Semester Final

7. What have you learned from your struggles with writer's block? Why do you tend to get stuck? How do you tend to get unstuck? Notice any patterns?
8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

• Has blogging had any other effects on your life beyond strictly your "school life"? If so, explain.

• For the second semester only: Do you plan on continuing to publish writing on your blog this summer, next year, or beyond? If so, what are your writing goals and how will you use your blog in the future?

10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

Blogger is actually my first blogging account that I have ever made. If Mr. Sutherland never told us about blogger or told us that we were going to be blogging for the whole year, I do not think I would ever blog. But since we started blogging when school started, I have come to enjoy blogging and I blog every single day now. I never thought that we would be blogging in class, I thought we would just be reading books for the whole year and analyzing them, but no, for us, we blog and then we go over it and analyze our own writing to see if we notice any patterns and this is a new and interesting way to practice our writings. Blogging have changed the way I write and the way I think because when I blog, I usually let my mind out - I say whatever is on my mind and whatever I think and feel. And I feel a lot more confident and independent when I blog, especially since we can blog about whatever we want, and doesn’t matter what we say at all. And I can’t usually do that in real life when I talk to people.

When I blog, I use words that I do not normally use that makes me sound a lot smarter. Blogging is easier than writing too because all you do is just type and you can do it anytime you want. I feel that my writing improved quite a lot throughout the year, and hopefully it will continue to improve as years continue to pass by.

I remember in the beginning of the year, I use to struggle a lot with writer’s block. That happens because I just can’t think of what to write. Whenever I read other people’s blogs, it seems like they always have something to talk about. For me, sometimes it would take the whole week just to come up with what to write about. I get unstuck by just writing about the first thing that comes to my mind. If the word “love” comes to my mind, then I will write about love. If music comes to my mind, I will write about music. Etc…

I get my ideas for my blog post topics from my head. For these weekly blog posts, I have been blogging about whatever was on my mind. They were usually about my day though, because something interesting happens to me everyday. I like to tell people about my day and I like it when they tell me about their day too. I like to blog about my day as well, just so I can go back and read over what happened in the past whenever I am bored. I treat my blog as an online diary or journal. Isn’t the point of having a diary or journal just writing about your day? Well actually, I can write about anything in a diary but I mostly like to write about my day, so that’s what I usually write about.

I don’t blog only about my day though. I have some few private posts too and I blog about what I think and what I feel, and nobody gets to judge me, because it’s MY blog - freedom of speech. What inspires me to write is reading other people’s blogs. There are other people from different blogging websites, like Tumblr, whom I like reading posts from. I do not follow that many people; I usually follow the people whose posts I like to read. They are just so inspiring because I like the way they think - the way their brain works.

When I blog, I listen to music too; not those loud very noisy songs that gives you a headache or songs that you enjoy listening to everyday. When I blog, I listen to peaceful music, oh and not the kind of peaceful music that are classical, I meant music that are like R&B or slow jams. It makes me relax and it helps me think a lot better. So I guess that can sort of be an inspiration - calm music.

Even though I really love having a blog and I loved writing in it every week, I will definitely continue blogging in the summer. But I doubt it would be weekly since I have summer classes to attend to and I probably won’t be at home much. And like I said, whatever interesting happens to my day, I will definitely blog about it. Or if I simply have to let stuff off my chest, I will blog about whatever is on my mind. I’ll treat it like an online diary or journal or maybe simply just a friend that I can let out anything off my mind. Because I usually tell my friends about my life and whatever I am thinking of, but when I think about it over and over again, I feel like I shouldn’t have to tell my friends every single detail, and I should blog about it instead and I know that no one will have access to any of my private blogs except for me… I have no idea if that made any sense.

As my sophomore year have come to an end, and reading every single one of my posts from the beginning of the year til now, I feel accomplished. Blogging has definitely made my writing more organized and easier to read. I will definitely continue to blog for the rest of my life, if that is possible, so I must not procrastinate. Then I can go back and read blog 1 to blog 1 million. Hopefully if I have Mr. Sutherland next year, we will continue to blog; that would be totally amazing! And I am going to have to think of really really random topics to write about. I am looking forward to blogging even more and to see what other improvements I will be making. Thank you Mr. Sutherland!

Monthly Review: Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

2 For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

4 How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?
(You must include a passage or two from the text if you choose this question.)

8 Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.

Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys is a fictional novel written by Kate Brian tells the story about a 16 years old junior army tomboy "brat" who has to live with (cute) 7 “Abercrombie God” boys while her parents have been transferred overseas to Korea for the military. Megan never actually had an ordinary life, having real best friends, or stayed at a place for no more than 3 years; her whole life consists of moving here and there from all over the world. This time, Megan has the decision to either stay here in the United States or move all the way to Korea with her parents. She decides to stay in the United States, but then she’s going to have to live with her dad’s friends’ family, the McGowans, which are in Massachusetts. Megan currently lives in Texas.

Megan wonders how things will be like living with 7 boys, and assuming that those boys are the kind of

boys with missing teeth, smeared faces of red Popsicle goo, beady little eyes laughing at her as they lured her behind their house to see their “puppy” and then lassoed her to a tree and hung her upside down. Greasy-haired, chubby-legged, evil little boys. Boys with worms in their pockets who ate gum off the ground and pulled her hair. P.6

Living with hot guys in one house doesn't mean that things will turn out so smoothly. Megan and her parents use to go visit the McGowans all the time back in the days, and she use to play with a few of those 7 boys too. They were nothing but trouble! Once Megan arrived at their house again, she see all the 7 boys outside in the yard playing ball with the younger sons. They all seem so magical to her as if she was in heaven. And she thought living with boys were nothing but trouble and disgusting greasy hands. Well boy was she ever wrong. All the boys… I mean, teenage boys are H-O-T!

Out of all the 7 McGowan boys, Megan, and Megan’s friends, I would have to say that Finn interested me the most. He’s the only guy that stood out in the story, to me anyways. He’s the 4th son in the family and he is super nice to Megan and he‘s practically her only friend out of all the 7 boys. Finn is an artist and he paints for fun. He hides in the shed in the backyard to paint and it’s sort of like his little studio. Throughout the whole story, Finn and Megan got closer and closer to each other that they were kissing each other in the shed!

Megan stopped [talking] suddenly - Finn’s face had gone all weird. He wasn’t smiling anymore. It seemed like he had stopped breathing… And then he leaned forward and kissed her… Megan froze. P. 224

Oh wow! So Megan wasted her whole time focusing on Evan, falling in love with Evan, tolerating with Hailey’s shit towards Megan, wanting to be with Evan, everything with Evan, that she totally missed out on the obvious. When Finn and Megan started talking, I knew for sure that Finn was such a nice guy and that they were going to get together anyways. I mean, when I didn’t even read this book yet, I kind of knew there were going to have a little bit of romance in it anyways; Megan living with 7 guys? Of course something was bound to happen. And I knew all along that Finn was going to be the guy that Megan have affections to. She was just too blind in the first place.
I also remember that when Megan was still new to living with them, all the boys got together in Evan’s room and talked about how to get rid of Megan, because they think now that she’s living with them, there are certain rules to follow, and Finn was in it too.

'This sucks,’ someone whispered. “Since when are they so big on us following the rules?' … 'We had this place wired tight, yo,' Doug sad. '…I say we ice her until she cracks. We make it so bad she’ll be beggin’ to jet to Korea.' Megan swallowed hard. Wasn’t anyone going to defend her? Finn? Evan? Anyone? P. 78

Well, Megan wasn’t so comfortable living with them just yet, and of course, since Finn is one of the guys in the family, he’s like practically one of them! So of course he has to be in with them. But Megan didn’t hear him say a word about what Doug had said. The next day, Megan told Finn what she had heard and then Finn said to not worry about it and don’t let his brothers get to her. Then he smiled at her and she smiled back.

I have to say that this book was absolutely entertaining and I can totally imagine all the scenes out perfectly and easily. The way Kate Brian writes in this book makes it like a teen’s book, even though it is one, but her style is just absolutely amazing. I don’t know how she made the dramatic part of the book so dramatic. I wish this could be a movie though. It would be so cool! And I can already think of all the actors to play out every single person from the novel. I wonder what it would be like if I had to live with 7 sons of all ages under one roof. This tomboy brat experienced a lot for the past year, living with those Abercrombie Gods. And it was pretty tough for her to go to a new school too, even though she’s use to it. But overall, I’m really impressed and I’m pretty satisfied after finished reading this book. I’d give this book a 10 out of 10 because of its uniqueness. Priscilla recommended this book to me actually, and I would recommend this book to any girl who likes reading book with school drama, adventure, and a little bit of a cheesy romance. This book is really easy to read and I know for sure that if I have some extra money, I’m seriously going to walk down to Borders and buy more of Kate Brian’s books. Recently, I’ve checked online to see if there are any other information about Kate Brian and her books and I’ve come across her website called Private and it consists of online web series of her book Private. It looks pretty cool although I didn’t watch a clip just yet. I want to know if there is a sequel to Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan boys though. If so, I would get it right away!

