The main event of a Korean child’s first birthday is the doljabi (돌자비) ceremony. A variety of objects are put on a table or tray in front of the child and whatever the child chooses foretells his or her future. Parents lay out certain items that, depending on which the baby picks up, will hopefully predict the baby’s future life. The traditional items are; a piece of thread (for long life); some money (for wealth); a pencil (for a studious or academic future); rice (for much food in life). Nowadays parents often also add toy stethoscopes, golf clubs, or computer games—hoping for that future profession.

This week there was another first birthday milestone. ChatGPT is now one year old. Its parent, OpenAI, went through a messy divorce and remarriage last week with its CEO-founder, basically over the light speed direction of the company and its implications.

ChatGPT is a digital program believed to be capable of superficially understanding natural language inputs and generating written responses to them. It was hit and miss at the beginning because its predictive word association lacked any human experience or context. However, its capabilities far beyond what other state-of-the-art digital assistants like Siri and Alexa could provide.

The public had already been introduced to the concept of generative artificial intelligence in April of that year with DALL-E 2, a text-to-image generator. DALL-E 2, as well as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney and similar programs, were an ideal low-barrier entry point for the general public to try out this revolutionary new technology. However, the training of the program is fraught with litigation on copyright infringement claims over images. If you google “cat drawing” your results will be mostly elementary school crayon drawings to simple line art. But the machine program generates art “in the style” of the top one percent of artists, by using their work as the basis for a derivative work. The US copyright office has determined that in order for a copyright to be granted, it must be created by a human author.

The technology has also surged into the music industry where fake songs by real artists are becoming more common. It is also being used in motion picture and animation industries, which is a problem for actors and writers who may be replaced by machines.

Businesses have gotten on the AI bandwagon, too. However, the results have not been as great. Several attorneys were sanctioned for using AI to write legal briefs that contained false case citations.

I wonder what the doljabi table for AI would be like: a piece of code (for copyright protection); some Bitcoin (for wealth); a court summons (for litigation/damages); and a Terminator doll (for world domination).

My Demon has held out in Australia's Netflix Top 10 for almost a week now!! Was 4th for a fair few days and is 9th right now, but that's pretty really cool considering it's only just premiered. It's also number 4 in the global Top 10 for non english shows! I can only recall maybe 3 dramas that have charted in our Top 10 in 2022/2023, and usually never this early - most only around or after the ep 5/6 mark.

Given the global response for season 1, I'm also expecting the second season of Sweet Home to make it to the Top 10 this year here, would be very cool if both dramas were in the Top 10 at the same time!

I know ratings and things like this aren't everything, but I consider it a little win and cause to do a quick happy dance, especially because unfortunately a lot of people I interact with IRL tend to look down at K-dramas. So when it does visibly chart well, I feel a little proud and can be like 'HA take that!!'.

cold season isn't even that cold and here i'm trembling - when it gonna bloom - surely gonna be quite entertaining challenge.

It's already blooming and december is barely starting - tough competitive days - challenge accepted.

rain - yeah - brings down temp - naah - temp goes high - naaah

but weather says be ready for the 1st week tan tan cold.

This kind of weather is easy one when you are pretty young - hold blood gushing through your body - burning 1000s of calories so easily.

Yoo Seung Joo, a South Korean musician who evaded military service by obtaining US citizenship (or something like that), might be able to go back to SK after being banned for the past 21 years.

Postcards to the Edge of the Holidays:

1. I can't believe it's December already and it's time to start stocking up on baking ingredients for the holidays. I think I might make chocolate pies, cookies, biscotti and red velvet marble cake to give away to friends.

2. Made a Spotify playlist that compiles all the ballads from my favourite K-Drama romances so far. Played it and realised that listening to them continuously one after another was seriously making me swoony!

K-Music artists are seriously beating their Western counterparts at writing and performing romantic heartfelt ballads. And I noticed something - the power ballad is not dead when it comes to K-Drama OSTs. Instead, they are updated for the 21st century.

3. Suddenly realised that there might be something called "too much of a good thing" because I feel deluged by the holiday season offerings on Netflix this year - MY DEMON, WELCOME TO SAMDAL-RI, YO YO HAKUSHO, SWEET HOME 2, and GYEONGSANG CREATURE. Don't think I need to leave the house all holiday break except for food LOL! I'll just be binge-watching everything with like 10 layers of skincare on my face and cold drinks and snacks within reach.

4. Operation Hit 9TailedVixen with the Lee Dong-Wook Truck (TM) has failed... because I got hit by the Jung Hae-In (TM) Truck instead. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

5. Thanks to insanely great year-end sales for K-Beauty skincare stuff, I think I might have overdone it on the beauty shopping front. But I just justify it as stocking up on what I need for the next 6 months (aka #girlmath). LOL!

6. In the Battle Against The Confucian Patriarchy News:

SOUTH KOREA Korean women are taking the Lysistra route in the brutal battle against the Korean patriarchy as they stand up to Asian machismo:

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-04-01/no-dates-no-sex-no-weddings-no-kids-korean-women-are-standing-up-to-asian-machismo.html

As the headline goes: "The movement of the ‘four no’s’ poses strong opposition to patriarchy in South Korea, which has the largest wage gap of the developed countries."

