How I Spent my BIGBANG 7th Anniversary Day

Before anything else… I’m gonna reply to the comments tomorrow. I was just busy the whole day with the celebration so I don’t want everyone to think that I ignored the comments, but like my blogs, I want my replies to be as hearty and sincere as possible.

Okay this is going to be a ‘약속’ short post *or not*. I know that sometimes *well most of the time*, it’s tiring to read lengthy posts. I just wanted to put a lot of personality in my blog entries. I don’t want a blog that’s just something informative or a blog that’s just purely or highly functional. I blog most of the time as how I would say it, as how I pause through commas, and as how I make side comments through my mind while I’m speaking, thanks to the asterisks.

Don’t know why I became very sentimental about this day. It’s like I’ve neglected BIGBANG for a long time and I found this anniversary as an excuse to get back to them. Well honestly, it’s hard to spazz after watching two live concerts and a Korean hiatus, right? So as funny as it was, I really spazzed the whole day.

8월 18일

11:57 PM – EPIK HIGH – 춥다 (Ft. LEE HI) #지금재생중. In the middle of making myself sleep.

11:59 PM – Music’s still playing, I hurriedly had a thought of having a BIGBANG celebration so I decided to listen to nothing else but BIGBANG this day. Scrambled through my playlists QUICKLY and TENSELY, BIGBANG, BIGBANG 1, BIGBANG 2, BIGBANG 3, and BIGBANG for iPad. I chose BIGBANG 1 and chose the first song…

8월 19일

12:00 AM – BIGBANG – Still Alive #지금재생중. 와!!!! 축하합니다! I swear the music started as soon as the clock reached twelve. Anyway, the BIGBANG playlist contains every single song they had in my library. BIGBANG 1, 2 and 3 are three separate playlists, 25 songs each, with the first playlist having all their top hits and singles, second playlist having the songs that had popularity which were not really promoted, and third playlist for the best picks and good music that were overshadowed by the hits. BIGBANG for iPad is the playlist without BIGBANG’s live CDs, instrumentals, acapellas, etc., because I used to have no music player and I only listen through my iPad so I had to filter out a lot.

12:04 AM – BIGBANG – Tonight #지금재생중. I’m picking up the Zzzzs.

12:05 AM – BIGBANG – 거짓말 #지금재생중. Don’t know if I even finished this song because I was too tired the….. whole… and…. I…. Zzzzzzz.

3:47 AM – Woke up so early. God told me to listen to more BIGBANG songs so I jumped to BIGBANG 2 playlist, starting with BIGBANG – B I G B A N G #지금재생중.

4:00 AM – While listening to a part of BIGBANG 2 playlist moving up to BIGBANG 3, I started writing my blog entry, BIGBANG: 7 Years + BIGBANG Alive Tour 2012.

6:23 AM – I posted the blog entry, and whew! That was a good two hour-and-a-half mixed with blogging and some procrastination.

6:36 AM – Done proofreading the entry. I publish before I proofread. Dumb right?

6:37 AM – Listened to more BIGBANG songs, and started with the second entry which is still at draft status. I might post it this week. It’s exhaustive to be blogging for more than two hours so I felt tired and slept at about…

7:20 AM – Zzzzzz…

11:02 AM – Woke up. Damn! Why do I wake up so much 😐

11:08 AM – Saw Seungri’s video uploaded like just minutes ago, GENIUS!!!

11:09 AM – SEUNGRI – 할말 있어요 #nowwatching. NONSTOP for like 5 times.

11:30 AM – Blasted music from the home theater, with BIGBANG music of course, it ran till…

12:00 PM – SEUNGRI FINALLY RELEASED THE MINI ALBUM! But before that…

11:49 AM – Successfully downloaded the MV. And by…

12:37 PM – I successfully downloaded the mini album (illegally of course, but I will buy it when the album comes out anyway), and listened to it right away.

