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FacebookSoshified Spotlight October 2011 Part 2: pubsquash
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 We are back with Part 2 of this month’s Soshified Spotlight. If you remember, a few days ago we featured SooYoona, or Lauren, in Part 1 (which you can read by clicking on the link). This time, we are meeting pubsquash, or Vi, a super moderator here at Soshified. A SONE from Australia, Vi is probably most well-known on Soshified for being the moderator with high standards and who is very on top of things. You have probably seen her in just about every thread that exists, whether giving her two cents or substituting members’ signatures with her own famous creation. But Vi is not strictly business, as she can go crazy over Girls’ Generation with the best of them, among other things. What is your first name? My first name is Vi. It's not short for anything if you were wondering lol. How did you find out about Soshified and why did you decide to join? I was a member on another SNSD forum back in 2007. When it shut down, the community split into two sites and links were given on the homepage. I picked Soshified because it looked prettier lol. How did you come up with your screen name? It's an sn I've stuck with for several years now. Pubs Squash is the name of a lemon soda drink in Australia and I happened to be drinking it at the time when I was joining forums haha. Where are you originally from, and where do you currently reside (city and country for both)? I was born in Vietnam and moved to Australia when I was 7 years old. Currently residing in Melbourne, Australia. How did you end up in Melbourne? I already had relatives residing here and I guess migrating over was going to happen sooner or later. Something about better education and living standards :P If we were visiting you where you live for one day, where would you take us? Why are these places so significant? I'd take you to the inner city of Melbourne because a lot of fun stuff is there. There are few areas I still haven't seen yet because I rarely go there myself, but it will be an adventure nonetheless because we can discover them together (omg cheesy!). Oh! And also, Chadstone Shopping Centre, our fashion capital or Knox. They may not be as big as other shopping malls around the world but it's one of our biggest down south. We can watch movies and eat pancakes :D Tell us a little about your life. What do you do full time and in your free time? Well I work full time at a medical clinic/practice (no, I am not a doctor). Any free time I get is spent spazzing on SNSD, surfing the interwebs and engaging in forum duties. I love having lunches and dinners with friends whenever our work schedules don't clash haha. What's the most interesting thing about you and/or that has ever happened to you? Hmm an interesting thing… My eyebrows can move independently. Is that interesting? lol My siblings think so anyway. According to mum, I skipped crawling and went straight to standing upright. But seriously though, I would have to say the most interesting thing that has happened to me is SMTOWN LA 2010. Hands down. If anyone remembered my Thank You note in the SSF anniversary post earlier this year (lolz who actually read all that), I mentioned it to be a defining moment of my life. It was my first time stepping on US soil and my first time seeing SNSD live on stage. I basically emptied my bank account and threw myself on a plane with my buddy Greg for that event. Both of us were 2 out of 6 Australians who flew over to see the concert. Absolutely worth every dime. I got to meet a lot of peeps face to face for the first time (and for the 2nd time, Holly. I must mention her or she will kill me). Thank you Holly, Jennie, Linda and Naureen for getting my ticket and organising my hotel arrangements, as well as transporting my carsick/snoozing body around town lol. Love you guys <3 For people who are first meeting you (like most of us), how would you describe yourself? A little shy and reserved, but very quick to becoming relaxed and talkative if you throw me a comfortable topic. I'm normally not that talkative if the subject matter doesn't interest me or if I'm distracted by something else. I will respond well when given a good question. I rarely initiate conversations unless I actually have something I think is worthy to share with you or if I am interested in knowing more about you. Sometimes I space out. Tell us some things that most people don't know about you that you think they should. Gee, um…..uh…..apparently I look like Natalie Tran aka communitychannel. I won't comment on that, we don't look alike at all (glares at the few who think so, and that includes my brother!). I'm not that interesting so there's not much to say…. Is there anything big in your life that you're working on? (This can be related to school, career, hobbies, family, friends, etc.) Not at the moment .