I knew that this day would come sooner or later, and I awaited for the end of Fullmetal Alchemist feeling both excited and sentimental. After I had read the final chapter, I was left with a humongous grin on my face and a slight, a very, very slight moist in my eyes, undetectable to anyone who'd peer at my face that moment. (If I were more emotional, I probably would have cried.)
I won't say it was perfect, but it was a very strong chapter as always, and I was gazing at every panel and every drawing with minute attention, trying to hold on as much as I could before the end. And when I went through it all, I was immensely satisfied and also felt a little empty. One of my life's biggest happiness... finished.
There's much more I'd like to write, but I can't seem to type more - either because it would be a spoiler, or because I don't know how to organize all the thoughts racing in my mind properly.
So goodbye, Fullmetal Alchemist. Your story was riveting, your characters were wonderful to relate to, and It's been a great few years laughing and (not quite) crying and gasping in horror, sadness, and sheer brilliance. Thanks for doing that.
Adios!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
In Which I am Dancing like a Madman
I realized that I am massively burnt out and have no desire to do anything.
Now don't get me wrong, I AM occupied for the summer. I am tutoring and making a fair bit of money till I leave for Korea, and I am also studying for the GRE.
However, asides from the neccessary activities, I find myself hardly doing anything, and I do not feel the desire to do so.
After telling myself, No! This is summer vacation! I must find a way to enjoy my free time in a productive manner! I decided to try dancing, for two reasons; first, I'd at least get some excercise out of this, and second, why not, I need some excitement around here.
I choose a dance sequence that had the most cheerful music and most hectic movements that I can think of, for maximum energizing effect.
And as I attempt to dance along, I realize that my physique is simply not built for this type of movements. Maybe it's my size, or my "do-you-have-asthma" lung capacity, or maybe it may just be the way I was born. But I can't dance like the youtube video at normal speed! It's too fast! Other youtube comments that the dance is really fast are my only source of comfort.
In addition, I feel incredibly stupid dancing to this.
Other people look stupid dancing to this, I saw the videos. I probably look really stupid dancing to this. And yet I cannot stop. The more I dance, the more I see myself descending to THE DARK ABYSS, where all the people are dancing pathetically to this madness with a look of insane delight on their faces. No! I'm a normal person! I may dance along for entertainment, but I will not be dragged into the insanity with you freaks! Don't take me down to THE DARK ABYSS!
Maybe I should have picked another dance. Something that wasn't too well-known. Hell, maybe I should have just pranced around the room doing Caramelldansen or something. It wouldn't be as addictive yet embarrassing as this! After all my scoffing towards them, I am becoming one of them, as I dance to this cheerful little dance.
Despite the limitations of my body, I can somewhat imitate the first half of the dance. We shall see. Though I may one day master this dance, I vow to come out alive and unscathed from the ABYSS, keeping my sanity intact, but with an enthusiastic and invigorated mind.
I'm just trying to dance along to some silly clip, geez.
Now don't get me wrong, I AM occupied for the summer. I am tutoring and making a fair bit of money till I leave for Korea, and I am also studying for the GRE.
However, asides from the neccessary activities, I find myself hardly doing anything, and I do not feel the desire to do so.
After telling myself, No! This is summer vacation! I must find a way to enjoy my free time in a productive manner! I decided to try dancing, for two reasons; first, I'd at least get some excercise out of this, and second, why not, I need some excitement around here.
I choose a dance sequence that had the most cheerful music and most hectic movements that I can think of, for maximum energizing effect.
And as I attempt to dance along, I realize that my physique is simply not built for this type of movements. Maybe it's my size, or my "do-you-have-asthma" lung capacity, or maybe it may just be the way I was born. But I can't dance like the youtube video at normal speed! It's too fast! Other youtube comments that the dance is really fast are my only source of comfort.
In addition, I feel incredibly stupid dancing to this.
Other people look stupid dancing to this, I saw the videos. I probably look really stupid dancing to this. And yet I cannot stop. The more I dance, the more I see myself descending to THE DARK ABYSS, where all the people are dancing pathetically to this madness with a look of insane delight on their faces. No! I'm a normal person! I may dance along for entertainment, but I will not be dragged into the insanity with you freaks! Don't take me down to THE DARK ABYSS!
Maybe I should have picked another dance. Something that wasn't too well-known. Hell, maybe I should have just pranced around the room doing Caramelldansen or something. It wouldn't be as addictive yet embarrassing as this! After all my scoffing towards them, I am becoming one of them, as I dance to this cheerful little dance.
Despite the limitations of my body, I can somewhat imitate the first half of the dance. We shall see. Though I may one day master this dance, I vow to come out alive and unscathed from the ABYSS, keeping my sanity intact, but with an enthusiastic and invigorated mind.
I'm just trying to dance along to some silly clip, geez.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Attack of the Killer Bees!: The Dream.
