Puck's Alley.

The number one all time favorite character in the play, A Midsummer Night Dream (AMND) is Robin Goodfellow. He is the coolest thing in the play because you can "make, mold" him into anything you desire. He gets all the good lines and the quirky sayings. I would definitely want to be Robin Goodfellow. He gets to also cause mischief; which is always fun to do.

If I had to be anything other than Robin Goodfellow, I would probably want to be Hermia because in the end, she gets a good ending. She's in TRUE love, unlike the love that Helena has with Demetrius that is helped on by fairies. I guess you can't really tell the difference if you don't know better; but it's more genuine.

But honestly, any part in AMND is fine as long I can pronouce the words.

Relections of the muddy pond five steps to the left.

1. What did you like best about the project and why?
I like the fact that we got to meet other people from different countries. The internet is a world wide web and this was a safe way to meet new people (but of course with much caution.) ALso, it saved paper! Go sustainability and enviornmental awareness! I also think that the extended periods of time were good.

2. What did you like least and why?
I didn't like the fact that the extended time period was six weeks. That is a very long time. I couldn't focus intensely those six weeks. It was too spread out for me. I sometimes even forgot about what I wrote about or what point I was trying to get across because we as a english class would work on other assignments too at the same time.

3. What was something surprising that you learned about the other students (from other schools)?
To be honest, I wasn't really surprised at anything. I knew they were kids about our age. They are so much like us in many ways. They like the same things basically, except their favorite celebrities are from korean shows also known as K-dramas.

4. How do you think the project affected your writing?
I fully used all the different areas of writing (ex:grammar, sentence fluency) In english, we don't usually get to work so intensely on each criteria of writing. It really helped me learn about each area and aspect of writing and by editting other people's work, how much each area is vital to a good paper.

5. Describe the most challenging aspect of the project.
I think the most challenging aspect of the project was trying to edit other people's papers. When we were focusing on mechanics, I was very tempted to fix all the grammical errors that were seemingly blaring at me from the computer screen with the look of "FIX ME!." Also, we couldn't talk to them face to face. It is different typing critizim/praise without any emotion/facial expression attached.

6. Offer some advice to future participants.
Don't procrasinate. Try to genuinely give good feedback, and don't fool around in the class time you are given! Use your time management and orgainizing skills.


7. Other comments.
This project rocks. It was an awesome experience and I hope that it is done again. It was so cool and different from anything I've ever done before!

Heartbroken Hermia

Hermia is a character that lives for true love. She is so sure that herself and Demetrius are going to live happily ever after when they run away to the woods. But then King Oberon of the woods tries to help someone else out and ends up ruining their relationship. This goes to show things don't always work out to how you expect them to. She seems so defiant, like she knows exactly what the future holds and that she's in charge of herself when she denies her father and runs away with Demetrius for love.

She is probably a young women of beauty since Helena calls her such and Demetrius thinks her so to. Even Theseus wants her as a trophy wife. To fight openly and object in front of her father and to-be-fiance(according to her father) she must be a character of much inner strength, either fueled by herself or her love for Demetrius.

Hermia should be cautious of what the future holds for her and prepare herself for anything that might turn astray, thanks to the "love" nectar that Oberon uses on whom he chooses. She should act very upset when the love of her life disappears at the end of Act 2. Very distraught and heartbroken.

Puck

Puck is a michevious character who works for the King Oberon and is the court jester. He seems to enjoy stirring up trouble among the fairies of the wood as a hobby. He is the "cheshire cat" of the story appearing and disrupting the fairy while she is working for the Queen Titania. He knows more than he lets on, full of secrets that he carries and mocks others with; finding comedy in other's troubles.

I can pick Puck as a boyish looking creature with woodly features that only people of the wood would wear. He would wear with him some sort of pouch for storing things and some brightly colored clothes that only a jester would wear. I have no idea what hemogoblin would look like but according to the information that I had gathered through google I come to the conclusion that Puck is just a boy who wears whatever he wants.

Puck should act like a boy in a homgoblin's body. He should carry with him a smile that could be whipped out in a flash and a disarming joke or two ready to roll off the tip of his tongue, because he is the court jester. His voice should be haughty and mocking because it seems as though he knows so much but tells so little.

Shifting through the randoms.

Today I decided to randomly browse through fellow bloggers' sites.
Here are just two that I've found interesting.

Want a Robot Potrait?
This site is pretty cool. For $10 you send a potrait and this artist makes "robotizies it." Click the link above to check out the work. His name is Mr. Austin. Pretty cool work.

Amazing photos.
This person takes amazing photos. Some are just of her friends, strangers, and some are very artsy-ish. Check it out it's pretty cool.

Pretty Cool!

Sustain.

