Hajin the Hermit

For a while I’ve been trying to do something about it. And so has everybody else. As the relentless moon pulls the ocean, the tide rushes in, higher than myself. I am surrounded by loneliness. The epic selfish tragedy of us is that we are lonely. It’s epic because loneliness is under most of our thoughts and actions, good or bad, big or small. Except for the ones motivated by jealousy or guilt, but most often it’s a mixture of all three. It’s selfish because the business is utterly self-centered. Our biggest concern is not world poverty, climate change, or justice, but our psychological well-being. But after all, we’re all only human. What can we do about our weak self-pity? Not much. Nevertheless, it doesn’t render the whole affair somehow less egocentric and foolish. Finally, it’s a tragedy because one rarely finds an effective cure. Very rarely, people come across a 100% antidote. Others are mere painkillers, maybe a 40%. But even for the 100% antidotes, who knows? The most effe

Wine is better old. Bananas are better brown. Memory is better worn and romanticized. Broken patients were the focus of Freud's psychoanalysis, but the theory is also applicable for a better pieces of childhood. The same old impoverished small town harbors a whole world for some. Green and brown chips become both painkillers and color lenses. Memories are like ca rbohydrates. As you chew food, the mouth slowly releases saliva, mixing with food to break it down and making it sweet.

#Letter_To_Future_Roommate Dear Roommate, I’m enclosing a page of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” Think you might find this useful for next year. Won’t say no more here. Hoping to see you next fall. All the best, Hajin. “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” Habitat: Dormitory  Most dorm-dwelling creatures are classified in the lower classes for perceived dangerousness, and the Ministry of Magic feels that competent wizards should be able to cope with them, given that they follow the instructions provided. Cookie Monster: Possessing insatiable appetite, the cookie monster gains additional power with the mounting of unfinished essays. It is harmless to everyone except the refrigerator, which can be saved by the sacrifice of the monster’s favorite: Pepperidge Farm’s Milano cookie. Nargle: the Nargle hatches in early July, around the time it starts the Christmas countdown. It celebrates Christmas by giving out homemade food and presents. The dorm Narg

   “You won’t make a difference.” And indeed, the only difference I seemed to be making, at this moment, was the broken silence of a sleepy classroom during recess. The fourth year of my vegetarianism wasn’t so different from the first, especially my surroundings. I had stopped propagating the message of pro-vegetarianism somewhere between the fiftieth and hundredth conversation with a pro-meat friend.   I am an expert storyteller. I try to make sense of the world around me, and take out color lenses to process unidentified object. Harari or Gladwell, I don’t remember which, said human power comes from the ability to tell stories, stories of human rights, money, law, and future. The lenses are solidified glass, distilled from the each of our boutiques.   The first story I told myself was the environment. I wish my parents would use less tissues, this is ecofriendly, that is not. Everything was either green, eco-passable, or red, not. The whole world was processed through

Select Shops All individuals each own a select shops. Sort of like a memory palace, but with purpose and organization. These shops do not regularly go through seasonal collections, but feature the unique history of the shop owner's with various collections. They are constantly updated with books read, people met, and conversations mixed. Select stop owners attend fashion shows to see different styles and purchase clothes from large scale sellers. I breeze through articles, music, history, and venture out to explore different fields of academics. Longer dwelt thoughts and experiences become ‘collections’, often with ‘lines’ clothes, diverse but with recognizable pattern. Some clothes are fast fashion: they are information collected for short-term purposes, not for the collection itself. They last only in short-term memory. Sometimes, however, passing interests and sparks remain in the back storage of the shop, waiting to be remembered and added in another collectio

Karl Lagerfeld The power of capitalism, I thought. The 1 st floor of Hyundai Department Store was buzzing with people, hair, makeup, shoes, jewelry, and perfumes. People brisk walked over the marble floor, arms full of shopping bags, eyes sweeping across the hundreds of products as they walked by. I was what most people would describe as a vegetarian tree hugger. Living in metropolitan Korea meant constant exposure to humanity's consumption. One of my biggest regrets, of course, was the fashion industry. How it managed to spur multibillion pounds of garments each year just to let them “fall out of fashion” was a mystery to me. Sale promotions and fashion “seasons” unceasingly flashed by like a self-propagating carnival. My belief was that it was unlikely that our trifling need will outweigh the cost of producing a stripe of fabric or a plate of meat, not when we already had so much. Abstention would solve our problems, not “greener” additions. Thinking this, I waited

Recipe for Earth Cooking Time Preparation time: 7 days         Cook Time: 4.5 billion yrs. Ingredients Quartz (sliced) Feldspar (powdered) Magma 1 Tbs Bacteria 1 Pinch Directions 1 1)     Mix the ingredients in a bowel 2 2)     Place in oven 3 3)     Take out after 4.5 billion years Note -       - The Earth created depends on the uncountable, unpredictable, inimitable factors within the oven. -       - Randomness can be sublimated to predestination        Scientists busy to find an alternate energy source, politicians struggle to pass environmental regulations in consideration of all citizens and corporations, head of countries host summits to work together.