Jean's Blog

What is poverty?

2009-06-15T09:16:00.001-07:00

We all know that there are poor people in every country, and the poor all have a same situation, which is poverty? What is poverty? We know it is the situation that poor people have, but what exactly is poverty? Some say poverty is the state of having a little or no money. Other say poverty is the state of being extremely poor. Personally, I think poverty is a situation that some has, and it's a situation when they don't have ability find job, or doesn't have the opportunity to find the job. I think poverty is not just being poor, is not like they want to be poor. I think it sounds really bad if you say someone is poor. They might just not have the opportunity to have a job. It's also possible that the country might be over populated, so there are not enough job opportunities for them. Some of the places are living in poverty, like India, Philippine, Africa...etc. Some of them live in poverty, because the country is over populated or something. Some of the people never get education, so they weren't able to read, write, or even write their own names.

I don't want to say I feel sorry for them, but when I see videos of people finding food from trashcans or people living in such small house with only a little bit of money to survive. I have a bunch of questions that I want to ask whenever I see those videos. Why are there poor people? Don't the government want to change this, or at least help them? Some of the poor people can ask for help from friends or family, but what happens if they don't have any friends or family members? I want to help them, but sometimes I don't know how to do it. I think sitting down and feeling bad for those people is not the right thing to do, because we should change it, and if you have the ability, then help them.

Morrie's Aphorism #5

2009-05-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

"Be hopeful but not foolishly hopeful"

We see all those movies about people chasing dreams because they are hopeful. When we watch those movies, we feel like hoping about something might really work. I always thought those people who hope about things a lot gets what they want. They believe that someday someone can help them to get the things they want, some believe in god, some believe in miracles. I respect and also believe in them sometimes, but this aphorism is really true. We shouldn't just hope for it, or hope that someday someone will help us. Hoping is important, but sometimes we got to work hard by ourself.

Hoping it's just like thinking positively, you hope or wish for something. Sometimes, I feel like I am foolishly hoping for something or something to happen. At the time, I think hoping is the best thing I can do, but afterwards I realize that hoping it's not enough, because you might just be foolishly hoping, just like I what I feel sometimes. So, it's really important to be hopeful, but not foolishly hopeful.

How do electrolytes work in our body?

2009-05-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

Electrolyte is a substance with free ions that's electrically charged, and conducts electricity. Electrolyte is a medical or scientific term for salt, and specifically ions. Electrolytes can appear in liquid, gel, or paste form. Electrolyte mean that the ion is electrically charged and it moves to a cathode, or anode. Ions that move to cathode are positively charged. Ions that move to the anode are negatively charged.

Athletes know that their body loses salt through sweating, and they know that it's really important to replace it, that's why they drink sports drink during exercising and after exercising to prevent muscle cramps. Humans like us also really need different kinds of salt. We need salt for our body to stay healthy. If we don't provide salt for our body when we really need it, then salt imbalance will occur, and might cause heart and nervous system problems. The foods and liquids we eat and drink contain mineral salts, when they dissolve then they turn into electrolyte in liquid form. They can appear as blood, urine...etc. The major electrolytes in our body are sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, phosphate, and sulfate. They are important to help our muscle to function properly. Because the electrolytes are electrically charged, so they it sends signals from our brain to our muscle. As I mentioned, some people drink sports drink to prevent from cramps, because sports drink contains salt.

Electrolytes not just does that, electrolytes also keep fluid levels normal in different body compartments. The levels of electrolytes are controlled by the movement of electrolytes into or out of the different compartments. Our kidney is an organ in our body which filters(or we can say "clean") electrolytes from the blood to keep the level in blood constant and balance.

Our body work in a way that keeps water and electrolyte levels just balance. If our sodium level gets too low, then our kidney will produce more urine(which is pee), which lowers the amount of water in the blood. But if your sodium level gets high, the we will feel thirsty, then we will drink a lot. Sometimes too much salt in our body is not so good, but we still need enough of salt in our body.

What is lightning? Why does wearing rubber shoes help you during a storm?

2009-05-19T15:42:00.001-07:00

Most times during the storms, the lightning or thunder strikes. It looks like a sudden light that only shines for one second or less. What is lightning exactly? Lightning is a bright flash of electricity that's produced by thunderstorm. Lightning is a static discharge of electricity, which means that the particles(mostly electrons) leave the object and transfer to another object or other places. Sometimes when you touch a doorknob and, and then you get a shock. That kind of things is a smaller kind of lightning. What a real lightning is really powerful and harmful, it kills and injures people. The amount of the electric potential is measure in volts. Lightning has electric potential of millions of volts, which will release large amounts of energy in different kind of forms, light, heat, and sound. During a thunderstorm, water droplets, ice, and air move inside the storm cloud. Negative charges build up, often at the bottom of the cloud. Positive charges often build up at the top. The negative charge at the bottom of the cloud may induce a positive charge on the ground. The large charge difference causes a rapid electric discharge which is lightning. Different parts of clouds have different charges. In fact, most lightning happens within and between clouds.

Lightning usually strikes the highest point in a charged area because it provides the shortest path for the charges to reach the ground. But during a thunderstorm, lightning can strike the ground unexpectedly. The rainwater on the ground conducts electricity. Walking on the street with rainwater on the ground, we don't want the electricity to conduct on our body, we can die easily because it is really powerful. Wearing rubber shoes can protect and help you in the storms. Rubber is a insulator, it doesn't let charges pass through easily, and sometimes it stops electricity conduct. If we wear a metal shoes, then we can get conduct by the electricity of lightning. It's safer to wear rubber shoes than to wear metal shoes, we can walk on streets happily with our rubber shoes during storms.

Morrie's Aphorism #4

2009-05-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

"When you are utterly frustrated or angry, express these feelings. You don't have to be nice all the time--just most of the time."

When I was young, I get really frustrated or angry easily. I think it's because I wasn't mature enough yet. I am not saying that I don't get angry or frustrated now, it's just that I kind of control my emotions better now. I have some friends, and they are normally nice. But when they really got something going on, or maybe something really bug them, then they just go really really mad. When they go really frustrated, it really shocks me, and it might just be awkward, because they don't normally get angry, and suddenly "boom!", they just get really angry. Normally we think that nice people are not scary when they go mad, but I think they can be pretty mad too.

This aphorism is not telling people to get angry all the time, it telling that being nice is a basic thing, but when you are really mad, then just express your feelings out. Being nice is important, but you have to let your voice to be heard, don't let people fool you just because you're nice. Some people just like to pick on you or maybe don't respect you just because you are nice. Nice people can be nice, but they also have feelings, so respect everyone even if they are nice.

Morrie's Aphorism #3

2009-05-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

"Don't assume that it's too late to be involved in something."

This aphorism is basically talking about we should never give up on something, and it's never too late to do something. Don't let time or things stop you from chasing your dream or what you want to do. Morrie wrote a lot of aphorisms, and this is kind of one of my favorite. Morrie knew he's going to die soon. He's on his death bed, he started to realize things, that's why he has so many aphorisms about life and death. This aphorism shows how Morrie tell himself and others to treasure time and never give up. It's never too late, so don't give up.

I think the aphorism is really true, because we should never give up on something just because you think it's too late. When you really want to chase your dream, then no matter what, you should have the faith and spirit to not give up and chase your own dream. I think we shouldn't let things or time to limit how we want to chase our dreams. Never give up is what I see in this aphorism.

Morrie's Aphorism #2

2009-05-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

"Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others."
This aphorism is showing and telling us that we should forgive ourselves, and also forgive others, or at least learn to or try to. Sometimes we always feel like that it's easy to forgive others and hard to forgive yourself. For few people it is that way, but mostly people forgive themselves easily, so they didn't even notice that they forgive themselves. And when someone is trying to forgive others, it's really hard. There's few reasons for it, because you might not trust others, or maybe they did something that's really mean, then you might not forgive them.

In Buddhism, they normally tell people to forgive others more than forgiving yourself. They think forgiving others is a right thing, and if your heart is nice, kind, and calm, then you will forgive others more.

I think sometimes I can forgive others when they did something bad to me, but not that harsh or not that bad. If someone really did something really really mean or bad to me, I might just forget about them and never forgive them. I don't know, sometimes you can't know whether you should forgive them or not. It's a hard decision to make. The aphorism of Morrie's is really true and meaningful, it's also useful.

What would a day in your life be like without electricity?

2009-05-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

Electricity is like the top 1 or 2 things that we need in daily life. We need electricity for light, television, computer...etc. If I have no electricity at all for one day, I think I won't have a good mood that day. No electricity means no computer, no television, no computer, and no to almost everything. Computer is the main thing most people need everyday. Light is also important, without lights, it will be dangerous at night, and we will have to light candles at night. It might be fine during the winter, but it will be real hot when it happens during summer. I won't be able to do my homework, or chat online with my friends without electricity. We can't use cellphone to communicate, I can't really do stuff.

The good thing without electricity is that I get to go out more, and walk more. Instead of sitting in front of the computer all day, I can go out and walk. I can realize more things without electricity sometimes. Having no electricity for one day is also a great way to safe the Earth. Without electricity, people can actually meet each other and talk instead of using computer or cellphone to communicate.

Without electricity can be good, but I think if I don't have electricity for a long time, it might be tough. Almost everything needs electricity to work, so it's really hard to live without electricity. Or, maybe human can get use to it someday, we never know.

Morrie's Aphorism #1

2009-05-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

"Get as much help as you can when you need it." is one of Morrie's aphorism. Aphorism is short saying that has general truth. We always think that an aphorisms are hard to understand, or maybe it's always written in a deep way. But most of Morrie's aphorisms are pretty easy to understand. There might be a lot of meanings in it, but when you look at it the first time, you can quite get what it means. Like this one, get as much help as you can when you need it, we might think to ourself, and think "of course!". But this aphorism is pretty true, you should get as much as you can when you need it. I felt confuse about this aphorism, because sometimes people say that always getting help from people is irresponsible. But getting help when you need is definitely important.

You can get help from friends, peers, family, and other people. Getting help when you need is really important, and sometimes people help, sometimes not, but it's important to ask for help. Helping other people is also another thing that's related to this aphorism, I think.

I think this aphorism is great even though it's written in a kind of simple form, but it definitely has a lot of meanings in it.

The moral of The Pearl

2009-04-27T20:40:00.001-07:00

The pearl is a book written by John Steinbeck. I thought it was a pretty interesting book. The pearl is a parable, which is a short story that involves moral in it. Before we read it, we sort of talk about it. People were guessing that the story is about greed. There were always been a lot of questions in my mind. Do people like you because of who you are or because of what you have? Do people become sort of greedy and blind when you got something special and good? I guess there are no right or wrong answers, but I always have some kind of answers in my mind.

The pearl is a book about a poor family, and the main character was Kino. Kino found a big pearl in the sea, and he was really excited about it, because he could sell the pearl and have enough money for his son to get education and for the whole family to live. The pearl seemed like a really lucky and good thing that happened to Kino and his family, but it actually brought something else to them. People started treating them in a different way, and their old normal life was just gone. The pearl sort of represents evilness, because it made Kino made bad decisions. He decided to go to the city and sell the pearl, because he wants more money. People sneak into their hut to try to steal the pearl, so Kino killed the trackers. The pearl made him more greedy, and evil.

He decided to go to the city, because he thinks he can sell a better price at the city. He brought his family with him. He thought that would brought them a better life, but it actually made their life more dangerous. More trackers follow them everywhere. They had to hide in caves, so no one sees them and kill them.

