Quickwrite -- Absent from Home for years

If someone has left home for many years and hasn't came back home yet, what may he think or feel upon returning home? Just imagine a Chinese soldier during World War II, he might be forced to leave home to fight for his country against Japanese invasion, what might he feel? My sister had left home and studied abroad since she was 14, even now she is still studying in the U.S. in college, so I can somewhat know what might the Chinese soldier feel from my sister. Here's the list that the person who left home for years may react: 1. Cry in bed since the person misses his(her) home so much 2. Usually get hungry since the person misses the food of his(her) country or the meal his(her) mother cook 3. Become more steady 4. Realize how good is his(her) home 5. Miss his(her)family, especially Mom That's all what I can think...

Quickwrite -- Difference Between Movie and Book of Odyssey

In the book version, it tells the full story thoroughly, in detail; basically, the book version tells exactly the same as the original version written by Homer. However, the movie version skips some parts in the book version, such as the part that tells when Odysseus and his mates landed on lotus flower island. There are some other differences between the book and movie, too. In the book, there are more human beings eaten by the Cyclops; however, in the movie, there are like only 2 or 3 human beings eaten. In addition, in the book, there are more than one Cyclops shown and chasing the men; well, in the movie, there is only one Cyclops shown. Those are the only differences I can tell since I never watch the movie and book about Odyssey before.

Quickwrite -- Hero

When I was child, I always considered Buzz Lightyear, a fictional character of the movie Toy Story. I admired his courage and wisdom and wishing that I'll become somebody like him in the future, a just person with full courage and wisdom. Buzz Lightyear has some characteristic that a hero should have, such as his courage that he uses to save the others, his wisdom that he used to find the way to help and save the others, and his sense of justice; another heroic characteristic Buzz Lightyear has is that he is willing to sacrifice himself in order to save his friend from danger and struggling. I think the reason why Buzz Lightyear can reflect me too much when I was a child is his leadership, traits of being brave and just, and I belief that I am not the only one who considered him as hero before. I might be reflected by different culture when I was child, which was different with the other kids in Taiwan since I mostly watched Disney Channel or Disney movie in my childhood.

A Taiwanese Band with Fake, Nice Look

Besides listening to American, British or other European metal, rock bands, I sometimes listen to metal bands from our mother land, Taiwan, too, such as Chthonic and Anthelion. Concerts of those Taiwanese bands usually have good qualities, and the way they treat their fans sometimes are even better than those bands from The U.S. or Europe, like they often hold meet-and-greets to be interactive with fans. At first I thought they are far better than bands like Linkin Park, the band that didn't even have interaction with their fans in Taiwan during the concert and soon left after the concert, but I soon discovered that I was wrong after I went to the meet-and-greet of a Taiwanese death metal band, Chthonic; the conversation really disappointed me. At first they allowed us to ask some questions, but what they responded always involved in politics and their political ideas, which they indirectly indicated that they supported the independence of "Taiwan", not R.O.C., which was the idea of the green party in Taiwan. Although I stay neutral on politics, this is not what I want to hear or know from them. It's funny that I went to their meet-and-greet to hear their political ideas, right? Soon after I left the site of the meet-and-greet because I couldn't take that anymore. Another event that dissapointed me more than that meet-and-greet was in April, the concert of an American metalcore band, Avenged Sevenfold. There was another Thailand band called Dezember coming with Avenged Sevenfold on that day, they also performed in the concert. Anyway, the concert supposed to start at 7:00 p.m., but somehow we kept waiting, and when we looked at the watch, it was already 8:30 p.m., and the concert hadn't started yet. Some people started being inpatient and asking the organizer to remit, but the organizer just kept telling us to wait since the site was so dangerous that the speak might even fall down and harm people. The crowd became furious and started bulling (I was in the crowd and the one who was angry, too), even some people started singing the national anthem since they got nothing to do. However, when the people were furious and screaming that they were going to crash the stage and site, a man with black jacket went out with microphone; he was the vocal of Silent Hell (a Taiwanese metalcore band), Dan. He commanded us to move backward to make sure our own safety, and we did. After a while, the concert started. However, after the concert, when we started leaving the site, my friends and I saw Dan smoking beside us, and suddenly he shouted some bad words to a person who touched a part of drums, which was put outside, and told him strictly not to touch it or he'll be punched right in the face. I was very disappointed and mad at this: you were just a vocal of a Taiwanese metal band, your band couldn't even be performing with Avenged Sevenfold, the worldwide band that won many awards; your band couldn't even be compared to the band from Thailand! I was so disappointed that he kept being a fake, which he talked nicely to their fan but actually just acting like that. Therefore, I discovered that any band or anything, we can't just judge it by their appearance or how they treat people in front of public. I am still disappoint by those bands today.

