Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg
Apr. 22nd, 2025 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperslist
Apr. 22nd, 2025 11:33 pmshipperslistThis week (at least since Wednesday) was a holiday (thanks to the catholics), and though I intended to get some work done, the truth is I couldn’t… I watched some stuff, started reading, and tried to rest, but stressful things happened on Thursday (as usual, hahaha lolsob), and I really had to distract myself.
Currently reading
- The Scum Villain’s Self Saving System Vol. 1 (novel) - Chapter 1
Dropped/On Hold
- La transmigración de los cuerpos [The transmigration of bodies] (novel) - Chapter 1/5
Finished watching
- Kieta Hatsukoi (Japanese BL drama) - 10 episodes
- Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung (Korean drama) - 20 episodes (or 40, according to MDL)
Currently watching
- Winter Begonia (Chinese drama) - Weekly, weekends - 21/49 episodes
- Dakaichi: I'm Being Harassed By the Sexiest Man of the Year (BL anime) - No schedule - 9/13 episodes
- Top Form (Thai BL drama) - Thursdays - 6/11 episodes
- Perfect 10 Liners (Thai BL drama) - No schedule - 4/24 episodes
- El Secreto del Río (Mexican drama) - No schedule - 4/8 episodes
On Wednesday, I started reading SVSSS Vol. 1, and I think enough time has passed since I read MDZS and other danmei for me to feel brave enough to tackle this novel. So far, I’m finding it fun. At least now I have more context about systems and transmigrators. I’ve marked some passages that made me laugh out loud on the bus and outside my therapist’s office. We’ll see how funny I still find it as the plot progresses.i think I have some idea but I want to avoid as many spoilers as possible ( I’m good at that :D)
For now, I’m not sure if I’ll drop La Transmigración de los Cuerpos for good or if I’ll come back to it later… but I think one of the biggest issues was that I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the main character. Though I’ve already talked about other reasons why I couldn’t connect with the story, so I won’t go into detail here anymore.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here or just thought about it, but I’m on a mission to watch BL series that are considered "must-watch," and this week I watched Kieta Hatsukoi (2021). I really enjoyed it. It was sweet, funny, and a little exasperating in the way only teen dramas can be. There were moments when I genuinely wanted to reach through the screen, grab Aoki or Ida by the shoulders, and shake them so they’d communicate better. But that’s kind of the point… part of being a teenager is feeling lost in many ways, especially if you’ve always thought you only liked girls, only to suddenly realize you have feelings for a boy. Or at least, that’s what I think, hahaha*. And yes, I’ll say it again: Japanese BLs are truly my favorites (I’ve been meaning to reflect more deeply on this, about my own temperament and my high levels of emotional repression, hahaha, but I don’t know, I always end up chickening out).
I also finished Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung. This week, I watched no fewer than eight hour-long episodes, but things kept happening, and as they say, the plot thickened. So I just couldn’t stop. I suffered, I laughed, but above all, I kept thinking about History as a narrative: about what we know of the past and why, and by whose decision. These aren’t new reflections for me, especially as someone who studied literature, but also as a person from a colonized country with a very complex history. But I’m getting off-topic. One thing I liked was that, yes, there’s romance, but the other events and secrets were what really held my attention. And not just that, but the different kinds of relationships between the characters: I’ve already mentioned the sibling dynamics (between Hae Ryung and Jae Kyung, as well as Yi Rim and Yi Jin), but also U Won’s relationship with his father, the friendship among the female historians, and the (reluctant) camaraderie that forms among all the historians (both female and male). In the end, the only thing that left me slightly unsatisfied was the time skip and how some things weren’t explained in detail… but if I had the mental energy, they’d be perfect opportunities to write fanfics. I was surprised to find only 51 fics on AO3… but oh well… In the end, I really, really loved this drama. I grew very attached to the characters and absolutely hated the Second State Councilor. Thanks to forestofglory for the rec <3
Today, I wasn’t really planning to watch any episodes of Winter Begonia because I’m still thinking a lot about Rookie Historian, but in the end, I couldn’t resist and had to check in on my adoptive son Shang Xirui (and he didn’t disappoint, omg). I can’t believe it’s the first time I’ve seen the opening and ending credits (because earlier this week, I opened iQIYI in my browser and discovered there’s an option to disable them… and apparently, I’ve always had them turned off). I like the ending song, and the animation too.
