A n n l y D u o n g

Well since Annly blogged about me why not I blog about her. What to say, what to say hmmm... Well there's a lot to say about her, there's this then there's that and all kind of stuff.

Alrite first off I met her in Haight Elementry School like around third grade. She was a new comer and was getting used to everything. I'm not really sure how we started talking to each other but it just happen. Later on, we played together with some friends in recess so called "tag" something like that good times haha. We mostly had every class together in Haight, and when we both went to Wood School we kind of drifted apart until eighth grade in wood shop. Now, were both still in the same school(Alameda High) and we have a class together in Sutherland's class.

Well lets stop talking about how I met Annly, lets just talk all about her. So umm... well she likes anime A LOT and also badminton. She's a fierce competitor in badminton, so you better watch out, cause she will destroy you :D She love anime and Korean bands like the BigBang even making a blog about it(http://auncia94.blogspot.com/2009/11/bigbangparttwo.html). She likes to tell scary stories on her free time, mostly all gory and killing (cough cough). You can catch some of it on her blog which she put(hella long) and also gives you information about fanime which is pretty helpful.

Ah almost forgot all about her basic information. Annly was born on October 19, 1994. She has a big loving family which contains a big sister, middle brother, then her last as the youngest. She used to have a dog, but got caught by the landowner and had to give it away(Aw Annly you got to be more sneaky!). Her favorite colors
are red, blue, purple, and black. Lets just say she likes a lot of colors mostly like a rainbow but erase the black. She sound so fruity ;)

Well thats it about Annly Duong and hope this will make her happy :D

The Picture hmm (Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window)

The picture in this drawing to me represents a poor or homeless woman in a place like a hospital, or for those people who can’t afford a home. I got this idea mostly by the objects around her like the curtains and the bed. It doesn’t show much of anything else and only those, thus assuming she don’t have a fancy life with a lavish life style. All she need is a bed and a small space/shelter for her to live in. The curtains is one of the big things that made me think to what she is or her lifestyle, because it shows that only a small piece of room belongs to her in a place for homeless people or like a hospital. Also shows her own privacy like one of those hospital rooms that I referred to, where you typically see patients in a room together separated with curtains to close for their own privacy.
The woman in the picture is of course sad (well that’s what I think), looking down at an old wrinkle paper/letter. Of course that paper could be anything at all to the viewers and make them guess on what it is. You don’t have enough proof to what it is other than the expression of the woman’s face and possibly where she standing. Now this is just pure imagination from my head that I gathered information from what I just saw in this picture. The paper/letter that I’m guessing is from her husband probably from war or a letter saying that her husband was killed. I came up with this answer mostly because it’s pretty common in these kinds of pictures where you see a person facing toward the window and reading the letter. Also by where she standing can mean a lot of things, by facing toward the window might mean something involving with the outside world like a war, and if it’s something else not including the outside, she could be facing inside the room or sitting on a chair reading it.
The unorganized/fallen apples on the bed (I think it’s a bed) can also mean that the woman is in shocked after seeing the paper in her hand which shows her expression to the picture. It can give you an image of what happen before she realize the paper and when she does, dropping all the apples on the bed after reading all that was said on the paper/letter.
I like these kinds of pictures because it makes you guess on why the woman is sad, and all the surroundings around her might mean something. It gives you a lot of ideas that you could come up with this painting, and mostly everyone's opinion is different from each other.

I Do, I Have, I Am

As I looked at this painting made by Saul Steinberg, my thoughts about this painting meaning to me were that it represents mostly a farmer taking care of his crops. I got this idea because it shows three phrases “I Do, I Have, and I Am”. These three phrases represent a thing that I thought to believe about that helps each other.

The “I Am” can represent as the earth’s soil, because it’s on the ground below the two other phrases and that the ground can never be change dramatically. It’s still what it is even if there is some dirt on it or other things on top of it. You can change whatever it is on the outside, and yet on the inside it will still be the same no matter what it has become. It’s also become to what it is by the other two phrases which helps taking care of it to have a good future.

