A time to dance- Book Review

Tags

a time to dance, abby, book 1, book review, divorce, eagles, john, karen kingsbury, love fiction

It’s been a long time since i’ve done something that’s not related to TV and movies since that’s the only box i’ve been checking so far. I actually finished reading this book some time ago but never got to reviewing it. But i honestly think it’s worth reviewing and reading of course.

The story is about a couple who have been together since childhood. It’s a really sweet story where they meet when they’re kids, fall in love and get married. Unfortunately, on the brink of their 21st anniversary they decided to divorce. John and Abby have fallen out of love and Abby is now accusing John of cheating on her with another teacher in school. He strongly denies it and accuses her of having an affair with her editor. So when they decide to break the news to their children their daughter suddenly announces that she’s going to get married. They are shocked and decided to postpone the news 6 months later, after their daughters wedding to not kill the joy and allow their kids to enjoy the wedding without the news of the divorce.

This is a Christian novel and it is a known fact that God doesn’t approve of divorce. A recurring verse in this novel is “What God has put together let no one part” referring of course to two married persons. So since the whole issue here is about divorce and how it is against God’s law, it is kinda predictable what will happen in the end. Honestly i picked up this book because of the author, i am a fan of her redemption series which i’m trying to complete, so i thought i’ll try out new characters. Reading this book at the beginning was sorta painful as you see the characters just constantly fight, they do fight a lot and you as a reader and a third person just feel this need to shout at them and tell them “Shut up and listen to what the other wants to say, that’ll just solve your problem!” or “Come on, speak up already!” because there are many instances where if the one of them had really expressed their true feelings and the other actually listened then they would have revealed so much to the other and possibly solve the problem. But i guess that is just theory right, and in real life, lots of important things gets unsaid and hurtful things fly out of our mouth instantly.

The novel is about 300+ pages thick and let’s just say that they spend a whole lot of a good time on those pages fighting. At one point i really got sick of it and it really took a long time to finish this novel. Now i’m not trying to discourage you, but really, maybe it really does depict real life where couples who fight all of the time make themselves and the people around them tired and find it hard to move on. Don’t worry though, there is a love story inside there somewhere. They have flashbacks of the time they were together and that’s really sweet. You really do get to see them in a phase where they were a team, a happily married couple and it does again pain you to see the state in which they have degenerated. So yeah, it just took me a lot of motivation to read through all those fights they had.

The good thing is, and i guess this is a spoiler, but a predictable one, the happy ending in the end, it was touching and really beautiful. It made me cry for goodness sake! All the pent up anger and pain from the entire book gets released and washed away in the end and you feel that too, not just the characters. What really struck me was how it was done or written, and how it reflects how awesome God can be. You have so many pages ful of fighting, full of an existence without God and then, with the little that you offer to Him, a.k.a the very few pages, He can use that and transform your life. I’m not sure if the author meant for it but that really did strike me and it just showed what and Awesome God i serve. How he works miracles through the smallest of things. Sorry, i really am trying to write this without spoiling anything.

Another thing that i loved in this book was the thing about the eagle. It was used as a tool of reminding John about God but wow, i learnt so much! I never knew that if an eagle gets poisoned it would go to a very high point to get nearer to the sun and let the sun suck out the poison. Great symbolism right? How when our lives is filled with poison, we need to go to God to get it all out. Another thing was the mating, where the female eagle will just free fall and let the male catch her and pull her up to prove that he is worthy. This is more for marriage but isn’t it wonderful how these symbolism in nature can only relate to us because God intended it to. I mean, He created all these things just to remind us of Him, and it’s not just in eagles, you see symbolism that relates to God everywhere in nature.

So all in all i’ll give this book a 8/10. Really worth to read and i found out there is another book after it called a time to embrace. So i think from the title we can hope for good times for this couple.

 

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Female Prime Minister (女相)- pictures and hair/costume comments.

Tags

china mainland series, china tv series, cotumes, female prime minister, hunan tv, maggie cheung, mulan, period drama, picture post, 女相

Alright, i was attracted to this upcoming series because of its name. And really, who’s heard of china ever having a female prime minister? Well apparently there was one.Yeah, this is a new one for me too. Her name was Lu Lingxuan, who lived during the times of the Northern Qi dynasty. [Wait…what dynasty is that? Think mulan my friends, think mulan.] If you want to read up on her, go ahead and google her name. Her history is quite interesting, but well, this series is just loosely based on it. Yeah, you’re not going to get the real facts, maybe just some of the key happenings in her life and the characters name is in fact Lu Zhen. Actually think of it as a new character who had a life quite similar to the real heroine in history.

