Hakuouki

Hakuouki cast and their chibi versions.

Hey guys!!

I made a post about my life just now, but I'm back here because I need to rant. XD Well, this rant might be interesting to some people, but not necessarily all. If you like anime and you watch this particular series called Hakuouki (be it Shinsengumi Kitan ot Hekketsuroku or Sekkaroku... anything...) you might find this interesting (hopefully) and you may even share the same views as me. If you don't like anime or you just simply don't watch them, well, you should. You should watch it and come back to read my blog post. I probably mentioned this anime somewhere, but I came back to it after rewatching the series, and I have a lot to say.

Okay, so, I like the anime Hakuouki. Reason: It's historical fiction. That's right, baby. Historical. The plot is set in the Edo period, when Japan is still ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate. Basically, you don't need to know what the Shogunate is and what Edo is. The Tokugawa Shogunate is simply the people who are in charge of Japan and the Edo period is just the name for the period they are in control. "Edo" in itself, is the former name of modern day Japan. "Shinsengumi" is the name of the police force then. That's it. History class is over.

Plot: !!!(Spoilers)!!!

"Yukimura Chizuru heads to Kyoto to search for her father. While there, she witnesses a fight between Rasetsu and members of the Shinsengumi. The Shinsengumi take her into custody and, once learning she is the daughter of the doctor they are searching for, decide to keep her close at hand. Chizuru follows the Shinsengumi in their battles to help the Shogunate. "

What do I have to say about this anime?

Simple. I would say that I love this anime, because of the bishies and the plot.

The anime uses characters based on their historical counterparts, so you can be sure that the people shown in the anime actually used to exist. The anime tells us a story, about how the Shinsengumi was hated by the people and looked down upon, but they were slowly acknowledged due to their efforts.

The soundtrack is beautiful. The characters' designs and the creators skill in portraying Edo-period Japan is to be commended on. It makes you feel like you're actually in that era and as corrupted as it sounds like, it makes you feel like entering that era yourself. (You know, with the geishas and geikos and all.)

The plot was crafted well and it slowly builds the tension to the ending. Sure, there was the rise of the Shinsengumi, and there will be the fall for them. As the fall would be somewhat emotional, the creators decided to drag everything out slowly, as if softening the blow. I mean, if you didn't know any better, you might think that the creators had the impression making everyone die one by one was better for the audience because it didn't hurt as much. Seriously?! Every time someone was going to die, you kind of had a premonition and the whole time the creators were probably grinning sadistically on their chairs, knowing you were hopelessly wishing that it wasn't the case. Their deaths strike at you when you're the most emotional.

What happens after they actually die? You just sit there like "Was happenin'?" What? Is that the end? They're not gonna talk about him now that he's dead? Maybe I was just secretly hoping they would mention the ones who have died, one way or another. They could have just mentioned that they have died honorably or something. I just couldn't get over the fact that once the characters disappear, it makes me feel like they have been forgotten. Yes, maybe the anime did mention them for a while, but I felt that it did not give enough credit to the characters for what they did.

Anyone remember what happened after Souji died? Hijikata and Chizuru sobbed a little and just walked away. They walked away and that's it. Okay, you may be thinking, what's wrong with that? Souji's dead and there wasn't anything they could do but walk away. His freaking body was not even there anymore. HE TURNED INTO ASHES, DAMMIT! But you know what I think? I, too, think that there's no problem with Chizuru and Hijikata walking away. I think there's a problem if they didn't even show us Souji's last moments. Maybe it's to save us from tears, but hey, what about some feelings in there? Souji died protecting and though I'm sure he did it willingly, he had a grudge on Hijikata for letting Kondou die. Did they seriously just let Souji leave while having a grudge? You might disagree with me since Souji willingly died protecting Hijikata so he couldn't possibly still hold a grudge. If you haven't noticed, he was doing everything for Kondou. Did they (creators) seriously develop Souji up till that point, to just let him die with a grudge, with sorrow for Kondou's death, and with a blind conviction stemmed from Kondou's ideals? I think it would be more impactful if they showed Souji saying his last words (possibly about entrusting the future of the Shinsengumi to Hijikata) before he took his last breath. Dramatic, perhaps. But not redundant.

Also, they didn't show what exactly happened to Saitou, Nagakura and Sano. Yeah sure, we could wikipedia it, but you and I know that the anime didn't completely follow history. If they did, Souji would die because of Tuberculosis. What about Kazama and Hijikata? Did they both die? I don't know about Kazama (since he took a blow in this heart, I think?) but some people theorize that Hijikata didn't die because he didn't turn into ashes like he should if he died.

Well, I don't know. While I may be pissed at some points, (like Souji's death and the Hakuouki ending overall for not letting me know everything) I managed to see the charm of how they ended the anime. Without letting me know what happened in the end, I'm allowed to believe in what I want to believe. I can believe that Hijikata isn't dead even if he was supposed to be, because the anime didn't tell us anything. Happy endings don't always make the best endings. I will admit this: sometimes the sad and angsty ones make a greater impact because it wasn't what you expected. Since it's a period anime, most will expect a sad ending where everyone dies, but the attachment to the characters makes you believe that a happy ending might have been possible, so when the sadder-than-you-thought ending falls in place, it throws you off a bit.

The biggest charm point was how the tied everything up. Chizuru met the Shinsengumi in the start, and she "meets" the Shinsengumi at the end. The battle the Shinsengumi was fighting was a losing battle. What is sadder than fighting a losing battle by yourself? It looks as though Chizuru was alone in the end, looking up at the sky and remembering the people who stood and fought till the end, only to know that they indeed have met their end and are never coming back, and she is indeed alone (if Hijikata really dies... Well, let's just say that she's alone for that moment.) The people whom she had known for the years she spent away from home have left, some even leaving in front of her. It was a tear-jerking moment for me, even if I'm not Chizuru. I liked how the anime wasn't just skirting around the borders of reality. Loss is a part of reality and this anime showed just how it could possibly feel like. It provided a grim reminder of how life is fragile and can lose its flame any time. I like subjects that portray realistic human aspects such that I can relate to them.

I craved more from the anime, somewhat hoping to seek some comfort in knowing they (the characters) are out there somewhere, and they are not lost forever. Next comes the following season, which is the prequel to the actual anime. The fact that it shows all the characters happily spending time together, alive, just reminds me of the fact that they eventually died and the happy moments will never be back again. It's like the feeling you get after watching Titanic, haha. I guess I'm addicted to that kind of feeling. I wanted everything to go back. I wanted time to not move on. It was depressing for me, actually. I lay down on my bed and thought and thought about the characters. But I loved the anime. I really did.




Hey guys, I've been hiding this for a long while, but...




I really don't like Chizuru. If you didn't feel any hate from my thoughts about the anime, kudos to me. I've been trying to be impartial. But really, there is so much hate radiating from me towards Chizuru that I'm just typing rapidly now, so if I actually sound like I'm losing my mind and is a temperamental b**ch, you know the reason.