The “I Have” is mostly the farmer who works at the field taking care of the soil for it to grow goods. “I Have” and “I Am” both share a bond which helps each other in the process. The “I Have” which is the farmer takes care of the place (watering the plants and etc.) in order for him to maintain a life or purpose, without the crops he will not be able to do anything at all and be left alone.

The quote “I Do” symbolizes as the sun, because of the exotic colors different from the other phrases and that everything mostly connects around the sun. For example, the sun helps the farmer grow his crops by giving it nutrition and food from its sunlight. When the sun do it’s job by giving off the sunlight, the crop will grow beautifully and big with the additional help of the farmer to make it even better.
I like this quote, because its mostly a mystery to everyone and has a different view among all of us which probably won't have the same guess.

Australia Part 6 "Goodbye"

This is my last chapter of Australia that I will be writing about. Finally it’s over haha, since I have six chapters including this one, and I haven’t really been writing about anything else.
Well a couple more days in Australia until we go back to the USA. My family and I were packing up and putting everything away in the suitcases. It took awhile packing everything up, since my family brought a lot of souvenirs and extra clothing. At the end of the day, we had a big feast or goodbye celebration with lots of food and relatives. My cousin from the US and I were hogging all the sashimi that we had. The food was great and I was playing with my other cousin from Australia one last time.
At the last day of our stay in Australia, it was morning and we put all our suitcases in the cars. I took some pictures of the house and one big group picture of everyone. We all got into the car and started driving to the airport. Once we got in there, and were about to leave into the plane. We said one last goodbye to our relatives in Australia. It was very touchy and some of my family started tearing up, because we probably won’t see them for another couple of years.
We all got into the plane and into our seats (I got the window side). Once we lifted off, I looked out the window and I saw mostly the whole Australia continent. It was very beautiful and sunny that day which gave me a great view. I saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the blue sea filled with ships. When we got to a far away distance and couldn’t see Australia anymore, I sat back thinking to myself, yay another fourteen hour back to the US. I looked around bored, and saw my cousin sleeping again like last time in the plane. So I started watching the movies on the TV. The movies weren’t that great like last time, since its replying all the movies over again like “Dragonball Evolution,” “Monster vs Aliens,” and etc. While I was in the plane I was thinking about all the things I did in Australia. It was fun meeting all my relatives there and the great places I visited. Next time their probably going to come over to the US, and I will try my best for them to have the same experience like my stay in Australia.

New Statement of Purpose

In my first blog, it introduced all my other blogs that I have wrote in the past and soon in the future. I still plan on doing the things/goals I previously wrote on my first blog, and even adding more on this blog. So far I have finished a couple of my other goals from my old statement. Now I am still trying to do the same thing and still finish the rest of it. I have already written about food, classes/school, and most of my trip to Australia. I didn't really blog anything else after I started on my Australia trip, which is still going having already about five chapters. It seemed that I just want my blog of the week to be done and get it over with it. Sooner or later that blog will be done (hopefully), and I will move on to typing about my other goals in the future.

After I finished all my old goals, I'm going to have a couple of new ones. Of course writing and grammar is always number one of my important goals that I still have. I will keep on trying to improve on all of it, instead of procrastinating so much and playing video games all day. I realized after rereading some of my old blog post, I don’t really use a lot of my vocabularies words which was one of my old goals. So I will try and remember for my new goal is to use more vocabularies and improve my writing.

In the future I would like to write down about my ideas or things that seem interesting to me. In my previous posts, I wrote mostly about myself and what I do. I mean that’s alrite and all, but I want to write stuff that other people will find it intriguing and learn something that they normally don’t. I don’t want my blog to be just about my life and what I do on all my day when people are reading this. I want this blog to be more and helpful to others.

