Response to Shiyun

"Does our image really matter that much in our lives? I think that we are too focused in our appearances rather than our who we really are. I started to realize that most of us care about being liked by others around us or wants to be praised for their looks."

I got this from Shiyun's post.
     I've written a few blogs about image and it's affects on society. From a society standpoint, beauty is a way to advertise. The beauty industry itself is huge simply because of the drive to become pretty and beautiful. From a society point of view, the craving for image and for perfection in looks helps the economy.
     From a social standpoint, perfection in image is very needed. If you aren't beautiful or pretty, you are isolated, automatically labelled as "unpopular" or "uncool". What is this?? It's understandable that if someone wants to become more pretty, it's their own choice, but when people don't want to change themselves, it's their choice to accept themselves for who they are. You don't have the right to look down on someone who accepts themselves instead for spending all their time trying to look better. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean any offense to anyone who does pay attention to what they wear and those who put on make up or dyes their hair. The people I am criticizing are those who look down on others who don't care as much about the way the look or about their outer appearance because they are comfortable with who they are already.
     This brings a totally different and separate topic onto this: judging. But I'll do another post on that some other time. Back to image, I realized that judging people about their looks is completely wrong.

Ender's Game Blogpost #3

     In today's last discussion about Ender's Game with my group, we talked about many things, but the one thing that caught my attention most was about how the Bugger's offered Ender a form of redemption.  When Ender goes to Eros and explores, he sees the Fantasy Game he played in Battle School turned into a real landscape. Eros is a planet where the buggers used to live and is now being inhibited by humans. The buggers built this Fantasy Game landscape to prove to Ender that they knew him and that they know him better than anyone.
     A question was how did the buggers know about Ender? Ender answers this question by saying that through his dreams and the computer system he used, the buggers grew to know Ender's mind and what his motives were. The buggers realized that even though Ender had killed their whole species, he did not do it on purpose. In fact, he was tricked into doing it. Building this for Ender proves that they were not ignorant to the things that he had been forced to do.
     After Ender defeated the buggers, he didn't want to face anyone again because he was ashamed of what he did even though it wasn't his fault. He felt like because it was him killing anything, it was automatically his fault it had happened. When the buggers built the place for Ender, Ender went to explore it. When he reached the End of the World, he normally just dies or the game continues and continues with no where else to really progress, but on Eros, when Ender reached the End of the World, he finds something else. At the End of the World, Ender always see a mirror where he sees either Valentine or Peter and then he opens the mirror and finds a snake that is there to kill him or at one point, become Valentine. In Eros, when he opened the mirror, he found a new beginning for himself and for the buggers. He found a form of redemption and forgiveness for himself that the buggers offered. Behind the mirror was the queen bugger egg. To start a new life for buggers, Ender has to take care of the egg and keep it safe. After killing their whole species and absolutely regretting every bit of it, Ender finds a way to redeem himself fully by helping the queen start bugger life again.
     Redemption is always given when someone makes a mistake. There isn't a mistake made that is completely unforgivable. No matter how people look at it, there are ways to redeem yourself when you make a horrible mistake. This is whether or not you prove to yourself and the other person that you are not this person who continuously makes mistakes. Ender finds redemption within himself and for the buggers.

Ender's Game Blogpost #2

     In this week's discussion with my reading group, we talked about how the process of Graff's decision to make Ender progress so quickly, how it has caused Ender to lose all his friends, how a new launchie named Bean has much more confidence than Ender, how there will always be competition in the real world no matter what, and how Battle School is like school in the US.
     I think that there is one main idea that is very important that we talked about and it is the combination of Ender losing his friends because of being too smart, and the competition in the world. Ender loses his friends because of how smart and how talented he is. Because Ender is considered with such high respect by everyone, people who used to be his friends don't think that they have the place or the caliber to be Ender's friend. They also think that he may be too dignified to have friends like him. Ender's consequence of being such an excelled student is that he cannot have friends. It isn't that he is incapable of having them, but it's a combination of people unsure of being his companion and his own awkwardness and his lacking of knowledge of how to created friends.
     Ender's situation is similar to those that people experience in the real world. In the world we live in, everyone has a goal they want to reach, whether it is winning a game or getting the best grade. Those who are the best, who are above anyone else in acquiring this goal, will be hated, respected, envied, and avoided. Because of this isolation, even if they wanted to make friends, they would become socially awkward and wouldn't have the ability to communicate or incorporate themselves into conversations like Ender couldn't.
     These were the two main things I wanted to add to the conversation we had, but wasn't able to because of time issues.

Response Post

" I personally do not like the idea of forgiving people because once someone messes up, they will do it again and again so to forgive them would be like stabbing your own body twice in the back. I hate how people say those who do not forgive are cold hearted because we are not. It is called being wise"

     I got this from Rokhsor's post about whether people who make mistakes should be forgiven. My views are completely different from Rokhsor's. If someone makes a mistake and realizes that what they did was wrong, then they should be forgiven because they are sorry for what they did and realize that they had done something wrong. 
     Last year, there were many things that people had done to others. This year, everyone forgave each other to a degree that allowed friendship. If everyone had stayed hating each other and held grudges because of mistakes that only caused drama, then everyone would be divided. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, whether it is talking smack or telling someone's secret or anything else. If you never forgave anyone, who will you have in the end? Even the truest friends make the mistake of hurting you in a way, but they would realize their mistakes and would try their hardest to make it right if you gave them the chance to. 
     Its impossible to forever be angry at everyone and everything because they made a mistake. If so, you would never even be able to forgive yourself for the things that you have done to others. Maybe it was unintentional or maybe it was with the complete intent of harming that person, but whatever you did, you forgave yourself, so you can't you forgive someone else who made the same mistake as you?

Ender's Game Blogpost #1

     In my group's first socratic seminar we talked a lot about Peter's , Ender's brother, affect on Ender throughout the book. An idea that came up was the Ender was afraid of being like Peter and is afraid of Peter because Peter is the only real evil Ender has ever been exposed to. When Ender is asked if he wants to go to Battle School by Graff, the man who tries to recruit Ender, Ender thinks of everyone he has to leave, but doesn't mention that he is leaving because he wants to get away from Peter. It shows us that although Peter is such a prominent figure in Ender's childhood, Ender tries to never think of Peter.
     Another thing we talked about was what Dink Meeker had said. Dink is a toonleader in the Rat Army.  Dink talks about how no matter what happens in Battle School and no matter how many fights they win in the  competitions, all the teachers are doing is making each army build hate for each other and nothing real is coming out of this hate. Dink talks about how the fat that the buggers are still attacking Earth is not actually real because the first and second invasions were so long ago. He even talks about why these people are keeping it away from the people on Earth and it's because if people start to know about this fraud, the people will lose control of the government and will end up not having as many resources and other things.
     Although our group didn't talk much about this, I think this is significant in Ender's growth. Ender doesn't realize that everyone around him are kids, but are acting like adults. He doesn't realize that Battle School and the government are changing him and other kids to be much more mature and much more developed than even an adult can be. Ender doesn't believe what Dink says that the third invasion may not be real even though there is a lot of logic behind what he had  said. This proves that even though Battle School can change the maturity of a child, it can never change the personality of one or the belief system that a child will always have, something like naivety.

