Lol so hot right now;)

Think this is an ordinary pair of goggles? Hoho you'd be wrong... This trusty gadget is no normal pair of goggles, it serves a truer purpose: Ensuring your onion-cutting ventures remain tear-free. Hehe, ahead of the times eh;)

And aren't these Sony Vaio laptops gorgeous? (And one in pink too!;D) The screens are 13.3 inches and there's 802.11a/b/g wireless connectivity and a DVD burner built in. At 5 pounds, these babies are light too! What's not to lust?;)

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Did you know...

• Rabbits are born hairless and with closed eyes while hares are born covered with fur and with open eyes.
• The cheetah is the only cat that can't retract it's claws. Poor feline needs a mani!
• Fingernails grow faster on your favoured hand.
• Cabbage is 91% water. Ultimate diet food, ladies!
• The average eyeball weighs under 30 grams.
• Clams have a row of eyes around their shells 0_o
• Owls are apparently the only birds that can see the colour blue.

If you think this is a photo...

...think again.

I can easily understand how you might be fooled, though. It got me too. This piece of art (no other word can do justice!) was created by virtue of the talents of one Wayne Forrest using Adobe Illustrator. It's a masterpiece made possible by the use of a gradient mesh to create photorealistic vector art. Brilliant eh? For more on these photorealistic masterpieces, clicky this linky. This blog entry also features some other beautiful pieces done by other artists=)

And before I completely forget to post my little gush-sesh about Kyouya's awesome-looking mansion as seen in Ouran 24, here it goes;)

Gorgeous eh? While I mull in my head whether this could actually work as my future home one day, the features I definitely like are...

1. The floor to ceiling windows. Look how pretty the lights look showcased like so! I have an official thing for floor-to-ceilings, even if I know that they'll be beelzebub to clean. Of course, if I was rolling in the $ sufficiently enough to have earned me such a fabulous abode, I would hope I could more than certainly manage it's upkeep;) And of course, to fit floor-to-ceilings in more feasibly in my future home (because I think I definitely definitely want to=p~), I'll figure out a way to maximize gorgeousness with easy cleaning. (Having a roof may help hehe...and ceilings which aren't too high...) I'd probably figure out a way to have efficient drapes which hopefully won't cost the world=p

2. The balcony on the top floor=D I(You can see it better in the winter shot.) Isn't it gorgeous? Probably a personal bedroom balcony. I suppose that you could even have a balcony all around the top half of the building, like a mezzanine, from the way the two stories are structured. Although, if I were to do that, I'd find a way to have a more private bedroom balcony...

(3). Special mentions are the recessed staired entryway and the arc-shaped arrangement of the house. (I imagine this just spans the front, because i think it would be less artistic and more ridiculous if the whole house was round or elliptical or the like!) Nicely fits in with the floor-to-ceiling windows. All you need is a breathtaking vista to behold and you're set! Just imagine that you've got a huge jacuzzi somewhere strategic and you're looking out at heaven-on-earth while you're soaking. Ahh...

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Some other stuff I've come across...

1. Did you know that swans are monogamous? That's what it says here. A German swan couple set to join the star-crossed ranks of Romeo and Juliet! A rare black swan has fallen in love with a white plastic paddle-boat designed in the form of a swan and biologists are worried that this poor swan will spend it's life pining away for the plastic swan! Aww...true love XD

2. A 3-year old buys a car on ebay! Haha, so cute! I read another article which said that he loves cars and made the $17, 000 "Buy now" purchase using his mom's ebay account, which she was still logged in to. I think the car was pink and I remember the mom saying that he just shifted coyly in his seat when quizzed as to whether he knew what he'd been up to. This article says he's a whiz at computers so ooh, you just know little Jack Neal's going to own a flash car when he gets his license. Although, he may not decide to wait that long;)

(if you like the true-to-mail-provider images I've got on my contacts/msn list on the sidebar to your right, check the site out ^_^)

Blurring the lines of history on a Friday evening; Fact vs. Fictional Fabrications

It is the weekend again and I can almost hear every single millimetre of my body, inside and out, resounding a collective 'Ahh...', which would, granted, be seven kinds of undeniably-freaky but I wouldn't blame them;) I feel as if I've been running around ragged finishing up all the assignments that are due, as the weeks start drawing towards the end of the run soon-ish (3 weeks closer to catching that plane home=D). But for the moment, I can just take a step back and just...breathe...and relax while catching up on fun (sort of)!=D

