Fall From Innocence

“Fall from Innocence.” It is the subtitle for The Body. Stephen King used a wonderful double meaning expression. The story takes place in fall, as the boys go out for an adventure. Another meaning is the departure from innocence, indicating that the novella is a coming-of-age story. The “innocence” likely represents the pre-maturity of the boys, and departure means becoming mature. Four characters appear in the story, and I would like to focus on Gordon Lachance.

           Gordon, well-known as Gordie, is the narrator of The Body. He is speaking in an adult’s point of view as he is tracing back his memories to when he was twelve years old. The moment Gordie is describing is basically the turning point of his life, as he goes through the journey. Gordie is a normal yet different boy. His elder brother Dennis died in a car accident. After the accident, Gordie’s parents, who were more affectionate of Dennis, became more ignorant and indifferent towards Gordie. Gordie is somewhat upset, but he tries to understand his parents. Mostly, Gordie receives comfort from his best friend, Chris Chambers. Chris and Gordie share the similarity of having imperfect parents. Chris’s father is usually drunk and beats up Chris. Chris is seen to be smart, but no one truly cares about him. However, Gordie and Chris care for each other. Both share friendship as they understand each other and try to be help for each other. As they think about each other, both become more thoughtful than ever, growing up.

           Seeing the dead body of Ray Brower gives sense to Gordie about what real death is. Gordie expresses as "The kid was can't, don't, won't, never, shouldn't, wouldn't, could'nt." The kid just met death when he was trying to pick up berries. Here, Gordie seems to understand something. Later, in adulthood, Gordon realizes the truth of departure. "Friends come in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant, did you ever notice that?" As meeting is sudden, departure is also sudden, and one can't do anything about it. Same with death. Gordon phrases as "Some people drown, that's all. It's not fair, but it happens." Death has no reason, and it is not fair to everyone, but it happens. Death is something natural, and as Gordie understands that, he becomes more mature than ever.

           Probably, the point where Gordon becomes mature is when the boys face Ace Merrill. They started their journey for fame to become heroes, but they end up respecting dead Ray Brower. With the braveness coming from respect, Gordie and Chris fights off Ace Merrill. The turning point is later acknowledged by the adult Gordon, a period of "fall from innocence."

Reflective Essay: Vibrating the Strings

     One thing I like about Korean Minjok Leadership Academy (KMLA) is that it gives me different opportunities. Unlike other high schools, the school encourages different extracurricular activities. Opportunity was one of the strengths of KMLA written for admission and now I know that it is true. Through KMLA's winter program, I regained my skiing skills, which I neglected for about 4 years. Through art class, playing with Photoshop once again became my interest. There are many other new opportunities given to me, and they were all delightful. But to pick the one that I am most happy about, it is being able to play my violin again.

     To speak my life history, I started fiddling with violin from about 8 years old. Piano came before, but the ability to move all ten fingers at once seemed to be absent from me. Violin soon became my hobby, and I played it for five years. This might be a short time period for violin manias, but for an inconsistent person like me, the period was long. Also, the reason I had to quit was because of my busy middle school life, which upset me. That time, I believed that I could start playing violin whenever I wanted to, and regain my hobby again. Sadly, this thought came from ignorance of my poor musical talents. Two years later, I forgot to tune my violin, let alone playing it. Due to my musical atrophy, I did not touch my violin again until I went into KMLA.

     Before going to KMLA, I heard about two distinct orchestras: KMLA Orchestra and Minjok Orchestra. Suddenly, I felt this strong desire to play my violin again. However, after opening my violin case, I was soon very upset at my fingers which did not move according to my own will. Worse, I even forgot how to comprehend the musical scores. Dumbfounded, all that was left for me was practice. Through practice, skill improved slowly and gradually, but I was still happy. Actually, for the past years, I was sad that I did not have any musical instruments that I could play properly. Even though I was clumsy, being able to play the violin made me smile.

     What started as a desire to go into an orchestra tuned into enjoying playing again. Eventually, I went into the KMLA Orchestra, where we learned several pieces. Practicing those pieces, I enjoyed being able to create sound once more with the violin. I frequently made mistakes, so I tried hard to cover them with practice. On top of that, what motivated me for practicing was probably the fact that I did not wanted to make mistakes that will ruin the whole song of harmony. My brain told me that ruining will mean humiliation, and I certainly did not want to get humiliated.

