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It’s been a while since my last posting. I’ve came back from a 3 day pleasant trip to Hong Kong and I’m having difficulty shrugging away the holiday mood. Besides, just after working for few days, New Year’s Holiday came up and resting for 4 days certainly made my focus deviate from work. The project I’ve worked on for the last three months is near at its end. With the current downsizing and restructuring at workplace, everything seems to be up in the air.

As announced in the newspapers, the company is going through difficult times and difficult times call for dramatic measures. The division I’m part of, the Digital Media Division, has been merged with Telecommunication Division and now shares a same roof. Even the name of my team is changing. Although it hasn’t yet made official, our team name is changing from ‘System Solution Lab.’ to ‘Software Solution Lab.’ For past several years, the word ‘System’ has been vital in describing the integrity of the team. It seems it has failed to withstand the changes made this time and now it’s gone. Although, no project has been terminated and no one in the boundaries of my acquaintance has been laid off, the changes taking place is surely perturbing.

This morning, I was asked from my parents what my New Year’s Resolutions are. I guess, in midst of changes, making resolutions may guide us in understanding where we are. Besides, making one certainly makes us feel good as if we’ve already accomplished something. After all, there are numerous sayings on this issue. I’m sure most of us have heard “A well begun is half done.” and “Good beginning makes a good end.”

Personally, I don’t oppose to the idea of making a resolution. However, I’m not comfortable with the idea of making resolutions just because it’s a New Year. The way I see it, New Year’s is just like any other day when regarding one’s resolutions. Giving great significance to the date makes one promise oneself things impossible to achieve. We not only make one resolution, but multiple of them, making it all prone to render meaningless. Trying to achieve several resolutions all together are usually destined to fail and achieve nothing. Also, dwelling on the date, makes one postpone ones’ determination until that exact date. I’m sure most of us a have friends who make a resolution to quit smoking every New Year’s Day. It is likely that he or she will continue to smoke until that day as if having a smoking permit, free from any restraint. It is also likely, if the person is Asia born, he or she will postpone the date to Lunar New Year’s Day giving oneself another month or two.

Especially in times of changes, I believe it is important to focus and be firm on one’s routines. This is not an act of limiting ourselves to our choirs, but an act of strengthening our abilities. Changes don’t take place in a single moment. It is more like a trail made by series of constantly changing wave each time it hits the shore. Withstanding one impact through temporary solution will not clear up our problems. It is needless to emphasize that gaining the robustness to withstand is the key.

I try to believe in the notion that as one problem gets solved, a new road will present itself. Our views are limited to the boundaries of our knowledge and abilities. Therefore, as we extend our boundaries, much more will appear in the striking distance. Believing in oneself and sticking to one’s plan is not an easy task. I believe this itself is worth making into a resolution.

” Happy New Years Everyone! “

There is no doubt that I’m a coffee person. I drink an average of three cups of coffee a day. A cup after each meals. During my student years, I’ve tried to cut back several times on the coffee drinking for financial reasons. I’ve even tried changing into a tea person. The more I try alternative substitutes, the more clear it is that there is nothing like a cup of bitter coffee that gets me started on my day.

Personal Recommendation:

▲Moccona Coffee

Sales! Currently sold on 1200m.com at a price of 9900.

It is surprising how often we are passionate about one thing and go about our separate daily-lives the next day. Sometimes we simply forget. Other times, we are distracted by something less important. We hesitate. And soon, the same urge we had before is no where to be found.

Perhaps a reasonable explanation would be that what seemed possible and promising at the time may be no more than unrealistic and we realize this only after we are out of the engrossed moment of passion.

However, every now and then, a great opportunity comes along. This chance, if supported by passion, may actually achievable, yet we fail to notice it or even neglect it by arbitrarily depreciating its significance. In other words, “It’s not worth it, why bother?”

Some engineers I know seem to have lost their motivations. They rarely raise their voice. With every unrealistic tasks and deadlines assigned to them, they’ve withered and their passions have abated. After several years, they seem disinterested whether a task is achievable or not that they simply nod to all tasks. The nod is not a sign of confirmation, but an act to avoid the fuss of the moment. They rarely endeavor to meet the deadlines. In worst case, even if a realistic deadlines are given, they wait until last moment before starting, showing signs ofstudent syndrome.

We try many ways to motivate ourselves daily. However, with an environment that seem impossible to change, it is not an easy task to motivate oneself. In this case, failing to motivate oneself, is not due to the lack of self-motivating skill, but the environment that eats us away leaving us bare and unfulfilled. It will distract us and make us stray from doing what we truly want.

Avoiding the problem or moving away from it may be a solution. Facing it can also be another. The latter tends to be the more difficult one. A problem will always stay as a problem unless dealt with. If we want more, perhaps dramatic results can only be acquired by dramatic measures.

Zig Ziglar once said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing that’s why we recommend it daily.” As mentioned before, motivating oneself will always be a difficult task. Maintaining it requires even greater devotion. We need to constantly remind ourselves the fact that we deserve a life with fulfillment.

As of yesterday, I’m officially exempt from all military reserve duties.

