Where has the summer gone ? I send you a heart :) by Batikart on Flickr.

Summer’s gone already?

It’s still here!

      I never took an “end of an era” theory too seriously. However, when it actually happens and we humans are capable of predicting it, will we be able to cooperate and try to solve the problem together? 

      We already are facing a series of problems starting from starvation in many African countries, conflicts in various regions, rampant diseases with no cure, and now climate changes. We know these problems kill people, and witness it on TV everyday feeling nothing. What’s wrong with us?

     THE problem which will bring humans together and make us help each other has to be larger scale and more serious? Like in Hollywood blockbuster films, will we have some heroes wiping out all the problems and save innocent and good people? How can we dare call ourselves innocent and good people when you know that your not doing anything kills thousands everyday? 

     What actually kills humans might be that naive think that somebody, some heroes will do it not me. Sometimes you have to be a hero for others, and yourself. Don’t you think?

I remember the first time using iPod which my sister got as a free gift from the McDonald’s. For me, it was the beginning of a new era. After several years of my iPod experience, and as a iPhone user now, these devices do not impress me any more. Whenever Apple introduces new products, I’m surprised but compared to the first time I touched my first iPod touch, it’s almost NOTHING. 

Same thing happened with the TED. Now it’s world-widely known and has inspired many. When I first saw the video of TED as an assignment, it was fresh, new, and fun. And now, I don’t know. It’s not TED’s problem, or Apple’s at all. It’s about me being not impressed with things that I’m always aware of. 

I’m used to the interface of Apple products, I’m used to the amazing stories of TED. It’s not about the quality of information any more. It’s all about the first moment. How can we inspired people continuously with the same topic? I truly believe that anyone who can achieve it will conquer the future of information, which automatically will be led to financial success. 

How can we do it? More importantly, will it be ever possible?

What’s the motivation that keeps you going forward?

Birthday gift from SongE

                   The hottest icon of last year was Facebook, and I’m sure it will be the same this year, at least. Or, Mark Zuckerberg. Last year, he was chosen as the face of the year by the Times, showing his influence not only in SNS or web business but over the world. From the movie Social Network, I knew how he made the company from scracth only with the innovative idea.

                    When I first started using FB several years ago, I didn’t have many Korean friends using it. It was English-only website, and wasn’t even that famous to Korean people. Also, by the time, there was a very popular Korean SNS website, called, Cyworld. However, now my friends and I rarely use the Cyworld. Within the last couple of years, FB has grown up so fast while the other similar website have fallen apart. I remember using the Faceparty-anybody heard of it? But where are those now? They’re all gone, only except for FB.

                    FB stands so strong and many people expect that it will be bigger and more popular. I don’t think so. People now have experienced SNS enough, and some are already fed up with it. FB can’t be more fun than just sharing pictures and sending messages to friends. At first, it was fun that you can find your long-lost friends over the FB and tag each other’s photos. I’m sure those stuff attract people until they realize that it harms their privacy.

                    Even myself have deleted too-private information on the FB profile page, since not all the “FB friends” are my “real friends”. What I don’t like about FB the most is that I can’t categorize my friends into different groups-can I? If I could, I wouldn’t have to delete the information, but just categorize my friends into different groups and set each groups’ accessibility.

                    FB first got so popular due to its openness, but it will bring them the boomerang effect and be the reason of collapse if they don’t take action about it properly. By some point, I saw people adding me as their friends rather frequently, but now so much. Most of my friends are already my FB friends, and random people adding me as friends, I just ignore them. Which highlights that FB will have trouble sercuring new members. FB’s main income source is the small ads you see on the right side of the page which FB gets paid according the number of people browing the site. If they can’t secure new members, they can’t secure future income. In business, you can’t stand still, you have to either go forward or backward. What will be FB’s next step?

               There’s no bigger news than what’s happening in Egypt recently. The Guandian reported that the president Mubarak’s family fortune reaches $70bn, and it flamed anger of Egyptian demonstrators. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton blamed Mubarak’s immoral dictatorship officially. It seemed like the whole world agrees on the issue, that Mubarak should leave his position as soon as possible. Even Egyptian military appeared to be part of this agreement, and they didn’t do much about the demonstrators, but just let them do their jobs. It was somewhat obvious that Mubarak should and would leave soon due to condemnation from inside and outside of Egypt.

                 However, America suddenly changed their voices. Hillary said, “President Mubarak should leave his chair but it should be done gradually not too fast.” Well, I guess she’s right. But what she says isn’t just her personal opinion but represents overall policy of the States. Then what did make American policy move from “anti-Mubarak” to “neutral-Mubarak”? The most obvious thing would be that Mubarak is pro-America and U.S.A. has funded the country much, partially contributing to his family fortune of $70bn. Egypt plays a very important role in the region, and if America loses Egypt as their ally, it might face a very difficult situation in Mid-East area. That’s one reason, and another is, this is just my personal opinion, Israel-influcene. Israel and Egypt have had peace-treaty for over 30 years now and the treaty kept balance of power in the region relatively well for the past years. Especailly, there’s pipeline going from northern Sinai Desert to Isreal, and recently the Times reported that the gas pipe has been attacked. It’s unclear who did so, but it’s rather apparent. It has very little chance that it was broken naturally, telling us that someone purposedly sabotaged the facility which fuels Israel and Jordan-the two biggest allies of America in Middle East.

                  Now Israel fears that if president Mubarak leaves his chair and a radical anti-Mubarak, a.k.a., anti-America grabbed the power of Egypt and change the policy toward Israel. Likely suspects include the peninsula’s Bedouin tribe, traditionally nomads and who are “not happy” about Mubarak’s central government control. The problem is, even if the Bedouin tribes have done the sabotage, the blame places on Islamist militants, the actual power players of the Gaza strip. Israel worries much about those getting power and inherit the crown.

                  Egyptian demonstrators are showing their limitation, no headquarter to direct the mass. Some say that Al Baradei is playing his role as a leader, but still, his ability as a politician is unclear since he has lived abroad more than he did in Egypt, and his political communication skill in the local area has never been proven. Under such circumstance, peace of Middle East once again wafts around.

I love you, Hershey’s.

I’ve been working as an intern at a marketing research company for about a month, now. When I first applied for the program, I didn’t expect it to be so fun. But now after a month of real “office life”, I’ve learned so much and acquired so much new information. I didn’t think I’m a group-worker, I’ve always preferred working solo, and I thought that’s who I am. But now, witnessing people working as a team making so much more than as solo players, I’ve realized the true power of “network”. 

For me, the primary goal of the internship was to find out what I want to in my future career. Well, I haven’t found out what I want after this internship, but I feel much more confident. I’ll try to get a job in PR industry, hopefully relevant to political communication. I’ve no clear path to go, but it’s so exciting just the way it is now. 

We’ll see. 

@Butter finger pancake. It was so good I almost licked the dishes!