Like A Shooting Star.

During my eighth grade in middle school, I was told I had to make a presentation on the topic of “human stupidity.”

Biologically speaking, humans have the potential to wield the greatest amount of complex information yet the following happenings suggest otherwise.

• A man in Johannesburg, South Africa shot his friend in the face, seriously wounding him, while those two practiced shooting beer cans off each other’s heads.
• Police in Radnor, Pennsylvania, interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine. The message “He’s lying” was placed in the copier, and police pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn’t telling the truth. Believing the “liedetector” was working, the suspect confessed.
• When two service station attendants in Ionia, Michigan, refused to hand over the cash to an intoxicated robber, the man threatened to call the police. They still refused, so the robber called the police and was arrested.
• A Los Angeles man who later said he was “tired of walking,” stole a steamroller and led police on a 5 mph chase until an officer stepped aboard and brought the vehicle to a stop.

The World is populated by idiots.

photocredit: A twisted family tradition– the lime jello brain

It seems like I have put off refining my argument long enough, so here it goes.

I just want to take this time out to go more in-depth about this ‘analysis’ on the television show called Gossip Girl. After all, it did sound crazy. What was I thinking analyzing a TV show (or attempting to analyze one) anyway? I mean it is on prime-time television for a reason. You don’t have to think hard to enjoy it for God’s sakes, relaxation is a virtue for one’s  own self-interest these days. The ‘time to chill’ is a morally justifiable cause and need in this increasingly demanding society us high schoolers endeavour through.

Just sit in front of that TV or computer (if you are a sad human being who prefer pirated content) and free yourself for crying out loud.

But I think some have already noticed my very inadequate post I made previously. lynnh10 has kindly took her time out to leave a little comment and it is as follows:

“Interesting. I watched the entire first season of Gossip Girl, and while I admit that it’s great fun, I never found much mean ing in it. Yes, it’s true that it does a nice job portraying how one must decide whether “being talked about” is all worth it, but truthfully, I felt the message to be a bit cliche.I dunno, maybe at the end of the series, they’ll surprise us with a very original perspective on the upper East side–but for now, I’m craving for something that would not be another replica of the O.C..”

Unfortunately, I’ve never watched the O.C. so I cannot relate to the comment properly.

However in spite of all this, a more significant part of me said: not thinking and not learning while being given the opportunity to, is doing myself a huge disservice. Now that would be a tragedy, don’t you think?

So, Gossip Girl.

Where does the ’seriousness’ lie in the midst of a Hollywood production?

Well yes, it is undeniable that the critics were ranting on about what Lynn pointed out as well– the existence of undeniable cliches: rich and spoilt kids that all happen to look gorgeous, struggling through (and also enjoying) the social hierarchies of high school. Popularity is a matter of life and death, but also the complete disregard for decorum and moral standards by our beloved socialites make this television series that much more susceptible to stricture.

But how many other TV series address a social issue as bluntly as this show does?

In a world where the number of divorces almost equal to the number of nuptials… We are presented with Lily Van der Woodson and her antics while walking down the aisle for the fourth time.

In a world where capitalism rages on, in a world where homosexuals are still frowned upon in certain areas… We are presented with Blair Waldorff’s father and Serena Van Der Woodson’s little brother, Eric.

Maybe what the world needs is not an opinions column on the local paper, but more airing of Gossip Girl on prime time television.

It is the year 3007…
Brian had lived in a vat. His body was crushed, after a tragic car accident, but some quick work by surgeons had managed to save his brain. This procedure was carried out when such circumstances like this arises, so that the brain could be put back into a suitable donor.

But because there are more bodies than brains that terminally fail, the waiting list for a new body has gotten extremely long. However, to destroy brains that are able to be transplanted, was deemed to be unacceptable ethically.

One solution came from an Institution in China and its remarkable supercomputer, CH-199. Through electrodes attached to the brain, the computer could feed the brain stimuli which creates an illusion that the brain is living a normal life, in a real world.

So in Brian’s case, it meant waking up one day in a hospital bed, to be told about the accident and that he will make a full recovery. He then went on to live a very normal life. However, all this time, in the real world, he was nothing but his old brain in a container, wired up to CH-199. Brian had no more, no less reason to think he was living in the real world like you or I.

But this is a life where birth to death is calculated and put across for time to change…

What does being alive truly mean??

Poses interesting questions doesn’t it??

refer to Nick Bostrum’s www.simulation-argument.com for more if you want and this blog entry was adapted from my old philosophy note book

“Relaxation is a virtue for one’s own self-interest in an ever increasingly demanding society.”                                                          

                                                                                                                —Patrick Nam

Agree, disagree or what?

Discussion anyone?

Our obsession reaches out far and wide.

And Stanford University sounds like, and it is an amazing institution that many students around the world aspire to attend.

But, how far would anyone go to fulfil their college obsessions?

That was all I could say after I read this article.

