Entry 36, Fahrenheit 451

  I thought this movie was absolutely ridiculous. To be telling the truth, I did not really enjoy the plot so far, just the idea that I will have to be reading a book about more books within a story, I think that will be a good way of putting me to sleep. I did not enjoy this futuristic theme movie made in the 70's, their ideas are just so different than how we think today. I know that I have to let some imagination flow through, but the movie did not make sense to me for most part of it. There should be a better, well thought out planning of the movie. The movie should be in some logical order, instead of jumping around we don't even know if that is suppose to be right for the part. There was one scene, from when the main character was calling for his wife, and his wife then hides around and trips him onto the bed and starts kissing him, that was out of no where and I did not understand why that scene was put in that sequence so abruptly. To be honest, I never enjoyed any 70's movies, for most of it, I never thought that the filming techniques and the way the stories are arranged are ever good. Maybe it is because I have yet seen a good 70's movie, but this movie really is not my cup of tea. I did not like and enjoy this film, although I have been told the book was better, I sincerely and full heartedly hope that the book will be much more interesting than this movie.

Entry 35, Being Pushed

  My parents, compared to alot of parents in Taiwan, would be called crazy, to let their kid run around like how I am doing right. My parents, in Shanghai, compared to the American families in my old school, would be considered to be the strictest parents in the world, for their expectations of grades and the hope of a very successful son. In Shanghai, I was pushed alot by my parents, maybe it was because my English ability was absolutely terrible, I could barely manage myself back then. In Taiwan, as I grow older and as my parents can tell that I am getting better at managing myself, they let me be more independent and do more things on my own rather for them to be asking me twenty four seven. Honestly, these expectations was probably not there long enough to push me into thinking that I want to give up. I believed that back then, with the expectations, I worked alot harder and pushed myself into doing stuff I never thought I would be doing. I really do think that the expectations, the constant beatings and screaming will really help us realize that we need to work harder. I believe that there are alot of parents out there in Taiwan that would be doing this to their kids, I would not use this method of educating a child if I were to be a dad.

Entry 34, Negative

  To many people, especially in the Asian family, negative influences are never a good thing. Negative influences are always thought of as, altering to be a "bad" change. I don't believe that negative influences will always be bad for people. A certain amount of negative influences will make people realize and understand the importance of certain situations. Many times, the negative influences can be reflected later in life, as an experience, and can often times be compared to an individual's opinion of today. I believe that I've had countless negative influences, wearing my pants down to my knees, hanging out with friends all day long, these are all towards the negative influences. Although these influences are still who I am today, I take it as an experience, as something I can learn from so I will not make the same mistake as before. The positive influences, such as hearing stories of a successful entrepreneur, will be less influential than the negative influences. Many times, people tend to try some sort of negative actions, and then change themselves so then they will not make this mistake again. To me, with the massive amount of negative and positive impacts on my life, I would still say the negative impacts and influences are still more powerful, as us humans will learn from the mistakes and learn to not act that certain way again.  

Entry 33, Universal Experience

  When you are at war, there is definitely a chance of feeling scared, most of the soldiers there on the battle field standing shoulder to shoulder by you, are probably feeling the same as you. Being scared is very natural as you are risking your lives on this damp, disgusting battlefield of Vietnam. In the story the soldiers all share the experience of being in the hard conditions of Vietnam and going against the enemy in the humid, swampy, potentially containing traps area. We all can tell that non of the soldiers wanted to be in the hardship and fighting for their country, We can all tell some of them were scared as they fight the war. We can tell from the story that During this time period, Vietnam has a lot of traps that will kill the soldiers as they walk through it. We can also tell the unique weather it has, where every where they go, there could be a swamp and the weather is absolutely humid including some rainy days. This will make the soldiers be left in water at least half the time as they are in Vietnam. Also, another very interesting thing about the Vietnam war that makes it so unique is that it was very hard for the soldiers to find the enemies and the people to kill. The enemies seemed like they were blended into the normal citizens and it was very hard to find the people that needs to be killed. Often times they would slaughter the innocent. The Vietnam war had its very unique features to it, which no other war can be compared to and reflected off of it.

Entry 32, Far From Home

  People will always change, sometimes the changes are great and sometimes the changes are bad, sometimes the changes are voluntary and sometimes they're not. It is not likely that one of us would go onto the battle and fight a war.(I hope not) Many times people will have to get use to their environment, sometimes they would need to adjust and adapt to the current situation they are facing. For me, coming from a family that moved alot, it is not a nice feeling to be the new kid in class. I hated being the new kid, where no one knew me, and I had to sit alone for lunch. No one wanted to play with you, and no one even knew your name. Many times, as no one knows each other, they would not tend to show their true self until they understand more about each other, and learn to become friends. I believe war time friends will last a long time due to the fact that you both share an extraordinary experience together, being on the battle field risking your lives together. When people are not use to the environment, or they do not know anyone, they would first seem serious and less likely to show their true self. I have been to many MUN conferences, and when you are put into a big conference room, with one hundred kids you do not know from other countries, you tend to act more like adults and become serious. As being in MUN conferences and being the new kid in class, I don't generally like this feeling. I do not like how serious kids can be when they do not know each other, it does not show their true self. I like how it gets me working harder, gets me more focused, but I do not enjoy the fact that I cannot talk and chat with the person right next to me about a situation that happened that we both know of and can relate to.  

