I normally just lurk. But can’t resist this rare chance of being the first to post, so am sneaking out my shell to say happy open thread day to you all!

To those who have a background in Law and maybe Korea (Samsooki maybe?):

You know how in the US, if you get arrested, you can ‘expunge’ the charge from your records? It will show up in a criminal background check but for all purposes, it’s considered ‘expunged’.

Does Korea have something like that? Do they consider something ‘expunged’ or ‘erased’ from their records?

If so, what would the terminology be?

If anyone could help, that’d be great.

This week pretty busy with all the Eid celebration but i have no mood on celebrating it.. I don’t even feel on going to people’s houses.. Lots of works to finish up before the end of mid semester break and its killing me.

I hate everything that had happened these last 3 weeks. its totally killing.. lol Okay i’m a bit dramatic there but seriously it is..

JBs, oh, love Azure Ray, thank you for the song.

RE: Aja-aja thing.
It’s really sad for free users. But then again, I respect their decision, good thing to support their efforts.

Happy OT everyone.

hey all,
happy OT, and i usually dont post on open threads, but im just curious, is Samsooki and team still working on the city hall recap project? i was wondering if the project is just halted at the moment cause of time constraints, etc. or if it’s not happening anymore. ty! ur recaps were awesome, so thanks a million!!
ive been neglecting my kdrama addiction since college started. im a first-year so everything’s new and crazy to me hahaha. sadly, im already drowning in work, but i hope everyone else has tons of fun watching kdramas!

I finished 1 Litre No Namida and I loved it so so so so so so much. I was a snotty teary sobbing mess at the end, but I adored it.

I really want to get the book it’s based on now but I have no clue if I can even find it translated. I haven’t watched the movie or SP yet but I will soon.

Just a question to those who watched it, at the end of the drama, was that Nishikido Ryo walking with a kid in his arm??? I got confused but they only flashed to him for a second so I wasn’t sure.

The ending was so sweet and. . .ahhhh.

Next on my j-drama list is Koshonin. Anyone seen it? It’s okay so far.

@9 annieee –

is Samsooki and team still working on the city hall recap project? i was wondering if the project is just halted at the moment cause of time constraints, etc. or if it’s not happening anymore. ty! ur recaps were awesome, so thanks a million!!

I am trying to find blocks of time enough to restart the recapping. As you can imagine (and probably you yourself are experiencing), it isn’t easy to find the big blocks of time to devote to things outside of work, family, and sleep.

Recapping a single 1hr episode of CH is probably a 20+ man-hour project in itself (probably because we go through so many edits and we aren’t very efficient at doing all the little things), and so I am trying my best to clear my plate so that I can restart and finish the recaps.

Hopefully, very soon. And before baby Samsooki is born.

@ Samsooki & mishane
Yeah, as frustrated as I was to find myself suddenly deprived of all those awesome resources at Aja-Aja, once you step back and think about it, it’s not like I have a God-given right to those things, and once upon a time used to have to Clubbox or torrent everything, LOL. I completely understand why they closed it down; even though they didn’t own those videos in the first place, it does take a long time to upload and then share all those series, right? I mean, they have hundreds there and 2-3 dramas to update every day, and when some people come along and steal all their links to repost on their forums and blogs… well, I’d be irritated too. I think we’ve all been so used to Aja-Aja being around that when it’s suddenly taken away, we don’t even know what to do anymore

Re: Jdramas, I’m planning to see how Koshonin 2 goes before I try the first season. I heard it was pretty good, though, and Yonekura Ryoko = <3

This season of jdramas has really sucked though, I must say. The upcoming Fall 2009… now that sounds interesting. I'm totally looking forward to LIAR GAME 2 and a couple of other things.

