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 Girls usually react to peer rejection by shy, withdrawn, and introverted.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.

No.19: Research Article #2

The research article I read today was Approaching Others: Aristotle on Friendship’s Possibility by Bradley Bryan. It is the first one on my bibliography list and I think it’s probably the longest one. This article analyzes about Aristotle’s understanding of friendship and its relationship with political life. But I think I don’t really need to go too deep into the political stuff.

Aristotelian friendship is traditionally interpreted that there are three kinds of friendship: friendship based on utility, pleasure, or virtue. “Friendships based on utility are convenient; that is, they involve the kind of familiarity one might have with another insofar as the two meet around some kind of activity or purpose such that their engagement furthers the achievement of their respective ends.” (Page 757, Approaching Others: Aristotle on Friendship’s Possibility­) So in other words, this kind of friendship is basically when one meets another with same interest and they can develop their relationship further based on this shared interest.

“Pleasurable friendships are those acquaintances that bring pleasure or are occasioned through our mutual participation in pleasurable activities.” (Page 757, Approaching Others: Aristotle on Friendship’s Possibility) This kind of friendship is based on enjoying each other’s company. As for virtue friendship, it is defined as proper or true friendship. Compare with the other two kinds, this one is the highest level of friendship. “ ‘Virtue’ friendship is, for Aristotle, ‘proper’ or ‘true’ friendship because it is what orients us to what is required of us by those we love and who live us.” (Page 758, Approaching Others: Aristotle on Friendship’s Possibility) Virtue friendship is rare and the most difficult to achieve.

Bibliography:

Bryan, Bradley. "Approaching Others: Aristotle on Friendship's Possibility." Political Theory. 754-779. 2009. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.

No.18: Research Article #1

The first research article that I read is The antecedents of friendships in moderately diverse classrooms: Social preference, social impact, and social behavior. The reason I chose to do this one first, honestly, was because it was relatively the shortest one and it’s too late for me to read longer articles and then analysis them.

This paper is actually about a research on how same racial/ethnic friendship and cross racial/ethnic friendship would be affect. The researcher set up three hypothesis to use for the research: “(1) social preference would be more strongly related to the frequency and stability of friendships, especially same-racial/ethnic friendships, and social impact would be more strongly related to the frequency and stability of friendships, especially cross-racial/ethnic friendships; (2) social behaviors such as relational inclusion and leadership skills or physical and relational aggression would be positively or negatively associated with the frequency and stability of friendships, particularly cross-racial/ ethnic friendships; and (3) these associations would be influenced by classroom diversity (specific hypotheses regarding classroom effects were presented previously).” (From the article The antecedents of friendships in moderately diverse classrooms: Social preference, social impact, and social behavior, by Kawabata, Yoshito and Crick, Nicki R.)

The result of the research shows that when people have gained popularity in same racial/ethnic group, they tend to care less about cross racial/ethnic relationship. For those who get into cross racial/ethnic relationship, the relationships may not last very long. And people with high levels of leadership skills are less likely to have physical and relational aggression.

Bibliography:

Kawabata, Yoshito, and Nicki R. Crick. "The antecedents of friendships in moderately diverse classrooms: Social preference, social impact, and social behavior." International Journal of Behavioral Development 35.1 (2011): 48-57. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.

No.17: Preliminary Research

Sorry about the late post of Blog No.17. I forgot how to access the academic search complete last night and it was too late for me to go to the library, so I decided to do it today. Hopefully, I won’t lose all the point of this blog. As I read the comments on my prospectus, I found out one interesting aspect of friendship, which is having power will destroy real friendship. I will probably go into deeper research about this aspect if I can find any information about it.

First, I will get some general information about friendship. By putting “what is friendship” into the search index, I found an article named The Preparation for Proselytizing: Matteo Ricci's Treatise Jiao-You-Lun (On Friendship.) The reason this article caught my eyes is because Jiao-You-Lun is Chinese, meaning the essay or treatise about friendship. And I found another article called Approaching Others: Aristotle on Friendship's Possibility)

Then, I will focus my research on why friendship is essential to us and what motivates us to find the friends that we now have? The articles I found are Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in early adolescents’ friendship development: Friendship selection, influence, and prospective friendship quality, Capturing the friendship context with a collective property: Friendship group engagement vs. disaffection, and The antecedents of friendships in moderately diverse classrooms: Social preference, social impact, and social behavior. I can also get some information about friendship between different genders, races, and ages from these articles. I think these articles are really helpful.

Also I have found a lot of articles about different aspects of friendship. However, I didn’t seem to find any on the topic of power vs. friendship. Maybe I will come across some information on my way reading these articles. This is just a guideline on my paper; maybe I will change some of the articles I use.

Bibliography:

Bryan, Bradley. "Approaching Others: Aristotle on Friendship's Possibility." Political Theory. 754-779. 2009. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.

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.

Kawabata, Yoshito, and Nicki R. Crick. "The antecedents of friendships in moderately diverse classrooms: Social preference, social impact, and social behavior." International Journal of Behavioral Development 35.1 (2011): 48-57. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.

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.

Yu, Liu. “The Preparation for Proselytizing: Matteo Ricci’s Treatise Jiao-You-Lun (On Friendship).” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 43.3 (2010): 167-183, Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 22 Jan, 2011.

No.16: Prospectus

The episode, or rather, episodes, I am analyzing are the first two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1. The main focus of my paper will be on the second episode, but some scenes in the first episode will be added to further explain my theme. My theme is about friendship. When we have no or little power, we tend to pay more attention to friendship and care more about our friends; however, when we have gained power, we tend to forget how important friends are and a lot of times, we dump our friends for more power.

I will probably put some of my or my friends’ stories to stress the conflict, agreement, and meaning of friends. I will also put some quotes and stories from the Internet to support my theme. I’m sure this is an easy topic to write about since there is a lot of information on this topic both in real life experience and on the website. But I will try to talk about some aspects different from the common acknowledgements of friendship. As I said in my last blog, my biggest problem when writing a paper is no matter how good the paper is or the words are in my mind, I can’t put them down on paper. I don’t know how to decorate my words to make them more attractive and diplomatic.

One good thing about this paper, I think, is the length of time we have to finish it. Maybe I will run to the writing center and look for help everyday.

No.15: About Grammar

I think one of the biggest problems with my grammar is I don’t know when to use a period inside or outside of a quotation mark. What I usually do is put a period outside the quotation mark no matter what, because I think it’s the end of the sentence and periods are used to end a sentence, but not quotation marks. However, on the punctuation worksheet we did the other day in class, I got all the questions relating to periods and quotation marks wrong. Today I finally did the research on this problem.

The following is a quote from the Quotation Marks: Where Do the Commas and Periods Go--and Why? by Tina Blue that I got from the Internet:

“When it comes to commas and periods, though, logic doesn't enter into the equation, at least not in the United States. Universal American usage places commas and periods inside the quotation marks, regardless of logic: "Diane," she said, "put the book down and go outside for a little while."

“This rule applies even when the unit enclosed at the end of the sentence is just a single word rather than an actual quotation: To get to the next page, just press the little button marked "Enter."

“The only exception is when that last little item enclosed in quotation marks is just a letter or a number, in which case the period or comma will go outside the closing quotation marks: The buried treasure was marked on the map with a large "X".”

The research explains the usage of periods and quotation marks pretty well and I understand better now. Hopefully, I will be able to apply these rules on my worksheet or in my paper.

No.14: About Episode Analysis

Since my episode analysis is about the first and second episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1, I watched Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest again today. The character I referred to in my paper is not the main characters (Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles) but Xander’s friend, Jess, who was taken by the vampires in the first episode and killed by Xander in the second episode. Before he was taken, he was considered the “loser” and he only had two friends, Xander and Willow, plus Buffy, three. After he was changed into a vampire, he went to the bar and was popular among the girls. That was the difference and the difference made Jess lose his original himself. He became cold-hearted and could even turn against his old best friend.

To tell the truth, my old theme was about why being left alone would change one’s state of mind and made him want to oppose the society. However, I found out it was a difficult theme to expand and as I was writing, I tend to move my path toward friendship. And that became my ultimate thesis. I want to put some arguments among my friends and some explanation on quotes into my writing to help expand my theme to a finished paper. Then I realized no matter how fancy the words are in my mind, I can’t put them down. So my episode analysis looks kind of dry and unorganized. I’m sure that I really need some help with my paper. Hopefully, I will be able to have time to go to the writing center and improve the quality of my paper.

No.13: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Episode 9

I watched the ninth episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 today. The name is The Puppet Show. Buffy, Willow, and Xander had to perform a show on the School Talent Show. It was the punishment from the principal Snyder. A dancer called Emily was killed with her heart removed. On the other hand, a guy named Morgan who played a puppet in his talent show acted strangely. He treated the puppet Sid like he was real and he could talk! Buffy and her fellows suspected the puppet to be the demon that killed Emily. Then Morgan was found dead by Buffy and his brain was removed. The puppet appeared and tried to kill Buffy, but Buffy was stronger and got control of the puppet. After their conversation, they realized they both had wrong opinions about each other. The puppet was a demon hunter but was turned into a puppet when he killed a demon! The reason that the puppet wanted to kill Buffy was because he thought Buffy was the demon he was going after. Buffy and her fellows figured out that the next target of the demon was the Watcher. They arrived just in time to save the Watcher and killed the demon. Then the puppet died and became a real puppet.

Buffy and the puppet both took each other as their enemy before their conversation. So we can see that communication is very important. Good communication can prevent major conflicts like the misunderstanding in the episode. And, sometimes people are not the way as we think they are. So I believe the best way to get to know people is to have a conversation with them.

No.12: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Episode 8

The episode I watched today is the eighth episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1. It is named I, Robot, You, Jane. I had no idea about what this episode was going to talk about just by looking at the name, before I actually started watching it. In the ancient time, a demon called Moloch was bound into a book by the Circle of Kaylees. In Sunnydale, Willow was doing a scanning project and accidentally scanned the book containing Moloch into the computer. Now Moloch was everywhere! Willow fell in love with a guy called Malcolm on the Internet. Buffy wanted Willow to know more about Malcolm before loving him, but Willow thought Buffy didn’t understand how important Malcolm meant to her. When Willow chatted with Malcolm about Buffy, Malcolm’s knowledge about Buffy freaked Willow out: he knew too much about Buffy! One day at night, Willow was abducted to CRD. Demon Moloch got a metal form and appeared before Willow. On the other hand, the Watcher and the computer teacher were trying to perform another Circle of Kaylees to lock the demon up again; however, they failed. The metal Moloch hit the electronic box and destroyed himself when he was trying to hit Buffy. So that’s the end of this episode.

One thing I found interesting in this episode was that when Buffy didn’t know what CRD was and asked the Watcher, Xander told them that CRD was a computer station but got shut down. Buffy and the Watcher both looked at him like he is some kind of freak. We can’t judge people based on our first impression about them; we need to give everyone credit that they can make some differences. Willow got into trouble because she didn’t listen to Buffy. Well, I know sometimes it’s hard to be receptive, but we need to consider other people’s word and then make decisions.

No.11: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Episode 7

The episode I watched today is the seventh episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1. The name is Angel, which is actually the name of the mysterious guy who only appears when Buffy is in danger. At the beginning of this episode, Buffy was attacked by three vampires that were sent to kill Buffy by the Master. Angel showed up and helped Buffy escape. Buffy took care of Angle’s wound and let him sleep in her house. The next day, after Buffy came back home from school, they kissed each other. I think the kissing scene was the nicest and the most romantic scene I ever watched. During their kiss, Angel suddenly pushed Buffy away and his face turned into a vampire’s. Now Angel’s true identity revealed: he was a vampire! Darla bit Buffy’s mom and framed it on Angel. Buffy was very upset and thought she’d have to kill Angel. Darla wanted Angel to join the Master’s troop, but Angel wanted Buffy to kill him. Then Buffy knew that the one who bit her mom was Darla. Angel killed Darla and they kissed again.

Darla was the one who changed Angel into a vampire and she felt that Angel should always be by her side; however, Angel wasn’t. He was a vampire with soul and he wanted to escape from the dark world. He fell in love with a vampire slayer. It would be very dangerous if Buffy found out about his identity, but he didn’t get scared. The look on his face when Buffy said “you are not welcome in my house anymore” was so sad and mournful. However, he still wanted to keep his love and protected Buffy from getting killed by Darla. Although he is from the dark, he is not “dark”. So not everyone from a bad place is bad, we should accept people from all backgrounds as long as they want to be good.

No.10: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Episode 6

Today I watched the sixth episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1. It is called The Pack. I think this is a weird episode. Buffy’s school went on a field trip in a zoo. Xander, following a pack of four bad students, went into the hyena house, which was originally closed. Inside the hyena house, Xander and the pack got charmed by the hyena. When they got back to school, Xander started to hang out with the pack and started to bully other students, even including Willow. Buffy noticed the trouble was serious when the pack of five ate the school pig and the principal. No doubt, the pack was turning into hyenas. Buffy, Willow, and the Watcher decided to get the pack to the hyena house and let the zookeeper perform a ritual to change their own mind back. However, the zookeeper was the bad guy and he attacked the Watcher and Willow. At the end, the pack was changed back and the zookeeper was thrown into the hyena cage and became the meal.

One thing I didn’t understand about this episode was that the zookeeper was supposed to be the bad guy, then how come he changed the pack’s mind back? He did this when his dagger was still pointed at Willow’s neck! I just think it’s weird. I think this episode is to teach us to follow instructions. The hyena house was marked closed, so no one should go in there. The pack ignored the warning and lost their human mind, and that was totally their fault. They couldn’t blame it on anybody.

No.9: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Episode 5

This morning I watched the fifth episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1. The name is Never Kill a Boy on the First Date. OK, when I first saw this name, I thought this episode would be some girl dated some guy and the girl turned out to be a vampire and killed the boy. After I finished the episode, I realized it was totally not the deal. In this episode, Buffy met a hot guy called Owen and agreed to go on a date with him. The Watcher discovered a prophecy about a coming danger and wanted Buffy to check out this danger with him. Buffy refused because her date was at that night and she didn’t want to miss. So she left and the prophecy came true. On her first real date with Owen, the Watcher got trapped by a group of vampires. Buffy had to leave her date and went to save the Watcher. At the end of this episode, she realized that she would get anyone who was unaware of her identity into danger, so sadly, she broke up with Owen.

Buffy became more and more responsible and mature about her slaying job, which is good, but also sad. She is always out of crowd because her special ability. If she stays too close to someone, except Xander, Willow, and the Watcher who already know her job, she doesn’t know when and how she will get him killed. So she thinks the best way to protect him is to leave him. Maybe that isn’t really true about relationships. I think, if she doesn’t keep her identity secret, she will find some real friends, like Xander and Willow. And she won’t have to be too freaked out when someone is getting close to reveal her identity. Towards relationships, I will say, show them the real you.

No8: “High School is Hell”

Before I started reading this article, I was glad that it deals with something that I have watched and have had some basic understandings about already. Then I started the reading.

I have to say, this article is a good analysis on the episodes. It only focuses on one thing in the episodes, which is “metaphor”, and develops the thesis deeply and widely. The author stated that all metaphors in horror stories are actually reflections of real life situations. Then he collected the scenes from a bunch of episodes and discussed how they were related to things happened in real life. He also stated that the reason of the creation of monsters was based on people’s fears. However, I don’t quite agree with some of his explanations. For example, the vampires in our imaginations today have beautiful and graceful figures (although in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they don’t). The reason for that is probably that humankind admires beautiful and graceful things, so they create a kind of nonhuman creature with these traits.

OK, back to the topic. In his analysis, the author made reference to a lot of the episodes, like quoting dialogs between characters, to support his thesis as well. This made the article more persuasive. As for the “irony” part of the metaphor, I can only say that sometimes things are not what we think they are. A lot of the times we only focus on one aspect, but ignore the others. And that will cause some misunderstanding.

This is a chaotic blog, I admit. Sometimes I was talking about the structure of the article, but changed into the content of the article suddenly. I’m sorry about that.

No.7: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Episode 4

I got up early this morning, so I decided to watch the episode before my first class started. It’s the fourth episode from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1, Teacher’s Pet. I will have to say, if you are afraid of bugs or hate bugs, this episode is not something that you will want to watch. Dr. Gregory, Buffy’s biology teacher, disappeared one day after class and was found beheaded in the kitchen’s closet the next day. An attractive woman called Miss French substituted for Dr. Gregory. When Buffy was chasing after a vampire, she saw that vampire, who tried to suck Miss French’s blood, fled from her. By another change, Buffy saw Miss French turn her head around her neck 180 degrees. After some research in the library, Buffy was sure that Miss French had something to do with mantis, or maybe Miss French was a mantis! Xander was attracted by this lady and promised her that he would come to her house in the evening. It turned out that Miss French, or the mantis, just wanted to mate with him and then eat him. As how all the episodes end, Buffy and her fellows killed the mantis and saved Xander.

