Small Talk:
Busy days have left this blog stagnating for such a long, long time. For that, I apologise. Until I catch up with what’s been happening with me these past couple of weeks, here’s another story from my misadventures in Vietnam :D

It was the fourth day of our trip, and it was a pretty long one, too. We had spent the better part of the day exploring Ho Chi Minh city on foot. Trying out a sweet place for lunch, sightseeing and getting ourselves a fantastic full-body massage [no funky business, mind you].

So we went back to the hotel, and all we wanted was a nice shower and a good rest before our flight the next day. I went into the bathroom only to realise that there was no hot water from the shower. I didn’t mind it, since it’s been a rather hot day and I needed to cool off, anyway.

After I was done, I relayed the news to Yun Chuan, who was sharing the room with me. He insisted on a hot shower, so he made a call to the front desk about the matter.

Read the rest of this entry »

During my trip to Vietnam, I visited the War Remnants Museum. As the name implies, it details the passage of the Vietnam War. Near the exit, there is a photo gallery dedicated to soldiers and victims of the war. Near the exit of the gallery is a guestbook where visitors can leave their comments and a signature.

Naturally, many of the visitors, after viewing the horrifying exhibits of weapons, bombs, mutilated corpses of war, have a lot to say about war-mongers and all their anti-war sentiments. Lengthy passages from foreign visitors are abundant in that thick guestbook. Malaysians, however, found a better way of saying things.

Guess that pretty much sums it all up, eh?

From Anime News Network:
Eri Kawai, the singer-songwriter for Aria, Utawarerumono, and several other anime and live-action series, passed away on Monday at 11:40 a.m. in Japan.

[...]

Kawai had been in medical treatment since earlier this year and had to cancel a July 10 solo performance in Tokyo as a result. A wake will be held on Wednesday, and the funeral service will be held on Thursday.

[Also on her website, for those who can moonspeak]

I first heard of her name from the beautiful Madoromi no Rinne, the ED song of Utawarerumono. After that, I began to wonder if Eri Kawai was in any way related to the talented composer Kenji Kawai. I didn’t notice that she has also worked in various other songs for several anime, some of which I have even watched myself, such as Sketchbook and Bamboo Blade.

I didn’t get to hear much else of her works, but I feel that her passing is a great loss to the anime industry. She produces beautiful music and I would have definitely loved to hear more of her. My heart goes out to her family and her fans in Japan :(

May you find peace and happiness in a better place.

It’s been almost over a year since the last theme, and I’ve been using a white-on-black theme since the day I started blogging. I figured it’s about time to shed away the monochrome feel, bust open the windows, tear down the walls and go wide open. I hereby welcome you to The Silent Room’s new look: The Open Room.

As you can see, this layout is greatly inspired by the clarity of off-white paint and the neutrality of the Helvetica. I should mention that documentary on the typeface also played a big part in the inspiration of this design. As for the header and footer images, well, they come from the very beautiful film 5 Centimeters Per Second by Makoto Shinkai.

This layout lacks a sidebar, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. A sidebar may be a convenient thing for a blog to have, but recently, I feel that it’s proving to be rather redundant. Besides, I kind of enjoy being able to write in large wide spaces. I used to have a theme with a fluid width, but it’s quite hard to do any formatting with that.

I must thank Ross for taking the time to code this layout [although he's been very busy]. So, I hope you like the new look, and routine blogging will continue as soon as I’m free from other commitments :)

“Okay Fazri, you have to realize something. You are an interesting person, with lots of interests. If people are gonna get along with you, they’re gonna have to want to listen to your stories.”

That’s what she told me. Yeah, I guess she’s right - at least the part about people having to want to listen to my stories to get along with me. I know that, I’ve done that many times, I’ve gotten along with many people just fine with my stories.

I guess the real problem here is the lack of a drive.

“Oh, come on. You’re telling me you don’t have a crush on anyone? At all?”

Sure I do. It’s hard to not have a crush on someone when your classmates are made of nubile and pretty-looking sweet young things. I just… couldn’t bring myself to throw myself at them and show off my stuff. I can’t do that whole peacock ritual, it’s just… I’d feel uncomfortable. It’s like I’m trying to wear someone else’s skin.

Then again, I haven’t really entertained much thoughts for romantic adventures. Last time I did that I ended up quite critically damaged.

It took quite a while for me to recover and perhaps the trauma of rejection still lingers in my subconscious. I could feel it tugging the strings, working my limbs like a puppeteer would.

I’m just too scared of risks in romance. I haven’t had much of a good track record. The first time I ever got a girl to like me, I got scared and left her hanging. I never knew that she actually liked me, until many many years later when she introduced me to her new boyfriend.

After that, I’ve been dealing one bad card after another. After a couple of years’ worth of effort not bearing much fruit, I guess I’ve kinda shut myself out from these things.

No, don’t give me that ‘you gotta take risks in love’ bullshit. I’ve taken enough risks to last me another decade or two, thanks to that useless piece of shit generic advice. Life is not a movie, coincidences don’t just click like that.

You have to go out and make it happen. Some people do it and get it, some people try, fail, try again only to fail even harder.

“Don’t worry, someday you’ll find the right one for you.”

Yeah. Right. I’ve heard that a million times. I just wish someone would actually come up to me and say something like, “Don’t worry, someday she’s the one who’s going to find you.” But then, life isn’t a movie. Who am I kidding, right?

UPDATE:
Ark, wtf? The comments disappeared!? All I did was upgrade to WP2.6! Grr…