Response to Christy's post

"My parents always tells me that I am fat, It brought me down so much that it lowered my self esteem. I would cry myself to sleep knowing that I will never be beautiful compared to other girls. It affected me so much that I would starve for the rest of the day and only have something to drink."

     I got this from Christy's post What is the Definition of Beautiful.  Although the subject that Christy is discussing is incredibly important, I can't bring myself to ignore this section of her post. When I write this post, in no way am I trying to offend anyone.
     How would you react to a parent or even someone who you consider your friend to say this to you? I would feel put down, a lot like how Christy says she feels. I would feel so hurt and would completely break down, trying everything i can to become the perfect person, so that this person I care about will accept me and compliment me instead of sending these verbal attacks towards me. What kind of parent does this? Parents should be supportive and caring and be that person that a child can turn to when they have no one else to go to for help. What kind of parent are they when they are the ones who make their children feel so bad about themselves? Who can these children turn to for support when they look towards their parents for it?
     Again, I mean no offense to anyone who disagrees with my views or my comments, but look any person who is someone that people turn to for help should be there for those people and should be the ones who support and raise the self esteem of their friends or family, not the opposite of that.

Garcia Girls Final Essay

            In the book, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, four girls and their parents move from the Dominican Republic to the United States after their father was forced to flee from the Dominican Republic’s government.

This book is formatted from the most recent times to more distant times. It is separated into three parts and in each part, there are vignettes. These vignettes are written to specifically describe one sister, all four sisters, or the whole family’s experiences.

            Julia Alvarez includes a lot of her own experiences in her book through one of the daughter’s, Yolanda. The whole Garcia family is based off of Alvarez’s own experiences and family. In the book, the Garcia’s move from the Dominican Republic to the U.S, but Alvarez gave no specific detail on why. In her life, Alvarez’s family fled from the Dominican Republic because her father was caught up in a plan to overthrow the dictator and her family was forced to be on the run.

            This whole book talks about change that the family has to go through. Mostly, Alvarez talks about the change that her character, Yolanda, goes through. The first part of the book shows Yolanda when she is the oldest. The very first vignette talks about how Yolanda wants to go back to the Dominican Republic because of the experiences she’s had in America. Part I of the book describes Yolanda as a woman who wasn’t afraid of anything. She shows her problems with dedication and relationships in the vignette Joe. In this vignette, Yolanda has an affair with her therapist while still married to her husband, John. She describes that Yolanda is continuously leading John on, but when he gets the point and does something that he thinks she wants, she pushes him away and is disgusted.

 In the vignette after that, The Rudy Elmenhurst Story, Alvarez shows Yolanda’s true turning point from her old, religious, innocent self into what she is in Joe. In this vignette, Yolanda meets a boy by the name of Rudolf Brodermann Elmenhurst, the third in her first English class. Rudolf, known as Rudy in the story, grabs the attention of the innocent Yolanda. As Yolanda gets more and more obsessed with the dangers and excitement that Rudy brings to her life, the more Rudy pressures Yolanda to have sex with him, but the more he presses on, the more Yolanda resists. Rudy’s pressuring includes a lot of verbal abuse about how Yolanda was too religious:

“You know…I thought you’d be hot-blooded, being Spanish and all, and that under all the Catholic bullshit, you’d be really free, instead of all hung up like these cotillion chicks from prep schools. But Jesus, you’re worse than a fucking Puritan.” (99)

Soon enough after Rudy said this, he gives up on trying to get Yolanda to have sex with him and leaves her for a girl who is willing to give him what he wants. As proven, in this vignette, Yolanda starts out as a very innocent and religious girl, but in the vignette before that, Joe, Yolanda is cheating on her own husband. In between those two vignettes, there is something that has been left unsaid by Julia Alvarez, perhaps written in one of her other books. Yet, it doesn’t take much to see that not only does Yolanda change, but she changes so much that she goes from a proper lady who just wants to explore to a messed up slutty woman who cheats on her husband. I think that Yolanda is forced to change herself and this was the biggest turning point to her change in attitude and personality to which she looked at life in America. Because this vignette is written after the fact, Yolanda describe that this is just another relationship in college. In some way she describes her naivety and her looking down at herself from how she was in college.

“That’s the way I remember relationships starting in college – those obsessive marathon beginnings. It was hard to go back to your little dorm room and do your homework after having been so absorbed in someone else.” (92).

In this quote, Yolanda is ridiculing her own character and how she used to be. Because Yolanda is a direct reflection of Julia Alvarez herself, this quote shows how much Alvarez has grown from this vignette, not only the beginning of the book, but to how she was when she wrote this book. It shows that although she was a very naive girl, she was not afraid to admit it now, but still a little earlier on in her life, she looked down on how much she had done.

To clarify what I meant in the last paragraph, there are three time periods in every vignette: the time that is being talked about, the time that the character is telling the story and the time that Alvarez actually writes this book. All these times tell how much Alvarez has grown. For example, the time that The Rudy Elmenhurst Story occurred, Yolanda was a innocent girl. When Yolanda is telling this story, it is later on in her life and she’s been through more experiences and has turned into a whole new person who doesn’t believe in the morals she used to. When Alvarez writes this vignette, because of the paradox between Yolanda and her, Alvarez shows that now, her head is cleared and that she somewhat regrets the things she ad done and brings herself to admit her feelings and mistakes.

All in all, this book was very good. From the start, it was confusing, but once I finished the whole book, everything fit together. Part I was confusing because there was so much going on and the characters were not built, but started out from whole and then teared down to scratch. In Part II, it was the most clear because I knew what was going on. In Part III, it was even more confusing because of the fuzzy memories that each of the characters experienced. The timing of the book reflects on the clarity of each section. But when I read all of it, it became very clear to me, the genius of Julia Alvarez’s book. It was a very good book that showed that hardships of Julia’s family and her experiences as an immigrant to the US from the Dominican Republic.

Garcia Girls Blogpost #3

     After reading the whole book, things became more and more clear. Something that Alyssa had pointed out in class really intrigued me. It was the point that the Virgin Mary bank was stuck in the middle of her spin and it represented the time when the four girls were ending their time in the Dominican Republic and starting their new lives in America. Crystal pointed out the because the figurine is Virgin Mary, it represents something pure:

"The little figure rose, her arms swiveled. Then she stopped, stuck halfway up, halfway down." (274)

     From putting these two very deep points, I realized that it is true that during the beginning of the four girl's American experience, they are the most innocent when they go to America. When they were in the Dominican Republic, they were used to the things and people there, so they were not afraid to do what they wanted. When they went to America, they were in a new place with new rules. They didn't know the loophole of this environment and society yet, so they were afraid to do anything. They soon learned and experienced the things in America and have learned the boundaries they are given. They began to get used to the American society and culture where the view then, was that there was the freedom to do everything except for killing people and stealing things, which are all morals anyways. They exert this new found knowledge of what they believe they can do and as a result, they lose their innocence once again.
     An example of this is when Yolanda was in the Dominican Republic, she was a troublemaker and got away with everything. When she went to America, she became what can be called, a slut. She had affairs with many people and had become something very different from a innocent girl she was when she first arrived in America.
     The Virgin Mary's resemblance of innocence is very direct and I noticed that, but I would have never thought about the fact that in between the transition from the Dominican Republic to America, would be the time when there is the most innocence in the book.

