Journal Entry 99 Title: Final Exam

The final exam was hard, at least to me. The element in poetry is so diverse. There are too many different kind of vocabularies we have to memorize for this test. But the good thing was that the test is, to my utter amazement, quite short. Only 14 questions for the multiple choice, even thought this mean a question wrong can be a great deduction. I do like short tests though, because it won't make me panic as much. When I panic, I tend to loose control of my mind and I forget all the information need to finish the tests, and I feel very, very hungry after my "exam panic attacks." But after looking at the total amount of the test, I felt relaxed and didn't make me panic as much as the title, "8th Grade English Exam," did. For the essay questions, I didn't feel as confident, I guess I wasn't prepared and ready enough. I am never ready, even when I say I'm ready myself, I'm not. If the teacher said "don't worry, this exam is very easy," I wouldn't kill anyone for that, because I am a gentleman. But, I'll smack him.

Journal Entry 97 Title: True or False?

It's okay to lie, but only when you lie for good. When you care about someone, or trying just HIDE the truth. You can only lie when it doesn't harm other people, but still, try not to, because it's not a good thing. Sometimes you have a secrete only you and your close friend knows, but you totally do not want anyone else to know anything around and about it. When someone come and ask you about this secrete, you would say "that's not true" "I don't think so" "never heard anything about it" "really? who told you that, that's totally false information" etc. You would say something like that even thought it should be the totally opposite answer, but that's because it's your own privacy and you don't want other people to know about it. To hide the truth is just not to answer to such questions, it's not actually counted as LYING, it's just… a lack of information. The better way for these situation is this solution of just not telling an answer. Hiding won't hurt anyone, most of the time, and you can never be blamed for just NOT SAYING some PARTS of a whole. So it is actually okay to lie for things like these. :D

Journal Entry 96 Title: Independent Reading Project Reflection

Int his project, I did a report and a poster on the book, Great Expectations. For the book report, I based on what I've learned in the book and the plot that I remembered in my mind. The book report made me think harder into the story, and also made me reorganize the plot in my mind. This report also gave me a clear idea about the theme, after I reorganized it. The theme is to love and care about the things around you, not just assume a ridiculous future. I used to be like that, thinking about a bigger future, a great expectation, but they only disappoints me. This project is useful to people like me. I don't think much when I read, but when thinking became a required procedure, I will do it and have fun doing it. The poster i made for the book, the Great Expectations, is a wanted poster. I made a wanted poster for this book, because there are many crimes, criminals, convicts, escapee, and kidnapping in the story. My poster is about Abel Magwitch, since he is the one who did the most crime. I did many drafts on this project. At first I did one, but i think the style of the poster didn't appeal to me at all, so I decided to remake one. I was satisfied with my second draft. It is a more cartoonic version, and I think it's perfect for this project. But then, I realized that it's totally wrong, the unit of award's amount should be in pounds, instead of dollars. Also, I forgot to put the criminal's name in. So  had to remake one. On the last one, I made all the lining PERFECT, and the picture is even better than last time, and there are no more mistakes.

Journal Entry 94 Title: My Most and Least Favorite

Okay, I will start with my favorite book this year. I have several favorites i want to talk about, but I will still list them from the most to the least. The first book is the Westing Game. This book is very interesting with all the mysterious plot, and there are many humorous dialogues. The plot is interesting which forces me to spend more time on it and grabs my attention, and that's not really a bad thing to me. The second one is the Great Expectations. This is not a book chose by the teacher, or the school, that is one reason i like it. I chose this book, because it's heavy, and it looks like i can learn from it, and i did. This book is one of the biggest book I've ever read, actually, it IS the biggest and the longest and the most completed book I've read. And maybe that will be like this for another 20 years…. But this book is chose as an assignment, and I didn't have enough time to read it, therefore, I had to skip some parts (please forgive my act, Mr.McCool). Anyways, the important thing is that i learned from it, and I think I will take the lecture from the theme and put it into my own life. The theme is to love what you already have and care about people around you, to live the life in front of you, not just creating and assuming weird expectations that will totally disappoint you.
My least favorite, or the most hatful book is Hatchet. This book totally disappointed me, I heard this book is very lovable and fun. I guess my expectations was set too high…. It is boring, it's a novel that is trying to teach me things about survival. It fine for books to teach as philosophies and stuff, but they teach readers through themes and morals. Unlike the other books, Hatchet teach too many stuff, or includes too many scattered themes, it made the novel unreadable and unloving for me. I want a novel, not a list of instructions, and if I want lists, I don't want them in paragraph forms. :( !!
I like poetry the most. It is artistic and it is like an abstract painting, using figurative languages. I also enjoy writing poems, I have no idea why, maybe because it is a kind of free write, and I really like free writing.

