What I've learned and thank you

In these past few months, I did learn a lot in this program and also feel that I was improved. For example, I learned many types of essays and knew how to write them. Especially, reactive essays are very useful for me in the future because I need to write many passages about business cases. Therefore, I like this semester more than last semester. There are still other things that I learned from my instructors in this program, and I would like to explain some of them here.

Firstly, I learned a lot of slang. Even if I cannot use them in my academic essays, I can use them in daily conversation with my friends. Using slang makes the conversation with friends more interesting. Unlike academic essays, daily conversation should be fun and interesting, so I try to use slang which I learn from this program. Probably, some of them are considered as somewhat dirty, but I think that it is okay for friends because they know what I mean.

Secondly, I definitely learned so many skills of written and spoken academic English. Moreover, I also learned several words in other languages which are not Chinese and English. Although, this is a English program, it is easy to learn other words in other languages because my classmates come from many countries around the world. For example, Sunny explained many Korean words for me. Even if I could not remember them all, I still picked some of them up. It is useful when I go to a Korean restaurant because I can at least say “thank you” in Korean to waiters or waitresses.

Thirdly, I learned many differences of teaching styles between American instructors and Taiwanese instructors. In Taiwan, all that instructors need to do is lecture. On the other hand, American instructors really focus on interactions and students’ participation which not only means students have to show up in the class but also need to do something in the class such as asking questions. This concept is really useful for me because I will enroll in a MBA program in August. If I get used to this class style, I will be fine in my new school.

Finally, I want to say thank you for my classmates and instructors. I did learn a lot from them. In these months, I made many good friends though many of them were not in ALP or in my class. I want to thank Sunny, Ryoko, Sandy, Jupiter, Jasmine, and Jin because they are with me for two semesters and they help me a lot no matter in academic performance and personal troubles. For those who are not in ALP, I want to thank P, Nadia, and Prang because they are all very general and kind people who also help me and make me happy, and I miss them so much. In the end, I want to say thank you to Mr. Rubin, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Snavely, Mr. Simpson, Mrs. Chong, Mr. Carr, and Mr. Cochran. I really appreciate them not only because they are outstanding instructors but also help me a lot in many things about my graduate school. I have to say thank you for Mr. Rubin, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Snavely, and Mr. Simpson because their good recommendation letters attribute to my acceptance of my MBA program. Besides, they checked my applying essays carefully, which took them a lot of time. Also, Mr. Cochran taught me so many things about the U.S. culture and linguistic. Actually, most of my slang comes from him. Even if I am not sure how exactly I use slang, at least I understand many young Americans’ daily conversation. I think that he is a really awesome instructor in ALP. All in all, I really appreciate all of my friends and instructors in ALP and I wish them would have wonderful lives in the future.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

Baraka

Baraka is an amazing film because it demonstrates a lot of views in many fields in the world. In the film, we can see beautiful scenes of nature, various cultures, industrialized life, wars, and religions. As the scenes of this film goes, we can feel our emotions going up and down. Among all of these scenes, my favorite one is the beauty of a waterfall.

When I saw the great amount of water pouring down, I feel that the power of nature is so enormous that a human may never conquer it. Besides, I reminded the contents of "The Art of Travel" while I was seeing this view. There is a chapter in the Art of Travel, which is mainly illustrating the concepy of sublime. The view if the great waterfall matches the term, sublime. The waterfall is sublime because it has the great power to destroy anything that challenges it. However, the water does not have the will to hurt anyone even though it contains dangers for many people if they fall into it.

The other reason why I love this scene is that I saw several colors in this view. There was not only the white of the waterfall but also other colors in the fog, sky, and even water. Actually, if you see carefully, the color of the waterfall was not only white but also yellow and brown. In addition, the fog on the water was relatively light grey. Within the fog, we could see a little rainbow, which was so colorful. The light grey of the fog made the colors of the rainbow stand out. In fact, these vivid colors added gentleness into this unyielding and majestic waterfall.

In conclusion, I love this view because it reminds the book that I read, and I start to feel the contens of the books. Facing the sublime is an amazing feeling. Actually, I have ever seen a view containg such a great amount of water except the Pacific Ocean. Besides, the colors of this scene are also fantastic. Even if it is a waterfall, it contain differnt colors. Moreover, the fog and rainbow make this view more colorful. Thus the waterfall is not only breathtaking but also attractive. These are the reasons why I was absorbing into the film while I was seeing this great waterfall.

