(screencaps nabbed from Garten-sama here )

After months and months of waiting (and making myself forget once in awhile), the Nodame Cantabile SP has leaked into the intarwebs!!!! Yes! More piano-playing, more grandiose orchestra performances, and more random physical abuse between Chiaki and the ever 'hentai' Nodame-chan.


The Nodame Cantabile Special (or the Nodame Cantabile in Europe) was shown last January 4 and 5 over Japan. It is made up of 2 episodes, each a whopping 2 hours, acting as a  sequel to the 2006 Nodame Live-Action series. I've only watched the unsubbed 2nd episode though (thanks to the ever download happy Jardynnie) and I've yet to obtain a copy of the subbed 1st episode. But by God, it was like getting addicted to Nodame all over again. Almost all of the old cast appeared in the special. Kuroki-kun looked better. Stresseman is still perverted. Mine-kun and Kiyora are struggling with their long distance relationship. And now, two gay guys are randomly glomping and harassing Chiaki, the conductor.

And yes, there's even romantic development between Nodame and Chiaki (gasp).

For the torrent files, go to the eternal www.d-addicts.com

Or you could watch the subtitled ep 1 over at Veoh or something =P

P.S. Curious thing: The setting is in Paris and everything, but why why why do "Russian" and  "French" characters almost always speak in Japanese??? There's also random passing Parisians shouting "Yokatta" in the street. I mean, even the French Charles Auclair-sensei who spoke in (somewhat) complete french in the tv drama ended up speaking in (dubbed) fluent Japanese. My suspension of disbelief is slightly wearing thin. Hehe.

Remember Harlequin? Mills&Boons? Regency Romances? Those little romance pocket books loved by mothers, grandmothers, and some random bookish types like me ?

They have expanded and are starting to rerelease some of their old titles in Manga form (Japanese comics). And their books are printed with a flirty hot pink cover. xD

Link to a review here

More smutty manga I guess. Depends if they edit it to make it more young adult. Sana irerelease nila yung old romance novel na favorite ko. Wooo.

Five minutes ago, I was just browsing innocently on the net when I remembered to check the miyavi community I was in. The last time I visited was prolly months ago, about last February. So I thought I was kinda over Miyavi and I was just checking what's up and all that stuff.

Then bam, when I got wind of his new single and his upcoming album, I was squealing(silently! to avoid suspicion) and squealing and I couldn't keep the smile off my face and I knew...I KNEW that hidden all underneath my flesh is this little Miyavi fangirl just lying dormant for the past 3-4 months.

Damn. I still love that guy. Even though he's far prettier than me.

An epiphany hit me. Again. For what seems like the nth time this year.
After casting aside my Gundam model building (hobby?) after a short (and not really that sweet) 3 months, I have again these blind urges to do a certain something. Strong blind urges that overwhelm my waking life as of now.

So yeah, I have abandoned repainting that dratted Gundam Freedom kit for greener pastures (since I kinda messed it up and it's depressing as hell) and have left that Gundam God SD I bought at Greenhills unopened and unassembled because I was terrified of destroying the kit. (I'm hoping to eventually get back to it soon, after saving up money for that drool-worthy Eva 01 with Extra Finish!)

And now there are these new things I want to try and obsess myself with.
 

I just realized when I woke up this afternoon (oversleeping again T_T)that after all the excitement of the yaoi convention that I attended with appledasher and of the quick trip to quiapo yesterday, I had once again overwhelmed myself with the number of series that need to be watched this summer.

It's not that I'm forced to watch them, nor I'm a obligated to finish them at a certain time (like before classes this year @_@). But with so many series just lying around the house, altogether clamoring for my attention to finish them all, I am confused as to what series should I watch first. As of my official count today, there's a total of 22 series in my list. It's a far cry from my previous estimate of 13 series, in which my friend Ariel quickly responded with something like, I should move my ass or something and start watching them before any school work starts throwing me out of the loop again. 

But I guess judging from today's mood, I'm a bit partial to Kimura Takuya's Long Vacation, me being a rabid KimuTaku fangirl and all =P

***************
In the spirit of being overwhelmed, should I say that along with being swamped with a number of series, I'm also swamped with the number of unread manga in my hard drive.

There's no problem with the manga I download from the internet. Usually after I finish downloading them, I get right onto reading them. The problem lies in manga I get from other people since I usually forget they exist after a few days or so @_@.

