Sunny is Great

Honestly, i was quite lost when i found out that i had to analyze something because i really didn’t know what to analyze. I asked sophia what she analyzed and she told me that she analyzed a teddy bear, so i realized that anything can be realized but…i still didn’t know what that anything should be. I thought and thought and thought and i finally decided a few seconds ago to analyze analyze, but now that i think thought about analyzing analyze at first but i realized that i should know the subject well enough, and i was not sure whether i knew that much about analyzing so that i can analyze it. Finally, i reached the conclusion to analyze debated.

I love debating (not that i am good at it.) There is this special something that really draws people in to debating. All the people i know who love to debate just LOVE to debate. However, when i think about it carefully it is very odd to like debating, because essentially debate is basically a fight. Then does this mean that all of the people who do like to debate are combative?

Before I answer this question i will break down what debate is to me. Importantly, it is stressful labor of your brain, google, mouth, and patience. First, debaters need to think of great arguments that are solid and defensible. This is probably one of the toughest steps for me. I always have some ideas, but have more ideas that can attack those ideas. It always seems to be easier to attack something than to support something. Obviously, the concoction of wonderful arguments exhaust the brain. Next comes Google. In order to support the arguments painfully made evidence is needed. This step can be extremely unpleasant when the topic is not well known. Yet, the worst case is when you have to change your argument because of the lack of evidence. Apparently, you need your mouth to debate for speaking.  Lastly, and importantly patience is needed. The debaters need to indure the slight humiliation of getting their arguments sabbotaged. This may sound easy because some might think who cares? it’s not even real. However, it is surprisingly hard to bear.  It is even more challenging because we cannot speak whenever we can. One time, my opponent said something which was completely false and exaggerated. Unfortunately, she was the last speaker and there was nothing i could do about it. Patience and medidation were essential at that moment.

Well, my answer for the question no. First of all, i think that although to debate is to politely (no always) fight, the emphasis should be put on the art of convincing. People in general like to get their opinions accepted and believed. It is just thrilling to convince someone who is supposed to be neutral. It shows that my opinions and thought were able to move somebody’s mind. The sole concept of changing somebody’s thought is rather holy at least to me. There are many things that can be easily moved physically. We can move around books, laptops and we can move ourselves by walking or simply riding a car. However, there is no physical force that can move thoughts and emotions. In this sense, debate is like an art. Books, paintings and music can change people and so can debaters.

Also, debate is beautiful. Sometimes, debates are not meaningful just because it is a competition. In stead, they can be beautiful for their beauty. It may be hard to understand how a fight can be beautiful. However, the eloquence and impeccable logic of great debaters are mesmerizing. We talk all the time, but we don’t always talk beautifully in a logical manner. The lines of debaters are not necessarily poetic and sometimes, because of the lack of time and the  pressure, there can be flaws here and there, but the beauty is still there. It is the beauty of the quickly thought up lines,  the beauty of the rashly but rationally made arguments that hint the brilliance of the debater, and the beauty of the earnestness of the debaters voice. I cannot but help to mention one beautiful debater. Her name is Sylvia and she is the legend of debate. I honestly never saw a person who sounded so intelligent and keen in such a polite manner. She seemed to be a genius. She would always listen, think (very seriously), write, and then DROP THE NOTES ON HER DESK, go out and do her thing. In her mind she had all the statistics, arguments of the opponents, counter arguments, and her original arguments stored. She had the charisma that made people just listen. She was simply beautiful.

Finally debates are plain exciting. In fact debate is a sport. Like most sports the players (debaters) wish to win, need to think quickly, need teamwork, are competitive, and get exhausted by the end of the round. Although no physical contact is visible the words are competiting ruthlessly, and although we cannot see them we can hear them clash.

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i definitely do not want to fill my blog with reality shows but i really wanted to talk about something (a rather disturbing something…) that i realized while i was watching reality shows…

covert or i guess explicit advertising is rampant in reality shows..

