.::musings of a willful girl::.

Yikes. It's been two months since my last update. How y'all been doing? Work's been kinda hectic for me. I don't even pop by LJ / DW much lately. So I humbly apologize for not very up-to-date with all of you *hugs*

Although that might change once I get over these two weeks. I'm currently taking a two-week intensive course on radiation protection at Nuklear Malaysia. So after the class is done, I'll get myself registered for the exam and hopefully (fingers crossed), I'll be able to obtain the certification to become a Radiation Protection Officer (RPO). I have a mixture of in awe + happy + freaking out that I'm taking such a qualification. I think it's a good career move, though. Especially since it's a professional qualification, and I think Malaysia is well on her way to have more nuclear based applications in the future, especially in medicine.

So anyway, here are all the other updates:

• Kalafina's third album. I HAS IT. Haha... yeah, I think I recall posting that I'd be pre-ordering this CD. And that I certainly did. It just arrived today, so I'm still in the process of listening to the songs. Unfortunately, I'm still in training period (every day 8.30am - 5pm) so I don't have time to scan all the lovely pics from the booklet. If say.... by this weekend (?) or next week, I find nobody sharing the album over at jpop_uploads, I'll rip mine and post it there. I plan to scan the booklet anyway for my own keeping, so if I upload it, it will most definitely include the booklet scans.

• Oh yeah, I got the First Press Bonus, so I got this mousepad. It's pretty, but it's kinda small  ><

• Decided one day to randomly watch an episode of Natsume Yuujinchou San. And got hooked instantly XD And began a Natsume Yuujinchou marathon of the first 2 seasons. And bought Natsume Yuujinchou manga Vol 8 at Kinokuniya (haha... yes, I'm extreme). I have a penchant for this type of slice of life anime... even if it does involve youkai :P

• Talking about extremes... I got hooked reading this manga called Black Bird. Finished reading whatever is scanlated, and I got hooked, bewitched, enchanted, mesmerized, and all the other similar meaning words you care to list from a thesaurus ----- to go download all the raw scans I could find of this manga. Found out I could only get until Vol 12 of the Japanese scans, so I went and bought Vol 13 and 14 (the latest) from Kinokuniya so that I can read the story. And yes, it's in Japanese. The Viz releases are only up to Vol 10. I can't wait so long for the official English version, so I bought the Japanese ones. I'm amazed at myself sometimes ><

• Went to KLCC a few weeks ago, and managed to spend up to a few hundred ringgit on just books --- at Kinokuniya and Bookfest Malaysia (they were holding it at the Convention Centre there). Cheap books on sale. I just went @_@  oooh, what to choose, what to choose? And bought like, a bunch of stuff + manga. No idea when I'll finish this bunch XD

Uh, so sorry. Felt like in my absence of posts, I'm making it up with these incoherent updates. Anyway, I'll try to catch up with what everyone's up to :)

Can I pretend I'd be able to catch Hakuouki Hekketsuroku Ep 11 when I get back from work today?

Yeah, I'm totally in denial. I can't believe it ended like that :(

More updates when I feel like writing long essays.

I have discovered the awesomeness of the bishie laden Hakuouki!

And I found some really cute chibi icons from the hakuoki LJ comm! I can't help myself. They're just so cute. No prizes for guessing which is my favourite character, but to be honest, I like all of them :3

If only I could play the game too. But I don't think they have any English version, not officially anyway. I know there are ISO files of the Japanese version available, I'm not sure if I really want to play it. Even though (personally) I think my Japanese understanding is getting slightly better, I still terribly suck at translations. Don't even get me talking about the grammar. I am hopelessly adrift with that.

The anime cannot fully explain all the things revealed in the game within such a strict episode limit. So when I read reviews of the anime, I can understand why people think some parts are just... not explained fully, like "where did this development suddenly come from?" type of expression. I know from browsing the comm that there were parts that were originally in the game that were not shown in the anime.

