Am I a competent communicator?

Introduction
At this special presentation, I am going to talk about the crossover between the textbook itself Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal Communication by Ronald B. Alder with collaboration by Lawrence B. Rosenfeld and Russell F. Proctor II in its thirteenth edition as of 2015 and my life being merged together into one whole entire project. The questions are: what concepts did I learn in this quarter that were the most significant for me, what were my communication strengths, what were the special communication challenges I struggle with, and what will I do to overcome/mitigate those challenges. These are tough to answer in my unique perspective, so with that... let me answer them all real quick first thing.

The Main Body

1. What concepts did I learn in this quarter that were the most significant for me?
• One of the concepts I learned in this quarter that were the most significant for me was culture. Previously, in leadership class, we have understood the difference between individualistic and collectivist cultures ("one culture in which people view their primary responsibility as helping themselves and the other culture whose members feel loyalties and obligations to an in-group, such as an extended family, a community, and even a work organization") (Alder et al., 2015 p. 45). Now that I have reviewed it, I was more of a context-neutral person whose religion was somewhat collective. I have belonged to the achievement culture ("a culture that places a high value on the achievement of material success and a focus on the task at hand") (Alder et al., 2015 p. 48) where the American Dream was supposed to be fulfilled in the young adult years and up, yet their "to-do" lists never stop growing; however, in my household and religion, their important agenda was more of a nurturing cult where we were supposed to stop with the busyness and be thankful for everyday (the definition was "a culture that regards the support of relationships as an especially important goal") (Alder et al., 2015 p. 48). When it comes to authority, we have to respect every single high power; on the contrary, people were created equal. Uncertainty avoidance ("the tendency of a culture's members to feel threatened by ambiguous situations, and how much they try to avoid them") (Alder et al., 2015 p. 47) was common sometimes and in other times they were questionable. The co-cultures ("groups within encompassing cultures with a perceived identity") (Alder et al., 2015 p. 39) have influenced us who we truly are as individuals. My identity for instance is this: I am an almost 22-year old Hispanic-Caucasian heterosexual American Washingtonian autistic conservative broke contemporary evangelical Christian journalist whose career was full-time student with the self-employment of making clothes to sell. I grew up with the familiar language known as American English. During my childhood, I had struggled with learning new languages until senior year of high school where I learned ASL in general. Verbally, my second language was unofficial for now until later.
• The topic before that was the interpersonal process. I am not a perfect communicator, but I had found the transactional communication model (the model of the "dynamic process in which communicators create meaning together via interacting with each other") (Alder et al., 2015 p. 10, 13) attractive because I thought, "Sure I am gonna use it in case it's necessary to have it as a cover of my 'to-say' list." It's like e-mail except we were required to use the face-to-face interaction often because it would increase the chance of satisfaction. (Alder et al., 2015 p. 7) I think I have done it enough with one person for a term, but I might with another in the next one or two. This has caused me to take a break from Internet time and stick to the social gatherings. I have done one coffee talk with an old friend and some group studying with a new friend and/or a familiar acquaintance. The social media aspect was the new norm these days, and it seems people were addicted to it.
2. What were my communication strengths (at least 3)?
• My communication strengths are the following: 1. Nonverbal communication was strong when I saw others doing it and it happened ever since then from the beginning and onward. Although I have seen images more than the words, I have reactions sometimes to whatever could go on. I noticed the emoticons since late elementary, and sometimes I found it annoying and distracting when it comes to actual reading. Otherwise, I ended up typing up with "=)" on my old phone. In the new phone, the emoticons were better and it was somehow more limited than the iPhone version in which half of its users had. I was mostly happy, but in my early college years, I did have the mood swings. At the end, at least right now, I am getting really exhausted from all of the hard work well done. 2. Verbal communication (or language) was necessary in "human communication" (Alder et al., 2015 p. 140). I think it made sense when I was reading, but in speech it was okay. When I was listening to people talk, I realized the volume was too soft for my ears. If there weren't more people around, I am trying to understand what they were saying. Topics were at random, and the usual part shows up sometimes for a half hour. That was excerpted from the verbal communication assignment I have experimented with. The naming part reminded me of picking out names I have selected for my original characters from the large name book (and later, "Behind the Name" on the internet). I am good at using the "I" pronoun, but I have to get better at reducing the "we" language in the future. (p. 161 for table) 3. Listening was normal to me right now, for I was proud of my journaling in the past seven and a half years when it comes to taking notes during the lessons and other occasional serious podcasts all of the time, yet I don't pay attention to the speaker. In class, they said you have to really listen and not write anything. In contrast, stats show that "11.4% of the overall communication activities was writing". (Alder et al., 2015 p. 205) I was internally afraid I might lose focus and not get any specific instructions unless I have to ask, "What did you say? Could you please repeat after me?" Sometimes, people were rushed ahead of me and I have to catch up with the notes. The problem between the two was pacing of speech. In task-oriented listening ("a listening style that is primarily concerned with efficiency") (Alder et al., 2015 p. 208) from teachers and instructors, we were supposed to plan on doing assignments on our planners since elementary school as I knew it. I wrote down what I was supposed to do early on, but my mind just reminded itself and it told me what to do in the later times. My challenge of listening was the noise because I was affected by it big time and it was therefore indeed a norm for most if not some people. Growing up, the television was on all the time. Now, other sources have gone activated at the time from the start of day to finish. I don't pay attention to sports radio since it was always my dad's turn and I never got the chance to do my music (which was either 91.3 FM or 98.1 FM (95.7 FM per weekends)). Man, I was bombarded by television advertisements, which went on and on and on forever and ever. I could at least stop it from happening and enjoy myself reading a book. When I was younger, I used to daydream all the time about my own stories. Today, I'm like stuck in the middle of the road, not knowing what next since NaNoWriMo came and went. In terms of listening responses, I was more of a silent listener (the one who "stood attentive and nonverbally responsive without verbal feedback") (Alder et al., 2015 p. 217) ever since I was a kid.
3. What were the special communication challenges I struggle with (2-3)?
• The special communication challenges I struggle with and are facing now as of the following: 1. Managing the conflict. I was more of an avoider (a person who ignores conflict) (Alder et al., 2015 p. 372-373) than does a collaborator (the one who wanted the best for everyone) (Alder et al., 2015 p. 377-378) during my growing up years because I want to let everyone else do with their own busyness and I knew I have worked hard constantly. Never have I ever paid attention to the conflicts because they were like one huge issue in my life and no resolution was necessary due to its negativity. Sometimes, it can be positive when it comes to constructive competition during games and contests. Aside that, I have accommodations a lot because everyone's doing it and I certainly don't stand up, for example: Mom told me I'd rather do what she requests rather than having to deal with my own plans. In other words, it was a "lose-win situation". (p. 373-374) 2. I have issues with dynamics of interpersonal relationships. We were so bombarded by the media, everything is nothing but all fluff! In real-life, it is not all sunshine, laugh tracks, shiny colors, lollipops, and rainbows, it's serious, tragic, complex, and bleak. I tried talking to more friends, but it was all but a few at a time and sometimes I forget names of random strangers. I was supposed to come together just to initiate and go "for common ground" (Alder et al., 2015 p. 279) before aiming for close friendships. I have yearned for it, but in an outing someday, I was gonna have two chaperones aged eighteen and older. In the end, when people depart from me especially at the close of every academic year while in high school and college, I never get to see them again unless they were on Facebook. Sometimes, I cross paths with anyone who was familiar with me.
4. What will I do to overcome/mitigate those challenges?
• To overcome/mitigate those challenges, I have to work on the collaboration skills so badly, even though I don't seem to fit in with the workforce crowd. I had tried to become assertive and not just silently passive, for I would be open to more types of conflict management.
• I will come up with a list of questions all searched out from the Internet for a sample to try out during conversations and hopefully will do my best at it.

