Less Liebe, A Little More 'Thoughts About Blogging'

Read through my First Liebster Award Here

Every couple of days for the past few months I find myself staring at my blog page. To me it feels a little dead, a little stale, like it's shut down for the winter with only the occasional, increasingly sparse entry marking the fact that Rosie the Blogger is still alive and active. Even less frequently, I update the currently watching/recently watched sidebar. If my blogging has become stagnant, the dramas I watch even more so. Is this how drama death feels like? I can't tell. Very little in in the Dramaverse has captivated me (even that's not true, because I have recently watched several dramas that made my heart spin...) Rather, I think it's my attention span, shortened to increments of barely 40 minutes. If only Kdramas in particular could tone down the length! 

So I'm just going to pretend that my lack of consistent blogging is less about my waning interest and general drama slump, and more laziness. How am I going to get out of this? By answering the questions of two fellow bloggers who nominated me (ages ago now!) for another Liebster award. Maybe this will entice me to get back into writing?

So thank you for, Love Bug's Obsession and Asian Addicts Anonymous, and the several other bloggers who've given me a nod in the right direction, to return to blogging. P.S. I may answer the following drama-related questions, but I kind of feel like talking about myself for a change. So hah! Bear with me if you want. :)


Love Bug's Obsession:

1) What inspired you to first start your blog?

Nearly two years ago, you would've found a very different Rosie than the one who sits before a keyboard now. I was new to the world of dramas, I'd barely skimmed the surface of Kpop, and I was itching to talk talk and talk! I wasn't even sure about what. I only knew that I would burst if I didn't immerse myself in a community of like-minded-K-entertainment enthusiasts.   

Actually I'm still like this. I wouldn't survive without the friends and acquaintances I've met online, and regardless of whether we talk about what dramas we're watching this week, or trading personal quibbles and experiences, there's an underlying fact that the mere acknowledgement that we share a like of international culture is one  thing I can't find in my day to day life. It's a bond, we bloggers and drama/pop enthusiasts have. One I wouldn't trade for the world.

Kind of like how I wouldn't trade my love of Kpop for the world either.

2) What would you say is the hardest part about blogging?

Easy. The actual writing part! I have so many thoughts and words and phrases and ideas, but they do not naturally progress from my head to my fingers. It's a chore, something I might enjoy working on one day, and find totally exhausting the next. I guess you can say I've been in an exhausted state recently..

3) Have you ever encountered bloggers slump and if so how did you overcome it?

Yes. Right now. By making myself sit down and resolve this problem! Haha!

4) Is there a drama character that has the same personality traits as you?

Now this one's hard, not only because most drama characters are either so stereotypical, but the dramas they inhabit are just so.. not similar to mine. So rather than finding a single character who's like me, I see myself in bits of a lot of different girls, depending on how my mood swings. Somedays I look into my past, and I remember particularly dooming periods of my adolescence where I swear I walked around just like Nobuta from Nobuta wo Produce. On a typical bumbling day in the present, I could be Yoo Kyung from Pasta, merrily dealing with life one little step at a time, always remembering to stop and feed my fish. Spikes of girlishness occasionally reach Kotoko levels from Itazura na Kiss. Or maybe that's her adorably cute character rubbing off on me? I don't know. And sometimes I think I am just as mischievous/inquisitive/melancholy and a little bit of an oddball, like Se Yi from Monstar. No, I don't have so many personality disorders.. Or, maybe I do?? *gasps*

Maybe I'm just typically grumpy?

 
5) Which actor or actress do you feel is underrated or less well known?

Certainly I've seen some actors/actresses who are lesser known, but seriously have got the talent. Whether or not they're underrated cannot be said, since who knows how their careers will go on. Off the top of my head though, I'm going to say Shin Eun Gyun who played the lead woman in Flames of Desire, and that's my opinion after seeing her in only one drama. But as an older actress, and this role coming in a 50 ep family drama, she's unlikely to get the wholesale recognition she deserves for playing one of the most fascinating characters I've ever seen, hands down.

Pitiful and frightening at the same time

6) If you could change the ending of any drama, what would it be and why?

Que, Sera Sera. Because it almost ended up how I wanted it to. Without revealing spoilers, it was almost a story where I could have handled a set back in the OTP. A drama I wished had been a tiny bit more realistic, even if that means the drama would've given us a more troubling, less satisfactory end. This probably won't make sense to anyone who hasn't seen it. Sorry.

7) What is your favorite post that you have written?

I actually have several, and while they may not be the best things ever as for as the written language goes, it's because they were the ones I labored over the longest, because I loved writing them the best. My reviews for Nine and Bu Bu Jing Xin.

Because I loved her.

Adding up hours of writing, rewriting, and picture screencapping I probably spent 6 hours on Nine and 8 hours on BBJX. And that's not even counting the rewatch hours ;)  But those numbers should be a testament to how much time I was willing to devote for dramas I seriously loved thinking about. A runner-up favorite post, my variety review of We Got Married: Global, just because it was so much fun.

8) Which is harder to write, drama recaps or reviews?

I've never written recaps, and I'm not sure I'll ever have the time or inclination to do so. Reviews are hard enough to think about once a drama is over and done with. The best I've ever done for recapping is when I discuss a drama at its midway point, but that hardly counts. I applaud the people who can recap though. It's an exercise in structure I am incapable of.

9) Do comments and viewers really matter to you as a blogger?

Yes and no. I love comments because of the people behind them. If you take a little bit of time out of your busy day to read a post, I'm happy. But I don't have a visual if those lurkers never talk to me. It has nothing to do with the satisfaction of recognition (though that's an easy trap to fall into, and I have from time to time) and more to do with me squeeing to myself: "Oohhh someone new to talk to!!" :D

Hi hi! Hello there! Let's be friends!

