1min's Blog

Title of Show: Battle of Changsha (战长沙) # of Episodes: 32 Length: ~40 min per episode Recommended: No Tear Rating: 3 Favorite Songs: 我会记得你 Spoiler alert. Do not continue reading if you don't want the show to be spoiled. For some reason, I find it really difficult to relate to Chinese dramas. I find some of the characters in this show to be incredibly frustrating and it made the show really difficult to sit through. Had my goal not been to learn the language but rather watch and enjoyable show, I probably would've stopped watching a long time ago. Unfortunately, despite sunk costs, I still struggled through all the way to the end. I hated almost every character in the beginning that wasn't the son-in-law (姐夫). He was the only one who actually did practical things for the sake of the family and despite his "shady" dealings in the black market or ethically questionable businesses, he was the one character who I felt was actively doing something good. Eve...

Title of Show: Steins;Gate (シュタインズ・ゲート) # of Episodes: 24 + OVA + Movie ( シュタインズ・ゲート 負荷領域のデジャヴ ) + Length: ~20 min per episode, 1 hour 30 min for movie Recommended: Yes Tear Rating: 4 Favorite Songs: Hacking to the Gate , いつもこの場所で , and あなたの選んだこの時を Spoiler alert. Do not continue reading if you don't want the show to be spoiled. Back to Japanese already! It feels like just yesterday when I started on this adventure to watch a bunch of shows and I've cycled through Japanese, Chinese, and Korean already. This show is quite different from the last Anime I saw (Code Geass) but it does not disappoint in any fashion at all. I loved each and every one of the characters and their personalities were quite humorous. The comedy and humor was very well-done without being too over the top. A lot of the time travel science stuff was kind of hard to follow, but this image timeline helped me understand it a lot better. It's really awesome how the creators are still creating ...

Title of Show: Reply 1997 (응답하라 1997) # of Episodes: 16 Length: 45~60 min per episode Recommended: Yes Tear Rating: 2 Favorite Songs: Memories , 눈물 , All For You , and 우리 사랑 이대로 Spoiler alert. Do not continue reading if you don't want the show to be spoiled. Very satisfying show. Plenty of interesting characters and funny moments that kept you guessing all the way to the end. The end was very happy and left me feeling all giddy inside, which I appreciate from some of the darker shows nowadays. Because I watched this without subtitles, I feel like I missed a few things throughout the show, but it wasn't too hard to keep up even with the 부산 사투리 accents. I even picked up some new Korean slang words, haha. On a side note, refer to this blog post if you are curious as to why I am reviewing this show.

Title of Show: Black & White (痞子英雄) # of Episodes: 24 Length: 45~60 min per episode Recommended: No Tear Rating: 0.5 Favorite Songs:  放逐愛情 and  關於我們 Spoiler alert. Do not continue reading if you don't want the show to be spoiled. Very underwhelming drama despite the reviews and recommendations from friends and the internet. Unfortunately, the production quality severely detracted from my experience. For example, for an action cop show, a lot of the shooting and explosions were super cheesy and very fake. I found myself fast forwarding through all the action scenes. The show also takes forever to ramp up. It took around 15 episodes for me to somewhat enjoy the plot and appreciate the story. There were so many instances where characters in the show knew what was going on but would never reveal it to the protagonists for seemingly no reason at all. If I had a dollar for every time someone in the show asked "怎么回事" or some variant of that (到底是怎么回事) and the re...

Title of Show: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion  (コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ) # of Episodes: 25 per season, two seasons Length: ~20 min per episode Recommended: Yes Tear Rating: 1 Favorite Songs: Continued Story  and  僕は、鳥になる Spoiler alert. Do not continue reading if you don't want the show to be spoiled. Hands down the best anime I've seen so far. But that's not to say that I'm an anime expert of connoisseur by any means. I've also enjoyed Attack on Titan and Death Note. If you're a fan of dark thought-provoking themes, then this is definitely a must-see. I enjoyed every single episode (even the light-hearted "filler" episodes) There were many twists and turns that left me speechless and with each end of an episode, I found myself immediately starting the next one. One of the best endings of a show I've ever seen. A lot of people debate on whether or not Lelouch is dead at the end and I personally really want him to be alive, but of course it...

