Just completed watching Kannagi yesterday and I must say it is one heck of an awesome short anime. It has all the ingredients for a romance comedy: The laughter value is there, a bit of ecchi content, and there were sad parts too. [No wonder Japanese otakus got mad when they thought the manga series was cancelled.] Wanted to read the manga but it seems the series has been stalled as the author is still recovering from illness. Guess we will have to wait for a while for Season 2 of the anime.
Particularly got attracted to the ending song of the series. Awesome! Haruka Tomatsu has one new fan. =D
My targets for 2009: 1) Make new friends 2) Get good results for exams and the big As 3) Learn Japanese after A Levels
My wishes for 2009: 1) To be in good health 2) Arsenal to win at least one trophy 3) Economy to recover 4) To be able to fit in with my new class 5) Google Chrome to support 3rd party plugins, implement more privacy options and fully integrate with download managers 6) Windows 7 Beta to be a success 7) World peace 8) ... and more LOL
2008 has been a rough year for me, being diagnosed with cancer after falling terribly ill during the early days of May.
I've been talking about the processes I face during my fight with cancer, but I haven't really reveal my thoughts and feelings through the whole thing.
When the doctor told me that I have cancer, my initial reaction was unlike anyone's. I actually accepted it and didn't feel sad at first. Maybe perhaps I have been anticipating it coming, as my health wasn't good ever since June last year. And when the doctor told me there was a cure, I was relieved, as finally the pain I have been gradually experiencing in my chest will be solved.
Ah, 0722 peeps that visited me on the first day must have saw me wiping away some tears. Actually that were not tears of sadness, it's the body wipes soap still on my hands, so when I rubbed my eyes, tears flow out LOL.
Then chemotherapy started to kick in. I think the whole chemotherapy process is perhaps one of the worst moments of my life. Having to sit for hours as chemicals are spammed into you. Boredom is one thing, having to stay in hospital for one week every 3 weeks. Side-effects are another. The loss in appetite is unbearable, and I remember by the last cycle of chemotherapy, I had no appetite for everything and only ate a few biscuits per day. Vomitting too gets worse as time passes by, initially the anti-nausea medicines were working, but by the last cycle, they were ineffective. Had to resort to sleeping to escape from reality.
And then there was difficulty in catching up in schoolwork. Fatigue set in but I continued to push myself, despite knowing that I probably couldn't catch up. At last, I realised that some things cannot be forced, and decided not to take my A Levels this year.
Then operation came. To be honest, I feared death then. But thankfully, operation was successful, tumour is gone, and now I need to be monitored for the next 5 years in case of there is a relapse.
Of course, after the operation, I stayed at home. And my social life was in tatters. I grew distant from my friends, and I stared at the computer screen for whole day. Often, there were times I asked why did this happen to me. However, I am a strong believer that things do happen for a reason, and this is fate. Life is full of challenges and I must learn to accept it.
One thing I regret during my long "holiday" is not maximising my time to revise. As of now I am in deep shit, oh well, I have a week to try to cover at least J1 schoolwork. Hope my trusty brain is still working, albeit a bit rusty.
In conclusion, I must say I am extremely glad for being given the opportunity to live life to the fullest again. The whole experience made me step back and think of how valuable life is.
I know it's going to be a bit hard for me next year, considering that I will have to be extremely independent in order to survive school. However, let's hope 2009 will be a fantastic year for all of us! =D
It's that time of the year again to do my traditional end-of-year reflections.
Shall divide my post into these categories:
TOP 5 Soccer Moments TOP 5 Events of the Year Reflections on My Life [on a seperate post]
TOP 5 Soccer Moments:
5)Eduardo's Leg Injury
Who could forget the horrible tackle by Martin Taylor on Eduardo during Arsenal's Premier League matchup against relegated Birmingham this year. Eduardo broke his leg and was ruled out for the rest of the season. It was also one of the turning point in Arsenal's title chase, as Birmingham forced a 2-2 draw late on, causing morale to dip. Without Eduardo, Arsenal lacked a striker who could finish off chances, something they lack deeply. After that incident, Arsenal never recovered, and lost the lead to eventual champions Manchester United.
4)Vietnam Suprise Triumph They say it will be Singapore or Thailand lifting the Tiger Cup, now renamed the Suzuki Cup, yet again. Instead, Vietnam sprung a suprise, beating both powerhouses of ASEAN to lift the trophy.
