Month: July 2020

In “Rules of The Game,” a chapter from the well-known story “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan, the main character is a young girl named Waverly. Throughout the story, Waverly becomes better and better at chess, which also causes her mother to become increasingly proud of her. Eventually, Waverly gets upset at her mother since she felt like an object being shown off instead of being a person. In many ways, my life has similarities and differences with Waverly’s. 

The major similarity between my life and Waverly’s is our culture and background. Both of our parents immigrated from China and still hold many Chinese beliefs and traditions. For example, since I was young, I have been taught Chinese and many aspects of Chinese culture. Waverly is also taught about Chinese sayings through chess, such as the phrase “The Double Attack from the East and West Shores.” This phrase and many others she was taught is influenced by common Chinese sayings. Waverly and I also have a similar background since we were both raised in the Bay Area, where there are many opportunities. 

However, I feel that my parents have become more accepting of American culture and adapted more parts of American culture than Waverly’s mother. A part of Chinese culture is one’s pride in family, which Waverly’s mother shows excessively throughout the story. When I was young, I played piano for several years and became decent at it. Instead of always showing me off, my mom spared me from the embarrassment since she knew I would not like it. In contrast, Waverly’s mother showed her off to random people since she had always been taught to show pride in her family. Eventually, this led to major conflicts between Waverly and her mother. 

Overall, in comparison, even though Waverly and I have similar backgrounds and cultures, there are also differences between our mothers’ willingness to adapt to their setting instead of clinging onto the past. This firm belief in Chinese traditions led to problems between Waverly and her mother, showing that sometimes it is for the better to familiarize oneself to the setting and culture within the country.

Today’s TED talk video was so impressive, I can feel that Morin has a strong mental strength through her words. She didn’t give up even she lost her mom, the first husband, and the second husband’s father. I can not imagine that if I was under that situation, how can I get through it? Then she told us the ways.

There are three ways that could rob our mental strength, unhealthy beliefs about ourselves, about others, and about the world. So if we want to get the strength, we need good habits and give up some bad habits. We should remember that everyone is special. Morin said, “The only person you should compare with is the person you were yesterday.” That’s true. If you always care about what did others do and how good they are, you will feel bad and lost hope and want to give up. Before watching this video, I was always comparing me with my former classmates who are studying in China now. They are always working so hard, which makes me feel nervous. But after watching this, I change my mind. I am in a different learning environment from them, I should compare with myself or my current classmates. For the last part, I also believe that if I work really hard, the world will give me rewards. But it’s not always right in the real life. You can barely get anything although you work hard day and night. That’s always happening. But we both forgot to look at the small change every day. Like I failed an English Word test, of course, I felt bad. But I remember 30 new words every day, that definitely can help me some days. That’s the thing that I can control and improve myself.

All in all, I think we should be ourselves and work hard for ourselves, We should create our own value. Our lives are in our hands, we must control it instead of letting fate take its course.

Chess is a game of manipulation. Hiding what you are doing from the other almost all the time. In Rules of the Game, by Amy Tan, we are shown how this manipulation is a metaphor for the relationship between Waverly and his mother’s life, as each manipulates the other. Rules of the Game shows how Waverly eventually becomes a chess master, and how Waverly and her mother grow more distant with each other. Rules of the Games shows us how manipulation is used in the relationship between children and their parents when Waverly lies about wanting to go to a chess tournament, when she wants plums, and the consequences of what happens when she doesn’t manipulate her mother.

The first example we have of this is when Waverly wanted to go to a tournament. Waverly “desperately wanted to go, but [she] bit back [her] tongue. [She] knew she would not let [her] play among strangers. So as [they] walked home [she] said in a small voice that she didn’t want to play in the local tournament.” She knows that if she were to say that she wanted to go, then her mother would not allow her, being the stronger current, so she manipulate her mother into changing the current to allow her to go.

The second example we have of this is when Waverly wants to buy plums. Instead of straight up saying she wanted plums, which her mom would have opposed, she didn’t say anything at all, and her mom just picked up the plums anyway.

The third example we have of this is when Waverly doesn’t manipulate. Waverly’s mom tells all of the other people when they go shopping that her daughter is Waverly Jong. Waverly gets fed up and “[says] under [her] breath, “I wish you wouldn’t do that, telling everybody I’m your daughter.” Instead of getting what she wanted, her mother gets mad, telling all of her family members to ignore her.

