SemesterFinal

The first question that I am going to choose is number 2.
2. Choose one of your posts. (Your favorite? Your least favorite? The one that surprises you the most when you reread it? Any one you want to pick.) Analyze it in detail, with quotes etc. And link to it, of course!

My favorite blog(s) of all time during this year was Fanime Part One and Fanime Part Two. These two blogs are in a pair of two. I really like these two blog posts because it shows what I enjoy most and these blog posts also help give others some advice. So it's fun and helpful. On the first blog, Fanime Part One, it gives the main information on Fanime, and how it works. Part One also includes some information on cosplay and four advices that continue onto the next part of Fanime. In the next part, Fanime Part Two, the advice was continued starting at five, and I think it ended on five. Fanime Part Two also includes my first day there which was after school on Friday. It showed my new experiences and how I met people from AHS that Ihave never seen before. Rereading this blog post brings back a lot of memories about my past and also what new things I missed from not going to this current years Fanime 2010. Sigh. But that's okay I still have a lot more years to go. I can't wait for next year we're going have a lot of fun! I like a lot others of my blogs but those two bring back a lot of memories for me. They mean a lot to me since I have really bad memory about my past.

7. What have you learned from your struggles with writer's block? Why do you tend to get stuck? How do you tend to get unstuck? Notice any patterns?

Writer's block is part of life, you get stuck... you get unstuck, then get stuck again. The struggles from writer's block can be crazy and horrible, but besides of sitting there and do nothing for the longest time, might as well work on something else. Go do your math homework or something. Or maybe write another story. But don't let the horror of writer's block stop you from enjoying writing. I tend to get stuck because you don't know exactly how you're going to write about it or you don't have anything else to talk about. For example, right now I'm writing this semester final and I'm getting writer's block by writing about writer's block. Patterns in writer's block is one you start you won't be finishing the same night as you start it. That is the only pattern that I have noticed during my writer's block.
An example of writer's block is the time when I took creative writing and we wrote every single day we were in class. Even though it was a class for writing and people who had great imagination, a lot of people in that class had a lot of problems for stories, poem, etc. But that class helps you improve in your English and also your writing skills. In the beginning I was always stuck until my teacher showed us a secret which was, work on something else while you're on writer's block. It really did work but it also helps with the procrastination. That strategy lasted me for the rest of the year, but after summer, everything went crashing down like crazy. Sigh. I miss that class. But I will never take another creative writing class, because it's just too much writing for me. Writer's block is not a fun thing to experience but it's part of life.

8: How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

I really like having a blog because I get to share my experiences and whatnot to people around the world, and they won't know who I am. I can show my feelings on the blog post and those people still won't know who I am. This blog keeps my image a secret and also my identity a secret. That is a good thing. The only people who knows who this blog post is from are my friends, the people I share it with, and my classmates who has Sutherland for English. Blogging changed my life dramatically, it helped me somewhat improve in writing, and also helped me be more social with people around me.
This blog has made me think differently about writing. Writing has changed me greatly and it also helped me understanding some people around me. For example, when I asked my friend Nathan Tieu to write about a friend and he chose me, I figured out that he didn't really know me except for a few concepts here are quotes from my blog and a few from his blog to me.

Nathan Tieu was born on January 9, 1994. His family consists of an older sister, an older brother, and, of course, his parents. Nathan HAD pets, but they only lasted for a couple of weeks. His pets were mostly goldfishes and miniature turtles. Nathan had three turtles but one passed away and the other two were saved by Petco. Tieu thinks that his older brother had a hamster, but unfortunately it ran away. Of all important diseases or illnesses, Nathan Tieu had never had the chicken pox. He's going to be in trouble when he gets it in the future.

And this is the basics that Nathan knows about me.

Well lets stop talking about how I met Annly, lets just talk all about her. So umm... well she likes anime A LOT and also badminton. She's a fierce competitor in badminton, so you better watch out, cause she will destroy you :D She love anime and Korean bands like the BigBang even making a blog about it(http://auncia94.blogspot.com/2009/11/bigbangparttwo.html). She likes to tell scary stories on her free time, mostly all gory and killing (cough cough). You can catch some of it on her blog which she put(hella long) and also gives you information about fanime which is pretty helpful.

I repeat just from these two blog posts I have learned a lot about my friend and they also learned about me.

Well this blogging strategy has been a really fun experience for all of us. Thank you Mr. Sutherland for introducing it to us students and giving us a chance to communicate to the world, sorta. And also the experience or chance to get messaged or commented back by an author. Even though I didn't get the chance, others have and a slight chance that my blog post would've been commented on. Oh well. Thanks again. And see you next year Sutherland! xD (If I get your class... and if I don't then I'll come visit if I get the chance.

MaximumRideMonthlyReview

Sigh. This is our last monthly review on our tenth grade year. So sad. To make this last monthly review special, I will put more personality into it or something else to make it special. I will try. As you can read from my blogger my regular literature circle letters introduced and guided you along some of the moments of this book. Now is the time for the final review for the last book.

5. Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?
To start this question off, I will introduce the author's background. According to Wikipedia, James Patterson retired his everyday job of advertising in 1996. He then devoted his time in writing novels and series like Maximum Ride and The Women's Murder Club. "He holds the New York Times bestsellers list record with 55 New York Times bestselling titles." was stated in Wikipedia's article. I will have to say that that is a good achievement in life. James Patterson is sixty-three old and yet he amazingly achieved that in a matter of time. "Alex Cross" is his main series, it was his most proud series and also his first. "Alex Cross" is known to be one of his greatest works on his writing year. I couldn't find anything about why he wrote this particular book, but I read about the movie in 2013 and why he would want it. "James Patterson has had an "online rally" which has led him to arrange to have a movie based on his best selling teen series; Maximum Ride. The movie will be based on the first three books, but it is unknown whether it will also be based on the recently published fourth installment and newly released fifth novel, MAX."

7. If you've read other books in this same genre, how does this one compare?
You could guess what book I'm going to compare it to, yes, you are correct it's none other than The Hunger Games and it's second book Catching Fire. Maximum Ride : The Angel Experiment is an exciting story about kids and teenagers on an adventure to save one of the youngest of them all. Maximum Ride is a thrilling, suspenseful fantasy book while The Hunger Games is a science fiction, thrilling, and suspenseful fiction book. As you can see, these two books are really similar but one is more of the fantasy side and the other you can relate to. In The Hunger Games, Katniss the main character doesn't have wings and is a full whole human. In Maximum Ride, Max is ninety-eight percent human and two percent bird. Katniss is more like us and we can compare our relationship with her, but with Max that's kind of hard to compare with. Both books are about survival of the fittest. The genre may be the same but the plots and characters are completely different.
But in my opinion, I enjoy The Hunger Games more. Yeah I enjoy fantasy and angels and vampires more but the entire story plot about survival amongst full humans in more interesting. I guess it does matter who the person is and what type of books they like to read. So to sum everything up. The Hunger Games Series < Maximum Ride : The Angel Experiment. But I shouldn't judge by reading Maximum Ride's first book, I should at least try the other books in the series before I make a judgment like that.

8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.
For this question I chose to write about Fang, one of the males in this book. Fang is fourteen years old in Maximum Ride : The Angel Experiment. He becomes older by one year in the next book, referring to Wikipedia. So he's six foot three. "He is 6' 3". He has olive skin, dark eyes and jet black hair that matches his jet black wings. His wing span is 14 feet across." Quote taken from Wikipedia. Describe by the book, Fang is the strongest member of the "flock" and he takes near fatal wounds from protecting his fellow members from danger. Some say that he has a small amount of Raven DNA in him, because of the black wings and also his size. Fang is a loner, in my opinion, he doesn't show his emotions and he is the quiet type, but one person can get through to him, Max. I wonder why. I wasn't suppose to spoil the entire series for myself but by reading Wikipedia's article about Fang, I spoiled the entire other books for myself. And now I'll spoil it for every else, this is a warning if you don't want a spoiler then keep scrolling until the end of this paragraph. Warning. Fang and Max get into many relationships with each other. And Angel proved their love and tastes to each other, and who couldn't trust Angel with her amazing reading minds power. Later on, Angel sees Fang future and she predicted his death, later on she was right Fang is the first "experiment" to die from the "flock." And here's a quote on what Fang enjoys and part of his personality "From School's Out Forever and so on, it is shown that Fang takes great pleasure in seeing Max getting jealous over him... Fang also gets easily jealous when seeing other guys hanging out with Max, shown in The Angel Experiment, School's Out Forever and Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel." Who would have known that quiet Fang was the jealous type?

