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After being severely ill (unfortunately after Christmas, I got the flu virus that everyone’s passing around these days), & getting through the new year, I’ve decided to gather all of my random thoughts, ideas, & other bits & bobs floating around in my head. This idea suddenly came to me the other day after I had dreamt two very bizarre & completely unrelated dreams. Here goes nothing.
1.) This thought has been stuck in my brain for a long time now, & I’m finally going to express it here. You know that song by Demi Lovato called SorryNotSorry? Well, I get the generic meaning of the song, you know, all about empowerment & not letting haters bring you down & all that good stuff. Well, every single time I hear that song on the radio, which is about 80 times a day, I can’t help but feel like this song is misinterpreting it’s own meaning. What I’m trying to say, to put it bluntly, is that I think this song is openly & arrogantly bragging about how much better you are than all your haters. Dude, there’s no subtle way to insert a “humble brag”. Bragging is in no way humble (or acceptable). To me, this song is just one long, public Cuss You to some bro you dated who disrespected your relationship, so you had to kick him to the curb, & then publicly shame him with your arrogant, pretentious lyrics. If you’re going to prove to someone or a group of haters that you’re doing better than they expected, or that you actually came out on top in the end, then show them! You don’t need to write an entire brag song about how much better off you are. Prove it with your results, your actions, & most importantly, don’t throw it in their faces & rub it in. Now that also just proves that you’re not actually better off, & that you’re stooping to their level, which I hope you vowed you’d never do. I can’t wait until this song finally loses its popularity & we can get better music on the radio.
2.) I have come to the conclusion that I could never own a pet. Don’t get me wrong. I love animals. However, I don’t feel any sort of emotional attachment to any particular animals. I’m not a cat person, nor am I Team Dog. Some of my relatives have dogs. I have a few friends who own both dogs & cats. They’re all great pets, well behaved & fun to play with, but it doesn’t make me have any feelings of wanting a pet of my own. I just can’t imagine myself getting so emotionally attached to a pet, or spending so much money on one animal. I can get by on financing my own human lifestyle. I can’t imagine the cost of having a pet (toys, food, medical, etc.). Pets are fun to play with, it I don’t want one for myself. This past weekend I saw all the fuss & complicated plans my friends went through with taking care of their dogs just to be able to go to a rock concert for one night. With all of the traveling that I do, I don’t think a pet would fit into my life. Jian constantly jokes about getting a dog, but when I remind him of how much work goes into caring for a pet, he immediately backs off of the subject. So, in the end, no pets for me.
3.) I have become irrationally infatuated with a popular UK actor. My fascination with this actor has become almost to the point of unhealthy & obsessive. This actor is currently making his rounds on all of the media outlets (magazine articles, talk show interviews, press tour Q&A’s). His most anticipated movie is premiering this weekend. I have been ardently following stalking his press tour on the internet lately, & the more I get to know this actor, the more endearing & attractive he becomes to me. I wish I could just let him go or better yet, block him from my mind. He’s just another incredibly good-looking Hollywood star. These types of guys are splashed all over the entertainment media news all the time. However, I am way too attracted to him. It only bums me out that this guy is very happily married to someone else with a growing family. I want him to be happy, of course, but my inner fangirl is both jealous & envious of the woman who holds his heart all to herself. I hope that once all the hoopla surrounding this guy’s highly anticipated movie dies down…like after the movie has been released…I can take a step away from his fandom & take a much needed breath/break. It’s kind of naiive & stupid of me to say this because as much as I try to take a step away from this actor’s fandom, I get thrust right back into the thick of it. Last weekend when I was in Los Angeles to watch The Killers in concert, I ran into this very actor while we were both eating at the same Italian restaurant. I spotted him having dinner with his wife & his agent a couple of short tables diagonally across from mine. I was of course fangirling & freaking out on the inside, but trying to act discreet & polite on the outside. Out of respect for this man, I did not take any stealthy ninja-like photos under the table with my smartphone. I did not approach him for an autograph or small talk. I very much kept to myself & observed him having a very animated yet quiet dinner with his dining companions as mentioned previously. As much as the crazy fangirl inside of me wanted him to notice me &/or pay any attention to me, I let him carry on with his life, & I carried on with mine…all the while, ogling this man from afar in a sort of non-discreet fashion.