Entry 31, Author's Background

  I think when it comes to different stories, the author can depend on the story, and determine if requiring the first hand experience would be necessary for the article. When the article is taking an approach in which the purpose of it is to inform, like a documentary, or other news articles, I think other than those times, the author should have first handed experiences, I think that people without the experience would provide a better and more interesting story. I think when it comes to normal stories, it is best that the  author does not have any direct  connection or knowledge and experience on it, and it will kill the whole imagination of the author due to the fact that they already know the outcome of the actions. If the author did not know the outcome as well, they will have more imagination, they will take other approaches towards the story and therefore creating a much interesting story that will satisfy the reader more. People tend to dramatize stories to make the story better and more interesting and to draw the audience into the article or film. Without the interesting dramas, then the story would just be boring. I think it is better for people to use their imaginations on creating characters than to directly tell us what these characters have in traits because of some reason of cause. I would be much more appealed to the story that is more dramatically produced than a one that is straight facts.

Entry 30, Symbols of Heritage

  I have grew up in an Asian family with a strong Asian culture background. The mindsets of my family has been altered due to present day ideologies, but the culture and heritage still lies within us. My family has many paintings and art sculptures that resembles where I come from. There are many Chinese Calligraphy paintings framed being put on the wall. The paintings of words tells how to live your life, mostly only a few words, short and concise, but it explains a basic way of living your life, or moral values that is commonly worshiped upon. These calligraphy paintings shows that I come from an Asian family, and that these words, that are being framed and passed down from generations, is how my family lives their life, and what they think is the most important in life. Also we have some sculptures or Buddhist sculptures that resembles our multi-generation religion as it is been passed down one after the other down to me. Our family has always participated quite greatly for things like religion, due to the fact that  our family believes that religion can be also another way of living, therefore we follow the ideologies and ways of behaving as those Buddhist stories and rules tells us. I believe that these heritage is great, it shows that my family believed, and may I add, strongly believed that these thoughts were important to us, and that is why we pass it down.

Entry 29, Family Traditions

  I come from a Taiwanese family, both ways, both sides of my grandparents are Taiwanese and I have been living and growing up in the Taiwanese system. I have been to the many cultural events such as Chinese New Year and many more and I have grown to understand and believe the culture we share and have. The heritage and culture is not as big of a role in my life or in my families life. My family is traditional, but not too traditional to a degree where everything must have an order, and everything all happens for a cause. This is due to the fact that all my Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents are adopting very young mindsets set off by the media and therefore they have a less traditional way of thinking. Our family is more traditional as it gets around the holidays, we still celebrate Chinese New Year, we still receive red envelopes from the elders and we still eat the dinner all together as a family for the last night of the year. We are traditional, but we don't tend to have so many other cultural and traditional holidays where we gather together and celebrate as a whole. Our generations have adopted a more western way of thinking as it gets to my generation. It gets more open minded and lets the culture sink as we adopt a new way of living.

Entry 28, Thanksgiving

  I am thankful for alot of things actually, when people normally think back they would always think, " well I have nothing great in my life, I am not that thankful of anything". Well, I would like to tell those people that they are taking everything for granted. I thank having a healthy body, I give thanks for the great living my parents made for me, I give thanks for the people that has touched my lives for the good or the bad. I can give thanks to everything, and I can continue, but I would not want to bore you with such list. I like to give thanks for three things in my life. Family, Health, and Love. Families are what makes the successful, sucsessful. Behind every incredible story, behind every inspirational person ever lived, there is a supportive, loving family behind them, being alongside with them as they go through this glory. Health is what we take for granted, there are millions of people dying this second, troubled because they need a kidney transplant, and we do not see it as an importance to our everyday life because we don't notice these small things. I believe that without health, there is no way of making any sorts of accomplishment, making any types of contributions to the society, without good health, you are nobody. At last, but just as important, is love. Love, not the family kind, but the relationship love, the love you give and share with the special someone. Some people do no take relationships seriously, bouncing from people to people, changing it as if they were pieces of tissue. I take it seriously. Don't be telling be how stupid I am for being so serious at such a young age, well, without being serious, how do you know it could've actually worked out? I take my relationships seriously, I see it as, one less heart break around the world would make the world better. I give thanks to many other things, but these three are the biggest, most effective to my life.