An example would be this Blade of the Immortal scans my friend gave me. I'm crazy about BOTI. From its great heartbreaking story to its amazing pencil art, I'm totally in love with it. But until now, I have yet to finish the 4 volumes or so that are sleeping in my comp.

I can't help but apply the Gain-Loss hypothesis to this. Maybe because I didn't work hard for the scans (there's no loss in my part), that the rewards for getting/ reading it are not that high for me (the gain).

Haha. That's me being psyched about it XD.

**************

My real problem in here is storage.

Not the 22 series or the lot of unread manga.

My stacks of cds are invading the living room. I need a large cd file thing or something T^T. I need to get them organized!!

-Earlier today-

Tina: So ganito lang din ang gagawin mo kung hindi ka magsusummer classes? *looks around the living room, littered with piles of unwatched dvds*

Me: Oo *understands her implications that I'm better off taking summer classes*

******

Hindi pa ako nakaranas ng tunay na summer simula na nag-college ako. Lagi na lang ako nagsusummer classes kaya madalas hindi natutupad ang mga watery fantasies ko pag mainit na ang panahon. Ang masaklap pa nito kahit dalawang summers na ang ginugugol ko sa pag-aaral, mukhang on-time lang ako (pesteng Math yan!!! Pero sana sa last summer ko na ito, advance na ako).

Hindi naman ako adik sa trabaho. Naturally born lazy ako (and proven na siya countless of times). Ewan ko ba kung bakit naghahanap ako lagi ng sakit sa ulo, bakasyon naman. Ayan tuloy burned out ako lagi tuwing June.

Pero, sa totoo lang, tumataas yung GWA ko dahil sa mga sinasummer kong courses heehee.

******

Nagsisimula na akong tapusin ang mga dvds na nakatambak sa bahay. Kakatapos ko lang panuorin ang Fullmetal Alchemist series kahapon pati rin yung movie niya. Ang ganda T_T. Isang show na naman ang nagpaiyak at nagpaluha sa akin T_T. (Mahal ko na ang gumawa at nagdrawing sa kanya. Ang galing niyang gumawa ng characters at 10/10 ang story T_T.)

Anyway, dahil sa pagkakalkal ko ng mga dvd na hindi ko pa napapanood since time immemorial (woah, mga 7 tv series) may napansin akong trend. 5 out of 7 sa mga series ay serious/violent/philosophical/depressing ang nature. AT kinakabahan ako. Ako kasi ang mga bumili at pumili ng mga dvd na ito eh, ibig sabihin sa isang punto ng buhay ko ay sobrang nahilig ako sa kanila. Pakiramdam ko parang dito napunta lahat ng brain cells ko na dapat nasa Bio o sa pagsulat na papers ko nilalaan.

Kaya hirap tuloy akong pumili ng susunod na tatapusin na series ngayon. Naghahanap kasi ako ng brainless fun dahil nga alam kong duduguin na naman ang utak ko this summer. At wala talaga akong mapili. T_T

*EDIT (May 20 2007)

Kakapost ko lang nito... Haha. One month late. Saka ko lang narealize na nasa drafts ko ito. Iba na talaga pag puro sakit sa ngipin na lang ang iniisip *throb* *throb*.

Yesterday, after all the efforts to save what remained of my old hard disk, it was finally put to rest, along with a hundred or so of my important files that I wasn't able to transfer in the nick of time.

So now I'm technologically crippled. Even if I managed to get a new hard drive, all of the thingies (websites, pics, useful programs) that I've managed to accumulate are all gone and had disintegrated into cyber dust. Sad.

What I'm really feeling lost about is I wasn't able to burn my miyavi pics... Graaaaah!!

*****

I'm still going through life braindead most of the time. I'm hoping that after next week somehow I'll manage to get my sanity back.

*****

I found a new hobby, a friggin' expensive hobby that I shouldn't have gotten into (as if being a bibliophile and a dvd-addict are not enough to drain the money out of me. It's all Kristina's fault for giving me a robot for my birthday!!!).

It's gundam modeling.

When I manage to get a decent look on one of my gundams I think I'll post some pics...hehe

I couldn't think of any decent title. So here I am, stuck with a title of a Japanese song because I thought it couldn't be more right.

****

The english part of the lyrics go like this:

Birth...grow...mad...the end.
Bye bye, nineteen age.