Journal Entry 90 Title: Adjectives

favorite place

• Cold
• Yummy
• Big
• Humid
• Friendly
• Pretty
• Windy
• Flat
• Grassy
• North

favorite food

• Brown
• Juicy
• Spicy
• Hot
• Indian

favorite thing

• Portable
• Transparent
• Useful
• Long
• Thin
• Markable

favorite activity

• Relaxing
• Painful
• Happy
• Brain juice boiling

favorite holiday

• Orange
• Dark
• Scary
• Awesome
• Annual

favorite person

• Dark
• Happy
• Curly
• Smiley
• Caring
• Funny
• Angry
• Furious

Journal Entry 89 Title: Experiences

1. I fell off my chair and hit the floor with my butt
2. I tangled my hands with a rubber band
3. I cut myself with a scissor doing a projects
4. I whipped  my blood of with a tissue
5. I sprayed 75% alcohol on my wound
6. I open the drawer with my hands to get an bandage
7. I drew pictures on my arm and hand with a marker
8. I washed the ink on my arms off with soap
9. I scratched the remaining ink mark off my arm
10. I opened a book and got a deep paper cut on my finger
11. I whipped my blood on one of the pages of the book
12. The wound stretched as I rub it on the paper
13. Warm blood run down my index finger
14. I washed my wound with water
15. I sprayed 75% alcohol on the wound

Journal Entry 93 Title: Hip-Hop Language

Ma Day >:D

I rode a bus up to TPE
On the bus I saw an old lady
I stood up to let her sit
Then a lil' punk just took the seat
I took my phone n' said I would call the police,
Then that kid just sneered at me….
I went off the bus after it stopped,
Then a convenient store caught my eye.
I think i should get some good Slurpee.
I go to the convenient store,
Then the automatic door opens up for me.
Walk inside and fill my cup.
Filling that cup was not easy.
Gotta make sure don't make it too full,
Or else the carbon dioxide will make it BLOW DD:
The line formed long right behind me.
I felt rushed, but I can't help it,
Cuz I really cant find my last penny.
I left after I paid with my hundred dollar bill,
leaving some change clinking in my pocket.
I go through some store in the mall,
But I can't seem to find anything appealing,
So I'm just gonna go home n' get some comic.

Journal Entry 87 Title: Limerick

There was a fellow named Ched

Who’s always sleeping in hays.

Then one day he woke up

And looked into the sun

And found him on his own bed.

Journal Entry 86 Title: List Poem

A bunch of scattered holes

From the mosquito bites last night,

Because I forgot to close the window.

I forgot to close it since I was working hard

On my homework.

Homework, homework, homework!!

Those foreign languages, and all those grammar!

French, vocabularies, preterit, tenses, Spanish,

English!

And señor McCool!!

Poem, he makes us write

English, he makes us read

Slow internet speed, he caused that!

And my belly, he caused that, too,

By pressure.

Books, he makes us pick out,

But so many books, so many I wanted to pick

And so many are out of stock.
So much frustration and anger.

Then, I closed my eyes to rest for a bit,

Rest from the craziness school gave us.

I pictured myself in Disneyland,

On a roller coaster

Riding up and down,

Then I fell asleep.

Journal Entry 85 Title: Free Write- My happy life

OK! Today I am going to talk about my life. Yes, my happy (?) life. HAHA. This whole school year, I’ve been wondering around, everywhere. I never know who can be an anchor, or a best friend forever that likes me as much as I like him/her. I don’t think I ever had a best friend forever, since I already mad up my mind that nothing lasts forever. I never tried hard to get a best friend until he/she got interested in me enough to keep bugging me and make fun conversations with me. But, this year, something happened. At first I was introduced to you because of my other friends. I don’t know you well, but I want to, and I have no idea why. I know very well you can be a best friend since we get along very well in the start. So I stick around you very so often I’ve grown found to you. I can’t be a part with you, and somewhere in me told me that you don’t want to leave me either. But I guess that somewhere didn’t tell me enough about this feeling that I would tell you about what I am feeling, since we talk about everything that’s on our minds. Actually, I think I was just too chicken out to tell you. And you, my friend, didn’t either. And now I am going to tell how much of a coward I am. I know you liked me, and I am sure I did, too. I don’t have the guts to say it, even when you held my hands, even when you TRIED to tell me you like me. I am not going to blame it n my stupidity this time, even though you tried to tell me what you felt about me by telling a story (hahaaha nice try, stupid). I wouldn’t understand it, because I don’t want to risk myself, even though I am 90% sure you like me, I wanted to be 100% sure. I don’t to have those situations when I think you like me, but actually you don’t. So I guess I convinced myself to a state that if it were not a 100% answer, I wouldn’t take it, or make myself believe it. But, really, whom am I kidding. That is the most stupid act I’ve ever made in my mind. And now, YOU, you are such a coward. Why can’t you just say “Hantine, wo xi huan ni”? Why? For god’s sake!! Why?? You know I liked you, I told you that (in the “hambo” way, which I guess, didn’t work?). But I know you are sure, I wanted to kiss you and you know it. You wanted to, too. You said you would give me your first kiss as a Christmas gift, and you begged me to take that gift instead of getting me a comic book. You know how I felt about you, exactly how, because you felt the same way about me. But we both are cowards, which end us up like this. The day when you saw that message, the one that infers that I could only think of you as a brother, I am sorry for saying that. I didn’t mean it, I was afraid to state out the fact that I didn’t want to be you brother/best friend, because I wanted to be you girlfriend. But that message didn’t have THAT important piece of information in it, but you only saw that unimportant part. I knew I am still not able to explain to you what I am really feeling, because I told myself you wouldn’t believe it, and so, why bother try? BUT, you should know very, very well, that the least thing I wanted is to leave you. I can’t be apart with you. Every time I lie on my bed, looking at the ceiling, I wanted to take a gun and shoot at it, then wish you would appear from the upper floor. And I wish I could see you every single second in my life. And if I can have you back, I would never let go of you again. Actually I never did let go of you. YOU left. So yeah, not my fault. :D Peace out, and that’s it for this a little bit too long journal.

