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>

Book review - the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon

  This book is not just a suspense detective story. One night. Christopher, the narrator of the story, find the dog to be stabbed by a garden fork. We may take the case lightly but he sees it as a serious one and starts his journey as a detective to track down the murderer of the dog.

Little introduction to the character

                                                                               +++

  Christopher Boone, 15, is an autistic child. He cannot comprehend a variety of emotions and expressions and can only understand simple feelings like sad, angry and happy. Thus, the book is written in simple English. He detests to be touched so he screams and hit the person when touched. He dislikes noise. He likes things to be arranged so that he knows what will happen and does not have take risks. He determines the day to be good or bad when he sees a row of red or yellow cars He deciphers complicated life mathematically such as comparing life with prime numbers. Since he adores prime numbers, he chapters the book in prime numbers too. 

                                                                               +++ 

  

  Christopher's unique personality intrigues the readers and leads them to continue reading. But it does not allow him to think like normal people and focus on certain main points. He writes some specific but insignificant things like what he ate, what he did before going to his room. While we are reading the book, we may able to predict the murderer but Christopher is shocked at the culprit's identity.

  

  When he solves the mysterious incident, an unforeseen truth about his parents is revealed. He embarks on his journey to the outside world on his own where he had never gone before. While Christopher meets strange crowds of people unfavourably, we may laugh (although Christopher said it is not a funny book) or be perplexed by him.

  

  We may or may not like Christopher but he is definitely something we can think about - to see different perspectives of views from different people. This is a bitterly funny and remarkable book.

  At the end of the book, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time was not merely a petty case but a great case which introduced Christopher to the outside world traveling by his own where he refrained from for 15 years.

Spoiler

  The father killing the dog helped Christopher ironically

1) induce him to step into the world for the first time by himself

2)but distance Christopher from the father in relationship.

short story - the fortune teller's words

  ''Choose five,'' said the woman, aligning the 20 cards faced down in a straight line.

  The woman had tattoos that ran down from the corners of her eyes to across her cheekbones. A hairband with a row of small sharp claws was pulled up to the middle of her head which made her hairs to all stand up. She also had a unique clothing which had very long sleeves that drooped from her hands. Her hands had to hold things behind the sleeves.

  Sally's eyes lingered around the cards and pushed 5 cards towards the woman. The latter turned over the cards. She scrutinized them - bear, sparrow, snake, bull and crab drawn on the cards each. Silence had taken for a while before she parted her lips to speak,

  ''You get burn''

  ''You mean i will be burnt down?'' exclaimed Sally.

  The fortune teller nodded slowly. 

  ''I will be caught in fire?'' Sally implored for more details but heard incoherent reply from the fortune teller with bizarre cadence that she wondered whether the latter was really speaking English.

  ''Notice small things. If failed then suspicious no hesitate,'' this was the words Sally was able to catch from her utterance.

  One of her friends, Eileen, recommended Sally to see the fortune teller before leaving for the one-week holiday in a tropical country. On her way home from the fortune teller, Sally still mulled over the words 'get burn' , 'notice small things. If failed then suspicious no hesitate'. She explained herself that she could be burnt in a fire hence she had to beware of any fire hazards, especially inconspicuous ones. It was like life-or death matter.

  Few days later, Sally and her 4 friends arrived in the country and accommodated themselves at a hotel.

While her friends were rambunctious about their holiday, she was alarmed and resolute to hedge against her quirk of fate.

  After unpacking at their rooms, her friends started smoking at the veranda. It was unbearable for Sally not to join them but having only to watch them as a smoker. She deliberately did not bring her cigarettes as she was afraid that the kindling of them might cause a fire.

  When her friends were done, she went to the ashtray and shot water onto the squashed cigarette butts with the sprayer she had brought with her. Their befuddled eyes pinned on her as they were watching her absurd and unusual behavior.  They fired a bunch of curious questions and she answered,

''To prevent any fires'' before leaving the veranda.

Spontaneous laughters were heard behind her back.

  Soon after, Eileen came to see her. To her disturbance, Eileen still seemed to be giggling. She asked Sally, ''What did the fortune teller say?''

  Sally told her the puzzling words.

  

''Sometimes, she tends to say things in riddles. Let me unriddle them. Mmmmmm......''Eileen mused. Sally looked at her attentively.

''When you are to be burnt down....you need heat...Ah!She meant that if you feel a little unwell you have to rest immediately without hesitation!'cuz you may get heat stroke!''Eileen concluded and Sally knew she should not trust her statement. She went on checking if there was any electrical sockets being overloaded which could lead to fire hazards.

  The next day, they went to a forest for two-days camping. They set two tents and ventured around the forest. At lunchtime, they made a fire and cooked noodles and some fish they had caught at the stream. After cooking, Sally quickly put out the fire completely with a fire extinguisher that had flown across the oceans with her but failed not to induce her friends' laughters. She sprayed water on cigarette butts they had thrown like the day before.

  At night, they made a campfire but was pulverized by the extinguisher as soon as Sally's excitement palled. The friends lit up insect repellent coils but the coils were shot by the water sprayer again in Sally's hand. Their friends were never annoyed but chuckled at her and went to sleep.

  On the fourth day, they travelled to a valley for rafting. It was the most relaxing and indulging activity for Sally as she did not have to worry about being burnt in water.

  On the way to the hotel after the rafting, Sally felt a headache. She thought she had caught cold  in water or did not feel good because she had not been smoking. She borrowed Eileen's cigarette and smoked to alleviate the pain.

