It's been about 3 weeks since I last blogged. There goes my promise of blogging at least once a week. Sigh. Anyway, I had a great CNY. Hope you all did too =D

Yesterday, I went for the Deathnote Movie Marathon with Bee Keng and Kim Choo. It was my first time attending a movie marathon, and the verdict is that it was tiring but fun. The marathon was at GV Plaza Singapura, set us back $29.30 each (includes screenings of Deathnote 1 and 2 and the latest spinoff, L: Change the World, plus free flow of popcorn and drinks).


In case you've been living under a rock since Deathnote 1 came to the silver screen, Deathnote is a popular anime and manga about a death god's notebook. It kills humans by having the user write names in it while picturing the victim's face. A bunch of rules apply to it, which make the story really intriguing and interesting, as the user can manipulate the time and cause of death, and through these factors, many other things. A college student-genius Light picks up a Deathnote dropped by a bored death god, and decided to use it to kill criminals. By doing so, he soon acquires a fan following who calls him Kira (god). However, the police soon pick up on it and decide to hold a large-scale investigation. They call in another child prodigy, L, to help them solve the case. The rest is about how these two geniuses pit their wits against each other to win the war.

Towards the end of Deathnote 1, gothic model Misa-misa comes into possession of a second Deathnote dropped by another death god. She is in love with Kira because he killed the robber who murdered her family and, in doing so, gave her strength to get on with her life. She decides to enter the L-Kira battle, on Kira's side, and help Kira find out L's real name and kill him.

After watching Deathnote 1 for the second time, I still found it enthralling, like the first time I watched it and fell for this incredible story. As for Deathnote 2, I found it more exciting than the first time I'd watched it. So I've changed my mind about it being boring.

You know how one tends to notice the smaller details when they watch a movie for the second time? Well, my observations were that Tatsuya Fujiwara's (who plays Light) acting was a bit unconvincing at times. And that actually Ken'ichi Matsuyama (L) and Erika Toda (Misa-misa) are good thespians.

So, now we come to the third movie, the L spinoff. Hmm.

*WARNING: SPOILERS FOR DEATHNOTE 2 ABOUND. DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED DEATHNOTE 2 OR DO NOT KNOW THE ENDING OF DEATHNOTE.*




L: Change the World is about the last 23 days that L gave himself by writing his name in the Deathnote. The movie is filled with heavy undertones of sadness, as we realise the great pity that is the passing of a lovable, kind and quirky crime-solving genius. How much more he could have done to change the world, were his impending death not imminent, and how much he must have wanted to stay (although throughout the whole movie he never showed anything but acceptance towards his imminent passing). I guess I would have preferred it if they just showed him doing his favourite things, shed some light on his mysterious past, and showed how he cleverly cracked some unsolvable crimes.

But the producers/scriptwriters decided to insert this 28-days-later-like story about how someone created a virus to lower the human population and save the Earth, which kinda shifted the focus in my opinion. Anyway, it just so happens that someone and her partners need an antidote before they can spread it to the rest of the world because they don't want to die before realising their dreams. There is a girl and a boy who are the keys to developing the antidote. Girl and Boy somehow end up in L's residence because everyone knows L's late accomplice, Watari, and sends people to him for assistance and protection. So poor L can't spend his last days in peace, eating and solving crimes from the comfort of his luxurious hi-tech mansion, but instead has to go on the run in a giant pink "Angel Crepes" van, riding bicycles, and in general wandering around to shake off the nutty group of people who want to lower the human population.

Of course, in the end L saves the day with 1 or 2 days still remaining, and then, having arranged for Girl and Boy to continue their life smoothly from there on, walks off into the sunset, hope in his eyes and tender love in his heart. Somehow, along the way, he has gone from a social recluse to a boy who loves, misses, and mourns.

I just finished spring-cleaning my room 45 minutes ago.

I started last Saturday for half a day...Sunday from evening till night...and today from 8 something until 12.30. So that means I took about a day in all to finish it. Quite a lot for such a small room, I think. But this year, I took a longer time because I really took pains to look at all my stuff and classify them into Essentials, Memories, and Garbage. And it was the first time I cleaned late into the night. It's a pretty novel experience, cleaning in the dead of night.

Though I had a great time re-living my memories, I also ended up with 3 bags full of rubbish. Every year, I'm amazed at how much garbage one person can generate in the course of one year. Though this year I decided to stop being a closet environmentalist and actually do something. I saved up all the notes I'd only printed on one side and put them on my desk to use as rough paper. There's a whole stack of it now, and I'm not sure I'll be able to finish them, but even if I don't, I've written "REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE" on the first page so I'll probably guilt-trip myself into dumping them in the recycle bin.

