late, but here it is anyway.

I guess I should feel lucky when it comes to freedom. I mean, compared to other people, I kind of have a lot. It wasn’t always like this though, everything before last year, I never really got out much. Reason being? I was a no-life nerd who chose to stay home all day just playing games. Maaan, haha. I wasted my life back then. But another part of that was because I was afraid to ask my parents. When I actually wanted to get out and do something, I was pretty reluctant to ask my parents if I could go or not, so that led me to being stuck home like every day. See, I didn’t even know why I was scared or reluctant. I always thought that if I asked they would say no, so I never tried.

A lot changed since then though. Ever since the end of last year I’ve been more free. How? I started asking. And because of that, I can go out almost anytime. On any given day I can just dress, take my backpack, and tell them I’m going out. No questions asked. Most of the time that’s what I do. I guess I can say I enjoy it. I don’t have the hassle of arguing with them whether or not I can go here or there. I don’t know. All of that happened just because I started asking more often. And now it got to a point where I don’t even have to ask. I just have to be back by 8 on weekdays and 10 on weekends. Or whenever they call and yell at me. Haha.

I mean I have /Asian/ parents too. But girls are like.. chained to the ankles of their parents. Well, that’s the case for most girls I know. BUT STILLLLL. YOU NEVER KNOW UNTIL YOU ASK.

FINALMENTE.

So it's finals time. The year feels like it went so fast. I mean, it seems like yesterday was the first day I walked into the school a sophomore. And now, I'm already taking finals! Geeze, I want to cherish the little time I have in high school, but it's just going by too fast. Anyway, aside from that little rant, this is my English final.

8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

To be honest, I love having a blog. It gives me a place to write, and it's guaranteed that my hands or wrists won't be aching after I write everything I had to. All my thoughts go into my blog, so whenever I'm thinking up a storm I can just go blog about it. See what people say. Who knows, my eyes could be opened to a whole new world just by getting feedback. That's why I love having a blog. Just a place to place my thoughts and get feedback.

With blogging, it's encouraging to write more. I don't know why, but that's the case for me. The fact that I get the opportunity to write electronically whenever I want just makes me want to do it more. And it's true that the more you do something, the more critical you get about it and how much better you get at whatever it is you're doing. Before, I didn't even write that much. There was no place to put my thoughts, and I just kept everything to myself. I only wrote when it was mandatory, like school assignments and the like. Even this is a school assignment as well, it's still different. I get to write about whatever I want. It's unrestricted writing, which allows a free mind to express themselves. I feel like I get a little bit better with each blog I post.

I thought blogging wasn't my forte. I thought that I could ever get into blogging. But hey, look where I am. Look where it got me. It made me love writing. It made me fearless to share whatever is going on in my head. Now sometimes I blog for myself, to keep memories. I keep all of that on my tumblr.

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

Ideas come and go, it's always been a wide variety of topics for me. What I choose to write about is mostly what I'm feeling, or just a little something-something I find cool. And hey, according to that, I've been following my Statement of Purpose pretty damn well. "[...] If possible, I would love to write about a variety of topics and since writing about my personal life is the closest thing to that, I would like writing about my personal life.." and I'm sticking right to it. I might have a thought in my head all day or week and when I have the chance to blog about it, it just flows. Like a river. Sometimes a quote I might stumble upon or a random thought about life can give me ideas for a blog. It's just different each time.

I find it very difficult to pick ONE set topic and write an enormous amount of it, which is probably why I probably find standard school writing assignments dreadful. With a set topic, you have to nitpick every single little aspect to get what you need; that takes ages and to me it's just a waste of good time. On the other hand, free, unrestricted topics push my ideas to greater lengths and the ideas I get I can write about easily. Blogging about my day would be easier than writing about some stupid essay or something.

