二十八宿 (Twenty-Eight Constellations)

Interesting findings.....hehee~

Recently I've been watching back the old school animes of the 90s and oohh....so nostalgic! I miss them so much! I was watching Marmalade boy, I think it's my forth time. Anyways, one morning I decided to read up on the 28 constellations of Fushigi Yuugi as I wondered where Yuu Watase got the idea from.

So interestingly....I found that the Lunar calendar was somehow related to the 28 constellations. I never knew about this before cause no one told me.

Based on ancient astrological grouping from India, the 27 or 28 points that the moon passes through in one month is associated with star constellations. Each of these points (constellations) is associated with a deity, although the point-deity association varies among nations and sects.

A similar grouping of 28 was developed independently in China. The Chinese merged their system with that from India following the introduction of Buddhism to China. Unlike India, the grouping in China was always 28. It is the Chinese system that was imported by the Japanese.

The 28 moon lodges or 28 lunar mansions (as they are often called in English) are divided into four clusters, with each cluster made up of seven constellations. The four clusters represent the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west).

Each cluster is associated with one of Four Celestial Emblems, a Buddhist guardian deity (the Four Heavenly Kings), a season, a color, and numerous other attributes.

Credits all the infos to HERE<<

North- Genbu the Tortoise
South- Suzaku the Red Pheonix
East- Seiryuu the blue-gree Dragon
West- Bakyo the White Tiger

hehe...it's exactly the same as in Fushigi Yuugi. so cool~

Imagine the immense amount of research a mangaka has to go through in order to create a good manga. The background research to make sure facts are right, then research on architectural designs and clothings.

Lol...wehn I was younger, being a mangaka was one of my dreams because I love drawing pretty boys and girls. Plus all the influences I've gotten from watching animes which I later found out were based on mangas. At that time, I was really amazed by their works as they were able to create such wonderful stories and at the same time create beautiful illustrations.

^_^!! according to the star signs...I'm supposed to be under Seiryuu and my birth date is the closest to Nakago (心/ Heart).

Ahh...Shock-da! my tamahome's enemy!!!

The hot blonde in the middle~

*sniff* meawhile my tamahome belongs to suzaku!!

hehe...if you read mangas, you'll that all characters have a biodata just like all of us and their own characteristic characters.

hehe...it's late to only realise this so many years after the manga and anime ended but FY is still one of my all time favourite!!

lol...anyone directors wanna turn this into a drama???

Cone Pizza revisited

Yea, revisited the place with my colleagues.

We claimed 2 free mushroom soup with the coupons that they gave us form our last visit.

Since it's free, can't complain much......

Iced tea

Hot Tea

Forgot what's the name of the pasta but it's the same dish, we just ordered it in different pasta type.

The tuna cone pizza! Looks like ice cream right? It's so cute! Next time I must try it!!!!

Spaghetti Arabita

It looks like I will be visiting the place again. Why? well...cuz they gave me another 2 coupons and this time is for free garlic bread! haahah....what a great way to keep customers coming back! Give them something free everytime they come!!!

Yea, this is something Hot Piper has to learn from. We went there for lunch today since they just newly open in the area. A colleague came to know of their buy 3 free 1 lunch set. There's only 3 of us but we went anyways. The service was horrible. We couldnt' get waiters to serve us and the food was bad too. We asked if we could get the free set since it's stated there buy 3 free 1 right. He said if we can finish our food, he'll serve it to us!!! What?? like we can't finish it ??? Oh well....but according to the waiter they have very nice a la-carte meals.

2010 Petronas F1 Grand Prix

Ahh...no time to update so many things.

I've been super busy last week. I had prac almost every night and had been lacking sleep! We were preparing for performance.

One was for the F1 event which took up my entire weekend!! The waiting and the running part were the most tiring part of all. Spent few hours waiting every day!!! omg~~~ It's really tiring to wait for time to pass!!!!

While waiting for the bus)

(Our ride)

(Tada!)
(Note: my lou gong on the top left!!! wakakaka!!!)
(Lou gong with Petronas Girls)

(Us! going into the paddock!)

On Sat, it was drizzling and we had to practice in the rain on the Sepang tracks! ahhh...what an amazing experience that was!! It was my 1st time there and I danced on the tracks!!!

