There is this quiz program about Myanmar videos on Myawaddy TV. In this program, small portions from different videos are displayed and the participants have to guess the correct video titles. Although I don’t watch the program regularly, I sometimes watch it so I can know what new videos have come out and whether some are worth watching. My mother said that if we were to ever participate in that program, we would surely lose as we hardly watch Myanmar videos. Which is why I try to keep myself up to date by watching the latest Myanmar videos, but it’s really difficult to choose the right one. Most of the the times, I choose the video based on the director’s name and then I see whether my least favorites celebrities are in it or not. And since I dislike most celebrities, it’s really difficult for me to choose a video.

And yesterday, I was fooled by choosing to rent this video called “Wolf Night Zero Hour”. The video cover attracted me and I thought it was going to be a werewolf movie. Also, even though I didn’t see the director’s name, I saw Nyo Min Lwin’s name as the lead actor and assumed that he wrote the script and also directed the movie, but unfortunately, he only acted in the film.

The story plot is……

Nyo Min Lwin, Thar Nyi, and Zwe Naing Win came to some mountainous part of Shan State to take photos in the forest. A group of botany major students also camped near the forest to study the plants for their theses. Nawaratt and Aye Myat Thu are part of the student group. Their teacher gave instructions to stay in their groups, to listen to their leaders, and to stay away from restricted areas. But somehow, the two girls went alone in the forest with their Pajero. When they couldn’t drive further, they left the car and trekked into the forest. They ran into Nyo Myin Lwin and his friends on the way. And then, they were captured and taken to a place where the bad guys tied everyone up, but beat up Nyo Min Lwin only. Why did they only beat him up? I have no idea, but maybe it’s because he dressed up like Indiana Jones.

Later, the leader gave them some weapons and their backpacks and told them that they have only one hour before they are hunted by him and his men. Somehow, the leader is quite rich enough to set up surveillance cameras all over the forest to keep track of his preys. Also, he has a pet wolf (which is an animated one btw) who feeds on humans. He had some blood samples taken from his preys before he set them loose so he dropped the blood on his pet’s cage and set the wolf loose. So, he and his men along with the wolf hunt down the preys who never seemed to be able to get out of the forest.

Well, you got to hand it to them. Our Myanmar script writers and directors surely know how to create unrealistic movies. For me, watching Supernatural TV series (which I’m addicted to btw) is more scarier and exciting than this.

I like Nyo Min Lwin and his directing but in this movie, why does he have to dress up like Indiana Jones? If the hat and the jacket wasn’t enough, he was given a pair of ropes to sling on his shoulders later on the in movie.

And as you can see in the above film, the lead actress has mistaken camping with a picnic trip by dressing inappropriately to go trekking in a forest where there are plenty of mosquitoes, leeches, and many bugs. (If I were her, I would never wear black clothing ‘cuz dark clothing attracts more mosquitoes than lighter colors.) Aye Myat Thu is dressed more appropriately than her. Don’t mistake her with the tank top. She wears another layer of clothing later on when she’s in the forest.

Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘mind over matter’? Well, the actress sure knows how to handle her mind over her pains after her arm was shot, but she was able to move her arms freely to weep when her friend got killed. Just amazing, isn’t it?

Tuition….I don’t get them. Why is this trend of attending tuition popular in Myanmar? We have learned in school a proverb that say if you attend school regularly, you won’t have any problem with your studies (ေက်ာင္းမွန္မွန္တက္၊ စာမခက္) If a student attends regularly, why should he/she have to attend tuition where the same teachers from their school teaches them over again. Some say that they attend tuition because they get spots, which means that you get exam tips from the teachers. I’ve also heard stories about how teachers prefer those who attend their tuition over those who don’t attend them.

If parrot studying long paragraphs without fully understanding the meaning isn’t enough, the students hardly get free times aside from their studies. They go to school in the morning and then to their tuition in the afternoons or evenings. Then, they have to study at night. During the weekends, they have to attend their tuition again. Some of the students also attend English weekend classes where they are taught English, Math, Science, Computer, etc. If they attend the English class in the morning, they have to attend Myanmar tuition class in the evenings, and vice versa. I know ‘cuz I taught both morning and afternoon English classes where students rush from one tuition to another. They usually begged me not to give them too much homework or too much to study ‘cuz they have too much to handle. Okay, maybe some were just being lazy, but even so, I pitied them.

