Have you heard the story of Nick Sitzman?
It is a true story that was published in the Readers Digest a long time ago.
I searched the internet a little bit and found the specifics of the story.

Nick Sitzman was a strong young man who worked on a train crew.
He had a steady job, good health, beautiful wife and children, and friends. Yet he always worried about everything and feared the worse. One day, Nick accidentally got himself locked in a refrigerator boxcar after the rest of the crew had left the site. He banged and yelled for help but no one heard him. He feared that he would freeze to death in there. So he decided to let his family know exactly what had happened to him. Nick found a knife and inscribed these words on the floor of the boxcar, “these may be my last words. It’s so cold that my body is getting numb and I’ll just go to sleep.” The next morning the crew found Nick’s dead body. The autopsy revealed that every physical sign of his body indicated that he was frozen to death.

So how does this prove the power of the human mind?
Well, this is the climax.

The refrigeration unit of the car was inoperative and turned OFF. The temperature inside the boxcar indicated 55 degrees. Not even near a temperature that could possibly affect Nick’s health.
Nick basically “feared” to death. His mind automatically assumed that the refrigerator was at low temperature and that his body will slowly freeze to death. Because his mind believed this, that is what happened. Sad but amazing isn’t it?

If that was possible…
wouldn’t it also be possible for one to survive in an operating refrigerator boxcar if he/she believed that it was turned off?

the human mind is just unlimitedly capable.

[http://www.drdoloresseymour.com/]

Answers made by students:

[All pics from http://blog.naver.com/cherry470/150007750575]

I’m not sure if all of them were real answers made by kids but the first one pretty much looks like it’s real. It’s just hilarious. I think it’s funnier cause we’ve once thought of it too. Or is it only me..? Not only math problems but also english problems, there are moments where I’d imagine answering in that type of ridiculous way. For example, “What is alliteration,” we could answer by, “Alliteration is.. Alliteration!” But anyhow, that kid Peter who solved the question by “expanding” isn’t necessarily wrong haha. I mean he DID expand it didn’t he? : )
Kudos for his creativity or.. courage (:
Now let’s do some “division”

I typed & deleted. typed & deleted. over and over again.

I have so much I want to say but I just can’t put them in words.

Just..

I will miss them & I thank them for everything they have done for me.

May, June, SAT, AP & grades

the End for the seniors

& just the beginning for the juniors

oh joy.

Like always, my mom was telling me interesting things she read in the newspaper.

One article was about a short documentary on the ways that different ethnicities tend to think.

In the process of researching for the production of the documentary, a survey was held among Westerners and Asians.

They asked each person this (You can try it too):
There’s a monkey, rabbit, and banana. Choose two of them.
Apparently, all Asians and all Westerners chose a different two.
All Asians chose monkey and banana whereas the Westerners chose monkey and rabbit.
The documentary asserts that this pattern comes from the different way people are brought up.

Westerners tend to think more towards independence and individuality. So they see the small picture of most subjects. However, Asians see the big picture and tend to care more about what other’s think. Therefore, in the survey Westerners chose monkey and rabbit, because they categorized the three choices into animals and food. On the other hand, Asians considered what the monkey likes and paired it up with banana. Isn’t that interesting? There were exceptions to this pattern, such as Asians who lived most of their lives in the western countries, and vice versa.

I tried it myself and I chose monkey and banana. Yet I lived in America for 10 years and only 6 years in Korea.  How is it that I think differently? I think it is because I lived in Korea in that stage of realizing who I am and maturing into a young adult from a little mischievous girl.

The documentary was played on television a few days ago, so I watched part of it and learned that there were many other patterns that strongly supported the assertion of general psyche of different ethnicities.

Another survey they did was comparing the drawings that children drew of their homes.
Most Western children drew pictures of their homes from their view point. So the objects were in a front view. Asian children drew their homes from a view point from above. So not only were there their houses but streets and sidewalks and etc. It is evident that the Asian children thought more of the big picture.

Lastly, people were asked to observe a picture of a tiger and meanwhile their eye movements were observed. The Westerners show very little eye movement whereas the Asians have larger eye movements. This is because the Westerners were looking more at the tiger itself and the Asians were trying to observe the tiger and its background. So if a picture of the same tiger, but with a different background was given, the Westerners would see not much difference, whereas the Asians would consider it a whole different picture.

Although I already knew that various ethnicities have divergent psyche, I was surprised that the difference was so clearly evident.

The documentary really showed how one’s environment influences one’s psyche.
Westerners tend to think more about individuality, because most have more independence from a younger age than do Asians. Parents raise their children in a very independent matter. Even the way parents punish their children are different. Western parents ground their children or send them to their rooms. Asian parents, however, talk to their children and scold them with words. Do you see how this creates the individuality in the Western mind?

