As a ROTC and student of majoring international study, I have plenties of opportunites to hear and analyze the problem of North Korea. Though the NK is our same race, we regard them as our only enemy in this era, and pay careful attention to them.

We predict that they already finished the nuke missile testing and they have fifty-tons kilograms of explosive materials now. (such as plutonium or HEU) The HEU(Highly Enriched Uranium) is no more available for them to use, because the U.S. accepting their report of the quantaty of HEU, and promised to support them economically such as electricity and heavy oils.

The exit from the pooverty is making harmony with the world and abandon their WMD.

These days, the Candle Light Vigil has becoming main issue in Korea. Many citizen argue that polices suppress them by force. In fact, the Candle Light Vigil is for protesting the problem about  mad cow disease. At the first time, it was peaceful vigil, but the characteristic of the meeting seems to be changed a little bit. I heard some people barred the traffic system. Government says that they will hinder their gathering positively. Today I saw that there might be some groups manipulating the vigil behind the meeting in the newspaper. I don’t know the truth. In the internet, there are many arguments that police do violent act. I think it is true. However, some words are lying such as dying of violation by polices. I believe that, above all, the truth of mad cow disease must be discovered clearly, and the truth should be known to citizens as it is. I think the media plays a key role in pervading this Candle Light Vigil over our nation. Some words are true, but some ones are not in the internet. Finally, media is good tools to get information, but it also can make our recognition about truth distorted.  

Today I saw news about arresting two men for smoking marihuana.
And It reminds me kim bu son who is an erotic movies actress. Actually she gets more more popularity for smoking marihuana not for her movies. Even though she was arrested and sentenced to a suspended jail for it many times, she still cries out for legalization of marijuana rather than be remorseful. I think smoking marihuana is matter of personal choice. And I heard from my Canadian friend who often smoke it that marihuana is not addictive as much as cigarettes. And do not harm to others compare to alcohol and cigarettes. If it is really true, I don’t see any reason for banning smoking marihuana. Some might say it is a gateway drug. But think about some European countries, which make smoking marijuana decriminalize. They has lower drug problem compare to America. America which has strong regulation against marijuana, has the biggest drug problem. what do you think about that?

Some people claim that they do not read some newspaper brands in Korea because they believe the newspaper’s companies related with politics. They always write using periphrasis way about their side of politician and it could feel people that media lie to us and trick people. In this way, in my opinion is that people needs ability that distinguishes between literally in written and real-thinking about the issue. Many articles have author’s tendency of the issue so it means everyone could have different opinion about a same issue.

Does the media lie to us? Well maybe not exactly but it does like to make things more interesting. The media is not always a good source for news. I know you must wonder if it is not a good source what is? But it is true that we live in a society that requires money and media will print what sales. I think the media lies in that they can make drama over issues that sometimes are not needed. If media was to be less dramatic and more honest would you still be interested? I think the answer is yes. You will be interested when the news matters but you won’t be interested when it is unrelated news. It is difficult to give more details about the problem with news media without giving examples but I want to instead ask you all if you can give an example when you thought something you read from the media to be true only to find out it was a “stretched truth”?

In recent years movies have been making additions to old series. You see the most recent example with Indiana Jones 4. Why do you think movie studios are now bringing back many old series that some experienced in child hood? Should we expect movies to return like Home Alone or Terminator? But actually Terminator will return soon again and so will another Jurassic Park. Movie studios must see established franchises with many fans a safe bet to make more sequels. I think it is a trend we will keep seeing in movies today because of the expensive money it takes to produce movies. It should be expected less risk now involved in movies when the price is so high.

I wonder what movies do you like best. Do you like the movies that are continuous sequels with similar stories like Saw series or the Harry Potter ones or maybe it is more better to see films that are one time experiences like The Departed. But actually once a movie does great it is likely to have sequels. We can expect another Iron Man, just like we seen already a new Fantastic 4. So the point I make is the media entertainment in movies seem to be controlled by series now and not standalone movies? What do you think?

