The Grasshopper Song by SunnyHill, K-pop

Lyrics

if you push back and push back, you won’t find happiness
Today won’t come again
At some point, the time has already…
Come On and Wake You Up

Put away the fake hope of being like this or that
If you just fight and argue all the time, it’s tiring

People go crazy over the habitual competition
They are trapped in the same restrictions
They get buried without anyone knowing
Come On and Wake You Up

Put away all the fake theories that are difficultly packaged
If you just kiss up and line things up all the time, you go crazy

Ring Ring Ring-a-Ring-a
Ring Ring Ring-a-Ring-a
Just singing a song and clapping my hands
I want to laugh as I live

* Ring-a-Ring-a-Ring Ring-a-Ring-a-Ring
It’s an echo of wanting to live peacefully
Ring-a-Ring-a-Ring Ring-a-Ring-a-Ring
It’s a melody of you and I wanting to laugh
Ring-a-Ring-a-Ring Ring-a-Ring-a-Ring
It’s a mirage of an untouchable happiness
Ring-a-Ring-a-Ring Ring-a-Ring-a-Ring
It’s a dizzy world that goes round and round

Lift up your head, no one is there
No one is above you
There’s no need to look around in caution
Come On and Wake You Up

All those who became sinners and danced and played
Here, here, come here and gather together

No matter what anyone says, you are cooler
You’re cool for enjoying it
In my eyes, you’re cooler
Come On And Let Me In

Chattering about this or that, making it seem like it will happen
It’s just for people who are tiring

Ring Ring Ring-a-Ring-a
Ring Ring Ring-a-Ring-a
Just singing a song and clapping my hands
I want to enjoy as I live

* Repeat

Where are you busily busily going, time is busily passing
Take a rest and let’s go together, let’s go peacefully
Everything’s so busily busily passing, busily passing
Let’s just sing a song, let’s just play

Where are you busily busily going, time is busily passing
Take a rest and let’s go together, let’s go peacefully
Everything’s so busily busily passing, busily passing
Let’s just sing a song Please Refill the Battery

I lived like such a fool
I was living in a rat race
It all passes passes passes, the lost time

* Repeat

Ring-a-Ring-a-Ring … x7

       The song focuses on the tragic atmosphere of the current society. Tragic, because the society only embraces the people who are academically distinctive, while people who does art and music are easily ignored. The music video shows workaholic ants who are ruled by the queen ant. The ants, though already abundant in food, keep on working due to the influence of the queen ant. The queen ant symbolizes a powerful group in our society that controls our behaviors indirectly, creating an environment to suit their needs making us think it is for our own good and happiness.

The grasshoppers are the ones who refused to obey the queen and decided to live their own life.

This is very similar to the Korean society where competition is over heated. People are judged only by what university they have graduated and aren't even treated human if he did not graduate college. Students in high school are kept away from sports and dreams that they have; they are sent to Hakwons(academies) till midnight everyday. Suicide rate of teens in Korea is first in the world and  I feel we are in need of some group or organization like the grasshopper to open the eyes of students and let them enjoy life.

Suicides Notes by Langston Hughes

Suicides Notes

                Langston Hughes

The calm, 
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss. 

The poem is only three lines, yet it gives such a strong impact. Suicide is usually thought of as a horrible taboo that is to be seen with great shame. However, this poem really made suicide into something much more than evading life by throwing it in the trash. A kiss in the calm cool face of river, with these words, suicide is turned into something sacred and beautiful. Suicide is not seen as cold death, but rather a sweet kiss.

One view point to see this poem is to look at suicide as a decision and action that is to be respected. Marcus Aurelius once said, everything in the world is good and in season. In other words, every action and event that occurs in our life is good for us and on time, so we should not be angry or sad for even the most unfortunate events. Therefore, suicide itself could be a decision that is good and on time, and should be respected. However, I don’t really know how it’s going to help the high suicide rate in Korea, because I’m sure suicide is going to occur even more frequently if the action is seen to be as respected.

