LAST POST ON THIS BLOG FOREVER.

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

I do plan on blogging a lot more this summer, just because the experience has been so good. With blogging, I've experienced how it feels to let a bit of steam out, and letting out what's been on your mind lifts a great weight off of your shoulders. Having a blog as an outlet for your thoughts is extremely useful. The best part about it is that you could choose whether or not it's public or private. Make it private if you feel like it should be kept to yourself. Or, be a little bit more open and invite anyone who comes across your blog to input their own thoughts and opinions in response to yours. The possibilities you have with a blog are endless. With you in control, you could talk about a broad range of topics such as cooking(while relating it to science, mind you. So you get a double whammy!) sports, rants/thoughts, and whatever else you can think of!

As for me however, I will definitely continue blogging, but not on blogspot. I'll continue on this now personal assignment on tumblr. I can't promise posts like the ones I did as an assignment on blogspot, but I'll try my best. The most frequent thing you'll see on my tumblr will most likely be Project 365. To tell you a bit about the project, it's basically a photo a day to document what you did in the span of a year. I'm already roughly 150 days into it, and it'll be quite exciting on day 365. Other than that, lengthy blog posts won't come often.

How do the things you read influence what you write about or how you write it?

The things I read are definitely a big influence on what I write about. If I read something interesting, it gets me thinking. Once it gets me thinking, everything just flows from there. I start elaborating on the idea, throwing out what I think, and just some other stuff relating to the topic. There's definitely a lot of places where I've been influenced, one of them being the countless quick-writes we've done in class. The simple format and process of "here's an idea, think about it and then write about it without stopping" can extract a lot of thoughts from someone. And after you've recorded your thoughts on that piece of paper and read it back to yourself, you notice a lot of things about your writing and thoughts.

Whenever I read my quick-writes back to myself, I kept editing a ton of stuff when I had the time because of the errors I made while writing nonstop. So writing quick-writes has definitely taught me how to be more careful when it comes to proofreading and publishing.

In what way(s) have you surprised yourself this semester on your blog? Have you tried topics you didn't think you'd write about? Approached a familiar topic from an unfamiliar angle? Discovered more "depth" to a topic than you first thought was possible? Explain.

One thing that surprised me is that I actually stuck to my goal. In both statement and restatement of purposes, it seems to me that I've both achieved and broke. I achieved my goals of writing more about whatever I want, getting out more, bike riding, and a bit more. And the thing that surprised me the most is about books and reading. As I said in my first statement of purpose:

Writing better is one of my goals; I'd like tobe able to write at a high level. One of my weakest points is analyzing a book and writing about it. I don't like writing about a book someone else wrote and nitpick at all the details. I want to be able to write freely without getting stuck and pausing to think about what I should write.

Reading has always been an "oh that stuff is boring, I only do it when it's mandatory" thing for me and I want to change that this year. I know lately I've been craving to read, to feel that feeling when the book you're holding is talking to you and telling you the best story you've ever heard. So far that one book that amazed me was "House of the Scorpion." I'd like to read more and experience a sea of stories.

It's funny to read that because looking back to the past three months, I've completely shattered this statement. With the added assignments of monthly reviews and lit circle letters, my view towards writing about a book has completely changed. I've written one thousand words each for three books for a total of three thousand, not including the letters. Damn! With the process of this, I've rediscovered the joys of reading. I completely dove into the story of the first book I reviewed, and the next two followed in suit.

So, to wrap this up, I'd like to thank Sutherland for allowing me to experience something new, while teaching and opening my eyes to new things. You've helped me convert a dislike to a love, which is the thing I will remember the most from what you've been to me. It's been a great year with a great teacher, and I could only hope to have the pleasure of being in your class next year as well! *crosses fingers*

Book Review: Letters To A Bullied Girl

The book Letters To A Bullied Girl by Olivia Gardner, Emily Buder, and Sarah Buder is not so much of a book, but a collection of letters in response to one girl's story. The story is actually that of Olivia Gardner's who was bullied in school. After suffering an epileptic seizure in front of her peers in middle school, the misunderstandings of the preteens led to the bullying of Olivia. They even went as far as creating a website of "Olivia's Haters," and wearing "I Hate Olivia" bracelets. Throughout her life she had to go through tough times, but strangers Emily and Sarah Buder gave her hope.

What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?

The purpose of this book is very clear; Emily and Sarah Buder want to showcase how supportive other kids could be, and that not all of them are mean bullies. Even if they have never even met the person before. Emily and Sarah worked together to start a campaign called "Olivia's Letters," which would ultimately turn into this very book. Strong messages of hope echo through each and every page of this book, with each being a different letter from a different person. The letters range from messages of hope to other kids sharing their experiences with being bullied, and to give things a little bit of a twist, even bullies wrote to Olivia. Each letter has it's own unique story to share and it takes quite a bit of courage to speak up, so the kids who contributed to the campaign were very brave themselves.

The book is not at all complicated; it is simply a rejuvenating read. The time Emily and Sarah put into making this book possible is worthy of mention. The letters put in this book were hand picked and read by the authors themselves, so each letter had a strong impact on them as well. The message of hope portrayed in this book is quite clear, which is exactly what the authors were looking to give you.

I was taunted about everything. The hair on my arms, the style of clothes I wore, my hairstyles, everything. Teasing and bullying is never justified, and I believe the reason why I was singled out was because I threatened these insecure people somehow. Maybe they thought I was too outgoing, or too intelligent, or too talented; but that was their problem. It takes a while to realize that, but I hope you do.

This quote is an example of a letter that relates to Olivia's story. It shows readers and Olivia that problems like bullying is everywhere in the world, and any case is not an isolated case.

How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?