Well that's the end of the third question, and also the end to our amazing journey of blog posting for book reviews. The final blog post I'll have to do for this class is the Final Post, which is also a Semester Final like the previous one a few months ago. Hope you enjoyed this book review.

MAXimumRideTheAngelExperimentLitCircleLetterPartThree

Okay so this is the final literature circle letter for my tenth grade year! xD Yay! After this one will be my final final blog post for assignments in Sutherland's class, which will be the monthly review. Well after this year, I might continue writing on this blog just for the hell of it, or forget about it completely. :] I'm pretty sure that I'll forget about it unless I have Sutherland next year for eleventh grade. Okay so here's the assignment.
So me and my group has finished reading the first book of the Maximum Ride series, I think everybody finished, and so far no one has posted their lit circle letter yet, so I'll be writing and quoting the last paragraph of the book!

The Voice came right back to me : Thats more than theree questions, Max. And sometimes whteher someone i syour friend or enemy is all in how you look at it. But if you must know, i consider myself your friend, a good friend who loves you very much. No one loves you more than I do, Maximum. Now listen. I ask the questions, not you. You're just here and the Voice actually chuckled, for the ride. For the incredible , indescribable Maximum Ride.

During this part of the book, there was a mysterious voice that came out of nowhere. But it helped Max to find the institution. Well do you think that voice is a friend or a foe or maybe some cyber net thing that is using Max to help it defeat some things? In my opinion, I think that voice is actually something that is using Max and the others to complete it's mission. Right now I wouldn't know what their motive is, but i think it's something bad, and we wouldn't know who... unless we read the next book in the series. Am I right? xD

Okay so this is the last book literature circle letter, I will type a little message. I don’t think I will be able to write another lit circle letter, so don’t be sad. I’m really sorry to those who have read this… yeah I don’t know who reads this… xD And hope you enjoyed my book reviews! Class of 2012! xD (Yes that was a really random and unnecessary line to say.) Oh yeah the picture above is the manga version of Fang, the second eldest in the book.

Deuces

Since Nathan Wong wanted to blog about deuces and this was our last blog post of the year, well that's what I heard so okays. Also if you noticed, we wrote about the same topic last week also. xD
There are two different kinds of deuces, Vietnamese version and Chinese version. There might be more but those are the two main versions. According to Wikipedia, the Vietnamese version has other names like Killer, Up the Hill, and Thirteen. I have heard of people who call it Thirteen or Deuces but never heard of someone calling it Killer or Up the Hill, but I can guess why they named the game those names. Killer because the two (deuces) can kill any card it wants and it's the main "boss" as for Up the Hill, it could have been named that for the rankings and level of each specific card. So in the Vietnamese version of deuces, the ranking from highest to lowest numbers or characters are 2 K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3. The shapes in order are heart ♥, diamonds ♦, clovers ♣, and then spades ♠ as the lowest valued card.
This game involves up to four people with each person holding thirteen cards, even if it’s three or two people there should be thirteen cards in their hand. As for people who just want to play for fun, they can have as many cards as they want but it must be equal among the players. Once a combination is played, the next player must beat it with a higher combination including ranks and levels. Different combinations are singles, pairs, triples, and a straight with at least three cards played and up to any level until the Aces. Other special combinations are chops which is a sequence of the same number consecutively, like 3 3 4 4 5 5, and it must be more than three pairs. Paired sequences can beat the “killer” or deuce in the game. This game also involves instant wins which are four deuces, six consecutive pairs, and three triples (which are rarer than six consecutive pairs).
In the beginning of the game, most people would make up their own rules and the others would have to agree with it. Most people use this game to gamble and others like people younger than the age of ten would just play for funs or pocket change. According to Wikipedia again, you can change or swap cards with another player, but it’s not really fun if you can switch cards. Without swapping cards, you can use your brain and knowledge to win with a horrible hand that didn’t require changing. And if you change cards, you would be giving other players the chance to win.
Wow, I never knew that Deuces would be so complicated and that the way we play was wrong based on Wikipedia’s version. Oh well, I guess you don’t have to play it right if you want to have fun. :]

RulesOfLove♥

In the 1800's, there was no such thing as a steady relationship. You could go out with anyone you wanted. Everybody showed their emotions and feelings without embarrassment. Now during this time of day, most people are shy and ask one male or female. And other people would cheat on one another and ask two or more people out. It just depends who it is, I guess. Love is a huge part of this world; it's one of those things that make this world go round.
Some rules for dating or love relationships between people:
1: Ask the person you really like, not just a crush but someone you would want to spend your entire life or at least love until you hate...
1A: Responding truthfully to the question someone asks you.
2: You shouldn't care about the other people's comments or opinion. Do what you want.
2A: If you’re happy, you real friends will be happy too. :]
3: When in a relationship, you have to sacrifice some things in order to keep your relationship steady.
4: But all relationships have a limit. Once that limit is reached, the relationship is over.
5: Age doesn’t matter, you just have to enjoy and love that person.
A good relationship depends on trust and faith with each other. And the people around you have to be happy no matter what, hating you just because of the person you’re dating are not a reason. Some relationships have limits and others don’t. Apparently I know or knew of a relationship with limits and sadly it reached the maximum level. The meter reached off limits that it exploded. And last but not least, age shouldn’t stop you from loving a special someone. It just means more to love, I guess. Love is everywhere no matter what the consequences are.

MAXimumRideTheAngelExperimentLitCircleLetterPartTwo

Hmm.. I have no idea how to start this lit circle letter, so I'll start it by talking about how I don't know how to and start from there. Okay, enough of the stalling and time for the actual lit circle letter. I have decided not to spoil what happened next so I shall skip to another part of the book!! Hahaha... sorry if you were expecting for a spoiler because you're too lazy to actually read the actual book!
For the first quote, I will use a quote of a question that came from the book and expand the answer.

School - What could be scarier than that?

Many students may know the reason. And the "flock" of 98% human and 2% bird will know also. After this section, they found out the horrors of school and what we suffer every weekday! Jk. But yes, school is that bad. I'm sorry if I'm using this lit circle letter to badmouth school. But this question did pop up in the book my group is currently reading.
Even though they're school is different and for them and only them, the experience may be completely different but it's still school. And school is really bad!

It was a mishmash of flashing images, drawings, maps, streams of code, silent film clips of people talking. It was exactly the stuff that had flooded my brain during my attack.

Flashback. During some serious fight, Max had a weird flash of images described in the quote above. And then later in the book, around the end of part two, someone showed him the images on his MAC. He literally flipped his MAC around to show her. And they were exactly the same. Hmm... another suspenseful moment for the characters. Will they be fine until I start reading part three? What will happen? How did the character find the images on his MAC? Some of us will never know and others will just pick this book up and read it. Chyeah! xD

Mahjong.

