I've got a fascination for historical figures.

In the East, there was a dictator called Chairman Mao.

In the West, his name is Hitler.

Poppin' DVDs

I haven't done the following in a long time, which is to watch movie after movie after movie. 3 to be precise. I bought 4 films yesterday and finished 3 of them. The last time that I sat on my chair till my butt hurts was when I watched The Godfather Trilogy 2 years ago, in 3 days.

First was National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets. I'm a sucker for adventure stories.




Then Inside Man by Spike Lee, which was quite a nice surprisingly humorous thriller about a perfect bank heist. And smart too.



Lastly, it was the show I've wanted to watch since I was in Junior College (I think). The Motorcycle Diaries, a story about Ernesto Guevera and his friend traveling cross country from Argentina to Peru with just a motorcycle. Reminds me of my dear FYP film, but of course, this film is much, much, much richer in terms of content and visual cinematography.



Ernesto Guevera, who saw much poverty and the ill treatment of capitalist landlords towards peasants in this account, would later be the most famous icon on our tee shirts. He became the revolutionary Che Guevera in his later years.



Oh, I wish I could just keep watching DVD after DVD, but I'm fast running out of money-- and the shows at the box office arn't much of an attraction at all.

Eh, maybe I shall revisit my Godfather trilogy. That might work.

Freelancing Sounds Cool.

Free.

Lancing.

Freelancing.

Doesn't it sound like the best job in the world?

A few friends, 3 to be exact, sent me emails of temporary video jobs one after another, which set me thinking.

Granted, it doesn't have medical or dental benefits, so if I have another wart growing out of me or another toothache, it's just too bad.

But it's flexible. And the best part is, you probably get to work from home. Imagine! No more having naps in the office toilet after lunch!

What a radical idea!

Nice Show.

The Japan Diaries- Hama Hama Hammamatsu!

Hammamatsu is here!




The other kind of couchsurfing.





Tucked away in the nether regions (by nether, I mean lower) of Japan is the small town of Hammamatsu.

Hamma what?

Hamma-matsu.

Even some Japanese, mainly the Tokyo-ians, Osaka-ians, and Kyoto-ians, have never heard of this place. However, by a stroke of luck, we managed to find this small idyllic seaside town on the vast cyberspace while doing our trip research. Even better, as if it is God's will, well, come to think of it it IS GOD'S WILL, we found a person on couchsurfing.org who is willing to open his house to all 5 of us in that very town.

The small city of Hammamatsu is an industrial hub, where the factory of Yamaha is located. Most of the town's population work there, including the person who hosted us. To showcase their "musical" side, their tallest building, which is 40 stories, is shaped like a harmonica. Well, that's what it says in the wiki travel guide. When we arrived and spotted the tallest building, it looked odd but hardly like a harmonica. Maybe we lack the imagination the Japanese have.

We reached Hammamatsu in the afternoon, after underestimating the time taken to get from Masa's to the train station in Osaka, and so had to wait for another train. (Which caused me to get into a bad mood because I was the transport IC. Sorry girls!) After we managed to squeeze all our huge backpacks into the lockers at the train station, we had a lazy afternoon window shopping and chit chatting at the local Japanese Starbucks outlet. Yuji, the guy who hosted us, only ended work at 6pm, so we could only go to his apartment after he'd returned home. It was the first time we tried couchsurfing, i.e staying at a complete stranger's house for free (but we bought gifts), and were a wee bit scared.

However, our fears were unfounded. Yuji was a very nice guy (with a Singaporean girlfriend too!) and he is a Christian in an international church. He spoke very good English. On the first night, we sang a lot of praise and worship songs in his apartment. His very cool apartment. It was quite obviously a bachalor pad, overlooking a really huge lake, with a bedroom, a kitchen and a small living room, all nicely and tastefully decorated. He even said on good days, you could see Mount Fuji directly from his window.

Most of all, he liked our gifts of Ba Kua and Kaya very much. He loved the Lim Chee Guan ba kua.

He showed us to our room, (not the couch, but a room) and it was a small room with some space in the middle. He gave us 2 thin mattresses, some blankets and pillows, which we laid on the floor and tried various formations to fit all 5 of us. In the end, we were no more than 10cm apart from each other when we went to sleep at night. Felicia, being the lightest sleeper of us all, didn't manage to get any sleep at all.

