Hero's

Usually when some one hears the word hero, they think of names like Superman, Batman, or Spiderman, but personally, I think those heroes are completely overrated, and plain out stupid. Sure I enjoy watching Smallville whenever I get to, and have seen most of the movies about superheroes like Spiderman, Batman, Superman, and others like them, even liking some, but these heroes are fictional, with nothing truly awe inspiring about them. They may have done all these great things saving countless amounts of lives, with all these amazing special abilities, like flying, having x-ray vision, and so on, in these stories we see and hear about, but and have never really done anything to help our lives. However, one person, in particular, has all of the amazing powers of all those superheroes, and then some, who died for our sins, even before we were born, when he committed none. And that truly awe-inspiring person is God.

(I know that probably most people stopped reading after my last sentence, thinking something along the lines of, "Great, this is going to be one of those stories, about how great God is, I don't want to read that, and all those Christians are mad to believe in such things." So for those who are still reading, it may be exactly what you expect, and it may not, but you won't know that unless you just give me a chance.)

There are so many qualities of God that I admire, in him, like his forgiveness, his love, his self-control, his mercy, his grace, his patience, his kindness, his many powers and so much more I cannot even list. Nevertheless I think the qualities that I admire most in God, is his patience, forgiveness, and self-control, since I really have a hard time with both. I could only wish to be able to forgive people as easily as He does, taking less than a second to decide, giving up everything, and only dream of actually having any patience. I know I am a very impatient person, since so many people have told me that, but I only really understood what they really meant, when I look at how I refuse to wait in lines with more than 3 people, and would rather not get something I really need, if I have to wait too long. Or how I am so angry with my father when he picks me up from school if I had to wait for him for any more than a minute without anyone else, even if it was because of something for me, like getting me a snack or something like that. Then, especially, when I am shopping, I have absolutely no self-control. I am amazed at how many things that are in my closet, or room, that I don't even use, but cost me quite a lot of money, which I now regret buying, because I see how impractical they were, but at the time were blinded by how nice it looked on me in the store. So if I could chose, what I would really want, is to be like Him in every aspect of my life.

Family Story Characterization

In class,we learned that we were going to use our family story, to post on this wiki, on wikipedia, called "A Thousand and One Flat World Project". And to make our stories better, with more detail, we were asked to take one of the characters in our story, and, using the methods of characterization, I would describe them more. So the character chose the general who sent my grandfather to D.C. to train, and work for the O.S.S. to go undercover in China to spy on the Japanese for the U.S. And since I don't really know much about this man

Methods of Characterization ...
Appearance:

• middle aged: 40-60
• medium height, 5.5 or 6 feet
• quite strong
  
• Caucasian male
• greying
• sad, regretful eyes on a face worn with age, unhappiness, and sorrow
  
• almost always in uniform, except for when he goes home
  

Inner Thoughts and Feelings:

• misses his wife and children, who left him
  
• hatting the Japanese for bombing the U.S., causing them to get involve with WWII
• unhappy with his life now that is was all broken, missing his old life, the great military life he had, with so much power, and control that he lost when his life and family fell apart
• keeps on thinking about the day his life fell apart, when his wife ran away from him, taking their kids with her
  

Environment:

• gloomy, freezing, arctic cold of Alaska

What they Say:

• tells my grandfather he is wasting his time in Alaska painting, when he could be a spy for the OSS in China, because he can speak the language, and is Chinese

What Other's Say About Them:

• use to be a strict general, who keeps people in their place, once was a Sargent at a strict Military school, but now he has faded and is very bitter
• takes out his unhappiness on the people around him, making enemies of everyone
• has some great secret about why his wife ran way from him, taking their kids with her, no one knows
  

Actions:

• sent my grandfather to Washington D.C., because of the potential he saw in him

What Was Learned About Maxine From the First chapter

In the first chapter of "Woman Warrior", as I said before, it started with Maxine's mother telling her about her aunt that no one talks about, because she had got pregnant, but not by her husband, because he had been away in America for a few years, then killed herself the day after she had the baby. The mother used this story to tell her daughter, Maxine, what the consequences of following in her aunt's footsteps, and getting pregnant out of wedlock, being forgotten, as if she was never born, because of the shame she would bring to the family. And after Maxine's mother left her in her room, she starts thinking about her mother, and being a Chinese emigrant, and the story she was told, itself, but the person she thinks about most is the aunt, she never met. Most of the first chapter was filled with stories Maxine had made up, about her aunt, some about how she could have looked like, acted like, how she had met the man who had gotten her pregnant, what she had done after and before she had the baby, the minutes before she had killed herself and her baby, and many others like that. From these stories that Maxine tells, we learn a lot about her, and her character.

