Who am I?

I'm Jean Hsu. I'm someone who's really short, energetic, spazzy, loud, social, and happy. I'm a person who always tries so cheer people up and be positive about almost everything. Who am I? Well, I'm a complicated person. I'm a person who always try to be happy, but deep down, I have more than enough stress about everything around me. It's easy to define who someone is by their personality, and to relate personality it's what they do, their hobbies. I play basketball for the PAS basketball team, from that I met new people that influenced me. I've become a person who's more willing to work harder, think more, and I became a bit more mature.
Other from hobbies, I'm defined by my friends and the people I talk to. Ever since I became friends with the girls in my grade, I've learned to do more. For example, I learned that sometimes, you really just need to be quiet, and I've learned to do that. There's not much people in our school, so when I'm hyper, I'm never as hyper as I was back in the states, and that's because I've been influenced by the people in PAS. I've also been influenced by the people I talk to. I talk to the people from the basketball team, and by talking to them, I learn more about basketball, and how to think in basketball terms. Also, by talking to people older than me, I've learned more about PAS and the people in PAS.
Everyone and everything around me defines who I am. I am a student at PAS and I live in Hsin Chiu, Taiwan. I like food, people, laughing, singing, dancing, spazzing out, and being crazy. I hate things and people that annoy me, homework, boring moments, sad moments, and waking up early in the morning. That's only a little bit of who I am, but more is defined by not just what I like and dislike, but little things that I don't even know about. So to fully answer the question "who am I?", the answer is "I don't know." I still need time to find myself in this community, so right now, I'm just a young girl who's trying her best to learn from her mistakes in life.

Disguises Vocabulary Test

5. Just when I thought I blew the evil winds away, it blew right back.

Quick write- Duty or Friendship?

I think betraying your duty is just as bad as betraying friendship, but if I had to choose, it'd be betraying friendship. Betraying friendship is worse because it involves feelings. Trust is hard to gain but easy to lose. After betraying a friend, it'll be really hard to gain back their trust. As for betraying your duty, it's bad, but if the duty is a bad thing, then betraying it can actually be good! Duty is important, but it doesn't always mean it's right, so betraying your duty is a freedom of choice. When deciding between those two, I have to keep in mind that which choice is more important, and which choice is more ethical.

Sniper Quickwrite- under stress

Qualities that enable people to perform well when facing heart-pounding fear or stress is the ability to calm down. The ability to calm down and think through what you're going to do, but also do it within a small amount of time. The most important quality is being able to think fast, clear, and not do anything irrational. People taking action when the stakes are high are really brave. They know the stakes are high, but yet they still go for it. For a lot of people, it's really hard to take action because they don't want to lose anything. It's even more incredible if people took action and it worked out. Sometimes, people makes decisions fast, but they don't always think it through. It's important to take things step by step. But when you're facing heart-pounding fear or stress, you have to go through the steps fast and without mistakes, and that's the hard part.

Theme : songs

Two songs:

Your Love is My Drug by Ke$ha
The theme is "love is addictive."

The Climb by Miley Cyrus
The theme is "life's a climb."

Disguises - p.259 #7

7. What is your opinion of the young man's actions at the end of the story? Do you think most people would behave like the young man and go out of their way to help a stranger? Explain your response.

My opinion of the young man's actions at the the end of the story was that I was glad. I was glad because it's nice to know that there's good people like that in the world. I wasn't surprised because there really are people who would go out of their way to help a stranger. But, I didn't exactly expect that the young man would do it, but when he did, I felt glad and happy for Mrs. Chen. I think most people wouldn't of behaved like the young man did. A lot of people are selfish, even if they don't know it. They sometimes put their needs infront of others who's obviously less fortunate and needs help. However, not all people are like that. Not a lot, but there's still a decent amount of people who would behave like the young man and go out of their way to help a stranger.

Friends and Enemies Quick write

Friend: - nice, loyal, close, understanding,  fun, friendly personality, caring, helpful, and loved by others.
Enemy: - mean, hated by other, unkind, bad personality, annoying, and selfish.
Both: - can be close to you; know you well, argues with you(depends), and knows your weaknesses.

