This is dedicated to one of my greatest friend, a letter from my long gone friend.
It’s a strange idea, to write a letter to a letter. I never really talked to you, nor did I ever write to you. I only heard and read what you told me. I wanted you to know more about me, just as I know about you.
My story begins with my story. My life was always cold and my parents always told me to trust myself. They told me to never be fazed by anybody else but you. I believed their words, and tried to live like I'm truthful and faithful to myself. My trust for myself was a very fragile being that crumbled easily.
My middle school days were series of accidents I did not really expect. Accidents caused by me were perfect for bringing my reputation and friends away. In the end nothing was there except for those who were nice enough to stay, or those who thought I was someone worth staying with. I was thankful to those who stayed. They at least gave me a hope that this world was not as bad as it seemed. Those hopes crumbed too. They left me as they felt that they were isolating themselves by becoming friends with me.
After all those years, all I had was you, written by my formal best friend. You were one of the first letters I’ve ever received from a friend and also one of the longest. You were mostly enclosed in dark and dusty spaces. I sometimes didn’t need you. I’m sorry for showing those dumb tear-streaming faces. You probably didn’t want to see anything like that but I needed you when I needed help.
You may ask, “Why am I that important to you? I’m just a fragment of paper with bunch of words written on.” You are nothing but memories of my friend. That’s nothing but reality. Your words are like the silent prayers. Your words echo through my hopeless mind and breathe life into me. You were the rope that I held onto, when I was lost and slipping.
I hope you understand why you had to be soaked in my tears and my cries. I hope you realize why you had to stay in the dark for so long. I hope you still treat me as your writer did. I need you a lot.

Since I was little, I was told that lying was bad. My parents told me to never be a liar whether I succeed or not. Well, lying do bring consequences. It may lower your reputation, it may cost a friend. It is true that many people cannot handle those aftereffects. Reputation in society occupied a huge part in my parent’s lesson. It was reasonable, since they wanted me to become a man of society. Man of society was all good and fair, but lying somehow became part of my life. It became the motivation that drove me to this point. There is a saying that the position makes the person. We adapt to the position we are in. Lies were the position I molded myself. Because I lied, I was able to acquire all these peculiar skills that made me stand out in a crowd. And those skills, helped me design my future self. Sometimes I ask myself nowadays, am I still lying? Truth to be told, yes I do lie and I’ve already embraced it as part of my life, a part of my catalyst that I cannot give up on.
The last time I lied, it was because I wanted to feel welcomed. Halfway through year 2013 was the time I ventured online for more facebook groups to endorse myself in. Somehow I wandered into an EDM producers group. It was fascinating at first. I’ve only dreamed of making music but these people put that into action. They didn’t go to private institution to learn these things but they made high-quality songs with different styles and genre. I want to be them. I wanted them to know that someone like me existed. I wanted my name engraved on their memory. So I wrote a very fancy personal introductory post on the group. The post lied about me being able to produce all kinds of music. It had me producing dubstep, trance, hiphop beats and so on. It made me look like some master producer who can cover a whole variety of EDM genre. The lie was too huge to cover so I had to quickly rewrite the post, this time reducing the genre to dubstep and hiphop beats. They bought it. They were utterly interested in me. They wanted to hear my music, my tunes. Since they were people I respected, I didn’t want to run away from this chance to get closer to them. That’s how I first stepped into music production. Honestly, it was a very interesting process. Starting from the bottom and rising to the point where I can actually utilize what I learned in 2 weeks was hard but worthwhile. In the process I acquired some very helpful and humble friends who stood by my side as I went through the whole progress, and also got accepted into the community.
At this point, I can never tell whether this skill will be useful for my future or not, but this experience was something I never could have earned by living a very straight life. I am not saying lying is bad but for me, lying could be a key for a much broader opportunity.

The sky was dark and air murky. I could feel many hydrogen molecules clinging to my skin as I hoisted myself off the driver’s seat. A classic silver Hyundai Sonata was half devoured by dust. I glanced down to my palm. The route I’ve jotted down yesterday night was still there although blurred from sweat.

Up ahead was a cottage. A thin trail of smoke was rising from the antique chimney, and lights were flickering inside windows. I approached the wooden front door and lightly knocked on it. Few seconds later, a man’s face appeared and asked,

“Who is it?”

“Uh… My name is Carl McLean, son of Marcus McLean, do you recognize the name?”

The man flinched at my father’s name. I’ve come to the right place. The door opened silently and an elderly man stood in the doorway.

“Strange, how come I’ve never heard of you before?” He muttered and looked dubious even as he welcomed me inside. His firm hands slammed the door shut behind us. He led me to the living room. It was vacant except for a small sofa for two. He signaled me to sit as he lowered himself. Minutes of silences passed before he opened his mouth first.

“So, what do you want to know?”