Journal Entry 84 Title: My List

My list is going to be about ** ***** :D enjoy~ it is kind of random.

1. Apple, red and beautiful
2. Box filled with apples
3. Squish
4. Arthur Kirkland
5. Unicorn on Xi Da road (西大路)
6. Cinema in Hsinchu
7. Tron, the movie
8. Popcorn
9. Walking back home, crossing the curry restaurant
10. A goodnight and goodbye kiss

Journal Entry 83 Title: Poet’s Choice

Haiku- Hantine (me)

Hantine the drawer

Got eleven watchers on

Her DeviantArt. :D

Acrostic- Calvin (best friend)

Cool guy's coming back to PAS

Anything is just fine with him

Living in the States now

Visually challenged, needs glasses

I love you, man.

Never got his phone fixed

You are the best bro ever 

Intelligent in science and math

Naturally humorous 

Good job being a best friend 

Acrostic- Jill Peng (my mommy)

Jesus!

I love you mommy

Love you so much

Love you for loving us 

Pool is not your favorite place

Engineering, you are not good at that

Nothing you cook, I won't eat

Good lord, how lucky I am to have you as my mommy.

Journal Entry 82 Title: Haiku

Look at that apple.

Gee! How pretty it can be!

The waxed red surface.

Ha! Hetalia!

The best anime ever

About history.

Manga is awesome.

World needs it's beautiful-ness.

It is just perfect.

Journal Entry 81 Title: Tanka Poem

Delicious Pasta

Tomato with beefy sauce

And some cheese powders

Spread beautifully on you

An explosion of flavors

Best friend forever? 

But, I have a feeling that

Maybe you are not

The perfect best friend to-be

Nothing can last forever.

Zombies that had died

Why did you come back to life

Death took you away

Far, far, far away from us

Then what are you doing here?

Journal Entry 80 Title: Cinquain Poem

Pasta

Yummy Juicy

Swirling Loving Wiggling

How delicious you are, to me.

Noodles

Pasta:  http://eternallycool.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/pasta-alla-carbonara.jpg

England

Handsome Lovely

Caring Laughing Fighting

Your beautiful green eyes I love.

Arthur

Arthur Kirkland (England): http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/files/costumes/743/30017/tumblr_l0ba6oHuBW1qbo93ro1_400.png

Best Friend

Dirty Friendly

Lying Caring Leaving

I hated how you lied to me.

Happy

Journal Entry 79 Title: Diamante Poem

 White & Black

White

Pure Peaceful

Purify Evacuate Imagine

Darkness Paper Soap Hell

Pollute Blackout Destroy

Dirty Dark

Black

SmileyFace ^v^ & SadFace >n<

SmileyFace

Happy Joyful

Play Laugh Dance

Tears Smile Happiness Frown

Rest Sicken Cry

Unhappy Depressed

SadFace

Peace & War

Peace

Tranquility Safe

Rest Sleep Wonder

Lies Contract Agreement Argument

Fight Die Punish

Deadly Evil

War

Journal Entry 78 Title: Acrostic

An acrostic is a poem that the first syllable of each line in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. In this journal entry, I will be making an acrostic with my name, and another one with my friend’s name.

Hantine Hsu:

How smart I am

An intelligent kid

No one can be compared with me

Talented at everything

Interested in social studies

Never give up on my work

Everything above is false

How dumb I am

Sitting in front of my computer all day

United Kingdom in my favorite place

Amber Luo:

A cute young girl

Many friends in school

Banana is her favorite fruit

Everything is always great with her

Respect all her friends

Laugh out loud a lot

Use her MacBook everyday

Oh, how people love her

Journal Entry 71 Title: Brainstorming a Poem

Ethan Demerest is playful, humorous, energetic, bright, nice, strong, cool, awesome, tough, and optimistic person. He has short curly golden hair, a big nose, and a nice smile that brightens up my day. He is very addicted to make sound “the Annoying Orange” makes, and he loves songs by “Daft punk.” He dislike eating those pickles in hamburgers, but he never remembers to tell the waiter not to put the pickles in, so I had to eat it for him every time we had hamburger. We don’t touch each other, but there is this T-rex stuffed animal that is REALLY fluffy and both of us love it. We PLAY volleyball and football, SING punk-y songs, DANCE a funny dance, GO SHOPPING for cloth and materials, and we always EAT meals together.

Ethan, Ethan.

You’ve brighten

My days.

You gave

Me pickles that u hate.

We shared Rexie

Every time we play.

Volleyball, football,

I’m not good at them.

But you’ve spent

Days and days

Playing them

And helped me improve.

Ethan, Ethan.

You’ve always been my friend.

A very dear friend.

You are so cool

No one can be compared with you.

But you have

Such a weird dance

You like to dance.

But if that is what you’ve enjoyed

These days?

Then fine.

Go ahead.

But thank 

you,

Ethan

Demerest,

For being my all time best friend.