My Delicate Heart vocab quiz

Diction is the choice of words. Diction often affect the tone of the narrator or the story.

Johnny Tremain Quiz Time Corrections Ch. VI~ VII

2. Why are the colonists so opposed to the new tax on tea?
Because they want representation, "no taxation without representation."

4. Where does the Observers' Club meet?
The attic above the printing shop where Rab and Johnny lives in.

7. How did the colonists show their anger over the tea tax?
By protesting and begging once more the Governor's permission for the ship to sail back at the Old South Church, and started the Boston Tea Party.

9. How did England punish the colonists for their opposition to the tea tax?
By punishing the whole Town of Boston, make every man, woman, and child suffer until the tea was paid for. Also blockaded the harbor, blocked all imports.

Quick write- Poe's Death

How do you think Poe died? Support with what you remember from your readings.

I think Poe died from rabies. From the reading they said that Poe might've died from being drunk and accidents happening, but they later on had a hypothesis that Poe died from rabies. The scientists said that Poe had all the symptoms of rabies, and it really could be possible since Poe's death was really sudden. They say that when you get rabies, you don't know it right away. It takes a couple of years for the disease to get to your body, and when it does it spreads quickly and kills you within a couple of days. Knowing that, the same thing happened to Poe. I think it was a coincedence that on the day that Poe died, he was also drunk. And so, because of that, people believe that he died because he was drunk and unconsious. When you look closely at the other facts, it's very likely that Poe died of rabies.

Difference between TMDG movie and book

To start off, the beginning was already different. I don't remeber that many people being on the ship in the book of TMDG. How Rainsford fell off board, how he arrived at the chateau, the character Ivan, their conversation about the most dangerous game, the guests were all different. In some small parts they were alike, but a lot of the parts were different! Ivan is suppose to be tall and tough looking, but Ivan seems to be shorter than Rainsford. In the movie there were these two people who were supposidly brother and sister, but in the book, they never mentioned anything about that.

The Necklace Summary

Mathilde was a beautiful lady, but she was never happy with what she has. Her husband got her an invitation to the Ministerial Mansion, but Mathilde wasn't happy. She said she didn't have any good evening clothes or jewelries to wear. Somebody wanted to look pretty but they didn't have what they wanted, so the only choice would be to borrow clothes or jewelry. Mathilde went to her friend Mme. Loisel. She borrowed a diamond necklace to wear to the party. Everyone was so happy at the party, but when Mathilde came home, she lost the necklace! Mathilde was scared and embarrassed if Mm. Loisel ever knew that she lost her necklace, so she decided to work and pay for the necklace. After ten years, when Mathilde and her husband finally paid back all the interests for the payment of the necklace, she decided to tell Mme. Loisel all about it. Mme. Loisel was surprised, because it turns out the necklace was fake.

Thrills

I like but yet dislike scary movies at the same time. I like them because their exciting and it's fun to watch them, but I really dislike them because they scare me way too much. I think people like to try to scare themselves to give themselves a feeling of adreneline. Not the regular adreneline you feel when you're nervous, but a special kind. I don't know how to describe it but it keeps your heart rate going. Other activities where people behave this way are  haunted houses, scavenger hunt at night, or anything that has to do with scaring yourselves.

Necklace Quickwrite

To me, I think that envy is just a strong type of jealousy. It's not just jealousy, but also anger. People get angry at people who have things that they don't, and in a way, they're jealous of them. I think sometimes envy is wanting to be like someone, and at the same time you dislike them. It's like wanting something that they have and you don't, but disliking the person who has it because you don't have it. My feelings towards envy is that envying isn't always a bad thing. That's unless you start doing mean things just because you envy someone. I've never felt the negative effects of envying someone, but I have seen a lot. Sometimes other people dream about being in someone else's shoes, but when they did have the chance to have those things, it was too much for them. For example, one of friends wanted to be a celebrity. She knew that being a celebrity would be hard and pressurizing, but she never felt that kind of pressure before. One time, she wanted to audition for this entertainment, and when she went, they judges were very harsh. She didn't know that, and so, she got nervous and she starting doubting herself about her talents. That when she told me that, trying to become a celebrity is difficult, imagine how hard it'd be if you were actually a celebrity.

