# 70

# 70

     Yeah me! The last blog!! At the beginning of this quarter, I really can’t imagine that I can do the blog in English every day! It’s really glad to see the number of the blogs increased continuously. When the number increased to 70, it means that this course is going to end.

     Eng 110 is relatively tough for us international students. It’s totally different from EDU 107 or 108. The requirements are more restrict and the amounts of assignment are greater. I think the Eng 110 course is pretty useful. It improved my writing skilled dramatically. Such as the blog every day, at the beginning, it’s really an annoying homework since I always need to spend a lot of time to write down at least 250 words. However, till now, the rate to finish a blog is much faster than the rate two months ago. The blog also impel me to concentrate on thinking.

     The other thing we did a lot in this class is peer reviewing, from choosing the most appropriate opening paragraph to writing the Commonplace memo. It’s also a helpful way to improve our writing skills since reading other’s essay can broaden our mind and break the mental set. We can discover different views and aspects based on the same thing.

     The last thing I want mention is the writing center. It’s also a great gain from ENG 110. At first, I didn’t expect to get a lot of help from the writing center since the purpose I go there is for the extra credit. However, after I went there for the first time, I am really satisfied with their high-qualified tutoring.

     Time to say goodbye to the blog~~~

# 69

# 69

     I lived in China for more than 18 years; during this long period of time, I always accepted a lot of Chinese tradition customs and culture. We celebrate several ancient festivals and obey the old regulations.

     When I came to America last year, the new environment and culture has a lot of different from what I have experienced for 18 years. I have to say that American people are more friendly and easygoing than Chinese people in some way. For instance, in china, no one would say something like “bless you” when people around he or she makes a sneeze. American people would say these two words under any situation such as in the dorm or classes to people who make a sneeze they may even don’t recognize. This is totally different from Chinese people. Moreover, when people meet with each other at the corridor, they will definitely greeting with each other passionately. If they are not in a hurry, they may stop and chat for a while. However, this rarely happened in China, I just know two neighbors out of 8 families who live the same floor with me. We even don’t talk to each other when we are waiting for the elevator.

     Another matter makes me think American people are warmhearted is the host family. The first people I met in America is Rachel, she picked me up from the airport and provide me the place to live when the dorm hadn’t opened yet. Rachel is really a nice person, when I lived with her; she really took good care of me. She also invited me several times after I move to the dorm.

# 68

# 68

     To be honest, I am really timid; there are a lot of things that scare me. I’m so afraid of insects and horror movies. Once I heard about a ghostly-story, I can’t sleep well for a month.

      However, something scares me the most is snake. When I see its long dapple skin and crawl on the ground, I feel scared. And when I saw its big eyes and long tongue, I can’t help closing my eyes. There is a old saying in China that once bite by a snake, you will be afraid of shy for ten years. See how snake are terrifying?

      The degree I scared of snake is so deep that some of my friends can’t even understand that. There are two pages of photographs about snake in our junior high school’s biology textbook. Once I saw these two pages, I closed the book immediately, when I think I became calm enough, I took out a scissors, some glue and some paper. Yep, I covered those pictures by stick the paper on it. It I don’t do this, I think I won’t open this book again.

      There is a crazier thing about snake. Once I travelled to Hangzhou, also a big city in China My dad’s friend invited us to have a dinner, and there is a course which is make by snake. At first I didn’t realize it, when I bite it, my dad reminded me that was a snake, I spit out the food in no time and rushed to the restroom. I couldn’t eat any more food on that dinner. Horrible experience.

# 67

# 67

     The earthquake occurred in Japan yesterday has no wonder became the most momentous news these days. The scene of ten meters high wave attacked the shore is really shocked and awful. Although I don’t connect it to doomsday of world in 2012, I still concern it a lot.

     Frequent occurrence of natural disaster really makes me worried. It’s for sure that after every cataclysm, a lot of people will lose their life or home. When I saw those victims has no place to live and have to face the pain of losing their family through the TV, I really feel sympathize. I still remember the earthquake in Yunnan Province, China in 2008. The severe earthquake caused negative consequence. Many building collapsed; as a result, many people were crushed or surrounded. The natural calamities not only rob people’s regular life and anima, but also affected the world in many other aspects. These disasters will cause big damage to the countries’ economy. The government must spend a lot of funds to restore the disaster area, victims should be set up well, the ruined building should be cleaned and rebuild the social infrastructure. And the stock market will also get damage. For example, just several hours after the earthquake happened in Japan, the stock decreased dramatically. Moreover, the natural damages will also cause the turbulence in society. Since many people can’t bear such attack, they may lose the hope of their lives and become insane. Their unusual will bring a lot of trouble to the society.

     Natural disasters can’t be stopped by human being and it can really bring a lot of serious result. So it really concerns me a lot.

# 66

     To be frankly, sometimes it’s difficult to discuss about myself since I don’t know where to begin. As a result, I started to find who I am by constellation commentary from junior high school and I’m so believe in it.

     I was born in early June, so I’m a Gemini. I love this constellation!!!

     In a lot of website or magazine which talk about constellation, it always mentions that Gemini has the highest average IQ. I think it is too arrogant to introduce oneself intelligent. However, I think I’m quiet creative and active. When I participate in a team to accomplish an event, I can totally plough and blend into the group very soon.

     I am an ambivalent person; it is exactly what the zodiac article said. Many people describe like that there two person live in Gemini’s heart; they always have opposite ideas and argue with each other. I think it’s a vivid expression. I always feel it’s hard to make a choice between two items. When I go shopping, it will take me large amount of time to decide which one I should take it with me and which one I should give up. Sometimes, I hate this personality because it makes me indecisive.

     However, like the magazine reported, Gemini is outgoing and chatty. This description is also very suitable for me. I really like chatting to people, either face to face, or through the Internet. I prefer to hanging out with my friends at weekend instead of staying at dorm all day long.

     All in all, I’m a typical Gemini.

