Silent Angel

Con Report

2008-06-04T21:34:27Z

Anime North May 23-25

This year I decided to take it easy and not running around so much or lining up so much. I arrived there at around 1:30pm, went to the pre-reg pick up line first. The line up was about an hour, not too bad, consider it actually constantly moving. The registration line was 3 times longer. So I pretty much caught up my bible reading while in line. Then I went to the hotel to check-in, thanks to the separate Hilton Honour line, I didn't have to line up at the big line, so it was pretty fast. I had included my preference on the membership, so they gave me a room that is pretty close to the elevator, which was very important because it really saved a lot of walking everyday and hauling my luggage through the long hallway.

We were supposed to have a group gathering or picnic, but most people, including the person organized it, didn't show up, so we just went checking out dealers room. There was always a long line up to go into dealers room on the first day because it was always the first event that opened. I went to artist's alley instead. There were a booth that sells different accessories that were made into sweets with clay, like earrings, rings, phone strap with a piece of chocolate or strawberry cake or biscuits on it. They were very very cute, and the girls that ran the booth were wearing pink lolita costume too. I bought a strawberry cake ring from it. I also got a set of Mario fridge magnets (Goomba, mushroom, fire flower, bomb, blooper, star, pipe trap, toad, and boo), made by an french speaking artist. Btw, this year I saw a lot of french speaking otaku. I think they came together from Quebec. I never heard anybody speaking french during Anime North before. I know some people probably speak french, but they speak English in the con, because, well, this is Ontario.

I actually ate at the cafe at the hotel the first night because I was too lazy to walk around. They don't have much choice for food and the taste was so-so. I should check out the actual Italian restaurant in the hotel next time. I went to Halko Momoi Q&A session. She was the Japanese guest of honour was a voice actress and singer and was an otaku herself. She actually talked like anime girl with her cute and high pitch voice and she seemed very friendly and energetic. I also realized her Japanese was very easy to listen to for some reason. I actually understood a lot of short phrases she said in Japanese and I wasn't the only one. Quite a few times we understood her enough to make a response even before the translator spoke. It was probably the way she spoke that make us easy to pick out words from a phase and separate words from words. I think normal Japanese would be too fast for me to catch what is what. She also seemed to understand some English. I went to her concert on Saturday and it was cool. People were dancing and waving the glow stick. Some of her fans from Japan came all the way to Toronto to see her too and the fans distributed glow sticks to everyone. People here not used to the glow sticks for concern, but it was very popular in asia, at least 10 to 20 years ago, and Halko Momoi likes her fans to wave glow sticks. We were having fun.

Saturday I cosplayed as Hino Kahoko from La Corda D'Oro. Unfortunately only a few people reconized this character because the anime was very new and hasn't really come to North America yet. My costume was surprisingly comfortable and I was really used to wearing school uniform that it felt so natural for me. I watched a Doraemon Movie in the morning. It was one that I have never seen before, although it looks like it is an old one. I thought I've watched them all already. There were only very few people in the room, probably people weren't familiar with Doraemon, or that they were still sleeping. They don't know what Doraemon meant to us, who are now in 20's to 40's, who grew up in asia. I also watched xxxholic, which was pretty good. It is something worth watching in the future. It also proved that the English version wasn't good and accurate in translating, because I watched the same episode once on Saturday in Japanese, and again on Sunday in English and they weren't the same e.e;; They purposely try to make it sound "normal" or "funny" in English or what?

I went to the Masquerade as usual, but decided not to waste my time lining up, so I sat at the back. I picked up the waistband the day before already so a seat was guaranteed. speaking of the waistband, they did it too tight this year that it practically sticked to my skin. It was bad when sleeping overnight because it made me sweat and I couldn't move it around so it was bugging me all night. I almost wanted to give up and cut the waistband. The masquerade was at a good length this year, so it wasn't dragging long and I got out at good time to eat supper.

The most exciting thing at the con this year was the manga library. Someone who owned over 2400 manga was kind enough to bring all her manga and let us borrow it and read it in the room. I found Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaidan and got hook on it. It was another series of Fushigi Yuugi. The originally one was the story of Suzaku and Seiryuu and this one is like 200 years back, the story of Genbu, they story of how they book of universe of four gods started. It is very good and it is something I have always wanted to continue on. There were only 6 English volume and they story is still going. It has 8 books in Japanese and Chinese now. Btw, I prefer to read manga in Chinese. It is much easier and faster. I read these ones at the speed of 1 book per hour, so I scheduled 6 hours in the manga library to read them. The manga library opened all day and all night, but most people didn't notice its existent. It was very cool and I could have spent all night reading manga if I wanted. But I decided I need sleep ^^;; I'm getting old so I only stayed up to 1am.

I originally wanted to watch Ragnarok the Animation. I watched a little bit of it but it was disappointing. I didn't like the way they draw in the first place, and it was weird. Ragnarok isn't a Japanese story, is it? I thought it was in English in the first place so they way they talk couldn't be a problem from tranlating, right? I didn't like the dialogue at all, and if I were in a manga, you would have probably seen question marks all over my head and the word "What the..." Yeah, so I went to watch some random anime and went back to the manga library.

I had a more relaxing schedule this year so I actually ate pretty well at pretty good time and I didn't even need my emergency food (aka cup noodle). It was fun to get away from everything once a while ^^.

Rushita's Useful and Not-so-useful Tips

2008-05-14T17:44:41Z

1. Glass-Ceramic Stove: You need to clean the spill immediately. You can clean your pots later, but the stove top, I mean immediately. Yes, the stove is still burning hot, but you still need to clean it quickly with a wet cloth. The quicker you do this, the less likely you will leave a stain. In order not to get your hand or the cloth burnt by the stove, saturate the cloth with cold water and do some quick rubs on the stove top. Before the cloth gets hot or dry, clean and saturate it with cold water again, and repeat cycle. If you decided to wait till it gets a little cooler before cleaning, it is already too late. Once the food or soup spill get burnt on the stove top, good luck trying to remove it.

