Growing Up-The Body reading Journal

     Growing up is something that we all have to face, sooner or later. In the process, we go through many special experiences or perhaps tests that changes our view point of the world. It could be facing up to your parents, teachers or maybe facing up to yourself and in “The Body” written by Stephen King, we can find all of these in the adventure that the protagonists take. 

     Gordie is the narrator who tells the story of himself and three other children--Chris, Vern, and Teddy. For Gordie, the whole story is, quite literally, writing about writing as a writer. Like he says in the beginning however, “The most important things are the hardest things to say,” and “The Body,” deals with some of the most sensitive moments in Gordie’s childhood. Gordie, who was the second child in the family was treated like a child that never existed. Even while his big brother lived, he was never the center of attention from his parents. Then, when his big brother died from an accident, his parents fell and became, “too fucked up” to take care of Gordie. 

     From Gordie’s view, the death of his brother was more of a dream. In his stories, and dreams, his brother often came out to Gordie as if he were still alive. Gordie was afraid that maybe it should have been himself who died instead of his brother. In his imagination his brother still talked and walked around. This was why seeing the body and facing death in reality meant much more to Gordie. He later realizes that when you die, you can’t and shouldn’t do anything and finally comes to really accept the death of his brother. In a way, Gordie becomes more matured than his parents who never learns this lesson, that one “can’t, don’t won’t never, shouldn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t,” do anything anymore. 

     Chris Chambers is also another twelve year old child. Unlike Gordie, who is from a middle class family in Castle Rock, he comes from a family of very low reputation. Because of this, he is also expected to live up to his reputation as a Chamber. However, he struggles to get out the the town and the reputation of his family. In the end, he really does escape the town with the help of Gordie. The rest of the little gang, Teddy and Vern are rather neglected in the story. For them, the adventure was their first “big” thing. But from my view, it seems that that was just about it for them. Teddy and Vern, unlike Gordie and Chris, didn’t change much even after the adventure and maybe thats why they became one of those friends that you just pass by in the hallway. 

     The writer who is writing about a writer writing about writing--that would be me--also experienced growing up. It was more of a series of changes that accumulated to my maturing in my case, and I’m still in the process. Like in the reflection essay that I wrote on my blog, I was faced up against myself. The task was speaking out. Well, I’m not really sure how its turning out, will I succeed in my metamorphosis like Chris and Gordie? Or will I stay the same like Teddy and Vern? Time will tell, but in the mean time I would like to recommend “The Body,” for the ones who are facing their own tasks in growing up. 

(Reflective Essay) Speaking Out

     Ten years ago, around this time of the year, I had my very first flight--on an airplane of course.

Even at that age, I sort of understood the concept of having a jet lag after a long travel like the one I took which was from Korea to the States. The jet lag, however, itself didn’t seem to affect me much at that time. It may have been because I was young, or maybe because of the extensive sleep that I took on the plane. Anyways, I was all hyper and energetic when I got off the plane at Washington D.C. But now that I think of it, I think I experienced the jet lag more than anyone else, not physically, but in my confidence. 

     The language barrier was much higher than I thought. For the first two months or so I barely spoke a word in English. In the month after that, I was barely able to construct a complete sentence. The rest of the two years that I lived in the States, I was a quite boy. I became quite fluent in the end actually, but still I wasn’t the type that really fit the word “loquacious”. 

     When I came back to Korea, I had to face the language barrier again--ironic isn’t it? I could speak in Korean(people tend to remember their mother tongue for quite a long time). I couldn’t write though. I could write just a little bit more than the foreign teachers who’ve been living in Korea for some years. A bigger problem, however, was the words and language that the other children were using. It was really hard for me to understand the games they were playing or the catchy phrases that were uncatchable for me. Every now and then when I look at the photos I took as a second grader, which was when I just came back from the States, I feel once again that I’ve changed, a lot. 

     My middle school years were an extension of the elementary school years. I kept on reading fantasy novels and so on. Around that time I think I really enjoyed reading the “House of Scorpions”. I fooled around and made jokes with my close friends, but for the majority, I was still the quite kid. One interesting change that happened to me around my second year in middle school was in my writing style. I’m not sure if it’s a good example, but here is one of the things I wrote as a middle schooler--quite “organic”, really. 

     “Being free of harmful substances is also a reason why organic foods are becoming the new trend. There is a huge issue going on with the melanin inside foods. As it is known it is known to cause diseases. These harmful matters came from non-organic foods products and are being found in others too. This helped people to recognize organic foods and increase the thought that organic foods are healthier since it wouldn’t contain such ingredients. If the product is truly organic it wouldn’t contain any artificial chemical or substances that are harmful to the human body and this became the main reason for the huge growth. Since health is one of the areas that many people are interested those who can afford would prefer organic foods.”