It's just like how some people bash Kara no Kyoukai because they can't seem to understand the concept and just simply flame people who like them. As is the case with light novel/manga/game to anime adaptation, the word adaptation itself shows that the original work was altered or adjusted to fit the new form of media (the anime, or whatever it's been adapted to). And it usually is not possible to completely express what the story was intended for. Which is why I really, really, really want to read the KnK light novels so badly. Damn you, Del Ray, I want my novels now!

Sorry, got a bit out of hand there.
Guess I'll just satisfy myself with the Drama CDs. And the second season :)


On another note, today is Sunday--------------- last day of relaxing at home (and going shopping later while the Deepavali sale is still around), before I start another week of my busy working life.

I barely even log in to Dreamwidth anymore nowadays. Terrible, I know. Haven't been on LJ much either.

Less than a week left and September will come to a close, and I find myself with a growing list of to-do things, with a sinking feeling that it's going to take a hell of a long time to complete >.<

And come October, I will also start freaking out about my upcoming piano exam. Wonderful, self. When are you going to start practising more regularly instead of just the weekends? I even paid for the exam fees myself (about RM300+), since I've already started working and thought if I paid for it with my own hard earned money, I might be more motivated to actually work towards practising the exam pieces more.

Tough luck. Barely touched my piano during the weekdays. I don't have willpower for this kind of stuff.


On the fandom front, finally watched the end of UraBoku, K-On!!, and Kuroshitsuji S2. Was very happy with UraBoku and K-On!!'s endings, although I am secretly wishing UraBoku will have another season. I need more Reiga/Kanata, please :3

Kuro 2's ending surprised me. And for a while it gave me a WTF?! feeling. Will there be some kind of OVA airing anytime soon? Of course, I don't think it will warrant another season, given how things ended. But still... it left me feeling unsatisfied.

Thank goodness the manga seems to have been done with the Sebastian Holmes arc (lol :P). Hope we'll get a much more interesting arc after this. Not that it wasn't interesting, just that it doesn't seem to pique my interest all that much.


On work, my contract should end this September, but I've extended it to another 3 months. A colleague will be undergoing surgery on her spine soon (she has a slight scoliosis, making her spine curve like a C shape, although you can't really tell under clothes), so I'll be helping them out, since she'll have to go for rehabilitation after the surgery, and won't be coming in to work until January 2011.

Even though I'm happy I won't be jobless anytime soon, I'm kinda sad cause I probably won't see her much until my contract ends. Still haven't done any serious job hunting, and it's one of the things in my untouched to-do list right now. Really, I'm pretty hopeless at keeping deadlines >.<

Oh dear... I just finished a watercolor painting to be submitted during my Fine Arts class tomorrow. Have I mentioned how much I suck at drawing? Apparently I suck at this too. It turned out kinda fine before I started adding spectacles to the portrait, and then it was totally ruined, cause I'm not good with the detailed parts. Oh well...


Last Saturday I hung out with a few friends at Mutiara Damansara where we had dinner together. It's been a while since we could all meet together, since some of them had already started working. Ended up at the nearby Cineleisure to watch The Ugly Truth, which is hilarious, but not what I had imagined before I watched it.

( The Ugly Truth spoilers... and my opinions  )



By the way, CLAMP fans, have you heard? Apparently there is big news about xxxHoLic.


( Seriously, SPOILERS if you are not up to date with xxxHoLic )


Ooohhh!! I almost forgot to put this in. I only just found out that Chapter 1 of The Gathering Storm (the upcoming Book 12 of the Wheel of Time series) was posted at TOR's website HERE. Unfortunately, you have to register in order to read it, but it's free. I've registered, but I don't have the luxury of time to read it right now. I've read a bit of the early parts though, looks kinda good. Looking forward to the release this end of October   /hyper XD



Eh.. this entry went longer than I expected. But I guess it's good, since I want to focus on uni work right now. I've been procrastinating too much lately. We have a one week break next week, and immediately after that will be my mid-semester tests. So I'd better focus and start studying ._.