God and I Versus All

First of all, I want to introduce everybody my new blog : http://rakastaamusic.wordpress.com

Rakastaa means ‘love’ in Finnish.

Why Finnish? Majority of my favorite bands, like Sonata Arctica, Nightwish, Children of Bodom, HIM, Trio Toykeat, Stratovarius, and Arch Enemy are from Finland. Finland is a dream music country. <3

That’s my music blog.

here’s the real content:

As I ‘truly’ determined to return to the blogosphere, I became aware of a new trend.

People are shifting from blogging to facebook and twitter, simply, for the simplicity. Some people do write pages and pages of blog contents ( I used to do it) and I guess some really busy people can’t read them.

During my absence, I am sure that this discussion was already held.

Well, still my english honors class is requiring us to blog.

I was just wondering what applications in facebook were sophisticated enough to replace the role of blog…because I want to give it a try.

I wonder if people still read me, or kept me in the subscription…. I don’t know, and where the hell did my clustrmap go? it just disapeared.

just.

I’ll start over again.

my. guess what.

I just happened to forget the ‘existence’ of my blog in a url of http://ksoojinl10.edublgos.org for past, almost a month? or so.

unbelievable. I was surfing around my facebook circle and was suddenly reminded of this space of mine.

well yes. long time no see. I’ll just scribble a few words about what I had been up to.

ramon_perez_terrassa

I was introduced to some serious Jazz piano. My iPod carried new artists like Bill Evans, Keith Janet and Oscar Peterson. I am practicing C Jam Blues by Duke Ellington, which, at first it felt so awkward; my fingers were only used to classical stuff. Jazz is cool, especially after I realized that some early works of Iron Maiden and Guns N Roses contain some features from Jazz and Blues.

Protesters and Police fight over the American beef trade

(and for some reason, the video won’t show up in my blog like it used to work in my previous domain)

And this controversial issue of the perhaps-mad-cow-diseased American beef trade had been bugging me. I don’t really care if Korea decides to import; most of the restaurants will use Korean beef or Australian beef which is generally known as healthier and less riskier anyways. However the media is so busy, trying to diss the police, and police trying to diss the protesting people. So unorganized. They’re not going anywhere. If Jonathan Swift or Orwell saw this motherless situation, they must have wrote another piece of satire. I mean, why can’t they ‘talk’? If the protesters want change, either they have to defy the trade with logic or go on a coup. They’re doing neither and nothing’s gonna go anywhere.

And Importance of Being Highschool Act 2, I’ll be working on it…. sorry for the really late release if anyone was really waiting for it.

Alright and I’ll write a little more often from now on
I’ll try.

song quote of the day

now who’s the light and who’s the devil
you can’t decide

-When the Worlds Collide – Powerman 5000

I woke up really early today, simply because, I slept really early because the night before (or the morning before) i wasn’t asleep until 3 in the morning to enjoy the birthday party of my friend as well as to celebrate the last day of my life as a high school sophomore. partytime, partytime, partytime.

And upon my desk there laid a QT book, illuminated by shiny morning sun. I opened up a random page and read the explaining excerpt of Isaiah 10:5-11. (translated from Korean)

The Assyrian Empire was…

What, the Assyrian Empire? Learned that in my ap history class, it was the strongest empire in the pre-classical era thanks to their faster development of iron metallurgy, and the first ‘real empire’ of the world.

The Assyrian Empire was only used as a tool to judge the children of God. The reason Assyria was able to conquer Israel was not because they were strong, but because God let them. However, Assyrians believed that they won because they were strong, and they thought they had overwhelmed the God of the Israeli. They did not know that they just happened to be stronger because it was God’s plan
Like this, God uses his nonbelievers as tools to educate. No matter how they fall in hubris of their own talents, it is only upon permission of God. When nonbelievers cause trouble to you, do not hate them, but reflect on yourself and seek for God’s message within.

