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Sorry, Internet, but in my head, Rictor looks just like Rafael Nadal. Yes, the tennis player. He has the hair, the proper build (athletic not gym-bunny chic), and a more interesting face than the actors and models that many of you have been choosing. Hell, he even has the hair that they've been using since X-Factor v.3.

And, quite honestly the (public) dynamic between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer reminds me of the relationship between Rictor and Shatterstar before the kiss. The Rivalry between Rafa and Federer is intense (have you seen the 4th set tiebreak at Wimbledon in 2008?!), but they have an obvious friendship--so obvious, in fact, that they're a common object of real person slash fiction. I have a strong dislik for RPS, but I love the idea of "Fedal" the same way I love Rictor/Shatterstar. I eat it up with a spoon.

To the uninitiated, here is a good pic+quote spam post at LJ of the inspiration that is the Nadal-Federer friendship.

Bonus: Rafa and Roger really close in Paris. And a romantic, candlelit tennis match. Whoever thought up that candle light theme for the event is a closet shipper, I vow it.

Current Mood: dorky

I was cruising through the archives of http://koreanwordaday.tumblr.com/ and came across an interesting entry from November 2010. I wanted to see more examples of how to use the new word, so I went searching for examples of usage of 대부분 [meanings: for the most part, mostly, most of] on twitter.

Anyway, I found an Oscar Wilde Quote in the top of the results! Via @estheticism:

삶이란 세상에서 가장 희귀한 것이다. 대부분의 사람은 그저 단순히 존재만 하고 있을 뿐이다.
-오스카 와일드

I have to admit to running the Korean text through Google's translator. Google led me in the right direction with the following garbled translation:

Life is the rarest in the world. Most people are just simply and only jonjaeman.

I believe the original quote is:

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that's all.
-Oscar Wilde

Just wanted to keep this info for my own reference. :)

Current Mood: productive

Just like I've been using a master list to keep track of the dramas that I've seen/own/want-to-see, I've read and purchased enough manhwa that I think I need to do the same for them. So, for my own purposes:

Manhwa I own:

김영희 (Kim Young-Hee) - 에뷔오네 (Evyione) [1-4/?]
김우현 (Kim Woo Hyun) - 밀레니엄 (Millenium) [5/5]
김우현 (Kim Woo Hyun) - 바닐라 아이스 (Vanilla Ice) [4/4?]
김우현 (Kim Woo Hyun) - 유엔 (UN…) [2/2]
김희경 (Kim Hee-Kyoung) - 신데렐라 맨 (Cinderella Man) [6/6]
박희정 (Park Hee-Jung) - 피버 (FEVER) [4/4]
박희정 (Park Hee-Jung) - 피버 (FEVER) [3/4 (Duplicate)]
박희정 (Park Hee-Jung) - 호텔 아프리카 (Hotel Africa) [1-3/4 (#4 went out of stock)]
서문다미 (Seo Moon Da Mi) - 그들도 사랑을 한다 (They, Too, Love) [7/7]
유시진 (Yoo Shi-Jin) - 그린빌에서 만나요 (Meet Me In Greenville) [1/4]
유하진 (Yoo Ha-Jin) - 와! (Wa!) [5/5]
유하진 (Yoo Ha-Jin) - 완전무결하게 사로잡히다 (Totally Captivated) [6/6(+)]
유하진 (Yoo Ha-Jin) - 파란만장 다이어리 (Adventure and Trouble Diary) [1-3/?]
윤미경 (Yoon Mi-Kyung - 하백의 신부 (Bride of the Water God) [8/12++]
이영란 (Lee Young-Ran) - 내게 거짓말을 해봐 (Lie To Me) [1/1]
이영란 (Lee Young-Ran) - 로맨스 파파 (Romance Papa) [8/8]
이영란 (Lee Young-Ran) - 리베 (Liebe) [1/1]
이영란 (Lee Young-Ran) - 발칙한 녀석들 (Rude Boys) [1/?]
이영란 (Lee Young-Ran) - 오버센스 (Oversense) [2/2]
이영란 (Lee Young-Ran) - 클릭 (Click) [8/8]
이영희 (Lee Young-Hee) - 넌 너무 멋져 (You're So Cool) [6/6]
이영희 (Lee Young-Hee) - Lee Young-Hee - 화 (Fire/Flower [1/1]
전진석, 한승희 (Jun Jin Suk, Han Seung Hee) - 천일야화 (1001 Nights) [11/11]
하성현 (Ha Sung-Hyun) - 퀸즈 (Queens) [5/5]
황미리 (Hwang Mi Ri) - 큐티보이 (Cutie Boy) [8/8]
황숙지 (Hwang Sook-Ji) - 에이치투오 (H2O) [1-3, 5-7/7 (#4 went out of stock)]
황숙지 (Hwang Sook-Ji) - 엔젤 샵 (Angel Shop) [4/4]

Manhwa I want to buy:

피버 (FEVER)(4) 박희정
호텔 아프리카 (4) 박희정
그린빌에서 만나요(2-4) 유시진
파란만장 다이어리 (4+) 유하진
하백의 신부 (5, 9+~)
에이치투오 (H2O) (4) 황숙지
에뷔오네 (Evyione) (4+~) 김영희
너의 시선 끝에 내가 있다 (I'm at the End of Your Gaze) (6+) 서문다미
그 남자의 취향 (There's Something About Sunyool ) (3+) 이영란
발칙한 녀석들 (Rude Boys) (#?) 이영란
잿빛 도시숲을 달리다 (Running Through the City In the Sunset) (2) 엄정현
만화 테디보이 (2) 유하진
천기닷컴 (8) 유하진
Kiss me 프린세스 (9) 김세영
홍가네 (11) 황미리
아쿠아마린(1~) 하성현
이상한나라의하숙집(1-7완) 하성현
투씨(1-5완) 하성현
레일로드(1-3완) 윤미경
그남자의집(1-5완) 하성현
타로카페(1-5) 박상선
I WISH 아이위시(1-7완) 서현주

