59

I think I have some kind of 'stress multiplier'
Only I seem to be having sleep problems. (not that I just discovered this yesterday or something)
Hm.

The numbers are in.
http://www.emigroup.com/Press/2008/press9.htm
Utada Hikaru's Flavor of Life was the second best selling digital single this year, right behind Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend.

Still, it is the best selling single ever in Japan, and best digital seller from an Asian artist.

For a single to sell like that and not be popular in the anglosphere is practically unheard of.

58

This is probably going to be one of the few blogs where I talk about an artist other than Utada Hikaru.

Its The Last Goodnight!
I've blogged about them before, and there latest single, "Stay Beautiful" (I presume), is awesome.

57

I couldn't resist yesterday.
I listened to Utada Hikaru's Hayatochi (remix) from her Distance album.
Well, I only listened to it twice, so it was okay. But I still couldn't sleep because I slept in the afternoon.

56

I've learnt that I cannot listen to any popular song for the last two hours before I sleep.
The day before yesterday, my head kept on playing Utada Hikaru's 'Can You Keep A Secret?' and 'Movin'on without you'. Then, yesterday, it kept playing Lily Allen's 'Littlest Things'.

Radiohead's In Rainbows should be okay though.
I really like it, although none of the tracks seem to jump out at me and scream 'single material

Utada Hikaru's second English album, Exodus, at first was very very unappealing to me. I sort of hated it'. But now, after giving the songs a couple more listen, I've begun to like it, especially Kremlin Dusk and Devil Inside.

Her latest album, due to be released on March 19th, will also be called HEART STATION.

55

I don't know what to write.
...

Well, I'm listening to Radiohead's In Rainbows.

54

(Its blog 54 because I forgot to name yesterday's blog)

Today I had pretty much the worse piano lesson of my life.
I'm pretty sure it was because of lack of sleep, but my teacher had to spend 15 minutes teaching me the F sharp minor formula scale. 15 MINUTES!!!! And I'm in grade 10 piano. Usually, only people learning it the first time would need to, so that would be like in Grade 6 or even lower. UGH!!! And even they don't need 15 minutes!!! Last week she planned to give me 5 scales to practice, which is really little, and then she had to reduce it to 2 because I wasn' t doing so well. And now today she was going to give me the rest, which was three. And I couldn't even do 1.

...

Well, today I went to the Cannery restaurant (I forgot the name) by the Port of Vancouver (at least, that's what I think it was).
It was quite nice to eat there, I enjoyed it.
I don't usually go to western restaurants often.

I couldn't help it, I started listening to popular music again.
This is the commercial for Recochoku downloads, which is a mobile downloading service in Japan., featuring Utada Hikaru's HEART STATION.

And she's dressed up as Kuma Chang, her humongous teddy bear.
I'm not sure if I said this before, but a while ago, she posted a video on her blog. In it, she is dressed up as Kuma Chang, and visits the EMI Music Japan office. Obviously, movement inside that suit is very very hard, so it was a bit of fun to watch her try to move around, especially when she tried to push the elevator button, but the garbage can was blocking her and her hand was too big.

She paid for the entire video, the suit, and all the staff herself.

52

I tried my best not to listen to any popular music for the last three days, but I sort of failed.

On the first day, I listened to Utada Hikaru's Kremlin Dusk.

The second day, I listened to Utada Hikaru's You Make Me Want To Be A Man.

And now I'm listening to Sarah Bareilles' Love Song.

51

Pre-IB testing was today.
I think I did okay.
Except that not sleeping does have its disadvantage; I couldn't figure out one math question, and was stuck on it for a long time.
Oh well.

And I did talk to Mr. Ehrmantraut already.

Augh....
I feel sleepy and tired and I don't think I can sleep and I have quite a fair bit of homework due tomorrow!!!!!!!

50

I think I'm very pathetic.
Yesterday I went to the doctor about the sleep problems that I have, and apparently they were all related to stress.
I don't understand why I'm really that bad.
First of all, almost everybody is feeling very stressed in this period (even though I started to not sleep well by the end of December). I know realistically I won't be getting marks that are too low. My family is so normal there's not a single bad thing about it. Nobody has been giving me any pressure at all.
And I know many people who are going through the same thing at school, except with much worse circumstances.
Sigh.

Oh, and I think Mr. Ehrmantraut has some sort of misconception that I am a very good student who is not yet a perfectionist but seems to get things done on time but chooses not to do some homework. Its not that, really, I don't do my homework because I don't seem to have enough time and procrastinate.
He might also think that I have some deeper inner problem that I'm not telling him that's causing all this stress.
Well, I don't.


At the very least, the problems aren't that bad.