Entry 27, Doing the Right Thing

  People will do everything they can for achieving what they desire. Principles are things they say they might follow, but in reality, the principles they claim they have, will vanish as it gets in their way of getting what they wanted. This is not that surprising that people does this, lets say that people always talk about how you should not date your friend's ex or who your friend likes. This is not a law, this is just a simple principle in life many tend to try to live by, but many fail to succeed. I am the exact guy I am talking about, I am the guy that claims the principles I live my life by, but not follow half of them due to the fact that they are in the way of what I really want. To me, I use these principles as advice to my life, I will not have to specifically follow it if it gets in my way. That is how I feel about these principles of life and my attitude towards it. I know that it is pointless claiming these principles that you don't even follow, but it is just something there you know you shouldn't do. Something that will hold you back at doing certain things. I think this is common all over the world, there is not a specific place where this happens. I believe that competitive people will have this occuring on them. I am normally not a competitive person, but when it comes to relationships, I feel as if it is not my fault that I fall in love with someone, that I have feelings for someone. People can call me selfish all they want, but I feel as if this is the only principle I don't actually obey.

Entry 26, Conflict Avoidance

  Conflicts are never avoidable in stories. In real life however, I believe that it is easy and it would make life alot easier if conflicts were avoided. In real life, conflicts are never completely avoidable but many external conflicts can be avoided with a little more attention to your surroundings. Things that can be avoided, such as getting into a car accident and you being the cause, this could be stopped by driving slower and less recklessly. Things like, staring at a gang member outside of a bar, will not be a good idea and conflicts later on such as this, can be avoided if you know what you are handling and dealing with. It is a good thing to avoid most conflicts in my opinion, after all, no one benefits from it. All disputes are never beneficial, sometimes only just showing the sheer amount of power one has. What does that mean to most people? Nothing. I believe that I am the type of guy that would not want trouble. When I am in a pool hall, I stare at the things I should be staring at and nothing more. I wouldn't be touching things I am not suppose to touch to avoid further conflicts that could arise after such actions. I believe that in times that could potentially harm you, physically, then the conflict should be avoided. A simple word, "sorry" can solve everything. That is from my previous experiences and it is your choice to take it or not. I would never want to be caught in some serious conflicts.

Entry 25, Heritage Revisited

    The culture that has been passed down to me, the strict rules of the Asian traditional family, will be what gets in my way of certain things. It benefits me as well, starting from the fact that I can study and I will study. This way I will learn, I will for sure get down information in my head and I will apply that. This is good in many ways, we tend to succeed a little bit more due to the fact that we work a bit harder than everyone else. This also has alot of disadvantage as well, This culture, this way of life, this way of educating the kids, will terminate all sorts of imagination that is going through their mind, this will put a border on their imagination. Limitation is never good, and it would be bad when it comes to limiting the imagination of a child. I believe that this sort of heritage had benefited me more than I have lost things. I believe the way that I am determined to finish all my work and try to get the best out of it. I have definitely felt embarrassed about this sort of heritage before. Whenever I see someone with no limitations, and I am the only one being left out, I somewhat feel embarrassed of my heritage. The more I grow up, the more I realize there is no need of being ashamed, as there are unique parts of every culture and this is just one of thme. 

Entry 24, Crossing the Rubicon

 Some people always makes changes in their life. Choices in life often are not always the easiest situations to deal with. Some choices some changes they take, people often come to a point where they make a mistake and they cannot go back. When you face a situation like this, it is painful to your mental self, seeing something you had one time vanish into thin air. People don't know which choices to make and which choices to not make. Let's say, you break up with your girlfriend because you are not ready for a serious relationship before you realize that you needed her more than you thought. Now you have to choose between going back and putting your ego aside, or you can not be with her and be unhappy. These choices are very hard to make for most people and for most people, these are choices they do not want to make. People are mostly devastated as they have to face this kind of dilehma. I have personally been in this type of situation quite often, it is not a very good feeling and it is never a good place to be. Choice making is hard, but sometimes, there will always be the better of the worse.

Entry 23, Influence of Childhood

  An author of a story or a book could get his or her ideas from her previous life experiences or even part she has never experienced. I believe that there is always an effect on the author's life if there was a horrendous or remarkable event that occurred in the author's life. The opinions could show some bias in some stories or it could be based in a different point of view, often the author's beliefs themselves. I think my life would be a decent information for some books or stories. My life is not the most interesting life, but it has some qualities that could make it a great story. Some qualities like the drama in my highschool life, or the excitement when I accomplish something I have never been able to accomplish, or even trying new things. I believe if someone wrote a story like that, it would be very interesting due to all the people and the amount of audience that can relate to them. I think there are actually alot of stories that I can relate to with my life. I believe the closest could be Captain Underpants series. In elementary school, I had a blast reading those books due to the similar things my friends and I would be doing to some teachers. I could relate my life to the book back then, therefore it turned out to be a great and suitable book for me. As for my later life, I believe many people would and could relate themselves to the book of Siddartha, because everyone in their life, will experience things, and will learn mistakes from their experience. They will not be going through the woods, but they will want to reach the final enlightenment, which is death, a peaceful death. That is what I think everyone can somewhat relate to even if we are not walking around in the woods barefooted.

