I was just reading the February 2010 edition of Reader's Digest magazine. (Apparently we only received this issue recently, which is odd. I mean, it's long past February now. I guess they forgot to send it to us before.) This time the magazine had a focus on ways to lose weight and the attitudes of people in various countries about being fat.

Regarding France, many families eat together every night, much more than the percentage in the USA out of people surveyed. And the meals in France are quite long. My French teacher told us that the lunchtime at French schools is about two hours long, so school ends late, like 5:00 pm or so. It's such a long lunch that you might even be able to go home and take a nap (just as long as you got up in time to return to school).

Actually, the longer the meal, the less you eat, given that you talk to someone while eating. If you're holding a conversation while eating, then you don't eat as quickly, compared to when you're focused on eating (as I tend to be). That pretty much explains why eating lunch or dinner seems to take so much longer when my parents are eating with their friends.

In this way, you end up not eating as much even though you supposedly would be spending more time talking. By talking, you have to slow down your eating (unless you eat and talk at the same time, which is disgusting and can also result in choking or food coming out). It's a good strategy, but it does take up time, which is a valuable resource that is impossible to replace.

But the opposite - that less is more - is also true, when it comes to swimming pools. Blackberry Farm, a place of recreation in my town, has its pool open during the warmer months. There's a discount on Sunday evenings (after 5:00 pm), I believe, so my mother and I went to the pool.

My mom had thought it wouldn't be crowded because she figured not many people would know about the pool, but she turned out to be wrong. It was quite crowded. Still, we figured that since we bothered to come we should go and swim. I suppose that less money needed to go swimming means more people flock to the pool.

The deepest section, 6 feet deep, was the one with the least amount of people. (This is an instance of "more is less" - the deeper the water, the smaller the amount of people in it.) The shallower sections were mostly occupied by parents teaching their children to swim.

It brought back my memories of the time when I was still struggling with swimming. My mom and I would go to the YMCA pool because we used to have a membership there. My mom would tell me to do four paces of Freestyle or something like that. It had been difficult for me then. Sometimes I choked on water and became very upset. I used to resent swimming. I feared water. Even showering was something I disliked because I might get water in my eyes. Now I don't fear the pool anymore. I guess the toils and trouble turned out to be worth it.

Labels: conversation, deep, fear, fight, france, lunch, magazine, meal, pool, readers digest, shower, struggle, swimming, time, trick, water, weight, YMCA

The mention of Saturday school would normally bring a different sort of image to my mind. Saturday school is sometimes given as a punishment to students. Some teacher will be supervising the students attending on a Saturday and you can do homework or read a book or something like that. I have no idea what it's really like, nor do I have much knowledge of detention, but although it doesn't sound too bad, I think it would be a pain to have to go to school on a weekend, and it'd also be a blemish on your record (supposing that you had committed a offense to have gotten into Saturday class, right?).

Well, this was sort of a voluntary Saturday school. It had been mentioned briefly on the school announcements that there were flyers in the office regarding a language arts workshop. At first I had not been particularly interested, because my language arts teacher attended a workshop for teachers, but the info taught didn't really apply to her teaching because it was a little too basic (better for elementary school than the upper grades, anyhow), and this gave me some distrust in the ability of a workshop to actually be a help to me. But at urging from my mother, I dropped by the school office to look for a flyer, and found that there were none.

My mother took it upon herself to look up the workshop, presumably on the Internet, and so she registered me for the workshop. As I have said, I was rather reluctant, but I think my mom has inherited my grandmother's stubbornness, and there is no point arguing with her. She insisted that it would be a good experience, and I had decided to try new things in my life (I am not much of a risk taker, but I thought I would miss a lot of good things out there if I didn't...) so I ended up being won over.

