Fallen Angel on Books...

I'm reading some good books lately. Let's see, I finished not too long ago the first in a trilogy by Suzanne Collins called The Hunger Game. It was a great book and after I got to the last page I found myself hopping onto Amazon to order the second one right away which was just released not too long ago. I guess I was fortunate to read The Hunger Game later than most people, hence I didn't have to wait for long for the publish of the second one: Catching Fire :). But now I'm engaging myself in another huge novel, a second one by one of my new favorite authors Carlos Zafon: The Angel's game. Let me tell you, I'm looooving it so far. As far as I know, I wasn't that drawn into it as much as the first book I read of this author The Shadow of the Wind, but this one really is going in a new direction and still is very good on its own. At the same time, I'm reading another book (at a more leisure pace since this book is a difficult read) by Haruki Murakami, another favorite author of mine, and the book is called Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Some people don't care much for this book but I found myself liking it a tad bit more than his other works in the past, including popular ones like Kafka on the Shore (loved it in the beginning but grew weary of it at the end), or The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (I didn't like it that much, kinda hated the protagonist). Guess why I went for it? Because the book inspired an anime I love dearly Haibane Renmei. Did I tell you how much I love that little gem of an anime? Tsk tsk, I might have to blog about it later, few animes can make such a big impact on my emotions like that one :).

_ in the zone _

I watched some very good movies recently.

1) 3-iron (Korean)


This is a very poignant and quiet movie. Yup, you say it, I love my movies quiet and charming. They say 'still water runs deep', not that it's always true but for the most parts, I dislike talkative movies that are loud just for the sake of it. 3-iron is a movie about a strange romance between a guy who breaks into people's house when they're absent to live up their resources, in return he fixes up broken things for the owners and does laundry, and an abused woman in one of the houses he breaks in. She follows him and together they embark on a journey. The whole movie, the main guy never spoke one word, and the woman uttered only a few phrases, one of them I think was 'I love you'. And uhm, hehe, I watched the movie in Korean but still understood most of them just fine. That is to say how little dialogues this movie has, but it was such a beautiful beautiful movie of love that really tugs at my heartstrings.


2) Les Choristes (French)


Another French movie that I really really love, the other one being Amelie. This one is about the transformation a transferred teacher has on his rebellious students by creating a choir. The music in this movie is absolutely breathtaking. A very charming little movie that will leave you with a smile at the end, even though the ending was pretty sad itself, but it was also very endearing.


3) My kid could paint that (Documentary)


Woah, this documentary was great and thought-provoking. It's about this little 4-year-old girl who took the world by storm in 2005 with her amazing abstract paintings. People claimed that she was a prodigy until a program on 60 minutes stated that the whole thing was a scam, and that her father was the one who 'directed' the painting, and polished it up. One of her paintings could sell up to $20,000 or more. Imagine how it would be like when people suspect that they might be conned. The documentary never answered the question. Even the director was as confused as all the others. This deviation from just a regular documentary about a talented kid really took me by surprise. Really, this is a well-made documentary that would leave you thinking for days after it ends. And since it's about Art, it resonates with me even more.


4) Up (animation)


I watched this in the theatre the first week it came out and loved every minute of it. I'd have to say that I adore Pixar now. Their three recent movies top my list of favorite movies, with this movie moving up to the top, Ratatouille at the 2nd spot, and 3rd is Wall-e. I love the comedy in this, and the drama too. It was just so heart-warming, ahhhh...

I'm watching The Silence of the Lamb now, and it's really intriguing so far :). We'll see how it comes of this supposedly 'classic thriller'. Another movie that I really want to watch is this Italian film "Nuovo cinema paradiso", heard some good thing about it so definitely will check it out if I could find it.

That's it, folks. I hope you have fun this weekend!! My brother is leaving for a wedding in Colorado, aww.. I'm so jealous. This year I have not been anywhere exciting, huhu... feel like I'm wilting here with work and school all the time T^T... Anyways, that's it with the complaints, in fact, I'm happy where I am now, would not want to change it for anything *winks*... good day guys!

