Well now… it’s in KMF/HB withdrawal :-O

The 7th Annual Korea Times Music Festival was literally my first real concert (like thing)… the venue, Hollywood Bowl, was just amazing! Although I sat pretty far (in the faraway land of section L1), the big screen TV’s provided on both side of the stadium-like place made up for the distance. So yeah, I went with my friends, people from Aethiopeia, Hypnotic Asia, and uh… I guess Soshified? (lol… because one of my friends is a member of SSF too… so I guess it counts? haha – but don’t get me wrong, there were TONS of SSF-ers at the event… a pool of pink I must say!) Since I was going to KMF/HB mainly to watch/listen to So Nyuh Shi Dae (SNSD/Girl’s Generation), I of course was wearing the awesome pink S<3NE/SSF t-shirt and bunny ears… The ironic part is that… that shirt is probably my only article of clothing that is pink! But yeah… anyways… let me give you guys a chronological timeline of my experience as a K-Pop fan

On Friday, May 8, 2009, I went to the SSF meetup at the Wilshire Grand Hotel. I got hopelessly lost on the way there (had to call my living GPS friend for help) so I arrived 15 minutes late – but it was no big deal… because people were coming and going. I bought my shirt and 3 other people’s and got the goodies that came with them… the only thing was that the balloons weren’t there yet so I just pulled out my laptop (which I brought in case I got lost and had internet connection so that I can Google map my way around – I’m prepared! lol) and just chatted on the SSF shoutbox… and when I got bored, I called my friend Diana who was like taking turn talking on the phone with my other friend Michelle… they were seriously trying to trick me or something -_- lol… 

While I was waiting, my life as an obsessive enthusiastic stalker following fan began! I heard people screaming and saw people running but wasn’t sure what it was… by this time it was around 10:15PM… and then BAM! It hit me that SNSD was arriving at the hotel! That took like 15 seconds to register in my slow head T_T so I ran like the wind (actually, not really since I was sitting like 10 feet from where the SNSD girls were trying to get into the elevator… and lo-and-behold! I got a measely 5 second video clip of Taeyeon and Jessica! Well, here is the video clip… 

Sunny and the rest of the girls came into the hotel and then the elevator a few minutes after that, but I, being ever so slow, short, and blind, did not manage to get them on video Well sometime during the wait for the SNSD/SHINee balloons, I also managed to see the backs of SS501! At first a group of guys walked by and I was like eh… they’re not SNSD… screw them… but then people started like screaming and spazzing and yelling “double S!” and I was like ahhh no! I missed seeing the front of SS501 :-O And sometime during that night, I also managed to get to see SHINee walk in from the back way but they were covering their faces… so I couldn’t see them… 

Well, I finally managed to get one SNSD balloon for each person that bought a shirt (through me)… and left at 11PM because I had to pick up my sister from her friend’s house… 

So yeah, I got home and was like “spazzing” about my first nonexistant encounter with SNSD… I mean, at least I was in the same space as them! I didn’t sleep until around 4AM and the bad part was that I had a blood/health test at 7:30AM… so I ended up only getting 3 hours of sleep that night… 

So on Saturday, May 9, 2009 I headed out to Korea Town and got there around 11:30AM. Aethiopeia was having like a little forum gathering… It was pretty cool – I got to meet all the people I talk to a lot in the shoutbox on Aethi With our lagginess, hopelessness, tendency to get lost, and anything else that was a factor that I do not remember, we managed to get to the Ventura Parking Lot by 3:30PM… where the KMF/HB shuttle takes us from the lot to the actual Hollywood Bowl where the event was to take place. 

Once we got to our destination, we were on a hunt for free stuffs! (now who don’t like freebies? NOT me! lol) After our “shopping” spree was done, we decided to call former singer and current DJ/VJ Isak for Arirang Radio/TV from SM Entertainment because she had promised us (Hypnotic Asia) the week before that while she is at KMF/HB, she would give us the opportunity to interview her! First call resulted in a miss call, but the second call came through and we talked to her cousin… however, her cousin wasn’t with her so we had to wait for her cousin to call back when they’re together again… Our moment occurred around 4:30PM… A little bit earlier than that, we recieved a call from her cousin telling us where Isak was currently. So we searched around and finally saw her filming/interviewing. Isak is really pretty and nice!!! Then we finally got to interview her! She even fullfilled our request of giving a shoutout to Hypnotic Asia and all of her loyal Mid-Day Break listeners! We were so ecstatic! Right after that, Mari and I managed to get her to sign/autograph something real quick (Mari with her SM book that she made, and I with my measely notebook that I have never used before lol…)

