"I formed a habit where I have to eat something when I get stressed even if I'm not hungry. I wasn't able to control it on my own and I would later realize that I had eaten something until my stomach feels like exploding. So I realized this was 'Bulimia' is."

Is this the symptom of bulimia, the eating disorder?

It takes humility, courage, and talent to engage in this kind of self-deprecating humor. Regardless, you're a beautiful girl with a beautiful, skilled, and talented voice that my wife and I learned to love all the way over here in America as we learned about you from the movie Mr. Sunshine in the song, "Sound".

Then we went back and found out you were the singer of some of our favorite songs in many other movies such as "It's Ok to not be OK".

Like your parents, Eileen and I are Christians. And we have one daughter and one son. However, they're computer geeks and their ages are quite far apart. My daughter is 29 and my son is 10. But they love music, too. I was going to be a professional trombone player when I was young but decided against it out of concern for what it would do to family life. So, I ended up a math and computer geek, too, but continued to lead singing in church with a guitar and trombone and just being a choir leader. But because of the death of a friend and later COVID and then 7 years of caring for my father during his last days after we lost my mom, I have been away from music and more into studying AI at Stanford and Caltech remotely.

I picked up my guitar and started singing and playing it along with some of the songs you and your brother did as well as those in the Begin Again YouTube videos. It has actually been a long time since I watched much of anything American other than educational videos and gardening videos with my wife. It has been mostly Korean. And we still don't know Korean.

And yet I'd like to learn some Korean songs--namely IU's Love Poem which is amazing.

It may sound strange but I actually fell in love with your "Melted" song.

I felt it as we were going through McDonald's and Taco Bell drive-throughs where homeless people often hide out behind the signs waiting for the cars to open their windows so they can beg. Some say we should not give to them but give to charities and agencies set up to help them. Some say giving to the homeless keeps them dependent and in that life whereas encouraging them toward the shelters helps give them what they need to overcome their situation.

Sometimes it's hard to tell if we give to help them or to help us feel better for having given to them. And I have to admit, we adults are sometimes cold feeling exasperated rather than caring. We just want to place our order at the drive-thru and get home quickly and not have to deal with being interrupted when it is already hard to hear the person on the speaker to place an order.

I have to admit feeling guilty for times I have even gone to drive-thrus where there were fewer beggars present. And yet if I were in their situation, I would probably look for a shelter and work my way out of that situation. I've felt guilty giving and guilty not giving, and then I've upbraided myself for feeling false guilt for something I did not cause or contribute to. What's important is not to feel guilty but to consider whether there is something we can do to help them. And then feel good to be able to help but not guilty for failing to help every charity that exists in the world. We're limited, too.

What can we do to make an eternal difference, though?

I feel a hunger to get back into music. I have a music room at our house. It has a piano, a few synths, a couple of violins I never learned to play--one I bought for my daughter, and one that belonged to my mom. The prized instruments I'd never sell are my King trombone I had since 15 and my Martin guitar. I started making a guitar when I was 24 and never finished it. But I still have the parts and could finish it. I also want to re-make the bridge and nut for my old Goya 12 string. I created a setup but didn't have the right-sized materials, so it was less than optimal. I need to replace the keytops of my mom's old piano and tune it.

I've been putting off getting back into music reserving it as a reward for finishing my AI and Machine Learning BootCamp at Caltech and my theoretical studies in AI from DeepLearning at Stanford.

But I'm finding music is my real love, and I end up struggling with a bit of a writer's block. I know and understand the material well and can do the work, but it's a struggle to get motivated to complete the projects without knowing it will help someone or do something of worth for someone somehow.

But music surprises me. I'm out of shape, and I'm not that good with the guitar. But I seem to pick up any chords or strange chord patterns or key changes. And back in my old days of doing music for church, I used to be able to hear music and write it. The funny times when a singer would begin singing without an instrumental intro, the other instrumentalists would look dazed and wonder what the key was and I'd tell them. And I felt it was my place for so much of my life. And now that I have neglected it so horribly for so long, I feel I should not be able to pick it up. But somehow I sort of do. I think the difficulty I will have will be getting back in shape physically at my age. Being able to stand for long periods of time with one knee that won't straighten out. Having the lungs I had when I was young. Endurance.

I want to think I lost my singing voice with age, but it seems to come back somehow when I practice.

And I love it.

But I don't speak Korean.

Hmmmmm.

I'll get it.