Entry 22, Your Character

  I believe that many people have different characters with whoever they are with. This means that when they are with a certain type of person, they would be different than another type of person. I believe that people do this because they need to fit in with the group, to have something to talk about, or atleast that is why I do it. Let's say, you are with friends that like to go out and have fun alot, you would tend to have fun with them, do the stuff they like to do with them, but when you're with the friends that likes to study alot, you would probably be doing the same thing they are doing, just to have something in common and just to have something you both share to talk about. These two are the polar opposite and sometimes it is good to have these changes, so you can blend in with every type of people. At the same time, people would see it as if you were a double sided person who tries to fit in with everyone. From what I see myself, I believe that I am a very out going guy, I talk alot and I like to joke around and have fun. I go along better with people of my own kind, I don't really find people who games or people who studies all day amusing to hang out with. I don't really think I have two sides to my own character, I have one side and everyone knows me, Brandon as that one side.

Entry 21, Bullies

  Bullies are a very common thing in our society today. As people these days stand out, or are different than the majority of the people, those are the most potential bullied targets. I have personally witnessed many bullies in my life, ever since I was little, there would always be that one group or an individual who is always the bully. There are many different forms of bullying, from the normal physical bullying, which is physically hurting one another, or mental bullying, using verbal languages to affect the victim's mood. Don't think that mentally hurting someone's pride or self esteem is not powerful, there has been many cases in which kids killed themselves due to bullies hurting them, bullying them in school so much to a degree where they cannot find any further solutions. I have personally been a bully myself, or is still sometimes one. I mean, we are teenagers, and being a teenager, you are always there to impress your friends and having a good time, and when there are people that are physically challenged or is more socially awkward than most people, we tend to make fun of them. It is not because we feel insecure or anything, but its just simply funny. I know it is immature and it has been getting less and less in amount as I get older. I believe that people always believe the reasons for bully to bully people is because they are insecure with their social status, or they are actually the bullied ones. I don't believe that is true most of the time, like my example, we do that for fun, it is not because we are insecure of our social status in school, it is just because it is funny. Bullies needs to end, the longer bullying lasts, the more impact it could have within our society.

Entry 20, Character Questions

 In Nectar in the Sieve, Rukmani, The story's main character is a very interesting character with interesting characteristics. She is the main character, she is a very loving character, she is kind and has wisdom that was passed down to her from her father which will then be passed down to her children. She came from a very wealthy family to her husband Nathan's dirty mud hut. She then performs these acts that makes her survive her hardships as she goes on with her life. This character is a protagonist and is the narrator and the point of view of how this story is written. Direct characterization would be the author telling us straight up that she is a rich kid, she came from a wealthy family. Indirect characterization could be implying that she is rich by saying how nice and big her house is, how luxurious she lives her life and much more. These are called the different types of characterization. Motivation is very important when it comes to stories. When a character has a motivation to do a certain things, then they will complete it with a higher rate and will be alot more willing to complete it. I believe that Rukmani's motivation could be for her children or her will to have a better living. She has to overcome all the bad stuff in life that she has to experience later on. She will have to grow out of herself.

Entry 16, Influences

  I have been influenced by people ever since I was a little kid. Everyone gets influenced by something throughout their life. In my life, I have always tried to be something, either following the shadow of my father or trying to copy some older kid with what I use to think was considered "cool". People like my father and mother has a positive impact on me, I have in fact learn so much, and the reason why I am probably somewhat healthy, is because of them. They teach me alot of everyday life things rather than academic things. They tell me to be smart about your health and eat healthy. Because of them, I eat healthy everyday for dinner and breakfast. People like my friends would give me negative influences. I am not saying I don't like being with them, I love my friends, but I know, ever since I was a little boy, my friends would be my biggest negative influences. I never wanted to admit it, but I know that is true. When you are with friends, that is when you normally get in trouble, being caught by someone doing something bad, or breaking things and just everything that we do can turn out to go wrong. I am not saying I am the only influenced one, I influence others as well when it comes to negative impacts. I believe we all influence each other rather than only influenced by others and never influencing people.

Entry 19, Nectar in a Sieve

  When I first read this quote, i did not understand the meaning behind this quote. I went through, thought about this a few times and asked myself how this is true. I completely agree with this quote, this quote actually applies to many things in life, in school work and many more. I see this as, the nectar is the things you are learning, or the things that you are trying to attain, but without actually having hope, without having the positive mind, without wanting to accomplish it even, will get you nowhere, and you will never receive what you wanted to in the first place. The sieve is the conflict, is the struggle within yourself that is not accepting the nectar. You are like a bowl, with a positive attitude, with your mind completely willing to accept it, you will absorb the nectar, which is the experience or the skill out of the thing you are doing. Without being like a bowl, which is sort of like having hope and being confident and willing to accept the truth, you turn into the sieve, which will cause you to not perform as well when you are doing a certain task, or cause you to not learn anyhting from the experience. This definitely applies to my life, when I did not accept some things before, such as classes like expository writing, I thought it was not an important class, I did not learn anything out of it. I believe that if I had the chance of going back, I would accept the fact that I was in that class, and mind as well make something out of it while being there.