The credited authors themselves did not write this book. They only put together this collection of letters through a process of reading almost thousands each day, only to pick the best ones. Because of this, the book is actually written by kids all over the world, and each of their styles are different. Changes in perspective come along once in a while, because you could be reading a letter written by a bullied person or someone that was once a bully, but saw what they were doing to others because of their actions. No two of these stories are the same, each individual has their own unique story to share for Olivia, and whoever reads this book, to read. The range of people that wrote these letters are actually quite amazing. You could be reading a letter written by a kid in fourth grade, but then you flip the page and all of a sudden it's the story of a person far into their senior years.

An example could be made by a letter written by a 45 year old man who was once a bully.

When I was in middle school and high school, I was particularly mean to a classmate. Ruthlessly mean, in fact. She was from a poorer family, heavier in size, had few friends. An easy target. The torment lasted far too long, probably through my sophomore year of high school. My behavior plagued me far longer than the four of five years I bullied my classmate. After much introspection, I know why I did it. The details aren't as important as the message: bullies feel better about themselves by picking on others. The bullying has nothing to do with the abused and everything to do with the abusers.

I have never seen a book like this before, and reading it my first time is very intriguing. The fact that it's a collaboration of many different people gives readers, such as myself, very different vibes as each page is flipped.

Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?

The authors, Emily and Sarah Buder, were a pair of sisters who read the story of Olivia Gardner. They were about the same age as Olivia, one of them just a bit older, but the emotions they felt when they heard about such atrocities being committed against this girl was powerful. It was powerful enough for them to start a campaign, "Olivia's Letters." They urged their peers to write letters to Olivia. Each letter contained messages of hope and understanding. The goal of the sisters was to let Olivia know that she wasn't alone in the world and that there were many others that are, or were once like her. The response to the campaign was overwhelming and they had their work cut out for them, so they hand picked letters and turned them into a book.

As far as I know, the book does not reflect the life of Emily and Sarah in any way. I would at least hope so as well.

ENDOFTHEYEAR.

Once again I'd like to cover a few topics in a blog post, and not just one. Since this is also the last blog assignment for the year, it seems appropriate to say the least.

First and foremost, I'd like to talk about the experience of blogging. I feel like I'm going to end up saying what I've already said in my other posts when I talked about this, but oh well. Blogging was a great opportunity for me to let out a few /personal/ things that I had going in my head. I've noticed that most of my blog posts were around that area. I can safely say that my statement and restatement of purpose[s] have been fulfilled the way I wanted them to be. My posts centered around what I had in mind, and blogging acted like something I could use to vent them out. And not just me, but other people seemed to have learned and realized a lot of things by blogging too. It's really benefited all of us one way or another. Another thing I like[d] about blogging is that it's really.. unusual and unexpected. I had no idea this Sutherland guy that teaches English was going to use modern technology to assign work for his students when I first came in. Utilizing what most of us are available to to assign work is a brilliant idea and I hope other teachers could follow suit in the future. Going "paper-less" is definitely a good step in an environmental heavy time.

This other half isn't going to be that /enlightening/ but nevertheless this is why I blog. I find it really hard to word but I'll do the best I can.

Crushes are the most pointless things you can ever have in high school. Especially when you don't do anything about it. I've heard of people having crushes for YEARS. I'm surprised at that fact but then at the same time I'm not. Honestly, I've been in that situation before and it's the biggest time waster life will ever give you. The way it works is you find someone you like, start crushing on them, and then become too scared to actually do anything to approach. To show them how you feel and fearing what they're going to say when you tell them the truth. So what ends up happening is you become a locked up bottle thats more than likely never going to open. In my personal situation right now, I'm giving up because it's been a huge waste of time.. and it's taken me this long to realize the better things I could've accomplished if I never, or stopped crushing on the person earlier. Lesson learned.

I would really like to know if people who aren't afraid of rejection are more successful overall. I mean, if you aren't afraid of rejection, that means you aren't that self conscious, right? Having a "I don't give a fuck about what they think" attitude is bound to help, isn't it? I don't know..

rules of love.

We all say its hard to describe love, even though most of us will or already have experienced some kind of love. Personally I think that we each have our own definitions of what love is. But there is also a set of ground rules or guidelines on this.. complicated thing/feeling. First of all, love doesn't come in just a second. There's a difference between love and infatuation and most of the time we don't even know what we're feeling. Infatuation is what we usually encounter first, and love comes in a later time. I'm talking about months and months and even years of dating to know when love has come.

Once you're in it, what do you do? Humans are monogamous animals, so that makes us naturally stick to one significant other for our whole lives. Most things are common sense, such as staying faithful. Resisting temptations is a big part of being a part of a couple. And another thing, your words should be accompanied by actions so you can prove that what you say is true. Cheating on someone is about the worst you can do to your partner. It just shows that you are /bored/ with your partner and want to experience someone new. Its the biggest violation of trust you can reach. Being with someone means you give them the power to break you, and you say that you trust them not to. It's fragile and it definitely is painful, but like most other things, it's an essential part of life.

There's a lot of unwritten rules when it comes to love, but most of the time all you have to use is common sense. Some partners may expect different things but you should be able to adjust while abiding by common sense.

trail mix.

Due to lack of any good ideas or sparks of what I could write about lately, there's always the option for me to blog about.. plain and simple life.

Well, okay maybe not so plain and simple. Life is just a roller coaster all the way through, till the day you die. There's going to be huge drops where you experience a rush of thrill all at once, or for an ongoing time too. And then theres times where you feel like all you're doing is slowly inching up the track, waiting impatiently for that huge drop.

Lately for me it's always been a bit of everything. I'll have a really fun day but then the next few days would be completely boring and shit. I'm not saying that I'm complaining or anything, it is after all better than nothing, period. I sort of feel comfortable saying that my friends and I.. have run out of things to do. It's mostly the same things every time and new ideas don't come very often. With summer approaching, I would really like to change that.

