Mom, I shouted. She was next to me. To her I said, can I throw these two stones into the river? Intently she looked. To her, held up a fish I caught. To me she said, enough we have for tonight’s dinner. I turned and let go the fish, the seer. On the bank of a river, I slept. Mom, I shouted, in my dream. She returned with the fish, in her bosom.
Hold me, he would say. I held, but couldn’t see. But he saw me nonetheless. So out I reached to him. Smaller, smaller he was getting. Staining my arm, extended, I felt a breeze tickling the finger tip, a drop of honey. Please, I said, show yourself. Emerging from a darkness, out flew a bird with its wing clipped, so, without flying afar it fell, at my feet. I asked and it answered by killing my love. Help, I cried. Nobody answered until, said a voice inside me, leap! Leap from the train, riding. Down I looked, a void, a darkness. Scared I was, but the bird, fluttering its clipped wing, bleeding from its wound, rested its head on the tip, at my foot.
Just listen to what he can do even with a shorter piece. This is said to be one of his favorites. Ah, Schumann.
I started listening to Vladimir Horowitz since High School when my friends were listening to New Wave music. Although I loved and continue to listen to New Wave even now, not one particular band has touched my soul as Horowitz did. I can truly say that he has shaped my life. He was the first one, with the exception of Rubenstein with his Chopin Nocturne, to open my eyes to the piano music and how beautiful it can be. I was literally taken away by his playing of Schumann’s Kreisleriana 1969 recording and his playing of Arabesque. Although he's not with us anymore, I can still feel the warmth and passion.
I haven’t really traveled a lot outside of Seoul, so my understanding of urban landscapes in other parts of Korea is pretty much limited to a few places I’ve been within the limits of Seoul. Yet, one thing I am struck by, during the short stay I’ve been here, is the overwhelming sight of what seems like fortresses of apartment buildings everywhere, and most of these apartments are new, less than 10 years, by US standards. These are not the kind of apartments you would typically find in the States, mostly 30 to 50 years, instead these are luxury apartments. If one walked into one of these, one would find that the place is better than most houses in the States in terms of looks and style. The floor is almost always wooden so that it looks good as it is to maintain. 
Much to my surprise, home systems in the apartments are of digital. Residences of the apartments don't carry home keys around with them because all the locks are either digitally programmed numerical combinations or some form of card detector where you just sweep your home card to open. I was told that in the near future, most locks will have a finger-print sanner whereby you just scan your finger to open, however, some apartments already do. In fact, nobody carries home keys in Korea anymore! Not only that, the main entrances to these buildings all have motion detectors of some kind that when you reach the entrance door in about 5 feet, it automatically opens it for you, along with the motion detect light lamps to lighten up the hallway at night. what's more, every elevator has an LCD screen that makes important public announcements as well as useful health, food, weather news etc...
That’s not the only thing. You ready for this? When you hit the wrong floor number in an elevator by mistake, you can DESELECT it by hitting the same floor number again! I went wow when I first saw it. How many times have you hit the wrong floor number just to waste a valuable few minutes, not to mention the frustration and embarrassment you have to endure when you share the elevator with other people. I was kindly reminded of this feature when a girl of about 10, watching my fiddling with the panel with multiple selections, deselected for me.
The speed of broadband is also something to boast about, too. It is amazingly fast. I was told that Korea has the most fastest network available in the world, making it the only country to provide its broadband connections to more than 2/3 of the population. As a matter fact, most broadband speed is 8 mbps. 8 megabits per second! That's 8 times the speed of the most broadband in US households. And 8 mbps is just an average speed in Korea. The speed of broadband is one thing but what you can do with it is quiet another. The country is planning on replacing all of its lines to fiber optics in a few years. Even now, there are some apartments that get 100 mbps. They watch HD content comfortably in their homes through the internet connection. You might say, "well, so what? I don't need that much speed." Only thing I will say is this, your life changes once you have one of these broadband connections.
There are so many of these amazing technologies at work in these apartments, one wonders how backward a country US is in this regard. Intel, in fact, saw the potential to all of this and decided to learn a thing or two from South Korea to pave the way for the future. The daily pervasiveness of broadband here is one of the primary reasons that Intel created a new lab dedicated to the digital home in Seoul. The company is studying how Koreans use the Internet, from shopping to gaming, to understand how the technology can be developed for other countries.
As if all of this is not enough, the country has announced even more apartments like this to be built around the country, by 2012, three times as much Korea currently has, only this time they will be even more advanced.
