Entries for November, 2004

Superman was invincible. You can't be brave if you know you're indestructible.

But people like you and me, who go out into the world knowing we're weak and frail, who tackle the physical and emotional challenges and hardships of everyday life knowing we can get hurt...

we are brave.

Written by jihwan at 09:22 PM.

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The gaps between posts are getting larger and larger with each entry. This is bad because it signifies the nascent tendency I have to neglect things after a certain period of time.

So I give myself a slap on the face [figuratively? literally? you decide.] and vow that I will be more consistent with my blatherings.

So. Here goes. The first thing that pops into my head.

...

Emails are interesting. They're kinda like actual mail, except the whole "paying for stamps" thing and the "waiting for it to physically get delivered" thing and the "possiblity of your letter getting lost in the process" thing. NO, I am NOT bitter, thankyouverymuch.

Checking your email is, I have discovered, a lot more exciting when you're expecting mail from someone. When you don't expect anyone to mail you, your inbox can get jammed with so much crap that it takes you forever to sort through the junk mail and the mail you actually want to read. [Hey, that's kinda like actual mail, too!]

Granted, I don't have a continual correspondence with a mysterious-and-amazingly-witty member of the opposite sex who just happens to be your major business competitor apart from the cyberworld and is a complete polar opposite from you but somehow manages to find her way into your cold, business-minded heart with her feisty temperament and beautiful eyes and ends up being your soul mate, but I am expecting an email telling me when I can get interviewed for college admissions. Same thing. Shaddap.

But the more I think about emails [about 7 minutes now], the more I'm convinced that whoever dubbed email "EMAIL" was pretty smart.

Because after comparing the aspects of email and real mail, checking astrological star maps, and performing a medieval Western-European voodoo ritual, I think I can safely and simply assert that the techno-jargon "EMAIL" was aptly named.

Written by jihwan at 12:04 AM.

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Something just came up. Something heavy. It's something that completely eclipses any frivolous crap going on in my life currently, and it's like getting hit in the head with a sledgehammer.

The reason I'm writing this is because I don't want people's last impression of me on this journal to be some stupid entry about emails. I want them to know that since my last post, my life has changed a bit.

For those of you that know what's going on, let's pray. Prayer is all we can do right now. A friend needs our help, and God answers prayer.

It's all up to the Lord now.

Written by jihwan at 10:58 PM.

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The California Academic Decathlon Association has claimed that due to budget cuts and whatnot, there is a possibility of cancelling the state competition altogether.

NBC News came to El Camino Real High School to interview the coaches and team members regarding the current situation.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Roberson were asked a few questions, and then Lindsay and myself were interviewed. It was pretty cool.

The segment aired at 5:45 pm, but we couldn't watch it during practice because the school tv wouldn't get any reception.

Oh well.

I was on TV. Coolness.

Written by jihwan at 08:23 PM.

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I was driving to practice today when i saw the flickering lights of an ambulence heading my way. As I pulled to the side of the road to let them pass, the other cars in front of and behind me also split neatly to their respective curbs like a team of well-practiced synchronized swimmers.

Somehow all the people on that crowded street got the message that the approaching vehicle was, temporarily, more important than themselves.

They didn't have to stop. There was plenty of road space for the ambulence to pass, and the law dictates that emergency vehicles do not have authority to cite lawbreakers. Regardless, everyone on that short strip of asphalt chose to give up their priorities for the Red Cross and what it symbolized.

Whether they were going to attend a wedding, to pick up little Jimmy from soccer practice, or to grab a bite to eat on the way home, they realized that the ambulence had a mission to accomplish, and that the mission was on a higher plane of significance than their own duties.

For a brief 30 seconds, society put aside all its rebelliousness, spite, anger, prejudice, intolerance, and selfishness for a greater good.

That brief little societal bow made me feel better about the world in which I live.

Written by jihwan at 08:32 PM.

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In stark contrast to my previous entry, I've decided to stand on the other side of the tracks of perspective and peer at society through the glazed glass of rhetorical cynicism.

I guess it's an ego thing, to be sitting at my computer while everyone's asleep, typing away at the jumble of thoughts that commute like Monday morning New Yorkers between the abstract to the concrete to the figurative to the linguistic, to be expressing myself in a way that some don't even consider part of their lives.

Sometimes, I think I think too much. Other times, I think I don't think nearly enough. It gets frustrating on occasion to try to articulate the ideas that I can feel but can't seem to put into words. The things I see, the things I hear, the things I learn, come from all around me, and every day I discover something novel about my environment and myself.

It sounds cliche, I know. But if that's what it takes to convey what I feel, then so be it.



Do we learn math to add the dead's sum?
Subtract the weak ones, count cash for great ones?
We multiply but divide the nation
Break down like fractions, send our sons away to die
Do we learn science in defiance of faith
To make alliance with fakes for an appliance's sake?
We ask for the real but make artificial intelligence
To make smarter kills of other people's presidents
Why do we learn history to fix stories for the guilty?
Make angels look filthy and the devils look milky?
If the victor writes the books, then what have we won?
Are we battleships for authorship, a rich man's gun?
Do we learn to read to receive the lies,
To deceive the eyes from seeing between the lines?
We use words to bring forth sticks and stones
To sing psalms of hate that fill the streets with bones
Make me envision
A better livin.

Epik High. Tablo's Word. Werd.

Written by jihwan at 02:31 AM.

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