     Compared to my current style, the things I wrote a couple years ago seem very taciturn and dull. The source for the sudden change in my style was the book called “I’m a stranger here myself”, written by, my favorite author, Bill Bryson. Here’s an excerpt from the book.

     “I decided to clean out the refrigerator the other day. We don't usually clean out our fridge-we just box it up every four or five years and send it off to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta with a note to help themselves to anything that looks scientifically promising-but we hadn't seen one of the cats for a few days and I had a vague recollection of having glimpsed something furry on the bottom shelf, toward the back. (Turned out to be a large piece of gorgonzola.)

So there I was down on my knees unwrapping pieces of foil and peering cautiously into Tupperware containers when I came across an interesting product called a breakfast pizza. I examined it with a kind of rueful fondness, as you might regard an old photograph of yourself dressed in clothes that you cannot believe you ever thought were stylish. The breakfast pizza, you see, represented the last surviving relic of a bout of very serious retail foolishness on my part.”(Bill Bryson, Junk Food Heaven)

     You laughed as you read it right? That’s what I really liked about his style. No matter how serious or heavy the topic was, he was always able to mix some humor into it. Bill Bryson never failed to get me laughing and like one of my teachers said, “that never hurts”. Now I’ve got much more talkative in my writing, it was the perfect timing for me to get talkative and thats what I did. 

     From the quite little boy, I slowly became a talkative little boy. Then during the last summer of his middle school year, the talkative little boy came to KMLA for the first time to participate in a debating competition. At that time, I didn’t even know the format or what I had to do as a debater. I just came here as if I was a tourist not a competitor. As I prepared and did the debate, I began to love it. Don’t take me wrong, but I really came to love the tension that came right before I gave my speech and the ecstasy that came from finding flaws and ways to reconstruct our stances. But over everything else, the fact itself that you had to “Speak Out” on your opinion was what drove me the most.

     With that experience, I applied to the debating club when I came to high school. I heard from a lot of the juniors that the club was really time consuming, but that didn’t matter much for me. “The grade point average, you see, represented the last surviving relic of a bout of very serious academic foolishness on my part”. With only passion in my heart, really no skills at all, I began debating. It was really hard in the beginning, and it still is. The seniors in the adjudication seats was what scared me the most. You never get used to it, not even if you do it over and over for a year.

      Thats what I did. During my freshman year, I’ve learned a lot of things from various classes. I really do feel that I’ve taken something away from the effort that I put in for a year but apart from the class assignments and so on, what I consider most worthwhile is the skills that I’ve acquired as I practiced debating. Debates aren’t just about refutation. That’s a major part that is seen on the outside, but from what I’ve felt, what we really earn is the practice of organizing and spelling our thoughts out to the others. No matter how much pressure we are in, we had to squeeze out every last word inside our brains. At first, it was to fill the time limit. Later, it became a problem of organizing the most into the limited time. The various background knowledge that accumulated from the research that we do for preparation was a bonus that came along. 

     Just two days ago(Dec. 3rd), I was on the bus going down to Gwangju for the last debating competition of the year. We broke the preliminary rounds as the second seed and lost the next round. We ended up as a quater finalist. Not bad, really good actually, but I did feel a bit dejected by the results. The air inside the convening room that we had our debate in seemed suddenly a bit darker as if to reflect my mood. As the breakers for the next round was announced, my teammates and I walked out to get something to eat. The fog inside my mind condensed as we walked down the stairs of the convention center, until I looked back that is. When I looked back at the building, I really began to realize how huge it was. 
     

     With the sun on its back, the building hung on the horizon. And I realized that I had the chance, that I might never have had imagined as the quite little kid. I was all suited up and standing in front of a huge building that I’ve just debated in. And even the room that we debated in were normally for all those important looking old men in black suites. I stood in front of the judges in one of those rooms. I debated in one of those rooms. I had argued my thoughts in one of those rooms. And I spoke out--perhaps for the first time in my life.

The Smile of the Wind

     It's a song that came up in my mind as I was doing the homework for music class. It was a song that my friends played when I was in the 5th grade. A long time ago, it seems, but the melody was still in my head. This song is also the song that made me interested in Fusion songs played with Korea's traditional instruments. Hope you like it!

Evolution...??No, It's time for a Revolution!

