I love the boys downstairs

News.

Sun, 10 May 2009 19:49:51 GMT

So I've been reading the news a lot lately and here are two lists of phrases: phrases I like and want to hear more of, and phrases I hate and never want to hear again. It really reveals a lot of what I think but honestly I think some of those phrases are just gross or boring (for example, I support a lot of "European" models of finances/civil rights but it makes it sound like Europe is uniformly more progressive than us). Others have just been repeated to death and I don't care anymore.

Like

The Party of No
Civil right
Cult of personality
President Obama
Public option (in reference to health care)
Racial equality
African-American

Dislike

Bulging waistlines
First 100 Days
Torture memo
European model
Economic crisis
Fox News
Bailout
AIG executive
Miss California
Tax cut for the wealthy
Swine flu

Kill the strangers

Wed, 06 May 2009 20:50:16 GMT

别 is the symbol for "other," like "other people." Inside of it there are three radicals: 口(mouth)，力 (strength)，刀 (knife)。　The last one becomes those two vertical lines on the side. Monday teacher, a skinny, friendly Taiwanese woman, was writing it on the board and correcting someone very seriously, saying, "No, the radical here is 力. Other people has a lot of strength, so you take the knife to kill them."

I really really tried.

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:42:30 GMT

I wanted to start recapping a show again. I am way too picky about shows. I'll have a list of 10 shows, and feel like all of them could be great, and then out of those 10, I'll reject 9 of them. This is one of those 9.

- The opening sequence is extremely smarmy and I can tell I'm going to not watch it every time. It's subtitled but in a really annoying font so I can't even try to read it.
- We begin and the subtitle tells me we're in Thailand. The video loads extremely slowly.
- Some people are gathered in a studio. They're dubbing a movie, complete with grunting when a guy gets shot. The cheerful music tells me that this is a happy thing.
- Everyone checks out this one girl's boobs and then it screws up one of the actors, Sheung.
- Cantonese sounds so incredibly cool. When I pronounce my Mandarin name in Cantonese (they use the same symbols, just different pronounciations) it's Hung Maang Laam. I can't write out the tones here, partly because I'm not even sure of them myself.
- So apparently boobs girl, whose breasts are roughly an American B-cup, used to be a porn star. Tong Tong, our heroine, sounds skeptical about that. Old Nasty Guy tells Tong Tong that she's naive.
- One of the girls says, "Hey, do you need help with your coat?" and closes the coat to keep people from ogling her. That's so nice of her.
- I love listening to nonstop Cantonese. Tong Tong gets her friends dinner, she's very popular. Some smarmy epository talk between two men about how awesome Tong Tong is, ending in a completely poorly-acted laugh.
- Here comes the plot: Tong Tong is deaf in her left ear. In her right ear, she has a very tiny hearing aid.
- She can hear 50% to 60%, they say. I wish they would give it in decibels.
- Smarmy cheesy music plays while she makes food for her dad. They still live together even though she's like old.
- What happened is that when she was really little, her dad was hanging out drinking while she and her mother (?) and siblings were nearby. Apparently she's not biologically related to this guy. Her dad was too drunk to notice when a blazing fire started up and Tong Tong ran and got all her siblings out of the fire and there was a huge explosion. I'd like to state for the record that any blast of sound big enough to break her hearing would also break anyone's hearing that was in the next room.
- Fake Dad blames himself. Oh, wait, Mom walked out on them.
- They eat this "small" gourmet dinner. It's huge.
- Sister wants to be known as Kary. Apparently she "wants to make friends with the rich boys again."
- Now we meet Son, whose computer isn't working. Dad protests that he's only been using the computer for 3 years whereas the fridge has been working for 10 years. Dad clearly knows nothing about computers. I find Son inexplicably attractive. "Dad, it's so slow. There isn't enough RAM. The CPU is slow. You won't understand it." Son becomes more attractive.
- Dad bitches that he can't connect with his kids.
- Son and Tong Tong go shopping. Son is wearing the girliest shirt ever and he looks a lot sexier in this lighting. Someone's stalking Tong Tong. She catches him. It's really boring.
- For a while, it becomes this weird story about how the filming guy was orphaned at birth.
- Oh shit, he's the main guy. I feel awful for thinking this but he's not attractive enough.

I can't stand it anymore, there are already like 40 sub-plots. This isn't good at all. Farewell Speech of Silence.

