Entry 37, Why be a Prodigy?

Coming from an Asian family, I have yet experienced the craziness of the parents who wants their kids to excel in every possible subject and talent. I was never pushed to learn the piano, I was never pushed to really work hard or anything, my parent's attitude were always just about giving your best shot. In the story of Two Kinds, Jing Mei was pushed into doing alot of things and countless attempts of discovering her talents, sadly, they did not discover any. Her motivation was just to please her mom, just to be the little obedient girl the Asian culture always promoted. She wanted to also try to see if she is a genius at a certain subject as well. The feeling of not being able to achieve such goal has led to the rebellious act of Jing Mei. She thinks that she is nothing like what her mother wanted her to be, and therefore she did not want to keep trying to be something she would never be and never achieve. The change bitters the relationship with her mother as she had became rebellious and opposing the orders of her mother. This story acts as the differences of American culture and Asian culture fighting against each other. I often change my mind about many things. It all depends on the experiences of the previous events. I believe that many factors can pressure people into changing their mind, mostly peer pressure from friends and family, basically outside forces

Differences of Movie

 We have watched two different types of of same movie of Cyrano and Bergerac. One was more based in the time of the story was written in and one was more of a modern movie. The modern movie has some crucial essential elements to the movie that makes it Cyrano and Bergerac, but you would need to observe very closely to find out. Both movies include the character of Cyrano, the man with the abnormally big nose. The movie that was based on the 1800s of France, had used French throughout the movie, but through the translations, you would be able to tell the dept of the language of English that is spoken, which uses more complicated language structure along with some deep meaning behind sentences. The Cyrano and Bergerac movies both includes one scene that left a deep impression in my head. The scene is when someone in a big crowd of people openly insults the big nose on Cyrano's face. That insults him, but he withheld his anger and rather than making fun of the other person, he uses different ways of describing his gigantic nose. These two movies both has some differences but mostly still similar. This story is very fascinating but I still prefer the Modern one better, due to the easier dialogue. 

Legend

 My favorite lengend come to think about it, would have to be The Oddyssey. Due to my history with reading novels, I don't think I have ever came across any other famous legends in my life. I believe the Odyssey was pretty interesting and sparked up a flame in me for legends. I am a guy that generally does not enjoy reading books, and this story actually amuses me. Which was caught to my surprise. I believe some legends I have read are just far too creative, I would say, far too many things that would not happen in real life. This story however, was a story with alot of imagination written through the ink, but also has some interesting plot lines that attracted me. The story of Odyssey was an Epic that was written by Homer. Many say this guy is far too great to be true. I believe this guy was just as real as Shakespeare and many other great poets and writers out there. I hope there would be more and more legends like this we could read in our class later on.

Nice Little Thing in Life

 Heroes, to many people, a stereotypical hero with superpowers would pop into their mind. There are many heroes in our society, from the fictional comic book characters to the brave soldiers working for the nuclear powerplant explosion in Japan. In my dictionary, I would consider anybody with an abnormal ability that could benefit the society, or simply just a person that tries their best in saving a tough situation. You could be thinking, many people has those traits, does that mean they are all heroes to me? Honestly, yes, to me, giving a dollar to the homeless, saving a cat from drowning, recycling bottles on the ground, all could make one heroic. Maybe not to the society, but to an individual. These traits are shared upon all the heroes of this world. Every hero has traits similar to such. Personally, my hero, would have to be my parents. I cannot believe how hard my dad works for us to keep a living, pay for our tuition, and put food on our table. A self made man he is, makes me look up to him, as a role model, and as well as a hero of the family. My mom, handles all of our laundry, all of our chores, and she still has time to relax and take care of the family? I am utterly amazed at her abilities on the street, and as well as at home. Heroes make our society feel like home, makes us have something nice in our life, something we don't realize, but something that could make all of us smile.