2. Swiffer Sweeper: If you use swiffer sweeper and the dry cloth to clean floors, after you use one side, you can turn it inside out to get twice the job done in one cloth. They don't show you that on the TV commercial.

3. Female hygiene: Allergic to the plastic of sanitary pads? Or get yeast infection from the plastic of sanitary pads? Try Kotex unscented ones. They don't have the plastic-like surface.

4. Dry skin or eczema: Impruv is a very good hypoallergenic cream to moisturize your skin.

5. Brassiere: The price of bra is really directly proportional to the quality. A $45 one does worth the money and lasts 5 times as long as cheap fancy ones. The best overall price-quality-appeal ratio is interestingly the ones from H&M.

6. Music Scores: Blank Sheet Music.net has a wonderful tool for you to print different kinds of blank music scores.

7. Craft Projects: Free craft projects and patterns, instant origami or scrapbook paper, etc... from Creative Park. And dollar store $1 a pack of 10 letter size glossy photo papers does very good jobs for crafts too.

8. Cosmetics: Skin allergic to fragrances and regular make up and would like make up that is not too expensive? Almay and Marcelle are 2 not too expensive brands that are hypoallergenic. Maybelline's make up are not normally hypoallergenic, but their Expertwear Blush series is. I just found that out and excitingly bought 2 because they come in duo colours and cheaper than Almay's and Marcelle's blush.

9. Sunscreen: Highly recommend using sunscreen, everybody! Rushita continues to recommend Ombrelle and La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL (both turn out to be from the same company, actually...) If you cannot use chemical suncreens, you can try mineral suncreen from Avene to give you physical sunblock.

10. Microwave defrost: Is it just my microwave oven or what? The automatic meat defrost function doesn't work as good as it should be. It actually will partially cook meat. I found heating the piece of meat with the lowest power of the microwave oven for a few minutes works much better. You'll have to experiment with the length of time you need depends on your microwave oven.

Cosplay

2008-05-09T21:41:22Z

So I got my costume for cosplay, it's a school uniform, btw. Some how the colour is a little off, but I guess it is just different lighting in the picture and my imagination. It is not a big deal. The jacket and the skirt is fine, pretty neat, but the tie is weird. I should say the quality of the making for the tie is poor. This got to be the first time I see anyone using glue on clothes, and I think it is the glue from glue gun. One end of the tie is hidden under the collar of the jacket, so from the outside you don't see anything wrong. But if you look underneath, you'll see the ends are just glued on the jacket @_@;; No trimming on the end, but used glue so that the edge of the cloth doesn't fall apart. The "knot" of the tie is also glued and I can see poor needle work. I'm starting to wonder if this is the manga or game version of the school uniform because in anime the "v" stripe on the tie is supposed to be white, not brown. Mmmm.... So, after some plotting, I decided to sew the tie myself and it was pretty easy. I made a real tie that actually go around the neck with the 2 wider ends gather at the front and go through that thing that makes it look like a knot. And I sew the white ribbon to make the "v" shape on it. I can proudly say I did a good job. I did that at my parents' home because my mom has the sewing machine and all the equipments and tools I need for sewing. Mom checked on it and didn't make any complaint, but said it was good, so I'm sure I did a good job because my Mom is good at sewing XD. I was anxious to get the costume sooner because I knew I would have to make some adjustments on it before Anime North. I don't just trust anybody's sewing job or needle work. I bought the costume because I don't have time to sew the whole thing myself. The costume is still missing the school badge on the left arm. I told the seller and she said she would mail one to me. I hope it will arrive here on time. Again, that's why I want the costume sooner 'cause things do go wrong. If the badge doesn't arrive on time, I have a back up plan already.

All other accessories for cosplay are completed. It wasn't easy to find the right one for sale in the stores. I also bought a pair of uber short hot pants to wear underneath the skirt. Just like what you see in anime, the skirt of the school uniform is fairly short. It looks better that way. Of course, for safety reason, I need to wear a pair of short pants inside ^^. I remember we used to do that when we were in junior year of secondary school. I went to a all-girls school and some classmate were pretty naughty that they would flip your school uniform skirt. So we used to wear short pants to avoid any embarrassment. It is better to get prepared so I have one less thing to worry about during cosplaying in Anime North.

Thanks to a nice local anime fan, I sold the 2 extra Chinese Saiunkoku Monogatari novels. I'm glad that they are in good hands and someone who likes Saiunkoku Monogatari a lot too ^^.

I actually had a lot I wanted to blog these 2 weeks, but when I sit down to write, I don't remember.... I know that includes a couple of things I wanted to write in Chinese.... So, next time...

Haven't done one of these for a long time...

2008-04-25T04:08:14Z

What's Your Inner Beast? [pics]

The Unicorn:

The Unicorn stands for Innocence. You have a kind and gentle soul that is never bored of dreams and hopes for a brighter tomorrow.

Strength: Usually optomistic, the Unicorn stands also for purity within self and mind. Dreams and fantasy often breeze across your mind throughout the day, and maybe you get caught day dreaming during important situations because you can't grasp reality. Hope is one of your more common illiminations to help you through the day if things aren't going great.

Flip Side: Even though dreaming and make-believe is wonderful, reality always seems to catch you off gaurd and throws a punch. You can also be naive and put on false hope that maybe things will get better.

Congratulations! You have a Unicorn inside!

pic (c) Christy Grandjean aka GoldenWolfen

Take this quiz!

Quizilla |
Join
| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

The sun is shining...

2008-04-24T18:59:54Z

Well, we suddenly go from winter to summer within a week. A week ago I still wore my winter coat, then all of a sudden there is no coat.... as a matter of fact, we are doing summer clothes now, and I'm trying to clean all the winter clothes and putting them away. Of course that also means I was chilling at home, then all of a sudden I'm sweating now. My body is already switched to summer mode and I sweat so much everyday when practising violin XD. That's what it is like in Toronto, having hardly any spring or fall, although I must say last fall was much longer than usual. I hate snow. I like hot temperature much better.

