to be colorful

X'mas is coming soon. In streets, the x'mas feeling is all around. I love x'mas since I was little, because of santa and gifts and the happy atmosphere. And most importantly, new year is coming soon too. Anyway, for this year, I didn't achieve too much.., but still, we all will hope for the best. Sometimes life is just not going the way you want it to be.. The good thing is, we can choose the songs/ music we love and they're healing us. 

Another x'mas song I like. Share with you. (Suggest the Kelly Clarkson version. She has a very touching voice).

I'll be home for Christmas

I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me

Another book from Japanese. Sometimes I just feel that Japanese is a really sensitive and considerate and mature group of people. They can not only do their jobs and also learn something profound from the jobs. And most of them see their jobs as their long-life career and diligently do the work. 

So for this book, it's a person who has the job as a death cleanser. Since it's a really unique job, it of course would bring lots of thoughts to the worker. For human beings, the one thing we can't resist would be death, but people often tend not to think about it because it is too heavy and sad. But for the author, it is his work so he has to face death everyday and even worse, some deaths are not natural deaths. They're self-suicides or bad death bodies. From the work, author saw different stories, some showed the warmth from human beings, while some showed the bad side. But from the stories, the author learned the essence of lives and he put them altogether in this book. It's highly recommanded when you're confused about lives. In front of deaths, everyone is so small and needs to be humble. 

This is a book which once you start reading, it's hard to stop. It says about a japanese woman who is hitting 36 years old but still only got a part-time job in at convenient store and unmarried. Well, after reading it, I can totally understand the feeling and situation happening in the book because that's the society for now.. Women or men who don't get married and a job will get critisized and eventually don't want to be with other friends because they're tired of any kind of question. So, this book keeps asking what is normal and what is abnormal. Actually that is a good point. If someone doesn't get married and a full-time job, why are they abnormal? It's evident that they're judged by the society. But is the society correct? No one can answer that. Sometimes I feel that society is slowly killing the minority. But I guess that's the darwin's theory, so that's normal, right?

Tango music from the movie "scent of a woman". Very romantic and nice. Good to listen to on sunday night (with a lazy mood). Suggest to hear the one played by Itzhak Perlman. 

I heard the song "Last Christmas" sang by Ariana Grande. It's very nice and full of melody. The original was sang by George Michael - he passed away on 12/25/2016.. 

Share with you the nice song.

Last Christmas

Last Christmas I gave you my heart

I'm not a fan of JJ, but it's really a nice song. Share with you. :)

不為誰而作的歌

原諒我這一首 不為誰而作的歌
感覺上彷彿窗外的夜色

I saw a short video from youtube that there's a tourist guy joined a band on the street while being in Florence and they together played "autumn leaves". I think it is a wonderful performance even thought they don't do any rehearsal and maybe because the show is not on purpose, the performers play with their talent and heart and build a great impromptu. 

Share with you,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t3xBqAWLaU

Recently I watched this japanese tv drama 99.9不可能的翻案. Surprisingly it is quite a good show. It said about a lawyer who is young and not afraid of challenging the old system to look for the truth for every case. The main actor Jun Matsuta is very cute and he plays this character very well! The tempo for the whole show is quite fast (like the drama Hero). Suggested for you. 

I saw this documentary Educating Peter from HBO Signature few weeks ago. It was quite real. It basically would like to show a mental-disabled kid, Peter, to attend a normal elementary school and the teacher and other students there were trying to let Peter involve more in school life and meanwhile, to teach him what is right and wrong. I googled on line and found out that some critics think that is not appropriate because Peter may hit kids suddenly without any intention and it may hurt other kids. As I am not a person majoring in education, don't know if it is a right thing to let a mental-disabled kid to be involved in a group. What I saw from the documentary is that kids and teachers at that school are like angels. They're kind and willing to help. I think that is the most touching part in it. The kind humanity. 

So I tried some steakhouse in Taipei, including 沾美, 紅屋, steak-inn, Ruth's chris. Personally, I like steak-inn the best. But in average, all four have good quality of food and service. For 沾美, I just tried it today and it is buffet for lunch. The shrimp is fresh and the dessert is delicious. For 紅屋, don't really remember much of it (I ordered a steak at that time). For Steak-inn, I ordered steak with goose liver souce. The meal is tasty. For Ruth's chris, I ordered a steak but don't really recall anything special either. Anyway, I believe there's so much more other steakhouse in Taipei. And when I have time and money (of course..), I'll try others too.:)

It's a sweet and romantic song I heard from the movie Beethoven's 2nd. It was played when the girl in the movie fell in love with a cute guy from the school. That girl is about junior high age, so when the song came out, the whole screen turned pink (haha). A very pure and juvenile song. Share with you.

The day I fall in Love

Just an ordinary day
Started out the same old way

I saw this documentary in HBO signature last week (gotta say HBO signature has so many good ones). It said about Republicans in the Middle East of USA. After seeing it, I finally understand why Trump won for this election - that is so many people in countryside and they have strong opinions. It just that the main stream media don't care about them and ignore them. The media goes after intellectuals and the rich, well-educated people. That is why after this presidential election, I saw from the hosts in cnn/ nbc etc and they all have shocking faces (which means their jaw dropped). 

This documentary well described the situation in the middle-east, south of USA and the voices of the residence then. This explains everything.

I saw this movie on HBO last night. Can't say it's a good one but Hugh Jackman then was really young and cute. So as Meg Ryan. Speaking of Meg Ryan, my favorite of her movies would be Sleepless in Seattle. That one reallly was a good one (Co-star with Tom Hanks). Especially the songs. There're many good old songs in that move. Anyway, Kate and Leopold was saying about a duke accidentally went to the future in New York. And met the working lady Kate and fell in love.. The plot is a cliche but if you want to see young Hugh Jackman, this one you can see it. :)

I know I need to go to bed now cuz it's late and gotta get up early tomorrow. But when the radio is playing "the Christmas Song", it's just touching. As X'mas is coming, I feel the nostalgic feeling is coming again. I love x'mas and also other holidays. But x'mas is like my best cuz I have this memory that as a kid, to exchange gifts was so much fun! So many years passed and alothough I don't have too much achievment myself, the x'mas' joyous feeling stays the same. Though the holiday feeling will urge people to look for the company even more, and the sad feeling is stronger, the core spirit of x'mas still passes the joy to us all.

Just miss the all-in-love feeling.

The Christmas Song

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

I first heard this song from a well-known japanese show - the red-white contest. This show is to celebrate the end of the year and also look forward to the beginning of a new year. I heard all the famous japanese singers sang this song together. The meaning of this song is very positive and optimistic. It shows a spirit. In this late night, I'd like to share with you and hopefully we can go forward and be brave. 

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作詞：永六輔