Journal 77: Slang

Slangs are words that are said but not written. These words are used by people talking to each other instead of in essays or articles. They are usually used informally or in informal essays. There are a lot of slangs. People use them when they are talking to someone they know. For example, 24/7 means all the time; always available; without a break. There are also other slangs to describe other things. For example, some slangs that describe cool or good are bad-ass, 133t ,  5 by 5 ,  A-1 ,  ace ,  active ,  aight ,  ain't no thing but a chicken wing ,  a kick ,  all good, all that , all that and a bag of chips ,  all that and a bag of Fritos ,  alrighty ,  alvo ,  amped ,  A-Ok ,  awesome , awesome possum ,  awesome sauce ,  B.A ,  bad ,  bad-ass ,  badassical ,  badonkadonk ,  ball ,  bang ,  bang on , bang up job ,  beast ,  beastly ,  bee's knees, the ,  bitchin' ,  blast ,  bodacious ,  bomb ,  bomb-ass , bomb diggidy, the ,  bomb diggity ,  bomb, the ,  bonkers ,  bonzer ,  book ,  boomtown ,  boss ,  bostin ,  broken , bullet, the ,  bumping ,  burger ,  butter ,  CAH ,  capitol ,  checkin' ,  cheez whiz ,  chicky ,  chill ,  chilling ,  chim , choice ,  classic ,  clean ,  clutch ,  colp. These are all slang words that describe cool or bad.

Journal 76: Analogy

Analogies are comparisons between two things to show how they are alike. I think that analogies are very good in conversations because it is a good way to tell the other person what you are meaning and what you are thinking. Although it is a good way, the person you are talking to must be able to understand it. In order to understand it, the person saying it and the person listening to it must understand the thing that is being compared to understand what the speaker is trying to tell. For example, if I want to make a analogy of someone's heart and rock, I could say "His heart is as hard as a rock." For the person who I am speaking to to understand, he has to know the person I am talking to and what he has in common. For example, I may be describing that the person has no feelings, because a rock is hard and if a person's heart is as hard as a rock, it can mean that the person has no feelings. Another example can be if I want to say that a person is very fast, I could say "He is as fast as a leopard." I can do this because everyone know's that a leopard can run very fast. This is why I can use this analogy to describe a person that runs very fast.

Journal 73: OOPS!

A lot of people say that your first impression of something is right. I believe that this is sometimes true, but not always. People have their first impression of something when they see anything. Their first impression is the thought that first comes to your mind when you see someone, some place, or something. For example, when you see an elephant, your first impression of them might be, "Wow, what a big animal." These kinds of impression is sometimes true, because what a thing does can change it's appearance. I once had a classmate who was very tall. Everybody thought he would be good at sports, but actually he was not. Another classmate was skinny and everybody thought he couldn't each much, but actually he could eat more than I could. Another time  I saw a person who had a bad looking face and a messed up suit. I thought he was a poor dude on the street, but he turned out to be one of the teachers in my school. These were all first impressions about someone, but at last, when I get to know them, they proved it wrong. This is why I think first impressions aren't necessarily right all the time.

Journal 74: Below the Surface

Have you ever judged a person based on his or her appearance? Although judging people by their appearance can sometimes be right, it is a bad and wrong thing to do. This is because a person should be judged by his characteristics and personality. If a person i very handsome or beautiful, that doesn't mean that is beautiful on the inside. A lot of times, a beautiful young lady may be a wicked-witch on the inside. On the other hand, an ugly or bad looking person may be very nice and gentle. This is why we shouldn't judge people based on their appearance. When I was in elementary school, one of my classmates was not-so good looking and he had a lot of bad habits such as not taking a shower. Although he smells (not kidding here), he is still a very nice guys and he was a good friend of mine. This is why I think we shouldn't judge a person by his or her appearance. We should try to understand, be friends with and think on their point of view. This way, we can know which friends are the best and who we should really be friends with.

