Friday, January 23, 2009

nonSENSE

Laminated thoughts lament.

Alas!

Forsooth!

いまから!

行く!

괜찮아! 네!!! ^^

ㅠ.ㅠ 《哈哈!!

你应该写了 (directions)

Lost

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Strength

Today provided a few interesting things. I've finished planning my trip for Japan, I've thought a bit about web-design, and I've learned a lot about computer localization. The latter being the bulk of my day today... and being a big source of annoyance. I've also been a little out of touch with my family. So, I'll begin with my trip.

I have a plane ticket to leave January 28th and return February 25th, but I'm going to be returning on the 8th, by ferry. This may seem a bit odd, especially to my father who doesn't like the idea of any money being wasted. However, I bought the ticket to have enough time to see everyone of my friends that I should see, but the length of time to actually live in Japan for the amount of time is too long. I could pull it off, but I'd end up losing more money. So, I decided to show my friends the honesty of wanting to see everyone, but use the reality of money to keep me under budget. For my Dad, Money talk:

Plane ticket (round trip): $430 + tax and insurance
Expenses (food, trains, etc): I'm not sure, but I want to keep it as low as possible. If I don't go to Tokyo, then I could probably keep it under $100. If I were to stay for the whole time this would be an amazingly high cost.
Ferry (cheapest ticket): about $90 + 20% student discount = about $72
Total: Under $700 for a 2 week vacation in Japan.

So, after I thought about this, combined with risking being away during important school related issues (housing payments, class lists), and being away for Valentines day and Susan's birthday led me to opt to do what I've done.

Now, for my actual planes, I will be leaving by plane from Busan on January 28th at about 11:00 AM. From January 28th to either February 1st or February 4th, depending on if I go to Tokyo, I'll be staying with a friend from America who has an apartment in Osaka. Then, if I go to Tokyo, I will be staying at a friend at made while abroad here from the 1st to the 4th. Then, I'll be staying with my friend Haruka until the 6th in Osaka. Now, I may just decide to come home on the 6th, or I may stay for an extra day or so, just to have a little more fun. Returning by ferry takes about 19 hours (depart about 3:00 PM, arrive about 10:AM) and I'm honestly looking forward to it (although that sentiment may change when I'm actually on the boat). Upon arriving in Busan, I plan to meet with Susan and Basil and spend the night in Busan and return to Gyeongsan the following day.

That's my vacation, Mom and Dad, you probably wont care too much about anything else I write about; I don't mind if you stop reading.

I stumbled upon an older website and realized how insane web design has gotten. Actual content isn't even a concern for most websites. It seems the most important thing is having everything being very mesmoizing and filled with eye candy that makes you want to come back to see the pretty things rather than something more purposeful. It caused me to make some minor changes on this site here. Easily loadable text and images allows people to see what you are actually doing more, I think.

In a similar note (and a convienent segway into my third topic), I changed my vista to look more like Windows 98 today. It was a nice nostalgic moment, but after not being able to do what I wanted to do on Windows (because I was having difficulty on Linux to begin with), I switched back to my Linux partition and learned some interesting things.

No one put any thought into internationalized computers for a long time. This makes it very difficult to run old programs that are not in the language your entire operating sytem is in. I found out you have to emulate the environment of the localized version of the operating system! This isn't just something that you have to do on Linux to get it running. On Vista as well, I had to emulate the localized version. This was a pain to do, and it made me really think how difficult it must have been to communicate inbetween languages using computers just 5 years ago. It also really shows me how English became so internationalized, it was the language that worked on all computers. Everyone had to use English in order to communicate between each other!

In the end, I got the program I wanted to run... just not fully functioning. Oh well.


Mom and Dad, you'll be more interested in this part now :P


I'm really enjoying myself these days and things are really great with Susan. She's sorry for being shy to speak to you Mom and Dad! I hear Katy did well on some running event, that's good to know. And Mom, are you getting better? Is Michelle getting the transfer she undoubetly wants very badly? How's Molly doing in school? Most funnily, what's it like with Michael being a cop?