What we first learn from the stories Maxine tells us is that she is a very imaginative person, especially with all the different scenarios she goes over about who and how her aunt met the man who got her pregnant. She first comes up with a very unlikely story about this secret man, whom no one in the village knows, who gave her orders which she had to follow, which is seen, when Maxine says, "Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil," (Hong Kingston, 6). But then as she thinks of more scenarios, and more about the village, Maxine realizes that this is quite improbable, and keeps on coming up with more and more stories that become more and more realistic as she thinks of them.

Also, we learn that Maxine in some ways cares a lot about looks/ appearances, and fashion, concentrating on how her aunt might have looked, such as when she explains why she would never be able to find out any more about her aunt, she would be mentioned once and never again, "If I wanted to know what clothes my aunt wore, whether flashy or ordinary," (Hong Kingston, 6). Then later, when she starts imagining what her aunt looked like, she thinks about what her aunt might have done to herself to make her look pretty, "At the mirror, my aunt combed individually into her bob … she brushed her hair back from her forehead, tucking the flaps behind her hears. She looked a piece of thread, and ran the double strand across her forehead. When she closed her fingers … the string twisted together catching the little hairs. Then she pulled the thread away from her skin, ripping the heirs out neatly … she cleaned the thread, then rolled it along her hairline, and the tops of her eyebrow," (Hong, Kingston, 9).

Then near the end of the chapter, Maxine says, "In the twenty years since I have heard this story I have not asked for details nor said my aunt's name; I do not know it," (Hong Kingston, 16). From this quote, we see how trustworthy, and somewhat fearing of her mother, Maxine is in keeping her family's secret. We know that she understands the importance of not telling anyone about her aunt and what happened to her, or even mentioning her name. Which also shows a certain amount of maturity, to not want to upset her parents.

Family Story

Since my grandparents live in Bremerton, Washington, and I live in Hawaii (which is about 2,000 miles away), I hardy ever get to see them, maybe once or twice a year. But whenever I do see them, my grandfather has some story to tell me, either about his family, his childhood back in China, his work for the OSS (which later became the CIA) during World War II, or some other important thing that happened in his life. I was never really interested in any of his stories, but he was my grandpa, and I knew how much he enjoyed telling his stories, especially to me, since I am his only grandchild (which also means I'm a little spoiled by him), so I would sit there, with something to occupy my hands, like homework, or the jewelry I was making at the time. One story that stood out to me in particular, because I thought it was so interesting, was when he was able to work for the OSS during World War II, because of his background.

My grandpa is one of 8 children in his family, they all were born in America, but because taking care of 8 children was too much for his mother (my great-grandmother), she sent the first 6 back to China, to be raised by her mother (my great-great-grandmother). As a result of growing up on China, he became bi-lingual, in both Chinese, and English (thought his English isn't very good).

When the Second World War, started, my Grandfather decided to enlist in the navy, as a sailor. He was first sent to Alaska, as a painter (I don't know exactly how that is serving the navy, but I know that was what he did), then when one of the generals there found out he was fluent in Chinese; he said that he was wasting his talents, as a painter. And gave him orders to go to (Washington, DC), to get trained to become an undercover agent, in China, to spy on the Japanese, who had control over the Chinese government at the time. Since he was Chinese, and spoke the language, he would look like just another Chinese, and be able to pass on important information about the Japanese to America.

My mother said that I was pretty lucky to get to hear this story, since he usually keeps all his stories about his work with the OSS to himself. But I was never able to get him to tell me any of the information he found out while he was undercover in China, even though the information would have no real importance anymore.

This is one of my favorite stories that my grandfather tells me, because I have always thought the life of a spy was so fascinating, especially after I started watching "Alias", which I know is probably not a real account of a spy's life, just Hollywood's interpretation of one, but they do get to use all those high-tech tools (we don't even know exist), travel all over the world, learn to speak many different languages, and go under many different aliases, which would be so exciting. So I think it is so interesting to know that someone in my family worked for, what would be later known as the CIA.

The Woman Warrior

My English class has started reading the book The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, which is a memoir of a first generation Chinese girl in America. So far, from what we have read in the first chapter, "No Name Woman", the main character Maxine's, mother has told her a story about her disowned Aunt, she never knew about, because the Aunt had committed suicide, after she got pregnant, when her husband had been gone for years. So the mother presented the story as a lesson for Maxine to learn from, so that she doesn't follow in her Aunt's footsteps, and bring that kind of shame to her family. And after her mother leaves, the girl
After our reading today in class, we were asked to discuss two quotes from our reading in the first chapter.

