Leisure Girl’s True Love

I am doing the Pink of Perfection June Project, where she instructed us “Somewhere in your life there is a teacher, a babysitter, a sibling, a parent, a friend, a role model, a mentor, a boss, or an aunt who deserves to be told of their charms, their gifts, and that they are an inspiration.......Write a fan letter telling them just how exquisite they are.”

I am writing, as I am sure many of us will, to Tivo.

My Darling Tivo:

It would be impossible to be a true Leisure Girl without you. Without you, I could not watch things whenever my heart desired, have up to 80 hours of recorded programming available to be watched at a moment’s notice, and be able to watch and record two shows on simultaneously. And I would have to watch commercials. What a world that would be. I don’t know if I would still have reason to live.

Tivo, we have been together many years, and time has only strengthened our bond. I recently upgraded you and you can now tape more hours and more shows. It’s the little changes that keep our relationship so fresh.

Tivo, you make my couch time magical and make it that much easier to get up in the morning. I am continually grateful for your existence.
All my love,
x0x0x0x0x0x0x
Leisure Girl

Canadian TV? Less milquetoast than you think.

Leisure Girl has already blogged about the wonder that is Korean television. Another fantastic import? Canadian teen dramas.

My personal favorite is Instant Star. It follows a girl who wins an American Idol-esque contest as she writes songs, flirts with boys, makes poor life choices. Hear her and fellow Canadians pronounce "about" as "aboot" and "sorry" as "surry".

The better known Canadian show is Degrassi, which has been on for eight or so seasons. If this show is to be believed, Canadian high school are awash is teen pregnancy, eating disorders, and various other issues of the week.

Still, the shows are fun. Fluffy and generally nice, which is my opinion of that country as a whole.

Are you salivating to watch some rowdy Canadians now? They are shown on The N, a network for teens. Go with my blessing and enjoy.

Love it like a 13 year old goth girl

Although Leisure Girl is almost 30 (should I be thinking of changing my name to Leisure Woman? So not catchy) she has an undying love for young adult fiction. When it's well written it has interesting story lines, great romance, and is fast paced. Imagine how excited she was to discover that there is a whole subculture of vampire themed YA fiction. YA fiction? Awesome. Vampire stories? Also awesome. So imagine the possibilities when the two are combined.

The very best examples of this genre are by Stephenie Meyer. Have you not read her yet? Then please stop reading this blog and get to it. You'll thank me later.

She has written the Twilight series made up of Twilight /New Moon /Eclipse and the soon to be released Breaking Dawn. They are even making Twilight into a movie. The books are amazing and un-put-down-able.





I have just recently been dabbling with a new YA vampire series which is good, although nowhere near as enjoyable. Yesterday I finished the second of the Vampire Academy books by Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy/Frostbite and the upcoming Shadow Kiss). Good action, cute boys, all in all very fun.

So what are you waiting for? This could be your summer of teenage vampires? What on Earth could be more fun than that?

Television - with Subtitles.

Leisure Girl admits that she loves television. Maybe a little too much, as it sometimes feels like it should fall into the "dirty little secret" category. So the summer months, while wonderful for beach reading and action packed movies, are often filled with television (or lack of television) blues. Thank goodness for the website My Soju which gives Leisure Girl a portal to hours (and hours) of Korean TV.

A note on Korean TV for all those skeptics out there. There TV series are one shot deals so in 16 or so episodes they cover a lot of ground, since they're not saving anything for future seasons. It more resembles a long and multi-part movie.
So if you feel ready to take a dip in the Korean TV pool this summer (and you won't regret it, Leisure Girl promises) I recommend starting out with Coffee Prince or The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince (available on the website). The site describes it as "The life of Go Eun Chan (Yoon Eun Hye) is not easy; she works many jobs to pay off debts and even gave up her feminine image. Choi Han Kyul (Gong Yoo) is the heir of a big food company, but his grandmother wants him to settle down, so she arranged many dates for him. After Eun Chan bumped into Han Kyul and was mistaken for a boy, Han Kyul decided to hire Eun Chan to be his gay lover in order to avoid the arranged dates. Desperately in need of money, Eun Chan had no choice but to accept. Han Kyul's grandmother also made Han Kyul in charge of a filthy coffee shop in danger of being bankrupt. Eun Chan begged to work at the coffee shop, and not long after, feelings start to spark, except, how would Han Kyul accept his "homosexuality"?"

And yet, that totally fails to sum up the wonderfulness. Basically, cute boys, cute couples, romantic misunderstandings that are all resolved happily (as they should be). Plus there's the enjoyable other-ness of Korean TV (weird food, even weirder clothes). All heartily recommended.

Want even more Korean fun? Eventually, you will. If so try Palace Princess Hours (available on Netflix). This one is so fabulous there are really no words. The plot synopsis is "Based on a comic book and set in modern-day Seoul, this TV drama reimagines Korea as a monarchy -- complete with a fabulous palace that's home to a gaggle of young royals. In the episodes included here, crown prince Lee Shin (Ji-hun Ju), his commoner bride-to-be (Eun-hye Yun) and the rest of the blue bloods and hangers-on get pulled into the political rivalries and romantic imbroglios of palace life. Former boy band idol Jeong-hun Kim also stars." This one has even better clothes, a great romance, and teddy bear tableaus at the end of ever episode. What more could a Leisure Girl want?