(then Jap things ensue)

Happy re-birthday to me.

(then another verse of nihonggo)

Drink a toast to the death of Peter Pan.

*****

I spent the other night being generally angsty, spending the last few minutes until midnight studying-- which probably says something about how I'll celebrate my forthcoming maturity then.

Nothing screams of pure geekiness than having to hold on to a thick Biology book reading about vascular cambiums and tracheids while leaving some childish part of you behind.

Miyavi, Hyun Bin, Jun Matsumoto, Dennis Trillo...

Another has joined your fray.

I'm currently falling in love with Kim Jeong-Hoon.

May karibal ka na Aprille sa mga unborn babies niya!!!

*****

Just this morning, I got to borrow a copy of the kdrama Princess Hours (you know, the one that had been showing over abs). I never really got to watch the show on tv, since my father was a straight kapuso and I was entirely too busy fiddling and downloading something off the net *cough*Deathnote*cough* to care.

So here I was four hours earlier, inserting the first dvd into the drive. I was curious about Kim Jeong-Hoon's character, since Aprille had been gushing about him these past few weeks. I decided to take a little peek at the first episode.

Lo and behold, by the third episode, I knew, I KNEW he's so worth the gushing. How could a guy like that get away with his overall lovableness!?!?! He's sweet, sensitive, loves his Mom, and he has the right amount of angst that adds to his overall appeal.

Now I'm completely distracted from all the studying I have to do. Damn you Kim Jeong-Hoon!

One of my friends casually mentioned to me that when I happened to give her a copy of the Miyavi music videos, she found out that one of her neighbors recognized him, and was actually a rabid fan himself.

Back then, I felt someone happy. At least, there was proof that I wasn't the only fan in the country. He was pretty hardcore for a fan. He tended to copy Miyavi's clothes and go on daily cosplays (I mean, daily, really). He'll go out of the house wearing trench coats (you know, the black, reaching-the-floor kind), wearing what looked like Miyavi's sandos and boots. Me, on the otherhand, could care less about his clothes (ehem). I was more of the song/guitar/video addict. I realized then that although we liked the same artist, he's more into the clothes and looks rather than the music.

Then one day, my friend brought to school Miyavi's hat, borrowed from the neighbor person.

I was skeptical about the hat of course. I was interviewing my friend about how the neighbor person got hold of it. It's the Philippines demmit and you can't easily find rare things of Jrock artists lying around the sidewalks. I knew how these kinds of things are sold exclusively to fan club members. In Japan. In steep prices. I was sure as hell that the hat was just a replica, a copy bought somewhere else.

When I checked the hat with the pictures I had of Miyavi, as expected, I was correct. Of course, it was just a copy. Not even a very accurate copy, but a copy nonetheless.

But what kept bugging me was this. As my friend explained to me how she got hold of the hat, she also mentioned some other Miyavi stuff that the neighbor had.

"Meron siyang cd ni Miyavi."

"What?!?"

"Ayaw nga lang niya ipahiram. Kinopya niya yung music sa cds tapos pinaframe na nya yung buong original album".

"Whaaaaaaaat?!!?"

Now, I'm busy griping about how I don't have any relatives in Japan, and how it's next to impossible for me to get a hold of his album. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Gusto ko tuloy magpabili!!!!

I'll be back in school by Thursday. This also means that I have to work my lazy ass off and get started on some holiday homework. But isn't it nice to just sleep your day off, watch jdramas, read manga, and watch anime all day long?

Hell, I wasted my vacation rereading this instead of doing my paper. But it's more fun anyway.

( dsl rant )

Balik na ulit ako sa real world. Kailangan ng harapin ang sandamukal na journal entries at papers na kailangan kong ipasa sa pasukan. Pero kahit anong marathons ang ginawa ko nitong bakasyon (mapa-anime man o jdrama) nalaman kong marami pa rin akong nakareserbang bagay na imamarathon in the near future. Ayon sa aking ginawang listahan, 11 series pa ang kailangan kong tapusin. 2 doon ay hiram ko lang kaya dapat magmadali na ako kasi nakakahiya sa hiniraman ko =p.

Baka ipagpabukas ko na lang ang aking paper-making. Tutal may acquired talent naman ako for cramming. Hehe. Tsaka New Year na mamaya. Happy New Year!!

