Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Japanese Drama: Masami Nagasawa - A Bit More About Her

I've mentioned about this Japanese Actress in my previous posting after I saw her two award-winning drama: Proposal Daisakusen (Operation Love) and Last Friends. Afterward, I watched two more: Yasashii Jikan (Affectionate Time - as one of supporting actress) and Nada Sou Sou (Stream of Tears - as lead actress).

Masami Nagasawa enter the entertainment business in year 2000 after winning the 5th Toho "Cinderella" Contest at the age of 12, the youngest winner ever. Over the years she has gained popularity through involvement in some good and award winning movies and dramas.

She was ranked 9th in 2007 Most Influential People In Japan according to magazine Flash. She is the only female on the top 10 ranking. This shows how popular she is.

She is pretty, cute, and adorable. Herewith I posted some more of her pictures I found after 'google' it.

Her cute teenager look:


Her matured & elegant look:


Her sexy look:


Her melancholic look:


Look so different here:


Ahh.. that smile...:

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Life: Tintin & Snowy - My All Time Favorite Comic

Herge's Adventures of Tintin will always be my all time favorite comic. I never get boring reading them over and over again... because the story so adventurous, interesting and funny. Its wide range of story in many countries - tap into each country's culture and described it in a creative and funny way - made me feels like traveling around the world and get to know more about them. As a young children when I first time read the comic, it was like learning to know how the world is... a valuable additional knowledge.

Among all the characters in the comic, I like the cute Snowy, Tintin's loyal and smart dog. Its comments, action, and expression are fresh and funny.

The following pictures were taken from Tintin's The Black Island comic:

Look at its funny face riding on the car's rear bumper when it follows Tintin who was being kidnapped.

The second picture was its contradict fear expression of just a tiny ants after being able to scared even a much bigger and fierce gorilla...

And, the third picture was its behavior when got drunk after accidentally tap on whiskey drops on the train - it later on became addicted to whiskey! - and then got scolded by Tintin due to its drinking habit...

Friday, October 24, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Life: I Share One of My Important Day with Hungarians

If I were lived in Hungaria, I will always celebrate my birthday on holiday every year because this date is a national holiday there, a Hungarian Revolution day. Hungarian Revolution was happened 10 years before I were delivered to this world, and ever since I knew about it I never forget about it because it always pop up in my mind on my birthday.

Herewith description of Hungarian Revolution of 1956 as I copied from Wikipedia:

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (Hungarian: 1956-os forradalom) was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the Stalinist government of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956. It began as a student demonstration which attracted thousands as it marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building. A student delegation entering the radio building in an attempt to broadcast its demands was detained. When the delegation's release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the State Security Police (ÁVH) from within the building. The news spread quickly and disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital.

The revolt spread quickly across Hungary, and the government fell. Thousands organized into militias, battling the State Security Police (ÁVH) and Soviet troops. Pro-Soviet communists and ÁVH members were often executed or imprisoned, as former prisoners were released and armed. Impromptu councils wrested municipal control from the Communist Party, and demanded political changes. The new government formally disbanded the ÁVH, declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October, fighting had almost stopped and a sense of normality began to return.


After announcing a willingness to negotiate a withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Politburo changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution. On 4 November, a large Soviet force invaded Budapest and other regions of the country. Hungarian resistance continued until 10 November. An estimated 2,500 Hungarians died, and 200,000 more fled as refugees. Mass arrests and denunciations continued for months thereafter. By January 1957, the new Soviet-installed government had suppressed all public opposition. These Soviet actions alienated many Western Marxists, yet strengthened Soviet control over Central Europe, cultivating the perception that communism was both irreversible and monolithic.


Public discussion about this revolution was suppressed in Hungary for over 30 years, but since the thaw of the 1980s it has been a subject of intense study and debate. At the inauguration of the Third Hungarian Republic in 1989, 23 October was declared a national holiday.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

FYI: 3G on the MRT

Just read an article in Computerworld Singapore October 2008 edition, that SBS Transit is upgrading its existing communications infrastructure to support a 3G wireless network along the North-East Line (NEL). The upgrading has been started and was expected to be up and running by end of this year.

Great! I took NEL everyday to go office and back home... no wonder when MRT pass the Little India Station - and only this station so far - my mobile internet connection change to '3G' indicator, instead of 'G' (for GPRS) or 'E' (for EDGE).

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Japanese Drama: Proposal Daisakusen and Last Friends, with Same Actress - Masami Nagasawa

I watched two Japanese Drama which won the Television Drama Academy Award: Proposal Daisakusen (July 2007) and Last Friends (August 2008). Both have interesting storyline eventhough the second one's more interesting because the storyline quite unique and shows dark-sides of the characters and creates complicated relationship from one person to another.

Proposal Daisakusen storyline quite simple and fun. It is a story about two persons who knows each other since childhood and deep inside they love each other but too naive and don't have courage to express it to the other party. The girl ended up marrying another man and during the wedding ceremony, the fairy of the church offers the guy to travel back in time to try rectify his mistakes and try his best to win the girl's heart...
The story, episode by episode, link to certain stage of their relationship as displayed on the slides shown during the ceremony. In the end all those efforts did made some changes in their relationship but the wedding still on... And, only the guy's wedding speech in the end that moves the girl's heart... but thanks to the groom's 'big heart' to let the girl go by testing her true feeling by let her choose which of his hand holds the shirt's button... while, actually, both hands hold the button... so whichever the girl choose she was given freedom to leave...