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I read Sunny's and Omar's blogs.

Confucius' quote

Confucius confirmed that “Find a job that you love doing and you will never have to work a day in your life.” It means that if people can enjoy their jobs, they would not feel that they war working. This sentence really makes sense because when people feel happy they may not feel bored or even painful if they are doing the jobs that they do not want to do.

I totally agree with this quote because when I listen to metal music and put comments on my blog, I do not feel that I am writing an article; instead, I feel that I am talking to my friends and music. That is really fun. On the other hand, when I do something about accounting, I just want to do as fast as I can and I do not care if answers are correct because I hate accounting even though I know that accounting is very important to my academic performance.

I cannot tell people who are really enjoying their jobs because most people hide their emotions very well. However, if people do show their hatred toward their jobs, it means they rather wasting their time than doing their jobs. For example, my friend’s father is a pharmacist, but he wants to retire since the very first day that he was doing this job. As a result, he does not get any promotion in his hospital because he has no passion.

For me, my favorite job is a history professor because I really love to study history. Moreover, I do very well in history. Since I started to study history, I always get A even A+ in those history classes. For instance, I am a business major student but I also took history classes when I was an undergraduate student. Actually, I usually get B in most my business subjects. On the other hand, I always get A in those history classes. Unfortunately, my parents do not allow me to be a history major student. Therefore, I may not have the chance to get my magic job.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

Mom, I want to change my major...

Dear mom, this is Kurt.

Mom, I have one thing really important to tell you which is that I want to change my major from business administration to history. I know you may disagree with me for many valid reasons. However, I want to tell you what you are worrying about will not happen.

First, you may think that if I change my major, the time that I spent in the past six years is wasting. It is true in few extents, definitely. However, my background knowledge can help me in this field, especially in the business history. Therefore, I do not waste my time that I spent in my college. It can be given an example that the famous writer, Wang Wen-Hua, changed his major when he studied at his graduate school, but his business background knowledge helped him write many famous fictions which were related to business world. Thus, as I mentioned above, it helps me in several ways.

Second, you may argue that I am already 25 years old, so it is too late to change my major. Nevertheless, I do not think I am too old to do what I want to do now. In fact, there are a lot of people who change their majors around my age, even older, but they are still successful people. For example, my cousin, Jeff, changed his major five years ago and at that time, he was 25 years old,too. He studied laws for seven years and had no background knowledge about accounting. Uncle Sam also opposed him, but he became an professional accountant in the end and earned a lot of money. On the contrary, many of his classmates are still cramming for tests. Thus, if I really study hard, it is not too late for me.

Third, you may claim that I would not find a good job, if my major was history. Of course, you are correct because there only a few jobs for history major people. Therefore, I may find no job in the end. I really understand you and what you think is also true. Nonetheless, there are still some solutions to solve this problem. For instance, aunt May works in a textbooks publishing company, and I can ask her to work in this company to be a history textbooks writer. In addition, I have business background, so I can help this company to increase its profits. Although your opinions are really valid, I still can have a nice job in the end.

Mom, I really hope you that you can support my idea. As I described above, I think I will still be fine if I change my major from business to history. I hope this letter can remove your concerns, and I know you will support me because you are the best mother in the world.

Sincerely yours,


Kurt.
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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

Analyzing arguments

Krugman P. (2009, April 9). Making banking boring. The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/opinion/10krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion


The thesis of this passage is mainly about the movement of banking industry in the U.S. and the ideas of solving the U.S. banking difficulties. Paul Krugman argues that the only way to solve the financial problems in the U.S. is to add regulations on the U.S. banking industry (par. 15). The methods that he makes his argument strong are logos and ethos. In terms of logos, he mentions the movements of banking history, which are three main eras. Moreover, he points out that the U.S. economy was thriving because of more lending regulations (par. 8). At that time, banking industry was boring which was very different from that before 1930s and after 1980s. In terms of ethos, he contends that several financial experts foresaw the economic disaster coming such as Raghuram Rajan of the University of Chicago, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (par. 12). The author use history events and data as evidences of his arguments. For instance, he contrasts the movements of the three main eras of the U.S banking systems. Besides, he also examines the amounts of debt in the U.S. banking industry to conclude that high ratio lending can lead to a depression. Through these ways, the author makes his argument strong and logical.

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I read Ryoko's and Sunnny's blogs.

