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Open Thread #753

Happy Friday everyone!

Here is your Open Thread, which is here for you to chat about anything you want, whether it be drama-related or not. Nothing’s off-topic here! Spoilers may be rife, so proceed accordingly.

 
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I enjoyed the first episode of Soundtrack #1 this week...not. Because it's @!#$% Disney+. I realize that I am just a guy writing a comment on a drama site (although the best one!) before the crack of dawn, and not the guy running the damn company, but with a Korean diaspora of nearly 3M in North America, it's seems commercially sensible to, you know, go after that market.

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Gender doesn't matter - pocket size does. Everyone is doing the investment in plastic faces. if i've sufficient funds then even i'll invest. Population factor isn't worthwhile either when you have to compete with Chinese and Indians.

I'm more bullish on Chinese and Indian scene than koreans.

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VPN has saved me.

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Lol I want one more and more every day... I have Disney+... I should get their Kdramas. The only thing that gives me hope is that Disney+ eventually added Snowdrop to the US platform. I'm hoping that means they will eventually add the others, too.

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Might be jumping on the VPN bandwagon too...

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SAMESAMESAME. I am feeling really disgruntled about this!

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All of this. The fact that Disney+ is making k-dramas that no one in the country the company is based in can watch while they're airing is ridiculous. And yet another reason to hate the big bad mouse.

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Currently, there are more than 10 million active COVID cases in South Korea (20% of its population). The country has waved the white flag and surrendered to any tighter restrictions due to this surge.

Like most of the rest of the world, SK has decided that it cannot longer put life on hold after two years. The squeezed middle merchant class has caught with increasing debt and revenue shortfalls.

Arirang News reported that in 2021 marriages hit an all-time low (192,500, down 9.8% from 2020). A survey indicated that less than 2 in 10 single people went out on a date during the pandemic.

Divorces went down to 102,000 (down 3% from 2020) as long court shutdowns may have been a factor. The greatest increase in divorces were "silver separators," couples who have been married for more than 30 years.

It seems a highly industrial but steeped in tradition culture of South Korea is at a cross roads. It has accepted divorce without the prior stigma. But it also has a trend against marriage as being a required rite of passage. I wonder if this latest massive surge of COVID cases will drastic effect on the 2022 statistics.

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Interesting. On a slightly related note, apparently US weddings in 2022 will match or exceed the all-time previous high number set in 1984.

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We have friends (who quietly married during the pandemic) and who are now remarrying rather than forfeit all of deposits placed for a larger event.

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Oh, is that why all my patients today are getting married this year?

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Ha is that true? They’re trying to be sure they’re not allergic to each other?

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My sister and I are slowly re-watching "When The Camelia Blooms"

I like it much better now than when I first watched it (im slightly less cynical now, than i was three years ago)

Gong Hyo-jin is so pretty and its hard to believe she's almost 10 years older than her leading man here

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Ahh I loved that drama! I'm a sucker for the slice of life genre, and serial killers... it felt kind of odd that this show blended the two so well, but I loved it! And the male lead was so different than what I feel like you normally see. He was so sweet... yet single minded^^

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Agreed, its an odd mix of genres that surprisingly works.

Also Kang Ha-neul is really great here, it's definitely a star making performance

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CAMELLIA (2019) was my first Kang Ha-neul drama. It just happened that at the same time I started watching the great MISAENG (2014) and I am sure for a few episodes I did not realize I was seeing KHN in MISAENG his character was so different.

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He was in Misaeng?? What was his role??!

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@cozybooks, KHN played Jang Baek-gi one of the group hired as permanent employees the same time that Jang Geu-rae was hired as a contract employee. This might jog your memory:
https://thesunnytown.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/20141219-starnews-misaeng-kang-haneul-interview/

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NO WAY I totally remember his character! He was so sleazy, if I'm remembering right! Oh my gosh they have such different viiibes

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Are the other sites not considering Pachinko a Korean/Japanese (Asian? Technically isn't it an American production?) drama? There are no signs of subs there. Idk if I need more money to afford all the subscriptions in the world or to have lesser streaming services for everyone's peace.

