On Appreciating Substitutes!

On Jackson's blog, I found a response he wrote to Luis's post on substitutes.

Subs want to help us and care about all of us. We need to in turn show our care for them too. If you don't appreciate your education, leave the classroom instead of wasting the sub's time. Teachers are extremely important figures in society and everyone should realize that; they care for our future, even subs.

Like Jackson mentioned earlier in his post, substitutes are also teachers, but they are temporary.  Even though they may not know all our names or the norms of the particular class, they still have valuable knowledge that they can share with us, but oftentimes, students tend to disrespect and take advantage of substitutes.

Many times, when a teacher sets a rule in the classroom, when the teacher is there, a vast majority of the time, we follow the rules to avoid getting into trouble.  When there's a sub though, we choose to ignore those rules, and just do things as we'd like.  We take advantage of the substitute's minimal knowledge of the rules at the school and in the class, and use electronics or eat, and often do not do the work assigned, but on rare occasions, we do.

It's true though, just because the substitute doesn't stay for a long time at the school, dedicated to teach students at the school everyday, it doesn't mean that they don't care about your education or want to teach students.  We should appreciate substitutes more often, we under-appreciate them and all the effort they put into teaching or at least just watching us at school.  ASTI subs are extremely generous in my opinion, for being willing to find our small campus, and to stay with a room full of teenagers for a day.  It doesn't sound like a very fun or easy job.

Just a little story I'd like to mention about a substitute in fifth grade:
I remember back in fifth grade, I had (what I thought was) the coolest teacher ever.  He was nice, our history lessons were super fun, he had awesome books, lots of free time, and I always enjoyed my time in his class.  One day he was absent though, so of course we had a sub.  The trouble-maker of the class and the girl he liked (who btw was a goody-two-shoes) both teamed up and set up a string in the front of the class, where'd she would walk by, a few inches away from the floor.

I remember seeing her tripping over it, falling, and all the students began to laugh at her.  She started to cry.  Yet, the ignorant elementary students we were. people continued to laugh.  I think I probably did too.  But still all these years later, whenever I remember that moment, I feel guilty.  She was a nice person, she didn't deserve it.  She didn't do anything, but come in to substitute for us, which the students decided to take an advantage of, and use it to their entertainment.

Please don't do anything like that to a sub. Ever. It's not nice. At all.

Just saying.~

The Hunger Games don't disappoint.

The Hunger Games were created to no only show the districts how much power they had over them, but to also cause the districts to start hating each other.  They create hate between the districts since they can easily become angry at the district that kills their tributes, or become angered that their tributes had to die for a person from another district to live and become rich.  In turn, causes the districts to dislike each other, and therefore, can not team up in cooperation and well to start a rebellion, and the Capitol will be safe from any large and successful rebellions occurring.

The Capitol is has more technology and power than the districts they keep in control.  Through the Hunger Games, they wanted to show them their power of dominance, and make it clear that if one of them were to step out of line and rebel or anything, they would have certain death.  The muttations that they made and that chased after Cato before beginning to try to attack Katniss and Peeta each closely resembled the other twenty-one dead tributes that had died to allow the three of them to still be in the games.  They were meant to remind them of who had died for them (unwillingly) and to scare them, since they were so deadly.

Katniss finally feels a sense of security when she lays on Peeta's arm and he lays his other arm protectively over her.  She has not felt so secure and safe around anyone, ever since her father's death, because after her father died, she no longer trusted her mom enough, because she stopped playing that motherly figure in her family.  Her father's death caused her mom to numbly sit next to the window, day after day, unworking, and helpless.  She had a very difficult time getting food for Katniss and Prim, so Katniss took over that motherly position and went out to hunt for meat and animals, and trade it in the Hob for other foods.  Her mom no longer gave her the sense of security she once had, because her mother has lost her identity and can no longer simply just support and feed her and Prim, so Katniss becomes much more independent, as her mother grows somewhat weaker.

Haymitch doesn't hate people, like some people who read the book might think.  He might despise them, but he doesn't hate people (just making that clear).  Before he left for the games, he had a family waiting for him at home, but two weeks after he was crowned victor of the Second Quarter Quell, hims mother, brother, and girlfriend were killed by President Snow, because of the way he used the force field to kill the last tribute to win the Games.  Because Haymitch has been successful by winning the Quarter Quell, he doesn't need to worry about getting food to feed his stomach, since as the winner, the Capitol provides him with a home and food.  Without anyone to share his happiness with though, and he can't find anyone else to replace his girlfriend, brother or mother, he cannot do much, and resorts to alcohol to wash away all his sadness and problems he's having because of his lost family.

I strongly recommend this book.  I first read it after buying the book for the class, and because I wanted to avoid doing homework, I started to read it, using the excuse that it was a school book to continue reading, and I was absolutely hooked!  I finished the book in less than two days, even with the busy weekend, and couldn't stop thinking about it and was tortured by the search for the second book to read.

Response to I Love, I Hate, I Move On.

In Susan's blog post, I Love, I Hate, I Move On, I found this quote particularly interesting.

Sometimes I think life couldn't get any better than this, that everything is perfect and the world just keeps throwing better and better moments in my direction. Other times I wonder why I should even bother. What reason is there to drag my ass out of bed every morning? To even try to keep up with the rush and flow of every day living?

Sometimes, I feel exactly the same way.  I love life, it seems perfect, and I'm perfectly content living the rest of my life the same way, but other times, I feel like life is a waste, and I see no reason at all for living on and trying to make a change, because of that constant reminder that "one person can make a difference," and sometimes, I want to be the one to be able to make that difference.  Still though, I constantly find myself sitting around, wasting time, and not wanting to be productive at all.  I lose the will to try to do anything, and I don't want to do anything other than sit there and read a book, unmoving, and not changing anything (other than my mom's temper).

I try to look toward the happier times in life when I feel that way sometimes.  I just think, if I keep on going, living through these days, someday, I'll find that happy place again, I'll find happiness, I might even find my reason for life, a purpose for living through each day, attempting to keep up with life, and fitting in with everyone around me, in an attempt to blend in and not be seen as weird as much as possible, but it's still hard to do that every day.

