Buzzer Beat

 

Synopsis:

Kamiya Naoki is a young player from a professional basketball team. But due to his relatively smaller size and his tendency to crack under pressure, he is unable to show his true skills on the court. Meanwhile, Shirakawa Riko is a cheerful, strong-spirited music college graduate aiming to become a professional violinist. One day, Riko finds Naoki's lost cell phone on a bus, and their meeting begins a friendship that eventually turns into love. However, Naoki was already considering marriage with his current girlfriend. And it doesn't help matters that Naoki's coach has fallen in love at first sight with Riko! 

My opinion:

In basketball a buzzer beater is a shot taken just before the game clock of a period expires, when the buzzer sounds. The shot still counts if it goes in. Often, a buzzer beating shot will be released from long range (even from beyond half court), making for a spectacular play if it connects.

With that kind of title, I am expecting a sport genre dorama!! In addition, the main character is Yamapi, I am expecting it to be a school life genre to attract the hoarde of teenage fangirls. This time, I am doubly wrong. It is more of a love story since the basketball matches are only featured in like first and last episode because the story goes during the break in between the basketball seasons. And the characters are aged mid 20s to 30s, so it is an adult love dorama. Lol!!

I don't normally like love stories because they tend to be cliched, boring, and mid-way of the story, I can tell what the ending will be. And for deviation from the usual love story, I would say that I love this show!! Perhaps it is because the characters are already adults so the story is also more adult and realistic. The relationship between the characters is also more mature and realistic. That's why I don't hate the antagonists here because in real life, there are people who are like that. More importantly, everyone has their own good and bad sides. This is clearly shown here: the antagonists are irritating, yes, but they are not devil. The protagonists are not angels too, they also have their irritating moments.

As expected for a love story, there will  be break-ups, new relationships and jealousy. But hey, the dose of jealousy is realistic. The dose of chasing the rejected love is also realistic. In the end, I think it's cool that they respect each other for having relationship with whomever they choose. Jealousy is over and life goes on as usual. No endless catfights, jealousy, ploy, etc. People can still be friends after breaking up/getting rejected. Moreover, it is very cool indeed to see people putting their relationship on hold to support their loved ones achieving their dreams. After all, in real life, some will 'sacrifice' relationship for stable jobs bla bla bla right? 

As other Japanese shows, it is never far from the theme of chasing dreams. This dorama manages to make the dreams more realistic. Naoki dreams to win a championship and Riko dreams to be a violinist. We all know that it is not easy to sustain life with these professions. And this is realistically portrayed.. The "ending" is also more realistic. It is by sheer hardwork (not by luck or miracle) that they reached their dream. Naoki struggled to get confidence (he got the skill but no confidence.. so it is not that he sucks but somehow becomes very good in basketball) while Riko still need to practice a lot and struggle hard to get a chance playing violin in  a shopping mall, a club, before finally playing for a small orchestra. Sounds very realistic to me!

In summary, the theme "Love makes you stronger" is presented in a more believable way here.. It is not a fairy-tale live happily ever after kind of story.

In fact, some of the petty details are very realistic too. At the start of the show, Riko and Naoki were actually on the same bus. But they didn't know this even after getting to know each other! Naoki lost his phone at that time and Riko found it and returned it to his coach. So they never met. Riko only knew after sometime when she saw the phone and realised that she was the one finding it and then she remembered that they met before previously. Certainly it's better than miraculously remember "aah you are that guy who chased after the bus when you dropped your phone" the first time they meet. At the end of the show, Riko was allowed by her boss to skip practice to watch the basketball match. Certainly, it isn't a cliche to have a nasty/unreasonable/unrealistic boss to have her choose either one so she has to sacrifice her job for relationship bla bla bla. So I am glad that there is more realism than dramas here.

