Entry 17: My Favorite Stories

Some of my favorite books/stories include all the Jin-Yong(Louis Cha) wu-xia novels, James and the Giant Peach, a Chinese folk tale named Dung Beetle City, Pride and Prejudice, The Neverending Story, and Lord of the Flies. These stories captured my interest because they have interesting characters and plot. Some also have interesting settings.
I read all of the Jin-Yong novels in second grade, even though I don't understand a large part of the writing and skipped many details. I just enjoyed the different martial arts and weapons, the interesting characters, and the general plot of the stories. They are exciting to read. I read James and the Giant Peach not that long ago, but the story stays in my mind forever ever since. I love all the bugs in the book. They are funny and the plot is hysterical. I was also impressed by the illustrations by Lane Smith. He is influential.
The story Dung Beetle City - I think you can infer how smelly the story is from its name - is one of the best story ever. It's about this young man who emanates a natural floral scent. Everybody loved him...until he accidentally enters Dung Beetle City. The whole city stinks. The young man was walking down the street, feeling strange, when suddenly all the residents started chasing him because he smells "filthy." He trips and falls into a dung pool. After that the residents find him no longer smelling funny and treated him nicely as a guest. The young man stays in the city for many years, and gets married. When he finally returns home with his wife and money, everyone loathes them now because of their smell. Nobody wants his money either. His wife dies early due to depression, and later he dies in his house, alone, holding all his money.

Entry 15: Characters

Some of the fictional characters I like are (the order does not matter) Spongebob Squarepants and Squidward Tentacles from the cartoon TV series Spongebob Squarepants, Mojo Jojo and basically all the villains in PowerPuff Girls (I love Him too, he is hilarious), Joker from Batman, Forrest Gump from the movie, Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and etc.
Spongebob, even though seems very absurd, is appealing to people because the fact that he is a sponge is very different, he is nice but he enjoys playing pranks on others, and he is very emotional and funny.
Squidward on the other hand is almost the opposite of Spongebob. He is grumpy, sarcastic, and narcissistic. The audience can relate to him because no matter how hard he tried, he never really becomes an artist or musician as he wished, and he hates his job.
Mojo Jojo is probably one of the best villains. He rumbles to himself a lot and has a distinctive accent.
Joker is a great villain because he is just as psychopathic as can be.
Forrest Gump may not be as intelligent as other people, but he somehow survives even better than others. He came across many important events in American history without really knowing what's going on. He is an adorable character with a lot of ridiculous luck.
Willy Wonka and the whole chocolate factory are just crazy.
I like characters that are different. That's why I have a thing for villains, because they come in all shapes. I never really find love in protagonists that are too nice or perfect. They are cliche and boring. Anti-heroes are more interesting because they have flaws just like everyone else. And I'm fond of insane characters, psychopathic or other types of mental illness. Most characters I like also make me laugh heartily.

Entry 14: How Does Heritage Contribute to Character?

A heritage is something that has been passed down from one to another, or something that belongs to one by birth. Some heritages include culture, tradition, language, accent, hair and eye color, skin color, property, values, and etc. The most important heritages, in my opinion, are culture and appearance. Culture defines how a person lives, and appearance states a person's ancestry and many other things without words.
I believe my heritages include everything I've said in the first paragraph. I inherited the culture and traditions of my family. I learned the language and accent from my parents and surroundings. I got my hair, eye, and skin color from my Asian ancestry. I also inherited the values of my culture. The most important heritages for me are culture, appearance and values. I think culture is a lot of things. Culture gives you directions in everything you do. Culture is part of a group of people and also part of an individual. A person's hair, eye, and skin color shows the person's ethnicity, but it also gives the person some definitions of him/herself. We all have definitions of ourselves, such as I would call myself a female, a student, Taiwanese, a teenager, and so on. To me, appearance is a large part of me, because I was born with it. Values are important as well because it determines how you think about things. Even unconsciously you would place what you value the most as your priority. And how you act is what you are.