  

Guys are pimps, girl's are sluts wtf? Response

"Some other people said because it's more common for a girl to be the ones who are cheated on and get their heart broken and since it's kind of uncommon for guys to get their hearts broken, they get pity. I still don't know why this happens." -Karen Chavez

     I got this quote from Karen Chavez's blog. This question has been on my mind for very long. Whenever we hear about a boy getting girls, he is always encouraged to get more or congratulated for having the game or "swag" to get those girls by hitting on them. Sometimes, it turns out that this guy is taking advantage of all the girls who had feeling for him and what does he get? A big high-five and pats on the back and automatic popularity. For what? For hurting a girl's feelings. Using her for fun, making her think that she's special, and then leisurely just dumping her with the rest of the girl's he's hurt. Yet, after all this, the only people who are hurt are the girls and they don't even get pity. All they get are comments like "I told you not to go for him." and things that basically tell them that they were stupid to like and trust a guy who they liked, someone who they wanted so much to be with. How is that even fair?
     When a girl has a bunch of guys, whether flirting or not, she's a slut, automatically. What the heck? When girls get guys, they on't get a congratulation. They get hate comments and get a constant roll of people making them feel horrible about themselves. Then, when the girl plays the guys, which is obviously a wrong thing to do, they are hated by everyone, girls and guys alike, leaving that girl alone. Why is it that boys get so much glory in hurting a girl and playing them, but when a girl does it, she gets to feel the pains and consequences of what she does?
    Does this mean the boys are expected to do things like this? Does that mean that in a way, girls are meant to be different from males in the ways they are supposed to act? So, there is something to do with gender that is keeping the barrier between what girls are expected and what boy are expected.
     Of course, this blogpost is just my point of view, obviously, a girl's. I'm not saying I'm right to say that boys are treated better and let off easier, but from what I see this is my conclusion that I've come to.

Kung Fu

     So last Sunday, I went to my weekly kung-fu class. Of course, I went for two hours again. It was fun alright, but strenuous nontheless. Normally, my kung-fu classes are made up of stretches and practicing forms, but last Sunday, it was much harder.
     For the first hour, I went to I ran suicides, stretched, and did flips. Normally, all we do is stretch and do some kicks. From the beginning of that day's class, I can tell that it wasn't going to be a laid back, fun day at all. The length we had to run for suicides were only around fourteen feet back and forth, ten times. When we thought we were done, our sifu made us run again, this time, around fourty feet back and forth, around eight times. We were already exhausted and were only around 45 minutes into our two hour class.
     For the next fifteen minutes, I was stretching. All we did was push each other down and stretch each other until our legs and arms burned with pain. We paired up with people the same height as us and did one hundred sit-ups. We have to run two more laps to let our muscles get warmed up. All this, and we still had around 45 minutes of class left. we ended up doing jump inside kick, fall down, pop up combo and cartwheel, step, jump inside kick, fall down, pop up combo for the rest of the time. first, we were separated into two groups, one high belts and one low belts. Low belts went first. They had to do jump inside kick, fall down, pop up combo ten times and whoever finished last would have to do it again. Then it was the high belt's turn, which included me. We had to do it ten times as well. When we were done, we had to do it one by one. If we didn't do it well, we would have to do it again and again until it was approved by our sifu.
     Then, we did cartwheela. It was a one step, late touch, round up cartwheel where you start standing facing you're right, then just put your arms down and flip yourself doing a half no hand cartwheel, but towards the end, touching the ground for support, and landing on both of your feet at the end. In order to do this, you had to swing your legs very quickly. We had to do this ten times and whoever finished last would have to do something extra. Thank god I didn't finish last. After this, we did cartwheel (late touch, round up) and then jump inside kick, fall down, pop up. These two combos were meshed into one and we had to do it directly after each other. This isn't considered hard at all. In fact, it is considered very easy, but we were conditioning, so it was more tiring than hard. We did this ten times and did them individually again.
     As proven, that day wasn't exactly what I would call a laid back day, but still. Kung fu is a stress reliever and a very fun form of exercise for me.

Garcia Girls Blogpost #2

     In the last post, Garcia Girls Blogpost #1, I wrote about how this book had a theme of innocence. Now that I've read the second part of the book (1970-1960), I realized that America has stolen a lot of what all the girls used to be. It changed them, matured them, scarred them, and forced them to adapt to life in America In the second part of the book, we get to see who Mami was when the family first moved to America versus the first part of the book where we see Mami exposed to America for a long time.
     In the vignette Daughter of Intervention, the author, Julia Alvarez, shows the power and influence that America had on Mami. Here, Mami is very excited about being in America and even describes herself that she had exerted her power as an American woman's freedom and had shed her old position in the Dominican Republic:

"She did not want to go back to the old country where, de la Torr or not, she was only a wife and a mother (and a failed one at that, since she had never provided the required son). Better an independent nobody than a high-class houseslave." (144)

      Because of living in America, Mami represents the differences in the majority of the countries other than America at the time: where women were constantly under the men and no matter what class they were, they would never be treated as equals. When Mami realizes that she holds this kind of power to be equal to her husband, she exerts this power in order to be the woman she has always wanted to be.
     In this specific vignette, Mami shows her power through helping her daughter, Yolanda write a speech and even defends Yolanda when her husband yells at Yolanda. This brings me to my next point. Yolanda has also gone through a lot of change from her typical culture into her new one in America. At the beginning of the vignette, Yolanda demonstrates her power as a child in an American family by talking back to her parents with less respect than she would have to in the Islands.
     In Yolanda's speech, she writes things like "I celebrate myself. The best student learns to destroy the teacher." In her old tradition, Yolanda would have probably been severely punished if she had said that in a speech to her teachers, but in America, Yolanda feels like she could say anything she wants to because she is living in a place where freedom and equality is encouraged for any race and any gender.

