Next week was World Cup 2022 in Qatar and I knew that some mostly Kdramas on non-cable networks (SBS, MBC, KBS) will be preempt and replaced by a World Cup coverage.

Since I'm not a football fan yet, I'm just cheering and rooting to football teams of US, UK, Argentina, Mexico, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Belgium, Canada, Brazil and even South Korea! Good luck! (Sorry, Italy and even my home country Philippines... both are better luck next time.)

The question was raised this week what was Park Min Young’s Best Drama. It may be her real life dating scandal and its growing fall-out. It has all the elements: secret celebrity BF; BF under investigation for allegedly shady business operations; a sudden break-up when dating was publicly disclosed; and growing police investigations.

During her last drama’s run, Park Min Young was suddenly embroiled in dating rumors with Kang Jong Hyun, who was identified as a key figure in the Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb’s embezzlement case.

KJH has been described as a big spending, mysterious businessman. However, he is not listed on any company records which had already caught the attention of police investigators even before crypto investor losses started outcry and investigations. Shortly after dating rumors with Park Min Young broke out, Kang Jong Hyun said, “I don’t want (Park Min Young’s) career to be ruined because of me, so I decided to break up.”

PMY inferred they were not close, but records showed her sister was a director of one of Kang’s companies. Right after her drama ended, a serious crimes task force raided HOOK Entertainment’s offices. It appears that Kang invested millions in PMY’s agency. Industry sources believe HOOK’s reputation (and its artists) will take a large negative hit because of the raid and investigation. One artist is reportedly leaving the agency. But that is not all. Kang also invested several million dollars into Sung Yu Ri’s cosmetic company. Yu Ri denied knowing Kang or the investment even though she was the CEO. Apparently, the connection is between Kang and her husband, a former golf pro. Her company returned the investment after the news broke, but she is another celebrity that is in hot water as police will continue to trace Kang’s money. Kang may have parked money in various other business and celebrity enterprises. The potential charges against Kang and his associates could include embezzlement, money laundering, tax evasion, and securities law violations.

Kang seems to be a wealthy social gadfly running multiple businesses. He could have traveled in the same high wealth circles of agency heads, celebrities, investment bankers, etc. In an economic downturn, he could have been a source of easy investment cash.

In Korea and elsewhere, guilt by association is a major pitfall for public figures. How will affect PMY and her career? It depends on how deep the scandal dives into criminality. She still has her CF sponsors: she did a pop-up brand store opening and just signed as spokesmodel for a Taiwan clothing company. But her sweet and innocent image has been sullied by this scandal that will not go away quietly.

yes - Do it yourself Bed - 11 hours working - waste of efforts - waste of resources. had to spend days on makeshift bed -

start - 10 hours - bed - yes. Why waste so much of time.

I had like parade of several days standing up for several hours - backache is surely not a nice feeling. But, atlast, a proper bed is a bed. 12 months of joke of a bed is no more - better sleep time coming.

Next trouble is - bedsheets and mattresses - can't have an easy day. nonsensical stress. Then need a blanket and comforter or else this cold season will turn into much physical pain.

I am very excited to talk kdramas next week in the zoom discussion group organized by @reply1988. I’d like to thank her for this—to discuss kdramas with fellow enthusiasts in “real time” has long been a desire of mine! But unless I get my act together over the weekend, I am embarrassingly going to have NOT watched the entire short kdrama that is our discussion topic. So I’ll be the one person looking around nervously with wide eyes in the corner of the zoom gallery screen, hoping that no one calls on me asking what I think.

Now, not meeting deadlines is a specialty of mine, but that’s for work. For something fun like this, I feel I have to justify my failure-- that is, make an excuse. Those of you who are teachers in the U.S. know the joke excuse of students when they fail to complete their home assignments, “My dog ate my homework.” I was thinking of that one, but somehow, “my dog ate my streaming service” doesn’t have quite the same plausibility, especially with my dog, whose bark is worse than her byte. (Get it---streaming service, byte?” Maybe I could just make bad word play jokes and my failure would be ignored!)

My students have at times claimed “I couldn’t get my essay done. My friend’s grandparent died.” This excuse was, in the past, fairly safe. After all, what college age person doesn’t have a friend with a dead grandparent? And what are you going to do as an instructor, demand that the student prioritize the assignment over helping a grieving friend mourning her beloved grammy? Just the thought of Kim Young-ok, Korea’s national grandma, playing a character on her deathbed brings tears to my eyes! (As it has, without fail, the multiple times I’ve watched her die in various kdramas.) Although, there was one particular research paper I assigned a few years back that apparently killed off 3 grandparents. I joked with my wife that the assignment was the leading cause of death that week among the Southern California elderly!

Unfortunately, as far as the usefulness of that excuse for me, not only are my friends in their 50s and 60s, with grandparents who have been deceased for decades, but even if I did have a few younger friends, the pandemic has tragically killed some of their grandparents. So its not an excuse I want to make lightly. Plus, I myself am the age of a grandparent. And while my death would certainly provide me with a good excuse for not seeing the show, I would rather not resort to that.

So that leaves me with one just one course of action-- go ahead, tell the truth and face the embarrassing consequences as a responsible adult. After all, is it my fault that both my t.v. and my computer got sucked through a time portal into the Joseon era?

I just discovered Triviaverse on Netflix and I played it 54 times today.

one weird thing if you secretly date a friend from your group of friends is that, you'll have to continue to see her and interact with her after breaking up. Unless you are willing to sacrifice the group as a whole which is a big stake. I think that's the same for the other party since now we are both hanging out with the whole group like nothing's ever happened.

A few days ago I had something minor to celebrate so I did something unusual for me but very 'K-drama-like'. I ordered *fried chicken*. Very tasty, but OMG, how can anyone eat as much deep fried food as you see being eaten in K-dramas? My body was not made for doing mukbangs, apparently. 3/4 of my order got subdivided and bagged-up for future snacks.

Yesterday, The King's Affection won a the International Emmy Award in the telenova category \o/

I'm not sure about the different categories but it's really nice to see TKA being recognized internationnaly. It always is in the different list of the most watched Kdramas on Netflix too.