20 years later...

Date: 18 July 2031
Weather: very sunny, mild and charming

     After several days of rain, sunshine is finally here! This morning, I woke up in a pleasant summer breeze of Geneva with my 7’o clock alarm. Summer days are so wonderful here. Crystal-blue lake, soft sunshine and vibrant streets…All these make my life in Geneva so magnificent! Well, compared to hot and humid summer days of Baltimore which I had to bear with during my university days in Johns Hopkins, living in Geneva is always delightful!

Today was such a busy day. I had to give an important presentation about new kinds of rare diseases raging in West Africa in front of other staffs in our WHO committee. Since I entered WHO headquarters in Geneva, I have worked in the committee researching rare diseases in the 3^rd world. Last year, several staffs of our committee went to African countries such as Guinea and Nigeria in order to carry out important project. Today, I had to present the progress of our project, so I was quite a bit nervous in the morning.

After arriving at my workplace, WHO headquarter, I prepared and got ready for 2 hours of presentation. At 10 in the morning, as it was all planned, all other people came and I started my presentation with coworkers. I indeed was a bit nervous, worrying what would happen if I do not successfully present my valuable results. After presentation, there was a Q&A session. It was such a hard job to manage answering to all the sharp questions…phew! Thinking of last past days that I stayed up all night, I felt somewhat relieved when this huge task was over. In fact, our presentation turned out to be very successful! During lunch, the chair of our committee praised me for such a sincere work. How great!

Preparing for the presentation made me remind about past years I had spent in Johns Hopkins University. For my public health course, monthly presentation and term papers got me just CRAZY…but from a different standpoint, this course really helped me to deal with such works in my fields. These days, it is such a normal task to contact with regional headquarters of WHO around the world, make a report or carry out research. My tough university life at Johns Hopkins actually trained me to become a great staff in one of the world’s biggest international organization.

By the way, I’m now packing up for my business trip to Montréal. Tomorrow morning, I will depart for Montréal to visit Health Canada(Santé Canada) offices in Montréal and Ottawa. I also have to conduct some interview with local. In Montréal, I guess I have to carry out interviews in French…it might be hard but I’ve continued studying French and  currently living in a francophone city, Genève, I believe my French would be of no problem! Anyway, since it’s already 11pm and I have to wake up at 6 in the morning for the flight schedule, I have to go to bed. Hope my business trip to Canada works successfully!

TED-Lauren Zalaznick: The conscience of television

     We all acknowledge that human beings are highly social animals, even to the extent of making this statement somewhat banal. In other words, communication takes a huge role in people’s daily lives; we talk together, scan through internet news, get curious about other’s lives and go to facebook. Regardless of how we communicate, we interact with people everyday, whether consciously or unconsciously. Among all different means of communication, television is such an pivotal medium considering how much time ordinary people spend on watching television. This is probably why Lauren Zalaznick, a chairman of NBC Universal Media, decided to talk about its surprising and influencing characteristic: being consciousness.

     In her provocative speech, Lauren Zalaznick states that television has a conscience, the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual. The underlying, and tenacious reason for this is that television directly reflects the moral, political, social and emotional need states of a nation, being used in the process of disseminating people’s entire value system (In this case the word ‘nation’ would refer to the United States). With tangible statistics and graphs that facilitate the understanding of her speech, she shows how TV had such a strong connection with its society for the past 50 years. For relevant example, in the graph showing a relationship between the employment rate of United States and the number of fantasy-related TV programs, the lines of two variables were shown to be parallel, implying people want more take-me-out-of-reality shows as their everyday life gets harsher.

     The significance of her presentation is that it elaborates TV is not just a stationary, indifferent, gray-colored and square-shaped box that people watch with potato chips grabbed in their hand; rather, it is alive, being a medium which plays a great role in helping interactions between actual society and people’s value system. TV program schedules do change in accordance with what people desire to watch; social-commentary shows were popular during 1970s where Vietnam wars and Nixon administration took place. People wanted more news and judgment-related programs than comedies after 2001 fall. These evidences clearly elaborate how TV maintains strong connections and shares interaction with society. 

     However, during the speech, I was curious and quite skeptical about one thing: Is conscience a characteristic which only television possesses among all different form of media? Aren’t all kinds of media have consciousness? In my opinion, other media such as internet or newspapers are all uniformly consciousness too; conscience is not something that only television has. There are tons of innumerable examples, but to exemplify very lucidly, we can take a look at newspapers during election period. Several pages are dedicated to deliver different information about candidates, voting results and people’s reaction. These are what people exactly want to know about during election period. Scrutinizing through the example, ‘conscience’ is a universal characteristic of all different kinds of media.

