Anime craze - part 1

My anime addiction started in year 2005 after moving in to our own home. Prior to that whenever my hubby watches his favourite anime - either Bleach or Naruto, I'll be surfing the web, playing pinball on his computer or just lazing around at his parents home. The first Japanese anime series that I am exposed to is Naruto - it was still the season of fillers before the current Naruto Shippuuden. Prior to that, I do watch animes by Hayao Miyazaki such as Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away etc. Since that day, the day I sat down and for once completed the whole episode, I am a certified anime fan from then onwards.

My favourite anime by far is still Naruto - I'm intrigued by the life of a shinobi. Naruto the main character is a special person - anyone who comes into contact with him becomes his friend no matter how brief the contact/manner of contact. It may be his grit and determination to help someone and see things through. Naruto was born in Konoha village during the time of turmoil i.e. when the kyuubi attacked Konoha. The Hokage at the point of time was Yondaime (i.e. Yon means number 4 in japanese thus Yondaime means the fourth hokage). Yondaime managed to defeat the kyuubi (a monster with 9 tails - the more the number of tails the more powerful it is) and sealed the kyuubi in a baby - more specifically baby Naruto. Yondaime died soon after that and the previous hokage i.e. came out of retirement and resumed the Hokage position. Sandaime (Sarutobi) gave a directive that no one is to mention that Naruto has the kyuubi sealed in him. Albeit the directive, parents of other children shunned Naruto and their children without knowing the reason followed. It was a trying and lonely time for Naruto growing up alone - he is an orphan, in the process of growing up suffered being shunned by society. Slowly through his hardwork and determination, he wins them over one by one. One important point on Naruto, the boy's ambition is to become a Hokage when he grows up and he trains very hard to get stronger (also to save his best friend Sasuke from evil Sannin, Orochimaru).

When Naruto enters the Shinobi school, he is placed in the same team as Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke. Their sensei is the Copy ninja of Konoha, Hatake Kakashi. Kakashi by far is my favourite anime character of all - he is described as a genious, a ninja of a thousand jutsus. He spots an ever present face mask that covers the lower half of his face thus remains a mystery of how he actually looks like without the mask (use your imagination).

Other than watching the anime, I am also an avid fanfiction reader of kakashi & sakura (picture on the left) pairing ;-)

The other animes that I am watching now with hubby would be Bleach - the main character being Kurosaki Ichigo. The ones that we have completed would be Full Metal Alchemist and Mushishi. Hubby watched the Samurai Champloo alone because it was too gory for my taste. Lastly, there is one anime that I am waiting to purchase once it is available in KL - Makoto Shinkai's Byousoku 5 cm. I saw the preview and it being an anime with a romantic theme, it should be worth the wait, at least for me. Click here for the link to preview ;-)

Try it out on your own photos

Came across this cute option, go on & try it out ;-) (click here)

Turn your photo into a jigsaw puzzle


As a display at galleries to be admired





My favourite yet - distort photos & turning them into wonderful artistic spheres



Distortion of buildings - Sydney opera house, lighhouse in Victoria & Sydney downtown buildings




Distortion of nature - tree, sunrise and polar bears

An embarrassing moment

Yesterday the most embarrassing thing happened - I was attending a health talk (in the office premises) and I blacked out, fell off the chair and bumped my head on the wall. I left the talk and my colleague had to assist me since I’m wobbly on my feet. As I neared my office, nearly blacked out again - a gentleman came to help as well, but I don’t know who (since I was not attuned to my surroundings then). *Sigh* so embarrassing - although I am not a public figure, I do conduct training once in a while and attend meetings with staff from other departments. I do hope things will be soon forgotten (& very quickly too - I hope). Through this incident, found out that a lot of people do care for me :-) - a caring colleague from the next department came to me with ointments etc. I guess I gave them all a fright, I was told I looked frightfully pale even under all the foundation and blusher. The last I experienced the same was during the orientation week @ university years ago.

A bevy of movies

Feeling very excited this morning - just heard over the radio, premier of the Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix will be on 10th July. Even, if I am unable to obtain tickets - it'll only be matters of days/week(s) before I get to catch the movie :-) . Other movies that we have been looking forward to: Transformers, The Simpsons and Pixar's Ratatouille. Just checked the Cinema Online - Ratatouille will only be shown in August, we are betting on it to be a bone tickler (our funny bones).