The pearl made him become blind, because he starts making bad decisions. The one character in the book that has the most good attitude and mind is Juanna, which is Kino’s wife. She was trying throw the pearl away, because she knew that the pearl is evil.

The moral for me is that when you get something good or special, then your life can totally change. The best thing is to give it away, maybe throw it away, or maybe other type of ways of getting rid of evilness or greediness. It depends on what you got. But definitely open your eyes, don’t be like Kino, remember to listen to suggestions from people that you can trust on. Don’t be greedy.

Earth Day Blog

2009-04-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

Awesomeness, it's Earth day the day before yesterday, which is April 22. Earth day was early celebrated in US, but now we have almost every country to celebrate this day. Earth day is a day to show the appreciation and awareness for the Earth's environment. Basically, we try to do things we can do to save energy and to improve the Earth's environment. Saving energy can be seen everyday, but it's more obvious at that day. Some schools, companies, and shops do activities or things that saves energy. For example, closing lights in the morning, since it is bright enough. And, for some companies, they turn off the air conditioning for the whole building, which will save a lot of energy.

I remembered, when I was in local school, at earth day, we always turn off light in the morning, and try not to use the projector and the computer that much. We sweat a lot, because we tried not to turn on the fan or air conditioner. We sometimes have events on the Earth day, like making poster saying things that relates to the theme of Earth day.

I bet we can all think of things that we can do on Earth day, and also every single day in life. We can watch less television. We can turn off the AC,. and don't use elevator that much if you can walk properly. Turn off lights is a really common one, and so as going on to public transportations like bus, trains...etc. I thought using less hairspray would be a good thing too, because I think hairspray can cause a great air pollution too.

I just want to say, protect the Earth as best as you can, and go green if you are not, and stay green if you are. Yay~! :D

Susan Boyle is appearing on youtube, news...etc!!!!

2009-04-19T04:17:00.001-07:00

She had appeared in TV show, youtube, news...etc. Susan Boyle had been watched by more than 20.2 million people on youtube. She is in international news, I even saw her in Taiwan's news channel. Miss Susan Boyel, she is on an age of 47, which has an outfit that's not really fashionable, but she definitely have a great voice. Her voice is beautiful, and she audition for Britain's Got Talent, which surprised all the judges and audience. I watched the video of her audition on youtube, not to mention again, she have more than 20.2 million viewers on youtube!!! First when she got on stage, and she introduced herself, everyone was laughing, but they don't know what she had inside of her. When she sing, everyone was cheering and standing up clapping, even two of the judges did. No one was laughing after she sang, and one of the judge said that her voice was stunning. I thought so too. Now she's like a famous super star in her village. I saw her in today's morning news of the Taiwan news channel. I also saw her in CNN, she even had an interview with them, I think. To be honest, I think her voice is beautiful and clean.

Earthquakes hit eastern Afghanistan

2009-04-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 17, two earthquake hit the eastern part of Afghanistan. The two earthquakes collapsed hundreds or more houses and killed dozens of people. Which I think it's really terrible, earthquake it's a scary thing, and especially having two happening near the same place or we can say the same country. That's even more scary, it's a double scary thing. There was a person, Gul Mohammad, which live in Mir Gadkhel village. Gul Mohammad said that three of his/her family members were killed and some were injured. On April 18, there was a huge clear-up. There were at least 21 people killed, and four villages suffered in serious damage. Most of them are homeless, because the village was damaged really bad. U.S. government are sending food, and supplies to the people in Afghanistan, and trying to do the best as they can to find the dead bodies of the families that lost their family members.

More Allergies on the kids!!!

2009-04-15T07:09:00.000-07:00

In UK, there are more kids getting allergies, and the bad thing is people are suffering from it. Most of the children have allergies from eczema to asthma. I have friends and family members who has allergies, but luckily they didn't suffer for that. But I saw a lot of news talking about the population of people having allergies, and mostly are kids. Allergies are not from others, it's from your parents, or one of them. Some people get it, but some people don't, it's hard to say. If you are afraid or worry that you have allergies, the experts and doctors recommend you to do a allergy test, so you can control it better if you have it.

Big Wheel Race

2009-04-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

On April 15 at San Francisco, everyone was completely "down hill". People in San Francisco, California were gather together for the Big Wheel Race, which people has to provide their own transportation, like bike...etc, and they race around a circle for maybe times. Everybody crowded in race to watch the competitors. As the people barrel down the street on a tiny bike, and the cool thing is some people even ride it backwards. Every adults rode on tiny bikes, or small transportation that has wheels on it. Another awesome thing is some people wore funny costumes or just costumes to the race, some looked hilarious. Some people fell off, and got injured, but I bet that was a blast. I would like to try it, but I definitely don't want to get injured or hurt. Yay! Big Wheel Race!!

The Pearl Blog #1

2009-04-14T20:01:00.000-07:00

1) How would you change if you had a lot of money? Would your personality be different?
I think if I have a lot of money or I am really rich, I think it depends, because people around you can affect you a lot. Either your family, friends, and other people. They sometimes influence you by acting in some kind of way, sometimes are bad influences. I think my personality will be kind of different if I have a lot of money, but if people around me influence me to be a nicer or better person, then I might be a better person if I'm rich. I am not saying that rich people are mean, I am just saying that people around you can really affect you very much.

2) Would you ever take a risk to reach a goal?
I think I will, because if this is really a goal or dream that I am eager to reach, then I think will do it. But sometimes I will consider about the consequences, only sometimes. I always have a goal in my mind, but sometimes I think goals can limit things, so I try not to let goals limit other kind of things. Risks sometimes can be harmful, or maybe there will be bad consequences. But I think reaching the goal in your mind is very important.

3) Would you ever hurt member of your family just so you could be accepted by friends?
I guess I will say no, but by saying no, my mind is saying maybe. I think sometimes when someone hurt another person, they don't really know if it's really bad or maybe it's just there sudden meanness. Friendship can be important, but your family members are people who really cares about you, at least most of them. You can trust them, but sometimes family members are complicated. Some people might think that their friends will think their parents are embarrassing or something, and they hurt them, but it's really bad.I just felt confused sometimes, because I don't know what is the most important. But I guess they are both important, so don't hurt either of them because of something or because of one's sudden meanness.

Blood Red Horse- Chapter 11

2009-03-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

Christianity is basically a religion or belief that the English and British worship and believed in. Christianity is a big religion, but violence and crusades usually happened when Christianity and another religion doesn't agree with something. If other religion's people didn't agree with what the Christianity people say, then they will decide to kill them. Just like in the book, King Richard, the leader of Christians, was having agreement with Saladin, which is the leader of Saracens. But Saldin doesn't want to pay the money, so the Cristian knights and soldiers decided to kill the hostages/captives. I think the Christian people made a bad decision, they shouldn't just killed captives and hostages, they are innocent. It is very cruel, and they think they are fighting for the god, so they will go to heaven. But this kind of terrible thing that they did, I think the god saw it, and the god might not let them go to heaven. I think Jerusalem should belong to the Saracens, because the Saracens own them at the beginning, or maybe Jerusalem should be independent, since violence and negotiation are not working. Just saying, doesn't mean I really mean that way. Hosanna is a very smart warhorse, he knows whether the decision that William made was right or wrong, and whether is good or bad. At first I thought William and Gavin were the main character, but now I change it to Hosanna.

Lifeguard dog dodges beach ban

2009-03-31T07:50:00.000-07:00

Dogs are usually banned in the beach of Cornish, so a lifeguard dog was banned. But hundreds of people wrote a petition to get the dog back. This lifeguard dog is called Bilbo. Before Bilbo got banned, Bilbo always sit around his owner's beach and buggy during patrols. If Bilbo wasn't stated as a official lifeguard dog, whenever they spotted Bilbo, his owner will have to fine £75. To be a lifeguard dog, the dog has to pass special fitness and swimming tests. I think it is really cool that Cornish beach can have lifeguard dog, even though sometimes it is dangerous, and some people might be afraid of the dogs, but I still think it's fun to have dogs on beaches.

Candy Company living a sweet life in a seriously bad economy

2009-03-31T06:42:00.000-07:00

In these harsh days, bad economy got people fired, money-less, and unhappy. But there are some companies living in sweet life. Candy shops make people feel comfortable. CNN reporter interviewed a woman that was shopping in the candy shop, and she said that she felt warm and cozy in candy shops, and she felt candies are comforting. Candy shop is a place that makes people feel happy and relax. The three outstanding chocolate, which are Hershey's, Nestle, and Cadbury. Candies like gummy bears, good and plenty, and sweetish fish. All the candies are additive, so a lot of people are so eager to eat those. And there are always products like T-shirts saying things like, "I love candy" or like "STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS". All these things attracts people to buy candies.

QUICK COOL NEWS...
It was in the CNN student news, but I also saw it on TV at home in Taiwan channel, which is really cool. It was about two anchors being serious and calm when they are talking about news, but when the advertisement time comes, they can play around and be funny. There's a part of it in the CNN student news, you guys should look it up. It is really cool.

A River Runs Through It Movie Reflection

2009-03-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

1) The last sentence of the novel, the author says"I am haunted by waters" What do you think he means by this quote?
I think what he meant was that he often go to rivers to fish, started when he was really young to an very old age. But when he said that he was haunted by waters, I think it means that the river is a place full of memories of everyone, Paul, his father, and also his friends.

2) Of the characters found in the book/movie, which character do you like most? Why? Which character do you like the least? Why?
I like Norman, although he is not a risk taker, but he is a stable man, he is a professor, he knows how to fish, and he has a complete family. Although his brother died. But I bet he is always in Norman's memory.
The character I like the least is Neal, because he is selfish, and self centered. All he can think of is himself, if he was my brother, I will try to help him and encourage him not to do that and try to change himself. Because I don't like selfish people, or people that can't care or think of others.

3) What do you think is the major life's lesson we can take from this novel?
In this novel, I think the major life's lesson was that precious every moment that you have with anyone, and try to respect and accept everyone you met, no matter how they look and their behavior. Because everyone is important and they are people that's really nice to you. Precious every moment with anyone, because they might just leave you and you can never see them again.

Taiwan is filled with China tourism now

2009-03-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

It started last week, there are many tourism groups from China traveling in Taiwan these few weeks. The airport is filled with China people, and it's so busy that the airport said that they are going to arrange more planes for people to travel, so there won't be too many people squeezing in the airport at the same time. China people travel to Taiwan for holidays, and they buy stuff from different places, which is important. Because many shops had been complaining about how they can't sell their stuff out. But now it's a chance to make our economics better. Many China tourisms said that they really liked the local foods here, it's really tasty, which I agree. And they definitely bought a lot of souvenir. I didn't see a lot of China tourisms in Hsinchu, but I bet there are a lot of them in Taipei since it is our major city.

A plane crashed killed 14 people

2009-03-25T03:25:00.000-07:00

March 23, a plane brought people from California to Montana, but a horrible plane crash happened which killed among 7 children were killed. It was suppose to be a skiing holiday to Montana, but it turned out to be a disaster. The pilot was trying to land on another airport, but the plane crashed in a cemetery. The National Transportation Safety Board people are still investigating what happened, and trying to explain to their families. Although I don't know what it's like to have someone in your family died in a plane crash, but I do know how it feels when someone just died. It is really painful, especially they are on a holiday trip. It is suppose to be happy, but turned out to be really sad.

