Linsanity

 1. 1984 by George Orwell Not gonna lie I was reading this book earlier this year when we were told to read a book for the AP exam but I put it aside. It offers profound lessons in terms of society and government, and each character is intricately crafted (according to the internet), especially that the main character is just a normal guy.  2. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien It appeals to me as a place where you can be transported into a fantasy world and forget about everything. Although it is lengthy, I think that only adds to the complexity of the story.  3. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky This book includes themes of morality and human nature. Many people rate it as highly valuable and I'd like to read it for myself. 4. The Little Prince A short but valuable book. It might be considered a children's book but also is great for adults. This one I can finish for sure.  5. Van Gogh: The Life There's a lot to learn from someone else's life, especially ...

 Reading the play English by Sanaz Toossi this week made me think of a few things. Firstly, in the play, English is viewed differently by each character, and thus it acts as a lens into deeper meaning. For example, Marjan and Elham are learning English for career purposes, while Omid and Goli are in the class for personal reasons. The English language is powerful in the play in that it is a open door. Learning it may provide many new opportunities, but it also requires sacrifices as one enters the door.  The play really made me think about assimilating into a new culture and society and the effects that has on one's identity. As a child of immigrant parents, oftentimes I think my behavior may not be American enough, or Chinese enough to satisfy the "crowd". Although for the most part, I can participate and reside with both sides of my cultural identity, for some aspects you have to choose a side. Having to constantly flip-flop between these creates some personal identity ...

 Last week in class we read "A Story", a poem about a father trying to come up with a story for his son before bed time. I believe the main message of the poem is about the difficulties fathers (or mothers) experience trying to please their kids and also not being able to let them go as they grow old. The poem does a good job being generalized so that it is relatable to many people, with the simple title and lack of names. While the child only innocently wants to hear a new story, this task is very challenging to the father. It causes him to create a whole scenario in the future where he struggles to let his son leave. The child never meant to cause pain to the father, yet the father takes it upon himself to do everything to support his son.  The author implies that this kind of relationship is unhealthy. As in the last lines, he states that the two sides add up to silence, where nothing is accomplished and only remains in a cycle of stress.  Yet this poem also comments o...

I grew up with less expectations and influences than a lot of my friends. While my peers grew up with strict rules and forced extracurriculars, I for the most part had the freedom to do what I liked (except swimming). As a result, I was pretty independent for my age, and although everyone might be on the same page now, there comes another opportunity to change: College.  As near graduates from high school, I think we can all agree that the shift to college (or other paths) is one of the largest shifts in our lives. We move into a period of more freedom yet more responsibilities and more individuality. In high school, I am influenced externally by my friend group, parents, and teachers at school. Internally I am influenced by many of the same people but indirectly, such as competition and expectations. In college, these will all have less of an effect. There won't be large influences, but I hope to mature into the "real world" smoothly. As a college student, I'll be fo...

 The best present out of the 12 days of Christmas is undoubtedly the 3 French hens. I'd go as far to say, even with the 5 gold rings included, the hens are still a better option.  First of all, days 8-11 are probably considered human trafficking if you were actually gifted them, so they can be removed from the equation. If you weren't already arrested for such a crime, supporting 8+ people would be quite heavy on the bills, not to mention the need for a mansion of a home. And who would want to hear 12 drummers all day/night? From a monetary perspective, 5 average gold rings would cost around $1000 total (200 per ring from Google). If we assume that the 3 French hens have a full lifetime ahead of them, lay an average of 265 eggs a year, and have 4 years of productive egg-laying, we reach a sum of 3180 eggs. And, because they graze in the backyard and are healthy, we'll consider them pasture-raised. At today's market price of 6$ a dozen, that's $1590 total.  Yet, the ...

 After reading Recitatif and its themes of differences in perception, I couldn't help but wonder the extent of this in our lives. Last week when we were doing the graphs on the structure of the story of Three Girls and Flowers, almost everyone in my group had unique looking graphs; it all comes down to perception. We all read the same piece and were given the same task, yet produced different answers. I believe it all boils down to our memories and past experiences.  This parallels what we're learning in AP Psych right now: the fact that memories causes perceptual sets (biases) in everyone. When you think about it, we are really just our memories. They are what we did in the past and they affect how we will act in the present and the future. This is what makes us unique; the fact that no two people have the same perception of life. Sometimes, people's perception of things can be starkly different, as in Recitatif. Although Roberta and Twyla were both at the incident with Ma...