Showing posts with label Piano. Show all posts

Square

For some reason, I was on a hunt for large square pillow(s) today on Shopee...

On this day, I posted once in 2011 and another one 10 years later~

2011 - "5x10"

Oh.

I've also started keeping a music journal to keep a record on what I've practised that day & also to write down my teacher's comments during piano class...

What music journal? *trying to recall* Oh, I think it's referring to this label in my other blog. Wow... I did that in the past...

Gah.. I need to update that blog...

Ahhh I miss playing the piano~~~~~

I hope to play "5x10" perfectly before September ends!

I want to say I'm better at playing this song on the piano now but I need to play it again (tomorrow?) to make sure. It's not perfect. Maybe like 70%?

Will it be a good idea to attempt [again] this year??

2021 - "Lazy Friday"

Been having fun reading super leisurely at my own pace recently.

Famous last words?

I guess, in a way, it's still true today. The pace(?) has lessen due to [physical books] reading slump, but I'm still reading them... at the pace of 50 pages per day. Honestly though, that amount could still stresses me out sometimes. At the same time, I don't think stopping cold turkey (like completely no physical book reading) might not be good for future reading purposes. It's just that.. I want to maintain my current reading stamina or something.

Time: 2023-09-17T23:58:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2023 posts , Arashi 嵐 , On This Day , Online Shopping , Piano , Reading

I'm being mean again today

■ Mood: Anxiously excited
■ Drink: Iced Instant Coffee

I was in the middle of reading Volume 4 of "7th Time Loop" when a thought came to me. I might not want to read the web novel after this...??? Like, I don't want to spoil myself... or want to keep it a surprise or something???

NAAAHHH I'm just afraid of reading what's ahead I guess... I'm worried that something bad will happen (though it's already implied that from the beginning duh!) Ahhh this author always write stories like these...! I am reading two of her other stories that also have this "danger lurking behind" feeling to it... [& without shame] I ate it all up. Can't help it, my kind of story :P

In the end, I think I would read the web novel anyway... Out of fervent curiosity (unfortunately)... and fear of missing out. I need to know as much as I can...

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Received some more books via mail today.

"What You Are Looking For is in the Library" - ...Well, because it has library in the title XD
"The Forest of Wool and Steel" - This is about piano-tuners! Which I think is quite rare to find in fiction books.

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Had a polarizing reaction towards anime today. The latest episode of "The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior" (#10) was crazy good (Pride was too cool near the end 😭🤩)... and then latest episode of "Sugar Apple Fairy Tale" (#22) [grrh almost typed out "Sugar Honey Iced Tea" this time] was... MEH 😑😒.

I really don't like Anne, huh. At this point, it's just me hate-watching the show. Like, I can't wait for this anime to end because I don't want to watch her anymore! When the villain talked about wiping out humans (not exact words), I find myself agreeing with him lol...[....and here I am siding(?) with the villains again *sigh*]. The only scenes I can watch are scenes without Anne. Barely. Because some of them like to talk about her. (WHO CARES) If only there's a way to automatically blur out her appearance in the anime... and maybe mute her lines because I don't wanna hear her speak a word 🙄

Time: 2023-09-08T22:37:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: # 7th Time Loop , 2023 posts , Anime , Books , Library , My Dark Side , Online Shopping Bag , Piano , Reading , Web Novels , Weekend Musings

Just Some Updates

Posted in: 2022 posts | In Zombie Mode | Piano | Reading

The highlight of the day: the piano tuner became friends(?) with our cat.

LOL

As expected, I was sleepy the whole morning because I got up early around 3.30am to do laundry.

Also, went out in the afternoon and got my long overdue haircut. Haaaah... finally. I finally got rid of those split ends XD

No reading progress on "The Piano Man Project". (But I might read a bit in bed)

Time: 2022-12-15T22:41:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2022 posts , In Zombie Mode , Piano , Reading

Chaotic Tuesday

What a change from yesterday.

Today was so chaotic. I couldn't sleep at all so around 3am I got out of bed because I had to do laundry... and the piano tuner is coming this Thursday so I had to clear the area around the piano. There were so many stuff there. Why were there so many stuff there??? What was I thinking?!!... Got me wondering hard what to do with those stuff at 4am in the morning. It's not even done. I still need to clean the area above the piano (tomorrow!).