Garcia Girls Blogpost #1

I think I want to write and analyze more about Yolanda. At this point in the book, Yolanda is shown to be the smart child of the family in her mother’s eyes. In her sister’s eyes, Yolanda is the “bad one” because of the experiences that she’s had in college and other relationships she’s been in afterwards.  
Because the book is written in reverse chronological order, the beginning of the book represented the last part of the story and the end of the book represented the first part of the whole story. So starting from the beginning of the book or the end of the story, Yolanda was coming back to Dominican Republic after five years of living in the US. She talks about how she doesn’t want to go back to the US and gives a perception on the dangers and the situation that the Dominican Republic is in at that time.
Before Yolanda goes back to the Dominican Republic, she was respected by her mother for being the smart, poetic one and by her sisters as the fearless one. Yolanda’s stories in Part I helped build her character. In the vignette, Jon, Yolanda is having trouble with her husband John because all he wants to do is have sex while she finds him more and more unattractive. She goes to a therapist and falls in love with him. In the vignette, The Rudy Elmenhurst Story, Yolanda is a college student who falls in love with a boy named Rudolf Brodermann Elmenhurst the third. All throughout this vignette, Rudy wants to have sex with Yolanda, but she does not give in and Rudy leaves her for another girl who will sleep with him. Yolanda is described in this vignette that she is very innocent and that she is very devoted religiously. She has a sense of what is right and what is wrong and no matter what, will not give into the demands of a boy she loves if she doesn’t feel right. Yet, in Jon, Yolanda is not innocent at all. In fact, she has an affair with her therapist because she no long loves her husband John. She changes from a very innocent girl to what seems to be a self centered woman.
I’m not sure what her real character is and I want to see how she progresses through her life to end up in America and become what she is at the beginning of the book/ end of the story.

Reflection Post

4. In what ways do writing response posts to classmates' blogs help me become a better writer, reader, or thinker? Are there other ways in which my classmates' blogs help me learn?

So far this year, I’ve been writing in my blog consistently because of homework and also because it’s become somewhat of a habit for me to write whatever comes to my mind. I’m proud of a lot of things that I post because they express my opinion to others. Response posts are especially helpful for keeping me open-minded about everything. Writing response posts to classmates’ blogs help me become a better writer and thinker because I get to see point of views other than my own and this allows me to argue my point if I do disagree with the others’ views, but also see how many different approaches there can be to one subject.

For homework, we have to respond to someone else's blog post and normally the things I respond to are on subjects that I have a strong opinion on. Many times when I have a strong opinion about something, I tend not to be able to see different sides of thing because I’m too caught up in thinking that my way is the only way to see things. You can say I’m narrow-minded, but responding to posts helps me stay more open-minded to things.  In one post, I responded to Crystal Lau’s post about prosthetic body parts.

Crystal said:

“Personally, I do not believe in exchanging one's body parts when there is no apparent reason to do so such as a disability that would make life inconvenient. A person should be happy with what they are blessed with by nature. Human evolution is the result of humans adapting to the environment that they are in, meaning that what a person has right now is sufficient enough for their survival."

Here, I never saw a take on the scientific side of this at all, but after reading Crystal’s post, I saw a new perspective, understood it, but most of all, accepted it as an opinion. When I first read this post, I disagreed with it, but as I read further, I began to see Crystal’s logic and point of view she had.I still kept my own views on the topic, but I was able to see a newer eye opening view on this.

“Yet, I disagree with the part where Crystal says "Human evolution is the result of humans adapting to the environment that they are in, meaning that what a person has right now is sufficient enough for their survival". Yes, humans are able to survive the way they can now because of evolution, but the reason for many people to want to get prosthetic body parts is because they are not happy with the way they appear naturally.” This was from my response post.

This post is just one example of what an eye opener. Seeing other people’s point of view helps me become a better thinker and a better person because I get to become less narrow-minded and more open to new ideas or new opinions other than my own. Writing and defending my opinion and views such as what I did in my response post to Crystal helps me learn how to find evidence and write persuasively because essentially, defending my opinion is trying to make the other person accept it or believe in it as well.



9. Has blogging had any other effects on my life beyond strictly my “school life”? Explain.
I started blogging with the sole reason only being because it was homework and i was getting graded on it, but when I continued to blog, I began to notice that the things I’m saying are not random or just for school. The things i write about are things that I really do want to tell everyone because I think they are important to be said and heard.
Blogging has become a place where I can speak out to the world without being afraid of how people would react and what people would think. Sometimes, I realize that I have a lot of opinions that I want to say, but can’t because it would start arguments and other unnecessary situations as well. Being able to blog about anything helps me get these things out of my system and allows everyone to know what I am thinking. For example, in my “What Has Society Come To?” post, I wrote about how people who are different are treated badly and shunned.

“Look at all the people around you anyone you know who has a different sexual orientation than the "norm" of society. They are not getting the rights they deserve. They fight and fight with everything they have in them and they are being neglected because they are different. They are being put down because they have the bravery and the determination to stand up for what they want and what they deserve. And yes. They do have every right to fight for what they deserve; to have what they deserve.”

In this post, I wanted to point out how ridiculous I thought our society is. Where they do not accept people for who they are and expect them to change to fit in. People with different sexual orientations are commonly looked down on because they are different from the normality's of the society we all live in. It is unfair to treat one person differently from another person simply because they are different.

Here, I was able to express my feelings on this topic. Normally, I can talk about this in in-class discussions, but I don’t have a way to show what I think to people not in that class. Also, if i talked about this outside of class, someone could take it offensively. Posting this blog post helped me get rid of some burden of the opinion I had and not to offend anyone personally because I may be going against their beliefs.


In conclusion, in the next quarter, I will spend more time on my response posts and post more for reasons other than school. Doing both of these helps me as a writer and thinker. It also helps me with being a better person and contributor to society. Being able to see both sides of things would help me become a more understanding person and being able to support the things me and other people believe in makes me a person who can help a cause in society.

