Between Christmas and New Years

A lots been happening, which is not the reason I haven't blogged in a while since more happening would mean more to write about. I've just been fairly apathetic. But here I am, making an effort, so... you're welcome. ~laughs~

I went to dad's house for Christmas and it was way fun. When the real party started (when the guys had to go out for more beer) there was Dad, Lisa, Michelle, Shane, Daniel, Chris, Jenny and myself. And what does our family do but play games? On this night it was cards. We started off with Taboo, which is really hard! I'm so used to Catch Phrase where you can say anything you want in order for the other people in your group to be able to guess the word, but in Taboo there are four or five words that you can't use even in the hints! Like for Bellybutton, you can't use umbilical, pregnant, stomach or...uh, other words that would really help to be able to use. I was not the best player. ~sighs~

When things got too competitive we switched to spoons. That's where the alcohol really started showing up. Several times that night, people were not satisfied with the seating arrangement so at random intervals they would stand up, signaling every one else to do the same, and we would all play musical chairs to either Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer or what ever song happened to be on the radio. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough to sit down often times and ended up having to take what ever seat was still empty at the end... which often put me on the corner of the end of the table. Not a good seat. I jabbed the corner of the table into my stomach at least twice while diving for the quickly disappearing spoons. Luckily, my parents have a table that has blunted corners, so it hurt, but it didn't kill me.

It also didn't help sanity's cause that there was a camcorder that Michelle got for Christmas there. Everyone was hamming it up for the recorder. I'm kinda hoping the videos don't make it to the internet, but if they do, I'll post them here so you can see why I'm so weird, and that I never had a chance.

I'm planning on visiting some friends from the Bay Area for New Years. I'm excited but this particular group of friends likes to drink a lot, so I'm a little nervous.

Oh! I spoke to my brother Stephen on the phone on Christmas because he called Dad and Lisa and Lisa passed me the phone. We got into a conversation about drinking and he was saying that his boss' favorite place to throw up (we thought it was funny that she had thrown up enough and in enough places to have a favorite place) is the bath tub. She said it's because you don't have to aim, you don't really have to stay sitting up, and it makes pretty pictures before going down the drain! ~Rolls on floor laughing~ Is that not the most random thing ever??

After thinking about it for a little while, I told Stephen that I wanted to try throwing up in a flower garden because then there really would be something pretty to look at while you were hurling and also, the smell would be better. But Stephen brought up a good point. He said that he and his friend got really drunk one night and were spraying each other with fabreez dragon fruit and Oust air sanitizer the whole time. Well, when Stephen was throwing up later, all he could smell was the fabreez and now he hates the smell of dragon fruit so he can't use it anymore. I'd really hate to have the smell of flowers ruined for me because of a puking party.

I got a Kindle for Christmas! I'm so happy. Well, the only thing I could be a little unhappy about is how easy it's going to be to spend money on books now. I used to have to get up, get ready, and go somewhere to buy books! Now, I don't even have to get out of bed. I just turn on my kindle and they offer me books to buy! And then I don't have to wait for them to be delivered to me, they're just there! Ready to be read! I'm just waiting for New Years day when I wake up and find that I've bought $600 dollars worth of books while I was drunk. ~sighs~

There are some new music videos I'm planning on posting, but that's for another day. I'll probably be back to talk about my New Years soon, but hopefully there will be another korean whatever post here before then.

F.Cuz 'Wanna Be Your Love'

Alright, Korean bands often name their bands something clever... ish to set themselves apart. See MBlaq, B2st, 2NE1, Se7en, and so on. So, anyone want to guess how you say F.Cuz's name? I will tell you! You're supposed to pronounce it as 'Focus.' Heh. I, personally, think they went too far in trying to make their name unique.

Anyway, I've not listened too too many of their songs because I've only just heard of them and because while I found their music video "Wanna Be Your Love" entertaining... mostly because it looks like a second hand store threw up on them, and because one of their shirts has a bad word on it... and also I find the spiky, furry hat strangely cute, I haven't found their other songs very memorable.



I'm not overly fond of the hat with the two feathers sticking out, but I do like the spiky, furry one, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I also think the baby blanket that one of the boys is wearing around his shoulders like a wrap was funny. If you'll take a look at the boy with the, er, comic strip like jacket, the one that has the picture of the lady's face on it, you'll notice at 57 seconds into the video that you can read the words right below it, the ones in the black box. It says, "F*** Me Blind"... only without the stars. You can see it even more clearly further along in the music video, such as at 1:57. I thought it was freaking hilarious. Of course, it was slightly dwarfed by the huge message, 'F***in' My Way' that Hero wore on his shirt in the music video for Rising Sun. Let me post that for you too. It comes very prominently into view at 1:48.



Hehehe. I don't know if they wear clothes with that word on purpose, or if they are innocent and don't know what the english on their shirts says. I may never know.

Anyway, the costumes left so much to be desired in this music video that I really don't know where to start. The only common denominator among the four boys was the sheer chaos. From the rainbow socks to the flannel pj bottoms to the Christmas sweater, denim vest and oddly adorned hats I've just never seen anything quite like it. I rather hope that I don't see anything like it again too.

There really aren't very many moments of coherent dance in this music video. The part where they all stand in an almost fencing like stance and then sway their hips back and forth is the one most repeated. Other than that, I kinda get the feeling that the directer said to them, "Ok, we have two hours to film this. Just be as cute as possible and we'll go with what we get." It really looks like there was zero rehearsing or even discussion about what to do. Like at 33 seconds in you see the guy on the far right trying to make half a heart with someone and no one completes it with him. And then at 43 seconds in, cute hat dude is putting his arm around far right guy's shoulders and far right guy looks like he flinches for a second, like he had no idea what hat dude was doing. And at 2:54 they're just running out ideas so they start jumping up and down. Those are just a few of my favorite moments of obvious spontaneity gone awry but there are many more if you look for them. Poor guys.

Anyway, the make up was fine. They were made pretty without the layers and layers of eye liner. If there was eye shadow it was all natural tones and not Mblaq's signature blues or sparklies. And there was no U-Kiss shiny lip gloss. I actually found three of the four boys really attractive in this video once I got past the clothing.

I'm sure you can guess what the song is about, but basically it's saying that he wants to stop being friends with this girl and to fall in love instead. There actually wasn't a lot to the song besides the chorus. He states that nothing will change, that they'll still be really good friends, it's just that some times they'll be like friends and sometimes they'll be like lovers. He's telling her that he won't leave and that he's confident and so to say what ever she wants to say. It's fairly simplistic, much like the rest of the music video, and yet oddly catchy.

There's only a little english in the song. Luckily, the song's not too complicated so there are some common Korean words in there that are now almost as familiar to me as english. Saranghe and mianhe being a couple of them.

I think the song is better than the music video and it's one I'll be adding to my mp3's but not to my music video section.

And lastly, Eatyourkimchi's take on 'Wanna Be Your Love' They've always got great stuff to say! And sometimes, they influence what I have to say about a video. Heh, which is why I'm going to endeavor to start making my blogs first so that it's all me... and then I can go back and change my review if there's something about theirs that I like more than mine. hehehe. Cheat! I know.

U-Kiss Band

Bet you'd never have guessed it, but U-Kiss is another Korean guy group. Wait, you mean you saw that one coming? Huh, guess I'm becoming predictable. Anyway, U Kiss is not my favorite band, but they have a few good songs that I watch when I wan't something I haven't seen in a while.

The first is Bingeul Bingeul... um, it either means Again Again or Round and Round... I can't really remember. I think I've watched the video with english subtitles once, but if I did, I don't remember what it's about. I just know that their dancing amuses me and their costumes are funny. I actually really like their white costumes. The jackets look military to me, and there's just something about the pristine white Admiral's uniform that gets me. Maybe it just reminds me of Grand Admiral Thrawn, whom I love. Anyway, very attractive. The confetti bits used as eye shadow... not so much. ~laughs~



The second is Man Man Hani. I especially like this one because of the "Hey" "Ho" "Hey" they add to the end of the "Man Man Hani" during the chorus that go along with the hand motions. This one is about the girl treating the guy badly and he's asking if she can find love so easily that she doesn't think she needs to be nice to the guy. "Am I that easy? Is finding love that easy?" Stuff like that. He's saying that she's going to lose him if she keeps up the crap. A little too much make up for my tastes, but eh. That's pretty much par for this kind of music. Get used to it or listen to something else!



