30 things I like

Thirty things I like

1. Friends

           I really enjoy making friends and playing with them. It is funnier and happier when I talk or play with my friends than staying alone. There are many crazy things that I can do with my friends, a motivation that makes my life joyful and fun.

2. Loneliness

           Mostly I enjoy staying with my friends, but there are some times that I want to be alone thinking. If something frustrating happens to me, I usually stay alone and organize my thoughts. After I spend my time alone, I feel confidence and relief. Also I usually stay alone when I think something weird. I just want to concentrate on my strange thoughts.

3. Independency

           I really enjoy independent life. It means that I really want to have perfect control on my life without interference from outer affects. I just want to be an owner of my life. So I love my current situation, living alone without parents in Korea. But I have to admit the fact that I am too young and un-experienced to fully take over control on my own life. I need some instructions that can lead my life.

4. Liberty/Freedom

           I personally believe that “rules are here to break down.” Well, I can get some advices or instructions that might help my life, but I do not really like restrictions or limitations on my life. I just do not want something to make limitation on my behavior unless it is established with acceptable reasons.

5. Soccer

           Soccer is one of the sports that I like to play with my friends. I play as a goalie and enjoy this position because I have absolute control of defenders in the game. I have power to change formations or tactics. And I feel great satisfaction when I block someone from making a goal.

6. Baseball

           Baseball is also one of the sports that I really enjoy to play. I play as a catcher in our school baseball team, a position which is similar with position goalie in soccer. I have absolute control on pitcher and formation. Although it is very demanding to sit down for hours under hot sultry weather, I love to enjoy my position as a controller of the game.

7. Drawing.

           I really enjoyed drawing since I was elementary school. My dream was an artist when I was elementary school. But I had to give up my dream as my art teacher told me that I do not have color sense which is very important part in art. But I attended 도화지, a drawing club, and enjoying drawings as a hobby.

8. Traveling/ overnight itinerary

           I really enjoy traveling with my friends. I can proudly(?) say that I am the student who went trips the most with my friends in KMLA. I really like to make recollections with my friends. Although there are many events to make reminiscent, I as a person who like liberty prefer to go overnight itinerary with my friends. Not only the preference of liberty but also I love to hear friends’ stories and have frank talks with my friends, and I found out that the mood in late nights of trips is the best mood to have honest talks.

9. Taking photographs

           I said I enjoy making recollections with my friends. So I really want to capture the feeling or sense that moment, not just imagining the moments. I figure out that only photographs can hold and grab the important and joyful moment eternally. I do not want to miss one of important pieces in my life, so I try to take lots of photos.

10. Philosophy

           Philosophy is one of academics that I am recently interested in. It’s embarrassing but I do not know much about philosophy; I can’t even define the term philosophy. But I love to read books and learn ideas and ideologies that predecessor thought about.

11. Books

           I desperately feel the need of learning as I study philosophy. There are so many concepts that I should learn as I study philosophy, and I think the best way to learn about the concepts is reading books. Not only books that are related with philosophy, but also I enjoy literatures because literatures are the best way to experience time era that I’ve never experienced.

12. Politics

           As I learn about histories and philosophies, I desired to learn about politics which is major field in social-science area. Including U.S. government and politics, I am attending Wayne’s comparative politics. I could learn basic structures of political system and political ideologies. Also lectures from Mr. Kim Sung Woo are really great teacher who can lead discussions and make students to think in other perspective.

13. Ecstasy

           As a human being, I really love ecstasy and tend to follow happiness. There are many ways to fulfill my ecstasy such as satisfying my fundamental desires to sleep or eat. Ecstasy is the basic concept that belies under my life. I pursue ecstasy, and I live to pursue more happiness. And I am not an idiot who abandon greater happiness to get trivial happiness right now.

14. Responsibility toward me

           Responsibility is another value that I think people should always have. Responsibility is a value that I should especially have because I really love freedom. We all know that freedom ensue the responsibility. And I know the fact that I have to be responsible to be independent as possible. So I work hard to become responsible person who takes care about myself.

15. Atheist

           I do not believe God and religion. But I am just aware of the fact that religion has great impact on literatures and philosophy.

16. Math

           It might seem weird that I like mathematics. But before I entered KMLA, I wanted to major physics. Indeed, to solve physics problem I should learn more about math. So I really loved to solve mathematics when I was middle school. Although I changed my profession to philosophy and politics, I still like mathematics

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17. League of Legends

           Man’s desire.  

18. Criticizing/condemnation

           Indeed, it will be exaggeration that I like condemnation, but I like to ferret out nonsense or contradiction that he or she possesses. Also I like to reveal shame things that someone wants to hide. Or I just express my own thoughts about things that I cannot understand. Because of these behaviors, I earned a nickname called “돌직구.”

