summer part 1 lol

so how is summer for every body?

i said that i would blog once in a while after the school year and here i am. Summer for the typical asian is either more summer courses or a trip to china/ hong kong. Well this year i do not get a trip to any where and i am too lazy to do summer courses. I decided to just relax the whole summer. So far i have played tennis, gone to Quicklys almost everyday, helped organize a birthday party kinda ish, played a load of mahjong, sang K and others. New experience can make a person more open to different ideas i guess, so new stuff is healthy. lol, like in tennis today, i found out that using a 90 sq in racket makes the racket feel more controllable than a 100 sq in one.

My view for summer now is to make yourself in a calm state so that you are prepared for what is ahead not take silly summer courses that add on more stress. I do not get why ppl take summer courses if they waited forever for summer. Meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends can be quite fun and unexpected. Sometimes i even think to myself, whoaa why does it feel so much like jan-march of 8th grade year with all these chatrooms and fishy talk. xD I guess each person makes the summer a bit better because they contributed to the one and only summer of 2010.

ENGLISH FINALZ TWO

I like having a blog very much. A blog is like online megapixel that can store writing that you wrote on the computer to share with your friends , family , boyfriend, girlfriend , teacher , and animals. Blogs are quite convenient because they can save paper and healthy and young trees, for those that cannot afford paper. The environment can survive a bit longer if every teacher used blogs to turn in assignments. This tool has somewhat affected my life outside of school when i am extremely bored. I would sit down and think to myself," hmm this is an interesting subject, maybe i should blog my opinions about it!" Well , this is still somewhat school related but i am not doing this thinking in school. Immediately after i think of a topic i write about, i would think to myself about the subtopics, when i should write the next paragraph, the beginning middle end, and so on.

Blogging has changed my way about writing quite a lot over time. In our former English classes, we would loath having to write for long periods of time until our fingers hurt. For some people, calluses would even form on their fingers depending on their style on holding the pencil. Fortunately with blogging we don't have to use a pencil to write at all. We youngsters of this generation are used to using the computer and typing for long periods of time, so blogging seems easy like pie. The way i think about writing has changed because English class this year was quite leisurely. Everyone had one whole week to complete one assignment at first, then it because two or sometimes three. I no longer thought of English as a lame thing, but as a fun assignment because it was different. Even as i am typing this, i am thinking that YES, one final almost done and five more to go.

After my sophomore school year, it is likely that i will publish more posts on my blog. Every now and i then i will log on my blogger or google docs account and see how i used to write like. It is likely that i will write shorter writing than during the school year because there will be no minimum about when i do it on my free time. Since Mr.Sutherland will still be able to read it, i should make it friendly. Thinking about the future, i could have a bunch of friends come together and write about the subject one day, like how we started writing about deuces and mahjong. With my blog i would probably write down thinks that i do not want to forget, especially days that could be the best in my life. Writing down these little notes in my blog can be more useful than on paper because it will always be there unless blogger dies. I wonder if the rest of my classmates would keep blogging even thought it is not mandatory, and would youuu comment on the blog posts?


The second question i chose to write about is to pick one of my blog post and to analyze it. The post that i would like to analyze is the post called hong kong part 15. here is a link: http://wongyingjie.blogspot.com/2010/02/hong-kong-part-15.html . This post can be called my favorite because it sums up my trip of hong kong during summer of '09 but it can also be a least favorite. When i decided that , that this post would be the last of the hong kong saga, i thought about if i could write a tiny bit more. I am sure that i could write more about the wonderful place, including the first and second time i went there but that would be dragging the saga a bit too long. ( Like i said on the first question, i could write about the first and second time after the school year xD) The 15 parts of this trip slowly add up experience i had in hongkong.

This will be the last episode in my 15 blogs of going to this far far far away place. It was the day to go back to United States. Looking at my luggage, i saw my new orange transformers giordano tshirt, while my brother wore his blue batman tshirt. When we left we said farewell to everyone .. . including Love, Jessica , uncle , aunt, grandma's sister. My little two cousins kept hugging my leg and really did not want us to leave. They had no body to play with and probably wanted us to stay forever in their room full of toys.

The taxi guy picked us up and we left the place that we lived at for 15. I miss that place and would want to visit again and again. When we arrived at the airport, it turned out that my neighbor and us had the same flight back. So after we ate popeyes, my brother and i went to the terminal first, my mother went somewhere. The maze to get to the terminal was long, even needing to go on a train. When we saw them we were excited and visited, sharing our new gadgets. My mom got right on time when the people announced boarding.

On the plane, the trip seemed shorter than before, maybe because i am getting used to the 13 hrs. In front in my seat there was an Indian woman that kept dropping her pillow and i helped give it back to her. It turns out that she was having a 105 degree fever. The first thing that i thought was that YIKES will i get swine flu? i thought the pillow. But it turns out that i was safe from this flu when i got home. The rest of the trip was quite positive, i even got instant ramen to eat !
THE END

Time to analyze this post! The first thing i surprise i myself with is the detail that remember what happened, down to the color of the shirt i was wearing. Even though Mr. Sutherland has commented on this skill before, i finally notice it now my ability to memorize stuff i dont need to. Although this is similar to question 1 about improving writing, i believe that i could had added a lot more detail to this piece of writing. I should had exaggerated my sadness for leaving this place instead of simply saying that Donovan and Melissa was holding on to us. That simply meant that they will miss us but that did not really say that we did. I should had wrote about the aspects of life that i would miss that i cannot experience here in the States. Saying that i would miss it isnt enough in my opinion. The word nobody should be linked together not far apart. Rereading this summary of the trip, i think that adding detail would have been done if the 500 word minimum was implied earlier. I think that i have a lot that i dont like about my writing, especially imagery. When i said the trip to our terminal was long i should had added that we had to go up and down escalators, walk passages, and more. When Mr. Sutherland told us that we should revise our papers after we write them for grammatical issues if i had time, i should had listened. I can tell that sometimes you might not know what i am talking about on that blog post because i was thinking about writing a word but forgot to, for example " we lived at ___ for 15 ___" forgetting to right lived at happy view terrace for 15 days.

Well to sum up this school year, it was fun year, better than my English class last year. Hopefully i get this class again next year so that my junior year will be more laid back. Hmm, one thing the class might needa work on is words, like to help us on the SAT. we cant fail that !!! well thx for the school year !

Monthy Review, the last one we will write for our sophomore year in alameda high.

The school year is about to end with about 13 days left and not all of them are instruction days. That means that we have to write and finish our monthly reviews and finals very soon. The last novel that our group read is Maximum Ride by James Patterson. It is about a group of people that are 98% human and 2% bird and they are on their adventure to find out about who they are after a place called the School mutated their genes. Along the way, Max, Fang, Iggy, Angel, Gasman, and Nudge are constantly attacked by a group of part wolf part humans called Erasers. Angel is captured by the white coats in the beginning and the group's goal is to rescue her before finding out about their identity.

A character that stood out when i was reading this book is Max. Max is a girl from european decent with possibly blond hair and is very light weight because of her bird genes. Her full Maximum Ride , also the name of the book, was thought up when she was with Jeb, a parent like figure in the flock but he mysteriously disappeared two years ago. Max is the leader among the flock, and the moment when Angel is taken away, she gives the orders to fly hundreds of miles to Death Valley, where the School is , to rescue Angel. On the way flying to Death Valley, she sees that a girl is being bullied on the ground so she decides to go down and help the girl. Unfortunately good intentions arent always good, the people that was bullying the girl took a gun and shot Max's arm and wing, making her injured. When the girl and her mother, which is a vet, decides to make sure Max is recovered, Max feels a feeling of being at home and having someone care for her. This can be proved with the quote on pg 144:

Plus her mom was so awesome. She was strict about some things- dont leave your socks lying around- but so not strict about other things , like calling the cops about my bullet wound. Unlike any other parent I'd ever heard of, she didnt press for details, didnt lecture, and believed what i said. She actually accepted me. Like she accpeted Ella, for who she was.

Jeb, who was the traitor because his mysterious dissappearance from the flock was because he went back to the School to be a whitecoat, possibly can be Max's father because Jeb said," you killed your own brother!" ( pg 400) Since Ari was Jeb's son and he said Ari was Max's brother, Jeb could be Max's father.

I forgot to mention that each member of the group has their own special abilities and Max develops a voice in her head about halfway in the book. This voice guides Max through their adventure trying to find the Institute. Resulting from this voice, Max randomly gets headaches that can makes movement impossible, sometimes happening when she is flying and she falls and falls. This makes the rest of the flock worry deeply about her, making her wonder of this voice is a friend or a enemy. There is a quote from the last page of the first book that talks about the voice. annly has this quote on her last lit circle letter too.