I’m not quite sure when the series will air, but i’ve read that it’ll be somewhere this coming summer on Hunan TV. Yay! looking at the pictures, they look fantastic, but then again, i was fooled by pictures before, they really know how to make it look so appealing. I was pulled in by a certain cast member by the name of Maggie Cheung. Not sure what role she’ll be playing in this drama albeit it looks like it not that big of a role so far. But i’ve been a fan since her time in the TVB drama’s. Especially loved her in ‘The king of yesterday and tomorrow’ and ‘ War and beauty’. Not much to say so far as i’m only relying on information from others. (the cons of not knowing chinese). This will also be a non Manchurian or non Qing dynasty drama for me in a very long time. I admit that i usually watch drama’s from that period but now i’m really interested in finding out more about what has happened in other dynasties too.

Anyway,this is what i’ve found so far.

Setting: Southern – Northern Dynasties

Plot information:
About Lu Daji 陆大姬 is the rare female prime minister of the Kingdom of Northern Qi (550 AD – 577 AD), and Gao Dan, one of the Emperors of the very crazy period in Chinese history. The art of pottery is also featured here.

Production: Yu Zheng Productions

Starring:
Zhao Liying 赵丽颖 as 陆大姬 Lu Daji
Chen Xiao 陈晓 as 高湛 Gao Dan
Guigui 鬼鬼吴映洁
Kimi Qiao Renliang 乔任梁
Gao Yunxiang 高云翔
Qin Lan 秦岚
Jiang Hong 姜鸿
Medina 麦迪娜
Li Fei’er 李菲儿
Wang Lin 王琳
Pan Hong 潘虹
Liu Xuehua 刘雪华

Picture comments: Alright, the post is mostly filled with pictures, but that’s what we’ve got for now, and i’m loving them all. Like i mentioned before i’m used to seeing Qing style clothes/hair, so now looking at these hair do’s they’re actually very beautiful. They need not be big (like the Qing) or loaded with stuff (the late Tang dynasty) but it’s intricate enough to be eye-catching, for instance the way they put up the hair, complimented with the accessories which are unique but not too much to overdo it. hehe i also like that they have two sticks stuck to the sides of the hair and at the ends of the sticks you have this thin, long piece of material. The round hair pin that they have in groups of three kinda remind me of the korean hair fashion. And the curled up hair in the front as a fringe is pretty cute too. Take the picture below for reference of what i’ve been describing so far. But from some of the pictures you can see that if the lady wanted to do up her hair,she had access to really awesome hair accessories. This girl must be someone important to have access to this beautiful hair pieces. So i guess we should look out for her. The rest, like the maid have simple hairdo’s. But in today’s standards, it’s still making a huge effort on your hair.

The clothes are without doubt lovely too, The layers and the colours, i’ve always been a fan of dresses with long sleeves. There are also variations to the styles and ways of wearing the dresses so that’ll be fun to watch. One thing i like about period drama’s are the clothes, you get to see the details they put to the cloth or accessories and the richness in variety and styles. And some of the colour combinations are so striking too! That’s how you make a statement in those days eh?

So that’s all i have for now. I love the pictures and hope that the series would be good too.

The age and time factor in Bu Bu Jing Xin

Tags

4th prince, 8th prince, bu bu jing xin, character ages, chinese series, kevin, lui shi shi, rouxi, scarlet heart, startling with each step, time, wu qi long

I have been thinking about bu bu jing xin these three weeks after finishing the last episode. I thought that by now I should have gotten over it but no, it’s just that good.

So while I was thinking about random things related to the series and the stuff I read online, the thought of the age gap sort of stuck to me. In the novel the characters start out at this age. (I got it from this forum http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php?29858-Bu-Bu-Jing-Xin-%E3%80%8A%E6%AD%A5%E6%AD%A5%E6%83%8A%E5%BF%83%E3%80%8B/page21)

4th Prince – 26
8th Prince – 23
13th Prince – 17
14th Prince – 15
Ruoxi – 13

But in the series they added three years to everyone’s age. But regardless of that I’m just going to refer to the age they are in the novel. Now, it has constantly been mentioned in the promos or summary for the series that rouxi is a 25 year old woman from the modern age. When she time travels, she is stuck in the body of a 13 year old, but her mind is one of a 25 year old.