Manhwa I've read/am reading:

Will compile later

Manga I own (in Korean):

Will compile later

Manga I want to buy (in Korean):

인수방열전 [仁獣芳烈伝](1-13완) by 모리모토 슈우
허니비터(1-5) Miho Obana
아이들의장난감(1-10완) Miho Obana
사랑하는지금(1-5완) Watase Yuu
환상게임(1-9완) 애장판 Watase Yuu
블리치(1-40+)
오란고교 호스트부 (1-14+)

This list probably should have been tabular. A table does work well for sorting the information, actually. I've actually started keeping this (and more data about the series) in an excel workbook. I just don't feel like coding one for the web. ^^;;

Something tells me that the list of manhwa that I want to buy is going to grow really fast. It seems to balloon right after I make a large purchase at gmarket, and am addicted to the rush that buying and tracking gives me. Needless to say, this post will always be in progress.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: 조권 (of 2AM) & 웨일 (of W & Whale) - 덩크슛 [Dunk Shoot]

I think I get why people are calling these "Gmarket hauls". I know I ordered a lot, but it feels like so much more when I unpack it and take pictures along the way! It's all about the experience.

the badly beaten up box

The box was amusingly beaten up, which makes sense given how far it has traveled. I think I'd probably look a lot worse than that if I'd been on a plane from S. Korea to New York, and then sat in customs for a while, before driving down the east coast aaaall the way down south.

I mentioned it before, but this order contained a lot of used manhwa. Actually, it was only used manhwa. I only ordered from two different sellers, though, because I wanted to keep things uncomplicated. "Uncomplicated" seems to be the name of the game with Gmarket, though, so now I know that I had nothing to worry about, and wish that I had ordered a lot more...

two boxes inside the badly beaten up box

two boxes inside the badly beaten up box

The two orders that I placed were in their own separate boxes in the large beaten up box. They still had the address and postage on them from when the sellers shipped them to the Gmarket warehouse. Which was cool to see and attempt to read.

Both boxes were securely packaged, with no room for the books to move around and get damaged.

I took a lot of pictures along the way, so here's another shot of each box and its contents.

box one contained Queen's volumes 1-5

The small box contained volumes 1-5 of 퀸즈 [Queens] by 하성현 [Ha Sung-Hyun].

The whole set was in very good condition, with no rental shop stickers or anything. Though, there is a little bid of fading in the orange color of the cover for Volume 1, which I think is due to sun-exposure.

I'm ecstatic that they're in such great condition! I feel a little guilty about only paying ￦3,000($2.74) for all five volumes.

the second, bigger, box. containing a ton of manhwa

the second, bigger, box. containing a ton of manhwa

The big box is from the seller elite2000. They actually have their own website at www.elite2000.co.kr, but I guess they also sell their stuff on Gmarket, which is pretty smart.

It looks like they created a custom box around my books, and taped it up with their own pretty white packing tape that contains their logo and business information. It was all pretty slick and impressive-looking.

The stuff that I bought from them was a little more used-looking for the most part, but I discovered that a lot of the rental shop manhwa had been placed in protective plastic covers (by the previous rental shop owners) and that it was actually the covers that looked really dirty and beaten up. I actually like the idea of covering my manhwa, so I removed the ones that looked too awful to touch, and kept that ones that looked almost invisible.

numbered stacks of manhwa

와! [Wa!] 1~5: These are in great condition! They are covered in clear plastic, which is also in great condition. They look brand new. I paid ￦5,000($4.56) for the whole set.

UN 1~2: Also in great condition. These are also in clear plastic covers, but the covers are a bit difficult to see through, so I'll be removing them. Underneath the covers, both volumes are in prefect condition. ￦2,000($1.83).

오버센스 [Oversense] 1~2: These are pretty badly beaten up, but they are so old that I expected that. Actually, I never expected to find them. I love Lee Young-Ran, so if I can find her older stuff, I'll take them in any condition! I only paid ￦2,000($1.83) for them.

밀레니엄 [Millenium] 1~5: I've been looking for this series for ages! No one seems to know about it. The older volumes in this series are a bit worse for wear, but on a whole they're all in good condition. These are also covered in clear plastic covers, and I'll be removing some of the really dirty ones. They look like they'll be in great condition underneath. ￦5,000($4.56)

클릭 [Click] 1~8: This series is the real reason for my entire order. I've been wanting to read this series in Korean for a long time, because of some of the puns with the characters' names, and because I love Lee Young-Ran and want to own everything that she's drawn/written. This series is in pretty good condition, with some of the volumes actually stapled together with industrial staples at the spine. (I would have thought that I would hate this, but I've actually found that it makes the books easier to read--I don't have to worry about pressing it to the spine and tearing out pages.) These volumes are in clear plastic covers, some of which are really dirty and will be removed. This was the largest and most expensive set in my order, and cost ￦8,000($7.29).

신데렐라맨 [Cinderella Man] 1~6: These are in worse condition than most of the others. Some of the spines are bent, but they also have clear covers on them. I think I'll keep the covers on, though, even though they're a bit dirty, since they add to the strength of the covers, and will help protect the volumes from further damage (not that I'm tough on my manhwa at all). ￦6,000($5.47)

그들도 사랑을 한다 [They, Too, Love] 1~7: Probably the most used-looking set in the bunch. The spines and covers are dirty and peeling in spots, with no covers used for protection. The volumes themselves are really sturdy and clean on the inside, though, and the new volumes at the end of the series look much better than the first few. I only paid ￦5,600($5.11) for all seven volumes, so you won't hear me complain!

Overhead view of the whole haul (sorry about the spot in the bottom corner):

All in all, I'm insanely happy with my first Gmarket haul! I can't wait to place another order. No, really, I can't. I just found someone who has all of 1001 Nights for sale, and someone else who has a perpetual calendar that I want. I've already started placing items in my shopping cart . ^^;;

I've placed these manhwa on my manhwa bookshelf with all of the others that I bought at AladdinUS.com. My collection is growing steadily! Thank you, Gmarket!