4.) Speaking of fandoms, I have just secured my forever fandom of the rock band The Killers. I just went to one of their arena tour concerts, & it was one of the most memorable highlights of my concert-going experiences. I’ve already seen The Killers perform in concert 3 other times, & they were always in smaller concert venues. This time Jian & I made a weekend trip down to Los Angeles to see them perform at the Staples Center (where the Lakers play basketball). Man, oh man! I screamed & sang my lungs/heart out. I was buzzing with anticipation for this concert ever since I bought my ticket. It wasn’t only because we were going to see The Killers live, but we were also going to the concert with our best friends who have never been to a single music concert in their lives. They had no idea of the epic-ness that was about to blow their minds away. The four of us had the best time singing along & dancing in our seats. One thing I can definitely say about Brandon Flowers, the lead singer & co-founder of the band, is that he is a true showman with an incredible voice & vocal range. I guess that the Las Vegan in him. I mean, he is from fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada after all, & when The Killers celebrated the grand reopening of the newly renovated convention center in Las Vegas, Brandon walked on to the stage with two glammed-up showgirls on each arm. The band (at the time, consisting of only 2 original members & new back-up members) was so amazing to their fans. The biggest highlight of the concert was when they invited a teenage fan in the audience to come on to the stage to perform a song with them. That teenage girl totally killed it on the drums to the song “For Reasons Unknown”. The whole crowd was going nuts for this fan who got a once-in-a-lifetime experience with a seriously cool, caring, & heartwarming band. I will always remain a diehard fan of The Killers.
5.) While we’re on the subject of music & bands, I just wanted to make a note that I have become obsessed with the band Portugal. The Man! This band has captured my heart (& my listening ears). I love how all of the band members grew up together since their high school days living in Alaska. When being interviewed, the band often mentions that their parents were all supportive of them all being in a band together, & their parents encouraged their musical aspirations. It’s not only that their songs have catchy melodies & hooks, but their song lyrics are so incredible & creative. I love how the band writes songs about their families, historical & current social issues, & about this current generation of millennials. Some of my favorite songs include:
6. I’m so pumped up for this 2018 Winter Olympics!! I love watching the Olympics every time they’re broadcast on TV. I love the winter games more than the summer games, but my most favorite part is the opening ceremonies. I love seeing what each host city will create to showcase their city & country. Every time a new city is announced as the host city, I get super excited for the next Olympics. I am the most excited for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, & I am hoping that I can arrage it so that I can actually be in Tokyo during that time…like try to stay with my cousins or some friends, but we’ll see. Until then, I’m going to enjoy these winter games in South Korea. I’m off to watch the opening ceremonies on TV now. Cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Well, it’s been raining fairly hard here where I live. Yesterday, I sat at a cozy corner window seat in the local big box coffee shop down the street from my house, sipping my heavily creamed coffee & nibbling on a too-small-to-satisfy-my-appetite breakfast sandwich. I was feeling inspired while watching the rain pour down outside,& it was warm, dry, & comfortable inside. I originally planned to write this blog post yesterday, but got distracted by Instagram & Spotify, so I ended up wasting my time at the coffee shop creating playlists & liking overly staged/edited glamour photos.
Today we have a break in the wet weather, but it’s quite cloudy & foggy where I live, so that atmosphere is also keeping me inspired to write today. I am now sitting in my kitchen with the electric heater on low, & drinking an unfortunately rapidly cooling cup of home-brewed coffee. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I’ve got my Spotify app playing lovely café jazz music in the background. It’s putting me in a good mood to write some other frivolous & somewhat unimportant things. My blog tends to be filled with fluff posts anyway.
