Jo Hyun Jae

I haven’t been checking our blog e-mail jhjfans@gmail everyday as I used to.  And when I did a couple of days ago, I was very surprised to find a HELP! e-mail from a member from Singapore.  She’s not even a regular, although we did exchange a few e-mails.

It was sent around Christmas time.  She wrote she’s in London, she’s been robbed, lost all her money and papers, and urgently needed 3,000 British pounds.  Could I help her?  After my initial surprise, commonsense won over.  I immediately deleted that e-mail.

It’s a scam, of course.  The poor lady probably didn’t even know her e-mail account had been hijacked.  Exactly the same thing happened to a friend of mine last year.  This man works for an airline and everybody on his Yahoo contacts list received an e-mail to the effect that he’s stranded in Spain and desperately needed bailing out.  The poor man had no idea that some crook was using his e-mail to cheat people until one of his contacts called him.

So if you ever receive an e-mail purportedly from wulijohyunjae that says she needs to be rescued and please send this sum of money or whatever, just ignore it.  Even if I’m in dire straits, I won’t be bothering any of you.

Previously unreleased photos of JHJ in RO

In my end is my beginning.

                                  T.S. Eliot in “Four Quartets” Part V

In the case of wulijohyunjae, it is “In my beginning is my end.”  All good things must come to an end.  I didn’t need a reason to start this blog, and I don’t need to give a reason to end it.  Suffice to say, JHJ and I are 缘盡 (cannot translate, let’s just say JHJ and I have come to the end of the road.)

I am retaining my e-mail address for this blog - jhjfans@gmail.com.  Even if I’m no longer operating the blog, I’ll still be around. We are still under the same sky.  And if JHJ gets married, I promise I’ll report it first thing here.

A parting present:

Just heard on the grapevine that JHJ has returned to China (on Dec.1) to star in another Chinese drama – a contemporary romantic comedy set on a university campus (he plays a university student), to be shot around Shanghai.

Watch out for news on www.weibo.com.

This blog will remain open at least until July 1, 2012.  I may return to haunt it from time to time ^^

(Credit: Photos from www.weibo.com.  Thanks!)

I am retiring from the world of JHJ.

I promised myself I would finish covering RO and now mission is accomplished.

It’s been fun while it lasted.

I’d like to thank everyone who has visited and left comments.  JHJ is lucky to have fans like you.

I wish JHJ and all of you all the very best.  Take care and God bless!

Goodbye is just another word, so till we meet again ….. Who knows?

JHJ has flown back to Korea and I’m riding into the sunset

a

Please visit www.johyunjae.hk for JHJ news.

(Credit: photo from www.weibo.com.  Thanks for everything!)

Re-post (originally posted Aug.16, 2011)

2011.09.14

To all new subscribers

Please make sure you’ve put down your e-mail address correctly.  If it’s something like “yahoo.comm”, “gmial.com”, “aol.om”, you will not be approved because those are NOT genuine e-mail addresses.  No need to apply more than once and use all sorts of funny names.  Just give us a day or two to check you out.  If you won’t give us your real name, at least don’t insult us or JHJ by using devil-worship or black-arts related names.  

.

TO ALL NEW SUBSCRIBERS

We’re still getting used to new system on our blog.

If you are a new SUBSCRIBER, you have to be approved before you can leave comments.

Just checked USERS yesterday and was shocked to find over 20 waiting to be approved, so immediately approved nearly everyone (except one who gave e-mail address as “yahoo.om” and another as “yahoo.comm”, and one who used 6 different names and e-mail addresses – can’t believe anyone is that desperate to join our blog!)

You will not be notified individually.  After subscribing, just see if you can leave comments after a day or two.

Thank you for supporting JHJ and our blog!

On sick leave.  No posts these few days.  Sorry!

.

(Credit: photo designed by ahiru of CarpeDiemJAPAN. Thanks!)

Love all your stories!  Love all your husbands/boyfriends/sons (even the jealous ones)!

So, EVERYBODY is a winner!  EVERYBODY deserves a prize!

Prizes will be mailed from Hong Kong on June 13.

We already have the addresses of some of you.  We need your address — nia, charlene, Ka Ja, jhcwhite, and moongirl.  Please e-mail us at jhjfans@gmail.com BEFORE June 11.  And Jelly, which of your addresses do you want us to send prize?

We thank everybody for participating.  You have made us smile/misty-eyed/laugh/gooey….. Many thanks for sharing!

And to those who haven’t found your “JHJ” yet, you will — when the right man comes along at the right time and the right place.

