The Mind Of An Apple

Happy AIcemBA!!

2011-12-09T09:13:00.001-07:00

Ohisashiburi Minna-san!! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in almost a month! (I haven't posted on my Examinations blog for a few weeks as well, but I'll do that later today.) Things were pretty crazy starting around Thanksgiving. Thankfully they've calmed down a bit lately, so I finally have time (and the motivation) to write a post! Anyways, first off, Happy December!! (I'll explain the title later!) I hope that whatever holiday you celebrate will be wonderful this month and that you're ready for the New Year!

One of JYJ's Lotte Duty Free free wallpapers for December!

First off, I hope those in America enjoyed their Thanksgiving break and holiday!! Thanksgiving for me was a little hectic this year, with plans changing last minute...once again. It was good to see some of my family though! I actually spent pretty much all day Wednesday cooking. I ended up making two pumpkin pies, two cheesecakes and my Aunt's recipe of twice baked potatoes. I really enjoyed cooking all day, although I just love cooking anyways. Especially when it's for a large group of family (or friends)! Also, my Mom was pretty happy because all she had to do was pack things Thanksgiving morning before we headed over to my Grandma Brown & Aunt Mary's place. Although, since I didn't help her, she forgot quite a few things. She's so EVIL sometimes! Anyways, it was fun, although I was pretty exhausted by the time it hit 2pm, and by then I was very close to being in a food coma.

The Cheesecakes and 1 of the Pumpkin Pies I made for Thanksgiving!

Continuing on, I went Black Friday shopping again. It was at least the 7th year I've gone, but now that I think about it, maybe it was the 10th. Anyways, it's something my Mom and I usually do every year and make a big thing out of it. This year the stores kind of screwed us over. In previous years we've been able to come home around 10pm and go through the ads and make a plan on where we want to go and what we want to get at each store. Then we'll usually head to bed around midnight or 1am, get one or two hours of sleep, and then head back out to be in line for the store to open at 3/4am. This year though, a lot of stores opened at midnight, with some opening at 9 or 10pm Thanksgiving night. This year, by the time we quickly went through the ads, it was time to leave and head to Target to stand in line. It was crazy, and a lot busier this year. It changed the whole day, and I'm not sure if they really got the results they wanted. Before, people were able to get a bit of sleep before hand, so people would show up around 3 or 4am and then spend the rest of the day shopping. This year, each line was a lot longer and busier, but because of the time change, people were done shopping pretty much before 5am. It really emptied out pretty quick. We ended up being home around 3am and just heading to bed. I saw an interview with some store manager person, and he was talking about the time changes. He said they made the times earlier because customers had mentioned that they wanted the sales to come earlier. My response: "I'm pretty sure by earlier they meant as in days or weeks, not hours." Anyways, I spent about $120 and didn't really find any Christmas presents or anything besides DVDs. I ended up with a pretty good load thought for that price. A small list to show the great deals I found were particularly for the TV Shows on DVD. Beside the 10is movies I got, I also got X-men, X2 and X3 for $5 on Blue Ray (Yay for PS3), and the first 4 seasons of Psych as well as the first season of True Blood! I was pretty happy with my spoils, but it's a little sad that I was only really into the movie sales again.

One of the True Blood Season 1 ads!

The only other really big even that happened since Thanksgiving, was the weekend I spent up at my Dad's house. I love going up there, and this time I went up to house and dog-sit. I was a little sad that Dad and Diane weren't there for most of it, but they weren't on vacation as long as I thought they would be, so it was nice to hang out with them a bit. Plus, Jack (the Puppy Monster) was pretty excited. I'm pretty sure he thinks the only reason I came up was to play with him. If he wasn't sleeping on me, he was trying to get me to play with him. Such a freaking Puppy Monster, but he's so cute! Anyways, I always love going up to their house. I don't really have phone service and they don't really have much for Internet service, but it's nice to be able to escape from everything for a bit and relax. Plus it's absolutely gorgeous up their. Especially since it snowed the day I went up, everything was covered in white and really pretty. It was freezing though, but they have a fire place, so it was nice to keep that roaring away! I always love the smell of fireplaces. Especially when there's some good smelling wood in there!

Jack a.k.a. Puppy Monster!

Before I get started on fandom related things, Christmas is coming up! I'm pretty excited to head home later today to get the tree and Christmas decorations. I'm just hoping that I can find them easily in the doom that is my Mom's basement. I'm super excited for Christmas though, it always puts me in a good mood. Plus, I have a good excuse to do a lot of baking and cooking for people (which I love to do)! I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping, I just have one more present left to buy and then the ones I make. I'm also going to get Christmas/Holiday cards soon, so hopefully I'll be sending those out by Wednesday next week! So, if you would like me to send you a card, just contact me in any way (comment, twitter, fb, email, etc.)! I'll probably upload pictures as I decorate and finish on my twitter, so you can check that out if you want! Hopefully as Christmas comes, I won't fail as much in posting. I'm thinking I'll have at least one more post around Christmas. Possibly one more before New Year's, we'll see!

Santa Claus, Is Com~ing to To~wn!

Now on to fandom related things! First off, I'm not really a Kiss Me, (U-kiss fandom), but I really enjoy their new song. A lot of Korean bands have been moving over to the Japanese market lately, so there's been a lot of Japanese singles sung by Korean bands. Most of them have been Japanese versions of songs that were originally in Korean. Some of them have sounded odd, but I'm pretty excited with U-kiss's Japanese debut song. Not only is it a song that wasn't one of their previous Korean hits, but really good and addicting. The choreography for the dance is also done really well. The song is called Tick Tack and has a lot of clock like movements. The song is really addicting, but I also really enjoy the dance. The only problem I have is that I keep wanting to call it Tick Tock. Do clocks in Korea go Tick Tack (is that how they sound out the noise since things like that differ between countries and languages)? I don't think the Japanese sound for clocks is Tick Tack, but I could be wrong. When I was in Japan I didn't really learn a lot of onomatopoeias. Anyways, check out the MV here. I think it's the best Japanese debut single to come out of a Korean band so far!

One of my favorite dance moves from Tick Tack!

I have found myself dragged into another fandom. I watched season 1 of the Korean Variety show Sesame Player and it featured MBLAQ. Well I stumbled across season 2 a couple weeks ago, only this season they featured Infinite. I had listened to a few of their songs before a liked them, but watching this variety show, I got hooked. They quickly became one of my favorite Korean bands (behind Super Junior and TVXQ/JYJ)! I really do enjoy their sense of humor and cohesiveness as a group. They also have really good choreography that's usually pretty in synch. Also, in BTD (Before the Dawn) they have this really cool scorpion dance. I find myself really getting drawn into their choreography and songs the more I listen and learn about them. Also, they aren't too young so I don't feel like a pedophile in saying I like them. Plus the leader is born in 89 and before me, so I'm not older than all of them! Anyways, check them out! Here is where you can find their YouTube channel. I'll like you to their debut song Come Back, BTD, and their latest promotion songs for their first album Be Mine and Paradise. Just a heads up though, I'm linking to a live version of Paradise not the MV because I really like the dance and the MV doesn't show it. Also, if you just want to check out the scorpion dance, here's a compilation made by a fan!

Scorpion dance move from the BTD MV!

Okay, so switching gears a bit, we're moving from music to manga. So the new Chapter of Skip Beat! came out a bit ago! Chapter 183 picks up after Yashiro-san's phone hangs up on Kyoko. She keeps trying to call him back, only to realize that he probably touched his phone with his bare hands. Kyoko, wanting to get more information ends up calling President Rory!! Yay!! Not only do we get to see Yashiro again after a while, but Rory too! Rory is pretty serious in this chapter though (no crazy antics). Kyoko talks to him and explains that she's worried about Ren. In the end, Rory tells her that he won't tell her any details about what's going on because it's not his place, but that Ren's going through an inner battle. He convinces her that she just has to be there for him and not really do anything in particular. We also find out that Rory put Kyoko with Ren on this assignment not only to help Ren get through his issues, but to try to get him to be a "man" and make a move on Kyoko. His ulterior motives are to Ren put Kyoko's trust in men again and regain what she had lost (due to Sho)! About two thirds of the way through, we see back on set for the movie. A couple of the actresses are afraid of Ren and hiding behind Murasame-san. He tries to calm the girl by saying that "he's just a human," but then he makes eye contact with Ren and he freaks out himself. We then cut to Kyoko freaking out because she was sleeping and it's now Noon. She's trying to hurry to the studio to catch up with Ren, but she's also trying to stay in character and walk slow acting like she doesn't care. Anyways, the chapter ends with Kyoko coming onto set with a lot of people bleeding and hurt. The last frame has Ren holding Murasame-san in what looks like a choke hold, possibly over a ledge of some sort. I'm not sure if it's part of the movie or if Ren just kind of snapped again. I'm hoping the first. So the next chapter comes out January 4th, so we will have to wait a bit. Although, with the holidays I think the time will go by a lot faster!

Kyoko's reaction to finding out she slept until noon!

Another small update about Skip Beat! the drama, SM released a preview teaser thing on their site. You can watch it here! I'm pretty excited to watch this and see how they are going to play the different things. I'm also really interested to see how they are going to do Kyoko's little demons and angels. Anyways, it'll start airing here in the next couple weeks, so they'll probably be spazzing happening within the next few posts about that! Oh, and going back to the teaser, you can also hear a bit of the song Super Junior - M sings for the drama! I'm also excited to hear the song Donghae wrote (his first in Chinese) for the drama and his role! Overall, I'm just pretty excited about all the new Skip Beat! happenings!

Donghae gif from the Skip Beat! promo video.

Well, switching gears back to music fandoms, I'll start with Super Junior (since they were mentioned with the Skip Beat! rants)! There's actually been quite a few happenings with SuJu that I want to rant about. First off, the SS3 DVD has been released for pre-order! It comes out on the 21st! I'm super excited, but at the same time a little confused by SM. I think it would've been a better idea to release it a little earlier, so that people can get it for Christmas, both in Korea and abroad. Anyways, it's exciting because it's only going to be like $30, which is so nice. I love Japan, but why are their DVDs and CDs so expensive? The SS3 in Japan DVD is like $80 before shipping. And speaking of Super Show things, it's time for Super Show 4's first world tour stop. The boys are in Osaka, Japan (and I'm really jealous because I really want to go to Osaka again) and the concerts will happen in the next couple days. I just hope that they release the dates for if they are going to come to the US. If not, I would seriously consider flying to a different country to see them. Especially before Teuk starts his military duties. Continuing on with the association, Donghae's solo song from SS4 (with Eunhyuk) will be released as a digital single. Him and Eunhyuk are forming their own unit and going to promote the song next weekend on two of the music shows. If I remember correctly, it'll be Inkigayo and either Music Bank or Music Core (I always get them mixed up).

Eunhyuk (yellow) and Donghae (red) during SS4.

Before heading on to my last rant, there is another small Super Junior update I would like to talk about. On December 4th, Leeteuk and Eunhyuk temporarily said goodbye to their DJ spots on Sukira (Super Junior's Kiss the Radio). They've been the DJs for over 5 years, so it's really sad. I've only been listening to Sukira since I was in Japan (over a year), but it's sad that I won't be able to listen to my two biases every morning. Instead of getting other people to replace them (there were rumors it would be Infinite), the producers I guess decided to keep it as Sukira, so Ryeowook and Sungmin are the new DJs. EunTeuk said that it was better for them to quit since both of their schedules are getting hectic and full lately. As much as it's saddening, I think that it's good for them to cut back a little bit. I hate it when they look so exhausted and like they haven't had any sleep in years. It's a different Sukira with RyeoSung, but they are both such cutie pies, especially Ryeowook. When he gets so hyper I just want to grab him and shake him (I don't know why it's shaking him & a little violent). Anyways, they are super cute and it'll be fun to watch them develop some DJ skills. EunTeuk have said that they are planning on coming back, so I'm sure we'll see them DJing again!

New Sukira DJs! Such cutie pies!

Okay, so on to my last rant, this time switching continents to Japan! There actually isn't too much news about Arashi. Just new dramas and starring in each other's shows and specials. Anyways, to finally explain the title, it's Aiba's Month among Arashians (what I call Arashi fans)! His birthday is the 24th, but Arashi fans tend to dedicate the entire month to the member. Aiba is my second bias, so all the Aiba things being released are pretty exciting! Anyways, one of the fansub groups I follow (AST) has dubbed December AIcemBA! So, that's why the title is Happy AIcemBA! In other small fangirlisms, this means that next month is my Arashi bias' month! Yes, that's right, we see Sakurai Sho's birthday next month (as well as Jaejoong's, my new JYJ/TVXQ bias [Sorry, Sorry Yunho])!

The rare serious side of Aiba-chan. He's so pretty!

Okay, so sorry it was long, but a lot has happened since I last updated! If you made it this far, congratulations! I hope I didn't bore you too much! Anyways, I'll leave with a gif as always! This time I'll leave you with Aiba-chan, our dear birthday boy! This is a popular gif from Himitsu no Arashi-chan (one of their variety shows) where he falls off his chair from laughing!

Ja ne~
Stasi

6 Years + Love Song + New Beginnings

2011-11-08T21:28:00.001-07:00

Hello dear readers! I am back, and in a more timely manner! So I only have a few items to talk about today, but a couple them could turn out pretty long. Anyways, I hope you are enjoying the month of November so far! It's been getting a more colder lately, so please take care of yourselves and don't catch colds if you're in an area getting colder!

A picture I took last Tuesday while walking home during the snow storm!

Okay, so first off, I would like to share my life changing decisions. As I am kind of tired of being an Accounting major and only chose it since I was good at it, I have made the decision to change to an Asian Studies major. I know that I only have one or two years left, but honestly, I feel so much interested and engaged in classes that I enjoy. I'm good at Accounting, not so much the other business classes. I just feel like I could do a lot better. What's really nice, is when I was talking to Bea about it, she brought up a very good point. I guess one of her art teachers was talking about being happy in your major and your career in life. I agree, and think that people should try to find jobs that they both like and can enjoy. For me, I enjoy learning about different cultures, especially Asian ones. I also have enjoyed learning Japanese and trying to figure out Korean on my own! I am really excited and feel so much happier and less stressed now that I feel like I can get on the right path. Since UNC just established an Asian Studies Major, there really aren't that many class options. Seeing as the only Asian languages that are offered here are Japanese and Chinese, I feel a little constricted. I would eventually like to learn Chinese, but I would rather learn Korean or even Vietnamese or Thai first. So, taking that into consideration, I am going to try to transfer to University of Colorado - Boulder. They have a lot more extensive program, and even off I think three years of Korean. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to transfer smoothly. Plus it'll be nice to still be in Colorado, and in an area I somewhat know (my grandfather lives outside of Boulder). As for plans after I graduate, I am planning on teaching English in Korea or Japan for a few years. Honestly, I just want to get out of the US. I really felt so much happier and healthier when I was living in Japan despite missing all my friends and family. Although, I didn't miss them as much as I thought I would. I guess I just felt at home there, which is more than I can say for Greeley. It's familiar, but it's never really given me the feeling like I belong. I feel like I'm just here for a bit. I hope that makes sense. Thinking about it, I honestly wouldn't disappointed in my life if I spent the rest of my time teaching English abroad. The funny part is when I was talking to my Mom about it, she mentioned that when I was little I wanted to be a teacher for a few years, and she thought that was what I was going to be. When I mentioned it to my Dad, he told me straight out: "I never really understood where you got the idea to be an Accountant." So I think that my family pretty much agrees with my decision, which makes me feel like I made the right choice even more. At least, I hope they're okay with it. Anyways, I just wanted to share some of the thoughts that have been going through my head lately, and that I finally feel like I'm headed to a goal in life that I can reach and be happy in. I think it would still be fun to work on variety shows, but I'm not really sure how that would pan out. I think at most I could work on ones that deal with people learning English or having English segments or something. We'll see. You never can know what happens.

The Game of Life! XD

Okay, sorry for that huge chunk of text, but I didn't really want to separate it and have it seem like I was switching topics. If you made it through, congratulations! I hope everything made sense. Anyways, time to move on! Before moving on, I would like to give a small update about NaNoWriMo. So far everything is going pretty well. I didn't really want to write yesterday, but I was so tired I didn't want to do anything. At least I worked a lot on it this weekend and have goals to get to 15,000 words by midnight tonight! Right now I'm just under 14,000, so about an hour and I'll meet my goal! I can't remember what all I mentioned earlier about my novel, but I've decided to write and adventure type story, well, at least that's what it is right now. Basically, I'm using my experience studying abroad in Japan to write a story about a girl that moves to Japan right after college to teach English and find a new life! I hope it turns out well, but we'll see if I ever share it with anyone.

Moving on, Skip Beat! chapter 182 came out on the fifth! The first part of the chapter was okay, a lot of inner monologue from Kyoko. The ending though, was EPIC! We see a return of Yashiro-san (Ren's Mangaer)!! He's one of my favorite characters, so it was fun to see him again after so long! Anyways, so the chapter is about Kyoko analyzing what happened with Ren the night before, a.k.a. last chapter. She comes to the decision that he wasn't in character last night, and that he was having some sort of issue. He seems okay now and is giving Kyoko clues to not really bring it up and stop worrying. He tells Kyoko to go rest since her eyes are red from staying up all night thinking and worrying. On the way to the room to rest Kyoko calls Yashiro-san. Of course I almost fangirlled since Yashiro-san is one of my favorite characters along with Takarada Rori! Anyways, she wants to ask Yashiro-san about Ren, but a problem arises. In his rush to answer the phone right after getting out of the shower, he answered the phone bare-handed. In case you haven't read, or don't remember, Yashiro-san's bare hands kill electronics in I think 30 seconds. Of course, he goes to answer Kyoko and his phone dies. The chapter ends with Yashiro-san looking in horror at his dead phone. It was hilarious, but frustrating at the same time. At least the next chapter comes out on the 19th, so I only have to wait a little less than two weeks for the new chapter!

Yashiro-san's reaction to finding the phone dead and realizing he answered with bare hands!

Okay, before I get into my two main biases, let me just start with something else! Wonder Girls have released their second album! It's titled Wonder World and the promotion song is Be My Baby. I am completely addicted to this song! It's so good. I used some of my leftover Soribada money to download the CD. The song is so good, and I really enjoy the dance and the MV. If you haven't heard or seen the song and MV, click HERE! It'll most likely get stuck in your head and you'll want to hurt me, but it's good. I'm really happy to see them back with such a good song. I honestly haven't been too impressed with their couple latest releases since Nobody. Nothing against Sones, but I kind of want them to blow SNSD out of the water! Anyway, please check out the MV! It's good, I swear!

From the MV! The focus is on my favorite member, YeEun or Yenny! XD

Moving on, Arashi's new single "迷宮ラブソング" (Meikyu Love Song) came out! It's so good! I love this song! The MV is so much fun too! It's such a fun and cute MV! I busted out laughing a few times, plus it shows them in all their adorkable glory! As for the other songs, there were three other songs on the regular edition single. They are "together, forever," "うたかた," and "wanna be..." and one extra song on the limited edition, "消えぬ想い." Honestly, I prefer the three on the regular edition better. I particularly like "うたかた" a lot. It's such a peppy song and they have some great harmonies in it! I also really like "wanna be..." It has a little of a rock feeling to it, but it works well I think. "消えぬ想い" is also good, but I think it's my least favorite of all the new songs. I'll post a link to the PV here, but I'm not sure how long it'll be up. If you aren't able to find it through google and want to watch it, let me know and I'll try to send it to you! Anyways, I really enjoy their latest singe (Number 32!!) and highly encourage you to check it out!

Cat Ohno! Yes, he's turning 31 years old this month! XD

Okay, last, but definitely not least, Super Junior ranting will commence. Okay, so this might be a weird section, just warning you. On November 6th, Super Junior celebrated their 6th year anniversary! As I mentioned in my last post, I can't believe that six years have passed this quickly, and for me I've been their fan since 2008, so three years for me. Anyways, I just wanted to post a little blurb dedicated to them. I know they most likely won't ever come across it and read it, let alone be able to understand it, but I just wanted to share because you never know! Anyways, you don't have to read this and can just skip it if you want!

Dear Super Junior:

First off, congratulations on 6 years together. You've broken the curse of 5 years! I want to express to you that I will support you forever, no matter what. I will always be your fan, your support, your Ever-Lasting Friend. There is so much I want to convey to you, but I'm not quite sure how. I am so thankful for so many things. You have given me so much and enriched my life greatly. I wouldn't be the same person I am today if it weren't for you. Your presence in my life has brought me tears, laughter, happiness, hope, and so much more. I've able to meet wonderful people from all over the world through being your fan. My prospective has opened on so many things thanks to you. There is so much more feeling I wish that I could write and convey to you, but I can't quite figure out how to put in into words. I'm sad that we aren't all together anymore, but I believe that one day all 13+2 will stand together, on one stage. I know that as you all get older you'll be temporarily leaving to complete your mandatory service to your country. I just want you to know that I will always support you, no matter what happens. I will always wait, no matter how long!

Your Ever-Lasting Friend, Stasi

I love these boys so much! ❤

Okay, so I hoped you enjoyed this blog post and thank you for once again reading through all my rantings! As always, I'll leave you with a gif! This time, I'll leave you with the only Super Junior member I haven't posted a solo gif of, Hankyung!

Hankyung from Super Junior-M's Super Girl MV! XD

Ja ne~

Stasi

2 Months & Counting...

2011-11-01T21:40:00.001-06:00

Hello!! So, once again I am coming to you after a couple weeks, or maybe more like a week...but anyways, Hello again! I can't believe it's already November! This means that Thanksgiving & Black Friday are soon, as well as Christmas and 2012! I hope you're all ready for the end of 2011!! Anyways, lets get started since I have quite a few topics/rants today!

First off, last night was Halloween! As much as Halloween is my favorite holiday, unfortunately time got away from me and I wasn't able to finish my costume. I still have everything for it, so I might just wear it next year or to a con or something! It was a kind of a bummer since I ended up working for 12 hours that day. I didn't really see anybody else, and I wasn't home until late so I didn't see an trick or treaters either. Major Sad Day! I ended up doing my laundry and cleaning the closet the day before and found my beanie with cat ears I bought at NDK a few years ago. I wore it all day so at least I was dressed up a little bit! Two of my roommates and I did end up carving pumpkins though! We were trying to figure out when to do it, but last Wednesday ended up being a snow day, so we stayed home and did them then! Adrienne carved a ghost coming out of a crypt/coffin, Katie did Batman, and I did a Japanese Kabuki mask! It was the hardest design I've ever carved, but I think it turned out really cool! Unfortunately I carved it a little low on the pumpkin so it looked like he was staring at the ground. It's all good though! I also did decorate the yard, but the snow day happened a couple days afterwards and kind of ruined it. I'll be cleaning it up here in the next couple days.

Green: Adrienne's Pink: Mine Yellow: Katie's

As for other happenings recently, I attended Billy's bachelorette party and Billy and Curtis's wedding was on the 29th. The ceremony ended up happening at the same place as the reception instead of at a cemetery, but I think it turned out really nice! They both looked so happy. Well, actually, they both still look really happy! I'm just sad I forgot my camera. The bachelorette party was a lot of fun too! We played Dirty Minds, watched Rocky Horror Picture Show, chatted about random things, and went to Old Chicago's! It was a blast! The reception was a lot of fun too! Sam and her brother (Pikachu a.k.a. Alex) also came to the reception, so it was really nice to catch up. She's still up in Greeley, so I think we're going to try to get together sometime soon! Anyways, back to the happy couple, I'm so excited for them! It really turned out nice! I never really have thought much about my wedding, but going to theirs I am a little now. It's hard though since I have no idea who I'll actually end up marrying!

Oh, speaking of meeting with Sam, she convinced me to do NaNoWriMo this year. I've always been interested in it, and it starts today. I'll actually get started here when I'm done posting this. I'm not exactly sure how it'll end up since I've never attempted something like this, but hopefully I'll at least make the 50,000 words by the end of the month!

Okay, so for my fangirl rants! They all will be rather short though! First off, a small Skip Beat mention! The new chapter doesn't come out until the 5th, so I don't actually have any news about it! I can't wait though! I'm excited and hope it's not a shorter chapter! We'll see. Anyways, expect another update around then.

Also most like going to be in that post will be information and rantings about Super Junior's 6th anniversary. It's coming up quickly (on the 6th)! I can't believe that I've been in the fandom for three years now! Then again, Arashi is currently in their 12th year and I've been their fan for...eight years now. Wow, and I though three years was long! Also, Super Junior released their Super Show 3 Live Album! It's awesome! I'll link you to Soribada so you can listen to the songs if you would like! I love them and can't wait for the DVD to be released! Since I don't really have any other Super Junior updates, I'll get on to Arashi! They still haven't released the single Meikyu Love Song yet, but that should be coming up soon as well. They did release the short PV a bit ago, but most of the links have been taken down. I'm sure that'll be coming up soon in one of the next couple posts!

Well, I think that's all that for this post! Not much fangirling this time, but there were some exciting things to update you all on! Hopefully I'll be more timely with my next post! Today's gif will be Kibum since I haven't posted a solo gif of him yet! It's from the U MV! XD

Ja ne~
Stasi

October Love!

2011-10-21T02:16:00.001-06:00

Ohisashiburi Minna! So, I was planning on writing my first blog post of October earlier, but nothing too exciting has been happening. I have a few things to rant about today though, so I hope I don't bore you too much! XD

First off, Halloween is only a couple of weeks away! I've been procrastinating on decorating the yard. Every time I have the motivation to do it the weather is uncooperative. Hopefully I'll get it up this weekend. Also Halloween related news, I have decided on my costume for this year! I am going to be a Jedi! Woooo! I'm pretty excited about it! I bought a blue lightsaber and the fabric to make the cape and outer layer tunic. I won't be too authentic, but hopefully I get it done on time. I just have to stop sleeping in and start waking up early to work on it all that I can. I think I can get it done. First I have to clean my room though. But anyways, I'll probably post a couple pictures (if I actually take any)!

Speaking of future October plans, it's almost time for Billy and Curtis's wedding! I can't wait! I'm really excited for them! I actually just got their wedding presents and we've been planning the Bachelor and Bachelorette parties! This Saturday are the parties, so I'll probably do an update (most likely) sometime this weekend or early next week relating the craziness that ensues. Tomorrow I'm making inappropriate cupcakes for the parties with Billy and Zeva, so that'll be fun too! Hopefully they turn out right! I'll most likely post pictures on my Twitter, but I might share them here. We'll see how they turn out! XD

Well, since things are progressing quickly, we are already to the fandom related rants of my posts! The new Skip Beat! chapter came out today! Woooo!! I really enjoyed this chapter. It's been a while since there's been a chapter that actually makes me laugh out loud more than once! It was a nice change, but there also was some good plot movement as well. I won't go too deep into what happened (for those that are reading it as well), but basically Kyoko is coming to realize that the issues that Ren is experiencing are not part of the characters' he's playing, but his own "demons." I can't wait for the next chapter, and it comes out on November 5th so we don't have to wait too long again!