Still working hard on violin and continue to progress.

umm...gotta go. I'll come back later to blog.

Chinese Novels

2008-04-15T15:04:00Z

Is anybody looking for the Chinese Novel of Saiunkoku Monogatari? I have vol 8 and vol 11 for sale. Someone bought me the wrong volumes from Hong Kong and I'm stuck with the duplicates. It is the official Kadokawa Chinese version from Kadokawa Taiwan 台灣角川.

Volumn 8 心深於藍:
http://www.walkersnet.com.tw/details.asp?id=789

Volumn 11 紅梅暗香:
http://www.walkersnet.com.tw/details.asp?id=950

If anyone is interested, please contact me and I will tell you the price with shipping.

Thanks

Earth Hour

2008-03-29T20:57:52Z

Supporting Earth Hour:
http://www.earthhour.org/

Quick Update

2008-03-14T05:05:31Z

Long time no blog. I have been busy..... and snow. Yes, darn snow. We definitely have the most snow in 15 years. It seems like it snows every 3 days and a snow storm every week. We don't have to do much shuffling, but the snow piles are so high everywhere and driving in snow is always not fun. I swear it is the snow and the cold weather that it has been messing up with the ABS sensor of my car. It apparently have no problem and when my car and everywhere is free of snow later in the year, it should be ok. Agh... I hate winter.

There are so many things I'd like to do and I should do and my house needs cleaning, but I just have no time. I just go between working (stupid schedule), sleeping, practising violin and reading the bible. Btw, violin lesson is still doing good. Staring this month the lesson is extended to 45 minutes each week and I'm on the 3rd book for the songs and 3rd book for technique plus a scales book. It is definitely easier to play scales on piano e.e. I must keep on practising hard to keep on top of things and keep the progress. I definitely want to get better in the least amount of time e.e. Most kids learning music are too lazy and not motivated to practise (been there too). It is a waste of money for their parents and a waste of time for everybody. I'm not a kid anymore and I want to do that myself, so I want to be good.

Anime North is around the corner again and this time I will be cosplaying! ^^ *crosses finger* I just bought a costume from ebay and it needs to be custom made and hopefully arrives here on time. If nothing goes wrong, I should receive it on time for Anime North. It is the school uniform for Kahoko in Kiniro no Corda (La Corda D'Oro). To remind my dear reader, she is the one who plays violin in the anime. It makes sense, doesn't it ^_~? So, I'll be carrying my violin with me. I will bring my violin to AN anyway, 'cause I doubt I would skip 2 days of practice for the con. Oh, an no need for wig for me. I just need a little highlight for my hair. My current hair style is actually very close to Kaho's already. Oh, I haven't even blog about my hair cut. Most of my firends know I only do a major hair cut every 2 to 3 years, and I got one in the Chinese New Year. It is a little below the shoulder and I like it. What's interesting is I actually don't miss my long hair this time. Every time I cut my hair short before, I always missed my long hair as if a part of me was missing. I would still have a self-image of me with long hair until my hair grew long again. I guess I have a different image of myself now with many changes in life.

Happy The Year of Mouse!

2008-02-07T17:20:02Z

Happy Chinese New Year! Yes, it is the year of mouse (or if you like you can call it "rat"), and mice are good and cute!

We had some snow storms lately, and I swear the city (and our complex) shovel the snow too late. My house was close to the dead end of the inside road and because of the wind, our side had about 20+ cm (8+ inches) of snow in front of our drive way. When I drove home last night, just about to turn into our drive way, my car got stuck there. I didn't realize we had that much snow on this end 'cause everything is covered with snow and it look pretty flat and no tire track. I thought it was the same height of snow as the other end of the road. Anyhow, so me and my husband did quiet a bit of shoveling to get my car inside. And not long after, we saw another couple did the same thing around the corner. We live in townhouse, so we were not supposed to need to shovel. We pay maintenances fee so the complex send somebody to do the shoveling. Apparently they didn't shovel soon enough. I looked through the window just now and it is clear now. By clear, I mean a reasonable amount of snow on the road, but it is still all covered in snow.

I finally managed to downloaded the doujin game of La Corda D'Oro. It is a very nice game despite the fact that it is made by fans themselves. The CGs are pretty nice. I played the Tsukimori line first of course and got a romantic ending with him ^_________^. Then I played the Tsuchiura line and also got a "romantic" ending. Well, he isn't that romantic even though they like each other. I still think Hino Kahoko and Tsukimori Len is the best match. <3

One of the new year resolution this year was our Bible Reading Challenge. Me and my husband and our friends in church are following a schedule to read the whole bible in one year. So far so good ^^. It is nice to have other people to read together so we can share our inspiration, feelings, and questions, and encourage each other. I wonder what we will get for completing the first month? ^^ We have people from our own group to sponsors little rewards after reaching certain milestones. Seems like all the rewards are food so far.....

Notice

2008-01-03T17:35:02Z

I have been sick since I posted by last blog entry. I'll continue to be away from internet until I recover from this cold or whatever @_@;;

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2007-12-26T18:21:36Z

This is a little late to say merry christmas, but I didn't have the time nor energy to blog until all the madness is over @_@;;

Work had been busy as usual for December every year, because we are in a mall and mall hours extended for December, and more people fill their prescriptions while they are shopping in the mall, and there are those people who get prepare and stock up before the holidays. Church has been busy with practices and rehearsals for christmas celebrations, and christmas parties. And then one of my assistants had her engagement party before christmas too, so that also take preparation. Our family don't do christmas shopping, and I can't image what it would be like if I had to join the madness in the mall for shopping christmas gifts @_@;;

The christmas eve service at church was very very good. We had different skits through a theme, and we choir sang 2 songs within the program at the appropriate place. I think we did very well in singing actually this time. The skits were also good. Good acting too. The last skit was like a dance with music and no talking, and I found that the best and most touching. When I saw that the second time we rehearse, I was teared up. There was a girl who was created by God and live happily with God from the beginning. And then she met the temptation and disturbance from the world, like chasing love from dating, going after money, partying and having fun, and chasing the worldly concept of beauty and slim, which brings her a lot of pain and wrong self-image, and she has no one to reach out to. Then she wanted to reach out to God. While all the earthly things were trying to consume her and blocking her from going back to God, God is there to pull her back with a big rope with His strength, against the force that pull her to go the other side. That was what touched me the most. God is always there, He doesn't give up. He always try to bring us back to Him. And of course, in the dance, God won and kept those worldly lust from the girl and the girl was free and happy to be with God again. I told myself not to look at the skit too deeply at the real program, otherwise I would cry and I wouldn't be able to sing afterwards, 'cause we choir were singing on the stage shortly after that skit.