There are many other "smaller" things which make me love the show. Firstly is the music, the music (and background music) featured in the show is also damn good. In fact, there are 2 versions of the soundtrack, one is for the emo occasions while the other one sounds more victorious. I am amazed that a few songs can be used for both emo scenes or romantic scenes. That's cool! Haha.. Well the similar thing between emo and romantic scenes are: they are tearjerking! Lol.. So touching songs ba.. (Okay, I am gonna find the OST now!! Lol)

Secondly, I love the clip for the opening song. I just think it's quite creative. And many of the scenes in the clip are not in the show actually. So it is not a spoiler. I wanted to share the opening clip and opening song but Youtube copyright issue is such a pain in the ass! Thus I cannot share anything =x

Thirdly, I like the casts. Haha.. There are so many pretty girls here... Even the irritating ones are quite pretty.. And I love Maya Miki as the mother haha. Lastly, the kissing scenes can be considered quite good. Kisses in Japanese shows always look very 'icy' as if the characters have to kiss because it's part of their job. Here, the kisses are 'warmer' and show better chemistry. 

One thing that I don't like is the fact that these few people end up liking each other and/or related to each other somehow. It's just so weird to have everyone you know (for example, your family, your friends, your colleagues) end up knowing each other and having relationship among one another. Certainly in real life, our social circle is not this small!! Haha.. That's my only irritation.

My afterthoughts:

I am 24 soon. I need to think about a girlfriend and getting married soon. Fullstop!! :p

And I guess non-high school dramas can be quite cool too eh? Hoho.

Pissed off again

Grr.. My work for the past 3 days turned out to be not so useful. I had to repeat because my sample was too dirty!! Grr.. Thanks to the suggestion of re-using an old filtrate.. I cannot blame anyone because it was I who decided to go with re-using the old filtrate and it was my fault not to have a proper and clean filtrate. But still.. if nobody gave the idea of using an old filtrate, I would not think about it! Who cares about saving up? I would obviously use the new materials. Sian.. And now I have to repeat it all over again.. Actually I have the choice to slack until next week. But then.. If I slack now, I will suffer later, especially since the P1 presentation is coming (and mid-October is coming too!). Shucks..

It seems that I am totally lifeless now. Every post of mine is just rattlings on my FYP :( Anyway today I bumped into my supervisor and again she was very nice! She wished me good luck haha.. Well I told her honestly that I am not feeling well lately.. Too many things to do.. OH well XD

Okay, it's time for a bit of random stuff. Haha.. It's a personality test from http://world.doubutsu-uranai.com/index.html.

Silver Pegasus person tend to be honest and your mind runs on a single truck.
Therefore, you tend to be little bit obstinate and hard minded.
You try to make your own way no matter what.
Nevertheless you can be kind and be sympathetic towards people, and tends to take care of them.
Your personality is that you tend to act rashly and can not stay still.
You are a responsible person and once you take up something, you will follow through to the end.
Your persevering character is recognized as a person who can be relied on, and many people have trust in you.
You do not possess good bargaining tactics.
However this weakness is one of your attractive sides.
Although you lack the fanciness to stand on the center stage, you can put hard effort.
Because you tend to follow your ideals, you may get in a lost when your conviction and beliefs are weak.
Sometimes you may feel failure even after putting in great effort.
You are full of adaptability, adjustability and taking action.
You will be successful by using these merits well.
You are a strong person and can overcome adverse circumstance without feeling gloomy.
You tend to be an idealist, and you can carry on expressing your self on something you feel strong about.
If you can get on a job that you wouldn't get bored, you will express great talent.

 

Haha pretty much accurate (those I highlight with my favourite colour)

Charice Pempengco

The first time I streamed this video, my computer could not take it and crashed 2x XD 

The voice is just too good eh?

Just would like to share this wonderful girl with super duper awesome voice!! I wonder how such talent never made it into a big news here. Haha.. I tried to wiki her name and she is that good to even have a wiki page. And reading her stories would just make everyone envious. I wonder how this kind of voice only won her 3rd place in the competition that she joined. Well but thanks to Youtube, she even got to travel to South Korea, to Ellen DeGeneres as well as Oprah Winfrey's shows. Wow.. And she got to sing duet with many of her favourite singers. But the most stunning thing is: she is only 18!! Oh my God!! (and that's a positive OMG! haha).

