2001 : A Space Odyssey

As the title is really odd enough, I thought the first part I watched today was as idiosyncratic as the title. I did not recognize that the movie file actually contained subtitle because..... there was no line until the creepy apes ,that I would rather deny me [should this be I?]being their descendant, made this loud noise to scare off other apes. It was not until I saw one of the ape using a bone as a tool that I realized I have heard of this movie before. I remember it quite accurately; it was when I was in prom school to study for korean university entrance, and there was a short cartoon that referred to this movie in a practice test. I recall that the answer to that problem was that thanks to the ability we could use a tool, we evolved since then and came this far- to space shuttle. I do not know where on earth this story is going, but I have to say that I am very interested.

The Painted Door

I am now doing a short story project in my reading class, and I chose to present about this interesting story written by Sinclair Ross, a fairly-known Canadian writer. It is not a very short story since it is seven pages long with little space between the lines and its letters are very small too. However, the length couldn't deter me from choosing it; it was that intriguing story for me. I wanted to share this story with my writing class as well. (Guys who are in my reading class don't need to worry because we are in different group so that Momoko and Cheiu also don't have opportunity to get to know this story!)

The story probably takes place in Saskatchewan, famously known as Canadian prairies. A married couple Ann and John live there as farmers, where the nearest neighboring is 5 miles away. It is one day when there are some signs of snow storm coming up, and John insists to go see his father and help him with chores despite the objection of Ann. He leaves house promising that he will drop by Steven's house and ask him to come over since Ann will be lonely, and also to come back that day however severe the storm would be. Ann feels very lonely and bored about her marriage life because of the lack of communication; John works twenty four seven, and thinks that sacrificing himself to buy Ann pretty clothes is his duty, while Ann needs a husband to talk and love with. She keeps herself busy by painting their bedroom door trying not to think about her rebellious feeling of the marriage. Then, when the horrific blizzard started, Steven arrived. She kept saying that John will be back even during this terrifying storm, but she could not help sleeping with  John. However, she discerns that John is the one she loves after committing adultery. Next day, John's frozen-to-death body is found less than a mile away from his house. She gasps when she founds a smear of paint in his palms. (Remember she painted the bed room door? John succeeded in coming back to home in the deadly storm, and finds about her adultery so chooses to die than to confront her.)

How great a story is this? I felt some kind of shudder at the ending of the story. I love stories of great irony such as "The necklace" or "Christmas present". No wonder I chose this story despite the long length and difficult vocabularies! :) I really enjoyed searching more deep sub-meanings and skills that the author used to make the story more firmer. I recommend you to read the story since it works as a good material to study english as well.

Denis Dutton: A Darwinian theory of beauty

What is the experience of beauty? Many people say that "Beauty is in the culturally conditioned eye if the beholder". But is this true? Denis argues people all around the world consider certain scenery as beautiful, no matter what different cultures they are from. Some might argue that it works only for natural beauty, not for artificial ones. However, people find beauty in something done well. Acheulian hand axes made 1.4 million years ago, which Denis regards as the earliest art work, not as butchery, looks beautiful even for today's eyes. 

I don't quite get his logical point how he links Darwin's theory with how we define beauty.....T_T

Art Gallery

It was a quite small gallery, actually none of the student expected it to be so short field trip, and I'd love to do another filed trip if it's like this, haha.
It's too bad that I was so sleepy that day, even though I have no idea why I was so tired. I would have seen it better if I were not that sleepy... Anyway, despite the sleepiness I had, I remember the killerwhale sculpture the most. I was thinking that it looks like it will fall down to the front since it does not seem like so balanced, but it was so stable. Then Nathan took words right out of my mouth and talked about it! I thought my idea was so childish, but it was good to know that Nathan also felt interested by the same fact.
Another one that I still remember is the one that has lots of faces in a clam and a bird is sitting on it. (Is this right...? I can't quite remember because I was almost sleep walking... :( ) It was interesting how Bill had some sense of humor in his artifacts. I will always see the picture on 20$ bill and think about the real one that I saw.
The ones that he made in his late ages while he couldn't handle his body due to the disease, also looked nice. I think he did a very good job on making the wires into some kind of shape if we consider that Parkinson's disease had made him lose the sensitiveness of his own hands. I like how he made a woman's figure with her breast :D and an eagle flying straight down to his prey.

