Road Not Taken

08. 10. 10

Oh called a best friend of his. A friend that he has known for 2 decades. Same elementary school, same middle school, same high school, even same college they went together. What is more amazing is that there are two more with the same history. 4 musketeers..anyways,

They met and talked a bit. They talked about Oh's work, Oh's friend's study and whatnot. Then, Oh realized that it was a Friday night and was almost midnight.

Since they were talking near the college arena, there were ton of students coming out of bars, drunk and going somewhere. Also, Oh saw many couples hand in hand going up to seemingly the guy's or the girl's apartment for the feverish night. They were holding hands so firm as if their love's going to last forever. Some couples were an antithesis; while the boy almost was trying to drag the girl to his place or her place, the girl was resisting. After struggling a while, they, just like other couples, held thier hands so tight and disappeared into the dark back alley.

Since Oh's friend needed to go back to the bar and continue to hang out his friends, Oh said goodbye and promised to see each other next day and head to their hometown together in the afternoon.

While getting on the bike and getting ready to leave, Oh saw another bunch of guys coming of the bar. Oh did not have much recollection about drinking back in college. On Fridays, he used to stay in the dorm with his roommates and watch movies or whatnot. And sometimes when getting out of the library on late Friday night, he used to pass by a bunch of international students in the dorm going out for a drink, clubbing in Seoul, etc. Most of time Oh was asked to join them, he took a rain check on it. Well, Oh was an RA and he had to be on duty literally all the time.

In hindsight, Oh sometime thinks that he should have gone out more, done stupid things and learned lessons. But he does not regret how his life turned out. Since he worked hard and earned scholarships, his parents, while fully able to do so, did not have to pay his college tuition mostly. And furthermore, he feels always gracious for being able to employ the second language so fluently that he could have been able to communicate with wonderful people around the world and get to know lots of things about them. If he had not been reading and watching a countless number of magazines, books and movies in English, while his friends went out and get wasted, he would not have been able to as versatile and 'international" as he is now.

He always thinks that life is all about opportunity cost. You gain something you lose something else. What is more valuable to you thus what you choose between choices may decide your life. But how you take on those choices you make is going to be your life.

Then, Oh thinks of "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. Most of people think that the poem is telling us that although the decision you made was unorthodox and not supported by pre-existing social concept or whatever, you will eventually end up accomplishing what you wanted after all. But that is NOT the right interpretation. Let's take a look at the last two stanza for the poem.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Previously, the poet says that two roads are equally grassy and worn. And two roads have pretty much the tantamount physical condition. And thus it is not right to say that you decision is out of ordinary and does not conform to social norm or whatnot. Also, by using "sigh", Frost is on the fence whether the difference is positive or negative. He is not even sure how his decision turns out to be because it is still affecting him by saying "And that HAS MADE all the difference."

So whichever road you take, it does not matter. What matters is how you take on it. You are going to make differences. Your attitude, approaches and directions that you are going to create for yourself is going to be who you are and your life.

With this all jeremiad and crap, Oh gets on the bike and goes home to get some sleep.

Juggling

10. 9

What follows is the list of things that we need to take care of today..... or any time soon.

1. Contact Suwon Foreign High School in regard to supporting Russian students' visitation next week.

2. Contact a local tour agency in regard to payment to make when German tour agencies come to Suwon next week.

3. Contact Global Society Club with respect to the trip that a group of 21 American people will be on this weekend.

4. Contact a local car rental office to rent a car for the team

5. Contact Samsung PR office to comfirm a tour for Chinese public servants in third of October.

6. Contact Ansan English village to receive the final draft for this project that Oh's company and they have been working on

7. Start to write a report as to the asseessment on international meetings in Korea

8. Call a local publisher to make sure that the Cruise brochure that Oh's been working on will come out in time so that he can shift them to China next week

9. Redact his training schedule.

10. Start to toy with what to write for speical suggestion that Oh has to make for the company

11. Devise a power point that the president will address on curise industry, which is one of Oh's job descriptions.

12. Draw a memorandum to notify the accounting department as to the refund that he will receive tomorrow

13. Begin to work on the translation that one of the branch offices asked him to do.

14. Call Korean Tourism Organization to get some info. The person, in charge, a lady, has a real cute voice and Oh is meeting her in 10 days :) Oh, when on biz calls, sounds very official and even cold-blooded, was firtatious with her whom he has never seen before. Oh feels silly by the way.

Get things done

Do not get stressed out

Take it easy

Get help from your colleagues

Be professional

You don't get the axe because Oh's company totally rocks!!

Enjoy, lastly

Sick

2008. 10. 8

Oh is sick. He was fine in the morning, but later started to feel like he was beaten by a bunch of backstreet hoodlums.

So Oh decides to go to the convenience store to buy some drinks and drinks ton of water for the rest of day.

He comes home and wonders if he should go to the gym or not.

He sees himself putting gloves and shoes in his book bag and getting on the bicycle.

He does not feel good, but continues to work on his back and bicep.

Wiping off beads-like perspiration, Oh feels better, crossing off the workout checklist and jotting down the number of repetitions and the weight he's done. He is still making correction. People around him look at Oh like he is studying or something. Systemticity is very crucial in workout.

Then intermittently he wonders if Apple's advice is cogent enough to redact the entire routine that he and his, according to Apple, shady trainer whipped up. He decides to stick to what he has now. After all, Oh does not even know who Apple is.

He comes home, eats, puts on some tv shows and goes to bed.

While on the verge of sleeping, he realizes that he might be lonely. But he is uncertain this is because he is sick, or because of the weather or he is really lonely.

