so here and there...

i couldn't help checking this out since i was updating my korean-life blog. i finally watched the superman/batman: public enemies movie. it wasn't bad it was pretty good. i wish it was longer though. and i wish they'd finally figure out this superman movie fiasco before i die.

there's a small fruit fly infestation growing in my new place. i think i should stick to buying the 10litre garbage bags instead of having a huge 30litre sitting around and rotting. i have to use up my other 30litre and finally (finally) finish unpacking and organizing (yes, i am still not done).


[ on rotation ] :: "pork and beans" - weezer

long long time coming

regular blog: i dont know why i have 2. this one i guess is regular stuff the other one (13hoursaway.blogspot.com) is korean life. so since i'm living korean life this one will most likely be ignored for a looooong time.

so, goodbye for now...

oh canada

so that last post was for a teacher's class that i'm teaching. the topic is advising teachers how to teach math and science in english. not that i'm a science or math whiz by any means. i am not. surprise. but i can say 'carbohydrates' without an accent. that apparently gets me the job. unfortunately, it's not over. i still have 2 full, 6-7 hour days to teach writing compositions/lesson plans and micro-teaching. this is where a degree in BS really helps. hopefully.

anyways, i'm in canada now. i have just a little less than 5 days before i return to korea though. it's a bit of a bummer. i'm starting to finally settle in and i have to leave soon. also, i don't think i'll get to see as many people as i'd like to. truly a bummer. and, i'm still in the process of trying to figure out my visa/passport stuff. it's confusing, and i'm starting to get a little nervous about it but hopefully it'll work itself out.

a short list of things to do before i leave include:
- raping the following stores: shoppers drug mart, supercenter, MEC
- the keg
- TBA

i can't think of the rest. maybe it'll come to me later. probably when it's too late and i'm on the plane and i silently (but violently) curse to myself.

that is all.

(no music, it's almost 3am - toronto time)

Solar System Song from Simple Science on Vimeo.

5A Keeping Healthy Song from Simple Science on Vimeo.

welcome to korea

korean women don't sweat and there is such a thing as hiking pumps! hahaha. well, not really but every korean woman can hike in stilettos. i am not joking either. more on that in a minute, but i have a LOT to update.

i arrived in korea about 3 weeks ago. did a 1 week orientation in seoul that reminded me of frosh week. lots of getting to know yous and some drinking and nore-bang (karaoke). it was fun times indeed.

then the honeymoon was over. my one-room was pretty crumby at first but now i'm used to it. i just go there to sleep and when the TV is on, everything is alright. i have the discovery channel which is brilliant. it's also the only channel in english that i get. i still haven't uploaded songs into my ipod. i need to get on that.

i started school on the 1st of september and met all the kiddies. they are very cute and call me "miss sina-joung" hahaha. it's cute. there are a few kids that are low level and a few that are fluent. it's hard to teach them because of the divide but they're all pretty enthusiastic...for now. then they'll find out teacher's boring. hahaha. i need to figure out better lesson plans. my principal wants me to have them ready a month in advance. oh and my classroom isn't built yet. when it's complete it'll be the "english library". it's ridonkulously huge. it's the size of 2 classrooms. i'll try to post pictures when i can bring my camera in. i'll also try to post pictures of korea itself when i have time. right now, the gr. 3 homeroom teachers have been inviting me for tea everyday.

my voice is gone too from shouting (not at the kids, but yelling expressions). honestly, i'm like a whole different person when i'm in the classroom. i'm like a dancing monkey; i'm sure you'd all pay to see it. it's a show for sure.

now on to the meaning of the title. they don't sweat. like they don't. that's why deodorant is like super-expensive IF you can find it here. my co-teacher (and every other native koren woman i've seen) can hike up hills with stilletos in 45 degree weather and not break a sweat. you think i'm kidding but i'm not. they dress like they're strutting down a runway to the grocery store also. it's quite amusing but it makes me feel a little inadequite sometimes. hahaha. i'm determined to be able to hike in stilletos after this.

