05 Tuesday Apr 2011
Day 3 — Your favourite G3 character
Grace Violet Blood
“To a fucking castle in the clouds!”
A firm believer in fairytales and happy-endings, something she partially attributed to the stories her mother had her read.
Grace is a ballerina, an actress, is prim and proper but eventually reveals her wilder side as the series progressed.
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Surprisingly there aren’t that many Grace quotes floating around in the intarwebz. Might give her episode another go to search for gems this weekend then.
04 Monday Apr 2011
Favourite G2 character is:
Oh, of course.
Emily Fitch.
“Be brave and want me back.”
Younger twin, often being overshadowed by sister Katie.
“[The] hugeness of Emily’s love makes her unique in Skins world and those kinds of people are scary to be in relationships” – Ed Hime, Skins Writer
More about Emily here.
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I was tempted to put in Naomi, too, and probably Katie Fucking Fitch because her character was awesomely written in Series 4 but that’s cheating lol.
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No, I’m not going to discuss how UConn lost to Notre Dame in the Final Four. Still stings.
03 Sunday Apr 2011
Let’s hope this one sticks and I’ll be able to finish this hahaha.
So, day 1 — my favourite Gen1 character is:
Cassie Ainsworth
“I didn’t eat for three days because I wanted to be lovely”
eccentric and suffering from several mental disorders — most notably, anorexia nervosa — and multiple issues, including low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, and drug addiction
More at Wikipedia
30 Wednesday Mar 2011
Posted in Sports
A few vids I found while still on this basketball high after watching the NCAA Regional Finals this morning. They’re a sort of behind the scenes all-access video thing of the UConn Women’s Basketball during the 2009-2010 season.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYcoFwmNiko
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grrlt50Zdag
30 Wednesday Mar 2011
Posted in Sports
UCONN vs NOTRE DAME | STANFORD vs TEXAS A&M
Okay, let’s not discuss that I scored an astounding 1 out of 4 in my picks. That goes without saying that this year’s Elite Eight has nothing been short of entertaining and surprising, even if it lacks that quintessential Cinderella story.
So Vandersloot and the Zags fell to Stanford, right? And that Skylar Diggins and the Fighting Irish upset the Tennessee Lady Vols yesterday. This morning, Maya Moore scored her 3000th point in a 35-point rout of the Duke Blue Devils, and Texas A&M’s Sydney Carter pushed her team over Brittney Griner’s 1st-seeded Baylor Bears and that’s with Danielle Adams struggling.
Texas A&M Aggies : 1st Final Four in school history
Stanford Cardinal : 4th straight Final Four
Notre Dame Fighting Irish : 1st time since 2001
Connecticut Huskies : 12th Final Four
* * *
With that said, I’m pulling for a UCONN – STANFORD final.
* * *
The AP All-America Team was released.
FIRST TEAM
Maya Moore (Connecticut)
Brittney Griner (Baylor)
Jeannette Pohlen (Stanford)
Danielle Adams (Texas A&M)
Jantel Lavender (Ohio State)
SECOND TEAM
Danielle Robinson (Oklahoma)
Amber Harris (Xavier)
Courtney Vandersloot (Gonzaga)
Nnemkadi Ogwumike (Stanford)
Jasmine Thomas (Duke)
THIRD TEAM
Shekinna Stricklen (Tennessee)
Shenise Johnson (Miami)
Victoria Dunlap (Kentucky)
Ta’Shia Phillips (Xavier)
Skylar Diggins (Notre Dame)
30 Wednesday Mar 2011
Posted in Japan Stuff, Life Oh Life
1. THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.
2. THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.
3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.
4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.
5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.
6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?
7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.
8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.
9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.
10. THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly!
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Reposted from the 2.000.000 People To Support Japan Group on Facebook.
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Photo gacked from here.