The Interlopers Quickwrite

Few example of feuds that have torn families or even countries apart is North and South Korea, China and Taiwan, the Montague and Capulet family, etc. Such Bitter hatred is kept alive by determination and being unable to forgive. It's much easier for someone narrow-minded to keep hatred for a longer time than someone that's open-minded. When you think more and more about the things that made you hate the person, you'll get mad all over again. So by thinking about it, you'll hold onto the hatred rather than letting go. It's also kept alive by not being able to forgive. When you forgive,you let go, but some people can't do that. Some people seek revenge, and that determination of revenge makes the hatred stronger.

Reflection

This time around I would like to change my grades, and my working attitude. I'm certain I have grade that I'm not confident about, so I would like to improve toward academics. Also I would change my working attitude to working even harder so I'm able to get better grades. I didn't like math. My favorite activity was either drama, or psychology class. The activity I liked least was all the tests. I'm not use to having so many tests within a quarter. One thing that I'd like to see in my English classes is to have a writing teacher that's more fun and optimistic. Having the teacher to be less boring, and allow us to do something that we would like instead of just reading from the textbook.

Quickwrite- friends

Friends give each other support, and love between friends. Some friendships last because they trust each other. They may be half across the world, but if they communicate and believe, all friendships can last. Most important is to find a similarity they both share, and of course talking to each other. Without communication or even believing in the friendship, the friendship won't last. If the friends can't find something, not even one, they're going to have nothing to talk about. Which will shorten a friendship.

Some ideas for friendship are love, trust, communication, common interest, support, forgiveness, open-minded, and open-hearted.

Full Circle Response

6) In my opinion the parts of the story that were successful was the anger described by the narrator about Julie. It was also good when they were describing the chance between Terry and the narrator. Almost all details were believable. There were two unanswered questions. Why does Terry Layton stop at the crime scene, and why did he kill Caroline? It's unanswered because it's to let the readers hang and imagine themselves.

Interlopers Vocabulary Story

Precipitous, acquiesced, marauders, exasperation, pious, retorted, condolences, languor, reconciliation, succor

My house is located on a precipitous hill. But even so, there's a lot of marauders that rob your house when you're not home. I don't know how they can climb such a steep and tall hill, it causes great exasperation just by thinking about climbing it. One Christmas when our family came back from town from eating dinner, all our silverware was gone! My sister, who never has her own opinion, was in acquiesced with the situation. She retorted that it was logical that our house would be robbed, since our doors weren't even locked. Our family's pious, so instead of worrying about the house,  they're showing condolences for the marauders. Couple days later, we found out from the local newspaper that the marauders were caught. Without thinking, my parents went down to visit him at the police station. Being tired and languor, they confessed to the police. They told their stories about why they did the things they did, turns out they have an uncontrolable obsession with silverware. They didn't like the obsession. Being overly forgiving parents, the marauders and them reached a reconciliation. Both parties talked it over and reached a solution, and it brought succor to both the marauders and my family.

Vocabulary quiz (maneuver, illuminate,...)

Maneuver, illuminate, lilt, descreet, credibility, revelation, audible

In basketball, it's hard to maneuver when 2 to 3 people are blocking me.

Everyday when I see him at school, his smile illuminates my day.

I always thought leprechauns talked with a lilt because they're so jolly all the time.

I'm afraid to tell my opinion, so everyday, I sit in discreet silence.

I lied to my parents once and because of that I lost all my credibility.

The revelation of who broke mom's favorite vase revealed my brother as the culprit.

My phone's service is never good, so I talk really loud over the phone to make sure I'm audible.