Kyoko can't sleep, so she's creating and counting fairies!

As for other fandom updates, I'll start with Arashi! Sakurai Sho's new drama with Kitagawa Keiko has started! It's called Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de! I really enjoyed the first episode! The instructor was ridiculous, but in a funny way. It was interesting to see Sakurai-san as a butler, but I'm excited to see how things will progress throughout the season! I also love the theme song! I'm not sure when the single is going to be released (I'm too lazy to look it up right now), but the song is Meikyu Love Song and I really love the song. They've released the PV (promotional video) teaser, but most of the ones online have been deleted already, so I can't share it. It looks really good and I can't wait to see the PV in full! I also can't wait to listen to the other songs that will be released with the single. If you haven't heard, and want to check out the Meikyu Love Song, click it's name and you'll get to hear it in full.

Kageyama's (Sakurai Sho) tea time! XD

Last, but not least, my ELF fandom. First off, Super Junior has had their goodbye stage last weekend. I can't believe that 5jib promotions are already over. I'm sad that we won't be able to watch them every weekend for a while, but it's also nice becuase they are able to have a little bit more free time (hopefully). I know that Leeteuk has been really busy. I'm happy that he's doing so many things, but I think the company and his own choices are spreading him too thin. On top of all the shows he MCs, Sukira with Eunhyuk, and Hello Baby Season 4, he has started with the actress Kang Sora on We Got Married. I just hope that he's able to take some good rest during their upcoming vacation. Especially since SS4 will be starting soon. I'm worried about all the boys though, it's just that Teuki is more obvious in his exhaustion.

These four boys terrorized Teuk and Sora! It was hilarious!

Also, the wonderful month of October has brought us both Henry's and Donghae's birthdays on the 11th and 15th respectively! I just wanted to wish our Mochi and Fishy Happy Birthday once again (I sent them messages on Twitter)! I hope that they had wonderful days and that their new ages bring them many wonderful things!

Henry "teaching" Donghae how to play the violin!

Well, I think that is all that I wanted to update on! As for this post's gif, I bring you the cuteness Sungmin!

Ja ne~
Stasi

Moving On

2011-09-30T16:29:00.000-06:00

So once again, I am a huge slacker and am taking forever to update my blog. I'm sorry. But, at least I made it back to have an end of month post for September! So I made a list of what to go through on this post and it's pretty long. I'll just get into the thick of it! CAUTION: Long Rants Ahead!

So, first off, I thought I'd catch up on things I mentioned my last post (on the 8th). So the weekend after my last post was NDK! I had a lot of fun. There were a few small issues, but it wasn't the fault of the Con, but people there. I just tried to ignore it and enjoy what little time I had there! I was able to go to quite a few panels this year! Most of them were costuming/wig panels, but we also got to head to a few others. Also, I went to the AMV contest (like every year I've gone). It was good this year, but I was a little disappointed with the variety of animes selected. I don't know if it was the NDK judge's fault or just what the submissions were like. I did enjoy the ones that I saw though! I also got to finally see Derek and Travis. Oh how I've missed those two boys! Especially Derek! Things have been pretty different without him around. Hopefully we'll get more chances to hang out soon! Since, I have a lot more I could say, but I want to try to keep things short, I'll end my NDK stories here! I did buy a lot of artwork and a couple really cute plushies! If you want to know more just leave me a comment or send me a message and I can let you know more! I also need to upload the few pictures I took off my camera. Yes, I know, I fail.

Myself and 1 of my new plusies, NemuNeko (Sleeping Cat)!

Okay, so I'm going to try to keep this short, and a warning for those that have gotten this far, there will be a lot of fangirl rants later on! But you'll know more if you actually get that far! XD Anyways, continuing on... Before I get too much into the next few rants, I just wanted to to send out a little promo for my Examinations Blog! I'm currently doing a 5000 Question Survey (broken into parts) and would love to have more people check it out. There's a link on the side bar or you can just click above or here! Anyways, I'd love to have more people check it out and let me know what they think. Also, if you have any quizzes or surveys or psychological tests or anything you want to share, don't hesitate to send them to me! I'd love to take them, post my results and share them with my other readers!

So now that I got that out of my system, I also want to do a small rant here. I know this should probably be at the top, but I wanted to say something to all of you! Thank You!! I really do feel happy when I see that someone is reading my posts. I haven't really gotten many comments, but that's okay. I just hope that I'm not boring you too much with all my randomness and weird rantings! There is a reason that I'm bringing this up though! I was messing around in the statistics area of the new blogspot dashboard and found something interesting. As of this morning, I have had viewers/readers from the following countries: USA, Argentina, Philippines, UK, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Indonesia, Russia, and Brazil! I honestly thought that most of the people reading were in the US, but I feel happy and amazed that people from so many countries have come across my blog! Anyways, thanks to all my readers! I hope that I keep you entertained until I stop writing!

The readers chart from the statistics area!

So there's something else I want to post in my blog, but I think I'll wait a couple more days before I post it. It's the longest rant of all the ones I have planned, and I think I'd prefer to just do a post about it and not really have it surrounded by other happenings. I will be posting within the next week (for the first October post), so keep your eyes peeled for that! Speaking of October, it starts tomorrow! I'm so excited! I love October! Fall is my favorite season and Halloween is my favorite holiday. Also, my good friends Billy and Curtis are getting married this month as well! I'm really excited for the weather to start changing (hopefully *knocks on wood*)! I also need to start figuring out what my Halloween costume will be. I'm currently floating between a few ideas, but I need to make a decision fast so I have enough time to make my costume before it arrives!

Okay, so before I start on my Asian Pop group fangirlisms, I am watching a LOT more American TV shows this season. It's crazy. I don't think I watched this many shows before I was watching more Japanese and Korean shows. But anyways, there are a lot of good shows this season, so I thought I'd share what ones I'm watching and let you know my quick thoughts! First off, I'll mention those that haven't premiered (or I haven't watched yet). ABC's Private Practice premiered last night, but I'm still only about halfway through Season 4, so I need to catch up first before I start the new season. Also, one of my favorite shows premieres October 12th! It's USA's Psych! I love this show! Shawn and Gus are hilarious and I can't wait for this show to start back up! Also premiering in October is ABC's new show Once Upon a Time. It starts on the 23rd and is created by the writers of Lost. I watched the first half of season one of Lost and enjoyed it, but I missed one episode and got lost after that (ignore the bad pun). I really enjoyed what I watched though. Anyways, it looks to be about fairy tales and looks really good from the previews. I'll definitely be watching the first couple episodes and then decide from there!

Ignore the date and time! Psych now airs on Wednesdays!

As for shows that have already started airing, and I've seen I'll just do a quick run through. When I start the shows mentioned above, I'll be watching a total of 11 American shows this season! I don't think I've ever watched that many before. Anyways, I'll do this by days. I am watching three shows that air on Tuesday evenings. My favorite of the three is CW's new show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (I love her) in Ringer. I am really addicted to Ringer. It is so freaking good. Plus, I'm really happy to see Sarah Michelle Gellar active again! She's one of my favorite actresses. It is really good. I really recommend this show to a lot of people. Anyways, I'll stop ranting about Ringer and move on. The other Tuesday shows that I'm watching are Fox's Glee and New Girl. This is the third season of Glee, but honestly, I'm only watching it for Harry Shum, Jr. He's such an amazing dancer! As for New Girl, I'm really enjoying this odd comedy. Zooey Deschanel is awesome (as always) and I'm really loving here character Jess! If you are into comedies, definitely check it out! Moving on, the only Wednesday show that I watch (until Psych starts) is the CW's America's Next Top Model (ANTM). We are on Cycle 17 (I can't believe I've watched 16 seasons before this) and Tyra has finally decided to do an allstars season! It's been interesting so far, and I've been loving the photo shoots! The last one had the models on stilts! So crazy! Thursdays leave me with new episodes of ABC's Grey's Anatomy and CBS's The Big Bang Theory (and eventually Private Practice). Both shows are two of my favorites! The Big Bang Theory is starting Season 5 while Grey's Anatomy is currently in Season 8! The only other day that airs shows I watch are Sundays! That leaves me with Discovery's Storm Chasers and CBS's The Amazing Race. Both are really good shows, but completely different. For those that don't know, Storm Chasers is a series that follows meteorologists and storm chasers during tornado season. The Amazing Race is a reality show where there are teams of two and it's a race around the world. What I really enjoy about Amazing Race is that they get to participate in cultural activities, that sometimes leave me feeling so jealous. So those are the shows that I'm watching this season. I've linked all them to their websites (if you didn't notice) in case you want to learn more! I hope I've helped you a bit with Fall TV line-up! Feel free to comment below and leave me any recommendations!

Well, keeping on with TV Shows, but jumping to Asian ones, I'll start off talking about the Korean Drama Protect the Boss. I honestly can't remember (and don't want to backlog) if I've mentioned it before, but I love this show. It's one of my favorite Korean dramas hands down, and definitely my favorite of the year. The main actors play really childish characters and there's so many funny moments. I've gotten several people hooked to it, so have seen up to episode 10 at least 4 times already! The last two episodes aired this week, so by the beginning of next week the English subs should be up so I can finish it. I'm sad it'll be ending, but at the same time I'm happy. Some American shows go on WAY too long. Also, with Asian TV shows, Skip Beat! the Taiwanese live action drama has released an airing date. I've heard two different dates (December 18th and 24th), but since they're both in December, I'm pretty sure that it'll start then. I'm sad because it's still a couple months away, but then again I've been waiting over a year for this, so a couple more months won't hurt! Plus, I know that it's already been filmed!

Keeping with the same thought train, the new chapter of Skip Beat! was released on the 20th! I can't believe we're already on Chapter 180! So this chapter started out with a flashback. We see Ren back when he was Kuon in an alley (presumably in the States) beating up some Americans. Suddenly...I think his name is Rick...runs up and tries to convince Ren to stop fighting. While thinking about his flashback, Kyoko appears and is confronts him about his reactions (more specifically the smile) during his fight with Murasame-san. I'm excited for this because we are learning more and more about Ren's back story. I can't wait until it's all revealed! Also, Ren is super cute in this chapter. Most of the chapter takes place in their hotel room, and Ren is like huddling under the blanket. The end of the chapter leaves us with Kyoko stepping out of an elevator (she went to the convenience store) and Ren in front of it draped in the blanket. As a side note, I was talking with Pri about Skip Beat! earlier, and she mentioned that we haven't seen Sho lately. I wonder what he's up too, but guessing off previous frames, he's probably sulking somewhere picturing Ren and Kyoko on dates! The next chapter comes out on October 20th, so we have a little bit of a wait. I don't mind though. It's more normal to have an update monthly, and it's way better than the two month streak we had a little bit ago.

Okay, so now I'll start the more serious fangirl things. I'll start off slowly though, which means the smaller rants! I'll also be starting with my Japanese fandom, Arashi! It has been released that Arashi will be singing the theme song for Sakurai Sho's new drama Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but it's a new Japanese drama! It starts airing for the Winter Season (I believe) and stars not only my bias from Arashi, Sakurai Sho, but one of my favorite Japanese actresses, Kitagawa Keiko. If you've watched any Japanese dramas before, she was in Buzzer Beat (with Yamapi). She's also in the Japanese Movie adaptation of Paradise Kiss (which I really, really want to see). I just hope to finish the last drama Sakurai-san was in before this one starts (Tokujo Kabachi). Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty behind overall in Arashi dramas since My Girl.

So moving on to Korean fandoms, Brown Eyed Girls made their comeback! They are one of my favorite girl groups out there! Not only are they older than most of current groups, but they are so strong. I really think that they are the Queens of the girl groups. Anyways, the new song is awesome. It's kind of an onslaught to the senses though with their vocals and the instrumentation, but from the second listen onward I was hooked. This is one of the few songs I rock out to when I have to walk anywhere. These girls are so talented, plus this MV and song is sending a message. What's nice is that everyone can interpret the message differently, but at the same time everyone also understands that it's also sending a message to the censor board that pretty much reads as "Fudge You!" (I rarely cuss. Don't hate!) I really recommend you check out their new song if you like music. Oh, I forgot the most important part, it's titled "Sixth Sense." They've also done their comeback on the music shows, and boy are these girls amazing live as well! I'll give both links to the MV and LIVE here. Just as a side note, I'm going to stop embedding the videos here on my blog to help with the play counts. Please still check them out though!

Quickly, before I get to my main fandom, I wanted to share a little bit of TVXQ and JYJ news. TVXQ has released an album in Japan! I really love the song B.U.T. (Be-au-ty). It's a good one to walk too as well. I'll link you to the MV! Also, JYJ has released their album In Heaven. The songs on this CD are so good. I really love these songs so much. Plus, what makes it even more exciting is that these boys had a hand in each of these songs, with some of them being completely composed, lyricized, and arranged by the members. I am such a fan of this CD that I caved in and bought a copy. I'm not buying at least two of each version (like with Super Junior), but I did want to show them my support. I'm going to have an Asian artist poster on my walls that isn't Super Junior! But anyways, they've released two MVs with the CD. The first is In Heaven which is a ballad song that Jaejoong composed, arranged, and wrote the lyrics for. I just want to give a little background. The story in the MV is about a man (played by Junsu) and his girlfriend that dies. In reality, Jaejoong wrote the song after a friend of his committed suicide. The second MV is Get Out and one of my favorite songs off the CD. This song is also one of the ones on my walking playlist! The music and lyrics were written by Jaejoong and Yoochun. Jaejoong also helped in the arrangement of the song. Anyways, check them out. If I had to choose just one for you to check out though, I'd go with Get Out. It's one of my favorite songs, of pretty much all Korean music. Not many artists other than Super Junior have made that short list!

Okay, so finally to the big boys (hee hee), Super Junior! there is actually a lot of information that's come out with Super Junior since my last post, but I'll just keep it down to a few major happenings. First, Mr. Simple Version C, the repackage has been released! The title track is A-CHA. They have released the MV and performed it LIVE. There were three other songs that were added in the repackage as well. Oops! (featuring f(x)), A Day, and Andante. Andante is another one of my favorite ballads, and once again composed by Henry and Leeteuk. I also really like A Day (which features all of the members). Oops took me a bit to get used to, but the turning point was when I read the lyrics to the song. Leeteuk, Donghae, Heechul, Eunhyuk, and Shindong wrote the rap for the song and knowing what they are singing really makes the song a lot better. But, back to A-CHA! Once you listen to A-CHA, I am warning you that it will be stuck in your head. I though Rokkugo was bad, but A-CHA is at a whole new level! This song is very, very addicting! I recommend you check out both the MV (which I have some issues with) and the live to see some more of the dance! Honestly though, the MV bothered me a bit. The only saving grace it had was that the boys looked amazing in it. Anyways, that's a whole different rant. Just a reminder, if you didn't click them before, check out the MV and/or LIVE of A-CHA!

For a smaller and quicker rant, Heechul has finished his four week basic training. He started his service yesterday. I am glad to see him complete his training and to hear that he's back living in the dorm with our boys, even if he isn't promoting with them currently. I just hope that the fans and reporters stop harassing him and let him do his duty in peace. It was wrong for him to be accosted like that. It also bothered me a bit that they are showing more interest in him now that he's not promoting anything and trying to live as a soldier or citizen and not an idol.

Kim Heechul at training.

Leeteuk, our dear leader, has started Season 4 of Hello! Baby with Sistar. There are five episodes out so far, but I've only seen the first one. I tried watching it when it first came out, but I was so confused and got a little bored not being able to understand...pretty much anything. There has been only one episode released with good subs, so I'm still waiting for more. But, Leeteuk is so cute dealing with the baby Kyumin. He's so adorable! lately, many different things have made me think about having a family and more specifically a baby. One of the things to blame is this show and Leeteuk. Anyways, Leeteuk Appa (Dad in Korean), Fighting!

Okay, so there is one more small thing I want to mention/rant about before I leave you. Our Shindong's birthday was on the 28th of September. I sent him a small message on twitter that day, but I wanted to say a small message to him. I know that he most likely won't see it, but I still want to write it out and post it on that small chance!

To Shindong:

Happy Belated Birthday! I hope you had a wonderful day! I did see the celebratory message and picture you shared on Twitter. I just wanted to say thank you! You've made me so happy to call myself an ELF. You really are someone that has had a rough time being in Super Junior, but I and ELF love you. I know that I've said some things about your surgery, but I honestly don't really care. You will always be the same Shindong to me! Whether you lose 15 more pounds, or gain it all back, I will always support you! I wish that I was in Korea to send you things, or spoke Korean well enough to send you this message and hope that you see it and understand it, but I'm happy knowing that I can still do my small part from America to support you and the Super Junior family. Forgive me for rambling on. I just wanted to say Happy Birthday! and Thank You! You really have given me hope and laughter and can always brighten my day when I'm feeling down!

One of the photos Shindong tweeted. He's with the other Super Junior members!

Okay, so you didn't really have to read that, but I just wanted to get it out. Anyways, I'll leave you with the customary gif! This week's gif is the birthday boy Shindong!

Shindong from the A-CHA MV Teaser.

Ja ne~

Stasi

September Love!

2011-09-08T13:52:00.002-06:00

Hello my dear readers!! So I was going to do a quick small post today! I have a few things I would like to share as well as a an update on the new Skip Beat! chapter! Woo Hoo! So lets get started!

So first off, I want to say that yesterday was such an amazing day, until I stopped at the ATM. The night before I had deposited my return deposit from my previous apartment. I was super excited to get the $250 check, especially since Nan Desu Con (NDK) is this weekend! Well, I waited for a day to withdraw the cash (since I'm going to make NDK a strictly cash event for myself). Last night, I pull up account on the ATM only to find that the $300+ I had in my checking account had magically changed into a $4 and change balance. I completely freaked out. I then proceeded to call Wells Fargo and try to figure out what happened. To make the long story short, they filed a claim and told me it would be resolved in 10 days. I then proceeded to freak out again since that was my NDK money and it was this weekend. Thankfully though, when I checked my bank account this morning it was all there. Now I just have to call them and see if they can remove the fees that they charged me. It's not my fault your system screwed up. I'm just happy I printed out a receipt (I usually don't and will from now on). I've checked it a few times today just to make sure that it doesn't disappear again. I guess I'm kind of freaking out a bit!

Anyways, since I already mentioned it, NDK is this weekend! Woo! I'm super excited for this year, but it's sad that the people I've gone with the past couple years aren't coming this year. Anyways, I'm looking forward to completely geeking out this weekend! Plus I'll get to buy some Japanese goodies, albeit overpriced goodies. Hopefully I'll remember to charge my camera and take it with me this year (last year I pretty much failed). This year I'm not really planning on cosplaying (due to money and time constraints). I did dig out my Rangiku (from Bleach) cosplay, so I'll bring that along and might do it on Saturday. We'll see. Anyways, if you follow me on twitter (@busy_bee44) I'll most like be updating all weekend! So, if you don't follow me and want to see my fun updates (I'll try to update more this year), then go ahead and follow me!

My self as Cooking Mama & my friend Dan as BJ from Soul Eater at NDK 2009!

Okay, now on to Skip Beat! chapter 179!! Can I just start by saying that this chapter was intense and amazing and awesome and I can't wait to read more. We pick up at the beginning of Ren (as Cain Heel as BJ) and Murasame-san's fight. It changes from the choreographed fight into something completely new, different, and real! Suddenly Ren gives this creepy smile and comes after Murasame-san. The director calls cut when Ren is holding a knife to Murasame-san's throat and Murasame-san is about to break Ren's arm. Then we get to see Murasame-san freak out in his dressing room and give us some hilarious panels. Kyoko doesn't show up until the chapter's almost over, but when we do come to her she's contemplating what she saw. She then begins to question who was fighting. She felt that it wasn't Ren's, Cain Heel's or BJ's character. Basically we're all wondering what in the world took over Ren's body! I'm sensing some amazing Ren backstory information coming up soon, and I can't wait to read it! I love Siwon, but I'm glad they filmed Extravaggent Challenge when they did. I'm not 100% sure he could pull off some of the more recent chapters. Who knows though? Siwon's acting has really grown since A Battle of Wits (Chinese movie starring Siwon and Andy Lau {I love Andy Lau ❤}). The next chapter comes out on the 20th (of September), so I'm happy we don't have to wait two months again!

Ren's creepy smile & Murasame-san & Kyoko's reaction!

Okay, so lastly is my fandom rants! There isn't too much that has happened since my last post. First, Super Junior is going to be promoting Mr. Simple again this week on some of the Music Shows! I'm excited to see them again, but at the same time it'll be sad without Heechul and Siwon (he's filming his drama Poseidon from what I've heard). They also said that this week they'll be performing Superman again or prerecording it for the Chuseok special. Anyways, it'll be exciting to see them perform it again as well. Also, they've released some photos of Heechul in his training. He still looks like our lovely Heenim, just in soldier form! They also posted that he's doing really well and took first in something. I'm glad that he doesn't seem to be having too rough of a time! As for other fangirl things, there isn't much. I kind of went crazy on Tumblr this morning (and almost every time I get on) and end up posting/re-blogging a lot of things. I just want to say sorry to all my Facebook friends and Twitter followers that don't like it. There are a lot of fangirl things I post, but there's also a lot of really funny things. I'll post my favorite one (that's not fandom related) that makes me crack up all the time! It's a motivational poster!

This just cracks me up! XD

This week's ending gif is Siwon! On my list I realized I haven't used Siwon as a closing gif, and since I mention him specifically a couple times I'll do him this week. The most iconic of all Siwon's gifs I've come across, Shibrows (Siwon's Eyebrows)!

Ja ne~
Stasi

Stressful Happenings

2011-09-01T20:35:00.003-06:00

Hello my dear readers! So today is the first day of September! Yay...kind of! This year has gone by so fast. To start with (and how I usually start), I'm sorry for not updating again at the end of August. I kept telling myself I needed to do it, but things just got so stressful and crazy that I just didn't feel like it. Well, I realized this morning that it's already September, so I fail, big time. But, on the plus side I still have posted twice in August, so I'm not too bad! So I have a lot of things to update on, so I'll just get started. Sorry, but it's going to be a long post again. You've been forewarned!

So first off, I'll start with something I mentioned in my last blog post. The 2011 DCI World Championships have come and gone. Honestly though, I went up to my Dad's house the same weekend and had a lot of things to deal with when I got back, so I didn't look too closely at the scores. I can say though, that the Blue Devils didn't win. Yay! I don't dislike them and they have a lot of talented kids, but I just didn't feel the connection like I did with most of the other top 7 corps. If I remember correctly The Cadets won this year and I'm not disappointed! I really enjoyed their show this year. Once again, my issue (and my family's issue) with The Cadets has nothing to really do with the Cadets as a corp, but their director George Hopkins. (I'm sorry but woodwinds do NOT belong in drum corps. Then it would just be big Marching Bands. GRR!) But, that's a whole other rant, and not really new so I'll just skip that. If you want to know more or want to read my rant about it let me know and I can add it to a future post.

Continuing on, and since I've already mentioned it, I went up to my Dad's house! It was so nice! I was only able to be there for a few days, but it was so relaxing and nice to hang out with my Dad and my sister before she headed to Arizona for college. I was able to help my dad make bullets again, although we didn't go shooting this time. I did ride the four wheeler a lot and got in the hot tub almost every night. It was really nice. Plus, my dad was came and picked me up in Greeley and dropped me off. The day he dropped me off we left in the morning and I went with him to do errands and other things, so it was nice to just hang out and chat with us two for almost and entire day! He also took me shopping to Tigge's Farm! They're a local farm that sells really delicious fresh veggies! They also grow a lot of peppers, so I got some of their hottest peppers and some really good sweet banana peppers! Before I end this small rant, I'll just mention that my sister made it safe to Arizona. She has started classes, but I don't really know how they're going or anything. We've been chatting about other things. Plus it's a little odd that she now has Internet 24/7. I guess I'm a bad older sister. ~_~

My little sister and I way back when. I was probably like 7ish.

So now come the biggest rant and most stressful thing that happened, so if you would like to skip this part, go ahead. For those who don't follow me on twitter or are my friend on Facebook, I am taking this semester off. I'm not as frustrated now since it's been a couple weeks since I found out, but basically I was told by a counselor to take the semester off and work full time and then come back. Honestly, I've always had issues getting my financial aid, but it's gotten worse since I went to Japan. But to try to keep this rant short (and since I've pretty much already vented a lot of it out), I'll just try to update on what's going on because of this. First, I've been looking for a part time job. I'm still currently working at the computer labs on campus, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to. I've been applying to places that I can easily walk to or that has a bus stop that doesn't take too long to get to. Finally, I got a call a couple days ago from the King Soopers just a couple blocks away. I have my interview with them tomorrow. It's actually a part time job, so they guarantee 20 hours. Since I'm not taking classes though, my schedule is more open and that gives me the chance to pick up some more. I just hope it get it so I can feel like I'm doing something with my time. Second, I'm seriously considering transferring schools. I know what I want to do with my life now, I want to produce variety shows in Japan and Korea. I actually started checking out some schools that had Korean classes (since UNC) doesn't have any. I actually found one school in Washington state that I really like and the other school I'm considering is CU in Boulder. I'm still not sure if I should just finish up my Accounting degree here with my Asian Studies minor and then head to grad school or what, but I'm still trying to figure out what would be the best. I could go on, but I'd rather just stop here and move on. A lot of things are still up in the air, so we'll see what happens.

Okay, so before I get into my fandom updates (there's quite a bit as well), I'll just finish up with a few small updates. First off, because I was so stressed, I cut my hair! I got some long layers and trimmed a couple inches off and got bangs! It's weird having bangs, but I just wish my hair was thicker. Plus I just found out the other day that the girl cut them crooked both in length and the section that she cut (the line in my hair) isn't straight either. I need to find someone to fix it. T_T Secondly, gaming has started again! Most of the people that were in gaming guild (and my own gaming group) aren't gaming this semester, so I'm with completely new people except for Curtis. I know the people who I'm gaming with, I've just never gamed with them. Trying to keep this short, we're doing a string of round robin one-shots so we all get a chance to play and dm! My character is a Dinosaur Druid and has a Stegosaurus as an animal companion (like a pet)! She pretty awesome so far and I can't wait to develop her further.

The Stegosaurus I found at the dollar store!

Lastly, I'm going to do a bit of advertising for my new blog The Examinations of an Apple. I have mentioned it before, but I have posted the first part of the 5000 Question Survey, so check it out! Now on to fandom things!