Revolution of the Human Race

Nowadays, we believe in Darwin's evolutionism as an explanation to the creation of living things. The human race has also gone through a process called evolution as you can see from the picture on the left. On the contrary, the history of human beings is rather driven forward by revolutions such as the French revolution in the picture below. We acquired a system called democracy through revolutions, the scientific world developed hugely through the industrial revolution, and the literary world has been revolutionized with the blog postings by the 16th wave of KMLA--so to speak.

The French Revolution

So what is all this sudden talk about revolution and evolution? Well, today I began to feel the need for a reform. It began like this. So it was just another day where I felt particularly tired and bored--in other words I didn't want to study. But being self study time, I had to do something productive which lead me to the blogs of my fellow 16th wavers. I have read some of the posts--actually quite a lot of them when I come to think of it--and today I decided to read some more of the metafictions. Somehow I came into this blog called the Resonance. Well, you'll understand the reason for my sudden urge to turn up my blog from the start.(I really liked your blog Suh Young!) So thats how it began. Not much eh? Now that I decided to change, I had to make a decision, evolution or revolution? Naturally, considering the characteristics of blog posting, evolution would mean a slow development in my writing and publishing skills. For me, however, that didn't really solve the problem. I wanted some tangible change right this instant. Thats how the design of this blog changed so suddenly. The name of the blog as also changed you know(From Ipso Facto->To Revolutionism). I'm not sure how much change I can bring in the short period left of this semester but considering that I would like to continue this blog all through my high school year, I thought that it would be nice to give some change. My writing style won't change of course, but I'm trying the neaten up all the rest. So if you have the time, please stay tuned to Revolutionism.

Child Prodigy in App Creation-SAT Words Assignment

     Video games are traditionally considered deleterious for children. However, for Thomos Suarez, a 12 year old child prodigy, video games were more than just a method to superficially alleviate your boredom. His fervor for games didn’t extinguish even under the disdain of his parents, and when the app store was launched his innate senses pushed him into learning app development. “At first”, he says, “I began with learning the basics for programing, Pascal, C, and Java.” Well, so thats how it began. Although the apps that he produced are simple, qualitatively, it is still something worthy to be touted. 

     Now, with the support of his parents, he was able to really begin developing apps. However, the days of developing apps alone were transient. Not long after, he created a club at school that worked together to learn and develop apps. Compared to him, my life as a 12 year old seemed like a turpitude--an average torpid life of running from school to home and vice versa. 

     This young child, Thomos Suarez, wasn’t a good speaker, nor was he full of charisma. What he did have, though, was the zeal. Something impalpable, but at the same time manifest was surrounding him, it seemed--he was a visionary. Watching this twelve year old pursuing his dreams made me look back on myself. What am I doing right now? And is there something that I can do with as much passion as Suarez? It turns out that I have to many things on my mind right now. I love to do a lot of things, maybe to many: physics, math, programing, design, literature and even film making. In a pragmatic sense, it might be better to have a profound passion in one. But to me right now, a life pursuing only one dream seems rather prosaic. Having a profound passion in one area is a laudable thing, it really is. It's just that for me right now, as a freshman in KMLA I find that I want a little more freedom. Einstein said, "If you want to life a happy life, tie it to a goal," and right now I'm anchored at many dreams, searching for where I truly want to head. 

Catch Me If You Can (Review)-Running away from the reality

     The best movies achieve a link between reality and fiction that feels effortlessly harmonious, and at some point you find yourself absorbed into the fictitious reality. In that regard, the movie “Catch me if you can”, is slightly of the main road, for it portrays a life of forgery. 

     Stared by Leonardo DiCaprio, Frank Abagnale Jr. is a normal sixteen year old. His life starts to change when Abagnale Sr. is investigated by the IRS and fails in his his business. Their family moves to a smaller house, selling their house, furniture, and their cadillac in the process. From then, Frank’s mother starts smoking and one day is found with another man in the house. And than, they divorce, with Frank under the care of his father. Obviously, that is when the plot starts to change. 

     Frank Abagnale Jr., who is frustrated by the deterioration of his family that followed his father’s financial failure, runs away. Most teenage runaways tend to return home sooner or later, and when they do, they tend to be very hungry and poor. Frank, however, had his ways in earning money. Check forgery. I won’t go on to describing the ways that he managed to fool the banks but it really is simple, but brilliant within. Through tricks that just makes you gawk at the scene, he manages to gather more than two million dollars. What really makes this movie valuable in itself, though, is the portrayal of the losses that Frank experiences in the process. 