Finished another manga today and that paled in comparison with the one I read yesterday. Should've read that one first *sigh*. I went to check the mangaka's (for yesterday's manga) other works and just realised it was the mangaka for "Mizutama Honey Boy"!!! No wonder that humour style sounds familiar! I love "Mizutama Honey Boy"... there's a chaotic character there (Nanao-senpai!) that never fails to make me laugh with how chaotic and wild he is XD

Time: 2022-12-13T21:57:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2022 posts , Forty Winks and More , In Zombie Mode , Manga , Piano , Reading

I'm Sleepy...

Posted in: 2022 posts | Family | Life: Anecdotes | Piano

My brother is back in KK and... we finally can retrieve the data from the old computer. Apparently you just need this something where you put the hard disk drive inside and now you can plug it into the computer just like a usual external hard disk drive. Lol.. I hope that was easy to understand. Currently I'm feeling sleepy and I don't think my sentences are forming well.. There are others way to do it but we found something called HDD docking station at Karamunsing which makes it easier to do.

Tried accessing the [main] drive C from the old computer and couldn't find some files (aka my collection of digital piano sheets *saaad*)... man, that hard disk is so bad. I mean, I tried using Recuva with it and saw many Microsoft stuff (I assume the important ones) got overwritten by other data... So my pdf files probably ended up the same way :( I'm so sad.... But at least I got most of my phone screenshots (and my IrfanView batch setting files!!! OMG these are so important because I've found the best crop settings and I forgot to backup the numbers in my Keep~)

Time: 2022-11-18T23:25:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2022 posts , Family , Life: Anecdotes , Piano

Q1 of 2022

Decided to make this into a three months per post thing.

JANUARY

1/3

...still not going back to disqus.

1/5

Oohh... haven't been reading blogs like that recently. It's kind of hard to do that when I didn't have access to a computer (since I like multitasking through many tabs).

1/8

Oh gosh... My daily 1-hour piano practice thing! LOL.. I think it lasted less than two months...? I really want to get back to that but... the thing is, I'm faced with a somewhat complicated situation. End of 2019 and early 2020, I started teaching piano and since it seems like it has "calmed down" (??? BTW I'm in the doubtful, pessimist camp) I was asked about it again some time ago. The thing is... I have trust issues. PLEASE... JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!! :(

1/19

I actually got e-mailed about my expiring ATM debit card from CIMB last month. I asked for home delivery and I already got it (very fast! As expected of PosLaju lol). It seems bothersome though that you can only activate it through ATM. I don't know about Maybank though... I'll check Maybank2u on desktop later. Anyway so the answer to my own question... they'll inform you as early as 3 months before the expiry month, I guess??? [...Checked, done. Apparently, you can do it within a year before the expiry date...???]

1/22

Haaaah... been re-reading "Leftover Princess" recently. ...And searching for them on Amazon JP, Kinokuniya etc hurts my heart. Seems like they're out of stock everywhere. I wish I can get the ebook version (legally) but I don't feel like making the effort to do that... can totally see me succumbing to do this anyway in the future, especially when I'm feeling super desperate XD [after I typed this part out, I spent like 0.5-1 hour looking for place to buy the ebooks... *already got distracted lol* *yay, priorities!*]

1/23

Those books... Really glad I already finished all of them! Especially Joseph Conrad's book *SIGH*

1/26

Speaking of soups... I think I'm craving for them again lol

1/29

Haven't been playing Wordle daily recently... Some time after the post, I also started playing the Malay version one but, that has also been abandoned by me haha

FEBRUARY

2/1

Typical me... I haven't finished watching Nobuta on Netflix yet. Not in the mood.

2/7

Unfortunately, haven't returned(?) to this book yet. Maybe I'll try to squeeze this in later after I finish some of the books I'm currently reading...

2/9

Ah, the reading schedule generator. This has helped me finish several books this year. It works! You don't even need to print it out really, just write down the schedule somewhere. And remember, it only works if you follow the schedule closely (obviously). Here's a tip, don't be too ambitious. If you can't finish in one week, make it longer. You'll finish a book even if you only read one page everyday... so make it a month or several months (or years!) if that makes it easier to read a book. It will work. You just have to do it daily.

2/10

Post mentioning 800th post. If I'm not mistaken, this post is my 1000th published post in this blog... so yay to more in the future!