           The orchestra was preparing for the school’s concert, which definitely excited me. Years have passed since I last played for the public. I wanted to do well. There were practices every first self-study period and during lunch time. The practices felt tiresome, but when actually practicing, the worries were gone and I felt some sort of catharsis. Practices passed, and the concert day had come. After a deep breath, the show started. Our song went quite well without any serious problems. The concert was thrilling as the audience clapped. Once again, I felt the feeling that I felt years ago: enjoyment.

     From the day I picked up my musical friend, I never regretted about playing violin again. It gave me more pleasure than I expected and returned me a hobby. Now, I do not feel upset about not being able to play musical instruments. Instead, I feel happy about regaining one of my lost skills. I cannot say that I am fluent, but I can say that I truly enjoy vibrating the strings.

The Body: A Preview of First 30 Pages

     When I first encountered the title The Body, it actually gave me shivers. I have heard before that Stephen King actually like gore scenes. Finding out that 1408 is also one of Stephen King's works made my suspicions grow about the novella. 'What did the author want to talk with a corpse?' This thought prevailed in my head. However, after reading first several pages, impressions changed.
     The front part of the novel reminded me of my own childhood, even though the boys' childhoods are not similar with mine. The characters are Gordon Lachance, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio. They are pictured as having normal playtime similar to ordinary boys, but they have some sadness inside. Gordon is ignored by his parents due to the death of his older brother, Dennis. Chris is always beaten up by his father, and even though he is smart, no one would care. Teddy's father is a war veteran with psychological problem. Teddy got his ear burnt in the stove by his father, who went to the asylum. Vern has an older brother named Billy, who is part of a gang. My parents are kind to me, and I do not have sisters or brothers, so those parts were not similar. However, I was amazed at their positivity, which allowed me to relate my childhood.

     Even though the boys have sadness, they are not gloomy at all. They play like ordinary boys, having fun altogether. The boys seem to get closer, because they understand each other. The tree house is their place of communication. Gordon, Chris, Teddy, and Vern are true friends to themselves. Since I was very young, I admired of having a tree house myself. The tree house seemed like a perfect private place where friends can share their secrets. In Korea, there is no adequate place for tree houses, since most people live in cities including me. Instead, my friends and I played in parks and playgrounds. While comparing my childhood life, I somewhat envied the boys’ free life.

           Moreover, I liked the unusual adventure that they were headed into finding a dead body. From here, I got the idea that maybe this novel is not a gore one, but about the exotic adventure of the boys. I liked adventures too, but it was very limited. For instance, it was usually about exploring the hole in the school fence or adventuring a graveyard in the park. Apparently, the novel adventure instantly grabbed my attention as I imagined what kind of trip lay ahead of the boys.

           What started as a suspicion changed to interest as I compared my childhood with what is told in the novel. Soon, I was imagining myself in the tree house, thinking of an journey to find the body of Ray Brower. I hope to read to the end of the novel and find about the future of these four boys.

A Step Into Advertising

        On every April, there is an official Day of Science in most Korean schools. My middle school was no exception and we had the scientific festival every year. The point of the festival is to bloom your scientific creativity through different means. During my elementary years, I did the imaginary drawing and earned few prizes. But, as they grades went by, I did not practice my water coloring skills and lost interest in watercolor paintings. So, what I set my eyes on was science related advertisements.

         Actually, I chose to do the advertisement at that day of the festival, so I did not have a current idea. I decided to just create an advertisement with whatever popped first into my mind: electric-powered magnetic levitation car. I sketched the overall appearance of the advertisement straight out from my imagination. The description said that the floor of the car is made out of superconductor with wheels replaced with pipes that shoot ions. The freely moving ions will spread out through the superconductor creating magnetic flows that will levitate the car body. I tried to make the description believable as much. Then, I cut out my transparent plastic covering, aluminum foil, and sponge for brushes. The cut-out parts were pasted to the advertisement to act as a "see-for-yourself" sample. In my advertisement, they became newly engineered materials: tempered polymer glass for window panes, high density polymerized titanium for the car body. The product of my creativity earned me a second place.

TED video Review: Let's simplify legal jargon!

Alan Siegel - Let's simplify legal jargon!

