This I believe

I was born in a small town near the yangzte river. I was born in china and raised in the united states. I have seen a lot from being educated in America and this is what I saw.
I was a 8 pound baby as I was told later on. I was born 20 years after a great revolution happened in my country. It was a hot , dry July 4th. I did not fully realize the the significance of my birthday until I came to America.
My father quickly came home from work to see his only child. The child that he can ever have in china. China has the one child policy launched during the 1980s.
When I was 4 years old, I travelled to Singapore. Singapore was one of the richest countries in Asia and I got to be in Singapore's great preschool. They taught Malayasian, math, english, chinese. I may not remember what happened in Preschool , but I have my school report as records.
When I came to America as a 5 year old kid, I knew that the United States was different from Singapore and China.
When I was in Middle school I was upset to hear that when my classmates got a C they feel it is the end of the world. I felt that very upsetting because tests and quizzes are products of the process. My teachers taught me the knowledge and they test us. If we get a C then I must have a missing link between the knowledge. So my philophsophy grew as I witnessed my classmates. I believe that you fix the process and not the product. The product is the final form. You must go back to the process to find the mistake.
As I am writing this , I feel that the amount of work you put in studying is worth more than any grade. If you at least tried your hardest than it doesn't matter what your grade is.
Students in china should know grades are not important. They should understand that their future careers will not look at their grades, but instead how well they work togeather with other people and the amount of work you put in

Madagascar 2 Escape Africa

When I was watching the movie, Madagascar 2 Escape Africa, I was intrigued by the way that they started the movie. They started with the birth of Alex in Africa and then he plays with his Father the Lion King. His father is training him to be a fighter , but Alex keeps on dancing. Alex has talent for dancing and then His father's Arch enemy wants to fight , so he fights , while Alex follows a rope out of the reserve and pochers capture him. Alex was put in a box and on a truck. His father saw him disappear and runs out of the reserve to save him. Then he got shot and Alex fell in the river while being in the box. His father assumed that he was still on the truck , so he follows the truck for days, while Alex gently flow half way around the world to Manhattan, New York. He was put in Central park Zoo , and started dancing for audiences. People called him the King of New York.
When he reached Magascar in the first movie, Alex now has a method of escaping to Manhattan with Gloria, Melman, and Marty. Today they have an opening theme of the original song. They will travel by plane flew by penguins, but the plane is so old that it landed in Africa or crash landed. Alex explored the area and found his parents.
Things go wrong when he has a fight and that fight was with the biggest lion. He lost and was banished from the water hole for 1000 years. His parents came with him. What will happen to Alex the lion and his family?
The animation and sound effects were amazing. Ben Stiller as Marty had an amazing voice and he worked extremely hard.The sound effects like the plane crashing and the plane flying were amazing. I really found it funny that an old women was able to beat up a grown, male lion. There was one part when they were about to roast Alex and his father rescued him. His father could have been shot , but Alex the Lion immediately broke into a dance. He was dancing the way he was in New York, that everybody reconized him because the people trying to kill him were stranded tourists from new York. His father found it amazing that dance can be useful and he was so happy He felt a pulse and started dancing with his son.
This is a comedical animated movie, but it can get dramatic.
I would rate the movie:
Overall Grade: B+

Story: A
The story may contiue the first , but it was better than the first. It has a comedian that makes people laugh like in the first part where the plane almost crashed , but flew back up. One penguin says, "I have some good news and Bad news. The Good news is that we be landing immediately, the bad news is we be crash landing."
I was laughing so hard that I was running out of breath.



Acting: B+



Direction: B+



Visuals: B

Spirited Away

When I first watched Spirited Away in 2004, I cried in some of the dramatic parts. John Lassiter , the executive director of this film did a great job on story, plot, characters, and animation sounds. In this Japanese anime movie, Chihako and Haku finds adventure to save Chikuro's parents'. It starts with Chikaro's family moving and then suddenly they appear at a old abandoned theme park. Then they travelled to where food was being sold. After Chikaro went to investigate, she saw Haiku. Haiku said, "Your not supposed to be here, go before it's too late. They are lighting the lanterns , go now."
She went back to her parents and found that her parents were turned to pigs. They were eating plate after plate of food.In the end, Chikaro learned that her parents are the most important thing in her life. She was happy to see her parents in their human form.
Spirited away is a classical tale about a girl that goes on an adventure to save her parents. This is an excellent example as a great japanese animation film.

