Digging Deeper into Qfwfq's Character

Thesis: in "The Dinosaurs" from Cosmicomics, by Italo Calvino, Qfwfq, or Q, is a character who is frightened and lonely, but curious.

As a dinosaur, Q fought alongside dinosaurs in many victorious battles, but began to make errors, become doubtful, and soon started to become defeated in their fights.  As the only surviving dinosaur, Q traveled until he couldn't find anything, living or dead, and reflects: "I spent many, many years on those deserted plateaus.  I had survived ambushes, epidemics, starvation, frost: but I was alone" (Calvino 97).  Even though Q was able to survive all the things that all the other dinosaurs were not able to, he is the last surviving dinosaur, and is all alone in the world.  He wanders around on a "long migration" as far away from carcasses, the dead, and the living, to escape the remains of those he used to fight alongside.  He is lonely, and continues to stay that way until he decides to adventure down, and meets "a flock of New Ones".

Q is often used to scaring others that see him, so when he sees a flock of New Ones, he is scared of their reaction to him.  Q hasn't seen any living creature for a while, and he admits, "The first time I glimpsed some living beings, I hid" (Calvino 98).  He did not recognize his surroundings when he came down, and already felt lost, so when the New Ones saw him, he was scared for them to see him and run away in fright, like all the other creatures once did when there were more dinosaurs.  When the New Ones addressed him casually, he ran away because of the unfamiliar feeling he got since he was so used to the terror he caused around.  He was somewhat afraid of them noticing what he was, so he ran.  The New Ones were unaware of what dinosaurs looked like, aside from tales that they heard and their imagination, and are unafraid of Q, since they cannot recognize that he is a dinosaur.  Q is surprised that they were not frightened by him, and is curious to see how other New Ones would respond when they saw him.

Q leaves the flock of New Ones and continues to walk on, while reflecting on what happened with the flock of New Ones, and their reaction to him and how they couldn't recognize what he was.  Q "traveled on, cautious but also impatient to repeat the experiment" (Calvino 98).  Q is on edge and a bit frightened if someone realizes that he is a dinosaur, and runs away in fright, even though he was once really used to that.  He was still curious to see the reactions of other New Ones, who do not know of the appearances of dinosaurs, and are not aware of the fact that Q is a dinosaur, even though Q doesn't realize that until later in the story.

Vampires? Response

After honestly reading over ten blog posts, I decided to write about Vampires from Jasmine's Blog.

"Twilight basically ruined vampires for all of us vampire fans."

  Even though I am no longer a fan of Twilight, I have to disagree with the claim Jasmine is making.  Twilight is what first introduced me to the world of vampires, and without it, I would most likely not be the vampire fan that I am now.  The Twilight series (the books) written by Stephenie Meyer were truly amazing, and they captured me from day one.  The first few chapters were honestly, not that interesting, but like all other books, they set up the setting and introduced characters.  Rarely are the first few chapters truly interesting.  After reading further (my friend strongly recommended the book, so I decided to give the book a try for her sake), I found that the book wasn’t boring at all.  It was actually very creative and unique. 

I have to admit though, it is ridiculous that vampires sparkle.  It’s not normal.  Even for vampires like Edward.  Other than that though, I can make no complaints about the books.  They kept me up until two in the morning, reading under the sheets with a flashlight, at camp.  I could only fall asleep when I began to feel guilty for staying up so late, but I would still fall asleep to the thought of Bella, Edward, Jacob, and their many problems. 

The movies, unlike the books, were terrible.  They could’ve chosen much better actors to portray Bella and Edward, and directed better.  The acting was poor, and didn’t capture the essence of Twilight, and the mysteriousness that the books held.  The story was easily predictable, and effects, poor.  Even the make-up was obvious.  The vampires were much to pale, and Edward seemed very constipated and awkward.  The character Edward did not meet Robert Pattinson’s character, and he portrayed Edward much too oddly.  The scene when he first got a whiff of Bella scent made him seem like he felt sick, not nervous and uncomfortable because of how much he wanted to taste Bella’s blood. 

The movie was what led me to begin my dislike of Twilight, but I still give the books the responsibility and honor of introducing and hooking me onto vampires.

