Into the wild by Jon Krakauer book Final Post

Finally, I have finished the book. Over the course of this reading this book, I thought that this book did not meet my standards but I continue to find that it was interesting. I was able to skip a lot of pages and still continue reading without skipping the main objective of the book written. I guess I can say that this book contains a lot of clutter. In the last section, I felt that Jon Krakauer had just continued talking about his journey rather than relating much about McCandless's death. He brags about how he managed to climb a mountain and journey the wilderness.

In the last section of the book, the author goes on his own trip to Fairbanks, Alaska to try and find out what caused Chris "Alex Supertramp" McCandless's death. I felt that Jon Krakauer could not have understood Chris's death at all unless Krakauer was in Alex's point of view. In order for the author to feel what Alex felt, he should have entered the Alaskan forest with little gear and little food. He should have also had a gun in order to hunt for food just like what McCandless did.  Then, would he fully understand? It would be close though.

In chapter 13, Chris's sister, Carine, said that if he had taken his handicapped dog, Buck with him, he would not have gone to Alaska since Buck was very close to Alex. I thought that this would be true since Alex would never hurt Buck. I think that if he had taken Buck to his adventures, he would have came back and gone to university to study. If Buck had died during any of his travels, I think that he would have been shocked enough to turn back and start a family and continue life. I think that he would have become very successful and resolved his issues with his parents just like what Carine did two years after Chris McCandless went missing. I also thought that Chris could have carried on with his father's work in NASA after him.

I am so glad that this is done.

To everyone: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Do God Bless Alameda!

Which is better? Alameda or Oakland. There are so many arguments in which people say that Alameda is way better than Oakland. They say that because of the media explaining the constant murders found in Oakland and the bare amount of murders in Alameda. I found a response post by Rokhsor Yusufi that I thought would explain my opinion. She says:

"I am shocked. If anything, Alameda is the coolest place to be and just because you do not like it here, does not make it dumb or stupid or anything like that. I am tired of people calling Alameda bad names. ... Just because people live in Oakland and it’s where all the “cool people” live, does not make everywhere else dumb ... (My dad works in Oakland and he has seen people get shot but he loves it there and he says he would not want to work anywhere in the world but in Oakland but you do not see him talking trash about Alameda.)"

Before I moved into Alameda, I lived in Downtown Oakland for about 10 years. In my mind, there isn't much of a difference between both cities but Alameda ends up to be better if you think about it. To me, Alameda is a much safer place to live and people are much more peaceful here. When I lived in Oakland, I got robbed and there were so many places in which people were hurt or raped. Oakland is much dirtier where I live and there are a lot of homeless people there. In Alameda, the streets are much cleaner and I don't see any homeless people around here. There are much more events in the city of Alameda compared to Oakland. 


There doesn't seem to be any difference on other areas. In both cities, the people are nice. In my school, there are many people that come from Oakland and I don't have a problem with them. They are actually pretty cool people to be with. Both educational environments are similar. There are those that drop out and those that continue to become successful. 

Into the wild by Jon Krakauer book 2nd response/ review

I continue to enjoy reading this book even though many of my group mates begin to lose interest. After reaching to the second paper clip, I thought that Chris (Alex Supertramp) McCandless lived an abnormal life but it seemed reasonable that happened to him. In the beginning of the section, Krakauer reported on a couple of other people that had also ended up similar to Alex; they arrive in Alaska to start a new life in the wild but ends in death.

I believed that Chris had lived an abnormal life because he didn't want to be successful in college but rather explore nature. He ran away from home. He enjoyed being by himself much more that hanging out with the friends that he makes. He donated all his money instead of using it on his trips. On the other hand, I also thought that it was reasonable because he had many family problems. The parents constantly yelled at each other so only his sister was close to him. If his sister wasn't there, then he would be by himself. He was also influenced by a writer named Jack London that expressed the fantasies of living in Alaska.

In our lit circle discussion, we also discussed about what would have happen if he had survived and was rescued by the Alaska state troopers. We said that he could have been traumatized by the course of events and would not go back into the wild again or at least Alaska. We believe that Chris McCandless would have settled down in Carthage and make a family. He would continue to work for Wayne Westernberg in the mills or become someone popular like his father, Walt. He might have become the veteran's adopted son and live with him for the rest of his life.

Throughout this book, our group thought that Alex actually wanted to come back and that his death was something unexpected to him even though he had entered with very little gear. He had promised many things to other people in his letters to them that he would survive and come back to meet them.

Sleep by Carly Cheung response post

Sleep, one of the most essential things to life. It is a way in which animals regain their energy from a long day. Even after a long day of school, we go home and do our homework. In ASTI, there are loads of homework to be done in a day. Many of us tend to work on it until midnight or later. On Carly's response post to Ruby's post, she discusses how she is working until late at night doing homework due on later days because she knows that she probably doesn't have time on other days.

"I am doing my post wayyy earlier than I am supposed to because I know I won't have time tomorrow or Friday. So, I found this post especially appealing because it is about sleep. Right now it is eleven something and I yearn to sleep early, at least once" - Carly Cheung

I can relate to her in so many ways. Typically on a school night, I would work until I finish the homework that is due the next day. If it is still early before or a little after at ten o'clock or so, I would continue working on homework that isn't due yet like blog posts or projects. Typically, my max amount of time that I usually end at is at 12 midnight. If I past that time, then I would not get the minimum requirements of sleep of 7 hours. If I do past that time limit if doing homework, I would feel sleepy all morning long. I don't really pay attention in class and always find myself daydreaming, but I never sleep. Until PE, I don't really feel excited. So what's the point of homework if it causes the lack of sleep. It would serve no purpose and instead become something negative. In a way, homework is steering students off to the wrong path in which it guides us that life has too many obstacles and too little time to get across them.

I did a post similar to this a while back, it consisted much more things that I said about sleep and homework.

Into the wild by Jon Krakauer book response/ review

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is such an amazing book to read for me. It is about a college graduate named Chris McCandless that drove away from his family from Atlanta. When he leaves he changes his name to Alex Supertramp. He traveled all around the United States and even traveled to parts of Mexico along his adventure. Throughout his journey, he encounters many people and made bonds with them. He kept a diary and camera to take pictures of his journey. He enjoyed reading books especially books by Jack London, a writer from Alaska. These fictional stories written by Jack London inspired Chris to go to Alaska where he ends his life. This book is similar to a news report in which the author travels around to question those that knew McCandless and what they had done together.

