Ai's favorite work of art

My favorite work of art is cooking. Cooking is an art that you can express your feeling, style and personality in the dishes you made. I love cooking and decorating food. I feel free and creative when I cook. I can create new courses as I though this ingredient and that spice for example will be good in combination; and it is work but sometime it isn’t. Decorating food after cooking is an area that I concern because you will feel the food taste better when it looks nice. I learned from my cousin who is studying in cooking that testing food it has to be in order “eyes, nose, mouth” which mean the first thing the customer evaluate about your dish is the look and then the smell and the last thing is the taste. The taste of my food also depends on my mood. When I am happy or sad, they will be tasted different although I try to cook the same ingredients and spices; and my friends or family members will know my mood when they test the food. How about you!? Do you express yourself in cooking?    

Do you sleep enough?

Source background
According to Helen Briggs writing in "Lizards Share Sleep Patterns with Humans" (2016), the human pattern of sleep may date back hundreds of millions of years before any human-like creature ever lived. Briggs reports that recent research by German scientists shows that bearded dragons have the same sleep pattern of "cycles of eye movements and deep sleep" that are characteristic of humans and birds, suggesting that sleep originated in more ancient shared ancestor from which we all evolved.

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Do you sleep enough?

My answer is:
No, I don't. 

This question really has nothing much to do with the BBC News story, but that doesn't matter. It was the response that came to my mind. I always wish I got more sleep, but I'm a night person. I seem more alert and creative at night, so it's almost impossible for me to go to bed before midnight, even though I get up at 6:30 on weekdays, and an awful 5:55 AM on weekends, when I have an 8:00 o'clock class at AUA.

As I read the article, I was also interested in the fact that sleep is so ancient and shared by so many of our relatives, not just apes and other mammals, but also birds, and now even reptiles. It never ceases to amaze me that we are relatives of every living thing on the planet. At least, we were relatives until very recently, when we created new life forms synthetically, but even those are still DNA based, just made up by other means, by us, than evolution by natural selection. But then, we are a part of nature as much as any other plant, animal or bacteria, so if we create things, doesn't that also make them natural?

Finally, in Unit 3 of Quest 2, the topic of chapter 5, "States of Consciousness," is sleep and dreaming, which is also what Biggs discusses in her BBC News article. As Pamela Hartmann tells us, there is still much we do not know about our own need for sleep, except that we do need sleep, and apparently dreams, or at least the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that accompanies our dreams. Whatever the reason we need it, we are not the only species on the planet. But I wonder if any other animal dreams? I would guess that other animals do. Many of our closer relatives have similar enough brains that it seems likely they have some similar mental life, including when asleep, although I'm sure that they do not remember or reflect on their dreams the way that human beings do. But then, I almost never remember my dreams either, at least not for more than a few minutes after waking, when the day's concerns erase the dreams.

___________

Reference

Briggs, H. (2016, April 29). Lizards share sleep patterns with humans. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36150972

Nuke's favourite of art

Oh.. I rarely think about this topic. One of my favorite work of art is Jazz music. I feel that jazz is the music that great for relaxing, it doesn't sound strict like classical music that fix by the original music note. One thing that I love jazz is that each song can be improvised in various feel upon the artist imagination. For example, 'Fly me to the moon' one of my favorite songs, if you search for this song on the Youtube, you may found more than 100 versions with different rhythm and style. the other interesting thing about jazz is the lyric. I love to listen to the lyrics and think about the meaning of them, Most of the songs written with very beautiful words, some of them tell about the feeling to their love one, or compare their love to the beautiful of nature. My favorite jazz artist are Frank Sinatra and Michel Buble.

Source: https://makingmusicmyway.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/jazz-club.jpg

Chin's favourite work of art

My favorite work of art is music. In my opinion art might be any kind of people's expression in any field,such as painting, fashion,photography,architecture and etc, music is one of them. I am so music addicted person who listen the music almost 24 hours while doing everything in my daily life. For me is not really important what kind of music i listen to,the important thing is that if i enjoy or not,depends on my mood. For instance ,when i play gym i listen to the rhythmic music,whilst i listen to the classic music before i sleep. Music gives me a mental relaxation and gets me in good mood. Also music keeps warm memories no matter when it happened,because it reminds you whenever or wherever you are.

