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.”