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Light the tampon fuse

 

Periods are a bother, and I can't come up with a single reason why women could like them. That is, except blaming their own shitty attitudes on them. But ladies. Let's get real for a second. Blaming your period on your hasty, rude manner is not only offensive to those around you, but also disrespectful to your own body. Chances are, there have been times when you have used your period as an excuse - when you were not really on it but wanted to get out of a tricky situation. Stop it.
Being on your period does not give you an excuse to treat everyone around you like garbage. Yes, I know it hurts, and yes, I know the hormone levels are unstable, but please keep yourself in check! If you say something you didn't mean to say, just apologize and move on. Your period isn't responsible for the hurt feelings and death glares directed toward you - you are.
Your body works hard to keep you healthy, and all you give back to it is hatred and criticism. Bombarding it every waking hour of the day with thoughts of "not good enough" will not only exhaust your body but also weaken your mind. On top of that, every month the body receives a bonus helping of ill-wishes. It's only doing what it is supposed to do - being irritated at it is just as ridiculous as being irritated at the planets rotating around the Sun.

Bring it.

Opinion: Never Let Me Go

I found this to be a difficult novel to form a definite opinion on. Before reading it, I thought I would have liked it more than I really did. I picked it out from all the other library books because the author was Japanese; and I decided to read it because Time had declared it "The best novel of the decade." Unfortunately, I do not give it the same praise.
The book did not have a synopsis anywhere on it, so I decided to go ahead and read it blindly - I will not be making that mistake again. Not only did I have no idea what the author was trying to focus on at any given point, I also didn't understand some crucial elements, and missed many important hints altogether. As I read, vague ideas formed themselves in my head, but I only pieced together the message in the last two chapters.
After reading some reviews, there is a clear split down the middle - half the readers loved the book and the other half hated it. Due to this, I feel a sort of guilt that I thought it was mediocre (like I had missed something that would have landed me on either side of the line instead of dead-centre). Many reviewers said the story was beautiful; I hope to find this beauty in the movie.
I cannot praise the author on his writing ability, but he deserves recognition for raising moral and ethical questions about human cloning. Were it written better, with some of the explanations done at the beginning rather than at the end, the novel would have received a more positive response from me. The idea itself is thought-provoking and very, very real; but, it is a shame such an extraordinary story lacked minor details that would have made a significant difference.

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New Obsession: Elementary

Change is always hard to accept, no matter what form it comes in. If that is your case and you are a hard-core lover of old-fashioned Sherlock Holmes, you might hate this series with a passion. But if you are willing to accept that this adaptation is set in present day New York City, you may enjoy the clever, well-acted crime drama.
A rather offbeat show, Elementary is lighter than most of the violent crime solving series on TV today, and has a comical vein. It was interesting to see how the mind of Sherlock Holmes would fare in a modern setting. As you can guess, the plotline is quite simple: Sherlock, played by Jonny Lee Miller, is aided by Dr. Joan Watson, Lucy Liu, as they solve crimes in NYC. To justify their close proximity, she is his sober companion, as he is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. Having previously solved cases in England, he has his ties with Captain Toby Gregson, head of the detective team, played by Aidan Quinn. Miller and Liu fulfill their roles flawlessly (but, being wonderful actors, they could bring life to even the dullest scripts). The three leads have a pleasant chemistry and give new life to the classic characters. Their pasts are not presented on a silver platter, so solving their personal mysteries is as intriguing as the cases themselves.
Most American detective shows are clones of each other, and I'm glad to say that this one is not. Elementary has become something like an addiction, and I'm patiently waiting to hear if CBS gives it the green light for a second season.

Dance with me!

Opinion: Marley & Me

Amid the sea of novels and their movies, there are only a few stories that leave you at a loss for words. Watching Marley & Me on the big screen nearly 4 years ago, I shamelessly lost my proud status of never shedding a tear over a movie. Being moved by a book is a quieter, more intimate experience that leaves a deeper mark. Once again, the same huge, loopy Labrador has crossed all boundaries and left paw prints on my heart.
Marley & Me is powerful in part because its concept is so simple. Written from the perspective of a newly-wed journalist, the novel follows the mischievous adventures of Marley and the shaping of a family over 13 years. The autobiographical book is a relaxed, feel-good read full of witty humour and raw emotion. It lacks the usual glamour many books overflow with, and is instead told in a deeply personal, heartfelt manner.

I disgust myself.

I'm so glad to have found other people who are just as illogical as I am.

A Year in Quotations: 42/365

"Better to die standing than to live on your knees."

 

Che Guevara

A Year in Quotations: 41/365

"Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."

 

2 Corinthians 9:6

Les Misérables

The feels... My, the film was extraordinary! I had high hopes for it, but it genuinely surprised me.

 

The musical I watched 4 years ago was fantastic due to the vocal performances, and I have yet to hear a better cast. The softer vocals and emotional power of the movie do not make for a grade A musical, but they sure make a grade A film. Really, I can't pick a favorite performance, as the feelings the music influenced cannot be described. Every word, every note, was captured live in the moment with raw, trembling emotion.. There was a new sort of fragility to the pieces, a closeness to the character's mind, providing the audience with an ache of the soul.

