Personal Reflection

I'm not the most hardworking student in our class, but I believe that I'm not in the "lazy" category too.I do pay attention in class, but I'll have to admit that I do get distracted by classmates and start to talk to them, and sometimes fall asleep in some classes. I only take notes on subjects that I'm really bad at, or when I think that I won't remember what the teacher was talking about. I start homework right away, but I won't do a lot of it because I feel that I still have a lot of time, so I finish most of them when it's almost due. I do take short-cuts which is the internet, and sometimes ask classmates when I can't find the answer in both the internet and in the book. I complete the majority of homework and I believe that about 95% of them are on time. And outside of class, I spend 98% of my time studying, but it's not only school work, I spend time studying things from my cram schools too. In week days, I would estimate that I spend about 4 hours thinking about class, and in weekends, I think I spend only 5 hours if I have band practice, but if I don't, I spend about 8 hours a day thinking about class. I almost never go to ask teacher questions unless I really didn't understand what the teacher was saying in class, and also, it's because I have a tutor for all subjects that I'm not good as good at, so if I don't understand in class, I probably will chose to ask my tutor. I think that I do participate constructively in class, although sometimes I just can't understand some things the teacher says. To me, I think that school would be in the second place. Practicing musical instruments would probably be in the first place to me.

Style

In "Raymond's Run", the author, Toni Cade Bambara used allusions, dialect, irony and imagery for her style. I am choosing to write about irony and imagery. For irony, it's situational irony because the ending was actually quite surprising. In most stories I've read, when a person is too cocky, they eventually gets a lesson by failing once or even many times. And in the beginning, Squeaky was very cocky, and when I read about Gretchen, I was thinking that Gretchen will win this race this time because Squeaky is supposed to get a lesson. But then, the ending of the story showed that Squeaky still won the race. Another part which is ironic is the part when Squeaky and Gretchen smile at each other after the race. Before the race, they were still enemies, but after the race, their attitude towards each other changed. I thought that Gretchen will cry and jump on Squeaky and hit or bite her. Ok, I'm exaggerating it, but it's basically what i mean. She used imagery before Squeaky started the race. She was imagining herself in a dream, flying over beaches and stuff. The words she used was really descriptive, so it is imagery.

Brainstorming a Poem

- Short
- Grumpy
- Sensitive
- Small eyes
- Smart
- Mean mouth
- Ok looking
- Joker
- Uncreative
- Childish

He has black and short hair, dark skin, and small eyes. He's short for a boy.

Super noisy and likes to say mean things to me.

Can smell his shampoo in the car in the morning.

Spaghetti & Sashimi

Hitting each other all the time

- Cry
- Does HW
- Yell
- Fight
- Eat

Oh, you. My dear brother.
Always fighting with me,
always saying mean things to me
" Hey~ I'll tell you a secret
- you're SO fat!!"
"Hey~ you know?
you're SO ugly!!"
Oh god, how much I hated you before
when you were so mean to me
hitting me, yelling at me, and never talks to me
but now, although you still say mean things to me
you are being nicer to me.
When it's late at night,
you see me doing my homework,
and falling asleep in front of my table,
you go out and buy coffee for me even though you're going to sleep
you ask me if I wanted you to do my homework for me
or if I would let you bring it to school
so that his classmates could do it for me
You would teach me math when I am lost
and never complains when I don't get it
When I get all grumpy and ignores you
you leave and give me my space
Also, you always know what I want to eat when I'm hungry
spaghetti and sashimi
the two things that I fell in love with because of you

End Game

The results of this game wasn't really different from my thinking before actually. The only difference we made was the "doctor" part. Before we started to make the game, we wanted to have a doctor and a murderer, but when we were in the process of doing this, we figured that if there was a doctor and they were to heal the people, it would be impossible to hide them from the murderer, and so the murderer would try his or her best to kill the doctor. And also, we didn't have a murderer in the end because it also is impossible for them to kill without letting other people know, unless we make the rules like how Danny's group did. Instead of the doctor and the murderer, we changed to let people pick cards from the pile, and there were different cards that have advantages or disadvantages on each person. All the other parts were the same. The process was so hard, because we had to laminate the cards. In total, there were 52 cards, and because only Annie and I have the machine in our houses, so we divided the cards. Actually, not only the laminating part was hard, the whole thing about making the card was hard. Making the picture on the back of the card spent us a lot of time, and just cutting out the words, pictures, and shapes spent us a whole lot a time. And the real hard part was to laminate them. Both Annie and I failed many times before we succeeded, so we had to reprint our pictures many times because we don't have high technology like Eddy's group has. I am satisfied with what we've done, but if I could change one thing, I would change the time that it's due. There was too much work to be done, and so we had to stay up late at night.

Slang

I don't really know many slangs, and the ones that I can think of on top of my head are those that most people know, like rofl, lol, 88, ftw, fml, ttyl, brb... etc. These mostly are abbreviations of many words that can make it easier to type but everyone can understand the meanings too. Rofl=>Rolling on the floor laughing; lol=>laugh out loud; ftw=>For the win; fml=>F*ck my life; ttyl=>talk to you later, brb=> be right back. 88 is more of a Taiwanese one, because only people that can speak Chinese would be able to understand this one. In Chinese, 8 is pronounced as " ba ", and "ba" sounds really alike with bye, so when people say 88, or even 8, it means "bye". These are the ones I can think of right now, and because I don't really know many slangs, this blog entry is pretty difficult to me. This is all I can think of for now.

