Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

I've always wanted to invite my mom to watch a concert at NAC together, so I spontaneously bought liverush tickets for today's performance of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The concert had an excellent combination of well known and modern pieces.

Glinka. Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla

Chopin. Piano Concerto No.2

Smetana. The Maldau from "Má Vlast"

Janáček. Taras Bulba

For an unexpected surprise, we also saw Michael Ignatieff, the leader of the Liberal Party, and his wife sitting two rows in front of us.

Connection.

Corktown Footbridge.

Sleep.

 From personal experience, I realized that the amount of sleep and the amount of stress have a strong relation. Around last year's October-November, staying up until 1am to 2am was a usual-regular basis thing. Sometimes I was burning midnight oil until 4am when I had test or report due in the next morning. Despite the effort, I had to face the negative consequences. Not only the productivity and mark went down because of the stress, the circadian rhythm has changed due to nap in the afternoon and no sleeping in the night. Most of all, I became low on daily mood, motivation for work, and self-esteem for long time. Since the beginning of this school year, I draw myself a line at 12 am to prevent what happened last year. I've paid expansive lesson to learn the fact that 'sleep is not something to be given up easily'. This also reminded me the fact that 'sleep deprivation kills a human faster than food deprivation.'
 Anyway, the original reason I'm writing about 'sleep' is because I started to take a shower right before going to sleep. It's a great feeling to take a relaxed shower after all the day's work and to be in a bed where everything feels much softer. Most of all, It helps to fall in sleep faster and wake up easier in the morning. Warm milk is the popularly known way to get a good night's sleep, but I think taking a shower too. Try it.

ps) Oops It's past 12 already.

Source of Lights.

Tail light, Head light, Street light, Traffic light, and Sunset

Artificial and Natural

With Glowing Hearts.

Skyline.

Harder Better Faster Stronger.

                                                                               I started living here 

                                                                                with a sense of temporariness.

                                                                               Until one day

                                                                             I realized how much an empty room

                                                                               was now filled by who I am.

Murphy's Law

When I had free time to go out for photos, the weather was dark and gloomy.

When I had to write my physics lab report, the weather was bright sunny than ever.

Come on... What is this..

Royal Ridership.

Digital Fortress.

'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?'

'Who will guard the guards?'

 This Dan Brown's first thriller was published in 1998, when the internet was just introduced and quickly becoming part of the daily life in homes and offices. The new frontier of communication became the useful tool for connecting people instantly around the world. Any people were able take the advantage of the technology and It was the National Security Agency's duty to gather the information of terrorism and provide the intel to the other law enforcements and secret agencies. The story is about the cryptologists who work for the agency and have authority to break in any encrypted emails under suspicion of the national security matter. Using the most advanced code breaking machine, the agents are on duty of operating the electrical surveillance of the citizen, with the purpose of protecting the citizen. The story arise by formal cryptologist holding the NSA as a hostage, not by guns or bombs, but by a code so ingeniously complex called the Digital fortress. Even in these days, electrical surveillance is a very controversial topic. It's clearly for the purpose of the good, but also clearly a breach of civil liberty at the same time.

Ottawa 67's.

Civic Centre Arena

Ottawa 67's vs. Peterborough Petes

The only sports that allows fighting,

Hockey!

Rays of Hope.

Sunlight travels over 149 000 000 kilometers to reach the Earth.

On a cloudy day, the sunlights get block just above 5 kilometers from the Earth.

Let's not forget that sunlight always shine us even though we can not see it sometimes.

Central Development.

Democracy.

A government system that runs by their citizens.

A government system that everyone can be part of.

Whether you are an intellectual or not,

interested or ignorant,

living in a house or a street,

You get one vote.

How come not the teenagers?

Dream Car.

Now hold on to your thought please. 

I know I'm not a 10 year boy or a car mania,

but it was quiet tempting when I saw this at Costco.

Porsche.

This is a projection of the aspiration in 1:18 scale.

I'll be driving one in a few decades and figured why not put it on my desk now.

"Dream on until your dream comes true". Right?

Construction.

'Ottawa Convention Centre'

 With tulip petal inspired glasses design,

In honour of the city's famous tulip festival.

How to be happy.

  The original English title of the book is 'How of Happiness'. Anyhow, I read it in Korean since I got it last winter and haven't touched it. As you probably guessed, this is a self-enhancement book focused on happiness. Many books in such genre is written based on the author's experience, but this one is based on scientific researches and reliable sources. It interested me since I was able to understood many parts of the book by heart. The ideas that were introduced from this book is nothing special but what we heard it before or probably knew it before. However, those are the things that most affect our happiness, still.

