thank God, alhamdulilah i got an extension for the essay! so now its due on the 21st of december, and i can hand it in simply online or if possible get someone to print out a hardcopy and submit that to the office. now i can leave for melbourne with less stress.

so, because i've been stressed to the point where i'm physically starting to go downhill, i took a break from work after lectures today and just watch dramas. specifically, this one: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Shining_Inheritance which is, i'm happy to say, the FIRST korean drama series i've ever watched!!! YAYYY!!!!

and can i say, it is AMAZING. honestly, i think it's going to be one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITES. possibly even better than hana yori dango, of which the first season i've watched 9 times with various people. since i have this theory (which has worked so far) that anyone who watches more than 1 episode of hana yori dango with me is going to be my friend for a LONG LONG TIME. like chern, and angela etc etc.

but anyway, YES, shining inheritance! OMG AMAZING. seriously. though okay, there are occasional lapses into looking into the distance and crying, but this is what the fast forward button is for! the characters are quite interesting, and well-rounded, and believable, and the way that they are developed in tandem with one another is very very good. and omg the humour is VERY WELL DONE, which i have to say is quite unusual for one of these romantic dramas. and i'm glad that the ending was very satisfying indeed, though i suppose they did leave a couple of loose ends to be tied up during the special.

i have to say though, i think the guy playing park jun se is WAY cuter than the main character guy. though the main character is, obviously, AMAZING. and the park jun se actor is kind of making me want to watch 'temptation of wife'. BUT this will definitely be on hold at least until i finally finish my essay!!

so basically my plan for tmr is to type out LOTS OF NOTES, since i cant bring my books to melbourne, and get printer ink refilled. ARGH printer ink is one of those things that there's no replacement for. then its eid on friday and i leave on sunday YAY!

I love this advertisement. It has a bit of a big-band, 1970s kind of feel at the beginning, which is in tune with the use of "Loco-motion" as the song, but quite strange if you realise that it's to promote the Japanese release of the iPhone! But anyway, I love it. I also love that Goro seems to mess up a bit right at the beginning, and that KimuTaku dances odd. Anyway.

Dahab literally means gold. The Arabic root of the word dza-ha-ba is commonly seen in the word dzahaba, or to leave. The idea it carries is that gold is something that is always in a state of flux, that it is near impossible to possess, as it comes and goes with human fortunes.

It is something you see on the coast of the Red Sea, where you barely see any local women past puberty, the girls there are little beggar girls running around offering you thread-bracelets in 10 different languages. They know how to say "Please buy this" in Russian, French, Spanish, and English. The blond guy my friend knows from her church talks to them and they flock to him, asking him to take their picture, smiling at him without reservations. The American guy we meet in the restaurant with Hebrew tattoos asks one to make him a bracelet, which she does immediately, pulling skeins of string from her bag and asking him to choose which colour he likes best. The local guys at the restaurants treat them familiarly, smiling at them and waving them off, unlike in Cairo where there are too many loud noises, and the child by my taxi at the end of the road in front of my house has hair the colour of Cairene dust, shockingly blue-green eyes, and either bruises or dust half faded beneath the shadows on her face as she offers me broken stalks of coriander or bags of limes. The children here all dive into the sea in the hot afternoons, the girls taking full advantage of these few years before they, too, are hidden away from the public eye, there is nowhere for the Cairene children to go but Cairo.

It makes an odd sense to me, that Dahab is permanently condemned to a state of flux. It is determined to be a tipping point, a constant edge of a knife. Of the endless miles and miles of desert nothingness finally broken by the dizzying blueness of the Red Sea. The boats here take you to Jordan, to Israel, to Saudi Arabia. There is good food here, but few trees. Mount Sinai is visible in the distance, along with innumerable mountains made starkly forbidding against the desert sky, which is nothing like the confines of Cairo's grey, impenetrable, permanent bowl of fog and pollution which makes it impossible to see anything at night but the streetlamp eyes of Cairo.

The sky in the desert is invisible, there is nothing between me and God here, nothing to struggle against except to fall back into the infinity that the top of Mount Sinai offers, the stars shining like an old-fashioned astronomy map, marked with hope and coloured by fever-dreams. We are wrapped in woollens and blankets even though this is Egypt and it will be burning in a couple of hours, we realise how deceptive this desert is, and how foreign we really are, standing at the top of Mount Sinai between a group of Polish Orthodox Christians and Indonesian Christian tourists singing Malay hymns I know in English, making me oddly homesick though I am neither Christian nor Indonesian. The sunrise shocking in its length, the sun coming up like a love-gift between the mountains. We watch it until the sun burns our eyes, discard the blankets that we have borrowed, and walk down the steep stones only visible in the light, half-falling down the mountains we climbed in the darkness before dawn, through old arches scattered amongst the rocks. There is an old, old Orthodox Christian monastery at the bottom of Mount Sinai, but it is closed on Mondays, as so we never have the chance to visit.