there's lik a butt-load of stairs and hills in this country as well. and no such thing as a public trash can. it's weird. the stairs and hills...honestly...you'll grow calves like a horse after this.

anyways, i have a 5-day holiday for cheusuk (korean thanksgiving) so it's pretty good. i just went to the aquarium today and it was pretty cool. looking forward to more sight-seeing soon. went to the beach, did some shopping, went to my share of bars/clubs and starting to learn hangeul (korean).

so i wrote a book. don't know when i'll update again. soon hopefully....when i get internet (which wont be until october!). cheers for now.

p.s. there's nothing on rotation...well there's some korean pop songs playing at the pc bang i'm in but who knows what it is...

gotta run, run, run

little bit more of an update...

i finally bought a laptop. bit the bullet and bought a mac. and it is glorious!!! i'm still sort of learning my way around it, but it's so much more efficient than a pc. anyways, more about the awesomeness of the macbook in another post. it's to late for superlatives.

i'm actually packing right now. sort of. well, putting stuff in ziplock bags so that sort of counts as packing; pesudo-packing, the packing before the packing, etc. well, my room looks like my closet exploded and the couch in the living room is covered in ziplocks filled with miscellaneous stuff.

i need to start crack-a-lacking now because there's family coming this weekend from the states (not related to me going to korea. kind of like good/bad timing 'cause i'd love to see them, but i have nothing, abosulutely nothing done!). i'm also super-busy this week and weekend seeing family/friends, buying more junk i forgot, yada-ya, blah-blah-blah, etc. so i really have to get my shit organized by/before the weekend.

i'm going to leave it at this. it's scary thinking about what i haven't got done yet. haven't got done yet. it sounds wrong...and i don't know if it is. and here i am going to another country to teach english to children. haha. i'm awesome!

nothing on rotation tonight. it's late and i don't even know why i'm still updating when my shit's not going to pack themselves.

oh yes, and i also got my visa. hoorah!

the beginning is the end is the beginning

[ on rotation ] :: "your woman" - white town


i'm on/off with this blog. i can't really get used to it.

anyways, i'm going to korea to teach english for a year. i guess that would be considered as a major update. i'm leaving in like 10 days. holy shit, 10 days! i just realized how much time i DON'T have after typing it out. but i'm still waiting for my visa. i can see this being super-uber crunch time. i also have to go to the dentist and i'm scared shitless.

i haven't had time to process much of this. i've been so busy with this and that that the only emotion going through me is stress. just watch, it will all unravel during take-off. i'll start clawing for that oxygen mask. i'm actually excited about going, but often forget the excited feeling i just had. then i'll get an email once in a while (like this one i got recently about the orientation plan) and realize it's for real. then i'll forget again and even after people tell me they can't believe i'm going i get reminded that i am going and then i can't believe i'm going. it's a really weird feeling actually. a little bit hard to describe. kind of like i'm indifferent but i'm not.

i still have a lot of stuff to do. i started cleaning out my closet today. i realized i own a lot of useless and ugly shit. i'm sure i would make the perfect candidate for 'what not to wear'. i own a lot of stupid t-shirts with stupid sayings.

quick 'things to do' list off the top of my head (for my purposes and yours if you care to read):
- pack
- buy laptop
- move files from old comp to new
- unlock phone
- get stuff drycleaned
- ....etc.

there's like so much more i have to do but i can't remember. i should really invest in a voice-recorder.


[ end rotation ] :: "storm and stress" - bloc party

it's a post about nothing

i'm not sure why i'm still awake. i had a moment of pseudo-inspiration (not really) and felt the need/want to post something. i don't even know what to write about.

i've got nothing, mang.

hm...doing that cn tower climb for wwf. that's about it. i want (need) to start running again. i tell myself that everyday but i never initiate anything. it gets addicting when you start getting into the groove of it. well, not at first. the first few times my lungs are burning like hell and my throat dries up really quickly. then after the first week or so, it really gets addicting. i like the pain and welcome more. i just wish the results would kick in just as fast. hahaha. yea yea, it's to keep healthy, blah blah blah, but really now, it'd be awesome if that washboard showed up anytime soon. ok maybe not a washboard, that's kinda gross on women. maybe like a slight 4-pack. oh hell, just losing that christmas gut would be nice. i think i plateau too quickly though. maybe i should go back to kendo to break that barrier (amongst other things).