1) She is such a Mary-Sue. If you don't know what a Mary-Sue is, I am honoured to be the one to introduce one of the most annoying types of characters media can possibly produce. I'm sure Chizuru is honoured to be the number one representative of this distasteful and pathetic excuse of a well-developed character. A Mary-Sue is a type of character that follows the criteria of being a perfect human (in terms of morals) so closely that you'd think she's being manipulated like a robot. A Mary-Sue is always the stereotypical kind girl/boy (mostly girls) who is nice to everyone, even if the person is the enemy, because a Mary-Sue IS ALWAYS SO F**KING NICE AND IS ABLE TO EMPATHISE WITH ANYONE EVEN IF YOU ARE A PITIFUL BEING WITH A SAD AND DISTORTED PAST. They are known to have very strong morals and miraculously have the ability to convince everyone because of their ridiculously potent good girl/good boy vibes. Here's what I believe: they are secretly manipulating you, supposedly changing you into a better person since they're always right (but they put on a facade and say really sensible things and make you think that they are just speaking their minds. Then you believe that they are actually really sensible and you eventually believe what they say, do what they say BECAUSE THEY ARE SOOOO SENSIBLE!!) Because they are such extraordinary humans, everybody likes them. Everybody feels the need to protect them because they are so good and good means naive and naive people get hurt easily. Now, do you understand what a Mary-Sue is? She is absurdly nice to the people around her, even the eccentric ones whom you don't usually approach, i.e., San'nan. Sensible girl Chizuru decides to make an easy-to-eat meal for poor San'nan who injured his hand and when he accused her for treating him like an invalid who needs special attention, good girl Chizuru makes him look bad by saying her oh-so-sensible things because she's like a f**king saint. She knows well that the guys in the Shinsengumi would never abandon her even if hell freezes over (because they like her so much and she's so important) but being sensible and not wishing to be anyone's burden, Chizuru waltzes out in the battlefield to offer herself to the enemy. Oh no, Chizuru's not in the wrong because she's thinking about others. Oh my, the guys are even more determined to win the fight because they want to protect Chizuru. They all feel the need to protect Chizuru. Nobody sees that she is being reckless and a pain in the ass to protect when her stupid actions cause potential harm to her. And since the guys would never let harm go her way, they all stake their lives for hers to protect her. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought she was trying to gain validation of her worth by putting herself in danger and seeing who will bravely put her life before theirs. Tch...

2) She. Is. So. F**king. Weak. Seriously, if you have decided to come search for your father in an unknown land, there has to be a certain amount of danger you're gonna have to be prepared for. Maybe you didn't expect blood-thirsting creatures, but c'mon, Edo period has rouge samurai and some of them are brutal. If you're gonna be a damsel in distress every single freaking time you leave the headquarters, you should have gotten the hint that You. Are. Weak. and it should dawn on you that your trip to Kyoto would have been well-wasted if not for the guys. Train, dammit. You spend your hours bringing tea to people and doing chores. The Shinsengumi have managed themselves long enough before you came and they won't die due to lack of thirst if you used your time training instead of bringing tea. You have a f**king sword and I have only seen you unsheathe it 3 times. You say you know the basics of self-defense? Isn't the basic to defend yourself when someone is going to attack? If your idea of the basics of self-defense is to close your eyes and scream while someone is about to slash your throat, then I have nothing to say. Sure, she's young and is a girl and of course, guys feel this need to protect girls. She is no exception. But she's been in so many dangerous positions and near-death situations throughout the anime if not for the guys. If she was smart enough to decide to parade into the battlefield, she should have been smart enough to catch on that she should steer out of trouble and there won't be some hot guy being helping you slash your enemy. Oh wait... She wasn't smart to start with. I take back my words. She is simply too dumb.

3) She is whiny and cries about how useless she is. Sure, there are some things you can and you can't do, and though it is not the intent of the creator, I think the anime shows a great deal of things that Chizuru can't do. E.g. #1: She can't fight. (We have established this earlier. I shall save you from more horror and loss in faith in female leads.) E.g. #2: I'd like to think that she has a problem sorting out her priorities. Enemy has a gun and has fired it in your direction. My priority (as well and Genzaburou's): To escape death. Chizuru's priority: Whine about how the enemy is blocking their path and (possibly) hope a miracle happens that somehow distracts the enemy so they can pass. As you can tell, Chizuru has flaws and that's fine, because everybody has flaws. The thing is, she knows damn well that these are the factors that make her so damn useless yet she never learns and never does anything about it. Yet she whines and wishes there is something she can do, something she can help the Shinsengumi with. A little advice here, girl, correct your flaws and stop being for f**king annoying.


I have read many blog posts written by people who share my views. I have also tried being rational and reasonable by reading posts written by people who defend Chizuru. However, I still believe in my stand (as you can tell). But I will say this: I understand that Hakuouki started out as an otome game. It's targeted towards girls and the female character you're supposed to play as should be someone who is quite neutral in character. In other words, she has to have the potential of being liked by possibly every type of guy in the story, and what kind of character best fits the bill? Well, a Mary-Sue to be honest. The nice and sensible ones would lean towards their nice demeanour while the ones who are not as nice will always change for the better after being exposed to her good-girl vibes. Everyone's happy and there won't be any hint of discrepancies in any relationship the player decides to pursue. But like I said, a Mary-Sue is a pitiful excuse of a well-developed character, especially if it is supposed to serve as a game's female lead. What more is there to develop a Mary-Sue? They are like the epitome of niceness (though it means they are also the epitome of fake) and since they are so nice, they won't be affected by you. People are people for a reason and if it's to exist as an awfully nice and upright character like Chizuru, there would be no meaning to life. You'd be a fake because there has to be some point in your life that you make your decisions because of your interests, not because of your morals. But Chizuru? Someone needs to tell her that her good girl act grates on many people's nerves.

I have read a blog post by 9darkangel from 9darkangel.livejournal.com/13189.html and I agree wholeheartedly with her that Chizuru has been entrsuted with the responnsibility of being a character every girl (who plays the game) can indentify with and "I would sue the gaming company, really. That thing (Chizuru) is a freaking insult to every woman out there, I swear." And yeah, you go girl. I totally agree on your post and I too, will ship Chizuru with Itou because HIJIKATA IS TOO GOOD FOR HER! No offense to Itou too, because he's just a step above Chizuru in terms of how much I like them. Nobody deserves to be paired with someone lower than themselves.

Chizuru's True Pairing...

Itou and Chizuru. Don't they look lovely here?

Chizuru's emotional moment...

Chizuru is thankful to everyone for risking their lives for her.

*Thankful smile with teary eyes. 

Chizuru's noble act...

Amagiri: If you come with us, we will spare them.

Chizuru: I...

OH MY!! :O

Chizuru's thoughts: I will protect everyone!!!

She's so noble! *v*

Chizuru is afraid she might kill Saitou...

Hmmm... Can Chizuru protect herself?

Oh really?

Saitou speaks up...

Saitou's test

:O

Fight, huh?

"You don't need to hold back."

"Come and TRY to hit me wherever you like."

But what...?

Chizuru thinks she has the potential to kill Saitou.

Damn right.

Oh, our Chizuru is being serious here!

And this is what happens...

Ending result: Deer in headlights.

Whoo~ I'm tired now. I basically poured my hate in this post. It's not gonna be a healthy day for me...

Bye~,

Mirai

End of Year - Holidays and other activities!!

Heyyyy!!!