I don’t think I have any comments about this episode. However, because this episode involved insects, maybe we should try to understand insects’ life even more. So we can know their habits and habitats. That way, we can balance the relationship between humans and non-humans better. If we can care about our surroundings, I believe we can have a better earth to live on.

No.6: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Episode 3

OK, the episode I watched today was the third episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1. The episode’s name is Witch. As obviously as we can see from the name, this episode is about witch and witchcraft. Buffy and several others tried out for the cheerleading squad. In the tryout, there was a girl called Amy, she was very anxious to get into the squad. However, unfortunately, she only made to the alternative list. From that day on, weird things started to happen to the members of the squad. Buffy and her fellows suspected Amy to be the witch who played witchcraft on those members. Buffy penetrated Amy’s identity, and now the revenge turned to Buffy. Buffy and the Watcher went to Amy’s house to talk to Amy’s mom. Then the truth revealed. Amy’s mom switched her and Amy’s body, which meant that the witch was Amy’s mom, not Amy. The Watcher performed a ritual to switch Amy and her mom back to their original bodies and cured Buffy from her illness.

I think the drama starts to get interesting from now on because vampires are not the only things that Buffy has to face. And witchcraft is my second favorite thing. However, I don’t agree to all the bad things that Amy’s mom did. Amy’s mom was a cheerleader when she was in high school and now she wanted to live all her glorious days again. So she switched her and her daughter’s body. All I can say is that what happened in the past is already the past. We can’t reverse anything nor can we live our lives one more time. One cannot only live in the past. She has to face the present and the coming future. In addition, it is also a bad thing to be jealous. Being jealous will only make our lives harder and more miserable. So why don’t we find out where our weakness is and try to overcome it?

No.5: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Episode 2

Today the episode I watched was the second episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1, following the first episode I watched yesterday. This episode is called The Harvest. At the beginning of this episode, the vampire called Luke tried to attack Buffy, but his hand got burned by the cross around Buffy’s neck. Buffy saved her friends Willow and Xander from the mouths of vampires. However, Xander’s friend, Jess, was taken to the underground “palace” by the vampires. By the way, the master of the vampires reminded me of Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter. They both have bold heads and pale faces. Buffy decided to find the entrance to the “palace” and to save Jess. She got help from a mysterious man named Angel, and found Jess. The thing she didn’t know was that Jess was already turned into a vampire and this was a trap to kill Buffy. Fortunately, Buffy escaped from the underground tunnel.

I am glad to see that Buffy is a responsible girl that she thought it was her fault that Jess was taken and she believed that it was her duty to bring Jess back. Although it was too late, she still showed her courage and determination. And there is this girl named Cordelia, who considered herself to be the coolest girl in school and that everyone cared about her. When Buffy attacked her by accident in the bar, she told everybody in the school about it and she described Buffy as a “psycho”, even after Buffy saved her from a party which was hunted down by the vampires. This is the kind of girl that I dislike the most.

One thing I found very interesting about Buffy in this episode was that she did the forward flips thing instead of just running. Shouldn’t running be easier and faster than the flips? And why did the vampire wait so patiently until Buffy finished her flips to attack her?

No.4: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Episode 1

The episode I chose to watch today was the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1. I like to watch shows from the very beginning so that I can understand everything as the stories move on. The reason I choose this series is that I am a huge fan of vampires, and this series is related to vampires. However, maybe because I have read too many books and seen too many movies about vampires, I always picture them as beautiful and graceful creatures. The figures of vampires in this series were so different and overturned my imagination. I mean, their faces are wrinkled and ugly; their nails are sharp and long, and their clothes are old and outdated. But the thing amazed me was that I still enjoyed the episode!

