Greetings from Mauritius

Yay! I'm so happy today. My dear and lovely bloggy friend Manju (from the blog where She's Constantly Gone) sent me a postcard from her beautiful country Mauritius. Look!

We actually swapped postcards, so I hope she will get my card from Slovenia soon. I really wonder when mine will arrive at her place. I hope it won't take so long, I have my reasons ;)

I must say that before I knew Manju, I didn't know a lot about Mauritius [check Wiki]. I knew it's an island nation located somewhere in the Indian ocean. I'd probably look somewhere near the Maldives, because they're a bit more known. Many people go to Maldives on vacation here, but less so to Mauritius. So when you look on the world map, you can easily remember that Mauritius is closer to Africa, actually right next Madagascar and the Maldives are closer to Asia, actually right next to India.

Ok, so thru Manju I learned a lot about Mauritius. Here are some random facts, based on my own personal experiences (so please don't sue me, if you experience something different):

1 Mauritians are very friendly, besides Manju, I got to know Angele and Jaimie, two lovely Mauritian bloggers, who are always very kind and funny. Check out their blogs.

2 Never offer cake to Mauritians! They'll take it very seriously and they'll let you know many many times that you need to keep your promise [*yes, that was on the postcard, too :P].

3 Mauritian kids will stare at you like an owl. You don't belive it? Read here.

4 Cakes in the shape of the famous game Pac man are totally in there now, see here.

5 Mauritians are very pragmatic. If the stamp doesn't fit the postcard, the will fold it over the edge and to the other side. I shall name that a lolstamp (see the pic above).

Thanks again, Manju, for the lovely card. Now I just hope mine will be delivered to you in one piece and with no lolstamps, hehe. This was fun. Hope others do that some time, too.

My Kafkaesque life redesigned

Hello, my readers. I hope my new blog layout didn't shock you. I've been meaning to change my template for a while, but I didn't have any good ideas. Then I bumped into a template I really liked and after spending few hours on customizing and tweaking - this is my result. How do you like it?

Now, the main reason to do this change was because my old template loaded very slowly. That really pissed me off for a while now. This one loads faster, also because I put less stuff on my sidebar. Well, let's say 95% of tweaking is done now. I will probably add some stuff on my sidebars (like I always do), but this is how my blog will stay now for a while now, I hope longer than the 5 months my old layout lasted. I'm most happy about the white background and the black font. I think it'll look a bit more mature and easier to read.

Redesign feedback update: So far most of the reactions were positive. Even the fabulous Dawn sent me some compliments in a tweet, which made me very happy. And not to forget the lovely Manju and Adeline in the Cbox, who also liked it. I'm so blessed with exceptional women. And thanks to all of you who left comments. I appreciate your feedback. I'm happy how it turned out.

Now happy blogging everybody.

Your MKL.

Wang Zi Fei: Chinese online sensation

China's beauty in black

Recently there was news about a girl in China named Wang Zi Fei (王紫菲), who has become an instant internet sensation! She's called The Beauty in Black, but I'll explain that later. First have a look at her pictures: Doesn't she look beautiful?

Do you want to know how she became famous?

She sat behind US president Obama at his town hall meeting with an audience of students in Shanghai (Nov 16, 2009). While he spoke about individual rights and freedoms, the camera captured Wang Zi Fei in the back, who took of her red jacket and sat there in a black shirt and skirt and listened. Soon after the broadcasting Chinese netizens went crazy and started to speculate about her, naming her The Beauty in Black and begun to spread all kinds of false (and also nasty rumours) about her [Source here]. Soon her identity was public and the poor girl had to write a blog post to refute all the crazy rumours. [You can read the English translation here, but scroll down]

It's obvious that she caught attention, because she's beautiful. And I'm sure that the one who initially went crazy were men. That's just how it is and always was: Men go crazy when they spot a beautiful woman. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Zi Fei, I wish you good luck and hope you can get something good out of this after being defamed by so many Chinese netizens. A model career? We shall see. 加油, 紫菲!