This week has been.. meh. On Monday I was dead tired because Ricky let me borrow his laptop for the night on Sunday and I stayed up all night doing really pointless things. But hey! It wasn't completely a waste of time. I also got some homework done too, haha. I really wish I had a laptop; it'd help me procrastinate on assignments I don't want to do. But if I get that, then I would lose a ton of sleep and I really can't afford to lose anymore the way I am now, haha. Tuesday was one of those days where I was actually too tired to do anything. The lack of sleep from Monday caught up to me and I just felt DEAD the whole entire day. Went home straight after school to get some rest.

Wednesday was quite the turning point. Nothing EVER happens at school so that's one thing I will never write about. After school however, a few friends and I played some basketball Edison school. At first it was pretty normal, but then we ended up playing some adults that were there too. It was a really intense and fun game, and we even ended up winning! That was a great feeling, haha. To know you beat a team of adults that are about two times bigger than you is satisfying. I don't even know how we won, but now we're calling ourselves the dream team. Haha, hilarious.

Thursday was a day where we really didn't do much. For some reason that I'm unaware of a bunch of people went missing and only Andrew and I were left. We settled for going to my house and playing some games. It's fun with him because he's pretty much the only competition I have in a majority of games. From that day emerged an inside joke as well. Jab jab jab.

FRIDAY! I always look forward to this day of the week, who doesn't? I've noticed that complicated plans make me feel like a super sophisticated businessman. Directing and following them, and then seeing it all come together feels good too. Haha. 'Frisbee' isn't really frisbee anymore though. We haven't played Ultimate in a hellllla long time. All we do now is basketball and socialize. And more recently, wrestling. I don't wanna get into too much detail with that, haha.

ramblings.

It’s almost the end of the school year. As it gets closer and closer everything gets just a wee bit faster and harder. Teachers try to cram in material that they somehow “forgot” to teach and all the students want is for everything to be over and relax the days away. Lots of tests come up along with final exams and AP tests as well. The last stretch of school is hard for everyone, but in the end it’s always rewarding.

I think of the school year as being divided into at least three periods of time. In the beginning, everyone has to get accustomed to being in school again because of the fun times over the summer. They almost always forget everything they learned, too. I know I do for sure. Past the beginning and into the middle, it’s a long stage of chill assignments. The assignments are nothing too hard, nothing too easy. It’s just right. This is usually the second and third quarters. The end, which in this case is now, is a rapid rush of information. Big end of the year projects to “apply what you learned” comes as often as the sun.

Moving on from a general point of view on things, I’d like to share my own personal experience with this school year. Everything I said up there applies to me too, of course. In the beginning I forgot all the material I learned in freshman year. The reviews of last year’s stuff and the like that teachers gave me was almost perfect to get back in the rhythm. As it hit second and third quarters it just felt a bit… numb. It was when Sutherland introduced the concept of life being on autopilot. That was what it felt like. School days were monotonous and lackluster. It’s the part I hate the most.

Sometimes I still haven’t accepted the fact that MY freshman year has already passed. I find it hard to believe that I am currently a sophomore at times. And already, I’m turning into a junior in high school. Life goes by so fast it’s unbelievable. I really want to cherish these years and make them something I would remember at least twenty years later.

I don’t know if it’s a bad thing that I have no idea what my dreams or passions are after high school. It feels like I have a large variety of careers I could pursue, but not knowing what I like or am passionate about makes it a lot harder. To connect with my earlier blog post, I know that I have to know what I like to do in order for me to get a career that I would actually enjoy. The path to at the least a satisfactory future is pretty simple, but getting started is what I’m having trouble with. I hope to have everything figured out by at least the end of junior year and I could spend my senior year preparing for whatever I’ve decided.

Freakonomics: Review

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Sides of Everything is a non-fiction book written by University of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, a journalist from the New York Times. In this book, the two team up to uncover many facts about economics that we don't know or to just blast our minds with stuff we never could've thought of. It seems to ask you really random questions such as "Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?" or "Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?" Despite these ridiculously seemingly hard to answer questions, both Levitt and Dubner seem to pull data out of their asses and give you an answer. But of course, mostly everything is backed up in the "notes" section on the back of the book.

For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell?

This book seems to be for anyone who is interested in finding out the answers to unlikely to be asked questions. Personally I was drawn in by the outlandish and unique questions it introduced in the cover flap. Anyone with the curiosity to snoop around and find out a kind of behind the scenes sort of explanation about things that.. might or might not relate to daily life would find this book interesting. But I have to say if someone has never read a book that's at least a bit similar to this, it would initially be hard to understand. The book gives no break and right from the beginning starts bombarding you with information and data that you just don't know how to interpret until you keep reading on. This is how I felt when I first started reading. But seriously, this book is for the people looking for answers to unusual questions. They make a lot of sense in the end though.

From young adults to grown men with a family, this book is for anyone willing to learn about how some of our society, not limited to the US, work.

How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?

With one of the authors being a journalist, you could already guess the style of writing the book is going to be in. It seems like the two made a very functional team, where Levitt was the supplier of information and Dubner was just the scribe. I feel like I've said this a million times before, but this book is best explained as data, information, data, information, data, data, and then an answer. The very long path made up of data is tough and you basically have to endure it to get the answer of the original question. But it's nice to think about it as sort of a quest. When you have a quest, you have a primary goal. In the case of this book's many questions, the quest is to find the answer to the introductory question. Along the way, you find many tools and other things that make your quest easier to complete. This book uses data to help you understand the answer it gives you in the end. If it flat out gave you the answer, it definitely wouldn't be as exciting.

But sometimes, you have to pull out the answer yourself. The book doesn't just flat out give you a bunch of information and then answer the question. It's more of a "here, we'll give you all of this information and you figure the rest out" kind of style. Sometimes you won't know why the hell the book is giving you seemingly useless data but if you try to understand it more clearly you can tell that it has strong relations to the answers. For example, on the topic of "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?" the chapter starts talking about a man that started a bagel business. The data is confusing but it normally turns into something that you could use to find the answer yourself. Needless to say, the book makes you think.

Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?