For this week's blog post, I will be writing about mahjong. Mahjong is a very famous game for four players that originated in China. Many people use this game as a form of gambling and others coughunderagedkidscough just play for fun and amusement. There's also a Korean varuation that allows for three players only. The Korean variation is just like Japan and Malaysia's. According to wikipedia, this game involves skill, strategy, and calculation and a degree of luck. But my own opinion, is that the game of mahjong requires every ounce of luck you have in you. If you don't have luck, don't play mahjong. But I guess you also need to think about each tile and try to ruin your opponent's plan or strategy.
To begin I will tell you about the basics of mahjong, there are exactly thirteen tiles in everybody's hand except for the first person who starts. The person who starts it off has to discard a tile and then the next person has to pick up a new tile and discard one and so on. This keeps going on until someone plays all pongs or kongs or straight and so on. Pong is three of a kind and kong is four of a kind. I'm still a beginner at this and still get confused but I'll get use to it.
Now time to tell you about the most recent game I had. It was on Sunday May 9th. It took place on Park Street in Alameda. We were just hanging around around and we all just ended up at Quickly's. The person who would usually carry a mini mahjong set was named Pat Pat Long or Hao Ming Long, everytime you see him he has a set on him. So Nathan Wong, Pat Pat, me, and some random asian guy grabbed a table and moved some chais and played mahjong.
I lost so many rounds and then suddenly I won a round and then another, two in a row! I'm so proud. Then during the last round, before I had to leave, I think Nathan Wong or Pat Pat won. I forgots.. hehehe. xP
Oh yeah, Nathan Wong's way to win is to keep most of the dragons to himself. In mahjong there are white dragons (the tile with the blue border), green dragon (green tile), and the red dragon (the tile with 5 red strokes). The first time that his plan became effective was when two other people waited for the a green dragon tile, and he had one or something. But I shouldn't be complaining or anything since he helped me win with that one tile, he helped me stall the other players until I got the tile I needed to win. Hehehe. He helped me without knowing xD. When he reads this post, he will know. (Some information in this blog post may be false because of my horrible memory but it's okay, I guess.
Oh yeah and we're going to play again tomorrow which is Wednesday May 12, 2010. xD Yay.

MAXimumRideTheAngelExperimentLitCircleLetterPartOne

Wow, that was a long title for a blog post about a book. And one question, do you know why I capitalized the first three letters in the title of the book, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment? It was because the main character or the narrator is Max. Get it? Maximum... Max. I'll assume that you got it, so moving on. Max is ninety-eight percent human and two percent bird, but has a complete set of angel (bird) wings, which I don't get. It's only two percent and it's a whole set... weird. Okay so since Mr. Sutherland assigned a requirement for this specific lit circle letter, I shall follow it and get full credits! :D So here is the quotes.

I pressed my lips together. I was doing the best I could. "Maybe not," I admitted. "We'll never know. Jeb's dead. Now everyone get your gear together." (35)

When I read this I thought hmm... Max is the type of person who seems like a leader and the most responsible one. The one who keeps everybody's promises and helps them through the hard times. Max is one amazing and tough chick. You wouldn't want to mess with her no matter what happens. Hmm... this book might get exciting as Max gains more confidence and awareness. New challenges will head towards her. Physically and mentally, I'm sure of it.

"Okay, okay," the Gasman said suddenly. "I have an idea. It's risky, and Max will kill is when she finds out." Iggy raised his head,. "Sounds like my kind of idea." (122)

I chose this last quote because it was the last quote from part one of the book. And also it seemed so interesting that I wanted to add it in. I mean like I want to know what's the idea. It's risky and yet they still want to do it even though they know that they are in danger if they decide and fail at this plan. Don't you want to know what will happen next? I will tell you that next time unless I decide not to spoil it for you readers who haven't read it yet. xD

ShortStories

So I've been having hard times thinking of a new blog topic... so I decided to look through my documents on my computer. And see if there were anything interesting to talk about and guess what. I found this really really short story that I wrote last year. It's not as great as the Crimson Fighter and that one other horror story, The Melody, but it's still a story that I personally liked. So here it goes. Oh wait before I show you the one I wrote, here's one of my friends really really short story. It's appropriately named Requested.

I looked at the blank piece of paper in my hand and the pen in the other. I had forgotten about this day, what was it called? Ah, yes, request day. I sighed with a yawn after, looking outside with a gleam in my eye. I temporarily ignored the piece of paper in front of me.
The sky always blue was empty; it was saved for a few clouds lazily drifting through. The sun was shining brightly along following it by ninety-degrees Fahrenheit. I didn’t care much. It was nice in here, and it had air conditioning.
A soft gust of wind breezed by, delivering a flowery aroma surrounding me. I grinned just a bit. This was most peaceful; I wouldn’t leave this for the world, this place with such a magnificent view.
However, my eyes were caught by the forgotten slip of paper, slightly crumpled in my hands. I grinned once more, and began to write. When I finished, I placed the slip of paper into a black box located near the door. Not noticing the black ink contrasted with the room. I gave a sigh and leaned back, with the wall supporting my back as I took in the view once again.
This year’s request:
Please give me a window.

I love that one because it was short but simple and explained a lot. Okay so here's mine. It's titled, Pleasure to Life.

Driving along a crooked cliff, two people drunk drive. Wait, hold on, let's start at the beginning. Rewind.
There were two guys, both with relationship problems, had met each other in the most upsetting place. The bathroom. One guy, Dave, had just randomly started talking to himself about his problems. Ben entered the bathroom, and answered Dave's questions to himself. Ben knew how Dave felt, so they told each other their stories. It took a while, but the thing was that they stayed in the bathroom talking to each other. They never thought of talking over a cup of coffee or getting some food, instead they just stood there.
When they finished, the next they knew, they were headed for the nearby bar. They drank all night long, not knowing what would happen if they drunk drive. Dave and Ben were drunk enough to know that they had two cars, they only took Dave's, the worst driver between the two. They headed towards the highway, not knowing where it will lead, Instead, of going to he nearest town, it lead to a cliff instead.
This is exactly where we started off from! Well let's just continue.
So they were drunk driving near a crooked cliff, the road was narrow. Dave fell asleep while driving, they were both about to see their lives flash before their drunken lives. The car did one mistake and turned. Beep, Beep! Dave's head pressed the horn to the car. The whole car flew off the cliff with both Dave and Ben still in it. Crash!
Neither Dave or Ben's bodies were found, no one knew where the car landed. It just disappeared out of nowhere.

Such a nice memory to remember... xD

CatchingFireMonthlyReview

Okay so it's that time of month again, yes, it's time for the monthly review. Last month was The Hunger Games and this month is the second book to the trilogy, Catching Fire. A brief summary before I start answering questions. In this new attention grabbing story, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Katniss has to face new twists and turns. This story includes psychology, romance, action, and new plots into the story of The Hunger Games/ Catching Fire and later on Mocking Jay. Everything is just jumping at her, literally. More love problems along with survival and also new deaths amongst the players and tributes. By the way, I can't wait for the next and final book, it should be out around August or during Summer. Hmm.. I promise that if i read the next book then I'll review it on here just for whoever reads these reviews and find this book interesting. I'll be sure to remember that, i think. Okay so time for the answering of the questions set by Mr. Sutherland.

5. Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?
Suzanne Collins isn't just an author but also an American cartoon writer. She was a part of nickelodeon, little bear (a child's show), and Oswald (a cartoon about an octopus). And she was also the head writer for the Scholastic Entertainment's Clifford's Puppy Days (omg I use to love that show... until I grew up). So the main reason that got her to write the first book, The Hunger Games, was because she was inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. I have no idea how they inspired her but mehh she got inspired by them. Oh and also her father's career in the air force allowed her to better understand poverty, starvation, and the effects of war. Her father's career helps me understand more on how she got to the whole idea of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I wonder how she got the idea to turn all that into a book, wait not even a book more like a trilogy. Oh yeah the Mocking Jay is planned/ scheduled to come out on August 24,2010. Suzanne Collins was one great writer.
Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)? The answer is yes, because as I stated above, her father was a part of the air force so it allowed her to understand those things I listed above. And she must have been fascinated by Greek mythology because of the Theseus and the Minotaur. This doesn't have to do with anything that reflected her true life, but it is a part of her future. Lions Gate Entertainment has rights to distribute a film adaption to the entire world. Nina Jacobson of Color Force Production Company will be producing it. And Suzanne Collins will be adapting the novel for film herself.

6. If you've read other books by this same author, how does this one compare? (This doesn't necessarily mean you need to decide which one is better than the other, although you can.)
I have read two of her books, as you know, I read the other book by her last month. Same news all over again. The book that I read is none other than guess... like really, you should get this in like a millisecond, The Hunger Games (I mean like do I have to repeat it again?). There's more plot to Catching Fire, and more destruction in this second book. Even though there is a side note, I will pick which ever one I liked best. I pick both. Because they are both good in different ways. The Hunger Games introduced the action and began to build up the tension of the main/ whole story. Catching Fire kept the fire going with the action and new plots, and more twists and turns. So my final decision is... both. xD I wonder what the Mocking Jay will be like, if most of the main actions are already out... I wonder if she's out of ideas. Does she get writer's block like us regular writers? Oh wait, I'm getting off track, okay time to go back.

