I believe this would be the second time I am talking about the weather. The first time was in "Alameda Weather." This time I, am going to talk about how the rain ruined most of my plans. It all started with the week of finals. My resources and I confirmed that it did in fact rain at least one time a day for the whole week we had taken our finals. On Friday I had it all planned out. A super fun day that would begin immediately after school. And because we (the students) get out early during the week of finals, and because Thursday was the last day of finals, the fun was awaiting for me to greet it. Unfortunately, the ground outside was wet after school. My friends and I had made arrangements to skate(board) around the Main Island. But, because of the wet ground, it discouraged me to meet with my friends because I do not enjoy getting my board wet and rusty (it causes the board to function worse than normal) because I will just have to buy new parts to replace the water/rust damaged one. That was not the only thing that kept me from going. My mother just "shut me down" by saying that she needed me at home to babysit my sister because she was going to a Golden State Warriors game with my father later on. All that I could think to myself at the moment was, "Thanks a lot rain."
The next day would be better. There was no way I would let water get in the way of me releasing the stress from my mind and body that the full week of finals had caused. I got prepared for fun at high noon and was ready for fun in "T-1hour." By approximately twelve thirty, it rained, hard. But, thank God, by 1:00 p.m, the sun came out and saved the day. The sidewalks were dry and ready by 2:00 p.m, and I was with my friends and out of the house by 2:50 p.m. That day was worth waiting for. I was with a lot of friends that day (unfortunately some missed out). We found a really good empty parking lot with alright concrete (not entirely smooth), it had painted knee-high ledges, and small(ish) drops. To sum it all up, it was our perfect little oasis.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
First Semester Blogging
Blogging is a new thing to me this year. I pretty much had learned the definition of a blog about ten minutes before being told that I would have to make a blog for a grade in my sophomore English class. But, over the past several months, I have made eighteen blog posts and have grown quite fond of this style of writing. It can range from being casual (almost even conversational) all the way to highly formal and sophisticated works (i.e scientific theories). Looking back on all of these posts, it makes me wonder how my writing has gotten better by comparing my earlier blog posts to my more recent ones. Also, I write my blog posts on a lot of different topics and I am starting to think about where I get my various topics in the first place.
I think that my writing has actually gotten a bit better over this past semester. I think that by being given a required amount of word to meet has motivated me to be a more descriptive writer. The more in depth that I describe certain events or objects, the easier I find it to meet the required amount of words. Sometimes I have to cut out words to make the blog post stay under the four-hundred word maximum. When I was writing my post titled "Reading," I possibly overdid one sentence, but it was filled with a large amount of organized information. It goes, "The way that the author, Rick Riordan, incorporates Greek mythology (with all of its violent and action-filled stories) with our current society turns out to be really appealing to a young teenage boy." This sentence seems to just "paint a picture" in the reader's mind. The order of the words work well too. It makes the audience follow them sequentially. Starting with the author of the series. Then to Greek mythology. The "violent and action-filled stories" allows a reader, who is familiar with Greek mythology, to imagine the tales of Hercules and the various monsters that he battled with. After that sentence comes the phrase "turns out to be really appealing to a young teenage boy." Most people would most likely agree with me that teenage boys enjoy hearing violent stories of war and bloodshed on the the battlefield. The only way that I could have tried to make the sentence better was by adding the words, "such as myself," at the end. Just to prove the point of my blog that I had really loved reading those books.