Quickwrite -- Appearance Can Be Deceiving

As my experience, you can't really judge a person by his(her) appearance. Judging a person by his(her) appearance may be a great mistake. I remember the first time I met Brian Lin in the summer school of PAS. He looked very clever, well-behaved and shy; he didn't talk much, always wearing an earphone and looking at his cellphone monitor during the break. The last day of the summer school, we met each other at the front door and started to talk with each other; after the conversation, I thought he was definitely a clever person, however, I discovered I was wrong at the back-to-school day. He became very crazy and active when we were playing water polo; he was even screaming when we threw the water polo right into the bucket, which was our target. When we were chatting, he started to talk in the way he talked today, which the tone was always positive, happy ,and made people want to laugh. Soon after, I discovered what I thought of him during summer was totally wrong. Well, it's better to have a friend who's somewhat naughty, always positive and happy. Therefore, we can't really judge a person by his(her) appearance. Another great example is Charlotte, who was extremely quiet and shy in the summer school but became extremely outgoing and talkative after the school started. To judge a person, appearance is not really important, to talk with the person and really understand him(her) is the most important.

Quickwrite - Memorable Moments In My Life

In my life, currently, there are two memorable moments that I will never forget in my entire life.
It's the morning of September 17, 2001, I woke up and switched on the light as usual, but at that time, the light didn't brighten even I switched it on. I felt very strange and went out of my room, and I saw my family members were all looking at outside. I moved forward to the windows and saw a scary image that I'll never forget in my life: there was flood everywhere; the yellow water penetrated into the underground market across the street, and someone was even swimming just to make sure was his car safe from the water. I asked my dad what happened, my dad said that it's due to the strong typhoon, which arrived at Taiwan around midnight. At that time, my grandma and mom were watching the news about the typhoon that was attacking Taiwan; TV showed the video of the flood, which destroyed all of the buildings on the street. However, I wasn't scared though, my dad and I even went downstairs to see what happened. This is the scariest -- although I didn't feel scared at all -- moment I've ever seen in my entire life.
Here's another memorable moment; I went aboard to Florida with my parents to study there about half a year. After we adapt the circumstances there, we went visit those famous, large amusement parks in Orlando and Tempa like Disney World, Sea World, and Universal Studios almost every weekend. The moments we had there were the happiest moments of my life; playing excited roller coaster in Sea World and Universal Studios, watching great shows and learning lots of things in Disney World and watching car racing in Tempa, those were all interesting and unforgettable experiences.

Quickwrite -- My Favorite Fruit

My favorite fruit must be apples. When I was 4 years old, in the living room of my house, my mom carried a plate of sliced peeled apples and put it on the table in front of me, and then she went back to the kitchen. As I remembered, that plate of apples was for the guests who were soon after coming to our house, and maybe due to my naughty personality then, I secretly took one of the slices and ate it. When I first tasted the slice, I was surprise at the taste of it and would like to try another one; when I tried to have the second slice, my mom saw this, and she was very surprise that I finally started eating fruits. Since then, I fell in love with eating apple, and I still like it now.
The taste of apples is sweet and juicy, but sometimes it depends on the quality of the apples; if the apple you eat is sweet, juicy and crispy, the apple you eat is good. I've eaten lots of kinds of apples, some are from Japan; some are from the America; some are from my homeland, Taiwan. As my experience, place of production of apples can't judge the quality of the apples, it's about the environment apples grow and the framer who plants them. Apples are often red, but there are also green and yellow apples; red and yellow apples usually taste sweeter, and green apples usually taste sour. Here's another thing, when you are judging qualities of an apple, besides looking at it, you can also smell is there something smell lightly sweet; if there is, and there's no potholes on it, the apple you choose is good.
I can tell that apples are the best fruit ever since Eve was also attracted by the amazing smell and look of apples and ate it soon after.

