Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Another Hodgepodge of Random Musings from Rosie
The consistency of me publishing blog posts are about the same as what I jokingly call my IIF diet, or “Intermittent Intermittent Fasting.” In other words, very fluctuating and irregular XD
Recently, I’ve been reading a novel about a girl who transmigrates into an alternate universe accompanied by a mysterious “criminal-maker-system.” She’s swept into a number of nerve-wracking crime situations due to the top-tier skills she gains from completing the system’s “missions.” From a serial murderer roaming at large, to a crime ring secretly exporting historical artifacts and aiming to snag a slice of the counterfeit-money-cake, the heroine goes through countless battles of wit with these crafty criminals.
Despite the system’s constant devil’s-advocate-suggestions, of becoming the “One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them; One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” (“Lord of the Rings”, J.R.R. Tolkien), a.k.a. Master Villain, our heroine’s been resolute in her refusal of these temptations. She uses her wits and resources to resolve these sticky situations through proper legal methods. Along the way she makes many supportive, wonderful friends including our ML (male lead) policeman.
Right now I’ve gotten to the part where the heroine has gained super professional hacker skills. She almost gives in to the system’s temptations of using her newly gained skills to punish some nasty netizens that had spread false rumors about her. In the end she stayed true to her own principles and chose to resolve the situation through legal methods, well mostly. She does give the most malicious of the badmouthing people a small punishment: she creates a bug that hacks their phones and sends the malicious comments they posted online to their closest friends and family.
Casting aside whether this was the right or wrong way to deal with the situation, a quote echoed in my mind:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. . . ”
- “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens
This quote really rings true for the times we’re in now, or any time actually. The more I ponder, the more I believe that everything in life is a double-edged sword. The internet can be an invaluable resource for learning new skills or spreading positive messages, but it is also be a place where those with malicious intent spread their follies, lurking behind the so-called anonymity of keyboards and cables.
Another example would be intelligence, which appears to be a positive trait, but if someone was to use his/her intelligence for evil, then it would be a negative trait. The same logic applies to almost all technical abilities we can acquire. As the heroine summarized, “It’s not the abilities themselves that are bad, it’s the person who wields these abilities that determines whether the abilities are good or bad.”
My love for photography has been re-kindled. I don’t have the talent, training, or patience to actually devote myself to sketching or drawing, so photography is a much more achievable artistic outlet for me. Also, I really want to have a good camera for my upcoming summer vacation trip!
I’ve been swimming around in the ocean of available cameras on the market the past week. I finally pulled the trigger and bought a second-hand Fujifilm X100V. I’ve been on the wait-list for nearly a year now but there’s been no news in sight of a delivery date. The only downside is that the screen is not fully-articulating which makes it rather difficult to do vlogs…anyways, I’m super psyched for my precious to come!
There haven’t been any notable good songs (of my tastes) released lately, so I will switch things up a little and recommend a few dramas/movies that I’ve been keeping an eye on/interested in.
“Kungfu Panda 4” in theaters now!
“Dune: Part Two” in theaters now! (albeit I didn’t actually get around to watching Part One yet)
“Yolo”《热辣，滚烫》 in select AMC theaters (a word of warning: my friend watched it and said it was most definitely not a light-hearted comedy, more of a melodrama)
Shogun - a TV mini series with a whopping high score of 99% by critics and 93% by audience members on Rotten Tomatoes. The plot reminds me of a cross between a Japanese Game of Thrones and Tom Cruise’s 2003 “The Last Samurai” production quality looks amazing, stunning visuals and a stellar cast
Doctor Slump - Kdrama starring Park Hyung-sik and Park Shin-hye just finished airing, typical enemies-to-lovers plot with good actors and the oh-so-familiar Kdrama vibes
Chicken Nugget - comedy mystery Kdrama starring Ryu Seung-ryong and Ahn Jae-hong, a father must team up with his daughter’s admirer to find a way to help a chicken nugget (his daughter) return to human form. It looks hilarious.
Queen of Tears - (currently airing) Kdrama starring Kim Soo-hyun (can we just take a moment to address the fact that oppa looks exactly the same as he did from “My Love from the Star”?!) and Kim Ji-won. If you’re into chaebol heiress + pride-of-the-village-lawyer-young-man marriage romance, check this drama out.
My Sibling’s Romance - Korean reality show “It redefines dating shows with a family twist! Together with four pairs of biological brothers and sisters, they gather in a shared house to assist each other in finding romantic partners. It introduces a refreshing concept where siblings embark on a quest to find love, not just for themselves but for each other, all under the watchful eyes of their siblings.” (MyDramaList) I think I saw somewhere that this show was like the sibling spinoff version of “EXchange” (a.k.a. Transit Love), a Korean reality dating show where ex-couples live together under the same roof.
Well, this turned into another mumbo-jumbo of a rambling…anyhow, until next time dear readers!