Music Review for 有一种爱叫做放手 sung by 阿木

 This is a close English translation of the lyrics of the Song. 

Thanks to Telly from http://chinesemusicblog.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2721 for translating it.

If a couple's notion of Heaven
Is like a heart-warming barrier
Imprisoning your dreams,
Is happiness akin to a metal-barred window?
The bird has lost its internal compass for the south.

If you aspire to travel into the sky,
And long for a pair of wings;
Releasing you to soar up high,
Roses should not accompany your feathered wings.
Obeying ageing properties of time,

If romance has morphed into a leash,
I'm willing to choose to return to a life of solitude for your sake.
If lingering touches have morphed into chains,
It is time to discard the vows.

Chorus
There is a kind of love called letting go,
Forsaking a long life of romance for love.
If us being together made you forsook everything,
Let true love spirit me away.
Let love end the dreams of a life-long romance.
If my departure lets you gain everything,
Let true love steer me away, and initiate break-up.

For your sake, I must lose you.
Cruelly putting on an act to hurt you.
Leaving you for your sake.
Leaving without ever letting go.

     As some of you might guess from the title that this is a Chinese song so let me first summarize for you what the song is about so you wouldn't just be listening to the music and not understanding it. In the music video of this song, it demonstrates the tragic love story behind a guitarist and his girlfriend. First and foremost, the guitarist that the MV starts off with is just playing on the street but due to his girlfriend's encouragement, he sent his first CD to a music company. Later, his girlfriend received a letter confirming that a music company is going to help him publish the CD. Consequently, she quickly went to tell him about it but in the process, a van ran over her and she was physically disabled. Also he was diagnosed with a severe case of cancer. After realizing that he's going to die soon, he made up the decision to release his girlfriend from the burden of him dying and wants her to live a happier life so he decided to pretend having a relationship with another girl. In the end, his girlfriend left him for "better" man in his mind and he died without any regrets.

  This is after all a music review, so  I'll post some of my opinions about this song and why you might want to listen to it. If you get the chance to listen to the Youtube version with the music video which was sung by 阿木, I would say that he really put a lot of feeling into singing the song because in real life, he actually experience something similar to the events that happened in the MV. Also the piano and guitar accompaniment provided the song with a more appropriate mood such as how the piano depicted the sorrow experienced by the male character while the guitar demonstrated the inner struggle that he goes through in the process of making the life changing decisions. Overall this song is very meaningful and truthful in depicting the reality of why even though a couple loved each other, they can't be together. The artist might not be a famous singer but he still won some awards so you should still listen to his song. The non-Youtube version that I found online is the only MP3 version of the song that I could upload so it might not be as good as the original but the accompaniment of the classic  二胡 or "Chinese violin" in it is why I personally liked it.   

Jay and Nick

        After reading the first five chapters of The Great Gatsby, I can't seem to convince myself that the relationship between Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway is more real than an illusion created by the human mind after experiencing long periods of starvation. Before they met each other at Gatsby's party, Jordan Baker told Jay that Nick is close to Daisy which prompts Jay to make friends with Nick. Before the party, Jay sent his butler to invite Nick to his party just so Nick can feel that he's special and makes him eager to meet the host. Next throughout chapter 4, Jay tells Nick about his past at Oxford University and how he makes his money illegally just so Nick could help him invite Daisy over for tea. From the beginning, Jay was already thinking of using Nick as a way to get a chance to talk to Daisy after she doesn't appear in his parties and he even bought his house across the bay from Daisy's home in order to be closer to her. Even by the end of chapter 5, Nick realizes that he had just been used by Jay all along because he asked Jay if he really wants him to come suggesting that his job for him is over and he should disappear from his life. Their relationship can be seen as nothing more than an exchange for benefits such as how Jay had Nick arrange his meeting with Daisy while Nick happens to be more included into the higher social circle which could provide some connections to the rich which would benefit him as he tries to succeed in his job. 

The Unknown but Agonizing Journey through the Snow

Without further adieu, here's the poem.

