I remembered listening to a pirate copy of this song two years ago, after a friend of mine first introduce me to YUI. The first song of hers that I heard was Rolling Star. I kept it on repeat for over two weeks, much to my mom's dismay (laughs).
I did not have the power to get the original of her singles and album at that time, so I could only resort to listening to the pirate copies. I can tell you that she became my favourite singer, and she still is today - you can already tell by reading the title of my website!
It's been over a month after my 19th birthday, and I still have quite a few months to go before I turn 20. I have no idea what it will be like to turn 20, but Steven Lee will be able to tell you! He just turn 20 a week ago. He is a YUI fan too and he writes Japanese-style cellphone novels on TextNovel.
Well, enough of my rambles. Let's move on to the video!
YUI has announced that she will start working on her next song. The new track will be part of a campaign to encourage high school students who are taking correspondence course programs. Students make oaths stating that they will constantly try to reach new heights for their future. The 'attack pledges' will be sent to YUI, and with those oaths in mind YUI will write a song to show support for those students.
YUI commented about the song, and also cheered on the students. "The song will become a reminder for both you and me to never forget our roots, our initial aggressiveness. Everyone goes through harsh and hard times, and it might seem easier to just give up. But I became what I am now today by facing and fighting those feelings. I sincerely encourage you to do the same. Let's continue our drive forward!"
YUI is planning to finish writing the song by January 2010 (no schedules for the song's release have been announced). The song will then be used in TV commercials for 'Shinken Zemi High School Course' [correspondence course program] from January 2010. From among the students who sent 'attack pledges' 30,000 winners will get to download the truetone version of the song for free.
No matter how hard I work At the end of the day I always Have GD to cheer me up!
That's right homies, G-Dragon. I am so damn addicted to his first solo album, Heartbreaker. Thanks to Nabilah, my addiction intensified - she bought me the album! All the crazy but cool casing, CD, lyrics booklet, the lot! And don't forget this damn cool poster
greeting you when you enter my room! Make quite a statement don't it? It gave my housemistress a bit of a shock, haha! GD power! XD
Here is me smiling like a Cheshire cat during the "award ceremony"...LOL.
and I'm really bored. So bored, I created this G-Dragon Twitter layout for all GD fans out there! Whoot!
Climate change is causing a growing listing of problems that we may or may not be able to solve. For example: suffocating seas.
SOS: Is Climate Change Suffocating Our Seas? by Lily Whiteman
Scientists work to explain why massive "dead zones" have been invading the Pacific Northwest's near-shore waters since 2002
Yet another ecological scourge may earn a place on the ever-lengthening list of problems potentially caused by climate change: the formation of some so-called "dead zones"—huge expanses of ocean that lose virtually all of their marine life at depth during the summer.
Possible connections between climate change and the relatively recent formation of dead zones in the Pacific Northwest's coastal waters are currently being studied by a research team that is funded by the National Science Foundation and co-led by Jack Barth of Oregon State University (OSU) and Francis Chan of OSU. (Jane Lubchenco, who is currently on leave from OSU while serving as the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also previously co-led the team.)
WORLDWIDE DEAD ZONES
The Earth currently has more than 400 oceanic dead zones, with the count doubling every decade. A single dead zone may cover tens of thousands of square miles.
Dead zones form where microscopic plants, known as phytoplankton, are fertilized by excess nutrients, such as fertilizers and sewage, that are generated by human activities and dumped into the ocean by rivers, or more rarely, where they are fertilized by naturally occurring nutrients. The result: blooms of organic matter that ultimately decompose through processes that rob the ocean of life-sustaining oxygen. Animals that fail to flee dead zones either suffocate or suffer severe stress.
LOSING OXYGEN NATURALLY
One of the Earth's relatively few naturally formed dead zones has long been seasonally perched in the deep waters of the continental shelf far from the coast of the Pacific Northwest. This low-oxygen, or "hypoxic," zone has apparently historically remained stationary and is believed to be caused by large-scale processes that are unrelated to human activities or local winds.
But in the summer, northerly summer winds work together with the Earth's rotation to push oxygenated surface water offshore; this coastal water is replaced by low-oxygen but nutrient-rich waters from the depths of the continental shelf in a process known as upwelling. (See illustration.) Once this nutrient-rich water reaches the ocean's sunlit layers, it fertilizes blooms of phytoplankton.
Resulting phytoplankton blooms feed the food chain and thereby help make the Pacific Northwest one of the nation's most productive fisheries. But the decomposition of unconsumed, sunken phytoplankton promotes the formation of deep pools of low-oxygen water.