[Photos: Source 1, Source 2][Zi Fei's Blog (chi)]
[Tiny.link to this post: http://tinyurl.com/MKLsWangZiFei]

Thank you for blogging award 2009

Today I received a blog award from the incredible Andhari. Yay! Thank you so much, my lovely friend, I feel honored and appreciated :D Now the rule says, I should tag 4 people and write at least 3 reasons why I pass the award to them. Well, it's always hard to pick someone and then someone else may be wondering why I haven't picked them. Tsk, tsk, tsk (as Mel would say). So I chose to pass this award to two of my favorite bloggers who I met most recently: They are just funny and adorable. I decided not to mention their names, cause that wouldn't be fun, would it? :P You can try and guess who they are by the words and pics below. :)

No 1: I think she deserves this award, because she's very funny, be it her blog posts or her comments, she always cracks me up. She's positive and supportive and she's so likeable. Who wouldn't wanna be her friend? Maybe a chocolate bunny, but only because she'd eat it :P Well, her blog is very cute and there's so much more about it than just chocolate and lolcatz. :P I'm so happy, that I came across her blog. If you wanna check it out, click on the photo below.


No 2: I think she deserves this award, because she's true and honest and her followers feel that, so it's no wonder that she has soooo many of them. And she's also very funny, especially when she catches spammers. :D She says she doesn't want to accept blog awards yet, so I hope she takes this little post as a token of my appreciation and my way to give her back some happiness she brings to me :) If you wanna check out her blog, click on the photo below.


Have you guessed right, before you checked, who the two bloggers are? ^_^

[Photo 1 Source: 1, 2][Photo 2 Source: 1, 2]

The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows

Life ain't all sunshine and rainbows. There's plenty of storms during our journey and a lot of times things don't go the way we want them to go. It's true, that many times we just perceive things as bad, but they aren't really bad: The problems are created in our heads. Those are the easiest to solve, as we usually just need someone to open our eyes and realize how wrong we were. But there are real problems that all of us face at certain points in our lives: Tragedies like deaths, disease, break-ups, accidents, abuses... We can't just brush off these things as if they were merely created in our heads. No, these are times of trial and we have no choice: We have to deal with these issues. And no matter what - we have to be strong. We have to keep going. Never give up! We get wounded and we need time to make these wounds heal. But they will heal. We just need to believe in ourselves. There will be scars, but the wounds won't be open anymore. At one point our last tear of sadness will dry and the first tear of joy will pour down our cheek and we will smile again. Please don't forget that there's light at the end of the tunnel. I always think: If you're hurt and you wanna cry - cry! If you need to talk - talk! Just let it out. And if in the past you were there for those who needed you, they will be there for you now, when you need them.

This year was a year of change for me: I had death in the family, a break up and friendships that faded. It was a confusing time full of highs and lows, I was lost during most of this year. I saw everything as negative, mostly because I wanted to. But now this time is certainly over. I'm positive, hopeful and a changed man. It was some 4 months ago, during my emo phase, when I wrote a post about my misfortune this year. It was bad back then, yes, but now it doesn't matter anymore. I'm back on track. I have my scars, but they don't matter now. I'm just looking ahead to the future: I'm focusing on my hopes, dreams and aspirations. I'm most positive that they will come true. I will write more about my own pursuit of happiness in the weeks and months to come. But let's close this post with Rocky Balboa (played by Sylvester Stallone) and his quote from the film in 2006, that inspired my post:

[...] The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. [...]

How true, right? Do you have scars and how do you deal with hardships?

*I just wrote this post to all people who struggle currently. Never give up!

[Photo: Source][quote from Rocky]

Thoughts of the moment

Thought one: Why do so many new followers of my blog think I was female? Maybe because I follow mostly women and get along well with women, adore women, post many pics of women, write about women, chat on MSN with many women... Maybe :P

Thought two: Why do some people write whole essays with links and quotes, when they comment, just to state their opinion prove they're right? I think it's no point to that, unless we're talking about facts, not opinions. But some people are obsessed and don't stop, even ridicule you, just to feel superior. Oh dear, do you know how I can laugh about people like you? :P

Thought three: Is it possible, that a friend, to whom I've slowly distanced myself this year would make up a fake break up just to lure me to call him and meet him? I was a long and loyal friend until half a year ago, where he behaved like he's my father and lectured me. From that time on I ignored him. And now few days ago, his girlfriend texted me and begged me to call him, cuz they supposedly broke up and he's devastated and in need of a friend. I asked her to write an email and tell me what exactly happened. Few days later: Nothing. [Weird.] Something smells fishy. :(