     Carl Hanratty, starred by Tom Hanks, is the FBI agent who goes after Frank. Although the continues to fail to catch Frank, he is able to find out who Frank really is, a hurt teenager on the run. On Christmas day Frank calls Carl and starts to apologize for making a fool of Carl. However, Carl responds by saying, “you didn’t call to apologize, you called because you have no one else to call.” It was right, and it is right for many of the people living today, at this moment. Under the layer of humor and materialism, many people feel loneliness--well I do at times. That one phrase dominated my thoughts, and the comedy and humor in the movie wasn’t quite enough to dilute the sadness of reality. 

     The movie, “Catch me if you can”, is categorized as a comedy film--it really is funny for most of the time, I can guarantee that. Only difference that makes it slightly of the road is the frank portrayal of reality--and now that I come to think of it the name Frank, although it is a coincidence, itself has another meaning to it. It makes you absorbed into a reality about a fictitious life and the emptiness of it. The movie was very enjoyable overall, it was bittersweet. 

     The theme of materialism and the loneliness of leading a fictitious life made me think of “The Great Gatsby”. It is about a man who lives a fake life for his love that he met as a teenager. Like Frank in, “Catch me if you can,” Gatsby also looks away from the reality and faces the emptiness and meaninglessness in the life he is leading. The Great Gatsby lacks the comical taste in Franks story, but rather, it portrays the reality in a much more bitter way. Both, the Great Gatsby and Catch me if you can, are great pieces of art that you should really read or watch someday. Hope you can feel some of the things that I felt as I watched the movie and hope that you didn’t read this cause you had nothing else to read. 

Mr. Moon's Assignment, "Three Words"

Fruits, the ocean, and the sky describes me the best

Fruits make my body

The ocean pulls me closer and pushes me away

And in the swirling waves I look at the sky

The Body, the beginning

     The Shawshank Redemption, which is another story by Stephen King, seemed very compact and concise. The compactness of the story confused me at first with so many characters and plots developing, and thats what I perceived as King's style. As I read "The Body", however, I found many parts that seemed, well, unnecessary. It took me a while to differentiate between the four young kids and even through the thirty pages, the characterization feels a little unclear. The frequent mentioning of different card games didn't help either.
     Although I started out really confused and irritated--which was due to my lack of knowledge in card games and slangs--I did begin to get immersed into the story when King started to describe about the young years of each character. I enjoyed, though the violence shocked me, the story of chris's family. Also I really liked the part when Gordie goes back home and starts to talk about his perception of his family and relationship with them. I could feel the "transparency" that he felt. From this point is where the little metafiction begins through a story that young Gordie wrote. The short story, though it felt rather long, was very confusing. The dialogues were vague and at times meaningless. But through the vagueness, there was an underlying scent of loneliness.
     This is the end of my short reflection, though it turned out as a long rambling about the story, about the first thirty pages of the Body. I do look forward to reading the rest of the story and finding out the mystery of the kid Browler.

Merry-go-round (Metafiction)

      “So we have seen Schopenhauers’ view on females and how they are characterized in his stories. Now....let’s see. Till next class I want you guys to finish up the reading of the world as will and representation and write a reflection on it. To give you a tip, keep in mind that Schopenhauer was interested in Buddhism and his criticisms of Immanuel Kant.”

     “Professor! What about the other essay due next week?”

     “Oh, I almost forgot. Thank you Salena. To answer your question, the due date for that essay will be the week after next week. With the extra week, I will be expecting excellent works from all of you. And as I always say, think about your life as you write. It’ll help you to really immerse into the topic. You should get along now, everyone.”

    Two and a half years have passed since I came to college. I can still remember myself hurrying along to get to the next class a freshman. At the beginning I felt like I would be able to get an honor’s for every single subject, more or less. Well, it turned out that the school was not as, lets say, allowing as I thought. 

     I used to carry along a small notebook with me so that I can take notes on things that came to my mind. Sometimes it served as a very good idea bank, sometimes a diary, and now a part of the past. I was dazed and puzzled at the way the school went around. Especially during the second semester of the first year, the numerous events were quite enough to make me forget about the small note book. And now, since professor Andy, who teaches European literature, is asking me to look back into my life, I am searching for the little notebook I used to carry. 

     “Hey, Lena! Do you know where my little note book is?”

     “Huh? you mean the one you used to carry with you years ago?”

     “Yup, I figured that it is worth looking for.”

     “Hmm..dunno, just try looking in that cabinet of yours that has all the old stuff in it.”

     “Good idea. Thanks Len.”

     “Oh yeah, your mom left something for you Salena, it’s just some fruits and stuff.”

     “Okay, I’ll be right there.”

