Why did Gordie's parents like Dennis more than Gordie: Just a free-talk

             Everyone would have experienced 'favoritism'. There are people who we 'like', and those we 'really like', and those who we 'love'. There is sort of a 'list' in our mind that is used to pick the members for party invitations, travel to Europe, or even the dinner. We always want to deny this fact, but still, it is true anyway.
             While I was reading the story of Gordie being 'Invisible man' in his family, I remembered the article about the 'science' of favoritism. It is from TIME, and its cover looks like this:

                 One girl in the center, with an enormous cake piece, is smiling while the two kids in the side look discontent and unhappy, with a small cake piece. The cloth which the 'center' girl is wearing looks brighter than that of the 'side' kids. The background is also brighter in the center than the sides. Well, that is interesting!
                 According to Jeffrey Kluger, there are some factors that affect the 'list' in people's mind. Like these factors affected many parents' favor, they also influenced Gordie's parents to like Dennis better.

1. More Successful
According to Kluger, parents' preference starts from the parents' survival needs: the biologically narcissistic act of replicating themselves through succeeding generations. This makes Mom and Dad to prefer their bigger, healthier offspring, as that kid will be more successful in reproduction, and get more of the family's genes into the next generation.
The most conspicuous sign of fitness is physical appearance. Of course there isn't a parent who would admit to favoring a beautiful child over a less beautiful one, but most scientists agree that this heuristic, that things that are attractive are healthy and good and smart, is innate for humans.
In 'The body', we can see the sign that Dennis, who is smarter, healthier, and more attractive than Gordie, is preferred to his parents. Dennis was in the baseball league and he graduated with honors from Castle Rock High School while Gordie was hanging out with 'a theif and two feebs', in terms of Gordie's father.

2. Firstborn
The firstborns are often the family's favorite, and the reason is one corporations understand well: the rule of sunk costs. The more effort you've made developing a product, the more committed you are to seeing it come to fruition. Parents pour a lot of 'capital' into firstborns. And like Dennis was, the oldest in most familites have historically been the tallest and strongest, thanks to the fact that at the beginning of their lives, they don't have to share food stores with other kids.

(In the case of mothers, the firstborn son has the highest probability in being 'favorite'.)

In the article, it says, "Even if your kids know you have a favorite, the effort it takes to pretend it's not so can itself be an act of love." It is so true. Although I feel bad about Gordie, but anyway, it is parents' role to love their kids 'equally', at least try.

The flow of 'Gukak'(Korean Traditional Music)-actually it is fusion:)

While I'm preparing for the finals, to relieve my stress, I listened to some beautiful Guk-ak songs. I just want to share with others:)

Arirang Fantasy


-written by Sunghwan Choi
It is sooo beautiful! I once played this song when I joined in the orchestra and did the concert.


Prince of Jeju

-This is one of the songs written by Bang-Eon Yang, who also wrote 'Frontier'(what we, Minjok Orchestra, did in the Sponsorship concert.)


Festival

-This is also a nice music that I once played in the concert :) It is sooo cheerful!!


Chuno OST- Lovers

-This is a song that is an OST for Korean Drama 'Chuno, meaning "slave hunters"' It is quite sorrowful..


Letter of a private

-This is a song "이등병의 편지, letter of a private". It is a song which expressed the feeling of the private joining the army. It is originally sung by the singer 'Gwang suk Kim'. This song added the melody of Korean folk music in the middle.

Pictures that can be understood after 3 seconds

1. Leaning against the water??                                              2. Who's who?

3. I'm charging the battery

                                          4. What would you like: A set or B set?

(Two sets are actually the same menu with different prices)

                                                    5. A bride with hairy legs

                                                    6. Look! I can float!

                                         7. Oops! I spilled my cup noodle...

(Actually, it is a giant jellyfist which is 1.5m long, weighs nearly 200kg)

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

I found these pictures on the website! Well...just for fun:)

Snow♥:)

Today, a bunch of snow came down! Everyone was dazed by a white, shiny trees, roads..everything. Large snowflakes came down from the white, obscure sky, landed on the roads, and made a nice, crisp sound while gently stepping on. Sometimes it was gooey, but still, that 'crisp' sound was enough to cover up that flaw.