     Personally, I was profoundly impressed by the research study that Lauren Zalaznick carried out which prevented her concise speech from being abstract and tedious. She said “We went back 50 years to the 1960 television season. We surveyed the top-20 Neilson shows every year for 50 years, a thousand shows. We talked to over 3000 individuals aged 18 to 70 and we asked them how they felt emotionally.” What a nice research done! I appreciate the effort she had to put in order to complete this huge research. To sum up, all media, including television, is a conscious and animated passage which connects the whole society and its members.

Direction

This is a photo I took 1 year ago, when preparing for KMLA
It was took by my old, non-DSLR camera

Sometimes, I feel like I don't know where I'm heading for

It feels like my direction is lost...

but looking at this photo, I remember how I tried hard in order to come here

with such a straight objective

just like these rails in the photo above

A year has already passed

and during KMLA life, 

I had several moments where I got discouraged and lost my direction 

but from now on,

 I hope I can always have my direction straight and forward

1st reading journal on 'The Body'

     “So anyway, you want to go see it?”

      “We can find the body and report it! We’ll be on the news!”

     The excitement surrounds the boys. They gather together, and decide to begin a journey to search a dead body. This is what the beginning of the story ‘The Body’ is about, with some basic information about main characters, which are boys in this story. In fact, Teddie, Gordie and Chris all have different characteristics that individualize each of them. Teddie is depicted as somewhat weak and intellectually deficient in the story. During his childhood, he gets hit by his father several times, which eventually leads him to become deaf. Gordie is born in a ‘fucked-up family’, from very old parents who experience several miscarried pregnancies. He had a brother, but his brother eventually dies. Chris, a boy who had previously been suspended from school, also gets hit by his dad; he came from a bad family. All these three boys gather together and head for a site where Ray Browser was hit by a train.

     Reading this ‘intro’ part stimulated my innocence of childhood and evoked my memory. When I was in elementary school, I hanged out with my close friends almost everyday after school. We just laughed, forgot about returning to home, and searched for a place where we could play and have lots of fun. At first, I thought ‘Apt Pupil’ is more of a fun, but I believe this adventure story is also interesting enough. Adventures are always fun, and it will be great to follow how the story continues.

Review-Pentax k-r, a nice DSLR

     

     As being a member of “Through The Lens”, one and only photo club in our school, I always enjoyed taking pictures and doing Photoshop to make them look nice. But during couple months of the first semester, I had only used non-DSLR camera, since I did not have any DSLRs. I was wondering when I could buy that fancy, nice-looking DSLR, and in July, I finally bought one after careful consideration. It is “Pentax K-r”, and I want to show my opinion and review on this DSLR, also with how others think about this camera. Well, I’m neither a professional photographer nor a digital camera critic. This review is just based on my personal feelings, as an ordinary high school student who is interested in taking photos. So ENJOY!

1. Design (10/10)

     Many people would question whether design plays an important role in choosing a camera. Well, for me, design really is what I consider very important in choosing products such as cell phones or laptops, and there is no such exception for cameras. In fact, one of the biggest reason that I choosed this model is its stylish and noticeable colors and designs. Almost all DSLR cameras are in black. Nikon, Canon, Sony and etc… DSLR cameras of these brands are all black, offering no other color choice for customers. However, after taking a glance at the advertisement of ‘Pentax K-r’, I was just captivated by its white-colored body and compact design. In Korea, ‘Pentax k-r’ is offered in three colors; Black, white and pink. For me, a great fan of white-colored products, it seemed as a great decision to purchase this model. Plus, the body itself is much smaller to other DSLR models, being so attractive to those who are reluctant to use DSLR cameras due to their big body sizes. Overall, the design of ‘Pentax k-r’ is quite a bit revolutionary, and I definitely recommend this camera to customers who not only care about the features but also pay a close attention to the product’s design.

