Entry 67 A Miracle

I believe that miracles have to be these very supernatural events that occur on somebody that is completely random and cannot be explained by science. A miracle always has to be a positive thing, such as your body magically healing from something with little hope to begin from, or cancer being cured, or the dead comes back to life again. These things all have one thing in common, it seems that god is mostly the answer to these things, and that these "miracles are all related to god, as he is the one that created and made all these miraculous things happen. These things are not explainable by science, so people tend to push it towards the religious direction and use that as the explanation of all these unexpected, weird events that helped them in their lives. Miracles are all appreciated upon, people all hope for miracles when something is almost impossible to go for their choice of outcome. I believe that miracles do happen, but these miracles are pure coincidence and luck, and I believe that no one should take credit for any of these things. I have never witnessed any miracles happen in front of my eyes and that is probably the main reason why I do not believe in these things.

Entry 66: Something Unexpected

Many times in stories or movies, the supernatural events are always handled very well by the main characters, they also do things as if a normal person would handle. The old movie of E.T. was a big hit when it came out to the cinema, and the kids in the film had gave me the feeling of "oh that is exactly what I would have done". Which is a great thing of course, as many movies and novels tend to be very dramatic and the content would be used over board therefore making the story very fake and less appealing and enjoyable to me. I believe that most movies these days and novels are very rational, by rational I mean that they know how to deal with these supernatural things as they encounter them in the movie. I feel connected to it because I feel as if that is exactly what I would have done if I were to be in the movie. Being from a very supersticious family, I am glad that nothing has yet happened to me, I hope nothing ever happens to me, but I have been told many stories of ghosts and spirits of our Asian world. I know that many people don't believe that, but as I get told the story over and over again, and as I follow the restrictions of what to do and what not to do at night or on certain times of the day, I get paranoid and I too tend to believe in these things.

Entry 65 Proving One’s Self

Last entry we had talked about rites of passage of certain people, and many times this rite of passage could include an event in which a person attempts to prove one's strength and ability to perform certain task. This is very common in our society as when people cannot fit in with the crowd, people will be laughed at, therefore everyone wants to fit in and become apart of the crowd. It is that feeling of being laughed at that mainly causes people to want to fit in, and sometimes, when the individual does infact prove themselves right, that moment, they have gone through a rite of passage, they have broken through their inner barrier and hopped over to the side everyone else is on. I believe that we have the need to prove ourselves mainly to fit in and also sometimes as teenagers, we would want to be able to be the best at everything, therefore we tend to try our best to prove to others that we can also do the things they can do. I have been through things like this, as in elementary school, I tried to prove to everyone that I was very good at soccer when I barely knew how to play, and being on the team just sucked because I was clueless of what I was doing and I failed at traveling through the tunnel to undergone the right of passage.

Entry 64, Rites of Passage

Everyone will go through certain types of rites of passage in their life. I believe this is just the milestone of certain important events in our lives. Things like getting a girl's first period, these type of natural, events marks the begining of adult hood for many girls, thus being a very important rite of passage for the girls to grow older. There are alot of rites of passage, things like graduating high school would be another rite of passage that many people experience in their life. There are also religious rites of passage, religious cleansing would be considered a rite of passage. I believe that this is the act of passing over the old part of ourselves and getting a brand new self after it is completed. I picture a tunnel every single time we are talking about things like this, I believe that it is like crossing through a tunnel, you pass through the important events in your life, and then you exit the tunnel a new person, not like the old person who entered the tunnel. These rites of passages all make the person undergo some type of growth, or changes that will stick with them forever.  Things like getting my first facial hair would be considered my first rite of passage.

Entry 63, Being Tested

 Siddartha is a very famous novel written about a journey of a young boy growing up seeking for the meaning of life. In the story he encounters many external as well as internal challenges, external challenges include the little money he had, the little resources he had, and the mental and internal challenges, were all his questions for the meaning of life, his search for enlightenment. I believe that at the end he had found the meaning he was seeking for throughout his long journey in life, after learning about love and lust, after learning about how to fast for days without food. I believe that everyone goes through a journey in their life, maybe they are not seeking for the same knowledge and experience Siddartha was looking for, but we all undergo some sort of journey, trying to understand ourselves better in our life. I am barely through my life yet, I have already gained some knowledge and experiences for certain things, but I have not found the answer to many things for my life. I chose this character because I think most of the people with goals can relate to Siddartha. In order to achieve a goal, you have to be determined, and Siddartha is the perfect example of a determined young man that was not scared of being poor or foodless, in order to find the answer to his questions.

Entry 62, Symbols of the House

 The whole story to me is full of symbols. I started to think that the house itself act as childhood, everyone in it are kids, the act of knitting would be a type of hobby the kid does for fun and the whole collection of knitting would be the experiences accumulated over the years of hard work and practice. I believe that the people taking over the house could mean that time is moving and they are forced to move on, they are forced to grow up and abandon their childhood and move on to another stage in life. The key getting tossed into the sidewalk drain is the end  of their childhood. I believe that everyone lived in a house like this when they were younger, they are not doing much everyday, carefree, and not much responsibility was involved in our lives. When they were living in the house, they had a very relaxing schedule everyday, no one that bothered them, and there really was nothing to do in the house, just like how there are not many things you could do being a kid. The knitting is the hobby that everyone loves when they were little, whether they are legos, car toys, barbie dolls, or basketball, and as they play on, they accumulate experience, and they eventually gain more knowledge about the thing they love doing everyday. This is my interpretation on the house in the story.

Entry 61, Taken Over

 I think the whole story revolves around the idea of moving on. Moving on with our lives has been a tough thing to do for many, especially when it is related to things or people with sentimental values. The story could have been about the couple actually are haunting the house, and the people moving into the house just means that they have to move out. They loved the house, they had many experiences with the house, and after they past, the ghost of the two people still seem to be lingering within the house they once loved. They could not let go, so instead, they chose to stay there, and live in the house that once belonged to them. As the new family came in, the sounds they hear are actually people trying to move in and making this house their new home. When they walk out with sadness and looking back saying how it was taken over, could have just meant that they simply had to move on because there are people trying to live there now. The idea of moving of is tough for many, especially for something that once gave you joy, made you feel like a whole new different person. They had to move on and let the other family start their journey in the house. This is what I think about the story and how I choose to interpret it.

Entry 60, Symbols

  To me, a symbol is an universal code, or an icon which represents many meanings behind the sign and icon itself. Like the logo of the company Apple, in modern days, their symbol represents innovation, trend setters when it comes to electronic developments. This is a type of symbol, and this is how the symbol functions. It's main purpose is to represent a certain idea, or many thoughts that is being represented by the symbol. Symbols must be well known across many people in order for it to become a true symbol. If only one person understands the symbol, it will not be thought as a universal idea and therefore no one would understand the symbol. It has to be able to connect through everyone, as having an universal feeling and thoughts toward it. I believe that symbols only occur naturally, as people could attempt to aim for a certain symbolism, but towards the end, it is how the people interpret it that counts. The swatika logo is a perfect example as it was not first designed for, it represented different meanings at the start when it was first invented before the Nazis came along and used it as their symbol. To many, this symbol represents racism, hatred for jews and gay people. To many people this is a sign of death, of the worse that can come out of man kind. Symbols are strong, as they can form permanent feelings for the individuals