Saturday Morning

11:05 - today I woke up and realized that I look like a boy.

I don't think I mentioned this before, but a couple of days ago I cut my hair. I don't really know what I was thinking, honestly. I didn't start until it was about 11pm, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't thinking clearly at the time or something. Anyway, I only narrowly avoided disaster and instead arrived at absolute mediocrity. This has got to be the most boring haircut I've ever had. I didn't even think to keep it at least a little longer on top. I took a picture to document this occurrence.

Sexy, right? I'm taking selcas to the next level.

While I'm sharing pictures, here's one from a couple of weeks ago of the white board we have on the outside of our door. I wrote 안녕하세요 (crookedly, I know) but someone else wrote what's underneath it.

It made my day (week), anyway.

So as you know, with Deathnote I had my first real experience with graphic novels, and then this week for my Literature for Adolescents class I read American Born Chinese, which wasn't awesome but it was pretty fun nevertheless. Anyway, I was inspired by trying something new like that, so I played around a little with drawing one of my writing works in progress in comic book form. And it turned out being totally fun. Here's the main obstacle I ran into: it's really, really hard for me to draw the same person from panel to panel and make them actually look like the same person. I have to really, really carefully think about what features make them that person, and draw them the same every time. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. But it's fun anyway.

11:30 - 2NE1 is awesome. But their band is awesomer. Imagine being so famous and great that you get to just go to a recording session and sing with musicians like this.

I started reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. You can tell it was written by someone at least slightly bitter about their childhood. Here is an excerpt:

Harry had been sent to the best elementary schools - and when that didn't work out, he was provided with tutors from the endless labor pool of starving students. Always Harry had been encouraged to study whatever caught his attention, bought all the books that caught his fancy, sponsored in whatever math or science competitions he entered. He was given anything reasonable that he wanted, except, maybe, the slightest shred of respect.

So you know how I was talking earlier about how weirded out I am when famous and/or talented people are younger than me? The same is true when I meet actual peers who are younger than me (basically my entire floor save one). I think this disorientation comes from growing up with almost everyone around me being older. I didn't have any friends who were younger than me. Besides you, I didn't even have any family who was younger than me, and so I always automatically defaulted to the youngest, or one of the youngest. Like, me and you and Joseph are still "the kids", and you and me are "the girls" (at least we've graduated from "the little girls"). It's ingrained in my mind, so being the unnie on 4th Hosey is odd. And people know I'm older, so they keep coming up to me to ask exactly how old I am in case I'm old enough to buy them alcohol. It's profoundly unsettling.

Lunchtime.

12:35 - Biscuits and gravy for lunch. Yes.


So here is what has made today so great (so far). I have been listening to my dance playlist all morning while I do all this stuff. I don't listen to my dance playlist often because it makes me feel restless sometimes, but on a sunny morning like this when I'm doing fun things, it is perfect. I put on those huge headphones and turned the bass all the way up, because I can. I am slowly refining all my playlists and they are getting good. You should check them out. "Smooth" is currently my favorite. I took the "kpop" off the front of the title because I put a JB song on there and I may add more. After all, it would be silly of me to abandon all the other music I like in favor of kpop.

Okay, pause writing while I listen to Digital Bounce. I think I've only actually heard this song all the way through two or three times, so it is pretty cool right now.

...and, TOP. Awww yeah.

In other news, I just saw this picture and I think it might prevent me from sleeping at night.

I don't have anything against Niel, and honestly his voice is pretty good, but I don't know if I will ever get used to whatever he has going on with his face and hair. 

2:03 - 2PM's My Color may be my new favorite song.

And I realized that in GD and TOP's "High High", they spell out ghetto at the end, and then electro. So it's "ghetto electro"? Makes about the same amount of sense as the rest of the song.

6:17 - I got tired of sitting down, so I am following the advice of office-space gurus everywhere and putting my laptop on top of the dresser. It is actually at exactly the right height for typing.

Today, I finally got around to finishing Coffee Prince. I'm glad I didn't abandon it. I wasn't ever a huge fan of Han Gyul (he always seemed a little whiny and desperate, even though he was funny and sweet), so I was tempted, but the supporting characters gave me hope. By the end I was in transports of joy. I'm glad that not everyone got a perfect ending, and I'm glad that the Japanese guy could find happiness even though that lady left him after everything (that sucked). And I definitely cried a lot when the three guys were saying goodbye to her right before she left for Italy. Ha Rim, so sweet.

Apparently, Yoon Eun Hye (the actress who plays Eun Chan) is like one of Korea's national treasures and everyone is in love with her. I guess she's pretty cool. She was pretty cool in Lie To Me too, but I think I'd rather see her in a movie. I will have to look one up.

I should go, because I think I might actually do homework tonight or something. I have been reading this book for World Literature, it's called Madame Bovary and even though it is chock-full of admirable moral lessons, it is still exactly the sort of crash-and-burn romance novels I despise. Maybe I despise it even more because I can see myself in the main character (who is, incidentally, a terrible person). I will prevail, however. I suspect that she will die in the end, because it is that sort of book.