Bizarre food in Taiwan

2009-03-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

From a film of a traveling channel, a foreign guy travel to Taiwan, and he introduced about Taiwan's food and his thought. He tried a lot of foods, but I'm just going to choose the best three foods he tried in this Taiwan trip. He tried coffin bread in the Shi Ling Night Market. Coffin bread is sort of like French toast, it has black pepper beef or curried chicken. He thought tasted really delicious, he didn't really think it was disgusting, because it is similar to the French Toast. So it's similar to the food that he usually eat. He think the toast is crunchy, which is tasty. Also the pepper beef inside was very savory. I ate Coffin bread before at Tai-nan, and it was very tasty. First, I thought it look disgusting, but when I actually taste it, it was awesome. In the film, the guy also tried the chicken uterus, which I personally think it's disgusting. Chicken uterus looks a bit like chicken tripe, but when you heard it's uterus, then you definitely won't want to try it. When the guy tasted it, he thought it was a little weird, but it tasted kind of special. He went to a place that grows a lot of tea, which is Pinglin. He tried a lot of things, and there is a guiding person taking him around the tea field. After that he experienced a totally tea meal, everything is made of tea. Dishes with tea oil, and he thought it was a cool and special experience. Taiwan it's a beautiful place, it's a place to travel.

Life and culture of living in Scotland around 1200

2009-03-17T05:44:00.000-07:00

The daily life, and culture of living in Scotland around 1200 was pretty harsh and hard for the peasants/lower class people. Peasants wore rags, and they have mud and dirt on their face most of the time. Peasants live in huts, which are building with simple crude construction, and mostly just temporary house or shelter. We watched a movie called, "Braveheart", it is a movie about some of the life people had in Scotland around 1200. It is telling a story about Scotland people fighting freedom from England, because England were controlling them. What we have watched so far was that the main character, a Scotsman called William Wallace, his father died when he was young. He was raised by his uncle. He came back to the village he used to live, he was a man when he went back. He was back to be a farmer, and get out of troubles. Murron is a girl that was really nice to him when he was young, Mirron became a beautiful woman too. They married secretly. The reason is because if you marry in front of everyone, and the English will see it. They will split couples up, and take the girl and rape, or to have sex with her. We can see that the Scotland is totally ruled under by the English.

The culture of Scottish people were very interesting. Their famous instrument is bagpipes, which sometimes they use it during war, or during funeral. The social status was pretty obvious in Scotland around 1200. Poor people usually lived in huts, which are small, and temporary shelters. They eat bread and soup with wheat, the food they had was really rare. But for rich people, and the English people. They get to eat meat and drink. Rich people also get to dressed nice and clean. In poor people villages, sometimes they have festivals. In the festival, they dance, relax, and enjoy themselves. But sometimes the English just bumped in and ruin the happiness and all the laughters. I think the Scottish people doesn't really have any privileges, except some of the rich ones. But the rest of them are poor and they had to be rule by the English, and all the rich people.

What happened to Middle Ages after the Roman Empire collapsed?

2009-03-11T08:06:00.001-07:00

Middle Ages is a time period between around 500 to 1500 C.E. What "services" did Roman Empire provided to society? What are some affects after the Roman Empire collapsed? As the Roman Empire fell, many of the various people and groups from north and east moved into the Roman lands, and the leaders started to call themselves king, they also fought among themselves. Because of that, many of the land were separated, and getting from one village to another is hard. In Roman Empire, the government or emperor provided soldiers to look after the roads and streets, to make sure their people is safe while trading to another place, or traveling to another village. After Roman Empire collapsed, there were no more guard around the road, so it's very dangerous to travel from one place to another, because people might be stopped by thief and got robbed or killed by the thief. In the medieval times, there were no government that really connect together to be strong and protect its land. Every lord was like fighting with each other.

During the Roman times, people are sent to go to school, but depends on the social class. But in Middle Ages, education was no more important, and it was forgotten. Many people from Middle Ages were not educated. Medieval people thought that fighting in crusades and battles are more important, because it's like fighting for lord, so then they will go heaven directly if they die.

Coins were used in Roman Empire, and were pretty popular. After Roman Empire collapsed, the coin system didn't really keep going, there were very rare people using coins, and the government doesn't really care or do anything about it.

My favorite place

2009-03-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

When I was young, I always hate school, because school is where you get all the pressure from, and teachers are all strict and they give us a bunch of homework. But now I realize that although sometimes school is annoying, but that's where I talk to my friends the most, and discover everything that I had never seen. Experiences are from school, and study is not such a boring thing to do. I found some interesting things in school, and I hang out with friends in school mostly, because we study 5 days a week, so school is kind of a place where me and my friends can communicate and hang out the most. We share things with each other in school, we met new people and see new stuff everyday in school. School is a place that I discover things and I think it is my favorite place for now. School Rocks!!! Yay!

Why do you think the novel is titled The Sun Also Rises?

2009-03-05T06:26:00.000-08:00

I really don't know why the book was named "The Sun Also Rises", but I am just going to guess. Sun rises, and sun also goes down, but sometimes when people feeling down or facing problems, then it's just like the sun falling down. In the book, it describes about the bullfight fiesta. The fiesta is noisy and filled with laughters and dances. But when the fiesta is over, people just starts calming down and back to normal. The reason it is "The Sun Also Rises", I guess it's because in life you might be confused and lost, but the sun will always rise, so don't give up.

Nitrogen Passport Reflection Questions

2009-03-04T22:06:00.000-08:00

1. Why didn’t everybody go to the same stations in the same order?
Because there are many situations that nitrogen will face, and when we roll the dice, the paper will tell us what we are facing right now. And the situation will send us to another station, maybe atmosphere, dead plant, river…etc. Every different nitrogen face different situation, so it will go to different station. Of course everyone didn’t go to the same station in the same order. There might be dew people that’s from different stations, but come together because of their situation.

2. Did you go to the same station twice? If so, what does this tell us about cycles?
I did go to the same station twice and more, and I think it really shows about cycles, because curtain kind of station can be repeated more than once, because there are many ways to get to that station.

3. Was there one station that seemed to have a lot of people at it? Why or why not?
Yes, once it was very crowded at the atmosphere station. I think the reason is because people had situation that all brought them to the station. Two people from different station could be brought to the same station. For example, if I am rainwater, then I can be dripping into the ocean. And you are surface water, you might travel through rivers and streams to the ocean. It shows that different nitrogen can come to same station because of heir situation.

4. What do you think the point of this activity was?
I think the purpose and reason we are doing this activity was because we want to know more about the nitrogen cycle or just cycles more. The cycle was just like the activity.

Feudalism

2009-03-04T05:49:00.000-08:00

I was very confused about feudalism, and I did a lot of research on feudalism. Most of the websites, and books said that feudalism exist, even the video we watched today in class said that feudalism was a "thing". They also describe it as a relationship between hight class people and the lower class people, such as lords and the peasants, or vassals. The books, and websites describe the feudalism is like making a contract or like promise. For example: The vassals form own army, so he will promise that he will help the manor by using his army to support and fight the war or crusade. Also sometimes a knight has to make promises to lord too, they have to promise they'll fight for the lord no matter what. It also said that feudalism keeps people in order. But none of that it's true, feudalism doesn't actually exist in the Middle Ages. The word feudalism was actually invented by a scholars to describe a political system. The medieval people didn't think that they were medievals, they might just feel like they are just like us. The Middle Ages is also named it by historians in modern days. Feudalism seems not good, because it's like forcing people to give up for themselves and do something, or like taking profits from people from lower class. I am still a bit confused about the whole feudalism thing, whether it exist or not, but I guess as I read the article it said feudalism does not exist.

Benjamin Button TED talk

2009-03-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

Behind the Benjamin Button movie, the oldness of the main character isn't showed by wearing make up. The movie production group make the actors face totally computer generated, so it looks more real than just putting on make ups. While making the old face of the actor on computer, they used the science method to slowly make the old face, and their goal is to let the actor to control the old face they made on computer. They first take pictures of Brad Pitt, and they try to get every kind of facial expression he can make, and they generated on a computer to make it look older, and then they will attach it on the actor that's acting it. They have this kind of technology which you put reflective marker on your body, and there will be sensors around you to capture the movements that you are doing. To capture the facial expression, they have this special make up, they put it on Brad's face, and he'll stand in front of a special machine that reconstruct someone's face, in this case they make it look older. They got a very good photographer and a good sculpture maker, and first the photographer took a lot of picture of Brad standing under the special machine with the special make up, and there were a lot of facial expression. After that, they started to transpose Brad's face into another model, then they make it look older. Later on, they start shooting, and they make Brad look at the image, and to act out the facial expression of the old man. They also break it into many specific parts, like mouth, eyes, and the head. The background was a important part too, so they put the face into different kind of places. It is a long process to make this man, and it really take a lot of different people and different technology to work it out. The old man's body is act out by other actors, and the face is a computer generated Brad face. I think it's pretty awesome and cool!

The Blood Red Horse-Chapter 5

2009-03-01T05:12:00.000-08:00

William got a new warhorse called Hosanna, and its size isn't big, so his brother, Gavin joked and teased about it. William and Gavin were always in fight no matter what and where. William loves owning warhorses, but Gavin always tease about William owning little ponies. William hate the comparison between him and his brother, but Gavin always calls William his "little brother". Gavin wants to embarrass Will in front of everyone, so he invited Will to the joust field. He thought that Hosanna doesn't run fast, but he was wrong. They were gonna have joust fights, but Sir Thomas doesn't want either of them to get hurt. So they were racing for speed, look which horse runs the fastest. The race starts, first Hosanna stay still and silent while Montlouis(Gavin's warhorse) is sprinting to the end point. William starts begging Hosanna to run, but it doesn't really worked, suddenly he said "Oh, I should have worn spurs." After Will said that, Hosanna starts to gallop faster than a blink of an eye. Everyone was impressed, and Sir Thomas was surprised too. Gavin saw it, he started to compliment something about Will, and trying to be nice. He also tell Will to make a promise that he'll take care of Ellie if Gave is not coming back from the war, and to have the abbot or like the priest to say Mass every day for his soul if he died. They were all kind of friendly and nice to each other, it's like a peace between them.

The First Crusade-video reflection

2009-03-01T04:20:00.000-08:00

The first crusade was formed because the Christians want to re-capture Jerusalem. In 1076, the Jerusalem was capture by the Muslims. It was difficult and filled with danger for the Christians to try to get to Jerusalem, so it really angered all Christians. Alexius I of Constantinople was scared that his country is going to be Muslims', because they are close to Muslims' territory. He called for help from Pope Urban II. Pope Urban II made the crusade, because they want to win back the Christian faith. The crusaders sewed red crosses on their tunic to represent their beliefs and royalty to Christianity. The word"croix" changed to "croisades", which is the word cross changed to crusades. There were many volunteers that wants to fight on the First Crusade, the reason they fight is because that they were told by popes that if they fight for god then he/she will automatically go to heaven. The first crusade was a pretty difficult and harsh journey for the Christians to get to Middle East, and many of the crusaders died because of hunger and disease. The war was pretty scary and bloody. The crusaders did won the war, but the capture of Jerusalem didn't end, they want to get rid off the Muslims from everything, so it led to other crusades.

Medieval Simulation post

2009-02-18T06:14:00.000-08:00

I am cardinal, and I am known as the priest/prince of the cathedral. I work with bishops in Catholic Church, and I am helping in the College of Cardinals. My duties includes attending to the meetings of the College, and keeping myself available if the pope request our counsel. I am also in charge of leading the diocese or archdiocese, which are administrative territorial unit, I need to run the department of the Roman Curia too. My other main function is to elect the pope. By the middle of the 13th century, I wore broad brimmed hat with a shallow crown that was ringed with silken cords and a large circular cloak with a fur-lined hood, and the color of it is mostly scarlet. I get quite a lot privileges just like bishops, for example: I get to wear red, and I also get to vote at ecumenical councils.

