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Dreaming is my usual night time brain activity that has been going on for 5-6 years now.  As soon as I hit a pillow, I enter into the dream world where I have no control of.  Luckily I hardly have any nightmares and most of the times I’m able to get back to sleep or to carry on with a story in my dream. Witin the last six months that I’m back to the working world, I have noticed that the only kind of dream I have EVERY SINGLE NIGHT is all about my work. I will wake up during the night hearing myself talking and if it’s not scrary enough, listen to this. I have kept repeating the similar dreams night after night for 6 months.  The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that my sub-conscience is a culprit. Or is it a sign of being depressed? 

The passage below is a part of my grammar exercise and it happens to be about dream.

When we sleep, our bodies relax and are at rest, but the mind almost never stops working entirely. That part of the mind that tells us what is going on about us goes to sleep, but another part of the mind still active. That other part creates visual images or pictures that we call dreams. When we wake up, we can sometimes remember our dreams which, at times, seem quite as real to us as things that have happened when we were wide awake.

Some dreams seem short, as we remember them afterward and some seem to go on and on. There have even been cases where the story of a dream is continued from night to night, almost like a continued story in a magazine. Sometimes, when you dream, you yourself seem to be acting out main part of the dream, or you may be just a spectator of what is going on. Your dreams may be funny, and you may wake up laughing. Or they may be sad or terrifying.

There is a great disappoitment that we do not yet understand about dreams. Many people think that our dreams do not mean anything at all. Many modern psychologists believe that, if we could understand our dreams, they could tell us much about our feelings and our attitudes toward life. The character of our dreams usually changes as we go on through life. Grownup people’s dreams are usually much more complex than those of children. Children often dream of doing things that they would like to be able to do when they are awake. They often dream, too, as do grownups, of things that have happened.  In the dream, however, the actual happening are almost never shown exactly as they happened, and they often much more interesting than real life.

Dreams are often influenced by physical condition. Too much heat or cold, discomfort caused by indigestion or by sleeping in an awkward position, may influence our dreams. Loud and usual noises may alter the shape and color of our dreams. Often sounds and sensations penetrate (enter) to the dreaming part of the mind without waking us.
Then the dream may at once take a form built around these sensations. The noise of a door that has been suddenly slammed shut by the wind may become the report a gun fire by a bandit in a dream. A sharp drop in the temperature may make that we are wandering (going aimlessly) through the chilly caverns of an iceberg.

Some dreams are so vivid that we remember them for years. Many of them, however, are soon forgotten. Most dreams, however, are probably never remembered at all, and we do not even know that we have dreamed them.

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Dreams have interested, puzzled and frightened people for thousands of years. And all kinds of strange explanations were developed about dreams. At one time, people thought that the figures appearing in dreams were messengers from the Gods. It was generally believed that dreams came from something outside the dreamer and could be understand only by persons with special skills. Today it is believed that dreams are created by the dreamer itself.  And because dreams are something a person creates, they may have special meaning for the person who dreams them. Just why you have a particular dream when you do may depend on many things. Your health may affect your dreams. A person who is ill or uncomfortable will have different kinds of dreams than a person who is well and happy.

If a person is hungry or cold, or very tired, his dreams may include this feeling, so that many dreams seem to be made up of disguised feelings. Also, the events of the day before may have a lot to do with what you dream.  Often the persons or situations in a dream are those what you met during the day. Or your emotions many make you have the kind of dream you have. Needing or waiting something may be expressed in a dream, and being frightend may becaom part of a dream.

The feelings of happiness or disappointment which come out in dreams were probably in the dreamer before. All the dreams give them an outlet.

My job training was complete and now I’m on the regular schedules (on the floor taking live calls from customers). Bacially, I learn so many things that couldn’t be taught during the training. The company wants its new employees to be efficient in computer; therefore, a trainer didn’t provide any hand-out for us to take home to review.  We would be given a couple of minutes to read a certain topic. Following it was the exercise to check how much we understood.  I myself couldn’t actually remember anything I had just read. Even though I took notes, sometimes it was still fuzzy to me.

Every new employee goes through the same feeling about his/her new job. It’s an uncertainty whether or not the mistake on the job can be prevented and how much it hurts the customers as it occurs. My company has what’s called ‘Helpline’ to help the new employees with all sort of questions that they can’t answer to the customers or things that they are unsure what to do.  Once in a while I get a feeling that some Helpline people are irritated with the questions I ask. If I had known an answer or remembered how to do it, I wouldn’t have called them. I started to creat a file called “learning on the fly” to avoid asking those HelpLine people the same questions over again.