So first off in fandoms is Skip Beat! and the new chapter (178)! It was pretty short considering it was a month and a half since the previous release, but the next one comes out on the fifth! Hopefully we won't keep doing this "two chapters in two weeks and then waiting for almost two months for the next one" thing anymore. I digress. In the latest chapter, Ren (as his character's movie character BJ) and Murasame-san's character are having their first battle scene. They are supposed to be practicing the choreography, but it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. They don't start fighting right away as per the script, but Murasame-san gets angry and decides to show Ren that he does know how to fight. I'm thinking that someone is going to get hurt for real. I can't wait to read the next chapter!

Mursasame-san attacking Ren.

I don't really have any Arashi updates that I can think of, so I'll just go straight in to Super Junior! First off, I finally received my package!! I have the photobooks, posters, buttons, and goodies! I looked through them all and there are so many pretty pictures. I'm also afraid to use some of the goodies (like the parkjungsoo.com sticky notes). I don't want to use them because they're special goodies, but at the same time I want to use them and show them off. What a dilemma! I put the two posters up and I put the two buttons on my Phantom hat that I bought at drums. I just need to find my Arashi buttons that I got in the Harajuku idol shop and put them on there too! I've also ordered my 5 jib version B CDs! I also got my Leeteuk 5jib from AngeLeeteuk just the other night! It's so pretty and I totally forgot that I had ordered one through them. I was really confused on why I had a package. I ended up getting the special 3 photos (from Lees Music) and I ended up with Leeteuk, Heechul, Ryeowook. Since I'm going to end up with like three of the posters, I thought I'd share and gave the one I got the other night to Bea. She seemed pretty excited!

My Leeteuk Mr. Simple album, 3 photo cards, & poster (folded)!

Continuing on with Mr. Simple related news, Super Junior has won the triple crown on two of the three music shows! It's really exciting, so we just need to help them get the last win for the last show (I believe it's Music Bank)! Unfortunately, I've heard once they get the triple crown (winning three times), they can't take first anymore. Unfotunately, we've lost Heechul for the rest of Mr. Simple promotions. Today (but it was yesterday afternoon/evening when counting the time difference), Heechul entered into the military. He's only going to be working in community services or something like that, so he won't actually have to move out of the dorm and can live at home. He just can't do promotions or anything else besides his service. It's pretty sad to lose another boy, especially one that is so much in the front and in so many different shows like Heechul. He will be gone for a month though for basic training. I think that his two years of service will go by quickly though. Kangin's already more than half-way through his time. I'm just disappointed that I won't get to see him if the do hold SS4 in the US. I'm really hoping to see Leeteuk before he enters the army as well. They haven't really mentioned anything much about SS4, but they did release a few days ago that they are holding SMTown in New York on October 23rd. I just wish I knew about it before hand because it's going to be really expensive. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to go. I mean the tickets themselves are almost the same price as the flight. These are the times when I wish I had a rich family member so I didn't have to worry about missing out on things like this. I'll just try to save up and keep hoping that SS4 comes to the US. Plus it'll be a little easier and cheaper for me to go to LA instead of New York.

The last photo Heechul tweeted before leaving for basic training.

Okay, so the last thing I'm going to mention real quickly is that we have passed both Kibum and Yesung's birthday! I didn't get a chance to post a special birthday post, but I thought I would just post something small now, even though it's so late. Happy Belated Birthday Kim Kibum and Kim Jongwoon! Kibum's birthday was on the 21st while Yesung's was on the 24th! Also, I want to wish Leeteuk, Eunhyuk, and Sukira's staff a Happy 5 Year Anniversary! I can't believe you've been doing Sukira for 5 years already! I look forward to the years to come! Hopefully I'll get to go to the open studio at some point in time!

Our mystic boy, Kim Kibum!

To Kim Jongwoon aka Yesung:Thank you so much! You are the one that got me into Super Junior with your gorgeous voice and weird personality. I truly feel so grateful to you for introducing me to both Super Junior and all the amazing ELF friends I have made. You're still one of my favorite voices of all time (only second behind Frank Sinatra) and hearing you sing always leaves me weak-kneed! Really, really thank you Yesung! I would be a completely different person if it wasn't for you. I feel so much thanks to you that I can't even express it all through words. I just wish I could hear you live and be able to give you a big bear hug to show you how grateful I am.

Yesung from the Mr. Simple Music Video Teasers.

Okay, so I'm going to wrap things up here! As always I'll leave you a gif, this time the lovely dance skillz of Kim Jongwoon aka Yesung. By the way, these are some of his new moves that he learned and revealed a couple of months ago! (Yes he turns from charismatic guy above to the goofball below!) XD

Ja ne~

Stasi

Happiness!

2011-08-09T12:45:00.000-06:00

Woooo!! So I'm excited!! Are you excited!! For I'm updating when I said I would update!! I'm super proud of myself for not procrastinating too much this time!! Sorry, I'm just happy! Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up!

Okay, so first up, I'm going to start a new blog channel (I know I hardly use the other ones). I was given a 5000 question survey to do, so I though that would be a fun thing to post on the blog. Granted, I'm going to break it up into smaller parts. I was thinking about it though, and it would be weird to have those post randomly between my "normal" posts, so I thought I could do an entire different channel (I know that's what their called on YouTube, but I don't know what to call them on here). Anyways, I'll start that sometime soon. I think I'm going to come up with a schedule, like to 10 questions every Monday or something like that. Although, I should probably do more than 10 if I don't want to be filling out the survey for forever. As I was thinking though, I've posted surveys and quiz things on here before, so I thought I could just start posting all those things on my new blog. I haven't created it yet, but I'll link you to it in my next blog when I get it figured out and post for the first time!

Just another small drabble, but I finally was able to find the small index/blank flash cards that are common in Asia and used mostly for vocabulary words. They aren't whole punched, but I thought I could start using them to help supplement my Korean and Japanese vocabulary. I already have Kanji flashcards, Hiragana/Katakana flashcards, and Hangul flashcards, so I thought this would be the next step (although I haven't finished the Kanji cards)! I'm really excited to start it, so I was thinking of starting out with key words for the Korean set. So, if anyone has a list or anything to suggest, please do! I need all the help I can get to learn Korean, especially since there isn't a class offered at my school.

Moving on, my Aunt Rowie and Uncle Jerry came down from San Diego (California)!! Wooooo!! I was sad we only got to hang out a couple times and not for very long, but it was still really fun! First off, Thursday night we went to Red Robin for dinner. It wasn't just a fun dinner though, we were also celebrating my Grandmother's birthday which was on the 31st of July! It was really fun catching up! I was really excited for my sister to see Rowie though. She hasn't been able to see her as many times as I have and get as close, so it was really neat to see Rowie see how grown up Ariel has become! (UWAH! I just started tearing up! I'm such a sucker for these things! It made me really proud of my baby sister seeing how grown up she is and all her plans for life!) Anyways, it was also really neat to update her on everything that's been going on in my life too! I was thinking, and the last time she came out to Colorado was my graduation. That was four years ago! I wish she lived closer or we were richer so we could visit her more often! I just hope I get into the Grad School I want, so then I'll only be a couple hours away! But anyways, it was a lot of fun! Rowie and Jerry were surprised because I got a Peach Daiquiri and they were both exclaiming how weird it was that I was drinking! I guess the last time they saw me I wasn't even 18 yet!

My sister and I when we were young!

We didn't hang out on Friday unfortunately because my Mom and I couldn't take off work. We did get together on Saturday though! We had lunch at Qdoba and then we went to a park! Qdoba was fun, and we got to talk about more personal things like how life was and then just goof off some more!! The park was really fun. Although, at one point I got bored and slap happy at the same time, so I was just running around like a little 5 year old playing on everything. We're talking I was swinging (which I always do at parks), then on the basketball playing with an imaginary ball, then walking along the patch next to the creek only to get distracted by a squirrel, then dancing with my sister to these huge ants and leaf statue! Of the corny person I am, lied down in front of the leaf statue and waited for my aunts to come over. Once all of them were there I said "Fan me my aunts/ants!" They all just looked at me like I was weird and lame, but I was having fun laughing my butt off! The ant statues had weird faces, so when I lied down on the leaf I told my sister that they had knocked me out and I was their sacrifice and they were going to eat me alive. My sister just agreed and said they had creepy faces too, but I'm still not sure if she was just pacifying me! Anyways, we took lots of pictures with the ant statues. Then, they wanted to hear me sing some Korean and Japanese songs. I ended up doing Sorry Sorry and having my Mom and Sister do the dance with me! Although, after the chorus, I wasn't too sure of the dance, I did an imitation of Yesung dancing. Anyways, I found out afterwards my uncle video recorded it. Oh noes! I'm not sure if I'll share the video or not yet...I haven't seen it...GAH! It was sad to see them go and I hope we can get together sometime soon!

When I googled hyper person this popped up & I liked it!

So for a quick news and preview for my next post, the Drum Corps International 2011 World Championships is this week!! The fun starts on Thursday and ends Saturday. Unfortunately I won't be going to it (since it's in Indiana and a lot of money), but we can see a live broadcast of Thursday's events in the movie theater, so my family and I are heading to that! So sometime this weekend or early next week I'll update about the ending scores and my thoughts on what happened and such! I just can't wait to see how much SCV and Phantom have improved. Plus, I'm excited to see The Cavaliers finished drill and the crazy upside down tenor feature!

Crazy upside tenor feature. Credit to The Cavaliers twitter!

As for Skip Beat! news, the new chapter still hasn't come. It still a couple weeks away! It comes out right before the beginning of the new semester, so hopefully I won't be too distracted and not be able to read it for a bit! Thankfully there's been so much going on I've been distracted from the waiting! As I mentioned last post, they've finished the filming. There have been tweets that it should be coming soon, so I'm hopeful that it'll start airing before the end of the year! I can't wait to see it! Although, I hope it'll all be in one language. I don't know if you remember the preview, but it was half Korean and half Chinese. It was a little odd. We'll see!

Cute Skip Beat! chibis! Plus Kyoko's demon things!

Okay, and lastly (as always), fangirl time!! There isn't much Arashi things lately, so I'll just get right into Super Junior! First off, the official MV has been released!! Wooooo!!! It's so good!! I'll give you the link here! I won't post it on the blog though because I want to help increase the views! It's only been out a few days and we're already over 4 million views. There have been tweets going around and now ELFs are going to try to get the view count to be the highest ever! The current champ is Justin Bieber ( *throws up* ), so we definitely need to surpass him! Also, last weekend was Super Junior's comeback on the weekly music shows! There weren't on Mnet M!Countdown last week, but they will be this week. If you click on the names of the shows, you can watch KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Music Core, and SBS's Inkigayo comebacks!

A cap from the MV!

Okay, and for my last update, my package will be here very very soon! I got the tracking number for it, and the estimated delivery is the 11th! I've been checking it everyday, and a couple days ago it reached Alaska! I was super excited! I was telling everyone that it was on American soil! Granted it was in Alaska, but I was still super stoked! I'm just sad that I'll be gone that day. Hopefully my roommate will be home when they come to sign for it. I might have to wait a couple days before I get it and can be home otherwise. Anyways, I'm sure my twitter will be updated quickly and rapidly when I get them! I can't wait to look through everything and spaz!

I got the Leeteuk & Eunhyuk badges!

So I'll wrap up things here since I'll be posting again in a couple of days! As always, I leave you with a gif! This time I bring you the wonderful Kangin playing with the glass when DJed a radio show! I can't wait until he gets out of the military in a year! XD

Ja ne~~
Stasi

A Busy Busy Bee

2011-08-05T10:38:00.001-06:00

*Author's Note: So I wrote this Wednesday afternoon/night. Since I'm a huge procrastinator and got distracted (majorly), I'm posting this now. So, I'm lazy and don't want to go through and re-edit everything and add more updates (I'll just do another post in a couple of days). Anyways, I just wanted to let you know to read this as if I posted this on Wednesday afternoon/night not now (Friday morning)! Sorry it took so long!

Once again it has taken me forever to post again. Things have been crazy lately, both in real life and in the fandom world. As always though, I'll start with the real life things for those that don't care about my fangirl rantings!!

Well, a lot of things have happened since we last spoke, but I thought I'd just focus on the most prominent happening. Last weekend, I went to my first family reunion. Granted most of the people there were my Mom's third cousins and distant relatives to us, it was still really cool to see all these people that I was related to and had never even heard their names before. It was a BBQ at Washington Park (something like that) in Denver (or Golden or one of the nearby cities, but I consider everything Denver being from Northern Colorado). Anyways, it was awkward at first because everyone was kind of separated and just sat and hang out with the people they already knew. My older aunts knew a lot more of the people than my Mom did, so I spent a lot of time just chillin' with my sister. At one point we ended up going to the nearby playground and playing on the swings. Of course, as we were bored, I kind of started serenaded the playground. I was singing mostly Korean and Japanese songs, so a lot of little Denverites were introduced to foreign music, granted it was sung horribly and with out background music. My sister would join in on the English lines she knew, but we just kept ourselves entertained! I think at some point my Aunt came over and recorded us, I'm not sure why. It was really funny though, because my swing didn't make any noise, but my sisters sounded like a baby elephant. It was hilarious. I was laughing so hard for at least 20 minutes listening to the sounds that were coming out of the swing. I was thoroughly amused. What was funny was that it was even making the same noises for the little girls that were playing on the swings after us!

Anyways, back to the reunion. After we were done playing on the swings, we went back to where everyone was still chilling. About half the people had left at that point, but some new people had shown up. One was my Mom's third cousin. She apparently had been born and raised in Greeley and is now living in Windsor (a city that's like 20 minutes away). She brought a lot of old photos and information about the family tree that she's researched. It was really cool, and things that I've always wanted to know. There never has really been much history available about our ancestors due to our family being secretive and not wanting to talk about the past a lot. What's even cooler is that we found out we have family buried in one of the cemeteries here in Greeley. Then when my Mom was looking up the cemetery information the other, she found more family (from a different side) and I guess one of them is my Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. I'm super psyched, and when my Mom picks me up tonight we're going to go check it out! I still can't believe that we've had family here the entire time, but we had no idea!

As I learn more, I'll be sure to update the more exciting things. Although one thing I learned from my Mom's cousin, is that far along our line is a Scottish rebel. I guess he tried to overthrow the king way back when, but it's hard to find hard information. I guess he ended up changing his name and fleeing, so everything is a little sketchy and hard to dig up. I find that really cool and fascinating though. My Mom also found out that a few (like 5) generations ago, one of our ancestors immigrated from Russia and his wife from Germany. We also found some Cherokee Indian in the mix too. So one thing has been cemented for me, I'm a mutt. I knew before that I had mixes of different countries, but after finding all this information there's a lot more different lines of blood in me than I thought!

To continue on with family events, my Aunt and Uncle from California are flying out today! My Aunt has her high school reunion, so she's coming! I'm so excited! I haven't seen them since my high school graduation! That was four or five years ago, something like that! Anyways, we are doing dinner tomorrow night and then a brunch type thing on Saturday morning. I'm excited to see them and sad that we won't have too much time to hang out together. Anyways, I'll update again in a few days to share all the hilarity that will ensue!

Aunt Rowie & Uncle Jerry when they were on vacation in Australia!

Okay, so before I get too heavy into fangirl stuff, I first would like to do a small update about Skip Beat! The latest chapter still hasn't come out, but the Taiwanese drama has officially finished recording. They had the celebratory party like last week, so hopefully it'll start airing. They haven't released the official date it'll start airing, but hopefully they'll start releasing news!

Okay, so a small Arashi update! I promised on my last post that I would post my favorite songs of the album and the ones to check out! There hasn't been too big of news otherwise though. So as I mentioned before, my favorite solo song is Sakurai Sho-san's このままもっと (Konomama Motto). I have to say though, that my favorite song is まだ見ぬ世界へ (Mada Minu Sekai e), the one they released a music video before (I posted it a while ago). Just as a side note, I'm not going to consider the songs that were previously released as singles (like Lotus and To Be Free). So my other favorite songs are morning light, negai, always, 虹のカケラ～no rain, no rainbow～!! If you have a chance, definitely check out the album or at the very least the songs I've mentioned. Honestly though, I love all the songs! It was hard to narrow it down and not list them all!

I love they're all in sync and in time, but doing the move differently!

Okay, and onto the biggest fangirlisms in a little over a year and some very exciting news!! Super Junior's 5th album "Mr. Simple" is out! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I can't tell you how much I love this album. I looooooove all the songs so much. I can't wait to see them perform Mr. Simple (the title track) live! Also, the MV hasn't been released yet. It gets released tomorrow (or today in Korea), so there will be those fangirl rants once that comes out! SM has posted two teasers (Teaser 1 & Teaser 2). I would post them here, but I want to try to help with views, so I'd rather you go to their page! Anyways, enjoy! I've been so excited for a while. They've been releasing teaser pics for over a week and the other day the album was released on Korean digital sites. Please if your going to download, do it legally. You can buy it at itunes, but if possible please buy from one of the Korean sites so we can get Super Junior the awards they deserve!!

Leeteuk cap from the MV teasers!! XD

As for the album itself, they are coming out with 10 different types. Each album will have a front cover that is of one member with back cover having all 10 members. The album itself is really big, so I'm hoping that the photobook itself is big. Anyways, I've ordered two through SJ-World and one through AngeLeeteuk. That means I'll be getting two random members and then for sure Leeteuk! I can't wait to get them. As for the album itself, gold. I love all the songs so much. My favorites are constantly changing every time I listen to a different song, but I've finally been able to narrow it down to three. My top three favorite songs off of "Mr. Simple" are Mr. Simple, 라라라라 (Be My Girl), and My Love, My Kiss, My Heart!! There is one song composed and written by Donghae and Chance. That's really good too! I just hope there will be a repackaged version, because I remember hearing somewhere that Leeteuk composed another song. I hope that it comes out!

Anyways, I don't want to spaz too much about 5 jib right now, since I haven't even gotten my copy and there are no live performances or music videos to share. My last exciting news is that my Photobooks and other Super Junior items I ordered have been shipped! I'm so excited! I can't wait to get them! This is my first time being able to afford the fanclub goods, so I can't wait to look through both Leeteuk photobooks!! Also, I'm getting a couple posters, a couple buttons, and a Super Show bag!! I'm sure I'll be tweeting and spazzing a lot when I get that package. It should come here in a week or so, so I'm sure that will be included sometime soon in another of my blog posts!!

Okay, so I'll stop here for today!! Since I've been waking up early every morning to watch Sukira (Super Junior's Kiss the Radio) I've been kind of exhausted (stupid time difference). That will get a lot worse though, especially with this upcoming debut! Ah, the point of this rant, is I'll leave you with a cute gif of a sleepy Leeteuk!

Ja ne~~
Stasi

Fangirl Madness!! XD

2011-07-13T19:35:00.002-06:00

Good Afternoon my dear readers!! So, just a warning, this post will have A LOT of fangirling, but over different things!! Anyways, since I'm starting off with the biggest fangirl rant, lets get started and keep me from rambling on too much!! XD

So this past weekend was Drums Along the Rockies (DATR)!! For those who aren't aware of drum corps, it's similar to Marching Bands. The differences between the two are that Drum Corps only have brass and percussion instruments accompanied by the color guard (marching bands have woodwinds). In drum corps, you travel the US for about two and half to three months playing approx. 11 minutes shows (marching band shows are a little shorter). You travel on chartered buses, sleep on high/middle/elementary school gym floors (or wherever else you can fit 135+ people). Days are spent rehearsing, from sun up to sun down. If there's a show that day, then you practice until a few hours before you have to go on. It's a lot of hard work, requires a lot of discipline and is very fulfilling! If you want to know more, check out the Drum Corps International (DCI) website here!

But anyways, my mom marched in 1984 with the Casper, Wyoming Troopers (check them out here!) and I followed suit marching in 2005. In the year that I haven't marched and for as long as I can remember, we have attended the Denver competition DATR. There was one year there wasn't DATR, but that was because the World Championships were in Denver in 2004, so there was no need to have the normal show! Yeah, so last year when I studied abroad in Japan, it was the first year since I can remember that I didn't have any drum corps experiences. It was sad, but at the same time I was doing something amazing! Thankfully the weekend of DATR last year I went with Sharien to Kyoto, so it helped keep my mind of what I was missing back home!! Being that it has been two years since I've seen a drum corps live, I was super psyched! What's even more exciting, is that they have added a new show! A couple years ago they added an extra small show in Windsor (a small town north of Denver), and I guess last year they switched locations to Loveland (a bigger town than Windsor, also north of Denver). I was so excited to get to see two shows this year! So, to continue this rant, I'll just do a breakdown of the two days!

The old finales, the top 12 corps on the field in 2001.

So on Friday, my Mom was busy, so I chilled at home in the morning and caught up on the latest season of "So You Think You Can Dance." She came home around noon, and then we went corps hopping! Corps hopping is when we go and watch them practice. It might sound really boring, but I find it interesting and entertaining. Especially with ensemble practice! Oh wait, let me explain this real quick for those that might not be band geeks or know! XD In drum corps, there are three types of practices: Sectionals, Visual, and Ensemble. They are actually pretty strait forward. Sectionals is when each of the groups break up into their parts (guard, percussion and brass/horns) for separate sectionals. Sometimes it gets broken down even more (like pit, battery, bass, tenors, snares, etc.). Visual is when the corps get together to work on the drill, or the marching movements and shapes that they form on the field. Most of the time they don't play when they work on visual, especially in the beginning of the season. (During visual the pit just still does sectional practice or practice for moving onto and setting up.) Lastly, and the one most fans flock to see, is ensemble. Ensemble rehearsal is when everyone is together on the field and they try to fix melding and drill issues and see how things blend together and just perfecting the whole package of the show. Most ensemble rehearsals end with a run through, which means that they run their whole show like they were at one of the competitions. It's really fun to watch and see how they fix little segments of the show and slowly improve (but maybe it's because I've marched before that I find it so interesting ~_~). On show days, you can tell that they hold back to not tire or wear themselves out, so even if you happen to see their practice, it's a completely different ball game that night with the lights, uniforms, and the member blaring (or performing for the guard) their souls out to the audience!

Okay, so since I've explained that, what my Mom and I did for most of the afternoon on Friday was watch Phantom Regiment's (my favorite drum corps) ensemble rehearsal. It was so much fun! I kept getting excited and wanted to scream and cheer and clap, but it was just practice. I hadn't heard a live drums in two years though, so instead I kept grabbing my Mom's arm in excitement. What really made it fun though, was that we were both reacting the same way! Like at one part in the show that night, I turned to tell my Mom that I just got chills and she had her hand over her heart and seemed to be completely drawn into Phantom's World. We did small things like that both nights! But anyways, that night was DATR Loveland. It was really weird for me at first. The show was held at Thompson Valley High School. That's were our regionals

Phatom's closing from this year's show, Juliet!

The next day, we had to pick up my aunt and grandmother, so we didn't do as much corp hopping. My mom, younger sister and I woke up early and checked out Santa Clara Vanguard's (SCV) rehearsal. Based on their online schedule, I figured it would be visual or sectionals, and it ended up being sectionals when we got to the high school. We watched the percussion sectional for a few hours. When they broke for lunch, we headed home and prepared everything for the big show. After picking up the family in Longmont, we headed to Denver and good ole Invesco Stadium (Home of the Broncos! XD). I call this the "big show" because it had two more corps that didn't perform the night before and it's in a nicer stadium for both the performers and audience. What's sad though, is that during the Seattle Cascade's performance they were pulled off the field. It was raining, so we thought at first it was the pit electronics, but then the lighting warning went out right after the sound of thunder, so everyone was told to take shelter. I definitely wouldn't want to be one of the members holding a giant metal horn or flag pole in the middle of thunder storm! After like 15 minutes they let everyone back out into the stands and the Cascades restarted their show. I just felt really bad for them. It really screws with your mental game when you have to sit there and wait to start the show, let alone have to stop in the middle of a song and then come back a little later and restart. The adrenaline in your system isn't as strong, but thankfully it didn't seem to affect them too bad! SCV and Phantom both had someone slip in the show, but it didn't seem like anyone was too terribly hurt. I felt that Phantom and SCV did a lot better the second night, but it ended up being the Cadets that took home 1st place. I don't really know why. Their drill looked really sloppy to me and their pit was way too loud (as well as the 2nd place Blue Devils). I was bewildered along with the rest of the audience, so when they announced Phantom in 3rd place, the entire stands actually booed the judges. The Cadets show this year is probably the first I've ever enjoyed, but it seemed sloppy to me and just didn't have that something special. As for the Blue Devils, the last show I really like from them was in 2005, and this year's show didn't seem to have much emotion in it. I don't know why. But I do have to give it to their hornline. Yeah, so beside the disappointing score results, I had a really fun weekend. It flew by way to fast and I'm sad it's already over. Also, I was sad that I wasn't able to see the Troopers (Proud Alumni Here) or the Cavaliers (Their tenors (the multiple drums/quads/quints play upside down). If I had the money I'd fly to Indianapolis in the beginning of August for the world championships. To end this rant (otherwise I'll keep going forever...trust me...) I'll say that if you want to check out more there are links to each of the corps on the DCI website as well as a bunch of other goodies. (I'll post the link again so you don't have to search for it again!!)

The picture I tweeted, notice the grayness of the sky!

Okay, so to get me off my drum corps high (it's still running through my mind and will be until August most likely), I'll start my next fangirl rant, but this one is shorter! The latest chapter of Skip Beat! was released!! It came out on the 5th, and I read it the next day. It seemed a little short, but the previous chapter was a released two weeks beforehand, so that's probably why. In this chapter, we saw the conclusion of the first confrontation between Cain Heel (Ren) and Murasame-san. Following that, there was some cute interactions between Kyoko and Ren, where Ren left Kyoko utterly confused and questioning herself as an actor (like usual...). I won't rant too much about this, so if you really want to know more details, check it out! It's chapter 177 (we're already on 177 O_O)!! The sad thing is, we have to wait like another two months until the next release. Chapter 178 is not released until August 20th. It's so long away! T_T

Kyoko confused about what happened with Ren.

Okay, so finally, I'll talk (as briefly as I can) about fandoms! First off (because it's a smaller rant) is Arashi! Their new album was released on the 6th! I haven't gotten a chance to listen to all of the new songs yet (because I was busy with DATR), but I love the ones I have listened too. I also really like Sakurai Sho's solo song this album. I think it might be my favorite of his solo songs! XD Hopefully I get through the rest of them by my next blog post, so I can update you on my favorite songs and such! (See, I tried to make it short! XD)

Okay, so onto my final rants, which is my ELF fandoms (and what most of my rants are about, sorry nonfans)!! Anyways, first off, I want to wish a Happy Belated birthday to our Big Universe Star Kim Heechul!! His birthday was on the 10th! I did send wishes via Twitter, but I'd thought I'd post something small here as well!! (You can skip it if you want!)