You're an amazing writer, Susan, and you've got so much potential.  There's always a reason for getting your ass out of bed every morning and to keep up with the dramas and action of everyday life.  Although it may seem corny, you have the ability to make a difference, just wait, and with time, you'll see the difference you can and have made.(:

Looking for deep connections in the Hunger Games

Part Two of the Hunger Games is where all the action happens.  The part where Katniss and Peeta get thrown into the games, and struggle to survive.  No winner has been declared yet, and when I finished Part Two, I was dying to finish the book, so I finished it. I've been attempting not to ruin the story for anyone, which is extremely difficult.  The story is so dramatic and its nearly impossible to not express my anger about some parts to somebody. (Sorry, Carlybear.)

The Hunger Games, a brutal fight to the death for twenty-four tributes, one boy, one girl from each district, has different meanings and people each view it differently.  Those in the twelve districts see it as a terrible cruelty to those forced to fight, and those who have died it the past.  Those in the capitol view it as mere entertainment, nothing more than something the watch and amuse, with much blood and drama in it.  They feel no pain for the tributes who die in the games every year.  Even though Peeta and Katniss have admitted to all the Capitol and Districts that they were a couple in love, the people in the Capitol don't care, they send them into the games nonetheless, but there's a turn of events at the end of Part Two, which changes their relationship forever.

The people who live in the Capitol don't understand what true love is, since they have never been able to experience themselves; most everything in their lives are temporary, at their big fancy parties, they have drinks especially made to make them vomit out the food they ate, so they are able to eat more and enjoy the party for a longer time.  They have never been able to travel outside of the Capitol to understand the harsh reality of life outside the Capitol, so are basically destined to enjoy the games, they don't know what it's like to see one of their peers die.  Those in the Capitol don't have any chance to experience love, but lust over many things in their lives.  Everything for them is about appearances and enjoying their life, with material goods and flaunting their most (to the districts,) absurd outfits and newest styles.  Love is seemingly meaningless to them, but they have some idea of what it is, and what it may represent, but because they live in the Capitol, they don't know how important it is, or how influential it is.

Amazing Night at the Silent Auction

Kimchi, my grandmother in my strange family tree, wrote something in her blog post, Silent Auction SUCCESS/Response to Peter:

I'm pretty sure that throughout the night, the only thing running through everybody's mind, especially the sophomores was that we had HW due, and that included this post, a book post, 2 essays to work on, math hw, a study guide for science, and a STD brochure for science. On the weekend of the Silent Auction. How convenient.  I wanted to say my thanks...without any of you, we would not have raised OVER $2-3000.

 Last night was very hectic, with many volunteers, the PTSA board, and especially Ms. Harhen running around to make sure that everything was going well and in order, and that everyone had enough food, and that entertainment was good.  Luckily, there were no major problems, and things went well.  We fundraised so much money to go to ASTI, and many people left happily, from a nice night.


There is so much homework this week though.  The two blog posts for English, a group essay and short story for Writing, lots of "fun" math homework from the textbook, study guide questions and vocab for science, and   a "super fun" group science brochure on STDs to work on.  The group projects are particularly hard to work on, since it is difficult to get all the group members to work on the project, and sometimes, especially at the same time, and to communicate with one another.  My essay for writing was hard to write because half of my group didn't do much work *ahem, kimchi*.  The short story went a lot better though, since I had awesome group members, and we all managed to work on it at the same time, so we completed that fairly quickly.  The math homework I still have yet to finish, and same with the study guide questions and vocab.  I at least finished half of it though.  I spent most of my day working on the brochure, working on fitting all the information onto one page, and the formatting of the brochure constantly confused me, and was unwilling to cooperate with me.  


Thank you very much, all you people who helped contribute to the fabulous night yesterday at the ASTI Silent Auction.  The entertainment was stunning, despite the problems that Music Club ran into, trying to figure out how to perform with the microphone.  Let's hope next year's Silent Auction will be just as amazing or even better!~

Hunger Games-The book I'm currently addicted to-book response

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins has been an amazing book that I cannot stop reading.  I got the book during the Black Friday weekend, and in between stores while my family and I were shopping, I would immediately pull out the book and start to read.  After reading it once, I realized that I was going to read it again, and this time, I would have to analyze it.  I thought it would be difficult, thinking that the story was more a book that was for enjoyment than to analyze, but there is so much more to the book than meets the eye.

There was a slight connection to history between Panem and their original thirteen districts, and how America once started with thirteen colonies, and grew to fifty states, making up the United States of America.  In Panem though, the thirteenth colony was wiped out due to war and a nuclear explosion, so it is just a land of ruins.  Panen and the US (as the thirteen colonies) were controlled by a strong power, for Panem and the thirteen districts, it was the Captiol, a place where people lived extravagantly and never had a shortage of food or entertainment, and for the US, it was England, who tried to keep them in control, and if anyone broke their rules, they would have strict laws to punish them.  They stressed the idea that they had power over their people, and made sure that the people never crossed them without big consequences behind them.

The mockingjay pin that Madge gave to Katniss to wear to the games was a symbol of rebellion.  The Capitol originally created jabberjays, birds that could listen to an entire conversation and deliver it to the Capitol, in their labs, so they could monitor what the people were talking about in their Districts, to make sure that no talk of rebellion could come about.  The Capitol's plans backfired though, when the jabberjays began to mate with mockingbirds, creating mockingjays, birds that were able to hear a tune and repeat it.  Slowly, the jabberjays died off, and the mockingjays were left in their midst to remind the Capitol of their failure.

A question I have burning in the back of my mind to get answered, is what would have happened between Gale and Katniss if Katniss didn't have to leave for the Hunger Games? Would something have started between them?

I found many things about Peeta and Katniss strange and interesting especially their relationship.  I'm curious about what would've happened between Peeta and Katniss if they hadn't been chosen for the games.  Would Katniss ever have gotten the chance and taken it to thank Peeta for the sacrifice he made to help her years ago?  Katniss continously looses trust in Peeta and starts to believe that whatever kind actions he is taking to help her out are all a plan to make her trust him, then he would turn against her, although she is reminded constantly about that night years ago... eventually, at the end of the first part, Collins throws a curveball at the readers, completely changing the relationship between Peeta and Katniss, but I don't want to give that away.