My manhwa bookshelf, now two rows!

Current Mood: content

I finally took the plunge and placed an order on Gmarket. All of the people that I've heard about Gmarket from recommend it for ordering Korean cosmetics, but I love love love that fact that I can find a ton of used 만화 (manhwa) there.

I prefer to support the authors of the manhwa that I read, so all of the manhwa that I currently own, I've ordered from AladdinUS. That said, Aladdin doesn't support foreign users ordering used books, so once a series goes out of print (or permanently out of stock), that's it. And when I want to own something, I want to own it.

I have a huge list of manhwa that I've been dying to read in Korean, but have gone out of print, but I wanted to find a balance between placing an order large enough to justify the international shipping charges, and small enough not to be a big loss if something goes wrong, considering this was my first experience on Gmarket.

So, I ended up ordering:

와! [Wa!] 1~5
신데렐라맨 [Cinderella Man] 1-6
오버센스 [Oversense] 1~2
클릭 [Click] 1~8
그들도 사랑을 한다 [They, Too, Love] 1~7
밀레니엄 [Millenium] 1~5
UN 1~2
퀸즈 [Queens] 1~5

For the curious, I paid approximately ￦1,000 per volume, which is about $0.89 (depending on the daily exchange rates, of course; the dollar hasn't exactly been at its strongest lately). I only paid ￦5,600 ($5.00) for all seven volumes of 그들도 사랑을 한다.

I think that the best thing about Gmarket is that they have the sellers ship your orders to their warehouse (or whatever they call it) where they pack it all together and then air mail it to you via EMS. It's smart, pretty darn orderly, and it saves money. That said, I had misgivings about the estimated weights of the items that I ordered, since I did have to pay an estimated shipping cost, an any excess gets stuck in Gmarket's account. The sellers that I ordered from sold the entire sets of manhwa and seemed to uniformly state 2.1 kg as the shipping weight. This was obviously incorrect, since some of the series that I purchased were 2 volumes, and some were 7 or 8. The extra money I pay for shipping gets accumulated in my Gmarket account, and can only be used to pay for shipping that is underpaid in the future--if I ever have any. (I did end up paying, like, ￦24,200 extra in shipping, so I'll explore this feature and update with what I find out about this process another time.)

All in all, I've very happy with my first experience on Gmarket, and am ~~obsessively~~ eagerly tracking my package as it travels around the world to get to me.

Current Mood: excited

Sorry for the writing style on this one. I'm just aiming to spit the information out any way that I can.

This week has been crazy. My grandmother is in the hospital, has been since Monday. See, her cancer's been out of remission and she's been doing chemo three days a month for the past few months. Something happened last weekend while she was at home, though, and she started feeling dizzy and whatnot. Mommy told her to call or doctor or go to the hospital on Sunday, but Grandma was afraid of getting a transfusion.

So, Monday morning rolls around and the shit has hit the fan. My uncle called my brother trying to reach my mother, because he had talked to my grandmother over the phone and she sounded confused and disoriented. So. My mother called my grandmother, who it turns out had called her doctor's office and has been waiting for them to return her call for the past hour.

Mommy, very alarmed now, calls aback my uncle and tells him that she'll call Grandma's doctor's office and get a response. She does. She informs the, that my grandmother is likely downplaying her symptoms and needs to be spoken to immediately, as the last time she did this (5 years ago?) she almost died.

Grandma's doctor calls her immediately and agrees that something is up. Instructs her to go to the emergency room. (Turns out her insurance no longer covers the hospital that she usually goes to, which is a few minutes from her house, and she must drive to the Pits of Los Angeles to get to this newly cover E.R.) He'll meet her there.

My uncle arrives at my grandmother's house and (after a lot of confusion) gets her and my grandfather into his car.

They wait in the crowded emergency room for over an hour, before my grandfather wanders off trying to find someone to help.

My uncle calls my mother wondering where the effing doctor is and if there is another hospital that they can go to.

My grandfather is escorted back to the waiting room by hospital security. (>_<)

My mother calls my grandmother's doctor, complains that the woman with Leukemia is sitting in a crowded waiting room, and discovers that there is no other hospital covered by her insurance that takes oncology patients and that this hospital does not do direct admits. Doctor admits that he does not have as much "...pull" at this hospital as he has at others and they suck with admitting times.

My grandfather wanders off again, this time finds a doctor who'll listen to his and explains that my uncle is an attorney (he's even dressed in his suit, since he came from work), who had tried successful malpractice suits and is scared for his mother and angry at the wait. Hospital magically finds a bed in the e.r. for Grandma.

Grandma's doctor finally shows up at hospital.

[It is revealed in interview that Grandma actually passed out when she went to the bathroom this morning and fell down and that she had difficulty using her legs to get back to the bed. My aunt (who is living with my grandparents) was called up at this time to help my grandfather get my grandmother up. Neither of the old people wanted my aunt to call for an ambulance. My aunt had been about to go over their heads when my uncle showed up.]

Because it was revealed that she lost consciousness (My grandfather wouldn't actually admit this; he would only say that she was "unresponsive for as long as 30 seconds." Weirdo.) a CAT Scan was ordered to determine if my grandmother had had a stroke. Examination revealed that she had a temp of 103+ and that her blood pressure was dangerously low.

She has an infection, but no one knows the source. They've run her on antibiotics, but nothing's working. She still has a fever and her RBCs are low. Her white count has finally started to rise.

My aunt ducked off the radar, and wouldn't take calls or call my Grandmother all week.

Meanwhile, all week long, Mommy's been dealing with calls to and from Grandma's doctors and their offices, as well as my uncle and dealing with the scheduling and logistics of getting my grandfather around. She's also had to make a great deal of medical calls on my grandfather's behalf to schedule testing for his anticoagulant therapy and testing and other stuff, and Uncover and instruct my aunt on the maintaining (and reminders for) his medication dosages and schedule.

All from aaaaaall the way across the country.