After her mother tells there the story, about her aunt, Maxine starts thinking about her life as an emigrant of China, "Those of us in the first American generations have had to figure out how the invisible world the emigrants built around our childhoods fits in solid America," (Hong Kingston, 5). From this quote, we learn about the unspoken lessons and hardships in the lives of Chinese America immigrants. This quote explains the great differences between the Chinese and American traditions, as well as how as a child you are brought up on the old, Chinese traditions, then as you get older, and mature, you realize that in America, the traditions and values are vastly different. So, the only way you are going to be able to succeed in America, is to change your ideas, morphing both you Chinese and the American traditions/ values/ ideas, together.

Later, Maxine starts describing her mother, "She plants vegetable gardens rather than lawns; she carries the odd-shaped tomatoes home from the fields and eats food left for the gods," (Hong Kingston, 6). This quote tells us more about who her mother is, her character, and her values. From the first part of the quote, about Maxine's mother, planting a vegetable garden, and the odd shaped tomatoes, we see that her mother is a hard worker, who thinks more about practical needs, like food and nutrients, than aesthetics, like the beauty of her home, or the kind of food they eat. Then, when this quote talks about Maxine's mother eating the food for the gods, this shows that she does not believe in the superstitions, that most Chinese believe in, she believes in reality. The reality is that there is food and she is hungry, so she eats it. So this quote may also be giving light to the poverty and lack of food in Maxine's family, and Chinese American immigrants in general.

Blog Introduction

My name is Lauren, I am a freshman at my school, and for English class we each had to make a blog, as a place to post our ideas, and the work we do in class. Technology and I usually don't get along very well, and some how I am always breaking things, so my blog isn't really that interesting at the moment, but hopefully as the year progresses, I'll get better at it.

Moodle

In English class, a few days ago we started using moodle, which is an online sight, which allows our class to talk with each other over the web using wikis, and discussion boards, as well as turn in our work over the web. After we worked with it we got into small groups and discussed how we liked and didn't like when using moodle, what we could use it for, and what we wish we could do.

My group really liked how we could talk and discuss with our classmates, about what we were doing in English, when we weren't in class, and how moodle was a secure place that our class could share our thoughts, and collaborate on work together. Also we liked how we could save paper, by turning in our work on moodle. However, while using moodle we discovered a lot of technical difficulties with the site. A few of these technical difficulties were how one person at a time could post on the wiki's, or you'll lose all your work, and when turning in your work, you could only post one document. We also discussed how the site's style was very plain looking, making you not that interested in it. So when we thought of what we wished we could do on moodle, we wanted to rectify the technical difficulties on it, make the site look more interesting, and more personalized for us and our class. And some ways my group thought we could use moodle were posting discussion topics about what we were doing in English, or edit each other's paper, to help one another on their work. Also we thought of using the wiki's to collaborate together to make stories, poems, etc, turning in our work, and finding out what we did in class that day if we miss the day of school.

"Lost Sister" Poem

A few days ago, in class we read this poem called "Lost Sister", which was about a girl, who ran away from her life of inequality in China for all the freedoms for a woman in America. The poet tells this story by first explaining the lives of girls in China, and how they were treated as property, followed by the type of life one could have in America, using references to things of China, then adding a few regrets of her rebellion. Later that day we started a discussion page on our class moodle, and today we were asked to look deeper in to the meanings of the poem, and give a personal response about it, and this was mine.

At the start of the second part of the poem, the poet starts describing a girl/ sister who escaped from her life in China, for (what she thinks is a) better one in America, then explains how, "In America,/ there are many roads/ and women can stride among men". I think that this is an extremely significant quote, because it gives the essential meaning of the poem to the readers, plainly telling the reason the girl ran away, in a subtle, yet obvious way. The poet describes the many freedoms American women enjoy, that the Chinese women could never even think about. In America, a woman can chose what they'll do with their life, what career they'll take up, the type of education they'll receive, where and how they'll live, where they'll go, who they'll marry, etc. instead of having all of this all chosen for them by their parents/ family. So the many different roads an American can take, is really all the different kinds of lives they can have. And the line about how women can walk next to a man, just reinforces the idea of the lack of freedoms Chinese women have, which we American women take for granted.

Another strong idea the poet has tried to voice, is that what makes a person who they are reallies heavily on their background, where they come from, their home/ where they live, a person's name, and why they got it and what they do with their life. I can see this, because in the first part of the poem, the poet gives this girl a name, jade, which is a very popular name in China, because of rarity and worth. Then goes on to describe the life of a daughter in China, how they may never go anywhere alone, or where they want to, be subjected to intolerable shoes, learn to run a household, and the family farm, always having to follow what they are told, without any questions. And in the second part (as I have already explained) the girl's escape to America, in an attempt for a better life, and the new identity, completely different from the on in China, the girl now has in America. The many freedoms she can now enjoy as an American, who is equal to a man in all aspects of her life, and the way the girl sees America, as this new "wilderness" filled with all kinds of new possibilities, adventures, and freedoms, she could only have dreamed of in China