Things to do on 12/29

 Dear all,

I have browsed through our blog and seen you post your log 6s, and some posted the book covers as your log 7s. This is a hectic semester, I know, but I do see your progress and feel so happy about it!

In order to give you more time to work on the final project, prepare your final presentation, and write up the process report, I have slowed down my teaching pace and reduced some of the materials I had planned to discuss in class.  Tomorrow, I'll talk about one last approach to writing, Writing Essays Using Multiple Strategies, to make up the part that we missed due to the limited time. Secondly, I'll share one more comparing/contrasting essay that may help you with your final project (how to describe your inventive product and how it is different from other similar ones). More videos to share in the first hour that can expand your views toward using digital storytelling for more purposes.

Another thing that we may need to negotiate is the schedule for the last three weeks:

First, will it be too hasty if I ask you to present your first video as a rehearsal on 1/5? Cathy and Louis will be present giving feedback and suggestions.

If not, I'll leave 1/12 a buffer week, meaning no class, but we'll gather in the classroom for you to work together on revising your videos. I shall make sure that your scripts are errorless. Louis will be around giving help, too. And then we do final presentations on 1/19,

Or, will you prefer to give your rehearsal on 1/12? Then I'll make 1/5 our buffer week. 

We'll decide tomorrow morning.

See you!

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

 

    Last novel I read was full of romance atmosphere, so this time I chose the one that targets to children, Charlie and the chocolate factory.

    I had not watched the movie version before I read this novel, but as I read the title of the book, I knew it was definitely a story that only happened in imagination. I really love this kind of fictions especially for children. I guess it might because I am still childish.

    In the story, Charlie lives with his grandparents and parents. His father cannot gain enough money to raise the family, so Charlie is always thin and weak. Besides, his only can get a bar of chocolate from the tremendous chocolate factory in his town. Every time he gets the chocolate, he will treasure it until it starts to expire. I did something similar to him when I was young. I seldom could buy snacks as a child, so I would only eat a little quantity of a pack of snack. However, after few days I began to forget the snack. Next time I recalled it, it had expired. Since then, I would finish the snack at once in case the snack would be wasted again.

    Although I can predict that Charlie will definitely get the golden ticket to visit the magic factory, I do not know what is inside the factory until I read the following plots. That is the most interesting thing to read children fiction novel. Children’s imagination is creative, so is the novel. Everything happens in the factory always makes me want to keep reading and explore the whole factory with Charlie.

The Remains of the Day

"What can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?"

Make a friend with your emotions

The third son

Hello, this is Jan! The book I read is “The third son”-Julie Wu. The author divides the book into two chapters, "1943–1957" and "1957–1962". The first half describes the main character, Saburo’s growth in Taiwan, and the second half is about his life after studying abroad, getting married, and fighting for his own future. I am going to share the main point and some of my reflections about 1 to 5 chapters. 

This story is written in the first person of Saburo, a Taiwanese eight-year-old boy who was born in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation, and shows the society background with his monologue. When American planes bombed Taiwan in 1943, Saburo rescued a girl named Yoshiko during an air raid. Taking a new lease of life from several attacks, Saburo walked Yoshiko home, and it became one of the most wonderful memories of Saburo. Keeping walking further, Saburo recalled his little brother, who was dead from pneumonia. Every time Saburo went back home, his mom would whip him, which didn’t apply to other siblings. He understood his parents blamed this unfortunate incident on Saburo for taking his brother out, but after seeing how Yoshiko got along with her family, Saburo realized that his mom was wrong.

One day Saburo was bitten by a krait snake, he rushed to find his cousin Toru, who worked in a clinic, and escaped from death again. Saburo told Toru his dream that he wanted to go to America, then he received a book named The earth from Toru. From then on, Saburo started putting his attention to study, requesting his mom to learn with his brothers and their tutor Sato. However, just two days later, he was not allowed to attend class any more because his mom thought he would disturb his brothers. On the day the Nationalists Army arrived, there was a celebrating parade, and Saburo saw Yoshiko again, crowded to the front line. A ragged man chasing a chicken bumped into Saburo, and his book dropped out from his backpack, held by the man. Saburo wanted to take it back, but someone behind him stopped him by saying that the man was a soldier. Saburo was catched by owning a Japanese book, and his father saved him by bribery but his book that he cherished a lot also was given to his oldest brother by his father.

There are many reasons that this book attracts me. First of all, I am interested in the background of this book, which is in the early Republic of China. Originally, I thought “The third son” was a translation of the Chinese version because of the author’s name, but I found it actually was the original work after searching some related information of this book. Then, I knew that this novel was based on the real experience of the author, the second generation of Taiwanese American, and it is her family background that enabled her to delicately describe the half century of the social scenes of Taiwan. Besides, when everyone was cheering for the return of the Nationalist regime, Saburo wondered why people celebrated the defeat of Japan, and I think this is about his confusion about national identity. A child has Chinese ancestry, ruled by the Japanese government but lives in the land of Taiwan. How could he find his own idea about nationality? Moreover, during the war time and the sensitive period, only one simple mistake like a Japanese book might lead to a life-threatening outcome. Still now, with this multicultural society, some of us may miss our identity on this issue, but fortunately we have the freedom to talk and explore more and more information by ourselves, which should be valued and treasured.

Second, this story also mentions a lot of family relationships, including how Saburo gets along with his parents, and the competition or even conflicts with his oldest brother. Maybe it’s because of Saburo’s personality or his birth order, he is rebellious in his parents' eyes. All the actions he does don’t correspond to the standard of the third son. In the family, his older brothers have more right and better treatment in both material and mind aspects. When Saburo was staring at the interactions of Yoshiko and her brothers, the joyful, warm atmosphere set off the loneliness of Saburo and the essential parts that were lacking in his family. What’s more, after getting home, what Saburo faced was the beating and scolding from his mom, but these became his motivation to study harder and go abroad.

