@ samsooki

Wish Upon a Star (which I am loving just a bit more from episode to episode - it's currently went from a 1 up to a 4, so by the time the drama ends, it'll be at a all-time high of 16!). But I think haraboji just woke up, it must have been the super-humidifier that did the trick.

BTW, I always assumed the more humidifiers, the drier it was outside. I don't tie humidifier use to likelyhood-of-death-severity-of-disease.

Wow, Song Seung Heon had a crush on Han Ga-in??!!?? What did his lil bro Yun Jung Hoon say??? LOL

"Any current dramas that have coma patients?"

Does WSIC's mum count?

The greatest melocomadrama has to be A Love to Kill. Starts with a coma and that's about as happy as it gets . . .

@ belleza

"Song Seung Heon had a crush on Han Ga-in"

Why am I not surprised - she's the closest I can envision for a k-drama female version of SSH. See, Wu Zhun is the TW-version of SSH (no hope for him anymore), Janine Chang the female counterpart in TW, Hu Ge just *might* be the Mainland version of SSH (I have hope for him yet), and Crystal Liu Yifei the female counterpart in the Mainalnd.

See, SSH's influence is far-reaching and non-gender specific.

I'm getting excited (read: very scared) thinking about his channeling his inner Chow Yun-fat in the ABT remake.

@ langdon-unni

You still trying to watch AC? I've given up, no more, brain hurting. However, don't be dissin' my mcnuggets, it tastes yummy with the sweet-n-sour sauce made from 100% inorganic and inactive ingrediants.

"Any current dramas that have coma patients?"

Not sure about this, but I just finished watching a certain Tdrama that made me want to bang my head against a brick wall to put MYSELF into a coma.

My fault for eating McNuggets when I could have had prime rib. :-(

@307 belleza

ALTK.. oh, my all time "i want my life back for wasting the 16 hours torturing myself thru that drama" drama.

shoulda known it would only get "better" when it started out w/ best.

No...this afternoon's atrocity was Hi, My Sweetheart, which reached such a new level of suck that even Show Luo's perfect hair and teeth could not make up for it. I've already forgiven much with this silly drama just to gaze at his gleaming visage, but I think a line has been crossed.

ETA:

Don't worry samsooki, my threshold for pain is really quite low. I've merely smacked my head with an open palm...that should be sufficient. No need to purchase multiple humidifiers on my account. I appreciate the thought, though! :-)

Good morning! I'd better get readjusted to this time zone. It's almost 1pm! Half the day is already gone...

@271 djes

Awwww! Thank you! Thank you soooooooooooooooo much for this link. I'm savoring every single moment of it. Dae Sung is just so sweet/cute/heavenly/funny and on and on.

WHOA...samsooki and hjkomo are recapping Chuno! This day just gets better and better. :-)

I haven't watched Ep 3 yet (saving it until tonight when I have no distractions) so I won't read the recap until afterward, but this is fantastic.

Oh god, Joss Whedon is in talks to develop a show for F/X.

Why didn't he do this 10 years ago! Firefly would have been finishing its epic 8th season at this time. Argh, so angry, me like the Amazing Hulk still angry. For all the shit NBC pulls, Fox is no better.

@ ockoala

Joss Whedon on cable? Finally!!!!

@ hjkomo

Even the possibility of the marriage of F/X and Whedon is enough for me to see stars. It's like the marriage of Alan Ball and HBO, the marriage of Marc Cherry and Lifetime (where he should be at), and the marriage of Disney and Miley Cyrus (oops, I meant MTV).

Whedon is and probably will always be a mania-producer, I hope one day he'll be mainstream like JJ Abrams, but it's a far-flung hope. I also don't think Whedon is ready for his Star Trek the movie reinvention/breakthrough like JJ did last year. I find the small screen a much more formidable canvas for Whedon to develop his vision.

@ mookie

I read a synopsis of Summer's Desire (which added to my head-desking desire), but it's so lame its bordering on parody.