In other words, I only need to occasionally participate in so-called ‘civil defense training’, which consists no more than few hours of lecture on outdated military propaganda.

Hurray!

Although I’m glad that it’s over, can’t really tell which is better, the passive drowsiness-inducing lecture or the active physical military duty. There’s also that ambivalent feelings which you feel when all long-lasted events come to an end.

Well, once again time has flown by.

“Dope!!” There are people who just realize they’ve won a free movie ticket when they already paid.
Perhaps this incident is more ‘Ironic’ than my previous post.

“… It’s like rain on your wedding day, It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid … “

This year particularly seems to be filled with motion pictures based on famous comic series.  I tend to call these movies ‘MAN Series Movies’…  (BatMAN, SuperMAN… )  Starting from Iron Man, several movies are lined up.

Wanted, HellBoy, Hancock, Incredible Hulk, Dark Knight(Batman) .

Perhaps adding Indiana Jones, my childhood idol, to the list doesn’t seem very off.

Anyway, I’m quite a fan for these ‘MAN Series’ Movies. They tend to be blockbusters filled with vivid computer graphics.  Therefore, despite their lack of stories, they are usually worth watching in the theaters.  Once the movie has started, I tend to enjoy the pondering  how comical imagination is rejuvenated in real life motion picture.

Last night, I’ve saw the Iron Man and it was surely worth the money.  The computer graphics seems to have reached an another level, even greater than the Transformer.  Two Thumbs Up!

워드프레스가 2.5로 확 업그레이드 되었다는 소식에 기쁜 마음으로 설치를 해보았다. 늘 하듯이 DB나 Upload디렉토리에 대해 백업할 생각은 하지 않고 하드에 Unzip해놓은 폴더를 그대로 Overwrite하면서 Upload를 했다. 새벽 3시쯤 되었길레, 간단히 Admin부분만 둘러보고는 잠이 들었다.

아침에 일어나서 다시 한 번 확인해보니, 기존 테마가 보이질 않는다. Widget이란 개념도 생기고해서 기존 테마가 지원이 되지 않는구나 라고 생각했는데, FTP를 뒤져보니 기존 테마 폴더 자체가 사라진 것이다. 뭐 테마 정도야 날아가도 언제든지 날잡아서 복구하면 되겠지 하고 있었는데, 간단히 훑어보다보니 뭔가가 이상했다. 사이트에서 그림이 모두 사라진 것이다.

그렇다. Upload 폴더가 통채로 사라진 것이다. 차라리 글이 삭제되고 그림이 삭제 되지 않았으면 구글 Cache로 복구를 시도해보겠지만, 그 반대는 불가능하다.

물론, 호스팅 업체에게 연락해서 이틀전이나 어제 오후로 서버를 보구해달라고 하면 가능하기도 하겠지만 무엇보다 귀차니즘이 앞섰다.

이 포스트의 핵심 내용은… 다른 분들은 이런 일을 겪지 않기를…

과제가 종료되고 나서 한동안 휴식기를 갖나 싶어서 영어학원을 끊었다.

과연 삼성역까지 7시에 지각하지 않고 도착할 수 있을지 직접 시간도 재보고 고심 고심해서 신청했는데,

오전에 학원에서 전화가 왔다.

” 안녕하세요. XXX어학원입니다. 장원창씨 되시죠? “

” 예. 안녕하세요. 무슨 일이시죠? “

” 7시 타임 신청하셨는데, 혹시 2시로 변경 권유하러 전화드렸습니다. “

” 2시요? 제가 직장인이라.. 2시는 불가능한데요. “

” 7시 타임은 장원창씨만 신청하셔서 폐강되었습니다. 카드로 결재하셨으니 환불 조치 해드리도록 할께요. “

” … 예 “

갑자기 Alanis Morissette 음악이 귓가를 멤돌았다. ” Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think? ” -o -

지난 주 금요일을 기점으로 기존에 하던 과제를 마무리 지었는데, 아쉬움이 많이 남는군요. 과제라고 표현하니 기업 느낌이 묻어나지 않지만, 사실 프로젝트란 말을 번역해보면 달리 마땅한 단어가 없습니다. 모쪼록 매우 바쁜 스케줄을 소화하면서 제품 출시에 박차를 가했습니다만, 사람 일은 한치 앞을 내다보기 힘들더군요. 아무튼, 앞으로는 조금은 더 시간적 여유와 정신적 자유스러움이 있는 과제를 해보고 싶습니다.

이제 한동안은 휴식 및 재충전! ^_^

P.S.

▲ Evolution of Mankind

We have evolved into species that somehow manage to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Blogging sometimes feel like a hassle, a long overdue assignment.
Nevertheless, I was drawing an image for my blog using photoshop.
Cropping, Editing, and rearranging images takes a considerable time and suddenly the computer hanged.
Of course, the work complete evaporated without a trace…

Darn.

Lesson of the Day?

Never forget to save periodically.

P.S.
I personally adore Photoshop. Yet…
I wish they would support “Temporary Save” feature… like Word or Excel does…