Periods of upwelling-favorable northerly winds may be interrupted by relatively short periods of southerly winds during the summer and by longer periods during the fall. These southerly winds work together with the Earth's rotation to drive oxygenated surface waters back towards the shore and to drive low-oxygen bottom waters away from the shore in a process known as downwelling. Periods of strong downwelling have traditionally occurred frequently enough to flush the low-oxygen pools from the continental shelf, and thereby prevent them from expanding all the way to the shore.
LEAVING NORMAL
But underwater surveys conducted by the research team of waters off the Pacific Northwest have identified the following new phenomenon:
Pools of low-oxygen water have expanded from the continental shelf to near-shore waters off Oregon and Washington every summer since 2002; the close proximity of these dead zones to the shore had never been reported before that year.
Coastal dead zones have been more hypoxic than the low-oxygen pools located on the continental shelf, with some coastal areas periodically completely stripped of their oxygen.
Areas of hypoxia that have seasonally dotted the Pacific Northwest coast, "have been connected to one another by a ribbon of low-oxygen water that runs along the coastal sea floor," says Barth.
So far, the most hypoxic year for the Pacific Northwest was 2006, when the research team discovered a dead zone off Newport, Oregon that sprawled over almost 1,200 square miles, and pressed so close to the shore that "a baseball hit from Highway 101 during the summer could land in it," says Barth. Covering up to 80 percent of the water column and lasting for an unusually long time (four months), "this dead zone transformed a teeming habitat into a fish-free zone that was carpeted with dead crabs, worms, severely stressed anemones and sea stars, and what looked like potentially noxious bacterial mats," says Barth.
THE SUMMER OF 2009
During the summer of 2009, dead zones characterized by severe hypoxia formed near the seashore on the mid-to-inner shelf in Oregon's coastal waters; they were about average in size and duration. Barth says, "we also saw the now-classic ribbon of low dissolved oxygen water near the seafloor extending along the coast. "However, no zero-oxygen areas like those that formed in 2006 were observed.
ANSWERS MAY BE BLOWING IN THE WIND
Why have low-oxygen waters been regularly expanding into coastal waters? The research team's findings indicate that this phenomenon is potentially related to:
Reductions in the oxygen content of low-oxygen water that upwells from the continental shelf.
Prolonged and intensified upwelling along the continental shelf that has, in turn, been caused by periodic increases in the strength of northerly, upwelling-favorable winds and decreases in the frequency of southerly, downwelling-favorable winds.
During periods of prolonged upwelling, each successive wave of upwelling fertilizes more phytoplankton blooms. As these blooms decay, the continental shelf's low-oxygen waters expand, lose more oxygen and move closer to shore.
The more prolonged and intense the downwelling-favorable winds and resulting upwelling are, the more severe the hypoxia becomes. Hence, the highly hypoxic year of 2006 was dominated by particularly strong upwelling-favorable northerly winds, particularly infrequent downwelling-favorable southerly winds and particularly large accumulations of phytoplankton. By contrast, the summer of 2009 was marked by periods of southerly downwelling-favorable winds that helped dissipate low oxygen conditions. "Therefore, the hypoxia of 2009 was neither as extreme nor as long-lasting as that of 2006.
UNDERLYING CAUSES
What is the underlying cause of the decreases in the oxygen content of subsurface offshore waters and changes in coastal winds? One theory points to large-scale cyclic changes in oceanic circulation and atmospheric conditions that have hit the Pacific Northwest every 10 to 20 years. But Barth says evidence that these phenomena are unrelated to one another includes the lack of agreement in the timing of the development of coastal dead zones and the timing of these cyclic changes, which are evidenced in available records covering the last 50 years.
Rather, Barth favors an alternative theory; he suspects that climate change is driving down the oxygen content of subsurface offshore waters and altering coastal winds. This theory is supported by agreement between the predicted effects of climate change and the very types of changes in oceanic and atmospheric conditions and decreases in the oxygen content of deep water that are currently observed in the Pacific Northwest. (Climate change may reduce the oxygen content of deep water by warming surface waters, and thereby insulating deeper waters from contact with the atmosphere, where oxygen originates.)
Nevertheless, the relationship between climate change and coastal dead zones remains debatable. What's more, Barth says that whether and where dead zones appear in any particular year partly depends on the daily weather, which is difficult to predict.
So the research team continues to study winds, ocean circulation, and the timing and locations of coastal dead zones in order "to collect enough statistics over time to determine whether climate change is, in fact, driving the formation of coastal dead zones," Barth says.