Last Writing Piece on Garcia Girls

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents is a reflection of Julia Alvarez, the author’s life.  Many events in the story are reflected in Alvarez’s life, and the sisters are like her and her sisters (I think they are like her sisters).  Even though this book was quite interesting and extremely unique, the book was complicated and difficult to understand for many reasons. 

I didn't vote to read this book mostly because if its structure.  Its reverse chronological structure and short vignettes is extremely confusing for me, and I personally prefer different books to read.  Because of the reverse chronological story, the book starts with a scene in the middle of the Garcia girls' story of their journey from the Dominican Republic to the United States, and how they adapted to the different cultures.  Alvarez begins the story by saying,

"The old aunts lounge in the white wicker armchairs, flipping open their fans, snapping them shut.  Execpt that more of them are dressed in the greys and blacks of widowhood, the aunts seem little changed since five years ago when Yolanda was last on the Island...The cake is on its own table, the little cousins clustered around it, arguing over who will get what slice.  When their squabbles reach a certain mother-annoying level, they are called away by their nursemaids, who sit on stools at the far end of the patio, a phalanx of starched white uniforms."(1)

 Even though the great amount of detail used on the first page helps the readers visualize what is happening to the characters at the start of the book, it does not explain much about who Yolanda is, where this scene is occurring, and for what specific reason they are there.  From reading, the cake was island shaped, and I was confused about whether the party and cake was for Yolanda's birthday, or for a welcome back party, since Yolanda hadn't been on the Island "since five years ago."  To be honest, I'm still kind of confused about what the Island is.  I think "the Island" refers to the Dominican Republic, but I'm still not sure even after the group discussions.  I asked my group members and a few other friends and classmates about it, and they tell me that they are not sure either and that it is probably the Dominican Republic that it refers to.  As the story progresses, it is still hard to understand the different characters with the changing narrators and perspectives of the story that change between vignettes and even in the vignettes without an extremely clear indication of who the narrator is changing to, and when.  Because we do not know all of the characters like Chucha, the Garcia's Haitian maid who supposedly practiced voodoo and slept in a coffin, and had the only first person narrative in the story.

The book talks about Alvarez’s life in the Dominican Republic and her adjustment in the United States.  It portrays the many difficulties and destitution that she and her family faced as immigrants.  Unlike the Garcia girls, Alvarez was born in New York, New York, but moved back to the Dominican Republic when she was three months old.  In 1960, she and her family fled the Dominican Republic, and went back to the United States. Like the Garcia girls, Alvarez and her sisters were raised along their cousins, and were watched by their mother, maids, and aunts.

Sort of like Carlos, Yolanda’s father, Alvarez’s father was also in risk of being arrested or killed by the government in many different reasons.  Carlos was in risk because he resisted Trujillo's military dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, and because of his political activities, was forced to leave the Republic and escape to the United States. Alvarez’s father was involved in a plot to overthrow the dictator and military ruler of the Dominican Republic.  Because the plans were discovered, He had to flee the country with his family with the help of an American agent, and fled to New York, where they once lived.

Just like the Garcia girls, life in America was not like they imagined it to be.  The sisters and Alvarez missed their family in the Dominican Republic and the respect they had there, and didn’t feel like they fitted in with their thick Spanish accents.  They had little money, and struggled to live with the small amount of money that they held.  They all struggled to adapt to the new American environment, and the extremely diverse and different culture.

A lot like Yolanda, Alvarez wrote poetry.  They both wrote, for Alvarez she wrote both poetry and stories, and enjoyed storytelling, especially ones that they made up on their own.  In their culture, Alvarez’s relatives criticized her for “lying,” because she didn’t tell the truth in her stories, but rather, made up things of her own.

Yolanda often wrote her poems alone and in the dark: "This was Yoyo's [Yolanda's] time to herself, after she finished her homework, while her sisters were still downstairs watching TV in the basement.  Hunched over her small desk, the overhead light turned off, her desk lamp poignantly lighting her only paper, the rest of the room in warm, soft, uncreated darkness, she wrote her secret poems in her new language" (136).

Yolanda wrote her poems during her free time, but only when her sisters were occupied with something else to do, so they wouldn't distract or bother her in any way.  She wrote her poems in the near-dark, with only a desk lamp lighting up her paper.  The rest of the room stayed dark, yet warm, and created a soft darkness that allowed Yolanda to express her feelings, and for her ideas to grow better.  She wrote in the dark much better.  When Alvarez refers to "new language," she doesn't only mean English, which was a new language to Yolanda since she came from the Dominican Republic, where she had only ever spoken Spanish, but she also refers to the language that is different from everyday language that Yolanda used when she spoke.  When she wrote poems, they were much deeper and meaningful than the words that she said daily, and so was therefore in some sense, her new language, that was personally hers, and was understood and interpreted differently by different people. 

Although How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents was not a bad story, I probably wouldn't pick up a book like this to read on a daily basis.  It is complicated and difficult for me to comprehend, and it takes a lot of analysis for me to finally sort of understand what is going on in the story.  The reverse chronological order of the story doesn't work for me very well, and I personally haven't had a good history with vignettes, especially after reading my first book with vignettes, The House On Mango Street, last year.  That didn't make much more sense than this book did.

Success!

Psst... WOOT! YAY! :D
I figured out how to solve the 4x4!!! I haven't memorized every step yet, but I can solve it with some time. ;]

The End.

We have finally reached the last page of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.  It's been quite a long journey since we started reading the book in Part I.  We've traveled with the García girls from the Dominican Republic and their spoiled lives, to America and their humble beginnings.

There has been a lot about sexuality in this book, and for the topics that Julia Alvarez focuses on and emphasizes the most in this book, it actually makes sense at the end of the book for her to write the book in reverse chronological order.  We first read about what the García sisters are like after moving to America, and adapting to the extremely different life that they started here than the Dominican Republic, where they had much power and money.  They had to try much harder in America to fit in, and they changed from being the typical "good girls" that their parents and relatives expect them to be, and start being more risky.  They stay out with boys without a chaperone, and lie to their parents about where they are when they call them to check on them.