As good as her voice is, I think her voice resembles Whitney Houston's very much Her other Whitney's song (I Will Always Love You) is also darn awesome.. But her Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On does not come near the original.. Haha.. I LOL-ed at one of the comments given by a Youtube user: "Whitney Houston would NEVER allow this girl to sing this song in front of her..LOL. SHE KILLED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whitney cant do this anymore.". Haha.. Anyways I thought this song was by Diana Ross! Haha.. That means Whitney has a lot of nice songs!! Aaa~~h reading the state she is in right now is just a shame eh...

Experiment Results: FAIL!

I AM DAMN FREAKING PISSED!! Sigh.. I just wasted my Saturday in the lab for my stupid project! Haiz.. And guess what, after analysing the results, they were really big FAILURES!!! How can 2 different compunds give me the same UV absorption patterns!! Gosh.. One has benzene and the other has not but both gave me absorption at 260nm~.. I really feel like giving up on this stupid final year project! Grr...

I was super irritated because I had to concentrate one of my samples again. Grr... I saw the thing and it looked very dilute already. But my mentor asked me to add more water to wash the solid at the walls. Told him already that even centrifugation didn't work to flush those at the sides and he didn't believe. After adding the stupid water, it became too dilute for the UV to read... Grr.. Now ask me to centrifuge again! Zz... I have had enough of centrifuging the whole Saturday!! Aaargh!!!

I am down down down... I am tired.. I wanna do so many things: play games, watch movies, study for CA, work, rest, etc but I simply don't have the time! I am less that halfway for my CA revision and I am pissed that some people wrote wrong things. Thanks for wasting my memory space -_-" I am still utterly bitter regarding money with my parents. I don't know whether money is really the problem or it is just my escapism. Come to think of it, it has been 7 years that I earned nothing.. I have always been using my "own" money to support my life here.. Perhaps it is because that this money problem surfaces at the wrong time when I am really moody.

And to top up my suffering, my PSP is showing some problems. Few days ago, it didn't finish charging after 4hours. I decided that it was enough and when I played it, it only survived for less than 3 hours. I really think there is a problem with either the battery or the charger.. I shall see how it goes after few rounds of charging and playing.. Thank goodness both battery and charger are still covered within my 2 year warranty T_T

Family matters

I am back from a short trip to visit my grandma in Pontianak. I cannot remember the last time I went there. Few people told me different things and I honestly cannot tell whose memory is right. Anyway, I was so sad when I heard my grandma fell sick. I thought this would be the end =( Thank God she is recovering now. Only her legs are painful sometimes but other parts of the body are okay. I hope things will be better and I promise her that I will go there again next year after I finish my studies.

I am pissed with the adults. Sigh.. My grandma vomited blood and after that, for 3 days, people were scared to feed her. That was the reason why she fell really sick and became really weak. Now things are better since she starts eating again. Now I am only worried about her medications, whether people rotate her body around (since she is bed bound) and whether she drinks enough water everyday. Her children love her dearly but unfortunately everyone's love is a bit extreme. They would just nag nag nag because one wanna do this and one wanna do that bla bla bla then they would quarrel.. Since I am one generation younger, I just keep my mouth shut. I hope my dad, supposedly the best in terms of health knowledge among the children, would step up and have a greater say in how to take care of her.

Anyway my relatives are telling me that I slimmed down, my face is so smooth, I am handsome bla bla bla.. Dunno they are just bluffing, or I am being to critical of myself. I feel that I am super duper fat :( Weight-wise, it has been quite stable below 60kg for quite sometime.. but fat-wise, I think my proteins have all turned into fats :( I think I am ugly and I think I have lots of pimples :( The only thing I agree with is that I have a baby face. Haha... The more distant relatives (who never met me before etc) actually believed when an aunt telling them that I am 15 years old. Haha...