For y'all interested to see what *exactly* was happening in that trailer (I understood zero myself): http://cfensi.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/huang-xiaoming-barbie-hsu-peter-ho-and-the-future-of-chinese-dramas/

Oh, and doesn't the story remind of a classic Yi Shu 亦舒 novel? A typical HK (cue mainland here) rich tale of memory-loss, woe, betrayal, and more woe.

since we're on the subject of education, i was wondering if it's ever worth it to spend $25K-$30K on kindergarten through grade school.

@ momosan

"A brief return of Capt. Tightpants."

Oh god (again and 2x) - the return of Nathan Fillon as Mal Reynolds? MUST FIND THAT CLIP NOW! (off to watch, thanks momosan!). Fan service is my favorite thing - even pseudo-ridiculous episodes like the Buffy one where Spike and Buffy get hit with a spell and think they are in love and planning to get married. I love it!

Btw, I knew she was something special way back when - I only remembered lately that Christina Hendricks, way before Mad Men, was Mal's wife in Our Mrs. Reynolds, and she was oh so sultry and sassy.

I found it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3pdj9p6yI&feature=related

Best line: "Didn't you wear that like, 5 years ago? Don't you think you should move on." (thank you again, momosan - I meet another Browncoat and I feel my nerves tingle from happiness). Sigh, I miss the crew of the Serenity. I feel a Firelfy rewatch coming on. Or maybe a VM season 1 rewatch.....nah, I need to get my butt back on the k-drama new offerings.

@ momosan

NO! Really? I haven't watched Castle...any good?

@ kb
since we’re on the subject of education, i was wondering if it’s ever worth it to spend $25K-$30K on kindergarten through grade school."

Well....let's see...

$25-30K per year for kindergarten & grade school -> $175-210K
add to that junior high and high school -> $150-180K
Total for education PER CHILD BEFORE college = $325-390K
And if you have more than one child...you do the math.

For that much, you can move to a better school district (which also, more than likely, has a more diverse student population) and buy a better house in a better neighborhood (which translates to better real estate investment in the long run).

Hm...which one do you think I would choose? ;)

^ added to above:

So, unless you have a child with special needs which can't be met by an ordinary public school...or you're in circumstances in which your current school district is crap, and you cannot (for whatever reason) move in favor of a better one...
I don't really see the need (IMHO...having been educated in outstanding public schools, myself, and having known people who had been educated in private schools, which weren't any better on the education front but waayyy lacking on the "social education" front ;) ).

@ Samsooki

$25-30K is about the figure PER YEAR of private education these days, I believe. Yeah, mind-boggling.

@ kb, samsooki and hjkomo

"if it’s ever worth it to spend $25K-$30K on kindergarten through grade school"

I think that number is in total, unless we're talking about private grade schooling in NYC (Manhattan). In my neighborhood, the private kindergarten through grade school is a few hundred a month in tuition (probably about $5000 a year). My eldest is about to start kindergarten, and we are having this very discussion daily (it's a chore and completely overwhelming, while we are a family of public school kids - at least until college - but we have to concede that the quality of public schooling is completely different now than it was 20 years ago, we have to be honest, its a fact).

My husband does interviews for his alma mater since he graduated, and it's astonishing for him to see the statistical differences in test scores for kids in private/public high schools. We haven't made a choice yet, but we are cognizant of it. As for whether its worth it to spend for private, I think there is so many factors, it really depends on the child, the school district, and the financial options available. I would prefer my kids do public, but I have to do my research before I can make that final decision and feel like I understand what the options are.

Wash!

*sob*

Yeah, still not over it. :-(

@ samsooki:

“well, we don’t know what’s wrong with her yet, but her condition is worsening and so we added a third humidifier…. all you can do now is pray”

I don't know that I could watch a drama that had a three-humidifier illness... I don't think I have that much kleenex in the house, I'd have to stock up first.

@ belleza:

"The greatest melocomadrama has to be A Love to Kill. Starts with a coma and that’s about as happy as it gets . . ."