The blog post minimal of three-hundred words to a maximum of four-hundred words is actually quite easy to meet. Because of my descriptive sentences, I will likely finish in less than one hour. When I feel that I have just finished a blog post a bit too easily, I will usually decide to edit it before putting it onto my blog page. Looking back at every time that I had done this, I would say that this small word requirement to meet has made me more critical about my writing. Whenever I look over one of my blogs, I always find at least two things to change before posting it. I either find a better way to make sentences and paragraphs sound better and "flow" more easily, or if I find myself abusing a word (in two or more consecutive sentences the word will appear more than once), I will change a few of them into a word that better suites the sentence. I posted the blog called "Technological Evolution" to my blog right after I saw a TED video in English class about the exponential accelerating rate of technological advancements. The video just completely "blew me away." My mind was racing so fast that I needed to calm down a bit in order to comprehend what the man from the video said. Once I had an understanding, then I started to make a few predictions of what this might mean for the future. "I watch a few science fiction movies from time to time thinking that some are completely unrealistic. But, when I saw the robot dog thing, I slowly started to think of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Terminator. Could the "age of machine" really be real? And if so, how close are we to reaching it?" These were the exact words that came to my mind at that moment I made my frightening "prophecy" for the future. I put them into my blog like this because I thought if this was the best way I can organize my thoughts so they can start to make sense to me when my mind was speeding through too many ideas at once, then it should possibly make even more sense to a person that is fully concentrated on reading my blog. On the other hand, repetitive words are easier to spot out and fix. In "Alameda Weather," I wrote "I have not been enjoying this very awkward behaving weather. It can be so unpredictable that news weather reporters are completely off with their morning forecast." Originally, I made the simple mistake of by saying "...the news weather reporters are completely off with their morning weather forecast." That would bring the total use of the word "weather" to three in only two sentences. I decided to remove the word from between "morning" and "forecast" because I guess that it is implied that a weather reporter would give a forecast about the weather.
By looking back on all of my blog posts, I have noticed one clear fact. My blog has a lot of varying topics. I guess that I would have to thank my overactive imagination for allowing me to think up of different things to write about. But then I started to wonder how the topics even came to my mind in the first place. It turns out that everything that I blogged about was either an event that recently occurred, or a thought that was lingering within my head for the past twenty-four hours. This discovery led me right to another. I seem to write my blog posts better when the topic sits in my mind for a while , but still remains a little "fresh." Two perfect examples of this would be "Christmas?" and "PARTAY!!! (Yes, I know that I misspelled it)." I wrote "Christmas?" because it was just days before the beginning of winter vacation, and my parents brought up that my brother and I had not asked for anything that we wanted as a gift. And it made me want to find out why I was not in the "holiday spirit" when Christmas was right around the corner. Instead, I just wrote about it, and I think it made me reach a conclusion on why I was not so cheerful. On the other hand, "PARTAY!!! (Yes, I know that I misspelled it)," is about the highly entertaining day at the park my friends and I had for one of their birthdays. The whole thing was written in the past tense because the birthday party was an event that already happened over the past weekend. I was still very excited form that day, so in order to release some of that bliss feeling so I can concentrate on school, I made it into a blog post.
I am still yet a beginner when it comes to blogging. I would say that I do enjoy doing it because it allows people to write in many different styles. By seeing how far I have come in the blogging world. In the post "Reading," I found a sentence that allowed me to see that my writing was becoming a whole lot more descriptive (compared to my previous school years). I also learned that every time I go over something that I wrote, I will always find something to fix. Even though the usual suspects are repetitive words and awkward sentence ordering, I find ways to improve them. Another thing that I acknowledged was that I get my wide variety of blog post topics is because different things happen everyday. And those events have an influence on what I think and choose to write about. As the school and I slowly start to transition into the new semester, I hope that my blogging will continue to expand its wide range of topics and still maintain a good quality of grammar and fluency.
I think that my writing has actually gotten a bit better over this past semester. I think that by being given a required amount of word to meet has motivated me to be a more descriptive writer. The more in depth that I describe certain events or objects, the easier I find it to meet the required amount of words. Sometimes I have to cut out words to make the blog post stay under the four-hundred word maximum. When I was writing my post titled "Reading," I possibly overdid one sentence, but it was filled with a large amount of organized information. It goes, "The way that the author, Rick Riordan, incorporates Greek mythology (with all of its violent and action-filled stories) with our current society turns out to be really appealing to a young teenage boy." This sentence seems to just "paint a picture" in the reader's mind. The order of the words work well too. It makes the audience follow them sequentially. Starting with the author of the series. Then to Greek mythology. The "violent and action-filled stories" allows a reader, who is familiar with Greek mythology, to imagine the tales of Hercules and the various monsters that he battled with. After that sentence comes the phrase "turns out to be really appealing to a young teenage boy." Most people would most likely agree with me that teenage boys enjoy hearing violent stories of war and bloodshed on the the battlefield. The only way that I could have tried to make the sentence better was by adding the words, "such as myself," at the end. Just to prove the point of my blog that I had really loved reading those books.
