[23] star*days ~ your summer doesn't end here

TUE. 10/08/2004 - 11.55 PM * MANIA

Gosh, I'm now in MAJOR SMAP MODE.
Nope, I didn't even finish watching those three remaining discs in the SMAP MIJ CON VCD, but I am definitely in a major SMAP mode.
Yesterday I had the biggest craving to hear SMAP's CDs but I didn't have them with me in my pink Jordi Labanda CD book. So this morning before I went to work I made sure I brought some. I took MIJ, DRINK SMAP and 014 (what's the title of that one? I never know.) And I have been listening to them NON-STOP.
SUMMER GATE, FLAPPER, TOUCH ME, KISS ME, A SONG FOR YOUR LOVE, AI TO YUUKI, SHALL WE TAP, TOILET PAPER MAN are buzzing in my ears right at this very moment!
After a year, I'm still in love with Shingo's IT CAN'T BE. This song has a wicked intro and a wicked interlude. *hearts* The pronunciation is not 100% clear but it was a good try and it's one of my fave songs out of DRINK! SMAP album. I just remembered that Jin Akanishi sang it in Shokura around a month or two months' ago. I really loved that performance. Jin sings it very well although his English is not as good as Shingo's. I was enthralled to see and hear him perform the song.
Listening to the 14th album brings me a lot of natsukashii memories, though. Fi bought the concert VCD of that album about three years ago and that was when Shez was still around. We used to watch it and listened to it together. I bought the CD and brought it along to Italy. I used to listen to it in my room and sing and dance to it with Mikarin. So now listening to it again after two years had passed just makes me feel extremely nostalgic and I was quite near tears this morning! *sigh* Sentimentality...
I think this SMAP mania will last one whole month. I should consider making a SMAP layout. XD

Yesterday I had nothing to do at the office, since it's under a semi-renovation anyway. Nobody at the office could work, although the store was running normally. I spent the whole morning reading Roald Dahl's THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF CHARLIE & MR. WILLY WONKA.
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY is a very touching story! I was crying at some points of the story, especially when Charlie's family started to suffer during the winter, and when it is said that Charlie's family didn't have enough to eat! When Charlie found that fifty pence and bought chocolates and found the Golden Ticket... needless to say I was swimming in my own tears. When Grandpa Joe kept holding Charlie's hand when they visited the chocolate factory, I was swimming even deeper. It felt like, "Charlie's so lucky to have such a caring grandpa like Grandpa Joe!" Dahl is not only the master of twist. When his stories are not bizarrely thrilling, they are heartwarming and gives WAFFY feelings. And this book is just a perfect example of that!
CHARLIE AND THE GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR, on the other hand, is so damn funny I was crying for another reason altogether. I laughed my ass off until tears were coming out of my eyes. Reading his description of the President of the United States of America in this story reminds me so much of the current POTUS; with the Vice President being much older than the President himself and is actually the "power" as well as "brains" behind the "throne" (Cheney. Ring a bell?) And the whole thing with trying to get to the Chinese Prime Minister and the astronauts was just... HILARIOUS! This is an example of the "bizarrely thrilling" quality of Dahl's stories that I mentioned above.
One of the managers caught me reading the book and she teased me, "How old are you anyway, still reading Roald Dahl?" I immediately jumped up and argued, "DAHL IS TIMELESS! AGELESS! PRICELESS!" And she was, like, "OK, calm down." Hahaha. XD But it's true. No matter when you read it, how old you are when you read it, Dahl's stories still give you those effects. The magic of Roald Dahl, I call it.

I made a Daigo Stardust Fan Profile. It can be found over here. This will later go into the the fanlisting. You know. Just for the record. XD
Oh yeah, I'm resting my Daigo CDs for my SMAP mania. Of course, it's probably a good idea to do so, seeing that I've probably damaged them by overplaying for the whole length of last week. LOL. But I simply can't start my day without [SUMMER ROSE]. I just have to listen to it before I start working. So it's like my (current) national anthem. Hahaha.

I'm sleepy now. I think I've written quite a lot in three journals and a blog. It's time for me to close my eyes and wander off to dreamland. And also get my cat out of the computer room before he pees on something precioussss of mine. @_@

SUN. 8/08/2004 - 9.45 PM * SMAP MIJ CON

I've just *FINALLY* watched SMAP's MIJ CONCERT VCD. Yes, the one that I bought a few months ago. @_@ I don't know why I didn't watch it right away but anyway, I finally watched it today.

SMAP IS AMAZING!
I know people say that they can't sing and dance, but who cares?! They're great entertainers. Even though I've become a fan of the younger groups, such as KAT-TUN and Tackey & Tsubasa, SMAP will have my eternal respect. Because they truly are amazing on stage! You just don't see the younger Johnny's groups entertain people the way they do.