1:16 PM – Finally listened to the whole mini album, and I just love how everything’s very consistent. The music, from start to finish was just whooooop! Commenced on listening to other BIGBANG songs when…

1:38 PM – Mom asked me to turn off the music because she’s gonna be watching a lame afternoon TV show… which thanks to her, if not for asking me to turn off that music, I wouldn’t have…

1:40 PM – Decided to watch BIGBANG Alive Tour in Seoul 2012, since I have like 11 BIGBANG concerts in my harddrive, and I honestly haven’t seen this DVD before since I couldn’t find a better timing. And this day was just perfect for it.

1:43 PM – Tweeted: I missed holding this lightstick!!! So I took it off of its wonderful case, and watched the concert with the lightstick on my hand.

1:46 PM – The concert had opened and BIGBANG – Tonight started… from this time, I had live feed about the concert through my Twitter.

2:51 PM – Posted a picture on Facebook on how I looked like.

How I’m spending my afternoon/BIGBANG 7th Anniversary. Please excuse my fugly face, it’s not my problem I’m happy. BIGBANG Alive Tour 2012 보는 중

3:27 PM – BIGBANG – Haru Haru started.

3:28 PM – I’m crying. SERIOUSLY.

4:15 PM – Done watching. Wondered what to do next, but just had meal out with my nephews. Had Chinese and McDonald’s.

8:30 PM – Arrived home, and decided to watch something BIGBANG with my cousins, probably a concert, or Alive Tour again, since they won’t be able to relate if we watched the older concerts.

9:55 PM – Saw Lady Gaga’s Applause already uploaded, but I’m on a BIGBANG lockout period so I can’t watch it, even if the whole word waited for it in a very long time. I didn’t watch 😀

10:30 PM – Started watching Alive Tour again, and not, since I was right that it won’t play on their TV. It did, but it looked super messed up.

10:40 PM – Decided to watch their 1박 2일 / 패밀리가 떴다 special from their Big Show 2010 DVD. Watched it up till the end of the football game, where Daesung sucked real hard. Hahaha.

10:50 PM – Started to watch 강심장의 YG Family Special instead, and the final episode for 이승기. It was fun, and I missed watching it. The first part ran for 1 hour and 20 minutes so…

8월 20일

12:00 PM – When Tablo was in the middle of telling his story, I lifted my hands and my lighstick and shouted, 축하합니다!!!

12:10 PM – The show finished and I went home with my harddrive, my lightstick, my phone, etc.

What a wonderful way for me to celebrate BIGBANG’s 7th Anniversary. I knew other people who would buy cake, or dine out with friends, and make projects etc, but I’m just too busy for that. Those are things that I don’t see myself doing. God gave me their anniversary day to have a full rest (since I didn’t come to work) and to celebrate, and make myself realize how excited and happy I was about them, and it’s time to come back. Starting with GD… then DAESUNG’s Japanese…. then SEUNGRI… then GD again… then TAEYANG?… THEN BIGBANG? This is going to be a very big 2013.

I’m glad I’m a part of this thing called V.I.P because I don’t see myself anywhere else better. Until whenever, I’ll be here!!!

Gosh, that final part makes me wanna throw up.

PS. Who told you that this post is gonna be short?

BIGBANG: 7 Years + BIGBANG Alive Tour 2012

DISCLAIMER: The first few sentences might not make any sense… or the whole post might not make any sense, to make it easy for you. But if you love BIGBANG as much as I do… or even just a few, I encourage you to read it up to the end *of course I blog, so you read, haha*.

DISCLAIMER PART 2: There would be a second post which will talk about their music, and is not so much a continuation of this post, so if you’re more interested with the music rather than my non-stop talkative self, so talkative even my hands talk through my keyboard, go through the post here.

It’s 4:00 AM in the morning, and why am I awake? The weather here in the Philippines is just sooo goood! But when I mean good, it means ‘계속 비가 많이 오다’, it’s like ‘장마’ in the Philippines, but just for a little Korean vocabulary tip, it’s actually ‘우기’, because I don’t know if ‘장마’ just wants a little exclusivity to Korea *dumb conclusion*.