Many of these stories were interesting but the last one that I have read so far was inspiring to me. It was about a veteran who had lost his family. He began to drink but was able to control himself. He then met Alex, in which he grew attached to him. It states: "McCandless made an indelible impression on a number of people... Nobody, however, was affected more powerfully by his or her brief contact with the boy than Ronald Franz..."(Krakauer 81). When they both met, Franz treated Chris as if he was his own son. He would drive him everywhere he needed to be and when he was hungry, he would buy him food and provide him with provisions as he traveled. Franz was always there. It seemed as if Franz was waiting by the phone all the time to help him out. This story reminded of my friends and family. Whenever I need help, they always seem to be there where I can reach out to them. Franz was like that to McCandless. What stood out from the other stories was that, he actually wanted to adopt McCandless in the end but Alex had said no. That was shocking but it was not surprising. The story builds up to Franz saying that. McCandless was filling up that hole that Franz had have since his family died. When Alex died, he began drinking once more because even a deeper hole was dug out.

Even though, the main plot of the book has already been given. I still wonder what there is next to come. I want to hear further stories about the adventures. I am amazed that McCandless was able to survive such a long time. I wonder why he left his family in the first place and how that hired investigator was not able to find him since he had exposed himself with a job.

Garcia Girls Book Review

Over my two years of reading books at high school, “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez, was similar to the books read in freshman year. It was a hard and amazing book to read. When I was done with the book, I wondered what had inspired Alvarez to write the book. It turns out that the book was similar to an autobiography. 

According to Julia Alvarez’s website, she was born in New York City and was raised in the Dominican Republic after her parents moved back to their homeland. The family stayed there until they escaped to America in 1960 to get away from the deep trouble when both of her parents were involved with a group of people who were plotting against the dictatorship (juliaalvarez.com). Similar to this, in Garcia Girls they were trying to escape from the secret police in the vignette “The Blood of the Conquistadors” in Part III of the book (Alvarez 195-289). The secret police of the Dominican Republic were suspicious of the four daughter’s father, Carlos Garcia and the family believed that it was best for the family to move out of the country with the help of Vic, a CIA member. 

In Alvarez’s life in America, she first had a hard time learning how to speak and write in English. Many bullies teased her because of hard time with English (juliaalvarez.com). She tried very hard to learn English and speak and write the language. She then “discovered the welcoming world of the imagination of books” (juliaalvarez.com). Like her life in reality, the book also shared a same experience of bullying. In the vignette “Trespass” of Garcia Girls, the Garcia Girls had only come to America for one year. The girls are new to the culture and do not really know what it really is. Here, Carla was bullied by boys because she had just begun to hit puberty. The boys teased her about her flat breasts and her hairy legs (Alvarez 153). Unlike Alvarez, Carla escaped the torment by going to boarding school. On the other hand, Alvarez became inspired to write, because of the American experience when she was in school.

The best character that fits with Julia Alvarez in Garcia Girls is actually the Garcia daughters. Each of the four daughters had a special characteristic that was part of Julia Alvarez. Like Carla, Alvarez was humiliated because of her language skills. Like Sandra, Alvarez wanted to fit into American society. Like Yolanda, Alvarez was a heavy reader and writer; mostly on poems. Like Sofia, Alvarez was active in her life, not necessarily sexual. 

“How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” was the first novel that Alvarez had published in 1991 (juliaalvarez.com). She had also written small magazines and entered in writing contests. She wrote the book because it was her life long dream to become a writer. She wanted to get her story out to the world to read.  She later wrote other novels and even a collection of her poems in two books. 

Compared to other books of the same genre, this book stood out amongst them. There were many more dramatic events compared to other books such as “House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker. Throughout reading Garcia Girls, I wondered how so many horrific events could happen to them. One terrible event led to another.  Within every vignette of the book, there was at least one plot that marked what the section was about. I constantly felt bad for the daughters that they had to endure all of the traumatizing events while they were in the Dominican Republic and in America. Some of these events were the secret police in front of Fifi, the stalker in the green car that followed Carla, the drunken female stranger that kissed the father of the children in front of Sandi, and the nightmares that Yolanda. While reading Garcia Girls, I wondered whether it was bad luck or it was just that Julia Alvarez wanted readers to believe that there are many people that have worse lives than them. 

Compared to the books with the same genre, “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” contained actually less violent activity. Usually in books with the genre of this kind would include some form of rape and/ or murder. The Garcia Girls is much less graphic compared to the others. It may have sex within the story but it is not as if it was violent. It was more of a form of pleasure and the characters were actually willing to have sex with the men. Besides the smuggling out of the country, none of the other acts in the book were partly or even illegal at all. 

Compared to other books, this book was also much more confusing and unusual on the way that it was written. Alvarez wrote the book in reverse chronological order; a way of organization that is rarely ever seen. I later learned that the reason why she had written that was because she was making a cycle in which the reader can read the book continuously and it would still flow. The syntax in which Julia Alvarez writes in is extremely different compared the syntax in which I typically read every day. It occasionally takes me a long time understand what she is talking about. That style of writing was frustrating. In my past blog posts, I discussed how I was not able to understand until the very end and that I may have to repeat sometimes. It took an average of two to three repeats in order to understand it. The book is also much predictable compared to other books. There is a pattern in which the book shows and it is how there is a plot in every section. Except “Snow,” the vignette shows a scene in which there some form of sexual activity or big plot. 

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents final book response post (YES!!!)

At last, the difficult journey of reading this book has ended. I am so glad that we had finally finished it. I could not bear another of those Valdez books. In each Valdez book, there always seem to be a main character that encounters a form of rape or murder. It seems to be rare because how could so many tragedies happen so often within a person's lifetime. Overall, I thought that the book was neutral; not good and not that bad.

For the last reading, I thought that it was much better than all the rest of the parts. I learned to adapt to Garcia's syntax and diction. In the third and final part of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, I thought that it had contained many symbols and that there was a much deeper meaning to it. In class, Mr. Sutherland said that the last paragraph was making the book like a cycle where the reader can go back to the beginning of the book again and not be confused like when I had first read it. That ending had really surprised me. I wondered if I had just read the book over again, would I feel the same way? or words just be words? I thought about it and came to a conclusion that it would actually be more fun to read it again.

In the last section of the book there were a few scenes that were basically deep symbols of each character. One of them is when the bank got jammed and that the figure was stuck between heaven and hell. I compared it to how Carla was not able to decide what she was going to do when she had forgotten about it. The best symbol in this part that I thought was amazing was the nightmares of Yolanda of the kitten. In a way, the kitten was like Yolanda and her sisters. They were taken away at an early age and they did not necessarily adapt to their surroundings. Like the kitten, the sisters, too had became lost when they had arrived in America and it had took them a long time before they had found their way again.