 

 The Unknown but Agonizing Journey through the Snow

The Young Man stood at the beginning

With a goal in mind

Traveling to a destination

In wavering circumstances

Such is the law in this so call reality  

He who must be prepared

First arms himself with shields of torridness
And the declaration to survive

So on and on he goes

The first challenge surfaces to welcome his presence

In turn came its trembling roars  

And the slits from its prickly edges

He falters in the appearance of this tribulation

Without one moment of doubtfulness

One foot in the front

And the other in the rear

Teeth sinking into lips

His stature prevailed

And on and on he goes

Next came the ice fairies

In their most distinct shapes 
And the dreadfulness of its nature

Slowly they descend from the heavens above

But rapidly they increased

Swaying to and fro

With the accompaniment of its roaring friend

Deepening the travelers’ treads

Unaware of the oncoming road

But still on and on he goes

Across the mountain

Over the placid lake

Awaiting him was the sweetness

That can’t be grasped with his empty hands

Forward he strides

While dreaming of the fluctuating future

Braving through the obstacles

Ignoring the pain

He marches, he sprints, and he screams
So onward he goes

But at last he arrived

Only to find Omega

And so his everlasting journey ends

Thankful for a Classmate

       Well greetings to everyone that’s reading this blog right now. Although my family personally doesn’t celebrate thanksgiving, it’s still worth mentioning the people that I’m thankful for on this particular day of the year.  For this blog, we were told to openly present our gratitude to a classmate but I feel the urge to thank more than one person. Even though that’s my opinion, I guess I should just obediently follow the instructions (sigh).   

       

        After considering who I should thank which wasn’t that difficult because I don’t know many of my classmates personally, I had made the decision to give my sincere gratitude to David Zhen who sits next to me. Overall, I had known him for only since last year in biology class but that doesn’t stop me from recognizing the assistance that he had given me. At school, I usually meet with him before 2^nd period and then we would just talk for a few minutes about homework or something else before class begins. Sometimes I might have some trigonometry problems that I didn’t understand from the homework assigned the night before and he would try to provide for me a better understanding of the material. Even if he can’t comprehend it either, I still consider talking to someone early in the morning as a soothing act before going through the stress of the day. Luckily, we would meet each other again in American Literature class where sometimes if I have any questions about what we’re doing in class, I could ask him about it (quietly). When the day is finally over and I could go home, I would see him in the hallway and we would talk a bit to end the day. Without his help throughout the day to release the accumulated tensions, I probably would be really frustrated afterward and that would cost me a good night of sleep required to be able to actively learning the next day.

    If I had to use two words to describe you, I would probably consider “great friend” to be the most suitable. Thank you very much, David!

I know some of you can't read Chinese but these words mean "Great Friend"

I am a plow.

I am a plow. First of all, what is a plow? A plow is a device used to prepare the soil for planting crops. In reality there are many things that can be considered a plow and one of them that I wanted to focus on in this blog is war. War itself in my opinion is the plow that laid the foundation for a better future. It creates chaos and destruction in the process which is preparing the soil as referring to human society that’s necessary to bring about an era of peace and prosperity which would be the crops. Proven in many instances of history, war itself was a necessity in order to bring about the great changes that didn’t exist before.

As in the revolutionary war between the American colonies and Britain, the war took away many lives and cities were destroyed from the fighting but without it, America would’ve never gained its independence. Without independence, the United States today might have never existed and people could still be living under the tyranny of Britain. Also war could be the plow that creates unity in a country which was true in China. Before the second Sino-Japanese war, China was in a state of chaos due to the civil war known as the War of Liberation caused by the fighting between the Communist party and the Nationalist party. If the war with Japan never happened, then the two opposing parties wouldn’t have cooperated and formed the Second United Front to counter the Japanese army. Also without the fighting that happen after the war, mainland China would still be involved in civil wars between these two parties instead of being united under one government as it is in present day.