So, some of the students who get rare free times spend them playing computer games, going online, etc. They rarely read books for pleasure these days aside from comics and maybe a few reads those translated novels of Goosebumps and Mr. Midnight. However, students from private schools read more books than those from government schools.

If you think these tuition only exist for government schools, think again. They also exist in private schools. Students attending private schools in the morning have to attend tuition in the evenings. Some of these tuition are to help them with their learning while some are to be their study guide and help them with their homework (like me). Some private schools don’t allow their teachers to give tuition to students from their school since they don’t want the teachers to be giving special favors to their students. Even so, the teachers can give tuition to other students from other private schools.

Although I don’t remember much, I didn’t actually have to attend tuition when I was young. I remember going over to a house after school, but all I remember was reading comic books and eating roasted corns. At that time, I thought I was sent there ‘cuz my cousin didn’t want to baby-sit me. Even so, I didn’t stay there for long. I remember going to school at noon and then coming back home at 5 p.m. Sometimes, I didn’t even go home right away and went instead to the bus stop to wait for my mother’s return, especially if I want to tattletale about my cousin. Then, of course, going abroad changed my life completely. I did my homework regularly, studied a little and managed to get good grades in school. I started hating studying Myanmar school subjects because I have no one to teach me and I have to study all those notes my cousin had written without understanding the full meaning. My mother tried her best to teach us mathematics, but even so I sucked at it.

I had my first taste of tuition when I came back to Yangon. It was a tuition with about eight students where the girls disliked me and my sister, and the guys were the only person we can talk to. However, our strict uncle and his family thought we were too close to the guys so they hired a study guide for us and that was goodbye to the tuition. Not that I missed those girls, they really got on my nerves, but I missed being around with people my age. I spent days after days, memorizing all those notes which I have no clues of the actual meaning. And so I passed the exam, thanks to my study guide and those teachers who graded my exam papers and felt sorry for the pathetic girl.

Anyway, to get back to the point, aside from having a study guide for three months, I have never had any real tuition until I started 2nd year in UDE, but don’t get me started about it. I am still pissed off about it every time I read in those scholarships which require excellent academic records.

Again, back to the topic, I don’t understand why my two students who attend a prestige government school and also attend tuition with the same teachers from school couldn’t tell the difference between am/is/are and do/does when doing fill-in-the-blank exercises. Aren’t those the very foundation of English grammar? They, 6th grade and 8th grade students, can’t differentiate between them. I don’t know what they are taught at school especially in English. They lack knowledge about many things including things about our country. If they, the government school students, are like this, just think how much it’s worse for the students from private schools. They know more about the world than their own country.

2NE1 is either pronounced as “21″ or “To Anyone”. I think the later is used more frequently.

As kpop fans already know, 2NE1 is the a girlband from YG Entertainment. Their first single, “Lollipop”, was a collaboration with Big Bang and it was an immediate hit indeed. Some say that it was due to Big Bang’s popularity for the success of the song and not because 2NE1 has talents. So, they have proven that they can stand on their own by releasing “Fire” single. Now, they have released their first mini-album and using the second track, “I Don’t Care” to promote their album.

Among the four members in the group, CL (Lee Chae Rin) is the leader of the group although she’s only 18, younger than Dara and Bom. She mainly sings raps but also sings vocal. Truthfully, I disliked her rapping at first. I thought it sounded similar to rapping from Brown Eyed Girls and Jewelry, but later I got used to her.

Bom (Park Bom) has already featured in other albums with Big Bang, Lexy, etc. She was supposed to released her own album, but later she became a member of 2NE1. She’s already 25 now, the same age as me, and she sings the lead vocals.

Dara (Sandara Park) received her first fame when she was in Gummy’s “I’m Sorry” video with T.O.P. Many fans were jealous that she got a kissing scene with T.O.P and now she is in another video with Lee Minho. She’s 24 now and some people says that she can’t sing. Well, I think her voice is fine and she has recently released a digital single, “Kiss”, featuring CL. I like her the most in the group because she looks so cute especially when she puts her hair up, like in “Lollipop” music video.

