That Weird Kid.

Yes, once again, I have messed something up. Since Mr. Whiting and Mrs. Narsiman came to help us take the test about what type of learner we are, I have thought that I was left-ear dominant. I wasn't sure about it, but then again, it couldn't have mattered that much, could it? Wrong. I learned today that it made a huge difference in my learning profile. So what is this learner profile thing? It's a few short test you do to determine what type of learner you are, so that in the future, you know what to do if you are stressed or there is a huge frustration going on.

I know. It sounds... different. Like, why would we need to know that? And most of all, who cares? That's what I thought when I heard about it as well. But I dealt with it, and after figuring out my true profile, I found out some things that will really be able to help me.

So. What did I figure out about myself? I learn best when I am able to move around, and when I am not stressed I am good at retaining information from things I have learned in the past. But, once I get stressed, its all over. Total shut down. So, to help these things, there are a bunch of exercises I can do, and to remember to keep balanced in movement things as well as 'cognitive endeavors' like math and language. Keep balanced? That's all good, I mean you can't ever get me off the stage, and I have always enjoyed you humanities, but math? Yeah right. Good luck with trying to get me to do that. But then I thought, and figured, you know what, I bet even my usual math homework helps. So no more to say about that. I'll keep working on it.**

To help me in the classroom? Movement. I am a Gestalt, and if I can remember something from moving, doing it and reading it, but only if I am not stressed. If I am stressed, and like I said, this is really bad for me, everything shuts down. I can read a whole paragraphs sometimes and have to reread them several times just to get the message to me. If I calm down though, then things come easily to me, so if I am calm and comfortable with my surroundings in a classroom, then I will learn quite a lot.

Teachers? I think that the main thing that's important is to know that if I am getting introduced to a new subject, especially in Math, it will not come easily until I am calmed down and even possibly on my own, trying to piece everything together. So I need time, I need to be calm to take in new ideas. I need the time to question.

So that's me. That weird kid. And my profile. The typical Drama Geek's profile, where movement and action appeal and totally engage me.

Jesus Colon~ Looking Back at the Past

What Shapes our Identity?- The Past.

The past shapes our personality. Take an example from Jesus Colon, a Puerto Rican journalist. One day, many years ago, he made a mistake. He did not help a person in need of help. It wasn't completely his fault, I doubt many would have helped, but he didn't. Ever since then, this memory has been haunting him. Every time he turns around, something is there reminding him of what he should have done. How does this shape his personality? Only he really knows. But we can take a guess at if and why he has changed. After all, we aren't going to meet him anytime soon.

My view is that this event diminished his confidence. He walked into that subway probably feeling relatively good, or maybe just average, and left drained almost completely of his confidence. What did he do that was so bad?


One night, Jesus Colon was taking the subway home from work. It was early Memorial Day morning, and he had just finished working on the news paper for the special day. On his way home, he spotted a white lady with a baby and two small children. He pondered all the way to his stop whether or not to help, and after awhile, decided not to, only because he thought the lady might be prejudiced and get the wrong idea.

That's what he did. Was it that bad? That's for you to decide. But for him, it was enough to practically hate himself. Confidence diminished.

The Art: This man in this painting is sitting all on his own in a hole, without a way to get back out. This is the way I think Jesus Colon must have felt and maybe still feels towards this event.

Artwork From: http://www.nufcblog.org/2010/08/newcastle-must-make-sure-they-dont-get-stick-in-a-rut/

Medea and Aeson~ Two Voices of Jason and The Golden Fleece

Mankind Is No Island~ Its a Continent

This is John Donne's poem. The message was effective: that no matter what the differences are, if you push them all aside, you can still care about others. I think we all need to do that a bit more.

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

These words by John Donne from the 1624 Meditation 17,
from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions

The poem says this: "if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less" This line meant a lot to me. The meaning of clod is a little piece of earth, extremely replaceable and not worth of notice. The poem says that if one clod is washed away from a continent, the whole continent is affected by this one 'thing' going away. This is how it should be. In the poem before this, it says that the continent is one, and each island cannot live on its own, and need the continent to survive.

Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love?

Where is the Love?

When we think about a hero, or heroic ideas, do we ever think about them in song?

Here, the Black Eyed Peas portray the idea of being a hero by making people aware of what is happening in the world.

This song has a strong message~ A world without kindness is not a world worth living in.

"People killing people dying
Children hurtin' you hear them crying
Can you practice what you preach
Would you turn the other cheek?
Father Father Father help us
Send some guidance from above
Cause people got me got me questioning
Where is the love?"~Black Eyed Peas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc&ob=av2e

Eye Spy With My Little Eye...

A Turtle/Teddy, a Dress, a Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr Script, a Best Friends Forever Photo Album, a pink i-Pod, a Phone Number, a special bag, a Roxy Wallet, Two pairs of Earrings, and a Bible Story Book.

My turtle that I call my Teddy, isn’t exactly mine. I have never had one of those babyhood toys, not one that I have had since I was a baby, like everyone else. Over the years I have switched from Teddy to Teddy. But right before school started, my Auntie Lynn came to visit. She is the person I look up to the most, after my mom. When she left, and I did this every time she leaves, I went and took the pillows she slept on and took them to my room so that if I missed her or needed her badly I could stuff my head into them and cry. When we went to Singapore to visit her once, her and my little sister, Micah, made a Build-A-Bear. It was a turtle. When I realized Micah wasn’t going to use it anymore, I took it to my room and kept it there so that Auntie was with me. Now every night, the Teddy reminds me and I pray for her and her life in Singapore as I go to sleep.

A dress with a meaning... This shocking royal blue dress I got from TopShop, with my friend, Rah Aleman. Ever since last year, where she was my first friend at ISKL and we were the Weasley Twins in Harry Potter the school play, we have physically been like sisters. When it was the Semi MS Party last year, and Rah’s last ever MS Party at ISKL, we decided to buy matching dresses and wear them. Out of all my dresses this is definitely the one I would take if I was running out of the house if there was a fire. I love Rah a lot and that is my best memory of her.

A script. This year I auditioned for our school production of Thoroughly Modern Millie and got in. I play the character Rita, a Priscilla Girl. Rita lives in the Service Apartment called Hotel Priscilla. During the audition process, 70 Girls auditioned for the 25 spots or around that amount there were to fill. It was very stressful but I tried my best. This script also has my name and my character’s name so if people were looking at my bag in 100 years they could tell who I was.

A photo album??? My photo album here says Best Friends Forever. It was given to me by Sophia Woody, my best friend when I was smaller, was the nicest and still is the most beautiful girl I know. (In a different way then all my friends at ISKL) when I was going into grade four, so I was nine and a half years old, she moved back to America. We lost touch completely. All I had was this book she made for me with beautiful pictures and notes all over. Just lately, I found her on Facebook and we have been messaging back and forth. We liked ALL the same stuff when I knew her well, and it turns out that we still like almost like EXACTLY the same stuff! This is still very important to me and helps me remember her.

The iPod. My pink iPod is playing on my matching pink speakers in my pink room non-stop. It plays Jason Derulo, Mostly Justin Beiber, the Radio (hitz.fm JJ and Ean) and even though I guess this isn’t exactly my iPod doing the work it is still plugged in and gets switched to whenever I didn’t like the song on the radio!

Whose number is that? The green sticky note in the shape of an arrow on my script has April’s number on it. April Getz is one of my best friends at ISKL. I lost my phone not so long ago so I have Zelma, April, and Clarissa’s numbers stored somewhere so that I can call them with my little sister’s phone. I have these numbers so if there are ever any problems or I just need to talk to one of my friends I can easily get a hold of them.

Pink iPod, pink speakers, pink bag, are you catching on to something? ... I love pink! Everything on mine is pink! Including my bag. This was given to me last year for my birthday by Sihame. I love it not only because it is pink but also because it holds pictures in the little clear slots on the outside so I can put in pictures of me and my friends and experiences.

Money Money Money... Everyone carries money, so what should we carry it with? A wallet, of course. My wallet has kind of a funny story behind it. I was walking in Bunbury, WA Australia and had just gone to Supre (It has the an accent on the ‘e’) and bought to many clothes, as usual, when I realized that one of millions of surf shops was having a sale! (Well, if I didn’t notice, it would have gotten yelled loudly in my ear anyways.) I went out and checked out the Roxy and brands like that and found two wallets... Both the same price, same size, how was I supposed to chose one? After minute/hours of pondering I bought the one I have now and have been very extremely happy with it.

Earring, Earring on the... Ear? These two earrings are my two favourite earrings. One are a pair of black ‘Z’ ‘s that I am wearing right now, and the gold ones on top of the dress are the ones I bought with Rah when I bought the dress. They are also very special to me.

Pink Devotional Book! This is my bible story book, and apart from making bible lessons easier and fun to read, its pink! The colour motivates me a lot. But, as I said, it is as interesting as reading a book and sometimes I will read a few more than I expected to!

These are my top ten items, and now you know why each of them are so special to me.

Not a Hero, A Survivor

I'm no hero. Heroes don't come back. Survivors return home. Heroes never come home. If anyone thinks I'm a hero, I'm not.~Bob Feller

In this quote, I think that Bob Feller, the very famous baseball player, thinks that he would not like people to think of him as a Hero, because hero's don't come back home. Survivors do.

I think this is true. Yes, there are lots of heroes that return, but an example of Heroes not returning is a war. The people that get remembered are the people that died trying. The Survivors are the people that come back.

I think that Bob Feller has made a very clear point. If you go on a journey or a quest, and return, then you are a survivor, not necessarily a hero. A survivor, always returns.


The Painting
I chose this painting because of its bold strokes, because if you are a hero/survivor you are bold and not afraid. The person in the painting also looks very brave. The artist is Francoise Nielly.