The One With The End Of The Year MeMe - 2010 Edition
1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
Start learning Korean.
Eat Korean Food.
Listen to Korean Pop Music.
Go to Korean meeting group.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make new years resolutions. I make life long resolutions.
I have had an astounding success with keeping in track to my current set of resolutions, which are totally focused on learning the Korean language and Culture.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope. Although my niece is now pregnant.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope.
5. What countries did you visit?
None.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Perhaps, a Korean girlfriend. It's not really a current goal that I have in learning all things Korean, but I have already heard the comment a couple of times from a couple of women that I should get a Korean girlfriend.
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 14th.
Oldest date I see on any of my Korean pop music video files on my computer. That means that is the date I first got into K-pop and got addicted all again to K-drama. The date is now symbolic for that moment when I snapped and realized I wanted to learn Korean. I wanted to be able to watch Korean TV shows without subtitles. I then made the conscious decision to be obsessed with my goals towards learning Korean.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Speak Korean to total strangers and have them understand.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Exercising less and less as the year went on.
10. Did you suffer any illness or injuries?
Nope.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Regular meals at local Korean restaurant.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
This one waitress at a Korean restaurant who is making attempts at teaching me Korean phrases.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Hmmm, I won't go into details because I don't want to put some sort of privacy level on this post.
Let's say it was work related, but gladly it had nothing to do with my current position or current bosses.
14. Where did most of your money go?
This is a kind of silly phrasing for this type of question and I bet it assumes those that are answering it ONLY have disposable income to worry about.
Most of my money went to rent. So there!
Now if you asked where most of my disposable income went, then I would say to Korean restaurants.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Traveling every month to see family, K-pop, Korean Reality shows featuring K-pop stars, and Korean Waitresses.
16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
SNSD - Oh!
This is a "Beatles event" type song for me.
I am sure this description will horrify Beatles fans.
I term it "Beatles event" because it is a single band that opened the door for a flood of a new wave of artists that a person can listen to, just like how The Beatles opened the door for the British Invasion of UK pop/rock artists who crossed the pond to the American pop/rock charts in the 1960s.
YouTube became the "Ed Sullivan Show" analog. And just as Ed Sullivan introduced the Beatles, then YouTube introduced SNSD to me and the hit song they had at the time, Oh!.
Once I was addicted to the song, I noticed that YouTube was recommending SNSD fanvids to me.
I got addicted to SNSD fanvids.
YouTube then recommended other K-pop artists.
I got addicted to other K-pop artists.
YouTube truly is now the heir apparent to your MTV.
After that, a Korean wave of artists started showing up in my main mp3 collection and K-pop totally took it over.
Currently, around 75 percent of the nearly 200 songs I have playing in my car is now K-pop.
It's a rather dramatic transformation, and it all happened within less than a year.
I have embedded the Oh! song, which was SNSD's motivational World Cup Soccer song. Several K-pop artists at that time were trying to see who could get the official World Cup song to cheer South Korea on.
Why they choose to use American Football imagery instead for the music video has me a little lost and I can only guess they are trying to impress all the fans they have in the United States.
But the important part of the song was the cheerleader theme, and they were then able to sing the song in front of the national South Korean World Cup Team in concert as cheerleaders.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
Overall, happier.
It was an up and down year. It started out normal.
Then my job got depressing for a few months.
And then my job turned around and my fascination for learning Korean gave me a personal satisfaction that made me happier.
ii. thinner or fatter?
Thinner, but only by like around 20 pounds. If I could get things back on track that number would have been larger.
iii. richer or poorer?
Richer, as I was hired permanent at my job.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Speak Korean.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastinating.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
With family.
21 What was your favorite month of 2010?
December. What with holidays, job back on track, and increased interaction with people at a Korean meeting group and a Korean restaurant, things appear to be getting better all the time.
22. Did you fall in love in 2010?
What do you mean?
Did I fall in romantic love with a specific person? No
Did I fall in love with a culture and/or specific goal? Yes.
23. Are you still in love now?
With Korean culture? Ne! (a.k.a. "yes!)"
24. How many one-night stands?
I don't do one night stands.
25. What was your favorite TV program?
Three way tie.
Invincible Youth - Korean "reality" TV show that puts K-pop stars on a farm and has them do manual farm labor.
We Got Married - Korean "reality" TV show that puts K-pop stars into fake arranged marriages.
