despite all odds
written: 7:26 p.m. on Sunday, Apr. 25, 2004

The film I went to watch on Friday was okay. Taipei 21. I wouldn't think it were an arthouse film if it weren't shown during the film fest. I enjoyed listening to the dialogue, mainly because of my fetish for the Taiwanese mandarin accent (the wai shen accent, to be precise, and no, I'm not bothered to explain that) and the acting was great, especially the two leads. Great chemistry and all.

On the downside, I thought the plot itself was pretty pallid. Kinda bland. It was forgettable. I can't remember half of the film now, truth be told, save for the ending and some odd bits here and there. I enjoyed the homo-erotic vibe between the male lead and his Japanese friend though. Very nice. But maybe it's just me.

Another thing I found out on Friday: Bugis is shit-boring. I went there a couple of hours early in hopes of going on a shopping spree but I ran out of things to look at after half an hour. And it was only half an hour before the film started that I realised that Raffles City is only a ten-minute walk away from Shaw Tower, where the film was being shown. Bloody shit! I could've went to Mango! I am such a Mango/Zara/Esprit kid!

Okay, I'll look on the bright side: The only thing I bought that day was Maksim Mrvica's "The Piano Player". Which I will talk about later. So yep, money saved. Happy.

I tried on this skirt though at this obscure boutique on the second level of Parco Bugis Junction. I went in when I heard the opening gunfire of Jielun's "Zui Hou De Zhan Yi" (The Last Battle) and I was smiling to myself, about to burst into hysterics, but of course I couldn't. But oh, listening to him made me so happy! But I digress. Back to the skirt. It was a pink thing and it looked nice so I tried it on. To my horror, I couldn't yank it past my hips. I seriously don't think my arse is the problem here; it's the skirt. It was tailored for impossibly-thin people like Princess and I'm sorry, normal people don't wear things like that. It's crazy.

But yeah, the clothes there were made of shoddy quality anyway. Jielun was their only saving grace.

Maksim Mrvica is my latest obsession. He's hot. And he plays the piano beautifully. Too bad about his inclination towards techno though, hence "The Piano Player". He actually likes techno, said it helps him relax. What the hell? It gives ME bleeding headache. I liked the tracks on his album, especially "Claudine"; it's beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, and the best part? It wasn't techno.

I'm just ignoring the techno shit when I listen to his album and focusing only on his playing. He's really amazing talented. Watched a few live performances and my, he's just... he takes one's breath away. That feral intensity when he plays, almost orgasmic like sex... he makes the piano something sexual, sensual, and yet, at the bottom of it all lies this subtle vulnerability, a strange breed of cultured truth that he transmits, expounds, and somehow, you just understand.

And this is in spite of the stupid techno. I am so buying his classical album.

Seriously, classical and techno should never mix. What's the point? I don't get it.

Moving on now.

Yesterday was the parent-teacher meet thing. I tagged along with my mom 'cause she made me. My teachers' verdicts were unanimous: Yelen is intelligent, has the potential to achieve four As, but isn't working hard enough.

Yeah, tell me something I don't know, why don't you?

Actually, my Econs tutor did. She also said that I have the potential to do well in Econs. That was rather heartening but I don't know. I'm bleeding tired. But I'm not giving in.

I'm going to shower now so that I can annotate my England, England and finish my stupid complex numbers assignment. I fucking hate complex numbers. What the fuck is the point? Why do we need to know what the square root of a negative number is anyway.

Then again, we don't really. We just do a whole bunch of retarded calculations, solve strings of nonsensical equations, to get results that don't make any more sense.

Ah well. I chose my fate. I live by it.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010