Korean Music Discussion - Page 3135

It’s an interesting thing, time. It flies by, minding its own business yet affects everything around it. Every Day I wake up to find out that the Earth has kept spinning in my absence, and Every Day I find an ever so welcoming home away from home waiting to greet me. I’ve never asked its inhabitants to do so, nor the other way around, but it has always come off as natural. Come to think of it, it’s not all that different from my real family; we care and help eachother out. We’ve also not chosen to be brothers and sisters, but rather have become so through common interests that binds us all together and have thereby created a secondary family: a family known as the KMD.

TeamLiquid can be a hostile environment with mods looking down at their herd with bloodlust, people filled with nothing but hate wherever you look, and also the knowledge of there being ten times the visible population lurking amongst you. Sooner or later it is only natural that every man and woman will reach his/her breaching point and crumble under the pressure. That included me as well, and after a decent amount of time, I quietly backed away from TeamLiquid. I joined the shadow cult known as the Lurkers and watched cautiously from the sidelines.

That lasted for many months, until I eventually decided to try to take a step back into the light. This time however I came with the goal of not doing it solitary. Slowly but surely, I attempted to infiltrate a few of the major Houses of this foreign, barren wasteland. Unfortunately, most of these possessed a harsh and unfriendly climate that a distant traveler such as myself was simply unable to adapt to.

I didn’t quit though, I knew that in order to survive in the wilds when your goal isn’t to be rescued, but rather to become a part of your surroundings, you need somewhere to retreat to, and someone to hold your hand along the way: a safe haven, along with someone that can be your guiding light, and before too long, I found a mansion where I didn’t have to hide in the shadows in order to avoid rejection. It was a location known as the KMD, a place I had previously only looked at from a distance with envious eyes. This mansion had plenty of inhabitants, but still many empty beds. There was currently no hierarchy, as the mighty landowner Sir Robinson had decided to donate all his belongings to the people, as he went out into to the world to seek his fortune. I filled in my personal info at the sign-up desk and got assigned to my quarters, a room located next door to someone calling himself TuElite. I figured that’d be a place as good as any to seek council and guidance from a senior… ‘boy was I in for a ride…

Anyway, my worries were all for naught though, as this was far from the hostile experience I had feared. Instead, I found a bunch of qtpies only concerned with expressing their love for eachother and their respective biases of course. Some of us were nocturnal, and strangely enough went along with their respective daily occupations during nighttime, and instead slept during a large part of the day. This made socializing somewhat difficult at times, but I adapted quite quickly nonetheless. On the other hand, because of this there was always someone awake, always someone alert and willing to carry the torch for the rest of us. We shared a common responsibility after all, and we weren’t gonna let something as silly as time stop us.

That torch has since then became one of the most important things in my life. It is more than a responsibility or even an interest. It is a burning passion, a lifestyle. Think about it: what, above all, do we have a surplus of in this world? Pain, suffering, hate, essentially all the traits needed to join the dark side. (The Lurkers! :s) So, what do you do to counteract it? Well if it’s balancing the scales we’re after, then the obvious answer is to contribute to the counterweight, namely happiness.

And that is precisely what the KMD does best. It is the reason for its very existence, and the heart and soul of all things Kpop. It doesn’t matter if you’re hating on your K-idol of choice, or staring in disbelief at other people’s opinions, the truth is that we’re all just being very spoiled and easily lose grip on reality. No matter what we decide to talk about, a song, a person, some scandalous news or what kind of diet the superstars are on, in the end I’ll end up leaving in a better mood than when I entered, because even when we’re being mean to eachother, it’s still all in good fun.

Now, I’m not saying this is heaven on Earth, let’s be real here. We go into way too many unnecessary circles and patterns, we’ve got the best polls on the internet (/sarcasm), and some topics are seemingly magnets for discussions with no answer. (*cough* Sones *cough*) But if you think about it, such a heaven on Earth is non-existent anyway, and if there was no room for improvement then that’d only be a bad thing. I don’t think it’s something that’ll change easily, old habits die hard, but it feels good to know in the back of your head that no matter how charming this community is, it can always get better still in the future.

I think the biggest appeal and reason for success of this thread (well besides the actual music of course) is freedom. While it is true that the big threatening white rectangle on top is hardly inviting, it’s actually one of the friendliest environments on the continent that is TL. Why? Because almost everything is subjective, and people actually say what they think. (Now please don’t tell me this goes for SC2 balance discussions as well, those are what we call tainted opinions.) Since we’re all unique, this means debates will spawn by themselves. There is nothing wrong with stating your opinion. Sure, every now and then someone crosses the line and gets sent up to their room without dinner, but even that removes tension. Sometimes when we’re sitting there around the fireplace in the evening, there are unspoken words hanging in the air that everyone is thinking of but chooses not to say, and then one of us decides to take one for the team, allowing the rest to continue carrying the ever so important torch.

Now I’ve been listening to Kpop on and off since I was this old (me at the start), and I’ve never had any regrets. Sure, back then I kept it to myself as nothing more than a guilty pleasure, but there was no shame. Just because it was different didn’t mean it was a bad thing… because it made me happy. That being said it still took me about 2 years or so before I joined this family, and with that decided to throw all caution to the wind and just accept it as a part of my Every Day activities. Nowadays it’s more a question of finding a time when I’m not in the KMD whenever I’m at home. Maybe I’m looking into it too deeply, but so what if I am? Again, this is a place where freedom of speech is key, and if I think it’s important to me, I’m not going to hesitate in saying so. Given that my virtual family coexists in here, along with the fact that the ongoing topic of interest is pretty much the best one I can imagine; it’s essentially killing two birds with one stone.

I think it’s somewhat ironic that despite what common sense might say, in a way we know eachother better than many real-life friends, simply because there’s no need to be afraid of who you are when you’re behind a monitor and a keyboard. Some of us are fanatics, some are negative nancies, some are simple-minded fanboys and some just tag along for the ride… and yet, one man’s flaw can become another man’s strength. We… complete eachother I guess you can say, or rather at least I know that I feel a hell of a lot more at peace during my alone time now compared to a couple of years ago.

I only hope that this trend will continue (not that I see why it wouldn’t) and that this community will keep on delivering to the fullest extent of its ability. It would be a shame to let so much potential go to waste, but I’m not too worried. I have faith in everyone here, and I’m ever so thankful for becoming a part of this… this bliss, and also for all the memories I’ve been given.

Memories that last forever.


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