FurryMaisy

Wishing everyone a very blessed Christmas. Don’t overdo the turkey, roast lamb, log cake, pudding, etc….

I have a secret liking for Taiwan idol dramas and some J-dramas. J-dramas mostly for their tight and fast-paced storylines, and idol dramas just for the lighter-than-air plotlines and beautiful eye-candy.

Recently watched a J-drama released in 2006 called Nodame Cantabile, starring Juri Ueno (loved her in Swing Girls) and Hiroshi Tamaki. It’s based on an ongoing manga by Tomoko Ninomiya. The main protagonists are students in Momogaoka College of Music, and classical music is the main thread linking all the characters in the series.

The boy Shinichi Chiaki is an arrogant perfectionist who is skilled in piano and violin, but secretly harbours ambitions of becoming an orchestral conductor. Although he lived abroad as a young boy in Europe, an incident on a trip back to Japan renders him with a phobia of flying, thus trapping him in Japan.

The girl Megumi Noda (Nodame) is a superbly talented pianist who prefers to play by ear rather than reading music scores, with an ambition to be a kindergarten teacher. Alas her piano skills does not extend to managing personal finances (she runs out of pocket money buying comic books and resorts to stealing lunchboxes from classmates to feed herself) and personal hygiene (bathes every other day and shampoos hair every 3 days).

A series of events made them students of the same teacher and soon they find out they coincidentally living in apartments next to each other. Nodame quickly falls in love with the handsome Chiaki. Chiaki, on the other hand, is fascinated with her skills on the piano, but struggles to appreciate her qualities as a person. Along the way, they meet friends who grow with them in their musical abilities and their love for music.

The supporting casts’ characters are well fleshed out, and each helps Chiaki and Nodame in their unique way.

Although there’s lots of classical music in this series, you don’t have to be a fan to enjoy them. Light and whimsical piano pieces are mixed the more serious orchestral pieces. Beginners will at least learn to recognize the few instruments played, as well as the names of a few more popular pieces.

I quite recommend this series.

Google Chrome is finally out of beta. It’s quite a fast open source browser, and each tab opened is a process on its own, so that if you manage to crash one tab, the other opened tabs are unscathed.

You can download the online installer at the official website.  

The online installer may not work if you are behind a proxy. Alternatively, download the  full standalone installer here.  (about 8.4 MB) 

Happy browsing!

It’s been 12 days since my cone biopsy. The doctor gave me 1 week’s worth of  medical leave to recuperate at home. It’s tricky when you have an operation where you can’t see the wound; you don’t know whether it’s healing well or otherwise.

Recovery is going well, I suppose. After a week, I still get a lot of brownish discharge, sometimes with a little blood. Plus, I can’t make sudden or violent movements around the pelvic area, as it seems to irritate the wound. Is this normal?

So far I’ve tried my best to adhere to a diet free of seafood, eggs and chicken;  Chinese medicine treats these foods as a no-no if you want wounds to heal well. It’s very hard to do so when you’re a meat lover, and you have a love for spicy food which invariably contains belacan! After this is over, I will swear myself off fish for a month 😛

I can’t do vigorous exercise, that’s the most irritating part. I’m turning into a lazy cow.

Thanks to all friends who called with well-wishes. Hugs and kisses to all!

No, I’ve not had surgery…yet. I WILL be having surgery at the end of this week. 

An annual pap smear returned with results of moderate dysplasia (CIN II). Immediately went for a colposcopy and had it confirmed as CIN II. So, I’ll be going to surgery for a laser cone biopsy. Recovery will be fairly fast, I hope. And after that, more monitoring to make sure all abnormal cells are gone. 

Hubby is taking it well for now. I know he’s worried, but not showing it. He’s taken time off from work to accompany me for checkups so far, eventhough he shouldn’t need to. He wants to hear it straight from the doctor’s mouth, as he knows FurryMaisy has a habit of glossing things over as unimportant.