          To write a review about a TED video, I looked through several videos with ideas worth spreading. Many were interesting, starting from how to defend earth from an astroids to a 12-year old app developing prodigy. I liked the videos, but I couldn't find an idea that I would like to passionatley advocate for. Rummaging through the TED site, I found this specific idea. Alan Siegel is speaking in favor of simplicity, where official documents will be writen in plain, concise English instead of jargons. With what seems like a simple idea, I strongly agreed.

          Actually, I felt the problem of it just few hours ago. When making an account, there is a long, verbose contract with a check box saying "I read this contract and agree to the terms mentioned." Every time reading those checkboxes, I wonder how many percent of people read the contracts with gravity. The contracts are 80 pages long, with insipid jargons making it more obscure. People realize that such contracts are important, but they feel reading the whole contracts is nearly impossible and very tedious. Most of the times, there is no serious problem caused by not reading the contracts; however there are people who get pivotal damage by not reading.
         Going back the history, verbose documents were always used to discriminate people. The rich and educated people used jargons and made the content ambiguous to prevent the poor, uneducated people form comprehending what they were making contracts for. As a result, the uneducated became depleted of their remaining wealth, family members, and more. They were bound to the rich and became trapped in a cycle of poorness.
         Actually, such discrimination still exists in today's world. It is especially lucid in courts. Usually, workers are not aware of their contracts and their working conditions. They are desperate for their jobs, and sign the contracts without knowing it. When they later find out about their unfair conditions, they sue their employees and companies. Workers and companies go through the court process, a complex process filled with legal documents full of jargons. Workers have hardship in going through the court process itself. Uneducated people cannot endure innumerable contracts needed nor the cryptic message the contracts possess. They tend to give up, and another bad cycle occurs.
         Contracts are there to help people to cooperate better with the company and to prevent people from getting possible disadvantage. It is not a pretentious piece of writing to appease skeptical consumers. To serve the full purpose as a contract, redundant jargons need to be replaced with relevant, easy English. By the reform, the contracts can give authentic help to the people.

High School Musical (Review)

           Recently, I came to dwell on my past as I was playing basketball during Sportsday time. A friend of mine was singing the lyrics of a song from High School Musical. The lyrics sprung my childhood memories of the great movie series.

           Among all 3 movies of the series, the first and original High School Musical is the one that strongly lasts in my mind. The story was inspiring to have a high school life depicted in movies. Although I was not a high school kid, I was able to agree on some universal apsects of school life the movie showed. Probably that is why many students around the globe was on a frenzy whenever High School Musical was on air.

        Let's review some of the key sources that lies beneath the teen success of High School Musical.

1. Story

          High School Musical deals with the story of  East High School. Troy Bolton (played by Zac Effron) is the captain of the school's basketball team Wildcats. He usually leads the school team in rasing the numbers on the scoreboard. Meanwhile, Gabriella Montez (played by Vanessa Hudgens) transfers to East High School. She becomes they key member of the school's academic team. Both Troy and Gabriella is not known for musical singing or auditions. Instead in school, Sharpay Evans (played by Ashley Tisdale) and Ryan Evans (played by Lucas Grabeel) is known as the musical types. As Troy and Gabriella reach for their real dreams, students of East High School learns something valuable.

          With a story that might be conventional, the movie fascinated the minds of many teens around the world. The story was able to gain sympahty of students, who frequently feel the same way like Troy and Gabriella. The movie gives space for teenagers to portray themselves in the characters of High School Musical, thus gaining hope and excitement as Troy and Gabriella reach their dream. The movie focuses on the teenager's point of view. Probably to viewers not of teens age, the story might be childish and sentimental.

2. Songs

           Personally, I liked the songs from the movie. The movie consists of about 13 tracks, which I basically liked. Each song has its own story and mood, reminding each scenes from the movie.

Get'cha Head in the Game

           This is the song which  reminded me of High School Musical few days ago. I like the intro part where the dribbling of the basketball and squeaking of sneakers make up the beat for the song itself. The strong beat and the rythm go well with the scene where Troy is trying to focus on his basketball practice. In the film, the song matches with the powerful basketball moves and dances the actors show. As a student who likes basketball, I personally liked the song and the moves.

