ARMY has always had a complex, evolving relationship with multistans (I say this from personal experience as well as initial studies into fandom culture). And I still hold this truth: there’s no single, correct way to love BTS or your Kpop idols. Or both. And all of the above. Fangirling doesn’t have to follow a template. However, fandom culture can serve as a compass: a guide for how we care for and interact with one another, not a set of rules to police, control, use one’s fan group authority over members who express a different opinion, even dissent. We can co-exist by honoring each other’s space and recognizing the moments we come together in joy, memory, and meaning.
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Kuwentong Bangtan: Honoring Fan Loyalty While Holding Space for Respectful Co-existence
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Project Indigo Pottery Series: A collection shaped by grief, grace, and letting go.
Part of my ARMY Glow Up 2025, these pieces are an act of commitment and relational accountability that honors BTS’ message of perseverance and healing through hardship. Each bowl is a quiet offering, formed by hand and fired in memory, truth, and transformation.
Monday, July 21, 2025
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Kuwentong Bangtan: Beyond the Performance: Namjoon, Jin, and the Soft Power of BTS
Namjoon and BTS spoke at the United Nations. He and the 6 of them conversed with a sitting U.S. president; he delivered the speech infront of the press at the White House. But after his military enlistment, his first public speech wasn’t on a global stage. It was at his stylist’s wedding. And yet, the weight of this moment remained. This event and his presence, with Hoseok and Yoongi, speak of community, civic duty, and the sacredness of public service. His words, tender and weighty, remind us that leadership isn’t always tough. It can be tender. Sometimes, it’s intimate. Chosen. Intentional.
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Monday, July 14, 2025
The Lighthouse Diary Entry #76: My Personal Code of Use for ChatGPT: Working with AI in Integrity, Creativity, and Compassion
Modeling responsible AI use is a powerful form of digital citizenship. In my context as a librarian, bibliotherapist, educator, and fan community member, it’s more than policy to practice. It is formation.
1. I will use ChatGPT as a collaborator, not a crutch. I affirm that my voice, insight, and experience are primary. AI can support my clarity and output, but it will not replace my discernment, values, or lived knowledge.
2. I will protect the privacy of people in my care. When working on bibliotherapy stories, student support materials, or community narratives, I will anonymize names and details, and I will never upload sensitive personal or medical data.
3. I will use AI to strengthen my advocacy, not compromise it. Whether I'm crafting workshop materials or writing about fandom justice, I commit to using ChatGPT to amplify truth, care, and dignity—not to dilute or sanitize uncomfortable realities.
4. I will fact-check and attribute. For any citations, lyrics, research, or shared ideas, I will verify sources and acknowledge creators. AI-generated responses will be cross-checked and revised before being used in public platforms.
5. I will remain reflective about the power and limits of AI. I understand that ChatGPT is trained on vast, sometimes biased datasets. I commit to questioning, rewording, and reframing outputs that may reinforce colonial, ableist, or extractive thinking.
6. I will honor my process and my pauses. Not every question needs an immediate answer. I will use silence, solitude, and community check-ins alongside my digital tools. I trust my pace and my rhythms.
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Heart and Seoul Travel Log: Food for the Soul Series 1 Entry #5 A Visit to Otsu Seiromushi: Black Pork, Floating Rocks, and Quiet Joys
On the evening of our second day in Seoul, we made our way to Otsu Seiromushi, the restaurant owned by Jin’s brother. Tucked inside a building in a business district in Seoul, the place was ready for our group to be accommodated. There was quiet excitement in the air.
When we were seated, we began with small servings of starters: a cold plate of sashimi and seasoned appetizers. The grilled Jeju black pig arrived soon after, and it was impeccable: greaseless, tender, and not charred at all. For a grilled meat dish, it looked and tasted healthy. I couldn’t help but compare it to the lechon black pig (a.k.a baboy ramo) I tasted during the PASLI Conference last April at the IRRI in Silang, Cavite. That version had subtle flavors of salt and tanlad. This one, however, was more refined. Thinly sliced, just one strip flavored the palate entirely.
Kuwentong Bangtan: Who is BTS in our lives?
