HEART STATION

I wasn’t planning on keeping the “HEART STATION [NIGHT SHIFT]” header for long, and today is the day that the “Distance” header is posted, but this time there’s something new that I hope everyone will enjoy!

Inspired as I was for some time now to make a banner that matched my header, I finally made my dream come true! Now everytime you add me to your blogroll, you can copy my banner to it and have other access HEART STATION through it. I think it’s pretty neat. I also changed my blog’s theme and I hope everybody liked (If not, loved) the changes made.

Here’s the banner for my blog:

Like I’ve mentioned before, I decided to take piano lessons and today was my very first lesson in 8 years! I have a great teacher who’s very sweet and gentle with everything. The only thing I’m concerned with is the fact that she likes setting up meetings between her students and when skill and ability is in question, I wouldn’t like to be the newbie and get everything wrong while everyone else is going super well and looking at me like I’m some intruder wannabe in their territory. But I’m a fast learner, like my teacher said and my previous years playing favored me and I’m really passionate about the piano! I can’t wait for the weekend to come so I can wake up in the morning, go down to the piano area and practice to perfection! For the first time I’m playing the right instrument. I didn’t have enough maturity before, but now I know how much I want to play the piano, the sound is really music, unlike my past attempt with the guitar (Which I quit because I felt it was a burden and I wasn’t feeling connected with what I did).

It’s like a school lesson when I’m learning with her, she likes giving tests, according to her, and she likes to gather my friends and family around when I’m taking them so everyone can be a part of my learning and that’s great because not only is it including them, but it also breaks me from my shell and allows my shyness to not get in the way of my duties. But this class was very positive and I’m going to study a lot and maybe look for some other music to play in the piano. I’m so eager for that!

Today was the day that Xuxa was burried, 2 days after her death. It was far more difficult seeing all that dirt being thrown over her coffin than actually seeing her lying dead on my nieghbor’s garden. We got to the cemetery and asked the lady there where Xuxa was. She pointed out the way and we got to a room where a white dog was enveloped with a red blanket on top of a table, but Xuxa isn’t white, so it couldn’t have been her. My mother looked at the wooden box beside the dog and when she peeked into it, all of us began to sob and cry. There she was, with lots of flowers lying on top of her. We looked at her, my mother pet her head for the last time and with that last image of her, we sealed the coffin. We went outside to look where she’d be burried. Following the indications of the lady, we awaited, looking at the deep whole where our beloved cat would remain from now on.

We talked for a while, crying and sobbing, until the man came out with her coffin. I looked at it and squeaked, then the tears wouldn’t stop coming, I think I was never that sad in my whole life, I have never cried that much ever. The man placed her inside the whole and began bringing the dirt to fill the whole. It was a painful process for me. So painful that I wouldn’t stop crying loudly all the time. Just the thought of only having that depressing grave to look at whenever I thought about her was a nightmare. No more of her sexyness when she was laying down on the floor all elegant. No more listening to her nails scratching the carboard beds we put out for her to sleep in, no more of her entering the house quickly after we open the door so she can go down to the room where her last litter of kittens was born. No more unity between she and her daughter, Pakita. No more dressing her up in adorable outfits. No more Xuxa, the wonderful cat that won’t ever be replaced.

I took notice of all of that during the whole burrying. It was only then that it actually striked me that she’s really dead and that this is it. When I found her for the first time, it took me about 2 minutes to start crying because I was in shock, it was so sudden, and to think that if she wasn’t at the wrong place at the wrong time, she would still be here, wonderful and fantastic as she had always been. I’ll never forget her adorable habits and how special she is. She shouldn’t have gone away this way, I’ll miss her forever.

Thank you everyone for all the support and wonderful comments for my previous post… I really needed all the support and I feel much better, and good enough to write more posts for y’all! Thank you once again!

For two days now I have wanted to watch KODA KUMI LIVE TOUR 2007 ~Black Cherry~ SPECIAL FINAL in TOKYO DOME, but because the download was very hard to acquire, I only got to watch it yesterday. The hard work was worth it. This concert is one of the best I’ve ever watched because it’s so different. It’s kind of a play involving pirates, the ocean and mermaids. The part after the second video interlude kind of drops the story and it’s pretty much a normal concert. The whole stage and audience had an undersea vibe, (Since the stage was in the shape of a pirate ship and the audience was waving blue glowing shells throughout the concert) and it was something truely amazing.