Which reminds me, Andrew told me he saw Michael giving someone a ticket a little while back! Speaking of Andrew, I forgot to tell everyone. There ended up actually something being wrong with him. I can't remember exactly, too much or too little of something. He plans to go back to school and really appreciated having me in Naples for the summer.

For Dad, don't let the money situation in America keep you down so much. I'll help out in any way I can upon returning. Just don't get too caught up in the money that you forget other things as well.

I'll end with a Korean world map. Just a reminder that in some places America is not the center of the world. ^^

Friday, January 16, 2009

Clouds

Only in dreams are we allowed to find the solace that is desired every waking hour of our lives. The reactions are always tenfold the amusement and twenty under the expectations, but double or nothing the results. The gambles are huge and invisible; they are how life is lived and how one builds experiences.

Only in dreams does the house lose its own betting hand in a wistful twist of distant desires that descend with the ultimatum of true equality fatefully witnessing a chance of destiny-or just a whisper in the night. All the same, on the other end of the world, there are chores that need to be done and a person that should be doing them.

Only in dreams will the existential realities live out in fantasy. An endless brainstorm that allows for unending thought. Meanwhile, a soft bed still calls home and a lost-boy flies alone. There are only a few hours of darkness that howl, but they tend to be the coldest. The deepest depressions provide the most uplifting of spirits, the sweetest of smells, and the most interesting stories.

Only in dreams can I escape.

As nights drift into notes and lights soften into tones, I find my way home...

Only in dreams.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

많이 추워

It's been real cold. In fact, the lake by my dormitory is frozen these days. I can't really get used to the cold, it's like trying to get used to a punch in the face.

I have been spending more time studying Korean, and am attempting to-slowly-read a book. So, I'll try writing a bit in Korean here.

요즘에는 진짜 추워! 난 어떻게 지내어요?! 많이 공부하고 정말 좀 자고있어요. ^^

ㅋㅋㅋ

정말, 요즘에 더 생각하고있었어요. 내 꿈이 이러야해요. 그래서, 요즘부더 난 열심히 일하다!

파이팅!!

그리고, 다음 달에 일본에 여행할 거예요!! 기대하여

그리고, 부산에 또 여행. 바다가 정말 좋아. 내꿈은 해양에서 살아요.

안녕계세요!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Lynx

Having some command line fun. I've gotten a purely terminal web browser working with unicode and everything. That means I can type in many languages with no problem, right from the terminal!
Hello!
你好!
こんにちは!
안녕하세요!

The purpose of this? A speedier less distracting interface to use the internet, I guess. Other than that, it is just fun using the ultra-modern internet on a, what most people would consider, archaic platform!

Breif html test:
Italic
bold
underline

Monday, January 5, 2009

BirdFly


I found this nice website, LogoInstant, that creates free logos. They have some very nice looking things, the one above is called BirdFly; I found it particularly appealing.

In less interesting things, my French friend, Kinh, made some Italian food last night (I haven't had anything resembling Italian food since I've been in Korea), and it was great!

Friday, January 2, 2009

我是

I spent a long time last night thinking and reviewing how I came to feel the way I do right now. I realized some very interesting things about myself and how it influences my outlook on the world. I also began to really see how being in Korea has started to really change me a lot.

The first big thing that I was thinking about comes into different categories of knowledge. This is something I had not ever really thought about and allowed me to make the revelation I did. I find that everything I learn falls into three broad categories:

  • Useful
  • Interesting
  • Lies*
*I will further define this later to clear up the ambiguity of such a category.


The first, useful knowledge, applies to things I learn that have real world uses and can be directly applied to things I will be doing or have done. This knowledge can be considered both "common sense" and "needed skills." This is the most pragmatically important category and covers specifics in living life.

The second, interesting knowledge. applies to things I learn that have no real, real world uses and will not be directly applied to things I will be doing or have done. However, this category is important just for the sake of betting yourself and can impact and create usefulness. It allows me to pursue things that I truthfully find intriguing and creates a desire to continue life. It is the most philosophically important category and covers the non-specifics in living life.