Connecting the title to the main theme of the story, the title states "lost their accents." I thought that it wasn't much of their accents but more of their culture. When the family were at Dominican Republic, there was a tradition and a more strict culture. The environment was much more calm and the family was rich there. When they had arrived into the United States, the Garcia Girls had experienced a much more loose culture. They were poor there and could not afford much. Boys tended to tease them and American culture seemed to rely on sex. The girls soon had adapted to American culture and had heavily lost their Dominican Republic culture as a result.

Re: What is Success by Andy Lau

So, what is success? Success cannot be defined with only a few words or that it has only one meaning. I looked upon Andy Lau's post and I thought that he defined success rather well. He wrote:

"Success means many things to people. To me success describes a positive result or wished-for ending through the achievement of goals. The key to success lies in hard work and perseverance. Ultimate success in life can only come from hard work." - Andy Lau

In his blog post, I agree with what he had said. Success can be a positive result in the end or success can a result in which you are happy with. To me, success is just getting the result that had met your goal. I have a lot of experience in which success is just meeting my goal.

In the past, I had thought that success was getting good grades. When I had ever received a bad grade in which it is probably a D or an F, I would push myself to become better to raise my grades. An example of this would be last year when I was almost failing at history when I learned that I had those grades during quarter grades. I didn't show my grades to my parents and decided to help myself by pushing myself. I began to do my history homework carefully and began to study for tests as much as I could possibly can. I ended that semester with a B in that class and I was happy that I was able to do so. To my, that would be the definition of success.

Now, I think of success as being just happy of doing something whether it was a project or an essay. As long as I believe that I did it well and that I had spent effort in it, I believe that it is success. After a hard day's work and that I am able to finish is considered success to me. These experiences of success guide me to strive to become better and not lose hope within myself.

Oscar Grant Case

In the case of Johannes Mehserle shooting Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale Bart station back on New Year's Eve on 2008, Johannes Mehserle was only sentenced to the minimum jail time of 2 years. I thought that this case was not fair at all. Any form of murder should have resulted in at least moderate amount of time of about 8 years. I also thought about how it could have been called involuntary manslaughter when it was called in July.

I thought about how it was unfair and there were two reasons. One reason was the jury. For this case, the trial was supposed to be naturally held in Oakland but they had moved the case to L. A. where it had favored Mehserle's side because the jury consisted mainly of retired police officers. This greatly changes the situation compared to what would have happened if the case would have been tried in Oakland. In Alameda county, Johannes Mehserle had pleaded innocent of first degree murder. If he had been tried in Oakland, it would be considered the highest level of murder. The second reason why it was unfair was because of the sentencing. I wonder why it was considered involuntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter is like crashing into person with a car when the person randomly enters the middle of the street. In this case, Mehserle had shot Oscar Grant when he was already determined to be unarmed and defenseless. There were many people that had recorded. I continue to wonder why it was still considered involuntary manslaughter. There was no reason in which Mehserle needed a taser. Oscar Grant was facing his back towards the officer. I believe that this case should have resulted in at least second degree murder.

I also thought about the scene of the murder. I thought about how Mehserle would pull out the gun instead of the taser. I thought that they would have the proper training and know which weapon is where. I also thought that it was common sense that since a person was already cuffed up, there is not a need to further taser or injure the defenseless person.

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents 2nd paper clip (=

At last I have finally approached the second paper clip that we sophomores needed to have approached by tomorrow. Apparently, I had made the terrible choice to cram 100 pages in a day and it didn't go so well. So far, I thought this book was plenty like House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. It is full of vignettes just like the book we are currently reading. I am beginning to get into the book but I like books that flow and make a big story.

Even after reading this book for 2 weeks now, I continue to find this book confusing but not as confusing like before where I had barely understood a word until the end of each story. Now, I understand what is going on as I read the book. The usual parts that I get confused about is the setting and the character's names. I continue to get lost with the reverse chronological method this book is in but I am used to it by now. When I had first read the first vignette of the first chapter, I did not even know who Laura was until there was the mentioning of the fact that she had four daughters. In the last vignette of Part II, I thought that the family was still in the Dominican Republic when it was actually when they had first come to America.

Compared to a few of last year's books, this book is quite similar to them. They include some form of sex and feminism. It also introduces a different perspective of how minorities sees living in America. They are poor and the parents are working day after day. In the book, the Garcia family comes to America with their traditional cultures but as they grow older, they learn that American culture is way different to their Dominican culture. To me, the book develops a story of how the Garcia family adapted to American ways of life and partially or completely lost their Dominican lifestyle. 

I personally think this book's main story reflects my family. They were immigrants to the United States and struggled in poverty to have food and shelter. Luckily, my dad worked hard and was able to support the family. He got the recognition from Safeway to become a butcher while he was working at a supermarket. My parents expects my sister and I to become educated and have a pleasant life in the future. Doesn't every parent want that for their children?

Response to 11-4-10 by Vic Xuan

Social networking has been common throughout my period of life. When I first knew about the internet, Myspace was the first social network that I had personally knew of. It was sort of boring so I didn't access my file often. Then society had created Facebook. I joined last year and I grew fond of it and it is a great way to keep in touch with friends. I looked at Vic Xuan's response post to Ivan Arreola's post and found a quote that I agree on:

"I agree that Facebook can get addicting sometimes, but there isn't much to do on Facebook besides the childish games. Facebook can't intervene in life for a long period of time because it is simply searching and reading. People wouldn't know every movement a person is taking if they don't publicize it. Possibly, the people who do publicize it, don't mind other people knowing about their life and privacy. People know when they are giving out too much information."

Personally I agree with Vic on what he says on his response post. Ivan said that Facebook was a bad place to go to because it is addicting and many consequences could happen such as bullying. Like what Vic had said, Facebook is not addicting because a person spends only a small amount of time on it because he or she is only reading and replying. Why would a person sit there waiting for just some reply or someone to talk to because they think that they have nothing else to do? They have so many other options such as homework, reading, hanging out with friends, or something active. Well, you could even be playing video games.

My other agreement with Vic is about bullying. Bullying usually only happens when a commenter can be anonymous. In Facebook, everyone has a name. If they carry a false name, you should have never accepted them as a friend in the first place. It is so obvious. If it is someone that you know is bullying you, you can report them to anyone that you feel comfortable telling them. That could be a parent, friend, or even a teacher if you are fine with it.

My final agreement with Vic is about keeping in touch with their friends. Sometimes, school isn't enough to communicate with friends enough because of the limited time. When at home and you want to talk to your friends, you can keep in touch with them by calling them but it costs the phone bill. So, you go to an alternative in which it is a social network where you can chat and keep in touch that way. It is so accessible as long as there is internet.

