/Python Blues/

Playing Blockly before delving into Python surely helped me in this activity, especially so because I had no partner. When I completed the levels required for our class to finish, I wondered when I would be able to apply what I've learned. And Ta-da! Then came the Python exercise. I was only stuck in the last part of the exercise wherein we should figure out how to get out of the loop. That cost me half an hour. Nevertheless, I felt it was fulfilling, having to finish it all by myself.

The HUM 3 Experience: A “The Uninvited” (2003) Analysis

A one and half class is clearly not enough to cater to the minds of 160 students. I heard my classmates heavily sighing as our instructor ended our session. My sigh was the heaviest and the loudest, I guess. Enough of that, I just want to vent these out so my thoughts would not be wasted. What are thoughts anyway, if one could not translate them to words?

Two dead girls. A man struggling with his past. A woman with shaman powers stigmatized by a society which once revered priestesses. A Christian church struggling to stay afloat. A fiancée who is a product of a modern society. Nightmares. Tradegies. All of these were situated in Seoul, the metropolis of South Korea. Here, scientific achievements thrive, innovations can be found everywhere. Progress is conspicuous.

I often marveled at how advanced South Korea is. Considering that they bore witness to numerous wars (and these were recent, y’know), one could not imagine that they could get back to their feet at such pace. However, if we look closely, we could see how their society is changed due to modernity—modernity which is often equated to progress, modernity which often means development. However, modernity is very Western-defined. And because societies differ from each other historically and culturally, the Western modernity is not universal. When capitalism, industrialization and modernity fell into S. Korea, the Korean people’s old beliefs and values were hastily replaced. I read that before capitalism entered Korea, the dominant religion was Confucianism. Confucianism does not favor the growth of the capitalist system. Thus in installing this system, the Western people first had to change the Korean’s religious system. Soon enough, Christianity flourished while Confucianism declined.

Another aspect of the ancient Korean culture that was buried deep by modernity was shamanism. It was clearly shown in the film how such powers (if such do exist) are stigmatized because it does not fit the scientific and rational framework of the system. Anything that cannot be explained by science is branded a ‘sham’. Anyone who is not ‘rational’, who think and act different from what the system dictates is marked with having a disorder. Mental disorders are a product of the 20^th century. And there is something oppressive about that. A person with a mental disorder is seen dysfunctional and socially impaired—unfit for labor, unfit for production. When Yun (the woman protagonist) was claiming that she has shaman powers (which were real in the film), she was readily seen as crazy, as someone who is dysfunctional…

I would love to extend this analysis if ever I have the time.

Unrequited Love

I fell in love with you.
It was the hardest thing to admit, but I did.
I faced my feelings, took them in, embraced them.
They embraced me back until I felt them crushing me.

You are the sweetest sadness I've tasted.
Unrequited love.

You saw me as a friend, did you not?
I saw you as a collection of identities
In motion, you change swiftly
And I pause you every time to see the depths of your eyes

You are a tear jerking movie.
Unrequited love.

I listened to your voice
And I smile like a crazy person
It echoes, it lingers, it never goes
And I hear my heart cracking a little bit

You are an orchestra of breaking down.
Unrequited love.

/Turn to the right by ____ degrees... Nope/

I have a confession to make: I am not good with computers or anything related to it. That's the main reason why I enrolled in IT 1, because maybe (just maybe) I would be able to learn the basics and live my life feeling a little less incomplete.

But even the parsimonious things can be difficult to learn (e.g. moving on. #hugot). Or maybe, IT 1 is not simple at all. But I prefer to believe in the latter. Some of my classmates seem to have a lot of fun, but I struggle most of the time. I realized that the struggle is real when we played the stages in code.org. Not only do the levels are tricky, but also the commands. I am pretty sure I am suffering from amnesia when it comes to degrees and directions

However, I finished them, though I was not able to acquire all the gold trophies for the concepts. That made me dissatisfied with my work. But hey! I finished all of the levels without anybody's help, and that's a big thing for me. More importantly, I learned some of the concepts related to programming. I realized that it is never simple even when translated to a 'simple' game of mazes and shapes.