This blog moved

Hi Guys,

This blog officially moved to the WordPress platform.  Please make any change to your bookmarks and favorites. The new address is kosmikblog.wordpress.com . Visit anytime! ^^

Pic of the Day!

Found this at the supermarket today. anyone wants some? lol

Truc Art Exhibition

Hi Guys! :P

I have been EXTREMELY busy as always. Nevertheless I'm taking a moment to share about this exhibition I went to. It's not really "traditional" art however it was the most fun I had at an exhibition. The Truc art exhibition refers to super realism in which artists express two-dimensional objects in three-dimensional ways.

Exhibitions are comprised of art that falls mostly into five categories that focus on the reinterpretation of famous works of art, and coexistence with animals and nature. People can also enjoy taking part in art, famous movie scenes, and optical illusions through the displays. That's why it was so much fun, to actually be an integral part of art itself. ^^

Oh and I finally found a nice way to organize my pictures online. Thanks to www.snugmug.com. I`m still testing it but so far so good. So please go to this link to see my album from that exhibition and enjoy!

Truc Art Exhibition Gallery Link

Protests in North Korea

Last week we got report of the first public protest in North Korea against their communist dictatorship.


North Koreans are not stupid and do not think they haven't protested before, however this is a first since they kept their mouth shut and covered each other. Usually the pressure and fear of punishment from the state makes people tell on each other at some point.


According to South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper, citing a North Korean source, demonstrations broke out on 14 February, two days before Kim Jong-il’s birthday, in the cities of Jongju, Yongchon and Sonchon, not far from the border of China. The State Security Department (the all-powerful agency under Kim Jong-il’s direct control) investigated the incident but failed to identify the people who started the commotion when they met with a wall of silence.

“When such an incident took place in the past, people used to report their neighbours to the security forces, but now they're covering for each other," the source said.

Solidarity! Solidarity! ^^

                 

Why now?

Of course different factors are at play. Some evoke the wave of protest from the Mideast reaching as far as hermit North Korea.  Obviously, the country's worsening economic situation plays a crucial role. People are dying even more than before, famines everywhere. Furthermore others say North Koreans do not approve of the younger Kim and are trying to stop the succession. Korean sources told AsiaNews that this represents a crack in the prevailing mindset. The younger Kim is “feared by the population,” the source said. “He is viewed as bloodthirsty and mad".

 “Almost everyone thinks he was behind the military attacks against ROKS Cheonan and an island under South Korean control, which led to restrictions on humanitarian aid from the South.  This has further worsened standards of living in the North. North Koreans are ready to do just about anything to stop the succession.”

                                  

South Koreans Role
The South Koreans are trying to incite the anti-dictatorship protests.  Last Friday they sent leaflets explaining the situation and fight for democracy in Egypt and Libya to try to incite North Koreans to rebel against their government. The leaflets, as well as food and medicines, were dropped from the sky, tied to time-programmed balloons which could automatically release the items above the target areas in North Korea.


The defense ministry of South Korea declined to confirm about the recent move. They have a policy to not commenting any sensitive issue dealing with the North.

Analysts said that it would be difficult for North Koreans to emulate the anti-government protests in Egypt or Libya as their government have a tight control over communication and movement of the people.

Yesterday, North Korea threatened military actions over the South encouragements. They said they  will fire across a land border with South Korea if Seoul continues its anti-North psychological campaign.

"We officially notify that our army will stage a direct fire at the Rimjin Pavilion and other sources of the anti-DPRK psychological warfare to destroy them on the principle of self-defense, if such actions last despite our repeated warning."

The Rimjin Pavilion is an area in South Korea near the heavily armed Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which separates the two Koreas.

Hopefully, North Koreans will be liberated one way or another.  I'm not quite sure it will be soon even if the recent events are helping. I just wish for their and our safety. When I refer to North Koreans I mean the common people not the leaders.  They can die.

Sources:

http://www.boncherry.com/blog/2011/02/24/north-korea-protest/

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=49154&t=North+Korea%3A+++First+public+protests+against+the+Kims%92+regime

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/02/24/2011022401282.html

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE71Q0EO20110227?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/First-public-protests-against-the-Kims%E2%80%99-regime-20861.html

Blogging Troubles

At last I got some free time to organize.