This morning I was still groggy. Waking up around seven or eight o'clock in the morning is not unusual for me, but since I was sleeping poorly lately (due to me being sick with a cold) I would wake up and then go back to sleep until about nine. I have never been one for sleeping in that much. My brain always seems to think it is a school day so I often wake up around eight or so, since my mind must be unconsciously saying, "AHHHHH!!! We're late for school!!!" and forcibly getting me up. And sometimes I have to use the bathroom in the morning. If it is late enough in the morning I will not be able to fall asleep again. (But I can't just not drink water. I get dehydrated easily and if I don't drink water I will wake up with bad breath and an icky feeling in my throat.) I can't wait until we go on vacation this summer. Once I get home I plan to not adjust back to Pacific Time so that I can do what I did last summer after my vacation. I would wake up in the afternoon, and go to bed at midnight or some other late time. In this way I got more sleep than I could ever have gotten if my body was following Pacific Time. I hope I can do this again this summer. I have a small chance of growing taller if I can get a ton of sleep.

For the workshop, you could choose two out of three classes offered in the morning, and everyone attended the same class in the afternoon. I picked blogging and oral storytelling for my morning classes. The afternoon class featured comedy. I suppose I should not reveal too much of what I had heard or else anyone reading this right now would not have much reason to attend such a workshop.

I will, however, say that the instructor of the blogging class, who is a professional blogger himself, says that it's easier to get the attention of people with a shorter post and having the text in the beginning be related to the title of the post, whereas having a longer post is to the benefit of people who are already readers of your blog.

He also said that there are different kinds of bloggers - people who write for the sake of writing (who just have to write, it is their passion) and people who write to get read (because, let's face it, it's kind of rough if you're writing and no one ever cares. It's like shouting at a wall or something.). But there are also a few who are a mixture of the two, who write both for writing's sake and for people to read it. I guess I would be the mixture type of blogger.

The instructor seemed to be much more supportive of Wordpress as a place to blog as compared to Blogger. He said that as Blogger is part of Google, even if you asked them a question you wouldn't get a response, but if you need to know something about blogging, you can just drive over to San Francisco and ask the Wordpress folks. Although I have thought about making a Wordpress blog, I am not sure if I want to switch over because I have kept this blog for such a long time...It would be such a pain to make a change.

Labels: blog, blogger, brain, classes, dehydration, help, insomnia, language arts, plan, punishment, saturday, school, sleep, summer, time zone, vacation, water, wordpress, workshop, writing

The Call of the Wild is a book by Jack London that features a dog called Buck. I can't remember clearly whether I've read the book or not, but I think I might have. It was mentioned in the book Nothing But the Truth by Avi.

I haven't read much of Nothing But the Truth yet. What I do know is that the main character is a boy named Philip Malloy who is not very interested in language arts, and is rather disdainful towards The Call of the Wild. Indeed, he wrote something rather interesting as an answer to a test question. Here's a part from the book.

Question four: What is the significance of Jack London's choice in making Buck, the dog in The Call of the Wild, the focus of his novel? Is the dog meant to be symbolic? Explain your answer. Can people learn from this portrayal of a dog? Expand on these ideas.

Philip's answer: The significance of Buck in Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild is that Buck is symbolic of a cat. You might think that cats have nothing to do with the book, but that is the point. Dogs are willing to sit around and have writers write about them, which, in my personal opinion, makes them dumb. I think cats are smart. Cats don't like cold. A book that takes up so much time about a dog is pretty dumb. The book itself is a dog. That is what people can learn from Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild.

Although I find his response to the question amusing, it does show that he wasn't so serious about the book, and his teacher didn't find it funny at all. If I were to become a teacher, I suppose I might end up having to deal with students like him. I wonder, how would I grade students, if I were a teacher? Would I grade them strictly by set standards, or would I give them points for making me laugh?

Well, speaking of "What if", my teacher asked us an interesting question today. Here is the scenario.

- You are stranded in the desert with a total stranger. (You have never met them, you know nothing about them.)
- You have only enough water to keep one person alive (never mind how long for).
Your choice: Do you drink the water and save yourself, give it to the stranger and save him/her, or do you share the water and BOTH of you die?

Perhaps a person's answer to this question reflects their own values and personality.

I said that I would give all the water to the stranger. I have already seen many beautiful things, for I have traveled far and wide - I was even able to see the city of Sydney, my namesake. And I have seen small but beautiful things in my own hometown. I have also gotten to make friends (even if many of them have moved away, and it is hard to keep in contact, I still have memories, and I will cherish them). I have been able to learn to play instruments and learn to read and write and learn to laugh. I have already made some of my dreams reality. I still have goals I have not achieved, but I have already had so much. And I believe it is more than some people will ever get. If I give them the chance to live, perhaps then they can go on to do those things, to have some happiness.

