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