Poem Reflection: The Dead

This poem is quite interesting and meaningful. The narrator says that the Deaths have been keeping looking at us through the glass in the heaven. Once we lied on couch, taking drugs, perhaps, the Deaths would stay above you and keep watching you, until you closed your eyes, which means when you died because of large amount of drugs. Therefore, I think the theme or the lesson we learned from this poem is that not to take drugs or do anything that can threat your life, to treasure your life.

Narrative Poem Research - Happiness Epidemic

WIthout any warning, the disease
sweeps across the country
like a traveling circus.

People who were once blue,
who slouched from carrying
a bag of misery over one shoulder

are now clinically cheerful.
Symptoms include kind gestures,
a bouncy stride, a smile

bigger than a slice of canteloupe.
You pray that you will be infected,
hope a happy germ invades your body

and multiplies, spreading merriment
to all your major organs
like door-to-door Christmas carolers

until the virus finally reaches your heart:
that red house at the end of the block
where your deepest wishes reside,

where a dog howls behind a gate
every time that sorrow
pulls his hearse up the driveway.


Compare to the other narrative poems on the Internet, it's relatively short and easy to understand the meaning, more like a narrative poem for children.
There are couple rhymes, like consonance, which is in line 13 and 14, "and multiplies, spreading merriMENt/ to all your major orGANs" . There are meters with two syllables, which is in line 1, "Without any warning, the disease"; there are meters with three syllables, too, which is in line 13, "and multiplies, spreading merriment". The style of the poem is quite cheerful; the diction has made the tone and mood of the poem cheerful and happy. The metaphor is used in the whole poem. The narrator compares happiness to disease, once the person gets ill, the person's misery and blue will be cured and turn into happiness. Also, the imagery of sight well helps create a image of metaphor the narrator has used; for instance, in last six lines, "until the virus finally......pulls his hearse up the driveway", the narrator compares a person's heart to a house, where a dog howls behind a gate and pull the sorrow away. It's a very interesting and cheerful poem.

Life is like Minecraft

A person's life is a Minecraft game, you'll never know what kind of map, the things in your world is like.
You may meet couple rugged terrains or encounter a shipwreck in your life, make your way or goal more difficult to achieve. You may meet spiders, Creepers and skeletons those try to create setback for you. The most important is that only you can build up your life, only you know what your life will be like. You have to collect or look for your elements that can build up your life. Also, you are free to build what kind of your life you want to have, however, you still have to pay effort and work hard, not to take a short cut, and you'll have a life you want. Just like Minecraft, you are free to build everything, but you still have to collect, look for and develop your elements to build up your own world, your life in the game.

Seven Acts

As what Jacque said, there are 7 stages in a person's life. What I think about the seven stages in a person's life is similar to Jacque's.
At first, a baby emerges, crying and sucking the mother's breast milk. Then, after years, the baby becomes a school student, carrying a school bag, holding books and not really willing to go to school. After finishing the school or at the end of the life being a student, the person meets his lover. However, because the person has to serve in the army, the lover and the person are forced to leave each other and promise that he (she) will miss and love each other forever. During the military service, everyday oaths and a quick quarrel become common, doing everything for the reputation. Then, after the military service, the person will meet his lover again and group a family, have a kid and be a father. At this stage, the person becomes steady and mature. The person has grown up. While his kids are at their end of the second stage of the beginning of the third stage, the person has stepped into his sixth stage, being a middle-age man with a big, round belly and a pair of presbyopia glasses, maybe holding a pipe. At the final stage, the person is old, maybe recalling his youth and telling his story to his younger generation. Then, the person closed his eyes, stopped his breath, ends his eventful history, wonderful life, peacefully.