Night Essay

Night Essay- Character vs. Religion

     During World War Two, many Jews were persecuted by the Nazi’s for their religion. The Jews had to endure torturous works in concentration camps and were forced to be separated from the people they hold the most dear to their hearts. Elie Wiesel writes a Holocaust memoir called Night. In this book, Wiesel faces unbearable torture, heartbreaking losses and many conflicts. Yet, there is on that stands out above all. The central conflict Wiesel faces is the loss in faith in the God he used to be devoted to as he experiences the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp.
In the beginning, Wiesel describes a moment in which he is talking to Moshe the Beadle, another devoted Jewish man who everyone in town pities. Moshe finds Wiesel praying and crying at the same time and asks Wiesel about why he cries when he prays.
Wiesel thinks to himself, “Why did I pray? A strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (2) Wiesel is already devoted to praying to this God he has and his thoughts portray that he has never questioned his religion or his existence before; he just simply had faith in the God. As a young child, Wiesel simply accepts everything that he is told and everything that he had grown up with. Never before has he questioned the very things that he thought were the truth, but when these “truths” get questioned, he begins to shed the naivety of his young age. His extreme attachment to his religion begins to fade as he questions everything he’s known to be true, but fades even further as the story moves on and as he sees the suffering of his people.
When Wiesel is deported out of the Ghetto and into the concentration camp, Auschwitz, he sees the torture the Jews are being forced to endure.  As they stood in line, his father shows the regret and sadness that everything has brought him, so he prays. Wiesel expresses his loss in faith: “For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless his name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent, what had I to thank Him for?” ( 31). This is the first time Wiesel expresses any hate towards the God he had been so devoted towards. Wiesel sees the crematory and the killing of all the innocent babies, old, crippled, and the inhumanity of the Nazis. He brings himself to blame everything on the God he believed would help and protect his people. Day by day, the more horrors he sees him and his fellow Jews endure, the more he loses his faith in his almighty God.
One day at camp, three people are being hung for having weapons: two adults and one child. The adults died after a few minutes, but the child hung there for half an hour fighting between life and death. Someone asks “Where is God now?” (62) and Wiesel thinks “Where is he? Here he is-- He is hanging here on this gallows...” (62).  Here, the little boy represents God to Wiesel. He is implying that God is dead to him and all faith in him is lost. He finally reveals to himself how much he despises God for all the things that he did not do for  the Jews when they needed him most. When Wiesel experiences New Years in the concentration camp, he shows the contrast between how he accepted and worshipped God when he was younger and the way he feels and hates God now. “Once, I had believed profoundly that upon one solitary deed of mine, one solitary prayer, depended the salvation of the world, This day I had creased to plead. I was no longer capable of lamentation...I was the accuser, God the accused” (65). He believes that he is “alone terribly alone in the world without God and with man” (65). New Years is was once an extremely important date for Wiesel as a child, but now that he has no more faith in his religion, he struggles to feel complete. Although he is constantly fighting his belief in God, he cannot help but face the pain of reminiscing about his past and the way things had been when he was young and innocent. His conflicting feelings about God lead him to question his life and how he feels so empty without someone guiding him and someone to believe in. Wiesel mostly describes his own experiences with religion, but he also observes the loss of faith in God among his fellow Jews in the concentration camps.
When the Red or Russian army is attacking, Wiesel talks to another Jewish man about what my happen to hem. Wiesel still hopes that he will be freed, but this other character begs to differ: “I’ve got more faith in Hitler than anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people“ (77). This person represents the thought of all Jews. He says that although Hitler is evil and is prosecuting the Jewish people, he at least keeps the promises he makes makes. God had promised to protect his people and when this does not happen, all the Jewish people seem to have more faith in Hitler’s promises than in God’s promises and expect to die but do not expect to live.
Throughout this book, Wiesel's main conflict is with religion. As a child he had accepted it, but as he matures and is forced to endure suffering, he loses the acceptance he once had for God. He describes not only his own feelings but also his experiences with fellow Jews and their views on God and his abandonment of their people.

Response to Marco's The Weather's Crazy post

"Lately, the weather has been like crazy. By now, it should be cold, but it's hot, still. This summer that just ended was also weird because for a long time it was cold when it was supposed to be hot. Now that it's supposed to be cold, it's hot. I don't like this."

This is from Marco's Blog about the weather nowadays. The weather is so annoying! Literally every morning, it's all dark, gloomy, windy, and looks like its about to rain. I try and dress accordingly to the weather and dress all warm and everything. Yeah, I look normal in the mornings, but towards the afternoons, I look so overdressed. It begins to heat up and gets suddenly warm and then hot and then back to cold and windy. For example, yesterday, it was completely windy in the morning, but then, after my first period class, it was warm and sunny. When we came out for lunch, it began to looks so gloomy and cold that I put on my warm wool jacket. When it was PE (after lunch), we had to change into shorts. I did this, but kept my jacket on because I thought it would be cold. But NO!!! When we finished running our lap, I was sweating hard. Then I took off my jacket. Bringing out a jacket was completely pointless!!!!
    The weather wastes so much of my time putting on and taking off my jacket. Literally in every class (not being affected by the air conditioning) I have to put on or take off a layer that I'm wearing. The weather is being so inconsiderate to Alameda!!!! Its making me really mad and I can't exactly do anything about it because no matter what I wear, I have to suffer the consequences of being cold or sweating.
     Sometimes, I just give up trying to guess what the weather is going to be like and I just wear something thin so that I won't have to get too warm and I don't have to hassle with taking things off and putting things on and holding my clothes when it's too hot. I know that keeping warm is essential to health, but the weather this year makes it just so much harder to keep warm.
     I'm hoping that the weather would clear up and just stay at one constant temperature so that it won't be such a hassle to decide what to wear and to try to make myself comfortable throughout the day.

What Has Society Come To?

     At this moment, there are thousands of people fighting for equal treatment. These people are being constantly put down by society and everyone around them. Their rights are constantly being shot down and anything they try to do to gain their rights back lead to even more suppression and pain. These people are those who have different sexual orientations than everyone else. Whether someone is gay, lesbian, bisexual or anything else, they are still human beings. Nothing can change that. America is supposedly the country in which anyone is accepted and anyone has the same rights as everyone else. But look at where we are. Look at all the people around you anyone you know who has a different sexual orientation than the "norm" of society. They are not getting the rights they deserve. They fight and fight with everything they have in them and they are being neglected because they are different. They are being put down because they have the bravery and the determination to stand up for what they want and what they deserve. And yes. They do have every right to fight for what they deserve; to have what they deserve.

     It is within the people of America's discretion to determine whether or not these people can have their rights. If this is so, I don't understand why people refuse to vote on equal rights. It may be that your religion or family or beliefs and morals tell you that being gay is wrong, but think about it, if you were put in such a situation in which you have no power to determine whether or not you can have the right to marry or even have the comfort of coming out and telling everyone who you really are, would you like everyone around you to shun you and ignore your desperate pleads for equality? 

    Time and time again, many people have been suppressed because they are different from everyone else in society or because others believe that they do not deserve their rights. Here in America, there are so many incidents of this occurring and this country is called "The Land of the Free". I can't imagine what it is like in other countries at all.

Forget...

     I'm standing on a sidewalk. There's a fire. I wanted to race over to help, but after taking a few steps, I found myself unable to move. I was just far enough to make out a bunch of people, but two distinct smaller figures kneeling by a lifeless body.

"You!  How could you possibly do this to me? How could you?" a young girl screamed, gasping for air.

"Don't! Don't Rose! You can't do anything now!" a boy, shouted desperately, half hugging half holding the girl, Rose, back.

"How could I, Dan? Tell me! How could I? After all he had promised us!" Rose cried, submitting to the boy's gentle pats and calming down into a short huff of breaths.

"There's nothing we can do now. He's still with us. He always will be." Dan spoke into Rose's honey brown hair. Dan looked up at the sky like he was praying...

     They looked so familiar to me. The boy, Dan, with his blond messy hair and the girl, Rose, with her short hair and even the lifeless adult body, still in the shadows of Dan and Rose leaning over him. I knew them. I knew this all too well...but how?

     I began to wake. "No," I thought, "I need to finish." The light shown in my face and I opened my eyes to the brightness of the morning sun. Normally it didn't come out this early, but today was different. I scanned what I called my "room". Although other's wouldn't consider it much, it was the only place I had now. It was a

small room about the size of one of those public bathrooms at McDonald's except instead of bathroom stalls, there was a bed and a small desk and a stack of clothes in two baskets in the corner. It wasn't much, but I was grateful for what I had. 

     Let me tell you a little story about myself. I don't remember any of my past. Any of it. Apparently, I was a foster child and had no where to go and had no one to care for me. I was hit by a car and lost all my memory. Great story huh? Yeah, I agree. But now, I had Trent and he's all I'll ever need. Right now, I'm seventeen. I living in the outskirts of a small rural town. 

