Spring Haiku

Spring comes to Cheshire
We have sunshine and picnic
Enjoy the warm spring :)

- Rujian. Zhou

The Poem I Like

Rujian, Zhou

4/28/2016

The Poem I Like

   Yesterday, I found an interesting poem about a cat, which was My Cat written by Leanne Guenther. When I first read it, I found this was the poem that I liked immediately.

The Cat is a short poem, which only has a few sentences. The whole poem is “It’ll be five days or maybe six, Before I get my laptop fixed. Gosh, I think it would be nice – If my cat would just eat mice. Unfortunately in my house – She likes to kill my cordless mouse!” It tells a story about a cat eats her owner’s cordless mouse that used for the computer. This annoyed her owner because the cat does not eat the real mouse, but eats a cordless mouse. The poem tells a funny story about the cat, which made me laugh when I first read it. Because this poem lets me feel there are a lot of common points with the author. I know that cats sometimes annoy their owners because they never do want they want. But these are also the things which make cats more adorable because I think the funniest thing you can see is a cat being stupid and make some mistakes. Those mistakes let me laugh and forget to punish the cat. This poem perfectly describes the cat let her owner annoyed, but also let me think the cat is so adorable.

This is a short poem but well written. It has “AA BB CC” form, which has the rhymes like “six - fixed”; “nice - mice”; and “house - mouse”. It has 8 syllables in all 3 stanzas, which each stanza has 2 lines. In total, there are 3 sentences in the poem, it is a very short poem. The poem does not have many repetitions because its length. But it emphasizes mouse, to show that there is the real mouse and the fake, cordless mouse for a laptop. This poem pays attention to humor, which the whole poem is telling a funny story to make people laugh. I laugh because I was impressive the expressions that author uses to describe this event and the “annoying” cat.

This is the poem I like. I like its meaning, its event, and the cat in the story. It is a poem that makes people laugh and give people happiness. It can treat people from heavy works in a day. This is the poem I like.

In Class Writing 4.28

My Cat

by Leanne Guenther

It’ll be five days or maybe six,
Before I get my laptop fixed.

Gosh, I think it would be nice –
If my cat would just eat mice.

Unfortunately in my house –
She likes to kill my cordless mouse!

     I chose this poem written by Leanne Guenther because it is talked about cat. Personally, I like cats very much. Also, I know that the poem tells the truth event that happens to people who have cats in their houses. Cats always like to sit on the desk, if there are cordless mouse and keyboard, they are likely to break it. And whatever how you stop them, they will go sitting on your desk again and again. Then your equipments will always in danger. Just like the poem talks about, the cat "I think it would be nice, if my cat would just eat mice". I like this poem because it shows such a funny fact about cat to me, and it is based on the truth story that I know. After all, it is always happen to read funny things about cats, they are so adorable. In total, this poem tells such an interesting things that make me laugh when I first read it, so I chose it. I hope every one will like it.

Reflection to Creative Project

Rujian, Zhou

4/26/2016

Be Creative

   Be creative is very important in our lives. Without being creative, we might not have telephone, vehicle and many other things that make our lives more convenient. In this creative project for English II class, Johnny, Daniel and I decided to challenge ourselves - we chose to make a short movie about the book Pobby and Dingan. In this project, we had a lot of fun things to laugh; we also had many difficulties to overcome; more importantly, we learned many things from this project, which is creative. There is no limit to people’s minds, so they can make many excellent things if they are creative.

   Our project was to make a 5 - 10 minutes movie about Pobby and Dingan. We chose to make a movie because we are going to take Literature & Performance class next year. So for preparing the class, we thought to make a movie could be very helpful for us. Also, our English class is always relative to acting. I remember that we acted out the characters when we were reading the novel Gathering The Pearl. So making a movie can relate to our class. Moreover, making a movie is not an easy job. We needed to write the dialogues for the characters, decides the scenes, recorded and edited the videos. All of these require teamwork, so we would learn and improve skills of teamwork in this project. Besides this, because there were 3 members of our groups, we had enough people to make a big project like a movie. In total, we wanted to make an interesting project to prevent and also learn from the project at the same time, so we chose to make a movie.

   To be creative, we decide to edit the story a little bit. In our movie, it was about mother Anne and father Rex argument with each other first, then Ashmol came in and asked mother about her past story with the father. The argument between mother and father was taken and edited from chapter 1 from the book, and the Ashmol with mother’s part was taken and edited from chapter 6. We combined these two scenes together, so we can present a more fluent story in the movie. Due to this, we had to edit a lot of things in the movie, such as the dialogues and setting. By editing the story, we were not only to be creative but also showed our understanding about the book in the movie.

