Response to Victor about Irrational fears

I came across this post a while ago, but decided now to respond to it, like Victor asked:

I know that the people that read this might go to buy and eat an apple just for me, but I guess I will just try to live through it. I don’t want to feel like the only person with weird and irrational fears of things, so respond to this and tell me what you are afraid of.

 I wouldn't categorize this as weird, but I am afraid of the dark.  It is strange because I am only afraid sometimes, like after someone mentioned a scary story of reference to one, or I just watched a creepy movie.  I think that everyone must be slightly afraid of the dark because it is the unknown, and our survival instincts tell us that there is some potential danger in unknown.  Our instincts kick in, and that is why sometimes when it is dark and I am alone, I imagine someone looking at me, or walk with a weapon sometimes.  I am very alert in the dark, and I am ready for surprises.  Once when I was 9, when I was walking downstairs at night, I held a bamboo stick for a weapon, and my dad jumped out from behind a corner to scare me, and I instinctively hit him.  The dark is the unknown, and in the unknown, there are potential dangers, and with dangers, our body naturally kicks into battle mode, or survival mode.

This reminds me of a question that Vinh asked Mr. Sutherland, about why people have fear when it is potentially bad for you before a test.  I have thought deeply about this, and came to an explanation.  Before, when civilization wasn’t as civilized, and we had to hunt for our own food, fear is what kept us alive.  Without fear, you would never be ready for an attack, and you wouldn’t fear your attacker, whether a human or an animal, and you would be killed.  It is also important for taking tests because without fear, you wouldn’t be fearful of failure and not study.  And you would fail, but you wouldn’t improve because you don’t fear any consequences that you will be faced with after.  I think hat moderate fear is the most effective way for passing a test.  You shouldn’t freak over a test, but you should never take it too lightly, and overestimate them.  

Third Book Discussion

In this discussion, we rehashed some of the old topics: the consequences of Christopher's disability and what he actually has.  Also, we brought up new topics of how Christopher's adventure will affect him later, if he will ever forgive his father, and whether or not he would have a compatible partner.  

I talked about how the self confidence Christopher gained after he traveled to his mother would help him in the end.  In the end, Christopher stated that since he wrote a book, discovered the killing of wellington, and taveled to mother, he could do anything. i think this is very important because earlier, we talked about how Christopher holds himself back because he looks down upon him self by setting rules.  for example, the color of the cars technique of whether or not the day would be good or not, i think, is an insult to himself, because he purposely limits his own ability to feel the day for himself.  Also, we discussed why his he was afraid of his father.  Throughout the story, Christopher displayed his feelings towards his father as fear because he killed Wellington, but on the other hand, I think his real feeling was that his was hurt that his father had lied to him about his mother’s death.  This is very significant because he is covering up his feelings, not because he doesn’t want to share them, but because he doesn’t truly understand them.  We then moved on to the point of whether or not Christopher would ever forgive his father.  i believe that it will eventually happened, because his father will try relentlessly, and Christopher believes he can do anything, and once he realizes how important his father is to him, he will conquer his fear and battle through it, and eventually forgive him.  We spoke about if Christopher met a person alike him, they would be compatible as friends or even a couple.  Sam brought up that they wouldn’t touch each other at all because it would make both of them uncomfortable, and they would understand to explain everything very clearly for the both of them to understand (like Siobhan does).  They would overall just understand each other and be good for each other. 

Response To Jesse on Pizza

I was scrolling through reader, and found this post by Jesse, and decided to write a very descriptive paragraph on it.  

I think one of the best pizza places I’ve ever been to is Amici’s so if you see it, immediately plan a time to go there, cause their pizza is awesome! The pepperoni they put on the pizza kind of resembles a cup, and you can sprinkle Parmesan cheese or pepper and it tastes so good. So go there.

            Regular pizza, steaming hot with creamy cheese and greasy meats, is a comfort food.  However, as one takes each bite, one feels guilt running through their mind.  With each slice comes much fat and grease oozing out from the layers of cheeses, and the fatty meat toppings piled high.  If one wants a healthy choice of pizza, one should go to The Flat Bread Pizza Company in Paia, Hawaii which serves only the freshest, organic produce from local farmers, and cooks their specialty pizzas in a clay oven with a fire, fueled by wood.  By supporting local farms, they keep the toppings tasting fresh, and keeping the pizza healthier than other choices.  The clay oven provides a unique smoky taste to the crust that only comes from a wood burning fire.  It also contributes to keeping it healthy by lifting off the grease from the pizza.  When I went there last summer, I was amazed by the many delicious flavors bursting in my mouth at one.  I could barely believe that all the ingredients are natural and the pizza as a whole was healthy.  I was used to eating pizza that when brought out, I could see the grease and fat liquidizing on top if it.  There was both a positive difference in taste and health.  After many generations of evolving from its origins in Italy, pizza has been perfected.

If you ever find yourself in Hawaii, make it one of your goals to visit this place, because I think it is going to blow your mind, especially because it is all organic, local grown food, and the clay oven puts such a great spin on it.  It is just amazing, so amazing that it was really difficult to write about it, using words.  I had to really think because, before, I would just explain the pizza as fhjdalkjdagsdal. Here is a link to reviews of the resturaunt, in case you want more detail: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g60636-d729848-Reviews-Flatbread_Company-Paia_Maui_Hawaii.html. or http://www.yelp.com/biz/flatbread-company-paia

Final Discussion 2

In our second discussion of our final, we spoke about whether or not Christopher’s father made the correct decision of telling him that his mother died when she left.  Also, we discussed whether or not his father lied to Christopher on purpose or not, and whether his mother left for selfish reasons or to protect Christopher. 

Sam thought that his mother’s choice for leaving was the correct one, and was selfless because she wasn’t a good mother to Christopher at all.  She didn’t have the patience to take care of an autistic kid, and she often hit him when she lost her temper.  Also, he stated that Christopher’s father wasn’t very helpful towards his mother’s problems with temper.  He didn’t help her through it, but instead, he blamed her for being angry at Christopher.  I sort of agreed but I actually thought this:  I think that his father pushed his mother away by criticized her for yelling at Christopher.  She then sought refuge in Mr. Shears. She then fell in love and left, using her parenting issues as an excuse.  I also thought that his father lied to Christopher as a spur of a moment accident.  He just couldn’t accept the fact that his wife left him so he lied in order to avoid the subject.  He then continued with the lie because he couldn’t tell Christopher that he lied to him. And I think he regretted that one lie for a long time, but he couldn’t tell Christopher. 