Well, to jump right into things. I recently have been hooked on watching home architecture/design shows about floating water homes, & it got my memories flowing of when I was a young child imagining my dream fantasy home. The one memory that stands out the most is one of myself living in a floating home. Well, I guess they used to be called house boats back in the old days of the 1980s & 90s, but now they’re called floating homes. I’ve always been fascinated by the design & architecture of homes floating on the water, docked like sail boats & yachts. It has been a secret fantasy/dream/desire of mine to live in a floating home. This dream has become more intense after watching all those HGTV-style shows about people custom building their own floating homes.
This is so unusual for me to even consider. I am not really such a big fan of being in or near water. I am not a good swimmer. I took swimming lessons as a kid, but only enough lessons to pass my swimming test & earn my certificate. I now know only enough swimming basics to keep me from drowning if I ever fell into a pool, or fell off a boat. I don’t even really like to swim. I am also not a big fan of beaches or boats (even though I have been on a few cruise ships in my day). I’ve only gone canoeing once in my life, & don’t get much opportunity to do that again. I am also obviously not a jet skier nor water skier. Well, I guess that means I won’t be moving to Hawaii anytime soon. However, I’ve always dreamed of living on a house boat (a.k.a. floating home).
Floating home architecture has always intrigued me, & I’ve always thought it would be amazing to live in a unique home on a quiet strip of water overlooking beautiful outdoor landscapes with only a few neighbors nearby. I don’t know how I would handle severe weather conditions (like turbulent winter waters), but I would still like to live on a house boat. Being able to custom build my own floating home would be so cool & interesting. I don’t think I would want to take on the challenge of retrofitting & remodeling an existing boat or barge, but building an actual home on a floating foundation is probably the architectural route I would take. I saw one episode of a show where this Dutch couple designed an entire wall made of floor-to-ceiling windows, with panoramic doors that fully open to showcase the water landscape. The wife playfully asked the husband, “Who’s going to clean all the windows?”. That brought up a good point in my mind, since I am such a neat freak, I wouldn’t want to spend all of my day washing windows…especially if I have to stand outside, hovering over the open waters (with my extremely limited swimming skills). So, let’s just conclude that I wouldn’t put too many panoramic windows in my design. Also, I would like to have the option to be able to strut around my house in my birthday suit without the prying eyes of any nosy snoops. I’ve compiled a small collection of inspirational photos for reference to what I’m looking for in my fantasy house boat. As you can tell from the photos below, I am kind of a big fan of the minimal, contemporary architecture style.
(All photos courtesy of Pinterest.)
Don’t get me wrong. I love the house I’m living in now. I live in the beautiful Eichler home I was born & raises in, in a wonderfully quiet & tame suburban neighborhood, & I could not imagine planting my roots anywhere else, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to also own a floating house boat one day, maybe use it as a vacation home. I’m just describing a childhood fantasy I once had. Who knows? Maybe this will happen one day… One can dream. Until then, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
As Jian has been logging in more & more hours on the boob tube, I’ve been winding down, watching less. I don’t know…blegh. I’ve been becoming increasingly uninspired by the television programming lineup over the past few years. There really haven’t been many shows that have caught my interest. Also, I’m trying to make a conscious effort to do more productive things other than just sit on my lazy cuss & watch mindless hours of TV.
I know it’s very easy just to turn on the television & have it running in the background as comforting background noise while you’re off doing things like washing dishes, folding laundry, or writing term papers for school. I am very guilty of doing this, especially while I’m in my kitchen. My parents, especially my dad, insisted on putting a small TV in our family kitchen when I was younger, mostly so that he wouldn’t have to miss a minute of any baseball game during our precious family bonding time, but also so that we could watch the early evening news & popular family game shows (like Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune) as a family while we all sat at the kitchen table for supper.