CHINA: Over in the Land of OG Confucian Patriarchy, women are continuing to say "no" to having kids, much to the horror of the Chinese government and their parents:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/10/china-faces-low-birth-rate-aging-population-but-women-dont-want-kids.html

And they are continuing to say "no" because "most husbands in China often do not play a pivotal role in a child’s upbringing, and the burden falls entirely on mothers instead."

This East Asian woman is laughing in Schadenfreude over here.

Did any of you see this article? https://www.polygon.com/entertainment/23964539/k-drama-history-american-korean-popularity-success-hallyu

Some excerpts that I liked:

"While Hollywood (and American culture generally) likes to pretend we are all middle class, Korean media of all kinds freely delves into the anxieties and dreams that manifest in the economic hierarchy of which we are all a part under capitalism. Though most people don’t think of romance as an exploration of class anxiety and, eventually, fantasy, it usually is — a dream of finding economic security without having to sacrifice dignity or love in the process."

"While Hollywood (and American culture generally) likes to pretend we are all middle class, Korean media of all kinds freely delves into the anxieties and dreams that manifest in the economic hierarchy of which we are all a part under capitalism. Though most people don’t think of romance as an exploration of class anxiety and, eventually, fantasy, it usually is — a dream of finding economic security without having to sacrifice dignity or love in the process."

how you doing.

I went through a bot of covid, not too bad

I am having a worse case of guilty love cause I swore the end yet, I cannot do it... musically. so I will keep being Guilty, politics be damned.

also these boxes dont work properly I wrote this 11 times
people at work are all dieting yet keep bringing sweets and cakes. controversial.
ok snow everywhere
slush
cannot go running. I wish they cleaned the streets better

ah, anything crazy, let me see. again I cannot type?
freaks everywhere. I am losing patience. I dont want to be tolerant to weirdos any more.
sorry got no time gotta run.
I want mochi.

Technical (?) question: I was just now writing my first roundup post; I was doing so on google docs, to then copy it on DB fanwall.
I had a bunch of lists in my original text (both ordered and not) that didn't copy on DB at all: is there a chance I was doing something wrong?? I don't remember ever struggling with this before, or needing some extra steps, but maybe I just have a bad memory?? xD

So now I know how to write lists in HTML but am still very confused about how DB works!! ahah

Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!
Does anyone else feel both excited and terrified whenever December arrives? Festivities are good, deadlines are bad. The End of the Year Review and Roundup 2023 somehow manage to be both at the same time!😅Oh well, no choice but to roll up my sleeves, crack my knuckles and start writ…oh wait, I have to finish my K-dramas first…😅

On Thanksgiving, I went to my sister's house with my dog for the 1st time since they got their new dog. My dog was so uncomfortable with him (cause the new dog isn't neutered plus it's new vs he had been around the neutered pit bull since he was a puppy). My sister kept getting annoyed & offended by his growling; saying how he was trying to run the other dog in his house and me & my mother were enabling him. She was like the dogs should just deal with it which would just mean Silky (my dog) being uncomfortable until he either did something (like snapped at the other dog since he was already uncomfortable) or submitting to the new dog (while again being uncomfortable with the dog) I just don't want to put Silky back in that situation even if it is enabling. It's stressful and anxiety inducing to me & Silky both and why do I have to deal with that?And it's extra annoying because my sister kept getting offended

She kept saying how she wouldn't have a dog that was vicious or that would harm her mother or sister

And it's not even ABOUT that! And then she's always like "let me finish; you're not listening to me"
It's just frustrating.

I don't want or plan to take Silky back there but then she called a couple of days ago to ask me to bring Silky over without my mother knowing

I do not understand the appeal of love polygons. Why would it be a fantasy to be in the center of one or one of the folks vying for that *one* person.

Seems like there's come kind of complex at play
(Argubly every relationship dynamic probably has some kind of complex at play haha)

It's just I personally hate the trope and yet it's such a feature in media.

Haven't had spotify for long (less than a month) but my spotify wrapped told me my most listened genre is "korean soundtracks" lol.

It's been snowing for two days straight in my country. We haven't had this much snow in years. This really brings me in the mood for a winter-themed drama or movie. Just have to find a fitting one that i will actually like.

So it’s December and the Hallmark movies are in full swing but I have little to no desire to watch them. I am a hopeless romantic and I previously looked to Hallmark movies but loathe them after discovering k dramas in 2021. I challenge anyone to watch Crash Landing on You and then try to watch another poorly written, low quality production HM movie.

Indeed, after 3 years of watching k dramas and over 80 shows in every genre under my belt, I am thoroughly turned off from Hollywood and 98% of my viewing content is Korean or non American. The gratuitous sex, constant rehashing of old ideas, agenda laden productions (and I am a liberal) have all served to turn me off. My one wish is that Korean productions continue to retain their unique qualities as the international viewing audience grows.