#65

#65

     Talking about a different time period, the first thing I thought is traversing to the ancient period. It’s such a popular topic among us teenagers. There are a lot of time traversing novels which are really attracting, there is even a TV show about a girl’s life after she traversing to the Qing dynasty which is 300 hundred years ago. The beautiful stories in TV show and numerous novels make a lot of teenage girls dream about having a traverse someday, of course, including me.

     If I was born in ancient period, I want be strong female. Because of the serious gender crimination, women in ancient times has power, what they can do were just depend on their husbands or fathers. This aspect really made me feel uncomfortable and unfair and eager to change it. To be a leader, I think it’s necessary to learn Kung Fu. In old times, who was good at Chinese Kung Fu must be a respectable person. It seems like owns high skills of Kung Fu is a requirement for being a powerful person. As a result, if I born in ancient time, I will try my best to learn Kung Fu, it can not only protect myself, but also help others.

     I don’t like to be a daughter in a rich and powerful family, although I may feel satisfied at materially aspects. But it’s for sure that I wouldn’t have any freedom. The life in the society which lack of high technology must be very interesting.

# 64 mistake

Like Miley Cyrus’s song Nobody’s Perfect said, everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days. I really have made countless mistakes since I was a child. From break the glasses to make wrong decision, mistakes never being apart from me.

The biggest mistake I have ever made is I didn’t listen to my mom’s advice so I lost 2 cell phones within half a month. It may be normal if someone’s phone was stolen and it’s not all owners’ faults since it’s a common society phenomenon. However, being stolen twice in such short times is really unforgivable. I always like to put the cell phone in my pocket. And when I am wearing long coats, I can’t feel the items in the pocket. As a result, the first phone was stolen when I was waiting at the roadside to across the road. I was extremely upset because I just used this it for about 2 months and I really liked it. I set all the responsibility to that thief; I think it’s his entire fault. Why he was so mean to stole my cell phone?! I didn’t think any wrong about myself. My mom told me that I shouldn’t put my stuff somewhere I can’t feel; however, I ignored her totally.

     Two weeks later, I lost my phone again just at the opposite way of the same road where I lost my origin phone. For this time, I just realized I’m so wrong. I should listen to what my mom said. I was so regret to put my phone to the long shirt and didn’t check it on time. This is one of the most painful experience in my life.

#63 Best Friend

I have several BFF, one of them is Joy. Joy is my classmate in junior high school; she is a transfer student and come to our school in the 8^th grade. We began to know each other at the cafeteria since we were sitting the same table. Joy is a lovely girl; her skin is a little bit of dark so she has a nick name called “Little Dark”.

After we graduated from the junior high school, we were enrolled in different high school; however, we still keep in touch frequently, we met each other about once a month, every time we meet, we can’t stop our talking; we share our trouble and happiness. Stay with Joy is really comfortable.

Actually, I have 3 BFF in junior high school, all four of us are very close to each other, however, and both Joy and I choose to study to USA so we contacted more. Since she is in Pennsylvania, we can’t meet each other easily, so we change to Skype. I really treasure the time when I skype to Joy since we are both busy and it’s not easy for us to have enough time sit in front of the desk, looking each other from the webcam.

This winter break, I am moved since Joy spent 10 day staying with me from Pennsylvania. Once we are skyping, I just mention that I will stay in campus about half a month and have nothing to do, 4 days later; Joy told me that she had booked the flight ticket. Since both of us aren’t stay in very big city, the way she came is so complex. She had to take a train first, and then take a flight which also has a transfer. Thanks to her, the first Christmas and New Year Eve that I was not stay with my parents was not lonely.

#62 place

b     I have travelled to a lot of place both in China and several other countries. Every place has its own distinguish feature that attracts me a lot,; however, if someone ask me which place is my favorite, I will choose Shanghai, my hometown without any hesitation.

     I lived in Shanghai for almost 18 years, and I really this metropolitan, this is the place accompanied with my growth. Shanghai is developing in such a rapidly pace in these 20 years. I still remember the environment when I was just a primary school student. I lived in a apartment which is allocated by father’s company, that is a lot of kids in that building; since our parents knew each other, we were also very familiar with each other and we even studied in the same primary school near our home. The life at that time was worriless.

     Times fleet, soon I become a junior high school student, and we moved our house to a high-level building which is near to my high school. The life is changing dramatically. There are more and more tall building in those year. Originally the highest building in Shanghai is Oriental Pearl Tower, but then is the Jinmao Building, and now is the Shanghai World International Financial Center, which is the third highest building in the World. Fortunately, I can see all this three building thorough my home’s window, it’s really exciting to see more and more brand new high-rise building appeared.

     I love this fast developing city, although the life in Shanghai is in quick pace, but also high quality. People there are passionate and creative. Now I’m missing this beautiful city, and I am looking forward to see its improvement in this one year.

# 61 Three Stories

     Admittedly, it’s easy to think about several real stories about myself, but really difficult to figure out even one lie. Maybe I can’t be a good liar. All right, the following are my three stories; let’s see if you can find out the fake one.

     I’m really an edacious person; one of my drawers is full of snacks. The expenses on food take the biggest part of my living expense. When I am doing my homework, or watching a movie I really can’t help myself stop eating snacks. What’s the craziest thing I’ve done with my friend is the first time we had dinner at North Common. Since it’s the first time, we are both so curious about all the new things around us that we picked up a lot of foods. We took the staple food three times, then the fruit and vegetable, and cakes last. We ate more than 10 plates together, and can’t turn the dishes back by one time.

     I choose finance as my major since I thought I can’t do well in engineering such as physics. In my high school, my worst subject is physics. I just can’t understand that damn electronic, magnitude, energy issues well. My exam scores are always lower than the class average. It’s so awful, I usually ask myself why I can’t do this well but cannot find the reason.

     My friends also say I am quite like study since every time they come to my dorm, they always see me sitting in front of the desk with a math or economics book on the table. Actually, they don’t find the truth, when I am doing homework; I can’t focus on it for a long while. For instance, once I was writing an essay, every time I wrote several sentences, I can’t keep moving on, and then I watch the big bang theory. At last, I use 4 hours to finish a 3-pages essay.