The sustainablity fair at our school today in honor of Earth Day which is on Sunday was awesome. This is the first year they are doing something of this measure. Let's hope it becomes an annual event. There were alot of booths that were around campus.
Some of the highlights include a booth called the Worm Game. Here's how it goes: you wait in line for a paper worm on which has a question about the enviornment. You walk around the sustainability fair building and you look at posters and timelines of fun facts and how long it takes certain things to decompose. I got the question: How long does it take for a cigarrette to decompose? Answer: 40 years. That is a really long time. I think it takes that long because of all the harmful chemicals put into a cigarette. When you figure out the question you get a coffee cup thing that you can re-use over and over again. This is sustainable because it would replace paper cups. Many paper cups. Isn't that neat?
Another thing I thought was pretty cool was a water supply booth. It showed us how "dirty" water can be used for other purposes. In fact, some of the golf course water is reused water.
Our school is taking many measures to become "green-er", including using post consumber paper, stiwching the plastic utensils to biodegradeable ones, etc.

Barbarian Pipe Egotist

What's in it for me? Well, to answer that question, by looking at the people in the book Woman Warrior, you can really learn about others in real life. For example, as Maxine grows up she learns about her culture, such as her mother making her go to the pharmacy and ask for free candy just like back home in China. This shows that in life culture is very tied into every aspect of life. When meeting new people, they might have different views on culture so you really have to respect that. When Maxine bullys her classmate in an attempt to make her talk, it really struck me with the impact that culture puts on us.
Culture is very important in my family. We are very cultural and participate in such activites. I guess this is what ties into what Maxine's family is based on: culture.

Be wary of where you live.

Dole Cannery Theatres-
Built over an ancient Hawaiian Heiau (place of worship and/or human sacrifice). Also in about the early 80's a school bus full of children crashed at the same area where the Heiau was located. The Manifestations in this building are that an old man in his late 50's sits watching you from a top corner seat in theater # 14. Also in the bathroom right next to the theater you can hear the voices of the children and the bus driver.

Pali Lookout-
People have reported seeing the white silhouette of someone among the trees at the Pali Lookout, at night. There have also been reports of the silhouettes of ancient Hawaiian soldiers being thrown off the cliff to your right when one is standing at the actual lookout, looking down at Kaneohe. The Pali Lookout is where King Kamehameha defeated the opposing armies by throwing them off this cliff. He then united all of the Hawaiian islands. What is interesting is that there is no light source up on the cliff to the right of the lookout to see the silhouettes of these soldiers being cast down. But, when they are seen, the cliff is somehow illuminated. The lights that illuminate the winding road leading into Kaneohe and the lights of Kaneohe itself are too far down to cast any shadows up that high. There are no lights in the parking lot or throughout the lookout area, either. The Pali Lookout is off-limits at night.

Kahala Mall-
In the newspaper several years ago there was a story about a security guard working the late shift at Kahala Mall. After theaters closed, he and another security guard had to lock all the doors to the mall. One security guard went up to the parking level to check the parking lot and lock the doors that lead to this level. He saw another security guard up there, his friend, and not the one he'd just left. The guy was far away, so he called to his friend, but the guy didn't answer. He called again, this next time his friend turned and looked and him then walked away, disappearing around a corner. The security guard went to follow him and found the man gone. This was about one or two a.m. He later asked the other security guard if he had seen their co-worker, the other man said no. The next day, the security guard found out that the man he saw had died at about the same time he'd seen him.


Whew, I decided to post these stories because I have been to all of these places and I live near one. http://theshadowlands.net/places/hawaii.htm is my source. Check it out, its really interesting. I've never heard of two of the stories but I've heard stories of the Pali Lookout. Our school also has a lot of ghosts stories with its rich history.

Over a Million a Year.

That is picture of a person working at the Googleplex. He looks happy, content, and glad to work at Google. It also could be the fact that...

Google is the #1 place in America to work. Click here to find out why. There are so many perks at Google that there are over a million applications every year. And a very limited amount of people who work there. Everyone there, as the video clip claims, is happy. It's pretty awesome in comparison to the places that my peers and relatives work at.

My first reaction to this was, I am definitely going to work for google when I grow up! But then I remembered another video that my Social Studies teacher send me. Click here to watch it. It's really interesting. The part that I remembered was a statistic. It was something along the lines of someone being a technology major, and by the time that they are in their third year of college, what they are learning is old stuff. In other words technology is moving and moving fast.

Then I wonder, will big names like Apple and Google fade away? Is this like the Roarin' Twenties which was followed by the Great Depression? Will technology move so fast and furious that everyone will be left in the dust and machines will pretty much rule the world? In the second video, they talk about a time in the future where you can purchase a computer that is smarter that a human for aproximately 1,000 dollars. That's cool, but scary. What if these smart machines take over the world? And then it'll be the end of the world or something.

