15 minutes blog of the end of 2007

This week I got some time to watch several Japanese movies:

• Shindo - (8/10) A story about a school girl name Uta Naruse, a piano prodigy child, who gives up playing piano, and always speak her mind. Thus, she is bullied by other kids for being straightforward. Oto Kikuna is a son of a small market, who practices playing piano to get into the music college. By a coincidence, they on couple occasions, and get to know each others. Each helping the others, the movie reveal the past about Uta's past about her father and piano.
  
• Kimi ni Shika Kikoenai - (6/10) Shinya Nozaki is a deaf-mute guy, who worked at a repair center. Ryo Aihara is a teenage girl without a cellphone, because no one ever call her. By some phenomenon, Ryo begins hearing a ring tone in her head, and she is able to communicate with Shinya by thought. The story progress into Shinya's effort to help Ryo overcoming her social obstacles without telling her that he is deaf. However, what should he do when she wants to meet him in person?
• Tennen Kokkekko (A Gentle Breeze in the Village) - (10/10) How do you keep the people awake, if you have to make a movie without any excitement or action? Based on Furusako Kuramochi's shoujo manga with the same name, director Nobuhiro Yamashita is able make me loves this movie. Tennen Kokkekko is story about Soyo Migita, an eight grader in a small town, where there are only six kids including herself. Being the oldest and the source of direction, she take care of the younger kids. When a Tokyo boy of the same age moves in, she finds herself attracted to him. The movie digs into her daily life experience on friendship, and love. Note worthy mentions: Kaho's performance, and the cutey Shoko Fujimura with little screen time.
  

So, this post is a lot longer than 15 minutes. Actually, there are more movies I have watched, but I'll save those for later. You know what? It looks like all these movies are teen movies... hmmmm.

15 minutes blog of a gift card

On Thursday, I just got a $50 gift card, which is usable at any Westfield mall. As I walked through the mall today, there came a significant realization of something important about myself. I do not know what to get for myself. It might seems like a stupid thing to say, but there is really nothing in the mall that I REALLY want. As I traversed through isles of stores and shops, I didn't find the clothes attractive, nor the electronic gadgets any worthwhile. One store that really caught my attention is a Hello-Kitty store, which is totally pink and full of people. It shocking to see such a store could exist and still make money. Anyway, in the end, I ended up buying a battery-less flashlight, which only costs $10. I could have bought manga, or anime. However, most of them are not very up to date. Disappointing. Maybe I'll just buy a Naruto poster, which looks pretty nice, although I don't really have anywhere to put them.

Beside that point, there is something else. I never really buy anything for anyone else before, so this buy-for-myself experience is something less than successful.

15 minutes blog of a sad December

Is it only me that never understand why there are so many bad things happening during December? While so many people tried to be cheerful and festive in December, I believed many more people are feeling down. Money problems. Family problems. Relationship problems. December is a hard time to those who are feeling down. I think there are two reasons for this heighten depression. First, December is the time when people evaluate what they had done during the year. It will go like something like this...

Another year just went by. I am one year older, and yet I am still nowhere.
Still in debt. Still did not find right person. Still have no bright future.

Then, just to top it off, people around them are in a festive mood. They are partying, shopping, and getting ready for Christmas and New Year.

To me, this year is not that much different from last year. Still single. Still trying to find the right person. Ha ha ha...

15 minutes blog of a final good bye

I never imagine that today I would say farewell to two friends. One is a co-worker, and one is a long lost friend. With my co-workers, we had a getaway celebration. Fifteen people were eating sushi until we could not eat anymore. It was the last I will ever see him again, which was sad on many levels. He moved on to a new job and a new place, and I am here. I can live with that, it is perfectly fine.

Then there was this old friend from college. I found his email address in an email that was buried in pile of emails. I send him an instant message saying hello. At least, I thought he would greet me back. Rather he turned blind eyes, switched mode, and pretended that I didn't even exist. How sad was that? What more could I have done, if he chose to walk away? I deleted his contact off the instant messenger. After so many years of finding old friends that I used to talk to, I realized that so many people do not care for friends.

Maybe I am just old fashion.
Maybe I am just too naive.
Maybe I am just insane.
Maybe I am just lonely.
But I have no explanation to why people don't treasure friends, family, and life. You don't need many friends to make you happy, but why turn away from any opportunity?