So, after all these, yesterday, Christmas day, were pretty much just a rest day. I slept for all the "sleeping debts" I had accumulated for the past week e.e;; And then the rest of the day I was just playing video games. I badly need sometime just to relax. It's been quite stressful for the past week, and I had been so lack of sleep. It was like a vicious
cycle. I had been so busy, so I was lack of sleep. And because I was lack of sleep, the brain was all stressed up, and then because the brain was stressed up, it was hard to fall asleep and I didn't sleep well within the limited time I had for sleeping. Now the holiday is a good time to relax. XD

I hope you are not as stressed up as I was. May God's peace be with you all.

I Was Touched and I Believe

2007-12-15T16:28:51Z

The christmas layout for the site is finally up. It's been so busy and tired lately, plus my mouse was not functioning properly, so it took me forever to get it done @_@;; That is based on the song "I Was Touched and I Believe" my choir is singing this christmas. The music and lyrics are both very good. You can see them on my site now.

Violin lesson is still doing good. The lower finger 1 position is a bit hard, when I have to shift back and forth and it messed up where I put the other fingers. This week the songs are more enjoyable than last week's. Friday is the first day of the week practising a batch of new things because my violin lesson is on Thursdays and I don't practice Thursday night. It's like a little time-off once a week. So last night wasn't so bad for the batch of new things, consider it was the first night practising them. It will get a lot better usually by Monday or Tuesday.

Ok, here is my Amazon.com wish list. This is mainly for my husband and people who might be interested to know what I like. I'm not asking people to buy me things ^^;; I suddenly find Nintendo DS games very interesting...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1IJ458GMP8RYC/ref=wl_web

Gifts that Change Lives

2007-12-10T00:03:01Z

Gift Catalogue (Canada)
Gift Catalog (US)

I don't know if you have found your meaning in your life, but in my humble opinion, I can call my life a meaningful one if, during the short duration of time I spend in this world, I have changed people's lives.

I often feel disgusted when I hear teenagers say they hate school or hate life in general. Kids or teenagers or even adults in modern well-off western countries often are not happy with their food, their clothes, their rooms or their houses, their cars, their toys, etc... and always want something "better", despite what they have are already very good and fulfilling their luxury side of "wants" rather than "needs". Do people realize how blessed we already are in these western countries? Every child in poverty in third world countries will tell you their dream is to be able to go to school. Unfortunately few can because very few can afford it. The kids and their parents work very hard to hopefully make some extra money so they can go to school for basic education and have a future. Many people don't even know what they can have for food tomorrow because there is nothing left at home. Many are struggling to survive. "Life" is what they tried every possible way to hopefully not let it leave the grab of their hands. Many don't even have a proper house or clothes, never mind a computer, cellphone, Nintendo DS, ipod, DVDs, etc... For us who can afford these luxury items, we should really be thankful.

While everybody is too busy with Christmas shopping, why don't we shop for something that will change people's lives, rather than buying useless stuff for ourselves or giving people stuff they don't really want? Well... you can always do both if you want XD
Change Someone's Life(Canada)
Change Someone's Life(US)
and Singapore...
Malaysia...

I honestly think if everyone in the world who has money is willing to share some of theirs to help those who are in poverty, a lot of people will live much better lives and everyone will be much happier.

Snowing snowing...

2007-11-23T06:10:45Z

Umkies... life has been good and I actually didn't feel like get on the internet much lately ^^;;

[Violin]
Violin lesson still doing good. I went past Gavotte, which was interesting, because I got to play the first song Kahoko played in Kiniro no Corda. The one in the anime was a different key, but it was exciting to be able to play it. Husband, however, did not like that song for some reason. I also found the score for Salut D'Amour, another beautiful song from the anime, which is kinda like a main theme actually. So far I can only play the first part with my current skill. I hope someday not too far away I would be able to play all the beautiful songs in the anime nicely.

[Gaming]
My current addiction is "My Sims" for Wii. It is not like other Sims games. This one you create the buildings in the town and move people in with purpose, and you can build different furnitures too. Because of my highly responsible character, I feel obligated to make different things for different Sims to fulfill there needs XD. This is the game that is keeping me away from the internet XD

[Movie]
I saw a chinese movie DVD 不能說的秘密 "Secret" by Jay Chou, and I like it a lot. It has a very unique and good storyline. It is a good love story that makes you wonder a lot. It also reminds me of Kiniro no Corda because that school also has music class separate from regular class and it is related to music. Piano is the focus of the story. The story is actually kinda anime/manga style. He probably has seen too much anime or manga.

I also saw "Ratatouille" on DVD. It is a cute story about rats. In the special feature of the DVD, it has a section about rats and why rats are cute. It is basically the same effect as my "Mouse Corner". I can probably make sure of some of that on my site.

[Singing]
We are now doing our annual Christmas choir practices. One of the songs we are singing is called "I believed and I was Touched". The lyrics is very good and arrangement is very nice. It is very nice to play on piano. Too bad I can't do it on violin because I can't play E-flat or F major on violin yet. I'm thinking about using that as a theme for christmas layout. If I do that I'll have the lyrics up on the site later.