Okay, well, I'm starting to ramble, but that's just the what I was thinking. I really want to know about other people's opinions, so let me know!

PS. I have no idea how post videos, if someone can let me know great.

Shaman Artist

Well, it seems like I forgot to do an entry. Ooopsie. Well, For the chapter in the book; Woman Warrior, I choose the artist as my literature circle post. With my tursty program Paint, an imagination, and my book, I shall start with a picture and end into an very short explaination.((My pictorical skills are mimimal))

There is a tin can at the bottom of the picture, from the tin can that sparked Maxine's mothers' memory into thinking about her life experiences at medical school. There is a bat in the left side of the picture showing of how Maxine always thinks that the tin can comes with the smell of China. Bats in China are symbols of good luck and Maxine associates China with its smell. There are two green andforms, the red chinese characters show that the left landform is China and the right landform is America. Zhong guo and Mei Guo. There is what is supposed to look like a yellow/gold mountain on the right. That is supposed to represent California and the Golden Mountain that the Chinese named California after, what many Chinese believed actually existed, a Golden Mountain. There are two documents in the tin can. They are shown in the picture in the top center.

Lexicographer-ing. Part Three&Four.

The Part Three section of Woman Warrior is from pages 36-45. Part Four is from pages 46-53. Again, my source is an online dictionary.

PART THREE
Page 37:
~fiefdoms-Something over which one dominant person or group exercises control

Page 38:
~combatants-a person or a combat vehicle that takes part in armed strife.
~palanquins-A covered litter carried on poles on the shoulders of four or more bearers, formerly used in eastern Asia.

Page 40:
~Fontanel-a space covered by membrane between the bones of the fetal or young skull.
~pheasant-Any of several other birds that resemble the pheasant

Page 42:
~inaugurated-to make a formal beginning of; initiate; commence; begin
~commended-To express approval of; praise
~loath-unwilling; reluctant; disinclined; averse

Page 43:
~abacus-a device for making arithmetic calculations, made with a frame set with rods on which beads are moved.

Page 44:
~reprieve-any respite or temporary relief.


Page 45:
~exorcised-to free (a person, place, etc.) of evil spirits or malignant influences.


PART FOUR
Page 48:
~deigned-To think it appropriate to one's dignity; condescend

Page 50:
~communes-To be in a state of intimate, heightened sensitivity and receptivity, as with one's surroundings

Page 51:
~faggots-a disparaging term for a homosexual man.
~unobtrusively-not obtrusive; inconspicuous, unassertive

Page 52:
~flotage-floating power; buoyancy.

Page 53:
~concession-the act of conceding or yielding, as a right, a privilege, or a point or fact in an argument
~dissimilar-not similar; unlike; different.
~vengeance-an act or opportunity of inflicting such trouble

Lexicographer-ing. Part Two.

This entry is vocabulary from pages 27-35 of Woman Warrior. My source is an online dictionary.
Page 28:
~Self-immolation-voluntary sacrifice or denial of oneself, as for an ideal or another person.
~ transmigration- the passage of a soul after death into another body; metempsychosis.

Page 29:
~strata-a layer of material, naturally or artificially formed, often one of a number of parallel layers one upon another
~resin-a substance of this type obtained from certain pines; rosin
~paradoxes-A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true

Page 32:
~conscription-compulsory enrollment of persons for military or naval service; draft.

Page 34:
~forebodingly-a strong inner feeling or notion of a future misfortune, evil, etc.; presentiment.

Page 35:
~writhed-to shrink mentally, as in acute discomfort.
~tooled-A machine, such as a lathe, used to cut and shape machine parts or other objects

Lexicographer-ing. Part One.

A few days ago, in English class, Mr. Watson assigned us literacy circles with a twist. So I self assigned myself for the job of Lexicographer. My job is read the required text pages and then locate words that are hard to describe. Tonight's read is pages 19-27; chapter White Tigers; book, Woman Warrior. The words that I am finding the definition for are words that I might know in my vocabulary, but was curious to see what different contexts the word could refer to. My source from which I am finding my defintions is from an online dictionary, google and a site called http://www.answers.com.

PAGE 19:

• Swordswoman: A trained sword fighter that is a women, a fencer.
• White Crane Boxing: a martial art. Here's a site I found. It has a thorough history of this type of boxing.
• Shao-lin: type of martial art combined with buddhism.
• alighted:to come down from, to rest in a certain spot.

PAGE 20:

• Fa Mu Lan: fictional, real female figure in chinese history. Want to know more?
• ideograph: a pictorial symbol.

PAGE 23:

• avenge: to get revenge for someone or yourself.

PAGE 24:

• timberline: the point in a landmass where timber halts its line of growth.

Remix: My Natural High.

Here's the edit of my story, My Natural High.