His friends have been asking Oh if he would like to be fixed up on a blind date. They said, "As long as you give us a go ahead, we will set the date and the place. Girls are ready for you." Strange.. Oh thought.

Even at the wine party that Oh attended, some of the girls that Oh met, after realizing Oh is single, told him that they would hook him up with some girls. "What.... you don't even know me.." Oh thought, but did not spit it out in their faces.

Then, Oh thinks that it might not be a good idea to go on a blind date for now. It is not fair for the date because, then, what will ensue is just nothing but feeling and filling the void.

Korean men are very sensitive and get emotion during fall. Since Oh is also Korean, he feels like his mindset is in transition from cold-blooded to mellow. "Let's make sure to know what the pitfall is!" Oh reiterates.

After popping in some meds and guzzling down water, trying to finish Genesis, he falls asleep, having no idea what tomorrow will bring him.

Gabriel

2008. 10. 7

One of the reasons why Oh savors American tv shows is many of them are sprinkled with biblical metaphors, anecdotes, symbols and so forth. Therefore, while it is possible to relish those shows on the surface, extracting the biblical analogies and insinuations from the works and correlating them with the bible is not quite easy to pull off if you don't much background in Christianity.

In this respect, Oh has been liking "Heroes"in that it weaves some of the bilical characters with contemporary settings, imaginary ideas and futuristic concepts. And now while watching the lastest episode, Oh begins to wonder why the show revovles around Gabriel and how to comprehend the show by surmising the role that Gabriel is going to play as the narrative continues.

-->Gabriel vs Noah<--
Heroes, as the title implies, is a tv show where factitious characters with super powers live on earth, kill and protect each other. Although it is not still clear how the show is going to end, it seems like Gabriel (Sylar) is an anti-Christ while the rest of the characters makes attempts to stop him from disrupting the world. And what is most scary about Gabriel is that he has the ability to absorb the others' super powers.

At any rate, Oh has been always curious why the writers named the character "Gabriel" (By the way, there is a character named Noah and he is the one trying to keep the peace on earth by locking up the bad guys with great superpowers, such as Gabriel.) And Oh's been thinking that Noah, who is the ONLY character with NO absolute power, but with just sanity, wisdom and valiance, will survive the Apocalypse and save the earth eventually as Noah survived the Ark in the bible.

So, tonight Oh is parsing some of the vignettes in the bible where Gabriel is mentioned, such as Daniel and Luke. (Oh reads the Bible in English, however, in that Korean translation is just awful.)

- Drwaing of Gabriel-

Also, he does some Internet research and later feels disappointed. As much as the Bible and its interpretation are various, the approaches to Gabriel also are too many to count. But one fact, well, at least the traditionally consistent interpretation is that Gabriel is the angel of death. In this light, Oh begins to latch onto the character, Gabriel on Heroes.

However, Oh also unearths that there is a theory that Gabriel and Noah are the same individual. Well, since Daniel labels Gabriel as the Man of God, he thinks that Gabriel could be a person, but that there is no way Noah and Gabriel are the same person.

-Deluge of God-

Then, Oh thinks, while recalling the show, the very thin line between good(Noah) and bad(Gabriel). According to the bible, Noah saves his family and the animals from Deluge and thus receives a covenant from God and later repopulates the earth. (Recall the movie, Evan Almighty) Seemingly, Noah is trying to save his family, the other good characters and after all the earth while Gabriel is to destroy the entire world. But is that necessarily true?

Sometimes you need to empty something in order to fill it back up to the fullest. You can fill a cup that is half full by adding more to it. But then the water already in the cup will be still there and eventually dilute the fresh water. In the same manner, creation sometimes requires
downright devastation or destruction. While Noah protects the others, it might back fire in that those with special powers might use them for unethical purposes. If you have power, many are tempted to use it for their own and end up hurting others and shaking up the pre-existing orders controlling the world. So, if Noah fails and thus Gabriel wins, the world status goes back to nil, before Genesis or Big Bang and the regeneration might begin. And this might be a better situation than Apocalypse.

-Noah-

So, who is more righteous and virtuous? Is it Noah or Gabriel? And who is to blame and who is to extol?

Workout Routine

2008. 10. 6

Although Oh has been working out for years he has never tried to bulk up. The primary reason he's been exercising is to stay in shape and remain healthy. He does not want to suffer from m.s., hyperthermia, arthritis, or any kind of diseases. He has seen too many suffering from maltreating thier health by going on a drinking binge, smoking, which Oh does not do. He does not want his wife and kids to be bereft and he wants to play with his grandchildren later by piggybacking them. Oh always worked out for tone. And that's why people have been saying that Oh looks lean or fit. But Oh has never particulary relished the comment.

While Oh has never signed up for a commercial gym, he only has taken advantage of free gyms on campus or local rec-centers with poor and rusty equipment, not to mention no personal trainer. Now that he put down 3 month long gym pass two months ago, he wants to take the whole thing to the next level by getting more serious. FYI, he does not aim to be a pro.

Last week, while sweating off the bitterness, he came to think that he needed some professional help from the trainer at the gym. So he basically harassed the trainer for 3 days to devise daily

workout routine and was assisted on the postures, nutrition and so forth.

It was an eye opening experience for Oh. He's always believed that he needs to lift heavy weight to bulk up. But the trainer constantly told Oh to work out for tone instead of getting massive. Convinced, Oh asked the trainer to groom him so that he could have a solid body in lieu of lean or fit. Thus, the trainer taught Oh that he needs to lift lighter but more. Feeling doutful, Oh decided to just follow the master's advice.

So, here Oh uploads his workout routine, which is still debatable and not decisive. If you have suggestions or comments, please let him know. He is going to print this out everyday and feeling excited to cross out each item for the daily program.