And third is a song called Shut Up. This music video kind of reminds me of Gackt's video Ghost because of the slightly robotic dancing. Oh, and this song is about how much he doesn't like his girlfriend anymore. The words remind me of the Backstreet boys song, Don't Want You Back. U-Kiss is saying, "Oppa hates you. Oppa doesn't want to hear any more of your lies" and really depressing things like that. I thought it was a little bit funny that the girl in the music video is smiling through it all. She's from Peru... I think. I think the only reason she's smiling even though the song is all about how they want her to leave and that she's just a soul sucking cheater, because she doesn't speak a single word of Korean. Ha! (Yes, I stole that from Eat Your Kimchi, but I thought it was awesome so I used it here) And, surprising enough, I liked their costumes and make up... though I don't know why the one on the bike looks all beat up. Whatever! They look good!



So that's U-Kiss.

Slightly Creepy Music Videos

Alright, so I found this on-line show called Eat Your Kimchi on youtube.com and it featured a couple artists that I had either earlier not heard of or ignored. I enjoyed a couple, but the ones that are sticking in my mind long enough that I want to write about them are the slightly creepy ones. Creepy? What kind of creepy? The 'holly crap, that lady is psycho!' and 'that...can't be legal' kind of way. There may be more videos out there that really deserved to be put with these two, but I haven't found them yet, so you're going to have to be patient.

The first one that I'm going to share here is the less creepy one, you know, work my way up to the 'that could give me nightmares one.' It's by a girl group called T-Ara and the song is called 'Yayaya.' You may recognize the guy in the video. He played the really hot vet in My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho. His name is No Min Woo and even though he really is not focused on, by any means, he does have a couple scenes where his facial expression is totally cute, like when one of the girls is brushing his hair. I don't know why, I just think it's really funny. The feeding part was hot.

Oh, if you're wondering what the song is about, um, the words don't really make any sense but they kind of give you the impression that they're asking a guy to pay attention to the girl singing because she has a crush on him. It's really meant to be more of a fun song than one that means anything. Also, I hope that you're not one of those people who gets easily offended by things that are not politically correct, because T-Ara is dressed up as Native Americans and pat their mouths going, "Ah ah ah." I personally think it's kinda cute so if you don't like it because 'it's not right' or some such reason, please feel free to keep that opinion to yourself.

The first posting is HD so if it's too slow and you don't care if it's a little pixelated, watch the second posting. It's the same video. Without further ado, "Yayaya."





The reason I call this kinda creepy is that they girls pretty much kidnapped the poor guy. They found a crash victim and instead of treating wounds, they tie him to a pole and carry him to their village, where they tie him to another pole and then proceed to flirt with their captive audience. That can't be legal, right?

The second, and far creepier music video is called, "Going Crazy" and it's by a female artist called Kan Mi Yeon.

The very first part of the video is a girl calmly sitting in a chair, sewing something white and frilly and in the background, just waking up, is a guy who is tied to her bed. My first thought was, "Woah... That's some blatant S&M in this video!" I mean there was no leather, whips or chains in sight, but a guy tied to the bed was more than I'm used to seeing from the Korean artists I watch.

It got weirder as the video progressed and I felt more and more uncomfortable with the situation until the scene where he's still tied up and they're sitting at the table together. That's when I put it firmly together in my mind that this was not a consensual game they were playing. Then the 'wedding' scene sent unpleasant goose bumps down my whole body and I involuntarily let a creeped out shudder escape my lips.

The guy in this video is from a korean boy group called MBlaq, which I have not yet blogged about because I wasn't impressed enough by them to do so. I may have to now because there are only so many groups in Korea at the moment, so look forward to that. I thought he handled the whole thing very well! I probably would have been crying or screaming, or... something! When he turned his face away from her kiss, I was like, "Oh, you brave, hot, too much eye-liner wearing fool! She's crazy and you're rejecting her??' His name is Mir, by the way.

The lyrics are the girl saying that she's gone crazy and can't help but wonder where he is and who he's talking to and since he doesn't answer when she calls, she's texted him and called him a hundred times. She says that she knows she's going to lose him if she keeps acting like that but that she just can't help herself. She wonders when her heart got so sick and so on and so forth.

When the man sings, he's saying that his family and friends can't understand why he's still with her since she's so spastic. He says that her constant smothering is turning him into a mean person and before he can get any crueler she should just leave him.

I could not have been more surprised by the final scene, though looking back on it, I really should have seen it coming. And here it is, 'Going Crazy.'



So, yeah. Creepy much? Like when she imagined them dancing together? Wow, talk about delusional!

And Melissa showed me this one by Epik High. It's called Fan and it's about some one who has fallen in love with a star, or someone else who's way out of their league. It's talking about how even if the other person doesn't know they exist, they'll keep loving that person and watching them and if they'd only kiss him then he'd give them the world and so on and so forth. Sorry about the bad quality of the video. You're free to look this song up on your own and find a better version of it.



Anyway, so those were just a couple of the new artists I was introduced to last night and I thought I should share them.

More coming soon!

Awesome Previously Over-Looked Songs By DBSK

Having decided that I may get myself a new ipod for Christmas, my first task was to decide what music I would put on it. Naturally, my first thought was Dong Bang Shin Ki, or DBSK/TVXQ/Tohoshinki. So I looked them up on yahoo.com because as much as I like the group, I'd only heard a handful and they'd been around for years so I knew I was missing out. I found a list of their songs and then went to youtube.com to listen.

Much to my surprise, DBSK has a couple songs that they didn't make videos for that are really good! Well, I guess that wasn't so much of a surprise, but still. I was at least half expecting that I wouldn't find any new good songs and that they only got really good towards the end. But, I had underestimated my boys. Silly me.

The first one I like because it's a little bit harder than DBSK's usual pop songs without being grunge. It's called Hey! (Don't Bring Me Down) and I think it's Japanese so they sang it as Tohoshinki. Since they didn't make a music video for it, it's not a lot of fun to watch, but it's pretty fun. If you are, however, the kind of person who really needs to see something to appreciate the song (like me) then watch the second version which is a whole lot longer but shows how cool their concerts were.





Gah, those five are just so freaking good looking. Well, can't say I was crazy for Micky's curly hair, but whatever. How awesome would it have been to have Max floating over your head, reaching down to you? Yeah, I had a dream about him right after I saw this video. It started off really really nicely!

And the second song is called Box In The Ship. This one is more of a fun song. It's one of those, 'feel good' 'happy to be alive' songs that I don't generally go for, but DBSK has done well. Now, I haven't looked into it at all, but this might be a remake of an english reggae song. Either way, it's another song that didn't have an official music video but that is definitely going onto my ipod.



I even thought that little bit in the middle with the music that sounded Arabic-ish was awesome!

Anyway, so those are the songs that I found that I had not heard before but turned out to be pretty cool. I've listened to them each several times now, and it just keeps getting better.

Secret Garden

This drama came highly recommended to me from Melissa... my precious little sister. ~Sighs~ I'm about half way through episode 5 and I have to admit that I'm actually enjoying it more than I thought I would. There's been several funny moments and that's mostly what I look for in a show.

The main female character is a stunt woman who doesn't have a lot of money but has personality in spades! She's caustic with people she doesn't know, but is self effacing and really humble with the people she works with and her friends. The main male character was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, a multi-millionaire who's family owns an up-scale boutique mall thing among other businesses. He seems mostly interested in looking better than his cousin Oska while doing as little actual work as possible. He looks at the women his mom sets him up with to determine their family status, education, wealth, looks, and so on. He's got this weird addiction to Italian, master craftsman made track suits. The unfortunate part of this is that these track suits are all covered in sequins. ~Shakes her head sadly~



Well, through the usual mishaps that crop up in everyday life of Korean drama characters, these two meet and end up spending the better part of the day together. He doesn't tell her that he's ridiculously rich and she shows him the sharp side of her tongue and he's intrigued by her.

The drama does this really cute thing where whenever the main male character is thinking of the girl she's there standing, walking, or sitting beside him. It's in his imagination, but he'll look at her every once in a while, talk to her. And when he catches himself thinking about her he starts this litany of fairytale titles to try to distract himself. It's adorable.

