Let's brew!

So instead of studying for my 6 hour exam like I should have been, I ended up watching the Korean drama 개인의 쥐향 [Personal Taste]. I found it pretty amusing, although at first there were a few too many characters whose eyes I wanted to claw out just because they were hella annoying. Somehow the writers managed to redeem pretty much ALL the characters, save for one (in my opinion), but the one character I was fairly conflicted about throughout the whole series was Han Chang Ryul. That's pretty much all I have to say about the drama, since I watched it a couple of weeks ago and my memory is crap, lol.
Oh. But I never knew how FINE Lee Min Ho is. o_O

I also watched the anime もやしもん [Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture] which has been around for a while (2007) but I never got around to watching until now. Basically, it's about a boy named Sawaki who can see microbes with the naked eye; not in a oh-look-spores-like-under-a-microscope kind of way but rather in a chibified and ridiculously cute kind of way. And they can talk. Yes.
Needless to say, I fell in love with the so-called main character of the featured microorganisms: Aspergillus oryzae. Since this is centred around agricultural microbiology, the microbes that appear are usually fungi, sometimes bacteria, and very rarely viruses. The only viruses I recall explicitly being pointed out were rhinovirus and influenza. But then of course, we could get into a whole debate about whether or not viruses are actually "alive", right?

What really motivated me to finally watch the Moyashimon anime was the fact that I happened to see that they recently (this year, in fact) made a drama adaptation! After finishing the anime I started the drama but so far I've only watched the first two episodes. It's interesting, and obviously a bit different from the anime (e.g. Sawaki's best friend Kei takes a leave of absence right from the get-go; this made me very sad). The microbes also seem to be much more vocal and in general noisier than their anime counterparts. I have yet to decide how I feel about the various character portrayals, so we'll see how it goes after a few more episodes.

Listening to right now: SID - 「すぐ傍で」

"Did I fall asleep?"

I finally caught up with the TV series Dollhouse this weekend and it was totally worth putting off the craploads of work I have to do. I'm disappointed that it got cancelled though... it's one of the few shows (the only show?) that I've followed since it first came out, even though I didn't watch Season 2 regularly. Season 1 was a little slow, not great, and didn't really keep my attention in that I rarely felt like I absolutely HAD to watch the next episode. Season 2 also started off a bit the same but it gained momentum from episode 4 onwards to the point where I watched the last 7 or 8 episodes in about 2 days.

NOTE: Potential spoilers ahead!

I think episode 4, "Belonging", is one of the best episodes, at least up to that point in the series. It primarily focuses on Sierra's past and it's nice to finally learn a little more about what a doll's prior life was like.
Season 2 picked up a lot of speed after that, blazing through the events that lead up to the future depicted in "Epitaph One". On the one hand, it makes the episodes highly addictive and a lot of times I found myself pausing and staring at the screen in total disbelief and shock at the unexpected revelations. On the other hand, it felt almost a little rushed, although I know that it was probably to catch the series up to "Epitaph One" since it was being cancelled... a sort of courtesy to the fans. Despite that, the episodes were incredibly well done and definitely surpass the previous ones, imo. Not to mention that Victor-as-Topher is just GOLD.
I'm also quite impressed by the acting overall (only one or two exceptions who don't need to be named), and the dialogue improved significantly in Season 2 compared to Season 1. I think Topher is my favourite Dollhouse character (at least in Season 2) and I also really like Alan Tudyk's portrayal of Alpha.

I was less impressed by the Epitaph episodes, perhaps because I didn't feel any kind of connection to the new characters. Which isn't a fault of the actors but rather just a consequence of not having them grow on me episode after episode like the main characters. "Epitaph Two" was somewhat heart-wrenching but at the same time almost seemed to conform to the norm of ending everything on a happy note (although "happy" is really quite relative here).

Overall, I think this series rocks and I wish that it hadn't been cancelled, though I think they tied everything up quite nicely (everything important at least... of course, there are still loads of unanswered questions but who knows, they might not have addressed those even if the series had been extended). Season 2 also may not have been as awesome had they not been pressed for time in catching everything up to "Epitaph One" (this is speculation on my part, though... I don't know at what point in the series they were when the show was cancelled).

It's too bad that the ratings weren't better... maybe then we could have seen a little more development of the other characters and perhaps more of what lead up to the future in the Epitaph episodes.

