I had dental work done a few days ago, and by “dental work” I mean “they drilled a giant screw into my face.”
I’m getting an implant.
Everything’s fine, but it’s not fun. Even though my brain knows that all this disruption is happening for a reason, my body doesn’t. So my body is freaking out, and part of that is swelling and inflammation and pain.
I always forget how much harder it is to be nice when you’re in pain. How much harder it is to see reality outside of your perception. How much harder it is to think beyond your immediate experience.
Growing up, I was in pain a lot. I would laugh at my friends when they had stomach aches, because…well, growing up with Crohn’s Disease is not something that I would wish on anyone. But because I was familiar with pain, I had a lot of defenses to it.
I knew how to push through, how to skirt around the sides of it, how to deflect until I got what I wanted.
Now that I’m older and my body is somewhat healed, I don’t have that pain anymore. And I’ve lost some of the tolerance for it. I’m not the cunning 15-year-old I once was.
This last few days has been an education again.
My advice is this: if you know you’re going to be in pain, plan to have trusted people around you as a reality check.
And if you find yourself in pain now, remember that there is a whole world outside of you that does not revolve around it. It’s difficult to remember or comprehend sometimes, but it’s true.
“I often asking myself, if I would not wear that jacket, if I will have so much media coverage,” she said. “It’s obvious I didn’t wear the jacket for the children. I wore the jacket to go on the plane and off the plane. And it was for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticizing me.”
She continued, “I want to show them that I don’t care. You could criticize whatever you want to say, but it will not stop me to do what I feel is right.”
When I sat down for my first listen to NCT 127’s first full album, Regular-Irregular, I got about 30 seconds into the first song and paused. What was a hearing? Did this song sound suspiciously like EXO’s “Unfair”? (Yes it did.)
I was concerned. In fact I was so concerned that I quit Spotify and walked away.
It wasn’t until later that I gave the album a fair shot. But, like other books that I started a few times before getting invested in their plot and characters, Regular-Irregular just needed a little bit of time.
Unlike many k-pop albums, Regular-Irregular is arranged around a concept. The “dreamlike” concept has been with NCT the whole way through, so that’s nothing new, but I was not expecting 127 to come out of the gate with a fully-formed concept like this. It took EXO years of “singles” albums to refine a sound that worked for them enough to build a whole album around it.
This album is fantastic. It takes everything great about NCT 127 and remixes it into something new and utterly fun to listen to.
The first section is “Regular,” in which most of the songs sound like much of NCT 127’s earlier mini-albums. There’s the rap track (City 127), the bright pop song (Replay/PM 01:27), and the ballad (Knock On). None of these are unfamiliar, and once I pushed past my initial reluctance to the first track I breathed a sigh of relief. This is the NCT 127 that I know and love. Good rapping, smooth vocal harmonies. They’re good songs with some interesting moments, but nothing overly memorable.
Then we come to “No Longer.” This is the gem of the album. It’s a ballad, but in the style of an EXO winter album: the exact opposite of what NCT 127 usually does. (Seriously it would fit in perfectly with Universe.) The instrumental is acoustic, rather than synth-heavy. There is no urban or rap influence anywhere. This is a song that gives the vocalists time to shine, and they take advantage of it—especially Haechan. It immediately rocketed onto my unofficial list of k-pop songs to fall asleep to, it’s that soothing and complex and delicious.
Now that you’ve floated off into the land of vocal harmonies and upright bass, it’s time for the turn. This album is helpfully bisected by an “Interlude” that takes us from a sedate, classical beginning (regular) to a dark, distorted ending (irregular) with spoken-word poetryish stuff in between. Parts of this piece sound a horror movie, so I’m never sure if the IRREGULAR part of the album is supposed to be merely dreamlike or more like a nightmare. It’s a little bit unsettling, I won’t lie.
The journey is worth it, because it takes us to another of my favorite songs on the album: “My Van.” It’s very playful and all over the place, overscored by a metallic chiming synth and underscored by very deep distorted voices. This is another song designed to showcase rapping, giving some of the other members a chance to chime in even though Mark and Taeyong dominate. That’s okay though, they’re really good at it. (And Mark finally got his turn at vocal fry with a very well placed “Ahhhhhh yeah.”)
The second half of Regular-Irregular follows the same structure as the first. After the rap track (My Van), we get the bright upbeat pop song (Come Back), and the ballad (Fly Away With Me). Unlike the first half, however, these songs are more sonically interesting to me. Maybe it’s the distortion, maybe it’s a willingness to use chords that aren’t “regular,” but they’re very satisfying songs for someone like me who is a complete sucker for complex pop music. I particularly like “Fly Away With Me,” which is somehow light and heavy at the same time, with a four-on-the-flour beat that somehow never gets old.
If you’re more interested in the chords and rhythms, I highly recommend React to the K’s “First Listen” video, where Umu and Kevin react to and break down the album.
Technically “Fly Away With Me” is the last song on the album but much like “No Longer” was a complete left field surprise, we get a bonus track in the form of “Run Back 2 U.” If you need some NCT nostalgia, this is an expanded version of “Bassbot,” a dance video they released as undebuted rookies. It’s a gonzo song that jumps all over the place, has a female vocal sample, and ends abruptly—but I really like it. Something about k-pop has given me the ability to love and appreciate these songs that are just completely all over the place.
At this point, if you’re at all familiar with the album you might be wondering why I haven’t talked about the title tracks—the English and Korean versions of “Regular.” The short answer is, I don’t like it.
The long answer is a bit more nuanced. “Regular” reminds me a lot of the Twice song “Likey.” They are both very understated, and seem designed more to be played in shopping malls (and sound good) than for fans at concerts or at home streaming with headphones. Both songs are earworms, full of ear candy—Twice’s in audio effects, NCT 127’s in vocal color, think “splash” and “brrrrah.” It seems to me that SM Entertainment is more interested in laying the groundwork for future NCT 127 recognition than they are in providing a song that is immediately interesting to listen to. I respect that decision, even though I dislike the song. “Likey” grew on me. “Regular” has not.
With that said, I’m super-happy with Regular-Irregular as a concept and as an album. I like the back half a lot better than the front half—usually I start with “No Longer” (because I’m addicted) and carry through to the end—but it’s still a solid album from front to back. There are no bad songs, and it will integrate well into an all-NCT 127 playlist. (Except for maybe “Interlude” but that’s okay.)
Highly recommend, will be listening to on repeat, etc.
It’s everywhere this week. You can’t escape it. Even my own dad brought it up offline.
The NPC meme.
I was going to write about it a few weeks ago, but never did because…there is a lot. What it means to be sentient, the side-effects of corporatization, IQ and personality type, the mask that we actively present to the world. You get it.
[Jordan Peterson voice] It’s a complex issue. [/Jordan Peterson voice]
Which is why I feel compelled to post Jordan NPCterson.
Not only is this the most beautiful meme I’ve ever seen, it allows me to talk about my changing attitudes toward JBP.
First off, the aesthetic. Great typography choices—the font is just hard enough to read that you have to take a moment to decipher “NPCterson.” (Which is a great pun in its own right.) I love how this one mimics co-opts the popular Millennial aesthetic of sticking something over a pastel background.
Now for the man himself. I read his book, but never got around to posting a review because I couldn’t really figure out what to review—most of what he gets at is already available in his YouTube archive. I would have written about the last chapter—the light pen, which I liked when I read it—but the longer I thought about it the more I kinda got mad at him for stealing his friend’s rad light pen, using it to write 10 sentences, and then never using it again.
I’ve been souring on him as a thinker gradually over the last couple months, but what really got to me was his reaction on the Kavanaugh confirmation. He stated on twitter that Kavanaugh should step down, thereby completely nullifying all the work that the Right had done to get him in there, and validating every underhanded tactic the Left used to try to keep him out.
And then he tried to walk it back as a “thought experiment.” That astounds me, honestly, to be in his position in this political and media environment and to say something like that and expect it to fly. Especially since we all know full well that it could happen to him at any moment.
My other favorite is a line from the Hoaxed trailer: “Falsehoods have consequences. That’s what makes them false.”
Uh, no. EVERYTHING has consequences. That line doesn’t even make sense.
I’m glad carnivory is working out for him, but I’m done paying attention to him and the rest of the “intellectual dark web.”
Back in the early days of SEO, I remember bloggers posting their top search results to amplify them and get even more hits. I’m going to steal their tricks, because the search results were often pretty hilarious.
I’ve been collecting these for a couple months, and I’m tickled by most of them.
I didn’t make this nifty venn diagram of NCT’s members (circa 2018 era before Jungwoo joined 127), but I sure did obsessively translate it. First I applied my expert knowledge of NCT subgroups, then I did a crash course on Korean phonics to sleuth out the remaining members.
That is a really good question, to which I don’t actually know the answer. Aquaphor could smother bacteria, I suppose. Otherwise, it’s really good at helping skin to heal and stay hydrated, which allows your immune system to better fight bacteria.
I certainly don’t think it would be a BAD thing in the fight against bacteria. I personally love it.
Just the tiniest tease of Spacebunny in the intro?
GOOD AUDIO??
The Dark Lord is upping his game, and got himself a YouTube lackey.
I gotta be honest here, this is about the last thing I would have expected from Vox Day. The details are refined. It’s clear that he took time to set up and film it. Everything about it is finished—except I wish that he would have turned the wine label toward the camera at the end so we could have seen it.
There are so many questions in my head right now, but I’ll just say thing: I’m glad to see attention going to refinement and style. A deliberately presented appearance goes a long way toward saying “I’m serious about what I do,” which obviously Vox is.
I’m curious as to how much Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich have influenced Vox as of late, and how much the timing of this has to do with the release of Hoaxed later this week.
Winestream Vox is great. Can’t wait for more, even though I don’t even drink wine.