The last member, Minzy (Gong Minji) is only 15 now. Can you believe that? She sure didn’t look like 15 at all ‘cuz her voice doesn’t sound childish. In fact, I prefer her rapping over CL. She also sings vocal.

01 Fire
This is my second favorite song. There are two versions of the music videos, space version and street version. I like the space version better.

02 I Don’t Care
Currently, Sony ATV has accused the writers of this song for plagiarizing Lionel Richie’s “Just Go” song. I don’t want to discuss about it right now.
I heard the remixed version of I Don’t Care before listening to this version so this one sounds slower for me. But still I like it.

03 In the Club
Hmm.. Mariah Carey’s song sounded like the intro of this song, but I am not going to argue about who is right and wrong.

04 Let’s Go Party
Let’s go Party. Work that body are pretty catchy lines from this upbeat song.

05 Pretty Boy

06 Stay Together

07 Lollipop feat. Big Bang
I love this song so much. Perhaps it’s due to Big Bang also. The music video is so colorful and makes me want to eat lollipops. Perhaps, that’s the intention lolz. I love Dar’s hairstyle in the music video. She looks so out of this world.

ref: wikipedia.org
credit pic: http://2ne1gallery.multiply.com/

G-dragon’s first album was released on August 18, on this 21st birthday.

Lately, he has been accused to plagiarizing in his songs “Heartbreaker” and “Butterfly”. Since this is only an album review, I have no desire to discuss those issues.

There are 10 tracks in the album and he’s currently promoting the second track, “Hearbreaker”. He has already two music videos so far, “Heartbreaker” and “Breathe”. Although all his songs are related to hip-hop, like Big Bang songs, most of them are influenced by electro and techno. Aside from “She’s Gone”, I like the rest of the songs.

01. Boy
Quite different from the intro (or) first songs I hear in Myanmar hip-hop albums, but then again, it’s GD after all.

02. Heartbreaker
Will I ever get tired of this? Nah..I don’t think so.

03. Breathe
I can’t differentiate whether the lyric is supposed to be “I Can Breathe” or “I Cant’ Breathe”. I think “I Cant’ Breathe” is more suitable with the rest of the lyrics, but I can only hear “I Can Breathe”.

04. Butterfly (Feat. Jin Jung)
Makes you want to think of your first love if you have one….quite slow yet nice…

05. Hello (Feat. Dara)
In this song, GD teaches how to get a girl. Dara from 2NE1 featured in this song.

06. Gossip Man (Feat. Kim Gun Mo)
Actually, this is the first song I listened to since it was written about his hardships regarding rumors and gossips about him. It’s also my favorite song on the whole album. I love Kim Gun Mo’s voice.

07. Korean Dream (Feat. TaeYang)
Truthfully, I don’t get the main idea of this song. Perhaps, the lyric translations are a bit confusing for me to understand. But the songs is a really good one, aside from his cursing. And of course, Tae Yang featured in the song.

08. The Leaders (Feat. Teddy, CL)
Quite different from the rest of the songs, this is a true, pure hip-hop song featuring Teddy and CL.

09. She’s Gone (Feat. KUSH)
I like the rapping but the chorus is too noisy for me.

10. 1년 정거장 (Station 1 year)
Kind of reminds me of Oh My Friend but it’s not exactly like that also. I am no music expert to say what kind of song this is.

Overall, the album is a really good one. I started listening to this before my exam started and it was quite difficult to focus on my study as my mind kept replying the songs over and over again. I can’t even listen to any other albums especially the most recent released by Ye’ Lay ‘cuz I can’t get enough of GD.

Sorry about the photo. I could only find this on his website. Btw, his website should have at least a proper album cover on the site.

Ye’ Lay’s third album, “Third Rhyme”, was released on September 25. I wasn’t enthused about it, but still I wanted to check it out and I like to post a review about it immediately after its release. However, as you can see, my review is five days late ‘cuz I wasn’t in the mood. I’ll talk about the album cover first.

