Atonement 2007 - overrated film

I replied the zebrasnake's topic 'Overrated film' which is in imdb.com's Atonement (2007) discussion board.

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I think I will agree most of your comments about the movie, zebrasnake.
I really liked movie until close to ending part which is interviewing the Briony. If they didn't include that part, maybe I can rate them about 6.9 or close to 7 out of 10. Because I thought it was very clever way to telling the story until...
As soon as I was watching the interview scene, I felt that this is all fake even if it is true story.

And then now I did know what wasn't enough about movie when I read differences between the book and the movie from mikuhgtt's explain at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0783233/board/nest/120606384
That differences explain the book was so special but movie is not so special.

Now I can rate them about 6.2 out of 10.


If this movie is one of best movie, why imdb.com rate them as 7.9(out of 10) and 7.3 in rottentomatoes.com.
It is good movie(I probably say it is just not bad movie.) but it isn't best movie yet.



From
^_~ Ara

wordpress localization for Korean

Korean version was already there but I am just trying to modify a bit. I don’t know this will help to Korean who would like to use the wordpress blog.

1. “Translating WordPress « WordPress Codex,” http://codex.wordpress.org/Localizing_WordPress.
2. “WordPress in Your Language « WordPress Codex,” http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_in_Your_Language.

From
^_~ Ara

Rule Number 6 from 'The Art of Possibility'

I quoted this story from book The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.

"Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: "Peter," he says, "kindly remember Rule Number 6," whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes, and withdraws. The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: "Marie, please remember Rule Number 6." Complete calm descends once more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology. When the scene is repeated for a third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: "My dear friend, I've seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule Number 6?" "very simple," replies the resident prime minister. "Rule Number 6 is 'Don't take yourself so g-damn seriously." "Ah," says his visitor, "that is a fine rule." After a moment of pondering, he inquires, "And what, may I ask, are the other rules?"
"There aren't any."


From
^_~ Ara

link - Languages by population

http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/help/top-100-languages-by-population.html
Top 100 Languages by Population
These are the top 100 languages in order of number of first language speakers.
This is from the 13th Edition of the Ethnologue (1996).

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
Internet World Users by Language - Top 10 Languages

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-futureofenglish.htm
The Future of English? (1997) By David Graddol

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-englishnext.htm
English Next (2006) By David Graddol

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HA28Df01.html
South Asia Jan 28, 2006 -BOOK REVIEW
Whose English is it?
Asian Englishes: Beyond the Canon by Braj B Kachru
Reviewed by Martin A Schell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population
Wikipedia - List of countries by English-speaking population

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lan_eng_sta-language-english-status
Language Statistics > English status (most recent) by country

http://www.nationmaster.com/red/graph/lan_eng_spe-language-english-speakers&b_map=1
Language Statistics > English speakers (most recent) by country
(probably native speakers only)

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm
The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages

From
^_~ Ara

reality of Korean's English communication skill

I saw a group which name is Daegu Friendship Club in facebook.com and I was glad about their effort. But, I would like to let them know the reality so I wrote a article here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=25235250140#/topic.php?uid=25235250140&topic=4887

I wrote this because I would like to help their activities.

Topic name : Please read this, if you are Korean.
I don't know why I am doing this but you have to see the reality of Korean's English skill.
This group's admin, Daegu Central offer the friendship to the Daegu citizens but how is it going to happen? Because foreigners can't communicate with Koreans. That is the truth.

If you don't want to believe me, I will tell you other story. I have been check out a lots of group in facebook but I couldn't find any active group with many Koreans. I know there has a lots of active group, if most of them are foreigners or American-Koreans.

I believe you probably join facebook for learn English so I hope you should learn English properly.
If you are interested in learn English properly, you can see article here http://kr.blog.yahoo.com/asrai21c/


From
^_~ Ara

funny episode from TV show 'are you smarter than a fifth grader'

dumb blonde american: are you smarter than a fifth grader http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uEP7uti0PDw





Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? Contestant Avis Whitmore from http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WoQccz4VtJY




From
^_~ Ara

World clock with statistics

This is free program which can be put in to the your homepage or websites.

