"Do you ..like ....me?" he asks while fading into the darkness, in a completely contrasting tone to his initial defiance. But aren't we all made of the same rebelliousness?
Hello to the 21-year-old me. I don't think I've even registered the fact that I am in my 20s. I can't believe my last post was 3 weeks ago. Where have I been? Let's see... I went to stay at Nazuna's house for 3 days. I got a hair cut. I imprisoned myself in order to build a presentation which barely lasted 10 minutes. I watched a chinese film in class- Still Life (2006). ...In other words, not a very fun 3 weeks but at least it has been far from dull.
Nazuna had invited both Anni and I to her place for the second half of Golden Week - and we spent 2 nights at her place. It was rainy the day we arrived so we didn't really do so much - on top of that Nazuna and I were totally dead after our workload from Uni - we both take the same Techno-Culture class. We slept all the way to Tsuruga, napped at her place while 'watching' a movie - Tokyo Genpatsu (Nuclear Energy Power Plant in Tokyo)... napped some more after doing one thing or another. In fact our whole stay consisted of a lot of... resting. But I really like her place - it was very ...serene, in a way (not to mention cold - Tsuruga is much colder than Kobe). I might've mentioned it before; it's a log house, hidden behind some woods, and there's a stream that runs past it... Idyllic, really.
Amazingly enough, when we got on the train back to Kobe we slept some more. Well, the ride was 2 and a half hours - we couldn't really help falling asleep after sitting down for so long.
The next week I decided to a get a change of pace - I went for a haircut. It doesn't look so different from before, only I might not have mentioned that my hair has gone back to ...unruly again. Not that I mind it so much any more. My classmates had been asking me if I permed my hair curly - and they always had this surprised look on their face when I tell them that it was naturally curly. Then again, I had always kept it short and wavy, at worst - and this whole curly thing is 'new' to me. I only asked to trim the edges - and straighten the hair near my forehead to make it more manageable - and it worked! Really well, I think. It's like this frame or boundary that keeps my face clear away from my mane. LoL
And then came my long weekend - that I spent every waking hour of watching Season 1 of Bones and preparing for my seminar. So it wasn't really a 100% productive week but I think I regained some of my spoken vocabulary after watching Bones. The presentation itself - short as it was, was not really well presented on my part. But I believe that my handouts did my long weekend study session some justice.
Which brings me to now - I finished my English-teaching job on Friday and ducked into Tsutaya to borrow some DVDs - and guess what I found? Johnny Depp's picture from Libertine. It was an interesting film - some interesting perspectives, not just on the life of John Wilmot but the women who lived in that time. The way society might have worked at the time. It was all very... un-shocking. I don't really see a difference between the themes of political and societal structure of that age and what it is as it is now. Of course, such rigidly class-structured societies are now disappearing - though they are now being replaced with even worse, inescapable econo-political class structures.
I also watched The Other Boleyn Girl. It was somewhat convincing what with assigning such roles to Eric Bana, Nicole Portman and Scarlett Johansson. But I wish these actors would stop taking roles that 'fit' - Scarlett Johasson always plays the same type of woman. Always the same expressions - the innocent seductress or whatever it is the image they're trying to put on her but, hello! Bruce Willis, hello! I, at least finally get to see David Boreanaz with a realistic character (Bones). Maybe... I'm just not watching the right 'shows' that could really 'show' their potential. What was great in The Other Boleyn Girl, though, was the guy that played the Uncle. David Morissey - he was good. I saw him in Sense and Sensibility (the 2008 2-part BBC version) and he was great there, and he's great in TOBG too. ....Besides the fact that his characterization of the Duke of Norfolk was vaguely reminiscent of Professor Snape. But who am I, really, to be judging these people when I can't even act.
By the way, I've been reading The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine. I recommend it. An 'owner's manual' for women, an insight to a woman's mind for men - whatever one may want to present it as. It's written comprehensively, split into sections that I find very useful (though the case studies she uses are all over the place and I have a hard time keeping track of the people she's basing such theories on). And get this - I even experimented on some of it and got really great results!
This Friday I taught a kid, Aya. She's usually with her sister, Rika, but since Rika got sick, Aya was all by herself yesterday. Now, this kid is one of the toughest ones there - it's a battle, a war to gain her attention every time. Kids will be kids after all... and she's 5. I read in the book that female children tend to have more eye contact than males do and are more aware of the emotions or 'silent' 'instructions' in the underlying tones of voices. I also read that children in general could get their sense of self-worth boosted if only the adult (they trust, have some emotional connection with, or simply adults raising them) appears to be listening to him/her intently when they have things to say.
While I was playing with the alphabet cards with her I realised that she barely made any eye contact with me - and that sort of reminded me of her elder sister who did, and generally behaved better in class. So this time I asked Aya to look at me whenever she was doing something inappropriate -insert 'I am not happy with what you did' tone. She would always quiet down for a few minutes - and then I would have to repeat it again. But it at least sure beat me wringing the last of my grey matter for ways to get her to listen. I finally at least got her to have some interest - if not to listen. And she did so well with the alphabet cards from then.
When I moved on to work on some writing - she began to stall and start chattering endlessly. This might have been a little cruel on my part but I told her that she could tell me anything if she could finish her assignment properly (of course, we ran out of time for the class so I couldn't really actually listen to her talk... I feel very manipulative right now.) ........After that I got praised by my boss for handling the class (handling Aya?) well. I was kinda happy. Then I started wondering how long this somewhat peaceful situation with Aya was going to last. LoL
Bio-psychology (if one calls it that) rocks.
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