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

The weaknesses of this book are not much but there are a few i would like to point out. When i first read the summary about 2% bird, i thought," Isnt this a bit exaggerated?" With only 2% of their genes being nonhuman, it affects their bone structure, giving them flying abilities, super strength, and individual abilities like breathing underwater. It should probably be a much bigger ratio. Another problem that has been on my mind is when Max got a xray from Dr.Martinez and saw that she has a microchip in her forearm. It is not very clear that whether or not if only Max has it or does the whole flock have this microchip. The rest of the flock should had gotten a xray too after they rescued Angel. When Dr.Martinez told Max that is she wanted to take it out, she might risk her whole lower arm, i would had done it. It is highly likely that this microchip is a tracking device, without this chip the Erasers wouldn't have been so fast at finding the group. Mentioning that there was a microchip in Max was not very relevant because they did not mention it after that incident. Another flaw is Iggy, the only blind member of the group. The author wrote this book, saying that Iggy can fly hundreds of miles, build a bomb, and other out of the ordinary activities but he is blind. Realistically, even though his other senses are more alert because his sight is gone, flying is near impossible because you would feel very lost. Sometimes when i am bored, i close my eyes and try to walk around, even walking is hard enough for me. An awkward part of the book could be when Max's dreams and voice appeared on a subway kid's computer without touching it. I think that it would be better if when Max touched it, the images appeared, it would seem like magic.


Another book that is from the same genre as Maximum ride is other book that our group read earlier, The Hunger Games. Both books are about science fiction, one being about people with human DNA mutation, the other is about survival in an arena. The main idea in both books is to not die, one being surviving from deadly Erasers, the other is about surviving a last one standing game. In my opinion, both book are quite easy to read because they tell what the main character is thinking at the time, making the book more simpler because they are around our age. Max thinks deeply every time in a difficult situation for the sake of the whole team. Katniss tries to survive to see her family at home. In terms of which book is more science fiction, Maximum Ride wins. Clearly, this book is more sci-fi because of the superhuman strength, transforming werewolves, flying mutated people. This book is a bit less exciting than Hunger Games because sometimes you can guess what will happen. In the Hunger Games, the sudden deaths of a few important and less important characters are usually a surprise, including what Katniss did to save herself and Peeta. Although this book has no love story like the Hunger Games, it does involve strong family bonds. Even though Max and the rest of the flock is not blood related, they call themselves a big happy family. Maximum Ride is a lot less realistic than the Hunger games because of the super powers but it gives you a sense of the hidden things in this world. The School were all these horrible things were done, the actions were all done in secret and hidden in society. It makes us wonder if scientists in America do that or is there an Area 51, adding to the science fiction to it.

lit circle book 3 park 3

How come the Erasers hadnt found us yet? Sometimes they tracked us so easily, and other times, like now, we seemed to be truly hidden. Did i have a homing signal and in implanted chip or not? If i did , why werent the Erasers here by now? It was like they were just toying with us keeping us on our toys , like a game.. . .

Like a game . like a freaking game. (p350)

this quote explains the plot of the book because it tells how things go. At times they are ambushed by Erasers quickly and at times it takes forever. A lot earlier in the book, a woman that is a vet take a xray of Max and sees that there is a chip in Max's arm. This chip could be a tracking device from the School or just a normal one. is there a special time that this tracking deviced worked and didnt work? Life as a runaway can be quite dangerous when there is half human half wolves running after you .

Jeb, the former teacher of flock, formally told Max that she would save the world and he was sure of it. Could this voice possible be Jeb or something related to him? This voice also wants Max to save the world and dump her friends. It is also likely that it is Jeb because he somewhat treated the lives of the flock as an experiment or a game. He fed them and taught them how to live on their own, and then leaving them, seeing how they would do alone. When the group saw Jeb at the School again, everyone's face turned blank and couldnt believe that he was still alive. Distrust was just one of the elements that shown strongly

If the flock has been followed with a tracker, is it possible that the everyone has one too? If so, the book is quite pointless because there is a chance that they all be will be killed when their purpose is done. like "game", hopefully the group of part human part bird can control their lives and fly freely. Hawks from the mountain can protect them and they can always steal food from random people. To be free from the bad guys would be hard but it is relaxing.

DEUCES AHHH . CHOI DAI DEE!

Deuces is a card game that involves a set of cards that has 4 copies of a A-King. The main idea of the game is to get rid of all your card before your opponents do, with the 2 being the strongest. There is two main styles of this card game: Viet and Chinese. Around where i play most of the people prefer playing Viet style because it is easier. In viet you can use a straight that is as long as you want but it the minimum is 3 cards. You can beat or chop a deuce with a combo of either 4 of a kind or 3 consecutive pairs or more. The order of the suits are from weakest to strongest , spades , clover , diamond , heart, the rest of viet style is just like chinese style. The chinese style of this game is much simpler because it has more of a order and certain way of playing. The way how you play poker is the main idea of this style, including singles , double, triples , 5 card straights , flushes , full houses , royal flush , 4 of a kind with a single card. The suit order for chinese from weakest to strongest is diamond , clover, heart , spade.

I was first taught this game when i was a little kid and i still had a babysitter at terences house. We were extremely bored so he taught me a new game. We ended up only playing that day and during this distant disneyworld vacation that we went to together. Now, i can beat them easily because they dont play a lot.

Back in 8th grade, it was the end of the school year, in Mr.Moreno's core class there was a deuces tournament, just for fun. I decided hmmm i should play, maybe i can win something. Unfortunately the style that they were playing was viet, and i didnt know how to play viet back then. I guess i was stubborn and insisted on not learning it. Soon after that tournament, i learned how to play viet style just so that i will have more chances to play, being to play chinese and viet style. Being able to only play one style is looked down upon now .

On my last blog post i mentioned playing the asiannnnnnnn game of mahjong. When i do not have the opportunity to play that game simply because the guy with the tiles isnt here or something else, i try to play deuces. At times i can play deuces for hours and hours just like during the end of the school year. It can get boring in the end but every time there is a last minute intense duel, being the winner feels good.

There is a new hong kong card game that involves the jokers. I think it is a lot more complex than deuces because it involves combinations that is called airplanes , bombs and more. i must learn how to play this game or i will be bored because deuces is getting old ....

love quickwrite

1.what rules dictate the behavior of relationships.
The rules that i think dictates relationships are how each other is treated. If one side treats the other well and they get nothing in return, maybe even negative attitude, the one side will change their behavior. That one side will start not caring about the negative one because his efforts are at waste. Both sides should try to make each other happy. It is kinda like what confucious says, do what you want others to do to you . . .

2. what nice guys/ girls should / shouldnt do.
In my opinion, nice girls should not get mad at the guy every time they PMS. It is not our fault they have a monthly cycle. The guys should still be understanding during that time period and not do annoying things but too much of this torture will get tiring. A nice guy should treat the girl out to eat most of the time but not every time , he might get bankrupt. A nice girl would not hang up on the phone a hundred times and still expect the guy to keep calling. pinching , pulling hair , punching , scratching, and massive tickling like a tickle me elmo isnt very nice either. . .

3. I guess if these rules are broken, they should talk it out, and resolve the conflicts. Too much constant daily conflict means they should get some alone time for each other. or someone will get headshot. . . pew pew
layind dead on the ground hearbroken isnt fun , is it now?

the other questions.
i dont really think who asking who out matters but nowadays it is a bit more typical and normal if the guy asks the girl. only date one person. a couple should do activities that they both like, respecting that they two dont like all the same things. Each person should have their own hobbies to do in their time not together. if not they stuck by the hips . ahh thats scary . . . literally

LIt circle book 3 part 2 . lol forgot to add title

He took a breath, looking deep into my eyes. I coldly shut down every good memory I had of him, every laugh we'd shared, every happy memory, every thought that he was like a dad to me.

"Max, that reason, that purpose is: you are supposed to save the world."

The moments leading up to this quote is when Max and her family was captured by the whitecoats. Gasman and Iggy reluctantly escaped before the Erasers were able to capture them two. Back in the school, Fang, Nudge, Angel, and Max were all terrified of what happened to them , back to the place where their lives were ruined. Jeb, the person who helped them escape, many years ago is actually alive and when Max sees him, she has a mental breakdown. She starts hating Jeb because he is know on their side and doesnt think of him as a fatherly figure anymore. Jeb asks Max to come out of her dog cage to tell her something. In a room that seems very ordinary and homelike, Jeb told her the words in the quote.