Today I went walking near the area where the protest is taking place. Many people showed up against the mad cow disease problem. I just watched from a distance and seen how many young people line up to support the cause. Cops were everywhere I went and seemed ready to take action if needed. I really feel impressed and interested at the same time when I see this sight. Many people fighting for something they care about is really a new experience to see. But the media involved around this is interesting as well. This has got a response from Lee Myung-bak. I wonder how the result will end, I hope it ends in Korea’s favor.

One thing that happen that day was an older man asked a foreigner a question. He asked him “what do you think about this here?” the American foreigner said ” I don’t know”. This made the old Korean man respond with remarks as “how can you not know you can see with your eyes?” and ” America kills many people.”
I know this is a issue between Korea and USA but I think people should not be rude to others over this issue. It is not a problem between American people and Korean people but a problem between governments. How do you think?

 We all do text messaging. It’s easy because we can send it right away but somehow it’s not easy because receiver might get context wrong. Since there is no sound or voice, something wrong can happen when people don’t read between the lines. I often e-mail my father so does he. He lives out of town so this is one of the best ways that I can contact him. It works and this was considered as ‘good enough system’ for between my father and me. We know who we are better than others do. Very very well. However things happened. Last night he came Seoul yet he didn’t look okay. The way he talked me was agressive and strong. I asked myself weather I did something rude or not. Nothing was wrong as far as I thought. I couldn’t understand what’s going on.

 This morning he started to talk to me.  I’ve got to know that there was super duper huge “misunderstanding” as my father got a text message sent from me. I totally didn’t mean what he has understood but he was mad at me few days ago I don’t even know exactly. “You know me then you couldn’t get this wrong dad” I said. Unfortunately, he was disappointed at me because what he has read was not like me. It was kind of too late to have happy talk for Sunday morning.

Have you ever experienced  ”I-didn’t-mean-it” situation because of mute media such as e-mails and text messages?  

As you know, Media has given lot of information to us. These days, I am looking for some English course for summer vacation. Then, I got some information of the English school. However, I came up with the idea. I was wondering whether the information was trustworthy or not. In fact, all of courses look so great. In other words, all of them are romanticized by advertising only their advantages. I need to find something kind of personal reviews of someone who took part in the courses. I also know even the review can be manipulated by someone who takes a part time job writing advertising words down on the internet. However, I used the reviews for getting the truth of the English courses. Ironically, I used the media to know the truth of media.

I believe many people know developing internet gives many conveniences but also creates many problems and one of the biggest problem is privacy infringement. Few weeks ago it was pretty big issue that auction shopping mall hacked from “chinese” people and lot of people lost their personal information. Also, in my house 3 people lost our information. I heard some people tried to sue them but I am not sure really if it is important treatment. I knew some game called Lineage and a bank was also hacked before in the past.

Did you know you can lose your privacy easy and you might be surprised when you notice how people can get your information not just by hacking. Many people would use same Email address, same ID and have a password which is all same. Go to Google and search your email address and you can see your history of internet using. Of course there are not all records from you but when you see your information easily to find things like your interests and even personal information. Anyways some other way it seems almost impossible secure everything really well but I believe we should to know how much our information we are dropping unconsciously.

In the article Gin, Television, and Social Surplus the author mentions a change from entertainment. A change that makes the consumer become the creator of media. These two things exist today in separate forms mostly. People watch TV a controlled media and people use the Internet as an open collaborative media. It was interesting that how author give us 3 functions on media which are consumption, reducing and sharing. I was thinking it was so amazing that we can watch TV in computer at first but now people can put what they are doing now on computer or live TV program to broadcast by themselves and people come into the rooms and they watch and chat each others at the same time. Futhermore media on TV is now becoming more like the Internet too. I heard there are some channel where viewers can interact with the show through live chats, web cam and even games that show the results live on TV. This is a sign that media is evolving to build along with user input and interactivity. Also when you watch music channel such as M-TV you can also participate on TV using text-messages. I believe media TV and internet are becoming combine each other and they both have 3 functions. What do you think of this immediate interactivity with TV?