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saw an article saying pachinko is going to be on YouTube?

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Unholy glee accurately describes my anticipation of the Great Meeting- chaebol grandfather and the chicken shop parents......I am a roiling, boiling pot of chuckles at the possibilities #abp

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I smile because even without the hashtag at the end, the show is successful enough that it's likely anyone on this thread will know what you are referencing. It's really a great development out of a mixed bag of drama news/happenings thus far this year.

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We sure do.

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Yep! Can’t wait to see the meeting (collision?) of her Mom and Grandpa 🐔

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Right?!

I feel like Mia Farrow in The Purple Rose of Cairo, to paraphrase "I've met a perfect cast of characters, theyre fictional,.. but you can't have everything"?!

I am going to have a hard time letting go of all the characters.

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Male Test Cricket championship - oh ho ho

Female Cricket World CUP - ohhhhhhhh

And i have ordered a bit too much from amazon - I threw much expired food that i need to be taught a good lesson. Mother Earth will take care of that and i happily accept it.

World water day - who pays attention to it? More than half of world population don't even have proper drinking water and privileged class with their own 1st world problems - heh - rest assured - storm is building up - Mother Earth doesn't discriminate - Everyone gonna get their own fair share justice.

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Hey--so have any of y'all tried searching one of your favorite shows from the last five or six years on the site and then reading the comments in the recaps or the pre-show casting news? I just tried it with Signal and it's pretty fun to see what everyone was thinking at the time lol :)

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Super fun!
And while in search of the instructions on how to italicize/bold/underline, I just meandered through the topics under the “Resources” heading. Lots of fun old (and informative) stuff in there including wise-ass comments from Javabeans and Girlfriday.
Still haven’t found the instructions, though ☺️

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Thank you, ally! I knew it involved lots of bracket-y things, slashes and toggling around but couldn’t remember the details. As always, you are THE BEST

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lol I remember asking a fellow beanie for those very instuctions in OT one day... I couldn't figure out how they did it but I wanted to be like them. and now I have the power even though I sometimes mess up lol and end up with an entire bold sentence Lolol

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Mary used to fix those bold paragraphs... are you still here, Mary?

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I miss @mary

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Awww me too haha she was so much fun^^

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So much fun to be had!

When I fell into the kdrama rabbit hole, I would watch an episode of an older show and then read all the recaps/comments on dramabeans! I found it was easier to form my own opinion of the drama that way vs. watching live, where we can't help but be affected by the pack mentality. For example, Queen Inhyun's Man was brilliant and I TOTALLY believe in the magic phone (which dB poo-pooed as an inconsistency in world-building🤪)

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Lol I totally know what you're talking about (with QIHM). I remember reading the comments and going: but it was such a good way to get them back togeethher!! Haha

I agree it's easier to form your own opinion later--I had to distance myself from a few dramas that the DB community wasn't a fan of but I personally loved, just to make sure I wouldn't fall off the bandwagon lol. ... and then there were other shows that I resolutely showed up to represent and fangirl, hopefully sway public sentiment lol

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It's fun when someone Iikes one of your old comments! But after you can fall in the hole of recap.

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Recap hole sounds familiar. There are so many dramas I've "read" on DB rather than watched on screen (for several reasons, including limited access to dramas and zero desire to give my binging prone self more access to full dramas)

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Before I commit to watch a drama, I usually check out what the beanies think about it before I invest 16 hours of my life. I don’t read the recap though to avoid spoilers. And yes, I like old beanies’ comments.

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Finally I understand those mean kdrama moms.

I don't know the guy, but every time my best friend talks about her boyfriend I want to put 1m wons (is that a lot? Is that enough?) in an envelop, call him and tell him to leave my bestie alone.
I've never talked to him and my friend has told me only a few things about him and their relationship, but that man sounds awful. Like deserver of a kimchi slap kind of awful.

I really need to talk to my bestie about this because I need to know if that man is really that bad.

Tbh, sometimes I feel like even my bestie doesn't like him. Something is off.

I hope we can talk soon.

