JE25 Christmas Holiday

            I love Christmas. I think I have Christmas spirit and I would love to celebrate it with my family and friends. However, my family does not have any Christmas spirit. The way I celebrate it is to listen to lots of Christmas songs, hang out with my friends, and maybe join the activities in the shopping mall. I have few Christmas albums by some modern artists. I would also watch the shows on TV to see how people celebrate Christmas to get the Christmas spirit in my head. I probably would also buy a gift for myself since my parents don't really care about Christmas gift.

            What I have to do during my holiday is to study because I have few finals after I come back. I have AP Chemistry, Pre-calculus, AP Statistics, American Literature, Precollege Essay Writing, Science Fair, and lots things to prepare.  Also I have to take some classes at Taipei. After being shouted at on Friday, I have to take things seriously. I really hope I can concentrate and finish all the works instead of wasting a lot of time. I would also have to do the community service because I only have about 40 hours. Still I planned to at least give myself few days to relax and have fun. I would probably go watch a movie, shop with my friends, and meet my relatives. I hope I enjoy my holiday.

JE24 What's Your Problem

            During the summer, I went to Page One (a bookstore in 101) with my friends. I was going to buy the same book with one of them. We walked in and saw a discount section. Every book in that section only sells for about 99 NT dollars. My friend luckily found the book that we were going to buy. But I could not find another copy in it. I asked the people who worked there if I can get the same book at the same price in the discount section. But they said I could not. I asked for an explanation but they only said some unreasonable reason and tried to keep me off. Finally, I picked the book up reluctantly from the other shelf without any discount. It was unfair that my friend bought the book in about one-third of the original price. And it was pretty weird that only one copy of the book was in the discount section. How come my friend was so lucky to get a cheap book while I had to get it in the original price? And the salesperson could not even give me a reasonable reason! If I walked in the front and checked the section out firstly, I would be the one who got the discounted book.

JE23 Address an Issue

            An important issue in my community (school) is that people could not really concentrate with their computers opened, including myself. Sometimes we need Internet to look up for some information. However, when you the game icon on your desktop, you might really want to click on it. Or when you see your skype icon has a red notification on it, you will want to open it and see who is talking to you. When you open a tab on your Internet explorer, you will never forget to leave a space for Facebook. These are inevitable actions resulted in the prosperity of Internet and technology.

            I think a way to solve this problem is that a student can make a schedule of what he or she is going to do at night. You can set little breaks between every hour and give yourself some relaxing time so it would not be so intense. Or you can give yourself thirty minutes a day to do those you want to do. Also, I think one important factors is being motivated. If a student has a goal and is clear of what he/she is going to be, it is easier to concentrate on schoolwork.  

JE22 Late Policy

            I think the new policy at school doesn't not have a big impact on me because I made through more “scary” and “unreasonable” rules. Some students said this school is dictatorial and there’s no freedom. Obviously they didn't go through what is called “a tough life”. However, standing in others’ perspectives, the policy is a little too harsh. There might be some reasons such as traffic. Many people take buses, trains, or being driven to school. No one can predict what is going to happen on the way to school.

            I think it is better to come up with another kind of punishment. Fro instance, cleaning the school afterschool might be an option. Locking people outside sometimes does not necessarily mean anything to some people. For those who really want to learn but accidentally woke up a little bit late or miss the bus, it would be a really big loss. Also, for the 30 seconds locking door policy, it is not that logical because if one were tardy for 30 seconds, one would directly become “absent”. I think the best way to solve this problem is to take attendance in every class right after the bell rings.

            If I were the boss of the school, I would not really make a policy like this. Basically, it is only individual problems. You cannot always make a new rule to apply to everyone just because of few people. I think, I would not even ask someone to sit in front of the glass door to mark late people. Technically school starts at 8, and if they all can make it to their homeroom, I think it would be fine. But we do need to enforce the attendance in homeroom. Also, I would try to keep the school small because when a community gets bigger, it is harder to control. That was what happened to my old school. 

JE21 Helping the Reader

            Evaluating one’s own personal narrative from the reader’s point of view is important because the readers don't always understand from the author’s perspectives. It is easy to get confused if the readers cannot comprehend what the author is trying to imply in the literary works. Therefore, writers have to take a look at it and ensure that he explains the backgrounds, essential elements so that the readers would understand more easily. The idea of the literary work should be more generalized, instead of being specific or personal so that the readers can relate to the main ideas. The relationship between the author and the material in a personal narrative is more private, and is probably what the author learned from his or her life experience. The relationship between the reader and the material is not that close as that of the author’s. Readers could to relate the themes to themselves to be more intimate with the literary works if the theme is more universal or common. Therefore, writers should always stand in the reader’s point of views to see if the work is in a broad sense. Conveying ideas is the author’s job thus he or she should definitely to stand back and look at the stuff as if he or she is reading it, instead of writing it. 

JE20 Effective Anecdotes

            The scene would start from a classroom where about 25 students were discussing the decoration of classroom. K-stine and I were in the same group. The screen would now go to our discussion on the theme of the decoration and how are we going to present the work. The screen would jump back and forth between our faces during our discussion. After we decided the way we were going to present it, the screen will then jump to our work process. The process of preparation would be shot like a short music video. Since the theme is about music, some remix of modern tracks would come in to the film. And the shots in this short music video would be our work on computer, researching, sketching on poster, talking to teachers, etc. Later, after we got all the things ready, the screen would then go to the process of making it. It would focus on how we give different ideas. Later we would be gluing the paper onto the poster and making some artwork on it. The screen would zoom into the detail of our works. And then, there would probably be a fast-forward. After we are done with our work, the screen would show everyone’s impression on that and our faces of happiness.