Snow is comfortable, soft, and warm. It is so contagious that my heart soon become soft and warm like a melted marshmallow. It certainly has something magical! I mean, people make a wish in the first snow, and...what else...I couldn't remember right now:)

But...surely...it does have magical power, a power that can heal people's soul. It is not just a tool for skipping morning exercise or just a cause of using crutches. Snow has something special.

-Chunghyun Lee, Me, Nuri Kim :)

They are sooooo sweet!

A margin in an occupied space, that is KMLA life-Lesson that I learned

When you see a piece of gold, you can think of a word 'compact'. It seems very 'flawless' without any space, but at the same time, it seems very stuffed, hard to breathe. However, unlike people's thoughts, gold is actually formed with numerous atoms, and more importantly, the space between those atoms.

Like the compact piece of gold, my KMLA life seems too compact for a teenage girl, but there are some spaces in between. A margin in an occupied space; that is my KMLA life.

I learned that lesson few weeks ago, right before the Minjok Sponsorship Concert. For that concert, each teams for the Concert had to practice at least twice in a week, usually investing the first self-study periods. Everybody disliked that situation. We had numerous things to do: a bunch of papers, presentations, quizes. But we had to use up our first self-study periods just for the 'Girls' dormitory'. We didn't like both the intent and the 'compact', 'ambitious' schedule we had to face.

I was also displeased when I faced the harsh schedule. I had Math quizes, Physics assignment, Psychology paper, and other things. For me, it seemed like I have to study all the time, without any break.

However, unlike my dark, dismayed prediction, I had a lot of margin during those periods. Right after I came back from the orchestra practice, for 10-15 minutes I have before 'Honjung', I could listen to the music, see web cartoons, or have a talk with my roommates. Not only that, after I have meal, I could take a piece of nap for 10 minutes. It was sweet like a Ganse Dinner after writing a History paper.

-a cup of tea?

Well...surprisingly, I felt more comfortable during that ambitious schedule, more than the loose schedule. Seems paradoxical, but it is still true. I spent those days with joy and content, enjoying the every single moment. As I could know the importance of margin time, I learned how to 'enjoy' hard times instead of 'bearing'. A margin in an occupied space, that is one characteristic I learned in that period. I may find more characteristics from KMLA life like scientists do, but for now, this is the one I have to remember during the whole KMLA life.

*Caution: If too loose, you would end up like this:





Growing up: Reflection on 'The Body'

-growing up(left), adventure(right)

           Everyone would have done ‘adventure’ once in their life. That adventure can be the adventure of finding a treasure in a backyard, or that of going to a deserted house. While tumbling down to the ground or making the entire clothes muddy, kids learn something-something that makes them grow.

           In this story, four kids named Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern went to the adventure-adventure of finding the dead body. They walked along the train road, passed through the river, and walked the field. To adults, this adventure seems absurd and useless. Wasting that time for someone that is irrelevant seems meaningless, and in the perspective of adults, it might be better to study or play sports. However, for those four kids, it was a big event. For the first time, they are going on a journey for a big quest, finding a dead body.

           They started a journey, and they faced a lot of tests and hardships. They met Milo and Chopper in Castle rock, experienced danger while walking along the train road, and faced the creepy leeches in the river. They were tired, but they didn’t give up their journey. They laughed, sang a song, and cheered themselves. Sometimes, they talked about Gordie’s stories like Le Dio or Lard Ass Hogan. Those are gross, but entertaining.

           After all, this story doesn’t end as ‘four little heroes living happily ever after’, like a common coming-of-age story. After they came back to the town, they are ‘punished’ by Charlie and Ace ‘Gangsters’ for not surrendering. Later, after years have passed, Vern was killed in a housefire, Teddy went in a car crash, and Chris was stabbed by a man (who is interestingly related to the first story ‘Shawshank Redemption’.) Only Gordie is telling the adventure.

           However, still, this story, full of gross things and tragedies, is warm and comfortable in a whole. It’s like a giant, strong fish figure made by a group of tiny, feeble fishes.

-giant circle made by fishes

           Why? Maybe it is because it is ‘our’ story. Someone who would be reading the story would be Gordie, who likes writing or treated like an invisible man, or Chris the ‘tender-hearted’ cynic, etc. Others might have done the adventures like those four kids, travelling the abandoned, spooky house, or staying up all night in a tree house. Although this story is written in a specific way, each part is very familiar with us.