The explanatory note at the beginning of the book describes how the two came together to write Freakonomics. "In the summer of 2003... sent Stephen J. Dubner... to write a profile of Steven D. Levitt, a heralded young economist at the University of Chicago." So the authors explain how both of them met for the first time and even goes further on how they got onto writing the actual book. "In New York City, the publishers were telling Levitt he should write a book. 'Write a book? he said. 'I don't want to write a book.' ... 'unless maybe Dubner and I could do it together." To me this sort of describes the relationship these two had when they wrote this book. It was an economist and journalist coming together and presenting surprising information about.. well just about everything. But this economist was different. He wasn't the generic type of economist. Levitt is an outside of the box thinker and with that aspect of him he creates borderline silly riddles and questions that you think he would never be able to understand.

I have never seen any combo like this before. It definitely creates a unique clash of 'rogue economist' and journalist. Though I do admit I don't look into books like this that often, the book seemed like a unique one. It tackled questions that no one else dare think about, except Levitt. I would be surprised if Dubner agreed with every single one of Levitt's ideas, but that kind of conflict would be hard to imagine looking into the fact that they made a book that seems flawless. But the main point is, the book is unique and bold. Check it out if you feel like getting to know society and how economies work a little bit better.

Freakonomics: Three

Dear Roberto, Ming, and Brandon.

The book stepped into some pretty interesting stuff towards the end. Some things that really sparked my interest is when they started talking about parenting. Along the way in the subject of parenting, they started to talk about schools. Since the main topic was about parenting, it was discussing the difference of "good" schools and "bad" ones. With another twist put in, the comparison was of white and black students. Now, again, to me it gets kind of confusing with all the data and all but once I got it, my mind was blasted. The book helped clear up some of the things that we think are true that really aren't. And in contrast the things we thought were false, actually ended up being true.

The last chapter talked about how the name that a child was given actually effects their lives later on. The chapter gave a long list of names and by statistics showed which ones were the "best" and "worst." Now, it really is hard to believe something that a child's name has a lot to do with what they're going to turn out to be. "a researcher would send two identical (and fake) resumes, one with a traditionally white name and the other with an immigrant or minority-sounding name, to potential employers. The 'white' resume have always gleaned more job interviews" shows how even the name a person is given effects their chances of getting a job. It's really surprising.

To wrap this book up, how did you guys feel about all of the information in this book? Were you surprised at anything this book had to say like I was? Why or why not? If you could answer, that'd be nice. This book was a nice read overall and it was a pleasure reading it with you guys.

school, colleges, and the future

I wrote this on my Tumblr a while ago. So I'm just using it now.

With the schedule thing happening last week, it felt like a really uncomfortable rush of decisions. For that week, people are planning for their future and the main, which also seems to be the ONLY topic going on in conversations is what classes your friends are going to take. Everyone’s throwing around suggestions to each other like ‘TAKE THIS, TAKE THAT! NO DON’T TAKE THAT I HEARD IT WAS HELLA HARD.” And me? Well. I’m just in the background, confused and dazed because I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do either. To be honest, it kinda sucks being like that. All of the people around me seem to at least have an idea of what they want/are going to take next year, and it seems like I’m the only one who doesn’t really know. Fuck man. The deadline for the form is a bit unclear to me too; some people say it was this Monday and I’ve heard that it’s this Friday. I’m gonna choose to believe that it’s due Friday because I still haven’t done counseling. But I still have a recurring thought in my head that, maybe I shouldn’t turn it in. Maybe I should just let the school pick my classes for me. It’s basically what I did last year, and I’m pretty okay with it. Hell, I still don’t even know.

Concerning all that shit, a conversation on Thursday with Sutherland was enlightening. He said some things that.. well, seem to have made my thought process clearer about what I’m going to do in the future. One of the things he said was that colleges were beginning to devalue AP classes. This really makes sense to me because well, imagine this. A shitload of people take AP classes as is, right? But will that really stand out to a college? If all a college sees in applications is ‘I took __ AP classes” over and over again, it’s basically become a common thing. The same concept as money, perhaps. The more you have of it, the less valuable it gets. All of the people taking so many APs confuse me. AP Physics, AP Calc, AP Stats, APUSH, APES, and so on. I’m pretty sure they aren’t interested in all of those subjects at once. The purpose of an AP is to expand your knowledge. Say you really like math, it makes sense if you plan on taking AP Calculus or AP Stats. But it doesn’t make a bit of sense if you’re taking APUSH too. APs seem to have evolved into something that’s like ‘HEY LOOK AT ME I’M REALLY SMART.’ or just something that’ll ‘make you look good’ in college applications. But among other things, Sutherland also helped me in the subject of picking a college.

People seem to have the idea that attending a good college equals having a good job. Well, what’s the definition of a good college? Is it some college with super high standards or an Ivy league? Does popular mean good? Personally, I don’t think so. My definition of a good college is a college where it best suits your interest. Think about it. Why take a subject if you aren’t even interested in it? Just because it looks good, right? I don’t know, but I guess it could be a legit reason. It just seems like you’re pushing yourself into studying a subject that you don’t even like in the first place. Which in case, is a total waste of time. I guess what I’m trying to say is, before you pick a college, you should at least have an idea of what your interests are and pick a college that best suits that interest. For example, if you’re interested in art.. well, you’d obviously go to an art school. In medicine, a medical school. In law, then law school. If you know what you like, it’s a lot easier figuring out what your profession could be. It’s like, why bother going to a “good” college that’s really strong in mathematics when your main interest is science? I don’t know, I know my main idea, but I find it hard to explain.