The title of the book explains what the story is mostly about; how the García girls lost their accents and a lot of their culture, and became influenced by America.  In the last vignette, "The Drum,"  The kitten that Yolanda found in the shed, seems to symbolize the García sisters.  The four girls left the Dominican Republic far before they had matured enough to fully understand their culture and be able to maintain the culture that their family kept, like the kitten was taken away from its mother before it had matured enough to learn to survive without its mother's support.  They struggled as a result, since they still had to live up to their family's expectations of their success and constant good manners and actions that reflected well in their culture, even though the daughters were embarassed of their thick accents, and wanted to be able to do things the American way, not the Dominican Republic way, which they left far behind.  Because of the quick transition between their life in the Dominican Republic, and life in America, they were somewhat "injured" by the change.  They grew up with their focus on fitting in, rather than the cultural values that their family stressed.

Response to Music Club :D

Elton has always been one interesting student, and his blog posts do not miss a beat when it comes to fueling interesting responses, and even sometimes, debates. From his blog post, Music Club, the following quote really spoke to me:

So far the clubs practicing their music is going really great. Kyle and Yong Foo are teaching David the part and Carrie (I think that’s how you spell her name) is teaching Peter a bit on the piano. Kyle and Yong Foo are really great teachers. But when Amber was here she sang a song I’m not really sure. But if you get the chance, you should really ask Amber to sing, it has a really great feeling when you listen to her.

I wanted to make one comment about the last sentence in the first paragraph before saying anything else.  Elton, where did you hear that music club would be performing at Walmart(?!?) on December fourth?  We will be performing at ASTI's annual Silent Auction on December 4th.  Just FYI.

No offense intended to music club, but I feel like our meetings could be a bit more organized, and communication could be a lot more successful.  I get messages about some music club meetings from a friend, instead of a executive board member, and sometimes, like yesterday night, I got an extremely last minute music club meeting announcement, which threw me off guard, and I am usually busy on Fridays after school, but I managed to fit in some time in to go to the practice, but I got home an hour later than I was supposed to...

It was nice listening to the instrumentalists play today.  Normally music club is separated out into two different parts: the singers and the instrumentalists, and today, some of the instrumentalists stayed to practice, and it was nice watching them practice.  When I listened to Peter play, I got lost in the music, and I remembered why I originally fell in love with playing piano.  It inspired me to start again, since I stopped playing for a while, even though I teach my brother occasionally, and I practice on my own just for fun, I haven't made a commitment with piano yet.

Barbara changed around the lyrics for the rap part in Billionaire, and I won't give any of it away, but it's actually quite interesting, and it makes sense, which is great. :]

Kylie is still being Kylie, and in an effort to make me sing louder, he told me, "Think of me not as your ex-best friend, but as your singing instructor instead."  No offense Kylie, but I know how to sing, and even in my solos, I haven't been able to sing very loud my entire life.  It was my way to blend in better with the other singers at the choir.  If you sang too loud, you were looked down at.  If you sang quietly, well, no one would really notice, since they wouldn't be able to hear you anyways.  So I guess I've adapted to that, and it takes me a while to really warm up to singing loudly.  And I sing better lower notes than higher notes.

Thank you for your kind words, Elton :]  What do you not know?  I enjoy singing, and it's great to know that someone out there enjoys it too.

Rubik's Cube

This weekend is a full and busy one.  I hope I will still be able to get some rest and finish all my homework, especially finishing reading Garcia Girls before Tuesday lunch.

Even though this weekend is jam-packed, I cannot resist the call of the lone Rubik's cube, quietly sitting on the table, waiting to be solved.  This one is different from the others though.  Instead of a three-by-three, it's a four-by-four.  Which I don't know how to solve.  I can always try though.  Which is what I hope to be able to do sometime this weekend.

Instructions and directions for how to solve these cubes (all sizes) are nearly impossible to find, or else it takes hours to finally find a good one that is understandable.  Videos are completely helpless.  People who try to explain how to solve the cube make no sense at all to me, and I am plunged into confusedness once again, and begin searching around to find another place with solutions.

Way back from the middle school, or maybe even fifth grade in elementary, I found a Rubik's cube, and I learned how to solve one side and two layers of the cube (without print-out instructions :), but I didn't have the patience to try to learn the rest.

Last year, I found a print-out of instructions for how to solve the three-by-three, and spent hours and days trying to figure it out, and then another million hours practicing it, and attempting to memorize it.  I finally understood it a few weeks later, and I was addicted.  Any free time I had at home, I would spend in my room with my cube.  Twist here, turn here and again here, repeat the process again, look at the colors, double check to make sure that part was completed, think, start next sequence for next part to solve.  That was the way I solved the cube.  Part of my motivation to finally solve the cube was to show others that I could solve it, and another was to prove to some people that I was just as intelligent as they were, because I could solve the cube.

Some people find it so amazing that people can solve a Rubik's cube, but honestly, it isn't that hard.  Just set aside some time, find you're motivation and perseverance, because trust me, when you first start, this isn't a simple problem that you can solve in a few hours.  It takes time and much effort to figure out the instructions and memorize the steps to finally solve the cube.  It took a lot of muscle memorization, and by doing the steps time after time, it sticks.

This weekend, I will try to dedicate as much free time as I am able to find to solve the confusing four-by-four.  So far, I've solved a side, one layer, and I'm working of solving the corners.  I moved the corner cubes to their respectable locations, but I need to twist them, so their colors will match with the right sides.  Off to solve it!

I'm not so lost anymore... it's nice.

I finally made it to the second paper clip; it’s such a relief to know I’m two thirds done with the book.  Part II of How the García Girls Lost their Accents was much easier to read than the first part.  I understand the way Julie Alvarez writes much better, and am able to comprehend what she tries to say in each vignette.  

I was extremely surprised at how much Fifi (Sofía) changed in the six months that she stayed on the Island.  She was so independent and willing to talk back to others, and was in complete control of her own life, but after she stayed there, and her three sisters visited her three months later, she changed so much.  She seemed a lot more picky when they all give her a hug, and warns them not to mess her hair, which she used to never say.  Also, when her sisters see Manuel, and greet him with kisses and hugs, Fifi grows kind of defensive and tells them to get off of him since he was hers, although it wasn’t completely serious and the sisters didn’t stop.  She begins to lose a bit of her trust in her sisters and begins to grow withdrawn and watchful from her sisters’ flirtations with Manuel, and I think that a part of her reminds herself about her sisters’ habits, and she is a bit afraid that they might take Manuel away from her, making it seem like she lost her support branch in the Island to her sisters.  