To read more about our little adventure with Isak and watch the video clip, go to Isak’s Interview! (and yeah… I’m the one wearing the S<3NE shirt in the middle lol…)

The concert… was epic! Although I do not understand Korean… it was still… EPIC! I did record some of the performances (whether whole or just a little bit)… but towards the end (where the groups I wanted to see were performing…) my camera ran out of memory and then battery… I felt really sad =( especially since my memory ran out right after SNSD sang “Girls’ Generation” and “Gee”… so I didn’t manage to get “Himnae” on video… but I did get it on audio! I also had to only audio record all of SS501′s performances… and then somewhere during that time… I ran out of memory T_T well anyways, below are my fancams of Taeyeon’s duet with Lee Juk, singing “Goose Dream” and Jessica’s duet with Lena Park, singing “You Raise Me Up.” Just beware that I did sat in the faraway land of section L1 so my fancams are 1) blurry 2) shaky 3) sad

I’ll post up my other fancams later after I have put my watermark in the background =D now I’m so tired! Time for bed ^_^v

——————–EDIT——————–

May 12, 2009 @ 8:40AM

Okay, so after the concert… we like sped to the Wilshire Grand Hotel to a) see if we catch any last glimpse of the singers b) Mari and I really needed to use the restroom ROFL and c) Diana and Mari had to wait for Alta and Jenny… like literally… Wilshire Blvd never seemed so long in my life =O it just kept on going… and going… and going… and I was beginning to doubt myself if I was even going in the right direction… because I was just heading to the hotel based on my noobie knowledge of the area… (remember I got lost just the night before… lol)… We finally saw the hotel around 12:15AM… but couldn’t find any street parking/cheap parking lots so we circled the area for a while… and finally gave up and just decided to park at the Ernst & Young Plaza (which ended up costing $7.05 for almost 2 hours)… 

Our efforts were not in vain… we got to see first see SS501 like right when we got to the main lobby of the hotel, and then SNSD and SHINee at the same time at around 1:15AM… Unfortunately… I”m a little on the slow, short, and blind side T_T so I only got to see SHINee’s heads/faces… being a SNSD fan… I was really hoping to see the girls and maybe get their autographs but I didn’t… 

And yeah… my camera DIED toward the latter part of the concert (like I mentioned somewhere up there) so I couldn’t record anything while I was at the Wilshire Grand Hotel that night… but my friend did! Check out her Youtube channel!

And so… we had to go home… and we left the hotel a little before 2AM… next year, we are SO getting BETTER seats… and (maybe) staying at the hotel! And I hope that SNSD will come again… although there is a chance they won’t because they have already performed at KMF/HB twice… there are talks about how artists don’t come for more than 2 years… I’m just hoping that they do come again… if not, they better have a debut or tour in the US! lol…

Well, for all of you who are obsessed interested in the Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc. entertainment world, don’t miss the opportunity to be up to date with Hypnotic Asia! The site is scheduled to have its grand opening this Thursday, May 7th. And don’t worry, we’re a bunch of people who know how to research, credit, and anything else that comes with blogging We also have a Twitter account for all you twitter-holic! The link will be released the day that Hypnotic Asia is open to the public! 

I hope you all support us!

video is in process of rendering… will be posted shortly

I finally got the video to be uploaded to youtube… my internet at home is FAIL. T_T

MDB stands for Mid-Day Break, which is the radio that DJ Isak hosts on Arirang Radio from noon until 2PM Seoul time (aka the day before from 8PM – 10PM PST). This is what happened yesterday…Well anyways, DJ Isak was live on the radio, and my friends (Diana & Marina) and I were tuning in while chatting on Aethiopeia’s shoutbox and gchat. Then DJ Isak talked about giving away prizes. The message board and cast system were flooded with messages! So she then decided to have a little competition. Basically, the first two people to submit their name, address, and phone number to MDB will receive a prize! And guess who won???!!! Diana was the first to post on the message board and I was second to post. After a few minutes, DJ Isak declared that dianabananna (Diana) and asiangirldee (me) have won! We were to get signed cd(s) and a signed picture of Isak! Yay! Both of us are getting prizes! I was so happy yesterday! However, the items will take a while to arrive from Korea… about two weeks! lol… I can’t wait until I get them in the mail! 

