Happy New Year and All the Best in 2012!

It's 00:30 on the 1st January in 2012 in South Korea.
I wish you all happy new year and all the best in 2012.
There have been so many good news in 2011, and I sincerely appreciate for them.
In 2012, I will do strive for my PhD study in Oxford, and will appreciate for everything I undergo.
I promise this blog will be more activated and more frequently updated.
Any resolution in 2012??
Coming Up~

Lee Sun-Hee

Lee Sun-Hee

Think of the 1980's of South Korea and what comes to mind may be the settlement of democracy and 88 Seoul Olympics. For me, one specific figure comes to mind, and today for the first time in the history of my blog, I'm gonna introduce a Korean celebrity. Lee Sun-Hee (이선희) has been known one of the best female pop singers in South Korea. She made her debut in 1984 with one of the most well-known songs, 'To J'. Since then, she has recorded a number of extremely popular songs throughout the pop music history in South Korea. She has continued her musical works as a singer-songwriter until now.

There is no room for doubt that her singing ability is the best in South Korea. Needless to say that she's got a powerful voice, so her voice quite well fits into rock songs. Apart from her powerful voice, well demonstrated in the song '아름다운 강산', she has been loved by people for her sweet voice. It's extremely difficult to satisfy these two qualities, but she is capable of two extremely different types of songs with her unique color, and this is why she has been so successful. '나 항상 그대를' is my favorite song, and a number of singers have tried remake this song adding in various versions, but none of them is better than her version. 

She is particularly special to people in my age because most of her best songs came out in the 1980's when South Korea was going through a 'change'. In the 1980's, Seoul held two international sports events: Seoul Asian game in 1986 and Seoul Olympics in 1988. I'm not definitely in the position where I can say that these two sports events have contributed to the development of South Korea in terms of economics, politics and overall quality of human life. But what I can definitely say is that old generation strongly believe Seoul Olympics was the turning point in the economic development of the country, and it also presented South Koreans with a great confidence in global market. Right after the Korean War (1953), all the industries as well as residential areas were devastated. And after 35 years, the country successfuly managed to hold the biggest sports event in the world. Since the Olympics, South Korea has held World Cup in 2002 and will hold Winter Olympics in 2018. But now people's interest for those events is way less compared to 88 Seoul Olympics and now it's the government or big corporations that are extremely passionate about those events. The way to make the Olympics more valuable and meaningful is providing an opportunity to a developing country to hold the event because Olympics is a great opportunity for a country to get united and promote themselves in international market. 

For these reasons, I love South Korea in the 1980's. Many people claim that now South Korea is better than ever before, and I agree. Several economic indices such as GDP show that Korea would overtake America in a few years' time. There were a couple of economic crises as European countries are undergoing now, but those were easily overcome by Korean people by working harder and sacrificing themselves. Nevertheless, my favorite view of South Korea is still the 1980's since I understand the dream and hope for the future which the people in my parent's age had at that time.

Her best songs also include 'Run Hani' and 'Fate'. 'Run Hani (달려라 하니)' is an animated cartoon which was on the air in 1988, and Lee Sun-Hee sang the theme song of the cartoon. When I was young (at around 6 - 10), I had watched this over and over again, so there is no particular reason why I like this song. I just like it and so do most of people in my age. She also sang the theme song of the film, a Korea blockbuster, 'Fate (인연)'. Her best was in the 1980's, but she has been continuing her musical work to date. This movie was released when we almost forgot the presence of Lee Sun-Hee. And when the movie became a blockbuster in South Korea, the theme song also got significant attention. Since the movie 'Fate', I think she came back on TV shows, and now it's not difficult to see her on TV.

What's in your mind?

It's been fifty days since I started DPhil. For now I find it's not too difficult to fit my lifestyle into DPhil course. A couple of elements of my characteristic tend to drive me to work hard with enthusiasm, and I often enjoy some achievements usually coming from experiments and literature review. Apparently, I'm quite busy with ongoing experiemental works, and it seems this project will get bigger and bigger as I make it successful. My little concern is that, from time to time, I wish I could have more time to read journal articles to be more balanced between physical and brain work.