His eyes were startled me. For a man so old and fragile, he had a pair of striking grey eyes that sent a chill across my spinal cord. I took a deep breathe and carefully opened my mouth,

“What kind of man was he?”

The man elapsed into silence. His eyes were closed and his eyebrows came together in great concentration. It was a while until he asked me.

“I guess I’ll have to tell you about the fact that I’ve only witnessed his last three months in bed. Will that be enough for you?”

His eyes scanned me questioningly and he sighed.

“I guess you wouldn’t have searched me out if you had better plans huh?”

I nodded in reply.

“Well, there’s nothing much to tell but if you insist… I must tell you then. It was about 20 years ago, when I was still an outgoing detective with fame and money. Well, I got washed into this case with failed suicide attempt. To fully conclude such case, I needed a complete and full communication. The only problem was that he had complete shut himself off. He was a stubborn man, he refused to talk or even let me make eye contacts with him.”

The man chuckled at the memory. His face was lit up like a child touching his very first X-mas present. For a moment, I saw a young and enthusiastic detective with flaming eyes focused on the case. He continued on,

“It was three nights before his death when I heard him talk. It was past midnight and only the constant beeping sound of the heartbeat sensor barely kept me awake. View outside the ward was completely black. A single bulb shone down on both of us. The walls were stalk white and smelled of strong medicine. In the center of the room, a bed rested on the cold hard floor. He was moaning out snippets of words beyond my comprehensive skills. He held a short Tombow pencil on his left hand and a sheet of paper on his right.”

“It was three months since I’ve started on the case but I’d learned nothing. There were absolutely no communication. He would only move when he wrote, or rather scribbled. His scribbles were hard to interpret. There were only few words that I could make out. It wasn’t enough. There were calls from the headquarters asking about progress, constantly urging me to conclude the case. The only problem was that there were ‘some’ progress but not enough to fully form the picture. If only there were absolutely no progress, the case would have ended much earlier.”

“I remember that he suddenly jerked awake. It looked like every muscles were frantically moving. Machines around him made alarming sounds and soon, busy footsteps got closer and closer. Group of people with white gowns entered the room. They gathered around him sharing voices of concern. They injected few needles of sedative and left with no hesitation. He was nearing the end. I knew it by his breathing getting shallower as days passed by. That was when his hands caught my eyes. His fingers beckoned on me.”

I was dubious of what he just said. I asked him, “Wait, he just called for you? After getting a sedative?”

The man frowned at the thought and replied,

“Well, I certainly am sure what the doctors injected was a sedative. I could be wrong though. He really did called to me. I got closer to him and he parted his lips to say, ‘Remember this’. Then he handed me the paper he was always clutching in his right hand. Well, he dropped it toward me. He fell asleep as soon as he did.”

“After three days, the monitor that displayed constant spikes of life only showed monotonous green lines, indicating death. Nurses came in and silently took him away. I didn’t take part in the funeral. Well, after that, many cases went by me. Most of them I usually forget but some just burn themselves into my memory. Cases I couldn’t solve, cases I had to let go… those cases still haunt me.”
I looked at him and saw nothing but sorrow in his eyes this time. His back was hunched and the spark of life that flickered inside was cold. Guilt and shame was consuming him. I gently called out for him,

“But you managed to save the last of him, the last writing remember? I think you’ve done enough for him. He was already gone.”
His head jerked back up. He was suddenly on his feet and darting across the living room. I just sat there, openmouthed, gawking at his speed. When he was back, he held out a little parchment. He was beaming at me. He pushed it right to my face and said,

“The last of him is right here. Now I’m really glad I kept it after all those years.”
His face was so bright and gay that I just couldn’t resist against his gift. I took the parchment and stared into it.


He stared at me wide-eyed and asked,

“Can you possibly understand it? What does it say?? Anything important than the last part about drowning?”

Truth to be told, I could not clearly understand what he was trying to convey. It didn't seem like a letter to his unknown son. The writing felt like him. I may never be able to understand it fully, but this was the last part of him I could hold on to.

I looked up to face the man and smiled at him,

“It's him”

Linux From Scratch Guidebook
Pre-compiled Windows, Max, or Linux OS is great. They provide everything everybody needs to start their own digital life. But since they are made for everybody, they contain so many unnecessary packages and drivers, slowing down your computer. That's why a custom-compiled Linux is great. You get to choose your own drivers and softwares, effectively reducing system load and required space for the OS. This guidebook, is a very good start for everybody who is interested in building their own Linux OS.

Kali Linux, The most advanced penetration testing distribution, Ever
Pre-compiled Linux OS, made for web-penetration. Originally developed as 'BackTrack' the developers took a step further and turned it into a must-have-OS for many hackers and web-server testers. It contains over 300 penetration testing programs, supports multiple languages, and is free and always will be. Like any Linux OS, you can also choose to compile your own ISO image, or download the pre-compiled one. A very good start for anybody interested in Linux and web-security.

