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Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness.
- Ayn Rand

[an unrelated picture to an unrelated poem]

Love
Is a ripe plum
Growing on a purple tree.
Taste it once
And the spell of its enchantment
Will never let you be.

Love
Is a bright star
Glowing in far Southern skies.
Look too hard
And its burning flame
Will always hurt your eyes.

Love
Is a high mountain
Stark in a windy sky.
If you
Would never lose your breath
Do not climb too high.

- Langston Hughes

Lost Wacky Today

I was at NUS helping out for the commencement exercises these past few days. I am so sad that I lost Wacky – my iPod Touch. After almost two years of listening to music and lectures, going online to Facebook and update blogs, watching movies, flipping through magazines, and playing games, Joaquin or Wacky was stolen from me today.

I guess it may seem silly for me to cry and all, but Wacky’s really an important possession. It was more like a constant companion during long bus rides and boring times. It entertained me and my friends when we had nothing to do – either by the games that were available or the movies we watched.It wasn’t a socially ostracizing device, it helped me become a good conversationalist.

I cried so much, because I had invested not only financially but emotionally I was dependent on Wacky to cheer me out of glum situations.I learned so much about Psychology through podcasts, got to listen to my audiobooks and all, even go online.

Go ahead people, you can laugh at me for being so attached to an inanimate object and even wonder about my sanity, but I really felt sad and helpless.

Eventhough Wacky has a cracked screen it served me well. No more entertainment during long bus rides, no more alternative to drowning the irritating sound waves in this sunny little island.

Allow me to mourn. And with my current financial status, it’s not really possible to replace it soon, *sigh* anyone got a job vacancy?

Movie Rec: Tada, Kimi Wo Aishiteru

She used to lie very often

Love the first line. So I’m on a Takuji Ichikawa roll! But sad to say I haven’t really watched the Japanese movie adaptation of Be With You. Oh well, moving on,  Tada, Kimi Wo Aishiteru (Heavenly Forest) like other movies based on Takuji Ichikawa’s novels have a supernatural/science fiction-ish slant to it, and yes the twist in the end that would make you as Shizuru (Miyazaki Aoi) said, so happy then bring you to the depths of hell.

But first a synopsis which I grabbed from this site because I suck at summarizing stuff:

The story is about a photographer called Makoto (Tamaki Hiroshi), who travels to New York during Christmas to look for his best friend, Shizuru (Miyazaki Aoi). The two first met when Makoto attended his university entrance ceremony. Due to his inferiority complex, Makoto tends to shy away from other people but Shizuru managed to make him open up to her. Because of their friendship, Shizuru also ended up taking an interest in photography and the two often went to a forest to take pictures. Shizuru wants nothing else but to be by Makoto’s side so when he started liking another girl called Miyuki (Kuroki Meisa), Shizuru decided that she too will like Miyuki and becomes her friend. One day, Makoto asked Shizuru what present she’d like to receive for her birthday. Shizuru, who wanted to enter a photography competition, had an idea to take a picture of the two of them kissing in a forest. Makoto agreed to do this and the two kissed for the very first time. Ever since that day, however, Shizuru disappears from Makoto’s life.

The story is way beyond amazing, and I do not have a tendency to exaggerate, it’s just that this movie pressed a lot of good buttons for me. The cinematography and lighting is perfect. I love the forest scenes and the scene at Makoto’s (Tamaki Hiroshi) house.

I also love the photos that were shown at Shizuru’s exhibition, super beautiful!

Shizuru is such a quirky person, that if I met her like in real life, I think we’d end up best friends LOL! That says a lot about my personality, doesn’t it? I like her addiction to donut crackers and the way that she’s very supportive and yet brutally frank with the person she loves.

And eventhough Makoto’s cluelessness at first was frustrating with him making a lot of stupid mistakes he stopped from getting to the point of irritating and finally admitted to himself who he really loved.

I liked how there’s no real “villain” even if there is a love triangle. And that there wasn’t any bitchiness or any of that drama between Makoto’s friends and Shizuru or even between Shizuru and Miyuki (Meisa Kuroki).

This is a movie I will watch only once. But you just squeed over the movie in 479 words? You are very observatn dear reader, I’ll give you a reason, two words – TERMINAL ILLNESS.

I have sworn off any movie where a character is sick to the point of death/is dying. This movie is very sneaky, if you can’t emotionally detach yourself from the start then prepare a box of Kleenex! Although this movie is one of the most beautiful I have seen, I wouldn’t watch it again.

Unless I’m conspiring against myself.

Overall, if you want a great love story with breathtaking cinematography and cute characters (they’re cute when they’re together, trust me), this is the movie to watch!