    Can you find out which one is fake?

# 60 word gelivable

     Today I’m going to blog about a special word, it’s an English word, but few Americans know the meaning while almost every Chinese know it. “Gelivable” Hah hah, how many of you understand the meaning?

     Google the word “gelivable”, we can see that “gelivable” means something is cool, or cooperative. And “ungeliable ” means just the opposite. Actually, this world is created by Chinese, and is an English alphabet of a Chinese word which is “geili” in form of pingyin. Separate this word, the first part “gei” means give or to be given, and the last part “li” means power or force. So the word “geili” means “be capable of”. For instance, if you earn 30 credit a quarter and get the GPA of 4.0 in total, you will be extremely “geili”.

     This world appeared in China since last year, and widespread across the whole country in shortly several months, it’s seems like everyone use the “geili” instead of “cool”, “wonderful” and “awesome”. And the word is really depicted the plot vividly.

     But how it comes to the word “gelivable”? According to my memory, this word is appeared in early this year on RenRen, which is the Chinese Facebook. According to yahoo, “some people, with nothing better to do, take the chance to translate it into English. Since “geili” sounds like “geli” with the “e” reduced to schwa, they invented the word “geli”. And Chinese does not have part of speech, they created “gelivable” the adjective, and “gelivability” the noun.

     Is it interesting to hear a English word created by Chinese people?

# 59 Major

# 59

     Admittedly, at first I choose the business as major since it looks like I have no other optimal choice. I’m not so good at engineering courses such as chemical industry and electronic engineering. And when I apply the OSU for business major, I’m not satisfied with my situation because I know that there are so many Chinese students choose this major too, and this means there will be enormous competition. But when I’m reading Mankiw’s Principles of Economics last summer, I felt that I’m kind of interesting in it, I began to eager what I would learn from Fisher. After attending the BA survey course and focus more on the business issues, I set my sights on business and finance. And last month, I’m so excited and surprised to receive the email which announced me that I’ve been accepted from Fisher and get into the finance major. I’m quite surprised because when I fulfill the application form last quarter, I chose the application date on June 1^st, but the enroll admission come so quickly. I’m a little unhappy since although I’ve enrolled in the Fisher college, I can’t learn the specialized courses since I haven’t finished the basic course and I had to pay more 500 dollars tuition from next quarter.

     I choose finance as my major instead of other popular major such as accounting and marketing since finance has a broader range, and expand to more areas. Finance plays a significant role in not only a single company, but also the whole society.

     Choosing this major also means I must withstand overwhelming pressure and competition, but I will try my best to rank on the top.

#57 Dream

The life is meaningless if one person don’t have a dream. The hope is essential propulsion for people to keep on moving forward. I have a lot of dreams, and I always think that make wishes can make my dreams come true. One of my friend told me an interesting legend that if I saw a plane, use hands to frame it and make wishes at the same time; when I counted for 100 planes, my wishes will come true. Although I think it’s so ridiculous when I first heard that, but I still had a try.

Back to the topic, I have had a lot of dreams. When I was young, I always had some impractical dreams like having super power. But when I grow up, my dreams have become more realistic. Actually, now my dream is really simple, it may not count as a dream, but the expectation of my future life. A happy and meaningful life is what I want. First, I want to have a wonderful and harmonious family since it’s the basic of having a complete life. I really hope all my family members have good health. All of the family included kids, lover and parents live together. Having dinner with family is the sweetest thing, I can really feel the warm of the home when we talk about our daily life to each other, and taste the food made by parents. Moreover, having a having a good job is also what I hope and I know that if I want to make this dream come true, I really need to intensify the effort.

# 56 Memo

Title: Who’s who in domestic violence?

Date: 03/01/2011

Subject: Individual Memo

Decision: Revise and Resubmit

Dear Author:

It’s grateful to you to submit this article to commonplace. Your argument in this paper is that men nowadays are also suffered from domestic violence, both mentally and physically; however, people always don’t notice that. And you did a great job to change reader’s mind that not only women can be the victims from domestic violence. In my opinion, your article is quiet timely, compelling and relevant.

According to your article, I can find that the topic is timely since the MTV shows also choose to use these themes. Television is a good standard to measure whether a topic is whether opportune. Only topic which is popular enough can be showed on TV.

And I think the article is relevant due to these two examples of MTV shows. Both two examples describe how the men were also got hurt from their wife or girlfriends specifically. From these two examples, it’s quite easy for readers to feel that men can also be the victims from domestic violence. For insurance, according to the article, “Amber would scream at Gary, chock him, punch him and call him horrible names.”(Para 4) Those words are really relevant.

I think the article is relatively compelling since many couples nowadays do have such problem that men are treated unfairly. But I think you should use more contents to show the connection between the topic and readers.

It looks like some of your sentences have the problem of grammatical issues and comprehension issues. It seems like you didn’t use a lot of commas to separate the sentences when you are using clauses. And several long sentences like 2.4 is little bit of hard to understand.

At last, thank you again to have interest in commonplace and submit a good article. And I think if you do some revision, the article will be more perfect. Wish you good luck.

Sincerely,

Fan Yang

#55 Nature

     There a lot of fantastic view in natural world. I like to feel the power of ocean when I go to the beach and I will be attracted by the cloud plains when I climb to the top of the mountain. The nature is really dulcet. What fascinates me is the starry sky.

     When I was a child, I already like to count stars. I really like those like little white and shining spots hanging on the sky. I always fall in to sleep after count for a while. When I grown up, I won’t count the number of the stars because I know I can’t all of them and the stars I saw every day are different from yesterdays. However, I began to have interested on constellation, just looking at those stars didn’t satisfied me anymore. I even participate in school’s astronomy club in senior high school. One of the most expecting thing every week is go to the observatory and search the sky by astronomical telescope. Because of the pollution, we can’t see many stars in Shanghai. So from the telescope, it’s really excited to see the stars all over the sky.