Blog #5: Bull Fighting

2009-02-17T15:52:00.000-08:00

Bull fight is basically Matador, which is the one who is playing tricks or swinging and run with the red muleta, and the bull will chase along the muleta angrily. After that, the matador will kill the bull by poking the bull with a espada. I think it is a inhumane sport, because it's pretty violent. It might be entertaining to the audience, but we're not the one who's be torture and then kill. Being a matador is also very dangerous, because sometimes if the bull is too angry, then it might just run onto the matador and that kind of crush will kill the matador. Bull fighting reminds me of gladiator fight, because they are both violent, and dangerous. Gladiator fight is where slaves/criminals fight for their freedom, and what they do is that they put animals that are carnivores, which are like lions, tigers into one area, and the slaves has to fight until they die, and the last one that's alive gets the freedom. These two sports are both inhumane, I don't really like it.

Blood Red Horse- 2 main characters+reflections

2009-02-17T06:20:00.000-08:00

By reading the first chapter of Blood Red Horse, I think the two main characters are William, and Ellie. William is the younger son of Sir Thomas, and he has an older brother called Gave. They fight with each other a lot, but the fights are usually started with Gave. Gave likes to bully Will, like once while Will is riding a horse of Sir Percy, and Gave told everyone to come and tease him or watch him make mistakes. Will is the younger son of Sir Thomas De Granville, and it seems like he had less power than Gave. Will likes to own horses, and also ride on it. He likes to dream about a bunch of horses on a big wide field. Ellie is a maiden, and she lost her both parents when she was very young. She was sent to live with the De Granville family. Ellie and Will are special friends and they play and care for each other.

England in the 1100s, the age and gender really means a lot, and it changes everything. By looking at Gave and William, we can see that Gave has more power, because he is older than Will. Women are like used by man, they help the man to give birth, and then if they don't have any other benefits to the man, then they change another woman. There were a lot of Sir Thomas, and Will and Gave's father was the fifth Sir Thomas. Will and Gave's father's father was very considering on the fortification, and the buildings. He make the things work smoothly all the time. They believe that people who are good or like die in wars are sent to heaven directly.

Quote of Robert H. Smith

2009-02-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

Today Mr. Laffin shared a quote of Robert H. Smith, the was like this- "The clock of life is wound but once, the hands will stop, at a late or early hour. Now is the only time you own, Live, Love, til with a will. For the clock may soon be still." I really like this quote, it's not just because I think it sounds beautiful and deep, I also think that it is like a quote all of us should always remember. I think this quote is talking about we should treasure our life, and you only have one life and so hold on to what you have. I think this quote is a bit connected with the quote that Steve Jobs said, he said, "Stay foolish, and stay hungry." I always thought it sounds weird, but now I realize what that actually mean, it means to take a risk in your on and only life, also don't let your good opportunity to go away. I think believe in ourselves is also very important. The metaphor use in this quote is clock, the author- Robert H. Smith use clock to describe a
person's life, and Robert also talk about life sometimes ends unexpectedly, so never give up, try your best everyday and every time.

We All Live in the Yellow Submarine~

2009-02-11T07:08:00.000-08:00

We all live in the yellow submarine~ the yellow submarine...the yellow submarine. It was SMASH Day on Monday this week, and we did an activity about building a periscope that is capable to see the treasure up on the island and the box was representing the island. There are things in the box, and we have to find each stuff in the box and write it down. The materials we got are 10 piece of papers, 4 mirrors, few cardboards, and as many tape as we needed.

Team work was totally important, and Jen, Vivian, and I were working well together. We kind of split our jobs, 2 people working on the design of the periscope and one testing on the angle of the mirror that we are going to put on the periscope. The angle was very important, because we are only allow to stay in the submarine, and if we stand over the table then we automatically died. We were modifying our design all the time, because we want our periscope to perfect, and there will be no mistakes during the treasure hunt. When modifying our periscope, we tried to put a thing in a box, and then we use our periscope to observe it, check whether we can see the object. We didn't actually communicated, but we did try to help each other, hold the periscope while one person is observing the object. We take turns to observe, and we give ideas when ever we face a problem, I think all of us are being critical thinkers and problem solvers during the SMASH DAY.

I might say that make your periscope long, and bend a little at the top, so the top of the periscope can actually reach into the box. Be careful with the angle of the mirror too, because the mirror has to be connected, and so you can see it underneath the water, or in the submarine. That's what I think people should be careful about when making the periscope. Good Luck if anyone's making it. :D

Blog # 3 Mirror Image

2009-02-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Do you think others see you as you see yourself?

I guess I am quite outgoing, but most of the times I am just too over outgoing, and make people feel weird about me. Some people might think that I am showing off, and sometimes I am kind of like that. I am selfish sometimes, I think of myself without thinking of others. I think I am a bit too childish sometimes, and everybody see me as a kid, and they order me to do this and that, they yell at me even though they are the same age as me. I look at the mirror and said to myself "everyday is a happy day", "grow up Jean!", and also "why can't you be more quite and still have friends?". I guess people see me as what I just said, and I know that because people give me those kind of impression and feelings, so I guess they feel it too. I tried to change myself, but staying the way I am right now is the best thing for me right now I think....

A diedliest wildfire hit Australia

2009-02-08T05:02:00.000-08:00

There is a terrible and appalling tragedy happening to Australia. There is the worst bushfire sweeping through the south Australia. So far there are at least 84 people died, and the whole town have been destroy by this crazy fire in Victoria, Australia. There are like a bunch of like thousands of firefighters battling against the major fires. Even the army is sent to help, by that you can see how big and how terrible is that. The people there must feel very uncomfortable about the high temperature and hot wind blowing. I hope that the fire will get better and the people can be send to a more comfortable place to stay while their home is destroyed, and while the government is thinking of ways to help them.

Boats clash in Antarctica

2009-02-08T02:11:00.000-08:00

Japan whaling people have been killing up to 1,000 whales every year, and the anti-whaling people are deciding on rocking the Japanese ship, so they won't continuing killing so many whales. On February 7, a boat of anti-whaling protestors had collided with the Japanese whaling vessel in Antarctica ocean. The Japanese said that the anti-whaling people rammed their boat on purpose, and they call it a "unforgivable act of violence". But the campaigner said that the Japanese whaling vessel was blocking the way as they tried to stop the Japanese to kill the whale. It has been illegal to kill whales since 1986. And the anti-whaling activists have been following the Japanese since December of 2008, and they have been throwing things on each others' boat. The government of Australia and New Zealand(which are the two countries that are against the hunt of whales) are trying solve the problem. But the anti-whaling groups said that they are just going to whatever that can stop the hunt of whales of Japanese.

Reflection of the video(Ancient Greece and Rome)

2009-02-03T08:17:00.000-08:00

The Ancient Greece and Rome video takes only 4 minutes something, but I work so hard on it, I almost spend the whole day editing it. I think I did used some of the 5 student outcomes.

During the time when we were showing the video, I think I am an effective communicator, because it's a time when you present your video, and also people are showing their videos, so I have to send message well, and also get message right. I was being an effective communicator, because I in my video, I put pictures, and I also have background sound of me describing the picture. When the time people are showing their videos, I was listening and watching really carefully so then I won't miss any part. I also kind of give and receive feedbacks, it really showed that everyone are being an effective communicator, because they understand what you're showing and they give feedbacks.

I think I was also a community contributor, because I was helping some of the people with their technology problem. I also encourage people to present theirs. I think to approach some of the learning outcomes is easy, and if you try your best, then you can finish it. Give passion to it... :D

After watching others' videos and receiving feedbacks from others. I learned that don't put music when there is already like a sound-over of you voice. I also learn recording your voice takes a lot of time, so better do it earlier.... :P

Who in your poinion is an effective communicator? Why?

2009-02-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

Effective communicator is a person who express the message well and also get the message right. My friend Jen, she always explain stuff to me when I am confused. My English ability is not as well as her, whenever she explains it to me she use simple words, so then I understand. Today in math, we were doing some logic thinking activity. I think my logic is not really good, and some of the things I don't really get it. Jen tried to explain it in a simple way which I understand. Mr. Truchon is also being a effective communicator in this case, he make some examples to show me the meaning, and then I got it. Effective communicators are awesome, I hope I am one too. :D

Effective Communication

2009-01-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/82100/effective_communication_in_the_workplace.html?cat=3)

Effective communication is a very important part of human interaction. Effective communication includes listening and talking carefully. I think effective communication is very important, because it trains us to be a better listener and a better talker, which make effects people's relationship. Good communication is to express information clearly and to get others information right.

Effective communication is really good for people to know about things, and by doing that, it's making less confusion. Less confusion makes people know about each other and what they are talking, and then the relationship will be better, and people will be more socialized.

To communicate with people are not just verbally, but also nonverbally. Both are important, to communicate verbally is to send message by talking, or making voice. To communicate nonverbally is to express the message by writing it down, or showing words, or like pictures.

Effective communicator is to express the message well by speaking and listening. To be a good listener, you have to listen carefully, and split the things people say and understands it. Also to reply the person that is talking to you when needed. To be a good speaker, you have to talk clearly so that people can understand, and maybe do some body languages or some tone changing so people know like when it's strong, important, and when it's not.

Effective communicators builds a great team, and so listening and talking carefully is very important.

Ben-Hur: Reflections of Culture-Ending

2009-01-12T05:17:00.000-08:00

Today we had finished the movie, Ben-Hur. The most excited and the part that interested me a lot was the chariot race. Chariot race is a race that people ride on a cart thing, and there are four horses in front of the cart to pull the cart. It is kind of a violent game, because you never know whether your cart will collapse or maybe you might flip out. When you fell off your cart, you might get squeezed or smashed by other cart too. The game starts with riders riding slowly around the court few laps, and the competitors will be lead by five riders. Four leading riders in a row, one in the front, and each of them has a flag on their hand. The riders wears special clothes, they have some protection on their body. They have metal thing on their wrist, they wear helmets on their head, and they also have different color long cape. The leader give a speech before the game, and then when he gave a sign, the game will starts. The riders has to race for 6 laps, and if they flip out, then they loose. Ben-Hur had 4 of his horses white, and it shows that he is the nice guy. Massala had 4 of his horses black, and he was wearing a black cape too, it shows that he is a harsh, evil person. He also had a sharp thing on his wheel, so he could poke others' wheel, and they will flip off. At the end, Ben-Hur wins, and he killed Massala(I guess). The story ends up with Jesus had been killed by the empire I think, because he had turn people into Christen we say now. People believe that Jesus' blood washes off people's mistakes and disease, so Ben-Hur's mother and sister was healthy again, no libersy(I don't know how to spell it). Jesus died, and later on people said that he was re-birth again.

Gaza hit by new Israel strikes

2009-01-11T01:09:00.000-08:00

January 11, 2009, Israel had been sending more and new tank fire and air strikes into Gaza. The Gaza had been fighting for months, and the Israel had been fighting for 7 days. The war starts with Gaza, Hamas. The Hamas starts firing rockets into Israel, and there are more than four people have been killed by rockets fired. After the Hamas people fired rockets into Israel, the Israel starts sending soldier over, and they had start bombing areas to stop the rockets being fired by Gaza. Most people that lives in Gaza are Palestinians. Last week, there were more than 400 Palestinians have been killed, but they still haven't give up. So far, there are 820 Gazans and 13 Israelis have died in 14 days of fighting. I think Gaza should just stop now, and Israel should too, peace is the best thing of all.