The first episode is called Welcome to the Hellmouth. Buffy Summers is the heroine in this series of shows. She moved to a new town with her mom and started her first day in a new high school named Sunnydale High. It was only her first day, and someone is killed by a vampire. As a vampire slayer, Buffy had the responsibility to destroy the monsters in the town, but she considered herself as “retired”. She didn’t want to fight vampires anymore. Willow, a shy girl that Buffy met during classes, was encouraged to “cease the moment” in a club, so she went out with a guy who turned out to be an ugly vampire. Buffy now had to run after the vampire and protect her new friend. She killed one of the vampires, but more and more were coming. And that’s the end of the first episode.

The ending of this episode made me want to continue watching the rest of the series and finish it. The vampires were waiting for the day that they could walk on the ground and rule the human world. The slayer Buffy definitely wouldn’t let that happen, so there would be some gruesome fighting to take place later. I cannot wait to see what will happen next. However, it’s too late for tonight. I’ll probably continue tomorrow.

No.3: "The Train Job" (cont.)

I think the main argument in this episode is whether to follow one’s heart or to “beg” for money and life. Now let me explain it in more details. Based on content of this episode, Captain Reynolds has to choose between giving the life-saving medicines back to the Alliance or getting the money and protection from Niska.

Captain Reynolds’ instinct told him to give the medicines back to save the sick people, after he saw the poor and pitiful situation in the town. However, if he did give the medicines back to the town people, he would put all his group members’ lives at risk, since Niska was such a ruthless person. Contrarily, if he obeyed his instinct and followed Niska’s command, he could get the money that he desperately needed at that time, and he could also get Niska’s protection. The second choice sounded attractive, but Captain Reynolds still chose to listen to his heart and cancelled the deal because he knew he was doing the right thing.

Captain Reynolds’ decision was impressing that he could still choose to do the right thing under such stressful condition. He knew that after he made this decision, Niska would not let him go; instead, Niska would probably go after him and try to destroy him for disobeying his order. As I commented in someone’s blog (sorry about I forgot whose blog that is), if everyone in the world could choose to do the right thing all the time, there wouldn’t be any crimes anymore, unless someone’s understanding of “the right thing” is twisted.

No.2: "The Train Job"

Before I watched this episode, I didn’t really pay attention to the name. I thought it was “the training job”, like there would be some kind of job training going on. But now, I know it is a job that takes place on a train, a train full of Alliance supporters. As the captain of a ship of Independents, Reynolds has to protect all his group members while completing the dangerous job.

Niska, the mandatory of the job, is obviously a cold-blooded person. He can even kill his wife’s nephew for failing to complete his command properly. He thought the dead body would scare the group and thus, they would work for him under any condition. However, he ignored something very important, humanity. The job he wanted the group to do is to steal two boxes of cargo from the Alliance train. So the group did. But after the captain found out that the cargo they stole were the only two boxes of medicines on the train, and after he saw the poor and sick people in the town, he changed his mind. He decided to stop the deal and to give the medicines back. Although this decision might risk all of him group members’ lives, Reynolds let his humanity came before safety, which was very impressing. The lack of humanity guarantees the lose of Niska.

My favorite part of this episode is the fighting between the group and the followers of Niska. Not like most of the kungfu films with fancy moves, this fighting scene is more realistic. For examples, people get hurt; bullets miss the targets, ect. Although this is a science fiction drama, I didn’t see anything over-exaggerated or impossible to achieve in the future. And that’s the part I like the most about this drama.

Something about Me

My name is Yujie Feng. I am from Tianjin, China. If you don’t know where that is, go find a map of China, and you will see it near Beijing. I am a freshman in the Ohio State University. Right now I am only a pre-business student, but I will work hard to get into the specialization I want to study, Finance.

I enjoy reading novels, especially fantasies, when I have free time. I like adventures, and I always put myself in the stories to experience the life of the characters. When I got inspired, I would write some stories of my own. I have also written some poems and lyrics, but I never showed them to anybody. My mom always says that I put too much effort into unimportant things. She believes that the most important thing in the world for me to do is to get good grades in school. However, I strongly disagree with her. I think the most important thing is to enjoy my life.

For sports, I like swimming and playing badminton. The reason I like these two sports is that they are the only sports that I am good at. I learnt to swim when I was in second grade, and learnt to play badminton in third grade. I have spent a great deal of time on these two sports. During most of the holidays or breaks, my dad would take me to the pool or to the court to practice. I also learnt to play tennis in eleventh grade. But I always applied my badminton skills when I was playing tennis, the coach had to correct me every time.