The Forerunner Times

"A life journal by Nathan J. Elias, called under God's grace to be His forerunner and restorer for His glory."

There are some things in life that you cannot avoid no matter how hard you try to run from it
The harder you try to run, the harder it will try to chase you and tackle you down with it
The same things happen to me during the great IT chase, trying hard to distance myself from it
Guess my skeleton is all 0s and 1s, my entire body made of bits, I’m a B.I.T, being of IT
– The Great IT Chase, 2006

The first class of this term, the Data Management and Information Technology turns out exactly just like how I expect it to be. Led by a lecturer from the IT field, the lecture soon becomes too IT inclined and not too suitable for business student and in the end made it very boring and lifeless for them. Even on the first assignment, we are required to write a 2500-pages essay and 15-minutes presentation on a topic. Among the list of about 20 or so available topics, me, a Bachelor of IT student myself, do not know more than 4-5 topics and even then I don’t have a firm understanding of the topics either (those I knew I heard about it back on my BIT days). I can imagine the frustration of the business guys, not knowing much about this topic and it being senseless and no use of them either, suddenly being told to make an advanced assignment on IT…

I have sent an e-mail asking the lecturer if I can do a topic on SMS applications instead, since it’s my thesis anyway and I have made quite a bunch of those stuff, though not quite successfully, I have quite a background information on it should I decide to make it. Next is the team problem, this is a team assignment so I should be looking for members. It turns out that Silvia’s group is on this class too, Ajay Kumaran is gone but Peter is still here though it seems like he has his own team for now. Hopefully by the time the lecturer gives his say to my topic suggestion, I can finalize my team too, it’s all up on this Wednesday.

Tomorrow is Enterpreneurship and Risk Taking. Let us behold what it may bring… *prepares beds and pillows* (hope not)

Midori no Hibi
“Midori Days” in English

What if the girl who loves you suddenly becomes your right hand? The story revolves around a girl named Midori. She was a girl that was secretly in love with “Mad Dog” Sawamura Seiji, but because she was shy, all she could do was to watch him from afar and she was never able to confess to him directly. She kept on wishing to be able to be close to Sawamura, until one day the wish was granted, that she actually became Sawamura’s right hand. Initially this caused a lot of problems for Sawamura, as he is a bad-ass fighter known for his Devil’s Right Hand, and now that her right hand has become Midori… well you’ll have to see that for yourself. The story spans along 85 chapters divided to 8 volumes in the manga, called “days”, but actually one chapter can last more than one day. The genre is comedic romance, and this will make you laugh and cry during the time you read it. 8 volumes may seem short, but it was perfect and the ending was greatly moving.

One of my friends had this a few years ago (this manga was started in 2003 and finished in 2004) but at that time I wasn’t interested so I didn’t copy it from him. Yesterday after finishing 20 chapters of 20th Century Boys I downloaded and read all 8 volumes, and I was greatly moved that I couldn’t help to cry a lot, especially in the chapters nearing the end in volume 7 and volume 8. The ending made me cry when Midori made a decision that could change their relationship forever and Sawamura was… phew, I don’t think I’ll spoil the best part of the manga here, go download it yourself and enjoy it yeah? You can take it from the Lurk Manga Archive (link on the right) if you got IRC.

There was a lot of things to think here, while it does not go into something deeply philosophical, the ponderings of the characters are still good to watch and might led you to a deep thought yourself. While Midori is 24/7 with Sawamura, sometimes Sawamura doesn’t see her at all and there are other girls trying to get him too, namely Lucy and Ayase, while Sawamura himself is still looking for girls. What is true happiness? What do you have to sacrifice for it? Where does your true home lie? What is true strength? Those are the questions that you will find the answer in this manga.

All in all, it is a good read and I recommend everyone to get it. It might one of of the better if not best romance stories you’ll find in a manga, and a quite realistic one actually despite the title, not like some kind of fairy tale or they live happily ever after kinds of girly mangas you’ll usually find lying around (no offense meant here). Read it, and if you have, give me some comments and thoughts about it.