Last Weekly Blog Post

So I just found out this is the last weekly blog post of the year. It’s pretty sad, because I remember the very first time that I made a Blogger in classroom 204. Ever since school started on August 31st until today May 21st, I’ve made so many memories with old friends and new friends. Not only in school but outside of school too. So many memories are running through my mind now. I mean, where do I start? I guess I can just say whatever pops into my mind. I can say for a fact that I’ve been parting away with some close friends and eventually I made new friends this year too. I’ve gotten closer with some friends I don’t even talk to that much as well and that was a good thing. High school is half way over.
According to today’s senior talent show assembly, us sophomores have 700 something more days of school until we graduate. It’s really scary how time is flying by so fast though. I’m really not ready to grow up just yet, not matter how much I really want to move out of this annoying and loud house of mine. This year, I’ve had a lot of problems with my family, especially the people I live with; my parents and grandpa. I remember when I was little, only my parents use to have arguments with each other, and it didn’t even involve my grandpa, and now it did. It’s really sad and messed up. But there’s nothing I can do about it, because to them, I’m just an immature teen who doesn’t even know anything yet.
I remember in elementary school, I use to have these silly fights with my friends and we don’t talk to each other for at few days; I remember the longest was a week, and it felt like forever. Now when I think about it, all those fights were really silly, but we were only in what, 3rd? 5th grade. What do you expect, right?
When middle school started, I don’t think I had an argument with any of my friends. And also I was new to Alameda and it was never my intention to start some random argument with my friends and then start ignoring each other. But the only worse thing today is just being apart from friends that I normally talk to in middle school. But it’s okay, we still have contact with each other and whenever we see each other we still smile and wave to each other so that’s still a good thing.
Right now, I’m thinking all the times I had throughout 16 years of living my life. I can’t believe 16 years have passed so quickly. Another 16 years will pass by again and then I will be 32 years old. Oh no! I’m going to be so old! I can’t even picture myself that old! Maybe I can sort of picture myself being 20 something and graduate college already, but 32? No I don’t think I can imagine that just yet.
Just the thought about the 16 years that have passed by and thinking about the other 10 years that will come soon is very scary. I have a feeling that junior year and senior year will pass by fast too.
Sophomore year was amazing. I have to say it was better than freshmen year. It was a lot easier too for some reason. Isn’t it suppose to be the other way around? I still couldn’t believe I had a 2.6 last year but this year I practically have all A’s! This is unbelievable. Even though I know for a fact that junior year and senior year will go by super fast, I still hope that I will have straight A’s again!
So until … whenever … I’ll continue to keep living my life to the fullest! With my friends, family, boyfriend, and who else is there? New friends! You will never know what kind of surprise we will encounter in our path. There will be ups and downs, but hey! That’ just life, right?

Lit Circle #3: Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

In part 3 of Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys, the part I think is interesting is when Megan went to Christian Todd’s party. Almost all the juniors and seniors were there. A few of the McGowan boys were there too. Megan, usually a tomboy, dressed all up and looked girly for once just for this party. She also wore pink too.
Since Evan and his girlfriend Hailey were having trust issue with each other, well more like Hailey were having trust issues with Evan, Evan told Megan it wasn’t a good idea if they went inside the house together because people will start assuming things and Hailey will get even more pissed. Megan’s heart dropped and she just ran out of the car and ran inside the house, feeling like she was going to tear. When she went inside, she saw her friends and wandered around the party. The girls started dancing randomly to the music. Megan was actually having fun. She’s never been to anything like this before and this was actually pretty fun for her. Megan dancing with her new friends caught her off guard. She still have like a little crush for Evan. When she saw the front door open, Hailey was there, being all drunk. Her outfit made her look like a slut. She was wearing a black tube top and short shorts that can practically be her panties.
There were many guys surrounding her and her arm was around one guy’s neck for support. Evan went over to her and Megan saw them talking. Evan’s look was disappointed and Hailey was yelling at him. Then she ran out the back door. Megan knew that Evan was upset. Evan then went to a bedroom and laid there for a bit, thinking. Megan went inside because she thought it was a bathroom. When she was about to leave, Evan told her to come in and they both had a talk. While they were talking, Megan felt that Evan was really going to kiss her because his face was going near his face. Just then, Hailey smashed open the door against the wall because she want to have a talk when she started assuming things. She thought that just because Evan and Megan were in a bedroom together, they’d start banging each other, because Hailey got mad. Then what happens after? Some people caught Doug McGowan banging Hailey behind a tree outside.
When I read those few lines I really have to say that Hailey is such a dramatic whiny ass bitch who needs to stop assuming shit if she don’t have good solid proof. And she definitely does not deserve Evan. He’s too good for her. I honestly believe that Evan would do a lot better if he wasn’t with Hailey. Hailey don’t even consider Evan’s feelings and think that banging another guy will make everything better. And worse of all, Doug is Evan’s little brother. And when Evan found out, he beat up Doug so badly that he had to go to the hospital. At least Megan was there for Evan when he needed a shoulder to cry on, when he needed someone to talk things out with, when he needed a friend, a true friend.

Rules of Love?

Rules of Love? Do we really need rules if we want to be in a relationship with someone? Can't we just do whatever we want? Well obviously not! In my opinion, there are certain rules that must be followed when you're in a relationship. I know, right? Rules? I thought rules are suppose to be followed in school but we can do whatever we want outside of school. If you think that, then you're totally wrong.
Rules, or should I say, "common sense", is the ability to know what's right from wrong and know the obvious. Some of the most important rules in a relationship is obviously no lying, no cheating, don't do whatever that will hurt your boyfriend/girlfriend. I think those are the major rules you have to follow.
But for most people, people will already follow those rules, because they are smart enough to not do that. Being in a relationship, or I mean, in love means that you actually care for that person and that you will practically do anything for them. Maybe not anything but at least it shows that you care for that special love one. When you're in a relationship, it's when you're in a committed relationship and that you won't play around with their hearts and feelings.
What happens if you break these rules? Why would you even break these rules? Why would you even lie and cheat? Are they not enough? Are they not good enough? Are you some kind of player or slut who needs multiple girls or guys to be satisfied? Think about the other person for once! Once you break these rules, you break their heart and that is not a good thing to do. What happens if they're stupid enough to kill themselves? And it's all your fault. If you can't handle that person, you can't handle being in a committed relationship.
Nice girls? Nice guys? Do they even exist nowadays? I suppose back then in the 1980's or so, they did have nicer people but today? I don't think we have any of those people anymore. I mean I guess people can be nice and friendly and all but honestly saying, everyone can be selfish, rude, jealous, and what not in their own ways. Some things that nice girls won't do is be confident about herself and that guys will probably take advantage of her. Some things that nice guys won't do is treat girls like shit.
These rules aren't invented by anybody. There's no book of rules of love written by someone. People have different expectations of rules and how they want someone to treat them. It actually depends on their personality. But all you need is just common sense... or else you're not ready to be in a relationship.

summer vacation;; iron man 2;; tired

I can't believe this year is almost over. 20 more school days. 4 more weeks. This is absurd! Almost 180 days have passed already? I really have to say this year went by FAST! Faster than freshman year!! Is it because all my classes this year is really easy and it felt like I didn't have t0 do much work? No, I had to do a lot of work even if the classes or teachers are easy or not. I remember in my previous blog posts, I researched about the end of the world, earthquakes, and stuff and I remember that one of the earthquakes, (I think the one from Cuba or was it Chile? I don't know, I'll look back to at it later, because I'm in my 3rd period class right now; computers, and the bell is about to ring so I'll check later) that it made the earth's rotation go by faster than usual!
Oh this is just crazy! Watch, in a blink of an eye, I will be 21 years old already. Gosh why is time flying so fast? I mean ... I sort of like it going by fast but then again, I don't want to grow up so quickly! I'm gonna have so much responsibilities to take care of.
But what I'm super excited right now is summer vacation! I haven't traveled that much for these last few summers because we don't really have enough money right now due to building a new house at our back yard! So this summer, I'll be doing the same as last summer, which is going to take a class at Laney for 6 weeks and hang out with friends.
Last year, I took Chinese 1 with Katherine. This summer I will be taking pre calculus with analytical geometry with Leon, my friend Brian, Ryan, Melissa, and some more people. I also heard a whole bunch of San Leandro High School students are taking that class in the morning too from one of my friends.
Okay, right now it is exactly 8:41 PM. I just came back from watching Iron Man 2 with Leon. Asmita and Alejandra was there too. Iron Man 2 was pretty good. It was funny too. Some friends told me the first movie was better and the second movie was only funny and there wasn't that much action in it. Other friends said it was just as cool as the first one. And some more friends said it sucked. In my opinion, I think it was pretty good. I like the first and second one. The movie was 2 hours long but it seemed shorter. I guess I was too into the movie that I didn't realize how fast time was flying. After the movie, Leon and I went to Quickly to get milk tea. It was around 7 something by that time.
My mom called me and she asked where I am and she wanted me to come home. So Leon waited for the bus to go to Fruitvale bart to bart back home. I walked towards home and I saw my mom walking towards AMPM. She wanted to buy a lottery ticket. After that, we walked back home, ate dinner, went on the computer to finish my blog posts.
I am really exhausted. This week was a long and tiring week. I already reached the limit here so I will finish up my lit circle, take a shower, then have a good night's sleep.
:]

Lit Circle #2: Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

In part 2 of Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys, Megan started school already and she was kind of struggling. Well, more than just struggling. She encountered some troubles. So we all know that Megan likes the senior, Evan. Well, actually, she doesn’t really like him that much. She just think he’s hot and good looking and stuff. Plus Evan has a girlfriend named Hailey Farmer, also known as “Queen Bitch Farmer” according to her younger sister Aimee Farmer. Hailey and Aimee are both in the soccer team that Megan tried out for. Megan was actually pretty good. Hailey got pissed and was jealous because she thought Megan was good too. So starting from that point, Hailey started giving Megan the cold shoulder.
After soccer practice, Evan went to the field and waved at Megan and Hailey completely ran up to him and started making out with him. All the girls’ felt disgusted. Megan felt her heart drop. Evan called for Megan to go home. Hailey felt kind of insecure now knowing they live with each other.
That night, Evan and his friends are going out to the lagoon to watch planes take off. Evan invited Megan. When they got there, Megan saw Hailey there. Of course she would be there… When Evan left Megan and Hailey alone for a bit, Megan tried to start a friendly conversation with Hailey.