Ben-Hur: Reflections of Culture

2009-01-08T02:03:00.000-08:00

Roman has a lot of things they are connected with Greek. Roman respect their leaders very well, so when they are welcoming the leader, they will have big parades, and everyone made a long path for the leader to go. In the parade, there are people playing formal serious music to show that important people are coming, and people spill/spray flowers to make the path look pretty, the important people such as leader ride on a cart thing with 3 horses pulling it. The palace of the emperor is really huge, and there is a long stairs to go up to the palace. The emperor usually sit in the center of the place where the emperor can see everybody on top. The palace looks really formal, solemn, there are 2 fire sets on each side of the emperor, there is also a big bird thing which I think they put it because it looks strong and hard to defeat, and they have their empire flags around the palace. The emperor is a really big and important person, so everything that he wants has to be done, even if it might be bad. When the emperor swing his hands around the crowd, everybody starts clapping and cheering, and when he make a stop hand gesture, then the entire crowd stops talking directly, this thing shows that the emperor has a lot of the power.

Roman soldiers, leaders, and emperor dine together a lot, it's like they are having diner party. In the diner party, there are people performing dancing, and after they watch the performance, they have kind of like maids to serve them food. There are rich man from countryside that likes horses. Roman people wears different clothes when they are having dinner, they wear a kind of robe with a scarf-ish thing tied around the waist.

There is a disease that is pretty bad in Roman, it's called the "Liversity", or something like that, it is a disease that his/her skin might get ruin or destroyed, because you are really sick, the disease passes, when the person has that disease breathes on you, then you will get the disease too. This is so far what I seen for Roman culture from this Ben-Hur movie.

Israel's troops are fighting in Gaza

2009-01-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

January 5, 2009 Israel had sent their soldiers to Gaza to try to stop the Hamas group from firing rockets. Israel has been dropping bombs on Gaza, and they say they won't stop if the firing rockets attack don't stop. For now, neither side wants to back down, only the world leaders, they want Israel and Hamas to stop this violent fight. This fight has been for 10 days, I still don't think war is a good idea, because there will be so many die and get injured for no reason, so I think both stop attacking each other will be the best thing. Maybe there are some unfair treatment between Israel and Gaza, but I think they can discuss with each other about that. There are protesters around the world trying to stop the violence and stop blood shed. I think it's right, but I am not a them, so maybe I can't feel it, but that's just a advice/suggestion.

Ben-Hur: Reflections of Culture

2009-01-06T12:44:00.001-08:00

We watched a film about Ben-Hur, it's about a tale of Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur. It's also a traditional film of the birth of Jesus Christ. A new governor arrived, and that governor was Ben-Hur's childhood friend Messala, he's a tribune. At the beginning, they were really happy to see each other at a long time. But Ben-Hur think that Messala is using him to get benefits, and Ben-hur want to protect Jewish people, so they are separated, and they were against each other. Messala is not really a good friend, and he made Ben-Hur to be a slave. On the way with the salves(Ben-Hur was one of them), Ben-Hur met Jesus Christ. I think this is what we watched so far. In the film I saw some cool culture of them. Roman soldiers wears helmet(and they have those weird red feather stuff on their helmet), shoulder plates, woollen tunic, red toga, body armour, and dagger on the top. They wear groin protection, and sandals at the bottom. They also have some accessories, like sword, javelin, shield, and they wear those metal bracelet. For some reason that not important soldiers can't wear red togas, because togas are for important tribunes or tribune's friend or helper. At the scene when Messala was happy to see Ben-Hur, they played a game, and they just throw the javelins on a wood thing under the roof.

The Romans are like Greeks, they have their own slaves too(if he/she) is rich. Ben-Hur has two slaves for trading, and they trade goods for Ben-Hur. The slave-Simonides(I don't know whether I spelled it right) and his beautiful daughter. He doesn't treat his slaves like other rich people and tribunes, he doesn't punish slaves or treat them like low-class people. Simonides is a nice slave, he traveled around places and trade things for Ben-Hur. I found out that different people treated their slaves differently.

There is a scene when Ben-Hur's sister accidentally touched a broken roof brick, and it fall and injured a soldier. Ben-Hur, his sister, and his mother were very fast arrested by the Messala's soldiers and catch into Messala's dungeon. Ben-Hur tried to ran out of the dungeon to find Messala to release him or at least his mother and sister. Messala didn't listen to him, and even made Ben-Hur a slave.

The slaves walk in desserts, and dry path with pain and tiredness. If they fell, then they get leave in desserts until they die. There is one scene when the soldiers doesn't let Ben-Hur drink water, but Jesus brought him water and he saw him. Soldiers and tribunes keep the slaves alive, because they need them to work the big boat, and when they get back into one place, then they might get kill or something. There are a bunch of slaves rowing beneath the boat. They also have some special name for some actions. They also have rhythm when the slaves are rowing the boat, and there is one person who needs to sit in the front and play rhythm on drum for the slaves. Messala and his soldier treat his slaves like this, not like Ben-Hur.

UK is freezing!!!!

2009-01-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

It sounds normal and usual that it's cold in winter, but some places in UK is freezing like Arctic overnight and it might get worse. The weather dropped to -11 degrees at the parts of northern Scotland and the south east of England. This cold temperature affects a lot of stuff, it affects flights, closing school in England, and delays on the road. The forecasters warn people to watch out for the path out door, because it might be really really slippery. There are many people had been in the hospital, because they fall by the slippery floor. Just a intimate reminder, everybody remember to wear very warm clothes, and wear big jackets, don't worry about people laughing at you. Healthiness it's the great thing in our life, so keep healthy, and eat food, exercise. :D

Kids are worrying about parents divorce..?

2009-01-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

People found out that there are more children calling the ChildLine, because they worried about their parents will divorce. The Charity says that they are getting more calls from children after Christmas, because Christmas can be fun, but sometimes it bring stress and argues to parents. I think that maybe parents might get stress or argue sometimes, but it doesn't mean that they are going to divorce. They might just feel a bit depressed and things, and they move on. But I bet many of the kids will think that what if they separate? Will we ever see him or her again? Although maybe economic is the most important thing right now, but relationships are also important. Find a man or a woman that fits you, you don't get marry when you love someone in a sudden, be sure first, and then marry. Just in case any of the UK children look at my blog, I will put a number for them to let them know that you can call 0800 1111 across UK, and you can get help and advice from the ChildLine.

NEW RULE in Taiwan...no smoking in in door places

2008-12-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

On January 11, the rule of no smoking in in door places will be held. It's not only just no smoking inside, there are also limit for smoking outside. The rule will be held on January, they won't punish or fined, they will just warn people first, but if it still happens, then they will fine people. The price that the person that smoke indoor is around 50,000 or something. The government just want to give us a better environment, and healthy body.

Woolworth starts closing down?

2008-12-11T06:32:00.000-08:00

A few weeks after it announced that it ran out of money, 813 Woolworths around UK are starting their closing down sales. Now, the workers that works in has to leave and lose their job because of the country and of course world economy, around 30,000 people work for Woolworth. If there are some big supermarkets that are interested buying Woolworth's things, if possible there might be few of the Woolworths can stay on. Good luck to Woolworth, hope they can still stay on instead off closing it down.

Hanging Fire(main idea, elements)

2008-12-08T05:22:00.000-08:00

The poem "Hanging Fire" is showing a loneliness and a boy has been left behind or neglected. I can tell the poet really want to express the feeling of how the boy had been neglected, because the poet always has repeat this line more than once, "and momma's in the bedroom with the door closed".
The form of this poem is stanzas, because this poem is all in little paragraphs. The speaker of this poem is a boy who feels left behind, and his feeling is like he had done so well, but he just didn't get the things that he expect or wanted.
I don't think this poem rhymes, maybe a little bit of it rhymes, the line where it says "and momma's in the bedroom with the door closed" might rhyme, but that will be the only thing that rhymes in the poem.
There are quite a lot imagery in the poem, and it's like the entire poem is filled with imagery. For example, "how come my knees are always so ashy" is a great imagery too. The most popular line, "and momma's in the bedroom with the door closed" is also a big imagery too.

Schools closed after snow storms

2008-12-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

There are more than four hundred of schools in England and Scotland, because there are strong and heavy snowfalls. In Yorkshire, it seems to be hit the hardest by the snow. Reporter said that it should get warmer later, but there is still warnings that tells people across England and Scotland. The weather seems like it's going to be colder and colder, and the snow seems like it won't stop. I am kind of jealous if them not having school, it like a long winter break, and they get to watch TV, eat, relax, sleep, and do stuff they want to do at home. For us, we have to get on to school bus early in the morning, and then the weather is cold too, it's just not snowing. Anyways, hope the weather will be not too cold, or else it's really dangerous for old people and babies.

India attacks are over..?

2008-12-01T06:37:00.001-08:00

Last Thursday, November 27. armed groups had attacked seven places in India, and there were hundreds of people been held as hostages. By last Friday, Indian soldiers helped free a lot of hostages, and the India government said they have regained their control or power of controlling all the buildings that's target by the gunmen. There were at least 195 people or more died in this war, including the gunmen. The police said they had arrested a suspected attacker. The police are still investigating about who was behind the attacks. The luxury Taj Mahal Palace hotel is the only building that the India government need to regain power from. Hope that peace will be soon happening in India.

Bombers killed dozen of people in Iraq

2008-12-01T06:07:00.000-08:00

On Monday, which is today, December 1st. Bombers struck military and government targets in Iraq. Authority said that there were 19 people died in two attacks in Baghdad, and at least 16 people died in the northern city of Mosul. There are sixteen people die as bombers target Baghdad police academy. There are so much like bumpers and stuff going on these days, and especially this entire year there are bombers in places that has religion issues. I hope it could stop, I personally think that it's not worth it to just give your life and to kill someone that's not in your religion, it's just my idea, maybe they think it's important.

Elements of poetry- Young and Old

2008-11-24T05:35:00.000-08:00

Young and Old By Charles Kingsley

WHEN all the world is young, lad,
And all the trees are green;
And every goose a swan, lad,
And every lass a queen;
Then hey for boot and horse, lad,
And round the world away;
Young blood must have its course, lad,
And every dog his day.

When all the world is old, lad,
And all the trees are brown;
And all the sport is stale, lad,
And all the wheels run down:
Creep home and take your place there,
The spent and maimed among:
God grant you find one face there,
You loved when all was young.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Normally in the poetries, there are different kind of elements. There are simile, metaphor, imagery, hyperbole, alliteration, and rhyming. Most poetries form in stanzas, which is short paragraphs.

This poetry is formed in stanzas. There are no similes in the poetry. I think there are some metaphor, for example, there is one. In the poetry, "And round the world away;", it is a metaphor. There were a lot of imagery, almost the entire poetry were imagery. There are no alliteration in the poetry, because it's always describing a thing "when something is something". There are a lot of rhyming in this poetry, there are six groups. The first group is the six lads. Second group is green and queen. Third group is away and day. Fourth group is brown and down. Fifth group is the 2 there. Sixth group is among and young.

Super Star in Taiwan died for....?