Not much time left....

I have realized that this 4-month-long course is already half way through, and actually almost only 1 month is left toward us. That means it's already been 5 months since I came to Vancouver. My first course was UBC LNC course. Unlike IEP course we are taking, it was only 1 month course; however, I became emotionally attached to friends that I met in the class. I cried a lot when I had to send them back to their countries. I still keep in touch with many of the friends, but my feelings are not as deep as I was in the past. I think that proverb "Out of sight, out of mind" cannot be more true. I always feel uncomfortable and awkward when I have to start off my new life. It was same when I started this course, but now, I cannot imagine leaving UBC with some of the friends going back to their country and some of them remaining in UBC.

I always thought that this 4-month course is so long that it felt like it will never come to the end. I was feeling okay when the mid term was over because I still had half left in front of us. Now, only having 1 month left, I feel somewhat anxious and sad. It cannot be as same as just now if this course gets to its end even if I can stay in ELI, but there is a prominent chance of me having to leave ELI and go to another school in Downtown.... This stream of thoughts make me miserable.

Change is good. A life without any change is just a boring rut. Change can make people active and aggressive. Nonetheless, nobody wants to change. They want to cling to the routine they had until now. I know that I will get used to the new school that I might go after this school, and I know that I will somehow deal with how to let go my friends back to their country, and I know I will love the casual university life I will have when I go back to Korea. But, God, How I wish I could take all the favorite parts of life in Vancouver to Korea and never let it go.

Bad Teacher -Nathan

Ah, the title is just a silly joke Nathan, I am just kidding :D!! I watched a movie named Bad Teacher, and after writing the title down, I instantly and unconsciously wrote down Nathan's name after it, haha.

One of my friends loves to watch movie, and he goes to movies at least twice a week. He also likes watching the movies he liked again and again. I wanted to watch the bad teacher movie ever since they showed the trailer of it, and the friend I mentioned above recommended me that it is a quite good movie, so I went to watch the movie! The reason I craved for this movie was, first, because the casting was interesting. I am not that interested in celebrities, so I don't know many of Hollywood actors. However, there were 4 actors that I knew who came out in this movie! Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, and Erik Streetstone! Second reason I wanted to watch this movie is just because I like romantic comedy movies. :)

The movie was great i think. Assuming that the 15 minutes of the movie in the middle that I missed because I remembered that I left my jacket in washroom so had to run out of the theater to look for it, didn't totally changed or destroyed the movie. I wouldn't write the story or consequence here in order not to become a spoiler for those who want to watch it. The main plot is that Cameron Diaz does everything that make herself a bad teacher, and she is eager to have a brand new tips in order to seduce a rich man and get married. What I felt strong, and not only me but all my friends as well is that..... Cameron Diaz is very old now T_T. She has all these wrinkles under her eyes and that made me feel bad...

I am planning to download the movie in my laptop and watch it again with subtitle because I couldn't get the funny jokes in the movie perfectly. I felt stupid when everyone in the theater laughed so hard but I couldn't laugh since I didn't understand, so it would be good for my english! :)

Comparison between Genesis 3 and Prometheus Bound

Although The 3rd section of Genesis and the Prometheus Bound look like they have nothing in common, they actually have some similarities. God in Genesis, plays a very similar role with Zeus in Prometheus Bound. They are both masterful and authoritative male figure, who are somewhat cruel and know no mercy. They punished the figures who tried to help and give a knowledge or technology to human. Also, both stories have the figures who try to awaken people; the serpent plays the role in former story, and Prometheus does the role in latter story. Serpent is described as very sly animal that tries to seduce Eve to eat the fruit, while Prometheus is depicted as a hero who risked himself to help people. In spite of the difference in how they are described, it is true that they both helped human get out ignorance and help them have fire so that they could evolve. In addition, the people whom they help are also something in common. In Genesis, Adam and Eve are the people, and they are almost like protagonists, however, in Prometheus Bound, people do not appear clearly in the story, but they are just told that they exist.

