22 posts tagged “thoughts”

Reading is one of the many pleasures that I enjoy. From young I've always had a fascination with the written word. Truly I admire the great story tellers. These days I seldom have time to join the library to borrow books. Neither do I have time to read the books in the specified time for the loan of the books.

Over the years I've accumulated lots of books to read in my leisure time, but ever since moving to my present location, I've not been able to read the old books that I love. Luckily for me there is the Internet. I've been visiting sites that provide free books and I've also been downloading lots of e-books and audio books. I've yet to finish reading all the books I've downloaded.

Currently, I'm uploading all the books in my cyberlibrary to mediamax. As I like to share the written wealth, here is the link to it: http://www.mediamax.com/arwenna/books

There is no passwords on this link. Feel free to download the books and spend many happy hours travesting the works of all the authors. Some you'll need the Microsoft Reader, Adobe Reader or DJVU reader to read. Others you'll need Stuffit to unpack before reading. I hope you'll have lots of fun reading. Some of my favourite authors are Louisa M Alcott, Emily Bronte, Anne McAffrey, Robert Jordan, Tom Clancy and many more. In time I hope to update this cyberlibrary with more books.

Being a fan of a group of guys who are multitalented is very hard. It's difficult to buy goods and well nigh impossible to attend events unless one is prepared to go to great lengths to do so, for example overnighting it to queue for tickets, travelling miles to reach the place and sitting in front of a computer to ballot/bid for items.

This happens not just for Johnny's but it also happens for other talents. The talent agencies that manage these groups definitely know the power of mind control. Tie the carrot in front of the donkey and the donkey moves forward. The psychology of a fan is in a way the same. Tantalise with something and reap the rewards.

Much as I love the guys that make up the group called 嵐, I have a distinct abhorance for the way the upper management of J-Storm is handling their publicity. Case in point is Ohno Satoshi's Freestyle Exhibition. Yes, it is free but that does not mean that anyone can attend. Although no admittance fee is charged, they are selling "souvenir" goods that is coveted by the fans. Only those that attend gets to buy them. That is fine, very understandable but it's causing an inconvenience to the other patrons.

Why did they not anticipate the number of people that would be attending the exhibition? Some coming from overseas too. In this case the exhibition is too short a time and after all the publicity they had garnered, it is such a waste that the general public is not allowed to view the exhibition because now it has become an exclusive event meant for J-Web members only.

Being a fan, I am very proud of Oh-chan's talents and his debut in the Art world. It is really magnificent that his talents are show cased in such a manner. It would be even better if the general public can view his works and not think that it is just another Johnny's gimmick. He deserves so much more than being used as a commercial for the merchandising of the "souvenir" goods.

For me, I am not envious at all of the fans that got to view his art in minute detail and leisurely time. Neither am I envious that they could buy the "souveniers". I am just very proud that Oh-chan's works are appreciated and I do want more people to appreciate it. Art in any form is only valued if it can be appreciated by the beholder. Why can't Oh-chan's works be exhibited permanently somewhere, admission need not be free, but it is there and people will know of it and can appreciate it over time. Who knows one day "Satochi" maybe as valued as the "Mona Lisa"?

KYYYYYYAAAAAAAAA JUN-kun so manly. Ok, I take that back, he was manly until the part where they had to dance. Then he was a bit girly. BUT other than that I totally enjoyed this episode.

Watch for yourself.

The "LOOK" he gave Ogu-san was a killer.

The Ohmiyama trio eating off the same plate. So chummy.

The desserts were so mecha mecha yummy. I want to eat too!!!!

This whole episode had me drooling over Jun, the food and the chef.

The quality for this video is not that great since I had to lower it to below 200MB for divshare. This is for my viewing pleasure when I'm away from my home pc. Not for sharing as such, but the link is available for download if anyone wishes to.

D/L link: ASK 20070827

Last Saturday's Mago Mago Arashi was nice too, but watching Jun being whacked was not so enjoy. The highlight of it was most probably Captain's retaliation and Jun's kira-kira eyes when he got the correct answers. That boy is smart!

The files is being uploaded even as I type this out. Will post it here later.

D/L : MMA20070825

OMG!! It's been a killer week so far. My boss from Hell just came back from his 2 months vacation is piling work on top of work for me. No time for me to breathe even.

There are really a few things I want to comment on but I don't have the time to do so. I'll just touch briefly on some issues that's been bugging me or touched my heart.

1. Arashi members at the 24hour TV fund raiser. The guys singing We Can Make It with TxT makes me realise how much I prefer them as a group. Of them supporting the guy in his rock climbing endeavours and the way they have touched his life as far back as the year 2004 is heart warming.