The truth be told that I don’t care much for this job. I really can’t say that I hate it, I’m just not happy with the circumstances surrrounding the job especially vacation. I no longer have freedom to take a day off as I please. My boss has to check with the Workforce Management department (call scheduler group) to see if it’s okay for me to take off.  After my first vacation request was denied, I started to see the light on the other side of a tunnel. Not only the vacation that I’m concerned about, but I realize that my social no longer exist. I can’t go out to lunch with other people I know because my lunch time can be any time from 2:30 pm to 3:45 pm. Most of my friends or networkers are getting ready to leave for home. Oh, well, what can I do?

My life as an unemployed citizen was awesome in terms of being stressed-free person. I had never been happier. Even though I grew sideway from not using much energy to burn my fat, I must say it was the happiest time I ever had. Things begun to change after I was offered a job. Instead of going to bed at midnight and getting up at 8 in the morning, I had to drag myself out of bed at 6 in order be in a training room at 8. I was basically running from a parking lot to the building to show my face there before my trainer arrived. Driving to work was a challenge, too; I couldn’t help yawning from home all the way to work. My eyes were always full of tears which came down on my face interminably. Coming back home after being shoveled new information into my restless brain made me feel even more exhausted. Don’t ask me what was going on around the world or what TV program was very famous; I couldn’t answer either of them. I hit my pillow exactly 9 o’clock almost every night.

I was pretty excited about my upcoming writing class; unfortunately, something came up to prevent me from going back to school again. It’s just not fair. I recognized my weakness and wanted to do anything to enhance my writing skills. What stopped me?

After I had been searching for a job for almost a year without any success, I told myself that I could either go back to school or pack my bag to go home. Somehow a picture of me walking in the school building and talking to my advisor about the problem I might run into on my assignment seemed very clear in my mind. With that, I knew what my answer would be. I went ahead with the enrollment. A couple of weeks after having registered for the class,  I received a phone call from a recruiter from my former company offering me a position. Having been informed about my work schedules, I logged on-line to my school website searching for the same class offered at another off campus. I spent several days checking and re-checking to see if I could move it, but my effort was in vain. There was nothing available on my day off whether it would be an on-line class or a traditional one; therefore, the only choice I had was to cancel it. What a bummer!!!  I knew that my ambition, eagerness, or interest in improving my writing would defenitely fade away and I couldn’t be more right.  

I’m preparing myself for a writing class that I have just registered.  After twelve years without taking any English writing class, I can see myself stumbling all the way through. Writing formally such as an essay doesn’t come easy anymore.  The class that I’m going to take is called, “Essay and Reserach”, which sounds scary already.  Taking a baby step by writing  just a simple memoir of my daily life might just be a good start.

“My daily life”

My daily life usually begins at 8 o’clock in the morning. After having made my bed and groomed myself, I walk to my kitchen and step on a scale to measure my weight.  A reason I measure myself everyday is to find out if the food I ate a day before has any impact on my body weigh.  If it has, I will try to stay away from the same kind of food or reduce the amount intake.

Standing in the middle of my kitchen is a small island , where a squared plastic Tupperware containing dry chicken food is lying. Grabbing a bag of salad, a large size of apple, and a cup of bean sprout, I begin to chop and add them into the Tupperware. Bean sprout contains enzymes that their bodies need from fresh vegetables. They like soupy food; therefore, I normally add a cup of water in order to make their food soft.  After their food is ready, I climb down a ladder to go down a basement to feed my chickens. It’s my habit of saying hello to them whether or not they understand me. Somehow I make an assumption that they do because they always respond with certain kinds of noise.  I can see them standing close to the door and looking through the chicken wires that divide between a large area of the basement and their quarter. They wait eagerly for their first meal of the day. Once in a while, I will find a white Lake Horn roosting on a hanging wire above me. With my encouragement, she flies down to join the rest of the flock, ready to eat her share. I also fill other feeders with a full cup of cracked corn and sun flower seeds. I also raise Guineas or African Pheasants. Both chickens and guinea are fully fed so it’s time for them to go out for a run in the yard. As soon as the basement door is cracked opened, they fly out like an arrow.  I walk toward the other side of the basement where a wood stove is located. Because the temperature is still below freezing, the basement feels rather cold. I cut a cardboard box into smaller pieces, put a small log in the stove, and crumble a couple of pieces of a newspaper before lighting the fire. My morning shore is done so I climb up the ladder and start to eat my own breakfast.

There is a connection between writing and thinking. Can writing be learned? In my opinion, it can; otherwise, a writing course wouldn’t have been offered to every first year college student. Learning to write effectively and efficiently requires a hard work, commitment, and perseverance.