On the other hand, seeing that the river asked the speaker for a kiss, it can be seen that people who commit suicide make the decision due to outside forces rather than an internal reason and commitment. The poem could be criticizing that we should not blame the people who commit suicide, but rather the society, or the river that forces them to kiss the blissful lips of death.

Suicide note

                                                     Sungwoo Bae

The white

thin blanket of clouds

Promised to take me on a glide

Homicide note

                                                     Sungwoo Bae

The Red

Bright rays of the sun

Glanced on my eyes

How I started KMLA Life

 I rushed into the small space and sat down. I was half awake and shivering. The place was cold enough but the freezing sitting that I sat down on was just ice itself. Due to the shock from the coldness I temporarily forgot the agonizing pain in my abdomen. While in the shock my mind drifted through time and space. I pondered about yesterday, what I should do, and the entrance ceremony today. What?! Oh shoot the entrance ceremony! I quickly took out my cell phone. Dang it was 9:48 and I had to be at the gym by 10:00! The alarming thought took me out of my shock and the pain came back. Arr… I focused on my lower stomach muscle and pushed heavily! The beautiful smell ammonia filled the atmosphere and I rushed to be in time for the ceremony.

The Body Reading Journal 2

Mary Hopkin - Those Were The Days       enjoy it as a BGM : )

           I sometimes miss the days when I didn’t think a lot about what was going on in life. It is better to put it “couldn’t think” because I was in the age when one couldn’t really realize oneself thinking. I had no worries what so ever and just marched through life with a big smile on my face. After going though Junior high, I have matured a bit more and gained some abilities to think ahead and be more close to being an adult(still very far from adult though). I would look back in time and be able to feel how embarrassing my actions were in the past and make my actions on carefully calculated logical thinking rather than following my instincts. Though I enjoy thinking with myself and swimming through my past and future pondering, I really do miss the days when I had not needed to think and all.

           The days the boys in the body are having really awakened me the memories of my hakuna matata past. No worries at all about reality but enjoying all parts of life as it goes, going on body hunting adventures and standing besides friends. It seems people lose a lot of themselves when they go through maturity. Letting go of friends that were so close, forgetting the big dreams that we made thinking we would certainly reach, and even lose morality becoming colder and benefit seeking as we grow up. It is sometimes sickening to see all ourselves studying, working, and shedding tears trying to outrank each other when we’ve already had the world when we were young.

           Gordy, Chris, Vern, Teddy, though they are living with none caring families, it seems that they still got the world in their hands – standing and depending on each other filling the empty space made by their families. Though I’ve passed the age far from twelve, I think I still got friends like that I could really depend on spend time with. After I become an adult and grow old, would I ever have friends like these? Or would I become even more thoughtful and lose more of myself as I become more mature. It really feels like a trains honking behind be to become an adult though I don’t want to lose all these privileges of being a teenager… Maybe the train would stop if I go to neverland…

           The body really made me think about the times I had when I was young (I’m still young but younger I mean) and the friends I had and have now. Though I want to remain how I am, keep all of myself and even refuse to become an adult, I know that the reality would squish me as the 100 ton train goes over me. Now I kind of understand what the adult Gordy must have felt thinking of meeting the deer in the forest and calling it “the cleanest and best part of the trip”.

EOP and Hanbok

6.  Reflective Essay about an experience you’ve had at KMLA recently (not last semester. I know you wrote this in Mrs. Choi’s class to).  You should weave in the theme of a “learning experience” and come to a resolution by the end.  Club activities, homate experiences, how to deal with rules that are made to be broken etc. are all themes you might consider.

Required Writer’s Choice: Option 1.

Mornings of KMLA are tough. When large amounts of homework, quizzes, and club activities are combined with morning exercise with a dash of cleaning inspection, morning becomes hell in KMLA. It was one of those morning hells when I heard a shocking yet true word from my friend.