You can check out poodwaddle.com




Poodwaddle.com


From
^_~ Ara

WWDC 2008 and Steve Jobs' keynote

Related article One more thing... (WWDC 2008 officially announced) by AlexRADL at iPodtouchfans.com and originally news article from here, apple.com

"This year’s WWDC will showcase two revolutionary development platforms, the ground-breaking innovations of OS X Leopard® and OS X iPhone™, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system. ...
... fully explore the capabilities of the OS X iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and the App Store, a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod® touch users." from http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/05/13wwdc.html

That's exactly what I have on my mind. You can see my article(unfortunately, I only wrote on Korean.) http://kr.blog.yahoo.com/asrai21c/2656 which I mentioned more supporting on platform like Palm and Windows CE OS and application environment.


From
^_~ Ara

This is brilliant act from Britain's got talent.

This is brilliant. That's why Amanda said that 'bloody brilliant'.

originally from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA2B5X0LhMY


If you've seen the first series of Britain's got talent, you would be waiting for this.

I don't know what do you think about this brilliant act. This is harmony of western and eastern. If you know much about Indian dance, you will understand what I mean. You can see how same dance can be different each other.

I think I should watch the second series of Britain's got talent.

If you would like to watching HD quality video, you can go here Britains Got Talent: Michael Jackson Suprise HD QUALITY

Britain's got talent homepage : http://talent.itv.com/
Britain's got talent general information on wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britain's_Got_Talent

From
^_~ Ara

iPhone can have closed caption movie.

There has capability in iPhone and iPod touch but Apple never give any information on this to anyone. Here is websites.

iTunes Adds Closed Captions by Social Edge
Tutorial of how to make a closed caption by Israel Melendez, Jr.
[Updated: SUCCESS!] Non-Handbrake solution for Subs/Captions by Kneeslasher
Discussion about closed caption in iPhone in Handbrake forum


From
^_~ Ara

amazon.com moving forward in the gadget business

When I was trying to check the amazon.com's homepage, I saw the letter from the CEO for restocked the Kindle(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindle) which is wireless reading device.
If you know how unusual that amazon.com put the CEO's letter in the their very first page. Have a look at this.


Picture taken from http://www.amazon.com/ at 2:15 29th April 2008.



If you think it is just digital gadget such as smartphone and iphone, you should better think about it again.
Because, device was not the issues here.

What this letter mentioned is that they added 25,000 additional books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers which bringing the total to more than 115,000. A hundred fifteen thousands.
I will just briefly tell you about the history of ebook(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebook) viewer. Almost none of portable gadget succeed in the market, before E-ink came out. E ink (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eink) screen is most comfortable for human eyes-I haven't seen it yet but a lot of people talked about that way.- and feel like paper because it is one of electronic paper technology(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper).
So it is possible technology to make new big market.

Whenever I thought about it, I felt that amazon.com was just online version of bookstore. I know their main business was not selling the book any more so they became online shopping mall long time ago.
So they don't have to sell the actual books in the future because they can sell the ebook.

I know it still need a lot of time but it will happen someday.


Kindle product - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA/ref=amb_link_6750302_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=1Z71PJ4PTSF3JRNE32VF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=389635101&pf_rd_i=507846


From
^_~ Ara

p.s. I skipped a lot of details so some day I will write more about it.

'The Real Korea' from facebook.com's South Korea network 2

originally http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2245127154&topic=4701
I copied some of the post because facebook.com doesn't keep the post long time.

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Someone replied to your post on Apr 18, 2008 at 7:28 AM
well I can't write well as you. I'm just a English student. And It mean I dont know English very well. And even, I'm not sure I understood your writing.
But I wanna say culture is just culture. Nobody cant change artificiality.
the culture always absorbs other culture. and It changes itself. Not just about foreign people or their culture. Lot of other slang languages are broadcast on TV. And It distory our culture? No I dont think so. It is just changeing. We don't know how it is changeing. And we cant say it's good culture or not. it's just culture.

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You replied to someone's post on Apr 18, 2008 at 7:48 AM
Thanks for reply.

You didn't much understand what I was saying so I won't talk then. But, I think you should know what the exact meaning of 'slang'.
Here it is - Slang consists of words, expressions, and meanings that are informal and are used by people who know each other very well or who have the same interests. (2006, Collins Cobuild dictionary)


From
^_~ Ara

'The Real Korea' from facebook.com's South Korea network

originally http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2245127154&topic=4701
I copied some of the post because facebook.com doesn't keep the post long time.