To be honest, I have been hoping that she'll die for at least the last hundred pages. I suppose that's too much to hope for, though.

-Amy

P.S. 7:55 - I'm putting this at the end of the post because I feel like if anyone else reads this they will abandon the chore of getting through it before they get here, and I will be spared undue shame. I just wanted to relate to you that last night, the dining hall closed at 6:30 and I was so hungry that I wasn't satisfied just with the ramen I made at 8:30... I had to put ranch on it. I know. I'm sorry.

Maybe the Longest Post Ever

5:40 - For my Literature for Adolescents class, my group has to make up a Japanese legend starring a crane (which brings health and enlightenment to all, and also oversees reincarnation). We decided to all write one separately, then come together and decide on which one is the best (or put them all together). I have until Sunday to make it really good. I think I'll make it funny, just because we've been known to be funny as a group in the past (It was mostly just our leader and the other girl in the group - as the maknae, I lack charisma, but I can try my best). Anyway, since writing is my strength, I hope my story makes the final cut.

Here's one of the things that annoys me the most - when teachers hand back writing-intensive tests with the grade and a two-or-three word note. I understand that they have a ton of tests to grade and they can't spend a whole bunch of time explaining why I got the grade I got, but really, if I get a bad grade, I want to know why. I got 87 on my American Literature midterm for "ideas not fleshed out enough", even though I spent the entire class period trying to flesh out as many relevant thoughts as I possibly could in the test booklet. I thought I did super well on my World Literature midterm too, but I got it back today with a 92, which I know is an A, but the only thing the teacher wrote on it was "explain your words". What's that supposed to mean? What am I supposed to take away from that? If there are only two tests in the entire term, and they constitute the entire grade I'm going to get, I want more of an explanation for a less than spectacular grade and, more importantly, suggestions for how I can get a better grade on the final test.

The student teachers in my Adolescent Literature class are pretty cool though. There was one assignment we had with the Eclipse group where we had to write journal entries from the perspective of an assigned character - mine was Edward, and I really hammed it up. Even though I got full points on all of them, they still took the time to tell me what I did right ("You did such a great job of showing Edward's passion for Bella!" and "I think it's important that Edward realize just how restrictive he has been to Bella"). I feel confident of their future success as teachers.

Yeah, that whole Strong Heart episode sounds pretty sketch, I don't know if I'll be able to bear watching the whole thing when it comes out. I think part of what makes it so painful is the awkward translations, but still. I mean, dang. If you've lived and worked with someone for like seven or eight years, you should 1) have at some point or another seen each other with your shirts off without being weird about it (they're guys, for goodness sake, and they change like twenty times every concert), and 2) have enough mutual respect to not dish out all these dirty details on national television. Sometimes I think Big Bang members must have really uneasy relationships (or else they're magnificent trolls).

Wooooah, that Jason Derulo MV was pretty legit. He has fancy footwork, plus the backup dancers were cool. Like I said, I'm not a big fan of him but he's definitely gone up in my book. It's true about the lip syncing though. If you're going to lip sync, at least sing as well so it actually looks marginally real.

Chris Brown - Chris Brown is pretty intense. I mean I don't like his voice hugely, but I have the same view of it as I do of Taeyang's: doesn't sound great, but he has awesome control and is super versatile. Plus I can never resist men dancing in suits. What's with the animal suits though? Is this Chris Brown on acid? At one point there was a guy with a panda head in the background, and I lol'd. But yeah. The man can dance, especially in the Gene Kelly getup. I like.

B1A4 - Aww, that's a pretty cool video. They are all super cute except yeah, the girl was scary. I like the guy with the long hair. The video of theirs I watched the other day that I thought was so awesome was Beautiful Target. Literally every second of it makes me happy. I was going to mention a few specific things but I couldn't point out anything without wanting to point out everything.

NU'EST - is that their only song? It is pretty cool, and yeah, that guy seriously looks like a girl. The blonde ponytail isn't helping his case at all. And the end - ENGLISH. I feel like they're doing that thing that BAP did, debuting with a super intense song and dance that sort of surprises everyone into liking them. And instead of Zelo they have a girl.

7:00 - I can't stand LMFAO, really. I liked "I'm Sexy and I Know It", but their music videos are pretty inexcusable. I feel like there's a point, as a musician, when you should step back and question whether or not you're actually making music that people enjoy for more than just a catchy beat.

Beast - I have seen that video, but I didn't realize the first time that KiKwang was singing in English at the beginning. "I'm hurrsick" made me laugh. As the Arms, I feel like he shouldn't have such a ridiculously pretty face. As always, YoSeob is my favorite. The outfit he's wearing at the end is hilarious.

