The First Day of Spring

As the weather gets warmer and everything outside begins to bud and grow so does my anxiety. I feel that tangled mess of emotions begin to coagulate in the pit of my stomach, which I know will only gets worse with the rising temperatures. And I know by high summer I'll feel like nothing is right, but the post-winter anxiety is the worst. There is nothing worse than the fear of the impending feelings of worthlessness, not even those feelings themselves. By the first day of spring it's official, I can't help but dread those coming summer days when I'll feel irritable, inadequate, and completely alone.

Dr. Chi Park

So House has been on it's seasonal holiday-time hiatus for over a month now, and it's been killing me on the inside. I just don't know what to do with myself anymore especially since the season of Dexter ended. Thankfully House will be returning with an all new episode next Monday, January 23rd.

At the beginning of the season I was somewhat intrigued and excited to see how Charlene Yi would do in portraying a character on House. I decided to hold off on writing about her because I watched the second episode of season 8 (the episode in which she premiered) and I wasn't really all that taken by her and her character. But I wanted to like her. So, I decided I wanted to at least watch episode 3 before proceeding. So far we're 8 episodes into the season, and I think at least for me the verdict is out. I like her.

Hello, 2012!

I'm not at all a holiday person, but I really do love New Year's, not the specific day or the celebration but the general sentiment of it. The changing of the year prompts us to reflect on the year gone by and consider the opportunities for growth in the new year.

This past year of 2011 was one of the most surprising years to date. A lot of things happened. For me it was a year of ends and beginnings. It was a year of a lot of firsts and a year of re-connections.

Looking back on it all I don't think I've had quite a year like this since 2005, a year that truly felt life-changing. Plus, I haven't felt more nostalgic since that 05-06 transition. Everything seemed to decline after that and culminated in 2009 with a fantastic year of depressive self-loathing.

Then things picked up again in 2010, which was a year about self-improvement and finding solace in routine. It was in part about starting to become a grown-up through my own free will. Then 2011 was about "conscious consumption" and "cultivated expression", actively choosing what to bring into my life and learning how to express myself about those things.

I feel like I spent the past two years learning about being an adult, and I want 2012 to be a beginning of a time where I am an adult. I want it to be about really getting things done. I guess this is a want to change my point of view, a want for a new outlook.

Specifically, in 2012 I hope to finish some of the things I've started in my last 24 years of life. I think that would be a nice change.

And as always I wish for peace, love, and prosperity in the new year.

A Story in 420 Characters (or less including spaces)

On a morning so cold that even the air has frozen in place, I and a portly stranger, for a moment, share a square of sidewalk. In his hands is a to-go cup from which he sips and exhales deeply. Seeming more bizarrely intimate than that goodbye kiss, I hesitate to inhale his breath that lingers in the frigid air. The chilled breath, a taste like chocolate milk, assuages the bitter tang of breakup over morning coffee.

This I Believe (written June 2005)

Spring of senior year, it’s what I’d been living for. I must have checked the mailbox almost religiously, everyday, waiting for the one letter that would inevitably give my life purpose. I waited for the meaning of life to settle itself in my mailbox packaged inside an envelope in the form of one word – “congratulations.” I often daydreamed about getting that letter, and every time I did, I could feel the letter paper between my fingers becoming moist with perspiration, I could smell the ink on the page, and I could feel the ecstatic joy pulsing through my veins and spilling out through my eyes. It was so real, more real than the reality of what happened.

씁쓸함에 대하여

I'd have to say that the 10cm song 우정, 그 씁쓸함에 대하여 is an interesting song that incorporates some techniques that I personally love to use in my own writing. The lyrics employ a lot of repetition and parallel sentence construction that gives the song a sense of tight, purposeful, poetic composition.

Occupy Wall Street

It’s incredible to think that these events unfolding on the streets of major American cities could be the start of something revolutionary.

I’m pressed to consider that perhaps I’ve been too complacent when it has come to goverance. I’ve always thought that it was wrong, but I’ve never considered the possibility of real tangible change. After all, we’re living in the system.