           And more important reason why we like this story is that we can look back our past, and link the past and the present. We always regret about our past. Thinking “Oh..it would have been better if I learned violin earlier!” or “My English would have been much better if I studied abroad”. All those regrets for ‘not doing something’ make us feel ashamed about our past.

           However, while reading the story of four kids, we could rethink about our original perspective about the past. Like the past experience of adventure and the humorous stories of Gordie made up the older Gordie, the tiny pieces of the past formed our personality, our beliefs, and overall, us. And this ‘absorbing’ process is present-continuous.

-past, and present

           This story is not just about four kids. It is the story of us, ‘growing’ us. We are not ‘dying’; we are still ‘growing’.

*good movies related to this post?
-The kids: it is the movie about a man meeting with 'younger' he



-Sunny: it is a Korean movie related to 'friendship'- it is a story of 7 teenage girls

-and... what else?:)

How to use our 'divided' brain

                  The brain has always been a 'deep sea' to people. Somewhere which is fascinating, cryptic, and 'pristine'. A lot of facts are found, but still, it is way to go. Unless people are interested in neuroscience, most people have a provincial, obscure view about the brain.
                  To introduce the provocative matter related to the brain, Iain McGilchrist did a lecture about the 'divided brain', two hemispheres in the brain.
                  To briefly explain, there are two hemispheres in the brain, the left and the right. And those two hemispheres are linked with the part called 'corpus callosum'. (So, it resembles a walnut.)
                  Both of them are quite disparate in their roles. Left hemisphere can be described as 'narrow', 'sharply focused', and 'attention to detail'. On the other hand, the right one can be described as 'sustained', 'broad', 'open', 'vigilant', and 'alertness'.
                  Yes. Most people are already aware to this extent. So what?
                   Iain says that the divided brain is not just the matter of two sides having different roles. It is the matter of 'inhibiting' each other. People use both sides of the brain while doing something. Left side of the brain tells one to focus, while right side of the brain tells one to step back. But as we cannot see anything if we are too close, and we cannot read if we are too far, we have to make an appropriate 'distance'. This 'distance', in the case of using a brain, can be the mediation of two sides of the brain.
                  In history,  people used the left side a lot when grasping things and making tools. People also usually used the left side when pinning things down and using a language. That is, when we already know something important and want things to be precise and elaborate, we have to use left side of the brain. (This doesn't mean that we use 'only' left hemisphere while we are reasoning or we use 'only' right hemisphere to imagine. We use both hemispheres, but it is just the matter of 'emphasis')
                 Obviously, it is time to balance the use of both brain. Of course, it seems like our society puts priority on 'virtual' than 'real', but in reality, technology and all the pragmatic, tangible things are becoming more important. Ironic, isn't it?
                  The important thing we have to remember is that, like Einstein said, the intuitive, novel mind(right hemisphere) is a sacred gift, and the rational, 'scrutinizing' mind is a diligent servant. And our society is doing the opposite. While we are acclaiming the 'compliant' one for being lucid and acute, we are deterring our gift for being abstract, elusive, and too hypothetical. That is kind of a 'blasphemy'.

Flatshoes, almond chocolate, and skyblue

Flatshoes are honest. It is not thick enough to hide the reality, the bumpy, hard roads. Sometimes, it is hard to directly face the pain of truth, but still, people are attracted by the candidness. I'm not only honest like a flatshoes but also like an Almond Chocolate. Almond chocolate is covered with sweet chocolate while having a core, almond. Its outside is sweet and soft like a mother's kiss, but its inside is determined and firm like a mother's scold. Lastly, skyblue is the color of hope. It shines, and flows like a waterfall hid in a mountain. Although its dreamy atmosphere seems like an excessive optimism, in fact, that becomes the motive for those who are striving to break their glass ceiling.

Movie Review: 500 days of summer

Movie Review: 500 days of summer

Soho Shim(critic in KMLA)

Overall score: ★★★★☆ 9/10

"We all met summer"

This catchphrase in the poster suggests one point to us: this story is our story, the story about love.

("Author's note: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Especially you, Jenny Beckman.

")

To briefly say, this movie is a 'cool' romantic comedy. Unlike other high-teen, romantic comedy movies, this movie is realistic which makes us bitter, but simpathize to our experience.

