Good bye all my heroes

Time flies. we finally reached the end of the semester. I remebered at the beginning of the class when I first saw the course schedule, I felt so overwhelmed. I thought that the amount of work was too much for me, and that whether or not I would still survive after the course. But right now, when sitting in my room writing the last journal recalling what I have been through, I am proud of myself as well as all my classmates and Professor Sean in Composition class. Together, we all made it through.

Firstly, I wanna give my thanks to Sean for being patient on reading our "sencond language" essays and research papers, teaching us how to use APA, and importantly giving us chances to write - the chances that most of us, honestly, didnt appreciate much at the beginning of the class.

Next is my thanks to Thuy, my best friend and knowledgeable sister who has accompanied with me during the whole semester, for not only teaching me the way to work professionally and motivatedly, but also for funny luches when we lied on the grass enjoying Juice It Up. Im proud to say that I have learnt a lot from u.

Then, my thanks to Cyndy and Leo who helped me much in working in group and prepairing for giving group's presentation. U guys are among the most awesome partners I ve ever had.

Last but not least, my thanks to Cindy, Amy, Ella, Angelica, Karen, Georgina, Sylvia, Seng, Motaz, Abdullatif, and all my peers in Compsition Class for the time that we had together.

Once again, bravooo for all of us, the heroes trained by leader Sean.
I wish u all the best.
Good bye !!!

Journal 17

Baraka leaves me the feeling of uncertainty for the world we are living in now. It used to be a "big big world" to me, but not anymore since the moment I watched Baraka.
Yet, Baraka takes us on the journey to the hidden corners of the world where we havent exposed ourselves to and to the crowded cities where we stuffed ourselves in everyday. And I was quite shocked at the scene in which the slim tall old buildings rose neatly in a narrow city of a poor country. It was so stuffed that I, a spectator sitting in a large modern air-conditioned class in the richest country in the world, felt no air and almost choked. People behind the iron windows of their houses seem to be kept in cages; they show no feeling in their eyes. And then when it came to the scene of the city's semetary, I was shocked once again. The semetary where dead people were resting looked exactly like the buildings where city dwellers were living. I couldnt realize that it was the semetary until my teacher explained it. For some people, it might be an impressive scene; but for me, it was a sign of hopelessness. As my professor, S. Cochran, once said: " We live in the box, we finally die in the box". Yes, we are dying in the box that we build for ourselves.

Letter to my parents

Good morning Mom,

I know its now early morning in VN and ur still sleeping when I write this letter. But i dont want to give u a wake-up call and make u shocked with what im gonna tell u. Dont worry, Mom. There s nothing bad happen here to me. But I think it might be shocking to u. So plz plz plz  be well prepared for what ur gonna read.

Mom, I m gonna have a tatoo. Im serious, Mom. I have been thinking of it for months and considering the consequences i will likely take if i get a tatoo; so just let u know that i dont come to this decision because im moody. Mom, I know u will be pissed off to know that, and I understand why u will get so angry at my decision. In our culture, its inappropriate for having a tatoo under our skin. I know u may worry that people will consider me "a gangster member" when I tatoo myself, which will probably affect negatively on my career once im out for work. But Mom, i m gonna have a tiny tatoo on my shoulder where I can cover it with formal suits, and its absolutely not easy for people to notice if they just glance at me. And since i have taken it seriously, I can get over the pain having my tatoo scarred under my skin and I also wont look back or suffer from regretting having it later.

So, Mom, plz dont worry about me. Your little girl is now mature enough to take responsibily for what she's done. I will protect myself as well as u, my greatest Mom, have been doing it to me for more than twenty years, I promise.

 Love u always!!!

Journal 15: "Facebook: Ruining my education"

Ostrowski, H. (2011, April 21). Facebook: Ruining my education. dailytitan. Retrieved January 21, 2011, from www.dailytitan.com/2011/04/21/facebook-ruining-my-education/

In this article, H. Ostrowski uses claim of cause to convince us that Facebook is ruining our education by taking herself as an example. According to her, Facebook, the most popular social network today, does not only distract us from important things (spending too much time on Facebook, typing away on Facebook chat in classrooms), but also disturb our roomates who "incidently" get their eyes caught on the laptop addicts' screens. To strengthen her argument, the author also points out the result of a 2008 article from The New York Time about negative effects of social network sites on "slowing study habits". It's obvious that she tries to use ethos and pathos appeal to buy the readers' agreement.

However, her argument is not persuasive to me for some reasons. Firstly, she doesnt give the readers any number of students who are distracted by Facebook in classrooms. As far as the article shows, she is the only one who got distracted by Facebook, which doesnt guarantee that all her classmates or the students in the school experience the same disturbance. Secondly, she blames it on her friends' use of Facebook in class and in library for ruining her attention on studying. But she doesnt mention whether her friends make noise while using Facebook; or it is herself who is so curious on what other people are doing and easily loses her self-attention. And lastly, the evidence she cites from the The New York Time writer Motoko Rich doesnt help to strengthen her argument: "Hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading – diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans". The readers will cast doubt on this phrase. Are the social network cites like Facebook the only cause? How about online games and porn movies that poor performance in studying is contributed to. The argument, thus, is warranted.

Journal 14

Kirschvink, J. L. (2000). Earthquake prediction by animals: Evolution and sensory perception. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 90(2), 312-323. doi:10.1785/0119980114

This article is written by Dr. Kirschvik, who has a strong background in geology and biology. He is now on the falcuty of California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Panetary Science. In this article, he is trying to find out a reasonable explanation for the question: "why can animals sense earthquakes? ". According to his knowlegde combined with the data collected from other renowed professors and reliable sources, it is animals' evolutionary mechanism that enables them to link their preception to the earth's precursors before the earthquakes occupy. Thus, I think I can use his ideas to support for my argumentative essay thesis that animals are superior to us in predicting earthquake.

RESEARCH TOPIC

At first, I came up with a topic involving in my business major, a topic that has caused a lot of controversy to the experts, "How can we realize that there is a bubble in real estate market?". And of course, it led me to not only a volume of contentiousness but also a bunch of headache after skimming my documentary. Thus, I decided to change my topic into "Animals vs Human in predicting earthquake". I was inspired by this topic after the earthquake in Japan. I wonder why we are now having a lot of tools that help us predict most things from weather conditions to meteoric collisions that are likely to happen, but not earthquakes. I also wonder why the animals always have weird behaviors before the quakes occupy. Can they sense the disasters coming? I can't answer those questions right now 'coz i havent collected enough information for myself and dug deeper into the database i have had. Just wait n see if I can find something interesting for my research paper.

Spring break

Well, since this is my first spring break here in the US, I dont either know how funny it is or look forward to it. Actually, I want to go back to Singapore and meet my Mom there; she is going on her business trip to that city at the end of this month, which is also the time of spring break in the US. I miss Singapore; I miss Vietnam; and importantly, I also really really miss hanging out with my Mom. But somehow, I think 7-day spring break is too short for me to put my plan into action. I dont have any back up plan now. For me, its better to go to school than staying at home having nothing to do!!!