Australia Part 5 "More?"

Where did I left off, oh yes more trips. One day we left the house very early, got into the car and started driving off to somewhere in Australia. Later we all got off the car and started walking alongside the river heading toward a ferry station. We brought the tickets and went on the ferry. It was pretty cloudy and windy that day to make it better, we were sitting on the chairs outside. We were getting closer to an island that was filled with trees. I asked where we were going and my mom told me we were going to the zoo.
Everyone got off the ferry and had a choice of either going to a bus or walking to the zoo. The zoo wasn't that far, but we still took the bus and rode up the slope hill. Once we arrived at the zoo, we first took a break and had sandwiches for lunch. After that my family and I walked all around the zoo seeing extraordinary animals that we couldn't get to see back in the US. We saw koala bears, giraffes, apes, komodo dragon, and etc. It was very fun and we even got to see some penguins/seals in the aquarium. In the middle of the day, it started to rain hard and we had to leave. we took many pictures and got back to the ferry returning back to the house.
Another day, we went to see the Three Sisters which are famous rock formations in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Don't ask me why its famous its just is, and we took many pictures while we saw the three Sisters. That day too, was very windy and cold. I was freezing to death, but while i was there it had a great view of the mountains lining up together.
We went and saw the Kiama Blowhorn in New South Wales, which blows water to a height about 60 meters long. I thought it was very cool and how to works to blow water up that high. Good thing it wasn't raining on that day, instead it was all sunny which was good. I took a video when it blew up into the air to show my brother and sister back in the US. All the trips that I went to were all very fun and exciting, because its my first time experiencing all of this in Australia.

Australia Part 4 "The Tourist Sites"

Most of the time when we were spending our days in Australia, was going around different places and visiting the tourist site. All of the places we visited in New South Wales, Australia, were great and fun. Our relatives from Australia brought us to many different places like going shopping, cave exploring, to the zoo, seeing the Three Sisters and the Kiama Blowhorn.
My family and I went shopping a lot in Australia going everywhere that sell about anything. We went shopping for clothes, souvenirs, delicious food, and etc that we could find. I brought one or two jackets and some souvenirs for my friends/family. One of the things that were most surprising was my family buying some couple of paired socks in Australia. Also, the first place we went out of all the places in Australia was Chinatown yay... I mean come on, same thing with the socks, we can go to other places that we have never been to or only stuff in Australia we can do, other then Chinatown where we can just go to Oakland. But regardless of that, I learned that Chinatown in Australia is way cleaner then Chinatown in Oakland.
Our relatives took us to a tourist site (forgot the name) where we went cave exploring. It was very fun and adventurous when we were exploring the cave. The tour guy led us all around the cave telling us about its history and how it was found. He showed us some crystals in the cave and some rocks that looks like the Statue of Liberty and some that looks like a big mushroom. The tour guy turned off the lights for us to see how dark it was in the cave when there was no light at all. It was pitch black and I couldn't see anything at all, I thought to myself that it would be scary if you were lost in a cave and couldn't see anything at all. He told us that you would lose all your five senses if you were in total darkness for 45 minutes, you won't be able to tell what up or down and left to right.

I will continue the rest next week.

Australia Part 3 "The House"

Once we got out of the car and arrived at one of our uncle/aunt's house, one thing pop into my head "big, very big house" was all I could think.
Their house was in one of those cul-de-sac places, and I thought it was pretty cool because I never saw one before. My family and I got our luggage first into the house, as soon as we were done, we all went exploring. The house was magnificent for my opinion, it is a two-story building with a huge backyard connecting a walkway to a park, and highly protected so no thieves can trespass. The house have four bedrooms upstairs (three of the rooms being used by us), one bathroom on each floor, one large living room, and a kitchen. Our uncle/aunt even have their own little private bar for themselves in the living room, and a fish tank filled with fishes for the kids.
I thought things couldn't get better (I spoke too soon) until I saw their backyard. Their backyard was pretty big too that include a miniature play structure, a waterfall fountain with pond fishes, a small steam room, a hammock, couples of tables and chairs, overall they have a lot. I am just amazed and blown away for just exploring the house. Come on they even have their own little room where they can watch all their movies with surround sound, SURROUND SOUND!!! I am just jealous of their house when comparing it with mine; it's like a dream house for me. Good thing were staying here for four weeks, so I can do everything in this house that I can possibly think of.
There were about eleven people staying at that house, but that was no worries since the house was pretty big. I was happy that we were staying at this house instead of some hotel when were exploring/having fun in Australia.

