Sophie’s Scribbles

This week was amazing and I accomplished quite a bit. I watched and read tutorials on how to create some simple balloon figures, and eventually created an animal that resembles a dog and not a weird mess of twists in a balloon. This was also my failure. At first, twisting the balloon was difficult and I kept forgetting to hold the twists until they were done, which made it difficult to finish the dog. Another failure I had was with tying a knot on the end of the balloon so as not to let the air out. I did not tie it tight enough, so one f the dog snouts became deflated overnight. However, one turned out okay. I will also change my schedule because I am making progress more quickly than I expected. I may attempt to create a giraffe, which has the base of the dog but is still different. Next week, I will learn how to make some more complex figures in class and apply the steps when I arrive home.

My dream job is to be a computer engineer. One reason I want to be a computer engineer is that I can make a lot of money from this job. If I use this money wisely, I can live happily and practically care-free. Many people say that money cannot buy happiness, but I think that money can buy things that will make you happy.

Another reason I would love to be a computer engineer is I can mostly work remotely, or from home. There are many benefits of working from home, such as not having to get up early, only to have to rush to get to your work building. Also, you can work with your pajamas on, or at a comfortable desk. As long as you are working, you get paid. Instead of having to wait for lunch break, food is available to snack on while doing your job.

The last reason being a computer engineer is my dream job is that this job seems very fun. I can program things to work the way I want them to if I know how, and can also build some gadgets of my own.

Over spring break, my family and I visited Sacramento. While there, we went to many delicious restaurants, including Mikuni’s, Paesano’s, and Dos Coyotes. One of the days we were there, our family hiked up a mountain that overlooked downtown Sacramento. Even though it was not a long hike, we were all exhausted and collapsed into our seats in the car. Afterwards, we had a scrumptious lunch at a cafe in a small town named Winters. With my mother, sister, and brother, I went on a tour of the state’s capital building. On the tour, we learned about the history of the building and why Sacramento was chosen for the capital. Another day, we went to an old mining town called Coloma, where gold was discovered. My siblings and I panned for gold, and I found a few flakes of the soft metal. Mostly, we received garnets and pyrite for our backbreaking work. It was an exciting experience, but quite discouraging after about twenty minutes. On the last day of our small vacation, it was heavily raining. Because we couldn’t think of anything better to do, we drove to SMUD, Museum of Science and Curiosity. Overall, our trip to Sacramento was fun and seemed to fly by.

This month, I read Withering-by-Sea, written by Judith Rossell. In this novel, an orphan named Stella lives with her three aunts in Hotel Majestic, a grand hotel, perched on a cliff overlooking the sea. Though the three aunts have strict rules, she finds ways against these. When she spies a new guest at the hotel suspiciously trying to hide an unknown object, she is intrigued. Stella longs to dig deeper and find out what is happening, but her relatives make this extremely difficult. One night, she is awoken and creeps out of her tiny bedroom to observe her surroundings. She runs, remembering a book she must retrieve before it is too late. She soon finds herself hiding from a mysterious mob of people, including two guests from the hotel. The Professor, a very unlikable man, searches for that item that Mr. Filbert had hidden. When he cannot find it, he becomes angry leaves. Stella slinks away with the item, intending to awaken security, but finds that everyone is asleep and cannot be woken. When she discovers the cause of everyone’s slumber, she tries to put it out but hurts her foot. The blood makes the candle sizzle and go out, and commotion starts as the hotel residents begin to wake. Hidden in the large crowd, Stella manages to sneak away unnoticed. All changes when she meets the Professor’s helper boy under a pier on an outing. They chat, and when she returns to the hotel, everything in her area has been destructed. Taking matters in her own hands, Stella is caught up in deep trouble with the Professor. He intends to take her and the object, but once again, she gets away at the last moment. She hides in a performer’s home, and he becomes her friend. Along her journey, she becomes acquainted with a few other people that she must rely on to help defeat the Professor.

I loved this book because it was easy to follow, and gives a feeling of slight mystery and suspense, as well as friendship and trust. The book also seemed slightly old-fashioned, which made it more interesting to read as they are less common to come by now.

My favorite character was Mr. Capelli, her Italian performer friend. He was quite interesting and humorous, and had many cats that performed with him. Overall, Mr. Capelli was a quirky man with different ideas, and he saves Stella more than once.

My favorite quote from the novel is on page 16, where Stella must show her aunts what she had been learning from her French book. However, because her mind had been in a different place during the lesson, her words became jumbled and she muttered out in French, “I am delighted to see you in such dreadful health, Aunt Deliverance. You are exceedingly vulgar. Permit me to offer you some carpet.” I find this line quote funny and relatable, because if I tried to learn a new language that I didn’t want to learn, my words would also become scrambled.