Conclusion

I was a competent communicator when I have the time for relational gatherings in people, but in this task-oriented society, my resolution was to stop whatever I was doing individually since I know I have read most of the textbook and I could see others interacting inside my mind as if I thought about them. It's not about me unless it was necessary when it comes to assignments and this project that was about to be done. My goal in the long run: I have to always improve relationships in the near and distant future due to the reason that I have to find Mr. Right in a few years to come. All in all, that sums up the merge between the textbook about interpersonal communications and my entire life.

Works Cited

Alder, Ronald B. et al. Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal Communication. New York City: Oxford University Press, 2015. Print. 13th Edition.

SPECIAL: It Has Been 1 Year Since I Was Saved From the Monotonous Norm Called Drama and All Talk

Thank goodness I have 50% of the progress through Into Thin Air one year ago when the clock struck midnight after an hour of rest. I am so glad with last year's results, it was nothing but a story come true in my life. I was prepared for my single years based on the advent calendar, so it was like a chapter per calendar year plus 20 days. Here I was being eager to know the truth of what was to come, even though I already started the Left Behind series in chronological order. I thought this is gonna be a challenge in one sitting, but then again I was put off the line due to my busyness going on. Sorry about the delays! I tried my best to learn and grow during the Trump era. I would have gotten caught up with the writing, which I believed was too long of a deal for myself. Otherwise, life doesn't have to be the way it was initially planned out from my mind; at least my parents have expected me to be different from my thinking. I am a somewhat better person right now than I was yesteryear.

Ten Halloween Things I’ve Never Done

1. I don't read Twilight

• It sucks!

2. I never watched the Halloweentown saga

• I would've loved it when it first came out, but nope... it's due to my religious reasons.

3. I never had any costumish lingerie

• I wish I'd own a wolfish one from Yancy (but only if I have black leggings and camisole)
• If I had a blonde twin sister, she can have a sinful bunny one.