// all the photos and text are mine. i'm sorry i really have no idea how to resize the photos or to make them clearer, any advice would be appreciated.

much love,

it should read:
MATSUJUN KITTEH GETS YOUR ATTENTION.

i am so emotionally exhausted, but i do still obviously feel the need to share -something-.

so i will fangirl

firstly, omg i just watched magomago arashi ep 33, where ohno learns this fox-dance, and oh my word, i've never been much of an ohno fan but he is VERY GOOD. also, it is pretty amazing watching a guy try really hard at something (and do well).

i am developing feelings for ohmiya, unfortunately. i've never been that convinced of (current) akame, but ohmiya seems to get better with age. though, er, the large numbers of rather rabid fangirls are really a bit strange.

okada masaki is -VERY- cute and i'm happy he's not as young as my sister, since this is my limit. i only feel okay about fangirling guys older than my sister, which gets harder every year!

and i LOVE LOVE LOVE this advert. the japanese beatles is such a hilarious concept!

"Far from being generically closed in any conceivable manner, monotheistic kingship in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and beyond, is but a constellation of specific inflections within the more general phenomenon or Elementary Form of sacral kingship, just as monotheism is a specific theological and cultic inflection within the more general Form of the theological, political and social manifestations of divinity. "

al-Azmeh, A. 'Monotheistic Monarchy'. The Times of History: Universal Topics in Islamic Historiography.

--

this is one of the better bits. of the set text i have to do for tmr. because at least i can sort of make out what this sentence is trying to say. there are much worse ones. a lot worse.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO. OH MY GOODNESS WHY AM I DOING THIS COURSE?!?!?!

dieeeeeeeee~~~~~~~~

illogically, this


is making me really homesick.

back in edinburgh.

I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands

and wrote my will across the sky in stars

- T.E. Lawrence.

so. am back from malaysia, where had my first taste at pepper lunch! OMG amazing. i wish it was halal in sg! =( also, have gone for lunch at the green room in bishan park, which is a really sweet and chill vegetarian restaurant. had a gorgeous pumpkin and baby spinach salad with almonds, feta and pear sauce. AND apple crumble for dessert. oooh and the other day had AMAZING tau huey  (er, is that how you spell it?) at this lovely little soya bean store in potong pasir. i really like potong pasir, its so quiet and happy. really just chilling out these days, shopping, eating, staying at home. also h1n1 is on the rise, panic has hit singapore!!! yupyup.

have been downloading like MAD! love the internet. love subbers. LOVE. LOVE~ haha. must store up these things for when the cold bleak scottish winters hit, and am stuck at home. looking forward to watching kattun with risse. omggg~ have already preordered the arashi cd! yay! omg i am now officially a fangirl. am looking up cookie recipes to cook in edinburgh. cos right, i got a lot of these cool cooking gear like cookie cutters etc etc but i havent really used them because i am -LAZY- and i like one-pot dishes. but this is going to change! because this year i will be a lovely little hermit who muggs and cooks. yayyy~ anyway.

looking forward to more weeks of chilling until THE HELL THAT IS UNI STRIKES AGAIN.

love,

"The industries in the developing East Asian economies typically employ
mature technologies with limited innovation possibilities but the capital goods
and technology for which, mostly imported, have been fully priced (i.e., the
acquisition as well as royalty costs fully reflect the possible efficiency gains
and the amortization of R&D and other developmental costs) in the
international market, so that there may be little or no net increase in value
added, over and above the normal returns to the factor inputs. In other words,
the "innovation rents" have been largely captured by the inventors,
manufacturers and distributors of the new equipment or intermediate inputs in
the industrialized economies in markets that are only very imperfectly
competitive."

this is not english.

arabic exam is over, thank God. honestly i was so grateful to God that i was actually able to memorise a couple of relevant sentences for the essay component. including the term GDP in arabic. seriously it's like FOUR WORDS in arabic. argh was totally NOT expecting the 'gindibu the arabi' text to come up for eng-arabic translation so pretty worried for that. really, really just hoping/praying that can scrape a 60, which would still be okay for a first, if the rest of my subjects are okay.

next up, political economy of east asia and middle eastern politics. actually subjects i -like-. yayy~

i still wonder sometimes why i took arabic, since honestly, i dont think im going to be working in an arab country any time soon, and doing arabic in edinburgh really really sucks sometimes. but then again, maybe i should be more positive about it. and look forward to maybe doing japanese in the future! yay!

also, have been desperately wanting to WRITE stuff. like fic. omg i actually want to write fic. noooo.

i totally want to do an epic, islamic spain, court of harun al-rashid-style, je fic. with johnny as the slightly too-old but intensely controlling sultan, and then the court, the jesters, the ministers, the hangers-on, the musicians, the poets, the army, the scholars, the palaces and the insanity.

on a side note, i think yokoyama plays the traditional court jester role in real life. . not only is he funny, but he's also perhaps the only one of the johnnys boys that can get away with saying some of the more critical, honest things that he says. the truth, really. very court jester in king lear.

i was thinking, i dont know how long i'll be in fandom. but it will be good while it lasts.

a week until i fly home for summer! yay!!!!

from http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_4.2/ibrahim_interview.htm :

Q: You’ve also done a lot of work on Islamic thought and you mentioned before that the history of democratic and liberal ideas in the Arab world stretches back to the 19th century. What do you see as the relationship or the affinity between these progressive ideas in Islamic thought, and those from western thought like the Enlightenment?