This month, I read Bird by Crystal Chan. Bird is about a girl named Jewel who lives in Iowa with her family. She was born on the day her brother died, and everyone in her family believes it was her grandpa’s fault he died. Her brother’s name was John, but his grandfather called him “Bird.” Perhaps John had thought he could fly, because when he was five, he jumped off of a cliff with a blue bath towel he had used as wings. Jewel’s whole life, she has never felt worthy and is always hiding secrets from her parents. Her grandfather does not say a word, and her parents make it quite obvious to her that they wished John was there too. Then, one day, a boy in a tree meets Jewel and inspires her to uncover the hidden memories that have been kept for her. Her parents, unhappy with this, become infuriated at this and destroy her collection, which leaves with her happiness. She soon must make decisions and becomes closer with someone she though she never would: her grandfather.

This book was absolutely amazing for so many different reasons. One was that Bird had the perfect balance of joyful and upsetting moments. Some parts made me feel sad, but not all.

There are very few characters in this book, but my favorite must be Jewel’s friend, who goes by John. Without him, Jewel never would have had reason of inspiration to dig deeper into the secrets her home and family held. John kept the story going and caused complications for other characters throughout the book, which were exciting to read about.

I think my favorite quote from Bird was on page 261. Jewel says, “You were right, dad.” And her father asks what he was right about. She then replies, “There are some things you can’t forgive.” She says these when she finds out what her father did to her grandfather, because her father had blamed her grandfather and then said that some things cannot be forgiven. It shows that your words can be used against you.

If I could only be invisible for twenty four hours, there are couple of things I would do. First, I would scare my siblings in the morning because they would never see me, so I could never be blamed. When I get to school, I would turn it off for role call and play some jokes on my teachers, telling them I had been there the whole time even though they hadn’t seen me. It would be funny to see the reactions of the teachers when I suddenly appear as I walk through the class door. If we were running the mile, I would only run half of it visibly and then become invisible, waiting towards the side until my average time. Then I would join the queue to report the mile time. During snack or lunch, I would turn the invisibility back on and walk through one of the most crowded areas, most definitely bumping into many people. The confusion on the faces of the others would be absolutely hilarious to see as they look for the person that had parted the crowd. The whole day I would seem to glitch as I turned the invisibility on and off. So, in conclusion, a day of being invisible would be fun and amazing!

There was once a potato. He was not a sweet potato; just a potato. His name was “the potato”. Not capitalized, because the potato was too undereducated for capitalizing his name. So he went by “the potato”. This potato lived in the zoo, as a lifetime special guest of one of the zookeepers. In the small zoo, the potato was kept to grow inside a container with other potatoes, filled with soil, on a shelf. The potato’s skincare routine was simple. All he did was soak in the water inside the soil, and sleep. Even though he did have a few rough blemishes and some deep, big pores, he didn’t mind much. The bumps made him look like a perfect potato, so he just went on, doing his job and absorbing water.

One day, he was awoken from his deep slumber and opened his weary eyes grumpily. How he missed the soil dearly, and the potato blinked slowly. The potato was laid on his stomach and he felt his hair being severed from himself. The potato tried to scream, but it was muffled by the slab of wood that had been pressed flush against his mouth. He was lifted into the air and a calloused hand was pressed firmly to him, destroying any hope of a sound. If only he had arms and legs to squirm and run away! The potato stayed as still as he could under the frigid waters of the zookeeper’s kitchen faucet. He thought hard. Why wasn’t he in his container on the shelf? Where was his container on the shelf?

Sharp pain shot up his side. He was being skinned alive! And within a minute, the potato was peeled and finally burned to death with his companions from the container on the shelf, to be served as a side dish for the zookeeper’s family.

Some people have differing ideas and opinions as to what living on an abandoned island would be like. Life on my abandoned island, to me, is lonely. Even though it can be fun to be alone, I wish that I didn’t spend every day in solitude. If only there was someone else to play around and joke with me, the sparkling white-capped waves and the small stretch of soft sand would be more enjoyable.

It all started on a boat ride. Or rather, a cruise. The workers on the large water vessel did not seem to care if anyone fell overboard, because two people had already disappeared into the water in the past couple of days. Had I known I would be the next victim, I would have stayed near the inside of the ship. But because I cannot predict the future, I slipped in a puddle and went tumbling through a crack between the metal bars of the railings. The fall was not as harsh as I had expected it to be, but I still felt the stinging pain that exploded over my skin at the impact of slapping flat down into the water. The other passengers, probably deeming me dead and gone, kept sailing along as I had flailed in the deep waters with the little energy I had left. I knew it was useless, so I began to look around me. An small patch of sand with green on top was in the distance, but not too far. So, I began to slowly make my way through the water. When I reached the beach, I remember I had crawled up the sand and into the shade of a nearby tree that provided some good shade. Exhausted, I managed to keep my eyes open for a few minutes before dozing off. But this is a memory, and who knows if it has been tampered with by my isolation.