2/15

Still shredding papers today. Mostly with the help of a shredding machine (yes, it was purchased months ago). On the papers I can re-use: totally getting out of hand because I have more now, I haven't even use them much XD (should I start doing Math problems again? lol)

2/17

I never restart that knitted blanket project after that...

2/19

Lol... I haven't finished watching these. I think I'm still stuck in "Jurassic World"...? I'm not even sure if they are still available to stream/on-demand anymore *sigh*

2/23

Again stating it here, I'm sooooo glad I finished "The Rover"...!

MARCH

3/11

Predictably, I have more [new] bookmarks now :P... I might update the post later when I organise them again. It's not really necessary but it's fun to look back at the post in future... so the update is for me lol

3/12

Oooh so I did finish watching Toby Stephen's version... kind of liked it, but maybe not as much as Leonardo DiCaprio's version (you can really see the budget difference there). I would still recommend watching it if you're a fan of the book... just for the sake of watching an adaptation. There's a different vibe (more low-key) there as it's not as showy and grand as the 2013 version.

3/16-17?

Ah.. the first time I didn't post anything this year lol

3/24

Which is... reading a book from the family bookshelf~!

That was in March??? Barely read anything from the family bookshelf (ah.. but I did read that self-help book...). Not brave enough for this one yet. Honestly.

3/30

As of August 26th, my longest book read this year is now the Inkheart trilogy. I think this will stay that way for the rest of the year... I don't really have that many over-1000-pages books. Probably there are some in the other jar, but let's not think about that yet.

Time: 2022-09-07T13:14:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2022 posts , About Blogging , Digest Post , Interest: TV , Life: Anecdotes , Online Shopping , Piano , Reading , Youtube

Dracula

Finally received this today.

I don't know why this package was stuck at J&T Penampang for so many days.

Nothing much. Just another copy of "Dracula". I want to reread this but I can't stand the dusty smell of the book I have in possession from years ago. Since BBW has it (as of today - 1 copy left) with an RM11 price tag - Why not?

With two books of piano scores

Why not, indeed. Look at that cover. Such a fitting cover.

They actually had another annotated version (for aspiring writers) but I missed out on getting that last year (oh well).

Also found some piano scores. Piano score books can be as expensive as normal books so when I see them on BBW listing, I want to get them.

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Speaking of piano, I haven't done a thing about my big goal.

I really don't feel like it these days... but I'll try to make myself play the piano today (since I received those books). "Don't force yourself" you say? Like I said in the past, I'm a seasoned procrastinator. I know myself best. There's time where I push myself to do better. This is that time.

Also haven't been playing/reading Ayumu's (yes, we're that close :P) route.

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Got my Watch Later playlist to under 10 videos today. At least something was completed today.

Although most of it were just e-reader related videos. Yes, I'm at that phase again. Kobo will be the best choice if I continue borrowing books from the library but it's just so damn expensive in Malaysia (from what I saw on Shopee at least). It's so weird saying Kindle is cheaper here (because it's probably not, in the long run).

This phase will end. At the end of the day... it always comes down to the conclusion that I don't need one. Sigh.

(...then I complain about eye strain when I read books on my phone and the cycle begins again)

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BTW, had another dream that I can recall what it's about today. It's of an apocalyptic kind of dream (although I don't feel that way in the dream?). Maybe it's more suitable to call it a natural disaster. For unknown reasons, my family and I were at a beach somewhere and there was a big wave (Tsunami?) coming. We tried reaching a higher place (a greek-inspired large building - I don't know why. Dreams are weird). When we got there, we sat at the sofa(?), as if it's over (I felt like it wasn't). End of dream.

Time: 2022-04-13T15:21:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2022 posts , blog images , Books , I Need to Talk About My Dreams , Interest: Games , Online Shopping Bag , Piano

Not Bothered

Posted in: 2022 posts | Knit/Crochet Stuff | Piano

Funny thing happened yester- no, it's not yesterday.. it's actually early morning (1-2am). I suddenly realised I forgot something. I forgot to do my daily piano practice yesterday!

It bothers me but I won't let it bother me too long.

I'll just call yesterday a rest day for my daily piano project. I should have a rest day every month, it's not good to not have a rest day. Sometimes, some time away makes the next practice session better. Yes, you can choose to be rigid and do the extreme.. but just because you can, doesn't mean you should do it. [Recently, saw this phrase several times in the comments section in different subreddits so I'll take that as a sign lol]

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Saw a knitting pattern for blanket that I'm interested in but... nothing is set yet. I'm just going to bookmark that page for now.