We’re writing to tell JHJ about this exercise.  We’ve selected parts from each story to be translated into Korean, so JHJ will know his fans from the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia/Australia, Canada, U.S.A., Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia all have such wonderful husbands/boyfriends/sons.

PRIZE WINNERS — PLEASE CHECK YOUR E-MAIL.

——————————————————————————————————————-

COMPETITION CLOSES AT END OF TODAY (JUNE 8).

*  Doesn’t look like there are that many supportive husbands/boyfriends and what not, so we’ll close this earlier, say, June 8?  *

First posted on May29.  Will be carried forward everyday till deadline of June 10.  Keep those heartwarming stories coming!

Apart from JHJ, that is.

My husband reduced me to tears a couple of weeks ago.  I was preparing dinner and he was working on the computer.  When it was my turn to use the computer, I saw on the screen a news report of “49 Days” from a Chinese website on Korean entertainment news – something I already translated the day before.  I didn’t think anything of it and switched to our blog.  Ten minutes later my husband walked into the study and asked: “You saw 49 Days?”  “What?” “You didn’t see what I left for you to see?” “Oh! Was that you?  You checked up on ’49 Days’ for me?”  With that I got misty-eyed.

My husband has only watched two Korean dramas in his life – “Jewel in the Palace” (Dae Jang Geum) and “Seo Dong Yo”, the latter because he wanted to understand what it was about JHJ that could make his wife (who is so snobbish in some ways) a star-chaser – something she utterly despises before.  After finishing the 55 episodes, he made some cryptic remarks like: “Baekje fits the real estate agent’s criteria for the perfect property – location, location, location – everywhere is within walking distance – the palace, the academy, the pier, etc.” and “Now I know the saying ‘The walls have ears’ originated in Baekje – every time some secret is told, someone outside is evesdropping.”  He didn’t say anything about JHJ, but I suspected he became a Lee Bo-Young fan (because he asked me if I had anything else featuring LBY – I gave him a DVD of a movie.)

I’ve always said star-chasing is a family affair.  It’s so time-consuming and emotion-draining that you need the support of your spouse (and son and brothers in my case.)  From time to time my brothers (in different parts of the world) would ask: “How’s your other son?”  During JHJ’s MS my real son enquired more than once: “When is Jo Hyun-Jae coming out?” (He actually got his full name correct!) and he downloaded JHJ’s 49D OST songs from itunes for me (his Mother’s Day gift.)  My husband never complains when I monopolise the computer.  I suspect he’s secretly pleased someone is occuping my attention so I won’t have time to nag him!

I know I am very lucky and I thank God everyday for all these wonderful men in my life.  I am especially thankful when I remember that fan from Taiwan (who translated some of our earlier posts for another website) whose husband almost beat her up when he discovered her passion for JHJ.  She was just doing what all of you are doing – searching for news of JHJ on the web – but he treated her as if she had committed adultery.  He shut down all her contacts with other JHJ fans and forced her to disappear from the JHJ scene.

And then there is the Korean fan who (true story – told to me first-hand) who has to hide the JHJ souvenirs and photos whenever relatives visit, although she is single and lives alone.  Whenever they have any fan activities on weekends (like preparing gifts for JHJ), only those unmarried fans can take part or help out; the ones with families have to be home.  Being a JHJ fan seems to be a guilty secret which is something beyond my comprehension.

When I think of that super JHJ fan from Thailand (my friend S) whose bedroom is divided like N. & S. Korea at the 38th parallel – her side all full of JHJ photos and souvenirs – I do not blame her husband for calling JHJ “bad guy”.  No man likes sharing his wife with another man, even though he is beyond reach in another part of the world.  And my friend B’s husband is totally clueless about what occupies his wife all the time, even when she goes on fan meetings with me.  Such a trusting man!  When B spares a little time for him, he is so grateful.  Such a sweet man!  And I must include that fan from California whose husband helped her choose a birthday present for JHJ, even making a sensible suggestion.  With husbands like these, who needs …..JHJ?

“49  Days” has come to an end.  Feeling a little lost?  Still suffering from Han Kang fever?  “What to do? What to do?” as NGR is always saying.  Well, gals, we have to come back to earth and start focusing on reality again.

Now Father’s Day is next month.  We want to organize another competition.  We’d like to hear from you stories about how the men in your life support (or not) your love for JHJ.  We want to salute our long-suffering husbands (or boyfriends), even fathers, brothers, sons.  We want to show our appreciation for their tolerance, patience, and indulgence.