My favorite moment so far is the sit-ups moment in the middle of episode 3. I wish I knew how to post from www.dramacrazy.net because it really is too cute. Dude comes to her stunt school to see her while she's teaching and joins the class for the sit ups. Guy kicks off some one who comes to hold his legs for him and then tells the girl that he needs a partner to help him, so she holds his legs. He starts doing these little crunch type things, looking like he's not trying at all. She gets a little irritated and tells him to do it properly to which he replies that she wouldn't like it if he did it properly. Then he does a full sit up and puts his face right in hers. He goes back down and comes back up and each time he does a sit up their faces end up very close. It looks just a little funny because he strains his neck a little to put his face right in hers, but it's so very cute. She gets all flustered and I know I'd have been blushing like crazy!



Unfortunately, when he realized how little money she has, he starts being mean to her. They've shown that it's because of how he was raised, his mother being incredibly rude to the stunt girl. But still. I guess it will just be hard for all the rich guys who fall in love with less than rich girls now that they have to follow in Gu Jun Pyo's shadow (Boys Over Flowers). He was such a great character!!

I'll write more as I get further in the series. I may even find a way to post pictures or parts of the show without having to use fan made music videos.

Se7en

It's been a little longer than usual since I've written a review so even though I don't feel this post will be as comprehensive as usual, this blog will be about the Korean artist Se7en.

I've heard four or five of his songs and can not say that I'm overly impressed. There's only one that I enjoy but even it has some less than wonderful points. Here it is, Better Together.



The highness of his voice really shouldn't bother me since half of DBSK had fairly high voices, but for some reason it does. I also don't know how cute I think he is. He has a pretty mouth when it's not stretched to incredibly large proportions. Also, the women in the video are dressed just hideously. The ones in white wigs and those horrible costumes. And then, the ones later on who have those ugly mask things on? I kinda wonder if Se7en is gay... I mean, more than I usually wonder about korean artists. Since he doesn't find women attractive, he can't tell that his are even less attractive than usual? I don't know.

Also, and most importantly, I think the guy can't dance. He can perform some dance steps, but after watching groups with real talent, it's obvious that his dancing ability is... lacking.

You may recognize Se7en from my list of Top 5 Worst Hard music videos because his video, Passion was number 3. I've since reconsidered and think that he should have been number 2.



I, personally found the song itself unmemorable but I was distracted by the horrible music video. His arms had no muscle what so ever, and yet he showed them off as if proud and again his attempts at dancing left much to be desired. It was hard to tear my eyes from the shiny doo rag and the bedazzled denim vest. So I suppose it is possible that the song was good and I just didn't realize it.

Shall we change the pace a little? Se7en has a couple ballads. I can't say that I've fallen in love with it. Maybe if I'd waited to listen to it until I was in the mood for a slow song, but I just don't have the time since I'm blogging now. hehehe. Without further ado, One More Time.



The dancing irritates me... I think this is just one artist that I need to hear on cd or radio and not a visual media! But the main reason I'm not in love, is because of that little section in the middle where he's dancing in front of the movie theater where the music changes from ballad-y to ...what, hip-hop? I don't know. It just wasn't necessary and broke the mood.

So, that's Se7en! Maybe you'll like him more than I did. Hope so.

The Shack Review

Just got done reading The Shack by WM. Paul Young. Yeah, it's been out for a couple years and I think I have a vague memory of it causing something of an uproar in the Christian community. I only recently picked it up and only because my inherited mother, Lisa, recommended it to me.

I was not overly anxious to read it when she told me about it. Some poor guy's little daughter is brutally murdered and he has a really hard time dealing with it until he goes to the shack where she was killed and spends the weekend there with God. But, as is often the case, I got it so that I'd have something to talk about with her more than any real desire to read the thing.

I kept wondering, what? Is he going to sit on the floor of the shack and talk to some disembodied voice or some white light for two days? What could the author possibly think God would say to someone in that situation? I love you? It's all according to my will, so get over it? I just couldn't imagine.

Having now finished it, I'm not sure how I feel about it. It was a real tear jerker, for one thing and I don't really like sad books. I think I cried off and on, mostly on, through the last third of the book. I'm so glad I was alone because I felt dumb enough with my red puffy eyes and sniffing huge amounts of snot back into my nose without having an audience. I haven't cried that much since... I don't know, Walk To Remember?

But because I did cry so much, I guess I got into the book. It took a couple chapters. There were some things in it that I disagreed with, theologically, but on the whole it was well written and was at least thought provoking. I had decided even before I started reading the book that it was going to be appreciated for its entertainment value only and should, in no way, be a religious guide. Mom warned me that it had some errors in it. I figured I was just going to have to look at it like the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

Anyway, it had some interesting views on God and religion and the human condition. It talked a lot about human beings' independence and free will, the price and the illusions.

On the whole, I would recommend it to people who are like minded in that they are not so religiously zealous that they could not look past the dogma of the book, but who are religious enough to grasp the finer points and the branches of views presented by the author. That is not a very wide audience, I guess. ~laughs~

Worst "Hard" Music Videos Ever

It's long been a favorite amusement of mine to laugh at the cute little Korean boys trying to look 'hard,' like street-wise gangsters. Most of them are too pretty to pull it off. They wear make-up and their hair is generally perfectly quaffed. Plus, I'm sorry but I've never seen an asian guy and been intimidated. Even Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Jet Li, I don't look at them and quake, though I know they could lay me out without breathing hard. They're just too cute.

When I see an asian guy in gangster style clothes I generally smirk and mentally compare them with 'real' street guys. And by 'real,' (I honestly don't mean to be offensive here) I picture a black guy usually. White guys can pull street tough off ok, but not like black. Black guys are just usually taller, bigger, and better built. Asians, no matter how much they work out, are just designed differently. They're generally shorter (though there are definitely some tall Asians out there) and with smaller muscle structure.

Lets count down the music videos from the ones where I smirk at the precious little lambs trying to be hard to the very worst attempt ever at looking 'street' ever recored on film.

Starting at number 5: DBSK's Survivor.



Reasons Survivor made the list? First, listen to this song without watching the video and it sounds up-beat. Read the translation, and it's a happy, hopeful song. Their surroundings suggest that they have been just trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic environment, but look how clean they are and how new their clothes are! There's not a smudge of grime, a rip or tear, or a piece of second hand clothing anywhere. Three of the five guys in this group have voices much too high to be wearing this style of clothes. They're wearing make up, not a lot, but some, their hair is perfect, and... ah, you get the idea. They are the cleanest, best dressed, happiest 'Survivors' of all time.

Number 4: Super Junior's Don't Don.



This one isn't so, so bad. It's funny because of all the make up, but at least none of them are wearing 'gangster' hats or saggy pants. Yes, some of their dance moves are trying to be hard but then they have the whole violin part which you just can't have if you're trying to portray 'intimidating.' I think I've talked about this before, but Veronica and I both agree that the worst thing these 'gangsters' would ever think of doing is getting ice cream from ice cream trucks and then not paying, thus are they running from said ice cream trucks in the music video.

Number 3: Se7en's Passion.



Even were I considering not talking about the horrible sideways hat worn over a face too soft to ever be considered intimidating... his jackets are freakin' bedazzled. I'm sorry, but that killed it for me... not that it had much life from the very beginning. Anyone else notice that he made the same arm movements for the first 6 seconds of the video? I knew right then that this video would fail. And possibly the worst part? The complete lack of even muscle definition? He's wearing that horrible denim vest thing and has spaghetti noodles for arms. He's not very good at dancing... I think sponge bob could kick this guy down in a street brawl.

Number 2: Beast's Shock!



I had a second thoughts about choosing this video for the list because I couldn't tell if they were really trying to be hard or not. I mean, there was a lot of glitter and shiny so I hesitated. But I think they were trying because of the ripped jeans, all the black clothes, short gloves, spikes and chains. And so, because they are trying to be hard with those things, they get the coveted number two spot! So let's reiterate some of the reasons I thought they might not be trying as some of the reasons they make the list. Look at all the make-up! That's more eyeliner than I usually wear in a month! Most of the guys in this group are fairly pretty too, so that ruins any chance they had of recovering from the make up. See all the shiny? There's sparkles everywhere! Each one of those boys has enough jewelery on to drown a man. None of which is hard. They have the 'glam' down, but street tough? They'd get the crap beaten out of them the moment they stepped out of their doors looking like that.

And the Worst Ever... (Drum roll please!) Big Bang's Nunmul!