Animal Farm Differences

 There are many differences between the book and movie. I believe that the movie was very nice, but just not as detailed and as nicely put out like the book. The book had alot more little details that the movie did not cover. When that happened to some of the scenes, I was shocked at how some things were different. It was a difference when old major died right after the song in the movie. In the book, it clearly stated that he died many days afterwards. That was a little shocking when he died that soon, right after the song. The book also did not have the mother dog die in the book. In the movie, that was also something very new to me. It was never stated that the mother of the dog would die. The horse also kills a boy in the book, which the movie did not have.It is small things like this that builds up all the differences between the book and the movie. Althought it had differences, I still enjoyed the movie more than the book. Due to not having to read myself, everything just gets shown to me.

Judging by its cover?

 Over the course of many years, especially after hitting puberty and growing long hair, I have always been misinterpreted by many people. Many people thinks of me as a very mean person who likes to tease people alot and probably gets crap for his grades. That is judging the book by its cover. Just because I enjoy having long hair and just because I have alot of friends does not mean that I am a person who likes to play alot. Just because of that, it doesn't mean I snort crack all day and go vandalizing all over town. I have been misled by many people before. I have also misled many things as well myself. I have saw many people on the streets with tattoos and a white wife beater, the first thing that came to my mind was that they were probably gang members and I better stay out of their way. But after getting to know them, they are very nice people who respects others alot.
I think people gets misled is because they don't take time and think about the person's story, or the background of the object before they judge it. I think it is human's nature to think that we know everything already. After getting to know the person, or the thing, you would actually find that it was not how you first thought of it as.

What is Bullying?

 There are many types of bullying. People at least will eventually bully someone in their lives. There are ways of bullying that doesn't even need to be verbal. Physical bullying has been popular among the teenagers after disagreements. Bullying mostly consists of trash talking, which is verbally abusing the other person for how they look like, how they dress, how they talk, their ethnicity, all these things would be included when getting bullied. When people bully, it is normally because the person getting bullied was someone special, someone that stands out and someone that is different. People tend to pick out the people who act differently and look differently. When there are some people that does not blend in with the cultural group, they would normally be left out and made fun of. I have to admit, I have bullied people in the past, and maybe I still do sometimes. Bullying to many people is considered a big issue, but I don't see what is so bad with bullying. I was bullied when I was younger, that doesn't really mean anything. When I bully people. I don't normally hurt them as bad as you think. I know, I know, bullying needs to stop and everyone needs to live happily by each other's side. When I was in elementary school, I have been bullied ever since I remember. I moved to Shanghai and went to the American school there, coming from a Chinese Speaking family was very different from everyone else. Everyone had perfect English but me, everyone shared the same culture but me. So I turned out to be the fresh meat people often pick on whenever I made a mistake. One afternoon, I was minding my own business eating my lunch. I happened to compliment on how great the grilled pork ribs were with poor English. "This rib good" I said. A little boy from another side of the table with hair as bright as the sun questioned, " do you know how to speak English?" That was in third grade, my English was poorly developed. I froze infront of all the kids and stared at him while he laughed at my badly spoken English. That kid was mean, but I ended up being the popular crowd in middle school and eventually got him back. To me, bullying is when a person or a crowd picks on a person or exclude them for being different, being special, and trying to stand out from the crowd.

Historical Significance

One of the most memorable days of my skateboarding life, was the day I met professional skater PJ Ladd, along with the rest of the DC team that came to Taiwan. They were here for s project called Project Granite, it is basically grinding on a huge piece of Granite and basically making the company look good by doing projects like this. When he first entered the park, it was a moment I would never forget. This moment is so important to be because this is the first time I have ever met a real Pro skater.
Right now, a huge event that is still going on and will be always remembered, is the Japanese earthquake and the tsunami that is going on right now. Last weekend, a magnitude of 8.9 earthquake hit Japan along with a tsunami that swallowed people's lives. Thousands of people died during this tragic event. When I first heard this, I felt a strong pity towards the Japanese people that lived there, maybe because similar things has happened to us, but except with taiphoon. This event actually hit me hard, once I saw this, I finally understand how powerful mother nature really is. I felt as if the world is changing too much because of Global Warming. I feel as if this was all our fault and we all deserve it for hurting the Earth. This changed my thoughts on polluting the world. 
  Another very astonishing event that occurred was a protest that took place back in 2006 when the ex-president was first announced as president for another four years. There were thousands of people infront of the ex Taiwan president’s home. Parents, teenagers, kids, old people, were all gathered in one plaza, sleeping and eating there, practically treating it as their home.They were all wearing red for showing their anger, and all they want is for the president to be reassigned. They used the “thumbs down” sign to show how displeased they were and how much they wanted him to not be president for another four years. This went on for a few more months until they finally gave up and went back to what they were doing.  