2008-11-24T04:34:00.000-08:00

There is a girl called Tru Ning Li in Taiwan, she went audition for the Super Star...., which is a show that's for people in Taiwan and other countries to come and show your talent, base on singing, and to compete. She is a very talented and a great singer, she was the 5th or the 4th(i am not sure)of the Super Star...show. There is an unfortunately thing happened, she died. I think you would be very curious about why? She wrote a letter before she suicide, she wrote about how her boyfriend hurt her or something, her father doesn't really want to talk more about it in front of the crowd. She is such a talented and happy good girl, why does she need to kill herself just because a man hurt her. I can't decide or say she's not right, but my thought is that living in the world it's always the best thing and wonderful thing in the entire world. I hope everyone including me could live very good, healthy, and happy.... :D

Taiwan Consumption Coupon

2008-11-24T04:33:00.000-08:00

Around last week or the week before last week, Taiwan government made a coupon called "Consumption Coupon". It is like a coupon, and every citizens in Taiwan can get one. What I meant by Taiwan citizen is someone who has Taiwan passport, or maybe married someone that's Taiwanese. Every Taiwan citizens can get a $3600NT coupon. We can almost use it on everything, but there are also some rules for it. We can use it to buy things, and take taxi, bus also. But there is one rule, you can't use the coupon to buy Easy Card or you can't use the coupon money and safe it into the Easy Card, which is a kind of card that you speed up your time, because for example when you are taking a train or bus, you need to buy a ticket, but if you use Easy Card, then you only need to out the card on some kind of thing, and it will just take the money out of the card that you safe. The reason that Taiwan Government is making this it's because that we are having a hard time with our economic, so they made this "coupon" to boost economic growth. From now, they decide that they are only going to give us once, because they need to spend at least around 80000 million NT.

What did daily life look like in Ancient Greece?

2008-11-17T06:07:00.000-08:00

Most Grees lived in rocky, mountainous lands surrounded by water. Mountains cover much of Greeks, there are few flat areas that's for farmland. They lived in villages and towns that are separated by seas and mountains. To travel across the mountains and seas was really difficult, so communities were kind of isolated and separated from each other. People create their own governments and ways of life, although they speak same language, they saw themselves as separated countries.

While men were in at the agora, which is kind of like public places that used for assemblies and markets. Women just gets to stayed at home, to do all those housework, like cooking, cleaning, taking care of kids, and making clothes or stuff. Women doesn't get to vote, or hold office. Children stayed at home when they are under 7 years old. Only male children get to go to school, female children only get to stayed at home and learn how to do households. Most girls get married when they are around 15 years old, and most of them their father choose their future husband. It's such as a management of making sure his girl marry into a good family.

In Athens, population was divided into four social classes, and it's based on wealth. People changed their classes as they made more money. In Sparta, all MALE citizens get equal treatments if they finish their education.

Greek sports is also a really important part of their life. They also have Olympic. Every four years, the Olympic will held at the stadium at Olympia. They have boxing, weightlifting and the pentathalon. The pentathalon consisted of discus, long jump, running, wrestling and javelin. In the past, men were more involved in the sports stuff. Women are not expected to do those physical activities. Even man thinks that women are lame and low level in the past.

The New Colossus- Elements

2008-11-17T03:00:00.000-08:00

The New Colossus

By Emma Lazarus 1849-1887

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lighting, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Elements in the poem: In the poems, there are elements. There are simile, metaphor, imagery, hyperbole, alliteration, and rhyming. Most poems form in stanzas, which is short paragraphs.
Simile is sentence that compares things using like or as. There are only one simile in the poem, which is "Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame", it is telling that The Statue of Liberty is not like the brazen giant of Greek fame.
Metaphor is sentence that compares not using like or as. "Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand", sunset gates is like telling how the sunset form like a gate. Another one, "whose flame Is the imprisoned lighting", it is comparing flame and imprisoned lightning, wich is the fire thing that The Statue of Liberty is holding.
Imagery is a kind of like visual descriptive sentence. In the poem,
"A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lighting, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame."
These lines is the imagery of The Statue of Liberty.
Alliteration is occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of a word. In the poem, "...world-wide welcome", the letter of each word all start out with "w". Another one is, "..wretched refuse..", both of the word has occurrences of the same sound at the beginning of each word.
Rhyming is occurrences of the same letter or sound at the end of the word. In the poem, there are 4 different groups.
- fame, flame, name, frame
- land, stand, hand, command
- she, free, me
- poor, shore, door
Hyperbole are sentences that has exaggerated statements. In the poem, "beacon hand", beacon means like a fire or light. Beacon-hand would be like a fire hand, I think exaggerated, because no hands can be like a fire, it's just The Statue of Liberty is holding a torch.

2 schools collapsed less than one week?

2008-11-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

There are schools collapsing on the Caribbean island of Haiti, and it's lees than a week after another school collapsed and killed more than 50 people(around 90 people). Officials think that the reason that the schools keep on collapsing is because they are not well built. The man that's responsible for public safety in Haiti said that the two schools that collapsed constructed the school against the rules. Parents are really worrying about their children now, because the school keep on collapsing, so they are afraid that their children's school might be next one. God bless the children that died.

Weldnesday's HW....ESPRAT

2008-11-13T06:47:00.001-08:00

Taiwan

What is the Economic (business) system?
Capitalism, and free trading.

What does the Social system (daily life, classes, customs, etc.) look like?
- Diligent and hard working people, and people don’t give up easily.
- Middle class is the majority, but the poorer and richer people are increasing.
- Very few social benefits, expect civil servant.
- Respect traditional customs, especially worship ancestors.

What is the Political (government) system? Who has the power?
Democratic system. The president has the power.

What are the Religions? Describe them in detail.
Buddhism: The buddhist worship the three jewels: the Buddha (the Awakened One), the Dharma (the Teaching of the Buddha) and the Sangha (the Community of Buddhists).

Christian: Christian believe in Jesus, and they usually go to church every Sunday.

Muslim: Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allāh, they usually prey 5 times per day in the same direction(I forgot which direction is that.)

Taoism: Taoist believe in thoughts or philosophy from philosopher, so they didn’t really have a “god” to worship to.

What are the various Arts (especially those your nation is known for)?
Cloud Gate Dance Theater in Taiwan, calligraphy, Glove Puppetry, traditional Chinese painting, Taiwanese opera.

What are various Technologies that are a part of life in your country?
IC Design and Manufacturing, Flat Panel Display.

Culture(Language Arts)

2008-11-13T06:44:00.000-08:00

Culture is a human tool for survival. Culture is divided into many different categories, for example like food, music, art, religion, language, geography, or special behavior or beliefs that specialized a group of people.

I am apart of the Taiwan culture. I am also from a family of Hakka culture, because my fathers parents are Hakkanese, so I am Hakkanese too. I think the Hakka culture is very cool, and I meant by everything, food, language, music. The best thing I like about Hakka is they treat people nice, and they have a thought that's about respecting elders or everyone. But there are also one thing that I don't like about Hakka sometimes, it's they like boys more than girls, I think it's not just my grandparents, I think every family that are apart of Hakka culture have those thoughts. My grandparents are okay, they don't always have the thoughts that they have before, they "update" their thoughts as the society changes. I am a Buddhist, and I do things like- "Bai-Bai", it's kind of like Christian's prey. The Buddhist also have a thought in mind that's about respecting people, be nice to everyone, never be selfish or greedy. I think the culture that I am apart of is awesome, and my family is good and cool too.

I think it really depends on people, because there are people they think culture are exclusive, but some not. For example, if you are in a culture that believe in one religion, and the other culture believe in different religion, and if two religion has argues or fight between each other, or if the religion has a thought that's about being exclusive or not being apart of other culture or religion, then you won't be apart of many cultures. For me, I think I am apart of many different cultures, I came study in HIS, so I have to get use to culture of different countries, because we are an international school, so there are people from different countries. Both of my parents also have different culture, although they are from the same country, but they're parents still have different cultures. I think being in different kind of culture is quite interesting, because you got to face different kind of problems, things, people, and of course food!!!

I am not really sure whether people have false assumptions about my culture. But I am guessing there are some people who thinks that Hakkanese are not good at Chinese and only know Hakka, so sometimes people humiliate Hakkanese. Although some of the Hakkanese are not good at Chinese, doesn't mean we couldn't do stuff well or we are not strong enough or powerful. I really like how some groups that popularize Hakka, for example like ICRT(International Community Radio of Taipei), everyday at night they arrange a short limit of time to teach people speak Hakka, and I think it's really helpful.

Culture is special behavior or things that specialized a group of people. Identity is a characteristic or special things of someone or something, it also means similarities.

The five big fat quesiton(Greece, Rome)

2008-11-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

1. What happened in the Persian war?

2. What does arts of Greece tell me about Greek culture?

3. How does Greece geography affect their culture?

4. What are some good inventions that ancient Greek has?

5. What are the festivals or sports that ancient Greek has?

What do governments do?

2008-11-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

I am not really familiar with government or stuff like that, but I know that they do things for their people. I think governments are divide into different categories, and there are law(I don't know if they call it like this or other name), education, economic, health, and some other important things. For education, I think they just set of some rules that kids should do, like kids under some age needs to go to school for sure. Sometimes educational office people also event dances that are healthy for kids, and they just teach the wellness teacher in every school, and then students has to learn it and dance at least 2 times per week in school. For health, I think they just have to tell people to be aware of disease, and tell people what to do to avoid that. For law, I think they make just make laws, and the people that works for the government will vote, if it pass more than half, then the law will be establish and people will have to follow it.
For economic, they think of ways to turn economic good and smooth. I think that's all I know about government for now, I am totally not sure about it, but that's what I have in mind. :D

Barack Obama has his first look into his president office

2008-11-10T05:57:00.000-08:00

Today Monday Nov.10, President-elect Barack Obama got his first step into Oval Office to discuss about a big issue about bad economy with President George W. Bush. His meet with George W. Bush is like a private sit-down talk. This is actually a kind of historical moment, because the first black president it's preparing to take the office on January 20. We all hope that Obama can do a great job or excellent job starting on January 20. Good luck to him and everyone in world.

3 blast in Baghdad killed dozen

2008-11-10T05:43:00.000-08:00

We all know that there are countries that have issues about religion, because there are people that have religion that wants to fight with people that have other religion. A country that is like that is Baghdad, and this is the place of the news that I am going to talk about from. In Baghdad, there were 3 bombs exploded, and it killed at least 28 people. The first two explosion was car bombs, and then there was a suicide bomber that came to a crowd of people and make the bomb explode. There were about 68 people that's injured for this big blast event. Around North Baghdad, there was a female bomber attacked a US militia, and it killed 6 people. This triple bombs~4 bombs attack was one of the deadliest for Iraq this year. These attacks were all about religion differences and dispute. I think that this kind of thing won't stop, and it doesn't solve anything better, it might just feel good when you think that is doing it for your family or people, but I think it's a pretty dumb mind.

5 Student Outcomes that I see people being it this past weeks

2008-11-06T20:39:00.000-08:00

I think the returning students are familiar about the 5 student outcomes, which are active learner, critical thinker and problem solver, effective communicator, community contributor, and persons of high character. All of us want to achieve all these outcomes and become better people. We see everybody trying to achieve, and we saw people that already achieve. This Monday, we were doing Smash Day in science class. We are trying to build the tallest tower that can holds 5g of stuff, and all we had is 5 pieces of paper, 2 pair of scissors, and 1 meter of tape. Lydia, Kevin Lu, and I were in the same group, first we were like saying things that we know and what we think, but when 3 person speaks together, then it's kind of annoying. We all decided to be effective communicator. Because effective communicator not just need to talk with people well, effective communicator also need to listen to people carefully and understand what they say. We share ideas one by one, then we listen to others, and we combine everybody's ideas together. We won the game, we were so good at being a effective communicator, we communicate well and made the tallest tower that holds a 5g stuff!!! I think I am being a critical thinker and problem solver in math class. I come up with a way to solve a question that nobody say it before or knows it. I share with class, and so that everybody can know how to do it. I am being a community contributor in humanity class, because when people are having problem with back upping files, I always try to help them even though sometimes doesn't help. Sometimes I also spend my research time to help others. I am being effective communicator in humanities, although sometimes my answer to the question that Mr. Carpenter's asking is vague. I still try my best to do it. I also present current events often. I think being a person of high character is to do my best and don't think what other says, others think, or others grade. Improve myself even though you are already the top student in class, and don't give up or have a mind that wants to beat others, the important thing is to beat yourself. I think I am trying really hard to be a persons of high character this semester, I try to improve and I think I am almost there. But I remember persons of high character will never be the best thing people can do, if you have this kind of mind, then you are not a persons of high character, because a persons of high character never stop studying, improving, and trying.