     So I did look and guess what? My little note pad was there. It tends to become very private sometimes but I’d like to share a part of it with you which was on the first page that I opened. 

     Nowadays, life is like a spinning wheel. I am like a puny little hamster frantically moving my feet, trying to catch up with the speed of the wheel. However, the energy also powers the wheel itself. The faster the hamster runs, the faster the hamster will have to run. Ironically, the hamster is still in the same place, no matter how much time has passed.

     “How can I start to take back all my regrets...”

     As I read this part about the hamster and the spinning wheel, I imaged myself riding the merry-go-round. Dunno why, but that’s what came to my mind. Along with that, I didn’t notice at first, but I was humming the song merry-go-round by the Untouchables.

    “Although I run to you, run to you with all my hart. I hover and linger around...”

     The future seems to be far away as you're going round repeatedly to catch up the speed of fast-rolling wheel, you must hold your soul and pretend not to be hurt. Ironically, as much you pretend to be strong, the more pain you'll be dived into. The more pain you feel, the more you hide yourself. The time seems to crush down out of your reach. However, as you already know, the wheel keeps spinning.

     “...I need to move on, go ahead, face reality.”

     Maybe that is why time is more precious than gold. How much progress one has made depends on him, but time passes uncontrollably. One might be trapped in his own trepidation about losing the race. Once the hamster loses the courage to continue running, the wheel stops. When the wheel stops, the hamster stops. Time is merely a means, a measure of how much one has gone forward. Time cannot crush one down, but the fear of time can.

     “My only wish is to turn back time, back to the days where I was yours, and you were mine.”

     It sounds very philosophical and far away from us, talking about spinning wheels. but it all comes down to our lives right now, the life in KMLA. It seems like your in the same spot no matter what you do. Somedays, you feel too tired to catch up with the spinning wheel that, from some point of my life, started to spin on without my will. Wanting, and begging to stop, but being unable to, is what dominates my mind nowadays.

     “to turn back time...Merry-go-round by the untouchables huh?” said Lena, who was suddenly next to me. 

     “Uh, yeah, it was one of my favorite songs when I was in middle school.”

     “It’s a good song, really. So, did you get an idea for the essay? I was wondering when you would start looking at this little note pad for ideas again. It’s been about two years since you’ve used it right?”

     “Guess so. And I think I have a very good grasp of what I’m gonna write about in my essay. The title is gonna be the Merry-go-round.”

     

The ShawShank Redemption or the ShawShank Deception?

     Known for his great ability to create characters and mysterious stories, Stehen King is a  famous writer, and we all know that. Rita Hayworth and the ShawShank Redemption was the first of his works that I read, and as I read it one aspect that made me awe at King was not his characters but his way of telling a story. It’s hard to explain what exactly gave me that feeling of awe I think this phrase explains it the best, “Simplicity within Complexity”. You’d like me to explain what I mean, but give me a moment, there’s things that I also want to talk about, you see.

     When I first looked at the title of this story, what I thought of was, “why is Rita Hayworth in the title?” You see, it didn’t come to my mind how she was such an important part of the story that her name had to be in the title. Also when Andy first mentioned about Rita Hayworth, what I thought was how are they going to smuggle a human being into prison? Well, it turned out that they were misconceptions due to my lack of Hollywood stars of the 40’s. 

     When you have read my essay up to this point, most of you would have awed at how inconsistant I can get. It was, a very poor imitation of what King’s writing felt like when I first started reading the ShawShank Redemption. Dozens of characters that were thrown at me before I could take them all in, the time setting of the narration was switching back and forth, wardens changing...and the story itself progressed in a very compressed and tightly manner. So when I tried to hurry myself in reading it, it seemed very inconsistant. Within all the complexity, however, the characters were so lifelike and the theme of hope was prevailing throughout the story. Such aspects were what made me awe at King. It seemed, that he had all the story and characters right next to him while he was telling the story from Red’s view point. The theme of hope which is one of the main reasons that make this story such a masterpiece, is another thing that really stuck to my heart. 

     For me, the hope theme was sort of a surprise. As I read the story, it revealed it self as something closer to a story like Prison break, or maybe something like Edgar Ellen Poe’s work. The suspense created by the introduction of Tommy williams and the wardens refusal to help Andy fit perfectly for a very good mystery. It could have easily become the ShawShank deception without King’s ability to focus on simplicity within the complexity. However, instead of making it the ShawShank deception, King injected hope into the readers and created the story was we know it today--the ShawShank Redemption. So what was it that made the difference. In the book, the symbolism of Zihuatanejo, Rita Hayworth, and the tiger named hope did the trick, I believe. When my understanding reached this point, I could understand why Rita Hayworth was in the title. She was not only a Hollywood Star, but she was the link to the outer world, the link to the stars, and the link to hope. 

