I’ve gotten myself a Tumblr after months of thinking it was a micro-blogging tool very similar to Twitter. Whoops. But that’s beside the point. I like it. It’s nice and easy to use. Here’s mine!

The Love Song of T. Ara Chan.

. . . Yes, I am a nerd. If you understand the significance of that title, then kudos to you!

Who else has a Tumblr? Add me! :D

Introduction
I was IMing with Georgina on a blog topic idea, and she suggested something that reminded me of an entry I’ve been meaning to write the last several months. As someone who’s been creating (since 2000 — Geocities-era kid, here!) and surfing websites (since 1998), I’ve decided to throw my two cents out on some of my pet peeves regarding websites over the years. I do not write this to sound pretentious, but I write this in hopes that this shows website owners how to create a website that will not scare their visitors away. Without further ado, here is a list of my website pet peeves!

Website Pet Peeves 101
1. Websites that takes forever to load. I may be on a fast Internet connection, but if I have to wait for a website to load because of poor scripting and because of too many junks on a page, then さようなら (sayounara = farewell)! However, if it’s due to poor hosting services, then that’s an entirely different matter!

2. Websites that are illegible due to poor colour and designing choices. Keywords here? Foreground and background contrast, fonts choices, font sizes, and line-height. Black text on white background is awesome. Grey text on black background and neon green text on white background? Not so awesome. If I have to highlight to read a site, that’s not cool. Also, please choose a font that’s not “cursivey”! Fonts like Monotype Corsiva might be prettier to some people, but it makes the text difficult to read, and not everyone might have that font on their computer. Choose a font that is common like Verdana, Times New Roman, Arial, or Georgia, and make sure the font size is large enough. Otherwise a lot of squinting and zooming in is required. Lastly, line-height can be website owner’s best friend. That gives the necessary spacing between the text’s lines, and it allows easier reading. See below for reference.

Line-height at 10pt

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum augue lorem, convallis ac cursus a, rhoncus at tellus. Aliquam pretium urna condimentum velit egestas aliquam. Maecenas sapien tellus, fringilla sit amet volutpat sed, commodo id elit. Sed vitae velit id velit viverra viverra sit amet id nisi. Donec in neque leo. Nullam quis turpis non eros faucibus tincidunt. Mauris orci turpis, laoreet vel sollicitudin in, dignissim et enim. Aenean at ornare felis. Donec ultricies, felis ut tincidunt tempor, felis ante dapibus urna, in vehicula ligula ante quis nisl. Mauris ornare fermentum nisi, non fringilla ipsum tincidunt quis. Fusce adipiscing feugiat augue, non tempus tortor tincidunt rhoncus.

Line-height at 20pt

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum augue lorem, convallis ac cursus a, rhoncus at tellus. Aliquam pretium urna condimentum velit egestas aliquam. Maecenas sapien tellus, fringilla sit amet volutpat sed, commodo id elit. Sed vitae velit id velit viverra viverra sit amet id nisi. Donec in neque leo. Nullam quis turpis non eros faucibus tincidunt. Mauris orci turpis, laoreet vel sollicitudin in, dignissim et enim. Aenean at ornare felis. Donec ultricies, felis ut tincidunt tempor, felis ante dapibus urna, in vehicula ligula ante quis nisl. Mauris ornare fermentum nisi, non fringilla ipsum tincidunt quis. Fusce adipiscing feugiat augue, non tempus tortor tincidunt rhoncus.

3. Websites that have a lot of spelling and grammar errors and uses “chat speak”. I’m an English major, so yes I’ll be picky on this. I’m not saying I am a grammar and spelling Nazi like some people out there, and I am well aware that we all make mistakes (like me!), but using a spell-checker becomes quite handy, especially on browsers that come with it (ie: Firefox and Chrome) and will make the owner sound more capable. Asking others to check the content always help! Fix mistakes when they are discovered after publishing the website. Finally, I really, really dislike chat speak — like the one below — because it is extremely annoying and it questions the website owner’s intelligence.

hi. Im tara-chan n i lik3 to wr1te like dis! It iz fun! i like how i dont have 2 use proper werds and punctuashuns and spelings. it’s easier 2 type dIs wAy and wutnot!

. . . Actually, that was extremely difficult to type. I spent three minutes trying to type like that instead of typing in my usual manner. Oi. Talk about awkward. (That last sentence was for you, Georgina!)

4. Websites that changes layouts and contents too quickly. Over the years, I’ve ran into people who changes their layouts and contents quite often. I don’t mind it in general since creating layouts involve creativity, and who am I to criticise this form of art? Also, people are free to do with what they want with their websites, changing the contents and whatnot — ie: changing a site from a domain collective to a domain blog to a domain fanlisting collective and repeating the cycle ten more times. However, I’ve had the displeasure of knowing people who changes it on a daily basis. Or every two to three days even. If the site owner changes a layout or changes their contents around that often, it tells me the following:

• They are creative and wants to express themselves. But to do it every day? Or every other day? Or even weekly? It’s nice to give visitors the variety, but some stability is a great thing, too!
• They are very fickle-minded. This is not a great thing since visitors will doubt the owner’s dependability.
• They are insecure of their own works, and that makes the visitor thinks so, too.

