Beanie level: Loan shark with a heart of gold

Yay!!! 🥇
At the archery field, a South Korean dynasty of an enchanting ruthlessness
At some future Olympics, someone else might win the gold medal in women’s archery. But not this one.
By Chuck Culpepper

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/25/south-korea-womens-archery-olympics/

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WTH? 😮

‘Historical Distortions’ Test South Korea’s Commitment to Free Speech
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/18/world/asia/korea-misinformation-youtube.html?referringSource=articleShare

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More international attention on Korean cultural exports:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/covid-19-couldnt-stop-kpop-global-rise

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NoOOoooooOOOOOooooooOOOOOooooo
When did I become a loan shark??? I wanted to stay on my rooftop enjoying the view! Now I have to go back to work? 💛💸💸💸💛

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    Congratulations! 🍾🎉🎊
    If you have some errands or need a collector just let me know 😎💰💃

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    Congratulations!!! You’ll be rolling in questionable 🤨 unethical money soon! You can have several rooftop rooms!

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      Hmmmmmmm 🤔
      Well, I guess there is that to look forward to!
      And all those lovely print polyester shirts and black suits 🤪

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    Congrats 🎉🎉

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    Congratulations!

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Oh, errrrg. This makes me feel sick 🤢

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/tech-design/article/3136950/could-virtual-k-pop-girl-group-dethrone-blackpink-after

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    Curious, I tried to watch that music video and was creeped out within 10 seconds. It’s terrible! How could this ever be more popular than actual artists performing?!

    Reminds me of the Star Trek: Voyager episode (yes, nerd, I know) where the Doctor accidentally introduces singing to aliens on a planet that had no concept of it. He essentially becomes an idol, everyone goes nuts for him…but the aliens have better technology, so they pretty quickly essentially develop their own AI singers and his star fades pretty quickly. It’s all synthetic in the end, but it “panders to the masses” and thus loses the heart and soul of music by performance – which I assume was the point the episode was trying to make. Does seem relevant here!

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    This jangles my ethics alarm bells in a big way, just like deepfake stuff. I’m glad the article actually raises some of those questions. I think what disappoints me about impressive technology sometimes is that it feels like “medication to manage the side effects of the other medication I’m already taking”. In the case of this AI, I wish it actually addressed and did something about toxic fan culture, rather than create something that would be immune to some of the harms of that culture. Uggggghhhhhhhhhhh.

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      That would be so helpful. Maybe it’s in the plans for them 🤞🏼

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Here’s (following post) an email from the nice people at Seoul Selection announcing
Learn Korean Through Kdramas.
I’ve been waiting for that to happen for me for years via osmosis.

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    From: Hank Kim
    Date: May 17, 2021 at 3:08:29 AM CDT
    To: fran , HP Kim
    Subject: … Seoul Selection

    
    Dear Seoul Selection Bookshop clients,

    We are pleased to announce that Learn Korean Through K-Dramas has been published.
    Learn Korean through K-Dramas is a Korean language textbook developed around short scenes from five of the most popular Hallyu K-drama shows aired between 2012 and 2019,

    making the study of the Korean language fun and effective.

    This book comes with QR codes that provide direct links to corresponding YouTube videos, allowing for readers to totally understand the scenes’ language content while watching.

    This book is also entirely written in both English and Korean to enable even beginner Korean language students to make the most out of its content.

    The right-side pages of the book are dedicated to the original K-drama scripts and the left-side pages provide English translations for a convenient learning experience for students of all proficiency levels.

    Please click the link below for an English press release of the book.

    https://blog.naver.com/seoulselection/222349150235

    For a short glimpse of the book, you can see sample pages, or Chapter 1, You Who Came from the Stars (1과 별에서 온 그대)
    I wish all of you stay healthy and start going back soon to normal days that we had before the pandemic.
    Best regards,

    Hank Kim

    Seoul Selection
    Translation | Publishing | Design | SEOUL Magazine
    Website http://www.seoulselection.com
    Book Catalog https://issuu.com/seoulselection/docs/2018-2019_book_catalog
    서울셀렉션 브로슈어 http://issuu.com/seoulselection/docs/seoul_selection_company_brochure
    82-2-734-9567, hankinseoul@gmail.com

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@mmmmm here are pictures of my Tree Peony wilting over the course of about a week.















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    Thank you for the pictures bbstl! They look lovely and HUGE! The color is my fav color -light pink. I suppose it doesn’t have any smell right? One good thing about flowers in colder climate is that the flowers tend to wilt much slower than in warmer climate, but I also noticed that their smells weren’t as strong as our flowers here.

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      These have a pleasant smell but it’s not perfume-y like real peonies. They had a great year this year and were so big I could have worn one for a hat 😆

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    They are such a lovely color.

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      Thank you! It’s my mother’s favorite color 🥰

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    Oh, those flowers 🌸 are lovely bbstl. Such a pretty 🤩 colour and lots of greenery. Peonies are such pretty 🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸

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      I love peonies very much, they are blooming now around here and even the air smells sweeter. Mine is actually a Tree Peony which bloom about a month before regular peonies and don’t need to be staked.