Reflection: Food Journal

Over the past couple of weeks in Mrs. Corbally's class, the sophomores have been researching and analyzing our diet in our food journal. Students had to observe a four day's meal in which there are two weekdays and the entire weekend. During the period of time, Students needed jot down everything that they had eaten and described the sensations of eating the food in our composition books. This assignment was a preparation for an essay that we had turn in our final draft yesterday. It was pretty fun and overall, I had learned much from the assignment but it had also frightened me as well.

Over that time period, I had completed twelve pages of work in the composition book. I was staring at my composition book thinking that I had eaten a lot. I panicked for a period of time and then I stopped to think. I said to myself that if I had actually eaten the amount that I had eaten, I would probably be a little bit overweight. I am so skinny that I don't think that I can be fat at all. Nevertheless, I was still shocked to have eaten that much though.

This was my first time that I had ever looked into my diet and it was actually an experience that is rare amongst other people. Many others would have usually eaten what was placed before them on the table. They don't look at the nutrition labels or measure how much intake of certain substances to create a balanced diet. When I looked at the nutrition labels, I was amazed at which substances I would consume the most and the least. I learned about how unhealthy some foods are and healthy foods that are excellent for the nutrition and growth of the body.

In my diet, I learned that I tend to consume my daily value of calcium and iron just in breakfast. I tend to eat a small lunch and a bigger dinner. Between lunch and dinner, I tend to drink and eat junk food. I consume too much fat but that doesn't seem to be affecting much at all. On rare occasions do I not eat rice over the weekends nevertheless constantly consume it everyday if not a special occasion.

My first impression of "Garcia Girls"

In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, the author write the book in many unique ways. Alvarez had written the book in reverse chronologically order. I was puzzled by that idea that an author would do that. The book is confusing and I tend to lose sight to where I am. I placed so many post-its in the first part that I wanted the author answer. Some on them were but many of them were not. In the end, I figure out who is communicating and what the section in about.

I found the book confusing mainly because I have had no experience about the book at all. I did not know who the author was and her background. It was fresh and I did not know where to start when I first received the book. When I first began the book, the author didn't give any background information about characters except for the family chart that marked the main characters' position in the family. The author just began with a story after story. Sometimes, Julia Alvarez just jumps from one scene to the next barely or not even making any transition at all. Until the end of each section, I was confused but as the story progresses I slowly understood the plot and the main point of each section. Julia Alvarez wrote the book where it was just the perfect amount of confusion but it also gave a chance for the reader to understand what is going on.

Besides the confusion part, I found the book quite interesting. I enjoyed how there were like miniature stories within the book. It was similar to House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros where there were vignettes. It was also nice how she had included a family diagram so that the reader would know the family.

My favorite part of the book in Part 1 was the section where Sofia (FiFi) had lost her father's trust since she had run away with another man. The father disowns her and he does not speak of her name. Even when Sofia tried to throw a party for him on his 70th birthday, the father still did not approve of her. One of my questions was why the father held the grudge for such a long time. I am hoping that it will be answered later.

Reflective Essay

Starting this year, I had created my first blog in my entire life. I was able to write about anything I had wanted almost every week. I typed a variety of topics from a personal topic like stage fright to a political and social topic like budget cuts in schools. I pondered, how did those ideas get to my mind and typed on this blog? Then - KABOOM- an answer came to my mind as I scrolled through all the blog posts. Except for the first, second, fifth, eighth, and the blog post before this one, my issues throughout my life had inspired me to write almost all my blog posts.

On my third blog post, I had copied one of my summer reflections about college readiness. I placed it on my blog because it had to do with modern society. Many people are lazy and usually try and get by high school only meeting the minimum requirements to pass. On my blog post, I described what college readiness meant:

"Being college ready means that you are willing to do extra rather than to just homework and going to school... Being college ready means that you are prepared at all times in any situation in class... Being college ready mean that you are actively listening in class and to stay focused to the speaker." 

In the blog post, I went on reflecting my study habits. I discussed which habits I should keep and habits that I need to stop or improve upon. In Alameda Science and Technology institute, students officially begin taking college classes at junior year. That's the next year for me! I wanted to prepare myself for the journey ahead. I not only wrote it for myself, but also for others to see. I can suggest tips so that they can prepare themselves too.

On my 9th blog post, I wrote about stage fright. Stage fright has affected me ever since I went up on stage. It was a personal matter, but everyone has it at least one time in their lives. I continue to have stage fright but starting this year, my stage fright is beginning to degrade It is normal to have stage fright because people feel pressured that they must say the right thing or else ( blank )happens. I wrote about my symptoms of stage fright in the blog post:

"Before and during a speech or a conference, I become extremely nervous and feel the need rush. I want to get the speech or my part of the conversation over with. When this happens, it tends to imply that I will shake my legs or stutter. If I am holding a paper while I talk, many people see that I am shaking the paper intensely. When I am nervous, I also forget my train of thought. That's why when I try to say something, I usually end up saying never mind or that I will go a little bit off topic."

When I was thinking of a blog post to write, I was thinking what to write about. I wanted to write about something that everyone had sometime during their lifetime that was rather hard to get rid of. I thought about stage fright and began writing about that matter. I wrote it so that I would be expressing my experience from stage fright and how it affected me as a person. I also wanted others to create response posts that would help me relax and not develop hypertension so I can prepare myself for the most important speeches when I am in college or in my career.

In the Response post responding to Max's post, I discussed about how the amount of homework in ASTI is creating a ton of stress among students. Starting this year, it has been taking me a long time in order to complete my homework. On weekdays except Friday, the earliest time that I have gone to sleep is at midnight. To add on, I usually start completing my homework as soon as I get home. I continue to work only taking breaks when I am taking a shower or eating dinner. In this excerpt of the response post, I compared the amount of homework between the freshman year and sophomore year and effects from the lack of sleep during weekdays:

"During Freshman year, it was rather easy ... I finished homework in four hours at that time. Now it is like seven hours. If the amount of homework continues to increase, does that mean that we will have no sleep... This year I usually get only about five hours of sleep compared to last year where I had the normal seven hours of sleep during weekdays. That is just because I live rather close to the school and could sleep in. How about those that live in San Lorenzo or those that live in Hayward? They have to wake up at least one or two hours earlier than me because they have to go through traffic everyday."

This blog post was one of the most important ones that I wrote. I complain not just because of myself but also for the other people that have the same problems. I was inspired by students and myself to write this post. It had become such a issue; a big one for me since I have not adapted to sleeping at such a late time. It is frustrating for me and I find the bed so much more comforting than school. For the past few weeks, I have been oversleeping even though I put my alarm on the highest noise possible. I tend to eat less breakfast these weeks.

Over the course of events this year, many of my blog posts have been inspired by something that I find is an issue in my life. Whether it is preparing for college, stage fright, or homework, I write about it because I want to get my opinion read throughout the internet. I hope to write more about issues and continue blogging about it.