"Are you sure this is safe?" I asked. It was eight o' clock in the morning, when the summer heat was almost starting to settle in, but the crisp air was chilly, with breezy winds blowing about. I was staring at a huge rocky peak with rapids encircling it was shaped like a bear, the mist from rushing water surrounding the air everywhere, damp clung to my skin. The sun was just peaking out from a cloud and the sky was a blue tint. Everything seemed to be assuring me, Alex and my mother, the sky, the somewhat soothing sound of water rapids. "Everything was going to be alright. Just Relax," I thought to myself. And I did.

"GRRRRING" the sound of motors working in a fluid motion,round and round, again, as our raft flew to the top of the track, I was immediately thrust into reality, I was going to die from shock. This steep incline, I was going to have to drop, that far. I looked down. Oh my God. From that breakneck height, I would have to fly down. Time for some Hail Marys and Our Fathers. I squeezed my eyes shut and gave the handlebars on the raft a deathgrip, holding on for dear life. How could I let my mother and best friend persuade me to go on a raft ride, in early morning! I must be out of my senses! And there were screams that could be heard from just about anywhere in the park coming from that ride. Oh boy. The raft was turning, sloshing around in the roaring waters. This wasn't that bad. It was quite fun. I relaxed my shoulders and loosened my grip. I smiled.

SPLASH. I guess not. My smile had turned into a thin line with a furrowed brow. I has just gotten my whole shirt soaked. From one wall of water. Now I was frezing cold, and the windy morning was not helping. Then there was a big drop coming up. The big finish. I looked ahead and saw the water at the bottom, gushing around, seemingly evilly frolicking, beckoning us closer as to get us wet. No! I couldn't grasp the idea of accepting my doomed fate. I wanted to turn the raft depserately around and back into the direction it came in. Too late now, gravity had taken its toll.

For the few seconds I was falling, it felt as though my body was suspended into midair, time was in slow motion. This was a great feeling, release, relax, enjoy. Screaming just made the sense of complete freedom complete. And then we crashed into the water, spraying everywhere. The moment was over, my natural high. Everyone was soaking wet, but I was estatic from that.

"Can I go again?"

My SuperHero.

My superhero is the artist. The power of expression, of freedom, oppression, of feeling; that is the greatest thing of all. I feel that you can not just choose one artist, because that would be the equivalent to seeing only the color black your entire life, just a dark abyss of nothing but a single color, no sound, no music.

But if you choose all the artists, you coniceve splashes of color and varying sounds. Some sounds would be just the harmony of voices singing as one, the feeling that, oh my I'm in heaven, or the clashing of the cymbals as the final goodbye as the music ends and you are left with the echo, echo if the cymbals, clashing, clashing, in your ears. I was told by a colleague that music is one of the driving forces of nature in a teens life. Music is created out of the feeling, idea, response that arrived at the artists head.

Everything comes from thoughts, and emotions. I think that the fact that music and art pieces are so important in my life is due to the lost of expression of self I feel myself at in these turning points of my life. The stereotypical teenager is full of feelings that are new, exciting, unexplored. They are unsure of these new powers they posses. Some days they hate the feelings they come to have, some days they feel on top of the world. But music are the words that are feed to you by the artist to explain exactly the way you feel at the exact moment. Why do you think that there are so many songs about love that are popular among teenagers? It is the hormones that we posses and our craving for the opportunity to use them.

The artist is the ultimate iconic symbol of expression of feeling from human thoughts into other formats. Say for example, biology. DNA uses the bases T, A, C, and G. But the bases that react with the amino acids can't read the DNA code. So the RNA translates the DNA code into something that is readable. That way the bases can match up with each other and the amino acids can combine in the correct squence with the end result being the protein. DNA is like a human's thought. The artists takes the thought and unscrables these feelings so that they are understandable and writes, sings, or artistically expresses those same thoughts into something else. Some other language. Sometimes the artist just doesn't make sense to you. But there is an artist out there that "speaks your language."

This is the exact reason why the Artist is my superhero. Throughout my entire lifetime, which is a really short amount considering the average lifespan of an American human; I have relied on artists to explain thoughts that would otherwise be scrabbled. The Artist is my gateway to the outside World.

Analyzing A Girl.

In my flat world story, I wrote about a girl that goes on an amusment park ride and the feelings she is experiencing. The only link it has to a family story is the fact that her mother is on the ride with her. So the only option of analyzing a character in my story is the girl.

The girl goes through a series of emotions through the ride. There is the sense of fear when she sees what she is going to face once she steps into the raft that would take her onto the ride. Then there is a calming sense as the girl drifts into a sense of relaxation and the feeling of everything will go away if you don't think about it. She is lured into this state by the persuation of her own mind and the minds of her best friend and her mother. But in the end, her own mind is the driving force behind her emotional state. It is the same mind that triggers her out of this self induced state and unto a panic mode state of thinking.