Some of the crew members were still there tending to the race cars! I could see the garages right behind us. Can see the race cars with their humongous tyres...ooooo~




haha... my position was in front of Jenson Button!! The crew members were still checking the cars after the race. wakaka.....I wanna see the leng chai driver!!! Michael Schumacher was just a lil further to the right! Ahhh~~~where are the drivers!!!??


Then yesterday, when we actually performed, the sun was burning hot!! Oh well...at least we managed to see some beautiful air display! It was so cool to see the planes go 360 degrees, then zoom here and there up in the sky! Ahhh...it was so up close!!! I love the sounds from the planes, could really feel the vibrations!!!

The race itself was super cool! I though that the 1st race was loud and the cars were already quite fast but boy, was I wrong!! When the....actual race??....started, OMG~ I thought I was going to be deaf!!!


56 laps!!! One moment you hear *Vrrooom-vroomm* on one side and next moment you'll heat the same sounds on the other side and then suddenly the sounds just keep coming here and there because the drivers were all around the tracks and we were in the middle!!!

Initially, it was super fun because I got really excited to see the cars zoom past SOOO up close but then after a while my ears started to hurt! The vibrations were so strong that I had a headache!!! We stuffed tissues into our ears and I was covering my ears with my towel the whole time we were up on the grandstand. SUPER LOUD!!!! Plus it was at the bend, so you could clearly hear the cars slow down and then change their gears and stuffs!!! My eyes started to become blurry too after a while!

After half an hour we couldn't take it anymore and decided to just walk around, even then you could hear the cars super clearly!!! *ouch* my ears!!! We couldn't even talk to each other because it was too loud. We had to sms!

The first race that we saw was during our lunch and I had no idea who the winner was initially but he looked cute from the screen. So I said that the camera should zoom in closer to his face. My friend then told me that that's the closest the cameraman could go and all of the sudden, the winner ran up to the camera and gave it a kiss!!! Lol~ naturally I went crazy~~~ ahhh~~~ still no idea who the racer was.

haha...read the papers today and found out that Sebastian Vettel won the Petronas F1 Grand Prix! Congrats to him!!!

Was hoping to see more drivers in person, but I guess to be able to see the 2010 Grand Prix live was already an amazing experience. What more, having the opprotunity to perform on the tracks with 200 other dancers!! whee~~~ a tiring but great experience!


(Our view)

(Our entrance and exit)

(The beautiful tracks in the evening)

(The Dancers!)

Lol...I stole all the pics from another dancer!!!

Japan

This video is really interesting. It was done by this japanese guy called Kenichi Tanaka, for his final thesis project.

You can visit his blog at http://kenichi-design.blogspot.com/

This is the video! Japan- The strange country (English Version)

Japan-The Strange Country (English ver.) from Kenichi on Vimeo.

Here's the japanese version:

Japan - The Strange Country (Japanese ver.) from Kenichi on Vimeo.

Great video! Totally Love it~

I WANNA VISIT JAPAN!!!

Meeting up with Tham again after....6 months. Haven't seen tat gal since graduation. Plus she seems pretty busy as she couldn't come out everytime I ask her. But she was finally able to make it~~~

Here's Ur and I while we were waiting for Tham at Pasta Zanmai. lol...I think I've eaten there like 20 times, mostly with my cuz. Crazy~...if I like something, I'll just keep on eating it. My most visited restaurant would be Zanmai Sushi.


Arr...I'm hungry, where is Tham??
Oh~ there she is! Just in time, before the food arrives.
Picture session first...since it's been so long!
One more!
Mini chicken pasta with onsen tamago
Mini hotate pizza
Omu rice (tomato fried rice with japanese curry sauce)
Potato gratin with prawns and scallops on top!


Yummylicious~ Can never go wrong if you dine at any of the Zanmai outlets. I'm glad that even Tham enjoyed the food hehee, esp the japanese curry which is soo different from normal Indian curries.
It's great to meet up again after so long but someone's missing from the picture and it's "JAS the mutated sheep"!! She must've mutated to some other forms by now. Bet she's busy with work adn stuffs in Penang. Hopefully, she'll come down to visit us one day.