I've been feeling so lazy nowadays. I didn't even get into the mood to update my blog, well mainly because I felt like I have nothing significant enough to blog about. It's just normal life. Some people just have a wonderful social life while I'm just sitting here and being like, "Yay! I got an achievement in Tetris Battle!!" <Talking about Tetris Battle, I kinda hate it a lot now. Well, not just now, but since the time they had this major update that decreased everyone's energy down to 30. (Note: It requires 5 energy to play one game.) I used to have around 100+? I would play it all day and not get tired of it. Now what? We get to play only 6 games and THAT IS NOT ENOUGH! Seriously? After that, we may get free energy, that is when we watch boring advertisements (Singapore propaganda about keeping the earth clean and what shit.) Freaking 5 minutes about this Malay chick singing, which isn't all that bad, but it's not catchy at all! It's so repetitive and they have random raps and all. UGH! Anyway, I have steered off the topic once again, but then again, don't all of my posts usually do? ;)

Anyway, the school holidays have started a long time ago, I can't even remember when. All I remember was sitting under the sun in the amphitheatre and watching performances. Yep, that was the Y4 Graduation concert. It wasn't really spectacular as I wished it would be, but hey, it's something!! And then, I remember packing all my books into my bag (from my locker) and then I would discover that my locker is 70% filled with Chinese newspaper which I have payed for, but have not read a single one of them. Okay, maybe I read the dou hao but that's it. I wonder if the school could make buying the Chinese newspaper optional. That way, people like me who is just taking Higher Chinese to escape the hell it brings in JC, will not waste money and instead use the money for greater purposes. :)

Other than that, I don't remember much about the things I did just before the holidays ended. I just remembered that we had a NCC competition. (2, actually.) Holly and I participated in the Air competition which I am confident to say I am probably the person who sucked the most in the competition. It was so discomforting and annoying and so utterly painful to know that I am nowhere close to all the aeromodellers that our CCA has produced over the years. Oh, I'd rather not talk about it. I blog about things that I would want to remember in the future when I re-read this blog again. I'd bet my life I would never forget what happened on that day. j.j

The other competition was the Orienteering competition. We didn't win. End of Story. I blame it on myself. I couldn't run fast enough, couldn't run long enough, couldn't resist the urge to drink water and thus have stitches. I mugged for the theory part, but I think that was all. I never thought it would be so hard to run in our No.4 uniform. They always say, "Expect the unexpected." Clearly, I didn't do any of that. I could see that we have disappointed the seniors. They put in so much effort for us... All the trainings, all the exercises to get us used to navigating with a compass... Frankly speaking, the theory was the only aspect I was confident in, except for 1 question. :P I was hoping it would rain on that day so that the scores and the winners would be based on the theory test. Haha, Holly and Jomma, now you know what I was thinking deep inside. But then, luck had wore itself out. It did rain, but it stopped just in time for us to participate in the competition. Not only were the grounds wet and muddy, we were treading on marsh 90% of the time. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but whatevs. The running? It was horrible. UGH.

Air Competition

I did say I won't talk about it, but just for remembrance sake. (My mind has gone completely nuts. Maybe I'm secretly masochistic, causing the future me distinct pain when she reads this post in the future.) So the day started out ok, (if 'ok' is the word you use to describe a major case of nerves.) and my dad drove me to the HQ. <So that I don't have to deal with the judging stares of the people in public transport, who obviously had no idea that girls could join NCC. I met with my seniors and juniors and Holly. When everyone was present, we proceeded to check into HQ. However, it turns out we didn't prepare a nominal roll and the seniors were frantically calling our seniors and Teacher Officers for help. Our ma'ams came but in the end we still could not go in haha. I don't know what we did in the end, but it ended with the ma'am taking down our names and IC number and we were thus able to get in.

For Holly and I, our competition requirement was to fly a circuit and land in a spot that was marked out on the ground. Let's just say that we weren't adequately prepared and we screwed up terribly. It didn't help that we were the second (?) school to participate and that we entered late to have a decent amount of time calming our nerves? This may sound like an excuse, but I was really nervous. The Sir who was assessing us was this scary sir, haha. OMG did I just put a 'haha' there? Anyway, that sir wasn't scary as in looks or anything, but you just get this scary vibe from him. IDK how to elaborate further on that. =.="

Anyway, both Holly and I screwed up badly. But then again, even the seniors did badly. :P Can't blame us~~ We only started training 1 week before the competition, and I think we only had 2 trainings? And the 2 trainings ended quickly mainly because we crashed the plane really quickly. How did Holly and I screw up, you ask? We had 2 tries each and well, I think for the first try, Holly's plane got stuck in the tree and mine flew into some mysterious place, which was fortunately retrieved in the end. Holly's plane wasn't that lucky. It rained and we couldn't get the plane down from the tree in the end. For the second try, mine crashed into the Flying Fox Tower. j.j Holly, well, I'll leave it to her to say what happened. Later, when one of my seniors and our Teacher officer went to retrieve my plane, (well, technically it isn't mine. It belongs to the school.) we found the plane, but some things were missing. I can't remember what they were, but they were the things you'd find in the plane, together with all the batteries and stuff. It didn't appear as if they had broken off and fallen somewhere due to the force when I crashed the plane. (Still guilty about that.) It was obvious someone just took them... D: We didn't find out who they were, (I don't think we need to) but most importantly, we didn't get back everything that we lost. Sure, we got back out battery, but we were still missing something. Haizz..

That's it about the Air competition, I think? Basically, Holly and I crashed our planes and just sat there waiting for other schools to finish and occasionally watching other schools fly their plane. The ACS(I) people and the Catholic High people were crazy good. They were awesome at the Limbo. And here I am, crashing planes into things and making them disappear into god-knows-where with little to no effort. I might as well be a magician. =.= Life sucks. I try not to remember that our CCA is merging with NCC Land. But it comes back and I'm stuck between sucking it all up and going through with the plans that the school has had the final say in, or leaving the CCA while feelings of betrayal consumes me from within. Will I be an empty shell in the end? Maybe merging isn't that bad. Maybe there is a way where everyone can be happy, but like Jomma said, no one's happy about this. Not even the Landers. Stop it, Mirai, stop it. You're getting angsty.

"伤心的人不要听慢歌", so here I am, listening to songs bursting with passion and possibly making lyrics videos out of them and putting them to YouTube. :P

Holidays!!

On a lighter note, I emphasise that the holidays are already here and is going to end really soon if I don't gather all my energy and do what I want in the meantime. But then, I'm an unsociable slug who doesn't exercise and eats chocolate and stays in her bubble of happiness which actually is a "bubble of denial" in disguise.

I don't think anyone will be able to life me up,  just saying.

My life: I go on Facebook and stalk people by looking at their photos and cry over the fact that they go to parties and I go to literally none except to that one birthday party of this guy, (I think, or was it a girl?) whom I don't remember now, when I was 5. And may I politely add that my mom was with me? :) Oh and you know how the ALWAYS say that puberty will kick in and you can see "Puberty at its best"? People will grow up and their appealing features will enhance and their not-so-appealing features will fade away?? *cough cough* baby fat *cough cough* I see my friends look really pretty now even when they don't in the past and here I am looking through my past photos and gushing over how pretty I was. (Egoistic, I know, but note the 'WAS'. You may think of it as me trying to emphasise I look better when I was younger.) >:(

Me: Life's not fair. j.j
Life: I'm never fair, honey. Here, have some lemons. You may do anything you want with them, but you shall never make lemonade or anything because you've never learnt to do so, and because it's mainstream. Instead, you should just eat the lemons and let its acidity corrode you, cause you know? I can't give people lemons if they're just gonna destroy them and make sweet lemonade. Remember, honey, lemons are SOUR and they will NEVER be sweet!!! Suck it up and get used to it already!!
Me: Okai. j.j *cries even harder*

HEY, FREE LEMONS!