Entry 13: Unpredictable

Hmm what could I say about myself doing unpredictable things? At this moment I can only name some random things, such as, I thought I would never draw chibis (a way of drawing cartoon figures that has huge head, small body, and is widely considered cute) but last week I drew some of the musicians I like into chibi forms. I know this has nothing to do with struggling for conflicts or whatever.
Forgive me for skipping this question.
An unpredictable action or decision could affect a real-life event either positively or negatively. If positively, the event might have a surprising turn and ends happily. Negative effects on the event could result in severe consequences, due to the unpredictably stupid nature of the action.
Unpredictability in stories usually occurs when the conflict comes to a deadlock. The story needs some kind of a twist, either leading the conflict to resolution or making it worse. Characters who do unpredictable actions could, one, make the character more interesting, and two, emphasize the personality of the character by telling what he/she would NOT do.
Humorous stories, or jokes, are meant to be unpredictable. It is this unpredictability that make people laugh. Jokes are funny because the action of the character is surprisingly stupid or random.  People laugh at absurdities because they could thus feel smarter.

Entry 12: Animal v Human

First of all, I'd like to say that, HUMANS ARE ANIMALS. I'm speaking from a biological aspect. Deal with it.

I used to have two cats at home. Now there's only one left. From experiences, I believe they have feelings. The one that I have now, HuMi, she enjoys our attention so much. She is extraordinarily loud. She would meow loudly until we touch her. I think animals, mostly mammals, all have the sense of love. HuMi always reminds us, hey I'm here, pat me. And she feels love and care from us. Another interesting thing she would do is hiding behind a corner of an entrance, and when one of us walk out, she springs suddenly and runs away, startling us. She has absolutely no bad intention in doing this, she is just playing. We humans also enjoy surprising or scaring others, don't we?
And here's another thing. Is it, "Animals act like humans" or "Humans are just like animals"?
If you ask me, I would say the latter. Homosapien is really only a more complex animal. For centuries human beings felt like we're superior because we can think, create, and speak many kinds of languages. Yes, we do have a tremendously large brain and walk on two feet, but that doesn't mean we're higher than other animals. The other animals can survive without us. Guess what, we can't survive without them. And at the same time we're slowly destroying ourselves with our "intelligent" inventions.

Entry 11: Conflicts

Some internal conflict John faces in "By the Waters of Babylon" is that he has to overcome his fear of the Dead Places and the Place of the Gods. He has to go there to fulfill his curiosity. The external conflicts John faces were the Ou-dis-sun River, the wild dogs, and the Forest People. He struggled to cross the Ou-dis-sun River to enter the Place of the Gods with a raft. That is John v.s. nature. He has to avoid being attacked by the dogs in the Place of the Gods. And while he returns from the journey he was chased by the Forest People.
I faced internal conflict when I was troubled by my perfectionism. I'm always at war with myself when I can't help but spend more than enough time on something trivial. For example, sometimes a school assignment requires only a small amount of effort, but I might waste my time making my writing neat. This is one of the things I've been trying and am still trying to change about myself. I admit there's advantages with perfectionism. My works are always very organized and neat, and that's something I'm proud of.
An external conflict I've faced was when I first came to PAS. The obstacle was English. I have to overcome the language by learning it. At first I knew scarcely any English. I had to endure the period of being in the middle of a completely strange environment that I could not fit in. I couldn't understand the textbooks but I read them anyways. I wrote without grammar and failed every class. Eventually, my English improved over time.

Entry 10: Taboo

Taiwan has a lot of taboos. Since the Chinese word for "four" sounds like the word "death", it is forbidden to say in some places, especially hospitals. Most hospitals don't have a forth floor. They name it the fifth floor instead. (which can get confusing if you're not used to it.) To me this kind of taboo is neither good nor bad. It's just there. It does no particular benefit but does no harm.
Another taboo is that you have to take off your shoes when you enter someone's house. I didn't even realize this is a taboo until one day an American teacher told me. Taking off one's shoes is just a sign of politeness, because most Taiwanese people wear slippers at home, and so to keep the rooms clean. I think this is actually better than wearing shoes into houses. I like my floors to be clean and wearing slippers is just so much more relaxing.
Some people also believe that writing names in red is dangerous, because red resembles blood. You will bring bad luck to yourself or another person if you write the names with a red pen. I don't practice such superstition. I write names with whatever color I want. I love red, it's a powerful color.