2. Those 3 guys dancing to Venus is so cute. Read from Jen's blog that they did it again during the Nagoya concerts. I loved their expressions. They looked like they were having lots of fun dancing to it.

3. Arashi no Shukudai kun - Now that they have foud their stride in the format, it's been getting better. Last night with Every Little Thing as their guests, it was so much fun. We have happy froggies all in a row.

I'm sure by now everyone have watched it, but I will still upload for my own viewing pleasure. Later here.

4. Rumours, Gossips and Uwasa - Naturally when I read certain "news" it will cause some sort of reaction within me. Sometimes the news makes me giddily happy and sometimes the news infuriates me and sometimes it makes me wonder. BUT lately certain news have been troubling me. WHY the hell are they dragging my boys names through mud???????? I'm not saying they are saints, but they don't deserve to have their image tarnished and smeared not to mention being tarred and feathered.  

I really can't be bothered what they do in their private lives. IF they have girlfriends or boyfriends it's ok. IT's their life. IF they want to have one-night-stands, I'd say good for them. At least I know they are full-blooded males. What I detest is the way everyone goes so hypocritical and say idiotic foolish things. Going as far as saying that they will not support them, such foolishness.

What is it in the first place that made you a fan? For me it definitely is not their private lives. I'm a fan of Arashi because I admire their talents. Their abilities as a group to create harmony within their group, their cohesiveness, respect, friendship and obvious love for each other. Their individual talents is something that I look forward to them enhancing and developing further. I support their works. Does it make me any less a fan if they screwed up somewhere in their personal lives? NO, as long as they continue doing a great job at their careers, I will continue to watch their shows, buy their albums and singles, listen to their ramblings and get all gushy and in danger of a meltdown when they touch the lives of others.

5. Happiness PV - YES!!! We have another winner here. Sho-kun in kimono performing the Tea Ceremony *major meltdown*. Yama moments, OhmiyaSK love, Kaze bakaness, all the major interactions but WHERE is my Bambis hug/moments? Ok nevermind, that was just a small clip that I watched. Will await anxiously for the entire PV release.

So much for brief thoughts. ^_~

Kyaaaaaa MMA is lurve. Tanned Jun is so good. He looks so healthy. Captain's hair is as spikie as ever and I love the way he was ratting on Jun when Jun went for a dip in the sea. Wah, if Arashi members were serving the food, I'd queue in the hot sun too for it.

I finally finished watching it for the 3rd time tonight, editing and converting the file. Now hopefully, Divshare will not give me a timeout. Next week, poor Jun got whacked in the butts. Looking forward to this too.

My thoughts on the HYD movie, as a fan of HYD, of course I'm looking forward to watching it. But as a fan of Jun, I only hope that he won't be stereotype casted forever as manga characters. He need to expand his repetoire. I would like to see him taking on other types of roles, roles that would challenge his acting capabilities. Roles that do not need too much exaggeration, but subtle nuances to bring across the emotions of the character.

Will definitely pray that the HYD movie will have English subtitles to accompany the DVD when it is released.

Link to D/L MMA 20070818 : CB | DIV

Shukudai kun was totally hilariously crack. Those HOT summer food!!! I want the purin. This episode I got my ShoxJun hug though it's just for such a short time but DoS Jun when he hopped onto Sho's lap was so fun.

There were many moments that I liked. In the beginning after they changed into their jammies, Jun was reclining and watching Sho playing with the sparkler, then while Sho was doing his meditative, Arashi battery concert masterpiece, Jun and Aiba was playing with the pirateman game and when Jun lost on his first try, Oh-chan was patting him. Ahhhh Jun-hime got lots of attention and poor Nino was jealous that Oh-chan was paying more attention to Jun-hime than to him.

So much love for this episode. Then there is Aiba and his nearly dropping off pants showing off his package. ^_~

Nino pulling Oh-chan up to seat himself better and best of all ShoxJun moments. Too bad the ratings for this episode is low despite the pajama party. Pajama parties are love, makes me wanna join them and laze around. And they have a new spot called U no Arashi. Soon they will run out of letters for their Nantoka no Arashi.

Watch for yourself ne! Bah, will reconvert to avi later.

Link : Shukudaikun 20070813

Ahhh Shukudai kun just aired not too long ago. All those screencaps says a lot. BUT the highlight for me is this :

*HUGS*

It was an eventful night, although I think I might be turning into a recluse where Saturday nights are meant for watching subbed Hanakimi, 2nd - Nth round of Yamboy, MMA and generally catching up pn all my other drama watching.