Journal 72: My Tell-Tale Ending

The story "The Tell-Tale Hearts" ends by the narrator confessing the crime and turning himself in to the police. He did this because he thought he heard the old man's heartbeat growing louder and louder as his guiltiness grows larger and larger. Actually what he heard was his own heartbeat that is growing larger and larger as he is getting more nervous and excited. I think this is very good ending because like every other story, the villain gets punished at last. Even though I think it has a good ending, I have my own ending for the story. In my ending, the narrator feels the heartbeat growing louder and louder. Then he asks the police to leave. The police felt that something was wrong because he suddenly changed from welcoming into nervous and in a hurry. The heartbeat grows louder as he gets nervous. He kept telling himself to calm himself down because he's smart and he should know better. At last, the police found out something strange about him. He was moaning about something about the body. The police thought he was crazy and sent him to a madhouse. What the police never knew was that he killed a person.

Journal 71: Hints and Foreshadowing

When we read a story, we can find  lot of clues given by the author. These clues can help us understand the story and find out the mood of the story. These clues are given by the author usually by foreshadowing and hinting what will happen. These clues are usually in the text, but the author doesn't tell you directly. The author hides them in the text, but they are clear enough so that the reader can figure it out and know it. For example, if the author describes a person walking down the street with the cold wind blowing behind him like it's stabbing him. We can infer that the person walking down the street might be attacked or killed, because the wind was blowing behind him like it was stabbing him. I think foreshadowing and hinting is a good way to tell the reader more about the story because this way, it makes the reader thinks about the story and understand it. In the story, the narrator tells us that he hates the old man's eyes. The heartbeat he hears when he was killing the old man also foreshadows what happened to him in the end. This is why I think foreshadowing and hinting is a good way to use to tell the readers.

Journal 70: Narrator

A narrator is a person telling the story in a story. It can be in the first person view, where the narrator is one of the characters in the story. It can also be in the third person view, where the narrator is not any character from the story. When we read a story, we rely on the narrator to tell us what information we should need to understand and follow along with the story. In other words, if the narrator doesn't tell us anything and only describes briefly about the story, we would never know what the character is thinking and what the story is about. In the story "Tell Tale-Hearts", the narrator is a character in the story who is a crazy killer who claims that himself is smart and not crazy. Even though the narrator says that, we know that he is crazy by looking at the content and the things the narrator does. In this case, the narrator is not a reliable narrator, because what he says isn't always true. In these kinds of stories, we would have to find the clues in the story and question about what the narrators says. We can do this by paying attention into every detail in the story.

Journal 69: Scary Stories

There are a lot of different kinds of stories that a could be written. There are adventure stories, love stories, and scary stories. Scary stories are the ones which make you feel scared. They often contain little bits of horror and they are usually nervous. I think scary stories are very fun to read because they build up suspense and they are usually interesting. Sometimes scary stories are a little bit violent, because the author wants to build up the scariness of the story. I think the elements inside the scary stories are very important because they decide whether it is a good scary story or not. I think the elements that make up a scary story are suspense, violence and mysterious. Scary stories need to have suspense because it makes the story more nervous and interesting. A scary story needs a little bit of violence because it helps build up the suspense. A scary story also needs to be a little mysterious because if it is mysterious, people won't know much about it and it adds up the interest and builds up the suspense. This is what I think should be in a scary story and if a scary contains these elements, it is surely scary.

Journal 68: My Style

From what I learned today in class, everybody has a style. Style is the way a people shows themselves. Everybody has a style in everything including wearing, walking, talking, writing, communicating, listening, watching or maybe even sleeping. Everybody wears different clothes and types of shirts. For example, a sporty person may be wear sports clothes all the time instead of jeans. A nerdy person may have everything tidied up and clean. People with different style also walks differently. For example, a person with a cool style may walk like a gangster. A nerdy person may walk softly and gently. A person's style can also be revealed through his or her writing. For example, a writing that rhymes in a particular way may tell the reader who the writer is if the reader is familiar with the writers way of writing. I think I have my own style too. I think I wear sports clothes very often and walks normally like normal people. I think my writing style is the same as any other normal student who is at my age. I believe that I have my own style too, it's just that I haven't noticed it yet or I haven't shown them.

