Quote of the Day 2

There is no good, no bad. There is no right, no wrong. Believe in yourself and strive for the best, and follow nature's way through fate.

Quote of the Day

"People may forget what you have said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

how to worm a cat...

Ok, so catching a cat in a basket to take to the vet is hard work. So has anyone ever tried to worm/drug a cat before? Here is a very helpful procedure from '211 Things A Clever Girl Can Do' by Bunty Cutler.

Warning: This was from a book, not necessarily be true. PLEASE DO NOT TRY AT HOME...

HOW TO GIVE A CAT A PILL IN THE REAL WORLD

1. Cradle the cat in the crook of your left arm, place your right forefinger and thumb either side of cat's mouth, and gently squeeze its cheeks. Pop the pill into its mouth and let it swallow.

2. Retrieve the pill from under the TV and the cat from behind the sofa. Repeat step 1.

3. Recover the cat from bedroom and discard sodden pill. Pop out a new pill from the fancy foil dispenser. Cradle the cat in your left arm, holding its rear paws tightly with your left hand. Force the jaws open and push the pill to the back of the throat with your right forefinger. Hold its mouth shut for a count of ten. Bathe bites with soothing unguent, then rescue the pill from under the bookshelf and the cat from the top of your dresser. Call a friend. Kneel on the floor, with the cat tightly between your knees. Grip its front and rear paws, ignoring the primeval growling from the cat. Get your friend to grip the head firmly with one hand and force a ruler into the cat's mouth. Roll the pin down the ruler into the mouth and massage the cat's throat.
5. Tear the cat from your expensive curtains, get another pill, and sweep the shattered remains of your family heirlooms into the wastepaper basket. Run your scratched arms under a cold tap.
6. Wrap the cat in a large bath towel, with the head just visible. Ask someone else to lie on the cat and put the pill into the end of a drinking straw. Force the cat's mouth open with a pencil and blow the pill down the cat's throat.
7. Check the label to see if it's (pill) harmful to humans. Gargle with Scotch/Coke to take away the taste, while sponging the worst of the blood from the carpet.
8. Drag the cat from behind the washing machine and put it in the cupboard, closing the door on the cat's neck, but leave the head showing. Force the mouth open with a large spoon. Flick the pill down the throat with a rubber band.
9. Apply an ice pack to the welt on your cheek, and find the pill (again).
10. Call the fire department to get the cat down from the top of the poplar tree.
11. Tie the cat's front and rear paws with twine, like suckling pig. Bind them to a table leg. Don heavy-duty pruning gloves and a motorcycle helmet. Push the pill into the cat's mouth followed by a large piece of steak. Holding the cat's head vertically, pour two pints of water into its throat to wash down.
12. Open a bottle of industrial strength vodka. Bathe your wounds with half and drink the rest. (You may also wanna drink coke, if you are a kid, duh!)

To give a dog a pill, wrap it in bacon.

World Aids Day

Today is December 1st, World Aids Day. We had an assembly at school today, which was weird (...) and that took up most of our afternoon. The Teens Act for Aids group talked a bit and then did some movies and stuff. After the assembly, I bought a wristband for 5 rmb to donate to charity. Plz, if you are at IST, buy one!!!

Yeah...

Man, I can't wait till this weekend! Black nano chromatic, here I come!!!

Okay, so this is the story. On Saturday last weekend, I was going to get my ipod off the charger to try and sync on some new songs. When I pulled it off, the thing just went phut, and the whole screen just lit up with lots of codes and stuff all over it. I was like seriously freaked out, so I just like left it there to charge. And then, in the afternoon, when I went back to see it, the whole screen had gone blank and was crashed. Totally. No matter what we tried -shake it, charge it, click it, nothing happened...

So it is kinda sad...

Pepero Day

Today is Pepero Day, celebrated by Koreans by eating biscuit sticks with chocolate! I recieved 1 box!!! Yum!