Coach said to

Fake right and Break left

Watch out for the pick

And keep an eye on defense

Gotta run the give and go

And take the ball to the hole

But don't be afraid

To shoot the outside "J"

Let's make sure

That we get the rebound

'Cause when we get it

Then the crowd will go wild

A second chance

Stick to the Status Quo

        This is another song from "The Highschool Muscial." The song deals about how students prevent each other from doing what they truly like to do, because the students have their own places. I thought that it was interesting, since it showed how students are always aware of others, that they lose their chance of doing what their heart tells them to do.

No, no, no, nooooooooooo
No, no, no
Stick to the stuff you know
If you wanna be cool
Follow one simple rule
Don't mess with the flow, no no
Stick to the status quo

3. Actors

 

      Actors who fit well with the characters are also a another key of success. Each actors actually played well with their characters. The actors seemed comfortable with working each other. Especially, Venessa Hudgens and Zac Effron once were couples, being natural. Probably, the likeliness of each characters had helped young teens to be pulled into the series.

<RANKING> : Four and a half-eaten cookie

School Meal Rotation : Is It Really Effective?

             Recently, a new policy has been implemented in Korean Minjok Leadership Academy (KMLA). For a nice, hot meal, students have to wait wave by wave to have their plates full. Traditionally, students received their meals in the descending order of third graders to first graders; however, due to the order of the school principle and Mr. Sung, the school adopted the meal rotation policy. This new policy brought debate between the students: Traditional or Reformed? The debate is based on two aspects: practicality and efficiency.

             One major concern that the students have is the practicality of the policy. The policy has been around for about two months since Mr. Sung Hun-Jae announced it Monday morning assembly. The reason that the policy was adopted was that the freshmen were not getting adequate amount of food that they deserve. True, freshmen students have frequently experienced the frustrating moments of lacking delicacies. Especially, when there were favorable dishes such as meat or noodles, the dishes were quickly exhausted even before it reached the first graders. To relieve the unfair distribution, the students are to rotate every few weeks or so. The wave that ate the last in this term will be first in next term, second to last, and first to second. The policy seemed like an effective solution, but it turned out to be an ideal one. Even after the policy was adopted, lacking of meals frequently showed. Consequently, the policy was not able to serve its full purpose.

             Efficiency is another troubling aspect of KMLA's meal rotation policy. Actually, there had been large amount of complain from seniors and juniors after the policy was adopted. Complains were that the meal rotation policy is taking away the free time available during lunch time and dinner time. The order of receiving the meal does have a serious impact on the free time available during meal time. The first order has the most efficiency of saving time for other activities. Students can eat lunch or dinner right after classes, and then have about remaining time of thirty minutes. On the other hand, being the last is most inefficient. Before meal time is too short to concentrate fully on something. After, students have to go to classes right away. As students become higher graders, school life becomes more busy and students have less time. Seniors and juniors, who need to use time efficiently, need to gain the most efficiency possible from meal times. Freshmen, who are going to be seniors and juniors in the future, understand such matters. In addition, confusion of the rotation term only made the cafeteria to be more crowded at times, with two wavers being in the same place. Thus, the policy eventually brought lower efficiency.

             In all, KMLA had debates and conflicts regarding the meal rotation policy. While some like the new policy, some find flaws in the policy, flaws which make backfiring results. The lacking of food is a serious problem and needs to be solved, but current meal rotation policy also needs some changes to most effectively solve the problem. The different situations of students needs to be considered.

Three Words Are All You Need

Describing Myself

     I had a pet chick in elementary. Whenever I looked into its yellow fur, I saw my reflection. The chick peeped continuously, always ran around the house having adventures, and flapped wings when trapped in a box. I felt the similarities of such characteristics within me. Yellow fur reminds me of a fresh banana. A fresh banana has a white, delicious flesh inside, covered with a bright, yellow peel outside. Many people say I have an extroverted mind, bud I also have some shyness inside. The banana has the softness of a cotton candy. I want to become a sweet and comfortable person to others.

Metafiction - Living

             About three years of my KMLA life had passed, with the same routine of classes and studying all over again. Then, suddenly, I had felt this urge to tell what I have learned through my life, a value that I consider important for everyone, including myself. Desperate I was to tell my story, but it was Sunday and I had no ways to spread my thoughts to the whole school. Luckily, tomorrow is Monday, and we have morning assembly. I did not ask for permission to deliver my speech, but I don't care. This is important, and I have to say it out loud.