     In 1994, this masterpiece of literature was transformed into a film. The story itself was very fit for a film, that itself is clear, but I think that the producer of the film did a magnificent job. Even though I usually enjoy books better then films, this is one of those exceptions that always exist in life.(in other words, you should really watch it if you haven’t) My favorite part in the movie was actually a new insertion to the story. In the movie, Andy finds a record while opening a package and decides to turn it on the speakers. What a scene it was. It was a part that really brought the theme of hope to a tipping point, and I really loved it. 

     So back to what I was originally talking about, King is a really good writer. Isn’t that simple?:) That’s pretty much all I was trying to talk about through this semi-long post. I really liked how he was able to focus on a thing called hope, and how he developed such a complicated story with such simplicity--it’s really hard you see, this essay itself was my effort to imitate the feelings I felt while reading his story, you know the results better than I do. Now, I would like to end this post with the famous ending, I hope.

Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring......and Life??

     Life is cherished. Or, it should be. In the movie Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring, made by Kim Gi Duk, we can learn about the important values in our lives. The beginning of the movie, Spring starts out with a young monk and an old monk living in a temple in the middle of the lake. The young monk goes around using the boat and plays in the nature. Until this part, the atmosphere is very bright and tranquil. The teaching starts when the young monk ties a fish, a frog, and a snake to a rock. 

Visualization of your Imagination??

     About a week before the midterm began some of my friends and I were working on an idea for a contest held by some organization. I believe it was some place related to the ministry of education...maybe not. But anyways, our idea was about the things we could do if we could visualize our imagination. It seems very vague when I put it that way, so I think I'll need to explain a bit more. (You don't really have to read it if your not interested:)just watch the video^^that I made by myself) Well our idea started from a paper that described about the technology of visualizing what we are looking at through interpreting our brain waves. (Reconstructing Visual Experiences from Brain Activity Evoked by Natural Movies by Shinji Nishimato) So we thought about how we could extend on this and make it into an idea that is creative and actually useful. We came up with the idea that if we can extend on this technology, we might be able to visualize the imaginations of people. With that, well we could do anything, really. Psychological therapies, creating a database, anything. Eventually we came up with CEE(Communication, Emotion, Empathy). It's basically sort of a Facebook-like database system that allows you to upload what's in your mind. The video here--I made it--is sort of a advertisement for our idea. Anyways I just wanted to share the idea somewhere;)

Already a Year...

  They say that time flies by. Before I came into KMLA I thought that it was just what the old people say whenever they come to think about the days of their youth. Now that I think of it though, time really does fly by you. It passes like the wind. While you're facing it it feels like it'll continue forever but once it goes past, it's just gone. All of this does seem very sentimental...not like my usual writings but today I met the students that may become the 17th wavers as a PA. I really can recall every single detail of the day I had my interview on. It was exactly one year ago, on a saturday afternoon:). In about four months now we'll have the new freshman years that will be calling us as sunbae's. Hmm.....

     Anyways, here's a song that I really like. It's a sony that sort of touches your heart, I guess. Not like the funny one I updated a few days ago:P--the one by MIKA. Anyways the name of the song is already a year --you can guess why I thought of this song. Anyways hope you like it:)

Elle me dit-MIKA(One of my favorite songs)

Pourquoi tu gâches ta vie-Why are you wasting your life?

The Dilemma of Foreign Aid

     Foreign aids has always been the favorite target for Congressional budget cutters. Since the global economical crisis the U.S. house and senate are once a gain becoming stingy about foreign aids and are considering on taking 1.5 trillion dollars out of the budget. On the other hand, editorialists of the New York Times like Carol Giacomo argue that it is no time to get stingy with foreign aids. The debate is already heating up in Washington but in order for us to really understand the issue we have to first look at the relationship between the developed and developing countries and than look at the effects of foreign aid. There is no real answer for this issue but from the point of view of Ha-Joon Chang and through the results that foreign aid had until this date, it seems that the current system of foreign aid run by the OECD(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has more cons than pros.