We then moved onto the fact that Christopher is super smart.  He does a game that requires great imagination and concentration and intelligence to do.  IT consists of moving squares around like checkers and moving them from the bottom half to the top.  It is really interesting how he can imagine this and do it.  He said that he cant imagine things but he did this, which requires much imagination. He also remembered the whole scheme which is really, really impressive.  He is quite smart, much smarter than other people are, but people still look down upon him (including himself) just because he is different, and they don’t understand what goes on inside his brain, which, in my opinion, is much more developed than any average people.

Discussion one summary and improvements

In our first discussion on Friday, we began by observing Kathy, devin, and jesse's group.  One thing I noticed was that their questions were mostly about plot, asking why one person did one thing or another.  I'm not if it is just because of the story that makes it difficult to come up with more in-depth questions or it was just a lack of effort, but that's what I noticed.  The best commentary I heard was about whether or not the "unwinding" of humans was humane.  It was very interesting to hear the discussion but I am extremely worried that there will be spoilers because I want to read that book, but they will be discussing it before I get a chance to do so.  Plus, I can't really stop them from discussing spoilers, because they must do so in order to discuss, because they are all at that point, and I am just an observer.

In our discussion, we. Talked a lot about what disabilities Christopher has.  We talked about autism, which is what he clearly has, but I wasn't sure what that really meant.  Sam cleared it up, saying that it is the disability of not knowing what people's emotions were.  I also questioned whether or not he had OCD because he liked everything perfect(I.e. When he went to his jail cell, he liked it because it was almost perfectly a cube, he also won't eat foood unless they weren't touching each other)

I brought up the thought about how his mother may still be alive.  We had a quick discussion about this but it was very frustrating because without ht elicited amount of time we had,we were all rushing to get our ideas ion, cutting people off, and changing the subject much too quickly.  We spent roughly two minters on this, when we should have spent at least 10.  That went for almost every single topic we discussed.  I think that we Should split this time into two days, doing one hroup's discussion one day, and the other's the next.  Just one day for tow discussions just simply isn't enough, especially for one third of a whole book. I know that we are limited on time two just two weeks left, but I really don't mind reading faster, if that means more discussion time.

Response to Sam's thoughts on Christopher's mother

During this discussion, we started off slowly, basically talking about plot.  I brought up the point that Christopher   John Francis Boone's mother may still be alive and well, but with another man:

One very interesting part of the discussion was when the question that Christopher’s mother might still be alive.  If you think about it, it make since because Christopher was not allowed to see her in the hospital, and she was cremated, making it so there would b no actual opportunity to see a body.(excerpt from Sam's Blog)

Christopher, as Sam stated, never met his mother in the hospital. Also, his father didn't know the type of heart attack that she suffered from, something that one usually finds out from the doctor.  She was cremated, and Christopher didn't go to the funeral, and he didn't know what happened to the ashes.  I don't think that there is a question on whether or not his mother is dead, or living.  Our whole entire group(Sam, Bassam, and myself) agreed that we think that christopher's father lied to him when he said his mother was dead.  It is just a question on why his father did lie to him.

I have two ideas: his father just couldn't get himself to say/admit it, or he didn't think that with christopher's disability, he could handle the awful news.  The first idea seems far fetched because the whole neighborhood knew about the affair of mr. Shears and christopher's mother.  It may be possible because rumors could have been started, or mrs. Shears could have been the one who told everyone, not christopher's dad.  It seems far fetched, but It is possible.

The second idea seems more realistic.  With christopher's disability, he doesn't fully understand how to let out his emotions.  His father didn't know how safe it would be if he let christopher know that his mother lied to him.  N body knew how christopher would react to the news, so they kept it a secret to them, in order to protect him, and the people around him(he could get violent once he hears the news).  One thing I know for certain is that his father never kept this secret for being mean, it was just the way it was.

Overcoming Problems

What are some of the conflicts Amir faces, and what does he do to over come it? Do you see a trend in his actions? How does it effect him?

The historical fiction novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini portrays a young Amir, who Throughout the story, faces many internal problems. He goes through a "tough love" relationship with his father, he faces problematic relationship with his best friend, Hassan,(and his guilt), he faces his fathers death, and he, in the end, faces all the problems that he ran away from in the past.



Amir, first of all, faces his father, who seems to show more fatherly love to Hassan than to Amir. He does not show much affection to Amir who yearns for his love and works hard to it. For example, he tries and wins the kite running tournament because his father shows a hint of encouragement that he might twin this year's contest. While competing, he sees his father standing on top of a roof, pumping his fists, rooting for him. He had finally saw proof of his father's love and he is happy. He avoided ever facing his father.  He went on through life, taking his advice and sometimes neglect.  California changed things.  His father, with the absence of Hassan, began to bond with Amir and treat him more as a close son.  Amir likes this, and never really had to confront his problem, America fixed it.  This is so because in America, Baba didn't really have the pressure of being the great man everyone saw him as; he could go through life being like a normal citizen because in California, all the Afghans started out the same: In america, Amir suggested going back to Afghanistan to his father,

 "'You were happier there, Baba.   It was more like home,' I said

'Peshawar was good for me. Not good for you.'" (page 129)

He shows that he will sacrifice for his son, and suffer in order to give Amir what is best for him.

His relationship with Hassan started as any normal friendship would be. Amir struggles through a complicated friendship with his servant’s son, Hassan.  Their relationship starts off like normal one; they play and make mischief together all the time, but, strangely, Hassan always takes the blame for all the troubles they cause together.  It seems like Hassan knows his place as Amir’s servant, but doesn’t let it come in their friendship’s way.  On the other hand, as Amir grows older, he begins to realize the differences between him and his best friend.  They come from two different races, they come from different ends of the social ladder, and have different traits (Hassan is athletic and Amir is educated).  After Hassan's rape, Amir begins to feel guilty that he hadn't done anything to help his best friend out. He has an internal conflict overtime he hangs out with his best friend because he is constantly reminded of what he did not do. He tries to get Hassan to pelt him with pomegranates, as if he was getting his revenge, but that does not work. After Hassan proves himself unable to inflict any physical harm to him, Amir feels as though it is hopeless to get Hassan to take revenge on him, and he won’t let go, so He finally figures that being away from Hassan, running away from his problems, would solve it. And so Amir sends him off by framing him for stealing his watch. His whole life is lived in the shadow of the mistakes of not helping Hassan, throwing pomegranates at him, and expelling him from his life.