Meanwhile, Grandma's still in the hospital and not getting better. I spoke to her briefly yesterday. She sound as bad as she did the last time this happened. I hope they figure out the source of infection and fight it off. She can't die, she just can't.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Mr. Belvedere theme song

Okay, so I've been meaning to post about Livemocha, a free language learning site/community that I learned about in the learn_korean community here on livejournal.

I recently made a couple of comments in the learn_korean comm about the site and I may have said a hell of a lot more than I intended to (I get carried away sometimes ^^;;) Anyway, since I've already promised earlier this week to give my thoughts on livemocha here and I already shared a lot of my thoughts there, I figure it's copy and past time!

My comments were long enough that I had to split them into two posts (yes, I'm that big of an ass). So, here we go:

I've been using the UH KLEAR Korean books and the KoreanClass101.com podcast (for which I shelled out the $$ for a Premium Subscription, if that matters) to try to teach myself Korean (for fun), and I'd say that Livemocha has some areas where it's better and some where it's worse than the others.

I should probably have started off by pointing out that Korean is the first language that I'm learning using Livemocha, and I am very impressed with the site. I am learning more at a much faster pace than I was just memorizing vocabulary lists and trying to get creative with examples. I think it's because of the repetition and drilling variance involved.

That said, my Korean is just at the beginner level, and when I first started learning, I was intimidated by the formal politeness level. Heck, I still am. It just adds a mouthful of difficulty to even the most simple of sentences, and took longer for me to get the hang of than standard politeness level. It's scary.

The reason that I like (and actually learn from) the lessons in this community (and the later lessons of the KoreanClass101.com podcast + PDFs) is probably because of the use of the standard politeness level. I don't presume to know everything about all of the other languages on the planet, but the problem of Formal vs Standard vs Intimate speech being such a HUGE part of the language seems to be unique to Korean. I know there are probably some people who'd disagree, but I'd prefer to have the lessons on Livemocha teach in the standard politeness level. It's just more approachable, easier to learn, and a little more useful for everyday usage.

I did take a peek at the beginner Japanese course on the site, and the lessons there have a feature where there is a button below the "Translate" button that allows the student to display the Romaji, which is useful if you can't read the kanji. In my ideal Korean lesson, the main sentence would be in standard politeness, with three buttons in the lower right hand corner: one to display the translation, one to display the sentence in the formal politeness level, and a third to display the sentence in the intimate politeness level.

I agree with ouremergency17 that the site needs submissions for those learning Korean. Or at least a way for us to create them. I'm sure you could think up some great material.

I have some thoughts about the way that the site works (bugs and whatnot), but I'll post those later in a second comment, as it'll probably push me over livejournal's comment length limit.

Second comment. This time me whining about about bugs and features of the site.

::continued from above::

I think my biggest gripe with the Livemocha site may or may not be related to an issue with my own internet connection. See, sometimes when I'm going through the lessons the images or sounds won't load, and I have to try clicking back and forward through the items to try to prompt them to load. When this happens a lot, it becomes irritating, and causes me to get at least one answer incorrect on every review test. I guess the sound and the images are technically two separate issues, so I'll explain them separately.

In regards to the sound not loading, I think this would be fixed by simply providing a written version of the dialogue for *every* question. This is actually an accessibility issue, because the requirement that one must *listen* to a sound bit to be able to progress through all of the lessons, automatically excludes deaf students from being able to participate fully without being penalized for their handicap. I'm sympathetic on this issue because I have hearing problems and have to use closed captioning on my television and go to open captioned movie showings to compensate.

The images not loading is annoying because in order to select the answer during a review the image needs to have completed loading. So, when my browser has finished loading the page and I'm looking at a question which has four possible choices, and the image for the solution has not loaded, I can use the process of elimination to guess that the image that didn't load is the solution, but, because of a problem with the way the app is coded, I can't actually *select* the box that has not loaded. I can click the application's forward and backward buttons to try to get my browser to load the images, but sometimes this doesn't work. Sometimes none of the images load, and I'm screwed. Sometimes I have to select an incorrect answer just to move on.

My favorite feature on Livemocha is the flashcards. I love, love, love the flashcards! I love that we can submit our own. I love that we can share them with others. I love that we can be quizzed on their content. I do wish, however, that this feature were a little more powerful. At the moment, what I've been doing with the flashcards, is finding a set that I like and then importing it manually to a program that I have installed on my computer, ProVoc, which is just more useful for learning from flash cards. The funny thing is that the way that it works reminds me of the way that Livemocha handles the lessons: repetition. ProVoc also allows the user to customize the type of review that they want to use and allows them to further define display and testing options beyond this. Plus, it identifies and repeats problem words. The result, for me, is that I learn the new vocabulary quickly and easily. I realize that the server demands of running an application exactly like this on the site for all users would be ridiculous, but maybe some of these features could be offered as a Premium Upgrade. The source code for ProVoc is freelyavailable under the BSD license, so I'm sure they could study and learn how it works and adapt the tech to their own needs.

My final request for the Livemocha site, is the ability for tutors/teachers to edit their own submission reviews. Me not being able to fix my own typos only confuses people who are learning the language. Seriously.

I hope I didn't come off as harsh with these comments. I love Livemocha. I'm a new user, yes. But I'm also a permanent addict to the site. I can say that confidently, because I love it that much. I really do look forward to watching the site grow.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Modest Mouse - Float On

This cover is awesome! I must remember to buy the whole album on Amazon because, based on the previews, this is not the only great cover on the album. Unfortunately, it's only available to download as an MP3 album, which means I can't buy it used (which would be loads cheaper, and not so easy to lose. Plus, it'd have liner notes. I live for linernotes!)

So, for my own reference, I can find Dean Haitani's cover of "What I Am" on his album Book of Covers Volume 1 on amazon via this link.

For some reason, Dean Haitani's name is misspelled on the Sirius Coffee House station as "Dean Haiani" which is totally incorrect. Stranger still, the only way to find the song on last.fm is to misspell the artist's name the way they did on Sirius. The problem seems to be viral, which totally sucks for the artist!

