Mind Awaking

So, university has started.

Without me even realising it.

I wanted to do full mental (and physical) preparation before uni starts.

But it seems like I have failed.

Because until now, I've still not perfectly organised my uni life...

How should I study?

How should I prepare for my lectures and tutorials?

How should I make new friends?

All these are the things I've seem to forgotten through these 3 years.

Though maybe point number 3 was never clear to me.

Sometimes I really feel like going back to secondary school.

Or JC also can.

Those days were just great... I didn't have so much to worry about...

But, unless there's a time machine I can never go back in time.

Which means that I need to face reality.

And the fact that, my UNI LIFE has started.

No more staying up until very late (or not sleeping at all) and not being able to wake up.

No more FBing, checking my email, or reading manga the whole day.

I need to get myself organised, and start studying, and do what I should do.

For the first semester, what I hope to achieve is just to settle down first, and make sure everything goes on smoothly....

Once that's done, I'll start considering about other important things...

Eyes on me

"I saw you smiling at me

Was it real or just my fantasy"

"I kind of liked it your way

How you shyly placed your eyes on me

Oh did you ever know?

That I had mine on you"

Such a Sorrow "First Love"...

After listening to this song many times, I still think that this song is too sorrow to be a song about "First Love"... Tears almost came out of my eyes every time I listen to this song...

Why must being in love with someone be so sad and sorrowful?

初恋 (First Love)

Song: Oku Hanako (奥華子)
Lyrics: Oku Hanako
Music: Oku Hanako

I thought I knew everything about you
Your clumsiness, sensitive tongue, awkwardness on the phone

But there was one thing that I didn’t know
And it was the fact that you didn’t love me anymore

When did we start drifting apart?
Why couldn’t I see it?
We had so many memories together
I thought we’d be together forever

You’re a friend, a friend from today onwards
I won’t say I love you anymore
Don’t go so faraway, I'm contented as long as I can see you
I won’t call your name, I won’t walk beside you
I won’t call you without any reasons
So don’t say that we’ll never see each other again, please

I still have that old habit of taking photos
When I find something beautiful so that you can see it too

I imitated the way you walked and talked on the way to the bus stop
I’m sorry that I sulked or got angry over small things
I should have been more honest

Your face, the way you talk
I hate how much I still love them
Don’t go so faraway, I don't mind as long as I can see you
We can be friends, it doesn’t have to be anything special
I won’t cry in front of you
So don’t say that we’ll never see each other again, please

You’re a friend, a friend from today onwards
I’ll keep telling myself that
That place that you will smile
Is somewhere we can’t go anymore

Walking past the cherry blossoms, Looking up at the fireworks by the sea
When the dry leaves fell, and on days of pure white snow
You were always there for me, I wouldn't want to forget that
I won’t call your name, I won’t walk beside you
I won’t call you without a reason
So don’t say goodbye anymore, please



The Original Japanese lyrics:

あなたのことは何でも知ってると思ってた
不器用なことも 猫舌なことも 電話が苦手なことも

だけど私の知らないことが一つだけあったの
あなたがもう私のことを好きじゃないということ

いつからすれ違ってしまったのかな
どうして気付けなかったのかな
二人で過ごしたたくさんの思い出
これからもずっと一緒にいると思ってた

あなたは友達 今日から友達
もう二度と好きなんて言わないから
これ以上遠くに行かないで もう見るだけでもかまわない
名前で呼んだりしないから 隣り歩いたりしないから
用事もないのに電話したりしないから
だからもう逢えないなんて言わないで お願い

綺麗なものを見つけるとあなたにも見せたくて
すぐに写真撮る癖が まだ今も消えないまま

歩き方やしゃべり方を真似して バス停まで歩いた帰り道
小さなことですねたり怒ったりごめんね
もっと素直になれたら良かった

あなたの横顔 あなたの口癖
悔しいほど好きなままだから
これ以上遠くに行かないで もう見るだけでもかまわない
友達でいいから 特別じゃなくていいから
あなたの前では泣いたりしないから
だからもう逢えないなんて言わないで お願い

あなたは友達 今日から友達
そう自分に言い聞かせてみるよ
あなたが笑顔になる場所は
もう二人では行けない場所

桜並木を歩いて 海辺で花火見上げて
枯葉散る時も 真っ白な雪の日も
いつもあなたがいてくれた それだけは忘れたくないよ
名前で呼んだりしないから 隣り歩いたりしないから
用事もないのに電話したりしないから
だからもうサヨナラなんて言わないで お願い

My Neighbour Totoro

Played "My Neighbour Totoro" theme song on piano...

Very very tough one... I'm not referring to the difficulty, but the length... Because the song is so long, it's hard to avoid making mistakes, especially for an amateur like me... Well finally I managed to take one video without many major mistakes, but sorry for the sound at the beginning... It was totally unexpected... If I get a new piano, I may retake this song again.