I was most surprised by Fifi when Manuel took the book she was reading right from her hands, and tells her that she shouldn’t be reading books since they were bad for her and she had more important things to do.  When Fifi talks back to him, the sisters, like me, were glad that the old Fifi they knew was beginning to emerge again, but when he walks out, she calls him and pleads for his forgiveness, and it seems like she has completely been lost to the culture and the world that she has stayed in for half a year.

In our group discussion in class today, Nawara asked us what we thought about why Mami stopped inventing things after Yoyo’s (Yolanda’s) success in poetry.  I think that Mami stopped inventing things like she at one point did somewhat obcessively, because she did not have any support from her family, especially from Yoyo, who questions her and asks her what the point of inventing was.  She showed that she didn’t see any purpose or meaning in what Mami was doing when she invented things, so Mami lost a bit of her enthusiasm for inventing.  Also, with Yoyo’s success, Mami is less interested in taking time to think about things to invent, and much more interested in finding more people that she can brag her daughter’s success to.

Even though the book isn’t too bad, I hope that the next book we read will not be in vignettes (I thought the last one we would read would be House on Mango Street, but apparently not.), and not in reverse chronological order (it makes it more confusing when putting the story together and trying to understand what happened in which order).

Whaat?!?!

I haven't experienced writer's block until now.  What happened?!?  Did talking about writers block and coming up with ideas for things to write about in class somehow?
I have quite a few ideas to write about, but I have been so sleep deprived this week, I even skipped out on my weekly youth group, because I fell asleep in the car on the car drive there from San Francisco, and I didn't want to walk in late (15 minutes late...).  I tried to write a few pieces of fiction, but I started a few, but I was unable to finish them, so I saved them and started to try to write something new.
Writer's block is so frustrating though.  I hate the feeling of helplessness as I sit in a chair on the kitchen table, and type away, as my mom checks on my screen once every while to make sure that I am still on task, and not on Facebook, chatting, or surfing the web.
I think one of the main reasons why I am so distracted though, is because I am distracted by Phuong on Facebook, and because the TV is on, but when I usually write my blog posts, and do all my homework, I am on Facebook, switching back between the tabs.  I usually don't write with the TV on though, but it is extremely distracting with all the interesting current events.  There are so many acts of violence.  Channel after channel, news after news, there are reports of how a police officer was accused of sexually abusing his three children, many channels discussing and showing the riots in the streets of Oakland about the Mehserle case, the sentencing, and even a interview and report about a man who killed numerous people, but walked out of the room calmly, claiming that he didn't do anything, and that the man in the many surveillance videos wasn't him.  There was even a mother of a daughter who was (most likely) murdered by him that tried to talk to him, telling him that if it was an accident, he could admit it, that it was better if he got the case off his back if he was guilty of killing her daughter.  He stayed silent for forty minutes before finally telling her that he was nervous about talking to her too, but that he wasn't guilty.
I'm still tired and ready for sleep.  So sleep is where I'm headed.  The TV is off, and all I have to finish is to shower, and finish my blog post. I've got one checked off!

People Are Not What They Seem

You know those quiet people who seem the most innocent?  They're not.  In fact, they could be the most evil people you ever meet.  Just talk to Phuong Ha or Shiyun Yang more often, and you'll see what I mean.  On Phuong's Blog Post about Shiyun's Evilness, she warns others about Shiyun:

She cannot hide her innocent image for long to those she talks to a lot. One random comment I would make is that she and Amber can lead the world to destruction when they are together, and sadly, they do sit next to each other in history. 

I must say, out of Shiyun, Phuong and Crystal, Crystal is the most innocent and least evil (but only because I don't poke her like I did last year.  She was a lot more evil last year.), then Phuong is the sort of innocent, it really depends on who you are and how well you know her, but Shiyun is for sure, the most evil.  I think that if you are evil and stay around Crystal, your evilness will spread and she will start to become a bit evil, but not evil enough to bring chaos and destruction.  Phuong is an interesting case.  She likes to call everyone evil and insult and complain about how evil Shiyun and I are, even though she is almost just as evil as we are.  She looks so quiet and innocent, but it's the opposite of her true self.  She's an evil emo hater.   Shiyun is just plain evil, but at times, she can be nice.  She pokes, and plans such evil things, like Phuong said in her blog post, to rob a bank when there is a blackout.

Phuong says that Shiyun and I lead the world to destruction when we sit next to each other in history.  That is somewhat true.  We actually are not very evil when we are together.  On (I think it was) Wednesday, Shiyun borrowed Phuong's water bottle and waterfalled from it, because she was thirsty.  I decided to do a huge favor for both of them, and lent Shiyun my Sharpie.  We decorated and made Phuong's water bottle more unique, cute, and enjoyable to look at.  Of course, Phuong decided to be evil, and started to call us evil for drawing all over her water bottle.  It was totally not an evil act, but we decorated her water bottle with love.  How is that evil?!?!?

Shiyun is only evil in Mr. Sutherland's class, where she turns around once every while, and shows me something she stole from me.  After class, she tries to take something from my desk, hoping I don't see her taking it, but I see her most of the time.  If she takes something really obviously, I tell her it was obvious, and she gives it back, but when she takes one of my electronics and asks me if I know what she took, I say I do, but I let her keep it for a while.  She definitely needs to practice her skills if she wants to rob Phuong one day...

Psst! Phuong!!! Don't read this!
When there's a blackout, Shiyun, Crystal and I will rob Phuong.  Shiyun will do the robbing, and Crystal and I will assist her.  Crystal said that she was going to make Phuong pass out, and if there are any complications, I will be the one with a gun(a toy one of course, but Phuong isn't supposed to know that...).

The Garcia Girls Confuse Me D;

When our class voted on which book to read, I admit, I didn’t vote to read How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.  When looking through the three selections of books, I found that this book and The Joy Luck Club had the most appealing story line.  I really liked how Julia Alvarez wrote about the topic of how the American culture and life changes a traditional family from the Dominican Republic.  It provides interesting insight into their culture, and compares it to how different it is from the American culture.  

