As I downloaded "Geek in the Pink" - Jason Mraz, I realize that my sense of music has again turned a new direction.
A year ago or so, when I listened to "Geek in the Pink", I did not really find it fitting my style of music, did not feel that I have ever experienced emotion so bouncing and light. The song was just to carefree for my style, the music too colorful and the feel from it didn't reflect myself.
A few days ago, I listen to CNBlue (Jonghyun and Yonghwa)'s cover of "Geek in the Pink" and I was truly charmed. Of course, their cover version was a little more fast beat and have an exotic taste (due to their pronunciation), but it was enough to make me realize that I want this tune in my music collection.
I guess I'm moving toward the type of music that is colorful, complicated but light, lively but not light-headed, somewhat rough and acoustic. It has a spontaneous aspect of jazz, but I am still not prepared for jazz yet. I still can't love jazz yet.
To add to this list of new music taste, there is:
"I'm the One" - IndigoBlue. Tenshi no Koi OST
"Spring I love you best" and "You are everywhere" - Big Baby Driver. A Gentleman's Dignity OST
"After This Night" - Monday Kiz (found on The Voice Korea)
"With Me" - Wheesung (found on The Voice Korea) - this song is not so happy, but it has this kind of beat that fits my new taste.
"We re going up" - Tim McMorris (found when watching Wendyslookbook video)
"EGO" - Big Bang
The one that I liked but still a bit too intricate for my ability to synchronize: "My favorite things" (The Sound of Music)
(mid July, 2012 to present)
Preceding this light acoustic movement, I was adoring Kana Nishino's songs and other that has the same style. The style of music was songs that had a lot of energy and brightness, but feels longing and sad.
Kana Nishino's
"Dear"
"Distance"
"Kimitte"
"Tatoe Donna Ni"
"Watashitachi"
"If"
Fumika's
"Tengoku no Door"
"Taisetsu no Hikari"
CNBlue's
"Sweet Holiday"
"Hey You"
"Still in Love"
While this cheerful but longing preference lasted very long, I also have a smaller new interest development with CNBlue's song. I started to fall in love with all of the CNBlue's song. Of course, there are ones that I like better, but overall all of their songs fits my taste well.
I like the beat and guitar rhythm of One Time, Intuition and Lie.
I like the liveliness and brightness of Hey You, Love Girl (which I used to not like so much), Sweet Holiday and You've fallen for me.
"Love" has a balance of everything. It is rather a sad tune, but is not too heavy, and is very fast beat. It is by far my favorite for the longest of all CNBlue's songs.
"Feeling" is a new song from CNBlue that I just downloaded. I love this song after listening to only a few notes. It has a vibrant, strange but very attractive melody.
(from November, 2011 to June, 2012)
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Summer Food Adventure [4]
I haven't taking much picture of food or cooking anything fancy lately. The heat has been waning down, but friends are also leaving. I am currently leaving on my college campus. In the beginning of this week, I and my friends moved to different dorms, making it hard to gather together and cook. However, since last time I posted, there has been some tasty adventure that we bravely initiated.
First is steamed tilapia with scallion and ginger. This was just an imitation I made of the same dish that I had when we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. To be honest, tilapia's meat is very soft and unsuitable for steaming. It tasted alright, but not the best.
Something very non-Vietnamese. Can anyone guess by this golden brown shiny appearance of the bread?
This was the famous French Toast, caramelized with brown sugar. This was the first time I made French Toast, so I had to look up the recipe. In fact, I made it because I saw the very tasty recipe from iamafoodblog.com
First is steamed tilapia with scallion and ginger. This was just an imitation I made of the same dish that I had when we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. To be honest, tilapia's meat is very soft and unsuitable for steaming. It tasted alright, but not the best.
This is the huge adventure of my two friends. They were trying to make Hue Beef Noodle, a signature dish from Hue, the old capital of Vietnam. The ingredients were complicated and the process of making stock was very long. You can see beef, pork bones, crab meat, etc. It was a very protein-rich meal, LOL. We all had food comma after eating just one bowl of noodle.
Credit: Recipe from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen
The broth, with seasoning from some sort of oil, I forgot =P
The arrangement: slices of boiled beef and pork, crab ball imitation, scallion, coriander and mint.
In went the broth, and some chili lemon grass paste.
Something very non-Vietnamese. Can anyone guess by this golden brown shiny appearance of the bread?
This was the famous French Toast, caramelized with brown sugar. This was the first time I made French Toast, so I had to look up the recipe. In fact, I made it because I saw the very tasty recipe from iamafoodblog.com
Just some instant noodle this time. But as an Asian, who can resist instant noodle? This is Nongshim ramen from Walmart. I believe the flavor was from Korea. It was very spicy, but so good.
Can you guess what I was about to make? From the very simple ingredients: spaghetti, olive oil, coriander (bc I didn't have parsley) and garlic.
It was Aglio Olio. To make a well rounded meal, I also added carrot, mushroom, green pepper and bacon, because every one love bacon, LOL. I basically just pan fried the bacon without oil then topped it on the pasta. Very tasty!