     I still remember the time of social practice in the high school. We went to a farm at the suburbs of Shanghai and learn how to farm. The environment there was much better than city center, so it’s easy to see a lot of stars in the sky. One night, my best friends and me lay on the grasses, looking at the sky and point out the constellations that we can recognized. It’s a really good time.

# 54 First Crush

     Well, the first time I liked a boy is in my primary school’s life. I began to kind of like him till 4^th grade because he started to sit behind me at that time. He is really a cute guy, seems like there were also several girl liked him. Yep, he is just the right kind of boys those who can gain girls’ hearts easily. He had a good-looking face, and was really active in the class. He was instructive and his score ranked high in the class; moreover, he was really good at sports. It’s weird that why I didn’t notice him until the fourth grade, hah hah. After we sat close to each other, we became more and more familiar. Our teachers sometimes knocked at our desks to warn us not to talk too much in classes. It’s really strange that why we had so many things to talk every day. At that time, we were not only good friends, but also competitor. I was also rank in the top 10 in the class, so we always compared our scores, from the subtle quizzes to final exams. Sometimes, we even can’t wait the teacher to announce the scores to class but rush to the office and asked for scores instead. Admittedly, I improved my study dramatically during that period. It’s a shame that we didn’t get into the same junior high school, but we still keep in touch with each other at the beginning of the high school. However, we gradually stay away from each other. However, now I still think about that period of time occasionally, it’s really one of my greatest time in my life.

# 53 pet peeve

     I really don’t know what to write when I first look at the syllabus since I can’t understand what pet peeve means. After I look it up in the dictionary, I know that the “pet peeve” is actually means a uniquely personal irritant.

     I really had a lot of bad habits, what make me most annoyed is carelessness. It really affects my life greatly. I always talk to my friends with fun that half of my life is spent in finding things. It really chagrins me to find my Buck ID when I am going to leave the dorm. Moreover, my desk is such a mess, when I am finding something, lots of stuff fall to the ground. And every time it happens, it is about to make me crazy. What’s the funnier thing is that sometimes after I have looked for my eyeglasses everywhere for several minutes, I noticed that my eyeglass is right on my nose!!!

This problem has accompanied with me since I was a primary school student. And it not only affect my daily life, but also influence my study considerable. In primary school, almost every math test, I got 96 or 97 out of 100, I understand the questions and know the definitely way to solve these problems; however, I was so reckless that I always copy the plus sign to minus sign, or missed a zero. This problem really makes a lot of trouble.

I make the decision to kick this habit a lot of times, but always failed. However, I still try my best to improve to be more and more careful.

# 53 pet peeve

     I really don’t know what to write when I first look at the syllabus since I can’t understand what pet peeve means. After I look it up in the dictionary, I know that the “pet peeve” is actually means a uniquely personal irritant.

     I really had a lot of bad habits, what make me most annoyed is carelessness. It really affects my life greatly. I always talk to my friends with fun that half of my life is spent in finding things. It really chagrins me to find my Buck ID when I am going to leave the dorm. Moreover, my desk is such a mess, when I am finding something, lots of stuff fall to the ground. And every time it happens, it is about to make me crazy. What’s the funnier thing is that sometimes after I have looked for my eyeglasses everywhere for several minutes, I noticed that my eyeglass is right on my nose!!!

This problem has accompanied with me since I was a primary school student. And it not only affect my daily life, but also influence my study considerable. In primary school, almost every math test, I got 96 or 97 out of 100, I understand the questions and know the definitely way to solve these problems; however, I was so reckless that I always copy the plus sign to minus sign, or missed a zero. This problem really makes a lot of trouble.

I make the decision to kick this habit a lot of times, but always failed. However, I still try my best to improve to be more and more careful.

# 52 Trip

     Weekend again!!! But I didn’t have a very nice day because my math midterm was delayed to next week since the professor didn’t prepare enough print. Oh my wonderful weekend, bye~~T-T

     I am a travel lover. Since the first grade in primary school, I travelled almost every weekend. At first with my family, then with my parents and their friends, and now, it turns out with my own friends. I’ve travelled a lot of places, both internal and external. China is really a beautiful place. Both the ancient cities with traditional cultures and amazing landscape are so attracting. However, travel is not just about these. The trip I have the deepest impression is the two week USA trip in the summer of 2008. It’s really a wonderful and fancy trip.

First of all, the trip shows a lot of new things to me. I never travelled to so many cities in such short time. I went to 8 cities in 14 days such as LA, NY, San Francisco, and Hawaii. Those cities gave me a lot of different feeling. Those overwhelming sensory experience provide a colorful and splendid America to me. During the trip, I also visited several famous universities like Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Princeton and MIT. The tremendous difference of the study environment between China and America made me begin to think about have the university life in America. And I am actually doing it now!!!

What’s more, I came to America with a summer camp. So I didn’t know anyone in the team at first; however, in that passing two weeks, I made a lot of good friends. We had such a good time in Disney and Hollywood, and even the whole trip. Till now, we still keep in touch with each other.

# 51 person

What a day! When I finished my physics lab at 8:30 and walked out of the smith lab, it’s rainy heavily. And I didn’t bring the umbrella since the weather forecast doesn’t say that it would rain today. So I rushed into the rain and when I back to the dorm, I’m totally wet. Wish me won’t get a cold due to those treacherous weather.

The person who have been dead but I want to meet was my grandfather. I never saw him; even my mother doesn’t since he went to the heaven long before my dad and mom meet with each other. My grandpa passed away when my father was still a college students, it’s really a big hurt to my father.

I really want to meet my grandpa; my dad always talks about him, he said grandpa is the greatest father; he worked really hard to support the whole family with three children. My grandpa was just a workman in a factory, so he sustained big pressure to provide for the family. However, my grandpa still lived with a rather optimistic way. He always told my father to be strong and hopeful, and never show them the toil and pain. My dad really got a deep influence from my grandpa, now he always educates me the same thing my grandpa taught him.