Running Man - Korean "reality" TV show that puts K-pop and K-drama stars into an adult version of hide and seek where one team performs a man hunt to find the members of the competing team.
But the video clip I am going to show is from Family Outing, which features several key stars of Running Man and is yet another "reality" Korean TV show designed to torture k-pop and k-drama stars including the drop dead gorgeous Lee Hyori and Song Jihyo.
Oh my, those women mesmerize me.
26. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes, and I will not make a comment.
27. What was the best book you read?
No books.
All my reading was taken up with on-line news or learning Korean.
28. What was your greatest musical discovery?
K-pop.
29. What did you want and get?
I wanted more purpose in life.
I got it.
30. What did you want and not get?
Fluency in Korean.
31. What was your favorite film of this year?
My appreciation for theatrical movies completely collapsed this year.
I really don't care what movies are out there anymore. I just don't enjoy them that much anymore.
32. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Only thing I remembered was buying strawberry cheesecake. Other than that, I am blanking out on what was done on my birthday.
I turned 38.
33. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Hmmm ...
... Korean girlfriend? :P
34. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
A slow, progressive move to more business acceptable attire as influenced by k-drama actors. Those guys are more preppier looking than their American counterparts.
35. What kept you sane?
K-Drama.
36. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Eugene (Kim Yoo-Jin)
37. What political issue stirred you the most?
North Korea.
It's impossible to learn as much as you can about South Korea without having to think about the dilemmas that North Korea present.
38. Who did you miss?
My family.
The more I visit my sister and mother in College Station, the more I miss them.
39. Who was the best new person you met?
Korean waitresses.
40. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
That it is okay to look foolish when trying to learn.
41. Did you get a new job in 2010?
Well, it sure does feel like it.
I was hired permanent at the place I worked, so I did change employers even though it was the exact same job.
Then after a few months of being made permanent, they switched contracts I was working on and had to relearn a lot of things, all at the same place of employment.
42. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
The following is a translation of part of the Korean lyrics in the 2NE1 song Can't Nobody.
Beautiful Seoul City
The loud sound of music
Black eyes, brown hair
You're following too slow
With a reassured attitude
Your confidence is reaching the sky
Even if you say, in a shameless and dignified manner
That you want me, can't touch this
Start learning Korean.
Eat Korean Food.
Listen to Korean Pop Music.
Go to Korean meeting group.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make new years resolutions. I make life long resolutions.
I have had an astounding success with keeping in track to my current set of resolutions, which are totally focused on learning the Korean language and Culture.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope. Although my niece is now pregnant.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope.
5. What countries did you visit?
None.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Perhaps, a Korean girlfriend. It's not really a current goal that I have in learning all things Korean, but I have already heard the comment a couple of times from a couple of women that I should get a Korean girlfriend.
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 14th.
Oldest date I see on any of my Korean pop music video files on my computer. That means that is the date I first got into K-pop and got addicted all again to K-drama. The date is now symbolic for that moment when I snapped and realized I wanted to learn Korean. I wanted to be able to watch Korean TV shows without subtitles. I then made the conscious decision to be obsessed with my goals towards learning Korean.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Speak Korean to total strangers and have them understand.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Exercising less and less as the year went on.
10. Did you suffer any illness or injuries?
Nope.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Regular meals at local Korean restaurant.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
This one waitress at a Korean restaurant who is making attempts at teaching me Korean phrases.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Hmmm, I won't go into details because I don't want to put some sort of privacy level on this post.
Let's say it was work related, but gladly it had nothing to do with my current position or current bosses.
14. Where did most of your money go?
This is a kind of silly phrasing for this type of question and I bet it assumes those that are answering it ONLY have disposable income to worry about.
Most of my money went to rent. So there!
Now if you asked where most of my disposable income went, then I would say to Korean restaurants.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Traveling every month to see family, K-pop, Korean Reality shows featuring K-pop stars, and Korean Waitresses.
16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
SNSD - Oh!
This is a "Beatles event" type song for me.
I am sure this description will horrify Beatles fans.
I term it "Beatles event" because it is a single band that opened the door for a flood of a new wave of artists that a person can listen to, just like how The Beatles opened the door for the British Invasion of UK pop/rock artists who crossed the pond to the American pop/rock charts in the 1960s.
YouTube became the "Ed Sullivan Show" analog. And just as Ed Sullivan introduced the Beatles, then YouTube introduced SNSD to me and the hit song they had at the time, Oh!.