DEAD ZONES AS SUMMER FIXTURES
arth says, "I wouldn't be surprised if coastal dead zones appear every summer from now on because oceanic and atmospheric conditions are now primed for their regular, repeated formation. He adds that "the real questions now are: How big will the dead zones be? How long will they last? And how often will oxygen levels plunge low enough to cause marine die-offs?"
I'll come clean about this. I didn't get the best results for my AS Geography, and I'm paying the price for being lazy. Me trying to copy Yamin's lazy-but-still-manage-an-A-grade is EPIC FAIL.
OK, OK, I'll stop blaming Yamin because it's not his fault and onto more important things like...my life lately as the desesperados (Spanish for desperate). Desperate for at least a B grade in my Geography. Gah.
20th September was a nice day. Sunny and nice and everything. I ate brunch and went shopping in town alone, and ate roast duck fried noodles for dinner. All the while my FaceBook page was flooded by birthday wishes. Somehow, the many friends of mine got wind of this, er, news.
This is a recent photo of me to show I'm not dead yet!
Just kidding! Credits to Rina and her umber fabulous laptop. Seriously, I didn't know laptops with built-in webcam can be so much fun. Anyway, here is a more decent photo:
Yes, I'm modelling the fabulous Next purse I had just brought. Finally I can keep all my cards in one place! Phew. The formal-looking skirt is also new. I brought it so I would have something to wear every presentation morning, instead of panicking and go without make-up and missing all the fun. Sarcasm intended, and yes I'm wearing make-up in this shot.
Well, there you go. It's pretty obvious I'm wearing make-up. That's Rina by the way.A shot of me without make-up:
I never know my eyes can be that small. Darn. That's Erna on my left and Hani on my right. Us Bruneian scholars. And I need to get rid of those dark circles. Gahhh.
This is taken from an anonymous blog, written by Yamin.
Then there's Blogger J, XinPing! Kami sekelas dari form 1 till form 5.. Nda ku ingat bila kami start rapat.. but then again i dun remember we ever being rapat haha.. eh wait, i think it was when ia start telling me her problems.. Then i started to understand her pastu baruth kami rapat, or was it? Ia ani lagi another chinese yg very honest! before ia pergi UK, iatah danganku berSMS tiap hari ni! Period yg paling selalu kami beSMS is masa after the scholar interview.. Banyak! hahaa.. Apparently ia ani sarcastic.. tp honestly aku nda paham half of the times jokenya haha.. tepaksa ku pikir2kan lagi bh baruth ku paham hahahaha.. Entah ah, i dunno why tp i sort of view her as a conservative person walaupun she is pretty rebellious.. dun ask me why haha.. I miss suruhing her to buy me drinks from the canteen sal ia ani laju bejalan and inda pandai ngalih wah! Masa kami prynsa not once ia complain ngalih! talk about endurance! hahaha... Ia ani hardworking tp (maybe?) not as hard as Saidi but then again aku nda tinggal serumah so i cant really tell haha...
Damn Yamin, I'm the 7th person he mentioned! But then I have to stop complaining since he also wished me happy birthday, with a twist of his Yamin-ness humour (it's pretty dark). And I'm lazy to type so I'll just present it as a picture:
Yes I'm still an atheist and being lame is hitting all my right buttons. This guy Yamin really is something, isn't he?
My hair has grown visibly longer and hopefully I'm on the path to weight loss! I've also tried doing lots of (unimaginable) things to my hair. And no I'm not gonna try hair extensions for a long, long time.
I don't usually post pictures so you guys are lucky! Gotta go now, later! ;)
The World is the final card of the Major Arcana, and as such represents saturnian energies, time, and completion.
The World card pictures a dancer in a Yoni (sometimes made of laurel leaves). The Yoni symbolizes the great Mother, the cervix through which everything is born, and also the doorway to the next life after death. It is indicative of a complete circle. Everything is finally coming together, successfully and at last. You will get that Ph.D. you've been working for years to complete, graduate at long last, marry after a long engagement, or finish that huge project. This card is not for little ends, but for big ones, important ones, ones that come with well earned cheers and acknowledgements. Your hard work, knowledge, wisdom, patience, etc, will absolutely pay-off; you've done everything right.
YUI has announced that she will start working on her next song. The new track will be part of a campaign to encourage high school students who are taking correspondence course programs. Students make oaths stating that they will constantly try to reach new heights for their future. The 'attack pledges' will be sent to YUI, and with those oaths in mind YUI will write a song to show support for those students.