Sorry for spamming your friends page with posts. I'll stop now. ^^;;

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Dean Haitani - What I Am (cover) [on DVR recording of Sirius Coffee House]

When i went to post that last entry, I sat my coffee down and forgot about it! And it was the most perfect cup I've made in a while, too. Damn it!

Ugh. I guess I'll just add some ice to it.

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: Lisa Loeb - Do You Sleep?

I don't know if it's because the power outage during the last snow storm threw me off of my work train, or because my current period has lasted for two whole effing weeks, but I've been feeling pretty crappy all week, and I haven't gotten a darn thing done. I didn't schedule anything, so I didn't do anything. I just wasted two whole weeks of my life. I feel bad about it, but not that bad, because I'm still feeling pretty shitty.

I've been sick, too. With a fever that keeps coming and going.

Have you ever read Dune? This week, it occurred to me that the Bene Gesserit litany against fear which goes:

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

would work really well as:

I must not hope. Hope is the mind-killer. Hope is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

Yes, that's the mood that I've been in. Even I don't want to be around me. Can't seem to drag myself out of it, though. I wish that I could get back into the mood I was in when I was compelled to listen to Modest Mouse's "Float On" on a non-stop loop. It was blissful and productive.

[Tangent: The site that found the original quote on when I googled it was andymatic.com. If you have a minute, go to this blog and look at the logo pic in the top left hand corner. The cat glaring over his shoulder in the picture makes me chuckle for some reason. Reminds me of my cats, I guess. It gave me a moment of happy, so I thought I'd share. ^_^;;]

I think that there's a pattern to the mood shifts that I've been having. Beyond just "I'm on my period, so I feel bad." I'm fairly certain that after a few months using

zannah's mood rater (which has been working out extremely well so far) I might be able to figure something out.

Aaaaanyway...

My mom and I have been watching some Korean dramas together. She's figured out that when I'm in this mood it's best to keep me focused on something mindless, so that I don't take it out on her. Though, I've still said some things to her that I regret.

This week, we've been watching Tomato and Phoenix. We finished Tomato, and we both freaking loved that drama! I mean, the lead male was clueless for the most part, but the sheer brilliance of the second male lead was worth having to watch the Evil!Bitchy woman be so damned mean to the female lead for so dang long. This drama seriously had the absolute best comeuppance that I've ever seen a villain get in a drama. It was awesome to behold and watch unfold. Love, love, love!!

We're only on Episode 15 (out of 26) of Phoenix. And the Evil!Bitchy woman in this one is just effing insane. Crazy. ZOMG Nuts. Seriously.

In other news: I joined Livemocha to help with my language studies. I have a lot of thoughts about the site. Maybe I'll share later. That might be fun. ^_^

Current Mood: crappy
Current Music: Weezer - Say it Ain't So

I love the Korean drama 별을 쏘다 (aka Shoot For the Stars). I know there are some out there who hated it, for various reasons, but I didn't. In fact, I watched it twice within as many months. On the soundtrack there are two songs that I love; the title track, "In My Dream" and "Nothing (성태 Theme)" which is actually a Korean version of "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas. I have no idea why that fact is not referenced in the title anywhere, but I know that it would be a major selling point if people knew that it existed. I had no idea, even after watching the show, because the version that is used in the drama is the original by Kansas. Finding this jem on the OST was a pleasant surprise, because I absolutely love cover versions of songs, especially good acoustic ones. So, because I couldn't find them anywhere, here are the Korean lyrics to 강찬 (Kang Chan)'s version of "Dust in the Wind", also known as "Nothing".

잠시 눈을감고. 내 마음에 그댈그려 보지만
눈을뜨면. 모든것이 사라지고 마네요.
Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind.

길을 걷다. 문득 그대얼굴 떠오르지만
이제 그대. 잊은채로 살아가야하겠죠.
Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind.

이세상에. 영원한건 아무것도 없겠죠.
이런 내 사랑. 언젠가는 사라지고 말겠죠.
Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind.
Dust in the wind. Everything is dust in the wind.

Maybe I'll add a romanization later, because it's good practice.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: 강찬 - Nothing (성태 Theme)

I got Symphony installed and working on my server! The kink,for the curious, was one of the requirements listed on the Symphony website: "LibXSLT Processor - XSL Module (Provided by LibXML)""

For this in Ubuntu (Hardy), I needed to install libxml2 (XML C parser/ toolkit for Gnome,) which I had to download, then compile and install. (The version available at the time was 2.6.32.

So in the terminal I did the following to download and extract Libxml2:

wget ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxml2-sources-2.6.32.tar.gz
tar -xvzf libxml2-sources-2.6.32.tar.gz
cd libxml2-2.6.32

Then I configured Libxml2 library, and compiled with:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/libxml2
make
sudo make install

Really simple fix. After that, everything was great and I now get to play with Symphony. The default theme is awesome, btw.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: MC Sniper - Gloomy Sunday

I've recently read about Symphony, a CMS which can be used like WordPress or Nucleus to run a blog or any other type of site you can think of. The coolest thing about it to me is that it is, as explained awesomely by River Jiang basically "more of a framework built on top of XML/XSLT than a CMS." I've been curious about XSLT (eXtended Stylesheet Language Transformation) for a while, but I didn't really have any use for it.

What I like about Symphony is thw workspace, which houses the site's entire layout--theme, pages and all. The only thing not there is the content. This creates some pretty awesome possibilities of use for me when I get roped into creating more websites for companys and organizations (I hate getting roped in, dammit.)

The only real hurdle that I see for using Symphony is learning XSLT, and being able to adapt that knowledge into actual application with Symphony to build sites. I'm going to need to free my mind a bit, which is always fun.^_^

Edit: Apparently, installing S ymphony is going to be a bit of a challenge, too. My ubuntu install seems to be missing a couple of necessaries. This isn't something that I can't get around, though, so it's not a problem. Just...uh...not today, since I've got a lot of work to do today which doesn't involve fun of any sort.

