Sailing Away

I shall sail away
Away from the port of sorrow
And into the unknown future

What awaits
I do not know
It might be for the better
It might be for the worse
But whatever awaits

I shall sail away
Away from the port of sorrow
And into the sea of loneliness

『竹しだ桟橋 Takeshida Sambashi, 13 March, 2006 』

愛と自由の女神

「愛」って、

最も不自由なものだ。

いくら用心を払っても、
ついに恋をしちゃう；
一応約束をしても、
結局忘れられちゃう；
永遠までって誓っても、
あいにく絆が裂けちゃう…

仕方なく、
何もかも儚い…

心の穴どう塞げばいいのか
分からない。
嘆くしかないだろう？

いつか愛の束縛から
解放されるだろうか？

『お台場、２００７年０３月１３日』

夢を追う

This haiku (俳句)　is written by Bowo, an Indonesian classmate. Superimposed on the photo taken earlier this week.

空を飛ぶ
天国へ行く
夢を追う

Directly translated:

Flying in the sky
Towards heaven
Chasing after dreams

Chasing after dreams? Hah! But sometimes, knowing when to give up is just as important, if you're not ready for worse disappointments...

[Related Blog Post: I've Ceased to Believe, March 12, 2007]

人恋しい

「ねえ、君は大丈夫？ずっと落ち込んでいるようだけど…」

「ううん…ただ、人恋しい。」

「一体何があったの？」

「聞かないで、話したくない。話さないで、聞きたくない。」

「人恋しいって言ったのに…おかしい！」

「だよね…」

『野川公園、2006年11月07日』

I've Ceased to Believe

People change
More abruptly than the seasons
Things happen
Faster than I can comprehend;
There're
Dreams I've ceased to hope;
Faith I've ceased to hold

Grieving in the corner
Those quiet sobs unheard;
Moping in the dark
Those tears shed unseen
There're
Memories that continue to haunt;
Feelings that still ache

Dreams, hope, faith...
These are the things
I've ceased to believe

But let it be so
For till the end of the days
There's still someone
Who'll remain by my side
I, shall remain loyal to myself

『府中市 Fuchu-shi,12 March 2007』

Magic Wipe

Your dog pooped on your door and the stain wouldn't come off no matter what you do. With Magic Wipe™, you worries are over! Because, Magic Wipe works like magic!

You probably think that customer testimonials are nothing more than dog poop. Personally, I think so too. But, I hope you'll listen to me. No one paid me to write this review.

It happend quite some time ago; last December. I spent the previous night outside and when I came back to the dorm in the morning...

Oh my God! Santa dropped by! And I wasn't around! Here. He even left me a message:

"We were here"? Uh, wait a minute. Santa Claus should still be busy in his workshop... Horror of all horrors. It must have been the yakuza! There! They even signed their initials.

"D" for Demeter
"H" for Horheh(?) Oh, "J" for Jorge
"U" for Umid

You people! How dare you poop on my door! You'll pay for this!

But, hmm... On second thought... Thanks for the Christmas decoration. I'll just leave it that way until I move out. Well... Or until Sawa-san from the office asked me to either clean up or pay up. That happened last month.

Holy *beep! Why me? Gah! As if I'd a choice, to begin with. I'd rather do it myself than to confront the yakuza.

Soap plus water should do the job, right?

Scrub, scrub. Wipe, wipe. Uh, not working.

Ok, then. Shampoo; nope. Salt water; nope. Vinegar; nope. Mayonnaise; nope... Jesus Christ! What crap is this? Oh God save me!

Then, like a heavenly-sent angel, Marikit (upon seeing this poor lad feverishly scrubbing the door with a plastic ruler) offered me this.

"Magic Wipe™! Cleans everything like magic!" she declared in a Smartshop-commercial tone.

"Whoa, why do you have this with you? What for?"

"To clean my shoes!"

And, now, it had another use. Cleaning up my door!

Scrub, scrub. Wipe, wipe. Phew! Even though it took quite some effort, it worked. Spent a few days on the clean up. And here's the end result...

Still not as good as new, but Magic Wipe™ worked better than vinegar and mayonnaise. So, next time your dog poops on your door, try Magic Wipe™!

Pro: Works like magic
Con: Consumes mana

Multiple Cellphones?

I used to think that one cell phone is more than enough...

But, when you start to get too many fans...

There's a need to get a second one just to receive incoming calls. (Yeah, that's a cool screen with a 180-degree of freedom.)

Then, you think again, and decided that there's no harm in getting a third one.

Yes, pink is a little girlish. But most importantly, the girl fans love it!

Hah! Three cellphones? Do you think that's affordable...

Major Feng Shui Reconfiguration

Everyone has a one-trillionth chance of getting his head struck by a stray meteorite, resulting in a faulty bolt or two in the brain. Statistically impossible. It is statistically possible (due to certain reasons), however, to get a suddenly impulse to do something crazy once in a while. For my case, the culprit wasn't a rock from outer-space. Instead, I was enlightened by Albert from Marshall Islands.

Well, I've heard of how different his room is from the others. But, it wasn't until recently that I, being one of the few special guests invited to a "movie-viewing session" cum "5.1ch-speakers-show-off-party" - he got them in the afternoon - had the honour to enter his room and confirm for myself the legend.

Guess what, he has his bed disassembled (so he's sleeping on the floor and lay it against the wall every morning). And, the arrangement of the table is in such a way that he could fit six chairs in the room to cater for his special guests.

"Hey, I didn't know you can move the table!" I, the ignorant lad exclaimed in awe.

"Well, you just have to remove four screws." Albert shrugged.

"Shucks! I've been here for one year and yet..."

"Don't worry. You still have three weeks to fool around!" the guy replied nonchalantly.

And, this ignorant lad was thus enlightened by the holy sage.

"Here, my young one. Take this set of tools with you. It may come in handy..."

The enlightened lad returned to his room, scanned around, and shook his head in disbelief.

"I've to give this room a major make-over!" he promised. "Even if it's just for three weeks!"

But it wasn't easy. Firstly, he had to remove his stuff from the shelves.

Then the screws... Two from the bottom... (By the way, this is a good place for your secret stash)

And two more from the top.

After that, voila! He gave the table a pull, and (drumrolls) it came off!

But, now came the toughest part. It was a challenge to move the table and the bed around in such a crammed space. So, he took out a piece of paper and a pencil, made a simple sketch and did some calculations.

He then moved the table thus.

And the bed thus.

Then with the blessings from the tooth-fairy and the dust bunnies, he somehow managed to align the bed and the table this way.

Fresh, new look! He beamed in satisfaction. It was 2.30 in the morning. It took him almost 2 hours. And he has to wake up at 7 in the morning to get ready for the bus trip. So, he eventually called it a day.

Unfortunately, weird things always happen to pitiful people. The poor lad was rudely awaken in the morning when a dictionary mysteriously fell off the rack and struck his head.

He jumped off from his bed and had a quick look around.

"Hmm... Not good enough..." Squinting his eyes, he had something new hatching in his head again. Having said that, he started working once more. It took him more effort this time because he has to change the direction of the bed from one end to the other end. But, he got some help from the boogeyman living under his bed, and the job was done in no time.

Okay! Cool! The room shall stay this way for the rest of the three weeks... Well, provided that the poor lad doesn't fall off from his bed and hurt his head again...