I don’t know what the prize is yet.  I have to rummage in my treasure chest of JHJ souvenirs (much bigger than Song Yi-Kyung’s!)  I have plenty of goodies; I have to see what I can bear to part with.

Again, don’t worry about your English.  But please be truthful – this is not an exercise in creative writing.  I am very good at detecting sham.  If you have more than one story to tell, please feel free to do so.  DO share with us how the wonderful men in your life assist, abet, support, encourage/discourage, reinforce, participate in ….. your star-chasing.

Deadline is June 10.

.

(Credit: Photos from http://gall.dcinside.com.  Thanks!)

A couple of weeks ago I met with the computer guy P in Hong Kong.  I wanted to improve the look and functionality of our blog.  I collected some suggestions beforehand and e-mailed him first to let him know roughly what I wanted done.

What we really need to improve is SEARCH — it’s difficult to find things on our blog, even for me.  I had no experience and I never expected we’d grow so big (in terms of material.)  Our CATEGORIES leave a lot to be desired.  For example, when “49 Days” first started, I put everything in “JHJ drama: 49 Days” which rapidly ballooned to over a hundred posts in no time.  It was then that I realized I should have used sub-categories like “49 Days: Preview and Synopsis” and “49 Days: Ratings”, etc.  I tried going back to re-categorize the old posts, but it was so tedious, especially since my broadband is really “narrowband” (so s-l-o-w!)  I gave up in frustration after a week or so,

First of all P upgraded our version of WordPress to the current one.  From time to time (too often) WordPress would say: “x.y.3 version available – please upgrade.”  I only did this once, much to my regret, because upgrading means everything goes haywire and everybody is locked out, including ADMIN!  Anyway P upgraded without consulting me, so what could I say?  I found I had to cope with new features which I don’t like since I’m a creature of habit.  The worst thing is now spacing is unpredictable: so often I can spend a whole hour just wrestling with the computer over double spacing.  That’s why you now see those dots on the side – my ingenious way of getting round the computer’s over-ruling my double-spacing.  It hurts my sense of perfection, but it’s the lesser of two evils.  (B just taught me a way to hide those unsightly dots — make them white!  So now you don’t see them even though they are still there.  Man, or rather, woman is smarter than computers!

The most noticeable thing is additions on the SIDE BAR (right hand column.)  Now we have RECENT COMMENTS (which works) and MOST POPULAR POSTS (which doesn’t, at least I don’t think so.)  At first P put HIT LIST which I had him changed.   Maybe that’s the way it’s called but I don’t like the implications.  As far as I can tell, the MOST POPULAR POSTS have not changed at all in these two weeks or so!  I may take it off soon since it is a distraction.

P added TAG which I don’t know how to use.  I don’t understand how it is different from SEARCH on top right.  And even that is behaving in a strange way.  I tried it out a few times.  I typed in “49 Days OST” and out came a list of posts, many of which had nothing to do with 49D OST!  Same with TAG.  I tried asking P (by e-mail) and he came back with something that’s too brief to be intelligible, so I didn’t feel like bugging him again.

I asked P to add PAGES and he put 1,2,3,4,…..at the bottom.  You have to scroll down to the bottom of each page to find them.  He also added something called RECENT POSTS at the top, next to ABOUT US.  He said that gives a summary and readers can continue if they are interested.  But why are the posts old ones in May and not the latest?  I may have to contact P again but I’m a little scared of these techies.

P calls JHJ “J9″ because he can never remember his full name – he only remembers his name starts with J and it has 9 letters in it.  He must be very amused ajumas such as B and I are so crazy about J9.  I think he found using my netbook almost an insult, but he’s very patient with this near-computer-illiterate ajuma who had to take notes of everything he said.  B was there and she was trying to help.  She’s teaching me something and suddenly we heard P (whose chin was resting on the back of his hands perched on the window sill of my hotel room looking out at the view outside – he’s so bored) roaring with laughter.  I think B made a mistake and P must have thought we’re the short-sighted leading the blind.  He’s not really laughing at us; he’s actually a good-natured guy.

Afterwards at the hotel lounge (the least I could do was treat him to tea – apart from paying him, of course) we were having a very pleasant conversation, during which his cell phone rang a number of times.  Only later did I know it was his girfriend calling; she hung up in anger the last time because he didn’t go at once when she summoned.  I felt very bad but P said it’s no use calling her now because she would have turned off her cell phone.  Suddenly B and I looked at each other and we burst out laughing.  We were both thinking the same thing — JHJ on “‘Only You’ TV Special” when he talked about how he and his girlfriend quarrelled and she wouldn’t take his calls.  So I asked P if he had to go to see her afterwards to patch things up and he said he’d wait till the morning.  Aren’t you going to wait outside her place all night? I teased P and winked at B (she of course knew I was still in my OYTVS mood – JHJ “sitting” outside his girlfriend’s house all night because “How could anyone stand all night?”  Ha!Ha!Ha!)