Mr. BR blogged about something really interesting today. He talked about how the original Bruneian rulers may have been Chinese. How Ong Sum Ping may have been the second Sultan, Sultan Ahmad, and how Sultan Abdul Majid Hassan died in China, a fact which seems to cue that lighbulb over my head to turn on anyhow;) There was even a mention about Brunei and a Bruneian King naming a mountain "Darussalam" in Chinese records some 1000 years before Sultan Muhammad (I'm presuming Sultan Muhammad Shah)! Fascinating stuff. Of course, we can never know what really happened way back when, or (dare my skeptical side say it?) if the truth may have truly been left to someone's imagination, so to speak.

I have a feeling my skepticism may have been a little amped by some anecdotes a friend was regaling earlier. There was a prank issue of the uni student mag and one alumnus was saying that in the lead up (or was it after?) to their graduation, they decided to pull a massive trick. They decided that NZ would spot some UFOs one fine day. Being spread out across the country in various campuses, they planned the whole operation so meticulously; from fabricated pictures to calls to the police from various parts of the country reporting a UFO sighting at their calculated times of when a flying object of that kind may theoretically traverse that part of the country. It was soooo well-planned that the news made the front page! And 20 years later, a conspirator comes out with the actual truth: they were faking it!

Another tale along the same lines was about this Peter Jackson documentary about NZ and how a Kiwi, and not the Wright Brothers, invented the airplane. And the docu also recorded the discovery of a lost city in the Fiordlands somewhere. This friend goes tramping there and she says that people who tramp there would know that there couldn't possibly be such a lost city of wonderful proportions there. But it made the documentary. And 10 years later, guess what, the documentary was professed to be a fake.

Remember the whole drama with the discovery of DNA? (Sorry, it's Friday afternoon, names are failing me at the moment and I'm too lazy to do my research=p) It was actually that lady who died because of too much radiological exposure who really made headway, but those 2 dudes published first and got the Nobel! If she wasn't acknowledged, us future generations would never have even known of her very existence!

So I guess my point is: how much of what we know is what truly is? Especially, as I've demonstrated, what we have come to know and learn and teach as facts may have been a lie, a mistake or a misunderstanding? Or even, as particularly applicable to inventions, medicine and royal lineage and the like, may not have been etched into history until the next one comes along with the same invention or title and has it in records? It seems that whoever speaks up his claim and whoever has the pen makes history. And most importantly, whoever believes and perceives this to be fact marks said history as the future's truth.

It would be amazing to know what really went on between the lines, behind closed doors, underneath the underneath of the pieces of history that we have come to know as facts=) Oh, to have been an immortal (slightly-more-attractive-being-than-a-) fly on the wall!

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And some more frivolous reading;)

1. Chapter 10 of Beautiful Fighter by ronsmyhero is up!=D
2. The eagerly awaited Chapter 325 of the Naruto manga is up!! Can't wait to find out the workings of that brilliant mind of Shika's!;D

Some frivolous reading on my to-read list...
1. Lover Eternal and sequel Eternal Flower, which I think may be SakuSasus, by Kiasidari Ixari.
2. A KakaSaku Sins and Tragedies by Kjata.

Desperate Housewives S3 Episode 1: Listen To The Rain On The Roof

Come Season 3 and we have our women of Wisteria Lane back! As I mentioned in the review for the special, S3 starts 6 months down the track post the S2 finale.

It starts with a little back-story of one Alma Hodge. Yup, Orson's ex-wife. We see how much of a particular neat freak (much like Bree!) he really is, with her cleaning up after house in the very meticulous way that he instructed her to. She finally snaps and decides to leave once he left for work. Her plans are delayed by her talking parrot escaping and refusing to return to it's cage! Meanwhile, Orson notices a stain on his sleeve and decides to make his way back home. In a cruel twist of fate, the bird flies back it's case unbidden, just as Orson walks through the front door and observes Alma's suitcases and guilty, terrified expression. Great sense of timing, Baby. Their nosy neighbour makes her way over unannounced when Alma fails to turn up for a get-together they planned and she finds Orson cleaning the floor. He tells her that Alma has left him and she probes the matter deeper but he denies any knowledge. It was then that the bird tellingly screeches repeatedly, "Orson, no!" And the wheels of suspicion start to turn in the neighbour's head...