Time: 2022-01-31T17:10:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2022 posts , Knit/Crochet Stuff , Piano

Pretty Sunny

Posted in: 2021 posts | Piano | The Weather Looks...

"Do it. Do that thing you should do... now."

...is the mood I'm in today. I'm going to clean the stuff on the piano after this post. Probably will get distracted with playing the piano, which I see as a perk for doing the cleaning, and I'll allow it.

Also, it's a pretty sunny day. I'm happy. The laundry is dry and happy.

Time: 2021-11-19T14:51:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2021 posts , Piano , The Weather Looks...

Piano Shy

Posted in: 2021 posts | Piano | Reading

Been playing Arashi songs on the piano lately and got piano shy because I kept pressing the wrong notes XD ~~I want my thick skin back!~~

Today feels like Sunday again.

Found more manga to borrow from the national library's overdrive. Really craving something easy to ~~digest~~ read lately. I've been somewhat impatient in my reading...adventure(?) these past few weeks so it made me think if the problems lie with me or the authors/books. Maybe I just don't like those kind of books or writing styles? Something like that. I don't think it's a reading slump but it sure feels like it's going that way. So I need my manga. Oh yeah, and maybe reread stuff I've enjoyed before. Don't want to fall into a slump again.

Time: 2021-07-20T22:16:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2021 posts , Piano , Reading

Keyword(s): Youtube, Mass Effect, Reading, Piano.

Posted in: # Mass Effect | 2021 posts | Piano | Reading | Youtube

Lazy day.

Saw the conclusion of someone's ME1 playthough today. Got reminded again how much I love the AI theme in the series. Glad that he's playing ME2 next. Maybe I'll have the urge to continue my insanity (sigh) playthrough of ME2 when I see him play.

Also saw a book youtuber's video about finishing her "pile of shame" books. Books that she started years ago that she hasn't finished. Currently, I have one particular book that's the same way. Kinda want to finish that book this month…

Continued organising piano area today. Wore face mask so hopefully no sneezing fit before I go to sleep. After that, went window-shopping on Shopee for piano covers. And then got mad with the expensive prices lol. Suddenly feels like I should learn crochet to make myself a nice piano cover. Maybe can knit one too?

I don't know why the post I make on Blogger mobile app always sound robotic XD.. Even my inner voice while typing this went robotic lol

Time: 2021-07-19T21:43:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: # Mass Effect , 2021 posts , Piano , Reading , Youtube

Experience taught me...

Posted in: 2021 posts | On This Day | Piano | Piano Exam

...that I should take time in reading a Joseph Heller book. Although I have only read one book of his so far. Anyway, I still think I should take my own sweet time reading "Something Happened".

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I posted once on the same day and same month in year 2012.

Finally attended piano class officially at the new place my music school moved to.

Okay whoa... that's so looong ago. I kind of took a break from that music school later (it's in 2013 that my teacher wanted to stop teaching at that school). Then I started going to my teacher's house for piano lessons until end of 2018 [2021-07-11 edit: I totally forgot that by the end, it was the other way round where she went to my house to teach]. Around the time I quit my job, she also stopped teaching piano (for good this time) - ah.. I think that kind of added a bit to making my 2019 year more depressing.

... anyway, on the next class, I'm going to start on Grade 4's music theory... and maybe start playing Grade 6's pieces...? Ah, but the new editions of exam pieces haven't arrived (I think.. forgot to check the books section :P)... and.... *hopefully I'll pass my G5 exam!*

This is a really good post to revisit because there are so many things to update.

I took the ABRSM music theory exam for Grade 5 in 2014 and passed with distinction (barely).
Last practical exam I did was for G7 and it didn't went well. But I passed barely with a score of 100. I was so sure that I would fail.
I was still struggling with G8 pieces when my teacher retired from teaching (she didn't use that term but I think that's the best term to describe it now). She was hoping that I'll return to the music school but since I was in an "unstable" state in 2019, I didn't do anything about that.
Regarding piano practice... I've been slacking off 2019-present... Tried playing more recently but it's kind of hard when you have family members doing work from home. So there's that. (But surely, if I want something, I would do anything to get it so... I'm not blameless in that aspect).

Neighbours will have to bear with my clunky clearly-out-of-practice (lol) piano playing temporarily until I get my - that thing - back. (My muse? My groove?)