__. Although my lifelong dream is to see snow, the Eiffel Tower and a white tiger. My next big event will the the November Kpop Fest in Sydney. Very excited to attend and be part of the audience screaming and cheering for our girls <3 What are your interests outside of Girls' Generation? I don't really follow a lot of other Kpop groups right now. It's sort of on and off actually, sometimes I'd be into who's currently promoting or sometimes I'm just oblivious to who's new etc. Being a SONE is a full time gig :/ As for other music, I still occasionally listen to American music and watch some American TV shows. (there's really nothing to watch on Australian TV right now lol, 70% of our broadcasts are American anyway >.>) How did you first become a fan of Girls' Generation? I was on hiatus from Kpop during my Anime and Jpop streak and was just randomly checking Soompi for new material to listen to. I had listened to Kpop several years ago but only heard of a few groups and singers. I saw news of a girl group dubbed "Super Girls" debuting from SM. I was interested at first because I knew of BoA, HOT, Shinhwa and SES being part and/or were part of SM. I thought it was ridiculous to have that many girls in one group lol. It was then that I found out that SM had a boy group that consisted of even more members (lol :P). So I thought, well that ain't so bad then. I didn't really look into them until more media started coming out like their GGTS videos and bora clips. I think it was around early October '07 when I started to find more about them and tried to find their performances on Youtube. Shortly after that I joined AMBN and the rest is history. Hooked forever xD Who is your favorite member and why? Kim Tae Yeon. The one and only. I have a fascination with her in every aspect. In the beginning, it was her dorkiness that attracted me. Then it was her voice. Just something about her personality that is simply interesting and entertaining. Her ahjumma laugh, her white skin, her unique humour (hurricane diarrhea!), her adorable stature, her attractive voice; everything about her pulls me in. I admire her strengths and her weaknesses. Not just Taegangers, but long time observers of Taeyeon will know how strong and generous a person she is and why she is the best leader Girls' Generation will ever have.  Random pic insert to spice up interview. What is your favorite Girls' Generation song and MV and why? This is the hardest question! lol Okay, Into the New World is still my absolute favourite song. I love Into the New World and the MV for it, but the MV that left me the strongest impression is Girls' Generation. I'm telling you, it's those jumpers! When I entered the fandom, ITNW had already come out, so I felt that the first MV that I watched as a new aspiring fan is GG. The MV is full of expressive gestures and the dance is cute. I had a hunch I'd be stuck in this fandom for as long as they existed and that MV just confirmed my feelings. What is your favorite Girls' Generation moment and why? It's incredibly hard to pick one favourite moment above others. There are those small moments in certain variety shows and then there's those meaningful ones that touch your heart. One of my favourite moments is when Taeyeon declared that Tiffany's love was enough for her [as a birthday gift]. I am serious o.o -forever a TaeNy shipper- xD. Biased pairing aside –coughs-, the most meaningful moment for me is GDA 2010. I know this is a favourite amongst many as well as the time they won 9 MuBank awards. Winning isn't everything but it is still a rewarding feeling. Watching their shocked faces as their name was called out is an absolute gold Kodak moment! How has Girls’ Generation impacted your life, in specific areas or even as a whole? Well to continue one from how I became a fan, I'd have to thank Girls' Generation for bringing me back into Kpop. I discovered more musicians and idols that year than I'd known since 4-5yrs prior to that. I had new interests to what the current music industry was like in Korea. I'm also now broke every time there's new merchandise and albums. I never knew how financially consuming and time consuming this fandom has become lol. I associate the number 9 to many things, I buy more pink inspired items. Never in my life could I have known how 9 girls from a Korean pop group can make my gloomy day turn into sunshine filled rainbows. I've met a lot of amazing and funny people because of Girls' Generation and I think that is truly incredible. The short answer: My life is whipped. What do you like most about Soshified, and why? Any section in particular you’re attracted to? Mostly the people. I love the international aspect of the community. Girls' Generation unites us to a place where many can connect and discuss about one awe-inspiring group. This is a top global achievement