Once the girl realizes what she got into, she just sentenced herself to one of her phobias, of heights and getting wet. After she gets onto the ride, she realizes that no matter what, she can't do anything to stop or prevent herself from riding the rest of the ride out, and although she tenses up when the highlight of her phobia approachs, the end of the ride and the big fall. When the moment actually happens, there is a sense of accomplishment and freedom as she feels she is freefalling and then the feeling ends as she crashes into the water.

So in the beginning the girl doesn't know what she wants, and resists a risktaking moment, and in the end she's glad she took the risk and experienced something new and foreign.

Wild Imaginations By Maxine

In the first chapter of The Woman Warrior, Maxine and her interthoughts give way to her identity as Maxine. When she talks about her aunt, she also talks about herself in a sense. Maxine is much like her aunt. She is "Lost". Her aunt was eccentric and different because of the way she acted, according to Maxine. While Maxine is trying to discover who she herself really is, she compares the aunt to herself. How she only wants Chinese boys to like her, not black, white, blue, and green boys to like her. She also draws a thick line between Chinese and American culture, but crosses through it, back and forth, as she thinks of her aunt and what her aunt really was, who she loved, how she acted, how she felt, etc. The aunt is this mysterious figure in Maxine's life, that Maxine strives to figure out, to sharpen this image of a shadowy, blurry figure of a women who loved her child. Maxine is on the borderline of Chinese culture and American culture. Her aunt was on the borderline of Chinese culture and rebellion, identity; until the Chinese villagers forced her to walk a lonely rose on the rebellion and identity side.

But in all of this, Maxine has to also choose whether to become what her ancestors expect of her, a Chinese girl or an American Rebel. Is there a middle, an in-between, a compromise? She could call herself Chinese-American. You can call yourself anything but that does not matter until you enforce it, or it means something to you and to the others around you. Would the Chinese people accept that? When her mother tells her that story about her aunt, is that a warning that you can't be both, like her aunt attempted to do?

When Maxine thinks about all these different sides of her aunt and what her aunt could of been, she is acting through her aunt's life possiblities and exploring what options she has as a Chinese woman.

In No Name Woman, there are many more aspects of aunt and Maxine that under careful observation can be discovered. So what do you think?

My Natural High.

It takes one idea to create one fixating story that everyone is just awed at. But the problem is, which idea do you choose? In english class, Mr. Watson told us about this Thousand and One Flat World Tales Project. We are supposed to come up with a family story to tell.

There are so many family stories that I know are somewhere in my mind and memory, but I can't seem to spark them into clear memory. There are my uncles, aunties, granparents, and cousins. There are my parents, but I can't seem to think of a story that would stand out from everything else.

After 5 minutes of pestering my father while he was attempting to watch some golf on the television, I have an idea. The basic idea has to do with my best friend, my mother, myself, and a couple of strangers. The place was Disneyland, the Grizzly Bear Rapids.

"Are you sure this is safe?" I asked. It was eight o' clock in the summer, but the day was chilly, with gusty winds blowing about. I was staring at this huge rocky peak shaped like a bear, the mist from rushing water surrounding the air everywhere, damp clung to my skin. The sun was just peaking out from a cloud and the sky was a blue tint. Everything seemed to be assuring me, Alex and my mother, the sky, the somewhat soothing sound of water rapids. "Everything was going to be alright. Just Relax," I thought to myself. And I did.

"GRRRRING" the sound of motors working in a fluid motion,round and round, again, as our raft flew to the top of the track, I was immediately thrust into reality, I was going to die from shock. This steep incline, I was going to have to drop, that far. I looked down. Oh my God. From that hieght, I would have to fly down, time for some Hail Marys and Our Fathers. I squeezed my eyes shut and gave the handlebars on the raft a deathgrip. How could I let my mother and best friend persuade me to go on a raft ride, in early morning! I must be out of my senses! And there were screams that could be heard from just about anywhere in the park coming from that ride. Oh boy. The raft was turning, sloshing around in the roaring waters. This wasn't that bad. It was quite fun.

SPLASH. I guess not. I has just gotten my whole shirt soaked. From one wall of water. Now I was frezing cold. Then then was a big drop coming up. I looked ahead and saw the water at the bottom, gushing around, seemingly evilly frolicking, beckoning us closer as to get us wet. No! I wanted to turn the raft depserately around and back into the direction it came in. Too late now, gravity had taken its toll.

For the few seconds I was falling, it felt as though my body was suspended into midair, time was in slow motion. This was a great feeling, release, relax, enjoy. Screaming just made the sense of complete freedom complete. And then we crashed into the water, spraying everywhere. The moment was over, my natural high. Everyone was soaking wet, but I was estatic from that.