Union's favourite work of art

My favourite work of art is  The Pop Kids song from Pet shop boy because I like to listen to EDM very much. Its sound is very trendy and make me think of 90's era at the same time. Its lyric is also nostalgic telling about the pop kids type of people who have passion with the music in that particular period of time while he interpret the sound to become very contemporary by putting many new sort of technique but still very familiar with. The album is just released last month on the April's fool day but it's real not a joke. He always amaze me why the artist whose age is categorized as retired senior still can produce such work with a lot of passion and creativity. I always admire him and his works as always.

He make me think about when we should retire ourselves. Which age is the best? When would desire that kind of decision? People from generation Y have a dream to get retired at very low age around 40 or 50 something and planning for their vacation like travelling around the world or own some small business. But Pet shop boys should make us think about it again! This is the one I wish to share to you all. Let's take a look!

Feem's favorite work of art

One of my favorite works of art is the architecture of the EiffelTower which is located in Paris, France. Three years ago, I went to visit Paris with my friends for several days, and at first time when I looked at it, it was more amazing than what I expected. It is actually rather big, but seems small while seeing from a far distance. The design is somewhat excellent since it looks complex and well-structured. Its color also surprises me as well. In general, I realize that it is gold as I often see from photos on internet, books, and magazines. As a matter of fact, it is brownish, not bright gold. Furthermore, while waiting in line to see the tower closely, it seemed that it was not metallic but wooden. Surprisingly enough, I and my friends all thought in the same way. During taking a photo with it, we were enjoyed acting like we could touch it when we were far from the tower. That made us look as big as or even bigger than the tower visually. It is a technique that most tourists tend to do by means of creatively posting together with their camera's functions. 

Plus, there are special lifts for visitors who want to go up the Eiffel tower to see the scenery of the town from every angle--it's not free. You can see a spectacular viewpoint from the Eiffel tower on the different floors; however, we did not go up. Instead, we walked around that area until almost midnight to see the light effects on the Eiffel tower. That is what I have never seen before from any sources until I came there. The light show suited the tower wonderfully; it looked more marvelous than the one without light. Eventually, I got the tiny tower key chain rings as my own memorial souvenir and gave them to other friends as well as my family.

Nori's favorite work of art

The Wonderful Adventure of Nils

My favorite work of art is books. when I was a child, I read a lot of books in Japanese. whenever i read books, I can get in book worlds they show and attract me another worlds. for example, fantasy world, ancient world, and SF world, etc... my favorite genre is fantasy. My best book is "The Wonderful Adventure of Nils."

I could have imaginations and some questions, and friends. The imagination doesn't have limit. I can say that my interesting come from reading books. also, I made friends through books conversation. Reading book is good communication skill and you can learn a lot of thing through books.

Fang's favorite work of art

I've never ever thought of any piece of art before since art is my least favorite subject, but I really enjoy watching the US. TV series. "Pretty Little Liars" is the best TV series ever and is my favorite work of art. 

I got to know this master piece last spring when I visited and slept over with my  Hungarian friend. Once I watched Pretty Little Liars, I just can't stop watching it.The story is about the high school girls whose friend(Alison) was missing and then her body was found.Pretty Little Liars is very interesting and you always have to ponder a lot to find out what is gonna happen in the next episode. It doesn't have so much romantic which is very boring for me. The plot is very stunning and strong. In 45 minutes on an episode, every single details are important. If you like detective story, you will love it.

  

Who is the murder? Why did she/he kill her? And what are the truth? I don't know the answers either ,but I will find out those on my own. If you take a try ,I bet you can't stop watching it like me.

