Tuesday, August 31, 2010

A REMARKABLE MEMORY















A Remarkable Memory
I tried to stand up on my own; but I couldn’t so my mom had to help me. “Dud”, I whispered, pretended to be unflustered and bowed my head. I lost complete confidence; I couldn’t even peek at Mr. Robinson. He was stunning, his face turned lividly as he stared at me. “That is”, I doubted my life was over, my legs were frozen, the hair on the back of my neck stood out. It sounded emptiness surrounded me. I blushed, feeling that boiling temperature ran through my body so uncontrollable, my head keep spinning as if i was going to explode. 
***
Earlier in that Sunday’s evening, just after an impetuous rain; the sun happily came out. It released balmy beams to run all the way to the end of narrow Rose Street. “Perfect, everything was as perfect as my plan!” I said to myself. First-rate timing, everything was settled, except for the dirty street that we were going to have a bicycle competition. “Who cares?” I supposed and gazed at the road, choosing the best position to race next to Raymond. Raymond was going to be in this race, did you notice that? “OMG!” He was a righteous, hot cutie, big shouldered hunk with piercing brown eyes and black hair, plus he skates; he was everything that girls dreamed, including me. Through this opportunity, I might place there a good image of me in his mind about a sporty teenager by winning the contest.
 We gathered every one who was going to race, mostly girls- my enemies I assumed. “I am going to beat them through the fabulous skills I have been secretly practiced for 6 months”, I confidently considered. Look at them, Betty-massive size, she couldn’t even get on a bike easily; and Dave, as thin as a rake, a wind blow might make him fall down. Stefani was the only one who I must took precaution with, since she always beats me since 3rd grade till now. Plus, her aim was Raymond too.
“Go”, Fred cried in account of a referee, we started immediately. As I had assumed before, it was easy for me to strike Betty and Dave. This was the real competition between me and Stef. Others were not involved, and Raymond was the price. I couldn’t wait to see Stef turn blue as she realized I actually WIN.
Stef tried to control her pedals fast and performed some waving moves of her own to get Ray’s attention. I too, rolled it up a little bit by ostentatious on having my two eyes closed and my two hands up and ignoring whether the bike went on. But, I believed, without a look, right now Ray might have seen my move, and Stef was widely opening her mouth like an “O” shape, with the lips sparkled in Bonny Bell Lip Smacker.
Suddenly, I heard the noise of glass shattering, causing me a big surprise as my eyes opened broadly. I lost my balance, felt off my bike, my back didn’t hit the earth surface, but my hands placed the ground hard. “Crack!” That crunching sound scared me. I wished my arm bones were Okay. But I didn’t have time to mull it over very long when I realized what I had done. An extensive scratch on a car was created by me. Wow, I blinked. I couldn't believe that was an incredibly terrible thing I have ever made. People began encircling me, looking curious, except for Stefani. She walked over me, offered me a smirk, and sneered ironically, “Are you okay? How pity you are!”
Now this is what happened. Cat got my tongue. I went from pink to red, I felt really hot and irritated, I flared up, unless it was something like volcano eruption, and its lava is something that I was going to fill on Stefani. I didn’t need her feeling pity for me. But, that wasn't problem, just when the car’s owner came along- Mr. Robinson, and witnessed the “criminal” who “decorated” his car just recently. It was my neighbor wearing navy blue, khaki pants, a black vest with a leather jacket, a pair of combat boots; it was some kind of 80’s fashion. But people‘s fashion “disaster” wasn’t a point, the main deal that was his car. It was just, he adored it like soul mate; he washed it every day, he wouldn’t let the kids touch it, he even named it, and later on, he was-if truth be told- an extreme “fastidious” man, which causes him being “single” ‘till now.
I sweat a lot, drop after drop tapped on the ground. Seriously, that enormous man frightened me, and I knew exactly how he might fell right now, according to his blood-boiling face. Did he really want to heave me against the wall as revenge? I had never been to this kind of situation before.
Guess what happened! As my mom suddenly heard the news from the neighbors, she showed up to my place, with her tears still on her eyes, and glared at me trembling. Oh no, I’d never seen my mom cried, in public! She tugged my ears, lifted me stood up, sucked in a deep heavy breath, and apologized to Mr. Robinson:
_ We are truly sorry for this damage, Sir. We will afford to pay the cost to fix this car. It’s just my stupid daughter, for a moment, she went over limit.
“Stupid?”  That sounded really insult to me, it must...like a PAIN. But I understood my mom; just recently I had heard my dad all lectured about the amount of money they spent for the car, and also the cost of taking me to the hospital for my wrist was broken. I felt guilty and quite upset, for both sides I guessed. My heart kept rising faster whenever I have to face either mom or dad. Mr. Robinson also appeared a few times at my house after the mishap actually, in which I couldn’t face him too. It was just so humiliated, I may have cried.
In brief, I ended up being grounded for a month. I was forbidden to watch my favorite fashion show on Fashion TV and instead of listening to some kind of scientific information on Discovery channel. Poor to my bike, I ruined it, which caused me a season of walking to school, instead of having transportation would be in advance.
***
Somehow, I thought my mind was getting a bit clearer as I realized the payment for the lesson I purchased was too expensive. I actually had to deal with the truth for sometimes, like Stefani-she won, I admitted, and so now on, I promised my self that I won’t let that kind of risky and selfish ideas flash in my mine, ever. 










Saturday, August 21, 2010

Hello every one,

Hi, my name is Jenny Dong Thuy Linh. I am 8th graders at the American International School, the Nguyen Huu Canh campus. The Last two months was my birthday, so it seems to say I am 13 now. I love most of the subjects, but just most, not all. I like books, fiction category, but still, there are interesting non-fiction books that i enjoy a lot. I usually read at home, after i have done all the homework; i also read at school, but just a bit of time. I like watching Disney channel, because it helps me learning English, as well as listening, and so i also prefer listen to music, but it just happens when i am working on the computer. I don't play game, neither video games nor online games, which are pretty bad for my eyes (i have to wear glasses). i have 3 more brothers and sister, one of them is my twin( which made us special) and the last two are big brother and sister whom are older than me quite a bit. I can speak three languages, which are Vietnamese, English and a little of Chinese. People said i am creative, maybe because of my art works, which contents lot of elements of diversity and funny, but through my brain has to work a lot in order to have those elements. I have been to three places that are quite famous, Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau, but these are the only places i have ever been. So, you might know the Basic thinks about me, welcome to my blog, join me and comment if you like!

Friday, August 20, 2010

What does it mean “to pull a Charlie Gordon”?

















At the beginning of the story Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon was introduced as a mental retarded or a mental disability, basically the author was trying to describe Charlie was really feeble-minded. His companies treated him like their own entertainment from asking him to do silly things, like showing the girls how to mop the toilet, dance with Ellen…etc. He really thought his friends were nice to him, so after all he tried to satisfy their desires but didn’t know that he was also fooling himself in public. Those actions of him eventually cause him bringing along a line “to pull a Charlie Gordon”, in the story means that to perform idiotic like Charlie.  
“To pull a Charlie Gordon” certainly being used quite a bit at the start of part I and was stopped immediately just when Charlie started to recover his mind. One of the examples that accidently set of the definition of “to pull a Charlie Gordon” that was when people said “Hey look at Joe or Frank or George, he really Pulled a Charlie Gordon” (progress report March 25th), which was explained as Joe, Frank or George were acting foolish like Charlie. Even through Charlie heard it, still, he did not recognize it, and despite that fact, Charlie laughed along with the companies of him because he considered it was happiness. 
 “To pull a Charlie Gordon”, actually was built up to be an insult that illustrates how everybody thought of Charlie was incredibly stupid, a "mock-able toy" of them or either the thoughtless of him. That was proven through the quote Amos Borg said to Ernie about his fault of losing a package: “What are you trying to be a Charlie Gordon” (progress report March 25th). Definitely there are much more insults that referred to the quote "to pull a Charlie Gordon" that his companies used to teas him, and somehow it developed Charlie Gordon a feeling that helped him to discovered the truth characteristic of his friends and be able to indentify what is good and bad for him. Still, just right after he realized that, his world suddenly being isolated, his friends were losing, day by day… and soon he felt so lonely.