When You're Young, You Get Distracted

Ryan Adams had some thoughts with a couple of his first albums which I prefer. But youth has to be analyzed, why after its gone why not take your time right now....

Four blond haired fizzy drink loving brits from the 80s will never allow you to go wrong on the ridiculous side of things. When you are young silly dance moves like skirt ripping and a Capella voices seem to fit and have a lightness to it that adds relief to everyday distractions. What do I mean by everyday distractions is probably exactly what Bucks Fizz provides - note: youtube adventures deem plausible cause for such procrastination - but then again is procrastination our distraction or is it the return to self-observation?

"CHAIRMAN: ...Which brings us once again to the urgent realisation of just how much there is still left to own. Item six on the agenda: the meaning of life. Now, uh, Harry, you've had some thoughts on this.

HARRY: That's right. Yeah, I've had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and, uh, what we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One: people are not wearing enough hats. Two: matter is energy. In the universe, there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person's soul. However, this soul does not exist ab initio, as orthodox Christianity teaches. It has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved, owing to man's unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia." - Monty Python, The Meaning of Life

Do distractions make us lighter or heavier? Is it the thought of a distraction BEING a distraction that gives it its weight and therefore adds onto the trivial things, or is it actually what is distracting us that gives us more to think about therefore distracting us EVEN more from that thing called self-observation?

Unbearable lightness usually comes with the territory of being young and curious about the other sex, and about the whole idea of relationships. The book is okay, it explains the opposite sex at least to those who overreact when they are young and caught up in the emotion. The book explains human mistakes to those who think that being perfect makes you pure and therefore the foundation of a relationship must be completely rid of all mistakes or masked with unwanted desires. The book also explores the individual within a relationship. A lot of young people (I myself i guess) did not or do not realize that the individual in the relationship needs to be developed before any sort of true relationship can be attained.

Relationships or the opposite sex are the ULTIMATE distraction from self-observation.

Go do what you wanna do:
1. Build a dream house
2. Trek the South Pole
3. Get Distracted

bucks fizz - when we were young

Youtube Adventures

Symmetry

160 Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes

Field

"From the Heart of Afghanistan"

Words

Till the World Ends

16: Moments

Every year on our birthday my friend and I would receive a balloon from the school secretary at lunchtime. After lunch we would have time before class, and my friend and I spent that time on the soccer field, with the balloon. Let it go.  So an intentional moment?  no i do not think it is the same thing.....

Sometimes I think I never really did say goodbye, I just left for a little while.

Listen to Your Heart

radiolab

Gangnam Style Gone Viral!!!

copyleft

What to do. What to do.

So far,.....I <3 the bizarre fashion, the ridiculous obsessions, and the absolutely incognito facial expressions. Korean is easy - it just takes time for a foreigner like me.
See anything familiar? ~

South Korea is known for its nationalism and pride. Don't ever offend a Korean by having an opinion opposite that of Korean culture without being ready to put up with an irrational reason for why their food, their women, and maybe even their soccer players are better (although I think I am ready for that argument).

The LOVE <3 around here is... not contagious, but rather obsessed over. "Couples Korea", everyone seems to have a significant other especially anyone who is remotely good-looking. Forget about independence. People rarely do things alone - however I have to run alone, there is no one within 500kilometers of me that will run (who is my age, and not some creepys old guy).

Seoul's Fashion Week, featuring a designer I found to like, ChoiBoko, was this week. Of course when I was doing the research for it all I could find were walking male models, which for me is a huge turnOFF because it is a bunch of guys prancing around in very awkward looking, feminine outfits. It isn't what you expect which makes Seoul fashion very good for fashion internationally. A lot of things I liked, but still it is almost surreal, that these people are in the same town I am in and there are hundreds of these people walking around like this everyday (not like runway but fashion). No wonder Koreans are so very aware of their appearance. Image is everything here - good thing I am importing my Kansas jean jacket which will be my license plate and excuse for not keeping up with the Korean Times. :-P

Work has kept me busy most of the time. 나 는 한 국 을 공 부 에 요. Since my keyboard does not have Hangeul on it this takes forever, so I will occasionally write it.

Weekends are open. I discovered hiking, an old people's sport, nonetheless still a beautiful mountain with a beautiful view and the most delicious cappuccino on the way down~ Want to meet people, this has proved the most difficult, but I guess good things just take time.
What to do. So far internet without Hangeul in Korea is hopeless all the more reason to improve the fluency.

And play da Kpop - which always cheers anybody up :-D

"We Will See"

"Resist the temptation to hurry the process simply because the uncertainty of not knowing is uncomfortable. "
-Dr. Mini Kaur
Foreign Affairs article by Hilary Clinton

What better place to be than where the action is right?!

