Monday, February 29, 2016

Misaeng


Intern life of a formerly shut-in 26-year-old who's only starting out at life after failing his dream as a professional go player. He cannot speak foreign languages, only has a GED, barely any work experience, except for a part-time job when he was in high school. Things get complicated when the whole office find out he got in through connections. A realistic drama about office life.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Reflex


Wolf Pack Attacks on Omega Wolf


Black Sails


During the Golden Age of Piracy, the pirates declare freedom and war against civilization. The different crews meet on an island where they sell looted goods to an organization who will then legalize the stolen merchandise and sell them back to the market. Adventures, pirate politics, violence and gratuitous lesbian sex, but hardly any gay sex, which is strongly opposed to by viewers.

Empresses in the Palace


Life in the Forbidden City as one of the king's many concubines is anything but easy. Without attention from the king, one cannot rise through the ranks and is looked down on and neglected by even the servants. However, if one manages to seduce the king, she soon becomes the target of other women's jealousy. If she is pregnant, she must fear for her and her unborn's life as higher ranked consorts and hidden enemies seek to eliminate her as a potential threat to their position. Alliances are formed and broken, women seek to frame each other and kill each other's baby.

Signal


Two cops from 20 years apart (one is M.I.A in present days) somehow are able to communicate with each other through a haunted device. As they cooperate to solve cases in the past and present, they realize that it's a dangerous endeavor - altering events in timeline can lead to many unexpected consequences. In one case, being able to save someone in the past led to other deaths in the present. Mysteries surrounding the protagonists and power and corruption in the police force slowly unravel.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Cleaning stuff

      

Cetaphil moisturizer $13.57/500ml                    $2.7/100ml
Cetaphil skin cleanser $13.57/500ml                  $2.7/100ml
Head & Shoulders $12.26/1L                             $1.25/100ml
Colgate $4.97/3x130ml                                      $1.27/100ml
Nivea body wash $3.97/500ml                           $0.79/100ml
Dawn dishwashing liquid $1.97/532ml              $0.37/100ml
Royale Velour Bathroom Tissue                        $6.93/24 rolls

In My Closet


Recent Haul

$9.20                                 $4                                   $12
$12                                  $38

OvuView


Nice design. Could double as a diary. Helped me understand my body biology better.

Flipp


Makes searching for deals easier. If I'm out of sugar or qtips all I need to do is type in and see if there's any sales nearby. This eliminates a lot of wasted time flipping through real flyers or going to the store only to have buyer's remorse later.

Monefy


Anything with pie chart is good to me. Also the colors are nice and the design is simple.

Lay Me Down - Sam Smith

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Chandelier - Sia

Trivia of the Day


Say m-mm and m-hm repeatedly up and down your vocal range and keep saying "ney, ney, ney" loudly without yelling. This develops mask resonance, which creates a clean and vibrant sound by creating a clean approximation of the cords and a resonance that will sound great and project easily.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Set Fire to the Rain - Adele


Let it buuuuuurrrrrrrnn
Channeling all my hatred into singing this song this afternoon.

Same Bed, Different Dream Ep. 41 Recap


Seung Ah Shop - Korean Youth Fashion

The "CEO" is a high school senior who started modelling to earn since she was in middle school. She takes charge of visiting factories, taking samples and buying merchandise. The fabric district is in another city so every evening she has to board a train, carrying back and forth big bags of sample clothes. She's saved up to rent an office soon and is meeting realtors by herself to find the one most suited to her needs (currently she's based at home and her mom is in charge of customer service, inventory and shipping. She pays her mom like an employee but treats her like a mom-maid more than an employee). Like a lot of teenagers she can have an attitude problem to her parents, but she is quite business minded and driven for a high schooler. She's accepted into university majoring in design and the interviewers were impressed with her resume.

http://www.seungashop.com/

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

더지니어스 - 같은그림찾기 (The Genius - Same Picture Hunt)


I learned the korean alphabet in high school for fun because I hung out with some Koreans, and around 2 years ago I learned to type on korean keyboard when I was desperate to understand shows without subtitles. That came in handy when I wanted to search for the Same Picture Hunt app on googleplay, since its title only exists in Korean.

The korean alphabet is actually very easy to learn; most can do it in one single day. But now let's talk about Same Picture Hunt. This is one of the death match games in the show The Genius, and it requires good memorization. Since I have terrible short-termed memory, I tried to train mentally with this game and at first it was incredibly difficult.

Memorization strategies can be to simply memorize row by row or column by column, and think of each image as an object, for example the green one on the low right corner can be thought of as a green bottle, there's a green cross above it so I make the mental note of "shaking the green bottle", and so on. Luck does play a role since sometimes it will take a long time to search for the image you need, and your opponent could gain a lead on you. Once all the images have been revealed and located, whoever has the best memory will win.

