When Insomnia and Boredom Collide

In case anyone was wondering, I frequently go to bed after 2 AM in the morning. Unfortunately, I have to wake up around 6:15 AM every morning as well. This generally leads to me being quite tired and irritable.

Today, however, is a saturday/sunday and I'm still up simply because my sleep pattern is so screwed up that I can't even get a good night's sleep on the weekends.

My solution? Make a recording of one of my favorite songs: Just For Now by Imogen Heap.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxTxODEjC3E



Keep in mind, the high notes are far from being pretty. Try to ignore them as much as physically possible.


Note: I recorded audio and then video so I am lip-syncing in all of the videos, which explains the majority of the discontinuities and I used some basic audio editing software to put all of the parts together so try to ignore when the music skips a beat and when the song deviates from the original.

Wuxia Dramas

Okay, before you read this, I want you to promise me that you'll get all of your mental asian jokes out now.

I understand that I'm very very asian. We all understand that I am very very asian and we don't need to focus on how very very asian I am.

Now, let's discuss Wuxia Dramas.

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Okay, let's be honest, anyone who's ever seen a Chinese TV show in the US probably wasn't terribly impressed. They tend to focus on topics that an American viewer would find only in series like Days of Our Lives and Passions here. Chinese dramas are no where near being universally acclaimed, to say the least.

However, I must confess, I'm desperately in love with them.

Actually, I lied, I'm just in love with the fighting ones.

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Okay, to summarize, a Wuxia Drama is one that is set in a slightly heightened reality where warriors have supernatural fighting abilities. For example, Hero and House of Flying Daggers were both Wuxia films and most of the dramas are also set in that imperial era of Chinese history as well.

There actually isn't a single reason for Takeshi to be in this blog, but he's just so gorgeous...
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There are two things that I love about Wuxia: Awesome Fighting Power Skills and Horrible Acting.

The first one is actually pretty cool. I love the way the cinematographers use the fighting scenes to flaunt their talents.

The second makes it fun to watch. Nothing beats mocking the way that the couples interact. Once you've seen a chinese drama kiss, you'll never be able to go back to American ones.


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Now you may ask, what inspired this rather pointless and shallow blog? Let's put it this way, whenever a break rolls around, I find that I become obsessed with whatever latest Wuxia series is out.

As of right now, the newest adaptation of a novel by my favorite Wuxia author is out, plus my producer/director of choice also happens to be filming this one. It's called 倚天屠龙记, translated as The Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Sabre.


That guy has the most unfortunate hairdo I've ever seen.

So far I'm about 8 episodes in (roughly 8 hours). Something special about almost all Chinese Dramas: it's just one gigantic long movie. TV shows in China tend to contrast American TV Shows because they usually are not able to stand alone. If you were to randomly watch an episode of a Wuxia drama, you would be very VERY confused.

Anyway, I felt like I should post something and this was the first thing I thought of. Enjoy your holidays and maybe join me in watching a Wuxia once in a while.

(500) Days of Summer

"The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Especially you Jenny Beckman. Bitch."

From the moment I saw these words flash across the screen, I was smitten. 'Days of Summer' continued the courtship with the inclusion of Regina Spektor's "Us" as the underlying score during the introduction of boy and girl.

They had me at "This is not a love story. It's a story about love."


I'm in love with this movie.


For those of you who have ever been to a chick flick with me should know that my general reaction to the movie general consists of a lot of cringing and the occasional inappropriately placed burst of laughter. I do not like chick flicks.

I went into (500) Days of Summer assuming the worst. While the trailer intrigued me, I was not expecting it to have me glued to the screen. I can safely say that this is the first movie in years that I have not gone to the bathroom in the middle of (it's a great feat, believe me).

I recently purchased my first soundtrack via iTunes ever simply because this movie is so perfect in its acting, visual appearance and sound. I'm very glad to have discovered The Temper Trap. 'Sweet Disposition' and 'There is a Light that Never Goes Out' tie for my favorite, although the rest of the album is not far behind. I don't think that I've loved a soundtrack as much as this one since Garden State's.

On top of everything else, Joseph Gordon-Levitt AND Zooey Deschanel cannot be more perfect in their respective parts. I forgot how much I loved Gordon-Levitt and well, let's face it, Zooey Deschanel can do no wrong.

Regardless of what my peers may say or even top movie critics, my opinion is set in stone: (500) Days of Summer is by far the finest film I have seen this year.

Go watch it. Now.

"Joseph Gordon-Levitt, you sexy beast..."

Colin Firth

I am very very close to being in love with a 48 year-old.

I should really find something wrong with that, but how can you look at this face and not melt just a little bit:


Mr. Darcy is yummy.

GLOM

Have I mentioned how much I love these guys?

Went bowling with these guys. Georgia managed to take a shit load of ass photos. Thanks for the major creeper alert George.