[Plants]
I never have green thumbs. I can keep plants alive but I can't make them healthy. I personally don't like gardening or keeping plants. It is too much hassle for me to take care of them. However, I'm always left with plants in the house that I'm obligated to take care of. I really don't enjoy taking care of them, but I just do what I have to do. 4 out of the 5 original plants I was left with 9 months ago died already. The 2 african violet out of the 3 were on the edge of dying anyway when they were left with me. So they were replaced with another 2 african violet I got from my mother. The other 2 non-flowering ones were fine for the longest time and then they suddenly both died within 1 week. I had no idea why they would suddenly die. I did nothing different from before. I suspect there were something wrong with the soil. Right before they completely died, I took a few leaves from the plant and kept them in water. So after a few months roots grew from the leaves and I have replanted the 2 leaves on the 2 pots with new soil. So far they still look the same. It will probably take a long time to see any sign of growing. So...I'm back to the same number of plant count. As for the african violets, ironically, they are ones that get more unhealthy the more I try to take care of it. The 2 I got from my mom turned bad and were dying a few months ago...mostly because I water it too much. Now that I have actually ignore them for a while and give them minimal amount of water, they started to grow much more leaves and look really healthy. Well..... so pay them no attention and barely water them seems the way to go @_@;;

[Snow]
We have just got our first official snow for this winter. Ugh... it is cold over here. We had a pretty warm fall and now the winter has caught up with us. There were something wrong with our furnace last week and we had no heat for a couple of days. Fortunately the weather wasn't that cold last week. I got aggressive on the issue, well, much more aggressive than my husband, and we got it fixed pretty fast. Furnace is something you really need to take serious because it is really not fun to have no heat in winter. I haven't change my car's tires to snow tires yet. It will be done in the next few days. Hopefully we won't have too much snow at the mean time.

Busy weeks

2007-10-24T16:25:05Z

It's been a few busy weeks. Has it happened to you that too many things have happen and you don't remember what to blog? XD Let's see...

I've been working hard on a presentation on pharmacy services. I'll be talking in a workshop in my church about pharmacy and medicines this Sunday. This is my first time ever make power point slides and it isn't easy e.e;; I'm sticking to the most simple one with no animation or video or anything. Honestly, power point didn't even exist when I was in school doing various presentations. I'm sure students these days do it a lot. XD I think turning my presentation into a webpage format (which is actually a possible way) would be much easier for me than making a power point slide. >.> I still have to run the presentation once and time it to see how much time it will take. I have a feeling I have too much to talk.

We had a busy weekend (or week, or even weeks) on church things. This month is Mission Month and last weekend we had a mission conference. Our choir in church participated in the joint choir in the joint mission conference and we had been busy practising. That and we also have to sing in our own church for Mission Sunday, and another one this sunday, we really have been practising a lot. The joint choir went ok, as least we are sure what we were singing this year. Last year we got to change part in the last few days from soprano to alto, which wasn't fun. The ending was very loud and honestly I couldn't hear my voice or anybody in alto (those men were so loud *laughs*), but I heard that some people said it was good.

Violin lesson is doing fine. I'm starting to do some songs that I actually recognize because I've done the same songs in piano years ago. One song I remember I used to spend a lot of time practising in piano before, and now I get to do it in violin. I actually put out my piano book and did it on the piano just for fun. I still think it is easier and I do it better on piano though. On the other hand, my poor left ear has been complaining this week because the sound is so loud when I play the violin. It is mostly due to the fact that the left ear is so close to the violin and the jaw is siting on it so the sound also transfer through that way. My teacher wants me to use more force to play violin, which I understand, but it sounds so loud already that it is hard for me to make it even louder without my left ear complaining. I might have to get an earplug for my left ear @_@;;

I really want to see somebody doing cosplay for Kiniro no Corda (La Corda D'Oro) in anime north next year. It would be so cool. I heard somebody has that idea but doesn't look like it will actually come through. They want to get a group cosplayers but it is hard to find people who actually can play the right instruments and physically at least somewhat close to the character you are cosplaying. Where are you going to find 5 guys who can play piano, violin, cello, flute and trumpet? It would be really cool if they can actually do that and can actually somewhat play some songs together. I myself have dreamed of cosplaying Hino Kahoko too, but I wouldn't bother or have time to make the school uniform. If the costume falls on my hands magically, or I run into the exact costume available for sale, I would definitely do it. I was a little worry about the actual violin skill, but I don't care anymore after I saw a couple of photos of somebody else who cosplayed for the characters. I can tell, or anyone who plays violin can tell, that those 2 cosplayers holding the violins don't actually play violin. They didn't even hold the violins and bows right XD. It would be cool to cosplay as Kaho and carry my violin around the con. Oh..... I'm just dreaming.

Time to get ready for work.

Satisfied

2007-10-05T04:36:15Z

1. I've updated the layout for Rushita.com! It's been a year. Despite the fact that I don't really update the content much, I do like making layouts ^^;; It is a special layout for 10-year anniversary! Rushita.com is 10 years old! Well...the name or domain hasn't been 10 years since it used to have a different name and different hosts, but the site is 10 years old! It is back to Utena layout because Shoujo Kakumei Utena is also 10 years old. Please go take a look at my new layout ^.^

2. I've bought a new violin today! It is actually the first violin I own. The one I've been using was a rental one. It's been 3 months and it is time to buy one and put the rental charge towards the payment of purchasing a new one. My teacher likes the ones from Czech, and it sounds pretty nice, so I bought the one made in Czech. It is fairly expensive, but then I wouldn't have to buy another one for a long time. Violin lessons still fine. The D and G strings of the rental violin annoyed me, so I'm happy that the ones from the new violin sounds much better. They also feel much better, and my pinky doesn't have to suffer as much because these strings are much easier to press. I actually got callus on the side of my left pinky from pressing the D and G strings too hard. I'll have to get used to the new violin first. I realized it has a lot to do with "feeling" the violin and string to somehow know how to press the string right. It might sound odd, but yeah, for me it is by feeling and not seeing where to press, since I can't really see it properly from that angle. I've been so sleepy the last few days when I practice violin and my eyes practically close themselves but I managed to be awake enough to still play it.