Last Friends is a story about 3 main characters with dark childhood psychological experience:
First character: A girl who experiencing the rejection by her own mother who always express her regret giving birth to the girl - given scar in the girl's heart. She fell in love with a guy with more painful childhood because his mother left him that make bigger scar in his heart that make him so possessive, very unreasonable jealous, and turn uncontrollable violent. The girl, who decided to live together with him, experience DV (Domestic Violence).
Second character: A girl who hates being a girl! She is a tomboy and always feels like a man traps inside woman's body.... she hates her body and she hates guys! She kept the secret so tight and suffering... she indeed fall in love to the first girl and stands for her against the violent boyfriend.
Third character: A guy who experienced childhood trauma of being harassed by his half sister. So traumatic that he is falsely marked as a gay since he always been avoiding girls. But, he indeed fall in love with the second girl! He has charm and, actually, attracted girls with his matured thinking, understanding, and advices, even the first girl likes him in the end...
So, there it goes the love triangle....

The interesting part is that for both drama, same actress play the main character: Masami Nagasawa. Pretty and feminine. Well... acting wise, she is so-so, not that fantastic... But judging from in span of one year she is part of two award-winning drama, it might tell something about her... Anyway, herewith I posted two of her pretty pictures that I found by 'google' it... pretty and cute, right?


Saturday, October 18, 2008

Freeware: Google Chrome

I'm quite excited when Google release their own internet browser, namely Chrome, on early September this year, so, I probably among the earliest downloader of this new browser. Quite keen to use it since it is from Google, a well-known internet search specialist.

Now, I've been using it for about 1.5 months so I would like to share my experiences of using it. Interface wise, it is quite neat, it maximizes the browsing area by just displaying only necessary items, like the tabs and web address, very minimal menu, and no status bar at all. Status will just appear when it is necessary at the left bottom of the browsing screen. 

Loading Chrome considered quite fast compare to Internet Explorer and Firefox, probably because it is still very new, small, and not 'heavy' yet with additional features which usually comes with every updates.

Each tab or browsing screen is an independent application, so if one tab crash, it will not bring down the whole browser, so no more hard feeling of losing your work on the other tabs. That's why you be able to drag the tab and make it run on its own.

Initially, no java runtime included that made me a bit upset because some website I usually visit needs java to run part of it. But later it can be downloaded, so no more upset on this issue.

Then, here comes its setback. Playing an online video is not a smooth sailing, it will make Chrome become less responsive and lagging, quite strange and shameful remembering that Google owns YouTube, the popular video sharing portal.

Overall, Google Chrome is a nice product. It's still beta anyway... so still can be apologized for not perfect as a product. What I understand from some articles that I read about it, it was developed with Web 2.0 technology in mind to support the fast growing Web 2.0 adaptation by web-based application developer. So, I believe Chrome will be one of the major player in internet browser application in the near future.

But, for the time being, I still loyal to Firefox since it is already quite matured internet browser now and will launch its version 3 soon. 

Saturday, October 11, 2008

FYI: In Panic Market, Anything Can Happen

In first and final hour trading at New York Stock Exchange on Friday the last day of hectic and scary week for nervous investors, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index swing wildly down (reach intraday lowest of 7,882) and up (reach intraday highest of 8,901).

Well, in panic market, anything can happen. It is a combination of panic investor (who perceive market will fall further) and bargain-hunting investor (who perceive market too low and oversold already and see opportunity to buy)... a severe fight of bear and bull.

It is really exciting and interesting to see what will happen next week whether it will fall even further or rebound in big way.

Source: MarketWatch.com

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

FYI: Faces of Market Crash

This week of October will probably be remembered as the worst week of stock market with global markets crashed and in the race of "who's the worst".

With US big and well-known financial institutions facing the credit crunch due to subprime and mortgage-related problem in US market, landmarked by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and disappearance of names like Bear Stearns, Merril Lynch, Washington Mutual, and soon Wachovia, it painted a grim and dark near future of global stock market.

Shock, anger, desperate, confuse, depress, amd sad faces of the stock market actors were posted in media. Herewith some of those faces which I took from several web publications.


Saturday, October 04, 2008

Music: Popular Foreign Songs in Indonesia

As of the other countries, not many foreign songs can be popular in Indonesia mainly because of the language and the unfamiliar song's music and beat. Each country has its own traditional and favorite kind of music. True that some singer or band was popular at one time but usually only to a certain group of people. Indonesia is the same, consists of so many ethnics across the archipelago, they have their own traditional and popular kind of music. But there times, as far as I remember, some foreign songs became such a hit and very popular across the country and even translated into different local language.

First song is Suzanna by Art Company (hear it here). This is the most popular and biggest hit foreign song as far as I can remember. It a relatively simple song, nice beat (it is reggae, right?), and can be easily sing by every people. Afterward, many more songs with similar kind of beat were recorded by local singers... a me-too mentality.

Second song is Denpasar Moon by Maribeth (hear it here). It uses the most popular music beat in Indonesia, Dangdut, that's why it can be easily accepted in people's ear and became so popular then. For you who might not know yet, Denpasar is the capital city of Bali, one of the most favorite tourist destination in the world.

Third song is Kokoro No Tomo by Mayumi Itsuwa (hear it here). This the most popular Japanese song in Indonesia, I guess. Everytime I listen to this song, I remember of my childhood. It simply a nice song that give nice kind of feeling, but even if I till now do not understand what this song is all about, honestly. But I really remember how popular this song at that time. Well it was not as widely popular as the first two songs, but every adult in Indonesia big cities surely remember this song.