A Miracle

I longed for the familiar touch on my skin, breath on my neck, the brush of our hands, and soothing voice that strengthened me.  I remembered those special nights we had, hugging each other close against the cold, and deep conversations we had, pouring our hearts out to each other.  We 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.  Those moments grew shorter and shorter each time.  Soon, our conversations began to die off, and arguments began to break out.  We would argue about our faults, and how it was never our fault, but always the others’ for anything that went wrong.  The phone conversations began to dwindle down to nothing, and pretty soon, we disappeared from each others lives.  We still saw each other, but pretended we didn’t.  Occasionally, I could feel those intense, familiar eyes tracing the outline of my face, but when I looked in its direction; its attention quickly fell on the board.  As we grew older, we went to different schools, but the thoughts of each other never left our minds.

I went to college, and eventually created my own life on my own.  Date after date, each one seemed longer than the next.  Their voices began to sound like monotone, and before long, I lost all interest in them.  They always had the same stories: same block order childhood, education, same stories of their life and jobs.  Life slowly became more difficult, and as I improved at work, so did my salary and stress level.  Eventually, my only getaway was music–its soothing notes and lyrics never failed to center me, and remind me of my life and tasks.  My iPod and I easily became one, and inseparable.  By chance though, on my weekly shopping trips, I ran into a familiar person, though the appearance was more refined, but I could never forget those piercing eyes or strong hands that once held me so strongly.  We shared a glance, then a smile, but someone else came along, and they shared a moment.  I walked away east, they, west, and I continued hoping, that some miracle would happen.  

Anything and Everything (one of those brain-dump moments)

(FYI,  I wrote this on paper at 8PM today, and I'm just typing it up now.)

I'm listening to Dynamite and thinking: "What can I write about?" Hmmm...

Staring out at the sky, the setting sun and near-empty park, I realize, I'm cold.  There are a few people playing volleyball, one practicing soccer (no, not Marco), and a father with his children and dog.  This place, the tall slide platform, will be my new place.  This is where I go when the rest of my family or my brother are at the school in a meeting.  I wish I could come here at night more often.

Today is the Chinese Moon Cake Festival or whatever it's called.  You know, that day when Chinese eat moon cakes to celebrate the full moon or something? Yeah, that.

Anyways, I've been reading this book.  If I say the title, I bet a ton of people will start judging me or something for the kind of book I'm reading, so the title will remain unknown (the people I talk to a lot probably know what book I'm talking about).  As a result of my strange book preferences and choices and curiosity, I've been wondering:
What is it like to burn (literally, with fire)?  What does breaking a bone feel like?  What about being stung by a bee? Or having chicken pox?  What does it feel like if you're drowning?  Starving? High???

Ack.  It's getting cold. I'm going to go finish inside...

What happens if you fall off a cliff (other than the obvious)? What happens if you get stuck in what seems like a hallway that stretches on to infinity?  Become immortal? Invincible? Get all your wishes and everything you ever wanted?  And fall in love?

*random sidenote* You know, there's a reason why I was outside.  There's no way I can do homework with all these boy scouts running and yelling.  Oh my gosh... they were playing Duck Duck Goose earlier... I haven't played that game in such a long time!!!

And if you actually do read this, no, I'm not crazy ;) Just curious.

Shiyun's Blog: My Vocabulary List

Shiyun's Blog: My Vocabulary List
So, I'm trying to test out this backlinking thing, but I can't figure it out...

Focus words to slowly increase the vocab i know :]

I decided to focus on words that I kinda know, but cannot define, like Mr. Sutherland advised.
1. method
2. policy
3. affect
4. consequence
5. design
6. demonstrate
7. dimension
8. perspective
9. sustainable
10. status

What HAS happened to our teen movies?!?

As I was reading through all the blogs, I found about five blogs that I really wanted to write about, but in the end, I decided on Kim's Blog on "What happened to our teen movies?"

KimBO considered the differences between the current teen movies, to the movies from "yester-year":

"With these movies and TV shows that are broadcast to us, I start to wonder whether or not the people that watch them ever get tired of seeing the same people on their screens. I mean, back in the day, the ‘heartthrobs’ had distinct features that made them who they are. Now, all the males have the same attractive eyes, most of them the same skin tone, and all of them with that mop of hair."

 Not trying to be cliché or anything, but honestly, the best thing I can think of to say here, is simply, Kim is right.  She constantly goes on her movie obsessions and rants, and it oftentimes annoys me after more than a week of it.  I was really surprised to read that she did not like the movie Fame from 2009, but loved the movie from 1980 better.  She talked nonstop about Fame for a few weeks too.

