Sunday, March 10, 2013

What is Beauty?

The word beautiful is an adjective and a noun. When it is used as an adjective, it is used to describe anything that is very pleasing or satisfying. It can be used to describe the physical appearance or the connotation of a literature. The beauty of flowers, gardens, dresses, and women are all examples of physical appearance. However, some people may say that this poem, this song, or this piece of literature is beautiful. They're praising the beauty of their connotation. When I see something adorable, I use the word "cute" more often than the word "beautiful", but I sometimes will used the word "beautiful" to describe some poems, some poems that rhyme, have symbolism, or form imagery. It is hard for me to determine what kinds of things are "beautiful", but I agree with the definition that anything that is pleasing to me is defined as "beautiful" to me.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

How can Guilt enslave us?

When I was in 3rd grade, I remember my father went to somewhere for a business trip, and he bought a crystal ball for me as a gift. I really like that crystal ball. That day, I was playing with it, holding it in my small hands, flipping it over again and again to let the paper flakes float in the ball. However, the size of the crystal ball is a little bigger than my hands, so my hands just slipped a little bit. The ball fell down to the ground and broke into pieces. The ball is a gift from my father and I just got it for about 3 days and I just broke it. I cried not only because I was scared, but also because I was so guilty! My mother helped me cleaned the pieces and I said sorry again and again to my father. I remember, for the whole week, I was so guilty that I can't look at my father's eyes.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

How do you live life to the fullest?

I think my mother's friend, Uncle William, is a person who lives life fully. Although he doesn't have extremely much money, but he has a happy family and a stable work. He lives in the US and has a house which is not too small or too big. Both of his children went to good colleges and have good grades, so that he don't need to worry about them and he often go on family trips in the states. I don't think a person needs to have great achievements to live his or her life fully. Instead, I think a full life is to have a stable income, a happy family, a comfortable house, can travel to places, and don't need to worry about his children. Having these things means that one don't need to worry about anything and can do whatever one wants, and I don't think there are any downsides for these experiences.

Monday, February 18, 2013

What are the perils of JEALOUSY?

Jealousy is formed when you realized that someone have something that you really want but cannot have. Some people will hide their jealousy so it is not seen. Some will try hard to get what they want from the person. Some will choose to destroy the object so nobody can own it. The cause of jealousy might be wealth, fame, or love; however, the one used, seen, or written in most books is love.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Ron was jealous about Harry's fame, so he broke up with Harry. Their friendship was destroyed by the jealousy deep inside Ron. Later, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Ron thought Hermione loves Harry, so his jealousy rose again. He had conflicts with them and finally left one day. These are some negative consequences of jealousy of love.
In Snow White, the queen was jealous about Snow White's beauty; in High School Musical, Sharpay was jealous that Gabriella have Troy's love; in Tangled, Rapunzel was jealous about other people's freedom. Different people have different wishes and forms different kinds of jealousy, but every person's differences cause different people to do different reactions. Some will do bad things, but some will not.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Visionary #2

I think Wang Yung-Chin is a visionary. He was born in Taipei, Taiwan. His family was really poor when he was small, and they need to sell his sisters to support his family. The reason he started to try hard to earn a lot of money is that he want to redeem his sisters back. He went to Tainan to learn how to farm when he was 15, and he decided to have his own rice company the following year, which he only have 200 dollars to use. Wang Yung-Chin is really good business minded. He knows how to sell things and see which industries can earn more money. He started to earn a lot of money and became successful. He is a very strict self-discipline, self-demanding, and absolutely honest person. He also did a lot charity. He did donation after huge disasters like 921 earthquake and Wen-Chuan earthquake. He also proposed to aid 10,000 primary schools in China.
Although his motivation when he as small is to earn money for his own use. However, after he was grown up, he thought about the society, wanted to make it better, so he did a lot of charity to help the poor. I really think that he is a great person.

Workhouse

A workhouse is a noun, an institution maintained at public expense where able-bodied paupers did unpaid work in return for food and accommodation. The above is one of the definitions from the dictionaries. In England, the workhouse is equal to the poorhouse. Poor and homeless people can go to the workhouse to find a job to do so that they can survive. Although the conditions of the workhouse are harsh and the jobs are hard to do, it is still better than nothing. Even though the job may be bad, people can still get food and money to support themselves.
Another definition for workhouse is also a noun; it is a prison for pretty offenders serving short sentences at manual labor, it is a county jail that holds prisons for periods up to 18 months. The first definition is used more formerly in England and the second one is used more popularly in the U.S.

Sources: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/workhouse

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

What is a Visionary?

From the book, it says that a visionary may be someone who envisions a better future or someone who claims to see people or events in dreams. In fictions and comics, there are many characters that can see the future by all kinds of paths, and one most common is from dreams. However, mostly, when the stories are about "time traveling" or "predicting the future", they come out that the future cannot be changed, and no matter what the characters did, it seems just like it is them who caused the results. When we talked about visionaries, I also thought about the people in the real life - who are the people considered visionaries? Since I'm not familiar with this, I did some research and realized that there are many people who are considered as visionaries. Ex: Favianna Rodriguez (political artist), Susan Nussbaum (founder), Bill Drayton (founder), etc.

Source: http://www.utne.com/2008-11-13/50-Visionaries-Who-Are-Changing-Your-World.aspx