Bulb-UP! by j-han

Serialized Shows

2012-02-06T12:01:00.000-05:00

Currently Watching

House M.D. (Season 8)
닥치고 꽃미남밴드 / "Shut Up: Flower Boy Band"
夏目友人帳肆 / Natsume Yuujinchou Shi
ちはやふる / Chihayafuru
ハングリー! / Hungry!
난폭한 로맨스 / "Wild Romance"
Project Runway All Stars
신들의 만찬 / "Feast of the Gods"

Waiting to Watch

패션왕 / "Fashion King"
坂道のアポロン / Sakamichi no Apollon / "Kids on the Slope"
Dexter (Season 7)
Sherlock (Series 3)

List of Books

2012-02-02T14:54:00.000-05:00

Currently Reading

Lou Beach, 420 Characters
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Peter Drahos, Information Feudalism
이미나, 그 남자 그 여자

Books Read in 2012 (List of Books Read before 2012)

Jan. 27 - Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Jan. 28 - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Vol. 1

Books to Read (alphabetical by author's last name)

Adams, Douglas - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Bakunin, Michael - God and the State
Doyle, Arthur Conan - Canon of Sherlock Holmes
Eugenides, Jeffrey - The Marriage Plot
Foer, Jonathan Safran - Everything is Illuminated
Fromm, Erich - Man for Himself, an inquiry into the psychology of ethics
Hammett, Dashiell - The Maltese Falcon
Heinlein, Robert - Time Enough for Love
Stirner, Max - The Ego and His Own: The Case of the Individual Against Authority
Vonnegut, Kurt - Slaughterhouse-Five

Dr. Chi Park

2012-01-18T10:46:00.000-05:00

So House has been on it's seasonal holiday-time hiatus for over a month now, and it's been killing me on the inside. I just don't know what to do with myself anymore especially since the season of Dexter ended. Thankfully House will be returning with an all new episode next Monday, January 23rd.

At the beginning of the season I was somewhat intrigued and excited to see how Charlene Yi would do in portraying a character on House. I decided to hold off on writing about her because I watched the second episode of season 8 (the episode in which she premiered) and I wasn't really all that taken by her and her character. But I wanted to like her. So, I decided I wanted to at least watch episode 3 before proceeding. So far we're 8 episodes into the season, and I think at least for me the verdict is out. I like her.

I believe there are people out there who believe that Charlene Yi is a bad actress who is unable to act "naturally" in a manner that's not so awkward. I think I could agree with that, but then again I believe that the character of Dr. Park is one that is by nature an awkward person. I think it's believable.

I believe I have the credentials to say that I am well acquainted with real people that would fit into the category of "young, dorky Asian females." I am one myself after all. It bugs me that people would think of her character as "unrealistic." I see in her a lot of characteristics that I think many young, dorky Asian females could relate to.

As an aside though, in episode 2 where her dad shows up with gom gook (a Korean oxtail soup) and calls it her "mother's specialty"... I thought that was utterly unrealistic. Chi Park is supposedly a child of a Filipino mother and Korean father. I would think that any specialty of a Filipino mother would be a Filipino dish not some Korean one. Maybe it's a dish that her father believes is her mother's best Korean dish, but then again it's gom gook. Gom gook just does not work in that context. Maybe the writers were trying to bring in a food that has the same sort of connotation that chicken soup has for an American audience. Chicken soup is about comfort and care, and gom gook is just not that. Sure, it is a soup, but I think for Asians, the cultural equivalent of chicken soup would be a rice porridge. That would've worked. People bring each other juk all the time. It's normal. The giving of gom gook? That is just unrealistic.

Anyway, back to Dr. Park being believable and relatable.

I think her sense of self-reliance is spot-on, and I would like to add that from an Asian perspective there really isn't much of a notion of "self" so much as "family." The only thing you can rely on is family. Strangers don't owe her anything. The state doesn't owe her anything. That's just how that is.

Her straightforwardness is a result of her belief that that's the shortest path to getting what she wants, what she needs, and what she believes is right. It's a rational approach without any of the frills.

This allows her to stick to her guns.

Because she interacts in a transparent manner without the proper buffers of social etiquette, it makes her seem awkward.

