Spring Haiku

Trees become leafy

Branches start waving and pray 

Pray for a good start

Poetry Blog April 28

Trees - Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

(I pick a new poem because I think the new one has more things to talk about)

        I really like this poem which I just find. It has 6 stanzas in the whole poem, and each stanzas only have two line, totally it has 12 lines, this makes the poem is very easy to read. Each two lines in the poem have the same end sound, for example the two lines in the first stanza both end with "iː" sound, so the form for this poem is AA, BB, CC, DD, EE, FF. Except of the first line the others line in the poem all has the same beats, there are eight syllables in each line, because of this, the poem is easy to read with beats and also easy to remember. I think this is why people wrote poems instead of writing articles or essay in ancient time. In this poem, I found that the first line in stanzas two, three, and four both begin with "A tree", this is a repetition which is a kind of tool use in many poems. This will makes the poem be readability, and make a deep impact on the readers. This poem uses tree to describe a poem, and I think the poem had been described is itself. This is kind of interested to me, and I love the poet uses this metaphor in the poem. This bring gives me a image of a tree on the land, waves its leafy in the wind and pray to the god. Although there is no image with this poem, but I already had an image of the tree had been describe in the poem by just read the lines in the poem. I think the most interesting point in the poem is at the end of this poem, the poet said god made tree, and he made poem, he kind of compares himself with god and compare the things they made, although he said himself is a fool, but I can see his pride by he use himself to compare with god.  

In class poetry writing

1

Little Things

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Help to make earth happy

Like the heaven above.

- Julia Fletcher Carney

Little Things

“

by Julia Fletcher Carney

Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the pleasant land.

Thus the little minutes,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of eternity.

So our little errors

Lead the soul away

From the path of virtue

Far in sin to stray.

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Help to make earth happy

Like the heaven above.

I choose it because it is not very long, and the Internet said it is the top 10 best short poems. But the mainly reason is I love what is saying in the poem. It talks about the little things in our life is informant, because all the big things are combine by many small things. In like it because I like the way the poem explain it topic, it use many examples to show how small things are important and how small things can be great. If there are no little things in the world, then the big things like ocean and land exist. And little things can also have a bug effecting, little things are not only little things, they can be great. 

Reflection paper for creative project

       About two weeks ago, James, Zony and I started doing a creative project of a book we just finished reading it called Pobby and Dingan. Our project is to make movie about two scenes happen in the book, it is hard for us to to because none of us had been doing this before, it is a big challenge to all of us. But this is a good prepare for our next year literature and performance course. It is always a good idea to do challenge yourself, because you can learn a lot of new things in during the challenge and improve yourself. We had a lot of things to consider to film a movie, we need to choose which scenes we are going to do; we need to think about what can be change to make the movie be more creative; and all of us need to remember the line we are going to say in the movie. But after all, although it is very hard to us to do the movie, we still enjoy the process, we learn how to edit a movie, we learn how to corporate with you group, and we are proud of ourselves. 

         When we first consider what to do for the creative project, we have two plan. The first one is to make a movie about two scenes from the book, the second one is to make a PPT about the book, we will include our review of the book, and draw map of Lightening Ridge. The PPT is much more easier than the movie, we only need to write and draw, but the visual product would not as good as a movie. Nobody would like to see a group of people just use a PPT to talk about the book, people should get bored when we are presenting, and we don't want our audiences get bored, we want their attention. Present a PPT just like to teach a class, this is not what we want, so we choose the better visual one also the more challenge one. 

       The first step of our project is to pick the scenes we a are going to make, we choose the scenes of the argue between Rex and Annie, and the Peter's photo scene, we choose it because when we are reading the book, the photo scene confuse us, we don't know the answer of why Annie will looks at the photo and why Ashmol will goes to the room to find his mother. So we use the argue between Rex and Annie as a reason or hook to let the photo scene come out, and explains why Annie will looks at the photo. We do this also is to show our deeply understand of the book, and want to make the movie be more creative not just follow the book. The second step is to make the outline for our movie. And the third step is to filming, in this part I act for two scenes, so I didn't filming, James did the first scene because he is not in the first scene, then Zony film the second scene because the second scene happens between James and I. The last step is edit the movie. We do those work very equally, but in some part some one will participate more, in the idea part, Zony came out the most idea, for the outline part James did more and for the edit part, because I have a Mac laptop, so I did more on this part. In the edit part, we add min's music in our narrate parts, I think this really help to improve project. 