Journal Entry 73 Title: Personal Reflection

If I had to be completely honest with myself, how would I evaluate my performance in this class in terms of taking an active interest, working to the best of my ability, and putting forth the maximum effort? How would I evaluate my performance as a student in all of my classes? I think over all I am doing okay, it’s not my best, but I can’t really pay full attention to everything. I don’t take notes, maybe because I think I can memories it, that’s what I always think. Do I start my homework right away, or do I wait until the last minute? I DO do my homework the night before the due date sometimes, but that’s not usual, because English homework are more fun than math, science and history. So the other subjects are the ones left to the latest minutes in the middle of the night. Do I take short-cuts or copy work from other students? No, maybe sometimes for math class, but I don’t cheat on English homework. Since it is the hardest course to cheat on. Do I complete all of my assignments? Do I complete them on time? I know, I know… I can’t always complete them on time, since I sometimes leave them to the latest times. I will work on that a lot harder, in fact, I am already improving it. How much time do I spend studying outside of class? Outside the class, I only study what might be on the test, I must say, that’s already too much for me. I can’t pay attention on my studies. When I am studying I just go into my LaLaLand, it’s such a wonderful place I can’t resist it. Or I just start doodling on my desk. So I sped more time looking at the textbook than other people, but I cant promise anyone those time I spent was on studies. How much would I estimate that I think about my classes when I am not in class? Do I ever go to my teachers to ask for clarification or extra help? Do I take advantage of extra credit opportunities? I always start thinking of those extra credits I could do, but I never did them because of JOURNAL WRITINGS!!! I can’t finish my journal writings on time and that really bothers me :(. But, like I said, it is really improving. I don’t really give a lot of comments or ask a lot of questions, but maybe some questions I asked could be idiotic, though I don’t have any examples now.

Journal Entry 76 Title: What Does Poetry Do

How are poems different from other forms of writing? Poetry is harder to understand than prose, the word they could use for certain spot have limits. Prose is simpler than poetry, because it can use all kind of words to describe something clearly .Do poems have any similarities to other kinds of writing? Yes, it is like lyrics from a song, or a short story with some rhyming words. How can a poem do things that other forms of expression can’t? Poem can express a person’s feeling with beautiful word and it can make the whole meaning sounds better. Are there some things that a poem can’t do that can be done in other forms of writing? Yes, the use of words are limited here, poetry have less choices of word here than prose or other writing. I see a lot of poetic language now in our generation all around us. Lyric is a kind of poetic language that is used with music to make a song. Songs are all around us, everyday in our lives, especially for people like me that are CRRAZY for music. I am a very visual person, I go to book store every two or three days to read some picture book. And a lot of them are written as poetry, to tell a story cooperating with pretty pictures.

Journal Entry 75 Title: Spring Break

At the start of spring break, I hurried home to finish a very difficult task that may take me days, I had to finish my project for an art contest I have attended. The due date is arriving and I have three days left. I actually have more time, but I am going to my once- in- a- life- time- 8^th- grade- graduation- trip, so I wouldn’t have enough time after that. So during the remaining days before my graduation trip, I am working on the project and nothing else. The project was about diversity in the rainforest, and I drew a kid holding a rainforest in his hands with some major extinction animals on his sides, and mountains of burnt trees, building, constructions, and smoke as the background. It’s a very big project for me; I am not a fast drawer. The whole process was quite painful actually, I enjoy drawing, but I HATE drawing forests, and scenes, they have no details and are messy. NOT MY STYLE. I was forced to finish the painting. But, I am really satisfied with some parts like the face of the kid, the mommy and baby orangutan, the polluted sky, the tiger, and the flowers at the very front. They are all I put attention to on my work. Then, I had my work done 11:00pm the day before my flight to graduation trip. The next day, I woke up late and nearly didn’t made it to the place we meet up for the bus to the airport. On the flight… I slept. I did plan on watching a movie at the remaining time, but then I slept through the whole flight. As we arrived at Bali, it was HOT and HUMID, extra hot and damp than Taiwan :(. As we arrived at Clubmed, we had no schedule for the first day, but we went rafting the next day. Rafting wasn’t what I expected. I thought the flow would be less furious than the one we were in. And for the groups that people were paired up in, I was upset. I am grouped with Eddy, Jasper, ETHAN, and DEREK!!! It was definitely a mistake. Ethan is the guy I am most afraid of in the whole school (maybe because of his tough looking muscles…). Anyways, he was creepy. Derek is the school president, which just creeps the heck out of me. And with those to people is enough, me, a girl in 8^th grade have no right to talk during the whole trip down stream. And even if I did talk, no one would hear me…. So that sucked, but the actual rafting was not bad at all, it was fantastic. The lunch even tasted better after the rafting (probably because I became seriously hungry). After that rafting trip, I had to rest my arm muscles the rest of the day, IT WAS EXSAUSTING. The next day was even better, we finally went to the badminton court, and I practiced every time 1hour after each meal if nothing was scheduled at the time. One day there was an ebb tide, and I went off into the ocean with Eddy. We WERE going to walk all the way to the “under water forts,” but the sea floor was piled up with hard, sharp and dead corals, and we DO NOT want to get ourselves hurt in the middle of a salt water ocean. On the way back on to the shore, we saw sea stars!!! Even though we didn’t stay long enough there to see them reproduce asexually, it was a great experience. Then we went back to the hotel and watched TV. I am surprised how the shows on their Disney channel really entertained me!! “Upin & Ipin” is quite a cute show :). Then the next day, Ms.Sherry signed us up for a rehearsal for a show at night. She did that because she thought we were all just hanging out in our rooms and not actually enjoying our vacation. But we were ENJOYING THE WHOLE BALI ISLAND!!! We told her it was our last full day in this beautiful island and we want to do it our way. So we were let out and go run wild. Ivy and I decided to play MORE badminton, so we went to the court. The court was filled with people and we weren’t sure what was going on. Then as we walked closer, we were signed up for a badminton competition!! :O!!! We were representing Taiwan and we had to compete adults. That was fun :D, we won a medal though. We didn’t lose that bad. To show we didn’t just waste our time not going to the rehearsal, we showed Ms.Sherry and Ms.Pamela our medal. I’m sure they were proud of us, I can see it from their shocked faces. It was really a great experience. That night we went swimming. There was party going on at the bar just a little distance away from us, but we didn’t go party, because there were probably a bunch of creepy seniors there going high. So we stayed in the pool and chill with their party music. Then a song came, it was familiar and awesome, IT WAS さくらんぼ by 大塚愛!!!!!! It was such a good song I jumped out of the pool and start dancing and singing along. It was such a great day. Then I went back to my room all wet and sweaty, but u wouldn’t see me sweating with all those water on me. Then I jus fell asleep without taking a bath. The other day was boring. We had our last breakfast and then our last lunch in Clubmed Bali. After we left Bali, I resumed back to my usual life, which was “stay home do Wordly Wise.”