Every year, I go to the cemetery to visit my grandpa, but all I can see is just a photo. My father always tells me grandpa’s habit and life when we are at the cemetery. It’s such a pity for my grandpa to leave us so early.

# 50 Present

     When talking about the best present, people may always thinking about birthday presents. Christmas presents, Valentine’s Day presents and so on. It’s true that people received many delicate and moving presents at those days. I also receive a lot of presents on those special days, such as my favorite plush cartoon character (I know I never grown up) from my friends as a birthday gift.

     However, the best present I have ever been given is the package I received from my parents from China on the spring festival, the most important day in China. I don’t know whether it can be account as a present. When my parents told me that they had sent something to me and I received the label showed me that I had a package, I was so excited. I rushed to the front desk, sign for the package and can’t wait to open it although I had my math mid-term an hour later. In the package, there are a lot of my favorite foods that I hadn’t eaten for a long time after I came to America. Moreover, I was so glad to see my blanket! The blanket has accompanied with me for a couple of years; everyday, I grab it while falling asleep. I had to left it at home when I came to America since it’s too heavy and covers a relatively big area, so I was almost crying to see it when I open the package.

     Actually, these presents are not so expensive or astonishing, but I think they are the best things I have ever been gotten. It included my parents love and pass through a long distance. I will remembered these presents forever.

# 49 Job

     At first, I have to say that life of students from American and China has a lot of different. For example, many American students choose to have internships or find some part-time jobs, even help neighbors to get some pocket money. In contrast, Chinese students always spent their holidays attending lots of classes outside the school so as to keep up other students. And since the age limits, we can’t look for part time job until 18 years old.

     I don’t know whether this can be count as a job since I didn’t sign any contract and didn’t get adequate payment. Last summer is the most relax summer I have ever had, so when my mom’s colleague ask me to taught her girl play the piano for a while, I accepted. In that two month, I went to my mom’s co-worker’s home once a week to teach her daughter. I used to think that it’s a easy task since I was going to teach the most basic part of how to play the piano while I have learn piano more than 10 years and have reached the top level of piano exam. But after I taught her for the first time, I find that it’s really difficult. Although I am familiar with a lot of skills, but it’s hard for me to express them out correctly and vividly. Moreover, I am kind of irritable, but as a teacher, patient is one of the most important requirements. I have to control myself when I told the little girl the gist but she always ignored.

     During the two months’ teaching, I also learned a lot.

# 48 Family member

     Say goodbye to blogs that we can blog anything we want. But the following topics are relatively personal, so it may be easier than episode analysis. I really miss the weather in last several days; it’s so warm and comfortable. Today is so cold; and I can hardly imagine that the snow is so heavy that it covered the ground within 30 minutes. Can’t wait for the spring!!!

     Today’s topic is talking about a family member; I choose to talk about my mom without any hesitation. My mom can be called the most important person in my life. She game me life, have accompanied with me for 18 years, and influence my life dramatically.

     She is an excellent woman who balanced the life between work and family very well. She is the financial manager in a Security Company, she treat her colleagues friendly and complete the work carefully. Since she sits in a essential position in the company, she works under heavy pressure and overwhelming work. She is always the last one leave the company. When she back to home, she turns to a wonderful wife and mom. In the past 18 years, she takes good care of me in every aspect. My mom is really good at cooking. I love what she cooked, they are so delicious. She always reminds me to wear more cloths when it’s getting colder. However, she is also very strict. She set a high standard of my study, and requests me to keep on playing the piano when I want to give up. Thanks to her, I reached the highest level of piano exam in Shanghai.

     Love and miss you so much, my dear mom!!!

# 47 Anything

     It’s Sunday, but I got up a little bit of earlier today than normal since there was a basketball game held by UCSO (Undergraduate Chinese Student Organization). I am one of the committee of the organization so I have to be there. When I get to the RPAC, the basketball court was full of people. It’s surprised to see so many guys participate in this game passionately.

     The process of the game is really exciting and intensive. To be frankly, I don’t know much about basketball game, so I may focus on many other things excludes their skills during the game. All of the team members tried their best; I admired their spirit to win the game through their enormous effort. However, I still think players may be too hard so they are readily to get hurt. Sometimes, I am so scared to see balls rush to someone with high speed or players collide with each other and tussle on the ground in order to get the ball.

     Actually, this is not the problem I discovered till today. We can always hear from newspapers that athletes get hurt so they have to leave the court and taken care for a while, as short as one week, long as one year. Although sports are athletes’’ career, do they worth to compete the rival in full force even disregard their life and health? Do they concern about the achievement and ranking too much? When outstanding athletes win the competition, stand on the award platform and received the flowers and applause, it’s really hard to imagine how much effort and pain they have suffered in the past several years.

# 46 Anything

     Today’s weather is really comfortable; the sun shine, the temperature, and the wind are really pleasant. I love this weather, hope there is no summer and winter~~ In order to get rid for intensive study for a while, I went to the Tuttle Mall in the afternoon. It’s a wonderful time to walk around those clothing stores, try on these lovely clothes, and swipe the cards, hah-hah. But when I come back to the dorm, it’s like I come back to the reality.

     The life of these five months is really different from my life of previous 18 years. The environment is totally different and really unfamiliar, but I am kind of like it. Being apart from my good friends in my home town, I also make a lot of new friends here. People have different color of eyes and hairs from me are really friendly to us. It’s glad to meet so many foreign friends, though now I am the foreigners in this country. With these friends, I can learn a lot about America’s culture and customs. It’s really a memorable day to celebrate Thanksgiving Day with an American family.  Moreover, I met a lot of friends come from the same country as me but different cities. These new friends also let me know a lot of new things about my home town. Since I usually had friends from the same city, meeting a lot of people from other countries induce me have a lot of new respects about Chinese.

