case 1. (love) meeting someone / (work) finding a job

- at first, you think there’s one dream job/person for you, but it seldom end up with the case you always thought it would be. you often compromise.

- good relationship works with bilateral feelings/interests not one-way. work/lover should fit you, and you should fit the position/lover. one-way fulfillment doesn’t last long.

case 2. (love) leaving someone / (work) leaving work

- you tell your (ex-)lover you sincerely believe that there’s a better person for her/him.

- you tell your work that you sincerely believe there are many people who wants this dream job which simply wasn’t for you.

- you tell your (ex-)lover that you’ve met someone. and you are leaving.

- you tell your work that you’ve got a better offer.

and many more… that are to be updated when i freshen up my memories!

and i want to

eat spinach pie at Snack

go to flea markets

shop to Crate & Barrel, Urbanoutfitters, Victoria’s Secret, Sephora, The Whole Foods, Papyrus

shop at Barney’s

get a coffee at Think Coffee on 2nd Ave.

walk pass by my old place and get a icecream cone at icecream & cone (if it’s still there)

eat Tuna-don and soba set menu at Sobaya

try that artichoke pizza place on 2nd ave & 13st?

hang out in williamsburg

go to MoMA, new Guggenheim, the Met‘s costume section, Cooper-Hewitt, the Whitney

shop at Marc Jacobs trifty store on Bleeker

shop at DSW & Filene’s at Union Square

drink a cup of hot chocolate at Max Brenner & City Bakery

grab a cherry chocolate chop cookie & lemonade at Olive’s

Time’s list of 50 Best Websites 2009, and here’s what i liked + found useful for me (except some of the sites i alreay love).

popurls.com/ aggreagates popular news from the popular sites

issuu.com/ free contents from numerous magazines

www.mint.com/ i also had a feeling i would have liked this one, but no use for me being outside of the U.S..

i am curious how actually popular/being used those sites are in the U.S. ?!

- from design*sponge

- from crate&barrel

card + stationery + calendar design

etsy for korea

i had a chance to travel to nearby Asian metropolitan cities, Tokyo & Hong Kong, in last few months, and i noticed when i go to some other cities, now i compare those places to NYC.

Tokyo trip was short, and despite i loved its food and hygienic environment, its culture felt more flat and stiff than what i felt on my several visits made before my days in NY. especially the ‘controlled/groomed’ attitude of people stunned me – people were almost overly nice even on casual interactions which felt awkward to me and sometimes made me even uncomfortable. most were dressed conservatively (solid black suits were the uniform for office workers) except for the funky ‘street  style’ youngsters. it could be the opposite end of NYC if you put two spots on a line.

tokyo <conservative ——————————– liberal> nyc

on the other hand, Hong Kong was more interesting and diverse than what i remembered from 10 years ago. it definitely felt like a leading international city where you could notice hefty population of blue collar foreigners. i loved the soho area filled with authentic foreign food restaurants – i enjoyed a tapas place which i had hard time finding a good one in Seoul. even the local culture were influenced a lot by the western (british) culture – e.g. restaurants served tea buffet. HK just celebrated(?) its 12th year since its return to China, but my impression was that Shanghai – where I’ve visited in 2006 – was still far less international than HK. if i add HK and Seoul to the comparison line above, it would probably be like this.

tokyo <conservative ———- seoul ———— hong kong ———- liberal> nyc

after spending some years in different cultural environment, i would say though, the critical fact that only matters for life is ‘the value and the attitude you pursue and sustain wherever you are’ not letting the place to define you. altough i admit it is not possible to block out the influences coming from the environment entirely, the components of everyday life is not too different wherever you are: you eat, sleep, love, work.

for me, good people – friends and family -, and positive and active curiosity to the surroundings, *and* trips to other cities to stimulate my curiosities, then i can survive!

i shouldn’t be bitter about the core sense of the beautiful holidays such as christmas or thanksgiving. having a chance to gather around with family sharing stories and warm food is a wonderful tradition. but everyone knows how capitalism made it into a ugly monster where everything is wrapped up in red and people are forced to shop with unimaginable amount of pressure. there has been too much manner added into the meaning. there’s no nature’s rule that everyone is scheduled to be happy around this end of the year just like trees shed leaves in winter. but the happy carols make you feel like you ‘should’ be happy, otherwise there’s something wrong with you. that’s what i hate about holidays. the artificial joy.

korea shares some of the American holidays celebrated world-widely like christmas, and new year’s. we also have thanksgiving but on different date – we go by lunar calendar (august 15th), which changes every year on solar calendar (it was september 15th this year.)

the general idea is the same anywhere for holidays i suppose, families gather and share food and laughter. but i feel the implication is stronger in America because people leave home when they enter college possibly to another city hours and hours away, and don’t get to see their family too often.

whereas koreans stay home normally until they get married. i think it is largely to different size of a land – half of korean population lives in Seoul. So there’s not many other places you would move to. i’m sure there are many other social factors – i.e. koreans are one blood, family-oriented, historically origin village matters, etc. – but i’m more interested in the outcomes generated by the different distance from family.

it is definitely a major social factor when it comes to analyze different behaviors of two culture. it is significant because it is a subject not on the individual level (whether you are cool enough to leave your parents), but it is a social setting (‘everyone’ lives with parents). dating, getting a job, spending money, planning your whole life shapes in a different way due to this living condition.

i hope to continue posting small analysis with interesting episodes on this subject.

the more i compare two cultures, the more i realize it is so important to completely eliminate biased judgment on any side of the culture. it is very easy to favor one you had more fun with, but it is absolutely non-sense to judge just becuase it looks better or you were taught that way. if judgment has to come, it should be coming from your sincere values of life not from your ancient habits or custom. the problem is it is quite tricky to remove your habitual concepts from your valuation. and that is the challenge i am working on back at home these days.

beauuutiful pictures that reminded me of my long-time obsession (from Design*Sponge):