It's cherry season. Not something that I cooked, but this was the first time I got to indulge in so much cherries! Such awesome and sexy fruit.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Unequal
"I don't want to owe anybody anything, so I keep myself as much on the lending side as I can." - 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
I hate people who take advantages of others. That being said, it doesn't mean that I never took advantage of other people, but in a broad sense, I gave more than take. I guess it is something in human nature to do things that would benefit themselves. To steal the front in a queue, to take the bigger bite, to choose the creamier slice, to hold on to a better seat, to do less work, etc.
Why do I hate it so much if it's human nature? It could be because I am always the one who is taken advantage of. It is my attitude to give. I do not like competing, and I can always accept the less advantageous side of things. Maybe I just don't give a damn to a lot of things, and when you don't care, you don't fight for it. Since I do not mind yielding, I let other people seize the better without complaining or feeling unfair. However, toward this attitude of mine, people, a lot of times, will utilize it, or do not even notice that they are draining my endurance.
I hate people who don't understand that if you are taking something, you better giving something back, even of lesser quantity; people who think that life should always go the way they wanted and whatever they want can be obtain at ease; and people who simply insist they always have the best of everything, and thus, use every mean to achieve it. Why is it that they can not back down for once? I guess I hate them because I am powerless toward them. They could strip me off my last possession and I could do nothing. That is because I hate to 'take'.
Countless time in my life had I been taken advantage of blatantly. In high school, I sat next to this girl who was very clever and dominating. In casual conversation, I was on the same level with her, but when it came to choosing some thing, she would always snatch the best options. I didn't mind, because things that she thought to be the best didn't concern me. My original seat was in the middle while hers was on the side, next to the teacher's walkway. Sometimes she would randomly change the seat with me, and I don't mind. One day we had a history exam (yes, I still remembered the subject). She was already sitting at my seat without my approval, and I knew she wanted to sit there because the teacher would less likely to watch her if she sat inside. First of all, it was my original seat. Second of all, I didn't believe in having the inside seat created better condition for the exam. After all, I knew that she wanted to open her notes. I was furious inside. I didn't want her to continue pushing me to her benefits just because I didn't act against her. So I told her to return to her seat with a casual tone. She did not, obviously, but also talked back to me so sharply that I couldn't restrain anymore. I burst into tears and ran out. It was not obvious that I cried. I did not make any sound or hiss. But I did walk out of class and stand in the hallway, looking down at the trees.
I never really cried because I was sad. I cried because I was angry. It was a kind of anger and oppression that couldn't be expressed by words.
I always hate this type of people. And I don't know how I ended up being their close friends.
I hate people who take advantages of others. That being said, it doesn't mean that I never took advantage of other people, but in a broad sense, I gave more than take. I guess it is something in human nature to do things that would benefit themselves. To steal the front in a queue, to take the bigger bite, to choose the creamier slice, to hold on to a better seat, to do less work, etc.
Why do I hate it so much if it's human nature? It could be because I am always the one who is taken advantage of. It is my attitude to give. I do not like competing, and I can always accept the less advantageous side of things. Maybe I just don't give a damn to a lot of things, and when you don't care, you don't fight for it. Since I do not mind yielding, I let other people seize the better without complaining or feeling unfair. However, toward this attitude of mine, people, a lot of times, will utilize it, or do not even notice that they are draining my endurance.
I hate people who don't understand that if you are taking something, you better giving something back, even of lesser quantity; people who think that life should always go the way they wanted and whatever they want can be obtain at ease; and people who simply insist they always have the best of everything, and thus, use every mean to achieve it. Why is it that they can not back down for once? I guess I hate them because I am powerless toward them. They could strip me off my last possession and I could do nothing. That is because I hate to 'take'.
Countless time in my life had I been taken advantage of blatantly. In high school, I sat next to this girl who was very clever and dominating. In casual conversation, I was on the same level with her, but when it came to choosing some thing, she would always snatch the best options. I didn't mind, because things that she thought to be the best didn't concern me. My original seat was in the middle while hers was on the side, next to the teacher's walkway. Sometimes she would randomly change the seat with me, and I don't mind. One day we had a history exam (yes, I still remembered the subject). She was already sitting at my seat without my approval, and I knew she wanted to sit there because the teacher would less likely to watch her if she sat inside. First of all, it was my original seat. Second of all, I didn't believe in having the inside seat created better condition for the exam. After all, I knew that she wanted to open her notes. I was furious inside. I didn't want her to continue pushing me to her benefits just because I didn't act against her. So I told her to return to her seat with a casual tone. She did not, obviously, but also talked back to me so sharply that I couldn't restrain anymore. I burst into tears and ran out. It was not obvious that I cried. I did not make any sound or hiss. But I did walk out of class and stand in the hallway, looking down at the trees.
I never really cried because I was sad. I cried because I was angry. It was a kind of anger and oppression that couldn't be expressed by words.
I always hate this type of people. And I don't know how I ended up being their close friends.
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