Very recently, an impostor was found within the Stanford University campus, passing herself as a student and lived on the campus for eight months.

No detail was given on the article about why this young woman pulled off such a strange stunt. The article went on about the this serious security breach and how things could have gone horribly wrong if this impostor was dangerous. At Virginia Tech, a member of the school went onto kill as many as 30. Imagine what this woman could have done if she was able to evade suspicion and  live on the campus for 8 months? The worst-case scenario is something not many would want to imagine.

So it’s great food for thought. Why in the world, would she want to live in an university that she didn’t belong to? I don’t think anyone is able to deduce anything with the current details given by the Associated Press.

As an upcoming junior at high school, studying in Korea I couldn’t help but to think about the ‘typical’ Korean parents and their apparent obsession with what they perceive as the ‘fine’ universities.

After all, some of the parents around here are insane enough to make any sane student deranged.

This is a little story I picked up while I was searching through the channels on television.

I swear, this story ranks as one of the scariest I have ever encountered in my lifetime.

In parts of Seoul, there are relatively old looking apartment blocks that are about 5 to 6 stories high. They are not the prettiest looking estates in the world I assure you. Quite short and stubby for an apartment building in a concrete jungle that is Seoul and the place was just plain ugly with age. The apartment building that housed this incident was one of these apartments. And when you see these small and old apartment buildings in the older parts of residential Seoul, you won’t be able to help yourself but remember this story I am going to tell you today.

At around 2 in the morning, a young high school girl arrived at the entrance to her home. It was exam season and her evening classes were ending later and later by the days. But even at this late hour, she did not fail to have company. A middle aged man, dressed in a tidy suit was also coming home from all the liquor that he had to face during dinnertime. As both individuals were waiting for the elevator to come down to the ground floor, the girl felt an instinctive sense that she was at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

A chime signalled the arrival of the elevator, and both individuals entered as the doors slid open.

The girl pressed the top floor which was ‘6,’ and the man happened to live on the storie below her at ‘5.’

With the girl at one end of the metal box while the man was on the other, the ride was as uneventful as it was awkward. The man looked like he was going to pass out any second.

Another chime signalled the arrival of the elevator on the fifth floor and the man clumsily got off the elevator. However, he did not walk towards the door of his house.

Instead, he stopped. And turned around to face the slowly closing doors of the elevator and the girl. Then he suddenly raised his hand and started to wave at her. However the girl remained still and his farewell was unanswered. The small rectangular window on the elevator doors showed a eerie and twisted grin on the man’s face. The split second before the elevator started moving up again. The man opened his suitcase and revealed… a kitchen knife.

He then ran up the stairs.

“The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is.”

One of Oscar Wilde’s well-remembered quotes. It makes us think about ourselves and who we are as human beings. If we realise who we truly are, we can realise our potentials and by realising our potentials, we can at least take a shot at living it….. Definitely easier said than done…

Our peers and families tell us to ‘try our best’ and that in itself is the ultimate achievement for us. Well, when we hear this so-called ’support’, take notice and maybe work harder not just for our families, but for our own satisfaction and achievement. We are also told that perfection should not be strived for, as it isn’t possible to attain it. Well, now I am going to have to prove this wrong… And I mean it….
If ONLY 99.9% is good enough for any of us then…
Every day there will be 12 newborn babies given to the wrong parents

Every year there will be 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes shipped out from the USA

Every HOUR there will be 18,322 pieces of mail mishandled by the American Post Services
This year there will be 2,000,000 documents lost by the Internal Revenues Service
Every year there will be 2.5 million books shipped with the wrong covers

Every day there will be two planes that lands at Chicago’s O’Hare airport that is unsafe.

Every year there will be 315 entries in Webster’s Dictionary misspelled

Every year there will be 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions that is written

Every year there will be 880,000 credit cards in circulation that hold incorrect cardholder information on their magnetic strips

During this year there will be 103,300 income tax returns processed incorrectly

Every year there will be 5.5 million cases of soft drinks produced flat

Every year there will be 291 pacemaker operations performed incorrectly

The above list proves my point exactly. There are people out there with jobs that demand perfection and us as students shouldn’t be striving for the best of our ability but realising our potential and getting the best out of our potential.

I first saw this advertisement in New Zealand a while back.

Crazy, isn’t it?

All the camera work, photoshop and all that creates a whole new person. It almost scared me at first, what we see isn’t actually there but, what actually is there is something less beautiful, something less attractive, less appealing to the eye and mind. I knew about all this photoshop stuff ages ago but took it all for granted, now when I think over it. It’s disappointing. All the FHMs, Maxims and Sports Illustrated calenders are just illusions created by our perception with some computer generated trickery….. correction: It’s almost devastating.

This Dove ad has taken away the fantasy for many males of all age of the 21st century of female perfection, and replaced it with troubling philosophical thoughts and a distaste for the soap company.