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Beanies on the OT! I wasn’t really planning on writing anything here today, but then I realized HIGHLIGHT just released their new album this week. They did some live performances over the past 24 hours, and I’ve fallen into that rabbit hole and it must be shared with the rest of the interwebs! So my fan wall will be a steady stream of live performances today and tomorrow, probably. I already posted their entire album. LOL :). I’m asking for forgiveness now because all my other Highlight beanies have left DB for a while.

Also, I’m still enjoying 25-21, Business Proposal, and started Soundtrack #1 (yay for VPNs). And don’t forget PACHINKO starts today on AppleTV+ and Youtube. Sheesh, I’ll be watching 4 shows on 3 different platforms (and how are none of these on VIKI)? VIKI better step it up because I’m worried they’ll be left in the dust.

And middle school drama has taken over my house with my daughter’s best friend is interested and texting a boy so persistently, it’s interfering with her friendship with my daughter. Best friend was called out on it by all her friends and her brother (at a very public dinner with the family). Best friend’s mother is (I don’t want to say controlling, but she’s controlling—lol), so I’m just waiting with my popcorn for the fallout. Which, hopefully, will be better news for my daughter who feels slighted every day. I’m fine if this girl likes this boy and wants to get to know him, but do it on her time, and not when Science Olympiad state competition is a couple weeks away, and your project isn’t done and my daughter is doing all the work. (Thankfully, math genius and my daughter are still getting along splendidly on their preparation for their own Science Olympiad event. And her other best friend and her are doing well on their event for state too.)

Speaking of math genius…

The math problem (just a couple of 8th graders in the 10th grade math class):
Daughter: I slept in math class today.
Me: Why?
Daughter: The teacher was going over something I already knew how to do. I could do it in my sleep. LOL. I’m at the back of the class so just laid my head back on the ledge behind me and slept.
Me: What was math genius doing? (Since I’m pretty sure he knows how to do whatever they were explaining.)
Daughter: Oh, he was sleeping too. We’re both at the back of the class so no one sees us or cares. But he laid his head on his desk with his arms around it.
Me: Can’t the teacher see you?
Daughter: Probably, but I don’t think she cares what we do if we just make good grades on the test.
Me: You’re probably right. Did you have a good nap?
Daughter: Oh I did, I got to sleep in band too. I laid my head on the tympani. I guess I was just tired today! It’s a good thing I’m in the percussion section so I have something to sleep on!
Me: It’s a good thing none of your teachers cared!

Moral of the story: I never slept in class, so this is crazy to me. Don’t sleep in class...

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...It’s disrespectful.
2nd Moral: I laughed imagining those two kids sawing logs at the back of the class, no wonder the older kids bully them.
3rd Moral: Have a lovely weekend Beanies!

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These two kids are lovely. My worst nightmare is sleeping in a class and getting caught, I... just... can't.
Since they are math geniuses, do they intend to pursue a similar career path? (Yes I'm calling your daughter a genius too because studying 10th grade math when you're an 8th grader is a big deal).

Also is Pachinko available on YouTube as well?

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Yes, for Pachinko, AppleTv announced that they would stream it there too.

And yeah, my daughter is good at math. That’s all from her dad—I’m terrible at math. Both she and math genius have no clue what they will do with their lives. 😆

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I've been good at math all my school life and kind of miss it now that I chose a completely different career path. Best of luck to these kids, hopefully they'll make a wise decision for themselves.

Didn't know that at all. Need to check YouTube.

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Pachinko is available on Youtube?

Do we have to pay a channel subscription or does Youtube Premium suffice?

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I was also good at maths, but never considered it as a career option and abandoned it when I got to university - until I got so freaking bored with my courses because they were too easy (what was WRONG with me 😅) and picked up maths again for a challenge (university level maths is challeng

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(And then she accidentally hit send)
…challenging!)….I was going to teach maths but teaching suuuucks. I ended up in data analysis.

In summary: I don’t think many teenagers know what they plan to do, but maths is always useful and interesting!

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Smart choice there @beffels
I totally believe that by the time we have to make a decision regarding our careers, many kids are not that prepared, except for a few who certainly know what's for them (usually medical, even those who want to go in STEM tend to have a change of mindset).

