[RE] Hmm...Hello again.

Since I can relate with Damien's post (not completely), I’ll start my responsive post about his post. For the most part, I do agree I will be more active in blogging now that I have the same teacher again (which means I can express my love for food again) and that there are a lot of things to worry about now that we’re seniors.

Not only do we have the SATs/ ACTs, but on top of that we need to work on getting our statements for college written and completed soon. Luckily Sutherland will be including the UC personal statements in our assignments

I definitely agree all the above statements. Honestly, I was a bit nervous to be having Sutherland since I need to get serious about UC personal statements for college applications (no offense, Mr. Sutherland) However, I am also grateful for having his class again. Two years ago, I was pretty much of a wreck when it comes to expressing my opinions to others, much less on a blog; however I am (somewhat) more confident whenever I blog. To those who are starting out blogging, it’s a great way to express whatever you like, just be appropriate for the public and your fellow classmates please. (:

I'm just hoping that writing about my problems will help to sort of relieve my stress, like the feeling when it feels like weight has been lifted off your shoulders

I agree with Damien that blogging does in some people’s way, relieve them of stress from our daily lives in school. With rules and school regulations, we cannot regularly express our opinions out in general public due to possible inappropriate language, but posting blogs is a great way to deal with what’s going on with our lives. Writing is basically our everyday freedom use!

[FREE] Spirited Away (2001)

Now that I’m back to blogging, I’m going to blog something I spent my summer rather than getting a job or working on college applications: watching movies! Rather reviewing a typical recent movie from the big screen, Spirited Away will be on the spotlight of my blog for this week.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001) tells the story of Chihiro, a sullen ten-year-old girl who, in the process of moving to a new neighborhood, becomes trapped in an alternate reality that is inhabited by spirits and monsters. After her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba, Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba's bathhouse in order to find a way to free herself and her parents and escape back to the human world. Here's the full summary from  Wikipedia

This heartwarming tale reminded of me as a child, where I would either imagine or dream myself in another world, whether it could be an adventure or in my ideal place of comfort. This film also set in a view when a child faces a change in their life, such as moving to a different city, going to a different school, and meeting new friends. In the beginning, Chihiro was brooding over the moving and dislikes change, but after this adventure, she learns that no matter where she is, her friends are always with her and overcoming the new change will be just another step in growing up. I also like how there’s a light romance between Chihiro and the male protagonist, Haku. Like most of Miyazaki’s films, there’s no happy ending that involves the two of them. Even so, I strongly encourage to watch this film, whether young or old!

[CE] Revenge Attacks - Acceptable?

Racism has been around in different forms and in this case, in part of revenge after the 9/11 incident. This is what I conclude after watching this video.



This infamous incident not only caused grief and terror among the people, but caused numerous deaths or injuries due to skin color and religion. I find that these ‘revenge attacks’ horrendous because this is more of a reason for more violence. Rather than accepting the negative emotions and find a better way to ease them in peaceful manner, releasing it through murder on an innocent citizen doesn’t change the fact that your loved one(s) is gone. Also, this displays the wrong account of the United States. How is it that it is acceptable for Americans to launch revenge attacks towards Arab Americans, Muslims, and Sikhs? Will it help ease the people’s grief by murdering those who were not a part of this tragic incident?I know I can’t relate to the same situation as those who suffered, but I do know that violence isn’t going to solve the problem.

Also, I like to congratulate Rana Singh Sodhi’s resolve after his brother’s death. He is one of the many who accepted the truth and relinquished any resort of violence to avenge his brother. Not only did Sodhi strengthen his religious faith, he also received support from thousands of people. Once again, I know I cannot imagine the sorrow from this dreadful event and its effects, but I know that violence will only result in more violence. We live in a world with a rich history from wars and revolutions, so why not create an era where revenge will not be part of a reason for another war? I send my regards to those who are affected from the 9/11 and hope that this will tragedy will end.

Semester Final 2

If you used any quickwrites as blog posts, how did they change from what you wrote by hand in class to what you published on your blog? In other words, how did you go from rough draft to final draft? Explain your revision/rewriting process.                