The blog post minimal of three-hundred words to a maximum of four-hundred words is actually quite easy to meet. Because of my descriptive sentences, I will likely finish in less than one hour. When I feel that I have just finished a blog post a bit too easily, I will usually decide to edit it before putting it onto my blog page. Looking back at every time that I had done this, I would say that this small word requirement to meet has made me more critical about my writing. Whenever I look over one of my blogs, I always find at least two things to change before posting it. I either find a better way to make sentences and paragraphs sound better and "flow" more easily, or if I find myself abusing a word (in two or more consecutive sentences the word will appear more than once), I will change a few of them into a word that better suites the sentence. I posted the blog called "Technological Evolution" to my blog right after I saw a TED video in English class about the exponential accelerating rate of technological advancements. The video just completely "blew me away." My mind was racing so fast that I needed to calm down a bit in order to comprehend what the man from the video said. Once I had an understanding, then I started to make a few predictions of what this might mean for the future. "I watch a few science fiction movies from time to time thinking that some are completely unrealistic. But, when I saw the robot dog thing, I slowly started to think of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Terminator. Could the "age of machine" really be real? And if so, how close are we to reaching it?" These were the exact words that came to my mind at that moment I made my frightening "prophecy" for the future. I put them into my blog like this because I thought if this was the best way I can organize my thoughts so they can start to make sense to me when my mind was speeding through too many ideas at once, then it should possibly make even more sense to a person that is fully concentrated on reading my blog. On the other hand, repetitive words are easier to spot out and fix. In "Alameda Weather," I wrote "I have not been enjoying this very awkward behaving weather. It can be so unpredictable that news weather reporters are completely off with their morning forecast." Originally, I made the simple mistake of by saying "...the news weather reporters are completely off with their morning weather forecast." That would bring the total use of the word "weather" to three in only two sentences. I decided to remove the word from between "morning" and "forecast" because I guess that it is implied that a weather reporter would give a forecast about the weather.
By looking back on all of my blog posts, I have noticed one clear fact. My blog has a lot of varying topics. I guess that I would have to thank my overactive imagination for allowing me to think up of different things to write about. But then I started to wonder how the topics even came to my mind in the first place. It turns out that everything that I blogged about was either an event that recently occurred, or a thought that was lingering within my head for the past twenty-four hours. This discovery led me right to another. I seem to write my blog posts better when the topic sits in my mind for a while , but still remains a little "fresh." Two perfect examples of this would be "Christmas?" and "PARTAY!!! (Yes, I know that I misspelled it)." I wrote "Christmas?" because it was just days before the beginning of winter vacation, and my parents brought up that my brother and I had not asked for anything that we wanted as a gift. And it made me want to find out why I was not in the "holiday spirit" when Christmas was right around the corner. Instead, I just wrote about it, and I think it made me reach a conclusion on why I was not so cheerful. On the other hand, "PARTAY!!! (Yes, I know that I misspelled it)," is about the highly entertaining day at the park my friends and I had for one of their birthdays. The whole thing was written in the past tense because the birthday party was an event that already happened over the past weekend. I was still very excited form that day, so in order to release some of that bliss feeling so I can concentrate on school, I made it into a blog post.
I am still yet a beginner when it comes to blogging. I would say that I do enjoy doing it because it allows people to write in many different styles. By seeing how far I have come in the blogging world. In the post "Reading," I found a sentence that allowed me to see that my writing was becoming a whole lot more descriptive (compared to my previous school years). I also learned that every time I go over something that I wrote, I will always find something to fix. Even though the usual suspects are repetitive words and awkward sentence ordering, I find ways to improve them. Another thing that I acknowledged was that I get my wide variety of blog post topics is because different things happen everyday. And those events have an influence on what I think and choose to write about. As the school and I slowly start to transition into the new semester, I hope that my blogging will continue to expand its wide range of topics and still maintain a good quality of grammar and fluency.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Writing Groups
1. What are some things you'd like to get out of writing more collaboratively with peers?
I would like to talk about ideas with other students before writing about them. Especially, if the other students and I have the same/similar topic(s) that were assigned to us. This allows me to get more perspectives than just my own. I will most likely see and learn new things about the topic that I had never known of before. Or, if I were stuck and had no idea whatsoever to write about. Listening to other views on the topic can help me develop one of my own.