... Yeah... Anyone else thinking Taeyang looks completely retarded in cornrows? And the bandanna tied like um...that rapper who died...I forget his name. Tupac? Anyway. You kinda have to get used to the sideways baseball caps when trying to watch R&B style music videos, but this was the first, and hopefully the last, Korean guy I see in cornrows. Plus the back of his jacket had rhinestones! All 5 boys look like they'd been watching way too much MTV, with their T-shirts, baggy jeans, and converse, the nice car just topping off the awful stereotype. And may I ask why they went for the gangster look for such a slow, ballad-type song? Does that make sense to anyone else? There were even a couple dance moves in there that reminded me, spot on, of moves I've seen all too often in San Francisco's rainbow district. Not conducive to inspiring intimidation. I dare anyone to tell me they'd fear for their lives if they met these guys in a dark alley.

This one takes the cake, making me want to either cry or laugh till I cry... I haven't decided. Either way, Please Stop!

Lastly, before I sign off, I want to make an honorable mention here. TOP's Turn It Up.



After I got over the creeped out feeling, this became my 'instant cheer up' video. The reason this didn't make my list of the top five was because I don't think TOP is trying to hard, he's trying to be a pimp, which is slightly different. So this video will probably top my 'Attempting To Be A Pimp' list or 'Funniest Of All Time' list if I ever make one, it didn't quite make my 'Hard' list.

Heroes TV Series

Ok, this is a slight departure from the usual asian reviews, but I've been watching Heroes, Season 1. Yes, I'm a few years behind everyone else but I'm watching it now and have decided to blog about it since I haven't seen any new Korean productions besides Full House. Oh, I bought Ninja Assassin on Blueray though and it's got some wonderful extra features including a segment called "Training Rain." I just have more and more respect for the Korean artists every time Americans talk about working with them.

Anyway! I'm currently on episode 16 of Heroes. If you're planning on watching this and don't want anything spoiled, don't read this posting!




I started the series liking Clair a little. She was a cheerleader but I tried not to let that make me dislike her right off the bat. She was different than the usual highschool cheerleaders and I began liking her more and more. Oh, Clair is the one who can regenerate at amazing speeds. She demonstrates this by jumping off a three story catwalk onto hard desert clay and then setting her broken bones and letting her skin heal itself. I thought it was cool that she chose to trust her secret to a kinda 'off' guy, one that seems nice but doesn't fit in with the 'in' crowd that cheerleaders are expected to keep company with. The longer the season lasts, however, the more I'm getting annoyed with her character. She's become obsessed with finding her birth parents and that scenario has just been done to death. Poor little teenager who has a couple issues at home decides that she needs to know who her parents are to know who she is. Whatever.



Peter Petrelli, the empath sponge guy, I really like. Yeah, he's having issues right now and he isn't the shining example of wonderfullness that I originally thought he'd be, but I'm hoping he'll either come back around or blow himself up before I lose all faith in the guy. He's being taught right now (by the guy who can become invisible) to control the powers he's sucking up from everyone else. He's an empathic man in both temperament and powers. He wants so badly to see the good in everyone and to believe that humanity's worth saving. I like him a lot more than his brother though the show keeps trying to hint that the senator to be is actually a really nice guy. I haven't seen it yet. Plus, when Peter learns to control his ability, he's going to be one of the strongest mutant people ever! He'll be able to fly, heal, move things with his mind, walk through walls, be really strong, read minds, become invisible, stop time and many things more that they haven't even showed yet. It's looking more and more like he's going to be exploding at the end of the season and destroying most of New York, killing millions. No one's perfect.




Parkman is a cop who's almost too nice to do his job well. He seems like a pacifist who doesn't stand up for himself at all. He's also having issues at home in the beginning of the season, attending counseling sessions with his wife. He develops the power to read minds, which helps him to locate a missing little girl and impress the FBI enough to get him noticed. He blows his chance with the FBI however, when he tells them that Sylar (the main bad guy who's going around killing other 'special' people) is being held in a paper factory and looks stupid when Sylar is not found at said factory. He find out that his wife had an affair and is all butt hurt for a while, but then things start looking like they're going to turn around and she turns up pregnant with Parkman's son, but things don't stay good for long. Needing to work after receiving a 6 month suspension for the paper factory fiasco, Parkman takes a bag of diamonds from a man who was killed while under his protection. Anyway, Parkman seems like he's really out there to help and serve and defend. He's sweet, but a little clueless and a little bit of a push over. He's ok. I like him.




Senator Nathan Petrelli, Peter's older brother, can fly. He's very reluctant to admit it though. He comes off as a man who is only interested in power. Period. He puts the election before his family and friends and everything else. His family has a lot of skeletons in the closet and most of his time on screen seems to consist of trying to clean up messes so that it doesn't hinder him in the polls. He's also not my favorite because he has an affair early in the show with Niki. His wife is in a wheel chair because of a car accident that happened while the senator was driving. In all fairness, the accident wasn't his fault because another bad guy (Linderman) had some ruffians in a big landrover type car, bashing into the senator's car. I also think that the senator didn't have enough control of his power at the time that he could help that he flew out of his open convertible and left his wife in the passenger seat of a speeding car that then smashed into a lane divider. You also find out later, that Senator Patrelli is Clair's Biological father.




And Hiro, pronounced like the english word 'hero' is one of my favorite characters because he's so funny. He's totally excited about his power, which is the ability to manipulate time and space. So he can travel back and forth through time and also teleport to anywhere in the world. He seems to have the most problems controlling his powers though. He actually couldn't use them at all for a while and decided that he had to have the sword of his boyhood hero in order for his powers to work again. I, personally, think it was all psychological, but who knows. I also think it's funny that he's such a nerd (he often references Star Wars, Star Trek, and various comic books) that he does Spock's 'live long and prosper' hand thingy and the person who plays his father is George Tekai, they gay asian guy from the original Star Trek! Ha! Anyway, Hiro's a dork and actually performs my favorite part of the whole series (so far). He doesn't speak good english. He calls Nathan Petrelli 'frying man' trying to say flying man, anyway: He calls out to Nathan, "You fly!" and he sails his hand through the air making 'whoosh' sounds to illustrate flying. Nathan, who doesn't want other people to know what he can do, says, "Sh! Keep it down!" So Hiro lowers his hand to chest level and lowers his voice, repeating the gesture. I'll have to see if I can find it on youtube or something because it is so much funnier than I'm describing it.



Ha! I found some funny Hiro moments. Um, some of these are so so funny, but there are some really good ones sprinkled in there. Hehehe.

And there are a few more, but I've become bored now and am ending this post. I may continue...you never really know. Bye!

November Recap

Went to Mom's house for a week. Went to Dad's house for a day. Went to Las Vegas for four days. Went to Tehachapi for four days. Went back to Mom's house for two days. Went to San Francisco for a day.

Doesn't really look like a lot when written out that way, but all those days add up! 19 days away from home in a month. Seeing as how that's fairly unusual for me, I felt like I needed to write it down so that, later, when I feel like I haven't been out of the house in years, I can look back and say, 'Oh yeah, in November, I traveled most of Northern California for almost three weeks.' And then I won't feel so bad.

Mom's house was fun. Actually, I spent the first night with my sister, Melissa. I love going to her house because she's always got Korean or Japanese or Chinese things to show me. She makes me sleep on the couch though. That's not very nice, is it? Especially when I let her share my bed when she came to visit me.

Played lots of cards, got some reading done, went thrift store shopping (I love doing that but never have anyone who likes to go with me, yay mom!) played sudoku (one of my favorite games of all time) found an awesome little ice cream store where you put your own ice cream and toppings into a cup and then you pay by the ounce, went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (where I got a picture of myself fist bumping batman, oh yeah) helped with mom's little kid bible study, and showed mom an observation test on the internet that she really liked. Eh, might as well post it here since the rest of this blog is shaping up to be sadly illustration-less.



Didn't have time to do much at Dad's house. I met Bella again, and she's gotten so big. She turned 1 this month. Oh, Stephen was there... Kinda. He has a lot of friends in Hanford from when he went to school there so he was out a lot, visiting them. He was kinda at mom's house too, but he's around the same age as our cousin, Christina, and so they hung out a lot and I didn't get to see him a whole lot there either. It kinda works out though. Stephen and I haven't been really close in a long time so it got awkward when we were alone for too long.

Tehachapi was fun. Played most of a game of Killer Bunnies where I killed a Bunny with a staple gun and a nuclear warhead wiped out my bunnies right after they had survived a horrible virus thing. ~sighs~ That game is interesting. Also watched a couple movies, Robin Hood, Warlords, Ninja Assassin, and most notably, Gamers II: Dorkness Rising.

