Museum of Modern Art.

In the heart of the New York City

New Jersey Transit.

Road trip.

Highways. Gas Station. Fast Food. Lost. Talk. Music. This way. That way.

When I think back of the previous trips, being in car as a family has been one of the finest experience.

Sharing the view of dawn to sunset. Having time together, truly as a family.

Christmas Lights.

Even when the city is in black and white, the Christmas lights shine in their colour.

YOW.

Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport.

Waiting for my dad to arrive. Christmas spirit.

Passage.

  This is it. I finally submitted the university application few days ago, although I still need to apply for the out of province. Back in year or two, I imagined myself at this season, which I'll be applying for the university in grade 12 and questioned 'how am I going to do that?'. I was expected to have a clear view of what I'm going to study by now, but to be honest, I still don't know. There are definitely things that I'm interested in, but really it's the matter of way to approach, whether to take social science perspective, art perspective, or engineering perspective. The least good thing about that is that I'm not tied to certain view and still open to different perspectives and potentials.

  My dad will be coming tomorrow night from Seoul and that's pretty exciting. It's hard to get holiday feeling without the full member of the family but he's making it possible, so I thank him for that. Hopefully we could go on a trip for short period of time. Destination? doesn't really matter.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

"It's never too late or too early to be whoever you want to be.

There's no time limit, stop whenever you want.

You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing.

We can make the best or the worst of it.

I hope you make the best of it.

And I hope you see things that startle you.

I hope you feel things you never felt before.

I hope you meet people with a different point of view.

I hope you live a life you're proud of.

If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

     - from the letter to his daugther

"가치있는 것을 하는데 있어서, 늦었다는건 없다 

하고 싶은 것을 시작하는데, 시간의 제약은 없다 

넌 변할 수 있고 혹은 같은 곳에 머물 수도 있지, 규칙은 없으니깐 

최고로 잘 할수도 있고, 최고로 못할 수도 있지 

난 네가 최고로 잘 하기를 바란단다 

그리고 너를 자극시키는 뭔가를 발견해 내길 바란단다 

                                                          전에는 미쳐 느끼지 못했던 것들을 느껴보길 바란단다 

                                                          서로 다른 시각을 가진 사람들을 만나보길 바란단다 

                                                          너가 자랑스러워하는 인생을 살기 바란단다 

                                                          이게 아니다 싶으면 다시 처음부터 시작할 수 있는 강인함을 갖기 바란단다."

                                                                - 딸에게 주는 편지중

                                              

It's the movie that I watched about two years ago, but the quote still remains in my heart.

It was such an unique movie. I should watch it again over the break. 

Glebe Collegiate Institute.

HDR processing is designed to produce an image that is closest to what the human eye can actually experiences, by combining the different exposured pictures into one. With a little help from Photoshop, the picture can show both shadow and highlight in details, like the detail of both building and sky at the same time.

Although it sounds ideal, it involves a lot of post-processing,

and always puts me into ethical dilemma of photography!

Moshe Safdie.

  The reason I went to the NGC last evening was because there is a special exhibition going on  about the architect, Moshe Safdie. To be honest, I never heard about the name before and I even had to look up the spelling on Google to write this. Apparently, Moshe Safdie is an Israel born Canadian who studied architecture at McGill University. His first project was the Habitat 67, which was built as part of the Montreal Expo 67 celebration. Through the decades, he applied simple geometric patterns on designing various buildings in Canada such as the National Gallery of Canada, the former Ottawa City hall, and the Vancouver Library Square. Furthermore, there are more than 30 structures designed by him standing around the globe. Even though this exhibition was the first chance to know about his works, I've already seen documentary of one of his creation before. One of the Discovery channel program that I watched last summer, was about the construction of Marina Bay Sands, which is his recent work in Singapore. At the time, I didn't pay much attention to the name of architect, so I would've never knew he was the same person who designed the Gallery in Ottawa. One of the interesting idea was found on his idea note about the ideal urban concept. According to his note, the modern city structure consists with the three different elements, which are residential, commercial, and recreational. The average distance between the three is about 20 minutes on transportation and causes a lot of social problem such as traffic and less leisure time. In his note, he marked that living of individual would be more essential if the city consists with the numbers of complex high rises with three aspects at the same time. He is probably not the first one to have this thought, but he is definitely an architect who tried to apply the urban concept. I especially enjoyed this exhibition since it's related to my personal interest and the potential area of study.

