Entry 3 - Favorite Fictional Character..

In my life, I've come across so many fictional characters. Most of which I see from watching cartoons or movies. Not so much from reading. I've never really thought of any favorites though.

My childhood imagination was mostly inspired by the Aime Dragonball Z (DBZ). I used to watch it every single day. I loved watching that characters fighting in lightning speeds and shooting energy beams from their bare hands. Son Gohan was my favorite character.

I followed the development of Son Gohan's character from the beginning of DBZ. From the moment he first appeared in the series. It was very exciting watching Gohan during that time. He was just an innocent little boy whose father was a great world champion fighter. However, Gohan didn't share the same interest in fighting as his father does.

Son Goku is a man who loves to fight. He loves fighting people who are stronger than him in order to test his abilities and to improve is skills. Gohan is the opposite. He's sich a peaceful little kid who plays with butterflies and who is afraid of sea turtles. He was then, just an ordinary little boy.

Gohan eventually changes though. Throughout the series, Gohan into a great and strong fighter like his dad, Goku. It was much exciting to know that Gohan possibly had hidden powers which surpasses his father's but could only be seen when Gohan get angry.We were 0nly entertained by glimpse of Gohan's power.

As Gohan grows older, he becomes so powerful that in one of the seasons, he becomes the main hero. The DBZ character, Gohan goes through such drastic changes. Changes that I find very exciting. I love seeing the smaller characters become the heroes.

This character has influenced most of my teenage fantacies. When I start imaginig a character, that character will very much resemble Son Gohan. Until today, gohan has been one of the biggest influence in my action packed fantacies.

I myself sometimes am able to relate to Gohan. A small sized teenager who was one of the strongest fighters in the world. This idea really convince me that theres nothing wrong with being small. You can still be better than other tall guys out there.

Entry 2 - Books That were Important To Me..

I've come to except that I'm a person who doesn't read. By that I mean that I don't use the free time that I have reading. It's a very rare occasion that I finish a whole novel unless my life depends on it. This means that I only read books for the sake of my studies which has required me to finish quite a number of novels.

In my life, the only books that I've ever read for pleasure were the Harry Potter Series. I've read all seven. It takes a lot of motivation in order for me to finish a whole book. Even so, Harry Potter had managed to keep me reading all 7 of the books.

I love reading Harry Potter. Some of the books I've read more than once. J.K. Rowling is a great writer. She describes every event in a way that we are watching a movie in our minds.

The characters were very relate-able. First of all, Harry's a teenager, in school! Many kids could easily relate to him. He's a student who faces all kinds of problems in school. For one, he was not the best looking guy. Harry's just an average kid who happens to be important. Harry also gets bullied. Many us get bullied in school. So it's comforting read about a person who shares the same problem as you. Not only that, we get to read about his thoughts and feelings towards the problems that he face.

The story get exciting because of all the magic. In the world of Harry Potter, it's not you regular hocus pocus. They have schools for young witches and wizards. There are so many spells with catchy phrases that kids even myself start saying just for fun. These magical spell, jinxes, curses and charms are put to practice in the stories. We see how Harry acquires these spells and magical skills in order to attack or in defense.

The magical world seems very real. There were also some important public figures in the story. They had the ministry of magic which was filled with imperfections like corruption and so on. It's also has such a political theme. The ministry is lead by an incompetent minister who hides the truth about certain dangers just to keep the magical society and himself in peace. The political issues raised in the story was also somewhat relate able to many political situations of many countries in the world. These books are quite matured books.

There are many more reasons why Harry Potter is an important book in my life, but I figured that I've made my point.

4/5 Questions on High Fidelity

1. What was the movie about?

It's a love story about a guy named Rob Gordon, who has had many failed relationships in the past. This time he had just broken up with his latest girlfriend, Laura, who left him because the guy was unable to change. Change as in growing up and maturing. However, Rob doesn't seem to know why all of his relationships were a failure. Throughout the movie, he tries to figure out what he's been doing wrong by tracking down his previous relationships and asking them why his ex's left him.

2. How is it different from the common fiction?

There are quite a lot of thing that differentiate this love story from the typical love fictions out there.

a) Rob is not such a romantic man. Usually in typical love stories, the men are very romantic. They are able to fulfill their lover's needs. But Rob is such a clueless regular guy who doesn't seem to be able to figure out why his relationships end tragically. He doesn't say the most charming things either. Take his proposal for example. It was in a bar and he just blurted it out like it was nothing special. More like "you want to or not?".

b) I think the way this story took off was very different from your old love stories. Instead of having a boy meets girl plot, it began with a girl leaves guy plot. You don't get to see how this actually came to be. You only find out where and how they met during the flashbacks. Other than that, we're only seeing how they're handling the breakup.