that was a long paragraph. i think i could have broken it down. i'm thinking back to grammar class now with mrs. cournyea (i think i totally spelled her name wrong) and i think she'd shake her head in shame reading this (and at me). i've forgotten how to separate paragraphs. something about when you start a new idea, out comes a new paragraph. i think i've got that all wrong too.

anyways, new idea new paragraph (according to my grammar rules). here it is: i should go to sleep. :)

no music tonight, so nothing on rotation or to end rotation. just utter silence and the tack-tacking of my fingers pounding the keyboard.

cheers.

oh, p.s. there's opera playing in the background. i like opera.

i judge people

[ on rotation ] :: "bubbly" - colbie caillat


this post is coming months overdue, in my own classic timeline, however, i thought i'd share some thoughts because i felt like it.

sometimes, at work, when i'm talking to clients on the phone or if i'm looking at their names, if they have an unconventional name, i often wonder if they were teased about it as a child, or if they developed a reputation or nickname because of it. this happens often. i also try to picture how they look like when talking to them on the phone and wonder if the portrait in my head is accurate, and if i'd be disappointed if it looked nothing like how i envisioned. this is how i pass the time and entertain myself.

also, in my commute to and from work, i'll people-watch; especially those who are listening to a music player. i'll try to imagine what they're listening to solely based on what nationality, culture, and age, i assume, they are from. for example, there was this brown woman sitting by one of the windows on the subway and, in my judgmental mind, i imagined she was listening to some high-pitched indian music. then i played out in my head what the video to the song would have looked like: a lot of group dancing and wrist twisting. also, there was this old asian lady sitting next to me another day listening to music and all i could think of was that she was probably listening to chinese music and the music video looked something like a theme set in ancient china and a girl playing one of those chinese zithers and singing. kinda like something that looked like this:






















i have also learned a very important lesson today: i've learned, today, that you should not cut your own hair, little too late. i am slow.


[ end rotation ] :: "theme from a summer place" - percy faith

in the philippines...

[ on rotation ] :: "birdsong" - the golden dogs


































cheers.


[ end rotation ] :: "the ghost of corporate future" - regina spektor

kendo - hachi-dan examination

pretty much as close to impossible as you'll get. pay attention, kids. and don't blink.

[ rotating ] :: "straight lines" - silverchair

kendo kata

[ on rotation ] :: "yours to keep" - teddybears

...because i need constant reminder of how to perform the katas properly. i almost failed my ikkyu grading because i had to realign my feet into position. a judge totally noticed and even reared his head in closer to see my number. good god, my heart sank at that moment. oh well...

























BOOYA GRANDMA!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

you know, i take more pride in this than i do my high school diploma and even my pending university degree. sad isn't it? but i didn't get my ass constantly kicked during practice for nothing! i received this during the 2006 december gradings, but just recently picked it up from the dojo like a couple of weeks back. i felt that i needed to immortalize it on this blog. and i need to start going back to practice and stop being lazy about it.

cheerio.


[ end rotation ] :: "lazy eye" - silversun pickups

and here is another weather comment

[ on rotation ] :: "nature of the experiment" - tokyo police club


today was a no jacket day. tomorrow is supposed to be around the same temperature plus the possibility of rain...but at least it won't be cold. the ice melted on the driveway so i don't have to plow my way through the snow. that is exciting. enjoy the weather while you can 'cause it's suppose to get colder next week.

i bought 3 books yesterday. not sure when i'll have time to read them, but they will be work in progress soon. i've still not finished "eats, shoots and leaves" and i've got ann-marie macdonald's second novel to finish as well. as for non-recreational reading, i have my capitalism book i have to read still. not going to lie, i'm a little excited to read it. i love reading "new" books; books that are brand new, that is...not necessarily fresh off the press but not used. i'm strange.

i also saw 300 on friday. got there late so we had to sit at the very front. kinda sucked, but the movie was still amazing. where the hell did they find all those men?? honestly, none of them had an ounce of body fat and were ripped like your 90's jeans! makes me want to get unfat :( haha. yea...not kidding about that! :)

i need to go to bed, it's well past the a.m.

cheerio.