I do not understand how Max will save the world when she is trapped in the School in a dog cage. She cannot escape herself because the security is very high. Is she the chosen one like in some kung fu movie? This part of the quote somewhat foreshadows what happens in the next part of the book. It is very likely that she will escape ( alone or with her flock family members , i dont know) and tell the world about the horrible DNA gene mutations that the school has been doing.

Max must had felt a lot of hatred toward Jeb. Jeb taught the group how to survive , how to think of the bad people in whitecoats, but he is one now. I would think it was all it game to play with the group to see how they live in the wild. An experiment ~ what will happen to them now? Can Max really save the world even though she already needs to care for her family. Hopefully rescuing Angel will be a successful mission.

MAH JONG . ching chang chong

A recent hobby or game that i am starting to get addicted to is mah-jong. It is a Chinese game which involves tiles on a table. In order to win, we must get a certain amount of 3 tile straights or 3 of the same tiles and you need a pair of dragon eyes to finish with 14 tiles. There is special ways to win like 13U , which involves north west south east, white dragon , red sword, green thingy, and 1,9 1,9 1,9 of each category plush one random tile. It is recommended to win either with all straights or all 3 of same tiles or all of one category or else it will be chicken win. Chicken win is basically the easiest way to win, and it is baddddd, in some places the people make you pay the other players for winning this way. there is also a taiwanese , korean, philipphino , japanese , and other variation ofthis game buttttt who cares. . .

When i was a little kid, i used to go my grandparents house on Ocean and Geneva near Daily City, to visit them every weekend. I ended up always bored because my parents played mahjong all day with them. Watching pbs was sometimes fun because mr.bean was on tv. Occasianally i watched my parents play and i got the main idea of the game.

Starting from about a month ago, the asian hang out place in park st., quicklys started having people playing mahjong there. I think it was a rainy friday where i didnt have tennis practice was the first time i went. I used to try to get my tiles all in one category but when they said we play chicken, i started playing chicken. The reason for this was because we were not playing for money.

At quicklys , you can meet very weird people. Last Sunday i was playing with Pat pat , annly and the fourth player kept rotating out. One guy needed help reading the tiles, so he remembered the number 6 = as a star and he remembered teh number 7= as a X. He was funny, he asked what a 8 bamboo was so he told him it was eight because he couldnt count. Since the eight bamboo is M shaped he said m for meanie. lol . During that day, there was these two people that notices that i kept winning with the dragon tiles, and it became a big deal. Winning with a dragon tile became an expectation. On last Saturday, there was a chinese guy called cheesy, we thought his name was gordon at first. He was quite crazy, annly and i thought he was high or drunk but he actually wasnt. And alex, the korean guy that was yelling pok gai and hak gui all the time. Oh wells i kinda learned that crazy can be good. When playing mahjong, it can be really relaxing, especially when we shuffle the 144 tiles. click clack click clack. Sitting there for 2 or 3 hours is actually fun because we want to win very badly sometimes.

Lit circle book 3 part ONE

Fortunately there is only about 5 weeks of school left, but that still leaves a month for doing work. The last book that my partners and i chose is Maximum Ride by James Patterson. It is an adventure book about these experiments that are 98% human and 2% bird. The 2% bird gives them wings, being able to fly, and raptor vision and each of them has their own abilities too. In the story so far, the six experiments are visited by erasers ( half human half wolves) that comes for a visit. In the attack, all six is severely hurt but one of the members of the family called Angel is captured. The family splits up with different plans, one trying to save and rescue Angel, the other to blow of nearby erasers.

These mutants are secretly hidden from society and this quote shows it well:

"Why dont we tell on them, then?" Nudge demanded. "We could to a TV station and tell everyone and say, Look, they grew wings on us and, we're just little kids,and-"
"Okay, that would fix them," Iggy interrupted. "But we'd end up in a zoo"

This was when Fang suggested that they tell society about the cruel and unjust things done upon them to turn them into mutants. If the people found out, a lot of people will feel sorry for them and how it is against the natural rights of humans. I am sure people will help fight against the School and bring it down. Unfortunately though, other people, maybe scientists, would say that wow theses species are so interesting, let me examine them. If the truth was leaked out, there is a pro and a con to this situation. Would they rather have freedom but have the chance of getting hunted down by the people in whitecoats from the School, or have justice served and be a special kind of people. There is always a chance that the people will respect their differences and still let the part bird humans live peacefully in the high mountains.

i think that letting society know about these experiments might be a good idea because Angel could be saved easier. But at the same time, they can kill Angel before the School gets searched. dun dun dun

yesterdays tennis adventures

Hm. i have nothing to write about so i will write about what i learned yesterday. I arrived at the tennis court after i took the bus home and biked to washington tennis court. I saw the regulars that go there nearly everyday, Ron and Erwin. Fortunately court 3 was open and we went there to practice. Erwin is wayy more experienced that me and ron so he was going to coach us for free. First we volleyed around and rallied a bit along the baseline, i was the one that usually hit the ball out.

The first thing that i learned that i was hitting the ball wrong, the position of the wrist. I was hitting it with my wrist and arm straight, but my wrist and arm should be at a 90 degree arc. This helps you become more consistent because when you hit the ball at a 90 degree arc, there is less chance that your racket will wobble out of it hard and firm. There is also a larger margin of error from your strike zone if you stroke the ball in this manner.

The second thing that i relearned was how to volley. I was never good at volley since the two years that i played. It was like footwork, they never listened to me when i wanted them to do a movement. I was instructed to tuck in my elbow and make the 90 degree arc with my wrist and arm again, and then punch! In my opinion, this form felt and bit rigid when i was trying to practice this volley. My wrist kept turning back straight and that annoyed me , not listening ...

The last thing that i was able to practice/ get advice on was the second serve. The idea of the second serve is to spin the ball in so that it gets in the diagonal service box. If the first serve, with speed and power, fails then you rely on your reliable second serve to spin. zzz. So second serve is a lot different than the first. You are supposed to stand parallel to the baseline, toss the ball so that it would land on your head, try to pronate and hit the ball at 6 - 12 oclock. haha , now to simplify these terms in more than one sentence. When you bend your knees, your non hitting arm is directly straight and telling you when to hit the ball. With the serving arm, you want to have your elbow pointing the sky for a full swing for full spin. One problem i had was that i hit the ball downward too much when i should had been adding spin. The result of hitting downward too much makes the ball land in the net. sooo when trying to spin the serve, just spin only ...

After practicing all these skills that i coached on, i went to hit with Ron. After this one attempt at a flat serve, my elbow suddenly hurt. i was scared of getting tennis elbow, so i left as soon as i could, after playing with Ron.

monthly review

In the adventurous book, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, it continues with the plot from the prequel The Hunger Games. Katniss, the main character, is forced again to go into an arena to fight for their lives. This time was a collection of past survivors, one male one female from each district, from all past 75 hunger games. Before Katniss went into the games, some districts were rebelling or on the brink of rebelling. Fortunately before the end of the games, an explosion was set up so that the tributes were rescued out of the donut shaped arena.

A character that interested me, was the female tribute from district 4. Her name was Mags, a close friend with Finnick. During the training sessions, it was clearly seen that she was a expert with tying knots and making baits for fish. She taught some of her skills that she acquired from her district to one of the star crossed lovers, Katniss Evergreen. After the training sessions Katniss already thought that this character and this other pair called nuts and volts were useful. Mags' plan for the interview was to take a nap, i guess she cant really show the judges how to make bait.

The one thing that stood out about this character is that she is the oldest of them all. Her age, around 80 years old, is a factor that slows the four people group of Katniss, Peeta, Finnick, and Mag at first. She cannot move very fast herself, in the jungle so she had to have Finnick get her a long piggy back ride. Mags helped the team experiment whether or not these gigantic nuts were safe to eat. Thrown across the force field and burned, it was safe, and a meal was prepared from that. Mags used her skills from her district again, when she and Finnick made grass woven baskets for food and water.

Mags quickly dies in the beginning of the games when there is a dangerous fog that drives the team away from their rest place. From the burns that Katniss got, they learned that the fog has the effect of burning the skin and can even kill when taken a full blast of it. Running as fast as they could, with Mags on finnicks back and Peeta on Katniss' back, Katniss tripped. Unfortunately Finnick had to take both Peeta and Mags, while Katniss barely escapes from the fast fog. A few moments later, Finnick announces that he cant carry both Peeta and Mags because the fog is hurting his body. Mags just voluntarily walks into the fog to die a painful death. This part of the book really confuses me on why she did that, she could have still tried. The only reason that i can think of is because Mags volunteered herself for this special games in place of a person that Finnick likes (Annie), with Mags knowing she wont win.

In my opinion, the purpose of this book was to continue with the storyline from The Hunger Games and add on to it. The last book ended with a section about the love between Peeta and Katniss, is it fake or real? I look at this part of the story as the author wanting to tell the audience how underground love can be. It is like a decision of , do you want to save the country for a guy you barely know or do you want to run away with your long time hunting buddy. The stranger, Peeta, saved your lives many times, like from the loaf of bread and once or twice in the games. Gale, also somewhat saved her life, by helping Katniss and her family have more meat. I could tell that this could be one of the purpose of writing this book because Katniss is indecisive about who to pick in the beginning. When president snow, came and threatened her that she needed to be loving with Peeta, she had even more pressure.

Another possible purpose for this book, is to expect the unexpected. When the rules for the 75th Hunger Games, the quarter quells, there was special rules. "On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol..." (forgot the page that i got it from) This showed that even though Katniss, Peeta, and all the other victors won the games and was promised to not be in the drawing again, the impossible happened. Rules that are from ancient scripts can over run other rules that are less powerful. The ending of the book was also pretty unexpected because i did not expect everyone to be on Katniss and Peeta's side. The message came across to me that people can give their lives away for a cause worth fighting for.

In my opinion, the best tributes and the worst tributes all sided with katniss and peeta. It should have been a thing where not everyone agreed on supporting the starcrossed lovers. Another thing about this book that really gets on my serves is about peeta. For this sequel, i really hoped that peeta would die from an accident but noooo. When Peeta is shocked death, Finnick should not had came to the rescue with cpr, this should have been the sad moment where died. I know it is mean to wish someone dead but he did even less in this book than the first book. All he did was make a map of the arena with the clock hands.
if i were the author, i would try to make the ending even more epic and grabbing the audience even more. Even though the current one is good enough, i would add someone that is close to Katniss dying. This would make her go into panic because her hometown and home people / person is gone. Fighting for the revolution from there on will be that much more meaning full because it is to help revenge a dead person and to show that Capitol can not do everything they want. The idea of Peeta and Katniss revoluting against the government is old because it is from the first book, but they need to do it at full power for it to be useful. The people of Panem are all ready for a revolution, they just need a leader to help guide them and not be killed. If i were to write this book , i would make katniss less lucky, so that she doesnt get stuff she needs last minute. It can add an element of surprise into the book if something bad happens to her.

book two , lit circle 3

uhh, I returned my overdue book to the library last week, so my memory of what happened is quickly fading away. Katniss and the group of allies that she acquired figured out an important fact about the arena, it works like a clock. At certain times at certain parts of the arena, there is a natural disaster like a tsunami. When the group found this out, the Capitol did made a tornado happen, and the group was confused about where the hands of the clock were. I think that the Capitol should had just removed this element from the Games, if it was found out already. If the group found out once, they will have plenty of more opportunities to reveal the secret again. It would be better if the natural disasters were mysteriously random.

In order to try to kill the remaining tributes, Beetee , Katniss , Peeta, Johanna, and Finnick think of a plan. The plan was the tie a copper wire around a tree, extending the wire all the way to the beach. At midnight the lightning would strike. By doing this, if the remaining tributes were near the water, they would die if not the food in the water would die, and the tribute would die of hunger. Half way down, Katniss senses something suspicious when the wire is cut by someone/ something. She is immediately jumped by Johanna and Johanna cuts deeply into Katniss's arm.

Katniss is confused of what is happening, well i was too until i finished the book. Katniss walks back to the tree and sees that Beetee is unconscious. Just when the lightning strikes, Katniss aims an arrow straight at hole in the force field. BOOM! there is a big explosion, and katniss is rescued out by the people trying to start a revolution.

racket crack part 2 and serve dayy

Well in my last blog post about my tennis rackets cracking, i said my second expensive racket had a small crack. Now the crack has gotten bigger and bigger, almost surrounding the whole throat of the racket, but it is about one inch away. This part is not that much of my concerns anymore because that racket, i have given hope on.

It was one day during our carefree week of spring break, i hadnt done much, not even exercise much. The last friday, i hanged out with my friend and then took the 51A bus to the washington tennis courts. I thought," cool, my friends are at court 5 playing with serves, huh there is a kid at the kid... what is he doing ?" These friends are some of the best players out at these courts, it is like a privilege to play with them. Waiting til i was invited, i found out that Josh brought a radar gun to play with, measuring how fast our serves were. Josh told me that i could come in the play with them and i should take some serves. I thought uhh i am not ready at all, but i still went to take some serves.

whoosh! My first serve that went in was about 85 mph. This really surprised me because a few months ago, when someone else had a radar gun, they only measured 70 mph. I always thought that radar gun was lying to me. So i kept serving to see my max speed, it turns out i got 92 mph before they wanted to serve again. It was amazing how fast my serve was even though i wasnt fully warmed up, height advantage! Also interesting how i can serve that fast with a racket that has a broken throat. Unfortunately, when i was serving, i hit the kid that was measuring the serve with a 86 mph serve. Ouch, that must of hurt but he was alright with it.

I stayed on the court to see how fast the other serves were. The kid that was the son of Josh, unfortunately got hit again but this time it was much faster, 108mph. It hit his arm directly the size of a tennis ball and it looked like a terrifying bruise. The max speed was when John the captain of encinal high school came and crushed all the other speeds with a 112mph serve, his 115 almost got in. Well before he came, the fastest speed was 108 by Jason. I cant believe that John beat all the players that were about 4.0 - 4.5 in skills. The only way i think he got his serve so fast and strong is weight room. He does not really have a height advantage because i am around five inches taller than him. Jason said that he wanted to try using my racket, so i lent to him. The moment his racket contacted the ball, Puck!, the strings popped and that was the end of that racket. rest in peace.

book 2 , lit circle part 1 / 2

In the previous book , it ended when Katniss and Peeta got home to district 12 and Peeta feels that katniss's love is really fake. So continuing with the story line, president snow came to katniss's house to tell her that she must act very in love or there might be consequences. When i first read this, would threatening to kill her family and Gale really work at a threat, she rebelled against the Hunger Games. Peeta and Katniss's similar way of thinking were to show the Capitol that they werent just part of their games, like a toy. So Katniss gets into her role along with Peeta, they go to the extent that they would get married and have a wedding preparation. By this time, Gale and Katniss mutually know that Katniss and Peeta are fake. Katniss asked each Peeta and Gale if they wanted to run away in the forest to live forever. Peeta's response was that of course, but they had a whole family to bring along too. Gale's response was that he would go away with her, but there might be a rebellion in the mines and he wants Katniss to support her, resulting in Katniss not running away

Katniss's hopes of running away when there is a new leader of the capitol people in town, he adds electricity to the fences that guard the city. Gale is beaten by the new leader called Thread, in the public because he was caught with a turkey. I think that the other neighbors should had protected him before katniss / peeta came to the rescue. Katniss got hit my Threads whip so this helped Katniss as an excuse to not have to try wedding dresses as long. Before the fence was fixed, Katniss met

One point that surprises me is the 75th quarter quell, an anniversary games that celebrate how the people were tortured. Unfortunately the rules for this game was that all past victors were to be put in the the selection, leaving one boy one girl. Since katniss is the only female victor , she is forced to go to the games again, just on time to prevent a rebellion. Although katniss thinks this too, i wonder is this set up by the president to stop war. Or did the creators of the games really make up these rules 300 years ago with such good timing? I think it is a bit suspicious but they still have to go on with the games.

So before the games starts, there is young and old people unlike normal games were it is just under 18 years old. katniss and peeta were the youngest and there was a 80 year old lady that volunteered herself in place in a young girl named Annie. I somewhat expect the old people to die earlier because they arent as strong but the old lady allies with Finnick ( the guy tribute from their district), Katniss, and Peeta. All the tributes slowly becomes friends with katniss and peeta, they even held hand all together the day before the games. I think this would make it hard to kill each other freely, but the next day, Finnick speared the guy from district 5 just when the games started. It is somewhat weird how all the tributes collaborate so well. Peeta and his clever way of using his mouth, convinced the crowd of the Capitol that he and Katniss secretly are already married and that Katniss is pregnant. This made the crown feel really sorry for the star crossed lovers and they didnt want them to die anymore but they cant really do anything about it.

even though that they have to go try to survive again, i hope they win the games or that something unexpected happen...

writing goals

It is the start of a new quarter and that means we have to do another statement purpose for our blogs. I kinda forget but we might have not done one during the end of the first semester. I looked through my old blog posts from the school year, and i find stuff mostly about my hongkong trip but i also see writing about tennis, and a lot of school related assignments. What are my current goals as a writer? From the prompt that was posted up, it said we have about one last quarter to blog.

I plan to blog about anime, some more tennis stories, weird facts about me, and my goals for the future. The only anime that i talked about so far is Full Metal Alchemist, meaning that i have a lot more to write about including prince of tennis, naruto, bleach, ultimo, pokemon, yugioh, kirby, and one piece. Each of these animes have a special element in them but most of them have the idea of protecting your friends. My tennis stories will most likely about the ones that stand out to me the most because i cant remember my daily stories with clear details everyday.

Goals that i can write can be the ones in the near future or they can be in the distant future. Well for the goals that is near, i guess school counts because that is the main thing we need to suceed in right now. Recently, we were given the light yellow forms to fill out what classes we want. I turned the paper in yesterday afterschool, unsure about what to choose for zero period. It was either journalism or current life, i was unsure about journalism because i am not very cofident with my writing skills. The option of current life was not as good as journalism because it is only half a year, but i need that class to graduate. I decided to get zero period because i found out that we were allowed to have zero thru fifth period. This would make my future as a junior much more enjoyable because i get to get out of school at lunch on tuesdays and wednesdays. For the rest of my classes, i chose regular English 3, Ap Us history , Ap calculus, Ap Physics, and Hp Spanish 4. Yesss i know 3 Ap and 1 Hp classes will be hard and it might mean getting 4 hrs of sleep half of the school year, but Apush and Hp spanish 4 i might not get in. For Apush we had to fill out an application and it included a essay and a segment saying why you wanted to be in that class, i kinda bsed it because it didnt really really want to be in that class. For Hp spanish 4, we had to write a one page essay about either who is the person that is most important in your life or why you chose this class all in spanish. I hope with these advance placement classes, they can look good on my transcript and result in a good college. For longer term goals , i want to get better in tennis but not that much get into varsity. Getting into varsity in Ahs is quite pointless because we dont progress there.

Hunger Games monthly review.

monthly review
12. what are the weaknesses of this book, in you opinion?
Although the book Hunger Games is constructed with beginning middle and end, there are some things that makes me feel there is something fishy. In every situation where the main character or the supporting characters are about to die, they do not. No body said that the main character can not die, it would just make the book more eventful. A few examples of when this happens is when Katniss is dehydrating, or when Peeta is dying. After dehydrating for three days, Katniss somehow finds water on her brink of death. When Peeta is dying, Katniss miraculously comes to save him, even though the odds of finding him was so slim. This element makes Katniss seem very lucky and just won't die, making the book go along too well.

Another weakness that comes to mind is how useless Peeta is in the story. Even though he saved Katniss when they were little kids about ten years ago, that doesnt mean Katniss needs to save him time after time. The only thing that Peeta contributed in winning the tournament is acting that he loves Katniss. It could be acting or real, but without Katniss cooperating in the plan, they could not have done it. If I were to write this book, I would kill Peeta in a slow and painful way, so that Capitol can have fun watching. This would most likely make the audience that is reading the book a lot happier, than the constant escapes of death. If it was not for Peeta, right after they won the Hunger Games, they would not have needed to be on guard against the Capitol. I guess these might be weaknesses in the book, and they are what helps make the book longer, but these are the things that make me raise an eyebrow.

17. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.
Katniss, a girl that grew up in the ghetto part of District twelve called the Seam, has to support her family. After her father died from an mine explosion, her mother had a mental breakdown and Katniss was alone in supporting her family. Along with her hunting buddy, Gale, they went into the woods, knowing how severe the consequences are. Slowly they made acquaintances with neighbors and other people they could trade their food with. Even with meat from hunting, that was not enough for Katniss' family, so she had to take tesseras for the family to get more grain and wheat. Tesseras was when you put your name in the Hunger Game one more time to get more food. Some people had taken seven tesseras, one more every year since they were eligible.

When Prim, Katniss' sister is chosen for the Hunger Games, Katniss bravely switches with Prim to be a tribute. From that moment on, Katniss' life changed, scaring death but mainly worrying about her beloved family. In the last time they were able to meet, Katniss made arrangements with the baker and the major to help her family out. In the train ride to Capitol, Katniss had to adapt to the life style of luxurious foods. Throughout the book, she reminds herself that she has to win because she promised Prim that she would.
From all the abilities and qualities that she has, acting is one of the important ones that helped her out. Surviving the Games and winning with the other tribute was mainly from the fact that she acted that she loved Peeta. I believe becoming allies with Rue, was a smart choice but it did not help her much because Rue died very quickly. Archery skills acquired from years of hunting experience was very important, making it her goal to get a bow and arrow. The best quality that she has is luck, probably because she is the main character. Fortunately she survived a bee attack she caused, the bee stings, somehow dodging dozens of fireballs,and an attack from mutated dogs. In the end of the Games, Katniss and Peeta challenged and rebeled against the Capitol for their survival. They knew that this was a wrong action that would end up in later pressures from Capitol, but the love act had to be kept. Poisonous berries that killed once it hit the stomach were used as bait so that Katniss and Peeta would not have to kill each other.

11.What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
The author's purpose in writing this book is to tell how to survive in the wild, how people can change, and how strong love is. Twenty-four tributes, two from each district, were chosen to play the hunger games. The last one winning of this competition would be the winner and gain glory , fame, wealth, living in a special part of town created for them. This was a crucial element in the Games until it was announced that both tributes from the District could be the winners. Special skills helped certain people survive however long they could, for example: Katniss used a bow and arrow to get food, Thresh won battles with pure strength, Rue had good hunting and gathering skills, Peeta could make bread, ... and so on. People changed in this book when people's way of thinking was changed. Priorities were changed because it was not all about fun or being full, it was survival of the fittest, mentally and physically. After eating a lot of rich foods on the train and in Capitol, the leaner people gained some weight, but it was quickly used up in the games. This purpose was achieved very well when in the end Peeta and Katniss needed an extreme makeover for their body, and they knew that this victory would affect their whole lives.

Showing how strong love is in this book was very big because it helped Katniss and Peeta live. Katniss' love for Prim made her sacrifice herself to protect Prim. Love that was acted between Katniss and Peeta was strong enough to persuade the audience of the Games to help them survive. Unfortunately this big part of the book confuses Katniss mentally, does she like/love Peeta or Gale? Peeta was the person that she escaped death with but Gale is the one that she hunted with everyday, and helped support her family.

Lit circle part 3

Yay. I finally finished this book, about one week earlier than we needed to. In the end of the book, Katniss and Peeta both wins the games together but their relationship is different. In front of the audience, they both were sweet and caring to each other. Without this element in their way to winning, they wouldnt have gotten sponsor's gifts to help them survive. Unfortunately on the train ride back to District 12, Peeta asks Katniss if she misses Gale and did she really like him. Katniss really feels that Peeta was not lying to her in the Games, and he really did like her since first grade. Katniss' answer is not very certain and direct and gives Peeta the idea that she never did like him. So, Peeta decides to not be as close to Katniss but in front of the media they still have to act sweet. If the Capitol finds out, they might think that katniss and Peeta acted to make Capitol look bad, then get revenge.

In my opinion, Katniss seems like she is falling for Peeta a little bit. So, she should keep the act up and eventually it will not be an act and she really will love him. Maybe outside of the games, they can understand each other better. I think that Peeta is kinda useless and should have died in this book, getting a mechanic leg is not enough punishment. He didnt do much in the book and mainly counted on Katniss to stay alive. For Peeta to win fairly, he should have equally helped Katniss out in survival, not just the lovey dovey act. He caused katniss more trouble than help, especially when he got cut by cato, bitten by the mutated dogs, and other injuries. Just acting for the Capitol will eventually blow up in their faces and backfire when one side gets mad.

Sigh . i am pass 300 words, now time to go random. this week is horrible. math midterm part 1 and 2 , chem test , history test , pacer test , mile run test , pe written, and ill just squeeze that 1000 word assignment last minute on friday =D

CAHSEE.