Summery

Perez-Pena R. (2009, April 3). Times Co. Said to Consider Closing Boston Globe. The New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com

This article said that The New York Times Company threatened to end The Boston Globe if its labor union refused the diminishing payment and pension because The New York Times suffered a great loss from The Boston Globe. Although the executives of The New York Times Company rejected commenting about relevant information, it seems that this issue had been discussed for several times.

Actually, in 1990s’, The Boston Globe was a very profitable company and received around one billion dollars in 1993. However, recently, the substantial declining of the amount of advertisements and the harsh situation in that area leaded this company to the downturn, though it claimed that the newspaper circulation was still good last year. As a result, the revenue dropped near 17%. Therefore, The New York Times Company wanted to regulate other costs to sustain the business by cutting 5% payment to its employees and terminating several specific employees’ lifetime job guarantees. Moreover, it was starting to sell its asset and borrow money to obtain cash in order to pass this crisis.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

The first research resource

Levinson, M. (2009). The economic collapse. Dissent (00123846), 56(1), 61-66. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=36407227&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site


The author of this article is Mark Levinson. In this article, he explained many causes which contributed to the financial crisis of 2008 to 2009. Moreover, he also illustrated specifically the reasons leading to the causes of this crisis. For instance, the defects in U.S. banking laws leaded to many problems among a lot of banks. Banks did not help mortgage brokers and companies but they handle most money which set for assisting subprime mortgage guidelines from the federal government. Since one of the goals of my research is to find out the main cause of this financial crisis, this article does provide much useful information for me to analyze and comprehend my paper.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

An advice from my friend

“Respect the people who say dirty words.” This quote is my friend gave me as an advice many years ago. I know this does not make any sense for a lot of people but I think this advice dose make sense, at least in Taiwan. I take this advice into my heart for the story that my friend told me many years ago, and this story was revealing the harsh social impacts on many Taiwanese forty years ago.

Before 1960s, Taiwan was a developing country, and most Taiwanese at that time were farmers or unskilled workers. They received low incomes and had to sustain their families. Moreover, they faced random problems all the time. For example, workers might be laid off without being given any notification because in 1960s, related laws had many defects, so they could not protect workers’ rights. What could they do? They could not do anything but said dirty words to express their sorrows. This culture reflects Taiwanese past, and those people pasted this seemingly bad culture to their children and grandchildren. Thus, I think that this is a rude but memorable behavior reflecting the struggles of Taiwanese.

In Taiwan, most people would think the people who say dirty words are low class and uneducated. Actually, before my friend told me this story, I also looked down on those people. However, I have a different attitude toward them now, and this enables me to make more good friends. For instance, when I was in army, I knew many good friends who liked to say dirty words, and they were all generous and kind people. Although they might not receive good education, their personalities were as good as those who were well educated, sometime even better. Therefore, if I kept my original attitude, I would lose chances to know these great people. Consequently, the advice does work.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blog.

Research paper - The financial crisis of 2008-2009

My major is business administration, so I am interested in business matters. In recent years, the financial crisis which was started from early 2008 and has been existed now is the topic that I want to research. On Friday, I thought about several questions about this global financial crisis, such as what were the causes of this crisis? In fact, I know this financial crisis is more complicated than I think, and probably I may not find all the causes and answers. Nonetheless, as a business major student, I think this crisis would be an interesting and academic topic to research.

Actually, I had some background knowledge about this serious financial crisis. Therefore, this research would not be too difficult to me. Besides, after I read the information about this crisis on the Wikipedia, I had the more comprehensive concept about this biggest financial crisis since 1930s’. Thus, in addition to the main causes of this crisis, I also want to find out the reactions that U.S. government takes, the effects on several Asian countries, especially my home country, Taiwan, and the situations that U.S. citizens face.

So far, I think this global financial crisis was directly resulted from subprime mortgage. However, there are several potential problems had been existed many years ago, such as Americans loaned a lot of money from banks and could not pay off. Consequently, banks suffered from substantial bad debt, and this made the U.S. financial structure vulnerable. As a result, people could not pay their debt, banks ran out of their cash, and the U.S. economy collapsed. Moreover, many abroad important companies invested millions of money in U.S. markets and several countries bought U.S. treasury binds, such as Mainland China and Japan, were deeply affected by the slump of U.S. economy. These companies and countries were also playing key roles in global economy, so the downfall of them affected more countries and companies. In the end, the chain reactions crushed global economy.

