short story - Gold medal

  "Hey, don't you think you should go to more even slope for warming up?" said Arnold.
  "Don't look down on a gold medalist, Arnold,"gloated Hubert.
  "But i am still a better skier,'' he gestured Hubert to sit down, ''i lets you change my ski mine. Mine is much more stable.''
  ''Hubert did so without anymore words and they skied down the slope.
  Arnold sped down the slope deftly and zoomed past Hubert.
  And he was found buried under the snow, the skies flown meters away from him, and his joints of legs twisted in awkward angles.


  Arnold was panting hard. His body was soaking wet. His knees buckled and he kneeled with his palms on the floor. Drops of perspiration dripped on the floor from his chin.
  He discerned a towel hanging from his vision. He looked up, and saw Hubert holding the towel. He snatched it and blotted his face. He reclined to see his legs. They were all swollen.
  ''What is the timing?'' Arnold asked.
  Hubert looked at the stopwatch. ''Errr....It's still the same... Below your expectation.''
  Arnold gnashed his teeth.
  After the accident two years ago, Arnold's knees and ankles were severely injured and had to go for an operation. Even after the operation and being hospitalized, doctors strongly discouraged him to pursue his profession as extreme sports could strain the joints of his legs and degenerate them. This sounded extremely despairing and distressing to a sprinting athlete. His dream was shattered. His purpose of life was lost. Some people came to console him. Hubert came to apologize to him - as his skis that Arnold wore broke during the slide due to its inferior quality which led to the accident. However, no words came from him. He didn't even try to recognize them. He spent the days lifelessly breathing out his anguish planted deep in his heart.
  Depressing days went invariably, until he realised that the national sprinting competition was  coming in a year. He was intensely mortified by himself as a silver medal he had won at the competition of the year of the accident. And determined to win a gold medal next year before quitting his profession.
  Coaches and athletes were astounded to see Arnold back at the training. His doctors warned him that he may not able to walk when he was injured in extreme training.
  Arnold was incensed by himself that he could not break his own record. He trained so hard and wildly  that he was thought to be mad and was distanced.  
  Hubert offered him a hand to stand up but he stood up without holding his hand. Hubert companied him tentatively into the resting room.
  Arnold saw a range of Hubert's health pills and drinks on a table in the room.they were all sponsored products. He contemplated them. He pondered what would have happened if Hubert had never existed. He would have all the fame and success. The next day, Hubert gave him a bottle of nutrient pills as a form of gift. Arnold was grateful and vowed he would win the race in front of him.
  Days passed and they trained laboriously. However, one had to stop . One month before the competition, Arnold collapsed in pain and passed out.
  Arnold cupped his face in his hands in despair and wept in a ward. His coach excluded him from the athletes' namelist. Doctors asserted that his walking life would not be able to depend on his own legs only.
  Hubert visited his ward and promised him,''I will get a gold medal for you.'' Before he left, Arnold gave him a bottle nutrient pills as a return present. "Good luck,'' Arnold said to Hubert as he was handing him the bottle.
  On the competition , working on his pair of crutches, Arnold wobbled to the grandstand of the sports stadium. The race commenced and Arnold came in first as expected. His name flashed on the display board as the first finisher.
  There was a break before the award ceremony. Arnold stared at Hubert's name on the board and waited. It seemed that the ceremony was delayed and there was a little hubbub in the stadium. Umpires and staffs scuttled from place to place in a muddle.
  Arnold saw Huber's name disappear from the board. After a while his name flashed again but at the bottom of the list of the athletes, with a word in brackets : DISQUALIFIED. Arnold smiled.
  After the award ceremony without Hubert, Arnold went back to his waiting room and waited for him.
On a table, he saw a gold medal. Beneath it was a paper with words written on it :

Arnold,

I'm sorry. I couldn't keep the promise. Something 

unexpected happened. I'm in a state of confusion. 

But i won't forget the promise. I hope this can make 

up to you. You can have the medal. I hope what 

happened is not the worst of what i am thinking, right? 

Wish me Good Luck. I will see you when things 

get better.