If you watched the series, you would have noticed that rouxi is more playful and a little childish at the beginning of the series. I understand that most series start of like this, happy and joyful in the beginning and emotional and sad at the ending. And there is no doubt BBJX followed this pattern too, I mean, the ending of the series was literally so emotionally painful for me.

Nevertheless, what I was trying to say is, I can make out this connection with the time travelling thing. My theory is that she acts that way, childish and playful at first even though she is 25 because she still trying to get used to her new surroundings, curious of everything (sneaking out to explore Beijing and commenting that the buildings have been well preserved). She is also from the modern world, so the things she does will seem very odd to the characters in this era, but because of her physical age, they may have written it off as childish behaviour. As the series progresses, she not only grows up physically but she has to change her mentality too. Getting stuck in the past and finding no way to get out, she must have resigned herself to this fate and chosen to get used to it. When she enters the palace, this forces her become more matured (as seen by the other characters) but I also think that it’s because she knows that her modern thinking will get her in big trouble, especially in a palace where traditions rule over the residents. At the end, rouxi has blended in with the times so naturally it seems she belong there. But I think she still has that modern girl in her, like ignoring the kings orders and wearing a red veil (though, maybe it’s just her being rouxi and purposely defying fourth prince) and also not respecting 14th prince’s other wives.

I really can’t believe that the series spans over 20 years, one thing, the characters don’t seem to age, except for 4th getting a moustache, the rest just look the same. Alright, I understand it may be a little hard to do that but still…..Also, the way the seasons seem to change so quickly in the series also makes things hard to gage. Sometimes its winter, then in the next scene, they’re in their spring clothes and then suddenly winter again. So confusing, oh yeah and in a span of 4-5 episodes, we have covered 10 years, because in episode 20 if I’m not mistaken, 10th prince is locked up then in episode 25 kangxi dies and 4th takes over. Whoa….and rouxi working in the laundry department, 2 years, done in 1 episode. To understand the time and years that have gone by, you need to listen to their conversation properly, usually after the time period has passed and read up too.

Another thing about the age difference is when you think about the romance between the characters. There is a 10 year age gap between rouxi and 8th and a 13 year age gap between rouxi and 4th. But, if you take into account that rouxi is actually mentally 25 years old then the age gap isn’t that bad. So technically rouxi is just 1 year younger than 4th in beginning and 2 years older than 8th prince! I and a huge 4th and rouxi supporter and thinking about the age thing makes you understand how rouxi can really understand 4th, because they’re about the same age and it’s easier to connect with someone when you have the same wavelength. Of course she knows history and shows preference to 4th (as mentioned by13th and 14th prince), but there’s more than that, in the end, they both loved each other to death. I’m not saying that you can’t love someone who has a big age gap with you but I’m saying it makes it easier when you stand on the same ground. Plus, if you see it from 4th prince’s view, here is this girl who really understands you deep down, something that he values as his own mother can’t even understand him and she’s so young but matured. The word ‘Interesting’ just flashes above her head right? He is also the kind of man who is very cautious, so at one hand he wants to keep her close to guard her actions but at the same time this closeness becomes fondness and he starts to have feelings for her. As for rouxi, I think she never really considered the age gap thing; it doesn’t matter to her because at the top of her priority list is to not get into an arranged marriage. As to why she fell in love with 4th, it was mentioned in her final letter, three events that sealed her love for I’m, first when he revealed to her that he wanted the throne, two, when he braved the rain with her and lastly when he saved her from that arrow. So in conclusion, my opinion is that the maturity that comes with age contributed to this relationship. The actual age thing wasn’t much of a matter. Note that there are many reasons why rouxi fell in love with 4^th but that’s for another discussion, here we just focus on the time/age thing.

As for rouxi and 8th, it just didn’t sit with me. Firstly, he’s married to her sister. I don’t know, but it gave me this feeling that he thought that he was thinking, “Hey roulan doesn’t love me, but suddenly her sister shows interest, hmmm maybe being with her is sort of also like being with roulan.” Plus, I think when their romance started rouxi would have been 17 or 18. So it’s like this teenage romance for the both of them, all on the feelings, and not really very solid. Darn, it feels so much like a teenage romance, although 8th should be around 27 years old, but for him, it’s the first time a girl has reciprocated his love, yeah, roulan comes into the picture again. His first wife loves him, but he doesn’t appreciate her at all (till the end). So he was ecstatic (totally smiling widely when he saves her on the horse) when she admitted that she loved him.  I think that they developed the relationship because of proximity and also rouxi had some pity for him for how roulan treated him. She was curious as to why 8^th was so nice to roulan but roulan acted all “I’m not going to even give you a chance”.  As to real feelings, when it came to the ultimatum 8^th just wanted both the throne and rouxi. Sorry 8^th and rouxi shippers, but I just like 4^th too much. Alright, how does age come in this part? I think it’s due to timing, so it makes it look like your first teenage romance between the two.

