Kenneth Dhong-Kyu Choi

opposing current social media

I would like to state that I no longer support the dashboard/newsfeed home page layout found in many popular current social media sites such as found in facebook, tumblr, twitter, instagram, etc. The information, the statuses, pictures that you find when you log into your (whatever) account are not necessary things that you are looking for, but rather, they are thrown at you. Someone referred to this kind of social media as throw-up data. No one is looking for it, yet everyone sees it.

the positive effects of boredom

11/30/12
Fri
12:38 am 

     This past Thanksgiving break, I went to Chicago with a few people: Jonathan M., Yeongmin, Joy, and David. We dropped off Joy and David at the airport. Yeongmin stayed mostly at his house, so for most of the break it was just me and Jonathan. We went without very many plans. I asked Jonathan if he wanted to come the morning of, 2 hours before we were supposed to leave. The only plan I had in Chicago was to get a hair cut. On Thanksgiving day, we decided to not use any technology for the whole day. No cell phones, no computers. Basically no technology except for home phones and cars (if you even consider cars technology 0.0). Actually I kinda forced him to do it. Even though he hated it and I only made him media fast for one day, he liked the idea so much that he didn’t even use his phone for the rest of the week. What! No technology? That’s so boring. What did you even do? Was it boring? Not really. We had a great time!

     When we arrived in Chicago on Wednesday, Yeongmin told Jonathan and me that we could come over for Thanksgiving dinner and told us to give him a call when we would come over. But because of the media fast, 1) we didn’t have a way of contacting him, and 2) we had no clue of how to get to his house. Using only a home phone, we tried to contact other people who could possibly get his number for us. No luck. We just left the house and using our great memories, we retraced our path from when we were at his house the day before and miraculously, we arrived after a series of sporadic and impulsive turns.

    When’s the last time you were bored and what was your reaction to it? For many, I know that when they are bored, the first thing they do is get on their phones. A phone is a solution to boredom, but there are other ways not to be bored. An alternative I would like to suggest to not being bored is being bored. What? How is being bored going to solve boredom? Being bored is boring. Well of course it is. But if one does not allow the possibility of boredom to take place, how will boredom be dealt with? Maybe boredom is good for us. And even maybe boredom is something that can be enjoyed.

     Picture this. You’re in Chicago bumper-to-bumper traffic when you could walk faster  and your iOS 6 maps says that 20 miles will take 2 hours. What do you do? Of course you are going to be bored. But maybe you could enjoy that boredom. You could count all of the yellow cars that pass by. You could memorize license plate numbers. There are countless things that you could do! You chat with an acquaintance. “Hey how you doing?………………………………………..” *awkward silence* What do you do? Enjoy that awkward silence. You’re single and you see all the couples around you and you begin to feel bored being single. What do you do? Enjoy being single! There are plenty of things that you can do while being single. You can travel, ….. and …. yeah! If you accept boredom, life could become more interesting.

     Some ways you can embrace boredom is next time you are engaged in focused work and something distracts you, instead of being distracted, focus on your work, even if it is boring. If that thought keeps persisting, write it down in a notebook and address it later. If you are studying some boring material and you keep getting notifications or messages, put your phone on airplane mode. It will help you focus on your necessary boredom. And when you turn your phone back on, you may receive 36 text messages as Jonathan and I each did when we turned on our phones Thursday night.

     Being bored is not that bad. If boredom’s positive side is embraced, traffic could become fun, awkward silences could become golden (does that even make sense?), being single could be exciting, and homework and studying for finals could be your favorite task in the world. Being bored could possibly lead to your greatest adventures yet to come.

12:38
01:03
______

00:25

Disclaimer: There’s a saying that goes “idleness is the devil’s workshop.” I am suggesting boredom that leads to positive action.

back on tumblr

11/30/12
Fri
12:16 am

I deleted several of my tumblr posts. I used to have about 80? and now I have approximately 50 posts. I mostly deleted pictures and links to my soundcloud account. I had even been contemplating deleting (and saving elsewhere) all my posts and closing my account, but as I was deleting a few posts, I changed my mind. Honestly I enjoy posting stuff up…. I don’t mean to sound conceited, but it’s fun. I enjoy sharing experiences and insights. Writing experiences is different from speaking in certain ways. Who can argue or interrupt a written text? I have the final say here hah!