From Hubert

  Arnold scrutinized the medal. It was from the last national competition. Fiddling with the gold medal, he grinned in radiance. When he spotted the flask of pills that he had given to Hubert among other products, he started to chuckle which soon developed into a raucous deranged laughter.

         

［K-POP REVIEW｝I GOT A BOY by girls generation

The MV

The members wear various theatrical expressions and vibrantly coloured clothing. Not only that, the sets in the video alters too. Because of the unremitting new changes for the viewers see, they can be captivated throughout the 5mins video without humdrum. It is a jaunty video.

The Music

It is divided into two parts thus i don't feel the song to be one unified combination. When i start to enjoy the "O, o eh o", the girls suddenly "let me put it the other way"and the background music changes, they sing different melody. But after a while they sing "o,o eh o" again and i am confused what is the real chorus. When it almost comes to the end, the "i got a boy" keeps repeating and transforms into a hook song and i realize "i got a boy"(the title) is the chorus. With these process, the music that is intended to be a hook song evolves into a confusing song. The two parts failed to mingle with each other, giving an effect of disorganization. I think a piece of music should not be split too as it can be lengthy.

Other info

GG's other hit song is "gee"

short story - Children's fantasy - Magic

  There was a girl whose uncle was a magician. She had been known him since young and admired him. She had been watching his magic performance and was greatly fascinated by his wonderful magic. He could vanish a person, pull out series of endless colourful handkerchiefs from a cylinder tube, guess which card a person thinking and more.

 Whenever they met together, he stroked her hair behind her ear and produced a sweet in his hand. She believed that he was a true magician.

  She was proud of his uncle and bragged about him to her neighbours. One day, she made new friends in school and talked to them about her uncle’s magical repertoire. Her friends laughed and disclosed how some of his magic tricks worked to her.

  The girl was stupefied, disenchanted, felt betrayed and outraged. After school, she confronted her uncle.

  “You lied to me! Your magic was all fake!”

  The magician cackled, “Then, what is magic to you?”

  “Mmm… Doing something extraordinary… Something impossible.”

  “You know, our brain is sealed under a thick bone,” he knocked his finger on her head. “Aren’t you amazed that something can still go through this thick bone and reach the brain?” He said, pushing his finger down on her head.

  He bent his knees and extended his arm to the back of her head. He clicked his fingers and a sweet materialized in his hand. The girl was not surprised or delighted and remained unruffled.

  He took his magician hat off from his head and held it in front of the girl. He clicked his fingers inside the hat and a myriad of multi-coloured slips of papers burst out from it.  “And impact on the brain and linger in it,” he continued, “So, isn’t it magic when you are able to enchant someone?”

  The girl stared at him blankly, baffled by his words. He pointed at a metal table.

  “Is it called magic when a heavy hunk of metal such as that table flies in the air?”

  The girl mulled over for a while and nodded.

  “Then aeroplane flies by magic,” asserted the magician.

  “No!” She blurted out.

  “Why? It is even bigger than the table.”

  “But it flies by engines!”

  The magician drew his face closer to his niece.

  “It is magic. It is just that it is called as technology when the magic is explained.”

  The girl was confused.

  “My magic’d enchanted you. It is just that it is called as a trick when it was explained,” and he whirled his cloak around him.

  The sweet that he had produced was tossed into her hands. To her unexpextation, smoke spouted from the sweet. Among the smoke, the magician’s voice sounded,

  “It becomes true magic when fantasy comes to reality.”

  And he disappeared into the thin air.

short story - joy

  Once, there was a poor man. His stomach was invariably empty as he barely had 3 meals a day. He lived in a ramshackle flat and was always pressed for house rent by the landlord. He was a student of a college in a town and he could barely provide himself with the discounted education fee for his financially challenging background. At day, he studied hard and at night, he worked as a part-time crew to eke a living.

   He craved to win a scholarship but things did not go as he wished. To pay his delayed house rent, he had to work at day too and thus had less time to revise his academic works.  On the next day of his night-work, it was hard to concentrate on the lectures. He prayed every day to God to help him excel in his academy. However, he was far from scholarship but on the verge of retaining another year.