  The next day, Sally woke up to find herself in stifling heat. She believed that she had a flu and smoked more cigarettes to ease herself. By the time they reached a temple for tourism, she could feel searing pain in her every muscles. Her friends asked her if she was alright and she told them she was fine but she ended up in a ward in a hospital.

  Lying on the bed, she could feel her whole body was burning. Scratching mosquito bites, Sally laughed at herself as she was getting hints of the fortune teller's words.

  

   

  

  

   

  

short story - the vagrant

  Don was back at the alley with several coins clenched in his hand. He flopped onto the mattress and slipped the coins into the aluminum  can, his so-called piggy bank. Lounging in the mattress, he stared listlessly at the sky where the nets of branches of the raintree were extended out beyond the dull brick wall. His right forearm on his forehead, he recollected how he had ended up here.
  He was a secondary student, heading to take the O-levels in the year. And he abhorred to take the O-levels. His parents' interminable harsh badger of acquiring good academic results to get into a good junior  college had irked him so much. It was almost impossible to assuage both of them when they found faults on everything he did no matter how hard he had tried. Feeling vexed and hankering after freedom, he ran away from home.
 He stayed at a train station building for a week until his father found him there. His father was intensely incensed, his face was creased in anger and he spewed vulgarity through his gritted teeth. He clutched Don's arm so tightly as if he was about to break his bone and raised his other arm to aim a slap on his face. Don was very scared by him and thrust him away before the attack. He raced through the crowd and slid into a train just before the door closed while his father was barging through the commuters.
 After 3 months had past, he was now living in the alley between the backside of a massive shopping mall and the brick wall with the arms of the tree overhanging to shelter him from the scorching sun and rain. He would go out to street to beg for money from the shoppers or salvage something out from abandoned materials like the mattress and always slept or rested at the alley.
  Few metres away from him, there was the blind man, sitting on newspapers. He always wore a cap, a mask, a singlet and a pair of sunglasses and trousers. He came to the alley since a month ago. Strangely, at the alley where few people passed, he could collect large sum of money. His tray in front of him was invariably full of notes - sometimes even 50 dollar notes while all Don earned on the street was a few
coins. He could be said to be the latter's life-saver. As he was blind, Don could take some money from the tray without noticing him and buy meals whenever he was hungry. On these days, he even bought some proper clothes and went to swimming complex to take shower.
  However, all the money in his piggy-bank was from his own work. He did not want to take advantage of the old blind man for everything and thought he could provide himself with transport fees at least.

  He was going home, tomorrow.


                                                       --------------------------------------------

                                                            <part 2>

                                                        --------------------------------------------

   If he reached home, he could end this rueful vagrant life finally. He would beg his parents for forgiveness and retake the O-levels to start a new life. The can was almost full but Don was afraid that it may not be enough if he would get lost in the sophisticated transport system. The sun had settled down and he got up to go to the street again.
  He knelt down on the street with his two hands gathered together on the ground. Abruptly, he felt his shoulders being pulled up. He faced two policemen and a furious manager.
  "We seek you for cooperation," one of the policemen said.
  At the police station, the manager complained that despite of the constant warnings to stop coming to the street in the vicinity of the shopping mall, the vagrant continued to beg the shoppers for money and that deterred them from the mall. Don was aware of the warnings but took little notice of them as it was only work that a vagrant could do. He wanted to argue but felt too impotent to do so.
  Don was charged of disruption of business and was to pay $300 of fine or be jailed. He was in distress. I want to go home! I want to go home tomorrow! The same thought raced through his mind. But there was still a way out.
  He went back to the alley and hooked fistful of notes from the blind man's tray.  He bought a penknife and a portable lamp. At that night, he planted the lamp adjacent to the blind man and waited at the blind corner of the alley for ambush.
  Around midnight, he finally spotted a silhouette of a woman refilling the tray with handful of money.
When she was leaving, he sneaked behind her back. He slipped the penknife around her neck to threaten her to surrender her money but was thwarted by a shout behind his back.

  "NO, DON!"

  The blind man pounced on him unexpectedly. Startled Don swung the knife involuntarily to fend off the sudden attack. The man's heavy body collapsed onto the ground. As the latter's head hit the ground, the sunglasses and the cap overturned from his face .

The light from the lamp shone on his father's face.

Blood dyed the alley red.

His mother's scream rang in his ear from behind.

Psy's Gangnam Style - review

The Review

  

When i first listened to Gangnam style, i thought it was a cliche - invariable Shuffling rhythm that even some newbies still use.

Probably what it attracts people is the music video and the horse-riding dance. The horse-riding dance impacts on the audience with its unique prance and it is made of simple, easy steps which anybody can imitate.

What impresses the audience the most is the music video. Have you ever seen any music videos filmed in a sauna, on a water taxi or toilet or dancing in an elevator? This brought new sensation with its comical performance.
Furthermore,this guy, Psy, is hyperactive. He knows how to enjoy, he sings while dancing although he is not very slim a(i don't mean he's fat) despite of being in mid-age. His unassailable enthusiasm energizes everyone.

Another thing i like to talk about is the meaning of the music video. Gangnam is a wealthy place in Seoul where rich people live in. Do you really think it is authentic Gangnam Style - where people tan their skin at  playgrounds?
Psy is bluffing, maybe he is living in the outskirts in the video, that he is rich but he is not so in fact. Probably he is telling us to be confident although we may not as well-off as others and be successful like him.

Other infos 

Some of people think that the lyrics is "Oppa Gangnam Style" but the correct one is "Oppan Gangnam Style". "Oppan" is the usual spoken form of "Oppa neun" where "neun" means "is".

Psy's other hit song is 'Champion'.