Ok now comes the emo part.. I just went to the bank to deposit my money. Haiz.. after the increase in hostel fee, I am left with a nett $500 per SEM (OMG!) from the scholarship money. Grr.. That just covers ONE month expense!! This made me angry again especially to my parents.. For 7 years, my spending has been stable and they should know very very well whether the money they send suffices! I hate being nagged upon money matters. I am not being calculative.. Even my angpau money or my money from my part-time job, I just lump them together in my bank account. And all of these are used up only for my daily expenses. Haiz damn sad.. Now I am wondering what I am suffering so long for what.. I have sucky life, I have no friends, I am stressed, I have sacrificed 7 golden years of my life, just for nothing!! Don't even talk about monetary benefits of the stupid scholarship. It is not enough!! My parents have to support me. And the worst part is: instead of being able to save up, I end up having to use my personal money for the bare necessities (food, transport, housing, phone here!! Fuck my life!

I am very emo after the test today. =x It was already a great feat to be able to complete my mugging. Sigh.. I thought I was quite "well prepared". It turned out to be the opposite. -_-" It was almost 4pm when I arrived and the LT was already full. I thought the paper was starting so I confidently walked to the lecturer wanting to quickly grab my question and answer papers. Damn paiseh when she told me that the paper was not distributed yet! Alamak!!!

The MCQ was pretty bad. There were quite a lot of questions that have dubious answer. My question 1 I already stunned... Is "trauma" or "past trauma" that matters as a risk factor? Grr... Then question 3 is also dubious again... I don't know to choose "no medication" or "vitamin C". Aaargh!! So irritating!! I already had the feeling that antibiotics name would come out but I didn't bother to check. So yeah, the broad spectrum antibiotic question I also don't know.

The SOAP was shit.. It was so shit that I was not very sad at the end of the paper because I am pretty sure everyone was in the same shit. But as usual, I think my shit hole is deeper =( I am very very sad that the things that I was unsure of and I decided to cancel off from my paper were actually CORRECT!!! The washing with cholestyramine is correct :( When I wrote down pharmacological options, I was already thinking of giving steroids as bridging therapy but then I forgot to write it at the recommendation!! Anyway it was quite hopeless.. I left "exacerbating factors", "non pharmacological", and "patient counselling" columns blank! I also forgot to write about infusion reaction, hypersensitivity etc.. And the "best" part was my smoke for cancer symptoms were wrong.. It should be FATIGUE! and I wrote FEVER! Just get the F right!!

DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Well at least there goes the first half of the sem..

Super emo..

My life is in a mess and I feel like a shit now. Not that things are going wrongly or what, I am just unhappy with my life :( I really have no purpose in life.. I just wanna die.. Crying no longer works.. In fact, I don't think I have got tears to shed this time.. Ow fuck.. Too many things are happening and I do not a stress-proof mind and body... Bleah...

A CA is coming in 1 day time and my study is still like shit.. I cannot remember what I have read.. I am not even confident that I can write some random crap or smoke :'( FYP is taking way too much time.. I am getting very impatient and agitated about it... I don't understand what I am doing and have no purpose.. Haiz.. Now I really with I am doing a non lab FYP. At least I can do the things from home. I don't need to rot my ass down in the lab. I miss those days in shorts and slippers. I am sick of jeans, lab coat, and the smell of gloves...

My grandma fell sick.. really really sick.. When I spoke to her, I could not help but cry. Sigh.. It was my first time hearing her so sick and so weak.. She never ever sounded like that despite years of having back and leg pain.. She would always talk for a long time on the phone be it about her TV show, her cooking, and many other things.. Usually it is always me finding excuse to put down the phone or my auntie telling her not to talk so long because it is expensive. But this time, she did not really feel like talking.. I am really worried that her time is close.. Especially since she asked when my dad is coming back from Europe trip.. I got the feeling that she would wait for him before leaving forever sigh... Anyway this made me really sad.. I would go see her this Sunday - Tuesday.. I know my FYP is gonna be screwed for missing 2 days but oh well :( Yesterday I heard that she got better but I shall see how in few days time..

As much as I am pissed with my mom, she finally lost her cool with me first.. She called me no manner. Haha.. But sorry, I am just not in the mood to discuss the shit I am feeling now. I am not in the mood to get some "lecture". My parents don't know what I am going through so all their useless suggestions just pissed me off. Call it teenage angst (a bit to late eh?).. I just don't see eye-to-eye with my parents anymore. Gone were the days when I was a good boy who cared so much about school, success, future, etc etc.. Now I just want to enjoy life. I don't care about school. I hate school! I hate my life! Yeah part of the blame I hate my parents for throwing me overseas. I hate this country!! 