3. Who's your favorite character? And why?

Rob. Mostly it's because he represents most guys out there. Men can be clueless at times but that doesn't mean they are emotionless. I feel that I could relate to the character with my own relationship. Like Rob, when I get into a fight with that special someone, I always find it hard to figure out what I did wrong or if it was even my fault.

4. Provide and alternate ending.

My alternate ending would be Rob succeeding in a career as whatever that has to do with music. He doesn't end up with Laura until a few years into the future. They meet again after she had left Ian and had been living by herself. She's surprised by the success he's had and by the change that he'd gone through. He had missed her so much since the last time they had seen each other which was on Laura's dad's funeral. They had spent a lot of time catching up and end up getting back together again. The end.

5. Personal reaction after watching the movie? (will be submitted in class)

Difficulties Faced When Writing

I have written some shorts stories of my own when I was very young for my school's publication department. If I'm not mistaken, I was only able to publish two of my short stories. Most of my stories were science-fiction. They were inspired by Power Rangers, Dragonball, Star Wars and the like. I never wrote anything original. Nowadays, I don't write stories at all. I've lost the spark that I had during my developing age. The only thing I write is my blog.

After reflecting on my experience in writing when I was young, realized that even then I've faced some difficulties in writing. There are many stages in writing. At least I think there is. The pre, while, and post-stage.

During the pre-stage of writing; coming up with a stroryline. I used to be a very imaginative kid. I loved day dreaming. Pretending I was Goku from Dragonball and flying around fighting an evil alien. I thought of my own fighting scenes. I ran that scene over and over agian in my head so that I would be able to watch it again. I imagined these kinds of things every chance I had. This went on for so long to the extent that I was able to make up my own characters and memorize each of them. This is where most of my ideas come from.

When an idea was formed, it's time to think of a plot. That's where I usually get stuck. I know there are techniques in creating a plot. But I usually just start writing whatever it was that came to mind. But the plot just dissolves into the white pages. I quickly loose inspiration to keep writing. My teacher used to say that my story had a very untidy introduction. She said I needed to smoothen the edges. As my stories went on, my teacher had a hard time seeing the relevance of the events. Not only that, the ending was so quick, my teacher thought the story wasn't finished yet.

That's 1 problem I face while writing. Another problem I face is the use of language. I don't know how to express my ideas in way that is exciting to read. Other than the plot, I think language comes second in writing a good story. I love Harry Potter so much. I've read all 7 of them. What kept me reading those books was the language. J.K. Rowling is so good in getting the readers see what Harry sees and feels. That's something I wasn't and may still not able to do.

Nowadays I don't write at all. The only things I write are my assignments and my blog. That's pretty much it. I think even from reading this entry, you'd get a picture of the problems I face. The only reason I started a blog is to improve my writing. I hope this course will inspire me to start writing stories again.

Entry 1 - The New Semester

I have always perceived the new semester as another chance to achieve greatness. It's like being given another chance to live another life but not making the mistakes that you've made in the previous life. Cats have 9 lives. I guess you can say I have 8 lives. 8 semesters. After 8 lives, I will be judge by God. In my case, my overall performance during that 8 semesters will be judged according to my CGPA.

I'm half-way through the 8 semesters. My current CGPA is nowhere near impressive even with all 4 semesters combined. But what's done is done. There's no use crying over spilled milk.

In the beginning of every semester, I do an annual reflection on the previous semesters. Basically it's like finding out what are the dos and donts for the new semester. Other than that, I try to pin point my strengths and weaknesses. Having done that, I try to list it down in hope that I will never repeat the mistakes from the previous semesters that may have jeopardized my chances towards excellence.

This may sound like a great initiative taken by me. Well, it should. Sometimes I even impress myself with this. Too bad it's never worked. I want to change. I really do. But there's some kind of force out there that just keeps the same cycle going every single semester. I procrastinate when I know that it never ends well. I submit my assignments after the due dates. I waste my money for fun when I know I'll need it later for something much more important. Is it in my nature to be this way? Or maybe I just haven't tried hard enough? I'd rather think that I can do better then to be destined to fail! I won't let history repeat itself.. Again. I will make this my new semester. I know where my flaws lie. It's up to me now.

Well, that's my reflection on last semester. I've inspired myself through this entry and hopefully this semester will truly be my 'new' semester.