Let’s look at each shows and how they wonderfully shape their shows around products and brands

*America’s Next Top Model

America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) can actually change their name into America’s Next Cover Girl. Cover Girl is so emphasized that it seems that the show is looking for the next cover girl not the next top model. Before each elimination Tyra Banks announces the prizes for winning the competition. One of the prizes is being the cover girl (actually making a contract with covergirl) . Also, so many of the challenges are cover girl related. For example, for every single season ( after ANTM started to get sponsored by cover girl) the girls shoot an advertisement for cover girl, each introducing the new products of cover girl. Of course, there is the mini challenge that involves doing makeup with cover girl products in WALMART (walmart is definitely prominent as well in this show) The last shoot is the spread for Cover Girl, and usually there are other small shoots for something of cover girl (very vague, i realize but it changes every time!) So wow, it is so obvious that ANTM is doing a stupendous job at advertising their sponsors, but sometimes it feels like this is too much. I can see that the size of the houses that the girls live in improved immensely (despite the bad economy…) compared to the seasons in the beginning. However, i think that the show is losing its focus. Tyra repeatedly says that she is looking for high-fashion models… but i really think that they are looking for cover girl and walmart models. Just to add on i really think that Tyra is promoting herself as well, because every single episode seems to be very… tyra related.

watch?v=DEs-DI9KD1M

-cover girl commercial made in cycle 9

*Project Runway

Project Runway is doing very well in this competition of advertisement and promotion. As project runway is a competition for designers the show needs FABRIC!!! It must have been the smartest idea get sponsored by the fabric place..of course. As a result every single competition the contestants go to a specific fabric shop and carry around a specif fabric bag that has a huge emblem of the store – Mood on it. The cutest part is yet to come, every contestant shouts out “thank you Mood” before they leave. The winner of Project Runway gets the opportunity to sell their line on Bluefly, which is an internet shopping mall (i guess). Obviously, the host Heidi Klum repeats the prizes every episode and Tim Gun reminds the contestants to use the accessories from the bluefly wall (a wall that has products from bluefly) Since, the designers have to present their products there should be a runway, and the models need to do their makeup and hair. For project runway and of course the sponsors, this is a perfect opportunity, so every episode Tim Gun shouts out “Ok, send your models to Tresemme hair salon for the hair and makeup” For this week’s challenge’s winner, the designer and the model got to take a picture that will be shown on a tresemme ad.

the bluefly.com wall from Project Runway

*The Hills

The advertisement from The Hills must be the most covert because they do not actually have challenges or competitions to involve the sponsors with. In stead the places and brands that the main characters go and have get advertised. For this show, i guess that the advertisement is not entirely set up…However, the affect of the show is great. For example the People’s Revolution, which two of the characters work at, became immensely popular after it became shown on the tv. Other than this, the restaurants and clubs that the characters go to are always shown on the screen by subtitles, and by looking at the fact that this show is has the highest viewing rate in mtv’s history, i bet that the impact is substantial.

main character working at People’s Revolution

For most of the parts, the directors of the shows may not be comfortable with the excessive advertisement. In many cases the promotion can be inevitable for financial reasons. However, i think that the producers still need to find the happy mean because viewers, at least me, can be disturbed by too much advertisements. In some way, this whole situation is quite sad…because it clearly shows the commercialism and competitive aspect of the society.

(for some reason i can’t get the video posted up )

http://www.seenon.com/image/external/SeenonSlideshow/albums/album-72/lg/project_runway_bluefly_1.jpg/fetch/project_runway_bluefly_1.jpg

http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2008/features/tvblog/080428/lauren_conrad.jpg

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I LOVE reality shows. I watch(ed) Project Runway, America’s Next Top Model, American Idol, The Hills, Laguna Beach, Real World, Orange County, The Life of Ryan, The Paper, Search of the Next Elle Woods, America’s Best Dance Crew, and a Korean reality called 우리결혼했어요, meaning we got married. Most of the times, especially for the reality shows that try to show the lives of the characters, i realize that the show is very fake and it is simply unproductive, meaningless, shallow and useless to watch the shows, but i still watch them haha. Well, since i watch so many shows i definitely caught a pattern.

Shows need to get high viewing rates, and for this the shows need to be interesting, and to be interesting the producers try to make the shows more provocative, scandalous, and sexual. As a result, many of the reality shows change their colors as the seasons progress. However, i wonder whether these methods of making the reality so rich really help. This idea suddenly hit me while i was watching Project Runway on Youtube. I was reading some comments and one comment said that her or she used to enjoy watching the desingers work the most, but now those parts became so boring, and i completely agreed. I could not read the whole comment because i had to quickly focus on the show haha but i thought about it while watching, and i found the reason for the boringness. It was because a long time ago.. or even last season, for some of the episodes, the designers actually working were shown on tv. However, now the focus was is not on the designers’ hands but on their mouths. In order to pick up the drama the edited parts only showed the parts when the designers were gossiping, back stabbing, or swearing. This peculiar editting must have been done in order to make the show more interesting, but obviously, at least for me, the show was becoming less interesting.