  He was bitter about his life. ‘Why wasn’t I born in a more affluent family? I could have tuition like my peers instead of working as a part-time crew.’

‘Even if my family was in middle class, I could have achieved better academy.’

‘If my parents had worked hard to earn more money, I wouldn’t have to suffer this miserable poverty.’

‘Why am I given with poverty while others with wealth?’

He bore a grudge against God.

‘Why doesn’t God grant me some joy?’

  One day, after his part-time work, he was dragging his frazzled body home. His head down facing the ground, he moped about his unhappy life, speculating aboout existence of joy and when joy would ever come for him.

  After a few minutes of trudging, he jutted his head up and stood agape with surprise. What loomed ahead of him was a splendor. The sun was hung on the horizon of the sky, touching the edge of the mountain, its brilliant beam blinding the man to see the short, thin line of the slope. The peak of the mountain soared into the sky was so tall that it almost seemed that it could hook the fringe of clouds. The layer of clouds was so thin that it looked like cottons shredded across the sky. The rays from the dazzling ball dyed the blue sky and the white clouds in golden red. Thin strips of light shades were formed between the reddened clouds.

  The man gazed at the scenery in awe. It looked like a perfect combination of two regions beyond the horizon. He forgot about his grief but was overwhelmed with poetic sentiments and wished he could keep the picturesque scenery in his memory as vivid as possible. He wondered why he had been passing this place indifferently. He eyed the landscape closely and realised what attracted him was the sunset. He stood there still and indulged himself in the scenery until the sun hid behind the mountain and the darkness fell.

  On his way home, he felt fatigue had left him and his body seemed to be lighter. He kept flashing the view on his mind because he knew it would be hard to catch the sunset on the mountain again and thus he wanted to preserve the rare image fresh as long as possible. He thought he would be happy if he could watch the scenery everyday.

  Then, he realised. His question about joy was solved. Joy is joy because it is rare.  Because of its rareness, people rejoice when joy finally finds them. The man knew, whether how long joy would take to reach him, it would be great enough to beat his past anguish.

  On that day he found a new joy when he found the scenery.

Kpop review - ICE CREAM by Hyuna

  

The music

A little disappointing.... The background music is alright but the melody and the chorus is not good enough. Cream..cream..cream..cream that's all you remember after listening. It's too bland. Not much of impression lingers in my head.

The MV

PSY! We see Psy at the first part of the MV. He must be there to help Hyuna since she had helped him before. Because of his appearance, the MV managed to catch the watchers' attention. For the rest of the video, Hyuna alone succeeds to entertain us with her diverse expression and moving from colourful place to multi-coloured place. The video never keeps us bored. She is in both cute and sexy concept and many people say she is very sexy yet i don't feel so but rather find the ice-creams are very appetizing. But i can't deny that the MV does not let go of the eyes of the audience from it.

The choreography

Rather disappointing. The choreography is too moderate for Hyuna. The dance is not powerful for her to show her own phenomenal talent. This dance can be performed by anyone who is not Hyuna. I understand her agency is worried that she might be bashed by her antis like but she is still bashed now no matter how the dance is.  I feel that her agency should keep her with her own unique style like before to promote her.

Other infos

Hyuna's other hit song is 'change'.

short story - game of death

  A man gazes through the windows of a building at an apartment block where his ex-offender, or rather his future victim lives.

  +   

  Alfred scrutinizes the photographs of the scene of crime in his office. Two men were murdered so far, one at last week, the other at the week before last week. No clues of possible suspects has been found, except that the murderer left a sticky note at each scene of crime. He wrote the same words in white ink on the black background of the notes:

  

  Rqfh riihqghg,

 zloo eh sdlg edfn

  

  

+

  Martin is shuddering in fear. He was shocked when he heard two of his friends had been murdered. He stared out of the window to assuage his grief but to his greater grief, he caught a man gazing down on him. Although he was not really looking straight at him, something made to feel so. Martin still recognized him albeit many years had passed and was aroused with ardent angst that he would be the next prey.

