Vic's blog is awesome!!!

            I looked at Vic's blog and saw the awesome fish tank he had. When I looked at it, I added a bunch of other fishes in the tank. I even added so many that all the fish were cramped up in the tank and could barely move. I thought that was kinda funny. So I took away a few fish and changed the settings on them. I changed the movement and put their speed and fast, so all the fish were swimming all around the tank in different directions like they were hyper. I recommend putting either the swordfish (cause they're awesome) or the tropical fish so they can make a bunch of colors around the tank.
            Anyone who reads this and wants to look at Vic's fish tank, I would appreciate it if they responded to these questions. My first question is there is a little search box above the tank that says something about searching other fish from other websites and adding them to the tank. I haven't tried it out yet, but I don't know whether or not you can actually get other fish or if you have to go through a bunch of stupid downloading crap and pay for the fish. Anyone who tries it out before I do, could you post a comment on either my blog or Vic's blog saying if you can or can't. If you can, then I would put a bunch of cool fish. One that I would love to put is an octopus, or a poisonous sea snake. Maybe even a penguin, even though that's not a fish, but a fish-eater. But I'd put that if it were possible. Then I'd make the octopus try to eat the puffer fish, and it could die. That would be fun to watch.
           Also if anyone reads this, I'd love to know if you can give them their own names. Then I'd give them a bunch of funny names. I'd name the blonde female-looking one Justin Beiber and the fish that keeps following it Sam. (I hope you're reading this Sam).

Punishment for Baba or for Amir?

              In the novel The Kite Runner, Amir and Baba have both done terrible things and their life changed because of the decisions they made. When Baba was dying, Amir was in greif. He began to cry a lot and worry about what he would do when Baba died. Since Amir left Hassan to be a victim of Assef's and allowed him to be raped, this could be punishment for his sins. Baba dying and not being able to be with Amir could be part of what he deserves for what he did to Hassan. Amir didn't do anything to make up for what he did, except for sending him out of Kabul. But even that didn't help since the Taliban came and made things bad for Hazaras. Baba's death could have been the first punishment he gets for abandoning Hassan.
               Though Baba doesn't show it, he seems unprepared to die so soon. Possibly he too wants to make up for his sins and is not ready to die because he wants to do more. The only things that he really did to make up for them are to give the poor some money and give money to orphanages. He may also have wanted to live to see Amir's grandchildren or to see him be successful, or maybe the same for Hassan, but if he did, then he never showed it. On the other hand, it could also just be his time. Perhaps, as said in the paragraph above, that Baba's death could be punishment for Amir. Fate could have given Baba what he deserved. This could be when Hassan left and was out of Baba's life forever. That could be the last punishment for him.

Response to Sam's Response

I was looking at Google Reader to find some inspiration for a response, and I found this on Sam's Blog.

The reason Amir didn’t interact with Hassan after he was raped was that he was Jealous of Hassan.  Throughout the whole story Baba makes an effort to make sure that whenever he and Amir can have a moment alone Hassan is there or has been invited.  This leads Amir to believe that Baba loves the child of their servant as much, or possibly even more then his own child.  Also when Amir and Hassan were approached by Assef on the hill, Hassan had the courage to stand up to Assef and cause him to stop bullying Amir.  Amirs lack of this kind of courage is shown when he witnesses Hassan getting raped.  Although no one knows that Amir is watching the brutal act, he still chooses not to get help because he is a coward.    After, that is when Amir can’t talk to Hassan because he is angry at him for being stronger.  This situation gets even worse when Hassan is able to heal from the incident even faster then Amir.  They were no longer able to be friends because they were simply different.

