Journal 8

Well, my thanks giving break is pretty much boring as I could not move much with a sprained ankle. All day inside the room "facing four walls around" and almost every meal of instant noodle. Yes, that's the whole load of "entertainments". I did went online to watch some funny clips on youtube and watched the movie "2012".
Have you all watch "2012" yet, I've decided to watch it because after watching the trailer, it kind of pull my interest a little bit. As most of you knew, rumors on "the world is coming on an end on 21st December 2012" had been discussed among us but how true is it? No one knows the answer until the day comes.
There are many outcomes and stories was told by those "experts" about 2012 where the day the earth going to end. The movie "2012" incorporate some of it and added some effects on how the outcome will be when that day "arrived." Basically in the movie, the first person who noticed the "signs" was Dr. Satnam Tsurutani in India where he discovered the temperature of the earth core is increasing. He later inform a geologist, Adrian who later informed the US government and president. But somehow, certain states had made a preperation for the Apocalypse by building secret gigantic machines that can board less than half of million people to ensure the survival of human races.
On that very day(21st December 2012), earth quakes everywhere and tsunami hit places like India, New York. Dr. Satnam Tsurutani and his family did not survive the tsunami, he made a phone call to Adrian who was at the secret gigantic machine in China. He informed Adrian about another big waves that hit India which Adrian was not aware as they only knew the one from west which had hit L.A. that killed the president of US who decided to stay back with most of the civilians. The East one from India was not detected yet until the phone call from Dr. Satnam Tsurutani who facing the big waves few hundreds feet infront of him before it killed him.

In the end of the movie, everyone in the gigantic machine survived undersea and after the "apocalypse" over. They surfaced and enjoy their first breath of the air on earth as the quakes and Tsunami did not changed the climate a lot as the experts predicted. Hope for those who had not watched the movie would be interest on this movie after reading what I've discribed and those who watched, do tell me what you think about the movie.

THE END

Journal 7

The best movie I've ever seen would be the "Rush Hour". Basically I watch every movie acted by Jackie Chan as I love his martial arts that implied into all his movies. Jackie is not only a martial art actor that just only knew how to perform his "kung fu" tricks to his audience but also he always add funny actions and "careless" act with sense of humor that would end up hilarious, thus making the intense fight turning into a more or less "comedy scene". If you had watched any other movie or even rush hour which acted by Jackie, you definitely understood what I've just said.

Rush Hour turn out to be Jackie's most successful movie that he had ever came out with which he manage to become well known over night from it. I've watched all from Rush Hour 1 to Rush Hour 3, all 3 of them were great but the one first impression is always the most memorable one which was Rush Hour 1.

Lee (acted by Jackie) came over to the states and help Consul Han to save his kidnapped daughter but was facing a little barriers from the local FBI which assigned Carter (acted by Chris Tucker) to keep Lee busy and away from the investigation. Lee somehow got lose from Carter and made his way to meet Consul Han which he had a small action counter with the FBIs. The FBI got no chance but to let Lee intervene and join the crew against the search of the kidnapped girl.

The hilarious part that I would never forget was where Carter was fooling around while Lee was hanging on the middle of the air with two hands losing grip on the steel bar. Carter found a long and giantic piece of hanging wallpaper to save the felling down Lee. Lee actually collided with Carter due to the impact from falling down with that height awy from ground. Lee kisses Carter to thank him but Carter seems to be gross upon Lee's response. Lee said something which made me laugh out loud, "I was trying to be polite." l0l !! Hilarious!

There are many more funny parts throughout the movie but that was the part I liked most overall. I just couldn't stop giggling over here while typing all this. Hah!

Journal 6

P.S. I've just noticed that Ms. Weber's blog actually had the same poem as mine here, but anyway I'm going to keep this poem as my journal.

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

And the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow

We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And watch where the chalk-white arrows go

To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

For the children, they mark, and the children, they know

The place where the sidewalk ends.

Since it is a free topic for this journal, I've been thinking about what to write and eventually went searching online for poems to share with you all.