Watching the latest episode of MMA is so much fun, especially the last portion where they had the talk and game. I hate to make screencaps, so I''ve uploaded my copy of MMA to Divshare for those having problems with Clubbox. Shirtless Jun in next week's preview is truly droolworthy. I want Monday's cominf Shukudai kuna and next week's MMA NOW!!!!

Nino want's a butai starring all of them. I want a drama starring all of them and a few others too. Arghhh I want my Kenshin. Another thought came to me, wouldn't it be great if they did The Three Musketeers or something like that where they can all act together?

d'Artagnan, Athos, Portos, Aramis, but that only makes 4, one would be without a role. Anyway, here is the file link and the video for MMA.

Been rather busy for the past day or should say night. I went to the State Fair with some friends and I got myself a new henna design on my left hand. The last time I did this was about 1.5 years ago.

At that time I had a design with the Arashi kanji as it's central focus. This time the hennarist didn't know how to do a really lovely design with the kanji so I just chose a simple flowery design. I'm still gathering enough courage to get a real tattoo. It's painful and I'm the type that have very little tolerance for pain.

This reminds me of the Arashi decal-tattoo that Aiba had during the 2004 concert. He stuck it once on his arm and another time on his hand. I used to have those decals too. Once I saw a really beautiful butterfly decal and it looked really great on my back especially when the muscles were being moved, the butterfly looked like it was flying.

I've yet to see Jun with anything remotely like a tattoo. It would be interesting to see what design he'll choose. I wouldn't mind seeing a tattoo on him when he surfs (even if it was a fake one).

With their schedule being so crazy, I doubt that he'll have time to go surfing though. Next week's MMA is going to be something I'm really looking forward to. This week's MMA was fun and the talk was funny but those preview clips are too tantalising. Wet JUN!!!! 

Anata no yume wa~
Minna no yume sa~
Nagashita namida koete koko ni tatsu~
Ima koso kimi wa, hontou no Hero~

Hero is one of my favourite Arashi songs. The lyrics are encouraging and the melody is great. Very easy to listen to and memorise. My first encounter with this song was of course during the 24Jikan TV SP an annual Charity event held by NTV when Arashi was their Charity Personality Hosts for 2004.

In that period of time in the months preceding the event, Arashi members have each been helping handicapped individuals to achieve their dreams. The clips shown were all very inspiring. The one clip that got everyone going all mushy was the letter from Aiba to the group members. That clip have been disected and scrutinised by all fans.

What I want to say though does not concern that clip. There is another clip where they were at the Tokutsu Interview and they showed the Ohmiya scrambling from the futons in Sho's room when they were in Sendai for their summer concert. Towards the end of that clip they had the fortune telling by the platypus egg.

Ohno chose blue which said that he'll have bad luck. If he lets his guard down, problems may arise. He is to gather his spirit and tackle the issue. Lucky item Sichuan Eggplant.

Sho chose red and he was supposed to have very good luck. It further says that if he aim his goals high, his abilities will unfurl or bloom.He is to give his best shot. Lucky item wine shop.

Aiba chose yellow which said he had luck stagnated in the middle. In listening to other's problems he might find solutions to his own problems. Sound advice - consult someone. Lucky item - talk show.

Jun chose white which said he'll have medium good luck, He fits perfectly in teamwork oriented projects. He should learn to rely on others for tasks that he cannot manage alone. Lucky item drama on repeated broadcasts.

I, for one do not put much faith in fortune telling. It's for laughs but sometimes once in a blue moon they do coincidentally hit some truth.

For this time, I'm going to say that Sho, in a way the advice given him is true. As his ambition grows, he should work hard to achieve it and in doing so, his abilities grow as well.

For Jun, his lucky item is the drama on repeated broadcast. Hanadan comes to mind. The advise though is well given and Jun should heed that. He really does very well in teamwork projects and learning to rely on others. He is too much of a perfectionist. He'll expect everyone to be like him and will end up doing things himself even if he can't manage.

But in these 3 years since that broadcast, Jun have grown up a lot. He has learnt balance in his life prioritising his work and personal life. Achieving inner balance is important in a person. When one is imbalanced, then one cannot function to the fullest. Even in his recent interviews, Jun have said that he is much more balanced these days.

Gosh I'm going to need more than 24 hours to finish watching all my 24Jikan TV clips.

Edit: Jun's dream in accordance to the theme then was Sekai no Arashi (Hero). In my opinion, his dream would be reality soon, Arashi have fans all over the world now.