Friday Five: Lessons

This week's Friday Five:

1. What were your high school teachers wrong about? Honestly, I don't remember the specifics of what teachers even taught me in high school, but nothing comes to mind here. 
   
   
2. Which high school subject (or specific lesson) turned out to be more useful than you expected? I guess visual arts. I did end up being a makeup artist for 15 years.
   
   
3. From which high school courses do you remember most and least? I remember Art/Photography the most because that was my favourite subject (and I also had a little crush on my art teacher), followed by English Literature and Society (psychology, anthropology, and sociology). I remember History and Math the least — the former because my History teachers made the subject tediously boring and the latter because I genuinely hated the subject. (I still hate math, but I actually love learning about history now.)
   
   
4. How many of your high school classmates are you still in touch with? One, and I would use the term "in touch with" loosely because I maybe contact her once every year. (Also, she's my real estate lawyer.) To be honest, I didn't really like many people in high school and didn't care to keep in touch with any of them.
   
   
5. Which specific songs bring you back to specific memories of high school? I would say specific albums more than songs: Deftones' White Pony, Thursday's Full Collapse, Alexisonfire's self-titled album, and My Chemical Romance's I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. They don't bring me back to specific memories during high school, but more like I put them on repeat throughout high school.
   
   
   
   
   
   

Friday Five: Boo!

This week's Friday Five:

1. How easily are you startled? About average? I guess it depends on my comfort level with the environment or situation and if I'm with people or not.
   
   
2. What music do you find scary? I don't find the music scary, per se, but it's scary how many people actually like Chinese opera. I can appreciate the theatrics, the stories, the costumes, and the makeup, but the music is actually horrendous. Like nails on a chalkboard. I immediately flinch when I hear it because it's so goddamn jarring.
   
   
3. When did you last attend a performance you didn't think highly of? Hmm. I don't think there's actually a performance I attended — at least in the last decade — that I didn't like. Then again, the only live performances I go to are concerts for bands that I love, so.
   
   
4. What caused your most recent small cut or scrape? Last week, I was cutting my toenails and went a little deeper than intended with the side of my right big toe and it was bleeding quite a bit and then I had to bust the Polysporin and a Band-Aid...
   
   
5. When was your ego most recently bruised, and what did you do to recover? Hmm. I can't think of anything recently.

Friday Five: Don't tip the boat over

This week's Friday Five:

1. When did you most recently feel you should be dancing? Um, right now, because NewJeans' "ETA" just came up on my playlist and it's SO GODDAMN BOPPY. 
   
   
   
2. What hot stuff have you recently consumed? I got a bowl of jjamppong with my mom last night.
   
   
3. What kind of side-hustle would be fun to try? If I had the time, I think commercial food photography would be pretty fun.
   
   
4. What were some of this summer's good times? Hmm... Well, I went to see Paramore with my friend Austin in June, and we had a super fun time. And my brother and sister-in-law came to visit in July to announce their pregnancy. And I watched three of Suga's concert livestreams for his Agust D Tour, which were incredible.
   
   
5. What are your plans for Saturday night? Nothing specific, probably just hanging out at home and watching a drama on Viki. I just like staying at home on the weekends.

Friday Five: More questions about our favourite topic

This week's Friday Five:

1. What's your favourite dehydrated or freeze-dried food? In thinking of answers to this question, it has occurred to me that I rarely eat dehydrated or freeze-dried foods, and I don't go out of my way to eat them... but if someone gives me some beef jerky or some banana chips, I will never say no.
   
   
2. What's your favourite among foods requiring peeling or shelling? Eggs and shrimp, though with the latter, I loathe peeling them, so I always prefer de-shelled shrimp.
   
   
3. What's something you could probably cook to impress if you were in someone else's kitchen? Creamy mushroom udon pasta. It doesn't require a lot of ingredients or time to cook but it's FREAKING DELICIOUS.
   
   
4. What food do you look forward to getting in a town you visit only once in a while? Poutine and smoked meat sandwiches in Montreal, and of course, New York pizza in NYC.
   
   
5. What foods specific to autumn do you especially enjoy? Okay, I know liking pumpkin spice for fall is cliché, but I do enjoy the pumpkin spice doughnuts and muffins from Tim Hortons. (To be fair, they're only available for like, two months, so they're basically delicacies.)

