A Sustainable Hawaii

In English class today, we went to look around at the Sustainability Fair our school put together. Here is some info. that I got out of the experience:

~*~
ON CAMPUS:
-We are reusing water from the Lily Pond
-85% of the 50 golf carts we have on campus, are electric. An idea, is to add solar panels to the carts, and eliminate the need for gas.

ON CAMPUS COSTS:
new biodegradable utensils: 5.1 cents EACH!
old plastic utensils: 1.4 cents each

Solar water heater for pools and showers
when working: $1,500
when not working: $7,000

As you can see, we make trade offs. In some ways we are saving money, and in other ways, the tuition is going up! But on the positive side, biodegradable utensils help the environment.

~*~
How long does it take for these objects to disappear from the environment?
Orange peel- 25 months
Magazine- 25 years
Cigarette- 40 years
Plastic bottle- 120 years
Aluminum can- 200 years
Styrofoam- 500 years
Glass- FOREVER

~*~
WORM TANKS:
-Help the environment
-eliminate the need for water-wasting disposals
-25%-40% of our waste is worm-recyclable
-Filled with Indian Blue Worms, not regular earthworms

~*~
SUSTAINABILITY WEBSITES:
O1. www.planetgreengame.com
o2. www.rainforestsite.com
o3. www.stopglobalwarming.com
o4. www.daversitycode.com
o5. www.climatecrisis.net
o6. www.earthday.net
o7. www.nrdc.org

Use Your Voice

Here are some key passages with brief explanation from the last Chapter of The Woman Warrior, A song for a barbarian reed pipe

.o1

"I hated the younger sister, the quiet one. I hated her when she was the last chosen for her team and I, the last chosen for my team." (pg.173)

"Why won't you talk?" I started to cry..."You don't see I'm trying to help you out, do you? Do you want to be like this, dumb (do you know what dumb means?), your whole life? Don't you ever want to be a cheerleader? Or a pompom girl? What are you going to do for a living? Yeah, you're going to have to work because you can't be a housewife. And you, you are a plant. Do you know that? That's all you are if you don't talk. You'll have no personality and no hair. You've got to let people know you have a personality and a brain." (pg. 180)

"Sometimes I hated the ghosts for not letting us talk; sometimes I hated the secrecy of the Chinese. 'Don't tell' said my parents, though we couldn't tell if we wanted to because we didn't know." (pg. 183)

"I thought talking and not talking made the difference between sanity and insanity. Insane people were the ones who couldn't explain themselves." (pg. 186)


I believe that these four quotes are all connected. In this chapter, Maxine beats up on the silent girl in her American and Chinese schools. I think she does this because she realizes how similar they are, and Maxine doesn't want to be like or be compared to the younger girl. The same things that Maxine yells at the girl about, are the same issues that she fears will happen to herself, if she doesn't speak up and use her voice. Maxine tries to help the girl from becoming a "dumb plant," the same way she would have liked someone else to have taught her when she was younger.

Maxine sometimes feels oppressed when the ghost or her parents tell her not to talk. She views insane people as people who do not talk. Maxine does not want to become that kind of person, and that is why she feels so strongly about using her voice.

.o2


"Be careful what you say. It comes true. It comes true. I had to leave home in order to see the world logically, logic the new way of seeing. I learned to think that mysteries are for explanation. I enjoy the simplicity. Concrete pours out of my mouth to cover forests with freeways and sidewalks. Give me plastics, periodical tables, t.v. dinners with vegetables no more complex than peas mixed with diced carrots. Shine floodlights in dark corners: no ghosts." (pg. 204)


When Maxine leaves home, she is able to make sense out of the things she used to be confused by. Things seem simpler. The complex "forests" of thoughts that she used to have, become clearer and more organized as she covers them with "concrete." All the talk-stories and myths that her mother used to tell her become mysteries in her past. I don't know,...I'm still kind of confused by what this means, but that's what I get from it right now.

Sweet Love Impossible

Cool song...

Sweet Love Impossible
by Pono Nu'uhiwa

Do you see me when I’m walking by?
Or am I invisible?
Do you see me when you dream at night?
Or is this impossible?

You are the one I’ve been waiting for; but you never look my way;
So for now until you feel the same, you are my sweet love impossible
Sweet unforgettable.
You are the drops of starlight I could never hold.
Sweet love impossible.