So I was saying, it’s raining really hard, and these are like those times when God wakes me up and makes me rethink if I should go to work (before it’s school) or not. A lot of school have been suspended already, and like college students *who always wish so hard about school suspensions*, I’m also not waterproof, so I might not go to work anymore because it just sucks to be in here if the weather is like this. You would just want to lie in bed, read books, drink coffee and listen to BIGBANG.

OH MY GOSH, WHO SAID BIGBANG? IT’S BIGBANG’s 7th ANNIVERSARY, HOLLA!!

Maybe this is one of the reasons why I’m awake right now. My favorite number is 7, and this is my 21st post (2NE1 and November 21, my birthday), so how cool is that? I told you things won’t make any sense. Especially writing this in 4 AM. 😐

But then again, as much as how good or bad the weather today is, there is still a very big reason to celebrate, and that is BIGBANG’s 7th Anniversary. Before I started to sleep at about 11:57 PM, I listened to EPIK HIGH’s ‘춥다’ which feature’s LEE HI, which is a very good song by the way, WHICH is very perfect for the weather. But then again, I remembered the anniversary so I decided to play all BIGBANG songs the whole day, so when I checked my iPod for the time, it’s fast approaching 12:00 so I hurriedly scrambled through my playlists and found BIGBANG’s, and hurriedly started it as soon as the clock ticked 12.

Now, I had a lot of things on my mind on how this post should look like, or how it would feel, etc. Being a very big BIGBANG fan, I honestly forgot that they’ll be having their anniversary today. I just read it from YG-Family’s post which is very embarrassing for myself, good thing though that they posted it some minutes in advance, so I don’t look like a total and complete idiot fan. So the moment I woke up about 3 something, things ran through my mind, even thinking that I must go to work today just to post about this, but I’m already awake so yeah!

430 songs, 71 albums, 1:02:10:31 total time (1 day), 3.14 GB

My BIGBANG library is basically complete. At 430 songs, I’m thinking those jealous newbie BIGBANG fans would salivate. I’m not asking for more… except for SEUNGRI’s new release later. So I’m gonna talk about their songs on another follow-up post.

I don’t exactly know how I started to love BIGBANG, all I know is that I have ABOUT 10 BIGBANG albums, attended 2 CONCERTS, etc. Let’s put this into pictures should we?

My happy place

My room looked like this, but now, because of my staggering number of books, my shelves became two, so the poster below had no space anymore. Don’t look at my current room anymore, it sucks. But not so much because there’s still a BIGBANG poster 😀

If I just a have a bigger room, I would definitely post my BIGBANG posters there, but sadly, I’m too poor for that. I have about 20+ original BIGBANG posters which I’m not sure how it became that many.

My happy cheering pose

This one’s probably my most treasured shirt. I love it so much I wanna die. I asked my brother from Singapore to buy this shirt for me since there were no Uniqlo here before *now there are 5, AND NEAR*, and he slacked off so bad that I almost had no shirt anymore. I asked for TOP’s and this shirt is Daesung’s, so it’s okay because it is their logo after all. This one’s at XL but I asked mom to make it narrower, so it basically became an oversized shirt that I love so much.

My most treasured laptop

This was originally wall photos in my room, but decided to put it here because I replaced the wall with posters.

BIGBANG Galaxy Alive Tour 2012

Watching their concert twice is probably one of the best moments of my 2012, and PROBABLY MY ENTIRE LIFE. *this part is honestly meant to be short but blame my uber-talkative hands and the idea of a part 2 post, so this is gonna be longer*.

I was booked for a September (1 month) Singapore vacation last year some months in advance, so I am truly surprised when a BIGBANG concert was announced. I am pretty sure that that concert was for me because if it wasn’t, it should at least be October, or the day of my flight! But alas! It’s at Sept. 28 (originally, but they had a second schedule which is luckily, also meant for me).