Freakonomics: One & Two

I will be completely honest, the only reasons why I was driven to read this book is because of the abstract cover and the unique questions it initially asks. A few of these questions are "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?" "Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?" "Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?" These questions got me interested in this book because I thought how in the hell will these questions get answered? And again I do admit that as soon as I started reading the first few pages, I got confused. The book bounces around several places to get answers. The best way I can think of describing how this book goes is, imagine asking a question. That person talks about random things that aren't really related to your question at all, but in the end they still manage to answer your question. And in your mind you're thinking "Well, why the hell couldn't they have just said the answer straight up in the first place?" Thats what went through my mind as I began reading this book. Though the extra information that it gives readers is actually quite interesting and it contributes much to the answer. But it'll still take some effort to fully comprehend and absorb the information the book gives you.

Freakonomics addresses questions you think would never be asked and would never be answered. It shows that even though the modern world is pretty complex, if the right questions are asked then you can get an even more interesting point of view than everyone thinks. Personally I know one of the things that I will definitely remember upon reading the first few chapters. One of the first things the book talked about is the truth about real-estate agents. The things uncovered about them is quite shocking and it DOES make sense. For example it said that if you were selling a house for $300,000 the agent would want you to sell it right away because of the commission that they get. The agent wouldn't go to the trouble of actually getting top dollar for your house. They would want you to sell it right away as opposed to waiting a bit until you get higher offers, because if a $310,000 offer came in, it's only $150 more for them and they'd have to do extra work. So you basically lose about $10,000. If anything, this part in the book tells me how not to fully trust real-estate agents because of their hidden incentives.

Most of the things the book talks about makes a lot of sense. So far it's talked about schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents, drug dealers still living with their moms, reasons behind the decreases in crime rate, and perfect parenting. For the most part, the book gives you enough information to actually answer the question yourself. It presents to you a hefty amount of data and stories and by the end of it all you can basically use all of what you just read from that chapter to answer the initial question. It's an interesting way to write a book, yes, but it's worth it. Along with the fact that this book is unlike any other. Other books concerning economics are much more complicated and are too directly to the point. The way Freakonomics presents its information is a lot easier to understand once you get the hang of how to actually read it.

So far, I cannot express how interesting the book is right now. It's been a pretty wild ride so far and after finishing this book, I feel like I would have a lot more knowledge on how the world works.

i feel like i'm in a soccer game.

Always talking about goals. Goals goals goals. Haha, I don't mind. It's nice to look back once in a while, no?

Like I've said from the last 'what are your goals as a writer?' assigned post, my intentions have generally stayed the same throughout the year. From the start of this whole blogging thing, I've said that I was planning to blog about a lot of different things, but mostly things concerning my personal[?] life. On the somewhat downside, I haven't been really analyzing my own writing as much as I should. So to go as far as improving my writing, I'm not exactly sure where I am with that. I feel like every single blog I've written so far has come directly from my mind. When I begin a post, it's not really planned and I don't pay attention to the grammar and structure of my posts as much. I tend to write until I have nothing more to say. I'm sure that if I actually try and analyze the things I say more and more, I could try and improve my writing that way. But for the time being, would you care to help me?

The audience I try and shoot for is none other than my peers. I don't write for some other big hot shot blogger just so they can like it. My peers are whom I could relate to more and therefore it's a lot easier to write what I write. The topic of my blog is best summarized as a collection of my thoughts throughout the year, and my purpose for writing about my personal life and thoughts is so others could relate, and it could eventually lead to a whole chain of thinking. To start a chain like that is pretty damn satisfying, needless to say.

Another reason why I write is well, again for personal reasons. A few years in the future I could look back to this blog and see exactly what I was going through and where my opinions stood during my sophomore year in high school. I could say it's a journal, but then again it's not exactly for myself only. I've kept this goal ever since my first ever post. And to quote, "I want to write things that I could look back to and see how I developed as a person."

Next year is an experience I will be awaiting. I don't have any idea where my writing will go, but if I have Sutherland as a teacher again then hopefully I could continue this blog and proudly say that I kept a journal through two years of high school. That would be nice, but I don't know for sure. If I get into a normal English class, I would suspect that this blog would be abandoned, and I would migrate to Tumblr. A good or bad thing? I don't know. But ever since I first experienced writing a blog, it felt pretty good and I would like to continue on it. I have to say, thanks Sutherland for giving me and opportunity to experience such. Among other things, you've broadened my mind.

First They Killed My Father: Three

The conclusion to this book is very relieving. As I getting closer towards the end of the book, every page I turned I felt that she, Luong, was inching closer and closer to safety. It was a very nice feeling to know that after everything she was forced to go through and the death of her loved ones, she would still remain safe with her family. The story started out with the Ung family being happy in Phnom Penh, but as the story progressed, she soon faced the reality that she had to say goodbye to Ma, Pa, Geak, and Keav. Even with the passing of some of her family, she still remained strong and looked toward light at the end of the tunnel. This amazing demonstration of willpower surprised me indeed, and Mr. Sutherland's guest as well.

The first sign of refuge is when the Youn invade Khmer Rouge camps and take many of the people living in the camps into their care. While the people are still unsure about the Youn, they still choose to follow them simply because they were against the Khmer Rouge, and the Youn were basically fighting their enemy. Despite some language barriers, the Youn and refugees still manage to live together quite easily. Luong however, was an unfortunate victim of attempted rape. The Youn tricked her into going to the woods for water, only to find that the man she trusted ended up trying to rape her. She luckily got away in time.

After a few more events, Luong and her brother Khuoy decide to move away from Cambodia entirely to find a better life. They planned it intricately so that the siblings that were staying still had support from overseas. This particular book ends when she gets to America, but she still trails some mystery.

Her sequel to the book, Lucky Child, continues where this book left off. It tells the story of how she copes with assimilating a whole new culture. I plan on reading this sequel on my leisure time in the near future.

Book Review 1: First They Killed My Father

First They Killed My Father by Luong Ung is a memoir documenting the experiences that the author had being in Khmer Rouge control. When the Khmer Rouge invaded Cambodia, many families were put through a trial testing their willpower. The Ung family was one of these families and this book shows how the whole family dealt with living in conditions that were very.. chaotic and unjust. This book is a great example of a memoir and throughout the book you'll be wondering: Will they make it to the end?