I just happened to read this excerpt, is it God’s message to me? I literally threw this book away from my hands at disgust while I was reading about halfway in the first paragraph. I pondered, actually how many people would fall into this piece of religious propaganda? “They did not know that they just happened to be stronger because it was God’s plan” ; the Assyrian empire was ALWAYS strong, not just that moment. This passage is, so vaguely, justifying Israel’s defeat against the Assyrians with God’s name. Why, everything is God’s plan, isn’t it?

More than that, the thing I bothered me was their closed-nationality. Closed nationality is another term for extreme nationalism; thinking that their own nationality and ethnicity is the best over everyone else.

“However, Assyrians believed that they won because they were strong, and they thought they had overwhelmed the God of the Israeli.”; What’s the problem with the word “however”? The passage is carefully worded to deliver that the world is Jewish-Israeli centered and they are the God’s favorite, and ethnicities other than Jewish or Israeli are going to be doomed and are only uses to teach lessons to them by being manipulated by God. How did God think that Assyrians would succumb to Him when they conquered Him? That is out of logic; Mongolians accepted culture of conquered regions but not Assyrians. Had God misread the flow of the trend that time?

Closed nationality is a not a favorable policy to follow in a Global world like today. Cost of inability to control nationalism resulted in, ethnic massacres, Nazism, World War I, division of borders and many guerrilla wars that still go on today in the Balkans and the Middle East. Especially Israel is still struggling to gain their promised land and kick out the Palestine people who lived there for 2,000 years. I mean, how is the Old Testament so different from the Nazi, where one selected race gets salvation and the rest are prosecuted?

Obviously, someone had written that passage and the Bible itself that way to favor its audience, the ancient Jewish. Assyrians had to be depicted badly because they caused the First DIaspora of the Jews, not to mention the Babylonian civilization, one of the earliest organized civilization as well with the famous Code of Hammurabi, was condemned badly although I find concepts of Code of Hammurabi similar to the policies of God in the Old Testament; eye for an eye! The Romans who caused the Second Diaspora wasn’t depicted that badly because at the end, Romans acknowledged Christianity through Edict of Milan, and, the most powerful Christian state, the Vatican City, was established by Charles the Great. It would be delirious for Bible to contain criticisms towards Romans, where the majority of readers became Romans.

To quote Wonbok Rhie, a Korean historian and author of Korea Unmasked, “faith had always existed in human, but it was poured in different vases accordingly to their respective shapes”. Difference of the culture of believers of God had created two Gods; God and Allah. What they believed, what they created. It’s the power and illusion of human psychics. Also ancient Chinese Daoists believed religion was just one of the ways to solve problems and make people act nicer to each other. Whatever, my conclusion is that customs and traditions relating to a certain religion is all artificial and fake. There is God, but he, she, or it does not have a name . That is, what I believe, the basic instinctive faith. Yes, that is Deism. I am often awestruck at the organization of the universe and the galaxy that does not even have one single error, which, a masterpiece, itself is a divine figure. Many people call that masterpiece Science.

In a world today where culture seems to clash every day, a religion that every single people would believe should be introduced. Religion of closed nationalism does not work in globalized world.

Song quote of the day

” Divided by beliefs, differences and religion
Why do we keep missing the point on our mission?
Why do we keep killing each other, what’s the reason?
God made us all equal in his vision
I wish that I could make music as a religion
Then we could harmonise together in this mission”

-Union, Black Eyed Peas

It was just one spark of an imagination

Everything in the world seemed different when I switched gears in the slightest of the slightest

Everything seemed to ephemeral.

“Why couldn’t I think of that in that moment?”

“Why couldn’t I do that back then?”

Just simple choices I made, in which back that I considered unimportant to my life, is devouring me in nightmares.

Difference of 1˚ in a protractor, at first, the mistake is not found. But it becomes a problem when straight and long lines are drawn; those two were quite different.