It gets her in trouble, and when she's in a mess, she doesn't really have a grasp of the right social tools to clean it up.

I find her believable. Maybe I'm just reading too much into her, and I think that is the definition of an engaging character.

Hello, 2012!

2012-01-02T22:31:00.000-05:00

I'm not at all a holiday person, but I really do love New Year's, not the specific day or the celebration but the general sentiment of it. The changing of the year prompts us to reflect on the year gone by and consider the opportunities for growth in the new year.

This past year of 2011 was one of the most surprising years to date. A lot of things happened. For me it was a year of ends and beginnings. It was a year of a lot of first and a year of re-connections.

Looking back on it all I don't think I've had quite a year like this since 2005, a year that truly felt life-changing. Plus, I haven't felt more nostalgic since that 05-06 transition. Everything seemed to decline after that and culminated in 2009 with a fantastic year of depressive self-loathing.

Then things picked up again in 2010, which was a year about self-improvement and finding solace in routine. It was in part about starting to become a grown-up through my own free will. Then 2011 was about "conscious consumption" and "cultivated expression", actively choosing what to bring into my life and learning how to express myself about those things.

I feel like I spent the past two years learning about being an adult, and I want 2012 to be a beginning of a time where I am an adult. I want it to be about really getting things done. I guess this is a want to change my point of view, a want for a new outlook.

Specifically, in 2012 I hope to finish some of the things I've started in my last 24 years of life. I think that would be a nice change.

And as always I wish for peace, love, and prosperity in the new year.

List of Books Read

2011-12-31T23:59:00.002-05:00

in 2010

Jan. 04 - Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents
Jan. 08 - Raymond A. Moody, Jr., M.D., Life After Life
Jan. 17 - Michael Crichton, Timeline
Jan. 22 - Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
April 19 - Diane Matcheck, The Sacrifice
May 1 - Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Jun. 1 - 하지은, 얼음나무 숲
Jun. 25 - Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational
Jun. 29 - Jessica Williams, 50 Facts that Should Change the World
Jul. 24 - Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
Aug. 6 - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

in 2011

May 11 - Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World
July 17 - Tamora Pierce, Wild Magic
July 23 - Tamora Pierce, Wolf-Speaker
July 24 - Tamora Pierce, Emperor Mage
July 24 - Tamora Pierce, The Realm of the Gods
Aug. 1 - Sherwood Smith, Crown Duel
Aug. 2 - Vivian Vande Velde, The Conjurer Princess
Aug. 7 - Sharon Green, Convergence
Aug. 9 - Sharon Green, Competitions
Aug. 13 - Sharon Green, Challenges
Aug. 16 - Sharon Green, Betrayals
Aug. 27 - Sharon Green, Prophecy
Oct. 1 - Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet
Oct. 5 - Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

A Story in 420 Characters (or less including spaces)

2011-12-22T13:15:00.002-05:00

On a morning so cold that even the air has frozen in place, I and a portly stranger, for a moment, share a square of sidewalk. In his hands is a to-go cup from which he sips and exhales deeply. Seeming more bizarrely intimate than that goodbye kiss, I hesitate to inhale his breath that lingers in the frigid air. The chilled breath, a taste like chocolate milk, assuages the bitter tang of breakup over morning coffee.

This I Believe (written June 2005)

2011-11-30T10:09:00.001-05:00

Spring of senior year, it’s what I’d been living for. I must have checked the mailbox almost religiously, everyday, waiting for the one letter that would inevitably give my life purpose. I waited for the meaning of life to settle itself in my mailbox packaged inside an envelope in the form of one word – “congratulations.” I often daydreamed about getting that letter, and every time I did, I could feel the letter paper between my fingers becoming moist with perspiration, I could smell the ink on the page, and I could feel the ecstatic joy pulsing through my veins and spilling out through my eyes. It was so real, more real than the reality of what happened.

I opened that mailbox, and there it was, the envelope with the emblem of the university. It sat in the mailbox for a long minute. I gave the meaning time to settle into the box. I supposed any sudden movement would mangle the good word that I hoped was inside. Eventually, I reached in and pulled it out. I could feel the envelope between my fingers becoming moist with perspiration, and I could smell the ink in the address and the glue on the seal, but my heart fell. It was the same pang I feel when I see those images of emaciated children on TV. Too thin. The envelope was too thin.