Sadly, there's little on the Kdrama radar that I'm looking forward to other than Chuno, now that Han Ji Min's dropped out of Hero. *weep*

@lb_tmi:

junsu and junho (correct?) performed in that asia super model contest idk what event. though it’s not broadcasted, sure there will be fancam.

but yeah. this is seriously a fall from glory. 2pm was like the bomb that exploded only to disintegrate into nothingness. very sad i’d say, shows how fickle the industry is.

i was reading from allkpop bout how Wonder Girls’ Ye Eun (yenny) defended her fans (from 3rd world countries) against a korean american…reading the comments had me thinking bout the incident about jay again. oei.

btw, to all city hall-ers,

this is for u. i’m quite free right now, thanks to finals over and gone. but i’m not good. T.T i hope Luv comes out with one soon. She’s just so awesome. XD

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/nyva_bec/cityhall3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/nyva_bec/cityhall2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/nyva_bec/cityhalljba.jpg

erm. yeah.

HAPPY FRIDAY/SATURDAY everyone!!!!

@ lovenyc52

did you nab the other LBH movies?? Addicted is on there, along w/ A bittersweet life, Everybody has secrets, Bungee Jumping of their own, Once upon a summer,
and while you’re there, you should get some Kim Rae Won loving too.. heehee..

and you’re welcome. i’m just sad she’s closing down after 3 yrs. i’ve been going there for the past 2 1/2 years..

and if you ever get the inkling to try Thai lakorns, Oum Rak is pretty good.. but it’s a lot of crack. LOL! but it stars my two faves.. Ann Thongprasom and Ken Teeradeth. HEAVEN.

Happy Friday and OT!!!

I have mixed feelings on the whole aja-debate. I’ve benefited as a free user and hate the idea of it not being so accessible, but at the same time, I totally understand the flip side. I’ll think about it later…

I’m still on hiatus from kdrama. Only watching variety and some of my korean lessons are finally kicking in – I can recognize the odd word here and there, but only if they speak really slow. I only signed up for Korean lessons so that I could watch Kdramas & variety….I’m so nerdy.

Hey, anyone know of the Gokusen movie is anywhere online? It came out this April.

I have to get this off my back – sorry if this is too much ranking and whining!!! When I first start watching Kdrama, I was recommended to an on-line website to watch all my Kdrama – AZNV.TV. Well, lately this website have been a really disappointment for me. It doesn’t load all the current new series and if you write in the comment, all these strong wil, diehard will come back and say how they feel this about this website is. Sorry maybe a couple of years ago but not now.

I one time did put a comment in on how disappointed I was with this website and you should have seen how they attack me by defending this website. OMG, I though I started a flame war.

Anyway, I still occasionally do go back and check on the status of some of my current new drama being loaded on this website and they are so way behind – I am still disappointed in them. I catch up on viikii and mysoju.

Thank you for letting express myself. Hopefully the weekend will cool down here in So. California so we all can enjoy the weekend.

@ 16 Jill4675

I don’t think the anger is coming from people who don’t want to pay (at least IMO). I think it’s from the fact that there’s no guarantee of getting an invite if you paid. When the site first went down the message they put up was asking for ‘donations’ which didn’t guarantee an invite (and this is not verbatim, I’m saying from memory). And the donations they were requesting were at least $50. Now I have a good job and I don’t mind paying $50 or so for an invite, but if I’m putting $50 out there, I expect a service/invite for my money! To pay $50 and then maybe, possibly, could be, should, might get an invite? That didn’t suit me. If they had just re-worded that (I don’t know if that’s what they meant, but that’s what their message sounded like), I’m sure there wouldn’t have been such a huge uproar over it.

Honestly, I’m a member of a few sites that do have illegal downloads of movies/tv shows. And these are US copyrighted movies/tv shows so you know that rules/laws are going to be doubly strict. I’ve been a member for over 6 years now and they have managed to be able to stay afloat. They don’t ask for money, but since they have been around for a while, a lot of members donate anyways. AND they manage to keep from link stealing by making VERY VERY VERY STRICT rules about their community; it’s almost a Fight Club mentality. There is no talk of this community outside of the community, you can’t even use their initials outside of the community. Every post is locked and it’s members only access. They’ve banned people (who are stupid and mentioned ‘HEY DOWNLOAD WOLVERINE/TRANSFORMERS/POPULARMOVIEOFTHEMOMENT HERE’ on their twitters or public forums). It’s a very regulated community and I can say that file stealing is almost non-existent.

Now, I hate to be the person that goes around giving advice when I don’t have a website of my own to run, but if this way has worked for, what over 8 years for this community, then why wouldn’t it work for AJA? I think they should keep it members only, with a password and a sign up so they can check who is accessing their files.

