Acting Ideas

I would like to be apart of the scene where Lysander and Demetrius are under the nector's powers which make them fall in love with Helena. I would especially like to do the part where Lysander and Demetrius are fighting over Helena. Either Lysander or Demetrius are fine but I would prefer to not be a girl. I like this scene because it is pretty dramatic and I also find it a little funny.

Flatworld Project Reflection

1. What did you like best about the project and why?
The part of the project I enjoyed the best was how easily we were able to share our stories with one another. In previous English classes I have been apart of, we only shared our work through hard copies. Because we could only see our peer's work in class, we could only read a few different stories. But in this class, with the flatworld, we were able to share work online. By having our stories online we could access them anytime, even at home. Because of this we could see the stories of so many people, even stories from other countries. Because the stories were so easy to access, it also made it easy to edit. I was really impressed and valued how we were able to get our stories edited by so many people.
Another thing that I really liked were the podcasts. Creating the podcasts was a new skill for everyone and they were very easy to do. They were also extremely effective for expressing our story. By listening to the podcasts we get a better idea of how the story was intended to be heard.

2. What did you like least and why?
One thing I didn't like about this project was the small yet abundant complications. What I mean by this was that there were many different things that were slightly problamatic, but because they happened so often they became a big problem. One of these problems was how nearly everyone was unclear of what to do. The different countries seemed to have different schedules. I was constantly confused of deadlines. Another problem I encountered was how I didn't recieve feedback from everyone. The project would have been much more effective if everyone was responsible enough to edit each others paper on time. I know that many of these problems could not be helped. I also realize that this is the first time anyone has ever done a project like this, so of course there are going to be complications. So I hope that in the future these problems can be fixed so this project can reach its full potential of helping students.

3. What was something surprising that you learned about the other students (from other schools)?
One thing that I learned about other schools was honestly, how the skills of Punahou students seemed to surpass those of other schools. I was also surprised when reading stories by how their cultures and issues are very similar to ours. For example, the kids in South Korea have the seem to have the same values, talk the same and even listen to the same music and watch the same television shows as we students in Hawaii do. Also we shared many of the same types of experiences dealing with things such as school, family, war, etc.
4. How do you think the project affected your writing?
Honestly, I do not think this project helped my writing much. Of course my writing skills improved slightly but I don't think they improved too much relative to the time we spent on the project. I think we spent around six weeks on the project, but I think I could have improved the same amount through a regular writing project that would only take around one week. One of the reasons this project wasn't very effective was the feedback. Although we recieved feedback from many different people, it wasn't very helpful. We were given a format for the feedback that everyone used, and because of this all the feedback was pretty much the same. The format also limited the advice we could give.

5. Describe the most challenging aspect of the project.
The most challenging aspect of the project for me was generating the basic plot of my story. It actually took me days to think of my initial idea to build off of. I chose to write about something I experienced but I had to think of many different twists to extend the story and make it more interesting.

6. Offer some advice to future participants.
I would advise future participants to keep up with the deadlines, whether it be giving feedback or revising. Giving feedback is very important to finish in time becuase other students are depending on you and waiting for you to help them. Also, it is important for you to finish revising in time so you won't fall behind. I would also advise to take a lot of time of creating your initial idea. You will be writing a story about it for a very long time so make sure you like your idea and it is something that is interesting and something you can write a lot about.

7. Other Comments
I think this project has a ton of potential. The idea is fantastic but some complications need to be fixed. One suggestion I have is to get rid of the feedback formats. I think it would be better to just give a main subject to focus on each week but allow students to have the freedom to assist the writer with anything. I also think that the project could be shortened. It seemed that a week or two could have been cut. The deadlines for revisions and editing could be shortened to do this; they only take one night...