The obvious result will be that North Korea will fall just because it has zero resources, and still decreasing if that is even possible.

North Korea

Although I was contemplating talking about 'black swans' before I was introduced to the TV series FlashForward, which has now been canceled (not the most brilliant choice), now that it was mentioned in a very good TV series and has something to do with this entry I need to write about how it is relevant to the Koreas.

This Black Swan related to this entry is not necessarily as unlikely and massive as the disproportionate, high impact, unexpected event in FlashForward, but it is important to where I will be for at least the next year and of interest to the world. South Korea is a major economic, geographic, and political ally to the United States where is draws a lot of military support from, even if the South Korean youth think otherwise. Americans I hear are not too popular due to our reckless military youth stationed there. However, the relevance of South Korea in the political world and its future dealings with North Korea when, and I do mean when, it falls, will be a major concern for international trade in the future.

North Korea's new leadership will take on an even more militaristic character that threatens democracy and does not necessarily give the United States a choice, when it attacks South Korea. China claims that it does not support North Korea in the recent attacks on Yeonpyeong Island off the coast of the South Korean peninsula, but from my observations of "China's word", we better not rely on that. No matter how much I hope that China will stop the trade and destructive economic activity in Africa, and its self-inflicting poverty among Chinese individuals/citizens, I still think a better access point for China is through South Korea.

North Korea, due to common language (sometimes), culture, tradition, and history, will seek more help from South Korea because, first of all, they already do, and secondly it will make the peninsula more powerful in Confucian ideals and in 'fitting in' with the westernization of the rest of world. This combination can be achieved with hard (very hard) work, but it can also act as a bomb, when mixing two chemicals/(politicals), causing an explosion.

In Hilary Clinton's article she mentions, "Today's world is a crucible of challenges testing American leadership. Global problems, from violent extremism to worldwide recession to climate change to poverty, demand collective solutions, even as power in the world becomes more diffuse. They require effective international cooperation, even as that becomes harder to achieve. And they cannot be solved unless a nation is willing to accept the responsibility of mobilizing action." America's main motivation will need to be to reclaim or 'share' the leadership role.

President Obama frequently mentioned South Korea as a role model for the United States in his State of the Union address. He mentioned South Korean teachers to be "nation builders", as opposed to our 'tenure-hungry'-unionizing-blame-the-government teachers, and how when Americans are struggling to get internet all over the country, South Koreans have better quality and faster service, all over their country. This is a significant sign of America's lack of leadership. Are we already 'old timers' that we can't even implement a functioning wireless service to our entire country? Our country is quite larger than South Korea's but is it to large to manage efficiently, I mean we have done it for 200 yrs plus! Our ability to evolve as become slow, and this lack of creativity and curiosity in the world has hindered us. Generations before, well... mine, have been more focused on money. Money was what they built and created, rather than new economic methods for new technology etc. Was capitalism taken for granted?

The world is definitely getting smaller, and like in the previous post, America is becoming more vulnerable, therefore more worried and defensive because of the lack of knowledge about the 'outside' world. Although we have spent many years, since Nixon, developing foreign affairs for the better. Good things always take time, and to rush the process, like North Korea is doing, will ruin what it could possibly become. China needs to put a muzzle on their dog as a symbolic action that proves to the US they are serious about peace and security in OUR (as in everyone's) world.

I should be off to South Korea soon enough to teach English for at least a year. Once I start there, I am guessing this blog will take on yet another form, from Art to Politics/Governance (IR) to traveling and cultural anthropological observations - maybe it will just be more personal. I hope to learn more Korean, maybe an instrument?, who knows. Maybe I can find something on here that will lead me.

I was also told South Korea is not a place to 'find yourself', haha, well we will see. Having been to South Korea before I know to 'watch' myself in certain situations - pay attention to detail and emotions more so than I do in the stix of Kansas. This is probably for the best because I do care about certain people, and it will make me a better judge for those who care (or say they care) for me. Of course finding that medium between the two culture will result in some not so easy sacrifices, patience, and an extensive understanding by both parties involved.

Paul Kennedy emphasizes the strategy of "Wait and See"

Try Harder, Be Better, and Never forget to Smile :-D.

Digital Security

New media technology advancements are threatening our security or are the expanding our freedom?

Defending America in the digital age. Flow of Terror

"Nothing is Free", I have been told by my parents many, many...MANY, times. Obviously, because I am our households most expensive child...or maybe even human? Private schools all the way will certainly blast a hole through somebody's portfolio.

