MVOTD: Month End Review (Day 150)

It's February 29th, the end of the month, and that means deciding which featured music video was the best most fun and ridiculous. Music videos featured in February were:

EXO-K	What Is Love
EXO-M	What Is Love
Nerd Alert	Banelings
MBLAQ	This is War
Midnight Red	Step by Step
Super Junior (Parody)	Mr. Simple
Super Junior-M (Parody)	Perfection
Super Junior (Parody)	A-Cha
DBSK/TVXQ (parody)	Keep Your Head Down
David Bisbal	Sin Mirar Astras
DBSK/TVXQ	Share the World
DBSK/TVXQ	Somebody to Love

What a great variety. There was vocal powerhousing from EXO, wonderful outfits from MBLAQ, nerdy pun references from Nerd Alert, and cleverness in the parodies although the music videos that stuck out were Midnight Red's Step by Step, and TVXQ's Share the World. These required no subtitles in order to be funny and/or entertaining. However, the parodies were also great. Honourable mentions were Super Junior's Mr. Sinful, Super Junior-M's Perfection, and "TVXQ"'s Keep Your Head Down.

Unfortunately, Share the World was funny without being a catchy tune, so I can't let it win. Similarly, Step by Step was catchy without being terribly funny. Therefore New Kid's on the Block's Step by Step wins. It combines the colour theme and song epicness of both music videos in one 80's masterpiece. Please enjoy.

MVOTD: TVXQ (Day 149)

TVXQ. Most popular boyband of all time.

Their song, Somebody to Love, sticks out if for no other reason that the ill-fitting red suits. It features dancing, a whole lot of face time with Max, a woman who is only allowed to show her legs, Billie Piper style dance moves, and boxes (Kat-tun reference?). That of course does not include the ill-fitting red suits (Kat-tun reference?). Were loose suits cool in Japan in 2005? Both Kat-tun and TVXQ wore them.

Anyway, it's a TVXQ song. Enjoy.

MVOTD: TVXQ (Day 148)

Question: What is one thing one wouldn't expect a boyband to sing?

Answer: Anime theme songs.

Why not? Mostly because boybands are known for upbeat love songs, not stuff with guitars and lyrics that relate to a storyline. Well, TVXQ bucked the trend. They sang two songs for the anime, One Piece.

The music video for one of One Piece's theme songs, Share the World, is ridiculous. TVXQ shows off in various computer generated environments. They walk forward and disappear for about a minute. Then they are in a misty shell shaped spacehip room which is followed by them "swimming" through water which later turns into the sky. All together, it's very reminiscent of Japanese boyband KAT-TUN and that fact made me laugh inside. In fact, it's funny all on its own. The waterman who turns into Jaejoong, the "swimming" in the water, the "swimming" in the sky, the slow motion picture moving...it's all very entertaining. The only bad thing is the tight pants. The rest is great. Please enjoy.

MVOTD: David Bisbal (Day 147)

David Bisbal. A person one can be proud to see in concert. It turns out that he is also a Sims character. How do we know this? His music video, Sin Mirar Astras, from the album Sin Mirar Astras. According to the music video, David Bisbal can be a Sim when he wants, and a real person when he wants. How handy. He also gets to flirt with the moving woman in both realms, reality and Sims.As a Sim, he even lives within visual distance of the Eiffel Tower. Oh David Bisbal.

Skip-Beat! Episode 9 Review (Day 149)

Episode 9

Gong Xi’s wretched first day of being Dun He Lian’s manager is over. She only broke equipment, leaked a classified schedule, and embarrassed him so ...he takes her out for steak. Afterwards they take a stroll and discuss her hate on for Bu Po Shang. Little does Gong Xi know, but Lian is actually a (blonde) fairy who used to spy on her as she talked about getting married to Bu Po. He still disapproves of her in showbiz, but that doesn’t matter because he is clearly in process of falling madly in love with her.

Gong Xi is given a chance to go to college. Lian remembers her childhood some more. Then Lian catches a cold, the first cold he has ever had. Gong Xi calls it like it is, but he has to do lots of acting…in rain, before he can do anything about it. Thus, a classic scene is necessitated, the attractive man falling on the female lead scene, caused, of course, by him collapsing due to his fever. Why are people so incapacitated by fevers in mangas and dramas? Are fevers a bigger deal in Asia?

Anyway, while Dun He Lian is having flashbacks of Gong Xi, Gong Xi is fantasizing about revenging herself on Bu Po Shang. In a particularly good one, she chases him down with a motorcycle and leers at him. Ooooo.

