What should I say? “Romeo and Juliet” being a classic tragic romance story that has been a hit all around the world. I had not been into it at all only knowing that they had both died at the end thinking they were foolish before reading the book and watching the film. And now after finishing the film, it had been a real rollercoaster for me feelings went up and down when watching the film and even after. Still remember when first the Montagues and Capulets were fighting and not knowing where Romeo was and to the extend knowing that he didn’t like Juliet at first instead he liked Rosaline was a small shock for me as I always thought that Romeo liked Juliet from the very beginning. And moving onto the scene where the Capulet’s held the party and Romeo still liked Rosaline before the party which was the reason that he went to the party and after seeing Juliet he immediately falls for her and even kissed on the first time seeing her. And then moving onto the famous scene where Juliet’s on her balcony and Romeo climbs to find her and kiss her. I’m sure we were all amazed by his tree climbing skills. And from this part I started getting why Romeo and Juliet would die for each other. Seeing him do dangerous acts just to spend time with Juliet I know that this man is in love and so deep that he couldn’t keep himself conscious. Then onto the part where they get married I know they both love each other a lot. They were both with the priest and when Juliet was forced to marry Paris the priest didn’t let Paris go in because he knows that she only love Romeo and would wait for him even if he was banished. The most unfortunate part of the entire story would be Romeo not being able to receive the letter from the priest so he didn’t know that Juliet was just asleep. At that moment I was thinking what if Romeo didn’t kill Tybalt or what if he had gotten the letter? These are the biggest “What-ifs” for me in the film of Romeo and Juliet. And the part that impressed me the most was how Rome and Juliet being in opposing families they still had an “underground love” that not many people knew.
Author: Rylan
IRJE#6 -Dream Team
During spring break, I had went to a book store and this book caught my eye immediately which is called “Dream Team” by Jack McCallum It talks about the stories behind the 1992 Olympic USA basketball team which is known as the Dream Team because of the amount of famous NBA players on the team including : Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Karl Malone and many more. Of course the man himself Michael Jordan would be in the team. Knowing they dominated the Olympics with a blowout every game is insane.
But remember this, too: Jordan would stay in the backseat for only so long. In both the Dream Team pre-Olympic practice in Monte Carlo and the games in Barcelona, Jordan rose up from time to time and, in the strongest thus-spake-Zarathustra terms, made sure that everyone – especially Magic- knew who really ruled the basketball world. (p. 191)
This part for me as a basketball fan it’s really interesting as basketball fans know that after the Larry Bird and Magic Johnson era where they had dominated the game of basketball in the NBA it was Jordan’s era after that. From this small part of the book we could know that Jordan’s competitiveness is in a very high level. And when we knew that Magic was dominating before hand Jordan is really taking up the spot of him and Larry Bird as they both are starting to retire.
I love this book because it shows a lot of behind the scenes for the 1992 Dream Team which is widely considered one of the best USA basketball team for the last 40 years.
PW #6
Recently, a lot has happened I’ve been feeling ups and downs. And ups have been the majority of course. Just because of how things were going these couple weeks. I would like to share my experience being at Provincials. Being at provincials for basketball is what I had dreamt always, despite of not being in Canada before we had something similar in Hong Kong which each school compete for their grade all around Hong Kong. It was fun back then I enjoyed it the tensity was definitely not as high and not as skillful. So I was really thankful to have the chance to be able to play in the tournament and be a starter even though I am in grade 10. The most rememberable thing was how we had played well against a team that we had lost by 1 point and won them back by 11. This experience that we had as a team would be special for everyone I’m sure. Being a small team, the underdog team we had our ranking at the bottom of the list but at the end we are a top 10 team in the BC province for the single A division.
IRJE #5 – The Hunger Games
I have been enjoying ‘The Hunger Games’ lately and I really like it because of it’s descriptions. I like how it can give me an clear imagery of the scene even though I have not watch the movie I hope to finish the book then watch the movie just to see if what I had imagined is similar to the movie
“Look what I shot.” Gale holds up a loaf of bread with an arrow stick in it, and I laugh. It’s real bakery bread, not the flat, dense loaves we make from our grain rations. I take it in my hands, pull out the arrow, and hold the puncture in the crust to my nose, inhaling the fragrance that makes my mouth flood with with saliva. Fine bread like this is for special occasions.
p.7
I am just very impressed when books can give me an imagery on what is actually happening so in the above example I think it had given me enough descriptions to think of an imagery.
PR#3
In “Amusing Ourselves To Death” Postman has written an essay and in “Brave New World” Huxley has written a story but do I see any connection from these 2? Yes I do! In Huxley’s “Brave New World” he had written a story type of book to talk about the situation or what he sees in the future. As for Postman he had just reflected what he sees now and in a near future on television, the period of time that Postman is writing this book television seemed to be a positive development in the United States. Audiences could access global news and experience spectacular entertainment. Later on, the television channels faced pressure to turn into show business to get audiences’ attentions and to make more money. Postman suggests that television is an enemy, not a friend, to alert the public.
In these two books there are a very obvious similarity where citizens are so absorbed by fascinating technologies, they do not notice their freedom disappearing. Amusing Ourselves to Death urges readers to take all forms of media seriously, revealing the media’s ability to transform politics, education, culture, and history. So basically to me both of the books are alerting others to beware of the power of technology and TV.
PW#5 -Love
This feeling that I had never had before, crying for a girl just before bed. Friends’ helping us to be together.
Recently, I had a new understanding of love. It’s not from my family but I enjoy it so much with this girl which I had barely talked with, has become one of the most important people of my life. I had never stayed up so late just to chat with a girl, I had never been with my friends only talking about her, I had never cried for a girl, I had never confessed to a girl. When everything seemed impossible I did it. This girl that I treasured is now who I adore.
I adore this girl and I don’t really care about how people think of us, we just need to be who we are and be with each other and we’re happy enough to live. I know that it might seem weird or bad to be in love when you are in school but because of her cleverness she helped me improved, as we would study together talk about everything together, knowing how each other’s day went. And I enjoy it A LOT. Even though it’s the first time for the both of us, we enjoy it and love each other.
IRJE#4 “The Kite Runner”
“The Kite Runner” is a book that I have been reading lately, it has a very interesting beginning which makes me want to continue with the book. It is a good way for me to read this book so that I can have better understanding on how to write a good story or essay.
I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. p.1
This is how the book began, It tells us how the author became who he is from the age of twelve which makes me interested in knowing what happened and what his personalities are like.
PW#4 continue of “The Sailor”
In a dark stormy night, across the North Atlantic Ocean there was this enormous cruise that was only for rich people. Most of them were happy and cheerful except for this man, sitting alone at the bar table looking down. You can see he was disappointed or missing someone far away, whom he loved.
This man was so suspicious everybody thought that he was a criminal but all those thoughts were killed because of his beautiful navy colored suit and that particularly small white hat of his. Everybody at that time knew he was a sailor. The ship was so unstable but why didn’t he go help the captain to control the ship? – continue of the last personal writing.
Well this man was named Donald, He had this perfect life as a sailor before everything had happened he had a wonderful family and a beautiful wife. Was he tired? No he just missed his wife why you may ask well it’s not that they could see each other easily again his wife was taken away by her friend Mickey, she had been missing for 2 months but Donald has to keep his job to take care of his parents so he didn’t went and find his wife.
Luckily, he saw Mickey on the ship he never knew Mickey was a rich man. He also didn’t expect to meet him here. Mickey told him,’ Daisy is here, go handle the ship and I will bring you to her.’ So Donald went to help the captain, so everyone did not doubted him again. Then he found Mickey at the bar table and had a couple drinks. Afterwards Mickey brought him to this dark place.
What happened next? Wait for the next Personal writing!
IRJE#3
Lately I’ve been reading a new book called “Night” by Elie Wiesel. This book “Night” is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel’s memories of the death of his family. I got this small paragraph that I love how he describes it. It goes like
Crammed into cattle cars by the Hungarian police, they cried silently. Standing on the station platform, we too were crying. The train disappeared over the horizon; all that was left was thick, dirty smoke. p.6
I love the short paragraph because of hoe descriptive it is and I hope I can have writing like this after reading an image would pop up in the reader’s head so I will improve until I can do that
PR 2 # “All Quiet On The Western Front”
The novel opens as the narrator describes his current life on the front lines of World War I. They have eaten well for the first time in a long while and have also received a large amount of cigars and cigarettes. The narrator notes that this windfall of food to the fact that half of the men in his platoon were killed in combat the previous day, though they can still hear bombs from the front lines in the distance. The soldiers begin to lose track of days and weeks, counting time only by season and time spent at the front.
So for me, I do think that being in a war is dreadful because I might not get enough food or food that is delicious. And being in the horrible front line with all these barbed wire, gun fire, explosion the smell of dead and rotten bodies… oh I just don’t even want to think about it. It is just too horrible like a living hell…
I have never expected that in the last chapter everyone except Tjaden had died including our main character-Paul. I had never expected that this book was going to have a sad ending. As all of the books I have read before the main character had never died before so I was astonished by the ending of how almost everyone who was introduced and described had died. I was very depressed when I had finished the book.
After all I would recommend this book to others if they want to know the life of being in an army or people who would like to know more about World War one. But if you are the kind of person that would cry in a movie I definitely would not recommend this book.
PW#3 “The Sailor”
In a dark stormy night, across the North Atlantic Ocean there was this enormous cruise that was only for rich people. Most of them were happy and cheerful except for this man, sitting alone at the bar table looking down. You can see he was disappointed or missing someone far away, whom he loved.
This man was so suspicious everybody thought that he was a criminal but all those thoughts were killed because of his beautiful navy colored suit and that particularly small white hat of his. Everybody at that time knew he was a sailor. The ship was so unstable but why didn’t he go help the captain to control the ship?
What is the story behind all this mysterious man? Let’s see in the next personal writing…
IRJE#2-ISHMAEL
As I have continued the book ISHMAEL I found I quote said from Ishmael that I really like and it helps me get a correct mind for studying, working and everything that I do in my life.
“If you want to understand the habit of bees, you study bees, you don’t study mountain buildings. p.102
PW#2 Love
What is love? Love is the weirdest thing on the planet. It only goes both ways never one way when it only goes one way you have failed already is not called love, is only “like” but when it comes to 2 people “liking” each other it can turn into love but always the both of them would be shy and don’t know how would the other one think and it turned into lost love did that happen to me? Not particularly but similar we weren’t shy to say it we had short great memories but for whatever reason we ended it. It was like a dream it was so good that I couldn’t believe that it ended and I couldn’t stop thinking of the sad side I couldn’t really remember the good things I cried and cried the sky was crying with me too, my friends had help me a lot I calmed down but still until now I am continuously thinking of it…
IRJE#1: “ISHMAEL.”
In ISHMAEL a novel written by Daniel Quinn, the author of another book called “The Story Of B”. The reason why I chose the following paragraphs is because It made me crack up when I read this part. Because of the sentence” Stupid, no? Childish. Naïve. Simple. Callow. Or just fundamentally dumb. In one so manifestly normal in other respects, it needs explaining.” how he denied that he is stupid but he had synonyms after denying it.
a couple decades ago, when I’d had the silly notion that the thing I most wanted to do in the world was… to find a teacher. That’s right. I imagined I wanted a teacher—needed a teacher. To show me how one goes about doing something that might be called. . . . saving the world.
Stupid, no? Childish. Naïve. Simple. Callow. Or just fundamentally dumb. In one so manifestly normal in other respects, it needs explaining. “ISHMAEL” p.4
WWI Literature
When we talk about war I think we can all agree that the most memorable one are World War 1 and World War 2.
Today we are talking about the film ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ which is based on World War 1. When I first saw the film in class, I realized that war is not a game. In the beginning of the film we saw how the Britain recruited their soldiers. We know that most of them were underage because their age range is between 19 to 35 but some teenagers aged 17 and 8 still attended the war and when they were asked they all faked their age to be 19.
In the beginning all of the Britain thought the war was game like but obviously it is not a game. It is a war you have to be aware of everything around you or you are gone, so I don’t think that this is a game.
During the training of the army the soldiers had learned who they were and what they were good at the funniest part for me was when one of the old soldier sang the song for their food ‘Pickler’s jam’ and it sure was a good song.
If I had to go to war my most concerned part is not death is the cleanliness part, according to the film the Britain had dug a hole for secretions and just sitting on a log which might be unstable and one time four Britain soldiers had fell into it yuck and having to wear the uniform for how long the war goes, good bye!
The most interesting thing for me was before they went on the battle field they drank alcohol so called ‘liquid courage’ I am really curious about it since I have never tried any alcohol I don’t know what they would do to your body.
It sure is lucky for us now that we don’t have a war and have peace everyday I wish this could be kept on everyday.
PW#1-Who am I
I had a question I always ask myself but never seemed to be able to find the answer of it. The question was who am I?
That might be the hardest question for most of the people when I ask you this question what did you think of? Your name? Your experiences? or What you have done up until this time? Well I have seemed to found the answer to this question now.
Who am I? I am Rylan Ng I am a basketball player, discus thrower, volleyball player and I love Stitch. I am 15 years old now in these 15 years time I have done a lot of things both good and bad.
When I go out people think that I am in college or even an adult someone asked me to drink, someone gave me the bill when I was having lunch with my mother. What does that suppose to mean? Even one of my friend thought that I was a repeater because I was so mature. Guess I am mature and not looking old. I miss my mother now reminding the memory. As you can see I am a guy who always puts family and friends at first place.
Now when ever people ask who am I I can proudly say I am Rylan I love sport, my family and friends and Stitch
ME
Hi, I am Rylan from Hong Kong a discus thrower, basketball player and volleyball player. This is my first year in Brookes Westshore I would like to be friends with all of you, as you can see I love different sports. I think trying different sports is really fun because doing it might be easy but trying to master it is really hard I might have chosen the hardest ones to master for example discus throwing I say it’s a pretty rare kind of sports and a hard one to master.
Me as a reader is not what I can imagine of myself because I’m just not a reading guy I don’t like reading you can even say I hate it but when I see books that are really interesting and fun I will be like a kid playing in the playground. I’ll get all excited and crazy! So I guess the world needs more interesting books.
As a writer might be what I would do because I know that most of the people don’t like reading boring dull books but when they have illustrated and interesting books they will turn into a reader so my goal is to make interesting books to increase the interest of reading.