Dear Kim Heechul,

I want to thank you as well as wish you a Happy Birthday! You are such a character and I love you as do all ELFs! It may seem like you have a lot of antis, but I have never met one or come across one! I love that you are there for the members, especially Leeteuk! You make me smile and truly give a good name to AB types! I hope to see you forever in your element, and can't wait to see you acting again! I hope that your last year in your 20's is amazing! We'll miss you when you go to the army, but we'll always be waiting for you!

My favorite Heechul gif! I remember watching this live in Japan!! XD

In other ELF news, I received my SS3 photobook and poster the other day!! I opened it up right away and spent over an hour slowly looking through the photos. I almost want to buy another one to keep safe and have one that I can look at regularly. I also was sad that the folded posters inside weren't unattached and like a seperate goodie so I can actually put them on my walls. But, I love it and had to rearrange a little to put the new poster up! (I don't know what I'll do when I get the 5 jib posters & the two SJ-H posters. ~_~) Oh, and speaking of 5 jib, preorders are starting to go out! I'm guessing that means that it'll be coming out soon (hopefully)!! I can't wait. The choreographer that was one of the dancers in BoA's American MVs and that choreographed TVXQ's Mirotic has tweeted about rehearsal with Super Junior. ELFs around the world (including myself) are ecstatic to see the new dance! (Especially since Mirotic had some really good choreography!) But anyways, I sure hope it comes out soon. I'm getting so freaking excited that it's hard to me to be patient for too much longer!!

SS3 photobook with the bonus photos I got special from the seller!

Okay, so I'll stop ranting here!! As usual I'll leave you with a gif!

Zhoumi eating...something... XD

Ja ne~~

Stasi XD

Happy Happy Birthday To You!!

2011-07-01T09:36:00.005-06:00

So, as most of you know, it's July 1st!! Not only is this day the first day of July, but it also is the Birthday of my Bias and inspiration, Leeteuk of Super Junior!! He is turning 29 in Korea, so I'm going to share my Birthday wishes and thoughts!

I give you Leeteuk's Solo from SS3 Taiwan!! Enjoy!! XD

To Park Jung Su A.K.A. Leeteuk:

Happy Birthday! I hope you had a wonderful day! ELFs around the world are celebrating today. Without you there would be no Super Junior. You're the glue that keeps everything together. I really hope that your last year in your twenties is absolutely amazing! We'll miss you when you leave for your military duty, but I, and all ELFs, will await your return! We will wait forever, no matter how long it takes! You make my days brighter, and happier with your infectious laugh! I know that technically your birthday is over in Korea, but there's still 12+ hours left here in Colorado, and I plan on making the best of them! Once again, Happy Birthday. I'm pretty sure you won't read this, but I just wanted to post my "card" to you and share my thoughts and wishes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR ANGEL LEETEUK!!!!

This donation was made through 3 fan forums, 1 of which I am a member of & donated through!

Anyways, I'll leave this post short and sweet! As always, the customary gif, and for those that might not have figured it out, it's our Birthday Boy Leeteuk!

LOLZ at CreeperKyu! Usually it's the other way around!

Ja ne~
Stasi

Thundering Ends

2011-06-30T20:13:00.001-06:00

Good afternoon my dear readers!! Once again I fail at updating at a more regular pace, but at least I've been making the "at least two posts a month" goal...lately! Well, as I sit here writing this, listening to the sound of thunder (and Super Junior XD), with the smell of rain wafting in, I feel really good! I love the smell of rain and when it's gray and cloudy outside!! But anyways, I have quite a bit to update on since my last post, so I'll get started!

First off, I'll do a small fangirl thing. I know it's usually at the end, but this is something recent and more urgent (in my mind). One of my favorite Arashi members Aiba Masaki has been hospitalized due to a spontaneous pneumothorax. T_T It has happened before, right after I became an Arashian. It's scary, but there has been reports that everything is okay and he's going to rest at the hospital for a week to recover! My cute little energetic Aiba-chan, get better soon and really let your body recuperate this week!! がんばれ～～！We'll be waiting for the album release on the 6th, as well as your release from the hospital! My thoughts and wishes are with you!

Okay, so I wanted to touch basis a little bit about the last post. I had posted about doing a giveaway and posted a poll. So, the results are in! Since there was only one vote on the poll and no comments about it, I'm just going to put it on hold for now! I have a few ideas and things to save for giveaways! I'll probably do it in a while. It might have to wait until I have more readers (that I know of)! So, keep your eyes open for when I start doing giveaways!! As for other things I mentioned in my last post, my new place! I'm really enjoying it here. The cats are adorable, the roommies awesome (I finally met my last roommie), and I love being so close to campus. One of my roommates and I have been watching a lot of movies lately, but a little over a week ago we found something amazing on Netflix instant play! The original series of Power Rangers!! Yes, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers!! I'm talking five members and before they brought in Tommy the green and later white ranger. We watched the first few episodes that night and it's so good. Especially for an early 90's show!! I'm going to try to find it on DVD or something! I would love having the show that pretty much was my life growing up! If any of you have Netflix and enjoyed the Power Rangers, definitely check it out!

Well, speaking of TV Shows, I'll do a little rant about those. First off, NBC's The Voice. I really enjoyed The Voice (it's over now). Beverly was my favorite, but I really enjoyed most of the contestants they had. I look forward to season 2!! Also, I just found out they are doing a concert tour (what TV show isn't now a days), so I might see if they're coming to Denver or somewhere close!! It might be too expensive, but I would love to attend it! As for other TV Shows, my friend Derek has gotten me back into Fox's So You Think You Can Dance! HOLY MOLEY!! I haven't watched it since they moved into the new stage (a few seasons ago), but this season is amazing!! There have been some absolutely amazing routines, and it's only been the first couple of weeks. I think Travis' statue routine from the first episode should be nominated for an Emmy, but we'll see what else he pulls out this season! Another thing, I enjoy all of the dancers this year. Usually there's a couple underdogs, but this year it's really hard to spot them. Nigel always talks about raising the bar (at least he used too), and this year I think they really did that! The B-boys are even great and picking up the other styles quicker than B-boys in the past!

My last TV Show to rant about, and recently became addicted to thanks to Netflix and too much time on my hands, is Glee. I wasn't really too interested in it before even though I love some of the Actors from it, but I gave in. I also didn't really want to watch it because soooo many people watch it and it's become somewhat mainstream, but the lack of Harry Shum Jr. in my life became too much! Excuse my fangirlisms, but Harry Shum Jr. is such an amazing dancer. I was little disappointed with the lack of Mike in the first season (Harry Shum's character), but he's already more apparent in the second season and I've only seen the first three episodes! But anyways, I'm enjoying the show a lot more than I thought I would. I have to say though, that I loved the Britney Spears episode. It made me want to do a Britney medley/marathon at karaoke really, really bad. Actually, I still want to do one. Yeah, but honestly, watching Glee just makes me more excited to see BoA's movie Cobu 3D even more!! I can't wait until it comes out! Anyways here's a video interview of Harry Shum Jr.!!

Okay, so there was this hug paragraph here explaining about me finally reading the last Harry Potter book. I don't know what happened to it, but it's gone. Anyway, the gist of it was I've been reading a lot and one of the books I read was the last Harry Potter book. Also, I'm excited for Part 2. Gomen ne~~! XD

Now onto my favorite part of my blog updates, Skip Beat! So the latest chapter was released on the 20th, and it was soooooo good (as always)!! I hated having to wait so long, but it was worth it. Actually, it always is! XD Anyway, this chapter we started to get into the meaty part of the Cain Heel arc (what I'm calling this arc)! The chapter started off with Murasame-san approaching Kyoko and pretty much hitting on her. He found out that Ren and Kyoko were portraying siblings. But, Ren appeared and threatened him. Not only did he threaten him, but he did it in Japanese! So the cat's out of the bag that he can speak Japanese, but it was also revealed that it wasn't part of the original plan. We also had a flashback section that was the meeting of Ren and Kyoko with the director. We find out that the director actually does know it's Ren, but is doing this for publicity I guess. At the end of flashback, we see the director looking forward to their performances, especially Kyoko's! Next we see Ren and Kyoko talking to each other. Kyoko is confused about Ren speaking Japanese to others and is trying to comprehend why Ren did that. Ren also yells at Kyoko about speaking too politely. He mentions that she sounds like a receptionist at a five star hotel speaking to guests. Of course when he asks her about it, she freaks out. Of course she's not going to reveal to Ren that she learned it working at Sho's parents ryokan. Then Murasame-san interrupts them and confronts Ren. He yells at him for not speaking Japanese freely and presents the challenge of forcing Ren to conform. The chapter ends with riveting panels of Murasame-san and Ren glaring at each other and the start of the confrontation and issue between these two!! The next chapter gets released on the fifth (of July), so expect an update around then with more rantings about Skip Beat! As a small side note, both Donghae and Siwon have mentioned that they have finished filming, so I'm really hoping that the drama will start airing with the Fall season!! *fingers crossed*

Murasame-san's reaction to Ren threatening him in Japanese!

Okay, so the last bit of this post is going to be fangirlisms, and more specifically ELF fangirlisms!! First off, I finally got my 美人　（ＢＯＮＡＭＡＮＡ） CD and CD/DVD!! Yay!! *Side note, because I ordered them from YesAsia and it came from Japan I got a free capsule toy. I picked the One Piece phone charms, and ended up getting Colby!! Yay!!* I watched the DVD and opened them right away! I was lucky enough to make it in time to order the first press editions of both, so I not only got the photocards that came in each, but the mini poster that came in the CD version! I ended up getting Shindong's and Eunhyuk's photocards!! I know have two Shindong photocards! Bonamana Version A and the Bijin edition! I was also excited to get Eunhyuk's since he is one of my biases. I might trade Shindong's if I can get a Leeteuk card, but I'm not really worried about it. I'm think I'm just going to leave it up to fate. It would be nice to trade, but I think I'm just going to stick with what I have! I love all the boys, so I'm just happy that I was able to get a photocard in the first place!! What also came in the order, was the Chinese movie "A Battle of Wits." Not only does it star my favorite Chinese actor Andy Lau, but Choi Siwon as well!! I haven't seen it in a little while, so once I finish my current Netflix discs, I pop that one in!

In other exciting fangirl news, I have preordered the SS3 Photobook!! It gets released in Korea tomorrow, but I've seen some tweets and reports that some people in Korea already have theirs. But anywho, I should be getting it in like a week in the mail! I can't wait to check it out! Also in photobook related news, the people who I ordered my parkjungsu.com photobook through, has also received the Spotlight Leeteuk photobook! Now I just have to wait for them to receive the Daily Vita photobook and then they'll ship all three plus some other things I've ordered to me! I can't wait. They're estimating that they'll receive the Daily Vita books mid-July, so I've got a little bit of time to wait before they come! But, to tide you other fangirls over, I'll post the twitter pics of the photobooks and goodies as well as the ad for the SS3 photobook!! XD

Okay, so Heechul is apart of a new project called M&D with Trax's handsome and talented guitarist Jungmo! They have released a Music Video and the English title is Close Ur Mouth. I'll post the one with English translation for you all to view!! I really like it, plus it's more rocky which I love, especially when it comes to Heechul! I love the video too, especially all the Chocoball appearances. Also, Hongki's face is absolutely hilarious in the first encounter with Heechul, Jonghyun and him in the video! Keep an eye out for it!! XD Check it out!

Last but not least, I'd like to leave a belated Happy Birthday Shoutout to our little Powerhouse Ryeowook! His birthday was on the 21st, but I totally forgot to post something on here. T_T But, to make up for it (a little bit), this week's customary gif will be the cute little Wookie!!

Ja Ne~~~
Stasi

UWAH! So Many Rants!

2011-06-11T15:25:00.001-06:00

Once again, I come to you all later than planned. I'm sorry, I don't know why this keeps happening. I was busy at first, but then time just got away from me. ごめんね～～！But anyways, first things first, my blog has reached over 1000 views!! I'm a little surprised it actually got that high, but thank you to everyone reading my blogs and other random dallies!! But, to celebrate, I was thinking of maybe doing a giveaway or present or something. I'll set up a poll in the sidebar, so please vote on if you want the chance to do a giveaway! If the votes turn up well, I'll post the giveaway at the end of this month or in early July. So, vote away!! If you have any suggestions, just leave a comment below!!

I'll start with where the last blog ended, and that would be my little sister's graduation. I think it was shorter than my graduation, and we only had 99 people versus her 424. O_O It was kind of nice how quick it was. At the same time, it was a little odd and unorganized. But, the main point is that my sister is now a High School Graduate!! I'm so happy for her!! The next day we had a graduation party up at my Dad's house. It was really nice! My Favorite Grandpa (my nickname for my Grandfather) and his girlfriend, both my step-brothers and one of their girlfriends, and myself came up for it! We didn't too much, but it was really nice to just relax and hang with family! We did play like a 5 hour game of Apples to Apples. That game is really fun, but it started to get a little boring once the noun cards started to recycle. That was also the first time I lost at that game. I ended up in last place by at least 5 cards, and Shawn's girlfriend was first with 20 or something like that. I had 6. Yeah, I guess I just wasn't good at reading people. Well, that and I kind of had some horrible cards most of the game. Three of them I got in my original hand and ended up not using them until the very end they were so odd. ~_~

My sister & I before the ceremony!

Now onto June! Well, June 1st was such an amazing day for me. It was probably the best day I've had this year. On June 1st I signed the lease and moved into my new apartment, picked up 13 hours at work, and just had a wonderful day overall. It was over a week ago so I can't remember everything that was going well, but it was just one of those days (in a good way)! Which leads me into my next update, I moved into a new place! I have to say, I love living there! The roommates are awesome (I haven't met one yet), there are two very cute cats, and it takes me less than ten minutes to walk anywhere on campus! It's so nice. Don't get me wrong, living alone and having my own bedroom and apartment was really nice, but I really like where I'm living now. The past few days my roommate Katie and I will start talking, and then next thing we know it's hours later! It's kind of how the talks I had with Naruto and Yeon Joo in Japan were! The sad part is the other roommate I met (Kayla) left yesterday for Basic Training. She's in the Army ROTC, so I won't get to hang out with her again until late August. :( Anyways, I have everything set up in my room, and did so just a few days after I moved in. I'm talking all my wall things and little decoration things and everything! They were a little surprised how fast it took me to unpack all my crap and settle in. I guess that's just what I do. I was thinking about it, and I had everything set up and settled pretty quick when I was in Japan. I guess I'm just a quick nestle and can be adaptable easily. XD

The walls of my new room! XD

So last Tuesday was my 22nd Birthday! It was a rather uneventful day. I worked then came home and had leftovers and watched some dramas. My family is going to have a BBQ or get together sometime to celebrate it (maybe) in a couple weeks. We'll see. I did get a lot of birthday wishes and I would like to thank everyone again for you thoughts! There was only one thing disappointing that day. Nobody sang me the Birthday Song. I realized it as I was going to bed, and it was sad. Usually my Favorite Grandpa calls and sings it to me, but this year he texted me. It's weird. I actually convinced myself it was supposed to be. Last year I was in Japan for my birthday, so when everyone sang, I had never had that many people at one time sing to me. It was such a fun and touching experience for me. So, since I had so many people sing to me last year, it's only right that this year there was nobody. Oh...I just realized this is kind of depressing. I guess I'm just making excuses, but I honestly think that because I was able to gain that special memory last year, it's okay that nothing incredible happens this year. Anyway, I think sometime this week I'm going to treat myself to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in 3D in like a mini celebration!

Well, before I get onto my next update, I just wanted to mention to those of you whom didn't know/see the link, I have a tumblrtumblr to look at others), please do. I will warn you though, it's mostly fandom things, centering around Super Junior with a few Arashi and a couple other band posts when it's a funny gif or something. I also post random things that don't have to deal with Asian fandoms! Anyways, there's a link on the right of my blog, or you can just click here!

Okay, well now that my tumblr commercial is over (sorry about that to those that don't really care), lets continue on to the new happening in my life: Learning Korean! So instead of waiting until I go there or until I go to a school that offers Korean, I decided to start trying to learn it on my own. I (thankfully) picked up Hangul pretty fast. I can read most of what I see in Korean now, but I have no idea what it means. Yeah, so my rant about learning Korean, is the conjugation. Oh my gosh was my brain turned to liquid when I was reading the conjugation chapter out of my book. It's so confusing (as it was when I first started learning Japanese) and I was sitting in the living room for like five hours reading five pages on conjugation. And that was just the patterns, not all the different endings that you can conjugate with. *sigh* Well, I'll just keep practicing. I noticed yesterday when I was going through the honorifics chapter, that it was slowly starting to sink in. I think though now my main problem will be with knowing enough vocabulary (I have that issue with Japanese still too). Although, I am grateful that there's only one form of Hangul. I would like to eventually be efficient in Kanji, but that is so hard, especially being in an area where it's hard to reinforce everything that I've learned and learn more. *Side note, I feel like I've lost a lot of my Japanese, so maybe when I finish with this textbook I'll start reading through my Japanese texts and notes and try to keep both of them current. I'm also happy that Korean and Japanese have a similar grammar structure, so some of what I've learned isn't as hard as it was when I was learning Japanese. Yeah, but anyways, I'll this rant here. If you have any links to practice sheets or online flashcards or learning aids (for both Korean and Japanese), please send me a message or post a link in the comments below!

The Hangul Alphabet chart!

Okay, well, to continue my thoughts on Korean and Japanese, time to get to the fandom parts of my blog. First off, I'll be starting with Skip Beat!! The newest chapter hasn't been released yet (I still have like 10 days), so that'll be in my next post (if I don't post one between now and then). But, in other Skip Beat! news, the preview trailer for the drama has been released!! I noticed parts of the manga in the preview, but then there were some parts I didn't. The only thing I'm confused about is Siwon and Donghae speaking Korean. I wonder if there's going to be dubs. I kind of hope not though, then we'll lose the sound of their voices and dubs are never quite the same as the actor/ess. We'll see. ~_~ Although, I do have to say that I am growing to like Donghae as Sho. What's nice about this role is that maybe he won't get stuck in getting the same sort of roles over and over (similar to what is unfortunately happening to Siwon). So check out the trailer below! (Hopefully it won't be deleted anytime soon.)

So to continue on with the Super Junior fandom news, I would like to start with what I mentioned in my last blog. Our Angel leader Leeteuk has released a song with JYP's Joo called "Ice Cream." Now, honestly, I downloaded it and watched the MV and all that good stuff because it had Leeteuk and I wanted to support him. Please don't kill me or go all anti on me, but I am not a fan of Joo's voice. I also thought it was odd that they paired them up together. To me, their voices didn't really seem to bled like other duets I've heard. The MV was cute, but (my bias is coming out) I though there was way too much Joo and not enough Leeteuk. But anyways, it's a cute summer song and the feel/mood of the MV is refreshing and adorable. Check it out for yourself!

Continuing on, Bijin (Bonamana), the Japanese edition, was released June 8th in Japan (the day after my birthday)! There's only three tracks on the CD, all Bijin. There's the Japanese version, Korean version, and the Karaoke version. I'm happy there's a Karaoke version so I can "practice" for when I go to Korean or go back to Japan! Other Super Junior happiness is various members mentioning and tweeting about already working on the 5th album!! I can't wait for it!! I left room on my walls for three more posters as well as starting to put aside money specifically for 5 jib!! There's been rumors going around the net saying August is when it'll be released, and I really hope so! I can't wait! This is one of my impatiently ranting about it, but in reality I'm being more patient that usual! I just hope it's Daebak!! And my last piece of Super Junior fangirlisms, is what is currently happening in Paris as I write this! That's right, SM Town Paris! I still wish I could've gone to the one in LA, but it's exciting because SM Ent is doing real time updates on their facebook page and have released some videos on their YouTube!! I'll post Super Junior's "Don't Don" for you all to enjoy, but if you go to SM Ent's YouTube page they also have videos of Shinee, F(x), TVXQ and Girl's Generation. I'm just bummed that Boa and Kangta weren't able to make it to Paris. Hopefully they'll be able to come to LA or the US again so I can try to go! I'd also love for SS4 to come to the US too! Then I'd definitely go! I'd sell organs to go!

Okay, the last thing I have to update is another fandom thing, but this time it's Arashi! Arashi has just released their latest PV!! It's for their new album "Beautiful World" which'll be released July 6th. The PV reminds me a little bit of their earlier days (plus they look like 10 years younger in the colorful set). At the same time, it's very modern and they've kicked up their choreography! It's exciting, but part of me thinks that they are feeling pressure from half of the Korean music industry lining up their debuts into Japan within the year. It's crazy how many Korean bands have announced their debut in Japan. I just hope Arashians around the world help keep Arashi getting #1 on Oricon anytime they release something!! But, anyways, enjoy their new PV "まだ見ぬ世界へ (Mada Minu Sekai e)"!! XD

Well, I think that's it for today. Sorry it was so long and that there were so many videos! I hope you enjoyed it none the less. Don't forget to vote and comments are always appreciated!! As always, I'll leave you with a gif! This week goes to the cute magnae of Super Junior-M Henry!

Such a cutie pie!! ;p

Ja Ne~~
Stasi

Lateness...Once Again

2011-05-19T14:32:00.000-06:00

So once again, I fail at blogging at regular intervals. I thought I had posted earlier this month (before the latest Skip Beat! chapter was released), but there is no such thing. ~_~ So, to all my readers, Sumimasen. ＿|￣|○

Well, since I just mentioned it, I'll update about the latest chapter of Skip Beat! We are up to 175! This chapter is the start of the Heel's siblings actual roles. For the first part of the chapter, the readers where given an explanation about the film that Ren (a.k.a. Cain Heel) will be recording. It's a really gritty movie about a serial killer. There are rumors going around that Cain was casted by the director specially for the role of the murderer, and we see his first appearance on set. He completely freaks everyone on set out, and one of his costars starts to get curious and competitive towards Cain. Also, this new character is attracted to Kyoko (a.k.a. Cain's Sister {forgive me, I can't remember her name for the life of me}). We also find out that he used to be a leader of a gang, so it seems like things might possibly get a little physical in the next few chapters. Another interesting thing is that Kyoko was whispering to Ren in English, so everyone on set is also now under the impression that even though Cain is of Japanese descent, he actually doesn't understand Japanese. I'm excited for the next chapter and to see where this arc will take us! A sad note about the next chapter though, it doesn't come out until June 20th. When I first read this chapter, I was disappointed that I would have to wait almost two months (compared to the usual one month), but as of my late updating, it's now down to one month!

The Director is "blue-in-the-face" after meeting Cain Heel for the first time!

Okay, in other news, the semester has officially ended. I'm still fighting with Financial Aid to get last semester paid, so that's frustrating. Actually, the frustrating fact is that I keep having to deal with the student employees, who don't know everything, or even enough to help figure things out the right way. UGH! But anyways, summer school has started. Since I haven't paid my bill for last semester (thanks to Financial Aid), I haven't been able to sign up for Summer classes. Right now, I don't mind just working. Hopefully I'll be able to figure things out before the second session though and at least take one class. We'll see what happens.

Good for stress and frustration!

Well, other things to update on, ummm, well last week my Mom went out of town so I watched the house and animals for her. It was really nice. I got to spend time with my cat, the other two cats, and our dogs. Although I honestly must say, our dog Nikki is so freaking annoying. There were many times where I quickly found myself getting really frustrated and yelling at her to shut up. She has the really high pitched bark, so eventually it gives you a headache, which in turns goes through more pain because she keeps barking. But anyways, I think I watched enough TV to make up for the past year with cable/satellite service. Honestly, I don't follow that many TV shows (especially when compared to my Mom), but it was kind of nice just being able to relax and not have to really worry about anything. At the same time though, I got bored really quickly. I ended up playing the dogs and cats a lot, so I'm sure they're pretty lonely now that I'm back in my apartment.

My cat was on my lap a lot when I was house/pet sitting! XD

Some other exciting things that have happened so far this month are the packages I've gotten! Not only did I finally get Super Junior - M's Repackaged Perfection (with poster), but I also got Lego Pirates of the Caribbean! Plus, because I pre-ordered it, I got a bonus Lego Jack Sparrow. He's really cute and I put him on my entertainment center with my other small figurines. I've played the first three movies completely through already, and have gotten halfway through the fourth movie. I've gotten the basic storyline, but it's odd playing it when the movie hasn't even been released to theaters yet. ~_~ But anyways, it's really fun. The only Lego game I haven't played is the Harry Potter one. I actually don't even own it, but I think it's on my Amazon wish list. I'm not as excited for it though since I was a huge fan of Harry Potter. Yeah, the book series was good, but I'm not really a fangirl. I actually haven't even read the last book (it's in my pile of books to read) and haven't seen any of the movies past the fourth. I think I'm just going to wait until the last movie comes out on DVD, and then netflix them or something and just marathon them. I own the first three, but I'm not sure if I'll add the rest to my wish list or not. It would be nice to complete the collection I guess, but they aren't the first movies I would buy if I had money. Oh well. We'll see what happens.

My Lego Jack Sparrow! XD

Well, that's all I can really think of right now. There isn't really much fangirling in this one, so sorry for my readers who read for that purpose, but I'll save some of that for the next post (in case I don't have that much to talk about). For one thing, I'll be posting my thoughts on Joo and Leeteuk's new digital single "Ice Cream." (A little preview! XDhoodie was soaked. Actually, I didn't really mind at all. I guess I'm just weird like that. What disappointed me about it was not being able to read my book the ten to fifteen minutes I have to wait for the bus.

My hoodie once I made it home!

Well, I'll most likely update next week! My sister is graduating from High School tomorrow and we're having a BBQ up at my Dad's house on Saturday, so I'm sure there'll be at least one story to tell next week! Until then my dear readers! As always, the customary gif! This time I bring you our Dancing Machine Jewel Guy, Eunhyukkie!! (P.S. I had fun going through my Eunhyuk gifs! XD)

Bahahahahahahahahahahaha! XD

Ja ne~
Stasi

No More Showers!