Barack Obama chills out with playing basketball

On election night , Barack Obama is chilling by playing basketball with his Hawaii high school buddies and friends.

Kung Fu Panda review

Kung Fu Panda (2008)Kung Fu Panda starts out with Po a fat panda , that works in a noodle shop. Dreaming to be a Warrior, then Master Wu chose him as the Dragon Warrior. When Master Wu passed away, and leaving Po's master to guard the Jade Palace. His master soon learns that Master Wu was right to choose him. Po learns Kung Fu by food. Po soons became the warrior and defeated the evil that though to become Dragon Warrior. This movie is very original and has detail parts, humor, and action scenes. The scene that takes place in China makes the scenary beautiful because of Chinese wonderful environment.
I started thinking that in Kung Fu Panda , it explains the start of Kung Fu. Those 6 warriors, master Wugua, and , and Po's master use the philosphy of Dao. I realized that when Po was at the pool of tears with Master and I saw a Yin and Yang symbol.
This motion picture film has great shots, humor , and great acting.
Tai Lung was defeated by Po with a special move he learned from a book. Master Wu said that ,"I cannot control when the peach starts growing, I cannot control the where it lands, when it is ripe. "
I liked the slow motion with tai long and Po. Tai Long was charging at po slowly and it created suspense and built a mood. I also liked how he imagined the scroll as a piece of bread. It gave him inspiration to get the scroll. I also enjoyed how tai long hit him numerous small hits while Po ended it with a big punch.
In the end Po used the Wuxi finger to defeat tai long. In the end his dream came true.
The secret to the Dragon scroll was nothing. That was why the scroll was blank.
That can relate to life as well because there is no secret to success. The secret is you. You control your future. As Master Wu said the future is a mystery.
I say that you control your future.
I liked the end credits because they had the chinese characters for all furius five's animal character. For example, in chinese they wrote monkey on top of the actor which was Jackie chan.
I hope this movie can bring out chinese culture in a humorus way.
The producers, writers, and filmakers must really understand Chinese history and culture because I saw that there were chinese firecrackers, chinese style homes. Those homes were what homes in ancient china looked simular to.

The Dark Knight movie review

The Dark Knight starring Heath Ledger and Christopher BaleThis movie is awsome, but gives you the chills sometimes. Especially if you watch it on IMAX because the sound of gun shots and the Joker. Heath Leadger played the Joker very Well. The Joker sometimes can be scary like in the begining when he shot a lot of his men and the bankers. He then tried to make a deal with the mob , but the gang leader says," Whoever can get the Joker dead gets 5 grand." The Joker fakes his death and come back to the gang leader and stick a knife in his mouth. He said, " Do you know why I have so many scars? It's because my father was a drinker and one day he would come back home drunk and my mother would protect herself with a knife. Then my father takes the knife to me, the Joker, and sticks it up to my mouth and says why are you so nervous? Smile and points the knife up in his mouth and then said, "you will always smile now." These are some of the things that make this movie creepy and scary. There is another part where the Joker says to the mob,"I will make this pencil disappear. He lets a mob leader come up and slams his head on the table. It disappeared because he can't see it any more." Some parts are also too bloody like when Harvey Dent was rescued , but half his face is on fire. Half his face got the skin burned off and you could see his bones and jaws and muscele. That was one of many that says this movie should be rated R. The Joker kills many People just to see the Batman's real identity. In a Press Conference, Harvey Dent, the Attorney says well I am the Batman. Bruce Wayne just stands there while a fake Batman gets arrested. These were one of the things that made Bruce's friend Rachael angry. There is romance, action, and crude comedy. The next thing is how the director, Chris Nolan, made the Batman's gadgets look so high tech even though only the military now a days can get that technology. I realized it really cool when he could the track the Joker with Mr. Fox's sonor idea. It was confuing in the end when the Batman said to Commissioner Gordon, "A person dies a hero or lives long enough to see himself a villian. I am a Villian. Get the police, dogs and SWAT team after me." It was confusing because he didn't do anything wrong. He rescued Commissoner Goron's son from the evil Harvey Dent. Harvey was about to kill Commissoner Gordon's son , but the batman knocked Harvey down the building and rescued Gordon's son. Even the commissioner's son said, " But he didn't do anything wrong." Chris Nolan should make the ending better and clearer. The other creepy part was how the Police unhandcuffed the Joker and let the Batman deal with him. The Batman went crazy and slammed the Joker's face into the wall, threw him through the room. That was crazy, but necessary. That was one of the parts where it had a bloody part. The other creepy part was when the Batman flips over the truck the Joker was in, but the Joker survived. The Batman fell and tripped on a string the Joker set up. I thought, " The Joker is like a cat, it has nine lives."