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someone wrote on Apr 6, 2008 at 2:29 PM.
Itaewon looks like shit now.
English fills Korea.
Korea is becoming westernized because all these white fucks keep coming in trying to fuck our women.
They come to "teach" english. They come to "learn" about our culture because they "like" our culture.
Yeah right. Look at what happened to Japan. You got white nerds with Japanese names thinking they are more Japanese or asian than asians.

You got American Marines in Korea causing trouble and you got western businesses taking over.

Good Korean land is bought off to the rich white man. Korean women get swindled by the sweet talk that white men are so good at.

Hollywood has made the white man, whether he is a nerd or a fag, a "hot" man.

Look at this. I join the South Korean network, and this place is crawling with rednecks and wiggers and yellow-fevered horny white guys trying to "teach" english tryna get some pussy.

revolution is near muthafuckas

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You replied to post on Apr 11, 2008 at 8:39 AM.
Shall we do some reality check here?
Who blame to who?
Who want to be fuck? Was it white man or (I will borrow your expression.) our women?

Hollywood made the white man as hot man? Who made that kind of brainwash(It wasn't proper expression but if you are Korean, you will understand what I mean.)? Was it hollywood or our Korean broadcast channel?

I will ask very simple question. Why that muthafuckas do that? Because,,, because Korean woman looking(or wanted) for it. It is very simple economic(I don't know what the proper name is.) rule. Why there has product? Because people wanted that product.


If you really want to do something about it, you should go learn more(our real Korean culture and society and real Korea), study more and then teach to the Korean men and women, first.


You can see so many Koreans learn very very bad things and problem is that they don't know that is bad thing. I can't tell you everything(because I have to do something about it.) but I can make a few examples of it. I was shocked when I was watching Korean broadcast.(Because I haven't been in Korea for 6 years and rarely I am watching TV.) Comedian or some entertainer said that 'Oh, my god.' or some show program show some guy using the English name. Have you ever thought about why they doing it?

I can't remember what the name of the show and then they asked some American-Korean entertainer(or who was staying US for long time when he was baby or kid) that what is useful English expression(or similar kind). And you know what he said? 'Bro'(or with something) and then TV showing the 'The fast and furious 2' or something and then repeated a lot of 'Bro' scene. Did you even bother about this? US or UK people complaint about too much slang on their TV but we Korean suggested to use more slang on TV.


Ok. Let's see here. Why the hell people using Korean name as reverse order? Why they do that? Do you even understand why am I say this? If you write the Korean name to English, it sill is Korean name and Korean language. So grammatically, follow the rule of foreign language so your name must be same sequence as Korean. So my name should be always same order like 'Seong pill kon'. It can be change only if they were born in America or immigrant there.
I will make quick example. Gang is river. 'River Han' was used some movie and newspaper. So have you ever seen any newspaper say that "Gang Han"? No, right? Why? Because it is foreign language so follow the same sequence "Han gang". But why don't we use this rule to our name? Why?

That is the reason I say you should learn more. It is nothing to do with foreigner. It is all OUR problem, not theirs.


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someone wrote
13 hours ago.
There are a lot of offensive statements in this thread. In particular, I think that Simon needs to grow up. Blaming everyone else, including your own people, means that you can't take responsibility for yourself and your problems. Maybe someone has treated you harshly for being a Korean and now you are out to get the "liberals." That's great. Nobody is impressed.
If the Koreans didn't want Western people here, they should not be hiring native speakers in droves.
If the Koreans want to participate in the global economy, they need to learn English. This is the only way for a developing country.
I came here because I studied ESL in college and decided to become an ESL teacher. I looked at many countries and decided on Korea because of the pay. I came here for the job, because I want to teach.
I did not come for sex or drinking. I think that it is really disgusting to see so many college graduates using this time to party. It certainly lends to a negative stereotype.
Since I have been here, I have tried to study Korean every day, for survival and because of a genuine interest in Korean language and culture.
The Korean people that I have met have been overwhelmingly kind and friendly to me, probably because I try to speak Korean, dress appropriately, and do not walk around on the streets with a soju bottle in my hand. I have learned to bow to my elders and act in a respectful way, even if someone is treating me with disrespect.
I can't do anything about people who came here to have a vacation from their lives in Western countries and just want to pick up Korean women and drink a year away. Yet I have to face discrimination because of this. The fact is that there are immature people everywhere, not just here. You can chose the make the most of your experiences or not.
It's disappointing. It might be avoided if Koreans tried to hire people who have backgrounds in English or education, people who actually want to be teachers. This might not be economically feasible.
I'm sorry that I don't know more Korean, but I'm learning every day. I'm sorry that I don't understand many aspects of the Korean culture, but I'm learning every day.
The Koreans will find a way to preserve their culture. The world is changing. Everything changes. Get over it and move on.