Thought four: How come anticipating a birthday is such a thrill, but after you say happy birthday at the actual day, the whole thrill is gone? So many people close to me had birthdays and it was really a very interesting time. But now that it's passed, I feel so empty. I guess it's same when people, who celebrate Christmas (I'm not), anticipate that day. But a day after boredom sinks in and the chocolate Santa doesn't taste as good as a day before. Weird. -_-

Thought five: Is it possible to adore someone and be totally crazy about them, yet still have reasonable expectations? Well, I think it's possible, but it's a fine line to walk. In the past, I would adore someone for the wrong reasons. Now, around age 30, I feel I know what I really want: I realized that I really need someone who's character suits me well, who shares similar views, dreams and expectations for the future and who's mellow, easygoing and flexible like me. I had complicated, I had inflexible, I had partners with too different views, dreams and expectations... They were all incredible women, but we were just too different. Now it seems I found someone who suits me well and the question I asked 6 month ago here may be finally answered. And yes, I adore her for who she is, not what I think she might be. :)

Please choose one or more topics and leave a comment. As always I really appreciate your opinions and I'm very happy to see you always return to my little online getaway. Thank you!

Why do so many nice girls date douchebags?

*The two girls on the photo have nothing to do with the topic

UPDATE: Please don't take this post too seriously or too literally. Check the labels. Thanks!

Have you ever seen a very lovely girl coming out of a café and thought: Wow. She's hot, she's charming, she's dressed to a tee. You just think about the best pick-up line to talk to her... And then you see a douchebag coming out from that same café and she's taking his hand and walking away with him. You're baffled. You wonder what's wrong with her to date such a guy, because he *thinks he's the best and the coolest, he's got attitude, he's loud and he doesn't even realize what a fool he's making out of himself [*by definition]. And then after seeing something like that on several occasions, you ask yourself:

"Why do so many nice girls date douchebags?"

And we could definitely also add "Why do so many nice girls date assholes?" Now the thing is, we've all seen this at some point, be it among strangers or among our friends. But is it really so gender specific? Don't guys also date girls who are weird or bad? But there's a bigger problem: Define a douchebag! Who will actually admit being a douchebag and who has the right to say who is one and who's not? There's so many definitions and views on this topic, you even have blogs like hotchickswithdouchebags.com [*highly recommended] and a funny Facebook group dealing with this issue. It's out there in the popular culture and everyone will laugh at pics with the caption hot girl with a douche.jpg, but nobody really thinks being a douchebag themselves.

Who is a douchebag for you? [*And please don't say I am, haha, that's too lame :P]

Would you admit being one? Would you laugh at a photo like this?
What's your opinion on this topic? :-)

[Photo: Ju Da-ha, Park Si-hyun]

Slovenian football fairy tale continues!

.................Slovenia - Russia 1:0.................

Tonight was an awesome night. My country Slovenia played against Russia to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. All the pundits clearly favored Russia, who has an excellent national football team full of renowned stars. We were clearly the underdog, but we knew we have a big heart and a strong desire. And yes... and yes... we won! We qualified! Woohoo!

See the photos below (and go over them with the mouse):

Comparing to Russia, we're a dwarf.

The game took place in my hometown, Maribor.

Many Russian fans came to see the game.

Even the Russian president paid Slovenia a visit.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich flew in with a private jet.

At this point the Russian president was still happy.

The game was great. We played better and we definitely deserved to win.

Last 10min were nerve-racking, I couldn't watch... But at last, we won!

A dream came true! We're going to Africa! An unforgettable night!

Those who follow the Worldcup qualifications know how I feel now :-) I'm not really a proud person when it comes to national pride, but this truly is a big accomplishment for our national team and I can say I feel a bit patriotic tonight. I will sleep with a big smile on my face.

Links: [RTV, 24Ur, DELO][Can Slovenia Win the World Cup? article]

My difficulties when learning Chinese

I'm practicing Chinese [*I'm talking about Mandarin here] again and I want to talk about the difficulties I'm encountering in the process. Me and Shirley have been tweeting about who speaks better Chinese, but it's quite hard to say at this point, because I don't really know how good she speaks and she doesn't know how good I speak.

