#literally your family is rich and you’re being the perfect little asian girl becoming a doctor for your parents

[mapsareforbraindeads]

no because i hate this girl so fucking much. she is everything that i want to be but she’s a bitch about it

[the-yunhaneul]

OOC WEEK: DAY 2

What country are you from?: Let’s hear it for England, EN-G-LAND!

What is your first language? Do you speak any other languages?: My first language is English but I also speak a little German, tbh I’d like to be fluent in more languages and it’s probably something I’ll get around to doing at some point, at the very least it’d be nice to be able to speak more German ‘cause I really enjoyed learning the language.

What language would you like to learn?: Japanese.

What’s one movie from your country that you like (or recommend others see)?: Just one British movie? Hahahahahaha. Don’t want to be controversial but tbh we make some of the best movies... ever. I would actually though, out of all the British movies in the world, recommend everyone watch Paddington. That may sound ridiculous but there is something so positively charming and British about the whole film, it really does have what I’d call genuine British comedy in it, it’s multi-layered so people of all ages can enjoy it and the Brown family are just so very British, it’s wonderful. Not to mention Ben Whishaw voicing Paddington, that man is an actual angel, his voice is ridiculously gentle and soothing so he makes the perfect Paddington bear.

Pick a song from your country (or in your language) and talk about why you like it: One British song... Again, we make some pretty great music. I’m actually gonna go with good ol’ Take That, ‘Never Forget’, because I think tbh it’s like a ridiculously good song. It’s cheesy as fuck, it was actually written before I was born but whenever I hear it it puts me in a good mood, tbh I just have a soft spot for Take That like gimme my boys, though if you wanted to miss out Robbie I’d be alright with that. I’d actually put this song down for the next question too but I’ve got many in mind pffftttt

Pick a classic song from your country - aka one that everyone knows, one that’s representative of your country, etc: Would it be too devoted to my own country to say I think ‘We Are the Champions’ by Queen represents us :’) TBH I think it does though, I think not necessarily because we’re the best country (...although...) because we’ve made some mistakes, some very far in our past and some more recent, but for a small country we’re a force to be reckoned with. I think the song speaks a lot about how in general, people from all walks of life, here in the UK we’re little fighters, we work hard at things, we go through shit times but we always come out of that and although there is communities within our country that are complete dicks and need to- in the words of Ronald Weasley- sort out their priorities, I do also think that British people, in general, can be pretty decent and want our country to be a better place in the future.

What’s a book from your country (or in your language) that you’d recommend?: Oh boy, ok, not an easy question at all because... and I must sound like a broken record... but we’ve literally had some of the best writers the world has ever known come from my small little island. I do actually think ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte is an incredible book, I think it’s sort of incredible how she can write two main characters so difficult to like and yet their story hooks you in from the start. I actually have a deep hatred for Heathcliff and Cathy, it irritates me every time how their own denial and selfishness leads to them **spoilers, sort of** destroying the lives of another family, but somehow you can’t help get drawn into this intense obsession and feud of love and hate that they have for each other, not to mention the setting and general imagery is lovely.

What’s your favourite childhood story from your country or culture?: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Honestly, I still love all stories about Alice honestly, I think something truly magical was created with the idea of Wonderland and this girl becoming part of something that she just sort of gets on with and tries to make sense of, I feel like that’s a very British thing tbh, to attempt to find logic in things and look for reason in things.

Talk about a tradition from your country or culture that you love celebrating: Gosh, I have no idea tbh, I can’t think of many big celebrations that I personally attend that aren’t found all over the world? I guess I like the tradition of drinking lots of tea?

Fave food from your country/culture: A full English breakfast is always good, never pass on it, or the very traditional FISH AND CHIPS! A glorious meal tbh, heavenly.

Best season of the year in your country?: I like autumn, personally or spring, I don’t really like extreme weather so summers feel too hot and winters feel too cold.

What’s one thing that you wish you could change about your country? Why?: The party currently in charge of our government because tbh they’re just clueless dicks who make decisions to benefit one class and no one else.

What’s one thing that you’re proud of about your country?: I think, in general, we’re quite an accepting country. I think there are, like everywhere, some people who are hateful and rude but in general we’re a very diverse, multi-cultural country who do want equality and do want to head towards that future possibility.

