The Rejected Sorcerer by Jorge Luis Borges

Vocabulary:

Bid (v.) – Her boss bade her to wash the floor and clean-up the table before he came back.

Motive (n.) – John knew that he couldn’t obtain Tina’s love so his motive was to kill his love and commit suicide afterward.

*Disclose (v.) – The reason that he disclosed her true color was he couldn’t continue to protect her.

Instruct (v.) – Teachers instructed us: “Don’t steal stuff from the other students!”

Divine (v.) – The wizard divined that in 2012, the Earth will be destroyed.

Adjoining (adj.) – My mom and her friends lived in an adjoining room beside me and my sister.

Preferable (adj.) – He found another idea and it was preferable to the first one.

Cardinal (adj.) – This speech was very cardinal in my life because it taught me how to survive through my suffering.

Subterranean (adj.) – In this deep subterranean cell, a doctor was proceeding with the most dangerous experiment.

Ashamed (adj.) – He was ashamed of his ingratitude and tried to apologize for not saying “thanks” last night.

Sufficient (adj.) – She had sufficient bravery to come up against her suffering.

Summary:

This story, The Rejected Sorcerer, was about a dean who wanted to learn magic. He found that Don Illan was a magician, thus he visited him and asked to be taught magic. But, Don Illan feared that afterward the dean would forget him. In response, the dean promised that he wouldn’t neglect Don Illan. The sorcerer then took him to an adjoining room and led the dean to a deep subterranean cell. Before descending, Don Illan had told a servant girl to prepare a meal and announced that she should not to cook it until he requested. After a few days, the dean received a letter from his uncle, the bishop, who was about to die. The dean was annoyed, but he couldn’t leave, so he decided not to see his uncle. A few days later, his uncle died and everybody elected the dean to be the next bishop. Later, he obtained a letter from the Pope, who was offering him the archbishopric. When Don Illan heard about this he requested that his son be made the bishop. The archbishop said no, that he had reserved the bishopric for his own uncle. After three years, the archbishop received a message from the Pope who was offering him a cardinalship. When Don Illan heard of this, he requested the archbishopric for his son. The new cardinal said he needed to give it to his mother’s brother. Four years later, the Pope died and the cardinal became the Pope. Don Illan heard this and requested the cardianlship for his son. But, the Pope still said no. At this time, Don Illan was unhappy and he asked for something to eat on the road back to Spain. However, the Pope shouted at him and bade him to leave. Then Don Illan’s face became younger at this moment and he told the servant girl to cook the meal that she had prepared earlier. The dean realized that they were still in the deep subterranean cell, they had gone back to the beginning, and that he was still the dean! Don Illan had rejected the dean as a student of magic.

The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick

Character list:

Ed Loyce – a TV sales and service shop owner, he discovered a dead body of stranger hanging from a lamppost.

Don Fergusson – a salesman from the TV store.

Jack Potter – a man who works in a shoe shop.

Jenkins – Loyce’s friend, a stationery clerk.

Margaret Henderson – a jewelry store worker.

Pete Foley – a television repairman.

Stranger A, on a bus – a slender man, with dark hair and a small mustache. Well – dressed, brown suit and shiny shoes.

Stranger B, on the bus – an elderly man with a box.

Janet Loyce – Ed Loyce’s wife.

Tommy & Jim – Mrs. and Mr Loyce’s twin sons.

The Police Commissioner of Oak Grove – explains to Loyce what happens for all the weird events.

Clarence Mason, a banker in Oak Grove – he encounters the same situation as Ed Loyce.

Setting:
The towns of Pikeville and Oak Grove (both town-names are located in the following states: Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee),

Summary:

This short story is about a man, Ed Loyce, a TV sales store owner. One day, he repaired the foundations of his basement. He distinctly saw a man was hanging from the lamppost when he drove his car to work. He was shock and scared, due to he called out the people from the store. But all the people excepted him, didn’t care and had no emotion for seeing this scene. Ed knew something wrong, something weird in this world. The polices came and asked him a few personal questions but they didn’t ask or care about the hanging man. He realized they weren’t the police, he knew every cop in Pikeville and the strange part was the people didn’t care. Ed followed the men doubtfully then he came to the police station and beyond it was the old fashion City Hall. Suddenly, he heard the sound like bees’ swarming.  He was seeing “them”. He felt really tired and reeled. He couldn’t think. What was that? He wanted to go home then he boarded the bus and took a seat in the rear, by the door. He relaxed a little. Unexpectedly, there was a slender man, with dark hair and a small mustache. He was watching Loyce and studying him and then the other ederly man is staring him too. He instantly ran to the emergency door and left the bus. He ran across the street and into the alley. The two men ran right after him and Ed quickly ran to his house. He closed the door immediately and told her wife, Janet Loyce, to close the window. He brought his family escaped from this crazy town by car. After a long time, he saw a gasoline station and a drive-in.

Chamber of Chills – The Thing On The Roof!

I think this comic is really weird, there is no plot in the story. And it is boring!

The weird situation in this comic

A woman on the cover – there is no woman in this story.

A man on the cover – there is nothing about this man in this story, because in the comic itself the main character has a mustache but the character on the cover, doesn’t have one.

On the cover, the monster is behind the two people and they ask who killed him and the monster doesn’t fly away.

This comic is not telling the mystery of the crypt and the mummy. I think the crypt wants to take the key back so a monster kills him and takes the key back. The man who has been killed said he wake sleeping things so I think he already realizes that he is in dangerous so he locks himselfs in a room. But, the monster already on the roof and want to kill him. Finally, he was died in the room miserably. The monster takes the key away.

Vocabulary

1. Lumber (v.) – to walk strangely heavy

The monster lumbered through my house and killed all my family.

2. elephantine (adj.) – huge, ponderous, or clumsy: elephantine movements; elephantine humor.

A skater got an elephantine gold medal for a great competition in Vancouver.

3. colossal (adj.)- extraordinarily great in size, extent, or degree; gigantic; huge.

Whales and elephants are the most colossal animals in the world.

4. mastodon (n.)- an old elephant with fur

Mastodons were elephants in North America thousands of years ago that had long fur.

5. hoof (n.) – the thing on the bottom of the horse’s leg

A horse broke his leg so a veterinarian replace his hoof with a wheel.

6. cower (v.)-  getting scared being afraid, protecting yourself

After she finished a scary movie, she cowered and couldn’t fall asleep.

7. gloomy (adj.) – dark or dim; deeply shaded: gloomy skies.

On a gloomy dangerous night, a girl was caught by a stranger.

8. isolated (n.)- separated from other persons or things; alone; solitary.

She was isolated by her friends because she was not supposed to be with this man.

9. estate (n.)- a piece of landed property, especially one of large extent with an on it: to have an estate in country.

His estate was alone on an island and nobody knew that he lived in that strange place.

10. urgent (adj.)- expressed with insistence, as requests or appeals: an urgent tone of voice.

He is urgent to get his one thousand dollars back from the shop owner.

11. cordial (adj.)- courteous and gracious; friendly; warm: a cordial reception.

My new English teacher is being cordial and friendly to us so we really like her.

12. crumble (v.)- to break into small fragments or crumbs.

The ground crumbled into many fragments because of the earthquake.

13. feudal (adj.)- of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a fief or fee: a feudal estate.

In the comic book, the castle has a feudal look, it is tall walled, and has strong door.

The Victim from Space by Robert Sheckley

The Victim from Space by Robert Sheckley first published in Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1957.

Vocabulary:

1. Eminent (adj.) – high in station, rank, or reputation

Justin Beiber is an eminent pop singer, he is very popular.

2. orbit (v.) – to go or travel in a curved path around a planet or other object

The moon orbits the earth in about 27 days.

3. enigma (n.) – a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation

A scuba-diver who is found dead in a tree in a desert is an enigma. How did he die? Where is the water that drowned him? And how did he get in the tree?

4. ecstatic (adj.) – very happy, excited

I was ecstatic when the summer break began.

5. ecstasy (n.) – an intense feeling of happiness

When you won the lottery, you felt ecstasy!

6. counterfeit (adj.) – fake, not real

If you have counterfeit money you can buy nothing because it is fake!

7. extraterrestrial (n.) – alien

The extraterrestrials wanted to attack the earth because they wanted our planet.

8. deplorable (adj.) – awful, terrible

This place was deplorable, before I cleaned it up,  too many people threw trash everywhere.

9. ferment (v.) – changing from sugars into alcohol

The grape juice will ferment into wine.

10. libation (n.) – a ceremonial drink, usually alcohol

They had a libation after the funeral of their friend, they drank wine.

Character list:

Richard Hadwell – he is a writer from Earth who visits Igathi (an alien planet). He loves an Igathi woman called Mele.

Kataga – he is an Igathian, he has a daughter named Mele. He deserves to obtain the Ultimate. He falls in the river and Hadwell saves him. He is friends with Hadwell.

Mele – she is a tall, slender and beautiful girl, she loves Hadwell. She marries Hadwell and she goes with him to Earth.

Brog – he is a dull-faced youth of no significance, he is killed by Lag.