A Poem About Water

清澈的小溪，
本来是孩子的戏水池，
可是现在水里都是一点一点的垃圾，
成了一个没有快乐的地方，
这究竟是为什么？

汩汩的河流，
本来是鱼儿的天地，
可是农药与污水流进了河中，
成了个无生命的世界，
这究竟是为什么？

碧蓝的大海，
本来充满了生机，
可是海面上只飘着渔船和一层厚厚的油，
把海底动物都闷在下面，
这究竟是为什么？

我希望，
将来大家能多珍惜地球上的水，
保护环境，
让小溪 步子浑浊。
让河流 生机勃勃。
让大海 重现蔚蓝。
让地球 再次变成一座蓝色星球。

Avril Lavigne World Tour

This Monday, I went to see my first EVER pop concert- Avril Lavigne’s!!! She is one of my favourite singers (she is, like, SO cool!) of ALL time plus it was The Best Damn tour!!! I went with my uncle Simon and I really want to thank him because he was the one who bought the tickets as my 11th Birthday present. We went to Beijing at 7:30 on Monday night to Beijing Wukesong Olympic Basketball Arena. I was super excited about the concert because I was finally seeing Avril LIVE!!! I brought my glasses with me so I could see more clearly. When we arrived at the arena, it was only around 7:00 pm so my uncle and I decided to get something to eat. Now, the place was SOOOOOO packed! I thought that not that many Chinese people would go to an Avril concert, but I was wrong. Everywhere was full of people. We queued for a really long time and got the most disgusting hot dog ever. It was cold, soggy and wet. But that’s not the point. Okay, so after we had the ‘cold’ dog, we went to buy some souvenirs and then went to our seats. I bought a T-shirt which is black and pink with lots of pictures of her and the places where she went in the 2008 World Tour. Our seats were great, really, it was the 16th row and I could see everything quite clearly with my glasses on (there were two screens as well). Honestly, the stage was just awesome. There were three microphones, a few guitars and a set of drums on a lifted platform on the back of the stage. The drums were SO Avril because they had her punkette logo on it, a pink heart with skull and crossbones. There was some background music playing, like ‘Dirty Little Secret’... However, the whole design of the place was kind of weird. There was the stage and there were the rows and rows of seats all around the four sides. But there was this vast blank space in front of the stage with a couple hundred chairs scattered over it. Anyways, Avril came onstage at 7:40 and everyone was just SCREAMING their heads off. Actually, I thought that she might have a supporting act, because the Jonas Brothers were supposed to be there, but I think they probably didn’t come to China with her. Okay, so no supporting act. So what??? She still had computer graffiti pop-up on the two big screens going Av-Ril, Av-Ril.... It was really great when she bounded onto the stage and started singing her hit song, ‘Girlfriend’. I think she was really good, although she did change a lot of the lyrics and the tune. It was just incredible when she started her most famous song, ‘My Happy Ending’ because that was when the crowd went wild. Everybody jumped out of their seats and started climbing over the barriers to get to the empty area at the front. I went too with Uncle Simon, but we soon were pushed back by the crowd. Well, actually we got there, and THEN we were turned back. Uncle Simon picked me up over the barrier, but then this policeman-guy on the other side push me back again. It was so freaky. I was really scared. But then the funniest thing happened. This Chinese guy came onto the stage after Avril had finished the song and stopped the concert!!! It was so typical Chinese. Avril was seriously pissed off when the guy came and she went backstage looking seriously annoyed. The guy was like, ‘Everybody, please return to your own seats as soon as possible. The concert is too chaotic. Please return to your seats otherwise we will cancel the concert...’ And then everyone in the audience kept on going ‘BOO!!!!!!!!!’ And I was thinking ‘God, seriously people, we get your point, and we are on our seats, hello?’ It took about 15 minutes to get through all of this rubbish and all my uncle and I did was laugh. After that complete waste of time, Avril came back again (hooray!) and the concert began again. She sang some of my favourite songs, like Sk8er Boi, Complicated, He Wasn’t, Keep Holding On, and loads more (oh, she also did Girlfriend featuring Lil’ Mama with some break dancers). Altogether she sang like 12 songs. My favourite part was when they played this flick on the screens to go with the song ‘Bad Reputation’, it was so awesome because the flick consisted of loads of different parts of her MTV’s all mixed and mashed-up in time to the music. I loved it. It was seriously fun when she played the drums too. At the end of playing, she was like repeating the same rhythms just to annoy the audience!
I found out that Avril was a terrible dancer, a cool singer, an amazing drummer and a rock chick!
She Rox My Sox!

Special, special languages... 原住民得語言

A few days ago, I just went to this summer camp about Taiwanese Aboriginals, and I learnt a lot of things. Espescially about their language. Here's a bit...