How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?

Luong writes in a way that captivates the reader. She recollects her memories to create a vivid image of the environment she was in. To me, it's interesting how clear her memories are to the point where she could describe the city streets in full detail. Taken from the first paragraph of the book, "Already at 6 A.M. people in Phnom Penh are rushing and bumping into each other on dusty.. streets." You can already tell how much she emphasizes the environment she lives in. She also dives deep into her mind and the mind of others, telling us what her young self thought about whatever she was facing.

Although sometimes she would come out of this style of writing and go into a third-person omniscient like way of telling her stories. I could only guess that she wrote these parts to be what her imagination would be like. When she goes into this style of writing, we know for sure that she is not witnessing the event first-hand. So one could assume that she is telling us what she had imagined to happen. Even so, it still allows readers to get a good grasp of what happened to so and so just in case they were wondering. And she does quite a good job of it.

Her style really appeals to me. It drew me in and kept me in. Needless to say I will be excited when I get the time to pick up the sequel to this book.

What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?

You could tell her purpose was to educate the people who were unaware or curious to know how bad the conditions were when the Khmer Rouge took over. Since this book is a memoir, the purpose of the book comes off pretty clear. The events mentioned in this book portray a harsh and ruthless takeover; she writes how she and her family lived with it and describing glimpses of other families when she could. Ung clearly lets you know that her story is not at all unique in the author's note of the book, "Though these events constitute my experience, my story mirrors that of millions of Cambodians. If you had been living in Cambodia during this period, this would be your story too."

Her purpose came across pretty well. Picking up the book knowing that it's a memoir alone can already give you hints as to what the author's purpose would be. Depending on the topic of the memoir, different purposes could be targeted. It could be just a memoir written to show a reader how the author lived their life or whatever. But with this book, she wanted to tell readers who were interested in how life was like when you're being totally controlled by a ruthless group of individuals. And she did it well.

The intensity of the detail she expresses helps get her point across by a lot. By going into detail, she makes you feel as if you were her. As if you were the one who was seeing what she was seeing. She doesn't make you feel like a reader, but rather she puts you in her own shoes so you could have as much of a first-hand experience as you possibly can. Doing this makes her purpose very clear to me.

For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell?

This book is intended for whoever is interested in what life was like during the Khmer Rouge. Like I said before, this book is a memoir of just that and it aims to educate the uneducated. The reader will be shown how ONE family dealt with an overwhelming ordeal, but the author insists that this book would be basically telling the story of every other family. This book was hard for her to write, seeing how she probably had to look back at her hardest times when she was living under Khmer control.

In the back of the book, she explains how hard it was for her to write the book. "With the narrative style and point of view selected, I sat down and wrote the first three chapters.. in the past tense. But it did not feel authentic. I knew I was protecting myself by writing in the past tense." She realizes how difficult it still is for her to write about her experiences. But she manages to get through that and continue writing a great book.

Also in the back of the book, a little section entitled "Letters from Cambodian Readers" also hint the fact at who this book was for. Along with the uneducated, this book was also meant for people who shared the same experience as Luong Ung and want to hear their stories too. It shows that even though the general idea of the book is the same for everyone else that went through the tough times, there are still individual details that one has entitled to them and themselves only.

RIP Nujabes.

This man in the picture is Jun Seba, more commonly known as Nujabes. He was a man of inspiration to a whole lot of people in this world. Not by actions, words, or anything else. He's inspired various people through his musical productions. Although not much is or was ever known about him, he was still able to accomplish great things, whether he knew it or not. And I hope he did. To me, he's the definition of a true artist. Making music for the people and only for the people. There's a reason why not much is known about him, and that reason is because he chose to stay out of the lime light and continue to produce music. He avoided interviews in general, so only a rare and lucky few really got to know the man behind the beats. Whoever these lucky few were, I surely envy.

Personally, and I'm sure along with many others, his music left an impact in my life. Its definitely a shame to me that I've only heard of him recently. Its amazing how in the short amount of time I listened to his music, it would give me some sort of inspiration. His music always had something for my moods. If I felt like relaxing and chilling, I could always play a Nujabes song and do it with ease. If I felt like I needed motivation, it's the same thing all over again. The complex and unique beats he made is best described as an arrow going through the minds of many and dropping a positive feeling. All who have been touched by his music will surely continue to mourn his loss one way or another. As I'm typing this, I'm re-listening his albums to rediscover the man that started it all for me.

It's a shame a person like him could be gone so fast. He died in late February, but I'm only hearing of this news this week. When I heard it, I was definitely devastated and went into a shock. I couldn't register the fact that he died; it was just too hard to take in. He died in a fatal car accident in Japan, which is where he lived. Despite the rescue efforts, they still could not save him. That day was an end of a legacy. He leaves behind him a very strong fanbase who have been touched by his music in one way, fellow producers, MCs that worked with him, his label Hydeout Productions, and most importantly his family. Wherever he is, I hope he takes his talent with him and continue to inspire. I could only compare him to a similar figure in the world of music. J Dilla.

Thank you Nujabes, for helping me find myself and the inspiration you gave me.

You can find statements of how his music affected people on his MySpace, Last.fm, or this website, written by MC Shing02, who I could imagine was a good friend of Nujabes. And here are some examples.

"RIP Jun Seba, you will forever be remembered by me and many others, your music is made life seem more relaxing and peaceful. Hard to explain, but your music was the best thing i came across. thats all i can say for now. Peace world."

"Your music lifts my soul and makes me peaceful, and it'll always be apart of my life. R.I.P and we'll miss you"

"I may have never met you, but your music has added color to my world and has enlightened my perspective. May your soul rest in peace."

"thank you for giving me a dream. rest in beats"

"Thank you so very much for touching my soul...I truly believe you have contributed in many of my positive movement. Through your music I found happiness. My heart sings to your soul...Forever grateful.