8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.
This time I will write about the antagonist... in other words Nancy Quach's/Tieu's favorite character in the entire book, Peeta! And Nancy if you are reading this I did not pick Peeta because of a certain reason, but because he dies in this book sorta (whoops a mini spoiler, actually that was a major spoiler) Warning! If you're planning on reading the book please forget what i just said about Peeta, thank you for your cooperation.
Okay so Peeta, just like in the first book, does really stupid things and is also still in deep love with Katniss. Throughout the entire first two books, Peeta has pretty much stayed the same. He hasn't changed physically nor mentally. While Katniss changed in many ways, Peeta stayed useless. I know this is mean but he is really useless but his heart and love stays strong for Katniss. Peeta will do anything for Katniss even though he can't do much. Katniss on the other hand wants to protect Peeta through the entire game.

This is just an extra little conclusion I wanted to include to this monthly review, I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend this book after people read the first book. Or it wouldn't make sense. Oh and just an ending spoiler for some readers who are lazy to read the actual book. Warning! (Oh hey look it's that warning sign again.) District twelve is wiped out. Wiped out as in no longer a part of history!!! Well that's the end of my monthly review for the book Catching Fire. Thank you for reading this review and good day to you all! ^^

CatchingFireLitCircleLetterThree

Okay so this is the final book section review for this book until the monthly review, so in this review I will type about the final end because I didn't read what my partners wrote so I have no idea on what they talked about. Okay so starting from a random chapter near the end, Katniss is worried about Prim and screams out her name a couple of times. She then hears a soft tone above her, in the trees, she thought that the gamemakers had Prim in the trees but when she clearly heard it. It wasn't Prim at all it was just a jabberjay. A jabberjay is just like a parrot, it mocks or repeats what it hears. According to Katniss, she never seen one nor heard one before and she thought that jabberjays no longer existed in the world of the hunger games. Katniss examines the jabberjay and how the mockingjay was made from mating. The mockingjay is a fused version of the jabberjay along with the mockingbird. Katniss just couldn't stand it and hit it in the throat with an arrow. She removed the arrow and threw the horrid thing into the forest because it was so horrid that she didn't even have an appetite for it. Okay that's enough of the mockingjay, jabberjays, and mockingbird talk, now it's time for the most powerful line in the entire book.
"...Don't," I whispered. But Gale is not one to keep secrets from me. "Katniss, there is no District Twelve." When I read this last and final line, i thought to myself, wait did they eliminate district twelve the home district of Katniss and Peeta? Just to make things more interesting did have to kill off the districts one by one. From that point of the ending of the book, I thought was the district crazy or was it just me? I mean like why would they put people in danger just for entertainment. Have they tried to play the games themselves before picking random people from random districts to participate in this horrible game? I bet not.

KungFuHipHop

For this week I shall do a movie review for a Chinese Movie besides of a Japanese one. To begin, the title is Kung Fu Hip Hop. The movie was released in 2008 with English subs to help translate the mandarin and Cantonese languages of this film. This film combines the ancient style kung fu with the modernized style of dancing, hip hop and disco dancing. This is a heart warming tale about two men who are bravely pursuing their dreams of becoming to Ultimate Dance King. And along with becoming the ultimate dance king, they are trying to capture the attention of the beautiful deejay. The two men who are pursuing their dreams in this movie is Jordan Chan and Nam Hyun Joon. And the beautiful deejay is Fan Bing Bing.
Jordan Chan played as a mechanic who begins to dance when he feels the rhythm of the music, in other words, he's a natural born dancer. One day he was selling items outside of the club that Hyun Joon and Fan Bing Bing were working at, and when he heard the music he began to dance really well. The security guards saw him dancing from a camera and said that he was really good and by mistake the screen in the club was switched to Jordan dancing. After many unfortunate events, Fan Bing Bing meets the mysterious man who dancing outside of the club. And later she helps Jordan to win a special dancing tournament/competition.
Nam Hyun Joon finds out that she helped them get into the finals, so he becomes jealous and asks her to stop helping him, but she doesn't stop because she began to have feelings for Jordan. So they practice and practice. Oh! Nam Hyun Joon is in a separate group from Jordan's. In the finals, Hyun Joon and Jordan are competing against each other. The ones giving the score are the audiences, they vote by how many fans cheer them on. When everybody finished dancing, Nam Hyun Joon's team won, but they won by playing dirty or his manager played dirty. His manager bribed the audience to vote for Hyun Joon's team. When he found out about this, he got extremely mad and gave up the main prize and asked for a redo or final final match. And from here on, I won't tell you what happens unless you read next week's blog post. In the next blog post, I will tell you the ending and also write about the actual actors and actresses.

Hmm... actually you know what since I need about 79 more words to this blog post. I shall talk about my day. I woke up, got ready for school and headed to school. Then at lunch after the unity week assembly, I went home to get my badminton stuff and headed towards school. Then after school, I changed my clothes and went to practice. We sprinted then worked on footwork, my legs gave in on the second round of footwork. But I took a deep breath and over came it. Oh yeah before we did footwork, we all did 100 sit ups and 50 push ups. Maybe that was why my legs gave in on the second footwork activity. After all the "warm ups", the captain taught me and three other girls on clearing while the others played games with each other. After the preparation to that, we worked on Clear, Drop, Drop, Clear. If we did one mistake, we would be punished. It was horrible. So after practice, I was dead tired but had to walk home, I'm lucky I live near the school. So when I got home, I ate, and showered. And here I am typing up this blog post before it's due at 11:59:59 PM. xD

CatchingFirePartOneAndTwo

Since Alameda's spring break was included to our reading assignment and Mr. Sutherland didn't assign homework except for finishing part one and two (which I already read before it was assigned!), so that was an easy assignment. So in this literature circle letter, I have to combine part one and two together in one blog post. Two parts, one blog post. Okay so on with the actual assignment.
We last left off when Katniss and Peeta won their first Hunger Games. Yay! Not. Because it's not over that fast. In this book, Catching Fire, Katniss and Peeta re-enter the games as returning players or the tributes and they run across another problem. It's not a life or death problem but more of a love problem. Peeta already thinks that Katniss's love for him is fake and part of a show. But will Peeta notice that the one Katniss loves is none other than Gale, her childhood friend. In short, Gale loves Katniss, Katniss loves Gale, and Peeta is madly in love with Katniss. And the key strategy for winning the games is Katniss and Peeta's "romance". Well for Peeta, it wasn't a strategy. Gale must have felt really heartbroken watching Katniss and Peeta lovey-dovey in the games. And for the Victory Tour stage, they'll have to become lovers once again. I wonder what Gale felt when he found out Katniss and Peeta had to be lovers again. And it was a death match again. Hmm... the one you love having a fake "romance" with a boy from your district and the girl you love might die in a game. I wonder what he felt (Sarcasm).
Later on Katniss meets two older women of the age of thirty five or so. They were wearing peacemaker outfits/ uniforms. Katniss examined the girl's face, and asked who they were. Her name was Twill and the other was Bonnie. Apparently they recognize her from the games and knew who she was. They escaped district eight to go to district thirteen. But district thirteen was blown to smithereens!! The wanted to flee from district eight because of an uprising that happened there. Bonnie had an injured leg during the time Katniss met them. Katniss later gave them food, because Katniss is nice like that. And they were out of food at the time.
The mockingjay is once again brought up into the story. Is the mockingjay some mystical birdor just an ordinary bird? It is on the cover of every book! I think that the mockingjay is the main point of the trilogy. Because well the mockingjay might help save someone from a horrible death, or it has some mystical power. Everytime Katniss enters the game she wears her one mockingjay pin as a memory of the people back home. I wonder how they'll add the mockingjay pin and the theme into the next book, when they keep eliminating districts!! (Whoops, that was a spoiler for the ending!! xPP)
Here are some questions for my fellow readers:
1) What does the mockingjay resemble in this story?
2) Everybody, why do you think they eliminated that district in the end?
3) Uhh... I can't think of anymore questions for this part!

