Wow. Do mine eyes deceive me? Or is this another ultra-impersonal review?

依然范特西 (Still Fantasy) is Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou’s (周杰倫) seventh studio album, officially released September 5, 2006. Because I absolutely insisted on purchasing the CD+DVD version from YesAsia.com by mail order, the CD arrived just two days ago, about three weeks after I initially made the order.

Hahaha… you just gotta love the U.S. Postal Service…

At any rate, sorry for the lateness. Just humor me and allow me to ramble on a while longer.

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BoA’s 2005 Korean album, Girls on Top, was an unexpected pleasure; I didn’t know BoA could do hip hop! Additionally, the Chinese version of the title track also deserves ample praise. And since we’re on the topic of Korea, BoA is definitely my second most favorite Korean of all time (and no. 1 favorite South Korean… needless to say, the position of most favorite Korean on the entire Korean Peninsula still belongs to Kim Jong Il, dictator and Dear Leader of North Korea).

I finished all of my exams. And we have Monday off this week. So, frittering and loitering, here we go!

Also, I’ve decided to remove all instances of my full name from this blog. Not because I’m primarily concerned about, uh, my safety (I doubt it was ever in jeopardy)… it’s just that I Googled my name out of sheer boredom a while ago, and I was horrified by the number of crap-blogs that popped up, all claiming to be authored by my clones. There were also a fair number of doctors of the same name with intimidating-sounding titles, but that’s beside the point.

For the record, my real, legal name is Jennifer. But I won’t be answering to that any longer, in an effort to sever all associations with other less-educated peoples. However, you may still call me Jenny-fa.

And now I shall depart.

School ended yesterday for holiday break, and not a day too soon.

What else…

Oh yes, I’m completely crazy about the Japanese rock group, Do As Infinity (now disbanded). Back in middle school (during my Inuyasha fandom days), I had already been introduced to the songs “Fukai Mori,” “Shinjitsu no Uta,” and “Rakuen,” but I still wasn’t very familiar with them. However, all of that changed when I recently acquired their first two albums, Break of Dawn and New World. And let me tell you… what a band!

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Gackt-sama! This is perhaps the only time I’ll ever admit such a thing, but… I’m completely enamored with him!

In case you were wondering, Camui M. S. Gackt is a talented J-rocker from Japan. He sings, plays several different instruments, writes his own lyrics, and I also believe composes his own music. He is currently a popular entertainer and has a vast following from many different parts of the world. And if I remember correctly, he can also speak English and French with varying degrees of fluency… apart from his native Japanese, of course.

I still don’t quite know how I’ve become infatuated with him, since I’m normally not a huge fan of rock, but I suppose some of Gackt-san’s appeal (besides his androgynous good looks and his elaborate costumes) comes from his mysterious origins… apparently, Gackt has never disclosed his real name or age and claims to be a vampire born somewhere around 1540. He says he gained psychic powers after a near-fatal accident in his childhood and used to be possessed by spirits, and consequently, does not wish to have children so these paranormal abilities would not be passed to them.

Naturally, my admiration for him increased considerably after hearing this. Long live Lord Gackt!

I’ve just returned home from Baltimore, Maryland several days ago. I’m glad to be back, but I miss the DSL connection at my aunt’s… dial-up is such a pain.

Anyways, I’ve just finished listening to Japanese singer/songwriter Hikaru Utada’s newest album, ULTRA BLUE.

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