Fighting Words

People may think that fighting for words are ridiculous, and may be childish. To me, I think that it actually depends on what the person says, and whether they mean it or not. If that person is insulting me or someone that's close to me, I would be really angry, but if that person was just joking around and having fun, I wouldn't be mad. I would just probably roll my eyes at them. Although I think like this, I still sometimes get really angry at people if they don't stop joking around. I did get into fights when people say things about me or my friends. For example, today, Annie, Isabel and I kind of got into a fight with a teacher today, because she was saying things in a bad way. Today in math class, we had an in class quiz that had only two questions. Janet got full points, and the teacher said, "See? Even Janet Wu can get full points." To everyone in the class, it was really mean and Janet got angry too. After class, Annie, Isabel and I went to the teacher and asked why she had to say that. Even though she said that she said it because she wanted to encourage other students to work harder, but we didn't accept that explanation. In the end, it was the teacher that walked away first.

OOPS

As I have written in my previous blog entry, I used to be scared of a person in our school before, and I always walked away when I saw that person coming. He scared me because that person was always walking around the school, in a real slow pace, but when I walk to the other side of the school, I could see that person there too. It feels like even though that person was walking in a really slow, he's still everywhere. Btu in a really weird occasion, I got to know that person. And what's surprising is that now we're really good friends and because we have many similarities, for example, music, we can talk for a long time about it. We suggest each other to listen to different songs. But we don't only talk about music. We gossip a lot also. We tell each other about our own gossips and talk about what we think about some other people's rumors. Although it may sound childish, but it's something that person and I like to do. This is important to me because now I have another person that I can talk to when I feel sad. And also another person that I can talk to when I'm bored or sad.

Below the Surface

Only looking at the surface of things is what most of us do. Although we all know that people shouldn't be so shallow, but it's just the way that most of us do. I did have the feeling that I have been judged by others only from the surface before. For example, I know that I'm a little bit chubby, but it doesn't mean that I really eat a lot or really like to eat. It also doesn't mean that I'm not good at any sport. This might be a pretty bad example, but it's probably the only one I can think of right now. Even though this is not a very good example, but I still sometimes get a bit angry at these. I'm not pro at any kind of sport, but I do get unhappy when people just say that because you're fat, so you suck at sports. Although I dislike people making these judgements on me, but I still do it too. For example, I used to be really scared of a person because he's always walking really slow around the school all the time and seems to be a strange person. I didn't like him before, but now, after chatting with him, I'm really surprised to see how funny he actually can be.

Quiz or Circle

To me, I don't like any of these, but if I really have to choose which one I like the most, I would say that I like the group discussion one in class, which is the circle one better because every person only needs to do a small part, but is able to learn a lot by just simply listening to what other people in the group did, and may understand the book even better than if you just read it by yourself. I really dislike all the written quizzes no  matter if it's individual or in groups. Of course, if it's a group one, it might be better although it still would depend on the groupings you are in. If your partners are really responsible and read the book really well, then it's good, because you won't be the only one doing all the work. But if the person doesn't want to do anything and didn't read the book at all, it would be a pain in the butt. And, because of laziness, I really hate writing with a pen, so I'd rather go back to what we did in the beginning of the school year, when we could type our homework on the wiki page. It is a save of time and resources.

Your Game

In our English class, we read the Westing game and we have a project about making a board game. I have some ideas about it, but I think the hardest part is to make connections between the book and the board game. I've already thought a lot about it, and I think that the best kind of game would be like monopoly. There can be cards like the chances cards monopoly, but we could change the words and the use of those cards. We would buy or probably make some small figures that resembles the characters in the book, and players can choose who they want to be. On the board, there will be lots of traps, and everyone will have 10000 dollars at the beginning, which is the same as the people in the Westing Game had in the start. And if I had unlimited money and time, I would hope that the technology would be advanced enough to make what I wish can be made come true. I would want to make a game that doesn't need a board. All the people would need would be a flat platform and the machine. The machine will project pictures on the platform and people will be able to play the games without needing to bring the boards around  all the time.

Your Ending

I could barely think or breathe. The voice just kept becoming louder and louder. I couldn't stand the look of the policemen anymore. I leaped at one of the police and bit him real hard on his arm. He screamed and pounded my back. Comparing the pain of that with the pain of the sounds, it was nothing. I could taste the blood in my mouth now. I could see the other police trying to call for help, so I changed my target, and leaped on this police and pushed him down on the floor. I hit his head with the chair before he could get up. I looked at both of them bleeding and pleading me not to kill them. I laughed with satisfaction, and pulled out the gun I stole from the police's belt. Looking at two bleeding men on the floor, begging and crying for mercy made me laugh even harder. When I finally managed to stop my laughter, I pointed at the first police, and shot him. The other police screamed and fainted at that second. It was no fun to kill him without seeing his reactions. I sat on the floor, staring at him for one whole day until he woke up. Then, I gave him a warm smile and shot him. His reaction when he woke up and saw the gun was hilarious. HAhaha. I can't stop laughing by just thinking about his facial expression. And now, I discovered that the sound has gone away, and I felt calm again. See? I'm not mad, I'm just nervous. Everyone would do the same thing as I have done if they have been bothered by that sound.