Journal Entry 72 Title: Style

Different writers would use different figures of speech in their writing and also dialect, imagery and allusion. In the story "Raymond's Run" the author also uses verbal irony. When Gretchen and her friends confront Squeaky, she doesn't take any verbal abuse, and immediately claims that she would really teach them a lesson if they didn't shut up. The way squeaky speaks is not perfect grammar, but it is the way people in her country or family speaks. It is not technically racist or something, but it is the way a group of people, or a race of people speak, a kind of dialect and slangs. The story shows situational irony when the race had ended, Squeaky shows respect to Gretchen. The writer described Squeaky as a cocky girl. The reader would never think or predict that Squeaky, who thinks that she is always the best, would show respect to another person who is her mortal enemy. Normally, readers would probably predict that Squeaky would try to embarrass and show off her medal at everyone. Another thing is the use of allusion in this story. The word Mercury is the allusion, in Roman mythology, this word means the messenger of the god, know for his speediness. The author uses this word to say that the character can run as fast as Mercury, which is really fast. One other example would be "I am Miss Quicksilver." Quicksilver is another name for mercury, a silver-colored liquid metal that flows rapidly.

Journal Entry 70 Title: End game

We had basically followed the plan when we were making the game. The game we made are pretty identical to what the plan, which is a similar to the game called "Monopoly," and with features from an online flash animation game called "Roman's Tower Defense." The game could be played from two to five players. The characters in the game are Angela Wexler, Turtle Wexler, Sandy McSouthers, Doug Hoo, and Sunny Hoo. Each character has different advantages and disadvantages. Some have bigger range for attacks, some have more damage on their attacks. Sunny Hoo's attack allows her to gain the life points from the damages she made on the other characters. The materials to make the game were not decided before the game. I had no idea how I am suppose to make my AWESOME Westing Game board game. All of the decisions about the actual MAKING of the game were made after we've chose our groups and finish the final plan of the game. The characters are chose randomly, so the player can play a fair game. Each character may have different advantages, but the game is designed to be a fair game. And I am happy with the final product.

Journal Entry 69 Title: Slang

What’s up? This is slang, I think. I’m not sure exactly what this means, but I know people use it when they see another person in the morning. I think it means something along the lines of “how are you”, and “hello.” In the morning, when I see Mr. McCool, I would say “What’s up?” Whiz is another slang. It means a smart or talented person. He is a comp whiz. He is very talented in computer science. There are a couple of slangs for bathroom. John means bathroom. I want to use the john, but my brother is in it. I can’t think of any other slangs. I think I would have to google them. A psycho is someone who is mentally ill. I met a psycho down the street, and he was talking weird stuff. The quarterback is like the leader. That smart guy is the quarterback of the class. Racket means noise. There is a lot of rackets outside late at night yesterday. I think google is another slang. We use it so much that it became a verb. Google menas to search on Google. We can google stuff. I am now going to google some of the meanings of slangs. XDDD

Journal Entry 67 Title: Fighting Words

Words are very important. Even though they don’t do anything much physically, they hurt you deeply. They can cut you like a sword. It is definitely something to fight about. If someone insulted me, that would be a personal attack. It would be time to fight back. I have gotten into many arguments because of this. Someone said things about someone I cared a lot about. I would then get very angry. Why don’t they think about the words before they come out of their mouths! It is very necessary that fights are used to defend myself and other people against such attacks. I would fight to defend my family, and maybe a close friend from another person’s words. I might not fight physically, but I would hurt him back with even sharper words. >:( I would cut him like I’m cutting tofu, or other fragile food. I would break him because he broke me and my friends. Many things are trivial, but hurting friends this way is no way right. I would not allow anything bad said about my friends. This was beyond what I could bear. Words can very easily turn from something abstract into something physical and dangerous if they are used in a bad way.

Journal Entry 66 Title: OOPS!