   The plan seemed perfect to us, but it was not easy to do. We had a lot of difficulties while we were acting. Firstly, this was our first time to make a movie. Everyone seemed nervous in front of the camera. For example, when I was acting, my mind was blind and I forget what should I say next. Even though we tried to remember our dialogue before we acted, the pressure of acting would make us have some mistakes. It was one of the biggest difficulties in the project. We were not a professional actor, so we can not act like the actors on the movie. But we still try our best to make our movie as much as we could. We even retook one scene more than 3 times just because we were not satisfied with it. Those mistakes in the movies annoyed me at first because I wanted to make a perfect movie. But I found that those scenes that we made mistakes could be used as the blooper because those NGs made us laugh many times. After seeing those funny bloopers, we did not feel as nervous as before and continued recording the movie. The two afternoon of recording movie were full of fun like this. There were many NGs of our movie, we knew that it was really different to record the movie. After recording, editing was much easier and better. We found the background music for the movie; we picked the best scenes we had into the movie, and we put many funny bloopers at the end of the movie.

   In this project, we learned many things, from the planning before the recording; from the acting; and from the editing. We know that teamwork is important for projects. More importantly, we know that to be creative is very important. We had many excellent ideas in this project because we wanted to be creative. We change the story based on our understanding, and we used those “No Good” videos as bloopers to make the movie funnier. In conclusion, to be creative can let you overcome many difficulties and have many wonderful ideas. We believe our movie will bring our classmate fun.

Progress Of Crative Project

James, Zhou
     At this weekend, I, Johnny and Daniel started make our film. Firstly, We edit our dialogues again and made them closer to our lives. For example, we change some dialogues into words tasty based on our understanding. Because of this,  the dialogues make more sense to audiences, and it is more easy for us to remember the dialogues. Moreover, we spend about 2 hours to take the scene one of our project. I filmed the videos while Daniel and Johnny were acting. We separated the scene one into several short videos. After we finished videos of first scene, they are about 2.5 minuets long. After this, we are going to edic the videos, connect them together and take the second scene. We had a lot fun during the time, and we had great progress so far.

Creative Project Proposal

Rujian, Zhou

4/10/2015

Pobby & Dingan Creative Project Proposal - Film

   It is always challenging when every time we have a project due after we finishing a book. But this time, the project is not an essay as usual, but a creative project. This time, the project seems more interesting to me.

   Firstly, Johnny, Daniel and I become a group. To do a group project means everyone can work together, and more interesting. Also, it means our works should be better than the project that was done by one person. Because of this, we will spend a lot of time in this project and make it as perfect as we can.

   Secondly, we decide to do a film about our book Pobby and Dingan. We have seen the movie Opal Dream which based on the same story at class, so we know how to appearance those characters in the book. We decide to take a 5-10 minutes video about some scenes from the book. One of the scenes will be an argument between Ashmol’s mother and father, the other one will be Ashmol and his mother’s discussion about photos at Chapter 6. If there are not 5-10 minutes, we will add scenes that about Pobby and Dingan’s funeral. Daniel will be Rex, the father; Johnny will be Anne, the mother; and I will be Ashmol.

   Lastly, all of us agree that we are going to change the story a little bit. We will change the story with our understanding of the book. We will fix some parts of the story in order to make it fits our time. For example, use iPad’s photo instead of a real photo. We will connect the arguments scene with the photo scene. Moreover, we will act out the characters. This will be a perfect preview of our Literature & Performance class at the next term.

   This creative project is very interesting to me. I think it is not extremely hard to do, but it still requires time. I hope we can learn about performance and teamwork in this project. Also, we are going to use iMovie to edit the story, we will learn about how to use software to edit video. But I think when I work with Johnny and Daniel, I will never get bored. I believe it will be a good project.

The Dreams Of Opals

Rujian, Zhou

4/8/2016

The Dreams Of Opals

   Every people have dreams. In the book Pobby and Dingan, people in Lightning Ridge all dream about finding precious opals which can make them wealth. But like Australian Geographic quote says “The secret of an opal’s color lies not in its substance but its absence.” The most precious things on the opals are not the opals themselves, but those people’s dreams which relative with the opals.

   In the book Pobby and Dingan, the Ashmol’s father Rex is crazy about finding opals. Like other people in the town, Rex has a dream about opals. He brings all his family into this small and poor town of Lightning Ridge. Rex works the all day in the Opal mine, but he does not find any opals that worth money. Because of this, Rex becomes anxious about finding the opals. This also same to other miners. In the Lightning Ridge, as Ashmol says in the book “Ratting, you see, is the same thing as murder in Lightning Ridge—only a bit worse.” This shows how crazy those miners are, and they only care about finding colorful opals. To the Williamson family, the mother of Ashmol, Anne has a lot of complaining about this situation. Anne has a dream too. She was in England, where she lived on a big farm and had a wealthy boyfriend Peter. But now she is in this poor town with Rex finding those opals that “might not exist”.

   People in Lightning Ridge cares too much about the color and worth of the opals which are all appearance but forget what is their original dreams. In my opinion, Rex’s dream is not just about finding opals, but giving his family a better life by finding the opals. The things that more important than the opals are the dreams. Like Ashmol, he has a dream that he can live in the Lightning Ridge with his family happily. He says he likes living in Lightning Ridge “Because here there’s always opal waiting to be found, and there’s always something to dream about, like another Fire Bird or a Christmas Beetle or a Southern Princess or an Aurora Australis.” I am very impressive by his word about “There’s always something to dream about.” Every people have dreams which let them keep hopping. Dreams are important. In the book, Ashmol’s dream drive him to do many brave things for saving his sister Kellyanne. He goes around the town, finding Pobby and Dingan; he goes to his father’s claim at the midnight for finding Pobby and Dingan; and he arranged the funeral for Pobby and Dingan. When he gives the most beautiful opals that he has ever found to the funeral director for the funeral, he does not hesitate. He believes that he is doing the right things for Kellyanne, for himself and for his family.

   For people in Lightning Ridge, dreams come from the opals. But everyone pays too much attention to the substance, the worth of the opal, and miss the absence side of the opal - dreams. Opals are beautiful, expensive and colorful, but the dreams come from the opals are more precious. People can live because of those opal dreams, they are the goal of their life. Extend the opals dreams, you will people’s love. Like Ashmol, he cares his family very much, and he always put them in the first place in his life. Compares to those adults who are crazy about the opals’ substance, Ashmol seems more mature.

   The precious things do not usually appear on the outside, they are in the absence side where people used to miss. To be better, people need to find the absence side, to know what is the real precious things in their lives, like Ashmol does. I think to live in this way, to live with true precious things, such as family, is the true opals dreams that all of the people from Lightning Ridge have. Opals' beautiful out-looking always distract people from the real precious thing.

3 Ways That The Ending Of The Film Is Different From The Book

• In the ending of the film, it does not tell what happen to Kellyanne at the end. We do not know she is cured or she is dead. But in the book, it says Kellyanne is dead and bury next to Pobby and Dingan.
• At the end of the film, the funeral director gives back Ashmol the beautiful opal that is believed to belong to Dingan. But in the film, he does not give back the opal to Ashmol.
• At the end of the book, Old Sid shows up at the end of the funeral. He tries to convince other people not to believe in Pobby and Dingan, and Rex is a ratter. But the film does not talks about it.

Chapter 8-12 Quiz

2. What connection does Ashmol make between the land covered with seawater and Pobby and Dingan? Why is that important to the story?
      When Ashmol is on the way to the claim, he remembers his father told him that the area of claims was covered with sea water hundreds year ago. Ashmol is amazed by this fact, he thinks "That a sea was once here where now there is nothing but dry land." Then Ashmol connects this with Pobby and Dingan, who are also hard to believe that they are real people. Ashmol believes that anything can be real since the miracle such like the seawater can happen, so Pobby and Dingan might be real people. As a result of this, Ashmol really looks for Pobby and Dingan in the claim. He does not pretend to find them or just sits there for a while, but he really tries to look for them. When Ashmol does this, he finds "a massive heap of rubble in their corner", the Violet Crumble Chocolate Bar, and the yo-yo size green, red black opal. These things lead him think about Pobby and Dingan are buried under the rubbles and introduce the story after that. Because of these, the seawater is important to the story.

    5. In the very end of the novel, Ashmol talks about what it’s like to “believe in something which is hard to see. Or to keep looking for something that’s totally hard to find.” Discuss the importance of imagination and dreams in this novel. Why are they so important even if they cannot be seen. Consider what dreams Rex, the father, and Annie, the mother, have in the story. Consider, also, the dream that Ashmol has. How do those "unseen" dreams connect to Kellyanne's belief in Pobby and Dingan?
      Dreams are always important to people, if a person does not have a dream, then his life has not difference between a small fish. In the novel Pobby And Dingan, dreams and imaginations are two of the most important parts that make up the story. Everyone has a dream in the story, the main character Ashmol has a dream, Ashmol's mother Annie has a dream, and his father Rex has a dream. Rex has a dream about finding good opals that he can sell them for big money. But it is not easy to successes, so Rex becomes more and more crazy about finding opals, like Ashmol says "He'd go crazy with excitement and then he wouldn't let me buy Pobby and Dingan a grave with it (the opal), and then Kellyanne wouldn't get any better." Rex counts opal above many things in his life, such as his family. Because of this dream, Rex comes to this countryside in Australia and digs for the opals that might not exist. Then he loses his confident, which leads him does not do a lot of works for Kellyanne at the later in the story. In total, I think Rex is struggled with his dream and can not get out from this dream.
      In the story, Kellyanne's belief in Pobby and Dingan starts from the beginning to the end. Pobby and Dingan are just like the dreams of Rex's, Annie's and Ashmol's. They are all "unseen", but if people believe they are real, then they are real. Like Kellyanne believe Pobby and Dingan are real, and Rex believes he will find opals and makes big money. These are the same, because people need comforts in their lives. All of the people want to live a happy lives. Moreover, some people get struggled by the dream, like Rex; but some people get motivation form the dream, like Ashmol. In my opinion, because everyone wants a better life, they have the "unseen" dreams. And so does Kellyanne, she believes in Pobby and Dingan. These are the connections between Kellyanne's belief in Pobby and Dingan with the "unseen" dreams.