＜＜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.