The second set of acronyms KMF/HB stands for Korea Times Music Festival/Hollywood Bowl. Basically KMF is taking place at HB but the acronyms are used interchangeably to refer to the event. KMF is an annual event and this year, some of the performing artists are SNSD, SS501, SHINee, and Lena Park (you can find more information at those blogs/forums dedicated to K-Pop stuffs). Anyways, the targeted day is Saturday May 9th! That is only 1 week away! Being a SNSD fan, I can’t miss out on the Soshified meeting that is to take place on Friday May 8th at the Wilshire, where we’ll be picking up (or in my case buying) the SONE/Soshified t-shirt and balloons, and SHINee balloons. Anybody want to come along with me? lol… 

Anyways, I have to work on the ABR now… hehehe there will be a different post talking about my random ranting about the ABR later… lol… see ya!

Anyways, I had this really really funny conversation with my sister and friend yesterday… well this is what I gchat my friend after I talked to my sister:

yeah I wrote sister instead of my sister’s actual AIM screenname and I wrote friend instead of my friend’s gchat screenname… afterall, I need to keep some degree of privacy don’t I? hahaha after my friend made her comment… I was cracking up like crazy… because you know… piggy is a stuffed pig lol!

My sister just LOVES the Yoshi stuffed animals that I buy from this anime stall… hahaha… I have bought a total of 4 Yoshi stuffed animals for her haha… I don’t have pictures of the first two… but I’ll post them up later lol… here are two pictures of the two I just bought yesterday

Anyways, I asked the owner of the anime stall when he will be back, but he said that he won’t be setting up his stall for at least a year! Oh no! No more cheap cute stuffed animals! Now I have to go to those expensive places… T_T

Okay… so I was bored yesterday… or was it Tuesday… nonetheless… this emoticon on Aethiopeia is a clapping bear and my bear totally claps like that too (of course with my assistance lol)! Well, here is the video (it’s only 15 seconds long):

You can go to Aethiopeia, the official North American DBSK fansite for reference to the clapping bear… just look in the shoutbox! I tell you, they are totally the same!

So I got picked up from UCI at 10PM on Thursday night. We arrived at Jackie’s house around 10:30PM and started cramming our luggages and stuffs into Michelle’s car. Michelle and Stephanie are the masters of luggage cramming o_O (Stephanie had already left at 8PM with Yvonne, Patrick, and Jimmy in hopes of getting to our destination of San Jose/Santa Clara earlier). Jackie couldn’t go on the roadtrip with us because of a family conflict =( so she rented out her parking space for Nathan to park his car (lol of course, the rent was free!). And I met Cosmo while we were at Jackie’s! He was like Fuzzy’s (that’s my big gigantic… white… fuzzy… bear… named Fuzzy… lol) twin! They were both white and fuzzy lol. And then we bid Jackie farewell around 11PM. Bye bye Jackie and Cosmo!!! So of course, with only Michelle, Nathan, Dheemanth, and Alvin in the car, I get the front passenger seat! Woo hoo! They’re going to have to fight me for the front haha =D So off we went!

The process of going up the grapevine (on the 5) was really really funny. Michelle’s sad car that ages really fast (due to her gazillion mileages) had trouble going up the grapevine haha. The car was stuck in some gear (not really a car person) and we were going up at around 40 mph. We were in the far right lane and were laughing our heads off as cars after cars passed by us on the left side. Poor car – it must have suffered a lot =( Due to this sad incident, we decided to take the 101 back home on Sunday lol. At around midnight/1AM, we got a call from Yvonne saying that she had already arrived at the destination! We, on the other hand… were still stuck on the grapevine… When we were near our destination, the windshield got kind of “cloudly” so I said “cloudy windshield!” That started our car weather forecast haha. Also, while were were on the freeway in San Jose/Santa Clara, we noticed that there was a “fake carpool” lane. Instead of having solid lines, it had dotted line the whole way through… and it was only the carpool lane at certain times of the day…. weird isn’t it? Anyways, we did make it safely to Yvonne’s aunt’s house at 4:30AM… it was really cold… and we had to wake up between 6AM and 7AM because we had to be at the Hyatt by 7:45AM to set up our PBL booth and Michelle had to give a welcoming speech at the opening session… Some of us slept for an hour… while others slept for two… 

So, because of our lagginess, we did not get to the Hyatt until 8:15AM… not bad… only 30 minutes late lol. The sad part was that we only had until 9AM for the booth to be up and running… opening session was scheduled to start at 10:30AM (if i remember correctly) and so we hurried to the ballroom, anticipating Michelle’s short speech. As Michelle was giving her welcoming speech, Yvonne and I were video recording and taking pictures of her. As soon as she was done and the keynote speaker was being announced, us PBL-ers rushed out of the ballroom to our booth to finish organizing our fabulous Random Workshop! While we were organizaing ourselves, we also had an awesome lunch from Jack-in-the-Box… When it was 30 minutes until the workshop was to begin, we rushed to the room where it was to be held… We had an awesome time with the kids at the Random Workshop (hope they did too… o_O)… after the workshop, we PBL-ers plus Justin just hang out in the room for a bit and started playing some games that we did not play in the workshop. “Dude” and “Ninja Animals” became a big hit for us haha. We even played those games all throughout the rest of the conference lol (and on twitter haha). 