I've only watched Disc 1, 2 and 5. I like the MC part a lot! I love it when they take the piss out on each other, especially when Nakai and Kimura are doing that to each other. LOL! But it seems like Goro is being bullied a lot... XD He was being teased about his dancing, about having his parents watch him at one of the concerts, about the way he brushes off everyone's shoulders on stage or just about everywhere. Tsuyopon also gets teased a lot. But Nakai kept on repeating about his drunkenness. Bad Tsuyopon... always drunk! XD Oh and Kimura imitating the Kansai-ben of these two girls who ran into him... SO HILARIOUS!!!

Now speaking of the song... I really like this concert's version of SHAKE, etc. On the previous concert, they sang in SAMBA versions. This new version sounds good, especially with the beats. I also like the choreography. SMAP still *can't* synchronize their moves together but the choreography is cool. Kimura is a great dancer (when he's not overdoing it XD) and I have to say Goro's dancing has improved (at least, I think he dances better in this concert than in DRINK! SMAP). I also like the performance for the MIJ theme. I didn't really like the theme when I heard it on the CD but seeing the performance it was quite nice. :)

Of all the solo performances, I have to say, Nakai's solo still gets to me the most! LOL. It's probably the outfit. I can't get enough of seeing his male dancers wear the silliest clothes. The swan outfit, with the tutu and everything, on the DRINK! SMAP concert for the song "THE PEACE" was already extremely hilarious... but when they wore the poo-poo outfit... XD That just cracks me up!!! Nakai's final pose, where he squats and someone pushes a poo-poo top stick under his butt that makes him look like he was, erm, poo-ing is *the* creme de la creme of the whole performance! I LOVE IT!!! ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! Although, I did wish Nakai too would wear that poo poo outfit... he looked so great in the swan outfit. XD

The VTRs (junctions?) were not as good as DRINK! SMAP's ones, I must say. I don't know... maybe I'm just scared by the SMAP puppets. >.< They're scary. I don't really like puppets that much. But it was funny when the puppet of Shingo Mama and Cho Nan Kang appeared, especially when Shingo Mama slapped Cho Nan and then Cho Nan also slapped Shingo Mama! Wahahaha... but that's about it that I like from the VTRs. I wished they didn't have to use the puppets. @___@

I plan to finish watching the VCDs tonight! Three more discs to go -- 3, 4 and 6! Ganbarimasu! ^-^

SAT. 7/08/2004 - 11.25 PM * HISTORY

Just finished watching Shokura... it's a recap episode where they show past episodes. Theme is "HISTORY". There was this one part where Toma interviewed V6 abt their "history" and they showed this really embarrassing video of Inocchi in the past. Bwahahaha... that *was* embarrassing indeed. If I had been him, I'd burn the video right away and not let the producers of the show feature it at all even for fun. LOL.

Anyway, speaking of "history", a few days ago, I found my old diaries from years 1996, 1997 and 1998. I laughed, cried, and gagged re-reading all my diary entries from the past. ^^;;; Ahahahahahaa.... THEY'RE SO FRIGGIN' CORNY!!!
Back in 1996, I was ranting about Hollywood actors and Aussie models. Come 1997, I couldn't talking about football and football players. This continued in 1998, where I plastered my diary pages with printed pictures of Filippo Inzaghi. XD I nearly choked every time I read my own writing about my own crushes. Heh.
And I can't believe I used to be able to write so eloquently in Indonesian! :O I mean... eerrr... ^^;;; (I wonder when I started losing my ability to write in Indonesian. XD)
All in all, the diaries are very embarrassing. OK, so maybe I won't burn them or anything, but I definitely would hide them, or bury them somewhere and not see them ever again... just because they're so friggin' embarrassing. XD
*blush*

This month is actually TOMATOE DIARY's birthday month. So I have to prepare a 2nd anniversary layout... but... wow, I can't believe I've been blogging for almost two years!!! I remember my first layout. Andy of SHINHWA, courtesy of Fi. ... gee, I've come a long way from there!