2011-04-30T12:50:00.000-06:00

Hello Minna-san!! So today is the last day of April! This month went by so fast. Actually this year went by so fast. This upcoming week is finals week, which means I've already had my last day of classes and will be free after this Friday (but only for a week since I'm working over the summer)! Hopefully I'll be able to pull off my presentations this week and end up with some good grades. I suck as presenting things and giving speeches and stuff, so we'll see. Hopefully they won't bring my grade down TOO much if I completely bomb. ~_~

Well, I don't have too much to update on since the last post. The new Skip Beat! chapter hasn't come out yet, so that regularity is missing. T_T That makes me kind of sad. Also, there isn't too much to fangirl about. Nothing REALLY exciting has happened lately. Well, at least nothing that has gotten me really excited. I can't wait for 5 jib though. Oh, I did finally get Perfection in the mail. It took forever to come, but I guess that's expected when something is shipped from the other side of the globe! XD I ended up getting Sungmin's photocard. I'm still debating on possibly putting it up for trade on some of the forums I'm a member of. Sungmin's not my favorite, but who do I want to trade it for?? I'm still trying to decide between Eunhyuk and Donghae. I wouldn't mind getting Ryeowook, Henry or Zhoumi either. Too bad there are no Leeteuk cards. ~_~ Oh well, if you want to help me decide, just leave a comment. Well, I guess I could make a poll, but that's too much work. ~_~

Well, tomorrow I'm celebrating Easter with my family, so I'll most likely have stuff to update next week. Also, the Skip Beat! chapter comes out in 5 days! That means I have like a week (give ample time for subbers because my Japanese isn't that great & kanji KILLS me X_X)!! WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I can't wait!! It's such a good series. If you haven't read it, but have read most of my blogs, I'm sorry that I've shared a lot of spoilers, but I just get so excited I can't help it! XD But, if anyone is looking for a new manga to pick up, I highly reccommend Skip Beat! As you most likely already know, it's my favorite!! XD

Let's see, I'm not sure what else I have to share. Oh, I kind of hit a stop in the Rogue Angel series. I read up to book 7, but thanks to my Mom just buying random ones for Christmas, the next book I have in the series is number 12. LOL! Well, so I finished reading Anne Stuart's Ice Series. I don't know if it's complete, but I'm all caught up now. So basically, since last Sunday, I've read six books and am on my seventh. The book I'm currently reading is Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. It's the first in it's trilogy, and Travis and Derek really loved the series. I don't know why I didn't start it earlier! It's so freaking good! It's longer than the books I've been reading lately (like 500 page books to a 900-1000 page book), but I don't really mind. It's really good. If you are into fantasy, or honestly, good novels, definitely check it out. Here's the link to the books on Brandon Sanderson's site, so check it out! I highly reccommend it! And you can find them pretty cheap on amazon (like almost every other book out there)! XD

Oh, actually, I just remembered something exciting in ELFdom!! Super Junior is releasing a Japanese version of Miinah (BONAMANA)!! I'm super psyched, but it'll be weird hearing it in Japanese. Like how I love My All Is In You, but they released a Chinese version on Perfection. It just sounds odd to me, and the crazy person in me tries to sing the Korean words to the Chinese version, but I end up just screwing around and just humming the melody. Well, anyways, it's being released June 8th (the day after my birthday) so that's pretty exciting. I'm just sad I won't in be in Japan for the release and if I buy it have to worry about shipping. Wait, it's around my birthday so maybe I can get someone else to buy it for me! Hmmmmm!! XD We'll see!!

Well, I think that's all for now (for real this time)!! As usual, I leave you with a customary gif! I give you Shindong!! XD

Ja ne~
Stasi

Skip Beat! Madness!!

2011-04-23T10:59:00.000-06:00

Hello again everybody!! So today's post is going to be a shorter one due to the fact my last post was only a couple of days ago, but I've ready the new chapter of Skip Beat! and am soooooooooooo freaking excited for the next chapter and for the new arc to get into the meaty parts! First off, can I just say how excited I was that Lory (LME's president) was in over half of the chapter!! I wish he was around more! I love him so much. I would love to work for someone like that. What's great is that he's still on his Egypt kick, so he's still dressed up as a pharaoh. But, I should focus on the story for you guys instead of just fangirlling!! XD So we see Ren meeting with Lory and discussing what happened at the final episode of Dark Moon's party. It's during that conversation that Lory reveals he was in the statue Kyoko was pounding against in fear (see previous blog post for more explanation & a picture). But anywho, they are discussing the plans for the Heel Siblings. Lory pretty much reveals (more straight forwardly than before) that he's trying to match Kyoko and Ren. Lory and Ren's conversation took up the bulk of the chapter, but there were a couple side things as well. Kyoko is at the variety show with the band (I can't remember their name for the life of me), where she dresses up like a chicken, and they are all still amazed at how good Kyoko looked at the party. We also find out that Ren has changed his hair color, but he has a special wig that looked at his old hair for when he's not working as Cain Heel. The end of the chapter leaves us with the explanation that Ren has chosen Kyoko over his past and is going to try his best to move on! The next chapter comes out May 2nd, so I'll have to put aside my Skip Beat fangirlling until then!

Lory in "Egypt mode!"

This weekend is Easter!! Happy Easter to everyone! I hope you have a good time searching for eggs, going to church, or whatever it is that you do on Easter!! As per most holidays with my family, we aren't celebrating Easter until next weekend. Now that my siblings and I are older, now we just pretty much have an Easter ham and then get chocolate bunnies or something like that. My Mom bought Egg dye yesterday though, so maybe we'll decorate eggs this year! I've already decorated some (see previous post), but I wouldn't be averse to making more! XD

Well, I think that's it! Sorry for the short update, but I just was so excited for the latest chapter that I wanted to share and rant (and fangirl)! As always, I leave you with a gif! This time we have Super Junior's Evil Magnae playing Starcraft in the dressing room!!

Ja ne~~
Stasi

The Slacker Can't Slack Anymore

2011-04-21T14:14:00.000-06:00

Hisashiburi my dear readers!! (It mean's "It's been a while") So I completely fail at updating...again. Anywho, I'll just jump right into what's been happening since my last post. (I believe it was Autism Awareness Day, so at the beginning of the month. FAIL stamp for me.)

Picture of Arashi because it popped up in the Google search when I typed in "hisashiburi" LOL

So, as always, the new chapter of Skip Beat! came out on on the fifth or sometime around there! It was a good chapter! We pick up after the final episode of Dark Moon's party. I'm thinking it's the morning after. Kyoko has made the news! She ended up doing her interview with Ren, but since it was her first drama she was a little awkward and strange (as usual)! She apologizes to some of her fellow cast-mates, but what she doesn't realize is that many people are commenting on the fact that her and Ren "looked good together" during the interview. We also see Sho's manager trying to keep him from seeing the news about Kyoko. We also find out that he's done a CF with a tiger named Miyuki and he apparently smelled like her at one point. But aside from that little side story, Kyoko reaches the studio where she dresses up like a chicken. Before getting into costume though, she greets the chicken head (LOL) and starts talking to it. There's a flashback, and we learn that Ren has let slip another clue that he hasn't always been in Japan because he does something that's "American" and comments on how Kyoko is truly Japanese. As always it confuses her. Then, Ren asks (out of the blue) "Should I...do to you what I want?" In typical Kyoko fashion, she comepletly freaks out. Ren says that he was kidding and to calm down. Of course, now Kyoko is having issues trying to figure out her feelings towards Ren. She feels somewhat hurt that he was just kidding and actually doesn't see her that way, but at the same time she felt disappointed and denies it. While trying to sort her complicated feelings, Lory calls (I've missed him) and tells Kyoko that he's leaving things in her hands. The chapter ends with the words "At long last, this will be the true start of the Heel siblings." UWAH! I can't wait for the next chapter, which came out yesterday!! I just need to wait a day or so more for translations!! So, expect another post within the next couple of days for more Skip Beat! rantings!!

One of the frames where Kyoko freaks out; she's clutching onto an Egyptian style statue.

Okay, so time to move on! Well, Easter is this weekend! A couple weeks ago Billy & Curtis came over! I made grilled cheese and soup for dinner and we watched "What's Up Doc?" and decorated eggs!! It was a lot of fun, especially since I haven't decorated eggs in a few years. I'm just sad I don't have any kids or younger people around me to hide the eggs for. Oh well! I felt rusty though when we were decorating because I didn't really know what colors or decorations I wanted to do. But, I did make two Super Junior & E.L.F. eggs. The both had "E.L.F." on them, but on the other side one said "Su Ju" while the other had "Prom15e 2 Bel13ve." I know, I know, but they turned out nice. They just ended up turning different colors because I forgot about one it soaked a lot longer. I also did a smiley face, a couple just colored ones, and one with squigglies all over it. They are actually still in my fridge. I should probably eat them soon so they don't go bad, but at the same time I don't want to.

Last weekend we towed my car back home to Milliken (I live in Greeley for those that don't know). Honestly, I hope I don't have to do that again for the next couple of years. Afterwards my shoulders and arms were soooooo sore. I have a newly found respect for power steering. Now I've come to a point in my car where I need to make a decision. Should I trade it in or scrap it and get a new car (not necessarily new as in not used, but new to me) or fix it. We're pretty sure the starter went out, so my Mom and I are trying to figure out if we can fix it ourselves. At the same time, my transmission is starting to go bad, but then again the mechanic that told me that still never fixed my car because look at it now. (What a waste of almost $400!) So, if anybody has any ideas or advice or anything, please leave a comment!

Well, I honestly can't remember what else I was going to update about. There was a small checklist I had formed in my head, but I didn't write it down. That's why I always write my lists down, I can remember them easier and have them as references. Oh my final ranting is going to be about my apartment! I have a little more than a month left before my lease runs out. I've been looking at apartments closer to campus so I can save money by walking. Well, that and the decision about my car is still up in the air. But anyways, there are a few good apartments around, I just have to try to find a good one that I really like! Hopefully I'll be able to go to a couple showings here within the next week and come to a decision. As always, time is running out.

I leave you all with the customary GIF! This week's GIF is of Ryeowook messing around (while Shindong's talking on air) at Sukira during Bonamana promotions last year! Enjoy the rest of April!

Ja Ne~~
Stasi

Autism Awareness Day

2011-04-02T12:14:00.001-06:00

Woo! So my first post in April!! Well, since I posted just a couple of days ago, I only have a couple updates to hash through before we talk about Autism Awareness Day!!

So the other day when I was working, the fire alarm went off in Kepner (the business college). Low and behold, the Coffee Corner in the basement had badly burned a bagel. It was odd, but I'm glad it was nothing serious. Remembering from all the fire drills I've gone through in my life, you get away from the building. People were sitting on the steps and standing feet in front of the doors. STUPID PEOPLE! If it was a really fire, you would all be eaten in the flames and smoke! STUPID PEOPLE! Well, I guess what really irked me was the few people watching me and I could tell they were wondering why I was standing so far away. *sigh* Well, since the lab I work in is across from the Coffee Cart, I got to finish my shift with the smell of burnt Asiago Cheese Bagel. It actually made me a little hungry because that's the bagel I usually get. But what I found really odd, is after the alarm. As per the rules, I shut the computer lab door and turned off the lights once everyone had evacuated the lab. When I got back to it, two people were sitting in there with all the smoke and left the lights off. I don't know how they got in there in the first place. They weren't even two of the people that were in the lab when the alarm went off. STUPID PEOPLE! The lab was technically closed at that point. They shouldn't have gone in there. *sigh*

Anyways, to get off my rant of stupid people, yesterday was April Fool's day. I wasn't the instigator or receiver of any tom foolery or pranks. Honestly, I don't even really care. There was a time two years ago (last year I was in Japan and completely oblivious to the day) when someone hid a cell phone in the roof tiles and called it repeatedly during class. That was pretty funny! At least it was one of the more chill professors so he just laughed along with us once he figured out it was in the ceiling. LOL!

Alright, but anyway, the main reason why I'm posting today is because April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day! My friend Derek has a character that's very dear and near to his heart that myself and others have come to care for. His name is Kogo! Kogo has Autism and April 2nd is his birthday! So in celebration of Kogo's Birthday and Autism Awareness Day, I would like to share 10 facts about Autism and the people it affects! Before getting to the facts though, I would like to mention one more thing. For those of you who watch or are aware of the hit US TV show "The Amazing Race," this season has a team known as Zev and Justin. Zev is afflicted with Asperger's Syndrome, which is an autism disorder. They are both doing really well and still in the race! (As a side note, this season is a return of teams from previous season's, so they have raced before but didn't end up winning the $1 million.) If you're interested in watching the race or learning more about Zev and his friend/teammate, check out The Amazing Race website! Now, onto the facts!

Derek dress as Kogo's Kingdom Hearts persona Goxko with plushie Goxko at NDK 2009.

10 Facts About Autism & The People it Affects

1. Dogs have been shown to improve autistic children’s quality of life, independence, and safety. The presence of a trained dog can reduce aggressive behavior, calm the child, and serve as a link to the child’s community.

2. Autism affects one in every 150 children born in the United States. It affects one in every 110 children born worldwide.

3. There is no blood test, no scan, and no image that can detect autism. Diagnosis relies on behavioral observation and screening.

4. Autism is more common than childhood cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined.

5. From the Greek autos meaning “self,” autism literally means “alone.

6. Many children with autism have a reduced sensitivity to pain but may be extra sensitive to sound, touch, or other sensory stimulation—which may contribute to a reluctance to being cuddled or hugged.

7. Approximately 67 million people worldwide are affected by autism.

8. If one identical twin is diagnosed with autism, the other twin has about 90% chance of develop an autistic disorder.

9. The rate of autism is growing at 14% per year around the world. In China it is growing at a rate of 20% a year.

10. As early as infancy, a baby can begin to show the three hallmark features of autism: communication challenges, impaired social interactions, and repetitive behavior.

If you would like to know more about Autism, check out the Autism Speaks website! As always I'll leave you with a customary gif!

Yesung dances for Autism!!

Ja ne~
Stasi

1/4 Of The Way Through

2011-03-31T20:50:00.002-06:00

Hello dear readers! Today is the last day of March! I can't believe March is already over!! That means that we are already 1/4 of the way through 2011!! Holy Cow does time sure fly!! Well, a lot happened this month! So, let's get to it! XD

First off, I'll start with Spring Break! I work for 2/3rds of Spring Break, but I was able to spend a few days up at my Dad's house in the end! It was relaxing and I wish I could have stayed more. I really had a blast. I helped my Dad make bullets for the new rifles he got for his birthday! I always learn so much when I go up to my Dad's house, and this time was no exception! It was a lot of fun just chatting with my Dad in his workshop while working on the bullets! Then, before my brother and I left, we got to shoot them! Truthfully, I sucked with the .22! I felt like I did pretty good with his Winchester Savage rifle. It was A LOT more powerful than the .22 and I enjoyed shooting it! Plus, I feel like I was better with it compared to the .22. I also played with Jack, did a little bit of four-wheeling, and made Brownies for my Dad's birthday. Unfortunately we had to leave the day before his Birthday, but I'm just glad I was able to make it up!! Hopefully I'll get the chance before the summer shifts start!! XD

As for other happenings in March, there's not really much else to report on. I started having my family (Mom and little Sister) watch Super Adonis Camp! It just made me miss Kangin. And since my family is new to the fandom, they don't really know Kangin (since he entered the army last June). My Mom didn't realize how good his voice was (they all sing Miracle & a couple other songs in one of the first few episodes) and I feel glad that they are starting to get to know Kangin!

Sungmin trying to keep Leeteuk away from the food in Super Adonis Camp! The best way: to pick him up & carry him out!

Well, I guess since I'm onto the whole fandom thing, I'll just combine my two usual updates!! Donghae & Siwon have started filming the Taiwanese Drama Skip Beat!!! I'm sooooo excited! Not only does the new chapter come out withing the week, but the drama is filming which means we/I won't have to wait too much longer!! The only thing I'm disappointed about though is that I heard Siwon plays Ren and Donghae will be playing Shou. I would rather it have the other way around. I don't know much about the person who is playing Kyoko, but I hope she really pulls off her character! A lot of my friends in the fandom are starting to read the manga and watch the anime now, but I feel I'll be a little bit more critical compared to them. Skip Beat! has been my favorite manga since the first few chapters were published and I am a HUGE fan of Kyoko! I really hope it turns out good! But, at least I know there will be eye candy in the series!! XD

The main cast for the Taiwanese drama adaptation of Skip Beat!

Well, I think that's all I have to update on! I will update within a week (most likely) when the new Skip Beat! chapter comes out! As always, I bring you a customary gif!! XD

Ja ne~~

Stasi

Springy Snow

2011-03-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon my dear readers!! So, this is the customary (what I'm trying to make customary) post after the newest chapter of Skip Beat! I'll just start of with this, and then move on. So the latest chapter was released on the 5th, and (as always) I felt it was too short. The latest chapter is 172, and is the continuation of the Dark Moon Season Finale party! Although it was a shorter chapter (at least if felt like it), there actually a surprising event. The person that helped Kyoko get dressed up for the party, ended up asking to go out with him! O_O Of course Kyoko was her typical naive self, so she played it off as a joke. The person (I can't remember his name for the life of me. Sumimasen!) asked her again, but made it clear he was serious. Ren heard (to quote The Big Bang Theory, "Damn his Vulcan hearing!") and of course led Kyoko away. He led her away with the reasoning of her having to do her interview. We also find out that Ren has requested to not be interviewed first, but fourth, which means he gets interviewed either right before or right after Kyoko! While they were waiting, Ren tells Kyoko he's changed his spot and led her away early to keep her from doing something that could damage LME's reputation. LME, for those who don't know, is the company that Kyoko and Ren have both signed contracts with. Ren also tells Kyoko that if she has issues, to come and talk to him about it first. Since I don't know if you guys have read it or not, he is referring to the fact that this other person found out about Kyoko's "reason" to not come to the party and took care of it. Kyoko of course (in her head) doesn't really know how to answer since the real reason she didn't want to attend the party was because of Ren himself. It ended on an interesting point, with Kyoko asking Ren if it was something she needed to do no matter what. April 5th is so long away, which is when the next chapter is released! I can't wait!!

This is from a couple chapters ago, but I love LME's president!

What else has happened since my last post? Oh, yesterday I finally got my car towed to the mechanic. He said he was pretty booked for the few days, but hopefully my car will be looked at and fixed before the end of next week. Next week is Spring Break, so I was hoping that I would get the chance to go up to my Dad's house during the last few days. Unfortunately, my Dad's birthday is the 20th, and this year it's the Sunday right before school starts again. The only thing that would keep me from going up there (besides the fact my car is out of commission right now) is if it plans to snow. March is the snowiest month in Colorado and most Spring Breaks have huge snow storms. I'm just worried that if a storm does come in, I'll be stuck up at my Dad's house. Although, I would love to be stuck up there because I love going to my Dad's house! The downside would be losing those hours at work, and I kind of need to get paid my full hours. I guess we'll see!

At the bus stop a few days ago when it was snowing!

This past weekend, my good friend Billy had her birthday party! It was a lot of fun. I actually made her cakes, and wanted to do really well because it was the first time she was being made a home-made one! What makes it odd is that someone in her family owned or worked in a bakery; something like that. But, anyways, she wanted a confetti cake and a chocolate cake. I made both, the confetti cake being a white cake that has sprinkles added to the batter. She also wanted me to decorate it. I didn't do anything special for the chocolate cake, but I made a rainbow and heart on the confetti one, as well as the customary "Happy Birthday" message. I didn't try any of the chocolate cake (due my general dislike of chocolate cake, especially with chocolate icing), but there was some leftovers of the confetti cake so I had a couple pieces of that. It turned out better than I though, but for me the confetti added a weird flavor and texture to the cake. Billy was also her odd self as usual, not having us bring presents for her, but her buy presents for everyone else. Last year (right before I went to Japan), we ate at Old Chicago's and she brought party favors. She was going to do that this year, but opted out because I had never played White Elephant before. She ended up buying over 30 presents and doing White Elephant for her birthday. In other words, she bought presents for everyone else. It's a little backwards, but then again Billy is an odd one herself. Anyways, because I had never played before, I got to go first! The first bag I picked had a stuffed duck. Everyone was giving me a look like "That sucks." Honestly though, I was really happy with it. Not only do I love stuffed animals, but Teukie's animal is a duck! It was perfect! I ended up keeping it (no body else wanted it)! There were a few presents left over, so in the end I also ended up with some sidewalk chalk and those huge sunglasses that are like made for an elephant! We also played Pictionary ROFLMAO!

Amateur cake decorating skillz FTW!

I guess the last thing that I really have to rant about, is a fandom thing, so for those of you that care to ignore my fangirl sections, now would be a good time to skip to the end. I'm not planning on ranting for too long because the issue has been talked a lot about lately and kindly been asked to be put to rest. I just thought I would share, with those that might not be as active in the fanverse, that there were some incidents with Super Junior since the last time I posted. First of all, they boys got into another car accident when leaving Shanghai. Thankfully, no one was hurt (again)! The more major issue that happened though, was a fan threw a sign on the stage during SS3 Shanghai encore concert and hit Heechul in the face. It cut him and he left the stage bleeding. He has reassured fans that he is fine, but of course a lot of petals and ELFs freaked out. From what I know, not too many people hated on the poor girl. She has publicly apologized. I actually can't comprehend what she's feeling. In her message she stated how Heechul is her bias, it was her first time going to their concert, and how she feels like she has done wrong to so many people that she caused an accident to him. Anyways, the reason for my rant is that many ELFs as well as the members have asked that fans try to put safety first for everybody. It's an unfortunate accident (I'm quite positive it wasn't done on purpose) that just shows that our boys (or girls depending on your fandom) ARE human and easily hurt just as we are. I am among the many ELFs that believe that we need to try to keep our boys as safe as possible, and am urging others to please think of their safety. It has come to the attention of many that SS3 has seen a lot of accidents and injuries or almost injuries come to our boys. I just want everyone to stay safe and healthy.

Heechul at the airport after SS3 Shanghai with the injury clearly visible.

As always, the customary gif!! Until I write again (hopefully near the end of March)!!

Heechul at an earlier SS3! ROFL (Ryeowook in the bg)

Ja Ne~~
Stasi XD

March Madness

2011-03-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

Good Morning my dear readers!! So I only posted once in February, but I'm going to make excuses and blame it on the fact that there's only 28 days! Technically, if February were 30 or 31 days long, today would be the 30th. But anyway, to make up for it I'll post at least three times this month. So the title for today's post has nothing to do with Basketball. A lot always happens in March, so I'm just doing a little bit of foreshadowing!! XD

So to say a little bit about March, most of my family's birthdays are in this month. My dad's, brother's, grandfathers, aunt's, uncles, step-aunt's, and I'm sure there are a couple of other people who I can't think of right now. Yeah, so March is also the snowiest month of Colorado, so we'll either be getting humongous amounts of snow or spring will actually come somewhat on time. Also this month is Spring Break! If I get the chance, I would love to head up to my Dad's house! Also, if it doesn't snow that week (it usually does), I'm definitely going to ride the four wheelers!! Ooooh, maybe I'll convince my Dad to have a campfire in our pit! Oooh, I really hope I don't end up working near the end of the week!!

Looking at deer from the back door at my Dad's house. They were only like 20 feet away!

In my last post I said I would post my fangirl rantings from February, so here they are!! The new Skip Beat! chapter doesn't come out until the fifth, so from here on out there will be fangirl rants! So, I'm going to start off with Japan (since I've been there before, and have a little less ranting to do)!! Arashi's new single "Lotus" came out on February 23rd!! I really love the song, plus it features a lot of Aiba-chan. Aiba-chan hasn't really been the main person of a single before. Yes, "My Girl" was for his drama, but the mv was a drama pv, so it didn't really focus on Aiba-chan like this single has! As Aiba-chan is one of my biases from Arashi (the other being Sakurai Sho-san)!! The pv is beautiful! I love them in all white (I think it's the first time) and I really enjoy the dance too! For those who might not know, this single is for Aiba-chan's new drama called "Bartender." I haven't started it yet, but I am planning on watching it. I just prefer to wait until most of the episodes have come out and then marathon a series (especially Japanese ones because they usually only have 10~11 episodes)!! I'm excited that Aiba-chan is starting to do more dramas now! He's done a few musicals before, but I can't really see those considering I'm all the way here in America. So to end my Arashi rant, here's the mv for Arashi's "Lotus!" Enjoy!!

The second part of my fangirl rantings, goes to my number one band, Super Junior!! There's been a lot in the fanverse lately. Super Junior M has made their comeback!! I'm really happy to see Henry and Zhoumi active again, but I'm a little sad I won't be seeing as much of our leader Leeteuk! Anyways, for those of you that are a little less in tune to the Kpop scene, or don't really follow the happenings of Super Junior, a lot has changed for Super Junior M! With the loss of M's leader Hankyung, SM has added Eunhyuk and Sungmin to the subgroup. At first I was a little weirded out, especially with Eunhyuk joining, but I love the new song. It has quickly became my favorite Super Junior M song! I'm a little sad that Sungmin in a little hidden throughout the mv and doesn't have too many lines. On the other hand, Asia's Anchovy (as well as our Henry "Mochi") rap in English!! Plus, Zhoumi has a lot of lines. I really love Zhoumi's voice! He's in my top five Super Junior members +2!! A little sad that Donghae doesn't have a lot of lines either, but I love his and Henry's cravat!! Gives them both a princely feel. I also really love the lyrics to the song and the meaning. I had to help explain it to my Mom and little Sister, but my interpretation of the lyrics is that they are obsessed with someone (the listener) and they want them to become just as obsessed as they are with them. I hope that made sense. Oh, and I should mention, the boys are HAWT in the video!! Oh, and a little side note, the choreographer is from Colorado!! Not many people realize this, but Colorado has given out a lot of really talented people. There just isn't as many as California or New York or other huge places for entertainment. So, before I continue on to other Super Junior rantings, here is Version 1 of Super Junior M's new single, "Too Perfect!!" (Side note: there are three version. The second is the Taiwanese version where the subs are in traditional Chinese characters and smaller. The third is the Korean version. I'm posting the first.)

As for other Super Junior rantings, I'll continue on with a little more about Super Junior M. Because they will be promoting throughout China and Taiwan, Eunhyuk has temporarily left Sukira! T_T For those that don't know, Sukira (abbreviation for Super Junior Kiss the Radio) is a 2 hour radio show hosted every night by Leeteuk and EunhyukEunhyuk's last broadcast occured the other night (although it was early morning for me) and it was sooooo sad! They were crying. The only thing I couldn't really understand was that they were acting like he wasn't coming back, even though he said that it was only going to be for three months. Also there that night was Yesung, who is going to be taking Eunhyuk's place. He used to have a radio show a couple years ago and substitutes every once in a while, so I'm excited to see more of Yesung. It'll also be a different dynamic having YeTeuk running Sukira instead of EunTeuk! But overall, I just wish all of the Super Junior members well in their endeavors and hope that their promotions and all types of shows are successful!