I only watched one episode of Dakaichi, but it’s fine. Maybe I’ll finish it next weekend.
I watched this week’s episode of Top Form, and even though I’d seen this part in the anime and knew what was coming, it was just as stressful as before. And I kept thinking about how I wanted to watch the next episode… because in the anime, things get resolved, but in this case, I have to wait until Friday (or Thursday night, if work leaves me with enough energy… I hate when my job gets between me and my gay shows…).
At some point, I also watched an episode of Perfect 10 Liners because… well, don’t ask me why, hahaha (it is because I want to see JuniorMark as FaifaWine, that’s why).
Finally, I also watched the first episode of Pit Babe to see if this time it would really grab me or spark enough curiosity to keep watching until the end. And out of curiosity, I checked out the first episode of My Stubborn, just testing the waters… I won’t officially add them to my list until I’ve watched at least the second episode…
And that’s all.
*It’s not that I’ve forgotten what being a teen was like... it’s just that I’ve always been attracted to both men and women for as long as I can remember… so I didn't have that kind of confusion, but I can understand it.
One of the kids asked about why we learn aikido, a martial art, if the goal is to simply not be in situations where we need to fight. Said kid got, after class ended, a discussion of that where each of the three people responding had a slightly different (but cohesive!) take on the matter, which boils down to: Try not to get into a fight, but train yourself so that should it ever happen you know how to respond as safely as possible for everyone involved.
The other layer of aikido, the one that doesn't happen on the mat, is something I think the parents heard in our answers but the kids probably didn't. Which is: the philosophy of aikido can be applied to any situation, not just physical conflict. It's aikido when you defuse an argument before it happens. It's aikido to see a misunderstanding and clarify the matter. It's aikido any time someone comes at you with aggression and you respond with de-escalation.
The kids seemed fascinated by this, and accepted the explanation. The parents were quite delighted by it.
Also in work news:
Apparently, starting Monday, we're doing overtime for a number of weeks that could be just two, could be a month, and could just be... ongoing... They're gonna judge on a week-to-week basis. (This is not mandatory. They cannot make it mandatory. It's just set up so that you need to explicitly opt out on a day-to-day basis, so realistically we're probably all doing overtime most of the time.)
It'll be 10hr days M-Th, and then our normal 6hr day on Friday. Apparently if they get more pressure about us being ~behind schedule~ (which: hah, who's surprised, it's a big project and also one of the things we're working on is an add that someone else fucked up and we're being paid to fix) they might add Friday overtime and also Saturday overtime, neither of which I'm going to say yes to (I like having weekends, thanks, work eats enough time as it is). But it sure will be interesting if that becomes a Thing!
The other layer of aikido, the one that doesn't happen on the mat, is something I think the parents heard in our answers but the kids probably didn't. Which is: the philosophy of aikido can be applied to any situation, not just physical conflict. It's aikido when you defuse an argument before it happens. It's aikido to see a misunderstanding and clarify the matter. It's aikido any time someone comes at you with aggression and you respond with de-escalation.
The kids seemed fascinated by this, and accepted the explanation. The parents were quite delighted by it.
Also in work news:
Apparently, starting Monday, we're doing overtime for a number of weeks that could be just two, could be a month, and could just be... ongoing... They're gonna judge on a week-to-week basis. (This is not mandatory. They cannot make it mandatory. It's just set up so that you need to explicitly opt out on a day-to-day basis, so realistically we're probably all doing overtime most of the time.)
It'll be 10hr days M-Th, and then our normal 6hr day on Friday. Apparently if they get more pressure about us being ~behind schedule~ (which: hah, who's surprised, it's a big project and also one of the things we're working on is an add that someone else fucked up and we're being paid to fix) they might add Friday overtime and also Saturday overtime, neither of which I'm going to say yes to (I like having weekends, thanks, work eats enough time as it is). But it sure will be interesting if that becomes a Thing!