In the end, varieties are nice, but try not to overdo it, or it will drive potential visitors crazy.

5. Websites that are entirely made of Flash. This is a personal preference. But. I. Hate. Flash. Period. I don’t think I’ve ever recovered from my 56K modem days, where flash websites would take an hour — it certainly felt like it! — to load. Then when it loaded, clicking on a link would require me to wait as I waited for the next thing to load. Now, even with a fast connection, I dislike websites entirely in Flash. I don’t mind Flash here and there for navigational purposes or something, but the entire thing? No, thanks.

Conclusion
I have a feeling I have more pet peeves stumbling around in my brains, but I think these are the major ones. I hope these points help out any future or current website owners! If not, then feel free to ignore these advices. I do not expect everyone to agree with me on these. To each their own, right? :D

With all these teas, I should really be the Mad Hatter and throw a tea party. Not a bad plan, eh?

Last month, I tried these three different teas out, and I fell in love with them. Unfortunately, these are teas I cannot seem to find here, so I tried to order them through Amazon’s third-party sellers, only to be told EFF YOU to my shipping location. Because of that, I wanted to teleport myself to the companies and throw my own version of the Boston Tea Party. Luckily, one of my dear friends volunteered their services to purchase them for me, have it shipped to them, and then have it shipped to me. I finally got them, and I am so happy. Even if it did cost more than it should have. Oi.

At least Irish breakfast, Earl Grey, and Blueberry green tea . . . are equivalent to heaven. In fact, I am enjoying a cuppa of Irish breakfast right now.

Readers, do tell me your favourite teas or coffees! I want to know. :D

Ages ago — okay, since February — I had written several blog entries about wanting to travel outside of Korea, and I had decided on Tokyo, Japan for this October. A few weeks ago, I’ve received news that slapped me in the face. Because of some family medical problems, I was told that I should postpone my Tokyo trip, which I’ve had difficulty accepting since it was the only thing I had been looking forward to since February. After mulling over that disappointment and other depressing news in my life, I’ve finally decided to be a bit more optimistic about what I can do instead.

Becky had written about “staycation” a while back, and that gave me the inspiration to try to get to know my own home city better than I do right now. Which isn’t really going to be easy since I’m lazy and like to stay in areas that’s near my home. Luckily, one thing I can do that’s near my home is to try all these restaurants, especially the ones in my neighbourhood, Itaewon, the foreigner’s district near one of the US military bases stationed around the Pacific. Now, I am no connoisseur on cuisine, but I like to try things at least once (as long as it doesn’t gross me out by its first impression — ie: pig’s feet? NO THANK YOU.) and lately I’ve been wanting to try cuisines I haven’t really had the opportunity to try, what with having unadventurous parents in trying new cuisines. That led me to explore The Korea Times archives and Seoul Eats blog for some ideas and suggestions, and here’s a compilation.

• Ali Baba — Egypt is the only place in Africa I want to visit, and well . . . I can’t go there, but I can experience the cuisine locally in Itaewon! Never mind its name keeps making me belt out “Prince Ali” from Aladdin.
• Bon et Beau — A French bistro in Itaewon? Why not. Seems like their brunch might be good . . . except for a slight problem. I don’t like waking up early to go to a brunch. Yes, I think of anything before 3pm early.
• Donburi — A Japanese restaurant specialising in . . . Donburi! Located in Hongdae (Hongik University) area. Now, I crave me some katsudon.
• La Vie — Moroccan restaurant near The Wolfhound Irish Pub in Itaewon. Never tried Moroccan cuisine before, but I want to simply because it would remind me of Casablanca.
• Le Sait-Ex — I was always a bit wary of French cuisine when I learned about escargots and frog legs, but I am willing to give that Floating Island a try. That dessert dish in the article looks heavenly to me! When I find this place in Itaewon, I will probably order that first and then the actual meal.
• Little Swiss — The Baby-Sitters Club, Kristy’s Great Idea, specifically, introduced me about fondue and its . . . interesting rules. I want to go there one day, preferably not by myself, and implement weird rules with whoever I’m with! I just hope I can find this place in Daehakro (Hyehwa) area. Not familiar with that area except for this one cafe and the infamous Gandalf statue.
• Marakech Night II — Another Moroccan restaurant to try in Itaewon — though I do want to know if there is a Marakech Night I. I want to try their tea! It sounds delish.
• Mignon Terrace — Belgian dining in Itaewon? I know next to nothing of Belgian cuisine except for its chocolates and waffles (as the article correctly states!), but I wouldn’t mind trying it out!
• Orange King — Not sure what kind of cuisine I’d call this other than burgers and meat cuisine imported from Seattle, Washingtom. Okay, so I guess it can be considered American. Let’s hope it’s not Koreanised to the point that the food is blargh, if I ever go there in Hannam-dong.
• Persian Land — Iranian and Turkish cuisine anyone? As if the name wasn’t a dead give away! There are so many Middle Eastern restaurant in Itaewon, come to think of it. Well, with Seoul Central Mosque in Itaewon, it shouldn’t be that surprising.
• Pharaohs — Another Egyptian restaurant in the “dingy” area of Itaewon. Hm. By that, do they mean Hooker Hill? Must be. But that won’t stop me from going! Their Omm’Ali, an Egyptian bread pudding, sounds yummy.
• Zelen — A Bulgarian or Belgian (? I saw it as Belgian somewhere else . . . ) behind Hamilton Hotel area. Am still trying to figure out if they have a dress code (EW!) for regular dining or if it’s only for the wine party.