Looking forward to the following life story of Saburo, I think it is a great chance to understand what has happened in the past and dig into the history of this island and my country.

Gathering Blue

Lois Lowry - Gathering blue

I want to share an inspiring sentence in this book with you guys!

“Take pride in your pain, you are stronger than those who have none,” said by Kira’s mother.

Get out of my head 12/21

 

Things to do on 12/22

 Dear all,

We are moving to the last one-third of the semester. You are almost there (, so am I). We'll be focusing on the creative projects, and I strongly encourage you to revise your individual videos according to the comments that Louis gave.

Essay 3 is the last written work you are required of. You'll get my comments on your draft 2 to be returned tomorrow. I have to say: you finally have a clear concept of structure! But here are some overall comments:

1. When you choose to elaborate on 3 or several aspects, please explain why these aspects? Why are they the most important factors in your arguments? 

2. How are these factors/aspects related to one another? Please note this will make it easier to have proper transitions among paragraphs.

3. Once you have structured your points logically, what's left is the depth of your arguments and the power of words you show in your writing. Your sentence structure also determines the flow of your writing, fluent or awkward, empty or solid with viewpoints.

For tomorrow, a young, beautiful, but senior CEO from a high (digital) tech company will come into class to give a talk on the making of promotional videos. 

Reminder: Please save your first progress report and prepare the second one this week. I am expecting that you increase material in the report every week. From last week on, your minutes for the workshop hours can be done as a group.

Time slots for your essay conferencing will be posted after class. 

See you!

ps. If you find any break time, I'll hope you continue reading~ That can include the material you read for your projects. 

Facing problems and working through them, that's what makes you strong.

    

    Hello, everyone. I’ m Serena. Welcome to my log 6!

    In this week, what I have read in Charlie and Great Glass Elevator is that Mr. Wonka chose to defeat the monster in order to save government officials from being attacked by the monsters on the spacecraft. In my opinion, Mr. Wonka does not need to consume himself too much with defeating monsters. I mean if it is simply about saving people’ life, he can just take everyone to escape the spacecraft, staying away from monsters to keep everyone’s life. However, he didn't escape, he chose to face the dangerous monster, trying to defeat it which is everyone's nightmare.

    This plot of the story led me to come up with a question: When encountering difficulties, will you choose to avoid or face it?

    Just at the moment, it occurred to me that my friend came to seek help from me recently because he didn't know how to reject others, so he chose to escape the problem instead of facing how he could do to reject the invitation of others.

    Specifically, due to the recommendation of my friend’s fitness coach, he met an insurance manager. After an interview, the insurance manager said to my friend "I think you have great potential, and you are very suitable for this business. For reminder: You will be very busy afterwards, because I will spend a lot of time training you." Originally, it should be a pleasure for my friend. However, after three meetings between him and the manager, I gradually found that he often looked glum. He told me he spent a lot of time training by this manager, and it has already affected his university studies. Lastly, he didn't know how to refuse the manager's invitation afterwards.

    My advice to him is that “you should face this problem instead of avoiding. Evasion will only make you unable to graduate because you didn’t have enough time to take care of your university studies. What’s worst, what if you find the insurance industry is not what you want to do in the future. Think about it, the time you spent on all these training plus the inability to graduate, is it really the result you want to see?”

    Therefore, I advised him to face the problem of being unable to reject others. First of all, you must first understand what kind of life and work you want to pursue in the future. Secondly, how to implement it, such as taking relevant courses in the university, or studying with friends in relevant fields. Last but not least, have good time management.

    After hearing this, my friend realized that he had to face his own problems, and he also realized that he had to complete his university education first. In the end, he successfully declined the invitation of the insurance manager and focused on his studies. 

    In this incident, I observed the fear behind my friend’s escape is from the confusion about the future. I also realized that sometimes the problems can not be evaded because it will only make the result worse. Moreover, through the events of my friends, I also remind myself just like how I told my friend, I should pick up my courage to face problems, overcoming difficulties.

 

 1.       What is SDGs

https://www.slideshare.net/mes0/sustainable-development-goals-sdgs-70859274

2. Four reasons to teach SDGs

https://www.participatelearning.com/blog/4-reasons-to-teach-the-sustainable-development-goals/

3. Progress report

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WkT9QdYosDSCVNnfzmZFCWpvya0pUCiT/edit

3. Process report

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WkT9QdYosDSCVNnfzmZFCWpvya0pUCiT/edit

Things to do on 12/15

Dear all,

One more month to go! Yeah! This is for both you and me, ha!

Sorry to keep you busy by bombarding you with essays, reading and blogging, and video projects.  You probably don't know that this course used to contain two different subjects: Advanced Reading and Composition II. Think it this way: if it were three years ago, you would have to work for two "insane" courses taught by me, the reading teacher, and Gloria the writing teacher, at the same time! Or, it was actually two "insane teachers!" XDDD! But, once again, I have seen that you keep making progress, and that really makes me happy!

Ok, from this week, we'll focus more on the video projects, giving you time discussing and critiquing video examples and working on your projects supported by our comments, suggestions, and technical support. So please bring your laptop to class.

For the final creative/group project, I'll show you the videos made by your seniors to give you some ideas to begin with. Certainly, I'd like to give you more flexibility on topic selection, but, with some conditions. I'll explain in class.

Louis will come into class for the third hour bringing his comments and suggestions for your individual videos. We do not want to overwhelm you with lots of revision works,  only to help you make a video that you'll be proud of. 

Then I'll leave for an activity that starts at 11:30. While Louis is helping with your videos, others shall begin to brainstorm ideas for your group project.

See you, eh, in the morning~

the abuse of authority

Once, Jane unintentionally drops her slate in front of Mr. Brocklehurst, a harsh and unpleasant man, making him furious and blaming her in public by asking her to stand on a stool. Moreover, Mr. Brocklehurst requests everyone to exclude her and forbids anyone to talk to her the rest of the day. While the clouds of despair obscure Jane’s sky, the silent consolation from Helen, smiling at her every time she passed by, becomes the beam of sunshine that illuminates the darkness. It reminds me of my childhood experience. 