Full Circle quickwrite

In the movie 'Inception' a group of highly skilled theives are trying to take down a business, but it can't be done by just negotiating. They have to go into people's dreams and make them think it's real life. They first planned out everything that they're going to do, all the possible outcomes so nothing goes wrong. When they started the plan, everything was going right, but they left out an error.  The error was that while they were driving, they fell of a bridge, and the freefall changes everything. So while they were in freefall down the bridge, they also had to complete their plan. At the end, they had a mystery of whether that was all real, or not.
The truth revealed is the whole story behind the main character Dominic Cobb, and the idea of 'inception'. The consequences of inception is falling into a limbo, where you're in a world with no one but you, and it's almost impossible to get out of a limbo. I would definately recommend this movie to a friend. The movie 'Inception' is a great movie because it requires thinking while watching the movie, which is what makes it interesting. This movie also has a great plot, actors and actresses. It's an unforgettable movie. What makes a mystery story good is the details, the cliffhangers, and all the unsolved event in the story. It keeps the reader hanging, and it makes them want to read more and more.

Vocabulary story- White Umbrella

Lilt, audible, discreet, credibility, illuminate, revaelation, maneuver

Everyone knows that when I'm singing with a lilt, I'm always happy. Often times, I sing at home, quite loudly. Sometimes I sing so loud, my mom told me my voice is even audible in the kitchen, which is the farthest room away from my room. When I do sing that loud, I'm being scolded at for my misbehavior. Then for the rest of the day, I sit in discreet silence. One time, I promised my parents that I would do homework for the whole day while they were away for a three-day weekend trip. On the first night, outside was as black as a cat. I'm afraid of the dark, so even the littlest light illuminated the room for me. During the next day I wanted to try my best to finish homework, but because my friend wanted me to hang out with them, I maneuvered my schedual so I had time to do both. I know by doing this I'll lose my credibility from my parents, but I always seem to have a problem knowing my priorities.

Quickwrite P.140

All young people deal with fears and conflicts as they move into adult life. Some fears might be about the future, because the future is the unknown. There's also fear of acception; whether you'll be accepted by others or not. Fear of failure; you want to succeed, keep climbing up and not falling down. The fears that young people deal with is most concerned with how it'll change their lives in the future. Some conflicts that they face when moving into adult life are conflicts that deals with their parents. Like most teenagers, they fight with their parents. There's also conflicts that fight over decisions about what you're going to do with your life. For example, your parents might want you to continue school, but you might want to quit school and go work. There can also be conflicts amoung your friends. Peer pressure at school can really change people, so you have the conflict of whether go with what's 'cool' or go with what's right. Conflicts and fears are similar in way that it can both affect greatly upon your life.

Vocabulary 'Thank You Ma'am'

My grandmother was an old frail lady, she'd always need help wherever she goes. Some people might think it's troublesome to take care of her, but everytime I take care of her it's always an adventure. She has this hobby of decorating bird houses, making them presentable. She can change a bird house that's plain with no life, to something colorful and lively. One time when a bird flew into the house and got stuck, she helped release him from the hole that the bird was stuck in. Most of the time the bird house had some birds around it, but sometimes it was barren. When it was, my grandmother would get kind of sad, but not for long. My grandmother told me "As long as I"m with the people I love, doing what I love, I'll always be happy."

Quickwrite- Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street

When our wishes don't come true, when we have to accept a loss or when we are disappointed in love or friendship, what happens is we get sad. We get sad because of the disappointment we're feeling. Our hopes and dreams are ruined, what else can you feel except disappointment? Some of my hopes and dreams is to be able to perform on a stage infront of people. That has been my nuber one dream for couples of years now. Another dream I have is to be a psycologist, so I can help others when they have emotional problems. My hope is to become successful so I have the wealth to help my family and the less fortunate ones. So far none of them has come true yet, maybe because I"m too young. But I do help the less fortunate when I can, so it's slowly progressing. These hopes and dreams tells me that I'm a person who love music, arts, and like to help others, but I'm too scared to take the initiative. Sometimes these hopes and dreams make me feel like I'm too greedy, for wanting to be good at everything. Wanting to be smart, kind, and good at performing. But I know nothing's impossible so I always tell myself "you never know until you try."