Now I am too far apart from what I wanted to be, it is sad, especially when ‘I’ and the ‘prototype-I’ were only 1˚ different.

Alien furniture made by an old motorcycle from Boing Boing

life is so cheesy

If there is a company of 99 fools, the one genius becomes the fool.

How is that statement correct?

Would I be considered stupid if I was asked the countenance of god and I did not know the answer, as a Christian?

Who sets the limitation of being stupid or smart?

How could any measurement for intellectuality be accurate?

Then why should we even respect it? Everyone can be smart in different categories or limitations.

If UFO’s come to Earth, would we nuke them? Because we didn’t know they were just hanging out and happened to find earth accidentally?

And why am I asking all these questions? Because I’m so stupid that I don’t know anything

inspired by Susie
Picture from Boing Boing

It was only 5 days ago where our mentality lied in green meadow of paradise.

4 matches of paintball was just unforgettable. Circular scars and bruises all over our body made us look like beehives.

(paintball pictures taken by Mr.Joo)

On our way back, we made parodies of Mr. Joo’s Top 10 list, which he gives out every Monday to, supposedly, entertain us.

Revved by the thrill of shooting a friend and making his T-shirt bombarded with soluble paint that will be washed out as soon as it was put in water anyways, we satisfied ourselves by being childish.

Gathering the remembrance of that one hour in the bus, I hereby complete the

TOP 10 SIGNS THAT YOU ARE IN KIS CLASS OF 2010
(for those who are not familiar with KIS, it’s the name of my school)

10. You don’t go to socials

9. You played or watched someone play DotA in any shape of form

8. Sex is your favorite word

7. but you never have the guts to actually do it

6. Everything that displeases you is labeled as ‘gay’

5. You don’t feel the difference of genders among classmates

4. You are always ready to duel if stirred by majority of people

3. SNSD is the religion

2. You always thrive to find homophones between Korean and English (One very infamous discovery is Josephina, which in Korean, it could be read as “your genital is bleeding”) and think that jokes=social status.
..
…
….
…..

1. You are used to making fun of robots, rats, nazis, scoobies, and et cetra

**number one can possibly be viewed offensive to some people, I will change or delete it if it causes problem. Only people in KIS would get the deep meaning of clause no.1 anyways, well, that’s the point.

These Top Tens are originals of a certain TV show in America hosted by David Letterman [Thanks Hannah for the correction!] and I know that Hilary, Obama and Homer declared their TOP 10 reasons to be the president of US of A.

Although some issues that underly in the global society possess solitude gravity that make every individual stern and mature, there are always 10 legitimate reasons that can make us smile like nonchalant children, questioning the basic infrastructure of the question. In other words, whatever we do, there is always a reason to smile.

Below is a bonus picture I stole from Boing Boing. I lost the track of the exact url of the image.

GG

School is almost over. Classes aren’t as entertaining anymore pedagogically. Only assignments we have are our Final projects, and studying, basically. And then a calm-before-the-storm Summer Break.

Tensions and anxiety from past 160 school days are starting to have voids. Actually, it’s a void different from the artificial voids we made to escape ourselves from the cycle. It’s not a feeling and thrill of breaking rules but rather feeling justified.

yeah I wasted 1 hour with this motherless thing.

got problems?

Asia: Anthem

South America: Angra

North America: Kamelot

Scandinavia: Nightwish

Europe: Helloween

Oceania: ACDC

To these bands, old or new, border and time are meaningless. Only competition exists.

*Yet I am not aware of any bands from Middle East or Africa. Probably Islamic cult is against rock music.

video provided by: thepianoplayer1994

This is currently my top wanted album: PURE

It was said to be released first, or announced first in December of 2007. How could I have missed the news? Perhaps I live all the way in Korea, some news of Croatian pianist might arrive 5 months late to common people like me.

Maksim is well known for playing cross-over classical musics. Basically playing classical stuff with electronic beats. But here, it’s pure piano.

