This week there was a surge of news reports on the state of South Korea economic culture trends. As popular culture stories tend to mirror what is happening, it seems singles are increasing, their incomes decreasing, couples who want to marry do not become official because of housing and other costs, and those who do marry don’t want children. The long summary follows:

Single householders are proliferating, but their income and assets are not even half the overall household average.According to Statistics Korea this week, one-person households increased by 336,000 last year to 7.5 million, which brought their proportion of total households from 33.4 percent in 2021 to 34.5 percent. The figure surpassed 30 percent for the first time in 2019.
But life for singles is not without challenges. Their average annual income last year was W30.1 million, far lower than the average income of all households of W67.62 million, and 61.3 percent of them earned less than W30 million (US$1=W1,314).


Their assets also fell short of half the average for all households. As of March, the average assets of single householders were worth W209.49 million, compared to W527.27 million for all households, while their debts increased by 1.9 percent to W36.51 million. A majority or 54.6 percent live in small spaces of less than 40 sq.m. But more than half of them take a positive view of Korean society and their human relationships, polls suggest. A Statistics Korea official said, "As young people are increasingly reluctant to marry, the number of single households is expected to keep rising."

According to the Seoul City Government and Seoul Institute’s study, 34.7 percent of young adults residing in Seoul stated that they are struggling with depression. Among them, 44.3 percent were unemployed after graduating, while 42 percent had been laid off. The poverty rate for older adults may also feel knock-on effects from youth poverty.“If unemployment and high numbers of NEET youth persist, it will become harder for the youth population to become independent from their parents and they will continue to receive financial support from them,” an official said. “In turn, it will become even more difficult for these parents to save money for retirement."

I have some sort of sinusitis, my head has a blockage.
so I hate 20 gloves of garlic. everyone escapes like vampires

weird things in the library: people keep leaving their shoes behind. How do they go home? Maybe someone ate them
Sweet Home vibes
anyway, IT IS FRIDAYYYYY My demon
im the same MBTI as Gu Won btw. on this page: https://www.personality-database.com/ you can find out who shares your type.
ah, yeah... I wouldnt mind getting rid of annoying people by means of finger gun heart attack
Twinkling Watermelon - it is good, but I fall alsleep
Sweet Home 2 - it is lonely in this club of people who like it.

oh yeah and we have a serious problem of newspaper thieves here. anyway off to lunch break

In the past couple of months I made the switch to Korean-made sunscreen and it is totally game-changing. So now I'm wondering, what other k-skincare am I missing out on that will turn out to be far superior to what I'm using now? Hit me with all your best recommendations, Beanies!

It's cold - not much - but am feeling it

Clouds - should make warm nights - slightly more - but it's cold - rain or not - cold season rain usually very nice but always powerful in impact -

AIR - no powerful air breeze now.

Lot of moisture in air too.

Next 2 weeks gonna be of storms and snow - let's see how things go.

9TAILEDVIXEN'S NEWSLETTER OF FRIDAY MUSINGS:

1. Work continues to be brutal this December. The holiday season always comes with a spike in domestic violence cases and this year is no different.

Aside from that, it's all the usual year-end wrap-up stuff that's doing my head in (I'm looking at you, the Neverending Annual Report Because The Organisation Really Outdid Itself This Year)... plus prep for the coming year. Oh joy...

2. I'm sorting out my holiday season reading list - usually some fluffy historical romances and contemporary rom-coms set around Christmas time.

3. The year-end online sales have been AWESOME for picking up various beauty products (or beauty-related products):

- Imagine my surprise when I restocked a batch of specialist shampoos and conditioners for my bleached and coloured locks and the seller sent me a a free foldable travel hairdryer from a famous brand.

ME: *Jaw drops*

- I stumbled across a SOME BY MI coupon that got me a couple more tubes of my Holy Grail eye cream for 75% off! WOOO!

4. I haven't made art for a while due to work so Imma dusting off my half-written Work-In-Progress fantasy novel to try to finish writing it by mid-2024.

Am also seriously considering writing poetry again (I used to be surprisingly adept). Might branch out into writing lyrics.

We'll see - but the important this is that putting hands-on art creation back into my life will be good for my soul that's in danger of becoming cynical.

5. Have been getting myself into gear to reboot my fitness levels in the new year to get my body back in fighting shape. This is part of my ongoing self-care programme.

A friend of a friend is trying to get me to sign up and pay up for some expensive AF diet program. She oversold it to me and I did my own research and have decided that nobody should trust a diet programme that claims to enable you to lose copious amounts of weight in 90 days and requires you to buy a whole lot of supplements.