           My friend, also roommate, was in a very cranky mood that day. It was as if he had bee hives planted under the silly pajamas that he was wearing. He was whining and swearing as he got through the morning but exploded when he got to his school uniform.

“S***! Why is this HanBok so F****** hard to wear! I don’t get this crap about maintaining tradition and wearing this ridiculous HanBok as school uniform! If we really care about Korean tradition, than why do we have EOP(English only Policy) to make us use English in our daily lives? Arg! I got the wrong leg in my pants!”

It was rather hilarious to see my friend swearing while struggling with his HanBok pants (I think he was losing the battle). However, as I thought about what he said, I had to agree with him. If we’re trying this hard to maintain our own tradition by living in Hanok and wearing HanBok why are we keeping EOP? This had me going on thinking for the whole day. And this is what it lead to.

You see, the world is always in constant battle between keeping one’s own identity or rather assimilating with other parts of world. Korea is not an exception. To be honest a large part of Korea has already been assimilated with the world. Through the process of modernization, Korea has abandoned the traditional clothing, houses, and culture of Korea while bringing in new culture such as T-shirts, jeans, apartments, and hamburgers, which most came from the west. Now scholars are fighting whether to get hold of our own traditions to keep us from losing our identity or to fully assimilate with the western culture to increase competition for Korea in the global ubiquitous world. Which should we choose? Our own history and tradition while losing all the benefits of sharing the same culture with the rest of the world, or the conventional and efficient assimilation while abandoning our true selves during the process?

This is a similar question as universalism and multiculturalism,  one awesome all combining culture to rule them all, or many respectable cultures all equal in value ruling the world. I think that KMLA has done a wonderful job of solving this universal question that is tormenting many great minds of the world, going right between them.

If KMLA is to go with the multiculturalism side sticking to Hanbok, and Korean traditions, we would be able to maintain our identities but lose contact with the larger world and fail to be the leaders that the school is trying to educate. If KMLA is to go with the universalism side sticking to usual school uniform with white shirts and using English, we would do well as we graduate and jump into the foreign world and become powerful people. But would it be worth anything if by then one’s lost all esteem of where he came from or what he isㅡnot a good leader either. But what KMLA has done is, to wear the traditional clothing Hanbok while using English in our daily lives, just the balance between them.

In a way KMLA has reached the true hybrid between multiculturalism and Universalism. Keeping the precious identities of Korea and also becoming assimilated to adapt to the larger world. Absolutely remarkable it seems to me. And to all this, I have to ask my cranky roommate for helping me realize this.

Spreading Technology

           

5.  Review a TED video of your choice (not Ken Robinson), and include aminimum of 20 SAT words within your writing.  Underline them in bold. If you want to use more without sounding ridiculous, you are welcome to try.  Select them carefully before you write.

Required

     Even at this moment prodigious technologies are found all over the world. However crucial knowledge engendered were usually not tangible to the general population.

“unfortunate situation where a tiny, tiny fraction of the world can actually participate in this exploration or can benefit from that technology.”

 It would just squander between the very astute minorities, due to the reticent environment between the common public and the highly professionals. Though due to the pivotal advancement of communication nowadays such as YouTube, TED, and other ubiquitous means of information, the immense technologies atrophied may now become exhaustive coalescing with the whole world with ease.

“ make the technology accessible to a much wider percentage of the population.”


    The video shows a exemplary application the application of the phenomenon. The guy in the video, Johnny Lee, working diligently with fanatic devotion found a very eccentric usage of the wii remote. He tweaked the remote and created elaborate programs to use the remote to simulate an interactive whiteboard, and 3D TV. Due to his innovative work, now companies and schools don’t have to buy expensive equipment but use scanty materials to do the job. We owe large part of this to YouTube for expediting the spread of ideas and knowledge throughout the world. Now being esoteric is the thing of the past.
    