Iron Chef: white mochi

Mochi are Japanese rice cakes made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and formed into spheres or cubes. They are traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki, and eaten on the Japanese New Year (or all year round). Similar snacks are found in South Korea, Hawaii, Taiwan, and Indonesia. Mochi are used in the making of other types of Japanese sweets - daifuku is a soft round mochi stuffed with sweet filling such as red bean paste or fruit. Yukimi daifuku is mochi with ice-cream inside.

 

Cooking difficulty: low
Clean-up difficulty: medium

Preparation time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 15 minutes

 

Ingredients:

- 1 cup glutinous white rice (raw)

- 1/2 cup starch powder

- 1/2 cup flour

Preparation:
Soak the rice in cold water for 45 minutes and then cook it as you normally would. Keep it on slightly longer (about 30 minutes) and add about 1/2 cup of water. Make sure you do not put in too much as the rice may then crumble easily. Cook until the rice becomes sticky and resistant to being moved around with a spatula.
Mix the dry starch powder and flour together on your table top (make sure to clean it beforehand!). Ready a bowl of water beside your cooking area.

Let's cook!
Place one teaspoon of the starch/flour mixture into a mortar, and one cup of the cooked rice. Using a pestle, grind the rice into a sticky dough. This takes several minutes and is good exercise for your arm. Once the dough is consistent and looks like paste, dip your hands into the bowl of water and mould the paste into a sphere about 1-2 inches in diameter, coating the finished product in powder. Make as many as desired, and place them on a frying pan at medium heat. Use a non-stick pan or extra powder on the bottoms of the mochi. Cook for 5 minutes, checking that the bottom does not turn brown but stays a light pasty colour. Flip onto the other side and cook until another lightly coloured shell develops. Serve warm and enjoy with soy sauce, laver, or plain!

Notes: While making this particular dish yesterday, I had a partner. It is not necessary as the recipe is quite simple, but fun is always an essential ingredient. Although our first try was a miserable failure and the end product looked more like rice-cakes than the picture above, we enjoyed cooking together nevertheless~

This year, I will...

As millions of people in this world, I too have set up some New Year's resolutions. Along with the ones I go for every year (being a better friend, getting in shape, staying on top of my schoolwork, eating healthily, and generally being a better human), I have three fun resolutions this year.

1. Cook at least 1 new dish per week and blog about the experience.
2. Become ambidextrous!
3. Read 1 book per week (books over 400 pages are allowed 2 weeks).

I enjoy cooking, but am not very skilled at it, so I thought it was about time I learned how to make edible food. As for becoming ambidextrous, I have an urgent need for it - when I paint my nails, my right hand looks like it has been done by a monkey. Who is blind. And has no arms.
If I follow my third resolution, I will have read 50 books by the end of this year (with the occasional fluke). That would make more books than I have read in the last four years.

I plan to keep all my New Year's resolutions this year, even the regular ones! I'm tired of starting over so many times only to fail once again. Now it's sink or swim  >_<

Opinion: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

I finished Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World last week, but didn't have the opportunity to do a proper review. What can I say, Haruki Murakami left me stunned once again. The chapters alternate between two parts - the "Hard-boiled Wonderland" part and "The End of the World" part. The narrator in the "Hard-boiled Wonderland" chapters is a human data processor who has been trained to use his subconscious as an encryption key. He works for a company whose purpose is to protect information, and, quite logically, a rivaling company exists that steals information. The narrator completes a task for a mysterious scientist whose laboratory is in the sewers of Tokyo, and eventually discovers shocking truths about his subconscious. The even numbered chapters take place at "The End of the World", an isolated town surrounded by an impenetrable wall. Residents of this strange town have no Shadows, and therefore, no minds. The narrator in this world has just entered the Town, and still has traces of his mind, but not his memory. His Shadow is cut from him and is expected to die in the winter, along with many "beasts", which are unicorns.

This novel took a while to sink in. I figure that this unfinished feeling is a puzzling yet common effect left on readers of Haruki Murakami. Last year, after I read Norwegian Wood, I had a similar impression as I did when I finished this book. I was a little bored with Norwegian Wood and rushed through the pages. However, as I learned soon after, that was not a good idea. The story did not want to leave my head for days, even though I was already reading another book. I was forced to sit down with myself and really think about the novel, pondering the ideas and concepts, how they applied to my own life. Similarly, with Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, I felt like I needed time to reflect on what I had just read, not put the book out of my mind when I had closed the cover.
The author does a fantastic job of encouraging this reflection process. Both books are written in first person, which makes it easier to imagine that the narrators' lives are our own. None of his main characters are described at length, save a few hobbies and past experiences. Murakami gives the reader an opportunity to paint their own picture of the character in order to better relate to them - often, they put themselves into the main's shoes. In Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, none of the characters are named. This allows the reader to plug in people from their own lives and live within the story.
Murakami's work is unique, in the sense that he doesn't provide all his ideas on a silver platter and the reader simply ingests it. If that were to occur, then reading the book would have been rather useless, as everything that is ingested must also be eliminated. Instead, if read properly, the story and message are digested. Murakami almost makes the reader think about the information he has presented, which results in his books being somewhat interactive - many pieces don't line up right away, but after some thought and inner discussion, they fall perfectly into place. The reader is ultimately left to interpret the storyline as it best suits their own life. In short, each of his novels embodies an opportunity to meditation and enlightenment.

Light up the Dark

Everytime I listen to this song, I close my eyes and fall into Wonderland, where Cheshire Cat guides me through the dark forest, always changing, never ending...

Yellow Light - Of Monsters and Men