At school, I met this person. At first, he looked weird. I did not want to get close to him because my first impression was a negative one. It seemed to me like this person would be weird as well. However, one of my classmates turned out to be a very close friend to him. Slowly, I began to know this person better through my classmate. It turned out that I was absolutely wrong about my first impression of a weird person. That person was not weird at all. He was a friendly, nice young man. We got along very well together, and we had a lot of fun together. It was the opposite of my first impression, and I was surprised by this result. This incident was very significant because it gave me a very good friend. This friend provided many supports to me, and I was really happy that I had a chance to meet this new friend. Even though the first impression turned out to be wrong, I was glad that it turned out this way. I would be very sad if this person was really weird, and I did not make friends with him. I would regret my actions.

Journal Entry 68 Title: Analogy

When I walk into the room, the Life Science room for the Chapter 6 test, it is like entering the Colosseum. I am all tensed up knowing I wouldn't come out alive. The second the test was passed out, it felt like the lions were sent out into the field. Looking at the test paper, they look like the lions that were angry, hungry and their eyes full of misery. I stroked first, leaving one of the lions a wound streaming with red, warm blood. I attacked with my spear, dodged furious claws coming toward me, and blocked tons of attacks. Just like how I answered all those tricky, evil, and to-hard-to-understand questions. I stroked hard, but some were foolish attacks that made me open my defense, giving the lions a chance to injure and harm me vitally. With my hands on the wounds, ignoring them, I ran carelessly toward the lions and stroke as hard as I can, as long as this cruel and savage torturing event ends sooner. I killed and I attacked, I dodged left and blocked my right. All I can do to make this over. Then, when I stood still, glancing at the lions lying on the floor, dead(?), just like how I check if I wrote anything wrong. Suddenly, a lion jumped up and tackled me, sitting on me and biting parts of me off. A question I missed on the test, caused my death and a failing grade.

Journal Entry 65 Title: Below the Surface

I sometimes discover that a person has a different personality than from what I had expected. Once, I met a person at school. At first glance, I thought he would be a weird boy because he looked weird. I based that judgment on his surface and appearance. However, when I get to know him better, I found out that he was not weird at all. He turns out to be a very fun and interesting person. We became good friends, and we had a lot of fun at school together. He was totally different from the person in my imagination. I had put my judgment onto his personality, and that turned out to be completely wrong. Afterwards, I felt guilty. I didn’t think it was very nice to judge him before I met him. If I really believed that he was weird, I wouldn’t have made such a friend like him. Now, even his appearance had a different view to it. Because I know his personality now, his appearance changed accordingly. I think that if everyone judge people based on what they see on the surface, then many people would have their personality unknown to the public, and no one would care about who you really are.

Journal Entry 61 Title: Summary of Tell-Tale Heart

The old man has weird eyes. And the narrator dislikes it very much. Not because the old man did something that made him angry, it was just because of the eyes. He observed the old man for seven continuous days. So everyday, for seven nights, around midnight, the narrator goes into the old man's room and observes him really nervously. But those seven nights, when the narrator finds the old man on his bed, sleeping, he finds that the old man always has his eyes closed, since he is sleeping. He even spent an hour just to put his head into an opened door. The narrator thought that it would be not possible to kill him while his scary, and horrifying eyes are not open. But during the eighth night, he slowly went in the old man's room to checked if his eyes were closed. The old man popped his eyes open, because he detected weird noise that made him scared. The narrator saw it and was killed. After killing him, he hid the old man's body in side a locker in a chair that is in the house.

Journal Entry 64 Title: Quiz or Circle?

One good thing about reading circle is that people share their ideas about the novels, which can help the students understand a lot more about the book. The reading circle forces the students to read the books, which is actually good for us. But, reading quizzes is a dead thing, we can't discuss about it with the others, what we can only do is think about and writing  them down. The discussion circle is a lot more better. We can discuss it with each other, not only writing about it, or fill in the blanks. The bad thing is that we will have to discuss and make other people talk. A lot of people will choose not to participate, they just listen and sit in the corners where no one looks at. Sometime they don't even listen. Discussion groups are fun and I like it when everyone is talking and sharing ideas. It makes students feel better when everyone is contributing about the novel and their own point of view. Even though reading quiz is a good way for checking whether the students actually understand or even read what the story is about, it is pretty much a waste of time and hard for me to just look for every answer for every single questions. Reading quizzes make students want to give up on the novels.

Journal Entry 63 Title: Your Game

I'm grouped with Jonah and Eddy. We are thinking about a game like Tower Defense combined with Monopoly. Tower Defense is a game where you could set up towers that would attack the black dots that would invade your castle. The towers will shoot out attacks and will decrease the blood of the black dots. Different types of towers have different powers, which causes their attacks to have different amount of damage and range. The towers can be upgraded when you have enough money. Leveling up can increase the damage and the range of your tower. But the towers can't move from place to place.

Monopoly is the game where you go around lands owned by yours or other players'. You gain money by having other players going on to your land. You loose money by landing on other players' lands. The tokens of the players move according to the dice. The game ends when one player ran out of money. The player with the most money wins. SO we gather features of Tower Defense, Monopoly AND the Westing Game, to make a game where players move around and attack each other. And the one with the most points left wins.

