The Beginning of a New Era

By “beginning of a new era”, I really mean that I’m going to use this Writing Fiction blog for Communications now to do my e-portfolio. I’m not even sure if this is supposed to be online, but oh well, it’s going to be online anyhow. What’s hilarious, though, is that I’ll really be writing about the same things that I was before: showing clips of K-pop idols and then obsessing over them. But really, now I’m going to actually analyze it instead of just being like “Omo they’re so cute~~~”. But you know I’ll be doing that on the inside. Anyhow, onto the first post!

                This clip is super relevant to what we just learned about high and low power distance cultures and to the concept of culture shock.

Just for a little context, this clip is of Strong Heart, which is a talk show in Korea. The guests are celebrities in the acting and musical world of Korean entertainment. The person who is talking in that clip is Henry, who is a singer who was born and raised in Canada and went to China/Korea to debut as part of Super Junior-M. His native language is English, though he knew Chinese, but learned Korean during his time in Asia (thus, his speech is a little awkward).

During the clip, he described the different social norms of Asian versus Western countries, and expressed his culture shock when he arrived in Asia and interacted with his team members for the first time. He expressed how he was unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the members’ interactions with him because Western culture is less touchy-feely than apparently Asia is now. He went through the four phases of culture shock it would seem extremely quickly. Henry mentioned that he was awed by the building, which was the excitement phase. Then he said he was shocked that the members slapped his butt (disenchantment phase), but he quickly got over it (beginning resolution phase). However, he did not reach the effective functioning phase during his story, since he was still not coping completely well (as he was uncomfortable with the affection and thought that Heechul was a transgendered person).

Also, during the clip we can see that Korea is a much more high power distance culture than Canada is. There are many more honorifics in Korean than there are for English – if you call someone “mister,” it is not showing the proper amount of respect, as opposed to in English, it is as respectful as you can get. However, when Henry interacted with the host of the show and Lee Soo Man (in his story), he disrespected them because of the lack of equivalencies in language. It shows that there are less inequalities between people in Canada/Western civilizations, and status symbols (such as honorifics) are not the norm.

It's okay, just ignore me

Disclaimer for all of you that follow me: this post is not worth reading to you guys, because I'm just being a fangirl.

Judge me if necessary. Actually, you judge me anyways. It's okay, because I judge you back just as hard for various other things. I'm very self concious ^^

But yay~ I'm happy, it's a Suju birthday!
Kangin~ happy bithday!
Be happy and safe~

Mist and Demons

                This mist is settling in, and the demons are coming out to play.

                I had another really creepy dream last night that involved secret agents, children with super powers, and a large hall full of people. There was this child who could turn into a “demon” (or rather, into this freaky hairy gigantic spider thing). And it spit out webs and whatever, and apparently was the child with the most awesome superpower. I don’t understand what was wrong with me – well, I did go to sleep at 2 in the morning. I knew that I wouldn’t actually finish my psych journals if I went to sleep and tried to start it the next morning. So I finished it. And I went to bed slightly delirious.

***

                He noticed the brunette sitting in the corner, hidden away between the couch and the wall, as if unwilling to let anyone see him this way. His head was tucked tightly into his arms, and his frame was rocked by shuddering sobs and suppressed cries. Heartache and empathy shot through the younger boy’s heart, as he made his way over to the vulnerable figure.

                As he approached, he felt more and more unsure. What was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to say? He obviously didn’t want anyone to find him, which is why he placed himself in such a small space. The younger one’s dark eyes were filled with indecision. Maybe I should just leave him alone.

                Suddenly, it was quiet. The brunette curled up in that small space had fallen silent. The younger one knelt down in alarm. Was something wrong? He peered at the now peaceful figure intently, and heard soft breathing. Gently, the younger one touched the forehead of his friend, brushing his bangs back. There was no reaction, only a soft, congested breathing. His friend’s crying had exhausted him so much that he had fallen asleep, right in that space.

                Deciding that he couldn’t just leave the sleeping figure there, he dragged the curled up figure by the feet. With a gentle tug and a not-so-gentle yank, the sleeping figure was soon sprawled on the floor by the couch. An annoyed mumbled sound alerted the younger boy that the crying figure was no longer asleep. “What are you doing?” A bleary, irritated pair of eyes met the sheepish ones.

                “Trying to get you on the couch. You fell asleep,” came the reply.

                “So you had to maul me to get me there.”

                “Maybe. You’re heavy, you know that?”

                “Thanks.” Suddenly, the older boy was surprised by the pair of warm arms surrounding him. “What are you doing?” he asked, slightly flustered.

                “Don’t cry. I’m here for you.” A muffled voice came out of the head buried into his chest. “I don’t want to see you cry.”

                The brunette’s heart melted as he gathered up the embarrassed boy in his arms. Happiness burst into his world as he felt the care of the other seep into his veins, warming the very core of his soul. “Thank you.”

Celebration - 100 posts!

