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.