        I highly disagree with what Sam says about Amir not talking to Hassan because he's angry. Amir is ashamed of what he did, which is why he always feels short of breath when Hassan is around. If you want evidence Sam, then there is a part in the Kite Runner where Rahim Khan says that he was in love with a Hazara, but they were separted and decided to not marry because she would have been treated badly by his family. This is symbolizing how Amir and Hassan are friends and want to stay with each other, but Assef is always taunting them and and even threatened to beat both of them up with brass knuckles. And another piece of evidence is where Amir is about to frame Hassan, he says that he remembers what Rahim had said to him about the Hazara he fell in love with, and it was for the best, otherwise she would have suffered. Amir takes this idea from Rahim and frames Hassan so that he and his father can be safe without being taunted for being a Hazara, and especially for being safe from Assef. Amir may have been jealous that Hassan got better treatment from his dad at some points, but that's not why he sent them away. He was doing it to protect them. He also pretended that he didn't see what happened, even in front of Hassan because if he didn't know and Amir told him, then they would never be friends, and he would never be forgiven.

Remorse

                    When Khaled Hosseni wrote the book The Kite Runner, he most likely intended it to show what remorse and regret really mean. This can be shown when Amir says,

" In the end I ran. I ran because I was a coward." (pg 77)

                     There are many other small parts in the book where Amir states that he is ashamed that he left Hassen to be tortured by Assef. Usually when we think of regret, we may think of regretting a decision, like wishing you hadn't made a bet, or wishing that you should have started your homework earlier. When we think of remorse, we think of small things, like not fighting with a younger sibling or feeling guilty that you lied and they easily believed you. Amir's constant feelings of regret and remorse are much bigger reasons than any other person may feel. Amir feels he betrayed Hassan, the brother he never had. Hassan had always stuck up for Amir and helped him whenever he needed it most, and during Hassan's greatest moment of need, Amir ran and pretended that he never saw what happened. Even when Amir saves him from any more harm from Assef, he still is haunted by his decision to run instead of trying to protect Hassan. He knows that he could never do anything to be able to forgive himself for what he did, even if Hassen did.
                     It is possible that something like this happened to Hosseni. Not all of this word for word, but maybe he did something small that he would never forgive himself for. Then he could have exaggerated greatly the amount of regret he felt and made it into a much bigger problem. Also, he may have based Amir on himself, maybe on the decisions he would have made as a kid: trying anything to please his father, being scared of bullies like Assef, and even making some decisions that may have seemed good at first, but later he realized that was the wrong choice. Then these may have affected his life. He may have even gone a long time in his life haunted by something he did, and every day wishing he could take it back.

The Way the World Works

          I was just looking at all my blog posts on my blog that I did the whole school year so far. I actually noticed something that may be a coincidence, but that's for readers to decide. All my blogs are basically about the sad or bad things of the world. I didn’t mean to make my posts into a category like this or make them all connect into one subject purposely, but it seems that they all do relate to negative things. The more I read them, the more it makes me wonder if I will accidentally make all my posts connect into one subject again during this quarter. These are my posts that I think relate to negative things in the world.
          The first blog post was about bullying. That relates to a bad thing because it shows that many people have either been bullied or bullies, and that proves how some people may start bullying and enjoy bullying enough to keep bullying enough to do it for the rest of their lives. It could also teach victims to be afraid of someone else if they start to get bullied, and be victims for the rest of their lives.
           My second post was a response to Sam's post on bullying. He states that bullying is caused by people who don't have any friends are think that anyone who is different from them is funny or stupid. This also is relates to bad thing the same way my blog post did.
          My third blog post was a debate on illegal immigration. Even though I was only being on the con side for the debate, and not morally for it, I still was able to use facts and opinons that I found out on sites and sources on how there were some government senators, etc. that wanted to put border patrol around America to stop immigrants from illegally entering America. They would even be allowed to use force to stop them from entering. This shows how much other people would love to live in America for dreams of less problems, but right now America can't let those people in. (My fourth blog was basically a rebuttal to the opponents, so that had the same reasons for being a downside blog post as the previous one.)
          The fifth was on marijuana and how some people get prescribed to it for medical uses. I responded to it and said that some people could forge the subscription the get marijuana, or somehow get it but lie and say it's a medical purpose. This shows how people have addictions on things and won't think twice to end the addiction.
          The sixth was a bit random, and was about pizza, but it did have some downsides and moral in it. This post talked a bit about scamming for money and trying to get people to come to their restaurant. So it had a bit to do with some bad things in this world.
           The next post was a bit random too, but it does show that Disney had to take some very sad stories and "stretch" the truth out quite a bit to make it fit to be a children's movie. That proves that there were probably sad times when the stories were first created.
           (Just forget about the one directly before this one I'm going to talk about, it doesn't relate to anything but Sam's personal health and mind.) The last one, the Lennie essay, was the saddest. You can think of it being sad for many different reasons, but it will always be sad. I think of it as Lennie seeing everything as a nice world, and so people just want to get through life or don't care. Lennie just wants to live life and have fun, and since this is very unique to most people, Lennie is given crazy looks and appears to have a mental problem. George is a bit like some of these people, so sometimes he gets mad and annoyed at Lennie, causing him to feel mad at himself for making George mad.