How would you change your life if you died at 20 years old

For me if I knew I was going to die at age 20, I'd change my life to doing whatever I want. I don't want to live and have regrets about what I should've done. To live with no regrets, I won't keep secrets from people, I'll tell people what I think about them, not being afraid of speaking my mind. Changing my life from speaking my mind, to letting go of past memories. If I could, I'd forgive the people that hurt me, apologized to the ones I have hurt, and be with my closest friends and family. Six years may seem far away, but soon it'll come. As I finish high school, it'll be only 2 years until i'm 20 years old. High school can be very exciting, and I want my high school years to be the most exciting! And even though I'll only have 2 years of college, I'll live those years to the fullest. Having fun where ever I go! Knowing that I'll die at 20, thre's disadvantages to that. If I knew that, I wouldn't work as hard in school. Since I'm going to die at 20, why care so much about the rest of my life that isn't even going to happen? If I knew I was going to die at 20 years old, I would change my life to never having any regrets, doubts, or misunderstanding. I would want to live my life to the fullest!

Where I'd Like to Live- Quickwrite

If I could live anywhere in the world, I would live in California or Taiwan. The reason why I like places is because I've got people I care about living there. In California, there's beautiful weather and my amazing friends. In Taiwan, my family, my home, my new friends are here, and living here makes me happy. If there was a place in the world that had the things I love about California and Taiwan, I'd move there in a heartbeat! Both places have their own special attractions, which is why I can never choose between them.

Practice- Character

Most memorable character: Jacob from twilight
Most outstanding character trait: muscles and wolf traits
Character's appearance: tanned and buff
Important statements: "I love you Bella."
Important thoughts: He really likes Bella.
Important actions: Protects Bella from the bad vampires.
Reactions of other characters: Edward becomes more protective over Bella.

Harrison Bergeron Quickwrite

I think the pressure to be the same comes from both outside forces and from personal desires. Outside forces want everyone to be the same so then there's no evil competition between people. Power can change people. You also have personal desires to be the same so then you won't feel bad that you're not as smart, or feel excluded when you're smarter than the others. I think being the same would make some people happy, but not the majority. I think they'd prefer to act on their own, because acting on your own gives you responsiblility and you learn to make choices by yourself, not others. Also because by acting on your own, you make your own mistakes, which helps you improve in life.

Initiation Summary

The main character is a freshmen girl at Lansing high. She's going through the Lansing high sorrority initiation. At first the girls from the sorrortiy threw eggs at her, then they tell the main character to do all these embarrasing things. As the freshmen girl is doing all those things, instead of feeling embarrassed, she was enjoying it. At the end, as she was about to be accepted into the sorrority, she doubts about going into the sorrority.

A Christmas Memory Summary

Buddy and and the women are best friends, even though the women is sixty-something years old. One day as the women woke up, she felt it was fruitcake weather, and so they decided to make fruitcakes. They didn't have money, so they went to sold tickets for a movie. Using the money, they bought ingridients for their fruitcakes, but they couldn't buy liquor. Mr. Haha had liquor, so they went over and asked for some. Buddy and the women was thinking and they drank a bit of liquor, they endedup being scolded at for letting buddy drink it. When it was christmas, they went to look for a christmas tree. During christmas, they also made kites. Kites as gifts, as well as for fun. (ENDING?)

The ending confused me because I didn't really understand what they were talking about. The author was talking abou kites, then suddenly it went to reading a script wrote by the women to Buddy. The events changed too fast without any build-up, so I got lost while reading.

A Christmas Memory

What were some of the scenes from the story that you thought were more powerful?