Friday Five: The Bard says

This week's Friday Five:

1. What is your favourite thing to learn about? History. I hate learning about history when I'm forced to (e.g. in high school), but when I can look up what I want to, I find it fascinating — from music and art to war and disease. I remember I looked up Prussian blue once (it was the name of a MAC eyeliner pencil and I just wanted to know where this colour originated) and ended up reading about Eva Braun. A couple months ago, I looked up plague doctor costumes because of some meme I saw on Instagram and ended up doing a deep-dive on the Black Death. I'm currently watching the K-drama, Do You Like Brahms?, and searched up the history of Brahms and how his unrequited love for Clara Schumann influenced so much of his work.
   
   
2. What is your favourite thing to do with your friends? Eat.
   
   
3. What is your favourite place you've ever been? Currently, it's Osaka — more specifically, Dotonburi.
   
   
4. What is your favourite way to relax? Watching Asian dramas on Viki and ASMRvideos on YouTube.
   
   
5. What is your favourite thing to cook? Grilled cheese. Low effort, high return.

Friday Five: (abbr.)

This week's Friday Five:

1. What shortcuts do you frequently take? I always take residential streets to work instead of main roads because rush hour is a freaking nightmare here. I also tend to use a lot of hot keys when typing on a keyboard.
   
   
2. How do you make up for one of your shortcomings? I think my shortcoming is that I don't make up for any shortcomings...
   
   
3. What does your favourite pair of shorts look like? I do not own a single pair of shorts. I am a pants-all-year-round kind of gal.
   
   
4. What was meant to be short-term but lasted much longer than planned? So, two Fridays ago, I woke up from a nap in my computer chair with pain in my right shoulder. I thought it was just muscle pain from being in the an awkward position for too long and that it would go away by the next day. However, over the next three days, it turned into intense pain. I couldn't lift my arm past my waist without my shoulder feeling like it was tearing off. I couldn't do anything I used to be able to do with ease: put my hair up, put on a shirt, type on a keyboard, put my arm up on my desk to use my mouse, etc. My right (dominant) arm was basically useless. Went to the doctor and went to a physiotherapist, both of whom said I might have frozen shoulder. There was nothing else I could really do except try to do arm exercises and take extra-strength Aleve. I finally went to get an ultrasound done, and as it turns out, I have calcific tendinitis. With the help of Aleve and physio, the pain is completely gone now (knock on wood), but what I thought would last one night ended up lasting 10 days (and a full week off from work).
   
   
5. Which short films do you especially like? I don't watch a lot of short films, but I really loved Bao.

Friday Five: It's a good time for the great taste

This week's Friday Five:

1. What lies somewhere Beyond the Sea? Well, I'm sure you hit land eventually. 
   
   
2. When and where did you last have a Splish Splash? Last night, in the shower in my bathroom.
   
   
3. What do you do Early in the Morning? Drink coffee. I've been making a lot of iced lattes recently.
   
   
4. Who is your Dream Lover? Currently, it's Yang Yang circa The King's Avatar.
   
   
5. What proves You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby? Hmm... According to my mother, I've always had big eyes and long lashes.

Friday Five: Be curious, not judgmental

This week's Friday Five:

1. How do you feel about (or what do you think of) soccer, the sport known everywhere but in the U.S. as football? I am completely indifferent to it. In fact, had Jungkook not performed "Dreamers" for the FIFA World Cup last year, I wouldn't even have known it was going on. (Also, it's known as soccer here in Canada, too. So I guess it's a North American thing.)
   
   
2. What have you been forgiven for? Hmm... I don't know if I've done anything in recent memory that has required forgiveness...
   
   
3. Who is the most joyful person you know? Okay, as terrible as this sounds, I don't know anyone in real life whom I would describe as "joyful." It may be why I don't like that many people, actually.
   
   
4. When were you most recently a fish out of water? I guess when I was in Korea and Japan. I mean, I did go there already knowing most of the customs and etiquette, but it is still a bit jarring in real life — especially in Tokyo, where the population density is just overwhelming.
   
   
5. Under which circumstances are you the best version of yourself? When I'm the most confident. This could be at work, or with friends, or at a dinner, etc., but it's when I know exactly what I'm doing and what I'm talking about.

Friday Five: Euphemisms for romance repurposed for food

This week's Friday Five:

1. What do you eat when you need something hot and heavy? Noodle soup. I don't discriminate against any noodle soup, really, but jjamppong is always satisfying.
   