I used to be a child that always performed well on my schoolwork, but not the typical type of “good student” that received much love from teachers due to my mischief. When I was 11 years old, I was humiliated in front of the class by my PE teacher who insisted that I didn’t finish the 800-meter running test. Out of rage, he shouted at me loudly and used abusive words regardless of other classmates and my defense that I did finish my run with another classmate running with me. As a compromise, I ran another 200 meters with all my classmates staring at me and my tears dropping from my eyes. After the class, no one came to me, even the one that ran with me, except for one classmate that accompanied me patiently. She was like my Helen, providing me the courage to retrieve my broken heart at my darkest time. 

This event came to an end and followed another event that also hurt me when I was 12. I was elected as the model student by our classmates while the ideal candidate for my homeroom teacher is another one. As the model student of our class, I had to compete with model students in other classes for the representative model students of our school. In the end, I won second place out of three nominees, which I considered not a bad result. Yet, my homeroom teacher disclosed terrible messages that seriously hurt my self-esteem once I was caught passing letters with others during the class. She had me stand up and read aloud the contents of the letter in front of the class. Accusing all of my behaviors she considered rebellious in mean words, she also despised me by telling the class that no teachers liked me even though I was good at studying, no one voted for me in the election, and some teachers even discussed me behind my back. Once again, I felt ashamed and cried in front of the class. From then on, every time I encountered teachers reminded me of these words, resulting in my dread of teachers, even the ones that I thought we had good relationships with. Furthermore, my confidence faded away, causing me to blame myself for minor mistakes all the time and care about how others judge me to an excessive extent. 

For those teachers, it is not a big deal to vent their emotions on students at their wills. For Jane and me, these experiences could be a wound that would never heal. Possessing a relatively higher status, those teachers exerted their authority and oppressed students with a superior attitude. Students, on the other hand, become the victims that have no strength to resist the dominant power. In addition, the temporary pleasure for teachers could be a trauma that haunted students for a lifetime and pushed them to the valley of low self-esteem. Fortunately, Jane and I have supporters like Helen that are willing to save us at our worst. Nevertheless, I still disagree with the unhealthy subordinate relationship between teachers and students and hope that students can be on equal status with teachers rather than being inferior objectives that have no choice but to endure the unreasonable treatment from teachers. 

(Of course, there are still many teachers that are exceptional and worth respecting! The main point for this article is about the unequal rights between students and teachers. )

How our relationship has changed under the influence of technology?

Good morning, afternoon, or evening, my friends. Happy to see you again in my blogger. Unexpectedly, this is the last required log in this semester; but I will keep reading “Snow Crash” until I finish it and keep sharing my reflection with you. So, I’ve read approximately half of this novel so far, I will briefly update the progression of the story for you in the following paragraph, and further discuss an issue regarding human relationship and technology in the third to fifth paragraphs. This time, hope you can still read it at ease and can relate to your own experience by reading this log.

In previous log I mentioned that the main character, Hiro, started his adventure in the Metaverse and again commerce on his original occasion (also his strength), hacker. So, why I called his journey an adventure? Because in the Metaverse, there were lots of challenges waiting for Hiro to conquer. Among these, the most dangerous one is a drug called “Snow crash (kind of computer virus)”. If people in virtual world consumed “Snow crash”, they would have serious side effects or even disappear in the virtual world. Initially the main characters had been indifferent to this drug until some of Hiro’s friends went mindless in reality. Hiro found out this drug would cause effects on both virtuality and reality, so he started to investigate the source of Snow crash. To stop this drug, Hiro demonstrated his hacker skills, inventing more powerful weapon to combat the Bob’s corporation, which was the inventor of “Snow crash”.

(Since I’ve been a bit busier recently, the above contents are about what I’ve read. The following is my personal reflection to it.) 

So far as I’ve read, I really feel that the world in the novel is a bit wild, but for some reason it makes me think that it is possible to be realized. A world that went both downhill and crazy, which were only four things worth paying attention to in the novel: music, movies, software, and high-speed pizza delivery. People put their focus in the virtual world, trying to escape from the dangerous and doom world. However, due to the appearance of “Snow crash”, their lives were even more dangerous. From author’s description, I also think about how technology has distorted the human relationship, which seems to interact frequently but in fact is alienated.

Last weekend, I didn’t go back home. My grandpa scolded me for not informing him that I wouldn’t go back this weekend. He said “people relationship now isn’t as sturdy as before. Even though we have the convenience brought by the technology, we still ignore the basic human relationship.” Of course, this is not the first time he said that. However, this time I seriously think of his words. Why people don’t be closer but be more distant under the development of tech? (Or more extremely says), Why human relationship seems to be distorted by the development of tech?  The relationship in real life has been gradually changed or even replaced by the one in the internet. For instance, I can tell a stranger all of my personal affairs but I cannot socialize with any person in real world. Another example is in a family reunion, all family members were staring at their phones, immersing in their phones as if they were independent individuals instead of family. Also, the frequency of warm greeting was reduced, instead, it was replaced by those cold online texts and texting image (長輩圖). I usually ponder over this question：Might people cherish human relationship more without the convenience brought by technology? Yet the fact is people have been affected by tech to a certain extent. Some can fall in love with a person by a couple of lines of texts; or some can commit suicidal due to anonymous comments in the social media. They both forget what should really pay attention to, the genuine relationship between people around them and themselves. People now (including me) are similar to the characters in this novel, we all take a different character in virtual world. What a shame, we seem to like the identity in virtuality much.

I sincerely hope that our future would won’t be like the one in novel, at least I will try my best to prevent that world from happening. For me, I really love the time when my brothers and I were playing hide and seek instead of immersing into phone games like now. The former let me feel the true warmth while the latter only make me feel a sense of distance. What about you? Does your world be affected by technology? and what kind of world do you prefer?

Comment below if you want. 😊😊😊

A Normal log

 

    Hello guys, it's Felix again. The past few weeks were insane! I thought that I'd already gone through the midterm and could finally take a great rest, but life always stroke you with some unexpected challenges that will simply drain you. So now, you can see me sitting in the classroom without a soul. Enough chitchatting, let's get started with the last reading log of the semester! (internally shouting and cheering)

    Since it's our last log for the semester, I'm going to still talk about this book because as I said in the previous log, there're still some of the topics I really want to share with you. Also, some interesting things happened during these weeks, and is even related to what I have shared with you in the previous log, this is just so amazing because I can really see people's response after they read my log and give me some feedback that helps me to build a more comprehensive stance for my opinion, I can see why we have to both read and write a lot because it indeed improves our skills also enhance our quality of life.

    I had a quality long night talk with one of my close friends a few days ago. We talked about everything, not only the assignments that haunted us for so long but also some difficulties we encountered in our social life. As I mentioned in the previous log, the comments from other people mean nothing to you actually, because what's more important is your belief. Since I've learned this, I started to ignore some negative comments made by others about me. But this time, I decided to listen to what my friend is trying to tell me how did he actually see about me. It was not until that day that I realized, I actually know so little about myself. I'm always lacking confidence, I'm the type that will always underestimate myself which pulls me back whenever I face a challenge. Even in my social life, I genuinely believe that no one will like me because I'm really hard to handle and can look a little cold or intimidating to others. 

    But, what my friend told me shocked me in a good way. He told me the opposite, he thinks I'm very nice inside, and the cold face was just my reaction when I feel bored. He also said that he initially thought that I'm a mysterious guy that made him wonder, "I consider myself as a friend of yours but I didn't actually know you that well.", but the boundaries between us were shattered because I started to tell him some of my personal stories that I didn't open up earlier. 

    We shared even more stories and thoughts during that night, the reason why I call it a quality chat is that it helped us know more about our true self and bring us awareness of the issue about ourselves that we constantly ignored. Just like the main characters, their relationship helped them find the beliefs of their lives, and also how they know about themselves. Sometimes the comments are important because it can guide you through your dark times and clear up the path for you, we just have bear in mind that always stay with your belief so that the comments can be helpful sometimes, and with belief, you can really see what is the best for you. Stay with your belief, to achieve what you've always dreamed of.

    I hope my log can lighten up your day, and I want to thank anyone who have given comments on any of my logs, those words are strong enough to build the confidence for me to accomplish what I'm always afraid of starting, they mean a loooooooot to me. I hope that everyone can be just like the normal people, that kind of people that shine on its own and is unique in their ways. Thank you for tuning, and I hope you have a wonderful day. luv u~  

   

Life is short, so keep curious

 

Hey, this is Xenia’s LAST log!!!!

I’m still reading the novel “pride and prejudice”. (I didn’t give up reading it! )

While reading the novel with its audio version, I have watched the movie several times because the images of the movie always emerge in my brain while reading. Therefore, I can’t help but repeat watching it several times.

At the end of the story, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy stop hiding, reveal their sincere thoughts, and decide to be together. Although they encounter lots of difficulties during the process, the ending is quite inspiring. 

Thus, the story lets me reflect on two points, which are the importance of first impression and persistence. 

As the title of the story, pride and prejudice, both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have negative first impressions toward each other. Elizabeth considers Mr. Darcy an arrogant and insolent man. On the other hand, Mr. Darcy considers Elizabeth a girl who is not pretty enough and too clever. 

The persistence of keeping knowing each other is composed of two elements, which are interest and misunderstanding. It can’t be denied that how impressions are important in every relationship; however, a first impression only gives people several specific ideas. What triggers people being together is persistence; moreover, only when having enough misunderstanding and interest could let people keep their passion and curiosity. 

Life is short, keep curious, and try to know the person that you consider precious.

Love, Simon 3

 

Love, Simon by Becky Albertalli

Hello! This is Connie’s log! Previously on the former chapters of this book, the relationship between Simon and his pen pal, Blue, was getting closer and closer because they always shared a lot of secrets, which might be hard to tell others but easy to talk about to themselves. In addition, it seemed that Simon had different affection toward Blue which could be found from some tiny details just like I mentioned in the former log.

One day, Blue told Simon that he was going to tell his father that he was gay since he had already made up his mind to go through with it. However, he ended up missing the timing to come out to his father. I believe that it’s very hard to disclose his or her sexual orientations to others or even someone who is very close to him or her. Because the society can’t totally accept these kinds of communities yet, they may be afraid of letting others be disappointed at them or taking them to be weird people. It is considered that parents will always support you no matter what happens and accept every aspect of you. However, I’ve watched a news talking about, “Parents who are totally fine with homosexual, but can’t handle it when their own kid comes out,” which is also mentioned in the book. From my point of view, these kinds of parents do not truly accept homosexuality; instead, they just think that it’s none of their business whether others are homosexuality or not. If parents really love their children, they may try to understand and respect their children’s thoughts, or even change their attitude toward different sexual orientation. 

In addition to the secrets Simon and Blue shared with each others, the frequency of sending emails became more and more often. To Simon, Blue’s emails used to be extra things that are separate from actual life; however, he thought the emails became his life with more and more stuff shared almost every day. Not only can I find the changes of Simon, but also I find that Blue does change a lot, too. Based on what Blue said in the email, I think he has chemistry with Simon. Blue said, “I know the real reason you were asking was because you wanted to hear me call you cute again, so I will. You’re cute.” Since “cute” does have special meanings when a man says to another man, I was so surprised to see Blue said that and curious about how Blue thought of Simon.

Being inspired by Blue, Simon plucked up his courage to come out to his friend, Abby. After revealing his sexual orientation, Simon felt like jumped over some kind of boarder, and then he was on the other side realizing that he couldn’t cross back. It seemed to be terrifying because the come out thing is irreversible. However, it is alway difficult for people to bear a secret on their mind without telling to anyone, Simon might feel relieved after revealing his big secret.

As Abby knew that Simon was gay, she didn’t feel surprised but felt honored to be the first one to know the secret. I consider that Abby didn’t take gay to be something abnormal; instead, she just thought that no matter what sexual orientation Simon had, they were still friends and wouldn’t change. Additionally, it shows that Abby is somehow important to Simon, which makes me look forward to reading the following chapters to see to what extent will Simon share his things with Abby. And how Simon and Blue’s relationship may change after Simon has another friend to know his secret.

the one of attractive elements in the magic world

 

If we mention about the wand maker, then most people will come up with Ollivander certainly. Ollivander is wand maker mentioned most times in the book. He made a lot great wands and he remembered all of them and their owner. Interestingly, the wands owned by Harry and Voldemort contained feather from same phoenix fed by Dumbledore.

 

Wands would choose the owners. They have personalities and preferences, which means similar wands might choose the owners who had similar personalities, needs, and abilities perhaps. As my research on essay 3, I suppose that Harry and Voldemort were similar people. The wands' choices also proved that.

 

The materials and cores are the interesting elements as well. They had many different characteristics to choose the suitable owners. For example, Voldemort's wand was made by Yew. It's rare and often had an unusual owner. It would give its owner the power of controlling live and death. Harry' wand it was made by Holly. It was good at defense and usually suitable to the owner who needed to control the impatient personality. As I mentioned, their cores of the wands were from same phoenix. The wands which used phoenix feather as the cores were very rare, but types of magic they could cast were the most by spending a little long time, unlike some cores would refuse to cast dark magic such as unicorn tail hair. Phoenix feather was active and it tended to operate by its own thoughts. It was hard to be tamed. The cores ‘personalities also depended on personalities of the magic creatures which the cores came from. Those characteristics were similar with the phoenix. Other common core materials were unicorn tail hair and dragon heartstring. I personally want to know more about the wand made by Veela’s hair. Veela is a creature who have prettiest appearance to attract males. Fleur’s wand was made by it.

 

Because wands had personalities and own thoughts, sometimes they would refuse to fight against their brother. From the last part of book, the Goblet of Fire, Harry was transferred to the place where Voldemort was at, and Harry was forced to fight with Voldemort. However, although Voldemort just relived for a short time, he was the most powerful dark wizard, how could he not be able to kill Harry and tied with Harry? Mr. Ollivander explained to us. The main reason is because of the core of wands owned by both of them. The cores of their wands were same so they would choose not to attract each other, which means the wands could not reach the level they usually achieved.

 

For my own opinions, although to choose a powerful wand is important for every witch and wizard, they can not choose a powerful wand but not suitable. Choosing a wand which is suitable is a more crucial way to show the wand’s and wizard’s real power. Though Voldemort owned the most powerful wand, he still couldn’t use it well because the wand was not for him at that time.

 

I admire JK Rowling much. She created the world and made all details so carefully. Even the wand had many materials. And even we readers are muggles, we can still have fun on choosing wands and houses by our own personalities, to participate the magic world in an easy way. I suppose that they are one of the reasons which make the story classic and make the story be loved until now. 

Reference: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/zh/wiki/魔杖?variant=zh-tw

Are you a moody person?

 

The Book of Moods by Lauren Martin

          Hi there, it’s Jade. For the last log, I’m going to talk about a book I just bought at a secondhand book store last week. It’s called The Book of Moods by Lauren Martin. She revealed the transition of how she views her moods in the past five years. At the start, deciding not to be a moody woman anymore, the writer tried to find out and avoid the triggers causing her moodiness, such as calling her mother. However, she found it useless and there were always other things that could bring her negative feelings. Eventually, she chose to keep being a moody woman, but never being controlled by her emotions like before. In my point of view, I think the writer is not only a moody but also courageous woman. It’s not everyone who possesses such bravery to confront weakness and even try to make change. Also, I like how she observed the change in her moods, like what would piss her off and what would clam her down again. Through her intensive attention to her daily life, she discovered more about herself and carve out her own path of the way to live with her nature, moodiness.

          Personally, I’m not a moody person like the writer. I always just give myself some time and let the sadness go. For me, it is the most effective way to deal with my bad moods. Since I chose not to be sad or upset, I would just not be. Surprisingly, my mindset is actually approved by a theory mentioned in this book.

          “Neuroscientists have confirmed that emotional responses last for only sixty to ninety seconds. Once ninety seconds have passed, the chemical component of emotion is gone and the automatic, physiological experience of emotion, is over. If the emotion is still present, however, that is a personal choice.”

          Like what I said, I think that no matter what emotion it is, whether positive or negative, as long as we want to be and choose to be, we can be in it. Besides, being controlled by emotions is one of the most pointless and useless things in the world from my perspective, for it could help nothing but sometimes waste us more time and mess things up. Yet, it doesn’t mean that we can’t have emotions and always be calm. Conversely, it is completely not wrong to be emotional as long as we have our moods in control.

          After reading the writer’s experiences of being moody, observing moods and controlling them, I decided to pay more attention to my own moods too. Perhaps I could discover something I don’t know and have the chance to know myself better just like the writer did. If you’re a moody person, you could try it as well. I hope it could help you then.

Keeping Feelings

    Silent. Yes, silent. Have you ever bottled your feelings up and stayed silent? Yeah? Well, when I was younger, I never understand people who kept their feelings to themselves as I always stay true to my feelings and freely expressed my feelings. But as aging and adulting come knocking on the door, I slowly understand why we tend to hide our emotions and feelings and how it’s destructive.

    Our main character here, Mr. Stevens, the butler of Darlington Hall, exhibits an intriguing example of keeping one’s feelings. Mr. Stevens’ beginning with Miss Kenton, the former head housekeeper of Darlington Hall, didn’t do well. Miss Kenton was the opposite of Mr. Stevens. She was warm, kindhearted, and vocal about her feelings and opinion. For instance, she brought flowers to Mr. Stevens room to ‘bright it up’, but it was rejected as Mr. Stevens called it a distraction. Well, both of them were surely known for their frequent disagreement with each other. Unfortunately, as time went by, their relationship remained static. Miss Kenton grew tired of Mr. Stevens inability to express his feelings and gave her hand on marriage to Mr. Benn. 

    Mr. Stevens tactic to keep his feelings to himself has become his very own enemy. He let what he adores slip through his hands. As a reader, I’m quite frustrated with what Mr. Stevens called ‘professional’. Despite all the opportunities he got, he’s hesitant and kept compressing his true intentions. Meanwhile, Miss Kenton makes decisions based on her own thoughts and beliefs. Mr. Stevens may think he cherished his ‘dignity’, but in reality, Miss Kenton displays more dignity and integrity than Mr. Stevens. Freelance journalist, Peter Beech, called this story ‘very English’, “It’s probably quite an English book – I can’t imagine readers in more gregarious nations will have much patience with a protagonist who takes four decades to fail to declare his feelings.”

    Although it’s quite necessary for someone to express their feelings, it is unrealistic to wish for a world where hiding one’s feelings don’t exist. Compared to other parts of the world, I think this is particularly significant in Taiwan. I’ve met multiple amounts of people who jumped to other topics or beat around the bush when they’re conveying their intentions. Despite the fact that it’s quite inevitable as culture played a big part in it, let me give a reminder that suppressing feelings is not the way. If you hide your feelings and prevent communication, it will only intensify your emotions and more problems will come. Always remember to not lose your integrity and don’t ever become the second Mr. Stevens!

Father's deep love

     After Louis’s question “Has anyone ever buried a human body up there?”, which I’m also curious about, something bad happened. The next chapter shocked me hard with the announcement of Gage’s death. I bet Louis must have been driven crazy. As the old saying goes “It never rains, it pours.” He just dealt with his cat, Church and now the tragedy happened to his son, Gage. Most importantly, Gage’s death not only brought Louis heartbreak and grief but also implacable guilt. It’s hard enough to bear the agony of losing a loved one, let alone seeing him die in front of you because you failed to save him. One second Louis and his family were happily playing in the yard, and the next second Gage started running toward the road where Church “once” ran over by a big truck. And then Louis tried to outrace Gage and pull him back. I believed the whole process wouldn’t be longer than a few seconds, but the way the author described made it a few minutes longer. Even though I thought this plot was quite soap-opera-like, my heart still thumped when seeing Louis throwing himself out as hard as he could only to brush his fingertip through Gage’s back and fail to pull him back. Then I thought the reason why this plot is so classic and used so often in soap operas is that as a bystander, we think it is ridiculous, but when it happened to us, it totally could tear us up severely. The guilt of not being able to save your loved one on time could haunt you for the rest of your life, and the scene of seeing him/her die right in front of you could replay again and again until you couldn’t take it anymore.

    The idea of burying Gage in that mysterious cemetery didn’t come to Louis’s mind until his daughter Ellie mentioned that her teacher once told a story about how Jesus resurrected a dead person from the grave and that she would get everything prepared for Gage in case Gage would also be resurrected by God. After hearing what Ellie said and after getting drunk, Louis started to pull over the whole thing. Once he started, he couldn’t stop. The impulsion of resurrecting his dead son became so stronger that he couldn’t resist.

    Then he started to do some analysis. Through his analysis, I saw nothing but father’s deep love and I was touched. Louis didn’t know what kind of changes Gage would undergo after the resurrection, but he said “No matter how strange or different Gage become, I don’t think my love for him will ever reduce.” What he said reminded me of my parents, though it was a little bit different scenario, what I want to say is, it’s impossible to measure how deep parents’ love is for their kids. A few days ago, when I was on the phone with my parents, I couldn’t help but burst into tears when they asked me how was I doing recently. I actually had been feeling stressed out for quite a long time but I never told them because I didn’t want them to worry. However, that day, somehow I couldn’t hide anymore, so I cried and I told them I felt terrible because I’m good at nothing and I’m afraid I’m not going to find a (good) job in the future. What they replied made me cry even harder. They said ”我們只想要你開心" and “找不到工作我們養你” I used to think they must have a high expectation of me and thought that I will get a really good job in the future. But what they told me made me realize that no matter I will be successful or not, I’ll always be their beloved daughter. Even though, I’ll still try my best to be successful, knowing I have such supportive parents is good enough.

     After Louis’s analysis, he thought there was no consequence that was severe enough to stop him from bringing his son back. Therefore, he started to carry out his strategy. First, he sent his wife and his daughter away to his father-in-law’s house so that he could do it secretly. I don’t think sending them away was a good idea. After all, sooner or later, he still had to explain to them after he brought Gage back to life. Everyone knew Gage was dead and the funeral had been held, so how Louis is going to carry out his plan makes me interested and curious.

Log 6

    Okay, this is the final log of me reading thirteen reasons why, I can tell you, confidently, it's a long long long long journey for me, and this s also the first time I finish reading through an English novel.

    

    I usually tell you a some plots so that you can have a bigger picture of what I'm saying. However, since this is the last log that I would ever write about this novel, and there are tons of surprise that are waiting for you to explore yourself, I will skip the plots sharing. Trust me, the novel would "really" get you differently than the Netflix series.

    

    So, where's the juicy part, Quinn? Here I am to tell you how this novel strike me with its interesting  thoughts and inspiring plots.

   

    Let's talk about bully (if it's not too soon to talk about this, but it's the main element of the novel). I'm so glad that I've gone through bullies. It's a way to understand how it works, and how it results. "If you understand it, then you'll no longer be afraid of it." As hard for me to relate sexual insults and harassments in this book, I can still relate to the feelings of bully, like Hannah received. I want to clarify that bully is never a right thing to do, but people do bully other unconsciously. They're not aware of that people are feeling bullied. That's also a thing I learned from this novel. When Hannah is working really hard making those tapes about her reasons of death, she fails to see that people did not really notice it. Even when she's dead, some still couldn't figure out what they did to her to make her kill herself.

    

    Let's put the word "bully" aside. I think the whole novel is a reminder of how can these "actions" result in different consequences. We fail to notice something we do can cause other uncomfortable, and sick. Therefore, we need to work harder on keeping track of what we're doing, how it make other feel? Or is it okay to do it to that person? Since you firmly believe what you did is not wrong, then what you think is no longer important anymore. What matter is what other think, that is, the receiver. And I'm here to tell all the people including me that: you "are" a bully, but fail you to found out. I believe that people must do things sickening people, or anything that's not respectful. So through this novel and all the bully example it provides, we all need to reinspect our behavior, stand in other's shoes, and be a better person in treating others. It's the lesson this novel taught me in a few weeks, and I do think it's important.

    How do you think about moving on to suicide? But it's never you deciding what to write next, right? 

     This novel is using suicide as an base to develop the plot, which is also the part that I really consider it controversial, "even for me". The whole book is revolving around the edges of the sinful deed, however, in a skillful way. Yes, I couldn't deny using teenager suicide might be misleading and somewhat glamorizing, but the thing that we can perceive, observe, and learn beyond that is something truly important. 

    "When I'm dead, they'll all be sorry." 

    

    For a person in his/her young age, things can always go wrong in its own way. Just like Hannah, we can see that everything happened to her was her reasons to end herself. But did that really worth it? I've never doubted the value of living, but here is the time when we should all start to think about our meaning of lives. Reading this novel, I sometimes started thinking: What if I lose the purpose to live? Would I do the same like Hannah? It's never easy for a teenager to figure out their reasons of living, but easy for them to find a reason to die. Don't these still apply to our lives right now? We are so pessimistic all the time living in this urban world, but we spend little time appreciate how good we already are. So I interpreted suicide as negativity here. If you keep finding reasons for it, like Hannah did, her thirteen reasons, then you will only feed your own negativity. Oppositely, if you don't, then there is no way that suicide will be an "option". So keep your head up! What you think matters so much more that what you encounter! And stop feeding your own negativity!

    I know it's always hard for people to face their flaws, again, "even for me". But by reading this book, it gave me a chance to recheck what I've done, and what I haven't done. It's just so great that I can spend some time not only reading a teenage novel, but also reading through my life. I appreciate for this long long long long long journey. It grew me up even though it didn't tell me everything I have to do. I guess this is the power of human reflection. When we're reading, we reflect on ourselves. So I hope that all of you can have a good time reading, and exploring yourself! And this is the official end of my blog! Thank you for your time reading! See you guys around!

Please bring two handouts to class

 Dear all,

This post is to remind you that we'll discuss in class:

1. JK Rowling's "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination." We have talked about the importance of Failure; tomorrow we'll continue the second part-- "imagination."

2. Samuel Clements' "Two Ways of Viewing the River." A block patter of comparing and contrasting things. 

I'll help print out your draft 1 of essay 3 and storyboards if they are submitted by tonight. 

The choice made us who we are today

 

Hi, this is Iris. I am going to share the book "The Giver" in this log. Many of you might have already read it, but maybe we have different perspectives. So, let's see~

The story starts with an apprehensive of a boy (Jonas) about “coming December”. In December, all twelve years old get an assignment. That assignment is related to their whole life but they have no right to choose. So, this is a community of “No Choice”. They are planned for everything, even death. While Jonas’s friends got assignments as a doctor, birth mother, and laborer, he was chosen to be “The new Receiver of Memory” which was considered a big honor. As the training began, the current receiver of memory now is “The Giver” transferred his memories of the past to Jonas by placing his hands on Jonas’s forearms. As Jonas got memories of snow, sunshine, sunburn, hunger, ocean, Christmas party, etc...he started to get wisdom and realized that people in this community do not have real feelings, and do not have a chance to make their own decisions is unfair. 

In this community, people get released when they get old, when they make three mistakes and when there are identical twins. When Jonas finds out what release really means, he is shocked. He decided to escape from his community with Gabriel(who is going to be released) and release all his memories to people, allowing them to feel. On the way to escape, they are weakened from lack of food and feel cold and wet because of two days of rain. At the end of the story, Jonas thought he achieved his destination, saw someone was waiting for them, and heard music. However, we don’t know whether that is his hallucinations or not.

I feel this story is a bit dark because it claims that there is no lie in the community. However, when Jonas was chosen to be the receiver of the memory, he was told that he could lie. Also, at the story reveal I see that her father was lying about “released” (which is killing) all the time. Maybe everyone was told that they could lie…

After reading this story, I started to think that memories are really a thing that shapes us. Without memories, we know nothing. No memories mean no regret, we can not remember what hurt us and prevent that from happening again. 

Choices are very important. Like Jonas, once he chose to escape from the community, he had to accept the starvation that he never had and an unpredictable future. Sometimes we are afraid to make choices because we can’t afford the consequences of wrong choices. However, there are no such wrong choices. Whether our choices are good or not, they always help us to grow in one or another way. Choices made us who we are today. 

Wandering through Kira’s life

Hi, this is Judy!

In this post, I am going to share with you a book called “Gathering Blue.” First of all, I personally think the cover of this novel is quite unique. On the one hand, it is because the main color utilized to design is blue, which is associated with the title of this book. On the other hand, after reading through some pages of the book, I find that it vaguely conveys some crucial messages to me as a reader, such as thread, a needle, and cotton. Not until I finished reading some plots did I find the cover was actually a nice touch!