The third, lies, rarely applies to things I learn in the real world, and can rarely be directly applied to things I will be doing or have done. This is the category that most people get stuck in, it is why people say, "You have to stay true to yourself." This is the category of pleasing other people and forgetting who you are. This is the category that makes people get lost in the world despite having everything they need in front of them. It removes you from yourself and replaces it with nothing but a shadow of a shadow. This knowledge, I realized, is the most prevalent in my life, and I deem that a problem. This is the knowledge that stops you from admitting you like something because you heard someone else say otherwise and you don't want to appear inferior. It creates a knowledge based on lies that don't exist and never have.

Now, all three of these categories interact with each other. Something can be interesting and useful, or useful and not interesting, or a lie that is useful and interesting. However, in building my personal world, I have know what I believe, and if you let the lies do that you no longer are aware of what is truthfully interesting. It becomes, what I think others will find interesting. The same can be applied with useful knowledge. That is why, I ask myself to consider the lies as no longer useful or interesting, but a false or negation. In a logical structure.

If there is knowledge then it is useful
or
If there is knowledge then it is interesting
else
If there is knowledge then it is a lie.

This structure allows for them all to interact, but shows how the lies are a negation. A lie can be useful and/or interesting, but it is still negative knowledge. To put it more vulgarly, it is bad knowledge or untrue to oneself.

So, after thinking this out, I thought to apply it to my life and it made me realize quite a few things. I won't go into big personal details just some major shifts in the amount of different types of knowledge.

As a kid, everything is useful and interesting knowledge and lies are nearly non-existent. You know what you believe and you don't care what other people think. This is a mind that is both confident and open, the ideal mind. My mind was no exception to this.

In high school, I was bombarded with useless uninteresting knowledge and it left me in a world largely constructed of lies. It came to the point where I was willing to quit high school because I saw no point in continuing pointless learning. Knowledge at this time was rarely useful, I would learn some personally interesting things, but mostly I lived within the boundaries of lies.

Entering college, a new world opened up. I was suddenly engulfed in a world full of useful and interesting knowledge! I could learn what I truly found interesting, and build knowledge for my own personal reasons. The problem: my personal reasons at this point, seemed to still retain some of the shape formed by lies in high school. As a result, I was living a kind dream world that was interesting, useful, and a lie. It was a lie because I was still allowing opinions and thoughts to be formed by what others said. Or sometimes, just suspending all judgments for fear of seeming inferior. On a larger scale though, I was learning to voice a more personal opinion, just not at the pace that I was gaining knowledge. My mind was opening at this point, but I was not confident of anything.

Now, in Korea, completely swept from my world and my ideas, I have a completely new landscape that turned my world view upside-down. I had more misconceptions than I thought possible and was suddenly in a world where I was getting less interesting more useful knowledge. All this compounds with getting a wonderful girlfriend who further challenges me to think outside of my perspective lead to my realizations. I am learning my child-mind again. Becoming confident and open minded. Learning how to be true to myself.


_____________________________________________________

PS
Susan is teaching me Chinese now!

Ruby

This is a mini update. I plan on making a longer update later today, but I wanted to share my first practical Ruby code.

A little back story: I have always been interested in Computer Programming and signed up for a free class online at Ruby Learning. I have learned a lot about how programming works and had a real reality check at what it takes to create a quality program. It's not shiny and beautiful from the start; It's numbers and logic.

Well, here's my basic ruby code, flawed yet effective. It converts temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius.

# temperature converter

def convert_f(temp_f)
(temp_f.to_f - 32) * 5/9
end

puts "What\'s the temperature in Fahrenheit?\n(eg. 54)"
STDOUT.flush
temp_f = gets.chomp

temp_c = convert_f(temp_f)
puts 'That\'s ' + format("%.1f", temp_c) + ' degrees Celcius.'

if temp_c <= 0
puts 'It\'s freezing!'
end
if temp_c > 0 and temp_c <= 10
puts 'It\'s cold!'
end
if temp_c > 10 and temp_c <= 15
puts 'It\'s a little chilly.'
end
if temp_c > 15 and temp_c <= 30
puts 'It\'s nice.'
end
if temp_c > 30
puts 'It\'s roasting!'
end