Response to “The School by Donald Barthelme”

Response to “The School by Donald Barthelme”

The writer tells a story happened at school. In the story, Mr. Edgar is assumed to be a teacher. As an adult, he experiences a lot and he knows how the world works. Compared to his innocent students, Mr. Edgar is supposed to answer students’ questions and teach them. However, when facing question, Mr. Edgar cannot give a certain answer. He uses words “maybe” and “might”. He doesn’t know why the tree dies and why the fish leaves. He cannot explain a lot of things.

Just as he says in the first paragraph: “I don’t know why they died, they just died.” There are so many things happened in the world, and we cannot find a correct explain to it. Why the things died and where they go. Why the leaf turns yellow and brown. Why the people we love leave us and never come back. We cannot find a certain answer to it, and we cannot do nothing but see their leaving. Many times, life gives us no choice. Life is hard and helpless, Mr. Edgar does not know how to explain this to his lovely and innocent students.

When you are a child, you think the world is colorful and nice. However, as you grow up gradually, you would be sad to find the world is not so lovely. There are a lot of bad things happened, and you could do nothing. Life is boring and hard. As the growing of age, people experience the helpless life and understand it. However, it is hard to tell this kind of sadness to the little children. Only when they grow up, they would understand this slowly. At the end of the story, students are cheering wildly but Mr. Edgar says nothing. By this contrast, the writer shapes a good image of Mr. Edgar.

Presentation “Small Spiral Notebook”

My group choose the website "http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com/" for presentation. The smallspiralnotebook.com is about furniture and interior decoration. There are various of kinds of different styles about decorating, and there are some journals provides interesting ideas about choosing furniture.

 
I like "Pippin McGee" best. Pippin McGee is a children’s comprehensive furniture and accessory store.  Kim Crouchet of Lafayette is the founder of Pippin McGee. When she gave birth to child, she found that it was  was hard to locate quality and lovely baby furniture. She said: “It was hard to find things that I liked, and even harder to get someone to explain the details of the product. When you are talking about your kids, you want to be able to trust the product.” 
It is not difficult to open a children's furniture store, but to open one like Pippin McGee is not so easy. 

Pippin McGee has many specializes. The first one is that there are some different play areas for children and teens, so that parents can browse while their children are entertained. It is a good idea for children are always noisy and naughty when parents are shopping. Secondly, Pippin McGee is a one-step shop for parents. It provides a wild assortment of  furniture, accessories, and supplies. So in this way, customers can buy all their need in one shop. It makes shopping more convenient. Thirdly, this is the one I love the most,  is that they will help you to choose your style. "A Pippin McGee employee will come out to your home and help you choose each element in your child’s new environment. This can be especially helpful when trying to find a compromise between teenagers and parents. 'We try to find something that the mom can live with and the daughter is excited about,' Crouchet says." It is unique and others stores usually will not provide this kind of serves.

 
Thinking about the serves of Pippin McGee, I find that its success is not an accident. Pippin McGee provides special and quality furniture to customers. And the serves are unique. It really considers for customers' needs. I think it is a good idea for us to think about how to catch business opportunity and provide unique serves to stay customers. 

Bush/Response

1. What is research like for bush in 1945? What are the problems with it?

     The research for bush in 1945 is "a growing mountain". There were a lot of scientists focusing on the research, and their way to research and purpose was the same. Gradually, there was a competition between the scientists. Because the competition, they did not want to work together. As a result, the research would not stop. They stayed in their familiar laboratories and study for a common result.

     For there were a great number of information, it became a big problem for people to find useful things based on a huge data. And it was hard to remember the information. In this way, the need of effective and cheap machine was obvious gradually. And the word "memex" came out. 

2. What is memex?

     Memex is a kind of device can help people to deal with lots of information. It likes a private library in which people can store information like books, records, communications and so on. And it would be easy to access all the information. The memex can help to deal with information quickly and conveniently.  

3. Do we have anything similar to the memex today?

     I think it is similar to the "Youdao" APP in my iPhone. "Youdao" is an English electronic dictionary APP. There are millions of English Words, records and columns. It contains lots of information for English learners. When meeting learning difficulties,  I can find the information through "Youdao" quickly and accurately. 

The Mid-Autumn Festival

     The Mid-Autumn Festival is a very vital festival for Chinese. It falls on the 15th day of August. On that day's evening, there will be a big family dinner. People who work far away from their homelands will come back for the union. After dinner, people will sit together and see the moon.  What's more, people will light some red and round  lanterns which represent reunion. Children usually play with their own toy lanterns happily. 

    Mid-Autumn Festival can make people who work far away from homelands miss home. Because  Mis-Autumn Festival is usually on the half of a year, it is a good chance for people to go back to home and see family. However, this year, I don't go back to my home. I guess my parents are eating moon cakes  and missing me. It is sad that I can't spend the festival with them. So I call my parents and grandmother. The Mid-Autumn Festival is not only a festival about round moon, but also a day to remind people to love family. 

The first one

This blog is for ENG4081 class~

I would write something in my blog every week. I may write what I learnt at class or something worth thinking. Or I may just simply write something about my feelings. It would be an awesome experience for me to keep blog and write things regularly. I believe that I can improve my writing and  thinking skills. And when I finish the class, I can see my blog and find what I learn at ENG4081 class. 

To be honest, I really look forward to see my progress.