Vegas was awesome! Drank too much the first day to remember it clearly, but we walked the strip, took goofy pictures, and went to the Rio Buffet. While there we saw Knights of Camelot, JYJ live in concert, participated in a scavenger hunt, met a bunch of people who love JYJ/DBSK, played Bonzai in a bar (apparently people were staring, but I didn't notice) and so on and so forth.

Saw my uncle Steve for the first time in years. He lives in LA but was at mom's house for Thanksgiving. Also saw his daughter, Genesis, for the first time in years. She's totally cute. Very quiet.

Went to a Charles Dickens Fair in San Fran with Melissa. That was awesome. It was just like a Renaissance fair except that it's set more in Jack the Ripper London instead of dark ages England. I recognized a lot of stalls from the renaissance fair I visit in Casa De Fruta every year but there were a lot of new ones. There was a lot of really cool looking clothes, but those things cost so much it wasn't even funny. A corset I thought was cute ended up costing about $900 and a pair of fingerless gloves was $90 and I was like, yeah right. And there was some gorgeous period coats that ranged from about $275 for little half coats with tails to over $1000 for the larger ones. And there were plenty of stores selling my favorite dress up item, hats. They were all pretty expensive too, but there were some really cute ones.

Oh No!

Ok, I'm trying it. I'm totally drunk because I haven't slept in more than 24 hours and for some reason, I felt like drinking. So what am I trying? Drunk posting! All right!!

Anywyay, I'm watching ... um, Full House with Rain! Yay! He's not huge here yet, but he played in Speed Racer as the Korean jerk off and Ninja Assasin, which, in my oppinion, was amazing, as long as you're a Rain fan. Eh, it was only OK otherwise.

Um, man, I have a lot to say, only no way to say it intelligently right now. I'm goinhg to post this and then pretend I didn't as I can't really understand the words I'm posting right now. I've had a bottle of wine, all by myself, even though I didnt really mean to. I can't help it. I'm watching Rain right now and having issues understanding the plot.... Will repost when sober.

Stupid backspace button really close to the 'home' button.

Bonzai, Drinking Game

Ok, let me start off saying that I'm not proud of this but I thought it was funny and laughing has become a sort of goal in my life, so I'm sharing.

Melissa, Nicole, and I were playing the Drinking game Bonzai. In case you don't know what the game is, I'm going to post a video of DBSK playing it, and then I'm going to explain it, just in case you don't like watching youtube videos with subtitles or my pretty korean boys.



So the first person says a number between 1 and 5 and each player after them says either 'caught it' or 'lost it.' When the number of 'caught it' 's coincide with the number named in the beginning, all the players must throw their hands in the air and call out 'Bonzai!' The drinking comes in when some one messes up, whether it be they don't call out 'caught it' or 'lost it' soon enough or call out 'Bonzai' too soon or too late.

So, we've been playing for a while, and my glass was almost gone... actually, I only had two drinks left in my glass. The deal we made, about half way through the game, was that the person who ran out of their beverage first had to stand in front of the other two and do the 'Ring Ding Dong' dance. So I'm a little nervous.

Melissa calls out, '5 mice' and we go through the caught it and lost its, and I completely lost count, and even forgot what the original number was. So I called 'Bonzai' too soon, by 1 or 2, I don't really know. Anyway, I'm sipping down my second to last drink when Melissa pops off with, "I smell a Ring Ding Dong coming on!'

Let me explain that I'm already giddy from the alcohol I've had and I burst out laughing. I try, I try so hard, to keep from laughing, to keep my mouth closed around the liquid in my mouth.

I failed.

The mouth full of hurricane spews into my cupped hands and then dribbles down into my lap.

It was so embarrassing, but it was still so, so funny. We all laughed for a good 5 minutes straight. It was awesome. It, again, was a little embarrassing but really funny. ~sigh~ Now, the only pair of pants I brought to Sacramento smell like alcohol and I have to go to mom's house tomorrow. I really hope she doesn't notice.

Bleh and Wedding Dress

I've been feeling unmotivated to blog recently. I'm just trying to find my normal schedule after the crazy, crazy month of November, and it hasn't happened yet. I went more places this month than probably most of the rest of the year. I went to Hanford, Sacramento, Tehachapi, Merced, and Las Vegas. That's not normal for me.

Or, maybe it was October and November that were crazy? I don't know. I can't honestly remember right now. Thank goodness for a blog, right? I can look back and remember, 'Oh yeah! That's when...'

I was amusing myself this morning by thinking of how I would prefer to keep really really important information safe. I decided that I would want three copies. A hard copy, a copy saved to my computer, and a copy on the internet. The hard copy because technology has never been my strong suit and heaven forbid my computer break or something the day before I need the information. A copy saved to the computer because then it doesn't get tampered with on the internet and because it's a lot harder to lose a computer in a move than a sheet of paper. And finally, on the internet that way I could access it from anywhere and even if my house burned down or something and I didn't have time to save anything. I figured with those three copies, anything I could possibly need would be safe from any foreseeable incidents.

Random, yes? Yes.

I haven't put my latest pictures on the computer yet, and I know, I know, I've been promising to put more pictures on my blog. But then I think to myself, what's the use? I'm really the only one who looks over it. That's only time to time and I have all my pictures either on the computer or in my camera anyway. I don't really need pictures in my blog because I was there! I remember what these things looked like.

I'm going to put more pictures up. I'm just being a grouch right now. I accidentally stayed up to late, and since I'm going to be going to mom's house today, I've got to try to stay up all day now, after having stayed up all night. Dumb sleep scheduling. It's really inconvenient that there are only 24 hours in a day. So I'm tired and not in the best of moods...it seems. Oh, and I started my period today... for anyone who was wondering, waiting with bated breath for that announcement. Alright! So I actually have a couple really good excuses for my attitude right now. Wee!

I found SHINee on Facebook today. There were plenty of fans writing the generic, "I love you" "Sarangheyo" "Taemin Oppa" and so on and so forth. I, Amber, decided to write something to the effect of, "While I love Shinee a lot and think Taemin and Minho are especially sexy, I'm a little sad that they essentially named their group Shiny. It's a terrible name."

I actually had someone who 'liked' it and then another person commented, "Hello Shinee" as if reminding me that SHINee could very well be reading my post and that I should cool it. Ha! It seems I've decided that my role as an instigator is not yet over.

SHINee actually had a couple really cute pictures that I may or may not share here at a later date. Ha! Sorry.

Um, well, for not being motivated and blogging to keep up the habit more than because I had anything to say, this turned out to be a fairly decent length blog. Go me!

I'm reading a new book that a friend from Tehachapi suggested. It's called Dead Witch Walking by Kim Herrison. It's interesting so far. Only 70 pages or so into it but I know it's going to be one that I finish and probably recommend to other readers who like fantasy. Thanks Jack!

Oh, want to share Wedding Dress real quick. It's by Tae Yang, one of the guys in Big Bang, same band as G-Dragon. I actually found this song a while ago, when I was first looking up korean music, but it did not, at the time, grab me as interesting as I was looking for things to laugh at or dance to and Wedding Dress did not fit either desire nearly as well as other songs. Well, here it is.



It reminds me of "Why Did I fall In Love With You" by DBSK, for obvious reasons. I kinda like the dance he does with his back up dancers. Since I'm used to this style now, the only part of this music that really struck me as gay... gayer than usual, was the part starting at 3:20, and especially at 3:26, where he's dancing by himself to single notes struck on the piano, and the little wing like motion he does just kills me. Other than that, it strikes me as sad. There's nothing quite as painful as unrequited love or missed chances.

Ok, I think I'm done now. Bye Bye!

Vegas Continued

I'm back from Tehachapi! (Listens to everyone cheer) Yes, yes, thank you. I know you missed me. *"We love you Amber!" shouts some crazed fan* I know, I know. I love you too.

Anyway! Um, all the details from Vegas are slipping quietly into that good night... Walking the strip, we looked at the botanical gardens in Bellagio, which weren't that impressive. We went into the Paris where I bought two new keychain charms for my alphabet game, watched the water show at...um, the Bellagio, I think? We checked out the gondola ride at the Venetian and took pictures with the wax figures of Johny Depp and Woopie Goldburg and the blue man group. We looked through their stores and took a lot of pictures. I went into the Miracle Mile shopping area so that I could pick up the tickets I'd reserved for JYJ, we hit up the M&M store, walked through the New York, New York, and made it all the way to the Excalibur where we realized that it was so late that all the little store things were closed so it was no fun walking anymore.