When I checked out the album, I was disappointed with the cd cover. it’s not even fit to be called a CD cover as it was just made of cardboard. The CD was jammed in the cardboard and it took a while for my sister to take it out. Why couldn’t they just give us a real CD cover, for god’s sake? I swear, this whole idea with cardboard as CD covers was started by Sai Sai and now Ye’ Lay is also following his ideas. How are we supposed to keep their CDs and DVDs in good conditions if they keep putting them in cardboard covers. I don’t care that Ye’ Lay included a lyrics book, a poster and a sticker ‘cuz they don’t matter to me. Well, I’ve quite passed the age of getting exciting over posters and stickers. If he really wants to give these extra gifts, he could have either put them inside the CD cover or outside and cover the whole CD with a plastic cover. Did we have to pay 1900 kyats just for those ‘gifts’?

There are 14 songs in the album which is a lot of songs to listen and so many featuring artists also. I have already heard a couple of the songs from the album at Ye’ Lay’s birthday show on last January. It’s amazing that I was so into “Bar Sarr Hmar Lal Ah Ko” at that time, but now I’m no longer in the same mood. Perhaps, I haven’t given my full attention to this album but they all sounds pretty much typical for me. Some of the music are similar to his older songs.

One thing for sure, my music taste has completely changed. It kept changing over time. I would have been happy with this album a year and a half ago. Nine months ago, I was so into Korean Indies and I only wanted to listen to Indie artists. I still like them, but not I’m back to enjoying the typical mainstream Kpop.

01 Arr Lone A Tu Tu (feat. Joker)
I don’t like this song. It sounds so typical as I have always hear this kind of music as the intro songs in other hip-hop albums.

02 Ngar Bar Mah Ma Thi (feat Jenny)
I like this song, but Jenny’s voice sounds artificial, like it has been edited.

03 Koe Yat Kwat Lat
A pop ballad that suited Ye’ Lay’s smooth voice.

04 Bar Sarr Hmar Lal Ah Ko (feat. Htain Win)
This is actually intended for Thingyan, but it wasn’t included in any Thingyan albums. I keep thinking there’s another meaning in “What Will You Eat, Brother”.

05 Doe Han Yaut A Kyaung (feat. Thar Gyi)
So similar to 10 Seconds or Sai Sai’s songs from Every Golly.

06 One Two One Two (feat. Joker)
Just listen to the music intro and you’ll know it’s another Ye’ Lay song

07 Ma Hnote Sat Chin Buu (feat. Eaint Chit)
A duet with Eaint Chit. Pop lovers would love this but for me, it’s gonna take awhile for me to listen without skipping to the next track.

08 Kaung Ka Lay Ka Kaung Ma Lay Ko (feat. Izzani)
Again, pop lovers would love this. At least, I might listen to this more as I like Izzani’s voice.

09 Ma Hote Ya Par Buu (feat. Htain Win)
The only song that caught my full attention ‘cuz It’s so funny. It’s about the gossips about him appearing in photos and videos.

10 Yoe Myay Kya
Another pop song……

11 Min Nae’ Pyaw Chn Loh
Another song that caught my attention, perhaps it’s the r&b melody….

12 Nat Tha Mee (feat. Izzani)
Izzani’s voice sounds artificial. It doesn’t even sounds like him

13 Ta Yaut Ta Myo (feat. Ah Boy)
You know, if Ah Boy is going to sing in Chinese song, shouldn’t there be a translation in the lyrics book? Gosh, we are not Chinese. But still, a really nice r&b & hip-hop song. I’ve already heard this at his concert also.

14 Ma Hnot Sat Chin Buu (feat. Hlawn Paing, Eaint Chit, bobby soxer (Htet Htet))
I prefer this version especially the girl rapping. Much better than the typical pop ballad.

I am not writing this review just to diss him. I’m sure that other fans will like his songs. It’s just ironic that we (my sister and I) always buy original albums, vcds, and DVDs, but we rarely listen or watch them and yet those who actually like them don’t spend as much money was we do since they only buy pirated copies.

Btw, Moe Moe’s vcd is coming out on October 4th. I am going to buy it also since I really like his songs. I wonder how “Vampire” music video will be like. It’ll be cool if he dresses like a vampire with red and black cape and have those fangs on his teeth.

credit pic: www.yelayworld.com

It has been six days since I took the oral exam on last Friday. The written exam were finished on Thursday. I think I did well on most of the exams, but even I have trouble answering number IV questions on the Listening exam. Thankfully, I think I did good on the Speaking exam with which marks from the oral exam are to be added. Last semester, I was panicking a little about the last subject because I had another exam on that same day but thankfully, this semester’s exam is much easier. I was already finished by 3 o’ clock, an hour earlier than usual.