Back on Wisteria Lane, rain is pouring heavily. Orson has asked Bree to marry him and she said yes. She excitedly lets the girls know and invites them to her engagement announcing party. There's no other place to put this delicately but it was so amusing I couldn't leave it out! Bree visits the doctor in haste after lying with Orson only to find out that she has been cheated all her life of experiencing her first orgasm! Anyway, Lynette has had enough of 6 months of Nora as a price of dealing with sweet-natured Kayla but she puts up with the crap because she's his wife and Tom comes first. Nora tests her patience some more when she inserts herself into their Christmas family picture and when she makes her enraged self bothersome by hunting one of the boy's birthday party down, thinking that Lynette lied (and lied she did;)) about just having Kayla over for a quiet afternoon. As she puts it, no her, no Kayla. Tom finally says something to Nora, albeit at Lynette's challenging "Do I still come first?", and Nora leaves in a childish huff. Seriously, Tom, I know you love little Kayla, but grow a backbone! I really feel for Lynette, stuck having to live with her husband's mistake for life.

Another housewife getting her American dream similarly dashed is Gaby. She's stuck having to wait on her hubby's mistress hand and foot, all because she made the regrettable decision to have Xiao Mei be their surrogate. They hate each other's guts and Xiao Mei abuses her position as the baby's container by being snotty with Gaby. After calling Gaby a bitch, Gaby exclaims over how fantastically glad she'll be when Xiao Mei pops the baby out and she can send her ass to the rice paddies of China! There's no love lost between those two! Xiao Mei then disappears. Gaby is forced to make contact with Carlos to check if Xiao Mei is lurking there. He follows her on her goose chase to Chinatown where she exchanges insults with Xiao Mei's restaurant friend and ends up leaving with the contents of a plate of Mushu Pork served down her designer-clad front.

Susan has been caring for Mike ever since he's been in the coma and is feeling lonely. She wants Mike to wake up so badly. In the hallways, she meets Ian, who is similarly miserable over the comatose state of his wife across the hall, and has been for the past 3 years! Poor guy. They hit it off and before you know it, he asks Susan on a date, but only if she's ready since she's only been 'mourning' Mike for 6 months versus his 3 years. She 'talks' to Mike, wills him to wake up, explains ho lonely she is...and finally, looks on his comatose body as she leaves the door, assuring him that it is going to only be dinner. Sigh. Amazing what Marc Cherry comes up with. I mean, there's a dilemma. How long do you keep waiting before you move on? Well, it should be interesting when (no question about it, no one kills Mike Delfino;D) Mike wakes up from his 6-month slumber and Susan should have another triangle-shaped dilemma;)

Edie has been polishing her realtor skills, trying to load off the Youngs' and the Applewhites' properties on to new buyers. It's proving a little hard when it seems that the grapevine is quite lengthy and a lot of people have heard about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the Young's house in particular. During one of her open call tours, she opens the door of a storage closet to show off the space to 2 prospective buyers, only to discover the missing Xiao Mei! With caterer food for the open call on hand! She lets Gaby know and Gaby picks her up. At Bree's party, everything is looking gorgeous and going along swimmingly until a knock on the door brings an unexpected guest. It is Orson's ex-neighbour and she reveals to the room that Orson was responsible for the suspicious circumstances surrounding Alma's mysterious disappearance. That he murdered her. Bree is thrown for a loop. Orson denies the accusations. And being the impeccable hostess she is, after pulling herself together, she opens the buffet table. It must be so hard to have to stand there and take the humiliation in front of your guests and worse, have doubt cast on the man you've decided to marry. She has really had so many bad experiences. In fact, all the housewives' plights, I wouldn't wish on myself or my worst enemy!

And the rain keeps on falling...And each housewife hopes that come morning, the rain has washed all her worries away...

Colour makes the world go round~

I had this inkling to go re-read this poem I got in an e-mail once upon a time. Such perspective! It just reminds you of the need for love in this world =D Racism is obviously a well known concept that, unfortunately, the world has yet to conquer (Pandora really screwed the world over when she opened that box!) but with insight shown by youths like these, maybe one day=)

It was apparently nominated poem of 2005 for the best poem (I'm not sure by who though), written by an African kid...