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The unions' regional apprentice competition happened over last weekend (read: mostly Friday, actually, but it started Thursday and ended Saturday), and was very fun and... tbh easier than I expected???
which, uh. is probably why I was in-the-moment surprised and after-some-thought unsuprised that I placed first in the category I was there for (second-year apprentices).
( more specifics/rambling about this )
also possibly the funniest conversation I had during the event happened on the last evening, when I was chatting with two other apprentices. we ended up talking about how we'd all grown up playing D&D 3.5e and now play 5e and have Opinions about which edition we like better (4e got mentioned as being a completely different type of game and therefore not worth talking about). mostly it was like "okay how do you weight realism (what do you mean by that?) vs mechanical simplicity vs ability to make a build you like (and what even is that build)".
which, uh. is probably why I was in-the-moment surprised and after-some-thought unsuprised that I placed first in the category I was there for (second-year apprentices).
( more specifics/rambling about this )
also possibly the funniest conversation I had during the event happened on the last evening, when I was chatting with two other apprentices. we ended up talking about how we'd all grown up playing D&D 3.5e and now play 5e and have Opinions about which edition we like better (4e got mentioned as being a completely different type of game and therefore not worth talking about). mostly it was like "okay how do you weight realism (what do you mean by that?) vs mechanical simplicity vs ability to make a build you like (and what even is that build)".
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Here's this week's update
Currently reading
- La transmigración de los cuerpos [The transmigration of bodies] (novel) - Chapter 1/5
Finished watching
- Love is better the second time around (Japanese BL drama) - 6 episodes
- How to make millions before grandma dies (Thai film)
Currently watching
- Winter Begonia (Chinese drama) - Weekly, weekends - 20/49 episodes
- Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung (Korean drama) - No schedule - 12/20 episodes
- El Secreto del Río (Mexican drama) - No schedule - 4/8 episodes
- Dakaichi: I'm Being Harassed By the Sexiest Man of the Year (BL anime) - No schedule - 8/13 episodes
- Top Form (Thai BL drama) - Thursdays - 5/11 episodes
- Perfect 10 Liners (Thai BL drama) - No schedule - 3/24 episodes
Last Monday, I started The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera. But I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish it. We’ll see. I wrote a separate post about it because I apparently had a lot to say and didn’t want to clutter this one with so much text about it.
During the week (specifically between Tuesday and Thursday), I watched Love is Better the Second Time Around. I liked it. It’s short, with protagonists in their 30s. I want to watch more Japanese BLs, and it’s perfect that most of them have few episodes. Plus, I don’t know, something about their style makes me really enjoy them (yes, even though I’m currently watching a lot of Thai series).
Last night, I watched the movie How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, and I liked it a lot. It made me cry, because the story moved me. It deals with the complexities of family relationships, but also explores a bond of affection and care that starts from purely financial interest. There were some details that hit close to home, maybe because they resembled circumstances from my own life. Visually, I also really liked it. I’m drawn to that melancholic style, which makes me feel like I’m being transported to Thailand’s warm climate. I also liked that it doesn’t portray the fancy, extremely luxurious settings some series do, which I find a bit annoying (because they end up reminding me of Mexican telenovelas where everyone is rich and lives in mansions or super-luxury apartments). Here, for example, the hospital scenes felt very close to the reality I’ve experienced (except for the part of taking off the shoes to mark your place in the queue). I’m kind of glad I didn’t get to watch it in theaters because I think I would’ve been a little embarrassed to cry the way I did yesterday in the privacy of my room.
This week, we continued with episodes 19 and 20 of Winter Begonia in the watch party, and I’m falling more in love with Shang Xirui. What a character. Honestly, I really like many of the characters in the series. The women, for example, are interesting, and I’m intrigued to learn more about them. One thing I love is how funny some scenes can be without feeling out of place in the show’s overall dramatic tone. There are moments that make my heart ache or leave me nervous about what might happen… I can’t deny that sometimes I have shippy thoughts about certain characters, like Du Luocheng, Cheng Fengtai, and Shang Xirui. Cheng Fengtai and Du Luocheng could kiss to smooth things over, and then both kiss Shang Xirui because he’s their diva, their star. They wouldn’t have to compete to be his favorite… they could share. The more, the merrier.