I can say I'm a beginner. I never really studied Chinese: I mean going to a course, pass tests and sticking my head in books for hours. Nope. Some 3 years ago my ex started to teach me few phrases, but I really learned the most during my few months long stay in Malaysia this year, because I lived with a Chinese family. I listened to them and repeated it and if I mispronounced, they corrected me. I also learned a lot from kids and TV, because they always watched Taiwanese shows. But I also had a small notebook, where I would write down some phrases and learned them by heart. The last thing that helped me to improve my Chinese, especially the written one, was when I got my Nokia from Malaysia, that allows me to switch from English to Chinese when writing text messages. I learned so many Chinese characters that way and I'm now able to write a good text message in Chinese. [*Yay!]

Here's the things I learned in the process:

1. Chinese can't be translated 1 to 1 into English. I had to learn how Chinese would say it, not how I would say it.

2. Basic Chinese is easy to master, but the advanced one is very complicated

3. It is easier to understand spoken Chinese than speaking it yourself

4. It is easier to read written Chinese than writing it yourself

5. The hardest thing to learn for a non-Chinese are the 4 tones, still giving me headaches

Nevertheless, I'm not discouraged. It's hard, yes, but it is doable. But then, when I thought things are going fine, there's another thing: Traditional Chinese. For me simplified Chinese was already hard, but I got a grip of it. But Traditional seems like a whole new language. This difference only applies to writing the Chinese characters: Traditional has more strokes and it's therefore harder to draw. Mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore use simplified Characters, while Hong Kong and Taiwan use traditional. See few examples for yourself:

gè: classifier for people.. SC: 个 TC: 個

huì: will (future tense)... SC: 会 TC: 會

kāi: open......................... SC: 开 TC: 開
guǎng: wide..................... SC: 广 TC: 廣
tǐ: body............................ SC: 体 TC: 體

我很可憐!

So now you see that I am indeed very poor, but I'm still eager to learn. First of all: I have a great teacher. And secondly: I have plans for next year, where my Chinese knowledge will be of essence. I'm happy that I'm able to understand basic questions and tell something about myself, plus I can utter something very silly and make people laugh. That's ok for now, but I need to advance and learn more words and phrases, if I want to live in a Chinese environment again. So wish me good luck!

Those of you who learned (or are learning) Chinese, what difficulties did you encounter?

[Links: Why Chinese is so damn hard (essay)][Sources: Photo of Chen Yue Tong]

I'm featured on the BLOGETTE

Hi my readers. It's been a hell of a week for me. Probably the silliest thing during the week was the nontroversy between a fellow blogger Carina and me. All I can say is, that it was really unfortunate. I totally misinterpreted her post, because it sounded so serious and I was baffled in that moment. But when I saw the harsh comments, I was suddenly compelled to write my side of the story. Well, now I wish I wasn't, but what can we do now, right?

Misunderstandings happen. But I acknowledged my part of the mistake, deleted my post and apologized and so did Carina. So now I really hope we can put this unfortunate event behind us and move on. I learned another valuable lesson, so all this wasn't in vain.

Today I checked my Google Reader again and I was pleasantly surprised. Carina started her Feature Friday series, where she promotes some blogs she likes and my blog is the first one in this series. You can read the post here. She wrote such a nice post about me and my blog, I really feel appreciated and humbled. I can only say thank you so much for the kindest words and for being introduced on your blog and my hope is that we can continue following each other like we did before the nontroversy. I tend to forget silly things like that very quickly. Hope you can, too.

Please check Carina's blog!

Have a nice weekend.

Friday the 13th thoughts

Hola peeps!* How was your week? Mine was quite busy. So many birthdays, so much happening, on- and offline. My mum had birthday few days ago! Yay! My crush had birthday few days ago! Yay! My sister and two friends will have birthdays in few days. And guess what? Today is my ex girlfriend's birthday. Yes, the one with whom I broke up this May.

So it's 6 people I know having birthdays within one week [666 The number of the beast? <- that was so random].

Maybe Friday the 13th is affecting me, but even if it wasn't this infamous day, you can imagine I had a lot on my mind lately. Especially yesterday, I was moody and had a headache, was nervous... and that continued until late night, because I had a hard time falling asleep. There were also some developments behind the scene that made me nervous yesterday, but I can't blog about it. I suspected a certain someone [who I definitely don't wish to check on me] found their way on my Twitter and Blog. Thanks to Feedjit (right sidebar below) I could confirm it was that person. I hope it was just by coincidence. But if it becomes regular spying, I'll just have to be careful about sharing my private life here. I'm already restricting myself and write a lot about non-private matters.