49

To Kelly: Thanks!!! But you're still like way better than me in practical... And more advanced than me in theory...

I do have to go do my work very soon, as the social project is due tomorrow and I haven't really done much, but just a quick question to Mr. Olson.

About how many Middle Years student have had some kind of problem relating to too much stress?

Thanks!

48

I'm so addicted to HEART STATION and Stay Gold now that even without the internet and radio I'm still not doing work. Well, at the very least, they don't distract me from doing so much work.
And now there is no way I'm going to forget what 'shitte iru' means in Japanese (it means 'to know'). It was in the lyrics of HEART STATION.

By the way HEART STATION/Stay Gold is currently my favourite single, and definetly my favourite from her latest album. I'm not sure if it can hold out against Hikari, though.

But 'Distance [m-flo remix]' is an awesome song too, from her 'Final Distance' single.

As of now on my iTunes, Stay Gold, of which I have twice on the list, is tied for second with Rosette's Crushed (of which I never heard of) at 34 play counts.

I'm trying to remember which songs I listened to the most in 2007, and which were the best.

Number 1 definetly has to be '2 Hearts' by Kylie Minogue, it was for sure number 1 on my iTunes list, on twice on the weekly charts I did, and once it was the song of the week.

Number 2 would probably be Do You by Ne-Yo featuring Utada. It was also on the weekly charts once, and second on my iTunes list.

The rest would all be a tie for third.

Artist number 1 would be Utada Hikaru. Not much doubt about that. She had at the least one song that was in my top ten of the week.

Second would be Corinne Bailey Rae, which had the most played album on my iTunes, and at the very least three appearances on the weekly songs list.

Third would be Esthero because she is just awesome.

Fourth would be Maroon 5 for having the second most played album on my iTunes, and one appearance on the weekly songs list, and having one of my favourite songs, 'Sunday Mornings'.

Fifth would be Bran Van 3000 because they are just awesome.

47

Yesterday was another crazy sleep day.
I slept from 5-9 pm, and then slept from 5-9am.

This is really not working well...

46

Anonymous/Vivian: Haha, no, it was Nicky. Is that how you spell his name?

Oh, I just realized that today is Utada Hikaru's birthday.

Sometimes I feel guilty listening to Stay Gold and Heart Station...
Anyways, it appears that the leaks were from the promo CD sent to radio stations throughout Japan.

I'm sleeping very late every day now. Although sometimes I do sleep in the afternoon, I usually don't get enough sleep. Its mostly due to homework and piano, and I don't even finish my homework and piano practice.

And I'm really beginning to hate Chinese homework with a passion once again. I remember that when I was very young, in those homework free days of primary elementary school, I absolutely dreaded doing Chinese homework, and my parents and my relatives sometimes would have to sit me down, watch me do it, or 'ground' me until I finished it. Well, my parents never ever grounded me.

Oh, and I just checked my theory mark after forgetting about it for a couple of weeks. I got 98 on my Grade 2 Rudiments, but they still haven't scanned it yet.

45

For some reason, a classmate of mine in PE and I felt just exactly the same thing about PE. We both used to really really like it, then because of today we didn't like it, and it wasn't because our teacher came back, or anything like that. And he didn't eat anything the entire day, and I didn't sleep well last night (I slept at 1:00, although I went to bed at 11:00).
He wasn't the kind of person that I'd thought I'd be close friends with, though.
I do admit that this conversation changed my image of him somewhat, and he did pay me back 20 cents for 17 cents which he owed me a long time ago.
I know that 17 cents is a small amount, and with close friends I would just let it go, but if I did expect you to give it back, you better give it back.
And if you were in that category of people, I would make it clear that I wanted you to pay it back. I usually don't bother with nice formalities and words like ',Oh, its no rush,' or things like that.

I said 'yeah, me too', like I regularly do. Sometimes people might think I'm just not listening and doing that to keep the conversation going, but I wasn't.

Oh, and when I don't say anything, it does not imply that I agree with what you're saying, it either means that I know you're not going to change your mind no matter what, or its just annoying. This only applies if you're one of my peers, though.

And now for the inevitable part about Utada Hikaru.
I've read her translated 'HEART STATION' lyrics, and they are awesome. They are just in another league compared to popular music in English.
However, I would say that's because of language differences, because UH's English lyrics are... different. And she herself said that Japanese is more of a flowery language, and if you just directly translate English lyrics to Japanese, it would end up very vulgar.

Those lyrics are just really really nice. They're like a poem, except one that doesn't take too much thinking to understand what they mean.

Darn, I can't paste things onto this blog.

