Thursday, November 22, 2012

reading materials

I'm a bookworm.
Not much maybe compared to real bookworms, but I believe in my family I'm the worst case of bookworm.

I really love reading with passion. Moreover when I found a good book, it's hard to let go of the contents from my head. Really.

My reading materials are categorized into 3

1. Novels
    May it be in English or Malay language, I read those I think worth reading.. (though my novels are a lot in English), and this is sub-categorized to two; a chic lit and young adult fiction for lighter reading (mostly from Cecilia Ahern, Diana Wynne Jones, my new favorite, Jessica Day George and others) or something heavier (Grisham, Jeffrey Archer, Yann Martel, George R.R Martin  and the likes).
    I'm still exploring the Malay novels yet, but I really like Ramlee Awang Murshid. It is still hard for me to find a book that I won't throw 1/4 way out because the very typical storyline.

2. Mangas
    My source of love stories and action actually. I usually read shojo. josei and a bit of shonen genre.
    I love mostly Kaoru's mangas from Gempak Starz in Malaysia.
    Mostly shojo's stories too, but lately the shojo's genre has that too annoying heroin without spine or too much of an air-head. And too dumb to be compared to their hero. Please.... We need a model heroin here!!!!
    Well, some of my favorites mangakas would be:

  • Masami Tsuda (His and her circumstances; high school students coping up with exams, love, and society)
  • Naoko Takeuchi (Sailormoon, of course... still dumb girl but at least her development is encouraging!)
  • Motomi Kyosuke (Dengeki Daisy)
  • Tsubaki Izumi (Oresama Teacher; the adventures of a delinquent high school girl in disciplinary team trying to make her delinquent school a better place )
  • Nakamura Yoshiki (Skip Beat, Tokyo Crazy Paradise to name a few her heroins always a strong willed girl to the end, that's why I like this mangaka)
  • Clamp (Cardcaptor Sakura!!! the sweetest girl)
  • Tsujita Ririko (Warau Kanoko-sama and Koi dano Ai dano → a story about a high school girl manipulating the school in the shadows)

   
    My josei... still hard to find a good one. But I like

  • Yuchi Yayomi (Fukuyado Honpo; a story about 3 sisters and their lives revolving around their ancient wagashi shop), 
  • Higashimura Akiko (Kuragehime: a girl who trying to save her living apartments before sold to developer by starting her own cloth-line)
  • Yachi Emiko (Ashita no Ousama; a country-bred girl becoming a successful screen-writer) 
  • and Ogawa Yayoi (Kimi wa Pet; how a career woman juggling through love, work and personal relationship).  


    My shonen would be One Piece by Oda Eichiro and Until Death do Us Part by Takashige Hiroshi.

    I do read some uncategorized mangas though. I like Tokeino Hari's Gakuen babysitters, a story about a boy helping out in nursery after school and Corseltel No Ryuujyutsushi Monogatari, by Ayuma Isuragi, a story of babysitting too, but dragon babies instead a human. Kumeta Natsuo's Bokura no Kiseki is a story about a princess reincarnated in modern times as a boy and how he dealt with enemies from her(?) time in modern way.

Oh my, I do wrote a lot about mangas here eh?

3. Non-fiction and others
I read this just when I think I am lacking too much of knowledge here. Not much but, the Sun Tzu's Art of War, Mahathir and Drucker are in my list. Right now, I am searching for books on Japanese culture and economy.

Wow! I wrote a lot this time.... Maybe I should wrote a lot for novels too. I read a lot more than what's written.

Till then,
HaHuHi


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

cosmetics.....gergh

ok, I'm done.

Not that.
I never actively wear makeups.
Now, late in my 20's, I started wanting to use them.

But the BIG questions comes whenever I standing in front of racks showing a lot of cleanser, creams, etc...

I am a muslim.
I am now living in where there's a very small population of muslim.
In regards of food, somehow I manage to survive... there's a lot of fish and an online halal food delivery.
But, how about cosmetics?
It's easy to recognize back in my country, but here?
So, first I started with brands I know back in my country.

But recently, when I looked back at PETA: an animal cruelty free site... somethings are just......
and there's a lot of unlisted Japanese companies.

Now for my daily toner, moisturizer and face cleaner, I use products from ROHTO. Typical drug store products.
肌ラボ HadaLabo

I love the HadaLabo series. They didn't contain any animal derivatives and no alcohol as checked from Malaysian site. Moreover, they did not test in on animals. Safe one hurdle.

Then a new product called Yuki Gokochi (literal translation very comfortable snow) came out.

雪ごこち Yuki gokochi

I really wanted to try it. So I sent a questionnaire to them late last night, and today they called me to say that there is no animal derivatives and alcohol in the cream. Yes! Score another one!!!

That's from typical drugstore products.
Then as my willful wills, I just type halal cosmetics.
There is one with Halal certification of products from a Japanese company. A little bit pricey. I'm so going to buy it when I am a little bit richer.

Here's the site:  http://www.royalgoldcream.jp/en/
Royal Cosmetics

Cool!

But now... the rest of the makeups... it seems quite hard to find, and the other option is for me to buy online as Cruelty-Free, Animal-Free, Totally Vegan cosmetics are all outside Japan...(to name a few, they are Tarte, Urban Decay, Fx Cosmetics) 
Good thing I didn't buy the whole set during the time being ignorant as I am. 
Now I just need to find a good mascara, eyeliner, and foundation.  

so, till then,
HaHuHi.

After the depression willful days

nice weather? Not today.

It was supposed to be sunny, and I happily laid out my late-due-to-one-week-rain of laundry.
Then, I'm off to college. Just about having my lunch that these tiny drops of water fell. lightly, with strong wind. Light shower on a sunny day. Japanese people said that during days like this the fox will take a bride. A fox wedding day huh? Congrats then.....while my laundry piles up again.. huhuhu

Now,
a little late for my promise but here it is!
The summary for novels read on those willful days.

1. Princess of the midnight ball
A retelling story from our beloved fairy tales; the 12 dancing princess.
It told the story of 12 princess, cursed from birth due to her mother sacrifice, to dance for an evil underground King and the king's sons.
It adapted nicely and just like in the fairy tale, a soldier who was given an invisible cloak rescues them from the evil clutches.
Here, our hero does a bit of knitting and gardening, which comes handy in defeating the King.
And the budding love between Galen, the hero and Rose, the oldest princess brings fluttery feelings in my stomach. The story also involves politics a bit, to add reality to. Castle politics, I suppose and the relationship between neighboring princes and countries when the King (the princess father) wanted to solve the mystery shrouding our princess dancing shoes.

2. Princess of glass
This time, a Cinderella story, but it's not Cinderella who the heroin. It's one of the princess in the above mentioned story. The battle between the new evil underground King continues in this story, as the new evil King wants a bride (well, the old evil King wants the princess to be his sons' brides). I don't want to spoil the story so here my very little summary. The princess were sent to neighboring countries to mend the relationship because of what happened in the first story. The heroin this time, Poppy, was sent to their cousins and at the same time a neighboring prince was attending. Not much of a romance here, but I like the banters between Poppy and the prince, who seems to think that almost every girl will think of him as the next husband target. A maid was cursed and the one who realized it first was Poppy. But how can Poppy help her if the girl herself wish not to?


That were two books that kept me till dawn. 

After that I finished reading Entwined, Hunger Games, and Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow. I am waiting for the last in the trilogy when the youngest sister gets her own adventures in Princess of the silver woods.

Till then, 
HaHuHi  

P.s: My thirst for books is really bad. I can finish a novel a day......and with all the mangas lying around, I wonder how in the world my room has turned into a library?