Have been running the MO clinic for the past month. I’ve never been so frustrated, or raised my voice so loudly, or had gastritis till this month. Am glad it’s over.

I’m finally feeling well again. I didn’t know how much the nausea had affected me till I woke up one day and it was just….gone! I could eat anything I wanted without having to keep it down.

Can’t wait for leave in October. We booked the last of the hotels today. The cost is really scaring me, but well, will just scrimp for the rest of the year.

Plugging this link that qiong plugged on strange and beautiful roads. I’m sory to say that I only recognise the Kyoto bamboo forest (after having walked in it for two hours), but the rest are simply breathtaking too.

Have been rather sick and tired for the past two weeks. Some virus has gotten hold of me and whatever sleep I get never does seem to be enough. Am now running clinic and not really liking it (the subzero temperature doesn’t help). I’m glad for this long weekend. I just hope the nausea resolves.

I’ve been watching movies weekly for a stretch now.

It started with Nodame Cantabile – Finale, the long-awaited sequel. My favourite piece was Nodame’s concerto, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1, Op.11. It’s always spinetingling to watch pieces as they are played. I’m definitely getting the DVDs once they’re out.

A week later it was Inception. Brilliant movie of layers of mindgames and emotions. Drew me in entirely and didn’t let me go for days after. Even the score doesn’t let up on the references.

[p.s. qiong, I'm sorry but Arthur/Eames hasn't taken over my life the way it has yours, lol. And the guy I couldn't take my eyes off was Cillian Murphy XD.]

And today it was The Last Airbender. Rie had earlier warned me that it was terrible and a total waste of time, what with cheesy dialogue, actors who can’t act, an obvious lack of Asian actors except Indian ones, and total inadequacy in the creation of a plausible, living fantasy world. I must say that it was better than expected, really; and if they want to villify India as the power-hungry Fire Nation rather than China (as in the original cartoon), go ahead! Cheesy, sparse dialogue, alright, but I’ll take that over the annoying kiddie dialogue of the cartoon. At least Aang’s not a brat in the movie; he’s just a bit wooden, like the rest, lol.
The effects aren’t too bad. The action is okay, if unrealistically bloodless. My favourite scene was where the Earthbenders came out of hiding and fought their colonisers, actually. But, if anything, I’d probably want to be a water bender over the other elements.

Am working again tomorrow.

Scrapbook idea stolen from lynn.

movies
january
Avatar

february
The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus
Summer Wars

march
Nodame Cantabile the Movie (part 1)
Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton)

april
Clash of the Titans

june
Toy Story 3

july
Despicable Me
Nodame Cantabile Finale
Inception

august
The Last Airbender
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

music
january
La’cryma Christi – Singles + Clips

february
Feb 4 – Muse at Big Night Out Singapore Indoor Stadium
april
April 17 – Mayday at National Stadium

books
january
Lev Grossman – The Magicians

july
Tad Williams – Shadowrise

fics
Sacrifices by Lightning on the Wave (Harry/Draco AU fic, EPIC)

videos
january
DBSK – Breakout MV

events/gatherings
Jan 6 – meetup with pyn.
Jan 14 – meetup with avaris.
Jan 30 – Toshokan Sensou shoot

Feb 21 – Qianyi’s CNY party
Feb 22 – asterisk meetup at Ma Maison/Liang Court 

June 13 – StreetFest

photos

trips
March 25-29 – Hong Kong with Wenhui

This natural gas commerical, where they embody the concept of heat in knitted coverings. Absolutely whimsical and brillaint! Kiezin spammed this. Please watch the equally delightful making-of video here.

The rest, I got from youtube hopping:

PES: The making of Western spaghetti. Stop motion with a witty choice of ingredients. I especially like the Rubik cube and the tree made of money notes.

Other videos by PES that I really liked too:
Coinstar ad - where your missing coins really go to.
Game Over – a tribute to PacMan and other retro games.
Fireworks
Food Fight – it’s just food, but this video is actually extremely disturbing. Not for the fainthearted.
Scrabble ad

Deluhi’s latest single, The Farthest. Back to the early Deluhi but even more epic than usual. My adoration of this band has been renewed. Lyrics completely in grammatical English, even if it’s rather hard to make out.

Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie.
Love the video; the concept’s not new, but so much effort was put into this whimsical video.

My other favourite sunrise photo was blogged in this post.