             I woke up early, partly excited from thinking of my speech, but I also had this unknown feeling of worry. It seems to lie somewhere deep inside. I don't know why, but it is there for sure. Maybe it's the stage fright. I had few chances to speak my mind in front of such a large audience and I now have an audience of approximately 500 people. With such thoughts in mind, I went up the cafeteria to have breakfast.

             As I was eating, I thought of yesterday's dinner. It's been a few days since my mom didn't give me my meals. We had a one week vacation from school, and suddenly my mom didn't give me breakfast, lunch, or dinner anymore. Well, actually it was since my mom had a big cry on one night. Must be something awful, since she didn't have a conversation with me from then. She seemed to live in a world of different dimension from me. To say the truth, I was little hurt, but what can I do? I decided to understand her pain and let her be.

             After finishing, I hurried to the gym to get a good look of the place I will be presenting. It will probably relieve my stage fright and this little worry. Strolling around, I reorganized my thoughts and waited for other students to appear. Soon, students arrived and the morning assembly started.

             "Next, we will have salute to the flag. All rise."

             The assembly droned on and on and I waited for the perfect timing to go up the stage. Then, after singing the national anthem, there was a slight pause.

             'This is it!'

             I ran up the stairs and to the podium. I took a deep breath, looked around, and opened my mouth.

         "Nowadays, life is like a spinning wheel. I am like a puny little hamster frantically moving my feet, trying to catch up with the speed of the wheel. However, the energy also powers the wheel itself. The faster the hamster runs, the faster the hamster will have to run. Ironically, the hamster is still in the same place, no matter how much time has passed.
             The future seems to be far away as you're going round repeatedly to catch up the speed of fast-rolling wheel, you must hold your soul and pretend not to be hurt. Contradictorily, as much you pretend to be strong, the more pain you'll be dived into. The more pain you feel, the more you hide yourself. The time seems to crush down out of your reach. However, as you already know, the wheel keeps spinning."
             I looked at the audience, but no one seemed to be interested in my speech. Neither were the teachers. Maybe my speech lacks impact. I pulled my voice into a higher tone.
             "Maybe that is why time is more precious than gold. How much progress one has made depends on him, but time passes uncontrollably. One might be trapped in his own trepidation about losing the race. Once the hamster loses the courage to continue running, the wheel stops. When the wheel stops, the hamster stops. Time is merely a means, a measure of how much one has gone forward. Time cannot crush one down, but the fear of time can."
             Still, no one seemed to be interested in my speech. Next, I found myself desperately screaming the next lines.
             " It sounds very philosophical and far away from us, talking about spinning wheels. but it all comes down to our lives right now, the life in KMLA. It seems like you're in the same spot no matter what you do. Somedays, you feel too tired to catch up with the spinning wheel that, from some point of my life, started to spin on without my will wanting, and begging to stop, but being unable to, is what dominates my mind nowadays."

             'Why? Don't the other students feel like this?'

             I felt hot sorrow gagging my throat. In my life, I tried to be perfect at everything that I did. Maybe too obsessed to be true. Every time I tried to be perfect, what I did seemed to be full of flaws. More I tried, more I became tired and obsessed with my work. The work became clumsy, and I was full of despair. I wanted to come out of this madness, wanted someone to hold me back and say that it is okay to make mistakes. Inside of me begged, but no one could listen. The only thing on my shoulder was expectations. Then, I thought it was better to die.

             Now, I realized that that is not my true feelings. I want to live again. Thanks for listening to my speech.

Reflective Response to Kim Ki Duk's Film "Spring"

           Wisdom is different from being intelligent or smart. Wisdom is something that is accumulated through several generations, not acquired through experiments or books. Wisdom is earned from trials and errors of lives of thousands of people. Nobody is perfect, and everyone makes mistakes even from the start of their lives.

           Kim Ki Duk's film "Spring" deals with similar routine of life. In spring, new life forms come out without knowing anything. Similarly, the young monk in the film does not have a lot of experience to know what is right or wrong. With a few Buddhist teachings, the young monk follows his instincts. He likes to take adventures on mountains and follow his footsteps. One of his instincts is having fun while playing around with animals. In the film, he ties a fish, a frog, and a snake to small stones with thread. The young monk snickers as he watches the tied animals wriggling while struggling with the weight of the stones. Apparently, the wriggling of animals gives joy to the boy, who does not know that his acts can be a pain to the animals. To make the boy learn, the master monk ties the boy to a rock. When the boy asks the master monk to untie the rock, the master monk orders the boy to untie the animals. As the boy goes on a journey to untie the animals, he finds out how much the animals had suffered. The fish was dead, the frog was unable to climb the rock, and the snake was dead with blood splattered all over the place. The young monk regrets his thoughtless acts and sheds tears.