[ end rotation ] :: "this song was written by a committee" - hostage life

this is my reading week, thursday, filled with movies and television and lots of things not related to school.

[ on rotation ] :: "best of you" - the foo fighters


thursday nights will never be the same without the oc to fill my 9pm timeslots. ok, sure, so now i can watch grey's anatomy at that time now but then i'm going to have to wait two hours until i can watch csi on time shifting. it just worked out so perfectly the way it was before. alas, it was a thursday night with a series finale and a conclusion to a thee episode arch.














au revoir, o.c.

i think the oc ended a little prematurely. my opinion. it's not that the finale wasn't satisfying (which it was, for myself at least) but it seems like they could've done so much more with it. it was this generations 90210 (which lasted for like a decade, i think it was...?). but it's done; last nail hammered, etc. for a 16 episode cap for the 4th and final season, they did a really good job. not going to lie, taylor townsend's probably the primary reason why i watched this season. she's effin hilarious. not only did she save ryan (as he so eloquently quoted himself in the show), but she saved the show. the other reason was ryan. i dont know what he did...it might've been the haircut...but he just looked so much better this season. especially after watching the flashbacks of him first season (with the atrocious bangs), there was just no comparison. as for the actual series finale, considering their time/resource crunch, they did an exceptional job wrapping up the series. from julie's almost shotgun (no pun intended) wedding, to kirsten giving birth, to seth/summer and ryan/taylor antics, everything just fit. ok, so the first 15-20 minutes were kinda meh, but it picked up tha pace relatively quickly. i won't talk too much about the episode other than it was cyclical, and with good reason. like the great sandy cohen once said: "every good thing must come to an end". likely going to get the dvd set. definitely the best season, redeeming itself from the train wreck that it once was.

as for grey's...not so impressed. probably the worst episode for the series, which is disappointing. the arch started out so strong with the ferry explosion to the flatlining of meredeth, but i guess it's hard to conclude something like that without it being cheesy, overtly cliche and sappy. but i still had high hopes. this was supposed to be epic. and suddenly, i was very happy that i watched the oc at the 9pm timeslot instead. my heart actually hurt watching this episode. grey's is a show that constantly catches me by surprise, but this episode was so cliched and predicable and extremely unrealistic. i mean, trying to resuscitate a dead body for over 2 hours is just reaching! i might not be a medical expert, but i'm pretty sure if your heart isn't pumping by itself after 20 minutes or so, you're pretty much brain dead. most physicians usually call it after 20 minutes anyways. ok, so they started out the narrative talking about how miracles happen but you might as well have had Jesus come down walking the halls healing people and it would've been more believable than this. anyways, again, not going to go into details with the show. if you saw it, chances are you're feelings are relatively mutual.

csi: not going to lie, fell asleep in intervals in between scenes. didn't find out who the killer was so if you know, please share. what's crazy is that after it finished and i went to bed, i had a dream about it. it was pretty creepy now that i think about it in retrospect because i think in my dream, i was supposed to figure out who the killer was and they were hiding out in the crime lab which, in my dream, was inside my aunt's house (which is where i was sleeping that night). i think if they continued with the miniature killer i wouldn't have fallen asleep. but i'm thinking they're going to save that for either a major story arch or the finale. funny how i'm crazy addicted to this damn show, along with its miami counterpart (holler to my homeboy, delco and homegirl, alex).

well, that was my thursday night, tv night recap.

as for my reading week, spent most of it in the cinema using up my free cereal passes. good times.

movies watched: pan's labyrinth, hannibal rising, letters from iwo jima.