Speaking of which, I have a lot of buzz on my blog lately. And it's not because of some great posts I wrote, like this one, but it's because I wrote about two curvaceous Asian beauties Elly Tran Ha and Yao Yao. Google brings so many people on my blog, who search for these two women, but what do I gain from this? More hits! But I don't have any ads, so I don't really care... Although if I think right, people find the information they seek. So I guess I make some people happy after all. Making others happy is my pleasure :)

I hope this weekend will be laid back and relaxing. I'm sick of drama, headaches and confusion. I need to find my way back to my old happy self. So, how was your week?

*stilettoesque

[Photo: Source]

You gotta love the Japanese!

No more drama! It was all a misunderstanding. The post Carina wrote was meant sarcastic, but I took it literally. I'm so sorry for my reaction, Carina. I made a mistake, I just didn't get it. I'm really sorry and embarrassed. So no more drama, we talked about it and let's move on. It was a nontroversy.

After such a stressful day today, I need some relief. I didn't feel so good the whole day, I need some rest. Let's just enjoy this video and be positive.

[I found this video on http://theinternetisterrible.com]


It's funny to see the Pope an Putin as evil, haha. But I really have no clue what this is about, I just know it's silly and that Japan is very good in stuff like this. Don't you agree?

Have a lovely weekend! :-)

About chopsticks

I mentioned in one of my previous posts, that I collect chopsticks. Let me now introduce to you my chopsticks collection. These chopsticks were bought during my several travels to Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. But the collecting started, when a Japanese friend sent me one pair of chopsticks (hashi in Japanese) and the chopstick rest (hashioki) in a shape of a bunny. Check the pictures below:

1 Sent by my Japanese friend 2,3,4 Expensive ones bought in Penang 5,6 Bought in Hong Kong (came with the 2 ducks) 7 My fav to use, bought a set in Penang 8 Worst quality chopstics, made of plastic
9 Bought a set in Singapore near Sultan mosque 10 I got those at a hawker in Malaysia and kept them

I had my first real encounter with chopsticks when I first traveled to Singapore in 2005. I've been there twice that year and there was quite few occasions where I had to use them. I admit, I was clumsy and failed to grab a piece several times. Whenever someone saw my embarrassing attempts to pick up food, they immediately offered me a fork. But at that time, I was mostly spending time with Malays, so I didn't need to use chopsticks too often and I switched to fork gladly.
That changed in 2007, when I traveled to Penang (Malaysia) for the first time. At that time I dated my ex girlfriend, who was Chinese and I really wanted to learn how to use chopsticks. It took some time, but I eventually mastered it. Then, by being so proud of myself [*Ang moh know use chopstick meh?]. I got so fascinated by these eating utensils, that I started to collect them. And now I even use them at home in Europe, although not very often.
See the pic on the left? I just tried to see, if I'm still capable to hold them right, and guess what? I can! :-) [*So proud of myself again]. I have the feeling I will need this skill next year, when I plan to return to Asia.
Chopsticks are called 筷子[kuài​zi] in Chinese and there's something I've been told one should never do: Never stick them in a bowl of rice vertically, because it resembles incense sticks, that are used for praying! I either put them on top of the bowl or on the chopstick rest, if provided. The basic rule is: Use them to pick the food and eat. Don't make noise with them [*they're not drum sticks!], don't use them to pierce food and don't play with them. Then you should be fine. And if you wanna see how you hold them right, check the gif. image on the right. Can you hold them right?

Now tell me:

• Do you use chopsticks often or rarely?
• At what age did you learn to use them?
• Any funny story regarding chopsticks?

Links: [Wikipedia] Photos: [first 2 by MKL, gif image by Fantes Kitchen Ware Shop]

I was there, when...