When I born, I Black,
When I grow up, I Black,
When I go in Sun, I Black,
When I scared, I Black,
When I sick, I Black,
And when I die, I still black..
And you White fella,
When you born, you Pink,
When you grow up, you White,
When you go in Sun, you Red,
When you cold, you Blue,
When you scared, you Yellow,
When you sick, you Green,
And when you die, you Gray..

And you calling me Colored ??

- Aly El Sahly

Here's another good one written by 16 year old Amy Maddox...

Empathy

He prayed - it wasn't my religion.

He ate - it wasn't what I ate.

He spoke - it wasn't my language.

He dressed - it wasn't what I wore.

He took my hand - it wasn't the color of mine.

But when he laughed - it was how I laughed.
And when he cried - it was how I cried.

And a quote from Martin Luther King:

"When we look at modern man we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance, we’ve learned to fly the air like birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we havent learned to walk the earth as brothers and sisters."

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On a less virtuous avenue, some other stuff I've been reading as part of the KakaSaku fandom are:

1. The Way of The Sword by Serenanna. Good writing! It's actually based on a fanfic by ronsmyhero (shizune_senpai) whom I mentioned in a previous entry and it doesn't disappoint! And surely the fact that this is a fanfic of a fanfic speaks volumes about ronsmyhero's works. I can't gush enough=) Chp 5 is now up!
2. Some light, hilarious fun: Too Young To Love by internet pencil. Coincidentally, Chp5 of that one is also up on ff. What amuses me is how the fandom now has this fixed standard of Genma as a loud, semi-obnoxious flirty jounin sidekick of our Kakashi. Hehe I don't know how that started but I know how it stuck, seeing as the character is so likeable! It's just funny going back and watching/reading Naruto with him all serious and knowing Kishi really hasn't developed his character much as of yet=p

Annnnd it was my turn to cook today for our dinner-cum-sungkai. *Sigh* i forgot to take a pic but it fulfilled it's ultimate purpose as our sungkai=D Assam fish and tamagoyaki plus steamed rice and some leftover soup etc from yesterday. I just wanted to commit the tamagoyaki (with lamb and crab filling & topped with nori smileys!) to the immortal borders of my hard drive huhu~ But ooh kurma (truth be told, I'm not so huge a fan though) and air bandung on the table..touches of home=)

Desperate Housewives S3 Special: Time To Come Clean

My DH S3 Ep 1 is on hand (yay!) but its good to refresh beforehand since the season kicks off 6 months since the S2 finale. This was a People magazine special and Marc Cherry, the DH crew and the People ppl (hehe) said their little vignettes amidst recap scenes. Also nice to see was some sneak scenes from the upcoming season premiere!

I remember feeling all choked up while watching the last season finale. I think I wasn't feeling my best at the time and watching this melancholy, disillusioning episode left me feeling really empty. And I just thought that all I want in this life is to be happy and satisfied. Let me have that and leave the drama to DH!

Things that happened...

Gaby
- Gaby miscarried when she fell off the stairs that time Caleb broke into her house and freaked her out. Ironically, now that she wanted to have a baby with Carlos, that little mishap cost her the ability=( So they had the bright idea to beat the system and getting a baby quick-fast by using their maid Xiao Mei as their proverbial oven. Things get complicated when Carlos is taken in by their surrogate's innocence, all that Gaby's not, and Gaby catches him cheating=( With the maid! She kicked him out but houses her baby's mother and so now she and Xiao Mei are stuck under one roof totally hating each other.
S3 Spoilers: Gaby is forced to wait on Xiao Mei who is carrying her child and Xiao Mei is being a pain. The both of them clearly hate each other and Xiao Mei (grrrrr) sits on the bed with her feet propped up ordering Gaby to rub her sore feet at one point! And she even calls Gaby a bitch. Gaby looks as homely as we've never seen her, looking after her house!