Entry 9: Analyze a Folk Tale

"Coyote Kills the Giant" explains why wood ticks are flat. According to the story, wood ticks were not used to be flat, but when Coyote pulled it out of the giant's closing teeth the wood tick was pressed thin and stayed flat forever.
I remember when I was little I read a Taiwanese aboriginal tale about how the bird, Black bulbul, got its red beak and legs. The story goes like this: Once there was a giant python wandering around. For some reason it decided to rest for a while and lay down. But the python was so huge that its body blocked several rivers. The waters soon flooded and the Bunun people were forced to stay on high mountain peaks. On one of the peaks the people there didn't bring any flint, but they saw that people on the other peak have fire. To try to solve the problem they asked a toad to swim across the water and borrow some fire for them, using a small wooden stick. When the toad came back, they saw that the wooden stick got wet. They then asked a bird for the same mission, but the bird was in such a hurry that the fire just went out. The Bunun people didn't give up, however. Again they asked the Black bulbul to help them. The Black bulbul tried to slow down to prevent the fire from dying out, but the fire burned quickly and reached near the end of the stick. The Black bulbul bravely endured the pain and brought the fire successfully to the people. As a result its severely burned beak and legs remained red until today.

As for the giant python, several days later a giant crab was taking a walk and saw a wall of scales and flesh, blocking its way. The crab was angry and attacked the python. After a fierce battle the crab cut the python in half and the rivers returned to normal.

Entry 8: Buddhist Doctrine

One of the reasons why I'm not a Buddhist is that I don't think life is all about suffering. I don't think ignorance and attachment cause only suffering. In my opinion, life should be a combination of both suffering and delight. Ignorance is not that bad. Sometimes knowing too much will also upset you. Attachment to this world is what makes us ourselves. We feel alive by connecting to other people. I think it's just human nature that we have attachments and emotions. We are human, and that's the undeniable fact. To conclude, I believe that a person should endure suffering to become a better person, but always hold a positive view and enjoy his/her life while he/she can.

So, no offense, but why face the world so negatively and renounce joy?

I think the concept of the Noble Eightfold Path is what all of us should follow - not necessarily the exact eight points, however. Each person is responsible for his/her own actions. As one of the members of this world, we should do our best to live as righteously as possible. We should benefit ourselves and others; doing the right things to keep ourselves from harm and contribute to the community, though I don't think benefiting the society is a major concept in Buddhism.

Entry 7: Taking Risks

For the people we care about, we would sacrifice our money, time, and sometimes our own happiness. When you care about a person, you wouldn't mind lending him/her your money when he/she needs it. You would also spend as much time as possible with that person.
I guess the people who sacrifice the most for me are my parents. My mother gave up her job when my sister and I were little to stay home and take care of us. If she had chosen to continue her career, she could have been in a higher position than today. But for us, we might not be as well educated and close to her. My father had always worked hard and he pays all of our expensive tuition. That is a lot of money. He has also done a lot for us, besides money.
I can't think of a time when I had to make sacrifices for other people. If I did, it was all trivial things. I think it's because there just happens to be no such chance, even if I'm willing to. But I suppose there will be chances in the future.
I don't know if this counts, but I often sacrifice my time and sleep to study. I study hard for myself, but also for my parents. If I get good grades, learn knowledge, and perhaps go to a good university, all the money my parents spent on my education wouldn't be wasted. I give up my pleasures, my time, and my sleep to make my parents proud, because I care about them.

Entry 6: New Place

The place that was once unfamiliar to me is the school dormitory. Last year when I moved into dorm I felt completely separated from the atmosphere. My room last year was just a place to put my stuff and sleep. I spent most of my time in study hall (auditorium) and cafeteria. I hardly knew anybody in the dorm, and I didn't care to look up their names. I seldom talked, and when people chat I sometimes listened. For the most part I live in my own world. I was not used to the unpleasant smell and dirty condition around the dorm either. The shower room smelled awful. The meals were tasteless but I didn't care.
This year, however, I became familiar with the dorm. This time I feel I'm actually part of the dorm. I checked people's names at the start of the year. I stay in my room more often and talk with my roommates. The bed looks more welcome and my desk more friendly. I hear people's voices and interact with them. Now every time I go to the toilet or shower I expect the same unpleasant smell. My eyes are used to seeing trash on the floor and cockroaches. The food still taste bad but now I would get tired of it from time to time.