Defeated by Beliebers

 

 

An oldie but a goodie. (I've probably posted this on my old blog before.) I still remember the time in high school when the really obnoxious music teacher told us to analyze a song and send him a link to it. He failed to specify what type of language it needed to be in... so I sent in this one - just to see what type of reaction I'd get. Sadly I failed to ruffle his feathers and all I got was a tick and a 'good job'. Maybe it was because he had bigger fish to fry. And by bigger fish, I'm talking about Bonnie. She'd sent in Rebecca Black's Friday and received an ear-blistering lecture for her efforts. It was quite funny.

 

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In the space of an hour, my schedule has gone from being as empty as the inside of Bieber's head to chock full of really random events. After two weeks of inactivity (mostly consisting of me camping out in my living room with the TV and computer to keep me company), my introverted self isn't coping so well with all this excitement. I'm being forced to come out of hibernation and it's such a shock to my system. It might not be such a bad thing though. Something tells me I was well on my way to developing agoraphobia.

The things I've got lined up in the following days are:

• A shopping expedition with Nancy to buy 1920s costumes (where dafuq do we find these?)
• Hanging out with Othilia at the city
• End of semester party
• M's sleepover
• T's birthday party at Lidcombe
• My dad's birthday celebration
• tutortutortutortutortutortutortutortutortutortutor
• Plus heaps of other stuff which I don't even want to think about

I tried to buy Justin Bieber tickets yesterday for my sister and her friends (which speaks volumes of the type of brilliant sister that I am). I had 3 laptops fully charged and lined up, ready to go. I was going to get in there, grab the tickets and leave. Unfortunately, I underestimated the fanatic lunacy that is the Bieber fandom.

The moment the clock struck 10, it was like I was hit by an overpowering wave of desperation emanating from the computer screen. You could feel it just by looking at the ticketek refreshing screen and counting down the many times the server wouldn't let you back in because an over-eager tween had beaten you to the punch. I was reminded of the start of the Hunger Games, when all the competitors are standing in the middle of the arena, getting ready to tear each other's heads off. Only, instead of a giant cornucopia, there was an enormous, half naked bronze statue of Beebs. Ugh. *shivers*

Beliebers: 1, Cynthia: 0

The Drama Drinking Game

The Drama Drinking Game - guaranteed to get you drunk within the first 30 minutes of any Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese drama. I know this because there seems to be a universal rulebook that drama directors adhere to religiously. Any of the tropes listed in it are sacred and must, MUST make an appearance during the drama's run. If they don't, then you are obviously not filming an Asian drama and should fire your writers.

This game is a brilliant idea (because I came up with it) and I am definitely trying this out with Nancy one day.

Rules are as follows:

You must take a shot of alcohol every time:

1. Your main characters consist of a rich guy/poor girl pairing

2. Someone finds out they have cancer (double the shot if it's one of the main characters)

3. The girl gets given a piggy back ride

4. WRIST-GRAB TIME!!

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5. The characters kiss (and by kiss I mean press your lips together with your eyes wide open - kind of like a catatonic goldfish)

6. The main guy is a jackass (double the shot if he's a rich, chaebol jackass)

7. You hear the song "Almost Paradise" (only applicable if you're watching the Korean version of Hana Yori Dango)

8. A scene is undercut by a recurring theme song

9. The actors cry without...actually crying. It's that thing they do where there eyes go wide and red but the tears don't actually leak out and they still manage to look perfect.

What do you mean she's not crying? Her eyes are wide and slightly red, therefore she's crying.

 

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10. A kissing scene is filmed in slo-mo

11. A kissing scene is filmed with a revolving camera

12. Characters "almost" catch one another but end up walking past each other in opposite directions

13. The second-lead is a nice guy who looks out for the protagonist but ends up getting friendzoned big time

14. Lee Min Ho flicks his perfect hair

15. Lee Min Ho wears pants that are too short for his perfect, long legs

16. Lee Min Ho completes a perfectly badass action scene

17. Lee Min Ho does something perfect, basically

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18. The characters go to a really trendy coffee shop

19. A girl gets mistaken for a guy and then the guy falls for her thinking that he's homosexual but later on realizes that no, he isn't because she is a girl and then he feels betrayed but not for long because they will kiss and make up and have babies and live happily ever after in average Korean family style.