The next day, we went to explore the more earthy side of Japan. After all the urban skyscrapers and Matsumoto Kiyoshis (Japan's equivalent of Watson's), we finally caught a nice breath of nature. And breathe we did, for we hiked up a hill trying to find the Musical Museum which overlooked another huge lake, all while singing olden pop songs at the top of our voices. In the end, entry to the Museum was not cheap, and so we went back down. It was a nice, slow day and I remembered that we ate our dinner outside- which led to Yuji being a little sad. He was waiting for us to come eat dinner with him.




Yuji and us, on the last day. Felicia's eyebags were getting heavier when we left.


The very next day and the last day in Hammamatsu, we made it a point to eat dinner with him. We talked about the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, and he suggested we watch one of his favourite Ghibli Studios film- Castle in the Sky at home. For those who don't really know, Ghibli Studios is the biggest movie animation studio in Japan. They produce movies like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and most recently, Ponyo By the Cliff By the Sea. So after a day of strawberry picking and limestone cave exploring, we were back at his apartment, helping him out as he cooked up a feast. Then it was time for the movie! At first, we were thinking how he'd play the movie, since there was no TV in the living room. He merely pulled down the white blind that covers the balcony door, then from the kitchen cupboard came a beam of light. He had a gaming console that could play DVDs, and he used a projector. Such space saving brilliance!

Sad to say though, yours truly had a dreadful bout of food coma, and was struggling to stay awake throughout the entire film in oh-so-deadly-comfortable living room.

But, come to think of it, it was a really good couchsurfing experience. It shows that we all can be nice, even to unknown strangers. There is hope in this world yet.



In the Fruit Park after picking strawberries.



Emo shot while waiting for the train as we leave the Fruit Park.



The sunset from Yuji's house. On a clear day, you could see Mount Fuji.

How hard is it to be nice?

Today, I didn't go to church. Instead, I went for my refereeing beep test in the morning.

As soon as I drove into the carpark, I saw a tiny slot and promptly reversed into it. A woman carrying some items was walking along, and she stopped beside my car. As I squeezed out of my car, the woman said, "Do you know this is not a parking lot?"

"Oh." I said, and glanced over. It wasn't a parking lot. It was a space between two parking lots.

"How am I going to get into my car now?" She said, with a hint of sarcasm and an obvious look of disapproval as she shook her head.

"Oh. Okay."

I got back into my car and drove out. But there she was, shaking her head with that look of disdain.

Well, how hard is it to be nice? Will it kill you to stop shaking your head? Did I make things even more difficult for you?

I really wonder, how hard is it for people to be nice. A "thank you" would have made my day. Or a nice auntie-ish smile will suffice. But no, we just have to be nasty. We just have that need to be sarcastic.

Come on guys, we can do better than that.

The Japan Diaries- He ain't weird, he's Masa.

Inspired by http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com (recommanded by Ros), whose artworks and hilarity puts my above 5 minute quickie to shame.

Bummer With a Capital B.

Stick that label on me, 'cos I'm proud to say I'm a Bummer now. With a capital B thank you very much.

After 5 months at YOG, with 3 memorable but tiring overseas trips in between, I am now a certified fully unemployed fresh graduate with an incomplete resume and 0 job interviews so far.

Life. Is. Good.

Of course, like all other mums, my very own queen of the household have been trying to coax me into looking for a job. Sorry, did I say coax? I should say "coerce" is more likely. She's been on my tail for the (quite large amount of) money I still owe her for my Japan trip, and have been going on and on about how she found a job the first thing she left school at Sec 1. "Start earlier, then retire earlier," she'd say.

But then, I do want to be patient. Now that I finally have the time to sit down and think about my future career, I should do that. To pray, to seek advice, and to just prepare myself mentally for the torturous working life that lies ahead. And to keep myself in check in the form of a letter in case I, like Gordon Gekko, turn rogue someday.



To future me,

I hope that you've gained a lot of knowledge and wisdom, patience, friends, good tactics and happiness throughout your career. Please look back from time to time and check whether your current job gives the above. If it doesn't, QUIT IMMEDIATELY. I don't want you being miserably rich. I rather you be happily poor, cos if all else fails, you still can go be a referee.

Or a PE teacher. Yay!

Love,
Deanna the Bummer

It's Done.

Yay! I've finally finished the Songfest DVD. By the grace of God, it's finally, finally, finally done.

Finally.

Now I can run off to play The Sims 3. Byebye.

It's depressing to sleep next to your computer.

But that's what I did, and I'm still beside it, trying for the 6th or 7th time to build the dvd without it exceeding the space limit.

Every attempt takes around 3 hours.

Kill me now.