The concert begins with a video interlude of Koda Kumi as a mermaid and lying (Apparently dead or sleeping) on some sort of a pedestal. Then a terribly ugly witch comes in and removes this key she was wearing as a necklace and throws it onto the floor. A pirate that walks in with the witch takes the key that fell onto the floor for himself. The witch then takes out these fire swords and stabs the pedestal that Koda Kumi is on three times. Koda Kumi opens her eyes and when the witch is about to kill her with the fiery blade, Everything disappears in a white flash and mermaid Kuu is still on the pedestal, but she’s waking up. Her hands move on the screen and the attention is turned to the stage, where an aquarium is placed. The music plays and bubbles cover the water. Just when the bubbles are over, there is Kuu, swimming. She jumps out of the aquarium and starts to sing. It’s a great start for a great concert.

The rest is the real concert and two more interlude videos. Kuu really shows her vocal range and many other abilities through out the concert, like pouring drinks, doing cartwheels and of course, her great dancing abilities. I really liked the song choice, but the ‘rock’ part of the concert was my least favorite part, since it was too noisy and loud. The last part of the concert was a great one, ending with a crying Kuu singing ‘walk’ and the mermaid part was adorable, the songs were chosing very well, with R&B and pop vibes while the costumes were very rich and beautiful.

Overall, the concert was great and one of the best I’ve ever watched. I’d rate it a 9/10 just because of the song selection on some parts. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys lots of special effects, pop, R&B and urban beets!

When I was turning 8, I really wanted to have a cat, since I have always loved how they are. My sister decided it’d be a good gift, and my father is a real animal lover, so he was really into it. It was a weekend and we went to a pet store that now is not there anymore, called “Animal.” When the lady escorted us to the display of persian kittens, she took out a tiny, grey one called “Thundercat,” and happily went on and on about how cute he was, but I looked at this tiny furry, champagne-toned cat at the corner of the display, she was also looking at me, all relaxed and elegant (She’s the sophisticated kind), and I was sold, she was the cat I wanted, no matter how excellent all the others were. I loved that one. We brought her home, and even though my mother freaked out, she ended up loving her anyway. We went to a Japanese restaurant in the neighborhood with her, and my mother kept saying how she didn’t want her to go to the bathroom there at the restaurant. I don’t know how she recieved the message, but when we got home, we saw that actually she had, only she did it on her tail… It does sound gross, but it didn’t even look like it, it took a while to notice, but we washed her up.

Then came the joy of birth, four times. The first time she had kittens was in 2004, when I was coming back from a birthday party and entered the kitchen. Her serene expression and her tiny little paws slowly carressing the floor with her nail. But then again, not all kittens survive and this was pretty much a bomb, whenever one of them died. The other three times were also blessings, but they didn’t catch us by surprise like the first birth. We followed every step of her kitten’s lives, we fed them when they didn’t find where to find food and took care of them all the time. It was the first thing we did when got home from school.

After we got Prince, our male cat, we decided to marry both of them, and her fourth and last litter of kittens were the outcome of this “marriage.” This was around 2005 and we still have the certificate. Then we spayed her and she got a lot more caring and docile, if that was possible. Everytime the window was opened, she’d jump and stay with us or walk around the house. Everybody loved her and out of the 3 cats, everyone’s favorite for being so cute and the most social.

Today, after my sister and I came out of the car, we heard cries from our neighbor, Emellyn, telling us not to get in the house. She was crying and told us to follow her. When we got where she wanted us to be, we saw Xuxa lying on the floor, dead. Her tiny mouth was opened and some blood was inside, her eyes were wide open and her position was still sophisticated, just like how she always had been. My sister and I broke into tears and so did our neighbors. My mother was crying from the phone and Xuxa was sent to the vet to analyze her death. Because of her red mouth, the veterinary believes she suffered of some impact on her nose because it’s a very sensitive area, and it killed her. I can’t even think straight, she meant so much to me, any thought of her makes me cry and writing this post was one of the hardest experiences because of so many tears and memories of our past together. I never thought she’d die so young (4 years old) and so suddenly. I’ll never forget her, my little baby.