Risk or Play Safe?

 People always try to take risks, this is in our nature. Even on cartoons where things are fictional, people are still always taking risks. Like Tom and Jerry the cartoon, Jerry is always a risk taker sneaking out to fool around with Tom. Taking risks is a perfectly normal thing to do, but so is playing safe.  I have a whole jug of names on my mind right now that took risks. You may think that people don't try to take risks anymore, but I have met many people that did or is still doing it right now. The very first person that came to my mind was Mr.Bain, our computer teacher last year. He was the most inspirational and wise person I have met in my life. He quit his job in America, just to come teach. He quit a job that was steady pay, and a pretty high salary as well, just to come teach in Taiwan. I think that is a huge risk, considering the wage difference. Although I may think so, he sees this as something he loves to do and something he would rather do than making money in a cooperate business. Amelie Earheart was also a risk taker, flying across the ocean alone of the flight, that could have killed her, but she overcame the fear, and followed her dreams. In the business world, the Foxconn chairman, Terry Kuo is famous for his courageous, aggressive moves in the consumer electronics industry. He has burned off millions an millions of dollars on investing companies and developing other types of technology. Some failed, some worked brilliantly. Despite of all the failures, the success rate was much higher, therefore it was completely worth taking the risk. Some other risk takers include my dad, even myself takes risks alot. I don't think I am that much of a risk taker but at the same time I don't think I play safe as well. I am right in the middle, I do not play safe all the time, and I don't make bold moves that could corrupt my entire life. Safe players include my mom, Ms.Tsai, and a couple other people. I think my mom is a goodie two shoes because she really doesn't do anything bad, she is always following the traffic laws, she is always making sure we are eating healthy. Very responsible mom I would say. At times when I am with my friends, I am a risk taker for sure. When I am with my girlfriend or my family, I am a safe player. I am the type of person that does stupid things with friends, but I wouldn't go too far. So most of the time, I am more of a safe player rather than a risk taker.

City or Country

  Different people have different opinions about where they would like to live. Some people prefer the country side with the poultry farm right next door and a weed field as their back yard. While some others preferred living on the penthouse of a skyscraper looking out their window to realize his success in his career and have everything being just around the blocks.  For me though, I am a city boy. I lived in Taipei and Shanghai for my whole live, these two cities are well known for their night lives and absolute busyness at night. I love how convenient the city is, when everything is right around the corner. I could have dinner within 10 minutes walking distance, I could also hit the gym before that, and then after that, I could take a 10 minute taxi ride to HuangPu River and enjoy the night view with some well mixed cocktail at an outdoor jazz bar. That was for Shanghai of course, and Taipei, not much difference, just more shopping than enjoying the view. I can associate my life with cities all I want because I have been living and experiencing this life ever since I was born. As for country sides, I have been to some country sides, like PingDong and other parts of China. I can tell you, I do not like being in the country side. How inconvenient it is to live there, the smell of pig farms would haunt you until you sleep, how people just do whatever they want on the streets. All I can relate my life to the country side are all the food I eat. Things like chicken, eggs, pigs, cows, rice, just all the daily nutrition that goes down our throats. When you speak of country sides, I think about poultry farms and animal barns along the dried weed field. In reality, the country side is much more complicated than that. With their dirty, undeveloped mindsets, it really corrupts the stereotypical country scene, at least all the country sides I have been to.  I feel as if the city was more sophisticated and is a lot more fast pace than the country side.