It was unreal. I had tried to be optimistic and had not thought too often about what it was going to be like to be rejected, to not find the meaning of my life. I had imagined that I would burst out into tears in a bout of overwhelming sadness. I had imagined that I would scream in a devastating torrent of anger, but nothing happened. I felt empty, just empty. I thought it was the most anticlimactic ending to my life.

I was disappointed that there was nothing. This was it. It was the end. I just couldn’t believe that was it. I stood there, and I began to think. I began to redefine “the end” and that definitely was not it. If that wasn’t the end, that meant that life was still going, and all I could do was keep going with it. It’s then that I began to feel something again. I decided that it was okay, that everything was okay. I felt hope in my heart, and I know that everything is going to be okay.

씁쓸함에 대하여

2011-11-22T15:59:00.001-05:00

I'd have to say that the 10cm song 우정, 그 씁쓸함에 대하여 is an interesting song that incorporates some techniques that I personally love to use in my own writing. The lyrics employ a lot of repetition and parallel sentence construction that gives the song a sense of tight, purposeful, poetic composition.

하루가 멀다 하고 삼겹살을 꾼다네
하루가 멀다 하고 탕수육을 시키네
내 방안에 고기 냄새 진동하게
매일 밤 나는 파티를 여네

하루가 멀다 하고 모범 택시를 타네
하루가 멀다 하고 여자친구를 바꾸네
내 머릿속 허영심이 진동하게
매일 밤 나는 파티를 여네
오늘도 이대로 다 할 수 있네
우우우 우우예 우우 니가 돈만 갚으면
우우우 우우예 우우 니가 돈만 갚으면

하루가 멀다 하고 참치회를 먹을래
하루가 멀다 하고 소갈비를 뜯을래
내 뱃속에 기름기가 가득 끼게
매일 밤 나는 파티를 여네
오늘도 이대로 다 할 수 있네
우우우 우우예 우우 니가 돈만 갚으면
우우우 우우예 우우 니가 돈만 갚으면

배 아프고 골 아프고 골수가 빠져 나와도
내 돈만 다 받아내면 살만해
쓰러지고 무너지고 바닥 치는 내 인생도
내 돈 주면 살아나네
우우우 우우예 우우 니가 돈만 갚으면
우우우 우우예 우우 니가 돈만 갚으면

In addition to it being the repeated phrase, "하루가 멀다 하고" is idiomatic. I think idioms are one of the most interesting things about language. Although I can't say that I'd ever really consciously interfaced with this one in particular, as an idiomatic phrase I find it interesting. It literally means "as a day is too long" and would roughly be the equivalent of the English idiomatic phrase "can't wait." In usage it would translate to something along the lines of "as a day is too long to go without."

As far as the actual message of the song, as the title states it is an expression of the sometimes bitter nature of friendship, specifically in the context of money, which is always a touchy subject.

The verses go through a list of "luxuries" that he will indulge in as if the day were too long to go without. The things that are listed are hardly luxe at all, meat being the most prominently reoccurring listed item type - pork belly, sweet and sour pork, tuna sashimi, and beef short ribs. But anyone who knows anything about being on a tight budget can understand the sentiment. And he says he can indulge in all these things and have a party every night if only "you" (his friend) were to pay him back.

It's not a straightforward song of lamentation or celebration as more traditional songs are apt to be. Instead it employs a somewhat sarcastic tone to denote the bitterness felt by the character at not being able to recoup the money he lent to his friend. It's that subversive quality that gives the song a modern and "indie" feel.

One thing that I feel I have to mention about 10cm is that they excel at being a Korean indie group, and I think this song is prime example. It's just fun. It has an upbeat melody and catchy refrain and a very whimsical take on the subject matter at hand. Another quality that makes 10cm "indie" as opposed to "pop" is that their music is linguistically and culturally specific. While their songs incorporate themes that are universal, the imagery that they employ is very specific and very culturally Korean, which is something that can't really be said about mass-marketed k-pop. You just don't see k-pop songs making references to 삼겹살 and 탕수육 expecting listeners to have a cultural understanding of these things in the context of not having money as 10cm full-well does in this song.