I think it must have been my inherent fear of insects and watching Nostalgia Critic's Twister review before going to bed that somehow produced this dream last night. The entire dream unfolded like a bad diaster flick (like Twister), except that instead of floods, tornadoes, or the end of the world, it simply had bees trying to kill people. Except that no one even died, much less injured, from the whole ordeal. How boring.
So the dream starts out in what seems like a mix of a nature-friendly nation (ex. Australia or New Zealand) and American countryside. A team of biologists and I (for some odd reason) are there to investigate the report about killer bees and their strange behavior that occurs about this time every year. We are greeted by a matronly and mild-looking lady with wispy blond hair, denim dress, the works. The typical Caucasian countryside woman. She is bulimic for some reason. She isn't young or smoking hot, but she is attractive for a woman who does nothing but tend the farm for most of her day.
"Those bees always attack us once a year. They're very deadly bees," the woman says.
She points to a beehive on a nearby tree, where bees fly about like normal, except that there were too many of them at once. I start to back away instinctively. She gives us protective clothing and lets us go near the bees. I still don't go near it.
The biologists begin their unintelligible babble filled with biology terminology, or bee behavior terminology, whichever it was. At any rate, they are fascinated.
In addition, I see that the nerdiest guy of the biologist crew has developed a sort of crush towards the bulimic country woman. This may have been the start of one of those scenarios where two strangers who are stuck together in a disaster fall in love, but fortunately, the nerdy guy was a silly comedic relief character, the type of guys who crush on the girl but always loses against our Hollywood macho, manly hero. Fortunately, this being a team of nerdy biologists, there were no rough-and-tough men within the crew.
ANYHOW, back to the bees.
The woman explained how once a year, around this time, the bees suddenly form a giant group and begin a coordinated attack on humans, for some bizarre reason, and that the bees are deadly; many die around that time due to the bee attacks.
She leads us into her home and locks the doors and blocks the windows, in an attempt to hopefully block the bees. "They're gathering; they're going to attack very soon." She randomly eats an apple.
Sure enough, the loud buzzing noises tell us that the bees have come. Even worse is that they started the attack even before the woman could close all the windows.
Oh no! The bees! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! We scream.
The bees fly rapidly all around the house. We scream and try to take cover. But the bees don't attack us. They just... fly.
The bulimic woman starts to throw up in a corner from shock, I presume. The bees now float in a standby formation, with one or two of them shooting towards people like some bullet. We shriek, but are able to dodge them without being injured or killed.
The nerdy one approaches and calms down the country woman. She seems extremely touched by it, and there is that moment where their faces start to lean towards each other, and the nerdy one puckers his lips... and the bulimic woman turns around and throws up again. How romantic.
But it's not over. The bees make a strange formation around the house. the woman quickly hands us a cardboard box each.
"Quickly! Hide!" she cries. We do.
As soon as she tells us to hide, the bees attack; the only way I could describe it is that the whole thing seemed like a bee tornado. Thousands and thousands of bees circled and swarmed and stung at anything in its way. I grabbed onto my rattling box and held down with all my might.
Just when I thought I wouldn't be able to hold on any longer, all is quiet. Everybody tentatively lifts up their boxes. The bees have vanished.
I don't mean that they have gone away, save leaving a few dead bees behind, but they VANISHED, not even a body or any signs of attack, as if the whole thing never existed.
The biologists are unable to explain this phenomenon, and the country woman claims it to be some sort of sick miracle, just like how Christianity or some other god in the sky debunks science in disaster movies sometimes.
This dream wasn't entertaining, it wasn't even funny, yes, it was REALLY SCARY since I am scared of bees, but other than that it was just really WEIRD.
The End.
So the dream starts out in what seems like a mix of a nature-friendly nation (ex. Australia or New Zealand) and American countryside. A team of biologists and I (for some odd reason) are there to investigate the report about killer bees and their strange behavior that occurs about this time every year. We are greeted by a matronly and mild-looking lady with wispy blond hair, denim dress, the works. The typical Caucasian countryside woman. She is bulimic for some reason. She isn't young or smoking hot, but she is attractive for a woman who does nothing but tend the farm for most of her day.
"Those bees always attack us once a year. They're very deadly bees," the woman says.
She points to a beehive on a nearby tree, where bees fly about like normal, except that there were too many of them at once. I start to back away instinctively. She gives us protective clothing and lets us go near the bees. I still don't go near it.
The biologists begin their unintelligible babble filled with biology terminology, or bee behavior terminology, whichever it was. At any rate, they are fascinated.
In addition, I see that the nerdiest guy of the biologist crew has developed a sort of crush towards the bulimic country woman. This may have been the start of one of those scenarios where two strangers who are stuck together in a disaster fall in love, but fortunately, the nerdy guy was a silly comedic relief character, the type of guys who crush on the girl but always loses against our Hollywood macho, manly hero. Fortunately, this being a team of nerdy biologists, there were no rough-and-tough men within the crew.
