Elaine would like to work in the West Wing

It is true. Elaine found her idea of a perfect job and workplace in The West Wing. She would really like to work in such an environment, where every day is a challenge and every challenge a new dawn. Fast-paced, exciting, and confrontational--maybe that's the lifestyle she desires. But for now all this exists in a dream. She believes she'd drop dead if she ever has to endure such routines for more than three days.

The Question of Achieving

When the question of what I'm going to do after graduation came up during a chat with a friend, he commented that people probably wouldn't mind if I just stayed at home and did not work.

"That's just the public opinion of this small society," he said, referring to himself. I had told him how hard it was when I tried to find work during my year off from college. Then he asked, "Do your parents expect you to work? Are you pressured to find work?"

"No, I don't think I'm pressured." I said. "I understand why some people would accept me as a stay-at-home girl-with-severe-disability, but when you consider how my family pours in tens of thousands of dollars to hire a full-time caretaker for me, and how much it cost for all the special transportation and whatnot, wouldn't you feel a little guilty if you just stayed at home and not work, and have your parents take care of you for the rest of your life?"

"I didn't realize it cost so much to hire a caretaker." He said. "So yes. But still, I'm sure some people will still find it okay for you not to work."

Being Disabled

I agreed, because in Taiwan I know many people with physical disabilities who make a living making handicrafts from their homes or selling lottery tickets on the streets. Others simply do not work at all. Most live with their parents or siblings and receive meager subsidies each month from the government. In the eyes of the society, that is how disabled people live; there is no need to look surprised.

Later that night, I told my friend that, growing up, I have always had the urge to prove people wrong--to show them that I can do more and achieve more than just making the minimum wage and owning a bank account with the government's money in it. In a way, I truly believed I could. After all, I am a globetrotter who has lived in Singapore and America and who has communicated successfully with the French, Italians, Germans, Swiss, and the Spanish on at least one occasion. If and when I graduate, I will hold a degree from a well-known university in Taiwan, and my report card will confirm my status as cream of the crop. I should have many more doors opened to me than most people with disabilities, or even those without... But I have doubts--serious doubts--because I cannot imagine it; I cannot imagine what it's like to be successful because, quite frankly, I don't know if I want to be.

Achieving

Now, you have to understand: I have long struggled between achieving what I want and thanking people for helping me achieve. This is no small task, considering how dependent I am on other people and how much love I've received from my family and friends. I would describe myself as rather sensitive, and so when I have so many people loving me and helping me, I can easily feel overwhelmed. It's the emotions, you see. The only thing is, well, usually I get overwhelmed with guilt.

Some may not see the connection between guilt and a mediocre career, but I do. In an age like ours when marketing yourself is the first step to garnering a good spot in the workplace, a person with serious self-doubts simply do not sit well with the heads. Who wants a girl anyway who is always preoccupied with trying not to disturb her colleague in the next cubicle while all the while devising ways to pick up the sticky note with her toes? She hasn't learnt to draw the line between her needs and the needs of others, and that is the problem; I believe her overcompensation is the reason she does not achieve.

Fear

After all the analysis, I have to say that I still don't quite have the answer to whether I should be expected to work or not. There is of course the obvious question of whether a certain job or office would be able to accommodate my needs. But then the other question remains: Do I want and believe and choose to be competitive and responsible for my success? As Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Am I hindered by my circumstances? Or am I just afraid to succeed? It is up to my choice, I guess, but it is a tough choice. I'll have to think more about it tonight. Good night.

Politics and Language

Perhaps because of my Intro to Linguistics class this year, I found myself beginning to pay close attention to the usage of language around me, and nothing has puzzled me more than the speech pattern of Republican vice president candidate, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. Her body language has been analyzed by a body language expert on ABC, and of course her infamous interview with Katie Couric on CBS parodied into an opening skit on SNL. My greatest concern, though, is the fact that I have difficultly understanding her sentences.

I honestly think that Palin needs to brush up on her grammar and syntax, because her sentences are at best awkwardly structured. Look at this:

And as Ronald Reagan used to talk about, America being the beacon of light and hope for those who are seeking democratic values and tolerance and freedom. I see our country being able to represent those things that can be looked to... as that leadership, that light needed across the world. (with Katie Couric)

If I were to express those ideas, I would say it this way:

And as Ronald Reagan used to say, America is the beacon of light and hope for those who are seeking democratic values, tolerance, and freedom. I see our country as being able to represent those things that people can look to. We can be that leadership--that light that is needed around the world.

Another example comes from the often-quoted segment on CBS about Alaska's proximity to Russia:

That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land--boundary that we have with Canada...

That--as your English Compo teacher might have told you--is just poor sentence structure. Recall your lessons on "Clauses," "Avoiding Fragments," and "Fused Sentences," and you'll quickly realize that this very example would have gotten a very poor grade if it had been graded.

First of all, try to avoid starting a sentence (or a paragraph) with "that"--it will just mess up your structure later. I obviously broke this rule in the paragraph above ("That is just poor sentence structure"), but it's okay because the sentence makes perfect sense! To understand it better, consider the fact that "that" can be used as a demonstrative pronoun, or, as Palin used it, to introduce a restrictive clause. Palin's example is definitely not used as a pronoun. So what she did basically, was giving Couric the answer in a clause, rather than a sentence! 