Through how she says nothing when buying fruits, how she lies saying she doesn’t want to go to a tournament, and the consequences when she doesn’t go with the current, Waverly shows how children manipulate their parents.

What are some things you do on a daily basis? Eat, brush your teeth, read, but most importantly sleep. According to Scientific American, “You can only live seven days without sleep.” However, why is sleep so important?

What Does Sleep Do?

Sleep plays an important role in your physical health. Stay Alert. Good sleep allows your mind to regain focus and tackle those tricky mental challenges. It can also stimulate creativity. Boost Memory. Sleeping is the most important time to shape memories and make the connections between events, feelings and experiences. In fact, sleep is a requirement to form new learning and memory pathways in the brain. Fight Infection. Sleep is your body’s mechanism to ward off infection. When you don’t get enough, your immune system is weaker, making you more susceptible to illness. Be Active. Energy levels after healthy sleep are higher, and your mental awareness is more acute. Good sleep is also tied to improved athletic performance, including greater speed, agility and reflexes. Replenish. During sleep, your body repairs the damage caused by stress, and other harmful exposure, as well as muscle injuries (etc.)

Misconceptions About Sleep

One misconception about sleep is that a person can’t just accumulate sleep deprivation and then log many hours of sleep to make up for it although paying back “sleep debt” is always a good idea if you’re sleep deprived, the best sleep habits are consistent, healthy routines that allow all of us, regardless of our age, to meet our sleep needs every night, and keep on top of life’s challenges every day. Another misconception is getting just 1 hour less per night than you need doesn’t affect your daytime functioning. While you may not feel noticeably sleepier during the day, even losing an hour of sleep can affect your ability to think properly and respond quickly.

How much sleep do we need?

If sleep is so important, how much do we need? Healthy sleep is critical for everyone, since we all need to retain information and learn skills to thrive in life. Sleep requirements vary from person to person. How much sleep you need will vary depending on your age and especially by lifestyle and health. Children tend sleep more than older people. While adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night, babies need roughly 11 to 14 hours, school age children between 9 and 11, and teenagers between 8 and 10. During these critical periods of growth and learning, younger people need a heavy dose of slumber for optimal development and alertness.

Conclusion

In conclusion, sleep is a very important factor. You must sleep to stay healthy and active.

If you don’t know me, my name is Paul and I am a speedcuber. As a speedcuber, I own a lot of speedcubes, over 50 of them. I keep on buying newer models and never put myself on a limit. Every single time I buy one, I make an excuse like “oh this one has this new magnet system” or “this one is super light”. With this excuse, I have bought well over $700 dollars of speedcubes. So, I want to come up with three ways to prevent this. First, I’ll try to restrict myself and only buy new puzzles. Second, I won’t check the speed cube website every day. Lastly, I will not watch youtube or Instagram as much as most people tell you to buy this cube or another one.

Primarily, I want to not buy the cubes I already have. I would try to buy hard puzzles like the examinx (https://www.thecubicle.com/products/shengshou-examinx) and other puzzles. This will help me because I usually buy 3x3s and 4×4, so I want to expand the variety.

Furthermore, I’ll try to not to check the cube store every day. I usually check it and I want to buy all the new releases so if I don’t, then I won’t buy all that new stuff. I also know from experience that most of them aren’t even that good.

Lastly, I will not use Instagram as much and try to not watch cube unboxings. Usually, I watch them and buy these cubes because they say it is the best but when I use them they are not as good as expected. Also these people are sponsored so they have to say that they are good.

In conclusion, I will try not to buy as much speedcubes and restrict myself by doing three things. First, I will try to not buy cubes I already have. Also, I will try to not got to the cube store’s website everyday. Lastly, I will not use Youtube or Instagram as much.

Sleep is important for health and having lack of sleep will bring down people’s well-being explaining they have to have the right amount of sleep. These days, many people are reminding relatives to sleep more or they will get lack of intelligence and will also get diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, including heart attacks.

Scientists have done an experiment on 1600 patients, according to the outcome, majority couldn’t think properly. Sleep deprivation disrupts mood and will usually cause a moody behavior.