Ticket booking opened on June 25, 2012, a 10 AM Monday morning *up till Tuesday*, but knowing BIGBANG fans, it will sell out in seconds. It was a priority sale ticket for OCBC card holders. I had Korean school when booking opened for BIGBANG Alive Tour in Singapore, my cousin got work so she had no time to book it for me, so I was almost crying. I actually did cry, so my cousin called SISTIC and asked about stuff, etc. Maybe she pitied me so much and told me not to cry, because it was just a priority sale and tickets will still be available for public that Wednesday. GREAT!, but GREATER!! Just afternoon that opening, another concert day was announced, and priority sale would be the day after, June 26, 2012, a Tuesday. I had no classes that day so it was GREATERER!!! I pm’d my cousin as early as 9, and we’re both waiting for the booking. I already asked for her card info and other stuff so by the time the clock’s approaching 10, I am in full refresh mode. Refreshing and refreshing until the booking button opens. Okay trust me, this is maybe harder than lifting weights, but I don’t care. All I know is that through all those exhaustive process of declining one credit card, and using another, and then restarting again from the first step because of too much traffic, I got a pit standing ticket. Holllah~!

Booyah!

It was my first concert. Ever since I knew them I swore they would be my first concert, and at VIP? GENIUS! ALL OF IT CAME TRUE! On my way to Singapore, everything’s complete. I have my light stick inside my hand-carry and some stuff inside. I was at Singapore from Sept 1 to 30, concert’s at 29.

I remember the concert day clearly and will try to describe it here. About after lunch, I joined my sister-in-law and my brother for commute since they’ll be going somewhere. Before that, I got myself a good bottle of Ribena on the fridge and rode the MRT up to Dhoby Ghaut for my brother’s haircut. While waiting I got myself a cup of milk tea, and at about 1 something, checked Daiso from Plaza Singapura if there’s a blue glowstick for the ‘Blue Mission’. Of course, there is, so from Dhoby Ghaut, I transferred to Yellow Line and alight at the Stadium.

Just outside the station, cheering items are already being sold by random people. I’m poor and broke by this time (last days of my trip) so I don’t have any spare to buy myself ANY. I only have 20 on my pocket which is good for some McDonald’s after concert. It’s okay though because throughout my trip I bought 4 BIGBANG CDs, hmv is just heaven. I wandered through the place, because it was a new experience for me seeing a lot of teenagers that are not Filipino, and BIGBANG fans. I NEVER ATTENDED ANYTHING K-POP HERE IN THE PHILIPPINES, because it’s not very comfortable for me. It looks tacky and cheap, so it really was a new experience for me. And I’m attending a concert alone, in a different country, at VIP, with my most favorite band.

There are Samsung booths so I lined up in one of them. Samsung Galaxy SIII is being demoed and after listening to obvious *but amazing* features, you could write a message to BIGBANG and you could get a lanyard and that blue bracelet thingy. After lining up, wandered a bit more, and realized that my ticket is not reserved seating, so I hurried to find where I should queue. Found it!! There were two girls from where I was lining up, and I asked them if they could save my space for a few because I wanna urinate. They were glad to, and leaving my backpack there, with my stuff, iPad, money, ticket, etc., I hurried to the nearest restroom, which is the MRT station, and hurried back up to my line. Singapore is just too trustworthy, lol.

For about five hours, I met my first Singapore friends. There’s this two girls that I first met, who were putting on nail polish when I arrived at the line. They were the ones patient with me, talking with me even though I’m conversationally shy, more especially I’m a foreigner. They asked me if I’ve eaten because if not, they have spare food inside their bags, and they’ll be asking their another friend who will be arriving shortly after buying them some McDonald’s. I declined because aside from being poor-ass-broke, I’m not really hungry and I just wanna get inside the stadium.