29 Tuesday Mar 2011
Posted in Sports
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp7h0iPhIrk
I blame my location and lack of coverage of Gonzaga games. Also work coz it devours time. And the frakking Tohoku Earthquake for throwing our lives in disarray when I could have focused on basketball. Okay, just for throwing our lives in disarray and wiping out cities and killing thousands and causing rolling blackouts and nuclear cores melting and radioactive isotopes escaping into every-fucking-where, never mind the fact that I couldn’t watch my basketball games. People have lost everything and some people are still risking their lives to solve the whole nuke thing and babies are seriously not allowed to drink Tokyo tap water because radioactive particles were found in the filtering plant and ugh, I know it’s been all said and done but when is this ever going to stop?
So anyway, to distract myself from the daily worries (it quaked again earlier, epicenter was at Fukushima, M6.4), I should have found out about Courtney Vandersloot earlier and probably have waxed poetic about her point guarding skills more than what’s necessary. You know, because my fave player on earth is still Sue ‘D!e B!tchez’ Bird and we all know that girl is in a league of her own when it came to being a point guard. Vandersloot’s draft stock had been upped since the Zags won the WCC Tourney and she set a record or something (2000 pts 1000 asts in all of NCAA Ball and most assists in a single season, I think). Will she be an early pick? I hope so. And I also hope that someone from the Western Conference drafts her — I gotta watch her play against the best of the best and, sorry you guys, coz I’m always wearing Storm goggles, that would be Birdy.
* * *
Fortunately for me I didn’t create my bracket at the start of the tourney (because of everything else that was happening here in Japan). If I did, I would have been dazed the whole day coz I scored an amazing 0 for 2 today. LOL. I picked the Lady Vols in Dayton because, really, if Simmons got it together, there was a chance, right? But she choked, the poor kid. And Skylar Diggins and Notre Dame was on a freaking mission so bracket broken there. And then, of course, Stanford just had to be awesome, right? With Pohlen finding her shot and the Ogwumike sisters doing just about anything right, Courtney Vandersloot couldn’t beat the Cardinal without her teammates, and so the Zags lost. Bracket fail again.
Ugh. I hope I get the last two later. Or at least the Philly Region. Coz if my pick in the Philly Region loses, Imma boycott the rest of the Final Four LOL.
28 Monday Mar 2011
Posted in Sports
Tags
March Madness \o/
Whew. Georgetown gave us quite a scare there. Of course practically all their shots had to fall, right? It also didn’t help that the Huskies looked like they were practically clueless on offense. Maya Moore’s shots weren’t falling early, Tiffany Hayes wasn’t dominant, Stefanie Dolson was being pushed around by the Georgetown “posts”, and Bria Hartley was going from left to right and looked really tentative most of the time.
And then, Lorin Dixon happened. The senior sparked the run that made the Huskies recover lost ground (down 7 or something), executed key defensive plays, and hit a baseline jumper. Credit must also go to Bria Hartley who looked like she gained confidence from whatever Dixon had made happen. Maya Moore was relatively quiet except towards the end where she did important plays to ensure the win. And of course, no one would be able to discount everything that Kelly Farris did to guard the Hoyas’ leading scorer Sugar Rodgers. Farris reminds me of Mel Thomas, a kind of a do-everything scrappy player that can guard almost anyone.
Bracketology
[Philadelphia Region]
Connecticut (35-1) vs Duke (32-3)
Pick: UConn. ‘Nuff said. Although they’d have to play harder and better than their game against Georgetown. Also, depth will be an issue but I’ll gamble on the fact that the Huskies have Maya Moore and everybody else doesn’t.
[Dayton Region]
Tennessee (34-2) vs Notre Dame (29-7)
Pick: Tennessee, just because it is going to be fun watching UConn meet the Vols in the Final Four, well, granted that the Huskies escape Duke.
