My roots

Three People I Look Up to

Someone in my life that inspires me is my elder cousin, who has a very strong social skill, which I admire. My elder cousin studied university in Guangzhou. While she was still in the university, she was a famous student. Her friends even said that “You have might not heard of a professor in a institute, but you have definitely heard of her.” And that’s true because my elder cousin was the leader of several students’ organization, and the originator of a student movement. Besides, she can also make new friends in just ten minutes. When my elder cousin finished her study in Guangzhou, she wanted to study in an academic program in Hongkong. Unfortunately, her English was not very good, which was a disadvantage of her application for the further study in Hongkong. However, she happened to know that the person in charge of this academic program came from Guangzhou, who can only spoke Cantonese and English. And because my cousin had lived in Guangzhou for four years, she could speak Cantonese fluently and knew the hometown of the person in charge very well, thus she got the chance to study in Hongkong.

Someone living and famous that inspires me is Tom Ford, who is a successful fashion designer and a good film designer as well and I admire his diverse talents. He is not a best fashion designer and is not even as good as Marc Jacobs. However, he is still a successful fashion designer and an invisible CEO of Gucci as well. His talent of design and skill of operating company pulled back Gucci from the edge of bankruptcy. Besides, his first film “A single man” is also a reason why I admire him. This film, which has won several prized worldwide, also reflected the elegant taste of music, clothes, and life. I hope I can be as diversely talented as Tom Ford, and live a high quality life just like him.

         
(http://www.posh24.com/kylie_minogu       (http://www.tropicalisland.de/china_hong_kong.html)
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A great leader or thinker from the past that inspires me is Beethoven, a famous classical music composer and pianist from Germany. He lived a rough life: he was born in a poor family, whose father cared about nothing but alcohol; at age of 8, he was sent on concert tour by his father, who wanted to make him another Mozart; at age of 26, his hearing became more and more weak, and finally became completely deaf at middle age. However, he still composed many famous music pieces, such as The Third Symphony, and The Ninth Symphony, though his hearing was very weak. His perseverance of fighting against destiny inspires me.
(http://www.austriarto.com/20080604155848.htm)

Matchstick Men------Lie In a Lie

（http://www.wallpapergate.com/wallpaper12688.html）





Matchstick Men, which is another term of scam artist, refers to a group of people that earn money by cheating poor and even disable people. A good matchstick man can make people trust him or her, though he or she only has a box of matchsticks in hands. This 2003-released movie, mainly focus on a matchstick man named Roy Waller, who actually called himself con artist. This film has been considered as the best and most intelligent work that the director Ridley Scott and the famous actor Nicolas Cage delivered these years.

Roy Waller, a successful matchstick man, with plenty of money in the bank, works with his partner as well as his apprentice Frank Mercer and operate a fake lottery, selling overpriced water filtration systems to unsuspecting customers. Although Roy is quite successful in his career, his personal life is awful and lonely. All he has is atoy dog filled with money. He suffers from several mental disorders since he divorced with his ex-wife, who was pregnant at that time. Roy knows that he has a 14-year-old girl, Angela, with his ex-wife from his doctor Harris Klein by chance. This unexpected daughter changes Roy’s life totally. Angela’s energy and forgiveness even cures Roy’s mental illness in some ways. Roy thus agrees to work with Frank on a long-term target, a wealthy businessman named Chunk Frechette. Roy knows that he’s going to make a big money from Chunk. However, what he doesn’t know is that he is not the real operator of this game.

For me, Nicolas Cage is definitely the best actor in this film. His camelback, blinking eyes, twitching mouth, habit of counting one two three before opening a door or a window, and even the habit of saying ‘AH, AH’ when he’s nervous, make this film funnier as well as the character Roy more round and interesting. Besides, the actress who plays for Alison Lohman also did a good job in this film. From what I’ve learned from the internet, she was almost 25 years old when she’s playing the role of Angela, a 14-year-old teenager. However, I can hardly know that this actress was already 25 years old from the innocence and rebellions on her face. Her good acting skills made this character as natural as possible.

This is a very good film with a funny beginning, a twisty plot, and a touching ending. Among all these good scenes, the ending of this film makes me really impressive. Roy doesn’t expect that the failure of his fraud towards Chunk means a success of another fraud, in which he is the victim. When he finally realizes, his so-called daughter, the death of Chunk, the fake investigator, and even his doctor are all part of a lie, he rushes out of the fake hospital to find Angela, though he is still very dizzy after being hurting by Chunk. The unbelievable expression and the sweat on his face made me really impressive. I have to admit that I was very frustrated at that time to see a mid-aged man lost a daughter that never exists. I hope this is not a lie, or a lie that never be discovered, so that Angela and Roy can be father and daughter forever. But when I saw the ending of the film that Roy finally lives a right life as everybody else does, I thought this fraud which might makes one lose everything might not be a totally bad thing for Roy. At least he makes money by his own effort, instead of cheating; he has his own kid with his beloved wife; he starts eating different kinds of food rather than Tuna only. For Roy, this fraud, which makes him lose everything, is actually a rebirth for him.

Besides, there are also lots of details in this film that make this film even better. For example, before Roy and Angela’s first meet, Roy smokes a lot, just like other mental illness patients. What’s even worse is that Roy smokes in his car with all the doors and windows shut, because he hates outdoors but ever since Roy meets Angela, the window in his car opened a bit by bit.

This is a good film in general for all groups of people, and it’s a very good movie for a family to sit in front of the TV and enjoy it together.

Scale of 1-5:

5

                                       （http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NajOPhAf9MU）

Death by scrabble

Ferris Beuller’s Day Off ----In the mood VS. Walking the line

（http://collider.com/ferris-bueller-super-bowl-ad-matthew-broderick/141378/）

I guess everyone who was or is a student has thought of skipping school and might had a detailed plan in the mind. However, most of the students flinch because of the school rules and their parents’ chatter. No matter how friendly you are; how good your grades are, once you skip the school on purpose and is caught by the dean of the student, you are labeled to bad student. This blockbuster film ‘Ferris Beuller’s Day Off’, which was released in 1986, talks about this common, but serious problem, using a black-humor way.

The film follows the high school student Ferris Beuller, who wants to skip school by pretending ill and go for a day trip to the downtown area of Chicago. He and his best friend Cameron Frye make a phoney phone call to their dean of the student Edward Rooney to pick Ferris’ girlfriend up at school. They successfully avoid the chasing of Mr. Rooney, the doubt of Ferris ‘parents, and even Ferris’ sister Jeanie, who knows everything from the beginning. They drive Cameron’s father’s prized 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California and travel around Chicago. They visit the Sears Tower, the Art Institution of Chicago. They even join in the Von Steuben Day Parade. They all have joyful and meaningful day.

Personally, I think Alan Ruck, the actor who cast Cameron Frye did a really good job. According to the information online, he was 29 years old when he was playing the role of the 17-year old high school student Cameron Frye. However, his good acting skill filled in the gap of 12 years and made the character Cameron as natural, and funny as possible. His humorous imitation of Mr. Peterson and his long face make him the best actor for the role Cameron, which brought him big success. On the other hand, the actress, Mia Sara seemed to be relatively ordinary compared with other actors and actress in this film. I can remember her good looking but not her performance after watching this movie.

This is a fantastic film with many highlights and good scenes. Above all, one of the scenes in this movie that makes me very impressive is that when Cameron finally decides to stand up and face his father and the fear inside his heart. He starts kicking his father’s loved car as if is he is releasing his anger and pressure. Finally, when he kills his dad’s car by pushing it down from the second floor, nobody feels sad or unlucky for Cameron because his father might get blow up. On the contrary, everyone feels happy and excited for his courage. Besides, the director of the film John Hughes broke the fourth wall by letting Ferris speak to the audience directly to explain his thoughts, ideas and communicate with the audience. Even at the end of the film, Ferris comes out from the bathroom, and says this is the end of the movie, which makes this movie even funnier. In addition to the those humorous characters such as Ferris Beuller and Cameron Frye, there are also some small parts in this movie such as the history teacher and Mr. Rooney’s assistant , which are not that important as the leading roles, but still make me laugh.