Entry 18, Character in Painting

  This picture actually has some very deep meanings behind this. When you first notice the picture, you would see that there is a man and a women, both are sitting down, staring into different things and different directions. This room is illuminated by the bright lights at the background which blends in with the shirt color of the women. The man is studying something in his hands, looking directly into it, paying full attention, or he could be thinking of something and therefore playing with his hands. The women, staring towards the man's direction, is also studying something, but something far away, something so far in reach that she does not get up to examine closer. This could also mean that the atmosphere could be awkward, after one of them tells them or admits something to one another, and one of them is trying to think and avoid each other. I believe that there is a meaning behind the color choices of the painter. I believe that the reason why the women is blended into the shiny warm lights in the background and the reason why the guy is blended in with his blazer to the purple wall, is because the author is trying to show the light and darkness of this atmosphere. By what I mean by light and darkness is that maybe the man did something wrong, or is the "darker" one in this situation, and the women is the giving and the thoughtful one who is forgiving him, and that is why she has the bright lights and the yellow shirt blended in. It is like two forces together, but one is always the "right" side.

Entry 17, Favorite Stories

 When I was young, I read a book called the Lord of the Flies. In my opinion, that is the greatest book I have ever read so far. I believe it was the plot and the characters that most appealed to me. My favorite character was Piggy, the guy that got killed at at last. There was just something about him, he was one of those people that got picked on alot throughout the whole book. He was always the nice guy providing good ideas and solutions to things but was always shot down because he was fat or just because they had no respect for him. I believe that the plot of the story, how the kids are the ones that kills themselves and screws up the island, that is really interesting to me because I feel like if this was actually going to happen in real life, that is exactly how it would end. The plot was very interesting to me at the time, I kept reading the book over and over again even if it was not assigned by a teacher. I really enjoyed the book in general, how every single character has his own traits, the more important ones like Ralph and Piggy. I chose Piggy because I thought even if he wasn't a main character, he held crucial parts of the conflicts and he was always the one that either started it or tried to resolve it. I really enjoy reading this book and I will be reading this for the rest of my life.

Entry 15, Characters

  I am sure everyone had encountered with some sort of story in their life. Within a story, there will always be different types of characters and there are always the good characters which are normally the main characters, or the villain, which is the bad character. For me, I find villains much more interesting because they always have this quality within them that makes them unique, makes them stand out from the rest of the characters. From all my previous experiences, all villains have be brave, unique from all the other characters, and they must have this soft, humane side that does not show up infront of everybody. I believe that all the main characters are always very boring, they are always the good guys, the ones that gets all the ladies, the one that will win at the end of the story. That is why villains are such interesting characters because they are always different, they always have different qualities within them that makes them bad guys. In Popeye the Sailor man, a cartoon from the 1960s, Pluto, this mean, buff, arrogant guy that always tries to take Popeye's girlfriend, Oliver. Pluto to me has alot more interesting qualities, he always comes up with new was to steal Oliver away, he always has some way of taking all of Popeye's things, and make it his. I love villains in the story, they are normally my favorite character due to their unique personal background, bravery and the soft side they all have within them.

Entry 14, Heritage

  In my dictionary, heritage is something that is passed down to you, from your parents genetically or not. I believe things like, personal traits such as height and looks, culture, habits, moral values and even religion can be considered a heritage. Things like habits and money or religion is somethings that can get rid of. By that I mean that these things can be changed over time, you may lose all the money you inherited from your parents, you may change a religion and stop a bad habit from going on. Things like looks and height will not be changeable, these things are genetically passed down and as an offspring, you cannot avoid the fate of being tall or short, skinny face or fat face. I believe things like culture and religion is more important than any other traits. I believe culture will be something that each generation needs to keep supporting and following the principles, without your own culture, if these cultural values and beliefs vanish, then eventually we will all become the same, every race, every ethnicity, we will all believe in the same things and perform the same tasks. Things like religion shaped my beliefs and some moral values today. I believe that just be a good person, something good will happen to you. Even if something bad happens to me, I take it as an experience, learn and move on from it. Things like this will not be in your school text books, things like moral values and religion will have to be passed down, passed on to your kids and let them know that this is how society works.

Entry 13, Unpredictable Characters

  Unpredictability is never really my thing. I was never the unpredictable one. In all my relationships, friendships, or just how people see me in general, I was never the unpredictable one. People always think, "oh he's Brandon" so many things are expected of me, or many things are unexpected of me. Things like being really loud in class, challenging Mr. Jacoby with the tiniest things would be what was expected of me. Being neat, being organized on the other hand would not be something that is so called "predictable" of me. I had a girlfriend last year, in alot of people's minds, unpredictability is something very important in a guy. If you lose all of it, then you lose all your charisma, your charm. That is exactly what happened to me, and what can I say? I am just this type of person. I believe that this is good, being predictable is just simply saying that you are yourself and you continue to be yourself. I have infact tried to be unpredictable one time to my ex girlfriend, and I had challenged her beliefs which I never use to, then it ended up in a raging war between me and her. I think unpredictability in real life is not that great, compared to being in a story or a movie. In a movie, a character being unpredictable will just further complicate and excite the story with all its complications and the difficulty for the main character to achieve what it wanted. On the other hand in real life, when a person is unpredictable, sometimes people will just think he is hard to get close to, as friends or as lovers. Sometimes these things just don't work out in real life, these things may be good in stories, but it does not mean it is always great in real life.