Before I started to read the book, I asked my friends and classmates if they had read it, and I kept on getting similar opinions from them.  They kept on telling me that the book was confusing and boring, so I had prepared myself for the worst, but when Sutherland read the story out loud in class, I found it quite the contrary.  The first vignette wasn’t very confusing, and it was interesting, although I didn’t know anything about most of the characters, except the names of the four sisters.  

I personally think that even though this book may be difficult to read, it helps me grow as a reader, because I have to read a few times to understand what is happening, and this is the most I have ever annotated any book.  I used to always avoid annotating a book last year, and I would just read, then do something else.  With this book though, I need to take time and take it all in, and slowly let it sink in before I can really understand what it means.  

The fact that the book is in reverse chronological order makes it confusing and a pretty hard read.  It’s hard to follow the story, and I am constantly confused by the characters and events that happen.  I understand what happens, but I’m still confused about who is narrating the parts, and what happened to who.

I’m a bit worried and nervous about reading the rest of the book.  Will the book begin to make more sense?  Will Alvarez clarify events and characters more clearly?  I’ll be able to finish Part II of the book by next Tuesday for sure, but understanding what I read is a whole other story.

Afterthoughts

Blogging has been so different from anything I’ve ever done in my life.  It’s the first time where I’ve ever posted anything personal and things that I have written (excluding Facebook posts).   By blogging instead of turning in a hard copy of something I write, my writing has become a bit more casual, but at the same time, I have better thoughts and I express myself more when I blog - especially when I write about things that I didn’t think I would write about.

When I first started to blog, I started off with something that I had already written over the summer for homework.  My second piece of writing that I posted onto my blog was a response to a student blog, where I somewhat analyzed and commented on Stan's blog post about being bullied and the ASTI Constitution.  It was simple writing that didn’t take much time or effort to write about.  Afterward, we had a debate at school, and my partner, Tiffany, and I argued against lowering the drinking age in our opening statement.  I decided to make my blog posts about events and things I hear and talk about, and I opened quite some discussion in my post about the possible ASTI size increase.  Like usual, my procrastination made it hard for me to find a blog post by someone I didn’t often talk to, so I chose to respond to my friend’s blog post about teen movies.  I tried experiment with writing something at a park, which was mostly just a string of random thoughts that went through my mind, and then typing it up as a blog post.  That post, Anything and Everything, confused Mr. Sutherland, so in fear of losing points for a bad blog post, I created a fictional post about a miracle involving a chance for love to come once again.  For the response post that week, I responded to a post about vampires, since I used to be addicted to vampires and I found the topic very interesting to respond to.  My first essay was about Italo Calvino’s “The Dinosaurs,” and it analyzes Qfwfq’s character.  One day, I was really put down in class by one of my teachers, so I blogged about it and how I felt as a result of what the teacher said to me.  For that week, I responded to a post about a teacher that I loved, yet hated.  As the next week slowly rolled by, I continued to talk to my friends, and when I was talking to Amber, the subject of blogs came into our conversation, and she told me about how she made a blog post, which was a letter to our Kylie, who was once our closest friend that we would talk to all the time.  I read it, and it really striked me, so I responded to it by writing a letter to Kylie, and talking about how I felt about the lost friendship too.  Other than that, the week was pretty uneventful, so by Friday night, I was thinking up a subject that I could write about for my blog, and so I decided to write about communication.  When we were writing our Night essays in the computer lab, I decided to do some research about concentration camps, and made a short blog about what I found(mostly about Buchenwald).  The most recent post I have made is my Night essay.

I surprised myself this quarter, because I didn’t expect to like blogging, especially since it meant that I would post the things I write onto the world wide web, where anyone could read it.  It felt a bit awkward knowing my classmates could read and judge the way I write and what I write about, but at the same time, it was comforting knowing that I could see theirs too, just like they could see mine, and they could also give me constructive criticism to help me grow in my writing skills.  When I blog, my writing is more casual than it is if I turn in an essay to Corbally, where my writing is very formal and very structured, with an organized system.  In my blog posts, when I want to emphasize a point, I make the sentences short, for example, in my letter to Kylie, I wrote, “In some sense, I'm mad.  But still, I'm sad.  For me though, I cannot bring myself to tears over this loss friend.  It's not worth it for me.”  I was trying to emphasize my point that I was mad, yet sad, and couldn’t cry over this loss.  If I had written this and it was not posted onto my blog, the sentences would definitely be less choppy, and would flow better.  Also, when I write on my blog, I use a lot of contractions, which makes my writing a lot more casual, because in my final draft of essays for other classes, I cut out all the contractions that I want to use.

Now, when I think about having to write, it isn’t as painful as I once considered it to be.  If it is an interesting topic, quickwrites are very helpful and productive for me, because I can practice writing without stopping for ten minutes, and I am able to write down ideas that I have about the topic that I can use for a blog post, or even an essay on that topic.  

This quarter, I have surprised myself the most by writing fiction and posting it on my blog.  I often blog about events that have happened recently in my life, or I have heard being discussed, but until the blog post, A Miracle, I had never posted a work of fiction onto my blog.  When I wrote it, it felt like poetry.  I never read over what I wrote; I wrote as my mind churned to find the right words to use, and the worlds just flowed out like poetry.  It also really helped that romance, young love, and hope was my inspiration when I wrote it.  In the piece, the narrator reflects that, “We [narrator and lover] would talk about our fears, our hopes, our dreams.  It felt like when we were together, the stars were aligned, and all the wrong in the world became right.  Things seemed perfect; all those problems disappeared, stress relieved.”  When I wrote this, I thought about how I think and feel when I am most at peace, and what my closest friends and I talk about.  I really expressed my deeper feelings and emotions in this piece, with more of my soul in this piece and any of the other blog posts that I wrote.  I did write this somewhat because of the recent events in my life that made me really think about and analyze love and lust a lot more and much more harshly in my mind, than I ever have done.  By writing this post, it opened my eyes to how I felt, and how I really viewed the subject is like (I don’t want to point out the subject.  It is more than just one thing.  If you really want to see what subjects were in the post, go read it and think about it yourself.  It’s left for you to interpret your own way.  even I don’t understand myself sometimes).  