19. Frankness/honesty

           I really want people to be honest and frank, and I always want to be honest to myself. I don’t like one being “soft and nice” in front of people but criticize them in the back. I just want people to express their emotion or thoughts frankly, not pretending their behaviors by saying that “it is a manner to do so.”

20. Anton Chigurh

           Anton Chigurh is a character in a film called “No country for old man” who acts as a murderer base on his own standard and belief of human’s life. I love him because I agree with his belief that life is base on luck. He believes that people’s life and death depend on luck, so base on his belief he murders other people. I like distorted hero characters. 

21. Joker

           Joker is another example of “distorted hero” who is described in the film “Dark knight.” Although many people see Joker as a stereotype of a devil, I think he is not different from “Bat man.” Both of them violate law and use violence in a word of justice—in their own perspectives on justice. And I like his belief that “luck” is fair to everyone. 

22. Movies

           I like watching movies as much as reading books. I don’t really like Hollywood style movies but movies that involve distorted hero as a character. I also like watching romance movies which include beautiful actresses.

23. 또래오래(volunteer work)

           This a name of a community service club that I like and proud of being a member of this club. In this club, I teach mentally disable children. I teach them how to write their names, concepts of numbers, and read books for them. I really want to help those kids as much as I can because they are living in very abysmal conditions. When I see even an improvement by those children, I really feel happy and satisfaction.

24. Pretty Girls

           Man’s basic desire. There are many examples such as 이민정, 한가인, and 배수지.

25. Color black

           There are many colors, but I like color black the most. It is one black tone that seems to absorb everything, so I feel confident when I watch something black because it doesn’t disturb my eye sight. Also the color black represents coldness and loneliness which are the values that I prefer.

26. Room 1006

           This is a room where I am going to live for my 3^rd grade in KMLA. My roommates and ho-mates are very good and have great manners to other people. This means that we play when we play, and we can keep our private life. The one bad thing is that it is too high that it takes lots of time to go to 1^st floor.

27. Autumn

           Autumn is the best season among four seasons in my thought. The weather is not so hot and not so cold, but is cool enough which makes me fresh. Also this season is best season for me to play sports.

28. My sister

           I am really proud of my older sister and respect her because she is really hard working woman who has great responsibility on her activities. She won 1^st place in Korea Science Academy and receives scholarship from Samsung. She does not complain about environments around her but only focus on her life and attitude. I believe that she will definitely success in future.

29. Foods

           I like to eat delicious foods. Well, I have to say that eating delicious food is one of important desire for me.

30. Oxford

           I really want to go to Oxford.

The LAST time I ate breakfast with my whole family at home.

The LAST time I ate breakfast with my whole family at home.

             “Wake up, Do Hyun. It’s already 7:50. You have to go to your school. ”

             “Mom, can I sleep for 5 more minutes?”

             “Nope, you should eat breakfast before you go to your school. So, wake up and eat breakfast.”

             Although it was really hard and frustrating for me to wake up when I was attending middle school, I always had something to eat everyday when I woke up. When I woke up, there was just “food” on the table. Around the table, there were only my younger brother, my mom, and two empty seats, which were seats for my sister and my father. Because my sister was attending boarding school and writing a journal and father was busy preparing his start of the days, they never showed up on breakfast table. Without any conversations, we just ate breakfast for just 5 minutes. This is a description of my family’s breakfast when I was 9^th grade.

             After I attend boarding school, I do not have time to meet even my family. Definitely, I did not have times to eat breakfast with my family. Unfortunately, my family went to the United States last year, a fact that deleted the last opportunity to eat breakfast with my whole family. Then, when is my first time I had breakfast with my whole family?

             It was so hard for me to remember the day I had breakfast with my whole family at home talking to each other. But I believe the “last” time my family gathered together on breakfast was one day around February 2011, a day before I entered boarding school. As I wake up late, because it was during winter vacation, I so whole family waiting for me to gather breakfast. My sister went home because she finished her research. My whole family gathered together giving me some advices or words that push me to live diligently. I remember my father saying “I am proud of you. I believe you will do well in boarding school if you sleep late.” That is all of the memory I have on my last breakfast with family.

             I envy some friends who have good relationships with their family members. I hope my family to be heartwarming and joyful. But my family doesn’t share much things one another. We do not really have conversations at home. I just wonder when I will have warm breakfast with my family.

Final step for the argumentative essay. I changed my position

Do Hyun Lee

Professor Garrioch

English Writing

9 June 2012

Do we really need a death penalty?

             Death can be defined as the final stage of one’s life. This ending stage can be natural, brutal or even decided by other people. What we have to argue is whether human kinds have authority or power to determine other humans’ end of lives. I believe that human kinds do not have any rights to decide other people’s life. But in reality, there exists a situation called “Death Penalty” which gives end to ones’ lives. I oppose to death penalty, not only because human kinds do not have any rights but also the costs and the fallacy of death penalty.