Entry 12, Animals v.s Humans

  People always argue that animals are just as intelligent as humans, animals are capable of alot more things than we expect. I believe this is not true. I am a skeptic, I won't tend to believe something unless there is scientific facts backing up the idea. I think there are many intelligent animals, I do believe that these dogs and cats are very smart and they can do alot of things, but i just don't really think that these animals are capable of what we are capable of in our brains, not even remotely close. There are examples such as dogs trying to hang up the phone as they hear it ring because they simply do not like the noise, or see dogs walk, or things like this. Personally I have seen a dog walk infront of me and even dance to music, even then, I just believe that these dogs are just trained to do so. They got use to the fact that, dancing will equal to food offered by its owner. These dogs belonged to my friend back in Shanghai, they were just home pets, and they were capable of doing such things. These dogs have tried to even shake hands with us, these are just basic greets for the people. Like I said, to me, these are just the dogs thinking that the owner would offer it food when it performs something like this. I believe animals are no where near being like humans, they are alot less complicated in every single way possible.  

Entry 11, Conflicts

  In the story of "Water of the Babylon", the main character John faced many different conflicts. John had faced many internal and external conflicts which delayed his completion of the journey. One example of an external conflict would be the panther which attacked him when he was walking towards East. He was battling the creature when he could've been walking, which then stalled time for him. An example of an internal conflict would the conquering the fear of going through the river to the Land of the Gods. When he stepped onto the raft, he had conquered his fear, his fear of the other side and the river the night before, and all the stories the holy book told him. He had conquered his fear and decided to go on to search for answers no one ever knows. I have had many conflicts in my life. The most recent and the most severe one would be me telling my friend that I actually like the girl he has been liking for a long time. This was the biggest and most difficult internal conflict I ever had to overcome. I had to tell him face to face, man to man, about the story of the girl and I. I had been thinking about how to tell that guy for a while about my feelings but it was very hard for me to think of a way of telling him. When I overcame the fear, I ended up telling him. Nothing really happened, our friendship didn't really change. I still feel sorry everyday for having to do this to him. I know he has lost trust in me, but what can I do? This conflict was very hard to overcome considering that he was one of my best friends, and I had to decide how to tell him and overcoming the fear of telling him. The most recent external conflict I had was all the way back in Shanghai when I was fighting with my parents about coming back to Taiwan. That conflicted lasted a while, I was childish and I did not want to move back at all. I had a fight with them, a long dispute which lasted many weeks and bittered our whole family relationship. I overcame that by just simply growing up, accepting the truth, telling myself that I have to move back no matter what. I think conflicts are what makes life interesting, although many of them are very hard to overcome and solve, but without conflicts, life would be as stale and boring as a wet carrot.

Entry 10, Taboo

  There are many things in the Asian culture that is considered a "taboo". I believe that in the Asian culture, we have alot more cultural rules than any other ethnicity. We have all these rules about not to disobey the elders, and from something very general like this, you could branch off into more rules about the elders. Things like you cannot reach for food first unless you're the oldest one at the table. You would even have to reject gifts at least twice to show politeness and respect to the others. These things in our culture, to traditional Taiwanese people would be considered very important. I think these rules are here because over time, many people started to develop ideas to respect the elders, and then after all these years, it eventually became a rule, for everyone to follow. There are also things that are more considered taboo in all cultures, things like you don't have sexual relationships with your family members. These things are considered very disgusting and one of the most "taboo" things I could think about. I think taboos are just rules and ideas people develop over a long period of time, after observing many disturbing things, they would consider all these things a "taboo."

Entry 9, Analyzing a Folk Tale

  Folk tales are very common in ancient stories. Many ancient stories always told how something works and why something is the way it is today. I believe especially the ancient Greeks have many different types of folk tales. I once heard this folk tale about why people weep at things when they get sad. It was about an Eskimo family and the dad tries to hunt for seals. He never and couldn't ever catch a seal, as each seal slips away, he began to feel water drops down his cheeks. He felt the strange feeling and burst into tears. The wife and the son came looking for the man, and they heard the story and all began to start crying. That is when people first started to weep for something they really care about. The story of Coyote kills a Giant was about why a wood tick is flat. It was about how everyone was trapped inside the Giants stomach and as the Coyote was cutting his heart to try to kill him, they all ran out when the giant took his last breath. Coyote grabbed the wood tick and he came out of the tiny holes of his mouth. That is why the wood ticks are flat. I personally do not enjoy folk tales. I find it boring, and just absolutely ridiculous when there are some strange origin of certain things. 