     Since the colonial era, developed countries buckled down and started to outstretch their influences over underdeveloped countries such as Africa, Southern Asia,  Australia, America, and other parts of the world. England, Spain, Portugal, and France were the big powers of the century. Through their colonies, they accumulated such wealth that England called themselves the sun of the world. The developed countries created a system in which lead to the total deprivation of the colonies. One such example is the plantation system which is the creation of farmland within the colony which utilizes the colonies labor. The problem of the system arises when the crops are ready. The crops raised in the colonies are, so to say, “imported” by the country in power. The reality is, however, not much different from pillaging. The dominating countries of that era put up subsidies and tax barriers against foreign products and acquired their needs very cheaply from their countries. Furthermore, they resold packaged products to their colonies at a high price. These products were not limited to crops but ranged over clothing, metals, and other items. Through this system, the rulers flourished, or they seemed to for a while, for the sun of England eventually set.

     With the ending of the colonial era, many of the colonies gained freedom. Africa for example were divided artificially by the winners of the World War. The political domination that happened during the colonial era seemed to end, but it actually did continue, not through political control, but through economical domination. Under the dominating system of market economy the developed countries held on to their power over developing countries, which were once their colonies. Ha-Joon Chang, one of the leading economist, working at the University of Cambridge, wrote in his famous book, “Bad Samaritans” about the problems of the market economy. Ha Joon Chang, being against neoliberalism, or the theory which supports the system of market economy with the least amount of government intervention, pointed out that the Western developed countries are forcing the developing countries to stay within poverty. His main idea was that the underdeveloped countries, the so called “third world”, must do as the current developed countries did when they were undeveloped, not as these developed countries tell them too. The WTO(World Trade Organization) is one of the main organizations that is hindering the development of the developing countries: foreign aids. The most prevalent of these aids is the ODA(Official Development Assistance) which is an aid officially given by the developed countries, while overseen by the OECD, to the developing countries. 

     Now, coming back to the main issue of foreign aids, the issues discussed above may have seem unrelated to the topic. The truth is, however, that the ODA, is just an extension of the colonial era. Through consistant support of aid in the current system, the developing countries become more and more reliant on the developed, while the developed are donating money that is eventually used to buy products from their own country. Overall, the economical assistance leads to developed countries becoming more and more reliant on the developed countries, which leads to continuous need for the ODA. This vicious cycle itself is a good enough reason to reduce the ODA, but these aids have more unseen problems. Due to the way the money is transferred, the ODA, in many cases like Chad, led to corruption. In Chad, the aids were used in acquiring weapons and were than used to threaten countries opposed to its own. Furthermore, it decreases the urgency to reform the political and economical system of the receiving country. For example, Nigeria, in the status quo is sixty to seventy percent reliant on the ODA for its national budget. A large portion of this is again misused by the corrupt government and lessens the urgency to reform the corrupt status quo. In a macroscopic sense, the ODA does not help the speed of development for the receiving countries. Like Peter Bauer, a famous economist specializing in foreign aids said, the ODA is “...an excellant method for transferring money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.”

     The side effects of ODA or any other foreign aids will always be present, our job for the future is to create ways in which we can limit such problems to a minimal level and eventually decrease the amount of ODA as the receiving country develops. Through increasing the transparency of the aid and adding specific guides and options that require them to reform their own system of politics and economy, we can create a world that is truly one and equal. Like Claude McKay says in her poem, “America”, I gaze into the days ahead. 

Hero's Journey-Harry Potter

Group Members: Jong Hyun Han, Woochan Hwang

Our Story: Harry Potter

Why we chose it: 

ACT I

1. Ordinary World: The world of the Muggles

2. Call to Adventure: When Harry talks to the snake and makes the glass disappear for a moment during his cousins birthday.

3. Refusal of the Call: Harry’s aunt and uncle locks him in his room.

4. Meeting the Mentor: Harry Potter meets Dumbledore at school and relies on him for help.

5. Crossing the Threshold: Hagrid comes to find Harry and brings him to platform nine and three quater’s.

ACT II 

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies: The chess board, the flying key, and other enchantments that guard the philosopher’s stone. 

7. Approach to the Innermost Cave: 

8. Ordeal:

9. Reward:

ACT III 

10. The Road Back:

11. Resurrection:

12. Return With the Elixir:

Chain Writing Project-"Time is Running Out"