Scenes that I thought were more powerful was when they were going to look for trees to cut down for Christmas. It was very descriptive of the smell, the mood, and the scene. Like "scented acres of holiday trees, prickly-leafy holly," gave me an image of many trees across the field with prickly-leaves. When they described the fresh sent of the trees, I felt like I could smell them too. Another scene that I thought was powerful was the fruitcakes. It was very detailed about how the women decided it wass 'fruitcake weather'. The author wrote very precise about how they got to make fruitcake, like how they got the money and the ingridients.

Crime of Mars vocabulary

Replica, enigma, aboriginal, inquisitive, incredible

Irvin was preparing for the science fair, and he wanted to make a replica of a toy robot. He thought toy robots were just toys, so copying its mechanics would be easy. Because he thought it was easy, he procrastinated till the second to last day of the science fair. When Irvin started working, he regreted his procrastination. When he was trying to focus, he found out that science is a big enigma. He wanted to win this science fair, so he started working even harder!
The next day, Irvin finished his toy robot. It was incredible! When he entered his replica into the science fair, all the teachers were stunned by his great work. But even though his toy robot was incredible, his research was all wrong. Irvin wasn't the smartest kid, he didn't do any research on toy robots. His title for the science fair was "The Aboriginal Toy Robots." Everyone knew that toy robots didn't exist in the earliest days. Because of that, Irvin was disqualified for his inaccurate information. Ever since that day, Irvin learned a big lesson. When doing research or even in class, it's always good to be an inquisitive student. If you're confused in class, don't ever be afraid to ask questions.

Quickwrite- villain

Hook, the villain in 'Peter Pan' is funniest villain! He's evil in a witty way. Even though he's a bit weak, he as his own funny way of being evil. Hook got his name because one of his hands is a hook. He lost his hand when the alligator ate it. Peter pan is the hero of the story, and Hook is always trying to destroy him, but in the end he got eaten by the aliigator. The character fascinates me because he sucks at being a villain, but he still trys to be evil. Hook wanted to destroy Peter pan, but he never succeeds. I think it's funny how all the unlucky events happen to him.

Dog Star Summary

The main character is an unsocial, misanthropic person. He picked up Laika, a dog that was abandoned at the time. As time went on, they became closer and closer; they are almost inseperable. Laika was special, she could sense danger, and always helping out her owner. Once, they were apart and an earthquake happened. Laika rescued her owner about couple of hours later; that was the only time they were apart. The main character was an astronomer, so he had to go to the moon. He hesitated whether he should stay, or leave. At the end he chose to leave and go to the moon, so he left Laika with the Andersons. Few months later, he got the news that Laika passed away. After he left for the moon, Laika seemed to have lot the spirit to live.

Quickwrite- dog star

I have had a dog ever since I was born. Even though we weren't the closest, he was still a part of my family. We would take walks in the park and we'd play pranks on him. He was very strong, smart, and healthy. Everytime my mom came home, he'd bark non-stop. Whenever we leave for vacation or trips, we'd ask out neighboors to watch over him. No matter how long or short the trip was, he'd always have the biggest welcome back for us. But because my family moved to America, we had to leave him with our uncle. It was heart breaking, but he would live better and more freely there than if he came with us. After about 3 to 4 years, we got the news he passed away. My mom was devasted, because she was the closest to him. Our whole family was very sad, because he was our family's first and best dog.
People love their pets because they become a part of your family. We develop love and feelings for them. They're like another human being, we create strong bonds between the two. Without them, people can feel empty and useless. People with pets tend to live longer and happier.

Dog Star Vocabulary Test

1. The desolating loss of my grandmother's death depressed everyone in the family.
2. My mom says my brother and I should be astronomers because we both like to study the stars and the planets.
3. Angie's new shirt was stellar, whenever she was under the light, her shirt would shine like a star.
4. The luminous street lights helped guide me home safely.
5. Jerome was a misanthropic genius who always happen to dislike every human being he meets.
6. When Luke came back from his trip to the moon, he said he missed the terrestrial food.
7. Karene lost the race by default when she failed to reach the finishing point.
8. Shaked was always scared to visit big houses, it's because she's afraid to be lost in labyrinthine stairwells and rooms.