2PM - Yay Thailand! Yay Nichkhun! They are pretty funny unscripted. And Chansung is pretty tall. I don't know how, but I'm sure that the second I post this post I will forget his name again. I don't know why I always forget his name, but by now it is a regular occurrence. If these making of/behind the scenes films are to be believed, all these groups are basically just messing around having fun all the time. Which seems pretty cool, but I don't think it's true. Anyway Wooyoung on the keyboard is pretty funny.

I would pick yellow, because Wooyoung, or pink, because Nichkhun in a lace button-up and pleather vest is too hilarious to ignore.Though black is close too, because those backup dancers are pretty cool, and you know how I feel about black. Yes to the cornrows; no to the suit jacket with no shirt underneath.

Gotta stop this, seriously. I have other stuff to do! Though I'm proud to say that I wrote my two literary analyses with a vengeance last night with time to spare before bedtime (though lately I have been sleeping very badly).

You're going to Jeff City. Even though I'm not crazy about the city itself, the Capitol is pretty cool, and you'll probably have a grand time with all those people. Experience being a minority!

-Amy

Thoughts on Thursday

Ha, well, our internet is going pretty fast. I opened all the videos you talked about (and more) and they're all loading incredibly fast.

First thing: this happened last night, but its still funny. You know how me and Angela had to search around for Dance Academy on Youtube, and one of the videos top comments was, "came for the dancing, stayed for the hot asian" we laughed for like thirty seconds, and then we went to like three more videos and ALL the top comments were about Christian.

-CNBLUE, wow that is really fun on my ears! Its so catchy and wonderful! Sometimes I wonder if Shinwoos face is too tight for him to smile. He has pretty tight skin. Does that makes sense? I don't know, but I've always thought that.

-Jason Derulo,  I really really like that song, actually, its really beautiful. I watched the MV and he did some totally weird zombie dancing. I didn't really know he's a dancer, but he's like Chris Brown's twin, so it makes sense (more on that later). At one point he did like a jig or something, it was totally weird. Also, WOW he's worse at lip syncing than EXO-K. But yeah, I really liked the song.

-Justin Bieber, yeah, I did hear his song, but I wasn't really paying attention to the words, because when I watched Chesters cover I thought it was a parody because I couldn't imagine that JB would actually say "falsetto in thee two swag" or somethin-somethin "fondue". But yeah, I hope the rest of the album  has less talk-rapping and more rap-rapping.

-Chris Brown, when I watched that Jason Derulo video I was reminded how much he reminds me of Chris Brown, and then I remembered this song that we dance to in Hip Hop called Turn Up The Music, which I really liked, so I watched the video. Its kind of bizarre, and the song is very stereotypical dancy song, but a little ways in he starts doing crazy-dance in a suit, which is pretty cool, I must say. I feel his dance style is similar to his lifestyle: crazy. Make sure to watch it to the end, he has a fedora and a cane.
The way he approaches girls is similar to the way Taeyang approaches girls. You know what I mean.

-B1A4, I'd watched one of their MV's and it was the only song I'd heard of theirs, and I didn't like it that much. The song was in japanese or something so I don't know what its called, but  the whole thing was red and white and one of the guys hair was no bueno. But then I just watched Baby I'm Sorry, and daaaaang I really like it. The girl is really scary looking and one of the guys looks like Justin Chon minus the crazy nose.

-NU'EST, I heard about them a little while ago, and I watched a dance version to their song. It wasn't a legit dance version it was just a bunch of performances put together, but I remember being like, "this song is pretty cool! This dance is pretty cool!" but I didn't really do anything about it. Today I saw the music video and now I'm like "THEY ARE TOTALLY AWESOME." even if one of them really DOES look like a girl. You know its true because I only say it when its totally true. Its easier if you just assume that the whole "You're Beautiful" thing is happening there. But anyway, the band is cool, the dance is cool and the song is reeeally cool. Its called Face, by the way.

-Hip Hop Class, I mentioned something about Hip Hop class up there, and heres the dizzle. We got a new song, and its like five songs put together, but I found two of them. Let it Rain, or Chicken Noodle Soup, is the first one. That song is really old and I get the feeling that its one of those Teach me How to Dougie, or Superman songs where the song is only popular because of the dance. But the chorus is in our dance. And then the chorus of Outta your mind by Lil Jon ft LMFAO is also in the song. The chorus is totally legit, but the song is LAME and the music video is super sketch. Its a pretty stereotypical LMFAO music video with a pool party and a DJ and about three hundred slightly chubby white people. Why are they always chubby?

-You're a bigger beast fan than me so I'm sure you've seen/heard the song Bad Girl, but I just watched the music video and its totally fun. Also theres a random dance refrain. And goodness I love dance refrains.

- I found someone taller than Lee Min Ho. This is incredible! Chansung, the maknae of 2PM is 6 feet and half an inch! TALL.

-"2PM hands up tour in......thailand!"
- 0:35 - 1:00 bahahahahaha taec you da silly. Also the whole thing is funny because none of them know how to play any of those instruments. Apparently they're coming out with a new album pretty soon, and I'm super excited.

