Sayuri: One of My Favorite Singer

酸欠少女さユり(Sanketsu Shōjo Sayuri) is a Japanese singer who is born in 1996. She aimed to be a singer when she was six because she saw a group of idols performing and was deeply touched by them. After that, she bought a guitar and tried to compose, and her very first song "るーららるーらーるららるーらー( Ru-Rararu-Ra-Rurararu-Ra-)" have already won the prize in a contest while she was only 15 years old. 

Three years after the contest, she held her first live concert in Tokyo, and all tickets were sold out. The concert was a farewell for Sayuri, since she would no longer be a student, but a singer. Few months later, she released her first single "ミカヅキ(Crescent Moon)" as a debut, and the song was adopted to an ending song for an anime called "Game of Laplace".

Her stage name means a girl who is running out of oxygen. The reason why she gave herself a name like this was because she had difficulty with getting alone with others after enrolled in high school, feeling that she was disconnected to the world. She brought that suffering feeling, as if she is running out of oxygen, to perform every song. 

As for my favorite song of hers, I would say it is "来世で会おう(See You in the Afterlife)". Sayuri always use her heart, even soul, to sing, especially in this song. It makes me crying every time I listen to it.

I Am Tired Of This!

Since I enrolled in university, I have been in a miserable life. I was unable to make any friend because of my characteristics, first, I always blame my own fault on other people's head and say something offensive to provoke them. In addition, I tend to bother those who want to study by persuading them to play with me. Furthermore, I get mad easily. Due to those bad characteristics, I didn't have good relation with my classmates in the department. This made me have a hard time and now making me want to quit. And, finally, I have to tell you one thing, HAPPY FOOLS' DAY!

All of above are just kidding, everyone I met since I got into the university is amazing person, and they helped me a lot no matter in academic or any problem I encountered. The most meaningful decision I have made in my life is studying in FLLD, since I meet a lot of good friends and finally can choose what I want but not what my parents' want. 

Here is another interesting thing that will happen today, that is, people like to pretend they have a girlfriend or boyfriend for joking thier friends, because people think it is difficult to make a boyfriend or girlfriend and often ridicule others.

Have you experienced anything special today? A fake confession from your close friend? Or a little trick you have been played? Please feel free to share with me!

Animal friends: An overnight sensation Japanese animation

When hearing Japanese animation, people expect to see some works that have delicate illustrations.

But, one animation from last season called Animal Friends is very different from those beautiful works. Its quality was so low that many people didn't consider it as an animation. However, there were reasons in this circumstance. In general, every animation has a team to create it, and the most difficult part of making an animation is drawing. From line draft to coloring, each step has different group to operate. As for Animal Friends, it had only ten people in total to making the whole animation, and its funding was much lower than any other animation company.

Surprisingly, everything changed after the fifth episode was broadcasted. Not only the plot had a massive turning and there are some foreshadowing that was very attractive, making audience wanted to know the ending. 

In my opinion, the animation is very cute and positive, and you can learn a lot of knowledge of rare animals. It basically just saying animals are personated and accompany the amnesia main character to find what animal she is. Though I haven't finished it yet, I really enjoying watching it and can't wait to find out the truth. 

One interesting thing that is even the producer didn't know it can be so popular, since he had failed once with the same theme on a mobile game. By the way, its ending song is pretty nice.

Have you ever watched a Japanese animation? Please feel free to share with me!

UTA Night

Many departments of the university and clubs have their own "night", which means a series of performance presented by departments or clubs. 4/14 was UTA( United Taipei Association) nigh, and UTA gathered students from north area of Taiwan. We have been practiced since February, and we almost go to Yunping building(雲平大樓) for discussing every night.

At the beginning, everyone was not close to each other, so we just sat there and stared at others. The atmosphere was really awkward, but after few days, we started to chat and we gradually became very close friend. 

We have five performance in total, opening dancing, hosting, warning drama, romantic drama, and sound effect drama. I am the member of sound effect drama, and our performance is that we have to cooperate with the sound effect and make our audience laugh.

Everyone in the UTA had a great time with the whole staff, and we always had midnight snack together after practicing. One of the best part of participating the activity is that I can make a lot of new friends.

On the day we were goning to go up stage, we spent entire day to rehearse, wanting to show our best to all audience. We truly did it. All of the shows were awesome, even myself felt very touched by the performance.

I know there were some classmates form FLLD came and watched our show. I were too glad to know that because more and more people left after one program, and my show's order was the last one. 

Did you come to our UTA night? How did you feel about our performance? Please feel free to leave the comment and let me know your feeling!