Kam's favorite work of art

Have you ever wonder what true love is? If the answer is yes, I would like to introduce and invite you to read my favorite work of art, The fault in our stars. Written by John Green, The fault in our stars is one of the best selling romantic young-adult novels. The novel is narrated by the terminally ill young lady, Hazel Grace Lancaster. Her life had changed dramatically when she was diagnosed to have terminal lung disease. She dropped out of school and rarely met any friends. Not until she went to the support group did she find a guy who would change her life forever. Augustus Waters, the guy at the support group, was thought to have no evidence of cancer after his leg was amputated. He fall in love with Hazel at the very first sight. Hazel tried her best not to be loved by Augustus because she knew that the people who loved her would be hurt when she died, but their love for each other was undeniable. They also shared common interest in AIA ( an imperial affliction) which was written by Peter Van Houten, who, later in the book, was revealed to be an alcoholic. AIA was not completely written. The dialog ended as if the narrating character died. However, they were not sure if this was what the author really meant. They were determined to visit him in Amsterdam to ask for the sequel. The story went on. Finally, she ironically didn't die and was hurt by Augustus's death instead. 

The fault in our stars is so touching that I cried when I first read it. It successfully implied the meaning of true love to me. True love is not just to get someone you like; it is to care, to support, and to understand that special person of yours even in his/her darkest moments. 

Ant's favourite work of art

      Actually, I don't know much about art but I got a chance to learn to sculpt ceramic works once when I was eighteen. At that time, I found out that making ceramic art works was very fun and interesting. Therefore, I would say that my favourite work of art is ceramic pottery. I think that the processes of making ceramics work is very fascinating. It composes of many steps in order to finish one beautiful ceramic work and each step is very delicate. My favourite part in making ceramic pottery is shaping step. In this step, the clay is put on rotating machine that rotates all the time and you have to use your hands to shape the clay and make it becomes a mug,vast or whatever you want. Also, you have to be focused and concentrated in this step because the clay is slippery, so it  can be easily out of shape.  I was enjoy doing this kind of art, so I hope that I will have a chance to do it again soon.

       This a picture of when clay is shaped on rotating machine. I took it from the internet, so you guys can understand more about making ceramic pottery.

Ae's favourite work of art

If foreigners come to Thailand, they will see a lot of architecture such as temple. That's why, my favourite work of art is temple. The most beautiful temple in my point of view is Grand Palace which is located in the heart of Bangkok and known to be landmark of Thailand. 

In Normally, It opens from 8.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. everyday. As Thais, we allow to enter Grand Palace for free. However, foreigners have to pay entrance fee 500 baht per person. 

Someone may curious that why they have to charge entrance fee for foreigners. I think they have two main reasons for this question. Firstly, it was a palace for a king and was construct the same period as Bangkok. Secondly, it need to be restored many times to make it always look new. That's why, here is my favourite work of art which I recommend every foreigner to look around.

Chan's favorite work of art

I love to watch movies and I also like various kinds of movies, such as action, adventure, drama or sci-fi. My favorite movie is Captain America in both The First Avenger (chapter1) and The Winter Solider (chapter2) because of a relationship between Captain America and his pal Bucky Barnes as well as Captain America's planning.

Firstly, Captain America always protects Bucky from enemies. For example, Captain America helps Bucky from Dr.Zola's missiles and helps him while falling from the sky train. Furthermore, Captain America usually suggests many good ideas to his friend.

Secondly, Captain America is a leader of the SHIELD's army. So, he has to plan complicated strategies or tactics to beat enemies. He is a open-minded and clever person. Therefore, I am able to know and realize many aspects from him.

Finally, there are lots of perspectives that I can adapt to my life in these movies. Consequently, I will go to the theatre to see Captain America : Civil War (chapter3) soon.  

Peter's favourite work of art

It's really hard to pick just one thing as my favourite work of art. There are many works of art that I love: Homer, a lot of Picasso, not so much da Vinci, Rembrandt, Mozart, Shakespeare's King Lear, and so on, and on, and on. But I have an advantage because, since I wrote decided it, I have already thought a bit about this question and my answer to it.