Continuing on with a little bit more of Super Junior ranting, I'm sure you've heard my rant about my favorite manga Skip Beat! before. I think I've mentioned this before, but there has been a Taiwanese drama adaptation of this manga in the works for a while now called "Extravagant Challenge." Unfortunately, Ariel Lin has stepped down from playing Kyoko's character. A few months ago, it was released that the two male characters were going to be played by Super Junior's Choi Siwon and Lee Donghae!! (I really hope that Donghae plays Ren's character!!) Unfortunately, a little bit ago there was a statement saying that they may be dropping out, partly because Ariel did as well. This makes me sad, but I honestly just hope that they start producing this drama because I would love to see it! Most of the Taiwanese dramas I've seen are based off Japanese manga, and I've thoroughly enjoyed most of them. (Especially ISWAK & TKA!!) Hopefully though these are just rumors (I don't believe the Ariel one is a rumor though) and they start actually starting filming soon. I'll just have to keep getting as much information as I can about this drama. Honestly though, I hope they do the drama really well. I don't want to see anything ruin Skip Beat! Oh, maybe if it doesn't work when I get my degree in Production I can try to produce a Skip Beat! drama adaptation!! Hmmmm...

Ariel Lin with Donghae & Siwon during the filming of her MV "Fireflies"

Finally, my last fangirl ranting (kind of) doesn't really have to deal with one specific fandom. I bought a region free DVD player finally and it has already come!! I'm really excited that I don't have to watch my Japanese and Korean DVDs (although all of them are concert DVDs right now XD) on a computer!! It's so nice!! Now I just need to wait for Black Friday again and maybe I'll be able to by an HDTV so the resolutions is better. I'm still using my cathode-ray tube TV. It's a nice and big TV, but sometimes I wish the widescreen options would look better on it. That and it would have better resolution (especially when compared to the TV my mom has). So anyways, thanks for reading once again! And if you've made it this far, I hope you aren't completely turned off by my excessive fangirl ranting and excitement!! As always, I'll leave you with a customary gif!!

Lee Donghae!! XD

Ja Ne~
Stasi

Hectic Times

2011-02-25T12:09:00.005-07:00

Hello!! So I'm once again failing at updating my blog, but with going on two posts a month, I'll be making another one here in a couple of days considering there's only a few days left in February (3 to be exact). I guess I didn't really update, because a lot of things have been happening, plus I didn't read the latest chapters of Skip Beat! until last night. I know, I deserve a great big FAIL stamp!!

So, I guess to start off with what has been going on in my life. Well in the start of February, I tweeted about something and said that I was going to blog about it the next day. Well, I never did (sumimasen). What happened was when I got off work at 10pm, my car wouldn't start. I tried to call a number of people, but couldn't get a hold of anybody. Well, I did get a hold of Billy and Curtis, but their car was broken and getting fixed, so they couldn't really do anything to help me. After an hour and fifteen minutes, I got a hold of Bea, and she thankfully gave me a ride home. It was a horrible night. Not only was it cold, but the windchill made it feel 10 degrees lower and it started snowing like thirty minutes into me starting my car. It really sucked. The next day my Mom came out, gave me a jump, and followed me home. My battery had drained because I had tried to start it so much. Yeah, it was a pretty much horrible night. There was definitely a good ten to fifteen minutes where I kind of lost it and started crying hysterically because I felt like I was going to freeze to death or get hypothermia and be stuck in the snow at school and have to walk around the next few days in the same clothes. Well, I started crying after like my fiftieth phone call and nobody had still picked up the phone (this was before I called Billy & Curtis). What my Mom said when I talked to her the next day, was that I was also probably scared because I felt like there was no one to "save me" and I think that there was some of that mixed into my hysterics as well.

Well, I guess continuing on my car, it was running fine after that, until the other afternoon. I went to go to work and it wouldn't start. Billy & Curtis came over and tried to jump it, but this time I wasn't lucky enough to have it just be the battery. So now I've been riding the bus. I have to walk a bit to get to all the different stops and to get to where I'm going and such, but so far it hasn't been too bad. Although, there is a late night bus (9pm to 2am) that is really nice because I get off work most days at 10pm. Unfortunately it only runs Wednesdays through Saturdays. So I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do next Monday and Tuesday when I get off work. Also, the buses don't start early enough on Saturday for me to get to work on time, but thankfully Billy said that her or Curtis could give me a ride this week. Billy and Curtis, you guys (as well as Bea) have been my life savers this past month!!

Another big happening this month is I attended Genghis Con. It's a gaming convention (my first convention besides NDK) and I actually enjoyed it a lot. Billy and Curtis had invited me a few months ago, and luckily I was able to go!! I had a lot of fun! We headed down Thursday night because we had games that started early Friday Morning. On Friday I played two Savage Worlds Games, one Deadlands and one Cthulhu. The Deadlands game was a lot of fun and I think I'm going to look more into the Savage Worlds system, especially with the Deadlands expansion. Deadlands is a weird west setting, so pretty much a Western movie that has zombies, but the zombies have motor functions like control of their needs and being able to talk and walk about like normal. Well, not all of them are like that, but there are some. The best part of the game though, was our GM (game master/the person who sets up the story and moderates what we do) was one of the people that developed and created the Deadlands expansion for Savage Worlds. It was a really neat experience to have my first time playing Savage Worlds to be one of the creative minds from their company.

The Cthulhu game was also a lot of fun. We were laughing and as all gaming sessions I've had, created a lot of inside jokes. It was pulpy and the only downside was I ended up losing all my sanity. The only person that was trained to try to help people if we were to lose sanity, was only me. But then again, that's the sort of thing that happens to us Browns. (My mother's maiden name is Brown, so when things like that happen we tend to blame it on our "Brown Blood") We were really looking forward to Saturday's games, but unfortunately they didn't really turn out too well. The first game we had was a Zombie apocalypse game. The system was new and had a lot of rough spots, but on top of that the gm kept trying to play our characters for us. It was more like a boring story time instead of gaming. Both Curtis and I only rolled dice once, which is definitely not a good thing. The other game we had was supposed to be a Harry Potter Home Brew, but it turned out to be larpinglarp (live action role-playing). The saving grace to Saturday was that I got to visit the shop where Curtis works and ended up buying the card game Munchkin, but the Kung Fu edition! We also went to Five Guys (my first time) and it was really good! It's a burger place that's similar to Smash Burger! I also did a lot of shopping at Chessex and over all three days spent almost $100 on dice! I got some really cool sets though and some cool Japanese number dice. Oh, I also got some Roman numbered dice for Derek!

Sunday, we had another two games. We started out checking out really early, and then headed to our first game which was Star Wars! I had a lot of fun (as always) playing this game! The guy played a lot of Star Wars normally, so it was really nice that he already had little tricks and things known (very similar to the shortcuts we've used with Derek's campaigns). The really nice thing about it though, is that he's thinking on continuing the story over the next few conventions so players can get all of it. If I go to the next one (it's very likely), then I'll most likely be playing Star Wars again! The second game we had was a new system (for us) called A Faery's Tale and we played a Princess Bride-esque story. The system is made for young gamers (like ages 8-12), so it's simplicity was really nice. I really like the set up too and think that it would be good for one shots and very easily to manipulate for different stories and settings. After that game, we headed home! It was a lot of fun, and I don't feel that my money was wasted at all. It just sucks that my car broke a few days after. >_<

Let's see, what else do I need to update on? Oh! Skip Beat! So there were actually two chapters that came out this month (170 & 171)!! It kind of did a small time jump so at first I was a little confused. Kyoko is finally starting to realize something though! Another one of her boxes opened, but she sealed it back up. I'm thinking that this is a box that has emotions of love and happiness though instead of hatred and her little demon things! And as always in the first few pages Kyoko has me laughing my butt off (and at work)! I'll post for the picture the face of Mouko as Kyoko realized she was there and came running towards her (I'll number the boxes for those who might not know the progression in Manga, plus I've combine 2 pages)!! There was also more of Rory! This time he was dressed up as an Egyptian pharaoh to try to convince people that it'll be a good idea to send Kyoko and Ren to Egypt for a vacation! It was great! I wish that it came out more often. Ummm...Dark Moon is coming to a close, so Kyoko and Ren won't be working together on that drama anymore. At the end of chapter 170, there is a huge party. I don't remember who it was, but because of Kyoko's excuse that she couldn't go because of her attire (just a high school uniform), he dressed her all up in make-up and a fine dress (the Cinderella treatment). It ended with everyone noticing her walking into the party. I should also mention that she actually didn't want to go to the party and it was because she was afraid of seeing Ren as herself. When she's working, she was able to just completely absolve herself in the character, but she wasn't sure how she could handle seeing Ren as herself. Especially since she's been having issues with this new box (because of him).

So I think that's all for now! There are fangirl things to add, but since I'm not quite exactly sure what'll happen in the next few days, I'll leave that for something to post then. A sneak peek is that I'll be ranting about Super Junior M's new mini-album and Arashi's new single Lotus. For the parting gif, I'll do a SJM teaser!! Also, I have some drama rants to cover as well (mainly Korean)!! So until we meet again through the internets (hopefully within the next few days)...

Ja Ne~
Stasi

Snowy Ends

2011-01-31T21:42:00.002-07:00

Hello!! So it's the last day of January...and there's only 3 hours left. Once again I am lacking at updating at a more regular basis, but I have a different goal now. To post at least twice a month for this year. I figured that would be a good start until I can get a more regular blogging schedule down. Oh, and it snowed today, hence the title!

A picture I tweeted this morning after work!

So...I guess first off I should go into what has been going on in my life lately. Well, sorry to disappoint, but it's pretty much school and work. I have watched a few movies and a few episodes of various variety shows, but that's pretty much it. Today my Women Studies class started, so I have another class to add on to the load. As for work, nothing is really new, or really old for that matter. Oh I have been reading a lot lately. I finished a book the other night, and it was book 15 in the past month (since Christmas). There was also 17 comic books/manga, but those go a little quicker than novels. Yeah...so it's actually been really nice being able to read. It's weird. I hardly read for a few months, and then I pretty much do nothing but read. I haven't played my DSi in a long time because of it.

Art from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8; one of the comic book series I read!

Oh, that reminds me, Champions Online went free to play!! I downloaded it and started playing! It's a lot of fun! I really don't need to get addicted to another game now, but what can I say. I love being a Super Hero!! The only thing that I don't like about it, is the names they give their NPCs. So the villain Mastermind in the game is called Dr. Destroyer, while the leader of the league of champions (think justice league) is called Defender! If only the game could have the DC Universe characters! But besides every time I have to talk to them or the story mentions them (I snicker to myself when that happens), I'm really enjoying the game! I've already saved Millennium city from an Alien Invasion, and am now currently trying to figure out the plans of the Purple Gang and stop whatever it is they have planned. LOL

A cap of my Champions Online character before I went to the tailor (before the outfit change).

Hmmm...so what else is there to blog about. Well, I've been missing Japan a lot lately. I went through all my pictures the other day. It's been a weird mood. I really want to go back, but at the same time I always just want to go forward to studying abroad in Korea (fingers crossed)! I was watching an episode of Himitsu no Arashi-chan the other night. While watching it I just had this feeling I had seen it before, but it was the first time it was subbed so I was a little confused. Then I noticed the date on the file, and realized I had watched it when I was in Japan. After VIP room, the next corner was the Ranking Derby. One of the rankings was who did yankees think was the coolest among Arashi. Of course, instead of saying Kakkoi, they said Kakke~. That's when it hit me, I had watched this episode with Naruto! I had asked him what kakke~ was, and he explained that for males, sometimes they change the i kanas to e kanas. He gave me some other examples, but then I had to open my mouth. Trying to show that I understood what he was saying, I said tanoshe~~. Of course normally it's tanoshi~, but Naruto started laughing. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was something along the lines of "That's a word you don't really do that too." Of course Masaki (one of our RAs) came by, and my use of tanoshe~ was spread around for others entertainment!! UWAH!! I have so many memories of Japan, but I wish I could remember more. Oh how I'm getting...Japan-sick (instead of home-sick).

A cap from Arashi Ranking Derby, a corner from Arashi no Himitsu-chan!

So...what else can I update about. Oh I finally found a dining room table! It's a little bigger than what I was planning on getting, but it was on clearance and it's really nice. It's originally a $400 table, but I got it for $170 with tax. It was on clearance because a bench and a chair were missing (I still have 3 chairs which is enough) and then the manager gave me a 20% off coupon that a previous customer had left behind!! Yeah, so I got that right before the dinner party I held last night. I was definitely buzzing (my face was warm and I giggled in the middle of a sentance {I fail to see how the second one is that different from normally though}). But it was a lot of fun. Plus, that morning I met with my friend Micah from High School and we had Breakfast at IHOP and we were there for almost 3 hours catching up. It was such a nice day yesterday!! A good way to start out the week, and a pretty good second to last day of a month! I just hope that I can continue to have these sort of fun days more often. That'll help keep me from getting as stressed as I was last semester.

My new dining table before I had it all set up (I tweeted this picture).

So I'll a couple of other small updates and then I'll end tonights entry. First, we have our atrium room for Nan Desu Kan and I'm really excited. I wasn't originally planning on going this year, but I'm really looking forward to it. Now I just need to figure out my cosplays for next year. Second, the Super Bowl is next weekend, and I think this might be the first year I miss it. I know it doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but my Mom and I have watched together for at least the past 10 years. Crazy isn't it. Plus the Steelers made it this year (one of my Mom's favorite teams)!! Lastly, we started the Order of Chaos campaign the week before last! It's the sequel to my first campaign Infinite Order, and I'm really loving it! Derek is such a good gm and always has amazing story lines! Our fist session was pretty much one battle sequence (took just over four hours), but it was still a lot of fun. I'm really liking playing a cleric. I liked playing a paladin, but I think the Cleric is my kind of class. I'm really excited for this week's session. It'll be the second one (Derek was sick with a sinus infection last week, but he's a lot better now) and we'll have our fighter (a.k.a. tank)! Yeah, so I'm thinking I'll be posting later this week to rant about the session!!

Me as Cooking Mama & Dan as Butadaki Joe from Soul Eater at NDK 2009!

So, as always, the customary goodbye gif!! XD

Teukie during a performance of No Other!

Ja ne~
Stasi

New Year, New Rants

2011-01-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

The first post of 2011!! I'm a little late, but whatever!! Happy New Year everyone!! I hope the holidays were wonderful no matter which one was celebrated!! XD Anyways, so I have quite a few updates and a rant about an article I read during lunch in the Wall Street Journal. I'll start with random update tangents though!!

For those that missed the memo, 2011 is the year of the rabbit!

So Christmas and the holiday season, was hectic as usual. There was a lot of traveling between houses and cities (I pretty much drove all over northern Colorado). I got a lot of books and some movies for Christmas, which I'm really excited about. I also got a couple video games! I love all the books, but it's kind of bad thing because now do I not only have my nightstand full of books I need to read, but a box and a pile on the floor! Hopefully I won't be too busy this semester to read at least a few different books (and ones meant for pleasure NOT classes). So speaking of reading, I just read the latest chapter of Skip Beat! (chapter 169)! I can't believe it's already been 169 chapters! O_O Well, a lot has happened since I last ranted about Skip Beat! and the awesomeness that comes with!! Since I can't quite recall which chapter I updated you all on and I'm too lazy to go through my previous posts to find it, I'll just do a generic update!! So basically this is Ren's backstory arc. Slowly more and more parts of Ren's past is coming to light. I really enjoyed the latest chapter becuase it gave us some insight on the reasons for him acting and explained a character that the mangaka has shown briefly before. There were also some cute and silly interactions between and young Ren (known as Kuon back then) and an adult rooster! The only thing I'll say (in case you read it) is that there is an cute panel where he hugs the rooster!! I think I'll post it below so people who don't read Skip Beat! can see what I'm talking about!

Okay, so enough of that tangent, and on to another. Well, I'll guess I'll move on to school related things! So first off, I was promoted to manager!! I am know the manager of the Kepner 60 lab! It's really nice because most of my classes from now on are going to be in Kepner (it's the school of business) and it's also the lab that has dual monitors!! I love playing with them and using both monitors even though it's probably not really necessary. So yesterday was the first day of classes for the spring semester. So far my classes seem okay. I really like my marketing professor. He really had me controlling my laughter when people were walking in late and he was making sure that they were in the right classroom. It's Marketing and he asked them "You're here for Non-Profit Management right?" Oh it was good! I loved it. I think it's going to be a lot of work, but I'm going to enjoy the class. Later tonight I have my managment class. I have it with Keiko Krankhe and I've heard amazing things about her, so I'm excited to see how the class is going to be. On MWF I only have one class, and it's Contemporary Japan. I'm kind of glad I decided to take it. It looks like it'll be an easy A. It'll be really nice to have an easy class among my 300 level business classes. The other two classes I'm taking are online. I know you're probably thinking that online classes will be a little easier, and one of them will most likely be pretty easy. The Women's Studies class I'm taking online is a level 100 class so I'm hoping it'll be another easier class, but on the plus side it actually doesn't start for another couple of weeks. The other online class I'm taking is Computer Informations Systems. It may sound easy, but after leafing through the book there is going to be a lot of weird anagrams that I'm going to have to memorize and I'm kind of bad at anagrams. I guess I'll see how it is when the class actually starts rolling.

An old picture of the consultant's desk I posted on Twitter!

Yeah, so I think that is it for major updates in my life. Super Junior is just as amazing as ever. I'm a starting to get a little sad though because Leeteuk (our wonderful leader) keeps mentioning entering the military soon. It'll be sad. Unfortunately I am going to postpone study abroad in Korea because of a few different issues, the main one being finances. That means when I go to Korea, I most likely won't be able to see him. T_T Oh and speaking of studying abroad, I still can't wrap my head around the fact that at this time last year I was preparing to go to Japan. It almost feels like it was dream, but at the same time it wasn't. I don't know...it's an odd feeling. One I hope I don't really have to experience again, although if I do end up studying in Korea as well I might go through the same thing. Who knows?

Leeteuk from their new variety show "Super Junior's Foresight"

Okay, so I think I'm really done with all my random mattresses! On to the article I read earlier today. So if you want to read the article just click here. So this article (for those that are choosing not to read it) is about people detoxing their life of technology. I have to say I agree with a lot of things this article mentions, but at the same time a lot of families aren't that extreme, at least to my knowledge. The first family that is mentioned talks about how every member in the family is pretty much attached to a screen. Now one thing that I think wasn't quite brought into a bigger light is the fact that they don't have TV. I'm the same way so it may seem like I am on the computer A LOT. At the same time, I watch mainly TV shows and such on my computers. It's really not that different, but when people are complaining about people always being on a computer, sometimes its necessary. For myself, I don't really have the money to waste getting cable or satellite. It's a lot cheaper to just get internet and Netflix and watch everything I want to through those two venues. Plus, I get to avoid a lot of commercials that way. I guess it also doesn't help that I prefer Korean and Japanese TV shows to most American ones. But anyway, the families that they chose in this article are very extreme. I know that they chose them because of this and to help make the point, but I also think that the parents making these decisions are also biting themselves in the rear. It is kind of taking over and board games aren't as popular as they once were, but at the same time there are technological activities that people can do as a family still. Instead of buy and 1 or 2 player video game, get one of the multiple player games (a lot of Mario games are like this) and sit down as a family to play together. I remember growing up and playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64 with my Dad and little Brother and Sister. We had so much fun and created just as memorable of memories that I have playing board games (although they can't quite compare to the late night games I play with my Mom and little Sister where inside jokes are constantly made because we're so tired and that makes up loopy)!

Anyways, I can understand both sides of the spectrum. I just think that completely taking technology out of the home is not a good idea. Most families have these technologies, and there are becoming sort of a status quo now a days. In elementary school I remember comparing things all the time; backpacks, pencil cases, clothes, and music cds are a few. These comparisons sort of formed cliques of sorts and sometimes left some kids alienated and in the "weirdo" groupings. Now, I think that there are a lot of comparisons with technologies. There's a lot of phones, video game consoles, computers, mp3s/iPods and other technologies that are a huge part of the lives of kids growing up today in the states (if not around the world) and it's becoming integral. I've seen groups of young kids in the mall picking on a couple others becuase their phone is a better smart phone or they have the 'new itouch' and it is a little sad to see. On the other hand, I remember the same thing happening when I was that age, it was just with different things.

So there is something in the article, I think in the second half, that I completely agree on. Technology is starting to hinder relationships. The article mentions a study that took place in Italy that showed that couples that have a TV in their bedroom have sex half as often as couples that don't. A little later the article mentions that technology is becoming a reason for people to get divorced. As odd as it sounds, I would completely agree that this is becoming an issue, especially for the older generation that has to adapt to today's technology standards. Yes, as always, there are extremes, but I can see it happening in everyday families. I don't know if my family will be okay with me sharing this, but the relationship my Mom is in has the same problems. Unfortunately most of the arguments my Mom has with her partner is about technology. My Mom's partner was on the computer all the time in the past (it is better now). She would wake up and get on the computer before work, come straight home and get on the computer (sometimes skipping a shower) and even eat quickly and get back on the computer when we are all sitting down watching TV or a movie together. It was very frustrating for my Mom. We would all play a game or something, and if my Mom's partner didn't care for it or didn't like it, she would just get on the computer. It was frustrating for me because sometimes we would play games I or my sister or brother or Mom didn't really care for, but we played anyway because it was supposed to be family time. If she didn't like it, she made her opinion obvious and just stayed on the computer. There were also a lot of arguments in my house about people downloading things and lagging my brother's online MMOs or just lagging the internet itself.

Wow...I actually wasn't actually planning on ranting this much, but it just sort of came out. I just want to mention again that things are better now at my Mom's house, although there are still issues with the internet lagging, but the internet box also shuts of randomly now so it has helped settle things down a little bit. I just thought I would share my opinions on the article and share what I've witnessed. When I was reading it my mind was going and going and I really just needed to get it out of my head. Since I'm at work and can't really talk to anyone, I figured I'd just blog about it!! Yeah so if any of you guys reading this has your own thoughts, please comment below! I would love to hear your opinions and what you have to say. I would recommend reading the article if you haven't because I did find it very interesting. So this will be the end of my post this lovely day. I think this may be the longest one I've posted. As always I'll leave you with a gif, this time from Super Junior-T's hit song MV "Rokkugo"! (I've linked it for people who haven't seen it! A lot of people that I've shown this MV to that haven't really listened to Kpop or Jpop get this song stuck in their heads! I feel proud introducing people to the amazing music that is from other countries!! Anyway, a little information about the song: In Korean the word for backwards is 'gukkuro' -- flip that around and you get 'rokkugo', the title of this song. The lyrics can be read backwards and forwards in Korean. That is why the lyrics seem absurd in English.)

Until we meet again~~
Stasi

The End of a Semester

2010-12-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

Good Friday my lovely readers!! So today is Friday, and the last day of finals week for the Fall Semester!! I was officially done on Wednesday, but I worked until today, so today is the last day of the the Fall schedule! I get one day off (tomorrow) and then I start the Winter break work schedule. Sometimes it sucks always being this busy, but at least I'll have three days off a week now!! Yeah, so since tomorrow is the day I get off, I'm headed home! We are planning on going shopping! I will get my last Christmas present on the list! I can't wait o be completely done and with more than 10 days to spare! Also, I'm trying to convince my Mom to take me to Shoe Carnival. They are having a sale and I got a pretty awesome coupon, so shoe shopping here I come!!

Anyways, so to update fandom things, I'm saddened. I voted on every single computer I own (and the ones at work) yet Super Junior still did not win a Golden Disc Award. I find it ridiculous that they didn't. From what I've heard, it seems like money was an issue to why other bands won over them. But to try to keep myself positive, I am rooting for SuJu to show whomever controls the awards that they were wrong and SuJu deserved it. Yeah, so I realized the other day that I could have voted using every computer on campus that I have access to (my guess would be at least 350 computers), but I realized it too little too late. At least I know for next year. Yeah, so it was sad to wake up and read all the news going around. Especially with the fans apologizing to SuJu and SuJu apologizing to the fans through Twitter and other social medias. It was a horrible way to start the day. That's for sure.

For the next update, I guess I don't really have anything else. I've been bored at work and have completely fallen into the facebook game spiral. I have to say though that I have not played farmville, just almost every other game by zynga. Oh well. I thing the island one is my favorite. I enjoy frontierville too. Yeah, so that just shows how bored I am at work. Ummm...I also bought the Ariel's Underwater Adventure or something like that for the DS when I was at Target the other day because it was on sale. It's totally targeted for like 5 year olds, but I played while I transferred some of my dramas to disc to make room on my computer for more!! Yeah, so that's pretty much all I can think of. I'll try to update soon, it just depends on what happens. Lastly, I'll leave you with the customary gif!!

Ja ne~~
Stasi

Busy, Busy, Busy Bee

2010-12-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

Hisashiburi desu ne!!

Hisashiburi means "It's been a while" hence Aiba waving...kind of!

So once again, I fail at blogging at a regular interval, but I've been pretty busy lately. So today was the last day of official classes and next week is finals. I really only have one final (the rest aren't tests or exams), but I'm a little worried over the essays on it. Anyway, speaking of my history class, today was a first. I have never gotten aggravated or really disliked classmates with different opinions before. Now though...I don't even know what to say. I've ranted about this to a few people now and I still just can't get over it. Okay, so let's just start at the beginning:

Picture of Tokyo Area because I'm talking about my History of Japan course

So today in History of Japan, one of our topics was ethnic Koreans in Japan and the issues they have faced in Japan. The Professor mentioned at one point that they were being sent to North Korea if they decided to leave Japan or something like that. This girl (that has been grating my nerves lately) decided that it was hilarious and burst out into laughter. I'm still just dumbfounded and can't believe that she thinks that it's funny. Even if it wasn't an ethnic Korean, anyone being sent to North Korea is terrifying and something so horrible that I have trouble coming to terms with something like that. She laughed at a lot of other things today in class that weren't funny, but that one got me really agitated. I'm just glad I probably won't have to take another class with her ever again. After class I was ranting to Sam and Bea about her, and I came to realization. She doesn't seem racist, but there is something there. I believe that she is a white superiorist. As horrible as it sounds, why in the world was she making fun of Japan and it's culture (throughout the course)? Also, if she feels that way about Japan, why in the world is she taking the class.

Who can resist the smiling Kim Jong Il??

Anyways, I feel a little better and calmer after typing that all out. So on to happier bloggings, it's Christmas time! First I'll do a quick recap of November (since I was missing from the blogging world once again). November started out weird because it went from like 60 degree days to 30. It was crazy fast though. And for the highlight of November, my sister's 18th birthday and Thanksgiving. So my sister's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving, but it was still fun. We didn't do too much. She did want to play Tales of The Arabian Nights the board game. This is one of my favorite games and I do believe she enjoyed it too (that's why she wanted to play it). As always, playing board games with my sister, mom and me, we end up with a bunch of inside jokes. For example: [at mom] "43...43...43...?...43!" Bahahahahahahaha...you just have to be there!

I always play as Scheherazade, hence a painting of her in one of her stories!

