Other Stories: Despite the fangirling, somehow, it still comes around to books.

I’ve toyed with the idea of putting up another blog where I could write about non-book-related things and occasional personal stuff, but then I remembered that I put up a disclaimer that there will be non-book stuff in this blog because it’s The Girl Who Read and Other Stories after all, and stories are everywhere, not just in books. Besides, it’s just a pain to maintain too many blogs.

So, lest I protest too much, I will just go ahead and write, and…yeah, I’ll probably do this every weekend.

Caution: Fangirl Blogging.

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The Originals

Finally, after about a year of silently praying to the TV Powers That Be and surviving fan heart attacks during the last season finale, The CW just green-lit a “The Vampire Diaries” spin-off that is Originals-centric! It’s called “The Originals” (duh!), and it will headline Joseph Morgan as Klaus (yay!). The Pilot will actually be aired on April 25th, and if all goes well, the series will likely be picked up.

I think this is a great idea for several reasons.

1. Joseph Morgan / Klaus. Now I don’t have to worry about him getting killed off in the main show and endure not seeing him on TV anymore.

2. The Originals story line is one of the reasons why I tolerate the things that annoy me on TVD. Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol bring conflict and also a much-needed breath of fresh air to the series whenever it gets stuck in all the Damon/Elena/Stefan drama.

3. The History of the Originals is a gold mine for many more interesting stories and themes that could only be skimmed in TVD because they’re not the focus of the series. It would be fun to see some family drama, and to find out more about what the siblings were up to before they all congregated back in Mystic Falls because of the Sun and Moon shenanigans in Season 2.

4. Did I mention Klaus? Oh, okay.

Click HERE for more details about the spin-off.

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Just My Luck

I am not lucky at raffles. I’ve never won anything at our company Christmas parties except when there’s supposed to be a prize for every single employee. I have never won in the lottery, not even the “balik-taya” consolation prize. I’ve never won anything in raffles I bought tickets for.

I’ve only won twice at some form of draw or another, and…wow, I just realized that for both those wins, I got signed books. How predictable. [1] [2]

So imagine my surprise when, come the new year, I learned that I won a copy of Lee Seung Gi’s new album courtesy of a fan site. All I had to do was comment to get an entry, so i joined. Why not, right? And it was open to international participants, which was more than I can say for the awesome book-related USA/Canada-only contests I was excluded from last year.

My prize arrived the other day!

(Sorry about the quality of the photos.)

“Forest”

I was given the Limited Edition of the album, which includes a photo essay book (hardcover) and a poster. The book has photos taken from the location shoots for the music videos of the songs from this album, and it actually serves as the container for the CD itself–it’s like the ultimate fan-service version of album liner notes. It’s the best idea ever…except that because there is no slip case or jacket, the cover is prone to getting dirty, and there’s no extra protection for the CD. But hey, I am not complaining. 😛

The CD is mounted on the inside back cover of the book + the Track List

I haven’t opened the poster yet because, sadly, I do not have space to put it up on.

There are scans of the book floating around cyberspace, so I won’t bother to take photos of the inside of the book. Besides, my phone camera cannot do them justice anyway…

Okay, wait, I have to post this spread:

Visiting the quaint country book shop

Among the places SG went to for this album, this is the one that caught my fancy. As far as I can tell from random words I can understand and from some rough translations by other fans, this is a used book shop owned by the lady in the photo.

This reminded me of that “1 Night 2 Days (Season 1)” episode where the boys were sent to different cities in Korea. SG went to Busan, and his particular mission there was to go to Bosu-dong, the famous book alley, and to procure: a copy of “The Little Prince” (he found an old one which was translated to Hangul), volume 1 of the manhwa (comic book) called “The Terrifying Mercenary Baseball Team” (he found an entire set; copies are rare, so they’re not sold separately there), and a first edition of the collection of short stories by a Korean author whose name escapes me right now (he found one, but since it’s a rare copy which was published before the war, he didn’t buy it so that actual collectors can find it later; he just asked the producer to credit the find so he can finish the mission.)

I’m putting Bosu-dong on my future Busan itinerary (did you read that, Universe?) because, dude, how can I resist a street full of books, even if most of them are in a foreign language? (Mission: Find a Korean translation of “Pride and Prejudice.” Muwahaha!)

There, see? Despite all the fangirling, somehow, it still comes around to books. (I surprise myself sometimes.)

Also, on hindsight, the photo essay book is gonna be a fun tool to use to learn Korean.

Here’s the music video of “Invitation To Me”, where the book shop makes an appearance. This is one of my favorites among his MVs to date, second only to “Let’s Go On A Vacation” (which featured fun “1 Night 2 Days” clips).

 
Postscript: January 13th — Happy 26th (if you’re counting actual years) / 27th (by Korean reckoning) birthday, SG! 🙂

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If only some of our government officials have this sense of humor

So apparently some 30,000 people signed a petition for the US government to construct a Death Star.

The White House, however, is against the idea, and they’ve posted an awesome, awesome response to the petition. It’s geeky, funny, manages to showcase some administration achievements, encouraging, and it makes a lot of sense.

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

Read the full text here: This isn’t the Petition Response you are looking for.

I love it! How often do you see official government statements that are this creative?

I guess the petitioners would have to go the Kickstarter route now.

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The Rithmatist

Tor.com posted an excerpt from Brandon Sanderson’s YA fantasy novel, “The Rithmatist”: click!

And, oooh, it’s illustrated!