- How did we miss this???? OH MY GOSH. 2:07 bahahahahah. And does Taec have corn rows? Why!! The maknae isn't my favorite, really, but I would totally pick black. Mainly because having seven backup dancers makes you looks really cool.

- GD's sense of humor is surprising. I laughed for like seventeen minutes.

I Like Your Thinking

Facebook is pretty public, after all. Everyone is probably sick of seeing our multiple-per-day posts about TOP and MBLAQ in their news feed. I am starting a little late, however. Right now, it is 4:00.

4:00 - I watched all the videos you linked, and here are my thoughts.

-SHINee: I have not seen so much cool beans in one place since I can't remember when. It is of a different type from Fantastic Baby and Bad Boy, which are my automatic go-to MVs for doses of awesome, so I don't know. Let's just say that Key is daebak. And also Minho. I can never say who is my favorite in Shinee though, because Onew's voice is like magical honey, Jonghyun is the drama queen and therefore irresistible, and Taemin is the Korean Michael Jackson. There's just no way to choose.

In other notes, after watching the video a couple of times I have to say that this dance must take a massive amount of coordination. I mean, I knew it was hard the first time I watched it, but the more I watch it the harder it looks. Anyway, as for what they're wearing, I wasn't a fan of Taemin's outfit (or his hair, but we will not speak of it), except then I realized that those aren't just lame capris that he's wearing, they're legit Thai pants, you know the ones that wrap around weirdly and tie that look super comfy but are hard to figure out. Key is ridiculous, but in a good way. I kind of want those shorts. And the pants Minho is wearing make his legs look really long. Maybe that's just how they are anyway. I guess he's the tallest.

-Big Bang: For one thing, Taeyang is pretty cute when he stumbles over Japanese. For another thing, I have a newfound respect for Seungri because even though he doesn't know a lick of English, he speaks Japanese really well (from what I can tell). And TOP... well, yeah. I want Daesung to say something.

-MBLAQ: Dat falsetto. Dang. I didn't even know that was possible. I actually don't think I've heard that song before, or else I heard it but didn't put it on my playlist for some reason. I lol'd at the Engrish, though. "Let's get party tonight."

CNBlue came out with a new album recently. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZYuZ5DIvn4 My ears are definitely having fun. Also my eyes. Don't know what's up with all the white people, though.

4:42 - I have made informal plans to get an apartment next fall with my roommate and another friend ("Major downer" Kailea). We haven't looked into anywhere yet but I am excited. Speaking of which, she wants me to go to the gym with her today. I really don't want to go because I am a lazy butt, which of course means I must go. After that I think I'm going to cut my hair. It's definitely time.

On Easter weekend I think I'm going to bring my friend Jamie home with me. She pretty much invited herself but I don't mind because she is pretty funny and cool. I don't know what we'll do all weekend since we don't exactly share hobbies, but I guess we'll work something out.

Every time I talk to my Korean contact in choir, I get tongue-tied and can't think of anything important to say. She's super chill but I'm ashamed to show how little I know in front of her. Thankfully it is a motivator for me to work really hard to get better so I can impress her (and others).

That Big Bang family tree is hilarious. My favorites are TOP&TOP's Coffee CEO (from Knockout), Taeyang's mother and father, Seungri's youngest sibling who was kept hidden, GD's "Passionate Christian uncle", and Daesung's brother who wears his underwear over his pants. XP

5:19 - Have you heard Justin Bieber's new song "Boyfriend"? I'm listening to it for the first time right now, and I have to say that my first impressions are good. I'm not sure about the weird rap-talking that's going on since I know JB can do so much better, but I like the feel of it. Maybe it'll be easy to get tired of. I like how his voice has changed. Plus he has kpop-worthy falsetto ("I don't know about me but I know about you, so say hello to falsetto in three, twoswag"). I feel like it's bad that I am comparing these things, but what's a girl to do?

Chester See did a cover that's pretty good, only different. He doesn't have the same time of charm, plus he can't get away with saying "swag" a lot. I guess the song's pretty versatile.

Another song I've really liked lately is Jason Derulo's "Breathing". It's not new but I just heard it on the radio for the first time when I was driving to school on Sunday (it took me TWO HOURS because there was an insane detour for construction on 7). I don't normally like Jason Derulo's music that much, but he doesn't do any of those annoying things with his voice in this song. Check it out. 

5:40 - The internet is so broken right now. It has been slower than at home for a few days (basically I opened all those videos you linked, paused them, then went to my two-hour lab so I could watch them when I got back), and now it is gone altogether. Sometimes living in this dorm hurts me a little, just because the AC doesn't really work at the moment, the hot water keeps going out, and the internet is like a snail that has died. First world problems.

Okay it's back on.