Will I be lonely forevermore?
Without you right by my side
I live a lifetime of emptiness,
These feelings I can not hide.
You are the only thing I can see, when you shine into my day.
So for now until you feel the same;

You are my sweet love impossible
Sweet unforgettable.
You are the drops of starlight I could never hold
Sweet love impossible.

You are the only thing I can see
When you shine shine into my day
So for now until, you feel the same,

You are my sweet love impossible. [Yeah yeah yeah]
Sweet unforgettable.
You are the drops of starlight I could never hold. [I could never never hold]
Sweet love impossible.

Brave Orchid: Woman Warrior

Here is my character analysis of Maxine’s mom, a.k.a. Brave Orchid.

I read about 15 pages of the third chapter, Shaman, in The Woman Warrior. This chapter begins with Maxine explaining how every once in a while, her mom takes out a metal tube that “holds her medical diploma.” Through Maxine’s storytelling, mixing some imagination with what her mother has told her, I learned a lot about Maxine’s mother.

Brave Orchid was living in China while her husband was living in America. The husband was happy living in America, as Maxine describes him in photos, but Brave Orchid was not. The father did not come back to China, or send for his wife. What he did do, was send her money. Because Brave Orchid’s two children had died, she used the money for herself. She left her Chinese village on a ship, heading for Canton where she would study to be a doctor.

At the school, Brave Orchid lived in a room with five other women, but she was very happy. She took pleasure in having her own space and unpacking her belongings. She considered it a privilege to have space to call her own, as minimal as it was. Brave Orchid was free of the family duties she had in China, and all those Chinese traditions.

Soon, Maxine’s mother established herself as an elite, intelligent woman. She built her reputation as a brilliant scholar, though she would never let the other woman know her real age, or the fact that she stayed awake at night studying while the rest of them were sleeping.

Brave Orchid demonstrated her bravery when she volunteered to sleep in the Ghost Room without fear, and defeated the Sitting Ghost. She earned even more respect than she already had.

In the pages I read, it seems as though Maxine is proud of her mother and looks up to her, like she does to Fa Mu Lan. Brave Orchid is like Fa Mu Lan, another woman warrior.

Something that I find a little weird though is how earlier it didn’t seem like Maxine enjoyed her mother-daughter relationship. She spoke of how she could never be good enough for her mother, but now she speaks of her mom in admiration. Maybe Maxine is just showing that she has mixed emotions about her mother.

Spoooky Stories

Our assignment is to post a Hawaiian Ghost Story on our blog, and here are two I found. I chose these two, cause they are close to places I drive by everyday.

#1

Morgan's Corner

"Another supernatural place most visitors hear about is Morgan’s Corner on the windward side of the Old Pali Road (Improvements to the Old Pali Road in 1881 led to the construction of the modern Pali Highway, thus making it hard to verify the actual site of Morgan’s Corner). Said to be situated on a hairpin turn, Morgan’s Corner is known for the huge tree that looms large in urban legends of hangings and bloodied hands scraping on the roofs of cars whose drivers dared to park under it.

Many years ago, a young, local couple drove to this place one night and parked under the tree. When the car wouldn’t start, the man went out for help while his girlfriend waited inside the car. As she waited for hours in the dark for him to return, she heard dripping and scratching sounds coming from the roof of the car. Afraid to go see what it was, she forced herself to close her eyes and fall asleep. She later awoke to the sound of police officers knocking on the car windows, asking her to step out. When she did, she saw her boyfriend tied upside down on the tree. The dripping sounds she had heard through the night had come from the blood of her boyfriend’s severed throat. The scratching sounds had come from his fingernails dragging along the roof."

#2

Pork over the Pali

"Attempting to take pork over the Pali Highway is dangerous, as most island visitors learn. Despite repeated warnings that your car will break down or someone will get hurt in an accident, brave (and foolish) souls continue to challenge the gods – or in this case, the goddess, Pele, Hawai‘i’s volcano deity.