The California high school exit exam. . . the test that we need to pass high school. I never thought that this test would be hard, and it is not. Even before the test my buddies told me that it was just simple English from 8th grade, and math that is from 7th grade ( algebra 1). So, with that i decided not to study at all for either tests, not even using the blue and gold ELA book. In our English class, one substitute forced us to practice the problems on the booklet but i did not really try. He stressed how important this test was.haha

The first day of testing, i asked my friend that gives me a ride to school if we can go 15 mins earlier. I woke up at 7 but went back to sleep accidentally and woke back up at 7:10. I still got to my friends house at the agreed time, 7:20 but they were not ready yet. It turns out that we left at 7:45, 5 mins earlier instead of 15. I was not able to visit my buddies on the day of testing but oh wells.

On the list outside of the conselor's office, it said that i have to go to the cafeteria. When i got there people were lining up outside and the security guy was trying to make us single file. For a moment i thought that i forgot my ID card but luckily it was in my backpack. The first part of the test for day one was about English and the multiple choice. The writing task was quite lame because it was writing about a time where you missed an opportunity but still benefited. I did not know what to write so i just bsed it about wrote about skipping summer school for vacation. I benefited by learning about the culture in that place and having a good time. =D

Day two. The math part of this testing was so easy, i believe it was easier than Alg 1. Most of the material was about logic and you didnt really need to think to solve them. The one question that stood out to me was n=12 what is -n? Lol. the answer was obviously -12, how can you not know that? During both parts of the tests, i had about 45 mins of extra time to spend. Unfortunately i forgot to bring homework to do that day and was extremely bored, so i took a little nap. When i woke up, i felt that the blood in my leg feel funny. I started playing with this tennis ball that i left in my backpack long time ago. The lady immediately came over and said, " Put your ball away !" My friend and i started laughing, but i put the ball away of course. Does placing with a tennis ball really distract all the other people?? I think if they were super concentrated in the test, they should be in the zone and not notice the green sparkly bouncy ball.

Lit Circle part 2

By the end of the story it is unclear whether or not Peeta really loves Katniss. Peeta goes through many obstacles to make sure Katniss is relatively safe. He joins the Career Tributes, a group of people that live better than the rest of the districts, in hope to tell them false things about Katniss. Katniss thinks that Peeta betrayed her, but she finds out that isnt true when Peeta saves her life. Katniss released a bunch of tracker jackers ( deadly mutated bumble bees) into the Career Tributes camp. In order to protect Katniss from Cato, Peeta took a swing from Cato to the leg. From there on, Peeta was kicked out of the group, making Katniss confused.

Katniss teams up with Rue, a cleaver little girl from district 11, to form an alliance. After Rue is assassinated by a kid from district 1, Katniss shoots and gets revenge on this boy. When the announcement is said that both tributes from each district can survive this year, Katniss goes looking for Peeta. Peeta is dying from the injury on the leg but on the rescue is Katniss. i think that Katniss will realize all that Peeta has done for her soon, and be thankful. =)

Katniss finds him and fixes him up. The thoughts running across her mind is that does he really love her? My opinion is that he really wants to be with her, when he tells the story of liking her ever since elementary school. Is this a story to please the audience in the Capitol, i dont knoww, but it sounds pretty real. I think it is unfair how Katniss only acts likes she is falling in love while Peeta is not. From the acting of the duo, the audience in the capitol gives them supplies when they most need it, because they are loving the romance.

Tennis racket cracks

My first tennis racket that had a huge crack was bought from my friend's friend called John Chan. The racket was a Babolat PureDrive with cortex second generation. Along the B of the Babolat near the head of the racket was where the crack rested in. I had first found out around the crack when i broke my gosen tennis strings. Sighh I tried to ask people to help me restring my racket but when they saw the crack they were afraid their stringing machine would get hurt. Risking my racket getting a bigger crack was not a problem for me but their machine breaking would make me responsible. So . . . I decided to get a brand new racket in Hong Kong. Unfortunately this trip was a month away so i had to use my friends racket. It was quite heavier and older than mines, making my arm a bit bigger.

When i got this Babolat PureDrive Third gen, the difference being that this frame is composed of graphite and tungsten (GT), i worried that it would be a fake racket because i got it in China. Playing with the racket and being able to hit 80mph serves reassures me that it is real. But, the thing that this racket was about 130 usd still worries me a bit because the original price in California is 185+tax. Haha. When i was young, i always thought that +tax meant that it was included already, but noooo it means PLUS TAX. I guess i always interpret wording in some things differently then how they are supposed to. Another time that thing happened was in Spanish class. The directions for the Destinos activity said can you answer these questions without using the word bank, so i thought that you had to use other words. I was reminded that it said "can you" and not that you have to use other words, and that they mainly wanted you to use the word bank.

Okay, continuing with my cracked tennis story. . . Three days i ago i was practicing after school at AHS, when i realized something. Like usual, i use my left hand to hold the throat of the racket, somehow making me feel more balanced. I felt that there was a chip on the paint of the racket. When i was not busy, i closely examined the paint chip, and saw that it was another crack. At first i didnt see that the inner black part of the racket was cracked but, i confirmed it after staring at it for a long while. I was shocked, another tennis racket broken. I am sure that i can use that racket for another month or so, but sooner or later i need to buy another one. Learning from both the cracks, i think this time i will get one from tenniswarehouse.com, because there is a one year insurance just in case your racket cracks. Hopefully no more of my future bought rackets crack, because they cost a big amount of two hundred dollars, a big investment for having fun.

Lit Circle , Letter 1

Katniss is a girl from District 12, coal being its main way of life. When her sister gets picked for the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place, making her seem heroic. The Hunger Games is where one boy and one girl each of the twelve districts is chosen for fighting in an arena til the last one survives, simply for the pleasure of the Capitol. Getting ready for the fight, Katniss is transported to the Capitol and her popularity rises. Her stylist, Cinna, helps give Katniss an unforgettable image that is about her being on fire.

During the training session or tryouts for Katniss to show the judges what she can do, she scores an eleven, the highest being twelve. She attained this score by shooting an arrow through the apple of a pig the judges were eating, surprising them. So, I wonder . . . can she live up to the expectations she has of winning? With the support of her sister and family, the image boost , and high score, it should be a big help. But, somehow i think these advantages might backfire and go against her because it will make her hated by all the other tributes.

Right where the bookmark ended, the boy tribute from district 12, Peeta confessed his love for Katniss. This might be real or fake but his goal was to make Katniss seem more desirable for the sponsors. The sponsors can help you during the Hunger Game when you need certain necessities so that you do not die. Can this confession really help her?? I am sure there is another way for her to get sponsors even though their mentor is not helping them. Their mentor is a former tribute that survived the game and won, but right now he is a drunken fat dude.

Scoliosis

Scoliosis is when your spine has a slight curve, that can look like a "S". The main cause usually is not genetic but i acquired mine during puberty. I have always been known to be growing fast and tall, so unfortunately one of legs grew a big longer than the other. This unbalance of the legs made my whole body unbalanced, including my shoulders and spine. sighh. The consequences of growing too tall can be different for all people. Luckily, the scoliosis that i have is quite minor and i do not need a brace for my back. If i did need one, i would hate wearing t shirts, because the brace out stand out. The only thing i have to do for this problem is put a 1/4 inch plastic thing on my shoe so i have equally tall.

It all started on a day of simple tennis practice about two years ago. I was practicing by myself against an invincible enemy, the big tall brick wall. So, one time i stroked the ball and pop, i feel something feel stretched. I just ignored it and kept playing, never winning against this unstoppable defense. The next day i woke up and i felt the pain on my back. It felt sore at first but i still exercised that day, the day after i could barely move. My mother and aunt applied heat, something i thought was good at first but learned it was not advisable a year later. The heat felt goooood and relaxing but it didnt help with the pain in the long run.

As soon as could get an appointment, i went to the doctor's for a checkup. My aunt from Seattle had accompanied me there because my mom was at work. Our usual doctor was busy so this person was unknown to me. She pressed around the lumbar vertebra and asked me how much it hurt on the specific places. Her conclusion was that i got a back muscle spasm and i need rest. Ah! But, i had to go to Seattle in one week to help my grandparents move. I guess, i couldnt be as much help to them as i thought. She also saw that my legs were slightly unbalanced so she used a book to put on bottom of my left foot. With that book, it looked a bit more balanced.

The day following my doctor check up, i went to Alameda hospital to get a xray on my back to see if i had scoliosis. The old american man that was helping me got frustrated. He said that i was moving too much and it would take the whole day if i dont stay still. I was probably quite nervous at the time. After we got the results, it was officially confirmed that i had the curving of my spine.