He then faces his father's death.  His father, although he didn't show it often, loved him very much.  He said that Amir lets others fight for him, and even Amir, himself, admits this.  He leans on Baba throughout his whole life, and is not ready to let go.  He recalls that in the ambulance, he felt powerless, unable to do anything to help his father.  He had no idea what to do.  His father survived that visit to the hospital but he was diagnosed with cancer.  Baba went on living, getting weaker little by little, continuing to treat Amir well, and soon past. After his father dies, he is unsure of how he would survive on his own.  Luckily, he married Soraya before his father died.  She was always there to help Amir through life, taking the place of Baba.


Throughout his whole life, Amir avoids actually facing his problems.  He expels Hassan from his life, running away from his troubles.  He flees Afghanistan, leaving his home country in it's time of need (according to the people who stayed), when the wars became worsened. And later, when his father dies, he doesn't face living alone, or overcoming his loneliness, Baba is replaced by his wife, Soraya, who, like Baba, gives him advice and love.

Finally, once he finally returns to Afghanistan, he is flooded with the many problems he has left behind.  The most obvious was the problem with Hassan's son.  Since he feels as though he is in debt to Hassan, he has an urge to do what his heart tells him to do, but his heart tells him not to.  He finally faces his problem after many, many years, and goes to save Hassan's son, Sorhab, and feels better.  Once he faces his conflict within himself, he instantly feels better, after all the years of guilt that he bubbles up inside of him.  He also do this by admitting his whole story to Soraya, a story he never admitted to anyone. He is also faced with his childhood towns and life turned to rubble.  He grew up living in these towns, playing in these towns, and eating in these towns, but when he returns, his once beautiful, great childhood environment completely destroyed and all the culture left crushed.  The incident of overcoming his internal conflict made him stronger, and he was able to endure this, the destruction of his childhood country, as well as the beating he received from Assef:

"I don't at what point I started laughing, but i did.  It hurt to laugh... But i was laughing and laughing."(page 289)

Amir laughed because he was finally free from his burden on guilt.  He freed himself through standing up for himself, and fighting his battles, not running away, or having someone else fight them for him.  Facing his own problems welcomed Amir into manly-hood.

Kite Runner Final Post

Finally, after reading the book, everything seems to connect, and make sense; everything ties together, and is wrapped up into a perfect, bitter sweet conclusion.  The relationship between Baba and Hassan finally makes sense, Amir is finally lifted of his guilt, and Amir finally gains a son.  But in betweens those events, Sohrab is hospitalized, after he attempts to commit suicide with a razor blade.  While in the hospital, Amir, for the first time in twenty years, prays.  He prays and prays and prays, relentlessly, making promises to Allah.  In the end, Sohrab's physical health is reborn, but his mental health is unstable.

This is Hosseini's way of expressing that Prayer can lead to some savior, but cannot fix everything.  He is saying that prayer is never a perfect thing to rely on in a time of distress or need, but if it is the only thing left to do, and it doesn't harm oneself, it can help.  It saved only half of Sohrab., but half is better than nothing.  Allah seemed to save Sohrab's physical form, but he couldnt manage to save his mental form.  Sorhab came back into the world, "given up" and pretty much without a soul, emotionless.  This shows that the true time for prayer is when one can not do anything physical to save people.  It should not be used during a earthquake or something of that sort, where physical actions can be taken to save oneself.  It should be used when one is isolated, and has no actual power over what happens.  Amir felt this helplessness when Baba was in the ambulance as well, but he didn't pray because Baba always frowned upon it.  Now, once he was released from Baba's wishes, he could do what he wanted.

Another thing i noticed was when he was trying to find out what his mother was like, Amir seemed so desperate to find out what his mother was actually like.  I think that on top of just wanting to find out what a parent he has never met was like, he had another reason for wanting to learn about her.  He had just found out that his all great, honorable father, Baba was actually sort of a fraud.  He has already followed in Baba's footsteps of betraying his best friend, and he wishes to find his "better half" in his mother.  Maybe he has a parent who was actually kind, and loving, and a real honorable person.  He wants to know he has good in himself as well.

Ipad?

This is a response to Billy's post about whether or not an iPad is a worthy thing to buy:

Why choose iPad ? Many have wondered about this and still have trouble finding why. Well, what is an iPad? An iPad is a tablet computer made by Apple. It is made for reading audio books,watching movies, browsing the web, listening to music, and most importantly playing games. An iPad is portable and a lot bigger than the Ipod touch or the Iphone, but it does mostly the same task like them. A iPad's starting price is 499 

My family recently put together our money and bought an ipad for the whole family, and i cant say i regret it, but at the same time, i cant say it was the best buy i made in a while.  Many people say that the ipad is just a big ipod, why buy it?  Before i bought the ipad, i thought "its a huge ipod, why NOT buy it? who doesnt was a gigantic ipod touch?"  Now, looking back, i think the ipad is way over priced.  I got the 64 giga byte one, and that set my family back almost a thousand dollars, including tax and the cover case.  I think that that is completely over priced for a piece of technology.  I have to admit that when i use it, i completely forget about the pricing.  It is an incredibly useful device.  For example, i wrote my blog about firemens' integrity on it last week, while away from home.  It was extremely cool to do so because it is much more portable than my laptop, and it works almost like one.  It was also easier to type than i expected, on a touch screen

I also use it for games.  The game-play on the huge, sharp display is incredible because i can see the rich colors in a screen many times larger than an ipod touch.  It is also Is much easier to handle because of the larger screen.  I can play, without having to scrunch up my hands.  The ipad is still way over priced, and i think that if Apple brought the price down, many more people would buy it.  The ipad is extremely useful, extremely fun, and extremely unique, but at such an extreme price, i don't think it is worth it.  I would much rather stay with an iphone, which can get 3g connection almost anywhere.

that brings me to my next point.  I don't see the ipad as a useful thing to have on a 3g broadband.  All you could do is surf the web, go to youtube, etc.  But you cant make phone calls on it, unless you have special apple headphones and a calling application.  Even with these, the calling app wasn't made to be used on a 3g network, and it would probably lag.  I don't think it would ever replace a cell phone, unless it got smaller, or maybe less in cost.  I strongly stand behind the iphone, which is the perfect medium between the ipod and the 3g ipad.