Here’s the trailer:

Things I Love Tuesday //07-01

“and I wrote: Friends,
if you wish to survive
I would not recommend
Love”

- I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND LOVE, harold norse

twentyfour years

I’m not sure why it always goes downhill
Why broken cisterns never could stay filled
I’ve spent ten years singing gravity away
But the water keeps on falling from the sky

And here tonight while the stars are blacking out
With every hope and dream I’ve ever had in doubt
I’ve spent ten years trying to sing these doubts away
But the water keeps on falling from my eyes

And heaven knows, heaven knows
I tried to find a cure for the pain
Oh my Lord, to suffer like You do
It would be a lie to run away

- jon foreman, the cure for pain

Jaw-dropping Moment

“Only in da Philippines”

This what aptly describes the video below. It’s a (very big) group of inmates dancing to Super Junior’s Sorry,Sorry.

It’s amazing, with the choreography and the energy that the inmates have they looked like they were enjoying themselves!

And some of them dance better than those I’ve seen in variety shows:

Here’s Wondergirls and Big Bang for you:

Showed this to my sister and her mouth gaped open! I can’t imagine the hardwork that everyone put in to pull off this performance!

video courtesy of byronfgarcia

Constant Play: Lollipop

For some pathetic reason, which can suspiciously be attributed to temporary insanity, this song keeps playing on my mind and I keep singing the refrain:

Somebody save me!

{ There Could Be Nothing Better

☆ making hair accessories: headbands, scrunchies, barettes. there’s something therapeutic when you create something with your own hands

☆ translating japanese magazine articles: my first “project” was a NEWS interview and I gave up halfway because we all know that my Japanese is virtually non-existent beyond the tourist-y phrases. yesterday I was able to finish translating a DIY article on beribboned barettes! a major victory! It took me an hour though but yeah, at least I’m learning something. I’m in the middle of translating the rest of the DIY articles and a guide on how to have beautiful legs.funny how I can pull myself together when I’m extremely motivated!

☆ sewing a new case for Wacky: yes, the vinyl doesn’t suit Wacky anymore since I accidentally swiped my ballpoint pen over the edge leaving an ugly mark. Will probably use the pink felt that’s been lying around for ages.

☆ visual journals: after painstakingly clipping and filing images and text for a year, I’ve put some of them into good use by creating collages. here’s a sneak peak at one I’m working on:

☆ songs, songs, songs: been adding music to some old poetry. my sis just suggested that we form a duo – hah! I am not that confident with my abilities. but yes, taking up guitar has been muy bien!

☆ 10-day absence: I’ll be working straight for ten days at a part-time job (I’m trying to get more of these while i figure out what to do full-time!) so I wrote up a couple of posts in advance so you won’t think that I’ve fallen off from the face of the planet. The thing is that I’ll be working for 12-hours on some days and the site is like a good two-hour commute from where I live so I’m foreseeing incredible pooped-ness for the next few days!

All right, how was the first few days of July so far? Hope you’re all having a great week!

Quoted:Be With You

Some random quotes from Takuji Ichikawa’s Be With You (Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu). Definitely one of my best reads this year. Trying to finish Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Lovely Bones by this week.

☆ I had always been weak, but when Mio died I became even weaker. I started to lose even the strength it takes to breathe.

☆ Books nourish the heart. They are the lamps that light the darkness, the joy that can outshine love.

☆ Submarines would be a death sentence.

☆ I had long ago given up wishing for things I shouldn’t wish for or things I would never do. I am what is left after a lot of things are subtracted from a normal human being.

☆ It’s possible you lost forever those memories you should remember always.

☆ Seriousness is related to trust, and trust is one of the most important elements of love. That’s why serious people actually know more about love than carefree people do.

☆Not all stories are filled with happiness. Some stories are sad. Most sad stories are made up of tales of parting. To this day, I have never heard a story of meeting that did not also involve a parting.

☆ Life is over before you know it so there is no need for a whole pile of memories to live.

☆ People who can never get enough never seem to tire of hearing it. It’s the most comforting they can think of.

☆ “I like your attitude”, I said to him. “You’re a loyal dog and if you keep this up, they probably put a statue of you in front of the train station”.

☆ I am a tougher person that you give me credit for. I can only think about things in practical terms. If I really like somebody, it is not easy for me to just forget about them or suddenly start hating them. God made me to have just one love in my life. And so I went on, living day by day, thinking of you.

☆ I think the human heart was not made to go outside its time. If people temporarily lose their memory it must be some way of protecting their sanity.

love haiku

“Heartache just stretches
the boundaries of your heart.
I’ll fill it for you.”

— Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson.