End of Suburbia - Movie Reflection

Can you imagine living without air conditioning during summer seasons in Taiwan? I can't. But this is what we might have to face in the future!

We watched a movie called "End of Suburbia" in class last week. The movie says that suburbia is a false promise because as this kind of life-style expands, more energy and resources are needed. There are also many issues being discussed in the movie: over consuming, oil and natural resource depletion, energy depletion, and etc. The pollutions suburban life-style create are just a tip of an iceburg. I think these problems occur not just in the US, but also the world. Not only Suburban life-style pose threat to the environment, but the overall life-style we have now needs to be changed to suit what our earth can sustain.

I lived in Long Island (two hours outside of NY City) when I was back in the US. The place I lived was not necessarily a suburb, however, it still requires a lot of car driving to get to buy goods. Although there are few smaller grocery markets around my house, but if you want to shop for some new clothes or things you would not normally get in a small grocery stores, you'll need to drive for at least thirty minutes. I know that US is a big country; however, I questioned why my father have to drive so far to get what we need for daily life.

The difference between the US and Taiwan, in regard of shopping, is that it is very convenient to buy things in Taiwan. Taiwan is a small country with crowded population. People in Taiwan does not need to drive for a long time before reaching a restaurant or shopping mall.
However, when talking about transportation, Taiwan has some similarities with the suburban life style in the US. Taiwanese people relies on scooters a lot because it's very convenient. One can get around the town with a scooter very easily and they are not too expensive. Massive scooter population pollutes the air. However, Taipei and Kaohsiung, the two cities, provide more developed and convenient public transportation system. With well-designed public transportation system, people will have less chance to drive their own cars. Another really good example would be Tokyo City, Japan.

In now days, pretty much everything we buy were manufactured and/or shipped from another city or another country. For example, we've read about how a can of coke was made, where did the materials came from, and etc. This is a big problem because long-distance shipping requires a lot of energy and leaves massive amount of ecological footprints. Unfortunately, this is hard to change the situation because we all want things with cheaper prices. I totally agree that we must have more small-sized and localized retail stores!

This whole movie talks about sustainability. The effects are never one-sided. Every impact we made will influence the economy, the society, and the environment--- it's a chain reaction.
Although it is up to us to decide how we want to use the resources; however, we also need to be thinking about the next generation, and next, and next...
Like Al Gore said "we have entered a period of consequence." If we do not try our best to fix the problem, we will be doomed.

Is 'organic' really organic?

Eugene and I did a presentation on sustainable business on an organic market called "Li-Rhun" a month ago. Li-Rhun do seem like a very organic market to me; however, after reading "Big Organic", an excerpt from "The Omnivore's Dilemma", I start to question whether organic businesses are really organic.

The word 'organic' came from the countryside of California in 1969. This organic movement soon disseminated across the country . Although the organic movement faced a big failure called "Alar Scare" in 1990s, it soon recovered. Many big companies started to sell organic produces. They turned organic farming/gardening into an organic business, and then to the organic industry we now see. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) also steppe in to try to set a standards for 'organic'. The process of setting a standard took a decade long; however, the standard is, in fact, pointless.

The USDA said, to raise organic animals, as long as animals have "access to outdoor/pasture", it is defined organic. This definition is vague and meaningless because people can find loopholes and break this standard very easily. I find a similarity between the standard USDA set up and the Mark-to-Market strategy Enron had. The Mark-to-Market strategy also has many loopholes that the CEO can make false claims easily.

'Organic' was originally designed to feed people in a way that is closer to nature. Unfortunately, it became unsustainable once the businesses stepped in. The reading defined 'unsustainable' as "sooner or later it must collapse" and I find this parallel to Enron's failure. Enron was originally a successful business, however, the temptation of profits blindfolded their eyes. This is similar to the big business that stepped into organic farming. In both cases, the true meaning of organic and the original goal of Enron were mislead to a devastating dead-end.

I think that the whole process of organic farming turned into organic industry, is not out of will. The reason why farmers cooperated with super markets or other larger businesses is because there is a huge demand from the consumers. In order to suite the need of the markets, some farms choose to be industrialized. If the farmers of small farms does not find new ways to sell their product, they'll face a danger of dying out. Oppositely, Enron turned out to be so avaricious was out of their own will . No outside force was really pushing them to become greedy or start lying to the others. Enron could still be a good business even if it faces some outside pressure or expectations.

This reading really got me start questioning whether organic is organic. Although the growing process of vegetables, fruits, and other produces can be organic, but how about food processing and distribution? It takes a lot of energy resources to pack and ship the products to all over the country, or even the whole world. I think the problem is because organic farms are only centered in one area. In the reading, organic farms in California are responsible a big percentage of organic produces in the US. Therefore, it requires a lot of long-distance shipping from California to other states.
I think the problem of overuse of energy can be alleviated if the farms are more localized. However, it is a challenge for big businesses to work with small, local farms. This is a problem that all the state governments, even the whole world, need to work on.

Internship Learning Experience Reflection 1

Roxanne and I are currently helping Sir Speedy, a print and design company, to research information about how to make its business green. The main reason for doing this is to educate not only the people in print and design industries, but also the cooperating units and clients.

We've been at our internship for eight times since October 8th. My main job for the first four times was to help my mentor, Roma, to compile a list of green-papers, research Chinese information online and translate an English pamphlet into Chinese. I have to say that I was quite nervous for the first few times there because I knew nothing about this print and design industry. I had some difficulties with translating some technical terms into Chinese. However, I was a "problem solver" because I tried my best to research anything I can find. What I got out of this translation experience is that I feel very privileged to be able to read and write in Chinese fluently. Since China is becoming a competitive country in the world, I realized how this can be my greatest benefit for future.

For the fifth and sixth time, Roxanne and I went of to a meeting with the paper vendor. We sat down with the vendor and chatted about the future market of green paper alternatives, etc. The boss of the paper company invited us to join a lunch with him and paid the money for us. It was the first time ever that I feel like I'm an office worker who's attending the meeting ever! I also reported the information I got to Roma. However, we did not meet the expectation, so I got on the phone to try to get the missing information from the paper vendor. Overall, it was a fresh experience!

Roxanne and I did some actual designs for the clients on the seventh and eighth time. I was quite excited because I got to learn how to use designing programs (eg: InDesign and Illustrator) other than Photoshop.
Speaking of doing designs for clients, Roma told us that the designs they created will eventually belong to the client, not themselves. This is the reality of this industry. For me, I can totally understand this "reality"; however, I sometimes do not like the feeling of my art work being owned by someone else. If I ever get into this business one day, I would, perhaps, have to adjust my mind-set to get myself ready to accept this reality.

Blood, Sweat, and Tee-shirts BBC - Reflection

This clip recalls what the situation was like back in Industrial Revolution. The working condition in India is not that sever as it was back then, still, it's not a condition that I would call "humane". We only see the pretty surface of different things, but are we really progressing on the "inside"?!
Although I've only watched a short part of this BBC documentary, I can tell that the condition in the factory is really harsh. It is hard to me to imagine being in such situation. If I am one of the British girl, I would probably have a hard time there too.

I can relate this BBC documentary with a film about Walmart that we watched during Global Ethics class last year. In the movie, there is one part about Chinese labors working in cloth-manufacturing factory. The clothes will be shipped to Walmart stores mainly in the US. The condition of the workers are also bad. One of the girl who was being interviewed said that they must live in a small, crowded dorm and work overtime most of the time.

Enron Bankruptcy - Reflection

We watched the movie of Enron Scandal on Tuesday during Global Ethics class. I have to say, humans, indeed, can have really nasty minds. It is quite incredible to see how Lay, Skilling, Fastow, and other shareholders can be so smart at manipulating the truth; however, they used their smartness in the wrong way. This is also why they were destined to fail, sooner or later.

(image source)

I still remember what Ishmael said about Takers being greedy and their ultimate goal is to control the whole universe. In Enron's case, the company itself is a huge Taker. The ultimate reasons of why they bankrupted are because of pride, arrogance, intolerance, and greed. They will do whatever they need to do to make profits. The part of Enron shutting down electric power in California struck me the most. Enron shut down the electric power in California to make profits while many Californians suffered because of Enron. Also, and the conversation between two investors is simply nasty! Despite all the swear words in their conversation, I felt very disgusted by their attitude... How can people say such things like that? How can people make profits out of people's suffrage without feeling guilty or ashamed? They must know their actions are unethical, however, they did not stop it. There was no way for them to stop the actions because of greed.
I believe the Enron Scandal put businesses in the US and around the world on alert. Under free trade marketing, there is only agreements but not laws. It is easier to manipulate details under those agreements. Those agreements are like the Law of Aerodynamics. It is important for businesses to follow the Law of Aerodynamics to have a fair play in trade markets. Or else, the business will crash like a plane that is not made according to the Law of Aerodynamics.


So, how did the trail go in 2006? What are some effects of this bankruptcy?
- Ken Lay guilty of all six counts against him; Judge Sim Lake finds Lay guilty of four counts in separate personal banking fraud trial. The jury finds Jeff Skilling guilty 19 of the 28 counts against him. Ken Lay died of a sudden heart attack on July 5, 2006 before the final sentence was made. (source)
- Enron sold its last business, Prisma Energy, in 2006. In early 2007, it changed its name to Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation. Its goal is to pay off the old Enron's remaining creditors and wind up Enron's affairs. (source)
- Both Wall Street Journal and Business Week calculated the direct loss of Enron bankruptcy: about 40billion and 90 billion USD. The loss is equal to nine times the loss of 911 Terrorist Attack (about 10 billion). The impact is not only limited to economical aspect, but also damaged US investor's confidence.

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Just another thought of my own: the Enron case made me think of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Although the Lehman Brothers bankrupted because of mortgage crises; however, it still has huge impact on the economy around the world. Over 25,000 employees of Lehman Brothers became unemployed. I felt unbelievable that a leading company like Lehman and Enron can collapse in only a short period of time! Both of them are indeed human tragedies.

DongMen Mall Choreography Reflection

1. How did the site of DongMen alter the choreography that you created in the classroom?
- Originally, our group was going to do movements under the cloth line because we thought we could hang some clothes there. Unfortunately, the cloth line is unreachable, therefore we just did our movements on the flat ground. We also made some changes to our movements. We did the whole choreography without clothes hanging, and we changed the jumping-around to crawling on the ground because it would look better.

2. Now that you know this site better; If you were to go back to Dongmen what would you add or subtract from your choreography to make it stronger?
- I actually liked our movements. If possible, I would change the background to another wall that was at the rooftop. The wall we used as background was gray, but the other wall has some creepy rusty effects that might make our choreography stronger.

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In response to Ms. Amy's Comment:

- The Mall gave me a abandoned, isolated, and creepy feeling. I was scared by a passing cat while walking on the corridor. It was quite surprising to see many people are still living in it. Perhaps it's because those people don't have money to move to a new house or simply because it's their home. If I were the mayor of Hsinchu, I would allow people open shops and live inside. I would fix the whole building, or at least clean up the building so people living inside can have a better living environment.

The Silence of Silicon Lambs - Choreohraphy Ideas

The article mentioned two different rivers in Hsinchu --Kerya and Kaoping River.

Kerya River: The water was found to be polluted and had pungent smell. Some Unnatural sex changes occurred to the Ke-Ying conches, and repetitive dead fishes. Dramatic expansion of Science Park resulted in HSIP alone added 185,000 CMD water to the river that contributes 63.6% of the water body.
Kaoping River: A study showed that the river was polluted because of dumped toxic wastes in July 18, 2000.

From the two short introduction above, I think the students can come with gestures such as kneeling on the river bank and weeping. Students can even personify the fish and other organisms living in the river. What I mean by personification is that students can act as those river creatures which died at the end of the choreography because of human-made pollutions. Overall, I am expecting this choreography to have a kind of sad atmosphere.

I also think that water is a symbol of purification, therefore the class can also create another piece that is totally opposite than the other piece I mentioned above. We can come up with ritual gestures that are more holy.

The ideas I have is quite abstract and hard to describe in words. However, the main idea is to present two different themes-- one is positive, one is negative.

Reflection on readings for Secrete Hsinchu (draft)

Reading #1: Why Psychogeography?

It's said in the reading that "Guy Debord, called for an investigation into the effects of the environment (both constructed and natural) on emotions and behavior. He called this area of study psychogeography.".
I personally find psychogreography an interesting field of study because the kind of places we live in do influence our emotions and behavior. For example, a lot of people like to to places near the sea or in the mountains, because people can feel relaxed by looking at those scenery. People living in the city usually have "fast living paste" and often feel stressed because of the traffic, noises, air pollution, and even the pressure from work. Thus, the environment, indeed, effects our minds and body.
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Reading #2: Site-Specific performance

In the reading, it says "Sites have habits and rules: people who use the space implicitly agree to a set of acceptable behaviour.". This sentence made me think of the ritual choreography I did with my partners. We performed a short skit that involves many mundane rituals. For instance, going to KTV to celebrate birthday is a ritual for young people. Drinking and cheering in the KTV and blowing candles are mundane rituals that we can see quite often.
I think that a site can have different meaning for different people. What I mean by different meaning is that people has different memories of the site. A site has its story and history, therefore, I think artists can be very creative and be really inspired by different sites.

It's All About Design!!!

I see a connection in McDonough's TED talk and the book "The Ecology of Commerce" about the competition between businesses. McDonough pointed out that competition is "together-strive": a way of cooperating in order to fit together. The sixth principle in the book also pointed out how the competition in human culture works. Both support the idea that competition helps growth, but the book addressed on that invasive competitions do not necessarily bring improvements. We are suppose to compete against each other to help each other to grow, like McDonough said, not to try to beat each other. The best way to help human culture to grow and develop is to educate people, not through endless advertisements and invasive competitions!

Another big part mentioned in the book, which is the second principle "Sustainable businesses take responsibility for the effects they have on the natural world" talks about how and what we can do to really help this world to become more sustainable.
The book pointed out a very important point that the little things we are doing to save energy is not enough. The demands we put on nature already exceed what we, as individuals or small groups can do to help. Therefore, the real changes need to be made in the ones that have the real power, such as the corporations.

So, what can businesses do to make a difference? The key is re-think and re-design the whole business process! Starting from the materials and resources, then to employment, this whole process needs to be in a cycle. It is also said in the first principle: "If changing from linear to cyclical processes is a key to re-creating business in an ecological manner, then an important component of that redesign will be feedback, accountability, and responsibility.".

The book also mentioned about William McDonough's design. McDonough's designs are build in a cycle so that every part of the product can go back to the the most original form.
McDonough's designs and what the book talks about fit exactly into what Roxanne and I are doing in our internship. We are currently helping Sir Speedy, a print and design company, to research information about how to make its business green. Since paper is a huge part of a print and design company, we are trying to find out all the papers that are made from recycled paper or post-consumer wastes, and see whether they are chlorine free, or has certifications from organizations like Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), etc. We'll then move on to find out more information about less toxic inks and more eco-friendly printing process later on. The main reason for doing this is to educate not only the people in print and design industries, but also the clients and customers. Only if we start from the most basic, we can do the best to re-design the whole print and design industry, and then to share our knowledge with others!

On the whole, Like McDonough said, it's all about sustainable designs!

Waste Not vs. Senior Project

After reading an excerpt from the book Waste Not, I found out that the commercial industry had wasted many things. Many commercials and ads have images showing exposed women body parts and sexuality. I think women are being regarded as objects. Those images waste the beauty of women in many ways.

For instance, A woman's body and self-confidence is lowered because the way media portrays women. It's mentioned in the reading that overuse of energies and resources lower living quality. Overuse of resources does not necessary boom the economy but drag the economy down. I see parallel of how advertisement overuse the image of women and therefore distorted woman's natural beauty and lowered woman's self-confidence.
Furthermore, many girls and women worship those "distorted beauty" as role model, as result, many business are build for helping women to achieve the idealized beauty. Beauty industry creates huge amount of profits by promoting make ups, clothes, medicine and equipments for loosing-weight, etc. The making of more clothes, make ups, medicines, and machines create wastes that pollute environment and harm the right of labors; dieting or also waste health.

Ms. Gruber reminded me that I need to do more than creating awareness. The reading also says:"each of the three types of waste is presented as interlocking symptoms of one problem: using too many resources to make too few people more productive. This increasingly expensive industrial formula is a relic of a past that no longer serves a present or a future.". This shows that people had done as much as they can to create awareness of how women are portrayed in the media, unfortunately it is still not working. I'm not saying that people used too much energy to create awareness. However, there is certain process that does not work out because of the societal trend.
Like Ms. Gruber said, it is difficult to work against Mother Culture. I personally will think more about how to do more than creating awareness as my senior project goes.

Pink leopard, Hearts, & Bear-bear!!

Blog template is updated :)

Hope it's not too colorful, lol

I was playing with GIMP for hours because of the typhoon.
But I still like Photoshop the best!

worried...

Just some thought about being in the Advanced Placement English class....
I know my English level is not as good as the rest of my classmates. I feel pressured to speak in front of them. When reading hard materials like Baldwin essay, I wonder if other classmates understand the essay. I usually assume they understand least 50% of it and therefore I question my own English ability quite often.
In short, I guess I'm not confident enough to sit in that class. Although Ms. Galland always cheers me up, I still feel worried. :-(
It's only the start of the school year.... hope by the end of my senior year, I will, at least, get used to college-level work!!!

Stranger in a Village - author's intention

What's Baldwin's intent of writing this essay:

Baldwin talks about how different the Europeans and Americans sees him as a black man. In a way he is sort of saying how Europeans are naive about what's going on with the racial issue in the US. I think Baldwin's intention of writing this essay was to criticize how white men treat the African Americans in the US. He was reinforcing how racial justice issue has always been a huge part of the history in earlier years. Yet, there was nothing the African Americans can do about these racial injustice problems.


Support:

The whole paragraph 14: "There is a dreadful abyss between the streets of this village and the streets of the city in which I was born, between the children who shout Neger! today and those who shouted Nigger! yesterday—the abyss is experience, the American experience. The syllable hurled behind me today expresses, above all, wonder: I am a stranger here. But I am not a stranger in America and the same syllable riding on the American air expresses the war my presence has occasioned in the American soul." explains that there is a difference between how people view him as a black man in this small European town and back in America. When a Swiss village kid called him Negger from the back, he didn't really feel anguish at all, but it certainly reminded him of how he was treated in America.
Paragraph 10 says "The rage of the disesteemed is personally fruitless, but it is also absolutely inevitable: this rage, so generally discounted, so little understood even among the people whose daily bread it is, is one of the things that makes history. Rage can only with difficulty, and never entirely, be brought under the domination of the intelligence and is therefore not susceptible to any arguments whatever."--- this supports how Baldwin feels in America. There is nothing he can do about the situation, but being hurt and furious.

Senior Project Inquiry Question - draft 1

Topic:
How does media (ads, commercials) influence women's status on the society?

Reason why I choose this topic:
- Last year (11th grade) for English class, I choose to investigate women in media. Therefore I am very interested in topics concerns with women's rights and raising women's status in the society. I think this senior project allows me to start to actually go out and do something instead of just writing or discussing about this issue. Also, I want to incoorporate graphic design skills that I will learn in my internship experience with making posters to raise awareness of women's status.

I want to examine things such as:
- What is the current status of women in media?
- How women being portrayed as objects in media?
- What are people's thoughts about idealized beauty?
- Explore stereotypes or limitations being put on women in different culture (or at least in some Asian countries)

Methods I can go out and gather information:
- survey: How women/girls feel about themselves?
- survey: How men view women in media?
- interviews: models, fashion industries, advertising companies
- get in contact with DOVE - Campaign For Real Beauty: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

My "actual production" will be creating ads to:
- raise women/girls self-confidence
- portray women in healthy, non-sexual, positive angle


These are just my very first outline of what I want to do. Feel free to give any suggestions! :)

KUSO T-shirts : )

Here are a lot of creative T-shirt designs made by Taiwanese artists:
It's called " POPPOPPOP"
http://poppoppop.cc/en/

It's a website where anyone can upload his/her design, and the design will be open for other people to vote. If the artist's design get most votes, the sponsor will print your design on T-shirts and sell them on this website. The artist will also get $10,000 NT fee.

The artist's intent is to tease how fast food

industry is destroying the environment.
Image reference

It's just another T-shirt I find very cute and funny!
Perhaps, it's a nice t-shirt to make fun of yourself or others?
Image Reference

Skype with Soule

Today, during our Social Sculpture class, we had an oversea skype with Ms. Sheila (our teacher)'s friend Soule. The purpose of connecting with different artists is that Ms. Sheila want us to get a sense of how community art is like. Soule works both as free-lance and with the community. She work voluntarily with the community , but at the same time, she can earn money by getting cases on her own. When working with as free-lance, she receives cases such as designing the costumes for actors and actresses. On the other part, she works with community opera, which allows her to get involved with improving and benefiting the whole community welfare based on good motivations.

Soule talked about how she was concerned with aesthetic when she started to learn art, but later, she found out that the most important thing is not necessarily the beauty but meaning or intention behind the art piece. I agree with what she said because I think an artist's intention is the inspiration of his/her art works. A piece of art does not necessarily need to be very beautiful or eye-catching, it can be as simple as a red dot on a piece of white cloth. Unfortunately, I'm still in a state that I concern with the beauty more than the intention when I am creating my art works...

Soule also showed us how she organizes her art portfolio; inside, she puts many resources that inspired her to design all the different costumes. For me, it is quite interesting to see what a portfolio looks like and see the actual design of the costumes. She also showed us some t-shirts that she made by stencils!
Just a random thought of my own, we can design our own t-shirts and sell it for charity purpose! :)

As a Hsinchu citizen...

As a Hsinchu citizen, I've not really heard any bad news about the Hsinchu Science Park polluting the environment. It is interesting to question what impacts the Science Park had bring to our daily life after I read the article "The Silence of Silicon Lambs", by Shenglin Chang and Wenling Tu .

I am not really surprised by any part of the article, but I would like to make few comments on the entire article:
It is mentioned in the article that media tend to show bias toward Science Park and the government ignored the opposition force. I think this article doesn't provide enough concrete statistics or evidence to prove this is true, but by observation, it seems true. I believe this is a problem because people have the mind set that expanding the science park is a positive thing to do. I also believe in this mind set because I've never heard any bad news criticizing the pollutions made by the Park. I found a parallel between Science Park development and China's dramatic industrialization: China is becoming industrialized in a rapid speed, but has ignored a great deal of environmental problems. Chinese government does not concern about building environmental friendly development; all they want is turn China into a civilized city. As result, China is becoming a top threat to issues like Global Warming and pollution. Both Science Park and China are trying to expand their technology further, but have ignored the environmental sustainable issues. Science Park, indeed, do seem like it is using the name of "high-tech" to make pollution.

It is interesting to know that 1 out of 4 household works in the Science Park. Many of my friends' parents or relatives also work in Science Park.
My parents worked in the Science Park thirty years ago; it was when the Park had just began its expansion. They told me stories about working as a assembly worker. They have to sit there for hours and hours, the only time they can get up is going to the restroom. The rapid change of production process is indeed scary. Everyday, my parents have to change the manufacturing process (eg: a component of the computer) in order to suit the need of down stream companies.

On the whole, the local and Taiwan government should really be concerned about environmental and labor issues in the Science Park. As environmental-sustainability problems are mainstream issue around the world now, the government should think of plans that are flexible to suit quick changes. Development of high-techs is for sure beneficial, but without proper planning, Science Park will create more and more negative side-effects to the community and the economy of Taiwan in the future.

My proudest works of this school year

*Click to see larger picture*

This is an advertisement created for my first semester Non-Fiction (English) class. The computer program I use is Photoshop CS3.

This is a shoe’s ad that shows women’s empowerment. The content of the image and the written materials are the two main techniques I used in this advertisement.
The content of this image shows confidence. I chose rainbow colors for the background to demonstrate different atmospheres. Each color represents certain meanings, emotions, feelings, and thoughts; therefore I call these representations as atmospheres. If the audiences look carefully enough, there are small, thin arrow lines pointing everywhere, which is another representation of choosing paths they love. In this ad, I try to include women from different ethnicity, body shape, occupation, and age. This means that every woman should be happy with herself. They should live the path they’ve chosen with confidence and smile!
The written material includes a quote by Geraldine Ferrano and a slogan I created. The idea I am trying to convey to the audience is the empowerment of women. Women have the right to choose the path they want, especially the road of equality. The slogan seem normal but the meaning behind it is not only “Wear what you love and walk with confidence”, but also “choose what you love to do and do it with confidence.”

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Another piece of work is the design for Yearbook "news" pages:

*Click to see larger picture*

I've been a Yearbook staff member for two years. I didn’t have a chance to create my own design for the first year in the Yearbook club. Fortunately, the second year (2007-08), I get to design my own design! I am responsible for the World News page and Taiwan News page in the Yearbook club. I had to summarize and gather important events that happened during the year and come up with a design for these pages. I made the design with a program called Photoshop CS3. I enjoyed making the design because I love graphic arts and digital creations.
For the World News page, I’m trying to create a feeling of old, yellowish paper like texture for the background. The composing of the whole content is like a real news paper where you would find blocks of news passages.
Although, my design is not on the finished product, which is the Yearbook, I still had fun creating this piece of work!

Summer vacation #1

* don't steal my master piece!! >:-[ *

It's summer time again!!!!
Unfortunately, I am not going anywhere this summer, not even anywhere in Taiwan. :(
Anyways, I signed up for the Dale Carnegie course for teenagers. I've attended two lessons already. The first lesson was quite "scary". There is about 45 students in a class and the first interaction you have to make with others is to shake hands with them. It was quite strange and embarrassing to shake hands with someone you doesn't know. Overall, the first lesson was very nerve-wracking for me....
The second lesson was much better. We have to set up goals for four categories: family, personal leisure, friends, and school academic. One of my goals is to get over 1600 even up to 1700 on my SATs!!!!! :D

Oh, btw, Green Day, The Click Five, and Muse are good bands!!!!!!

Lastly, to everyone who read this entry: Have a great summer!!

How do we change the world?!

This is a broad topic to talk about. Start from myself: honestly, I think it is too unrealistic to talk about how can we change the world, but ironically, I would love to do something to make a difference. It is impractical because there are too many people on this world. They can choose either to "care" or to "ignore". It is very hard to get everyone start doing something to change the world.
I do not know what I can do to change the world. Even if I do know how, I don't dare to take actions. Therefore I think the answer to "how" do I change the world is to have "passion". If I am ambivalent toward both sides of the issue, I would not have any preference on either sides. Oppositely, if I have strong passion toward certain issue, I would argue for the side I stand on. Such passion is the key to influence the world. You've got to use your passion to influence other people around you and get them stand on your side to do the same thing with you. Take the animal testing debate as an example, this debate really changed my point of view about animal testing. Before, I simply think it is immoral to kill the animals for testing; now, I agree that animal testing is necessary. It is even more immoral if we leave millions of people to suffer from AIDS, cancer, etc diseases. I was glad when the sixteen years old student marched onto the street with many other pro-animal testing people. It is something those people are passionate about such passion promoted action.

Some thoughts I have is that we as a class can come up with plans such as lights-off day per week, cleaning up the environment (which is what we are planning now in GEI), etc, and present our ideas to the Hsinchu government. It will be more effective if we present our ideas to the government.

Tibet's Bloodshed

The bloodshed in Lhasa, Tibet is a hot topic on the world news for these few days. The government in Beijing hoped to gain economical benefits after first rail way that links to Tibet starts to run. Indeed China gained economical profits because of people and trading, but this lead to another huge problem. The main reason that caused this protest is because the culture shift. After the rail way is opened, Lhasa become a popular tourist place. Many Han Chinese immigrated in to Tibet and occupied a huge part of Tibetans economy. Many Tibetans felt that those Han Chinese immigrants threatened their life style and their own cultural status.
For more detailed information please read the BBC Special report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456954/html/nn0page1.stm
and more Tibet bloodshed related links:
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=all&edition=i&q=Tibet&go.x=0&go.y=0&go=go

The main reason why I want to bring this issue up (at 12:30am) is because I saw an interesting news report just a few hours ago. (By the way, this is a very good TV program that discuss many current issues around the world. From world economy to local news..)

Give you a little more background of what happened before:
There was a huge bloodshed in the year 1988 because Tibetans wants to become independent from China. The leader of China was Deng Xiaoping at that time and he gave Jiang Zemin (China's leader from 1989-2002) a mission to calm the riot in Tibet. Jiang Zemin used China's People's Liberation Army and gun force to calm the riot down; the riot was appeased under military force. and Jiang Zemin was then appointed to succeed the position as the leader of China by Deng Xiaoping himself. The peace in Tibet lasted for 49 years until few days ago. Chinese government tried to calm Tibetans down by promising them better economy, which is the rail way linked to Tibet, hoping to improve the economy of Tibetans.

And now, the riot starts again.
This riot did not just demonstrate the angriness of Tibetans but also the power of China's communist government. The government seemed to blame the fault on the Dali Lama. The government calls the army to occupy Tibet and there are tanks on the streets... Isn't this replaying what happened in 1988?

The interesting and ironic point is: on the right hand side, Chinese government is trying to boom the economy up, doing everything try to help China to become world's best, and is doing everything they can to welcome the Olympic Games that is coming up in a months. On the other hand, China's Communist government is still using communist army forces to suppress Tibetans. Does this mean that the Chinese government still does not improve, and has not yet abandon their old fashioned way of governing?

I think it is hard for China to abandon these old ideas because they ARE a communist country. Honestly, I do not like communist government. We should be glad that we have a president election coming up... ;)

* The TV program is called "文茜世界週報", hosted by a very famous lady called 陳文茜. I strongly recommend people to watch it. All the information presented in the program are carefully picked and very well-reported!
* I tried to summarize what I heard on the news today and tried to translate everything into English. It took me a long time, sorry if you can't understand some of the things that I wrote.

Grizzley Man - Film Reflection

In the film, Timothy Treadwell displayed many side of himself. He sometimes praise himself as a warrior, a master and destined to save these bears. Indeed, he is a warrior because he has the courage to think that he can live with the bear. His faith was so strong that made him willing to sacrifice his live to the wild. He believed that it is his responsibility to educate others about these animals and he did went to many schools to teach the children. I respect him for that because I also want to do something like educating others and make a change, and I know it is not a easy job to educate others. Timothy is a very sentimental person, he even felt really sad when he saw a bee on the flower. If it was me, I would not even notice the bee on the flower and feel sad about how its death.

Timothy's belief is both radical but also non-radical. It is radical in a way that people might think he deserves the death; non-radical because that is what he believed in. To him, he rather die if that can evoke others to protect the bears and the nature. I also see the rule of fittest survive in this movie. When the bear attacked Timothy, it is destined that he will die. Nature is sometimes emotionless. Only the fittest can survive... something inside the bear clicked its mind, and decided "that's it! I'm going make him as my food". Again, this is another lesson of what the reality of nature looks like.

Can humans become a part of the wild? I questioned the possibility of whether human can live with the animals when I saw the scene of Timothy patting on the fox while talking to the camera. The fox seem to like Timothy because the fox showed no sign of resisting. This question also made me think of the movie "Instinct". In the Instinct, the old man lived with the chimpanzees in the wild for quite a while. Although this movie is fictional, but seems like there is a possibility that humans may become part of the wild community.

Arctic Tale Film Reflection

We watched the film Arctic Tale today. First I have to say that the film is AMAZING! Those people took fifteen years tracking the polar bears and walruses, they also need to endure such coldness to get the best shots. It is simply cool!
I never knew how a life of the polar bear or walruses would look like before I watch this film. The interactions between Mother Nature and the animals are incredible. I also realized how Global Warming is effecting animals survival. I read news about polar bears drowning while swimming across the sea, and the film helped me to visualize everything. I felt so guilty because the problems humans create are directly contributed to the death of those animals!

I was impressed by the team work of seals and the auntie taking care of other's child. It was quite amazing to see an animal has such family relationship with each other. Towards the end of the film, the auntie made a sacrifice to safe the young seal from the predator. I wonder if that is a sign of showing her emotion. Such brave action is the same as humans' behavior. It might be driven by the love towards the young seal because usually humans can make sacrifices for their loved ones.

When one of the young polar bear died, his families stayed beside him for a while. It made me think of what I wrote in the expedition 2 questions entry. The birds and the bear seem to have same kind of emotions when seeing their loved one died.

Another scene that made me wonder about whether animals have emotions is when the mother Polar bear was trying to drive her child away. The expression of her eyes is showing anger or at least expressing a "get away from me" message. Also, the narrator mentioned that the separation for the young polar bear was hard; I think it is because there is a certain degree of love between the mother and the child.

The arctic ice is melting faster than ever, this made me very worried about all the animals living in Arctics. I read news articles that write about environmental issues almost everyday, scientists said that Global Warming will continue to become worse. The early melting ice and weather changes made the animals expose to extreme risks. The polar bears and the walruses need to swim many miles before they find a new piece of ice; the wolfs cannot swim across the sea, so what should they do to survive? The animals are facing extinction because of human....

EMO

HAh! I was very emo today. Probably it was because I don't have any safe colleges/universities that I can consider to go to.
Well.... after chatting with Dennis just 1 hr ago, finally I found a school that I can probably get into! Haha! I also talked to my mom about it. I feel better after talking to her. At least I have a thread of hope for getting into college again.
It's very near my aunt's house. If I go there, I can visit my uncles, aunts, cousins often and I can have a part time job in my aunt's Dunkin Donut shop!!!! :D
But, you know, everything is uncertain.

Hi!

A new blog for GE class!!!
Hmm..... don't really now what to say.
I don't like the templates. There aren't many choices to choose.
Anyways, I'll be updating this blog constantly!

Fast Food Nation - Reflection

When the first time I heard about Mr. Loken said what is the movie about, I thought it’s going to be a disgusting movie. It’s about the fast food restaurant and the slaughterhouse. I thought the movie is simply showing many disgusting scenes of people killing the cows. After I watch the movie, I found out there are many aspects that the movie is trying to convey.
What stood out to me is when the guy who worked in the fast food restaurant spat into the hamburger. All of the sudden I was so grossed out by what he did. I was thinking if I’ve ever eaten other people’s saliva before? If I did, how disgusting was that? I think this scene points out the morality of people. People who work in restaurants or in any other place need the basic level of morality!
The movie also shows a big portion of laboring. The last scene when a new group of Mexican crossed the border, I feel sorry for them. I hope they rather not come to the U.S for jobs because they have great chance of getting injured or treated unequally. It was such a contradicting scene when the person who was responsible for picking up the Mexicans, gave the children fast foods.
I read an essay that Amy wrote in English class saying that some people who work in the slaughterhouse get mental problems. I believe it is so true that because they are in such a brutal environment for many hours. Being in a slaughterhouse can damage a person’s mental condition and will leave a mental scar that can never be fixed.

------------ the following paragraph is the Re-do---------
When I was about 7 years old, there was one time I saw my grand parents killing a chicken for the CNY meal. I was little, and I watched the whole killing process, I did not felt disgusting but "interesting". I didn't even think of that the chicken might suffer. Now, thinking back about that bloody scene, it was simply disgusting.
We discussed some of our opinions in the class about few weeks ago. I agree with what Ivy brought up --- the issue of women were forced to have sex in order to get a job. It was quite sad to see such things to happen. It made me wonder again about why women, in most of the cases, the target of sexual abuses?

2nd Expedition Q: Do animals have emotions?

1. Do we have an ethical responsibility toward animals?
Yes, definitely. We are all living beings. As a human, we feel pain, suffer, happiness, and other physical and mental sensations. Animals have their own life they have to live and humans have their own life too. We do not want to cross the line of each other’s life. Humans wouldn’t expect other human or animals to abuse their right of living. So do the animals.
Amy did her first semester English project on animal testing. She showed us a movie that has many pictures of animals suffered under various testing. They look painful and sad. I think it is quite selfish for humans to do that to animals just because we think we are superior.
If we buy a pet animal, it is our job to take care of it like our own child. Although I think having a pet animal is not so ethical for those animals, but if we really do have one, we have to take care of it. Treat them like humans.

2. Do animals have emotions? Give examples if possible.
I usually heard that when a dog shakes its tail means it is happy and welcoming people. Another example once I saw on the news, a photographer captured a moment when a bird is weeping for its dead partner. A bird got hit by the car and was lying dead on the road. Its partner was staying beside, trying to get the dead one to wake up, but sadly, the other bird will never wake up. What showed me that animals have emotions is that the dead bird’s partner did not fly away for thirty minutes. Therefore, I would have to say that many animals do have emotions, but there are too many kind of animals that I cannot tell if they have emotions.