Story B+

Direction A

Acting B+

Visuals A

Total B

Iron Man review

Iron ManAs a critic, I need to judge movies to see if it's worth for both adults, children, and adolance. This movie can only be for children and teens because to adults this movie exaggerated the technology too much and only the military can afford all this technology. This also exaggerated how the military atytacked an unidentified object without knowledge. Then there was when Stark went to a press conference and Stark gave the identity away which might lead to poperaziis in real life. The pros of this movie is that it is fit for the whole family, not too violent, and fit for kids. This movie also shows impressive technology on how they can build in a cave. It shows powerful energy to fuel Iron Man and the heart and the body. It also shows a generator that can power the entire country built by Stark industries. It also shows what terrorists like Usmama Bin Ladin what they can and can't do in the cave. It shows that people in the United States can also illegally sell weapons to terrorist. It also can get Children's imagination going on inside their brain to see what if the world today had that power, imagine the energy , and no fossil fuel nessecary. So the Pros and Cons are even and people use this movie to relax and enjoy with their popcorn.

Overall Grade:
B+

Story:
A+

Acting:
A-

Direction:
B+

Visuals:
A+

Book Review for Game Set Life Peak Performance for Sports by Ed Tseng

I was reading the book Game. Set. Life: Peak Performance for Sports by Edward Tseng and I was thinking for someone who failed out of college twice, he wrote a really great book. Nolonger do I feel that going to a good college proves intelligence. I read the entire book in three days because I just thought it was really good. My favorite part of his book was when he would tell short stories for his readers. Those stories all had a meaning to the book. Those means were either about wanting to learn more, and have a strong mindset.
He says that if you make negatuve comments, body language, or even negative sounds like sighs then they will perform poorly. He says that a positive comments, body langauge, or even sounds can make people perform better. He wants his students, readers, friends, or family to have a positive mindset.
In the first lesson or chapter of the book he says that he wants his players to ACT like champions. He says that you don't have to be the best to ACT like a champion. Focus more on positive thoughts and try to elimate negative thoughts and choose positive thoughts. He says, " Your mind is like a garden, if you plant strawberries, you'll get strawberries. If you plant rasberries, you'll get rasberries. You can't get strawberries from rasberries seeds. Your mind is the same way, you can't get positive resaults from negative thoughts."
I believe thatn was one of the best says in the book.
In his last chapter he mentions how winning is not important. If you had fun, learn, and make adjustments. Don't get upset with an test score because if you learned from your mistake and made adjustments, then that is more important than a test score.
Game.Set.Life.Peak Performance for Sports is the greatest Sports Pshchology /sports recreation books I've read. He teaches you the success of great buissnessmen, athletes, and teachers. He teaches you how can tigar woods, Michael jordan , or Bill gates be so successful.

Smithsonian Natonal Zoo in Washington D.C.