There’s this other girl who’s currently a college student and a Universal Studios intern *how cool is that*, who gave me a box of Pocky. She’s with her cousin who’s from, I can’t remember. By this time, the girl who bought the two girls their McDonald’s arrived. Now we were talking happily…

I asked for another restroom break when I saw that the line for face tattoos were not so long anymore. I hurried my peeing, and went back to get more cheering materials, for me and my new-found friends. When I came back, I gave the cheering materials to them, and asked the girl who gave me Pocky if she wants to get a face tattoo. While talking about life and stuff, we lined up for the face stickers and got us some. When we got back, the nail polish girls and McDonald’s took their turn for the tatts.

After long hours of waiting… we finally got in. Without those friends, I wouldn’t have a picture *refer to the picture above*. Actually, McDonald’s girl is right behind me with the peace sign, but I just removed her when I reposted this picture *meanie*. I posted this once though, with her, so don’t judge me. And besides, she’s awesome. Maybe after four songs, all of us went our separate ways and I just had to enjoy the concert alone. I wasn’t responding to the fan chants. I’m singing the whole song. It was fun, though painful to the heart and throat, it was a very new and unforgettable experience. It was also a blessing in disguise. If I booked for the first day concert, there would be no ‘뻑이가요’ sang by five of them for the encore.

After the concert I went home through the MRT. Good thing though, I exchanged Facebook with my Singapore friends, so up till now, I have contact. I was smiling unconsciously. Tired, smelly, and probably the most haggard person inside the train, but I was extremely happy. And my very precious 20, I spent it for a supposedly Horlicks-flavored McFlurry, but then was currently unavailable so I just had this Chocolate Toffee Nut flavor which was also not available in the Philippines.

When I arrived home, I packed some stuff one by one since flight would be next day morning.

Goodbye Singapore, Goodbye BIGBANG

It was a beautiful goodbye. After resting a bit, ate dinner, and stuff, I went down from our building and took pictures of the neighborhood that I will so miss. And that picture above, I couldn’t portray myself better, looking heartily happy and sad at the same time. Just looking at it, I can feel myself and my experience all over again.

After the concert I turned super sad and I wanted to see TOP *and everyone* again, so I attended their next concert here in Manila, just a month after Singapore. And that’s another story 🙂

THANK YOU BIGBANG

I don’t know until when I’ll be a fan, but I’m pretty sure this is something that I will bring till death. And these are the things I will treasure most, and won’t regret. I’ve seen BIGBANG through their ups and downs, and my unfailing love for them won’t stop.

I guess this post is too long already for me to make a letter. So just, thank you BIGBANG for everything you’ve done for me, even indirectly. Thank you for killing me everytime I see you, and making me live again. These past few years would’ve been extremely awesome if it wasn’t for you guys *honestly*. So, yeah. Until I see you guys again. 언제까지 기다릴게…

축하해요! 사랑해요…

Video Presentation for Graduation | 졸업식 위한 비디오 발표

It’s been a smooth-sailing, good two-month-and-a-half Korean class and we’re nearly approaching the end of the term. Elementary 1 passed by last year. It seemed like a very long time ago, but now, Elementary 2 is passing by quicker. Tomorrow’s our last class for the week, before the term ends next week. We still have three lessons and a final exam before we graduate (yes we have graduation). So recently…

I helped in checking and doing the first revision of the script for our video presentation. Again, it was not so hard for me since I could type quickly in 한글, so copying dialogues from the book is not much of a trouble. It was checked by our 선생님 yesterday, and everyone read the final script earlier. Time is too short for shooting and editing so we pushed a sudden principal photography after class. I was one of the first casts to do the shoot so I was mega shocked. I’m not very good at memorizing, even small lines so it was hard for me. I probably can speak in Korean for a good straight 20-minute period, but I can’t, on-the-spot memorize.