4. I never saw the horror film the entire time

• I've seen parts of it for a bit and they look cheesy at worst (until I saw Krampus)

5. I don't view Wizards of Waverly Place

• It was much worse than Harry Potter (I only read the first book ten years ago and the character descriptions were ugly)!

6. I never read or watched The Golden Compass

• I thought it was a holiday film for kids six and up. Ugh! I never get to do anything by Pullman.

7. We never did the dinner party.

• We are getting close to my sister's high school graduation (7.5 months from now) and this is gonna be one feast next year!
• Don't mind the colors grey, black, and white.
• Plus squid pasta and shrimp with salad and fun drinks to enjoy

8. I never drank hard apple cider from Angry Orchard

• I saw the ads on cable (used to due to my genius personality) and I wanna try it since I'm 21

9. I DNF That's So Raven

• It drags on and on and on and we didn't get to finish by the time we were in Oregon
• I will never get to watch it due to Disney having the streaming service of its own in a year or two (not signing up ever, sorry).

10. I never joined the Thriller Mob

• I heard of the song and we did a dance in a homecoming party, but outside in the open in broad sunlight? Eh... why the heck not?!

Part of the Broke and Bookish (instead of costume, there are the experiences never done in my life)

The Year of Hope: What I Have Changed So Far

It has been a wonderful nine months since the year of hope began. Look how time flew by very quickly! I went from careless emo who had no responsibility for realistic timing to cautious leader with a schedule planned out for myself. I had a good time, though the troubles had come. I felt very content and blessed.

Late Summer Announcement!!!

My blog just turned 4 today, so it was the fourth anniversary day! Happy anniversary and look how time flew by from a carefree 17-year old to a more intelligent 21-year old. I am getting better at writing everyday, though it has been a long time since my last post. Anyways: I have officially completed chapter 20 of my fanfic and I need a bit of revisions since this is getting a bit over the top and I just can't control my mind like crazy. I am losing it over the summer!!! Oh, man... what am I going to do? Editing! That could happen. School is resuming in 20 days... I can feel it as I am going to get back on schedule, folks. Good day!

What do you miss most about being a kid during summer break?

Being a kid during summer break, I missed about going on camp trips, plane rides, swimming lessons (I lack them as we get older), the playground, being out in the small backyard, and hopefully vacation bible school (we missed them in 2008 and 2009 and always will when married) because I'm getting sick of them since I WANT a full-time summer job out-of-state. Last year was the first summer break we really did NOT take due to grandma starting to age slowly in nearly a year and counting (we ended up having a stamp job). I don't miss the sunshine and the frequent rain (we live in Washington State) at all. The last time we'd seen a wedding was back in 2010, yet I spent the teen-aged life on losses and funerals from the year 2009 and up and yearly graduations since 2012 - we had witnessed four suicides, for the last one was back at the end of January 2017 - everyone will be missed by all of one another. The next wedding day will be mine and MINE ALONE!!! There is just nothing more than courtship prior to this. I wish we want summer all year long and also I want to homeschool the kids from K-12, so that way they could have their longest summer vacation ever until school starts for the first time when they were EIGHTEEN. I prefer going to Florida instead because why the heck not.

Forever

How can I never forget the time I saw the world?

The realm outside the urban zone is like an ambient adventure.

I remember my long recovery from drama over the months' span,

It was very important to know all about things outside the fiction.

I sorta outgrew my nostalgic life as a nerd because...

Let's face it: I am not worthy to be known as shadhardblogger or whatevs.

Planet Trump? Anyone Want Some?

I declare Communications as a major in the middle of last night's speech because I trained to journal nearly seven years in the making before the past forty days of my life. I am super proud of my global studies that I have done for twenty-eight days straight despite me waiting and catching up until the point of no return while I procrastinated to do some other things. Yeah, I am one super busy girl, okay. I'm putting my plans into action, so it's really necessary to work on as I try to be better at becoming more diligent in all of the successes to go through the flow of my productivity. Although I fixed my problems alright before the end of the past month, I truly feel confident and satisfied with what I already have. March was going to be the best month of my life as of yet - really better than February and as a bit of the best of January - taking up most of the Lent season to leave the last third for the first half of April. Today is my seventh anniversary of the new beginning: putting the nail stickers on the days via devotions that led me to have a hobby to journal whatever I want, for as long as newer things really opened the doors wide open. My possible career track was to be a journalist, but I don't want to risk it because my minor will be under creative writing. It's possible for me to transfer over to UW in Bothell, yet I prefer the real one - you know Seattle - where I want to expand newer horizons to my college experience and graduate extremely hard to get a high-paying job well done in order to be super famous one day. This is what I'm going to do right now!

Before November 8, 2016, I was stuck and still don't understand on what to do after college, but feel forced to do either Provail or the DSHS system. I feel hopeless in one area... I was undeclared back then. Being pointless and depressed made me want to escape reality for inner worlds of others, yet I made the situations worse and it was all of my fault to make mistakes in spring 2016. I feel very ashamed of myself for being too stupid. I understand the consequences and I went through it in order to accept the lessons to be learned.

Many weeks later, I felt truly happy and am so excited to journal outside the usual messages I hear either every other day or on Sundays. I planned to write a book; however, I did more longer entries in the year than expected on several journals. I bought so many beautiful gifts for loved ones everywhere by far - first of all, I sent my aunt and grandma cards; second, I sent my sister lotion, body wash, and two more candles to last long; third, I wrapped up the candles in gift wrapping paper to give to mom on her birthday because she loves the smell of berries when it comes to scented things; fourth, my dad enjoyed lemon meringue pie I'll give him a sample of the lemon sicilian candle for his birthday and I'll give my parents a bigger one for each special day - both Mother's and Father's - to make them feel happy; and finally, my other sister still needs sketchbooks and art pencils for her birthday which I still want to get to make her feel proud when she opened up her presents - I would be generous in the end, as if it's just enough.

To sum up this post, I've read 61 chapters of the Left Behind series so far. I'll write to you soon by Easter. Goodbye!

Freebie: 10 to Try Challenge 2017

1. book by an author of color: Beloved by Toni Morrison
2. graphic novel/comic book: Saga Art by Fiona Staples; Written by Brian K. Vaughan
3. a book from new-to-you genre: cozy mystery - A Lady in the Attic by Tara Randel
4. a collection of short stories/essays: The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler
5. STEM: What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Book by Randall Munroe
6. book published since 1942: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
7. audiobook: either anything by Wm. Paul Young or not
8. recommended online: This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills (for 2016 best cover from Howdy YAL!)
9. debut: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
10. book by the PNWA author: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

What's your to-do list? Please let us know in the comments.

Presidents' Day is All Upon Us!!!

Just a Quick Note to You Readers

Hi, everyone. I have some important news: I'm not going to be on the Internet for the weekend because I'll have a vacation to do. Please be patient until I can come back by Monday or so. Thank you for the reminders! See you real soon. Bye!

Morning in The Economist

Yesterday, I haven't done any reading lately except for the syllabuses for English class. And today, I was very introduced to experience it for the first time in my life. Two of the five articles I've read had dealt with the Brexit. Remember that picture?

I wonder if I studied economics enough, at least it coincidences with business during leadership. I need to find out more of what else is exactly new to me for as long as it is updated and running for the week starting on Monday, January 23, 2017. Anyways, I'm keeping myself sane from all of the annoying cliches I've read in Amazon reviews and other online comments. Toodles, and see you on Epiphany Eve!

Another Day, Another...What Have You Done, Ms. Nat?

Yesterday, it turned out that Viviana Ivinisova had a variety of nicknames picked out by two authors of the same book. I realized that she belonged to many spirits, so the religion was made up of certain things from wizardry. Marilena was indeed the second Chosen One by the LORD who will make her want to have her wish granted: to have children, yet Sorin is indeed not that interested in impregnating her. Marilena went from being agnostic to somewhat playing Christian, but sought further knowledge in order to stop questioning things. Viv had a somewhat strong background in unknown spirits since childhood, although in the growing up years her original country called Soviet Union had fallen and the name had changed to the original state (Russia). Her family lived in Romania. I don't know specifically what Romania is like, so it must've been some foreign country where my aunt picked up a boy for adoption in the early 1990s. While I read The Rising, I was culturally open-minded to Romania, for I wonder what were the name terms were like if I look up on Google or either Wikipedia if it needs more specification. New characters were introduced: they were Baruda and his wife; Ian who did the Romans Road like my father did last summer. When the wish was finally accepted, Marilena went to the genetic engineering building and there the two DNAs were consisted of higher IQs, so the pregnancy was easy. She did not divorce Sorin until after the baby was born, yet there were surprise twists and turns: Baruda's wife committed suicide, and that Baruda was welcomed to "the safe space full of horizontal flying six colors" aka LGBTQ+ community, so he was identified as gay, for he and Sorin were married. Marilena was resigned by the four month mark at the end of the semester, so she can kick out of the apartment and move to the cottage in Cuj. Viv showed up and supported Marilena. The time came for Marilena's baby to be born when she and Viv were taken to the hospital with the mouse in the cage, and then Nicolae Jetty was born while the mouse had been slitted the throat by the knife from Viv.

Meanwhile, Ray had a plan that when he was 13, he worked on the machines in his father's place to make money for flying lessons by next year. As he grew older, he had some acne problems and went really more clumsy than athletic. I know he's a laughing stock, but his spiritual life hadn't changed a bit - he's tuned out of service.

Back in Romania, Nicolae was like any other children except he's more of a genius with curiosity than ever, so he got into everything as a toddler like everyone else. When he got bigger a bit, he knew requirements for life and developed hobbies - he read in nearly every language Marilena and Viv knew about, did some computer skills in six months before being proficient, rode a pony and played soccer. When he was six, he's starting public school by the end of the summer.