+

  Alfred deciphers the strange note with little difficulty. It was in simple Caesar cipher. All he has to do is replacing the letters with three alphabets before them. Which means the deciphered code looks like this:

Once offended,

will be paid back 

+

 The man watches people walking on a street near the block in a bid to spot Martin if he is there. But what catches his eyes are 3 kindergarten children, one girl and two boys. The boys are pulling the girl's hair and pinching her. The pair is smiling but the girl is yelping and moaning in pain. They are just little kids messing around, yet it manages him to recall the trauma back in the days. Sympathy and anger rises in him. The boys are enjoying, but obviously do not know how she feels. He stands behind the boys and clashes their heads together. The stunned pair looks around and he pulls their ears close to him. They whines and hit him in resistance but the man feels nothing more than tapping. He hunkers down and whispers.''Don't treat people as you don't like to be treated''. 

+

  Alfred meditates on the names of the victim. Harold Drake and Eugene Stone. These names sound familiar to him. He eyes the code again. Realization hits him as he remembers they were his high school friends. Dexter Dion. Another name hits him. He must be him, Alfred concludes. Dexter adored codes. He commonly wrote in Caesar's cipher which was taught to the former by the him. They were in a gang of ten friends including themselves, Harold and Eugene. They had a peculiar way of entertaining themselves. They would play a game as simple as scissors-paper-stone or others like cards. There would be always a loser at the end of the game. Then, the winners could do whatever they wish on the loser. First, it started with light teasing, followed by calling nasty names , continued with beatings and compelling unpalatable forfeits until the loser quit the gang or school. Because of the unparalleled pain the loser had to suffer, the game was often called Game of death. They played this game for fun until they realized it was a serious bullying case when the fifth loser committed suicide. In Alfred's memory, Dexter was the fourth loser.

+

   Dexter is surprised to hear a knock on his door. It has not been long since he had moved here and his house is in the basement of an apartment block where it is unobtrusive. He opens the door and sees the girl he had seen yesterday. She is holding a plate of cookies and is in all smiles. 

''I made these cookies in kindergarten today and i want to share with you'', says the girl grinning.

''How did you find my house?''asked Dexter warily.

''I followed you behind yesterday and saw you going to the basement of my apartment block'' 

 Looking at her sincere childish smile, he cannot bring himself to reject her. He lets her to sit at his dining table and watches her eat the cookies. 

After munching the cookies for a while, the girl blurts out politely,''you may eat these, mister''.

''You can eat all of them'', Dexter replies brusquely.

''These are my token of thanks. My grandma says that we must show thanks to people who help us''. 

Dexter nibbles the cookies reluctantly and stares at her scrupulously. She is always smiling, different  from yesterday. She blabbers on what she does in kindergarten, how she now threatens the boys by lying that the mister is her father who will punish them and about her family. Watching the girl chatting happily in front of him, Dexter ponders when was the last time that he had someone to talk at him with such radiant smiles.

  At afternoon of the next day, Dexter opens the door to find the girl carrying heaps of papers, bushes and paints. She introduces a new project to brighten his dull house in the basement of the villa by painting a giant sun on the wall. He almost snorts at her idea but listens to her as he likes her evangelical spirit. He had heard that she is living with her grandma in the villa the day before as her parents comes home late at midnight because of their work and asks her what is her father's job.

''Catching bad guys'', answers the girl.

''Oh, policeman?Detective?'' Dexter raises his eyebrows.

''You don't have to worry mister, he won't catch you because you are a good guy''The girl laughs.

Good guy. The phrase suffuses his mind. For some reasons, it keeps him in trance.

''Mister, what is your name?''Her question wakes him from the trance.

''Dex...Dexter. How about yours?''

''Flora. Flora Clifford'' 

Dexter furrows his forehead hearing her name, ''What is your father's name?''

