Sitting in front of my mother's desktop computer, I began to narrate, to my mother, about the protests happening in Iran. My mother, sitting on her bed, seemed slightly confused, with a questionable look on her face that hinted What the heck are you talking about? Quickly, trying to find an analogy that my mother might comprehend, I began to compare the current protests in Iran to the protests that took place in Tiananmen Square two decades ago.

My mother replied, "What's Tiananmen?"

I was in shock. How could my mother not know about one of the most tragic events in protest history?

(I later realized I pronounced "Tiananmen" incorrectly. No wonder my mom couldn't understand what I was talking about.)

Then it hit me. Aren't the current protests in Iran similar to those that took place during the protests at Tiananmen square in 1989? Let's look at the similarities:

The rebellion that took place at Tiananmen Square (in Beijing, China) in 1989 boasted a populace of majorily college students. They represented the democratic part of the country, when the entire nation was strictly socialist/communist ("dangerous thoughts" indeed). Thousands, if not millions, of Chinese college students flocked to the country's capital, protesting at the square for roughly seven weeks. They wanted reform. They wanted change. They wanted democracy. Their protests continued to hold ground until the day of the Tiananmen Square massacre, where militiamen quickly finished off the rest of these "troublesome" students.

In other words, these protesting college students--who wanted a democracy, who wanted economic reform, who wanted to be free from the authoritative regime of China's socialist party--were killed.

For better clarity, some of you may know of a well-known scene at this rebellion, when a lone college student stood in front of the path of several tanks. He stood there, his gaze locked onto the steel-plated behemoths, in what seemed like a demand to halt. This, my friends, is one of the most famous scenes at this exact protest.

Now, let's look at Iran's situation:

The protests of Iran occurred right after Iran's recent presidental elections. According to the media, there are strong hints that the elections were fixed, that someone tampered with the ballots. (A strong indication of this fixation, as the media has put it, was through the strong, telecommunications jamming during the elections.) The majority of the protesters are a mix of women and upper-class, young adults, all wanting radical change in their stunted system of government. These protesters consist of the voters that largely agree to the losing candidate's views, Mir Hossein Mousavi. As of now, military forces have been dispatched to get rid of these protesters, opening fire on large crowds and attacking random "violators".

So, what are the similarities here? In both cases, the protesters wanted radical change--the first scene from socialist/communist to democracy, and the second scene, from a strict, religiously-dominated form of government to a more representative form of democracy. How both protests came to be had slightly different reasons, but similar goals: With China, failed economic and political reforms had launched students to protest. With Iran, the protest ignited from the possibility of a fixed election (there are background reasons, but for journal purposes, we will not discuss them here).

On another note, I found some really vivid pictures of the protests happening in Iran and other parts of the world. You can see the protests from a wide variety of perspectives. Warning: Some of these photos are extremely graphic (as in, there are pictures of blood and severed body parts), so please don't click this link if you are of the faint of heart:

[link]

And with this, I leave you some food for thought.

My, oh my, it's been a while since I've been on DeviantArt. I can't believe it's been three months... Then again, not doing any knitting hasn't allowed to talk about much, so I haven't bothered to post a new entry.

But that doesn't mean I don't greater-than-three (that's "heart") you all! It's just that exciting occasions haven't been coming my way lately. But here I am, nonetheless.

I've recently sent in my laptop for repair. Even though it may be one of the cutest, most petite machines ever made, it's super vulnerable to the elements (the elements being food crumbs, dust, and the sweat from my palms). I've dismantled it partially--that is, I took out my hard drive and stored it inside the confines of my extremely-crowded closet. I'm seriously afraid that I'll come back with my entire hard drive wiped out, unusuable, or stolen by rabid robo-rabbits (they exist in my dreamsss!). It wouldn't be the first time though--last year, when I sent in my laptop for repair (yes, this isn't the first time), it came back covered in sawdust and soot. The funny thing is, Moo-chan and I started to discuss where my laptop could have possibly been sent. We started making up little stories in our heads, saying that Dell probably shipped my laptop to China (the magic of outsourcing!), where the Communists started tinkering with my machine.

The thing is, if Moo-chan had made up that story before I got my laptop back, I would have believed him.

Dell's customer service could have been better with the entire situation as well. I contacted them twice--the first time to ask about repairs, and the second time to discuss warranty. Both of them had ridiculously-obvious Indian names (that's not a bad thing, but it did remind me of Slumdog Millionaire's "outsourcing" scene). I remember asking the second reprsentative if my warranty would cover my new adapter (after already ordering it the day before). This is how the conversation went:

Me: So, will my warranty cover the adapter?
Agent: *long silence*
Me: *waiting*
Agent: Don't worry about it.
Me: So, will my warranty cover the adapter?
Agent: *long silence*
Agent: Don't worry about it.

The representative really didn't make feel assured whatsoever. If my warranty didn't cover my adapter, I'd have to pay $65-70 for a new one out of my own wallet (and mind you, I'm a jobless high school student).

So, what have I learned about this entire experience so far?

My laptop is high maintenance.

Must dump her.



Nah, I'm just kidding.

...But seriously. I can't dump my laptop.

What else has been happening with life... I'm currently looking for a job, but to no avail. None of the places where I applied for a job have contacted me, so I'm at a loss right now. I have been finishing up some knitting, and I'm practically done with one of my scarves, one that I've been working on for about six weeks (a bit too long, if you ask me; no pun intended).

My mom hasn't been feeling quite well lately. Due to some medical problems, her right arm is in extreme pain, rendering it useless. She can't write, she can't cook, she can't do any of these things with her right hand. So, taking her place, I've been doing the usual "mom" stuff around the house--cooking, cleaning, etc. It's not too bad. I'm gaining life experience--I almost learned how to gut a fish! Almost, I say--my mom decapitated the fish and removed the entrails. I just scaled the fish.

...That's a funny verb, by the way. To scale. Why is "removing a fish's scales" called "scaling"? I guess it's like the verb to dust. You're not adding dust--you're removing dust from a certain place.

...Words. Hmm.

Now, before I get any more sidetracked, I have to mention this: I was playing Mabinogi yesterday (which, I have to mention, took me five times to install--I had a corrupted file inside the old version, which made the update mess up every, single time), and I saw this kid refer to another character as "Dad". Over the course of my game time, text bubbles kept popping up above the kid's head, with words such as "add me dad" or "cc dad") Interested, I typed up "Seriously, is he your dad?" as the two were walking past my way. The supposed dad turned to the kid and said, "im your dad?" The funny thing is, I wasn't facing their way. The two just stopped walking when they saw my text bubble and started conversing to each other, denying their patriarchal relationship.

Nonetheless, that kid kept referring to the other guy as "Dad". It's kind of cute, I think. Parents. Relating with their children. While playing online video games.

You see, growing up, my parents thought games were a waste of time and barely played with us**. So, seeing dads and kids play online video games together just...warms my heart.

...I wonder what the mom is thinking at the time.

Probably doing all the dishes, pfft.

*For those of you who aren't online-game-savvy, "CC" means "change channel".
**Ironically, when I was five, my dad's friend introduced my dad to Nintendo 64. My dad got us a few games and even used to play Game Boy with us. Then my dad's friend moved to Dallas, and my dad's fascination for video games stopped dead in its tracks.

I'm off now. This entire entry has grown into an eyesore (kill it with fireee!), but you're welcome to read it, if you want. I'm going back to whatever I feel like doing at the moment.

I also have to read the seventh book for the Harry Potter series. Haven't finished that, after all of these years... (Actually, one year. It came out last summer in July. I went to the premiere dressed as a wizard. Kind of.)