I have many goals planned for my Second Quarter as a freshman at ASTI. One of these goals includes planning ahead and not procrastinating. I find that I procrastinate a lot. Sometimes I even don’t have enough time some assignments, so I just barely finish working on the ones I haven’t done in the morning. Usually this is because I have left some long and time-consuming assignments for the last minute. I really should change that about myself, especially since there may be more homework in a new quarter.

            I will also achieve another one of my goals during the second quarter, organization. All the time in the beginning of the school year, I promise myself that I will put all my papers in a folder. However, by the second week of school, I have tons of papers, important and unimportant, scattered and crumpled in the bottom of my backpack. I promise myself, hopefully for the last time, that I will always buy a folder to put every paper inside. They will all be labeled with the name of the class/subject from where the papers are from. This way, I will have more space in my backpack and it will be easier to clean out old papers.
            One of the last remaining goals I have set for this new quarter is focus. I find that a lot of times I do my homework, I got distracted from it to do something else. Sometimes I get tempted to watch TV, and when I don’t watch it, I wonder what’s happening on my favorite shows. I also start to daydream about things that I can do if I finish my homework in time. I sometimes use it so I can be motivated to get my homework done faster. However, I get too distracted and spend a while just thinking. I plan to change this by just doing my homework and not thinking about anything else. This way, I can finish my homework on time and relax. I hope these goals will help me in my Second Quarter, and that I will write even better blog posts.

Lennie v.s. himself; Of Mice and Men

Character v.s. Self

In the novel Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, the main character is Lennie. Lennie is very strong and loyal to his best friend George, as well as kind to other people he meets. Despite these friendly traits that he has, George is always frustrated with Lennie because he always make them lose their jobs and then they have to run and hide. George then starts to talk about how life could be so much easier for him if it weren’t for Lennie. Lennie is then ashamed and angry at himself for making George feel that way, and would even leave him to ensure George’s happiness and dreams. Lennie has high hopes of being able to tend to rabbits, but this means that he has to listen to George and stay away from any kind of trouble, especially Curley and his wife. George knows that if Lennie gets too involved with anyone, then soon Lennie will hurt them, just as he did with all the mice. Not getting involved proves very hard to do because both of these characters attempt to make Lennie take their bait. Curley tries to start a fight with Lennie to prove that he is still the ‘alpha lion’, but he learns far too late that he is no match for Lennie. The same destiny awaits his wife. She tries to cheat on Curley with various people, like Slim. When she finds out that Lennie is stronger than Curley, she wants to cheat on Curley and be with him instead. Lennie however, having always taken orders from George and never making decisions on his own, is at loss for what to do, and kills Curley’s wife.