Last wk seawitch and I met up at Pyramid. I was planning to watch Alice in Wonderland.....but then someone watched it without inviting me lo~

So anyways, we went to Manhattan Fish Market for dinner. So fattening~~ that was my 3rd fast food of the day. I had McD for breakfast, then Pizza for lunch and omg~ Sea food platter for dinner!!!

This is my so called "Fresh mango juice". I asked the waitress if they use real fresh mango juice or packaged ones. She told me, "We use fresh mango juice!" But judging from the taste and look it's clearly packaged mango juice....argh!!!

Our monstrous meal!! Anyways, the prawns were seriously not fresh...the insides of the head was already black. No, not from the burning, but because of it's un-freshness. Needless to say, I suffered from stomach ache the next day!!!
Being a shop that specialises in seafood, you'd think they'd use only the freshest infredients. hmm...think again!

The seawitch smiling happily after I served her a portion of the food.

Me....happy to see the food in front of me! This meal was seriously enough for 3 ppl. I should've known because I had it before and you can never finish this with only 2 person.

We were sooo stuffed, we could hardly move after dinner. I think we stayed there for quite sometime....heehe....

NEWS-Smile Maker

Dedicating this song to Pancy....

Smile Maker by NEWS

A song whose lyrics really suits us at this point of time!

Yay~ to friendship! *cheers*



English Lyrics

Sometimes things just go wrong, and even if you blame someone
Some things are hard to get over, I understand, its rough
No matter what reason you give, no one is satisfied you know
But surely there is someone looking out for you, someone special, who can genuinely laugh with you

*Smile! Even if things are hard, the more painful things are, the more you should smile
Lets shout! WOW! Laugh it away, [life] GOES ON
Even if not for yourself, smile for someone else
You’ll gain strength from those smiling faces

If you start worrying ENDLESSLY, it doesn’t really matter but
Its not like you like worrying, right?, just you’re frustrated because you’re worrying anyway.
You don’t have anywhere to run, and you want to shield your heart,
And while people are passing by you without noticing, time ticks on.

Even if the waves swallow you, and even if you get swept up in time, I understand that it really isn’t anyone’s fault.
Looking down [at your feet on a] CLOUDY DAY, being honest with yourself is a bit scary,
That’s when, what was it that MY FRIEND always used to say?, “It’ll be alright!”

*REPEAT

This relationship is humanity’s way of connecting, there are no lies in a held out hand,
In this time we’ve spent together and in the future to come, the trust between us is beginning to grow more and more.
YOU AND I [are together], I’m not alone; when I think about that I feel like my life has doubled, yeah
Strong but kind, because we’re supporting each other I feel this gratitude in my heart, TRY

On the separate roads that we’re walking now, there is no one who doesn’t fall at least once.
“This barrier is here so that I can overcome it!,” If I think of it like that I feel like I can get closer to my dreams

*REPEAT

Everyone is weak, obviously. But everyone is scared, even if they hide it.
Just no matter what happens I’m not giving in; the bond that we protected should be your support.
I’ll always be on your side, so with that support below you look to tomorrow
I don’t want to see your depressed face, so chin up and smile! YOUR LIFE

*REPEAT

Will be all right Put a smile on your face



Japanese Lyrics (for my own learning)

上手くいかない事 誰かのせいにしても
どこか許せない事 解るよそれじゃ辛いだろう
何を理由にしても 誰も喜んでないだろう
でも見てくれてるよ そっと 本音で笑い合える大事な人

笑え 苦しい時こそ 辛い数だけ笑顔見せてよ
さぁ声上げて Wow いっそ笑い飛ばして Goes on
自分のためじゃなくても 誰かのために笑おう
喜んでくれた顔が 与えてくれる力を

悩みだしたら Endlessly どうでもいいならいいんだ 別に
好きで悩んだ訳じゃないし ただ それがイラ立ってる原因
逃げ場所もなく 心ふさぎたくなる
誰も気付かず通り過ぎる でも時計は回る

波に飲まれても 時に流されても それは誰のせいでもない事 解ってはいても
うつむいてしまう Cloudy day 素直じゃ少しこわくて
そんな時に My friend いつも言ってくれたっけ 大丈夫だって