One of my classmates said, "Well, what if the stranger is a criminal? Then would you want to save them?" I may be flattering myself by saying this, but I think perhaps if I gave them the water, then he/she would be touched by noble sacrifice, and would want to be a better person. He/she could go on to make changes in the world. I want to be able to inspire someone. (Though dying isn't the most ideal way of doing so, it is still a way.) And I can die knowing that I saved someone's life, protected the miracle that is the beating of our hearts.

Labels: avi, book, cat, choice, death, dog, dreams, hypothetical, inspire, laugh, life, memories, nothing but the truth, opinion, question, sacrifice, scenario, teacher, the call of the wild, water

No, I did not take a trip out to somewhere, though it may look like I have not been updating much lately. This is not the case. Although my previous two posts, "Germ Factories" and "Thick as Thieves", are supposedly posted on Monday and Wednesday, I actually posted them on Wednesday and Saturday. (I wrote the posts, but posted them later, so what shows up as my posting time is actually the time I started writing them. Sorry if that sounds confusing.) I kept on forgetting to post them until I had already turned off the computer.

Recently, at my house, we had a leak in a pipe. Although I was unperturbed, my parents were not happy because leaks waste water. They've been discussing and worrying for a while, and then finally they had to go out and buy a new part for the pipe. While my dad was out buying the new piece, the water was turned off at my house. When I got up in the morning, I tried to turn on the water to brush my teeth, but nothing came out. I asked my mom, "Where is the water?" She said that it was turned off and that if I wanted to brush my teeth, she could give me some water to gurgle with (probably from a water bottle or something D: ). I declined, figuring that my dad would be back soon.

Then I thought of another dilemma. If the problem could not be fixed, I would not be able to wash my hands after I used the bathroom! I began to panic, thinking that I would also be unable to shower and so I would have to get a YMCA membership again just to use their showers and toilets. I used to have a YMCA membership, back in the day when I was still doing swimming, but no longer...It's kind of sad. I hope I still know how to swim sufficiently. I heard we have to pass a swimming test when I get to high school (treading for 15 minutes or something like that).

Luckily, my dad soon returned and I was able to brush my teeth. It was then that I realized how reliant us humans have become on our modern amenities, like electricity and running water and cars. I once read a book called A Time Apart written by Diane Stanley. In this book, the main character, Ginny, goes to a farm designed to be like one from the Iron Age, where she lives and works with other people who are participating in this project. They are going to live like people used to, using the tools and raising the animals of the people who lived back then. It was rough, not getting to wash much and all, but then when there were power outages in other parts of England, the people at the Iron Age farm were totally unaffected. I think that's pretty cool, that living without the complex things we've invented can actually be better than our modern 21st century lives.

This reminds me of something else I read about. There was an article about the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), which used to be part of the main Mormon church but split from it because they still practice polygamy (having multiple wives). The LDS, the main Mormon church, decided to abolish the old tradition of polygamy because they wanted to be more accepted in the world, since polygamy was not looked upon fondly. The FLDS still sticks to the original tradition of having several wives, however.

At first I held a rather critical view towards them, because really, I don't like the idea of polygamy. One man having multiple wives means he will have many children, and I want to prevent overpopulation if it is at all possible. That also means some men won't have wives, which reminds me of what China might turn out to be like (some folks would rather have sons than daughters, so there ends up being more boys, and thus some men will not be able to have girlfriends or wives). However, women in FLDS seem to be more valued since they can bear children, which is interesting, because in some societies women are LESS valuable even though the purpose of women is believed to be bearing children. This means that although the society of FLDS might appear to be a patriarchy, it actually is sort of like a matriarchy. I approve of having a high opinion of women because I am rather discriminatory towards males (Sorry if you are male, but it is true in some aspects).

