Project Reflection

We have learned key elements, such as plot, setting and irony, but we haven’t really apply it to the novels we were reading this year before and this is definitely a great chance for us to really experience and learn about these elements. They contain in every short stories and long novels, so we wouldn’t worry about not finding some of the elements. Some of them just might not be as obvious while others may be trying to foreshadow or symbolize another thing. This novel is probably one of the few novels I have read the entire novel carefully. I would say that my project is definitely not the best one in class, but I did use all of my efforts to draw this. Making a poster and putting drawings is one of the things that I am really not good at. I even kind of hate it just because I have draw on these posters, but I would put in one hundred percent effort into the project. At last, I think that exercises like these kinds of book reports is somewhat worthwhile doing, especially as an end of year project. It really gives you a great learning experience for reading the novel and getting the ideas of the elements.

911

Security and fear of terrorism is what the Americans learned from 911. Right after the event, there are angers building up from the Americans. People hated the terrorist groups. Now that Osama Bin Ladin is killed, a lot of Americans relieved and no longer feared terrorism as much as they had before Bin Ladin’s death. Ever since the disaster of 911, the United States had been taking careful inspections in airports, fearing that there might be terrorist groups trying to take over the planes again and bomb important places in the United States. People who were from eastern Asia were also being suspected of having any relationships with you since it is considered pretty dangerous that he or she might be in the terrorist group. Their leader, Osama Bin Ladin has ruled over decades and decades, but has managed to fail the country and countries beside it as a whole. Americans feared that there would be a chain of these events coming up and 911 was only a start to a series of terrorist attacks. Citizens now are being more objective and listening to what everyone is saying, which is what we really need, after the deaths of Osama Bin Ladin.

Burned Alive

I think when someone is burned alive or in a threatening situation, he or she would probably think about just everything inside the brain. You might think about your home, family relatives, and about your past memories. I would probably want to send the message to my parents and really close friends that I am about to die. I would have want to study harder if I have restart my life and done it differently. I have my worst experience when I was in second grade. I went to a summer camp and that was the worst and most unpleasant thing that I have in my entire life. If I die that day, it might be the worst news of the century for my parents. I was drowning and another kid was just pushing me downwards in order to push himself up and out of the water. Both of us were struggling for oxygen. It was definitely a very bad experience. If I was pushed down for just one more second, I would’ve been gone from this world. In this case, I don’t think I would be helping that person and trying to save each other. I would do everything I can to save myself, even if pushing him down was necessary for helping me, I would still do it.

Jargon

In the story “Into thin air”, there are a few Jargons. Triage, assigning for priorities of medical care based on chances for survival, is an example of a Jargon. Shibs, a term used by Sherpas to refer to paying members of the expedition, is also anther example of jargon. When we play basketball, we often say “men men” or “twenty three” while we are on the court. Men men is a Jargon for man to man defense. Twenty three is our Jargon for our offensive play. As for students, we also have our own Jargons. For instance, there are also a lot of Jargons we use when we are in the Model United Nations (MUN). Those are the rules that we have to follow we attend the conference. For example, a rule for using third person may be a jargon. Or, we refer ourselves as a delegate is also another example. As for chairs, we have to ask “are there anyone speaking for or against the clause, please your raise your placards high”. The speaker and the delegate would exchange the question once, nd then if the delegate wants to ask another question, then he or she must says” follow up” before asking the question. The chair has to say “granted “ to allow the delegate to ask another question or “denied”.

Risk for a Reason

I don’t think people risk their lives to save a stranger. Only a small percentage of people would do that because of their kind hearted generosity. Others may just wanted to be famous by saving a stranger’s life with their own precious life. I don’t think I would be risking my live for some weird stranger that I have never met before in my whole entire life. Of course, on the other hand, I wanted to be saved if I was the one who is in danger and I would wish some stranger would save me with his or her own life. This may sound really selfish, but this the way I felt and I am not going to hide it from you. I just think it is not worth it to save a stranger’s life in exchange for your own one. I would help people if they need help, such as picking things off the ground, but if someone is about to die at the side of the cliff, it might be a totally different story. It is always smart to risk for a reason, either your friends are in danger, or you wanted to help out. You always have a reason to risk for something that you want or achieve and that’s the way life is.

Why Take Risks

It is really all about the challenge when we talk about risks. Most of the time, mountain climbers have to face some physical risks, such as climbing up a steep hill, or crossing a deep hole between two gigantic rocks. The risks that Krakauer had mentioned basically applied to other risk takers. I have taken risks before when I was climbing those rocks on the wall. I am so scared of that kind of climbing. Those are just made out of artificial rocks that are screwed onto the wall. Some of them are even loose and it is done on purpose so that it feels “challenging” I really hate those mountain climbing trainings because it can be really dangerous if your partner loses the string or if the lock on your body falls out. Climbing up that creepy wall with all your energy was not enough. You also have to face the risk of climbing that mountain. Some climbers climb because they want to overcome their fears while some other climbers wanted to be the special person that could success. Others just like to be in the kind of situation where you are standing between the line of life and death.