And that, my folks, is one of my biggest life lessons.

AFA

Movin' on~~ Okay, so I went to AFA 2013 in Singapore, which is Anime Festival Asia. This is one of the reasons why I love Singapore. It has a large anime fanbase (quite) and they allow AFA to be held here every year. <I'm hoping it will stay that way till the future. But since it's my first time going to AFA, (I know, I'm noob.) I didn't know which days were the optimal for merchandise hauling and therefore I was disappointed in the lack of merchandise left for me, haha. On the other hand, I'm still stuck in the Katekyo Hitman Reborn "era" and refused to acknowledge any other anime as the best. I wasn't prepared for the lack of KHR merch. I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT THE HIBIRD BAG< OMG!! I'm regretting it now. j.j I mean, c'mon, it had a picture of chibi Hibari, for christ's sake! How can anything be more cute than that? And the bag was designed to be able to be folded into a Hibird for easy carrying and storage. :3 But then, it was expensive and impractical, so I didn't buy it. I wish I had. Anyway, i bought a Konata badge and some nendriods, since I'm not willing to actually buy figurines. I mean, sure, figurines are realistic and all, but nendriods are cuter and cheaper. :P

Since my first AFA experience was not all that great (because of me, not the organisers.), I shall not entertain you with my lack of input for this experience, lest I give you the impression that AFA is not enjoyable. AFA IS enjoyable! The only impression you should be leaving this blog post with, is that it is not advisable to go to AFA on the last day (which I foolishly did). There are amazing cosplayers and I bet there are amazing merchandise there that I probably missed. Look through other people's blog posts about AFA (which are definitely more detailed and filled with pics) and learn how to handle disappointment when all the goods that you want are sold out. Be prepared and stay tuned to the anime popular around that time. You'll be expecting lots of anime from that season and lesser from the older seasons, or should I say from the past years. *sob... KHR... sob* Anyway, I was in a frenzy and was hungrily soaking in every sight I could during AFA, that my pictures were sucky. Maybe if you go to my facebook profile, you'll see the pictures. But really, my camera's not sucky, it's just me in a rush that the pictures turned out blurry. I shall not embarrass myself here. There are people who lug around DXLRs and take good quality pictures so go see them.

Chibi Hibari and Hibird! <3 ASDJHGNS

I'm guessing this is a long-enough post to make up for my laziness over the holidays. I'm ending it here. Oh wait. Another thing I've been doing during the holidays is playing horror games. I know I have talked about playing RPG Horror games before, but this time, it's different! I discovered this wonderful YouTuber who ported many RPG Horror games for mac. Like I said before, macs are not game-friendly, such that games are usually made for Windows and hardly ever for Mac. Even if there are Mac games out there, they are usually made for Windows first. :( But this guy, he managed to make Windows games accessible to people with Macs like me. Unfortunately, there are people who are not able to open the games, haha, e.g. Jomma. I guess I'm lucky. Well, check out this guy's YouTube channel: Jammed Gears. :) There are tons of games there: The Mirror Lied, Ib, The Witch's House, Mad Father, Hello? Hell... o?, Mermaid Swamp and many others which are not horror, like True Remembrance, To The Moon etc.

I guess that's it, folks!!

Signing off,
Mirai <3


Confession: I like to think that I'm a blogger, but I'm not. #sadtruth This blog is more like an informal recount/rant about my life experiences, which isn't all that awesome. Not much pics, so don't expect much at all, and of course, don't be surprised when I actually put in something.

First Update in Forever!!

WOW.

I can't believe I haven't updated in like a month? The EYAs have ended so long ago and we even got back our papers, but I guess I let the holiday mood sink in quite early this year. Haizz I'm too lazy to blog but I know that if I don't, I'll probably end up giving up.

Let's just start by saying EYAs was horrible. I only got like 2 4.0s? And one was Philosophy. =.= Wait, I got 3, if you count Japanese. UGHH This period is also known as the 'RA Selection' period. RA stands for Raffles' Academy, which equals to advanced subjects, like you can go for English RA and the things you'll be doing there is higher-level English, I guess? More like they are harder and you learn more things. Talk about mentally draining.

I didn't even get into 1 RA, okay? Okay, it was partly my fault as I was too ignorant to know the method to apply for RA. I WANTED TO APPLY FOR LIT! Cause I actually like Lit? Then I hear and see people like Penny (my friend, not her real name) and her friend Ally (not her real name) who are absolutely literary geniuses, and I am sitting in the loser lane. Life sucks. I want a Japanese RA. Last time I checked, my Japanese oral score was purrrfect~~ Maybe that is the only subject I actually have a chance to do well in? That was the sad part. I completely flushed down whatever chances I have of getting into a RA into the toilet bowl. But you know what's even sadder? I had absolutely no teacher's recommendation whatsoever to sit for any RA selection test! This is humiliating! I think half of my class got into a RA? And here I was sitting here today, going, "Hey! Who's not going for RA selection test? Nobody? Okay that's cool." NOT!

Ugh I should go die in a hole to cut the world some slack and not having to watch my pitiful sight. <It's after the exams and I don't know whether I phrased that sentence right? I feel so inferior in my English writing skills. Why is it that I can do well in class work but when it comes to tests, I flunk everything? It's horrible actually. My mind has this way to tell me you'll do horrible or fine in whatever test. That is, it decides to be a scumbag and assure me I'll do decently when I'm freaking out and telling me I'm screwed when I just don't feel nervous or anything. Maybe it's just because I don't give a shit about that test, hence the bad results, or I just know I'm screwed so I'm saving energy for more useful purposes.

Anyway, that's enough of the EYAs and RAs. Talking about it more is just gonna make me more and more upset. Anyway, today was kinda fun, really. Since it's after the EYAs, we are having Post EYA activities. This one is actually quite fun, okay? As compared to some other activities *cough* Netball Carnival *cough cough*. Hey don't be mistaken. Netball is a sport therefore I shall assume it is beneficial to health or whatever it is supposed to be beneficial to. However, I'm dyslexic when it comes to sports. Maybe not so much as in I can still run and jump and catch a ball and other basic motor skills, but other than that I am hopeless. If you ever find a person worse than me in sports, please throw a party for me. And just for your information, in my whole life, I have only been to 1 birthday party. Yes. 1. FML If you count weddings as parties, then 2.