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Jamie Cullum - Seven Nation Army

usericon of a man sitting in on a couch in a shiny pink dress, smoking a cigarette got me thinking about something that I've wondered about before: men in pants.

For years I've wondered why it is that men are historically the sex that wears pants. It simply doesn't make sense! The latest baggy pants trend is taking so long to die out, I believe, mostly because bifurcated leg coverings are uncomfortable for men. They actually make more sense for women, who don't have a penis and testicles hanging between their legs.

(This thought line was actually started when I was younger, because I simply couldn't understand why women didn't push to wear pants sooner, seeing as how they fit us better. I got that skirts cover the shape of things up better, but for cleaning and whatnot pants just work better.)

Riiight, I was taking about men in skirts. Not women in pants.

I wonder why, considering the number of cross-dressing men, there aren't any "manly" dress and skirt designs out there. Quite frankly, I know a lot of women who like to wear men's clothes, and would be more likely to wear a "men's dress" if it mean that it was less frilly. (There I go, talking about women again...)

Anyway. I'd love to see some designs for "manly" skirts and dresses. I'd love even more to see people wearing them out in the world proudly. The whole idea reminds more of the men that wore the skant in the beginning of Star Trek: TNG, they looked ridiculous, but only because the design wasn't made for a man's body shape. (And my mind is not freed enough to be used to the sight, I admit it.) I think the thought behind the men wearing the skants was that, in a future with true gender equality, not only can women do what men do, men can do what women do. (Who also loved that line in Daddy Day Care? Anyone?)

And, male knitters still don't get the respect that they deserve! Knitting is hard, dammit!

I wish I'd had a usericon of Deadpool in Marvel Girl's costume for this post. It's probably the only time I'd get to use it, though. Sigh.

Update: Thanks to a wikipedia article on men's skirts, I just read about Utilikilts in a New York Times article. (The man in the picture for the NYT article has great legs! Which are shown off really well in the utilikilt, which is awesome.)

Photo by Stuart Isett for The New York Times

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Brown Eyed Soul

Found this quiz at

jcody28's journal during random lunchtime journal hopping

Your rainbow is intensely shaded violet, blue, and gray.

What is says about you: You are a tranquil person. You appreciate tradition and wisdom that comes with age. You depend on modern technology and may feel uncomfortable without it. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Current Mood: distracted
Current Music: Brown Eyes - Song of The Rain (feat. Bobby Kim)

I finished watching the DVDs, and I can now say that 썸데이, in English, Someday, is now, hands down, my favorite Korean drama ever. I wonder who did the art. Nobody seems to know.

And, because it's impossible to find the lyrics online, from the 썸데이 OST - Someday [sung by 융진 (jin) of Casker]. Typed and romanized by me because, like I said, the lyrics were impossible to find. Hopefully there are no typos.

융진 - Someday

someday~
그런날이 온다면
너의 곁에 머물 수 있을꺼야
그렇게 새로운 사랑은
사랑은 찾아

someday~
언젠가 널 만나서
너의 맘받아 줄 수 있을거야
그렇게 영원한 사랑은
사랑은 찾아
someday~

Romanized:

Someday~
keureonnali ondamyeon
neoeui kyeotei meomul su isseulkeoya
keureohke seroun sarangeun
sarangeun chaja

someday~
eonjenga neol mannaseo
neoeui mambada jul su isseulkeoya
keureohke yeongwonhan sarangeun
sarangeun chaja
someday~

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: 융진 - Someday

Bobby Kim is my favorite music artist, for those who don't know. I absolutley love his solo work. His voice and his style on his second and third albums, Beats Within My Soul and Follow Your Soul appeal to me. I ordered both physical albums from yesasia.com as soon as I could. I'm not as big a fan of the stuff he does with Bunga Kings; though when I understand more Korean that may change. If I could get a comprehensive list of all of the collaborations that he's done (because I know I haven't heard them all) I'd be a happy gal.

I know that I've written about this song before, it was one of the first Korean songs that I ever heard, and I started obsessing about finding other song by/with Bobby Kim. It's got a nice laid back, velvety style to it and it's repetative enough that I can play it on a constant loop when I need to concentate on coding and I don't want the music to distract me. I also like it because, when I can't sleep, I can put it on repeat and just let the flow take me away.

Dynamic Duo - 불면증 [bulmyeoncheung] (Insomnia) (feat. Bobby Kim)

Bobby:
이른 밤 난 또다시 낡은 기타를 잡아
지친 목소리로 노래를 부르지
아침 해가 날 재워줄 때까지
우 ~ 이제는 날고 싶지만
우~ 자신이 없어
차가운 눈빛도 _____ 지친 기대도
내게 점점 멀어져

There’s something wrong with me~

Chorus:
해 뜰 때가지 잠들 수 없어
뜬 눈으로 밤새워 난 노래를 불러
알 수 없어 잠들 수 없어
우 예 ~~

Choiza:
해가 뜨고 난 뒤에야 잠을 자 내 우뇌의 상처는 언제쯤 아물까?
복잡하게 꼬인 내 머릿속에 고민 몇 잔의 술 덕에 나는 이리도 아픈가?
어차피 빈손으로 왔다 가는 게 인생이라지만 난 여지껏 깡통만 찼다
재난은 꼬리에 꼬리를 물고 따라와 날 벗기고 날 굶기고
내 앞길을 망치고 가난이란 독한 놈만 남기고 가더라
밤잠까지 가지고 가더라 좀 힘들더라
야속하게도 날마다 태양은 제 시각에 뜨더라 시간은 흐른다
울거나 웃거나 아프거나 달거나 쓰거나 난 계속 늦는다
고민 속에 늙는다 언제쯤 내 침대 위엔 단잠의 싹이 움틀까?

