Journal Entry 39: Christmas Holiday

What do you think about Christmas? Is it a religious holiday, or a commercial tradition? Does your family celebrate Christmas? If so, how do you celebrate it? Do you think the way you celebrate it is traditional? If you don’t celebrate it, why not? Explain your thoughts.

I think Christmas is all about a lie to make all the kids behave (ha ha), but it's also about families getting together and parents spending their money to buy their children presents (which is awesome, of course). I think Christmas is both a religious holiday and a commercial tradition, it just depends on if you're a christian or not. To my family, Christmas is very important, even though it's not seen as a religious holiday. We celebrate Christmas every year and even my mom and dad gets presents from "Santa". In our family, we usually just get our presents in the morning both under the Christmas tree and also in the socks in out bedroom. We always go on vacation and also have an awesome dinner on Christmas eve. I don't really think the way my family celebrate Christmas is absolutely traditional, because we don't leave cookies and milk for Santa, and we don't have snow in Taiwan, plus, we don't have chimneys in our house. I love Christmas, because I know I don't have to tell Santa what I want, I just have to tell my parents what I want and I'll probably get it (well, I have to be nice first).

Journal Entry 38: Mars

What do you know about Mars? How is Mars different from Earth? How is it the same? Why do people want to go to Mars? What reasons do they have? Do you think people will ever get there? If so, how long do you think it will be before they do? If you don’t think people will ever go to Mars, explain why not. Would you want to go to Mars or any other planet? Why or why not?

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, and it is red. Both Mars and Earth are planets and. Mars, unlike Earth, is small and rocky, and it is a lifeless planet. Mars also have two moons, while Earth only has one. I think people want to go to Mars because Earth will soon be destroyed by human if we continue wasting Earth's resources and destroying the nature. They must think that since Earth is going to be destroyed, then why not find another planet to live in, but I think that is very selfish too. Because, how can we just destroy Earth and then desert it to find another planet, and what about all the other animals? They weren't the ones that were destroying Earth! According to NASA though, living on Mars in the future is definitely possible. "NASA's Mars program is focused on that very issue. Finding ways to get humans to Mars, and then keeping them alive once they arrive. Whether or not humans will live long term on Mars is hard to say, but it appears very likely that we will at least visit." I definitely would want to go visit other planets myself, but I don't want to be be the first (no way!). I think it would be cool to see for myself if aliens really do exist, and to see what other planets are really like.

Journal Entry 37: Setting and Plot

A story's setting may affect plot events. Think, for example, about a struggle between two friends that takes places in 2005 on a California beach in the height of summer. Then, imagine that struggle taking place two hundred years ago on a farm in New England in December. The actions, speech, and clothing of the people in the struggle would be very different. What other setting elements would be different? How might that affect the events of the story? What stories do you know that would be different if the setting changed? How would the events of the story be different in a different setting?

The argument could take place in the Ice Age at the Arctic with woolly mammoths walking around, or it could take place in the distant future on a planet far, far away, or it can even take place on December something in 2012 (while the world ends). During the Ice Age, those two friends will have to wear different clothing and they might not even know how to communicate, much less argue. In the distant future on a planet far, far away, those two friends would probably be using different languages and might even be a different specie. If it took place in 2012, which is actually not very far from the present, they would probably dress pretty much the same and also use the same language as we do now, but the whole tone of the story will be a lot different (might be all panicky and stuff). The story Cinderella would be a lot different if its setting changed. If it had taken place in the present, as in the twentieth Century, then there won't be a prince at all, and Cinderella's step-mother would probably be sewed.  

Journal Entry 36: Writing is Difficult

“Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.”
What do you think about this statement by Ray Bradbury (author of “There Will Come Soft Rains”)? If writing is so terrible, why would he choose it as his career? How do you feel about writing? Would you do it as a career? What else might seem difficult, but people choose to do it anyway?

I think this statement by Ray Bradbury is totally true and I agree with him wholeheartedly. Writing is very hard, but it's just something teachers make us do all the time to watch us suffer. Although sometimes when I'm writing about things I like, I'd actually enjoy writing (but that doesn't happen very often). Ray Bradbury might have chosen writing as his career because his parents and friends told him he is good at it and should choose it as his career or maybe he wants to challenge himself and likes the feeling of overcoming his challenge. Or maybe he just likes torturing himself. I personally think writing is okay, not great but not too horrible either. I like writing things that don't need to be researched and can be written in a short time. Even though I don't hate writing, I don't really think I will ever choose writing as a career, because according to my mom, writers have to be really good in order to earn money, and if they're just so-so, then they're likely to starve. Since I don't think of myself as an excellent writer, I'll probably starve to death if I choose to be a writer. Some jobs like cleaning ladies and janitors are also hard and boring jobs (I think that's actually worse than writing), but people do it anyways because they have no other choice. So my advice is to get a good education so that you can choose a career you actually like in the future, and not end up being a cleaning lady/guy.

Journal Entry 35: Chronological Order

Review the story by listing, in chronological order, the main events that take place in the house on August 4, 2026. Now, look at the little digital clocks that indicate the hours. From the beginning of the story, how long does it take for the house to be destroyed? Do you think that the speed in which the house is destroyed has any significance? What do you think the author is trying to say by causing the house to live on after the people are gone, but then eventually be destroyed?

It took quite a short amount of time for the house to be destroyed. The speed in which the house is destroyed is definitely very important. I think that the author is trying to show us "nature is and will always be stronger than men no matter how hard we try" by making the time it took the fire to destroy the house so short. The way the house lives on after all the human destroys themselves seem to show how happy nature will be without the humans. And it shows how even without the humans the house and nature will carry on as if nothing happened. I think the house gets destroyed because the author is also trying to tell us that technological development is thoughtless and it won't really solve our problems, so that's why the nature "destroys" is too. Humans can't live among themselves and that's why nature watched them destroy themselves and it gets rid of the things we created after they destroy themselves, but it is still polluted by radiation and many other animals were sick and wounded.

The poem within the story describes how happy nature will be when man has destroyed himself, but the truth is that nature has been decimated by the war. The dog that comes in to die is lean and covered with sores. The rest of the city is "rubble and ashes." Radiation hangs in the air. Yet nature lives on in a mechanical form. Mechanical mice scurry about the house. The closest thing to soft rains that fall are the mechanical rains of the sprinkler system that goes off when the house catches fire. The poem, which seems pessimistic, is actually very optimistic compared to the reality. In this penultimate story, Bradbury shows his final example of the folly of thoughtless technological development. It is no wonder that some in the Science Fiction community accuse him of being anti-science.

Journal Entry 34: Irony

In the story “There Will Come Soft Rains,” the author creates a world in which people are provided with all the comforts of life and in which most of the menial tasks are done for them by machines. It seems like an ideal life in which every need is immediately satisfied, yet we soon find out that humans have annihilated themselves through nuclear war. If the world was such an idyllic place, what would lead people to go to war and destroy each other? Do you find this ironic? Explain why or why not. Is this kind of situation applicable to our world today? Do you think that things are so good that people would never risk destroying it? What is left to fight over that would make people destroy the world?

I think something like jealousy and hunger for more power caused the war. People probably weren't all as rich as the people that lived in the high-tech house in "There Will Come Soft Rains", so they probably got jealous and started a war because of the inequality between people. Maybe different countries want to control the whole world and started a WWIII and bombed each other and kill everyone in the process, causing humans to go extinct. I think it's quite ironic, because the whole text is basically about how convenient and great the world was, but there was no one there to enjoy it! All the people died to fight over something that's unknown to us, but it's quite silly because they shouldn't fight each other and risk all this luxury. Who would create a perfect world and destroy it themselves!? Apparently (according to the text), humans would, which is stupid! I think this kind of situation is applicable to our worlds today because we still fight among ourselves and compete against each other even though we already have a lot and should probably be grateful for what we have.

Journal Entry 33: My Invention

Ray Bradbury’s story “There Will Come Soft Rains” is full of imaginary inventions of the future designed to save labor and make life more convenient for humans. Think of something that you have to do on a regular basis (chores, homework, carrying books, etc) that you would like to make easier and more convenient. Then design an invention that would help you do the work, or even do the work for you. Describe it in detail: what is it made of? What does it look like? What are its functions? How do you use it? What warnings go along with it?

 My invention is made for the people who are imaginative and lazy. It's called the "Everything and Anything Machine" or the "Appear Outta Your Mind Machine". You simply think of the object you want then out comes your object. It is basically a little box that comes in all different sizes and shapes (the larger the cheaper, just like computers), and it's easy to carry. The box may look small, but if you but your hands in it, you can't feel the edges. It is a huge, huge box (no limits... you can stuff the whole Earth in there) that looks very small and is very light. The box comes with an earphone that's attached to the box, and it's for receiving your thoughts. It also comes with a little scanner (the kind you see at stores, but a lot smaller) that can scan pictures and sketches of what you want it to give you. The Everything and Anything Machine can't produce living things though, and producing living things seems very immoral and abnormal anyways. If your thoughts and pictures aren't clear enough, then you might find some very weird things in the box (good thing it can't be alive:)... ), so you must be very careful. You can also ask for answers if you think or scan a question, but it works best on answers that only has one answer (like math questions).

Journal Entry 32: Modern Technology

New technology changes the way people live. At the start of the twentieth century, most people had no cars, no electricity, and no telephones. Most people didn’t even have indoor toilets or running water. If someone had predicted an invention like the World Wide Web, people would have laughed. No one at that time could have imagined the way we live today. Write down your ideas about what life might be like a hundred years from now. How do you think new technology will affect our lives?

I think life will be either extremely advanced a hundred years from now or we might go back to the start and live in caves. It really depends on whether we will make the Earth's temperature go higher and higher until the whole Earth is flooded and humans extinct (ha!) or we might find a way to stop global warming and save the Earth. If we can't find anyway to avoid destroying ourselves, maybe (hopefully) we'd appear again on Earth and we will then have to restart everything again. If we manage to save the Earth, then we might be super advanced and I bet kids like me won't have to go to school anymore! We might just have to eat something or drink something, then all the knowledge we need will be in our brains already. We might not even have to move at all and we can just use our minds to control things instead of having to move (we'll become quite fat, I suppose...). We might have robots that helps us do everything and computers that solves all our problems and do everything for us! I think new technology makes us lazier (most of the time) and makes life easier.