In review, I wanted my first son to have a middle name Nicolae because it's cool-fitting for my liking. I've read twelve chapters into the series by far, so I'm very happy and grateful for a head start into my 2017 resolution reading walk-through challenge with the Left Behind series. I can't wait to see how he turns out when he's older.

2017: The Year of My Left Behind Challenge

Yesterday, I called it a devotional day, so I have to at least do it again. The vision for this year was Decisions and Destiny, yet I made up a goal to read the entire walkthrough of the Left Behind series. Prior to this, we're going back to the actual beginning of my journal life. In 2010, I was all self-centered and egotistical while reflecting at the same time. When 2011 came along, I read the entire walkthrough of the "radio edit version" attached to my old school pink Bible. 2012: I read the Gospels four times. 2013: I did Expect the Unexpected. 2014 is a year I supposedly graduated high school, so I literally started taking the Internet for seriousness. By then, I enjoyed LPs and fanfiction in my late teens since they were my thing. 2015: things start to pick a pace at some point over the summer, so in the end, I decided to make a reflective book based on Genesis. 2016 is probably one of my low points by far in this decade. Everyone else has time to read Scripture, but I don't. I kept failing apart, and that's what the Internet addiction had such a heavy burden on me, so I stopped watching LPs because they're too long and fanfiction editing is taking forever to upload. Ugh! Epic fail...

Plus the fun part of the past year: knowing that Trump won made me want to write a memoir about my adult chronicles. And now, here I am: one day had passed and a new one begins anew. While I read the first 66 pages of The Rising, I was related to Marilena except she's more experienced in literature than I do, and that's fine. I understand that I read Why I Read - the author gave me a list of 100 books and I shared it to Tumblr while I made up my own list of books for leisure. I had so many connections to my life on a variety full of levels next to The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time, I wish I was desperate enough to have a child like Marilena did. It was more likely being either next to my lifetime wish, or it's just one of the plot elements why I want to write a sequel to Incendiary. At one time, in 2015, I had a library meeting of Mind Matters. The topic was focused on the aging, so I had a long life ahead especially if I need to make my next 49 years of life a reality. According to Wait But Why, it's 90 years. I made up a chart of Harper Lee's life last year, and she's darn close to being 90 when she passed on. This year, I want to make two more charts: one for Carrie and another for Debbie. Marilena and her Classical Literature professor Sorin had more meetings, and look who's there: Ms. Viviana Ivinisova had appeared in classy fashion. She showed up to meditate others into communicating with spirits and whatnot because if I think she's insane, then she can't be crazy enough due to her open-mindedness. I learned religions other than Christianity: first the Jewish, then the others: Hinduism, Buddhism, Muslim and atheism/agnosticism. I've read them in Life of Pi. Meanwhile, Ray and Bobby were friends at grade school, even though they enjoyed soccer and other things the boys had done except... Ray just played Christian over and over, and Bobby's really serious about being an Evangelist/fundamentalist, he wants to take full-time in ministry when he grows up. Ray wants to be either a pro-athlete or a pilot. I had strong feelings toward my spiritual life about this issue, although Central Church was probably commercialized with pictures of God and Jesus. My advice to the family of Central: do the cross instead. My own was very simplistic but small: we had free coffee on the way to sanctuary and the after-service had cheap knock-off cookies like the usual. Sometimes, we had cake. On Mother's Day, the men in aprons serve tea, and we had sandwiches, fruit and veggies, and souvenir-like gifts on the way out. Before Mother's Day, one of the staff members were like "Bring in your mothers with you." And then, old people showed up, and they keep coming over the years, although some people do brought them in for visits. Specifically, my own mother meanwhile was downstairs, but sometimes she stayed upstairs. Father's Day used to be a whole thing for grandfathers until 2009 when they all died. In 2010 onward, Dad was exclusively honored. A few years later, by that, we meant betrayal and not being condemned. Mother's Day should've been called Women's Day and Father's Day a Men's Day. In 2017, I would like to call it my day because I'm 21 soon. I should've wished Mom, my aunts and grandma a wonderful Women's Day. For now, things went off to a good start.

Upgrade to Podcast?!

You know, I'm already sick and tired of text posts. I need a new upgrade to either switch to the podcast or not. If the recount goes as surprisingly expected, I could only go on with just the text and nothing more. If we were to keep him the way it is, starting on the weekend of January 20, we'll have the premiere of a new podcast series: The Incendiary of a Bellevue College Kid. It's about the huge difference between objective and subjective perspectives between the elder and a youngster in just a couple voices: president and myself only.

UPDATE: We are officially upgrading to podcast! Thank you guys for reading. It's been over 3 years since the establishment, but we'll miss you if you're liberal. *sniffle* Don't worry, everyone: there's a podcast site coming up.

I've Survived Fall Term At Last!!!