So, what's in my mind other than work, work and work?

First of all, I've made my decision 70% for skiing trip to Chamonix. I should've booked airplane and hotel during the last weekend, but my Saturday was messed up due to overdrinking at Wine & Cheese. I'm not going to disclose why I had to have beer after several glasses of wine due to his privacy, but talking about international politics was terrible idea. I must sort out booking by coming-up weekend. I believe it won't be too difficult to figure it out as I'm thinking of the same route and the same hotel, but it might be troublesome since Christmas is the busiest time of the year (probably). So, I better rush it!

Secondly, my laptop has never been the external threat to me while I'm living in the UK. Probably this is because I'm always prepared for any issue coming from softwares, and I don't much carry my laptop, so there shouldn't be a big mechanical issue. BUT, in the end, it seems to me that mechanical problem occured to my laptop. FAN ERROR. Still I don't really understand why this is happening to my laptop at this moment. The critical limit of life span of my previous laptop was a noisy fan. Given that nowadays nothing seems to be impossible when it comes to portable devices, it's quite nonsense that the first maintanance which PC requires is exchanging fan. Now I have to make quite difficult decision because this country hasn't earned much credit from me when it comes to service work, but at the same time, it's quite scary to keep using laptop having fan problem. I'll probably pop in PC shop in Oxford.

Thirdly, my first term is quite chaos. Now, it's week 7, so only about ten days left until Christmas vacation. Considering the fact that there is going to be almost no social activity organized by the college MCR during vacation, I might be better try more activities. Now I'm obliged to sign up for Christmas dinner because of my best college friend (?), and I'm also supposed to sign up for 2nd hall for day after tomorrow (Eventually!). Probably that's it. And we'll see I will be able to proceed research as much as I wish to do during off-term!

MCR dinner

On November 10th, it was my first MCR dinner in Oxford. On the day, late afternoon, since I was able to confirm that my current method of sample preparation won't work at around 6pm, I went to MCR a bit late at 7pm. My first impression of the dinner was that the people were relatively calm and peaceful probably because the people more energetic and keen for socializing were screened by the swap dinner with St John's College. Thanks to the swap dinner, I was able to meet non-fresher graduates in the college.

I hadn't been to the MCR, and my first impression for the MCR was small, cozy and mess like other ordinary MCRs. As a person who speaks English as the secondary language, it's not very enjoyable having a chat with someone who I don't know much about in a crowd. With said that, the idea of social connection through MCR is unique, and one of the best advantages of Oxford and Cambridge. Mixing up with people from different academic fields and backgrounds sometimes creates a distance in human relationship because they have less chance to professionally get connected. But, right before the dinner, and with a glass of wine, an engineer may find it quite interesting to know what a economist or a pianist is doing in Oxford.

In my college, MCR dinner does not take place at main hall, which is a bit disappointing in that the hall is quite beautiful and cool. Another surprising point was that there was no seat plan, which means you can sit anywhere. This could be good or bad, depending on individuals. As for me, it was not bad.

During the dinner, I met a fourth year Chinese DPhil studying physics. Actually, I cannot imagine how it would be like being a fourth year DPhil student. Needless to say that under massive pressure for thesis, and almost chaos due to job hunting or applying for postdocs. It's been just one-and-a-half month since my DPhil started, and still it's extremely difficult to judge the nature of DPhil. It seems to me that I am having more spare time, and enjoying what I am doing, but at the same time, it seems to be impossible to feel satisfaction and achievement from work. Sometimes, it seems like I am just working as an employee in Oxford ltd, but it requires academic depth. 

MCR dinner is definitely expansive, and I guess it's because of wine. Having a wine or not should be optional, and if the dinner price could be under 7 or 8 pounds, I would like to sign up for the dinner everytime.

Viva Voce

Looking back, viva voce was definitely defending myself from the attack.
And it'll be during my DPhil.

Could I finalize my mobile phone contract tomorrow?

When I was a college student, one of the lecturers has told us that mobile phone is depriving freedom from people. You are normally asked to give your mobile phone number when you try to join online networks. Then, what if you don't have one? The answer is that you are not allowed unless you get a new number.