Once I was addicted to the song, I noticed that YouTube was recommending SNSD fanvids to me.
I got addicted to SNSD fanvids.
YouTube then recommended other K-pop artists.
I got addicted to other K-pop artists.
YouTube truly is now the heir apparent to your MTV.
After that, a Korean wave of artists started showing up in my main mp3 collection and K-pop totally took it over.
Currently, around 75 percent of the nearly 200 songs I have playing in my car is now K-pop.
It's a rather dramatic transformation, and it all happened within less than a year.
I have embedded the Oh! song, which was SNSD's motivational World Cup Soccer song. Several K-pop artists at that time were trying to see who could get the official World Cup song to cheer South Korea on.
Why they choose to use American Football imagery instead for the music video has me a little lost and I can only guess they are trying to impress all the fans they have in the United States.
But the important part of the song was the cheerleader theme, and they were then able to sing the song in front of the national South Korean World Cup Team in concert as cheerleaders.
Click to view17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
Overall, happier.
It was an up and down year. It started out normal.
Then my job got depressing for a few months.
And then my job turned around and my fascination for learning Korean gave me a personal satisfaction that made me happier.
ii. thinner or fatter?
Thinner, but only by like around 20 pounds. If I could get things back on track that number would have been larger.
iii. richer or poorer?
Richer, as I was hired permanent at my job.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Speak Korean.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastinating.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
With family.
21 What was your favorite month of 2010?
December. What with holidays, job back on track, and increased interaction with people at a Korean meeting group and a Korean restaurant, things appear to be getting better all the time.
22. Did you fall in love in 2010?
What do you mean?
Did I fall in romantic love with a specific person? No
Did I fall in love with a culture and/or specific goal? Yes.
23. Are you still in love now?
With Korean culture? Ne! (a.k.a. "yes!)"
24. How many one-night stands?
I don't do one night stands.
25. What was your favorite TV program?
Three way tie.
Invincible Youth - Korean "reality" TV show that puts K-pop stars on a farm and has them do manual farm labor.
We Got Married - Korean "reality" TV show that puts K-pop stars into fake arranged marriages.
Running Man - Korean "reality" TV show that puts K-pop and K-drama stars into an adult version of hide and seek where one team performs a man hunt to find the members of the competing team.
But the video clip I am going to show is from Family Outing, which features several key stars of Running Man and is yet another "reality" Korean TV show designed to torture k-pop and k-drama stars including the drop dead gorgeous Lee Hyori and Song Jihyo.
Oh my, those women mesmerize me.
26. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes, and I will not make a comment.
27. What was the best book you read?
No books.
All my reading was taken up with on-line news or learning Korean.
28. What was your greatest musical discovery?
K-pop.
29. What did you want and get?
I wanted more purpose in life.
I got it.
30. What did you want and not get?
Fluency in Korean.
31. What was your favorite film of this year?
My appreciation for theatrical movies completely collapsed this year.
I really don't care what movies are out there anymore. I just don't enjoy them that much anymore.
32. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Only thing I remembered was buying strawberry cheesecake. Other than that, I am blanking out on what was done on my birthday.
I turned 38.
33. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Hmmm ...
... Korean girlfriend? :P
34. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
A slow, progressive move to more business acceptable attire as influenced by k-drama actors. Those guys are more preppier looking than their American counterparts.
35. What kept you sane?
K-Drama.
36. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Eugene (Kim Yoo-Jin)
37. What political issue stirred you the most?
North Korea.
It's impossible to learn as much as you can about South Korea without having to think about the dilemmas that North Korea present.
38. Who did you miss?
My family.
The more I visit my sister and mother in College Station, the more I miss them.
39. Who was the best new person you met?
Korean waitresses.
40. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
That it is okay to look foolish when trying to learn.
41. Did you get a new job in 2010?
Well, it sure does feel like it.
I was hired permanent at the place I worked, so I did change employers even though it was the exact same job.
Then after a few months of being made permanent, they switched contracts I was working on and had to relearn a lot of things, all at the same place of employment.
42. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
The following is a translation of part of the Korean lyrics in the 2NE1 song Can't Nobody.
Beautiful Seoul City
The loud sound of music
Black eyes, brown hair
You're following too slow
With a reassured attitude
Your confidence is reaching the sky
Even if you say, in a shameless and dignified manner
That you want me, can't touch this