“So, Hailey, what was the team’s record lasts year?” she asked. “We won more than we lost,” Hailey said, pushing her hands into the front pockets of her tight jeans. “Why? Worried the team’s not good enough for you?”
Megan stared at her. “No. I’m just making conversation.”
“Well, we made it to counties, but we didn’t win the final…Of course, Coach thinks that with you around, it’ll happen this year.”
“Thanks,” Megan said.”
“I said, ‘Coach thinks.’”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“What?”
“Did I do something? I mean, to offend you?” Megan asked. “All I’m trying to do is settle in at a new school, maybe make some friends, play a little soccer. But you seem to really not like me.”
Megan held her breath, unable to believe that her thoughts had actually come out in a semi-coherent way. For a split second, Hailey’s face softened and Megan realized that the girl was really pretty when she didn’t have her scowl on. She even looked like she was going to say something semi-human. Then Evan broke away from the crowd with his beers and Hailey saw him coming. She glanced at Evan, then at Megan, and reached out her arm to him.
“Come on, baby,” she said, latching onto his side. “Let’s go find someplace a little more private.”

So from this giant blurb from the part two, I have to say that Hailey really does despise Megan. I’m guessing it’s because Hailey is jealous. One, because Megan is super good at soccer, and Hailey had to be a little bit more aggressive to be a little bit better than Megan, just a little bit. Megan being good at soccer kind of ticks Hailey a bit, so Hailey had to be a show off. Two, because Megan lives with a whole bunch of hot boys, and especially living with her boyfriend that Hailey feels insecure about the whole thing.

For this part of part 2, I think since Hailey is in the same soccer team as Megan. And since Megan is new to the state, and the school, Hailey really shouldn’t be a total bitch towards her. Just because she’s good at soccer and lives with 7 boys doesn’t mean she’s all that. It probably seems like it, like I guess I can tell Hailey thinks that Megan is probably a show off slut but Megan is actually a tomboy. To be honest, Hailey is the one who’s like a slut. Hailey really should think twice before she starts talking more shit about Megan and criticizing her. She should be more like the other girls in the soccer team; make her feel welcome to the new school, the new place, and have her catch up on stuff.

Lit Circle #1: Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

For this last lit circle, I will be reading Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys written by Kate Brian. Priscilla recommended this book to me and so far, I like it a lot. This book should become a movie someday because I honestly think it's not that hard to film or direct. Anyways, from what I read so far in the story, Megan Meade, a typical tomboy Junior army girl and her parents move from place to place all over the world. Megan Meade currently lives in Texas and one day her parents told her they were going to move to South Korea. Megan felt like she has finally found a home to live in and she wants to stay here for her whole life so she told her parents No, she's not moving again, she's staying here.

She had a real best friend, Tracy Dale-Franklin. And this year, on the first day of school, she was going to talk to Ben Palmer. Finally, finally talk to him. She even had the outfit all picked out and had practiced her greeting three hundred and fifty-one times in front of the mirror. This was suppose to be The Year of Megan. Why was this happening?

Her parents decided that she can stay in the United States, but she's going to have to live with their friends, the John and Regina McGowan and their seven boys who lives in Massachusetts. Megan and her best friend Tracy talked through instant messaging. Tracy reminds me of a preppy drama chick who loves fashion, shopping, and cute boys. She even told Megan to make a guide book about what it's going to be like living with seven guys "where testosterone is the king and she is an outcast."

When she arrived at their house, the boys were outside playing. There were so many of them and they "have been touched by Abercrombie gods". Megan finally noticed this guy who's super hot and has six-pack abs. His smile sent shivers right through Megan's core. He had shaggy blond hair, a square chin, and the most perfect shoulder muscles Megan had ever seen. He went over to help Megan with her bags. He introduced him; Evan. Megan got so surprised because she remembers Evan when they were little. Evan use to be this really pudgy, stringy haired, snot bubble blowing little boy, but now he's like a GOD.

The rest of the boys introduced themselves when they got into the house. So there are Evan, the senior; Doug, the 2nd to oldest son who reminds me of a gangster; Miller, 3rd son who has Asperger's Syndrome. Finn, the nice guy; Sean, who loves motorcycles; Ian and Caleb are the youngest who goes through Megan's stuff and trouble makers.

Megan starts school with the boys and things are sort of better at school. To her it’s just “a piece of cake”. But trying to survive a house full of boys is just complicated.

Giving up something for 48 hours

If I could give up anything for 48 hours, I would choose my laptop. You have no idea how many hours I spend on my laptop everyday right when I come home from school. Usually I check my facebook, chat with people on AIM, and of course do my homework. Even though there aren't that many things to do on Face Book, I'm still on it a log. That is why it takes me so long to finish my homework, when it doesn't really take that long to finish.
A few years ago, probably when I was in middle school, I always go online to watch those really cheesy Asian dramas every single day. During the summer, when I didn't have summer school, when I stayed home all summer, the first thing I do when I wake up was turn on my computer, sign on AIM, and watch Asian dramas. I think I watched about 4 dramas that summer. I'm surprised my eye sight is still perfect. But right now, I don't even have time to watch dramas anymore.
For these past years, I've been going on the computer a lot. So I would like to try this little experiment soon, just to see what the results would be like. To do so, I really need to put my laptop somewhere where I won't be able to reach to. I guess I can give it to my mom and she can take it to her to work for the whole day until when she comes back home which is around 6PM. But that doesn't mean that when she comes back I can go on my laptop!

I think I really am addicted to my laptop. It would be kind of hard because this is like a typical routine I do every single day. What would I do though? Well I can get my homework finished early and I'd probably have a few hours of free time before I go to bed (during the weekday). I can probably practice my piano! I have piano lessons every Saturday and I don't really practice that much... because I'm always on the computer! (Duh). Also I can probably read a book. What about during the weekend? I would have so much free time. Maybe I can go out and take a walk? My parents probably won't even let because they think it's "dangerous". But if I go with friends then I will be able to go! Maybe during the weekend, my family and I should go out to have a picnic somewhere. When I was little, we use to have picnics at Bay Farm. We should have that more often.
Now when I think about it, I think I would prefer to not go on my laptop for like a week. I've been on it too much for all these years and I want to do something nice and useful. I don't want to just sit there staring at a screen for 7+ hours. And despite the fact that I still have perfect eye sight, I might not have perfect eye sight when I will be older! I don't even like wearing glasses anyways, and by going on the computer a lot, I will be wearing glasses soon.
Because I am addicted to going on the computer just to go on Face Book and chat on AIM with friends and go on You Tube, I am so glad that I am not addicted to any sort of video games. A lot of my friends tried to convince me to play video games with them like Maple Story, Witch of Warcraft, Modern Warfare, Call of Duty and other kinds of fighting/shooting games, that I don't even know if girls play. But I said no, because I don't even like playing video games. I don't even have a DS or PSP or Wii or anything. If I do play those games a lot, then I will be in serious trouble. But I'm glad I'm not. And I really do think I can not use the computer for 48 hours. Or more. Maybe. I should try it and I'll blog about what it's like.

Monthly Review: Dear John

2. Savannah and John meet when John is on a furlough from the military and they fall deeply in love after only a few days. Is their love believable? Do you think it is possible to have such an intense connection with someone you’ve only just met?
6. When John goes back to Germany after his furlough, he and Savannah vow to stay in touch and to marry when he returns. Do you think it’s possible to stay in love with someone without seeing them for months or years at a time? How does being apart affect Savannah and John’s relationship?
8. Do you think Savannah should have waited for John to come home or do you think it was understandable that she moved on with her life?

The novel Dear John tells the story about a rebellious soldier name John Tyree who meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah Lynn Curtis. The author, Nicholas Sparks, wrote this book in the perspective of John. Savannah waits for John to finish his task in the army so they can get married. Their only contact to each other was by mail. When the 9/11 attack happened, John stays in the army longer. Savannah couldn’t wait any longer and falls in love with someone else and wrote a heartbreaking letter to John calling it off. Years later, John came back home, getting use to the fact that Savannah is with someone else and faces the hardest decision of his life.
What most people think or do is that they get to know a person very well and go out for a bit and have loving and caring affections towards each other but, you can fall from in love to in lust.

If you keep believing in something and work towards to making it happen, it will happen. If you’re in a long distance relationship and you know in your heart that they are worth it. Time and strength is going to be your biggest test. When you pass that test, you’ll be one of the happiest and luckiest people in the world, because you know how strong your relationship is going to be. Distance really does stretch a person’s willpower just to pursue that one thing, but when you get it, how good does it feel to finally have it and know that it’s yours to keep? Even though a relationship is a relationship. Long distance relationships aren’t in their own group. It’s just like any other relationship, but the two just happen to be far away from each other. Savannah couldn’t wait anymore. Her love strength has gotten weak. Her personality practically changed after college. John and Savannah’s relationship failed the test.

Then again, from my experience, I definitely believe it is possible to have such an intense connection with someone you’ve only just met. I met my boyfriend of 9 months, Leon Ly, through my friend Christine (no it was not a hook up) and we made our long distance relationship work. How often you see each other shouldn’t determine how good you are at a relationship. Love should know no bounds, and if you wanted to get yourself into a long distance relationship or one with an age gap, then I think you should just do it. But if you don’t make it work, it obviously won’t. I don’t get see my boyfriend all that often, especially since I have to keep our relations out of my parents’ reach, (but not for long!) but we have something called a cellular phone, where we talk and text each other 24/7 and only see each other only during breaks and vacations. We excel in this relationship because we want it to work, and we’re able to make it work, despite the many miles between us.

John and Savannah‘s love was believable, and it still is; they didn’t have all that much time to actually get to know each other that well. John got to go out with Savannah for at least a month, because he has to go back to Germany. The long distance affects Savannah and John’s relationship because they were growing apart from each other. They didn’t even have a life together.

I think Savannah should’ve waited for John to come home. But I understand that Savannah has to go through all those times being lonely and not having anyone to hold or embrace her and feel loved, but she isn’t the only one who is going through a long distance relationship. It’s like as if she doesn’t understand how soldiers are being in the army. He is under so much pressure, and then writing a break up letter would make things better? Well, I guess she knows he’s not going to feel any better but John couldn’t even talk to Savannah about it and say how he feels about it because he could’ve persuaded her or have her think twice about the decision she was about to make. Sure, Tim was there to comfort her all those times when John was in the army, but that doesn’t mean she can just fall right in love with him and then write a letter dumping him. I just think she should’ve waited for John. She said so herself in her first letter to John that she was going to marry him when he came back for good.

“I love you John Tyree, and I’m going to hold you to the promise you once made me. If you come back, I’ll marry you. If you break you promise, you’ll break my heart.” P.139
Well, look who’s the heart breaker now? Savannah is lucky that John still loves her no matter what and that he doesn’t regret loving her. And Savannah still loves John of course; whenever there’s a full moon out at night, she goes outside and stare right into it, thinking about John, which shows her love for him is endless.

There are so many symbols in this novel that made the whole story board sweet and sour. You may not really notice it at first, but when you really think about it, like how I did, everything makes sense. Savannah’s cocky personality, thinking she knows everything, Tim and his little brother Alan who has autism, 9/11 attack, John’s father’s coin collection, John’s father and son bonding relationship with his father, and there are probably more symbols from the book. I mean, I think the “fall” of John and Savannah’s relationship started going down is when Nicholas Sparks added the 9/11 incident, which made John re-enlist. Which extended John and Savannah’s hope of being with each other was extended. The two lovers are separated because one of them got married and John found out what love actually means - “that love meant that you care for another person’s happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.” P. 275
“Our love has three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. And although this is the way all stories unfold, I still can’t believe that ours didn’t go on forever.” P. 4 Well you can’t have everything. That’s all I have to say.

Dear John is easy to read. I think a nice place to read this book is at a beach. Maybe because it’s relaxing. It’s a wonderful and touching book to read, especially how Nicholas Sparks wrote it. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Interhigh: Rise

On Saturday the 17th, I went to piano lessons at 12. I stayed at my piano teacher's house until 5:00 because me and my friends were going to go to this special event called Rise. It was boring waiting for 5 hours though but I had my iPod and my book. Around 5:00, people were coming and we were getting ready to go.
Rise was at Berkeley in a middle school with a huge auditorium. Rise is this special event from Interhigh Fellowship. Interhigh Fellowship that is led by Pastor William Kang, is a place where all Christian Bay Area students from school gather together and discuss different topics that are happening in the world and relations to God. There are UC Berkely mentors trying to train them to be "committed followers of Christ."
The Rise that I went was the 2nd Rise, I didn't go to the first Rise, though I wish I did. This 2nd Rise is about Evidence for the Resurrection. Over 600 people attended Rise from all over the Bay Area.
Rise lasted from 6-9. The people made it seem so dramatic, like as if it was New Years! When we were inside the gym, it wasn't 6:00 yet, and there was a count down! Once it hit 6:00 sharp, everyone was jumping up and down screaming and the Interhigh band came out and we sang a whole bunch of Christian songs. It was so cool and people were clapping with the beat of the songs and jumping up and down, and during the soft mellow songs, everyone closed their eyes to sing and they put their right arms up (trying to connect with God?).
After we were done singing, we sat back down at our seat and we watched a skit about what really happened to Jesus Christ. Did he really rise from the dead? The skit was cute because there were middle schoolers and high schoolers who cooperated in doing the skit and they made it fun. After the skit, a guest speaker, William Lane Craig came in to talk about Jesus Christ and did he really rise from the dead. He talked for a really long time and I understood what was his point, but I didn't understand what he was saying exactly, because he used such big vocabularies! He's so smart too! When he was done talking, we sat in groups and we wrote down some questions that we want to ask him, to see can he really answer them, but we didn't go through all of them because it was almost 9.
10 minutes before 9, everyone put their chairs away and they gave us snacks like cookies and chips. I really thought they would have dinner though because during our Interhigh Fellowship that happens at Bayfarm provides dinner.
At 9 something, our group left and since we were very hungry, we drove around to see if we can find a place to eat. We went back to Oakland and ate at this ice cream shop. Ice cream for dinner... How nice. We went back to my piano teacher's house so the Alameda people can get a ride back to Alameda, because our driver was from Pleasanton... Well, I don't see why he couldn't drop us off at Alameda and made this other guy from Alameda, drive to Oakland, and pick us up, and drive back to Alameda, while the guy from Pleasanton could've drove us back to Alameda, and then go back home to Pleasanton. But whatever, it's okay.
I went back home, I took a shower, and I went to sleep. I was super exhausted! And I had a good night's sleep. :]

Lit Circle Letter Part 3: Dear John

In part 3 of Dear John, John comes back from Germany to his hometown again to watch out for his sick dad that suffered from several heart attacks. One day, he died because of it. He went to go see Savannah which was surprising because she didn’t expect him to come see her. She invited him inside the house anyways and talked for a bit. John then finds out that Savannah is married with Tim and is living with Tim and his autistic little brother, Alan. John has actually spent the whole day with Savannah and Savannah asks if he can come back the next day and see Tim.
The next day, John drove back up to Savannah’s house and Savannah told him to give her a ride to see Tim. Tim was actually in the hospital because he has cancer. Savannah took Alan to go get a drink while John and Tim were talking. Tim asks John when he passes away, John has to marry Savannah a
The next day, John went to go see Tim again by himself telling him he has to go back to Germany again for the army. Truth is that John has already known that Tim was in love with her ever since John met him. Tim then admits that he’s been in love with her ever since he was 12 years old. John left the hospital and he saw Savannah outside. He told her that he loves her a lot and he doesn’t regret ever loving Savanna and this is probably the last time they were going to see each other.
"John realizes that if a man is selfless enough to let the love of his life go to another man, than he is worth living." John made the decision of his life which is to sell his father’s coin collection to the coin dealer to find treatment for Tim’s sickness. Tim was very ill and weak and still caring for Savannah when suddenly the doctor came in and told them someone donated enough money for Tim’s treatment and it was from anonymous. The treatment for Tim worked and he was able to finally leave the hospital.
In the epilogue, John drove over to Savannah’s house one night and she was outside, staring at the full moon, which proves that her love for John is everlasting.

Spring Break

Spring break went by super fast last week. This first week back at school from spring break is going by pretty fast too. It’s already Thursday.

I had a lot of fun during spring break. On Monday I went to Castro Valley to see Leon. I took the bart there. I stayed at Castro Valley for the whole day and around 4, I had to go back home. I’ve made plans for the whole entire week that I thought I was going to be busy that whole week but I didn’t even go out that much. On Tuesday I stayed home. On Wednesday I had piano lessons, so I don’t have to go on Saturday. On Thursday I stayed home too. On Friday, I hung out with Arlene, Jenny, and Jake at San Francisco and then we went to Japan Town to take those cute sticker Pika Pika pictures. I thought that we would go and shop for clothes at stores because we actually went into a lot of stores but we didn’t see anything that we liked. Well maybe we saw a few clothes that we liked but they were way too expensive. And we spent out money on Pika Pika pictures and lunch. We went back to Oakland China town to eat lunch. Well, we went back around 3:00 so it was either a very late lunch or very early dinner. After we ate, I took the bus back home because everyone else had other stuff to do, and plus my dad wants me home early, even though it’s still super sunny. On Saturday I stayed home. It wasn’t as sunny as the rest of the week.

On Sunday, I thought I would just stay home too, but my mom, my cousin, and I went to Stoneridge Mall. It was raining really hard on our way there. I don’t like shopping with my mom though. Usually whenever I shop with my mom, my mom ends up buying the stuff for me, but if I only shop with friends then I pay for myself. So I didn’t bring any money, but I did have a gift card that works as a credit card. I have $100 on it and I used it on this one Abercrombie and Fitch shirt. My cousin bought an Abercrombie and Fitch shirt too. I wanted to get two, but then I said nah its fine. One is enough. After that, we went to Shiekh and I got a pair of new boots and they are freaking beautiful! We went inside a lot of stores and I saw so many clothes that I wanted and they were all so expensive so my mom didn’t let me get any of them. But on the other hand, my cousin, aka the shopaholic, bought so much stuff… I don’t even want to say how many clothes and perfumes and stuff she bought. We took a quick break and ate McDonald’s for lunch. After that we went upstairs and bought some Cinnabon. We walked around some more and my cousin bought some more.

When we were done, we went to a 99 ranch market at Dublin because my mom wanted to buy some groceries. They had some free samples and I got some dumplings and they were soo good! You don’t even know… It was kind of getting late and my mom didn’t feel like going back home and cook dinner for my dad and grandpa so she bought some Chinese food from the 99 ranch market. On our way back home, it was still sort of raining but until we got back to Oakland, it was super sunny! I even saw a rainbow in my backyard. It’s so beautiful!

When I went back home, I didn’t do anything else except go on my laptop and turn on the TV and hop in bed and chatted with friends on AIM. Spring break was fun. I wish it could’ve lasted longer though. Maybe we should have 2 weeks of spring break like winter break. I also planned on hanging out with more people that I haven’t seen in a while but I never did. I guess we shall wait until next time. There’re only about 2 more months of school, well, not even. I wish this school year can end peacefully and hope that I will have decent grades like 1^st semester. I need to boost up my PE and Computers grade and get a 4.0 again. Then my sophomore year and grades will be terrific! I also can’t wait until summer vacation! I’m super juiced!

Lit Circle Letter Part 1 & 2: Dear John

For this month's lit circle, my group and I have been reading Dear John written by Nicholas Sparks. There were a few parts where I had a few thoughts about and I had little notes to them.

In part 1 of the novel, John Tyree introduces himself. He was at home town, Wilmington, North Carolina, to stay with his father for a few weeks until he has to go back to the army at Germany due to the 9/11 incident. The way John described his father was he was a very boring guy who likes to collect coins. Well, he isn't really that boring, but it just seems that way, like when John says that his father does the same things every single day as a routine. One day, John went down to the beach and he saw this girl with brunette colored hair and a blond one and 2 guys on the pier. John and the brunette, Savannah, looked at each other and said Hi to each other. John just experienced love at first sight! One of Savannah's friends, Randy, knocked down her bag full of important stuff, like her wallet and money and a picture of her and her friends into the water and didn't want to pick it up. He did apologize to her and all, but it didn't seem like he meant it. Savannah was about to jump in to the water to get her bag until then, John jumped in the water and got it for her. Savannah thanked him and she invited him to a party that her crew was having back in the house. The two of them hung out more day after day and got to know more about each other that they soon fell in love with each other. Savannah is a college student and she’s only on spring break and is helping build a house for Habitat for Humanity. The part that I liked about part 1 is how they met each other and they fell in love. I think that was really sweet and cute.

Part 2: After spring break, Savannah has to go back to school and John has to go back to Germany. Both John and Savannah don’t want their relationship to end, so they decided to call each other and write letters to each other, until the next time they see each other again, which is in a year. It's really tough for them to be in a long distance relationship and have to contact each other just by mail. John told Savannah when he is done with the war, he will come back and he will marry her. Due to 9/11, John wants to reenlist in the army. After several years away from each other, Savannah writes another letter to John telling him good bye.
What I didn’t like about the part 2 of the novel is when John had to leave Savannah to go back to the war. I can sort of relate to the whole long distant relationship thing like those two, but waiting until a year too see their beloved one for just a few days or a week is definitely not enough, unless their love is extremely strong. But their love isn’t strong enough. Savannah apparently had to say good bye to John and that was a very difficult thing for her to do.

Even though John is in the army and has to fight for his country in the war, the war isn’t even that relevant to the story, because this story is mainly about two lovers trying to keep their long distance relationship strong by writing letters to each other, catching up on each others lives.

4th Quarter Goals

Oh my gosh it's already the 4th quarter, which is the last quarter of the school year! I have been counting on how many more school days are left, and I'm not quite sure is it correct, but I counted, there are 45 more school days left until Summer Vacation! I am so excited. And it isSpring break right now!

Anyways, what are my current goals for this blog post during the 4th quarter? Well, on my past blog posts, the only thing I have blogged about was how was my day and all that. It isn't that interesting, but I just don't know what else to write about. Writer's block. Well for this last quarter, I'm planning on reading a whole bunch of books and then I guess write summaries about it; well not really summaries, but more like analysis' and my thoughts and all that. Can I do that? I'm not sure if I can. Because I'm not really a big fan of reading books, unless it somehow interests me.

But right now in class, we are currently doing lit circle reading groups with partners; I'm with Asmita, Michelle, and Ryan. We just finished reading Bastard out of Carolina and right now we are reading Dear John. I'm liking Dear John a lot better than Bastard out of Carolina.

Anyways, I want to improve my writing, and I don't even know if I have improved or not. I don't know why it's so hard to improve though. Why is it so hard? I remember during the 1st semester, we started doing blog posts and we have to have at least 300 words and I thought that was a lot but then I got use to it. But now, we have to write up to 500 words. I think that's even harder, but I don't know, I think I'll get the hang of it, since I'm only writing random stuff right now, so it seems kind of easy I suppose.

I'm stuck in writers block now. I don't know how many words I have right now and I don't really want to check because it's 11:50 right now and I got 10 more minutes until this blog post expire. I totally forgot that I had to do a blog post this week because well today after school, I came home and I had to wait for my mom to pick me up to take me to a doctor's appointment at Oakland. That took almost a whole hour. After that, we went home for a bit and then my mom and I went to Costco to get some stuff and fill gas for her car and then I saw Dina at Costco! I did not know she was at Alameda today. She should have visited during English! But she told me she came around 1:00. Oh well. After that, it was 8 something, and we went back to Alameda. I thought we would be going back home but instead we went to CVS to pick up lotions and creams that my doctor recommended for my dry skin. I’ve been having really dry skin lately, especially when this year’s Winter started. This never happened to me before and I don’t know why or how it happened. I guess it’s because of Winter and also it’s allergy season right now. But oh well, hopefully I’ll recover soon. We went back home around 9 and I went to shower real quick and then I watched some TV and I chatted with some friends and I read a little bit of Dear John until suddenly, I just remembered I got a blog post to do! It’s 11:54 right now and I know I typed more than 500 words so I’m in the safe zone! =)

Well, I hope that even though this school year will end soon, I will continue to do blog posts at least once a week, like what we do now, to improve my writing skills.

Monthly Review: Bastard out of Carolina

I read the book Bastards out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison is mainly about a girl named Ruth Anne Boatwright, but also known as Bone, is a South Carolina bastard with an annotated birth certificate to tell the tale in this book. She finds herself caught in a family triangle between her, her mother Anney, and her step father Glen. This book has a very strong depth of tones and physical violence; it almost seemed so real.

8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.
I choose to write about Glen Waddell. Glen is the son of a socially prominent dairy owner. Anney, Bone’s mother marries him two years later after becoming pregnant but the baby end up dying in Anney’s stomach, which is a still born baby boy. The family’s fortune falls down hill and Glen losing his job after job due to his anger management problems. I have to say Glen is a two faced jerk. He has been nice and loving and gentle with Bone in the beginning, and he say that he loves her very much and her family and his wife, Anney, but then all of a sudden, he sexually molested her. The child abuse culminates in beatings and whipping that leave Bone nursing bruises and broken bones.
Anney finds out about the abuse that Glen did to Bone, and she leaves Glen, but he ran after her acting all guilty and crying and begging on his knees for her to take him back and promises her that he will never do it again. Anney was weak and useless and I say desperate, that she takes him back and the abuse and sexual content continues. Anney leaves Glen once again after her brother beat up Glen from finding out he’s been abusing her and beating her once again. Bone tells her mother that she will never live in the same house with Glen again. Anney told Bone that she won’t go back with Glen unless Bone comes with her. Glen finds out about all this and he got mad and attacks Bone at her Aunt Alma’s house, raping her on the kitchen floor. Anney walks in on him and started hitting him and beating him. Anney dragged Bone out to the car and Glen follows, begging for mercy and that he rather be killed than having his wife abandon him. Anney ends up crying and then again, goes back to Glen… For my analysis about Glen is that he is a selfish two faced jerk who always gets what he wants. If he doesn’t get what he wants then he’ll just fall down a hill and feel like he wants to die. I don’t see why Glen has to abuse Bone and especially rape her. I mean, rape is just like sex, but you just don’t like it right? Why would he have unwanted sex with an 11 year old who doesn’t even know what’s going on when he can have sex all he wants with Anney? I heard you can die from having sex. Is he trying to kill Bone? This makes no sense, unless he has some mental problems up in his brain. But that’s just my opinion.

3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?
For me, there are many weaknesses in this book, well I guess it depends on what you mean by the weaknesses of this book, is it like, the parts where I don’t understand even though I kept reading it and reading it repeatedly? Because I think this book is very boring itself and there are only like a few parts that I liked reading, like the Glen and Bone raping and beating incident or the Shannon and fire burning killing suicide incident and Anney and Glen acting all desperate for each other. And of course the ending of the book is okay; it’s not as boring as the middle parts, and especially not as boring as the beginning because all Dorothy Allison talks about is Bone’s family in the beginning; apparently Bone has a lot of family members that I got all confused by remembering all of them and knowing who is who. There are several weak spots in this book in my opinion, but then for other people who have read her books think she’s one hell of a writer, but I honestly thing this book is just plain boring, I’m sorry to say, but it’s just is.

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)
The audience this book is intended to is obviously for the people who loves reading books like this; relationship between a mother and daughter, intense raping scenes, conditions of class, race, and sex. For my friends, I have a lot of friends who likes to read, like Priscilla Ng, I remember she told me how she hated reading books back in middle school but once school started, she was in my English and we would always read our independent reading books for the first 20 minutes of class. Then she got interested in reading, but I know that she won’t get interested in reading this kind of book. I don’t know who else who loves reading who would want to read this book. I mean, there are people who does not even like to read books at all who have read a couple of books that they have really liked. But the people I would recommend this book to is probably my cousin. She loves reading books, she’s such a book worm. I think she have read books that are this intense and I bet she’ll enjoy reading this. I think I’m planning on asking her if she read it or not. If not, I’ll tell her to read it. Oh yeah and also one of my other friend, she loves reading too and she wants to become a famous writer one day. I think write now she’s working on her first book. I don’t know what it’s called, she don’t even have the title named yet but I read her prologue, and it’s very good. I can picture the scene and stuff. And I am looking forward to reading her book. Back to the subject… I’ll recommend this book to people who loves reading (anything) and/or people who likes this type of story genre.

Lit Circle Letter #3: Bastard out of Carolina

I have never annotated Bastards out of Carolina because I think when I annotate, I’m just going to ruin the book even more like maybe criticize it, which I kind of did in my mind, but I just didn’t write anything down. There are several parts of the book that I did not like at all. I guess you can say I hated most parts of the book, except for the ones that are intense like the incident between Glen and Bone. But it’s not like I liked that part, it’s just a part that caught my attention. I really don’t know why Dorothy Allison wrote this book; is it because she wanted to? Well duh, of course she wanted to… Is it because something similar has happened to her life that has happened to Bone from the book? Or was she influenced from reading other books or watching movies similar to what she have wrote and wanted to write about it using her own imagination? I want to know why Bone’s mother left with Glen after what he did to her daughter. Maybe Dorothy Allison has her own reasons on why she made it like this, I mean, every author has a purpose on writing every little bits of the book. But I mean in the story in general… would any mother do that to her child? If it was me, I would dump that stupid ass and take my child and leave, far far away, so that he won’t have any connections with us. Plus I think it’s weird how a step father would do that to his own step daughter, that’s just sick. And I want to know, why exactly did Shannon lit herself on fire and die? After she talked shit about Bone’s family.
The questions that I’m planning on writing about is definitely 8, 3, and 2. I’m still not so sure about 2 or 3 though but I’m definitely doing 8.
This book has no relation to my life at all. It’s completely different from my life and family and friends. When I’m reading this book, I’m all like “What?” But then my family and most of Bone’s family are pretty cool and caring.

CAHSEE

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I took the CAHSEE which stands for the California High School Exit Exam. Only 10th graders take the CAHSEE. It's tested on English Language Arts and Math. We have to take it and pass it to leave high school. If we sophomores don't pass it, then we have to take it again during our senior year. But I don't think anyone failed it, well maybe some people did, but it was super easy and I don't see how you can fail this kind of test. I heard even middle school kids can pass this test and that the people who made this test aren't teachers or whatever. I'm sure I'll pass it.

I've been told that if I don't pass the CAHSEE, then I must be retarded. I laughed. I guess that's an easy way to put it. And I have to admit, this test is ridiculously easy. But it was super long though which took us like 2 hours? Yet we stayed in the classroom for like 4 hours. For me, I had to go to the PE classroom which smells really weird. I didn't notice if there was any lights in there too... It's like the sun shines through the windows for light.

The English part of the test was easy. We had to read a whole bunch of short stories and answer questions about it. But then I didn’t really read any of them, I just read the questions and then find the answer in the story. I think a lot of people did that; not reading the stories. Some of the questions were pretty self explanatory too.

There were 2 sections of the test. We finished the first part of the test before break and after break we do the second part. I could’ve just finished both parts before break because I finished it pretty early.

On Wednesday, we took the math part of the CAHSEE. I took this test faster than the English one because, of course, there weren’t any stories involved, although there were word problems to solve. There’s this one problem where it’s like “If n=12 then what is –n? A) -12 B) 4 C) 15 D) -11” Of course the answer would be -12… See how ridiculous this test is? It’s just a waste of time… but then it’s a requirement.

I finished the first part of the math test in like half an hour because it was only 20-25 questions? I think. After that, I continued doing the second part of it so I finished the test really early too. While the teacher was reading the instructions, I was already doing those questionnaires because it was the same as the English part so I copied it. I finished everything early yesterday and then I put my head down to take a nap because people were still working on it. I think I was the first person who finished?

The CAHSEE was super long and super easy and I am confident about passing it. I just wish the SAT would be this easy.

Lit Circle Letter #2: Bastard out of Carolina

I think the second part of the book or I mean paper clip is kind of boring… It’s not as interesting as the first part. I don’t know… I guess it’s because how Bone’s step dad was raping her. He raped her twice. And the way that the author was describing that was pretty intense. I really had like a visual affect of that happening… Like it’s very clear in my mind and stuff. It seemed so real. I still hate Glen for doing that to Bone.

This book is boring and all but there are only certain parts that catch my eye. During the second part of the story the only thing that caught my eye was when Shannon was talking shit about Bone and her family. And I remember when in the first part of the book, Bone was this quiet little girl who was only maybe 9? Not even 10 yet. And she was a very clueless girl who doesn’t know what’s happening. But then when Shannon said that about her family, Bone got all mad and then told her to “fuck off” Later at a picnic, Shannon practically lit herself on fire then she died. Bones was like right in front of her too! She saw her die just like that. Why did she do that? What happened to innocent little Bone? All of a sudden she got all this confidence in herself. How did that happen so fast?

Honestly, I wish we could’ve chosen a better book to read. I mean, this book is okay, like some parts are really good to read and I have to admit, Dorothy Allison is really one hell of a writer; she make things look so real in your mind. But for some parts, I don’t even know what’s happening or who those people are or where they are even at.

Summer 2010

There are exactly 3 more months until summer vacation! How exciting is that? This is so exciting because after these 3 months, I will finally be done with PE! PE is such a hassle and I really hate doing pacers. I've never made it to 40 pacers before last year and this year, I've finally made it to 40 pacers like a week ago and since then, I made 40 every time we did pacers!

I will also be done with Spanish too. I'm in Spanish 3 right now and I don't think I will be doing Spanish 4 because Spanish 3 is already hard enough. I'm already thinking of what classes I want next year but I'm not 100% sure.

During the summer, I'm thinking of going to Laney College to take pre-cal and probably chemistry, because I don't have chemistry this year at school. I know it's not mandatory to take chemistry but I kind of still want to. But then again, I'm not sure if I will want to actually take chemistry. But I'm for sure going to take pre-cal. I asked my friend from Skyline, Brian, to take it with me too and he said okay. Leon also said he's going to take it with me too! He lives in Castro Valley but he said he can live with his dad for those 6 weeks to take pre-cal with me at Laney. My friend Eileen said she's going to take either Japanese 2 or Chinese 1 there too! She goes to San Leandro high and the last time I saw her was on December and she's also one of my best friends so I will be happy to see her again!

During the summer this year, I want to hang out more. Now since Leon will be taking pre-cal with me, we can hang out with each other every single day after class! Last summer, we only saw each other like once a week because he took auto shop at Chabot College and I think that's in Hayward. Right now, we only see each other like once a month...

I remember last summer; my friends from Skyline invited me to go to Water World. That day was fun but my face got so burned that I looked so weird. I hope this year I get to go somewhere again like Six Flags Marine World or Great America. 4 years ago, I went to China for summer and that was my first and last time going there. I really miss it and I wish I can go there again. My mom said we don't have enough money this year, but my cousin is going to China next month and she invited me to go, but I said no because I have to go to school. They're not even going during Spring break anyways, but I already have plans for Spring break. So I'm probably going to China with my parents next summer.

3 months seem like a long time, but it really isn't. Sophomore year is almost over and next year I will be a Junior! Junior year is going to be so hard because I'm going to take AP or HP classes. Sophomore year was definitely the best for me and the easiest year for me too. I finally got my first 4.0 this year! I hope I can keep it up next year. Time is flying by way too fast! I heard that the earthquake in Chile that shortened the length of days on our planet, is that why time is flying faster? Or maybe it's just all in the mind. After all, time flies super fast when you're having fun, and during these few year, I had a lot of fun! Even if it's at school or not.

Lit Circle Letter: Bastard out of Carolina

The book that me, Ryan, Asmita, and Michelle are reading is Bastard out of Carolina. This book is about a girl name Ruth Anna but also known as Bone. This book is written in her perspective so it's sort of like an autobiography. Bone's father left her and her mother, Anney when she was just 8 days old. Anney then had another child name Reese with another guy name Lyly. Lyly then died when he was on his way to work.

One day, they all went out to eat with the rest of Bone's aunts and uncles and one of her uncle bought his friend Glen to eat with them too. Glen and Anney began to date and soon got married. He seems like a nice guy and all but he really isn't.

Anney got pregnant. Glen hopes for a baby boy. Anney was in the hospital giving birth while Glen, Bone, and Reese is in the car in the parking lot waiting at night. Anyways, Reese was sleeping and then Glen touched Bone in a very disturbing way and next thing you know it, he starts to molest her. She began to cry and says It hurts a lot. After he was done, Bone went to sleep. The next day, Bone and Reese woke up, they were still in the car and Glen wasn't there. He was in the hospital and he came out with terrible news. The baby boy was dead. How sad...

What I want to say is that I don't know why they couldn't be with her when she was giving birth, especially Glen, he is her husband after all, what kind of husband waits for his wife to give birth in the car? From his actions, not being with his wife giving birth, being in pain, I know he is not a good guy at all. Plus, he also raped his step daughter. What man does that? Or father? I mean I guess there are people who do that, but I think that's just sick. It's absurd. And Bone is not even 13 years old yet and she doesn't know what he was doing, but all she knew was what he was doing hurt her. If Bone's mother found out, I bet she will totally knock him out. But who knows?