Back to browser business

2007-09-28T04:54:20Z

I finally redid my browser-mail combo. It's been a while since I actually upgrade my browser, and now my bank and my ISP home page didn't like me because they thought my browser is out-dated @_@;; I couldn't upgrade my Netscape because the newer ones doesn't come with mail client. Anyhow, I finally changed the whole thing. I'm now using Thunderbird 2 to put all my e-mail accounts in one. Thank goodness they have one of the theme that look similar to netscape mail, so things don't look too confusing. Then I deleted my Eudora, which wasn't doing so good as well because I can't type or view chinese properly on it. Then I installed the newest Netscape 9 (browser alone). It looks pretty neat. I can customize a lot of things on it and don't have to use or see things that I don't need. It is so far so good. If it isn't good, I was thinking to change to Firefox. I've check review on Netscape 9 and it sounds good though. And then... I deleted the old Netscape 7.2. I've actually been waiting to do this for a long time. Now my computer feels fresh. XD

Vacation

2007-09-19T04:11:38Z

I'm supposed to be on vacation.... Various things:

1. US-CAN$ exchange rate is historically high. It is almost 1 to 1 now. I'm of course happy because it saves me money paying bills and other things online that are charged by US$. This would be the best time to buy things online *laugh*, although I have confident that it would go up even higher. My Dad is not happy though because he get pays in Hong Kong dollar, which is tied to US$, which means exchanging it the other way round is historically low.

2. I've watched the whole Kanon 2006 series in the past week or 2 online. I was just curious and decided to check on the first episode, but then I got hook on to it. It was derived from a game which makes it typical that all the girls in the story fall in love with the main guy character. This anime is actually pretty exciting and surprising. It is actually pretty weird in a way...probably the weirdest storyline after Utena. One of my previous site layout (Forget Me Not) was based on images from Kanon. Although I didn't know a thing about this anime at the time I made the layout, it turned out that I wasn't far in the concept and style. Despite not having much things going on between Nayuki and Yuuichi (the 2 persons on the layout) in the anime, "Forget Me Not" actually fits perfectly as the theme because forgetting the past was the main thing going on in the story. The 404 page image I used was very close too, because it turned out to be the image for hide and seek in the story, which the word "lost?" fits in. Come to think of it, Kanon 2006 is actually the 3rd anime in a row that I watched has the typical "all girls fall in love with the main guy" syndrome. The other 2 were "Hourglass of Summer" and "Kiniro no Corda (La Corda D'Oro). Yeah, La Corda D'Oro is based on a game too, but it is done so well that it doesn't seem like missing anything in the anime.

3. I AM supposed to be on vacation. Not going away, just stay home cleaning and doing other things. However, that never work out right. I should have known. I got called in to go to work half a day today because whoever supposed to work did not feel well so she wants to leave early. Now for us, half a day actually means 6 or 7 hours, which is almost a full day for a lot of people. Apparently nobody else could go in for work today because we had depleted our covering for this week since my boss decided to take a mini-vacation at the same time >.> Things always goes wrong when you don't have a back up. That is murphy's law. The last time I took a week off to do personal things (almost a year ago), same thing happened. I hate when that happens because I had planning for the day and people I haven't met for a long long time that I need to meet. I hate when people screw up my plan. Maybe next time I'll tell them I'm out of the country or something that I can't be reached @_@;;

4. Violin lesson: Still doing fine. Continue to do lots of practice. I noticed ever since I need to use my pinky, it messes up my positioning for the other fingers @_@;; Aie... need to practice more and more. I did a bit of piano practice too this week since the song we sang in church on Sunday was such a beautiful song and so nice to play. It wasn't very easy, but it wasn't hard either, just nice to play.

Shall Wii?

2007-09-09T03:23:44Z

I was supposed to buy honey, but didn't find it at the 2 stores in the mall, and ended up going in a video game store. There, they had a big sign saying "Wii is now in stock". That was the first time since the beginning that I had ever seen it available. So, after some debate and phoning my hubby, who didn't stop me, I bought a Wii! ^__________^ Right now I'm playing "Cooking Mama" and it is lot of fun. Strangely, I don't enjoy cooking, but I like cooking game. It is amusing to hold your controller like how you would holding various kitchen utensils and doing similar motions as for cooking in the game. I found it very exciting that the remote controller vibrates according to the game. Well, that proves how behind I'm in game consoles XD.

Violin Lesson: This week it seems to be less difficult on the pinky and other stuff. The songs seem to be easier to practice, which means I wouldn't have to be so rush to try practising everything before it gets too late at night. I got to try playing my own songs tonight. I managed to play some of the christian songs with my violin, which is fun. I can now play some christian songs that are in D, C and G major. I got to play together with my husband, who plays the guitar, too, which is kinda fun ^^.

BTW, I finished watching Kiniro no Corda on internet. I love this anime. There are a lot of insights about playing a musical instrument that I found it very true. It is very encouraging for me in learning violin.

色々

2007-09-03T21:53:55Z

I've finally played "Hourglass of Summer" 夏色の砂時計, a DVD interactive dating game that I bought from Anime North. I bought it for $15, which is fairly cheap, and it was buy one get a lower price one free. And then the person selling it decided to give me another cheaper one for free too. So I have 3 of their DVD interactive game (called "Anime Play DVD") for $15. The titles are "Hourglass of Summer", Tea Society of a Witch", and "Amusement Park". I did looked up a bit on them today and apparently they originally had adult content in the PS2 and PC version, but got removed when translated in English. I decided to play them in the order of price tag, from the cheapest to the most expensive, so I wouldn't be so disappointed on them. Well, I was right, the first one was nothing and kinda boring. Then it got better on the 2nd one. The 3rd one, "Hourglass of Summer" was the one I spent the money for, and it turned out to be pretty good. The time travelling and day jumping was a bit confused at the begining, which makes both the player and the character you play on having trouble to remember what was supposed to happen on which day. Things eventually come together as you get more pieces of the puzzle or the story. Anyhow, the consequences of the choices I made were kinda unexpected sometimes, so after I crew up a couple of times, I finally picked the right actions to get the best endding. Although you don't get to control most of the things, unlike video games, it turns out to be a pretty good one that I would recommend. It is a pretty long game. I also found out they actually made a 2-episode OAV based on the storyline:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v449060Dk2rApZW
They drew better on the original game though.

