The Revenge of the Hi, My, Sweetheart Recap

Why hello there, episode 11. How do you do? Only two episodes left, after this, so do not disappoint me, tv show!

A fun fact to start you off: the main actress' stage name, Rainie Yang, came about because she was in a girl group where all the girls had weather-themed names. But if she was Rainie, what were the other members called? Your answer: Sunnie, Cloudie and Windie. Nope, I'm not kidding.

We start off with Bao Chu announcing to her listeners that tomorrow is Valentine's Day and then immediately cut away to Old Aunt arguing with a customer over toilets (which, btw, is what her huge empire is built on; no, I'm not kidding). Proof:

Yep. After this, her love interest, Some Guy, arrives and he calms her down with his sweet lovin' and asks her out...on a walk so they can see the sunset.

Aww, isn't that--wait, where's the sunset? Judging by the light it looks like 4 in the afternoon. Perhaps they are in the swedish part of Taiwan.

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Another Hi, My Sweetheart Recap

Hi folks, it's that time again...yes, it's time to completely ignore the text and laugh at the pictures, because I've watched another Hi, My Sweetheart episode. This time, it's number 10. Three things:

• I know these recaps are quite long, but keep in mind that each episode is one full hour of content (for the dvds, I've read, they're breaking the episodes apart to make 25, shorter episodes)
• The cap quality is shit because I watch this on youtube, via ost1nao . Now, I could actually find raws or something, but no one is reading this anyway, so I don't need the prettiest screencaps ever. It works with shitty quality ones, I think
• I write down my impressions as I'm watching the episode, so most of the time, you get my immediate reaction, though I may add more thoughts later, if I feed the need to. Also, forgive my spelling of Hsueh Hai's and Bao Chu's names, because until now, I had no idea it was actually Xue Hai/Da Lang and Bao Zhu. Still, I will keep spelling them the incorrect way...well, because the subtitles use that spelling too, and I don't want to get confused and write HSUEX HAL or something.
  

Onwards!

This is more creepy than any haunted house episode I've seen in a drama/anime - and trust me, that means I've seen more unimpressive stories about ghosts to last me a lifetime.
Miss Sweetheart's stalker fan drives the cab in a maniac fashion, and meanwhile, still following them, Hsueh Hai steps on the break

with his fabulous shoes.
She tries to call Pony Tail Man so he can save her from the crazy man, but Insane Stalker is having none of it and throws her mobile out of the window. Then there are some dramatic car sounds (breaking, and that iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhh sound that cars make when they are turning too fast), and Bao Chu manages to grab the wheel hard enough so that the car is launched in the air spinning. Oh, asian dramas.

Don't you just love how nonchalant he is? "Eh, I've seen better accidents involving the girl I truly love. Now, where is that shoe polish?"
He watches on, still looking like he could care less, as Insane Stalker gets out of the car and runs away. Then, he remembers that he's supposed to care enough for the girl to get upset and storms out of his car.

AND THEN THE CAR EXPLODES FOR NO REASON. WITH THE TINIEST EXPLOSION EVER. Don't you just want to cuddle with that explosion?

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This is awesome.

A couple of days ago, my handler was generous enough to let me go out and be a normal person for a few hours. I hated most of it, until, that is, I was getting out of the subway and I saw an ad that cheered me up immediately.

Usually, the Wall Street Institute does have ads with puns on badly spoken english, but this is, without a doubt, their best work. Look:



They hired Zezé Camarinha! For those of you who are clueless (and not 1)my friends 2)portuguese 3)people who---wait, if you are not my friend and portuguese why are you here? GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN) about this person, he's a guy that got famous for appearing in a news bit about the "portuguese gigolo". He explained his game - which he only used on foreign women* - to the cameras and it included stuff like:

"Why you so white? You must put some-a cream!"
"Darling, put-a [portuguese peeps, get your mind out of the gutter] cream number five!"

Yeah, in my mind, he's Super Mario. Anyway, he became a big national joke treasure (?) and everyone quotes his pick-up lines, even though his been a real long time since then that news piece. Anyway, Wall Street Institute decided that the best way to get people to learn english with them is hire Zezé.

In my mind, it's an incredibly genius move, if only for the hundreds of folks who will once again ask about cream in a silly voice. For more info, quizzes and endless Camarinha goodness, check out their website: http://talktozeze.com/


*Because, really, only foreign women on holiday would fall for his bullshit. And they would have to be very drunk. AND BLIND.

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A Hi, My Sweetheart Recap.

So, I'm catching up on Hi, My Sweetheart. What is that, you ask? An asian drama. Now that all of you have closed the window/tab, I will continue. But if you are still here, skip the text and click on that sexy "read more" link.

Basically, few things amuse me as much as asian dramas, because they are full of clichés, incredibly unrealistic and filled with “lol wut” moments. For instance, take episode 9 of Hi, My Sweetheart.