My inspiration on the other hand, I'm not quite sure about. Maybe it's the thrill of having an opportunity to inspire others. Haha, does that make sense? In a simpler way of saying it, is that when I'm inspired, it makes me want to inspire more people. So it's kind of like a chain. Who knows? Something I say in a blog might change someones thought on whatever subject I wrote about. I don't know, but that's the inspiration I'm talking about.

9. How did your classmates' blogs help you develop as a writer? Give examples from other blog(s) and from your own to show the connection(s).

Oh man. The times I actually browse other blogs actually give me more than I expected. Before I was using Google Reader, I admitted that I used the student feed that Sutherland set up to look at other people's work. And I wrote about that in one particular blog. I wrote about how the things that other people wrote about usually gave me ideas of my own, and I would form a desire to type up another blog in response to a blog, or to just state my opinion. But alas, I never get around to doing that. Most of the time I would probably think to myself, 'hey thats cool.' and continue on to ponder on about whatever I just read.

A subtle example of myself being inspired by a blog is probably this connected to this post by Michele. Random thoughts like that seem to spark my mind to think a lot more. I mean sure focusing on one thing and going really deep into detail about it is good and all, but it leaves no room to think for myself. It's like the person did all the thinking for me. On the other hand, jumping around leaving small bits and hints can initiate an interest, which would eventually lead to a thinking process. That thinking process is usually what a blog is for me. Unfortunately I lack further examples, but in the future I will make sure to give more details on how all of this works for me.

But for now, this is it.

quick, right?

1. What are some things you'd like to get out of writing more collaboratively with peers?

I'm not exactly sure what I can get out of a group. I seem to work best individually most of the time. But seeing other's work might influence me to write some different stuff that I normally woudln't write.

2. What are some things you'd be willing to contribute to a writing group?

Anything and everything. I'd contribute anything I can to my ability. I could share my ideas to other people, and they could share theirs. It'd be a huge circle of influential ideas bouncing around.

3. Is it more important to you to work with friends, or with people who are writing the same types of things you are? (Of course, it's possible to have this both ways...) Explain why.

More or less both. I'd be more comfortable working with friends than I would with strangers, naturally. But eventually I would get used to their ideas that I would want to get some new ideas. Being with friends, or rather people I'm familiar with, I would be more open to share my ideas. But with a group of strangers, I'd probably be a bit shy and restricted to what I would say.

4. What are some "rules" (or at least guidelines) you'd like to see in a writing group?

I don't know what kind of rules there should be. I think we should try and make up rules as we go along and change them to how we see fit.

For Mr. Charlie-man.

My only experience was in 8th grade. I don't remember much about it, but I think it helped with whatever assignment we were doing. We bounced around with our ideas and used those ideas in our own papers. It went overall pretty well. Hope it is as awesome as it was back then.

glorification.

Normally, glorification is good, right? It's making something seem better than what it really is. In other words, it could be put as 'bragging.' But at the same time, it could be bad. Like when you glorify an item, it's like you're telling little white lies. "Oh hey, this thing does this and that and it could do this too!" Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. That's when things turn bad. Glorification is just a bunch of white lies to help you gain something. Whether it be money, respect, or anything else, it's all for the same purpose.

Something different though, is when you glorify a person. It probably has the same concept, but it's just so much worse. For one thing, the person that's glorified could either be pompous and accept the glory, or maybe even add on to it. Or they could feel pressured and scared. I can mostly relate to the latter.

From personal experience, I can pretty much say I hate being glorified. I'll admit a few things. I learn things pretty fast, and in turn that makes me get better at something going at a pretty good speed. And I'm usually /the best/ in my circle of friends when it comes to something like video games. It's kind of irritating though. I'm always expected to be super pro and beat everyone. Like I said before, it kind of makes me feel pressured and/or scared to lose. I don't know, really. But I just hate being glorified.

But hey, everyone reacts different to it. That's just how I do. Maybe you yourself love being glorified, and always do well. While some of us stick with our average talents and just cruise on by.

PS: Man. Finals are gonna suck. The only good thing is that we get out early. We do, don't we?