Smash Day~!!!! What science skills did I learned? How doesn it make me a better scientist?

2008-11-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

The first science class of every month is SMASH DAY~! For science class, the best things that I like to do are first of course the Smash Day, and I also love to do experiments. For Smash Day we always have fun things. So far we had try playing building the same Lego as Mrs. Smith by communicating with people well and there are some rules, for example: the spy is the one who can look at the Lego that Mrs. Smith, but the spy couldn't speak. There are a communicator, and the communicator can speak, but the communicator can't see the Lego. The rest of the people will be building the Lego that communicator tell them to build. I was the spy of the game, and I don't know what to do at the beginning. Then I was being a critical thinker, I decide to draw on the table, and I know that our hands have heat and some dust, so if I draw on table, the table will marks on the table, so then the communicator in our group will understand it more. I think the science skill that I learned in here is to think outside the box- me drawing on the table. This skill help me to become a better scientist, because after that I realize that if a thing that is hotter met a thing that's hotter than the first thing, then there will be marks on the thing that is colder. This week we did a activity that's about building the tallest tower, and then see if it fell when Mrs. Smith put a 5g stuff or something on it. All we have are 5 piece of papers, 1 meter of tape, and 2 pairs of scissors. I thought it was pretty easy at the beginning, but I found out it is so hard, because I think if it's too tall, then it might fell. But then I found out that I can first use 4 papers to create the tower, and then the 1 piece of paper will be the flat place for the tower. I was worried about how to make the tower more tower, and then I figure out we could use scissors to make the tower taller, and it really works. At the end, we won, and we are so happy and proud of ourself. This makes me a better scientist, because I knew that anything from the material we can use and win the game. I love Smash Day!!! :D

ARATS of China came to Taiwan......Taiwan is not happy about it?!?!

2008-11-03T06:20:00.000-08:00

October 3rd, the ARATS of China arrived at Taipei, and started with his rush plan, for example: having meetings with Taiwan president...etc. The government was afraid that there will be protesters all around the place that the man from China is going, so our president Ma arrange a bunch of cops around the place that the man is going, and the cops also don't allowed people to bring Taiwan flags. People are really shocked, because this is Taiwan, so why can't we have our flags out. The people that went to the airport also need to get questioned by the cops, even if they are just traveling to other country, or just going on a business trip. Taiwan people thinks that this is ridiculous, because they think that this is only a person from China, why should we treat him like a god or something, and people think that we have different(they meant lower) treatment from the China people. This is a unfair problem, and I think maybe the government should fix that.

1 day left untill the voting of US begins

2008-11-03T03:39:00.000-08:00

We all know that there are two candidates that are fighting really hard for the US president, which are John McCain and Barack Obama. There is only one day left until the election of the US president, and both of the candidates are still going to around to chase and win more votes. Even it's one day, they are still working very hard, and trying to beat others. John McCain plan on going to 7 states at a single day, that's really rush and tired. He beat Obama for that, because Obama only went to 3 states. At this moment, the experts said that Obama is in the lead, but there are still chances and time to change US people's mind. If a candidate wins a state they take all the electors from it. The first one to claim more 270 electors wins the election and becomes president. Looking forward to see the result tomorrow.

Shooting at Ark......kills..?

2008-10-27T04:49:00.000-07:00

A shooting at the University of Central Arkansas killed two students and wounded a third person early today. There was a police said that there were a shot happened at Sunday night near a make dorm of a school. One victim was dead at the scene and the other two ran into the Arkansas Hall dormitory, the second victim died at a hospital, and the third victim was not a student. The police didn't really talk about why there are shot occurred in school, but they did say that there will be no school for students, because of course it is too dangerous for them.

No dying hair? No candy in school?

2008-10-27T04:48:00.000-07:00

I know students or kids in our age like fashion and cares more about their out fit and looks than caring about their school work, so teachers are starting to worry about the future of students. Principals and teachers decide to have meetings to discuss about the issue, and then they decide to make rules for school, because teenagers doesn't really listen to adults. They made rules like no dying hairs or having wacky haircuts, because then students will only care about their looks, and they won't pay attention or give enough efforts to their either school work or homework. Some people think it's fine, but some people think it's really not fair, because they think dying their hair will not affect their work. There were girl who accidently dye her hair, people thought that she is going to got punishments. The principals said no, but the principal say she has to make a presentation in front of everyone about no dying hair and how out fits makes you not paying attention or giving enough effort into your class and homework. Some school also doesn't allow students to eat candies in school, not even having it in backpacks. I think it's not fair for me, because I think it is our freedom and our decision of whether we want or not, they shouldn't made a rule for that.....

Taiwan navy's helicopter crash!!!! 2 DIED!!!

2008-10-23T05:36:00.000-07:00

This is an event that happened yesterday, and it's the helicopter of the navy crash, and it was a really horrible crash, because they were just doing there job, but suddenly the plane just go out of control or something and it crashed. The airplane was crashed into the sea, so people that died might sank or something. There were two people died, and 2 or more people injured, and 1 people is missing(haven't find him yet). The navy was felt really proud and sorry for the two pilot that died, they were all good pilots and good workers, and the reason that he died is because he worked so hard, and what he worked for it's not just earning money, it's also helping the society and us.

2009's New Year Countdown Party Taipei 101's firework is......!!!!

2008-10-23T00:20:00.000-07:00

We all know it is October, it's still 2 months till the Winter Vocation, which is the New Year!! Before the New Year starts of course every city will have a New Year Countdown Party. People always want to go to the New Year Countdown Party in Taipei, because there are beautiful fireworks on the 101. The firework that 101 formed has been continuing for 4 years, and this year the people from 101 said that this year will be continuing having the firework ceremony stuff. At the beginning of the year, the people from 101 company said that there won't be firework ceremony this on 2009, because the economy of Taiwan is not really good, and they cannot find any sponsorship for them, so they are deciding to cancel it. But then this week, they made an announcement that said that there are going to be fireworks ceremony this year, and it's going to be cool. So let's just hope it's good, and also made our next year better. :D

Omar strengthens!! RUN~!!!

2008-10-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

There is a hurricane called Omar strengthened into a major Category 3 storm and it raced toward Puerto Rico, also the small islands of the northeastern Caribbean. People are scared it's going to bring torrential rains that could trigger dangerous floods and mudslides on Thursday Oct 16.
Omar is actually formed north of the Dutch island of Curacao on Tuesday Oct 14.

Omar was a Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, with sustained(continuing) winds of near 120 miles per hour (195 km per hour) as it passed between the Virgin Islands and the northern Leeward Islands.

It is a dangerous hurricane, so "ATTENTION! People that are from Puerto Rico, please be prepare, and be safe." Although they might not even see my blog post.

God of operation~ :_(

2008-10-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

This kind of a sad story, Yong Ching Wang which is a great person that forms the company called Tai-Shuo(台塑) died today at America, New York this afternoon. He was a person that is really good at arranging or operating stuff, so people call him "The God of the Operation". He is a very special person, he didn't even graduated elementary school, because he is very poor when he's young, so he start working when he's young. He solve the money problem for his family, he was a hard working young man. Now he is a person who has 1.3 trillion. Even thought he is "that" rich, he still have dreams that he wants to come true. He wants his company to work in other industries, for example car industry, photoelectric industry, and also IT industry. He even bought the Taiwan Daily News Company, but it seems it doesn't go that well, because of all those stock things. The most sad thing is that he couldn't actually finish his dream, and the day before he died, he was checking his company in America, and it sounds really sad, because he and his family doesn't even have the time to say goodbye or even talk, his family were all shock and sad. Hope that he can have a happy life up there. I forget to say his age, he is 92 years old, it's really lucky to live as old as him! :D

Few earthquake hit Indonesia

2008-10-13T07:54:00.001-07:00

Three moderate earthquakes respectively hit East Nusa Tenggara, North Sumatra and North Maluku in Indonesia Saturday evening, but there was no report of casualties or material damage. An earthquake measuring 5.0 a the Richter scale hit Kupang of East Nusa Tenggara province on Saturday midnight. Another earthquake measuring 5.3 magnitude jolted Mentawai in North Sumatra province earlier on October 12. Then an earthquake measuring 5.3 magnitude hit North Maluku province. It struck Ternate also on Saturday. So scary 3 earthquake jolt Indonesia in a week.

A school life after Ike

2008-10-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

There was a huge and strong hurricane that hits Texas coast, and the time it came it's around this summer or earlier before the summer. People are having hard time with it, and they have to patient so that the government can actually rebuild and reconstruct the whole thing. For us or for kids right now like us, the most import thing is to grow healthy and to have well educated, so study in school it's very important. Students from Sabine Pass School are lack of study tools, so there were people that's really nice and bring them s0me good stuff. Students from Colmesneil delivered supplies, including backpacks, notebooks and crayons. I think it is so nice of them to deliver things to people that need those things, and the teacher from there are happy that the students can finally get back and study hard.

Which is more dense—a stack of 5 NT coins or a stack of 20 NT coins?

2008-10-10T00:16:00.000-07:00

A stack of 20 NT is denser than a stack of 5 NT, because the volume and mass of a stack of 20 NT is bigger than the volume and mass of a stack of 5 NT. To calculate the density of a matter, just use mass/volume, so maybe heavier or bigger stuff is denser.

OH MY GOD!!!! TWO earthquake hit Tibet.

2008-10-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

The first earthquake that hit Tibet is magnitude 6.6, and it has the same magnitude as the one that I wrote about last time-the earthquake that hit Russia, Kyrgyzstan. The quake in the restless region next to Nepal and India came a day after an earthquake in neighboring Kyrgyzstan killed at least 72 people. There were nine bodies, and 11 seriously injured people had been found in in the ruins of collapsed building in Gedar township in Damxung county. On Sunday a magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook the Xinjiang region, which borders Tibet, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Tibet, which is a populated place had been hit by several earthquakes these weeks.

Europe worries dent stock market

2008-10-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

European and Asian stock markets have fallen steeply after government bank bail-outs in the US. Stocks tumbled around the world on Monday, and oil fell below $90 for the first time since February. Shares on Wall Street opened sharply lower Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling more than 230 points within minutes of the open. Many stock market in Europe fall, and the people that bought stocks starts worry about it very much.

Dozen of people DIE in the horrible earthquake in Russia

2008-10-06T06:59:00.000-07:00

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit Russia, Kyrgyzstan yesterday, Sunday night. It killed an estimated 70 people, many people got injured(they are lucky, because they didn't got killed)and destroyed at least 120 buildings. The destruction is concentrated in the remote village of Nura on Kyrgyzstan's border with China. The Health Ministry of has Kyrgyzstan set-up a crisis center in the region, and it saved a lot of people. Some people are still block in their home or some places that rescue team can't go in, so there are four helicopters that gives blankets and foods. Wish that the people that are blocked or having a hard time, just stand up and I wish that the governments can help you guys as soon as they can.