2. Basic Features-Hardware (8/10)

     Now, here comes the most fundamental and important criteria in deciding which camera to buy for most of the people. The biggest resolution of the image is 4288 x 2848, which is not outstanding but normal, compared to other models in the market. Also, it is possible to take videos by ‘Pentax K-r’, a function that some DSLR does not provide. One great advantage of this camera is its function to prevent ‘shaking hands’ (In Korean, it is ‘손떨림방지’, but I don’t get how to put it accurately in English haha) When taking photos, it is easy to have your hands shaking which makes the resulting photo blurry. Especially in the dark environment where the shutter speed is really slow, ‘shaking hands’ problem is quite annoying. However, the body of ‘Pentax K-r’ has a function of preventing ‘shaking hands’, helping photos to not become too blurry. Compared to other brands in which this function is not included in the body itself but need special lens, this is a great advantage! Above all, I would say that the overall functions are definitely above expectation, regarding its reasonable price!

3. Basic Features-photos (9/10)

     Here, I would like to talk more about the pictures. What I really notice about this camera is that the resulting pictures give a strong, full-of-color and vivid feeling that we do not necessarily need Photoshop processing after taking photos. The colors are definitely well-expressed, but I guess people who do not prefer strong colors could be unhappy with this. Beyond that, ‘Pentax k-r’ has a unique function called ‘Cross Processor’, which gives a change to image’s overall color tone. (Searching on Internet, this function is only provided by the brand ‘Pentax’) I think this function is quite useful to amateur users who want to give some special effect to the photo. Also for people who do not enjoy using Photoshop, these unique characteristics of ‘Pentax K-r’ can remove some burden of photo revision process.

(Can you get how the 'Cross Processor' works?)

4. Overall...

     I do like my DSLR, which has all these nice features...but in all cases drawbacks exist. For example, I sometimes feel that 'Pentax K-r' has too loud shutter sound. Still, If I were to give a score out of 10, I would give 9 to this DSLR model. Well, I hope you guys all have enjoyed my review and this can help you actually decide what DSLR to buy...haha

Belief

We have always held to the hope,

 the belief,

the conviction that there is a better life,

a better world,

beyond the horizon.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt-

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Homeworks, quizzes and all other workloads are demanding these days...

But let's not lose our belief that our life will be full of happiness one day!

Description on myself...

     I resemble a mangosteen, having a soft, sweet skin under the thick peel. Although opening myself to others is not so easy, I become friendly and gentle when I open my mind. Also, I act like a pond, acting sensitive to stimulus. Sometimes, I get too stressed by trivial matters. However, always connected with my surroundings, I continuously have interactions with them. Moreover, I daydream like a poet, imagining my dreamworld whenever I get bored with my reality. My imagination colors this gray world, just like how poet colors a sheet of paper with a pen. 

Cidade (Metafiction)

“WHAT?

My eyes opened. My eardrum vibrates from the sharp voice

“There’s no such guarantee”

“There’s nothing to gain here! You wanna live like this forever?”

The fight started again. Damn…Can’t I just sleep….???Mom and dad???

     Well, for me also, there is no such hope. A boy with a dad working as a part-timer in a Factory nearby Lisbon and a mom working as an odd-jobber in a restaurant is exposed in the harsh reality too much.

“What do you want! Ya think it will change if we go there?”

“Stop giving such a fuckin’ damn shit@#%#@@$!$!!$!@

“Aah!!”

My heart starts to shake from my mom’s scream. Wanna get out of this dirty room and do somethin’ but there’s nothing I can actually do. I KNOW that. My eyes are now foggy. Something hot comes out, and wets my blanket.

Feeling so lethargic.Lying like a paralyzed patient waiting for the death.…

I hear nothing. I hope someone takes me to somewhere.

SOMEWHERE

Somewhere peaceful

The last paradise of the Pacific? Great

Being Santiago of ‘The Alchemist’ and hitting the road? Sure. Why not

I hope to get out of this place, this situation.

I hope to live elsewhere, in any places

I hope to make new friends

I hope to sleep well

I hope
.
.
.
.
.

My family is actually from Portugal. My sister and I was born in Lisbon and lived in that dirty, old city for a long time. I don’t wannna give a damn shit to my birthplace. But it was so hard to have such positive thoughts about Portugal.

A dready winter days, a narrow road filled with gray-colored buildings, a loud horn of old cars, a never-ending decline of economy.

My mom and dad were not so happy about this declining country. So that’s why we finally, finally, after such a long conflict, decided to move to Brazil. Actually, I can’t believe how our damn family did that. We just barely made our ends meet. And how the hell we crossed that vast Atlantic and came here? I dunno. The complicated process is definitely not my interest.

