Children

A child's' life is when the parent has the able to teach their son or daughter how to tie their shoes, ride a bike, read, and how to respect others. Children are the love we care for and the people we do not want to let go. Vincent Liu explains childhood as one of the important periods of our life:

Childhood is a period of time that I think is the most important moment of a person's entire life. The life of being a kid is such a wonderful and beautiful thing to have. I never really thought about it when I was young, but as I continue to grow older I started to realize about how just amazing being a kid really was. When we were little, we didn't really need to worry about anything in our life, and the only thing that we really care about is thinking about how we would spend our day playing around. It was time when we could just do almost anything we want and is most likely that we are able to get away with it simply because adults realizes that we don't know any better. It was time where our curiosity and imagination was at it's best and ran wild like a horse; a child's imagination knows no bound, and our curiosity multiplies every time we learn something new.

 While reading Vincent's post, I agreed to almost every part of it. This is because a childhood has its good and bad outcomes. For example, if a person did not have a good childhood experience, like, they were sexually harassed, abused, or simply, did not like their parents, that persons childhood is not a period of which they like to reminisce about. On the other hand, a person who had a lovely and healthy childhood would always talk about their experiences when older and will realize that they childhood was so much easier then today.

When Vincent says, "a child's imagination knows no bound, and our curiosity multiplies every time we learn something new", I do agree with this point, but when a child gets older, their imagination is more developed because they have been exposed to more things. As a child, they are not exposed to a lot of things, and if they are, they would not know what it is, what it does, what it is form etc. On the other hand, when they get older, the ability to be able to define something would be clear and enlightening. 

As a result, a childhood experience can go both ways, and sometimes, one-way maybe better than another.

Last one.

Wow, it is finally winter break. I am so excited. The only thing i have to do is finish this blog post and another then, I will officially begin my break off school.

So, this morning, my group and I had our last discussion about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. And i hate to say it, but it was a sucky/terrible discussion. It is really challenging for us to ask level two and three questions.  I say this, and many of the other group members say it as well that because we cannot relate to his experience, it is challenging to talk about something we do not know about. On a positive note, we all loved and admired Christophers talent and determination. For example, when he told him mom that he had to go back to Sweden to take his Math Level A test but she no because they were all the way in London, but luckly she was going back to Sweden and he was able to take his test although he was tired and could not do math has usual, he still took the offer got an A grade. Christopher's life over-time shows the many risks he took.

After u finished reading the book, I was unattracted to the book. This is because, the first and second parts of the book were emotional and enthsiastic, and because of the major events during those parts, I assumed it was going to end off with a resolution. For example, near the end of the book, the bond between his father and him were not complete. I wanted to know it is was going to forgive him or just, not. Also, I assumed maybe the Father and his Mother were going to get back together. So many question, but no answers. I hate books that leave  readers in a blurrrr. I just want too know.

All in all, the group discussion was not at it's best, and the next time I read a book that is challenging to analyze, i just need to work harder and re-read that part once more and make-up a level two or three question from there. This is because not all the time will I read a book that will be easy to understand, analyze, and interprete. It's just how life works. 

Well, now I have to do one-more blog post and I am off to start be wonderful, long break.

Happy Holiday!

You're so Beautiful, No Matter What They Say.

While reading many peoples blog's, I noticed a topic that defines the teenage life, today. Vanessa Berrios makes it very clear:

If you were to flip through the newest edition of every single fashion magazine out there, you will always see a skinny girl on the cover. Never in my life have I seen a decent looking girl on the covers of the trends that us girls follow these days. Society has tortured the minds of woman and especially young teenage girls. They manipulated them into thinking that the only way that they could be beautiful is by looking like the anorexic girls in the magazines and on television.

 I totally agree with her response to Christy's post. Many teenagers always look through magazines or go on omg.yahoo.com. They show what is in and- out. They provide negative and positive ideas about what people wear, how they put their make-up on, and more importantly, weight. Weight is what changes everyone’s idea about beauty. Teenagers are manipulated into thinking that if they are fat or simply, not skinny enough, they are ugly. Magazines, "people who think they are perfect", and the Internet are creating an unsuccessful generation. This shit needs to stop.

The long legs, nice hair, skinny waist, big boobs and butt- are all what these magazines want us to see and believe. If we are not like those beautiful women on there, we are not fit for society, and die. And because of this, many teenagers commit suicide. They don't feel that they are fit nor welcomed to their own community.

When watching television, I notice they put-down those who overweight. For example, the main character from Precious- all they talk about is her weight, and how her dress doesn't look good on her, but it would look good on someone else. I don’t know why people assume it's fine to critize people's appearance to they world, why do they think it's okay?

Back where my parents are from, Eritrea, there are two types of people: Adults and Kids. I believe this "teenage" generation is just all in our heads. American's psychotically made this up. These “teenage” groups of people were created to increase America's wealth, economically. That is all.