      "hope online video distribution to be embraced by the research community"

Review on Starcraft and Korea's Obsession over it

    

3. A Review.  You are allowed to review anything you want – a book, movie, video, album, game,  restaurant, hotel…. Just about anything.  You should have personal experience with that thing, and supply factual data to dress up your writing (Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon, IMDB, and Metacritic etc).  React to opposing or supporting reviews that might add to your response.  You must include a rating system.  Stars, thumbs, out of ten or our of five, A- or C+ etc.

Required

The world is asking Korea; why are Koreans so obsessed with the game Starcraft? Though I’m a Korean myself this is not an easy question to answer. I first met Starcraft when I was 7 and almost grown up with it. It was the first computer game that I ever encountered and if I recall myself playing it, memories of me figuring how to beat missions and computers is what pops up. It was truly an enjoyable game, even for my elementary self. Now I assume most Koreans felt like this when playing Starcraft. But why? How has such a normal game such as Starcraft become so loved in Korea?

           

    The game Starcraft was first published on the ancient year 1998, by Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is famous for many games such as the Diablo series and Warcraft series but it has not ever gotten a more popular hit than Starcraft. This has to be thanked to Koreans for buying 4.5 million copies of the overall 9 million copies worldwide. At the time of its publish, it was viewed as a overall good game but it wasn’t that special          Here are some reviews given by critics at that time.

Gamers' Temple    96

“One of those rare games that is not overly complex, but provides a challenging and fun gaming experience. It never seems to get old or boring.”

Yahoo! Games  90

“You get a fun, instantly appealing, easy to play-hard to master real-time strategy, with character and an endless amount of playability. “

Cincinnati Enquirer   80

“It won't win any awards for originality, but it's good enough to shrink your nightly sleep to just a couple of hours.”

1. Graphics and technical components   ★☆☆☆☆

           It is possible to understand the popularity at the past but how is Starcraft maintaining its grip over 13 years in Korea? The graphic and technical elements of the game are ancient, 2D isometric screen with low quality graphics and physics engine giving awkwardness, sound play and out of game add-ons from the 90s. Even the entire size of the game file is only about 700 megabytes while today’s games like Call of Duty, Modern warfare 3, going way over 20 gigabytes. I give it  one star for graphics and technical components for this game.


2. Game play   ★★★★★

           While Starcraft carries simple game play and graphics it’s a game where you can fall really deep in. It’s one of the games very easy to learn but much harder to master. Macro strategies combined with small micro controls makes Starcraft very addicting. Starcraft is a game where bad players can hardly beat computers while pro gamers can beat average players 3:1. The more players enjoy this game; they obtain new skills to excel in this game. I think this is the most crucial factor in Starcraft that led to its popularity, very simple game play while having the most complicated skills to master to be good at it. Koreans just loved it even till now. Thus I give it over 5 stars for game play for this game.


3. Influence on Korea   ★★★★★

In 1997 Korea met the IMF foreign exchange crisis and it was in dire need for some economic boom. In 1998 Starcraft just did the job fueling 15thousand jobs and 900 million dollars into the Korean economy. Scattering over 20,000 thousand PC rooms in Korea, now starcraft isn’t just a game but a culture for Koreans. It has gone so far that Starcraft has become a symbol for Korean males, if a Korean male does not know or is unable to play Starcraft he is likely to be teased that he is not a Korean. Pro-gamers, PC-rooms, game leagues giving massive amounts of prize money, these all game from Starcraft. I give it 5 stars for influencing power for the impact it gave to Korean culture.

Here is a Starcraft game play of the famous pro-gamer lim yo hwan.

Starcraft is still growing its power over Korea due to the new Starcraft 2 released in 2010. Starcraft 2 is a 3 part series starting with Wings of Liberty. I have played and is enjoying Wings of Liberty now and look forward for the latter series.

Trailer of Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty