100!

I think this journal thing is a very good habit. Although I sometimes forgot to do my journal and it is very difficult for me to remember to do them, I still think writing these journal entries helped me a lot. It helps me develop a habit of doing something continuously without stop. It also help me develop my opinions and thoughts. I find this helpful because when I look at the short answers and essay part on the tests, they are all just like my journal entries and because I already have a developed and matured idea and thought on the topic, I can develop even further during a test and I would be ready when a short answer question pop up. Even though I didn't have all one hundred journal entries, I am still pretty close and I am proud of the fact that I continue this for so long and did it almost everyday. This has been a great experience and I am glad that I didn't do all the journals at once at the last day not only because I couldn't finish a hundred journal entries in one day but also because it is a better exercise to have a developed thought each day after discussion with the class and to put it down at the end of the day then to rush through a hundred journal entries.

Finl Exam

I am not very confident and believe I would get a perfect score but I believe I would get a decent score. I am familiar with most of the stories we've read and I have read them all one more time to review the content and literary element in it. However, I am a bit confused and not sure about the 102 Minutes story because the names and the story are confusing and I couldn't really understand it. However, I still have a decent knowledge on it. I've also look over the Talking Skull folk tale thoroughly several times because I couldn't understand the meaning of "Talking brought me here." the first few times I read it but then I think it means that they bragged about something they are not sure about and that's why they got killed in the bush. I'm not quite sure about the meaning of the bush, is it the forest or an actual shrub. I am pretty confident that I would get a decent score on this test and would be surprised if I did not because I have spent a lot of effort and time on reviewing the vocabulary, story's content and literary element, and going through the folk tale. I would also be pretty surprised if I get a perfect score or close because I am not that confident. However, I have good feelings about this test and believe it would boost up my grade.

Group Work

I like group works more because during group project you only have one specific job to do and you can make it perfect. You can dedicate all your energy and thought to that specific area of the project and make it work. But I dislike group project with an irresponsible teammate. Usually what happens when I am pair with an irresponsible teammate is that I try to focus all my energy to perfect my part of the project but I still get a really low grade because my teammate decides to slack off. During a large group, we can focus our energy on a smaller part and when one person decides to not do anything it wouldn't hurt as much. However, we must learn to cooperate with anyone. For example, if you are to be selected to cooperate with a person you dislike or does literally nothing, you just have to treat it like a more difficult project and focus half your energy on doing their part for them. Although you might not get a good score but that's the downside of working with a person that does little to nothing or working on a difficult project. I think group works is really helpful in that we can learn to divide and distribute roles to members withing the group and that teaches us leadership. We can also learn to cooperate so in the future we would know how to.

Strangers Together

During a crisis situation, although people don't know each other and are totally strangers to each other, they must work together to survive. This is because people will do anything to survive, it's human and any animal instinct to use any technique, work with anything to survive. During "102 Minutes", the two strangers must work together to survive until the rescue team come and rescue them. The author points out that these two people are strangers and alone to show that even two people that knew nothing about each other would trust each other and accomplish something when it is absolutely necessary to work together.I can't really think of any experiences where I have been in a dangerous, risky, or near-death experience so I wold not have been in that kind of situation with a stranger too. However, this kind of situation is in the movie all the time, where two people are caught in a situation where the killer or monster is approaching and they must work together to survive or kill the beast. In this kind of movie, the characters usually become good friend. I would also expect this in real life. Even if you are in a situation with a person you hate, at first you might refuse to talk to him, but when you're life is on the verge then you will do whatever it takes and after this event you might become good friends with him becaue you would understand him more.

Project Reflection

I found out that if our homework was to read the book of our choice and do the project that we choose, it would be much easier because we are willing to do it and we are happy to do it. We chose books that we would read on a daily basis and instead of reading purely for enjoyment, we get a grade while enjoying reading it. The key point in successfully finishing and doing this project is only to choose a book that you like and to just read it casually while making a project on something you like. I didn't spend much hard work in reading the book because I enjoyed reading the book and find it fun. However, the start of the book was kind of painful. The book doesn't have a hook, or at least it doesn't work on me, that grabs me to keep me reading in the beginning. However, towards the end of the book, when it gets more intense, it grabs my attention and it became easy to continue reading. I spend a lot of time working on my project and I enjoy making the project. I am kind of proud of my project because I feel like my profile on Winston Smith was in great detailed and I have spent a great deal of time researching and making the profile and files look legit. I think this project is worthwhile because by letting we choose the book, we can read a book that we enjoy and it's our own choice and by regulating the reading difficulty we are still learning. Also, the weekly reading check and analysis let us further understand the novel in a more critical way.

911

911 is a very terrible event that marked the largest terrorist attack on the mainland of the United States of America. On September 11, when people were watching the news about a plane that flew into Twin Tower, another air plane flew in Twin Tower on live stream. For the viewers, it is devastating and horrible. However, for people who have lost their dear friends and families during the incident have a really strong personal sense of anger and resentment against the terrorist. These people crave massive retaliation because the terrorists have done the unspeakable to them and they seek revenge. For people watching live news at home, people are dying inside the building and it is nothing like how it is on news. Real people, colleagues, friends, random person who is delivering mail, and every people in the building are dying at any second. There are many speculations that after the death of Osama Bin Laden, there will be a power vacuum in AL-Qaeda and there will be a lot of extremest and or Bin Laden's close friend or assistant that will plan a big terrorist attack, bigger than 911, to prove their worth to be the new leader. It might be a even more dangerous place for the next following years.

Jargon

Jargon is terms used in a specific activity, profession, or secret code used between people. Usually people use jargons so it's easier to communicate and easier to pronounce. Also, some uses jargons for connection and link between people to feel like they are part of the same thing. Jargons are also used for secrecy, so other people who doesn't need to know the information would not know. For example, teenagers now aday uses jargon commonly known as slang for a number of different reason. One reason being that they feel closer and more connected to their identity when using slang. Another reason might be that they don't want their parents to know exactly what they are talking about. Drug dealers and crackheads uses street names for drugs so the police wouldn't know what they are selling or even what they are talking about. For example, marijuana is referred to a wide variety of ways, such as sweet mary jane, the buddha, and weed. Some drugs' street names are so common because their professional name are too hard to pronounce such as MDMA now known mostly as ecstasy. Some mountain climbing terms used are short-roped, and it refers to assisting someone injured during a mountain climbing expedition, and reppal, meaning to descend off a steep slide by a rope and repelling against the wall in small back-eject.