"Can I go again?"


This is my first draft. It is very raw and unorgainized. So, let me know what you think. I really have to change it around. I'll probably edit it later today.

Quote Unquote Aunt.

"On a farm near the sea, a woman who tended her appearance reaped a reputation for eccentricity." [Book, Woman Warrior Chapter: No Name Woman Page 9 Paragraph 1 Line 1 ] The villagers in the chapter, No Name Woman can not accept the individually. The aunt of Maxine gets automatically viewed as eccentric because of her behavior. Drawing attention to yourself is a big taboo in a village where the norm is being guiet, meek, silent. I guess the aunt wanted to be the red fish in the sea of blue fishes even though there is a price. You see, the blue fishes blend in with the water and don't get caught by the fisherman. But the red fish has no defense. But it might be worth it. This thirst for identity, for self. You can't be yourself if you are so much alike everyone else.

"Don't humilitate us. You wouldn't like to be forgotten as if you had never been born."[Book, Woman Warrior Chapter: No Name Woman Page 5 Paragraph 2 Line 3 ] In this quote, the mother is telling Maxine the punishment that the Aunt had to suffer through for her sin. It seems more like a threat then a warning. I guess this is the mother's way of meaning that she was dead serious. I wonder if Maxine gets these stories for things her mother tells her not to do, like cheat on a test? Are there family stories for that as well as this story? Well, this story is rather indepth as the aunt commits suicide. But, why did the mother have to tell Maxine this story? Stories like this stick with you for the rest of your life. This quote sums up the mother's story. Her morale at the end, you become a eccentric, you beome an outsider. This signifys that Maxine's family is still deep in Chinese tradition.

No Name Woman is just filled with "hidden" metaphors and details that you will miss if you read without stopping to think about it. So think about it.

Faith: Live It, Breathe It.

Faith without action is dead. This is what my Sunday School teacher told me. So here I am, taking action and spreading the Word of God. I understand if you don't agree with me at all on this religious level. I understand if you want to bash my religon and beliefs; but remember I am a human with feelings. If you want to read, good for you. If not, then don't. Basically I am talking about the Apostle's Creed. First it is in Greek. Then it is in Latin. Then it is in English. And then is my attempted version of it. My verison is incomplete. You need to Live your Faith, To Breathe It; In Order to Understand It. Amen.

Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem; Creatorem coeli et terrae.
Et in Jesum Christum, Filium ejus unicum, Dominum nostrum; qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria virgine; passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus; descendit ad inferna; tertia die resurrexit a mortuis; ascendit ad coelos; sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis; inde venturus (est) judicare vivos et mortuos.
Credo in Spiritum Sanctum; sanctam ecclesiam catholicam; sanctorum communionem; remissionem peccatorum; carnis resurrectionem; vitam oeternam. Amen.

Πιστεύω εις Θεον Πατερα, παντοκράτορα, ποιητην ουρανου και γης.
Και (εις) `Ιησουν Χριστον, υίον αυτου τον μονογενη, τον κύριον ήμων, τον συλληφθέντα εκ πνεύματοσ άγίου, γεννηθέντα εκ Μαρίας της παρθένου, παθόντα επι Ποντίου Πιλάτου, σταυρωθέντα, θανόντα, και ταφέντα, κατελθόντα εις τα κατώτατα, τη τρίτη `ημέρα `αναστάντα `απο των νεκρων, `ανελθόντα εις τους ουρανούς, καθεζόμενον εν δεξια θεου πατρος παντο δυνάμου, εκειθεν ερχόμενον κρϊναι ζωντας και νεκρούς.
Πιστεύω εις το Πνυμα το `Αγιον, αγίαν καθολικην εκκλησίαν, αγίων κοινωνίαν, άφεσιν αμαρτιων, σαρκος ανάστασιν, ξωήν αιώνιον. Αμήν.

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he desended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. AMEN.

I believe in One God, the Great One that created everything, Heaven, Earth, etc. I believe in Jesus, the Son of God, who was born through the Holy Spirit with the help of Mary. I believe in the Holy Trinity. Jesus as a human suffered under the Roman Rule and was killed. He was buried and was dead. On the Third Day He rose again to Earth to tell people about his ressurrection. One day, He will come again on Judgement Day. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the church, all the saints and the power of God forgiving our sins. I believe that Jesus ressurected with his body and I believe in Life. So be it.

mi lu de jie mei.

Lost Sister.


Lost: Mi Lu De (Road+ __+ particle= Lost)
Sister: JieMei(Older+Younger Sister= Sister)

In English class, we had a "Lost Sister" Quiz. It has two parts to it.

Part One:

You find you need China:

your one fragile identification,

a jade link

handcuffed to your wrist.

(Lost Sister. Part 2. Paragraph 3. Lines 1-4.)