Now that the diploma course has finished, I’ll not be able to meet with my friends on weekdays like I used to. Our only way of keeping touch is to check out each other’s profiles on Facebook and maybe I should poke them once in a while. (Speaking of poke, I read in an article of this man who said if anyone ever poke him in real life, he would punch him.)

Before the exam was over, I kept thinking over what I would do after it’s finished and I had so many things to do. But so far six days have passed and I haven’t done much yet, except to write a review of GD and 2NE1 albums. I did managed to finish my first kpop DVD project which isn’t really much. WL asked me to burn her kpop videos and this time I said I’ll do that on DVD. It was easier than done. It actually took me a really really long time to actually finish it as I wasn’t familiar with the Nero Vision Express. But now, I know that I should combine videos into titles and then, create chapters to link to the actual videos instead of creating titles for each 69 videos. Well, I still have to listen to that video training on using Adobe Encore as I want to learn how to edit subtitles to DVDs, to replace improper English subtitles with the good one.

I also have to renew my membership at AC but even so, I still haven’t finished the books I’ve borrowed from a friend. And, instead of finishing them, I’m currently reading “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown. My brother has already bought it for us, but he still hasn’t send it to us from SG. Since I’m impatient to wait, I’m reading the ebook first. I don’t feel guilty ‘cuz I’ll get the original book in hand probably by the end of the month. Also, I have to re-read the Twilight saga.

I also have to finish watching “4400″ series as I had borrowed it from K.W ever since my birthday party. Huh.. I have so many things to do, but instead I just spend my days waking up late and then watching movies and kpop videos.

I’m planning to place an ad in the classified section of a news journal to seek for a new tuition job but I wonder if I’ll get a new one since I’m unavailable for four evenings a week. Even if I got another tutor job, I don’t want to be another homework helper. Oh, well.. I’ll at least have to get a job first. I dislike wasting my times like this at home. It’s like taking my talents away and I become more lazier by the days.

Currently listening to Taru’s first album. I will write a review about her later.

What prompted me to write under this topic is a remark made by my friend. She said, “You don’t look like you could tell jokes.” She was referring to the comments I made about a teacher. Well, that got me thinking. “Is it why I wasn’t chosen at the interview?” Most people just see me as a quiet girl with thick glasses who don’t socialize much and is always reading books. I think they will be shocked if they know my thoughts. I know that I don’t think like most people and I have become pretty much of a cynic.

A year ago, when I was attending another diploma course, I was put into a group with seven girls (but one girl dropped out later on so there were only six girl left). The professor looked at us and pick two girls as group leaders. She said that I looked like a quiet girl and I wasn’t active enough to be a leader. I wasn’t sad and offended because I didn’t want to carry out the duties. But it’s just ironic that I did most of the paper works. I had become afraid of group works ever since then.

Anyway, I’ve mentioned before that I lack skills in socializing with people. People think I’m lonley and sometimes I am. But as I’ve written before, I have my own reasons for being an anti-social. However, now I’m trying to improve myself by paying more attention to people (even when I’m not interested in their gossips).

Perhaps, it’s the character of a Cancer born, If I don’t want to speak, I won’t say a word but if I’m in the mood, you’d better watch out ‘cuz I’m a Friday born, In Myanmar, Friday borns are marked as talkative people. If any other person who was born on the other days are quite talkative, we’d say “Were you born on the wrong day?”

It’s the word I’ve been familiar with ever since I wrote an essay about in sixth grade. Even before then, I knew about what it was before I learnt that word. Why? It’s not difficult for an Asian girl who didn’t know English to learn all about it while attending schools with black people. Thankfully, I’ve mostly forgotten about how I was mistreated in school before. But I still remember one incident in which one of my classmate and her friends followed us to a convenience store near my house. They not only made rude remarks to us but one of them spitted on my friend’s hair. We were more shocked and angry at the same time but we didn’t do anything back at them. It’s ironic but later on, that classmate started talking to me without making fun of me. So I guess that’s when she started to accept me.