From this discovery, i learned that i should not force things when i am playing a sport. Thinking about it, this can be applied to life, dont be forceful and there is always limits. If my body hurts a little bit, i should quit and go rest, because i can always play tennis another day.

Full Metal Alchemist

Back when i a boy in middle school, i saw my fake cousin read the manga, Full Metal Alchemist. I didnt want to read it at all for some reason , i guess i was being stubborn. During the summer of 2009 i was super ultra bored so i started reading this manga on onemanga. There was 100 chapters with 40 pages each chapter, to catch up on. Slowly, i started agreeing with the concepts in this manga more and more.

In the beginning of the story, Ed and his brother Alphonse try to revive their mother using alchemy. They were not able to because it is against the law, but still had to pay the fee of equivalent exchange. If they were to do alchemy you had to make a wall from existing ground or steel from a building to make a sword. No matter cannot come from nowhere. In exchange, Ed lost an arm and an leg , Alphonse lost his body in the process in their failure. The creature created was not even human but red and dying. Alphonse's soul was captured and sealed on a metal body that he uses, making him want his body back. Ed goes through a tough experience when he gets his mechanic arm and leg. He recovers from this surgery in a year, twice as fast as other people.

Ed becomes a state alchemist with the special abilities that he discovered when trying to revive his mother. Sometimes Ed would temporarily make gold to help the poor get goods from the rich, but the golds turns to iron soon after. Making gold is against one of the laws. Ed soon finds out that there is a secret organization that is trying to make a country wide transmigration circle so that the ultimate philosophers stone can be made. The philosophers stone was a stone made by offering a mass amount of people to make it. It granted immortal powers and took on the personality of either greed , jealous , and a few other sins. By making friends with people in the government, Ed and Alphonse gang up with Colonel Mustang to take done these homunculus with philosophers stones.

Currently in the story Scar, a survivor from a genocide of his clan, is fighting the President Bradley, who is a homunculus. Scar reveals that he has two transmigration circles on his arms, allowing him regeneration powers. Ed and Alphonse are fight along with a little girl from Xing against Selim and "the father" of this organization. "The father " just became godlike because his plan for country wide transmigration circle succeeded and he took control and became god.

The father was originally a black blob in a chemistry cylinder. After Ed's dad brought him alive, the blob transformed into a perfect replica of Ed's dad's body.
Ever since that day, Ed's dad has regretted bringing the blob to life and wants to fix his mistake. His goal cannot be accomplished right now because the godlike blob dude sucked Ed's dad in and is holding him captive.

genocide

Genocide is when an entire group of people are annihilated or is almost annihilated. These people that are killed are not necessary guilty of a crime, but a certain person just believes that they should be gone. People who participate in genocide are people that are filled with hatred or revenge. The opposite party might have hurt the person mentally or physically, or maybe not. The group of people will be driven by this hatred until they reach their goal, could be annihilate half the group or all. If people strongly support the genocide, more and more people will join in the unfair assassinations. In the system of genocide, if people that are not meant to be killed but do not support the movement, they will probably get killed also. From all this confusion, a select amount of people from both parties will go crazy from the pressure. From the people trying to survive's point of view, they lose their values in life in a instant, and become less human. From the killer's point of view, they will go crazy, especially if they are young, wondering if they should be killing so much creatures of their own kind.

It leads me to believe that humans wants vengeance if they get mad. Humanity can be easily brainwashed if they are helpless and need someone to look up to as a role model. This role model, which could be a president, leader, or a friend, has the power to change your opinions through time. Soon your way of thinking will change, to the extent of agreeing with whatever they say, no matter good or bad. The decision of helping your father or staying in line in roll call can be a touch decision when brainwashed. I believe that without this army of zombies, a genocide could not happen.

An example of genocide that occurred is in the ninja anime called Naruto. In the beginning of the story, the clan of Uchiha was exterminated in one night except for one child and the exterminator. The government ordered the exterminator, Itachi, to kill because they were afraid that this clan would get to powerful. Itachi did not actually kill on his on will but orders from a upperclass leader. This clan had passed down generation to generation special oscular abilities that could be activated at the age of ten. Sharingan allowed you to see what your opponent is about to do, also granting the user special abilities at certain levels. The lonely child, Sasuke, grew up standing out in school because of his talents. The idea of his brother being a killer stayed in his mind for his whole childhood because Sasuke saw Itachi that night.
When Sasuke was around 13 years old, he left the village to join the dark side, to fully explore his abilities. At the age of 16, he forms a group of acquaintances, to defeat his brother Itachi. The idea of his brother being a bad person stayed in his mind and influenced how he lived and thought. The day came when Sasuke killed his ill brother, but that did not truly make him feel better. A stranger comes up to Sasuke, informing him that Itachi did not kill the Uchiha clan for fun but it was an order. Sasuke believes this guy, making his new motive to revenge for his brother and destroy the clan that ordered Itachi to kill. Hatred is the source of power that fuels him, making him want to master the highest degree of the Sharingan.
Currently in this anime, Sasuke just killed the leader of the clan in a long epic battle, but with the cost of one of his dear . Without the event that happened to him when he was a child, the deep necessity to revenge for his clan would not be created.

This shows that when one group of people is killed, a survivor can aim for revenge. The cycle of genocide will not end unless, a peace agreement is compromised or countless lives will be sacrificed. Genocide can occur in people or animals, the want to destroy a group of things that are different from you. In the case of this unfortunate character, he wants to kill people that harmed him mentally, as the people that made him alone.

hong kong part 15

This will be the last episode in my 15 blogs of going to this far far far away place. It was the day to go back to United States. Looking at my luggage, i saw my new orange transformers giordano tshirt, while my brother wore his blue batman tshirt. When we left we said farewell to everyone .. . including Love, Jessica , uncle , aunt, grandma's sister. My little two cousins kept hugging my leg and really did not want us to leave. They had no body to play with and probably wanted us to stay forever in their room full of toys.

The taxi guy picked us up and we left the place that we lived at for 15. I miss that place and would want to visit again and again. When we arrived at the airport, it turned out that my neighbor and us had the same flight back. So after we ate popeyes, my brother and i went to the terminal first, my mother went somewhere. The maze to get to the terminal was long, even needing to go on a train. When we saw them we were excited and visited, sharing our new gadgets. My mom got right on time when the people announced boarding.

On the plane, the trip seemed shorter than before, maybe because i am getting used to the 13 hrs. In front in my seat there was an Indian woman that kept dropping her pillow and i helped give it back to her. It turns out that she was having a 105 degree fever. The first thing that i thought was that YIKES will i get swine flu? i thought the pillow. But it turns out that i was safe from this flu when i got home. The rest of the trip was quite positive, i even got instant ramen to eat !
THE END

Tennis tryouts

Yesterday , February 8th was the first day of tryouts for varsity. People that dont get into varsity but are still dedicated get to practice in junior varsity. I went into the courts, dumped my jacket and backpack on the benches then strolled back to the main building for my racket. On the way i saw people that said," hey isnt it tryouts today??" I got a few good lucks here and there, making the day feel very positive. I walked back into the courts and heard the captain of the varsity team announce what we were going to do. " Hit forehands, backhands and volleys were the first things to tryout."

I went up to the baseline waiting in line, then it was my turn. Kyle fed the ball and it bounced somewhat high. I hit the ball with moderate topspin down wide. The freshman and former junior varsity repeated this drill for about half an hour, rotating from forehands to backhands to volleying. When we were done, i was partnered up with Jeremy to play doubles. I thought that this win would be very crucial for tryouts, making me very nervous.

In the set, we lost the first game but won overall by 6-2. The main points of the match that i remembered was that i aced a whole entire service game, and the opponent guy in gray double faulted a whole entire service game. My junior varsity buddy from last year lost his doubles match, but his match was much more intense than ours. After this win, i was assigned to play doubles with Nick, a varsity player, against another varsity / newcomer pair. This match was even more nervous than the one before. Rain was the object that saved me from causing my partner and i to lose the match. We left that day at 5pm, tryouts to continue on the next dry day . . .

hong kong part 14

This night my uncle offered to watch the disney movie called Up. So after dinner, he drove my brother , mom, aunt may, donovan, melissa, and I to Aberdeen. The movie theater that we went to was grand and fancy. This time watching a movie was before laughing gor and GI Joe, so i was curious when i saw my uncle tapping the menu. The menu allowed us to pick our seats. During the movie, my aunt passed around snacks that made a lot of cracking noises. When i passed a donovan a juice box, he accidentally spilled it when he poked a hole. In a row in front of us there was a girl that predicted or knew what the movie was going to say. This pissed my mother off and tempted her to yell at the little girl but she didnt. Overall it was a good movie where the old man softens up and befriends the kid Russell.