The Lost Sister in this poem has rebelled against what was her pre-determined future. But in the midst of this rebellion and going far away from her Chinese heritage and familiar settings, she figures out that no matter how hard she tries, she is connected to her Chinese Heritage and Culture. In the first line, this is what she is talking about. Without your past, your future is non-existent.

"your one fragile identification." This means there aren't a lot of connections between her and her ocean-away home in China. Perhaps she doesn't keep in touch with her relatives, she just has herself. Being yourself, you are one identification. You define who you are, what you will become, where you came from. Fragile might mean, that this link binding the Lost Sister from her China is very thin. It could be gone in an instant. Maybe its fading as the Lost Sister becomes familiarized with the American landscape. She is giving up being Chinese to be American. So in this process she is losing her Chinese culture. The way her mindset works, the way she talks, the way she walks, the way she holds herself, the values she upholds.

"a jade link." Jade, in Part one is the name of the Lost Sister. It describes in the poem about how many daughters in China are named Jade and that Jade is: the positive in the negative life, the one who makes miracles happen, the stronghold in the family, the glue that puts a million little pieces into one masterpieces. There is a lot of referral to the color of green, the standard color for jade, although there is purple jade too. The Lost Sister is the link. Maybe the link would refer to the jade bracelets that many Chinese people wear. Many wear jade bracelets for a lifetime.

"handcuffed to your wrist." Handcuffed is by force, chained. It is not by choice. When you are born you are not allowed to choose what you want to be. "I want to be Irish." No, it doesn't work that way. It is like the hospital ID bracelet the medical staff attaches to your wrist soon after you are born. You are handcuffed to this bracelet. There are some pros to this bracelet. For one, this is for security reasons. What if the baby is misplaced in another room? Not a problem; because the staff can read your identification bracelet and bring you back to your mommy and daddy. I think that the jade bracelet, or her face, her identity; her Chinese identity is one she has by force. It is sometimes not something wanted. But it is necessary to find your way back to your native roots.

I have an interesting story about "jade links." My grandmother is Chinese. She wears a beautiful jade bracelet all the time. There is not a moment that she is not wearing this jade bracelet. Even when I was a babe, she wore this bracelet. Why? I asked her many times. She laughs, she smiles, she frowns, she looks, but she always says, "it's stuck on my wrist." A lifetime of wear, and Grandmother doesn't mind. Or does she? My Grandmother's story seems quite similar to Lost Sister's.

Moodle, Poodle.

In English class on Friday, we were told to create a web about things that we thought about Moodle. The class was split in groups of three or four people. Our group came up with some unconvential ideas, such as: "I want Moodle to make me lunch." Tiffy was the girl genius that thought up that idea. So, all in all, the following is the list that I wrote in my English notebook. Hope you find some comedy and enlightenment in my thoughts and e-scribbles.

What I unconditionally-love-so-much-i-would-be-angered-if-it-change about it:

1. There is this feature where you can add contacts from your class and talk to them in a sort of Instant Messaging fashion. I think that is very clever, especially when the english class is located in the computer lab and we are not allowed to talk!
2. There is an About Me. Most educational sites dont really want you to input any type of personal information about yourself. But Moodle is the exception. They care about you as an idiviual. They want to know more about you as a person, not just a name.
   

What I wish-upon-a-shooting-star-and-ask-Santa-for about it:

1. I want Moodle to talk to me! Tell me my name! How cool would that be? HELLO, JENN. and then id just be like,"Hello Alfred." Thats what I would name my iMoodle-Speaker. Give me a sense of identity!
2. Music is one of a teenagers most prized possesions. Without music, a teenager is lost. The power of voice with instrumental heaven is bliss. Pure bliss. Having some music to listen to on Moodle would be wonderful.
3. Moodlers must take a break now and then. Why not have some games on Moodle? Something to tease the brain into learning? Sharpen your reflexs! The possiblities are absolutely endless.
4. Email is also a big part of the 21st century communication portal. Without email, we would have to mail letters! Kill trees! oh my! So Email would be good to have on Moodle.

What I creatively-in-my-JENNish-way use it:

1. Use the Moodle as the new AIM. Instant Message your friends into the night!
2. Use Moodle as a ad place. When you are allowed to post topics, post things you want to trade in for something else, or are looking for to purchase. (ie: WANTED: a green iPod.) Plus, its free. Who doesn't like some free ad space?
   

What I despise-hate-strongly-dislike about it:

1. There is no interation with people other then your class. My english class has about seventeen people in it. There is not alot of audience you are getting when you are talking, putting your ideas out.
2. The default picture is abousolutely hideous. It is a smiley yellow face with some gafas de sol. (sunglasses.) It hurts to think about it. (See top of post.)
3. The font is default, you can not change it. The same font all the time is boring.