7:54 - I'm not sure how it got this late so fast. Anyway I went to the gym with some people. I was only able to run for about three quarters of a mile before I felt like my heart was going to explode (I can't remember what your heart rate isn't supposed to get above, but I counted 210 bpm and that seemed like enough to tone it down a little). Then I walked briskly the rest of the mile and stretched. It was good, because I got to do some yoga, and I haven't done that in a while. While I did that, I reflected on the interesting experience of doing yoga while listening to a bunch of jocks hitting on my friend while she did weights in a corner. Such is life.

It's 7:59 now and I desperately need a shower, but someone is in the bathroom. The thing about our suitemates is that they ever use the bathroom until I need to use the bathroom.

Okay, they're out now. I'm gonna finish this blog post here because I have a lot of homework for tomorrow that I haven't started on (that's how I do).

-Amy

Everything I did today.

Amy I decided on something HEUUUUUGE today:

I'm not going to write on your facebook wall a single time, I'm just going to keep this post open all day so I can add to it, and then I'll publish it when I leave the computer, and when you get on facebook, you'll be like, "gosh finally I don't have three million wall posts from Michelle today" and then I'll be like, "Look at the blog!" and you'll be like, "ahh! So organized!"

10:05

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQTLZTt_RAM
I stumbled upon this video and I was like, "oh another anouncement video, I'll watch it because there are few things I love more than watching things that have to do with Big Bang. And then I found out, this isn't like other announcement videos.
Thoughts:
1. top...just...keep it up.
2. WHAT SEUNGRI KNOWS JAPANESE?
3. I love them. soooo muuuuch.
4. top is like seven inches taller than all of them.

10:06
I've watched this about 700 times

No, thats a joke, I've watched the whole thing about, literally, 25 or 30 times, and I've watched 1:35-1:45 and 2:52-3:11 about 100 times.
Thoughts: At first I thought the dance was really weird, but its definitely grown on me. Every time I watch it I realize just how ingenious it is, and how it works with the concept of the song so well. The part where they all stand in a single file like and freeze in their different poses is really wonderful. It took me a while to get it, but now I really love the idea.
Keys part at 2:52? I watched it so many times that I got it stuck in my head ALL AFTERNOON while working. It was great.

10:34I've always loved this song but I didn't realize until not very long ago what was going on at 2:31-2:37.
Thoughts:
DAT FALSETTO. I'm just guessing that's GO because he's the one that always does the falsetto, but OHMYGAAALSH. it so amazing.

12:00
You're welcome.

So I watched that episode of MBLAQ Hello Baby where they leave Joon with the babies and watch from the other room without him knowing. So Joon calls them to see where they are, and GO is like "He's calling us!" and Seungho is like "Just complete the mission we gave you." and Joon is like "Theres a lot of stuff on this list!" and then Seungho is like, "Well you made a house so you should be fine."
And then they're all silently like, "OMG seungho ruined it now Joon knows that we're watching him" and then Seungho is like "Maybe if I don't say anything more, he won't get it," and then Joon was just like, "....I don't want to do this alone!"

Well...at least he's pretty.

And then Mir, "This is the first time someones made Dayoungie cry." "....No...No you were the first one to make her cry."

The things they say to get the kids to go to them in the popularity test is hilarious.
"I'll buy you something" - seungho
"I'll buy you pororo." - Thunder
"I'LL BUY YOU A POOL!" - Joon
"I like you." - mir
"Dayoungie, lets get married when you grow up!" - joon

Just saw a picture of Seungho wearing a shirt that said, "Be the superlative." cheesy in a different language, yur doin' it right.
And then right after that I saw a picture of GO wearing a shirt that said, MEN in MBLAQ. uh... I thought fans were supposed to wear those shirts.

Google Big Bang Family Tree and enjoy the things that become of it.


Yay for nerdy kpop post!

-michelle

Good Day

It is pretty cool that you got Angela's computer, and also pretty cool that you changed it from Turkish. I don't know why she didn't do that earlier.

My computer is definitely a boy. I don't know why I haven't named it yet. I haven't even thought about it, which is weird because I named my car (Oliver) and my coffee maker (Harold). It just never came up. It says TOSHIBA on it really big though, so I feel like I should give it a really good Japanese first name to complete it. You work with what you have. My coffee maker is of the Mr.Coffee brand, so it was pretty much just begging to be named.

Today might be the best day ever. At school, I mean. I have a lot of Best Days Ever at home, but they don't happen very often at school, just because, you know, it's school. I am already done with classes and the tree outside our window is suddenly blooming and leafing out at the same time. Everyone is showing off their sunburn, so I guess I'm not a unique snowflake after all. I am going to go to the bookstore later today with my fingers crossed to get that book I have to have for class tomorrow. I am beginning to be pretty paranoid that the Sudden Asian Educational Principles are going to come down pretty hard on me because I tend to waltz through class in an interpretive state of mind, which probably won't go down well. We'll see.