3)Manchester City taken over by Abu Dhabi Consortium A takeover that suprised the whole world, Manchester United is now property of Abu Dhabi Consortium. Announcing their huge plans to take the Premiership by storm, they signed Robinho on the final day of the transfer window. And with the winter transfer market opening soon, more money will be splurged to lure soccer stars to the Eastlands.
2)Spain: Champions of Euro 08 Spain finally ended their long wait for a trophy as they defeated Germany in the Finals to lift the Euro 2008 trophy. A deserved victory for the Spainards, who impressed everyone with the flowing football that they played.
1)Manchester United: Champions of Europe
Can't resist putting this up. Who could forget the infamous slip by John Terry, which blew the chance for Chelsea to claim the Champions League trophy. We know how the story ended, Anelka's penalty was saved and Mr Chelsea cried the whole week.
TOP 5 Events of the Year
5) Beijing Olympics This edition of Olympics will forever be remembered as Michael Phelps grabbed 7 olympic golds. Usain Bolt's amazing dash is worthy of remembrance, and Singapore winning a medal after a long wait is one to savour too.
4) Mas Selamat Toilet Break This should be the event of the year in Singapore. The terrorist, Mas Selamat, managed to flee from Whitley Detention Centre by escaping via...the toilet. Where he is now, no one knows. But don't worry, as our PM says, "WE WILL CATCH HIM!".
3) China Milk Scandal Yeah. China milk which caused kidney stones. It started from baby milk powder and slowly, more products are found contaminated with melamine. One thing people wonder is: WHY DIDN'T THE HEALTH AUTHORITIES DETECT IT EARLIER?
2) Lehman Brothers Goes Bust America was already starting to experience the credit crunch, and suddenly, BOOM, Lehman Brothers go bust. Other business firms start to suffer too, and America went into deep shit. The economic crisis spread like a bushfire to other parts of the world, and as of now, we are bracing for the worst recession ever since the 1980s meltdown.
1) US Presidential Election WHO'S THE MAN? Barrack Obama is, for the United States of America. Obama triumped over McCain in the race to the White House. After months of gruelling campaigning, it was Obama who become the 1st black American to become the President of United States. It signifies change for Americans, as well as change in their way of thinking.
Early morning kickoff with Aston Villa against Arsenal ended in a 2-2 draw, after Arsenal threw away a two-goal lead.
Seriously, it's getting all too predictable by now. Arsenal leads...opponents lose confidence...opponents score, regain confidence, Arsenal gets nervy, opponents equalise and may proceed on to win the game.
Our defence is like shit. Gallas should be sold before his value drops. Toure is not as good as he was before. A fellow Arsenal fan remarked that he wished there were 4 Sagnas. While I laughed at his comments, I found it quite true too.
We need a proper captain. With the absence of Fabregas, Almunia takes over, but he is too silent and not so commanding to be a captain. A captain needs to be able to motivate, have a lot of passion for the club and be a good role model for others.
If I were Arsenal's boss, I would appoint Sagna or Clichy as captain. These two fullbacks have the highest workrate for Arsenal, and they seem to play whole-heartedly for the club rather than money.
For our defence, we should sell Gallas and Toure, and bring in solid centre-backs. Fazio is a good choice, even Hangeland of Fulham and former gunner Upson looks solid if Wenger is looking for bargains.
As for the midfield players, we can get Toulalan and/or Veloso as our holding midfielder, and to cover for Cesc Fabregas, we can get our hands on Marcos Senna; although old, it is a short-term solution while our captain recovers.
And I would be glad to sell Van Persie and Bendtner, and in exchange buy Carlos Tevez.
Wenger should stop being a scrooge and his youth-are-the-best policy.
Or not, he might face the door out sooner than later.
A JC2 repeat student who's bored of his mundane school life. His name is Zainul Ariffin, he came to Earth on 11/11/1990 and he currently studies in NYJC.
More crap
An introvert yet sociable guy. Being quite the otaku, he turns to anime and manga and listen to JRock&Pop songs to fulfill his entertainment needs. He's a PC Enthusiast; once a computer geek but potential has been ruined by the hectic schedule of JC life. He's an Arsenal fan, so beware of his soccer-tard antics every weekend. He's 6 months into remission, having gone through complete treatment for mediastinal germ cell tumour that was discovered in 2008.
Currently he's looking for anything exciting or mysterious to spice up his school life.