10) If you weren't a blogger, what would you be doing instead?

Lurking. Watching dramas. Listing to Kpop. Wishing somebody else in the world knew what I was talking about. (Yes I have family that are just as involved as me) but sometimes they're not always around when I want to dish.

Thank you Love Bug for the question sets. It's been fun to answer and think about these kinds of things again. :)


Asian Addicts Anonymous:

1-2) What made you start blogging? and What keeps you blogging?

See the above question 1 as my answers to this fall into the same general topic.

3) Future goals (in or outside the blogging/drama-watching sphere)?

In the sphere: To be a drama or Kpop guru who can snobbishly look back and say, "Well when I was a young woman drama and music was so very different than what you kids are watching and listening to today." *haughty yawn*  Just kidding... Sort of.

Out of the sphere: To be a good mom to my someday future kids, and enjoy my family. To be less troubled by petty things that make me stressed. To be the kind of old person young people look up to, and not the kind of old person people hide around hallways to avoid, "Oh looook there's that crotchety Mrs. Rosie! Hide! She'll smack you with her cane!"

Maybe I can be like her, just.. less creepy/stalkerish?

4) Profession? (out of curiosity, what do you do in your real life?)

I humbly work in the office for a church/private school. My job description is "to keep the records." My job in practice is to be a jack of all trades in whatever I suddenly need to do. Some days I sit around and bum on the internet. Some days I work harder than the teachers, without break. Oh, and like any job that deals in interpersonal communications between a dozen levels and layers of people, in and out of the ministry, I get to deal with and see the source of so much drama. When you work in a religious institution, it's so terribly easy to get jaded and lose the heart. I struggle with it often. But ultimately I know that the work I do is a good thing, and that I'm loved and appreciated by many, and I like being a help to others. It's a God thing, and the only thing that keeps me there.

5) Gateway addiction into the drama realm?

Lie to Me, via Netflix. Then Secret Garden, via Youtube. Then came DramaFever when my husband foolishly told me about this apparently magical site where you could stream hundreds of Asian dramas. Welcome to the gateway that created Rosie, the blogger.

6) Favorite quote? [NeeNee loves quotes from movies, dramas, literature that really resonate and hit you, you know?]

I stared at this question for a good while. Then I skipped it. Then I suddenly remembered this quote from Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: 

"There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity...You can smell it. It smells like death."

Big daddy.. what is it that makes him so big?
His big heart, his big belly, or his big money?

Once upon a time I used to devour American literature. True story. And there was nothing better than Tennessee Williams. Bonus, because it taught me a great new word: mendacity - which is lies and liars. Wow, I sound bitter. I'm not. I just love sneaking that word into everyday conversation, and watching people go "huh???"

7) Coffee? Tea? Neither? [I personally think white chocolate hot chocolate is the most awesome concoction as is horchata.]

Coffee back when I was a coffee fiend. Because it can taste soooo good when made right! But now I have recurring insomnia, and so I've quit in an attempt to cut back on my caffeine intake. It sucks. I'm back to being a snobby tea drinker now. I'm seriously very picky about my black teas. Taylors of Harrogate, all the way.

Though if I lived in Korea, I might not have been able to give up coffee..

8) Have you ever tried Calpis water [or something like it]?

The heck is that? Never heard of it before now. Though I looked it up and it kind of sounds good.

9) Are you proficient in more than one language? If so, which?

I studied German in both high school and college. I'm not sure that's the same thing as being proficient in it, but I can follow along with conversations, and I read it rather well. Just don't ask me to write a dissertation again anytime soon. My problem with languages is that once I learn something, my brain registers it under "incoming! incoming! foreign language detected and stored!" then when I try to learn another language, however basic or beginner, the newer language replaces the old. Case in point: when I tried just now to continue writing part of a sentence here in German, I automatically started thinking of the phrase and Korean popped out. I'm screwed.

10) Favorite OST?

Well this is hard - I'm going to go with Kdrama OSTs, because that's what I have readily organized on my itunes. But narrowing it down? Do I choose based on excellently created music, or the nostalgic feels a single song can produce in me? If it's the latter, perhaps the Secret Garden OST because that's what I own most of, and I positively adore how its music is so famous it's scattered all over K-variety programs. Other favorites include the Kim Sam Soon, Heartstrings, and Coffee Prince OSTs. Oh, and this song from Que, Sera Sera is a new favorite of mine:

But for other works of music, I'm almost more drawn to the sounds of Queen Inhyun's Man, because it's wicked cool that the song writers incorporated traditional Korean instruments into the modernized songs, even if it's just for a few measures here and there. Believe it it or not, that doesn't happen in every sageuk.

Well that was fun! I'm not going to continue passing this Liebster award on, but because I've never really listed the blogs I tend to follow, I'll include a short list here of people I've discovered, habitually read, and/or have become friends with - as much as the online nature of 'friendship' can be defined, which feels some days like we're rather close. :) 

Favorite Drama, Variety and/or Kpop Music Blogs

• As I Watch
• Asian Addicts Anonymous
• Between Wor(L)ds
• Creating Volumes
• KDrama Fighting!
• Lore in Stone Cities
• Love Bug's Obsession
• My Drama Tea
• Outside Seoul
• The Corner of the Mind 
• The Crazy Ahjummas 
• The Problematic and the Unproblematic
• Blogphilic 

Alright, it's drama watching time. Need to go and get myself motivated again! Or I may just continue watching X-Files, that is, if I can persuade myself that I'm not a complete wimp...