And of course a fanstastic rendition of Living on a Prayer by Oliver...



And of course spending a large quantity of quarters on trying to get this son of a bitch for Matt:


And of course Matt proposing to me. Sorry Matt, but you have cooties...

GLOM escapades are the best. period.

Searching

I need a change.

That change has nothing to do with making other people like me, but more so that I can like myself. Generally I'm pretty happy with myself, but at the very core of my being, I'm unsatisfied with everything I do.

I am the living, walking example of a hypocrite and as much as I try to pretend that that doesn't bother me, it does. I think I'm like that because I strive to achieve this idealistic image in my head of what a person should be, but I simply cannot. I have a set of morals and a set of beliefs that I preach and I preach but very rarely do I follow them and it kills me that I do that in the first place.

A hypocrite's hypocrite. Ironic much?

But the point of this post isn't to wallow in self-pity, it isn't to ask the world for pity. It's primarily to remind myself that however hard it is to change, sometimes you just have to.

People are constantly unhappy with who they are and that sort of unhappiness revolves around appearances and just simple stuff. I'm not that kind of a person. However, when I'm faced with who I see in the mirror, it not the outside that bothers me, but the knowledge of the person who dwells behind the face, and I can't deal with that person anymore.

I'm taking it one step at a time. I'm not going to admit the extent of my mistakes and flaws on the internet, but let's just say that this would be a much longer post if I did. I'm gonna strive to be a better person. Correction: I am going to be a better person.

I hope this works.

Johari

Don't know what the heck it is, but it seems quite interesting.

Apparently it was develop by these two guys and it's supposed to allow you to compare how you view yourself and how other view you in a positive light.


And for the more cynical, like myself, there's Nohari which is the opposite of Johari in that it lists bad traits versus good ones.


Check out both of mine here:

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Lisa%20Wang

http://kevan.org/nohari?name=Lisa%20Wang

Screwed Up

I just realized that my background is probably a little bit funky on each different computer. It's currently bothering me, but i'm a little too lazy to change it, so just zoom in/out until you can see both sides of the image in the background until i get around to fixing it.

-Lisa

4th of July

I'm so excited for fourth of july...

There are a crap load of chinese people at my house right now.

We might have set a world record for largest asian gathering in West Linn.

Unfortunately, I don't exactly love EVERYONE at this party...sherry.....
Just kidding <3

well. not really.

It's mainly just the two kids and their mom.
Save me from the young one..........

Optimistic

Just found this from ages ago.

apparently I CAN be optimistic...

Sunday, May 18, 2008

How do I love thee? Let me count the 25 things I love about life

Let's see:

-Those moments when I realize that you only have this one life to live. Might as well live it well.

-Being COMPLETELY insane, but still having friends that love me the way i am.

-DEMENTOR!!! Alliy knows what i mean

-Being incredibly asian. It comes kind of naturally to me.

-OCCYC

-Nicknames. george, al, alliy, sam(hahaha), emmington, VOLDEMORT, gaylord, smackledorf, etc. The list goes on forever

-Music. It's music, not laughter, that is the language of my soul.

-Taking various random and completely pointless pictures with Jing. I <3>

-SHAKESPEARE. So what if he may not have written his work? It's still AMAZING!

-Posting completely random blogs on myspace.

-Facebook. Sorry myspace, facebook is just generally better.

-Realizing that some of the "happiest" people i know are probably just REALLY good at pretending.

-Then realizing that I'm one of them.

-Then realizing that I'm not emo, just very confused (thank god).

-Falling for the same guy over and over again.

-Smoothie stands with Sherry

-Window licking with Alliy

-Deep conversations with George

-Nerdy conversations with Sab

-INSANE conversations with Al

-"That's what she said."-ing with Mars

-Harry Potter referencing with Emmy and Rebecca

-Math, Science, and English class. Thank god for Hubbs.

-Gummi Bears

AND MOST OF ALL

Not really knowing where I'm going to end up, but enjoying the ride there anyways.

HTML

Dear Blog Editor,
Thou art a heartless bitch.
Sincerely,
Lisa Wang


I just spent the last hour and a half trying to get a background image onto this thing.

I obviously have no life.

Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog

Blogs.
These things are interesting.

It's kind of like writing a diary, except that that diary can be viewed by anyone anywhere thus sort of defeating the point of writing it.

Despite the futility, I figured that my brain needs a creative outlet to keep my thoughts from exploding out in random bursts leaving the people I chat with online quite confused and occasionally scared. Therefore I concluded quite simply after a few weeks of debate to create a very stereotypical blog.

I won't really desire to be unique, however, I will quite frequently post things that most sane people find to be completely bizarre, so I guess this blog will be entertaining to some at the very least.


I'm rambling now... I think I'll end this post

PS. Foma and Granfalloons comes from Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Go read it to find out what my blog title means.