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HIGHLIGHT COMEBACK! <3 They released a lengthy album, still taking my time with it.

I've been listening to BEAST playlists recently too. It's been a while. It was nice to listen to some old hits. I was half cringing and chuckling at some lines. XD;

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Have mainland Chinese production companies EVER made a decent romantic comedy? I have now "watched" about 7 (watched,that is,with the fast forward button perpetually pressed.) All of them have featured a reputedly brilliant, stoic, badly acted male character being condescendingly charmed by a girlish, slightly ditzy badly acted female lead who talks to herself in self-doubting voiceovers. What's funny is I have a pretty good Chinese-American friend who immigrated from Beijing in the 1980s. Like me, he's a slightly bumbling, comic, self-doubting type (if we were women, you'd call us ditzy). This friend is married to a stoic, razor sharp Chinese-immigrant businesswoman who speaks to him very condescendingly--so an exact gender reversal!
Anyway,back to Chinese romantic comedies--my theory (hardly just mine) is that the only good popular culture from authoritarian regimes is the underground, subversive type But maybe there are some C-Drama counter examples?

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Have you seen:
Find Yourself
A Love So Beautiful
The Romance of Tiger and Rose

I think you would like the first and last. Both with strong female leads. I liked the middle because by the end, the girl has more agency and you can see how much the guy really depends on her. I preferred the Chinese version of ALSB more than the Korean. So much so, I wrote an essay about it. 😂 https://www.dramabeans.com/members/ally-le/activity/490416/

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I agree with Ally's list and adding to that I would totally recommend Day of Becoming You. It made my last year and is probably the show I would recommend to new C drama watchers as a gateway drama to keep them hooked. Other than that there are:
Put your Head on My Shoulders (this was long ago so idk if holds the test of time)
You are My Glory(prettiest OTP but also one that talks)
My Fated Boy (I'm not a noona romance fan but this proved me wrong alongwith find yourself )
There are actually many good C dramas out there also in the genre romance. They do friendships really well and those I've seen shown good communication between the main OTP. But some of my favorites are not in the romance genre too. I think C dramas have been doing rom coms better than kdramas for a while. It feels like kdramas just got back into the mood this year. But the thing is that there are lots of cdramas out there and many not so good ones. So you really have to proceed by checking reviews. Check out AvenueX on YouTube. Her rankings can help you find some really good ones. I only watch a drama if beanies or AvenueX recommends because their choices usually match with mine.

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I enjoyed Put Your Head On My Shoulders too. It was extremely lightweight and I watched it only a bit at a time over several months whenever I wanted somethjng non taxing to watch but it was nice.

My Little Happiness was quite good - I probably fast forwarded a storyline here or there but nothing compared to some. Usually I give up and wonder why I bothered but I actually finished that one.

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Thanks to you, @pohonphee, @cindymahri77, @nilsche and @lillamy for these recommendations and I'll look at Avenue X. But since I'm watching these for escapist purposes, I have only a limited tolerance for a portrayal of unequal relationships between the male lead and the female lead, where the tension is supposed to come from the ML who is handsome and very accomplished being attracted against his best interests to a FL who supposedly falls short in both categories--even though to my eye, the actor playing the ML is often uncharismatic and not that great looking, vs. the always beautiful and charming actress playing the FL.
I would classify A Love so Beautiful and Put your head on my Shoulder, both of which I've seen, in that category.
Put Your Head on My Shoulder was okay because it did portray the ML as a nerd (albeit the idol of all the girls in the science department) but it did no justice to the perky female lead, and actually had the guy say the relationship cost him several iq points, which was pretty obnoxious since his "brilliance" was exemplified by him looking a things through a microscope in a physics lab.
In K-romances, when the FL is depicted as not very bright, she always an inherent wisdom or common sense (and of course is very beautiful), so there just isn't the same level of male condescension as I've seen in chinese rom-coms.