movies endorsed: pan's labyrinth, letters from iwo jima.

hannibal rising was ok. if you're a fan of silence of the lambs, you might be disappointed. however, this movie made me empathize with hannibal. i probably would've done the same thing if i found out they killed and ate my younger sibling and fed her to me without telling me. i'd hunt down those sons of bitches too and spill their guts all over town. am i also twisted to think that the young hannibal was hot? hahaha! because he was!















pan's labyrinth - amazing. go watch it. it's so fucked up it's brilliant! fucked up in the sense that it's nothing you've ever seen. great story, strong cast and incredibly haunting.

letters - good. not great. a little slow. but good. worth the time and money.

i've got 5 more movie passes :)

cheerio.


[ end rotation ] :: "only" - nine inch nails

...and there's always a comment about the weather

[ on rotation ] :: "candyman" - christina aguilera


it is damn cold. it has been damn cold over the last week and a half. and there was no snow day today like many people predicted. boo-urns.

we got our asses served to us for the bsg game for year 15. ROE dropped to 8.8%, EPS to (something like) $2.45, image rating down 2 points and a negative cash balance.

reading week is coming. reading week is coming. reading week is coming.

cheers.

it's not so much a pleasure as it is my own redundancy

[ on rotation ] :: "date with the night" - yeah yeah yeahs


honestly, who wants to know what's on page 47?? i am so frackin' addicted to the OC it's kind of embarrassing. really, i thought i outgrew this years ago...ergo, after season 1. and with 2 and 3 being failures, you'd think i'd be able to let this go easy. thursday's episode was damn good. damn hilarious too. and damn disappointing (in the end..."dream" sequence thingy, but with a nice touch). but honestly now, for those of you who watched it, aren't you the least bit curious as to what the hell was on the infamous page 47?? i love this new season. i love this new cast. thank God marissa's gone. however, there was that one marissa scare in the chrismukkah episode. thank goodness it was a false alarm. anyways, last season, 6 episodes remain, whatcha gonna do? i've only got one thing to say (and in the risk of sounding like an obsessed tweenage fangirl) ryan and taylor better stay together. she was so good at being bad; she's so good at being good; she's so good for ryan. there. got it out of my system. it's probably a good thing it's ending...and not just because they're ending it on a high not and all that glory...but because then it would mean one less thing for me to keep obsessing about. i mean with smallville, grey's and television in general...i might not get any work done.

i bought that bsg game yesterday (well, the 11th) and tried it out this morning with my group members. it looked fucked up. like, i had seen it before from when my friends took the course last semester, but working on it yourself was a little more intimidating. we did tinker with it a little and it's not as bad as it seemed. i'm actually a little excited about it, as geeky as it seems. basically, myself and 2 other group members are supposed to run and manage a company in the athletic footwear industry and pretty much stay outta the red. go bankrupt, fail...or just probably do really poorly...haven't figured that out...can't remember what the prof said...but not wanting to find out. i want to win. maybe i won't, but i want to. badly.

my capitalism course doesn't seem to be as exciting. my prof seems a little, how should i say...cynical, about business. well, big corporate businesses in particular; and perhaps a little bitter. but he's a very good lecturer. i think he intentionally tries to get under our skin, but something, somewhere in me, i know he's right. well, maybe the cynic in me believes him. and we all have one of those in us, don't we?...(and pause for effect :) ). the rest of the time, i've developed my own views and beliefs about the culture and environment about business and economics. but at this point, i'm just looking for the green light to graduate, so i'll just spit back his own political and economic jargon and hope that it's somewhere near his line of thought.

speaking of graduating, i went and talked to my program councillor and so far so good. just gotta pass and i should be "golden" as she said. now i just have to figure out how to do this registration business. stupid webadvisor won't let me register. i'm thinking it's because it doesn't show that my tuition is paid, but i paid it a few days ago. it's just a retarded program that doesn't show the transaction for like 5 working days so i'm stuck here worried that the payment didn't go through and might possibly be de-registered on my last semester. this happens every year, and the worry never goes away. it's kinda like when i thought i had lost my student card just a few days ago. i refused to pay the $25 to replace it and would rather think of ways to scam the system and find another means of a bus pass (though guelph's public transportation service is as efficient as a bicycle in the arctic). ok...maybe it's not quite like that...but the bottom line is that i'd be a stubborn bitch about it and bitch out financial services.