Goals

In this week's blog post, I shall answer Mr. Sutherland's, my English teacher for my sophomore year, question. His question is "What are my current goals as a writer?" That is a very simple question to answer in about 300 words but since he extended the requirement now it's 500, so it won't be as simple as I thought. To start this off, I will remind you readers about my writing goals from the other quarters. That quarter or two quarters ago, I wrote that I wanted to write about... I'll just rephrase it "In my last statement of purpose, I included that i would write about my vacation during summer, badminton, and anime. So far i have completed part of my goal from the old statement." The goal is still the same, I guess, I need to write about my vacation a summer ago. I wonder if I can skip this goal, or never reach it. Right now, I'm thinking of not blogging about my vacation, because it might end up like Nathan Wong's vacation blog with fifteen (15) different parts and each about one of his days there. Here's Part One: http://wongyingjie.blogspot.com/2009/09/hongkong-part-1.html And here's Part Fifteen: http://wongyingjie.blogspot.com/2010/02/hong-kong-part-15.html. It'll be too late to start my vacation blog anyways, so if I'm lucky enough and get Sutherland for my Junior year, then I promise that I'll type/ blog about my adventures across the sea. Okay? Pinky swear. (Cough, if I remember about this promise and pinky swear and even this blog.)
To start with my official new goals that I will be typing about is to finish the Second Book of The Hunger Games. And type the Lit Letters for three parts and also the monthly review. For my regular blog posts, I might end up typing about new anime that are coming up and also new mangas. And in two months from now when I finish my Art 2 mural project, I'll tell you about my experience and also the progress of the painting. Even though I started by painting and getting the boundaries of the painting, the real challenge hasn't started yet. Which I'm worrying about because I have never painted anything like this before. I mean it's an animal and it's on the wall. This is a first for me. Oh well, can't wait to see what it comes out to be.
If I run out of topics to write about after these new goals are complete then I'll ask my colleages on what to write about or think of a random topic to write about like how I've been doing for the past three quarters of my time in this English class.
Hmm... I still need about fifty words after that paragraph, so I'll talk about how I want to improve on my writing skills. I think my writing skills has gotten really sloppy lately, because of my procrastination problem. In my opinion, my writing skills from last year was way better than this year because of the writing class I took, Creative Writing. I should get back to writing normally and skillfully like before, but I still have many things to improve on. I will not be satisfied with my writing until it improves alot! xD

TheHungerGamesMonthlyReview

The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, is the first book in its trilogy. This book is thrilling, adventure, blood and gore, romance, physical, survival, and also about psychology. The story starts in a town North of America in Panem. Panem is divided into 13 different districts. And each year each district randomly picks two people in the age range of 12 to 18, one boy and one girl, to represent them in a yearly game, The Hunger Games. The winner of the game is someone who can live at ease without worries of the future, but they'll have a horrible past. The main character is Katniss Everdeen, or some people know her as Catnip. Katniss is a 16-year-old girl who lives with her mother and younger sister, Prim (who was chosen for the games, but Katniss eventually volunteered and saves Prim from entering the games.) Katniss and her family lives in district 12, which used to be Appalachia, is a poor mining community called the Seam. Katniss provides food for her family by hunting in a forbidden area with her friend, Gale, an 18-year-old boy who also lives in the Seam, and with whom she has a small crush on. Along with Katniss, who volunteered for the games, a 16-year old boy (same age as Katniss), Peeta was chosen. This may be a spoiler for the romance part of the story but, as time passed Katniss grows fond of Peeta, and later discovers that Peeta has had a crush on her for some time. This leaves Katniss with a horrible dilemma because she also has feelings for her friend, Gale. So a love- triangle is created. Okay so now is the time to answer some questions.

Number one: What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
The author's, Suzanne Collins', purpose is to teach young readers about hardships in life, and if not for technology, we would have a hard time living and surviving this so called messed up world. Throughout the whole story, Suzanne kept throwing hardships towards Katniss, to prove that the unexpected can come flying towards you without you knowing yourself. I can tell by reading the point, Suzanne clearly states the main purpose throughout the entire first book. There were surprises here and there, we couldn't predict what would happen next. It was amazing. The purpose of the book was clearly stated like what I said before, and it was greatly achieved. The author has amazing effects and description to scare young readers to depend on family and friends and also not to overuse technology. I'm not really sure what the author's real purpose was, but I think this was what she wanted to state. Or I think it was. Throughout the entire story, Suzanne stayed on the same topic of stay positive and it will reward you in a grateful way, which can be anything, death, the right to stay alive, another harsh life ahead. Anything can be thrown at you. Just stay positive and do what you should do in the future. This first book of the trilogy taught me many lessons and I hope that I would remember all of it.

Number four: How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?
I would describe the author's style of writing as something that's extremely detailed and also something that can blend psychology and romance together. My opinion of the style is that I enjoy this type of style because it shows great detail and also helps me have an imagery of the days and things that happen. It helps me have an image of all the blood and gore, and also the sweet moments of the love triangle between the love birds, Katniss and Peeta along with Gale. Different styles of writing help different people in both reading (understanding) and also imagery. Different people requires different styles of writing. Most people enjoy imagery but others just want to read it and understand. This book, The Hunger Games, helps with both because this style of writing is very brilliant, in my own opinions.

Number eight: Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.
For this question, I pick Katniss Everdeen, because she's the main character and also she's really interesting to write/type about. To start off, Katniss Everdeen is six-teen years old, older than me by a year, and her sister was picked for the Hunger Games. But she volunteered last minute to replace her sister, Prim, and entered that game. There she met many different people from different districts and it also includes Peeta who lives in her district. So Katniss entered the game, and did what ever was necessary to survival in this entertaining game for sponsors. The whole point of the game is to kill off everyone besides of you and also survive with sponsorships from people watching your fight. In this game, Katniss developes a new feeling towards a special someone during the games. But that's another story for another day. So Katniss got many sponsors from the romance that's building up as you keep reading the first book. And so her sponsors pitched in to buy her a little ten ounce or so of medical ointment for wounds, bee stings, and any other form of wound and hurt. That magical medical ointment was very expensive but very useful when it came to survival. Okay so later on, Katniss used the ointment and also her friend, Rue, used some medical leaves nearby to patch up her wounds from bee stings. And survived for that chapter of the book. Later Katniss finds a special someone and heals him. That's as far as I can spoil it? My opinion of Katniss is someone who cares a lot about friends even if they do end up hurting them or back stab them. Katniss is just too heartwarming and kind.

That's the end of my monthly review.

TheHungerGamesPartThree

Yes, I finally finished The Hunger Games a few days ago, I think. Long story short, the third part of the book is mainly about the end of the game and also the relationship between Katniss and Peeta, on and off screen. Since Nathan Wong's blog lit circle letter 3 explained the main point of the ending, romance. And I haven't read Nancy's or other Nathan's and I'm pretty sure Andrew is still working on it, I have no idea on what they're writting/ have written. So I'll just pick something else to talk about, maybe about the last moments of this game.
Katniss only had one arrow left, the one that killed Cato. Cato is the person from District One, i think, and Cato also stabbed Peeta on the leg. (Peeta depends on Katniss for survival during the hardest times of their challenge.) So Peeta unzipped his jacket, freeing Katniss, and she grabs her last arrow with her frozen fingers and grips it. She stares into the dim light, and figures out where her prey was from the sounds from his mouth. "Pity, not vengeance, sends my arrow flying into his skull." Best line ever. The cannon then fires in answer to Peeta's question on whether or not Katniss hit Cato or not. Both Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games. And if you read Nathan Wong's lit circle letter then you would know that Peeta got a robotic leg after the games. And if you haven't yet then, Peeta does get a robtotic leg.
Question time!
1: Do you think Peeta should have died near the end, leaving Katniss the only winner?
2: Did you think Cato was a strong opponent towards Katniss?
3: What really happened near the conclusion of the games?

The End.