Kano: My favorite cover singer

In Japan, there is a website which function is similar to Youtube called Niconico, and Japanese are tend to use that website to watch videos and listen to music. Most of works of Vocaloids are uploaded to Niconico, and a special song cover culture is formed there. Basically, those cover singers are some unknown guys. They could be a student or a thirty years old office worker, since they seldom reveal their true identity or face, just to keep the mystery.

One of those cover singer who use Kano(鹿乃) as her name on the internet uploaded one song and became very popular because her voice is very cute and soft, and the video below is Kano's cover.

Actually, I prefer the original song to the covered one, but somehow her voice makes me very touched and gets me goose bumps all over, especially a song called Kokoronashi.(心做し)

After hearing this song, I started to look for more songs that she had covered, and I found that she sings very nice and can express the song well. 

Here is another reason why I like her so much. It is because that after she become famous, she sang her own songs but not just cover all the time, and even sang for animation's opening song and ending song.

Please feel free to share with me your favorite singer or your feeling about Kano.

Clickbait: Let's talk about the most amazing thing in the world

Do you click into my article for seeing the most amazing thing in the world? If yes, congratulation! You are baited by a clickbait. So, what is a clickbait? According to Wikipedia, Clickbait is a pejorative term for web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, especially at the expense of quality or accuracy, relying on sensationalist headlines or eye-catching thumbnails pictures to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over online social networks. Clickbait headlines typically aim to exploit the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make readers curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content. In brief, that means editor would use a horrifying title to get your attention so that you might click into their article or video.

Below are some common clickbait examples:  

1. Shocking/ amazing/ unbelievable results

This type of clickbait headlines work in two parts. The first part explains the plot which is usually very catchy. The second part says that there is more to the plot and that the outcome is quite astonishing. The bait lies in the second part because it challenges our imagination power by using the phrases like: ‘…You won’t believe…’, ‘…shocking result’, ‘…too good to be true’ etc. 

2. Mysterious stories

They are the most common ones. They make the readers get interested in someone else’s life but, in a very convincing manner.

3. Instances of people’s stupidity on social media

We all like making fun of other people. It makes us feel superior and intelligent. Posts like this always get a lot of views and truth be told, they are actually fun to read!

4. A challenge to your IQ

Honestly, I have been fooled by this type of clickbait not once, not twice but many times. But, who is to blame?…some of these questions are interesting to solve, whereas, most of them are simple 3rd grade mathematics.

5. ‘Tricky’ stuffs

They use the term ‘simple tricks’ to attract more viewers.

I mean…Come on!!!

6. The fear inducing stuff

They are as manipulative as the number 2, but they use the ‘fear’ element and this type of clickbait is targeted towards a specific group of people.

Escape room: An Interesting reality game

An escape room is a physical adventure game in which players solve a series of puzzles using clues, hints and strategy to complete the objectives at hand. Players are given a set time limit to unveil the secret plot which is hidden within the rooms. Escape rooms are inspired by "escape-the-room""–style video games. Games are set in a variety of fictional locations, such as prison cells, dungeons and space stations, and are popular as team building exercises.

Real Escape Game (REG) in Japan was developed by 35-year-old Takao Kato,of the Kyoto publishing company, SCRAP Co., in 2007. It is based in Kyoto, Japan and produces a free magazine by the same name. Beyond Japan, escape games appeared in Singapore from 2011. Escape games in Singapore expanded quickly with over 50 games by 2015.Kazuya Iwata, a friend of Kato, brought Real Escape Game to San Francisco in 2012. The following year, Seattle-based Puzzle Break, co-founded by Nate Martin, became the first American-based escape room company.
Parapark, a Hungarian franchise that later operated in 20 locations in Europe and Australia, was founded in 2011 in Budapest. The founder, Attila Gyurkovics claims he had no information about the Japanese escape games and based the game on his job experience as personality trainer. Supposedly another escape room, "Origin", was created in Silicon Valley by a group of system programmers in 2013, but no concrete evidence for this game has been found. The mysteries and challenges in the game were inspired by the works of Agatha Christie and became a popular tourist attraction.
In 2015, the first escape games opened in South America in Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo. At this time there were over 2,800 escape room venues worldwide.


I have longed for playing escape room and I am really exciting because I am going to experience it tomorrow! Hope it will be well tomorrow!

Wnd power

    When it comes to global warming, experts suggest the government use renewable resources instead of fossil fuels which produce lots of carbon dioxide. Taiwanese government advocates citizens to reduce the emission of Greenhouse Gas by building plenty of wind turbines to produce wind-power electricity since the Occasional Monsoons provide Taiwan with strong winds especially in winter. Although wind-power electricity seems to be a perfect solution for Taiwan to reduce the usage of fossil fuels, it has two disadvantages which are the high cost and the operating noises. 

