My best friend actually forgot my birthday, which was kind of sad, but the fact that all of you remembered means a lot.

To amberlwx: Thank you, but you shouldn't feel bad about the fact that I've accomplished a lot...it's mostly because there's a lot of opportunity here in the US, and it's easier to accomplish more when you work hard. I'm not saying it's impossible in China, but it's simply harder, so you shouldn't give up, and you'll find your break someday.

As for the viewpoint, I assume you mean that I'm more liberal-minded and well-read; that is because the US is more liberal-minded and well-read. My level of literacy is actually more on a British level--far more people there will read than here, and that's where the whole viewpoint comes from, I guess.

(Also, although because of cultural influence you tend to associate accomplishment with "harvest", it's not referred to that in English. Simply say "accomplishment" instead.)

Jake

give you a late bless-amber

recently i was busy,this afternoon i come here , i find a lot birthday bless ....so give my late bless for you!

i wish i can find a way which is suit in China for my road  or my career in my future , of course i wish i can be like you that has such brain ot thinking way!

I came to shanghai  for two months and I spent most of time in my work. Until last weekend the auto-workstation went well .the boss finally has accepted my decision and change his viewpoint .

So I feel a little relax. But sometime I have a lot press in my spirits so as to I often feel my brain has a little heaviness and my thinking is not very clear. My sleep is not also good….

I was think if I will take a part in a club such as bodu building club. Maybe in a soft background my body and spirits will be relaxed fully.

I wonder if everyone has the same feeling when you primally go to work …….

In fact I was a girl who like living a soft tempo life and would not like live a high tempo life…but facing with the reality ,I can not let me slow my step….i do not know what should I do or persuade me …………?

Thank you very much. I can't believe I'm finally 18.

I'm sure if you stay focused you'll be able to succeed wherever you are, but you must remember not to stress out (as I have been doing for the last few days for some reason, and as a result have had this acid reflux problem that will probably become really bad unless I get medication or calm down). You have to be healthy first and foremost--it's the Chinese who first said that the talentless can still be beggars, but if you're not healthy you might as well be dead.

There's a chance that exercise may calm you down--it'll certainly make you feel better, as it releases endorphins (basically "happy" chemicals) into your bloodstream--but I would suggest yoga, which is very calming. You don't even have to sign up for a class or pay money at the gym--just do it in your own apartment. There are tutorials online for certain stretches, but the most important thing you can do is just meditate. Close your eyes and sit there, maybe for an hour at the end of each day, pondering what has happened in your life that day and how you will live better the next day.

Jake

I am currently taking AP English Literature and Composition. ("AP" stands for "Advanced Placement", which means that I'm taking an honors college course. AP English Lit is basically college sophomore* level English.)

We have to learn vocabulary, too, but it's senior year**, so we do something fun--we write a story incorporating all 20 new words twice each six weeks. (Sorry if I'm not making any sense. I had two hours of sleep last night.)

I thought I'd share my most recent one, which I wrote last night.

I loved her like the world had caught on fire, and we were trapped in its fervid dance—invariably, unconditionally, madly. I loved her like a damaged protégé with no glow, stumbling through seconds forever and ever. I loved her like no words could capture, in a place beyond the ramblings of my prolix tongue.

I loved her because the moment she opened her mouth, I knew she was the prototype of every girl I had dreamt about as a boy. She was the core, the beginning; she was everything, and then she was ecumenical. She lived in every moment, every molecule, every single strand of light that touched every surface, and my entire world, because I was living for her.

In his heyday, King Arthur saw his kingdom crumbling around him. I loved her with that kind of desperation. In desperation, I made up excuses for philosophy, tautology, as if I could dissect the world’s sudden beauty that sprung from her.

And I loved her because she struck me off balance and unevenly—I was a sycophant, but I could never touch her, in the way that the fly will never inveigle a cow. I wondered in instances of sheer madness if my kudos felt like rocks to her, lagniappes like petty words. It stung like the fetid reek of inadequacy, and I wanted—I almost resigned myself to truckle behind this gargantuan incubus, this mother of nightmares that ate away at the infrastructure of my mind.

But I am somehow redeemed by the moments whose absence is to me a bête noire, when she smiles like it is meant for me, and every frown that I was sure would bode disaster sinks into oblivion, dank and unwanted. By definition, there are no utopias, but that beatitude in which I exist then might well be the exact same thing.

Let me know which words you don't understand, and I'll define them for you--I hope I wrote it so that the context clues explicate everything.