If your husband had other wives, you'd think that it would create jealousy. One woman said, however, that "I came to realize that this is another test that God places before you - the sin of jealousy, of pride - and that to be a godly woman, I needed to overcome it." I think that's a good way to think of it. I believe you should learn to overcome your weaknesses, and it will make you a stronger and better person. And a few people don't mind, but actually help add a wife to their family. One woman was very happy to have another wife in her family. The new wife is actually her biological sister. She had an unhappy marriage, and so her sister had been thinking, "I knew my husband was a good man. I wanted my sister to have a chance at the same kind of happiness I had." That's really nice of her. I don't know if I could do such a thing, because I am not necessarily the most compassionate person, and I have never had any siblings...

I still personally would not want to have to share my husband with someone, but I think the way of life of the members of the FLDS should be respected too. The children grow up without TV or social pressure, which could be better for their growth, although they may be unprepared for the real world if they ever go out there. I think it would be nice to sing and to worship twice a day. I am an atheist myself, and I've always wondered what it would be like if I had a religion. My parents don't seem all that interested, but I am.

Labels: a time apart, children, electricity, flds, gender, hygiene, iron age, jealousy, modern, mormon, plumbing, polygamy, post, religion, survival, swimming, water, wife, women, YMCA

Uh, no, I haven't been trying to mix blood and water together in a glass or something like that, don't worry. I'm not one of those people who does things at home when they were told "don't try this at home".

What I mean by blood is heritage. Genes. Posterity. The person or people that will carry your torch when you no longer can. For several years, I have thought that if I decide to raise children, I want one of them to be an adopted child. I once said so to my grandmother, and she reacted in a way that I found strange. She seemed repelled by the idea, even a bit angry. Back then, I didn't know why. But earlier today, my mom gave me some information.

My mom said she didn't understand why I wanted an adopted child. "If you want children, couldn't you have some of your own?" she asked. (She thinks it's reasonable for people to adopt children if they are unable to get pregnant.) Personally, I think adopting children is good because...

1. I read somewhere that siblings that aren't related by blood get along better. (That means I could have one child of my own, and adopt one child.) I think that's good, if it's true, because kids often feel unhappy or underappreciated if they are compared to their siblings. One of my friends says she feels her mother is easier on her sister. I don't want my children to treat each other badly and resent each other.

2. It is helpful in reducing world population. If I had a child, I'd be adding to it, but if I adopted one, the population wouldn't change because that child is "already there". I'm really upset about overpopulation. In fact, I sometimes think of drastic schemes to reduce it. (Like researching diseases and creating or finding one that could just infect people I don't like, and not hurt others. This way criminals and people with irksome personalities could be removed. But I guess then someone would say, "You have to give them a second chance! They can change!")

3. Orphans seem more exciting. Probably actual orphans would find this offensive since it is not a good thing to lose your parents (unless they were really terrible ones). But still, you see orphans in books and movies and all, and that is because they're more interesting. Imagine, if I had an adopted child who was orphaned, they could write something dramatic for their college application.

Then I asked my mom what my grandma found wrong with adoption. My mother responded that it was simply the old beliefs of China. Bloodline is very important (such as having sons to pass on your last name) and so having an adopted child isn't good since they have, really, no relation in genetics (unless you were to adopt a relative, or something?). Also, my mom said that sometimes adopted children lead troubled lives. She knows someone who adopted a child who sometimes gets very angry and needs to be taken to the hospital to be calmed down.

The problems started with acne. The boy reached the age where he was going through puberty. His mother figured it was okay to let it be since his father had acne when he was that age and had grown out of it. However, although his parents didn't mind his face because he was, after all, their son, the boy feared that his classmates would keep away from him because of the acne on his face. He grew very sensitive about it and resented his parents for not taking him to a doctor (I mean, then he could've gotten some medicine. I heard his acne was pretty bad, worse than average) and even struck his mother. Sometimes he would get into a real frenzy and he'd be taken to the hospital to be electrocuted or some other cruel and unusual thing to calm him down. But such effects are only temporary, after all, and so he also grew to hate the hospital because of what was done to him there.