笑え 苦しい時こそ 辛い数だけ笑顔見せてよ
さぁ声上げて Wow いっそ笑い飛ばして Goes on
自分のためじゃなくても 誰かのために笑おう
喜んでくれた顔が 与えてくれる力を

この関係は人生の繋がり 差し出す手に嘘はない
共に費やした時間と この先の未来 更に増していく信頼
You ＆ I 一人じゃない そう思える事で人生って倍 そう
強く優しく支え合えるから この感謝を胸に Try

今 歩いてる個々の道で 一度もつまずかない人はいない
「これは乗り越える為の壁なんだ」そう思えば夢に近づける気がして

笑え 苦しい時こそ 辛い数だけ笑顔見せてよ
さぁ声上げて Wow いっそ笑い飛ばして Goes on
自分のためじゃなくても 誰かのために笑おう
喜んでくれた顔が 与えてくれる力を

弱くて当たり前 本当はビビってる誰だって
ただ どんな時も意地を張って 守った絆が君の支え
いつも君の味方 その確かな足で向かえ 明日
暗い顔は見たくない だから 顔上げて笑えYour life

笑え 苦しい時こそ 辛い数だけ笑顔見せてよ
さぁ声上げて Wow いっそ笑い飛ばして Goes on
自分のためじゃなくても 誰かのために笑おう
喜んでくれた顔が 与えてくれる力を

笑え 苦しい時こそ 辛い数だけ笑顔見せてよ
さぁ声上げて Wow いっそ笑い飛ばして Goes on
自分のためじゃなくても 誰かのために笑おう
喜んでくれた顔が 与えてくれる力を

Will be all right Put a smile on your face

Buzzer Beat

I finally had the chance to watch this drama before the end of CNY....all because I bought the DVD.

Sooo happy!!!!

I was deciding between this and Mei-chan no shitsuji at the DVD store. I couldn't get both because I didn't have enough cash with me.....

I was thinking Pi..Buzzer Beat or Hiro...Mei-chan no shitsuji. In the end I picked Buzzer Beat!! heehe.....well it's cuz of slight biasedness, the drama has won so many awards!!!! Plus, I love basketball.....and also because I had already watched 5 episodes of the latter drama online. :P

Pi's drama + basketball theme.....whee~~~ = Mel loves!!!



Love Pi and Keiko together! I like how their relationship which started out as something mutual to something special. It seems they've brought their on-screen romance off-screen....but I approve!! They make a lovely couple!!!

I really like Pi's character, Naoki, in this drama compared to his other roles. "Yasashii otoko" = gentle guy. He's soft spoken, has a goal in life, gentle, serious, atheletic, a great friend and someone whom you can just talk anything with, without worrying that he might make fun of you. He is sweet, caring, does the housework, supports his partner and chase their dreams together! haaha....yea, the type of guy that I like. *sigh* too good to be true.

It's nice to have someone like Naoki who knows nothing about music, be interested in it, when Riko talks about it. At the same time, Riko knows peanuts about basketball, but they were able to support each other through their challenges. Though I thought that the break-up in the middle to allow Riko to chase after her dreams of becoming a violinist was totally unnecessary.



I like Maya Miki, the lady who acted as Naoki's mum. I think it's because of her voice and smile.....I enjoyed watching her in Zettai Kareshi too.

Aibu Saki plays an antagonist in this drama...quite shocking for me, as all these while I've only seen her play good girl roles. Not bad....

Omasa Aya, who plays Naoki's sister, acted in Mei chan no shitsuji and Yamato nadeshiko shichi henge. I'm yet to finish both dramas~

Apparently, a sensei from my language school likes this drama too! hehe~ plus everyone who finds out that I'm a Pi fan has been introducing this drama to me. So I'm glad that I finally got the chance to finish it!

Double thumbs up!!!

1st waacking battle

Last Sat was an amazing experience for me because it was my first ever waacking battle! Well....it's my first battle! haaha....went there totally unprepared as so many things have happened prior to that. It's a bit too late to prepare for it.