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More interesting commentary on Steven Yuen, Minari and language.

Steven Yeun’s Perfect Accent in “Minari”
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/steven-yeuns-perfect-accent-in-minari

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    So cool! As someone who was born in the US, I have no Vietnamese accent, and have been told I have no discernible accent that anyone can place me in a certain part of the US, even though I should have one. I’ve tried making myself have an accent and absolutely can’t, in any language. But when I went back to VN every told me I spoke in an American accent with my Vietnamese! So there it was, I do have an American accent after all!

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@sirena@mmmmm
After a month of Spring, this is what is looks like in Kansas today (and is headed here, has been snowing here for 5 hours already)
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    That looks magical!

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    Our snow was gone by the time work let out!

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    i love snow!!! but i just put red wiggler worms in my planter barrels where i’ve started sugar peas, beets, leeks… we had a warm past 5 days in the upper 70s…

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    I would not be happy.

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    Some parts of Canada (especially the province that I reside in) are said to be getting snow by the weekend

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    The pic looks lovely!

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    It looks like a fairy tale’s scene bbstl. It looks amazing to me though I’m sure you’d prefer not having any snow now. Will this affect the blooms? I’d be sad it the snow affects the flowers.

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      Hi @mmmmm, I didn’t answer you because I was waiting to see what happened after the snow. Amazingly, all the flowers and flowering trees here are fine! Today it will be over 80F and that will probably do them much more harm because they will burn up ☹️

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        Oh no.. 🙁 it’s such a shame if that happens. The flowers have been so gorgeous… will they wilt right away?

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          They will wilt after about two days of heat over 80, mostly because they’re reaching the end of their life spans already anyway. Because it’s been cool for a long time, we’ve had longer than usual to enjoy them this year.
          And then we will start having summer flowers!

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            Ohh summer flowers already? 😀 how nice. Now I want to see those soon though I still want to enjoy the spring flowers a little bit longer.

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Oops, too many pictures! Here are more.









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    These pictures are beautiful!

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    BBSTL I LOVE these pics ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️.
    The flowers and houses are so lovely it’s like in a fairy tale! Like in heaven 👼

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      I can literally be in that garden the whole day! And many days in a roll!

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        That third photo is kind of a cheat, that’s really the best garden in the neighborhood! I’ve watched that lady develop her garden for decades. Every year, I wait for her wisteria.

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@sirena here are some of the flowers and trees that are blooming here now.















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    They are lovely!

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    So beautiful! We’re heading into winter and I miss flowers 🌸

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      Funnily enough (not really 🙁) it is predicted to SNOW here today on all these gardens! I am entertaining my neighbors by covering the big pink flowers (tree peony) with a lovely mint green cat print sheet 🤦🏼‍♀️ That will probably draw more attention than the plant 🤣

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    Bbstl can you please tag me also when you post flower pics? I love flowers so much I always dream of having a house full of flowers. (I’m making that happen nowadays.) Flowers lift up my spirit.

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    Gorgeous!

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@sirena, here are some double daffodils blooming at my house right now. I will take more pictures!
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Let’s try that again with the full link
Korean TV’s Unlikely Star: Subway Sandwiches
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/business/media/subway-product-placement-korea.html?referringSource=articleShare

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OH myflaminggod, this article is in the Sunday NYTimes, including reference toDramabeans!👏🏽

Korean TV’s Unlikely Star: Subway Sandwiches
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/business/media/subway-pro

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Cool Joseon era photos on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/-PBIvijslo0

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In case anyone thinks Korean Fried Chicken happened at Shake Shack by accident:

https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-03-22/korea-pulling-out-all-stops-popularize-its-cuisine

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    Thank you for sharing!

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    I love it. Then there’s also dramaland proselytizing, sneakily brainwashing us into craving savory meat wrapped in lettuce, many, many bowls of side dishes, feeling horny when we see a bowl of ramyeon … Black ops marketing—it’s working!😂

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      I can now report that I ate the Korean chicken sandwich, fries with Korean sauce AND the “Korean” vanilla/caramel-y shake and they were all GREAT. Shake Shack really got it right for me 😋
      (Can’t believe I initially posted this on the morning of Jan 6, that feels like a lifetime ago now 😢)

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omg, I may not be able to get real Korean Fried Chicken in my town but now I can go to Shake Shack!
🍗🍗🍗

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/05/business/shake-shack-korean-fried-chicken/index.html

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In 2020, BTS Made the World Bigger

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/12/bts-2020-borahae/617521/

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    “Unlike “Dynamite,” “Life Goes On” received virtually no radio play, so purchases and streams by fans pushed it to the top of the chart, making it the first Korean song to get there.”
    I enjoy listening to “Dynamite” but they have so many other lovely songs that I would love to hear played on the radio.

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@ally-le, thought of you when I saw this 😁

How to Pretend You’re in Quebec City Tonight
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/travel/Quebec-City-vacation-at-home.html?referringSource=articleShare

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