Hate hate hate!! The hatred is just too strong now! Shouting screaming crying no longer work.. I just hate my life.. Why am I born in the first place? Why do I exist if my mere existence is only to suffer? Sigh.. I am also losing vision on God and any God-related activities. I was so angry with my stupid church last weekend. OH well, blame it on the stupid bus who never came on time that I was late for mass. But the church was so fucked up. There were so many of us standing. That should be clear enough that there were not enough place. Why didn't they just open the 2nd floor so that we could sit!! I was cursing throughout the mass. I know it's ridiculous to hate the religion or God for such thing. It's human's fault. I am sure the stupid church wanna save money on electricity bla bla bla.. Oh well, lucky I never donated for the so-called "church building fund". This is the most ridiculous church I have known so far. Why on earth they build a 2nd level if they did not intend to open it!

I am tired... Emo-ing just wastes my time and energy. I am not in the mood to do anything and yes that includes GAMING too! I just want to die! I don't wanna live anymore! Bleah.. I feel like like a prisoner in this universe.. My life sucks and I wanna die.. But I am also scared of death.. I don't wanna go to hell.. I have no idea where my faith will bring me too..

:( I am just losing control over myself.. I am just gonna go crazy at this rate.

I feel slightly better this week. After another showdown at computer centre, my internet is finally running normally again. Fiuh... Even though I am tired and stressed over school work, it seems that the main bulk of the stress is caused by lack of internet connection. Haha... Hardcore addict sia!!!

Half semester is almost gone and sadly, it is the time to seriously study already. I am very sad that I have no more "free time". All my free time and free days are used up to do lab work. Sigh.. To be honest, I feel a bit of regret. If I am doing non-lab, I will be slacking now. I can just read stuff on my bed etc etc.. I hate lab work :( It is so tedious and time consuming haiz...

At the start of the semester, I made a resolution to be a good student. Looks like everything fails. I just copy blindly my tutorials.. Sigh.. And I only realised that I have a test coming up next week! So far, I am conveniently thinking that all my tests will be after the mid-sem break. Plus all the burden on my project, AAARGH!!

Anyway today one assignment done ^^ I realised it was more natural for me to be Ah Beng than to be a pharmacist last time. Haha.. Now I know the direction of my future career eh? Lol.. Anyway, I was really afraid that it would be lame instead of funny. Thank goodness majority were laughing. Fiuh.. To me, it's mission accomplished. I don't care about the content and/or the grades whatsoever. To me, when it comes to performing of any sort, the main objective is to make the audience laugh :D

Sick :(

I am stressed and I don't have enough rest for the past few days. Sigh.. The climax was Thursday evening. After the talk, I had to rush through my proposal draft since I had promised to submit it on Friday. After burning midnight oil (and only had 4 hours of sleep), I was a living zombie on Friday. Skipped the afternoon lessons to rest and I could not wake up. Bleah.. The feeling was like waking up after 5 days of outdoor camp/OBS liddat.

My internet is still quite sucky and hence I decide to work on this weekend. Haiz.. I know it's gonna be tiring as hell. Yesterday alone, I stood for more than 8 hours. I have another event coming up today. Gg... Tomorrow I will start my lab and I hardly did any research for what I will be doing. I am just too tired. And doing research (with the shitty internet speed) will surely make me even more stressed and angsty. Sigh..

I am stressed over many things.. school.. fyp... and many more... My grandma fell sick... and I am very tired. I need to guard myself from the negative thoughts or else I am gonna be more emo. Sigh.. I am so jealous when I see my friends having such a good life like overseas internship and student exchange programme while I am stuck here with $5/day and treated-like-a-shit-by-shits internship, no exchange opportunities, and equally bleak future.. Bah... I feel so fat and ugly.. Too tired and too busy to exercise anymore.. End up binge eating.. Really sad le :(

And finally, I am not going to church this weekend. Sigh.. I wanted to go the earliest one.. But I was too tired. I woke up at 650.. It would be too late (usually I already leave my room at 650). I woke up at 10+ so I missed the 2nd mass... The next time I checked my clock, it was 1106 and the last mass was at 1115. T_T Still have the 5pm one.. But since I am working at 6pm, I think it's pointless for me to go halfway. Haiz.. I would end up being stressed because I may arrive late for work.. Aaah.. God forgives me...