20. There is an epic makeover in which an ugly girl transforms into a beautiful, leggy model and when the guy sees her, he falls deeply in love (because they're all shallow bastards in dramaland)

21. A character has mummy/daddy problems that prevents them from being with their one true love

22. There is an "oops-I-just-fell-and-landed-on-your-lips" type scenario

I don't even know how they manage to calibrate their falls to land that way.

 

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23. The best friend is a comic character

24. There is a moody, car-driving scene where the character has the wheel in a death grip and doesn't really seem to be paying any attention to the road

25. A symbolic gift (like a ring, toy or necklace) is given

26. The symbolic gift is lost and the characters act like it's the end of the world

27. The main girl is TSTL (Too Stupid To Live)

28. Someone gets hit in the head and ends up with amnesia (which miraculously goes away just before his/her one true love is about to leave them for good)

29. The guy silences the girl by kissing her

30. The girl takes multiple jobs to support herself and ends up collapsing from exhaustion, at which point the guy swoops in and takes her to the hospital where he spends the entire night by her bedside

31. There is a scene near the Namsan Tower or Han River (Korean dramas only)

32. The main characters get trapped in a confined space and their attraction for one another is exacerbated because of this

33. Someone trips and falls but is caught before they hit the ground (double the shot if the couple end up sharing a "moment")

34. And lastly, every time this guy appears in a drama:

 

Seriously, I don't even know who he is but he's like the gum that won't come off the bottom of your shoe

 

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Gu Family Book

On Saturday, I subbed for another tutor at work. I was taking her year 2 class, teaching the kids how to spell 'ull' words like 'full' and 'bull'. While I was running through the examples, a little boy in the back row stuck his hand up and said:

"Miss. Did you know a bull ran into my grandpa? And then I got a new grandpa!"

So obviously I was really confused and asked him to repeat himself.

"A bull ran into my grandpa and I never saw him again. And then I got a new grandpa!"

The funny thing is that the kid was so excited to tell me this fact. He almost fell out of his chair with enthusiasm.

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This is now my second week of holidays and I still haven't done anything productive. I promised myself at the beginning that I wouldn't fall into any of my old habits. Well guess how that worked out?

I can't believe this happened but I've started watching kdramas again. I know, I thought that whole era was behind me too. I mean, after sitting through all three seasons of The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, seven of Doctor Who, four of True Blood and numerous episodes of Sherlock, Suits and Grey's Anatomy, you'd think I'd have weaned myself off shoddy directing and cheesy, melodramatic storylines.

But no.

I'm not quite sure what this says about me as a person. That fact that I enjoy watching clichéd plots that are desperately over-acted and interrupted every five minutes with sweeping, emotive music is a little bit worrying. I like to think that my tastes are a bit more evolved now. Um, no, Cynthia. There is obviously a demon inside you that feeds on the stuff and you will never be rid of it - no matter how many intellectually stimulating hobbies you try to pick up to pass yourself off as a credible, mature, university student. My love for kdramas is like an irritating pimple condition. The more you try to fight it, the more it spreads and grows. It's a bit like the PSY and herpes comparison actually.

Anyhow, the current obsession is called Gu Family Book and it's a sageuk (historical)/fantasy/romance/comedy/action/revenge fusion. These things have really convoluted storylines so I'm not even going to bother describing it. But here's an interesting fact: the main character is half human/half gumiho (a mythical nine tailed fox-demon in Korean folklore). He's played by Lee Seung-gi - the guy from My Girlfriend is a Gumiho. So basically he's graduated from the gumiho's boyfriend to an actual gumiho. Ha. Okay, I can tell nobody gives a shit about this stuff so I'm just going to pic spam the rest of the post.

 

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And here are some goofing off images which made me smile:

 

 

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Guy in the back left corner is totally cramping my style.

 

 

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Not you too Suzy! (You're cute - I give you that. But you still can't act for marbles).

Eyebrows!



 

 

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What do you guys think of the new hobbit trailer? I liked it but it didn't blow me away. It actually seemed a bit like a rehash of the first one; tons of CGI, epic dolly shots and action scene on top of action scene. Also, is it just me or are the Elven King's eyebrows strangely attractive?

 

 

 

They're like fat little caterpillars that I just want to reach out and stroke.

 

(All credit goes to push-pulse on deviantart - source) 

 

Eyebrow fetish aside, I am really excited for the return of Legolas. Whilst his eyebrows certainly aren't as glorious as Lee Pace's, he more than makes up for that in arrow-wielding skills. It's a bit of a bittersweet feeling though, having him back. I'm reminded of how much I miss Aragorn, Gimli and the rest of the gang. (There is so much irony in his statement of "Do not think I won't kill you, dwarf".) Maybe we'll get a bonus scene at the very end of the last movie with the original cast. Please Peter Jackson - get on this now!