Surviving on the island would be easy if I could divide and conquer with another person, but since that is not the case, I have figured out how to make do and live. Every morning, I wake up at the crack of dawn; not by choice, but by the sunrise. There is little I can do about this, and I do not mind much. I take one of my spears, having long perfected the art of making them, and head over to the shallow waters. Calculating where the fish actually were through the water was difficult when I fist arrived here, but I now know the right angle to perfectly aim and jab with. Next, I gut the fish with a sharpened stone, which must be the worst part, and create a fire on the beach with dried palm fronds. I skewer it and cook the edible part of the fish before setting it to cool on a flame stone. After eating, the forest is my next destination. My island is not too large, but definitely not tiny. About a mile in width and two miles in length, the center holds a bubbling spring and a small waterfall; my source of freshwater. I have a drink as the sun rises higher, and I am forever grateful for the shadows created by the trees.
At about noon, I climb up a tree to have a look around. I notice a few palm trees have new coconuts, so I make a mental note to snatch those in some time. I still have hours to pass, so I retreat to my tent of large branches that have been covered with palm fronds. There are few objects inside. One is a knife I found when wandering through the woods, no doubt accidentally left by a traveler long ago. A pair of sandals, fashioned using dried peels of various fruits from different seasons. And other nameless things that are not much important. Now is time to climb and take the fruits.
Dragging my feet, I return to my previous tree and try to picture where the trees with the fruits are. A few steps to the right, a mighty and tall palm tree stands proudly. I sigh and begin to scale the neighboring tree with a speed I didn’t know I was capable of. I soon reach the top and jump to the taller one, grappling with the coconuts to pluck them from their places. Soon I am back on ground again. I set a few of the hard, brown-shelled fruits on the ground and keep one in hand. I slam in on a rock and it cracks right down the middle, splashing the sweet water into the earth. The soil absorbs it quickly, and I raise one of the halves to my lips. A curved rock is near, and I take it in my hands to scrape the flesh of the coconut and consume it quickly. Repeating this process on the other few, I am soon finished and nightfall is approaching. I head over to my half hut, half tent, and lay on the ground. Despite my efforts, I cannot seem to drift asleep. I quietly get up, not wanting to disturb the silence, and walk to the beach. The sand slopes upward from the beach at a small angle, but it is perfect for resting I lie on my back and stare up at the bright stars until they feel droopy. Another day has passed.

“We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” – Albus Dumbledore

To me, the quote above means that you should take responsibility for you actions. For example, if you break somebody else’s object, the easiest way to face the consequences would be to lie and blame something or someone else. However, the right choice would be to own up to what you did.

Another meaning the quote has for me is that you should make the right choice, even if it is the hardest one. For instance, if you witnessed a close friend or acquaintance harassing or bullying, the easiest thing to do would be to keep your mouth shut. Instead, you could make the correct choice and stand up for the victim or record evidence if possible.

This month I read Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. This novel is about a girl named Rachel Chu, an ordinary economy professor that works in New York. She is dating another professor, Nicholas Young, who happens to be the heir to a great fortune that is owned by a practically unknown family. Despite the two dating for over two years, Nicholas has not told Rachel about his wealth at all. So, when he invites her to come with him to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore for the summer, she is in awe by the luxury. However, many of the rich girls that are in Singapore are jealous of Rachel and threaten her in numerous ways. When Nicholas’ mother finds the truth about Rachel’s background, she is elated to have dug up some dirt on her son’s girlfriend. The couple finds themselves in a terrible situation, and have a limited time to fix their relationship.

I fell in love with this book for many reasons. This novel is part humor, romance, and slight suspense that left me in absolute awe, almost unable to put down Kevin Kwan’s hilarious book. From an engaged couple to a crumbling marriage, the romantic relationships are on various stages. Crazy Rich Asians will make you laugh along with the verbally animated characters.

My favorite character was Nicholas’ cousin, Astrid Leong. No matter the situation she was in, she always remained regal and calm on the outside. Even though many horrible things happened to her during the novel, she stayed brave and held her head high.

My favorite quote from Crazy Rich Asians is one page 173, when Rachel is at Nicholas’ grandma’s house. “‘You grew up here?’ Rachel asked in surprise. ‘Yes, until I was about seven.’ ‘You never told me you lived in a palace.’ ‘This isn’t a palace. It’s just a big house.’ ‘Nick, where I come from, this is a palace.’” I personally find this conversation hilarious and truthful. Depending on where and how people grow up, properties can be recognized as special or insignificant.