Apparently, the contrast between Ferris and Cameron is the main clue of the film. At the beginning of the film, Cameron lies on the bed straightly with blanket wrapped up tightly, saying ‘I’m dying…’ It seems like if Ferris doesn’t force him to get up he will do nothing but just stare at the ceiling. Before he leaves home, he is worried and hesitated. However, when he goes to downtown with Ferris, he is still nervous. Even during the Von Steuben parade, when Ferris is singing and dancing happily with the crowd on the stage, Cameron is still worrying about his father’s car. Cameron is always worrying about something and afraid of something. He cannot be as released and free as Ferris when it’s the time for him to enjoy his life. Actually, in real life, most of the people cannot enjoy their life, because we are always distracted by different problems in our life, which makes us a little bit Cameron.

All in all, this is a good film for nearly all groups of people, and I strongly recommend this film to teenagers and young adults for its theme: Life moves fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you are gonna miss it. For many times, I was surprised by this movie, for example, when Ferris gives Cameron’s father’s prized car to the car park attendant, who drives this car directly out of the parking lot, I thought it’s going to be a film that talks about how they find the car back. It’s a good movie in all aspects, and you will never regret watching it.

Scale of 1-5:

5

An experience that changed me

(source:http://www.the-ark.org/fashion-designer-2/)

My aunt is a successful fashion designer and professor in Beijing. Just as most artists, she has a strange personality and temper in some ways. When I was still young, about five or six years old, she spent most her time studying in Hong Kong. Though she came back to China once a year and always bought me little presents from Hong Kong, I still felt unfamiliar with her and far away from her. My aunt finishing her studies in Hong Kong, came back to China in 2004, and lived in our house with her boyfriend for almost two years. My mom said that I was friendly and kind to everyone, except my aunt. We argued about trivial things such as shutting the door or turning off the lights. Things became better  after my aunt has her son. We didn’t quarrel over small matters that often, but I had to admit that I disagree with the way my aunt educated her son. She always tried to find excuses for her son’s behavior, which made him very naughty.

 

However, last Monday, I was in class when my friend sent me a message and said that there was possibly to be an earthquake in my home city at about 4 am. I was so worried that I phoned my parents immediately, but their cellphones had been turned off. I turned on my skype and found that my aunt was still on-line. I sent her a message, asked her to help me to wake up my parents as there might be an earthquake in Beijing. My aunt tried to comfort me and made a phone call to my home without hesitation. However, there was still no response at my home, though my aunt had made phone calls to my home continuously for about half an hour. I was even more anxious, thinking about what might have happened. My aunt comforted me again and

(source:http://www.stemtechnews.com/

company-news/its-monday-morning/

attachment/telephone/)

again and said that she would keep on phoning my parents until somebody answered, even though it was already two am in Beijing. I was really thankful when I didn’t know what to do, but there was still someone, who tried her best to help me, and that person was my aunt, who I had always argued with. I said ‘thank you’ to her, but she said ‘Come on, I’m your aunt!’

My aunt didn’t go to bed until seven am when my dad finally got up and answered the phone. I was really thankful to what she had done for me, but at the same time I felt guilty because of my previous attitude toward her.

(source:http://elegantwordart2.blogspot.ca/2008/12/aunt.html)

Nature Blog

We went to the Mystic Vale for the last two classes, which was right next to our campus. This is a peaceful and quiet place with various kinds of trees and bushes everywhere.

Though the path was a little bit muddy after a light rain, I can always smelt the fresh fragrant of the grass and the trees. We saw the maple trees there which were very different from the maple trees in Beijing. The maple trees here were much thinner and taller. We went through a wooden bridge, which squeaked as I stepped on it.

 Above the crystal-clear river, there was an owl nest on the top of a maple tree. That was the first time for me to see owls with my own eyes. The owl parents stood on the branch next to their nest, taking a nap. Inside their nest, a little grey furry ball was moving clumsily---- it was the baby owl’s first flight. The forest seemed to be even more peaceful and mysterious with the hoot of the owls. We sat on a long log with green, slippery moss to watch the baby owl’s first flight.

Though the baby owl didn’t actually come out from the bird nest, it was still a big fun to explore a new place, such as Mystic Vale.

1. In te quiet forest,

two black owls hoot on the tree,
sounds like calling 'who'.

2. Leaves float on the pool,
which reflects the light-blue sky,
clear as a mirror.