Disrespected

When I was in 8th grade, I had a friend who was popular but actually was hated by most of the people secretly. I remembered that day that he invited me to join his band as a lead guitar player. Well, at that time, I agreed and joined the band he grouped, however, that was before I knew his actual ability. My friend who invited me to his band, was the bass player and vocal in the band. Well, he couldn't play bass well since he didn't even know how to hold a bass, he couldn't sing really well, neither, because of his serious out-of-tune problem.
One day, My friend said that he is the best in the band, and the other players were all worse than him, in public. The people there all agreed with my friend, but actually, they all denied secretly. Why didn't they tell out the truth? Since my friend, who said that he is the best, was angry easily, there were lots of people having a big fight with him -- including the physical fight using fists, -- however, the people who had fought with him were badly injured, and the rest of the people, who haven't had fight with my friend YET, didn't want to fight again. Well, I couldn't watch him keep being arrogant and lying, so I had a big argument with him. He was angry and curse that I can't even play instrument better than him but criticize his ability. At first, I didn't feel disrespected, however, the people around us were asked by my friend that did he play better than me or not, and those people all said that I play worse than him, and I felt extremely disrespected and mad. Suddenly, I felt disappointed that the people didn't acknowledge my ability but conceal it although they might know that I absolutely, 100%, played instrument better than him. And this seemed to be very personal to me, so I felt very mad and almost had the fist fight with my friend and the other people, moreover, those people were my sworn followers, how could they do such of things to me? I felt disappointed, mad, also heartbroken.

Quickwrite -- Things I do During an Ordinary Day

In ordinary mornings, I wake up at 5:45 and freshen up myself for 10 minutes, then I go changing. Next, my dad drives me to the bus station near our house, then I get on the bus to the Hsinchu station, where is located near my school. After arriving at school, I stay there for 7 hours for learning. While the school ends, it's at 3:10, I have to run for my bus home. Between 4 and 5 clock in the afternoon, I arrive at the bus station near my home and get on the local bus home. While I arrive at home, I start doing my homework and study for the tomorrow test. After that, I often chill out myself and do whatever I want, like playing guitar, going on Facebook. At 10:30, I go to bed.
Compare with the poems "Woman Work" and "Daily", my life seems easier and relaxed than the narrator in the poem, since they had so many things to do in a day. Not like me, only go to school for learning and doing homework after school, the life of mine is easy and relaxed.

Quickwrite -- A Choice that Marked a Turning Point in My Life

I remember that 2 years ago, my mom suddenly told me that there is a new musical instrument store starting to operate in our neighborhood, and there were also teachers in the musical instrument store teaching you how to play the instrument like electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass, drums etc. At that time, I wasn't interested in "playing music", so I refused to go there at first. However, my mom said that since I like listening hard rock and metal music, why not go learn how to play hard rock and metal music? Thus, I was forced to go to learn how to play electric guitar.
At first, I didn't pay a lot of attention listening to what teacher taught and didn't practice a lot. However, after 2 months, I was falling in love with playing electric guitar since I can play a complete song by electric guitar! And during the next few weeks, I was invited to join the band my friend grouped and became the lead guitarist although I was not really good at playing guitar at that time. When I was 13 years old, which when I was in 8th grade, my skill of playing electric guitar became better and better, and I started to be interested in playing music. Then, after a few weeks, I remembered it's on the December in 2010, I grouped my own band with my one classmate and an old friend. However, at first, my band wasn't really good and hardly any practices. At the end of 2011, my band had found a lead guitarist (not me) and a bass player, so at that time, there are 5 members in our band. Well, at the beginning of this year, our vocal, who's my old friend had left because of his self-centeredness and bad skill of singing. In this February, actually 2 days ago, my band found a drummer, and we were going to sign up for the band competition on April and July. I and my band mates are really enjoying playing music and banding.
If that time, my mom didn't force me to go to learn the guitar, I'm afraid that I won't be such interested in music, almost like putting the most afford into it. If I really didn't go learn it, I think I will just be like a nerd, staying in front of the computer and keeping playing online game -- before I played guitar, I was addicted to the online game, however, I am not interested in it anymore. -- I thank my mom for forcing me to go learn playing guitar at that time, and I also enjoy playing music right now.