A sleep foundation did research in 2015 to find out how many hours of sleep we need. They came up with the answer of teens having 8 – 10 hours of sleep and “anywhere from 7-11 may be more appropriate” (Savvy, 1). Seniors around 65 or older should sleep from 5-9 hours. As the human body gets older, it needs different sleep ranges.

“Sleep more”, “you’ll get dumb if you don’t sleep enough”, “No wonder your classmates are smarter, they sleep earlier”. These saying are all true, if only more people take it serious, the world may become healthier and humanity may thrive properly without relatives weeping from a family member with Alzheimer’s or the decrease of human population from heart attacks.

The short story “Rules of the Game” is about a young girl named Waverly Jong, and her struggles with a mom about her chess career, which was really pushed onto her by her mother. In the text, this may be normal for a parent to treat their child like that, but here is why it is wrong.

In the story, the mother was the main pusher for the chess ordeal. It started off only for fun, but one day, the mother sent Waverly to a chess competition, where she won, her mom told her to lose less pieces the next time she played. This really shows a poor understanding of how the game works, as the game is very complex and it is sometimes necessary to lose many pieces to win. Her mom did not really understand that, and was only focused on the idea of growth, and becoming perfect, which was impossible.

As time went on, things began to go downhill. Waverly became very famous, and the mother would brag to anyone that even looked towards her that she was Waverly’s mother. This really could have affected Waverly’s self esteem, as her mother never even congratulated her. This could have made Waverly feel like her mother was taking all the credit for Waverly’s work.

Doing this could have major effects on Waverlys health, leading to anxiety or depression, because of the need to improve, despite having no incentive to do so. At the end, Waverly got into an argument with her mother, Her mother basically ignored her from then on, and that was the end of that.

While doing things, mental habits form, they could be good mental habits, or bad mental habits. Its hard for someone to not have any bad mental habits, but its important to change them. Bad habits could hold someone down on a certain task or thing, but good habits could help one on the task he/she is doing and help them get mentally strong. When having something too big to change, one could start by changing something small. For example, when not focusing on task, he/she could start by setting a timer and make sure he/she is on task in the time he/she sets. It could start by 20 minutes and slowly it would add up to a long time. Though when someone does not change their bad habit, no matter how small it is, it could cause big trouble. If someone’s bad habit is not focusing on things he/she do, it could affect him/her in many ways. He/She could be late on turning work, or not learning things that he/she should be learning. These could affect one’s grades at doing the tasks, as these build up, people would no longer want him/her to do the work. A good habit might be listing things to do, this could help him/her be more organized. Being organized might mean to do more tasks in the least time, which could save time. from all the points above it shows that it is really important for one to change the bad habits and change it to good habits.

What does it feel like, being connected to 2 nations and unsure of which one to be more involved with? As a second-generation Taiwanese immigrant, I grew up in America so I understand it more but I also know Taiwanese ways from my parents. Which aspects from each country should I implement into my daily routines more?

“Rules of The Game“, by Amy Tan, is about a girl named Waverly who grew up in a San Francisco Chinatown. She’s a second-generation Chinese immigrant so she learned many Chinese things from her mother while in America. Even when she was in her chess tournaments, her mother kept on reminding her of Chinese idioms. Knowing your home country is important but how much do you need to know since you’re living in another country?

I believe that doing day to day actions in the way of your home country is normal as your daily habits are mirroring the ones of your parents. However, when doing things at school or other extracurricular activities, you should learn more in the way of the country you’re living in. Academics are different from each other depending on the place and it might be harmful if you learn in the way of another country. Overall, learning 75% of your current country and 25% of your home country would probably be the best as knowing more of your present situation is more important but remembering the traditions and the ways of your family’s home country is also good for you.

What is culture? well culture according to google is “the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group.” Different places have different cultures and both China and America both have different cultures. Waverly’s mom thinks that Chinese culture is better than american culture which is stated by her “Chinese people.do many things,” she said simply. “Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture.”(2). This proves that she thinks that Chinese culture is better.

Waverly’s mom comes from Chinese culture which centers around family and that if one person becomes successful than everyone in the family especially the parents have something to do with that persons success.

Waverly herself is starting to adapt to american culture. This is hinted at when she says

I knew it was a mistake to say anything more, but I heard my voice speaking, “Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess?”(5). This is when she doesn’t want to show off and thinks that she is the only reason for success which is part of american culture.

In conclusion rules of the game goes into culture from america and china while comparing them.