    The first piece of evidence that proves the central conflict is Lennie v.s. self is when Lennie kills his puppy. “Now I won’t get to tend the rabbits. Now he won’t let me.” Lennie knows that George will be less sure that Lennie should tend if he will only kill them, even if Lennie only kills them by accident. Lennie is angry at the dog for being so easy to die, and then is angry at himself for always doing bad things and causing trouble.
    The next quote we see is after Lennie kills Curley’s wife and is angry at himself again. “I shouldn’t of did that. I’ve done a real bad thing.” After Lennie realizes he killed Curley’s wife, he is sure that George will want him to go away. So Lennie waits by the bush as George instructed him, but he later realizes that he should leave George so he can be happy and not be burdened with Lennie. To make matters worse, he gets hallucinations of a rabbit and Lennie’s Aunt Clara that both tell him that he should leave George if he cares about him at all and is crazy if he thinks George will come looking for him or expects him to take him back. He then struggles with himself, no longer needing hallucinations, for the seeds of doubt have been planted and grow rapidly within George’s mind, and is torn between what he wants and what he wants for George.
    A quote that explains this conflict is when Lennie begins to hallucinate, and what he feared in his mind came as false images and told him terrible things:”He gonna leave you all alone.””He ain’t I tell ya he ain’t. Oh! George--George--George!” When Lennie hallucinates, he sees his Aunt Clara and a rabbit. Both of them tell him that George would be better off without Lennie, and all Lennie ever did to him was burden him, even though George was always looking out for him and taking care of him. Lennie tries not to believe this, but the hallucinations keep growing stronger and louder. Then Lennie is so overwhelmed by them that soon he is shouting and pleading for George to come and forgive him.
    Even when George does come, Lennie can’t help but wonder whether George will leave him or be better off without him. He remembers all the times when George would say that he could be rich, or successful or just a simple life if he didn’t have to drag Lennie along with him. Finally this ongoing thought overwhelms Lennie so that he can’t stand not knowing whether it’s true or not, so that he states what had been in his mind for a while. “Well, I can go away. I’ll go right off in the hills an’ fin’ a cave if you don’ want me.” Lennie says that he will to this for George because he wants to know the truth: if George really doesn’t want Lennie to travel with him any more, or if he really does want Lennie to travel with him and someday “live off the fatta the lan”.
    Every incident and disaster that is caused by Lennie in one way or another is not exactly his fault. The only reason they occur is because Lennie doesn’t know his own strength or is at loss for what to do. The dog looked like he was going to bite Lennie, so he hit the dog on the head to hard. Curley’s wife panicked when Lennie was stroking her hair, so Lennie just kept holding on tighter. He then gets the visions and hallucinations from guilt of always messing things up for George and from doubt that George will come to look for Lennie and travel with him again. Even when George does come for him, Lennie asks George if he would rather Lennie and him part ways, because he doesn’t want to be a nuisance to him and keep giving George trouble. Lennie realizes that he has a character v.s. self conflict, which is the reason to why Lennie asks George this. He dies thinking of him and George on the farm and him tending rabbits, for George knows that Lennie will be at piece thinking that he doesn’t have a character v.s. self conflict.

Response to Sam's... interesting post

I was looking through the google reader, and I found this...interesting comment about Justin Bieber that was on Sam's blog.

If you grow up hating everyone who is a little different then you, then you will be a very lonely adult.

I want to point something out to Sam(and Billy). I think you guys will both be very lonely if you keep trying to singing Justin Bieber's songs, because if you do then (one) you will be devastated and live a pessimistic life when he dies and (two) you'll probably want to sing his songs for a living or something, but you would barely get any money and end up as a hobo on the street. ASTI probably accepted you to cure you from singing those songs all the time. You really need to rethink your life. I hope that when you had your appointment with Ms. Ahn that you didn't say "I want to be like Justin Bieber when I grow up". I'm not saying you can't be a singer, but you can't be so attached to these things. I know music is great to listen to, but I think you're going a little overboard. You need to listen to a new singer or something because you have been singing Justin Bieber for over a month. So consider this paragraph.
Another thing that I noticed was you put Justin Bieber's Baby lyrics on your blog, and I looked at them and Irealized you really do know the lyrics by heart, because you sing them everyday. In fact, if it weren't for the link to it, I'd say you typed in the words yourself but in a different color for some reason. You should give up Justin Beiber for Lent. It would be good and everyone in Mr. Sutherland's first period class needs a break from you singing. It will only be forty days. I will give you a sticker if you do. You could also put that on any future job resumes.
That means please give me a break.