It was the spring of 2008, when I travelled with my family to the National Zoo to see pandas. They had three pandas and they are named; Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Tia Shan. Tia Shan is the baby panda of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. They were not the first pandas to visit because when Richard Nixon came back from China, he brought back two pandas. Those two pandas only survived til 27 or 28 years of age. One of those panda got sick and passed away.

Currently, the three pandas are on loan. When a panda is on loan and it suddenly gave birth, that extra panda would cost the zoo extra money. These panda's bamboo were bought by the zoo from a farm in Maryland. Tia Shan will return to china by 2010.

The research for pandas is called cross research because scientist from china come here to study pandas and scientist from the United States goes to china to study.

Election Night Message 4

This message is dedicated to President -Elect Obama for a nice victory speech.
Barack Obama has compassion for Senator McCain and Governor Palin. Obama has mentioned how much America has changed. He uses the example of the 106 year old women in Georgia. She was a generation away from slavery, she saw the bombs at Pearl Harbor, and the Mongomery bus boycott. Obama has mentioned how well McCain has served this nation in vietnam. Obama did not directly say it that way , but he meant it.
My favorite part was when Obama mentioned that change has come to america. Obama mentioned President Lincoln and his Gettysburg address. Obama said, "Do you still doubt our founders are with us to this very day? Do you still doubt that democracy in the United Sates of America has not perished from the earth. "
Obama mentions how he still believes America to be hopeful. He mentions that if the 106 year old women in Georgia can see change in voting than imagine seeing what changes Obama's daughters would see when they are 106 years old. That 106 year old women was not able to vote in the past due to the fact of her gender and race. For the first time that 106 year old women can push the button on the voting machine.
"Change has come to America."
When Obama was saying his speech he had a firm voice. That voice has talent like Clinton's voice. That voice makes people want to listen to him.
Thank Barack Obama for a well spoken speech.

The Outsiders

In the Outsiders, There were Ponyboy, Darry, Dallas, Sodapop, Johnny, Two-Bit Matthews, and the rest of the Greasers gang. In this gang, they are bullied by the rich gang called the Socs or Socials. The two have been rivals ever since. The movie starts with Ponyboy and they have a foreshawdowing. The foreshawdowing in the first line was great because at the end he uses the same line and the same shot.
My favorite shot in the movie was at the start of the rumble. They had a pan of all the Greasers. That was cool and they made a wide shot for the Socs. I really like the visual photograhy in this movie. They had great shot variety in the rumble. I enjoyed the shot where blood splatted in the foundation to symbolize Johnny killed Bob. It was an excellent transition from one scene to another , but I think they might have exaggerated the blood a little bit.

For a 80s movie, I think the director did a good job. The director of photography planned out all the shots well and that made a difference. The actors for all the charactors were perfect. The actor for Darry really did great in the shot when Darry hits Ponyboy for being late back home. They had excellent shot variety because one shot shows Darry's angry face , which looks superior to Ponyboy's. Then it shows a shot from Ponyboy's position.

World renowed author Pearl S. Buck House and Farm

Today's November 1, 2008. Currently I am going at 40 m/h to Pearl S. Buck's Farnmhouse / home. Pearl S. Buck is one of America's most famous author. Her Parents were missionaries sent to China. Pearl S. Buck was born in 1892 and she came to America in 1892. She was only 3 months old when she arrived in Zhenjiang City in China. She was born in West Virginia, but spent the majority of her life in China. She learned Chinese before English. She also learned Chinese traditions, culture, and history. Pearl S. Buck has learned about Confusist and Confusisium from a Chinese tutor. Mrs. Buck , but formly Ms. Sydenstricker came to America for College. She attends Randolph-Macon's Women's College in Virginia. Her first husband is Lossing Buck and later married her publisher Richard Walsh. When Buck and Sydenstricker had their first child named Carol. Carol had some problems. Carol Grace Buck has Protein problems because there is not enough proteins to get to their brain. That caused Carol Buck's brain to not grow as expected.
In order to have Carol Buck sent to a Special place called Vinland School in New Jersey, Pearl S. Buck was inspired to write a book. She wanted to sell the book to pay for Carol's school. The first book she wrote was published in 1930 called The Good Earth. The book was about Chinese Peasants. At first the publisher did not want to publish it because they all said, " Nobody would want to read about Chinese Peasants. "
Richard Walsh took a chance and published her book and The Good Earth won the Pulitzar.
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck may have one natural born daughter, but she adopted more children. She also had foster children , after she realized that she was taking care of more children than she was supposed to. When Pearl S. Buck , her adopted daughter Janice, her puublisher Richard set off for the U.S , she never returned to China.