           The young monk had no idea of knowing how the animals felt as he made the animals his toys. If the master monk had just told the young monk not to torture the animals, the young monk probably would not have understood why and kept torturing the animals. Instead, the master monk had the wisdom to enlighten the boy about the importance of life. Such wisdom came from accumulence of life lesssons. The master monk passed on his wisdom to the young monk.

           Similarly, I have also made mistakes on which I did not know that it could be a pain to someone else.  In elementary school, I learned how to cooperate with other kids. I did not have a special fight with people, but still I naturally learned how to behave differently in school. For example, I was quite self-centered and poor at controlling my dissatisfaction when I was young. When something bothered me, I was not able to hide or control my anger.  One day, my friend made a petty mistake, and I  got too much angry and almost shouted. My behavior also made my upset. We both felt bad for each other,since we both did not knew that our behaviors will hurt each other's feelings. We apologized, and like this, step by step I learned how to control my emotions.
           Wrongdoings give pain to each other, and no one wants to be hurt. As we give and receive pain simultaneously, we learn life lessons along with wisdom. The wisdom is used for changing one's own behavior and also to teach others. Through trials and errors we fill each other's imperfectness.

Pinebanana

<Pine Banana> by Terrence

     During free time, I just googled my blog title "pinebanana" and found this. It was very surpirsing to find someone else having similar thoughts. Actually, it was a piece from online "Photo Effects Contest" with the topic of hybrid produce.

The first place picture is "melonana."

Very skilled in photoshop o.o

This is the link to the contest page!

http://www.worth1000.com/contests/2853/contest

Chain Writing (To Be Continued)

 Nowadays, life is like a spinning wheel. I am like a puny little hamster frantically moving my feet, trying to catch up with the speed of the wheel. However, the energy also powers the wheel itself. The faster the hamster runs, the faster the hamster will have to run. Ironically, the hamster is still in the same place, no matter how much time has passed.
-Yoosun Sung
 The future seems to be far away as you're going round repeatedly to catch up the speed of fast-rolling wheel, you must hold your soul and pretend not to be hurt. Contradictionally, as much you pretend to be strong, the more pain you'll be dived into. The more pain you feel, the more you hide yourself. The time seems to crush down out of your reach. However, as you already know, the wheel keeps spinning.
-Jiyoung Lee
 Maybe that is why time is more precious than gold. How much progress one has made depends on him, but time passes uncontrollably. One might be trapped in his own trepidation about losing the race. Once the hamster loses ht eocurage to continue running, the whell stops. When the wheel stops, the hamster stops. Time is merely a means, a measure of how much one has gone foward. Time cannot crush one down, but the fear of time can.
-Jonghyun Han
 It sounds very philosophical and far away from us, talking about spinning wheels. but it all comes down to our lives right now, the life in KMLA. It seems like your in the same spot no matter what you do. Somedays, you feel too tired to catch up with the spinning wheel that, from some point of my life, started to spin on without my will wanting, and begging to stop, but being unable to, is what dominates my mind nowadays.
-Woochan Hwang

Application of Hero's Journey to Shawshank Redemption

Group Members: Seohee Kim, Sol Kim, Yoosun Sung

Our Story: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (Andy's journey)

Why we chose it: We found the story interesting-not too obvious but not too difficult.



ACT I

1. Ordinary World: 
Outside the prison

2. Call to Adventure: 
Trial, charged of murder though he's innocent, sent into the prison

3. Refusal of the Call: 
defends himself, tries to prevent himself from being institutionalized

4. Meeting the Mentor: 
Red

5. Crossing the Threshold: 
breaking the prison


ACT II 

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies:
Tests: sisters, wardens
Allies: Red
Enemies: Samuel Norton(first seemed to be an ally of Andy but soon turned out to be the biggest enemy)

7. Approach to the Innermost Cave:
-As a librarian, Andy planned meticulously about his escape-by washing dirty money of the wardens and letting them have him his own room for almost the entire prison year. 
(Playing the money for the wardens)

8. Ordeal:
Samuel Norton refuses Andy's request to retrial his case, and eliminates the most important evidence(Tommy Williams) that can help prove Andy innocent.