Entry 8, Buddhist Doctrine

 I have grown up in a Buddhist household. My dad's side, both my grandparents worships and practices the Buddhist religion very often. They would visit temples atleast three times a month, just to give prayers and give thanks to the great things in life. My mom's side, my grandmother owns a temple, everytime we go down to PingTung to visit her before, we would spend a month or so in the temple. This makes my whole family, my mom and my dad, my grandparents and everyone related to me, a pretty superstitious Buddhist. The Buddhist religion in Taiwan practiced by many people, is quite different than the hardcore, intense beliefs and rituals Siddartha performs. All these Buddhist Doctrines are very respectable, these will definitely purify your soul and empty all your thoughts, and achieve the goal of Siddartha, which is to no longer have these urges or desire or opinion, you are no longer yourself. I believe that these doctrines tend to be a little bit too extreme and would not work in societies like today. In our society today, religion doesn't take as big of a role than before, therefore sometimes people would just think you're mad with such extreme beliefs.  Although I am a Buddhist myself, I believe these doctrines are not very practical and I do not believe in it. I don't believe that Life is suffering and I don't believe suffering is always caused by ignorance and attachment. I believe these are just the way some people sees life, but for me, especially in the society today, I would not believe and adapt any of these Doctrines to my life no matter how devoted of a Buddhist I am.

Entry 7, Taking Risks

  There are alot of people that had came across my life, and took risks to help me achieve a certain goal. The most often and the most obvious one are my parents. They took risks for me when they decided to have another child after my sister. Risks such as the possibility of not being able to financially support two babies when my dad's career had yet stabilize. The risks of wasting alot of their time on taking care of a child rather than their hobbies, or something they loved. Instead of living a less pressureful life, my dad has to work harder just to keep all of us well fed. These are the types of sacrifices parents have to make for their children. These are the bigger risks and sacrifices people can actually take in life. In everyday life, everyone takes risks.  In life, everyday on the street you can see people taking risks or making sacrifices. For example, if you were driving, and you let a pedestrian go first, then you made a sacrifice of wasting your time. On the other hand if you were flying through the traffic on your moped, from car to car, buses to buses, then you are taking a risk, a very serious risk of risking your life. Even I make sacrifices, wether it is helping a group do more work than everyone else, or letting someone have the last piece of potato chips. I think for me, the biggest sacrifice, i will make, will be for family, and for love. Regardless of what risks and sacrifices I make, the biggest sacrifice I think, and a very respectable sacrifice, would be fighting to the death for your country. When you fight in a war and you die to save millions, you are making a huge sacrifice no one can ever measure up to. These sacrifices and risks are bigger and has a more serious effect to it. Life is full of risks, what is life without some intense, risky situations?

Entry 6, New Place

   People travel all over the world, from country to country, moving from city to city. In a life time, people will encounter countless places. Some places may only be one time, but some places could be their second home. To me, after moving to Hsinchu, over the course of the past three years, I have found a pool hall down town to be my second home. We would be there after school, on weekends, or just whenever we have the time to shoot pool, we would be there. At first, when I first walked into the pool hall, the tables were organized like a brick wall, side by side and one after the other. The blue and green cloth of the table was eye catching, and people always picked the one that looked new and unused. Cue sticks were arranged neatly on a rack infront of every table on the wall.The cigarette fumes numb my nose as I walk in, the smell of beetle nuts and cigarettes let you know this is not a place for kids. The people all gaze upon their game as you walk through them, carefully examining you in every way. That feeling does not feel good, it feels like I would get killed or mugged in there. The loud music in the background and the sounds of the pool balls smacking one another from table to table was deafening. To speak, we would have to raise our voice by quite alot. To be honest, I was a bit scared the very first time we went shooting pool.  After a whole summer of nearly every day shooting pool, the store clerks had got to know us, the common visitors of the stores got to know us as well, at last, it wasn't such a scary place after all. Even after such a long time, the excitement of walking into the pool hall gets me every time, the happiness was spawned by not just the game of pool, but just the fact that friends were all there. The pool hall is truly our second home.

Entry 5, Journey

  I have seen alot of movies in my life, but one of my favorite movie of all time, is a movie called Falling Down directed by Joel Schumacher. This movie is about a frustrated man that is trying to go home, and his journey on his way to see his daughter. He was stuck in L.A traffic, and he just got out of his car, and started hiking home. This is no ordinary journey, this man has anger problems. He encounters with many types of people causing the complications of his conflicts. He crossed gang territories, and took weapons, fought some people and all he doesn't get is why are people always getting in his way. He wanted everyone to get out of his way so he can go see his daughter who he is forbidden from seeing due to his psychological problems. Cops were chasing this man, but he does not get caught until the very end of the story. Technically he was never caught, he died. I think this man did not really learn anything, on the way, there were people killed, people that felt scared because of him. At last, he just gave up, he just accepted the truth of all the miserable things in life that he is facing, and just gave up. I feel as if I am going through a journey right now. I am growing up, learning new things, trying new things, experiencing life. I think this journey wouldn't end until I reach a point where I am so old I need a cane to carry myself around with.  I want this journey to be rich , successful, and fulfilling. I will be looking back 70 years later, looking back at the foolish person I am today, thinking, "wow, I was that type of person back then?" Until that point, my journey wouldn't end. This on going journey will be full of surprises.