Analyzing Poem

 When you analyze a poem, there are many essential and important elements a poem should include. Many people when they think of poems, the typical poem in everyone's mind is a smooth flow and it would include rhymes at the end of the sentences. That is not true for all poems, not all poems have to have a rhyme to it. When I analyze a poem, I would read through the poem many times, and try to define the hidden meanings behind the author's pen. I would understand what the author is trying to talk about before I do anything else. The point of reading poems out, is to get the punctuations correct, where the emphasis should be, and where you should pause.I would  begin picturing myself and putting myself as the same position as the author is. I would try to make me the person trying to speak it, and understand how they feel. I believe this is the most important step of analyzing a poem, understanding the material you are reading. If I did not understand the poem, then it would just be words and sentences to me. So I will try to understand the morals or the messages the poem is trying to deliver. Then I start looking for the printed things, such as rhymes, between lines and lines, and then if there were metaphors, or similes. If I was lucky enough, I would be able to come across a poem with alliterations within it. The diction of the story is also very important, I would determine the age group and audience the author is aiming for with the tone and diction of the poem. I would try to also find things like, irony, sarcasm, onomatopoeia, all these English crucial things could make the poem different. Once I am done with all this, I am ready to write an outline or even paraphrasing it.

Death

Because I could not stop for Death- He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.

We slowly drove—He knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility—

We passed the School, where Children strove
At recess—in the ring—
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—
We passed the Setting Sun—

Or rather—He passed Us—
The Dews drew quivering and chill—
For only Gossamer, my Gown—
My Tippet—only Tulle—

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground—
The Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in the Ground—

Since then—'tis centuries— and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity—

 Death, by Emily Dickinson is a very well known poem throughout the world. In this poem it talks about, well, death. The first stanza, Dickinson says that she did not stop for death, but death stopped for her. I believe she is saying that she did not want death to come, but death stroke her anyways. She also wrote, the carriage held just ourselves, and immortality. She was saying she was going on a trip with death to wherever she should be after that. I think this poem is describing the journey of death. This poem is trying to describe the trip to the afterlife, and everything she sees. This poem has some rhymes in it, but not all stanzas include rhymes. There is one alliteration in the poem, which is the entire third stanza. I think this poem is rather fantastic, with the author’s diction being so profound yet so simple. There are hidden meanings behind each stanza, I think the poem is more of a dark tone, a rather sad tone. When people talk about death, they don’t get particularly happy about it. I do not like poems like this. I prefer joyful, happy poems, rather than the deep dark tone this poem enhances. I think poems should be rather enjoyful, than messing people's emotions up afterwards.

Test Essay Question

 I believe that the tone of Women was suppose to be more towards the thankful, warm hearted letter from a daughter. The author has grew up a tough life, her mom had to work alot and she could not see her alot. While that was all going on, she knew that her mom was working all the time for her and for her to get an education so that she could grow up and get a decent job. The poem's diction shows alot for her attitude towards the subject. Especially at the last six sentences, she was stating how she knows that her mother is working for her education. She is also saying throughout the whole poem that her mom was like an army general. That showed that her mom had leadership in her eyes and she admired that she had such strong opinions.

Inherit

 In my family, there are honestly nothing that was inherited from generation to generation. The only thing I think we all inherited was our looks and our ways of thinking. Even though there are no physical objects to be inherited like a family treasure, I think I have inherited everything I could possibly ask for. For four generations, I can actually see the resemblance between me and my great grandpa. When my grandpa would always tell me stories about how all the guys in our family looks very similar and acts and thinks very similar. I think that is the most important thing I can ever inherit from my family. I don't need my parent's money, I don't need the amount of land they own, all I need and all I want, is already within me. Speaking of inheriting things from our families, I came across an article on a tribe in the eastern Africa and one of their interesting rituals with family inheritances. They would have a "family tattoo" that was passed down generation after generation. The tattoo consists of the family name, the family history and a whole lot of other family things that is added onto it. When the boy in the family turns 18, or when he turns into a man, his grandpa would bring him out to the beach, just to tattoo his family drawing onto his grandson's arms and wash away with sea water. This is their ritual for the transition between boys to being a man. After I read that article, I had a very strong interest towards having a tattoo just like that, and it would be passed down generations to generations. I am actually considering doing that when I am a bit older. I think the tattoo proves that your family has a strong history, and a strong bond between family members. When you have the tattoo, you will always remember your family. That would be one of the greatest things I could possibly give to my children. 