The Central Conflict in "Night" by Elie Weisel

Life is full of conflicts and conflicts help to keep life going. Conflicts happen so that a person or groups of people will help to find a solution. In Night by Elie Wiesel, there are multiple conflicts that influence the progression of his memoir. Some examples of conflicts are character vs. society and character vs. self. In this story, I believe that the central conflict of the story is between character vs. the supernatural where his belief in god is slowly degraded as he spends his days in labor camps.

In the beginning of Night, Wiesel was a heavy believer in god. He decides to grow up to be a Rabbi and asks for his father's permission. Elie Wiesel wrote: "One day I asked my father to find me a master to guide me in my studies of the cabbala"(Wiesel 1). He was willing to take a step closer to god to communicate with him. He felt that he had found life meaningful and that god treated everyone fairly. He had a fortunate family and life. No one in the community was ever a bother even the beggar was considered as "invisible".

As Night progresses, Elie finds himself in Auschwitz and sees innocent people being burned alive by the Germans.  He was terrified and shocked and wished that it was all a nightmare. In this scene, Elie begins to question God: "... I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?" (Wiesel 31). In this scene, Elie wonders why God is doing this to all of his people. They had never done any wrong and yet they are to suffer slowly and die an unfulfilled life. He sees God as more of a traitor and that he only supports the strong and full of injustice.

At the middle of Elie's time in labor camp, he witnesses a young child being hanged and he had to stare at the entire scene. Due to the young boy's light weight and size, he continued to struggle out of the tight rope. At the moment he marched past the struggling boy, he believes that God had disappeared from his side. He states: "Behind me, I heard the same man asking: 'where is God now?' And I heard a voice within me answer him: 'Where is he? Here He is- He is hanging here on this gallows...'" (Wiesel 62). He believes that god has mistreated many people causing them to suffer ever since he had gone to Auschwitz. Now that he had witnessed a young child being hanged, he broke and was angry at god. He knew that god had just killed a boy that had not lived to his full potential. The next day, Elie blames god for all things and rebelled him: "Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day on Sundays and feast days." (Wiesel 64) Elie continues listing all the other destructive things that he has done. He does not pray nor believe in him for God. Elie experienced all the torture and witnessed all the deaths of the people that he had forgotten about the past. All he thinks about is how to survive and make it through the camps.

Overall, Elie lost his faith in God by the end of the concentration and labor camps. He was mistreated and saw dead people where he went. He had lost faith in the god he was once familiar with but it had died. That is why this book Night by Elie Wiesel is about Elie vs. the Supernatural (religion).

Re: "Ms. Valdez" by Vy Truong

Last year, the freshman class had a different English teacher. We addressed her has Ms. Valdez. Many of us really miss her and wish that she was still here. She left a big memory in ASTI history. I found a blog post that described her on Vy Truong's post posted 2 weeks ago and I would like to respond to it: 

"She was one of the most mmm..interesting teacher ever. Ms.Valdez always had to have it her way and be right no matter what. She even said “when I’m right I’m right and when I’m wrong, I’m still right,” that was Ms.Valdez... We read many books in her class... She made reading more understandable and always found a deeper meaning in everything we read. Her essay’s were a pain to write but it got easier as the year goes on but Ms.Valdez never gave out A’s, it would be rare when she did... I have to admit she was an amazing teacher. I have learn so much in her class than I learn in all my years of middle school. She would always make class interesting and keep the class predictable. Also she was able to interpret the reading very clearly and lets us say whatever we want about the reading. She just wanted use to express ourselves as a student and help us find the bigger meaning in everything" - Vy Truong

I do have to agree with everything Vy said in her blog post. She was a strict and tough teacher. She usually gave us a lot of reading each night ranging from 10 pages to 56 pages and it usually took me 2 hours to read it while annotating. Everyday after we read, we would have a small quiz that tests what we read. She says that this makes sure that the student actually reads instead of skipping it and pretend. By the way, the questions' answers are rather specific so you really actually have to read word for word. Her essays were specific prompts that we would have to answer and provide a deep analysis for it. She usually gave a short period to brainstorm, write the essay, and edit it for mistakes (about the total of a week to a week and a half). Her standards for grading essays are very strict because she wants our essays to be college bound so essays in her class doesn't go above a B.

Yes, she is a very strict teacher, the strictest that I have ever experienced but she does have a good personality. Before, she allowed us to eat in class because she does herself and it would be unfair. She allowed us to randomly talk about the book and allowed us to express ourselves freely in Socratic Seminar and in our writing. She is a nice person to talk to especially when you are sad. She may look mean but she is kind. She only wants us to learn and be successful in college.

Speech: Bullying in Alameda and how it can be stopped

Alameda has been a home to me for almost four years and I have enjoyed living here ever since then. There are many reasons for that. Alameda is a safe neighborhood and a great school district with very little dangerous incidents or gang fights. Another reason is that the city has many great activities to participate in. For example, there are swimming lessons during the summer, boy and girl scouts, and fairs and parades.

Unfortunately, there are some problems in Alameda that should be solved immediately. My major concern is the common bullying of misfits at school and outside of school. As a young adult living through my educational career, I have experienced bullying first hand. I was teased but had not entered the stage of physical abuse. Although bullying is generally thought as physical, it can also be cyber bullying, mental bullying, and verbal bullying. Cyber bullying includes texting or posting mean messages about a person. Mental bullying can be ignoring a person or giving them dirty looks. Verbal bullying is the most common. This type of bullying includes calling a person names or talking about them behind their backs. Bullying never ends up as a good thing and no one ever wins. Bullying usually starts with jealousy or anger at another student. The jealous or angry student begins teasing other peers and it later becomes a chain reaction.

Bullying can happen in many ways. At school, students can be judged by their personality or their looks. They could also be teased by what they do or how they act. The internet is another place where bullying happens constantly. During these past few years, the internet has been becoming a rather a popular place to chat and email each other. Forums such as Myspace and Facebook can hide the user’s name or be created with a fictitious name. Bullies can use this system to tease or post hurtful comments to make the victims feel depressed.

An example of bullying happened on Monday, March 31 where nine bullies led a month long campaign of bullying in Massachusetts which later led to the suicide of a 15 year old girl. She was physically abused and verbally harassed because a small group of students were displeasured by her minor dating relationship from about six weeks ago. She was later found hanged in her apartment.

    As once said by Martin Luther King Jr., “the ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and the cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” What Martin Luther King means is the fact that no one speaks up when someone is in trouble. During the Jim Crow Era, Negroes were afraid to speak up because they feared that mobs would come after them and lynch them. At school, students who are victims of bullying are afraid that if they speak up to the teachers or the principle, they will be physically abused and teased afterwards by the bully. This is the main problem of bullying. It continues on and on because no one has the courage to speak up for themselves and for the other students in risk of the dangers of being bullied.