44

These couple of days actually have been quite tough for me.
I'll get through...there's worse coming up. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

I've been so focused on Utada Hikaru that I've forgotten all about Ken Hirai.
Anyway, he has a new album and a new single coming out around the same time as Utada Hikaru's.
Heck, I even forgot the names, and release date.

Oh, and apparently somebody got a hold of HEART STATION (UH's new single) before it was released on radio. Its been posted on YouTube. Don't worry, its already been reported, but as of now, it hasn't been taken down yet. Its nice, I think. A bit more lighter than Stay Gold, or any of her singles so far, but not including 'Boku wa Kuma' (I am a Bear), which was a children's song.

43

Yesterday was a bit disappointing for me.
I had science first block, and we had a test. There was this one question where everyone else I asked got right and I got it wrong.
It wasn't exactly something I could study for though; it wasn't really covered.
Basically, the question was whether or not HCI or H2O was an ionic bond.
In our notes, it stated that an ionic bound was between a non-metal and a metal. None of the options included a metal. Apparently, though, the answer was HCI because they don't share electrons in the Bohr diagram.
HCI is hydrochloric acid, so that makes it an ionic bond. On one of the worksheets, though HOH (which is H2O) was called hydrogen hydroxide.
Oh whatever.

I wasn't feeling all that well that day either.

At the end of the day, though, in English, I got a pretty good mark on the presentation we had before the break though. I can honestly say I was very surprised.
Oh whatever.

42

Yesterday was crazy.
I woke up at 12:00, took an afternoon nap from 5:00-9:00, and then slept at 5:00AM, and woke up at 9:11 AM (sorry, I missed your class!!) I couldn't sleep again!
Now I'm, tired, sick (cold), and stressed (probably because I didn't sleep enough).

I've also realized that I act very weirdly when I don't have enough sleep. I won't say what I've done, but its definitely not something you'd expect me to do.

41

My mom came back today!
Now I need to go study for science.

39/40

Blog 39
I feel that I have failed to apply the lessons I've learnt from the last couple years of my schooling into my life, particularly with time management and goal setting.
I resolve to do that tomorrow.
Or maybe Sunday.
Or maybe next week.
Sigh.

Blog 40
I really didn't do much today.
And the Chinese test was disappointing. Well, it wasn't disappointing, but I really didn't do that well.
However, I don't think I really care that much anymore.

EDIT:By the way, Utada Hikaru's latest album will be released on March 19th. Its not official from EMI, but its official from Tower Records, which is pretty reliable.

EDIT:Okay, nevermind, EMI updated their website.
Sometimes it seems that Utada Hikaru is carrying the success of the entire Japanese branch of EMI on her shoulders.

38

Last night there was a lot of homework I had to do, and I finished most of the important Japanese ones. Except that I forgot to bring one.
I am seriously wondering whether or not I can get an A in Japanese this term...

Okay, I really better go now.

37

The IB info session was sort of intimidating...
It'll be pretty hard to get good marks.

Anyways, I am really really far behind on Japanese...
Missing one day makes a LOT of difference.
Same thing with math, but I don't care that much about it.

36

Have to do a lot of work today and tomorrow and the day after.
That's what happens when you procrastinate bit by bit and then it turns into hours.

35

To AS teacher:
Sorry I wasn't there for class today!!!!
I woke up at 9:30 today, either because my alarm clock didn't ring, or it rang and I pressed it down and went back to sleep with no memories of it ringing.

And the day before that was even worse. I went to bed at 11:00, couldn't sleep, so woke up to get something to eat, slept after 12:30, woke up at 4:00, ate something, couldn't sleep, ate something again, then slept after 5:30. The alarm clock probably rang, but I woke up at 10:10, immediately fell asleep again, then woke up at 11:30.

My Japanese teacher was surprisingly sympathetic when I told her I had sleeping problems. She even went on to recommend something for me. Her husband also had sleeping problems too.

By the way, Stay Gold has managed to surpass all the other songs that I added on the iTunes chart within two days. Its now at 28 plays, beating out Kylie Minogue's 2 Hearts.

34

Maybe I'll figure out those Whistler blogs once I get my hands on some pictures...
Probably not, though.

By the way, on my iTunes, the radio rip version of Stay Gold 18 plays practically overnight. That's a record for me, even Rihanna's SOS only got 11 plays in one day. Now 'Stay Gold' is at 21 plays, tie for third with Maroon 5's Can't Stop and Sunday Morning, but behind Ne-Yo and Utada's 'Do You' and Kylie Minogue's '2 Hearts'.

Maybe one of these days when I can't think of anything to blog about I'll say which songs I liked the best for the last couple of months.

33

Gave up on writing the Whistler blogs.
Starting again now.