Name a country you’d like to visit: Any East Asian country; Japan, China, South Korea or Thailand (not necessarily in that order).

Top three cities you’d like to visit: Seoul, Tokyo and Berlin.

What’s the best place in your country that you’ve ever visited?: Honestly, I love Manchester but I do also love London, our lovely capital. I think London really does have a lot to offer, it’s an incredibly busy place where really ancient and beautiful buildings are surrounded by modern culture, if you ever get the chance to go I would highly recommend it.

Have you ever been abroad (out of your country)? If so, where did you go?: Several times actually. I’ve been to Spain twice, once when I was very little and a second time a few years ago, it was the worst holiday tbh because it was roasting hot and right on the beach and that’s just personally not the type of place I enjoy. I like being busy, enjoying cultures etc. a lot more than relaxing holidays. I’ve also been to France but only to Disneyland :’) And I’ve been to Cologne, Germany, it was only for a few days but it has been my favourite holiday ever since. I went at Christmas when they had all the old traditional German markets up and it was just beautiful, the atmosphere, the food (omg THE FOOD, BLESS GERMANY TBH) and the people were all so friendly and helpful with my lacking skills in the German language XD It was great.

What are some myths or stereotypes about your country or culture that are either true or are false?: We all drink tea. True, and if you don’t then tbh get out right this second, we don’t need any of these tea haters, we’re a proud tea-loving nation, I will fight people on this ‘cause I love tea so much tbh. That we’re all super posh, completely false. I have a deep hatred for how English people are represented, especially in American media, because we’re basically all the same and all have the same accent and all seem to be like lawyers or doctors and we all tend to be pricks. Firstly, and I googled this, there are around 56 known British accents so we definitely don’t all sound the same and we definitely don’t all come from super rich families with tons of money and servants- Downton Abbey life is beaut, don’t get me wrong but unfortunately we can’t all live like that. And of course the grand conspiracy that we keep producing hot celebrities to steal the hearts of American women after WW2 as revenge is also completely true, we’re got some real hotties lined up for the future, be warned we are coming for you. That last bit was obviously a lie hahahaha it’s just a coincidence that we produce hot celebs.

[latestnews2018-blog]

There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than Beto O'Rourke's Post-Hardcore Band

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/there-were-zero-things-better-this-week-than-beto-orourkes-post-hardcore-band/

There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than Beto O'Rourke's Post-Hardcore Band

Welcome to Good Stuff, HuffPost’s weekly recommendation series devoted to the least bad things on and off the internet.  

The single greatest thing I learned this week is that Beto O’Rourke, the Texas Democratic challenger to Ted Cruz for his Senate seat, once played bass in a post-hardcore band called Foss with one Cedric Bixler-Zavala on drums. And he kind of went hard? Harder than Mike Huckabee anyway.

If you don’t know Bixler-Zavala’s name, you will not care, and I don’t blame you. But for the small contingent of us who do, it is the single most random thing ever. By far. No competition. HOLY MOLY I’M GETTING EXCITED ALL OVER AGAIN. WHAT!?!? 

Bixler-Zavala would go on after Foss to become the lead singer of two bands that defined my childhood, the Mars Volta and At the Drive-In, making this a perfect melding of my teenage self and whatever the hell you would call my current state. ― Maxwell Strachan

“Kim’s Convenience”

Between “Crazy Rich Asians” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” August has been such a landmark month for pop culture featuring three-dimensional portrayals of Asians that there’s a hashtag for it: #AsianAugust. (If you haven’t seen either of those, go do that!)

“Searching,” a thriller starring John Cho, the first Asian-American actor to headline a mainstream, modern movie in that genre, joins the party this weekend before rolling out to more cities next Friday.