On a side note, I have trouble coping a DVD. It plays on the computer no problem, but when copying, the computer has problem reading one of the video file. I can't think of anyway to overcome that. Any suggestion, anyone?

I learned to play a board game yesterday. It is called "Settlers of Catan". The procedures and rules are a bit confusing, but it is pretty interesting. I'd like to play it again sometime, 'cause I didn't get to do what I wanted to do yesterday. I'm sure next time it would be better.

Violin Lesson: Lots of practices, lots of hard work, lots of sweating @_@;; Yeah, I sweat pretty badly on my things anyway, but now that I have to practice my pinky, I sweat even more, and on my neck too. @_@;; Things are doing ok. My teacher said my pinky is actually the longest among her students, which enables it to stand up a bit instead of going down flat when pressing on the string. Well, it is true my pinky is longer than hers, but I'm overall taller and bigger than her anyway, and her other students are kids. I still think my pinky is proportionally short compares to other fingers, and I'm still having trouble giving enough space between the ring finger and the pinky when pressing on the string. I suspect that might be the reason. Anyhow, I shall work hard, and it will get better ._.

It is nice to be off for a few days for the long weekend and do pretty much nothing. Errr...apparently I enjoy playing violin so that doesn't consider much work ^.^ Now....I'm going to cook supper.

Having fun

2007-08-26T04:19:43Z

Violin lesson: Still doing good. Practice, practice and more practice. Enjoy playing violin very much eventhough the sound is less than perfect. The only thing I don't enjoy is all the sweating I get everyday when I practice violin. Apparently my body generates a lot of heat when I practice violin, same when I practice piano, which I notice that too. But I sweat more from practising violin. I hope I get to burn some fat or tighten whatever muscle doing so. This week I have to use the 4th finger (i.e., the pinky). I'm still not so good at the finger numbering because it is different from piano. #1 means the index finger, but it is #2 for piano since you don't use your left thumb to play violin. It is quite confusing for me and I'm simply ignoring the numbering on the score to avoid getting confused. I know which finger it should be just from seeing the note. Now that I'm learning to use the little finger, I think my little finger is too short @_@;; It is quite a bit below the first joint from the finger tip, so I'm wardering my little fingers are probably proportionally shorter than most people. It can hardly give me the right note on the string. I'll see how it goes with more practice @_@;;

I went back to my old Tokimeki Memorial PSX game. It got stuck on the PSX the last time I play it. I meant it really got stuck because it seamed to be stuck on a section and wouldn't load further. It was a used game I bought from e-bay before. This time I got emulator installed on my computer and it played fine. I finished the game and actually the game went well and I got the best ending with the main girl. It is a highschool student dating game in Japanese, btw. I've got more games to finish....still in the middle of Tales of Phantasia in GBA, when I have time to finish it. I'm bad.... I need to finish one game before starting on new ones XD.

A Quiz

2007-08-13T03:35:01Z

You Should Be A Virgo

What's good about you: you have a quiet determination and aren't swayed by emotions

What's bad about you: you are an insane perfectionist and easily find faults in others

In love: you are obsessed with making your partner happy

In friendship, you're: helpful and giving - eager to be a true friend

Your ideal job: poet, flight attendant, or natural healer

Your sense of fashion: casual, upscale, revealing, conservative - you look good in all of it

You like to pig out on: a well prepared five course meal

What Sign Should You Be?

See? Not the first time I was told I should be a Virgo e.e;;

Twinkle twinkle little star

2007-08-12T22:39:35Z

Violin lession #5: Still doing pretty good. Now that I have more notes, I can at least play a couple of real songs. "Twinkle Twinkel Little Star" is one, and teacher said it is a song everybody learns to play violin will get to practice it. I've got a new book and this song is on it. It also have variations of the song, so at least I won't get too bored playing this child tune. This is actually a violin book made by a Japanese, so the instructions is actually in mutiple languages. It is in Japanese, English, French and German (I believe). It is a little confusing in that part to figure out what to read and what to ignore. I still have a tendency to read Japanese before English, even though I don't really understand all the Japanese. It is the kanji that immediately attracts my attention over English. Same way as watching anime, sometimes there are Japanese on the screen (like the title of the episodes and signs) and the translator would put English beside it, but I somehow always read the Japanese first and miss the English, then I'll have to reverse the tape/disc to read it once again in English to actually understand everything. I've also noticed that on the last page of the new violin book, it is the score for "Gavotte". That is the 2nd song Kaho (the main character) in Kiniro no Corda played on her violin. "Ave Maria" was the 1st song, but that she played spontaneously magically out of her heart. "Gavotte" was actually the first one she had to practice on, from her real violin practices. I'm looking forward to develop enough skills to get to the back of this book so I can also play "Gavotte". Right now it is out of reach. I have also researched and downloaded violin score from the web for the songs Kaho played in the anime. I've got "Canon in D" and "Ave Maria". "Ave Maria" is in fact in the same key as in the anime, because there are different versions floating around. I'm hoping one day I'll know enough to play these songs too. I've got the songs from the anime downloaded, btw.

