Not certain why I feel to read THE MOVIE in my head like this is a magical, mystical event, like I just pulled this news out of my large black hat… (though it does feel like the news came out of nowhere). It could be influenced by the full title of the original series, Cherry Magic: Thirty Years Of Virginity Can Make You A Wizard!? Which I have always read in my head like “You’re a wizard Harry.” Which just adds a whole second layer to the fun.
Anyway, Cherry Magic: The Movie!?
I sit here writing this contemplating my day tomorrow. I think I actually need to go into the office which is a bummer. While I actually love the office, as I love my desk and miss it with the passion 1,000 suns, I never want to go into the office anymore. Why? With so few people going into the office, it has nothing to do with COVID, but instead, it’s that GD rush hour traffic. If I leave later than 7:25am, traffic going in if I attempt to go home at any time before 7PM? Traffic coming home. Denver traffic suuuucks rush hour or no rush hour.
So when Monsta X named their most recent song release Rush Hour? Well, it makes a girl feel a certain way. Read more
Not certain what we were talking about, but recently ValB and I were having a discussion about Kpop leaders…. it is quite possible it resolved into a discussion about how cute Kpop leaders are as all discussions do, and suddenly it occurred to me. That’s a FANTASTIC IDEA. Who is up for a giant helping of Khottie Kpop Leaders? Me! Me! Me!
In this thanksgiving themed episode, we’re taking our best dog bud, Lucy, along on a walk to our favorite area in order to talk the very important news, the decision to shut down Kchat Jjigae. Well, talk about it after a lot of waffling. Its hard! Then in order to shake all those weird emotions off, let’s talk about allll the things that Stephanie watched while away. Including being THAT person on a plane, laughing historically to Going Seventeen and jumping while watching the special episode of the zombie series, Kingdom: Ashin of the North.
Many moons ago, Alix and I started listening to a podcast called Kchat Jjigae as a way to feel connected to a larger community of people interested in the same entertainment that we so very much enjoyed. From there, we found the blog and started engaging through comments and eventually, an email letting Stephanie know that we would be at Kcon NY and would love to meet up if she was available…our way of showing appreciation and maybe making a new friend. That fateful first handshake led to lunch, daily and then hourly texts, and eventually to Alix and I writing for the blog on a regular basis. It led to Stephanie moving to Denver, to my future nuptials with KpopontheDL (date as yet to be selected as we have to introduce our husbands first), to Friday night feasts and global travel, countrywide kpop pandemic zoom gatherings, arguments, hurt feelings, and stronger friendships. People being people in a complicated world and sticking together because we are more important than all of that stuff we have to wade through to survive. People with a common interest/obsession creating a community.
So many years ago, ten to be exact, I became wrapped into an obsession called Kdrama. It was an obsession, one that for the most part didn’t go over well with the people I knew. Seemingly locked down in a small town in New Hampshire, there was nowhere for me to go to talk about my newfound love. Back in the day, I was a very different person than I am now. I want to say I look back fondly at that person, but mostly I want to comfort that person, tell her cliche though it is, it gets better. You can be better, you can DO better.
With no expectation that I would keep it up, as I’d started several blogs beforehand only to lose interest a few posts in, I created the first site, Crazy For Kdrama and poured all my heart, thoughts, and wishes into it. Reviews, casting news, talking about what shows I was thinking about picking up, and finally, once Kpop finally hooked me in, music posts.
Surprise surprise, the site actually took off. I had an audience, a small one, but people were interested in what I had to say. Me, a nobody from New Hampshire. I remember the first day I reached 100 hits in a single day. My friend Jami patiently waited with me as the views ticked higher and higher, cheering at everyone. From there I got a regular stream of commenters, and many of those turned into people I knew, and then friends. Some of those friends helped me change my life, helped me realize the potential I had within myself. Though hard, very hard at times, this site and you readers gave me the push, the confidence I needed to get out of New Hampshire, to move to New York on my own, where I met and made more friends, and once I was done there, it was these friends who helped me realize it was time to let go, to try a new adventure.
