December 2007
41 posts
I had quite a vivid dream about being back in New York instead of Oxford next week. I was moving into a ten-person suite with my freshmen year roommate from hell. I think this dream was the first of anything to make me not want to go back to New York; it was THAT intense.
“They feed back exactly what is given them. Because they do not believe in words...”
– Joan Didion (via The Washington Post)
Newsweek's Kevin Peraino: You just sold a memoir for $9 million. How were you able to convince your publisher you could write a best seller and make peace in the Middle East simultaneously?
Tony Blair: Look, I'm a politician - I can convince a lot of people of a lot of things.
This is the kind of article I want to write. →
It's All About Marketing →
Even with the Bible and the Koran, it is all about marketing strategies. Samantha and I discussed Gideons International during one of our numerous late night talks about life (which pretty much means our Facebook mini-feed). Whether you agree with what they’re doing or not, you have to admit that what they’re doing is unbelievable. Giving away a copy of the Bible every two seconds?...
Brother Mao is looking quite festive.
Two birds with one stone →
A great way to study vocabulary (sound familiar to you GRE-preparers?) and help reduce world poverty. Or just another way for you to procrastinate, but hey, why not do some good for the world while you’re at it? (via Aileen’s blog)
How New York Jews Spend Christmas
Jackie: I went to Atlantic City for Christmas and lost 300 bucks.
Me: I can't believe you went to Atlantic City. Was it filled with all trampy people?
Jackie: It was all Jews actually.
Oh and by the way,
Merry Christmas!
“… The way you present yourself is the way people see you - whether...”
– CNN award-winning chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour on personal style
“Speaking through the Gods, the Houngan gave her this message: You must catch a...”
– House of Flowers by Truman Capote
Christmas in Korea is like New Year’s in the States. It’s a holiday to be spent with your significant other filled with extravagant romantic dinners and lavish gifts accompanied by entertainment of sorts. For couples it’s an occasion to create a lasting memory together. For couples-to-be it’s an occasion to profess one’s feelings for the other. Asking someone to spend...
I refuse to believe that we’re incapable of change.
Google Chat With a Soldier
Me: It feels like any one of our MSN conversations we used to have.
[redacted] soldier: Most definitely, and this makes me happy.
[redacted] soldier: Oh wait, call for assembly in five minutes.
Me: ... And we're back to reality.
Me: My professor told me that the beginning of forgetfulness is the beginning of death.
[redacted]: But the process of living itself is dying.
Me: On the same note, you die to live.
[redacted]: So?
Me: If that's the same thing, then isn't it better to think it in the latter fashion?
[redacted]: I don't think that's really relevant.
I wish I had said "I would choose multiplicity of...
Me: But me personally I wouldn't want my happy moments to last forever. I'll treasure the finiteness of the fact that only myself and the one with whom I am sharing that moment can enjoy what we have. That's when I really feel like that moment, that memory is entirely of my own and the one(s) with whom I share it.
[redacted]: But memory dissipates into what is forgetfulness...
[redacted]: For some reason what you're saying reminds me of Days of Being Wild.
On Being Happy
[redacted]: When I came home today to find my dad perched on the couch in a Cleopatra-esque manner, snoring and napping with the fan heater on,
Me: You were HAPPY!!!!!
[redacted]: for some unknown reason, I was happy.
Me: See? It's the little things!
My Mother's Wisdom
Of the many, many things everything my mother has taught me, one is the ability to read people’s eyes and faces. Reading faces is something that I have only recently begun to learn; it’s really the eyes that I feel I have come close to mastering. My mother always had an excellent eye for people. She knew which of my friends were sincere and were there to last (despite the yoon...
New President
This year was my first time voting. We now have a new president. I am not too sure how I feel about the president-elect but it can’t be difficult to do a better job than what Roh has done (or hasn’t done) for the past five years.
Identity ≠ Dichotomy
I don’t entirely agree with Salman Rushdie’s quote below; it is outdated and imprecise. Our identity is most certainly plural and partial; each individual plays more than one role in family, at work, and in society. I for example is a daughter, a sister, a friend, and a student, to say the least. However when it comes to what our cultural and ethno-religious identities are I think it...
“Our identity is at once plural and partial. Sometimes we feel that we straddle...”
– Salman Rushdie
!مبروك →
“Five Arab writers and intellectuals have won the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Award in four categories in its tenth session this year… Mohammad Bennis, Elias Khoury, Yousuf Al Sharoni, Abdul Fattah Kilito and Hesham D’jait were the winners”
"I write to be happy." →
‘My Father’s Suitcase’: Orhan Pamuk’s 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech.
1 tag
Who and Why
I am a journalist who has worked at and written for Reuters, The Associated Press, CNN, and Newsweek magazine. I was born in South Korea, raised in Saudi Arabia, Israel, and partly Singapore, and educated in the U.S. and the U.K. My life is based in four cities: Seoul, New York, London, and Tel Aviv/Jerusalem. I speak fluent English, Korean, Hebrew, French and have working knowledge of Arabic.
I...