Cause and Effect

Cause and effect relationships can often lead one event to another. In the short story “Into Thin Air”, there are a lot of causes that leads down to several different effects. For instance, when his friend has lack of oxygen, he started to loose focus, which led down to opening Jon’s oxygen tank and turned the voltage to the highest. If Jon has a full oxygen tank, he probably wouldn’t be having a hard time coming down from the summit and he would have stayed on the “top of the world” for longer rather than just staying there for five minutes. I think another cause for the climbers to have a hard time climbing Mount Everest is that there are too many people climbing the mountain, so it would be quite hard for them to get across each other when they intersect at a small passage way. These causes may also lead down to multiple effects, for example, death is one of the effects where many people die due to lack of experience and oxygen. Cause and effect is often one of the most important key elements that help understand the plot of the story so the readers doesn’t need to have a hard time comprehending.

Compare Disasters

Both the Krakauer story and the story of the titanic faced some sort of disaster. The setting is quite different though. In the Krakauer’s story, it is on Mount Everest while the story of the Titanic took place in the ocean. If you read carefully, you would see that the ways they are told are quite similar. Time is an important key element inside both stories. There is always exact time being shown at the top of each paragraph, emphasizing that time was passing really slowly compared to the reading speed. Despite the similarities in time, the places where the events are occurring are quite different. If I am not wrong, I think both stories are told from the third person point of view (omniscient). We could really see how both stories turned out to be a terrible disaster including casualties at the end. The tones of the stories also sound similar, since both of them are kind of gloomy. Even before finish reading the story, readers could easily infer or guess what will happen at the very end of the story, since it is quite obvious to guess from the foreshadowing the author has given inside the story, making readers easier to comprehend.

Participants

I think the job of a journalist should be giving out facts or what is actually happening in the situation. At the same time, I also believe that journalist can give some of their own opinions on the event. It is impossible for a human being not to be biased, so why bother trying to be neutral and give out all the facts without any opinion. A journalist may be facing dangerous situations while reporting. For instance, a journalist may be taking down his notes on what was happening while he is in the terrible disaster, such as hurricane, himself. I believe that in order to be a participant of an event, one has to really experience the situation like people who were in it. If a journalist can only give descriptions from the participants, I wouldn’t really consider himself or herself as a participant. On the other hand, if the journalist can use descriptive details on what had really happened, especially to him or her personally, then I would consider that as being a participant. The journalist not only has to have his or her own thoughts about the event, he or she also has to give some sort of experience to prove that he or she took part in the situation.

Risk

Risk is actually a big challenge and that is probably the main reason why people take these risks. I like to take chances, but only those that won’t be very risky. Taking chances actually gives you a life experience and it also contains a lot of fun. I have been on a nine feet tall diving board before where everyone was just telling me to make a dive. It was really hard for me since I am scared of heights. But at last, I still took my chance and risked my own life by jumping off the diving board and falling into the water that is nine feet below. If I could make that decision again, I think I wouldn’t make the same choice as the one I made. I would just turn around and walk down the stairs. If you really think of the consequences and risk you are taking, you would find it unworthy. By jumping off the diving board, you might be hurt really badly, have a heart attack, or even more severely, death! I really recommend everyone to really think about his or her consequences and effect before risking his or her chance because the consequences may be really severe.

Free Write

Wow! I think this is like the first time where we can free write on our journal blog this year. I remember we used to free write every single class when we were in eighth grade. I used to write about my fantasy baseball team every single day. Good old days! I no longer play those anymore, so I am not going to write about it today. There is only two more days left before my SAT Subject Math II test is coming up. I am really nervous right now. My target for this test is to get eight hundred, which is full score. It is really not that hard for me to get it, but I really have to be careful and not make any stupid careless mistakes while taking the test. This is the my second time taking SAT Subject Test. I tested my first one in November, the Chinese one. It was fairly easy even though I still had some pressure. We went to Tim’s house in Taipei right after the test and played. This time, I am going to be taking the test in Hsinchu, so I don’t have to wake up that early, but I still have to arrive at 7:45 in the morning that day. Can’t wait to finish my test and relax!

A Challenge

I do enjoy some challenges, but not all of them. I like challenges in activities that I am interest in. I am more into physical challenges even though I would also do very hard math questions from time to time. I have once faced solving a six degree polynomial. Trust me, it is really not as easy as you think it is. I am still having a hard time believing in myself that I had solved the question on my own. Basketball training is always a big challenge for me. Running stairs, doing pull ups, sit ups, push ups and practicing low post moves are all challenging. I could imagine myself doing these things without feeling tired. What a dream! My stamina is pretty low, so after running a few time up and down the court, I could really feel challenging because it would be hard for me to run down the floor while still catching my breath. Academically, SAT is probably the most challenging test for me right now. I just think that lives of high school students are all surrounded by this challenging test. You just have to study hard every single day, little by little. It’s the kind of test that you cannot just get a high score by reading everything in a night.

Highwayman

Why does Seamus say there are similarities between what happened to Frankie and what happened to the Highwayman in the story “The Typhoid Fever”? The similarity is that both Frankie and the Highwayman are in similar situations. The relationship between the Highwayman and Bess is like the connection between Frankie and Patricia. I would agree with what Seamus said because it seems to be true. I would say that mainly because that both of them fell in love with a girl. I wouldn’t really call the relationship between Frankie and Patricia as a romantic one since both of them have serious illness. Neither of them is healthy, which is a pretty sad thing. Another thing that doesn’t make this romantic is what happened to Frankie later on. He was being sent to another room, not even close to Patricia, and had to stay there alone by himself. Like the relationship between Highwayman and Bess, Frankie and Patricia had to be separated and couldn’t be together. When Frankie was segregated, he had the same feeling and thought that the Highwayman when he was forced to be apart from Bess. Despite their different backgrounds, they still ended up having the same ending.