Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World

looks like a WONDERFUL movie. i did post the trailer two post down, here, so go watch it! :D it's only about 2 minutes long. it's so sad :( it gave me shivers the first few times i saw it. u love the music that plays when it show Aki in a wedding dress. i am SO buying that movie!
the book is wonderful, too! Socrates in Love. ^^ here's some reviews from this page


Wonderful Philosophy and just plain sad...
Chrissy, a shojo addict, 08/20/2006
I got this book because i read other reviews and it sounded like something that appealed to me. Luckily, it was good and i read it in two days...the book is pretty short overall, but the story is WONDERFUL and, of course, it will make you cry several times. I highly recommend this book and i look forward to checking out the manga! (This best part is that it is all told from the guys POV). *tear

A Tearjerker To The End
Miyayuki, a writer, and a lover of literature, 04/10/2006
This is a very sad novel. I've read both the manga and the novel now and both had me crying at the end. 'Sekachu' is an excellent book that everyone should pick up.

Tears
Rebecca Morales, a high school journalist, 03/10/2006
I love the book. Kyoichi Katayama just captored the pure innocence of your first love. He painted his words with such detail that I felt as if I was expeirencing the same emotion that Saku felt for Aki. I was in tears from the moment I read the first to the last line.
~*~
actual reviews:
A sweet high school romance between an average guy and a beautiful girl has just gotten underway. But tragedy ensues when the girl falls ill with leukemia. A bittersweet tale of young love, enduring devotion, and heartbreaking loss, Socrates in Love is a story to cherish and nurture.

from here
I knew before I bought it that Socrates in Love would make me cry. My husband had one condition for buying it for me: that I was not to read it around him, as seeing me continually weep while reading this novel would break his heart. I ended up reading the book in one three-hour sitting; yes, it's that good.
Affectionally called "Sekachu" (short for Sekai no Chushin de Ai wo Sakebu -- "Crying Out Love in the Center of the World" -- the novel's Japanese title), this classic love story has inspired a manga series (the first volume available now from VIZ Media), a movie, and a TV show. "Sekachu" is the top selling novel in Japan, with over three million readers of this tale of innocent love and heart-shattering loss.
The story is quite simple. Sakutaro Matsumoto is a rather quick-witted, sarcastic and intellectual teenage boy. Aki Hirose is a cute down-to-earth girl. They meet in junior high school as class representatives, where they slowly fall in love and begin to date, seeing their future bright with each other, together. However, sixteen-year-old Aki suddenly gets sick, and she is hospitalized. The doctors tell the young couple that she has aplastic anemia, but Sakutaro soon suspects the truth: leukemia. He watches Aki's struggle with the disease, and her slow decline until her passing, after which Sakutaro has to learn how to keep on living without the love of his life. Running parallel to this timeless story of devotion is that of Sakutaro's grandfather, who has never forgotten his first love, even though he married and had children with another woman, and she with another man. Circumstances drove them apart, yet by combining their ashes, the star-crossed lovers will be finally be reunited after death.
It's a simple story, yet it opens the door to many philosophical questions about life, love, death, and whether there is an afterlife. Aki doesn't believe in an afterlife; she believes that the world has everything that you want or need in it right now, so there's no need for heaven. Since their love is so strongly present in the world, it will remain even after death. Sakutaro is somewhat skeptical of that belief, but as time goes on after Aki's death, he feels her presence in the world so keenly that it must be true. Aki lives on, along with their relationship.
I made it to page twenty-six before the floodgates of my eyes were opened, and they never really dried up until the end of the novel. I would recommend Socrates in Love for high school and older readers, not because of adult language, but because the novel requires the reader to have experienced something of love and loss in order to feel deeply the pain and happiness of Sakutaro and Aki. This book takes on new meaning when you have someone in your life that you love so much.
This isn't VIZ Media's first translated novel; that honor goes to Battle Royal. However, this does mark a growing movement by the company into the novel publishing market, with Fullmetal Alchemist: The Land of Sand and Ghost in the Shell: Innocence After the Long Goodbye also released in October, to be followed by Steamboy and Kamikaze Girls in the winter. As it is, Socrates in Love is a beautiful hardcover book, well-bound and free of printing errors, or at least none that were noticeable to me through the tears. Akemi Wegmüller has done a great job in translating the text; Sakutaro and Aki felt like actual teenagers with distinct personalities and quirks. The only addition that I would have made to this novel would have been including a forward at the beginning of the novel, something to introduce us to the world of Socrates in Love, or conversely, a more lengthy afterword than the one that the author provides us. The emotional trip that the reader takes feels all too brief, but then again, as Sakutaro muses, that's how life is. Time goes by too quickly when you're with someone that you love, and you end up at the place of parting seemingly in no time at all.