I hope that I can learn more in the area that the ways which companies and governments handle this crisis because their reactions may give the concepts that I can apply to real business world in the future. Furthermore, by doing such research, I might predict how long the global economy would get better. It is important to me because I can arrange my life plan, whether I should study for a doctor degree after I finish my MBA degree in the future. Therefore, I really want to learn more in this field for my short tern and long tern goal.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

American food

I think most American food is a combination of other ethnic food. For example, I often see people eating chips. Many people think that chips are American food, but they are originated in France. Moreover, fast food is regarded as a symbol of American food. However, a lot of American fast food is also originated from other cultures. Hamburgers, for instance, come from German but they become a representative food of America. Of course, tastes may be very different from the original ones, but they are really from German.

Most American food was not born in U.S.A, but this fact makes sense because most American ancestors were from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Even though American food is not really “American” food, it still represents itself as a symbol of America. For example, when it comes to what the most famous American food is, most people may answer: “Hamburgers.” In other words, Americans enhance the image that Hamburgers are American food in everybody’s heart.

In my heart, hamburgers are traditional American food though they are not. In addition, I do love hamburgers. Actually, I love most American food. For me, American food is very tasty though it is relatively oily. Nevertheless, this defect does not diminish my love for American food. Even though I am a Taiwanese, I rather eat a double cheese burger than a bowl of Chinese fried rice. In fact, unlike other Asian students, it is totally okay for me that every meal without rice or noodles. Thus, as long as people ask me that whether I miss Taiwanese food? My answer is always “eh, just a little bit.” On the other hand, I know many of my friends who cannot live without eating their traditional food. Fortunately, I am not suffered from this kind of pain because I love American food.

Many people may criticize that American food does not contain elegance and lacks of culture values. However, I hold a different opinion that American food is as good as other ethnic food, even better. Personally, I think that some dishes which are needed complicated cooking skills are worse than a burger with only meat and ketchup. It can be given a example that one time our family went to a Chinese restaurant to eat lunch, and one dish was steamed fat pork cooked with many kinds of sauces. The taste of this dish was very strange because it combined sweet, salty, and sour flavors in the same time. Besides, fat pork made this dish oily. In fact, the taste was so disharmony that I rather bitted the cheapest burger. Therefore, I think taste is the most important thing of food instead of cooking process or culture. After all, I just want to eat something good to eat, and a lot of American food does satisfy me.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty"

I think that this quote illustrates two different kinds of people’s personalities. That is, pessimists always see defects in all aspects, but optimists always see positive possibilities in every way. In fact, this quote makes me remind that two kinds of people look at a glass of water which is half empty or half full. Although these are two different stories, the meaning of them is the same, which is pessimists and optimists hold opposite opinions in the same thing.

In general, I agree with what the quote says. Personally, I think that people are belonged to ether one of these attitudes. Perhaps, they do not have the same idea about the same thing but they can be divided into two groups by the attitudes toward an identical event. For instance, when it comes to the issue that people will have better lives in the future, some people would think so; however, others would not. In other words, even if they think of the same aspect, they would have different views. As I mentioned above, when people look at the same glass of water, some people think it is half full, but others think it is half empty.

We can apply this quote to viewing friends or family members around us. In this way, we may know they are optimists or pessimists. Although they are so different, I think ether of these attitudes can be good and bad in the same time. If a person is too optimistic, the person might overlook many risks that would serious hinder his or her goals. On the other hand, if a person is too pessimistic, the person might give up many important opportunities that would make him or her better. Therefore, if we know a person’s basic attitude toward things, we may help him or her to achieve his or her goals. That is to say, when we know a optimistic person, we may remind him or her to be aware of potential problems. On the other hand, we may encourage a pessimistic person to pursue his or her dreams.

Generally, I am a relatively pessimistic person because I always consider the worst result of everything. For example, a few months ago, I took IBT TOEFL and I thought that I might make a lot of mistakes in the test because I did not understand many sentences in passages and recordings. Thus, I assumed that I missed all of those questions that I was not sure of the correct answers. Hence, I estimated that I may get 70 in total score. However, it turned out that my actual score was 22 points more than the score I was expected. Actually, this is not the only example that I assumed that I screwed up my tasks. Nevertheless, I do not think that it is a serious defect because I can prepare to face and handle the worst situations that I may have to deal with. Therefore, I think a relatively pessimistic attitude can be good in several ways.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

My best friend and I are similar in several ways

My best friend is Vincent Shyr. I know him for more than twelve years. The reason why he can be my best friend is we have several similarities. In other words, these similarities tie us tightly. We have many common interests, and a few of them which are presented as follow are the most important ones.

