JE30 Extra Curricular Activities

·      Volunteer work: recycling/city library/education institute for the mentally repaired/teaching English in remote districts

·      Model United Nation

·      English Drama Club – National Competition (7^th grade); English Drama Competition (as screenwriter and actor) (10^th grade)

·      Badminton team

·      Art: designing/decoration/drawing/Chinese calligraphy

·      Yearbook club

·      Music: interest in contemporary music industry/collecting CDs/watching performances/violin (with performance)/guitar (with performance)/piano

·      Japanese

I think volunteer work, drama club, and music/art may be good topics for my essay. Volunteer work showed my contribution to the society, participating in drama club and winning awards proved my effort and appreciation of art, and music and art showed my interest with some background knowledge and specialties. I think these topics show another side of me that is beyond academics. They also show an active side of me.

Model United Nation might not work because I am not an experienced delegate yet and I haven’t spent a lot of time on it. Badminton team might also not work because I haven’t joined it for a long time, though I played it for quite a while. Yearbook club may not be a good topic because I have not been actively participated in it. Japanese might actually be a good topic for my essay because I put a lot of effort working on it. However, my language skills Japanese are fading away. 

JE29 Valentines

            Love means a caring relationship between two people. Love can varied in different perspectives, such as peer relationships, families, and marriage-relationships. According to dictionary, love means an intense feeling of deep affection. My definition for love is a happy feeling of a strong connecting with someone or something that is significant or even necessary in your life. It doesn't have to be a person you can spend with for the rest of your life. But it should be a thing or a person you care a lot and you definitely want the best for them.

Sometimes love is expressed in words. But sometimes it is expressed in action. Showing kindness and responsibility can be a way of expressing love to people you care and love. Sometimes I show love by doing something special, for instance, preparing a surprise gift. I want others to show they care about me by encouraging me verbally or to do something special for me. However, sometimes love can be invisible. Sometimes you just don't get the chance to see and understand how other people contribute to your life. We shall not take things for granted and always remember to look back at those contributors in our lives.  

JE28 Sources?

            My issue about SOPA and PIPA should be concerned by every Internet users. I did some research about this issue and I think I understand how it works and how it can affect people around the world. The issue itself might be a little hard to understand by the readers because it requires a lot of background information and this issue can create problems in many different ways. However, it is easier to directly state the facts of the effect it might have so that people would understand its significance and they could be affected.

Since this issues is related to Internet, it is actually better to do research on the Internet. Many people who love their freedom on the Internet protested by making videos and writing journals. Sources like Wikipedia is useful because it is one of the possible victims of the issue thus it would try to provide as much as information as possible so that people can understand its potential danger. Also, news websites like CNNTech can be a useful source because they are written by professional people in a point of view of how can the issue affect people. Some videos on YouTube that are made my professional people can also be good sources. 

JE27 Personal, But Not Selfish

            My issue is about opposing Stopping Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. It is a new privacy that is going to be passed in USA. However it would affect everyone else in the world because the Internet does not really have a borderline. The intentions of the Acts were to protect intellectual properties and to stop infringing websites. However, it would create some latent impacts such as depriving the freedom of speech. Also, many websites could potentially be shut down. For example, Wikipedia, the website of knowledge, would have to ensure that the links below doesn't lead the users to an infringing website. Many of the useful sources may be deleted and we might not be able to search what we were looking for. Also, the browsers would also have to modify their search engine so it wouldn’t lead us to illegally launched websites. Furthermore, many videos on Youtube would be deleted. Even a child singing a song could become illegal.

            These Acts could create lots of problems. It takes away our freedom on the Internet. It expropriated our rights of sharing knowledge. It personally affected me. And I think it also has a huge effect on everyone else who is engaged in technological uses. In our English class, our teacher shared the files with us through Dropbox. However, Dropbox could be shut down after the laws are passed because it could be used to share illegal files such as music and movies. It is important to oppose the Acts because it 

JE26 The Worst

            The worst part about my winter break was that I had to take classes at Taipei. Despite the fact that I had to do lots of works for both school and cram school, it takes me a long time from my house to the cram school. I had to leave home around one thirty right after lunch. And then I had to listen to the lecture for 2 hours. Around 5, after people leave school or work, they just burst into the MRT train and the buses. It was hard to find a seat on the bus. After I got home, it would be already six thirty. Basically, I had no free time from Monday to Friday to do anything I really want. I was a glad at first that I would not waste my winter break doing nothing. And I actually did learn a lot from those classes. However, my winter break was not a break at all. I was too tired. It could have been better if I went to countdown to forget everything and start a new year. However, I was too tired to go to the countdown so I only stayed at home and watched TV instead.