Please welcome our newest family members:

The fishies!!! I got these beauties several days ago and am busy keeping them alive, ha ha ha... *cruel laughter* or more like *cynical laughter*... I don't know, but taking care of pet or things in general does make one more responsible, or stressful :D. Okay, the thing here is... I don't know the rules of taking care of fishies. A friend pulled me into keeping them as pets, and I was like... 'sure, it sounds fun'. Three days later, one of the fishies crossed over to the other land and I was just... dumbstruck, not knowing what to do. I had to go to work early on that day and the fish just laid there, eye poked out, refusing to move. My heart ached, man... and was so heavy with guilt. I had to put him (or her, I don't know T___T) into the fridge and prepared his funeral later when I got off work. My evil brother even asked me when I will fry the poor soul, that just broke my heart, hic... I love these fishies though... they make our dining table more lively. My dad now goes home after work and the first thing he does is to look for these cuties :D. And there's this very cute story about my mom, hehe... One night our house just got so hot (thanks to the AC breaking down, another old story) and my mom turned on the fan, which is just directly above the fishies. A minute later, she came running over to a sleeping me in the living room (yes, I do sleep on the couch in the living room 'occasionally', no scractch that, make it 'very often') and asked in that panic whisper: 'An, will the fishies be okay? Oh, I'm kinda worry...' haha, that was just.... soooo... cute of my mom. She was worried about the fishies because she turned on the fan? haha... that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside for some odd reason ^^. So now... I'm trying hard to just keep them alive... sounds very morbid but hey, at least two of them are still swimming happily in the tank and everybody in the family loves them and waits for them to grow big to... whatever, whatever... not eating them of course, or... I don't know... it's almost 1:30 am here so my mind is rather frantic. Don't take my words too seriously :D.




Last Friday was fun ^^v. Be' Mam invited me to join her birthday party in the park. This time around I decided to make something to keep her office desk less lonely. So I crocheted a clueless Cactus dork who likes to stick to other people's business (hence his note reminder self!) and a spilled Mocha cup dude whose only hobby is to sit around and let people sip on him -__-; Yea, they suck major ball but uhm, I tried 0.o;a and I'll try harder next time, hahaha :D:D.



Last but not least, I just wanted to say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the Mothers in the world!!! And especially to my very dear lovely mother, I LOVE YOU LOTS AND LOTS <3333 (I know she won't be reading this, but I really just wanted to say that :D). Got something special special for her too, heheh :D... I hope you all have a good mother's day with your moms. Treasure your mothers, for you're extremely lucky to still have her by your side until this day. I thank the Lord everyday for my mom and family and friends. To still have someone to care for and say I love you is one of the greatest blessings ever. Have a wonderful day!!!!!!

Running away... God, please lead me to you.

LEAD ME TO THE CROSS
By: Hillsongs



To be honest, I'm feeling very down lately. It's that feeling of emptiness like nothing is worth looking forward to anymore, like all the hopes within me is drained away, leaving my soul wrecked and dying...

I'm being closer to God now than I was ever before however. It feels like I've been running away and closing myself off from the face of the earth, at least for this whole week... but God is showing me that what I've been doing will only add to my pile of agony.
... that I'm a coward.

It's gonna be so difficult and I'm very scared. Almost my whole life I've been running away when faced with a challenge or difficult situation. I'd rather give up... but this habit is hurting me so bad lately that I just can't bear it anymore.

I'm going to face my fear today. Please, God help me reach your heart. Amen.

--------------------------

Another horrible attempt at watercolor -____-;;;a... Hm... what was i thinking... well, i'm not so sure since I'm sick today and trying to get over my serious stress/borderline depression. Guess it does say something about the state of my mind right now huh, lol.

Back to school... and hard at work.

School started again for me last week. I have 5 classes, and each one is around 3 hours long. On Tuesday and Thursday, I'm in school from 8 am to 5 pm, going through all 3 studio classes that last around 3 hours each -__-; It's a bit overwhelming and tiring, but I've set my mind to do the best I can for everyone of them. I'm amazed at myself.... since I'd never been this serious about school before. My classes are as below:

Monday: Adv. Drawing (8:30-11:20)
Tuesday - Thursday: Sculpture (8-10:50), Design Studio (11-1:50), Printmaking (2-4:50)
Wednesday: Adv. Drawing (8:30-11:20), History of Prints (2:30-4:50)

Thank god I don't have class on Friday, but then it's time for me to work, same on Saturday... and on Sunday, I've got to be practicing with my church youth group :).

The picture above is one that doodled in my sketchbook, photographed and transfered it to Photoshop to do a little clean-up before I started water-coloring it in Painter and then brought it back to Photoshop to do the final touch-up with colors and everything. I've never drawn using watercolor before, believe it or not so the result was quite... dismal. However, I've been sketching more and am getting more comfortable now. Good thing comes with practice... I realized this kinda late, but it's late then never, right ^^? I wish everyone a blessed week!!