On ARMY Day, I reflect with gratitude on a journey that began with my ARMY daughter and BTS. For me, it has always reached beyond music; beyond the Purple ocean or universe. From day one, transcendence was apparent. It was already in motion. Not during the enlistment era or after, when all members have all been discharged. For who in Kpop would dare reference Omelas and Snow Piercer in a song of loss, longing and emancipation?

Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Monday, July 7, 2025
Heart and Seoul Travel Log: Food for the Soul Series 1 Entry #3 Snacks, Stopover, and Sisterhood
After our exhilarating visit to the filming site of In the Soop in Pyeongchang, we stopped at what looked like a small mall, a kind of rest area where tourists could stretch, snack, and breathe before the long drive back to Seoul. There, we unwrapped our packed sandwiches. They were simple but satisfying. I especially loved the orange and berry juice that came with it, bright, tart, and refreshing.
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Saturday, July 5, 2025
Friday, July 4, 2025
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Kuwentong Bangtan: The Return Is the Ritual Reflections on BTS, Community and Why We Feel Safe
Last night, BTS went live on Weverse as seven. Their first group live after completing their military service. No fanfare. No flash. Just the seven of them sitting together: talking, teasing, and laughing like no time had passed. Our chaotic 7 whom we missed so much.
My daughter watched it and posted an edit she found on Tiktok showing the last live OT7 had in September 2022 and the one last night post-military. Her caption read: “It's like they never left.”
She’s right. That familiar rhythm; the way they lean into each other; listening in and taking a cue from a planned message for ARMY; the inside jokes; the tone of their voices when they’re together. It was all there. And it made so many of us feel "safe".
An ARMY in the comments said, “Why does this constancy always make me feel safe?” And I have been thinking about this all day-- on top of my online classes, a deadline to beat and a training manual to finish.
Maybe it’s because we’re so used to things shifting, especially now on social media where our digital lives are ruled by algorithms and AI. Things move so fast and change happens in a blink of an eye before we can even make sense of what has passed. In the same vein that fandoms and fanbase change.
People leave. We get abandoned.
Trends rise and fall. We wonder where to anchor our beliefs.
But BTS? They show up.
Even after everything. Even after the distance and the silence, they return, not just to the stage, but to us. And that kind of showing up is rare.
ARMY, we all saw them last night-- and in succeeding posts of ARMYs and fans, form translations, clips, memes and reactions. They are returning strong and transformed, but comforting and familiar. Like nothing has really changed.
My daughter continued the conversation and added something she read online: “The price of community is inconvenience.” That line stayed with me because it is true, but, there is a nuance to it. Community isn’t effortless. It means choosing to be present. It means communicating and articulating honestly that things are changing. That at some point, people will pause and keep silent. And in the downtime, there are those in the fanbase who chose to stay with BTS while in conscription. It’s not easy. Even when you're tired or busy or uncertain, joining the live, commenting, streaming, defending, celebrating. These are all part of this quiet work of being together.
The thing is, ARMYs are not just fans consuming content. We’re participants in something built over years. Being part of ARMY means giving time, attention, care. And in a world where hyper-individualism is often rewarded, choosing community, choosing to show up, can feel like rebellion.
The conversation continues when an ARMY chimed in, saying: “Good thing we can do both! My individual-ness might not be able to take it.” And there’s the beauty of it, we can do both. We don’t have to erase ourselves to be part of something bigger. BTS shows us that. Their bond isn’t about sameness, it’s about connection. It grows and changes, but it doesn’t disappear. It evolves, and yet, somehow, stays the same.
That’s duality. And it’s comforting.
With BTS and ARMY, it is not the spectacle or the performative fangirling that is already a stereotype among Kpoppers-- no offense meant. What holds BTS and ARMY are the rituals that have been built overtime. Not the comebacks but the returns. Jin performing live a day after discharge and hugging 1,000 ARMYs. Hoseok allowing Jin to sing Spring Day with him on 613. JK being present for 2Seok in Jamais Vu. And Yoongi, donating millions for the care of children in the spectrum. The live last night felt like home because they have always been with ARMY through two years of being away in the military.
And the joy ARMY felt? It’s not just from new music of Jin and Hoseok or the big announcements of an album and a world tour. It’s in the rhythm of presence. In the trust we’ve built, slowly, over years.
The return is the ritual. And in that, we are never really lost. We never walk alone.