Everyone should speak up when someone is in trouble. Students shouldn’t be afraid of the bully at all. I also suggest that teachers and the principle should pay more attention to each student. When using the internet, I suggest staying away from signing up for websites where random people can comment anonymously. When using Facebook or Myspace, make sure that the friends that you approve aren’t strangers.

Building a comfortable education where young adults are happy is important to their educational career. If bullying cannot be stopped, kids will live through their educational career in fear and depression similar to those in the civil rights movement and the girl that committed suicide. I understand that stopping bullying takes a large amount of time and effort. But, as long as everyone puts in some effort, it can be stopped permanently.

Re: Stress Level Override by Max Rohde

In my entire career as a student so far, life had not been harder than for me this year. As a sophomore,we have a lot of assignments to do and many tests to study for. Especially in Alameda Science and Technology Institute, the school I am currently attending, it is the harder than many other charter and public schools because we have to prepare for college within two years time. Even though this is rather short compared to the four years of high school, I believe that we students of A.S.T.I. should still have less work compared to the present work that we have but still more work compared to other high schools. I found a post from Max Rohde's blog that really relates to what I am writing about. The following quote is one of the quotes that I would say about the amount of work is to me:

"The amount of work that teachers give their ASTI students is painfully unbearable. Not only are we enrolled in difficult and advanced academic classes, bit the workload of homework, studying and tests is to a point where our precious childhood lives are being deprived from us. We are losing countless hours of sleep, and have been turned into workaholics"  - Max Rohde

In his radical blog post about the amount of homework that A.S.T.I. gives out to Sophomores, I agree with most of it. I agree that we do have a lot of homework every night. When every teacher gives out homework for us to do every night to do, I would usually work till midnight or later if I didn't have college classes during that night as well. I usually start my homework at four o' clock and only stop working on my homework when I have to shower, eat dinner, or when I have wrist cramps and need to shake loose. In my opinion, colleges classes don't even give out that much homework at all.

During the summer, I took two college classes and the amount of homework compared to school homework now is not even close at all. It takes like one-fourth of the time or two to three hours to finish it averagely. I think that A.S.T.I just wanted us to make us work continuously every night so that when we take college classes, it will be a breeze. I don't like that idea because I believe that each grade level should become only a little bit harder not dramatically harder like it is now.

During Freshman year, it was rather easy even when Ms. Valdez taught English and that we had tests everyday for her class. I finished homework in four hours at that time. Now it is like seven hours. If the amount of homework continues to increase, does that mean that we will have no sleep. It sure seems like it. This year I usually get only about five hours of sleep compared to last year where I had the normal seven hours of sleep during weekdays. That is just because I live rather close to the school and could sleep in. How about those that live in San Lorenzo or those that live in Hayward? They have to wake up at least one or two hours earlier than me because they have to go through traffic everyday. Does that mean that they only have about at most 3 hours of sleep? I guess so.

This amount of homework is stressing many students out. Students are now even willing to not complete assignments just to get some rest. Students are not liable to pay attention in class and probably sleep while the teachers are giving a lecture. Students don't get to learn this way because class time is much more important than homework because class time is a time for students to learn while homework is just to practice what we learned. Practice should not have to take seven hours but should take only 30 minutes for each subject everyday.

Ability or Attitude?

    In my opinion, a small amount of success comes from ability while a lot of success comes from attitude. The reason is that if a person does not put any effort into what he or she is doing, there is no point in using any sort of ability. It mainly relies on the attitude of the person. Even though a person does not have the ability to do something, as long as their heart is in the right place, they will be successful because they are willing to learn how it does even without the experience and knowledge. Below are some of my personal experiences proving my opinion.
     In my entire life, I had many abilities and yet I do not use them because I didn’t put any effort in it because I was lazy or I felt grumpy that day. One example was mathematics project that a teacher handed out to the entire class for them to individually do. Over that assignment, I thought that this assignment was going to be easy and that even though I procrastinated, I was going to pass. Therefore, I waited two weeks until it was the last three days to finish the project. It turns out that I needed a lot of materials and it took me an entire day to gather them. Soon enough, I had two days left. I had to use them wisely but I got off task. I became behind and I used the last day to rush it. I turned it in incomplete and received a “C” mark on it.
     I had much success due to the positive attitude of that class. One was in an eighth grade class called ODD. It was a class about landscaping and learning to use tools. It was a brilliant and fun class. It was an outdoor classroom class where I am involved with landscaping. I learned to do thing that I never done before like building compost boxes and other stuff. I learned to do them because I remained positive and didn’t feel lazy. I was glad of all that I have learned.

Note*: I had put this on my blog not because it was the last day. It is a Tuesday by the way. I placed this on my blog because I felt that people need to find the right attitude to achieve their goals. Many people continue to complain that they don't have the ability to do their task. If they are willing to put their best efforts, they may not be able to succeed at first but they will succeed next time. ^_^

“Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.” - Charles Dickinson

Who is Qwfwq?

Thesis: In Italo Calvino's short stories, Qwfwq is a creature that struggles to find true love but ends in failure.

In "The Aquatic Uncle", Qwfwq plays the character of a fish-lizard that is able to live in both land and water but he chooses to live on land instead. During his time on land, he falls in love with someone of the same species named Lll. Except, Lll is much more adapt to land rather than water. They were great friends and spent time with each other constantly: "Lll and I spent our days together, chasing each other... We ventured into zones of the inferior where no print marked the dry and crusty" (Calvino 74). Qwfwq wanted to be with her forever and live a happy life. They journeyed to where Lll's home is. Qwfwq would even follow Lll all the way till where Qwfwq has never seen before. He had traveled far beyond from the muddy area where Qwfwq had always lived. If Qwfwq had not loved Lll, he would not have gone beyond his comfort zone. This course of love eventually turned Qwfwq to even do more things out of his boundaries as well.

Later on in "The Aquatic Uncle", Qwfwq brings Lll to meet his uncle, Nba-Nga to get a blessing for his marriage. Unfortunately, Nba-Nga doesn't do so as a result and tries to talk to Lll about living in the water. During this event, this makes Lll have many thoughts affecting her life. Lll begins to ignore Qwfwq, making him afraid that he had begin to lose her. He tries to get her back by impressing her with his abilities: "Had I lost her? Suspecting this, I hastened to woo her back. I took to performing all sorts of feats. Unfortunately when I did something brave, she wasn't there to see me..." (Calvino 80). Here, Qwfwq tries to make Lll come back to him so that nothing would go wrong in the relationship. Like in the previous paragraph, Qwfwq had also gone out of his boundaries because he loved her so deeply. He was willing to risk his own life doing dangerous stunts for her. Sadly, she had not seen any of what Qwfwq had done just for her. She was too deep in thoughts in her mind rather to pay attention to him. In the entire time that she was thinking, Qwfwq should have been comforting her and asking her why she was so depressed. Qwfwq cost his relationship just by the mistake of resorting to the wrong actions at the wrong time. Like "The Aquatic Uncle", the Qwfwq in "The Dinosaurs" also falls in love with another creature but ends in failure due to his mistakes.