Second Character Analysis of Helena

After reading the second act of A Midsummer Night's Dream, my views towards the character are the same. In this part of the book Helena is still in love with Demetrius and still has very low self-confidence. Helena's love for Demetrius is shown very well in this act of the book. Helena follows demetrius into the woods where he then tells her that he does not love her. But although Helena knows she has no chance with Demetrius, she continue to pursue him. THis shows how much Helena loves Demetrius; she is pursueing a man she has no possible chance just to be in his company.
In act II we also get a glimpse of the condition of Helena's friendship with Hermia. In the previous act, I thought that Helena may have told Demetrius of Hermia and Lysanders marriage plan partly out of jealously. But in this act, Lysander is given a nector which makes him fall in love with Helena. Helena could have easily returned Lysanders affection to get back at Hermia. But instead Helena tried to convince Lysander that he is actually in love with Hermia. This shows that she in fact does is not jealous and actually values her friendship. I believe that the sole reason she told Demetrius of Hermia's plan because she was driven by her love for Demetrius.
Another characteristic we see in this act is her low self-esteem. When Demetrius fell in love with her due to the nector she thought that he was mocking her. THis shows how low she thinks of herself. When someone actually thinks positively of her she doesn't believe it and thinks her is teasing her.Another area we see her low self-esteem is when she compares her looks to a bear. This shows how she still feels that she is ugly and far worse than Hermia. THis is of course due to the fact that the love of her life, Demetrius, loves Hermia.

A Midsummer Night's Dream:Character Analysis of Helena

Just in the first two scenes of the book A Midsummer Night's Dream we have met many different characters. One character that especially interested me was Helena. In the story Helena is in love with a man named Demetrius. Demetrius previously loved Helena as well and gave her an oath of love. But now Demetrius loves Helena's friend Hermia. Unfortunately, Hermia does not return Demetrius' love, and instead loves a man named Lysander. Hermia and Lysander are planning to get secretely married. Hermia has told Helena her plan of marriage. Helena was supposed to keep this information a secret but she decides to tell Demetrius about Hermia's plan in order to win his affection.
From what I have read so far, I can interpret many different things about Helena's looks and personality. First of all, from the text I have found that Helena is just as fair as Hermia; they are both very beautiful. But Helena feels that Hermia is more beautiful than she is. I believe that she may feel this way because she can think of no other reason for Demetrius to love Hermia more than her. This conflict shows how Helena can be jealous. Also, Demetrius loving Hermia has made Helena lose her self-confidence. Helena seems to always be very depressed and feeling sorry for herself. Another way Demetrius may have altered Helena's personality is by breaking his oath. Before Demetrius loved Hermia, he promised his love to Helena. I can imagine that this must be very hard for Helena. Because of this I can assume she has lost some of her trust in others. But Helena can also not be so trustworthy. This is shown when Hermia tells Helena her plan to marry Lysander. Knowing that if she got caught she could get killed, Hermia still put her trust in Helena. Unfortunately, Helena wasn't as trustworthy as Hermia thought. Helena told Demetrius of Hermia's plan maybe due to jealousy but probably mostly to win Demetrius' love. Either Helena is not a very trustworthy person or she is tremendously in love with Demetrius, enough for her to backstab and risk her friend's life for him.

From what I have interpreted from the book I believe that the actor who plays Helena should be very pretty. Equal in looks to that of Hermia. But I think that the person who plays Helena should have bags under their eyes because Helena lives a very sad life and therefore likely cries a lot. I feel the actor should speak in a soft voice, for she is not confident in herself so she would be timid. Also she may not talk loud because she doesn't have much trust in people. The actor of Helena could also act very mad around Hermia due to her jealousy, maybe give her the stink eye. And finally, Helena should be in love with Demetrius. Her eyes should light up in his presence and she shouldn't take her eyes off him.