Just as computers have a mind of their own, computer guys do things their own way (without telling you.)  I’m grateful to P for making one big improvement to our blog — now you can join as SUBSCRIBER only if you are HUMAN!  P added I-forgot-what-it’s-called, so now to be a SUBSCRIBER, you have to be able to do arithmetic and you have to be approved.  I didn’t know this at first, and when I saw the number of subscribers did not grow by the dozens like before, I was very gratified not to have to keep deleting them.  Then one day I scrolled down the USERS list and found something called UNAPPROVED USER which I promptly deleted.  After doing this for a few days, I suddenly realized maybe I was deleting real JHJ fans.  So I e-mailed P and asked him what UNAPPROVED USER meant, and he said I had to approve them.  Now why didn’t he tell me in the first place?

And now to LOG IN, you have to do some simple arithmetic.  It’s not so simple to me — I’m OK with addition and subtraction, but when I first saw *, I wasn’t  sure if that is “multiply” or “divide”, so I took a chance and got it wrong!  THAT CAPTCHA IS INCORRECT!  I felt so insulted!  But at least now we’re not getting any UNAPPROVED COMMENTS that sell this and that, and we needn’t fear ads from porn sites anymore.

Honestly I’m not sure our improvement is an improvement.  I have to say technically our blog is very unsophisticated.  That’s because I am not at all technical-minded and I can only cope with something simple.  I hope you agree with me that substance is more important than style.  I wish I could say what JHJ is always saying: “I will appear before you in a new image.”  Our new image may look a little better than before, but we’re still the same under our skin.  As long as we’ve got JHJ, we’ll look as good as he does.  5555!

It was Song Il Gook’s mother Kim Eul Dong (SIK of “Jumong” “A man called God”, etc. fame), a famous actress in her own right, who had high praise for JHJ in SDY – “Very handsome, like a pretty boy who has stepped out of the comics”.  Characters in comics always look larger than life, more beautiful than real people – except in the case of JHJ.  These photos are proof!

(Credit: http://koreastorm.com; http://gall.dcinside.com; www.johyunjae.hk.  Thanks!)

IF YOU DO NOT IMMEDIATELY LEAVE A COMMENT (JUST SAY “HI”) AFTER YOU REGISTER, YOU WILL BE DELETED AS A SUBSCRIBER.  THIS APPLIES ALSO TO THOSE RECENT SUBSCRIBERS WHO MAY NOT BE AWARE OF OUR NEW POLICY.

To all subscribers new and old

One of the more dreary things we have to do everyday is DELETING subscribers.

Every day, every hour, we have several new subscribers which we know are NOT JHJ fans.

For one thing, their USERNAMES are obviously computer generated.  For another thing, when we send them a welcome e-mail, their e-mail addresses turn out to be non-existent.

Many of these e-mail addresses are Russian.  We do not believe JHJ has fans in Russia*, or Finland, or Denmark…..If there really are, please show yourself.

We have to delete the suspicious subscribers because we are so afraid of spammers.  From time to time they manage to put in an ad or two — for things you’ll never want to buy.  If we’re not vigilant, our blog could be swamped by links to porn sites!

In the process we may have deleted some bona fide JHJ fans, for which we apologise.

So this is our new policy:

If you are registering for the first time, please IMMEDIATELY leave a comment, so we’ll know you are for real.  If you don’t do so, you may be deleted.

If you are an old subscriber and you have never left a comment before, would you consider leaving one now so we won’t inadvertently delete you when we’re spring cleaning.

Thank you!

* We just found out (May 1) that JHJ really has fans in Russia (see moongirl’s comment below).  We apologise to those real Russian fans that we deleted before.  Please come back – for JHJ’s sake! 

May 15 – Sorry we have to resurrect this post every now and then. There have been so many new subscribers recently that we can no longer tell whether they are genuine JHJ fans or not, so please pay attention to what we write above so if want to remain as a subscriber.  When you leave a comment for the first time, please tell us where you are from.  We’re interested to know how far JHJ’s “Brave New World” reaches.