It must be very hard for the producers to make their shows real and intersting at the same time. I feel like these days the focus is more on interesting than on real. I really wonder whether the excessive salting and peppering helped the view rates. When looking at the apparent trend, i guess it does. If the rates really did go up, i think this can translate into – people like disturbing and scadalous stuff……Since i am one of the viewers of these shows does this mean that i do like these elements as well??? I hope that the answer for this questions is yes judging from the fact that i did not like the extra drama from Project Runway and that i stopped watching Real World Hollywood because it was just too much.

So, i think that the conclusion of my post came out to be interesting = disturbing, but i wonder if this formula always works.

credit: http://www.washfm.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=&article=3648072

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My brother is a very unique person, not in such a good way. There are many qualities that i want to talk about, but i think his dependence is the quality that i want to talk about the most. Since my brother was very young he wouldn’t do anything himself. Since my mom likes to get things done quickly she would do things for him in stead of struggling with him and wasting time. This was absolutely not the way that i was raised, so i would always tell my mom that she shouldn’t help my brother with every single thing. Of course she knew that taking too much care of him was not a good thing to do, but she couldn’t help it. But sometimes my mom got sick of having to do everything with him and for him so would not care what he did. Yet, the results were always disastrous. For instance, one time, my brother could not get done something for school and he wanted my mom to finish it for him. My mom refused and told him to do it alone, and he simply did not go to school. At the end of the turmoil my mom did whatever he had to do to send him to school. He’s just like that. In fact, there were many incidents similar to this…

I always tell my mom that this is the result of the excessive care that she gave him when he was young, because when i was young my mom would just go out for swimming everyday. Consequently, i washed, brushed, and fed myself since a very young age. But my mom tells me that my brother has different genes, and that if she did that to my brother he would not go to school… Well, my mother’s the expert but i just think that my brother should not me this independent.

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I honestly appreciate technology almost everday. I appreciate how i can simply type words, call people, talk to peopel online, surf the internet, ride cars and buses, eat stuff out of fridge, and so on. However, technology does make people frustrated. For instance, just look at this blog. I merrily struggled with the blog very much. First the blog insisted on changing my password, and it kept on doing it saying that they promise that this is going to be the LAST TIME. Well, apparently, it was the last time and i repeated the process very diligently, until i did something that made it work like magic. It was until later that ms. porter solved the riddle for us. Edublog just didn’t like rememebering passwords..that was it! Yet, my eventful blog trip did not end here as even while i was writing the posts the page would go blank with few lines of technical gibberish, and it wouldn’t even post! and just now i couldn’t figure out how to change the font and font size for the previous post. I love blogging but i think that i will start to not like it if i have to toil to write just one poor written rant…

Well…enough complaining i secretly or publicly hope that the managers of edublog read that!) I know that the topic of technology is very cliche. Whether technolgy helped our lives seem to be continuously debated, but i feel like cliche today hehe. Well, my personal view is that technolgy is both beneficial and harmful (oo clliche). Without techonology our lives will not be like this. We wil be living less eventful and entertaining lives. Just think of life without tvs, internet, cellphone, movies, cars and planes.. how boaring. Of course, technology might have made our lives toooo eventful to the extent that many psychological ailments are manifesting the degtee. However, when we think about it, this really depends on control. Although i love to play with my computer and gaze not so brightly into the tv, i can make myself stop and read a book or go outside and sit in the not so natural nature.

Now, the cliche argument for those who are aggainst technology will be that technology makes people impersonal…This can be a valid argumentm, but the thing is that ppl don’t always talk to their friends on msn or text message them. When people need it they simply meet their friends. Frankly, just look around the streets there are so many people meeting people!! Just go into Starbuck and it will be evident… In fact, i think that technology is helping the relationships of people because it makes communication easier and faster.

So… i guess my argument is that technology is beneficial if you know how to use it properly.

Now i want to digress and talk about how i suddenly thought of this random topic…haha. These days i started to study for the SAT and one of the passages talked about technology. Honestly i really do not like passages related to technology or any other repetitive topics, and this passage was not that different. In fact, i thought that the reasoning was very weird. The author listened to a professor’s speech about how technology is drawing people apart and the author thought that the professor was being to romantic. Later that day he was eating lunch on a bench and met two friends talking to each of their phones. The author suddenly realizes that the professor was right, because he was so shocked that the two friends were merely sitting together but not having a conversation with each other. Well, firstly, i do not think that this is a very commom thing to happen. Also, the two might have been super busy, or simply maybe the two got phone calls at the same time. Moreover, you don’t really need to TALK the whole time when you are with your friend… I am sure that the author of this passage is a very wise and accomplished individual, but i just really could not understand the sudden realization… it did not feel like Newton’s apple in any way…