Susan and Edie
- Susan inadvertently becomes the third woman in Edie and Karl's breakup and when Edie finds out, Susan has hell to pay. And she's got it bad when we realise that Edie has it in so deep that she even takes pleasure in burning Susan's house. Susan and Julie move into a trailer, Susan turning down the house Karl bought for "his girls" (we know he's still in love with Susan). More will happen in S3 with Edie's revenge I guess! (Sooo funny that scene with Edie's swollen-out-of-human-proportions bee-stung face!)
- Susan and Mike still love each other and they set up a romantic date. Karl bumps into Mike at the jewellery store ring-shopping (we know he's still in love with Susan) and lets slip that Mike is going to pop the big Q during their little slug-fest. So Mike's on his way to their date when he gets hit by a car - on purpose. And who that driver was? None other than Orson Hodge, the dentist dude Susan ropes into pretending she was on a date with back when she and Mike were still estranged and she bumps into him with his movie date. We don't know why Orson had it in for Mike but possibly because Mike, sent to him for a dental appointment by Susan, thought he looked familiar? And Orson didn't want to reveal his seems-to-me-to-be-very-questionable past?!
S3 Spoilers: Mike is not dead! But he is in a coma and has been for the past 6 months. We see a scene where Orson whispers to his comatose self "Payment in full" so hmm, I wonder what happened there...Some history for sure! Susan looks after Mike endlessly throughout the 6 months but meets a "coma buddy" in an Englishman (Dougray Scott!) with a comatose wife across the hall. So does she decide to let go of Mike, who she doesnt know for sure was going to marry her and who she has no idea is going to wake up ever again, or move on and pursue a promising love?

Bree
- Bree's discovered that Rex was killed by George! She ends up letting George pull his suicide stunt and he dies. Bree loves her alcohol a little too much and ends up volunteering to attend AA meetings to be a good and upstanding citizen and foil Andrew's emancipation plans. She has something going on with her AA sponsor Peter who, as it turns out, is also a sex addict who wants to keep away from her advances. It is the last straw for Bree when Andrew finally breaks her when she walks in on a compromising scene and learns that her son and her boyfriend slept together. She drives to a remote place and abandons Andrew there with some money because she just couldn't take it anymore and Andrew has his emancipation. Heartbreaking though because for a second there, you really get the feeling he's little boy Andrew again and he's sorry as he begs her not to leave him.

But she does.

She checks herself into a psych institute for observation because she feels she's going to have a nervous breakdown. That's where she meets Orson Hodge, Susan's dentist friend. He shushes about her escape (Matthew Applewhite was the baddie and he's with Danielle!) as the psych place are determined not to let her check out. And last we see, Orson stops by Bree's house to give her flowers. Uh-oh...
S3 Spoilers: Previously-married Orson asks her to marry him. Bree is totally into the fact that Orson knows more about getting rid of stains then she does lol! She asks him at their wedding whether Orson killed his wife (?!) and they have their angry-Orson tense wedding dance. Can't wait to watch the wedding. Should be fun!=D (I even saw Carlos there hmm)

Lynette
- Lynette back at work! Tom is the stay-at-home parent. It was a semi-heartbreaking moment yet again when I was watching and thought Tom was cheating on his wife too! (Though I always had that suspicion that he was with his ex from the office. It was more than suspicious, that "I have a secret" dialogue with his dad, after all...) She discovers that Tom's been making trips to Atlantic City! Finally, it turns out that his dark secret is Nora, a strong and sort of unstable woman who he had a one-night stand with and fathered a child with! So now Nora is going to bug Lynette to no end because Nora has moved mere minutes away and insists on her and her daughter, Kayla, being part of the family!
S3 spoilers: Lynette is stuck with having Nora as a thorn in her side. A very big, very annoying thorn. She's stuck with having this unwanted forced extended family. i wonder if her marriage with Tom might be threatened. I wonder if Lynette might feel threatened by Nora? I wonder if there might be issues where Lynette ends up feeling like Nora's a second wife!

Something in common with an owl?!

For all intents and purposes, I have to say I'm a night person. I love sleeping in and don't enjoy waking up at 6 in the morning to get ready for school. In fact, in my world, the sun rises close to noon. (I must operate by a different time zone...) I get that afternoon lull otherwise referred to in recent commercials as three-thirty-itis. I need that sugar fix to keep alert and even then, I just...can't. seem. to. concentrate. By evening, however, I feel myself 'waking up', being more alert and productive. It's not that I don't get productive during the day but more like I reach my peak in the evening. And then I can go all hours of the night. Say there was a need for last-minute studying for the next day's big final, I'm one of those who'd pull an all-nighter rather than wake up early to do the job. All things considered, that's why I love the weekend. Weekends allow me to exercise this routine at my leisure. Catching up on my paused-for-the-week recreation, it's no surprise I end up slumbering past the time I should really be.