Australia Part 2 "The New Family"

I was still awake in the plane, flying to our destination meeting with our other relatives in Australia. It was pretty early and everyone was either sleeping or reading a book, which I was sitting bored to death. I looked out the window to see the peaceful ocean and the sun rising out of the clouds, at that moment I saw land, thinking to myself "We're finally here".
The plane landed, everyone got off and started walking to do their own business. My family and I got our luggage, and waited for our relatives to pick us up. It was mostly my cousin and I first time meeting them since we were babies when they arrived in the U.S.. The ones who picked us up were three of our uncle and aunts (three pairs of couples) who looked to be around their 30s or 40s from Australia. We all greeted each other with welcoming hugs and smiles. Once we got out of the airport and into their two cars, I first noticed that the driver seat drives on the right, instead of the left side back in the U.S.. While I was in the car, I started thinking if anything else was different from Australia. One thing for sure was that winter season over here was like summer in Alameda.
I was told that one of my uncle/aunt have a son and two daughters who we'll live with too till we go back to the U.S.. I was told that I was older than all of them, which was good news because I don't like to be the youngest one. Their son, named Aaron, is only one year younger then me which was very close, the middle daughter, Nina, is ten years old, and the youngest one, Kaitlin, is only five. When we all first met, we didn't really talk to each other that much, but later on we did and got to know each other better. Even though Aaron is younger than me, he is bigger and taller compare to me (sad face). Nina and Kaitlin on the other hand were shorter (happy face), but their only ten and five (sad face again). Their all very energetic and we got along with them easily. It's a good thing, because were going to stay with them for four weeks, might as well get used to this new family of ours.

P.S. I'm going to post my blogs on Saturday for now on. Btw wondering if you(Mr. Sutherland) gave me points for the last two weeks cause I'm not sure if you got my blog or not.

Tatum's Article Paragraph 4

(4.) Though this group of children, almost all of whom were White, did not live near a large Native American population and probably had had little if any personal interaction with American Indians, they all had internalized an image of what Indians were like. How did they know? Cartoon images, in particular the Disney movie Peter Pan, were cited by the children as their number-one source of information. At the age of three, these children already had a set of stereotypes in place. Though I would not describe three-year-olds as prejudiced, the stereotypes to which they have been exposed become the foundation for the adult prejudices so many of us have.

How I annotated this paragraph was by underlining the key information, and leaving comments for me to understand the paragraph much better. This helps me a lot because, I don't have to read and go over again to memorize what has happen. Doing the annotation, I can just read the underline sentences and the comments I put that was important to me to refresh my memory. If I didn't do the annotation, I would take more time and it will consume how much time I have left which would be wasteful. Annotation is important because its an easy way to take notes and helps you understand more about it then just reading the whole thing.

Dim Sum anyone or Dim Sumthing else?