I’m back.

12:36 end
12:16 start
___________

00:20

W3D6 wanna play soccer?

A little background information on the title W3D6, it stands for week3, day6 here at school, not counting orientation week which would make it week4.

“Wanna come out and throw the football around?” Sean Cho asked while I was about to go for a run. “I’ll think about it, I said.” About 1.27 miles into my run, I get a call from Aaron Shou, “Hey Kenneth watcha doin?” etc., then he told me to come play with them. Probably going to have to catch up on some work though.

After my run, I went to eat a late lunch at the cafeteria and when I got back,

“You should come play soccer,” my buddy Joseph Kim iterated as we ran into each other in Daniel Yea Joon Lee’s room. “Are you playing, Joseph?”, I asked Joseph Jeon, who was also there. I knew that Joseph Kim would play because soccer is his favorite sport. I was surprised that Joseph Jeon was playing, because he is always studying 0.0

As I am writing this from my room, I hear a voice in the hallway. It’s Michael Choi. I open the door to see him going off in his tennis attire: a spandex shirt, shorts, tennis shoes, a headband, and fresh-looking hair. “You playing soccer?” Then I show him what I wrote so far and tell him that I’m going to put him in this (what would this be called? story/post/entry/etc/you-get-the-point) “Are you writing a book?” Michael asked, whether jokingly, sarcastically, or seriously, I don’t know.

“Everyone’s playing soccer,” Michael stated, re-engraining into my mind that everyone is doing something fun AND productive, while I am here, doing something boring BUT productive, writing this introductive (it’s not a real word according to Pages) story before I start on the real deal of catching up/getting ahead in school.

What are some things that you guys want to do vs what you need to do?

W4D2 Perfect! You’re gonna love this!

7/2/12
Mon
10:31 PM

Hello! It’s been a long time since I’ve updated.

Quick facts
0*) I write everything from my phone
1) Each day we go out in three vans and the groups change every day
2) I make my own lunch most of the time (bread, bananas, peanut butter, and tons and tons of snacks) Oliver said I have a grocery store in my lunch bag XD
3) You probably know this by now, two meals a day, breakfast at 9:15, lunch at 330~4:30
4) Saturdays are the only days we get 3 meals but my stomach got used to 2 meals a day. Three feels like a lot XD but the two meals we eat are definitely satisfying
5) Many areas are Spanish so I get to practice a lot

Hola! Me llamo Kenneth! Soy estudiante trabajando para la beca!

6) We canvass businesses as well as doors, businesses only in the afternoon
7) We use the word “perfect” whenever possible.

“Oh we don’t need these books. We already go to church…”
“Perfect! These are just for you!”

“We just got back from vacation…”
“Perfect! These are just for people who got back from vacation!”

“We’re Atheist…”
“Perfect! These are just for Atheists! You’re gonna love this”

Observations
1) The days are starting to blend
2) Weekends are like oases in the desert
3) Spanish speakers like to say “ahorita no” instead of just “ahora no”
4) In colporteur terms, morning is 1-lunch and evening is after lunch-pickup
5) Businesses in the same area tend to be of the same nationality. Some areas consist of mostly Korean businesses, but most areas of businesses we do are Hispanic

Random
1) I’ve been getting so many bug bites. I don’t know if it’s while I’m sleeping or while I’m out knocking on doors.
2) Brian knocked on Alexis’s door today lool
3) Got to see Byron and Señora Calderon on Saturday. Come visit!
4) Our group (SBSV - South Bay/Simi Valley) met up with the other group (Altacast - Lancaster/Altadena) last weekend
5) SBSV (7) - Me, Brian, Lica, Susie, Jonathan, Oliver, Alexa
Altacast (6) - Alex C, Josh V, Ellie, Denise P, Min, Myriam

SGA ppl at Youth Rush

This year (13)
Last year (9)
Two years ago (2)

It’s growing! 2->9->13

11:21 end
10:31 start
__________
00:50 minutes

W3D3 Ph 1:21

Christ in me is to live; to die is to gain