The Sustainability Fair

On April 20th my school held a sustainability fair. This fair was a gathering of environmentally aware people, ranging from fifth graders to adults, who all had great ideas and information about our environment. These people created booths, presentations and even some games to help make learning fun and interesting. The purpose of this fair was to inform all those who aren't as aware about the current condition of our environment and how we can help to sustain it. While at the fair I explored every station. Some stations focused on helping to sustain our school, some focused on sustaining our entire community and others focused on sustaining the whole world. Although I saw and heard many diverse idea's, each booth's goal was the same; to do our best to make our planet a better place.
One of the things I learned at the fair was that a certain species of worms, called the Indain Blue Worm, are able to eat nearly any organic material. These worms are able to essential eat our garbage so we can have a cleaner place to live. Currently boxes of these worms are being sold to be used as something similar to a compost box. In fact, my family already owns one of these and it works great. Hopefully in the future, every family will own of these and our trash will just be converted to soil.
Another booth I was interested in was a presentation about fuel cells. Fuel cells are an electochemical conversion device. It is essentially a source of energy, but it is a very important source because fuel cells do not cause pollution. Fuel cells will hopefully eliminate the need of gasoline for cars.
I also went to a booth that focused just on the environment of our island. I learned that we are recycling sewer water and we are using it for irrigation. I also learned about xeriscpaing which is a practice where irrigation techniques and using drought-tolerant plants and grasses help to save water. Fortunately the plants that are used for xeriscpaping are primarily native plants so the act of xeriscaping saves water and helps to keep our native plants alive.
Although I learned so many interesting and great ways to sustain our world, I think the most valuable thing I gained from the fair was an inspiration. I learned of the troubles we are having with our environment. The things that inspired me the most were facts on how much we can help the environment by doing something so easy. I learned facts such as, 84% of all household waste can be recycled,everyday you throw away 4 pounds of garbage (don't you think some of this could be recycled?), and the amount of wood and paper we throw away every year is enough energy to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.
At the sustainibility fair, I learned so much about the environment and how I can help. I was very inspired to help out, and after reading this I hope you are too.

Hawaiian Ghost Story

In the chapter, Shaman, Maxine talks a lot about ghost. The most elaborate story she told about ghost was when her mother encountered one at school. In Hawaii we also have spirits but ours are very different. I personally have not encountered one but this is a story about a spirit that I've heard.


To give a history detail of the two schools I went to is that both elementary and middle school were across one another and both were buried under ancient Hawaiian burial graves. Many things have occured and stories about the schools have been passed down by teachers.

I use to attend Aliamanu Elementary and Aliamanu Intermediate School. It was Halloween night and my friends and I decided to see if the schools were both haunted. We heard many stories about how a mother and a child were both killed in the fields next to my school and that their hands were chopped off, another is the instruments in the band room and the music room of both school will play by itself at night.

My friends and I decided to walk towards the old stairway leading to the schools it was 1:00a.m. at night. We already had our candy from trick or treating and we wanted to investigate whether the stories about the old school were true. Now in the school everything is locked up and there is a gate that is about 30 ft high and no one can enter or leave since the gate covers all around and there is brick that hold it together. It is like a prison cell gate. Anyway, My friends and I decided to walk down the stairs when we started to notice that the school yard seemed to have elongated then as we approached the middle we started hearing loud drums and instruments in both the elementary school and the intermediate school we ended up running back up the stairs to be safe. We came back to the steps and decided to talk but out of nowhere we noticed that one of the portable lights that was white in color turned to red instantly and it freaked us all out we decided to wait and see what happened.

What happened amazed us because we looked at the gates where no one can enter or leave and saw a misty white figure looked like a girl and heard a loud scream asking for help. My friends and i decided to go down and see if we could help and when we got to the middle of the school yard we started to hear laughing and we stopped in out tracks. It wasn't a pleasant laugh it was an evil malicious laugh and it brought us goose bumps. To our amazement we ended up running back to the stairwell as fast as we could because something didn't feel right. We ran to the nearest park and decided to calm down. After awhile, we went back to see the school before going home. It was around 2:15 a.m. and the red light was gone and everything was back to normal.

THis story is from castleofspirits.com

Shaman:Character Analyst

This is a analysis of Maxine's mother. I interpreted this information through what I read in the chapter, Shaman.

In this chapter Maxine's mother is at medical school. At this school she chooses to stay in a room known to be haunted by ghost. In this room she encounters a room and later kills it. This shows how brave she is which is why I found it interesting her name is Brave Orchid.

From the stories of Brave Orchid's bravery and how she helped many people, it sounds like she is a very intelligent and courageous woman. Or a Woman Warrior. She seems very similar to Fa Mu Lan and this is probably why Maxine told a story about her mother.