I think that this is related to “women aren’t funny” but also to the fact that fashion is likely full of personalities kindred to Registered Dietitians or Nurses. They know what is approved right now and that definitely isn’t it.
Humor is never “approved” and so fashionistas will never recognize it.
This reminder is brought to us once again by the humorless fashion writers of whatever British newspaper this screenshot is from. I can never tell apart The Guardian or The Times or whatever. (I did my research. It’s The Guardian.)
As far as I can tell, Karl Lagerfeld is still in charge of the design direction at Fendi (which is focused on fur, something that Karl has never compromised). And from the looks of it, Uncle Karl is still up to his old tricks.
I can never decide if I like Karl. He’s somewhere in between “Elitist Fashion Prick” and “Greatest Troll of Our Time.” Sometimes he comes across as so stuck up—but maybe that’s the fairytale that fashion journalists want to weave about him—and yet he can get Fashion People to wear the stupidest stuff.
And some of that stupid stuff is really, really beautiful.
It’s like he’s turned trolling into an art.
Why stop at pink pussyhats and vulgar homemade costumes when you could go luxe, with fox fur and silk? With the further indignity of having paid that much money for it!
Who’s more at fault—the fashion designer who put something together knowing exactly what it looks like, or the fashion girl who buys it anyway?
I would love to get Karl Lagerfeld and Banksy in a room together, honestly. I think they’d have a lot of interesting things to say about art and commerce, and playing to the crowd.
Tonight I didn’t give myself a lot of time to write this post (hello, 10pm bedtime) but I’ll put it on my to-do list to write up a listicle or something of Uncle Karl’s Greatest Hits.
I seem to remember what’s essentially a Wookie suit from sometime circa 2008.
In this world of data, it can be easy to forget that productivity looks just as much like moss growing on a tree as it does an automobile assembly line.
I tend to forget this.
Forward motion doesn’t need to be strictly linear to be effective. In fact, I would argue from the place that since many successful people have entirely different personality types, “productivity” can look quite different depending on the person doing it.
What matters is that you do the work.
Today I took myself out to breakfast, spent time reading, did laundry, unpacked my kitchen stuff, and attempted to unclog the sink. That’s not nothing.
Was I super-regimented about it? No. Did the stuff need to get done? Yes.
My thinking-centric self needs to remember that other forms of work are equally valid. Not everything needs to be crunching over a desk or curled around a book.
This is why I want to add drawing and art back to my daily routine. I always feel happier when I do this, and yet it terrifies me because I have so much to learn and practice.
One of the hard parts about being an adult is being fully aware of how much you suck at first instead of the childlike “look what I did!” mentality.
So my friends, don’t do what I just did and talk about doing work.
If you read this blog at all, you know me. I’m not the most adventurous person you’ll ever meet, but I’m always trying out new ways to live my life. So far on this blog I’ve tried out
Some of these have truly changed my life. The most recent change was “eating only when hungry.” That somehow transitioned to eating less in general, especially when I was moving house and kind of stressed out. That has kick-started some fat loss for me, so I’m happy about that. For the first time ever, I’ve gone through the trouble of calculating the macros that I’m eating so that I can try to duplicate them for the next several months. It’s 2:1 of protein to fat, if you want to know.
Even with the positive diet changes, though, I’m not feeling my best. I’m pretty sure that’s because I don’t sleep enough.
I’m one of those people with a tendency to just keep going until I physically fall over or fall asleep, so I often stay up late. Naturally, I don’t get a ton accomplished when I’m up that late, but it makes me feel like I’m not missing out on anything (thanks, Extraverted Intuition).
My bedtimes get pushed later and later, which leads to mornings also getting later and later. Now that I have a commute again, this actually means something—I get a worse parking spot.
Sleep deprivation makes me a little more cranky, a little less flexible, and much more distractable. That’s not how I want to live my life.
Something needs to change.
Unlike some people, who if they get up at 5am will go to sleep at 8pm because they’re tired, I just stay up because it doesn’t occur to me to go to bed. I’ve learned how to be productive in the morning, but I’m not much use after 10:30pm no matter what.
With that information I’ve identified bedtime as the key. My new bedtime is 10pm, every day. No exceptions (for now).
No matter how much I’ll hate going to bed “early,” a solid bedtime is the only way I can guarantee for myself a long-enough night of sleep. It’s something I can control, unlike the start and stop times of my job, and that is not unreasonable to do.
My rational brain can’t come up with any arguments against going to bed every night at 10pm. It’s only my irrational brain that is making a fuss about it.
This change will require re-prioritizing how I spend my free time, so it’ll be a little bit rocky at first. But I’m hoping that the refreshment that comes with a solid night of sleep will outweigh any kinks as I figure out a new daily routine.
With that said, it’s coming up on my bedtime so I’ll excuse myself to brush my teeth.
I want to escape into a misty forest at dawn and run toward the light that spills through the trees. I want to cloak myself in velvet and swim into a glittering nebula. I want to discover the truth of God and the universe.
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