Come to think of it, all of these digital systems are incorporated into major public transportation systems in Seoul. For instance, when you ride the bus you just have to get your transportation card or smart card, called here T-money, close to the card detector and you are good to go. You don’t have to take it out of your wallet or even out of the pocket. I saw one rider who just walked close to the panel box without even getting out his wallet or anything and a couple seconds later he was walking down the center. You just get it close to the card detector, it will automatically register your card. It is so un-messy! In fact, you don’t even have to buy a metro card like you would in NYC. Your bank card, or credit card will do the trick if you ask for that feature. I heard even your cell phone can do that. Wow. Not only that, your cell-phone can double as a debit, credit card. I’ve seen some people using ATM with it. It seems, there is just no limit to what technology can do here. For a gadget lover like me, this place is bliss.
I will definitely update more on this with my new findings. Until then…
One of the great American film directors of his generation, just not for "The Departed."
Much to my amazement I went to church this morning to attend a sunday service. I felt weird, first of all, as it was my first sunday service in more than, let's see, um...about 10 years. I attended an English service out of curiosity. I was told by a friend of mine the church has about 10,000 members. Needless to say, it had three 6-story high buildings situated around the main chapel, with another one being erected, all dedicated to services and bible study of one form or another. Because there were so many people who came by car, a nearby elementary school yard had to be used as a parking lot for the attendees. Every Sunday, I was told, it holds 6 main services, without counting the services for English speaking people and other specific groups.
I don't see myself as a christian anymore. I am way too secular to be tied to a religion. Though, I can understand the enthusiasm by its believers, I can never agree with them on whole variety of issues in regards to belief in God, resurrection, trinity etc... I guess, it's one reason why they are Christian and why I am not. But I appreciate their faith.
The motivation behind my visit was to see if there was any difference in the way I think about religion, namely, Christianity. The short answer is no. I felt once more that the church was still trying to insulate the flocks, to see everything in binary. This is one view I was never comfortable with - either or. For example, the message today was about why believing in Jesus Christ was not about just doing good deeds- doing good deeds is secondary to the much more grave and consequential issue - that of believing Him, Him only and only Him. Only through Jesus, the preacher went on, could anybody claim the righteousness.
If you are a Christian, however, I can see the point. It may very well be perferctly legitimate within the Christian doctrine. But doctrine only it is.
I may have been a fool to believe that anything could have changed during my hiatus from the church, that what has been believed and taught for 2000 years can somehow change radically was truly a fool's game. But one can easily see the dangers of this kind of message that inculcates in the minds of many Christians who are not exposed to the more honest and open religious experience. What baffles me the most is that most of us go to church because we feel insecure as human. But we come out of church feeling we've got more truth than the others who do not share our belief. In other words, it becomes very condescending. Somehow the others do not know, but we do because we believe in Jesus. The other religions are wrong, but we are not for we believe in Christ.
Shouldn't the church leaders really talk about the teachings of Jesus more than anything, that he wanted us to love our neighbors just as he loved us. That love is the ultimate message he has left for us. Instead, these leaders of congregation take their measuring stick and unafraid to use it whenever they can. I am constantly reminded that Jesus never judged a person, nor did he condemn any just because he was "different" from him. That he died for us because he loved us, not because he wanted us to feel that we are superior.
For all my diatribe, though, I was, in all honesty, delighted that I was there in the presence of a group of people singing to some unavailing being. Maybe because it brought back the good old memories of me being involved in church activities with friends I cared, which has, to say the least, nothing to do with religious doctrines.
Care to guess where I took this picture? One object seems a little out of place so as to confound you. After more than a year in Seoul, it all looks natural to me now. In fact, it appears that without it, it seems, the picture is not complete. Without its presence, it throws most of us, the casual diners in Korea, into chaos.
Here, in the long tradition of the dining halls of Korea, where utility takes precedence over the serviceability the western restauranteers value religiously, its essence is obsecured in its common practicality; it's there to give you comfort both in the "back" room and in the dining hall without attracting attention to itself. It is asked silently to pull double duty as always. It is, in essence, the highest stage of dualism.
People absent-mindly reach for it with their hands and, when successfully clamped its white flat square tail between the index finger and the thumb, draw in, as fisher men draw their cast nets, by way of unrolling to "a-good, comfortable-size-for-wiping" amount. And without realizing it they themselves become subject to the utility, to its practicality; before long, they are, as I am, chained to this long tradition.
Typical day/traffic in Seoul. Why people even bother to drive in Seoul is beyond my realm of comprehension when driving a block can take more than walking 10 blocks. But then again, it's not the only thing that defies the law of natural order in this city. Come to think of it, what am I doing here?