1. summer effect?

In the movie, there appears 'summer effect'. Summer effect is the phenomenon that can be easily seen in our small society. A woman mixed up with average height, weight, slightly above average face, etc becomes a small star to numerous men. The song which she mentioned in the graduation album gains popularity for a short time, and the ice cream store where she worked earned 21.2% increase in revenue. The bus which she takes is always full of men. And Tom is one of those men.

This 'summer' exists in all town, school, and everywhere. In those societies, she is a small star and love rumor maker. She is not 'Emma Watson', not disparate. She seems 'doable'. However, loving her can make one suffer a lot, as this is the matter of 'fan' rather than that of 'love'. Although loving a star is such an agony, people cannot blame the star. Actuall, who can? It's not her fault to be loved.

2. Exaggeration

Tom who is mesmerized by Summer starts to sink into the illusion he made. The illusion that Summer is his woman just because she has a similar music taste and had a long conversation with him related to that. He is too timid to propose her, but he really wants to tell the start of his 'fate' to someone else. To Tom, his younger sister Chloe gives an advice,

"Just because some cute girl likes the same bizarre crap you do that doesn't make her your soul mate, Tom"

Like many people who do one-sided love, Tom interprets the status with Summer as 'booming of love' from all the things that is nothing more than love to Summer. And by explaining the act of Summer to others, Tom wants to hear the conclusion, "She loves you." or "You guys would make a good couple". However, unfortunately, that is just a fantasy for Tom.

3. Girlfriend? or A friend who is a girl?

Undeniably, Tom and Summer become very intimate. Tom perceives this relationship as a 'couple', although they didn't officially address that. He doesn't think that they don't need any labels like 'boyfriend', 'girlfriend'.

However, when he asks her to define the relationship, she just says "Who cares? Aren't you happy?" It seems like she's thinking Tom as a best friend. And to her, Tom is getting confused and upset.

4. Expectation and Reality

After a break between them, Tom is invited to the party from Summer. He expects a happy ending with her, but his expection just bursted like a bubble in milk shake.

5. Afterwards?

What will happen next?

new start?

+the response from critics&other viewers (excerpt from Metacritic)

Here is a rare movie that begins by telling us how it will end and is about how the hero has no idea why.

 -Chicago Sun-Times Reviewed by: Roger Ebert

Ultimately, the best thing about (500) Days of Summer isn't its gimmicky script. It's the constant performance of Gordon-Levitt, who shifts, scene-by-scene, from moments of ebullience to abject dejection.

-The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Reviewed by: Liam Lacey

Much like the actual summer (the season, not the character), we never wanted it to end.

-Premiere Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)

If you don't feel in love and hopeful again after seeing this movie, then you have a heart of stone.

-one of the users

-->total score from critics: 7.6/total score from users: 7.8

6. Words that can describe this movie (and my subjective score)

-realistic

-bitter, but still...hopeful!

-not that funny or entertaining(actually...little bit boring)

-but still, it has some sense of humor

-not childish

Well...you may feel bitter while watching this movie, but...who knows? Maybe, Tom's situation turned out to be happy in the end. It is better not to say much about the ending:)Enjoy the movie!

+trailer for those who are curious!!

A bit of comic slips: Mom

There is a person who does one-sided love towards us: Mother

*Thanks to....nate pann

y=x? :reflection to the Kim Ki Duk's film

                   This film is about '易地思之', being in someone's shoes. The old priest makes the priestlet understand the agony of the creatures which the priestlet tortured with heavy rocks.
                  When watching this film, I thought 'If the priestlet understood the situation of those animals, the death and agony of those animal wouldn't have occured.' I thought that life would be easy if everything is like a graph y=x.

                   In the case of test, it is best to have a score which is proportioned to our effort. Though I like when I got a high score on the quiz considering my effort, I cannot deny that the score is truely 'my score'. It is just a luck. I can be cocky and arrogant, just trusting the aberration. The more knotty problem arises when the score is lower than the effort. First, I feel very depressed. Next, I become skeptical about my potential.  'If I put all of my efforts on this problem and got this result, what should I do?' This link of thoughts finally reaches to the despairable solution, 'Okay. I have to comply to the reality. I can only reach to this extent, and this is my limit.' That is such a tragic solution. I experienced this phenomenon in psychology test, first math quiz, etc.