Lag – a priest, tall, emaciated old man, he has large authority on this alien planet. He renders the Ultimate to the one who responds and contributes.

Vassi – a merchant, who wants the reward too.

Juele – a priest-in-training.

Tgara – a stone cutter.

Iglai – a farmer.

The Victim from Space, by Robert Sheckley, is about a man, Richard Hadwell helps the Igathians. Hadwell is a traveller. He travels through many places and he thinks all the planets that he has visited suck except for Igathi. He meets the Igathians and he loves a woman from Igathi called Mele. On this planet, the Igathians have a different culture than that of the Earth people. The Igathians think suffering death is really attractive, so everyone on Igathi wants to earn a painful death.

Because Hadwell loves Mele, he stays on Igathi and starts to teach the Igathians how to grow food crops, produce metal-works and other skills too numerous to mention. So, Lag, the Igathian priest, really thanks him and he wants to give him “the Ultimate”. The Ultimate being a violent and painful death!

Hadwell’s execution is to take place directly after his and Mele’s wedding. On their wedding day, suddenly, Hadwell sees Mele’s father, Kataga, fall into the river and he saves him. The Igathians see Hadwell save Kataga and they feel that Hadwell has done a terrible and inhuman thing by rescuing poor Kataga from the river. After this Lag doesn’t want to give Hadwell the painful death ceremony. After that, Hadwell is really frustrated so he wants to leave. He brings Mele to his spaceship and they leave Igathi. In the end, Mele fingers a tiny dagger which is to be used when there is no priest around.  She thinks one day she can give him the most precious thing a woman can give to a man. “A painful death!”

Diary – May.09.2011 : My second time volunteering for the Flying Squad!

This was my second time volunteering for the  Port Moody Ecological Society . My sister, Michelle, and I participated in the Fingerling Salmon Festival. It was like a big fun fair. My job was to run and send out lunch tickets to every volunteer. There were many people there. Included  in the event were: face painting, fish releasing, food selling and many other activities.

My sister and I also collected white blankets from the people were releasing fish. Our work was too easy so we finished earlier then we expected. The leader said we could stroll around.

There were many other adventures that we could have. First, we ate  hot dogs and chips, and drink pop. Face painting attracted me, so I stopped walking and was patient while watching the face painter’s draw flowers, webs and skulls on the kids’ faces. Most of the children wanted a big beautiful flower on their faces. I sat beside the painter and gazed at the designs for a half hour because their faces of the children were so beautiful.

I really wanted one on my face too, but I was a volunteer and I didn’t know whether or not I was allowed to get my face painted too. Thus, I decided to line up and be the last one. I needed to wait until all the kids finished then I could do it. Finally, all the kids were done, I sat down and smiled at the painter. She started to paint on my face so I couldn’t move until she was finished. I got a flower too. At last, my sister and I strolled around until we saw a station that offered free trees to take home.  We took four free trees to home. I wanted to plant them in my backyard and my mom got the same idea as me.

The Fingerling Salmom Festival closed at 03:00 pm. We had good time with it. I hope there will be a next time!

The Most Dangerous Game

“The Most Dangerous Game” was a very interesting and scary movie. At the movie’s start, a ship sinks near an island, in the Caribbean, and the passengers all die except for one man, Rainsford, who survives. He swims to the weird island and there he finds a castle on it. In the castle,  Rainsford meets an odd and rich man, Zaroff, who is the master of this fortress. Rainsford stays in the fortress over night. The next day, he wakes up and meets two other survivors from a different ship. One is a woman, Eve Trowbridge, and the other is a man, Martin Trowbridge, they are brother and sister. Together they all talk about “the most dangerous game” – the animals that can be hunted. Meanwhile, Zaroff wants to play a game with them, he calls it “outdoor chess”. Eve tries to warn the new survivor that ‘Zaroff is dangerous!’ Soon, Rainsford and Eve discover Martin’s corpse and that they will become the dangerous game. 

They run and make traps to catch Zaroff. They flee to a waterfall where Rainsford falls off the waterfall and Eve is captured. This is like a huunting game. And Zaroff thinks Rainsford is dead. But Rainsford isn’t! Instead, he returns to the castle and kills Zaroff. Finally, Rainsford and Eve escape from this dangerous island by the boat.

Character list:
Bob Rainsford  – hero, famous hunter
Russian Count Zaroff – villain
Eve Trowbridge – she is the love interest
Martin – Eve Trowbridge’ s brother

The Most Dangerous Game

Half-price Frappuccinos at Starbucks, May 6th – May 15th

Starbucks is having a sale on Frappuccinos in May. From May 6th to May 15th Frappuccinos are half-price. From 3:00 pm until 5:00 pm you can buy them at participating stores. You can text “MIXIT” to 98075 to get a daily reminder.