2. What are some things you'd be willing to contribute to a writing group?
I can comment on other students' blogs. If they have any questions or need an opinion, I can give an opinion or answer that I have if it will help them in any way.
3. Is it more important to you to work with friends, or people who are writing the same type of things you are? Explain why.
I think that having a mix of friends, acquaintances, and other people that share similar topics, is the best blend of a writing group for me. This way, I get to learn things about the people that I enjoy being with (that I may have never known before), and I get to meet new people that possibly share common interests and/or struggles with me.
4. What are some "rules" (or at least guidelines) you'd like to see in a writing group?
I guess, as a group, we can keep certain blogs private, if asked to do so by the author. Another "rule" should be to comment on at least two blogs a week.
I would like to talk about ideas with other students before writing about them. Especially, if the other students and I have the same/similar topic(s) that were assigned to us. This allows me to get more perspectives than just my own. I will most likely see and learn new things about the topic that I had never known of before. Or, if I were stuck and had no idea whatsoever to write about. Listening to other views on the topic can help me develop one of my own.
2. What are some things you'd be willing to contribute to a writing group?
I can comment on other students' blogs. If they have any questions or need an opinion, I can give an opinion or answer that I have if it will help them in any way.
3. Is it more important to you to work with friends, or people who are writing the same type of things you are? Explain why.
I think that having a mix of friends, acquaintances, and other people that share similar topics, is the best blend of a writing group for me. This way, I get to learn things about the people that I enjoy being with (that I may have never known before), and I get to meet new people that possibly share common interests and/or struggles with me.
4. What are some "rules" (or at least guidelines) you'd like to see in a writing group?
I guess, as a group, we can keep certain blogs private, if asked to do so by the author. Another "rule" should be to comment on at least two blogs a week.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Winter Vacation
I am going to blog about another vacation. This one was my winter one. I got to celebrate Christmas and the welcoming of the new year. Both of them I had done with my family. In the time between the two holidays, I spent more time with my family by going by L.A. to Universal Studios. Overall, I think that I spent way to much time with my family. More than half of the vacation was devoted to spending time with them. Originally, I planned to be with them for Christmas, New Year's, and probably a few more other days. But, then I found out about my parents' other plans. My dad wanted to go to Universal Studios and to Yosemite. Thank God that my mom had found this overwhelming as well. She was able to convince my dad to cancel those plans.
Universal Studios was a whole lot smaller than I had remembered as a child. My mom bought the two day pass from her friends. On the first day, we did nearly every ride and show. The second day my brother and I were somewhat bored of the place and pretty much asked ourselves, "What have we not done yet?" I guess that I was not really able to enjoy myself there because I hate traveling (plane, car, or train) for hours. And I really do not like being in extremely crowded areas. These two things happened a lot to and from the trip to L.A.
I guess that I am not ready to go back to school. I wanted to make the most out of the time I had away from school. In total, I only got to spend two days with friends. I wanted to spend the majority of the break with them in the first place. So I guess that I am upset. I just miss that old feeling that I use to get when I was a very small child. Usually, it occurred over summer break. The feeling was when I do everything that I could possibly think of over the vacation and end up being bored out of my mind, and get down on my knees to beg to go back to school. It may sound a bit silly, but this hasn't happened to me for such a long time that I don't even feel content with any vacation I have anymore.
Universal Studios was a whole lot smaller than I had remembered as a child. My mom bought the two day pass from her friends. On the first day, we did nearly every ride and show. The second day my brother and I were somewhat bored of the place and pretty much asked ourselves, "What have we not done yet?" I guess that I was not really able to enjoy myself there because I hate traveling (plane, car, or train) for hours. And I really do not like being in extremely crowded areas. These two things happened a lot to and from the trip to L.A.
I guess that I am not ready to go back to school. I wanted to make the most out of the time I had away from school. In total, I only got to spend two days with friends. I wanted to spend the majority of the break with them in the first place. So I guess that I am upset. I just miss that old feeling that I use to get when I was a very small child. Usually, it occurred over summer break. The feeling was when I do everything that I could possibly think of over the vacation and end up being bored out of my mind, and get down on my knees to beg to go back to school. It may sound a bit silly, but this hasn't happened to me for such a long time that I don't even feel content with any vacation I have anymore.
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