Although the assertions made by the documentary are based on true surveys taken by common people, I am sure that there are exceptions and it’s a general analysis of the human psyche.

Nevertheless, it’s always interesting to analyze the behaviors and psyche of humans. (:

if only developing a good habit was as easy as developing a bad one.

Bad habits develop so easily such as biting nails, biting tongue, skipping pages when reading a book, interrupting, eating junk food, chatting, drinking, smoking, staying up late, and procrastinating, and procrastinating, and PROCRASTINATING.

I personally have bad habits of grinding my teeth while I sleep and procrastinating.

I’m not sure if procrastination is considered a habit, but it sure is HABITUAL.

Although procrastination is something I do consciously, I grind my teeth without any force or consciousness. So I’m more lenient with myself regarding the habit of grinding my teeth.

HOWEVER,

I am disgusted of myself procrastinating everyday and night.
I know that procrastination destroys a student. In fact it destroys infants, children, students, adults, elderly, anyone. With the time you waste from procrastinating, you could do so much other stuff: read books, memorize vocabs, exercise, watch the news, etc. You could spend it more wisely.

Procrastination is basically wasting time. It’s not like we do anything better than just eat, sleep, surf the internet, and chat when we procrastinate in doing our schoolwork.

This comes back to the skill of time management and concentration. I believe that good time management and concentration are the shortcuts to success.
For my own good, I really want to work on managing my time wisely and concentrating when I should. Sometimes I do manage my time well and start studying early, but I end up just reading the same lines over and over again, not one time understanding what it means. Without concentrating the same work takes 2 times longer than it should take WITH concentration.

To make my life easier and lives of others easier, I really would like to emphasize the importance of time management and concentration not only in a student’s success, but also in future careers and social lives.

I cross my fingers, hoping that I break my bad habits soon & make good habits.

[1] 

[2]

[3]

[4]
[5]

As I came across these images, I felt familiarity.
They’re dark and gloomy, but no, they didn’t seem that scary, disgusting, nor strange.
Instead, I felt close, empathetic, comfortable towards these images that I’ve never seen in my life.

But maybe I just haven’t seen it literally /with my eyes/.
But maybe I only have seen it mentally. emotionally. sensibly.

I’m not a pessimistic, suicidal, somber, obscure girl who thinks that the world is a sad place, believes living is dying, sees no reason to live, lives a miserable life.
But sometimes I do wonder Why people live, Why people suicide, What’s death, What it means to live, Where we go after death, What is this world, and etc.

I guess I do become a little… “emo” sometimes, and when I do, those images come to mind.

First of all, what do you feel when you see that picture of little bunch of ants crawling around for their lives [1]?
I feel as if I am looking at the world.
No, I’m not saying, I think this world is like an ant hill where it’ll just get stepped on, destroyed, and die any second. I mean.. I guess you could see it that way, but it reminds me of our world more because of how people work so hard to succeed, whether it means wealth or happiness. It’s good to see people work their best and live happily ever after, (now that’s if it’s a happy ending), but life, the process of ahcieving one’s goal is not always happy and easy. Life is more like a path where you face a hill after hill until you come to your destination.

On that path you fight loneliness, depression, and the temptation to death.

Doesn’t everyone at least ONCE in their lifetime think about death? Whether it’s thinking about actually committing suicide or just what death itself is.

Maybe not, but I’m sure everyone felt as if they were being drowned with responsibility and work during their lifetime.
To me, the two people drowning in the images aren’t drowning in water, but in pressure, loneliness, responsibility, and dejection [3,4]. And many times, I feel as if I’m all alone in the world, no one beside me, no one to lean on, no one to tell everything. I feel like that shadow in image [2].

Lastly, image [5] is simply three headless mannequins. No head, no mind, no thoughts. Freedom from frustration. There’s those times when you’re so confused, frustrated, and mad that you feel as if your heads gonna blow off.

Being pessimistic is not a good attitude, but I think sometimes it’s actually beneficial to think about death. For me, it makes me re-realize once again the value of life. Being able to love, feel, and achieve.

Although my purpose of this blog was “supposed” to analyze the abstract meaning of images, I ended up trying to explain myself and argue that when I talk about life and death, I’m not complaining life is horrible and that I want to die. I’m merely wondering what the purpose of life is and I believe that it’s necessary to think about this. It actually gets you motivated to make a purpose in your life: goals, ambitions, and challenges.

I just hope people won’t judge others who think more about life and death as suicidal, complaining, and ignorant. Moreover, even if suicidal people might seem like those who are spoiled, selfish, do not thank for what they have, and stupid enough to take their own lives, I believe we should and could not judge them, for we are not them and we do not know what their lives were really like.

Thankfully, I appreciate, thank, and love life as much as anyone else does.