[Chorus x2]

Gaeko:
이른 아침에 작업을 마치네 잠들지 못한 채 생각에 잠기네
살기 위해 발버둥치는데 (ONE TWO THREE FOUR)
내 통장 속에 잔고는 조금씩 줄어들어
절뚝거리시는 어머니 약봉지는 더 늘어
말라버려 눈물도 난 힘없이 붓을 들어 한없이 그려
슬픈 표정 짓는 자화상을 사랑에 버려져
길을 잃어버린 나는 서랍 속에 있는 실을 잃어버린 바늘
매일이 가을 왜이리 하늘이 그립지 땅으로 굽어진 고개는
하늘을 바라볼 수 없으니 내 사랑은 한때의 장난인가
난 달콤한 쾌락에 눈먼 장님인가 나는 썩었다 라는 푸념만 남긴 채
순수했던 어릴 적 그때를 내 눈속에 그린다

[Chorus x3]

Romanization of the only parts I can sing ^_^;;:

Bobby:
ireunbam nan ttodashi nalgeun kitareul chaba
chijin moksoriro noraereul boreuchi
ah-jim haega nal che-wolchul dekkachi
oh~icheneun nalgo shipchiman
oh~chashini eopseo
chaga un nun-bitto ____ chi-jin kitedo
nege cham-cham meoreojyeo

There’s something wrong with me~

Chorus:
hae tteul ttaegaji chamdeul su eopseo
teun nuneuro pamsaewo nan norereul pulleo
al su eopsso chamdeul su eopsseo
tell me what should I do~
ooh yeah~~

Just the chorus with hangul and romanization together:

해 뜰 때가지 잠들 수 없어
hae tteul ttaegaji chamdeul su eopseo
뜬 눈으로 밤새워 난 노래를 불러
teun nuneuro pamsaewo nan norereul pulleo
알 수 없어 잠들 수 없어
al su eopsso chamdeul su eopsseo
tell me what should I do
우 예 ~~
ooh ye~~

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Dynamic Duo - 불면증 [bulmyeoncheung] (Insomnia) (feat. Bobby Kim)

I went a little crazy with apt in the command line (and that rather convenient new Browse, Click, and Install version that Feisty has added to the Applications menu) and I ended up downloading and installing so many packages (over dial-up, no less! It took all weekend!) that my 6 GB partition, which had seemed (seeing as I had no internet connection) more than adequate when I first started using Linux on Frenki again, started getting alarmingly full.

So, brilliant gal that I am, I figured that, since I had feisty all perfectly set-up, I wouldn't need to boot into the old Hoary install that I had eating up a juicy 8.5 GB partition adjacent to this one...

Yes. I did. I started messing with my partition scheme, Idiot that I am.

To illustrate my stupidity (it's been a while, give me a break!) here's the setup that I had going before I royally frakked my system up:

Samsung 40GB HD [Master] (hda)

Random Free Space [100MB]

Windows, hda1, [25GB], Mount Point: /media/windows

Feisty, hda4, [6.5GB], Mount Point: /

Hoary, hda2, [8.5GB], Mount Point: /media/otheros

swap space, hda3, [1GB], Mount Point: swap

Maxtor 80GB HD [Slave] (hdb)

Sinjun, hdb1, Mount Point: /media/Sinjun

Random Free Space [500 MB]

Note that to make room for Feisty, I had to resize hda1 (Windows) to 25GB, and then create the new partition in the freed up space. That's why Feisty is hda4 and adjacent to hda1. I have no idea why there is 100MB free before hda1. My only defense is that I must've done it back when I was a total n00b, or it came that way and I was too lazy to fix it since it didn't cause any problems.I haven't really used this computer in well over two years.

A lot of the problems that I caused later stemmed from assuming that previous experience with Windows would work similarly in Linux, I think. I'm still slightly unclear as to the exact order of problems that I created and the maddening events that transpired as a result, but I do know I won't do this lightly again.

Okay. So. I wanted more space for Feisty, and the 8.5 gigs on hda2 looked nice and juicy, right? So I decided to delete the partion (hda2) and resize Feisty (hda4) so that it took up all of the freed space until the swap (hda3). Makes sense that it would work logically, right? The two partitions are adjacent, so there wouldn't be any lengthy moving procedures involved, and, thus no pain, right?

Wrong. None of the partitioning programs that I had would touch hda2. No clue why. After a bit of running around, I was able to delete the partition, leaving the free space that I wanted between hda4 and the swap space, but for some knucklepucking reason, I couldn't resize hda4 to take advantage of the space.

So, I give up. It eats at me, but I give up and boot into my sad little 6GB Feisty install.

Or, rather, I try to. Grub won't work!

Not a problem, I've encountered this before. I'm calm, I boot into the live CD and try to install a boot loader by skip all other steps in the install process but that one. Feisty's live CD won't do it! It's too smart! It won't let me proceed with an installation that doesn't install anything. It won't. It just won't. And there's nothing I can do to try to trick it, because all frakking Canonicle's given me is a stupid pretty installer program. Not for the first time, I missed the command line installation process.

[Oh. Yeah. Tangent: The new slick installation gives me the same dumb-ass point-and-click I'm-just-going-along-for-the-ride feeling that many OS X configuration tools give me. When it freezes, it freezes, and I'm screwed. When it fraks up, it fraks up, and I'm screwed. When it doens't like my hardware or something, I can't do anything to tweak the settings or get around that step, I'm just tough-out-of-luck. I hate it. They should at least give the more experienced users the option of using the old install process, which gave a little more control. (Because there are more experienced Ubuntu users out there. Not everyone in the hordes is a n00b straight from Windows looking for a streamlined, easy-to-use clone.) Having to rely on an OS to boot from the live CD first is risky, because if something goes wrong on the live OS loading, I CAN'T INSTALL ANYTHING. At least the old way, I could install, tweak anything that broke to my needs, and run. At least there were hoops I could jump through, if need be.]

I tried installing Xubuntu into hda2, which gave me GRUB, but for some reason Feisty hung up on booting (no clue where, though somewhere along the line when I was in the Live CD I edited the /boot/grub/menu.lst settings so that the "quiet" setting was no longer on.)