Now, I disapparate! *explodes into a plume of smoke*

About five years, when I made my first blog, I didn't know much about writing professionally. I basically logged on everyday, went to the journal section, and poured out my thoughts, ranging from what I ate or did that day. I would ramble on, saying things like, "I ate a pie today!" or "I went to the bathroom today." In an attempt to make my posts more interesting, I eventually began to use more exciting, descriptive words to fill my lackluster days with more passion than what had actually existed, and I went on about my (possibly trivial) thoughts about these everyday occurences. My writing couldn't be described as professional. I just so happened to be a blogger blogging on a blog and I thought nothing more of it.

Then I entered high school. In every single English classroom I entered, the subconscious phrase, "YOUR WRITING IS WRONG, AND HAS BEEN WRONG EVER SINCE YOU STEPPED INTO MY CLASS. WRITE LIKE THIS." rang throughout every, single utter of every, single English teacher I've had. I will admit, I did learn great, new ideas and new jargon that I couldn't have possibly learned online through my own free time ("catharsis" is now one of my "commonly used words"). However, I felt restricted most of the time. All the students were taught to write using a rigid structure. DBQs, OERs, synthetic essays: the freakin' acronyms were scary enough. In learning all of these methods of writing, I probably screwed myself over.

Why, do you ask?

The way that I had originally written reflected a majority of these styles.

Writing makes itself to be one of the most controversial issues in school. All teachers don't agree with each other's writing style, nor do national exams (SAT, TAKS, ACT) agree with each other: For example, at the beginning of the school year, my U.S. History teacher told us not to write leads in our essays. Neither should we use descriptive imagery (simile, metaphors, power-loaded diction) nor develop a cause ("History is all about the facts. It's direct and straight to the point."). My English teacher, however, was the foil to my U.S. History teacher. She wanted everything that he didn't want (I'm talking about essays here!). OERs didn't require any details: a simple reply to the question sufficed. SAT and ACT essays, however, required writing upon a thesis and compounding upon the subject, making the topic "fuller".

Voice, tone, and (overdramatic) diction popped up numerous times in my original style of writing. Inconsistency thrived in every essay (I will admit), but it naturally pertained to its proper thesis.

By the time my writing style had deteriorated to the point of me failing English (this is coming from a guy who studies linguistics), all my essays in class had sounded like they were written by a robot.

This guy killed this girl because he hated her. This is exemplified because the author uses (insert descriptive word) to show the guy's rage. "Insert ranom quote here." (Insert more random babble that makes no sense.)

(Just give me a 0 right there.)

Even robots have better analytical skills than me (I mean, of course, they're robots). My sentences were direct and to the point, but they exhibited no feeling and, most of the time, they didn't even answer the original question that was asked. For example, one time, an essay question had asked, "Describe the character's voice in the story." I wrote something to the lines of this: "Character A is very happy. "Insert random quote here." This demonstrates that Character A has feelings for Character B." (See how the last question branches to a different topic?) If you were to read my journals and compare them to my essays, they would sound like they were coming from two different people. Online, especially in blogs, I feel unrestricted to the word choice and the paragraph structures I choose to use. But in school, I write under the pressure of teachers commanding me to produce an essay within half an hour (it's like asking me to shoot gold ore out of my nose under command!), not to mention the pressure of essay scores determining your high school rank, which eventually affects college, and eventually, your future. (Thanks Mr. Future. You make me feel better.) In all of the essays written at school, I used poor analytical skills and had bad word choicing (isn't it great when you understand a passage but can't even find one good word to explain it?).

(You know what I've noticed? I'm very comfortable using aside comments. Plus, contractions make me feel pretty casual.)

I love writing and explaining ideas, but I feel like I've lost my art. I've naturally allowed myself to be succumbed to new information (which tend to be quite controversial at times) while letting go of my original ideas. I've been hit on the head with a shoe. I fainted, only waking up to realize that I was robbed of my money...and that one of my shoes were missing.