P.S. When a friend talks about dying don’t ever tell them, “Go ahead. Go try dying. Die if you want to that much. Do you even think you can?” Even if he wasn’t serious about it, those words could cause him to make a stupid decision and listen to you. If he was serious..
a life would then depend significantly on what you say.

[1 ants: http://www.controlfireants.com/fire-ants-grass.jpg]
[2 loneliness: http://www.smilk.net/blog/archives/aaueacaoe/index.html]
[3 drown bathtub: www.ruben-alfaro.com/page13.htm]
[4 drown2: http://pretty-angel.deviantart.com/]
[5 mannequins: http://reviews.ebay.com/]

One of Gina’s blogs brought up a very common complex that many maturing adults have.
[http://ginay09.kiswrites.org/]

But there was ONE interesting thing I learnt from AP Bio: Environmental fitness… As I began to think about “Environmental fitness”, I realized that there have been many times in 17 years of my life in which I had to fit myself into a given environment in order to survive. After some thoughts, I came up with this conclusion:
I am a nomad. What I mean is I don’t really have a “home” because I’ve been around in so many places at different times that I don’t exactly know where I should call “home”. I know, it’ s pretty sad.

She ended her post with the lyrics of Michael Buble’s Home.

As another person who had moved many times, I completely understand Gina’s conclusion. Although there are many people who have never or moved very few times, but still feel as if they have no home, those who have moved many times and are international students/youths tend to feel more lost.
Hometown and home is very different. I was born in Texas and lived there for 8 years, but I don’t think Texas as my home. I lived in Korea for 5 years and in California the following 2 years. Then I moved back to Korea. At this point, I really don’t know if my home is America or Korea. In fact, I don’t know if I’m Korean or American. Sure I’m Korean outside, but who am I inside? It is not only home  that people can not find, but it is also identity that people desperately search for.

I feel comfortable living among the Korean society, because I matured the most during the 5 years in Korea. However, I think more American-ly.
So many young-adults lose self-confidence and deviate from their path, losing their “little” identity they even had.
Although I am still in the search of my home and identity, I can say that people should not consider themselves as having “little” identity. Everyone has equal and unique identities, but it is just the matter of time and effort it takes to discover one’s identity.

Here’s a stanza from another song about going home.

Well I’m going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I’m not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don’t regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old,
So I’m going home.
Well I’m going home.

home- Chris Daughtry

[lyrics from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/daughtry/home.html]

Our school catering serves Western food, Korean food, and snack bar food.
Although I usually choose to eat Western food, when I do have the time to eat the school meal, I noticed that the Korean food has a more variety of choice.

First of all, the trays are different.
Both have the space for the main meal and soup. But the “Western tray” has 3 spaces for side dishes whereas the “Korean tray” has 4 spaces for the side dishes. :O
And then I realized that there are so many different types of Korean food(Not that Western food does not have many choices. I loveee western food also :])

Korean food is known for having a variety of side dishes, called “ban-chan.”
Ban-chan includes peanuts, noodles, kimchi, radish, seasoned vegetables, anchovy, crabs, meat, egg, acorn, tofu, cucumber, seaweed, and etc.
Out of those, Kimchi most represents Korean food in foreign countries. Unfortunately, people only know about one type of Kimchi: Salted and seasoned cabbage. But in fact, naming only a few, there are radish, cucumber, eggplant, dropwort, and sesame leaf kimchi.
Seeing that many westerners and foreigners like cabbage kimchi, it is likely that they would like the other types of kimchis as well.

A meal of a variety of ban-chan with a choice of soup (Jjee-gae), and rice with bean in it, that’s one nice meal. : )

Although Korean food has changed through time, it still preserves our traditional food style. A country’s food is one of the most important cultural assets.

 [1]http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?type=image&media_id=52218&docid=70497

My hands are searching for you
My arms are outstretched towards you
I feel you on my fingertips
My tongue dances behind my lips for you

This fire rising through my being
Burning I’m not used to seeing you

I’m alive, I’m alive

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I’m breathing
Holding on to what I’m feeling
Savoring this heart that’s healing

My hands float up above me
And you whisper you love me
And I begin to fade
Into our secret place

The music makes me sway
The angels singing say we are alone with you
I am alone and they are too with you

I’m alive, I’m alive

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I’m breathing
Holding on to what I’m feeling
Savoring this heart that’s healing

And so I cry
The light is white
And I see you

I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I’m breathing
Holding on to what I’m feeling
Savoring this heart that’s healing

Take my hand
I give it to you
Now you own me
All I am
You said you would never leave me
I believe you
I believe

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I’m breathing
Holding on to what I’m feeling
Savoring this heart that’s healed

This song refreshes my mind and I can feel it flowing through my ears and body.
It makes me want to close my eyes and scream im alive.

 [m/v : youtube.com][lyrics : azlyrics.com]