One day far far far away from the movie night, was the day before the flight back to the states. My brother took back our octopus cards ( like BART) and my brother and i could only walk. We walked with my mom to Wan Chai to look at toys and other interesting figures. My mom had to leave around 3pm so it was the only day that my brother and I had freedom to roam around. when she left us, we finished looking around at 188 mall, where all the toy stores are. One block away from 188 mall was a McDonalds, so we went there to get some ice cream. On of the best things about McDonalds is the different things they dont have in the states. I bought a strawberry kitkat mcflurry for only 10hkd ( around 1 dollar). On our trip back to Causeway Bay we got lost, and ended walking the opposite way we were supposed to. I went into a store and asked them how do we get back to Causeway. . . everystore answered take a turn and take the MTR. Theses people did not understand that we gave our octopus card back to our mother. We could had taken the taxi but we found our way after some assistance.

hong kong part 13

Continuing with my story at the fancy restaurant, we began to eat when everyone arrived. My brother and I both agreed that one of the waiters that asked if we wanted anything to drink looked like Andy Lau expect that his face/nose was a bit longer. The food came in small proportions one after another. I remember that we had some abalone , tiger fish, scallop, chicken, shark fin and some others. Donovan was playing around and accidentally spilled food on himself. After the food when we were all full, my brother and i started playing around with donovan and melissa, well sorta trying to make them behave.

Donovan and melissa had been hiding behind curtains and having races across the hallway. The uncles and aunt didnt approve of this so we had to take pictures. There was a few pictures with my brother, Adrian, donovan and i. They insisted on making a raising the bar picture, making me the one all the way on the right. On the second raising the bar picture, Adrian tip toed, but was still shorter than me, and i held donovan up so that he was the tallest of us three. Everyone took the family picture and donovan blew the candle for my grandma's sister's birthday cake. We parted our ways and went back to the house in Causeway Bay. But before leaving my brother and i took some mint tipped tooth picks. Our reaction when we saw it was " wahhh super fancy i want to bring some home!!" When we got back to the house, we were greeted by Love and Jessica. That day was wayyy too long from waking up early to go to Ocean park to the party at the jockey club. In two days i would have to pack up and go back to America, the place far far far away.

ENGLISH FINAL!!

8.
A blog is a place where you can write down ideas, memories, opinions, or even the most random of things. You can get a mob of followers and even "stalk" your friends, making your experience more amusing. Comments that strangers or buddies provide can be encouraging or hurtful to you, but helping the long run. My first year having a blog has been interesting because I gradually chagned. On my statement of purpose, I stated that I would write about my hobbies, vacations, and goals. So far I only wrote about a recent vacation that I experienced, I like being able to slowly write it chapter by chapter. Using this new system will be something I will try to continue even after the school year.
A blog changed the way I write by having more freedom in what I write. It is unlike normal school subjects, where we have to write about a certain subject or pages. Writing beyond the minimum amount of 300 words is never a problem because of being able to write whatever I want. In blogging you do not have to impersonate someone like in history class, write formulas for math or science, or even attempt to translate a foreign language.
Being one of my weaknesses since elementary school, writing is something I have limited confidence in. Blogging has changed the way I think about writing because English class does not seem as terrifying as earlier years. Back in middle school, English class was a class I never understood because of the grammar ... adverb proposition, conjunctions, and others. Those words were so foreign and scared me every time I saw them because we would be forced to analyze a sentence. Now with blogging we do not have to worry about these minor things and let our thoughts flow naturally.

3.
Many people get comments about how interesting or horrible their writing is but I get simple comments from my English teacher. One feedback an audience gave me that helped me with writing was that how much detail is actually necessary. The first comment that I received on my blog was, "OK, Nathan. Here's my question. When you're telling a story like this, which details are important to leave in, and which aren't? This feels like you just wrote whatever you remembered about your trip, as soon as it came into your head. But it doesn't seem to me that the taxi driver's shorts, for example, have much bearing on the main point of your story, which is to talk about your whole trip. So think next week about what to LEAVE OUT to make your story get to the point more clearly." This comment showed that I usually write with too much unnecessary detail that lowers the quality of my writing. When I first read the comment, my reaction was that why can't a long story about my vacation include small details and information? The main point of the trip was more like having memorable events that I felt like sharing. Apparently, I felt that the taxi-man was important in my story as he gave me my strong impression when going to Hong Kong. These kinds of comments give an idea of what people expect from my narration.
After two more blog posts, I received the comment, "Dude, your memory of this trip is pretty fantastic! Are you working off notes? Did you take a journal with you on your trip, or something? The ordered detail is pretty impressive." This made me deeply feel proud of myself because I did not take notes and it was purely from my memories. It told me that I improved in writing. The idea of having a diary did not come to mind when I went there as a main focus to have fun. It felt like an encouragement that I should keep writing and what I was writing is right. This feedback helped me reflect on my changes on my blog. I was amazed that I progressed, even though I only subtracted a little amount of off topic details. With the idea of getting to the main point, most of my blog points concentrate on one event that happened in Hong Kong and I do not have to stretch it into continuous blog posts.

7.
Writer's block is a natural thing that occurs to everyone eventually. Depending on the subject, you will run out of ideas to express no matter if you wrote 100 or 1000 words about the subject or question. Learning to get past this challenge can be difficult or easy depending on what you are writing about. With the freedom from a blog, usually you would not get writers block because of you can write from different points of view. When you get stuck from writing from your point of view for example about the French Revolution, you can talk about how the king, nobles, or clergy reacted. Through this process, many more paragraphs can be formed because some people liked the revolution and some passionately hated how their way of life was changed.
I tend to get stuck when writing because in my heads, I feel like there is nothing more to say. This can be easily solved if I have a little conversation with a group of buddies. When chatting ideas can connect from other experiences that you had and inspire you to write more. The problem with having nothing to say can sometimes be why are we doing this? Is it just because you have to or because you want to? So in that process, thinking, I try to meet the requirements if there is any or write some more views and experiences. The problem with writer's block is that it often causes me to go offtrack when writing about a certain question. With the help of blogging, we are allowed to go off track as long as acquire the 300 word minimum, making me grateful for this factor.

Quickwrite : Writing Groups

Working in groups has it's positive and negative things, it can help you from being stuck but can also distract you. I do not really have writers block except for when I am writing quickwrites. Working with your peers can offer different points of views. Your peers can be from different backgrounds or even thinking different from you. Classmates can come up with ideas that you knew but you did not remember them.

I can try to share some of my ideas about that particular subject when we are in a group. I might result in giving my random comments but i guess it will work out. Looking for errors in their writing can be an option but I am not the best at it.

Discussing our ideas with friends can be more convenient because you would have more to talk about even if there is some fooling around. If the group was with people you did not know as well, there might be awkward silence and no work gets done. Some people might get left out or one person tries too much.

The rules can be for everyone to participate and not just sit there. Another rule can be to respect your groupmates when they are talking.

hong kong part 12

After we were reunited with them, sweat was running down our foreheads. In the car, the little fans felt useless and longed for getting back home. When we did get back home, everyone took turns showering and getting ready for a birthday party that my grandma's sister was holding. My brother and I felt left out because no one told us that we needed formal clothes. So i wore a bossini t-shirt and bought a pair of pants from Sogo last minute, my brother had a Hawaiian shirt that he had brought along. Melissa and Donovan had trouble changing, they were having fun playing around with Love.

We left the house about 4 or 5 oclock, i kind of forgot. I did not go one the car with my brother and mom, I ended up going on the car with my grandma's sister and my cousin. In that car they questioned me quite a lot, some were about why i am so tall. The first reaction my cousin had was, " whoa so pretty" when he saw the birthday person. She had blue glittery pants that stood out a lot. We were first to the restaurant even though uncle dereck left before us. I sat down, and the waiter kept asking if i wanted anything to drink, so i just said water because i wasnt sure if i could get soda. Slowly the relatives started coming and eventually uncle dereck and them did too. I asked my brother why they took so long, and they told me they went to go get the birthday cake at this one bakery.

There was couple bowls of chips on the table, so Melissa, Donovan, my brother and I slowly finished them off. The only person that i remembered that talked to us was our distant relative that owned Honeymoon Desserts. She seemed amazed that my brother and I were from my grandma's side of the family and somewhat told us stories. She kind of supported us eating chips even though we were about to have a big dinner soon.