             Death penalty is waste of the tax revenue and the time. Until a man to be sentenced “Death,” there are many trials until the person who was sentenced death exhausts all his appeals. Most of the appeals are fruitless and those are just performed to delay and reduce the penalty. The recent study by Professor James Liebman found that over 2/3 of death penalty cases are overturned on appeal. And when these cases are retried, over 80% of the defendants receive a sentence of less than death. There is DNA testing which is needed to prove that the suspect is a definite criminal. According to the study form Duke University, it estimated that death penalty trials take 3 to 5 times longer than typical murder trials. “Time” is wasted due to fruitless trials.

             Also the financial cost of the capital trials which determines death penalty are six times costly than other murder trials. In Kansas, for example, a capital trial costs $116,700 more than an ordinary murder trial. This kind of problem is also existed in California. So the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice made a report to show public that the death penalty is waste of money: “The report stated that the state was spending $137 million per year on this failed system and that $95 million per year more was needed just to lessen the backlog of cases. That would amount to spending $232 million per year where executions have averaged less than one per year. The Commission estimated that a comparable system that sentenced inmates to a maximum punishment of life without parole would cost only $11.5 million per year.”

It is because of complex pre-trial motions, lengthy jury selections, and expenses for the witnesses. Like these there are financial costs for death penalty. According to Norman Kinne, Dallas Country District Attorney, “I think maybe we have to be satisfied with that as opposed to spending $1 million to try and get them executed.”

             Also the death penalty is irrevocable; a dead person can’t revive again. So when juries or judges should be very careful to decide death sentences. But, there are some innocent people who are “murdered” because of this “death penalty.” There are, on average, four entirely innocent people convicted of murder a year and most are convicted of the death penalty. There are hundreds of places where a murder trial can be erroneous. If innocent people die due to false charges, who and how will compensate to the people who died? Not only the people who died, there will be disadvantages to the families or relatives of the people. Who and how will compensate to them? There are some cases that some people who were firstly charged as “murder” were later found “innocent.” For example, Leonel Herrera in 1993 was charged for murdering and actually sentenced “death penalty.” But later it was found that Leonel Herrera is actually “innocent.” According to Chief Judge Rakoff, “Given the number of DNA exonerations in cases of wrongful convictions”, and he admits that there are wrong convictions.

             Some might argue that death penalty is needed for social benefit, which reduce murdered or harmed civilians by criminals. The logic of the people who agree with death penalty is this: death penalty is 100% effective in preventing a murder from killing again and criminals will fear death that will reduce crime. But it is wrong. It is found from the research that the death penalty does not really affect the crime rate: “These new studies [that claim a new evidence supports the conclusion that capital punishment has a positive deterrent effect] are fraught with technical and conceptual errors: inappropriate methods of statistical analysis, failures to consider all the relevant factors that drive murder rates, missing data on key variables in key states, the tyranny of a few outlier states and years, and the absence of any direct test of deterrence. These studies fail to reach the demanding standards of social science to make such strong claims, standards such as replication and basic comparisons with other scenarios. Some simple examples and contrasts, including a careful analysis of the experience in New York State compared to others, lead to a rejection of the idea that either death sentences or executions deter murder.”

             And there are some researches that state higher execution rates may actually increase violent crime rates. In California, the average rate of execution was 6 during a year from 1952 to 1967. In this time era, the crime rate was twice than the period from 1968 to 1991 when there were no executions. This kind of phenomenon is also shown in New York from 1907 to 1964 when the execution was performed.

             Death penalty was prevalently performed in the past and now it has been decreased. It is hard to find countries that still maintaining death penalty. There are many reasons—as I listed above—that death penalty is unreasonable and inefficient. And the arguments from the people who agree on death penalty are not logical or proved false. So I oppose to death penalty that steal someone’s lives unfairly and unjustly.

            

Work Cited

Richard C. Dieter. “Nevada Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice”

             Web. 7. July. 2008

             <http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty#financialfacts>

Adam Liptak. “Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate” NY Times. 18. Nov. 2007

             <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/us/18deter.html?pagewanted=all>

Richard C. Dieter. “What Politicians Don't Say About the High Costs of the Death Penalty”

             <http://www.fnsa.org/v1n1/dieter1.html>

Benjamin Weiser. “A Legal Quest Against the Death Penalty; Chance of Error Is Too Great, Even for        a Murder Victim's Brother” NY Times. 2. Jan. 2005

             <http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10B14F83E5D0C718CDDA80894DD404     482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fR%2fRakoff%2c%20Jed>

3rd revision of my photo essay-no grammar error

          

          It has been more than one year since I entered this school, KMLA. As I attend this school, many things happen to me; sometimes awkward thing, sometimes happy things, or sometimes funny things. As I experience these moments, I recognize “friends” are the most important and valuable things in my life. Friends make me happy and experience and fun, and help me when I am depressed or having hard days. Because I know that friends are the most valuable treasure in my life, there are lots of photos taken with my friends in my computer. My photo essay will be about my friends in KMLA.

