Journal

Its 7 O’clock in the morning, I was again awakened in another physics nightmare, which I dreamed of getting a C in my physics exam. I jumped out from my bed, quickly opened my computer to check my score. Fortunately, I got a A my exam. “Wow that’s actually pretty good!” I wonder, and  for the rest of the morning I was trod on air because the 3.7 GPA wasn’t a dream anymore, it was just within my reach. “I am closer to my dream! I have to tell my parents about this! They definitely will be happy about this!” I thought, and with tears in my eyes, I called them and vented all my pressure with them. I shared about my life in Purdue, and how college changed me. During the video chat, I suddenly found out that my dad and mom looked older than I thought, the temples of their hair were like an upcoming winter, which the beautiful darkness was now covered by a layer of hoary-silver. I started to felt guilty of myself not caring about my parents, so at the the end of the video chat, I looked them in the eyes through the camera and spoke from my heart with sincerity, “I will take care of my self, and I will let you be proud of me. See you in in two months.” After talking to my parents, I can’t help but recall my friends from Taiwan who were also studying in America and other places around world. Filled with nostalgia, I opened a group chat and spoke with my friends asking about their life, and I was happy when I heard they were all doing very good in their schools. After chatting with my friends, there was suddenly a sense of lost, which I hope I can go back to the days in high school, but I told myself, life will eventually go on and on, and there will always be interesting things ahead of us. With this idea in mind, I closed my computer, dressed a little, and started my new adventure in Purdue today

Reading

Last week at school, we watched a movie related to artificial intelligence. I think I like the movie pretty much. At first, I did not know much about artificial intelligence, and I did not even know what exactly artificial intelligence is used for. However, after watching the movie last week, I sort of understand its usage and some potential effect.

            With regard to the content of the movie, it depicts the story between engineers and the robots. In the setting, the engineer has an extremely high coding skills and he invented robots with skills of artificial intelligence to make robots not only possess multiple functions but also have a sense of emotion. It might seem ridiculous if we stand from the perspective with regard to the resources and the skills we have nowadays. However, in my opinion, it is of highly possibility to really have this kind of artificial intelligence in the future. The movie is strongly related to the topic that we are going to discuss today. They are all about skills of technology and the appropriate usage. The movie laid a forecast on humans’ future with artificial intelligence. I think the movie is beneficial for us to understand what artificial intelligence is like.

Journal

At April 8^th, I went to a Baroque concert in Chicago performed by a well-known orchestra and some guest artists. There are a total of four music performed, and each music was performed by different groups of members with different combinations of instruments.

The environment there is really nice, the style of adornment in the building is similar with the way churches are structured. For example, the windows are made by stained glass and the seats are arranged in a way such that there is an aisle between two groups of seats. As for the general demographics of the audience, the majority of the audiences are old people (Above 50 years old) and it seemed like they came from neighborhoods nearby. As the concert is not as formal as a typical classical or Baroque concert but only slightly looser, the way the audiences participate was simply sitting still in their seats and listening without talking, singing, moving, or dancing.

I was so delightful to attend this concert. I have been learning violin since I was 7 years old, and I joined orchestra in my junior high and high school. It felt so good and remind me of the good old time back in Taiwan when I was listening to the music. So thankful that my friend took me to this concert,

Overall, I really like all four music in this concert because personally, I am a lover of Baroque music. I listened to a lot of Baroque music and there are more than fifty pieces of Baroque music in my classical music playlist. The majority of them are composed by Vivaldi and Bach. In this concert, the favorite piece must be the last one, the Fourth Quartet in C Major. The reason is simply because I like the sound of pizzicato and fortunately, this technique is used largely in this piece. Moreover, the second music and the last music affected me the most in an emotional perspective because I could feel the transformation of joy to sorrow significantly in the second music and the last music sounded delightful almost throughout the whole performance. On the other hand, the first music and the third music does not have a specific part that affected me emotionally. However, I really like the horn appeared in the third music because it is looks so special with the beautiful totem. As for the thing specifically held my attention, it must be the performance of the cellists because of the large utilization of basso continuo. Cellists seemed to play an important role throughout the concert. In this concert, there was only Baroque music presented instead of a variety of music. Since the concert is a Baroque concert, in my opinion, it can be improved by having more pieces performed by more representative Baroque composers such as Bach and Vivaldi to highlight the characteristics of Baroque music.

Overall, it is my first time attending a Baroque concert, and it is a nice experience. I really enjoyed it. Especially, I had my differential equation exam that day, and it is so great to attend a Baroque concert after a stressful exam time.

Reading

            Just saw the news regarding the aftermath of United Airline brutally dragging passenger off the plane. I have to say that I am impressed and surprised how fast they have this thing settled, and I am also glad that Dr. Tao received the justice he deserves. Hope this sort of thing will never happen again.

Journal

                        It was indeed a very very busy month. Right after the rowing fundraising activity, our TSA (Taiwanese Student Association) had another event coming up, and as officer, despite how busy I was, I still had to go helping out my Taiwanese fellas preparing the event. It was our Chinese New Year dinner! Our organization has been running this event every year. It is a tradition in Taiwan and China. In Taiwan and China, we have different version calender. It is usually a month before the Western calender; therefore, our new year eve is on February. And this time, we are hosting a dinner banquet that is open to everyone here. It was not an easy task to do. We had to find a place, make reservation, set up event page, contact catering restaurants, and get sponsorships. Among all these tedious works, the one I found most interesting is seeking for sponsorship. My friend and I went to every single restaurant and market that might be willing to sponsor us and nicely asked them if they are willing to support this event. To be honest, this was my first time doing this kind of thing. I was shy and nervous at first, but as my friend and I went to more restaurants, we started getting the feeling of how to successfully ask for sponsorship. It was a really precious experience. It not only helped our organization but also benefitted myself from gaining experience and prepared me to get ready for my future career.

Reading

            I want to continue my previous discussion about Never Shall I Forget. I really enjoy the poem, so I look deeper into the poem and try analyze the strategy and purpose of the poem regarding the author’s diction and word choice.

First and foremost, every word, carefully chosen by Elie Wiesel, significantly symbolizes something in his life in concentration camp. The term symbolization is the usage of symbol to represent or express one’s ideas or qualities. In Never Shall I Forget, many objects or name are used to present the author’s idea that Holocaust is unbearable and miserable. For instance, in the first line of the poem, the word “night” demonstrates the author’s vicissitude, trauma, and horror he endured at Auschwitz concentration camp. It was a long and terrible night for the author, as the author’s pain is permanent and harmful.  Also, in the second stanza, “Never shall I forget that smoke,” the word “smoke ” in this sentence symbolizes the souls and dreams of those innocent children who had been killed for no reason. They supposed to live on good lives and had some memorable childhood, but their lives were bereaved as the smoke slowly dispersed and eventually disappeared in the air. Moreover, “flames” in the third stanza stands for the author’s pain and horror; plus, “flames” also means those Nazi soldiers who put him into desperate condition, burning his life to nothing. After all, symbolism in this poem strongly and clearly shows the negative impression of Holocaust as a whole.