Dear Mitch,
What else can I say about you? You're a great friend. Someone who is truthful, cheerful and different than the average person. I chose you because Mitch, you taught me to be confident and showed me to be myself rather than being shy or be someone else who I am not. You were my first musically talented friend. I always dreamed about playing the guitar, and you encouraged me to do so. You inspire me to be a musician, and with that, I feel like I am at peace with the music I learn and play. If I hadn't met you, my life would be chaotic and stressful to go through without playing and enjoying music. You're never afraid to be yourself, judge others or do anything to hurt anyone. Overall Mitch, you're a good person at heart. My gratitude towards you is infinite. Thanks for being a great friend to me.
Monday, September 22, 2014
Monday, September 15, 2014
Banning Books? Outrageous!
Should books be banned? Absolutely not. In the video "Banned Book Week: 13 Authors Speak Out" shows us thirteen Authors who tells us that banning books is something that shouldn't happen. Brian Garfield, one of the Authors shown in this video said, "If you don't want to read it, don't read it," and laughs right after. I couldn't agree more with him. What I think Brian is saying is that, if you don't enjoy reading or don't enjoy reading a certain type of genre/series, don't read it. No one is forcing you to read anything that you dislike. I for one don't read as much as others, but the idea of banning books or censoring it because of certain content within a book, series, genre or how it is written is idiotic. Another Author shown in the video, Walter Mosley said, "This sounds ridiculous to me. It's like banning thoughts, banning ideas, banning people." Walter is correct. Banning thoughts, ideas and people is like banning free will and the right to speak. People write books because they either enjoy writing them, it sends a message out to the public, shows entertainment, presents moral ideas, defines people in the world or the Author them self in a experience and such that if you are interested in reading, read your heart out. Repeating this again, no one is making you read, Unless it's English and you're taking up a novel approved by the school board for learning or a ISU. Every type of book should be available to read. Whether it is a violent genre, horrific genre, to a more in-depth and scientific or religious genre that presents an idea or perspective, it is writing and someone wrote that and spent their own time making it. There are no rules for which books are to be banned and which are not. There is just personal choice in whether you don't want to read a specific genre or series. Joseph Caldwell, a third Author out of the thirteen in the video said about the banning of books, ".. if you censor it, what you're doing is that you are reducing the human identity... and that is a very grave crime." He said this beautifully. What I interpret from that is, you mask or hide what is someone's identity. That is inequality and silencing a voice in the world. A Human, a Author, and it is, in fact a crime in my books.
Monday, September 8, 2014
TED Talks: Angela Lee Duckworth Explains Grit
In the video "The key to success? Grit", Angela Lee Duckworth tells us about how she found out what was the key point in being successful in life. She started off as a teacher, teaching seventh grade mathematics in the New York city public school. After all the term work, she then calculated grades from her students. The results were shocking. Her smartest students weren't doing so well; on the other hand, the hardworking students didn't have the best grades. This means that IQ wasn't the only difference between her best and her worst students. I don't think there are any students that would be named "worst student", they're just not as successful like the others but are working at getting better. In a motivational perspective and a psychological one, Angela believes that grit is the predictor to success in all things. If you work hard and long enough, you will succeed! Angela left and became a psychologist to further investigate her idea of what makes someone successful. From here Angela worked with a team of other psychologists. She worked and experimented with people ranging from children to adults; putting them in all difficult settings and see who would succeed and prevail. Angela always asking herself while conducting the experiment, "who is successful here and why"? In the end, Angela and her team found out a characteristic that stood out the most. Every test they did, that characteristic was shown to be successful. It wasn't talent, social intelligence, physical health, good looks, or (surprisingly) IQ. It was grit. What Angela defines grit as passion and perseverance for very long term goals. I agree with Angela with this concept. This concept is told and taught to us from our families and school. Tell us to work hard and find a career that is best suited for us that we enjoy to do (that's the long term goal part of her definition). Grit is the individual to work towards something, a goal maybe; and making the possibility a reality. Grit isn't something where you can be lazy, procrastinated or half assed. It's a solid work ethic in which case, deserves to be rewarded with high grades. She says that talent doesn't make success, hard work does, meaning grit is the process in which success will come if you stick at it and keep going. You have to be willing to fail, and start over again. Kicked down, and getting back up. After watching the video, I too am currently working really hard to succeeed. To develop a solid work ethic, and to keep working towards a long term goal. The video was inspiring to watch and is great to learn from.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas A. Edison (http://www.azquotes.com/quote/86500)
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Self Introduction
Who is Jacky Ly?
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