Wow that was a pretty long post, there’s honestly lots to talk about in this series, but I just wanted to write on certain areas that have been clouding my mind for some time.

The Legend Of Korra- Release date,pictures,character info, previews and links

Tags

aang, gifs, katara, korra, legend of korra characters, links, nickelodeon, pictures, previews, the legend oof korra

 

Nickelodeon has officially announced that the new ‘mini series’ (12 episodes) The legend of Korra will be released on the 14th of April. When i heard this i was estatic! This is from a fan who, in 2010 heard about the news that this series would come out in 2012 and though….”Darn, that’s 2 years!” and here it is now! The date is nearing! They have also started the website : www.korranation.com  

and the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/legendofkorra

If you’re in the US, you can participate in the game, where if they get 100,000 likes they will bring foward the release date of the first episode. Make note alright, US only, unless you use a tunnel, if you know how that is. I wasn’t aware of the fact that you had to be in the US to be able to play the game so i clicked the link on the facebook page a few times and got redirected back to square one. When you play the game, you can unlock previews every day. No worries if you’re unable to play the game and unlock these goodies, just go and google it and some kind soul would have uploaded it, sceenshots, video clips, whatever has been unlocked for the day. I suggest tumblr, just type in Korra in the search box and you’ll see loads of stuff.

This is a pic of the young korra. By the way the first 4 minutes of the first episode have been released and just watching it makes you want to watch more you know what i mean?Alright here are just a few gif made from the preview, they’re so awesome!

Comments on the gifs

1. Korra standing next to eh statue of Aang, well aang has passed away (duh) because the only way korra can be the avatar is if the last one has died.

2. She has already mastered firebending, which should have been hard for her because she’s from the water tribe and from what we know from the first series is that the avatar would have trouble mastering the opposing element of their origin. Like aang had trouble mastering earthbending because wind is the opposite of earth. So i’m thinking this korra must be good, because in the first 4 minutes that was shown, she was just a kid and she already got the hang of three elements.

3. Korra in her water tribe clothes which suits her better than the air tribe clothes as seen later.

4. shooting fire up towards something, we’ll find out later who/what it is.

5. Korra just flamed up a 2000 year old treasure while learning aribending. How did i know that? Watch the previews!

6. Korra giving a piece of her mind with ikki (on the left, tenzin’s son btw) and tenzin on the right. If you don’t already know. Tenzin is the son of aang and katara. Yeah….i’m a zutara shipper, so that was sad to know that zutara didn’t happen.

The opening sequence of each episode. They changed it all to the previous avatars. Yay you can see aang there!

So from all the previews and reading up on stuff people posted of the series, there’s actually lots of information about the characters on the net.

This is Ikki, tenzin’s daughter and aang and katara’s grandchild. Yea it’s still mindboggling to know that the characters of the first series are old now.

Amon, his looks just scream “BAD GUY” to you doesn’t it?

There’s of course tenzin, who you saw earlier and katara is still alive. Rumoured to have taught korra waterbending. And the two other guys, bolin and can’t remember his name.

Ok, i better stop here because i’m losing the focus of this post, haha too much info to put into one post you know? How you enjoyed all this. And yes, there is the talk about the leaked episode going out on the internet. More about that later!

Running Man (Korean TV Series)

Tags

hide and seek, korean tv series, mission, monday couple, running man, song joong ki

A friend recently introduced me to running man and i’m hooked. Usually i stay far away from variety shows especially if they purposely do everything to make fun of people. However, i found the concept for this very different. Firstly,well, song joong ki. Need i say more? too bad he left the series after 41 episodes. Ok, but seriously, other than him, i liked that they choose to have the show in different landmarks around Korea, in a way it’s like a travel guide too isn’t it? The challenges they go through, especially the missions, honestly, i feel like the mission team is in the disadvantage, but just think about it, it’s a full scale hide and seek on tv! Which is both scary (when you want the mission team to win and sparta kook is like so near them) and funny too. But there were moments when i didn’t like the hide and seek game, like when haha chose to betray his team to help sparta kook, that was not cool.