HARRY POTTER 1

Okay, i was thinking about what to write, and i couldn't think of anything, so i decided to just summarize the whole harry potter and the sorcerer's stone, since the new movie is coming out soon.

so Harry Potter, the main character starts out as a normal, scrawny boy who gets picked on by his cousin, who he lives with after his parents die in a car crash.  One day, he gets a letter saying that he is a wizard and that he should come to this special school for people with abilities like him, called Hogwarts.  His uncle doesn't want this, so he throws away the letter.  Soon, a bunch more arrives, and he starts burning them.  One day, his whole house was flooded with letters, literally flooded, and Harry's uncle decided to run away from the house, even though Harry actually wanted to attend Hogwarts.  They stay in this place, where a huge man comes and knocks the door down.  He comes in on Harry's birthday and presents him with a cake, confirms that Hogwarts is real and that he is a wizard, and gives Harry's cousin, Dudley, a pig's tail.  Later, he takes harry on a shopping trip in the wizard world, and it turns out that his parents left him a ton of money.  They go out and buy his uniform, an owl, a wand, and books.  Harry returns home, and awaits his trip to Hogwarts.

Finally his day comes, and he goes to the train station and looks for Platform 9 3/4 and finds that he has to run into a wall to get to the station.  He bravely does it, and is amazed at the other side.  He sees an enormous red train with many witches and wizards in their robes boarding the train.  He gets on and meets Ron and Hermione who become very close friends.  They get to Howarts and are sorted into houses, they all get Gryfindor.

Later they discover a plan to steal the sorcerer's stone(gives immortality), and tried to stop them.  They have to go through a series of tasks, such as passing a huge guard dog, defeating devil's snare, catching a key out of thousands, and winning a game of Wizard's Chess.  Then Harry faces Voldemort, the even wizard who was thought to be dead.  Voldemort was the actual reason Harry's parents are dead, he killed them.  Harry defeats him with a simple touch of his hands.  Harry was protected by his mother's spell of love, which protects him from the dangers of Voldemort.  The three come back as heroes.

The Kite Runner

Throughout this story, I have noticed many internal problems Amir faces. He goes through a "tough love" relatinship with his father, he faces problematic relationship with his best friend, Hassan, he faces his fathers death, and he, in the end, faces all the problems that he ran away from in the past. The novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hossieni cirlces an overall theme of character versus self.

Amir, first of all, faces his father, who seems to show more fatherly love to hassan than to amir. He does not show much affection to Amir who yearns for his love and works hard to it. For example, he tries and wins the kite running tournament because his father shows a hint of encouragement that he might twin this year's contest. While competing, he sees his father standing on top of a roof, pumping his fists, rooting for him. He had finally saw proof of his father's love and he is happy.

His relationship with Hassan started as any normal friendship would be. After hassan's rape, Amir begins to feel guilty that he hadn't done anything to help his best friend out. He has an internal conflict overtime he hangs out with his best friend because he is constantly reminded of what he did not do. He tries to get Hassan to pelt him with pomegranates, as if he was getting his revenge,but that does not work. He finally figures that being away from Hassan, running away from his problems, would solve them. And so Amir sends him off. His whole life is lived in the shadow of the mistakes of not helping Hassan, throwing pomegranates at him, and expelling him from his life.

He then faces his father's death.  His father, although he didn't show it often, loved him very much.  He said that Amir lets others fight for him, and even Amir, himself, admits this.  He leans on Baba throughout his whole life, and is not ready to let go.  After his father dies, he is unsure of how he would survive on his own.  Luckily, he married Soraya before his father died.  She was always there to help Amir through life, taking the place of Baba.

Once he finally returns to Afghanistan, he is flooded with the many problems he has left behind.  The most obvious was the problem with Hassan's son.  Since he feels as though he is in debt to Hassan, he has an urge to do what his heart tells him to do, but his heart tells him not to.  He is also faced with his childhood towns and life turned to ruble.  He grew up living in these towns, playing in these towns, and eating in these towns, but when he returns, his once beautiful, great childhood environment completely destroyed and all the culture left crushed.

Cross Country

Today, I went to my brother’s cross country meet right after school.  We arrived a little early, just in time to catch the beginning of the girls’ varsity race.  I had never been to a race before, so I was a little lost, in terms of what was going on.  I kept annoying my father with questions about where they would be coming from, how long the race was, etc. while he was trying to concentrate on taking pictures.  He finally started ignoring me, so I just stood in silence and watched.  After five minutes or so, a huge group of girls came running towards us.  I watched in amazement, as the kept their form and ran hard, drenched with sweat.  And as quickly as they came, they disappeared over the next hill, and around the corner.  My father started off to the next location they would come, and I hurried to catch up to him.  The next place was the finish line.  We waited another five minutes and the girls came again.  They raced down the stretch at a full stretch, pushing it top the limit.  The first few girls were happy with their time while the others scolded themselves.

Next, it was the boys’ turn.  When they ran their warm up pacers, I thought they were starting to actually run, so I started to cheer. No one else did, and I realized they were only warming up, and I felt dumb.  I think yen is weird; that is just my opinion. Oh no! Yen is leaving now (Janice).  After that incident, they actually began.  My brother, Duc, took the lead instantly and took off.  We then moved onto the next station, and waited.  They came, and were off again.  It was much like the girls’ run but much faster.  Finally, we headed towards the end of the circuit.  They soon came rushing over the hill at a full sprint.  Two Berkley High students were up front.  After about five seconds, I saw my brother heading towards us, neck and neck with another Berkley kid and… dog?  The dog kept cutting off Duc, forcing him to slow down.  It kept this up until the end of the race, not even bothering the other kid.  My brother made forth in the race, even thought the dog had been cutting him off for about half a mile.

Burning houses 2

This is a response to Bianca's blog post about fire fighters who refused to help a man in need just because he did not pay his yearly fee:

"Firefighters are trained and paid to put out fires for the safety of everybody, not stand there senselessly watch a house burn down. The firefighters in this town sure know how to follow the orders of "only help those who paid the fee". Foster states that even though the firefighters are already in front of the burning house and have what it takes to stop the fire, they chose not to because they expected to be compensated for their labor. Saving a house is fine, because everything inside are material things, but what if the owner of the house was inside and passed out, unable to escape? Would the firefighters still not save the man? Surely there must be certain extent where money drives a profession of saving lives."

I completely disagree with the thoughts of this town.  What happened to the firefighters who are the heroes, who want to sae lives to be good, not for money?   Even if the man was not inside of the house, all the stuff in his house was deystroyed.  There is no way of replacing the sentemence of the items inside the house, it losing that is pretty  much as bad as losing his life because what was in his house may be ireplaceable.  Also, could you imagine what it felt like to just watch his hous burn down, with the firefighters right next to him?  That could practically kill him on the inside. 

the firefighters shouldnt decide wheather or not to save someone's life (or house) based on weather or not he paid his yearly fee. It is inhumane to just stand by and watch a house get burned down if you can stop it, even if you are on orders. I believe that it is mainly the town rules that caused this conflict because of their orders to refuse saving a house if they didn't pay there payment. Because none of the firefighters knew what would happen if they helped put out the fire, they expected the worst. Maybe they would lose their job and not be able to feed their children or something. They couldn't risk their own life so they were afraid to help the person in need. Even though I understand their point of view, I would never actually just stand by and let the house burn down, if I could do something about it. I would just help the guy out, and let him pay the man pay the city back later. I couldn't live with myself if I let s house burn down, without trying to save it. Also, I can't imagine the look on the face of the man. Seeing his house burn down with firefighters just standing by and looking must have devastated him. I cannot imagine how the firefighters slept that night. And I wonder what they must have been thinking while they watch this man's life get deystroyed. They must have felt bad,q and the city was at fault for all of these harmful feelings to both the victim and the firefighters.

My First Impressions of The Kite Runner

The historical fiction novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini portrays a young Amir, who struggles through complicated friendship with his servant’s son, Hassan.  Their relationship starts off like normal one; they play and make mischief together all the time, but, strangely, Hassan always takes the blame for all the troubles they cause together.  It seems like Hassan knows his place as Amir’s servant, but doesn’t let it come in their friendship’s way.  On the other hand, as Amir grows older, he begins to realize the differences between him and his best friend.  They come from two different races, they come from different ends of the social ladder, and have different traits (Hassan is athletic and Amir is educated).  He begins to isolate himself from Hassan, using this as an excuse, but the real reason is that he feels guilt. 

After Amir witnesses Hassan’s rape and doesn’t do anything to protect him, he feels regret.  He therefore separates himself from Hassan in order to separate himself from the constant reminder of what he didn’t do.  He then follows this up with asking Hassan to come up the hill for him to read a story to him.  It seems as though things were going well between hem, like old days, but then all of the sudden, the guild took over Amir, and he pelted Hassan with pomegranates, waiting for him to hit him back.  He wanted to feel as though Hassan had taken revenge on him, in order to take away some of the guilt.  After Hassan proves himself unable to inflict any physical harm to him, Amir feels as though it is hopeless to get Hassan to take revenge on him, and he won’t let go, so he thinks that he will get rid of his problems if he got rid of Hassan.  Amir frames Hassan of stealing his birthday money and watch.  All of Amir’s actions are an attempt to rid his extreme regret and guilt for not helping a friend in need.  Instead of admitting it, or letting go, he tries all of these things that result in a lost friend that could have been kept.  

Overall, I really, really enjoyed reading this book.  There were many surprises throughout the first third of the book, and it turned out much more interesting than I first thought it would be.  

English this year

Over the past few months, i have written about many different subjects.  First, i planned on writing about my daily life, but i found that boring to work on.  The next thing i tried to accomplish was to blog about politics, but again, it was just too boring.  I ended up writing about what ever was on my mind: I wrote about a past experience when i got hit is the head, “The Ball Game”, a book i erad that i thought would be a good class book “The Silent Boy”, and a story i wrote in writing class “Broken bones” (part 1 and 2)  I also wrote many responses to others’ blogs: One about Bullying, one about Freshman Year, one about Racism, one about “LOL” and one about twitter. I also enjoyed writing a more academic essay about Of Mice and Men:

The novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck portrays two migrant workers who seek a farm of their own. Throughout the story, Steinbeck provides characters who oppose this, saying it is ‘impossible’.  One of them, George, is very practical and straightforward. He really cares about his traveling partner, Lennie, and takes care of him even though he is a burden...They have a conflict with fate through out the whole book.

I like how there is a balance between free writing and structural, more strict writing. So overall, throughout writing these blogs, i saw that i need a lot of improvement in writing, still, and that i actually enjoy writing in this class because of the open ended... everything.  


This first quarter surprised me.  I found that writing two blogs a week have been much easier than i first expected.  At first, i thought that I'd spend three or four hours a week writing two blogs, but instead it only takes me about one a half hours.  This caught me off guard, but now that i think about it, i think that my writing has changed dramatically because of the summer reading assignments.  During my three middle school years (and throughout my whole life) writing has come to me very hard.  I could not get my ideas down on paper, organize them, and have them make sense.  I first realized my major advancement in writing in either grade, where i learned to organize and make my ideas comprehensive.  Then over the summer, i procrastinated a lot, and while i tried to cram all of my writing into a few days write, i realized that i made a major mistake, and i learned to never procrastinate that badly again.  But from this, came a good thing: i learned how to get my ideas on paper.  because i had so much to do in such a little time, i just wrote, and wrote, and wrote.  I didn't look back and try to edit until i finished the whole essay or paragraph,which i had  been doing and slowed me down.  This is what i believe brought me to where i am today, but i still know that i have much to work on.  


Even thought i learned my lesson to never procrastinate on long term projects, i still happen to do so during my blog posts.  One of my goals for this next quarter is to work on procrastination (especially because the require has bumped itself up to three blog posts a week, instead of two).  In the moment, i usually wait until the Friday night that it is due, and actually start working at around 10:00.  It has not been a problem in me not having enough time to finish, but the constant thought of it haunts me the whole week.  even with this constant pressure, it is not enough to get me to start working on it early.  I think my problem is that i do not work well unless i am under pressure.  Another problem with procrastinating is that if i am busy that day, then i will fail that week’s assignment.  An idea that i have developed to fix this problem is to work on my blogs at the same time i do currently but for the next week.  I would just have to set the blog to post itself after 12:00 that day.  This way, i will not have to worry about that week’s assignment until the next Friday.  It seems like the same amount of work, but this way, i will not be constantly reminded about the whole bunch of work i have to finish Friday night.  Also, if i miss that Friday, i still have a whole week to complete my work.


Another problem i face is that, right now, i do not edit my posts before posting them.  I do this out of laziness and tho thought that my writing was good enough the first time around, but while i was rereading my blog the other day, i found a lot of embarrassing grammar and spelling errors, along with some sentences and ideas that just do not make sense.  From now on, i will proofread my writing before posting them.  


