My Summer Journal (A journal response to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" from Jem's Perspective)

Hi Folks!

               

                 I had had an excited time before summer ended. As usual, I and Scout, we played and had fun together. But this time was special that we got a new friend Dill, who came and joined our gang.

                The weather was hot as it was in every summer.  The sunlight was very bright that it pierced into our eyes. The city was in drought. There was little water left in the pond since most evaporated into the air. Grasses were so dry and shrank as if they were going to die. People were full of sweat in a day time, and they took a bath more often. An oak tree was therefore a great place to hide ourselves from the sun.

                It seemed that everything was fine until we told Dill a story about the Radleys. He was very interested in it and eventually came up with an idea to get Boo out of the house. He challenged me to be a leader and the one who opened the door. In my mind, I thought that how crazy it was. What would happen if Boo came out and saw us? The question was not pleasant enough to be answered. However, I decided to accept Dill’s challenge. I opened the door and quickly ran away as fast as I could. That was a moment that I would never forget.

                Too bad, Dill left us and returned to Meridian in early September. We are going to miss him very much. The school is going to start in a week, and I have to take Scout there because it is her first time. Sure, I don’t want her to bother me anymore when the school opens.  

-Jem-

Hand-made Bunny Mask

     

   It was very excited and challenging for me to have a chance to create my own mask for the first time. I actually made this stuff up on the day before Halloween, which was almost a month ago. The reason was because I didn't have any mask at that time, and I was too busy to grab myself one. So I decided to make it up by myself in order to wear it to school on the next day. I found it was very fun though it took me until 1.00 am to finish it. Now, I would like to show you guys how I made this thing.

Materials:

-          A4 papers

-          Computer & Printer

-          Scissor

-          Unused pizza box

-          Pencil

-          Stapler & Scotch tape

-          Elastic  rope

Procedure:

1.       I looked for some adorable cartoon picture on the internet, and I decided to choose this silly bunny as my choice.

2.       I used photoshop to crop only the face and the ears of the bunny and put these two parts separately into two different papers since one paper wasn’t big enough for the appropriate size.

3.       Save them as pdf file. ( The good thing about pdf is that no matter how much you adjust the size of your picture, its quality will still be the same.)

4.       Print it out.

5.       I cut the pizza box into few thin sheets so that I could put my printed papers on and cut them again into the shape that I wanted.

6.       I stapled the two layers together (A4 layer & sheet layer from pizza box).

7.       I made a hole on each side of the bunny eyes to allow me to see while I was wearing. Then I made other two tiny holes on the ears to put the rope in.

Finish !!!

Making your own mask is a great hobby and also saves your money and time from buying one outside. Before I go, I hope this tutorial would give you guys some benefit in the time that you guys want to make one by yourself. That’s all for this post. Bye!

The One that Got Away (a poetic response to "The Metaphor" by B.Wilson)

Looking up into the grey sky
with teardrops flow out of my eyes,
The picture of you gets into my mind,
and it calls back those memories.

You were the shining light
that made our day so bright.
Leading us to the best way of writing.
Making us enjoy your teaching.

Oh, my great teacher
Now,you are sleeping peacefully.
Only darkness was left behind
when the light got away.

Farewell My Friend (a poetic response to "The Sound of Hollyhocks" by H. Gardner)

From the first day two of us met,

I wondered why you were so quiet.

You sat on the bed.

I scratched my forehead.

We were both waiting for sunset.

You loved to talk to the flowers

like they were your great partners.

I heard you sadly said

your lovely wife was dead,

and that’s because of your mother.

Every moment we spent together

will be in my mind forever.

Just rest your tired body

with full of ecstasy

in the land of the creator.

                                         -Wilf-