 When I was in grade 8, I wanted to get PSP (PlayStation Portable) so badly. Between my parents and I, the deal was made and by the end of the year, I was able to achieve it. I still remember the feeling of getting in a car heading to the Future shop. That day, I was able to get the gadget I dreamed for a year, which exactly two months later, became an ordinary gadget along with the others. I'm sure many people had similar experience as I did, because humans have tendency to return to a stable level of happiness over time. 'Hedonic adaptation' is the theory. This the reason why people can't have permanent happiness from material values. The related researches have shown that the raised of income increase the happiness for only certain time. Although the theory of 'Hedonic adaptation' sounds like the negative factor that affects our happiness, it's not always the case. Imagine yourself suddenly disabled or incarcerated. It feels like impossible to live in such condition with limits of freedom and ability, but as you go through the 'hedonic adaptation', your happiness will become stabled again through out the time. It might sounds hard to go against the process of adaptation, but there is various ways to keep the high level of happiness for long time. Because your happiness is depends on how much you perceive it.

Working Class Hero.

Light Bulb.

The symbol of invention, idea, innovation, and brightness.

Although there will be always darkness on the side where the light won't reach.

Past and Present.

So I heard that the world became more modernized.

Is that true?

Schrödinger's Cat.

 There is a living cat in a steel chamber, along with a device containing a flask of hydrocyanic acid. Inside the chamber, there is also very small amount of a radioactive substance that decays over time. The odd of occurring radioactive decay is 50%. If the decay occurs, a relay mechanism will hammer and break the flask, which will kill the cat. The observer cannot know whether the cat was killed or alive until checking the inside of the chamber. Until then, the cat is, theoretically, both dead and alive. This is a 'thought experiment' that was designed by an Austrian physicist, Erwin Schrödinger. He noted that the observation or measurement itself affects the outcome. In other word, the cat will be inside of the chamber, either dead or alive, but it depends on the observer to determine the status.
 Recently, I heard some concerned comments from my parents, which reminded me of the Schrödinger's cat. I am currently in grade 12 and aware of the importance of this year more than anyone. Much effort  has been put on the school works, but my parents are concerned about my academic excellency and the amount of time put for going out with friends or going out for photography. Alas. I do appreciate their concerns, but it's also bit disappointing to realize the distrust. According to the Schrödinger's thought experiment, there are various ways to observe and interpret the status of the cat. Although only the cat knows well enough it's own status of being.

Emotional Catharsis.

This has been my wall paper for the iPhone since this summer, when I was staying in Korea. Through out the weeks and weeks of time, I've been traveling Seoul ,where I was born and raised, and had done many thinkings. I guess it's a natural thing to think a lot when you are traveling alone. One night, I thought it would be nice to travel somewhere outside of the city by railroad, so I did massive research during that night, then I was able to take the train on the following morning. The destination wasn't that good as much as I was expecting. Though I was very happy and felt light through out the trip for unknown reasons. The picture was taken at the local village train station where I spent 30 minutes waiting for the train to head home. During the 30 minutes, I experienced emotional catharsis. I sat at the edge of the platform. The train tracks reminded me of my childhood, the fact that I was a train mania and train trips that I went with my family. I felt the chill air that surrounded me and the birds singing from the distant mountain. Then there was absolute silence. There were nothing but myself, nature, and the empty train station. I started to walk on the track, which I always like to do. At the moment, I didn't have to think about the past or the future, nor the views from others. I felt the freedom and the feeling of being independent. Who I was, Where I was, When it was didn't matter. I just felt happiness. Since the experience of the day, I was able to see the world in more mature perspective. Everyday, the first thing I'm seeing is the photo of the train station on my iPhone, and it always brings me back to that day.

Rideau Center.

The Center of  Rendezvous

FlashForward.

"On October 6, the planet blacked out for two minutes and seventeen seconds. The whole world saw the future."

 People saw very different look of their life in 6 months. The flash forward brought courage and confidence for those who saw the positive future, but those who saw the negative future became anxious and misery of the things that didn't even happened to them yet. It believed to be the entire planet's future was set, with doubt on existence of free-will. This is a story about the FBI agents, who start the investigation of what cause the black-out based on the little clues they saw. People in this fictional setting react in vary manners to the unnatural event and they demonstrate the possible moral dilemma real people would confront if they have prior knowledge of their future. Between the issue of determinism and indeterminism, the show suggest that the free-will can still change the set future, although most of the people would still unconsciously follow the path to what they've seen in the past about the future. In this story plot,
It's not clear whether the future was already set before the flash
forward or flash forward was already set in the future.
It's a dilemma of chicken or the egg.