In 1986, four Hickam airmen new to the islands decided to test the Pali with a pack of bacon. They drove out to the Pali Lookout at midnight and walked down the Old Pali Road. About 30 minutes later, they came across a gulch and began to climb up from the side. One of the men climbed up to about 150 ft. before he slid and got stuck on a muddy and slippery cliff. As he struggled to hold onto a couple of weeds and rocks, his friends made the frantic call for help to the Honolulu Fire Department. When the helicopter rescue crews arrived to help save the man, the pilot, Capt. Charles Thomas, noted that, a ti leaf plant (dubbed the “Hawaiian good luck plant” because it wards off evil spirits) kept the man from falling.

According to legend, the man slipped because he and his friends brought pork up to the lookout. Food, especially pork, attracts hungry and agitated spirits. Folklorist and author Martha Beckwith (Hawaiian Mythology) says tying a fresh green ti leaf, bamboo, or lele banana leaf around the food container protects one from angry spirits. This is known as placing a law upon the food.

According to Hawaiian legends, taking pork over the Pali is linked to the turbulent relationship between Pele, the goddess of fire, and Kamapua‘a, a human demi-god – half-man, half-pig. The two agreed not to visit each other, but taking pork over the Pali means taking a form of Kamapua‘a from his domain (the wet side of the island) into Pele’s domain (the dry side of the island). Those who ignore Pele’s warnings risk her stopping the car from bringing Kamapua‘a’s body over the Pali."

Bibliography
Della, Dava. "Haunted Hawaii: Spooktacular Stories of Some Scary Island Places." Online Etcetera. Kalamalama, HPU School Newsletter. 9 Mar. 2007 .

One Tree Hill: Pictures of You

"How long does it take to change your life? Can your life change in a month? A week? A day?"

One Tree Hill is one of my favorite television shows. I like it because there is always some actual substance to each episode. By substance, I mean that in each episode, there are messages that address real life issues. Watching this show makes me think.

I felt like posting this video clip, because it is one that I can relate to, and I think that all my classmates can relate to as well. In a way, it is connected to some of the topics we discussed earlier in English class; essential questions, such as, "Who am I? What are the things that define myself, my character, my image?"

In this clip, the point the teacher is tring to make is that whether you like it or not, "you are how your classmates see you," and they will judge you based on their opinions. But when you leave highschool, you are given a chance to erase these superficial labels and recreate yourself. Shedding your highschool image, is good for some, and bad news for others. Some decide to stick with their identity, stay in the same town they grew up in, and some decide to move on. Either way, your peers and community in which you surround yourself, impact "who you are."

I recommend to anyone that they watch this episode of One Tree Hill, to better understand what I'm talking about. It's kinda difficult to understand the "relationships" between the characters if you haven't been following the series, though.

White Tigers: Word Definitions

Here are some words taken from the chapter White Tigers of The Woman Warrior, their definitions, and the direct quotes.

 Ideograph [n]- a written symbol that represents an idea or object directly rather than a particular word or speech sound, as a Chinese character.

“I walked putting heel down first, toes pointing outward thirty to forty degrees, making the ideograph ‘eight,’ making the ideograph “human.” (pg.23)

 Self-immolation [n]- voluntary sacrifice or denial of oneself, as for an ideal or another person.

 Transmigration [n]- the passage of a soul after death into another body; metempsychosis.

“I had met a rabbit who taught me about self-immolation and how to speed up transmigration: one who does not have to become worms first but can change directly into a human being…” (pg. 28)

 Paradox [n]- A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.

“I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.” (pg. 29)

 Strata [n]- a layer of material, naturally or artificially formed, often one of a number of parallel layers one upon another.

“In quarries I could see its strata, the dragon’s veins and muscles; the minerals, its teeth and bones.” (p.29)

 Peiping [n]- the former name of Beijing

“The emperor, who sat facing south, must have been very frightened- peasants everywhere walking day and night toward the capital, toward Peiping.” (p.37)

 Fiefdom [n]- the estate or domain of a feudal lord.

“When I won over a goodly number of fighters, I built up my army enough to attack fiefdoms…” (p.37)

 Palanquins [n]- A covered litter carried on poles on the shoulders of four or more bearers, formerly used in eastern Asia.

“They had climbed out of their palanquins to watch their husband fight me…” (p.38)

 Palpable [adj]- readily or plainly seen, heard, perceived, etc.; obvious; evident.

“The leader stared at the palpable sword swishing unclutched at his men, then laughed aloud.” (p.41)