National Gallery of Canada.

Snowing.

  

It's a great feeling to be the first one to step on.

Central Post Office.

I just realized that the surveillance camera is blocking the lighting. How odd.

The Funeral.

by Band of Horses

This was the song I heard from the season finale of the 'flashforward' couple of months ago. When I heard it, it matched with visual and atmosphere pretty good and left a deep impression within me. I downloaded few days ago and since then, I'm listening over and over again. There is something attractive about the song that is hard to tell. Maybe the lyrics with vague meaning. Maybe the melody line of guitar solo. Anyhow, this song reminds me of the unknown feeling that I get by the end of the day. I like it.

Freezing.

The temperature has finally reached the windchill of -20 degree.

Walking around with the camera in the night became hard thing to do,

but I should go out there again with some kind of new intuition and inspiration.

For now, I'll be just thanking myself that I'm inside

Place du Portage.

Texture.

Can you feel it without touching it?

HDR Image.

3 images in different exposures + digital processing

= 1 stunning image

Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Designed by the Canadian architect, Douglas Cardinal.

According to the Canada Council for the Arts,

'flowing architecture marked with smooth lines, influenced by

his aboriginal heritage as well as European expressionist architecture.'

Decades of Decay.

Prince of Wales Bridge.

Abandoned railways and its memories.

A Change of Seasons.

 The past high school years have gone so fast and it's already heading towards the end of the first semester of grade 12. (Approximately 35% of the year is done!). A week ago, I received the PIN from the OUAC and I'm currently in status of 'applying for university'. This pressure of application process is suddenly giving me all kinds of second thoughts and make me face some of the hard questions, like 'Is this really what I want to do' and 'Is this what I am good at'. The programs I'm currently considering are, civil engineering, architecture, and urban studies. Civil engineering involves physics and mathematical challenge, where as architecture is focused more on art and design perspective. Urban studies is totally different from the previous two and focuses on the social aspects and infrastructure of the cities. These options are all interesting and something I've been looking forward to study, so it's not going to be easy choice to make. Hopefully I can figure it out over the time and make the right choice for myself. The goal for now is to have the mark beyond the standards and get admission offers from all the applications. It's still hard to believe what I'm about to face. Exciting yet challenging.

 The season is changing. Snow is piling up and the temperature is going down. Our car hasn't changed into snow tires yet and I have the duty to do so. There are so many snowing days left ahead and I also have the duty to remove them. At least I'm looking forward for snowboarding and winter scenery.

Alexandra Bridge.

Grabbing a camera and passing through the city blocks under the street lights.

Walking towards an awe-inspiring scene that is yet to be discovered.

Choo.

Every Korean male has duty to be part of the mandatory military service of 21 months. I am not an exception and neither Shin-Soo Choo, a rising star player in the Major League.

Since I started to play baseball in the spring of 2009, I've been following his game stats and achievements. Often I was able to find the game highlights and interviews through media. It hasn't been long time since he played in the big league and I recently realized how much the difficulties would've gone through in minor leagues and trade off right after the major league contract with Seattle Mariners. In fact, the year I started to play baseball was same as the year that he started to get spot lights in Cleveland Indians. On the year, he became the only one to achieved the high standard of 20 home runs, 20 stealing bases, with .300 hitting average, which proved that he can be a slugger and a contact hitter at the same time. He also achieved the same standard in this 2010 season too.

Since he started to playing in the States, he puts Korean flag sticker on the bottom of his wooden bats, which is to remember the country and the supporters. In the last years, he participated in the Olympic and the World Baseball Classics voluntarily out of Major League season schedule. Whenever I watch him on the screen and the commentator reads his name, I feel sense of proud and admiration at the same time. Just a few days ago, the Korean national team has won the gold medal in Asian Games and granted military exemption by the government. Choo can now have a long term contract and be able to play in the Major league without giving up the Korean citizenship. It's definitely one hopeful and great news amongst the rising concern of the North Korea.

Defence Canada.

Major-General George R Pearkes Building

a.k.a. National Defence Head Quarters