So what’s our presentation anyway? It’s about a Filipina student who fetched his brother who has been working in Korea for three years. By that time, her brother can already speak in Korean very well (obviously). She, on the other hand, can also speak in small Korean since she *presumably* had classes at my current school. By fetching her brother, it also meant shopping time, dinner, haircut, and every simple thing that Elementary Korean students can do simply, given the opportunity to go to Korea. They encountered people doing everyday things (shopping, etc…), and this is where the book dialogues come. They had a very long bonding time, so when they called it a day, the female student had a dream. She experienced 사계절 (Four Seasons) (again, getting the book dialogues from the book) through her dream, again meeting people through the dream. And by waking up, she realized everything was just a dream.

Dream

Sometimes it pains me that everything I’m doing *might* not take me anywhere. By this time, I should’ve already met legit Korean friends. Or just simple people I could talk to. But there isn’t. There are times when I just want to stop studying my Korean thinking this is just wasting my time but then…

I still don’t have a long term goal. I still don’t know what I want, and sometimes, I’m thinking how Korean can be a choice if ever I want to change my career path from being a graphic artist to something that is related to my Korean. I’m planning to study up till I achieve conversational fluency, ability to read simple 신문 or internet articles, full Korean 교과서, and 소설책!!!

There are instances when I’m trying to contemplate if all I’m doing now is just a dream. Of course, working in Korea can be a choice for me, but up till now, I’m too far from even just ‘going there’. I knew a lot of people who don’t even care about 한국어 or 김치, or don’t even know who BIGBANG is, and know Korea only from local Korean TV shows that they barely even watched, or Gangnam Style, and yet, they have been to Korea. Why is it that I have this ‘hardworking mode’ in studying Korean, yet I don’t have opportunities to have Korean friends, orrrrr… YEAH I’M RANTING so let’s stop now. *I’m gonna post my rants in a different entry.

Intermediate 1

Last week, our teacher asked who’s interested in taking Intermediate 1, because there will be. I am truly excited but then again… *prevents self from ranting*. Anyway, I raised my hand without thinking. These are the things that you don’t think about because the only thing asked was just who’s ‘interested’. But that’s about the same, right? Lol. Now, I’m thinking about it, and how will I do it.

I am currently working from 9-6pm, and I leave at 5 to allow myself a little travelling time. Even if my under times are deducted from my salary, it’s just hard to ask for permission again. Actually, if ever I’m not permitted, I can choose to resign, but then again, where will I get money from my everyday commute, etc? And besides, I’m going to Singapore this November-December for two weeks so I may probably lose about 12 hours from the term *which* disables me to get a certificate. Well certificates are not important for me, but just the thought of not graduating is sad. Aaaaand most importantly, MY DEAR GRAMMAR AND WORDS… Intermediate 1, as how I feel it, would be about 5x more intensive than my classes right now, so missing even a single class would absolutely be cry-worthy.

Now, I’m about 80% sure to take Intermediate 1 just so I could get the book, and by attending the class, I’d still be guided, and afterwards, decide for myself if I would take my Korean lessons deeper through self study. Thinking has been very hard for me. I’m currently at my first job and it’s in a big dilemma with something I love most (right now). But thinking more deeply, I’m still young, I’m not even 2NE1 yet. I’m still 20, I have classmates who are older than me in a huge number of years, so I guess my time is perfect to make wrong (or please please, right) choices and color my life the way I want to.

The world may say it’s blue, but I’m still young so I’ll color it pink. There are still a number of opportunities for me to find a way to revert it back if it’s wrong, or recolor it to a better one if possible. Right now, I’m not in a survival mode where every decision is crucial to the betterment of my life. All the things I have right now are still on the ‘stepping stone’ stage, where I still try to improve myself in a lot of areas, some areas I only discover now, some areas I know for so long, and I try to look at those areas if it could be turned into longer pathways.

One thing should motivate me right now. BIGBANG. Because I’m listening to my BIGBANG playlist right now. *Lol this part of this entry is not making any sense right now*. But maybe, simply saying, make myself realize why I started learning Korean in the first place… And to make more good dreams.

Aaaaaand the whole post is weird because it’s really not about the video presentation. *fail title*.

