I hated the original Squid Game, but I watched the second season hoping that something good would come from it. Instead, they just doubled-down on everything I hated about the first season. Still, I thought that season 3 would finally justify the creation of the show. I should have been better prepared for disappointment.

Weak Hero was much the same for me. I only watched the second season because the time commitment wasn’t substantial. There are only eight episodes and they’re only about 30-40 minutes each. Like the first season, the kids live in a world where adults don’t really exist. Bullies just walk around and beat people to the edge of death all day. There are no consequences. No one to help. It creates a world where life is meaningless and cruel.

So, I’ll recommit myself to watching better shows.

My time is spent working on one of my other website projects. The purpose is to generate some revenue to help pay for this hobby.

I’ve added a bitcoin address in case you want to send some. It helps to offset the cost of hosting, domain registration, etc.

If someone sends a lot, I can spend that time watching k-dramas instead of messing with websites and stuff. I don’t expect anything, but I always want to present the opportunity.

I guess we’ll go back to the previous plan. I didn’t expect anything yesterday, but I still hoped.

We’ll use this site as a test for the other sites. I’ll post what I’m watching, but without commentary.

I don’t need to say anything else.

This is apparently the sigh emoji:😔

I need a better emoji to express *sigh*

I’m feeling really *sigh* lately.

I don’t know which I prefer: deleting all the memories or reliving things, even the memories I don’t like. I occasionally find old messages that I’ve written or received. Sometimes I wish I could turn back the clock. Sometimes I’m at peace with the inevitability of everything. Sometimes I feel like I do right now – somewhere in between.

So, I’ll talk about something else.

I decided I’ll just watch everything, I guess. I watched a couple more episodes of Hometown Cha-Cha Cha. I finished the first episode of Mr. Queen, which I started a long time ago. I quickly remembered why I didn’t like it, but I’ll give it another episode or two.

I think I need to refocus on learning Korean so that I can watch the shows without eyes on the screen the entire time.

Today is a day when I’m lamenting that it refers to the past instead of the present.

A few weeks ago, I started watching Love Next Door. I never went back to it. I toyed with the idea of watching the next season of Weak Hero, but I can’t bring myself to do it. I watched the first episode of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha to see if I would still like it the second time. It’s somehow better than I remember, even though it’s already my favorite show.

Still, I was looking for something new. Since Love Next Door was still on my “continue watching” list, I started again.

While watching, I discovered that one of the stars is Jung So-min. She is, unquestionably, my favorite. I’ve only seen a couple other shows of hers (Alchemy of Souls and Because This Is My First Life), but I’m sold.

How do people normal decide which shows to watch? I occasionally find threads on Reddit, but my taste in shows is clearly different than those people. There are a few people at work who watch kdrama; we occasionally share recommendations. Unfortunately, my main source for recommendations is unavailable. Since a show can take 20-30 hours to finish, I would rather only watch recommended series.

Until I find a new source, maybe I’ll only watch shows starring Jung So-min. I think this is a safe plan.

The site seems to be settling. The configurations are coming into focus. The issues are slowly being wiped away.

The timing seems to be ripe to dwell on TV for a moment.

Yesterday, I finished watching Hotel Del Luna. Once I finished episode 7, I was ready to binge through the rest. The story was great. The characters were great. A lot of the imagery was fantastic. I laughed out loud a lot. Although it’s not my favorite series ever, it represents what I like most about k-drama. The story is great and it makes me feel good.

I particularly enjoyed the series after watching several series that I didn’t enjoy. Squid Game was the first “k-drama” I remembering watching. It was in February of 2023, before I met my friend. There were parts of the story I liked. There were some good characters. In general, it was a story about awful people who hurt good people and, in the end, the bad people triumph. It left me feeling sad and annoyed.

The next series I watched after that was recommended by my friend: Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. This series had great characters, a great story, and it felt like it was the correct length. A lot of shows have odd episodes that seem to only drag the story out. Many series seem better suited for 8 or 12 episodes, but they stretch to 16 episodes and it feels unnecessary. Almost everything about Hometown felt right. This is the show that taught me to love k-drama, generally.

Still, there are shows I hate. I was recently reminded about this when I watched The Glory, A Killer Paradox, Weak Hero, and Squid Game 2. These are shows I either heard other people discuss or read about online. They weren’t terrible for what they were. I understand the appeal. It’s not what I like about k-drama.

For me, I like to imagine a fantasy world. I like a world where people are generally good and moral. Traditional values are the norm and deviant behavior is frowned upon. When I look at the real world, I can easily find corruption, abuse, immorality, hatred, violence. Why would I watch TV and be entertained by the glorification of the worst of humanity?

So, Hotel Del Luna was a great return for me. I’ll stay away from the dark shows for a while. After binging for the last week, I think I’ll spend some time thinking about what to watch next.

Now, I can focus on this web hosting nonsense instead of watching TV all evening.

This is the first site that I’ve migrated from my old web host. For loyal readers (i.e. no one), you’ll know that I didn’t intend to move this site. When hosting expired, I let the site expire with it. That was the plan, at least.

For now, the site is online. It’s hosted with a new company. I changed all previous posts to private. I’ll provide this update on the site, then we’ll wait and see what happens in the future.

I moved the site for several reasons. The new host is a completely different configuration, which requires quite a bit more effort than a simple backup or export from the original site. Currently, this site is the simplest of the few pages that I own, so I used this as a test to prepare for moving more complicated pages. Although this site is functional, there is still a lot of work to do. I enjoy the process and it helps me learn.

Next, I like having a place to document what I’m watching. I would really like to post more about the shows I watch, but there doesn’t seem to be a good reason to do this. For now, I just keep track of what I’m watching.

Finally, I decided to keep the site alive for the obvious reason. Even though the friendship didn’t last and even though it can’t be repaired, it’s still something I miss. It’s pointless to say anything else about it, but I’m certain I’ll return to the topic in the future. It’s still something on my mind.

If your online soul wandered here for some reason, I would like to know why. If you’re willing to share, leave a comment here or send an email to mkfwhy at this site.