T-Mobile's Super Bowl Ad


Companies invest around $4 Million dollars for a 30 second sport on the Super Bowl. Roughly calculated, that is 130,000 dollars per second. This outrageous amount of money makes it clear why an ad for the Super Bowl must be eye-catching, creative, and appealing if they want to avoid ending up wasting astronomical figure of money. This year, T-mobile's #nocontract ad made a funny and concrete impact. It projected an idea; "Life is more rewarding without a contract". It successively emphasized how great T-mobile's policy is, and it was interesting and entertaining as well.

The ad featured Tim Tebow delivering babies, rescuing puppies, taking selfies with a Bigfoot, and performing stunts: all the thing people never expect a no contract NFL player to do. The ad projected Tim Tebow as a happy individual enjoying life without a contract. Tim Tebow was released this year in August, when NFL teams performed a mojor player release. Although there had been many critics regarding Tebow's sports career with distaste, he looked good and solid on screen.

The target audience the carrier company aims for are those who are tied to mobile phone contracts. They accurately describe how contracts can be painstaking, and how being freed opens up more possibilities. The ethos is perfect. A#nocontract ad featuring an NFL player without a contract is ingenious. Especially when the player was one who gathered humongous attention from the media and football fans due to his unique play style.

Statistically, the ad did its job. Tebow increased the T-mobile carrier subscribers, damaging other carrier companies, especially AT&T, bringing down their subscribers by 14%. Tebow successfully managed to show off the merits of T-mobile's super aggressive policy. THey are buying people out of their original contracts so that they would switch to their carrier and enjoy a "no contract" life. The ad producers of T-mobile made an exceptional ad with excellent casting and humor.

There were two major factors and one minor factor that made this ad successful. The minor one, was the fact that T-mobile hired a #nocontract NFL player to the biggest football event in the US. Many famous Twitter accounts tweeted and pointed out the fact, proving the ad team's genius.

Major factors that made this ad great, was the use of celebrity in the ad. Featuring celebrities can bring several effects; awareness of the product, credibility to a product, reputation of the company, brand recall for a product, and sales increase. For this ad, awareness of the product and credibility to a product made a huge impact. Using a football player in the ad aroused NFL fans all gathered to watch the big, national football event. Tebow shared T-mobile's merit, increasing credibility of the ad. Another cause that lead to T-mobile's success, was the use of SNS. With Twitter, T-mobile and Tim Tebow each uploaded snippets of the ad before and during the show, generating a buzz around the internet and the stadium, heightening excitement and expectation. They also held and open Q&A session on Tebow's account, grasping on tothe attention they were getting. It was a clever move, accounting the SNS trend the globe is experiencing.

Overall, I was happy that the ad wasn't a topic-less one with no main argument or confusing structure. It was simple, plain, yet effective. With the social media power and celebrity power combined, it easily became one of the best Super Bowl ads of 2014.

     Maybe it was because he wore mismatching shoes. He walked funny as if he was struggling against something invisible. He had a peculiar way of viewing the world. He said that "Life is unfair, everybody knows that. You have to play it like a poker game. You must learn to stack the cards and to fold the cards too."
     He mumbled those words endlessly and aimlessly wandered the dirty streets. He's eyes were blank yet powerful, staring at something I could not yet see at the moment.
     I never speculated that this moment would ever affect my life again. As I was walking down the street, wandering about the gibberish more than words, I found the same man in better condition, not drunken. Yes, he was singing hope thinking about his lover. As soon as I heard him singing, my heart started to fill with all the good images. He seemed to have a strong and powerful reason to live. He kept repeating the term 'every' everything about the woman.
     About the woman, the woman, She was the single most annoying figure in his life. She was the one who dogmatized him with all those romantic but totally radical Marxist ideologies. 'Shit,' He murmured through his calloused lips. He didn't want this. He didn't want to live in others' ideologies.
     He knew it was all over. Nothing could make him happy anymore. Not even the most unique and well-developed ideologies. He went to the swimming pool, threw himself ito the two meters deep water. Long before anyone discovered him, he drowned.
     He dreamed. Maybe it was the periphery of his sustainable life. 'I want to hug with Amanda Seyfried'
     Surprising thing is that he survived Almighty gave him 3 more days to stay on the earth. His mission to achieve in 3 days is to hug with Amanda Seyfried. However, he lost his eyesight when he drowned. To hug Amanda, he started to hug everything, and everyone he could touch.
     That was when he met a beautiful boy named Charle. Charle was a very charlegistic boy. When he touched or hugged Charle, there was a beautiful sound ringing all over the world. What's more, when he put his hand on Charle's body softly, snap was just perfect. The problem was that he was addicted to touching Charle so that he forgot to hug Samanda, which means he could not solve the problem.