        There are two major difficulties in our project. First, we need to remember our line, there is one shot between me and Zony, we did it three time to complete it because the line is too long. We add this fail scene in the end of our film, people should be laugh when they see that. The second difficulty is edit the movie. I never use iMovie before, so I watch a lot of video about how to use iMovie on the Internet, the final product may not be perfect, but we had try our best to edit it. The edit is also our weakness in this project, we couldn't make this like actually movie, there may be some scenes connect not fluently. But we have our strengths, nobody do the movie in this class, so it is new to the whole class, we also change the book, so this will make people curious of our movie, our movie is very creative too. We add some of our own thought in the movie, these so be our advantage. 

        Movie is hard, but we did it, and we learn a lot of things in this project. I learn how to edit a movie; I learn how to act naturally in the movie; I learn how to write a movie outline; I learn how to corporate with others to act in the movie. There are so many things that I had learn in this project. This should be a good prepare for my Literature and Performance course. I don't have any regret to choose to make a movie not a PPT. If you ask again to choose a challenge project or a easy project, I would still choose the challenge one, because I can tell you surely that I can learn much more things in a challenge project than a easy project. 

Creative project progress

       We just finished our first scene filming yesterday. So far we had already finish our outline of the film, and the first scene filming. What we still need to work on is our second scene filming and edit the film. We are going to connect two scenes together on iMovie. Also we decided to use min's music in our film too. For the begging and the ending, we decided to add two parts of narrator to explain how is the story going on, and show the main idea to the audience. In the very end of our film, we will add some part of our practicing scenes(e.g. Acting mistakes) to show how we make this movie. We had done half of our project, but we still have a lot to do. We are doing well now, and we will do better. 

Proposal- Creative Project

         In Pobby and Dingan Creative project, I am going to make a film with James and Daniel. The film we are going to make include two scenes from the book, the first scene is about the argument between mom Annie and dad Rex in chapter 1, the second one is about the conversation about the photo of Peter between Ashmol and Mom in chapter 6. We are going to make these two scenes connect together as mom looks at the photo after she argues with dad. I think this change makes more sense to the readers of why mom looks at the photo about her front life, this also shows we are deeply understand the book, and we are trying to make the story better.

 

         In our film, I will be mom, Daniel is going to be dad of James (Ashmol). We may use IMovie to make our film. We are going to make the film about 5 to 10 minutes, if the two scenes that I talk about before are shorter than 5 minutes, then we will add one more scene about the funeral of Pobby and Dingan, this will be our Plan B! Also because we don’t have actual photo, we are going to use ipad to show the picture of Peter instead of actual photo, so our film will looks more like happening in 21st century. This is a creative project, not a filming project we don’t want our film looks like the same as the story in the book, this is why we make some changes in our film.

       The reason why we are going to make a film is because we are both going to take Literature and Performance next years. I think this will be a good practice for our next year class, and also this should help us to prepare for the next year class. We can learn a lot from this project, we will learn how to edit a film, and how to act. Make a film is new to all of us, we may not make a perfect film this time, but we will do our best on making this film, and I think we will good a good job on it. 

Secret of opal colors

       Their is a sentence before the story in the book says, "The secret of an opal's color lies not in its substance but in its absences." I think it mean that the thing that opal attract people is not the color which is substance on it, the thing that opal attract people is the things inside the opal, opal represent as a dream to the miner, to find opal is their dream, and this is what opal attract them. Opal contain many colors, between each color their are some space which separate every colors in the opal, those missing color spaces are the things make opal beautiful, without those spaces the opal will look kind of messy, because of the absence color in the opal the substance colors can show their beauty. This is kind of a hint for the whole story, because there some absences things run though the whole story, and the title of the story is two invisible characters Pobby and Dingan.  