My junior high school days were better because my classmates or half of them were nicer. That’s probably because they get to copy homework from me. Basically, they just leave me alone, the way I like it. I mostly hang out with my Asian friends and one Caucasian friend.

So, because of my experience in school, I always try not to be prejudice toward people especially those who are from different races, skin colors, and religions. Still, it makes me sad to see people being prejudice against one another. So what if the most famous singer in Myanmar is an Indian or a Chinese (just literally saying)? I remember the time when a few years ago people used to argue about whether a famous rapper is a Muslim or not. The truth is I don’t care at all. I may or may not like that person but that doesn’t mean I worship them on the top of my head. (Sorry, this refers to the abused comments made to me by a certain person who I can’t talk back to)

What I’m really trying to say is that we should try to consider other people’s feelings before judging them based on their appearance.

I know I haven’t been blogging lately once again. I got back my computer a few days ago but even so, I have exams coming up which means I’ll be disappearing again pretty soon. If I don’t continue blogging, I might become lazy and might stop writing so I’m writing this for now. Exams in in a few weeks but I still haven’t study anything. I can’t concentrate on anything lately. So much seems to be going on at the same time. Sometimes I just want to go somewhere and relax without doing anything with no school and no tuition. Maybe I’ll get my wish during this Thadingyut if I get to go on a trip to Mon State.

Oh, well…just letting you know that I’ll be back. I’ll try to blog more if things pops up.

It took me just a few days to write this but much longer to post it. It actually took six months. Can you believe it? And I’m not even finished ‘cuz I lost interest after writing about my first day. Okay…this is about my trip to Mingun.

Our train left at 12 noon. I was hoping that we get upper class seats but for some reason, the person my father had assigned to buy the tickets only bought lower class tickets. I was hoping for the worst but the seats are far more comfortable than other ordinary wooden seat. The only thing was it wasn’t all that comfortable enough for us to fall asleep so I was pretty much awake for the whole night. The other discomfort was the toilet which was pretty smelly as usual. I had to hold my breath every time I use it. Since we took the night train, we didn’t get the chance to see the landscape beyond Pyinmanar as it got dark. The train arrived at Mandalay around 3pm. We slept for a few hours at the rest house before getting up at 6 am. From there, we were taken to a Shan noodle shop to eat breakfast and we started our journey to Mingun. I used to thought that Mingun can be only reached by a ferry boat but you can actually reach it via Sagaing. It took more than an hour to reach Mingun. We have never been there before it was the major highlight of our trip.

Mingun is an unfinished pagoda built by King Boedawpaya. He wanted to build the largest pagoda in the world. At that time, there was a saying that by the time the pagoda is finished, the kingdom will collapse. So he stopped building the pagoda and it was left as it is seen today. However, the pagoda and the giant lions statutes suffered from the earthquake in the 1970s and that’s why there’s a crack in the pagoda and we can no longer see the lions in their original shapes. All we get to see now is the big butts. Some also say that the King shouldn’t have built the lions first instead of the pagoda ‘cuz it was bad omen. I remembered reading about Minister U Paw Oo who is also known for his practical jokes. One day, after viewing the lions, he wanted to comment on it, probably to say the lions look scary and the butts are too big, etc. So he said “The Lions are…” but then the King came up from behind the lions and asked him what he wanted to say. So he immediately changed his statement by saying “Due to your majesty’s grace, the lions look as if they are ready to jump to the opposite shore.” Okay, I know I suck at translation but it’s funnier in Myanmar.

The next highlight in Mingun beside the pagoda is the Mingun Bell. It’s the third largest bell and the only ringing bell in the world. My mother said she used to thought the bell was situated on a small hill but was shocked to see it on a flat ground. Also, a iron fence is put around the place to prevent people from writing on the bell. I really hate to see people destroying such property. Now the original texts on the bell have faded and I’m sure it must have been difficult to remove all those craps written using correction pens.

Myatheindan Pagoda is situated quite close to both places so we went there next. I have always been fascinated by the architecture of that pagoda.

People say it’s better to travel to Mingun via the ferry ‘cuz one can enjoy the river view. But for us, we wanted to visit Sagaing also so we took the road trip.

*The above photos are taken by dawn1o9 & my brother.