          It was December 14^th 2011, after the final exam of the 2^nd semester in KMLA. We—Park Kee Ryun, Koo Han Gyeol, Hwang Soo Shin and me—went to Kyeong Po. We just planned to go there without a specific schedule.

           Spending time with something, we found a big snowman which was really well made. We didn’t have time to make a new and big snowman, because we had to eat dinner. So we just took this picture with the made snowman. I put my camera on a big and wide stick, and set the time for 5 seconds. Then we gathered together around the snowman and took that picture. Although we didn’t make this snowman, this photo shows the feelings and the scenes that we experienced at that time.

           This photo is a symbol of friendship. To take this photo, after the final exams, we went to Kyeong Po beach and played and talked together. Although there is nothing that shows the process before taking this picture, it shows that all four people are closely related, harmonious and well-fit together.

           As well, this photo contains the feeling of being “refreshed.” After the hard time (the final exam), we refreshed our minds and waited for the new start. I reviewed my life in KMLA as a freshman, and thought about my problems. And I knew that past things couldn’t be revised, so I did not regret that I did wrong. I just thought to change my behavior, and hoped not to repeat the same problems. As I took pictures with my friends, I reorganized my mind and promised myself to have a new life in KMLA.

           “Freedom” is one of the important values that is implied in this photo. Life in KMLA is really harsh. Students are in an environment where they should compete with each other without leisure time to feel freedom and relaxation due to lots of assignments. But when I played with my friends, it was really happy because I could fee freedom. No competitors or harsh environment, but simply friends and an open scene.

           It is so nice to reminisce about the happiest day during my KMLA life. This photo helps me to recharge when I am so tired of my life as a student. As I look at this photo, I think about that day for an hour and crave for the future peaceful and happy days.

P.S. Friends are really important in my life.

something about my debate topic

           Death penalty is really really and really sensitive issue, so it is very hard to give an opinion about this issue. But I believe that the death penalty should be preserved and performed.

           The basic reason of making penalties and jails is to protect civilians from “harms.” The harms mean the activities and behaviors that are banned by laws, because these behaviors might give physical or psychological damage to civilians. For example, murdering someone is outlawed because this behavior gives physical and psychological damage to other people. I believe that the best and efficient way to eliminate harms is the “death penalty.” But death penalty should be held for severe crimes like murder, not for all outlawed activities. This is because not all crimes give same damage to the people; for example, murdering a person gives really harsh damage to the person who are murdered and people who are closely related with the murdered man, but stealing does not gives severe damage as murdering to the people. I am stating that “death penalty” should be used but to the most severe crimes.

           The problem related with money is another reason that I think the government should perform the “death penalty.” Suppose that one person is sentenced life imprisonment. The civilians should pay tax to feed the criminal and to provide necessaries for the criminal until he or she dies. This is waste of the tax that people paid. But if there is a death penalty and the government uses this penalty, we could reduce the money that is spent on the criminals. Then the government can use the extra tax on the other policies like the policy to reduce crimes.

           Finally the fear of death can reduce the crime rates. When the government used death penalty, the crime rates fell. This is because the crimes could lead death to the criminals.

           Like this the death penalty has lots of advantages, although it might be opposed because of inhumanity.

i changed debate topic

THIS HOUSE SUPPORTS THE DEATH PENALTY

Capital punishment is the sentence of death, or practice of execution, handed down as punishment for a criminal offence. It can only be used by a state, after a proper legal trial. The United Nations in 2008 adopted a resolution (62/149) calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, however fifty-eight countries, including the United States and China, still exercise the death penalty. As such, the topic remains highly controversial. Abolitionist groups and international organizations argue that it is cruel and inhumane, while proponents claim that it is an effective and necessary deterrent for the most heinous of crimes.

DEBATE TOPIC

THIS HOUSE BELIEVES MACS ARE BETTER THAN PCS

Ask anyone whether they prefer Macs or PCs, and you’ll most likely get yourself into a heated discussion of which is superior.  Macs are made by Apple and run Apple Operating System. PC (personal computers) refers to a broad variety of computers made by many different companies, including Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and more.  Although Macs do not sell in as high a quantity as PCs, they do comprise 91% of computers that cost $1,000 or more.[1]  Are they truly better, or simply more expensive?