                So, I’ve been procrastinating on this hundredth post (!! Oh my goodness 100). But I decided that I needed to write it, otherwise my blog can never die. Just kidding, I might not have it die. I might continue to write in it, but it will be fairly infrequent. Actually, who knows. I’ve only been procrastinating because I wanted to write an epic 100^th post. However, it’s not going to be that epic.

                So I should comment on how this is going. I actually really liked the blogging assignment. It made me practice my writing (sometimes), but also I just kind of realized that I like writing. In my own specific way. It’s nice to get my thoughts down on paper… well. Virtual paper. It was quite painful at first for me to blog, since I was treating it as a writing assignment where I had to do analysis of whatever story we were reading, but when I realized that I could blog on anything that I wanted, it was a lot better… actually, I found that under almost any circumstance, I would end up going on a tangent. I used to say that I was just going to write rant style sometimes, but I found that I’m writing rant style all the time. Stream of consciousness.

                I want to figure out how to put music on my blog so that whenever people click on my blog, there will be music. In all honesty, that might be the most obnoxious thing ever, since it turns on and I have to figure out where that darn button is to turn it off. But I want it on my blog. So I might have it around for a while, and then realize that it annoys me, and then turn it off. Delete it forever. Also, I think I’ve been listening to one playlist for way too long because this morning, I woke up humming a song from the playlist. There was just a song stuck in my head, and so I started humming it out loud to figure out what it was. I didn’t figure it out, but I knew it was one of those songs. And I was amused.

                Because it’s the 100^th post, I decided to say, it’s okay Rick/First Commenter, I don’t spite you that much. Being magnanimous on a centennial (isn’t that for years… it’s okay I can’t think of the other word) celebration.

                Quiet judgment.  

AUUUUGHHHHH

I AM GOING TO EXPLODE.
I HAVE NO WORDS FOR WHAT I'M FEELING RIGHT NOW.

***

Okay this is later, perhaps a couple days later (it is a few days later), but I don’t want to write my 100^th post yet. Therefore, I will keep posting on my 99^th post. Um, yeah, I think my 100^th post will be the death of my blog. I was pretty much right around my mid-blog crisis… I have come to terms. Because really, I’ll just make a new blog. That is just full of awesomeness. And I will tell no one about it. People will eventually find it on the internet and hopefully they will like it. Or, I’ll create a LiveJournal. After all, I think I would appreciate the communities. Hm,  maybe I will keep writing here, and just post all of my... “creative posts” on LiveJournal. Since I have “different” taste. That people do not appreciate.

LiveJournal is surprisingly complicated. I’m not sure I want to be on there. Blogger is so much prettier. I know that I will not put my stories here… unless I am absolutely sure that people will stop checking forever. Once I am sure of this, I will potentially use this site more. I shall figure it out eventually.

Continue writing later.

Also, first commenter, I really don’t appreciate you. I like Matt’s blog so much better than yours. I spite you.

I think I will raise a turtle.

Can I have happy endings now?

                When I am extra excited, I can’t really tell if I’m either hyperventilating or not breathing at all. Also, I haven’t done anything since Wednesday night… I feel like I should do more homework or die. But I would prefer not doing homework or dying. Obviously. Also, I was going to finish watching something, but I already forgot. Oh, probably Adonis Camp and the end of the making of the movie.

                Also, I just watched Knight and Day randomly. I think it’s an awesome chick flick (somehow, I don’t think it’s actually a chick flick, it just is in my head). It has AWESOME EXPLOSIONS. Of awesomeness. I like explosions, like A LOT. But I hate bloody and gore-filled things. But explosions? I will always giggle at. I was really happy at this movie, because it ended happily ever after. After reading all of the depressing stories our class writes, I’m really excited whenever there’s a happy ending. Even though I know there should be a happy ending, I’m always worried there secretly won’t be because they’re trying to be deep or something. *Sulk* Also, what months of the year can you name someone? Like you obviously would not name someone January. Or February. I think March might be acceptable, but I think it’s a bit odd still. But like, April, May, and June are decently common (in like… I don’t know, small towns… it’s not a very urban name). July? I guess. August maybe. But not September, October, November, or December. Maybe just the shorter months, because people are ridiculously lazy. What if you were named in the month you were born? Would that pretty much suck for you?

                Yesterday, I was intent on recording my dreams for the rest of forever. And then last night when I was dreaming, I kept waking up going, wait, I can’t write this online, that’s ridiculous. And then going back to sleep and dreaming about something else. I can only remember one of my dreams, and yeah, it’s kind of strange and can’t be told to people. It’s weird how much I rationalize even when I’m mostly asleep. Also, today, I signed on, and I was like OH MY GOODNESS WHY ARE THERE 18 NEW MESSAGES and then I realized it was because I had 13 unread messages at the end of last night. Well then.

                Three threads have made it to 100 messages (mine and C-‘s random messages that have mostly pictures and not words). I can’t tell whether I should be proud or wondering if I need to spend my time elsewhere. I think I gave up my Facebook entirely. I’m pretty sure that I have. Oh well~

                This might be the cutest picture ever. I think I stopped breathing entirely when I saw this picture. And I want to drink a 酸奶 now. I wonder how you say that in English. Because it’s definitely not yogurt.