The video consists of 5 demo-tracks out of 13 tracks

1) Croatian Rhapsody (the E.X.Plosive played this song before) from 1st album Piano Player

2) Passionata, new song

3) Poseidon’s Tale, new song

4) Cubana Cubana from 1st album Piano Player

5) Child in Paradise from 4th album Electrik

For more information about this album, follow this post

After listening to these songs… it made me determined to buy it whatsoever.

I’m in a desperate search for new good albums.. it’s been a year since Sonata Arctica’s new album came out, and a year and a half since Ellegarden’s latest was released.

And also the PGC concert is today, right now as I am typing this. What am I doing? I am doing my Spanish homework, Asian Studies homework, and preparing for English and AP World History projects.

Lame excuses.

One out of 3 grand exam I have this year is completely over: AP World History.

It seems like everything is done and I can finally play but in reality I have 3 week to study for SAT II World History and the Finals, in fact, my anxiety shouldn’t be gone at all.

Even when I was in 9th grade, I was in awe over the people taking AP’s, aww those people are so smart! (Now I realize the reality, by taking the course myself .) Anyways I’m taking big tests that matter in my life now. I’m a big big grown up man.

So, by preparing for the my first AP exam ever, I learned two following facts:

• One day cramming is not possible, but one week cramming is possible at the cost of GPA.

I was lucky to have the second spring break right before exam, which I used all time studying for studying for AP with minimal effect to my GPA. Only about 5 – 10% of what I knew about world history came out during the test, at most. There is a possibility of getting lucky. Still, the best way is to study hard evenly throughout the year, and I regret I didn’t do that because I didn’t quite realize how hard it was to prepare for. Next time when I take AP I’ll probably be more diligent.

• Only way to study for AP is becoming a nerd.

Basically for past few weeks, ‘playing’ and the ‘usual fun’ disappeared among my fellow AP taking friends. Hands were always occupied with AP and SAT prep books and some extremists manufactured their own note cards for it. about 85% of the conversation was about World History. We would quiz each other every day:

“What is the Hundred Years War?”
“It’s a war between France and England in mid 1400’s to mid 1500’s, happened because there was no candidate for the successor of the throne; England decided to take it and thus war happened. English army first pawned the French army with their invention called cross bows, but at the moment France was to fall Joan of Arc completely owned England and led to French victory. This is one of the last events closing the Medieval period and power of monarchy was increased in both sides as a result. ”

“Who is Josip Broz Tito?”
“He is a legendary dictator who led to independence of Yugoslavia. He managed to keep peace between many diverse races in the Balkan, but after his death, things went back to chaos.”

These were the usual topic my friends and I usually talked about, especially in the lunch line, people would stare at us. It was my very first time feeling pretty cool to be nerd; it was queer. From now on, I plan to be a nerd, until the the end of first semester of Senior year. I just hate myself how I realize things too lately; I don’t get to understanding before I experience. I feel pretty dumb and numb afterwards. Like, some of my most excellent friends learned the importance of being nerds in 8th grade. Not fair.

And all materials in AP is not supposed to be discussed. Like, the we can talk about essays 48 hours later and multiple choice never. Why is that? Like, if I mention some question I remember to a post here, and if a AP admin reads it, my score is going to be canceled? Well, it’s not even possible because I already forgot the stuff came out in the test Anyhow I wonder the AP’s intention of doing such. Like, our score’s not going to change by discussing questions after the test is over…

I think I did sort of okay in multiple choice… but I spent too much time on planning on essay and felt rather rushed. Hope results come out well in third week of July, it would be a nice reminder to me that such thing like AP existed in my life.

And I am planning to write the ACT II of my own Importance of Being Highschool since the responses for the ACT I seemed pretty good.. I’m brainstorming now to fit my new ideas to the jigsaw of Oscar Wilde. Expect it some time before next next Monday because this weekend I’m haella busy.

i love my life.