FamousYoutubers

In this blog post, I'll be talking/typing about regular people, like you and me, who became famous over viewers on Youtube. In the following list are the people who became famous over Youtube; thewinekone (Tony), michellephan (Michelle Phan), stillnotdavid (David), nigahiga (Ryan and Sean), kevjumba (Kevin), bubzbeauty (no idea what her real name is, nickname: Bubz), lunazian (Huu "who"), shimmycocopuffsss (Danial Shim), and WongFuProductions (Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang). In the next paragraph, I will briefly introduce them.
TheWineKone, to start things off, is someone who films comedies and somewhat parodies. Here's one of his videos titled "Super Tonio Bros. Fail 4." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4neg4a1Zso
MichellePhan is a makeup guru, also a makeup artist, and she also films makeup tutorials. She's also a huge fan of Final Fantasy!!! Michelle is being recognized by Lancome, Vogue, and she also does the makeup for some celebrities. Final Fantasy/ 1040 Movie Update http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7htH1SdYygE
StillNotDavid is someone who sings, has a sense of humor, and also someone who can give you facts about anything related to guys. Girls are like Pokemon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym2gvH6Hrsg
NigaHiga is a comedy duo who also does parodies about official movies. They also acted in their own movie, appropriately named "Ryan and Sean's Not So Excellent Adventure." This is their trailer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh0bkX_3oUA And I can't stop laughing at this additional video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weIbm3m-Xbo
KevJumba is another comedian who likes to dance and make hand motions. He has a great relationship with his father, who is also very funny. I Love My Dad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayo7JQ_3B18
BubzBeauty is another makeup guru who also has a sense of humor. Her comedy channel is Bubbiosity. She also has a clothing line, her official website is http://bubzbeauty.com/. Epic Asian Drama Parody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM6f7FyAHtc
Lunazian is a singer on Youtube. He's Vietnamese but can sing/speak in French and English. Huu - L'envie et le dédain (Tété cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d_D-cBrswk
Shimmycocopuffsss is someone who's also a comedian. He has a really interesting personality. 100000 subscribers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdJ6VIvLeCQ
WongFuProductions is about three guys who films about every event that happens. Brushing Teeth with Jack?!? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvVecB3vwxM

And that's it for Famous Youtubers!!! xD

TheHungerGamesPart2

In the second part of the book, this is what happened. Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen has a pretty unique relationship with each other. When you think of The Hunger Games, you think of survival and lots of blood and guts, but in this part of the book, more romance will be encountered. (This book contains every genre I like, romance, violence, but not comedy, sadly.) The farther we get into this book, the more action-y it gets and new surprises are revealed. You can't predict what will happen next in this book, it's just impossible.
So in this episode, more people are found dead. Peeta joins the Careers. Careers tributes are overly vicious, arrogant, better fed, but only because they're the Capitol's lapdogs. And Katniss barely sleeps to stay alive with every other person who survived. In this episode, Katniss finds a way to get sponsors to make surviving easier. (Later on, Katniss finds out how much sponsors could help her.) Spoiler!!! Some sponsors bought her some ointment or medicine to heal her bruises and attacks.
The games haven't officially started, all that chaos was just a warm up. I will never last in a game like that, unless it's virtual and doesn't risk your life. I wonder if the viewers know it's real people, or it's all scripted? I mean like, the gamemakers can set up any kind of surprise for the victims and the viewers would think it's funny or entertaining.
I'm pretty sure my reading partners will add more of the summary in their review letters, so I'll stop here and ask questions to my partners.
1: Do you think the people who are "betting" on the winner, knows if its scripted or not?
2: Did you enjoy this second part as much as me?
3: What did you think about Rue?
4: What will happen to Peeta and Katniss?
5: Are there anymore surprises in the book?
(I'm asking these kinds of questions because I know that 3 members out of 5 is done with the book. Cough. You know who you are.)

Art

For this week's blog post, I'm going to write about something different from my regular blog posts. Besides of writing about anime or manga, I'll be writing about art; the classes that are available at AHS, and if I'm not lazy then classes at CSU East Bay, and also Alameda College.
So far, I have taken Art and I'm currently in Art2 (with a bunch of juniors and seniors) at AHS. If I'm not lazy, I'll ask my sister about the art classes at CSU East bay and also if she has any new techniques she could teach you and me. and also if I ask my sister, I'll also ask my brother about his classes at Alameda College, since he's currently taking two Art classes there and also an Art History class. If I do ask them, I'll post them up in next week's blog post, maybe, maybe not. Lol. Okay, so to start this off Alameda High School Art.
Alameda High School's art classes aren't that bad considering the low economy and lack of supplies for schools. Well actually Art one with ___*bleep*___ (not mentioning the name for safe purposes, Lol.) wasn't that good of a teacher. In Art 1, I didn't learn anything new; instead we were on our own on creating "masterpieces." Art two, the class I’m currently taking right now is way different. Here are three reasons why. Reason one: The teacher actually helps us individually. Reason Two: There is way more supplies to use (more variety.) Reason three: We can be creative in our own way and still get graded on that. Reason Four: Us students can choose some of our projects for an actual grade. (Whoops I gave an extra reason! Oh well.) The supplies that we are allowed to use without a teacher’s permission are watercolors and brushes, graphite pencils, ebony pencils, prismacolor color pencils, tempura paints, shading pencils, and special art paper. The special art paper may not sound important, but each kind helps with a specific kind of art form. Example: Watercolor paper helps enhance the watercolor paints, I think. The "hard" paper is for pencils only because of the quality of it. The regular paper is for rough drafts, so you can mess up as much as you want. End of examples. Lol. These special papers (except regular paper) is very expensive, so don't mess up on you’re final draft.
The project I'm currently working on right now is a watercolor painting of a rose. I just started last week, so it'll be a while before I complete it.
Note: Since I need a picture for this blog post, I'll upload the acrylic painting I painted at home, during my free-time.
Warning: It may be really bad! >_<
I guess I'll continue with the rest next week, maybe, maybe not! :P
Oh yeah, hahahaha at my horrible camera/photo taking skills!!!

TheHungerGamesReviewOne

In order to make this book review an actual book review, I will first introduce the book. Since it is the first book review of this new book.
The Hunger Games was written by Suzanne Collins, a New york Times Bestselling Author.
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keep st he districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual huger games, a fight to death on live TV. Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards in as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before- and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
Okay so here are some of my annotations for the first part of the book, and also included is my favorite parts of the first part.
Annotations: Page 5, paragraph 2. This part in the" beginning, gave me a few chills and also told me a little about the story I was going to read. I mean like really, "...the flesh eaters...venomous snakes, rabid animals, and no real paths to follow..."
On page 7, lines 1-3. I laughed at this part when I read it. Someone would actually believe that the other person's name was Catnip! LOL.
Page 22, starting from line 4 to the rest of the page. I couldn't believe out of all those people Prim got picked to be that representative. And also, I didn't really expect Katniss to volunteer to take her place and enter the "death" games.
Page 45, quote "A fox-faced girl with sleek red hair from District 5." I can't really imagine that. Could someone help me find a picture of this or some other method to help me imagine/picture this? She might not be a part of this story nor the main character but I'm still curious on what/how she looks like.
Well there's a few annotations that I wanted to share to my fellow classmates and also group mates.
Even though I thought this part was messed up (where Katniss volunteered to the "death" games) that was also one of my favorite parts in the first part.
First book review complete!