White Tiger: Egotist

As an egotist for the chapter White Tiger, I am supposed to show "what's in this for me."
After reading the chapter I learned many things that can affect me. One thing that I learned is that you need to believe your own thoughts and feelings rather than just listening to what everyone else tells you. This is shown by Fa Mu Lan and Maxine who believe that women are just as good as men. If Mu Lan just listened to everyone else and didn't believe in herself she wouldn't have been able to avenge her family. Another thing that i learned was that you should always do what you feel is right, even when others aren't watching. This is shown by the bad men in the story of Mu Lan. THese men committed crimes and because of this were punished by getting executed by Mu Lan.

White Tiger: Moderator

These are some questions I had on the chapter "White Tiger" in the book "The Woman WArrior."


- In Maxine's story about Fa Mu lan, why do you think Mu Lan's parents don't tell her she would be taken?

-What is the significance of the rabbit that sacrificed itself for Mu lan?

-Mu Lan said that when she got hungry enough she could see their light, gold and their dance--what is the significance of this?

-What does Maxine's story of Mu Lan tell us about her?

-At the end of the chapter, MAxine says she is like Mulan but rather than using a sword she uses her words. Which do you think is more powerful, a sword or words?

My Hero

There are many heroes in my life, real and fictional, but the person I feel is the most heroic is my father. He is one of the most compassionate and caring people I know.Being a doctor, my father is trained to help people. Although he only works for part of the day, his job of caring for others never seems to end. THere have been so many situations that I was walking with him when we run into one of his patients or a friend that he has helped in some way. All of these people are so thankful for my father. But he does not help these people for popularity; he genuinely cares for these people. Another role that my father plays that shows his compassion is a father. He is a father to four children, my three sisters and I. Obviously being the father of four children is no easy task. Being the only other male in the household, I know frustating things can get. But no matter how tense our household gets, my father's love can still overcome it.

Methods of Characterization

In class we were asked to identify six methods of characterization of a character from our family story. I decided to use myself as the character.

Appearance

8 years old
bags under eyes from lack of sleep


Inner Thoughts/feelings

Mom is wrong, of course I'll be able to wake up even if I stay up.


Environment

Own house


What they say

Okay, sure mom, I'll go to bed.


What others say about them

I told him to go to bed. I knew he wouldn't be able to wake up.


Actions

Lied to mom
Disobeyed mom
Fell asleep in closet

Interpretation of Maxine's Thoughts

The first chapter of The Woman Warrior is composed of Maxine's thoughts about her aunt. We can interpret these thoughts to expose characteristics of Maxine. I picked two quotes that I interpreted to reveal something about Maxine.

1. "For warm eyes or a soft voice or a slow walk--that's all--a few hairs, a line, a brightness, a sounnd, a pace, she gave up family."(pg. 8)

This quote shows that Maxine thinks that her Aunt should not have sacrificed her family for a man. It reveals Maxine's idea of men-- she believes that looks are not the most important characteristic in a person. This quote also shows that Maxine feels her family is more important than men.

2. "She often worked at herself in the mirrror, guessing at the colors and shapes that would interest him, changing them frequently in order to hit the right combination. She wanted him to look back. (pg. 9)

This quote is so specific that it seems that Maxine must be doing the same thing or something similar. This shows how Maxine cares about what she looks. It is also likely that Maxine has met a boy that she likes and has tried to change her look for him.

Family Story

Today our class was assigned to write about a family story that teaches a valuable lesson. The story I chose happenned back when I was about eight years old.