For the next quarter, I want to explore writing some fictional pieces, but expanding the subject to much farther than just love and lust, because I had wanted to become a writer of fiction at some point in my life, and I want to practice writing fictional, as a hobby, and to exercise my mind to think about some things that I otherwise wouldn’t.  I want to make a post about rhetorical questions, and my opinion and thoughts about it, because they are a curious thing, and are interesting to me.  They also confuse me, so I want to get down to the core of it, and to understand them better.  One of my major goals that I have that does not have anything to do about what subject I want to write about or my writing style is to avoid procrastinating the assignment.  When I post my blog post right before midnight, my writing isn’t the best it can be, and I can be a lot more analytical and creative when writing than I am now, since I procrastinated most of the blog post assignments from this quarter.

Adding yet ANOTHER Night essay onto your google reader list

The Holocaust is an event that is often thought about when people hear the words, “Jews,” “Germans,” or “Hitler.”  Even though there are many articles and documents regarding the Holocaust, there are few written first-hand accounts of it.  Elie Wiesel is the author of Night, a memoir of what he faced during the Holocaust.  In the novella, Wiesel mentions the events that occurred, people he met, and the many conflicts he faces, with the conflict against the supernatural the most prominent.  Throughout the story, Elie guides readers through the events he saw and experienced, and he focuses and discusses the great conflict he experiences with the supernatural (God).

Wiesel begins his memoir by introducing Moshe the Beadle, and explains his experiences, conversations with Moshe, and Moshe’s fate. When Moshe first notices Elie praying, the first signs of conflict between Elie and the supernatural appear: “Why did I pray?  A strange question.  Why did I live?  Why did I breathe? ‘I don’t know why,’ I said, even more disturbed and ill at ease” (2).  This is the conflict that Elie encounters with his confusion with religion.  He was uncomfortable that Moshe asked him about why he prayed and cried as he did so.  He is beginning to sense some discomfort with religion and the reasons he felt the way he did.  He is conflicted with emotion to why he did not know the reason behind the ways he felt.  The religion began to confuse Elie, because he could not understand the deep emotions that he felt when we communicated to Him with his hear and soul.  Because Moshe brought up the questions of why Elie felt a need to pray and cry, Elie began to see Moshe often to discuss religion with him.

As the memoir progresses and Elie is forced from his home, then away from his mother and sisters, he begins to feel even more conflicted with his relation to God, the supernatural.  After a SS officer asks Elie and his father for their age, Elie’s father begins to recite the Kaddish, blessing His name and praying that it may be magnified.  He begins to feel angered and says, “For the first time, 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?”(31).  This is the first time in the novella where Elie directly talks about his anger and disappointment at Him, the One that Elie had praised and wanted to have a master to guide him in his studies of the cabbala.  The Jews, who believe strongly in their God, still praise and pray and honor him, even though he did not do anything to stop and prevent the many deaths and torture and hardships that were forced on the Jews for their lifestyles, beliefs, and for being the enemy.  He does not remain much of an influence in Elie’s personal life, because Elie no longer becomes so devoted to Him, because of his betrayal to them, after all the time they spend respecting him and honoring his name.

In the many journeys from concentration camp to concentration camp, many men died in the extreme labor and effort it took, and also from the freezing weather.  On the journey to Buchenwald, Rabbi Eliahou asked Elie if he had seen his son, whom he had stayed with through the three years of concentration camps with.  Elie tells him that he had not, but he soon realizes that he did see him running by his side, and that the son had seen the Rabbi losing ground and falling towards the back of the column, but he began to plow ahead to the front of the line.  Elie reacts to the sudden realization: “...in spite of myself, a prayer rose in my heart, to that God in whom I no longer believed”(87).  Even though Elie no longer believes in Him or honors Him like he once did, he still has the natural reaction to pray to Him to not act like Rabbi Eliahou’s son did to his father.  There is still a religious side in Elie, that loyally prays to Him in times of need, and for hope and guidance in life, but he tries to avoid that side, because he does not believe in Him anymore, because he had stayed quiet in their time of need when the Germans stripped them of all their belongings, life, religion, and freedom.

Throughout the novella, Elie’s belief and respect toward Him, the supernatural greatly changes.  At the beginning, Elie highly respects Him and wants to be able to learn and follow His beliefs and teachings.  After being moved to a concentration camp away from his mom, sisters, and old lifestyle, he is angered at Him and begins to lost his faith.  By the time he is transferred to Buchenwald, he has completely lost his faith in Him for quite some time, but he still prays to Him, somewhat reluctantly, but as a natural instinct.

MiNdBlOwN

OMG! I didn't know that Shiyun had 2 siblings!!! :O and that Peter had a brother... >.<

Buchenwald Concentration Camp D;

Before I started seventh grade, I went on a huge trip to Europe. with one of the teachers at my school.  I remember before we went on the trip, I had to do some research for the places we went, and luckily, I wasn't assigned to research and write about the Buchenwald Concentration Camp that we went to.  I just did some research on it, and for those who are interested, here's a link with photos and information about the camp:
Buchenwald concentration camp
Here's the wikipedia page.
The gate into the concentration camp (here's a pic) reads, "Jedem das seine" which literally means, "to each his own," which was meant to mean that everyone who was in the concentration camp got what they deserved."

D; The history of the Holocaust is interesting, but so sad and depressing...

Communication

I can no longer remember the days when I used to have to send mail or make a phone call from the house phone to talk to a friend or relative that didn’t live very close to me, or just meet with them face to face. 

When somebody asks or tells me to contact somebody, I immediately either think of facebook, texting, or emailing (although, emailing, not so much). 

What has happened to our communication?  I talk to people so much more on facebook or through texting than I do in person.  With my closest friends, I talk to them in person for nearly the entire day, but the people I’m not as close to, I text them to get to know them better, but we don’t really talk at school.  We acknowledge each other when we see each other at school, and sometimes have short conversations, but they are never deep discussions that make the friendship bond stronger.  They are just conversations that keep the acquaintance there.  Only with one person have I actually got to know them better by both texting and talking to each other at school.  Oddly enough though, with some of those people, I tell them my “secrets” or complaints, online or through aim or text, rather than in person.