that we all can agree on and I know the girls feel it too. There's a lot of sections that I like….but I'll narrow it down to the photo section and the downloads section. It's always exciting to see new photos and videos :] Why did you decide to join the Soshified staff, and why the particular job you have now? Again, mostly because of the people and also because I just wanted to try it out. I made some friends and they were staff so I thought I'd try it out to see if I could help them. I couldn't do anything like design cool stuff and subbing seemed hard so I went for the position of moderator. (got promoted some time in July, I don't remember cos I didn't know til I logged on during my vacation lol) What exactly do you do? Do you enjoy this position? What do you like about it? Spam control lol. I close or move topics if they are in the wrong sections. I answer queries when I can and help members get to the right discussion areas. More or less the same things I did when I was yellow. Pretty much just make sure members know and follow the rules. Rules are there for a reason, ya know! haha. It gives me something to do for the forum, especially when the girls are on hiatus (not that they ever really are lol). Does being a super moderator give you any abilities that you didn’t have as a moderator, or do you just get to boss around the yellows? Uh, not much is different except I now take name change requests. I'm not bossy at all, I just guide and help new moderators when they have a query. Everyone does a pretty good job when they've passed the learning curve :D Obviously from your answers (and from me getting to know you) you’re very outgoing and fun. But you also have a reputation as a strict moderator. How do you reconcile these two traits, or is it just business? Ahahaha I do think I have a reputation of being a little strict as some of my past victims targets can testify. I get especially frustrated when someone doesn't understand the rule I try to explain and I guess the authoritative part of me that comes into the messages may come across as intimidating. I'm not overtly friendly because I do like to keep my manner partially professional. I’m straight to the point when I warn people, occasionally inserting a smiley or two to downplay any possible sense of hostility……. xD I am chill most of the time and I try to be very lenient, I only pull out the hammer when it's necessary. What is your favorite project that you’ve ever been involved in? I will pick the Scavenger Hunt we had last year for SSF's anniversary. There were a lot of contests held by each staff group and the moderator's one was a lot of fun to be a part of. That and pretty much all of the gift projects I've ever donated for, including the charity donation projects. What exactly was the Scavenger Hunt? Any plans for another contest soon? The Scavenger Hunt aka Operation S.H, a game of knowledge haha. We had a mass forum wide quiz wherein a bunch of witty Soshi related quiz questions were created and hidden in all parts of the forum. We had them hidden in popular threads and not so popular sections and released tips and clues for members to find the questions and answer them. The point of the contest was for members to revisit their favourite threads and also let them discover sections they have yet to explore. Winners were given prizes which included a variety of Soshi merchandise. We've got no plans for any contests at the moment. It does take tremendous time and effort to coordinate one like that. But we'll see what the future brings as Soshified's 4th anni comes closer hehehe. Any interesting experiences when interacting with members? Hmm… spazzing can be a little dangerous sometimes when there are many xD. The interesting part is when you get to put names to faces lol. As a moderator, what is the most memorable thread or post that you’ve come across? Hrmmm. As a moderator, the thread Indexes in each of the main nine sections are quite memorable lol. You don’t know how often I go in there to find links for members who do not know they exist as they create the same topics over and over again rofl. They are pinned at the top of all of the girls’ sections, yet people’s eyes seem to repel it and the just can’t see it xD Is there anything else about you that you would like to add? I just want to say I wish Soshified will continue to grow strong and successful. I hope members will contribute the best to their abilities in keeping the forum fun and exciting for all ages. We're all here for the same reason so let's be kind to one another and be the type of fan that the girls are proud of. Thank you David for sending me these questions and thank you to the person who nominated me ^^ . I hope my answers did not bore you lol Compiled by: residentbenchwarmer@soshified.com Have a news item that you think Soshified should know about? E-mail us at tip@soshified.com. |