R.I.P."

"~Seba Jun, i don't believe it is possible to know how big of an impact your music has had on me. You are one of the select few whose music let me know that Hip Hop is not dead but very much alive. Your influence and who you are as an artist will live on forever. Inspiration, therapy, relaxing, calming, hype, and a completely different level of music. This is not a goodbye. R.I.P Nujabes~ "

First They Killed My Father: Two

The second part of the book continues as Luong and her family live in the harsh conditions of the Khmer Rouge. Already 2/3rds into the the story, you can imagine the hardships that Luong and her family have to overcome. They have to deal with having to 'migrate' from camp to camp in order to hide the true identity of her family, because if the Khmer Rouge ever find out that Pa worked for the government, or that they were city people, their existence would cease to be present. Along with that, they have to deal with the cruel treatment of the Khmer Rouge. But the Khmer Rouge deny this cruel treatment but instead excuse it as proper behavior in order to respect the Angkar. These hardships and more truly make it hard for Luong and her family to get by.

One chapter that caught my attention especially, is the chapter Keav. In this chapter, which continues where the story of Keav left off, Luong, out of nowhere, changes the point of view in her writing. The text become italics and begin to narrate in a third-person omniscient point of view. This sort of confused me at first but I gradually began figuring out what Luong was trying to show readers. The sudden change in point of view is a nice addition to the already interesting writing, but it no doubt took me by surprise.

In general, Luong doesn't fail to keep me motivated to keep on reading. Her stories are indeed interesting and I always wonder how she would get out of the sticky situations she gets in. I hope her writing and stories stay consistent to the aspects that made me love this book in the first place. I can't wait to finish this book. Enjoy the rest of the read, guys!

is it really the ipod?

I was meaning to write about this yesterday night, but I got lazy and knocked out of tiredness. I'll start out by explaining exactly what happened before, after, and during the event. This post might feel sort of all over the place, and if it does, I apologize.

First of all, the night before it happened was hell for me. I had a lot of homework, on top of the usual was an extra assignment for me to organize my binder for History. Like every other night, I didn't get everything that I want to finish finished, so I go to bed that night with my math homework neglected. The next day in first period, I tried to do my math homework ever-so-steathily while my teacher was doing lecture. I pulled out my iPod and started using the calculator so I could do my math properly. Out of nowhere my teacher goes down my row while doing some explanation and I frantically try to hide my iPod. But to no avail. She had taken it away, for the rest of the day. To be quite honest, I died a little bit inside. I made a decision that I was going to try and get it at break, which was the time she told me she was going to take it down to the VP's office. My next class dragged on and I went to her class in hopes of getting my iPod back. I follow her down to the VP and was told that I HAD to get it after school. And again, I die a bit more.

But while there, a teacher I don't know said to me, "I know students who are losing their JOB because they are on their electronics too much." At which point, a swarm of thoughts entered my head. I thought about how that wasn't my case. That I was using it as a calculator for homework and not playing games in the back corner of the room. Though I do admit I should not have been doing homework for another class in the first place, it's still wrong. At least in my case. I could tell you the reason why I was so devastated. Music, music, and music. During most of the school day, I always try to listen to music as much as I can, whenever I can. Knowing the fact that I wouldn't have it for the rest of the day frightened me. I could care less if it my iPod. Because confiscating my iPod is also taking away my music. Something I can't live without, something that helps me through the day. The only purpose of my iPod at school is for music. Anywhere else, it's everything it can be.

At the same time, through this experienced, I surprised myself. Because I realized that a few years ago, I wasn't even that much into music. A few years ago, I could avoid music for a whole week and be perfectly fine. And now I know that I've morphed into some kind of music addict. Haha. My newfound love for music is only at its beginning point. I don't know where it'll take me, if ever. But I've learned that it's something I heavily, heavily depend on in life.

First They Killed My Father: One

What can I say, the moment I started reading the book I couldn't stop. Every night I would read for a good hour or two, get through a lot of pages. The way author Luong Ung illustrates her experiences as a child in the book allow me to create vivid images in my head. Only adding to the fact of how well she describes her environment. I have taken a nice liking to memoirs, especially after reading Night. Reading about other people's hardships make me aware of how lucky I am to live such an easy life compared to those who suffered.

As the book starts, Luong describes her luxurious life as a middle-class child in Phnom Penh. Her life was better than most of the people in her city, but she was a troublesome child. Her mother would always scold her but her father would back her up, often complimenting her actions instead of punishing them. She describes her large family one by one, using as much detail as she can so the reader can create their own image of the person. Luong assures us that she takes a higher liking to her father compared to her mother. It's a shame that this story of living a good life ends so fast. By the third chapter, things already start getting bad.

The transition to the jolly and happy-go-lucky feel of the book to a cold, ruthless feeling comes quick. The smoothness of the transition is pretty astounding too. I wonder why she chose not to go into much detail about her childhood at the beginning of the book. Maybe it's because she was so young? I don't know for sure, but that's plausible. She describes the situation the Khmer Rouge put her in as a "What will they do next?" kind of way, which leaves a somewhat mysterious feeling around the book. It always has you thinking of what'll come up next.

sandyduong: fly high!

If you haven't known already, my favorite animal of all the animal kingdom is the bird. If I were to describe them in one word, it would be majestic. A lot of their characteristics make me like them a lot. The way they scour the world around them when they're still or just chillin' with other birds, their flawless ability to fly, and overall their faux-or-not curiosity. I guess you could say I'm jealous of them. I don't know where or how my liking for birds developed, but I can take a few guesses. It could either be back in the Philippines, where I was told my brother had a coop of pigeons he took care of. I don't remember that, but I can still consider that a possibility. Another reason could be because I had about four or five Parakeets when I was really young. I always used to just sit down in front of their cage and watch them live their poor, restricted lives. Man, I made that sound really sad but it's true. Anyways, I would always just poke a finger inside the cage and let them nibble at me. I would get sad when they stared at my finger and didn't nibble on it. At that point I would try and provoke the smallest nibble. Haha.