This site, my friends, became a safety net I never had before.
Now, though, ten years later, I’m in a position where I need to make another hard decision. It’s time to let Kchat Jjigae go. Gah. Those words are hard to say and even harder to stick to. Kchat is what I do, is who I am. And yet, all this time I’ve come to the realization, it isn’t. Or it isn’t anymore. I used to write every day. Every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I had THAT much to say. Or just needed people to listen to me, listen to my opinion THAT much. Now I have real-life obligations, a job I love that comes with its own hours and tribulations, challenges I’ve set for to further educate myself to be even better, even more indispensable. Then there are my personal obligations. I have friends now, friends who are my family, people I’ve met because of directly or indirectly the site to who I want to be a better friend to. If I’ve learned anything with Crazy/Kchat, anything is possible, it just requires time, effort, and attention.
Half-assing, be it the site, be it my work, be it my friendships, gets you nowhere you want to be.
So it’s time to go. But as dearest Jami said, I’m not going to let Kchat whimper off into the night. Nope, this grand old girl deserves the send-off she deserves. For the next month I’m going to do my very best to provide some great content, be it new stuff, retrospectives, or as this site has always been whatever I wanted it to be, I expect it to go out much the same, doing whatever posts tickle my fancy.
To anyone who reads this post. Thank you. For this post or any post previously. Thank you for being there. Thank you for helping me become the person I am now. Here’s hoping you have your own thing that makes you happy, that helps you grow. Here’s hoping you make some great friends along the way. Here’s to being the best versions of ourselves we can be at this moment, but still aiming for more.
Love and Backhugs,
Stephanie.
I had heard rumbles for a little while. Reddit articles. Rumors. Innuendo. I’d reasoned it out in my head that no, it couldn’t be true. Logic made the rumors go away in my head. But then it happened. The best day ever. It was confirmed that Park Junhee, otherwise known as Jun, leader of my current heart of my hearts, A.C.E, has a lead role in, get this, a BL.
GAAAAAHHHH!!!!! There was, for real, screeching and arm flapping happening. I know for a fact I embarrassed Alix, but guess what, I don’t care. JUN IS GOING TO BE IN A BL. Read more
Well, there WAS a plan to keep you populated with posts while I was away but silly Val and I didn’t think to check that her IP address hadn’t changed, locking her out of the site dashboard. Whoops. Sorry Val, thanks for the effort though! I’m sure we’ll be seeing those posts she worked on sometime soon. One of the funniest things about my vacation was the messages I received from her about how hard Khottie is to write. Totally agree! People think it’s easy but, turns out, not so much.
I had all these plans for vacation, all the things that I was going to watch and do. Some of them I accomplished and some of them I did not. Here’s some of the content I did work my way through, the results show if you will. Turns out, at the resort we were at while my attention span was short, the wifi was strong, so what I managed to accomplish didn’t actually meet my original expectations. Read more
Annnnnd…we’re back from a quick trip to Mexico. The excursion was a totally new experience for all of us. We’ve done countless trips around the globe in a myriad of different fashions, but this was the first time at an all-inclusive resort. I really really wanted to try it as a different kind of vacation and most notably, as one where I would have to make very few decisions. About anything. I’m drained both physically and mentally and the twists and tricks keep coming.
For those of you saying to yourself “Hey! Wait! Wasn’t Woozi already a Khottie like years ago?” I will say NO, he was actually not a Khottie, made clear by the NOT A Khottie Post title. We previously had a post just appreciating the powerhouse that was Woozi, as, back in the day we had the No Khotties Under 24 rule that we strictly abided by, (we’ve since bumped it to 21). So that post? NOT a Khottie, which means that Woozi? Still up for grabs.
For Khottie, get your brain out of the gutters everyone. Read more