Anyway, the activity was DramaNite. Like you know, Drama Night? All the Year 1 and 2 classes are expected to come up with a short skit (is that what it is called?). The Year 1s are supposed to base theirs on their English Literature book, Gathering Blue, which according to my classmate, has nothing to do with someone going on a quest to collect the colour blue, if that's what you're thinking. ._. It's about a blind girl whom the society thinks is useless after her parents died. Little did they know that she was very talented at sewing and embroidery. So they sent her to places to learn proper techniques and other fancy stuff and if I'm not wrong, the book just ends there. Like WTS? Either my classmate found the book too boring and decided to end it there (official or not) or Lois Lowry was doing a sucky job. I'm hoping it's just my friend. Lois Lowry's The Giver is an awesome book. Anyway, the Year 2s are supposed to perform an original ballad. Needless to say, our class did a wonderful job. But we weren't shortlisted, haha. I really thought it was a good effort. There was even a dance. :)

Today was basically sneaking around watching other classes auditioning after us. By right, I wasn't supposed to be there watching other classes, but who cares. I was ninja-ing around, counting the number of fucks I give. <-- which I didn't get very far. I was really shocked and excited when I heard the ballad class 207 was performing. Excited because I knew the song they used and the lyrics they sang. Shocked because it was supposed to be original. I can safely say that they were really performing a ballad, because the song had that heartbreaking sadness and was the work of a genius, MOTHY. Unfortunately, 207 kind of ruined the work. I'm not going to say that they were terrible in the singing, which isn't very far from the truth but, hey, at least they barely made it. BARELY. The piano arrangement was nice, but the singing faltered and never outshone the piano. Which is very bad. With exactly the same plot and the same music and the literally perfect lyrics, it's not wonder they got in. <-- That is what I though and i guess it will be the only thing I'll be thinking of when I see 207's performance during DramaNite. They completely ripped off from "Servant of Evil" from Kagamine Len, a Vocaloid. (which reminds me, I still haven't devoted a post for them. D:) The plot... the cast... Everything was a rip-off! Except for an added mirror, which was far from MOTHY'S ingenious ideas and standards. It made me angry that they actually qualified to perform for DramaNite. How original. Maybe I would be less angry if they had credited MOTHY and his works, but no.

Haizz. Everything went downhill for the day after that. Our CCA had a briefing with the school management. It sounded so serious and Holly and I were actually nervous about what they had to talk about. Turns out that Singapore was decreasing in brith rate and therefore there will be decreased admission into school nation-wide. Fine. Because there are less students, there will be lesser teachers to go around and therefore with 49 CCAs in our school, the declining staff cannot handle us. Thus, the school has to cut down on the number of CCAs in the school. And according to them, they took a lot of time and consideration to finally decide to merge us with NCC Land. Note: WE are the ones who have to follow THEM. Can you see why I am angry right now? No? Let me enlighten you.

I have been in this CCA for 2 years and counting. I came into RGS not knowing which CCA I want to get into, and frankly speaking, seeing as I have absolutely no talent in the musical aspect though I have a musical background, I decided, why not try something different? That is when I started exploring all the Uniform Groups in my school. I remember being in school with my father for the CCA open house where we can roam around finding more about different CCAs in school. Once again, nothing appealed more to me than the Uniformed Groups in my school. NCC Air was interesting, yes. There were many other Uniformed Groups I could have chosen from and frankly speaking, NCC Air was not my personal first choice. I was impressed and motivated by how Uniformed Group seniors had this charismatic feel to all of them and how passionate they were about the CCA. I still hold on to this belief that one Uniformed Group senior told me, "Uniformed Groups and meant to train people physically and mentally. It is ideal for basically anyone. It doesn't matter who you are or how you look like." So I thought, why not join this wonderful family? I remember going for NCC Air interviews and for the first time in my life, I was actually enthusiastic and I was eager to answer their questions. I was offered a spot in NCC Air. Remember I said that NCC Air was not my first choice? Well, I still chose it in the end, because my mom was more supportive of it than my personal first choice. When I entered as a Part A, I remember taking a long time to change into my PE uniform as I was too scared to come out quickly and face my Part A PSes. Needless to say, I was intimidated by them. From there, through their strict trainings, I grew with my platoonmates as a platoon and we learnt the importance of bonding and staying strong together. We learnt the importance of each other in our NCC Journey. Wanting the best, I made the effort to do my best in everything and I even tried to strengthen our bonds. While Part A was an enjoyable year, it was saddening to see people start to leave this year. We had a lot of people. A good number left and we were left with 5. As a small platoon, we had it the roughest, I must say. Tears, joy, sweat. We shared all those. We even saw each other in the buff. And now, this small platoon of 5 has met its biggest obstacle it has ever faced. Even though we are still together, merging together meant a lost identity. We all came into this CCA as rookies who knew very well we belonged in this wonderful family and home we call NCC Air. Although there were times we wished to never be associated with NCC, we grew to love it and its people. We are NCC Air. Not just any NCC! Telling us to go into another CCA like it is nothing is very much impossible for me as it is impossible for my platoonmates, I believe. From next year onwards, I will be known as a NCC Land cadet, not an Air cadet anymore. It took so much time to acknowledge being in a new big family. I don't care if NCC Land is older and more experienced than us. The fact that the school has placed us under their wing shows that WE are to become like THEM. We Air have to change and become the Land. While the Land? All they have to do is adapt to having us around. The least they can so for us Air, is to welcome us and treat us as equals. Look at us! We are being called Land next year! When we go to HQ, we will be Land, no longer AIR! We will never be able to cheer Airborne again, we will never hear the NCC Air sirs teasing us girls and telling us that the password for a certain computer is "airissexy". We will never hear from our Air commandant again. I will never see my Air friends again. Even worse, as Land (as much as it tastes and sounds bitter on my tongue, I shall say this horrible word), we are expected to be like them i.e. cheer and command like them, behave like them. I have had my own set of ideals and values from being in this CCA for 2 years. I have learnt to care for fellow cadets. I have learnt to bond and share whatever with each other. And now they are telling me to be like Land and dispose of my values. I can no longer talk to seniors as I please. I have to greet them even if I am not in uniform. This is utter misery. Land has nothing to lose here. Everything about Air is at stake here. I understand that as the school's management team, they have to do something. As difficult as they make it sound, I can't help but believe that there is a better way to resolve things. I probably sound like a whiny kid right now, but I have had too much to bear in these few years. I have the least luck in the world. I have missed so many opportunities in life and this thing I hold dear called the NCC Air family... is it going to vanish? Although we will still see each other, I can't help feeling reluctant to let go of our NCC Air identity and journey. Land ain't got shit on us. They had better not look down on us and instead think that it is their pleasure to have us with them, cause bitches, we own the world. We are such awesome people whom you don't know exist! We are a committed bunch who teach their cadets what it really means to bond!!

*gasp* I have finished my rant. I shall go off now.

Bye.
Mirai (no heart today)

I am going to hell for this...

Heyy,

I realised I am doomed. For my upcoming exams, for my life. I have tons of revision to do but scumbag brain decided I should draw after not touching the holy pencil for months... Why doomed for life then, you ask? Because I have utterly disgraced Suzumiya Haruhi-sama with my incompetence in drawing.

The beloved Haruhi-sama.

Andd...
My crapped up version. I don't even know what compelled me to post this. 

Ugh... The hair. The HAIR!!! I can't-never should draw again. Holy pencil MY ASS you stupid brain! Anyway, here's bye for now. :3

#hopingtopostsoon

<3,
Mirai

P.S. Go check out Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon's video on the absurdity of the overuse of hashtags.
#funny #wecaaaan'tstop~~ #cookiemonster #nomnomnomnomnom

Smile, peeps!

How life decided I should not enjoy my weekends...

Heyy,

#notevenbotheringtomakeagreatentrance
I don't even know why this is happening to me. Here I am, sitting in Coasta Sands Resort in Pasir Ris, trying not to drink water so as to minimise the number of times I have to go to the toilet. It is currently very noisy outside since there are repairing works being done. Is it me, or does this not sound like a chalet?