Another thing that surprised me was how easy it was to write.  Because of the open ended topics and different (a little easier) expectations, i could write freely, without the pressure of making all of my writing flawless, with many layers of editing.  It is a way for me to express what i feel.  In other classes, i feel confined when writing.  For example, if i have an idea that seems “out there” i tend to not include that in my writing because i feel that the teacher may grade it based on that thought.  also, i fear that i would not be able to display that thought strongly enough for the reader to comprehend.  On the other hand, doing these blog posts, i feel confident enough to actually take off my mask and write my true feelings and thoughts.  And once i started doing this, surprisingly, i found it actually much easier than i thought.  i would just write down my ideas quickly, and then go back and tweak them.  I think that the slackened pressure helped me do this by encouraging me to be brave and try a new thing, without the worry of crashing and burning.  Also, this open ended prompt adds a little fun to writing.  I actually wrote about the acronym “LOL”:

I believe that the acronym LOL appeared because a person who easily laughed actually laughed out loud when chatting or text and got tired of typing “laugh out loud” and made LOL up, then people talking to him didn’t realized at that he/she was actually laughing out loud and that he just meant “hey that’s funny” or something in that content.  They then started saying it and passed it on, and so on.  Since the “l” and the “o” are right on top of each other, it is easy to type LOL quickly.  It’s much faster than typing LQTM (“laugh quietly to myself”) or simply haha.  It soon becomes a habit, and then now everyone is doing it.

This is something that we would never write about in a “normal” class, but it just feels 'right' to write about this in this particular class.  And it actually feels like we are in a creative writing class because of all the new perspectives that we look at, the different writing to pics, and just the over all freedom in writing this year.  Personally, i enjoy the way Mr. Sutherland teaches more than the average English class.

Character Vs Fate. Of Mice and Men

The novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck portrays two migrant workers who seek a farm of their own. Throughout the story, Steinbeck provides characters who oppose this, saying it is ‘impossible’.  One of them, George, is very practical and straightforward. He really cares about his traveling partner, Lennie, and takes care of him even though he is a burden.  Lennie is what one would call a ‘gentle giant’.  He is overly powerful, yet he cannot control it.  to make it even worse, Lennie does not have a good understanding of anything, and doesnt even know his own strength.  On their quest to earn their farm, they face many people who say it is impossible, and they have to work hard to keep a low profile, in order to earn enough money.  This is difficult because the boss’s son, Curley, is always looking for random fights.  They have a conflict with fate through out the whole book.

For example, George tells Lennie a story about their fate and heavily contrasts it with what they yearn to actually do:

”’Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest of guys. They got no family... no place... but with us it ain’t like that. We got a future... Some day we’re gonna get a jack together and we’re gonna have a little house’...And ‘Live off the fatta the lan’’” (page 13-14)

George tells about what all ranch people live like.  In those days, if one does not have a ranch of their own, they would never get one, but Lennie and George try to break free of this fate by earning their own farm.  They seem hopeful because they think they are different, better, than the other, and they are.  But Lennie seems to always get into trouble, so George has to especially look out for him and be extremely cautious, in order to keep him out of trouble.  However, Lennie seems to pull trouble towards himself, though.

Even though Lennie tries the hardest to keep out of trouble, he is always drawn into it, without intention. For example:

“‘Of course he ain’t mean but he gets into trouble alla time because hes so God damn dumb. Like what happened in Weed...’” (page 41)

...In Weed, Lennie had seen a red dress a girl was wearing.  Being himself, he wanted to touch it, so he went up and grabbed the dress.  Since he was so big and strong, the girl thought that he was trying to rape her.  She started to scream.  This frightened Lennie and he held on tighter.  It took many men and a hit over the head to get him to release the poor girl’s dress.  She was not hurt though.

Lennie seems to attract problems with his own actions, but they are not his fault.  He has this metal block that does not allow him to understand things as well as most people.  He also does not think that much, so his actions are usually wrong, and because he is so strong, someone may get hurt or scared by what he did wrongly.  As George said, he is not mean, but he is so ‘dumb’, that his actions make him seem like he is mean.  Throughout this book, however, Lennie tries especially hard to stay out of trouble.  He fights against fate to keep out of trouble and to actually earn his coveted farm.
Also, Lennie and George face another fate throughout trying to stay out of trouble.  Once Curley takes a glance at Lennie, he feels jealous of Lennie’s size and immediately sets out for trouble, and George warns Lennie to stay out of any fights and make as little contact with him as possible but George says:

“‘Ya know, Lennie, I’m scared I’m gonna get tangled with that bastard myself.  I hat his guts. Jesus Christ!...” (page 37)

Although George warns Lennie to stay out of trouble, Curly makes it impossible for anyone to like him.  They must stay out of the fight in order to earn enough to buy the farm.  It seems inevitable because Curly wants the fight so bad.  In time, it will happen, and it is a matter of fighting with fate to stay out of it.

Lennie and George face trying to stay out of a fight, in order to stay out of trouble, in order to earn enough money for their little house.  All of these fates work against their goal.  Even though they work extremely hard to try and make it, fate prevails, and George stays a migrant worker forever.  Even now, people strive to earn their own business.  They want to work their own hours (ball game) and not get bossed around by unfair superiors (Curley).  They strive for something to call their own, and even now, few actually make it.  The struggle against fate to work oneself up the economic ladder is always present.

Broken Bones Part 2

Richard gawked, anxious, at the end of the lift.  He was supposed to leap off the lift and skate out of the way in time for the next person to exit the lift.  He began sweating and forgot all about the amazing ride.  He tried to observe every graceful movement of the man in front of him: he confidently lifted his body into a standing position, sliding his snowboard on the snow, barely touching it.  He glided over the snow and turned to the side when he got to the end of the runway.  Richard tried to imitate the perfect, precise movements of the previous person but could not copy him.  He started lifting his body over the chair but instantly got his board stuck on a small lump of snow and fell over instantly.  The workers were forced to stop the lift and help him back up. His face turned completely red, and he quickly walked to the beginning of the slope.  He had no idea what to do now; he didn't know how to snowboard.

Richard thought he would be able to maneuver the snowboard well because he skateboarded, but soon found out that it was a completely different concept.  He rushed down, through the woods and a pace that was much too fast.  Now, the trees that looked so serene on the lift looked like Richard’s enemy, trying to kill him.  He awkwardly swung his arms around to keep his balance.  Once he thought he got the hang of it, he hit a small snow pile that he thought he could jump and flipped over. 

