After the horror that was trying to decide my favorite musical artists, I decided to break down dramas into their respective countries. Plus, I basically get to recommend more dramas. Win-win (for me)! But anyway, onto the top 5 k-dramas! If you aren’t familiar with them, click the title to read the synopsis.

5. Who Are You?

Despite the totally impossibility of the premise of this drama (a cold/awkward man is possessed by girl’s goofy dead father at certain times), the drama is obviously unique, as well as quite well done. It focuses a lot on family relationships of all types, and the characters actually develop over time. There’s of course drama about stolen paintings and inheritance, but it’s very secondary to the connections between the characters. There are obviously a lot of (thank the lord, not cheesy) sad parts, but the overall feeling of the drama is very warm and happy. And Yoon Kyesang gets a gold star for pulling off two totally different characters flawlessly.

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In order to get myself writing more, I’m starting a series of posts about my top five *various things in various categories*
The first post is my top 5 musicians (or singers/producers/musical artists/whatever) would be a better term. This was really hard for me, as I have pretty varied music taste and while I could point out my top favorites in a certain genre, in a general sense, it’s pretty hard. (And embarrassingly enough, there is not one non-Asian artist in this list) But I tried my best, and here they are from fifth to first, with five runner-ups.

#5. Lee Jung Hyun

She is the only female to make it to the top five! I don’t know why I love her so much; it’s sort of like my mysterious worship of Lady Gaga, although LJH has been doing her thang much longer. She’s not the best singer (her songs are usually her half-yelling/half-singing) or dancer, but she does what she wants in a creative, fierce way. I love how her lyrics push the boundaries for female singers in Korea: her lyrics and videos are often very sexual, and often have an angry feeling to them, different from the sugary stuff other female pop artists often sing. She’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think that her unique abrasiveness is what I like about her.

Lee Jun Hyun – Tell Me

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Actually, these days a lot of things make me feel old. Highschool graduates, classmates getting married and having kids, the fact that I need a nap everyday… But somehow, interacting with people on the internet is what really does it. The fact that a lot people in my fandoms are younger is a factor, but also thinking back on all of the new media and technology and how it’s changed is amazing is the main thing.

My family got our first computer when I was around 8 or 9. Windows 95, 255mHz processor, 6GB HD. That was also the time I learned how to make my first website, out of pure HTML in Notepad. I didn’t even know what CSS was, and I didn’t even touch Frontpage (blech) until middle school. People complain about their 10Mb cable internet, when I used to get yelled at for running the phone bill up every month with our speedy 56k modem.

When I was 10, I got into fandom, specifically Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura. I would download all the pictures I could find, but they took up too much space, so I had a huge collection of floppy disks holding them. My family couldn’t afford a color printer, so I went to friend’s house (whose parents ran a computer business) and printed my pictures out there to hang on my wall. Fanfiction back then was amazing too. I would read entire spinoff series that were professionally written. Fanfiction now? I don’t even touch it.

But perhaps the most amazing part to me is how things have changed so much, but I was never really conscious of just how much. Almost 15 years years from the first time I touched a computer (those cute old Apples), I realize I don’t remember how things changed. When did I go from a floppy to a zip drive to a CD to a dual layer DVD? A hard drive from 6GB to 2TB? When did I first touch a laptop? First write a blog? And all of this has happened in my short life span, too. And it only seems like things change faster and faster.

Thinking about it, doesn’t it make you feel old – and a little amazed – too?

In all honesty, I don’t really watch Japanese dramas very much anymore. Everything seems pretty cliche or just weird (looking at you, Sunao ni narenakute), so I haven’t been giving anything a chance. There is one drama that I’m currently watching called “Yankee-kun to Megane-chan” which is an adaptation of an absolutely hilarious manga of the same name.

Basically, it’s about a boy named Shinagawa Daichi who’s been kind of mislabeled as a yankee (a kind of gangster youth) who has pretty much given up on school. Suddenly, a girl named Adachi, who is pretty ridiculous and fanatical about having a happy school life, shows up and starts to ~change him.~ It’s not as cliche as it sounds, as Adachi was once herself a yankee, and tends to get them in crazy predicaments. Not going to lie, I only originally only watched it for Narimiya Hiroki, but it’s been pretty entertaining so far. Not as great as the manga, but I think it’d be hard to go as over-the-top in a real life adaptation as they do in the manga. I’ve been watching this without subs, so I’m not sure if anyone’s subbing it besides viikii, but it’s worth a try!

Also on my radar is Hotaru no Hikari 2! I am so excite about this drama you don’t even know. The first is one of my top ten dramas, if not top five. This time, it’s about Amemiya and Takano’s romantic relationship and their thoughts about the next step: marriage. Sequels have a tendency to ruin things, but I’m hoping this isn’t the case, as Ayase Haruka and Fujiki Naohito has such great on-screen chemistry, and really know how to bring out the characters’ personalities. It’s slated to start running next month. Definitely looking forward to it.

I’m pretty free these days, so if anyone has some recommendations for some good, fairly current dramas or movies, I’m up for them. I watched a couple movies lately that I’ll probably review soon as well~

So I am officially done with school. I graduated on Saturday. The ceremony was nice, and luckily not very long. I still can’t really believe it, though, and I don’t want to think about it because it makes me feel old… I’ve been trying to find a part time for the next two months but so far nothings been promising. I’ve only gotten two callbacks, and one turned out to be shaaaaaady so not much luck. I really, really need a job. I need something to do or I will go crazy. I want to do some freelance webdesign for some extra cash, but I don’t really know where to advertise for that, so I think it might not happen. I’ll probably put some tutoring fliers up and see if I get any ESL kids.

But in the midterm, I am free free free. I already redid the blog layout, and I have a few site ideas I’ll probably design and code later. Other than that, I’ve been playing Bejeweled and Poupeegirl like a crazy person and watching various movies. I feel like I should use this time for something useful, like studying my various languages or reading or something but anything that requires actual brainpower seems too bothersome right now. I need to find something to do fast, though, because boredom + me = inevitable shopping spree!