Honestly, I guess it's just that I'm a sucker for context and contextual understanding. Reading between the lines is one of my favorite pastimes. I get so sad to think that there is so much that I'm not getting from so many creative pieces because I'm just not well-versed enough in the artist's symbolic language. It makes me feel so dumb. I could know every word and yet not have a true understanding of it. 그것이야말로 씁쓸하다.

House, come back Holme.

2011-10-06T09:17:00.000-04:00

I always joke about how the show House MD and I are in a relationship "for better or for worse." It's just that I've been watching the show since the very beginning and now I'm committed to it until finale do us part.

I'd say we've been through a lot of ups and downs, but season 7 really tested my commitment to House. It has got to be the worst season of the show. I think I complained almost every single week about how I had to watch it as if it were a chore. I think the primary reason I did watch the episodes in a timely manner was so that I wouldn't get behind and have to potentially suffer through more than one hour of the ridiculousness in a short time frame. It was so unfulfilling that I neglected to watch the season finale. At that point I didn't really care what happened, and I didn't even have the threat of episode pile up to force me into watching it. So I ended up not watching it until the very last moment, this last weekend before the new season was set to start.

I had many misgivings about season 7. The first of which was the whole House + Cuddy situation. In season 6 I was shocked but mostly intrigued by the idea that the writers really were really serious about "Huddy." As it turns out I liked only the possibility and not the actuality of it. Season 7 was just too full of ridiculous relationship nonsense. It made every single character wear on my nerves. Every single character became so unlikeable.

Season 7 was also the season of Martha Masters, a character that I would come to dislike, to my own surprise, more than Allison Cameron. She had all the moral righteousness of Cameron except without the sexy. Masters was just over all a very very annoying character. It killed me that they had somehow invented a kid genius character that I didn't like, because I like liking kid geniuses.

I wasn't sure if it was in spite of or due to all the disappointments of season 7, but the season premier episode of season 8 in my opinion was great. The change of setting was refreshing. Removed from all the cloying relationship woes, House was free to return to his Holmesian roots. And in true Holmesian fashion House characterizes the young female doctor to a T with the observational skills worthy of Sherlock himself.

I had a good first impression of that young female doctor Dr. Jessica Adams, portrayed by Odette Annable, and I have high hopes for her as a good supporting character, but I don't want to be disappointed. In this first episode we saw that she is smart and curious and has that bite of determination that says "authority be damned," but I hope this new character turns out to be sunnier than the other female characters have been. There have been a lot of interesting female characters on House, but I'd like to see a character not so embroiled in personal drama, not so damaged. I want this new character to be young and idealistic without the annoying social awkwardness of Masters or the deep-rooted vulnerability of Cameron. I don't want her to be cutthroat like Amber or cynical like Thirteen. I especially don't want her to be "mature and responsible" like Cuddy. But I do like it that she is very pretty.

Then there's Charlene Yi who's cast as "smart yet timid resident Dr. Chi Park." She is scheduled to appear starting in the next episode, and I hope her character isn't a total sham. I don't want "timid" to translate to "socially awkward," but she is type cast and operates basically like a female Michael Cera. Then again as long as there is some humor to it I think I could deal with it. I guess my point is I don't want a repeat of Masters. I'm not too familiar with Charlene Yi's acting skills, but I think a timid character requires a lot more subtlety of skill to pull off, and I hope she can do that.

I'm trying to imagine what kind of relationship I would like to see her having with House, and I think I would definitely have to go with the student-sensei dynamic. House is the old master and Dr. Park is the young pupil, and it would only work if they have Dr. Park operate with more Confucian values regarding elders. Then again there is that fine line that dictates taste. I don't want her becoming some silly stereotypical Asian character. I think that maybe House needs someone that intrinsically attributes value to him as a man with more experience without judging him as a man lacking in other regards. Maybe he needs someone who can only see him as a skilled diagnostician.

In general, in season 8 I want less cloying drama. I still want the show to be dark but not so depressing. I want them to bring back the subtle humor and the charm of House. I just want everyone to be likeable again, but we'll have to wait and see what the writers have dreamed up for us this season.