   
2. When did you last go to bed with something edible? Nothing. I never eat in — or even near — my bed. Or even in my bedroom.
   
   
3. What's an enjoyable meal that requires you to get busy? Lobster towers. (I never cook meals that require an excessive amount of work or time, so I assume this means eating something that requires effort.)
   
   
4. With which dining establishment do you think you could go steady, at least until the end of the year? Probably Congee Queen — not because it's my favourite, but because they have a giant menu with a huge variety of different types of Chinese food, and they're reliably tasty. Plus, there's several locations around the city and they close late.
   
   
5. With which snack would you like to have a summer fling? I've been really into popcorn for the last few months, most recently PC's Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn. I could definitely have a summer fling with it... but probably not a long-term relationship. 

Friday Five: Themeless

This week's Friday Five:

1. What did you most recent affix a sticker to, and what was the sticker? Underneath my kitchen cabinets. Last month, I bought these motion sensor cabinet lights for my kitchen from Temu, and they require magnetic stickers to affix the light bar to. 
   
   
2. What are your favorite and least favorite songs about weather? I think "Umbrella" by Rihanna would be my least favourite weather-related song. But I have a few songs about rain that I love:
   
   
   
   
   
3. What turned out to be a good idea? Falling down the BTS rabbit hole.
   
   
4. Which errands should you probably run this weekend? Laundry and grocery shopping. My fridge is nearly empty, but most importantly, I have run out of milk for my daily iced coffees.
   
   
5. What are your feelings about yogurt? Love frozen yogurt in pretty much all forms. I also love Oikos Key Lime Pie Greek yogurt. But like, regular yogurt is super boring and just not worth the sugar intake for me.

Friday Five: Discomfort

This week's Friday Five:

1. How ticklish are you? Not particularly. I used to be when I was a kid, but have become somewhat immune to it through too much play-fighting. 
   
   
2. When did you most recently experience physical numbness? Sometime last week when I fell asleep on my arm.
   
   
3. What's caused you recently to squirm? I did watch a couple co-workers eat nearly rotten strawberries without washing them first. Although I guess that was more of a flinch followed by an, "EWWWWW," more than a squirm...
   
   
4. What recently caused you to gag? I went to get my teeth cleaned last week and there was way too much saliva in my mouth along with some blood and I didn't want to swallow it so I gagged a little before the hygienist used the spit sucker thingy.
   
   
5. Which item in your wardrobe is most uncomfortable to wear? Jeans. I'm not even sure why I've kept any of them because I bought all of them at least 15 years ago and I haven't worn them since I was in my 20s and then when I try them on, I immediately take them off and I'm like, "Yep, that's why they're at the back of the closet." My rule is, if I can't wear it to a buffet, it's not worth wearing.

Friday Five: Circumstance and Pomp

This week's Friday Five:

1. What advice do you have for a high school grad getting ready to begin college? Stay in the dorms. You miss out on so many college experiences otherwise. Also, don't spend all of your student loan or scholarship money on stupid shit you don't need. You will need that money for important expenses.
   
   
2. What advice do you have for a high school grad getting ready to enter the workforce? Don't spend all of your paycheques on stupid shit you don't need. Debt is very real and very crippling.
   
   
3. What advice do you have for a high school grad who doesn’t know what's next? It's okay not to know what's next and it's okay not to have a dream. It's better to fail at something you love than succeed at something you hate.
   
   
4. What advice do you have for a high school grad whose high school years were disappointing? Don't be scared to try new things or meet new people. Everything you thought was so important or detrimental in high school is completely trivial after high school.
   
   
5. What do you remember about your own graduation from high school? We had a borderline cult-like ceremony where we had to wear all white and light candles and chant things before getting our diplomas. I remember saying bye to my teachers (at least the ones I liked) and getting flowers from my parents and taking pictures with classmates (at least the ones I liked). What really mattered was the graduation after-parties.

Friday Five: Speed

This week's Friday Five:

1. What do you do very quickly? Type (on a QWERTY keyboard). I average about 130 WPM with 98% accuracy.
   
   
2. What do you do very slowly? I don't know if I do anything very slowly. By nature, I try to be as efficient as possible. I guess I'm slower in the mornings when I have to get ready for work, but that's usually because I've only had 5 hours of sleep and my arm is still numb from laying on it for too long...
   