Writing has wide-ranging implications for the way we think and learn, for our chances of success, our personal development, and our relations with other. Writing encourages us to be organized, logical, and even creative in our thinking; moreover, it urges us to ask question and to look critically at what other have to say as well as what ourselves think.

The grammatically of writing imposes a certain kind of order on our thinking. To write comprehensible sentences and paragraphs, we need to put words in a certain order: follow subjects with verbs, coordinate parallel ideas, and subordinate the particular to the general. From different kinds of writing, we learn different ways of developing our thoughts. . We learn to analyze and evaluate ideas and to synthesize what we learn from other and experiences firsthand. Writing fosters habits of critical inquiry.

Since my previous article was about wolf, I think I will add another one here.  It’s from a movie “Never Cry Wolf”. If you like wolves as I do, you probably enjoy this film. 

As I mentioned that people expressed distrust and fear of wolves.  They even create several idioms such as “throw someone to the wolf” to mean to put someone in a situation where there is nothing to protect them.  I wonder if there is an idiom “wolf out”. If not, I’d to be the first one to use it.  Wolves have been painted into a bad image for too long; it’s time for people to wolf out of the wolf topic. How about that?

The following passage is excerpted from a book, Vocabulary for College Students. The Canadian government was concerned that wolves were damaging the ecology of the Arctic by eating so many caribou that the animal was disappearing; therefore, officials sent Farley Mowat to see what effect hungry northern wolves were having on caribou herds. In his book Never Cry Wolf, his description of a year living close to wolves contradicts the traditional image of the “big, bad wolf.” From the beginning Mowat’s encounters with wolves surprised him. Weaponless, he found himself at their mercy three times.  Although they could have killed him, they simply walked away. Even when he went into their territory, they did not attack him. The implication was clear; the senseless viciousness of the wolf was large in the human imagination.

Fascinated, Mowat was determined to observe the wolves at close range. He defined his own territory, lived in a tent, and watched them through a telescope. Mowat’s wolf family consisted of a couple, “Georgie” and “Angeline,” their wolf pups, and “Uncle Albert”, a single male. They were affectionate and caring. The entire wolf den was organized around feeding the pups. Each afternoon, George and Uncle Albert went off to hunt, returning the next morning; however, Angeline, apparently conscious of her responsibilities as a mother, stayed home to watch her youngsters.

During family play, sometimes a pup’s lively nipping and licking wore Angeline out, but the good-natured Uncle Albert was always ready to take her place. Mowat gives a graphic description of wolf games of ‘tag,’ with Uncle Albert playing “it.” Uncle Albert was also an effective, if unwilling, babysitter. All three adults carefully instructed the puppies in hunting.

At first, wolf calls disturbed Mowat. The animals would come together and vociferate in high-pitched howls for several minutes, sending chills of fear down Mowat’s spine. Gradually, he began to realize that wolves could communicate different messages.  After listening to howls, one day, Ooteck, Mowat’s Eskimo companion, became greatly excited and rushed off. A few hours later, he returned with a host of visitors. How had Ooteck known where to find them? He had gotten the information from the wolves’ howls. Another time, Ooteck claimed that two wolf packs, separated by many miles, announced the presence of caribou herds to each other.

As he continued to watch the wolves, Mowat began to wonder what they ate. For most of the year, the caribou were far away. How did the den support itself during this time? One day he watched Angeline trap twenty-three mice in one afternoon. Could it be that the great beast of the north could support itself by eating the lowly mouse?

To test the ability of the large animal to live on mice, Mowat used himself as a subject. For several months, he ate only mice, developing several recipes! He reported that this diet did not affect his health, and he remained as vigorous as ever. He drew the inference that wolves could also live on a diet of mice.

Did wolves ever hunt caribou? Mowat found that the wolves hunted a few, mainly weak or old, caribou. By removing the animals that wolves find it hard to survive, the wolves actually strengthened the caribou heard. But if wolves were not killing the caribou, who was? Mowat decided that most were hunted by human beings.

Mowat’s experienced with Arctic wolves was a prologue to efforts that aroused the public’s conscience about the treatment of the animals. Soon after he returned from the wolf, he began work on a manuscript to make people more aware of wolves. The resulting book, Never Cry Wolf, played an important part in saving the northern wolf, which, he estimated, numbered fewer than 3,000. Mowat invoked the aid of wildlife organizations to preserving and increasing the wolf population. He urged the government to revoke edicts that gave rewards for dead wolves. In response to the pleas of Mowat and other wildlife advocates, people are now taking steps to protect this valuable animal.  