If I had to pick one work of art as my favourite, it is Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. My first introduction to Austen's work was in high school, when I was forced to read Emma. This was bad both for Emma and for me. At the time, I was obsessed with mathematics and starting to read philosophy, so wasn't much interested in the weird interpretation and analysis that our English master wanted us to apply to Austen's novel. Yet somehow, I realised that there was something good here. The language is only two-hundred years old, so much easier than Shakespeare, at 400 years of age. 

After high school, when I was at university studying mathematics and physics before deciding to major in philosophy, with some dead languages as extras, I read a lot, and remembered that Austen had seemed to hold some promise, so reread Emma. I loved it. So naturally read all of her other novels, but Pride and Prejudice was special. I enjoyed its many perfections so much that my first copy soon fell apart. I now have six copies on my bookshelves from different publishers, including three of the Oxford University Press edition. Most are falling apart from having been read so many times. It never bores, but gets better with each reading as I notice new unifying contrasts in the plot, the characters and language. Like looking at one of Picasso's great pieces, it just keeps on getting better and better with greater familiarity.

Unusually, there is also a TV adaptation that is very good. The BBC's version, starring Colin Firth follows the plot and copies exactly a lot of Austen's language, making it an excellent piece of television. I'm not sure about the scene where Firth as Mr. Darcy jumps into the lake on his estate  in his underwear, but at least he wasn't naked. And this scene seems to have help to attract a lot of attention to this great piece of art. Austen's novel version is still vastly better, but the TV series is also well worth watching, a few times. In contrast, the film versions I've seen are pretty much crap. Perhaps if I didn't compare them to the original, they wouldn't be so bad, but who could not compare them?

The novel's famous opening sentence is at 1:55. 

Nan's favorite work of art

I have my all time passion which is drawing. I don't usually draw comics or cartoon characters. When i start to draw something I always think of a beautiful landscape or portrait that i will design them by my own ways. When it came out it will look different from others. Someone told me i'm talented. But i don't think i"m good enough in drawing. I still need practices and so on. I wish i could just draw anything i want to but sometimes you face troubles when you can't draw things to be like your imagination. My work usually be in black and white edition and shading. I'm not really good at adding colors in so it's a good idea to leave it black and white. Here's a sample of my art work. As you can see i can do kind of good but not good. I still need to practice myself more and more to reach a goal set as professional drawer.

Un's favorite work of art

I haven't thought about my favorite work of art before. During my leisure time, I usually browse the internet to see many paintings. One of my favorite painters is Jackson Pollock. I like how he painted the paintings. He used the technique of splashing colors into the papers. This is one way to express how you feel. When I see his painting, it makes me think of what his thoughts might be while painting that piece of art such as showing his anger or happiness. Sometimes, it even make me think of myself and what I should do with my life. If you have free time, I suggest you should try looking at this painting for a while and think of yourself and what Jackson might think. 

Wan's favorite work of art

I do not think I have a favorite work of art, but actually, some movies might be my favorite. I love watching "How to train you dragon". I have watched it for more than 10 times. It is about a viking who did not hunt for dragons, but he helped a dragon. So, they became good friends and after that he had to change other vikings' mind about dragon, and finally, they lived happily ever after. I think this is a good film and I practice my listening English skill by watching it. It might sound silly for someone to pick cartoon as a favorite piece of art but I think it is okay. If I have a chance to recommend any kids a movie to watch, this movie will be the first one I pick.

What type of arts are most people favorite? Songs? Books? Movies? I think maybe movies but there are many people who love reading because they can use their imagination more than watching movie. Like Harry Potter, readers usually complained that the movie is not what they expected when they read and they prefer reading.But for me, I think reading consumes more time than watching so I prefer watching.

Do you tweet?

Source background
According to "Twitter shares plunge on weak earnings" (2016), social networking giant Twitter has failed to reverse its poor growth record over recent months. Although the latest figures show an increase of 5 million users a month, this is a small number for such a firm and follows on a decline reported three months earlier. The BBC News report says that this has caused worried investors to sell shares in the company, which is trying to compete against more new offerings from Facebook.

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Do you tweet?