 May 22 – We just spent nearly half an hour deleting subscribers with usernames like LouisVuittonBags, HermesBirkinBags, ManoloBlahnikSheos, weddingdresses, weddingshoes, etc.  We don’t need these (the brand names, we mean).  JHJ fans don’t go for these things.  So please leave us alone!  And we want to kill the subscriber with the username BIGpXXXs!

 May 23 – QCEdwards: Are you really a JHJ fan?  We’ve deleted you 2 or 3 times and you keep coming back.  Please leave a comment AT ONCE or you’ll be deleted again.

(Credit: Our signature photo is from http://blog.naver.com.  Thanks!)

May 11, 2011

Our primary criterion in selecting the winner is what the Koreans call 진실한 마음 (true heart) – not how much you love JHJ (we know you all love him) but how you express your “true heart”.  Our panel of 3 judges independently come up with 5 names, ranked in order.  Only ONE name appears on all 3 lists (not in the same order), so she is the clear winner.  There is another name that ranks very high on two of the lists, so she deserves an Honourable Mention.

WINNER — Mo  (Prize – “49 Days” OST)

RUNNER-UP — Sherly Lin  (Prize – JHJ mousepad)

Mo and Sherly, please e-mail us your address at jhjfans@gmail.com and we’ll mail prize to you ASAP.

We thank all JHJ fans for participating.  We like a lot of your comments which are really heartfelt tributes to JHJ.  Until the next competition, keep coming to our blog!

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

COMPETITION CLOSED!  WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER TODAY (MAY 11).

First posted May 5 – will be carried forward everyday till deadline of May 10.  We’re bringing forward the deadline to May 10 since anybody who wants to enter competition will have left comment already.

I was posting JHJ photos when the doorbell rang.  Who could it be?  We never have visitors.  The person was pressing the doorbell non-stop.   When I opened the door, he almost fell in.  “Parcel from Korea.”  It could only mean one thing!  I grabbed the parcel but the man grabbed the door – “Sign!”

Sure enough – the “49 Days” OSTs I ordered from Korea are here!  The jacket design is superior to previous OSTs of JHJ dramas that I’ve bought.  Sound is excellent!  There’s a little booklet of lyrics attached, with photos of the stars together with their autographs.

Following photos taken with my idiot-proof camera – just to give you some idea.  The real thing looks much better.

That’s JHJ’s autograph on left.  Everybody wrote something except our JHJ – a man of few words.

To celebrate JHJ’s upcoming birthday, we are organizing a competition and the “49 Days” OST is the prize.  Our Korean source tells us this is a LIMITED EDITION.

What kind of competition?  Of course it has to be something to do with JHJ.

We want to cater to JHJ’s growing international fans from many different countries.  Mastery of English should not be a factor in the competition.  In other words, even if you can’t write good English, as long as we can understand you, you have a chance of winning.  Chinese and Korean are OK.

So how about this — State the ONE thing you like best about Jo Hyun-Jae.

There is no right or wrong answer — HEART is most important (how much you love JHJ.)

You can write in as many times as you like.  We will just choose one BEST answer.

Deadline is the day after JHJ’s birthday — May 10.

Hurry up!  OST is waiting for you!

(“Staff” may not enter competition – you’re already provided for.   Wulijohyunjae is judge and decision is final.) 

(Credit: Photos from the OST.  Thanks!)

When we first started this blog in February 2009, we confessed we were long on enthusiasm but short on experience and expertise.  We have never been anyone’s fans before and we are not professional journalists, as some of you thought.  We’re just diehard JHJ fans who want to share everything JHJ with other JHJ fans, especially those who can only read English (but not Korean or Japanese or Chinese.)

In the beginning we could barely put out one post a day — during JHJ’s time in the military.  Since his discharge and especially since the start of “49 Days”, there has been a deluge of news, photos, videos, etc.  We are now more experienced but still technically challenged.  And we don’t really know how to run a website, as a result our CATEGORIES leave a lot to be desired.

We know it is very difficult to find anything on our blog – even we ourselves have a problem.  We never imagined there would be so many posts.  So now we are trying to re-structure and divide some of our big categories into sub-categories, starting with “49 Days”.  Before we know it, “49 Days” already has over 300 posts.  We are working diligently everyday to update each post, apart from doing other things.

This is very time-consuming and tedious, and our progress is very slow.  Please bear with us and give us some time.  We apologise to our readers if occasionally you can’t find what you are looking for.  We are trying our best to improve our blog – for JHJ.  We do have quite a lot of good materials – even if we say so ourselves.  Those who have been with us from the very beginning can testify to this.

So come visit us everyday and discover (or re-discover) something about our favourite actor JHJ!