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You replied to post 17 minutes ago.
I am very glad to hear your story.
Yes, I know I can find a lot of foreigners like you.

Anyway, if you read my previous post, you will know what really problem is. I am really harsh on Korean but truth should be come out. Here, you can't find a lot of Koreans who living in Korea so technically they don't know much about Korean culture.
Secondly, they were too young to know things properly.
Thirdly but most importantly, that person wasn't born or treated like average Koreans. What I mean is that if you met Korean who spoke fluent English, he probably went to US when he was young(like kid or baby). His parents should extremely rich and he never learn normal(average) Koreans lifestyle. So they don't know much about Korea.
You will see a lot of Koreans here thinks that he knew Korea but that was not real Korea. It is their imagination or from the television.

You think I was wrong but you can find very simple example from this post. First page, you can see my post and nobody reply my post but they reply everything else. Why? Because they don't know anything about what I wrote. So what do they know about Korea.



It is sad that Korean do very wrong way to learn English so they will not improve.(You might say they can improve but you almost can't find someone spoke English fluently when he or she started learn English after 20 years old.) Problem is that you almost can't find Korean who explain real Korea and Korean.

That's why I don't really post here because I can see a lots of wrong statements here. And I was too tiring to explain to them. No point to explain also because a lot of them don't even understand.(You can see one good example from my previous post which is Korean name thing and that I wrote here before. At the time, I've got very wrong answer-statement or idea or whatever- from Korean-American or Korean.)



From
^_~ Ara

3G iPhone and some more...

These are quite believable guessing article.

February 11, 2008 - 10:17 A.M. 3G iPhone, best guesses: When? What Price? Specs?
http://blogs.computerworld.com/3g_iphone_best_guesses

February 29, 2008
Apple gears up for June launch of 3G iPhone(http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3460650.ece) by Jonathan Richards
Analysts have suggested that Apple is working towards a mid-year launch date for the much-anticipated 3G iPhone

Those two news article were just guessing but if you surf the Korean websites, you will find that it became fact.

Brett Schlesinger from Lodon, he commented very important thought on second article. He said that owning an iPhone is a user experience not a technical spec. This is the thing I would like to write it for Korean in my future homepage.


From
^_~ Ara

Daegu Baram Festival - 8th Sulmaji Daehangjin (Korean new year parade)

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=4225&uid=2245127154

I just found out the event and I will join in. So I thought someone might be interesting this.
You can go there yourself or feel free to join me.

I created event in facebook but this one does not show in South Korea Network so I wrote here.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8260524666
Daegu Baram Festival I
8th Sulmaji Daehangjin (Korean new year parade)

This is Korean New Year festival in Daegu.

- 3rd February 2008
Location: Subway station Dongdaeguyeuk
12:20 2008 new hope for parade
Daegu Gonggo Neguri (departure at 12:20) - Pyeunghwa Sijang - Patima Samguri - Dongdaeguyeuk -

Subway Dongdaeguyeuk Gwangjang(arrive at 1pm)

13:00 (Subway Dongdaeguyeuk) Musical('Hyeung-Ah') and Korean traditional game for Sulnal

-
Location: Daegu national museum
Family musical & Madangnoli
14:00~17:00 6 - 7th February 2008

Craft & flying traditional Kite
11:00~17:00 6th February 2008
13:00~17:00 7th February 2008(flying kite onl　y)

Traditional food (Tea, sweet, cake)
14:00~17:00 8th February 2008

Traditional game(Yutnoli, Jegichagi)
6 - 8th February 2008
Location: Daegu national museum

Festival detail (Korean) http://www.daegu.go.kr/Government_Pr/Daegu_Now.aspx?infoID=52&no=417&rNo=417
http://daegu.museum.go.kr/10notice/notice_01.htm?bmode=content&b_idx=212


This is event poster.



picture from http://daegu.museum.go.kr/10notice/notice_01.htm?bmode=content&b_idx=212



picture from http://www.daegu.go.kr/Government_Pr/Daegu_Now.aspx?infoID=52&no=417&rNo=417

From
^_~ Ara