So this is what happened:
1) Yesterday, we checked into the chalet in Pasir Ris because my dad's company had free admission passes. We had to wait like 30 minutes before we could enter the chalet room, all because of something like "Sorry, sir, we haven't clean the room yet. We will call you when your room is ready." Okay, up till now, I still wasn't as angry and annoyed. I guess this is something we should expect from free passes. So finally, we were assigned a room in Block C. They told us the water pipe in Block C has burst and thus water supply is cut off. Like WTS? So okay, nevermind, we shall wait until they repair it. I mean, this is a chalet resort. You'd expect the repair works to start and end quickly, right? Wrong. We left the chalet at around 5pm (the water pipe was still not fixed) and we went for dinner at a restaurant to celebrate my brother's upcoming birthday. When we were back, it was around like 9pm? As we were walking back into our room, we saw traces of water on the ground and we thought, okay maybe we have water now! But you know what? No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

Fudging NO!

Never in my life have I felt so annoyed. Thank goodness I washed my hair in the morning, so that night, I didn't wash my hair. My parents had to go out and collect water in pails and I had to shower in cold water, you know, like take the scoop, scoop up water and pour it over yourself? That's what I did. My dad and brother went to the common toilet to shower while my mum and I showered in the room. That night, we decided to forget about the lack of water supply and sleep.

Here's number 2.
2) You know in a chalet, most people come here to barbecue for whatever occasion (e.g. birthday)? We happened to have this shitty room located in the most shittiest place ever. Beside our room was a bunch of people barbecuing and they were making a lot of noise. And they sang "Happy Birthday!" like what? 3 times? Bitch please, who do you think you are? You know what happened too? The people barbecuing almost got into a fight too. Like how is that possible? We heard bins being thrown, cooking tools etc. My parents opened the door for a while to peep outside and haha, the other people around the area did so too. :P Anyway, after that, it was okay when we watched TV and slept until...

Number 3:
3) I got awoken in the middle of the night by some people talking loudly. I pulled out my phone beside me and saw that the time was 3:42am. It was freaking 3am and they were talking loudly like they owned the place. From their voices, they were probably teens. Fu*king assholes. Sorry, I just needed to vent a little here. Anyway, it was a fleeting moment and I just went back to sleep. Then,

4) My dad started snoring. =.= Shit. I plugged in my earphones and listened to my favourite music until I fell asleep. After that everything was okay. I finally woke up in the morning at 9am. I searched for my phone and when I found it,

5) It was soaked. Like SOAKED! >:( Our chalet room has to single beds joined together (so it looks like a double bed) and there's this mattress that you can pull out from under the two beds. So my parents took the bed and my brother and I took the mattress. I happened to take the mattress near the aircon and the aircon was dripping water. =.= Since my phone was beside me and on the floor, the water dripped onto my phone. Luckily it was still alive. I really have nothing to say about this chalet. It used to be good. Or maybe our passes used to be good. We used to have our own barbecue pit, you know? We used to have water. We didn't need to go out and collect them like it was water rationing or something. Oh yes,

6) I was having my monthly thing. What did the lack of water supply do for me? Ans: make my life miserable.

7) I have exams tomorrow (Monday).

This is how wonderful my weekends were. However, my parents might be buying me a minion plushie from despicable me, like the cutest ones ever? Ahhh minions!! Anyway, I want to use the internet in the chalet (thank god the chalet had wifi) and browse the internet after blogging this. I saw on facebook about someone saying that The Giver (an award-winning young adult novel by Lois Lowry) is being adapted into a movie and they are getting quite the good-looking cast to act in it.

Like this guy, Brenton Thwaites:

As Jonas. Does he have pale eyes? o.0

Emma Tremblay as Lily (Jonas' sister)

Odeya Rush as Fiona (Jonas' Love interest)

Cameron Monaghan as Asher (Jonas' best friend)

Jeff Bridges as The Giver

and

Surprise! Taylor Swift as Rosemary (The Giver's daughter).

I searched for her older pictures as I like her old look more

Okay, so the cast is pretty good looking, but they are supposed to be 12/13 years old? I really don't know how they are going to pull this off. Anyways, I'm off to enjoy the remaining of my time in this wonderful chalet. 

TTFN,

Mirai <3

In the Cards

Tarot cards, anybody? Have you heard or seen these cards before? Not that I have. but I have heard that they can tell you your future, warn you about things with utmost accuracy. I don't know how many cards there are in a pack, but it's hard to believe that a minimal number of cards can tell your future so accurately, its almost impossible. Oh well, what am I thinking? This ain't anyway to start a post!!

Anyway, I've been so busy with schoolwork and exam preparation that I have almost no time to update this blog, is what I want to say, but it's not true, haha. Busy? My ass! Sigh, I guess I have to call myself a lazy ass however much I hate it. I'll probably never succeed in writing fanfiction. I mean, who wants an author who writes because she suddenly feels like it and then abandon the whole project just cause she didn't feel like continuing it any more? I really don't know what to do with my life. Well shit, I actually do, but since I'm so bloody lazy, I've put it off for like, what, almost a week? I'm sad to say my one week holidays are coming to an end, and sadly I really should have been studying. I mean, that's what I told myself, but look, it's not my fault, okay? Procrastination's being a bitch.

Sometimes I feel like the reason why I'm not studying is because I have so many other things I want to do, like watch anime, play games etc. But then again, why do I find myself constantly lying down on my bed, too lazy to even turn on my computer? It's like I'm stuck in between wanting to do something and not wanting to do it if I have to make an effort. Somebody, please just bestow upon me the holy powers of telekinesis. It'll make everything so damn effortless. Well, maybe not effortless cause you have to train your brain to be stronger so that you can lift things heavier than a feather. But hey, we can work on that later, right? Oh yeah... of course they can't do that! We certainly don't want increasing obesity is children, cause telekinesis is obviously encourage hardworking people to be lazy, and lazy asses like me to become even lazier.

Okay, here's what I will do with the remaining time I have on my hands:
1) Revise Math using Ace-learning (no matter how annoying the tutorial voice is)
2) Revise Science, probably? (IDEK how...)
3) Hmmm.... I dunno, slack? It's not like you can revise on Languages, right? I don't know what to do next... Geography? Maybe.

I realised that my not knowing what to do has put me constantly in search of random things to do. For example, I was reading a book for longer than I usually do. It was a rather entertaining book, and something that teenagers would read. It's called "In the Cards - Love". It's the first book in the "In the Cards" series. I got the book in a secondhand bookstore and it only costed S$2. It's about 3 girls - Anna, Eve and Sydney obtaining a pack of old tarot cards from a nice old lady after she died. Yeah. WARNING: EFFIN' LONG PARAGRAPHS AHEAD

So basically, Anna (the main character in this book) had a neighbour, Mrs Rosemont, who is an old lady with 3 cats - Mouli, Beesley and Tatania. Pfft, HAHA! Cat lady... The old lady is a very nice person who used to offer Anna butterscotch candy although Anna would hesitate to take it. And for that, she felt really guilty after Mrs Rosemont's death, as the nice old lady would feel really upset when she found out Anna didn't eat it. I mean, Anna had her reasons - the candy seemed a little old and sticky, but hey, Anna really felt bad. Cut the girl some slack! Anyway, Anna would also sit with the old lady sometimes and listen to her talk about her past, LOL. Until one day, Anna was faced with the news that Mrs Rosemont had died. Anna wasn't feeling miserable, but she just felt a little off, you know? Like when you know that someone you used to know was just gone like that, although she was still nearby yesterday. So, a few days later, someone knocked on her door and told her that old Mrs Rosemont had no family so she left her important things to close friends, and it turns out Anna is one of them.