I have one good news to share. Yesterday there were these 2 irritating patrons who complained so much because they had shitty seats and had to walk so far bla bla bla.. Grr I was damn irritated.. But they were actually quite nice too. When they went to toilet, they understood that they could only enter in between items (wow.. quite educated eh?).. But the best part was when they said thank you and praised me for helping them to open the doors and waited for them. Haha.. Lol.. I was tired but that made my day T_T especially since it was coming from nasty ppl :D

Irritation

My internet woes came to an end today. I left quite early since I wanted to go library for my literature research. But after my early lunch, I had a phone call. The technician die die wanted to go to my room and changed some settings of my laptop. So I had no choice but to come back and wait for him. Hmm and guess what, the internet was alright before he came!! Zzz... And after he left, it became problematic again!!!! Urgh...

Anyway he told me that NUS just did an upgrade of the internet system to GB speed of data transfer. Hence my "lousy" LAN cable cannot take it. So I have to buy a new cable.. I asked for the price and he told me $6-$8.. I went to Challenger and a Cat-6 cable would cost me about $15! Wow... I decided not to buy. Sigh.. I see how it goes with the new setting he did.. I had a feeling that it would be a bad investment. Haiz, anyway ITcare is just ridiculous! It does not announce anything about maintenance/upgrading work and nothing is said about the need of a new cable. ITcoop does not sell the cable (according to the guy) people have to buy it elsewhere. PGP is equally ridiculous! Instead of sending someone to accompany that guy to my room, they just gave him a transponder. Seriously what the fuck man.. What if I lose something from my room. Zzz... I have enough of this lousy university.. Don't expect me to donate any single cents to my almamater! Grr...

My waist is itching like crazy! And I don't know why. Sigh.. It got me so scared that I thought I was having scabbies or something.. But the problem is, there is no (insect) bite marks, there is no redness, there is no sign of irritation whatsoever. It is just itching spontaneously! Sigh.. I took antihistamine on Monday and it didn't help much so I stopped taking. I bought Eurax today and will see how it goes. Grr... I put lots of powders for the past week and the itch remained. What is happening to me!! My hypothesis is: my succesfull diet shrinks my waistline.. As a result, the excess skin (now no longer has supporting fat layers below) irritates my neurons.. But anyway, I am still damn fat can! And I have yet to exercise for the past 1 week =(

My FYP progress has been terrible.. And I have less than 24 hours to complete the first draft of my proposal.. Ah I am so screwed.. I must get back to do my research.. Sigh.. Oh well... 

Before that, let me write some random stuff first. I went to work for NDR 2010 last Sunday. It was indeed an interesting experience. Haha.. I even got a NDR official pass.. And as random as I am, I am so glad to get a lucky number 0123 on the pass! Lol... I got to read the Malay announcement. And it was crazy. The food was too good that people were so slow to return to the hall. Haha.. Had to keep spamming the announcement every 3mins. Lol.. Anyway I was inside (sigh.. for this kind of uninteresting thing I got inside =x for Lee Hom and CNBlue I got outside) but at least it was not as boring as expected ba.. But it was kinda tiring.. I had to keep moving about (I was worried that I would faint) even though at any point of time the cameraman might just zoom at me and I would be broadcasted to the whole nation doing something inappropriate LOL...

Lastly, I would like to emo a bit. I am always feeling down when I think about my life. When I see my friends, I always envy them.. I feel that some of them are luckier and having brighter future than me.. Some are studying overseas or are in courses with better prospects.. Sigh.. Seems that being smart in sec school and JC meant nothing much eh =x  Then seeing my friends and my cousins having boy/girlfriend, getting married, and having babies just stresses me up! My time is coming soon.. And here I am, still in my kiddy world, only thinking about games, having fun in life, and other meaningless things... Sigh...

Grow up!!