The next part of our adventure is eating dinner at this one food/shopping plaza place off of McCarthy off of the 237. We managed to fit 7 people in the car… Michelle was driving, Justin sat in the front, Alvin & Patrick sat on the right side, Nathan sat in the middle, Yvonne was on the left side, and I was on the floor between Yvonne and Nathan… isn’t that fabulous? lol… and the car was visibly lower than normal… haha…. all of us except for Yvonne bought food from this one Hawaiin BBQ place… Yvonne bought Subway sandwiches and brought them over to where we were and we all ate a heartful dinner. Once we were done, we drove back to the Hyatt in order to attend the section meetings (fyi, there are 6 sections in California FBLA – well… soon to be 7 with the Gold Coast being split into two…). We were going to go to the state caucus meeting but decided to skip it since it was just a Q&A session lol. 

Most of us went to the Southern Section meeting (because most of us were from the Southern Section… lol… me and Patrick were from JFK High and Yvonne was from Santa Fe High). Since Jimmy and Dheemanth are from Arcadia High, they went to the Gold Coast Section meeting. Michelle, who is a staff member of the Inland Section, went to the Inland Section meeting. It was not particularly exciting… but eh… we got “I love Southern” stickers! haha. Of course, after the section meetings, there was the March of Dimes dance (march for babies?) lol. Again, we PBL-ers were put to work. With Justin, we guarded the side double doors (a total of 3 – but we guarded one) so that the kids can’t go out or in of those doors. It was really funny because the doors were open but we were blocking it playing “Dude” or just chatting. Each time somebody attempted to get out through those doors, Patrick would use the Taboo beeper and beep them out as the others waved them away lol. You have to see it to believe it… but too bad we didn’t record it =O 

The dance ended at midnight and we finally got to go back to the house to rest… luckily this time, we didn’t have to wake up until 8AM/9AM because our assistance was not needed until 10AM. It was also because we had to go pick up the Berkeley kids at 8AM (but since some of them didn’t wake up on time lol… we picked them up at 9:30AM instead). I drove Michelle’s sad car to pick the two up because she couldn’t see that well (due to her sleeping with her contacts on =O) – it’s such a different feel of driving from my car! After dropping them off, I had to go to Walmart to buy an extension cord for my sister’s friend (who needed it for her presentation in a competitve event). 

We finally got back to the house and get ready. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we didn’t leave until 11:15AM… instead of our arriving at 10AM lol… However, headquarters didn’t need much of our assistance… we played Taboo for like an hour before people got called away for assistance. In the end, it was only Yvonne and me left so we went to one of Santa Fe’s room. We played card games for like 2 hours… and Yvonne napped for like an hour… While Yvonne was napping, I went down with Alvin to get his jam… the “special jam.” I should have got mine too! (We didn’t know if PBL was going to get it or not – but we knew that Alvin was supposed to get it because he was sequestering the kids for a performance event – however we suspected that PBL was supposed to get it too because the lady said, “Oh you’re from PBL? And you didn’t get one? Here you go!”… I so should have just grabbed my jam then). 

It was time for dinner again so we packed into Michelle’s car again to go get food but since it was only 5 people, we didn’t have to do an awkward cram! The people who came were Michelle, Yvonne, Alvin, Nathan, and me – and of course, once again, I stole the front seat =D Also, because I had changed into P.E. shorts (lol the ones from high school) and a t-shirt, I looked kind of awkward (actually… REALLY awkward) with black flats on (the ones I wear at the conference). So I had to borrow Yvonne’s jeans (they actually fit me! lol). We ended up eating at Applebee’s. They have awesome burgers! Too bad my throat has been hurting so the fries didn’t exactly go down really well… it was like putting salt on a fresh open wound =O Then, realizing that we were a TAD bit late for the Closing & Awards Ceremony, we rushed back to the Hyatt (because a few of us needed to change lol). We got to the ballroom just when the competitve events were about to begin! I’m so proud of my sister! She got 4th place in Spreadsheet Applications and her ABR got 4th place too! (last year, the ABR was in 5th place =O) 