Mrs Rosemont had left Anna one of her cats, Mouli, who is unfortunately the most psycho and bad-tempered cat of the three. Also, she left Anna a leather case with a pack of tarot cards in them, along with a guide as to how to read tarot cards. Anna was nervous so she called Eve and Sydney to her house so they can be nervous together. :3

Anna had a crush on a boy in school, and he was the hottest boy there, apparently. Their school is like the typical American middle-school with all the social hierarchy and stuff. So there are the uber-cools, the average people who just get by school life by trying not to get people to notice them, and the freaks. The freaks are probably the most miserable people on earth. I mean, they aren't even trying to get attention, people just notice them (not in a good way), and immediately, they are dubbed as the freaks by the uber-cools. I'd say Anna was one of the freaks or so it seemed in the book, or maybe she was just unpopular like the average people. I'm betting on the average people.

So she has a mega crush on this hot dude named Declan and apparently, Declan used to be a geek, one of the freaks, rather. How he managed to be one of the uber-cools and known as GreekGod in the school's gossip blog, is still a mystery. But Anna's really something. She thought the dude was pretty cute when he was still a geek, so imagine her delight when he came back after the summer holidays, transformed into the hottest guy on campus. Talk about liking things, or in this case, people before it was mainstream. Good going there, Anna! You'd probably expect the uber-cools to be the snotty rich and perfect-body types. Well, you're not wrong, but Declan's not like that. :) Well, he is pretty and has a perfect body... You get what I mean! So back to the cards, Anna decided to ask the cards about her love life with Declan. Well, the cards weren't really clear, but they said they would end up together. So... they did, though the journey was littered with struggles. But the fact still remains that they weren't meant to be...

Here's the thing: Anna's this kind-hearted girl with a strong sense of justice, and that's why she was so caught up when the school's biggest freak, Nelson, is being suspended from school all because he expressed anger towards the taunting uber-cools. Why? Well, they passed around a piece of paper, asking people to sign a petition on "The extermination of retards". Note: Nelson = Perfect example of Retard (according to the uber-cools and therefore according to the whole school.) Talk about bullying... The uber-cools called Nelson brain damaged all because he talks with pauses when nervous. :( And this point is where I realised that Declan is an asshole and not much of an uber-cool. Scratch that! He's an uber-coward. He refused to go with Anna to the principal's office to plead for the calling off of Nelson's suspension. And you know what the reason was? It's because the uber-cools who were teasing Nelson, were the exact same people who teased him when he was a geek. So, moral of the story: He was afraid to stand up to them. He could not when he was a geek, and he never will. Hell, if my boyfriend was like that, I'd break up with him!

Anyway, the cards were not wrong, as in, Anna and mega-hot GreekGod DID end up together, but it wasn't for the long run. That's why they weren't meant to be. The reason why they became boyfriend and girlfriend, was because Declan accidentally threw a crumpled note, during singing class, to Anna when he meant to throw it to another girl. If you're curious, the note was asking if the reader (which turned out to be Anna) would be turning up at this party that everyone's going to. Basically, if you're not following, he had a crush on the shy girl beside Anna, but Anna caught the note and looked up. Heh, the girl he had a crush on constantly shies away from attention and wears super baggy clothing, because she has the biggest boobs in school and she didn't relish in that. But Declan decided to go along, deciding not to crush Anna's heart by saying the note wasn't meant for her. But then again, he wouldn't know he would crush Anna's heart. He just decided to be like, Oh hey, I missed... and this other girl caught the note. But she's cool... I'll stay with her. Maybe I'll kiss her to see if she likes me. Duh, she does. Oh turns out she does. Heh, I kinda like her. She was one of the few people who were nice to me in the past... I guess we can become boyfriend and girlfriend. Ta-Dah!! Sigh... I think the eventual pairing was: Anna x Nelson, and, Declan x Bridget (the shy girl in singing class) Hey, that's pretty cool! Nelson isn't the best looking boy in the world, but he genuinely has a crush on Anna, HAHA. But I think Anna doesn't know, though Nelson pasted a rose on her locker and she kinda got a hint it was from him since she found a matching petal in his book. :3 Maybe Anna'll come to like him. ;D

Anyway, that's as far as I'll go in telling you about the book. I've told you quite enough already, haha. Another thing I'll fail in life, is writing a trailer for a blockbuster movie. I'll probably show everything there is to know about the movie and nobody will want to watch it after that, haha. Anyway, now for the fun part: quotes from the book! Another reason why I like the book so much is because it is the epitome of all comedy books I've read. This is what I'd truly call "humour in literature". Hmm, seeing as I'm in a good mood now, maybe I'll add in the prologue of this book.


Prologue:

Sometimes I think it's all Eve's fault.
    Then I think that's stupid. Just because Eve's crazy doesn't mean everything is her fault. But she was the one who said we should do it. The one who said it was lame to be scared and that we had to try it or we'd never know. 
    But I listened to her. So, really, it's my fault. 
    Other times I think Sydney's to blame. If she'd just been stronger, said, Guys, this is wrong, maybe I wouldn't have listened to Eve.
    Only Sydney did say it was wrong, and I listened to Eve anyway. So we're back to me. It's my fault. 
    I hate it when things are my fault. 
    I try really, really, hard not to let that happen. And when it does happen, I try to figure out what I did wrong, what I could have done differently. Where did I make my mistake?
    Except it's not that simple. A mistake doesn't always feel like a mistake when you're making it. 
    For example, you can say that none of this would have happened if I hadn't taken care of Mrs. Rosemont's cats. But I couldn't say no to her. She was an old lady, she didn't have anyone else. 
    Eve would say I never should have even talked to Mrs. Rosemont, that she was boring and a pain. Even Syd, who's an animal freak, didn't like visiting the cats because she thought Mrs. Rosemont was strange. But you can't say to someone, Get away, you're boring! You're strange!
    Well, not if you're a wimp like me.
    But it is true that if I had never talked to Mrs. Rosemont in the elevator, she wouldn't have asked me to feed her cats. 
    And if she had never asked me to feed her cats, we wouldn't have had that talk about the future. 
    And if we hadn't had that talk about the future, she might not have left me these cards when she died. 
    Because that's where the whole thing started. The cards.
    I still have them. They're in the box they came in, the leather one with the strange carvings on the top. When all the craziness was over, I put them way in the back of my closet, along with the book that explains what each of the cards means, how to read them, understand them...
    All I can say is, I wish we'd understood them a whole lot better. 

Yeap, that's it! The prologue. it's actually more like Anna thinking back on the whole craziness with the cards. Now for my favourite lines from the book.

Interesting lines:

     I spit, then wonder, So, if I had died tomorrow, would anybody care?
     My mom and dad would definitely freak. Russell would demand he get my room. Eve would be psyched, because it'd be all macabre and she could wear black and flip out. But then she'd get tired of it and move on to something else. Syd would be sad, though. Genuinely sad. And they'd probably do something at school, have an assembly, tell people that it was okay to cry, if they wanted to.
     But I'm not sure how many people would cry. More likely, they'd be like, Anna? Anna who? Oh, her. Yeah, she was... okay.
- Anna, thinking about herself dying, while brushing her teeth in the morning. Heh, what better time to think about weird things than when you're brushing your teeth?