The other song I'm playing is this chinese christian song. I'm sharing it here for those who can read chinese:
因主的名
曲/詞: 西伯
Copyright: Share Hymns

1. 造物主，今高唱您名字：
和平之君，得勝者。
地上古今的君王，
也折服於您面前。

2. 造物主，今高唱您名字：
全能之主，安慰者。
全憑主恩典憐憫，
令我滿心溫暖！

副: 全因主的聖名，勞苦可得安靜；
行走於孤單困惑裡面有主傾聽。
全因主的聖名，愁心可得歡樂；
祈禱的必得勝，我以性命來做證！

It is a beautiful song. We sang it a few times in the living camp last week. In fact when they were doing rehersal, I actually figured out a violin part to accompany it. Unfortunately I've forgotten all the notes already. I'll need to hear the band to play and sing it again and be spiritually moved so I can figure out the notes for it again. XD Anyhow, I'm playing the melody of the song for the moment.

Last week's church living camp was good. Lots of fun hanging out with friends, playing games, and also the workshops. The most memorable one was the Japanese clay workshop. We made a miniture mango cake that look very real and nice. We had about 20 people in the room, different gender and age, working hard on the cake. We actually got to make the cake, make the fruits and flower decorations that goes on it, and even put glaze on it, all in 2 hours. The most amazing part is, no matter how old we are, how much skills we have (or lack of), everybody's cake turned out very well, so everybody was happy. ^^ This type of clay will dry on its own and doesn't need baking. It is easier than I expected, I enjoyed doing it a lot. Now I know why some of my friends in church love this hobby.

And now a Kiniro no Corda (La Corda D'oro) meme:
NAME ♪ Rushita
AGE ♪ 34
GENDER ♪ Female
FAVOURITE CORDA CHARACTER + WHY ♪ Kino Kahoko. It has a lot to do with her being the main character, so I know a lot more about her than other charcters. Also she is a very friendly, protective, energetic person, and she works very hard to practice her violin. She is new in learning violin, unlike other major characters who are very good with their instruments, have a solid background on music, and have practiced their instruments since they were small. I guess I can relate to Kaho more that way and especially because she plays violin. She somehow encourages me to do my own practice.
FAVOURITE CORDA PAIRING ♪ Len Tsukimori x Kino Kahoko
OTHER ANIMANGA FANDOMS ♪ Saiunkoku Monogatari, and others
MUSICAL INTERESTS ♪ I play piano as a background. I've learned a bit of zheng, and currently learning violin. There are a lot of musical instruments I like to at least learn a bit, like flute and harp, if I ever have time and get to them. Right now I actually want to focus on violin and make that a semi-long-term plan, which would be longer than any other instruments, no sure if it will be as long as my piano history. I definitely hope to be better in violin than in piano (which I'm really not good at.....and not taught and learned properly when I was small).
OTHER INTERESTS ♪ Whatever web work I'm still doing, and video games maybe. I really can't do many things at the same time. For the next rather long while, it is just mainly violin @_@;; Oh, and my choir practice at church. I love singing too.
O RLY? ♪ YEH RLY.

Do re mi fa so la ti do~

2007-08-04T04:14:44Z

Violin lesson #4: Doing good. Fingers are a little confusing when there are more notes to play, but just a matter of getting use to it. Teacher said my ears are pretty good at knowing whether a note is played too high or low pitch. I told her my ears are actually not that good, but I practised hard so I'm getting use to the right sound. She said my fingers have pretty good memory on the positions to press on the string ^^. This week my shoulder doesn't hurt as much, probably because the muscles are getting used to the work load, and because I do a little bit of stretching everyday before practice. Now I have 10 notes, and finally a complete D major scale.

I'm going away for our church's living camp tomorrow for 3 days, so I'll be offline for a bit. I'm bringing my violin too, so that I can continue my daily practice at the camp. My friends seem to want me to bring my violin too. I hope I won't cause too much noise disturbing those who has rooms around my room.

It's been really really hot lately in Toronto. I have been sweating a lot, especially during violin practice. My bump and thighs are literally soak and sweat runs down my legs everyday when I practise @_@;; I don't like sweating. It is so sticky and icky.

Currently watching Saiunkoku Monogatari DVD. It is still very touching and funny. Too bad the English subtitles doesn't use the original Japanese names. The chinese who tranlates it decided to change the character names into Mandarin pinyin spellings (like "Seiran" became "Jing Lan" and "Kou" became "Hong") e.e;;, so I'm actually watching it in Chinese subtitles this time to avoid getting too confused with the names. I don't know much Japanese, but I do know when what I see on the subtitles doesn't corresponse to what I hear. That's the reason why I find most chinese translations are closer to the original than the english ones.

Gone Digital

2007-08-01T01:59:01Z

With a sudden idea I have, practising violin has gone digital technology. I was thinking what I should use to tune my violin and wondering if I need to buy one of those electronic tuner. My husband has one for his guitar, but it only works for a few certain notes that guitar uses. I had been using my piano, but realize my piano might not be exactly in tune. I used to tune my zheng (a chinese musical instrument) with my piano too when I didn't have a better way. I asked my violin teacher how she normally tunes her violin, but apparently her listening to the musical notes are so good that she just needs to tune by ear @_@;; All of I sudden I realized I can actually use my computer to tune my violin, especially since I practise my violin in my computer room anyway. I made myself a midi file of the notes and I can now tune my violin accordingly. Digital notes got to be accurate. And based on the same idea, I'm also using midi to help me getting the right note and pressing the right point on the string. My ears are not as good as I want them to be. I have a pretty good idea about the notes, but they can still be a little off-pitch. Playing along with the midi sure helps me to get used to listening to the right note and interval and positioning my fingers. I hope with more practice my ears and sense of tone will get better too. My friend said people who play violin get the most accurate pitch from all the practices. It is truly amazing.

Edit: Oh, btw, I accidently pressed "spell check" when I post this (which I don't normally use, since I suspect a lot of abbreviations or web slang might not work), and LJ's spell check said I made mistakes on the usage of "practise" and "practice". No, I did it correctly. As a matter of fact, it is the proper UK English way of using the 2 words. US English is just weird:
http://www.world-english.org/practise_practice.htm

>.>