I have not read the book, because, by the way, there is a book with the same name. I thought it would be a good title today because it seems like there some bad signs. In fact, the two signs came in the way of birds.

The first of the signs was the two dead birds I saw. There were two dead birds. The first of them I came across when I was walking home just yesterday. A small brownish bird was on the sidewalk. I wasn't sure whether it was too injured to move or make noise, or if it was dead, so I picked up a fallen pine needle from a tree and poked the bird. It didn't move. I figured it was dead and decided to take a photo of it, because I didn't expect to come across another dead bird anytime soon. Anyhow, as I was going to walk home to get my camera and take a better picture, another person walked by, but he didn't notice the bird - or maybe he did and didn't care, because he stepped on it. I could hardly keep from gasping. Such ill treatment of the dead! I doubt anyone will appreciate being treated like that when they're dead.

And then I saw another bird. When I was going to my classroom I heard some students mention a dead bird. I looked around until I saw it...Another brown bird, but a bigger one than the one I saw before, was lying on the blacktop. I was starting to get spooked. I mean, it's not everyday that you see two dead birds in a row. I walked home today and saw that the first dead bird was still there. It had gotten kicked into the bushes at the side of the sidewalk by some careless pedestrian. I hope that when I'm dead no one will simply leave me half-buried in dirt to rot.

Looking at the pavilion, a place at my school which contains classrooms on the outside and a tall structure (built for shade, I guess?) in the inside, I noticed there were many crows there. It's not unusual to see crows or seagulls, but it is unusual to see many at the same place. There were maybe eight of them there. This is a confusing sign because eight crows means heaven. Maybe I didn't see some of them or I was just counting in a rush. I keep wondering if something bad is going to happen what with all these weird signs. (Perhaps they're just coincidences, but it's much more interesting to dramatize it...) Wait! This means someone is going to die soon and go to heaven! Oh no! (I mean, it's good for you to go to heaven, but it's bad to die, at least in my opinion. Unless you've lived a long and fulfilling life and you have decided you can leave peacefully.)

Because crows and ravens have some similarities, I would often get them mixed up. I remember I have heard a prophecy about the Tower of London in England. If the ravens leave the tower, then London will fall, or something like that. Anyhow, no ravens = bad things happen, to say it more simply. That's why they clip the wings of the ravens, so they can't fly. Anyhow, seeing those crows reminded me of the ravens since I imagined that maybe the ravens escaped and came to my school. (But that's really far-fetched, what with how far England is from California.)

Labels: bad news, birds, crows, death, england, heaven, omen, ravens, rudeness, something wicked this way comes, superstition, tower of london

I guess that applies to women too. 'Cuz I was reading So Far From the Bamboo Grove today, because it's our current book for language arts class, and the mother of the main character died. And, as dead people usually are, she was silent and pale and unmoving. (I was having trouble coming up with a post title today, that's all.)

I've been pushed around a lot at school lately and I'm getting a bit annoyed. For instance, when I was trying to get through the classroom door at lunchtime, the kids were too rowdy and I fell backward, tumbling onto my backpack. It didn't really hurt but I was very upset because I was trying not to let this happen. And also, at the lunch line I had to do a bit of shoving myself to get a good place in line because the lunch lady decided she wanted us to go in through a different door than usual. (This was because we moved to a different location today. The geography bee was going on in the ordinary place. I had forgotten about the geography bee, and unfortunately missed it. So I only glimpsed it later through a window. Mr. Blair was talking to the kids; at this point there were three boys and one girl left.)

That reminds me, once I'm in eighth grade I might be able to enter the Scripps National Spelling Bee. I have never been sure if I'm good enough to go far but I always wanted to see. But unfortunately I never get a chance due to me being in the wrong grade at the moment.

Right now my legs are pretty stiff. I've been standing in an odd position in front of the computer because my mom says you can lose weight by standing for half an hour after you eat. I don't really believe what my mom says since she gets these things from Chinese newspapers (Which I don't trust), but oh well.

Today's country in class (I usually don't talk about this but I am not sure what to talk about today) was Singapore. I was looking at it and I realized they seem to have better living standards than China (They make a few thousand more dollars average than USA! And have a much higher HDI, .922, which is basically how clean and safe it is). They have strict laws, though...Which is probably why it's clean.

Here's an example. A kid lived in Singapore and he was feeling naughty so he decided he was going to graffiti a place. He was caught and was to be publicly whipped. But a lot of humanitarian people said that was cruel so there was a big conflict over it. Eventually the guy stepped up and said he did the crime, he would accept the lashes. (Mr. Blair admires him for at least doing that.) He was whipped, certainly, but due to the people concerned about him he was only whipped a few times, in a wimpy way.

By the way, before I forget, here's this week's cooking schedule...After that I'll be "signing off". :)

Monday - Prepare Pizza! (Mrs. Fromm says that's popular with the kids.)
Tuesday - Bake Pizza
Wednesday - Utensils (Don't ask me what that is because I don't know.)
Thursday - Chicken or Tofu Nuggets
Friday - Cinnamon Crisps

Labels: books, cooking, death, future, geography, graffiti, health, rudeness, singapore, unhappy

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