BadmintonGirl

For this week's blog post, I shall write/type about Badminton Girl. This is not an anime, but a manga. Don't be surprised because of my previous blog posts about anime and not manga. This will be my first manga blog post. Okay to start, I will introduce this manga.
Asahi, the main character, is a 7th grade student who is very bad at sports. She joined the volleyball club when she first entered junior high school, knowingly only to quit it one month later because she couldn't keep up with practice. Feeling discouraged from all kinds of sports, Asahi was indecisive when her friend asked her to play a double badminton match to substitute for a member who couldn't play that day. Surprisingly, Asahi found out that she has talent for badminton. Since this manga isn't that well known yet, I have no idea who the person who wrote it or illustrated is. Well it does say on the cover page, I apparently can't read or understand Japanese that well, so I can't translate for you.
I really enjoy this manga because it reminds me of me. I see my own reflection in this manga. A girl who's really bad at all sports, but ends up trying badminton, enjoying it, and also dedicated to it no matter what the obstacles are. She wasn't good at first, like me, but the results are a person who wants to improve and one day become a professional in the Olympics. Okay maybe that's not her dream but it is mine. XD Okay so back to the compare and contrast, the effects of hard and difficult training leads to a brilliant creation.
I first discovered this manga from a friend who saw me in the manga. So I thought "sure why not, not try it." But even if I did reject the recommendation, i would end up finding it and reading it.
From this manga, I learned that no matter how hard your opponent is, you shouldn't give up and run away like a scared cat. But to stand up and try your best no matter what, even if you do lose, keep going until the very end of the game or match. A challenge leads to one's new found skill or improvement. That's what I believe. Competition is important to me because I am a really competitive person. If I win something, I would be proud of myself, and not give pity the opponents. And if I lost, then I would keep training until that day when I get to play him/her again. And to prove my competitive-ness, I will now quote something one my fellow classmate said (this is the first part of a paragraph) "Well lets stop talking about how I met Annly, lets just talk all about her. So umm... well she likes anime A LOT and also badminton. She's a fierce competitor in badminton, so you better watch out, cause she will destroy you :D,” and the rest in here -----> http://ninjanathant.blogspot.com/2009/12/n-n-l-y-d-o-u-n-g.html

That's all folks... for now! XD Hehehe.

BakaToTestToShokanju

Since my English teacher increased the minimum of words in my blogs, I've decided to write about another new anime appropriately named Baka to Test to Shōkanjū. I couldn't use the accents in the title because blogger wouldn't let me, so that's the real title, pronunciation and everything.
Okay let's start with the title and explaining it. First of all it's called Baka to Test to Shōkanjū, as you have read up there. In Japanese it's written like this バカとテストと召喚獣. If you directly translate that it means "Idiots, Tests, and Summoned Beasts." This anime is based off of a manga written by Kenji Inoue and illustrations by Yui Haga. Three years after the manga was created, the anime was made. On January 7, 2010, this anime shown it's first episode.
The main character of this anime is Akihisa Yoshii, who is also known as the idiot or "Baka." Akihisa attends Fumizuki Academy, where students are divided into different classrooms depending on their rank and also test scores. (But most schools in Asia base students off tests and how smart they are. Oh and also some schools based off looks.)
Let's begin with Class A, if you're placed in this class, you'll be living in the life of luxury in school. Class A has the students ranked on the top of the list. Their classroom is filled with the most prestigious items such as air conditioners, for the hot summer days, fancy seats for comfortable learning, huge spaces for organized students, and so on. If I was in Class A, I would love going to school.
This school may seem like an average school in Asia, but you are wrong. This academy has something special to it, and that is, where all students manage to call forth Summoned Being or in other words, "Shōkanjū." The strength and power of your summoned beings are based off of the summoner's level. Class A would have the powerful beings, while Class F has the weak and puny beings.
Okay so back to the plot. Unfortunately on the day of the placement test, Mizuki Himeji suffered from a fever (and in Japan, if you miss the first test, there's a lower chance that you won't be able to take another test until next year). Because of that fever, Mizuki was unable to complete her test, and ended up failing it and placed into the rat hole of Class F. Some of the students in Class F are Akihisa Yoshii (baka), Mizuki Himeji (also known as the second-ranked student), Yūji Sakamoto (the class representative), Kinoshita Hideyoshi (a bishōnen, or a beautiful boy), Tsuchiya Kouta (a pervert), and Shimada Minami (a tomboy and Akihisa's "claimed" worst enemy).
Currently, this anime has been pretty interesting and a new plot in Romance Comedy and Fantasy category. I will not spoil this anime for you, so if you’re interested in it, watch it yourself!! xP Enjoy this brilliant anime. End. LOL.

HumanNature

To start this off, I'll introduce genocide. What is genocide? The term genocide was created by a Polish-Jewish legal scholar named Raphael Lemkin in 1944. The Latin word for gen or gentis means birth, race, stock, species, and kind. As stated from Wikipedia, "Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Individuals only, not states, can be charged for genocide according to the UN Genocide Convention." But the real definition of genocide depends among the scholars. But the real definition is stated by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It states genocide as "any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, such as: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." What IS the real genocide?

The following information was taken from http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item
/20080805_rwanda_says_france_participated_in_genocide/.
After two years of investigating, a Rwandan commission has accused France of partaking in genocide. He assumed this because France was training Hutu militias and providing support to the Hutu government. That Rwandan commission also said that French forced murdered and raped Tutsis and Hutus. That French government has consistently denied involvement in the genocide, in which 800,000 people were killed. So do you think that Rwandan commissioner was telling the truth or just making up lies?

Why do people partake in genocide? Well first of all, who partakes in genocide? It began with a simple boycott of Jewish shops and ended in the gas chambers at Auschwitz as Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers ATTEMPTED to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe. Adolf Hitler killed members of a group, caused many serious bodily or mental harm to members of a group, deliberately inflicted damaged to others, imposed measures intended to prevent births within the group, and forcibly transferred children from one group to another group. If you don't call that partaking in genocide, I don't know what is then. In Rwanda in the year 1994, Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia who apparently used clubs and machetes, with as many as 10,000 killed each day!
Now why did/do people partake in genocide? Well the main reason is because of racial features and also religion. When people heard of this genocide, they began to question their own religion and faith. They began to question themselves because fear is growing inside of them. Anything can develop from fear; doubts, decisions, and even their own future.

What does the commonality of genocide lead you to believe about humanity? Genocide is among us, we just haven’t noticed it in the future day, because there are less now. And yes, I just said that there was less. Genocide is still happening in this modern day. From my research it shows that genocide first showed signs during the beginning of the 1900’s, around 1914 and 1918. And the most recent in the genocide report is in the late 1900’s, approximately 1990 and 1995. The research that I found might not be entirely true, since humanity now a days lie. So even though my research says that it probably ended, but humanity is never completely sure. We shouldn’t leave our guards down; we have to stay aware of all actions from all around the world. Genocide’s definition is – a horrible way to kill someone.

LunarNewYear

10 Most Ask Questions About Lunar New Year

What ethnicity celebrate Lunar New Year? Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean (there's also Korean New Year), Taiwanese...etc.

When is Lunar New Year? The first full moon of the year. It could be any date from the mid of January to mid February.

Why do married adults hand out red envelope with money to kids? For good luck and blessing them for a better future.

Why it is required to shower, clean the house and throw away all trash on the day before Lunar New Year? To wash away all bad luck, clean away all bad luck, and throw away all bad luck. In more simpler words, get rid of the bad luck.

Why there's no cleaning and throwing anything away on the 1st day of Lunar New Year? To keep all good luck in the house.

Why do people work ship, wear red, and post red paper with good wording? To chase away bad luck.

Why people purchase flowers for Lunar New Year? For good luck and prosperity. (Plum blossom, lucky bamboo...etc.)

What are some good Lunar New Year phrases? xīn nián kuài lè which means "Happy New Year(新年快樂), gōng xǐ fā cái meaning "Congratulations and be prosperous" (恭喜發財).

What year is this Lunar New Year? This Lunar Year is Tiger year. Rawr.

Why are dragon dances performed? The dances are used for chasing away bad luck and bringing in bless.

Hmm... since I need a three hundred word blog post and I don't have anything else to say, I'll just continue to talk nonsense. Blah blah. Hmm... what else should I say?

Happy Lunar New Year Everybody!!! Hope everyone has a great year with good health and good luck. And also my sister's wish for the year is to grow two inches and gain ten pounds. LOL.
恭喜發財!