In the very far future, I want to learn more about composing, transcribing to piano and maybe learn to play jazz?

~~Must spend my day tomorrow mastering all those scales and arpeggios~~

If you know me as well as my ex-piano teacher, you'll know that scales are among my weaknesses haha. But lately, since I dread piano practice, I thought it might be a good idea to just play these scales and anything related as piano practice. Like I don't need to play any pieces or modern songs, just do the technical stuff.

I haven't started doing that yet but might be good to do it now that I've mentioned it here...

Time: 2021-07-09T16:44:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2021 posts , On This Day , Piano , Piano Exam

11 years later...

Posted in: 2021 posts | Knit/Crochet Stuff | On This Day | Piano | Piano Exam

On this day, I posted once in 2010: "Nervous Butterflies"

Okay... oh. Piano exam stuff. I don't know which one was that but...

I was supposed to take ABRSM G8 last year (or this year) but after my teacher stopped teaching me (end 2018-2019), I sort of... don't think about it [for] now. I had a disastrous G7 exam experience (I did so badly) but I [actually] ended up barely passing the practical exam. To this day, I haven't opened the result envelope. I was pretty sure I failed. I only knew I passed when I was asked to retrieve my certificate.

Gloomy stuff aside...

I'm not there yet. That level... where you can play what you just listened (or is listening!).... it's out of my league. I can't even memorize well... I will always need music sheets. Sigh. I think it's nice to be good at playing by ears. & also... songwriting. Haha. I'm tempted to tell my teacher : "Let's compose a song."

11 years later, I can say that I'm kind of still at that same level... but I believe that I've matured at some parts. I actually can do it if I put more efforts into it. I can learn stuff by myself and by my own pace.

"Then, why don't you do it?"

Unfortunately, I have multiple interests and hobbies :D and I move between them according to my mood(s) at that time. I'm a super easily distracted person with fear of getting bored of things... I don't do well with commitments :P. This reminds me of the books I've been reading this year - the theme jumps around so randomly. I just pick out any books I want to read at that moment.

★★★★★

I finished knitting this headband yesterday! Managed to take photos before giving it to my sister. I'm probably going to spend my time doing headbands and maybe (BIG maybe) try knitting a beanie while I wait for 2nd haramaki's extra yarns.

This shouldn't take a month (probably a few days if I do like 4 repeats of the pattern everyday).. but I can't stand doing the repeats lol. Now that I pretty much has memorised it I can just knit it while watching stuff on Youtube.

Time: 2021-05-10T20:23:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2021 posts , Knit/Crochet Stuff , On This Day , Piano , Piano Exam

It was Monday in 2009

Posted in: 2021 posts | On This Day | Piano | Reading

I thought of listing things I'm craving to eat for today's post (weird topic - I know - considering yesterday's post). Or my bad reading habits (lol). Or just a list of random things (a "No Context" post). But thanks to past-me for posting in 2009, I'm doing an "On This Day" post today!

I don't know why I'm excited but here we go :P

2009 post: "April 13th at random"

I posted about piano practice, Jiro Wang (*suprised_pikachu.jpg*), Catch-22(!!!) and driving lessons (briefly) on that day.

I seriously have to stop slacking off! I don't like to lie to my piano teacher when she asks if I practised the song. Playing it less than five times in a 6-day time isn't what I call "practice".

Yeah. Erm about this... I am still not good at "practising". I get so easily bored playing the same piece over and over again. I always try to find something else to play.

Anyway.. I ordered a book (There's a song I wanted to play from the book & I think this one is too hard for me) from here a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately the site is no more. Their piano songbooks were so fun too... usually they have Cpop and Cdrama theme songs in their selections. I did bought some from the theme series from my old music school.

I can't understand why June (a form 6 ex-classmate) hate watching Jiro Wang. He's such a talented person! But this doesn't mean I have a fever/crush going on with him or Fahrenheit...

If you ask me now, I think I still like him... but I haven't seen anything with him for so long lol. I haven't even watch that drama where he acted with Ruby Lin (TIL Lin Gengxin was in this! I need to watch this!) I also like his singing voice so I'm happy that his album is available on Spotify.

I finally finish reading "Catch-22" yesterday! The funny thing about it was I didn't find it that funny at all. Yes, I agree that it's funny at some parts... I guess I wasn't really into the story itself. But it was an easy read (I can read it fast compared to classic novels)... and I like the dialogues between the characters - that's mostly where the "funny" factor are.