9. Reward:
Getting out of the prison.

ACT III 

10. The Road Back:
He climbs out of the sewer and gets off his prison clothes, gets the key he had hidden twenty eight years ago, go to McNary, sending a postcard to Red.

11. Resurrection:
A happy hotel owner in Zihuatanejo in the name of Peter Stevens, with abundant money.

12. Return With the Elixir:
Leaves a letter to Red, shows that he successfully escaped and achieved his dreams.

Capacity for Innovation

  Soft chunks of clay can be shifted and molded into infinite usage. As time flows, moisture slowly escapes clay particles, solidifying. No more can molded turn into pliable again. Children are fresh clay, blooming with sprays of creativity; while adults are dry and weathered, deprived of such moisturizing. Such thoughts are widely accepted, as they are portrayed commonly as children learning the arid "adult world." James Matthew Barrie’s' Peter Pan and Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland distinguishes the line between the unrealistic world of children's imagination with the realistic one of adult's. Ken Robinson talks specifically about how academic education in an adult's perspective is killing the creativity of young minds.
     According to Ken Robinson, current education system is made suitable for the Industrial Revolution that happened years before. Subjects that "meet the needs of industrialization" were regarded as important while those not were considered trivial. I agree that there certainly is the same hierarchy of subjects all over the world, Korea no exception. Mathematics and languages on top, then humanities and science, and the bottom are the arts. Generally, mathematics and languages are seen as most fundamental basis for other education. Of course, those subjects are important, as they were stepping stones for further developments in other areas like science and humanities. However, such fundamentality does not mean that other subjects are inferior to mathematics and languages. Each subject has its own significance and value. The common hierarchy of subjects is underestimating the values of "unimportant" subjects, while hindering possible talents of people. Rene Descartes once said, "It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well." The excessively academic society is not allowing people to fully use up to their potential. Adults hardly recognize this partiality of education, because that educational environment is where they had their success. They see such hierarchy as obvious, unable to take a step to transform current education. People should realize that academic ability does not equal to intelligence.
     Another problem with current education is conformity. The main focus of parent's generation might have been stabilizing and developing the society. Conformity was an easy tool for organizing the society and promoting a fast development. But generations have passed, and now became a time where originality and creativity is the key. Ken Robinson defined creativity as a "process of having original ideas that have value." However, current education system emphasizes conformity, where each and every student is inserted with the same knowledge. Factorized education affected people in hardening their creativity. People tend to think less about an issue or about anything in ordinary life. Usually, creativity comes from taking interest in events aroud. Education should give opportunity to people to think deeply about what they are learning, instead of pouring facts. Albert Einstein quoted that "Imagination is more important than knowledge." In addition, I agree that the society made mistakes the worst thing that people can do. Parents and teachers scold when children makes mistakes. Anything out of order is considered absurd and unreasonable. Such conventional thoughts is stopping children to be brave in their thoughts and acts. If people are not preapared to be wrong, they will not come up with anything original. Used to such evironment, only little progress can be made with people unable to make bold steps.
     In his first and second speech, Ken Robinson describes the problem with current education and that people should transform, not reform, it. However, he does not propose a specific solution for this social phenomenon. In the second video, Ken Robinson then vaguely says that education should be customized. As he said before, education is something that goes deep with people. Education must be handled cautiously, which brings the tranform matter difficult to do.
     The best way to eventually transform education is to make gradual changes. Education should also reflect the thoughts of students, the direct receivers of education. I feel that the fundamental step is to provide an educational environment where people can freely read books and discuss about it. Through books, children can learn new ideas of others. They can build up their own imagination based on these other ideas. Then, through discussion, children can talk about their ideas and expand their ideas. In discussion, people should respect each other's ideas, whether the ideas may be absurd or not. Change in education is not radical, but a series of baby steps.