''Alfred Clifford''

    Dexter is in a daze. Alfred was his offender, a bully. He can revenge himself on him by offending her daughter. When he makes up his obscene mind to profit from her,  her beatific laughter rings his heart, softening and diminishing his malevolent mind. He imagines how would her young heart take when she is betrayed by her good guy. She is just a ingenuous kid. How would he be different from those who had ruined him when he hurts this little girl? If he does that to her, it is also like losing a friend and be alone for years again.

  From that day, they become good companions and friends. Flora visits Dexter or invites him to her house. Sometimes, they clean her house together for her frail Grandma. He accompanies her wait for her kindergarten bus and fetch her to home on her return.

+

  One afternoon, Martin spots Dexter walking with a girl in a kindergarten uniform. It's either he or me dead, he thought. He stalks them from behind stealthily. He memorizes the way to the designated house for the next use.  

+

  Alfred is in despair. He had sent his team to Dexter's addressed house but found out he had already moved out. When he is suffering from the headache, he hears a knock on his office door and one of his colleagues enters the room with a report. The latter explains that the alleged killer was captured in a CCTV of a street. On the paper, he sees a photograph of a familiar street. He reads the address below: 12 Kingston Street. Consternation enshrouds him. His mind races wildly with thoughts of Dexter doing something bad on his daughter for revenge.

+

  Dexter and Flora are on the way home from a zoo. There are unusually many policemen and police cars on the street but they seem not to care about that. Balloons in their hands, they enter the block humming all the way .

  They reach their doorstep and open the door. He hears a deafening bang and realizes his balloon has burst. Then, he sees Martin in the room holding a gun. He curses himself for forgetting about Martin. He hoists up Flora and runs away deftly . He buries her head on his chest and encases her with his arms. Dexter hears more fires and one of them hits on his rib of back.

  Bearing the searing pain, Dexter runs out of the block but finds himself surrounded by cops, all pointing guns at him. ''Freeze!''they shouts but he has no time to freeze and dashes through the barrier of the policemen.

+

  A policeman speaks through a walkie-talkie,''I think he is holding someone!''

''We don't have time to think about that! Just aim and shoot down him!''shouts Alfred impetuously as he  sees the alleged killer breaks through the policemen.

+ 

  Dexter is racing down the street, summoning his last bits of energy. Two more bullets are stuck in him by the cops, one in his left shoulder, the other in his right thigh. He can feel energy draining from him and knows he will not last long. Opposite him, he sees another man, pointing a gun towards him. He feels greatly relieved and happy that he finally did something meaningful in his dull life, saving a friend. He recognizes him as he had seen his photograph at Flora's home.

+

    Alfred discerns Dexter running towards him from far opposite. He raises his revolver to get ready to shoot at him when he comes nearer. Soon, the view of the runner gets larger and closer that he can hear his panting. His finger reaches out and touches the trigger with tension. However, Dexter just collapses and slumps onto the ground in front of him.

  To his surprise, he finds her daughter delivered to him safely, unscathed, by his suspected criminal.

  C      R      A      S      H

A flower pot shatters onto Dexter's head, as soon as Alfred pulls his daughter out of his body. Instead of looking up, his eyes are caught with something among the reddening soil. A black sticky note. With the white words in the same handwriting. With trembling hands, he picks it up and reads:

  Rqfh riihqghg,

 zloo eh sdlg edfn

Brx duh pb qhaw wdujhw 

  With his intellectual brain, he translates it at the moment:

Once offended,

will be paid back

You are my next target 

Fear pervades him invasively.

  

  

  

Kpop review - I don't need a man by Miss A

The music

Good, not bad. But it only sounds 'good track song'. It does not have strong aura of a title song. It is definitely not bad but too bland for a title song. It does not leave much impact. The only thing remains in my head is the word the singers add at the end of each line of the chorus''I don't need a man''. This helps the music to be catchy.

The MV

The start of the mv is like television commercial and attracts some attention. The rest of the video was like others, not so much standing out.

Other infos

To write anything special about the song, i would say the lyric is different from others. It is not about love but relying on oneself by earning money by own without taking money from boyfriend and parents.

Miss A's other hit song is 'bad girl, good girl''

/div>