6. Still stocking up on supplies for next weekend's baking and marmalade-making marathon.

My friends are very much looking forward to the boozy Christmas marmalade I make - apparently it's good for 1) basting meats and 2) getting mothers into an accidental happy hour mood during breakfast when they unknowingly slather it on their toast hahahahahhahahahahaha!

7. My fall down the Hallyu Rabbit Hole (TM) continues and I've been taking quite a few friends with me. It's amazing how talking about K-Dramas or K-Beauty stuff I use or K-Pop piques people's interest enough for them to start getting curious... then asking for recommendations... then me watching them go: "OOOOOH!"

I shouldn't laugh though - my BTS-loving friends are watching my exploration of their discography, videos etc with much delight *cough cough*. In retaliation, I got them hooked on K-Drama OST ballads hahahahahahahahahaha!

UGH! I just wrote a long comment and DB "ate" it. It's not appearing *sad vixen face*

me: need to save money.
me 5 minutes later: buys a ton of cute & useful stationery items.
me 10 minutes later: buys a ton of skincare.
me 15 minutes later: buys yet another scandi gnome for christmas.
to be fair, most of what i buy is on sale, so i feel better :D

started wearing sunscreen everyday, not even 2 layers of 70 fps can protect my ghostly complexion from this awful, angry tropical sun :( 5 minutes outside and my face starts to burn, not even being dramatic. it's too damn hot. TOO DAMN HOT!!!

I am trying to do what seems impossible this time of the year.

and that is to lose the 6kg ive picked up over the past 8 months * cries*

AAA awards are serious ?

Best Acting Performance: Kim Young Dae, U-KISS’s Lee Jun Young, Moon Ga Young, EXO’s Suho

I loved Moon Ga-Young in The Interest in Love, she was great. But the others? Lee Jun-Young is stuck in student role, Kim Young-Dae was very bad in Moon in the Day and Suho wasn't great in Behind Your Touch...

Daesang – Actor of the Year : 2PM’s Lee Junho

I don't think his performance in King The Land deserved this kind of award.

Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!

Christmas Mode has been activated!🧑‍🎄In my case it wears off quickly, so I always try to postpone the activation until right before the Holidays. Alas, still ten days to go and the jingles on the radio got to me this morning!🔔😅It should be fine if I can distract myself from Christmas songs. Fortunately, there is plenty to occupy myself with today. I have been on standby all morning to receive all my parcels with non-Christmas stuff and passed those hours with some digital paperwork and writing for the Dramabeans end of the year review. Next week is the final countdown with some time fixed endings, so today is my deadline for the things with more time flexibility. As a reward I am going Christmas shopping with my friend next Monday, although we probably will be in the bookstore all day!🤭

Our Health Ministry calls for masks again as the Covid-19 cases nearly double to 13,000 in a week. The ministry anticipates an increase in Covid-19 cases as individuals travel to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, coupled with the potential for the spread of the virus during our upcoming school holidays starting from December 16. The ministry is also appealing to the public to prioritise safety by wearing masks when venturing outside.

While I never take off my mask at work or around the public (except when I ran in several running events recently) ever since the pandemic started and had 3 vaccinations, it is still scary because there are 3 vaccinated people confirmed with Covid 19 in my office. I tested myself this morning and thank god it's negative.

I wish everyone to stay safe especially during the festive season. I'm planning the spend the rest of my annual leaves at home watching the rain and maybe waiting for the flood (the rainy season has just started here and it always get worst with heavy rain and floods)

This week, Netflix released a viewership report for the first half of the year. (The spreadsheet is available here, if you scroll through the text down near the video clip: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/what-we-watched-a-netflix-engagement-report )
For the kdrama enthusiast, there are a couple of interesting highlights. Keep in mind this is just from Jan 2023-June 2023. Also, its hard to tell if the precise numerical ratings are exact, since they rounded off the number of hours of engagement. Still, The revenge drama Glory was the third most watched program across all of Netflix, beneath the Night Agent (My detailed review: AWFUL!) and Ginny and Georgia, (a soap opera-y U.S. show which I just checked out but couldn't take more than 5 minutes of)

#15 was the game show combat series designed to display beautiful athletic Korean bodies, Physical: 100, which I admit I watched some of for underlying, deeply moving theme of human struggle in a hostile world. It also had contestants saying the line, several times "He's (She's) no joke" which I've started saying myself about various things, including various sundries-- "that shaving cream is no joke."