The Only Way to Do Great Work Is to Love What You Do

           Emotion, it is one great element that distinguishes human from humanoids. Even though science technology had shown tremendous development, it is not in a god’s status to gift real heart to machines. Maybe the imperfect, unpredictable emotions can only be a factor of defective, unconstrained living beings. Such emotions give people greater potential and ability, even near to infinite sometimes. Love is one the strongest emotions, as some say it can be more powerful than a mountain. It means passion, eagerness, enthusiasm, and care for the subject; an uninterested person cannot compete with such fervor.

           In general, a person quite usually walks a path of another’s, unable to seek for own values. Many set apparent benefits as the goal of their life, reality as the standard, or follows the path that another person had already planned out for them. For example, they become puppets of their parents, or become ordinary businesspeople and governmental officials. People, at least once in their time, had a dream that they truly wanted to achieve, but had to change for a realistic reason. Then, they shift their own views, deceiving themselves that the changed goal was what they had really wanted for. However, as many career complaints show, majority of people are dissatisfied with their type of work and regret about their life.

           In these cases, people naturally become uninterested since it was not what their true inner voice had wanted for. There is no love for it, just another repetitive part of boring, old life. On the other hand, a few people actually respected their inner voice, and were able to do what they truly felt in their mind. They love what they do, urging them to have more ardor and become attached to their work. Such investment towards work can eventually produce great result that receives attention. Steve Jobs was one who was able to take bold steps to find and do what he loved the most, naturally become successful.

           There are numerous benefits by just loving what a person does, without any surplus efforts. There is no forced action or seeming deception of oneself to get along with it. Effort and passion just happens to be there since there is almost excessive, obsessive care about it. By following the true emotions and inner voice, the great work can be achieved. That is why unless machineries gains a true heart, it can never have same potential as people.

This is the short piece of writing that I did in philosophy class. :)

What I Am as a Writer

What's your style?  What's your strength?  What do you think you need to improve?  What is your goal?

 Writing is like playing basketball to me. In basketball, once I keep scoring goals, the game becomes interesting and I get better. However, once I keep missing the goals, frustration and anger get the best of me. Similarly, sometimes I am fully submerged into the piece, my fingers flying across the keyboard. Once the tap is turned on, idea flows out. But most of the time, my face is frowning at the screen that just does not seem to progress.
 When I were younger, I quite enjoyed writing. Writing was the best way to materialize imagination into what everyone could see. The writings were mainly creative stories, such as "Rug Bug's House Horrors" or "Super Egg's Adventures." The stories were freely written, without any restrictions. Thus, writing did not pressure me whatsoever. It was after I went to middle school as I slowly lost my interest. The ratio of academic essays grew as stories lost their place instead. The pieces were even evaluated, giving me stress in writing. Frankly speaking, writing was never my specialty. Putting ideas and thoughts into an organized piece of alphabets is a hard, mind-boggling job. It is difficult, because I have to consider every single word to present the best work possible. Consequently, with all the effort, writing took long. Soon, I lost interest and only wrote what I was assigned to do. That should not have been the case, since I now realize that I do not like writing as much as I used to.
 Recently, I regained some interest in writing as there were some opportunities allowing me to write something other than TOEFL essays or literary analysis. One of the writings is the one that I wrote in philosophy class; which I liked, because it gave me space to think about the topic.
 It has been a long time since I had started to write, but I still do not exactly know my writing styles. However, I found out that I liked to explain more than giving bunch of statistics or examples. Usually, a right example for a specific situation is hard to find. For such situations, I try to clearly explain my thoughts in a general way for people to understand.
 My strength in writing is that it is easy to understand in terms of vocabulary. I usually write essays in easy, day-to-day language. I feel that complex vocabulary seems awkward, as I am not that familiar with the usage. However, I try to use higher level words as I become older. Still, not being exaggeratingly flashy is what allows my writings to be easily readable.
 My weakness is that sometimes I make unclear sentences. I tend to thoroughly explain what I think, but sometimes the sentences become jumbled up and unorganized. Since I understand what I wrote myself, I tend to skip the part that people might not be able to understand my writing.
 For me, I have several goals that I want to accomplish. First, I want to make writing enjoyable for me, since it is a crucial part of my life. I want to get rid of the tendency to evade writing as possible. Through frequent practices of different varieties of writing, I want to make writing a part of my life. Next, I want to make my pieces of writing to be enjoyed by different people. It is my goal to make my writing to be interesting and inspiring to read. In this semester, I hope that I would be able to accomplish my goals and have a nice year. :)