Here's another awesome list for you. I was watching TV and they showed some events from the past years. And that reminded me, that I am residing in this world for nearly 3 decades and a lot of things happened during this time. So I wanted to make a list of 8 world events, that happened in my life time and affected me somehow, can be literally or just emotionally. Here they are:

1. Slovenian independence (1990/91): My small country Slovenia was part of a big multi ethnic country Yugoslavia, but 1990 we voted for independence and majority was for an independent state. I was too young to vote, though. In June 1991 we became independent and a 10 days long war started. I remember hiding in the basement of our block, while tanks rolled through my hometown. That was a scary moment, but lucky me, the war was over very fast and I didn't see any shooting or killing... Pheew...
2. Guns 'N' Roses (1992): I remember that at age 12, suddenly all my class mates defined themselves by the music they listened to. You could choose among rock, metal, punk, grunge and rave or techno. I was pretty late in that regard, but one day a friend borrowed me a cassette of an Guns 'N' Roses album and I copied it and listened to it every day until I knew the songs by heart. Yea, that's how we did it. I really liked their songs and then I was one of the rockers. And in my heart, I'm still a rocker, although I don't classify myself anymore, I like all kinds of music, even pop, yes, even Asian pop. But at that time the music you liked defined you. It was serious business, hehe.
3. Total eclipse of the sun (1999): I remember, it was August, I was home alone and I went out and saw how the sun got slowly covered by the moon and how the degrees dropped. Wow, it was definitely a goose bumps moment and I'm so glad that I've experienced this in real. Kinda made me feel how small and insignificant we are compared to the planets, stars and the whole universe.
4. Millennium (2000): I remember, how hopeful and anxious people were in 1999 anticipating the year 2000. We all thought it will be a new Millennium, although it actually started in 2001, but nobody really cared. That 2000 was really a magic number for all of us. We felt like we'll suddenly be in the future, that everything will be so advanced... well, nothing really happened. I remember, how some people were afraid that the whole internet might crash, haha... That was funny :P
5. 11th September (2001): That was really scary! I was 21, at home watching CNN, like I always did. It was 1pm here when it happened, suddenly the changed to breaking news and talked about an accidental plane crash. I remember how confused everybody was (including me). When that second plane crashed, it became creepy. What's going on? What's happening? Someone attacked America? Will there be war? I was seriously nervous. Then the twin towers collapsed and my heart was pounding like crazy. I was sooo pro America soon after that, we all were... then Bush screwed up... -_-
6. Tsunami (2004): Ok, that was equally scary like 9/11. It happened just 1 month before I planned to fly to Singapore (and Asia) for the first time, in the region, so to speak. The images of the casualties and all the destruction, especially in Banda Ace, were excruciating. Another moment, where mankind saw how fickle nature can be and how powerless we really are on this planet.
7. Barack Obama's historic win (2008): I followed US elections almost a year, I was for Obama since he started his campaign in 2007, I always watched his stump speeches, followed the campaign, the ups and downs up to the election day, where I stayed up until 6am to listen to his victory speech, which really really gave me goose bumps and I probably teared up a little. It's a moment where one just had to be alive and hear that speech live (even if on TV). And I'm not disappointed with what he has done so far, I mean, look at his plate and look what Bush has left behind.
8. Death of Michael Jackson and Twitter (2009): Ok, his death didn't really had such a big effect on my life, but it was definitely a shocker. I will always remember the day it happened, because 25 June is our independence day. It's also the first time that something major happened and I found out about it on Twitter's trending topics. It was quite an emotional day for the whole world. I had the feeling we were a bit united for a short while by looking at his fans from all over the world how they loved him and his music. And it was the time, where I realized that Twitter has become such a powerful news source. It definitely changed internet and affected my life a bit this year.

Ok, this is my list and it's gotten quite long :) I dare you to make your own list or just comment here in my comment section and tell me which events in your life time had the biggest effect on you or your life.

[Photo: Source]

Kang Yui: Best Korean model

Let me introduce you another famous model from Korea

Kang Yui in 2010with short hair.

Her name is Kang Yui [강유이], born 16. December 1982*, and according to the latest news, she is currently the busiest** South Korean model. I did a little research and here's what I found out: She's is 176cm tall and currently weighs 53kg. She started as a racing girl in 2006 and turned into a very versatile model in 2009. Her nickname is 깜직이 which means Precious 2.

Personally, she's my favorite Korean model. So many favor Hwang Mi-hee 황미희, another popular Korean racing model, but she just doesn't have that natural beauty and the versatility of Kang Yui. Check the pics below and the links I provided and you will realize that she's close to the universal ideal of feminine beauty: A gorgeous face reflexing a depth of multiple emotions, captivating and radiant eyes, a perfect smile and a figure that can hardly be topped. There's so many beautiful women and she's definitely one of the few that would leave a very strong impression on every man's (and woman's) mind. Enjoy her photos and best of luck to Kang Yui's future, that will undoubtedly be bright.