AMIS 阿美族: hello-- nga'ay ho
ATAYAL 泰雅族:hello--lokasu
PAIWAN 排灣族:hello--malimali masalu
TSOU 鄒族:hello--abiubiuyu
SAISIAT 賽夏族:hello--sukadahai
BEINAN 卑南族:hello--inabawu
DAWU 達悟/雅美族:hello--akogai
BUNUN 布農族:hello-- woninun mihomisa
RUKAI 魯凱族:hello--sabau

AMIS 阿美族語:

1. 你好：nga'ay ho
2. 謝謝：alay
3. 再見：alayo
4. 爸爸：ama
5. 媽媽：ina
6. 哥哥/姊姊：kaka
7. 弟弟/妹妹：safa
8. 叔叔：fagi
9. 阿姨：fayi
10. 老師好：nga'ay ho sinsi
11. 各位小朋友好：nga'ay ho ka'emangay
12. 請問大名：cima ko ngangan no miso
13. 我的名字叫：ci ___________ kako
14. 你是男生：fainayan kiso
15. 我是女生：fafahiyan kako
16. 上課了：satapang to
17. 下課了：pahanhan to

~~~ The AMIS language is a bit like Japanese- because of the Japanese reign of Taiwan a century ago...

My Hols...

Yesterday I arrived in Taiwan at around 4:00 pm in the afternoon. The flight was seriously scary... but short. We left Hong Kong at around 2:00 pm and, as I said, arrived at 4:00 pm. The plane was actually bound for Seoul, but stopped at Taipei anyways... It took a long while to get our luggage and all that, since we checked in so early. But in the end, we collected our stuff and headed out through the exit. We then found that my parents were going to be late to collect us, so we went to this cafe and had some drinks.

After a while, my parents came!!!!! Everyone was overjoyed~~~

It took a while to get home, eat dinner and everthing, but I was so happy I didn't care how tired I was.

Late last night, I called up my family...

My Amazing Holiday

Hello Everyone!!!~~~
I'm now in Hong Kong typing up this in our room in the Mandarin Hotel~~~!k.k.
Having a great time... Give everyone an update from the 6th June, the day we began our holiday. First, ferried off on the Sheraton Bus to Carin's house with Seong Hyun and had some fun...~~ Turned out that LOADS of other kids also went to the Rego-however, I left at around four...
After that, went home, packed, and got whisked off onto the 8:00 pm sleeper train heading for Shanghai. Arrived next morning at 7:00 in the morning and tried to buy some other tickets to Nanking. Failed dismally. All tickets were sold out!!~~:( Anyways, we went by taxi.

We stayed in Nanking for 3 days and 2 nights.I think its quite a pretty place, with mountains and lakes. The city was okay, but the parks were AMAZING!!! They are HUGE. After walking for about an hour, everybody got, like, sooooooooooooooooo tired that we decided we'd go on a boat( there was a lake in the park.) Anyways, I had a great time in Nanking.

After Nanjing,we went by a day train back to Shanghai which took about 2 hours. Had a bit of a problem with a little kid sitting behind us. Kept wanting to play with Ben who refused...
We stayed in Shanghai for 2 days and 1 night. Weather was terrible-it was raining horribly.We went to the Bug Museum (Ben was very excited) and we also went to the Aquarium. On the second night we headed off to HangZhou by car. (Bit rushed...)

We arrived at HangZhou really late so, obviously, I collapsed into bed. I think HangZhou is really interesting. DYK, loads of stories originated there? There is this especially famous one- 'The White Snake'. I remember my aunt reading it to me when I was around six. It's an amazing story.I recommend it to people who can read Chinese. We went to see a tower that the white snake was supposedly crushed under-its really cool. We also went to see a lake with a very famous bridge for its connection with the white snake.

We went home back to Tianjin after that- HangZhou via Beijing via Tianjin.
2 days later, we came here to Hong Kong.

On Tuesday, I am going back to Taiwan. I really look forward to see my family!!!~~~

My Book

Hello Everyone!!!~~~
During our last phase of exhibition(3) that finished a few weeks ago, I made a book full with stories and poems. I think I have mentioned this before. If you are interested, please go to lulu.com and search for a book named 'Earth Power'. Here is an extract...

Gone Diving

A vast expanse of blues and greens lies before me. The touch of water numbs my feet as I dip them into the sea. The sand is soft and the water warm as I walk slowly towards an area away from the crowd, to enjoy this time by myself. I gently sink into the turquoise-clear water. My face breaks the surface of the sea, and I begin to swim. My pace is deliberate. I contemplate the colourful fish that swim in and out of the coral. I know I have arrived at the Great Barrier Reef. Truly. Silver fish flash their fins at me and disappear into the coral. I feel like they are taunting me. How I long to join them in the maze of coral and life.
I swim deeper, where the dappled sunlight from the surface doesn’t reach that much. I take a breath of air from my tank. Bubbles rise from my head, and dissolve into the water, away from sight. A school of fish swims alongside me. The beautiful patterns on their backs shine and glimmer as it catches the little amount of sunlight. I reach my hand out, as if to touch them. In a moment, they’re gone. I take another deep breath. I realize I am running out of air. But that’s what makes this time so special. As I rise up, up, up, towards the surface, my thoughts linger in the reef below.

Do you like it???

HI

I haven't been talking for a loooooooooooong time, sorry.
My internet connection is bad and the China Internet Firewall is totally annoying...
Just wanted to say that school ends on the 6th June...
Back by around 10th June!!!

England 1

Hi!!!
I am now currently in England and staying in Nana's house. Today we are going on the train to London to go to Harrod's shopping centre and tomorrow we are going to visit the Natural History Museum. We arrived at Heathrow Airport at 2:00 pm (9:00 pm Beijing Time) in the afternoon on Friday, 25th April. We went on business class sleeper seats on British Airways. Even though I had such a lovely seat, I didn't sleep a wink. Even though it was already near my bedtime, I still couldn't sleep because everytime someone opened the window, it was so bright outside. And when I did finally fell asleep, the lights were turned on and everyone woke up and so did I!!! After we 'escaped' the airport, we went to Uncle Jay and Aunty Sarah's house to visit their beautiful, new baby boy! His name is Daniel and was born on 8th April. We stayed at their house for one night and the next morning Aunty Vicky and Uncle Jim came with their dog Hugo to come and visit too. We went for a walk in a nearby woods and we went to have a pub lunch down the road. After that, we said goodbye to everyone and went on our way to Essex, Nana's house. We arrived at around three or four in the afternoon. I got a lovely present from Nana- a huge drawing book that gives you really cool things that you can try. And I was overjoyed to see our dogs Poppy and Reggie!!! Poppy was as lively as ever and I could hardly believe Reggie was 15 (105 in dog years)!!! In the evening, we went to see Marco and Martina and had some Italian dinner with them. Oh, the ravioli was just delicious!!! After a happy supper, we all came home tired but content. Yesterday we went to The Cottage Mashbury, my old home, and how it has changed! There is a new driveway, the playground has been moved, my garden which used to be covered in weeds is blooming with flowers and there are some people who have rented our house. There was a little boy named Douglas who was I think 10 who got on quite well with Ben and played football with him. There was also his mom who was very nice and talked a bit to Nana and Auntie Hsuan. It was very much enjoyed by everyone, especially the dogs that we took along. After a while, Marco, Guilia, Martina, Matilda and Robert and Ruth came to Mashbury to have a bit of fun. And I just loved the lunch. We went to the pub Pig and Whistle to have a huge Sunday Lunch. I overindulged myself in Yorkshire pudding and roast beef... I definitely am eating to much. Anyways, after we came back from lunch, Ben's grandpa came and I met an old friend of mine, Katie. We talked a lot and walked round and round the garden at Mashbury. Afterwards, everybody came to Nana's house for tea. It was really fun and we had a piano-playing competition-obviously Robert won because he is one of the best piano players I have ever known!!! It was a very enjoyable affair and everyone had a lot of fun!!!
Now I am going to finish packing my stuff to go to London!

Robert Swinhoe --- The Exhibit

Today I am at my mom's museum and before lunch today I went to an exhibit. It was about Robert Swinhoe, an English man who came to Taiwan and collected many different Taiwanese species. The exhibit is called 'Salute to Mr. Swinhoe' '以斯文豪為名'. Robert Swinhoe was an Englishman who grew up in India in the Victorian Age, about 150 years ago. At the age of 16, he left India and went to England, to study. At the age of 18, he graduated as a naturalist because he was so interested in nature and animals. He was the most interested in birds and mammals, and he collected many species. He went to Hong Kong and Macao, learning Minang and Chinese. At the age of 24, he came as an ambassador to Formosa(Taiwan). He was one of the very 'high' level ambassadors and was treated with respect. He was said to have stayed for 10 years, but because he and his people were not used to the climate, they were often ill. Swinhoe actually went back to the UK for a year or two to get western medical treatment. He first arrived in the south of Taiwan (Tainan). He spent most of his time there around the harbour-in a wood nearby or in a clearing. He never really went to the mountains, for it was unfamiliar land. Then he moved north to DamShui, where he heard that a new harbour had been built, and finally back down to Kaoshiung. He spent all his efforts observing Taiwanese species and collecting specimens. He categorized 227 avian species, nearly 40 mammals, 246 plant species, some 200 land snails and freshwater shellfish, some 400 insects and some amphibians, fish species and invertebrates. As a naturalist, Swinhoe recorded nature ro a certain extent, and what the island of Taiwan was 150 years ago. He was an important witness in the evolution of Taiwanese natural history. Swinhoe died at the age of 41, because of an illness. He had a great impact on specimen collections and many animals were named after him. Salute to Mr. Swinhoe!

Some cool stuff

Hi! Here's some cool stuff that I like. I created some stuff on slide.com. It's really cool and has funky music, skins and digital creating stuff. More questions, please ask me by email! Some stuff I downloaded off YouTube, and created scrolling lyrics. Have fun!