There are a few people I know solely from meeting them off the internet only, and I have never met them, nor do I ever intend to, but I did meet one person on my way to school, and we still talk.  Not on the phone, but on facebook and through texts. 

Is the new way of communication between people good or bad though?

In some ways, it’s good, because it keeps people connected faster than old school snail mail, and allows people to still get a chance to “talk” and get to know people across the world without the hassle of waiting for a few days to weeks to get an answer to a question in a letter.

In other ways, its outcome isn’t as positive though, because teenagers do not talk to each other in person and build actual friendships as much as they talk to others through technology and an electronic screen.  When we teenagers grow up, we cannot base our relationships solely through electronics, but we need actual people there to talk to. 

I think that technology should still be used, but maybe just not as often.  We need to start to go out, get some fresh air, and hang out!

What do you think about electronics and technology?  Good or bad?  Helpful or what?  Share your ideas with me!!! :D

I miss you D;

Gomez made a post about how much she misses Kylie.  I was thinking about commenting, but I don't think a comment is enough to talk about how I feel too.

Gomez's blog about Kylie is here.

"I don't know what happened, but we used to be such amazing friends. You were that one guy I could talk to about anything. You, Amber, and me were so close."

You know, blogging about this makes me feel weird, because Kyle's already so far away from us, but I'm going to do it anyways.  Also, even though I'm mostly talking to Kyle, part of this is to Gomez too.

Kyle, what happened to you?  What happened to our days spent at the water stop, those hours we wasted away talking about everything?  You act like it never happened, but it has, and maybe it's because Gomez and I are girls (not trying to be sexist or anything) or maybe, you never intended to stay with us in the first place.  We entrusted our friendship to you, and expected you to return it, but now, all those happy moments have faded away from my memory, and all I can remember is the betrayal, the gossip, the bumps in our friendship, and the empty space there is now when we bike.

Let me start from the beginning. I've known you since kindergarten.  We had the same teacher, Ms. Yoon and Ms. Goldspring.  We never talked much, but we still knew each other.  As the years progressed, we became middle schoolers.  I still remember those lunches.  Sixth and seventh grade, my friends and I would sit on the ampitheater stage for lunch, and we would constantly be bombarded by you and Calvin's pineapples and grapes.  Same with Eighth grade, except you sat on the stage then and us on the steps.  We still were attacked.  After a while though, you began to sit on the steps next to us.  My friends disliked you, and you knew that.  In PE, I would tease you and I still remember always hitting you with the hockey stick.  We got along okay in Mr. Hill's class too.  I would tsk at you for eating your lunch in his class, and you never bothered to hide it.  We never had close bonding moments or anything though.  We were mutual "friends" if you can call that friendship.

When I found out that you were going to go to ASTI, I complained so much.  I kept on claiming that I would kill myself if we ended up going to the same college, because I was so annoyed with you. (I was joking. I wouldnt. Really.)

Since we lived so close to each other, we decided to start biking together.  You, Gomez and I.  We originated with the water stop after getting Starbucks on the first week of school.  After that, we started to stop there when we biked, to drink water, Starbucks. or in my case, chrysanthemum tea.  Soon, we began to sit down, and talk.  Those conversations soon got more personal, and we would talk about our secrets, crushes, and problems.

Halfway through the year, we got into all those trust issues, and you would say things that I told to you privately, to Gomez, and vice versa.  Soon, you started telling her that I was saying things behind her back, and someone else told her that I was telling others about her secrets, and she even thought that I was making up things to try to keep her and her special someone apart, even though I wasn't.  I nearly lost a good friend three times that year.  If I did, I don't know how I would've gotten through high school, seeing a person who I would've easily said was my sister in a second, but no longer could really talk to as best friends.

All those moments we've shared, our days of friendship, deep conversations, venting, and ranting, have all gone down the drain.  You're a different person, so much more different than the ones you changed into last year.  You left us for others a few times, but you still came back to the friendship of the Ambers.  I don't think that's ever going to happen again.

In some sense, I'm mad.  But still, I'm sad.  For me though, I cannot bring myself to tears over this loss friend.  It's not worth it for me.  I'd just be crying for something that has been lost, never to come back again, and crying won't make it any better or fix it in any way.  It'll only leave a deeper impression and gaping hole where you're friendship used to be.

Now, as I go through everyday, I still see you around, but no longer is that sadness still there.  Its been replaced by a wall of cloth.  Blocking away the pain, but still the pain can slip in and remind me of those days we once shared together.

I've got to go now, but Kylie, I miss you.

Response to Ms. Valdez

From Vy's blog post about Ms. Valdez, I decided to respond to a few lines in the first and second paragraphs.

Last year at ASTI we had an English teacher name Ms.Valdez. 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,”... Ms.Valdez love her food, her fridge was full of food that’s been there for weeks. It was her punishment to her students, mess with her and you would have to deal with her fridge, that thing stinks.  

 Ms. Valdez was one of the most difficult teachers that we had last year.  She had a different method to teach English that any other teacher I've ever had, and her policy was often "If I'm comfortable, then you're comfortable." To be honest, I liked Ms. Valdez more as a person, than as a teacher.  I didn't learn much from her class, because her method to teach was unhelpful and pointless.  She often gave us handouts to fill out that were designed to help us organize our ideas and create the basic outline to our essays.  At the beginning of the year, she demonstrated to us how to make a dialectical journal (DJ) and how to write a log.  The point of the dialectical journal was to write a quote on one side of the t-chart and our annotation, opinion, and perspective of what happened.  The DJs weren't as helpful as annotating in the book though.  She had a fairly sustainable classroom environment that wasn't amazing, but it wasn't that terrible either.

Like Vy said, if you messed with Ms. Valdez and made her mad, the consequence was often to clean her fridge.  She kept a lot of food in there, and I remember a classmate complaining about how it took forever to clean the fridge and how there was orange stuff stuck to the walls of the fridge.

Overall, Ms. Valdez wasn't a terrible teacher, but it was hard to accept her grading style and classroom procedures.  She rarely paid attention to the other amounts of homework we had to do, and once even made us read over 60 pages of a book in one night and do a DJ on it too.  She was really amusing in class though, and friendly with students most of the time.