Unfortunately, file stealing is going to happen. Yes, it sucks that someone took something that you spent a lot of time on and passed it off as their own. But unfortunately, it’s the internet. Once you put something out there, it’s a free for all.

This honestly reminds me of a Buffy fandom OMGCRAZY event (thank GOD I was not a part of the Buffy fandom when this happened).
There was a fanfic writer who got so much praise for her fic. She was an amazing writer and she wrote these epic stories. Well, after a while, she started to ask people to pay for her writing. She said that she was a working mother and writing fanfic took a lot of time, and if people would pay for them, then she could have more time to write. Back then, in fandom, this caused the BIGGEST UPROAR EVER. It got all divided, with some people willing to pay (OMG YOUR FANFIC IS SOOOOO KEWL) and some people calling law shenanigans (THIS IS ILLEGAL, THEY AREN’T YOUR CHARACTERS, YOU CAN’T EXPECT US TO PAY FOR THAT!!). Unfortunately, because of all the flames and e-mails she got, she deleted all her fic from the Internet and retired. No one’s heard of her since (and I think this was back in 1999 and 2000). So sad because she really did have good writing.

/END SUPER LONG POST OMG LONGEST POST EVA

@ 22 hjkomo

I just DL’d the first episode of Flash Forward (I don’t get a chance to watch TV in real time *sad face*). I heard an ad for it on the radio on the way home from work and it sounded very interesting. Looking forward to it.

Has anyone been overly stressed at work? The past few days have been days from hell for me. My desk is overloaded with papers and I feel like I won’t ever be able to sort through all of them. It’s getting to the point where I’m starting to hate my job and dread coming in. It’s stressful and I’m starting to bring the work worries home, which I never did before.

I’m thinking of taking a paid day off, a Friday and a Monday, and take a plane to another state and just have a relaxing 4 day weekend by myself. Any recommendations? I’m in lovely NJ *sarcasm* and I was thinking of Chicago or San Francisco. . . or wherever I can get a round trip ticket for under $200. :/ I really really need a vacation.

@lemoncat (#18)

Don’t misunderstand me. I absolutely sympathize with the expenses people have, young and old. I can’t afford to live like Donald Trump, but I don’t think that entitles me to have whatever I want for free at the expense of someone else’s hard work. Let’s be realistic: MOST of the whiners and complainers have expensive computers, they pay for Internet access, they go out with friends, they have fancy mobiles, they see movies, they buy Starbucks, they DO spend money. If one is on a budget, one must make choices regarding discretionary spending. That is life, and it’s time some folks grew up and started living in the real world.

@Jill4675 -

My understanding is that aja-aja has never “charged” for anything, from anyone. It is a private undertaking to share freely what they have with specific others, and at the same time, not have their efforts taken without their permission.

It is important to make this distinction. aja-aja.com is NOT a business, for profit or otherwise, and they don’t charge anything. If you donate to them, it is because you are kind and generous, just as they are kind and generous.

Testing, testing. For some reason, Open Threads have been spitting me back out for a few weeks. *sadface* #102 time lucky?

@28 Lemoncat

I liked Buzzer Beat: Lots of pictures of good looking guys without shirts or in the shower, some humour, some tears and a love story with a romantic ending – which is not absolutely common in japanese drama as their emphasis tends to be on other things.

@hjkomo
Watched the first season of Dollhouse last week and cannot wait for the new eps. As to Flash Forward SPOILER CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK: it puts me off a bit that the “future” of the main character looks quite bleak from the beginning. What can I do I am a sucker for happy endings! I am waiting for the new V in autumn as I am a fan of the eighties series – I even liked the tv drama which did get bad reviews.

Okay, I’m in!

My take on Aja-Aja-gate: Now I truly respect people who spend their time subbing, uploading, giving us things for free. It’s wonderfully big-hearted and awesome, and I think we’ve become a bit spoilt by such easy access to these things. That said, I agree that problem with what Aja-Aja did was the whole, donate but we still might not give you membership. The economy is tough on people right now, and that’s too much money to throw away on something based on another person’s whim.