     I was never interested in my past before, but something recently sparked my brain into having these dreams. Now, I really want to know who I am. These dreams were derived from seeing just one thing recently, but I didn't recognize what. I passed by too many things from day to day and I didn't have the time or energy to recall these things.

     I got up slowly, not wanting to leave the warmth of my blankets. But I had to..I walked outside into the bright sunlight. 

Qfwfq Character Analysis

Thesis: In "The Aquatic Uncle", Qfwfq in influenced by everyone around him that being a land animal is superior to being a fish until the end where he finally uses his own mind to define whether or not land animals are superior.

     Qfwfq is influenced by his family to think that land animals are more superior to fish. At the beginning of the story, Qfwfq states that he had evolved from a fish and that being a land animal is better than being a fish. When he evolved into a land animal, his family was changing with him as well. They influenced him to believe that this evolution was for the better of their family and become higher in superiority. He even describes that there were many animals evolving further than they were: "There might be a family that had bee living on land, say, for several generations, whose young people acted n a way that wasn't even amphibious but almost reptilian already..." (71). When he talks about evolving into a higher species, he almost idolizes those who become reptile. The fact that there were already so many advancements from fish, Qfwfq thought that fish were the least advanced animals of them all. Qfwfq describes a time when his family showed their thoughts and opinions when he talks about his great uncle. Qfwfq and his family are trying to convince their great uncle N'ba N'ga to get out of the water and become a land animal with them and the family is having a contest on who can get their great uncle out of the water first. Qfwfq describes a specific scene in which he talks about the power that the relative would have if he got the great uncle to go on land. Because then, they're whole family would be great: "On this score, the rivalry among the various branches of the family never died out, he would achieve a position of pre-eminence over the rest of our relatives," (73). Here, Qfwfq talks about how his whole family is evolved. He demonstrates to the reader that if his whole family were on land, they would also be superior to others. Qfwfq proves himself to be a follower of his family's opinions on land animals. There is also another character who further influences Qfwfq even more strongly.
     Qfwfq's other great influence in his life is his love for his fiancée, Lll. Lll is described to be one of the few land animals who are evolving into reptiles and had families on land for generations already. Later in the story, Qfwfq decides to bring Lll to meet his great uncle, but he rejects the idea and describes his feeling of how embarrassed he is of his great uncle: "I hadn't yet dared tell Lll that my great-uncle was a fish." (75). Qfwfq had fallen in love with her because he adores her and respects her. He feels inferior towards her because she is so perfect in his eyes. He believes that she is the promise and the perfect image of something he would like to evolve into: "In her I saw the perfect definitive form, born from the conquest of the land that had emerged she was the sum of the new boundless possibility that had opened. How could my great-uncle try to deny the incarnate reality of Lll?" (78).  Here, Qfwfq thinks to himself why his great uncle would not idolize Lll like he does because she seems like a beautiful, holy being who is much more superior than him and his great uncle. This section proves that Qfwfq is blinded by his love and admiration for Lll.
     Toward the end of the story after Lll leaves him, Qfwfq begins to break away from all the influence he had on his opinions and thinkings. He begins to realize that there are many others greater than Lll and that he should accept who he is instead of wanting to evolve into something more. When Lll decides to become a fish an marry great uncle N'ba N'ga, Qfwfq is left in the world on his own. Although he is lonely he soon realizes that there are still higher evolved species than Lll. Yet, he still cannot let go of the thought that he is inferior to them in some way: "Every now and then, among the many forms of living beings, I encountered one who 'was somebody' more than I was..." (81). Although he sees others a superior species to him, Qfwfq no long strives to be like them. In this quote, he talks with no envy, but with a matter-of-fact tone. He is now narrating like he is content with who he is and well not change himself simply to be a "superior" species. Qfwfq finally learns to be himself and to accept who he is.

Mistreating your Girlfriend: Response Posts

"Advice for the girl, leave the damn guy! You shouldn’t be taking the crap that he throws at you. If any young girl is going through all that but still love him she should open your eyes, understand what you’ve got your self in and forget about him."

     This was from Fermin's blog post: Mistresting your Girlfriend. I love this blog post. Not only does he give great advice, but he also understands the girl's point of view. I completely agree with everything on this blog post, but the quote above, especially, applys to many girls in relationships. The slightest notion of a boy mistreating a girl should sound wrong to any person who knows anything about it, especially those who are in that kind of relationship.
     When a boy mistreats his girl, he has no right to complain when she breaks up with him because of the mistreatment. Many times, boys either do not realize the power they are imposing on the girl, but sometimes, he realizes what he is doing and thinks that he is correct in what his actions are. Girls, if a boy is mistreating you, you have every right in the world to break up with him even if it's an accident. No matter what it is, guys should be more conscious about how they are treating their girl if they care about them a lot. If a guy cares about the girl as much as they say, they wouldn't make the mistake of mistreating her and having the possibliity of losing her.
     Girls should also not be so sensitive to what guys do to them because boys don't pay attention to how they are treating them. If you think that your guy is treating you wrong, then you should tell him and give him a chance to change instead of jumping to conclusions that he's a bad boyfriend. You should always give him a chance to change before you do anything extreme like breaking up with him because sometimes, there are other things affecting him to make him do thing.
   As a conclusion, girls shouldn't overreact when boys don't treat them right, but when it gets extreme, BREAK UP WITH HIM!!!!! Don't put up with mistreatment you dont' deserve, ever. Boys, pay more attention to how your're treating your girls if you want to keep them.

Change For Who? Response Post

"The thing about society is that people - a lot of them being mostly women - want to alter something about their body. They don't appriciate what they have, they complain, then they try to change it. Some want to look like celebrities, some like their friends, who the hell knows."

     I took this quote from Ruby Rew's blog. I agree with every word that Ruby said. In my earlier response post on Crystal Lau's prosthetic body parts post, I expressed a lot of how I felt about how people constantly want to change themselves. Here, I would like to talk about how specifically society causes everyone to feel unstable. Society, like Ruby said, forces people to be very conscience about their bodies and their looks in general. Many people fail to recognize the fact that they have everything they need to beautiful in their own unique way and not in the way that all society wants them to be.
     Society wants everyone to follow one trend and to look a certain way in order to seem beautiful. Everyone falls for this trap and many cannot catch themselves in the act of doing so. We constantly subject ourselves to the pitfalls of society when we strive to become someone we are not to blend into society. And because our society's normalities are constantly changing, we force ourselves to keep track of all the specific trends and looks of "today". And then following this obsession we all have, we change ourselves, our style, our personality to become what society's model of a perfect person is.  Many times this "perfect person" is flawless in every aspect. They have the perfect body, the shiny soft hair, the flawless skin and the blend of all the best looks. But it's obviously impossible to become that person. Even when you try to change everything about yourself, you will never be satisfied because all you can think about is being more and more attractive in society's eyes.
     We have to realize that we are all beautiful no matter what society labels as it's definition of beautiful. There shouldn't be a time in which you don't feel like your're not enough simply because you are not society's model of "perfect". Do not let the voice of society keep you from being you and believing that you are awesome the way you are.