I know what you mean about swearwords in other languages. It's not the words themselves that are hard to understand, it's how much weight they're given in the culture. So 씨발 might always be translated into the f-word, but from what I can tell it carries about the same weight in Korea as saying "dammit" in America. I don't know. Swearwords aren't the weapon of choice over there. They have much, much more dire ways to be obscenely rude, whereas in America we are unimaginative and therefore attach all this power to a few ugly words that are just synonyms to bodily functions.

I am looking at Big Bang merchandise. It is hard to find anything good so maybe I won't be tempted.

-Amy

Nothing in Particular

Here's what I can't do. Deal with Angela's computer when its in Turkish.

So I changed it.

I also can't deal with calling this "Angela's Computer" forever, because I know I will, even though soon it will be my own computer. Its kind of like calling the room which is now the guest room/Amy's room, "Josephs room" Why do I still do that? How long ago did he move out? I don't know, but it will forever be Josephs room.

So I'm thinking of an absolutely awesome name that I can name this computer. Preferably something incredibly long that I can shorten or use the acronym of. Like, I'm not going to name it Max, because that's lame, and I need a name that surpasses the computer in awesomeness. I mean, if I had a TOTALLY awesome computer I could name it Max because it would work. Good computer: bad name. Relatively old and jerky and messed up computer: good name.

Maybe something from a book. Maybe something I made up. Maybe something from a different country. We'll think about it. The first thing to figure out is, is this computer a girl or a boy? It seems like a boy to me. But when angela had it, it was a girl. Does that sound weird? Sometimes I gender-atize things, and in my mind, it was definitely a girl when Angela had it. But its a boy now.

The thing I'm most excited about having my own computer is putting my own backround on the desktop and the chrome homepage....

I take joy in the simple things.

The thing I'm NOT excited about is transferring my files from moms computer to my computer. I don't have an abundance of music, but it will still be a bore to transfer it all. The thing I'm most dreading is transferring my "beautiful people whom I love" file, because I feel like its taking all the 4000 or so pictures of Angela's I deleted off here the other day and putting them ...right back on. But of course, my pictures are pictures of beautiful people, not 700 blurry pictures of smoke.

Anyway, Amy. I'm listening to MBLAQ right now, and I'm going to mow later, and the only lotion we have is 50SPF, which might just be my only option. I'd rather stay evenly white than be the the kind of weird tan that you become when you mow. One good part about this is that I'm going to be in the sun and maybe my hair will get even lighter the healthy way. I love it when stuff happens naturally (i.e. My hair getting lighter by the sun rather than an abundance of horrible chemicals that create a straw-like - but satisfyingly white - wasteland on my head)

So Amy you know how we're always like "yeah Korean people just don't get cuss words" and its totally true, but I realized something: its not just them, I'm getting that its really hard to get cuss words in different languages. Like I don't get cuss words in Korean, even though I get them in English. Like obviously they're just words to me, but to other people they aren't, and that's vise versa.

That's all I have to say about that.

Science City

I like to feel like a kid. Sooo, Science City is like my favorite place of all time. ITS SO AWESOME. Anyway, lots happened, and it was really cool. You know where you can uncover bones and stuff, and they're all covered in little pieces of rubber? Well, me and Mo went over to do that and we had our little brushes, and we started to uncover stuff with these two little black kids, and this Asian kid.

SIDENOTE: ok, OK. There were like seven hundred Asian 8-year olds. I saw one Asian adult, but it was like ever kid was a little Asian kid, and they were all. so. adorable. And speaking of which, yesterday I went to Forever 21 with Mo, and I lost her for a minute, and it was then that I realized that every single person in the store was either a short Latino girl, or a short Asian girl. I mistook like four people for her.

BACK TO THE STORY: so anyway, the little black kids were actually TOTALLY ANNOYING. they were gettin' dirt all over me and Mo and the other kids newly discovered artifacts, and then after a little they left, and the little Asian boy started talking and OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO CUTE.

"We have to solve this mystery! What is that? What are you digging up?"
"I think its maybe the Dinosaur Footprint"
"Well we need to discover if it really is. We need to know! Whats this? This is a hand bone! We have to dig it all up! Can you sweep over there? Uncover that mystery, I can't reach there. Only big people can reach there, not little people. You know what my name is? A-U-S-T-I-N."
"Are you here with your school?"
"Yes, I like this place....Ok...you guys can discover this mystery by yourselves now."

sobsobsob SO CUTE.

So that was like the best thing ever.

Speaking of the best thing ever, this Korean for Beginners is totally awesome. It doesn't just talk about vocabulary, but honorific endings, types of food, sentence structure, double letters, (TERRIFIED OF THEM),  How to write the letters neatly, and like every rule of grammar you'll ever need to know, and I'm not even halfway through the book.

-Michelle

Pretty Sure Everyone's Tempted to Post Selcas

...it's a condition of the human race. As such, here is one of me, giving absolutely all I have to bring out the cute in me.