So Thanksgiving was okay. It was better than I thought it would be, but it still didn't FEEL like Thanksgiving. We had all the food and stuff, but we ate at the nursing home (where my grandmother is for rehab because she broke her femur a couple months ago). I felt that everyone was in an odd mood (for one reason or another), so my brother, sister, and I spent our time goofing off and making fun of each other in the corner. It was really funny because my mom was sitting with the "adults" and we were separated by a few feet. Almost every time I glanced their way my mom would be looking at us almost longingly. We then proceeded to make fun of her because "she looked like she wanted to come here, but she was other there." So we joked around about a lot of random things, the food, made fun of my sister, I threatened them because they were threatening each other with their utensils and I got hit with food, but there was one mattress (tangent) that I believe was the best and will remember forever.

So a little backstory first, the nickname for my little sister is HO. I can't quite recall how it came about, but it's been her nickname for a while now and it just fits. Funny side rant, my mom answered the home phone the other day and it sounded like Ariel. The conversation went like this:
Mom: "Hello?"
Me: "HO!"
Mom: [whining] "I'm not a HO."
Me: Bahahahahahahahahaha...
Yeah...so anyways Pokemon came up and somehow my sister became the Pokemon. Long tangent short, we came up with her attacks. We'd send her out to attack and she'd give the opponent crabs! LOL!! We were laughing so hard when I said this! My brother and I decided that it would be like poison and hurt a little bit every turn. Then as a side effect, the opponent can't attack back because it's itchy. {Forgive me if crabs don't cause people to itch. I've never had crabs and don't plan to. *knocks on wood*} Yeah...oh good times!

So, after Thanksgiving of course is one of my top three holidays (it's a holiday in my book haters), BLACK FRIDAY!! We were up at 1:30am and headed to Walmart. We went to Walmart, got to Target around a quarter to 4 and stood in line, went to a different Walmart, then went and sat in the Best Buy/Staple parking lot waiting for Sheila for half an hour! It was a blast as always. And as every year, my elaborate DVD collection pretty much just grows during this time because I bough a lot of DVDs that were between $2 and $6. Also, my big claim to fame this year was a grabbed the newest model of the Wii Fit for only $67!! SWEETNESS! Yeah, so afterwards my Mom went to work (sucked to be her) and I went home and dug all the Christmas boxes out of the storage closet. By the time my Mom got home the living was rearranged, the tree set up, and 13 Christmas boxes were crammed in to the living room. She was a little frightened I think, but she loves the Christmas season as much as I do so she didn't seem to angry. Just frustrated a couple days later because the house was messy (not dirty).

L-R: Me, My Mom (in the back), My Little Sister Ariel, & Sheila's Shoulder

Yeah, so now it's December. I am totally on board with all my Christmas presents (and birthday presents). I only have three left to buy. I know what I'm going to buy, I just have to find time to go and get them!! Yeah, so I got our old Christmas tree and set it up the night I got back from Thanksgiving. It's a lot wider than I remembered it being, but it's really pretty (if I may say so myself). I love coming home and seeing the lights on in my window and it lighting up the apartment. Also, yesterday I started making my Christmas presents. Every year I make Christmas presents for my family (and sometimes my friends). I got half of them done and am going to finish them sometime tonight! It's pretty exciting because my counters are cluttered (which I'm not fond of), but they are full of Christmas stuff so it just gets me in the holiday mood even more and doesn't really bother me too much! Yeah, so that's pretty much it for the going-ons in my life lately. I'll try to update soon (and with finals week almost over I'm guessing I'm going to be a little more regular with blogging). So as always I'll leave you with a gif!

Dino Teuk from a Korean Variety Show!!

Ja Ne~
Stasi <3

Stasi-ology: Random Surevey Thingy

2010-11-22T15:53:00.002-07:00

So instead of doing an official blog post, I filled out this 35 question survey thing people do for fun or to remedy boredness. Whatever floats your boat. Anyways, here it is. Comment if you have any questions or want to know anything else. I'll answer! And here we go!

***********FOODOLOGY***************

1. What is your salad dressing of choice? No Salad dressing, just salt & pepper.

2. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? In America??...Probably Red Robin or Echo.

3. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Sushi! (Especially Sushi 1’s Asparagus Tempura Roll and the Spicy Tuna & Tempura Seaweed Roll)

4. What are your pizza toppings of choice? Pepparoni, Spicy Italian Sausage, Jalapenos, and Fresh Diced Tomatos

5. What do you like to put on your toast? A little bit of butter and strawberry jam.

***********TECHNO! (unce unce unce) LOGY***************

1. How many televisions are in your house? 1

2.The color of your cell phone? Grey & Green, but the case is black.

3. Have any idea how many Gigahertz your computer has? If you asked me a year ago I would know…

***************BIOLOGY******************

1. Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right

2. Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Not that I know of…

3. What is the last heavy item you lifted? Heavy thing…probably my dresser

4. Have you ever been knocked unconscious? I did pass out once, but I wasn’t “knocked out.”

************BULLFrogOLOGY**************

1. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No

2. If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I’d change it into another language…either Japanese or Korean.

3. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? Hmmm…I guess so…depends on the type of Hot Sauce.

************DUMBledoreOLOGY******************

1. How many pairs of flip flops do you own? Umm…I can remember 10 pairs, but I know I have more in the bottom of my closet somewhere.

2. Last time you had a run-in with the cops? Ticket in highschool.

3. Last person you talked to on the phone? My mom yesterday.

4. Last person you hugged? Well…I hugged my stuffed cat & kitten (it’s a mom & daughter set) before I packed them this morning, but actual person…I was hugged by Billy. I don’t really know if my reaction could be constituted as a “hug back.”

**************FAVORITOLOGY****************

1. Season? Autumn

2. Holiday? Halloween & Christmas/My Mom’s Birthday

3. Day of the week? Either Wednesdays or Sundays

4. Month? October

***********CURRENTOLOGY*****************

1. Missing someone? Always

2. Mood? Excited spiced with some boredness and a pinch of impatience.

3. What are you listening to? Super Junior!! XD

4. Watching? People stalking other people on the computers in the lab. Most of the screens I can see are facebook.

***************RANDOMOLOGY*****************

1. First place you went this morning? Bathroom, but who doesn’t?

2. What's the last movie you saw? Daytime Drinking, a very interesting and simple Korean movie.

3. Do you smile often? What kind of question is this???

4. Sleeping Alone Tonight? No, I’ll be home so I’ll have my cat! And at some point a dog will wander in, most likely Danny.

***************OTHER-OLOGY*****************

1. Do you always answer your phone? If I’m not at work and I can hear it and get to it in time…yes!

2. It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? Most likely Twitter. I get them all the time from people on the other side of the world.

3. If you could change your eye color what would it be? I wouldn’t change my eye color because it changes by itself, but to answer the question, Gray. Like a deep gray.

4. Do you own a digital camera? Yup yup!

5. Have you ever had a pet fish? When I was in elementary school.

6. Favorite Christmas song(s)? I have a playlist, but my number one is The Holly & The Ivy, unfortunately it’s a song usually not picked for a Christmas Album.

7. What's on your wish list for your birthday? On my wish list, to go to Korea. As for items, I have a Amazon list that has some books, movies, rpg handbooks. I also wouldn’t mind some games (video and board).

8. Can you do push ups? If my left hand is being considerate, yes.

9. Can you do a chin up? I honestly haven’t done one of those since middle school, but I could then. At the same time my left hand has seriously deteriorate since then.

10. Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Definitely excited.

11. Do you have any saved texts? Yes, but I always accidentally end up deleting them.

12. Ever been in a car wreck? No…*knocks on wood*

13. Do you have an accent? I don’t think so, but I was told I had one when I came back from Japan.

14. What is the last song to make you cry? Ummm… “至少还有你 (Korean Version)” by Super Junior-M

15. Plans tonight? Going home!! XD

16. Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Yup, and I have a feeling it won’t be the last time either.

17. Name 3 things you bought yesterday: Yesterday…hmmm…Apple Cider, Toilet Paper, & Pince Scented Candles.

18. Have you ever been given roses? Yeah…but it wasn’t in the classic romantic way.

19. Current worry? Need to raise my GPA to go to Korea, looks like I’ll be putting it off for a semester or two.

20. Current hate right now? Hate is such a strong word…I’m annoyed at all the freshmen trying to register for classes asking me questions they should be asking their advisor. How in the world am I going to know what you should be taking??!!

21. Met someone who changed your life? Yeah, I believe that everyone you meet changes your life be it a miniscule or gigantic change.

22. How will you bring in the New Year? With my Mom, if I remember correctly she wants to learn some K-pop steps.

23. What song represents you? I don’t think there is just one, but the song that fits my mood right now is “It Has To Be You” by Yesung of Super Junior.

24. Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? It would be fun to go back to the victorian period.

25. Do you have any tattoos/piercings? I have pierced ears; got them for my 6^th or 7^th birthday.

26. Will you be in a relationship 4 months from now? A romantic relationship, I hope not. I don’t have time for that.

27. Does anyone love you? Well of course! Everyone has family!

28. Ever had someone sing to you? Yup yup, and even at Karaoke!

29. When did you last cry? I cried from laughing to hard last week. Oh those Japanese and Korean Variety shows!!

30. Do you like to cuddle? I believe so.

31. Have you held hands with anyone today? Today??...I think since I was in kindergarten.

32. What kind of music did you listen to in elementary school? Pop and Country. And whatever my dad listened to, so some classic rock.

33. Are most of the friends in your life new or old? Right now new, but I do keep in contact with my old friends. We just aren’t as close as we used to be.

34. Do you like pulpy orange juice? Yes, but there is a limit.

35. Who do you think will complete this? Sami, & Bea already did it!! XD If you do fill this out, leave a link or let me know and I’ll check it out!

So that's all folks!! (bahahahaha) Anyways, I'll try to post sometime over Thanksgiving break, but no promises. Sorry it's been a little while!

Ja ne~

Stasi

Oh...and the icon...I almost forgot!! It's a gif from one of my most favorite Kang Ho Dong & Leeteuk moments from Star King! To watch the full clip click the icon (it takes you to YouTube)!! XD

Big Bang Questionnaire

2010-11-05T10:59:00.000-06:00

So I am going to do this Big Bang boyfriend questionnaire that a friend sent me. Besides the fact that this is going to be finding the "one" meant for me, I figured it would also give some good insight to my personality and thoughts on relationships if I write out what I think about each of the options. I also just thought it would be fun; that and I'm bored at the UC waiting for my shift to start. So here goes! There are two parts, but I've combined them here to make it easier! I've also color coded things. The option that I choose will be in light blue. The thoughts about each option will also be color coded to the corresponding member as follows: TOP, G-Dragon, Taeyang, Daesung, and Seungri.

Part 1:

Which Big Bang boyfriend would you want in these situations?

1. When I fall and hurt myself…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who gives me a piggy back ride to the hospital -> This is sweet, but depending on the injury I would become a little annoyed if it’s doing too much.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who makes fun of me because I fell -> When I do something stupid like this (what I call my blonde moments) I usually laugh it off. If walking with anyone and they aren’t able to laugh with me I would feel really awkward. Plus, I’m used to people laughing when I do something stupid. It’s just who I am. So long story short, they need to laugh when I fall, although it would be nice to make sure it’s not a serious injury first!
c. Dong Young- Bae, who runs to go buys medication -> If he just takes off I’d get a little annoyed and just leave. Whether it was something minor or something big, you don’t just go running off. Although I will give it to him that the intentions are good.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who helps me get home -> This is nice and sweet, but not too overly protective. Although, I must say that if we are together I would hope he would be taking me home in the end anyway.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who asks if it hurts a lot and blows on the place where it hurts -> Now I can picture Seungri doing this and I bet his face would be really cute, but I would get a little annoyed. I’d probably say or think something along the lines of: “Duh! It hurts a lot” and “how is blowing going to help the situation?”

2. When I say I want a name brand item…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who buys a fake one and says later on, he’ll make it a real one -> The thought is nice, but if he’s going to buy one eventually, why waste money on getting a fake one? b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who pretends not to listen but buys it for me later -> So this question was a little tougher for me because I don’t really want any brand name items. Yes they are nice, but I could find something just as nice in a cheaper brand. But besides the point, when I would ask for anything it would be nice to have it be a surprise later on. A kind of “I thought you weren’t paying attention, but you really were!” kind of thing.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who promises to buy me one once he makes more money -> This would work, but I wouldn’t bank on it too much.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who keeps saying not to buy expensive things -> If it was something that I really wanted (and not necessarily a brand name item) I would get a little peeved. “Thanks, but I’ll keep buying the things that I want.” Don’t tell me what to do.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who keeps asking if he can buy me something else -> I can see this working, but if it was the number one thing, I might not want to settle on something else. I don’t know; it’s kind of hard to judge since I don’t really want a brand name item.

3. While watching a horror movie

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who protects me -> Not quite sure what to think of this. I guess it would depend on what he means by “protecting me.” If I go off my best guess, I don’t really see how it would help.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who quietly covers my eyes -> This would be something that I wouldn’t mind. Plus, my eyes were probably already closed so I wouldn’t really notice specifically what’s going on. The only thing that would really change is the light filtering through my eyelids would suddenly fade away.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who comforts me by saying there’s nothing to be scared of -> “Thanks, but we are watching a scary movie and I know that. That doesn’t help the fact that I’m freaking out right now dude.”
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who holds my hand tightly -> This is another thing that I would take. I’d probably still close my eyes, but I would definitely be squeezing the heck out of his hand. I hope his hand muscles are pretty strong and can withstand some pressure.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who screams even before I scream -> I can see this going one of two ways. First, when he screams I get frightened even more and scream right along with him. Second, I get stunned by his screaming and either start laughing or just stare at him confused for a few minutes. The second would keep me from being scared, but I’m thinking the first one would have a higher chance of occurring.

*Side Note: I don’t really watch scary movies. I have this weird thing where I daydream after I see a movie and imagince myself in that setting and/or situation. I did that once with a scary movie and totally scared myself more than was necessary. Thankfully when I watch scary movies now (they are few and far between) I use a lot of distractions to keep me from going into that habit.

4. When my voice crack while singing…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who pinches my cheek and says i’m cute -> And when he turns his back I’ll roll my eyes and think “yeah, right.” I don’t know; guess I’m not a big fan of the “you’re cute” and whole pinching cheek thing.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who laughs at me -> Once again, probably the best thing in this situation. I’d most likely be frustrated, but I tend to get over things easily and would need to laugh it off and get over it. If someone else is laughing I would definitely “start up” as well.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who gets even more embarrassed than me -> This would be very weird for me. I’d get angry, “Why are you getting embarrassed?? You aren’t the one that screwed up!”
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who pretends he didn’t hear it -> Good job, but I would feel a little awkward because I would know he heard it and if he just ignores it then I’d feel I’d need to bring it up to break that tension. Good efforts, but eventually we’d need to laugh or talk about it or something.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who makes fun of me by imitating me -> I’d probably laugh with him after a little bit, but at first I’d probably be frustrated. There is a difference between laughing at and making fun through imitating. Imitating would remind me of what just happened and cause me to become even more frustrated with myself for screwing up.

5. When his friend says he likes me…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who says “What are you trying to do?” and breaks ties with his friend -> Not cool at all. I understand how it can be frustrating, but I wholely believe in the sayings “Bros before Hos” and “Chicks before Dicks.” I wouldn’t want someone to lose their friend because of me.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who goes up and punches his friend -> This is okay, but only because I’ve heard somewhere that when guys get in fights or get physical with each other it brings them closer together and that they over it quickly. It also gets the point across without directly cutting of ties.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who talks it out with his friend -> I would think this would be the best. I just hope that whatever “talk” they have sorts everything out and that this situation won’t pop up later on.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who says he will introduce another girl to his friend -> This one would work as well, but the problem is that unless they address the problem directly, it could not get solved.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who stops talking to his friend -> As mentioned above with option A, this would not fly with me at all.

6. When I’m mad at my boyfriend…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who starts a serious talk by asking me if I’m mad -> Yes! We definitely should talk out what the issue is. It is my belief (as well as most other peoples’) that communication is key in a successful relationship.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who says I’m sorry and says don’t be mad -> The action and intent is nice, but shouldn’t he realize what he’s apologizing for.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who sings to me -> “Thanks. That was nice, but I’m still mad at you.”
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who makes me laugh -> “Hahahahaha, that was funny, but I’m still angry.”
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who does cute stuff around me -> Similar to the last two, but I would get more annoyed with him acting cute than singing to me or making me laugh.

*Side Note: I’ve only been truly angry/mad in my life. It takes a lot for me to get there, and even if I’m on my way I get over things easily. If I get frustrated with someone, leave me alone for a little while and I’ll come back over it and saying the whole “it’s water under the bridge” thing.

7. When my boyfriend meets my friends…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who compliments me in front of my friends -> Thanks, but I might feel it’s a little forced. I would also become a little embarrassed and think “Why in the world is he acting like this?”
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who asks my friends to watch over our relationship -> I like this. And I would really want my friends to like whomever I date and not think that they are some crazy psycho or something.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who makes me feel good by complimenting my friends -> That’s nice, but introducing him to my friends would be more of getting their approval and not his. “Sorry, but your opinion is second to my friends.”
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who makes my friends comfortable as if they were his friends -> Yes please just be chill when meeting my friends. I don’t need someone “putting on a show” to impress people. I want them to know the “real you” not what you think they think you should be.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who asks my friends to consider him -> Similar to option B, but a little more straight forward in getting their approval.

8. On my birthday…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who takes me some place expensive -> Nice, but the expensive part is not necessary. You can make a day special by not spending a lot more money.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who treats me better than other days -> Well, it’s nice as well, but I would hope it wouldn’t be too much nicer otherwise I might think something’s wrong or think “Why don’t you act like this usually?”
c. Dong Young-Bae, who makes me a special present -> Yes! emphasis on the “make.” I love homemade presents and things, especially because I believe that there are more emotions put into making than buying.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who sings to me on a stage at a restaurant -> Very sweet, but I would be a little embarrassed. I’d rather it be in a more private setting.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who says happy birthday all day long cheerfully -> Truthfully after a little while I would find it a little annoying. It would be nice at first, but seriously dude, I get it. Thanks, but take a chill pill.

9. When we kiss…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who hugs me tight first -> It’s nice, but sometimes the small time before the actual kiss would make the mood a little more awkward.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who just does it -> I think this is the best. The surprise is welcome and there is no really awkward moment where you both know it’s coming but can’t figure out who’s going to make the first move.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who asks first -> If you’re going to ask, NO! It’s a nice thought, but when it comes down to it I would be a little put off.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who becomes awkward first -> NOOOO! Can we refrain from the awkwardness please?
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who asks if I can give him a kiss on the cheek and turns his head when I’m about to kiss his cheeks -> Cute, but again with the asking, and it seems a little obvious.

10. When it’s raining and we only have one umbrella…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who shares the umbrella but he ends up getting wet -> It’s romantic, but don’t get yourself sick. I’d rather you take the umbrella all for yourself.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who holds me really tight so both of us don’t get wet -> Similar to above, but at least I don’t have to worry less about him getting sick from the rain as much.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who give me the umbrella and he walks under the rain -> No thank you, I’d rather it be the opposite way.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who tells me to wait and go gets another umbrella -> This seems like too much effort. I’d just give him the umbrella and go without. Don’t waste your money.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who just tosses the umbrella and have both of us to walk in the rain -> This is more like it! Way to have fun and do it Singing in the Rain style!

*Side Note: I love the rain!!

11. When I say I want to break up…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who lets me go, saying he’s sorry he didn’t do much for me -> It would be nice that he would respect my decision.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who is dumbfounded and says he never thought I’d break it off -> “What were you thinking then?”

c. Dong Young-Bae, who asks if he can hug me one last time -> “I guess so.”
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who says farewell and lets me go, crying -> I would definitely start to cry as well. And also be tempted to not break up with him.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who clings and anxiously asks why I’m acting like this suddenly -> “Have you been completely oblivious?” I would pause to explain things and get him to stop clinging.

12. When we go to the amusement park…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who suggests to ride what I want to ride -> Nice, but what do you want to do/ride?
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who suggests to go to the haunted house first -> Okay…I guess so. At least you’re letting me know what you want to do and it’s a suggestion, so no forcefulness.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who takes lots of pictures -> Yay for pictures, as long as he doesn’t go overboard.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who eats this and that -> You don’t to an amusement park to eat. Plus you don’t want a full stomach to go on some of the rides.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who forcefully takes me to scary rides -> I guess this would be bad because he would be forcing me, but I don’t really find many of the rides scary at amusement parks I’ve been to before.

13. When he is paying at a restaurant but has no money

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who is sorry but asks if I could pay for now -> Sure, I have no problem with paying. I wouldn’t mind paying once in a while. That would be a huge change for me if I wasn’t paying for myself and others sometimes.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who grabs my hand and runs -> Fun, but I would feel bad and want to go back to pay them later. No use becoming a criminal over something like this. Pride is important, but just let me pay.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who has them keep his belonging until he can pay -> This is a little overboard; just let me pay already.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who calls his friend to bring some money -> I guess this would work, but I would still want to pay.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who is anxious and doesn’t know what to do -> It would unsettle me and I would get up to take care of it myself. It’s nothing to lose sleep over dude.

14. When I talk to another guy…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who thinks it’s no big deal -> Yay! Most of my friends are guys and I would want him to trust me.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who tells me not to talk to other guys -> “Do you not trust me?”
c. Dong Young-Bae, who can’t say anything but actually bothers him -> You need to talk about things and not keep them hidden. That’s a really bad idea.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who is curious and sneakily wedges in the conversation -> I’d be a little confused or taken a back, but it’s better than telling me to stop talking to them completely.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who later asks what we talked about -> This is okay, but seriously guys, don’t you trust me?? If it’s something important I’d mention it to you. Can’t I just bum around with my friends without you knowing everything that we do?

15. When he can’t reach me through the phone…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who says he’s worried -> That’s sweet, but just because I didn’t answer doesn’t mean anything’s wrong.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who comes to my house right away -> That’d be a little overboard, but him showing up would also be a little cute. A I’m a little angry at you right now, but since you’re here I can let it go.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who lets it by, thinking something must have happened -> At least you let it drop, but that doesn’t mean anything “happened.”
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who calls until I pick up -> Even though I do this to my Mom when I try to get a hold of her, I would probably find this annoying. If I’m not answering the phone, I’m probably in a situation where I can’t answer it. (I know it’s hypocritical, but that’s just how my mind works.)
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who gets mad because I didn’t pick up -> Whoa dude, calm down. This would be a no go.

16. When I tell him I love him…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who whispers in my ear that he loves me -> That’s sweet and intimate. I see nothing wrong here.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who kisses me -> Nice and romantic, but are you going to respond? Sometimes things do need to be said.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who hugs me without saying a word -> Same as above, but not quite as romantic. Once again, some things need to be said.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who smiles, embarrassed -> Aw cute, but that’s all?
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who hugs me tightly, saying he loves me too -> Yay! Another response and one that uses words as well!

17. When we’re shopping…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who says it’s boring and wants to go home already -> “Then why did you come with me to begin with?”
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who picks out clothes for me -> Yay for this! I’m not really a fashionable person and prefer to wear what’s comfortable. I can dress up nicely (at least I think so), but I don’t know if it’s really fashionable.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who does everything I want to do -> “What about what you want to do?” Let’s change things up a little bit.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who impatiently follows me around -> Nice, but if you’re getting impatient, just go home. We can hang out later.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who enjoys shopping more than I do -> Okay, let’s have some fun!! Just don’t get too excited and forget that it’s more than just you shopping!

18. When I act cutely (like a kid)…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who thinks I’m cute and hugs me -> The thinking I’m cute part is good, but the hug seems a little out of place for me.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who says I’m not doing it right and shows an example -> I’d be a little put off, but if he can do it better than me, what can I do?
c. Dong Young-Bae, who tells me to do that every day -> Okay…that’s a little odd.
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who just laughs -> “Hahahaha…Why are you laughing?”
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who copies me -> Cute at first, but then it’d get a little old. I think it’d also remind me of my younger brother and sister.

19. When we get held up by a gang…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who fights them -> That’s very manly, but totally not necessary if we have a chance to get away.
b. Kwon Ji-Yong, who grabs my hand and runs -> Yeah let’s get out of here. I don’t want to be associated with what’s going on in that alley.
c. Dong Young-Bae, who makes an effort to clear things out -> “Why are you trying to talk with a gang that’s holding us up? Let’s get out of here.”
d. Kang Dae-Sung, who calls the cops -> Okay, nice and safe, but that still implies hanging around the area.
e. Lee Seung-Hyun, who leaves me and runs away -> WTH are you thinking?? What a freakin’ woman. Thanks, but I’d rather not wear the pants in this relationship.

Results of Part 1:

TOP: 8

G-Dragon: 12

Taeyang: 4

Daesung: 3

Seungri: 2

Part 2

Which Big Bang boyfriend would you want in these situations?

1. When I buy him clothes as a present and he doesn't like it…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun, who smiles and lies trying to compliment it saying it’s pretty -> I guess it’s okay as long as I don’t ever realize that he’s lying, but even then, lying = NO!

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: takes my hand and goes to the shopping mall explaining why he must exchange it for his fashion purposes -> At least he’s upfront that it’s something he would never wear and tries to explain it to me. Maybe next time I’ll understand his fashion more and get something that won’t be returned! Or that could just be wishful thinking! XD

c. Dong Young-Bae: smiles and tries to start a different conversation -> Sorry to say, but this would start the classic scene where the woman is all “You don’t like it?” and gets hurt by him trying to avoid the conversation.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: gets overly excited and exaggerates his thanks -> I see this as a form of lying, but he’s trying to hard and I think that he believes I’m stupid enough to fall for his lies.

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: wears it on the spot and jumps up and down the sidewalk -> Yay for trying, but that’s going a little too far. Even if he did like, I’d think he just lost some of his marbles.

2. When I am jealous due to his relationship with one of the female celebrities on TV…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: holds my hand -> A good start, but that won’t solve all the jealousy issues.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: explains logically and says its not true… then goes on TV and explains to the world its not true as well -> Well that would work. A little much to share it with the world, but the jealousy issues have been solved.

c. Dong Young-Bae: stutters trying to explain continuously, then sighs saying he’s sorry -> The stuttering's a little nerve wracking, and the sorry doesn’t clarify anything or solve any issues.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: laughs and seeings ‘Look at Me GwiSoon’ with my name in it instead -> You think singing and laughing is going to solve this? That would definitely bring up some doubt in the relationship.

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: Acts cute and says “Are you being jealous right now~!?’ in a cute voice -> Yeah, go ahead an make fun. We’ll see how I react then little maknae!

3. When I’m away from my phone and another guy sends me a text hitting on me…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: deletes the guys number -> A little intrusive, but I can see the reasoning. That doesn’t really solve the issue though because the other person would still have my number and most likely try to contact at another time.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: presses ‘Call’ on the number right away -> A little overprotective, but I kind of like it. A sort of “Who are you are why are you hitting on my girl” type of feel.

c. Dong Young-Bae: pretends he didn't see it but gets quiet -> No getting quiet. Have some reaction please.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: tells me i got a text and gives me suspicious looks -> It works and gets me to check the text, although it would definitely make me put up my defenses when I see the text and figure out what’s going on.