     'Time is running out.' That was all I had in my head right now. I had just waken up from bed. It was seven o'clock and everything was normal. Well, everything other than myself. Actually I'm not even sure what the problem is because I just can't remember anything. Who am I? Where am I? And...what in the world happened?
     "Man! What are you doing? You are going to be late for morning exercise if you don't move it this instant!" A voice shouts.
     Uncertain, I laid still in my bed. Well, since I can't really say this is 'my' bed, so technically, I laid still in 'a' bed.
     "Woochan? Are you nuts? The coach will tear you apart!"
     Still uncertain, after all, that boy could be, for all I know, talking to someone else. Anyways, I didn't want to wake up. I felt like being lazy--it brought me ultimate coziness.
     "Ha...... you really force me to be evil, don't you?" the voice again.
     And then, suddenly there was a pull on my leg.
     "Woochan, how could you not wake up after such a blasting wake up music? Today the song was 'Tme is running out' by the Muse!" He pulled me to the ground.
     I, for the first time opened my eyes and looked around. It was a mess. Who ever lives in this room seriously needs to do some cleaning.
     "You really need to clean your room Woochan."
     "Man, it does not really matter for now, anyways. Why are you screaming like an idiot and breaking my sweet dreams anyway?" I said.
     "Believe it or not, we have to go to this so called morning exercise, duh. Now, quit whining and get moving."
     What in the world are they talking about, and before that do I even know that person? With dizziness consuming my mind, I threw my body back to the comfy bed. I want to end this nightmare. I want to wake up.
     "Fine, then have it your way. I don't care if you get penalty points for not attending morning exercise." THe voice grew farther away, then a door slammed. Silence.
     PENALTY POINTS? What is this, a Mario game? I opened my eyes slowly, after making sure there was no one else with me. I was lying on a bunk bed, on the second story. Well, technically it wasn't a bunk bed, because instead of a bed under me, there was a filthy desk. The pile of garbage on it almost reached the bed. Not that the bed itself was any better. It was covered in smelly socks, unwashed sheets, a sweaty shirt and a few food wrappers. Ugh!

Assignment#2 Education Outside in or Inside out?

     Does the current system educate our children out of creativity? Listening to Sir Ken Robinson’s speech given four years ago, I fell into a dilema. “Am I being educated out of creativity even at this moment by doing this assignment? Should I stop this and go practice dancing with the university professors that Ken mentioned?” Well, the dilema ended as I read a long comment someone left under the video of Sir Ken Robinson. It was about how many people do find divine interest and passion within academic fields and express their creativity within the fields. Exactly what I had in mind, it was. The limited diversity is a problem for our students, but a more serious problem that I feel as a student within the process of being “educated out of creativity,” is the method that we are taught about the subjects.

     The main problem that Sir Ken Robinson adressed about was the limited diversity of subjects that are educated to us. He argued about how arts are at the bottom of the educational hierarchy even though it is very important. It does look very ideal if you put it that way, the equality of all fields. Only one problem, the reality that created the current system back in the days of the industrial revolution is still dominant within the society. 


     Nowadays many people do have interest in the arts and do enjoy going to concerts and such, but still, it is the minority. Although the focuses have moved on a bit from the 19^th century it is still within the area of the sciences and then the mathematics. It is the reality that the field of science and mathematics have more jobs compared to the arts. Considering this, isn’t it natural that the educational system will focus on the sciences? It is much easier for children to follow their dreams compared to the 19th century, but the reality that it's much harder for them to get jobs didn't change much. They can dance or sing if they want, but for the majority, I believe that it will be better for them to find their passion within the academic subjects. Here, is where the second problem about the teaching method arises.

     What we see in a math class in an average Korean high school is not much different from a language class, or even a music class. What happens in the Korean education system is that we aren’t being taught, we’re being told; and the students aren’t learning, their listening. This methodical problem is what lowers that passion and creativity of the students in my opinion. Even if a student has an innate tallent in the field of language, the way we’re taught their is simply no way to find it. I personally hated language when I was in middle school. Right now? I enjoy it, actually I really do find my self deeply interested into literary works that I fell asleep reading last year. The approach that a teacher takes to the students change everything about a subject.


     Children do have an innate talent to things but I believe that that talent is not just limited to a specific subject, it’s flexible. Like my case, until last year, I thought I was the saddest case their can be when it comes to literature and language. This year, as a student in KMLA I really was struct that I might have a talent in literature. I'm not the brightest student when it comes to those areas, but I do feel much more interested. I'm even righting a novel recently and I'm amazed at myself and how much I changed. The experience that the children go through decides what that talent will become of. 

     In a more recent video, 4years after the previous one, he asserts how what we need is not an evolution but a revolution. Catchy phrase, and I do agree to it. “Education often dislocate people from their talents,” he says. That’s why the method of education is so important. If the method brings no passion to the students, then thats the highway to educating students out of creativity within that field. To really renovate the system, we need to first increase the flexibility of what we can learn within each subjects then broaden the range of subjects itself. We need a change, like Sir Ken argues, but my views on what should come first is a little different. We don’t wear our clothes from the outside, likewise, we have to change from the inside and out.