Haha get it? Pretty lame right, haha yeah I'm not that funny. Well guess where I went today that had absolutely delicious food, Dim Sum, which literally means "Touch the heart". Back in the old days, Dim Sum (touch the heart) was originally not suppose to be a main meal, only meant for snacks, thus only touching the heart. Now it has evolved serving a wide variety of light dishes (dumplings, congee, rice noodle rolls, etc.) alongside with Chinese tea (bolay, oolong, and ect.). At first it was unfitting to combine tea with food, because people thought it would lead to extra weight gain. Later, people soon found out that tea can help in the digestion, and soon many Dim Sums' owners began adding wide range of foods. Dim Sum is usually served in the morning until mid-afternoon and at some Dim Sum eateries serve specific dishes throughout the day. Mostly all the dishes come in small portions that includes meat, seafood, vegetables, as well as dessert and fruits. The foods are usually served in small steamer basket or on small plates. Dim Sum's foods are mostly served on a trolley by servers and special food (not consider a dim sum plate, such as a plate of chow mein) are ordered from a menu. Every time you ordered a plate, the server puts a stamp on the bill at the table to record the dishes you order. They then add the total number of dishes all up together to get the price. This is more organized then before, when they just look at the number of plates, size, and even sometimes the color of the plates left on the customer table. This way prevents the customers from stealing or hiding the plates to reduce the price that they have to pay. The bill is divided into four sections labeling the plates as "small", "medium", "large", and "special order". All in all Dim Sum is a great place to eat there, they have delicious food, great service, and it will delightfully touch your heart.

Australia Part 1 "The Plane"

Night time around 8:00 P.M., on July 16, 2009, two cars stop in front of the building and dropped off couples of suitcases. My mom, cousin, grandma, two of my aunts, and I arrived at S.F.O with the help of my uncles who dropped us off there. We are going to Australia for four weeks to visit our other relatives from there. Last time they came here to the U.S. was around ten years ago, and now were going to visit them to have a reunion.
When our plane was ready, we said our goodbyes to our uncle and got on the plane. My cousin and I sat next to the window while my relatives sat in the four seats in the middle. When we took off into the air, I looked out the window and pretty much saw nothing. Of course it's all dark and murky since it was like 9 something when we took off. My cousin, same age as me who also go to AHS was scared of lifting off into the air, because she rarely go on planes that much. I of course wasn't scared at all, but instead thought it was cool to be going super fast and lifting in the air. I laughed pretty hard when my cousin was holding to her seat when we took off and told her the possibilities of us crashing. The plane was slow and tiring for just sitting there for fourteen hours. My butt was hurting, but we got to stretch later on when the pilot of the plane said it was ok. The food in the airplane was ok I guess, the only best thing was dinner that served ravioli with a chocolate brownie for dessert. They show pretty good movies on the plane like "He's just not that into you," "Star Trek," "Monsters vs Aliens," "Dragonball Evolution," and many more. I enjoyed most of the movies and they were all great, except "Dragonball Evolution" that I thought was a great disappointment. My cousin and I made fun of the movie like calling out "Ka ma ha me ha" out loud in the plane. I had a great time in the airplane with my cousin, and I mostly didn't sleep at all in there which I'm thinking why I didn't. I guess I was having to much fun and didn't even want to sleep at all.

