Chinese Civil War

In class, we were told to find out about the Chinese Civil war and then write about it. I am pretty sure we will have to connect this to the book we are reading, The Woman Warrior, in some way.

So the Chinese Civil war started in April 1927 and ended in 1950. This war was between the
Communists on one side, who wanted to make China more like the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union backed the Communists up, and they also had help from many of the poor people that lived in China. On the other side was the Nationalists, they wanted to make China more like the United States and united, not separated. The Nationalists were also called the Kuomintang. They were helped out by the United States and the United Kingdom, and many of the richer people that lived in the cities of China. The Communists were lead by Mao Zedong and the Nationalist were headed by their leader Chiang Kai-shek. In this war, there were over a million casualties through China.

Even though this was a civil war between two Chinese groups, they sometimes helped each other out. AN example of this is when Japan invaded China in World War II. But this was a short period of time and then they continued to go to war with one another. They continued to keep fighting, but eventually in 1949, the Communists ran the Nationalist off of the land that they were occupying, the mainland. The Nationalist then got chased all the way to Taiwan and stayed there. Mao Zedong the named China "the People's Republic of China" and he became the leader. He then died in 1976. Even today, both sides dis-like one another, but they aren't fighting anymore.

Ghost Story

In Class, we started writing down ghost stories. Nothing came to me so I just made up a story that I have heard of. This is a story that has had many different versions, but I put my own little twist on it.

Response to Essential Question #2

I thought this was a funny picture, but it also has a meaning to me. If somebody chooses somebody to live with the rest of their life, wouldn’t they want to find somebody that they enjoy being around and not just have a divorce? Wouldn’t somebody want to take more time in finding somebody they really like than wasting time breaking up with someone? It is another question that I will look at during this semester.

Response to Essential Question #1

This enrty goes with the video below. My essential question is "what is love?" I don't know the answer to this question because I have never had a girlfriend. So I have been asking questions to answer my main question. For this post I am asking the question, does a guy need to do a task to get acceptance. In this example, Bugs takes dance lessons to get Lola's attention. This is sort of a long video but at the end of the video, Bugs gets Lola's attention and they fall in love. I know this usually won't happen in real life, but it is an extreme that could happen once in a blue moon. I basically just saw this video and thought it would fit so I hope it does and enjoy.

Free Post: Uhh Ohh

It all started when I was around five years old. It had just rained in the little town of Olomana. The rain was a thick rain, and was almost sticky. It would grab on to you like linebacker that wanted to kill you. The rain had then passed but the roadways were still wet. I had the great idea to go over to my friend’s house that lived a block away. I wanted to go over to his house because he had all of the good games for Playstation that I didn’t have so I needed to go over.

I didn’t want to walk over to his house (because it was still drizzling) so I had another great idea of having my dad to drive me down on our scooter. He was willing to take me down on the scooter and soon after, we left. Bu this wasn’t one of those razor-push-scooter, ohh no; this was a top-of-the-line-engine-powered machine that would take me briskly to my friends house. So we started down the hill and the first turn was great. Perfect traction, wind blowing in our hair and no slipping. Then came the second turn. This one didn’t go that well. When we were turning, the front wheel had slipped on wet leaf and the tire had slipped out from under us. I had fallen on the gravel, face first, and of coarse my dad fell right on top of me. This had had to be one of the worst feelings that I had ever felt.

My face felt like it was in pieces; I had cuts and brutal scrapes on my arms, legs and torso. My dad, he had no scrapes or cuts. He had me to cushion his fall. And let me tell you, my dad ain’t a small person. I will keep his exact weight under wraps, but just know that he is a big guy. So back to the story, my dad first rushed me home so we could look at the damage. I didn’t hear anything crack on the fall so that was a good thing. Then I was rushed to the emergency room (that is about a block or two away) and taken care of swiftly.

The nurses took care of my mental pain, and the doctors took care of my physical pain. The nurses made sure that I was calm while the doctor did as much as he could to the damages. This fall could of gone a lot worse but I am happy that I was able to walk from the hospital in one piece.

Free Post: McMinnville, Oregon

“Wow,” I said walking out of the airplane into the airport lobby with an I-can’t-believe-I-am-actually-here face on at about 11:00 P.M., “this place is so huge”. We were there for the regional tryouts for region 4. Region 4 has about 12 states in it. I first made the state team for my age group (just like all of the other people on my team) and know I am here. My 18 teammates and I grab our luggage, and mine was the easiest to find because it was bright blue like shave ice on a summer day. After we got our luggage we got to stroll through a gigantic revolving door, but that’s not the best part. We had to wait for a long, boring hour.

The bus finally arrived and we boarded the bus. We drove for about 20 minutes to one of the many hotels. We crashed there for a night and ordered some Boston’s Pizza. The next day we took a 2-hour bus ride to McMinnville. For most of the ride I was sleeping and listening to my iPod shuffle, but near the end of the ride we passed something out of the ordinary. It was a huge building with the Spruce Goose in it. The Spruce Goose is huge airplane made out of wood made by Howard Houghes. We only passed by it so I only got a quick glance. Once we got to the actual dorms it was close to 2 o’clock P.M. Then we found out our dorm buddies.

My coach handed out the keys and I found out that I was dorming with Paul and Kody. We were the only boys that had three people in our dorm room. Everybody else had two people per room. Our dorm was also the biggest (because we had more people). Our room had a normal bed and a bunk bed. The bunk bed was kind of scary because the top bunk was only supported by a small piece of plywood. I slept on the bottom bunk.

After we all got settled in our dorm, it was time for dinner. Our coach made us strut in two lines so we looked more “professional”. Once we got into the dining room, I got an orange tray and went for the pizza line. I got a greasy cheese pizza and a side of hot French fries for lunch. I sat next to my team and we looked at our competition.

They all looked huge and strong and very good at soccer. One guy was even staring me down. It was pretty scary because he was like the biggest guy on his team and I am one of the smallest on our team. After dinner was done it was time for some fun soccer practice. We got on the field at around six or seven and went for two hours. We mainly did possession drills and it wasn’t that hard of a practice. After practice we took a short walk back to our cozy dorms and had a good night rest.

The next day we had a big meeting with all of the teams at this camp and the coaches. This meeting was just a welcoming greeting and it took a long time. It was basically the region coaches talking to all of the teams about what could happen if you made the region team. It was kind of boring though. My team was close to the front so I had to make sure that the coaches didn’t see me bored out of my shoes. “Finally,” growled my teammate David, “that’s over. It only took like forever!”

That day we had two more practices, one right after the meeting and another two hours after lunch. Lunch was still the same and had the same old greasy pizza but not the fries this time. “You guy’s can’t be eating all of this junk food. It’s bad for you. Ohh, and no ice cream,” shouted my coach. This didn’t make me angry because at home I only have ice cream like every other week. The other guys on my team were whining and mad about coach’s decision.

That night after our long and arduous practice, my roommates and I played a good game of cards and then it was lights out at 10:00. After we closed the door and had our lights out, we still talked but we stopped playing cards.
The next day was different. We got to have our first game! It was against Arizona. The game was very different from all of my games in Hawaii. There was way more possession on the field and some of the Arizona kids looked as though they could have been playing professional. We didn’t lose that bad though. The final score was Arizona 2, Hawaii 1. We then shook their hands and then had a talk with our coach “You guys had a lot of chances.” my coach went on “ You just can’t put the ball away in the back of the net. I think we should have won that game.”

At lunch again guess what I had? Some grease pizza + a side of salad and three cups of water. We had to stay hydrated so everybody was drinking about that much. The afternoon practice was mainly shooting and dribbling.

A couple of days later something terrible happened. I had a bad case of my asthma. It was in the middle of the New Mexico game so I had to come out of the game and take a couple of blows from my inhaler. Then once I felt better I went back into the game. Then guess what happened. I had another asthma attack. I had to come out again and get a blow of my inhaler. This time the trainer came over to me and asked me if I was all right and if I needed medical attention. I said I was fine but I didn’t go back into that game. The final score of the New Mexico game was, New Mexico 3, Hawaii 2. Our goalie Chris made some bad mistakes and I think the score should have been 2 to 1 us.

Our next game was against Alaska. I thought they didn’t even play soccer up there. I found out that they didn’t only play soccer; I found out that they play soccer well. We played hard this game. We didn’t give up till the whistle blew. The final score was, Hawaii 3, Alaska 1. We celebrated after the game at the dining hall and our coach finally let us have ice cream! But something happened to the ice cream maker so still nobody could have ice cream.

The trip was coming to a close and I had had a great time. We had to wake up at 4 o’clock so we could catch the bus. The bus was 45 minutes late so we almost didn’t make our flight. We ran into the terminal and jumped on the plan. We had a great time in Oregon and I will never forget that experience.

I wrote about this experience because this past week, I just finished up my State try-outs for ODP and it just made me remember about the last trip I went on for ODP. I hope I can make the state team again so I can have more great experiences with my comrades.

My podcast

Family Story Part 2

My dad’s story starts off in John Muir Elementary School. This is just an ordinary school, and had nothing really special about it. But the school was right next to the water in California. Their placement leads them to a huge problem for the school.

My dad had a good friend named Jimmy Scisero and they would always hang out together. They would eat lunch together, play games together and even hang out with each other after school. One day while it was 10 minutes before lunchtime, pirates attacked the school. The jumped threw the windows, broke open the doors and yelled with a pirate “grrrr!” There was even one head pirate with a kitty cat and a wooden arm. They called him “Blue Beard”.

The pirates had all of the kids and faculty cornered in the room, when my dad and his friend, Jimmy, somehow get out of the pirate-infested room. They were on the second floor when the pirates attacked. They ran down the hall as the fuming pirates chased them. They hall way made a right turn and my dad and his friend cut right. Then they saw the stairs about 30 feet in front of them. My dad started to sprint towards the banister as if he was crazed. He leaped off of his feet and went head first down the railing. He looked like a wounded duck flying through the air about to land on the banister. Once he actually touched down on the banister, he skidded down it for about 10 feet and then his movement came to a complete halt when he fell right off of it. He hit the ground like a ton of bricks and was knocked out cold. Jimmy was by his side trying to awaken my dad, when the pirates finally caught up to them.

Blue Beard grabbed Jimmy by the neck and barked, “You and your friend thought you could get away from the great Blue beard, Hahahaha!”

They took Jimmy and my dad back to their pirate ship along with all of the other students and teachers. They hauled them down to the bottom of the ship; this is where all of their captives were. They saw other prisoners that were all old and wrinkly and skin-to-the-bone. They must not have eaten for days because they all had looks of hunger on their faces.

Once all of the students and teachers were put under lock and key. The pirates set sail. My dad finally woke up and he didn’t know were he was. After Jimmy told him what had happened, my dad devised a plan.

“Excuse me, can I go to the bathroom?” my dad mumbled.
The pirate replied with: “Fine, but hurry up!”

My dad went to the bathroom, and closed the door. While he was in there, he carried out his plan. He took apart the toilet, and used all of the plumbing part to make a cannon. He placed the watcha-macall-it with the doo-hikee and it was a working cannon. He hid the cannon under his shirt so the pirates couldn’t see it. Once he got back to the “prison” he told the pirate “all done.”

The pirate closed the door and then locked it. Once the pirate on duty went away, my dad showed everybody his creation. There were a lot of ooo’s and ahhhh’s but still, my dad didn’t know what to do with it. So Jimmy took the cannon, aimed it at the back of the cell, and shot it. Bam! The wood busted open and there was a huge hole in the back of the ship. The whole class jumped out of the ship and swam to shore.

That was the last of the pirates because they died a horrible death because they drowned with the ship. My dad went straight to the hospital to get his head checked and he had a small concussion. My dad was fine after a week and had a great story to tell.