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

One Step at a Time.

There's no need to rush.

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.