Some info on CIN in general here.

I am a bit worried about this, as a history of cancer runs through the maternal side of my family. 

At times like this, I find myself praying harder in church on Sundays.

After Ana Ivanovic’s 2nd round shocker against a French qualifier, nothing much to look out for in the 2008 US Open. Well, except for the expected Federer vs Nadal matchup….again. Or maybe Jankovic can break her injury jinx. Or Andy Murray finally living up to British expectations.

Meanwhile, check out Ernests Gulbis, may hear more of him in the future, solid forehand, so-so backhand, a baseliner with some good touches. Kinda rooted for him again Roddick in the 2nd round, but seems to crumble a bit under pressure , hitting unforced errors left and right. Still, expect him to feature more prominently in years to come.

Got the sniffles again…. NOT.GOOD. MUST. DRINK. MORE. WATER.

Yay, my visa application is approved! But not without drama. Headache and nausea is what I got along with a pink slip to collect my passport in 2 days’ time.

The day started early for me. A 5.15am alarm from my phone woke me up from my deep slumber. Too early to eat, so made my way to the US embassy by 8am. Went through security checks, surrendered my handphone, then got a queue slip, (#726), handed in my forms and had my fingerprints scanned. So far so good. And then I waited for my number to be called for interview.

And I waited.

And I waited.

One by one, numbers after 726 flashed. 736….744….757…… What in the world is happening? Did they misplace my file? Are they trying to verify the contents that I wrote in the application form? And as I waited, my stomach started to growl, and caffeine withdrawal symptoms began to kick in. By 11am, I realized they may have misplaced my file, but I couldn’t go up to the counters and just ask because they were still calling out numbers, and will surely ask me to sit down and wait for my turn.

At 12pm, the number of visa applicants in the room dwindled to a handful, and I was resigned to wait till the last one is called (#810!!!!) before approaching the counter for help. The officer looked surprised, and quickly asked the backroom staff to hunt for my file. They found it after a while, and finally did my visa interview. The officer sounded a bit apologetic about me waiting for so long, and did a quick interview. In the end, he stamped his approval, gave me a collection slip (it takes 2 days for them to process and stick the visa on my passport), and thanked me for my patience(!). Finally stepped out of the embassy at 12.30pm. 4.5 hours in the US embassy!!! By then it was 16 hours since my last meal…. was headache-y and nauseous from the lack of food and caffeine.

Stumbled my way to the hospital across the road; no, not for medical treatment, but for food, as it was the nearest establishment with a cafeteria. Slowly sipped my coffee and chewed my lunch, as I was still queasy. Made a phone call to HubbyMaisy to give a summary account of my ordeal, and finally took a cab back to the office for work.

Finally, I can check out cheap tickets to LA, and start to dream about Disneyland!

“You cannot change the cards you are dealt, just how you play the hand.”

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5700431505846055184]
His ‘last lecture’ titled “Really Achieving Your Childhoold Dreams”

I’ve only heard about Randy Pausch when his book ‘The Last Lecture’ came out in the bookstores. Soon after, talk of his lecture spread among friends. In this unique talk, Randy Pausch exhorted the audience to strive forward and achieve their dreams, and never give up. I’ll be picking up his book at a bookstore real soon.

He passed away on 25 July 2008.

More about Randy Pausch here.

May he rest in peace.

Recently 2 friends asked if FurryMaisy and HubbyMaisy’s interested in joining them on a trip to the US West Coast (Disneyland, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon). They were looking for 2 more to make it a road trip (4 in a rental car is much more economical than 2). Great idea, I said, but first I need to apply for a US Visa!

Visa application – perfect way to kickstart my procrastination rehabilitation program!

After a few days of filling in the application form, scheduling an interview date, and scrambling for supporting documents (employment letter, bank statements, investment statements, blah blah), the interview will be tomorrow at 8am. Wish me good luck! Hope I don’t blabber away and give silly answers to the visa officer!