Photos: [ReallyCuteAsians, Hankyung] Links: [Kang Yui's Website (kor)]

Info sources: [*Kang Yui: Info + many pics][**Source + Video of Yui

[Tiny.link to this post: http://tinyurl.com/MKLsKangYui]

Road to Nowhere

[I took this photo on 31st October 2009 at 14:26]

This road takes you to my home, which is a good kilometer away from the spot I made the photo. The bus station is here and in the past, when I used to take the bus regularly, I needed around 15 min by foot to come home. I have so many memories of this road: I remember the icy cold February mornings, when I walked to the bus station by foot in the blizzard or the romantic summer walks with a lovely girl under the scorching sun... It's been nearly 3 decades. I've cursed this road and I missed it, when I was abroad.

But it will always be part of me. Because there's an old hidden house at the end of it, that I call my home. And even, if one day I won't live here anymore, it will always remain home in my heart. Yes, I'm sentimental like that.

Do you have a special road in your life?

NY Times columnist apologizes to Slovenians, because our netizens went haywire

You know, my country, Slovenia, is a very small country. It's a kind of a European Singapore, a bit bigger in size, but a little less people live than in the actual Singapore. We have like 2 million people. That's like a small city in China, btw. Nevertheless, our online community is big and... loud. Wherever someone will write about Slovenia, our netizens will find out and it will be reposted in blogs (same way I do now). So today I read in our online newspaper about a column in the New York Times, where Nicholas Kristof, one of their columnists, who recently wrote a lot about the current state of the American healthcare system, apologized to Slovenia, because he made too many comparisons with Slovenia and apparently our netizens went haywire and complained a lot. Here's what he wrote:

Now I don't really know, if he was sincerely serious (it sounds more like sarcastic), but it does lead me to one question: Are my fellow netizens crazy!? I mean, that's just beyond crazy. And it happens all the time. Wherever Slovenia is mentioned, there will be at least one of our netizens complaining about it. I kinda see this attitude a lot in Singapore, too (hence my comparison). But to put things into perspective, Korean and Chinese netizens are far worse, because they're even more sensitive and there's like millions of them. Stuff that happens there is scary. So my question is:

How are netizens in your country and are you sometimes ashamed of them?

[Sources: NY Times article][Nicholas Kristof on Twitter]

7 things about me you didn't know

We have first snow today! Bummer :( [Manju, do you wanna change?]

The incredibly talented Mauritian blogger Manju dared me to write 7 things about me you didn't know before. Manju says that according to the rules of this award I'm supposed to tell you 7 things you might not know about me, and then tag 7 other creative bloggers to do the same. So here are 7 random things about me you didn't know before:

1 When I was 3 years old, I already knew how to spell, read and calculate to 10. I was considered a prodigy in that regard. Mum told me that her colleagues, who came to visit us, couldn't believe their eyes, when they saw me reading from the newspaper fluently. Keep in mind that the language was Slovenian, which uses 1 letter for 1 sound. Nevertheless, it was still exceptional. [I do wonder now where my genius went after that... -_-]

2 Although I speak German fluently and I have a Bachelor's degree in German language and literature, up until today I have never been in Germany. [Ok, before you start tearing out your hair like a crazy professor, let me tell you that I live 1km away from the border with Austria, which is also a German speaking country. I'm sure I've been in Austria more than hundred times.]

3 Last year I would stay up very late just to listen to an Obama speech, which was broadcast live during prime time in America, but due to the difference in time, it was aired at 3 or 4am in Europe. Yes, I could! And yes, that's how much I believe[d] in that man.

4 I never dated someone from my hometown.

5 I collect chopsticks.

6 I'm allergic to pollen, so every spring [usually from February to June] is my worst time of the year. I sneeze every day, my nose and eyes are red, it feels like a constant flu. That's one of the reasons I felt so good in the tropical Malaysia and Singapore, because I'm only allergic to the blossoms in our climate with 4 seasons. And it would be one of the reasons for me to consider emigrating and settling in a warmer [allergy-free] place [most likely in Asia].

7 I hate reading books. I would read a book only, if it was really really necessary. I do read a lot of stuff though, but online.

Now, don't worry, I won't tag anyone, but you can do the same list, if you want. And sorry, I didn't reveal anything scandalous here. Hope you know a bit more about me now :)