At number 16 is Crash Course in Romance. at 23 is XO Kitty, an extended metaphor about the impact of the Hallyu on disaffected American teens, at number 17 is Doctor Cha. Alchemy of Souls 1 (40th ranked); and had more hours viewed than Alchemy of Souls 2 (46th) not surprising, because it had more hours. But surprisingly Mr. Queen had beaten out Alchemy of Souls 44, in a battle of soul shifters ; The good bad mother 48, Bloodhounds 50 and then 3 older shows, Extraordinary Attorney woo, Business Proposal, and that evergreen Crash Landing on You, which I think was viewed briefly and intensely, by Netflix viewers spending a week in Switzerland.

There's more of interest. I would have liked to see where King the Land and a couple of other shows fared had they extended the time period, but speaking of Kings, I'm happy to say that King, Eternal Monarch which Netflix keeps recommending to me (should I give in?) is still on the list, at 425, where it will be forever, presumably.

Does it cost something to leave dogs at shelters? Why do people abandon them on the street?!

Why in kdramas, I'm not sure how accurate this is to real life, do people keep investing ALL their money into stocks? They can be struggling and/or working multiple part time jobs yet they invest everything into stocks.

Is the stock market different in SK? I don't know about stocks but in the U.S., it seems to be more of a moneied people type thing (except with the recent GameStop thing).

How do the shows you've seen pop up in "my shows"? I have tried just finding the final on DB and giving it stars, but it takes forever and it seems arbitrary whether it makes the show, uhm, show on my page or not.
And for the shows that are there ... I should have some beans somewhere that I should be able to see that I had, right? But I only have the ones in my tag, from my Beanie Prize for writing in the discussions of old dramas.
I saw I should "just caoun't which dramas airing in 2023 I had seen ... but that doesn't magically make beans appear on my screen. How do I do? 😭🤯😩

Last year about this time, I was having a bit of a panic because the results of the annual Dragon Poll (it's now called the Dragon Poll) were neck and neck across all categories and I had no clear winners for anything.

Well, this year is going to give us a bit of healthy competition but it's also shaping up to be a bit more clearcut.

All the strong showings for Best Drama have their fans, so if you have an opinion head on over to the blog and vote in the 2023 Dragon Poll (this is now called The Dragon Poll)

http://invisibledragon.home.blog/2023/12/09/the-dragon-poll-2023-the-good-the-bad-and-the-love-it-anyway/

My mother watched her 1st (and only) kdrama and it was Weak Hero Class 1. I guess she was intrigued by what I said about it such as how they managed to develop and break a bond so effectively in like 4/5 episodes. Couldn't talk to her about it cause she had no thoughts or feelings on it.

I think because of the S2 casting as well as Park Ji Hoon's new drama, my interest in the drama was reignited. Plus I just learned the webtoon officially ended. I also learned that the drama was a "sleeper hit" that gained recognition over sns. I was a little surprised by that but then it didn't seem *as* surprising when I learned more about the lead actor. He seemed to have a niche of small dramas projects that don't necessarily appeal to the masses. I think some of his dramas are categorized as "idol dramas". Weak Hero Class 1 was also a short drama with only 8 episodes with a run time of under an hour.

I can totally see why Ji Hoon said this role was a turning point in his acting career. It's almost crazy how well suited he was for the part considering his cute idol image.

I wonder what the cast chemistry will be like in S2.

Guys why did I not realize Matchmakers was so good sooner? I've gained like 4 beans in the last 3 days lol... binged Moon in the Day and then Matchmakers and also went back to feel like I'd really watched One Day Off and also caught up on Good day to be a dog... it's been a good week for dramas and beans.

Once upon a time, I was talking about steamy kisses/make outs in Kdrama which led to wondering if married/dating actors can have those types of kisses. As far as I know, the folks who tend to be on the lists of best kissers seem to be single or at least not married.

The person I was talking about this with said in Kill Me, Heal Me, the kisses are pretty tame but the looks the guy gives are smoldering which led to wondering "do married folks have to show the steaminess in other ways aside from the actual kissing".

Recently, I saw an interview with Ji Chang Wook & he was asked what was the worst option to him: his significant other having a kissing scene & him seeing it or him having the kissing scene and the SO seeing. I can't remember his answer but I remember him saying thinking about/imagining the scenario was starting to annoy him. He also mentioned he felt a little of that with The Worst of Evil because his character's wife kissed the bad guy (I did not know that haha).

Anywho, I don't watch that many dramas where romance is a focus and I don't know enough about korean actors & their personal lives to know if there's any truth to this.