So I am off to vacation to the furthest island in Estonia called Vaindloo. I could end up seeing Russian ships s so I wore an ukrainian vyshyvanka and if they should pass I will restage the „warshiop go…!“ photo.
And then, I am going berry picking with an italian friend who bought a farm in Estonia.

Next week, Kihnu island and kpop festival, where I do a workshop (wearing my own hanbok). We will paint joseon style „Wanted“ posters of kpop idols based on description. And we will play ddakji. There will also be dance covers, and free korean food from Tallinn King Sejong Institute. Whats more – it is right next to my house, haha

Busy week, I hope you guys have fun too! Summer is half way through already!

Netflix lost another 1 million subscribers. Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings admitted on the earnings call that "it's tough losing a million [subscribers] and calling it a success," but he reiterated that the company is "set up really well for the next year." The company still has 220 million subscribers globally, but most of subscription losses are in North America, the most profitable region.

Netflix is betting on hit original content but more importantly “franchise” content that can keep viewership and produce less risky sequels. For example, Squid Game season 2 plus an actual game show is a franchise model in the works. Netflix spent more than $200 million for the film, The Gray Man, which it sees as a James Bond type franchise. It is a stretch to claim to have a superstar franchise like Bond before the release of the film. Rotten Tomato scored it at 52 calling the plot and action sequences “luke warm leftovers from better films.” Ouch.

Earlier this week I lamented the possibility that Alchemy of Souls could be testing the waters as a franchise type series since it has a grand universe with Harry Potter, anime and martial arts elements and a large cast of characters. I hope not.

The only thing Netflix still has going for it is that is still making money ($1 billion last quarter). All the other major streaming platforms have been losing money. It begs the question: streaming may be great for content distribution but may be a terrible business model for content creation.

1 more new laptop - need to have enough money to start you own Laptop brand.

Beautiful summer - 35 is fine but 80% humidity isn't. 43 you can deal with when humidity is hardly 15% but 35 with 80% - that's what clouds and rain do. 15 minutes of fun and days of "oh no". Fun demands price.

Few months back i said - it gonna be fun - and mother nature really brought fun this summer in Europe. Time to enjoy. No one can whine.

England vs. india cricket 3rd ODI was fun - 35+ and spectators directly under sun - commentators kept on speaking about heat wave and weather and director kept on showing people with water bottles and ice. police with ice cubes. ok ok - If its summer then why watch match in a stadium where their is no roof. There was no noise at all - no excitement and action from spectators. why bought tickets then. watch at home.

Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!

Things have been not so good this past month. I already mentioned the mono a few weeks ago, but a lot more has happened that was too overwhelming to talk about at the time.

My grandmother currently suffers from a skull fracture after a nasty fall from the stairs at her place and is finally stable enough to stay at the rehab department in the hospital. I cannot recall everything from when it happened because of the mono induced high fevers, then again, way more stories of chaos and blood than I would have liked.😦Grandfather agreed to a temporary stay at a retirement home, since he understands that we cannot take over grandmother’s caregiving duties. It will be hard to break this news to grandmother, because she is determined to return to her beloved home. Unfortunately, their health no longer allows them to live in their place. The family is now looking into what could be the right place for them and taking turns visiting both of them and running their errands.

My employer contacted me during this period to warn me about a penalty as a result of missing sick notes. Since I have triple proof of handing in my sick notes on time, I did not let this slide, but it has been an unnecessary source of fury and anxiety on top of the grandparent worries. This long weekend I was going to escape for a bit to my friend’s place, but it got cancelled because she and her parents got covid.

Fortunately, the universe is using this long weekend as time to rest. I got to visit both of my grandparents for the first time this week. I got my employer to settle for a sick note copy after sending them enough proof. My blood test results have improved over the last 3 weeks, even though we are not fully recovered yet.

When it rained back then, it poured. At least it has stopped raining for now, and I can only hope that the sunshine will soon return.☀️

Does anybody here still use Kakao?? I set up an account back in the BC era (Before Covid) for Beanie meetups. Now they are about to delete me for being inactive and I'm wondering if it is worth saving it. I don't have any use for it besides communicating with Beanies.

Lord help me I'm awake for the Open Thread...