Canada Day :D

I had lots of plans for the Canada day, three things on the list. First of all, I was planning to go to Stevenston, Richmond, to enjoy the salmon festival, but not so early in the morning. I wanted to go there after having a sound, and long enough sleep since i didn't want to miss the opportunity to wake up late on non-school-day. So, I woke up in 10 o'clock, and prepared to enjoy the holiday. This was my first time to go Richmond by public transportation, and it was quite far away then I expected. We needed to take a bus to sky train station, and then take sky train to the very last station, and then take another bus to Steveston. Since I am very dark at finding the ways and directions out, I just followed my trustful friends who led me to the festival well enough. There were lots of things going on, for example, some games people could play with coupons which was kind of expensive so we didn't use any of our money to play it although it seemed quite fun. Despite the name Salmon festival, there was only one shop that sold salmon barbecue. We had our lunch before we found the salmon shop, so we didn't try it, haha. Instead, we did have cotton candies,which was so pretty pastel colored, and we all felt like we went back to our childhood. We carried ourselves to the sea afterwards. I have seeing  sea on everyday basis since I live on UBC, but the sea in Steveston was bit different from the one in Vancouver, it had many small boats floating on the sea, and it wasn't a beach that we could jump in and have fun.

After coming back to Vancouver, I had a concert of Britney Spears! Also, Nicki Minaj came and gave us a show before Britney. I haven't heard of her, but she was indeed a good singer and performer. I have never been to a concert before, so it was very fascinating. One thing that I didn't like was that Britney performed many new songs, but I only know her famous old songs, so it kind of made me hard to follow the songs. I first knew her when I was 10 years old, while me and my family were in England, and she was the best at that moment. She was young, charming, beautiful, and no dirty scandal was made at that time. I had some chances to look at her rather closely, because my seat was somewhat close to the side of the stage. One thing I felt was she is quite old now. She wasn't the pretty girl that I always recalled when I thought of her anymore. However, her performance was very showy, a lot to amuse my eyes with. Her dancers were also very skilled, especially the guy dancers; they had such a great body and were dashing *o*!! 

Difference between 1st and 2nd accounts of the Genesis

There are some differences between the first and second accounts of the Genesis, even though they are talking about basically the same story, how the world became to be like present form.

First of all, the designation of God is different. In 1st account, simply the term 'God' is used ; on the contrary, specific God's name, 'Yahweh God' is used to refer to God in 2nd account. This can be a important clue to identify the writers of the stories.

As their designations differ, so do their ability. In 1st account, God simply creates everything by speaking. For example, there comes the light right after the God says "Let there be light". His ability seems to be more able than 2nd account's God comparing that he actually does things himself to build up the world. He breathes, forms, plants, and builds the world up instead of just speaking the words to make it done. 

Also, 1st account is more carefully and deeply planned and were wrote than 2nd account. In  other words, forethought is revealed in 1st one, while rather improvization is found in 2in one. If you examine the 1st account carefully, you can find some details that makes the story look more neat. 

Lastly, there are differences in evil points of each account. First account gives a false conception that human can have a power to dominate the nature. Due to this story, human have been destroying the earth nature for their own good. On the other hand, 2nd account makes a woman out of the rib of a man; she misunderstands the saying of God; she is the one that makes Adam and herself to eat the forbidden fruit and therefore get punished by the God. This whole thing makes woman look inferior to man, and due to this,  women had been treated unequal to man in many cultures.