# 45 Anything

Uh-huh, blog about anything! During the past one and a half month, I always hesitate for a long time to start my blog. Several times I even don’t know how to write that so I have to learn from others’ blog. And it sometimes took me abundant amount of time to write the blog. Blog about anything make me more comfortable.

Time flies, it’s the fifth month I stayed in America. I can’t wait for the coming of the summer because I really miss my hometown. I always feel upset about being far away from my family and friends and just can talk and see them through the internet. Although I can’t wait to go home, I still appreciate and enjoy the days in America. Being apart from parents doesn’t just mean I can get rid of their nagging, but also a perfect chance to enhance myself. It’s impossible to connect with my parents when I meet troubles, I must make a lot of choices by myself. When I was in China, I always ask my parents for help and they always accept the requirements without any hesitation. But now, I tried to solve the problems on my own. I never thought that I can arrange my life well-organized and even set up a ten-day travel to California. At the first two months, I really felt a lot of pressure, but now I have adapted the environment very well.

 Living in a foreign land is a really precious experience for me to grow up.a

#44 CP Article

Student: Fan Yang

Video games, just for fun?

      Have you ever thought that video games can help people lose weight? Have you ever thought that you can almost learn how to play bowling at home? These thoughts that people ten years ago could never imagined have come true. Nowadays, with the fast development of technology which gets used in video games, the function of video games are quite different from previous editions children played just for meaningless fun. Talking about video games, many parents think they are just machines that rob their children from daily life; many children spend abundant amount of time sitting in front of the scene and holding the remote controller connected by wire. However, this thought should be changed. Video games nowadays like home consoles are not just simple tools for fun, they are also good methods to gain knowledge, keep fit and develop friendship.

      The first game console was released in 1982 and was called Magnavox Odyssey. According to the Video Game Console Library, there were no processors in this system – just a series of transistors, resistors and capacitors; and the plastic colored overlays were providing to put over television screen to enhance the graphics a bit. However, the video console was still a big hit and kept on developing. During the 40 years, video game console has experienced 7 generations; the most recent generation are Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, released around 2005 and 2006, which have become the three biggest video game consoles in today’s video game console market.

Take a look at Wii: Wii had sold 7,526,821 units as of December 28, 2008 in Japan, and sold 376,000 units in the first seven months of 2008 in Canada, and led in current generation home console sales with 4.9 million units sold as of January 3, 2009 in the United Kingdom. These data shows the popularity of Wii throughout the whole world and displays people’s enthusiasm on video games. Wii’s success is due to its involved high-tech. For example, Wii owns a specialty in remote control which uses a combination of built-in accelerometers and infrared detection to sense its position in 3D space when pointed at the LEDs within the Sensor Bar. This design allows users to control the game using physical gestures as well as traditional button presses.

     Home consoles bring a lot of new experience to people because of those new kinds of technique. First of all, it contains the educational meaning. It’s easy for children to learn basic knowledge and rule of life. Such as sport event, it’s obviously a lot of difference between learning sports in realistic and on home console; but players can gain a lot of main information from video console. We can learn a lot about how is the game carry on and get familiar with those complex rules by experience it personally. Since those consoles need players’ systemic motion and the 3D technique makes scene vivid, players always feel that it’s themselves play on the field. What’s more, the game can also improve the ability of both competition and cooperation.

      Secondly, home console is a really good way to keep fit. Doing sports game in home sole can produce the same result of losing weight and keep fit as doing exercise out-door or at the gym. Games like boxing, tennis are efficient at burning off massive calories and strengthen the muscle. Thanks to the Wii dance mat, half an hour of exercise within a month made me sweated off 7 kilograms last summer. Last year, Wii also released the series of Wii fit, which allows people practice yoga by themselves on a small board instead of teaching by coach.

      Thirdly, video game console are also good catalyst to develop friendship. Because of lacking of technology skills, video games ten years ago just allow about 2 persons to play simultaneously, and they can’t move freely since the remote controllers were connected with hardware by wires. Video games these years are much more advanced. Four people can play concurrently and due to the wireless devices, players can stand far away from the scene and move without restraint. I went my friend’s host family this Thanksgiving, and there are also some international students get invited. At first, the atmosphere is relatively awkward, since we all didn’t know each other and felt nervous to chat in English. Everyone just sat on his or hers spot with silence. But when the host recommended us to play the wii, the atmosphere became more and more friendly. Since there are four remote controls, only four people can participate in the game concurrently. The game we played was called Rayman Raving Rabbids; players represented rabbits in the game, and compete with each other about how they finish the task in every section. It’s really funny and interesting to finish the task like playing the musical instruments, shooting the target, moving the stuff all by a magic control contains Bluetooth, infrared ray, vibrating and G sensor. Sooner, almost everyone were attracted by the game and wanted to have a try. We played the game alternately and still stand behind, watch the TV and discuss about the game actively when others are playing. All of us become familiar with each other very sooner. The Thanksgiving day is impressing, not only it’s the first time for me to celebrate the thanksgiving day in America, but also I made a lot of new friends this day. Wii really save the awkward situation and improve the friends’ relationship.

      With the fleet development of technology, video games have become much more different from former styles; there are more and more positive functions of video games. Video games consoles will still regenerate continuously in the future and more and more people will discover the benefits. Have you thought about try this new kind of game, experience some special feeling, not just for fun?

# 43 rewrite opening paragraph and title

# 43

It’s really interesting to read all the classmates’ title and opening paragraph. And I think it’s really helpful since there are a lot of useful suggestions about my title and choose the most suitable opening sentence.

        It’s really glad to see there are a lot of stars on just 2 or 3 topics since it helps me to rewrite my introduction readily. So following is my opening paragraph.

        Have you ever thought that video games can help people lose weight? Have you ever thought that you can almost learn how to play bowling at home? These thoughts that people ten years ago could never imagined have come true. Nowadays, with the fast development of technology which gets used in video games, the function of video games are quite different from previews edition that just play for meaningless fun. Talking about video games, many parents think it’s just a machine that rob their children from daily life, many children spent abundant of time sit in front of the scene and hold the remote controller connected by wire. However, this thought should be changed. Video nowadays like home console is not just a simple tool for fun, it’s also a good method to gain knowledge, keep fit and develop friendship.