It's no problem during the weekends because I get to make up for it by waking up whenever the next day, but like last night, it's a nightmare trying to get to sleep. I toss. I turn. it's like I'm searching for that elusive comfortable position that will magically make my eyes go heavy and be my ticket to dreamland. I will myself to breathe slowly, breathe deeper. Fool my body into approaching deep sleep. But my mind is furiously working all the while and therein lies the problem. Even if I was physically worn out, if my mind isn't tired then it's half the battle lost. So I tell myself, "Stop thinking. Think of nothing." But this doesn't really help considering that I am officially still thinking. I wonder if I will ever get to sleep. I yawn. Excitedly, I prepare to slip into sweet sleep...but I don't. At some point I end up asleep as proven by my jolting awake to the alarm's incessant ringing in my ears. (Already??) But I have to wonder if I was ever really asleep or caught in that state between waking and dreaming the whole time...

This morning, a post-mortem/autopsy was part of my early morning plans. Sounds like a gruesome way to start a day but you have to attend what you have to attend I suppose. It was the 4 of us students. 1 scrubbed in to assist/have close contact with the action while the 3 of us sat in the viewing gallery of sorts, which is basically sitting behind a pane of glass. I was a little apprehensive about the experience but told myself it probably won't be too bad. It was just that...the idea of more real-looking dead bodies with most having questionable deaths...and the high probability that the face would be exposed...I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Our lady was a suicide case. I won't go into the gory details so much as skim through the proceedings. Basically, the body is laid out, nothing is covered. What needs to be done is to make 2 cuts across and down the middle of the thorax and then remove the ribcage and subsequently, all the organs en masse. Then you remove the brain.

The need for a post-mortem is to figure out the cause of death when you aren't quite sure how they died. So this is either stuff like homicide or suicide, or funny deaths in the hospital query cause. Then the duty pathologist will form a hypothesis and section the organs to figure out the pathology. So my experience? Well, sitting through it wasn't too bad. What got me was the smell. It was bad but tolerable and worse once you get to the bowels. But I'll spare you my thoughts. I breathed through my mouth the whole hour and a half and I kept yawning so I guess excess carbon dioxide does contribute to yawns lol. It was a really strange sensation, watching the post-mortem being done. I mean, in surgery, only the part you cut up is exposed and the cuts are little neat ones made with a scalpel. Here, the post-mortem knife just goes *gssshhh* through and the guys just snap through the ribs and skull like nobody's business. Even dissecting a cadaver, which I suppose is as close as you can get, is just not the same since a cadaver is fixed and this was just...bloody. And watching everything opened up, it's like the organs are wearing her as a costume. Weird. They do stitch the bodies back up afterwards though which is good, funeral purposes or otherwise.

It's a shame that in the end her emotional pain led her to ending her life (and it's always worse for those left behind) because her organs were textbook pristine really. She wouldn't have had any problems for a while. Clean arteries, smooth liver, no signs of smoking in the lungs. A whole new meaning to beautiful on the inside;)

Are you listening?

You know you've been trawling the Net way too long (which isn't necessarily a bad thing IMHO XD) when you've done your usual rounds of your usual hit-list 3 times in a row. Minimum figure.

Anyway, I was lurking on Global Voices and got myself a pretty badge (click on said pretty badge on the sidebar to your right to check their site out!) To quote, "Global Voices Online is a non-profit global citizens’ media project, sponsored by and launched from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School." A bunch of bloggers worldwide blog about their respective regions, some doing the rounds of their local blogs to come up with their most interesting posts (their "daily roundups") and a whole bunch of others contribute posts; all this culminating in the Global Voices Online! Pretty neat eh. Have a read!=D

A post from Turkey alerted me to the fact that Ramadhan is referred to as Ramazan there. Granted, there are probably a gazillion different inflects and variations across the globe but it's nice to stumble upon a reminder of that fact once in a while ^_^ So it's that time of the year again... Ramadhan has already started today for those practising back home and due for us in NZ tomorrow at the start of the new week. Since the Islamic calendar is based on the lunar cycles, the dates and months don't correlate with the arbitrary annum of January to December that the world centres around. As such, the months annually creep up in relation to the standard year and such is the cycle.