Of course, there are strategies when you're playing with another person in multiplayer mode, like trying not to open too many letters and reveal too many images because it could help your opponent progress. Breaking the game and playing "dirty" is within the realm of The Genius (there are geniuses and then there are evil geniuses afterall). I typically don't play "dirty" like this though, and it's always funny to see the other player thinking they're ahead of me and trying to use this dirty tactic by stopping opening new letters and instead stalling by re-opening the same letter again and again while I try to find my image. If I manage to gain a lead, I then have more information than they do, and sometimes win in one go.

Bag It


Strategy:
- Heavy items at the bottom and light items on top
- Take advantage of achievement points

Achievement list (extra points)
  • Double Date: Milk and Orange Juice + Milk and Orange Juice
  • Eggcellent: Eggs + Eggs + Eggs + Eggs
  • Nice Melons!: Watermelon + Watermelon
  • Sweethearts: Milk + Orange Juice
  • Well Bread: Breadstick + Breadstick + Breadstick + Breadstick
  • Breakfast Club: Cereal + Cereal + Cereal
  • Mutiny!: Watermelon + Watermelon + Watermelon + Watermelon + Watermelon
  • Banana Split: Banana curved right + Banana curved left
  • Slumber Party!: Orange Juice + Orange Juice + Orange Juice
  • Scallywags!: Watermelon + Watermelon + Watermelon + Watermelon
  • Fiesta of Flavor: Chips + Chips + Chips + Chips + Chips + Chips
  • Balanced Breakfast: Milk + Orange Juice + Eggs + Cereal

Monday, February 22, 2016

Food Review: Snacks


Big Chief Beef Jerky
Price: $2.27
Verdict: for 30g of beef jerky (about 4-5 slices), is freaking expensive. Tasted like salami. 

Taiwanese Roasted Eel
Price: $1.77
Verdict: a bit pricey, but tasted great.



McSweeney Teriyaki Beef Jerky
Price: $9.97
Verdict: big bag, but look carefully, it's only 125g. Expensive, nothing special. Not what I was looking for. It's gluten free, so there's that.

Clover Leaf Smoked Oysters
Price: on sale for $1 (original $2.28)
Verdict: for the price, not bad. I used the sunflower oil in the can to make another dish.

Whipped


ATimeLogger - Time Tracker


I like this app because it has a pie chart and pretty icons. Went through a few days obsessively tracking my time and I realized some tasks only take 2 minutes. Of course tracking every minute did get tiring and I stopped, but I came out with some new knowledge on time and time management.

HabitRPG


This was everything I looked for in an app back then, but when I started to use this app, I got to work full-time and realized I just had no time to monitor and input my activities. Day shift started at 10 and transport took an hour. Day shift ended at 3, then I took a nap at the restaurant and we opened again at 4:30 until 10 or 11pm, then another hour of transport. I went back home and just slept, and repeat the next day.

USA and UK talk-show hosts

I've been stuck in the kpop blackhole for years despite wanting to come out of the addiction, which means I've watched subtitled shows for the longest time and even spent way too much free time hanging around on kpop forums. That is until recently when Conan O'Brien announced his trip to Korea.


Online forums started to discuss American and UK show hosts, and thus I've started to watch more of Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, Dave Letterman and Graham Norton. Slowly I'm getting back into Western media, though my perspective is constantly trying to make sense of and blur the difference between Western and Eastern cultures and humor.

Korean shows and their hosts can actually be pretty great and with good humor. Forget Gangnam Style and Psy. Recently a show called The Genius has amassed a large number of Survivor and Big Brother fans, and also drew discussions on poker, board game and reality TV forums. Of course many people were dismissive and thought it would be a math show, Asians being uncool, etc. But there are many praises among the new fans, and a UK version is getting pitched.



Food Face-off: Pacific Gold Thai Jasmine Rice vs. Rose Jasmine White Scented Rice

vs.
$14.97                                                  $16.97

Not as delicious as Rose Jasmine White Scented Rice, but my stomach seems to digest Pacific Gold Thai Jasmine rice better and it still tastes better than the Rooster brand after refrigerated. The texture of Rose Jasmine White Scented Rice is the nicest though, but I don't know why my stomach can't take it well. I've heard the Rose brand is one of the best out there, which is all the more perplexing.

Learning French from Video Games Has Its Limits


I've played plenty of French versions of different games, like Final Fantasy 8-9, Xenoblades, Fire Emblem, Castlevania, Grimoire of the Rift, Legend of Dragoons etc. I've tried to choose games with heavy text load, but from what I've seen so far, only my reading has improved. Holding conversations is still very hard, so I've taken to youtube videos to train my listening.

My Coffee Shop


I've been addicted to this game and its other variations like My Salad Bar, Burger 2, etc.

Strategies:
- Your focus is speed. Give priority to upgrading faster equipment, adding more plates on the table and adding extra equipments.
- Prepare bread, eggs and bacon on plates before customers come. These won't go bad and you can let them stay there as long as you have to.
- Upgrade the lounge whenever you can to increase customers' patience.

The game can get hectic at times but that's what makes it fun!