In "The Dinosaurs", Qwfwq is the only remaining dinosaur during the Cretaceous period. His entire ancestry was wiped out by a new set of creatures in which they call themselves "the New Ones". In this story, Qwfwq falls in love with a girl named Fern-Flower. Fern-Flower is a New One that constantly dreams nightmares about dinosaurs. Everyday, she tells her nightmares to Qwfwq and he tries to understand her attitude towards dinosaurs. Then one day, When Fern-Flower gets a nightmare that a Dinosaur was being mistreated, Qwfwq tries to comfort her: "This dream furnished me with a new key to the understanding of Fern-Flower's attitude towards me... The revelation so moved me that I threw myself at her feet, tears in my eyes and said 'No, No, Fern-Flower. It's not the way you believe; you're better than any Dinosaur, a hundred times better, and I feel so inferior to you..." (Calvino 104). In this quote, Qwfwq is dramatic and deeply loves Fern-Flower. Qwfwq feels sad that she was sad and tries to comfort her by poring all of his emotions. He even reveals his true identity. But all of that was just a waste. This was all to sudden and he had misinterpreted the situation. He indeed, had only made it worse. It had created a feeling of uneasiness between both of them (Calvino 105). Like "The Aquatic Uncle", he had used the wrong judgment to decide on what to do during the situation. He ruined his own love life.  

Note*: The first two body paragraphs were originally one paragraph. The second paragraph I did not split because the length of it is fine to leave it alone as one single paragraph. This separation idea was suggested by Mr. Sutherland.

Response to "ASTI Size Increase" by Amber Chan

     As many people know, major budget cuts are affecting all of California and many other states of the United States as well. In California, one of the cities in which the budget cuts affect the most is Alameda. As a student of Alameda Science and Technology Institute, I know how this is physically affecting us. I found a post from Amber Chan's blog and would like to respond to it.

"As many of you know, there have been major budget cuts this year, and the Parcel Tax did not get passed, so a lot of the funding for schools has been drastically lowered, and we do not have as many funds to pay for textbooks and teachers.  Many of the schools have been planning to shut down soon and merge with another school, and grades for the school to be changed.  I heard that Encinal High School and Lincoln Middle School might shut down... the grades in Alameda High... would be changed so there are seventh and eight graders too.  Also, they have plans to shut down about half of the elementary schools in Alameda... Because many of the schools might get shut down, and most schools are losing privileges and teachers" -Amber Chan

     In addition, Chipman Middle School was closed this year and is replaced with a charter school that does not follow the district. Encinal High School will be closing next year. All students that wish to attend a public high school would have to attend the last public high school in Alameda; Alameda High. The amount of school days for Alameda have so far been cut five days but there will be more cut later.
     I think that this budget crisis is just unfair for all students and also teachers. Just because California does not use their budget well, they have to cut school budgets and other important funding for public and heath services. Why couldn't they have cut spending on prisons or the military? They are not extremely important at all. Why can't they only have a few large prisons located on a island so that it is hard for them to escape. If there were more cuts there, there wouldn't have to be so many huge effects on the school system. The government should understand that the future is much more important. The future depends on children and if their learning experience is cut, the chance of success goes a little bit lower. This increases the chance that America or at least California will end up in the worse economy and a decline in technology as well.

Stage Fright!!!!!

     Ever since I was a kid, I always acquired the trait stage fright when I was on stage. I disliked the feeling of everyone constantly staring at me. It makes me feel as if I was an important person and that I had to become perfect. I felt that if I made a mistake, everyone would laugh at me and tease me afterward.
     Before and during a speech or a conference, I become extremely nervous and feel the need rush. I want to get the speech or my part of the conversation over with. When this happens, it tends to imply that I will shake my legs or stutter. If I am holding a paper while I talk, many people see that I am shaking the paper intensely. When I am nervous, I also forget my train of thought. That's why when I try to say something, I usually end up saying never mind or that I will go a little bit off topic.
     My distinction from other people that also have the trait of stage fright is that many people get over with stage fright. Ever since I discovered that I have the trait of stage fright, I constantly tried to suppress that feeling. I have tried basic techniques like breathing slowly and calming down but it doesn't work because I don't think about my breathing while I talk. I even took classes involving public speaking in college last summer and I still felt the nervousness within me.  Unfortunately till this day, I could not still resist that nervous feeling.
     In my opinion, I believe that i become nervous because I know that there is something on the line; my grade. Usually when I normally talk to friends or teachers as a casual talk, I feel fine because there is nothing that could influence greatly on my future. On the other hand, grades can determine the future. A deflict of my grade can prevent me from attending high ranking colleges that I would like to attend.
     For those that would like to respond to this post, I would like to know what techniques that you use as a student when speaking. Thanks! ^_^

My 10 words that I chose to study

oHere are my ten words that I chose to find out about:

• derive
• acquisition
• aspect
• distiction
• imply
• implement
• impose
• liberal
• regulation
• sustainable

Response to "Book and Words" from Leon Liang

     Books were never of a pleasure for me and I really hate wasting time reading them. I found a few sentences from my friend's, Leon's Blog about how he dislikes reading. I really think that it also reflects me as well.

"When I hear the word 'book', I automatically feel like I am going to be bored to death from reading. Reading is something that I find complicated and hard. I am one of those that cannot sit down and just read. Most of the time, I would just fall asleep after a couple pages. The problem with books is that I cannot face a page full of just words. From grade school until now, the number of books I have read, excluding the books assigned by teachers, can be counted with two hands. I never bother to go discover which book is good and which one is boring. I only read things that I feel like interesting."     -Leon Liang

      When reading, I always feels this way because I don't like reading any teacher's books. Unless it is one of those scary books or science fiction. I always loved those types, but it takes me a long time to even start reading because once I start reading, I cant really stop because I want to just continue on. I don't like reading any other types of books because they are not of my interest and don't always create the suspense that I expect when reading.
      Last year for our old English teacher, we had to read classics and old time books of her choice for the entire year. It was really boring. When I was reading those books, it took me a long time to read because I was constantly distracted by other events and objects in the house. The books that our past teacher made us read were also not interesting. I really don't like to read books about rape and how life is miserable for others and what they are doing. If the class had awesome action filled books last year, it would have been rather fun and we could learn a lot more about writing.