That TV in our family kitchen has become embedded into our family life so much so that, as a family unit, we bascially cannot live without it. Every family member who enters our kitchen gets sucked in by the boob tube. At least one person or another will turn on the TV, & it will not be turned off until everybody heads off to bed at night. It’s a pretty sad fact, especially when it seems like this TV has become some sort of social crutch that we unconsciously rely on.
I don’t know how Jian does it, multi-task while he’s watching TV. He can watch videos on YouTube while having the TV running in the background. Both electronic devices have their volumes turned up pretty high (well, high for my standards). Sometimes when we’re all gathered in the kitchen after supper, my mom will be watching some sort of weird Chinese video on her smartphone, & the TV will be on, & Jian will just be sitting in his designated seat watching some random meme video on his phone as well, & all the competing noises don’t even bother him one tiny bit. For me, it’s extremely distracting. I can’t have the TV on while I’m watching something on YouTube or 9Gag.
Man, when I was a teenager I watched everything that was hot in pop culutre during those days. I watched every single show on MTV & VH1 (remember Pop-Up Video anyone?). I watched all of the after school cartoons (like Animaniacs, Gummi Bears, Chip & Dale’s Rescue Rangers, & every Asian girl’s mandatory viewing material: Sailor Moon). I used to watch the block of Friday night shows like Boy Meets World, Family Matters, & Step by Step. Then, as I got older, I really got into watching Japanese variety shows & drama shows. I also loved to watch re-runs of old British TV shows on the PBS channel (like Keeping Up Appearances, Are You Being Served?, & Sherlock Holmes). From there, my tastes evolved into watching mind-numbing reality shows like The Vapid Houswives Seeking Attention They Don’t Get From Their Lame Husbands, watching cartoons like Family Guy & American Dad, & watching more home improvement shows like House Hunters. Oh…I also loved watching the globaly popular hit TV show Top Gear (but I quickly left the fandom after Jeremy Clarkson was unceremoneously kicked off the show).
Now, there aren’t very many shows that I actively follow & watch full seasons of, with maybe the exception of Outlander (on the STARZ network). That’s one show I really enjoy watching, not only for the storylines, content & costumes/set props/filming locations, but also because there is one very specific actor that I am a huge fan of, & I like to follow his/her acting career. Other than Outlander, I used to watch a lot of The Big Bang Theory, but I forget to follow the show each week, & then when I try to watch the previous episodes using my cable provider’s On Demand service, they make me jump through a cuss load of hoops to watch. Or else I have to buy the old seasons, which I don’t want to. So, I just watch episode clips posted on YouTube by the show, just so I can keep up with the storyline.
There’s not a lot of current shows that I follow these days. I watch a few episodes of popular shows here & there (i.e. Game of Thrones) just to be able to keep up with the “watercooler” banter with my friends, but I don’t religiously follow many shows on TV. I’ve been trying lately to genuinely follow the newly popular cartoon Rick & Morty, but I’m getting more & more turned off by all of the annoying whining/complaining by the Sanchez-Smith family that is the center of the show. I’m rapidly losing interest in this show.
I think this is a good thing, watching less TV. I am, however, watching more On Demand movies & watching more movies/shows on Netflix (but that’s mostly just because I don’t want to waste my paid membership). No, I don’t sit around all day on my flabby cuss, watching movies on a loop. I’ll usually watch a movie while I’m doing some sort of stationary chore (i.e. washing dishes, or folding laundry). I’ll pick a movie to have on in the background, then once the movie is over, I’ll turn off the TV & go about my day as usual. Sometimes, I’ll have a movie on while I’m updating my blog, but that’s a rare ocassion, as the movie will end up distracting me from writing. You all probably know by now that I’ll always have a movie playing while I’m taking a bath. However, I actively try to not watch any movies or videos before I go to bed. I hope that I can continue this trend of watching less TV. I want to be more productive, rather than sit on my cuss for 4-6 hours a day, channel surfing. I don’t want to rely on the television to keep me company. I’d much rather be doing what I’m doing now, writing. And this is where I end my post because I need sleep. Cheers, mates.
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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