Enough histories. Sleep. XD
(These days, I always have bad endings for my entries. Somehow, my mind is blocked and I can't really write good endings anymore. Mwah. :3)

FRI. 6/08/2004 - 10.45 PM * ONE FINE DAY

It's safe to say that today is by far the best day I've had in three months. ^_^

There are a couple of reasons for that but I won't elaborate because basically the most important thing that happened to me was: I GOT TO TALK TO BOTH OF MY CRUSHES TODAY!!!
Hohoho. ^o^
OK, my crush is not only E.K. now (who, by the way, already has a girlfriend in his hometown -- but I've decided completely disregard that fact and stay optimistic ... LOL! Hey, says who an attached man won't take another chance at love with another woman/man? XD) but also... I.L.!!! :D
He works in a magazine company (!!!!!!) ... okay, he works in the same company, same office... SAME FLOOR as my mom... XD In fact, my mom just gave him a stern deadline today for his magazine's media kit. And my mom said he was scared of her. LOL!!! XD Fuuunny. Anyway. His magazine and my bookstore are going to collaborate in the very near future so he's going to come again and again to the store and so I have plenty of chance to see him.
As for today... he came. Apparently my mom has told him that her daughter works in Kinokuniya so when he showed up at the store, Ririn-san introduced him to me and he commented, "Amanda looks a lot like her mom." Hee hee hee... :D And he hung around the customer service counter with Ririn-san for a while and Vira and I were like drooling all over the place. Because he is * that * gorgeous.

As for E.K., today he had a heart-to-heart with me. He was so sweet, asking if he could learn conversational English with me. (I WOULD GLADLY TEACH YOU, DEARIE!!! >.< --> YOU AND JUNNO CAN STUDY ENGLISH WITH ME ANYTIME!!!) And then we discussed the books that I lent to him. But most importantly, he told me all about the internal problems of the stationery section and he asked for my advice, seeing that I'm pretty close to the management (i.e. office people). He was wondering if I could bring this topic up for discussion with the asst. store manager.
Yeah, and then I found out that he's NOT younger than me... in fact, he's even A FEW MONTHS older!!! XD I told him to call me "AMI" and he said incredulously, "Just call your name like that? Uhm, I don't think I can do that. You're much more senior than I am." I'm like, "NOOO!!! CALL ME AMI, CALL ME AMI, CALL ME AMI!" LOL. And I was caught by my senpai... XD And she teased me endlessly for talking w/ E.K. Bwahahaha...

Another reason for being happy: I JUST HAD FAMILY DINNER AT AN INDIAN RESTAURANT... where the food is great. I LOVE INDIAN FOOD. YUM. Heh, heh.

Yesterday, I didn't blog because I was busy making my design portfolio. I copied my designs on to a CD-ROM disc, and then I screen-printed my websites. I want to give them to my mom and tell her to give it to someone who could look at it and give me some advice on web-designing/graphic-designing, or probably someone who could offer me a job as a layout design assistant in her company. LOL. XD --> yes, always trying to find a better job. ^^

Ahhhhhh, lovely day. Lovely day. I can sleep peacefully now. ^-^

WED. 4/08/2004 - 9.30 PM * WHAT'S THE POINT?

Heh. Back to the annoyingly busy life again.

BUTTTTT!!! I'm enjoying my days better now thanks to the upsurgence of several cute males who have appeared in my office... first there was that guy who applied for a position as a marketing analyst... he's been accepted and so he's going to be my colleague... Hohoho... ^o^ And today there was a guy from Reader's Digest - Indonesia, from its promotions dept., who's going to be collaborating a lot with Kino... and he's yet another hottie... of course there's E.K.... and I'm like, "BOY HEAVEN!!! OH YEAH!!! SHOW ME THE BOYS!" LOL.... XD Fuuuh... :D

OK, just want to announce that RUBY & SAPPHIRE // DAIGO STARDUST FANLISTING has been FINALLY included in the MUSICIANS: INDIVIDUAL MALE listing at the TFL.org (after, like, three months since I submitted my FINISHED FORM). So yay!!! Hope more people join the fanlisting! There are 44 members now... Whoohoo!!!

*looking at HUGH DANCY*
He's a hottie, ain't he?
Fell for him as Galahad...
And I just watched [ELLA ENCHANTED] and he's so droolworthy as Char...
I think I'm in ~~love~~ lust... *hearts*

I'm bored. I need some amusement. The things I do to amuse myself are... more than boring. They're bridging near PATHETIC AND HORRIFYING.
Like, yesterday, I amused myself watching THE LORD OF THE RINGS and memorizing the lines from the film... much that once was is forgotten... eeep.
After the film, I turned on my mp3 player and started singing to KAT-TUN's [DESTINY] for 10 times until I lost my voice and then when I spoke to someone at home, my voice squeaked. @_@
I need a life. I need to go out more and not just work, work, work, and sulk, sulk, sulk. I need to do yoga again. I need to play tennis. Whatever!!! I JUST NEED TO DO SOMETHING BETTER.

Maybe it's time I shut up 'cause I'm not making any sense at all! ^^;;;

MON. 2/08/2004 - 8.38 PM * TRAGEDY

Ask me if I'm happy.

Go on, ask me.

I'll tell you...

I'M NOT!