It was as if he were in slow motion.  He heard the crunching of snow at each bounce.  He saw white, more white, and then black.  He smelled nothing but sweat.  And all he felt was searing pain in his left wrist.  He struggled to get up with out putting any pressure on his left hand, falling twice before he got to his feet.  He fiddled with his bindings until he could take them off and took a look around his surroundings.  He noticed that he strayed from the path greatly and all he could see was the brown and green of trees.  He decided to take a rest so he sat down.  Within five minutes, he spotted a red jacket coming down the slope, dragging a red sled behind him.  Someone had called for help.  The man strapped him in so tightly, it was uncomfortable, and they rushed down the mountain faster than Richard had gone, but this time, he felt safe.  The trees that looked like enemies before, now looked like guardians, making a path for them to go by, while watching over them.  This snowboarder was in complete control.  Richard felt safe, so he closed his eyes.  The next thing he knew was that he was in the hospital for a broken arm.

Response to sutherland...

I was reading this post about twitter use in class on Mr. Sutherland’s blog and decided to respond:

I believe that since the children of this world are drawn to attention by technology, schools should adapt to their likings in order to teach them better. If schools taught by using technology and such, the students have more of a motive to actually stay focused.  The younger generation enjoys being involved in using computers, cell phones, or any other electrical technology because it is a shield between them and the actual world, and they are able to hide behind their computers or phones.  This allows them to be more confident in the boundaries of cyber space than they would be in the real life.

In this class, the teacher has the students text or twitter their ideas in instead of raising their hands and actually stating their ideas out loud.  This method is good in a larg class.  Many people are left unspoken to during class because there are too many ideas floating around.  Twitter or texting it would organize all of these and make it be able to share the ideas. Also, this is important because in a class, there may be many students who feel unsafe or uncomfortable speaking to an audience in fear of being made fun of for their idea or the way they speak.  Texting in their ideas instead of talking it out acts a sufficient “crutch” to the person, and helps guide them to feel more confident.  This crutch allows people to feel safer in sharing their ideas in class.

I do not believe that this method would work well in out class because some people do not have a cell phone.  Also, since our class is small, people will be able to share their ideas.  Although I believe that this would work for a larger class such as a college because it is difficult to address every one in the class, it is impractical to use it in such a small class.  Plus, ASTI’s community ensures that everyone feels safe and no one is ever made fun of for sharing their thoughts. This method is a great idea, but I think it should only be use for larger groups of people.

LOL-Response to Tiffany Cao's Question

I found this question that Tiffany brought up.  It amused me a little, so I decided to write about it:

    During lunch, a question randomly popped up and I asked if everyone actually LOLs(Laugh out loud) when they are chatting?

   Honestly, I usually use LOL incorrectly. I do not laugh out loud. I just smile or have an content face as my expression. Why must we use LOL? Is it because it's shorter than "haha" Why must we use LOL?

I believe that the acronym LOL appeared because a person who easily laughed actually laughed out loud when chatting or text and got tired of typing “laugh out loud” and made LOL up, then people talking to him didn’t realized at that he/she was actually laughing out loud and that he just meant “hey that’s funny” or something in that content.  They then started saying it and passed it on, and so on.  Since the “l” and the “o” are right on top of each other, it is easy to type LOL quickly.  It’s much faster than typing LQTM (“laugh quietly to myself”) or simply haha.  It soon becomes a habit, and then now everyone is doing it.

            Another reason may be that someone might actually laugh out loud if the person talked to them in real life and said the thing he/she typed.  In the effort to make the conversation more realistic, they say “LOL” because they would actually laugh out loud in real life.  It gives a visual of what the person does, making it feel more real.  If people were talking from different sides of the country so something, that visualization makes them feel closer.

            Also, it’s a good indication for when people are happy or not.  For example, since it becomes a habit to say “LOL” and it is so easy to type it, they could say it a lot, absent mindedly, when they are happy.  If they don’t say it often, you can see that they are not in a good mood without having to see their face.  Inc conclusion, I think people say LOL out of a habit, its quick, to make the conversation feel more real, and it is a good indication of the other’s mood. 

Broken Bones Part 1

Richard sat in the car surrounded by white, with a huge frown on his face.  His parents forced him to visit the snow, away from his much loved bustling city.  The car smelled like the Chinese chow mien and fried rice they stopped for right outside of town for.  The sound of crunching snow under the tires emerged, and reminded him of his destination.  Once they arrived at the cabin, Richard decided to wash his disappointment away with a nap; he missed his city already.  When he woke up, he decided to do something interesting during the horrible visit to the mountains: snowboarding.

Richard stood there quite comfortably as he stared in awe as the gleaming red lift as it screeched and grumbled to take the other snowboarders and skiers up the slopes, and to their demise.  He stood there, frozen.  The loud snap of the lift brought him back to reality, and he took up his heavy, metallic green rental board and dragged it behind him while he started the short walk to the lift.  As he waited in line, all he could smell was the distinct odor of gasoline that filled up the air.  Before he knew it, he was next in line, and Richard quickly waddled up to the lift area, and before he knew it, a big lift chair bumped into making him fall into it with much force, taking him off in an instance.  On the way up, he completely forgot about the rickety design of the lift and the disgusting smell of the oil.  All he could do was take in the great view that he was faced with.  The ever green trees standing tall with piles of snow on each branch looked oddly like the city buildings that Richard grew up with.  The icy wind cutting through his face reminded him of the wind that comes in every morning from the ocean.  He pulled up his collar to protect against it.  And now the end of the ride approached.  The snowy mountains are not that different from the city after all. 

Thesis and Three Bodies

Q always often misunderstands (and is misunderstood by) others.

He often jumps to conclusions and makes false inferences that cause many of his discomforts.  After Q introduces Lll to his great grandfather Nb’a Ng’a, he thinks she doesn't like him, and when she asks about him, Q thinks:

“I suspected she was remaining silent in order to embarrass me later in some spectacular way, in front of her family, or else-and, for me, this was an even worse hypothesis- she was making an effort to talk about other things only because hes felt sorry for me... ‘Are you joking?’”(77)

Q is very self conscious and thinks that Lll may try to embarrass him.  This shows a lot about him because he does nothing to stop it, and  he thinks that maybe he deserved the embarrassment. Also, although Q assumes Lll might be “sorry for” him, it seems more likely that he is sorry for himself. Q could not believe his ears when she told him that she wanted to visit his great uncle again, and actually thought that it was some kind of a sick joke.

Also, Q believe that the New Ones would be terrified of him because he is a dinosaur.  As he takes time to drink for the springs, he believe that the reaction of the New one next to here would be terror:

“I could already imagine her desperate screams the moment she saw me, her breathless flight.  she would spread the alarm, and the New Ones and the new ones would come out and hunt me... I should tear her limb from limb at once”(98)

He seems to be over confident, in that he feels as if he is a great beast that everyone should fear.  But on the other hand, he fears that the New Ones will come and shows a little vulnerability, and feels like he should prevent this through violence.  His inference almost got him into a lot of trouble.  If he had killed her, then her tribe would Have gone after him and killed him.  Q was lucky that she talked to him before he got too hasty.