Why do we study MASS and VOLUME for 3 days?

2008-10-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

The reason that we are learning mass and volume for these three days is because we were learning about matter. I guess you would ask what does matter related to mass and volume? I'll say matter is made up by mass and volume, matter is stuff that takes up weight(mass), and space(volume). Basically what are the two important things for studying matter is what is matter and can matter disappear? I think matter can disappear, and when matter disappear, it means the weight and the space that it takes up will be gone too.

Engineer text message 22 seconds before fatal train crash!!! SCARY~

2008-10-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

There was a train crash in the Los Angeles on October 1st, and there is a scary coincidence happened before the fatal disaster train crash happened, the engineer had sent a text message 22 seconds before the train crash. The crash killed 25 people, including the engineer, Robert Sanchez. This poor man Robert Sanchez died in this train crash, and he normally play with his dog, but now....not anymore. This train crash is really bad, so the senate on Wednesday night cleared a rail safety reform bill that would give Amtrak $13 billion dollars over five years. Hope the government can be more careful of safety of anything, so then there will be less injuries happen.

Year's fourth strong typhoon crash Taiwan

2008-09-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

Typhoon Jangmi hit Taiwan with a lot of rains and powerful winds at Sunday, causing widespread of flooding, also shutting down offices and forcing the international flight to cancel. Jangmi is the fourth typhoon that hit Taiwan, and it made a landfall on a city in northeastern Taiwan- Ilan on Sunday. The typhoon brought powerful winds, and people's car or things blew or flip. In Ilan, there is a bus full of people and overturned on the highway, there are 3 or more people are injured. Some people think that this typhoon brought some benefits, because we got to have one day off, but they didn't realize that there are still a lot people out there that's facing a lot problem, like no house can live(or house got flood), or some people got injured when they are coming back or going to somewhere. Hope the typhoon can go pass quickly, and let all of us be safe, warm and dry.

A fight in Philippines killed 16 people

2008-09-25T05:49:00.000-07:00

The fight of Philippines killed at least 16 Muslim rebels in renewed fighting in the marshlands of southern Mindanao this week. It had killed more than 20 government troops over two days, it was really sad. Fighting has happened often in the southern area since the collapse of the latest round of peace talks. International humanitarian groups have expressed concern about the renewed violence, and the high civilian toll. Because of the fight, so the scale of the human suffering is being ignored. I think sometimes it's not fair for some people there, because they don't expect this to happened, and I think war is not a good way to solve a problem.

Is air matter?

2008-09-23T03:50:00.000-07:00

( source:http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007/10/24/air-quality-clouds.jpg)

When I first think of matter, I think matter is the things that have weight and takes space. The reason that I think air is not a matter it's because air is invisible, it seems that air don't takes space and it doesn't have weight either. After reading some articles about air and matter, I finally understand it and I found out the 3 big categories of matter: gas liquid, solid. Air does take up space, even though we can't see it, and air has weight, even if we can't feel it. I am not lying, this had been observed and analyzed by some scientists.

11 tourists got kidnapped in Egypt dessert

2008-09-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

There is a group of 11 European tourists and four Egyptians have been kidnapped in the southern Egyptian desert and apparently taken to neighboring Sudan. The tourists included five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian. The Egypt government believes that the kidnappers have no ties to any terror group. The tourists were traveling in four jeeps and taken across the border into Sudan. The government are not really sure about what terror group is that, and they don't know the people that kidnapped those tourists wants. Anyways, we just hope that all the tourists will be alright, because they are innocent.

Culture of HIS

2008-09-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

HIS Culture
- 5 Student Outcomes- active learner, community contributor, effective communicator, personal of high character.
- All school gathering: we have all school gathering 2 times a week.
- Community Service: we do community service almost every semester.
- Advisory: teachers and students use this time to know more about each other, teachers and find good and bad things from students, and students can also ask question to teachers.
- Exhibition: 8, 10, 12 graders do presentations to show what they have done this whole year.
- SRC: student representative council, they help students to speak out.
- Musical Play: students do musical play to experience cooperation, and this kind of activity let students to build their confidence.
- Camp Taiwan: we went to Camp Taiwan every year, and students use these times to get to know each other, and to also experience cooperation.

Culture of Taiwan

2008-09-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

Taiwan Culture

- Betel nut beauty
- Dragon boat festival
- Moon cake
- Stinky tofu
- Night market
- Crazy driving
- Bubble tea
- Baseball
- KTV
- 7 Eleven
- Language: 台語, 客家話
- Indigenous Peoples: people that have a lot of tribes and they have their own style of clothing, food, and singing
- Taiwanese opera
- Bamboo
- Glove Puppetry
- Food: rice dumplings, beef noodle, sea food mixture with some flour
- Hakka Culture

(source: http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/)

Fourth baby dies from tainted milk formula

2008-09-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

In China, there are 4 babies that got kidney stone. I know that you will curious about why? and how? It is because there is a company that sells tainted milk formula in China, and the tainted milk formula has already sickened more than 6200 babies. They arrested 12 suspects early today in China, but they are still not sure whether they are the right people. This is really dangerous for babies, because if they drink those milk formula, then they are easy to get kidney stone. Kidney stone is a disease which can kill people easily, and babies are weak, so we hope that all those babies will be alright. This tainted milk formula shows that China is a country where people don't really care about each other, no defense to them, it's just we hope that these kind of stuff won't happen again, because it's bad for everyone.

Big stong blasts hit New Delhi, the death toll rises to 20

2008-09-15T07:01:00.000-07:00

There are large and strong explosions that ripped through busy marketplaces in New Delhi. There are 98 people wounded in the Saturday blasts. This is from CNN, "five minutes before the first blast, CNN-IBN -- CNN's sister network in India -- received an E-mail from the group warning of an impending strike." There are at least five explosions ripped through the Karol Bagh market, Kailash Market and Connaught Place, which is a popular tourist destination. There are also two other bombs found near a movie theater and near central park in the Connaught Place area were defused. It was a scary blast.

Why do students blog? Why do we blog?

2008-09-08T07:06:00.000-07:00

I read the article and I also did some research about why do people blog or students blog. I also went search about why do teachers let students blog. I found some interesting answers. Well, basically most of the people think blogging improves students' writing skills and they learn things more from it. I like the one that said that students can build confidence by writing blogs, because people leave comments and encouragements on others blogs. I also like the one that says blogging it's fun, I agree with it because I think writing all those current events stuff it's cool. We learn globally and we might get respond in different country or places.

There are some good descriptions in the video. What I like the most it's the one that tells is the sharing part, because I usually blog for sharing things to friends and teachers. Not just school works, the previous school we put school works and videos that we like on out blog. Well it is a bit not neat, but it's fun and cool. I also like the part that tells group discussions, because group discussions let me learn more things from other classmates and people. We can see things from others differently. Blogging it's a good thing for learning.

The Hurricane Ike weaken...BUT!!!!

2008-09-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

The forecasters downgraded Hurricane Ike, weakened by several hours over eastern Cuba, and become to Category 2 storm status Monday. But the forecasters said that it is too fast to know that the Gulf Coast Ike is leaving, but they predict that the environment in the Gulf is going to be re-strength.

The latest hurricane center track map shows that the greatest chances for a U.S. landfall for Ike would be as a Category 3 storm near the Texas-Louisiana border on Saturday. This hurricane cause a lot of flooding in the village in Haiti. And there are around 73 people were killed by the flooding thing. They have to walk in the mud water to there home and I think all the farmers there will be very very sad and disappointed, because the crop(agriculture thing)are inside the water. And this hurricane let at least 900,000 people have been evacuated in Cuba.

Awesome robot bartender

2008-09-04T06:49:00.000-07:00

Wow! The coolest news that I saw today, is this the awesome robot bartender. I think I don't really need to explain much, because I think the name already explain what the thing is and does.
Fine...I'll still explain it. Well, basically it is a robot(machine) that works in the pub or place where you drink wine or those drink you mix wine and different things together. And what it is special for it is that this kind of robot can make a bunch of different wine mixture(and it is drinkable). But that's not it, it can also chat with people, and it can make a drink less than two minutes. I think that is super awesome and it's useful. This kind of robot bartender is designed in Japan and now there are many pub manager(conductor) is thinking about getting one of those in their pub, but this smart and useful robot is not cheap. I am not really sure how much it is for one, because from now I still can't really search informations for this. But I will keep finding...:D

Proud of Taiwan- Sun Yui Chi 宋玉麒

2008-08-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and the day before yesterday, Taiwan's Taekwondo representative Sun Yui Chi(宋玉麒), he competed with a person from Turkey for bronze metal. Basically Taekwondo looks like boxing. There will be a competition in the middle, and then when the game starts, there will be a loud sound. Taekwondo is divided in different rounds, but one round has only for a few second, so the players will always try to find the right time and then kick, and it has to fast. first round no one gets any point, because they are kind of testing each other, to show their weak side, but it doesn't really work much. So on the second round, both of them start to kicking each other, then our team got 2 points, and the Turkey team got 1 point, we are 1 point ahead. On the third round, both of them take turns to kick others, and the Turkey team got earned 2 points, but we only earned 1 point. So now both teams are even. But Sun Yui Chi didn't just give up, at the moment of only few seconds left, he got 1 points and won the bronze medal for Taiwan. At the moment that every Taiwan people is cheering, Sun Yui Chi kneel down to his father(which is also his coach) to thanks for everything. That was a really touching moment. We are proud of Sun Yui Chi, and he is our hero.

Beijing Olympics-Is something fak? Is something unbeleivable?

2008-08-16T23:19:00.000-07:00

I bet almost everyone saw the Opening Ceremony of the China Olympics, because it was really impressive and beautiful. We all can see that China spent a lot of time and effort on this, and they mobilize a lot people to do this performance. Also the fire works of the opening ceremony has many shapes that seem unbelievablea

But the day after the opening ceremony, many news company and audience are guessing China cheated. So they ask questions from different people, and they find out that some of the fire work performance is fake. China use a kind of special lightning or some kind of projection to show some cool fire works but its impossible to make.

And also another thing that people find out it's the young girl who's singing sweetly through Ode to the Motherland in the Bird’s Nest stadium in the opening ceremony, her name is Lin Miaoke. She got a cute and lovely face, but the song is not sang by her. lip-synched at the opening ceremony over the voice of Yang Peiyi, which is a girl also has a wonderful face, but why don't the China government give her the chance to stand on stage sing by herself and not someone using her voice to be famous? So many people are guessing that it's because Yang Peiyi two of her front teeth was missing(growing), so they don't let her to stand on stage and sing, because it is not perfect looking.

"``Hasn't China for a thousand years emphasized having a beautiful heart? This Olympic fake singing really makes China lose all face,'' one poster wrote. ``This is an insult to harmonious society!'' (taken the entire sentence from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=axydL1aIUDWg&refer=asia, which is the last sentence.)

Iraq Can't Participate in the Beijing Olympics

2008-07-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

There is a girl from Iraq called Dana Hussain, she is a good sprinter in Iraq. And she almost give everything and give her every energy in this Beijing Olympics. But now the International Olympic Committee banned iraq from competing because of what it says is the government's political interference in sports. When Hussain got heard this, she was extremely sad, she even cried for hours, when ever she remembers this thing. I think this thing is kind of ridiculous, because many people they give up things to come to this Olympic thing, and now they say they cannot participate, it is not fair for them. I hope that Beijing government can change their mind.