2012

2012. Is the world really coming to an end? Is it just a rumor? Or is it real?
Recently, there was an earthquake that occurred in Haiti with a magnitude of 7.0 on Tuesday, January 12, 2010. About three million people were affected by it; and 217,000 to 230,000 were pronounced dead. The earthquake caused major damage to Port-au-Prince. Everyone was talking about it all over the news and all over the world. Even in Disney Channel, the Disney Channel stars were talking about it and how we should cooperate together and donate money for Haiti. Even school clubs are asking people to donate money for Haiti.
I remember on a Saturday morning on this month, I was on the internet and on Yahoo news, it says that there was another earthquake that is going to happen in 3 hours in Hawaii. I was shocked. When I came home from piano lessons, it said the earthquake was at Chile instead that was a magnitude of 8.8 which may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet. (I wonder is that a good thing, like, for me, because usually I feel that the days, especially in school are very long and I just want the day to be over, so I guess it’s probably a good thing for me, but for the world, I’m not sure.)
Earthquakes have happened so many times for these few years and I am still pretty focused on the Hurricane Katrina that happened in 2005 which was the coastline hurricane as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States. Hurricane Katrina happened at the Bahamas and crossed southern Florida. It caused deaths and floods and strengthening rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sometimes I am starting to wonder if the world is really going to end soon. Thinking about this right now makes me pretty scared to even think about. Even when I was watching the movie 2012 (which is totally not true, of course) made my skin crawl. It was a good movie and it's so realistic (well yeah, they make all movies realistic) I am just starting to wonder if the world will actually end soon. The people in the movie are considered lucky to have been in those giant ships and survive while a whole portion of people of the world are dead.
I am also much focused on having a bright future and having a successful job and getting married and having children and living in a nice big house and having pets with my wonderful husband and I really don't want the world to end. I mean who knows if it is going to end? People say it's not true but how do they know for sure? The Mayans are pretty smart right? And they just say the world is going to end because they only stopped making the calendar or something. But whatever is the truth; I'm still nervous and still need to be cautious. I think they say it’s going to happen on December 2012 so around that time, I’m supposed to be in college, middle of my freshman year of college.
What's going to happen if there's an earthquake that's going to hit California? Probably as big as the one at Haiti or Chile? Then a whole bunch of people are going to die. Things are going to get damaged. People getting injured... Everything is going to be bad. I'm being really paranoid right now, but I'm just saying. Things lead to other things in unexpected ways.

A Kiss in Time

4 days ago, I was reading this book called A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn. It’s just like Sleeping Beauty, like how the princess pricked her finger on a spindle and fell into a deep sleep until a handsome prince kisses her. But Alex Flinn spiced things up a bit. 300 years later, an American boy from Florida was traveling in Europe with his school. All they do is go to museums and look at art works and paintings of important ancient people. He think it’s boring and decides to ditch the group and he dragged his friend Travis along. They wanted to go to a beach and see hot European girls but instead, they found this deserted land across a tall wall when they climbed over it, thinking it was a beach on the other side.

They were wandering around the place and see people sleeping. It’s kind of weird that everyone is sleeping. They wandered some more and they saw this big old castle. And again, they were being nosy again and decides to go inside. Travis saw jewels and treasures and wanted to try on the armors that the sleeping nights are wearing. Jack starts walking around the castle to see what else is there to see and then he sees this beautiful gorgeous looking girl lying on the floor. She looks so peaceful and so into her sleep. It’s too tempting to kiss her, but he kissed her anyways. She wakes up and screams wondering who this is and is this her true love? Because she’s suppose to be awaken by true love’s kiss. Everyone else woke up and then they found out they’ve been sleeping for 300 years. They got so mad at the princess, Talia, and Jack, for kissing her and throws him in the dungeon and Travis happened to escape. Talia’s parents was mad at her and then she felt unloved and helped Jack escaped and they both escaped back to Belgium.

On their way back to Belgium, Talia kept whining and stuff like a little girl and Jack kind of wishes he never kissed her. When they were at Belgium, he went to go buy her some 21st century clothing. She think its weird but she wore it anyways. He also taught her how to use a phone. The 21st century was so weird to her. They got plane tickets and they went back to Florida, because everyone else from school left too.

When they went back home, Jack asks if Talia can stay at their house and he made up an excuse saying her parents are visiting the Grand Canyon and she didn’t want to go and then they let her stay for a week. As time passes by, Jack grew fond of her and eventually he fell in love with her.

One night, they were sleeping and then the evil witch Malvolia magically appeared in Talia’s room and she took her back to Europe… Euphrasia (her kingdom). In the morning, they found out that she was gone and then Jack starts to think it’s Malvolia, because Talia told her about her and how she has magical powers and she’s able to do stuff. He had to tell his parents and his sister the whole story about the magic and the princess and Euphrasia and stuff. At first they didn’t believe him and then his dad believe him and they booked 2 tickets to go back to Euphrasia and go help them save her.

Back at Euphrasia, Malvolia wanted to kill her… because the first try was fail. She wants to kill her and then show her father her dead body so he can be heartbroken because of something that happened in the past and she wants revenge. Malvolia makes Talia sew a dress that she’s suppose to put on when she’s gonna be laying in her coffin. Talia takes time to sew her dress. Malvolia said she’s not going to kill her but she’s going to put her to sleep again by the spindle and see if Jack’s really her true love and see if he can rescue her.

It ended up he rescued her and he Is her true love after all. Jack found Talia in the cottage and then Malvolia disappears. Jack and Talia returns back to the castle and tells her parents everything is okay. She thought her parents would get mad for her running away, but they were happy that she’s okay and that they’re sorry for yelling at her.

Now since they’re in the 21st century, Jack and her father and everyone else helps them update their life so they can fit in.

I really like this book and I’m planning on reading this book again someday. Someone should make a movie about this because I can totally picture everything. Maybe if I was a director, I can direct this movie! They should at least make a cartoon of this, even though if it’s just like The Sleeping Beauty. Right now I’m reading this book called True Love by Lurene McDaniel.

4 Day Weekend; Chinese New year; Valentine's Day

On Friday, the 12th, I stayed home the whole day and I woke up at around noon. Probably because I was too exhausted from the work I've been doing during those 4 days of school. It was a pretty relaxed day though.

On Saturday, I had piano lessons from 12:30 - 3:00 at my piano teacher's house. After that I went back home and got ready to go eat out with my family for Chinese New Years with my family. My side of the family were super slow at getting ready. My cousin's side were already there. They got a table for us already and they already ordered some food too. By the time we arrived, there were already food on the table. But we were still able to order food. We also gave each other red envelopes. I got around $300 that day.

On Sunday, I went to San Francisco with Leon! We watched Dear John and we cried. It was a sad movie and it was also a very lovable movie too. I really liked it. Some of my friends said it was very good also, but a few of my friends said it was bad. I don't think it's bad at all. I think it was very good. Channing Tatum stars in it too! I remember watching him in She's The Man starring Amanda Bynes. It made me want to watch that again. After the movie, we walked around Westfield and then we went to Subways to get a sandwich because we got hungry. My stomach was growling during the movie too and Leon heard. How embarrassing... After we ordered our sandwich, this guy came up to us asking us for money. It was so weird and creepy, plus we didn't have that much money anyways. We had like a few more dollars left but we need those to take the bus. So we just left... and then he went to ask someone else for money.
Later we went back to Westfield and sat somewhere to eat. After that, we walked around some more and then it was around 5 so we started going back to Oakland. At the bart, Leon gave me a giant teddy bear that's holding a heart that says LOVE on it. It's so cute! The bart came, and we went out at Lake Merritt bart station. My friends were hanging out at Chinatown the whole day while Leon and I were at San Francisco so we met up with them after. Around 5:30 my mom came to Lincoln Square at China town to pick me up. That day was amazing!

Today, the 15th, my parents, grandpa, aunt, and niece went out to Emeryville to eat. We went to a restaurant called Hong Kong East Ocean. I like that restaurant, it's pretty inside and you can see the Ocean too. No wonder it's called East Ocean... My mom made me bring my camera so we can take pictures to send to China to show the rest of our family. Today I ate a lot, which was surprising because I don't usually eat that much because I get full super fast. When we were done eating, my dad and my grandpa went home first while my mom, my aunt, and niece went to Bay Street to walk around. There was this bag from H&M that I really wanted, but my mom wouldn't let me have it because she said it wasn't good and it's expensive, when it really wasn't. She didn't even take a look at it and she already said no and she went to another store. If I brought my own money, I could've gotten it. Then at Abercrombie and Fitch, I saw this top that was cute too. And it was on sale so it wasn't so expensive like how their clothes usually are. I asked my mom if I could get it and she said no again. Oh well... the next time I'm coming back out here, I'm going to bring my own money. I don't know why I didn't bring it out today. I guess it's cause i didn't know we were going to go to Bay Street to walk around. I thought we were only going to eat and that's it.

This 4 day weekend went by super fast. But it's okay. I'm not looking forward to school tomorrow. I feel like I need more days to relax because I'm still super tired. At least there's only 4 day of school this week too, even though it's not that much of a difference. What I am looking forward to now is Spring break, which is in April. Oh well!

4 days

There are 4 days of school this week and after, we're having our 4 day weekend. President's day! My friends from San Leandro High have the whole week off though. At first I thought these 4 days are going to be pretty chilled and relax, but I ended up having so much work to do. In history, we're having a group project about the Imperialism that we can work on in class that is due this Thursday at the end of the period. I really don't know how we are going to finish it if we don't have that much time in class, unless we work on it during lunch or after school. Priscilla, Grant, and Katherine are in my group. Katherine has her swim meet after school, so I guess only Priscilla and Grant can meet up with me after school or something. We want to make it look super nice too. If only this project can be due next week, it would be so much better; we wouldn't have to worry about so much.

Spanish is pretty stressful too. Yesterday we had this homework assignment where we had to translate the English sentences into Spanish. Today in class, we were going over it, and when we came up to the second to last sentence, everyone was struggling with it because everyone got it wrong. Ms. Castro gave us 30 seconds to fix it and whoever gets it right gets pesos. Everyone was working so hard for the next 30 seconds to get the pesos and then time was up, and she gave everyone pesos for trying anyways.

The next thing you know it, she gave me a 0 for that one sentence. She posted it on schoolloop. Ryan then texted me telling me Ms. Castro gave him an F for he assignment. Later I went on schoolloop and she gave me a 0 for the assignment too! My A+ in the class dropped down to a D+. This better be a mistake...

Mr. Sutherland! You still haven't changed my grade for my blog post that was due on January 29th, when I posted it on lab day; January 27th. You told me you didn't see it but it's there. And I have 479 words and they are split up into paragraphs. Can you check it again please? Thanks!