Utada Hikaru's 'Stay Gold' debuted today (January 7th in Japan) on Japanese radio. Its part of her upcoming single 'HEART STATION/Stay Gold'. I think I've mentioned it before.
The radio rip version, as far as I know, was first found on Korean fan site 'utada.top.to' (where it plays right when you enter the page, so if you're interested, you should go and see), which was later posted on hikaru.sc today at 7:00 PT. As far as I know, JWAVE in Tokyo played it at 5 something AM Japan time, so that makes it 11 this morning, I guess.

The previews were just so good that the full version is slightly disappointing. But whatever, its still a good song, and in my opinion, much better than Beautiful World/Kiss & Cry, or even Flavor of Life. Sometimes I wonder of Flavor of Life sold that many digital copies because of her divorce announcement and the drama tie-in, Hana Yori something 2, (most popular of the year with ratings at something like 75).

Well, it'll probably be until February when anything about Heart Station comes up.
Oh yeah, UH's birthday is somewhere around now, but I don't know when.

I would love to be able to listen to JWAVE here, except the thing is that they don't' stream their music online.
Oh, and we don't have a radio in Japan.
____________

Oh, and I just discovered that Ayumi Hamasaki, who I've also talked about before, has lost all hearing in her left ear.
Nevertheless, she says that she will continue singing.

Oh dear.

She has had problems with her ear ever since the summer of 2000. It seems that her heavy touring, and several accidents have taken a toll on her health. Elliot Yamin had some problems with his ears too, if I recall correctly.

From what I've read, her fans say that she hasn't been singing so well, as in singing somewhat off-key, and having to press her earpiece in during performances.

Some of her fans are already starting to fold paper cranes, going back to the story of Sadako and the 1000 paper cranes.
For those of you that didn't hear it before, Sadako was born during the war, and was subjected to the radiation from the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack. She later developed cancer, which impeded on her running career. She and some of her friends started folding paper cranes, because of a legend which said that once you folded 1000 paper cranes, your wish will come true. Although Sadako was in remission from cancer for a while, she eventually died of it. I'm not sure if she finished folding all the paper cranes though.

30-32

I went to Whistler for the past couple of days, so I didn't manage to get to do my blog.
I will now attempt to remember what I was feeling, thinking, and did for those days.

Blog 30 December 29, 2007 (the previous blog was done at 12:41 AM)
A couple of days ago, I think, I was talking about insomnia.
Well, today was really really bad.
I went to bed at around 2:00 AM, couldn't sleep, woke up at 4:00, ate the leftovers from the meal before, watched half an hour of TV, attempted to go back to sleep at 5:30, couldn't, woke up, searched online about insomnia, tried meditating for a bit, and took some allergy medicine which I didn't really need (I read from the National Sleep Foundation that over-the-counter anti-histamines help cause drowsiness, though, obviously, you shouldn't be dependent on them). They helped me feel drowsy, but I couldn't sleep, it felt as though my brain was very... solid and unpenetrable. Went and ate bread with peanut butter (again, it was supposed to help) at 7:00, didn't help at all, tried sleeping again. I do remember that I didn't manage to sleep for a long time, but I woke up to the alarm clock ringing at 10 or something like that.

So, all in all, I managed to sleep less than 2 hours, probably none, actually.

After I come back from Whistler, I am going to make a sleep diary for 2 weeks, and if things continue like they do, then I will go see the doctor.

Blog 31 December 30, 2007
I went to Whistler today with my aunt's coworker's family (who are hosting) and another coworker's family, for a total of 9 people.
Last year I also went with them to Whistler, and it was awesome.

Oh, by the way, I did manage to sleep a little bit last night, but I still didn't sleep very well, and woke up several times throughout the night.
I'm hoping it'll be better in Whistler.

Blog 32 December 31, 2007
I hate it I hate it I hate it.
I didn't sleep at all last night.
Luckily, though, I don't feel tired. Heck, I haven't felt tired for the last week pretty much.

On a lighter note, I went skiing today!
It was fun to be skiing again, and I felt that I improved a bit, although I am still a very early beginner.
This was also the first time I had used poles, and I fell twice because I tripped on the poles, and somebody almost skiied right into them too. Aside from that, I was okay.
Although there was a fair bit of ice, there was one isolated patch of powdered snow. EC and I followed his dad through the powdered snow section, and we both fell down. EC's skis fell off, and were buried under the snow, while my skis dug into the snow and I fell.

Oh well.

We didn't have much celebrations for New Years Day, though. I was the only person to stay up for the countdown, and all I did was sit 2 feet from the TV trying to listen Anderson Cooper or Ryan Seacrest talking.
Whatever, it passed, and nothing really special happened.

I'm going to finish the rest of the blogs tomorrow, as I should try to sleep now.