I love writing. I love writing to explain ideas to people who have never once encountered my system of beliefs. I love writing about uncommon topics, such as knitting or relating video games to the problems of the modern world (Pokémon can be easily used to justify slavery and dog-fighting, while Animal Crossing can be used to justify a utopian, socialistic command system where de-education of a group of people leads to unrestricted actions of a nation's government and unprofound ignorance to worldly matters; however, using video games as "proof" for a thesis will never suffice at school).

My mind just doesn't click at school, for some reason.

School is a great place to learn new things (don't throw rocks at me, please). However, school is subjugated to flaws. In school, students are taught by teachers. Teachers are flawed. Teachers believe that students are flawed and therefore teach them. Students, who may have been flawed (or not) before, become flawed in a different way. (It sounds like a horrible logical fallacy, but it's true in many ways.)

I've never been good at conclusions for these super-long journal rants, so I'll leave you guys with a question:

Have you ever changed one of your ways/habits to make it "right", only to realize your original ways/habits were never wrong in the first place?

Heyo guys! Happy Valentine's Day! I'm here, laying on my bed, and typing on my computer, while pretending to fold laundry. It's been the most strangest day ever, really.

So, what did I do today? Did I go over to my lover's home and make chocolates?

Well, first of all, I have no lover! I actually woke up around 7 AM and thought, Hmm, I have a math competition today. My dad and I spent the entire time driving around University of Houston's main campus just to find the darn building.

You'd think a Algebra II and Stats test wouldn't be so hard, right? Well, here's a question from the Stats part (it's a paraphrase!):

A local survey found out that 20% of all homes in Houston have termites. Find out the (what's this word mean?!) and (this is a pretty word, but I don't understand it!) with 95% confidence (the only "big" word I understood...how the freak do you measure confidence?!).

So...I guessed throughout the entire test. Did. Not. Make. Me. Feel. Good.

After that, me and some friends went to a Mexican restaurant (to buy a loaf of bread, bread, BREAD!!!). I never realized it, but grease and fat really do fill you up. I think that's why I can eat so much when I go to Chinese restaurants (it's 'cause it's completely void of fat and grease!!!).

Right now, I'm waiting for a friend to come pick me up so we can all go a festival at my church. It's gonna be supa fun!!! *does thumb-up*

Also, I sent a lot of guys flowers yesterday as practical jokes. It's kind of awkward, but I think some of them liked it (they kept telling everyone and their friends kept blushing whenever I went around them, ahem). Of course, who wouldn't like the gesture of receiving a flower, no?

Now I'm going to go back and pretend to fold some laundry. Happy Valentine's Day!

Oh yeah, and Singles' Awareness Day.

...Darn singles. They should all be exterminated off the face of the earth.

...

*atomic bomb falls on house*

Whazzup, my buddies? The year's almost over, and now, I'm going to end it up quickly! This year's going to be...the Year of the Ox, if I'm not mistaken.

I've been working on some knitting on and off, but it's really leading me nowhere (as I keep on pulling apart everything I've done). I'm growing a bit more apathetic to my knitting. It's not that it's not fun... It's just that I need to focus on school a little bit more (seeing as I'm already apathetic to school as it is).

It's also time for those national tests. SATs, ACTs, all that lovely stuff. It doesn't seem as hard as everyone makes it out to be, really. What I really need help with, however, is writing. It just seems like I can't write at all! I know sometimes my journal entries can be somewhat exciting (hah, yeah right), but when I write at school, there's no sustenance! There's no detail! It's boringgg and frankly, whenever I re-read any of my work, the thought that comes to mind is How the heck did I attempt to write this stuff?!

Does anyone have any tips?

My usual depression seems to have gone. Things were just so hectic the first semester (not really school-wise, but personally-wise) that, somewhere along the road, I crashed and was rendered emotionally unconscious for a while. I'm a little bit happier, but there's still something (or rather, some things?) that bother me...

I'm going to try to be productive today, so I'll see you guys later.