By that time our feet were really hurting, so we took a cab back to our car and then drove back to the hotel. We watched karaoke until it was over again, and then went to bed.

The next day we went to Fremont street where I was keeping an eye out for red glow sticks so that we could be part of the Red Ocean. Alas, I did not find a single one. Poop. Anyway, I kinda wanted to do the zip-line but I was kinda tired and I didn't want to have to hunt anyone down and no one was readily available at the zip-line ride so we skipped it. We tried on lots of funny hats, lots! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures so you don't get to see the hilarity that we were dealing with there, but that's your fault for not coming.

That night, all three of us went to the rain...thing in the miracle mile mall to wait for the JYJ fan meeting that was supposed to start at, like 5. We got there at 4:30 since we weren't sure how hard it was going to be to find the place and it turned out to be a lot easier than I could have hoped. Anyway, there were three girls kinda hanging out on the rocks and a few couples standing around, but we were so early I didn't want to be the tard going around asking random strangers if they were there for the JYJ fan meeting and getting weird looks. Plus, the people who arranged the meeting said that they would have red balloons and there were no balloons, red or otherwise, anywhere in the vicinity. So we sat down to wait.

The rain show did it's thing. No one else seemed to be there for the meeting and I started to get embarrassed because neither Veronica nor Kim really wanted to be there and they kept telling me that no one else was coming. But I said, "No! JYJ is beloved and they have lots of fans and there will be people here! Give them a minute!"

Finally, I decided not to be embarrassed and asked the three girls if they were there for JYJ. Yay! They were. I was a little irritated though when I learned that they were all 15 years old. Grr. Anyway, they were a little late, but eventually people did show up and we had a group of about 20 people. It was so very nice to be able to talk about JYJ and DBSK with other fans who liked them just as much or more than I did. I'd make references to the stuff they'd done and the people would know what I was talking about. And they'd talk about things and I'd know what they were talking about. We even had the same opinions about stuff that the guys had done and Oh it was wonderful!

The organizers also had put together a scavenger hunt! That was way fun. We had to get pictures or videos of different stuff on the strip. Luckily, we had just spent the whole day before taking pictures so my group had a big advantage because we had about half of what we needed already! Ha! Unfortunately, that was the day that we had to switch hotels so instead of being able to devoted the whole hour and a half to finding the rest of what was on the list, we had to drive out to the new hotel, which was a really nice time share, and sign in and find the thing and then put all our stuff in it.

So even with the head start, we didn't finish. Oh well! It actually turned out all right though because by the time everyone got back together and were going to be heading to the restaurant where the judges would look at every one's pictures and give out the prizes, my group had to be going because we had tickets to the Tournament of Kings.

That was fun too! We sat in the Dragon section as we watched the show. Russia cheated, as always, and the Dragon knight was defeated in the end, as always. Kim told Veronica that she always sat in Dragon section. That way, on the day that the Dragon knight finally won, she'd be there. LOL. The tomato soup was the best I'd ever tasted. It might have been because of how hungry I was, but it was really good. Both Veronica and Kim agreed. About half way into the show though, my asthma started acting up and it was getting really hard to breathe there at the end. That was the only thing that kept the night from being perfect.

After the show we went back to the hotel so I could grab Kim's inhaler. By then we were tired and just decided to call it a day and went to sleep. The next day was the concert and I was so excited that even though I was bone tired, I couldn't fall asleep until about midnight.

Vegas Trip

Alright, back to Vegas.

It was a little crazy just trying to get there. I didn't want to take my car because as amazing as Dante is, (Named for Dante's Inferno because the car gets so incredibly hot) I didn't know if she'd make it all the way to Vegas without having a melt down. So I decided to rent a car. Turned out, my license expired on my birthday...heh, oh yeah. So Kim had to rent it for me, and after a little musical bank accounts and finally an errand to get a cashier's check from the nearest 7/11, we were ready to leave!

But I, being me, decided that I didn't want to leave Friday morning because that just seemed like such a waste of Thursday afternoon. So we called our hotel and booked a room for that night and left. And BOOM! We were on the road, having rushed the packing to get it done and hoping that we hadn't forgotten anything really important.

The drive took forever, but I got to listen to one of the korean cd's I'd burned at my mom's house and I was so excited because I was going to be seeing JYJ in just a couple days that the drive really didn't seem that bad. I stayed awake the whole time, looking up at the stars that seemed so much more plentiful the further we got out into the desert and listened to the comedians on the radio and just generally enjoyed myself.

We got to Vegas at about 12-1 am. We got checked in, took our bags up to the room, then went down to explore the casino and lobby. Right off the bat, we found the karaoke! I'm going to squish all your excitement because I didn't actually end up singing. Kim tried to suggest I do so, but I calmly told her that I hadn't had enough to drink yet, thank you.

I tried a brain hemorrhage, which looked positively disgusting, but actually tasted pretty good. It wasn't quite what I had been trying to order, I'm thinking I got that and a hypnotic mixed up. Either way. Later I'll try to find a picture of a brain hemorrhage because it was nasty looking. I almost, almost chickened out, but drinks are expensive in Vegas and I'm not one to waste money!

We sat and watched the karaoke until it closed at 2 then went up to the room and slept.

We woke at a very respectable 8:30 and hit the strip! We walked more than half the strip Friday. We took some great pictures, drank some amazing drinks, ... Kim and I got a little tipsy... ~Sigh~ Veronica and Kim were horsing around while we were walking to the next hotel and they ran into me, spilling the drink I was working on all over the front of my shirt. Luckily, I was too intoxicated to really care. I just laughed and blew on my shirt to try to get it to dry faster. You can see the humongous stain in several of the pictures we took that day.

At 3:30 or so we headed over to the Rio for their Buffet, because the Rio has the best buffet ever! Unfortunately, I don't remember too much about how amazing it was, but I know that I got ridiculously full on Sushi, crab legs, cheese cake...and I'm sure there was more, but I honestly don't remember what it was. Good times!

After that we went back to the strip and kept looking. I stopped in Planet Hollywood to get the tickets I had reserved over the phone and we continued walking.

Our feet were killing us by the time we got to the Excalibur and it was so late that all the shops and stuff were closed so we hailed a taxi to take us back to our car so we could go back to our hotel and crash. Being in Vegas, however, we did not sleep once we got to our place, but went down and listened to karaoke until it ended again. On this night there were a few great performers, and one in particular who chose a song they didn't know and so most of the song was sang, "la la la, uh, dum dum, dah, uh...yeah." It was semi amusing.

Ok, I'm going to go now and put up more about Saturday and Sunday later along with some pictures in a week or so. I'm actually going so that I can get ready to leave for Tehachapi right now and the people I'm going to be staying with don't have Internet, so ... hopefully I don't forget too much of the Vegas trip between now and then and I'll still be able to share our trip colorfully when I get back. Bye bye!

JYJ Vegas Concert

It's been a while since I posted but I have a good excuse. I was in Las Vegas, Nevada for several days. Why? you may ask? Well, to see JYJ live in concert, of course.

JYJ is made up of the three members of DBSK who sued their management company and started a new band. Their stage names are Hero, Micky and Xiah, but they seem to be going by their real names now, Jaejoong, Yoochun, and Junsu.



Now, I have a lot to say about my Las Vegas trip and the concert so there will probably be several blogs all pertaining to this last week or so. So if you're not interested, feel free to skip ahead now. If you are interested, buckle down and get ready to experience the long haul with me.

Starting with the concert may seem anti-climactic to my readers. "Where could she possibly go with her blog after the concert that wouldn't seem less exciting than getting to see the three gorgeous guys up close in concert?" I'm glad you asked. I actually found the build up to the concert much more exciting than the concert itself, so that's where we're starting.



The boys were beautiful, lets just get that out of the way. They changed costumes once. They performed a total of 5 songs, though they sang Empty twice so they sang 6 all together. It felt very short. The whole show lasted an hour and that included a brief interview given by the three JYJ members and some goofing around by the MC's...who I did not know. But I think they must have been famous because they acted like we should have known who they were, and some of the audience members did seem to react familiarly.



Despite the brevity, JYJ put on a great show with lots of high energy dancing and quality singing. I was impressed almost despite myself. Having watched the video clips of their previous concerts, I had an idea of what to expect, but I was still very happy with their show.