Journal Entry 60 Title: Deception

Misconception can confuse people, but it can also make the story a lot more interesting. The author used this technique to confuse the readers, to mislead us from the truth hidden behind the scenes. Also, misconception can some times give out clues to the answer, the ending of the story. The story Westing Game gave out clues little by little, then finally they tell the readers the obvious answer for those people who can’t infer and think. This book is a mystery-solving novel, so the author wants the readers to be into the game in the story, too. The author keeps a lot of the information from the readers to let the readers WANT to know what exactly happened, and keep on reading the story. When the author told us that Barney Northrup was SUCH a good sales man, he sold all 6 apartments to the 6 chosen ones. But then, the author said that Barney Northrup wasn’t even a real person. Which means he is either a ghost or he is a disguise of someone else. If it is really like that, the readers will have to cast out who Barney Northrup really is. That is what the author want the readers to do, while reading the story.

Journal Entry 59 Title: Hints and Foreshadowing

The narrator thinks he was not insane, he was just nervous. A nervous man that wanted to kill someone he does not dislike. A man that is "just" nervous would never do that to other people. He was not mad, he said, but he also said "so why would you say that I am?" This infers that OTHER people in the story or the readers with this kind of feeling, thinks he is mad, or said that he is mad. A man, a nervous man would never spent a whole hour just to put their head into the victim's room. BUT, a calm, and insane man would.  He maybe nervous about getting caught, but he definitely wasn't afraid of killing anyone, why? Cause he is INSANE!!!!! A mad man, a man that calls himself nervous. The shriek the old man had made when he was getting beat up made the neighbors arose their suspicious. Policeman came, to question this nervous man. The narrator acted calm, acted like the old man wasn't at home. How can a man that calls himself nervous be calm? And act so well. The policeman was fooled by his calmness and had no suspicion on him. But, the mad man, can hear the guilt inside him.

Journal Entry 58 Title: Narrator

The author created an unreliable narrator to make the readers understand the first-person-narrator's point of view. By only understanding a person's point of view, it can cause the story more interesting or more mysterious. An author uses this kind of narrator to grab readers' attention. Because you only know a person-that-doesn't-care-about-other-people-point-of-view's point of view, you became very curious and concerned about other's thoughts. People are interested because of this kind of style in story writing, it causes more tensions and suspense. There are people that can tell that the narrator is not reliable, but there are still people that may think the crazy narrator is normal and misunderstood by other people in the story. The story develops different comments and objectives by readers every time another truth is revealed. It's like an onion, peals off layers by layers. Even if the narrator didn't say anything about other people's point of view, the readers will soon construct their own idea about the story and became a third-person narrative to the story. You will find out the truth after you finish the story, or maybe you would understand the whole thought in the middle, before the story ends. In the story Tell Tale Hearts, I was with the narrator all along after I understand his reason for killing the man.

Journal Entry 57 Title: Scary Stories

A scary story must contain thing or event that people are afraid of, or afraid of to happen. Death may happen in real life, but horrifying way of death is a really major scary story theme. Most people are afraid of death, it is one of the major source of fear. There are still people that are not afraid of death, because they want to die more than they want to live. These are those people that have suffered through life, or people that think they have suffered a lot on the way. So they decided to end the pain sooner. It wouldn’t be fun if people are not afraid of death, scary movie are made to make you afraid of death. Scary stories are harder to scare adults than naive little kids. For little kids, you only have to tell stories about monsters, vampires, witches, zombies, aliens, ghosts, or devils. It’s a lot harder to scare older people that are less naive with scary stories. Good scary stories are more related to our usual life, because then, we can relate to the story and can easily be scared. Scary stories are also easier to scare people when the atmosphere is more dark, cold or other things that can make people feel a lone or creepy.

Journal Entry 56 Title: Ode

I am going to write an ode to my best friend. This is going to be very difficult for me, but this topic is the only one I would every want to write a poetry on. Usually I use not really nice words to describe my best friend, but I do that just for fun, to tease him. So this time I am going to take it seriously, like I should have before. I shouldn't have spent my time fooling around when we could have more constructive conversations, and it is my fault that I didn't get to know more about how he felt about everything in his life. But now I can only write this ode to him as my apology, so I would make this humorous and also serious, and wish people will find it interesting.

Words I will be using:

• Stupid
• Ugly
• Funny
• Happy
• Amusing
• Trusting
• Calming
• Interesting

There may be some words that didn't sound so nice, but it will not be insulting. I never wrote a ode or any type of poem before, at least I don't remember I did. This will be the first one I would remember for ever. Because I actually think this is a fun topic.

Journal Entry 55 Title: Lunar New Year

My spring break or Lunar New Year break didn't turned out the way I planned it. The first day the break started, I got my Mac parallel desktop. Then, I downloaded MapleStory(an online game for Asian people(by Asian people, I meant people that lives in Asia)) on my PC. I downloaded it, but then it caused some kind of problems for my computer and it took me a whole day for my Mac to actually play that game with no technical problems. And also I realized that the "command" button switched with the "alt" button on Mac, which is different from PC. I need the button "ctrl", "z" and "alt" to play the game. So playing that game on Mac makes my fingers all crumbled up in a corner. That really pissed me for a long time, because I nearly have to go to the doctor for my crumbled finger. Playing only one game is boring, so I also played Tower Defense (heres the link to the game :D  http://www.defendthetowers.com/romantd.html) on my free time. It's a really cool game, but my score never got higher than 73waves. :((
Other than games, I went to find and download some new music. I downloaded mostly Chinese music, because I could only ask Amber for any new good music. And only Amber have more Chinese songs than me, so she only suggested me Chinese songs. I found some English ones by myself, and I really enjoyed listening to. I also started using an application on iTunes name iTunes U. I can download presentation from colleges and I can watch them. There are also teaching videos that you can download. Most of them are free. :D

Journal Entry 54 Title: Prose or Poetry

Between prose and poetry, I like prose better, but maybe that is just because I've read more prose than poetry in my life. I don't dislike any of them, but for me poetry is definitely harder to write. Poetry is a stranger to me, I never wrote one before, but I guess I'll have to do one for my English class this year.

