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!