It's hard work. Anyway, speaking of Hangul, do you mean that the PC doesn't support the alphabet at all, even if you're using Chrome? Because usually the easiest way for me to get Hangul is to just use the keyboard in Google Translate as a notepad. I tried for a while to get the add-on that would allow me to type Hangul in OpenOffice, but the problem with open source software is that it's always changing, and updating language add-ons is never the priority (I couldn't get it to work). Anyway I thought I'd show you my Banksy poster as it is now. I added a lot of stuff to it, and it's helpful. 

I also put a LOT of country and continent and ocean names on my world map, so that's good. I already knew Japan (일본) and America (미국) and a few others, but it's good to know that most of the continent names are the same as they are in English except for North and South America and Australia (호주). That always helps.


The weather outside is pretty magical. You know what would be awesome? If this school actually had a place where students could congregate and sit at benches and tables outside. Sure, they have common areas, but they're just grass with maybe a couple of benches. At JCCC they had all these cool courtyards with a lot of places to sit and do homework and eat outside, and it was awesome. Here if you want to be outside you'll probably get a damp pair of pants and chiggers. But it's still nice to walk through. Sometimes there are people tightrope-walking, so that's cool.

When you said that you had a splinter on your lip, the variety of scenarios that drifted to the forefront of my mind in which something like that could happen were all really weird. Were you making out with a telephone pole? Do you chew on sticks when you sleep? Do you chew on sticks when you're awake? Do you regularly run head-on into wooden doors? Did you happen to have a swashbuckling adventure on a pirate ship where some of the shrapnel from a flying cannonball hit you in the face? It's vital that I know the cause!

I'm gonna go do homework. Look at me, all gung-ho.

-Amy

Splinter on my lip.

This is called Michelle's super super dramatic face.

Actually its not, its just my straight face. I'm normally a dramatic person.

But anyway, this is the second clue/hint. I'm pretty proud of it, I must say.

 Last night Rachel and Christina were back in town so I spent the night at their house and we played Apples to Apples, and in the end, this is what I was.

Seems legit.

 And this is a picture of me. But don't worry, it totally has a purpose. I'm not one of those people that just takes pictures of my self and then posts them (just kidding. Sometimes I totally have a urge to do that.) But anyway, you see that liiiittle red dot on my lip? Its not actually that little. Its huge. Its A SPLINTER. or rather, the cut that resulted from me pulling out the splinter after a day. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, how HOW did I get a splinter on my lip? Heres the answer....I don't know.

Anyway, I learned a new word/phrase in Korean, Amy. I'm on the PC and it doesn't do hangul, so I'll spell it out phonetically, cause I'm cool like that.

Nar-uh-ta-ta-hay-uh. Kind of.... It means follow me.

I Remember How To Draw!

So today was pretty uneventful, except while I was sitting here at my desk listening to kpop cranked to 11 and finishing this letter I wrote to Kristin, I thought, why don't I do some drawing? And so I did. In hindsight, it would have been good to do some drawing with an actual subject that I was looking at, but as we all know on the weekends I am sometimes known to be a lazy butt and it seemed like too much trouble at the time. So I drew a guy freehand without looking at anything, took a picture, drew on it some more, and then took another picture. Here is the result.

I could have taken the pictures in better lighting, but at the time the lighting seemed fine. I think it's just my camera not being the best camera around.

I think this picture is probably not finished yet. I feel like it still needs more depth and detail to it, so if I add to it maybe I'll put up another picture. We'll see.

-Amy

Angela, that hottie

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures of all time.

Yeah, I got a camera, so the pictures will be more often. Will happen more often. Will...Yeah. I love this picture though, its awesome.

So you know how instagram is a big thing now? Like making a picture look totally awesome without really trying at all? Well, there is a setting on my camera called "toy camera effect" which is what this is.

Does this look like a toy camera to you? No. But its cool.

 Ok Amy this is my first clue/hint for this next video. Hopefully you can see the TOTALLY RAD eye makeup going on, and you can't really tell (cause I covered it with my "pull an Asian move and cover the jaw so you have a V shaped jaw (thank you Simon and Martina for teaching me why they do this)) but I have a sweet thing goin' on on my cheek.

This last picture means nothing except to say...this is what my desk has looked like for a while now, and its pretty horrible. I'm pretty disgusted with myself. I mean, like seriously, michelle, pictures of Thunder, Joon and GO but not SeungHo? WHERE DO YOUR LOYALTIES LIE?

No but seriously. This is gross. As soon as my legs and INCREDIBLY sore from doing popcorn squats (ie FAST SQUATS ALLL THE WAY DOWN TO THE GROUND), I'll clean my room.
Maybe. if I feel like it. (I'll do it when Explosion wednesday becomes a thing. HA!)

-Michelle

The Lowdown on College

...high school wasn't my best time.

The truth is that college can be super busy, it just depends on how you play it. For instance, I've passed up on countless student events/clubs/activities simply because there is nothing I love better than as few commitments as possible. That's not to say I don't have commitments. But the thing is that I'm here to get my education over with as quickly as possible and as A-plus as possible, and I don't want anything to hinder that. What I'm not here for is 1) friendship, or 2) a good time. Those things may or may not just come on the side whether you want them or not.