But other than education, which should be available to every American/human being BTW, Is the easily accessible new medium; internet, iPhone, cell phones, skype, a substitute to education? None of this is free. However, people have been able to watch FULL movies online for FREE even before that movie comes out in theaters. Of course there are your cyber-police out there who shut these sites down, but just as fast as someone else is creating them.

I guess the cost in ripping Hollywood off is in the morals, ethics..and ..the guilt?...right?

But I would have to say ripping off Hollywood does not make me feel as guilty as ripping off the music industry. Music, to me, is a whole lot more meaningful when it comes to managing things in life. I have overheard, and ripped off the idea that managing things is what life is filled with.

Movies may help some people manage things - they certainly inspire ideas, and feelings, and substitute as a "How-to"..'How to date a girl?'..'How to feel when your significant other walks off with..another'..and maybe even a "how to"..'act when you get a job', but my argument for music being more valuable than movies, is that when you are listening to something you are applying your OWN visual to the music, and in a way practicing your own creativity. Music inspires thinkers, and Multitaskers, and athletes. Movies require ones full attention - as do books (but this is a new media conversation) And ripped off ibooks are only in the future (at least mine).

Therefore I feel more guilty ripping musicians off than Hollywood as a whole. The individual in the music industry is hurt more than any actor or actress in Hollywood when you rip off a film.

Will Natalie Portman lose any jobs because somebody ripped off a movie that she was in? Will she lose money? No, because the director already paid her, probably before the movie was even finished.


But a musician relies on album sales, and radio as a main contribution to their continence in the industry because rating are based on having the public actually hear the music, Academy Awards are not based on Box Office sales.


The expansion of new mass media opening our access to the world ..let's say ..outside of America can substitute as education but - such as is said in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - "people only believe what they want to believe" - even if you smack them, hit them, scream, and shout - people will not succumb to the truth (whatever it might be at the time), especially Shakespearean characters, who are so stubbornly written down, sometimes, that there may be no reason at all for them not to listen, other than for Shakespeare himself to produce a more exciting, deadly, and/or laughable ending.

So apply this idea to new media and you have people who only search for things the believe in and/or consider relevant to them. Individualism, especially in the US, is first and foremost when making a search in www.google.com or www.wikipedia.com. Can it be possible that people in Africa research and hear more about America and Europe than they do their own continent/country? Is this due to new media expansion? Why are they not as self absorbed as Americans?

CNN first went international when "the network, in large part a result of Ted Turner's Globalization ideals, began transmissions in 1, January 1984 at first primarily broadcasting to American business travelers in hotels." - wikipedia.com This expanded to local newsstands, boutiques, etc around third world countries and Canada and Europe. American culture blasted out of CNN. For awhile America was only giving and never receiving, now with the capitalization of new gadgets in the US, that Asia probably made popular, globalization continues its trend to bring each culture to another via invisible semes or strings. However, a natural American reaction to imports (including information) is "Are we secure?".

Is freedom something that restricts things that are from an 'unfree' world? Is freedom defined by how secure one is playing with ones own toys and no one else's toys?

Since the US does not have complete control over the world, instead of the US govenrment mistaking new mass media as a form of peacemaking, they are considering it a threat and a tool that portrays the US as vulnerable. We are only vulnerable because we think we cannot/do not understand the mediums involved, nor do we have control over them. Does our freedom offend other culture? groups? traditions? religions? Yeup. Which makes the US even more defensive.

Have a Nice Day >:-)

DC

Watching Wasteland

Jumanji, a game that tests your character. I always wished this was real.

Discovering one's character is easier when you stand on the outside and watch then when you are participating in the conversation or interaction itself. If you are interested in another individual that you are...'participating' with, and you want to find out more, do you a) act like an asshole b) play dumb c) interrogate?

What do each of these methods produce?
a) -a conflicted person who does not know how to react because they are interested in you too, but you're being an asshole...
-a violent person (physically or verbally)
-a confused and offended person

b) -a frustrated person who does not want to take the time to explain to an ignorant what he/she knows because you are not cooperating based on your intelligence level....not on the fact that you may just NOT know....
-a patient person who teaches you like a child while also feeling empowered by his/her knowledge and therefore feels superior
-someone who enjoys showing you and tolerates your mistakes....

c)-a scared bewildered person who does not understand why your questions are so direct and rude because they fire like bullets....
-an excited person who wants to play the game of 20 Questions..so he/she fires right back just as quick
-a person who cannot handle the pressure, so crumbles under the insecurity of his/her answers to your pointed questions.

So you get a reaction...
what is a good reaction to play acting? Is what you see is what you get good enough? For anything, job, housing, family, friends, etc.

Can you really twist something out of someone and should it be based on that particular moment where their true character shows? Who knows, but its fun.





Could not resist...