                   It also applies in the matter of love. Examples are plenty. They were summarized as a single word, one-sided love. A shy girl who loves school senior can be the example, a man who is rejected by a beautiful woman can also be the example. Parents who love their kids can be the example. They are all sad loves. And when I see those cases, I wish that the love-e(the receiver of love :)) would be able to understand the lover(the giver of love)'s mind.

                   Well...it seems like the world doesn't want people to live an easy life. Life is not a y=x graph. It is always twisted and unbalanced. Because of lack of 'balance', still, we are having a lot of problems staying in our mind.

                   However, thinking in different way, this unbalaced world makes our life dynamic and exciting. If our life were easy-going, there wouldn't be any 'Rainer Maria Rilke', artists who experienced the pain from 'unbalanceness'. There would't be any beautiful poems, songs, or novels. Plus, people wouldn't have known the word 'miracle', the phenomenon which the seemingly impossible wish becoming reality.

                   Paradoxically, unbalanceness makes human unique and dynamic. And one thing for sure: I am enjoying this twisted, but dynamic world!
                  

Salad Bowl-reading journal for 'The body' 293-327

                       stand by me?                                               salad bowl?

           Salad is delicious. Except for the typical salad with just some lettuce and thousand island dressing, salad decorated with yogurt dressing, fruits, and some nuts always makes me happy and excited.

           Thinking of that, human society is very similar to the salad. Society, the cluster of people, forms various cultures, events, etc. If each individuals, each ingredients for 'society' salad, keep up their own style, that society would be tasty, dynamic, and unique. However, if those individual try to hide their style, and try to fix themselves into the 'standard'(lettuce with thousand island dressing), that society would be typical and banal.

           In 'The Body', four characters Gordie, Chris, Vern, and Teddy, make up a delicious salad on their own. Their miniscule society is tasty enough, so far.

           Gordie, the narrator, is a boy who used to have an outstanding brother, Dennis. His family only cared about Dennis: Dennis joining the army, his clothes, etc. In that family, Gordie felt like he was a Negro, whom people never notices at all unless making up a trouble. After Dennis died, his parents fell into a total despair, just sticking their mind into a closed coffin box of Dennis. Moreover, Gordie is having a trouble with his father about his friends.

           Chris is a kid who is quite mature. His relationship is even worse than Gordie(His father is a drunk). He sometimes skips the school, and most people have a negative image towards him. Due to that, Chris got suspended because of teacher's misinterpretation that he stole some money.

           Unlike Gordie and Chris, Teddy is kind of childish. He is wearing a thick glasses due to his innately bad eyesight. His hearing also got bad because his father shoved Teddy's head down to the cast-iron burner plates for breaking a plate. Because of that incident, Teddy also have the flesh-colored button. But in spite of that incident, Teddy likes his father.

           Vern is the kid who first suggested to find the dead body of Ray Brower. He has a brother Billy who is in the clumsy gang. One thing that is peculiar about Vern is that he is quite obsessed with the penny jar he hid four years ago. He used to dig under the porch, and hid a penny jar there. He drew a map of that jar, but after his mother burned that map into the chimney, he had somewhat obligation to find that jar.

           These four characters are sewing the story with threads. I hope their creation is fascinating. :)

Color story: A bit of trailer?:)

In this semester(or even after this semester), I want to write some stories or essays in a theme of color; a story that feels like 'red', 'green', or 'blue'. 

Well, just as a preview, I have to list some impressions about colors.

Red: passion, strong, seducive, prohibition, sensual, sweet, attractive, apple, strawberry, red lips, red carpet, stately, lethargic

Orange: warm, modest, bright, preparation, sunshine, mother, supporting, soft

Yellow: bright, light, optimistic, smile, creative, sparkling, child, banana, lemon

Bright Green: light, fresh, leaves in summer, melon, sweet

Dark Green(or dark green?): reserved, nature, comfortable, calm, soft

Skyblue: bright, positive, hope, everlasting, comfortable, complacent(in a good way)

Deep blue: grave, bleak, calm, deep ocean, protecting, blueberry

 Purple: graceful, royal, arcane, gay(...??:)), glory, grape, leading

Black: ??

White: ??

Gold: ??

Silver: ??

Brown: ??

-To be continued!!^^