[Dallas Region]
Baylor (34-2) vs Texas A&M (30-5)
Pick: Baylor. Griner, duh. Haha, kidding. I haven’t paid attention to this region except that Griner’s there and they grabbed the #1 rank from UConn during the regular season. It’ll be interesting how fast Stefanie Dolson would play against her if Baylor and UConn ever meets in the Finals.
[Spokane Region]
Stanford (32-2) vs Gonzaga (31-4)
Pick: Gonzaga. Just because I like Vandersloot and the fact that the Zags are the lowest ever seed (11th) to get into the Elite Eight. But aside from Vandersloot, I have no idea about the capabilities of the other Zags and how they would match up with the bigs of Stanford. Interesting to note here, also, is if Pohlen of Stanford finally wakes up from her shooting draught, I think Zags will find it very difficult to win.
[Final Four Picks]
UConn vs Tennessee → UConn
Baylor vs Gonzaga → Baylor
***
Thank goodness for March Madness. This certainly takes my mind off the aftershocks and the radiation scare.
12 Saturday Mar 2011
Posted in Japan Stuff, Life Oh Life
There’s something about experiencing massive quakes and aftershocks that don’t seem to end. I guess when we think about how we’re alive and safe and our houses not part of a massive misou soup due to the tsunami, that kinda puts things into perspective, and it makes you thankful, at least, that you’re marginally fine and not physically damaged or anything.
***
Still unable to form coherent thoughts. I’ll probably write more about this when the shocks stop. Whenever that is.
***
Update: March 15, 2011
So it’s currently March 15 already and today marks my 4th year anniversary of being in Japan. It’s been 4 days since the massive earthquake and we’re still experiencing tremors that it felt like our office building never really stood still. And yes, we went to work today even if it took two freaking hours just to travel from here to there.
***
My friends and I have been losing our heads over this nuclear meltdown thing and how radioactive particles released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant could reach Tokyo and/or Kanagawa. Lo and behold, radiation is present but they say it’s a really small amount. Our company president posted these values in our bulletin/news group/group page in Facebook:
Tokyo(Shinjuku) 0.809microSv/h
Kanagawa（Kawasaki) 0.209microSv/h
Comparing those with the usual levels they use for CT-Scan (6900microSv/h), these are still really low, right? I just hope those values won’t rise over the next few days.
***
It’s been, what, 3 days since I haven’t gone home because the train line that goes from where I am now (a friend’s place somewhere in the outskirts of Tokyo) to where I live (somewhere along the Odakyu-Odawara Line) has been cut off. I thought I could go back earlier since the line going to my station’s operational but the one connecting that line to the one I’m in just started at 2230H or something. I’m not sure when the trips will stop so I decided not to brave it out there and risk the chance of getting stuck somewhere that I don’t know the area of.
***
It’s March 15 and amidst the chaos and the hysteria and panic and whatever else shite there is, I almost forgot MarcT’s birthday. So anyway, before it’s too late — HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUDE!
***
When I was walking home from the forced overnight stay we did over at a hospital near our office, I was composing this blog entry in my head. I told myself I’d write those thoughts down when I get the necessary rest and time.
But then again, after 4 days, I can’t remember what to say anymore. I know that the terror I felt during the first 7.9 quake will never be erased in my mind and that will probably still be the most terrifying moment of my life (we were still inside our building during that one and we were on the ground watching the buildings sway during the massive 9.0 quake). I dunno, I’m not sure why I can’t exactly tell the story about that day. I’m pretty sure those people up north would blank out when they’re asked about their more horrifying experiences, too. Blank out or break out in hysterics or most likely just proceed about the whole thing calmly, like most Japanese people do.
***
I’ve never been more thankful about Japan’s strict building codes and their awesome earthquake engineering. Buildings swayed like crazy, yes, but at the end of it all, they were still left standing tall.
Exception to that are those up north in the coastal prefectures — Miyagi, Ibaraki, Iwate, Fukushima. The quake didn’t destroy their buildings and homes — the massive tsunami did. 🙁
11 Friday Mar 2011
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
Sylvia Plath