Listening to right now: F.T Island - 미우나 고우나

"It's Rainbow and free skin care!"

I actually wrote a blog entry about Hyung Joon's MBCGame show about a week ago but didn't get around to molding it into an actual post. And since I'm too lazy to refine it, I'm going to straight up cut and paste (with a little editing here and there).

Cut
Awesome choice by Hyung Jun to do the programer show.
I was reading some comments on the show on a StarCraft forum/website and although they weren't necessarily always positive comments, the fact remains that there were A TONNE of them. Which means that Hyung Jun is at least getting exposure, if for nothing other than being that "pretty boy singer" who's anticipated to fail.
It's amusing though because most of the people on the forum are relatively clueless about SS501 or K-Pop on a whole but on the flipside most of the people on a K-Pop forum are clueless about StarCraft. Same comments, different subject.

Ironically, I had the sudden desire to play StarCraft when I went back home over Christmas break, and this was even before I heard about Hyung Jun's new show. Watching the show itself brings back memories though and makes me want to play it again even more.
Paste

I watched the 3rd episode tonight and not only is it hilariously funny but I also really like how relaxed Hyung Jun is in this show, especially compared to his last few appearances on variety shows, etc when SS501 was promoting "Love Like This". Also, his hair looks MUCH better, thank you cordi nuna. 형준, 화이팅!

Listening to right now: F.T Island - Everything is possible

P.S. Translation credit (title) to Team Liquid Fansub team.

I'm sorry, I hallucinated... what?!

Just got done with the 16th and final episode of 미남이시네요 [You're Beautiful] and I think it has officially topped my list of K-dramas thus far. Ironically, when I first read the synopsis for this drama last year I thought the storyline was silly and decided against watching it. But thanks to my brief fangirling of F.T Island and C.N. Blue, I have now jumped on the You're Beautiful bandwagon. I kind of wanted to see more of the real Go Mi Nam (even though he would have looked the same as fake Go Mi Nam -_-;) but I guess there wouldn't have been a point. Also, I usually find drama music to be... icky... but I actually like the music in this one.
Thanks Jang Geun Suk for giving us such excellent "wtf?" moments, Jung Yong Hwa for the "Shin Woo 오빠!!! *sad face*" moments, Lee Hong Ki for the "o_O" moments, and Park Shin Hye for all her loads of cuteness. It was fun. ^^

I happened across a profile pic on Facebook of some random person from back home and happened to see something about "TYFRUU" in one of comments. At first I thought "SS501? Nahhhhhhhh...." But lo and behold, someone in my home country actually knows K-pop? Not just any K-pop but SS501? Now I know that there are a lot of people in general who are into K-music and K-drama and so it's unrealistic that NO ONE back home is into them but still... I never found anyone who was even into Japanese music/drama (arguably more popular back home than Korean stuff). Where were these people when I was looking for friends?

Listening to right now: 이승기 (Lee Seung Gi) - 꼿처럼

Edit: Turns out I did have You're Beautiful bookmarked as a potential drama-to-watch. Guess I should look at my bookmarks once in a while, huh?

Hallelujah, chance!

In typical procrastination style, I finished watching the Japanese drama　プロポーズ大作戦 [Proposal Daisakusen] tonight instead of doing actual work. Although it had the obvious pitfalls that you would expect from any time-travelling-to-change-the-past-and-thus-the-future storyline, this drama was less about those technicalities and more about how hot Yamashita Tomohisa is the love story itself. Overall, I didn't think it was a fantastic drama and I found myself able to put it off for nights at a time rather than being completely obsessed like I was with other dramas. But it was still nice, and I especially liked the special that they made for it.

The next drama on my to-watch list is the Korean drama 미남이시네요 [You're Beautiful]. I've watched the first two episodes and I understand now why it was/is so ridiculously popular. I've seen Jang Geun Suk in a couple of movies prior to this and liked him but now whenever I see him my mind can't help but flashback to his highly disturbing memorable performance in drag at the 2007 MKMF. I really like Park Shin Hye in this drama because she's really adorable even as a boy! Though like I've said before, I bet it's the hairstyle.
I was a little surprised that her secret was exposed so early in the show but I guess I was unknowingly expecting something more along the lines of Coffee Prince? Also, actually being familiar with the guys who play the A.N.JELL members definitely adds to the experience. Lee Hong Ki's such a shorty compared to Jang Geun Suk and Jung Yong Hwa, hee hee.
Soooo many borderline disgusting scenes in the first two episodes alone though. I agree with Lee Hong Ki's character... I would have thrown her off the roof too. o_O She's lucky he fainted.