After the Closing & Awards Ceremony, we totally ran up to Justin’s room and just hang out there for a bit. We had planned to go to the Google headquarters and some of the other companies too but we had to wait for Justin because he had dance duties and curfew check. While we waited, Michelle, Nathan, Yvonne, and I went to the gas station to get more gas (because Michelle’s car was dying) and went to McDonald’s to get some drinks and food for Patrick. We got back to the Hyatt about 30 minutes before curfew and waited in the lobby (because the curfew was approaching, the elevator was being packed =O). Once curfew was reached, the rest of the PBL-ers and Justin came and meet us in the lobby. We then split into two cars and drove around Santa Clara (and other surrounding cities) to explore some of the headquarters and companies. The funny thing was that when we were at the Google headquarters, we got kicked out because it is a “closed campus.” Anyways, we went around and around… and finally got back to the house around 4:30AM/5AM. 

On Sunday morning, it ended up that only Yvonne went to mass (or some church thing… I’m not a religious person hence I don’t know the terminology…) – so she woke up fairly early =O however… nobody else woke up until past 11AM/12PM… (I on the other hand woke up at 10:30AM…) those lazy peeps! lol… Stephanie came around 1PM (because she stayed at her cousin’s place) and we left the area soon after that. 

—————- ahhhh I have to get ready for class AND go to class now… will be right back to edit this entry —————-

ok so now I’m writing the rest of this blog (in my Bio Anthro lecture…lol…) 2PM

So we had a little reshuffle in car assignments. Car #1 is Michelle, me, Jimmy, Dheemanth, and Nathan (once again, I claimed the front seat ;D) and Car #2 is Stephanie, Yvonne, Patrick, and Alvin. Most of the way home (until the 101/5 intersection) we followed each other home. We stopped at various places while driving down the 101 due to breaks, restroom, hunger, and anything else I dont remember lol. The most memorable place was the stop at the “beach” – aka the Central Coast… We missed the beach by like one exit T_T so we ended up at like a cliff near the beach… however, there was a playground there! And we played like little kids… it was also the place where I gave myself two bruises on my left leg, one on my left foot, and one on my right foot… it is very painful =O I even got a dent along with one of the bruise on my left leg T_T I’m handicapped!!!! *falls over* 

We then hit the 101/5 intersection around 9:30PM where the two cars parted… and then arrived at Jackie’s house around 10PM/10:30PM… Nathan, Jimmy, and I went back to UCI while Michelle went to drop off Dheemanth at UCR… I got back to UCI around 10:30PM/11PM (I don’t remember the exact times… since I was like dead tired… lol). And that is the end of the trip….

The trip is over… but look forward to my conference PBL flashback video! (I’ll make it once I get all the video clips and pictures… Michelle! Give me those files!)

When the midterm is over though, I will so feel sad… BUT I will be glad that it is over and that I can look forward to FBLA SLC. Road trip here I come!

This weather is making me dread summer, which is my favorite season of the year T_T I wonder if it’ll be consistently in the high 90′s F/low 100′s F or not… or if 2009′s spring season is just a tad bit weird. Anyways, it is time to work on my homework. My common phrase during these extremely hot weathers is “melting into oblivion.” hahaha

Well, every year, the California FBLA chapter holds a State Leadership Conference (SLC) in late April – alternatively between the north and the south, respectively at Santa Clara or Irvine. Last year, SLC took place at Irvine (which is in the south in Orange County) and so this year, SLC is going to take place in Santa Clara (which is in the north, near San Francisco). Students from all over California gather together to compete in over 50 different competitive events, network with members and professionals, and develop business and leadership skills through workshops and guest speaker events. 

The organization embraces not only the high school level, but also the college and professional levels with the collegiate division called Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) and the professional division creatively called the Professional Division (PD). So if you read further in my bio, you would know that I am so passionate about the organization that after high school, I joined PBL. PBL is always on the lookout to help FBLA with their conferences and events. Thus, a group of PBL members (including myself) from southern California are going to be making a road trip up to Santa Clara to volunteer at SLC! It is a great opportunity to network and teach the high school students (of course, we can’t forget that they’re our largest base for membership!). So, a bunch of us PBL nerds from CSUF, UCI, and UCR are going to be having a fun road trip this weekend (while we also go have fun in San Francisco!!!)! 

The FBLA State Leadership Conference will be taking place from Thursday April 23 until Sunday April 26 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara. FBLA-PBL, Inc. (thats the official name of the organization) is just plain awesome! Or what I just learned from watching some Korean variety shows – FBLA-PBL, Inc. is jjang! If you can’t already tell, I’m super excited for this conference! I enjoy going to FBLA conferences and helping out whenever they need me! It’s like going down memory lane (but from a different perspective haha).