＜＜ヘたれのイタリア。＞＞

The title is simply an expansion of the manga 'Hetalia', with 'Heta' meaning unskilled or incompetent, and Italy.

I am rather amused at people commenting about how they started enjoying history/geo/social studies more after watching the anime or reading the manga. And its actually true.

To my surprise even I have been paying more attention to class. I think it is also because Hidekaz Himaruya personifies all the countries in such a comical and amusing manner that it gets you interested in learning the relationships between each character.

Although some maybe be offending to viewers (i.e. The character 'Korea' was banned because Korea was complaining that the character was developed poorly with an insulting personality and that his traditional outfit was badly drawn.) I think its a good way to get yourself a mix of entertainment and small history lesson.

For example,

Haha~
This is somewhat true ~!


I also learnt that...

• America was raised by Britain before they tried seceding and succeeded after the war.
• During a war, the Italian army takes a week to travel a certain distance. When retreating, the Italian army would travel the same distance they would travel in a week, in one day.
  
• Sealand is the smallest country in the world with the population of four people. The problem is that because it is so small, not one country would recognize Sealand as a country.
• Austria is a country was strong in arts and music. When war was about to break because of Prussia, they were debating over whether to bring an orchestra over to the battlefield with them.
• Switzerland is economically and financially stable because of the amount of hard work they had to put in to produce one of the best banks and economic system. Switzerland always had to depend on other countries for food supplies because it was initially a barren land which you couldn't grow fertile crops, unlike Italy or France.

And so on so forth.
I also learnt where certain countries are in Europe... Instead of recognizing a big lump of land next to Russia. =3=

I hope there would be a 'Malaysia' in the manga... I wonder what he/she'll look like!
Maybe Malaysia would be wearing a Sarong? O:

Also... Philosophy.
Talking about thinking.
"Some people would rather die than think. And they do!" - A quote on the wall in school L block.
I don't see why people would dislike dwelling deep in the topic of paradoxes. Philosophy is an amazing thing in which you discuss your opinion on a subject and gain knowledge by sharing and exchanging different ways at looking at ideas. I am glad I am living a life of curiosity. To always ask 'why?', to strive and discover new ideas and create healthy mind.

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people." -Elanor Roosevelt.

I loved my childhood times. Especially when I was around 4-6. Because I knew nothing. I'm not saying its a good thing, but because of that, I asked. This is a bit foggy at the back of my mind, but on average, a 4 or 5 year old kid would ask around 100-400 questions a day.

I miss the times when every night I would carry out the chess set with round pieces as big as a third of my palm, and I would play a game of chess with my dad. Living a life with peace of mind really is the life. Now, everything depends on what you know. I feel confined because of the overall syllabus teaching you straight forward ideas, theorems and formulas. To tell you the truth, I find creativity from my childhood cartoons and voiceless music.

Our mind is like a big canvas. When I was four, I imagined a canvas that was pure white as snow, with small blotches of primary colours here and there. Now, it is as if the canvas is soaked with paint, crayon, ink, all sorts of medium. Do you know when you have your set of colours, and when you mix them all up to make one colour it makes a gloomy, grey colour? Sure, its fantastic that you have so many colours. But when its lumped into a big thing like that?
"Everything must be in moderation, even moderation itself." -Anonymous

I believe that words, sight and knowledge is important.
With words, you can write what you see, and gain ideas.
With sight, you can read the world and mother nature as she is, and be inspired.
With knowledge, the eye will widen, drowning in wonder and the hand will scribe fountains of life.

So drink from the streams of clear gleaming liquid, for if you stain yourself with the muddy waters from the depths of the well, the brush will be sinned and the canvas polluted.

Shuttles with a chance of smashing.

On the 3rd of July, Saturday, I began my trip down to Palmerston North for the North Island badminton games. It was epic. So the trip down was really interesting, we played 'eye spy' for 30min or so, with Vincent editing it to, "I spy, with my azn eye..." Haha. About on hour from Taupo, We had to make an emergency stop because Kristy puked. Not the best news you'd want to hear... Especially being sick with Diarrhea for two days. We stopped by a nearby train station for a break and decided to play 'catch'. It was foggy with stark towering trees around us so it was hard to see where the ball was going, but it was fun running around.

On the way to Palmerston North, we passed by Mt. Ruapehu in hopes of catching some snow to initiate war against team 2 (We were team 3). Unfortunately, all we saw was a glimpse of bare ice on the rock walls. Upon arriving at the motels, we settled down and went to grab a hit at the venue we were playing at. At first I thought 'This doesn't look too bad, I wonder why everyone says its so hard to hit a shuttle here!' But then I realized the real truth. The blaring lights from above blinded my sight from the shuttle and all the walls were a pale cream colour, making it near impossible to see where the shuttle was. I was hitting like a blind hunter aiming at a running deer.

So team derby was amazing experience, as we won 5th place for our division. I think playing against Team 2 for qualifying round was by far my favourite. God knows how Neha and I won against Olia and Vanessa and also my singles against Vanessa, I say its pure luck. Honest to god, everything went by in such a hurry, time didn't stop for me to recollect my thoughts. It was fantastic.

Individuals was slightly pressuring because I was nervous. Little did I know that every move counted. Every second. Every angle. Every point.

Singles didn't go so well for me, my draw was slightly unlucky.
Doubles, well I got a bit annoyed that we lost the plate final, but I was okay with it. What worried me more was how my partner felt. I had a queasy feeling that she was blaming herself a bit too much for this unfortunate loss.
I was pissed off with mixed doubles. My partner was far from encouraging. Well, he did say the occasional "Come on, lets go!" But he also groaned and got really annoyed whenever I made a mistake. It only lead to our loss in the plate semi finals and now I am afraid to play with him again. It was really uncomfortable and I am having second thoughts about changing my partner once and for all.

At the motel, we all played cards to our hearts desire and of course we had a few water bomb fights. I must say, that attack with the water bomb attacking the top floor doors certainly put my heart into adrenaline and slight 'oh noes!' ness. X3

I hope next year will be another round of epic badminton fun and good experience, and it better freaking snow next year or I shall blame global warming and mother nature's PMS'ing =_=

Adieu~
Puppet.