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Seems like PYHOMS doesn't stand the test of time lol. I think GWY was still less condescending than several kdrama MLs, especially those in the 2010s. But what I liked about that show most was the FL who had dreams and goals of her own. If you're looking for an equal relationship, start with DOBY (I can't emphasize it enough 😂), however, the real fun starts from the second episode. FY, the romance of toger and tose abd MFB are really good examples of women having the upper hand though. Another equal relationship was in a non rom-com show that I still watch for the laughts till date, Arsenal Military Academy. We had a lot of fun in the beanie wall when it aired.

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I recommend Win The World and The Autumn Ballad for non ditzy heroine. If you read the review, the similarity between the twos is that many fans dont like the heroines. They are not rom com though, rom com is not my favorite genre, never trust my recommendation on that genre. Hah

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The only Chinese romcom I've watched was Across the Ocean to See You. The story can seem like a hodge-podge but I loved the main leads. I might even rewatch it one of these days. 😅☺️

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Oohhh. My newly favorite c drama! You are my glory. This one is 🤌. Also agree with @cindymahri77, across the ocean to see you also good.

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I would like to add Le coup the Foudre to list of good Cdrama rom-coms . The Day of Becoming you is also one of my favorite dramas from last year. ^^

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Been really enjoying Legally Romance lately.

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I rather liked 'Le Coup de Foudre' (2019) but the Chinese rom-coms I've seen after that seemed to all be trying to redo Le Coup de Foudre over again. Its rather like a hit Korean drama that gets four cheap imitators the next year.

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Lolol Chinese dramas... yeah. I stayed away for a looong time because I couldn't seem to find any where people acted like normal people (too much aegyo). However, I just finished one tonight I was pleasantly surprised by. It's not a rom-com (I mostly watch thrillers) but it was quite good!

It's called Under the Skin

The only chinese language romantic dramas I've successfully enjoyed are
1. MARS (an old Taiwanese drama)
2. Murphy's Law of Love (still fluffy and too much aegyo, but cute)
3. Love Me if You Dare (another crime/thriller, but a cute romance)

There's another drama by the same writer as Love Me If You Dare called... When a Snail Falls in Love? but I don't know where I watched it.

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I just started UNDER THE SKIN and have watched the first 6 of 20 episodes and love it.
In crime/mystery a 2021 cdrama I really enjoyed and can recommend is the 16 episode gritty DOUBLE TAP (Viki US):
https://mydramalist.com/52891-double-tap

I have not seen LOVE ME IF YOU DARE (Viki US) but I did watch and enjoy WHEN A SNAILS FALL IN LOVE years ago and I must have watched it on Viki. CANDLE IN THE TOMB (2016/17) was my first cdrama. SNAIL was my second. I left cdramas for a very long time but in 2021 I returned with ANCIENT DETECTIVE (2020) followed by THE IMPERIAL CORONER (2021). The recent RESET got some very good reviews but I guess I am not ready for a time loop drama right now.

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Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!
Maybe it is age, maybe I am out of shape, but weekend trips seem to demand more recovery time now than they did before the pandemic!😅 I had cleared my Monday schedule to dial things back a few notches and catch up on my weekend shows, so that I could wake up on Tuesday feeling totally refreshed and ready to take on my chores...

My godson fell ill on Sunday night and of course we had to take care of him instead. The chores and episodes were still there on Tuesday, minus the promised amount of sleep and rest. As a night owl I am horrified to admit that I was asleep before midnight a couple times this week. I have no high hopes for a healthy sleeping pattern in the making, but pining for your bed is an interesting feeling.🤭

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I just noticed something surprising. There's a certain 'notoroius' streaming site whose name starts with 'Drama' and ends with 'Cool' that I haven't visited for awhile. I happened to click a link on a whim and was surprised to see the'ye cleaned up their act (at least in my region)! No more creepy ads on the margins. I suppose they some some value in presenting a more respectable face. They've got the Thai series 'F4' (Thai 'Boys of Flowers') that's getting high praise, even from BOF haters.

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I haven't posted here in a longggg while.
Just had to comment that the OT screencap looks new~~
Hari & her archaeopteryx!! ^^

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Hey so random question (and maybe the fan wall is a better place to ask this?) but does anyone know what the picture is in the banner at the bottom of the website? There's like five people with angsty expressions, one of whom is holding a gun... does anyone know what it is from?

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I think it is GRID

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