Since Lian is sick, Gong Xi buys him lots of stuff to get well with…and then she makes him breakfast. He doesn’t feel alarmed that she was free in his house all night. Probably because he isn’t Bu Po Shang. Then she impresses him with her sweet new acting skills and profession that maybe revenge isn’t the only reason she wants to be a star.

It is at this point that Gong Xi’s commercial comes out. Everyone is amazed and starts trying to hire Jiang Nan Qin and Gong Xi. Everyone including Bu Po Shang’s company. Dun dun dun… However, Gong Xi is determined to use Bu Po in order to make herself popular and she is going to plow into that situation, unknowing of the obstacles ahead of her. Those being, namely, Bu Po recognizing her and her prior classmate also being in the MV.

Mmmm Kpop (Day 147)

I originally wrote this two days ago, so I'll leave it as it was - a sketch of things I wanted to mention.
                                                                                         Kpop is a big deal.
Yep. I said it. Not only is it a vital part of the Hallyu Wave, but it also takes itself seriously.
Super seriously.

Reasons I say this?
1: Every Kpop group has a fan club with a special name. Examples?
   Super Junior - E.L.F.s (Everlasting Friends)
   TVXQ - Cassies
   Girls Generation - Sones
   Infinite - InSpirits

2: Every Kpop group has its own colour. Originally this was so fans could show their support by bringing their group's colour of balloon, but now fans bring coloured led light sticks. Examples?
   Super Junior - Some version of saphire blue
   TVXQ - Red
   The other groups - various versions of pearlescent light blue, pearlescent deep blue, pearlescent rose pink, pearlescent orange, and pearlescent black. Okay, I'm making fun right now, but that's similar to what the colours really are, and, on a light stick who can really tell the difference between pearlescent saphire blue and pearlescent light blue?

3: Kpop celebrities are commonly turned into actors for romantic comedies. It's not just one or two, it's one or two from each popular group. Examples (from romantic comedies only) include members of FT Island, CN Blue, Super Junior, TVXQ, After School, SS501, and Rain.

The list goes on, but it doesn't matter. What I really wanted to talk about was the whole coloured light stick thing and the fan club names. While on the one hand it's ridiculousness (5 shades of pearlescent blue. Hmm?) makes me laugh, on the other hand these things are a big deal. Clearly South Koreans take pop much more seriously than we do, and they try to engender loyalty in their fans much more than North American boybands of the past. Fan clubs and colours are actually pretty clever marketing since fans can identify with each other easily and feel a sense of unity or purpose when supporting their group. Serious stuff right?

Skip-Beat! Episode 8 Review (Day 148)

Episode 8

Jiang Nan Qin and Gong Xi are participating in auditions for a beverage commercial. They were teamed together for acting, but due to Fei Li Hwa’s cheatery, were forced to act without practice or prior discussion. Thus, Jiang Nan Qin is placed in charge of the first scene: two friends fighting over a guy. Jiang wows the judges with an amazing display of tears.  For the second scene Gong Xi is in charge, but Fei Li Hwa the cheater steals her idea before she can use it. Caught in a tough spot, like a tiger, Gong Xi springs into action and massacres the enemy Fei Li Hwa with her amazing improv skills.  

Due to Gong Xi and Jiang Nan Qin’s amazing success, the whole of LME has to be informed that the Love Me Section is going to do a commercial. First, a trip to the president’s office, where he, dressed up safari gear, is hunting people in animal costumes. Next, cute Mr. Du goes to inform Dun He Lian of Gong Xi’s success. Lian is clearly thrilled (he smiled for 0.3 seconds after all), but Mr. Du somehow fails to notice. They head off to a shoot where Mary (who is like 8) defends her man Lian (she wishes) from other women. She is followed shortly by her grandfather the president. He comes in riding the human camel and is accompanied by a marching band. He also wears a hat with a very large feather, reminiscent of Pirates of the Carribean.

At the commercial recording site, Gong Xi and Jiang Nan Qin prance over grass fields whilst dressed like school girls. It is all very happy. Insert important bit about Gong Xi yearning to be a student, and then get Mr. Du sick.

Since Mr. Du is so super sick, LME gets Gong Xi to fill in for him. She has no idea what she’s doing and messes things up horribly, yet Dun He Lian can only seem to help her out. Why did he have to be a fairy (like literally as far as I can tell. He had wings and blonde hair after all) as a teenager? If he hadn’t, he could be mean to Gong Xi like he is with everyone else.