Finally, I am done! This past term was a lot better than spring of last school year because I got enough sleep, walked 30 minutes per day, ate something better, had plenty of fluids and restarted all over again. Luckily, I felt content with what I already had, so there's no need to put more things on hold and whatnot. I officially had a month off from school, which gives me enough time to read the rest right off the bat without any interruptions and I am feeling free to do whatever I wanna do so. 😃

The holidays is officially here, would you like to build a snowman? ⛄

Seasons greetings!

Re-reading Recap Redux #1: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

I may be starting a new series about the redux of rereads for books that happened before the blog came to the Internet. In the first post, we'll be talking about Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

My sisters and I have all read the text! My experience is that I already read it in high school, but specifically, it was junior year (2012-13) - just less than a year left to its establishment. Speaking of having to do the redux, there are bitter times, and there are sweet times. Some stuff could be remembered and others may tend to be forgotten. Some are at the same page as yesterday, and some are way ahead in time for the ending. Some ended up with many loose ends so bad, nobody even answers it after a long while. Some could contain a perfect moment to finish things up. Some do not need any sense like nothing happens, and some have an 100% actual plot. Some have full of angst and some are so sane, they like to be honest.

"In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol. 

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While 'scholarshipping' at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship - and innocent love - that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept. 

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice - words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago. 

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart."

I remember like it was yesteryear when we should've went to the play that was based on the book, luckily I haven't finished it yet until later in semester one. This book came out one week after Obama swore to office, and yet it happened the day after we buried the first grandpa in the same year (my dad's dad). I know this is one of the classics too recent for our timing, but the story itself took place one generation earlier (it was 1986 if you don't know) and then we went further back in time to "the war years" Henry called it. Although it took place a few years after the main events of The Boys in the Boat at the same city, but this time in another spot where the International District used to be Japantown that's four times the same size as Chinatown before the soldiers kidnapped the Japanese and took them to prison camps. Not only it was a love story, but it's about friendship and a coming-of-age story that is somewhat different than the usual, typical unknown type of awakenings you see in movies, shows and books.

When it comes to reading this book the first time, I already saw inspiration that happened to develop my main OC for a story of my own. As a result, it transformed into a fanfic that was published digitally nearly two years earlier that caused myself to put on permanent hiatus mode in the end. During the redux, I noticed another side which lead me to read Snow Falling on Cedars in order to wrap-up 2016 during my winter break, so I could settle down, spend time with family and just recover myself from so many pages I've read over the past few years of my entire life. Not only did the English class picked out the same book I already read in high school, but I really forced myself to read the whole entire thing again through for 30 pages per week in succession by the usual five sections: quotes, questions for discussions, illustrations, connecting the plot to life and vocabulary. At the end of this book, we ended up going on a field trip to the setting where the book took place for the 11am Wingluke Museum tour. We had Chinese food afterward.

If you read this book, I strongly recommend Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - more of a love interracial story during the war years except instead of a Chinese, we got a white person.

Source:
www.goodreads.com

Stop Questioning Things Like This

Last Sunday evening, my mother was like "Does it contain sex and stuff?" and I'm like "No." I was lying in order to keep everything a secret from happening, but I pretended I was dumb.

"Does it have bad language?"

I again replied no. It was a good thing for her, but for me: it's not! That's censorship which ruined everything including life and drama. I know some of you including me have read Fahrenheit 451 before. I am not a child anymore, I'm over 18 now because I currently read challenged and banned books. I am so mature enough to read whatever I want, for as long as I don't have plenty of conflict with values (anything LGBT-related was a HUGE no-no). I'm a-okay with being straight.

When I was eleven, I read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone once. My mom can't let me read witchcraft. Instead, I found The Chronicles of Narnia to be boring, pointless and stupid. Seven years later, Grace Parsons, a soccer mom and a proud housewife wrote Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles. I know I'm a better writer than Mrs. Parsons, Smeyer and E. L. James combined. Grace's children aren't allowed to read witchcraft, but I wonder how they reacted to the story their mom wrote. I heard that Grace's friends are so thankful for her "little mission". What were they thinking?!

My generation just don't understand outside the comfort zone on social media, but they were brainwashed by a culture that takes its own path. When it comes to edutainment, I mean One Magnificent Morning and all of that because I miss Saturday morning cartoons being aired on television. Edutainment in society standards: let's say they shove their pro-gay theological beliefs down the children's throats. By 2017-18, the kids in the state of Washington grades K-7 will be exposed to anything gender-related and I'd rather homeschool my children until the end of June of their senior year in high school, so they can go to college, Transition Academy, whatever works for them without any prior knowledge before that month of June (it's a deadline focusing on gender-related and sex ed things).

When I was small, there used to be a man and a woman as always, but when I was a teen, I was exposed to the gender-related aspect of society. I saw the rainbow flag too many times and we all missed out on pride parades because of church picnics. I've seen one float, but judgement was coming anyday now. As a kid, I thought homosexuality was rare. Today, it's more common like a trending norm. Sex at work? Definitely not safe.