And that is the conclusion to my thoughts Disection of Moodle. My ups and downs, pros and cons, likes and dislikes, loves and hates, and yet the world turns.

Impostering the Greats.

The way Great books start off; they suck you into the plot, then explain what is going on in the story so you dont have keep on putting question marks in your book because you have no clue whats going on. Books that start off with a long description, as far as my young mind can tell; that is considered a boring book to young readers. There must be some visual, but later. Some mystique. As am I with my blog. Impostering the Greats. Well, more correctly, I can see that the rest of my class wrote an introduction about them; who they are, what they are(human, I hope.). So I think its an assignment, and I like doing things as such. From as simple as their name to the innerds of their soul being. So here she goes, or maybe; There She Goes (its a song by The La's; ah the irony!)

My name is Jenn. Calling me by any other name, is strictly taboo. I love food. Wo ai fan. Yo nessicito comida. (Translation: I love Food. I need Food.)I am a spanish student who is Chinese. Hence my sumpreme excellence in both. I only made it through a Chinese 1 class and am currently in Spanish 1. Back to Food. Food not just a pshycial being, it is the memory that relates to that certain food that triggers emotions. It is the Food. The top essential of Life, for your Soul and Physical Being. Ice cream is the best dessert. Sweets that are sweet sweet can be a bit too sweet. If you comprended that within one read, you are among the people that tend to write Jenn-style. But the rest of the world can just comprend this language called: English; Ingles, Meiguo wen. I am taking a English 1 class. By force I started off in this class, but secretly, I am currently loving it. Blogging is the Generation X's niche. We just click together. In class the mental conversation goes like this:

Mr. Watson: Blog. We will Blog for English!

Class: YAY! BLOG! LOVE BLOG! YUM!

So the mind of Jenn is quite the usual. It's un-usual. Oh, one more fact about Jenn. She loves God.

Eloquent Speech. En Espanol.

The power of speech. The greatness of the perfect word. Nothing can beat the satisfaction you are blown away with when you write a piece of literature. There is something instilled in you, that little thrill you get when you accomplish something.

I got that thrill, high on speech feeling today. My toddler-cousin who is two years old was my charge when we were walking around Chinatown(see Cheesy? Chinese? for more details).

Hola. Me llamo Ty. Adios. Hasta luego. Hasta manana. Los ciento.

I just keep repeating those same phrases over and over again for Ty to slowly comprend. Although I didn't brainwash him with enough spanish phases, I still have that sense of accomplishment. In class today, Mr. Watson was talking to our English class about Mr. Robert S. and his lifetime study of the brain. There are two ten-year cycles. In the first ten years of your life, you start learning things. My cousin is learning something from me that might be useful for him later. Just a few simple spanish phases. Golly, he could be fluent, just make him listen to some spanish tapes or something. Imersere thy toddler into the poetry of language!

I myself am a spanish student; learning the basics of: I feel cold, or what time is it? But just to pull someone along with you on your journey of somewhat-shoved-down-your-throat eduation; To be the Teacher who is Learning to Teach, next to the Student who is Learning to Learn. Ah, the great philosophy of life.

Cheesy like a Chinese?

Tonight, my cousin celebrated his 22nd birthday. As usual, my Popo(grandmother) insists on having a birthday bash at Empress Resturant. In Chinatown, the restaruant is known to my family as,"2nd home." We go to the same resturant, the same menu, the same items, the same people. Every single weekend. Tonight was different. Chinese New Year falls on Feburary eighteenth this year. Into the night, the plaza in Chinatown was bombarded with guests who wanted some real Chinese food and some celebrating. Yes, I did say, real Chinese food. There are two catergories: the generitc type of Chinese food that anyone can make, and then the real chinese food that only the elders can make, or only the true chinese people "from the village" like to eat. Vendors crowd the area with booths set up stuffed with Chinese art, some chinese goodies, such as gin dui and narssiuss blossoms.

Every year seemed like the same old, same old. Take a picture with the Narssiuss Queen and Court, clean the shopfront for the new year, blahblahblah. Chinese New Year traditions are pointless and unnessicary. But this year, there were children performing on stage at the plaza who were from China. At first, I was really not in the mood to be dragged around everywhere by my family and take pictures. As the night progressed though, my Popo, my parents, and I were practically forced to watch those chilren dance, laugh, sing, and be merry.

My first impression of this: Let us go home. NOW. But after a couple minutes, I was soaking in the chinese culture that was shining through those children's talents. The lights in the plaza was randomly scattered, people were crowded around the stage in awe, elderly people were chit-chatting in the corners, gossiping about the latest news in the Chinese newspaper. It is all in the eye of the beholder. Chinese? Cheesy? Not a chance. I am full Chinese and I am proud to say after the boost of Chinese Culture adrenaline; I am Chinese.