In addition to misunderstanding others, Q is often misunderstood by them.

“If he wanted to fight, I was ready. But the mood of the village had changed in recent time: they made a joke of everything... ‘Yes, I am one... a  Dinosaur!’... general snickering broke out.”(108)

throughout the The Aquatic Uncle and the Dinosaurs, Q is always an outsider.  Once he begins to adapt to his surroundings, the others change.  For example, before, Q does not want to fight, when Zahn did, now when Q wants to fight, Zahn does not.  Also, he tries to hide that he is a dinosaur throughout the story while the New Ones are suspicious, but when they become comfortable around him, he reveals his secret, but no one believes him.

Touched

I have recently read a book called Silent Boy, by Lois Lowry and highly recommend it to anyone.  It introduces the troubles people with down syndromes face everyday.  Maybe we can even read it as a class this year...  well heres a summary of it(caution- spoilers):

 

The Silent Boy, by Lois Lowry, portrays young Katy Thatcher whose life ambition is to become a doctor, following in the footsteps of her father.  She frequently joins him on doctor calls, riding next to him on the buggy.  One day, while picking up Peggy, the new helper of the Thatcher family, Katy met Peggy’s brother, Jacob, and noticed his silence.  Later, she asks Peggy what is wrong with her brother. Peggy says that he is “touched in the head”.  Later, Katy meets Jacob in her stables, petting her horses.  She learns that he makes noises instead of using words and about his love for animals.

Later, she asked Peggy about his life on the farm. She informs her that Jacob tends to the animals on the farm.  When she visited the farm, Jacob surprised Katy with a kitten (which she had always wanted). That day, she noticed that he kept his wool hat on even when it was extremely hot out. She asks her dad and he explains that he thinks that he wears his hat to protect himself. “Jacob has his own world inside his head, Katy. I think his cap keeps that world feeling safe.”(Page 134)

Nell, Jacobs’s sister, had an unwanted baby. She was not going to take care of her, so Jacob applied farm animal strategies to this problem. He attempted bring the unwanted child to a wanting family, but, unfortunately, the baby was too young and did not survive the travel. It died and Jacob went into hiding, afraid that he would be punished for his act. When he was caught, and was sent to asylum and Katy never saw him again.

This story had a very deep impact on me.  It brought out emotions I never thought I could experience from reading a book.  It is an easy reading book with many different deep meanings that could be viewed from different ways.  I really hope that we can fit in time for reading this book this year, it will be worth it.

Response to Troy's thoughts on Ale'ah's post

I’ve been trying to follow the debates that have been going on about who is “allowed’ to say the n-word.  I’ve come across this quote from Troy’s blog that sums up my feelings completely:

In my opinion I don't think that anyone should be able to say it because for so long all it was used for was to put people down. Using put downs are wrong because the can seriously hurt a person. I have had to deal with many put downs in my life and they are not easy.

                                                          

While reading Ale’ah’s post, I had this exact thought.  I don’t understand why one race should be able to use it or not.  If the black community is so offended by this word, why would they use it in their everyday vernacular?  I think that nobody, regardless of their race should use this word.  It refers back to the slavery days where slave owners called their slaves this.  This inhumane act should not be referred to in everyday language. So therefore, the word itself should be eliminated from the vocabulary of all people.

I’ve heard many people use the word jokingly and this disappoints me because if they just took the time to understand where the word came from, they would not even think about ever saying it again.  The n-word came from the days when slavery was abundant.  The slave owners took the word Negro and changed it to label the slave.  When calling someone it, you are pretty much calling them a slave, and I think that is why black people become so upset when they are called this.  It brings them back to the days where they worked long, hard days without any salary. 

There is also debate on if they say the word with a “-ga” ending it makes it a friendlier notion than “-ger”.  I disagree with this completely because regardless, you are still calling them a slave.  Even when African American people say it to each other, it is wrong because they are calling their own race slaves, a thing they never want to be again.  I think for this situation, we should eliminate races from the factor, and say that all races and all people should be banned from saying this horrid word.

----Also, hopefully I’m not crossing any boundaries, but this thought occurred to me while writing this piece and I’d like to share:

Since white people in the past have always been superior and owned everything the African American community yearned for (freedom, money, etc.), the Black community wants something for their own now: the n-word.         <---- I am not saying this applies to everyone, but it is just an idea. Please respond, I’d like to hear your thoughts.

The Ball Game

As I stared in awe at the players in red and white running around the bases, admiring their skill, the world seemed perfect in my three year old mind.  I clung to the fence, not listening to my parents’ repeated warnings to stay way from the seemingly safe barrier. Three innings in, the baseball collided into my skull. With my ears roaring, I blacked out at the sound of the sirens of an ambulance.

I shook my head dazed and confused, finding myself on a roll-away-stretcher.  I had no idea where I was.  After my eyes adjusted to the light, they focus on the shelves lining the walls.  My ears keened in to the medical tools clattered around in the boxes while we rolled along the high way towards the Children’s Hospital.  Hearing my mother’s voice behind me, I tried hoisting myself up, but my head was injured much more severely than I had expected.  With a cry of pain, I lied back down with my head throbbing. I lied there sobbing until the doors were opened, and squinting out of the flaps; I spotted my mom.

As they brought me out, my mother informed me that my brother, Duc, and my dad were on their way because they were not permitted to ride on the ambulance.  We enter the Children’s Hospital and into an examining room.  The doctor had me climb up onto an exam bed.  At this point, tears continued to pour out my eyes.  My blurred vision allowed me to see doctors frantically scrambling around with sheets of papers and medical instruments like bees in the spring.  Stressed voices conversed using medical terms that left me thinking that they spoke a different language.

After performing countless tests on me, the doctors led me to my mother.  They address her and spoke softly, making sure that it was impossible for me to hear.  My mother gave the doctor her undivided attention and frequently nodded.  Finally, she smiled and sighed in relief; their conversation was over and she and I were free to leave. As we headed down to the ground level, my mother explained to me that I was fine and that we have to tend to the bruise every few hours.  I didn’t understand why I wouldn’t be all right but I was glad to hear that I didn’t have to stay with the odd doctors.  We walked out to the parking lot and found Duc playing with a toy castle set with my dad.  They smiled and rushed to hug me.  I couldn’t help but grin.  After much celebration, we determined that we were all hungry and decided to pay my grandparents a visit for dinner.