A: Like all relationships, you would find, in Islam, a lot of strain and at a defense of the alignment of political and intellectual forces anywhere, you can push the freedom which goes back to the Mutazillites in Islam. Most people don’t realize these were free thinkers, many of them were persecuted by Caliphs and they had to flee. People like Ibn Khaldun himself, moving from one country to the other. So there is a conservative, reactionary strain in Islam that has always favored people in power. They will propagate a version of Islam that they push as the status quo, fueled with tradition, if you knew Arabic I could really say what phrase they use, and that is “to put up with a tyrant, is better than division.” So they call it in Arab tradition fitma the would rather put up with a tyrant that allows tradition (inaudible). And that would be the model of that strained conservatism. Don’t stand up to resist rulers because they may create division in tradition and they’ll set the Muslim nation, or the umma, back.

//

briefly, because i -am- supposed to be doing my m.e. yapp middle eastern politics readings. have some news clips that i want to keep, so am putting them up here. they're all on the recent scandal with smap's kusanagi and drinking and being naked in public. argh honestly it wasnt that bad! if it was the uk or something it would totally be a non-issue. poor man. honestly, i think being in johnny's must require some kind of coping mechanism, which is why they -all- end up smoking and drinking like there's no freaking tomorrow.


( SMAP's Kusanagi arrested for indecency )
( SMAP's Kusanagi dropped from commercials, TV appearances in wake of arrest )

more detailed piece on what he actually said at the press conference, rather sad, really.

( SMAP's Kusanagi apologizes to fans at press conference; admits drinking problem )
even the BBC covered it! AND the times, omg! honestly, i first knew about it because my flatmate - who isn't that interested in japan/ je boys but knows that i am - read the times and told me about it.

( Naked Japanese singer apologises )

so mfa rejected me for their summer internship. which okay, is a bit surprising, but okay. maybe its a SIGN. so basically i have NO JOB for my FOUR MONTHS back home in singapore. this state of affairs is unfortunate. MUST FIND JOB. NEED MONEY! siiiigh.

Fri, April 3, 2009 (2:00pm EDT)
Popular actor Hiro Mizushima (24) and singer-songwriter Ayaka (21) surprised the entertainment industry on Friday when they held a press conference announcing that they recently married. In addition, it was revealed that Ayaka will be putting her music career on hold.

The two apparently first met three years ago, but it wasn't until a magazine interview last spring that their relationship began to develop. The pair started seriously dating in August. They decided to register their marriage on February 22.

Mizushima explained, "She is indispensable to me. I thought, if I let go of her, I'll regret it my entire life." Ayaka commented, "My first impression of him was that he had really powerful eyes, and he could completely see through me. Right now, he is someone I respect from the bottom of my heart."

It was also learned that immediately after Ayaka's debut in 2006, she became ill with Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder. Ayaka tearfully reported that her symptoms have been increasing. As a result, Ayaka will continue with her music until the end of this year, after which she will put her career on hold. Mizushima promised to protect and support her.
http://www.tokyograph.com/news/id-4601

------------------
This is almost unbelievably sweet. All the best~

wrt my last entry, have read this: http://community.livejournal.com/konjanieito/17111.html

which is FLIPPING AMAZING.

and am now feeling much happier about the future of KATTUN. yayyyyy!

perhaps this is also because it's finally EASTER BREAK and so I'M FREE UNTIL MAY!!! YAYYY!!!

currently back in edinburgh, have too much work to do, interfaith meal on sat, so need to prep for that. also middle eastern politics essay on the 19th, and pol econ of east asia essay on the 11th of march. PLUS! presentations for the both. arabic is so slack this year, which i am actually kind of grateful for. need to go to the library now and DO SOME WORK.

EID MUBARAK! SELAMAT HARI RAYA!

well, so, this is the eve of eid, im alone in my flat in cairo because my flatmates are away and everyone else is busy. so what am i doing? i am watching johnnys boys. seriously. why is my mother worried? this is so much better than being depressed! there is also chocolate, and possibly some popcorn or pringles later.

what would i be doing without the internet?

i have to say, right, im not the biggest kanjani8 fan, partly because i havent seen much of their stuff, but i LOVE musekinin hero! it is such a hilarious song! and so catchy! kind of sounds like the songs youd sing in school during break when you're just going crazy and too damn bored by school. hmm. now that i think of it, kanjani8 reminds me of canada's arrogant worms. crazyass songs. I AM COW. MUSEKININ HERO. though obviously, k8 is much better looking!

anyway, from youtube: