Coffee Boy

It's 17°C today.

And I like it.

"Gloomy" (considering I'm in CA) weather suits my playlist a lot better. I feel like I have a better excuse of listening to "sappy" songs haha.

What I've been listening to today:

커피소년- That's Nothing

"그저 스쳐가는 바람일뿐이야

누구나 한번쯤 겪는 그런일이야"

Like- 돌아갈래

"내 삶은 회전목마처럼

오늘도 어김없이 돌아간다"

This past weekend, I picked up a new hobby of brewing coffee. I was always so against drinking coffee because of

1) The smell of black coffee + leather seated car. Something about black coffee + car makes me want to throw up, and oh boy, I have.. many many times. Even to this day, I still think our family got a new car when I was in elementary school because I threw up on the seats so many times (no matter how illogical it may sound).

2) My whole family, except for my mom, is addicted coffee. Coffee-addicts. They can't survive without 2+ cups of coffee. We got everything from a coffee bean grinder to an espresso machine to Keurig to French press to pourover to just about everything. As a simple tea person (and still am) I never understood why one needed so much equipment for something so.. dark and bitter haha.

Nonetheless, I am now entering the coffee world humbly (sorry tea.. I still love you), hoping to learn more about it without turning into a "snob", warned by my Uganda teammate Minhoh.

Good morning, Ms. Pepper and her human

After observing the very coffee connoisseur, Ms. Pepper's human friend EDK, I signed myself away~ 

"I consent to becoming a slave of coffee like the rest of my fambam and the world" 

- JSK

Some notes I took as I was watching videos of brewing coffee 

+

my very illustration of 커피소년 LOL

(Oh on another note, 커피소년 is having a concert this month and I wish I can go but the tickets are so expensive. 

Why why why)

Two benefits (other than the obvious ones) from drinking coffee:

1. I can gladly grind the beans for my dad now (아 아빠가 참 보고싶다)
2. I can "grab coffee" with people. Indeed I am this Thursday with my professor~ ^__^

Mm g'morning everyone. G'day everyone. 

#metime

Nine months ago, I last wrote on this blog.

There were many times I wanted to write on this blog, but then I stopped myself. I thought to myself, “there are better and useful things I can do with this time” and went on doing other “less useless” things.

I guess this well depicts my life. My life has been so busy with things that nine months just flew by. But right now I am pretty exhausted form checking one thing off the list after another. To be honest, I stumbled upon a “graphic designer’s block” and got super frustrated with myself. I attempted to move onto the next most important on my exhaustive to-do list but realized that I need a break. I need #metime

Today I visited the Arts District before heading to church. I visited a stationary-esque store and saw that the store sold two of my journals from the past. I guess the owner is Korean haha. Anyways, the store contained snippets of things I appreciate—children’s books, cook books, kitchenware (not just any but cute and chic ones), gardening stuff, etc. It was so refreshing for my I-appreciate-pretty-things-soul to just look around. Oh I guess this weekend in general was like that for me. It was a good weekend.

Art and Design. When it comes to these two things, I always feel insecure. I have a problem of introducing myself as an artist.. or a designer. I feel as though I am either neither.. or a sad mix of both (again there’s this insecure tone). It’s an on-going discussion/argument within myself, so it might not make sense, but let me try. 

I think there is meaning to art. There’s significance or some purpose behind everything. So basically, as long as there is meaning, it is art. No aesthetics involved. 

When it comes to design though, I think there needs to be functionality and approval from the majority. I don’t know the details of art history (which I wish I did because I actually enjoy learning about history), but Bauhaus kinda prompted the movement for functional design et cetera. So for design, as long as it’s functional and well-approved, it’s good design (methinks). It does not require some deep meaning behind it. 

But this is just me speaking. I actually had a good discussion/banter with a good friend of mine since middle school, an art history major at a liberal art college (oops), whether a cover of this book we saw at a bookstore in Korea was “good design” or not. I said it wasn’t a good design because it wasn’t pretty. Anyone, even people without the “artistic eye”, would’ve said it was ugly. However she called me out for calling things “pretty” and “not pretty”. Bleh, let me correct myself. It was not aesthetically pleasing. 

Anyways, I speak of aesthetics because.. I think ultimately, I just enjoy and appreciate “pretty” things. I don’t know if my doodles and such necessarily have deep meanings behind it. So maybe I am not an artist. But my designs are not always functional either. Neither are they innovative. I think ultimately, I just appreciate “pretty things” and produce them. This is why I don’t know if I can call myself an artist or a designer. I am just.. yeah.

Besides this artistic turmoil (?) within me, like I mentioned above, this weekend was a good weekend for me. I went to an art event on Friday evening called Paradigm Café, checked out art, listened to some new music, ate cookies, drank tea latte (haha not coffee), and was inspired. Also today, ate vegan food (my favorite), had a good conversation, and again, was inspired. 

Conclusion: I need more #metime. No more excuse of “I don’t have time”. Hopefully this little haven of mine in the virtual world will keep record of my #metimes.

Here are some snapshots from my artful weekend:

From my comparative literature classmate's exhibition

Paradigm Café at Art Share

Is it pretty or "aesthetically pleasing"? Ha!

Mm my favorite meal of the day

Lavender is my favorite color