ThinkVantage Button (X1 Carbon) If you own a Lenovo laptop, chances are that you have a " ThinkVantage " button on your keyboard. It's that thin rectangle button on the top left of your keyboard (actual size and location depends on your laptop model). You first have to do a registry edit to change the button from the default Lenovo software. Please refer to this link for instructions. You'd have to change the registry entry to point to the following BAT file I wrote. Here are two files that I wrote to turn that button into a custom script for running a Google voice search. The actual usability of the script depends on your laptop and how quickly you can open a browser. I purposely put a long sleep timer on the VBS script to account for slower startup times on your browser. If you find that you are opening a new browser and waiting too long before the voice search starts, then feel free to lower the 5000 to a smaller number. The script.bat file which ...

The LED floor puzzle. I went to the Museum of Math the other day. It was a recent addition to the dozens of museums already in existence in NYC, but being a sucker for hands-on museums, I couldn't let this one pass by. While a relatively new museum (opened this December), it still garnered a rather large crowd on Christmas Day. The museum's two floors were packed with mostly parents and their kids. Sometimes it was a bit cramped due to overcrowding and I had to wait for my turn on certain exhibitions numerous times. Overall a pretty negative experience space-wise. Otherwise, it was a pretty decent museum. I'd wait  a bit so they can learn how to deal with large crowds. Many of their attractions were broken when I visited, thus subtracting from the ideal experience. If you're interested, you should definitely stop by, it's worth one visit at least. On a side note, I hope to be blogging more this Winter, so be on the look-out for more posts!

 A few weeks ago, I participated in a Microsoft raffle at my school and won an Arc Mouse . Before this mouse, I always used a Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse  I bought with my laptop over two years ago. Here’s my review of the Arc Mouse. The Microsoft Arc Mouse. Name: Microsoft Arc Wireless Mouse What: A surprisingly comfortable wireless mouse which folds for ultimate portability. Why: You need a mouse with your computer and you are on the go a lot. Folded view. The key selling point of this mouse is that it folds up, reducing the size of the mouse by effectively 50%. The portability is definitely a huge plus because you don't want to be carrying a giant mouse everywhere. But the Arc Mouse fits snugly in any pocket. It runs off two AAA batteries and uses a small USB transceiver to wirelessly communicate with the computer. Conveniently, there’s a groove where the USB attachment fits in magnetically. Magnetic groove, side button, and battery cov...

I've had so many occasions where I had a big paper due or a midterm in a few days time. In my mind, among the billion other things I'm thinking of, I begin to gauge my understanding of the subject material. Am I prepared? How long would it take if I were to start it now? Is it going to be annoying to do? Yet, without fail, I always seem to overestimate my ability to work, and severely underestimate the amount of work necessary. It goes something like this: Brain: Hey, Wonmin. You have a paper due next Monday. Wonmin: Ya, brain. I know. But I've written papers for this class before and it only took like three hours. Don't worry man. Brain: But this one is different, it's based on research, not previous readings. Wonmin: Ya, but it's still only 1000 words. Calm down brain, we got this. Brain: If you're sure... Lather, rinse, repeat. Of course, the paper doesn't go as planned and I stay up way past my suggested bedtime. Hours dwindle, I procrast...

Yesterday, I received an incredibly friendly email from an anonymous person who claimed to have read my blog and "loved it." Of course, because my blog is public and anybody can comment anonymously, I was a bit skeptical of this email. Yet, seeing as how this was the first ever "fan mail" I've ever received, I read the email. It wasn't fan mail, but it was an email from a person who works for a website called " Jooble ." Interested by his genuineness and heartfelt compliments of my blog, I took a quick glance at the website. Here's what he had to say about Jooble: Jooble operates in 45+ countries, so if you would like to find a job in other locations you may try to search jobs in: Argentina , Australia , Austria , Belgium , Belarus , Brazil , Canada , Chile , China Colombia , Czech Republic , Denmark , Spain , Finland , France , Germany , Greece , Hong Kong , Hungary , Italy , India , Indonesia , Ireland , Japan , Kazakhstan , Mexi...

I recently came across a new Google Chrome extension and though to myself, "Hey this is a perfect opportunity to start that new review section on my blog I've always wanted to do!" So here it is. Name: Hover Zoom What: Creates a zoomed version of thumbnails or links over your mouse on various websites. Why:  Because you don't want to waste time clicking image links. So basically with this extension, you never have to click another thumbnail or link to see the full-sized image! It's perfect for Facebook, Google+, or Reddit. I've always opted to create a new tab for each picture that I wanted to see in detail, but with this extension, you can save the trouble of creating and closing a new tab by just hovering over it! Cons:  There are a few small things that irk me so far with this extension, however. Many times my mouse just happens to stop at a thumbnail that I don't want to view and the full sized image scares me as it jumps up. (Especially if...