There has been some time that I’ve been wanting to watch the first episode of the ‘dorama’ (Japanese drama, or soap opera) Last Friends and it took me a while just to find a download with hardsubs (Subtitles that come already placed throughout the episode), but I have, and I already watched it. This first experience with Japanese drama was very interesting and I love how even though it’s foreign, I can still sense similarities between this series and other American ones, and that’s great, because it makes the series much easier to relate to. But even though it’s similar to American series, I love the Japanese setting, everything is so beautiful even when it’s not meant to… Maybe that’s just me, but I love everything about it.

Until the first half of the episode, it’s like an introduction to the lives of the characters. There are five characters, and I’ll talk about each of them from what we see in the first episode:

• Aida Michiru: Michiru is a cute, innocent and adorable girl who is the main character of the series. The story follows how she returns to Tokyo and is in the process of getting used to it again. She moves in with her boyfriend, Sosuke, and meets her old high school friend, Ruka, and they begin hanging out again. Through Ruka, Michiru finds other great friends.
• Kishimoto Ruka: Ruka is not an ordinary girl because she hates men for treating her always for her gender and not for who she is. She’s a skilled motocrosser and has feeling towards Michiru. She also has a very boyish look to her.
• Mizushima Takeru: So far, there’s not much information on him, but his best friend, Eri, believes he’s gay because she’s never seen him with a girl and he’s a makeup artist. Besides that, we learn that he gets very pushy when he’s drunk, apparently.
• Takigawa Eri: We also can’t get much information about Eri from the first episode, but she’s very happy and loves to have fun. She’s also quite loud, but cute too.
• Oikawa Sosuke: He’s Michiru’s abusive boyfriend. In the beginning of the episode, he’s very sweet to her, but after she’s moved in, he believes the text messages she recieves from Ruka are a man’s, and hits her. He’s very controlling and closed-minded, Michiru can barely explain what’s going on before he beats her.

[Undetailed Spoilers] The rest of the episode is more of the series’ conflict. We learn more about the characters and then Michiru is trying to prove to Sosuke that Ruka is a girl, so she goes back to her house and looks for her high school yearbook. Sosuke calls her and makes her come home even though she didn’t find he yearbook. When she gets there, he beats her up very, very much and throws her on the lamp she bought for him when she moved in. She leaves and calls Ruka, but she doesn’t answer her cellphone. Later, Ruka finds her and brings her home where her roommate, Eri is found with her friend, Takeru. They have a great time together and go to sleep. That morning, something special happens, and I’ll leave it for you to watch it.

In my opinion, I really loved the series, and I’m certainly downloading the second episode with the hardsubs. My first experience with a ‘dorama’ was a great one! And Utada Hikaru’s Prisoner Of Love song is the theme song for the series, and in the four times it is played through the episode, it’s perfect timing, you feel the character’s emotions through the song and the soundtrack and the series itself are amazing. I recommend it to anyone who wants to watch it, but take notice that the content is very mature and you have to have certain maturity to watch the series.

Download (Torrent)

About 6 hours ago, I have written a letter to Baby C’s mother, Tina, (But so they have nicknames that rhyme, it’s Baby T!) because Baby C’s visting her for a week for a very annoying reason. I don’t know if I’m the one to talk about it, so I’m leaving the link to her blog. I really like her mother, even though I’ve never met her (yet!), so I’m writing this post especially for her!

We haven’t had much contact other than Baby C talking about her and the reading of her fabulous comments at Baby C’s blog, but I know her enough to know how special and amazing she is. She’s also very funny and sweet. She’s the best Baby C-teaser in the world and whenever Baby C writes about her, I always smile and feel the urge to comment about how much her mother is awesome (I think I’m runing out of adjectives… But it’s not because she isn’t great, it’s my fault for my narrow range of vocabulary words). Whenever Baby C talks about her I smile for so long that my head begins to hurt a little and I always end in an “aw,” and I want everyone to show their support for her, since she’ll be the victorious one against this problem, and your support will be greatly appreciated! Be it in the form of prayers or beautiful comments, I’m sure she’ll love it, and so will I! because she means a lot to so many people!