Originally, I paid $200 for my ticket which was not exactly front row, but was in the center and not too far from the stage. However, the concert ended up being free because, horribly, JYJ was unable to attain work Visas in time for their visit so they were unable to claim any income from their trip to America. And, incredibly, instead of canceling the US tour, JYJ decided to go on with the show, but to make it free for their fans.

I don't mind admitting that I was very moved by this gesture, very nearly to tears. They exhibited such big hearts by continuing with the concert tour despite all the costs they would have to eat in order to do so. All previously bought tickets were refunded but the seats were honored. I have to assume that if the band members were being paid for their show it would have been a little longer and there would have been a little more interaction with the audience. As it was, free and of enormous expense to the boys (please don't be offended that I call these 23 year old men boys, it's just easier and they're younger than I am) I can't begin to express my gratitude that they showed up at all.



A few chants were started before the show, which began half an hour late, but quickly died out. I believe that they were simply too long and difficult to be catchy. "Kim Jaejoong" clap-clap-clap, "Park Yoochun" clap-clap-clap, "Kim Junsu" clap-clap-clap, "Vivaaaa Las Vegas!" Perhaps there would have been more participation if they'd stuck with "Hero! Micky! Xiah! JYJ!" Or something to that affect. Though even as I write this I kind of doubt it. I estimate that there were about 3,000 people there, but the energy was lacking. Even when the chant starters finally figured out the problem and changed their shouts to a very simple, "JYJ, JYJ, JYJ" the chants did not last long.

I don't want to be mistaken. There was plenty of screaming once the band members made their appearance on stage and the only time the audience sat down was during the half show interview (half of which was drowned out by cheers and screams) there seemed to be a lack of cohesion. Even the call for an encore was ragged and short lived. I personally believe that this was due to a complete lack of belief that JYJ would come back out no matter how much the audience asked.



Micky was adorable during the interview. He kindly translated the questions the MC's asked in english to korean so that Hero and Xiah would know what had been asked. He made a couple cute errors which only made him more popular, such as saying that the theme of their next music video 'Empty' was a "Secret secret," and that JYJ had gone to a club the night before with their "staffs." Hero made a couple attempts at english, telling the audience "Thank you," and "We love you" while Xiah spoke only Korean and relied on the MC's and Micky to translate for him.



More will be told about the interview later. There were a couple really cute parts that I will tell about in more detail.

The end of the concert, which came all too quickly, was the "Ayyy Girl" music video played on the screen after the three JYJ members had disappeared back down into the stage from where they had first come. I'm so very glad that I got to see them, but even more glad that I did not have to pay $200 to do it. I think I would have felt disappointed. As it was, it was less than I could have hoped, but drastically and amazingly more than I could have asked. I would not hesitate to go to their next concert, though I don't know if I would spring for such good seats, instead opting for a cheaper, slightly further away place. This is in part due to the disappointment I experienced when I realized, that despite my ardent admiration for the JYJ members and all the anticipation I had felt at being able to see them in person, Hero, Micky, and Xiah were only life-sized.

This last clip is very short. It's from their song 'Empty,' which happens to be my favorite. At the show, I didn't want to watch the concert through the lense of my camera and so decided to just watch and enjoy and forget about having many pictures or videos. Now I'm sitting here thinking, 'What was I thinking?? It would have been so cool to have more footage of the show!' Oh well.



I don't own JYJ or any of their songs. I don't have permission to have this clip on my blog, but the concert was free, so I don't think they're going to lose any money by my putting this 14 second clip up for you to see.

Excuses

Ok, I have a really good reason for having seemingly fallen off the face of the earth for the last week or so. I've been at my mom's house! I'm still there, actually. Mom's house is up in the mountains where technology is about two decades behind everyone else. Her internet is really slow and there is no cell phone reception at all, which is incredibly depressing (turns out) and so that is the reason I haven't been keeping up with facebook or my blog, or my personal contact with anyone. See? So it's not that I don't like you or that you're not important enough, it's that I have been stranded here in the Land of The Lost for a week.

On the up-side though, I had my birthday here with a bunch of family. It was really fun. We played Wii and cards, and took a lot of goofy pictures. I tried on Micky's camera hogging personality for fun and found that as much as I enjoyed it, it was hard for me to tell when it was fun for everyone and when I was going overboard. I got the feelings once that it wasn't as funny for everyone as it was in the beginning so I stopped and kinda relaxed for the rest of the night, so that's something that I'll have to work on if I want to continue being the ham Micky is. I'm still thinking about it.

Just went to Six Flags ...um, Discovery Kingdom? I'm not really sure. It wasn't Magic Mountain. It was about an hour or two from Sacramento and had rides and dolphins and stuff. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyway, I kinda pulled a Micky there too whenever the chance to take pictures came up. I think there are some good ones, but I haven't looked at them yet, so who knows? My family and I did this thing where we got our pictures taken on this set thing with a shark and a dolphin (both made of plastic) and they turned out really good. The first one, we all made Stephen get in the shark's mouth and we all were reaching out to him, trying to save him from sliding down the shark's gullet. The second picture, we made Roy get in the sharks mouth and while he was reaching for help we all were looking somewhere else, completely oblivious! Lol! The lady taking the picture was laughing at us.

The third picture was just kind of random where we all did our own little poses. They all turned out pretty funny, so I got one of each for myself. I can't wait to do something with them.

My mom actually listened to some of the Korean music that I've been such a fan of lately. I'm so happy with her! Right when I think there's no more hope and that I'll just have to grit my teeth through a long visit, she turns around and surprises me by being much more open to my likes and tastes than I would have thought possible. It was really nice and made this visit something I really wouldn't mind repeating! (Which is good because Thanksgiving is coming up and everyone who knows me knows that I can't cook)

Anyway, I was just checking in and giving a few up dates. I will hopefully be posting some of those pictures I was talking about soon in future blogs. Look forward to those! Hopefully they'll turn out good so that people can enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them!

November 1!

Today is my birthday! I can't say I feel old, because I don't, but I feel like I'm older. Suddenly all the really cute asian boy bands are younger than me and I feel like a cougar! I also think this is not where I expected to be at this age. I don't know, I probably thought I'd be married by now at least, with a job I liked and that paid well. Yeah, and none of that is the reality.

I didn't do anything fun for Halloween, which I'm kinda bummed about. I really like Halloween! It's my favorite holiday, actually. I really like dressing up. I like being someone other than myself for a day. Well, I guess I do that on days other than Halloween too, but on Halloween I can choose anything, dress the part, and not get looked at too weirdly. It's... liberating.

I have a second interview today for a job in Sac. I'm not really nervous since I don't particularly need the job. The only thing I'm a little anxious about is if they offer me the job and they want me to start soon, it might conflict with my concert! I can't have that! So if I'm offered the position, I'm thinking about telling them that I can't start until the 16th or so and hope that it's not a deal breaker.

Oh! And JYJ showed up on Yahoo's homepage, which I'm super excited about. I'm glad they're getting some attention in mainstream American media. Well, I'm actually a little torn because more people wanting to go to the concert means more competition for good seats, but it also means that they'd be more likely to come back for a second tour...right? So that's my dilemma.

Why do I always hear about bands after they've already broken up?? That's how it was with Malice Mizer, and now DBSK. Well, I guess two doesn't exactly constitute 'always' but it's frustrating to find a band that you really really like and then find out that they won't be making any more music because they've split up, so there's nothing to look forward to. It's like losing before you've even started!

Oh, I found the way cutest self-introduction in history! This is a gag concert they did. If you want to get the full affect of the cuteness of Micky you should start watching from at least 1:40 in. But if you don't care and just want to be blinded by the awesomeness that is the shameless Micky Yoochun, then he introduces himself at 2:30. I warn you though, cuteness shines brightest against the drab normalcy of others. Well, not that any of DBSK could be drab even if they tried, and they're all adorable, it's just that ... oh goodness, just watch it!



Ha! I laughed and have watched that so many times! I also really like their "If soldiers in the military acted like babies" show...which I don't know if I've already posted, but it's another thing where they obviously don't take themselves seriously, and I love that. So what the heck, I'll post it here, even if it is for the second time. Watch and be amazed!! (The part I'm talking about starts at 2:05 and ends at 3:50 or so but it's all pretty cute)


I imitate this all the time because it amuses me so much!

See what I mean about not feeling older? ...Perhaps I should change it to not feeling any maturer. (Is that a word?) Anyway, I'm off now to spend my birthday getting ready for an interview after a two hour drive. ~Sighs~ Wish me luck! Wouldn't it be great if I got a job for my birthday?? Ha! That's awesome. A gift that keeps on giving.