    To build a wind turbine, which only operates for twenty years, costs 120 million New Taiwan Dollars at average. Nevertheless, some experts still believe that the wind turbines can produce a great amount of green energy and save money for the government to buy fossil fuels and nuclear-power materials. However, the truth is that the cost of wind-power electricity per kilowatt is 2.8 NTDs, and the cost of nuclear-power electricity per kilowatt is 0.63 NTDs. The cost of the wind-power electricity is almost five times higher than the nuclear-power since the technology of ‘Energy Conversion Rate’ of the wind-power is still immature. Therefore, it is not efficient to build wind turbines.

     Furthermore, although the wind power generation is eco-friendly, the operating noise is still a serious problem. When a wind turbine produces electricity, it makes deep noise while spinning its large-sized fans. The annoying noise may distract people, so the wind turbines can only be built near the sea or somewhere wide and sparsely populated. In other words, wind turbines are not able to provide great amount of electricity, since it can’t be built wherever available. As the well-known commercial function goes,” The more one produces, the lower prices the item will be”, it is also why the price of wind-power electricity is difficult to decrease.

    All in all, the technology of wind-power electricity is still immature, which provides the problem of high price and noise. Therefore, the wind-power is not really a benefitial solution to deal with global warming especially at a dense country such as Taiwan.

Definition of "Single Dog"

    It is so sweet to go on a date with your girlfriend or boyfriend especially on weekends or holidays. However, if a person, especially a man, remains single and often stays at home during weekends or holidays, then there is a great chance that he or she be called ‘Single Dog.’ In fact, a single dog is not a dog, but a person who is single, unsociable, indoorsy, jealous of other couples, and seeming to be as poor as a desperate dog. People who attach the label of single dog to others is a way for them to ridicule the single since the majority of people consider having a boyfriend or girlfriend is a symbol of success. 

    Although it is fantastic to find your love one, it’s not a simple thing for single dogs. Single dogs are likely to have social obstacles. While they are having conversations with girls, they’ll feel nervous with their hands or legs shaking, bursting out into a perspiration and even feeling a little bit dizzy. Therefore, it’s hard for single dogs to make friends with girls, not to say a further relationship. When it comes to Valentine’s day, couples will surely celebrate it together or even stay with each other over the night. On the contrary, single dogs have no one to share joys and tears with on Valentine’s day. All what single dogs can do is staying at home and surfing on the Internet alone. 

    What’s even worse, while surfing on the Internet, the single dogs might read posts written by couples about how they celebrate the holidays with their lovers. Single dogs can’t help but feel a sense of jealousy, which is also the main reason why others think single dogs are poor. 

    Do not call your single friends ‘Single Dog’ because it’s a kind of discrimination. Furthermore, being sympathetic with them, since no one like to be in such situation. At least, they can feel warmth from not lovers but friends.

Movie- Finding Forrester

    In the movie Finding Forrester, Jamal has two literature teachers, Forrester and Crawford. However, their ways of teaching Jamal are different in two parts-style and trust. Teaching style of Forrester and Crawford are obviously different. Literature that Crawford teaches is directly from the textbooks. As a result, the students in his class only learn to memorize the quotes from essays of famous writers. 

    In addition, Crawford doesn’t teach Jamal how to write a draft. All he does is giving his students a deadline to complete an essay. On the other hand, Forrester teaches Jamal in a flexible way. He always answers Jamal whenever he asks him questions. It is a relatively effective way to teach a student what he or she particularly needs. Also, Forrester teaches Jamal to write a draft in a special way. “You write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite it with your head.” This writing method helps Jamal a lot to complete his draft in a short time. 

    After Jamal handing in the draft to Crawford, Crawford and his colleagues are amazed at Jamal’s talent for writing. Nevertheless, Crawford doesn’t believe that Jamal, a black student who is brilliant in basketball, is able to write perfectly. To confirm Jamal is truly talented, he asks Jamal to write another draft in his office. This movement outrages and frustrates Jamal. On the contrary, Forrester encourages Jamal to keep writing every day and asks Jamal not to be mad at Crawford. Because of trust, Forrester spares no effort to teach Jamal. With Forrester’s help, Jamal’s writing improves dramatically. 

    In conclusion, teachers should be aware of their teaching styles and trust their students, and it will be a way for a teacher to become a better teacher.

News sharing (from CNN)

  A long commute surely hurt people deeply. According to a new research reported by the Royal Society of Public Health:” the average time of commuting across two countries reached fifty-six minutes in 2013, with the majority of people spending this time on transportation, or inside cars,” people have to commute for a long time nowadays. However, commuting is a stressful journey. 