With so much media influence in the teenage world now, with movies, TV shows, ads, and commercials, it's amazing that we teens still manage to stay alive under the many judgmental eyes that we pass everyday of our lives.  Although there are so many different movies and TV shows, most of them still have the same cliché storyline: "Boy meets girl, boy breaks girl's heart, boy wins girl again." or else, it's another vampire story or musical drama.  With all the similar faces and appearances on screen, and similar story lines, it is an interesting question of if people actually do get tired of seeing the same styles for appearances on screens.  Like Kim mentioned, in the past, each actor/actress all had different unique characteristics and features that easily kept them clearly different than other actors or actresses.  Many actor/actresses had a different way of being "attractive."  Nowadays, most people have the same standard for "pretty" or "sexy."  The faces on screen are the people who meet these standards, and are acceptable to teens.  And I just love how Kimbo says that they all have that "same mop of hair".  It's true though.  They all have very similar hair styles, and little variation.  Everyone and everything on screens are slowly become more cliché and less unique.

ASTI Size Increase?

Today, we had a PTSA meeting at school, and we came to the topic of the possible size increase for ASTI.  Mr. Fong talked about how AUSD was planning to increase ASTI's size to 400 students, but the grades levels would be from seventh grade to twelfth grade.  The students would not be at the portable campus only, but supposedly, we would have the seventh and eight graders at a different campus, and the ninth through twelfth graders at the ASTI and COA campus.  Even though it is somewhat a good and a bad thing to be able to increase the size of ASTI, I personally would like it better if we could keep the ASTI size the same as it is now.

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, or the grades in Alameda High or something 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, I think.

Because many of the schools might get shut down, and most schools are losing privileges and teachers.  As a small school, it's a great thing if the AUSD still allows ASTI to be an early college high school without thousands of students, but I really like the small environment ASTI has opposed to the large size of other "normal" high schools.  If the school size is increased, odds are, we will be able to have a sports team and games.  We would use the college classrooms, and the seventh and eighth graders would be at a different campus, and the high schoolers would only be part time college students for all four years.  We would take a combination of both high school courses at the ASTI campus, and college classes at the COA campus. (This is what I heard from the conversation, but I don't have any official proof for it.)

Personally, I would like it if ASTI could keep its small size, instead of increasing the number of students, because then it would be able to maintain the small family-like atmosphere, and most of the students would know each other.  I really like that the teachers and students are all a very tightly knit community of families and friends, that we can all depend on.  I also like how because of ASTI's small size, it seems more exclusive, and it is easier for teachers to focus more attention for each student, instead of less attention for more students.

I'm curious what you think about the possible size increase for ASTI. Please respond by commenting and let me know what you think.

The Drinking Age Should NOT Be Lowered

Hello, we are Tiffany Cao and Amber Chan. Today, we would like to explain and share the reasons why we believe the drinking age should not be lowered.

Drinking age should not be lowered because our own body isn't capable of resisting alcohol. 21-year-old may not be mature enough to know their limitations on drinking and just lowering the age will have a bad cause. Another reason is that if we lower the drinking age we might be contributing to more fatal accidents. Drinking may also allow people to hurt themselves and others. Young adults may have a chance of not knowing their limits. Lowering the drinking age will just make it worse because young adults or teenagers are still under pressure with drugs, depression, violence, etc.

21 year old are more likely to have no limitations on drinking; therefore, it makes it worse if the government would lower it down. According to Mike John who wrote the article, Cons of Lowering Drinking Age,  Underaged Drinking," Lower drinking ages to 16, 17, or 18 like the MLDA [the minimal legal drinking age] in some European countries is inappropriate for US standards because American teens generally start driving at earlier ages and drive more often than their European counterparts. American teens are thus much more likely to drive under the influence of alcohol if the drinking age were lowered in the US."  Since teens are able to drive in America, there is a more likely chance that these teens are capable of drunk driving; which can may a fatal scenario. Teens are allowed to drive at an age much younger than the current MLDA, and because they are so young, they do not have a complete knowledge of what is good or not, or choose to ignore it, because they are so young.  

For teens who drive, lowering the drinking age has a chance of hurting the driver, the passengers, and other people driving near the teen driver, if the teen decides to drive and make the bad decision to drink and drive.  “Between 1970 and 1975, 29 States lowered their drinking ages to 18, 19, or 20. By 1983, safety concerns had led many of these States to reverse course...NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] published an analysis in 1985 and a follow-up in 1989 on...the estimated number of lives saved...The studies found that the target involvements decreased on average by 13 percent in States where the drinking age had been raised” (NHTSA).  Twenty-nine states lowered their drinking ages for less than fifteen years, and changed their MILDA back to the original drinking age: twenty-one.  Thirteen percent less people died in the states when the MLDA was 21 years old, in comparison to the higher amount of people killed when the MLDA was lowered to 18, 19, and 20.