Helen Keller once said that–”The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.” I admire Helen Keller for what she has achieved during her lifetime, but at the moment I disagree with her very moving quote. With all due respect to Mrs Keller, but I should be able to enjoy the most beautiful things that CAN be touched and seen and THEN I can catch up with feeling with the heart bit, later on in life…

Most people are materialistic and a little greedy. That is the reality of things.

I mean, what is the point of anything if there is no substantial amount of material reward?

The definitive lesson I am starting to learn as a high schooler is that the reward is completely meaningless if we do not retain the reason in which allowed me to earn that reward.

But where is the high school at right now? Where I am right now? Where is the world at right now? Do we only care about the immediate reward?

If that is the case, in order to be a truly responsible member of this planet, we need break out of this pitiful mold of ours.

But that is not as easy as it sounds.

Because one cannot be a responsible indiviudal if we stand alone.

One cannot be a responsible individual if we are not well-informed.

One cannot be a responsible individual if we only talk but not act.

One cannot be a responsible individual if we do not have faith.

The switch might take a little bit of time and getting used to, but that does not mean we cannot make that change. It will probably take alot of work also.

The inaugural PGC concert that was held at the club SPOT was one stepping stone towards that change.

While I was pondering about what I should be posting on my blog, I couldn’t help but to notice the date.

April 13th 2008, a Sunday in Korean Standard Time.

So what in the world was I doing, sitting in front of my computer, letting the precious minutes brush past me, watching an entire TV series over a period of approximately 9 hours? Now, that is a rather complicated question to answer. And I would prefer it if I relieve you from the petty excuses.

The only reasonable excuse I have is that the show was beyond interesting. Only word that could describe it is ‘extraordinary.’

I have never been a fan of American soap opera. Having only lived in the suburbs of Maryland as a 1st grader, I find it difficult to grasp the cultural differences that exist between the inhabitants of the Land of the Long White Cloud (New Zealand) and the United States of America. I mean it is not surprising if you consider the natural barrier called the Pacific Ocean that stretches to about 9000 miles between the two nations. But I also found it astounding how a 9000 mile barrier could allow things to be so much in common.

By now, you probably have guessed what this blog post is about.

A commentary on the differences between a New Zealander and an American? Not so sure.

A critique of a Hollywood love story? Maybe.

My viewpoints of what it truly means to be attending a small international school outside of Seoul, with its own elite class and also its very own set of high school drama. Now that is more like it.

In case you were wondering about the show I watched this weekend, the title of it is called Gossip Girls. Originally based on a novel, it is a spinoff series that takes place in New York’s Upper East Side. I am a guy, and I assure you, this show was the last thing on my mind yesterday night. But as things turned out, I ended up watching the entire first season in the course of about it 9 hours as I stated previously.

So what is all about then?

Well, to keep things succinct, the story is more or less what a non-American would regard as a typical ‘high school’ soap opera. The unusually beautiful girls and their equally handsome counterparts walk the rough and tough paths of love. But now vamp that up with the luxuries of what the elites of Manhattan has to offer. These high school juniors probably had their first checkbook at the age of 5 and never lived in a house with less then four maids. And in the middle of it all is an average kid from Brooklyn, attending this private high school with a partial scholarship and the brain power of surpassing the accumulation of the 4 or so main characters that are just filthy rich. This average kid’s name is called Dan Humphreys and he hated the inequity of the world and for a good reason.

Dan worked harder than any of these ‘rich kids’ that seemed to just party all day and night. Better grades, better recommendations from teachers yet there was something missing on his resume.

His parents could not afford to donate the funds so that the school could build a Humphreys Library or a new Humphreys building for Science.

Dan didn’t want to have anything to do with these socialites, he believed he wasn’t a part of ‘them.’

However everything turns upside down when the ‘love of his life’ and socialite, Serena starts up a relationship with Dan, the Nobody. And Dan starts to form a clearer, ‘less biased’ picture and attitude towards these elite class. From this point forth, the story takes shape into becoming more like a soap opera, with friendship issues, relationship issues between boyfriends/girlfriends but also friction between family as well. The pressures of living up to the family expectations and all the good stuff that comes with that wretched place called high school.

It offers a lot of food for thought, if you allow it that is.

Obviously for me, I am a high schooler. It allowed me to reflect and reminisce about my own high school life. This year has passed by so quickly that I never appreciated a lot of things that came my way. The friendship and love I received, the moments of happiness and laughter with the people around me and all the memories that last forever. The series emphasized how much I should be thankful to my family, to my friends.

And I may not ride my mom’s limousine to and from school, but many people around me, have pointed out that I am quite a spoilt child. I have negated that judgement whenever it was raised, but sometimes it is impossible to part with what is the truth. And this show called Gossip Girls really showed it to me again.

It is hard for me to go on anymore and it would be much easier if you watched the show.

I think you will be able to notice what I noticed.

Who said Hollywood spends millions mindlessly on pointless products?!

Gossip Girls is worth watching. It has a lot in it.