Preview, then Peruse

Hopefully, after reading an excerpt, you will want more, like a person who drinks salty water wants more. In any case, the title links to the story.

Five and Fabulous

Footprints in the Sand
Sometimes, I can’t believe she was born. Sounds stupid, I know, but one must understand that after spending twelve years as a lonely only child, having another dancing, prancing, whining, singing hyperactive warm body in the house is still a relative novelty.

What's Next?
“Your baby teeth are going to fall out soon.”
“Really? Oooh.”

People, Places, and Things
In This, I Believe
I believe in the power of the individual.
There are many issues facing us today that have made some not believing in the power of a person to make a difference. I do concede that there is a certain amount of futility associated with only one person attempting to solve the problem of global warming, epidemic diseases, or nuclear proliferation. Yet here I still idealistically and somewhat defiantly write about One Person. Despite everything, I am still convinced that the individual still possesses the ability to change what seems to be an inexorable march of destiny.

On Top of Its Highest Peak
It’s only been sixteen minutes after the first period bell, and I swear, I think I have checked my hair for the millionth time. Looking into my convenient pocket-sized mirror, I am absolutely horrified that one ornery strand refuses to be secured neatly by the rubber band.

Of Home
By the Yangtze River, there lies a small town nestled amongst the mountains in the Banan County of Chongqing.

Three generations of my father’s side dwell along the river, one of the famous landmarks of China. Family gatherings are always a loud and riotous affair, with aunts and uncles and cousins filling up the small confines of a waiting room for a restaurant, while waitresses dressed in traditional red Chinese garb stand by, waiting nervously for this seemingly uncontrollable crowd of people to be fed.

Paul
Though I am somewhat compelled to talk about a "potential" classmate, my numerous attempts to be a seer have ended so far in somewhat implausible tales. They say that first impressions are made in the first ten seconds, yet for me I have realized that most of the time those instantaneous assumptions turn out to be quite wrong.

Words on a Page
“Did you ever think you were going to get this far?”
The interviewer stopped, leaned back, and waited patiently for an answer.

Remembrances of TASP
But if summarizing TASP is to be one of the biggest challenges I must face in this post-TASP era, then so be it. Perhaps somehow, you, by reading this, will be able to understand as well as the other nineteen people I hold so dear to my heart.

Chaos and Clarity
I can never find anything in my room.

Favorites!
These are a few of my favorite things, artists, Facebook group, whatever. Feel free to enjoy, LOL at, or ridicule (though I hope not this one) any parts of the list below.

1.Facebook group: “I took Jonathan Swift literally and now I’m a fugitive.” I got hungry so I ate up “The Onion.” Too bad there isn’t a second course in Federal prison.



I'm Convinced
Farewell, Good Earth
In the novel The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck portrays the subjugation of women by the overly dominant patriarchal world of China in the early 20^th century. She sends the message to her readers that such treatment of “the inferior sex” is a deplorable, yet prevalent blemish on the community. Her depictions of the various feminine figures in the books border on a subtle but scathing indictment of society’s abuse of women. Though they are physically prominent in a novel that centers around a male character, Buck makes the audience uncomfortable, even lamenting over the plight of this oppressed half of the world.

The Nation Upon a Hill
In a sense, he is exploiting their idealistic spirit by tantalizing Americans with the prospect of success, appealing to the insatiable American impulse to achieve “a goal out there worthy of [a] generation.”

The Merits of Wikipedia
1:34 AM. A student putting the finishing touches on a research paper ventures onto the information highway, scanning the horizon for more facts to help him elaborate on a point. Though the entire Internet is at his fingertips, he turns once again to an old friend: Wikipedia.