Shadowhunters Talk: 3x04 "Thy Soul Instructed"

This may be something I'm alone in, but I found it hard to believe that everyone was so convinced something was wrong with Jace beyond sleep deprivation.

Back in college, I remember my psychology professor telling us that the quickest way to have a mental breakdown was by not sleeping, and that moment pretty much solidified my intense need to always get enough sleep. So, when Alec tells Jace that there has to be more wrong besides Jace staying up practically all night every night, I had to disagree.

Obviously, we know that there is more going on because Lilith's controlling him, but without knowing that, it's completely believable that the sleep deprivation could be messing with his head that much. This was one of the moments where I wanted to reach through the screen and talk to the characters even though they were actually right (which kind of makes me more annoyed about it to be honest).

The mention that Morgan's cells have turned demonic  after being attacked was interesting to me. I'm not sure about the logic behind that, even within the magic system set up by the show. Is it because of how powerful Lilith is or something else?

Maia telling Luke off for abandoning Simon feels ironic considering what happens later in the show, but I loved how that scene played out regardless. Not that that's surprising since I tend to like any scene Maia's in.

Since it's revealed at the end of the episode that Kyle has an ulterior motive, I'm glad I can comment on this without it being a spoiler for future episodes: Was he just watching Simon all along waiting for the perfect time to nearly run him over with his bike? Because, if so, I have to laugh at that image. It was also an incredibly risky move considering that Simon has the Mark of Cain.

I also want to know how Kyle put together that perfect apartment so quickly. Something tells me that big arcade game should have been at least a little difficult to find.

Jace goes to Luke to ask him about Celine's mental illness. One thing I like about this scene is that it shows how much Jace has come to trust Luke. I know there are a number of reasons why he didn't want to talk about his fears with Alec, but the fact that he's willing to discuss it with Luke says a lot.

Magnus trying to make Alec eat and comforting him was such a sweet scene. I appreciated getting to see that. Even though it's in the context of a larger plot, the scene itself was just a quiet scene between them, which I enjoyed.

Heidi chaining up Raphael and leaving him out in the sun felt like a scene from a horror movie. These sorts of scenes are not my favorite part of the show. They make me feel anxious and not in a good way. I don't like watching people get tortured like that.

We get a cliffhanger in this episode with Lilith going to Magnus. I do remember that I was pretty worked up about it the first time I watched the episode, but now, of course, I know what happens next, so I'll stay quiet about it here until I talk about the next episode.

Life Post: Getting My Sleeping Schedule Back on Track

In the month since my trip to Korea, things have been a little exhausting to be honest.

I mentioned the TV show Druck a few posts back, and season three of the show ended in early May. By then, though, it had really messed up my sleeping schedule. The show is structured to send out the clips on the internet in real time, so you see everything as it is supposedly actually happening. Because the show is set in Germany, this meant a lot of clips aired while I was sleeping. My brain picked up on that, and I would wake up at odd times of the night. When I was asleep, I also don't think I was going into a deep sleep.

Once the show was over, you'd think the problem would go away, and it did, but it took a couple of weeks before I slept through an entire night. By then I was exhausted.

This past week, I had to travel twice for work. While that didn't impact my sleeping schedule, it did leave me a little exhausted because it was a big deviation from my usual routine, which I never do that well with.

Then, this week, Druck decides it's going to have a special episode and starts releasing clips again. Just when my schedule was finally getting back on track.

I'm thrilled, don't get me wrong, but I'm also preparing myself to be exhausted once again. Sure, it's only one week this time around, but I don't know how long it will take to adjust back to normal afterward. Fingers crossed for the best.

At least the clip we got today was adorable...

Race to the Edge Talk: 5x07 "Dawn of Destruction"

Life Post: Home From Korea

This is going to be an incredibly quick post as it's just turned midnight, and that means it's my bedtime. I did want to update the blog after my last post though. As I mentioned there, I went to Korea over Golden Week, and I had a rough first day because I was tired.

Well, it turned out that I wasn't just tired: I was getting sick. The next few days got steadily worse. It was just a cold, but between the travel and not sleeping well, it turned into a particularly terrible cold. I probably made it worse as I was determined not to miss out on being in Korea and kept going. That means I did the things I meant to do (most of them at least), but I nearly killed myself doing them.

There was one point where I nearly had a break down at the subway station because of how terrible I felt. Then a Korean woman stopped to help me and stayed with me for about fifteen minutes, which only made me want to cry more because of how thankful I was for her. (Honestly, the highlight of the Korea trip was how warm and helpful Korean people were. I wasn't expecting to get so much unsolicited help from people. I'm not sure it would have felt strange to me if I'd come from America, but after living in Japan as long as I have been, I'm very unused to strangers just coming up and talking to you. I forgot that it's a thing that happens.)

In the end, the trip left me feeling quite miserable, and that led to some disappointment over the whole thing, but I can't be upset with myself or anything else. I just got sick; there's nothing to blame for it. Because a lot of people in Japan were sick before I left and because I was already feeling so tired when I got to Korea, I'm also pretty sure I got the cold in Japan, not Korea.

Hopefully I can go back soon and not get sick. I went to Seoul this time, but I'd really like to visit Busan. I met a number of people from there in Seoul actually who stopped to talk and introduce themselves.

So, the biggest takeaway from the trip is that Koreans are great people and very welcoming, but my immune system failed me this time around.

The important thing is that I started feeling better yesterday, and today, on my first day back at work, I could make it through the day without feeling too bad. You can still tell I'm sick from my voice, so I was coughing some, and I can't hear well because of the congestion in my ears. Still, I feel amazing compared to just a few days ago, so here's hoping it's even better tomorrow.

Life Post: Hello From Korea!

It's been ages since I wrote one of these, but like the title says, I'm currently in Korea, and I wanted to post something while I'm here just for nostalgia I guess. Visiting Korea has been something I wanted to do since I started thinking about going to Japan too. In fact, for a bit, I wasn't sure if I wanted to teach English in Korea or Japan, so visiting was a long time coming.

This is my second day here, and to be honest, it's been difficult. I wasn't sleeping well before the trip thanks to Druck (the German adaptation of Skam. If you don't know that show, the format is that the clips are posted in real time when that particular scene is happening in the day. When a show is taking place in Germany, and I'm in Japan... Well, you get the picture. I wasn't staying up for them, but it's been as if my brain was aware they might come, and I've been waking up throughout the night recently and been unable to fall back asleep.) With the trip and waking up early this morning for a DMZ tour, I'm utterly exhausted.

I came back to the hostel early today because I needed to be somewhere quiet and zone out for a while, if not sleep. That seems to be working. And I'm going to bed soon and plan to get a full eight hours, which will hopefully help.

There are two full days left of my trip and then the day I go home to Japan. I'm hoping that I'll feel my best and really be able to enjoy them. After the trip, when I'm better rested, I want to talk more about it. Then again, I'm behind on everything I want to talk about here, so we'll see how long that takes me...