        Moreover, about the evaluation of the title, it’s really upset to see those score under 5, but it remind me that I didn’t do very well at make a attracting topic. Thanks for the suggestion, I find that my title is a little bit long and it’s too direct. So I am going to rewrite my title as “Video game, just for fun?”

#42 RELEVANT

Being relevant to the ideal readers is also an important requirement to an article.

I think the statement of my article has many connections to readers. Since my topic is about how the technology used in video games affect people nowadays, both teenagers and adults may pay attention to that.

     In parents’ sight, video games are always bad for children since they made kids obsessed on these games and give up their study. Admittedly, this point of view is true; many students spent too much time on video games instead of sleep and study. However, video games nowadays are not just a way for kids to have fun or get rid of the homework.

     With the more and more vivid frame and feeling, it’s much easier to stimulate kid’s creation. What’s more, since the game required movements and gestures, the game becomes more and more realistic. So the video console is relevant to parents and kids.

     What’s more, the new video game console is becoming a new method to do exercise. Since keep fit is also a prevalent topic, the whole worlds are figuring out the special to do exercise. With the help of new video console, people can also work out without the playground and complex equipments, but also retain the same consequent. Like boxing, tennis and dancing, people can burn the great amount of calories by playing this game. As a result, these video consoles are also related to those people who want to lose weight or keep fit.

     Lastly, video games like Wii and Xbox 360 have become the new method for friends gather around. Since the skills of previous games limit the number of player, it’s almost impossible for a lot friends enjoy the same game concurrently. However, thanks to the development of technology, video game consoles can gather friends together and bring a lot of joy.

#41 Compelling

     According to the commonplace, it mentioned that in order to make an article compelling, writer must provide enough persuasive evidence to support the statement. In my article, my topic is about the how the technology use in video games involves and influence people’s life. I searched the internet, and found some evidence to show the high-tech being used in video game console and the popularity of those games throughout the whole world.

     First, I looked for the history of the video game console, which started from 1972 and undergoes 7 generation in 40 years. The first game console was released in 1972 and was called Magnavox Odyssey; according to the Video Game Console Library, There were no processors in this system – just a series of transistors, resistors and capacitors. Plastic colored overlays were providing to put over your television screen to enhance the graphics a bit. And the Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 were released in 2005 and 2006 separately; these games mark a new era of video consoles. For example, theWii manufactured by Nintendo owned a specialty in remote control which uses a combination of built-in accelerometers and infrared detection to sense its position in 3D space when pointed at the LEDs within the Sensor Bar. This design allows users to control the game using physical gestures as well as traditional button presses. From those evidence we can see how the technology change those games.

     Secondly, According to the Nintendo, it list a lot of data about the sales status of Wii, “Wii had sold 7,526,821 units as of December 28, 2008 in Japan, and sold 376,000 units in the first seven months of 2008 in Canada, and lead in current generation home console sales with 4.9 million units sold as of January 3, 2009 in United Kimdom. These data shows the popularity of Wii thoughout the whole world, and displays people’s enthusiasm on video games.” From those data, it’s easy to see that video consoles have became a global fashion.

# 40 timely

     The topic about my commonplace article is about how does high-tech video game consoles involves in human being’s life. I think this topic is timely since video games consoleshas no wonder been a essential part in almost every teenagers’ life.

     Such video games like Wii, X-box and Playstation are really familiar with all the students. According to the report, the Wii had sold 7,526,821 units as of December 28, 2008 in Japan, and sold 376,000 units in the first seven months of 2008 in Canada, and lead in current generation home console sales with 4.9 million units sold as of January 3, 2009 in United Kimdom. These data shows the popularity of Wii thoughout the whole world, and displays people’s enthusiasm on video games.

     The first video game console was released by Magnavox in 1972, which was a big hit to the world. From then on, the video game console industry developed in a incredible rapid pace. Starts from the first generation Magnavox Odyssey, video game console has experienced 7 generations during 40 years. Nowadays, Xbox 360. Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii had become the three biggest video game console manufactures. All of these three games involve high technological skills. Countries contain high skill technologies all take great effort to develop video game consoles.

     Those games bring a lot of fresh element to people’s life. The vivid experience such as vivid 3D pictures, wireless remote control and attracted numerous teenagers. Video game consoles not only bring a lot of fun to people, also create the new method to learn knowledge and doing exercise. With these video games, people nowadays are tasting a totally new relax method.

# 39 hypothetical scenario

      I think it’s easy to write a personal anecdote about my commonplace article since Wii really bring a lot of fun to me. Bur I think there are some difficulties to have a hypothetical scenario about the technology in games since the advanced technology has already become an essential part in today’s world.

      So I choose to have a hypothetical scenario about how the world will be if the high tech video game disappeared suddenly someday. It’s for sure that the people will sooner get bored about their life, epically for teenagers. For boys, since video games like WOW CS had become a necessary part in their life, the sudden disappear made their life vacuity. They don’t know what to do when they finish their homework, they may watch TV or play basketball with their friends, but they will always get tired of these constant events. Only the continuously upgraded video game can a good relax method and keep the sense of fresh. Moreover, without those fictitious scenes, there are much less source to improve teenager’s creation.

      From girls’ aspect, even though not so many girls play video games about gunfight and masters, their life also get bored when the high-tech video games fade away. Like the dance mat, it’s such a good game to keep fit and show off from friends since many girls dislike outdoor activities. When this game vanishes, it’s easy to see that girls just stay at home, sit in front of computers and TVs like coach potato.

      Without these incredible games with vivid 3D pictures, people also lost a great topic and interesting way to fulfill their life.