And don’t sleep on “Kim’s Convenience,” a Canadian sitcom about a working-class Korean-Canadian family that premiered in 2016 but is now available in the U.S. on Netflix, which added it in July. In between reveling in how wonderful “Crazy Rich Asians” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” were, I watched a few episodes last weekend and was immediately hooked. It will definitely be relatable to anyone who comes from an immigrant family. But it also has the classic conventions of any great, slice-of-life family sitcom, with endearing characters and an abundance of irreverent jokes. ― Marina Fang

My Colleague’s Love For “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”

On the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 17, my colleague and dear friend Claire Fallon watched “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” for the first time. “It fucking wrecked me,” she tweeted of the now-beloved Netflix rom-com. By the time I saw her at work the next morning, Claire had watched “TATBILB” three times already. She seemed… different. There was a twinkle in her eye, a bounce in her step — the unmistakable signs of a woman in love.

Claire confirmed as much with her bombshell story: “Report: I’m in Love With Netflix’s ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,’” and she didn’t stop there. She RTed every article horny for the film’s romantic male lead, Peter Kavinsky, adding commentary like “i am hurting myself every time i watch it and realize he isn’t real.”

Before long, Claire’s husband was drawn into the fold. “They say you should include your partner in your fantasy life so I made my husband watch to all the boys I’ve loved before with me,” she tweeted on Aug. 18, a time she would later describe as “the most romantic weekend” of her life. This marked her fifth viewing of the film and potentially, I foolishly thought, her last.

Claire is now up to 10 viewings and shows no sign of slowing down. On Monday and Tuesday, when she normally live-tweets “Bachelor in Paradise,” Claire instead posted six GIFs of Peter Kavinsky — in a hot tub, on a school bus, smiling all sexy in a bathrobe. Where am I supposed to get my snarky “Bachelor” commentary now, Claire?! Her obsession became my obsession. Thanks to Claire, I now find myself talking incessantly about a movie I haven’t even seen, filtered through the lovesick gaze of my talented co-worker.

“If you’re wondering, i did watch it last night,” Claire slacked me today, unprompted. “I do little else.” If this post was a rom-com, this is the part where I’d declare my love for Claire and suggest that instead of Peter Kavinsky she take notice of the girl working at the desk across from her all along — fave-ing her tweets, offering her goldfish, casually suggesting they open the mail together. But it’s not, and Claire is married and I have more journalistic ethics than that! ― Priscilla Frank

The Greatest Sentence In The History Of Language

This was a bad week ― all weeks, now, are bad ― but at least we were blessed with one of the great sentences in the history of language.

“Suck my dick and balls I’m working at NASA” is a literary delight, nine words strung together so perfectly that there’s no way to misread them or misinterpret the emotion they intend to convey. The person who wrote them, who had the misfortune of directing them toward someone who oversees NASA, apparently lost out on an internship opportunity at the space-exploring government agency. This is a shame, not just because no one should be fired over a tweet but especially because no one should ever be fired after penning such a beautiful tweet.

Homer Hickam, the former NASA engineer who was best known for writing “Rocket Boys” but will now enter history as the man who elicited the greatest piece of writing humankind has ever produced, is apparently helping our glorious author find an even better opportunity in the aerospace field. But the real hope here is that one day our dear friend ascends to the top of NASA, resumes the shuttle program or some other form of space exploration, and paints our new motto on the side of whatever sort of craft eventually finds other forms of life out there, so that our newfound alien friends’ first brush with the English language is the English language in all its glory. And if we’re not going to cure cancer or solve climate change or find aliens or do any of the other cool shit science is probably capable of, we should put all of our resources and expertise into finding a way to project “Suck my dick and balls I’m working at NASA” onto the moon. ― Travis Waldron

Temi Oni’s Latest Poem

I see a lot of my experience in Temi Oni’s latest poem. I walk a lot. I’m catcalled far too frequently. I’m always minding my business. I’ve been hit on by teenagers, men my age, men my father’s age, men his father’s age. I’ve been asked if I suck dick, if I wanna fuck, if I want a dick in my ass and much worse. My initial silence has agitated the men harassing me to the point of them getting too close — just like Oni’s decision to at first ignore the man who asked her if she sucked dick irked him to the point of walking up on her. Like her, I’ve wonder who the fuck these dudes were talking to. I’ve wished my homies or my man was around because I also have a tendency to fly off the handle when I’ve been disrespected. I size the man up. Sometimes I say something smart, ask him who he’s talking to. Sometimes I don’t say anything at all.