My answer is:
Yes, but mainly passively these days.
I signed up for Twitter many years ago, but rarely used it. Then a couple of years ago I tweeted regularly. I hate writing abbreviated versions of English, so it was challenging, but almost like an artistic endeavour, to write well-formed sentences and ideas in 140 characters or less. My usual writing style is a not particular short, so I think it was also good discipline for me. A couple of other places where I write also impose strict limits on length, which forces me to be much more careful about the word choice to make every word work to communicate with readers.

My professors at university had a much more flexible approach to work limits. When they said 5 - 8 thousand words, I could usually get away with 5+8 thousand, although it was a good idea to get permission first. Busy readers prefer less rather than more words, and good writing makes every word earn its place, which reminds me of my favourite English novel, Jane Austen's 200 year-old masterpiece Pride and Prejudice.

At around 300 pages in my various editions, it's not particularly long as novels go, but Austen makes almost every sentence serve several purposes at the same time: showing her characters, developing the story, entertaining with witty language, and so on. Every word seems perfectly chosen to make brilliant sentence after brilliant sentence, and each sentence works with every other sentence in its paragraph and chapter to unify everything. When we get to the end, we can see how cleverly Austen predicts it in her famous opening sentence: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." It was because they copied Austen's language and story so very faithfully that the BBC production starring Colin Firth (whose name I have trouble remembering - it's more like Mr. Darcy sometimes plays an actor called Colin First who has also played other, less memorable, roles) is so wonderful. It's one of the best TV productions ever made, largely because it copies so carefully from its source.

I wonder what Jane Austen would make of Twitter? Some of her sentences are not short.

___________

Reference

Twitter shares plunge on weak earnings. (2016, April 27). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36147138

Should Thailand legalize marijuana?

Source background
According to Peter Day in "The B&B where cannabis is part of your stay," the legalization of marijuana for recreational use by Colorado in 2014 has led to a rapidly growing industry that is transparent, "often quite elegant," and a major tax payer (2016). Day tells us that this did not happen because Colorado politicians wanted to change the drug laws, but because the citizens of the state of Colorado wanted it and voted to force their government to legalize marijuana, which is now also a draw for tourists from US states where this addictive drug remains illegal. Day also discusses the odd situation that results from the fact that whilst now legal in Colorado, marijuana remains illegal under federal US law, which means, for example, that banks are uncomfortable dealing with legal marijuana profits.

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Should Thailand legalise marijuana?

My answer is:
Yes, definitely. 

Although understandable, there was never any good reason to make ganja (กัญชา)  illegal in the first place, so making it legal now would correct the currently unjust laws that have been harming Thai citizens for decades past. Those same Thai laws are also harming Thai society by leading to increased crime, reduced tax income, higher corruption, wasted police resources and no reduction in drug use. These are all harms that come from the rule of law that makes a popular drug of addiction illegal - and exactly the same thing happened in the US when alcohol was made illegal between World Wars 1 and 2: the mafia and corrupt police, judges and others loved it because they got rich.

Apart from my own coffee addiction, I think it's better not to use drugs, especially nasty drugs like alcohol, but marijuana seems much less harmful: alcohol users, all those people drunk on beer, whisky, wine and so on, are major causes of violent crime. It is the alcohol addicts and users who bash their wives and children. It is the alcohol users who get into fights. It is the alcohol users who destroy thousands of Thai families by killing innocent people on Thai roads. Compared to alcohol, marijuana seems kind and gentle, although it should certainly be illegal to smoke and drive, just as it should be illegal to drink alcohol and drive.

After enjoying Day's report on life in Colorado under legal marijuana, I was worried by two things: the effect of legalisation on crime and on drug use rates, especially among young people. I don't normally do research apart from the news article I respond to here, but this time I did want to check the solid evidence. It's all OK. According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (the state equivalent of the FBI), most crimes have decreased in Colorado since the drug was legalised, especially theft (n.d.), and according to a federal US government report, the rate of using marijuana among young people in Colorado has not changed in a statistically significant way (Hughes, Lipari &  Williams, 2015). These results were what I expected, but I wanted to make sure. I expected that crime would reduce because when drugs are legal, there is less need for crime, and I expected no increase in drug use because that's normal: the experience of the US with alcohol under Prohibition, the experience of China with opium, and the experience of Portugal, which decriminalised all drugs (including heroin and yaa baa) in 2001, show that making drugs legal does not increase drug use.