[Tangent: I prefer a more verbose boot to the mindlessness of the quiet splash. Maybe I've been using Linux for too long, but I used to find the non-splashy boots of Warty and Hoary somewhat comforting. At least I could see what was happening. It made me feel geeky and somehow more connected to my computers. The splash screen with the tiny blue text is a nice, happy medium, though]

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: 휘성 (Wheesung) - My Way

Which is to say that, a couple of days ago, I completely frakked up my Feisty install. I got overzealous with the settings, I think.

After two long days of fixing the incredibly messe up situation I had going on, I'm happy to say that Everything is back up an running. It involved a lot of partition formatting and deletion, though, wchich can't be good for my main HD. And I'm having issues with Sinjun now that interrupt the filesystem check on every boot up in linux. Which means I'm going to have to transfer all of the 80 GB of crap I have saved on her onto another drive (when I can buy a new one--hopefully bigger).

Maybe then I'll be able to swap out the old 40GB Samsung that's the main drive on Frenki and use the 80GB, Sinjun, as the master with a (hopefully bigger) drive as the slave for storing music and videos and the like. That would rock my world. Well, actually, that would make me happy. A Whole new b0x would rock my world.

Oh, yes, it certainly would.

Current Mood: cranky

I wanted to start keeping track of the Korean movies and dramas that I've seen and that I want to see.

Korean Dramas I have watched. (An '*' denotes a series that I have started but not completed for one reason or another. Some of the ones in progress I'm renting from Netflix. That's right, Netflix has Korean Dramas. Isn't that awesome?):

  All About Eve, 이브의 모든 것
  Alone In Love, 연애시대
  Attic Cat, 옥탑방 고양이
  Autumn Tale, 가을동화
  Bad Family, 불량가족
  Beautiful Days, 아름다운 날들
  Coffee Prince 1st Shop, 커피 프린스 1호점
*Damo, 조선 여형사, 다모
  Delicious Proposal, 맛있는 청혼
  Did We Really Love, 우리가 정말 사랑했
  Fantasy Couple (AKA Couple or Trouble), 환상의 커플
  Fascinate My Heart, 내 마음을 뺏어봐
  Freeze, 프리주
  Full House, 풀하우스
*Goodbye My Love, 안녕 내 사랑
  Happy Together, 해피투게더
*I'm Sorry, I Love You, 미안하다, 사랑한다
  Ireland, 아일랜드
*Jumong; 주몽 (aka The Book of Three Han)
  Law Firm, 로펌
*Little Women, 작은 아씨들
*Loveholic, 러브홀릭
  Love Letter, 러브 레터
  Lovers in Paris, 파리의 연인
*Miss Kim's 1 Billion Won Project, 파란만장 미스김 10억
  Mr. Duke, 신귀공자
  My Love Patzzi
  My Name is Kim Sam Soon, 내이름은 김삼순
  Next, 환생-넥스트
  Over the Rainbow, 오버 더 레인보우
  Phoenix, 불새
  Prince's First Love, 황태자의 첫사랑
*Romance, 로망스
*Sad Love Story, 슬픈연가
*Second Proposal, 두번째 프러포즈
  Secret, 비밀
  Secret Lovers, 비밀남녀
  Shooting Stars (aka Shoot For The Stars), 별을 쏘다
  Someday, 썸데이
  Spring Day, 봄날
  Truth/Honesty, 진실
  Tomato, 토마토
  War Of Money, 쩐의 전쟁
  What Happened in Bali, 발리에서 생긴 일
*Witch Yoo-Hee, 마녀유희 (aka Witch Amusement)

Next are the K-drama series that I want to see. (A '+' denotes a series that I have, but have yet to start watching.):

  A Love To Kill, 이 죽일놈의 사랑
  Air City, 에어시티
  All In, 올인
  Bad Guy, 나쁜 남자
  Bad Love, 못된 사랑
  Boys Before Flowers, 꽃보다 남자
  Chuno, 추노 (aka Slave Hunters)
  East of Eden, 에덴의 동쪽
  Emperor of the Sea, 해신
  Fashion 70's, 패션 70's
  First Wives' Club, 조강지처 클럽
  Get Karl! Oh Soo Jung, 칼잡이 오수정 (aka Butcher Oh Soo Jung)
  Great Inheritance, 위대한 유산
  Hotelier, 호텔리어
  IRIS, 아이리스
  Lawyers, 변호사들
  Let's go to School, Sang-Doo!, 상두야, 학교가자!
  Let's Go To The Beach, 해변으로 가요
  Lovers in Prague, 프라하의 연인
  My Precious Child, 내사랑 금지옥엽
  Nine Tailed Fox, 구미호 외전 (aka Forbidden Love)
  On Air, 온에어
  Personal Taste, 개인의 취향 (aka Kae-In's Taste)
  Princess Hours/Goong, 궁
  Queen of Housewives, 내조의 여왕 ()
  Ruler of Your Own World, 네 멋대로 해라
  Sandglass, 모래시계
  Single Papa in Love, 싱글파파는 열애중
  Story of the First King's Four Gods, 태왕사신기 (aka The Legend)
  Super Rookie, 신입사원
  Tazza, 타짜 (aka War of Flowers)
  Thank You, 고맙습니다
  Time Between Dog and Wolf, 개와 늑대의 시간
  Unstoppable High Kick (Season) 2, 지붕 뚫고 하이킥 (aka High Kick Through the Roof)
  Winter Sonata, 겨울연가
  The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry, 아직도 결혼하고 싶은 여자 (aka Still, Marry Me)
  Worlds Within, 그들이 사는 세상 (aka The World That They Live In)

Korean Movies I have seen:

He Was Cool, 그놈은 멋있었다
Il Mare, 시월애
The King and the Clown
200 Pound Beauty, 미녀는 괴로워
Take Care of My Cat, 고양이를 부탁해
My Sassy Girl, 엽기적인 그녀
Road Movie
A Masterpiece in My Life
Windstruck, 내 여자 친구를 소개

Sheesh! Looking at this list, when do I have time for anything else?

Current Music: 바비킴 (Bobby Kim) - 최면 (feat. Tablo (of Epik High))

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azuretta

June 2012

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