The Starbucks in Chapters – Pinetree Village will be participating!!!!!!

2991 Lougheed Hwy
#38
Coquitlam, British Columbia  V3B 6J6
604-944-6848

Venti Frappuccinos are normally $ 5.54 after tax, starting tomorrow for ten days they will be just $ 2.78 (for two hours every afternoon)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Diary – April/25/2011

Hi: I’m Maggie Chang. It is  raining today. We sleep until noon. I know it is pretty late to wake up,12:oo, but my sister and I have nothing to do on this day. After we wake up, we eat our sandwiches and drink our glasses of milk and then watch TV shows. Then when we finish watching the shows, we go up stairs and start to study. Study, study, study…later, we finish our homework and our studying, we watch Taiwanese and Korean dramas on the computer. This is a really boring day!! But I like it – no test pressure, no one’s yelling, no trouble. Everything is peace and quiet. But, the really repugnant fact is I still have to see my cousin. I really dislike her when I see her face. I know this is wrong. I think it is because we don’t talk very much and we don’t communicate. I believe our relationship will get worse and worse and worse…My sister doesn’t like her either. My cousin really had done some bad things to us, so that’s why! My mom tries really hard to fix this situation but it is still not working so I’m thinking maybe we really need to do something about this. My sister hopes our cousin will move out but, I don’t really want her to move out because then my mom can’t earn $1000 from her. And, she is my cousin! It is better to home-stay our relative than to host a stranger. I try to control my temper so my cousin and I can get on. This was a boring and unpleasant day that I really liked!

Diary – April. 24. 2011 – Face Painting Day

Today is my most fun day ever!!! First, I did the make-up on my sister’s face, then I did all the children faces. I went to the Moody Station Museum to volunteer for the Easter Events and my job was to paint on all the kid’s faces. I went there from 9:30 to 02:00 and it was a really fun day. I like drawing but painting on their faces was not an easy task to do because the brushes and the paint were not really useful. The leading cadre gave us a paper of the cute little pictures on it and told us to let the children choose which they would like us to paint on their faces. There were many adults with their kids and it was like a fun fair. There were many stations and different activities: there was food selling, face painting and many other fun games. They were all for the kids. The entrance fee was $2.00 and for the food and drink you needed to pay extra. But for the volunteers, like me and my sister, we didn’t need to pay either, which was great! In fact, this was my first time face painting, so I was really nervous at that time. My hands kept shaking and shaking. I think I’m a terrible painter, all the images that I painted on the kid’s faces were really really ugly. But I still had fun doing this activity. I believe I can do better next time for sure. Today is the funnest and most experiential day that I never had.

Essay: Happiness, Freedom, and Peace of Mind

 “Pay It Forward” – Part one.

“Pay It Forward” – Part two.

“Pay It Forward” – Part three.

“Pay It Forward” – Part four.

“Pay It Forward” – Part five.

“Pay It Forward” – Part six.

“Pay It Forward” – Part seven.

“Pay It Forward” – Part eight.

“Pay It Forward” – Part nine.

“Pay It Forward” – Part ten.

“Pay It Forward” – Part eleven.

“Pay It Forward” – Part twelve.

“Pay It Forward” – Part thirteen.

“Pay It Forward” – Part fourteen.

“Pay It Forward” – Part fifteen.

“Pay It Forward” – Part sixteen.

“Pay It Forward” – Part seventeen.

“Pay It Forward” – Part eighteen.

“Pay It Forward” – Part nineteen.

“Pay It Forward” – Part twenty.

“There is a wonderful, mystical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life-happiness, freedom, and peace of mind- are always attained by giving them to someone else.” I totally agree with this staement. Someone once said “If you share your happiness with someone else then you will get double happiness from telling your friends your depressed. You will decrease the suffering by half.” If you tell your friends your suffering then you won’t feel as much pain. People thirst to obtain happiness, freedom, and peace of mind in life. You need to “pay it forward” to give out your love or make it change by helping someone else. There is a 2000 film called “Pay It Forward” and it features a boy who is trying to pay his debt forward instead of back. He helps many people; he helps his teacher, his mom, his friend and a vagrant. But finally, he dies by helping his friend from being bullied. After that people from around the world come to his house and offer flowers and a blessing. They do this because he was helping pay their debt forward. Not all people could do that. In conclusion, if you pay your debt forward, afterward, you can always attain happiness, freedom, and peace of mind.