I'm so boring

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:06:40 GMT

EPISODE SIX

o. Previouslies with srsbiz music.
o. Montage of a city square at night, sweeeeet.
o. They're punking Kibum! He's gonna get punk'd.
o. Poor Ah Ram. She exists only to get hated.
o. This Indian "Little Buddha"-ish music is distracting me beyond reason. I can't concentrate on what is going on during Kibum's punking because I'm too busy imagining the Raj and the elephant and A Little Princess.
o. I totally wore Eun Jung's outfit to Walgreens on the fourth of July. Just thought that sounded significant.
o. If this is hinting at sex, then it's a total joke, because Siwon is way too boring for that.
o. The MC is searching Siwon's room. This show is getting desperate.
o. He gave her a hat so she doesn't have to tan. That is pretty much the most romantic thing I've ever heard. Can you tell I'm extremely pale?
o. Oh my god, Siwon took her to this holy place in the mountains.
o. Wow, Beyonce is driving me crazy.
o. Get that blood alcohol content up, Siwon! Guzzle that champagne, Siwon! This reminds me of that time Ryo kept drinking and drinking when he was on a date with that Haruna woman.
o. Ah, love shots. Ah, Siwon has already begun a string of lies. By day, he is Siwon Who Has Never Done Love Shots. By night, he is Siwon Who Does Love Shots With Kibum.
o. I was trying to figure out why their drinking was irritating me so much (other than the fact that they have no food at the table, that they're both drinking a full serving of wine despite the fact they are both of a low body weight) and perhaps it's the fact that it seems a little weird, they're so young (underage by our standards?) and they're not even eating anything. For real.
o. Or it could be that this is the most boring date I've ever seen in my life.
o. Siwon's shirt has necklaces imprinted on it. Ditch the shirt, horsie.
o. Shouldn't you guys be holding hands?
o. MC: "Drink coffee, Donghae and Kibum. DRINK IT." This show is like, "We're going to force you to drink unhealthy beverages! Enjoy!"
o. Why does the synch always get off halfway through?
o. Donghae just bought a plastic butterfly rolly thing. Donghae. I love you.
o. Finally, they're holding hands!
o. More wine.
o. He bought her a brooch? I can't believe I just had a reason to use the word "brooch." Siwon. It is the 21st century. I shouldn't have to use the word "brooch."
o. I can't believe I remember the word "brooch."
o. It is very, very pretty, but that doesn't stop it from being a brooch.
o. OH MY GOD, IT'S "LINGER" BY THE CRANBERRIES
o. ...alright so I just went to YouTube to watch the video for Linger and ended up watching the videography of Tokio Hotel instead. I think my entire problem with Tokio Hotel is based on the fact that whenever I'm listening to them, I think, "Ah, this is cool," because I expect it to be like a Nirvana thing, with this quiet gentle verse and a cripplingly noisy and gross chorus. Sometimes Dir en grey and Papa Roach do that.
o. Wow, the Jonas Brothers are REALLY BAD.
o. Kibum and Donghae are going on ATVs. Unlike KAT-TUN, they wear helmets. Oh. I think this is Sum 41 playing. Oh, what up, I just looked it up and it's Sum 41's "Underclass Hero."
o. Kibum was speeding and he got himself into an accident. Sorry, Kibeautiful.
o. His tee shirt has a picture of a man on it and the cursive for "Hysteric Gender." He reads English, guys. He knows what he's wearing. I don't understand.
o. Siwon looks so awkward in a wet suit for scuba diving. I can't emphasize this enough. His butt looks so funny. I only say that because the camera zoomed in on his butt really fast.
o. Angry Italian opera! YES!
o. "Under the Sea." I could live without hearing this.

Last night I had this dream where thaumatourgia and Kangin had this thing going on, so whenever the three of us were in a room together I would make some excuse ("Have to feed the warthogs," "Tuba practice") to leave them alone, wanting Kangin and her to date. This version of Kangin was the exact same-looking as the real one but I saw a really old advertisement for something he was in, and was SHOCKED, because he was really, really skinny. He was going to Iowa studying ballet. Anyway, he gained a lot of weight real fast, so I asked Shindong why that happened, and Shindong said something about a red bug stinging Kangin in the stomach. That's pretty much the stupidest thing I've ever heard (as in, a bug bite prompting uncontrollable weight gain).

I drove to the chiropractor's and back all by myself today, which doesn't sound admirable until you remember that I am driving a car that I've never driven before and I live in Chicago and I haven't driven in about a year. Yeah. That's pretty much it. I feel real good about that, except because of my earlier cooking endeavors, the entire apartment smells like kale. There are worse things it could smell like, though.

What's with all the Ohkura/Shota? I don't understand.

ETA: It would be nice to stop singing "Linger." It would really be nice.

Episode Seven!