LOL! Too true. I watched it to the bitter end and couldn't believe I was doing it.

BOF humidifiers: and was there a humidifier employed when K-Rui was holding unconscious Jan Di's hand when she was ill at his house? (Gu Jun Pyo watching from outside, if I recall correctly). If they missed a humidifier opportunity then there really is no forgiving the lapses of the show.

@ hjkomo

"$25-30K is about the figure PER YEAR of private education these days"

No no, that's only for the high school and above. Middle school is about $10-15K, and grade school about $5K a year (sigh, depressing that I know all this stuff). Its still a very very lucrative amount to spend if you add up ALL the combined schooling. And I have two! Maybe I should split them and conduct a socio-educational experiment - same genes, one private, one public, and see how they end up. Or not, I'd be flayed by hubby since he'll claim I play favorites.

@ langdon-unni

WASH! *sobs with you* sniff, sniff.

@ ockoala, Samsooki, kb

Here are the figures for one of the lesser expensive private schools in my area (K-8):

~ 2009-2010 ~
Tuition Elementary Grades K—5: $17,500/year
Tuition Middle School Grades 6—8: $20,000/year
Full Day Afterschool Grades K-8: $2,700/year

@ samsooki :

I realize just THINKING about a three-humidifier illness drama is making me anxious. That would really be serious. You'd need a lot more than a little bone marrow transplant (only donor match: the daughter-in-law you've always hated and consequently victimized from the moment she married your somewhat spineless son). No, that's two humidifiers max. We're talking coma with seizures, and a heart-transplant. Leukemia with a spinal injury (hit by a car and then hugged tightly by distraught and cervical-injury-care-ignorant best friend/estranged loved one). Oh, I can't go on. Too upsetting.

@ hjkomo

Hollay crap, wow, just wow! Those numbers are mind-boggling even by itself, even before I perform rudimentary addition to create a full picture.

Everybody's always hatin' on ALTK...my very first EVER Kdrama. I can't hate it for that reason alone...but I ain't ever watching it again, either. ;-)

Or was it Full House? Shoot...now I can't remember. It was definitely Rain, whichever one it was. Ah, the nostalgia. :-)

@ ockoala

did you say you stopped watching AC? isn't it almost over?!?!? im waiting on this weekend's subs ( i wouldn't need subs except for the taiwanese i cannot for the life of me understand!! ).. and it's not too strenuous yet. i have felt bad for tuo ye since the beginning, but i gotta say, in Mu Cheng's defense, she has always made it preeeetty clear she was not romantically interested in him. but it's only supposed to be 17 eps? right?!?! RIGHT?! i dono if i could take another extension.

@ langdon813

i totally forgot about Hello My Sweetheart... and now i'm thinking it's a good thing.

re: private education

good lord! that is a lot lot LOT of money. i will never be able to afford to have kids if i try to send them to private. i've always been a public school kid and i think i turned out alright :) but it is true that public schools aren't really what they used to be.

@ momosan

I've been sporadically keeping tabs on all the Serenity gang since Firefly, but honestly, it was the perfect combination of chemistry and story that made every single character on Firely so beloved to me.

I've tried Dollhouse, multiple times, and I keep getting bored midway, I don't think its Joss' best work, but still its got good eye candy (I liked it with Jamie Bamber guest-starred as an arms dealer that married Echo, and it was total melding of the Battlestar/Buffy verses for me when he made out with Eliza Dushku).

I just assumed you're a Browncoat, cuz you casually threw out the Mal reference. :-)

Oh Pasta, thank you for so many adorable new ICOMYM candidates. That kitchen is like an all-you-can-ogle buffet (even the ugly ones are cute)! Plus a couple of slightly more age-appropriate yummy guys, too? My cup runneth over.

How many of my posts today have been food-related? Oh well, here's one more.

