Fashion Matters

I saw a movie “The devil wears prada” in a two-hour class on Friday afternoon. This was a very interesting and fascinating movie for me, although I didn’t understand the famous brand names in it. Teacher explained it is an ironic movie which teaches us how fashion industry goes and people worship the iconology formed by the fashion empire and people who care about too much about their appearance. Is it true that fashion is an art that everyone wears in their daily life? I agree with dresing suitably because untidy outlook certainly give others a bad impression, but not to the extend of obsession. Everything does.

Some girls in the movie force themselves to eat tiny portion of food to be looked slender-waist, fragile and very beautiful, other squeeze their feet into high-heels instead of comfortable shoes. Hurt but they are really into it. It reminds of footbinding, a custom ended in the early 20th century- Chinese women wrapped their feet in tight bandages so that they couldn’t grow and develop normally. The definition of beauty changes all the time. Now women would laugh what an ancient idea women in Qing Dynasty, which is only about two centuries ago, have to torture themselves; or, tortured by their parents. Who knows how people regard fashion as after one hundred years?

Fashion does matter. At the first sight people might guess immediately what your identity is by how you wear. However, what about ten minutes later after others talk to you and observe something wrong?

Yes, fashion matters, but not much.

Language Testing Systems

Ever since language testing systems went on their ways, private language institutions have increased, cram schools have a great growth, and the money they've made have accumulated to an amazing sum. The time has changed; the certificates of various language testing systems are shortest accesses to higher education for students, to better jobs for staffs in businesses, and to a remark of linguist for people look for fame. At any cost, you have to live with them in Taiwan.

The failure of English teaching in Taiwan tells us a truth: don't equal abilities with the scores shown on your certificate. It means nothing to prove your fluency in freely expressing in English. Totally different.

Many friends have asked me how to prepare for such tests like TOEIC. My answer is always like that- "Sorry, I didn't prepare for that kind of tests. I assume that I can finished them with good grades, however, very soon after my English is good enough." Maybe I have never thought about taking these tests serious because I used to prove my ability for myself. Not a sheet of paper.

A night snack

Counting the time to the next year is not a tradition in Taiwan. No, it wasn't before my senior high school. How that event has become an annual celebration is still a mystery for me; at least I may wonder if I could attend tomorrow's class in second period in time if I hang out until 3:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m.. I just can't.

Now my neighbors have been having barbecue to celebrate the coming of the new year; apparently, the smoke coming from their house is charming and also cruel for a person like me who just finished sending emails to my friends sitting before computer desk for over one hour. I strongly felt cold and hungry that I want to fetch someone to have a night snack because of a series of complicated reasons: a) I've sat too long. b) No plan in this SPECIAL NIGHT. C) It's too cold. To get rid of this miserable situation, I called my senior Harris asking if later he wanted to grab a bite to eat. Thanks God! we will have a night snack at 10:00 p.m.. So I am going to have a snap and get ready to escape from this smoking barbecue house.

Child Prodigy

Yesterday was a day worthed celebration. My dad suggested that we rented a series of National Geographic documentary films, Brilliant Mind, from a Blockbuster; he is rarely generous when it comes to expenses on entrainment. However, this time, he claimed that was education through entertainment; so the payment was worthwhile. I had no argument as long as I can see the movies.

The documentaries were about savant and genius: whether their ability are similar in some cases. Savants, or usually called idiot savant, are people who show atypical mastery of specific skills. You could even take them as genius except for the fact that they have lower intelligence reflecting physically or mentally. Like most of savants may suffer from autism or perform badly on social skills.

How extraordinary they are? Some may reproduce everything, dynamic or static, in a drawing like they had taken a photo after they peer at the scene once. Their amazing abilities suggest scientists that each of us would probably be capable of much more than we think. Once science is advanced enough to free the murky parts of brain, according to those avid scholars and scientists in the documentaries, human can decide when they want to turn to the mode of genius if needed.

I think the hypotheses ignoring the psychological problems prodigies, the young genius, may face; such as pressure from peers or expectations from people who assume you can change from a prodigy to a creative inventor. Peers are likely to isolate prodigies because they don't have same topic to communicate. Therefore, there's a saying "when a prodigy succeed, another prodigy collapse." "No pain, no gain" doesn't fit child prodigy, but they indeed take a lot of pains than normal people.

Sleep early and get up early

Sleeping late, as you may have heard, is one of the most harmful murder of health. If you're a morning person, congratulations, it's a good habit you should keep on it, a key to having a healthy life. Before I decide to stay up late, I should know what it can and can't do and what the downside might be. In fact, I'm very regretful that sleeping late result in big problems, including strong headache and having a bleeding nose.

I'm forced by those annoying symptoms to establish a new daily schedule, so I will be conscious that I should complete all the works and go to bed before PM 11:30, or even PM 10:30. Imagine a life without sickness is not my purpose; the only thing I wish is studying more efficiently in order to be healthier and do a few things for my entertainment, such as drawing pictures or having a outdoor picnic.

Depending on the effect of sleeping earlier, I would adjust the extension of hours later. After all, health, entertainment, and well-time management- all of those element are essential to creating a colorful life.

Da Vinci

I have been very interested in Da Vinci, a talented genius with immense curiosity in everything in the universe born in Renaissance. He excels in many fields; he's an architect, a physician, a scientist, an artist, and anatomist.

Not familiar with Da Vinci, I knew about this master very late, with a desire to know how to be a accompanied person. I firstly noticed him in the notorious novel by Dan Brown, from the view of many Christians who could hardly find any evidence in that novel. Yet for me, not much information in this novel indicated Da Vinci excelled in a lot of ranges but only a brilliant inventor

Again my interest was aroused when I saw a mindmap entitled Seven Brains of Da Vinci summarizing the essence of a book. Being inquisitive, I searched that name in school library and borrowed it back, trying to hide the name of the book until I sat on my bike; people might think I was a geek who loved studying the brain of Da Vinci. Actually, I was.

The author Michael Gelb describe the life styles and habits of Da Vinci like he was tape-wiring this unusual old man. For example, Da Vinci scribbled ideas down or drew inspiration from ordinary things on his notebook. Da Vinci even suggested people eat wisely and do aerobics. That was what he said “nothing is harmful than eating unnaturally.”

Furthermore, I want to see Da Vinci's paintings if there's a chance, like a exhibition in Kaohsiung. Seeing the real works are definitely more helpful to help me know Da Vinci better.

Purchases that nurture my mind

My mindmap notebook had only few pages left. In the afternoon I rode my bike to the book store near my dad's restaurant to buy some new notebook and a diary for this year. There were still lots of beautiful Christmas cards piling behind the window. Although they were very beautiful, I turned to the sections where I can get the color pens to grab the colors I needed.

On my way home, I went to a second-hand book store that looked clean to dig some treasure. I called it HAUNTING: it was always fun to discover some fabulous old books in those bookstores. I bought a Edith Hamilton's Mythology in Chinese version which wasn't miserable at all. It cost me 80 dollars; much more cheaper that I can have one more food box next weekend.