Classes

Well I'm going to talk about my classes since I got nothing else to say for now.
Every morning Monday though Friday, I always wake up at around 7:00 a.m. to get ready for school. Same thing everyday for school, brush my teeth, get dress, eat breakfast, and walk to school or sometimes get a drive from my mom. I hate waking up in the morning because I'm always tired and too lazy to get up, but school is school so i have to.
First period I have is physical education or P.E.. I got used to P.E. in the morning because I had it last year too, so I'm ready for anything that they give us. For me, I like P.E, in the morning because its not hot and sweaty but in the morning just a breeze. We play basketball sometimes and makes teams to play against other students. It's very fun in there when you got friends and the sports are fun to play.
Second period I have Spanish 2. Not so great, a bit boring but a least I'm learning a different language. My teacher is Ms. Kennedy and she is entertaining sometimes. She mostly speak Spanish all the time. It's kind of hard to understand her, but I understand the work she gives us.
Third period is world history for me. I have Ms. Casper as my teacher and when I first heard of her, the first thing that came up to my head was Casper the friendly ghost. She is very nice and she do fun activities in our class. One time we did a class activity pretending we were all trapped in an island and are trying to make rules like a government. We all voted for the rules and the jobs that were assigned to us. Our name for the class was called Narnia and was won by majority votes.
I have algebra 2 for my fourth period. We always do work and notes everyday. My teacher is Ms. Survey and she is easy to talk to. All the homework are pretty easy, but once she passes out the tests for it, I always seem to fail on it. Right now I have a C in there because I took one test this week and I took another one today. I have a feeling that I probably failed on this one too because I didn't get most of the problems. I'm trying very hard to get ready for the next one and retaking my first test.
For fifth period, I have you Mr. Sutherland. It's very fun in that class and I learned new things that are actually interesting. You are one of the coolest teachers I saw so far. I'm having a great time in there and I don't get bored at all in that class. You do new things that other teachers don't mostly do at all. For example you introduce us to this site and we write about mostly anything every week.
Lastly I have chemistry for my last period. The class is pretty small and packs a lot of students in there. The class is pretty noisy but Ms. Malik always control it. She gives out worksheets everyday during and after class too. We take notes mostly everyday, but sometimes do labs. The labs are pretty fun, for example we try to find out what this gooey thing was. We touch and smell it to see what it like. After that, we looked at the periodic table chart to see any similar elements it has in that goo. Its pretty boring in that class, but sometimes its fun in there doing labs.

Pretty much : )

Sup, as you all know I'm Nathan Tieu who goes to Alameda High School and I'm a sophomore. Right now I'm just going to talk about my life and my likes/dislike I guess.
For starters, I was born in Oakland and I lived here all my life with my family. I live with my mom, brother, and sister. My brother is the oldest and he is twenty-four years old, while my middle sister is eighteen years old. My mom well... she's like a mom who mostly stays at home to cook, clean, and take care of us. I am the youngest out of all and I'm fifteen years old. I, of course, the youngest of them all usually get bossed around a lot and have to do stuff for them. We all live together happily and I'm so grateful to have them. We have our ups and downs, but we are always there to cheer each other up and have fun.
I'm Chinese American who speaks English and Cantonese. At home when I'm with my family I talk Cantonese to them, while at school I talk English to all my friends and teachers. I love being Chinese and I'm proud of it because of their culture and history. I have a little bit of Vietnamese in me, but I didn't learn any Vietnamese at all and I'm mostly Chinese. I love the fireworks in Chinese New Years and the delicious food they have. I mostly love everything about Chinese and Vietnamese.
I have a lot of likes and dislikes. I like pandas because of their color like ying and yang. I also like sushi and ice cream because they taste delicious to me. I don't like spicy food though, probably because I can't handle the spiciness. One time when I was nine years old, I ate what I thought was a string bean, but I realized when i bit into it, it was a green pepper. I ran around with my burning mouth to get some water. I drank almost a gallon of water because of that, but it was still burning a bit. Ever since that day i vow to myself that i will never put anything spicy in my mouth ever again.

Statement of Purpose

I been thinking about what topic to write about in my life. There are so many things that I can write about. I could write about my food, pets, friends, or even my trip to Australia. But since this is my first one, why not write about my life in school. This is a great introduction to show you first on who i am, and what i have been doing in school. I picked this because it will be a good way of knowing and getting used to me on my personality. Once I explain all about myself, I can tell you other things about my life and what I do. Talking about school for the start is a great way to begin other things and it connects to other topics like friends or family.
My writing isn't all that great and I always get stuck or have trouble in it. I want to improve it and make me a better writer. I hate it when I get stuck and nothing comes to my head to write about, like now. . . Well I want to improve my vocabulary, also the length of my writing. I will keep on practicing until get better at it whenever i have time. I will try and improve my writing and hopefully become one of the best writers in class.

Hi everyone and good to see you?