Oh yeah, I've really run out of space to display all my plushies so please stop giving any to me. No need to po fei. And if you must attach something cuddly, please get something smaller than a handphone keychain (I have loads of that, too, haha). Thank you! My room really has space constraints...
Speaking of which, I really need some groovy storage solutions for my cd/vcd/dvd collection and personal library. My bookshelf is clean out of space and I'm running out of ideas on how to arrange them so that they all fit and are easily accessible when I want them. The shelf I've dedicated for cds, vcds and DVDS as well as the CD rack are already packed to the max. I can't possibly stop buying cds and movies and books...help! I need Home and Decor or something. I want a storage solution that requires minimum cleaning and maximum accessibility. Time to visit boring IKEA.

After standing around and trying to think of how to squeeze all my possessions into my little hole of a room, I really appreciate the intricacies of home decor and planning. Now I think my parents are geniuses. I really can't imagine how my dad can use so many excellent ways to store stuff and my mum can clean all the stuff that needs to be cleaned all on her own.

In re-looking all the stuff lying around in my room, I realised that I'm actually quite sentimental. I have like 3, 4 boxes that are dedicated solely to memories and the items that bring them back. Letters, cards, trinkets that my friends bought for me from overseas, even some notes. Everything that was important to me at one point in time has become a key to a past memory. And thank the stars that I kept all these keys, because my memory is really getting from bad to worse. Reminders are the order of my day, everyday. And I still manage to forget to attend certain important events (SORRY BECKY!). Sigh!

These treasure troves of memories really got me thinking...what if one day I had to move to a rat-hole and have no space for all these stuff? It really got me wishing for a huge house like the one described in Stefanie Sun's 完美的一天 to store all my memories.

The last items I came across were a couple of letters and gifts I received when I graduated from Beatty. The sight of them marked a beautiful ending to my comfortable walk down memory lane. Though I cannot remember whether I returned the favour, I'm really happy to have all these memories with me, coupled with the promise of more to come.

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone. I can't wait. :)

On Wednesday, I had my hair cut at Marina Square's Chapter 2, as usual (well, as usual ever since the one at Far East's Two Way Holistic went back to M'sia). Since CNY is coming and all, you see. But the self-portraits I took with my hp were all quite ugly, so to see it, you shall have to wait for me to grace your house with my presence.

In other Hairland news, divorce rates between Mr. Hair and Mdm Scalp remain on the rise. Tens of divorce papers are being signed on a daily basis. It is a worrying statistic. Does anyone have any good marriage counselling solutions?

School is more stressful this sem than the last, seeing as I have 5 modules with 4 credits each and rather hefty workloads. Also, one of the editors for a school publication has contacted me to do an article for them, and though i am thrilled, it really adds to my busy-ness. Sigh. Miss the slacky days I had last sem denying that I was slacking, reading my RSS feeds everyday and even managing to watch a youtube video or two on the horrid LAN connection in my hall.
Oh yes, back to the topic. So after my haircut, I shopped around Marina Square, trying out clothes and trying to decide which to buy. This is a rare occurrence as usually when I am out shopping with friends, I would only find one or two items of interest (on a good day) and even then I wouldn't try them. I would only take action if I can't forget about it by the next day. I don't know why I am such a weird shopper. So anyway, I probably went on a trying-out frenzy because 1) I really needed a second set of clothes for New Year, and 2) I was shopping alone. When I am with others I usually hold back when my friends have opinions about the item(s) I'm interested in.
Finally, I made my decision and bought a pair of three-quarters at Fox for $21.50 (yes I love their sales! Their new season is very nice too...was very tempted to buy some of the not-on-sale new arrivals) and a Zara polo tee for $39.90. Yay my first possession from Zara, at 20! I am certainly going places. Then, since both my purchases are black in colour (the polo tee was only available in other ridiculous colours which were not nice except white, which was translucent, which I hate), I bought Mr. Robo here to placate my mother.





He captured my heart with his 呆look and $7.90 price tag. But he turned out to be a bit short and thus hangs at a weird position. Plus, when I showed it to Becky the next day she told me that Mr. Robo's old home has really cute necklaces like this one but according to her experience they are not very durable. =( I am determined to get the right chain for him though.

I also finally decided to try Gatsby's Moving Rubber and it turned out to be fantastic and worth every penny of the $8.95 I coughed up.

After burning my money on all these purchases and having a satisfying dinner at the Marina Square foodcourt, I happily made my way to the MRT station. A shocking discovery awaited me. My EZ-link card was nowhere to be found. Frantically, I searched my whole wallet and bag but to no avail. Dejected, I decided to forget about it and use my spare card to enter the station. Then I changed my mind and decided to go back to all the 3 shops I went to to try clothes and see if I could find it. I am convinced that it must have dropped out of my pants when I was trying my clothes. In the end, I wasted 1 hour and tons of energy but none of the shops had found my card. I left my number with them and hoped for the best, but have not heard any news as yet.

It was a real dampener, since the ez-link card was my student one and would cost more than $20 to replace. Also, I'd topped it up recently and there was still over $10 left in it. And the card holder which it had been in also contained my access card. Which would cost money to replace too. Sigh!

Moral of the story: Do not be as stupid as me and put anything important in unzipped pocket.