ANYHOW, back to the bees.
The woman explained how once a year, around this time, the bees suddenly form a giant group and begin a coordinated attack on humans, for some bizarre reason, and that the bees are deadly; many die around that time due to the bee attacks.
She leads us into her home and locks the doors and blocks the windows, in an attempt to hopefully block the bees. "They're gathering; they're going to attack very soon." She randomly eats an apple.
Sure enough, the loud buzzing noises tell us that the bees have come. Even worse is that they started the attack even before the woman could close all the windows.
Oh no! The bees! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! We scream.
The bees fly rapidly all around the house. We scream and try to take cover. But the bees don't attack us. They just... fly.
The bulimic woman starts to throw up in a corner from shock, I presume. The bees now float in a standby formation, with one or two of them shooting towards people like some bullet. We shriek, but are able to dodge them without being injured or killed.
The nerdy one approaches and calms down the country woman. She seems extremely touched by it, and there is that moment where their faces start to lean towards each other, and the nerdy one puckers his lips... and the bulimic woman turns around and throws up again. How romantic.
But it's not over. The bees make a strange formation around the house. the woman quickly hands us a cardboard box each.
"Quickly! Hide!" she cries. We do.
As soon as she tells us to hide, the bees attack; the only way I could describe it is that the whole thing seemed like a bee tornado. Thousands and thousands of bees circled and swarmed and stung at anything in its way. I grabbed onto my rattling box and held down with all my might.
Just when I thought I wouldn't be able to hold on any longer, all is quiet. Everybody tentatively lifts up their boxes. The bees have vanished.
I don't mean that they have gone away, save leaving a few dead bees behind, but they VANISHED, not even a body or any signs of attack, as if the whole thing never existed.
The biologists are unable to explain this phenomenon, and the country woman claims it to be some sort of sick miracle, just like how Christianity or some other god in the sky debunks science in disaster movies sometimes.
This dream wasn't entertaining, it wasn't even funny, yes, it was REALLY SCARY since I am scared of bees, but other than that it was just really WEIRD.
The End.
Monday, May 31, 2010
My Activities thus far.
First off, I would like to congratulate my brother on graduating high school. It's been a tough few years, brother dear, (especially with the crazy Korean mothers and their kids. I do not want to be near that kind of crazy ever again.)
I should probably end any negative comments for this entry with that.
So far, I have been tutoring several students, and this weekend I have attended the Prague Food Festival, a three-day event with various fine-quality restaurants offering dishes of various cultures and ingredients. It was a satisfying experience, and I intend to visit the next one if I can. That, along with a celebratory dinner for my brother at a rooftop restaurant where you can see the main Prague architectures whilst eating, I am feeling quite spoilt in the food department.
I also have had the opportunity to meet up with Sarah and enjoy a coffee date and window shopping, thus having the first face-to-face human interaction with a friend this entire summer. I needed that, and thanks for that.
I really can't find anything much to write here. Otherwise I have been relaxing at home, reading, browsing the internets, what have you.
Lazy days of summer, all right. At least I'll be working hardcore in July.
I should probably end any negative comments for this entry with that.
So far, I have been tutoring several students, and this weekend I have attended the Prague Food Festival, a three-day event with various fine-quality restaurants offering dishes of various cultures and ingredients. It was a satisfying experience, and I intend to visit the next one if I can. That, along with a celebratory dinner for my brother at a rooftop restaurant where you can see the main Prague architectures whilst eating, I am feeling quite spoilt in the food department.
I also have had the opportunity to meet up with Sarah and enjoy a coffee date and window shopping, thus having the first face-to-face human interaction with a friend this entire summer. I needed that, and thanks for that.
I really can't find anything much to write here. Otherwise I have been relaxing at home, reading, browsing the internets, what have you.
Lazy days of summer, all right. At least I'll be working hardcore in July.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
I'll Order a Dictionary, And a Side Dish of Tact, Please!
(Actual dialogue: "I am married, madam".)
As a lover of good cultural products and a stickler for accuracy, horrible translations of books, TV shows, film, and animation are as much of an abomination to me as criminals, politicians and general assholes that reside in this world.
The purpose of translating is not merely to make sense of gobbledygook into understandable language. One must also translate the right tone of the dialogue, manners of speech, appropriate vocabulary, and personality. In short, translation is about delivering both the language and the spirit of a certain content.
For once, in my life, I am watching K-dramas that ISN'T offered in front of my eyes at the TV, and I am enjoying a GOOD one, with charming characters, good story, jazzy music, great dialogue, and just the right balance of romance, drama, comedy, and tragedy.
And then horrible English subtitles just had to make me cringe night after night.