Chaos and mass destruction had occurred many times throughout history and without the existence of them to lay the foundations; human society might be in a worse shape today. War will most definitely cause despair and pain to the people in the process but how can there be prosperity without destruction?  Similarly, how can we construct more advanced buildings without first tearing down the old buildings that’s standing in its way? 

Yield

A new direction the class should take.(period)

Well, honestly, I don’t have any suggestion for a new direction this class should go towards. After learning in this classroom for about a quarter, I realize that there’s nothing that I don’t enjoy or even dislike for one bit. Overall this class is enjoyable, innovating, and produces a lot of productive discussions so it’s not boring to the point where I’ll just zone out. Probably you could guess by now that I like this class a lot more than my other classes which are why I’m going to write about what direction I would suggest for those classes.

In other classes as some of you who read this might agree is just too boring due to the assignments mostly being from a textbook. For example: In a language class, your teacher might assign you some worksheets or finish an assignment from a textbook. Most of the time, they won’t tell you to start a conversation with your peers using the language you’re learning or have discussions over a topic in the classroom. Due to the lack of practice and interesting discussions, I would just almost fall asleep in class because there’s nothing that interests me besides learning new vocabulary words or sentence structures. If the classes become more interactive and connect what we learn to non-school related events, then people like me would become more eager to learn the material. The time spent in classroom shouldn’t just be mainly focused on learning new material but should also discuss how the information you’ve obtained is useful in living your daily lives outside of school.  

                                                                              V.S

Evolution of Slavery. This is not the type of evolution we want!

      Well slavery is a topic mostly known through reading a history textbook because people might think that it only exist in the past but what they may not know is that like a disease, slavery had evolved into what's known as modern day human trafficking. Before we talk about that, let's get back to the traditional type of slavery which occurs in colonial America.  During that period, slaves obtained from Africa are shipped to the Americas through the triangular trade. On board the ships, the slaves were chained together in a dark space where they were treated inhumanly and diseases were easily spread among them causing high death rates even before the slaves reach their destinations. After arriving in the Americas, they had to work from sunrise to sunset in their master's home without being paid. Also their working conditions were terrible compared to the Africans in the north because the field slaves had be pick cotton which were full of thorns while the house slaves had to work longer hours. The basic needs were barely met considering how some slaves didn't have any clothing to wear throughout the year and others that have to work on empty stomachs for days. Clearly we can see that slavery had its toll on the slaves back in the colonial period but are they still presented in modern day society although slavery is a crime? As you can guess, the answer is yes but how is that possible? The next paragraph will explain it all.
      The term globalization is used to explain the exchange of ideas, people and culture internationally and due to the types of technology plus labor demands of nowadays, slavery had evolved into human trafficking where some people were lied to or even abducted to work for their so called "employers" or more traditionally known as "masters". Women and children are the ones most susceptible to these type of crimes because there are a significant amount of people living in poverty in the cities or even countries in the world which gives these employers many opportunities to spread the lie that they can help these people live a better life in another place. Due to these conditions, the women or even children will be lured into the trap and only finds out the truth when they were already sold to other employers who would threaten them with violence if they don't perform their duties. Women are often sold as prostitutes while children are abducted at early age to be used as labor in dangerous workplaces. In order for that to happen, the employers usually bride government officials in order to them to turn a blind eye to the crimes while also using threats against the victim or his/her family members in order to keep them from escaping. Often times these "slaves" are left on their own to survive because nobody notices that they're being kept against their wills and situations like these are similar to the colonial slaves who were promised land in the Americas after the completion of their service but were often not given any. As the world progresses toward a new future, so had slavery but how often do we notice it happening? I know some of you had seen this advertisement about how human trafficking is modern day slavery on public transportation but have you really notice it happening? Some people might not even know about this issue because the victims are just like normal people so if ever you see an instance of human trafficking, you should absolutely report it to the proper authority in order to free these victims.

Puritans, Salem, Nathaniel Hawthorn. All 3 in 1.