The previous 3 Ramadhans we've had in NZ has been quite the gruelling test. Occurring so late in the year, it was close to summer here as opposed to what Ramadhan would be like in the UK. Our Subuh would be at around 4ish and Iftar as late as quarter to 9. This year promises to take less of a toll on my body (currently similar to Brunei but will probably lengthen as the year progresses) which is much welcomed considering that of late, it's more sensitive to low fuel levels and the consequences manifest more as the more horrifying faint spells and incredible headaches, rather than plain old cumbersome borborygmi, albeit of gastronomic audible proportions.

~Ramadhan mubarak, to all those practising!~

Another year of abstinence from yummy local sungkai food and family iftars... I can, however, look forward to the very-real-I-can-almost-taste-it possibility of not missing Raya/Eid what with our academic year due to pave way for an early summer vacation in oh, about 4 weeks;) My feet are certainly itching to catch that plane...

(One of my brothers turned 18 today. May he always be blessed ^_^)

Food-spotting v. 2

On Ouran 24, during one of Tamaki and Kyouya's little regional ventures, it seems that Tamaki wanted to eat Okinawan soba, and later compare it to Shinshu soba. It not only whetted my appetite (I haven't eaten!) but also my desire to know the difference myself.

To start with, soba is a thin Japanese buckwheat noodle (the word soba itself actually means buckwheat!) which can be eaten either hot as soba in broth ("kake soba") or cold ("zaru soba"). Being made out of buckwheat is apparently unusual and quite a feat since noodles made out of buckwheat tend to fall apart easily. Soba is commonly eaten with chopsticks and it is traditionally considered polite to slurp the noodles noisily. I think this has to do with the diner's appreciation for his/her food as a mark of respect to those who served it to him/her. Slurping hot noodles also helps to cool them down. Soba is apparently the noodle of choice when it comes to Tokyo residents! Apparently, this originates from the Edo era where consuming primarily white rice, which had low levels of thiamine, led to beri beri. So came thiamine-rich soba!=D Ingenious ;) Occasionally, soba is used to refer to noodles in general. In Japan, ramen is sometimes called chuka soba or shina soba (meaning Chinese noodles) and doesn't contain buckwheat. Stir-fried chuka soba is famously called yakisoba.

Okinawan soba is what soba is referred to in Okinawa, and is a misnomer as these noodles are made out of flour rather than buckwheat, and more similar to udon. The broth is derived from pork bones and bonito shavings. Toppings include leek, sliced pork, boiled fish paste, short ribs and vegetables. I read on a site that soba is to Okinawa what hot dogs are to Americans, and I suppose this demonstrates the ubiquitious-ness that is soba in Okinawa. It is apparently quite popular across the globe in Campo Grande, Brazil as well! This is due to the influx of Okinawan immigrants and soba is sold at street markets or served at "sobarias", special soba restaurants.

The most famous soba noodles come from Nagano in Japan and these are named by either location or ingredients. Shinshu soba is named after the southern region of Nagano. These noodles are made out of buckwheat.

I guess the different constituents and the fact that 'soba' is famous in both regions is why Tamaki wanted to compare the two!

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On another note, I was reading brudirect the other day and I noticed that the government had launched 'Operation Knock Rice' to ensure the hygiene in preparation of 'Knock Rice' or 'Nasi Katok'. Lol somehow I feel that Knock Rice is too literal a translation. Then again, what else could they call it right? 'Knock for rice' which is more suitable since 'Nasi Katok' was derived by customers knocking on the vendor's door anytime throughout the 24 hours in a day for the dish? Somehow, it doesn't sound so good rolling off the tongue... 'Knock-knock rice'?? Catchier but less reflective of the meaning. Looks like "Nasi Katok" is still the reigning label in my book!;)

(in the pic: rice usually made with coconut milk, half a hardboiled egg, chicken, sambal, roasted (?) peanuts, dried fish on top of the rice, cucumbers on the side. All on a pandan leaf. The best, IMO, has minimal onions lol but that's just my preference. Note teh tarik as the drink of choice here.)