This story begins by introducing one of the main characters, Kira. She is an orphan, with both of her parents being dead. She even has a deformed leg which makes her life tough and challenging. Since she has disabilities, she is regarded as a relatively “useless” person and what’s worse, someone wants to expel her from this world. After understanding her life, I think to myself how terrible this world is. But hopefully, she always believes in herself and considers herself that she has a talent for sewing, which can definitely make her become worthwhile to stay in this world. Having a clever way with her hands is her expertise and passion. From my own perspective, she not only has confidence but also sticks to her point all the time. She once had a bitter dispute with the officials because those people thought her space of house was no longer needed. However, as far as Kira was concerned, it was a place full of her memories with her dear mom. Hence, she couldn’t help but quarrel with people who held the opposite viewpoints in an authoritative manner.

The beginning of the book had already mentioned that the main character, Kira, lost her mother forever. It made me stop reading instantly for a while because it occurred to me that I had a similar miserable experience. Last year, I lost my grandmother. I lost everything associated with her except for my wonderful memories. At that time, I had the same feeling as Kira who felt uncertainty, a great sadness, followed by an agony. Since I was still young, I hadn’t ever experienced death before. During that time, when I looked at the ambulance arriving at my grandmother’s house slowly and silently, it was implausible for me to believe this sad news. I was at a loss and paralyzed with fear, not knowing what to say or do. It was not until my grandma’s face had appeared in front of me again that I was completely falling apart. I could no longer resist my tears rolling down my cheeks.

Frankly speaking, it was my first time comprehending the meaning of a quote said by Octavian Paler, “Death is the only real thing from life.” But it didn’t mean I should not lament over the inevitable death. Besides, although death was a natural phase of our lives, I was somewhat afraid of dying after experiencing the loss and grief of my grandmother. But this feeling had indeed propelled me to seize every moment to seize the day.

In addition, there was something else that I wanted to share. When I read the passages “Kira was imperfect. She should not have been kept and left in the world,” I was furious. I was furious about the way other described her. Why couldn’t such a passionate person stay in this world? Why should a hard-working woman disappear from this world? In reality, in my opinion, she was definitely a perfect person who lived her own life to the utmost. I would use one word to characterize her personality which was “resourceful.” Even if she was crippled, she found ways to make herself useful from her childhood by gathering cloth scraps from the looms. She was hard-working, a constant help to her mother and a tireless weaver. She was compassionate, as shown in her interaction with other people including her mom. In our real society, actually, I quite often noticed the disabled people who survived hard. Also, I did find that most of people with disabilities were confronted with others’ oppression or discrimination. Based on what I had seen, most people were reluctant to talk with the disabled, and even unwilling to approach them. Consequently, the disabled often failed to make friends with others. From my own perspective, everyone is distinct, and no one should be ignored in this world. Furthermore, the meaning of life depends on how everyone ascribes it to be. Being alive is essentially the meaning.

To sum up, it’s a book which makes me emotional. Sometimes, the plot of the story makes me smile. Nonetheless, sometimes, I am annoyed at some passages. But in my eyes, Kira is perfect. It’s because she is not only hard-working, but also talented. Besides, she thinks positively. I learn a lot from her while I’m reading this novel. In the meanwhile, I reflect on myself what advantages she has that I don’t actually have, especially in terms of attitude and mindset. Although I haven’t finished reading this novel yet, I have already been fascinated with this story. I unexpectedly find pleasure in reading this novel even if I have a busy schedule and lots of work to do. :)

Confusion~~

Dear all, 

Some are confused about if log 6 is required or not.

"Log 6 is the last log" has been said last week, so I didn't include it in my previous post.

But I have noted that some may have problems producing log 6 (or essay). 

I'll suggest that you focus on essay draft, for we are going to exchange drafts and get feedback from your friends. I can be flexible on the deadline for log 6. 

The Alchemist

                                                    

    The boy had went to an old woman to help him interpret his dream. She told him there was a treasure in Egypt and that he only need to give her one-tenth of the money once he found it, for the payment of the interpretation. He then encountered an old man, said to be the king of Salem. The old man told him everyone has their own Personal Legend, which is the dreams they want to follow. However, there is also a mysterious force making people believe it is impossible to pursue the dreams. After several conversations, the old man suggested the boy to go to Egypt and find the treasure, with one-tenth of his flocks. He told him a story about a boy asking for the answer of happiness from a widest man. In the story the wise man gave the boy a spoon with two drops of oil, and asked him to not spill it in two hours. After the boy had carefully avoiding the oil to spill out. The man asked him if he had seen the beautiful decorates in his house. But the boy was so concentrated on the spoon of oil that he didn't have time to notice the beauties surrounding him. Therefore, the wise man told him to go back and do it again. This time, the boy took deep looks into the wise man's house, but end up spilling all the oil out of the spoon. The wise man then told him the secret of happiness is to see through all the marvels in the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon. The shepherd then understood the meaning behind the story: he shouldn't forget the flocks even he strived to become a traveler. 

    I personally think this is an important point, that people can easily forget the things they have when pursuing the goals or dreams. In this book, it talks a lot about dreams and the comfort zone we are in. It talks about how a boy's life was different only by one day. He was a shepherd yesterday, but the next day he had sold his flock and all of his money was stolen in a foreign country. It also talks about decisions, the old man gave the boy a black and a white stone for making decisions: the things we deal with are just one thing, and nothing else. I can really related to it, since I am so afraid of making decisions that it usually took me so long to do it. The decisions we make can cause effects to our future, and we will never know if the impact is good or bad. That's what makes the decision so difficult. There were times for me to make decisions end up like the boy, feeling comfortable and rich on the previous day but lose everything on the next day. Those big decisions were mostly made during the turning points in our lives, and they can really change peoples' lives. However, when looking back, there are always things I appreciate from the bad decisions I made, they might turned out amazing or taught me something. Therefore, I think in the further story, the boy would find his personal Legend. (Or I will feel desperate about life)