Even though my post may be short, I believe she deserves millions of posts about her radiance! But I’ll leave two videos for her by Kylie Minogue, since she went through almost the same situation, and this is the tour where she discovered about it. She’s absolutely brilliant and so is Baby T! So we’re all wishing you well, Baby T, and there’s nothing to worry about! Even though we (Students from EAC) might be distant, we’ll always be by your side!

On A Night Like This:

Somewhere Over The Rainbow:

When everything is coming to an end, I always take time to reflect on it even if it’s painful. In this case, spring brake wasn’t that bad, I feel like I wasted some of it, but it was nice wasting part of it in the comfort of my couch while I watch television and go on the internet at the same time. This went on in the beginning of spring break, until I focused on Baby C’s birthday present for this tuesday. It’s a fantastic present (At least for me), and its the first time I make an absolutely complete birthday pack for anyone! I’m so proud of myself, but she said she wanted something that reminded her of us, and the present I’m giving her reminds her of the class in a whole, not me, only, and being egocentric as I am, I have to give her a present reminding her of me! So I went to the website of a store close to my house, Japan Society [Website in Portuguese] and buy her something from there. I have an idea of what I want to buy and it’s going to be awsome! (By the way, did anyone else notice how excellently perfect Ayumi Hamasaki’s “Alterna” song is? The one that plays when you enter Japan Society’s website?)

But enough of that, I’m very upset that school begins on tuesday already, but I have everything ready for tuesday and I can spend tomorrow doing whatever I want! And that’s always great. I’m buying Baby C’s gift tomorrow and I’m very eager to do that. It’s weird how I don’t school to begin and still go to school and give her the gifts for the wonderful day that tuesday will be for being her birthday date!

For two weeks now, my ex-babysitter, who took care of me since I was about two years old until I was about five or six, has been helping my mother out with house work because she had been dismissed from her earlier job because the kids were old enough to take care of themselves. The  babysitter agency set her up with a to-be-mommy whose baby is due this year and she’ll begin in September when the baby turns 3 months old. Well, for now, she’s been earning some money here with us, and I love spending time with her because she’s so creative and fun. But now I have a very weighted consience.

She has always been a very happy and bubbly person, of course, everyone has their ups and downs, but she always manages to lift the heavy atmosphere of our house and cheer us all up. I believe my sister doesn’t like that that much and acts all spoiled and immature whenever she’s near, sometimes resulting in a fight that Regina, (The babysitter’s name) has to take and not say anything. Regina has a very dark sense of humor too, and Aydee, (My sister) being immature and literal as she is, always takes it seriously and tells my mother everything Regina is joking about as if it were for real.

My mother didn’t like it one bit, so yesterday, she told Regina not to return anymore, and Regina got very upset. We didn’t believe her when she told us, but I still asked the cause, (Just to be sure) and if it was because of Aydee, (Which it was) and she said “No, it’s just because I have some work to do and I’m visiting the kids I used to take care of.” It was pretty heartbreaking, even though I didn’t believe her. When it was time to say goodbye to her, I didn’t even make a big deal and was with my laptop when she kissed my forehead to say goodbye. Now that I see that it was true, I feel really bad for not giving her a proper goodbye, at least. I made my mother feel guilty and call her, and all my mother told me that she answered was “I understand.”

I decided to do a few updates to my “Ongaku”page. Instead of making you look for the songs if you want to listen to them (And probably discouraging you to listen to them), I decided to link them to the YouTube video corresponding to the song.

I also left only Utada Hikaru songs because it gets difficult putting songs from other artists that I don’t listen to that much into that page. It’s much easier to just write down what songs I actually listen to and love.

Another thing is that all the videos that link to the songs are the live version of the song. Be it from a television show, or from a concert, they’re there, live and beautiful. Some songs that I couldn’t find the live version of were left alone with no links.