Hangul Typing | 한글 타이핑

It was one of those days when I was in the middle of ‘panggap’-ing as Korean ‘한국인 척하는 중이다’ when I realized how great it was for me to know how to type in Korean. I’m trying really hard to ‘panggap’ while I was standing inside the train, but unluckily for me, no one’s asking me to take a seat. I am studying while standing which is super super hard. Whenever I had no time to make my homeworks at home and at the office, I do it while I’m on my way to school.

So that time, I am answering my workbook, but not through my handwriting, because I don’t want my book to be super messy and that is way too impossible. Besides writing inside the train even if you’re sitting is a bit dizzy-fying. So I have my trusty Blackberry phone for these moments.

QWERTY keypad sans 한글 ㅜ.ㅜ

Last February, I have been contemplating for so long if I should get a Samsung SIII Mini or a Blackberry Curve 9320 for my postpaid plan, but since I hate anything Android, and SIII Mini would just sacrifice itself as a toy, not a phone (since people would be playing or do a lot of stuff in there), I chose Blackberry. And another big reason for me, is I want to learn how to type in 한글 through my 휴대폰. Not that I’m making things inconvenient (touch screen phones are the easiest way to type), I just want to feel how to type through my phone in 한글 even if there are no 자모 indicators.

Before I got this phone, I already know how to type in 한글, up to 70-80 Korean characters per minute through my laptop. Now, I’m on a whopping speed of 130 Korean characters per minute, which still may not be fast for you. Hmm, probably I still consider it slow, but I can now type long paragraphs without looking at the keyboard, with minimal typos.

Back to my ‘panggap’ moment from the train, I have the book on my left hand, and my Blackberry phone on my right. I am answering my assignment which is not a simple fill in the blank with words. You have to answer the questions in sentences. It’s hard to type in one hand since your left hand already memorized the keys, and giving it all to the right is very confusing and slow. I can now type 한글 through my phone too without looking, but with one hand, it’s just so hard, but just the thought that I could at least do it 천천히, I’m contented. Now…

How I started learning how to type

I started by sticking hand-cut 자모 letters through my keyboard but it didn’t even last a month. In short, I haven’t had any practice with it. It keeps on falling off so I got annoyed and removed it right away.

I installed Korean input and had a Korean keyboard layout picture always open. Back in the days, I was just like this:

Notepad + Korean keyboard layout picture

Everything I type goes straight into my very trusty Notepad, before I paste in on Google or anywhere I might need Korean characters.

I practiced like that, without buying Korean keyboard stickers, or typing through romanizations. I just let my fingers memorize the letters as how I could see it through the layout. When I finally half-memorized the keys, I finally neglected the Korean keyboard layout picture and just did it ‘correct-as-you-type’, frequently hitting backspace and trying my luck on another key if that’s the right character. But then I had to step up, so I tried to find interactive ways how to type, looking for WPM tests, etc. And these are, for me, the best tools I’ve used for practicing my typing.

Daum 기즈짱 – 타자연습

키즈짱 타자!!

Basically it’s a Korean typing game for kids. There are three modes:

1. 자리연습 – in this mode, you type per 자모. This mode is divided into three, the 기본자리, or the middle layout with practices for ㅁ ~ ㅎ or ㅗ ~ ㅣ, 윗자리, or the upper layout with practices for ㅂ ~ ㅅ or ㅃ ~ ㅒ, and the 아랫자리, or the lower layout with practices for ㅋ ~ ㅍ or ㅠ ~ ㅡ. I honestly didn’t practice through this mode because it’s boring. LOL. Or not… but this one’s actually good. There are rockets with the characters in it, and you have to make them explode before it reaches the screen.
2. 낱말연습 – in this mode, there are words written on bombs, and the kid have to zap it before it destroys the whole city. This is where I practiced a lot. Before I could only get 700점 over 1300점 for Level 1, but now I can go even 1400점 easily for Level 5. Level 1 for slower fall and easiest words, Level 7 is the fastest and more complex words. I still can’t pass through Level 6 so maybe I still need more practice.
   

   예~

3. 문장연습 – in this mode, you get to type sentences. This one’s boring so I rarely tried it.

10FastFingers 타자 테스트

You are given a minute to type a horizontal list of words which I’ve read from somewhere, does not make any sense, since a good typing test should be sentence-based. But anyway, I have been playing here before and I only get 70-85 WPM, but just now, I tried it and I got 97 WPM and three mistakes for first try, since playing this after a long time is tenseful. But for the second try, I got: 

So happy.

TypeRacer

마지막으로… I settled here since this is more ‘accurate’ *or not* than 10FastFingers, since 112 WPM is too much. I only get 100+ for English, and I get 112 for Korean? That’s just wrong calculation, lol.

Google Translate alert…

In TypeRacer, you compete with other players and you get to track your progress so it’s better than the other two. And this is more accurate since it measures CPM rather than WPM, which is more important in Korean because a word requires a lot of characters before it’s formed. There’s also a ranking system, Beginner at 0 – 60 CPM, Intermediate ate 63-75, Average at 78-103, Pro at 105-135 (I’m at 130), Typemaster at 138-198, and Megaracer at 200+.

Why type?

As soon as I learned how to read and write, typing has been one of the things I mastered. I consider myself a Google genius, since I can find the hardest things to find in the internet through my carefully picked Google search terms. Now, I can also find rare Korean torrents and files (hihi) and articles through the help of my typing. If you don’t know how to type, you’ll mostly rely on online virtual keyboards or typing through romanizations which is way uncool. And besides, it’s cool if a friend sees you typing in another language, another bragging rights for you. And yeah… as much as it’s important to know Korean words, grammar, and expressions, if you can’t type, you’re nothing. LOOOOL.

Tiredness | 피곤

This week has been so pseudo-hectic. Many things happened. My workload in the office is not too much but outside work is just too overwhelming. From Sunday Chatime bonding with my nieces and nephews up to this moment.

Before I continue my entry, I just wanna share a gratuitous picture, lol. Forgive me for this:

Anyway, I juggle my work, study and social life everyday. From Monday, I would copy the CD from my borrowed book to my PC, and after office hours, I would hurry to school to return the book and borrow another one. Just this month, I already borrowed SEVEN (7) TEXTBOOKS! I wish I could take a picture of them together, though. We’re only allowed to borrow one book at a time. After an intensive Korean class, I have to get home (which is soooo far) quickly. Good thing I have a very good classmate-누나 who drops me off several kilometers nearer to home, more convenient than my usual way. After arriving at home, I would ask my niece to take pictures of the whole book (is this considered stealing? LOL), while I help tutor my nephew about Photoshop. >.<

I would usually start to sleep at about 12am to 12:30am. By starting to sleep, it includes washing my face, skin care, and some Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. WHICH, by the time I finish everything, I’ll finally sleep at 1am… and wake up 6:30am the next. AND THE CYCLE CONTINUES.

Every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, I have classes so my rest time is very short. Now, it’s Friday night and I just finished transferring my notes from my big notebook to my small one. It’s not yet done. We’re already at Lesson 23/30, and I just transferred my notes from Lessons 16-18. I still have 5 Lessons to transfer/study ㅡ.ㅡ

Wait, this is a pointless post. I’m way too tired to think. I might study first thing in the morning, because I don’t have any more time. I have to prepare for something because there will be a family event later, so I have to be time-conscious and practical. I don’t like studying on Sundays (though I still do) but if possible, I try to avoid it. I just wanna sleep, and read (non-Korean stuff), watch 2 Broke Girls (if possible, or if I want to because it’s also tiring), or go Chatime bonding with my nieces and nephews… WHICH WILL CYCLE AGAIN FROM THE START OF THIS POST.

P.S. I should not regret this pointless post when I read this in the morning. Too sleepy… 피곤해서 많이 잠을 자고 싶어요.