Taken with my phone. Not bad for a phone camera, and mine is an antique compared to other phones in Korea.
The picture shown is the eastern sea of Korea. It is known for its clean and shallow water that extends far into the sea. It was taken last year in the early morning of October, so, as can be imagined, the beach is devoid of people or any kind of activity. Only the fishing boats in the center interest the eyes. For some strange reason, I've had this picture on my phone until now. I didn't know I had it until I was downloading some images off the phone to my computer this morning. Pretty cool.
There is something to be said about watching an image from your past, particularly when you least expect it. It brings about sentiments that you can't quite express. The picture itself, the image alone, does not speak to anything specific, but somehow the viewer is left with an indescribable feeling.
Images conjured up by external objects have a weird way of speaking to you. For example, as Virginia Woolf once put it, wether it be mental or physical, our mind involuntarily gropes for something specific and, in a rush, they all come together without you realize doing it. Your mind and the cognitive faculty in the brain is, in essence, two separate entities that need each other for uninterrupted harmony.
Senator Boxer's exchange with Condi Rice about a single mother being not able to give any sacrifice on behalf of her country because of absence of an immediate family member is right on the mark. Some critics note that the comment should not have been personal as it adds nothing to the national discourse on the war in Iraq. Although, I do share some rhetorical assessments of the comment by these critics, I sympathize with the senator. For some time now, however, Bush administration has been making decisions based on some abstract notion that democracy is God's gift to humanity and that we must prevail because failure to secure democracy in a country where it has not been given a serious chance to flourish spells disastrous for the US.
Well, let's see who PAYS the actual price by this argument. ONLY the service men and women and their families pay this price. You see, the reality of it is that not only the most of the country is uninterested in giving more sacrifices but it is always mostly those at a disadvantage economically that go to the military disproportionately to have to pay the price. We can all cry about our national tragedies in Iraq and here in this land, but, at the end of the day, when the dust settles, it is they, the families of service men and women, that have to give the most sacrifices for our inapt decisions.
In other words, we cannot carry out any meaningful political/military solutions to the problem on the backs of small number of people, unless the whole country feels that it shares the same burden and the cause to which it must contribute, it is bound for failure. Therefore, it is the requirement of the government during the time of national crisis via-a-vis war to provide and lay out the specific, detailed strategy to get the country on the wagon. Fail to do so, the government does not have a clear strategy. If so, the people will not support its cause. That's where the real danger lies, I am afraid, that there is a disconnect between the reality on the ground and the political incompetence to come up with any meaningful solutions to the problem.
Apple has always been a wonder child of sort since its birth. The tech industry looks up at Apple in amazment whenever it wavers its magic wand. This latest interation only reinforces that idea.
When Apple first introduced iPod, many in the industry said that the price for the mp3 player,
at the time it was $599 when many others were $100~200, was too much to justfy. All naysayers predicted, in harmony, that it was doomed to failure, not to mention a lot of skepticism on the part of tech pundits and those who claimed to live on the bleeding edge of technology. Well, after more than 5 years of its existence, there is not a person in the world who denies the success it has had.
With the iphone, no doubt the same people will once again find it difficult to see the viability of the phone on the market, Apple has created a new market. It is not going after the PDA/smart phone maket, rather it is merging two fields, that of multimedia and communication, to creat a unique market that was not there before.
What Apple is good at, and no one doubts this, is making the techonolgy friendly with the users. Not one industry is good at this or better than Apple. What sold millions of ipod is not its physical and visual design, although you cannot neglect its appeal, not at all, but it's the way all that thchnologies are seamlessly combined to give users an experience they would otherwise not get from any other similar gadgets. That's what Apple is good at and that's what sold ipods to millions of users.
The biggest misunderstanding the technology industry has had for many years is not that there has not been many new and innovative technologies, but rather, the new techonology was not available to users in the form of "user friendly" design. I hope other phone manufacturers take a note of this.
This article makes you really sick. I mean what are we doing in Iraq? Are we really pacifying the place? If recent horrible events in Iraq is any indication, we are not. We, Americans, have to WAKE UP to the realization that what we are doing in Iraq is not helping the iraqis. We let these iraqis die in the name of OUR freedom and security.
Bush loves to talk about how the Iraq war has brought democracy in Iraq, as if democracy can be that easily achieved, but what has he really accomplished in Iraq other than turning them against eachother. Once again, our arrogance has gotten the better of us - the worst naive thinking yet, that we can somehow police/control the world with our mighty power. One can only hope that our next president can think beyond the current one.