StreetFairs

On Saturday, February 06th, there was a street fest in San Francisco Chinatown. My sister, her boyfriend, and I thought that when we got there we would just visit a friend who was volunteering at a flower booth and walk around. The friend was named Rithy. Since he didn't eat anything, we went to get him some food. But we didn't think that business would be so busy that he couldn't eat it at all. So from fast thinking, my sister jumped into the scene and volunteered to take his spot until he was finished when eating. But my sister had so much fun that she didn't want to leave, so we stayed there till the booth closed which was at about 6 pm. She got comfortable after a couple hours and used the microphone to attract customers. She said "Kim Lan $10", "Lucky Bamboo $9", "Cherry Blossom $8", but there was no Cherry Blossom, it was Plum Flower. Lol. Then she started saying, "buy some flowers for your girlfriend, your wife, your friends, the person you love, the person who love you", "make your dream girl your wife". Rithy saw some girls taking pictures of the flowers and say "buy the flowers, it'll last longer than a picture". And when I felt bored, I would join my sister and help out. I helped with the wrapping and selling. It was our first time going to the SweetHeart in SF and unlike the one in Oakland, they sold crepes. We had lots of fun. At the end of the day, the owners gave us some flowers for helping out.
On Sunday, February 07th, we went to a street fest in Oakland Chinatown. It wasn't as big as the one in SF, but it was nice and interesting. We also saw a simple, yet cool illusion trick. My sister saw one of her people and spent a few minute talking to her. I had lots of fun over the weekend.
And that was the end to my amazing wonderful weekend.

BadmintonTournament

On January 30th and the 31st, there was a badminton tournament for high schoolers at GGBC (Golden Gate Badminton Club). The main point of the tournament was to earn sponsorship from GGBC to whoever plays in the tournament. It was pretty interesting since it was my very first tournament since I started playing and also my first mixed doubles match with a new face to badminton. The only time that my partner played badminton was during first semester of PE (physical education). It was a new experience for both of us.
On Saturday the 30th, the events were Women's Doubles and Men's Doubles. I didn't enter this portion of the tournament because I couldn't find a female partner. And so I joined the Sunday event for mixed doubles. My friend's from both Alameda High and Encinal joined the first events. I couldn't go to cheer them on because number one I was lazy and number two I was somewhat sick again. Even though my friend's from Alameda High didn't win anything, my friend's from Encinal won second place in Men's doubles. I congratulated my friend's from Encinal and said "Good Luck next time" to my friend's in Alameda High.
On Sunday the 31th, it was my turn to compete. When I got there, my friend's were already warming up, but since it was the morning I was lazy and didn't join them. At 9:30 AM, the official tournament for second events started. I was in the first portion with my partner. It started out well, until our opponents started aiming at my partner, and since he was a beginner he couldn't help but miss most of the shots. I didn't blame him since it was his first competition and I only joined for the sponsorship. Even though we lost many rounds and won one, we both had fun and continued to carry out a smile throughout the entire competition.
I plan on joining and entering many tournaments in the future. I wonder how much I can improve until the next tournament I'm planning on entering. Hmm?

Random

For this week's blog, I will write/type about... actually I don't know what to write/type about because number one I don't feel so well and number two nothing comes to mind. I guess I'll start with the two main reasons.

During the weekend, I felt really bad in the stomach and started getting headaches. On Saturday night, I only got three hours of sleep. Since it started Saturday night, I thought that I would be able to go to school on Monday. But I thought wrong. My stomach ache and headaches were still there. It was not your every average day random pain that you got from eating the wrong food, instead it was worse. So on Monday morning, my mom tapped gently on my shoulder and asked. "How do you feel?" All I responded was "Ugh" and rolled over. I guess she took it as "I'm not feeling so good, can I stay home today?" And left me alone until eleven AM. At eleven, she then disturbed my sleep just to tell me, "Wake up, you should eat something." Even though I was awake, I still laid in bed. I did not want to move an inch. I guess "it" made me weaker than usual. So I just stayed in bed for another ten minutes or so, and finally got out of bed. For the rest of the day, I did things slowly and gently. I was so weak that I could barely walk down the stairs, but I made it.

This morning my body was weak but I somehow had something encouraging me to get better and continue my normal life. And that's why I'm at school typing this blog up during my English class lab time.

For reason two, having nothing that comes to mind is pretty common among the writer's in my class. They call it writer's block but I call it writer's block. LOL. I don't have anything that I want to write about. Nothing is popping into my head. I guess I'll have to think more next week. I'm too tired to think right now.

Final!!

Finals for my other classes are basically tests or in art, a mural. But for my English class, I have to type and post my final onto my blog. This final is sort of like a review for my blog status. The idea of posting our final onto our blogs is pretty unique if you think about it. So to start this final off, I'll answer the first question that I have chosen from the list.

The first question is how do the things you read influence what you write about or how you write it? This question is really simple to answer. When you read something that interests you, you'll continue to think about it. For example, if you watch or read about vampires, you'll start to fantasize about them or continue you're interest in it by writing about it. For the second part of the question, your writing style can change by reading or looking at a different type, because when you're reading or creating action, your brain is currently learning. And if you aren't learning from your actions then you shouldn't be in school. Okay, that last line was a bad one, I should be encouraging people to go to school more often. So, if it's possible ignore that last line, thank you. Learning is a part of life, so you can't stop learning from your mistakes and actions. A few examples of learning from your actions are, if you want to learn a new move in a sport. Let's use badminton for example, right now I'm coaching one of my friends, and I tell them to use the same technique at least ten times to get use to it and also improve and learn from it. And guess what, it worked, she's so used to it that when she's practicing, she'll use that move without knowing it and its one hundred percent professional looking. There are two solutions, which she learned it from doing it so many times, or she just got lucky. But I'm pretty sure that her mind was learning. Another example is when I was a kid in elementary, we had to learn vocabulary. So the teacher assigns us homework where we had to write the same word about ten times. The day that it was due, we had a mini spelling contest. Guess what happen, it worked, the students who did the homework got all the words right.

The next question is how do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing? I like having a blog; it shows my personality and my "creativity." Also with Google Analytics, I have a new goal. I shouldn't really say my new goal on my final but oh well; my new goal with my blog is to TAKE OVER THE WORLD! Lol, it’s not what you think, but taking over the world as in trying to get as many people around the world to read my blog. Right now I already have Sweden, Turkey, Indonesia, Thailand, North America, Canada, Chile, Jamaica, and Germany. Now all I need is to "take over" most of Asia and South America, until I'm completely satisfied.
Blogging has changed the way I write by improving a lot, but then by writing a lot, there's a chance that I'll forget all I've learned and remember a worse way of writing. Oh yeah, to add on I'm one step closer to WORLD DOMINATION!! Just kidding. I just got one more place to add to the list above. I shall add Hong Kong. Yes, another place in Asia!!! I repeat one step closer. Ha ha ha. Writing doesn't really change the way I think, because I choose what I want to write about and it doesn't really change.
So, I need about seventy more words and I have two decisions, to talk about my nonsense or continue on about the blog, I choose the blog. I would recommend my blog to whoever loves stories or anime in general. And I would recommend people into making a blog, if they want to express what they're thinking or something that they want to point out.

The last question I would like to use is where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write? For the first part of this question, my response is I get my ideas from reading other peoples pieces. My ideas come from peers, and if my peers and I run out of ideas, I'll start to write about the people around me like an autobiography. Here is the beginning to the blog about Nathan Tieu, "I've decided to not spoil 11Eyes: Tsumi to Batsu to Aganai no Shojo and let you watch it yourself, if you're interested in it. So to make up for that, I'll be writing about Nathan Tieu today." And here's the link to it http://auncia94.blogspot.com/2009/12/nathantieu_08.html. Ideas aren't always there for you or any blog you type about, so you must think about it and ask others for some. That's what your peers are for. xD Hmm... Inspiration... also comes from your peers? Well during some times, inspiration comes from the items you're reading or recently seen. Your writing is affected by your surroundings or environment. A few examples of the surroundings for inspirations are when writing poems such as a haikus. You would normally find ideas around you, because it’s the fastest and easiest way to create one. To prove this right I shall create one right now. "Finals are coming. I am sitting here writing. I hope this ends well." And there you have it, the idea of finals come from this English final in front of me, in other words my surroundings. Another example of this is if you're watching a movie and at the same time you're writing a story, you'll begin to type of that very same subject because it'll be hard to think of another subject while staring at one on your television. This example was proven by me.

And that's the end of this English final!