kewl but so sad...

it's always the ones who didn't die who suffer... it's so not fair. i mean, if the person died and went to heaven, he/she is very super happy. but his/her family and friends are devastated. it's just so unfair!

Background ^-^

i'm on mah new comp now! yay! ^-^ i made a background for my settings on Paint... here it is! i'll probaly be changing it later, though, lol.

unhappy day...

he said no. i was vetoed. :(
at first when Angel told me that he said no, i said "oh... okay... oh, well." it took for it to hit me. Then i got really sad and a little depressed. Angel said that she wished she hadn't told me, but she knew that i would keep bugging her. totaly true.
i feel better now, though.
Angel said that i should try talking to him more. and i should. i should have at least tried to become friends with him first. i'll try that... after Christmas break... when i can smile for real :) right now it's really really forced.
after my 7th hour class:
Me: you HAVE to ask!!!
Angel: i did.
Me: you did? what did he say?!
Angel: no...
Me: no?
Angel: do you want me to tell you what we said?
Me: yeah.
Angel: okay, well, i asked him if he wants to go out with you. he said 'Coco who?' and i said 'Coco [my(Coco) last name]' and he said 'no.'
Me: oh... okay... oh, well...

later:
Angel you're ex almost punched me!
Me: who?
Angel: him. I know you never went out, but i'm calling him your ex anyways. he was putting on his coat and when he put his arm in it, he almost punched me!
Me: *teeny giggle*
Angel: is Coco sad?
Me: yeah.
Angel: i can tell. and you keep staring at him.
Me: i do? oops.
Angel: i didn't want to tell you what he said, but i knew that you would keep bugging me.
Me: *sigh* yeah.

i'm really NOT in the mood to go to the school dance tomorrow at ALL. but i told my friends that i would... so i will... maybe i'll have energy then...

does it annoy you ppls when all i post about is G?

well, get used to it. this is my blog, after all! :)

yesterday i was IMing girlnextdoor (as i said last post)... o told her that i was super super happy... she said "what, did G look in your direction?" i said "no! well... yeah, he did... but that's not the only reason i'm happy!" lol.

he talked to me again today. Not really any different from all the other days.
G: (talking in funny voice) My locker. *points to locker*
Me: *nod* Your locker. *points to my locker* My locker.
G: very good.
Me: *thumbs up* (i dont know why i did that...)
(we were both smiling ^-^)
^-^ squeeee! lol.

my friend, Kira, at my bus stop, she's a lower-classmate, told me that she finally worked up the nerve to ask out the boy she likes! and... he said yes! yay! go Kira! :D
i have been thinking about asking G out... but i'm not allowed to date, so i'd have to keep it a secret from my parents... and my friends seem to think G's really really weird/retarded. he's not!!! at lunch they were making comments about his tight pants (they are NOT tight! geez. just cuz he doesn't wear his pants so baggy that we can see his underwear, like 4/5 of every guy at my school, does not make him weird/gay! (Kira's friend said that he looks gay, at the bus stop after school... but she's a lower-classmate, too, she doesn't know him.) they are so mean... really! i wonder what they would say if they knew i like him... -_^ <--- (raised eyebrow)
a couple times i looked at him and he looked at me... it was so... i don't know... wonderful? he has beautiful eyes... i know, that sounds weird, talking about a guy, but he does! they're the same colour as Nudge-chan (not Anne! thisandthatfornudge.blogspot.com).
our buses park right next to each other @ my school, and he usually boards his first. i was talking to Kira, but it took me awhile to reply to her cuz... well, i was looking at him, kay?! gosh. he sat in a window seat. i thought i saw him looking in my direction, but i can't be sure. it looked like he was looking out the corner of his eye. i didn't stop staring cuz our eyes didn't connect, so it wasn't so weird.
i sososo want to ask him out... but how would he react? read the end of my last post. cuz i really would hate to get rejected... he would prolly go tell his jocky friends and they would laugh :'( *sob* but there is a possibility that he might say yes... but i doubt it. i can fantasize, can't i?