     In my commonplace article, I’m going to talk about how technology which use in video games change people’s life. And the video game Wii will be one specific example in my article.
      I have the Wii series in my home, there so many games in Wii that attract me a lot. Such as tennis, balance ball and dance mat, those games not only teach me a lot, but also provide the condition to do exercise indoor. After I left China, I hadn’t played it for several months until the Thanksgiving Day.   
        I went my friend’s host family this Thanksgiving, and there are also some international students get invited. At first, the atmosphere is relatively awkward, since we all didn’t know each other and felt nervous to chat in English. Everyone just sat on his or hers spot with silence. But when the host recommended us to play the wii, the atmosphere became more and more family. Since there are four remote controls, only four people can participate in the game concurrently. The game we played was called Rayman Raving Rabbids; players represented rabbits in the game, and compete with each other about how they finish the task in every section. It’s really funny and interesting to finish the task like playing the musical instruments, shooting the target, moving the stuff all by a magic control contains Bluetooth, infrared ray, vibrating and G sensor. Sooner, almost everyone were attracted by the game and wanted to have a try. We played the game alternately and still stand behind and stare at the screen when others are playing.
       Wii really save the awkward situation and improve the friends’ rel

# 36 CP idea

      The CP idea should be related with my research paper in some aspects, and it also should be timely, compelling and relevant. Since my research is talking about the relationship between employees, companies and technology, I think I might further the technology to video games nowadays, which is really popular among teenagers these years. I want to discuss the outstanding point of today’s video games, the popularity among teenagers and its function in people’s life.

      Nowadays, video games such as Wii and X-BOX are absolutely the two most epidemic games in these years. These two games are not like the former games which only need a TV, a chair and a remote control; it contains the technologies like Bluetooth, infrared ray, motion sensing and many other high-techniques. Moreover, it needs players to move and think and help players to learn something.

      I have the Wii series in my home and I really love it. It’s a good method to learn something. Such as tennis, although it’s a lot different between playing golf in reality and in Wii, at least I learned the rule and the terminology about tennis. It’s also a good entertainment facility to play together when friends and relatives come by. It’s really joyful when friends stand side by side and move together. Moreover, like Dancing pad and Wii fit, Wii is absolutely a excellent method to do exercise and keep fit. It allow people those who dislike outdoor activities to have adequate exercise instead of going out. Playing Wii is really helpful since I successfully loose 7 kilogram in one month due to the Wii. That’s really exciting, right?

      And I think I will do some research about how Wii influence people’s life.

# 35 CP(2)

      The article I read today is called “Fat and Happy”, seems like a lot of person read this article yesterday. So I choose to read it today. Fat is a really sensitive word to many girls. It seems like losing weight is just the popular topic among women since a lot of female suffer a lot in order to become slim and to be looked more beautiful. However, being overweight is not the problem of looking terribly, but also a essential factor to be unhealthy.

      The statement of the article is that obesity has become a serious problem among children all over the world, and parents and adults should set a good example to those kids and let them realize the important to keep fit.

     I think the article is timely since corpulence is absolutely an epidemic issue throughout the world. And the big rate of obesity among children makes the topic more seriously. Overweight can be a cause of death, the author points out that fat children may even have a shorter life than their parents. As a result, obesity of children should really be noticed by the society.

     The article is also compelling since the evidence in that is persuasive. And the highlight sentence: “But you might say to yourself, I’m not obese, I don’t have children, and it’s out of my control and doesn’t pertain to me. That’s where you’re wrong.” make people begin to concern about this problem.

      Finally, this essay is relevant. In the front part of the article, the author discuss about the situation of fatness among children and how this would affect their and their parents’ life. And in the last several paragraphs, the author points out that adult should be the example of children to teach them to keep fit and healthy. It’s everyone’s responsibility to take care of the world’s future by solve the obesity problem.

#34 CP（1）

      The article I choose on commonplace today is Classes, Finals, Friends, and Cancer: The Life of Future College Students? I chose the college section, and found this article. When I saw the words Classes, Finals and Friends, I was narrowly skip this essay; but then I saw the word: cancer. I was wonder that what the relationship between college students and cancer is. As a result, I click into the essay.

     Before I read this essay, I really had no idea about how cancer is influencing college students’ life. The argument of the article is: as the cancer is threatening college students, students should pay more attention on cancer and take care of themselves.

      I think this article is timely since the data are collected from the last year’s report. These latest shows that cancer are becoming a more and more serious problem among university students. From the article, it shows that one of tenth cases of cancer in Ohio is college students; cancer has become the fourth leading cause of death among people at 18-22 years old.

      Moreover, the article is compelling, too. College students are the hopes of the future society. If lots of them meet their end at this age because of the disease, it’s also a dramatic lost for the society. This topic is noticeable for not only current students and their parents, but also the whole community. The author uses his own experience to express how the disease will affect his friends and people around him when he was diagnosed get cancer.

      Finally, the article is relevant. At the latter part of the article, the author lists several points to teach students how to take care themselves and get rid of getting cancer. It make sense to people.

# 33 Blog about my paper

      Finally, I finished my paper!!! 8 pages！！It may be the longest paper I have ever written. The process is torturing, but I feel really released when I submit it to the drop box. However, I’m not satisfied with what I’ve written since I thought there are still a lot of problems need me to deal with.

      First of all, I hesitate about my argument for a long while. I didn’t make my mind decisively. So the arguments in my blog, episode analysis, and draft are always changing. Next time, I will decide the topic and stick on it.

      Secondly, I’m not sure whether my evidences are persuasive enough. I think my examples are not scholarly enough. It’s too difficult to find academic examples from the internet. Maybe I look for the resources from the wrong direction and method. I think I will find the time to the library to ask for some help.

      Thirdly, about the MLA style. Admittedly, it’s the first time for me to write a paper in MLA style. Maybe there are lots of rules about MLA, but I’m too unfamiliar with it. Last time I went to the Writing Center, I knew some rules about the MLA, I will practice more in the future. And I feel I have some problem about citation. I can’t point out the kind of my resource is, so I can’t find the right way to cite my resource. I’m really annoying about it.

      This draft has a lot of problems, but I’ll try my best to improve it.