Past-me said it's "an easy read"... Haaaah..I already picked Hexwood to read next after I finished with "1984". Maybe after Hexwood & one of the mystery-themed book in my 13 list?

Screw you, smokers!

The rest of the post was me cursing on people smoking in the public. There were many smokers at the place I worked (even though it's a place where you strictly can't smoke). I hate that my working experience there had made me somewhat immune to the smoke BUT I still don't like it. I will judge you if you smoke in the public.

Time: 2021-04-13T20:21:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2021 posts , On This Day , Piano , Reading

5 Flavours, Again.

Posted in: 2021 posts | 5 Flavours | Arashi 嵐 | Piano | Spotify

Okay, I'm doing another "5 flavours" post.

I really need a proper title format for this post series. But I'm bored of using dates...

「Sweet」- The Taro pie I ate after dinner :P.

「Bitter」- I've been tasked to look for something (at home) yesterday. Not my stuff so it's a bit hard to guess where the thing is... tried looking for it today but no luck.

「Nostalgic」- Been listening to Arashi's albums on Spotify recently.

「Creamy」- What is this flavour lol... but.. but.. that's the word that came to my mind when I play the piano today. It sounded creamily (LOL) good, even though I was just playing pieces for technical practice. Maybe I should stick to those kind of pieces when I'm not in the mood for harder, complex ones?

「Chamomile」- Another weird flavour haha.. Okay, I picked this one because it's related to sleep. I had some good sleep this past week. Which is rare. Hormones are so weird.

Time: 2021-03-28T22:15:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2021 posts , 5 Flavours , Arashi 嵐 , Piano , Spotify

Some ideas...

Had a video chat session with my best friend last night. Some of the stuff we talked about gave me ideas on what I want to do [& maybe blog about] in the future.

I mentioned before that I'm aiming to be ambidextrous and that should include me practising writing using my left hand... but I slacked off. For years I haven't done much other than brushing my teeth with my left hand. So yeah, need to do something about that.
February 5th is my blog anniversary. So I've been thinking quite a lot about my blog recently. About this blog being a personal blog that doesn't have any specific topics other than whatever I'm interested in... or about my life. It is MY blog (duh) so I think it's a given that it will be me-centric.

Okay, I don't know what's my point here but... I'm just thinking about how I have chosen to blog without revealing my identity. About how or what will happen if someone who knows me read about what I thought about them in my blog.... *shivers in fear* The thing is... I have an IG account under my the usual username I use on other SNS sites that I keep private - If I don't know you personally, I won't add you. That's not the problem. What bothers me is they keep recommending me my ex-colleagues' IG accounts like WTH. *laughs bitterly* It's easy to just search that username to find my other... stuff online. That makes me uneasy so for the time being, I removed the link to this blog on my Twitter. I know it might not help much but.. I just want my peace of mind.

Am I afraid? A bit. I've experienced someone calling out on me [indirectly] before for a Whatsapp status I posted which, mind you, was NOT about them. It was mostly MY problem and they managed to make it sound like it's their problem. *Big sigh* Not talking about that here... it's just... people will twist anything into something that suits their wants. There are stupid, toxic people like that in this world and it's unfortunate that they are also among the loudest ones.
I keep repeating this few posts back: I need to get back to practising playing the piano XD. And maybe update my piano blog while I do that. Hearing one of my neighbours practise playing what I assumed their piano exam pieces inspires me to play the piano.

Other than that... yesterday I saw on Twitter that there are official piano scores for Arashi's songs. I WANT THEM. Even though I know I can't have them now. Maybe I can prioritise the ones with songs I want first? Vol. 1 includes Ohno's solos.. but Vol. 5 has "Miles Away"...!

【「嵐」公式ピアノ楽譜　遂に発売】
嵐の歴史を彩ってきた名曲たちから厳選された105曲を5冊に収めた公式ピアノソロ楽譜集がドレミより出版！
シックな雰囲気のある漆黒の楽譜に「ARASHI」の金文字がかっこいい✨嵐が大好きな皆様いかがですか？
※合唱楽譜ではございませんhttps://t.co/I3amLTWuw9 pic.twitter.com/HkpVpciOMc
— 合唱楽譜のパナムジカ (@PanaMusica_jp) January 30, 2021

Time: 2021-01-31T21:34:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2021 posts , About Blogging , Arashi 嵐 , My Fangirl Side , My Salty Side , Piano

My 13 Hobbies

It's not easy to list out 13 items so I don't always get to do a Thursday 13 post. But today, I have this idea... so I'm listing out 13 of my hobbies.