Excerpt from Doing School by Denise Pope (summer reader assignment)

         The type of atmosphere among the students in Eve’s class  is both good and bad in different ways. In a good way, the competition between Eve’s classes pushes each other to work harder so that they can constantly become better to achieve their goal as number one in the classroom. Another good reason from the competition is the fact that students pay in class more overall in order to achieve the step of understanding what the lesson was about. The atmosphere of the competition is also bad because it can cause some students to cheat their way up the class because they are not able to take the pressure of losing in the completion. This makes them take risks of endangering their grade in order to achieve a higher grade.
         As mentioned earlier, students cheat because they want to become the best student in the class. Students also cheat because they want to impress their parents and please them. Sometimes, parents make promises to buy them something if they receive a good grade. The students believe that they cannot achieve such grade  on their own so they will cheat in order to get such a grade. This can also be called a lack in self confidence in students that are willing to cheat.
         The consequences vary in different types of schools. It ranges from getting an F on the assignment or a test to dropping out of school and having a cheating report on your permanent record. I don’t think cheating is worth it because each point from an assignment or test is very important towards your grade and you are risking all of those points. The students that are caught cheating should just get an F on the assignment rather than an F for a year or dropping out of school. The cheating report should still remain on the permanent record.

Opening Statement

Hello, my name is David Su and this is my partner Vincent Liu. Today, we are here to talk about why Global warming is real and that you should believe in it. So far, many scientists proved that global warming is real with the constant rise of temperature from year to year. We believe that this is caused by human activities from factories, mining, drilling, etc... Every year, there is a 75% increase in carbon dioxide due to the burning of fossil fuels. According to National Geographic, the earth has warmed up 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (.8 degrees Celsius). Most importantly, much of the ice in the north pole and south pole has been disappearing. Slowly mile by mile, the ice caps are disintegrating; glaciers are also impacted. So far, we lost over 890 cubic miles of ice in glaciers. Coral reefs are also dying of bleaching due to their sensitivity to the water temperature. Also, with the rise of temperature, there was a major increase in heat waves, severe storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes, and wildfires. These are all caused by the temperature rise. Droughts and floods also heavily increase every year. In Africa, the Sahara Desert is growing rapidly, expanding within every day due to the heat that kills many plants. Nearly all of Africa’s lakes evaporated into air. People are living without water there. As a result, many of the people there die of thirst. It is so devastating. According to the environmental defense fund, there was a record breaking amount of wildfires in 2006 where it burned nearly 10 million acres and had over 96,000 fires in Western America. One of the biggest reason why global warming is becoming reality is because of all the carbon dioxide. During the mid 1700s, human technology began to improve as time passes due to the industrial revolution. We, humans created new technologies that releases tons of carbon dioxide into the air every day; some of these technologies are factories, trains, cars, etc... More and more heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere are slowly disappearing and temperature is getting warmer. This goes back to what I said in the beginning, carbon dioxide are increasing and even if it is ‘natural occurrence’ you can’t hide the fact that human activities does cause carbon dioxide to go into the air. Therefore, Human activities does cause this strange phenomenon to happen and it impacts our world a lot.

Quote that i found from another person and how it relates with the ASTI constitution

I found this quote from Vincent Liu's blog and I thought about how much it relates to one of the major rules of the ASTI constitution:

A time when I have been made harassed by a larger group was the time when I got a bad grade on a test while most of the people in my class got a good grade. The people that got a good grade went to me and start laughing at me because I got a bad grade while they did well.
                                                                                                            -Vincent Liu

This action of teasing a fellow classmate violates the rule of accepting others for who they are. Just because a person received one single bad grade on a test doesn't mean that the next test that he or she would fail again. Think about this: If the group of people that laughed at Vincent received terrible grades, would they would have wanted someone to laugh that them? Almost everyone would say no because it makes them feel bad. It is impolite to do such a thing. I said almost because some people don't care that they received it and let it fly bye. Instead I would sometimes say that someone laughing at someone else can inspire others and the victim to become better so that they are able to avoid the teasing next time. Accepting others for who they are is one of the rules in the ASTI Constitution as mentioned above but I think that accepting people for who they are should be followed everywhere. No one is ever the same in personality because everyone's culture is different. Especially in America, many immigrants come from all over the world. They have different religion, social class and even different manners. Just because people are different, doesn't mean that you are above the law so that you can tease them. Respect others and they will respect you.

Reflection: A definition of College Readiness by David Conley

In my own words, being college ready means that you are willing to do extra rather than to just homework and going to school. This includes reviewing what you have learned today in class and remember it. It also means studying early instead of studying at last minute right before the test. Being college ready means that you are prepared at all times in any situation in class. This includes gathering up school supplies so that you don’t have to constantly have to ask someone to get a piece of paper or borrowing a pencil from someone. Being college ready mean that you are actively listening in class and to stay focused to the speaker. Getting distracted may risk in losing important information that the professor or teacher has said about the particular subject.  I believe that paying attention in class is one my strengths that focuses on  college readiness. I like to jot down notes when I am watching clips that the teacher has brought in or when I am listening to the teacher even though the teacher doesn’t say to do so. I just like to be careful. Over the next few years, I would like to work on my organization skills. I tend to get messy often and my backpack seems to be stuck full of papers. Sometimes, I don’t even know what happened to my homework so I have to receive an F on the assignment. I would also like to improve my study habits. I tend to study at last minute so I receive low grades. I seem to be attracted to the computer often so I sometimes don’t even study for tests at all. I rely on the information I received in class.

random

Blogger is weird. why cant we facebook instead ^_^. its much better that way

‘Just kidding’ and ‘Ganging Up’ from Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons

I was more of a victim rather than a part of an alliance that made someone feel bad. When I get teased or bullied, I sometimes feel insecure about myself. I feel depressed and lonely because no one is willing to help me to fight against other people. I usually end up sitting in a corner where no one pays attention to and then hide my feelings. Also, I feel that I need to push myself to become better and soon outsmart them. I don't get bullied often so it is weird for me when I do. When someone tries to hurt me in the first place, I just ignore them and most likely walk away. I usually don’t care about them because they are wasting a part of their lives to try and yell at me. I do have the option of yelling back at them but I believe that it will only make the situation worse than before. I did try that before but I ended up ignoring them before it was too late to turn back. I think people bully others because they have a certain characteristic that others find annoying, for money (like lunch money), or because they have a grudge on him or her. All these three are the ones that I have experienced before. I think the biggest of all is the fight for power but I never experience that before in my life. I think arguments makes them want to hurt their peers. This falls under the grudge category of bullying probably.