I finished backuping, formating, reinstalling, got myself a new sweet Tera-byte for future storage. Yay come here pictures, dramas, movies! I really needed space. 


Picasa,flickr and others..
Started some new posts that are coming along nice.  
The only problem is, and I thought that would be a breeze or a lot simpler that it is...I can't find a nice tool to help me organize picture and post them easily online, I mean most of the things out there advertise itself like the new revolution of photo tools but in reality they offer nothing. In the last few days I signed up for photobucket, flickr, imgur,travelpod,reading a lot online, finding widgets,pluggins...    


 Using Picasa sotfware similar to IPhoto for the mac I thought it would be find with me.  It provides the organization and tag (including geotag) that I need however after testing the Blog this tool for Blogger, a tool that help you post the picture directly to your blog only to find out it posts only 5 pictures per posts, what a useless way to supposedly connect two services both owned by Google. wait there is more...then I also realize that the picture posted on all my blog are hosted by Picasa and only give me 1gig of space which I almost ran of already. Great.  I tried to find other tools online but they either offer picture hosting or blogging, or organize them but not as a whole.  I really wonder why is it so complicated.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to post more than 5 pictures per post on her blog. Don't worry eventually I'll find something. In the meanwhile I'm still using Picasa which is the best for me right now and found a way using the tool to post on Facebook is a lot easier and I will create albums there and link to them, Facebook allows me to host unlimited pictures without having to check if I have enough space or not. If any of you guys know an alternative please contact me.




I'm leaving here some pictures on Facebook, feel free to comment on them here or on Facebook,leave me feedbacks.


Here are two day-trip we took while Jean my boyfriend was visiting me over the holidays.


Ski Day in Ganwon Province
We went to have a ski day in Ganwon-do or Ganwon province maybe 2 hours of bus outside Seoul.  it was a nice day trip, the weather was chilly but not that cold like it has been.  They say Korea is made of 80% of mountainous terrain and we just use this fact to our advantage :)  the view was splendid and we had fun even if we were feeling in a zoo being the only two foreigners in the whole resort lol.

Link to the SKI DAY Facebook album HERE




Romantic Namiseom Island
The second trip was to Namiseom Island, this very small hall-moon shaped island (462,809 square-meters) because of its shape Koreans always thought of this place as protected by gods and spirits.  It is the resting place of General Nami who led a great victory against the rebels in the 13th year of the 7th king of the Joseon Dynasty, King Sejo (reign 1455 ~ 1468). Namiseom Island is 63 km away from Seoul in the direction of Chuncheon, and is famous for its beautiful tree lined roads. The island is 30 minutes away from Chuncheon and an hour away from suburbs of Seoul. Since it is not far from Seoul, many couples and families come to visit. It was also the site of a popular drama and we can visit many famous scene places. In all even though there is the grave of a general it's a very romantic place to go :D


Namiseom Island pictures

Chuseok (Thanksgiving) in Busan

Hi Guys,

Sorry to say that I haven't heard any news of Porky yet.  Don't give up I'm sure he will send something soon. A lot happened since Porky's abduction: I finally finished this never-ending semester, all the exams, presentations, papers, projects and finally I could SLEEP!  a commodity I had longed for.  sorry I did not update this blog sooner, as soon as the semester was over I just needed to rest, take care of some noisy roommates and prepare for my boyfriend's arrival a few days later.  He left Montreal on Dec 24th and arrived here on Christmas night as the best present ever. ^^  but that's another post hehe... now I'm trying to get all those pictures I wanted to post but didn't.  so here a little from my trip in Busan at the Korean Thanksgiving called Chuseok.  I had 3 days off from school so I use that opportunity to visit my friends in Busan.

I'm currently updating my system and trying to use a new photo software so bare with me, I'm trying to put some order in all the thousands of pictures to eventually be able to sort them out and post them more easily. so check out my Busan album on picasa in the meanwhile. ^^

Chuseok in Busan Album


Also I have a lot of videos from this trip... I will try very soon to do a small montage and post it.