Well basically, my interpretation after reading the poem is the poet was trying to talk about something related to one's life especially in this globalized world. The poet had placed a lot of words that trigger readers' imaginations. The poem was beautiful and very suitable to relate it to almost everyone as we are all living in a competition society, childhood days for a lot of children are not joyful especially in those uncivilized countries, and war that brought so much pain to millions of families.

"Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black."

This sentence definitely trying to compare the world we are in at the moment, where hustle and bustle of city life that most of us live in was covered with poluted air. "let us leave", may be the poet was telling most of us to leave away from the, "where the smoke blows black"---poluted place we used to live in and search for another beautiful place where the "sidewalk ends".

I'm not really a fan of poems but i find this poem quite interesting. I'm not sure whether i explained correctly because I'm not really good in poems. So, what do you guys think?

journal 5

What are the writers’ goals? What kinds of appeals do they make? Explain how (in)effectively they accomplished their goals and support your ideas with examples.

The first article I read about was students that travel abroad to study in Iowa State University. The writer goal was to state the reason of significant increase in enrollment of international students from asia primarily from China. The writer explained that the increase of chinese student is most probably due to the population itself in China. I find it very true because if I were to compare the population of China to any other Asia countries, China would be the one outnumbering everyone as their population is incredibly huge. Although China's education system is phenomenal but with the mass population that they have, competition among the chinese are very high within their country. Thus, a lot of chinese prefer to pursue their studies oversea. Another reason satte by the writer that what affect the increase would be the liniency between both the states and China in allowing more citizens to obtain an oversea visa. I do agree with it because since the year of 2004, both country did came to an agreement about visa issues which they made several changes. Agents for oversea studies to the states in China massively increased like "after rain mushrooms" as they were promoting offers for graduated student in China to further their studies oversea in te states.

The second article I read was about the alcoholic ice-cream. The writer's goal was to state to what extend that consumer would be regarded as consuming alcoholic. Since Golden Wok have been selling their new flavoring ice-cream which is Guiness. Consumers are buzzed witht he situation whether they would be considering going against the law if they consumed the ice-cream with the Guiness flavor as Guiness alcoholic beverages. The writer state that the Alcoholic Beverages Division only regulates alcohol when it's intended as a beverages and this clearly is not since the only small amount of alcoholic are used in those ice-creams therefore it would be considered as a flavoring product instead of beverage or alcoholic products. Emily Barton, secreatary of Alcoholic Bevrages Division reconfirmed that statment aswell. Thus, ice-cream lovers of all ages can enjoy the ice-cream with Guiness flavoring or white russians without the needs to show the ID. I pretty much agreed with it because there's no harm to the consumer as those flavorings are just in small amount which would not let the consumer "drunk". But if a food that allows diners to " get to an intoxication state", then itwould be treated as alcohol. Other than that, I do think that is fine to have foods with Guiness flavor because typically it is what it is, is just a flavor!

Journal 4

What fascinating about American culture is the way how they show respect to others regardless whether they knew that person. The friendly environment here which made me felt calm and save as I had no worries about getting in unwanted disputes.

The systematic traffic over here are far excellent a lot than in my country. Drivers always willingly stop for pedestrians to cross the road. Unlike in my country, impatient drivers would just sped up and trying to stop you from crossing so he could avoid wasting the unintended time for people to cross.

Americans was always helpful. Whenever they see someone in trouble they willingly lend a helping hand. For example, American would just approach a helpless person and offer a help without the request from that person at all. I just could not express further that how kind and helpful Americans are, I’m just really felt touched with the society here. What a great place to live in.

Still there is things I do not like, no offense but American students loved party during weekends which really annoying as they blast away metallic kind of music with base speakers. Just does not make sense to me as weekends should be the day for most people to relax or otherwise do some readings for exams if is around corner.

Party with beverages! No way I would tolerate that because a lot of underage Americans drinks which they violate the rule and put themselves on risk for being charged on underage drinking. Even for those that reached the age or above 21, they drink beverages or alcoholic drinks as if they are drinking water and eventually they get drunk and do something out of their mind. Especially night time I discovered a lot of people came out from the bar drunk or even drive when they are drunk which is really dangerous as they not only risk their life but also the people around them!

Under construction =P