Kung-Fu (:

     The start of this year marked my 10th year of doing Chinese Martial Arts also called Kung-Fu. There are plenty of different forms that I can do. Forms are basically a bunch of moves put together into a string of poses and moves that we perform in competitions. Currently, I am working on three forms in preparation for my next competition. They are all very popular forms, but everyone's has a different style to it depending on the capabilities of the performer. Because I am small and thin, my movements are quick and are meant to spread my body out to cover the length of the area. My three forms are Long Fist, Straight Sword, and Spear.
     Straight Sword is the weapon I am most comfortable with using because I've been practicing with it the most: almost five out of my ten years. My form consists of jumps, splits, and a lot of wrist turning and bending. My flexibility isn't all that good, but if i do stretch enough, my form is pretty cool. Over the course of five years, I've had four straight sword forms: three single straight swords and one double straight sword. My first thee forms were single swords and one double sword and they were all traditional. Last year, I transferred to a new Kung-Fu studio and my straight sword form became wushu. The difference between traditional and wushu is that wushu has more jumps and kicks.
     Spear is my second newest form. I learned it once three years ago and another time after I learned straight sword last year. I'm not as experienced in this weapon as I am in straight sword because I don't look as good when I do it.
     Long fist is my newest form and I just finished learning it two weeks ago. It is not a weapon form, but a hand form. This is my first time actually learning a hand form for competition, so I'm excited to improve it. My long fist form has a lot of jumps and a lot of slamming. It requires me to be very quick but strong at the same time, so I hurt myself often.  
     For anyone wondering, Kung-Fu isn't all about beating people up. In fact, in my point of view, Kung-Fu is more of an art and sport mushed together to make something threatening and competitive but at the same time beautiful.

Response Post~ Crystal Lau

"Personally, I do not believe in exchanging one's body parts when there is no apparent reason to do so such as a disability that would make life inconvenient. A person should be happy with what they are blessed with by nature. Human evolution is the result of humans adapting to the environment that they are in, meaning that what a person has right now is sufficient enough for their survival."

      I took this quote from Crystal Lau's post. I agree with her point of view about prosthetic body parts. If a person is born or isn't in need of a prosthetic body part, they should embrace who they are instead of changing themselves into someone they are not.
     Yet, I disagree with the part where Crystal says "Human evolution is the result of humans adapting to the environment that they are in, meaning that what a person has right now is sufficient enough for their survival". Yes, humans are able to survive the way they can now because of evolution, but the reason for many people to want to get prosthetic body parts is because they are not happy with the way they appear naturally. Now, there is make up, padding, and plastic surgery. These things appeal to many females and even some males in order for them to change the way they look: to exaggerate some parts of their bodies and faces or to hide parts of their body that they do not like. I don't think that anyone should change themselves for the purpose of looking better. Everyone has a little something they don't like about themselves. And while they should be the ones accepting themselves for who they are, they are the ones pressuring themselves into thinking they are not good enough or are ugly.
     I don't think someone should get themselves changed for the reason that they don't like the way they look because these people should learn how to accept who they are and the things that they were born with. Even if you change your looks, you are still yourself. In any circumstance, the way you were born is the way you will always remember yourself as. Making yourself look different using prosthetic body parts or anything like plastic surgery would make you look better, but on the inside, you are still you no matter how much you try to change your appearance.
     In society, we see models of perfection and everyone wants to become that because they are shown that that is how you have to look in order to be attractive. Changing yourself using this new technology is no different from doing what society wants you to do. The choice is between being yourself, which you should be proud of in the first place, or blending into society, in which everyone strives to look a certain way and requires the need for perfection. Which one is more worth being?

Vocab

Derive
Discretion
Entity
Marginal
Notion
Require
Regime
Welfare
Ration
Style

Words 9/15

     Words are used as a form of expression, and without it there is no way for opinions to be made. When opinions are not left for others to hear, society is forced to turn to only one person to tell everyone what to do. Without communication, forms of governments such as democracy are not made possible; people are unable to express their will and feelings.
     Allowing people to have the freedom of speech also means for people to be more careful with their words. Saying something to someone that you may not this is offensive does not mean that someone else may not take what you said offensively. The freedom of speech allows people to be free, but also have a higher chance of making mistakes in their community. Such as the issue with the Arizona policy; the governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, said that most illegal Mexicans are drug smugglers and that is why Arizona should have this new policy. Many people too what the governor said as an offensive and racist statement. The way she had stated her point made her become antagonized by much of the population. The mistake she made was in the way she had said and phrased her statement. Being in the high position that she holds, she has even more responsibility for the things she says and does.
     Words are a powerful thing. When you abuse it or when you say hurtful words without thinking, the consequences are most likely more than they are worth in the first place.

Debate Rebuttal

“When we put people in permanent imprisonment it is similar from executing people.”  

-This statement was taken from my opposing side's opening statement and it is completely wrong. 

I have a question for you, do you mean that someone who is alive and well is the same as a person who is dead and buried? So we ask you, do you know what happens in prisons? Do you know that these prisoners have a chance to sleep, eat, exercise, and are provided education? When a person is executed, they have no way of enjoying any of these needs anymore.

Another point we have about the difference between permanent imprisonment and execution is that when someone does something extreme, they have to face execution. The law of execution is sending a message to everyone that if they do something very wrong, they will have to face death. This law scares people from doing the wrong thing and hurting people because they do not want to face the harsh consequences of it.

Also, in the opposing side's opening statement, they say that:

"Plus everybody make mistakes in their life, some may have came from a bad neighborhood so the death penalty on people does not make the world any safer from anybody or even ourselves."

     When someone makes that decision to kill someone else, it is THEIR decision NOT anyone else's. They should fully know the consequences that they are forcing onto themselves for committing such a crime, but yet, they still do what they decided to do. Some of these things are inexcusable and even if we do let them live, we are giving all criminals fallacies that they can be spared simply because they can change. There is no such a thing as saying "Oh, you killed someone in my family, but because you can change, you are excused and don't have to pay for the crime and terror you caused."   This is not a LEARNING mistake, but it is a CAPITOL mistake in which a person's life and the people around them's lives are torn down because of this person.

     It is true that we all want to kind and generous and that some people can change, but this is not about kindness nor is it about generosity. We are dealing with adults, not children. These are people who society depend on to support and become role models for the next generation. We have to hold these people responsible for their actions in order to maintain peace.

Bullying and Ganging Up Response

"The reason people bully others is that bullies feel it is the only way for them to fit in.  What many people don’t realize is that you can get even more respect making friends then you can bullying." 

