XD XD XD

As-chan, I think Bebop is far better than Noir. Especially the series. The movie is, well, a typical anime movie; not as good as the series, but I think it's far more exciting than Noir. The action scenes is remarkable. Noir's plot is draggy. It spends most of its time showing the characters in pretty poses and shots without developing the plot considerably. I stopped watching Noir in ep 12 and haven't gotten the inclination to watch more XD XD
Nee-chan, just remember something you asked me. About Kenji's seiyuu? I have no idea ^_^;; It's not like I know a lot of seiyuus ^^
Steph, nah, it's not too pink. It's pretty. Reminds me of kue lapis 0.o Strawberry-flavoured kue lapis hahahha... And I actually watched a couple episodes of Houshin Engi but somehow it hasn't been interesting. I'd get around to watching it till the end, I guess (unless if I get distracted by other series).
Catherine, I think cable is the fastest you can get, dear. Just leave it on for the whole night. As for me..... *grin*
Toshi, get well soon.
Mads, my dear hostess, glad that you're okay now.
Elyse? *worry worry worry*

Off to scrutinize dozens of editorials, articles, and opinions on Japan's macroeconomical analysis since 1960s @.@ (current favourite site is here; he writes the textbook I'm using 0.o yeah, some clever guy =D) And grab something to eat... I haven't eaten anything the whole day, save for a cup of Crunchy Freeze coffee, which, of course, upset my gastric again XD I'm totally hopeless, I know. Nyah, I'll live.

knockin' on heaven's door on Monday, October 22, 2001, 05:36 p.m.

Charlene, if you hadn't found out about the series on your own, I (and any manga-reading Indonesian) would tell you what series that is. Garasu no Kamen is an incredibly popular series in Indonesia and we're currently experiencing the LONG wait for the next volume to come out. The last volume was... what, 2 years ago? *_* 'Tis no help that Suzue Miuchi herself takes years to write just one volume. Do you realize the series have been going on since 1978/9?? Early this year the publisher republished the series from the beginning in manga magazine format, and you can see it among the magazines in Kino.

Suzue Miuchi also has another running series, Amaterasu, and volume 4 just came out recently. Nee-chan messaged me to ask whether I'm buying it....... no, I don't collect Amaterasu.... why, Nee-chan?

knockin' on heaven's door on Sunday, October 21, 2001, 08:21 p.m.

I'm feeling much better today, physically especially. Had a 10 hour sleep just now XD Took some medications last night for the stomach cramps and upset gastric. Thank God for modern inventions.

Oh thanks for those who have commented on the layout in such a short time (well.... 12 hours or so...). Yin, sharp, eh? I don't know exactly what it means but 'tis a good word! Heh heh. Spike is super cool, isn't he? XD XD I was going to make a layout featuring Faye because I had been humming her theme song, Cosmic Dare, the whole day but I was flipping through my collection to find a picture to scan and found Spike instead. I hate editing his hair (but Fuuma ranks first in the category of charas-with-difficult-hair-to-edit). But I like his clothes!! *looking at Spike* GASP! There's a part I missed in editing! Err.. but I guess he still looks okay. Told ya I'm incredibly sloppy. And forgetful. Hahahha....

BTW, did some blog surfing aaaaaaaannnnddddd Ashley here has a Cowboy Bebop layout too! And she has watched the Movie too! Whoo. I love the layout. I've been to her log many times too XD It's time to link her....... ^_^x Even her collective features Spike and Faye. Wow. *_*

As-chan, pasti dibayar lah XD Kapan dateng? Holland Close cukup dekat kok, tapi di Singapore mah semua juga termasuk deket hehehehe... Tapi belon tau mau nitip apa... (mungkin Nee-chan ada ide? manga apa yah yg lagi mau terbit?)
Catherine, Bebop is better than Noir XD I think you really should watch it. Thanks for signing the guestbook (again!).

Since some people were talking about Harry Potter, it reminds me of something. Has anyone seen the October Vanity Fair? The Harry Potter movie special edition? It has many pages of beautiful photographs. I almost bought it, but I've been trying to keep my spending under control these days or I will have to starve all through my 3rd year. (Or worse, have my mother insisting I should write up a full financial report to show her why I've successfully finished all the money intended to get me through 3 years of school without a hitch in 1 1/2 years ^_^;)

I feel every single organ in my abdomen area is planning a revolt again *runs to get something to eat*

knockin' on heaven's door on Sunday, October 21, 2001, 08:58 a.m.

New layout. I think my sense of colour coordination is getting worse. Ah well.

Haven't been in a good mood lately. I've been living so erratically that I feel crappy most of the time, between tiredness and caffeine-induced alertness. It's difficult to make myself do the things I have to do these days. I am feeling so down I don't want to do anything but stone in front of my computer or lie sleepless on my bed. LOL. But deadline week is coming. Must. rush. projects.

Tin-sama, *glomps*
Yin, whoa, nice new layout!
Pei-yi, I don't think I've commented on your layout but DROOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL!
As-chan, kalo mampir S'pore, jgn lupa contact gua yaaaaahhh =D (BTW, bisa sekalian nitip barang dari Jepang dong? ^_^;)
Fel, kyaaa--! I always love your layouts!!!! I like the name too *nods, nods* The names are not weird, they're cool =D And I like the gliding scrollbar too. Coolies.
Mai, I forgot to link you on my previous layout. I was looking all over it and puzzling why it was missing. Cute layout, btw! ^_^x

knockin' on heaven's door on Saturday, October 20, 2001, 04:44 p.m.