Ouran Koukou Host Club Episode 24

This episode has a kotatsu theme (more on that later) and most of the episode is about how Tamaki and Kyouya met and became friends. It was all spurred by Haruhi's enquiry as to why such a cool guy like Kyouya would be involved in co-founding such a bizarre thing as the Host Club? 2 years ago, Tamaki moved to the school, just in from France. It's sort of a trial period with his family to see whether he would be fit to be the Suou successor. This was a desperate last measure seeing as his father had no other biological sons and took custody of Tamaki, the son of his mistress. 3rd son Kyouya of the Ootori family was more or less ordered by his intimidating cold father to befriend possible Suou successor Tamaki.

And they met. Tamaki is boisterous, lively and so outrageously charming that it's such a huge contrast next to Kyouya's cool and broody exterior. Tamaki declared Kyouya his friend and with his out-there ways manages to reel in Kyouya's company. He hankers on about wanting to be in a kotatsu even though it was late spring/early fall I think it was. When he finds out Kyouya doesn't have one, he makes a rather blunt but astute remark that Kyouya must not have a good family relationship. This rings more true than he can imagine.

Inadvertently, through all Tamaki's flamboyant exploits and Kyouya dragged into the mix, Kyouya is seen by his sister to be more 'happy'. Having felt forever trapped in his position as the 3rd Ootori son, unable to reach beyond his 2 older brothers, yet still under pressure to polish the Ootori name, Kyouya snaps at Tamaki's carefree attitude. He is angered that Tamaki, despite being "an idiot", as he puts it, is able to see right through his dissatisfaction. In the end, we realize that Tamaki has made an impact and carved a niche for himself in Kyouya's life as a friend.

Towards the end, it is *wintertime* at the Ootori house and Tamaki gets his sought after wish of sitting in a kotatsu! With mandarin oranges and everything! Kyouya sits with him while listening to Tamaki's enthusiastic plans about forming a Host Club, and I guess the underlying symbolism is that they have a great friendship going on=)

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Kotatsu

I'd seen people sitting in a kotatsu in various anime and doramas and generally just thought "wow, they sure look cozy!" And the people sitting close to each other looked like they were happy and comfortable together too. Soo...I wiki-ed kotatsu (what else?;D) to see what they said about them.

A kotatsu is a low, open wooden frame which is covered by a blanket with a tabletop over the blanket. A person then sits underneath the blanket or with most of their body when napping anf this keeps them warm in the cold climates, especially in underheated rooms! Often, there is a built-in heat source underneath the table. Today, there are 2 types of kotatsu in use.

1. One with a frame (yagura) set on top of a thin mattress and an electrical heat source. The table-top and frame go over the mattress.

2. A more traditional style with a pit about 40cm deep cut into the floor. A heater is placed in the pit's floor, wall or table-frame.

The kotatsu was originally designed for people wearing Japanese robes and the theory is that the heat would travel from under the hem of the robe up and out through the opening at the neck, thus heating the entire body=) Families huddle around the kotatsu to enjoy food and spend time together during the winter months. You could imagine that pets, and in particular, cats (notorious for claiming the warmest spot around!) would just looove this arrangement;) In fact, there is even an animation character called Kotatsuneko (Kotatsu cat)!

Kotatsuneko is a really huge ghost of a cat that froze to death a long time ago after being kicked out by his abusive owners one cold winter. This ghost decided to haunt those who rejected him shelter. Kotatsuneko is attracted to warmth since he died under freezing circumstances and in particular, had an attachment to kotatsus since his owners never let him near one. He basically just sits with his paws under the table and drinks tea and snacks on fish shaped pancakes ("taiyaki"). He doesn't bother anyone, unless they bother him first and being a ghost, he has incredible supernatural powers to his advantage! Just goes to show how kotatsu is so embedded in Japanese culture!

Lastly, as Tamaki says kotatsu brings to mind mandarin oranges or tangerines ("mikan"), which I think is the popular winter fruit in Japan. Also, to complete the experience, is a serving of hot green tea, which I suppose is to warm you up even more! It's too bad it's unfeasible to have a kotatsu in my tiny room at the moment lol, and it's similarly unfeasible to have it back home where the only seasons to speak of are hot and humid or hot and rainy. Ahh well, all the same winter = kotatsu month! And maybe I'll get to spend some time in Japan during winter one day eh?;)