If I had the choice of, and if it was possible, I'd jump to the choice of being reincarnated as a bird. I don't care what kind of bird, just a bird. My jealousy of birds gave me the desire to fly as high as I can. Up in the sky, I could see my world around me a lot clearer. No ugly buildings or streets to look at, because the only direction I could look at is down. Not a care in the world, flying over cities and towns observing whatever is going on below me, only swooping down if I see something that interests me. I could choose whether or not I would fly alone or with a really big group of birds who want to share a flight with me. Come to think of it, and sorry for ruining the flow of this paragraph a bit, but haven't you ever wondered HOW birds fly so.. cooperatively in the skies? When you look up and see a group of birds flying in the high skies, it's like they're putting on a show for you. It amazes me how they're able to fly together in unison, not one bird breaking their pattern. If one goes left, they all go left. If one goes right, they all go right. If one of them decide to go batshit crazy and fly around in some cool ass patterns, the rest follow suit. It's just AMAZING.

To be more specific, my favorite bird is the pigeon. They're probably one of the most smartest birds. But hell, every bird is really smart in it's own way. There's the woodpecker who figured out how to use its beak to get food, the crow and it's problem solving abilities, and much more. Still, the pigeon fascinates me unlike any other. It's evolved and became smart enough to actually live in cities, with humans. Most of us refer to them as a big nuisance, which may be kind of true, since they crap everywhere. But hey, to me they're still some awesome little creatures. Little flying scavengers huddling everywhere for food, scurrying away when someone walks by. I can't help but laugh when they walk, too. It's so funny watching their head bob with each step they take. Hahaha. I'm so weird. Those are only one type of pigeon we see, too. Another amazing thing is how we can raise messenger pigeons. They grow to be intelligent enough so they can deliver messages when it comes to a particularly long distance. All of these characteristics make me favor the pigeon more than any other type. It may not be colorful or flamboyant like other birds, but for its intelligence and curiosity.

And to end it with a cute little video: http://www.wimp.com/pigeonsubway/

Actually, there's been other instances of pigeons riding the subway. Look it up, haha.

hey, did you do the homework?

Oh really? Can I see it? Yeah, if you can't tell already, my topic of choice for this week's post is cheating. Inspired by Sutherland's recent blog post on the topic. I'd have to admit, a lot of cheating goes on in Alameda High. There's usually a lot of bickering between friends finding out whether or not they can or can't copy some homework. It's not just homework either, it could be classwork, tests, quizzes, and maybe even more. The amount of cheating that goes on around school is probably staggering, but not exactly surprising. With the 'fill-in-the-blank' type work, cheating would probably be more common, because it's the easiest to copy. Could you really call it cheating though? Could it be just students working together?

Why do we cheat in the first place? It's probably because we are too lazy to do it ourselves, or a person has done the work already and the cheater just wants the easy way out. No matter what, there's always a circumstance. Whether it be a person didn't have the time to do it, or if they were just too plain lazy, that person will always have two choices: Get no credit for that assignment or copy the assignment, but sacrifice the knowledge. Most of the time that person will try and find a way to copy, just because they don't want their grade to be lowered. But even if they aren't caught cheating, the consequences show up later when you're tested on the material and don't know how to do it. Because they copied it brainlessly.

Another idea I got from Sutherland's post was the awareness of our very own teachers. Are they really aware of how extreme the degree of cheating is around the school? I asked Sutherland that question when he posted it up on his blog, and a couple minutes into the conversation he asked his colleague the same question. He said that he was pretty aware, but he has took his own measures to minimize the cheating that goes on in his own class. But he raised another point. If the teachers are aware. what can they really do to stop it? I personally don't think teachers would actually take the time to crack down on every single cheater in their class. It would be too time-consuming and it would ultimately result to no benefit.

In fact, the above paragraph reminds me of an idea I was introduced to not too long ago. Natural consequence. A teacher would know who was cheating based on the test/quiz results of a student. Let's say a student has 100% on his homework, but his test grades are down the toilet. That has to be an obvious sign of cheating. It wouldn't make sense for a student who does all of their homework to do bad on a test. So I would also consider that an option as to why teachers don't exactly do anything about cheating even if they are fully aware. It would take too much time to crack all the cheating down, it would have little to no benefit, and natural consequence would take its course. It all makes sense.

power of failure.

I hate spacing out when I have blog posts due. I just end up being crunched up to the deadline or a little bit after when I realize what I need to do. Anyways, beside the ramblings of being late, I've chosen to talk about failure.

We often see failure as a bad thing. In general, if you fail at something.. you shouldn't exactly be proud, right? It means you have to improve and do something different next time to better yourself at whatever you failed at. So, when do you fail? Often times it's because you didn't try hard enough, or in physical cases, you're incapable and unskilled. But again, what does this tell you? Improvement is necessary.

When you fail, it's not just a horrible 'Aw shit.' kind of thing. It's also a learning experience as well. Every time you fail, you can look back, trace your steps, and see where you went wrong. By doing this, you know what you need to change or work on. This is basically the concept of learning from your mistakes. And we all know that already, don't we?

I'll give an example with an anecdote. Recently, I've been doing pretty bad in Math. Failing a few tests, slacking on homework, etc. I found out my grade and it was a shock. I knew I was failing, but by that much? Yeah. It hit me. I needed to reform my study habits in that class. I already knew what I was doing wrong; that was sleeping, not paying attention, and honestly, copying homework. I never learned the material, so when it came down to tests, I would just blank out and have an unwritten piece of paper by the end of the period. Upon realizing this, I was determined to make an extra effort taking notes, do my homework myself, and all the other things I was doing wrong. Hopefully things get better by the end of the quarter.

In a nutshell, failure is a learning experience. Fail and know what you did wrong, and better yourself for next time.