And then, it happens: They threaten to rape you. It freezes you. You want to defend yourself, but you don’t know if you physically can. You want him to die because he thinks it’s funny. You’re paralyzed by your anger, but within moments your guts will churn and you’ll start to realize that you may very well be in danger.

You feel bad for this black person. You want better for them. But you also want to feel safe. As Oni says, seeing the police won’t calm you. Black women are constantly put into compromising positions by black men, but the most harrowing is the decision of whether or not we should sacrifice our own safety for theirs by not calling the police. You don’t want a black person to die at the hands of the police, even though they just threatened to harm you. On the flip side, the police often don’t even see black women as worth saving.

In these moments, I often feel a sense of loneliness that is much deeper than me being harassed while I am literally alone. Whenever a black man has walked up to me on the street or tried anything, no one has ever defended me. People can be around and yet no one does anything. At their best, they ignore it. At their worse, they watch. It induces a rage I still can’t explain, a fear I often feel and a pain that seems generational.

It’s the black woman’s Catch-22. ― Julia Craven

“Support The Girls”

Magnolia Pictures

Lisa (Regina Hall) often reminds people that she works at a “family place,” insofar as the Hooters-type watering hole she manages does not allow the predominantly male clientele to harass waitresses. As it turns out, the establishment is family-like, at least in the way its female staffers protect and fortify one another — a fitting theme for a movie titled “Support the Girls.”

Andrew Bujalski’s new film is one of those indies that comes out of nowhere and lights up the screen, the perfect cap to a wobbly summer. When a sports-bar chain comes to town, the forces of capitalism threaten to nullify Lisa’s mom-and-pop restaurant. The hourly-wage sisters who maintain the Texas joint are doing it for themselves, and they’re lucky to have the patient, affable Lisa as a lodestar amid the careless dudes in their paths. Hall gives an Oscar-worthy performance, delicately screaming into the void alongside Haley Lu Richardson (“Edge of Seventeen”) and Shayna McHayle, better known as the rapper Junglepussy. When she’s finally had enough, Lisa tosses a middle finger to the sky, a rare release for someone who’s burdened herself with always needing to keep it together. We’re right there with her. ― Matthew Jacobs

Bowen Yang

Bowen Yang may not be a household name, but you may as well learn it now.

The comedian and Vulture host became a viral sensation this week after a handful of celebrities — including Chrissy Teigen and Sarah Silverman — tweeted out some of his lip-syncing videos.

Yang has been uploading clips of himself lip-syncing various pop culture moments since May. But his most recent video, of him imitating Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in “The Devil Wears Prada” is what has put him on the map. It’s flawless, funny and just a delight to watch. ― Saba Hamedy

Terrific Human Mariska Hargitay

Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank got married this week. She looked lovely in Elie Saab with custom Christian Louboutin shoes. Her husband looked dapper. There was a tap dance! The wedding looked like it was ripped right from a high-class Pinterest page. But the best part of Hilary Swank getting married this week was actually Terrific Human Mariska Hargitay.

One of the photos featured in a Vogue gallery on Swank’s wedding shows Hargitay lurking in the background, seemingly holding up Swank’s veil as part of her duties as maid of honor. Swank and Hargitay are known BFFs, but still, could you imagine having Hargitay around on your wedding day? To give you pep talks, or hold up your dress while you pee or dab the sweat off your forehead after dancing too hard? For sure she’d make sure your Champagne hand was never empty. Congratulations on that, Hilary Swank. ― Paige Lavender

The R-Rated Puppet Movie That No One Liked

DAMON DAHLEN/HUFFPOST

Priscilla Frank with her date at a press preview of “The Happytime Murders” on Monday in New York. 

Some critics have deemed “The Happytime Murders” the worst movie of the summer, if not the whole year. Other people, like my colleague Priscilla Frank, have called it “the only movie that mattered, and the only one that ever will.” Listen, I probably won’t see the film, but I will scroll through photos of Priscilla and her Puppet Boyfriend performing nose kisses in an empty theater at least a couple times this weekend. You should, too. ― Katherine Brooks

Christian Covington’s Very Lifelike Madden Character

Guess I have to accept the fact that I’m ugly now…. Say it ain’t so Madden…. smh pic.twitter.com/fTcmitdrEw

— Christian Covington (@thetangibleC4) August 22, 2018

Who knew you could play as Shrek on Madden?