         Salem is present-day Denver and it's located near the coast of Massachusetts. During the 16th and 17th century, a group of Protestants known as Puritans at the time situated in this small town. According to the people at that time, this town is called either Salem town or Salem village. Although this is a small town, many important events had occurred such as  the Salem witch trials of 1692 which had about 200 people accused of witchcraft, 24 deaths in the hangings plus many others that had died in prison. When these trials were occurring, the people were in a frenzied state because they're very paranoid that the Devil is among them and he should be rooted out no matter what the cost is. 24 out of those who were accused were hanged at a place known as Gallows Hill and a man named Giles Corey was killed by heavy stones placed on top of him because he didn't confess to practicing witchcraft. Eventually after the pleas of Cotton Mather and Governor Phipps's own wife being accused, the trials ended and those who were accused were released. Also money was given to the heirs of those that died and the innocents were given their good names back. That still wasn't enough to repay those that had suffered in this tragedy and surprisingly it wasn't until 1957 that Massachusetts apologize for this event. Now people might be wondering, how come they waited such a long time to apologize?

             The people of Salem at the time were known as the Puritans as stated in the previous paragraph but what you may not know about these people is that they follow the teachings of John Calvin and tries to root out all parts of Catholic influence from their lives. Also their beliefs were mostly based on Doctrines of Grace written by James Arminius who was a follower of John Calvin. Basically in their minds, one sin condemns you to Hell because Adam and Eve committed the sin of eating from the tree of knowledge so humans as their descendants have to live a life of moral perfection in order to atone for the sins by their predecessors. Also they established a government based on the idea of theocracy so moral imperfection was considered a crime such that if you committed adultery or "believed" to be a follower of the Devil, you should be executed. That's what brought about the tragic Salem witch trials that had taken away the lives of many who were believed to be witches or more explicitly as followers of the Devil.

             Well now, let's get back to the present and talk about how the Puritans views of the 16th and 17th century have on present-day America. Nathaniel Hawthorn, a relative of John Hawthorn who was one of the judges that had convicted many people during the Salem witch trials as witches wrote a book known as The Scarlet Letter which depicts Hester Prynn being punished by society due to adultery. The punishment she received wasn't comparable to how Mary Latham and James Britton who were hanged because of adultery in Massachusetts. Even if the laws today doesn't hang people for adultery, I still think it's unnecessary for adulterers to be punished by the law. If marriage is a sacred bond between two people as influenced by Puritan thoughts, shouldn't it be their business to take care of their relationship instead of having the public be involved in a private matter which doesn't even resolve the couple's problem at all? Why should other people besides the couple need to know about the affair anyway? Laws should only be used to punish those whose actions undermine the idea of an ideal society such as murder instead of adultery. Overall many other laws and views of the people in America had been influenced by the Puritans views from the past such as murder and giving false testimony being a crime that's morally wrong but adultery as stressed before isn't a crime worthy of punishment by the public.
   

When did I become an American? Now that's a good question to think about....

Well first let’s define what an American in my opinion is. In the history books, the Native Americans were originally the people of this land but when the Europeans immigrated here, they imposed claims upon the land of these native people. As a result, the natives were forced to live on tiny strips of land known as reservations while the many Europeans own the land and spread their influences over this entire continent. When the Europeans immigrate to North America, they had left behind their cultures and traditions but not the ones that they liked such as being faithful to the church. In present-day America, the immigrants don’t necessarily leave behind any of their cultures or traditions but instead incorporate their practices and ideas into American society. Then as more immigrants come to the U.S, there would be less distinct features that separate Americans from Asians, Africans or people of other races because ideas from those countries are being spread throughout America. If that is true, then the only important characteristic of an American is his/her participation in a democratic government.

                In order to participate in a democratic government such as by voting, I would have to become a U.S citizen. Basically I’m not a U.S citizen yet so I wouldn’t be able to vote. Also besides from voting, I haven't participate in any events relating to the government so I don’t think I became an American yet. If I were to become a U.S citizen and vote in the future or participate in the government such as getting supporters for a law that had not been passed, then I would become an American. For now, I still a Chinese citizen who immigrated to the U.S and waiting to obtain my U.S citizenship.