She married Lossing in Chiangking, China in 1917, the two were two years apart. When they first met, Pearl was 24 and Lossing was 26. They adopted Janice in 1925 as an infant in New York. In 1935 she divources Lossing Buck and marries her publisher Richard Walsh. Pearl did not change her last name to Walsh was because Richard agreed that Pearl S Buck was already a famous name and she did not need to change it.

The following year ,Pearl and Richard adopts two infant boys named Richard and John. Then in 1937 , she and Richard adopts another boy and girl named Edgar and Jean. The next year in 1938 she learns of her Nobel Literature prize award. Richard and herself adopts Henriette in 1951 and Chieko in 1955. In 1960, Richard Walsh dies of stroke. They were married for 25 years.

She and Richard lived in Green hills farm. She purchased it in 1934 to 1935. The tour guide was named Sandy Bates. I saw in the White House website that she was the same person that gave first lady Laura Bush a tour as well. Sandy Bates said that the original farm house was small, but she had enough money to expand. That way, she could fit all her adopted children a and foster children. One of the barns that she purchased dates back to 1720s. Green Hills farm later became the Pearl S. Buck Foundation. Pearl formed her foundation in 1964 to assist children overseas.

Pearl S. Buck has her name in chinese at the Green Hills Farm museum. Her name was written in origianal chinese characters, not simplified.

In her lifetime, she has written over 300 books. Pearl S. Buck passed away in 1973 of Lung canacer in Veremont. In 1972, when Pearl S. Buck wants to return to China, she was denied Visa. The Chinese government obivously does not like her.

When I went to Green Hills Farm, I was amazed to see the amount of open space that Pearl S. Buck owned. I saw her grave, that grave was in Green Hills, that was her wish. She had a lot of money and in the museum , I saw her collection of Asian art. She had Korean, Japanease and Chinese dresses. One of her dress was sent to China because China is starting a museum that is about Pearl S. Buck in China. She has a robe that has dragons on all sides of her dress and there is even one on the inside. That robe was traditionally made for an emporer , but the Tour guide explained that they do not know how she recieved the robe. She has small boxes given to her by President Nixon after visiting China. It also displays the desk that was used for typing the Good Earth. The Typewriter she used was chinese because of the chinese characters on the typewriter. She has chinese fans, buddhas, her books, chinese books, and a collection of chinese history. She has a Buddha silk that was given to her by the current Dali Lama.

One of her collection included a shoe that women wore when they were babies. They would have their feet tied to the shoe, so their feet would not grow. There were books and photographs. In one room in the second floor she had a collection of trophies, and awards that were awarded to Pearl S. Buck. There were even letters sent to her from the white house. John F. Kennedy invited her because Kennedy liked to invite Nobel Peace prize winners. Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman and Eleaner Roosevelt, and FDR all met her at some point. She won the nobel peace prize because of her book, The Good Earth. There was one other American that won the Nobel Literature Prize award, which is Toni Morrison. She actual complained that her Nobel Peace prize was smaller than Pearl S. Buck. They later changed the size into the size that Pearl S. Buck had. The Tour guide explained, "That painting of Confucious is an antique , but it was originally for her brother. Then her brother's widow sent the painting back to Pearl. "

Pearl S. Buck also have one of those ink dips made out of stone. It was a huge piece of stone that was used for ink.

Some of the places that Pearl S. Buck went to were very close to the place of my birth. I was born in Yangzhou. Yangzhou isn't far from Nanjing. Some of the volunteers at Pearl S. Buck Interational actually went to china last year and followed the route of Pearl S. Buck. They came very close to my Birth place.