*** orignially from Wolf Organization **** 

Have I ever mentioned that wolves are my favorite wild animals? I started to support Wolf Organization several years ago. To my chagrin, my information has been shared with other wildlife organizations.  As you can imagine that I have been drained with the letters asking for my support. Some of them call asking me to commit to a monthly support. That is too pushy so they will never get a penny from me. Even though I burst out loud that I no longer have a job or stable income, they still persist claiming that even $5 or $10 helps. “What part of having no income don’t you understand?” Of course, I didn’t say it; that would have been too mean, right? I wish I could just chew their heads off but I’m a nice girl. The funny thing about these organizations is that they always send me the petitions to sign and they attack on every president, whether it’s a democrat or a republication. Somehow they find the cause to take the actions against a governor of a certain state or the President. My advocacy toward Wolf organization is to be a part of a decent program to education people about wolves.

Centuries of folklore and tradition have expressed distrust and fear of wolves. We speak of starvation as “having (or keeping) the wolf at the door.” It is the wolf who tricks the folklore figure Little Red Riding Hood. Finally, an evil person who appears to be innocent is called a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” These creatures have no good reputation among human beings.

Hunting Logan, the wolf:

Several months ago I watched a discovery channel about a wolf named Logan and a Mexican hunter. I was mesmerized by a story which was claimed to be a true one.  Sometimes in 18^th century, the farmers in CA were fed up with Logan that preyed on their livestock and the domestic animals so they decided to hire a famous wolf-hunter from Mexico. The hunter had been following or tracking Logan for many years; however, his effort was in vain. Many tricks and methods to catch Logan had been tried, but Logan was always one step ahead of him. That was a humiliation for the hunter. Finally, he put up the traps along with the baits. The very next morning, he found his pile of meat (his bait) on the ground. Logan didn’t fall for the tricks; he was smarter than that. A lone-wolf with no mate like him enjoyed playing a mouse and cat with the hunter. Soon after, he had found himself a white female wolf; she became his downfall. Being pregnant, she needed extra food to feed herself. Realizing that Logan was no longer alone, the hunter continued on with his hunting skills. He set a little over hundred animal traps with the poisonous baits. She became the prey herself. Not being to help his mate, Logan was frustrated. He kept coming back to the same spot she was trapped but couldn’t sense her. The hunter, on the other hand, came up with the new trick. He dragged her body to the area where he had put the traps, hoping Logan would fall for it this time. Logan sniffed his way through until he reached a cabin. Now the end is a bit fussy to me. I can’t remember whether he stepped on the trap or he stood there letting the hunter shoot at him. The bottom line is that Logan was killed by the Mexican hunter. He buried Logan and the white female wolf together. The hunter wrote a diary telling a story about his experience with Logan.  As a wolf lover, I found this documentary extremely touchy.   

I trust everyone had a nice Christmas and New Year. What is my new year resolution? Good question without an interesting answer. I will have to think about it before making any commitment to myself.

First glance at Amish - 2After being explicitly explained to what the outhouse was all about, a red light in my head started to blink a little. I decided to hold it until I reached a nearby town where there was a normal restroom.The older Amish gentleman spoke with a slightly accent which I couldn’t place it at first. English is not the native tongue of Amish and neither is mine. Apparently, he and I had something in common when came to English. German is Amish first language; they learn it at home and use it to communicate among themselves. At school, first graders often face the challenge of learning a new language - English - along with their first lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The teacher used the German dialect only as a last resort if a pupil cannot understand English. It takes special effort to teach English word meanings, comprehension, and pronunciation skills.We were told that he had built the house from his own wood, sending them to and from a sawmill. The final products were perfect size for his house. What amazed me the most was that the whole house didn’t have a single nail but wood pegs to hold every piece of wood together. This type of house is as strong and sturdy as the one that used the nails.When we called to inquire some information about this property, we were told this Amish family wanted to sell all 166 acres before moving close to his son. Obviously, it was some place else.  I couldn’t see myself living far away from civilization in the wood where the nearest neighbor was around 2 miles away. My husband probably agreed that the property was too big for two of us to handle. It was a nice trip, though. At least I could see another side of America.Still I’m fascinated with a simple life style of the Amish. To me the Amish is a living history not in the sense of backward living.  It’s amazing to learn that some people in America can still live without electricity, running water, telephone, car, or internet.  The world around them keeps moving and changing while they stay still and seem to be happy with the way they live. Even though some of them jump the fence - leaving the Amish life style behind- , plenty of Amish communities can be seen and observed.