   -Stolen from Sam Everett's Blog

I have to say, I completely agree with this. I do believe that the reason why people bully others is so that they themselves can feel a sense of power and strength. Although the bully may not realize this themselves, they subconsiously are doing this and consiously thinking that the victim they are picking on deserves the treatment. On the inside, this bully feels like they themselves have no way of fitting in and alienating other people for the fun of it automatically puts the other person under them. The fact that they themselves are not able to feel like they fit in drives them to hurt others and attempt to make friends by ganging up on a person. Like Sam said, these people simply want to be accepted and by bullying someone they expect to be liked and to gain a respect from everyone around them. They do not realize that what they are doing makes everyone think that the bully is just mean and the bully would just feel the same form of isolation as before, but now, everyone is afraid of even interacting with them. There are many situations that I have seen a bully gang up with other bullies in order to pick on one person. This kind of ganging up is supposed to benefit all the bullies. In some way, they feel like they are all outcasts and are constantly being looked down on for who they are. They attempt to bring others down to a level in which they felt they were at, even if the victim was not one who made them feel like the way they did in the first place. It is uncommon to find a bully who bullies people simply because he or she likes to do it.
The ASTI constitution was made for the purposes that bullying will not happen. Everyone should be conscious of the way they treat others and think about what they do before doing it. Otherwise, we will all become enemies of each other and the ASTI community will no longer be tight knit, but would run with a vibe that screams "hate".

my humungo ASTI family :)

Great Grandparents :D
Mr. Sutherland:
The coolest, dirtiest, great grandfather/ teacher in the world!

Francis Cabotaje:
Great Grandpa Francis was recently added into our family. He volunteered to be the great grandfather because of his awesome white, grey, and black hair :)
 

Kaila Belgarde:
My great grandma likes to walk and act like a typical cranky old person, but is the most awesome grandmother ever.

Grandparents x)
Kim Alvarez:
Oh gosh Kim...don't even get me started. She's another typical grandmother who sits in front of a tv, but not just a Filipino channel. Nope. She watches all the most popular dramas like Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Huge, and much much more. She can name more actors and singers then I ever can....

Moms:
Annie Mae Young:
Yes, she's my mother....She claims to be Filipino even though she's the most pale person I know. My mommy is a reader. Sometimes I think that that's all she does everyday. But my dad is Kevin Jonas. Yes, the oldest Jonas Brother who recently got married. Don't even get me started about that.

Peter Chen:
Peter....is my asian mother.(: I have no idea how this came about but....he's my mother. and....I suppose that means I love him :D

Brianna Youngblood:
Mommyyy :D Brianna was the first one to call me her daughter at ASTI.
Mommy is the best, but I don't get to see her enough :(

Dads:
Kyle Salter:
He likes rainbows apparently.....He and Brianna are supposedly married. He is the only Caucasian in my family and he's special in every way :D

Leon Liang:
He's my asian father. He yells at me everyday and we poke fun at each other all the time xD He doesn't like to call me "daughter" simply because he thinks it sounds weird. So I'm his "son". -.-''

Tiffany Cao:
Tiffany is my other father. Tiffany and Peter became my parents at the same time and somehow, mixed up the titles. Tiffany is by far the best dad I have (sorry leon and kyle xD) she cooks for me and lets me steal all her rasberry tea :)

Siblings:
Sisters~~
Amber Chan:
She's the greatest and best sister in the freakin world (: Yes, I call her a chair and i blame this all on facebook asking me about what type of furniture she represents most :D Hehe. Now, before ASTI, we both went to Lincoln, but the most we said was "hi". Now, we go crazy and creepy on everyone :D Though we're obviously not twins (according to Annie), we're definatly sisters :PP


Karen Situ:
This girl is LOUD and I think that's the only reason why we're related xD We would always be yelling at each other across the classroom or across streets with everyone staring at us thinking "What the heck???

Brothers~~
Jay Pan:
Jay is the newest to the family and I adopted him one day after PE. He's super funny and really easy to talk to. I still have to find a way to make him do something crazy with me, but I'm working on it!

M.R :
I'm not exactly sure if he's my brother or not, but I'm sure Kyle wouldn't mind adopting him into the family :D
The only reason why he's under 'siblings' is because the day I was screaming at Jay to tell him he's my brother, MR thought I was talking to him. :] anywho, welcome to the family MR :D

Wify/ Husbands (:
Janice Truong:
She's my PE and mustache drawing buddy. We go hiking over the hill after PE everyday, so technically, she is obligated to be my wife. xD


Vanessa Berrios:
Vanessa and I have a weird relationship. She's scared of me, but she loves me. XD vice versa!
But she's still my wife because last year, in Higashi's class, we were making babies and she was my partner. We made a blond haired blue eyed baby named Nathan Justin. (yes. justin bieber becaue when i drew him, he looked exactly like Justin Bieber) We have a thing for lollipops and ring pops ;]

Saskia Sumida:
Saskia is my LOVE! We had PE together last year and our child is the biggest football in the PE cart. We go to Starbucks every week and just go crazy on the sugar :D

Children:
Camal Saleh:
LOL i recently adopted this one....everyone calls him their son, but he's MY son! He even calls me mom. xD
HI SONNN :D

BESTFRIENDS!
Jason Adiong:
heh....Jason's nickname from me is "friend". I literally tell him everything and even though now, I don't really talk to or see him now, he's still my best friend.


John Hamilton:
Last year, John proclaimed to me that he was my new bestfriend. He helps me through so much nowadays and I really do trust him :)

Marco Powell:
LOL Marco.....I sit next to him in anatomy and now were best friends :P
Simple as that. We argue on just about anything and yet, we're still friends...amazing.....
heh. Yes yes Marco. Of course you're my bestfriend :D....*ahem* I kinda lost that cheapo rubberband friendship bracelet you gave me :P I'll find it soon though...

vampires anyone?

Twilight and Vampire Diaries are just two of the many popular books and forms of exciting and suspensful enterntainment. Anyone can literally sit up in bed and read a book or they can microwave some popcorn, wrap a blanket around yourself and enjoy a long night of creepy "blood-suckers". Of course there are those who just don't like vampire books altogether thinking that things are corny. For those people, there are parodies of these absolutely dumb and boring creatures of the night. For example, the new movie, Vampire Suck.
Even for Twilight lovers like myself, Vampires Suck becomes a different type of entertainment to see the stupidity of the very thing us vampire-lovers obsess over. *sigh* the greatness of entertainment these days (:
So which would you like to watch or did you like watching? Twilight or Vampires Suck?

13. 'Just Kidding' and 'Ganging up' from The Odd Girl Out

         A time when i had been harassed by a larger group was two year. This made me feel demoted and my self-esteem went downhill. I had a lot of breakdowns and instead of having people to go to, I thought that there was no one there for me because I felt that everyone would judge me for what my actions are. I didn't have any confidence in myself at all. My options in this situation were to find someone I can trust or to build confidence in myself. I decided that it wasn't worth it to bring myself down simply because of the people who had ganged up on me. I can't deny that I have done this before myself, but now, I think twice before I would do this to someone. I think that people bully others either because at some point in their own lives, they feel like they were put down in some way, or that they simply want to make themselves feel better. 
         Most of the time, it is because a person doesn't have self-esteem themselves and feel threatened by those who they envy, so they take gang up on someone to make themselves feel better. I believe that everyone has a degree of insecurity, but everyone has their own ways of coping with it. Bullying is just the easist way to express their power over others.