Have you not understand that in shows, 52% have violence and about 60% have sexual content? I saw a movie where an older man from Britain was a hermaphrodite and a professor.

Some people never learn! To be honest on the censorship with freedom of speech, PABBIS (or Parents Against Bad Books in Schools) is yet another example. They act like morons who attracted national attention in some ways that the ACLU was involved.

Language-wise, in my opinion, classic literature is academic language and modern literature is common-for-everyday language. I felt like I had enough classic-reading for now because they felt too slow when I was in junior high and probably in high school. I was very reluctant at that time when some of my peers were probably too addicted to Twilight and encountered the first intimate scene in their entire lives at Breaking Dawn in 7th grade. I haven't seen the intimacy yet until near the end of sophomore year in high school when I did it with A Lesson Before Dying. At around Forrest Gump, I lost count of it and moved on. My mother said I can't read anything paranormal romantic, but I'm so eager, anxious and nervous enough to read Twilight on my smartphone while listening to Klebkatt, Hushicho and company "read-not". I don't have the money to pay for Patreon despite the fact that I got my account.

To be perfectly fair with my life, I'm very diligent about opening up new worlds and not worrying about the content that made everything all one-dimensional. Otherwise, I was severely affected and always looked down upon later in life (once when I turn 30+ if you were more specific). I would've been 100% more repetitive if I keep reading the Bible over and over again. I want to get out of the "pro-family" comfort zone and move on to discover the vast unknown of something stupid (e.g. birth control, condoms, alcohol, cigarettes) really badly, so I could be the next Prezzi in the future and arrest more complaints for violations of first amendment. That way, everyone should be more happier than ever before, and let's hope to perma-ban PABBIS for good. My future campaign theme is "Let America Read For Free Again!"

EVERYONE, PLEASE STOP QUESTIONING THINGS LIKE THIS AND LET YOURSELVES READ WHATEVER YOU WANT! GIVE YOUR MINDS A CHANCE TO LET IT GROW AND CHOOSE YOUR OWN SIDE!

Understand Title IX Before You Regret

NOTE: This post is dedicated to Self-Advocacy. It was considered to be a final project.

WARNING: This post contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised!

Introduction

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination. It protects all kinds of students - uncomfirmed, male and female. It applies to universities and community colleges who have received financial aid assistance from ED. OCR was interested in evaluating, investigating and resolving complaints of discrimination. Title IX was dedicated to fostering healthy relationships. It could cover most likely to athletics, but not limited to stalking, dating violence, harassment, etc. It was not just the instituitions, but rather, it extends to the K-12, if not, probably the whole life stage group "from elementary to professional".

What is the difference between consent and non-consent?

Consent is permission to get involved in a sexual activity. It must be positively cooperative, so partners must respect the boundaries. In Washington state, you must be 16 years of age or older, yet in America, we waited two more years to do so. Non-consent is without permission, for offenders took consent very loose enough to force the victims to encounter in any activity of sex. The conduct that is short of the voluntary acquiescence to consent does not constitute as the matter of the law.

Confidentiality & Right to Privacy

Confidentiality is the protection of personal information and keeping individual files a secret from others. The right to privacy must be applied to everyday life including having to take breaks in public or private, regardless of the law. In order to stay safe and secured from harm's way during the outing, you don't need to tell anyone about such things as the social security number because it was too personal - keep in secrecy by mind.

Title IX and Disability

Unfortunately, there may be relevant federal civil rights laws other than Title IX because certain people who have disabilities would need additional support and help from the Disability Resource Center in order to deal with the incident about sexual violence. If you're deaf, find an interpreter to seek visual attention. If you have a disability with print, the paper forms were more widely available paperless than ever before, so you could zoom-in font on screen for easy reading.

Response

A coordinator must keep watch over the complaints and reports. He/she could identify the patterns of behavior and problems over the suspect. If the subject was to be informed in complex detail, it would make a lot more sense to advocate the issues being raised with or without question. Any employee is responsible to redress the incidents between the suspect and the victim of sexual violence. Advocacy must be informally required to students who may disclose. The appeal must occur before there are any further threats in the future from the suspect regardless of the history of crime.

The University of Utah Reports...

Over half of the students do not even know where to get support from campus, yet 73% had been drunk before the assault. As of October 29, 1 in 5 women will be raped compared to 1 in 71 men. 5% reported to the entity of an institution. Nearly 12% didn't respond prior to attacks. 18.8% females and 4.7% males who were both undergraduates only reported the incidents.

What to Do for Self-Advocacy in Regards of Title IX?