The difference between how Texans DE Christian Covington looks in real life and how he looks on Madden is basically the same as photos you post vs. ones you’re tagged in… if people were to draw faces on garbage cans and tag you in them. And like ogres and onions, this thing has layers: Is it so sweaty because it knows it shouldn’t be here? Does it look like a thumb? Is that mean to thumbs? With all the attention this has gotten after Covington poked fun at it, it’s only a matter of time before Madden tries to take this away from us like a bunch of Farquaads. So before that, farewell sweet prince. Like Shrek, may you live happily forever after. ― Bill Bradley 

Read last week’s Good Stuff.

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[nightrainlily]

DAY SEVEN: ART IN CROISSANTS, PERFUME, AND SCULPTURE

we’re old pros now. we woke up early and caught the train at three bridges to Victoria, then beelined to the Victoria tube line, took that to Green Park, then took the Piccadilly line to Leicester Square, then walked to Covent Garden. if you can keep up with all that, you’re a local.

we stopped for breakfast and finally coffee. we haven’t had coffee since we left Sweden, and we became really caffeine dependent on the dark, smooth Swedish blends during our stay there. going cold turkey was hard, and Joelle and I were feeling it. we each got our favorite drink (a latte for Jo, a cappuccino for my mother, and an americano for me), and were absolutely overjoyed when they arrived at the table. I had strong crema. I knew it was going to be a good day.

my breakfast was also delicious (I’m going to talk about food a whole lot in this post, so if that’s not your thing, you might want to skip to day eight). I had a broiled grapefruit and granola, which may sound simple but really was just so very satisfying. side note: some people say that almond milk tastes like dirty water and that it’s terrible, but honestly I could drink it by the gallon. it’s so creamy! and smooth! and delicious! Joelle had coconut yogurt with pistachios (we all agreed pistachios are a seriously underrated yogurt topping) and this croissant that I could actually hear flake when she bit it. Joelle loves croissants—she gets excited thinking about how good the croissants are going to be in France—and my mother and I are encouraging her to start a croissant blog, the content of which will be ratings of croissants by flake, butter content, taste, cost, pull value, size, golden brownness, etc. she tells me this one was an eight out of ten; too much pull and too little flake, but the coloring was a perfect buttery bronze. once our caffeine kicked in, we were in high, high spirits. way up there.

the three of us are fond of quieter, cleaner spaces, like Kensington and Covent Garden. we walked through tea shops, parfumeries, and chocolatiers. the rows of stalls of the jubilee market stand on the outskirts of the square, where artisans and merchants sell their wares. I bought a tiny stamp of an “a” in the art deco style to use on my letter seals. oh, the things I do for my pen pals.

back to the topic of perfume: the word itself is derived from latin which translates to “through smoke.” Romans, Persians, and Arabs each developed their own versions of the latin original. what we call perfume in the states is actually a range of products which include eau de cologne (seven percent concentration), eau de toilette (ten percent concentration), eau de parfum (fifteen to twenty percent concentration), and actual perfume (forty percent concentration). I gravitate towards clean but also spicy scents; the one I’m wearing the most right now is coipaba balsam, palo santo, and cyprus. I found three blends today that I liked: a bergamot, oudwood, and birchwood one; a bergamot, agar wood, and geranium one; and a lemon, camellia leaves, and iris one. I only recently started to appreciate perfume and the niceness of a scent. I’m a musician, so when I think about art, I most often think of sound, but of course visual art is the most prominent form, and performance as well. only recently have I realized that the sense of smell can also factor into artistic expression as well; in the same way that a chef crafts a sensory experience, someone who crafts smells is also an artist.

after we felt we’d fully explored the Covent Garden area, we walked to the British Museum. we sort of came around the side, and then suddenly it was looming over us, stretching on for city blocks. its architectural influences include the greek revival style, which manifests in huge portico with forty four columns overlooking the street. the entrance opens onto the great court, a circular space in the center of the museum that is five stories high, centered around the reading room. the light filtering in from the cloudy sky today gave the marble room a gray cast, which seemed to me perfect museum-viewing weather.