My leave is about to be over in a few hours and I'm going to have to go back to work tomorrow. NOOOOOOO... Me dun wanna go back. >.< I want extension on my leave!!! Hiks, hiks...

*sigh*

SUN. 1/08/2004 - 11.45 PM * I'M SLEEPY AND BLOATED

It's going to be a sad day when this day ends in about fifteen minutes because it means that there would only be 24 hours left before I have to go back to work and earn my salary. LOL.

To be honest, I got a better offer over the weekend. I was offered a translating job that pays me US$1300 per month until December but for that I have to go to a politically unstable country and after December I will be jobless. Not that I don't need the money but risking my life for all that money and then, if I come out of that country alive, not having a job after December? No, thanks. =___=

Where is Jon Stewart's show?!
Terry, where is Jon Stewart?! T_____T
Instead I'm seeing the Johns in LATE EDITION, with Wolf Blitzer. Believe it or not, I actually know who this guy is... thanks to Michael Moore. He mentioned Blitzer in DUDE, WHERE'S MY COUNTRY? XD

But let's not get political and stop the talk right there before I start rambling on the contents of the mad genius Michael Moore's book.
Let's talk about relationships. ... XD Hahaha...
No, seriously. Somehow in the past two hours, my thoughts flew to E.K.-kun. I don't know what inspired me to think of him -- probably the fact that I'm on leave right now while he still has to go to work this weekend and tomorrow -- but somehow I was just thinking about him and the thing that happened between us last week.
Sometime last week, on the day that Fi and I went to eat at Sakana, he suddenly came up to me and asked if he could borrow some books for me because he had no entertainment at his new place since he hadn't bought a new TV set and didn't know when he could get it so he wanted to read books instead. When I asked him, "Are you serious?" He said, "Yes, I am. I heard you have a very extensive collection. I'd like you to recommend your books to me." I was like... WHOA!!!
1. If it's just books he was looking for, why *me* while I could name three other staff members whom I've heard also have a large collection of books?
2. How the hell did he find out about my collection?
OK, so I admit I didn't really take him seriously that time, especially because I thought it was too good to be true that he was talking to me and asking me for a personal favor. I mean, we rarely spoke to each other and I don't think he even looks at me when I walk pass by his section to get to the main counter! So, I thought, why start paying attention to me or my book collection now? What's up with that?
The next day, I didn't bring him any books because I thought he was just trying to be friendly to me yesterday but as I was talking to dear ol' Frans, i.e. one of his close mates, he approached me and asked whether I brought some books for him. Inside, I was churning with the realization that HE WAS ACTUALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THE BOOKS AND THAT HE WANTED *ME* TO BRING HIM THE BOOKS! But as my tendency goes in front of the guys that I have major crushes on, I acted so cool and aloof in front of him and said, "Oh, sorry. I didn't have time to pick out any titles because yesterday I was so tired and besides my room is still messy. But I'll remember to bring them tomorrow." He smiled, said thanks and told me to bring him the good books. I nodded casually although inside I was, like, "AAAAAAA!!! OMIGOD, OMIGOD, HE'S SERIOUS!!!"
So the following day, I really brought him the books (three, in fact) and when I saw him displaying some stuff over at the IB section, I called him over and told him that I had the books. He smiled that gorgeous smile of his and I almost melted and we were like, "See you with the books later!" LOL. In the afternoon, just as I was about to make my way to have a final discussion with the Customer Service Staff, he called me and said, "Ami, are you going home yet?" I said, "Yeah, soon. you?" He answered, "I work overtime today. I'm going to eat now." I said, "Oh, OK, I'll just give you the books now." And he's like, "Oh no! You don't have to... you're going over to the CS counter right?" I replied again, "well, it's no big deal. i can see them later!" He said, "No, please, maybe later after I come back from dinner..." I said, "Look, I might not be here later so let's go get the books now!" And so we walked together to the office... at first he was walking behind me and I felt really uncomfortable with the position and told him, "Come on, walk with me, not behind me." And he laughed. Then we entered, I gave him the books, he checked the amount and he said, "Gee, thanks! Three right?" I answered laughingly, "Yeah, three. No need to check that closely. I'm not a library." He laughed (SO CUTELY!!! ^o^). And then he went to eat and I went to CS counter.

I don't know why I'm writing all this... well, probably it's because I just want to keep a record of this major breakthrough in my "E.K.-KUN CRUSH-DOM". LOL. But *sigh* I don't know what's got into me... talking and gushing about my real-life crush. I should be talking about my idols... but E.K. is really dominating my mind right now. Aaaaaahhhhh...

*YAWN*
Should get some sleep now.
Obviously, I'm not going to see Jon Stewart.
I'll just go watch some more Colin Firth.
And hope that the Tagboard stops screwing up on me.
Blah.
Nights!