Entry 4, Time

  Time passes by very quickly. I am the type of person that tries my best to cherish every little moment in my life. Even if I am going through a less pleasing time of my life, I still try to cherish the moment, take it as a lesson, and move on. Time passes by extra slowly when you are doing something you do not like, but on the other hand, things like spending time with your friends or playing games will pass by with a blink of an eye. Tom Beneke, with the near death experience, his time past by real slowly. He was only out the for 8 minutes, but it felt like hours to him. This is because he was doing something he was very scared of, standing on the side of the building 10 stories up the ground. Time seemed slower because there were alot of thoughts going through his brain, therefore he thought time was alot longer. I believe the slow passing time does happen in real life, times like, being in a Spanish class after lunch, or waiting for the tea pot to boil your water. The time tends to slow down when you dislike the activity you are doing, and it slows down when you are feared. I think time still should be cherished, each time a bad event happens to you, learn from it, don't eve feel like time has been wasted. A life with experiences to me, is considered well spent. I will try my best at keeping this as how I will live my life.

Entry 3 , Values

  There are many things people value in life. Different people tend to have different values in their life, some value friendship, some value love, some value wealth and success and much more. I believe I am the type of guy that values my health and family more than anything. This would definetly be on my top list of values. I believe health of an individual is crucial to everything else, without a good health, you cannot accomplish anything. Without your family supporting you, you will not accomplish anything. That is what I believe. Then I would value love and success, success is actually a very high ranked value I have, because, I really want to become successful in life and help the world do some good. In the story Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket, Tom Benecke first valued his job, and his promotion to get to the top of his company over family, but then after a near death experience, this changed him completely, putting family at the very top. My list of values, would be Health, then family second, love and friendship third, success fourth and wealth coming last. I know this list sounds corny and very general, but this is how I will be living the rest of my life. Family and health, will always be my top priority.

Entry 2, Picture

   This picture on our text book is quite interesting. In this picture, the perspective as the viewer is looking upwards, which means it was taken from bottom up. The pictures's main point is the women in the middle of the picture, she is holding the bamboo as if she was about to defeat all of the hanging ninjas popping down from the top. The mood of this picture I would use spooky, intense to describe it. As there is fog in the back of the picture showing this picture was taken somewhere with alot of bamboos, such as China, with ninjas hanging down, as if they were about to attack the women in the middle of the picture. They seem like they are about to engage in a battle with each other. This picture I believe is set in China, somewhere on top of some mountain, which is where all the fog comes from, and a bamboo forest. It was around the ancient times in China when they still had dynasties. These people are fighting with old weapons rather than the modern new weapons. This picture I think could be taken just a little bit better, showing some ninjas about to drop, and some already dropped. These people are about to engage in an intense, merciless battle with each other.

Entry 1, Common Experiences

  This quote, made famous by Willa Cather, to me is not true, or atleast it does not apply to my life. I don't believe that people only have two or three different stories to tell in their whole lifetime. They must have different types of stories, alot of varieties of stories they can tell. Not everything will be revolved back to them having a broken heart, or being very happy because he won. I believe people do tend to retell similar types of stories over and over again. Even if it has happened to them before, they still keep telling and telling it. This to me applies and makes alot more logical sense. Examples of repeated formats of stories would be like, losing a loved one, and feeling heart broken when you know every one of your relative will pass on and sooner or later you will too. Or saying I lost love, and the heartbreak was never this bad, I believe that people just forget their experiences under that moment. I believe that there are more than two or three types of stories, two or three is too little, makes me feel as if Willa Cather was exaggerating about how people don't tell new patterns of stories. To me, I would say roughly 5-10 types of stories in an average person's life. These things always gets thrown at me, and I figured this could be one of those things where people just tend to believe in because it was a popular quote, or because it made a little bit of sense to it. No, I full heartily believe that there are alot more than two or three types of stores. 

First Post!

  Wow! It has definitely been a while since I posted up here. 10th grade, things are getting harder and harder. The workload has tripled ever since I first got into this school. I guess this is normal right? This is just another stage of my life growing up, I mean you can't just expect your whole life to be care free and pressureless right? Us humans were developed to work, and all I am doing right now is adjusting from the lazy summer I had. This summer was amazing, words cannot express the fun I've had over the summer, it is absolutely incomprehensible how great it was. Last year, I spent all day everyday with my ex girlfriend, doing things couples do. It was a drama-free relaxing summer. This year however, everything was packed, it was like everyday was busy, busy with different people and different things to do. Also, one of my closest friend came back, Michael Chiu. All the way from Toronto, this boy didn't change at all! We started out the summer with some gambling issues of a friend. Then it was all the times partying at one of our houses, at one point, we even had four parties in one week! It was awesome, I had a blast, everyone did infact. Then there was the girlfriends and the drama we had. Definitely going to remember all this. Despite of all these busy events, we still always ended the day with atleast 2 hours at the pool hall. No joke, two hours atleast every day. The pool hall had became our second home. Last Thursday, Michael had to leave, to many of us, we knew summer had ended. Right now, we have all gotten over the fact that summers over, but this summer, '11 summer, will always have a place in my mind, as the best summer ever. Summer, I'll see you next year.