I also made progress with Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung. I love seeing the bonds of camaraderie forming between the male and female historians. I’m also growing fond of certain characters I didn’t love at first, like Min U Won. I think, as with Winter Begonia, I like that there are moments that are extremely silly and funny, and others that are very dramatic and sad, or politically tense, and they balance well. Maybe the least important part so far for me is the romance, but it’s sweet and doesn’t bother me at all. In that sense, I like that the prince is the one who’s head over heels, while Hae Ryung (who initially wasn’t interested in marriage and ran away from her own wedding) is discovering someone with whom she shares a sense of complicity, despite their differences. But beyond that, it always makes me think about history, about what’s considered worthy of being recorded for posterity. It reminds me of my school days when, in certain classes, teachers would briefly mention microhistory and other approaches (though not in depth, since I ended up studying literature, not history) and it was very interesting. I’m so glad I decided to watch this drama, because I’m enjoying it a lot.
I only watched one more episode of Dakaichi this week.
And, because I needed to test if my credit card would work for buying the fanmeeting ticket, I ended up paying for a month’s subscription to WeTV and got to watch episode 5 of Top Form without having to wait for a week. This drama is funny because the first episode seemed very meh to me, but the second was better than the first; then the third was better than the second, and so on with each new episode. It still doesn’t make me feel feral or anything like that, but at least it makes me want to keep watching the upcoming episodes. I’s like to finish Dakaichi before all 11 episodes of this drama air. I want to see the differences and similarities. The drama kept the honey scene and the photoshoot with the cigarettes, and I always find it interesting to see different adaptations of a work. Maybe soon I’ll also try reading the manga.
Ah, yes, I added Perfect 10 Liners to my list.
And that’s all for this week. I want to start working on the freebies for the fanmeeting. I also want to think of ways to save up for when the upgrades go on sale (polaroid photos with each couple).
Tags:
- book: transmigration of bodies,
- currently reading,
- currently watching,
- media: cdrama,
- media: japanese bl,
- media: kdrama,
- media: thai bl,
- media: thai film,
- movie: how to make millions before grand,
- show: love is better the second time aro,
- show: rookie historian goo hae ryung,
- show: top form,
- show: winter begonia
Book bingo 2025: Sävelsinkö by Minna Lindgren (set somewhere I’ve been)
Apr. 12th, 2025 11:11 amshipperslist1. If you could retroactively erase one TV show from the history of entertainment, which one would you choose?
This is very local, but La Rosa de Guadalupe.
2. Are you more like your mother or your father?
Like my father. I’m the total opposite of my mother.
3. If you could take a year-long vacation, what would you do?
If I also had enough money, I’d travel to a few places (not many, because traveling is incredibly overwhelming for me). I’d take classes in things I like, too.
4. Can you think of a reason not to answer this question?
This kind of question is the worst nightmare for an autistic person like me.
5. What's the nicest thing you've ever done for someone?
I don’t know. At least in person, people seem to think I’m good at listening to them, but I don’t feel like I’ve done anything particularly nice? I try to be a decent human being, even if I don’t always succeed…
This is very local, but La Rosa de Guadalupe.
2. Are you more like your mother or your father?
Like my father. I’m the total opposite of my mother.
3. If you could take a year-long vacation, what would you do?
If I also had enough money, I’d travel to a few places (not many, because traveling is incredibly overwhelming for me). I’d take classes in things I like, too.
4. Can you think of a reason not to answer this question?
This kind of question is the worst nightmare for an autistic person like me.
5. What's the nicest thing you've ever done for someone?
I don’t know. At least in person, people seem to think I’m good at listening to them, but I don’t feel like I’ve done anything particularly nice? I try to be a decent human being, even if I don’t always succeed…
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