On an unrelated note, I searched for my first name on urbandictionary.com (as per other people's Facebook statuses) and it seems that people with my name are undisputedly AWESOME. Some excerpts:
- Slang for "most awesome girl ever"
- usually extremely beautiful. can surprise you at what she can do. very outgoing. can be emotional at times, but mostly just wants to party!
- Very hott girl that you won't seem to every forget about,amazing personality and great figure.
- amazing
- An amazing person, not likely to ever leave your thoughts, always to the be te only one on your mind . Incredibly beautiful, nice, smart, caring, and all-around great . Her eyes gleem with a radiance of a thousand stars, her lips draw you in, like magnets, her love is like life, without it, you surely cannot live.
- being of extreme beauty, class, and creativity. also happens to be pretty rad.
- An extremely intimidating person. Possibly may be small, but don't let it fool you.

I left out the ones with less-than-appealing definitions because you know... they're obviously wrong.

Listening to right now: F.T Island - 빙빙빙

Exercise for the year, check

I went snowboarding for the first time yesterday and although it was a tonne of fun, I woke up this morning afternoon with my whole body stiff/sore. I'm sure it would hurt less if 1) I could stop falling on my butt every few feet and 2) if I actually moved more on a day-to-day basis. It was definitely worth it though, and I'm glad that I got the chance to try it out.

I also started watching プロポーズ大作戦 [Proposal Daisakusen] with Yamashita Tomohisa after losing interest in 아가씨를 부탁해 [Take Care of the Young Lady] with Yoon Eun Hye after the 3rd episode. I was hoping the latter would be good after having watched 커피프린스 1호점 [Coffee Prince] but it actually wasn't all that interesting. I've only watched the first episode of Proposal Daisakusen so far but it seems like it might be cute. Not quite as impressed with Yamashita Tomohisa's character as I was with Kurosagi but we'll see how it goes.

I saw a clip of Kim Hyung Jun pretending to be his younger brother Kim Ki Bum (of U-Kiss) on some show, trying to get screen time as usual but it was so hilariously cute! The crew was there to interview Kim Ki Bum and instead found Kim Hyung Jun who tried worming his way into replacing his own brother. Which failed when Kim Ki Bum walked up and asked him what he was doing haha.
I also saw a preview of his upcoming appearance on Progamer (not 100% about the name) and he looked really good. Maybe because he seemed more relaxed? Changed his hair? I dunno, but whatever it is I hope he keeps it up. Otherwise I'll have to think about switching favourites. Just kidding, of course! ^^

Listening to right now: SS501 - 넌 나의 천국

Is the shiz, homeskillet

So I finally got around to watching Juno which I've been meaning to watch since September last year. It was pretty good, very witty and amusing, and at times touching. I liked the dialogue as unrealistic as it probably is (or maybe people really do talk like that and I just don't know about it), and I think Ellen Page did a great job as Juno.

I also recently watched The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which was also really good. Of course, having Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, and Jude Law all at once in the same movie (sorry, not a Colin Farrell fan) is drool-worthy but that aside, I really liked the cinematography etc. There were a couple of things that I didn't think were too clear in the movie but 1) I don't remember them, 2) they didn't detract from the overall film and 3) they probably didn't matter anyway.

And last but not least, I just started watching a 2006 Japanese drama called クロサギ [Kurosagi] which stars Yamashita Tomohisa and Horikita Maki, both of whom starred in 野ブタ。をプロデュース [Nobuta wo Produce]. I liked Yamashita Tomohisa when I saw him in Nobuta wo Produce and seeing him again in Kurosagi makes me want to watch all of his dramas and movies. I'm not a big fan of his music (either solo or NEWS) but I think his acting is really good. He adds a nice quirky twist to his characters (at least the ones I've seen so far) and I'm looking forward to seeing more of his work as an actor. It also helps that he's HOT.

Listening to now: Yamashita Tomohisa - Loveless