Journal 67: Betrayal

In the poem "In Response to Executive Order 9066", the writer shows that she is betrayed because of her best friend. Because the poet looked Japanese, she was sent into a camp. The camp was for Japanese Americans because America was having a war with Japan. The U.S government was afraid that these Japanese Americans will give secrets about the American government to Japan. This is very unfair for those people. This is because although the poet was born in America, grew up in America, only spoke English, ate only English food, only had friends who are Americans, she is still considered a Japanese. Her friends knew that she was a Japanese and lost trust in her, but she didn't do anything wrong. I had been betrayed before too. I remember when I was in elementary school, my best friend told one of my classmates who he likes. Because my classmate liked the same person, he told the class just to make my best friend embarrassed. I think this is very unfair too, because my classmate betrayed my best friend. After my classmates found out why my classmate told everyone, no one liked him or old him any secret again.

Journal 66: Real American

In the poem "In Response to Executive Order 9066", the poet was moved into a camp because the American government was starting a war with Japan and the poet looked Japanese. Although the poet was born in America, grew up in America, only spoke English, ate only English food, only had friends who are Americans, she is still considered a Japanese. I think this is very unfair because she is a real American. The only part of her that is Japanese is her look. I believe that the poet herself feels like she is a Japanese. She told us that her favorite food was hot dogs which is just like an American. I think she chose to include these details because these are the elements of an average American. When we think of hot dogs, we think of Americans, because they are from America and all Americans love it. This makes us think and convinces that she is an American too. If I had to prove I was a Taiwanese, maybe I will say that my favorite food is rice with meat sauce, because it is from Taiwan and all Taiwanese love it. It makes people believe that I am a Taiwanese.

Journal 65: General Conditions

In the story "Camp Harmony", the writer talks about how the Japanese were brought into the camp, the writer also says what the camp was like and what they had to do in the camp. From what the writer described, I feel like the camp they went to wasn't very nice. I, myself, had been in a lot of camps before too. In the beginning of every year, my school brings the whole school to a place in Taiwan and camp for at least three days. This is because every year, there are a lot of new students and going on a trip with them can always help them meet new friends and know the class much more faster. I remember the year when I first came to PAS, we went to a fantastic place which I enjoyed. Everybody was very happy and I made a lot of new friends just after a few days I went into the school. I believe that it was worth it because it helped me know my classmates and it was super fun. The difference between my camp and the writers camp are that in my camp, everybody was happy and it was meant as a field trip. In the writer's camp, they were forced by the government to leave their house and move into the camp.

Journal 64: Camp Harmony?

In the story, author calls the camp "Camp Harmony". I think this is a very bad name for the camp. The camp was meant for people who's ancestors are Japanese who lives in America. Because America is having a war with Japan, the president of America told all the Japanese who were living in American to summon up and stay in a camp while America was still in war. This is because that the American government don't believe in the Japanese who were actually Americans. They were afraid the the "Japanese" would give secrets about the Americans away to their original country, which is Japan. Even though the Americans considered the "Japanese" Japanese, they grew up in America, ate American food throughout their whole life, only spoke English, born in America, listened to American music. I think this is very unfair to the people,because they were actually Americans. Just because they look Asian, that doesn't mean they are Asians. I think this is very unfair. The camp was called "Camp Harmony" Harmony means living peacefully, and staying together, but what actually happened was people being forced into a camp because of something they didn't do. This is why I think it is a very bad name for the camp.