This did make me a bit more wary, but I still will not change my mind about wanting to adopt a child. I think this kind of situation can be prevented if you are very aware of what your child is thinking. I know probably even if a mother asked her child what he or she did at school, he or she might still respond, "Oh, nothin'," or "the usual". Even if it makes you appear bossy and annoying, you should try to worm it out of your child. You should keep everything out in the open in your family. But don't tell your child's problems to other people. Otherwise, I bet anyone would feel like they have to keep things to themselves if they don't want the whole world, or at least the people whose opinions they care about, to know.

Hmm, I haven't decided where to adopt a child, though. Maybe I'll go to China and adopt one of the young girls there. (There are more girls in orphanages and stuff than boys, because you can only have one child in China unless you pay the fine or something, and people prefer to have a son. Especially in the countryside, because sons will stay and work, but girls will marry off) I mean, I might even be able to find someone who looked like me. (But then it would be harder to explain to them that they are adopted since they'd be saying, "What? But I look like Mommy" or "I don't remember any other parents")

Labels: acne, adoption, blood, children, china, daughter, disease, family, lineage, orphan, parents, population, pregnancy, problem, relationship, relatives, rivalry, secret, siblings, water

On Monday, I returned to school after having been away for several weeks. Winter break isn't all that long, but it seemed long to me because I didn't go anywhere this time. I usually travel somewhere during the breaks. Nowadays, I am concerned about saving money for retirement, and besides, I didn't want to have to adjust time zones, so I decided not to go on vacation over the winter break. Over the break, my father and I went exploring the neighborhood.

For quite a while, perhaps several years, a local place, which is called a farm (but has other things, for recreation, like a swimming pool and a golf course), had been under renovation. Sometime in 2009, the changes were done and it was reopened to the public. It was the first time I had seen the place since before it had closed for the renovating. In fact, I hadn't been there for many years, so it was like going there for the first time, practically.

It turned out that two bocce ball courts and a volleyball court had been built. There was also a trail, leading to a place that actually was like a farm (there were farm animals, like goats, cows, and I believe I saw a pony). There was a swimming pool, but it was closed because it was wintertime. It was nice to see the creek with water in it...It's depressing in the summer since the creek tends to be dried out. One of the parks near my house doesn't have water in the ponds either. My dad says that the people of my town dried it out on purpose to try and drive the birds away.

Speaking of birds, the place where I live is really infested with them. My house has birds, which is nice (though some of them look just like the finches I saw at the petshop...). But the park has many Canadian geese, which should not be; the geese already ought to have migrated by now. There's also seagulls and a few crows. My school also has this problem, especially after it rains. I like the birds, except for one time when a seagull pooped on my math homework.

When my mom's friend's family came over to our house, on New Year's Day, the TV was turned on and I started flipping channels. (There seemed to be several Educational Programming channels...Hmm.) Eventually I reached a channel where exceptional moments in music were being played, and so my mom's friend's daughter said we might as well stop there. Some singer (I forgot her name, unfortunately) was singing when a bird flew by and pooped diagonally onto her mouth! It was disgusting. But that bird had good aim.

I was pretty freaked out because I saw a dead bird today. It was pretty well squashed, something disgusting on it as well as blood... It seems like another bad sign. But it could just be my imagination. There is a lot of roadkill nowadays.

Birds aren't the only animals all over the place, though. There are also plenty of squirrels. I have some in my backyard. My mom pointed one out to me, so I ran over to the window to see. It began digging up the grass and apparently found something to eat - perhaps a nut? Then it started eating, before holding it in its mouth and climbing up the tree. The squirrel looked pretty fat. It was a greyish one (maybe that's because of the winter, it could have actually been a squirrel with brown fur). I had seen a black squirrel earlier which was quite a bit skinnier than that one. It didn't find anything to eat in my backyard. I guess the early bird - or squirrel - doesn't always get the worm (nut).

That nut looked kind of like an acorn. Was that from my yard? Or a neighbor's place? Or somewhere far away, like near my school? There are plenty of acorns there. I've always thought acorns were cool nuts. I would like to make some acorn mush, or acorn pancakes, but I'm not sure how. And what would it taste like, anyways? D:

Labels: 2010, acorn, birds, blackberry farm, bocceball, break, creek, death, explore, food, neighborhood, nuts, poop, roadkill, seagull, singer, squirrels, television, water, winter

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