I like reading poetry, it is very fun and it sounds really cool reading it out-loud sometimes. Poetry is harder to understand than prose, the word they could use for certain spot have limits. Prose is simpler than poetry, because it can use all kind of words to describe something clearly. I can do prose, it's easy for people that can write or type :D. But you need talent or special attention on poetry.

Poetry often has deeper meaning in it than prose. It is everywhere around us, song lyrics are also a type of poetry, which is very common in teenagers everyday life. If you try to read those lyrics of a love song, they can sound like a meaningful poem.

I like fact prose, sometime even documentary kinds. I don’t know why, but they teach me some random knowledge sometimes. It’s just fun to know about some random stuff.

Journal Entry 53 Title: Outsiders Film v Book

I felt that the movie was really different from the book. The emotions of people in the movie change too fast in the movie. It didn't give me the sentimental and emotional feelings i get when I was reading the book the Outsiders. The book was better and made more sense. The characters doesn't look the way I imaged they looked like, before I saw the movie. In the movie, they cut out the part where Ponyboy got jumped, which made the the other little parts of the movie seems a little confusing. I liked the book better, because it allows me to imagine more of my stuff that makes the story sounds WAY cooler, and better. The film looks like they were in a rush, doesn't make any sense, if the book is really that long, they should make 2 volumes :D. But they decided not to, and decided to cut out the good parts. The actors are all famous, good looking and stuff, but they weren't really into the characters, because i can't feel the feeling that the author is trying to give the readers from the movie. The most important thing is that, Steve (tom Cruise) shouldn't be better looking than Sodapop (random guy that I never saw before). Sodapop should be the most handsome guy in the whole movie.

Journal entry 52 Title: Film v Print

Film is a new technology to human being, but print is a technique people that are invented thousands of years before. Film is still improving these days and it has a endless area to expend. Print has a limit, there are only 1 dimension in print, unlike film. Print is the original way of story telling, it is passed down for centuries. Filmmaking was only developed few decades ago. Film is more relaxing for most of the people, while reading can be tiring to some people. People tend to do the easier things if they could choose, which is why film is more popular than print. Film may be easier and more relaxing, but it kills your imagination. Reading print is the only way you can exercise your beautiful imagination. Imagination is the most powerful weapon a person can have. So you should never let anyone destroy your imagination. That’s why people that only watch movies have no imagination. But the people that enjoy reading have more imagination they can have in their minds. Once you are into the films, you might never be able to start liking to read again. Once you get lazy, it’s hard to get yourself together again. So, be careful, don’t watch too many TV. 

Journal Entry 51 Title: Making a Choice

Just saying, students can check other's blog to see what each person wrote(if they are interested in this enough). I would choose Jasper, Jonah and Isabel to die for the other students and me. Why? BECAUSE they are the most spoiled and annoying people in 8th grade in my point of view. Seriously, even if we could all survive without killing them, I would still say we should kill them. Maybe that is because I'm related to Benson for wanting to kill people all the time. Oh god, I wish Benson is with us in that oxygen-less room. I would like to see him die. I can't believe what a bastard he is. And Isabel, she is the female version of Benson. That's why I really can't stand her. GOSH! An other Benson in my life, that helps. :D (YEAH RIGHT.) Jasper is really annoying. He always call me Hambo(in Chinese, this means STUPID), but he is really the stupid one. I hate him for calling me stupid, for calling Eddy Dumb and for calling Amber fat. Amber IS NOT FAT, it was just a joke, but he is taking it way over the line now. He and Isabel really need to stop insulting people so much. I'm not saying that I'm so much better, but at least I'm trying to improve myself and stop these stupid jokes. Finally, Janah just randomly pull away other people's chair when he or she is trying to sit down and rest, THAT IS VERY IMMATURE. Isabel is just Benson ON PILLS. But Jonah, Jasper and Isabel added together is Benson without pills.

Journal Entry 50 Title: My Stuff

1. My book of secret stuff (my drawing book (I probably need 10 of them since I'm staying there so long.)) My "The Book of Secret Stuff" is just a book i always have around me. It is like my diary, notebook and also my drawing book. I can spend a lot of time on it, and if I have no idea what to draw or write, I would just stare at the wall.
2. My friend's hat from his jacket (you can remove the hat from the jacket, so cool.) I LOVE THAT HAT. I can't leave it at all, its with me now 24hrs(except when I'm taking a shower). The hat is SO soft(the fur on the inner side of the hat), and it's so comfortable. I can fall asleep anywhere with that hat because of it comfortable-ness. And also, because it's my best friend's and I can remember him with that hat if I'm leaving my friends for such a long time.
3. My computer (I can do a lot with it.) I can do a lot with my computer even if there is no internet.
4. My pencil case (It's always with me.) I need my pencil case, because my USB and of course, my pencils are in it. I NEED THEM TO DRAW!!! And also I love my pencil case, I can use it like my purse.
5. My jacket (doesn't have a hat that can be removed, in fact, it doesn't even have a hat.) I might get cold.