Taipei 101



Sk8ter Boi





Dum Diddly

Phase 1- Exhibition

We are now in the middle of Phase 1 of Exhibition!~My group is the Water group and tomorrow we are going to present 1 week's findings and research. I am really nervous! The people in my group are; Me, Adam, Min Su, Tak Yong, Soo Hun and Tian Hao. All boys! But that's really okay because we all worked hard to research and cooperated nicely. Our product is a board game, and today, we have just finished putting it together and getting ready for the presentation tomorrow. For the presentation, everyone has to say a few short sentences about how they felt about the work they did in Phase 1. There will also be a parent session before that when we show our work and what we have achieved in Phase 1.

During this week, I have been researching rivers and lakes. I found out that a river is a large stream that flows over land. It is often a perennial water body with a considerable amount of water. It usually leads to lakes, seas, or oceans. Rivers form from small creeks and streams. When they join together, they form a river. A lake is an inland body of water, usually formed with fresh water from rivers or glaciers. It is larger than a pond. Lakes don't move, but they eventually might dry out.

This week I did a lot of research and found out a lot of things. I have to say that exhibition is HARD!!! Much more than you think it is. But once you get the hang of it-journals and everything, it makes you feel like exhibition might just happen any day.

Multiple Intelligences

Hello Everyone!!!~~~

Check out this link our other Grade 5 teacher(Mr.Baker)sent us from school! Its for taking a Multiple Intelligences test. It's to see what you are good at, bad at, strengths and weaknesses. At school, grade 5 is starting and exhibition- sort of like a museum exhibit, showing all the things we have learnt in our path through elementary. We take the test to help us set goals according to our weaknesses and see what we can improve. It's seriously cool.Go to the site at:

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm

Its really awesome and when you get to the site click 'Take the Test' and choose your options... (don't click audio... + sorry, this is only in English...)After the test you can see your results and see what you are strong/weak at! To view your results again, you'll need to copy and paste the code on the bottom...
It's really fun and I hope you try it!

The Cricket in Times Square

In Literature Circles time, we have just begun a new book- 'The Cricket in Times Square'. It is about a cricket named Chester who has found his way to Times Square subway station and befriends Tucker Mouse, Harry Cat and Mario Bellini, a young boy. I wrote a short description for Tucker Mouse-here it is:

A mouse was looking at Mario.

The mouse's name was Tucker, and he was sitting at the mouth of an abandoned drainpipe in the subway station at Times Square. A chubby ball of fur with a wide-eyed expression. A curious mouse, quite absent-minded. A cheerful but slightly impatient creature, always a bundle of fun. Tucker is best friends with Harry Cat and Chester Cricket. Tucker spends most of his time sleeping, eating and watching the different people go by his 'home', the drainpipe. During his leftover spare time, (which he doesn't have much of) he spends it on going 'scrounging'-looking for things to eat or objects and jewellery that people leave behind.

Five Stones

Five Stones or sandbags are a common game for children in Asia. Carin gave a packet of them to me as a Christmas present. In sandy, ditch areas, children source little stones or bring sandbags to play this game. About 3~5 children sit in a circle and take turns tossing the stones or sandbags into the air, catching them with each hand in a variety of patterns. My aunt says that she used to play this as a child and said that it needs a lot of concentration to play the game. You also need quick hands!

Taipei 101~ 跨年

Last night I went to the road outside my house with my family to see the welcoming of the new year 2008. Every year, the Taipei 101 Tower, the tallest building in the world, sets off fireworks along its walls to celebrate the new year. This year's fireworks were totally AMAZING!!! Before the countdown to 2008, outside 101 Tower there was a huge concert with all the most popular Taiwanese rock stars. Concerts were happening all over Taiwan at the same time with different stars that traveled to each concert. We watched the different concerts on the news at home. The crowds were like seas of people. Then there was the countdown at 11:59:50 pm. The whole tower went pitch-black. Suddenly, each level gradually lit up. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1!!! The building looked as if it had been blasted apart. Colours exploded from it's sides. Taipei 101 exploded with colour for 188 seconds. When the smoke disappeared, it revealed the words:

2008

Love (heart) Taiwan

The message made me feel proud, because the whole world would be able to see the wonderful display that was made to welcome 2008.