        In the novel, every characters have their dream which is substance things in their life, but those are the thing which support them to live. The novel is take place in Lightning Ridge, where a place full with dream. People go their to reach their opal dream, and everyone in their believe in some invisible things, one of them is Pobby and Dingan. This is their belief, the belief make their life become colorful, if a person live without belief, then he or she will just be the puppet of life. Kellyanne's substance thing is Pobby and Dingan, she believes she has two imagine friends, and they are one of the most important things in her life. Anne and Rex's substances things is their opal dream, Rex believe he can find the opal in Lightning Ridge and Anne dream so same a Rex, that is why she would follow him and this is also the reason why she marry with him, she chooses him because of he has dream, and the dream will make their life be more exciting. Ashmol substances things is everything in the story, he has a opal dream, he believes in Pobby and Dingan. All the characters know "what is to believe somethings that are unseen, and keep looking for something which is totally hard to find. 

          Opal is the life goal for the family. The family come to Lightning Ridge to find opal, it is something that they are fighting for. If their are no opal in the world, Lightning Ridge won't exist in the world, and this family won't become a family. They Anne and Rex may have their own life, Kellyanne and Ashmol won't come to this world. So opal is the most important to the whole family. In the story, opal mean many things to Ashmol, it mean her mother's flight ticket to England, a big house, the funeral for Pobby and Dingan,  Dingan's belly button, and his dream. Because his father is a miner, so opal is kind of the brace to hold up his life, nothing can replace opal in his life. 

         Opal just like a people's life, colors represent the things people get in their life and the things they did. So there are many different colors in a person's life, and the absences is the dreams and the goals to that person. Because of the dreams and the goals, people do a lot of things to reach their goals and dreams, they get many things because of their dreams and goal. Those substances things appear in one's life is because of the absences things in one's life. Life shine because of the dreams, opal shine because of the missing color. 

Difference between the ending in the film and the ending in the book

Kellyanne wasn't dead in the film, but she was dead in the book

The funeral host gives back the opal to Ashmol in the film, but he didn't give it back to Ashmol in the book

The old Sid appear in the end of the book and tries  to fight with Rex, but this didn't happen in the film

 

Quiz chapter 8-12 P&D

2. What connection does Asmol make between the land covered with seawater and Pobby and Dingan? Why is that important to the story?

        On the way Ashmol went to the claim to find Pobby and Dingan, he remember he heard about Lightning Ridge was once covered by seawater before, he think this is something that really happened but sound unbelievable, after this he started think about that" suddenly I thought......was true too"(p.568). Lightning Ridge was covered by seawater can happen, so why not Pobby and Dingan can be true? Ashmol started being believe that Pobby and Dingan were really exist, although he forced himself to don't think about this, he had already being curious in his mind. So this is the turning point of the story, because of this thought, Ashmol really paid attention in the claim to look for Pobby and Dingan, instead of just pretending. If he didn't think about Lightning Ridge was once covered by sea water, and started think Pobby and Dingan were true, he may not looking for Pobby and Dingan for real in the claim. So it is very important that Ashmol think about seawater covered Lightning Ridge and make connection with Poddy and Dingan. 

5. In the very end of the novel, Ashmol talks about what it’s like to “believe in something which is hard to see. Or to keep looking for something that’s totally hard to find.” Discuss the importance of imagination and dreams in this novel. Why are they so important even if they cannot be seen. Consider what dreams Rex, the father, and Annie, the mother, have in the story. Consider, also, the dream that Ashmol has. How do those "unseen" dreams connect to Kellyanne's belief in Pobby and Dingan?

 

       Every characters in this story have dream, and Lightning Ridge is a place where full with dream. People dreaming they can find opal and be rich in here, that is why people come to this poor land and start their mining life. Dream is important, dream bring people a goal for their life. People in Lightning Ridge all have the same goal, which is finding opal. Although dream and the imagination are unseen, they are important to people, they keep people alive.  

         In the story, Annie who is the mother of Ashmol and Kellyanne have a dream to follow his husband Rex to Lightning Ridge to find opal, and later she has another dream to go back to England. Her first dream makes her give up a good opportunity to marry with a rich and good man, instead she follow Rex who have a dream to find opal. Rex dream also become her dream, the dream supports her to keep staying in Lightning Ridge with Rex. Her son Ashmol who also has a dream, his dream is very big but also very simple, he wants his family can become better and in his dream he wants his mother and father's dream can come true. Kellyanne is a special exist in the story, she believe in she had two imagination friends, this support to alive until now, her imagination bring her happiness, her happiest time is the time she stay with Pobby and Dingan. Those are the things what is "unseen", but not every one can have them, you need to have belief, and those unseen things is the things support people to keep living in their life, and it is reason for them to love in the world.