It all started one night when I popped an Aladdin video into the VCR. Right about half way through the movie, where Aladdin rubs the magic lamp, my mom steps into the room and tells me to go to bed. She warns that I can't stay up too late, otherwise I won't be able to stay awake the next day. It was all old news, I've heard it nearly every night of my life, so I replied with the don't-care-but-dont-want-to-get-in-trouble phrase, "okay, sure mom, I'll go to bed," and turned off the t.v. But of course I had to see Genie's song when he comes out of the lamp, so as soon as my Mom left the room, I turned the movie back on. But that one song soon turned into the rest of the movie and before I knew it, it was two hours past my bedtime. The next day I barely made it through the day of school due to my lack of sleep. And when I came home from a hard-hitting day of second grade I could hardly keep my eyes open. So, when I went to the towel closet before my bath, I was so tired and the towels looked so cozy, I decided to lay down on the bottom towel shelf. It was not brightest idea but those towels just looked so soft and I was so tired so I couldn't resist. Once I layed down my eyes immediately locked shut and I fell into a deep sleep. A few hours later, my slumber was interrupted by the sound of a women screaming at a deafening volume. I quickly sat up, and groaned in pain when my head collided with the towel shelf above. After recovering from the pain, I anxiously crawled out of the closet to see what was going on. I followed the sound of the screaming until I saw my mother with tears sliding down her cheek. I immediately run over to her and ask what was wrong. She suddenly grabbed me and hugged me with the strength of a boa constrictor. She manages to ask through her crying "Ryan, where were you? I thought you ran away or was kidnapped!!!" I regretgully replied, "I was sleeping on the bottom shelf of the towel closet." By the look of my Mom's reaction I quickly realized this was probably the worst thing I could have said. She furiously told me that she was about to call the police and that it was the scardest she had ever been in her whole life. Feeling terrible, I apoligized and explained what happened.

Although, my parents didn't punish me, I felt horrible. I frightened my whole family, made my mom cry and even hit my head. It was probably the most regrettable thing I have ever done and it all could have been avoided if I listened to my Mom. If I went to bed when she asked I wouldn't have been so tired. So, I guess the moral of this story is to always listen to your parents because despite what you think, they really do know best. It is either that or never fall asleep in your towel closet, no matter how tired you are or how soft your towels look.

The Woman Warrior Quotes

Our class has just started reading the book "The Woman Warrior." So far, all that we know is that the story is about a chinese girl whose aunt killed herself because she was hated among the village people for having a baby with a man other than her husband. Now the Chinese girl is thinking about her Aunt and what she must have been like.
Today we were assigned to pick two quotes from this book and describe why we think the quotes we picked are significant.
"My aunt could not have been the lone romantic who gave up everything for sex. Women in the old China did not choose. Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil." (pg. 6) I feel that this quote is significant because it shows how Maxine's culture has affected the way she thinks. Because the Chinese think that the women do not choose when to have sex, she thinks that the only way her aunt could have gotten pregnant is if she was raped.
Another significant quote that I found is on page 7. "In a commensal tradition, where food is precious, the powerful older people made wrongdoers eat alone. Instead of letting them start separate new lives like the Japanese, who could become samurais and geishas, the Chinese family, faces averted but eyes glowering sideways, hung on the offenders and fed them leftovers." I think this is an important quote becuase it shows how Maxine views her culture. In this quote it seems that she doesn't agree with her cultures beliefs and that she agrees more with another culture, Japanese. This also shows how the Chinese didn't forgive someone for doing something wrong.

Moodle

Over these past few weeks we have been experimenting with the wiki called Moodle. Moodle allows our entire class to share our work with eachother and collaborate as a class to create something together. I really enjoy using Moodle. Some things that I like about it is that it saves paper because everything is online. I also like how we can share our work with the whole class and how we can help eachother by editing eachothers work and giving advice. One way Moodle makes it easy for us to give advice is by messaging eachother. Although Moodle is great, there are some things that could be better. One thing that I don't like is that there are some technical difficulties. For example only one person can post something at a time. This makes it harder for us to share our ideas. Overall, I think that Moodle is very unique and a very effective way for our class to share our work and to help eachother.

Significant Quote from "Lost Sister"

Our class has read the poem, "Lost Sister." This poem is about a girl born in China who moves to America and misses her old culture. We were asked to pick a quote from this poem that we thought was significant. The quote I picked is around the part of the poem where the author has just finished talking about the daughters named Jade and is beginning to tell us about someone across the sea. The author says, "diluting jade green with the blue of the Pacific." I feel this quote is significant because I think it means that she is losing her Chinese culture or the "jade green," and it is being overcome by the American culture or the "blue of the Pacific."

This poem reveals many things about ourselves and how we are created. I think it shows us that our ethnicity or the culture we are born into significantly affects the way we live. It also reveals that the place that you live can affect who you are. This is shown by how the Chinese girl wasn't happy living in America because she missed her life in China.