Thesedays, mobile phone has become troublesome for those who are not particularly interested in other functions in it. As for me, there is little time to utilise a number of apps in smart phones, so I don't pay attention to the latest smart phone. Instead, the quality of phone camera is quite important because I want to memorise my daily life in Oxford. Even if I need to take pictures with no plan, I can't carry a camera all the time since it's heavy, bulky and probably more fragile.

I'm currently using one of the cheapest phone with no camera, so planning to purchase new one or contract a pay monthly. The criteria are now clear.

1. It has to be a major telecommunication company, so either O2 or Vodafone. For some reason, signal is extremely weak depending on regions, and Oxford is not a good place for this aspect. The first priority should be strong signal, and hence I prefer those companies.

2. It should definitely have a camera. As a result of the research on current mobile phones, 5 megapixel seems to be reasonable, so I would be happy with the camera with the resolution of over 5 MP. Paradoxically, some phones provide good cameras with no flash, so I'll have to double check if it has flash function.

3. Deciding mobile tariff is quite tricky and difficult. The best option seems to be either 18 months or 24 months, and I don't like either tariff. How could I possible know which phone is better unless I actually use it? Contract over 18 months with no experience is oppression by major companies and must be abolished. Having said that, 24 month contract offers £10.5 a month, and particularly Vodafone offers 100 minutes call and 500 texts.

I guess I should choose the cheapest one because most of my phone call is international call, and this is not included in the £10.5.

4. I don't need a smartphone for the time being. It might be neccessary to keep myself away from the internet at least on the street or in Tesco because I have to spend significant time with the internet for my work.

I've decided to let myself left behind the cutting-edge mobile phone for the next a couple of years. But, instead I need to pay attention to the progress of mobile phone technology as a PhD student working on MEMS.

Now it became more clear which tariff and which phone I should choose tomorrow. Be decisive and quick with no hesitation.

Managing your DPhil

Doctor of Philosophy =
physical work +
minimum brain power (99% human being has this) +
language +
what else??

Several days ago, I took 'Managing your DPhil course', by the lecturer, a PhD degree holder, from Imperial College. This course seemed to be mandatory to new DPhil students, so I went to the lecture room with no hesitation. Surprisingly, there was no one other than the lecturer in the lecture room. Recently, I often get surprised by my amazing punctuality. Being puntual at a meeting or whatever and waiting for others to arrive make me feel quite nice than you imagine.

This session was booked for the whole afternoon (1 to 5 o'clock). I knew it was going to be a waste of time and actually it was. Four hours is ridiculously long to learn how to manage my doctoral research. The content of the session was quite predictable, and indeed it covered stuff like time management, plagiarism, originality and etc.  

Since I came to the UK, I've taken quite many training courses such as presentation skill (particularly several times for this one) and various kinds of management skills. Fortunately(?), I've never got bored from those sessions, thanks to the language. It requires high concentration and good listening skill. To me, it's quite impressive to see how British people pay attention to this this kind of sessions.

Despite the fact that four hours of managing your DPhil was obviously over the top, I have to say that the course was quite fruitful. During the course, I had to think about 'Why?' for a couple of factors associated with DPhil course, and it was a good opportunity to clarify more specific goals. For example,

What a DPhil is?

'Demonstrate your ability to conduct research, understand your subject, demonstrate critical and independent thought, show originality, contribute to knowledge, develop a model, explain and defend a model and so on.'

These are most of factors and qualities which I should always bear in mind as a DPhil student.

Another interesting point in the session was 'The Pareto Principle'.

'The 80:20 Rule.

A minority of input produces the majority of results.'

This implies several good points and suggestions to DPhil students. First and foremost, it is very likely that you will waste your time by sticking to one particular experiment. Success or failure could be determined by your extra input and effort, but it is less likely to happen. Trying to be well oriented is much more important than just hard working. Secondly, do not focus on just your work during your DPhil. It might be wiser to try to drill your other skills with your main work so that I can efficiently utilise the 80% of my time.

So far I feel doing DPhil is not tough as much as doing MPhil, but you should always bear in mind where you are, where you are heading, how you are doing in longer term. Probably, doing DPhil is another step to become more professional.