The Curious Kid

Well, it has been along week. Now,  we are going towards the hectic and discouraging part of school: Finals week }:<

During Mr. Sutherland's class today, my group and I had a discussion about the second half of The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon it was not as intriguing and energetic as the previous discussion we had last Friday, but it was all right. Although the discussion was not awesome as usual, we hit a few interesting points. For instance, Vincent, he gave a lot of clarification and back up to his observations of the book. He also tried to integrate a few level three questions, but it was challenging, for all of us. Another engaging discussion question was: "How does Christopher's mind work and had does it affect the book". Many people responded to the question by say that his disability and life style is what bring the book together; the climatic events streaming in the book, relates to the hardships and achievements Christopher overcomes. This question brought plenty of comments and other questions.

During my experience of the second half of this fascinating book, I could say was very stimulating and pleasurable. I say this because understanding that Christopher has a syndrome, you can see the differences between a person with the condition and without, which shows the positive and negative affects on a person. Christopher is very knowledgeable, and observing how he reacts with certain things and how he understands stuff establishes a closer connection with the reader and the character. This is because I figured out that his mother did not die and his father was lying to him the whole time. This fact stimulated lots of questions in my head, like: "Was his Father lying to him for the better, or was it because he hated what she done to him? This question was also asked by Amber, many people responded by saying that because of Christopher's disability, he did not want him to take it the wrong way or he just did not want to tell him because it is embarrassing to the Father. I totally agreed with everyone’s analysis on this idea, but building to a level three question is harder than scratching a chicken's butt.

So, what I learned about my group is that for now on, we should write down lots of level three questions while reading the book individually. This will improve our discussions and reduce the amount of level one and two questions during the discussion. I also understand why our discussion was not attentive and enthusiastic as usual (because we had that stupid family day, thingy).

I cannot believe we are almost done with the book; this is insane. I freaking love this book; it’s so unusual and sticking. I predict that Mrs. Alexander will tell the Father where Christopher went and he will go to the train station and find him and tell talk to him about this huge move he is willing to take. I think Christopher is not going to go; he just cannot go. He just can't.

That One Curious Guy

Doing a blog post on a Saturday night = wEiRd...

So, earlier this week, I had a discussion with Amber Gomez, Vincent Liu, Ianna Wilson, and Elijah Mekwunye, about The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. We had many questions about the structure of the book, the main character (Christopher), his disability, his mother, father, and how the context relates to the world. We had many disagreements and clarifying questions. For example, I believe Amber asked this question: " Is only the first page of the book Christopher's story? Or is the hold entire book his story?" Many people said that he writes parts of his book part-by-part, but the entire book is the journey he is growing through while writing his story. 

Another interesting question that was brought up during our discussion was asked by Elijah: "Why does Christopher have 'Good Days', 'Bad Days', 'Super Good Days', and 'Black Days'? Is this similar to other people with this condition? I really like this question, but I was not able to answer because other people were talking over me or I was just too scared. Well, if I did answer this question, then I would say that in the beginning of the book he says that he thinks logically, so, he needs a legitimate reason why he has these days rather than just out-of-the-blue. Also, this relates to real people with this disability- they need a clear explanation why things happen.

What I learned about my group mates if that their are a few people who will talk a lot and their are a few that do want to talk, but does not want to interrupt the other person (me). I need to learn to say what I want, when I want. Although other people might interrupt me, I need to fight to get my voice heard (make my voice louder or just tell the person to go after me). What we talked about showed me that we are all different, not only culturally, but also socially. This demonstrates that whatever people are, we should respect them by any means.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I am happy. Like, really, really happy. Do you know why? Do you want too know why? Okay then.

In a few days, it’s going to be Christmas. I am so excited. Although I do not celebrate this holiday, (religious reasons) I still cannot wait for it to come! Karisa Coleman also describes the reasons why Christmas is fascinating:

...I also enjoy going downtown in San Francisco during Christmas time because there are so many people shopping there with their friends and family. There are also a lot of sales in stores and it's always fun to go shopping with your friends. I enjoy going to Union Square with friends as well because Macy's puts up a huge Christmas tree and a couple of weeks after they put it up they light it up at night. It may not sound that exciting, but it's just fun to be there with friends and people who are close to you. They also have puppies and kittens in their windows for adoption. I personally don't agree with trapping animals in windows, but they are cute to look at. 

 While reading through her blog, this part shows the similarity between her enjoyments and my selves. First of all, I love going to Downtown San Francisco and looking at the awesome lights all around; they are very unique and appealing. Also, I love walking around San Francisco with my family and friends; laughing and making a fool out of us is what makes these days complete. Secondly, I absolutely, positively love the Black Friday sales. Although I never went shopping on Black Friday, I still love how people have the integrity people have to stay in all all-night just too buy some shit. It's captivating.  Lastly, I love going to the mall and checking-out the awesome Christmas clothing and melody in the stores, especially Macy's; they have the largest Christmas tree in their store. It is enormous and ravishing. All in all, Christmas is a holiday that bring joy and delight too everyone.

Not only do the lights, sales, and huge Christmas tree’s stimulate me, but also I am also thrilled that I have three weeks off school. Yea, I know, twenty-one day's off school. This is my gift for Christmas. I cannot wait to cherish this irresistible break. 

This is the only reason why I love ASTI.