* second year of college

** last year of high school

Jake

thank you for your advice! what you said is right .

to tell you truth ,i am busy from the Monday to thisnight...i has no time to go to web or go to our forum.....

now i admire that girl,because you like that girl so much! the girl loved is  the most happiest girl!

best regards to you!

You're quite welcome.

Well, thank you, but it's just a story, and all stories are spun from fantasies. Life is rarely as clean, organized, understandable...when you love people in reality, they don't necessarily love you back. In my case, my love is rather unrequited. I certainly hope she is happy though.

Jake

You have a very rich imagination. To tell you the truth, I don't know much of the new words in your Vocab story9. I don't think they often appear in our daily life.

i have the same feeling with zha...i can not understand what you said!

but i guess you like the girl......

You are quite right--they are very uncommon, college-level words (though I've usually already encountered about a third of them since I am well-read). Here are the definitions:

fervid - heated and very passionate

protege - basically a student

prolix - wordy

prototype - original model

ecumenical - something that is...sort of constantly present and widespread, usually refers to a product or disease, but I had to be creative.

heyday - period of greatest power

tautology - study of a certain idea

sycophant - someone who flatters other people

inveigle - to persuade using flattery/bribery/the like

kudos - congratulations, compliments

lagniappes - extra gifts, usually refers to complimentary products, I think, but I had to be creative.

fetid - sort of the adjective form of "reek"

truckle - follow with a resigned air

gargantuan - massive

incubus - a daemon that gets you in the middle of the night

infrastructure - basic structure/foundation

bete noire - something which is particularly distasteful or unbearable

bode - implying something that will happen, foreshadowing for example

beautitude - state of extreme happiness or bliss

* utopia = Greek for "no place". A bit of a joke on Sir Thomas More's part.

Those are as precise as I can get, since I wrote the essay with no sleep, and I'm sure I don't remember the exact definitions. Remember, however, that the "definition" of a word pales in comparison to connotation--in order to truly know the English language, one must have a "feel", so to say, for words. Dictionary definitions cannot possibly suffice.

That is why you must, above all, read, because if you don't gather the context clues to know how a word feels three-dimensionally, you're going to cripple yourself and spend your life saying things in awkward half-Chinese/English.

(I apologize, I am particularly angry with, especially, classmates of mine who don't even bother to understand the meaning behind words, much less feel them, and they have the opportunity to truly know this language. Plus I'm cranky from lack of sleep.)

Since it is a particular pet peeve of mine to define words for people (even though I know I said I would), I would like to point out a fantastic resource for you:

www.dictionary.com

Merriam-Webster's dictionary of the English language. It will help you understand the above words better, but remember that the best way to learn them is to encounter them in literature.

Ironically, words like that are only found in Hamlet, Jude the Obscure, and lectures on La Commedia Divina, classical silliness that only I seem to bother to read.

Jake

These words are too hard for me!

I'm not really sure what to say in response to that, but frustation is a natural part of learning any language. I'm struggling through some short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Spanish--definitely not the easiest stuff to read.

Jake

Okeydoke. Nobody's responded to anything on this blog for a while (which I find rather depressing), so I haven't been on for a while, but it's high time for an update.

I placed third at the UIL district competition, which was rather disappointing for me, and I went to Waco last weekend for the regional competition. I didn't place there, which was even more disappointing, but I was very close to making to to state.

In May, I shall be going to Reno for BPA nationals, which I am definitely looking forward to. My absence is partly due to having to rewrite my business plan to mail in to the national office on April 2nd.

Lately, I have considered discontinuing my hobby of writing--my poetry is shabby at best, my prose unreadable, and I haven't had a good opportunity to write any scripts for quite some time. I am an amateur at best, and perhaps I should just quit.

I haven't been doing very well in school, either, and I have a lot of catching up to do. My magazine's site should be up again soon, and I will soon finish the two issues from last year that I never got around to doing, but AP testing is also coming up, and I am worried that I won't do quite as well as I need to on those tests. It's particularly stressful because BPA and AP testing are going to happen on the same week.

At least I'll be in Reno...

Jake

Sorry for not replying to you on time. I thought you were too busy preparing your exams and projects these days. Anyway, you've come back again. Hope everything is all right for you!

OK, I will bear what you said in mind. Thank you!

That's quite all right. I was just off in a...I'm not sure what. It doesn't matter.

To qqbaby: You're welcome, I think.

Jake