For language arts class, I needed to pick a classic to read, so I went to the library in search of a book that could be considered a classic. It is too bad that I read Little Men last trimester, since that would count as a classic. Unfortunately, the library's teen section's books had been moved elsewhere. I was easily able to locate the fiction books, but I couldn't find the classics at first. Finally, after some wandering, I found the classics section and started browsing.

I eventually decided upon The Story of My Life, written by Helen Keller. I really didn't know much about Helen Keller before now, besides that she went blind and deaf from an illness and that she was taught by a woman named Anne Sullivan. Apparently the "breakthrough" for teaching Helen words was when she felt running water on her hand and Anne Sullivan spelled out water into her hand.

One of the things that I found interesting was that Helen Keller once got into trouble for plagiarism. She had written a story which she called "The Frost King". Her friend, Mr. Anagnos, liked the story very much. Apparently someone saw the story Helen had written and remarked that it was very similar to another story called "The Frost Fairies". Helen did not remember having read that story, but apparently she had, to have written something similar. Helen said that Mr. Anagnos then believed that Helen and Ms. Sullivan had deceived him and tried to earn his favor with "The Frost King", and so in the book Helen said she was saddened to have lost his friendship.

Being creative is a pretty difficult challenge in this world. Sometimes people become famous because they were simply lucky enough to be the first to come up with an idea that becomes popular. Skill is of course still a factor in being successful (but not necessarily the biggest part; I am sorry if you are a fan of the Twilight series, but I found it rather bland for the most part) but you may still be able to get readers even if your writing is not the most sophisticated.

Sometimes people will get the same idea as you, and you have to fight to be the first to get it out there. If you are second, you'll be accused of copying them, even if you hadn't meant to. And sometimes you might accidentally write something that has actually already been put out there. Or it could be like with Helen Keller, forgetting that you had actually seen something before, and confused it with your own imagination.

I heard something mentioned on the radio as well. You also have to be careful if you're a musician. Someone on the radio said, "It either has to be completely original, or really, really good." If you have a song with similarities to other songs, you'll get attacked by people. It's pretty challenging to be creative. Keep that in mind if you think, "Oh, this is so overused," or "There's just no creativity anymore." I fear that perhaps all the good ideas are getting used up, like our Earth's resources...That would be a real shame, so I hope it is not so. But who knows?

Labels: accident, books, classic, creativity, first, forget, helen keller, ideas, inspiration, language arts, library, little men, music, originality, plagiarize, race, song, the story of my life, writing

It's really boring washing my hair, and since the TV is at just the right angle, I often watch DVDs at the same time, so it helps to pass the time while I wait for the conditioner to sink into my head and that kind of thing. I was looking for something to watch, and I spotted a Korean movie that my mom had checked out from the library, called "A Millionaire's First Love". (Look, already the name sounds corny... XD)

Well, I started watching it, and I saw the female lead. She looked oddly familiar. I kept watching and I thought, "Hey, I really do think I've seen her somewhere." She looked like the actress in another Korean drama I watched, "One Fine Day". So I looked up the One Fine Day Wikipedia article (I really overuse Wikipedia. Some people say Tvtropes is better, but I still prefer Wikipedia. I mean, Wikipedia is the most accurate encyclopedia in the world because it can get updated much faster than book encyclopedias). And it was the same actress after all!

The weird thing was that in A Millionaire's First Love, the actress, Lee Yeon Hee, played a character who had a heart problem. In One Fine Day, she was also a character with a heart problem. Was that a coincidence or not? o_O;;

And then there was the male lead. The actor, Hyun Bin, was apparently in another movie, My Lovely Sam Soon/My Name is Kim Sam Soon (it goes by two different names), and I had watched that drama as well. And in Sam Soon, Hyun Bin played a rich person. In A Millionaire's First Day, he was a millionaire. Uncanny?

My mother says that's pretty bad because it means that they run out of ideas for dramas and they have to combine ideas and use the same idea in a different way and so on.

On to some other news. I wore my costume to school the other day. The mask was very shiny and all, but it was uncomfortable to wear. It makes your face too warm, and it doesn't fit too well because my nose doesn't stick out enough to hold the mask up properly (Asian genetics are at fault, I guess?). Oh well. I'll just have to tie it around my head more tightly in the future to make sure it won't slip. But it might make me sweat and be uncomfortable.

I don't think I've ever really talked about the cross country team at my school, so I will now. They have some interesting shirts. Everyone has a white t-shirt saying the name of the school, and Cross Country (or X Country! I forget exactly) and there's that year's slogan on the back. I heard that it started out with something like "No Pain, No Gain" and it went on and on, and last year or the year before it was "Pain is a privilege". This year it's the best one yet. "Burn, bleed, and sweat" is the slogan. Since our school has a lot of good runners, usually the other schools' teams are behind us, so they end up reading what's on our shirts. So the folks coming up with slogans try to make it a little rougher every year. And the kids behind our team will be crying, "Waaah! We don't burn, bleed, and sweat! No wonder we're not winning!"

My PE teacher is eviler than he seems to be. I thought he was a mild, soft-spoken, patient sort of person. He's got a dark side. He was telling one of his students that he only will tell you once if he wants you to stop doing something (like misbehaving and not working hard) and after that he simply takes off points rather than saying anything. So your grade will suffer without you even knowing. Sneaky! D: I heard he used to be a math teacher. I wonder if that has any influence or not. I mean, my math teacher is pretty sneaky too, putting things in his tests that I haven't learned for a very long time.

Labels: a millionaire's first love, burn bleed and sweat, creativity, cross country, drama, hyun bin, ideas, korean, lee yeon hee, mask, my lovely sam soon, nose, one fine day, school sports, shirt, teacher

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