As she should have known, linguistically, you don't have to start your answers with "that" simply because the question ended with the word, "that" (Couric: "What did you mean by that?"). Palin could have phrased it this way: "Well, because Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between Russia, a foreign country, and of course, on the other side, we have Canada." Again, the answer is lame, but at least it will score higher on the sentence structure.

My last example, and perhaps the most overt, is a sentence that ends with a preposition:

Our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of.

Of course, everyday speech can be very different from, say, an essay. But still... "There in the state that I am the executive of"? Not only is that an awkward sentence, it's outright wrong! Those foreign countries are not in the state of which she is the executive commander! They are its neighboring countries!. She probably meant to say "beside the state"--not "in the state." 

Oh well, so this is about as much as I'm going to write on this topic. I understand perfectly that Palin's nervousness may have contributed to her messy sentences, but if she messes up this easily and this much, I think she is in a lot of trouble. People will have a hard time getting the gist of what she's saying, with all those long, compound sentences, and she will come off as foolish and incomprehensible. 

I'd like to see how she does in the debate on Friday, because I really want to hear her discourse. Maybe I'll find more gaffs, or maybe I won't. All I know is that if Palin has gotten a second-language speaker like me picking on her English, she better make improvements. Or it'll just go to show how America has fallen behind the rest of the world. English is your language, so please, speak English properly.

Book List for 2008-2009

1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
5. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
6. 1984 by George Orwell
7. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
8. WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy

Elaine's Movie Picks

Top 10 Saturday Night Movies

• The Matrix
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day*
• Jerry Maguire
• Field of Dreams
• My Best Friend's Wedding
• Ocean's Eleven
• The Negotiator
• Batman Begins
• Ransom
• Deja Vu

Top 10 Movies That Yell "Quality" (Artistically)

• Atonement (I could watch this movie over and over again. And if there ever was an actress who made me feel like smoking was cool, it's Keira Knightley as Cecilia)
• Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Airbus*
• Pride and Prejudice
• The Remains of the Day
• The Godfather (One of the best films ever made that I actually understood why it was so good)
• A Beautiful Mind
• Citizen Kane
• The Wind that Shakes the Barley
• Dancer in the Dark
• American Beauty

Top 10 Best Comedy Movies, Dark or Normal

• The Royal Tenenbaums* (One of the best dramatic dark comedies I've seen)
• Spaceballs
• As Good As It Gets
• Stranger Than Fiction
• My Best Friend's Wedding
• Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (There couldn't be a worse movie if you didn't find it funny)
• Hot Shots
• Mrs. Doubtfire
• Over the Hedge ("Rosebud!")
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Top 12 Best Pop Culture Movies

• Ghostbusters
• E.T.
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Die Hard
• Jurassic Park
• The Matrix*
• Star Wars
• Edward Scissorhands
• 2001: Space Odyssey
• Citizen Kane
• Titanic

Top 12 Movies That Make You Think (About the World or Its People)

• Chance or Coincidence
• Dancer in the Dark
• The Wind that Shakes the Barley*
• The Pianist
• Hillary and Jackie
• Who's Eating Gilbert Grape?
• Mystic River
• The Bridges of Madison County
• Dead Poets Society
• In the Name of the Father
• To Kill a Mocking Bird
• The Pursuit of Happyness (It actually made me happy, more than it made me think)

Top 6 Best Disaster Movies

• Outbreak
• Titanic
• Apollo 13* (The mission was a disaster...)
• Armageddon
• Twister
• The Day After Tomorrow (The direction is so terrible this movie would never have made it on my list if not for the fact that it covered some of the most original, realistic, and relevant disaster topics known to my generation)

Top 8 Most Creative/Original Movies

• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang*
• The Royal Tenenbaums
• The Matrix
• Indiana Jones franchise
• Stranger Than Fiction
• Deja Vu
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Moulin Rouge!

Top 8 Movies with Most Memorable Characters

• Indiana Jones franchise
• The Godfather (Al Pacino--an actor has never looked so good)
• Dog Day Afternoon (oh, is that Al again? I didn't realize that before)
• The Matrix (Neo--enough said)
• Fight Club(A great way to get acquainted with Edward Norton)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Just by the way Arnold flip-cocks his gun)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Robert Downey Jr. at his funniest)
• Disturbia (A great way to get acquainted with the young Shia LaBeouf)

Back in Life - a video worth watching

Watching this video reminds me of my many friends who have helped me through different periods of my life. I thank them from the bottom of my heart, and I pray that I will come to know many more, because life is a lonely walk without companions. We need each other. We need to be loved.

For those of us who "cannot live without the help of others"... it's still important that we develop friendships that are not based on our neediness or the other person's pity for us. We like hanging out together because we love each other, and because it enriches our lives to understand and share each other's burdens. I hope Zach's life inspires you. As much as Zach does, however, I think Silas, the guy who directed this video, should inspire you too. Because it's not just about Zach. It's about Zach and his friends.