  Take driving as an example, the stress levels of people who drive will probably increase while commuting to the destination. What’s even worse, the level of blood pressure increases at the same time. Therefore, the longer time a person spent on commuting, the higher the chance of getting heart diseases is.

   Also, because of the long time spending on commuting, people reduce their sleeping time, which makes them become weaker and have difficulties in concentrating on the condition of the traffic. As a result, people may increase the consumption of snacks and fast food in order to stay awake while the commute. 

  Although it may be a good way to stay awake by chewing some food, the high calories are consumed by people. As time passed, people who undergo this kind of situation will face overweight and some heart diseases. Moreover, people may cut down on the time participating in physical activities and gathering with family and friends. Lack of exercising makes people catch a cold easily and seriously. On the other hand, people who always busy commuting and neglecting the importance of gathering with family and friends may feel exhausted easily, and might get depression gradually. 

  In conclusion, a long commute definitely hurt people not only physically but mentally.

Cheng Kung Lake

Cheng Kung Lake, which is located at the Kuang Fu campus of National Cheng Kung University, is a relaxing and colorful place. There is a verdant lawn surrounding Cheng Kung Lake. On the right side of the lawn, a wood-made billboard showing the name of the lake to people and twelve bunches of yellow flowers make it the most popular spot for tourists to take photos. There are three wood chairs and a rock table being set right under coconut trees on the other side of the lawn. It’s a place that people are fond of chatting and playing chess with each other. 

When the wind blows, people can feel the breeze kissing their faces smoothly. In the middle of the lake there’s an isolated land. Colorful stones and tens of tropical trees intersperse the land. In addition, a red brick-made, antique bridge connects the right side of the lawn to the isolated land. When walking on the bridge and touching the coarse handrail, I sense bitterness when I realize that time flies. In the lake, nearly twenty ducks are swimming freely with a school of tiny fish. A slightly sour smell is often produced by the ducks; however, the breeze will always blow the bad smell away and bring the fragrance of the flowers around the lake. With the sun light spilling, the lake reflects the shadow of the coconut trees and show brightly green on the surface. 

Decorated with two fountains, Cheng Kung Lake is picturesque. Yellow, red and green are main colors of the lake and also the satisfied feelings of the viewers.

Special experience in college

  It was the most awful experience I had ever experienced before. I cut classes of my first time when I was a second-grade senior high school student. To celebrate my birthday, my friends threw a birthday party at a pub and we sang happily till daybreak. Feeling extremely exhausted, I decided to skip classes of that day.
  However, when I lay on my four-poster king size bed and tempted to fall asleep, a sense of guilt pushed me to stay awake. I tossed and turned in bed for about two hours. After that, I made up my mind to review what teachers had taught before and preview classes in the near future. 

  Nevertheless, once I sat down straightly on my wood-made chair, I felt faint with my vision blurred. Although I sat at my desk with the textbooks opened for two hours, I didn’t even memorize a single vocabulary from the textbooks. Therefore, I went to bed again. But, I was near the point of breakdown because I just could not close my eyes and fall asleep right away. I lay on my bed the rest of the day and fell asleep unconsciously. I hadn’t done anything worthy and didn’t even gain more sleep of the day I cut classes. 
  Undergoing this terrible experience, I never skip classes and learn a lesson that “as you make your bed, so you must lie on it.” 

Article sharing-Fish Cheeks

My Summary:
According to Amy Tan in Fish Cheeks: Amy is a girl, who lives with her Chinese family in America. However, she faces cultural conflicts when she turns fourteen. Her parents invites the minister’s family to have Christmas Eve dinner together. That makes Amy quite worry because she fell in love with the minister’s son, an American boy, called Robert, and his family might not enjoy Chinese food. During the dinner, she feels despaired because what her family prepared was disgusting in America. Therefore she felt shame of being a Chinese at that time. Nevertheless, many years later, she finally realizes that what her parents had prepared for the Christmas Eve dinner are all her favorite foods. 

My Reaction :

Reading “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan reminded me of serious culture conflicts between different races.” My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced” and “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied, explained by my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking down at his plate with a reddened face”, written by Amy Tan in the story. I can clearly see that Robert has a different background from Amy; however, Robert doesn’t be respect to different culture and custom.   Instead, he gives a dirty look to Amy and her family.

I think that less of respect is the main reason of culture conflicts. If people pay more respect to other cultures and customs they meet, the less conflicts will happen in the future. In conclusion, always be kind and respect when we encounter different cultures, and we will  surely find out the beauty of variable cultures around the world.