Vincent and I love to listen to metal music. Moreover, we both love Led Zeppelin, one of the most important and famous British heavy metal band in the world. We collect all of Led Zeppelin’s cds and enhance our friendship by doing so. It is hard to collect all of Led Zeppelin’s cds because it is a very old heavy metal band. In fact, when Led Zeppelin was reaching its peak, we were not born yet. Therefore, the task that we tried to collect those albums which are more than twenty years old is difficult. Nonetheless, we searched each album shop in northern Taiwan for its albums together and developed strong friendship via those trips. In the end, we became very good friend.

In addition, we love playing games. For example, we are fans of The King of Fighters, a great game produced by SNK. When we were junior high school students, we often skipped cram schools to play this game. In order to avoid being caught by our teachers and parents, we always covered each other’s bad behaviors. Although that is not a good example demonstrating friendship, we felt that we cannot lose each other because we do not want to lose such a wonderful game mate. This kind of friendship does not stop, even now. We play World of Warcraft together. He plays a paladin and I plays a mage, and we always solve quests together even killing other players together. In other words, playing games is one of many similarities leading us to being friends.

Third, both of us are crazy for delicious food, especially sukiyaki and Japanese BBQ. We always search for outstanding sukiyaki and Japanese BBQ restaurants on the Internet in order to go to those places on weekends. Besides, we sometimes go to those restaurants individually and exchange our comments. After eating meals in restaurants, we compare qualities of food and service and price of each restaurant. After exchanging our opinions, we would go to those superior restaurants to enjoy our sukiyaki or Japanese BBQ again. We not only enjoy food in those restaurants but also chat in these pleasant places. In other words, delicious food and euphoric atmosphere help our friendship grow stronger.

Personally, I believe that many people can be others’ good friends because they have common interests or their personalities are similar. In my case, it supports this idea, and I think I can retain this friendship forever because we have too many common interests.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

If I could have any superpower, what would I choose?

To be honest, I do not want to have any super power because superheroes always face a lot of troubles. Moreover, their friends, lovers, and parents also become the targets that evil monsters want to attack. However, if I have to have super power, I would like to have the ability to know everything that will happen in few days.

I think to have this ability is very safe and useful because I do not really need to deal with a lot of evil people or monsters. All I need to do is foresee what will happen and give warnings to police officers. Although they may not totally believe me, they still will put an emphasis on that matter. This ability gives me some advantages that others cannot. First, I do not risk my life to fight dangerous people or monsters. Moreover, they will not know I the person who try to destroy them, so I will be safe in any case. Second, I do not have the right to fight even kill people, though they are evil. Therefore, I want people who have the right to demonstrate real justice rather than a mighty bully beat up another poor bully. Like a famous Japanese comic , Death Note, Yagami thinks that he is the justice but actually he just a crazy and selfish guy who kills people whenever he wants. That is, he is just a notorious killer like his targets.

In addition, if I have the ability that makes me see the future, I can earn money by using this ability. Further, I can know the exact numbers of lottery even playing Black Jack in a casino. In other words, I do not need to worry about my income. If I have a lot of money, I can donate to charities. In this way, I not only earn my money but also help poor people. Therefore, this ability is better than the ability that enables a person to fly in the sky or throw fire balls. In other words, this ability can help more people.

All in all, I do not prefer to have any super power because the more power you have, the more responsibilities you need to bear. Nonetheless, if I have to choose one, I would like to have the ability that makes me foresee everything that will happen in few days because that benefits me a lot.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

If I can ask animals questions

If I can talk to an animal, I want to talk to cats because I crazily love cats. I think cats are the cutest animals in the world. I like cats because they are very quiet and independent. Comparing with dogs, cats do not need you taking them out side for walking them. Besides, cats do not bark and they make neighborhoods quieter. However, I love cats but I still do not understand them very well. Thus I really want to ask them some questions.

First, I want to ask them that why they are so elegant that they rarely rush in houses? I have many relatives who raise dogs, and when I visited them, their dogs were running all the times. On the other hand, cats did not do that. One of my cousins raises cats, and I always see them lying on sofas or walking slowly in his house. Therefore, I want to ask cats what makes them live their lives in such a leisure way.

Second, do they really hunt preys? My friend’s cat is often hungry, but she does not hunt any prey and eat it. One time, I saw his cat playing a black stuff on the ground. At the mean time, my friend just prepared his cat’s meal, so I knew the cat is hungry. Thus I did not think and see clearly that the black thing is an animal. However, after few minutes, I friend came out and scream because his cat played a dead bat. Moreover, the bat was torn apart by his cat, but she did not eat it, not even a bite. Since she was hungry and she had something can put into her mouth, she did not eat it. However, she ate her dinner that my friend prepared for her quickly. Thus, I was wondering that do cats really hunt and eat their preys because originally, people raise cats for killing rats. Therefore, if I can ask cats a question, I want to ask them-Do you eat your preys?

These two questions are not answered by any TV program, so my only chance to get the answers is to ask cats. Therefore, if I can ask them questions, I will ask them “what makes you feel so free?” and “Do you really hunt and eat your victims?”

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

My favorite song is “Forever”, which is Stratovarius’ work. This song has a lot of meanings to me. Whenever I think of this song I still feel a little bit sorrow because it recalls my deepest memories and separation with my first lover.

I love this song because the lyrics are so simple but beautiful that I could not stop tearing when I first listened to Forever. I still remember the day that I encountered this song. That day was the day that I left my home town to my university. At that time, I was a beginner of power metal music and I borrowed my friend’s cd which is Episode, the third album of Stratovarius. While I was listening the very last song, Forever, of this album, I recalled my first girl friend, who enrolled in another college and we decide to break up. Because we know distance is the most fatal killer of love, we rather break up in peace than in anger and sorrow. Suddenly, I could not hold my tears and wept in my dorm because the melody and the lyrics are so touching. In the mean time, I realized I still love her and I was so regret to break up. However, it was too late. After two years, when I met her in my home town, she had a boy friend.

Here are the lyrics:

Music & Words: Tolkki

I stand alone in the darkness. The winter of my life came so fast.
Memories go back to my childhood. To days I still recall

Oh how happy I was then. There was no sorrow there was no pain.
Walking through the green fields. Sunshine in my eyes.

I'm still there everywhere. I'm the dust in the wind.
I'm the star in the northern sky. I never stayed anywhere.
I'm the wind in the trees. Would you wait for me forever?
Would you wait for me forever? Will you wait for me forever?

I still feel sorrow and recall her face when I listen to this song now because this song is so beautiful. Even if this song does not contain any feature of power metal, I still think “Forever” is the masterpiece of Stratovarius. It is so great that I am eager to share you guys. Please click the video below, I promise you will like it.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

My favorite weather

I love autumn in Taiwan because it contains my favorite weather, cloudy days, showing up most frequent in fall. I love cloudy days a lot for a lot of reasons, such as feeling cool and comfortable, seeing beautiful views in another way in such days, and avoiding crowed while you go outside.
Firstly, cloudy days make me feel cool but not chill, and I can work out without sweat. Actually, I only work out in cloudy days because I hate feeling hot and cold while I am exercising. If I work out in a sunny day, I must sweat a lot, and this makes my skin so sticky. On the other hand, if I exercise in a chill day, I feel hurt when I breathe the cold air. Therefore, I love cloudy days because they allow me to work out, and I still feel comfortable.
Secondly, I love to see sceneries without much sunlight dressing on them. If the sun light is too bright, I cannot see each detail of things because some parts of the things are too shiny to stare. Besides, seeing things in cloudy days has different sense of beauty from that of seeing things in other weathers. For example, a river looks green in sunny days but looks grey in cloudy days. Thus, I love to see the same views in cloudy days because they show themselves in a sentimental way.
Thirdly, I love to go outside or take a trip to famous scenery but I do not like crowed in those beautiful places. If in sunny days, it is impossible that no one is in those wonderful places. However, there are always few people outside, if the weather is cloudy. Therefore, if I travel to a place in a cloudy day, I can enjoy wonderful atmosphere without being bothered by other people. Hence, I love cloudy days because I can go outside and avoiding noisy crowed.
In short, I love cloudy days for several different reasons, among them feeling cool and comfortable, seeing views giving me different feelings, and avoiding crowed.

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I read
http://happy71818.blogspot.com/2009/02/journal-4-weather.html
and
http://ryoko2784blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/it-was-beautiful-day-and-it-was.html

Snakes was used to be my nightmare

All people must have something that they are afraid of. One person may be afraid of height, another may be afraid of water, and the other may be afraid of dogs. For me, one thing that used to scaring me the most is a snake. I believe I am not the only one who is afraid of snakes because they seem to be toxic, aggressive, and disgusting. However, several years ago, I overcome this fear and I would like to explain why I was afraid of snakes and why I overcame this blind fear.

When I was a five years old child, I loved to play in rice farms because I could catch many frogs there. The more frogs in farms, the more snakes came to these farms to hunt them. One day, I saw a dreadful view that a snake killed a frog and swallowed the victim alive. I was shocked by seeing this bloody scenery and I had a nightmare which I was swallowed by a huge snake at that night. Since then, I was so afraid of snakes because they reminded me they can eat their preys alive. Moreover, many documentary films showed that snakes always kill their preys in merciless ways, such as swallowing them alive or choking them slowly.

Another memory making me be scared of snakes is that when I was seven years old boy, there was a cobra emerging in my yard. The cobra seemed finishing its meal few minutes ago because its belly was abnormally swollen. Furthermore, this cobra raised its head looking at me and began making its tongue in and out of its mouth frequently. After I saw this cobra, I cried and rushed to tell my grandmother that there was cobra staying in our yard. Finally, firefighters came here to handle this cobra and make this real horror movie end. Afterwards, my grandmother told me if I was bitten by cobras, I would die in few minutes. Therefore, I was more afraid of snakes after this incident.

Nevertheless, I overcame this fear when I grew up because I knew a lot of information about snakes by watching Discovery channel and National Geography channel. In fact, I did not want to know information about snakes initiatively. I am a person who loves almost animals so I like to watch these TV channels. However, these channels love to broadcast documentary films about others animals hunted by snakes. For instance, I like to watch documentary films about birds, but young birds often killed by snakes, and these films not only explain much information about birds, but also snakes. Thus, the more documentary films that I see, the better understanding about snakes that I have. Finally, I understood snakes so much and no longer be afraid of snakes because I knew that most of snakes are shy and do not want to fight in most of situations. In fact, if snakes are not hungry, when they face dangers, most of snakes would flee instead of attacking people or other animals. Even poisonous snakes such as cobras, over fifty percent bites do not contain any venom, if they are not hunting. Therefore, I do not fear snakes even poisonous snakes anymore because I know snakes very well by watching TV. Moreover, I think snakes are the most beautiful reptiles in the world because of their fancy and gorgeous skins.

The lousy public transportation in Orange County

I stay in Orange County for half a year and I think public transportation in here is the worst one that I ever met. In my view, public transportation in Orange County really needs improvements. There are several reasons why I think public transportation in Orange County is bad.

Firstly, I need to wait an hour for a bus to go to a place. For example, I take a bus to school everyday and I need to catch the bus on time because if I miss the bus, I have to wait an hour for another one. That is, there are few buses to serve people who take buses everyday, and it is very inconvenient for those people. This situation firmly supports my opinion about public transportation in Orange County.

Secondly, it is in terms of accuracy of schedules of buses that information shown in bus stops is outdated. For instance, bus schedule shown in a bus stop which is in front of a street where my home located in is not updated for a long time. I had wrong information about buses while I just arrived here, and this made me wait for a bus for more than fifty minutes in an extremely hot day. In fact, the schedule still remains the same now, but the buses always leave five minutes earlier than the time which is typed on paper posted in the bus stop. Thus, this is another case enhances the idea that public transportation in Orange County is so bad.

Thirdly, a distance between two bus stops is too long, if a person’s house is right in the middle of the distance, the person needs to spend much time in walking to one of the bus stops. In other words, Placements of bus stops lack of efficiency. In my case, I have to walk around twenty minutes to go to a bus stop, and this is a torture which makes me feel painful while I am heading to the bus stop. Therefore, I think if there are more stops, it would be pleasant for a lot of passengers.

All in all, I think public transportation in Orange County is very awful in several ways, among them long waiting time, incorrect schedule, and inefficient placements of bus stops.

Introduction

Hi, my classmates. My name is Kurt, and I come from Taiwan. I would like to introduce myself in this passage. In order to let you know more about me, I am going to talk about my interests, personality, and the goal in my life. The following paragraphs would demonstrate how these matters are.