Anyway I’m here

Here

Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Cidade de deus, no street address

Rio de Janeiro. Not too short, not too long. Dunno why, but it just sounds good. It’s called a place with a pleasant breeze. That is how tourists call here. ...They call here one of the three best harbors in the world, but I just don’t get the shit out of it. Here, a place jammed with millions of people, is just an ordinary cidade for our family. By the way, people here call cidade in such a strange way. I’ve never heard of that stupid accent in Lisbon. Sometimes I don’t even get what these people are saying…We are using the same language…Right??haha…Damn

I sometimes do miss my home country, especially when I see the gray statue of Jesus. When that statue is covered with a grating for a repair work, it looks just hideous. VERY HIDEOUS. But I dunno how that actually looks like, because I’ve never seen that. No no…I couldn’t see that…this is more correct. That Jesus statue stands with its back toward our town. What I can only see through the dirty window of my room is the back of the statue. 


I hope to see the face of the Jesus statue one day.
I hope to go to the top of the statue
I hope to see how this city looks like
I hope

Today was really chilly and gloomy. I mean it. The yucky sandwich made me feel even gloomier. But my feeling is not important. Anyway I have to wake up at 7 and do some works to have our family ends meet. That is, giving out some papers with advertisement to some random passerby. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To mention first, this story is not finished completely and will further be modified and added until it is completed.

This fiction is about a boy living in a favela of Brazilian city, Rio De Janeiro. Favela is a similar concept with Slum. Plus, the word 'cidade' means city in Portuguese. Basically, the main theme of this story is a miserable life of people living in favela. I will try in order to finish this story as soon as possible, but won't rush.

A reading journal on Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

     ‘Tout s’en va, tout passe, l’eau coule, et le coeur oublie.’ This is one of the short sentences written in the page right before the one where ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ starts. Written by Flaubert, one of the greatest French writers, it means everything goes away, everything passes by, water flows and the heart forgets. After translating the meaning of this sentence in my head, I started to wonder. “Does this sentence have any relation with the novella ‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’?” I considered the flow of the whole story, which is basically about innocent Andy jailbraking from Shawshank, a prison notorious for its rigorousness. Then, I found out that the clause ‘Tout s’en va, tout passe’ has a thread of connection with the story; since a liberal translation means everything passes and goes well in the end, it makes sense regarding how Andy successfully managed to jailbreak in the story. ‘L’eau coule’, which means water flows, is a poetic clause which also has a same meaning. Then what about ‘Le coeur oublie’? I guess after something goes well, it is later forgotten by people, even though it seemed so important at such moment.

     Solving such a puzzle was quite interesting, but more than that, we need to think what made Andy’s jailbreaking successful and eventually made everything go well. I definitely believe that the answer lies on 'hope'. As it can be noticed from the title ‘hope springs eternal’, the main theme emphasized in this story is having hope. Although it somewhat seemed impossible to escape from such a notorious jail filled with criminals who have previously committed heinous crimes, Andy never lose hope of jailbreaking. If Andy did not have any hope, he would do nothing to escape from Shawshank. Especially from the scene where Andy digged the prison wall by a hammer in order to make an exit, we can definitely feel that Andy had a strong conviction that he would, one day, get out of the prison and rest peacefully under the sunshine of the Pacific ocean.

     The importance of hope is also reflected well in the Movie ‘Shawshank Redemption’. However, several differences exist, which I think emphasised the importance of hope and dramatised the whole story. First of all, there were three wardens in the book, whereas in the movie, Norton is the only warden. Norton, in the movie, becomes much more devil-like, even killing Tommy. While Norton is depicted as an evil character, Tommy is more naïve and hard-working compared to how he is depicted in the original story. He studies hard and finally passed the test, but gets assassinated by Norton. These changes-making Norton more evil and changing Tommy into more innocent character-make story more dramatic, thereby making the plot more emotionally moving. In fact the main theme about the importance of not losing hope is indeed emphasised, regarding that Norton’s more devil-likeness means harsher prison environment. Plus there were some events that books cannot easily deliver; one of them is Andy turning off the music ‘Figarro’s Marriage’ without getting any permission. In the book, it would be hard to deliver such event effectively.

     Personally, I prefer watching movie, since it moved my emotion a lot, compared to what I felt after reading the original novella. Especially, watching Andy meeting Red in the coast of the Pacific Ocean gave me such a strong emotional feeling. However, I still believe the book and the movie has its own advantages, so both of them are great!