No.69: A Different Culture

Since there are 56 ethnic groups in China, not exaggerating, China can be said to have 56 cultures. The ethnic groups include a majority Han, and 55 minorities. I belong to the majority group and I always admire those people who have a different ethnic group than Han. I think it is good to be different. I am in charge of marketing in a student organization, Chinese Circle of Communication. And about two weeks ago, it was my turn to prepare the power point on the topic that I was assigned to at the beginning of this quarter. The topic was Ethnic Groups. I did not know much about other ethnic groups before I researched on this topic for the organization. I even learnt a lot on my own group, Han, after the research.

The ethnic group I like the best is Manchu. It is one of the oldest ethnic groups recognized. The last dynasty, Qing, was established by Manchu people and the royal family members all intermarriage with another ethnic group, Mongolian. So many of their descendent are mixed with two distinct kinds of blood. Around China, the total number of Manchu people is greater than ten million, according to the census in 2000. It still is a small number compared to the majority Han, which is about 1.3 billion. Most of the Manchu people live in the northeast part of China. Manchu language is different from Mandarin Chinese. But it sounds close to Korean and Japanese, because they all belong to Altaic language family. I read something interesting on the Internet and it said that Mandarin Chinese was formed when Manchu people were trying to learn the dialect in Beijing and that Cantonese was actually influenced the most by ancient Chinese.

No.68: Something Scares Me

I am scared of ghosts. I believe there are ghosts existing on the world; just not everyone can see them. Some people only believe in the things that can be explained by science; however, there are a lot of things happening around the world that cannot be explained by science. My parents do not believe that ghosts exist. They always tell me that it is ridiculous and I am just scaring myself by imagining things. It is always said that people with weaker bodies or weaker nerve system (or something like that) can usually see the ghosts. Because I am afraid of ghosts, I like to sleep with the light on. Ghosts do not appear when there is light. So it is kind of like a mental comforting.

Although I am scared of ghosts, I still enjoy reading ghost stories and watch ghost movies. I usually do it during the daytime and I am never scared at all with the sun high up in the sky. Then it comes the night time. This is when I start to think about the ghosts in the stories or movies and become scared. I have to turn on all the lights in the room or have someone stay in the room with me. Otherwise, I will be thinking about the ghosts all the time. Even when most of the time, I force myself to not think about them and shift my attention to something else, funny or interesting. But it usually does not work. So basically, I scare myself just like my parents tell me.

No.67: Earthquakes

The things that are happening in the world and I am really concerned about are the earthquakes. Just a couple of days ago, earthquakes took place in YunNan Province, China and along the east coast of Japan. The levels of these two earthquakes are around 5.8 and 8.8, respectively. The earthquake in YunNan Province happened at 12:58 on March 10. Two aftershocks took place again after it with levels 4.7 and 4.5. As the reports at 23:30 that day showed, 25 people died and 250 injured. Thousands of houses collapsed to the ground. It was kind of luckily that the earthquake and the aftershocks happened during daytime so many people can feel the shake and run away from buildings to avoid being killed. Instead, the earthquake took place in TangShan, China in1976, if anyone know it, with level 7.2 took place in the midnight. A lot of the people were killed in their sleep! My middle school geography teacher described the TangShan earthquake to us in class one day. She said that she was very young at that time. Before the earthquake happened, she was happened to be outside in the street. She saw orange light emitting from the horizon far away from where she was standing. Then at the next second, she felt the shaking of the ground. People who were awake at that point ran out quickly from their houses and yelled loudly to let everyone know what was going on. Cracks appeared on the walls and grounds. In TangShan earthquake, thousands of people died and injured; thousands of houses broke down. It was tragic. Earthquakes happen around the world and no prediction about when they will occur is accurate. If some organization or some person can find a way to tell, that will be so awesome and can prevent people from getting killed.

No.66: About Myself

I guess it is hard for me to blog about myself in a creative way since I just go like “My name is Yujie Feng. And I am a freshman, Business major.” all the time. Introducing myself is the part that I want to do the last. When I am with a stranger, I do not want to feel like we are strangers. For the most of the time, I can be talking to a person for a very long time without knowing his or her name. I never ask.

Back to the topic. I always describe myself as a cat. Cat is my favorite animal and I think all the cats are cute, not matter which breed they are. I read a short article talking about the ten reasons why people like cats. 1. It is selfish. 2. It constantly changes like women do. 3. It is lonely. 4. It only does the things that can make it happy. 5. It can keep cleaning itself for a whole day. 6. It is the queen in every family. 7. It knows how to act. 8. It can always get the food it likes. 9. It is not liked by everyone. 10. It is smarter than any human. Personally, I admire cat’s life and I want to live a cat’s life. I think and believe that there is a bound between me and cats. There was a cat lived in the apartment building where I and my dad lived for the last two years. The cat ran away from her old master and never went back. I loved that cat and I smiled to her every time I went pass her. I never really patted her though because I was kind of afraid that she is not as clean as she looked, maybe bacteria. However, one day I got back from school, she followed me up to the second floor from the first. We lived on the third. I was afraid that she would follow me home. I would not mind but my dad would get mad. She stopped me at the stairs when I was going up to the third floor. Literally, she shopped me with her front paw and put her paw on my jeans. I bent over and patted on her back. As if she understood, after a while, she released her paw and went downstairs. I felt kind of sad.

Maybe I talked too much about cats, but not about myself. However, I think I have the same traits that cats have too. Just like the short article listed, if I did not see the title, I would probably think that the article was talking about me. Looking at cats is like looking at me, I guess.

No.65: Different Time Period

If I could choose which time period I would be born in, I would choose the Qing Dynasty (1636-1911). To be more specific, I would like it to be around the years that KangXi Emperor was on the throne, around 1700s would be the best. The reason that I would choose to be born in this time period was because a famous and noble person existed during this time period, the eighth son of the KangXi Emperor. His name was YinSi, and family name was Aisin Giorro.

I was watching a TV drama series called The Palace like two weeks ago and it was about the stories between the sons of KangXi Emperor and this girl called QingChuan Luo. In the drama, YinSi is a very good person; he cares about his brothers and protects the people that he loves. He is also a very filial son to both his father and mother. Although I have to admit that the drama dramatized all the characters and YinSi was probably not as nice in the history as in the play, I still like him a lot after I watched The Palace. He is like the perfect man for every girl.

In the history, YinSi was born in 1681 and died in 1726, at the age of 45. According to the historical record, YinSi’s mother was only a servant girl before she became the concubine of KangXi Emperor. So YinSi did not have very high up social status as his other brothers. However, he was one of the smartest sons of KangXi Emperor and KangXi Emperor liked him a lot. Then the conflict of choosing the crown prince came along. YinSi was the ideal crown prince among the ministers, but KangXi Emperor thought his social status was relatively low. From that point on, KangXi Emperor started to dislike YinSi. Then YinSi died at the fourth year of the reign of the next emperor. It was kind of sad because the new emperor did not like him and blamed everything on him.

I wish I could be born in the Qing Dynasty and find this perfect man to give him support and protection.

No.64: The Biggest Mistake

The biggest mistake I ever made and I am still making is not working hard toward the end of the quarter because I start to get bored with the classes that I am taking. I am all excited when I do the course scheduling and am really looking forward to the new quarter. And by the new quarter starts, I am all excited to go to the class and learn everything about it. However, I think it’s after the midterms, to give the exact time, that I start to lose interesting in the courses and begin not to work hard both inside and outside of class. I know I should not stop working hard even when I have lost interesting, but I cannot help it. I start to push to do everything until it is almost the due day and of course, the quality of the homework is low. Sometimes, I lose interest in a course not because I do not like the material taught in the class, just because there are so many things to do for that class. And every time I think of the homework or the things I have to do for that class, I have a headache and cannot keep my mind on it. I am an easily distracted person, so that can count toward a second reason why I stop working hard at the end of the quarter. Too many things going on around campus and among my friends and they make it hard to concentrate on my study. I am a board member of a student organization here and we have a meeting every week. So that kind of takes some time off from me and makes me distracted more. Actually, I do not think this is the biggest mistake I made or still making, it is one of the flaws in my character.

No.63: My Best Friend

The best friend I want to write about today is the first best friend I ever had when I was in elementary school. Her name is Sixi Hu. I do not quite remember how we became friends. But I know we were best friends for about four and half years before I transferred to another school and lost contact with her. She was a pretty girl in my memory and she had long hair. Different from the black hair most people including me had, her hair color was brownish. Her hair was really thick, as I remember it. She used to pull her hair into a pony tail and it was a handful when I felt it. We used to do everything together. Even when one of us wanted to go to the bathroom, we would ask the other person to “come with me”. I missed her a lot after I lost contact with her. For a long time, I had been asking my mom to look for her so that I could see her again. Because my mom’s workplace was very close to where she went to school, it was convenient for my mom to do so. But I never really heard anything from her since then. What made me excited was that just couple of weeks ago, I met her on the Internet and we chatted a little. The chat was not long, we basically asked “how have you been”, “which college are you in”, and very formal things like that. I felt that it became uncomfortable now to talk to her since we had not talk for about eight years. It feels like we have become strangers and that makes me sad.

No.62: My Favorite Place

My favorite place is of course Tianjin, China.  It is my hometown and I lived there for fifteen years before I went to Canada. Now summer break is the only time that I can go back and I cherish every minute I am there. Tianjin is a port city and is developing in a fast speed. The most notable part of Tianjin is the Binhai New Area. And that’s actually where my home is. Both of my parents work there. It is a really nice place to go to and it has many attractions. The most famous food in Binhai New Area is the seafood. Personally, seafood, no matter where it is produces, tastes the same to me. However, that’s what most people say after their travel to Binhai New Area that the seafood there tastes the best.

Other parts of Tianjin also have a lot of attractions. In Nankai District, there is Tianjin Broadcasting Tower standing in Tianta Lake. It is the tallest architecture in Tianjin, I think. It is about thirty stories high and visitors can take an elevator and go up to the top. It is said that you can see everything in Tianjin from up there. I do not remember being up there, but my mom said when I was a very little kid, she carried me and went up there. Well, I have no way of knowing it or proving it. The Tianjin Broadcasting Station is also in Nankai District and it is not far from the Tower. I went by there two times a day when I was in middle school. It is right on my way to school.

No.60: A Word

I am blogging about the longest word in the world tonight! It is “smiles”! Ok, did you laugh? It was a joke that my English teacher put into one of our tests as an extra credit point in middle school. In that test, I knew the answer had something to do with the word “smile”, but I only put the word “smile”. Then I got that question wrong and did not get that extra credit point. The reason that “smiles” is the longest word is because there is a “mile” between the two “s”. I love this joke, not just because it is tricky and funny, but also because everyone in the world smiles. It is a word to show people your friendliness. When you first meet someone and you have no idea who that person is, the best way to get to know each other is to smile first. Smile can pull strangers together and make them become friends. It is a magical word and also a magical thing to do.

When I first looked at this topic today, I actually had no idea which word I would blog about. Then this joke popped up in my brain, and I decided to write about it. There are so many nice things about smiles that I cannot put every single one of them into this paper. And I guess everyone has his or her own different understanding and distinct stories about smile. So that’s it for today’s blog. Remember, always smile!

No.59: My Major

Right now I am just a pre-Business major. In order to get into the undergraduate program and the specialization you want to take, you have to apply to the Business program in Fisher College of Business first. I, personally, do not think it is necessary at all. Maybe because I failed in getting into it. There are two ways or two sets of criteria that you can get into the program with. The first way is to get a 3.4 GPA with no other requisites; the second way is to maintain a 3.0 GPA, and finish English 110, Math 131/151 and 132/152, and have already got 45 credit hours. I applied last quarter and I thought there was no problem that I can get a GPA greater than 3.4. However, I did not fulfill it. Therefore, I did not get into the program. I was mad at myself, especially when the people I know all got accepted. But that would not do anything to change the decision, so I guess I will apply again next quarter. But that time, I am definitely sure that I will get into it because all I need is a 3.0 GPA and that is easy to achieve.

I want to be Finance major. Call me a materialist, but I want to make a lot of money. I will probably work in an investment bank after I graduate. Both of my parents work hard to support me to study in the Ohio State University, and the tuition is way up high. I have been spending too much of the money they make. So after I graduate, I will pay them back. It is my responsibility to ensure that both of my parents live happily. By the way, the other reason I choose to be Business major is because both of my parents’ work relates to business and they both studied business in school. My dad has a bachelor degree and a master degree in Business Administration. Although my mom studied Law in college, she also got a master degree in International Trade.

No.57: A Dream

I don’t really dream in my sleep, and rarely can I remember the dreams I had. Some of the dreams I remember are crazy dreams, like the ones that don’t look realistic at all. Other dreams are kind of realistic, but still would never happen in real life. Someone has asked me once that which language I dream in, like which language people speak in my dreams. And I said Chinese. Literally, everyone talks in Chinese in my dreams, no matter where they are originally from. For example, I had a dream about the characters in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody before. I am not a big fan of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, so I was kind of surprised that I had this dream about them. In my dream, there was Moseby, Maddie, and some other people. I don’t quite remember what the dream was about, but I played a character and had some stories with the main characters. And in it, all of the characters were speaking Chinese. After I woke up, and thought about the dream, I was laughing to myself. It was a weird dream! This was not the only dream that I had regarding to a TV show or a drama. I watched a costume drama when I was twelve years old and it was about two good people fighting a bit villain, a stereotyped drama. And my dream was about them having a big fight in my house! And I was very good at fighting and helped the good guys win. They are all crazy dream.

No.53: A Pet Peeve

The pet peeve that I cannot stand is me being a perfectionist. Perfectionism actually sounds like a good thing, right? So you can be perfect on everything, as least you can reach the level that you think is perfect. However, I feel like a victim of perfectionism. I pay too much attention to the little details all the time and ignore the other parts. And it always makes me spend a lot of time on a single object.

For example, one simple thing, handwriting. I cannot say I have the best and prettiest writing in the world. But if you open a notebook or a practice booklet of mine, you will see that I have very neat handwritings. Something you will also notice is that accompanying the neat handwriting, there are a lot of white-out or eraser marks. Every time I come across a word or letter that doesn’t have the same size, or may look a little bit askew, I will have to erase it. Many times I am so frustrated with this habit, but I still cannot stop it. It sound like that I have some kind of mental disorder, or maybe OCD. Normally other people may only need an hour on a paper, but I probably will spend two hours on it, just to get it look perfect.

Basically you will hardly see any scrabbles on my papers, at least if I intend to. Because my handwriting will take me a ton of time, I like to type everything up in the computer. Then I don’t have to worry about the imperfections in my writing.

No.52: A Trip

The trip I like the best is the trip my dad and I took to Orlando, Florida during a break in my senior year in high school. I don’t quite remember what break was, but I know it was raining almost all the time when we were there. Talking about Orlando, the first thing we think of would be the Disney World. That was exactly where we went to! It was a lot of fun there and I enjoyed everything in it. The Disney World is divided into four different themes, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.

In the morning of the first day we went to Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is the place filled with characters from all the Disney shows, like Snow White and Cinderella. Small kids will enjoy it the most, but definitely not me as a teenager already. I used to love the Magic Kingdom when I was ten years old and went to the Disneyland in California for the first time. It was fun, but now I looked at it and felt it was kind of childish. So we did not spend a ton of time in the Magic Kingdom. Then in the afternoon, we went to the Epcot. It became my favorite place in the world. Epcot contains the fantastic technology that may become true one day in the future. To make it easy to understand, it is like a sci-fi setting. The best attraction is the Mission: Space. It made me feel like a spaceman that had traveled to the moon on a mission. In this attraction, we entered a space ship and experienced the weightlessness and the atmospheric pressure. It was a lot of fun! Just when we finished the Mission: Space, it started to rain and really hard. So we did not have the chance to explore more about the Epcot.

The next day, we went to the Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. They were alright but not as fantastic as Epcot. To tell the truth, we only planned to go to two of the theme parks because we only had two days. And my dad let me do the choices on which two we would go to. However, we actually went to all four of them. So I did not miss any of the fun part in Disney World, Orlando.

No.51: A Person

A famous person I want to meet, Ok, this is a really hard decision to make, because I want to meet a lot of famous people. I am kind of greedy, I know. But I want to meet all my favorite actors and actresses, both Chinese and American. Speaking of this, I am very jealous of my friend who is from Beijing. She went to the book signing event of Han Geng (Geng Han if I put it in American way) which was held in Beijing couple of years ago. Han Geng is a very popular and handsome singer and nearly everyone in China and also a lot of people from other Asian countries like him like crazy. I also want to meet him. But I guess he is not the person I want to meet the most.

If I really have to pick one out of the so many actors and actresses I like, I will pick Jiro Wang. He is from Taiwan and his Chinese name is Dongcheng Wang. He is a member of a Taiwan pop singer group called Fahrenheit. There are four member in that group and each one of them represents a season. Jiro represents summer because he looks very hot and cool and gives people the feeling of fire. I did some research on him and found out more about him through the Internet. When he was fifteen, his dad passed away and he had to carry on the responsibility to take care of his mom and to pay off the loans his family owed. His life was filled with all kinds of part-time jobs. He really loves his mom. Recently, he paid off the loans and got his mom a new house! I feel so happy for him. Right now, he is an actor, a singer, a TV show host. And I can say that he is very successful both as an actor and a son.

No.50: The Best Present

I know we are supposed to write about the best present we have ever got. However, I cannot recall any. I am the kind of person who does not care about what presents she gets on her birthday or holidays. No matter how fancy or expensive that present is. What I care about the most is that the people I love all remember my birthdays and can say “Happy Birthday” to me at the right time. That’s why there are never any candles on my birthday cake and I never make a wish and then blow out the candles. I enjoy it when everyone is celebrating the day because of me.

So can I switch the topic to the most memorable birthday I ever had in my life? Ok, no one disagrees, so that means I can. The most memorable birthday I ever had was my fifteenth birthday. That was the first birthday when none of my parents or relatives was around me. My birthday is in the summer break, but it is very close to the date that school starts. So I actually celebrated my fifteenth birthday in Canada with my homestay mom, Shamy, and a Japanese girl Arisa, who was also hosted by Shamy. It was on a Thursday, and Shamy took us to a restaurant, which looked like a pub but it wasn’t. The food they served there was delicious. The best part of that restaurant was that they sang birthday song to the costumers. So I was sitting there with Shamy and Arisa. And a bunch of the restaurant servers came to our table and started singing “Happy Birthday” to me. Then they put down the chocolate cake. The cake tasted fantastic! Although it was a small cake, we all had a bite of it and enjoyed it.

No.49: A Job

I did not have any paid jobs actually. I wanted to but since I was on an L-2 visa, which is the companion or family member of L-1 business visa, I was not allowed by law to take any paid jobs. However, I did some volunteer work in Camp Greenville during the breaks when I was in high school. It is a camp that’s on the border between North Carolina and South Carolina. In order to get there from Greenville, SC, where I stayed for two years, you have to go to North Carolina first and turn back to South Carolina. It is weird, I know.  I actually went there twice. The second time I went there as a counselor. It was supposed to be a paid job, but because of my special status, I did not get paid like other American kids did.

There were also some guys from New Zealand there to work as counselors. I did not know whether they got paid or not. But the thing I know is they were all really hot. And they were very nice people too. Ok, let’s get back to the topic. The parts I loved most about the Camp Greenville are the riflery and archery. I only had the shift for archery once during the whole time I was counselor there. And I was very excited to take that job. However, I did not really get the chance to do that because I went to sleep instead. It was like the second day after I came back from China, and I had jet lag. I was so tired in the afternoon. So when I went to the archery place and there was no one there, I turned back to the dorm and went to sleep. I felt so bad when I went to dinner that day because a lot of people thought I was sick and asked me if I was Ok.

No.48: My Dad

The two people that relate to me the closest are my dad and my mom. I do not want to blog about my mom because when I was in elementary and middle school, my mom was very strict to me on my study. So that time, I actually hated her. Well, now, I don’t obviously and I think she is the greatest mom in the world. However, since I have been away from her for about three years, and the only time we can spend together is during summer breaks, I do not quite know about her life that much. So I chose to write about my dad.

My dad was almost thirty when I was born. But the weird thing was he didn’t seem to have aging problems. I have seen a picture taken when I was a little baby. My dad looked just like a big naughty boy in that picture. As I grew up, my dad is always the good guy and my mom is always the bad one. So I was closer to my dad when I was young. The best thing that happened was when my dad went to the teacher-parent conference instead of my mom. Every time when my mom came back from the conference, she would blame me for not getting good grades and would compare me to the top students in my class. That part was my last thing I want to talk about. However, that time when my dad came back home, he did not put the blame on me; instead, he said I had made some progress and encouraged me to work harder. Although it was the only time my dad went, I was so happy.

Now I know that both of my parents want me to be good and want the best out of me. And I love them equally. Every summer break when I go back to China, I want to spend every minute with my mom and dad so that when I come back the US, I won’t regret about just wasting my time hanging around.

No.47 About Anything

After all the midterms in Week Six, I felt so much relieved and I thought life would be easier since there was no more midterm. But right on that weekend, I knew I was wrong because a lot of stuff for finals were coming up. I only have two final exams, but I also have two final paper to write, one is the episode analysis paper for English class, the other one is to critique a pop culture, phenomenon, or figure and relate it to the topics we talked about in class for Women’s Studies. And today, the Commonplace paper is due and I have not even finished it.

I don’t really worry about the final paper for English class because I already have about five and half pages for the draft. All the things left to do right now are to go to the writing center and to edit it and make it seven pages, or maybe longer. The final paper topic for Women’s Studies is not hard, but we also have to make it a minimum of seven pages. I am not quite sure that I can make it that long. I posted my final paper proposal on the discussion board just now. I think the pop figure I picked will make a good argument for the paper, so I am not very worried about it either.

The scheduling time for next quarter courses is next Tuesday at 10:30. And it is coming up soon. I have my schedule figured out already and the classes all have empty spaces, so that’s good. When it’s time for me to schedule, I will do it right away to make sure I really get into those classes. One bad thing about next quarter’s classes is that every day I will have class starting at 8:30. But I guess it’s spring quarter, and it won’t matter much to me.

No.46: About Anything

Today I want to recommend a course to all of you, Women’s Studies 110. I am taking it right now and I absolutely love it! My course instructor is Kate Livingston, and she is such a passionate person. She does a lot of fun activities in class, for example, when we first started this class and were talking about feminism, she asked us to draw a picture of how we think a feminist person would look like. We did this in groups of fours. After every group was finished, she posted every drawing on the wall and had we all look at them together. It was a lot of fun seeing how each group had different ideas about feminism.

So far, we have covered feminism, privileges and oppression, social construction of gender, body and sexuality, and reproductive rights. We also watched some videos on these topics. The one I remember the most is called Dreamworld 3. It says that nowadays, women’s bodies are used as advertisement to attract viewers to purchase or to use the products. In a lot of the music videos, a single man is surrounded by a great number of women and women normally are pictured as wanting nothing but sex. This really makes me mad.  The videos also use objectification to show women as separate body parts, but not a whole person. There was one example Dreamworld 3 gave, that the music video was shot between a woman’s two legs. After watching this video, every time I go to lunch in Fresh Express, I get mad by looking at the music videos they play down there.

If you are interested in women’s and minority’s rights or things like that, you should take Women’s Studies. It is a very good course and it is definitely worth the time you spend on it.

No.45: About Anything

I have been worrying about my scheduling on next Tuesday for a long time now. Right now I am only a Pre-Business student. Because my GPA for last quarter was not very good, I did not get admitted into my major I want to take. Almost everyone I know was accepted, so I felt kind of depressed. That’s why I have decided to work harder from this quarter on to pull my cumulated GPA up.

Ok. So I was looking for the classes I want to take for next quarter. I actually planned out my schedule like a month ago and I was hoping that the classes I want to take won’t be full when it is time for me to schedule. My plan was to take Theater 100, Chemistry 100, Accounting 211, and Chinese 251. However, Chinese 251 was already full two weeks ago, so I looked up something else, Comparative Studies 301. It sounds interesting to me because in the course description, it says this class is to discover “love” in myths and literatures. So I was kind of excited to take that class. When I checked for its status today, there is only one seat left. I don’t think it can keep open when I schedule. So I will have to look up for something else again.

As for Chemistry 100, it is still open, but it has time conflict with Accounting 211. I chose to do this class because I want to get rid of Physics (I am taking Physics 111 this quarter). Then I realized it was impossible for me to do that. I will have to take Physics 112 to make it a natural science sequence. And I don’t even know if I can get into Accounting 211 yet. It says in the note section that the class is reserved for UBUS and UEXP/M&I. I have no idea what those two abbreviations stand for.

Sorry about this blog sounding like whining. I cannot help it. Sorry about it again.

No.44: About Anything

I actually don’t like the “blog about anything” topic because I hate to think of a topic by myself. It is kind of hard to choose one. But today I am doing it because I have something to write about. I want to blog about my classes so far. So last week, I took all my three midterms for Women’s Studies, Physics, and CSE. The good thing is we don’t have midterm for English class. I was stressed out last week because I had too many things to study for. We had four pages to do for Physics midterm, but we only had 48 minutes to finish it. When I got to the free response part, there were only 15 minutes left. There were like ten questions on the free response and I panicked. As you can imagine, I didn’t finish the midterm. So I thought my midterm grade for Physics would suck. However, you know what, this Monday when we got our midterms back, a curve of 23 points was added and I got nearly the full score. Yeah for me! So I love my Physics professor so much right now.

For the Women’s Studies midterm, I didn’t do very well but it was not as bad as I expected. And the positionality paper we did some time ago, I got a pretty descent score on it. So I was happy. Then finally, the CSE midterm, the total possible score was 250, and I got 235 on it. That’s not bad at all! Well, if I want to get an A in that class, I will have to work harder on my labs and quizzes though.

I am an optimistic person. I won’t get depressed if I get a bad grade (for my consideration, a bad grade would be something below a B). However, I still hope that I can do super well in every class and get all A’s.

No.43: Good Friends or Bad Influence?

Are the friends you have now good friends or bad influence? How could you tell if your friends are worthy to keep? Have you ever asked yourself these questions about your friends? Not realizing the effect friends may have on us is harmful because we do not know where they are leading us to. It can also be irresponsible to ourselves and to the people who love us when we end up on a path that we did not plan on taking. So it is very important to know whether our friends are good friends or bad influence.

Above is the introduction to my CP paper. I hope it can make sense. I don’t like the revised title though, because it is kind of the same with my opening sentence. So maybe I will end up changing my title again. My old title was “When people are choosing their friends,” but the feedbacks were not good and many people thought it was too long and kind of boring. I do not know how to make this not boring because, I mean, this is a boring topic. Anyway, I am not expecting my paper to be perfect or fantastic.

And by the way, I went to the writing center this morning and I absolutely loved it! It was an hour-long appointment, but because my draft was pathetic, we did not have enough time to go through a whole lot. However, now, I think I know how to make my paper better. Just be more specific!

No.42: Relevancy

I can say this out loud confidently, that my argument is definitely relevant to us. Not only to us, but actually also to everybody in the world. Because everyone needs friends, no matter what you are, how old you are, or where you are. We need friends to help us, support us, and protect us. Maybe now you will say we expect too much from our friends, but do not forget, we will need to do the same thing for our friends as well. Being friends with somebody is something interactive, like the interactive forces we learn in Physics. When we put a force on an object, the object also gives us a counter force. It is important that we also help, support, and protect our friends.

I scheduled an appointment with the writing center for tomorrow morning. It will be my first time going there and I am both excited and nervous. I do not know what the process is when I step into the writing center and I do not know how I will be treated. Although my draft one is better than my episode analysis, I still have a lot to do in order to improve my paper. There are so many comments and advice on my draft and I do not quite grasp how to make my paper better. I hope the writing center won’t be too scary to go to. And I also hope that attending the session for tomorrow morning will not make me regret my decision of being there.

No.41: Compelling

I know the biggest problem when I am writing a paper is the wording. I want everything in my paper to sound sophisticated, but I find it is really hard to achieve. Although I have been here for a while, and I don’t have trouble with listening or speaking English, I am not good at writing papers. Not trying to be humble, but I do not think my paper is going to be very compelling.

I still love my argument though. I am the kind of person that takes friendship very seriously. I remember when I was in middle school, and we had a class meeting one day. Our teacher asked us to write down a wish that we hope to achieve together with our best friends. A lot of the students in my class wrote that they wish to go to the same high school together. But what I put down on the paper was so different from theirs; I wrote I wish we could be friends forever. I wanted to keep all the friends I had made until the day I die, but as time passed by, I lost contact with some of them. And I kind of regret and feel sad because of that. I knew the friends I have made and they are nice people. So I think, for the patho part of being compelling, I am pretty sure I can get it done well.

However, for the etho and logo part, I do not know about those. I do not have enough evidence except for my personal experience, and I am not sure that they are going to be very persuasive.

No.40: Timeliness

My argument is about what kind of people do most people want to befriend with. This is a timely argument because no matter how old we are, we always need to have friends. And as we grow older, we start to realize the true meaning of a friend. My argument is actually a question and can involve two different answers. One of the answers would be make friends just by looking at one’s outer appearance, such as one’s clothes or hairstyle; the other answer would be make friends by getting to know one’s inner being. Nowadays, a lot of people only care about the quantity of friends they have, but don’t care about the quality of friends. So then when they get into trouble and need friends’ support, they cannot get any. The friends who cannot stand there to have your back are not real friends. And they definitely do not worth your time and energy.

As I see in lots of TV shows, all of the main characters of those shows have one or two best friends and they stick with their best friends all the time throughout the shows. The best friends they have may not be the best or the smartest people in the world, but they surely are the fittest friends to have. For example, Hannah Montana or Miley Stewart, sorry about I watched too many Disney shows, has two best friends, Lily and Oliver. They are obviously not the smartest people in the world, and they do many stupid things. However, whenever Miley needs them , they are there. When either two of them argue with each other, the third person always tries his or her best to solve the argument.

No.39: Hypothetical Scenario

The topic for today’s blog is to write about a hypothetical scenario for the CP Paper. The only example for this kind of scenario I can think of right now is what will happen if I have made a friend who only looks cool but is not really “cool” inside. What I mean by the “cool” inside is willing to help friends and protective as well as nice to anyone and anything.

Let’s say, you meet someone on your first day in a new place far away from home and you think that person is cool. She wears fancy clothes and uses many cursing words when she talks. (Maybe I am wrong, but that is how I think coolness is considered by most people.) After some time you have spent with her (and you still stick with her), you will probably begin to talk like her and act like her as well. This is what is called “infection”. You will be surprised to notice your change (if you are not that kind of person at first). Then you will start to rethink about your friend choice. Did you really make the friends that are worthy of spending time with?

I believe it is our own responsibility of making the right choice of who worth to be friends with. If we make the wrong choice, then we are not being responsible for ourselves. The “right” friends may not be the best people in the world, but must be someone understands us, cares about us, and knows what we need.

No.38: Personal Anecdote

Since my argument for the research paper is about peer rejection and its influence on people, I decided to do an exactly opposite topic for my CP paper. My final argument for my CP paper is about what kind of people do most people want to befriend with? Well, it looks like there is not any connection between my two arguments, but anyway, I still put them together in one sentence. I know this is a stereotyped topic to talk about, but please don’t be annoyed.

I am not an outgoing person, so it is kind of hard for me to make friends on my own initiative. However, when I came to the OSU for the first time last fall, because I was in a totally different place all by myself, I would have to take the initiative and make friends. The person I choose to befriend with, before I really get to know that person, is usually the one who looks nice to me. That was how I made my first friend in Columbus, and she is a good friend after I have spent some time with her. She has same interest as I do and she is very willing to help when I have problems or get into trouble. However, I have made another friend when I got here; I thought she looked nice too. But as time went by, and I found out that she was an annoying person. Not trying to be mean to her, but I didn’t like her. She only thought about herself all the time and never helped others.

So the point my argument wants to stress is that people like to make friend with people who are kind and who have same interest as they do. But people who look nice or cool at first, but not who you think they are when you get to know them.

No.37: Commonplace Article #4

Since I can blog about anything for today’s blog, I decided to do another commonplace article. I have found many articles very interesting and relate to my life well. The article I read today is called Going Green: Just Another Act? by Kimberly Schmahl. It sounds like something about protecting our environment, and it is. However, it is under the celebrities category and it has something to do with celebrities. The EMA, Environmental Media Association, uses a lot of celebrities to promote eco-friendly lifestyles through television, film, and music. EMA thinks that many people, especially teenagers and young adults, idolize celebrities and will follow those celebrities’ footsteps and change to eco-friendly lifestyles. However, as the article pointed out, a lot of celebrities only do it in front of the camera, but not in their everyday life. The examples the article gave are Leonardo diCaprio and Bono, the lead singer of U2. Both of them promote environmental protection while Leonardo diCaprio travels around in his private jet and Bono spent $1700 to fly his hat in first class cabinet.

After reading this article, I was reminded of something we had discussed about in our last English class, the celebrity image. Some of the celebrities act so differently in front of and behind cameras as if everything positive they do on TV is some kind of acting class. If they promote something that is going to help us or is good for the society, then they should do it in their life. Then we can follow their paths and make the same contribution. If they just do it for fame, then it won’t reach the real intention.

No.36: Commonplace Article #3

I found a really interesting article today on Commonplace. I picked it out to read because the title was attractive. It is called Straight Enough for You? by David Wilson. Since I got strongly influenced by one of my other classes, I am very into this kind of topic right now and you will probably hear me talk about it all the time.

This article talks about the word “gay” and how should we treat them. The word “gay” literally means joyful and happy, but only people who are over 50 years old will use it this way. The author pointed out that a lot of us would use this word to describe something as stupid and worthless. However, now, more and more people are using it by a different definition: homosexuality. Homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender are considered abnormal by a lot of people for a long period of time. But, as our knowledge of those kinds of people accumulates, we start to regret for the ways we think of them. Have you thought that because everyone considers them as abnormal, they have lost a lot of the privileges which they should get?

I personally don’t discriminate homosexuals. But I know the society does because the society is afraid that homosexuals will take over the world. That is a joke. Shown on the data collected by the National Opinion Research Center, only about 1.4% of females are lesbians and 2.8% of males are gays. They only make up a small portion of the society, so we don’t have to worry about the probability they may take over the world. Heterosexuals have many more privileges than homosexuals do, such as heterosexuals can have kids while homosexuals are prohibited from adopting a child. Please don’t discriminate homosexuals, bisexuals, or transgender any more.

No.35: Commonplace Article #2

The article I picked out to read today is called Lizards are People Too, it is written by Ashley Caveda. It is under the Culture category, but I do not know why it was categorized there. This article sounds like an episode analysis paper from our English class to me. It talks about a TV series entitled V, and it is obviously a science fiction because it is about aliens trying to take over every tribe, every country, and every continent on the earth. I think I have heard about this show before, but I never watched it. Based on the information or analysis the author gave in the article, some questions were raised, such as

“How do we know whom to trust?  How do we utilize technology in a productive and ethical way?  How ought faith and spirituality to remain a part of our lives as our scientific understanding grows?  And how can we put aside our differences in such a way that allows us to create life rather than to cultivate death?” (Caveda)

Then it sounds like an episode analysis on Dollhouse to me. I know a lot of you are doing Dollhouse and some of you are using the good and bad aspects of technology as your arguments. So maybe those of you can consider putting this show as a reference.


When I was reading this article, I was thinking about this actually could be applied to the huge amount of immigration every year. When there are too many immigrants in one country, the original residents of that country are facing the danger of being assimilated to different cultures and eventually losing theirs. Another thing I found interesting is that when I was writing the sentence above, I was thinking about the European conquistadors first came to the Americas. To the Native Americans, the Europeans were the “aliens” that were going to take over the place they were living in.

No.34: Commonplace Article #1

The article I read today is called Coke Zero, the Deadliest Beverage…or So They Say by Ted Elliott. This article talks about the different ingredients in Coke Zero and how they will affect our bodies. I always hear a lot about sodas are bad for our health and we shouldn’t drink them. This article gives powerful evidence from researches that the ingredients in sodas are not harmful to our bodies. As the ingredient list on Coke Zero lists, the top five items that the beverage contains are carbonated water, caramel color, phosphoric acid, aspartame, and potassium benzoate. These items are listed at the top because Coke Zero contains the greatest quantities of them. Just by looking at the names, I believe someone will be shocked. How can we put these things into our bodies? Aren’t they chemicals and supposed to be kept away from us? However, the ingredients in Coke Zero are not that scary. As the data collected by FDA shows, the amounts of these chemicals are way less than the amount that can do any harm. So Coke Zero is safe for us to drink, just don’t drink a whole lot.

I am never a big fan of coke, but two of my friends love coke and they will drink coke every time we are having meals together (as for the times we are not having meals together, I don’t know what they are driving, but probably coke as always). My mom used to tell me that if I drink too much coke, I will grow a beard. She said it was because coke contains the dark color and the color will deposit. I don’t know for other people, although it sounds ridiculous, it is actually true for me.

No.33: Blog about My Paper #5

I have a good news today, which is I finished my draft last night after I got back to my dorm from the library. Although I have finished the whole draft, there is still something I want to put into my final paper. In the last conference on Thursday, I mentioned that I wanted to use some examples about the negative effects of peer rejection from other literature work, such as a novel or a movie. Ms. Chambers said I could do it as part of the implication to show that this topic is a common thesis written for the audience primarily made up by adolescents and to give the members inside a group an idea of how the rejected ones feel. I think it is a good idea to quote from other literature work, but disappointedly, I could not find any. I thought I have read some books on this topic; however, by the time for me to write about them, they all disappear from my mind. So if any of you can think of an example from other books or movies, please leave a comment and tell me about it. I appreciate it.

Something I am feeling really bad about is that I didn’t get to the chance to go to the writing center last week. I was planning on going, one reason is for the extra credit, and the other reason is that I really want someone who is expert on editing to look at my paper and give me some constructive advice. However, when I started to do reservation, there were only two time periods open and I have classes during both of the time periods. I will probably go this week.

No.32: Blog about My Paper #4

I was planning to finish my draft today in the Thompson Library. But when I reached the library and opened my laptop, I realized that I didn’t bring any of the research articles with me. So my plan failed to be worked out, which means I will have to do it after I go back to my dorm today or after I wake up tomorrow morning.

As for my body part, as I said in the last blog, I will fill it up with information from my research articles. I plan to use the self-reporting behavior problems as predictor of peer rejection and aggression to start my implication, and then since a lot of the research articles talked about the differences between boys and girls on the problems of being rejected by peers.

I think this blog is kind of hard to write since I have been writing the same topic every day for three days now. In my previous blogs, I have already talked about the problems I am having with my paper and I cannot think of any more to write about. However, I have to finish this blog and try to think of something else to write about for tomorrow’s blog. I want the extra credit points since my episode analysis went badly and I want my final grade for this class to be at least an A-. I think that’s pretty much it for today’s blog. I will probably finish my draft before I start tomorrow’s blog.

No.31: Blog about My Paper #3

To tell the truth, I don’t like this paper. I have been working on it for about a week now. But every time I open it and look at it, I feel like closing it and forgetting all about it. I wish I could; but I know it by heart that this paper is due on Sunday and I have to finish it early since I have three midterms coming up next week and I have to prepare for them. After I finished my blog yesterday, I actually did some writing and finished the ending (pay attention: it was the ending that I finished, not the body part). I like to do the introduction and the ending first, and then fill up the body part. I think that’s probably because I can kind of form a cage and bound my writing to the topic.

My paper has reached the top of the fourth page and there is still the implication I need to do. So I am sure the finished paper will be at least four full pages. However, for the quality, I am not that sure. The problem I am thinking now is that I can do four pages for the draft, but I don’t think I can expand my draft to a 7-8 page final paper. It is kind of hard, especially when I think I have put everything possible into the draft and nothing else left. I will be glad if by any chance, I can get my paper to six full pages. I hope there can be more extra credit in this class.

No.30: Blog about My Paper #2

I realized that I didn’t talk about the content of my draft in the last blog, so I am doing it right now. Basically, I will do a short introduction to lead out my argument. For the introduction, maybe this is kind of stereotyped, I will use some rhetorical questions to let the audience think about this phenomenon taking place around them. Then I will copy and paste my episode analysis from my unfortunately poor 2-page paper that we did couple of weeks ago. Like I said in one of my previous blog, the only thing I can use from the episode analysis paper is the information of the significant scene that relates to my argument. Now after I finish the scene part, I will work on the transition to the things happening in the real world. I found a case and it relates to the argument well, so I have decided to put them next to each other to illustrate my argument further. Then I will introduce the research articles I have found through the Internet and continue on the implications.

Actually, I have finished everything up to the research articles part. I am having a hard time just to put the articles together and put them into my paper. Another difficulty when I write the paper is that I am not a concentrative person, which means I get distracted easily. I have been working on the paper for days, but still have a lot to do. Every time when I cannot think of something to put into the paper, I start to do other things, like searching the Internet, chatting with friends, or watching TV.

No.29: Blog about My Paper #1

My episode analysis went terribly and since my argument has changed, the only thing I used from my episode analysis was the description of the significant scene that related to my argument. I never tried to write a seven- to eight-page long paper before and I know for sure that I am not good at it, although I said in my personal statement when I applied for college that I enjoyed writing. I can come up with stories or plots quite easily, so the thing I am good at is actually writing novels because I am really good at imaginations. However, if you just give me some kind of topic, I don’t know that to write about, especially for argumentative essays.

My biggest problem when I was doing research was the articles I found were not very related to the argument. My argument is about how being rejected by peers can have negative effects on one’s behavior. But the research articles I got always relates peer rejection and being aggressive as a whole to predict negative behaviors or capability of committing a crime. Also, most of the articles I got are studies; rarely can I find some real life examples. However, what I need the most are real life examples. That is quite disappointing. And another problem when I am trying to put everything together into a draft is that I don’t know whether I should address the name of the study and the research articles in my writing or just give a broad overview of the studies and put the reference in the Works Cited page.

No.28: Integrating a Quote #5

First, I want to say this to all the students from China: Happy New Year!!! I am going to watch the Spring Festival Gala tomorrow morning. But in order to watch the whole thing, I will have to get up before seven o’clock. The good thing is I don’t have class until 3:30 in the afternoon, or if all the classes are cancelled for tomorrow, I don’t have class at all! I am so excited!

Back to the topic of integrating a quote for today’s blog. Since this is the last blog on this topic, I am doing my favorite article today. I like this article because it contains a real life case happened in a high school in California. A boy called C. Williams brought a gun to the boy’s restroom and fired on students and teachers. Within 8 minutes of shooting, he killed two students, wounded eleven students, a security guard, and a student teacher. Most of the students described him as an outsider; only a couple said he was nice. And some witnesses said that Williams was smiling when he shot as if he was taking revenge over the ones who had rejected him.

As the authors, J. Cook and G. Cook, says, “Although rejection leads to murder and suicide only in rare instances, it is associated with countless other acts of lesser violence, delinquency, isolation, and loneliness.” (page 443) The negative effects of being rejected by peers are not only shown on outside behaviors, but sometimes the effects also are reflected on problems in mental health.

Bibliography:

J.L. Cook and G. Cook. “Consequences of Peer Rejection.” Child Development Principles and Perspectives (2009): 443. Google. 01 Feb. 2011.

No.27: Integrating a Quote #4

The new article I read today is called Relationship Between Childhood Peer Rejection and Aggression and Adolescent Delinquency Severity and Type Among African American Youth. Just by looking at the title, I remembered something I read before about peer rejection and its effect on majority white kids and minority other-skin-color kids in school.  The result of that study showed that the outcome of the majority white kids is more relevant than the outcome of minority kids because minority kids may have their own groups outside of school. But the social skills of majority white kids stay as lacking both in school and out of school.

I lot of the articles I have read talked about peer rejection and aggression together as predictors. Like it is stated in this article by S. Miller-Johnson, J. Coie, A. Maumary-Gremaud, J. Lochman, and R. Terry,

“Thus, for boys the combination of peer rejection and aggression may place a child at increased risk of later delinquency. In support of this premise, Bierman and Wargo (1995) found that aggressive boys who had been rejected by their peers evidenced the highest rates of behavior problems, in comparison with boys who were either aggressive only or had been rejected only.” (Page 138)

This quote basically says that both peer rejection and aggression act together to change one’s behavior and feelings toward the society. Peer rejection or aggression, individually, doesn’t have as strong influence as they act together. The article also stated that the influence on boys and girls differentiates. Since boys can be more aggressive than girls can, so boys tend to be more disruptive and noncompliant than girls tend to be. Girls usually react to peer rejection by shy, withdrawn, and introverted.

As I think of it, Jess was only rejected when he was a normal human kid in school. But turning into a vampire has made him powerful and thus increased his aggression. So he being dangerous in the party can be explained.

Bibliography:

Share Miller-Johnson, John D. Coie, Anne Maumary-Gremoud, John Lochman, and Robert Terry. “Relationship Between Childhood Peer Rejection and Aggression and Adolescent Delinquency Severity and Type Among African American Youth.” Journal of Emotion and Behavioral Disorders 7.3 (1999): 137-146. Google. 31 Jan. 2011.

No.26: Integrating a Quote #3

Since the articles I have found on the Internet are all about studies on how peer rejection and aggression will predict one’s externalizing problems, I searched again and luckily, found some argumentative essays on this topic.

As stated in Social Competence by T. Davidson, J. Welsh, and K. Bierman,

“Rejection or victimization by peers may become a source of significant stress to children, contributing to feelings of loneliness and low self-esteem. In addition, peer rejection can escalate in a negative developmental spiral. That is, when children with poor social skills become rejected, they are often excluded from positive interactions with peers that are critical for learning social skills. Rejected children typically have fewer options in terms of play partners and friends than do accepted children.”

Peer-rejected teens look down on themselves and as this kind of feeling cumulate in their mind, their behavior changes from positive to negative. In addition, since they are not accepted in to large groups, they form smaller groups with other rejected teens and this prevents them from learning social skills or getting new ideas. Their lack of social experience and disability in social skills will also increase over time, along with feelings of anxiety and inadequacy toward the society.

I found that this essay relates to Jess well. Jess only has a small group to join and this group is made up of Willow, Xander, and himself. All of these three people are outsiders. Just as the essay has demonstrated, the outsiders form a small group with each other and not interact with other large groups. Although Willow and Xander didn’t show their anxiety at first, Jess became a vampire and expressed his anger to the society.

Bibliography:

Tish Davidson, Janet Welsh, and Karen Bierman. “Social Competence.” Education. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.

No.25: Integrating a Quote #2

Childhood Peer Rejection, Aggression, Withdrawal, and Perceived Competence as Predictors of Self-Reported Behavior Problems in Preadolescence is a new article I got yesterday from the research for my final argument and I read it throughout today. It talks about a study used to predict how peer rejection, aggression, withdrawal, and perceived competence will affect the behavior problems reported by preadolescence. Although my theme basically focuses on adolescents, I think this problem happens to people in every age category, so I still did this article.

After the researchers finished the study and got to the discussion part, here is the conclusion J. Kupersmidt and C. Patterson have reached,

“Low acceptance emerged as part of the risk profile for the prediction of a general negative outcome for both boys and girls. Low-accepted boys with low self-esteem were at greatest risk, whereas low-accepted, aggressive girls were most likely to report behavior problems in the clinical range.” (Page 444)

This conclusion means that rejection by peers will cause negative effects on the behavior of the rejected ones; this rule applies to both boys and girls. However, as the data shows, the effect on boys and girls are different in the numbers. Boys will react to the rejection much more severely than girls do. Girls tend to feel bad about their behaviors when they are not accepted, and the feeling of social incompetent sometimes serves as a protective factor for then. But the boys tend to show aggression when they are not accepted into peer groups.

Bibliography:

Janis B. Kupersmidt, Charlotte J. Patterson. “Childhood Peer Rejection, Aggression, Withdrawal, and Perceived Competence as Predictors of Self-Reported Behavior Problems in Preadolescence.” Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 19.4 (1991): 427-447. Google. 29 Jan. 2011.

No.24: Intergrating a Quote #1

During the conference yesterday, I started to rethink about my oldest argument, which is about how sone adolescents being unpopular in school can change them into anti-social individuals. And the conference, I have to admit, was really helpful and I got some resources on this topic as well. So my oldest argument becomes my final theme for this paper.Now I am excited to do this paper.

I just started the research for the theme in class today and I found some articles about it. The one I looked at was called Peer Group Membership and a Sence of Belonging: Their Relationship to Adolescent Behavioral Problems. According to B. Newman, B. Lohman, and P. Newman, “In comparison to aggressive youths, who often find a friendship group, withdrawn-rejected youths have the greatest difficulty find supportive friendships and the greatest likelihood of being victimized by peers.” (Page 2) This one of the conclusion from a study on behavior problems within adolescent peer groups. It basically says that the outsiders or the unpopular adolescents have more difficulties and less chance to get accepted into a peer group. These outsiders are not well-liked by other peers and often times they compromise and join smaller groups made up by other outsiders.

Just one thing I found interesting about this quote is that the “insiders” or the popular kids are described as “aggressive” by the authors. And they are pictured as the ones that bully the outsiders. This is exactly the opposite of my argument. My point of view is that the outsiders become the trouble-makers and turn to oppose the society. But the authors said later that “lack of a sense of peer group belonging places adolescents at greater risk for both internalizing and externalizing problems than does peer group membership.” (B. Newman, B. Lohman, and P. Newman, Page 3)

Bibliography:

Barbara M. Newman, Brenda J. Lohman, and Philip R. Newman. “Peer Group Membership and a Sence of Belonging: Their Relationship to Adolescent Behavioral Problems.” Adolescence, Summer , 2007. Google. 28 Jan. 2011.

No.22: Research Article #5

The article I searched out and read for today’s blog is called Asking, giving, receiving: Friendship as survival strategy among Accra’s street children by Phillip Mizen and Yaw Ofosu-Kusi. I have changed my argument from the broader one, friendship, to a more specific one, which is true friends are willing to save or help us, both mentally and physically, whenever we need. There is only one article out of the five I printed out that is relevant to this topic. So today, after English class, I went to the Academic Search Complete again and search for some new articles. And I found this one.

This article is about a three-year project on Accra street children. The researchers went to live with and talked to street children and found out their friendship became their sources of help, security, and survival. “Among the street children of Accra there is little sign of well-defined economic units, bureaucratic and hierarchal corporations whose singe rationale is the pursuit of money, especially through theft and the fencing of stolen goods. The friendships we have encountered involve no comparable organized economic (or criminal) function, nor do the terms within which these friendships are created and reproduced begin and end with the singular pursuit of money.” (Page 444, Asking, giving, receiving: Friendship as survival strategy among Accra’s street children)

There are some dialogue between the researcher and some of the street children. Here is my favorite one:

“YOK: Do they help you in any way?

Yebach Richard: Yes, we all buy food and eat together sometimes.

YOK: Does it mean that if you have no money, they will buy food for you to eat?

Yeboah Richard: Yes, because that is what we do.

YOK: What about the next day if you still don’t have money?

Yeboah Richard: Yes, they will. That is what we do to help each other.”

(Page 446, Asking, giving, receiving: Friendship as survival strategy among Accra’s street children)

Bibliography:

Mizen, Phillip, and Yaw Ofosu-Kusi. "Asking, giving, receiving: Friendship as survival strategy among Accra’s street children." Childhood 17.4 (2010): 441-454. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Jan. 2011.

No.21: Research Article #4

The article I read today is Capturing the friendship context with a collective property: Friendship group engagement vs. disaffection by Carrie J. Furrer. This article is about 15 pages also and it kind of relates to the article Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in early adolescents’ friendship development: Friendship selection, influence, and prospective friendship quality, which I read the other day. They both talk about friendship as something supportive and intimate among non-family members.

As usual, here are some quotes from the article that I like the most: “Adolescents with high quality, supportive friendships (e.g., experienced as loyal, affectionate, and caring) tend to have higher self-esteem, exhibit more prosocial behavior, are more popular, have fewer emotional problems, are less lonely, attain higher academic achievement, and are more involved in school.” (Page 853-854, Capturing the friendship context with a collective property: Friendship group engagement vs. disaffection) “in contrast, adolescents who are not accepted by their peers, who experience distress associated with peers, who are isolated, or who are affiliated with disaffected peers tend to be at risk for negative emotional orientation toward school, low academic performance, dropout, aggression, alienation, loneliness, and criminality.” (Page 854, Capturing the friendship context with a collective property: Friendship group engagement vs. disaffection)

The second quote in the paragraph above kinds of explains why Jess acts so differently after he is changed into a vampire, I think. Because he was isolated in school, he developed a dark side that opposed the society. He just didn’t show it. After he had gained power, he started to turn his back to the world and exposed his dark side.

Bibliography:

Furrer, Carrie J. "Capturing the friendship context with a collective property: Friendship group engagement vs. disaffection." Journal of Adolescence 33.6 (2010): 853-867. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.

No.20: Research Article #3

The research article I read today is called Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in early adolescents’ friendship development: Friendship selection, influence, and prospective friendship quality by Tiina Ojanen, Jelle Sijtsema, Patricia H. Hawley, and Todd D. Little. The article is about fifteen pages long and is about a research on how intrinsic and extrinsic motivations affect early adolescents’ friendship development on friend selection, influence, and quality. I know early adolescence is really young age, but I think the friendship at this time period is the purest because we make friends is not to get anything out of them.

“Intrinsic motivation reflects the degree to which adolescents establish and maintain friendships for inherent enjoyment of these close relationships. The need for closeness is a fundamental human motivation and is increasingly sought in friendships during early adolescence.” (Page 838, Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in early adolescents’ friendship development: Friendship selection, influence, and prospective friendship quality) Extrinsic reasons for pursuing friendships can be gaining acceptance from parents and teachers or parents urge us to do so. Personally, I think making friends based on intrinsic reasons will have higher levels of quality in friendship development.

The result of study shows that “adolescents with high degrees of intrinsic friendship motives were attractive as friends especially in stressful and unstable contexts,” (Page 847, Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in early adolescents’ friendship development: Friendship selection, influence, and prospective friendship quality) and intrinsic motives can serve as a protective factor during transition period. Contrarily, “extrinsic motives activated the search for friendships in a stable context and relatively earlier in adolescence.” (Page 848, Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in early adolescents’ friendship development: Friendship selection, influence, and prospective friendship quality)

P.S.: I like to directly quote from the articles because I think the wording in the article is perfect and I don’t know if I can explain the argument in the article clearly. But I will try to explain the quotes in my own words in the paper.

Bibliography:

Todd D. Little, et al. "Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in early adolescents’ friendship development: Friendship selection, influence, and prospective friendship quality." Journal of Adolescence 33.6 (2010): 837-851. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.