Whatever Happens, Happens

 For the last three years of my life, skateboarding has taken up a lot of my weekends and holiday breaks. I enjoy skateboarding for a few reasons, I could enjoy it with my friends and help each other learn tricks on the way. I like the way we all share something in interests and we can all do something together. I enjoy it also for the thrill of it. People always say that we need thrills in our lives, without them, we would just be living the most boring lives and eventually not have character and just die with a boring life. I enjoy every time I am in mid air, that kind of feeling is incomprehensible, the way I am in the air with something flipping beneath my ankles is just absolutely amazing. The way how it could possibly make me trip and slam my face on the concrete, or I could land it, and enjoy the moment of accomplishment. When I feel a bit down, skateboarding is the only thing that could ease my mind off of things like that. That mid air feeling is like no other, everytime I pop the moving wood, I feel as if time and space stood still, It was just me and nothing else in the world, in that exact moment, I am free. If I were to be in a situation, in this case would be a skateboarding competition, and I had to land something infront of a crowd down some big sets of stairs. I would be terrified and anxious before any other feeling. I do not generally enjoy being watched, yes, I get stage frights. The moment I decide to give it a try, all there is on my mind is, "well, screw it, whatever happens, happens." By the time I am in mid air, I would be thinking, "Oh crap, Oh crap, Oh crap,Oh crap." and be nervous even after I landed it. Many times in life, you just have to go out and do things like this. Take a risk, whatever happens, happens.

Something I Learned

 On a nice day, my friends and I picked up a wooden plank with metal and wheels on them, that instant, we knew it was something special. Sunny day, humid weather, shanghai, china, friends gathering, cement plaza, exciting for results, wood pushers, flips, bars, grinds, falling, scabs, scraped knees, ripped open jeans, skinny jeans, friendly people, guards, making us leave, tough, uneasy, tiring, wanting to give up, decide not to give up, all day long, many people watching, people amazed, people crashed into, people mad, people trying it out, skate shoes, bar rails, sounds of grinds, stairs, tricks off stairs, grip tape(sand paper), torn shoes, dirty clothes, dirty pants, dirty hats, speed, can't do anything, professional watching, scared, cannot do the tricks, hard to talk to some other people, sucked, did not want to continue, attention getter,

Permanent or Not?

 To many people, the one thing they are looking for in life, is love. They start seeking for the perfect one when they are young, as they get older, and more mature, some people eventually find the one out of the billion and some people don't. To me, I haven't found that yet, although I would, but I know I haven't. In life, to me there really is nothing that lasts forever. When people say those cliches like,"nothing lasts forever", those are cliches because they are true. The only thing I believe that is closest to lasting forever is the love and bond you share with the Ms.Right. Once you found your love, that bond you share with your love one would not die. It would remain on until your or her death bed. Then there is the friendship you share with your best friend, some friendships lasts, but some doesn't. The ones that lasts, will be the place you run to when you want to escape reality. Your friendship with your best friend, would be the place you escape from all the things that aren't going too well in your life. Sometimes, even love can get torn apart, and when that happens, there will be no one there for you, but your best buddy. They are like a home, providing shelter when needed, and will always be standing up for you. The rest of the world, everything will be fleeing and will be gone eventually. You may not like it, but your three hundred thousand dollar Aston Martin would eventually turn into soil, your mansion on the coast of Malibu Beach, would eventually get washed away. Your childhood house, will eventually be replaced. Your mother Earth, will eventually fade away. It sounds scary, but anything, and everything, would eventually die, and turn into nothing. Like Art Buchwald said, "the best things in life, aren't things." That quote is how I want to be living things, my life will be based on love and friendship. I would try not to let work get into my way of building a strong relationship with my family and spending a night out with my friends. The best things in life, are really not things, so no one should be worrying about what lasts and what not. Everything you will need, is right here next to you.