Always

Things I do every week these last few months

1. Reading - Something I do since I'm little. I have occasional reading slumps but I still like doing it.

2. Watching TV/Youtube/Netflix - Not much TV nowadays but Youtube, oh yes. It started from watching some japanese vlogs to watching people play horror games. Now I'm learning how to knit from Youtube videos.

3. Surfing the Internet - Being in fandoms got me into looking for their information online. I started using the internet pretty early (compared to my peers at that time).. and, yes, I experienced dial-up connection. Internet was pretty expensive back then [for the slow speed *sigh*] so I could only use it after my mother's done using it.

4. Collecting Things - I don't collect everything of course. But when there's something I'm interested in, I naturally want to collect them. I used to collect stamps and stickers. I still have the hotel envelopes I mentioned in a post before. Other things I collect are books and stationery... I try not to collect stuff I can't use.

5. Blogging - My blog has been online since February 2005. There were years I didn't update anything but yeah, I still consider it one of my hobbies.

6. Music-related Activities (Listening to Music/Playing the Piano)

7. Playing Computer/Mobile games - I LOVE GAMES. I wasn't allowed or didn't have much chance to play them when I was little so I think that played a big part on why I love them so much now. I play quite a wide range of games. I enjoy the Mass Effect series. I love mystery, puzzle-solving games. Adventure games. Visual novel games. Otome games. Music rhythm games.

Sometimes/on-and-off/Sporadic
Things I do monthly these last few months

8. Cooking

9. Writing - When I'm not lazy, I like attempting to write fanfics based on the games I play lol.

10. Learning a Language

11. Creating Art (Drawing/Painting) - This one is really an on-and-off thing for me. But I'm trying to do more of this because sometimes I do have that urge to do some art things.

Newish/Experimental stage(?)

12. Gardening

13. Knitting

Time: 2021-01-28T16:45:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: # Mass Effect , 2021 posts , Art Stuff , Blog Meme , Gardening Stuff , Knit/Crochet Stuff , My Fangirl Side , Piano , Reading

August 3rd at random

I'm sick again. For the second time of the year. Arggh! Fortunately, I'm feeling better today.. my 4th day I think? Last Saturday, I felt a bit hard to breathe.. it was like gasping for air after going for a run. I never had that before but yes, my nose was runny and stuffy since Friday, so I think it's not that weird. I probably slept in a bad posture the night before. Hmm. Anyway.. that was enough to remind me again of the bad cold/flu thing I had last year and scared me enough not to get out of the house again. I did go out several times since the time we were allowed to but I really don't want to go out too much. It's.. dangerous out there.

★★★★★

I should be teaching piano this month but I cancelled it because I don't think it's the wise thing to do after seeing what's happening recently.

★★★★★

I didn't mention it here and it was really done in a spur of the moment.. but... I tried doing Watercolour Month and it was interesting! It forced me (in a good way) to paint something everyday in July. Of course, my knowledge of using paint only consists of the poster colours I did in school...

BTW aren't Posca Pens basically Poster Colour Pens? ポスターカラー Posuta Kara - > PosuKa -> Posca?.. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy poster colour paint set (of course.. I'm aware that there are some that are expensive)?

Okay back to the topic... I didn't really do anything big or grand.. most of them are small!.. it's just something like an art diary thing. And I experimented a lot because I just jumped in blind and tried something I'm not that familiar with. It was fun nonetheless!

Time: 2020-08-03T22:01:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2020 posts , Art Stuff , at random , Life , My Paranoid Side , My Worrying Side , Piano

December 5th at random

Don't go printing out my posts in colour and bring it up on a meeting as an attempt to shame me. -Me, 2019

I'm teaching?

Yeah... Well... One thing I didn't mention in my post yesterday is I rarely play on the piano anymore. HAAAAAAAAAAH. It has became worse after my long-time piano teacher retired from teaching me. Since my sleep times went haywire I always woke up really late. And then I have other distractions to attend to... *sigh* Yeah, reasons and more reasons.