This is not the last episode but it is the last episode that I have and can likely get, so enjoy it doubly.
"All guys have pride." Um, all girls do too...
Is that Bob Marley smoking a big fat joint on that shirt?
Poor Donghae is doing so good.
Wait, what am I supposed to be looking at?
I forget who's in on this. Oh well. Live long and prosper.
Siwon looks really dumb in those swim trunks. They're too short.
Why is Siwon wearing a tank top into the water? He's so cut.
Oh SWEET, it's Anxiety by Papa Roach ft. Black Eyed Peas. This is way better than everything else they've played so far on the show.
I had a swimming competition like this with my mom yesterday. I kept getting off course.
So that ugly necklace is broken. Sweet.
Why is Eun Jung off by herself?
Hahaha, Kibum just downgraded Siwon from "Siwon" to "Siwon hyung." It's kinda lulzy that Siwon still has dongsaengs. I always remember that Leeteuk and Hankyung and Heechul are major hyungs but I forget that age still matters even when you're real young.
Donghae thinks Kibum is going to start crying, so he gets up and skedaddles.
ANXIETY SOMETHING SOMETHING TO MY KNEES
Donghae's wearing glasses to the choosing session. I'd choose him. He's wearing glasses. I have a specific algorithm.
His skin looks bad here. That's cute. I love that.
"Siwon had a perfect date." Yeah. With the assistance of Eun Jung getting a BAC over the legal driving limit.
More Bread.
"I seemed to have made a very huge mistake," says Kibum. "Of course," I agree, "you decided to be on this show instead of Heechul."
Kibum doesn't know how to speak Korean, stop asking him stuff.
Siwon wins again! Of course he does. Her father is a pastor.
I could live without this piano music.
Poor Donghae doesn't know how to fit in. So they're hidden-camera-ing him.
This music is so...okay, imagine someone greasy on the street with five days worth of stubble on his face going, "Let's get nasty," in his beer breath and then you can imagine what this music sounds like.
Recap of the entire show. Wow. Boring.
Oh man. I was just like, "what is this beautiful music?" Then I realized. It's the fucking intro bit to the video of Linger.
They're going in a submarine to watch the marine life. The submarine looks cramped and I bet someone sweaty and smelly is inside with them. Gross.
So I just spilled fish-kale all over my last clean pair of pajama pants. You know what this means! At home? No pants, until Mom gets home on Sunday. It's supposed to be in the nineties for a long time here, anyway.
Siwon is hesitantly telling her that men also have the desire to live in a fairytale. This is so fucking sweet I should write it down on my food log. Linger is also playing very loudly. I really love this moment. Their faces look so gentle and soft in the pale blue glow.
From this angle, if they both had shaved heads, nobody would know who is the girl and who is the boy. Or if they both had real long hair, whichever. Personally, I am partial to couples where the man has longer hair than the woman; for example, my friend Masen has longer hair than his girlfriend. Also, Johnny Depp in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. If you don't believe me, seriously, look at this, and tell me seriously that she would not look way hot with long-haired Orlando Bloom or the lead guy from Tokio Hotel (they seem to match stylistically, at least). I really want to get my hair cut like this but while Yesung and I both have huge heads and round faces, I'm not entirely sure it'll look good. I'm doing it anyway, though, because I have never actually cared enough about what "might" look good to stop doing what I want to do.
HA! Donghae and Kibum aren't talking to each other at all on their date to the museum. Poor Donghae keeps trying to make it be fun but Kibum is having none of it.
The power keeps going out.
Siwon's wearing an Abercrombie and Fitch shirt. That makes me feel good because Abercrombie and Fitch is where you go to play touch football on a wheat field and then give each other handjobs.
Siwon's required to have his arm around her shoulders. He looks so uncomfortable. Even I'VE had better cuddles than--
oh my god he's singing Breathing by Life House to her
Hey, that actually sounded good. More understandable than LOVEJUICE.
Donghae is singing something called "Sea of Love" passionately to Kibum with the MC as backup. Kibum keeps his arms folded and stares at the museum floor.
Kibum's buying a present for her. It's going to be a necklace or ring or something.
Gloomy pretty piano. I like it.
So, the MC comes in to crash the necklace-buying party and Donghae pretends to cover for Kibum by saying, "Oh, Kibum's buying the necklace for me." Really, he was the one that ratted Kibum out.
WHOA! Donghae's wearing a DIFFERENT Hysteric Gender shirt!
Kibum lies and lies and lies.
Kibum is not good at speaking/lying/schmoozing on his feet.
Sum 41 again. ♥
What they are doing looks a lot like grinding ping pong balls up and snorting them.
Kibum sabotages Siwon. That's annoying.
Siwon wins anyway.
Sometimes I can't believe Siwon isn't married already.
This is so cruel.