Haiku

  The most memorable time in my 15 years of life would be, Vicki's birthday. September twentieth. That was my happiest day so far in my life. I have no idea why. That night, that afternoon, I dashed through from the most downtown part of Taipei to a place 40 minutes away from it, just to set everything up. That day, I was excited, I was feeling good about myself, proud, would be more appropriate. That day, I felt as if, I was the smartest and sweetest person in the world, I felt as if I had everything in control. As I prepared everything, the balloon shop was filled with people, well it was downtown Taipei on a Saturday and at dinner time. It was filled with all types of balloons, all colors, all shapes, all sizes, literally every type of a balloon in this world would be in here. That shop smelled like plastic, more of a rubbery smell to it. It was a very small yet decorative store, it was cozy, I really enjoyed being in there and meeting the owners. Then I went to Skylark, to cook the things I had prepared for her. Garlic steak it was, with a pinch of spaghetti and some soup. The smell of the clam chowder in the kitchen overpowered all the other smells in the kitchen. After an hour and half of battle with the grills and stoves, I have done it, it certainly wasn't pretty, but I've done it at last. Then I arrived at the place, as I decorated the room with balloons and the gourmet dinner I have made, I begun hanging up the pictures of us on the walls and covered the room with candles. The gorgeous recessed lighting beamed the room up with a golden brown color. The streets had busy traffic, the honking, the loud mufflers off of the plastic scooters. The room then was lit up with candles, scented candles, it smelled like a garden in that room. Once I got everything prepared and ready, I was ready. As she enters, it was the biggest smile I have ever seen. It was completely worth it. It was a good day.

What I See When I Close My Eyes

  I love things like this, believe it or not I actually do this when I am alone as well. Everytime I do things like this, I need music. Inspiring and heartening music, it differs from time to time, it could be from electronic music to jazz hiphop. You may think, electronic music? How is that inspring? Well here is the thing, it may be just a song with more bass drops than words to some people, but sometimes, the melody of the song just drags me right into it. I always picture some stunning visualizations. I don't normally have a set place where I always picture myself at it, but depending on my mood, I will switch from places to places. Whether it is the lights at night along the Huang Pu river in Shanghai, illuminating the city with its bold colors and bright lights. Or it could be at sunrise, at a beach in the Bahamas. Where everything is calm, and peaceful. With nothing on the sky, but the orange glow shimmering across the sky, with no one around me, just me, the clear white sand, and the orange beams of the star welcoming me to the start of a brand new day. Or it could simply be at a grass land, with a crystal clear sky, with an ocean, right infront of me, with the ocean water so clear, that you could see the sea floor. Of course I haven't been to most of these places, but its just something I enjoy doing. At alot of times I would simply clear my mind with things like this. I would look at some photography while cranking up my song into my ear. I love this. I honestly do. I would love to visit all these places when I earn enough money.

Let your backbone slide

I Am a Rock

  There are many things that popped into my mind when I heard this song. When I heard the chorus, all I thought about was this comic style island with rocks and bricks on it. As this song kept on going, I pictured a cheerful middle age man that was single and did not really need love. I think this man loves being a loner and is enjoying his life with himself. He does not need love because love hurts, and he doesn't need friendship because he is alone, and friendship hurts. I don't really know what the singer is singing about honestly, some parts of the song I think he is just a rock in the middle of nowhere. Then sometimes I think he is a man that is happy with his live because he has made something of himself but he does not need love nor friendship because both of them will end up hurting him. Basically whenever some words were sang, the objects just basically popped into my mind, that is why I cannot connect the song together.       There is a song by Wayne Wade, called Lady. This song is a reggae song that is about love. This man is so deeply in love with this lady, she is his everything. He expresses how he feels about her, and how much he loves her. There are so many songs in this world about love. Everytime I used to hear this song, I picture this Jamaican man in his twenties, looking a bit like Bob Marley, with the dreadlocks but younger, sitting on a couch watching his girl in his arms asleep. On his right hand he is holding his girl under his arm, and on the other, a smoke.