Short (not really) recap of the story so far: Hsueh Hai is an incredibly nerdy and naive kid who's the sole heir of a rich as fuck family. When he has to go to college, he finally leaves his home (and the contant badgering of his aunt(?) ) to study in Taiwan. There, he makes friends right away with the prettiest girl in school, his roomates also like him but there's one girl, Bao Chu Jie, who seems to hate...well, the world. Inevitably, and despite Pretty Girl's efforts to keep them apart, they get close and fall in love. They stay together until the end of their degrees, when a problem comes up. You see, Bao Chu is also the daughter of a rich family and her mother will not allow her to marry anyone who isn't of equal or higher social standard, and Hsueh Hai's aunt, to protect Hsueh Hai, gave him a new identity at college: he's Lin Da Lang*, a very poor kid. Bao Chu also thinks he's poor but defies her mother and goes to Lin Da Lang, but gets in an accident. She had left a (fake) note saying she would marry the guy her mother had arranged for her and break it off with Lin Da Lang. Meanwhile, he's left waiting for her with a wedding ring. Obviously, because she got in an accident, she never comes. He's incredibly heartbroken, and when we meet him, years later, he's a completely different guy. A cocky, stupid fella whose only language is money. Basically, he's the tooliest tool that ever lived.

Bao Chu is now working at a radio station, and through her programme, she has tried to find her Lin Da Lang, but to avail. Her senior, whom we will call Pony Tail Man, is in love with her since the Earth was created and is accepting this opportunity to finally get with her, since she thinks she'll never meet Lin Da Lang again. Of course, she does, but he now is Hsueh Hai, the tool. He, still thinking that she left him for a rich guy, makes being her boyfriend and then dumping her his new mission. Unfortunatly, and like most normal human beings, she thinks he's a dumbass, although his extreme resemblance (which, uh, yeah, there almost isn't any, but I think it's good that the writers realized that different hair and glasses do not a different person make (e.g. Clark Kent) ) to Lin da Lang haunts her, and kind of attracts her to him. She supposedly “hates him” but yet, she can't keep completely away.

This episode – whew, that was a long recap – we find Hsueh Hai going after Pony Tail Man and Bao Chu when they decide to go on holiday, and thus ensues yet another episode where he fails miserably at bringing them apart. First, he tries to put cold medicine in Pony Tail Man's drink, but somehow, the drinks get messed up and he gets the cold medicine. Then we're treated to 5 minutes of him sitting in the bathroom, making faces of utter agony. Taiwanese dramas are known – well, maybe they aren't, but I have watched enough to say the following – for their silliness, especially in regards to potty humor. Although, I have to admit, potty humor can be gold.

Indeed, Hsueh Hai.

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Hello, will this work?

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My disorganization will be the death of me

...not really, but you get the point.

Yesterday, my pc crapped out on me and I decided (after trying to just repair the installation and figuring out that it would be better to start with a clean slate) to format the partition Windows was in so I could install it again.

I won't speak of the troubles that came with it. I think that simply saying "OMGBBQWTFARGH" covers it. I will say, however, that I'm an idiot. Or my brother is, I can't figure out which*. I'll explain: I found out that I was missing half of the drivers I needed for my computer to run smoothly again. And I didn't think about the sound card until I realized my sound was too quiet...because it was coming out from my Logitech speaker. If this sounds confusing, said speaker came with my mouse and keyboard; it also had a headseat and it transmits the signal to my keyboard and mouse. What's amusing about this (to me) is that I thought everything was fine even though I have a 3.1 speaker system, and the sound was incredibly quiet.


Still, everything is (mostly) fine now, including no endless rebooting cycle (though this may change when I reboot in a couple of minutes). The happy part about this: well, there isn't one, but I finally wrote down each model for the sound card, graphics card, etc, so when I go through this mess again I won't have trouble figuring out their names.


*Basically, the whole reason why I don't have half of my drivers is because 1) my brother went on one of his cleaning rampages and threw all the boxes my components came in out or 2) I did that without even bothering to check if there was valuable stuff inside the boxes.

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On American commercials

Get Prevacid, and your second marriage will happen sooner than you think! WOO! Also, there was a commercial in which a father and a daughter were in a diner and this ensued:

dad: hey, you should eat this NEW LOW CAL SANDWICH, it's only *insert number of calories here*
daughter: oh daddy, now I know where I get my smarts from
dad: no, pumpkin, you get that from your mum!
both: *incredibly fake laughter*

WAT.

So, kids, this is what we've learned: curing heartburn will get you a lasting relationship and enforcing restrictive eating habits early on will win you points with your (now calorie-counting) daughter.

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(Very) late night

My sleeping schedules are fucked up, so I've decided to watch Conan and Jimmy Fallon. Conan was quite funny, and I do wonder how he manages not to sound like an angry ferret after the shit NBC is giving him.

First time watching Jimmy Fallon, though. I think it's a very nice show, actually. Very small and unpretentious. Only problem: where I am, it's almost 6 in the morning, so unless I start work INCREDIBLY early, I won't ever watch this live. Oh well.


Oooh! Right now, there's a game going on where people have to dance their hat and gloves off. Ha! Oh my, it's incredibly silly. And now it's official: I do not get pushing Conan and Fallon to air even later just to fit Jay Leno in.


P.S. : No intro post, fuck that.

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