Why throw in the event for "Take Back the Night"? How about the rape kit? If you don't know what it is, it is a crime investigation kit that was used for collecting and testing samples from the incident that happened. It was forensically proven to look for clues to discover and test both the suspect and the victim. Look at the bright side, in order to participate in supporting Title IX with such knowledge, "Take Back the Night" was an international event that happens every year. It was attended most likely by women, but in recent years, men wanted to take part in the march to end sexual violence, date rape and domestic violence. Tracing back to Germany, Take Back the Night was originally marched for anti-porn. Suddenly, the United Kingdom got involved for the march on women's fear of walking alone in the dark and pretty soon, things went everywhere.

April is the month of sexual assault awareness, yet it coincides with being aware of autism.

Conclusion

Now that you understand how Title IX works, you could check out the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center to "end the silence" for more information. If you need a non-profit organization to participate, a book In Our Backyard by Nita Belles may be able to help.

Citation
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/qa-201404-title-ix.pdf
http://www.sltrib.com/home/4500428-155/most-university-of-utah-students-dont
http://www.feminist.com/activism/collegeactivismtb.html
http://www.kcsarc.org/

Discussion of Films That Deserve Something of Great Efforts and Other Things to Announce for the Future

I know there are some I might look forward to, but I presume in the future, there are some Disney Channel Original Movies that deserve either a classic throwback/modern-day refresher or a fanfic remake with a brand-new OC cast, new location, realistic situations of life through whether history or timeless, and there are some slim chances of pre-existing characters from fandoms we all know and love nowadays. Despite all of that, I know one of the authors did the remake script of something more of what I knew and enjoyed the best, come to think of it...

I have a nostalgic feeling I had a flashback to the intro as a tween, I've seen everything after many attempts to do so, and look what I've done to Aleena's family: I watched Frozen back in 2014, I got mesmerized by the images of what I've seen for days, I added her parents (the father was Tristran and the mother was Gloriana) and her younger sister (Elissa relationship-wise) that personally existed for nearly three years to be the family before this as depicted above, I made up a backstory for Generation 2 in which I may or may not tell about and that's fine. But look what happened to her 25 years earlier?!

*gasp* Discount Les Miserables!

Speaking of having to do with song, I will deal with the poem of my own to be written. But at least I'll get back to it later, so I don't want to at least spoil myself or else I might look nonsensical for some reason because my brain does not think of her own song yet and I'm learning myself to write down songs and poetry at a time.

At one question where it says "Poetry: like or dislike" according to Y!A, most of the people in the first page just placed "dislike" in it. I may be the only one who likes poetry, but I have not read the actual thing unless it has 100% song lyrics in it on occasion. (I know it's hard to analyze the lyrics, but the melody contained within it is more powerful on the inside than it did justice to the original writing to compare with our translated meanings!) I've analyzed 2 songs (both are my favorites), but the previous year, we contrasted Springsteen's "The River" with Garth Brooks' "The River". I have nothing else left to say... Music is the most natural skill I've ever contained through life from birth to death, and that's fine. On the more positive note, I am an introvert who made up my inner statehood to this day.

Over this new school year (2016-17), I'm trying to fill up the "500 Writing Prompts" with the words I feel are absolutely up-to-date for publication before I could find 642 remaining prompts for "volume two". The day-by-day basis is probably a huge failure to me, but I'll try again in the meantime in order to arrange things to make it a 365-day book full of my writing which would mean a win-win scenario for money. I wish I could make the next bestseller series for a new generation which may be the inspiration of both sources together to make a semi-autobiographic story of my inner life.

To be honest with the NaNoWriMo stuff, I'm too slow to finish a book which is a pain to do so, due to more ads looking forward to Black Friday and Christmas and the world seems less on what I'm trying to focus exactly on. November is definitely not the best choice for me to do so, I prefer May over any other month just so more people could buy it by June for a graduation gift or any other occasion for the summer. I didn't read any projects that were written in the time of the previous NaNoWriMo contests, so here's what I was supposed to read according to Wikipedia:

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, published by Doubleday

Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, published by Delacorte Press

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, published by St. Martin's Press (my sister is not that interested)

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, published by Dutton Juvenile

The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough, published by Del Rey Books

Cinder by Marissa Meyer, published by Square Fish

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy, published by HarperCollins Publishers

Assassin’s Heart by Sarah Ahiers, published by HarperCollins Publishers

I was supposed to continue writing "Grey Petals" for November 2015, but I was literally on hiatus mode due to all of the events and drama. It got delayed and was indeed an ineligible project to be done. Grey Petals did not count toward the next NaNoWriMo, which sucks bad! :(

And... look what I was going to read for fun over fall term of this year: it's called Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books by Wendy Lesser. It's going to be a great book about stories contained in a cover, and I really love it a lot! I was hoping to be more responsible one day, and just give it a try! I'll see how it works out okay, so it's been the entire five years (half-decade) since Reading Improvement back in sophomore year in high school. I've read stuff for school (sorta), I enjoyed banned books, I finally had the freedom to do whatever I want because of USA and its first amendment!!! And now, I want to get deeper into the subject about reading for fun because I have to.

That's it for today, thanks for reading and once again, happy Patriots Day!