Road not Taken (Late&Make up)

    The Road not Taken was a story about life choices and how people would want to see the outcome of the choices. Everyone would want to do that, even I do. In life, people all have to make some pretty hard choices, many times people spend years or even their whole life regretting what they have chosen before. Many times in life, you would come across two of your most important things to choose from, and you have to value both items and abandon the less important choice. This is hard, this will be very hard. Personally, I have never had to do choices like this, but people around me have, and many of them, regretted what they have done in the first place. This story is called the Road not Taken because the author wants to know how the road not taken could have turned out to be. How the road is unpredictable and the author is glad he had not chose that road. The title implies the opposite idea and shows how he did not take the choice and was fine with it. Although he does not regret it, he would want to see the outcome of the other choice.

Pride

  Being proud could be both a good thing and a bad thing. People are hated for being too proud, but people are also disliked for being too humble. The society works in a very strange way, you cannot be too much of something or too little of something. The people considered"normal"would be the ones that are just inbetween both. Being proud is good, being proud raises people's self esteem, and situations where it would make an individual feel proud, could be a great ego boost for many people. Situations such as, after giving a persuasive speech and everyone liked it, presenting something people all like, anything that makes you win in an argument could basically make you feel proud. But being too proud is not a great thing, when you present yourself as being too proud, you would come off as being an arrogant person and people would then start staying away from you. Pretend if Brandon got an A on his final while everyone got a D or below, and he starts getting very proud, too proud, then people would start hating on him for the arrogance and cockiness he is presenting. Pride could be both negative and positive, but you just have to remember, do not go too far in both lines.

Choices between good for myself and good for someone else (Late&Make up) Lady or the Tiger

  I think I am the type of person that gives it up for people. For someone I really truely cared about, I would choose to sacrifice myself for that person. I am the type of person that takes friendship and relationships seriously, atleast now I do. I realize, life happens once, make the best of it, or else when you are old, you will be the one regretting what choices and paths you could've taken and what you could've became. I think I am the type of guy that would give up anything for the girl I love. For her, I could give up the world for her. I know this sounds like a cheesy song, but that is how I feel. There are times I have given up stuff for people I love, and I normally give it up willingly because, hey, I love her. I am glad that I made those choices, those choices benefited the person I care about, and also benefited me. It helped me grow, it helped me realize, the world does not revolve around me, and I should stop once in a while and let someone get past me and not be so selfish. That is exactly what I did, I let a person come before me in every way possible. I am happy I chose to do that, I am happy I did that because, after all, it was worth it. For me and for her, it was all worth it. 

Western Parents V.S Asian Parents

  After reading that piece of article, I have got to say that there are some pretty biased things in there. I think not all Asian parents are like this, my mom doesn't chase after me with a stick everytime I get a B on a test, not every Asian parents are like this. The Asian teaching and parenting system is very different from the Western way of teaching. My parents are just like the American way of teaching, they like to use praises rather than words to make me feel ashamed or feel guilty. There are many people in this world with this type of parents and they would be Asian too! I joined a musical in school, I go out with friends, I get rides over the weekend, I watch TV and uses the computer all day long. I don't think this applies to all Asian parents. This reminds me of how great my parents actually are and how un-strict they are when it comes to academic performances and my social life. They would not care if I had a girlfriend, unless it had major affects on my grades, then that is when they start. They would not care if I had my own life and made choices I wanted to make for myself rather than them making the choices for me. My parents are very loose parents. I don't feel choked and struggling under the whips of their parenting methods. I love my parents.