I also don’t get the huge fuss, because there are plenty of other places to download from, even if you don’t like torrents or clubbox doesn’t work for you, like myself. Silent Regrets seems to do basically the same job, Livejournal communities upload files, subbing groups like SUBlimes upload files. It’s not that hard.

re: Buzzer Beat. @AnitaLotti: Have you seen the finale? I’m waiting for subs, was it a good ending? I thought Yamapi was disappointingly flat in character, this drama was all about the girls, Aibu Saki and Kitagawa Keiko are both great. The OTP is adorable. Nothing epic, but a cute watch.

@ 34 belleza

OH! I forgot to ask, in the last Open Thread you mentioned something about the actress from 1 Litre No Namida being a Lindsay Lohan. Can I ask what you meant by that? I wiki’d her and didn’t see anything really bad, except that she married someone who was significantly older than her (30 years older, I think). Is that what you meant?

@ 28 Lemoncat

Ah, yes, it was a long post. I already ranted and ranted about it on my LJ (OMG I was so angry about the whole thing this week) and, like I said, I’m more amused by the whole situation now, especially after I read their blog. Anyways, look like they realized what a big mess it was and backtracked and decided to make it Free Access again. . .which I think is just going to backfire again, unless they make it private free access.

@37 xiahkixiri

I watched the Finale of Buzzer Beat RAW but some nice user in the spoiler section of Buzzer Beat at viikii did a really extensive summary of the content so it was easy to get the main points. Though I am of course still waiting for katdiva to upload episode 11 on viikii to wach it with subs.

i’m glad i never got into aja-aja, i’d be majorly deprived right now. i’m a believer in cashing out some money for downloads (especially since it falsely soothes my conscience a bit) but a $50 donation is a lot (depending on the time frame, I guess – if it’s for a full year, then that’s a fab deal). and with no guaranteed membership? that doesn’t sound logical.

on the flip-side, while i do appreciate people’s hard work in uploading and whatnot, i don’t believe that most of these sites in english that provide korean dramas/shows actually record and upload the videos themselves. if i’m not mistaken, they download from korean sources and then upload for others. considering that, it does seem they are being very exclusive and possessive – more than they should be simply because they have more access to korean uploaders than nonkoreans. and unless people with these dl/share sites are doing it as their actual job, they’re making A LOT of profit of it by charging. then it becomes strictly business. and it gets a bit sticky legally.

i’m not against aja-aja or whatever site charging (i don’t even quite know what the full issue is since I don’t use aja-aja), but it does seem like a lot of people are upset over their “new policy.”

good luck to everyone who is now without a source for their kdrama fix.

@chajjye
“i know, kbs world is slow. at least i get to watch music bank live. before i start work that is”

I agree. I’m visiting my parents and they have KBS world. Even though it’s a little late/slow with some of the dramas and my beloved 1n2d, I’m glad music bank is live and grateful i have a link to my k-obsession.

Incidently, my mum just filled me in (several hours ago) on everything i’ve missed on ‘jolly widows’. I fear I might get addicted.

On the positive note, I might have successfully persuaded my husband to get digital cable so I can get KBS world at home on my own TV!! Crossing fingers…

@mishane,
It is probably easier for you, in NJ, to get a cheapie ticket in and out of O’Hare (Chicago) right now. Plus, October in Chicago is a fantastic time of year – usually crisp and sunny, nice leaf color. Plus, Chicago is a great city if you like a) museums, b) great restaurants, c) exploring funky neighborhoods.
I live just south of San Francisco (and yes, it is a fantastic place to visit), but I grew up not far from Chicago, my parents were born there, and I still go there about once a year because I love it. If you want any more advice/suggestions, just let me know.

@xiahkixiri,
I’ve been watching Buzzer Beat as it is subbed and stolen by mysoju (I’ll admit it, I do watch a few things on mysoju, but then if it’s good I seek out the DVDs so I’m not a total blot on the landscape) and I have to agree it’s fluffy and fun but ultimately forgettable. Lots of bath-and locker-room eye candy, but Yamapi is playing his introverted and fearful character so close to the chest that he is practically catatonic. His hair, though, is very expressive, LOL.