Side note: whilst we're on the topic of blond men and interestingly-shaped eyebrows, has anyone ever watched/youtubed "David Bowie Magic Dance"? That shit is strange-as! I was talking to a bunch of people from uni and they said that The Labyrinth was one of their childhood favourites. I get that - I totally do. I used to watch Free Willy as a child and thought that was the greatest film ever made. So I'm not judging. But David Bowie dancing with puppets in a pair of tights just killed me and now I can't unsee it.

I've been practicing how to draw faces recently. One of my goals these holidays is to become more proficient in drawing. So far, it's not working out that great. My skills are abysmal and my faces look more like aliens who have undergone dodgy reconstructive surgery.

Here's an example:

Can you see what I mean? I think the eye is way out of proportion. and the lips are much too pursed. I also haven't figured out how to draw hair. All those little strands are the bane of my existence. And yes, I botched up the left side of the face (hence the mask).

I'm going to practice in order to get better at this. In the meanwhile, there's the nifty 'effects' tool on my phone which I will exploit in order to make my art look better than it actually is.

 

Psssh, I totally meant for it to turn out like that...

Bits and Pieces



 

 

My new message tone at 2:03

 

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Miscellaneous images from Buzzfeed:

 



 

Miscellaneous pictures NOT from Buzzfeed:

 

 

 

And more music from Les Choristes (you can tell I really like the songs):

 

 

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Bonus random fact: Beyoncé covered this song at the Oscars in 2005...and it was kind of terrible (so please don't watch her cover).

Les Choristes (The Chorus)

So a few weeks ago, I discovered that you could actually scroll down a computer screen by swiping the mousepad in a downward motion with two fingers.

 

HOLY SHIT.

 

My mind was blown.

 

It felt like a whole world of possibilities had opened up to me. I mean, I could now browse webpages whilst holding a sandwich in one hand!

 

That feeling I got from making a life-changing discovery? I felt it again at the end of this movie.

 

 

A scene from the The Chorus 

 

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Les Choristes (The Chorus) came out in 2004. That means I had nine years to watch this film. Nine! I remember vaguely my dad telling me about a French film he'd recorded off SBS. He'd said it was about a boy's boarding school and music. Obviously, I ignored him. My dad thinks everything that comes out of SBS is made of gold and should be framed, embossed and stuck to the wall. Therefore it's not my fault I developed selective hearing when it came to his film recommendations.

 

I really should've listened to my dad that one time.

 

My sister was made to watch The Chorus during French class. It was through her that I was finally convinced to give it a go. I'm so glad I did because WHERE HAS THIS FILM BEEN ALL MY LIFE??

 

 

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Everything was just right up my alley; from the simple storyline of a teacher trying to transform a school of delinquents into disciplined boys' choir, to the glorious glorious music.

 

Yes the music was glorious and I wish I could fill up a whole swimming pool with that stuff and just bathe in it for the rest of my life.

 

I loved the singing, I loved the acting and I loved little Pepinot (he's the one sitting on the table in that screenshot).

 

Above all, I luuuuuuuurved Jean Baptiste Maunier (who plays a deeply troubled student with an angelic voice - and is it just me or does every film seem to have a character along these lines?).

 

 

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Wiki says that the director chose Maunier because he 'had the right look', a marvelous voice and was exceptionally appealing for the role. He, along with the actor who played the teacher, shouldered the whole film. There's a quiet intensity in his character that really draws you in. I'm not sure how much of that is acting ability and how much is his real personality but damn if it isn't effective.

 

And guys, he's 22 now so that makes me gushing over him less of an icky thing. Especially since nowadays, he looks like this:

 

 

If you thought I would get through this review without posting up at least one shallow comment, you don't know me very well at all.

 

It was just a really feel-good film that made me smile and laugh a little. There's no hidden darkness in this one - it's not trying to give a social commentary on war or poverty or cancer. It's just about a composer-turned-teacher who wants to help change the lives of some children at a boarding school. I loved every bit of it.

 

 



 







That thing that happened on Game of Thrones

That thing that happened on Game of Thrones.