Hard Choices

  In life, choice making has became one of the most difficult things for many people. Making the right choice could benefit you on the long term, but making the wrong choice could devastate you for life. People often avoid making decisions simply because they want to avoid the problems. Being able to make good choices is a very important lesson and stage in your life as your getting more mature. There are many hard choices to make, and many are caused by your own family. For example, if you were an art student, your parents would be challenging your desire to do art and try to brainwash you until you give up on something you love, and eventually become what they wanted you to have became.(lawyers, doctors, etc) In this case, it is a choice between making yourself happy, or making your parents proud. Many Asian parents would not provoke having a career in the art field, simply because the Asian society for generations, has been taught that all the successful and wealthy people are only consists of lawyers and doctors and business men. Should you let your parents down? Or should you pursue your dreams and work towards something you love? Another great example is peer pressure. Peer pressure as when you are with your friends and when they all did something, you would be persuaded and draged into doing the same actions. Your friends could all be snorting cocaine, when you clearly know its wrong to do drugs, or to even have possession of drugs, they would want everyone to participate in their activity and all of your friends would want you to try atleast once. Should you take the very first snort of your life that could change you into a drug addict and make you spend the rest of your life in a rehab facility? Or should you say no to it, and let all the other kids think you are "uncool" or a "coward". Which is the right choice here? I don't know. It is your choice to make these decisions and you are in complete responsibility for the outcome.

Cherished Items

   If I really had to choose one thing to stop, I would most likely choose fire. When there is a flood, people die, but sometimes the flood are not as severe as what fires could do to some houses. Earthquakes are scary, but the chance of having a big Earthquake strike is less likely than alot of things. Therefore I think the scariest and the most dangerous is fire. That is why I would stop fire rather than stop the others. There are many things I cherish in life, any little souvenir someone special gave to me, photos with memories, items with memories, basically anything with memories of the people that I think are important to me and people I like. If I had to pick one, I think I would have to pick the cards and things many people has made for me. Cards made of sliced pieces of paper with a couple of dozen pictures along with the hand writing inside the card wishing you for the best. The exquisitely made cards are covered by delightful pieces of  cutout paper into different shapes to decorate the card. The written part of the card is what makes the card special. The handmade quality and the photos that gets stuck and cut out on to it, is what makes the card unique in its own way. No one will ever have the exact same as you, No one will ever get the exact same thing as you. It is for you only, and it is something special. I think however, the writing is more important rather than the card itself. Writing shows how you really feel about that person and shows what you actually mean when you write it on a card. Cards for me are the most special and will always be the most special thing anyone in this world could ever possibly own.

Dream Job

   There are millions of people applying for jobs every single day worldwide. Some statistics show that only 40% of the people around world likes what they are doing regardless of the low salary. The rest 60% are people into the job for money, or they got in because their parents wanted them to be whatever they are doing. Not everyone loves being doctors or lawyers on a big executive firm in New York. People are always choosing between money and interest. To me, a dream job would be head CEO of any company. I like that job because of the thrill of competing with other companies and just basically being able to control an empire. An empire that could bankrupt you over night, or an empire that would get you filthy rich. Believe it or not, I would actually want to be a CEO of some large executive firm. This job would actually make me try harder when I am working. When I am going off to work, my goal everyday will be to try to reach the top. I wont stop until I reach the top.

New Year's Resolution

   Its finally 2011! I should be writing down some New Year's Resolution for this new year. I think first of all, I will try to improve most of my grades to at least a B or above. That could be good for my college later on. Next I would like to try to eat more healthy, the past year has been a huge junk food year. I would eat junk food every single day. That is not good, and I am willing to change that. The third would be to try to Improve on my Geometry grade. Geometry honestly is not that hard, and I am not getting a very high score for the tests. I need to get my Geometry grades to go past the B range. After that, I would like to talk less in classes. I don't want to interrupt teachers from talking and getting points taken off my final grades. I think in many of the classes, that is one reason I get some grades lower than I expected. The last would have to be to be nicer to other people. I haven't been the nicest person to everyone the past year. I have been instead making fun of people and talking behind some people's back. I should try to stop doing all of those cruel things to people that has never done anything to me. Well Its 2011, and i hope this would be a great year for me! Same with to you!