Other than the missions, they also have mini games or challenges that somehow relate tot he landmark they are in. Like in episode 22 when they visited the toy store, they had to shop for toys and such. They also have fake missions, so far the only one i’ve seen is the one where they pretend to act, but their true mission is to change shirts without getting noticed.

I think what really makes this show work is the cast, how they’re so open to doing all the challenges. So far, it’s about 80 plus episodes, playing hide and seek for that many episodes may wear out the fun you know? They also have all these extra stuff added in to add to the humour like the monday couple. Sweet and funny at the same time. And song joong ki and his drawing, in episode 27, i was laughing my head off and my sides were aching just watching the drawing scene. He looked so innocent and confident, but the reality was, he just can’t draw. Sorry joong ki, so sorry. I’m hoping to do some short write ups on my favourite episodes, mostly the beginning ones as i’ve only just started.

The Bu Bu Jing Xin/ Scarlet heart Effect (on me)

Tags

4th prince, bu bu jing xin, chinese drama, fan's obsession, scarlet heart, startling with each step, tai ping hou kui, wu qi long

I think it’s been about a week since i first started watching Bu Bu Jing Xin and in that span of time, it has caused me to do several things i wouldn’t have thought i could do/would do.

1. Desperately want to learn mandarin. I’m a chinese who doesn’t know how to speak/read/write chinese and after a few attempts of trying throughout my childhood, i just gave up, but now, this fire in me just started and i want to be able to speak my mother tongue.

2. I saw this translation of a part of an interview with the cast and i found it so funny. Who knew that after that, just randomly going through BBJX interviews in chinese (no subtitles) that i saw the scene and somehow connected it to the translation i saw!(it’s amazing because i can’t understand a word of mandarin, what more a whole interview) It was so fun to actually know what they were talking about for once.

3. Go into chinese tea shops to look at chinese tea, and eat food that has been cooked in tea. Btw, i found info about 4th prince’s fave tea, Tai Ping Hou Kui, read about it here: http://www.sevencups.com/tea-culture/famous-chinese-tea/tai-ping-hou-kui-green-tea/

4. Talk to any friend who would listen about my obsession over this drama.

5. Hunt the net down for everything BBJX related. Reading all the comments of other fans. Reading all the character analysis and scene analysis made by others. Plus thinking about my own while i’m supposed to be studying for an exam.

6. Seriously considering getting a weibo account just to become wu qi long’s (4th prince) follower.

7. Google translate all the posts that i can see made by wu qi long.

8. Thinking about possibly minoring in east asian studies.

Honestly, point one is the most important one, the rest may just be normal stuff fans do. Hopefully i’ll finally be able to speak mandarin and not be a banana anymore.

Bu Bu Jing Xin (startling by each step/ scarlet heart)

Tags

bu bu jing xin, bu bu jing xin fan's list, scarlet heart, startling with each step

Recently i’ve just finished watching this series (in 4 days to be exact) and i just can’t get enough. From what i’ve read online so far, many other fans feel the same, it’s like recovering from a sickness or something. You can’t just get well the next day. So i found some really good links, this post is more for me to keep a tab on the good stuff that i’ve found related to this drama. ps. no other chinese drama has made me want to learn mandarin this much, and if you know me, this is something big!

CREDITS GO TO THEIR ORIGINAL AUTHOR’S. I JUST WANT TO HAVE A REFERENCE AVAILABLE SO THAT I DON’T HAVE TO SEARCH ALL OVER JUST TO FIND IT AGAIN.

An analysis of the 4th Prince’s character: http://sparkskey.livejournal.com/tag/bbjx

Summary of the Additional Epilogue for Bu Bu Jing Xin the Novel plus many other wonderful reads about the series in the other posts: http://koalasplayground.com/2011/10/05/summary-of-the-additional-epilogue-for-bu-bu-jing-xin-the-novel/

Translation of the novel to english: http://bubujingxinenglish.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html

A malaysian girl’s updates about the drama: http://www.point2e.com/2011/10/bu-bu-jing-xin.html

Season of waiting song, with english translation, hanyu pinyi: http://lalaladdy.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/bu-bu-jing-xin-ost-song-season-of-waiting-chinese-lyrics-pinyin-lyrics-and-english-translation/

additional hanyu pinyi : http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Deng_Ni_De_Ji_Jie_(song)

Episode recaps: http://mydramatea.wordpress.com/tag/bu-bu-jing-xin/page/2/

Novel discussion : http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php?30656-Bu-Bu-Jing-Xin-Novel-Discussion-%28Lot-s-of-Spoilers!%29

English subbed downloads: http://bubujingxin.wordpress.com/