Journal 63: Camp Pictures

The pictures in pg 471 shows a camp with houses and there are only a few people in the camp. In this picture, it seems like there are only a few people, but there are a lot of houses and they are all big and able to contain a lot of people. I think this picture is quite similar to where I live, because in the neighborhood where I live, there are not a lot of people. And there are a lot of big houses all over the place. In where I live, everybody doesn't know each other well. I think the picture in pg 471 is a little bit like where I live. In the picture in pg 476, there are a lot of Asian people lining up. They are probably going into a camp or house. The building where the people are lining up to go into is big. It can also contain a lot of people. The Asian people might be waiting or moving into a place. I don't think this picture is like where I live, because it is fulled with people and there are mountains in the background. In where I live, there are no mountains and there are only a few people living in my area. This is why I think the picture in 476 isn't like where I live in.

Journal 62: Spring Break

During the Spring Break, I did a lot of things including going on a graduation trip with my friends, watching my favorite channel everyday after the graduation trip and watching NBA. Our graduation trip began on the first day the Spring Break came. My classmates and I went to Bali. On the airplane, we watched movies and chat. When we arrived there, we felt very hot and began to sweat on our way to the bus that was going to bring us to Club Med. In Club Med, I enjoyed my time with my classmates and friends. We played basketball, swam, soccer and a lot of fun activities together. We also went rafting and we spent our time with each other and playing. I believe that everybody thinks that it was worth it and fun. After we came back from the graduation trip, I continued watching a TV series called Doctor Who. I also watched a lot of NBA, because of Jeremy Lin who was incredible in his team New York Knicks. I planned on doing some of my homework, but in the end it turned out that I ran out of time, so I had to find some time to finish it during the school days.

Journal 61: Film v Book

Have you ever seen a movie that is different from the original book it's from? In fact a lot of movies are only what the director imagines in from reading the text in the book. Maybe your own imagination from the book is very different from what is performed by the actors. I believe that both the book and the film of the movie can be right. For example, the book Star Wars is based on the movie, so the picture the book wants to create in your mind is the picture that is already created  in the movie. In the book Hatchet, I can picture Brian living in the woods by himself and other pictures that Gary Paulsen created in my mind. In the movie, it showed pictures and scenes that are very different than what I have imagined. For example, I never imagined that there was a bear who attacked Brian. I never imagined that the door he built for his shelter was that big, and so on. I think the movie is not wrong because after watching the movie and re-reading the book, my brain creates the picture that I have seen in the movie. This is why I think the movie and the book are both right.

Journal 60: Hip-Hop Language

It's six o clock in da morning, I woke up on ma bed and went to da first floor. I saw ma mom watching da television and making breakfast fo me. I told ma mom tat it's time ti go, so I took ma backpack and went into da car. I got to da high speed rail station at 6:50 and I ran down the stairs ti try ti get onto the train on time. I began lookin at my clock, the time passed on and on. Tik Tok, at last I ran down the stairs, saw the train leave the station and I knew I was late for school. I waited in the station for da next train. At 7:30, da next train came by and I went onto the train. There wasn't a lot of people, so I sat down on the train. When I arrived at Hsinchu, it was nearly 8. I got on to a bus that drove me out of da station. I ran to school after I got down the bus. I got to PAS at almost 9, my first history class was half over, and I walked into the classroom. My friends and classmates were all there on time. This was my first time late.

Journal 75: Fighting Words

In Raymond's Run, his sister protects her brother by fighting or arguing with people who insults or bullies her brother. I think that this is reasonable and a right thing to do, because it is the sister protecting her brother. If I was the bigger brother or sister, I would do the same thing to protect my siblings. If my siblings are being bullied, I will protect them and never let them get hurt. I believe that words are worth fighting. One time my classmates insulted and bullied my best friend. I felt like defending my best friend so I protected him and told them to stop. At last our teacher found out about it and told our parents. Although I got into a little bit of trouble too, I still felt like it was worth it, because my classmates will never do it again. I feel like we should protect ourselves when we are insulted. This is why I protect myself when I'm being bullied or offended. If the people who are talking about us, I feel that it's okay, but if they are really being mean or doing it all the time, I think that it is right to protect ourselves and defend ourselves.