I watched Totoro (The Movie) when I was a little kid. Until now, it's still fresh in my mind. It's still one of my favourite Studio Ghibli movies (actually I like all Ghibli movies, haha). I remember I used to sing this song anytime, anywhere. Will play other songs from Totoro in the near future.

Well I said that there are no major mistakes, but there are still a lot of minor ones... I know exactly where they are. And the dynamics... I listened to the original piano solo, there weren't much dynamics, so I decided to add in some myself, but I guess it wasn't very obvious... If anybody has any idea how to improve the sound quality, please tell me! I really appreciate it.

If you realise, the mood of this piano solo is totally different from the original song (with vocals). The pace is much slower, and that's what I like about this also. (Slower so I'll be able to play with less mistakes, hehe~) If gives you another feeling from the original song, but nevertheless it's still a nice song.

Silvestar

Please meet my new canon compact camera, called Silvestar, or Silvy for short.

Actually, initially I wanted to buy the Canon IXUS 300 HS, because the design looked cool. But after some consideration, I decided to take this smaller one, which has a higher resolution than the 300 HS. Well I know that higher resolution doesn't mean better picture, but I feel that this camera has a better picture quality than 300 HS. I heard 300 HS doesn't give good picture quality also. And most important of all, this camera is so small!! It's so flat and tiny that I feel I can lose it anytime...

The picture quality really seemed quite good after some testing. Well it doesn't have certain functions like burst and panaroma, but I don't think I would be using them anyway... Actually my main reason for buying this camera is because I needed a video cam to record my piano videos... My previous Canon compact camera Ixy is lost... But well, now I can basically take this anywhere and take as many snapshots as I want, without having to bring around my bulky DSLR, Canny. But of course, for serious shooting I will still bring my Canny along. This one is just for leisure~

There are still some interesting stuff which I haven't test out yet. Will post the pics after I've tried them out~

Dream

Maybe, I'm still in a dream.

Will I wake up?

Fate or Regret

Will it continue?

Or will it end here?

PLEASE HELP US!!!

I know not many people read this blog, but if you happen to read and you haven't seen the following website, please take a look at it now...

http://www.petitiononline.com/weiqi/petition.html

This is for the Singapore Weiqi Team. It's about the Singapore National Olympic Council not letting us go for Asian Games even though we have enough evidence to show that we can get into top 6. Besides, we don't even want them to spend a single cent, why don't they still let us go?

So, please support us by signing the above petition if you haven't done so. Thanks!

I seriously hope that we can go. Not only for myself, but for the whole Singpore Team. It's such a rare chance...

http://www.petitiononline.com/weiqi/petition.html

Seriously Naughty Organisation Committee

Why? Why won't they let us?? We are confident that we will get at least the 6th place, and it can also be seen from our past performances, but why?? Why are they so strict and stubborn??

I can pray to any god, but maybe praying to TCH is better? Oh I really hope they will change their mind... I don't want to see such a good opportunity gone... It's gonna be so fun for so many reasons!!

Onegaishimasu...

Reminiscence

After watching certain videos of the recent Odyssey of the Mind World Finals in Michigan, I started to recall my secondary school days... What was I doing when I was secondary 4? The only overseas school trip I remember was the one to Perth, and I think it was end of term camp. But it wasn't fun at all... I really regret not creating better memories during that time... What have I done?

Anyway, I think this kind of trips are very nice, especially because you can go with your friends. Seeing all those winners jumping and running around and shouting excitedly makes my heart feel warm. I like this kind of "touching" scenes. But sometimes I also hope that I was the one in these scenes...

I also suddenly recalled my trip to Thailand during the SEA Games 2007. It was really a fun trip, especially the part where we rode the police truck back to our accommodation. I wish to have this kind of experience one more time. If we only Singapore would allow us to go for Asian Games...Can I say "please"?

I know that I can start by creating more memories from now on, but sometimes I feel I may not be up to it. The reason being that my brain is really kind of getting slow... I have problem thinking. Don't know whether it's related to my accident in Hawaii, but I really think there is a problem. Nowadays I have a hard time organising my stuffs, and my weiqi level is also not going anywhere, if not down. Sometimes I would just stare at the board blankly, without being able to think of any moves. That's why I'm kind of worried about my university life, whether I'm able to cope with it...

If there's a solution, I hope to find it before my uni starts.

Recently my work at IPPUDO has been quite smooth. Though sometimes people still call me slow, but at least I'm getting less scoldings now. Actually I don't know why people call me slow when I don't see a lot of people walking faster than me. Maybe I just give other people the impression that I'm slow... It also shows the importance of first impression. Anyway, now I'm seriously thinking about whether to quite IPPUDO early, since I need to time to prepare for my uni...

Have been thinking about many other stuff too, but I shall not write about them here today...