Last semester my free time really made me depressed because I wasn't motivated to do anything with it besides watch TV and pretend it didn't bother me that the only people I ever talked to were my roommate's friends. But all of a sudden last month I came to the realization that I can use my free time to become the person I want to be. And that it doesn't matter if I'm a lazy butt, because I'm fully aware that being a lazy butt is only fun for a few hours before it starts being a real downer.

So I started going to the gym, doing yoga at the same time as homework, writing some short stories, studying Korean in earnest, and playing piano again.

And now I'm busy.

There are a lot of other things I'd like to be doing, like going to the student dance club thing that they have every Wednesday morning, and finding someone to draw with, but I don't really have time left over, and if I made time, I'd feel like I wasn't giving enough time to the other things and stretching myself over too many things. My point is, even though you've got a lot of stuff that you want to do, like dancing and acting and Korean and all that stuff, you might have to tighten your belt and drop a hobby just so you have time to really explore the hobbies that are more important/convenient to you.

The most important thing is not taking your education for granted. Even though it sometimes sucks that school takes 12 years to get through, the fact is that without all twelve years you'd probably be at a pretty big disadvantage in the world. Sometimes school really feels like a chore but if it gets you closer to where and who you want to be in the world, then there's no reason to be resentful of it, especially since getting through high school isn't something that everyone in the world gets to do, no matter how much they want to. The longer I'm at college, the more I realize what a huge privilege it is to be here. College isn't really the utopian educational community that high school teachers make it out to be, but the fact still remains that what I learn here will likely benefit me for the rest of my life, whether it's academic or just social. High school is the same way. You can't live with it, but you sure as shoes can't live without it.

I mean, you can live without it, it's just not very easy to.

To be honest, I wish I'd taken advantage of my high school years like you are, going to dance and acting classes and stuff. I also wish I'd tried a little harder in school because, dang, I didn't really understand the purpose of school back then, and I just sort of pranced through high school with an idiot grin on my face. Sorry, Mom.

Anyway for some reason I was feeling reminiscent today so sorry if I came off preachy or whatever. I mean, you just can't deny that Spanish is going to be way more useful in life than Korean will ever be.

-Amy

P.S. I am doing a little project that involves a little bit of Japanese but it is harder than I expected. Since I'm not going to learn the alphabet or anything (I only have room for two alphabets in my mind at the moment), phonetically memorizing the phrases I need is not very easy. Man.

I'd Rather Be In College

because apparently, people in college are WAY LESS BUSY.

You wouldn't even believe how busy I am (also, I'm on Angela's computer and the language is French, so everything has a red squiggly line under it. UUUGH), and it's really starting to get to me.

And I think I'm becoming a procrastinator. I've never been a procrastinator, but it SUCKS. Why do people do this?  Its pretty miserable. Like, even when I'm doing the thing I want to do, instead of school or whatever, I'm STILL miserable, because all I can think about is how much I'll have to hurry to get it done later, and I HATE HURRYING.

There are a few things I really hate:

Doing things that are required that take about 12 years to complete. (gosh, GOSH I wonder what that is.)
Hurrying.
Procrastinating,
Flo the progressive girl,
When the internet turns off at 11,
and, last but not least,
being stressed.

Thats probably part of the reason I hate procrastination; cause I hate being stressed and I hate hurrying. But heres what I love:

Not doing things that take 12 years to complete, (yet again, its a mystery)
being with people
watching shows,
learning Korean
listening to music
dancing,
and acting.

Which, it just so happens that every single one of those things are things that not only require, but also encourage procrastination.

Its a vicious cycle.

Anyway, this whole post was my excuse for not having a hint/clue up yesterday or today, and also to tell you that this week is going to be a wee bit busy, so I might be late on my video. I'm saying two weeks tops, but just know, its worth the wait. (I'm sorry for playing it up, I hate it when people do that, because I and you know there is no way its going to be as awesome as it is in your head.)

Anyway, I haven't gotten to much Korean, but I changed up my wall a bit and now it has pretty much every word you gave me (so now it has colors, body parts, emotions, numbers (both kinds) titles, greetings and such, and items of clothing), but the only words I've been able to memorize this week are kiss (non romantic) and sorry (both ways).

I'm hoping to add some simple verbs, food names, and more conversational/respectful words and phrases (such as 'work hard' 'have a good day' 'eat a lot,' and 'nice to meet you').

Heres what I love: learning Korean. Heres what I don't love: Learning Spanish at the same time.

First World Problems: Too much education.

- michelle

THE LAST CLUE

Now I give you The 5th and Final Clue.

This one is big.

Fourth Clue

Here is the fourth, and hopefully second to last (if all goes as planned) clue to the first half of the surprise (the less cool half).

Great, right?