Oh yeah, last semester, I got a 4.0! My first 4.0 I was super happy and my parents were proud, but they didn't really make a big deal out of it, as if they expect me to get a 4.0, but this is my first. Now, starting at the 2nd semester, I felt like things are going to get harder, and things ARE getting harder. Right now, I'm on schoolloop, and I see my grades; D+ in spanish, B in computers, F in English, A- in history, and my grade in math didn't change yet; Ms. Needham didn't update it yet. And coach Pearse doesn't even use schoolloop. So looking at these grades makes me upset. I want to improve this year. And I did, during the 1st semester. Now I'm starting to doubt if it was actually me who worked hard and got my 4.0 because I deserve it? Or is it because I got lucky? I feel like I'm working pretty hard right now too. But why do I have such bad grades all of a sudden? Hopefully this year will end smoothly giving me a 4.0 again. If not, hopefully the lowest I'll get is a 3.8.

I just want the 4 day weekend to come! I am stressing so much this week...

Oh yeah! So on February 2010, there are 4 Mondays, 4 Tuesdays, 4 Wednesdays, 4 Thursdays, 4 Fridays, 4 Saturdays, and 4 Sundays. This only happens ever 11 years. And it’s funny how we have 4 days of school and a 4 day weekend after. Everything 4! Haha.

Chinese New Year Street Fest

The Chinese New Year street fest is this weekend at China town! Even though Chinese New Year is on Valentine's day. But the street fest is going to happen both on Saturday and on Sunday. But I only have time to go on Sunday because on Saturday I have piano lessons for like almost the whole day. So I'll be going on Sunday with a whole bunch of my friends. I bet there are going to be more people going on Saturday though, just because it's the first day and I guess it's more exciting. But anyways, my friends asked me to hang out on Sunday though because some of them have to volunteer on Saturday so I don't think they will have time to wander around the whole street fest. But on Sunday, they can.

I don't even know who I'm going with exactly. A lot of my friends asked me and I just said "yeah, I'm going, so I'll just see you there or something." So I guess I'll just go there and meet up with them and hang out as a giant group. There are people that I know who asked me to hang out that are from different schools too, so I think my group is going to be pretty big. I'm not sure, but oh well.

I think this year's street fest is going to be the same like every other street fests in China town. I wish something amazing can happen though, like some famous person can come here and perform. Since it's China town, I guess someone from China can come perform? That would be pretty cool. And at least I can have another reason to be out with my friends. I also heard that at China town, you can get your ears pierce without having your parents there. I think I want to get another pair of piercings for my ear. I don't know why, I'm just feel like getting one more pair. I don't think my mom will like it, but oh well, she can't "hate" it. They're just earrings. But I'm not even sure where; I should ask my friends.

Right now it's only 6:21 and my friend Arlene wants me to go out later at 7 until 9 to go ice skating with her at Downtown Oakland. I thought that was pretty late but she said it's the weekend and a long week has passed and we should relax and hang out, because I haven't seen her in so long; she goes to San Leandro High School, and she wants to hang out with a group of friends. I don't think my mom would let me hang out but she still wants me to ask. It's almost 7 and my mom still isn't at home yet. But I still doubt my mom is going to let, so I don't think I'm going to go. That's going to disappoint Arlene though, but we can always hang out during the street fest anyways.

I'm also looking forward to the 4 day weekend!

Finals are OVER!

Okay so finals are over and this week is the first week of the second semester. I think that the finals were okay. For PE, I did my bowling final which was mostly true or false and it was super easy. For Spanish, we did our oral presentation and I got A+ on that but I got a D for the multiple choice. For current life, we had a PowerPoint to present and I did that which was easy too. We didn't do anything in English because our final was to do a blog post about out blog posts and we were done with that before the final so everyone just sat there and hung out until school was over. In history and math, we did a multiple choice test that was like 50-60 questions. That was a Thursday and those finals were harder. It's a good thing I passed all of them though. For this semester I have all A's and 1 B, in PE. That only B just ruins my gpa. During the first quarter, I thought I would get my first 4.0 because on schoolloop, every teacher of mine posted grades online except for my PE teacher. So since it was only the first quarter, I was hoping I would get an A, but no, I have a B, so my gpa was a 3.8. I really thought I would get my first 4.0!

I think right now for the first semester I'm going to get the same GPA; 3.8. I had my hopes up too :'( Anyways, at least I'm improving... last year during freshmen year, I had a 2.6! That was so low for someone like me. I had mostly B's and like I think 1 C. Well I think I'm pretty satisfied with my grades right now.. even though I still could've gotten a 4.0. My FIRST 4.0.

Okay so the second semester started and right now for every class, everyone has an A+. We're starting fresh now. I hope I can just keep my 3.8 for the whole year. I know I can't get an A in PE. I can't make all the pacers and I think I failed most of the written tests. So my goal for this semester is to just keep up my grades. Oh, did I mention in math during the first semester, I got a 103%! That's practically an A++! I want to keep my straight A's up.

But then again, I feel like the second semester is going to be harder. I don't know why, but I just feel like it's going to be really hard. Maybe I'm overreacting or just being paranoid. I want to get through this semester without having any troubles or struggles or stresses. Then summer vacation is going to start and I can just relax (and take some classes of course).

English Final

The heart and soul of blogging is the individual and/or the group of individuals opining on the fly and responding post-haste to one and all.
- Michael Conniff

(questions not in order)
7. During the first few weeks of school, I’m always excited to write in my blog. I never thought about if I have stuff to write about or not. But around the second quarter, I started struggling on what to write about. I always say “oh my gosh, what should I write about?” I don’t know why I tend to get stuck but I feel like there is just nothing to write about! The first few blog posts I blogged about piano, movie review, and stuff that have been happening lately. After that I feel like there is nothing to write about. It’s kind of like how every morning, some girls always say “I know I have a closet full of clothes, but there is just nothing to wear!” or “I don’t know what to wear!” How I get unstuck is when I write about my day. I have to do a blog post every week for English class, so since there are no good topics for me to choose, I think I should just write about my day. I mean, there are millions of topics that I can write about, but when I blog, I don’t want to just type about random stuff; I need to have knowledge about that certain topic so I can make my blog post sound amazing.

10. Since this is my first blog account ever, I only update Blogger once a week for class. I also made an account on Tumblr. Tumblr is another website for blogging but it’s more popular these days. I have a lot of friends who have a Tumblr account and I really like this website a lot. I feel like Tumblr is more fun too because Tumblr is a place where people can post random stuff like post pictures, quotes, music, chats, and more. Also we can repost people's posts; that is, if we're following them, but Blogger is amazing too. When I blog on both Blogger and Tumblr, I mostly blog about how was my day, especially on Blogger. Why did I make an account on Tumblr if I have a Blogger? Well, I guess it’s because it’s popular and stuff and I don’t know, I made it just for the heck of it. I also want to be better at blogging. There are a lot of people who blogs about interesting stuff. What kind of stuff? I don’t even know. The people I follow inspire me about what to write. I follow friends and people who share the same interests as me, and I decide to blog about stuff like them. What they blog about is mostly about love, hatred, special occasions, etc... But most of the time, they only post pictures. I post about everything now, especially feelings and inside thoughts that I want out of my head.

8. I really like having a blog. I've never had a blog before. Blogging is a place where you can talk about anything. And you can vent about stuff. It's kind of like an online journal or diary. And it's really organized too. It changed the way I write and the way I think because usually we don't speak the same way when we blog. Most of the time when I blog, I blog about my day or our feelings. And stuff I really need to say. I don't speak the same way when I blog online because it's weird. It's like reading books or poems or songs. When I blog, sometimes I can blog all formally like an essay, but when I speak, it's casual; I’m having a friendly conversation with someone in real life. I don’t speak all formally or an essay-type of conversation with someone. People will think I’m like memorizing what I’m saying from a script of something. I like how when I’m blogging, I can talk about whatever I want. It’s really easy, even though there isn’t that much to talk about. I try to think about random stuff to talk about, but I always end up talking about my day. I can talk about my day to my parents during dinner time, but then through blogging, I talk about my feelings. I can also make my blog posts private if I don’t want any of my followers to read it. I don’t blog for my fellow followers to read, I blog for myself. But sometimes, I guess it’s nice if my followers do read my blog posts, because I might post something funny or post something I want to share with them.

Before I made a Blogger, I saw commercials about blogging, like for example this guy and a lady was at a party and he asked if she wanted to go to his house and she though he was like those freaky men who wants sex or whatever, but then he took a bite of a candy bar and he said “Oh I thought you were a blogger.” And then she said “Oh I love blogging!” (It was a commercial about that candy that he took a bite of…). I always thought to myself what is the point of blogging? Because I never actually know what does blogging even mean. But now I really like it. I really enjoy blogging. It’s like a daily habit for me to blog now (on Tumblr). Whenever I go back home after school, I turn on the computer, and I open up so many windows; AIM, MSN, iTunes, Facebook, Youtube, Schoolloop, and Tumblr.

I hope I can continue blogging for a long time. There are certain habits that I want to get rid of, but I keep procrastinating to get rid of them, but I continue doing them anyways. But right now, blogging is a habit for me. Every day on Tumblr, I always have to post something up; I blog about everything. There are a few blog posts that I have written that are not redundant at all and it makes sense a lot and it’s over 1000 words. I felt pretty proud of myself after that. Sometimes when I get bored I reread all my blog posts and I to reminisce the moments. For a few times, I’ve found some redundancy my posts. After that, I read the recent blog post and I feel like I’ve improved a lot. I want to blog every day for years to come and someday I will reread my first blog post that I’ve ever done to the most recent one.

Your blog is what you say when there is nobody standing over your shoulder telling you what to do.
- Lorelle