Pasta Ep 3 is tonight's appetizer...Chuno Ep 3 is the feast! :-D

@329 ockoala -- the socio-economic experiment might be interesting, but you would have to explain it to them forever, since kids never forgive or forget. Our older child skipped HS & graduated from a public university at 18, took a year or 2 off then got a masters. Our younger one lollygagged through HS (public, again), then took a 1 year certificate course at a technical school when we refused to consider paying $10,000 a year for the private school of choice. Which one makes twice the annual income of the other, and has done since age 19? The younger one, of course. Which one feels they don't live up to intellectual level of the other's friends? The younger one, of course. They both have happy marriages & interesting lives, but it looks like one was favoured. But then Samsooki's "hard work" comes into it. As parents we apparently didn't put enough hard work into the second child, and the second child didn't put enough hard work into HS, and there we are.

Wish Upon the Stars, episode 5: Have no clue what was said, and it still made me cry. And its made me like Choi Jung-won for the first time since I met the girl in KotW and All In. And lastly, nekkid topless KJH the second, oh lord does that man have a *perfect* torso. Not meaty like KSW, not overly muscular like LBH circa Storm Shadow. Just perfectly chiseled.

And I'm loving EVERY single character that lives in that bachelor house (well, I know I'm going to like KJH at some point, so kinda giving him early love regardless, the goodwill is aplenty). The winningest bunch of child actors since the great child actor revolution that was AIMH and StH introduced me to Moon Geun-young and Park Shin-hye, respectively. Even the baby can act! I'm not joking, if you don't just feel your heart tugged in every direction imaginable, then you've got a steel heart. Mine is all worn out from the tugging, but then I feel love in the air.

How did this become my second must-see k-drama of the year, I cannot imagine? It's the opposite of epic Chuno, but reminds me of why k-dramas are so beautifully winning in portraying the magic of family and love, and a Cinderella story!

I can't imagine a nicer drama to watch as a family (hint: samsooki, get thee and the Mrs. and Ji-hoon and push play).

@ 339 momosan :

Well done! A courageous job (I do not think I could have delved back into BBF and kept my sanity intact). Thank you also to momosan-niece.

"(and I must conclude that all upscale houses also have an IV tree ready to be put into action, as this also seems terribly common)."

LOL. Yes, every home equipped with an IV tree is clearly one of the more successful campaigns of the Korean Board of Public Health. I'm always a little impressed with the willingness of K-drama writers to stick an IV in someone at the least sign of weakness. Sore throat? IV. Bit of a headache? IV. Girlfriend break up with you? IV. Humidifiers and IV trees. Are Koreans really that dehydrated?

@ ockoala on Summer's desire:

Yi Shu: many of my girlfriends swore on her books like a Bible, claiming it gave them a realistic worldview, a desirable goal in life, a mantra for hubby searching...*rolleyes*blablabla... but I do agree Yi Shu knows what she's preaching, and there's a realistic wisdom to her heroines, but I can do without the same thing repeated in EVERY book. This one (and shame on me up front) I did read online coz it was a breakout hit in internet novels a while back... lolz I mean guilty pleasure is too mild to describe what I was doing with it... but I guess we grew up devouring our share of shoujo...and we can never grow out of our addiction?!?! haha I do rem the 'beloved' tropes of amnesia, incestrous OTP....it should be a kdrama 10 years ago.. but we got a cringeworthy wannabe and it's a mega production, joint venture of China and TW...and seriously I cant rem a trailer that's a mile near as bad as this one.

*shudder* fr the blog: Huang Xiaoming apparently liked the script so much that he agreed to be paid a fraction of his worth just to be in the drama.... But with excellent plotlines and beautiful prose, Ming Xiaoxi succeeds at painting the magical wonderland of any girl’s dreams.'

HXM reminds me of KSW... esp if he continues to make these choices that do nth for his career, he's just burning up his idol fame...and lets just hope it last.