Anyway, something changed last month. My cousin has asked me to teach her daughters how to play the piano. So.. that happened. Which makes me play the piano as bit more and now I'm thinking seriously of getting back to my old music school for G8. I hope there'll be a teacher who could put up with this unmotivated, lazy adult piano student. My aim in the end is to be able to compose and transcribe songs at ease while getting better on the piano. It's a long shot but I might want to try doing jazz in the future *cue flashbacks of playing jazz piano pieces badly*.. a girl can dream, right? If I can learn to read Chinese and Japanese from zero, why not?

I'm healing?

Noticing a theme here since Day 1. I guess you can call December as a month of healing, at least for me. I quit my job last December so maybe it's the right time to let go of the pain... by facing it head on.

Actually, I've been thinking about it since I attended my bestfriend's wedding in October. She was so beautiful that day and I was moved to tears. I did have thoughts of "Is it okay for the depressed, negative me to be here?" Also, I had one of my morbid moments there which I first shared with my sister.

"I'm so happy that I'm able to see her get married, now I can die in peace."

Sigh. This is a dangerous sentence (especially after I mentioned about having mild suicidal thoughts in an earlier post) but I assure you it was said in a nonchalant way. I feel like I can go on. It's weird that a wedding made me think like that but the positive vibes got to me.

While I'm at it, I'm going to use art as part of the healing too.

I'm revamping?

The labels in this blog are so messy! I used to take pride in my labelling system but because I haven't been blogging much since 2013 (6 years~!), I don't remember what is what anymore. Haha. Time to revamp the labels again!

I have added two major labels:

There's a full explanation for them in "(My) Labels explained" but basically Cringy is for posts from 2005-2008 and Delayed is for posts from 2009-2013. Those posts are...cringy lol. I was a teenager & a young adult when I wrote them so I don't want anyone bringing up past stuff to pick a fight with me. Don't go printing out my posts in colour and bring it up on a meeting as an attempt to shame me. Oddly specific experience? *sneers* That's a story for another day.

Time: 2019-12-05T15:07:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2019 posts , Art Stuff , at random , blog , Life: Anecdotes , My Salty Side , NaBloPoMo , Piano , Random-ness , Weddings

「なるほど！」

Posted in: 2012 posts | Delayed Rebellious Phase (Cringeworthy) | Life: Anecdotes | Piano | Piano Exam

Attended the second Master class yesterday. Nervous too. Same person who conducted the first one (& he remembered me! hehe). I actually had more confidence in playing my pieces this time but alas... made so many mistakes! I even thought he would give a comment like "..you sounded better last time, what happened?" But he didn't. I'm surprised that he said nice things again (thank you!!! 感動しましたよ、あたし。 -- & he also mentioned that he doesn't say them often :D)... he even said something like there's those usual things people look out for (techniques etc) but people can also hear if you play with soul (oh gosh I hope I remembered this part correctly)...

Recently, I started recording my practice sessions (exam pieces) & I realised there's a difference between what I hear during playing & the recorded ones. Like some people said to me, .... I should really have a bit more confidence with myself. *sigh*... By the way, I really should start sticking to this recording habit... it's very helpful. I can hear which part I can improve on...

...& also start listening more to pros' performances. I listened to a professional pianist's performance on Youtube two nights ago & I ended up crying... I was so touched by the way he played Bach's Partita no.6 (found the video when I was looking for the 4th movement which is one of my exam pieces).

Time: 2012-07-12T01:17:00+08:00
Posted by RuYanda
Labels: 2012 posts , Delayed Rebellious Phase (Cringeworthy) , Life: Anecdotes , Piano , Piano Exam

Fighting for Life

About Me

I'm predictably unpredictable, inconsistent, random & eccentric. Sometimes arrogant and silly. Always curious. Read that again without the snobbish tone.

「　Fighting For Life　」
Blogging since February 2005
RuYanda @ Ruth

2005–2026

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Square

I'm being mean again today

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Chaotic Tuesday

I'm Sleepy...

Q1 of 2022

Dracula

Not Bothered

Pretty Sunny

Piano Shy

Keyword(s): Youtube, Mass Effect, Reading, Piano.

Experience taught me...

11 years later...

It was Monday in 2009

5 Flavours, Again.

Some ideas...

My 13 Hobbies

August 3rd at random

December 5th at random

I'm teaching?

I'm healing?

I'm revamping?

「なるほど！」

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