Quickwrite -- Selfless Sacrifice

I have a friend called Chester Wu, however, we've never met each other face to face before, but we've known each other for like 5 years and talked through skype for many times. His family financial situation is not very good, and his family has to beware of their spending every time they buy something.
This just happened a few days ago, durning the lunar new year break, I got like total 20000 NT dollars through the red envelopes given by my family. When we talked about our benefits from getting red envelopes, he said that he only got like 5000 NT dollars (total). I was like, "oh, ok...", and he told me that his family may not able to afford his spending of the tuition of cram school. Then, he asked me to share some of my money (including the benefits from getting red envelopes years ago) with him or he would borrow it and gave back to me one day. However, I've planned to save these money in order to buy a better guitar and other equipment that can help me making music or band practicing with higher efficiency. At that moment, I was thinking that should I help my 5-year-known friend but never meet face-to-face or not? I wanted to help him, but after a long time of deliberation, I decided not to help him by giving my money or "lending" my money. Although we know each other well, however, we still didn't meet each other face-to-face, how do I know that your family financial situation is really that bad? There's also a risk. Well, he still chats with me a lot by facebook often, we are still good friends... kind of?? I'm glad to make such choice.

Quickwrite -- Cherished item

If I can only save one item from a disaster, like fire, flood or earthquake, I think I will pick pillow, which still stays with me for my entire life. It's like my amulet. Though I am not always lucky while I bring it with me, I still feel a shapeless but comfortable feeling that I won't be depress easily. Thus, when I am caught in wars or disasters, I think my pillow will give me confidence and make me feel better. Don't laugh at me, I know it's kinda silly to have a pillow as an amulet or a treasure, but my pillow is really important to me.

Universal Education

After searching "Universal Education" on the Internet, I now understand that the Universal Education is the education for all the people, regardless of class, colors, sex or religion. Usually, the universal education is promoted by the government and if the age of each people in the country meets the standard, the people are forced to go to school to be educated. Under the universal education, the public school is established by the government, and the people in the country with the education policy are allowed to go to the public school to learn things for free (since it's your right to be educated).

The Victorian Workhouse

Workhouses were the institution of housing, feeding and taking care of the people who were unable to attending and supporting themselves. However, if you know how did these workhouses work and the detail of the workhouse system, you will figure out that workhouses weren't really the institution of helping people. For the poor people in the Victorian era, workhouses might be the hell they refused to go.
After searching "Workhouse" on the Internet, I understand that the workhouse wasn't really what it should be like. The poor people were paid in cash, and the paupers who were still living in their home would be forced to go to the workhouse. If the people were able to work, they would be sent and put to work, and if you didn't listen to what your master said, you would get the less salary. If you tried to run away from the workhouse, your family and yourself in the workhouse coudn't benefit and be helped by the workhouse system forever. In addition, if you and your family were sent to the workhouse in the same time, you guys might be separated to the different part of the workhouse and not allowed to mix, so it was also very risky to go to the workhouse.
Even though the workhouse didn't really help the poor people completely, after The 19th Century, the workhouse declined, and the welfare policies rose up. The poor people got more indemnification since then.

Quickwrite -- Which Ghost Affects Scrooge The Most

In the story, "A Christmas Carol", there are 3 ghosts, and their duties are to help Scrooge expiate what he had done bad in his life. Those 3 ghosts, Ghost of the Christmas Past, Ghost of the Christmas Present and Ghost of the Christmas Future, all had helped Scrooge understand somethings, well, I think the third ghost, The Ghost of the Christmas Future affected Scrooge the most.
The Ghost of the Christmas Past showed Scrooge's childhood but made him recall his old bad memories although the Ghost showed Scrooge that he had been happy and smiled before. The Ghost of the Christmas Present showed Scrooge what his nephew thought about him, and he started realizing something and began changing his attitude. The Ghost of the Christmas Future showed Scrooge how he would die in the future and how people treated him when he died, and this must be the most influential to Scrooge, because he had seen what his death would be like and how the people related to him would treat him. From then, he completely changed his attitude and behavior of treating people, and he wasn't greedy, selfish and mean anymore, started helping the poor kids and people in the workhouse by his wealth. Thus I think the third ghost is the most influential one to Scrooge.

Quickwrite -- Theme of "Liberty" and "Exile"

After reading both "Liberty" and "Exile", I find out that they both have presented the sorrow and horror of the people trying to survive in the battlefield. Meanwhile, I also understand that for the people living in the war, dying is very common, people can die easily anytime. Thus, I think the theme of both "Liberty" and "Exile" are that the people can hardly survive and live in the danger every day, they also have to beware themselves every time even they are asleep, because they can be killed anytime. Meanwhile, they both may want to represent that the war only makes pain and injury, so it's better not to let the war occur. I think these are the theme of both "Liberty" and "Exile".