Gran Torino Movie

Ok, I'm a couple years late, but this is about the movie Gran Torino. I'm watching it right now and it's really sad! The girl just came home, all beat up and abused. This is the second time I've seen this movie and while the first time I was not overly impressed, I'm really enjoying it this time. I mean, I'm not particularly fond of sad movies and, yes, there is a lot of cussing, but it's got a good story.

All the racial slurs are a little unnerving. They make me nervous. I've been trained to dislike any words that may offend anyone, of course, by the great U S of A, but more than that, insulting a whole race is just mean. Ok, yes, I've used some of those words before, but it was always in fun, with people I knew. Even that may be wrong, I don't know. It's not always the intent that matters.

It does bother me though when one race 'allowed' to use a racial slur and others aren't. The N word, for instance. I think, personally, that if one race is allowed to use a word, all races should be able to use the word. Isn't it racist for a race to be called racist for something that another race can do without being called racist? So, again personally, I think that if blacks can use the word, I should be able to, or if I can't use it then they can't either. Isn't that fair? Which is the objective for America, right?

I don't really understand racist remarks anyway. How can you be offended when someone insults an entire race? I think it makes the insulter seem ignorant since every race has its individuals so no one word can possibly encapsulate an entire people. Every race has its yay people and its idiots. So racist labels, when I use them, are more terms of endearment. I call David a coconut, for instance. I wouldn't if he found it offensive, but he laughs and returns an 'insult' as a sign of affection. My relationship was the same with Ryan, Veronica, Steven, and especially myself! I use racial slurs on myself all the time because there's no reason to feel offended.

Anyway, I don't think I could befriend an old guy who uses the words as a real insult. I would be offended. Eventually he started using the words affectionately, but that's not how it started. I'd be angry with him if I met a guy like that. ...Unless he was slurring against me. But if it were against any other race, I'd be irritated. Don't know why. Maybe I've bought into the whole, 'white people are bad' thing in some ways. I don't want to think like that though. I've never done anything against another race. I didn't steal land from the Native Americans, I've never owned a slave, I've never taken advantage of cheap laborers, nothing that I should feel guilty about. I'm no more racist, and no more guilty of racism than any other person of any color out there.

So, I'm wrapping up this incredibly self-centered blog now. Geeze, I feel like I tooted my own horn for this entire thing, but these are my opinions, my experiences, and so I wrote them down. If you don't agree with what I think, well then cool. You don't have to. Isn't that awesome?? And I don't have to agree with what you think. It just works out like that.

I do like a good debate though. So I'd be up for one anytime you think my opinion is wrong, or ignorant, or narrow minded in some way. Just throwing that out there!

Cold, Cold, Cold

Brr! My feet have been chunks of ice at the bottom of my legs for a week straight now! Of course, if I really minded, I probably would have put on socks by now. Lol. It's weird, but cold feet are a kind of nostalgia for me. It reminds me of my home in Tehachapi where it was freakin' freezing at least 6 months out of the year. When my feet are cold and won't warm up no matter what I do, it reminds me of the snow and the forts and slides and igloos we used to build when there was enough of the stuff.

It was when I was with my family.

Sometimes I really miss those times. I look back now and think that I must have been a little terror to my siblings, but I really liked being at home with everyone. My biggest worry was the guy I liked at school or having not done a homework assignment that was due that day, though that last thing never concerned me over-much.

In Other News:

Still waiting for those JYJ tickets to come on sale. Their website said that the tickets were going to be "reasonable" when it comes to price so that all their fans can come. I'm a little apprehensive about a big company's definition of 'reasonable' so even now I haven't been able to get rid of the little knot of dread in my stomach. Their news board hasn't changed so I'm still anticipating that the tickets will be available early this week, which I would take to mean today. Good luck to me! I hate waiting. Waiting is worse than anything else in the world.

*Kicks waiting around in the dust a little bit just to illustrate her deep dislike for it.*

And now, my avid readers...reader...no one in particular, I'm signing off with a little reminder that the Q are watching, so be on your best behavior.

Drama, Concert, School

Alright! Just watched the final episode of Playful Kiss. Happy to report that this is one drama that I'm not really depressed saying goodbye to. Yes, it ended well. Yes, the final episode had its moments. No, I will not be buying this show.


Spoiler Alert!

I personally did not like the main male character. He was very cold. I mean, a cold male character can be very attractive and several shows have started with a distant and haughty male lead that has captured my heart and I'm rooting for the couple to get together the whole time (See You're Beautiful and Boys Over Flowers). But in this show, the main male is TOO cold. He's mean. Really mean. And there weren't enough places in the show that gave me hope. I hated that I kept going back to watch more through most of the series. If I'd had anything better to watch, I would have. As is, I'm now glad I made it to the end, I just wish the journey to get there hadn't been so painful. I've never rooted so hard for the main girl to get with a supporting character!

Even up to the very last episode the guy was mean. He went through a wedding ceremony with the main girl and had their honeymoon and all that, and then proudly declared that he would not apply for the marriage certificate or declare their marriage to the government until his 'wife' had passed a test to become a nurse. Turns out he did it for her own good, allegedly, but that's not funny! How can you hold something like that over some one's head??

Anyway, there was no crying and I really don't think there's going to be any sadness at all at this departure. All I can really say for this drama is that it was a good place holder for the drama I really wanted to see and only has two episodes come out a week.

JYJ Concert!

I read on JYJ's official site that tickets will be available starting early this coming week.


While I am very excited and have anticipated this for a very long time (in Amber time it was months, in normal time, a week or two?) I'm no longer dead sure that I'm going to go. I was so excited when they were originally supposed to play in San Francisco. It's only a couple hours from me and I wasn't going to have to rent a hotel or anything like that. I was just going to show up, watch the concert, and then go home. Yay!

But then the venues changed and now the only places that JYJ is playing is Hawaii, Las Vegas, and L.A. None of those places are exactly, "no problem, I'll just drive home after the concert" places. Now I have to look at whether I want to fly or drive. What hotel I can stay in that's fairly close, how much the ticket is going to be, food, gas, all of that! I'm so bummed. I really want to go because they look like they throw one heck of a concert and I really want to be there to support them in their first American tour (especially because I'd like it to happen again and that means they have to know it will be worth their while). It's so hard to make this decision!!

I think the deciding factor will probably be the price of the tickets. If its a couple hundred bucks, well then, I'll just buy their CD. If it's under a hundred and I'm somewhere not in the nose bleed section, I'm going even if I have to sleep in a tent by the theater. Those are my current thoughts on the matter.

I've also been looking into massage therapy schools again. I found a great accredited school offering a really amazing course...of course, the school is in Oakland and the tuition is about $1300 and that's before books and stuff. I was like, 'Woah!' And then that's only the Swedish massage training where I'll get the basics of anatomy, physiology and kinesiology...or something like that, and then about ninety hours of hands on training. If I want to get into the sports and therapeutic massage, where the big bucks are, its another 150 hours of classes that goes more in depth about muscles, nerves, joints and so on, with a lot more hands on hours, and that class is a little over $2000.

Honestly the location is more a deterrent than the price. There's no way I could commute to Oakland, and there is equally no way that I could afford to live in Oakland on unemployment or any other job I'm qualified for at the moment. But I'm still mulling it over. There were some not-quite-as-attractive schools in Sacramento claiming to be able to get you ready for the licensing test for being a masseuse. We'll see.

Lee Jun Ki Pictures

I really don't have anything to say but I saw these pictures on facebook and wow! I really like them. It makes me sad all over again that Lee is in the military. Gosh darn it. But anyway, here is the picture that grabbed my attention.


As you can see, it has a "Halloween" kind of feel, and that is my favorite holiday of the year...well, right after my birthday. Yah, he's so pretty. I'm not usually a fan of the dramatic make up, but I don't think I've seen anything yet that he hasn't pulled of with style!

Ok, ok, here's the next photo that caught my interest when I went to investigate the album the first picture came from.


Again with the feathers and the sexiness. More jewelery this time, or at least more prevalant. He wears them well, but I'm just not a fan of too many rings. But yikes, I want to go to the halloween party he's attending!

And so with a lustful sigh I sign off. ~looks dreamily at pictures one more time. Face transforms from dreamy to irritated. Kicks stupid korean rule that makes it mandatory for all korean males to join~ Take that!