   
3. What caused you most recently to be late for something? About a month ago, I completely forgot to set my alarm to get up for work and I ended up sleeping in until 10:00AM. (Y'all, the danger of having blackout curtains...) I had like, 6 missed calls on my work phone, so I immediately called my boss to tell him I forgot to set my alarm. I'd never done this before so he was totally forgiving (he even told me to take my time getting ready), but still, the utter panic I had when I woke up and looked at my clock...
   
   
4. Today is the 132nd day of the year. Have the days gone quickly or slowly? Quickly. Too quickly. Not just this year, but the past decade seems to have flown by and now I'm closer to 40 than to 30 and I feel like I just grew up.
   
   
5. What will you take your time on this weekend? Playing The Sims 4. It's been over two months since I last played and they've released a new expansion pack and all these newkits and I want to take my time discovering all the new content.

Friday Five: 子供の日

This week's Friday Five:

1. Who was the last child, unrelated to you, you personally had a conversation with? One of my co-workers brought her nine-year-old son into the office sometime in March because he had the day off school and couldn't find a sitter. I think all I said was, "Hi, how are you?" and he said, "I'm good, you?" And then my co-worker asked if i could give him a task because he was bored, so I said, "You can refill the printer with paper if you want," and he said, "Okay." And that was the extent of our conversation. (I do not talk to children often.)
   
   
2. Among things most children aren't permitted to do, what should they be permitted to do? Walk around outside freely and take public transit on their own. It's actually very common in Japan (where I just came back from visiting), but not here.
   
   
3. Some people say there are (generally) animal people and children people. Which are you? Animal people, 100%. I do not like (most) children.
   
   
4. Which children's books do you remember enjoying most? Roald Dahl's children's novels, but especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, and The BFG.
   
   
5. When did you last see koi in person? A few weeks ago, in Kyoto.

Friday Five: Backspace

This week's Friday Five:

1. Which of your actions of this past week would you care to undo? Whatever transaction I made that caused my credit card to become compromised on Wednesday. Someone tried to spend $663 on my card at Lowes.ca of all places, the very transaction that prompted my bank to send me a fraud alert. My bank declined the charge, but then I immediately logged into online banking and saw that the $48 that someone tried to spend at a Landmark Cinemas in Calgary (a city in an entirely different province) went through. So I had to call my bank, who went through my transactions, declared it compromised, and had to close my card. This is especially inconvenient because I won't have a credit card for at least 7 business days and I am leaving for Seoul in 2 weeks. I am very annoyed.
   
   
2. When did you last physically erase something? Wow, when's the last time I even used a pencil...? Ooh, wait, when I first started my current job in late 2021, I used to draw little illustrations on my co-worker's white board and I did erase some of those...
   
   
3. When have you been glad about canceled plans? I've found that as I've gotten older, I'm always glad about canceled plans... Sometimes I even make up excuses just to cancel plans...
   
   
4. When you're on your way out the door but have to turn around and come back for something, what's usually the reason? I forgot to bring a new pack of cigarettes and there's only 2 left in my current pack. (I buy cartons of smokes at a time to lessen the frequency I have to go to a convenience store or gas station.)
   
   
5. What do you do when you really want to remember to do something later today or tomorrow? If it's a task or an errand, I write it on a Post-It. If it's an actual appointment or meeting, I write it on my big desk calendar.

Friday Five: Looking like a snack

This week's Friday Five:

1. What do you usually reach for when you need just a little bite? It depends if I'm at home or at work. If I'm at home, I usually go for fruit; usually strawberries or grapes. If I'm at work, I have some nuts (I'm really into macadamia nuts right now) or melba toast with cheddar or havarti.
   
   
2. How frequently do you visit convenience stores? Usually every couple weeks to buy a carton of cigarettes.
   
   
3. What's your favourite chip? Currently, it's Miss Vickie's All Dressed Up. Finally, a kettle chip in All Dressed flavour!
   
   
4. What's your favourite candy bar? Coffee Crisp, hands down. It's been my favourite since I was a kid.
   
   
5. What are some hard candies you especially like? I generally prefer gummy candy, but I quite like Hong Yuan Guava Candy. I never buy them, though; a lot of Asian restaurants usually just give them for free with the bill.

Friday Five: Celebrations

This week's Friday Five:

1. Who was on the other end of your most recent high five? I genuinely can't remember. As it turns out, I don't give a lot of high fives.
   