Nowadays my current obsession is watching the cafe vlogs from the different Korean baristas and soothe myself with the "ice clinking in the glass ASMR" also the "soda ASMR" lol
Inspired by the cafe vlogs, I tried to make green mango ade and it was a decent success
I absolutely dislike ( read abhor) milk teas and can sparingly tolerate green tea and herbal teas (IRONIC considering I'm born in the region which exports maximum premium tea blends to the world) so I'm going to entertain myself with the different ades I can think of 😛
While waiting for the weekend to come, I binge watched Crazy love! I had really low expectations but I enjoyed for the duration without overabusing the FF button. I think it's alright for a single drama binge.
Can Beanies recommend me few binge worthy dramas with not too disappointing endings? The one week wait between Alchemy of souls will drive me crazy 😭
Why did I set foot in live watching territory after promising myself during Crowned Clown ugh...

OMG, a bunch of newly Netflix-acquired old, past Kdramas are arrived already this month: Imitation, She Would Never Know, Dali and Gamjatang, Youth of May, Sell Your Haunted House, Backstreet Rookie, Police University and My Unfamiliar Family.
Sadly, Today's Webtoon, Adamas and Big Mouth aren't on Netflix (but I hope that Today's Webtoon will not be a Netflix original but acquire to Netflix some months or even a year after airing). So I knew that Adamas and Big Mouth are officially coming to Disney+ while Today's Webtoon will be on Viki and even on Viu.
So I don't think that after Netflix officially acquired Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Alchemy of Souls and Cafe Minamdang, I don't know what next upcoming Kdramas that officially acquired to Netflix.

Ji Chang-wook fans good news. His upcoming 16 eps. W/T drama from KBS, IF YOU WISH UPON ME is now on Viki US’s “Coming Soon” list. Thanks Viki for picking WISH up and not keeping us in suspense. Episode one airs Aug. 10.

Why as of today WISH is not on Kocowa’s “Coming Soon”, we’ll who knows.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo's broadcaster ENA just released another clip originally in Episode 2(but not included in the end) showing the reason why Taesan and Hanbada are rival ... seems that CEO Han and CEO Tae are also used to be rival of a man (probably Youngwoo's dad?)

The clip: https://youtu.be/RRWSoa-a4vE

I'd like to take a moment to discuss the depiction of people with Autistic Spectrum in Dramas, sparked by the lovable Extraordinary Attorney Woo (a series that I am highly enjoying despite my reservations about the depiction of those with Autism). EAW seems destined to be transformed into a US multi-season series just like the Good Doctor. But the two leads of these shows are, I think, very atypical of the impact of Autistic Spectrum. Both of these characters are Savants with extremely high IQ's. They are both portrayed by attractive (non-Autistic) actors. Yes, they did well portraying the type of mannerisms and typical quirks someone with Autism might have, but on the spectrum, these two characters are EXTREMELY high functioning.

I have a nephew with Autism, and he is based on what I've seen far more typical. He would actually be considered pretty high-functioning. He graduated high school, can converse with others, and take care of personal grooming. But he will never be independent - he will always need a caretaker or supervision in a group home situation. He will likely never have a challenging job (he works as a bagger in a grocery store - I have seen other young men with Autism in similar positions. It's closer to the way Autism was portrayed in It's Okay to Not be OK, but without the level of talent

Just another Kdrama concept I came up with.. I'm a fan of romance story lines but I also enjoy a good bromance.

Title: Two Sides of a broken heart
Genre: Melo-drama, slice of life
Starring: Park Hyun Sik, Park Seo Jun, Han Ji Min

Not realizing that they both dated the same woman at different times in their lives, two male strangers meet for the first time at their ex's funeral. Bonding over this fact, the two decide to become friends. They meet up once in a while for drinks to tell stories about their past relationships while coping with the death of their ex whom they both seem to not be over yet..

Do we have a drama hangout for "It is beautiful now"?

So not only is husband watching Alchemy of Souls with me - he has twice this week asked if there are new episodes and also suggested REWATCHING an earlier episode to see what he missed 😱🤯 who is this man?! 😄

I still expect AoS to fall off a cliff at the end as that is the way of dramas so I don’t think this will carry over to other dramas, but it’s nice to have a watching companion in the same room as me 😄

I just finished the second season of Yumi's Cells. It doesn't seem to get much coverage here, but I have found both seasons entertaining. I get Reply 1988 feels from the "who is gonna be the guy," part of the show.

I don’t want to spoil the last two eps of Yumi’s Cells 2 but I have a lot of thoughts which I will try and hold onto for later! But suffice it to say that I wish the plot and the motivation made sense to me.