The Problematic of the Unproblematic

Anne: Cedar!!! This last week, everywhere in South Texas, this has caused all sorts of issues in my sinus. The congestion and coughing the tree pollen has inflamed was worse than getting infected with SARS-CoV2. If only we could develop a vaccine against allergies! It got bad enough that I almost lost my voice on Friday. I conducted a meeting all by IM. It is a good thing that they made us all learn typing skills when I was in high school. During my academic career, I had more than one foreign graduate student who asked whether I learned typing during school. I have always thought that this was something that was taught as a general rule. But then I remember that when I was in high school, computers were just starting to come onto the market. And we learned typing on the word processor. (Two points to anyone on the blog who knows what this is.) While I was between coughing fits and sinus blockage, I was happily watching my two favorite dramas of this week. Reset I was pleasantly...

Anne: Don't you hate it when your boss sends a meeting invite and the title is "Very Important Meeting" with NO details. And then cancels on you because there was some misalignment with our global director. It turns out to be half of what I guessed. It's mostly a reorganization talk, and technically good news for me. I am just not a fan of cryptic messages. Being an over-thinking person, it cost me quite a bit second guessing and scenario planning. I had half a dozen plans already detailed inside my head. With a few anxious days, at least I had some interesting shows to redirect my thoughts. Bad and Crazy This show constantly twists my brain just trying to image how in the world does the above scene happen. How in the world does the original host act as a passive person on the outside looking in, while his alter ego takes control? And the transitions gives absolutely NO clue as to how this happens. How does K get a bike when the original host was in control of the bod...

Anne:  Well...I spent last week quarantined inside the tiny little house with a 43 year old and a 5 year old. I am SO glad that I got a Nintendo Switch for the boys. With the exception of some background arguing about someone stealing someone else's gold and diamonds from their "base", most of my meetings went by without too many issues. I was the only one that tested positive, even though the three of us are literally within <1 foot of one another since New Year (and no one had any symptoms except me). I thought I had a sinus infection at first, which is fairly common for me throughout the year. But my work has mandated weekly onsite testing, and that's how I found out I was positive. Then a couple of days after that, I lost my taste and smell...it was so odd since I only noticed when I was eating lunch one day. It wasn't a completely lost, exactly. The best way to describe this is when I brush with minty toothpaste, I can feel the "coolness" of the ...

Anne: Hope everyone had a non-eventful New Years. Despite having 5 days without doing any work, I don't think I managed to have gotten anything done. My house is still a mess. (At least the laundry got done.) I haven't managed to watch many shows, and I definitely have not finished Luoyang, so I will leave it up to any reader who has caught up over the holidays to give an overview. Again, I've only managed to watch one show with any attention, and still have not caught up with any of the other one's that I've started. I swear that vacation always throws off my schedule. I end up doing nothing and can't understand after 5 days how in the world did I spend my time. For some reason I spent a LOT of time watching YouTube bts videos of One and Only , Forever and Ever  (so now I'm addicted to the soundtrack), and The Legends .   Bad and Crazy This is the show that I started last week due to how high the ratings were. And I have to say this show does not disappoint...

Anne: Hm... I would like to say we are all quite happy to see 2021 end in a few more days...but given the current situation...looks like 2022 will be about the same. But enough about our depressing situation and let's move on and talk about more pleasant things. As promised last week, this post will be devoted to a very speedy roundup of the dramas that aired in 2021, those that I actually watched. But first...just wanted to stare at Kim Seok-woo (Rowoon) a little bit longer. I am now an avid fan since The King's Affection .  Before I begin, I would like everyone to put in your list also in the comments. As every reader on this blog knows, my drama watching tends to stay in a very narrow genre and language.  The Best of 2021 This is usually a bit tricky due to the numerous dramas coming out of Asia, and my horrible memory where I never remember most of the dramas that I'd seen as recent as 3 months ago. But this year, even nearly 9 months later, I can still recall vividly t...

Anne: I am SO looking forward to having a 4 day weekend. What am I looking forward to the most? Sleep! Next week, I would like to do a review of the year's dramas that made an impression. Let's see how much work I can get out of the way so I can concentrate on trying to remember what I have watched in the last 12 months. With my memory issues, it's probably a good thing that I have history on all the apps. It hasn't happened with dramas yet, but I have been known to re-read novels twice that I didn't remember. The worse one was when I was about 250pages in; I read a particular scene and was hit by deja vu. I found the same book buried on one of my book shelves.  Speaking of books. I did not realize that there are actual "published" English translations of some of my favorite BL novels (okay they are all from a single author).  The only unfortunate thing is that all 3 are split into 3 books. Heaven Official's Blessing (--part of me wished that they coul...

Anne: Where did this week's time disappeared to? I spent the week trying to figure out who I can visit so my son can stay at a hotel, specifically Home 2. I nixed his original idea. I am not spending money to go to stay at Home 2 in the same city where we have Home 1. I should record his speeches when he gets into the room and see if I can sell it to Hilton as a commercial. Otherwise, I have done little but work this week. I did managed to at least finish one drama and started a couple of interesting stories that I will just introduce here. As for Luoyang , I haven't gone any further since last week. As for the The King's Affection , it will end this week, and I'm saving the episodes to do a final review at the end next week.  Detective Koo I've finished the series this week, and thank goodness all the bad guys ended where they should. Despite the masterful plan, there were quite a few holes that kind of just got plugged up with a word or two. Seriously, how in the ...

Anne: Hello Everyone! My head is about to explode trying to figure out what is wrong with an assay when all I can do is ask for second hand information. Without actually being in the space when the experiment is executed, I am having a tough time trying to figure out how to troubleshoot. It is driving me literally insane. For instance, I'm beginning to think one particular issue that has spread beyond just one assay is due to light bleaching of the fluorescent dye. The problem is that this shouldn't even be a problem! Anyway...enough ranting about my increasingly workload. Now... to the dramas... Luoyang Ok...let's get down to the most anticipated drama at the end of this year! I've finished up to somewhere in the middle of episode 11. Pacing...pretty good. Camera work...very nice. The fight scenes...spectacular! Story/plot...interesting but I have a lot of questions. One, why is everyone so deathly afraid of the empress? Two, why is the empress called the saint? I watc...