Once again stream of conciousness post i really need to fix this habit

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I bought this book a long long long time ago. I have a strange greediness when it comes to books, so I try to buy as many books possible whether or not I can read them all. One of the books that were selected was One Hundred Years of Solitude. I did not know what the book was about. I just chose the book because the cover was bedazzling (yes, I do judge the book by its cover…sometimes…) and because i knew that it was famous. However, perhaps because it was too famous, or because the title was just too duanting, i never picked it up. For some reason this made me really guilty. I felt like i was committing a crime of making a legendary book just idly stand on the shelf, so when i had to read a book for ap lit i almost immediately thought of this book. Honeslty, even though this book was my first choice i tried to avoid it because it seemed to be too thick, and i knew that i migt not have enough time to read it, but still i came to a decision to read the book. I can really say that i do not regret my decision. Yes, it was a pretty bulky (not too much) book but it was worth it. Peopel say that this book made people view literature differently. Since i am a baby lit student, i do not exaclty know what my views are towards literature, but it indeed is a magnificent book.

This book was completely different from what i expected it to be. I expected this book to be very philosophical (i am not saying that this book is not!) and …just one of those wonderful but boring books, but it really wasn’t like that. In stead, it was a very eventful (maybe too much) book that really captivated my mind. Although it got kind of boring in towards the end, the book thoroughly entertained me. I think i read quite a lot, but i don’t think that i am a good…deep reader, so i must have failed to grasp the whole value of this book. Yet, this book made me speechless. As a i told ms. porter almost the only thing that i could think of that Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a GENIOUS. Really, nobel prize winners are different… FIrst of all, who can think of a imagernary place that is so ordinary and original at the same time? The writing is so imaginative and the writing is so juicy (and i applaud the translator for the beautiful work as well!) Moreover, the story is so complicated, and the author just must be a genious to keep track of al the names, not be confused, and have their individual stories. Whiel i was reading the book i thought that the story got a bit too chaotic. There were too many characters with similar or IDENTICAL names, but then i realized the order in the chaos. The author actually planned out the story, which can be hinted from lines like “as you will see later”

However, more than anything, i loved the ending. I really wondered how the book will end because everything was turning out just so miserably. Usually, i peek and see the ending of the books because i am really bad at supressing my curiousity, but this time i succesfully restraiend myself because i knew that soemthing beautiful would happen. Since i do not want to spoil the ending i will not say it outright but the ending was perfect!!!!!!!! it gave me goosebumps. Also, i felt the evident political satire. I forgot much of my history, but i could sense the twists. 

Gosh, my wriitng is like… stream of conciousness…well

now i am going to start Love in the Time of Cholera and i can’t wait for it!! 

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I will not exaggerate at all.

Since this is a rather public blog..i cannot disclose my grades..but……

i think i can have a heart attack right now!!!!!

some might think that i am exaggerating, but ask sophia she knows the answer..

i do not wish to talk about my grades in my sacred blog..but the only thing that i can think about is my grade

and so…i have to spill the beans to not suffocate.

I honestly never thought that i would start my senior year like this.

I got sick, stayed in the hospital for about 10 days, and had to stay at home for recovery for about 2 days

i had to skip about 10 days of school days. I still could not and cannot function properly as the doctors told me that i will get tired and should not stress myself for about a month at most. I had an conference that i HAD to attend, which tired me out, and make many of the teacher angry……i fell asleep before nine every single day and i could not finish my homework or my make up work…..The result of this unfortunate course is devastating at best.

Many people including myself are telling me that i will be able to raise my grades somehow.

But, i don’t have time..:) i need to apply early..and i will need to submit my senior grades….and i HAVE to raise my grades before that……

:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

i think the situation overwhelmed me so much that i am quite senseless at this point.

i think i feel betrayed by the circumstances..

in korea..there is a saying: 공든 탑이 무너진다. Literally, this means the tower that you carefully built collapses, but of course the deeper meaning indicates that..whatever you were doing hard becomes futile.

I can fathom this saying 1000000% right now.

i don’t want to ruin my high school career just because of one quarter.

i guess i need to pull myself together..get healthier, happier, and better.

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I cant concentrate……

what should i doooooooooooooooooooo

nooooooooooooo

ahhhhhhhhhhhhrghhhhh

sb help me..

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ClipView.do?clipid=9018591&searchType=0&page=1&rowNum=5&sort=wtime&svctype=1&q=%EB%A6%BD%EC%8B%B1%ED%81%AC

This was from Daum so i guess the video is..um un-uploadable

oh well.. i really wanted to opost it cuz it’s just so hilarious

i kinda miss my self-study times

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