MVOTD: "Keep Your Head Down" (Day 146)

Continuing on the parody festival, today's music video is "TVXQ's" Keep Your Head Down. While it's not surprising that SM didn't rename them after they lost three members (that leaves two), it still feels like a falsehood.

This TVXQ parody is also by the parodiere artist, and is therefore clever instead of about boylove (a common parody theme). In addition to a clever theme, TVXQ aka. Yunho (U-Know) and Changmin (Max), wear some delightfully bad outfits. First up is Yunho in his suit tails with a sleeve missing. Who stole it? Who knows. U-know's. Bad pun. Second up is Max in the lowest cut suit jacket I've seen yet, with the biggest roundest shoulders I've seen on men. It's strangely attractive and laugh inducing at the same time. What could beat this? Their matching suits that look like they're made out of couch material, that's what. I also have such a jacket. Maybe it will be cool now.

As for redeeming features, this parody doesn't need them because it is so great. However it does have some. First, the song is actually pretty catchy. Second, the dancing is really slick. TVXQ could always dance and they prove it again here. Even though the viewers are distracted by the couch suits, Max and Yunho dance away dazzingly. The third and last thing, the parody makes lots of sense. TVXQ was/is the most popular boyband ever, the new Kpop groups coming out do have increasingly hard to pronounce names (B1A4 anyone?), and there are huge amounts of Kpop groups debuting. All itogether, this is one good parody. May all the Cassies like it. 

Skip-Beat! Episode 7 Review (Day 146)

Some opening comments. Skip-Beat! is one of those shows that you didn't know you wanted to watch...unless you read the manga or have a crush on Super Junior. Either way, it is filled with surprises and ridiculousness and is therefore worth a view or two. One of the surprises? Mr. Du is one of the cutest characters. Here's a picture with Mr. Du in it.

So not the best picture, but you get the idea. I like his big head and small neck, escpecially with the way that he smiles. He is the most adorable 35ish year old man.

Now back to the episode recap.

Episode 7

Gong Xi’s foibles have caused Bu Po Shang to have a mini concert on the program set, and, instead of seething with anger, she watches from the sidelines dazzled by Bu Po’s skills. She then wanders off in her deranged chicken outfit. Meanwhile Bu Po Shang figures out that the chicken was her and does his amazing arm swings of self-congratulations. Deranged chicken Gong Xi then runs into Dun He Lian and…he confides in her deranged chicken self. Apparently Dun He Lian 1) is a foreigner, and 2) has been fired MANY times before, despite always being popular. Gong Xi is shocked and amazed…especially after he calls her his friend. Mr. Du is of course more surprised that Lian would have ANY friends.

Next, Gong Xi has a nightmare where Shang, Jiang Nan Qin, and Lian all wield a giant meat clever while threatening the Gong Xi chicken. The most entertaining part was Siwon (Lian) trying to leer menacing while flipping Gong Xi the bird…and then repeating that scene again not a minute later. Siwon cannot leer or flip the bird convincingly (and we love him for it). He just looks funny.

Fortunately, there is plot movement to help us forget Siwon’s bird flippage. Gong Xi and Jiang Nan Qin both sign up to audition for a commercial. There, at the auditions, Jiang’s long time rival Fei Li Hwa prances onto the scene and bribes the judges right there in front of the other competitors. The other competitors explode into action, making reckless attempts at getting the judges attention and the auditions resume. Jiang and Gong Xi plot to take over the world…by wearing shiny pink coveralls to the auditions and Fei Li Hwa admits that she’s spent her life trying to make Jiang cry (Why are the villains so desperate?).

Fei Li Hwa’s three colour co-ordinated stooges then try to bribe the commercial’s director with, dun dun dun….pineapple pastries…and money. They fail and Fei is left to her own devices. Her only confidence is that Jiang has never acted before. False! She doesn’t know it but Jiang is a great and talented actor.  To prove it, Jiang and Gong Xi are going to perform a friendship skit without practicing or discussing it. Dun dun dun… Will that even work?

MVOTD: Parody Festival C (Day 145)

There is a parody artist who is an artist. They added lovely subs to Super Junior's A-Cha. While only the first couple of lines are actually funny, the fake subs are well done with words almost matching what is being sung. This particular parody I think reflects how ELFs (Super Junior's official fans) feel about the potential demise of Super Junior as members continue to drop out of the group. It's not allowed to happen because the fans don't want it to happen. Other than those considerations, the actual music video has good costuming, an interesting dance, and catchy tune. I especially like the use of their deep voices at the beginning. Yeah!

Pretentious Word of the Week: Nuttall Oak (Day 145)

Today we return to learning pretentious words. Thus, we go to the source, the pretentious word book. That book is Webster's Third New Interntational Dictionary and Seven Language Dictionary, Unabridged: Volume 2, H-R (althouth honestly I think Oxford is better). Just looking at the dictionary's name, you can feel that the words that come from it will be hoity toity and pretentious. It's such a long dictionary name after all. The word for today is "nuttall oak". It should be a highly useful word when talking about furniture.

Nuttall Oak: "A large tree of Missouri, Mississippi, and Texas having dark brownish gray bark and a nut with a thin-walled cup that has cinereous-puberulent scales."

Phrases you  may want to use include, "Is that nuttall oak?", or "I think nuttall oak trees are the most attractive type of oak trees." This of course should lead to confusion and you having to explain your hoity toityness. People will think you know lots about wood and you get to come off as pretentious. How exciting, right?

MVOTD: Parody Festival Continued (Day 144)

Parody's plus Super Junior = fun fun fun. That said, today's music video, a lovely parody of Super Junior-M's Perfection, was one that I agreed with almost instantly. The parodiere is definitely an artist, able to make accurate jokes about numerous Kpop groups while not insulting the fans. So good!

The music video's subs are well done. Perfection's third line which states, "When I first saw these outfits, I thought they were lame", is just too accurate. Seriously. Who wears one cuff of fur on a suit jacket? And the huge fur hats? What was with that? They made it hard to recognize people. And they looked...is there a word to describe it? Bad. Anyway, the parody is quite accurate, even the part about the terrible rap. As Super Junior fans know, Henry lived in/is from Canada and has a perfect North American accent but his rap is ...so bad. Therefore, please enjoy.

Is there an ELF who would not enjoy this wonderfulness?

Adventures With Cold Noodles (Day 144)

This is a tale about cold noodles.

Or maybe not.

Once upon a time I was given a package of cold noodles by a Korean acquaintance. One fine cold winter day I cooked them up (just like Mr. Noodles/Ramen), and then, dun dun dun dun, doused them in cold water.

Here I am dousing the noodles in cold water. Once the noodles were good and cold I put them in a bowl and mixed them with the cold noodles sauce.

These are the noodles, complete with black speckly thingies. The noodles were okay, but not my favourite. I think this was for a few reasons. 1) Cold noodles are meant for summer when it is HOT outside. I ate them in the dead of winter when it is COLD. 2) I am used to and prefer my noodles warm. 3) Even in summer I eat hot things hot and cold things cold. Nothing better for you than sweating out hot soup (or not).

If you, unlike me, are into eating your noodles cold, here is how you make them.

Step 1: Boil water with noodles for the number of minutes mentioned on the package
Step 2: Douse with cold water
Step 3: Mix in sauce
Step 4: Eat and enjoy.

I encourage you to try it. It's a good experience.

MVOTD: Parody Festival (Day 143)

There are many ways to enjoy a song. There's listening to it, watching the music video, and deliberately misinterpreting the song. Misinterpreting the song is especially fun when you don't know the language it is being sung in. Thus, the parody. For Kpop, parodies consist of subtitles that are meant to be funny inserted into the music video. This week is my week of parody music videos.

There are many types of parodies for pop music. Most of them are risque. Some of them are high quality. Today's parody, Mr. Simple by Super Junior, is of the good variety. The parodier of this one is a parody artist, making fun of the group while not insulting the fans and giving most people a good clean laugh. I think most Kpop fans appreciate her work. I do. Especially when it comes to making fun of Sungmin.

Monday Review: Star Wars Uncut (Day 143)

There is a movie out there that is slowly making the rounds of its potential fans. This movie causes headache, confusion, occasional disgustedness, and inspiration. This movie is Star Wars Uncut.

The original premise was that Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope was chopped up into 15 second segments and anybody from anywhere in the world could redo that 15 seconds for a giant puzzle movie (open source movie?). Aka, Every 15 seconds the art style changes. There are cartoons. There are men wearing garbage bags. There are children running around in stormtrooper outfits. There are tiny lego men waddling about. All these styles together make for one big headache...and they are impressive. You DO have to have A New Hope memorized line by line in order to make sense of the whole movie, but it is interesting how different people interpreted and redid famous Star Wars scenes.

Pros: Seeing the scope of Star Wars fandom, seeing the artistic ways that Star Wars/any sci-fi can be done, seeing a baby stormtrooper "running" off to capture Princess Leah, pregnant woman Darth Vader, realizing that you have A New Hope memorized, and appreciating what fans can do together.

Cons: The headache that is guaranteed from watching the film (you just have to pay so much attention), some scenes which would have been better left on someone's private computer (creepy creepy C-3PO), and the disparity between the high quality scenes and the low quality scenes. 

Overall Star Wars Uncut gets a 4 out of 5 for originality, difficulty of producing, and pure fan dedication. It's worth a watch. Just beware of creepy C-3PO.

MVOTD: Midnight Red (Day 142)

Midnight Red, who debutted last year and had the chance to tour with my favourite 80's boyband, also had the fantastic opportunity of doing a cover of that favourite 80's boyband's best song. That's right, Midnight Red did a cover of New Kids on the Block's Step by Step. It's fresh. It's updated. It's fun to listen to. It's "sporadic". The only thing it's missing is a violin solo after the "steps" like in the original song. And that's okay, because they are singing one of the best boyband songs of the 80's and making it new. Here's Step by Step.

A-pop Tries to Get its Mojo Back (Day 143)

Thanks to the increasing numbers/popularity of pop groups and television shows in Asia, pop has started (for me) to be defined by the country it comes from. There's Kpop (South Korea), T-drama (Taiwan), Jpop (Japan), Cpop (Mainland China), and Hong Kong movies (which don't really have a nice shortened name). Since the United States of America are not the only ones to have pop groups, here we shall call their groups A-pop (They get a hyphen because it looks better that way).

A-pop tried to make a come back in 2011. Two American boybands debuted, both groups interesting in their own way. Many of us know of the popularity of the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC during the 90's when pop ruled the radio waves/hearts of teens. Let's see what their successors are like.

The first group to debut in 2011 was Midnight Red. They were a five member group who got to tour with NKOTBSB/New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys (so cool!). Each member had a different style and one even looked nerdy. Their singing was good.

The second group to debut in 2011 was Heart2Heart. They were a five member group mentored by Lance Bass of NSYNC and their style was based off of Kpop. Each member was supposed to be sexy but failed due to being too young. Their singing was not so good.

Based on Youtube hits, neither group was very successful at reviving the boyband, althought Heart2Heart did get over a million views. This is kind of unfortunate, since boybands are terribly much fun. Maybe next time they'll succeed.

MVOTD: MBLAQ (Day 142)

There are many types of Kpop groups. There's the cute ones, the ones with good dancing, the ones with attitude, and the ones who try their hardest to be sexy sexy ones. MBLAQ is a group to be included in the "sexy" category. They were chosen by Rain after all. For me, I like their music but I don't really watch their music videos. However, their recent song This is War, has interesting costumes. Shoulder flaps of doom. Mini suit tails. Textured, matte, and shiny black fabrics mixed together. Some of the most bendy bullets you'll ever see. Great big 80's-esque gloves. Mmmmm costumes....and the dancing was pretty good too. The only questions I pondered were relating to why they were trying to shoot the woman/each other. Was she a spy?

Skip-Beat! Episode 6 Review (Day 142)

Thanks to the lunar new year Skip Beat! was on hold for a week or two. Now it is back to shock and impress us, and impress it does.

Episode 6

Gong Xi was previously challenged to act out a play in a way that LME’s president’s granddaughter, Marie, likes. Like she's supposed to, Gong Xi goes on stage and shocks the naysayers by making minor alterations to the script and tricking the other actor to switch lines. The granddaughter, Marie, deeply identifies with this new version of the play. Cue flashbacks and explanations. Marie then goes to the stage and has a face-off with Gong Xi. Kabam! Marie’s heart is healed and there’s not to do but bring up Gong Xi’s family issues.

Next scene. Gong Xi has made a rival out of Jiang Nan Qin by her superb acting. However, that is not so important because Gong Xi is more interesting in finding the purple emotion sealing stone she lost. In pursuit of the stone, she runs into Dun He Lian (Siwon) and flips him the bird. He finds this entertaining for some reason, maybe because it was he who gave her the stone in the first place. After this encounter she avoids him wherever he goes.