Ah. If I did go to every single one of these restaurants, I will be spending quite a few bucks here and there. But sod it. I lost my chance to go to Tokyo, so I am going to use a bit of that plane ticket and hotel money to buy some books, dvds, games, and mangas, and try these restaurants out to make myself happy and not think of all the doom and gloom stuff that’s been bombarding me for a month. I had requested annual leave time for my trip to Tokyo — I’ve decided to shorten it and take six consecutive days off in October and catch up on my hobbies and do some staycation stuff then. I just hope I get that leave approved. If not, I will be rather put off.

On an ending note, after writing this entry I learned one thing: never write food-related entry this late at night ever again. Now, I’m starving and craving for some good stuff! Oh and I hope some of these restaurants are still in business! It would be a shame if they weren’t.

Yesterday, there was an unexpected (for me) family gathering to celebrate my mum’s birthday. I have nothing against my relatives — I just hate being around them in large numbers. Fortunately, they wanted to go eat seafood, which gave me and Daddy an excuse to not go since we are picky or allergic to certain seafood. Several hours later, two of my cousin and a cousin-in-law came over to my house to drop off some gifts — grapes and a wallet.

Just as I was trying to figure out how to entertain these cousins, the phone rings and I’m told to come down with the cousins to go climb up the mountain to reach Namsan Tower. Against my better judgement, I somehow got conned into that, and next thing I know I climbed up the damn mountain and got a good workout. Oh and I discovered Tim Tams were being sold in the stores there. Very strange location to sell them. After that, we went back down by the evil, evil, evil cable car of doom, where I felt suffocated. Not a good feeling for a semi-claustrophobic victim like me. Now, I’m home, and I had an interesting conversation with my mummy.

My cousin, “Ann”, who’s three years younger than me, is the first of us cousins of this “generation” to get married. I have three older cousins who were born in the 70s. Then there are four of us who are the 80s babies. Then there are two cousins born in the 90s. Ann is the first of us 80s babies to get married. I sort of tried to converse with her husband-to-be (who I claimed looked a lot like Bak Ji-Sung) and her about their upcoming marriage. They are getting married next month, and when I asked how long they have known each other, they gave me a rather sketchy avoid-the-question answer. Not sure why until I talked with my mum.

It’s strange. When I found out today that Ann was getting married, I felt unsettled by that announcement. I wouldn’t say I felt jealous of her, but more like I was jealous of the fact that she was getting married before me. However, I found out from Mum some interesting things.

1) Apparently Ann and Bak dude really haven’t known or dated each other that long. Maybe six months at the most.

2) She’s already three months pregnant, and because of the pregnancy, that’s why she’s getting married so fast.

3) Because of these two situation, my gut instincts tell me the marriage will not last that long. Meaning if it lasts long, kudos. If not, I wouldn’t be surprised.

With that said, I am no longer feeling that jealousness towards her. In fact, I honestly would not want to be in her shoes. When I was her age at 21, I had no feelings of marriage or of becoming a mother. The only thing I cared about at 21 was to finish my damn college degree, procrastinate on the computer, play my games, read my mangas and books, watch movies and animes, and hang out with my friends. I don’t mean to criticise her, but I don’t see why she’d want to give up the single lifestyle so soon. Plus becoming a mother already? Uh, no. Where were those condoms or morning after pills?!

Here I am at the age of 24, and I have no desire to get married or have my own spawns of devil. Then there’s Ann going for just the lifestyle I do not want. I do wish her luck, though. Her getting into this situation at least showed me one thing! One great thing actually! I don’t have to worry about my mother plodding me to get married like her. My mum was actually in an agreement with all the comments I made. She told me to wait until I find a man who truly loves me and then marry him. She told me don’t just marry the first guy who shows interest in me. Thanks, Mum! Your advices are duly noted and duly accepted!