Thailand and Thai citizens would benefit greatly were marijuana and all other recreational drugs legalized for adults to buy, sell and use. I can think of only bad reasons not to do this.

___________

Reference

Colorado Bureau of Invesgiation (n.d.). 2014 Colorado Reported Statewide Crimes. In Crime in Colorado 2014. Retrieved from http://crimeinco.cbi.state.co.us/cic2k14/state%20totals/statewide_offense.html

Day, P. (2016, April 27). The B&B where cannabis is part of your stay. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35999549

Hughes, A., Lipari, R. N., & Williams, M. (2015, December 17). State Estimates of Adolescent Marijuana Use and Perceptions of Risk of Harm From Marijuana Use: 2013 and 2014 [report from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration]. Retrieved from http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/report_2121/ShortReport-2121.pdf

Do you like fast food?

Source background

In "High Levels Of Fecal Bacteria Found On KFC's Ice," Tom Hale (2016) says that KFC has insisted that it has taken immediate steps to fix the discovery by a BBC TV show which discovered and reported that the ice sold with drinks in a KFC shop in England had dangerous levels of bacteria of bacteria from fecal contamination, most likely from a staff member who, it is implied, did not wash their hands after going to the toilet.

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Do you like fast food?

My answer is:
Yes, do. 

I don't like KFC, but I do like fast food. It's probably about forty (yes, 40) years since I've eaten KFC, which tastes bland and oily to me. I remember when KFC first opened in my local town where I went to high school - it was a major event. The local news was full of it, and there were long queues of eager customers waiting to get some. I was very annoyed that my mum didn't join them!

In those days, I was also fond of hamburgers. And I still am, although not the McDonald's ones, which. much like KFC, are boringly bland. But there are some great hamburger places in Sydney. There also used to be a good one in the supermarket at Paragon, but it closed a couple of years ago. It was replaced by the Dock - an oyster bar. On the whole, I think the Dock is even better. And one of my friends' young (now 9) sons loves it. Every time we visit Paragon, no matter how much else we've already eaten for lunch, we have to get a dozen or so oysters. I like the Sydney rock oysters, but usually get half a dozen of some other type as well.

Mmm ... now I need a snack before I go to bed, and not an oyster to be had in my home.

Almost forget to mention that one of my favourite fast foods is the excellent kai yang I regularly buy from the stall in front of my condo. It makes a great snack with or without somtam.

Fortunately, I have half a baguette and some Brie that should keep me going until tomorrow morning.

___________

Reference

Hale, T. (2016, April 25). High Levels Of Fecal Bacteria Found On KFC's Ice. IFLScience. Retrieved from http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/high-levels-bacteria-poop-found-kfcs-ice

Welcome to AEP Reading and Writing 2, term 3, 2016

Welcome to our Reading and Writing level 2 (AB) class for the term.

Over the next six weeks, we will be working through a few chapters in Quest, which involve reading and writing several different kinds of texts. We will also add some extra reading and writing to keep things interesting every day; we will, for example, be reading a short novel and regularly writing on this class blog.

I hope you find the class useful and also enjoyable.

In the meantime, you might like to have a look at the some of the posts on this blog by my students in previous classes.

 Peter.

Dilbert's version of "Do We Every Deserve to Be Punished?"

Source background
Over the years, the Dilbert cartoons have sometimes touched on the same topics that Steven Law takes up in "Do We Ever Deserve to Be Punished?"

Scott Adams, 1993.

Scott Adams, 2008.

_______________________________________ 

___________

Reference

Adams, S. (1993, May 5). Dilbert [Cartoon]. Retrieved from http://dilbert.com/strip/1993-05-30

Adams, S. (2008, November, 4). Dilbert [Cartoon]. Retrieved from http://dilbert.com/strip/2008-11-04