My name is Khan.

"My name is Khan"
This is the title of the movie that I rented this weekend.  I have not heard of this movie before. According to the script, it seemed to be a romance movie.  But there were much more.

The story is about Mr. Khan, a Muslim who came to the US before 9/11. He has Asperger's disorder, but lived normal life, except for some dysfunctional social life.  He then fell in love with a Hindu woman who divorced with a boy.
He married to this woman and lived happily for a while until 9/11 changed everything.  Since then, his family has suffered from 'you know what I mean'.  The family lost a big thing, but eventually gained even bigger one through this ordeal.

It is emotional and a human drama.  I certainly recommend it.  =°|°=

참 우스운 재미난 전통

Yesterday was Groundhog Day. It is a kind of day equivalent to Korean 경칩.
Groundhog is a small mammal, living in a burrow on a pastureland.  It is also called woodchuck.  A legend says that the groundhog, named Phil, in Punxsutawney (a small town in Pennsylvania) can predict how longer the cold winter would last.

This year the Punxsutawney Phil foreshadowed early spring. ^^! (Click the link below).

"Punxsutawney Phil emerged around dawn to make his 125th annual weather forecast in front of thousands who braved muddy, icy conditions to hear his handlers reveal that Pennsylvania's prophetic rodent had not seen his shadow." From The Detroit News.

PAcast

"Several thousand revelers gathered in the pre-dawn hours on a small hill called Gobbler's Knob to hear the prediction.  Before today, Phil had seen his shadow 98 times and hadn't seen it 15 times since 1887. ....
The tradition traces its origins to a German superstition."

영화  Groundhog Day 로 더 유명해진 "Punxsutawney Phil".
I hope (s)he is right this year, as this winter has been bitterly coooold....  =°°=

Babies

In animal kingdom, we can see a diverse means of childcare. Some animals lay eggs, and the babies hatched have to find a way to survive themselves.  Most of them die during childhood, a few survive and reproduce babies.  In such case, mothers don't seem to care about the babies; however, at least mothers try to find the best spot for egg laying, so that the babies have better chance to survive.  In an extreme altruistic case, a mother spider gives up her life as she is willing to be a food for the hungry newborn baby spiders, ㅠㅠ.

Other egg-laying animals tend the eggs and then take care of the babies until they can move/fly, find foods, and defend themselves. The biggest challenge for the parents (or mostly mothers) is that they have to leave occasionally the nest to find foods for herself and babies.

Mammals, including humans, give birth to babies and mothers feed them with milk for a while. This kind of physical interaction establishes a tight bonding between children and mother.  It squeezes tears by watching a film showing that a mother animal is so reluctant to leave sick babies.  Such kind of mother's feeling for babies is universal.  This led me to believe that animals do have spirit, if we have it.  And I do believe that humans are not so special existence, just part of the mother nature.  =°|°=

January 2011년

2011년 달력을 어제 넘긴것 가튼데 버얼써 일월의 마침표를 찍을떼가 됬군요.
Wikipedia에 따르니, January는 로마의 신 Janus (the god of the doorway)를 따서 'January is the door to the year' 의 의미로 지었다네요.

추운 날 건강 꼬옥 챙기시고....... 

동장군도 이제 곧 물럿거라.  °|°

Dirty Jobs

Growing concern about our middle-life health made us finally decide to go to the gym and work out on a regular basis.  It's been a couple of months since we began to do it.
I was amazed that the gym has lots of facilities; swimming pool, basket ball court, racket ball courts, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, dry and steam sauna, running machines, weight lifting machines, bicycles, table tennis, hot tub, and showers.  During week days, the gym opens at 5AM and close at 10PM.  During this period, those who use the facilities constantly produce dirty towels and others that have to be cleaned.  Dirty job?

This reminds me of one of my favorite TV programs, called Dirty Jobs, broadcast by the Discovery channel. Mike Rowe and his crew visit the sites of Dirty Jobs (for examples, sewage plant, maggot farm, chimney sweeper) where Mike learns and does all dirty works as other employees (음지에서 일하는 사람들). Without these works, this society and world cannot sustain.  °|°

새해벽두에

2011

새해벽두에, good snow came. 

It covered all surface.

It made beautiful snow-flowers.

It is the year of the rabbit. 

So it is my year. 

신묘라...

신통한 토끼인가? 메운 놈인가? ㅎㅎ 

According to Chinese Culture Center of San Fransisco:

 

"People born in the Year of the Rabbit are articulate, talented, and ambitious. 

They are virtuous, reserved, and have excellent taste. 

Rabbit people are admired, trusted, and are often financially lucky. 

Rabbit people seldom lose their temper. 

They would make good gamblers for they have the uncanny gift of choosing the right thing. However, they seldom gamble, as they are conservative and wise."

Toward the end of the winter break,

Now returning to the reality is tough. ㅠㅠ.

But that's the life.

Recharge, rejuvenate, refuel our life engine to move forward.

MOVE ON, no matter what.....

=°|°=

찜질방

여러 친구가족들과 어울려 약 3.5 시간 운전해서,  귀 빠진뒤 처음으로  Atlanta suburb 에 있는 찜질방이란 곳을 가보았다.
It is a bit interesting place; there is no privacy as everybody gets naked to change and take a shower or sauna.  The place is huge, and decorated with many interesting stuffs.  For instance, the benches in the 찜질방 hall were big logs.  Several specialized 찜질방s were built; 숯방, 보석방, 소금방, 얼음방, 등등.  My favorite was 'steam sauna', which reminded me of 한증탕 in public bath in Korea a while ago.

In addition to Koreans or Korean-Americans, there seems to be a fair number of people with (Northern?) European heritage. It was a new experience for me as well as my wife and son.  My son particularly seemed to be quite impressed.
We spent several hours at 찜질방, stayed a night at a hotel nearby, went to hair-salon/shop and came home safely.  We all felt like Hillbillies visiting 서울. ㅎㅎ.
On the way home, I felt so good.  On the other hand, I felt guilty for our younger generations.  ㅠㅠ.  Considering the amount of energy used by this kind of place in a single day, our generation invented so many things like this and has been exhausting all global energy reserves.
How long can we sustain??  That will be a (REALLY) serious cencern that our children's generations should find an answer to survive.

Anyway....