Scholastic English

I think there's something wrong with Scholastic book readers; either that, or it's simply ironic.

I was looking up Battle Royale VS The Hunger Games because, if you know anything about these books, they are both about people being put into a "game" where they have to mass-kill each other due to a corrupt government/power. The forum entry talks about whether Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games, plagiarized Battle Royale or simply was inspired by it (if at all).

Well, what I have to say has nothing to do with the argument, even though there are plenty of things wrong with how they make their case. Rather, as I read the forum I couldn't stop cringing over every sentence of every post, because EVERYONE'S English was TERRIBLE!

Quote: "its most defiantly an original idea..."
I think he/she meant: "It's most definitely an original idea..."

That's just a simple example.

It annoyed me to the point where, after reading their "argument", I was tempted to opt against their position. I'd imagine the person on the other end typing this message with a whiny, adolescent voice and bad pronunciation (sounded from the misspellings). It's most odd because nowadays, browsers have spell-check built into them, too.

I said it was ironic because Scholastic is a company that publishes books, and you'd think that a bunch of readers would actually know English at a higher level. Well, it wouldn't be the first time if I picked up a Scholastic book and discovered that the author had glaring English errors that weren't fixed.

So, on a sidenote, Scholastic really needs new/better editors...

The First Time...ARGH, BEAST!

I was remembering the first time I ever saw Beauty and the Beast...

...the part where he steps out into the light while in the dungeon...

...all that darkness and suspenseful music...

...and then you see him and you're like ARGH IT'S A BEAST!

Except I remember when I first saw that, I wasn't exactly scared of him. Which I guess was the point because Disney tried not to make him too scary for kids, but still...I was like, okay, the lighting the music...er, I'm supposed to be scared right? Am I scared? Because I'm supposed to be?

But wait, he wasn't that scary...

Sigh, Belle is still my favorite Disney Princess, in any case. I wonder how Rapunz--I mean, Tangled is going to turn out. So far all the previews make it look like a pretty shallow plot.

All At Once

It's been so long with so much stuff going on that I don't even know where to start.

But I guess this isn't really about documenting my life, but rather finding that one or a few things in passing time that makes life interesting.

So I share with you this week, a crazy experience while driving buses.

It was Wednesday, and the first thing that happened was a sewage leak that spread to one of the bus stops. Thus, the stop had to be closed down and all buses were redirected a different route for the top of three or four hours. During this time, there was a traffic light that turned red...and stayed red for over ten minutes, prompting the alert of the broken light; one of our buses that was behind that light had passengers and couldn't continue on it's way.

And on top of this, a bus on the freeway to Hillcrest overheated and its "check engine" light flashed, prompting the bus driver to pull over and call for help. Passengers had to be re-loaded onto a different bus as dispatch sent help.

And while all of this was going on, I witnessed an arrest at the bus stop in front of one of the libraries; I could not pull into the stop because two police cars were in front of it. I watched the cops handcuff someone and put him in a squad car. I never found out what happened.

I guess individually, it's not that fascinating, but it was odd that everything happened at the same time.

In contrast, my shift in the afternoon today was so quiet that I thought my bus's transmission radio was broken!

The Return of One Piece

I know it came back last week, but there's a reason that I waited until this week to finally acknowledge it: ZORO!

And boy, is he badass to the CORE! We only just re-met him and he split a ship in two! Heheheh

I'm only really bummed about one thing: his eye! I can't believe he's only got one eye, cut shut. That's terrible for a swordsman (outside a manga, this would damage his depth perception sooo much...). From the color page last week though, the scar and shut eye was on his right side. However, his return appearance shows the scar on the left.

I like it on the left better. (well, I don't like it, but left seems better than right)

Oh yeah, and I have to say that Nami is not the long-haired type in my opinion, and Franky looks weird.

Usopp is BUFF!? That is the strangest for me...haha. And Robin with her long-ish hair also...what, in the past two years they didn't have time for haircuts? Even when Robin was alone on the run she kept the similar hair xD
That's all. Time for bed, and my roommate is talking in her sleep...

Super Shuttle

I really dislike them. I mean, they're convenient and a good idea, but they really need to work on customer service and not pissing off other drivers. And maybe learning the area that they drive in (instead of completely relying on the dumb GPS they have...)

Cheaper than taxis though.

Re: Jerry Brown and 80-20 Initiative

Dear Mr. Brown,

I am taking the time to inform you of the unacceptable response to Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders within the grand state of California, and the severity of your inaction. I am referring to the questionnaire delivered by the 80-20 California Coalition, a group that represents our political interests.

It is with regret that I note, if your crew is not privy in regards to resourcefulness in order to complete a simple questionnaire that was provided for you, then perhaps you will neither be able to resource this population of Californian voters. This is your chance to reconsider your being "unable to complete the questionnaire" provided for you by the 80-20 Initiative.

The generic dismissal received from your crew was inappropriate; of the thirteen listed reasons of how Jerry Brown was a "friend to the Asian Pacific Islander Community", only ONE specified the API community of California, and only three others had ANY SEMBLANCE to addressing specific racial concerns. The rest of them, all NINE, either make insulting assumptions about the API community as a whole or are universal responses to any party, associations notwithstanding.

Thus, if Jerry Brown has no time for us, then we have no time voting for Jerry Brown. Again, at this point in time there is still room to fix this.

Sincerely,

Katherine Truong

XXX St., San Diego, CA 92XXX

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As for Meg Whitman, she has yet to even respond to 80-20.