*****

Ang ganda ng Densha Otoko (Train Man). Kwento siya ng isang anime geek na medyo pathetic na tumulong sa isang nahaharass na magandang babae sa train. For more info, punta na lang kayo dito

Ito yung isa sa mga minarathon ko na nagbonding talaga kami ng tatay ko kasi na-aadik din siya. Isipin mo, nagpuyat kami hanggang 2 ng umaga para lang mapanood yung ending kahit may pasok yung tatay ko that same day. Yan tuloy na-late siya.

Nakakaiyak na nakakatawa, kasi yung bidang lalaki hindi naman gwapo (sabi nga ni Peps mukhang unggoy daw) tapos laging binubully ng mga kasamahan niya, anime geek pa siya. Nakakatakot tuloy kasi minsan nakakarelate ako sa ibang aspects ng anime geekness niya. Pero sobrang natuwa naman ako kasi at least happy ending kahit sobrang malas niya noong start ng series. Naisip ko kung may gagawa ba ng spin-off dito na drama. Magkakaroon kaya ng Densha Onna (Train Woman)? Hehe. Gusto ko lang yung concept.

Merry Christmas!

Yes. To You.

To all of you!

( music predictions )

( ongoing theme sa mga regalo )

( allergies tsaka gitara blues )

I've got a new guitar!! A.New.Gui.Tar!

And it has nylon strings!! Goodbye to painful strumming and the like... And my guitar is red!!!!!!!!

Even if my project proposal for my Learning class is still floating up in the air until classes next year, I want to start learning now. Hell, I'm going to search right now for Miyavi's guitar tabs like crazy.

Oh God. I'm so excited to do the guitar tapping and plucking thing haha, although I know it takes so much work and practice.

This is the first step to playing like Miyavi! Teehee

It's a compilation Christmas album from a-head records (Jap-based). 6 main artist contributed, singing in different languages: from Spanish to Tagalog (Yes, people. There's two Tagalog songs in the discography). It will be on sale in 22 countries or so. All the profits from this album would then be contributed to unicef.

I so want this album to be sold in the Philippines. *Prays*

Ehem. Don't get me wrong. It's not because of the two Tagalog songs. It's...*cough* Miyavi plays the guitar in one track of this album. So, he doesn't sing or anything. But he played the guitar in there demmit!!! If they are able to sell this stuff in some record store here, that will be the only time I'll be able to get my hands on some real authentic Miyavi stuff.


*Squeals*

Three long exams and a proposal paper stand between me and Yuletide bliss. And tomorrow's the dreaded Bio 11 lab exams, which happens to be move-type and the kind I hated most.

Erg. And this is me again procrastinating. I can't wait for the Lantern Parade this Friday. But I don't want to face such crazy exams!

******

I have new books! I have new books!
Well, two. A Tom Holt one (which my mother snorted at the sight of) and the first book of the His Dark Materials Trilogy (which is childish in my mother's opinion). I was actually going to buy Kafka on the Shore, but it suddenly decided to poof into nonexistence which made me depressed.

I am currently struggling to resist the temptation of reading them instead of sticking with the gargantuan books of Bio and Abnormal Psych.

******

My PC's getting scarier by the day. It suddenly blinks out while I'm surfing, dials a different number whenever I connect to the net, has a tendency to hang indefinitely when shutting down, and has become incredibly, mind-numbingly slow. I know it's all my fault what with all my downloading frenzy and installing stuff. But I'm trying to push back the inevitable crackdown and I'm readying my blank cds just in case I needed to save my files.

And my first step?

Uninstalling the antivirus program I've kept for barely a month. Haha.
****

This is Hitchhiker Love.
To be more specific, Marvin the Paranoid Android Love.

clicky and wait and read, a depressed 404 error page ---> http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/errors/404.html

****

I've done enough procrastinating. I'll update this now or face silence forever! (echo)forever(echo) forever....
( ishkul bukul )

( Case#1 meet Michael and my terrible sin )

But since school's still out and money's not coming anytime soon, I'll just treat everyone to virtual cookies. And maybe hugs. And I promise I'll be a generally kind and warm person. Because my nightmare's over.

I passed Math. The irritating CRS finally got over its electronic angst and I could see my grades for last sem's subjects.

Now I can go and run off towards the beautiful sunset.

Wheee!

****
( Death Note babble: Let the psycho wars between Light x L begin! )