Tired tired tired.

Recently that's all I'm talking about? Being tired? Lol well yes I'm really sleepy today... but I actually want to talk about something else in this post but I can't think of a better title.

Anyway. Somehow, after my ranking dropped to 67 place, it climbed back up to 62 again? o.o
Thank you to all my friends, supporters, silent readers, stalkers.... you! That means you, thank you for contributing to my site traffic! XD

Had a CNY celebration at work today. Free food... won 20 bucks supermarket voucher at the lucky draw... probably will by some snacks for the lab people. No idea what to buy though? Chocolates? >< We'll see.

So the RF I was helping approached me and asked if I'll be interested to help prepare and maintain the stock of qpcr standards. Of course I agreed. I have nothing better to do now anyway? And why would I turn down the opportunity to learn more things? And make myself useful... gonna get the RF to teach me FISH and confocal too. Attended the training session for confocal but really... i wont remember till i actually get to use that thing. Yayayay! I'll get to learn confocal! Finally! That's like... my main goal? Well I do want to use the TEM too. But the confocal is really the most useful microscope in biology. It'll really add a lot to my CV if i get the chance to master it. And i think the asst prof aka my... handler? She's really looking out for me now... she was the one who told me that the RF was gonna do FISH and asked me to learn from her after all! XD It's gonna be fun! Yay!

Sakura PV making - Vocab list!

Some pick up vocab from Sakura PV making.

All definitions courtesy of http://beta.jisho.org/

花弁 (はなびら, hanabira)
1. (flower) petal.

I knew flowers, stem, fruit, branch... but I never knew the word petals still Sakura came out! The making and the Music Station performances... I bet after watching this you'll never forget the word 'hanabira'!


楽勝 (らくしょう, rakushou)
1. Easy victory.

Straight forward meaning. Sometimes you hear this in VSA... and I distinctly remember it in Ohno's SP drama kyou no hi wa sayonara. He thought chemotherapy was an '楽勝' for the first three days. Well in the making, the narrator used to term to describe Aiba's look, that he's probably thinking it's an '楽勝' cos they aren't dancing.


落語 (らくご, rakugo)
1. Rakugo; traditional japanese comic storytelling; comic story (told by a professional storyteller).

Ah Nino's new drama role as the 落語家 (らくごか, rakugoka), or the professional comic storyteller.


台詞 (せりふ, serifu)
1. Speech; words; one's lines; remarks.

Another commonly used word. Whenever they have a drama, they'll very likely talking about their lines i.e. 台詞 in the drama. Or about how they are memorising it etc.


咲く (さく, saku)
1. To bloom.

Simple word. Blooming of the flowers... Like the song Sakura Sake. It's not 'sake' as in 酒 or wine (or even 鮭 salmon!!!!), but rather 咲け as in 'bloom'.


枯れる (かれる, kareru)
1. To wither (of a plant); to be blasted; to die.
2. To mature (of one's personality, abilities, etc.).

Here it was the first meaning used. Talking about the old tree...


無口 (むくち, mukuchi)
1. Reticence; taciturnity.

For once Nino was taciturn... because he was busy memorizing his lines.


個展 (こてん, koten)
1. Solo exhibition; one-man exhibition; one-woman exhibition.

Yes! Oh-chan! When will you hold your next solo exhibit? XD


和やか (なごやか, nagoyaka)
1. Mild; calm; gentle; quiet; harmonious.

The narrator used this a number of time. About how '和やか' Arashi are.


野外 (やがい, yagai)
1. Outdoors; outside; open air.


自然 (しぜん, shizen)
1. Nature; spontaneity.
2. Naturally; spontaneously.

Another very common word, you often hear it on their varieties. Like XXX person does YYY naturally. An example sentence: shizen ni YYY yarimashita. (Naturally did YYY. Or spontaneously, depending on context.)


厄介 (やっかい, yakkai)
1. Trouble; burden; nuisance; bother; worry.
2. Care; dependence; support; kindness; obligation; staying (with a person).

Nino. And his troll replies. Koko-poi? No idea what he's saying (looked through the possible definitions and they don't seem to make sense?) and I guess it wasn't supposed to make sense either. LOL!


朝礼 (ちょうれい, chourei)
1. Morning assembly (company, school, etc.); pep talk.

Breaking down the words 朝 (pronounced as asa when alone) mean morning, and 礼 (rei) means salute/ceremony.


気配り (きくばり, kikubari)
1. Care; attentiveness; attention; consideration (for others); solicitude.


目配り (めくばり, mekubari)
1. Being watchful; keeping watch; keeping an eye open.

Together with 気配り above, the narrator used these words to describe how Jun detailed and caring Jun was for noticing the petal on Nino's head and removing them.


揃わない (そろわない, sorowanai)
1. Unequal; uneven; incomplete; odd.

Arashi was incomplete a lot in this PV. Very few scenes with all 5 of them together!


対峙 (たいじ, taiji)
1. Confrontation; standing facing each other (e.g. mountains, buildings).
2. Squaring off against (adversaries, armies, forces); standing off against; holding one's own with.

Jun, and his old tree square off! XD


阿吽 (あうん, aun)
1. Om; aun; syllable representing the primordial trinity of vishnu, shiva and brahma. Usually written using kana alone, From Sanskrit
2. Inspiration and expiration; respiration; alpha and omega.

This was heard somewhere near the end... Thankfully I had wikipedia to come to my rescue for this one. I quote from wiki: "The term a-un is used figuratively in some Japanese expressions as "a-un breathing" (阿吽の呼吸 a-un no kokyū) or "a-un relationship" (阿吽の仲 a-un no naka), indicating an inherently harmonious relationship or non-verbal communication."

I guess it's not a very common phrase? But it was nice to learn about it.


切ない (せつない, setsunai)
1. Painful; heartrending; trying.
2. Oppressive; suffocating; miserable.

Friend feed look update

So... I went home to my own lappy and the friend feed showed up in my journal look, and there was a button asking if I wanted to use that as a default... which I clicked.

I asked the question on LJ support and got the answer today. Turns out that it's all dependent on the URL. If you use /feed then you get the new look. /friends and it's the old journal look. Choosing whichever as default affects which link you are directed to when you click on the friends feed button.

For all the misgivings about how I'd like to see more features on LJ... their customer support officer actually replied pretty fast :)