What's the deal with English subs? You ask. I'm Korean, and I don't need to read the subtitles to understand what is going on, I can just ignore it, right?
WRONG.
I cannot ignore it, it's right at the bottom of the screen, staring at me with its evil eyes, taunting me as I gasp in horror looking at incorrect vocabulary, horrible grammar, mangled names and inconsistencies.
(Our secret resistance group is so ballin', we even have a Prime Minister! Did I mention that we also have a Queen and a Parliament? We also have tea time every afternoon!)
I refuse to believe that the subbers for this particular drama are actual Koreans. (If it was, I will WEEP for the intelligence level of our average citizens.) Like the one above, where the subber has translated "leader" (수장) into "Prime Minister" (수상) just because the two words sound kinda similar in Korean, and didn't even bother to consider the context of the whole situation. Hell, they don't consider context most of the time, it seems.
(But, but, we just got into an agreement. In about five minutes. RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES. Didn't you even just tell us how quickly we reached an agreement?)
Imagine if other people, who are not Korean, wanted to watch this series. The subtitles are the only way to understand what is going on, but if the subtitles are inconsistent and confuzzling, do you think they will stay and keep watching the series? Do you think they'd care about the good quality of the show? Thus, a good show with a reflection to the 1930s will be audience-less by the barriers of language. And the spirit, the spirit of the show... is lost; lost and tattered to pieces.
(Actual dialogue: Why do I keep getting the feeling that you are on our side?)
(Because subbers can't see the unresolved sexual tension from a mile away.)
Please, future subbers, please. If you harbor ambitions to translate a foreign work in the near future, please have an encyclopedia and a dictionary by your side before you do anything dangerous. Or better yet, don't even try if all you are going to do is mistranslate every ten minutes of an episode! There is a time and place for everything, and clearly, your subtitles and this drama were not meant to be in the first place!
Now, I am not personally insulting the subbers themselves. I'm sure they just wanted to share their work with everybody on the Internet. However, their efforts have been misplaced, and they should have known better than to tackle a K-drama when they can't even get half the dialogues right.
In short: Your subtitles suck. There's really no way to put this nicely, and I'm sorry if I'm being honest and bothered about it!
Eight more episodes to go.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Stop Sleeping!
I think it's already established to all by now that I am a heavy sleeper.
I sleep heavy, I sleep a lot, and I will sleep until your eyes roll so much that it pops out of your sockets. I am a human Snorlax.
Don't blame me! Some people simply function on more sleep than others!
Yes, I do not like the fact that I would be wasting time on sleep, but it's only been my third day of summer, let me enjoy the extreme laziness for a bit more!
Besides, I'm starting tutoring tomorrow.
I need to find something to do other than tutoring that will occupy my time. I can't bug my brother because he is taking IB exams (oh, how he has grown!), it is getting a little boring just watching dramas all day (Yes, I'm bored watching dramas! Gasp at my blasphemous comment, fellow Koreans!), but there's nothing much to do outside the house, and I'd rather not go out before I start tutoring, since I'm an antsy person who hates playing before working.
Perhaps I would not be sleeping so much if there were more interesting things to do around here!
Zzzz.
I sleep heavy, I sleep a lot, and I will sleep until your eyes roll so much that it pops out of your sockets. I am a human Snorlax.
Don't blame me! Some people simply function on more sleep than others!
Yes, I do not like the fact that I would be wasting time on sleep, but it's only been my third day of summer, let me enjoy the extreme laziness for a bit more!
Besides, I'm starting tutoring tomorrow.
I need to find something to do other than tutoring that will occupy my time. I can't bug my brother because he is taking IB exams (oh, how he has grown!), it is getting a little boring just watching dramas all day (Yes, I'm bored watching dramas! Gasp at my blasphemous comment, fellow Koreans!), but there's nothing much to do outside the house, and I'd rather not go out before I start tutoring, since I'm an antsy person who hates playing before working.
Perhaps I would not be sleeping so much if there were more interesting things to do around here!
Zzzz.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Reminiscing Memories
Sophomore year's been a whole bunch of ups and downs, but since I'm done with it, I decided I should just remember the ups and move on.
Some of the pics to remember the highlights (And credit to Tabia and Andrew for the kendo/3rd Hunt photos.)
So THANK YOUUUU for the ups of sophomore year!
the hall paintings, if I upload my photos from my camera, will come henceforth, since that needs a seperate mention of its own.
It's scary how I'll be a college junior after this summer is over.
Some of the pics to remember the highlights (And credit to Tabia and Andrew for the kendo/3rd Hunt photos.)
So THANK YOUUUU for the ups of sophomore year!
the hall paintings, if I upload my photos from my camera, will come henceforth, since that needs a seperate mention of its own.
It's scary how I'll be a college junior after this summer is over.
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