First, it was preparation for a dance perf. Then the date for the battle session has been brought forward a day earlier....to the same day as the perf. Plus, me finding out that some of the common steps which I normally do in my freestyles are not actually waacking moves!!! aahhh~~~

Yea....plus I don't have any waacking songs with me and I only got them from J the day before the battle!!! ahhhh~~~ I haven't even had time to listen to them yet!

Oooo~~~ but it was an event that would be hard to miss because a pro waacker AN from the IHOW was there to be the judge. (As usual, I don't include full names in my blog entries) Ahhh....one of the very few who actually trained under TP!!

Yea....so I went for the battle!!! I chickened out on the freestyle because I was afraid that I would be doing some "weird-hop" and also because my musicality is bad. Overall....I'm unable to let go of all the things that are restricting me and just enjoy myself because I care about what other ppl would think. That is another level which I need to achieve in order to become better!

First battle was with Ah K. Guys have guy styles and girls have girl styles of doing the dance. It was interesting. Only guys can do man poses. I hope more guys would join in future. After 2 rounds, I was lucky enough to move on to the next round.

Second battle was with my waacking instructor!!! Ahhh~~~ I think I defeated myself before the battle even started because I was so convinved that I would lose. Yea, I lost after 2 rounds anyways. My instructor was a lot better than me in terms on musicality, fierceness, moves and techniques. I still have a lot more to improve on.

As for the other dance styles such as Freestyle, House, Poppin and Lockin....it was CRAZY!!!! Everyone's super talented....i could hardly keep my mouth close the entire time!!! It was super interesting as instructors all joined the the battles too. They all did amazingly well winning all the battles!! It was totally crazy because some had to go up to 5/6 rounds before the winner could be decided.

The event ended only at 3am but no complains from me because it was a great eye-opener as it was the first time I've attended an event like this. I missed the last one due to food poisoning and also because I thought I wanted to accompany Pancy.

Oooo~ It was so fun, I can't wait for the next one. I hope I'd be able to perform better next time. Plus I can't wait to see what the other dancers could bring to the battle floor! It's great to see everything live and upclose rather that from videos!

Oh, as for AN? His waacking was "jaw-dropping". Just seeing him pose.......is already so nice!!! and the way he moves his arms....."ahhh~ I wish I could be able to dance like him". Plus when he's showing, he's not really using much energy, imagine seeing him battle!! It's gonna be superb man.

We did get a change to see him vogue and it was soooooo nice! 1st time seeing a pro waack and vogue in front of me!!! I wonder what would it be like to see pros battle. Ahhh~~~~

Even though, time is too short for a workshop from him, I hope that he'll come back for one in future and meanwhile, I can't wait for this Sat's workshop by K! Oh, he did have a poppin' workshop last night though, which I missed because I was sick since Sunday........

MC on monday then took a medication that causes drowsiness and dizziness on tuesday without knowing and drove all the way to work feeling dizzy with light headache the entire journey. Then I had meeting that morning....I tried so hard to keep mayself awake the entire time!!!

Anyways, I'm still coughing badly now eventhough there's no more flu. The weather's pretty lately....hope everyone takes good caare of themselves and stay healthy!!!!

Chap Goh Mei

whee~


Yesterday was the last day of cny...also known as chap goh mei or chinese valentine.


Anyone threw any mandarin oranges into any river/ sea?


I didn't!! :(


This year was really special as I had the chance to perf a chinese dance at P kl. My first time at the mall actually....hehe...so huge and grand~!!!


It was really last minute as we were only informed 2 days before the perf day.......ahhhh.......


I got a shock when I found out that we'd be doing a chinese dance. haha, we were all wondering how would d dance be like and what do we do about costumes.....

But in the end, everything went smoothly and we all had a lot of fun during the performance..... hehe.....

Us!!! In studio right after our rehersal, with our make up artist! Thank you!!!! and also thansk to our instructor who fixed our hair!!! So beautiful right?
This is us outside of the famous xiao long bao shop during our break......
It was nice that many ppl wanted to take pics with us last night. After the first perf we got so high that we started dancing to hiphop songs in our costumes and white socks. hehee...
It was a great experience and I don't mind doing it again.....in future, I hope to be able to try out other dance styles too.