some of the British Museum’s most renowned pieces are from ancient Greece, which include The Thinker and remains of the Parthenon. the only other public viewing opportunity for the Parthenon is in Greece, where the rest of the pieces still remain. the figures especially are exquisite—the folds of dresses fluttering in the wind, the detail of facial hair, the realness of human anatomy and movement. the ability to turn stone into figures that feel truly alive is something to witness and appreciate, if you ever get the chance.

the other section where we spent the most time was the Asian exhibit. our highlights from those rooms were the Chinese pottery, incredibly well preserved and incredibly detailed, pieces from South Asia centered around Hinduism and Buddhism, and the life-size model of a Korean scholar’s home. whereas the Greek rooms were mostly white marble, the Asian art was vibrant in both design and coloration. I saw the sculpture of the god Shiva, dancing in a ring of flame which conveys the Hindu belief that time is cyclical. some postage stamps in the modern section of the room show Kazi Nazrul islam, a Indian poet during the Indian revolution. the special room of jade sculptures had pieces ranging in size and delicacy, but all were beautiful and reminded me of the small gifts my grandfather used to bring home from Korea.

I didn’t even talk about the Rosetta Stone, but you get the gist of that. it was amazing. I felt like I was in the presence of a god.

I keep a list of professions I would pursue if I could live infinitely and money were no object. it includes: florist, music producer, magazine editor, professor, and now, museum curator. I love organization and the process of finding beautiful or interesting things. my blog, I suppose, is a form of curation, and my playlists definitely scratch that itch as well. to become an expert on something, to know more about it than almost anyone in the world, is a gift which gives you the power to enrich peoples’ lives. in his book The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell discusses three types of people: connectors, mavens, and salesmen. I would like to think I’m a maven, because I so enjoy learning about things and then disseminating that information to specific outlets that will most appreciate it. I think I get it from my mom, who reads the newspaper and clips articles for the people she loves. I take that concept to the next level. and being a museum curator would be the next next level.

although we didn’t get through every room, or even every floor, of exhibits, the museum was set to close and we were dead on our feet. we set off towards a row of restaurants, and as I looked around on the map, I saw a By Chloe. I’ve wanted to eat at a By Chloe for literally years, but the locations in L.A. and New York never quite made it into the family vacation itinerary. by the time we got there we were so hungry we could hardly stand, but just seeing the menu rejuvenated me. a lot of people ask me if being vegan is hard because I miss certain foods, but restaurants like By Chloe really fill the gap. I ordered a spicy Thai salad (on brand much?) and a side of mac and cheese, because I feel like if you’re a vegan offered mac and cheese and you don’t take the opportunity to at least try it, you’re probably doing it wrong. my mother got the same salad as me and a cauliflower soup, and Joelle got a taco salad (also on brand. another side note: Joelle’s list of her favorite foods does not include any Mexican dishes, but she’s ordered it consistently when we’re out and says that’s what she’s missed most since leaving home. this girl loves her Mex). and we got sweet potato and regular fries. with beet ketchup. and chipotle aioli. basically, we were feasting and I was in heaven. I’m always grateful when my friends and family compromise and eat at vegan restaurants, so thanks for fulfilling my dreams, guys!

then we stopped for gelato, and although I didn’t get any I’m going to talk about it anyway because it looked really good: my mother got coffee and dark chocolate, and Joelle got cheesecake and dark chocolate (another one of Joelle’s favorite, most beloved foods: cheesecake). there are gelato shops, and good gelato too, on every corner in this city. we love that.

and although we were in an unfamiliar area, we walked a block or two and found an underground station, read the map, and took it home. the London underground is by far the easiest public transportation system I’ve ever used, and I so appreciate the frequent stops, clean trains, logical signage, and ease of access to other lines. we’ve been able to get around entirely on our own, without any major mishaps. like we haven’t even gotten lost once. I count that as a victory.

today was rich. I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re feeling full-up of art, culture, and good food.

signing off,

amaya

1. Dedicated to the One I Love - The Mamas and the Papas

2. But Not for Me - Chet Baker

3. Something Soon - Car Seat Headrest