   
2. To which movies, television shows, albums, or books have you recently given thumbs up? 
   
   Movies:Turning Red, Luca, and J-Hope in the Box 
   Television shows:Soundtrack #1 and Extraordinary Attorney Woo
   Albums: Paramore — This is Why
   
   
3. What's happened to you recently that others would cheer about? Um... I'm going to travel outside of North America for the first time in 18 years! (I'm going to Korea and Japan next month.) That's reason to cheer, right?
   
   
4. What have you most recently and literally clapped for? Snatching up the new LEGO BTS Dynamite set right when it launched on March 1. (It's sold out right now.) It was the same day as the Agust D Tour presale, for which I didn't get a presale code and therefore had absolutely no chance of getting tickets (at regular price), so I was hellbent on getting this BTS LEGO set to help me get over the severe disappointment of not being able to see Min Yoongi perform in person. 
   
   
5. When has someone recently given you an encouraging word? My friend Iris, who also didn't get an Agust D Tour presale code, so we were trying to cheer each other up: "At least we got the BTS LEGO sets!", "At least we saved some money!", "At least you can save that money for Korea and Japan!" We're still wallowing, but we're trying to look on the bright side.

Friday Five: The other shoe

This week's Friday Five:

1. When did you most recently drop something off with someone? I dropped off some of my mom's mail to her a few weeks ago. (Since she's moved, she's having any mail sent to her old house forwarded to my address.)
   
   
2. Who is drop-dead gorgeous? Jeon Jungkook and Park Jimin.
   
   
3. On what are you waiting for a price drop? Thesetwo LEGO sets I have my eye on.
   
   
4. What were the circumstances when you once dropped the ball? I forgot to cancel my subscription for Sakuraco and just got charged $276 USD for another 6-month plan that has a no-refund policy. I can only be pissed off at myself for this one. 
   
   
5. What news recently made your jaw drop? The release of Jimin's first solo album next month (!!!). We all knew it was coming soon, but we didn't know it was gonna happen this soon because Jimin literally said in this livestream earlier this month that it was not "perfectly prepared yet." I mean, I had no time at all to prepare my wallet and gird my loins!

Friday Five: Bother!

This week's Friday Five:

1. When did you last put honey on or in something? Last night. I made some honey lemon water.
   
   
2. How do you handle a bad mood? I take a nap or watch BTS.
   
   
3. Which Winnie-the-Pooh character do you most identify with? None, but if I had to pick, I guess I'd go with Christopher Robin... with the appetite of Winnie the Pooh.
   
   
4. Which Winnie-the-Pooh character would you best get along with? Kanga. 
   
   
5. What's your favourite way to do nothing? At home, in my jam-jams.

Friday Five: In the pit

This week's Friday Five:

1. When did you recently pass the baton to someone? We just hired another Executive Assistant so I could move into the Operations department. I've been training her to the best of my abilities so she can replace me in that office. She has a lovely personality and a great work ethic, so I have high hopes for her.
   
   
2. What do you wish you never fiddled with? Dating a really good friend about a decade ago. We were friends for years. He moved to another country for a year and confessed when he came back. I shouldn't have agreed to dating him. I was still hung up over another guy (who I had a crush on, but never dated), and I think I was just looking for comfort and validation. But the biggest problem was that his personality totally changed once we got into a relationship. He was confident, funny, independent, and easygoing before we started dating, and became an incredibly needy, insecure, suffocating person. I couldn't stand him after three months, and dumped him after four. I haven't talked to him since. (Yeah, I'm pretty cutthroat.)
   
   
3. What do you plan to reed in the near future? As I don't play woodwind instruments and also don't particularly enjoy tall grass, I'm gonna go with nothing. If we're talking about 'read' instead of 'reed,' then I might re-read one of the many YA book series I have at home. Or maybe start my annual re-reading of the Harry Potter series. But as it is, I haven't really been into reading books in a while. Maybe I'll login to Goodreads and see what's new and exciting.
   
   
4. How's the weather in your neck of the woods? It's actually been kind of weird lately. There was a day last week that was -22℃, but then it went up to 6℃ this week with a considerable amount of rain yesterday (free car wash!), and it's consistently going to be in the positive for this weekend into all of next week. So, praying to the weather gods that spring comes early.
   
   
5. What have you lately been nuts about? Well, aside from BTS, which has been a constant of mine for nearly 7 years, I'm gonna say building LEGO, which was surprisingly become my new favourite hobby.