 

 

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Dear Mr George R. R. Martin

 

I think you are a sadistic bastard and I hate you and how could you do this to me and everyone else out there LIKE WHY ARE YOU SO EVIL URGH you've caused the interwebs to explode and do you hear that? That's the sound of the heads of Throne's fans imploding simultaneously all across the world and I think you may have permanently emotionally traumatised half the viewers of the show with that ONE HORRENDOUS SCENE and I was sitting there going nonononononononono and my dad walked out from the kitchen and was like, "What's wrong with you?" and my sister and I were like "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" and she was shrieking and I was rocking back and forth and it was like the world had ended because George R R Martin you are a despicable, beastly troll I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THAT but YES I CAN because you are EVIL and now I understand why people were throwing their books into the fire when they got up to that scene (and I really hope no one tried throwing their TVs into the fire because yes, you are right, that is dangerous) BUT IF MY TV WAS NOT SO NICE AND EXPENSIVE, I WOULD HAVE KARATE KICKED IT IN THE FACE but going back to that point up there, I also understand why people would go out the next day and buy another copy to replace their ruined one because I REALLY NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT but I can't because it won't come out for another week and then I would have to wait another year for next season and I don't know how I will survive - maybe I'll continue reading the books but to be honest, they were kind of boring and slow and I would much stare at Daenary's beautiful face than read about it but I am getting off track now because this letter was supposed to tell you HOW MUCH I HATE YOU FOR DOING THIS TO ME AND THE FANDOM and I think you are a TROLL AND A GENIUS AND URGGGGHHH I HAVE NO WORDS TO EXPRESS MY FEELS ANYMORE BECAUSE YOU HAVE KILLED MY BRAIN AND I WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM THIS, NEEEEEEEEEEVVVVEEEEERRRRR!!!!!!!

 

Kind regards,

 

Cynthia

 

 



Buffy!

 

I still really like Demi Lovato songs...

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I would like to have a real camera one day - one that would let me make take spectacularly cheesy photos and post them up on my blog. I've been saving up for one. At the same time, I'm also saving up for my one year self-exile to China in 2016 - which will empty my bank account of about $25,000 - so that might take a while. In the meantime, y'all can have photos from my phone. Please excuse the quality.

 

 

Friday morning at the train station. It was a foggy day

 

 

 

Dad being taught how to dance properly LOL. 

 

My uni has TARDISES! Okay, they're really just voice recording booths but they do have the same shape. It's not bigger on the inside but I can attest to the fact that it's definitely hotter and smaller. So I guess it's a reverse TARDIS? Anyhow, my group finally finished our radio recording piece and you all have to listen to it one day! You'll laugh at how ridiculous it is. I had fun making it though and I was able to hone my audacity skills so that was good. 

 

I recently finished watching The Walking Dead which means that I'm now up to the point where I have to wait for more episodes (or in this case, the next season). Season 3 was much more epic than season 2. Granted, watching grass grow would've been a much more riveting experience than The Walking Dead's second season but I really appreciated the heightened sense of urgency in these last 16 episodes. Everybody was infinitely more badass, especially Karl and Carol. That doesn't mean I've forgiven everyone for their stupid decisions though. Humans in this show are stupid. Why are you firing at each other? Why are you squabbling over territory? Why aren't you all working together to overcome the zombie apocalypse? WHY CAN'T YOU ALL BAKE A CAKE FILLED WITH RAINBOWS AND SMILES AND EVERYONE COULD EAT AND BE HAPPY???

 

Ahem.

 

Guys, I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'd been meaning to start watching the series since last year but never got around to it (because Doctor Who and Game of Thrones monopolized my existence). I was actually really excited to start it. And then I watched the first episode and GUYS IT WAS SO PAINFUL.

 

Okay, so it wasn't terrible or anything but holy moly, everything was so campy! Those hairstyles! That technology! The (not very well executed) action! Dialogue (who even says "Jeepers!" anymore?! Lily from How I Met Your Mother! David Boreneaz from Bones! They look so young! It was like watching the beginning of the reboot of Doctor Who again. Everything was just so awkward. It made me laugh - that's for sure. I searched up the background of the first episode afterwards and found out that it got nominated for an Emmy for best makeup. That was just the cherry on top, seriously.

 

 

Isn't she adorable??

 

I've been told it gets better though. And Buffy has such a loyal, devoted fanbase - obviously there are some spectacular things in store for me right? Maybe this is just the awkward, prepubescent stage of the show and I just have to wait for its voice to stop cracking so I can get to the good stuff.

 

Okay, that came out wrong.