Other than avoiding Dun He Lian, Gong Xi also becomes very busy debuting as a chicken in a talk show. Just as she is getting into the chicken act no other than Bu Po Shang (Donghae) her arch nemesis shows up. He struts with confidence and funny looking pants. Gong Xi goes backstage to find a weapon to attack him with but thankfully fantasizing about offing him reminds her that killing Bu Po Shang would be a bad idea. Instead she plots to embarrass him on stage, necessitating a lovely scene of a tiny woman in a huge chicken suit riding a bicycle in traffic. Pretty amusing. Back on the set, Bu Po Shang is asked to embarrass himself by eating five pudding cups at a time. He is enraged but doesn't show it. Instead, he magically whisks them away and ATTACKS THE CHICKEN!!! Then the chicken attacks back. Gong Xi, the chicken and "instigator", ends up in a cage…in the chicken costume. The end.

What else is there to say? Episode six had about as many chopped scenes as a soap opera. And it was very disappointing to see only 30 seconds of cute Mr. Du. Even Bu Po Shang got more screen time. Other than that, the chicken scenes delivered the goods and made the episode worth watching. Here's a picture. 

MVOTD: Banelings (Day 141)

I have an admission to make. Someone gave me an official Super Junior monthly calendar for Christmas...and I put it up beside my bed. One of the things about the calendar is that it tells you when each (remaining) Super Junior member has a birthday.

Kyuhyun, one of my fourth least favourite Super Junior members had his birthday this week (February 3rd). And what do I know about him other than that he likes Starcraft? Because he does. Strangely enough, so do I. Therefore, in honour of Kyuhyun's  recent birthday, here's a wonderful parody of Starcraft 2 by Nerd Alert. The only real question in it is where did they find female friends willing to dress up skanky for the rap part? Here's Banelings.

Ramblings Again (Day 141)

While normally today is review day, I don't have anything that I would like to review. Secret Garden episode 6 was wonderful, complete with histerical body switched characters and plenty of confusion. However, one can't do a review on one episode of a television show. I recently also finished the book Rules of Ascension by David B. Coe, but I already reviewed that as well, although it was only on the first, less good part. So what is there to review? Nothing. Go read or watch something that you feel like reading or watching.

As for me, this week I have mostly been concerned with reminding myself that it is February. Due to plenty of unseasonally warm weather, it has been feeling like spring for the past month. However, that ends tomorrow, when temperatures return to normal (-26 C). Going outside tomorrow is going to be like coming off of a plane from a warmer climate. It is going to suck. However, we will all march outside anyway. What fun.

MVOTD: EXO (Day 140)

SM Entertainment has been releasing teasers about their new group, EXO Planet, since early December. Finally, about a week ago, they released a whole song. Since the concept for EXO was that there would be a Korean group and a Mandarin group, the song was released in both languages. Unlike their predecessors, Super Junior-M, different people sing the parts based on the language the song is being sung in. That means that even though it's the same song, it sounds like two groups did the same version of the same song. ...Even though they are pictured as one group. This feels weird right now, but it probably won't later on. Although, it does make me wonder why SM didn't just start two new groups since there's no vocal crossover.

As far as costuming and set go, EXO plays it safe with stylish jackets, oddly lit rooms, and SHINee style haircuts. There are lots of outdoor scenes featuring members who weren't singing so the two music videos, while featuring different voices, were able to be almost the same. It was all very stylish. Thus far, the EXO Planet seems to be a solid "group". Hopefully they'll get ridiculous later on.

Here's their song What Is Love. First in Mandarin, and then in Korean.

Factoid: Mandarin music videos usually have subtitles because Mandarin is tonal and singing changes the tone.

How To: Chai (Day 140)

As a born tea drinker, there is near nothing quite so comforting and comfortable as drinking a warm beverage while reading in bed. Or maybe warm beverages are just very nice to drink. One of my favourite is chai, because it is sweet and creamy. Here is my highly adjustable recipe.

2 cups (500 mL) water
2 cups (500 mL) milk
2 chai tea bags
1/4 cup (65 mL) sugar.

The Steps:
1) Mix ingredients in small pot.
2) Warm on high or medium heat.
3) Stir mixture
4) Turn down to simmer for 30 minutes
5) Stir mixture
6) Drink

I leave the tea bags in the chai until I or someone else have drank all the liquid. For bigger recipes, just make it about half water and half milk and add sugar to taste. Add more than you would to a normal cup of tea. That's about all I can say. It's like most cooking. Just make it up and repeat what works out.