i'm baaaaaaack!!!

o wow i've been gone for 2 whole days!!! i missed u ppls!!! :D

so, Tuesday i went to Angel's house with Emmy for a girl scouts meeting, to plan for our kayaking trip/camping trip Fri-Sat!!! yay! tomorrow! (geez i need to pack!!!)
we're going to a camp site, like we did that one time (i'm trying to find the post, but i can't find it!!!)... 'cept this time it's just me, angel, emmy, and our moms. no dads/brothers! yay!

then, yesterday, guess WHAT!!!

WE HAD HALF A DAY!!!
it wasn't schedualed. the power was out!!! i guess a pole got caught on fire or something. but it was so kool! in the morning everything was dark, but then it got lighter. stupid skylights. i like the dark!!!
for Journalism we had to go to an empy classroom cuz the journalism room is in the middle of the school with NO WINDOWS!!! (once the power went off for a few minutes when i was in there... darkness!!! XD)
then the power came on right before 3rd hour was over :( but they had already sent home the cooks so we were released from school at 11:02!!! yayness!!!
i went home on Angel's bus. well, her house. why? well, yesterday i also went to High School Musical (broadway)!!! more bout that lay-tah. but my mom couldn't take me back to school (this was a school trip... for those who signed up)... i was planning on staying after school, but then we were let out! but angel had an eye-docter appointment (that she failed to tell me about...), and she wasn't at school after 1st hour, but i had to go 2 her house, so i rode her bus without her (kinda strange...).

kay, bout the HSM! it was really really good!!! but this LBR (Loser Beyond Repair... from The Clique), lets call her LBR, seemed to think that we were friends... so she followed me the whole time! at school before we left, on the bus, she sat next to me... argh!!! she is soooooo ah-nnoying!!! she has TERRIBLE hygiene! it looks like she never brushes her teeth (seriously, DISgusting!!!) or hair, wears BOYS clothes... she's been wearing the same shirt all week, ya know! it has these disgusting stains on it! ewwwww! and Angel said that Holleigh or Heather, i forgot which, told her that she thinks me and LBR are FRIENDS!!! oh, please no! that would drag my ever-low popularity status to rock-bottom! i'm not worried about being popular or anything, i would actualy hate to be popular (*sneezes "prep!"*)! but i REALLY don't want to be UN-popular!!! and today in Journalism LBR SAT next to me!!! grrrr. i mostly ignored her. i was being too nice before. i need to get across the point that we are NOT friends. ugh. i am very happy with my popularity status right now. i do not need it to go dooooooown!!!

*sob*

I'm almost done with Tokyo Mew Mew... only one more episode left... :(

i'm so glad i stuck with Tokyo Mew Mew. in the beginning some of the episodes were really boreing... but the last 15 episodes are the BEST. really.

so, i guess after Tokyo Mew Mew it will be Ghost Hunt (if i like it). and after Fruits Basket it will be DNAngel. i only have 10 more episodes left of Fruits Basket. and the next episodes on veoh.com aren't up yet!!! argh!!!

well, off to finish Tokyo Mew Mew... *sigh* why must it end?

~nya!

~*~Courtney~*~

Some pictures from the second-to-the-last episode...

in case you were wondering how i got these pix, i pressed the PRINT SCREEN button on my keyboard to take a screenshot, i copied it onto PAINT, then i cropped it so it was just that picture. i luuuuv taking screenshots! <3