Russell is seven years old, but he's been strange since the day he was born. This doesn't seem to bother most people, for example, my parents, who you'd think would be a little worried that their only son lives on a diet of tuna fish and boogers. Just the fact that he's usually pretending to be some kind of animal should raise a red flag, right? I once looked up the traits of a psychotic personality. Russell had almost every single one. I told my mother, but she said, "He's just trying to be funny, Anna. Let him have his thing." Which made me wonder, Do I have a thing? And if so, what is it?
- Anna on her younger brother, Russell. 



... I look at the girls sitting in Subzero. Elissa's there, of course, and Alexa with dim Marnie. P&P is right. They're like a cult of pretty people, with a mandate from the heavens: Thou shalt congregate only with those of perfect hair and perfect bodies and inane giggles. And thou shalt mate with only those of thine own kind. The hot, the cool, the seriously amazing. I wonder if Declan would need divine dispensation to date me.
- Anna's views on the P&Ps (Pretty & Perfect) sitting in Subzero (the area reserved for the uber-cools in school.)



Naturally, with Declan coming, all the girls are going crazy figuring out their costumes. The rumour is that Alexa is going as her Dalmatian, Pippa, in a white bodysuit with spots. Elissa is renting her costume from someplace, and Lara is going as a whacked-out action babe. Meanwhile, I haven't got the first clue what I'm going to wear. This afternoon Syd, Eve and I are getting together at Syd's house to figure it out. Eve told me to bring the cards; I don't know why. What are they going to say? You must dress as a penguin- oh, and forget about Declan. We got that wrong, sorry.
- Anna's preparation to go for a Halloween party in Marnie a.k.a. dumbest bi*** in school's house.

For Her

You do not even look at me

With your blue eyes

You hide from everyone

Hope they never see you

But I can look at you

And hope you see me.

Okay shit. This poem. Sucked. Big time. Like, it doesn't even sound good when you read it out loud. Oh dear. This is Declan's poem to his mystery lover girl, but it's not a mystery after I told you it was Bridget. This was how Anna found out Declan liked another girl. Anna certainly didn't have blue eyes. But, being the good sport Anna is, she was the one who helped the hopeless lover GreekGod be united with the one he truly likes. And yes, it's titled freaking "For Her". Misleading much?

This one's gonna be a long one:

     That afternoon I stay in the practice room after class to apologise to Mr. Courtney for missing chorus. He's sitting at the piano like always. As I approach him, he says without looking up, "Miss Anna Morris, Where were you yesterday?"

     Uh, well, Mr. Courtney, I was hiding in the bathroom because I couldn't deal with seeing my boyfriend, who probably isn't my boyfriend anymore. Before I can come up with some lame excuse, he waves his hand. "Yeah, yeah, I know. You didn't feel great or you had to work on your English paper or whatever. Well, don't skip out on me again. We're three days away from the greatest caroling this school's ever seen, and my chorus needs you."

     I say, "Right. Because the altos would just die without me."

     "Well, they wouldn't die, I wouldn't let them die."

     Mr. Courtney says "die" like it has two syllables: "die-eh." "But the chorus wouldn't be as excellent and sublime as I can make it, and that I will not tolerate."

     Somehow the words "excellent" and "sublime" don't go with the vision of myself as a singer. If the chorus didn't have Lara or Bridget, you'd know it. Me- there's just one less squeak. And I guess I'm in the mood for honesty, because I say, "That's nice, but let's face it, it's not like I'm some great singer."

     Courtney's head snaps up. "Who says?"

     "I do."

     "Wrong." Mr. Courtney pounds on the piano keys. "Wrong, wrong, wrong. I say who's a great singer and who is not a great singer."

     Intrigued, I ask, "So... which am I?"

     "You are not that great of a singer," he says flatly.

Bwahaha. Okay, Mr. Courtney is a freaking awesome teacher! Though a bit eccentric...

     I glance at Declan. He is staring straight out in front of him. But his face is red.

     I look at Bridget. She is staring straight down at her music, even though we're supposed to be off book. Her face is pink.

     Mr. Courtney calls, "Ms. Halsey, eyes up, please."

     Blinking, Bridget looks up. Not completely. 

     But just enough for me to see her beautiful blue eyes.

Somehow, I  really liked this. Not because it was funny whatsoever, but because it was sweet and a great way to scream at the reader that "Bridget is the one the GreekGod likes!" If they don't figure that out, they're probably not paying attention or just plain retarded. Well, hopefully not plain retarded after I've just told them. 

     I remember something. "That note you sent me, about Marnie's party. Was that for me or her?"

     He goes red. "I meant it for her, but when you got it, that was okay too."

     "But you meant it for Bridget! Why didn't you tell me to give it to her? Point or something?"

     "I don't know! All of a sudden, you said yes, and I was like, 'God, I can't say, "Oh sorry, that was for someone else,"' That would have been totally jerky." He looks down at his shoes. "I didn't think someone like you would ever go out with me. So when you said yes, I thought, 'Why not?'"

     "Like Alexa."

     "No, totally not. That was a party thing. She started kissing me, and all of a sudden, we were supposed to be in love or something. I never liked her. I did..." He pushes at my hand with his finger. "I did really like you. I thought you were cool. I mean, you were one of the only people who was ever nice to me before all... this."

This was towards the end when Declan confesses that he liked Bridget and he thought Anna was cool and all. Oh and by the way, Alexa is one of the P&Ps (Pretty & Perfect) who declared that she was in a relationship with Declan when all they did, rather she did, was force kiss/catch the GreekGod off guard. Heh. That tramp.

I really liked this one. This is in Eve's point of view:

     I keep dancing down the hall- until I run smack into my brother, Mark, coming out of the bathroom. 

     Hello, major embarrassment.

     Some people might be cool about it, might even dance along with you, you know? Not Mark. He's only three years older than me, but he acts like he's fifty. You should see his room. Not one single thing out of place. Bed made, clothing put away, book alphabetised, for God's sake. He's one of those people who has major school smarts, but is borderline retarded when it comes to life. I call him M.A.N. "Hey, man." "How you doing, man?" What Mark doesn't know is M.A.N. is my private code for Major Anal Nerd.

     Now he's staring at me like I'm an intruder and he's wondering if he should call the cops. Which gets me past the embarrassment and right into annoyance. 

     I say, "Hey, man. What are you doing out of your room? You could catch cooties or something." I hold out my arm. "Ooh, look there's one jumping off of me..."

     He sighs. "No self-respecting cootie would be caught dead on you."

     First Anna and Syd- now Mark. Obviously, the universe has declared this "Pee on Eve Day." Actually, in this house every day is Pee on Eve Day. One of the reasons I cannot wait to get out of here.

Poor Eve, getting dissed by her brother. That must burn. Haha, I can imagine a cleanliness freak saying that with a straight face. Then I think about my brother. He disses me but not enough to make it hurt.

Oh gosh, this post is way too long for its own good. Now I'll have to proof read this whole long string of words. =.= Genius, just genius. Now I'm wondering how to sign off glamourously. 

Yours, or someone else's,

Mirai <3 ;)