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