Other than the quickwrites I had to post such as the "rules of love", I did use some to post in my blogs. I used one called "She touched the box in her pocket and smiled...", which was making up an idea/ story that includes that phrase. Instead of posting this right away, I tend to post my quickwrites later than usual. Because I already wrote it down, I would either get someone else to peer edit, edited the paper myself, or both. The process in editing the paper is long however, so that is the reason why I would post it up last minute. The editing process can go longer, especially if I got more than just myself and a friend to edit the paper. Unlike quickwrites, my weekly blogs are typed right on the computer, so there could be some minor grammar problems I might've missed. Most of my quickwrites that I posted are more of ideas listed. During the quickwrite, I usually list my opinions or ideas into the paper. Affterwards, I decide whether it is a paper filled with ramblings or something I can use but needs a editing. Sometimes, I like how I just list them in sentence form because I can see what ideas I can use to relate the topic, and which ones I can not use because it seems more of a rambling than supporting the topic. Due to the editing, my one page written quickwrites can reduced down to fewer than three hundred to five hundred words, so I tend to add more details to stretch the topic. Also, unlike just typing the weekly blog right on the computer, writing quickwrites as my post is a pain to my hands. We are given ten minutes to write as much as we can (but the minimum is one page), which means I would need to write faster than usual. With writing at such an abnormal speed than my usual pace, my hand really hurts. It's more like my wrist, but add pressure to my wrist by writing really fast across a blank, lined piece of paper can be a killer.

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

I get my ideas from my surroundings that inspire me to write about it. For example, I wrote about a variety of popular Vietnamese dishes due to my mom's homemade cooking at home. With my background culture surrounding me, I take pride in my mom's awesome cooking, which I personally would say it is better than most restaurants.There's also blogs about books and movies I recently read from class or from a random pickup in the library where I really enjoyed it and would like to share to others. Normally, I do not read much on my free time (due to surfing the internet, homework, taking care of my little brother, etc.), but because this is an English class, I go down to the library more and going through aisles would definitely have some book spark my interest, such as a mystery series, The Beryllium Murder. I also often wrote about historical figures that I recently learned about in Modern World History class, such as King Henry VIII during the Reformation period and Baron de Montesquieu,whose ideas help formed the United States's government of today. It is also interesting learning about a famous person's history, answering a simple and popular question: What did he/she do to get to the point where their name is well known throughout the world, textbooks, magazines, news, etc. Anything that gets me typing real quick and real long is something that can help me accomplish both the blog and spreading the word about my favorite things. Fortunately, I am not a video game addict, so  I do not get distracted as much, but I do play some, making two blogs about my favorite game of the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2. This is something I do not normally do, but it is something that deserves to blog about to others and hopefully persuade others to play the game.

Explain one or two ways your writing has improved (or not) over the semester. Include a few examples from your posts over time, with analysis and links to the original posts, to illustrate how the improvement(s) happened.

One of the ways that my writing has improved over the semester would definitely by how fast I can write down. With a limited amount of time to write on our weekly quickwrites, I can now type my blogs with enough confidence to just type away with no regrets. my previous blogs took longer than to type than my blogs being posted today due to how much I can type today. The first time I had to do a one thousand word final took me a few days because I didn't know what I should write about or I have no idea what I can write about. Answering the questions seems easy, but to extend it in full detail and be quite a challenge, especially to people who can' exactly stretch words out in such a manner. This is something I cannot compare among my previous blog posts unless I can show my memory on the screen or something. Another way that my writing has improved over the semester is my supporting details. I'm not great at supporting my ideas. I pretty much tend to say/write  something but have no way to support it, which means I am pretty bad at arguing during debates. Throughout the year, stretching my words by adding supporting details helped my research paper for Modern World History class and supporting my ideas on weekly blog posts for English. I can't exactly point out my blog posts because there's too many that does look I did put enough supporting details and some that seems like I am ranting so unfortunately,I do no think I can display this. My persuasion skills are steadily improving because after posting some of my Vietnamese dishes, some people came up to me and asked where they could try it or how they can make the dish. Also, my game reviews inspired some gamers to try out the game and they are now currently a big fan of it.  

The Lightning Thief: Monthly Review

    The Lighting Thief is a the first fantasy novel of the series written by Rick Riordan. It tells a tale of a twelve year old boy named Percy Jackson, who was diagnosed with ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder)and dyslexia and have always cause trouble and always end up getting kicked out for strange things happening around him. After discovering his true heritage and the reason behind for all the incidents involving him, a new world opens for him. Because of his father, he is being blamed by the Zeus for stealing his prized master bolt, known for blowing Kronos up into thousand pieces and it's up to him to retrieve the master bolt in order to prove his innocence and his father, Poseidon. Now as he travels west, he is a target for mythical monsters that are supposedly come from myths and encounters other mythical and godly beings. With ten days to complete his quest before an unnecessary war breaks out, he travels with a satyr named Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase, a fellow demigod (half god, half human) and daughter of Athena.

    I highly recommend reading this amazing book. It's like read The Odyssey except (personally) not like what Odysseus faced (mainly women). There were other mythical creatures that were included in from other myths such as Medusa, a chimera, and more. While reading this amazing novel, you get to learn part of the other myths such as the story of Athena being challenged in weaving, the reason how Medusa was taken away from Athena. Even if I already knew these myths, it was pretty awesome how Riordan layers his story with so much Greek mythology. He must have done some well researched work to apply so much Greek myths into his story. I personally don't think there aren't many good novels with Greek mythology and for that, I'm pretty disappointed. This is kind of offensive to the Twilight fans, but there are just way too much vampire romance stories. There isn't much originality in them because most vampire stories include a forbidden romance and a school life carrying a deadly secret. Again, it's not because I hate vampire stories, but with too many stories about them, it's tiring.Other than that, this book is so amazing, I could reread this all over again, only the book is due so I'm waiting for the next book: The Sea of Monsters. I would say the age ranges from 9-12. Honestly, I would have read another harder book, but I was way too interested in the plot that I couldn't resist. This is a great book to read and it's really easy to read so I recommend this to everyone who would love a modern version of The Odyssey. This is definitely a great starter on a series, especially for those who are now bored and into fantasy series, such as the ever-lasting legend (i think i might've exaggerated on this) of the Harry Potter series. 

Of all the quotes,I decided to pick this one, where it shows how mothers are to children.

"Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was ... a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put upwith that guy—if that makes you feel any better."

One of Sally Jackson's greatest sacrifices for Percy is marrying and living with Smelly Gabe. A mother's love shows a great affect towards the child. To sacrifice one's own future by living with such a gruesome husband who thinks of you lowly and to work to help support the family shows how much a mother really cares for her child. When Grover tells Percy this, we realize that everything Sally does is for Percy.

This quote kind of reflects on what most children who are in the same situation as Percy (before he found out about his true heritage).

"I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, ... but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe"

There are a lot of children whose father left them and their mothers when they were young and even before they were born. Children are always observing situations so they can sense between was is bad and wrong. If they see their mother/ father in miserable situation like Percy's mother was in, they would instantly blame the spouse. In this case, Percy never met his father, and seeing him not being with his mother, he felt that he and his mother were abandoned to live on their own. Anything that is bad towards him, children would instantly blame on the parent for leaving them, not coming back and support them. 

    Curious, I decided to watch the movie after I completed reading the novel. I wouldn't do so much comparisons because there were ALOT of changes, both minor and MAJOR parts. If you have read the book before watching the movie like me, you would know what I mean. Even some of the characters proven wrong from my perspective when I read the novel. For example,Grover, a satyr and Percy's guardian. I thought Grover seemed to have a timid personality, but brave at time when needed. In the movie, Grover shows none of that whatsoever, and doesn't seem to push himself to be courageous like how he is in the novel. Also, for the relationship between Annabeth Chase, a fellow demigod and daughter of Athena and Percy doesn't show that kind of relationship like how it was in the novel. Annabeth's reason for her attitude with Percy was because of her mother's relationship with Percy's father, but it doesn't exactly show that in the movie other than the fact that Annabeth was slicing Percy in a fight at Camp Halfblood. There were some events where it never happened in the book such as Hades showing up in a campfire at Camp Halfblood and the Percy's journey to go look for three pearls before going to the Underworld in order to escape after rescuing his mother, and Hades's missing helm of darkness. Also, I kind of wanted the god of war, Ares to take part of the movie. Unfortunately, he wasn't and was replaced with Luke. I also think the antagonist, Luke shows more of the reason how Percy's quest was being made. In the book, there was a prophecy and that Luke was not entirely the one who started the (close) war between the gods.  If I continue even further, I don't think anyone would watch the movie, nor even understanding what I am talking about. If you did read or watch the movie, you would understand. But in either case, I'm pretty much spoiling it so I should really stop with the comparisons. However, I do I like how the actor, Logan Wade Lerman, portrayed the main character, Percy Jackson. If I was him, I would probably be just like him. He shows almost the same characteristics as Percy in the situations such as being attacked by unknown mythical creatures, countering gods, and the truth behind his heritage. Other than the fact there were scenes from the book being removed and replaced, it's packed with adventure of heroism for Percy Jackson. I still recommend reading the book first before reading the book. Unless you can't handle the fact you have to read a three hundred seventy-five page book, then just go right ahead and watch the movie, and maybe perhaps read the book after? Actually, I would highly recommend reading this novel especially for those who are in ninth grade because for me, the theme for most of the novels I had read last year was heroism. This is definitely a modern variation of The Odyssey.