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: smiles and lets it go in front of me, then goes home and tracks the guy down texting him evil messages -> Ummm…don’t let it go. You need to a man and assert yourself. And not secretly behind my back. Can you imagine the texts a girl would get then?

4. When he comes to my house without a word but I look like a ‘pain’ (no shower, haven't washed hair, sweats, etc etc)…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: Washes my hair for me -> That’s a little weird, but a nice action.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: Makes me a schedule on ‘how to not be a pain’ and makes me write a written oath that i will never be a ‘pain’ again -> I laughed when I read this. This would aggravate me and as soon as he left I would ignore it unless I knew he had a break in his schedule and could possibly come over. Then again, that’s too much work.

c. Dong Young-Bae: lies to me and tells me he hasn't washed his hair for 4 days either -> Seriously, people can tell when you haven’t washed your hair. It gets all oily and gross. No lying.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: sits down on my couch like nothings wrong and watches Dorraemon -> Good! Just chill with me.

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: Gets too shocked and scared that he cant even come in the house -> If you can’t stand me being a ‘pain,’ I’m afraid we won’t work out. Sorry.

*Side Note: I am totally the person that when relaxing at home wears sweats, pj pants and comfy clothes and don’t care about my hair or anything. I’m home, why do I really need to focus on my appearance when nobody else is there? Seriously, I’m the same person. Jeez, whatever happened to inner beauty and the like. If we go outside I’ll change my clothes.

5. When I get a sickness and must die the next day…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: treats me like the normal days but never lets go of my hand -> Perfect! I would want to do something amazing on my last day, but also want to cherish the normal days I spent. Those are the days when a person is truly the happiest.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: swallows/hides his tears and says “Lets live today to the fullest/Until the day ends lets live like no tomorrow” -> Yes let’s do something crazy, but also do something normal and everyday.

c. Dong Young-Bae: ends up crying and doesn't know what to do -> Seriously? Get over yourself. You can cry when I’m gone. I don’t want to not spend my last day without you because you’re too busy being a cry baby.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: pretends he didn't hear and keeps making me laugh -> This is good too! Just act like everything is normal. If you take in too much of the last day feeling it could get hectic and not be as peaceful as usual.

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: cant stop crying and just keeps taking pictures with me -> Cute, but once again, don’t go overboard with the pictures and try to stop crying. I know it’s sad, but that will definitely bring the mood down and keep that it’s the last day in the forefront of our minds.

6. When he walks in on me cheating on him with someone else…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: without a word, punches the guy and takes me with him -> Umm…depending on how he would treat me when we get where we’re going. Going off just this piece, I’d be freaking out and nervous as heck.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: gives me his ring (couple ring), cellphone and walks out without a word -> I would have to agree with this because this is the exact same philosophy I have about cheating.

c. Dong Young-Bae: makes a conversation with all of us -> Awkward. I don’t want to sit there and talk with my bf and guy cheated on him with.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: says “Oops, got in the wrong place” and walks out -> Are you going to get angry or show any emotion?? Denial won’t erase what has happened here.

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: gets very mad and cant control his anger so he throws and breaks furniture -> Getting angry is a given, but you CAN’T lose control. Things could get really dangerous and take a definite turn for the worse.

7. When meeting my parents and they don't like him…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: goes on his knees -> Begging…it’s nice, and shows that you can throw away your pride for the woman you love.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: says “(name) is pregnant” -> I would slap/hit him where I could reach. Why in the world would you say that?

c. Dong Young-Bae: smiles and says he wants to marry his first love -> Good going for the love angle, but it’ll take more than that to get my parents to like you.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: tries to earn points by singing ‘Look at me Gwisoon’ -> Again with the singing of this song. Yes you can sing, but does that prove to my parents that you can take care of me?

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: kisses me in front of my parents and shouts “(name) IS MY LADY!” -> Shouting at parents = the best plan ever…NOT. That and kissing me in front of my parents, that’s a good way to get threatened and/or kicked out of the house.

8. When he sees that I’m in the audience while he's performing…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: never takes his eyes off me until his performance ends -> That’s nice, but what about your fans? They are important and got you to where you are today.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: ignores me because i make him nervous and focuses on making the performance perfect for me -> Aw…that’s cute I make you nervous. You do your thing on stage and I’ll do my thing in the stands. There’s no need to find me in the crowd.

c. Dong Young-Bae: is so happy that he keeps smiling and messes up his dance -> Focus there boy. You need to put the best performance forward for your fans.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: puts in customized moves by him for me -> That’s cute, but don’t put it too many. He totally needs to focus on performing for the entire audience and not just for me.

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: acts cute in front of the camera -> Well I would hope that he does this anyway in the concert. Acting cute doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

9. When I tell him I’m going to get plastic surgery…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: pretends he didn't hear and secretly slides a picture of ’surgery-gone-wrong’ pictures for me to see -> It’s nice that he likes me just as I am and doesn’t want me to change myself. I also find it a little cute; the pictures act.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: gives me his credit card -> Well, I’m sure how to take this. I’m split between the “WTH are you thinking? You’re supposed to tell me I don’t need it.” and “If you respect me enough to not question my decisions, okay then.” lines of thought. Although I must say, I leaning towards the first one more.

c. Dong Young-Bae: tells me I'm more beautiful now and says no -> Good boy. Just what a woman would want to hear.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: insists if i do it, hes definitely doing it too -> That’s a little weird, but a cute way to convince a person to not do it. Unless she’s an odd person and starts pointing out things he could get fixed, but that’s not me.

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: listens to me and then makes fun of me -> Yeah just make fun of me. Ridicule me and lower my self esteem even more (because it’s most likely pretty low to be wanting plastic surgery). Good job!

10. When I say I'm going to a resort for university…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: tells me to have fun and come back -> Thanks! Totally conveys he trusts me and I don’t have to really worry about anything. I’m picturing a totally cheesy scene where I reply “I’ll miss you” and give loving gf eyes or something like that! XD

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: keeps asking me if guys are gonna be there too -> Of course there’s going to be guys there. There are both guys and girls in the University. Please just trust me there buddy.

c. Dong Young-Bae: says its okay but you see him starting to pout without realization -> Why are you pouting? Tell me what’s wrong. (Seriously Taeyang, TALK)

d. Kang Dae-Sung: suddenly gives me Doraemon and tells me to think of him when i look at this -> Aw that’s cute. He expects me to miss him and doesn’t question anything!

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: says “Take me too” -> Cute, but no.

11. When watching a movie together and it's some serious 19+ sexual content…

a. Choi Seung-Hyun: tries to switch the mood by being funny -> I’m expecting awkward laughs and eventually the tension to dissipate. Sounds like a good plan if he can execute it well.

b. Kwon Ji-Yong: ……asks jokingly “…can you do that?” -> “Hahahahahahaha…can you?”

c. Dong Young-Bae: cheeks turn red, starts pouring nose bleed and faints -> Whoa dude, take a chill pill. You don’t need to get all excited here. At least attempt to hide it.

d. Kang Dae-Sung: “oh fun stuff~” and enjoys it -> I would totally feel awkward.

e. Lee Seung-Hyun: suddenly whips his head around and looks at me -> Totally one of those focus on the screen moments to keep from making eye contact. I don’t even want to know what he’s thinking and am going to try to keep my face blank so he doesn’t think I’m thinking anything weird.

*Side Note: Totally was brought back to watching Caligula with my friends. We totally were making fun of it to get through some of the really awkward scenes. That or we just sat in silence, although surprisingly it was as awkward as one would think.

Results of Part 2:

TOP: 5

G-Dragon: 6

Taeyang: 1

Daesung: 2

Seungri: 0

Totals:

G-Dragon: 18

TOP: 13

Daesung: 5

Taeyang: 5

Seungri: 2

Thoughts on the Results:

So it appears that out of Big Bang, they person that I would be most likely to date would be G-Dragon. (No bias here!! XD) Okay, so I tried not to answer to just my bias, but I did come to a realization. He’s my bias for reason! Anyway, I find it a little funny that I went for the older ones in the group. As for the other three, Taeyang and Daesung could teach a couple things to G-Dragon and TOP, but only a couple things. As for Seungri, I found him kind of annoying (like a younger brother) and this just solidified it for me. No offense to you Seungri biases, but he just reminds me of the annoying younger brother. I’m not trying to hate on him or anything. He just doesn’t do it for my like G-Dragon (and apparently TOP).

Anyway, this was interesting. I wonder if any other entertainment people have filled out a questionnaire similar to this. All that I’ve found are things where people make quizzes out of what artists have stated as their ideal girl, but nothing like this where you take it to find out what would be the best match for you. If anybody knows or finds of any more like this let me know! I might take it as well! I have a couple other questionnaire forms (not like this) that I’ll do at some point. I think this’ll help me keep up with a more regular posting schedule!

Ja Ne~

Stasi

TRANSLATION CREDIT: 1tymforyomind and bigbangnyuh @SOOMPI

[credit if taken out]

Back in the Game

2010-11-02T10:31:00.001-06:00

Good Morning!!

So here is my first real post after getting back onto the blogging horse. Yay!! Well, I guess to start off I'll say that this morning I voted at 7!! I was there right when they opened the doors. The people running were laughing at me, but I just laughed along because it was ridiculously early. I'm just happy the Starbucks on campus opened at 7 as well!! Yay for Pumpkin Spice Lattes!! It's my favorite special Starbucks drink and I'm sad they only have it during the fall and early winter. Yes, but anyways, I took a celebratory picture and have changed it to my default picture pretty much everywhere. Here, facebook, myspace, twitter, and I think that's it, but I'm sure you get the point. Also when I decided to update this morning I went to blog and sat there staring at the gif I posted with my last update for like 5 minutes. I find it absolutely hilarious, so I was trying to laugh as quiet as possible in the computer lab. Too bad I didn't find one that had Eunhyuk's charade paired with Heechul's. I'll post it again here for the picture for anyone that didn't see the previous one. I'll try to find Heechul's too!!

Here's the original one I posted:

Here's one with both of them, but it's not the one I was looking for:

Okay, so I'll start out with Skip Beat! It's still in the Violent Mission Arc, but I'm loving what's going on. I love the president and Yashiro-san (Ren's Manager), so to have both of them trying to put Ren and Kyoko together and have Ren tell Kyoko things (like to try to convince him to say he doesn't need her when Ren knows that isn't true and would be lying if he said it). Anyways, I caught up and can't wait for the new chapter here in a couple of days. The last chapter was a little scary with the car accident and Ren losing it. His eyes were a little terrifying. I have seen people become like that and it really does look like the soul has disappeared from their body. It's very eery and creepy. It's also nice that we are learning more about Ren's back-story. I sense a big reveal coming soon. There were a few laughs though so that was good to have a little bit of the classic Kyoko comedy again!!

Let's see, what else can I talk about. Oh, Halloween, my favorite Holiday!! So Halloween itself was pretty uneventful. I worked most of the day, but then I went home. That was nice to see my mom, brother, sister, dogs, and kitties (especially Cheesey). Unfortunately it was really short since I picked up an early shift on Monday. Oh well. I do have plans to go back Friday though. People are leaving the house leaving my Mom alone, so I'm gonna go hang out with her!! She said we'll watch a movie or just hang out! It'll be nice to spend some girl time with my Mom. Plus, I'll get to finish my laundry!! Anyways, back to Halloween...Erin and Eli did throw a party on Saturday afternoon/evening. It was a blast. I've been to a few Halloween parties before, but this was the best hands down. I dressed up as a non-descript Bleach shinigami. I didn't get much pictures because I totally forgot my camera. Literally forgot though, because when I got home I realized I left it on their counter. Go me. But we played Rock Band 3, I watched the Exorcist for the first time, had a laughing fit with Talking Carl in the corner for 20 minutes, and enjoyed hanging out with my friends. It was nice because I haven't hung out with them like this since before I went to Japan. Overall, the point was the Halloween festivities were amazing, but unfortunately nothing actually happened ON Halloween.

Let's see, what else do I need to add. Um as for fandoms, I've pretty much solidified my Mom as a Shawol (Shinee fan). It's amazing because not only am I getting her and my sister hooked on Kpop now (I've previously converted them to Jpop), they are staying within the SM Family!! It was really funny on Halloween. During dinner we watched the 2010 Hallyu Dream Concert. When Shinee came on my mom suddenly said "I feel like I should be screaming. Even though it's just on TV and happened a while ago, I still want to scream and cheer." Ladies and gentlemen, my Mom has now been promoted from fan, to fangirl. Welcome to fandom Mom!

Okay, so back to fandoms...as I have mentioned in a previous post, the first Kpop band I listened to was Big Bang. I have to say that they aren't my favorite, but I still enjoy their music and totally have a G-Dragon bias. But anyway, I was sent this questionnaire thing about Big Bang, so I will fill it out and do it and post it in my next post. I'd do it in this post, but it would get way too long. So I'll put it in a separate post! Hopefully I'll fill it out and get it up soon!! Also relating to fandoms, I need money. Super Show 2 DVD was just released and I want a copy really really bad. I want the edition that comes with a poster!! The plus side is that it will be cheaper to buy a 2-disc DVD plus poster delivered from Korean than buying a CD from Japan. I'll only end up spending around $30. Hopefully I'll get enough money soon and can order it before the editions with the poster sell out.

I'm not quite sure what else to add, but I'm sure that I could add much more. I guess I'll just have to wait until the next post! As mentioned in the previous post, I am going to try to update my blog at least bi-weekly, but I would like to do it at least weekly. Also, I'm thinking of getting a Tumblr to post my quote of the day there as well. Also, I might open another Twitter account to do my quotes of the day, but I'm thinking I'll most likely go with Tumblr over another Twitter account. We'll see how I feel and if I actually think I have the time to post it on Tumblr and not just on my Facebook statuses. Instead of a last icon/picture, I bring you the most recent video that had me dying of laughter. Introducing, what I believe to be, the most EPIC pillow fight EVER!

Until next time~

Stasi

Sumimasen!!

2010-10-27T15:15:00.002-06:00

So I've come to the realization that I am one of the worst bloggers EVER! I have been back in the U.S. for a couple months now and just remembered my blog. I'm so sorry to all of my readers. As mentioned in my travel blog (see links in bottom right), I enjoyed my time in Japan and will find time to upload some stories and pictures from my semester in Japan. I do plan on studying abroad again, this time in Korea. I'll be applying for the full year here soon. I'll update those in the travel blog though, so not to repeat things all over.

As for my review blog, I am hoping to pick that up and start doing some reviews! I won't set something solid, but I would like to try to update that every two weeks. If you want to know more head over to My Review Blog (see links in bottom right).

Okay, so I will try to do an official update of this blog here soon to talk about what has happened since I've come home from Japan that doesn't have to deal with my travels or reviews! Hopefully I'll get back into doing the monthly rant about the latest Skip Beat! chapters (although I am a few months behind) and pretty much everything else going on in my life. I'm sorry for being absent for so long, but I'm back and will try to stay active!

I'll try to do a real update sometime soon! Oh and gotta add some sort of picture!

Mata Ne~
Stasi

On Hold and Tiny Update

2010-04-04T03:43:00.000-06:00

So I am currently studying abroad in Japan. This blog will be put on hold and I'll be posting mainly in my travel blog. (Click "travel blog" to go to it!) I did have the start of a new blog written from a couple weeks ago, so I'll upload it!! XD

From March 21, 2010:

So I haven’t updated in a while (again), but that’s because I will leave for Japan in less than three days. I am writing this at my dad’s house, so I’ll be posting in the next couple days before I leave. Just a warning if you care about things like my days being correct to when I post this.

Anyway, to start my Dad’s birthday was yesterday (the 20^th). He was driving back from California all day so we didn’t get a chance to celebrate. Hopefully we will a little tonight when he gets home (which is projected to be around dinner time)!! I have called you and made your card and given it to you with your present, but I just want to say again:

Happy Birthday Daddy! I love you sooooo much!

Moving on, since it’s already been mentioned, I am heading to Japan here in the next couple of days. I probably won’t update this blog for a while. I’ll probably just focus on the one I have specifically for Japan and my travels. As for previous updates, I usually update when I read the new Skip Beat! Chapter. Unfortunately, I’m probably a few chapters behind now (I’ve been up at my dad’s house for about a week so my emails are probably full and I probably have a lot of messages and things to catch up on), so when I do get caught I might post an update on this blog, or I might just wait until I come back and then post a huge update entry about Skip Beat!. We’ll just have to wait and see how busy I am in Japan. I also am planning on taking videos and uploading them.

Yeah so if you want me to add you to my email list and such which will have special information, then drop me a message or email with your contact info!! I'll try to post links to my youtube, twitter, and other things on the other blog!! XD

Thanks for reading as always (Oh and sorry for no pictures on this one!)

Ja ne~

Stasi

一番の誕生日

2010-01-27T15:34:00.003-07:00

お誕生日おめでと櫻井翔くん

January 25th was my current favorite of Arashi Sakurai Sho-kun's birthday! Many fans of Arashi that I have met and conversed with online are considered *Jun-batited.* For me, I was Sho-baited. The first time I learned of Arashi was in late 2002 when I watched the Jdrama Kisarazu Cat's Eye. I have been listening to Arashi since then, but wasn't a fangirl. I enjoyed their music, but at that time I was really into Hard Rock and Anime. Arashi was just another one of the many artists in my iTunes. A few years ago I started getting bored of a lot of the music that was being released here in America, so I started listening to my JPop and KPop a lot more. It was then that I became a huge fan of Arashi and started turning into another one of the many fangirls across the world! To celebrate Sho-kun's birthday, I watched Kisarazu Cat's Eye: World Series (the second movie). I would like to thank Sho-kun for introducing me to Arashi. I have become influenced and inspired by the friendship you all share. As for Sho-kun, you have given me motivation to continue. With redefining what it was to be not only an Idol but a Johnny's Idol, you have not only given me the courage, but to people around the world. I will continue to support you in your dramas, news-casting (especially at the Winter Olympics!!), acting, performing, and any other ventures you decide to go on in your life. I wish you a Happy Birthday. I hope that the next year is wonderful for you and brings you many spectacular things. Thank you, and Happy Birthday Sho-kun! As a treat to all the other fangirls out there, I will share one of the magnificent scans of the January 2010 AnAn that has very revealing shots of Mr. Perfect himself! XD (credits go to jesychan @ livejournal for the scans!)

To continue along the thoughts of being an Arashi fangirl, I have a story! A couple weekends ago I kind of forced/persuaded my Mom, Sister, and Brother to watch the Arashi Around Asia Tour 2008 at the Tokyo Dome. It was absolutely amazing. Last time I watched it, it was on my computer screen, which is nice, but not as nice as on the wonderful LCD TV we have in the living room. I think my sister got bored after a little while, but my Mom actually watched it all. My mom's favorites are Riida and Nino. She loves Riida's voice and thinks Nino is cute! XD I talked to her about it after it was done. I didn't think that anyone enjoyed it and apologized to my Mom for making her watch something she wasn't really interested in. My Mom pretty much enjoyed the concert more than she thought she would, understands a lot of why I am such a fangirl, and had a lot of the songs stuck in her head for days. For like four days straight I would get text messages that were complaining about having an Arashi song stuck in her head. I find it kind of funny though. She doesn't really know the words, but she knows the melodies and the all the breaks and English words! Since watching the concert she has been asking me almost every day to give her my Arashi songs! It's kind of wonderful that I have made another fan of Arashi! I feel that I have helped the fandom grow. Oh and my Mom also likes Aiba, although she gets tired watching him because he has so much energy. I've shown her bits and pieces of TSD (Tensai Shimura Doubutsuen Variety Show) and so she got to see even more how much energy he has! XD (Picture credit goes to ll13jl @ livejournal!)

생일축하합니다김재중

The next day, January 26th, is Hero a.k.a. Kim Jaejoong's birthday. He is my favorite from TVXQ/DBSK/Tohoshinki. I am a DBSK fangirl, but I do have to admit that Arashi is number 1 on my list. But anyway, I absolutely adore Hero's voice and lips! XD I'm still pretty new to the KPop fandoms, especially when compared to my time with Arashi, but I have to say I was hooked the first time I heard it. The first Korean band I had heard was Big Bang and it from randomly finding them on Youtube one day. I wiki'ed them and then started checking out other Korean Boy Bands. DBSK was my second. In 2007 I heard about the boy band Super Junior, through the unfortunate car accident, and checked them out. I quickly became a fan and they are my #1 Korean boy band now! But, back to Jaejoong! I would like to thank Jaejoong for bring me many wonderful fangirl squeals and moments, especially when they are shared with Bea and Sami! XD I wish that the next year for you is wonderful and the law suit gets resolved quickly ~~and without breaking up DBSK~~. I also would like to congratulate you and the rest of the boys on being the most anticipated band of 2010 in Japan! XD Happy Birthday Jaejoong! XD

To continue with Korean fandom, I will share some interesting news. I have been listening a lot to Rain/Bi again lately. I am currently obsessed with his songs "Rainism," "Love Story," and "내여자 (My Lady)" (especially the acoustic version!). Rain is just magnificent and I wish I could have seen him on tour the end of last year. I look forward to what he comes out with next and have watched Full House and A Love to Kill again to get my fix! XD As a treat, I have "내여자" in a YouTube video below! XD

So most of my blog updates are sporadic enough that I have a new chapter of Skip Beat! to rant about, but I still have to wait until February 5th. It's sad and the lack of Skip Beat! on the blog is weird and a little uncomfortable! I'll post a Skip Beat! picture though just for fun!! XD

For my last rant, I haven't really been sleeping well. I go to bed at a normal time (sometime between 10 and 11, but closer to 10 most nights) but can't go to sleep until around midnight or later. It has really started to suck. Last night I was in bed before 11, but I didn't end up falling asleep until after 3am. I'm getting really tired of not being able to sleep. I don't want to take pills though and become dependent on them. So, if anyone has any suggestions please comment and let me know! I would greatly appreciate it!

So I probably won't update again until the new Skip Beat! chapter, so I hope January ends nicely for everyone and February goes well! I can't believe we're almost done with January in 2010. How time flies!

Ja Mata~

Stasi

Press the Reset, Press Press the Reset

2010-01-08T10:05:00.002-07:00

Happy New Year Minna! My first post of 2010!! How exciting. I spent the last night of 2009 dancing at the NDK New Year's Eve Ball! I went with my friends Derek, Erin and Eli and had a blast! I didn't get my cosplay in time, but I had my wig! So I wore that and one of my old prom dresses! I had a lot of fun. The only problem was the next morning. Derek wasn't feeling to well and left early. (I hope you are doing okay. I haven't heard from you and don't know if you got my voicemail.) I got Starbucks for the rest of us, and something felt off. I felt like it was NDK. It was soooo weird seeing the Denver Tech Center so empty. My body was definitely feeling like I had two more days of cosplay and a convention to go to. On the other hand, my mind knew that it was just for New Year's and that it was normal for there not to be hundreds of people milling around at 8:00 in the morning. Oh well. Although, there were some young otaku hanging out where Artist's Alley usually is and it was hilarious to watch them just mill around in the emptiness. It was like they didn't know what to do with themselves without a con. I don't know. It was just really funny!

Anyways, I finally got my My Drama List website up and running. I haven't updated the lists in a while, but I should get a chance to do that here within the next couple of days. It has all the tables on seperate pages, kind of like the spreadsheet I have. The home page has banners to some of my favorite shows and movies, and links to them as well. Yeah, so now that I'm done designing my site, now I just have to update. That means that I have a lot more time at work. I'll find something to do, if at the very least I just end up watching Asian dramas and movies! XD As for other drama-ish news, I have the new blog for my reviews set up. Here is the link: http://thereviewsofanapple.blogspot.com/ I haven't posted anything yet, but I will very soon so keep your eyes open!!

Speaking of creating a new blog, I will get started on creating my blog for when I go to Japan very soon. I'll also set up and special folder in my YouTube specifically for my Japan videos! I'm getting really exctied to go. I have a counter on My Drama List and I have 75 days. I still can't believe I'm actually going. It probably won't feel real until I'm there, or at least sitting at the airport waiting for my flight!

In other news, the new Skip Beat! chapter came out! They are back to the Love Me Department! It was exciting to see the President again because he makes me laugh everytime. It's also nice to have Moko and Kyoko back together again. Oh, and they have a new Love Me member: Amamiya. They were asked about Valentine's Day, and as per the usual Moko and Kyoko, they said something along the lines of "It ruins society." So President has new jobs for them. Kyoko's said dangerous, Moko's said muddy, and Amamiya's said happy. When Amamiya grabbed her's she tried to give it back. I can't wait for Febuary 5th and the new chapter! I want to find out really bad what their new jobs are. Oh, and just a side note, Amamiya fits in really well with Kyoko and Moko, which is a very good thing.

Another fun update, I recently became addicted to Super Junior's Sorry, Sorry...again. It's no wonder it's one the most popular songs right now. I ended up listening to it over and over yesterday at work. Well there are two reasons for that. 1. It's an aboslutely AMAZING song, and 2. I forgot my Ipod at home. I hooked it up to Kuro (my desktop) to sync and woke up late and...well, it was a whole hullabaloo, but the gist is I forgot it and had to listen to SOMETHING yesterday. It's becoming really bad. I can't stand not having music, especially when it's quiet. My radio in my car wouldn't come on yesterday because of the cold so I had my phone out and I was listening to the 5 songs I have on there over and over. I just can't stand it. Before I remembered I had music on my phone, I was singing along with nothing. I guess the gist of this rant, is that music is in my blood. I need to listen to certain songs when I'm in a certain mood. Lately, I've been listening to Super Junior, as always Arashi, and Alana Davis's CD 32 Flavors. It's a really good CD. I'll post a video for 32 flavors . It's such a good song. Oh, I'll also post Sorry, Sorry. I made my Mom listen to it yesterday and she started dancing in my room and agreed that it was a good song. I was a little surprised, but then again it is an AMAZING song! As for the rest of the Super Junior CD Sorry, Sorry. It's really good. My second favorite song off it is Reset. The title of this post is from the chorus of the song. I thought it worked good for both my obsession and for the New Year! (I'll post a video for that song too!) XD

Super Junior - Sorry, Sorry

Alana Davis - 32 Flavors

Super Junior - Reset

Well, I should probably get started working on some paperwork and school classes plans and stuff like that! I just want to say that I wish you all a Happy New Year! Oh, and it's Sakurai Sho month! He turns 29 on January 25th, so at least expect another blog around then, although it'll probably be pretty short!! XD

Mata ne~
Stasi