Oh I have to get back to you with that ultimate GJ vs YK scene.. I have MAJOR jabs at HuGe (or GJ) there. I'm not sure if I should interpret that wooden reaction to YK's pouring his hearts and almost his entire viscera out emotional scene and he's all going 'ok... lets fight then coz u wanna...' I mean either GJ is NOT getting the severity of his little bro's accusation 'If you don't hate me, and you can only hate when you have truly loved, it must be me who cared more all along...*wail*' Yeah, this YK baby is being whiny and all mememe, but there's a grain of truth in GJ not being sensitive to his damaged little bros' needs (not that I can fault him since he's a block of wood...but a YK would) If our blockhead GJ agrees to have this ultimate life/death battle btn bloodbros, then he must've had a lightbulb moment with YK's words and that subsequent 'alrighty then, lets do it' reaction coz me major angst! but yeah I loved our loverboy in that explosive scene, just wished HG could've given him more fuel to burn the bromance.

i meant $25-30K per year.

i read an article in NYT some time ago about parents in the NYC area who were spending a big chunk of their salary (not exactly rainmakers) to send their little ones to these schools. i'm wondering if these parents are just caught up in the rat race or if there is truly a legitimate advantage (growth-wise) to going to these schools that have been substantiated by studies.

ockoala, even in a mid-sized city, tuition at the top local private school runs $14K starting from kindergarten, so if yours is $5K in southern cal, then that's a steal.

i definitely see the advantage of forking over this kind of cash to go to a top high school though.

reluctantbutaddicted 342

"Are Koreans really that dehydrated?"

i think they're dehydrated from all the crying.

@ 269 belleza
"I’m sorry — I couldn’t get past “Let’s sleep together.”"

WHAT?! Was THAT what you heard? I heard "Let's sleep to gather."
Please don't make me go back and re-run that whole silly trailer again.

@ 273 hjkomo
"But …JWS + Engrish = Adorable"

You are probably right. I was enthralled by his screen presence and way too engrossed just reading his lips. :-)

@ 277 ockoala

"Mwahahahaha, thank you for the best laughter ever wake up call. Sigh, wiping tears from my eyes now."

My dear ockoala-sis, I know, I heard you. We have too many things in common. :-)
-------------------------------------
How come nobody is asking which drama doesn't have the proverbial multiple humidifiers, thumb pricks, amnesia, body-part transplants, comas and/or inexplicable IV drips and trees?

I just watched the new Kamenashi Kazuya's( the one from nobutawo produce with Yamape, they also sing that Seishiun Amigo together) TV drama series(I don't think anybody has come up with an English title yet) Yamatonadeshiko shichihenge. Of course it's based on shojo manga with one of those totally over the top outrageous plot line only girl's comic artist can come up with. Son far so good. It's cute with four gorgeous looking boys. So, Yamape is in Code blue 2 and Kazuya kun in this one. and Yuma kun in Bloody Monday 2. All good looking boys are out this season.

By the way, I just found out Kazuya kun was dating Koizumi Kyoko( guess a famous TV personality? or a singer? or an actress all after my time in Japan, but I know she's famous for something) who is 20 years senior to him. That made me feel good.

@347 momosan

LOL! True!

@ 277 ockoala

I went ahead and checked out the link. All I saw was 2 fine looking males and one girl with big eyes. Sure, they are all fine species.

All the private vs. public school talks going on.

My son went to 3 years of private kindergardn(even back then, it was may be $300/months or more? but it had after school programs for working parents) then after that one year of public school in Chicago. Somehow he ended up being suspended from school for 3 days after pushing the kid who was bulling him in a bathroom which infuriated my ex#1 who had been totally opposed to the idea of private school to take him out of there and enrolled him into private school for next 9 years. And I'm all so thankful for his decision as the quality of education was much better and he certainly got much needed individual attentions. I think it all depends on your school districts, schedules and individual situations... I'm glad it's over for me. Now, he wants to be a writer!? As long as he can support himself and he is happy, I'm all for whatever the path he chose at this point.

@349 celestialorigin
Yamato nedeshiko shichi henge -
That's Perfect Girl Evolution! Aka The Wallflower! I watched episode 1 raw, and now I'm waiting for girlgirl to finish the subs. It seems like F4 meets Nobuta, but what the heck - cute is cute.