Vivid Dreams - Glassblowing

                I realized that I’m unnaturally cynical in my posts. If Inx is sad-angst, mine is angry-angst. And really, I’d rather not. And I’m not even that angry all the time. In fact, I can be very, very happy, and very, very silly. Actually, no, it’s more like 50% I’m ranting about something angrily, and 45% of the time I’m blathering on about something happily and slightly incoherently, and 5% I’m actually like lucid and normal. How silly! Like, I noticed how in my entire The Writing Life post, I’m either going I HATE YOU SHUT UP AND FINISH THE BOOK ALREADY, or LOL I LIKE SUPER JUNIOR AND RANDOMNESS I’M GOING TO REFER TO THAT EXISTS IN MY LIFE, and I made like one semi-amusing statement that people who follow normal American mainstream culture would like. Sorry, American-mainstream culture, I really don’t like you. You’re not worth it.

                I think I am witty sometimes, but really rather rarely. It’s unfortunate. I feel like I’m a lot more interesting in topics that I am interested in. Or really, in things that other people aren’t interested in. Or very – okay, I’m tired of being lucid. Being clear-headed is really boring.

                Actually, I was decently angry still. Haha, either way, the point that I was trying to get at is that it makes my blog pretty uninteresting to read. I –

                I’m pretty sure that it’s too hard to keep a thought running in my head when I’m constantly checking my email. I’m saying that it’s painful for people to read my angst, and really, I don’t think that they want to… it took  me like three paragraphs to get my point across. Or 4. I’m sorry, I’m just really wordy and confused! And this is like a really, really public diary. But has none of my more intimate thoughts. But really, Super Junior just runs through my head all the time anyways. I’m pretty sure I don’t even have more intimate thoughts.

                Oh, I had a dream, and K- was in it (K-, this means that you should read this part), actually there were a lot of other people, too, but I don’t remember them. We were working as like…. Glassblowing apprentices. Yeah, I don’t even. Either way, the glassblower person would just give us kind of rough looking globes, and we would use this weird random circular tool to make it smooth or whatever. Yeah, I don’t actually know how it works, and I’m pretty sure you can’t sand glass like you sand wood, but whatever, it was a dream. Either way, you were really good at it. And I started later, and I was watching you, and I was like, psh, how hard could it be, since you just kind of roll it around in the mold and then it’s awesome. So I try to do it. and then at first, I was like PSH THIS IS SO EASY, and then my globe started to become deformed. So I start more frantically trying to fix it into the direction it’s supposed to go. And then suddenly, I have this RANDOM WEIRD AIR POCKET THAT IS DEAD SPACE. And then I’m terrified and I try to fix it faster. And then suddenly, it becomes a tube, all the air deflates, and it shrivels up into a kind of porous-ish looking silver metal. And then the glassblower guy is really mad at me and is just like WOW YOU SUCK AT LIFE. I’m going to give you an easier job to do. And then he hands me this TINY BOWL that is basically the size of a quarter, fills it up with like a few tiny strings of spaghetti, and he’s just like HAVE PEOPLE SAMPLE THE SPAGHETTI AND GIVE ME FEEDBACK ON HOW THE SPAGHETTI IS. And then people are laughing at me because I was just demoted to a really pathetic role. So I take the chopsticks, and I try to pick up the tiny piece of spaghetti. After flailing for a bit, I feed it to K-. And my general reaction after that is WTF WHY AM I DOING THIS. And then I get reassigned again because I was like WTF and questioning my role. They do not appreciate me questioning authority. Either way, I worked in some sort of warehouse with a tanning bed facility. Either way, we needed to clean the warehouse with some kind of liquid with like… sulfuric acid or something. Either way, apparently it was really dangerous or something, and I would die if it got on my skin. Anyways, I think my dream warped a bit, and somehow it was the day that we needed to clean. I just had this random powered spray bottle, and I was spraying it on everything. And it got all over my arms, and then when the alarm went off to notify that we were cleaning, I was like oh crap, I need to be in protective gear, and then I flipped out. I ran through the factory and washed myself off frantically. Then I got gear, which was… short sleeved. I’m not sure why I felt protected after that, but I was wearing short sleeves and gloves. And pants. And they kind of reminded me of scrubs, except for with hearts. Kind of like pajamas or like dentist shirts. Either way, I had to struggle really hard to find them and get them on because I was the only one who didn’t have them on. And then I kind of was like OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO DIE. And then I woke up.

                This is what I get for sleeping 16 hours.

                Also, here is a more epic version of what I saw in my head. By the way, they look really sleepy and not put together because they were just forcibly woken up semi-not-kind ways. Like having puppies crawl all over you. And hitting you with a pillow. And putting a wig and makeup (well, I think that was just getting revenge). Either way, pajamas are really cute, and they make them look like little kids, and it’s really adorkable.