and i'm lying...i'm actually listening to teddy geiger right now. yeah yeah yeahs was playing maybe 20 minutes ago, before i went to the loo and brush my teeth. yeah, ok, so what, we all have guilty pleasures. i'm just willing to admit mine to the www.

cheers.

woodwork

[ on rotation ] :: "level" - the racontuers


and so i am back in the g-town scrambling to figure out how to organize my next few months of academicness. i have 2 classes in class and 3 de classes. and it turns out that i don't have any classes on fridays. huzzah! i got a phone call from a mr. associate from sdm behind my house and i'm a little weary if i actually get the job. they might expose me as being a fraud in disguise as a tech. oh dear. what to do, what to do...

i have grad photos coming up in a little over 3 weeks and i still look like dora the explorer. this is going to be interesting. something amusing to look at over the mantle, i suppose. and $40 for the friggin' proofs! robbery!

spent these first few days in front of the tely. i'm on/off addicted to csi. i'm still hopping the boat between miami and las vegas...but i think i might be more partial to las vegas...only because the crimes are more fucked up. it's really quite intriguing! hahaha. aaaaaanyways, that is it for now. i still need to buy the BSG game for business policy and probably start taking a look at some of my de courses before i fall behind.

cheers.

with a banjo in tow

[ on rotation ] :: "mad world" - gary jules


just thinking about what i'm going to type out makes me laugh inside my head. for the longest time, i've been neglecting the OC because of 2 really crappy seasons. now when they finally hit the jackpot with their best season EVER (thank you taylor townsend for replacing the dreary, one-dimensional, marissa cooper), they get the plug pulled. yea, ok, so i'm bandwagoning but hey, this season's actually made me want to come back and watch it again...religiously. i've actually put grey's aside for this, putting them on priority 3 for my thursday night TV lineup. i guess all good things must come to an end. and at least they end it with a bang (i hope. yet to see the season/series finale, but i've got my fingers crossed).

now that i've gotten the teenage girl in me out of the way...

had lunch with some old abbey friends. ok, do i ever feel old. we're all pretty much in our last year of uni and not one of us know what we are going to do with our lives. i believe it was fabiola who said:
"isn't it funny how we all went into university knowing exactly what we wanted to do with our lives? and now that we're graduating, we have absolutely no idea."
give or take a few words, but in the same context. regardless, she is absolutely right. funny how life throws you dem curve balls. too bad we all can't be babe ruths. it was a good day, ladies. we shall meet again soon! 20 year reunion, i hope to GOD that we'll all have flashy careers and bling to show-off. or just bling. just bling would be impressive too.

....and perhaps a nice, ripe, 20-something year old. hahaha! yea, you think i'm joking too...hahaha!

went to square one after lunch and met up with my alanna-giant and melo. did some of my trickery and got alanna to buy a nice pair of black, wedge-heel pumps from steve madden (ok, so maybe the fact that steve madden can make a 3" heel that feel like flats might've had something to do with it but c'mon...i'm taking the credit for slowly turning her into a name brand whore! :D).

it was a good day overall. and now it's a good night.

cheers.

oh, and one more thing...

[ on rotation ] :: "linus and lucy" - a charlie brown christmas


apparently, my celebrity look alike is dayang nurfaizah. yeah, "who?" my thoughts exactly. i googled her and according to wikipedia, she is malaysia's "r&b princess". that's right, bitches. brup brup. yeah, once again, "who the fuck?". yea, i hear ya. i had to do it. how could i pass up this opportunity?

special thanks to jen who introduced me to yet another great tool of procrastination:

http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/tryFaceRecognition.php


hours of your day gone. it's great.

cheers.