First of all, my interests are listening to several kinds of metal music, reading fantasy novels, watching Japanese dramas, and playing chess. Among these hobbies, my favorite one is listening to metal music. There are two reasons why I love to do so. Firstly, I love music which can stir my heart, and metal music dose make it. My heart always follows frenzy riffs of guitars going up and down. Moreover, I even can feel my blood is evaporated by the incredibly fast rhythms and melodies. All I need to do is close my eyes, be absorbed in songs, and imagine the views that lyrics describe. No matter how am I depressed by the reality, I catch my breath again and feel fresh after I enjoy metal music. Secondly, I always pick up meaningful sentences from metal music. I find interesting lyrics easily in metal music because pop music usually contains nothing but love. If I want to find a sentence encouraging me, I would definitely listen to metal music, and it does give me brave to face difficulties in daily lives. For example, few months ago, I felt I had not enough time to prepare TOEFL, and I almost gave up preparing it. However, Heroes, a song from Revolution Renaissance, gave me the power to keep study because the lyrics were so proactive that made me feel refreshed. In the end, I achieved 92 in IBT TOEFL. Though it is not a very good score, it is still better than I expected before. Therefore, metal music is vital energy for me to live my life because I always find my hope and motivation in it.

Second, my personality is introverted. I do not like to talk to people who I do not know or am not familiar with. In other words, I am a very bad ice-breaker. Nevertheless, I am not a shy man. I just do not know how to begin a nice conversation. In my view, if one starts a boring conversation, the person would make the atmosphere so embarrassing that others do not know how to continue the conversation. Thus, I would like to keep quiet rather than to say something that others are not interested in. In addition, I often speak what I think in my mind directly so I may irritate people who I talk to. That is another reason why I do not like to talk to people who do not know me well. This characteristic can be a disadvantage. Nonetheless, it can also be an advantage for some extents. For instance, when I studied in a high school, I really did not like a girl since the first day in the classroom because she was so talkative. One day, she asked me a math question that she did not understand how to solve it. To be honest, I did not want to tell her how to cope with that question but I also wanted to keep polite to my classmate. Finally, I taught her how to solve it. Since then, when she faced math problems, she asked me for answers. After a few months, I notice that she was beautiful, though she was talkative. One day I asked her to see a movie with me, and after the movie, we became lovers. However, if I told her that “Hey, you are so talkative and noisy. Be quiet!”, I would never have the chance to be a beautiful girl’s boy friend. Therefore, I think being quiet is an advantage because you would not give a bad impression to people who you do not like but important. Although I do not like to talk to people who I am not familiar with, it does not mean I am a tough person. Acquiring my friendship is very easy; you only need to talk to me with a smile and treat me as an equal. If you have the same hobbies as I do, I believe we can be very good friends.

Last, the goal in my life is very simple, being a professional strategy maker in a company. Actually, that is the reason why I am in U.S. now. I do want to be a strategy maker so I am going to enroll in an excellent business graduate school. When it comes to good business graduate schools, U.S. has a lot of well renowned business graduate schools. I believe I can find a good job and achieve my goal after I graduate from an outstanding a business graduate school. There are two reasons why I want to be a strategy maker. First, I love to solve difficulties and enjoy happiness which comes from conquering obstacles. The more difficult the problems are, the more joyful I feel. Besides, I always keep a clear mind, and that does help me to make a good strategy to handle a bad situation. Thus, I think these characteristics help me be a good strategy maker. In addition, I got good score in strategy management while I was studying in my university, and an A in strategy management makes me feel confident to be a good strategy maker in the future. Besides, my professor also told me that I knew more knowledge in strategy management than most of my classmates did and comprehended it very well. My professor’s words give me courage and confidence in being a strategy maker as my profession in the future. Therefore, all aspects indicate me to be a strategy maker, and to be a good strategy maker is to enroll in and graduate from an outstanding business graduate school.

Of course, these paragraphs do not give really deep information about me, and my personal characteristics are more complex than what I have mentioned above. However, these sentences do provide information about me in general in several different points among them a metal music fan, introverted man, and a future strategy maker candidate. Besides, I believe you will understand me more through this nice semester and I also look forward to have friendship with you all.

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P.S

I read Sunny's and Elaine's blog.

http://elaine0727.blogspot.com/

http://happy71818.blogspot.com/