In our to watch list:
end June/ early July - Transformers (click here for the link to watch the Transformers trailer)
mid-July - Harry Potter & the Order of Phoenix (click here for the link to watch the HP trailer)
end-July - The Simpsons (I love them - duh ... click here for the link to watch the Simpsons trailer)
August - Ratatouille (click here for the link to watch the Ratatouille trailer)

Our preference's quite diverse except I do not and will not and shall not watch scary movies. When everyone is raving on one particular movie - I borrowed from someone and watched it - fast forwarding all "scary" parts just to know the gist of the story :-p

Good ol' schooldays

How much is the doggy in the window? The one with the waggily tail … and so the song goes. Me and my pals - when we were in lower secondary, we’d be extremely happy/excited whenever the main events for assembly wraps up quickly and we get to sings songs such as the above (led by beloved Mrs Abraham). Amongst other songs that we used to sing will be a song about

spaghettis and meatballs, a song about a farmer in a dell (can’t remember exactly) but the tempo gets faster and faster as the song progresses – it was all great fun.

Now I recall, the song goes:
The farmer’s in the dell
The farmer’s in the dell
High ho O merry O the farmer’s in the dell

Yikes, that’s all that I can manage to jog from my memory (a good 14/15 years ago

;-P). Today’s entry is to capture this happy memory … before I forget even more as time goes by.

Hang on for ten minutes

Today is one of those days in which I will ask myself this question - whether I should be holding my tongue? Well, a lot of times depending on situations - not learning to hold your tongue in check may land you in hot soup. I am usually not argumentative but when situations calls for my assertive side to be more pronounced - I will do just that. We read the following from a book called "Drop The Pink Elephant" a gift from my brother one X'mas. Roughly one portion says, when you are in a situation where you are about to reply an e-mail in anger, hold on for a while (lets say 10 minutes) i.e. hang on and do not click on the send button to shoot the e-mail that you have been furiously typing away!!! . It is something that hubby and I try to apply in our e-mail writing/replies as well as prior to voicing out our thoughts because in the heat of the moment, actions taken by you may unwittingly land yourself in bigger problems than when you first receive e-mails/hear of remarks/statements that does little to complement you or far from the truth.

So, remember to practise take 10, have the facts ready/ recollect your wits prior to taking the next step and especially do not react when your emotions' in turmoil.

Coffee 1,2,3

A coffee connoisseur I am not but I do consume quite a fair bit of coffee everyday. Let's see, I start my day in the office with a cup of Aik Cheong black coffee. If I am having breakfast with colleagues, depending on the venue - if it is the cafeteria I will have my usual cup of "Nescafe see" or Nescafe with a little bit of sugar and evaporated milk - once in a while we will indulge in coffee and toast at O’Briens. Second cup of coffee will be consumed during lunch time (if I have my food at certain kopitiam near my office, I'll most likely be having white coffee). If I don't, I may have my second cup at about 4 or 5 p.m. (Aik Cheong again) when I need a little pick me up else it'll be Nescafe or O'Briens during evening 'yum cha' with colleagues after work. Last cup of coffee for the day will be a nice hot mug of Nescafe gold - introduced hubby to this and now he doesn't quite care for the normal Nescafe anymore.
On weekends, we may indulge in a nice cuppa coffee made with the coffee maker - since this is an indulgence, I'll prepare on weekends only accompanied by pancakes and half boiled eggs (hubby's favourite breakfast combination).

Today, we picked up a packet of Coffee Bean's Colombia Narino from KLCC after our shopping. Quite a fruitful day - our first stop was Corus Hotel for the Clarks warehouse sale - today is the last day, a lot of designs that we favour - our shoe sizes no longer available. We went on to KLCC next, and I am very pleased with myself. Why you may ask? Finally managed to convince hubby to buy a new pair of shoes - something comfy at 50% off. As for me, the first shirt I pulled out from the stack is just so adorable (Nike baby tee) - I just have to purchase it. My other stop was La Senza - they are having a promotion 3 pairs of brassiere for RM129. I like La Senza quite a fair bit coz it's comfy :-)

Now a brief write up on the newly purchased coffee, the Colombia Narino is cultivated in the state of Narino, the premier growing region of Colombia, this coffee is hand-picked by workers at privately owned family farms who take great pride in their production, preparation and grading of each coffee.
This particular one (pictured above) is described as having a full, creamy body with well-balanced flavour and full, rich aroma. The aroma is so inviting but as it is quite late now I shall resist the temptation and have my usual gold – Nescafe Gold; else I may be counting sheep while my hubby's in dreamland ;-P