It's Us or Them! Really?

                In this reality, there are many conflicts that result in death because one side can always dealt a fatal blow to the other side so one side have to act fast in order to guarantee their survival. A book series that I had read in the past known as the “Ender’s Game series” depicts how an alien species known as the buggers had invaded earth twice and failed but humans thought they were going to do it again. Due to their advanced technological abilities and their hostility toward humans seen in the first two wars, the humans decided to train an elite team of military geniuses to counter their future invasions and utterly destroy their race. Eventually a young child genius by the name of Andrew Wiggin or more commonly known as Ender the Xenocide used a molecular disruption device to destroy the bugger’s home planet and almost wiped out their entire race.       

             
               Although the buggers wanted the forgiveness of the humans after the first two wars, the humans didn’t understand their intentions so they were destroyed. This first book is the time when Ender committed Xenocide because the story that was told to him about the buggers was dominantly one sided so he was somewhat forced to perform the monstrous sin. For the sake of the human race and his sister Valentine that he wanted to protect, he was forced to make that decision because it’s either Us or Them. To Ender at that moment, he was only focused on destroyed the buggers so he participated in war simulations to practice for the oncoming war but at the end, he finally realized that the battles were real and he really had wiped out almost the entire specie.

            
              Later, he finally came to understand that the true intentions of the buggers and why they intentionally stationed all their queens (overminds) at their home planet to be destroyed together. Although their once glorious civilization was wiped out, he thought about the decisions that he made and he would make those decisions if he was given a second chance because the circumstances made it impossible for him to not choose to protect his own “people”.    

           
             Even though this is a science fiction novel, it still depicts a possible circumstance where people have to decide if they’re the one to survive or die. Most of the time, people are given one-sided reasons for supporting the conflict so people will fight for that cause without questioning it. Also more frequently, these conflicts results in large pockets of people dying but if negotiation was possible, then the deaths could had been prevented and that could only happen if the leaders wanted peace. Now that leads to the point where the leaders are the roots to the conflicts and if they could have solved their ongoing problems between themselves, then there wouldn’t be a reason for people to make decisions like “it’s Us or Them”.

Hero or stooge? I decide.

Although some people might argue that John Proctor was a hero in the crucible by confessing his affair with Abigail, I think he was a stooge that got “played” by the girls at the court.  In my opinion, a hero is a person that has the ability to save others while at the same time not putting themselves in harm’s way which was untrue in this play.

In the play, John Proctor at first tried to use Mary to convince the judges that the girls were pretending to be possessed by the people who were convicted. Although Mary was able to tell the truth, she was mentally broken down when Abigail and the other girls pretended they were attacked by spirits sent by her. Due to their well-planned strategic maneuver, Mary’s words were considered as lies forced upon her by John who was on the Devil’s side. When Mary was thought to have lied to the judge, her words were discarded summarily but on the other hand, John Proctor was deemed a liar so now his words doesn't have any persuasion anymore.  

The next approach he used to try to save the victims was confessing to having an affair with Abigail which would reveal her motive of taking revenge upon Elizabeth to have John all to herself. When people in that court first heard him say it, they were shocked and in awe because they just couldn’t believe that a man as respected as John could ever commit such a monstrous sin in the light of God. To convince them to believe it, John belabors the point and describes to them when and where that sin was committed. In order to prove his word, the judge demanded to have Elizabeth come to the court to testify which she denies such an event had happened. Due to her words, John was shamed as a liar and a sinner. Next the girls put their scheme of being chased by spirits sent by the devil into motion in order to convict John of siding with the evil one which the judge believed. No matter what words John try to say afterward, he had been “played” by the girls and was sentenced to execution if he doesn’t confess.

          Overall, John couldn’t save anyone and gotten himself killed which is similar to a stooge in a drama who isn’t successful at anything and always getting himself/herself into trouble. If he was a hero, he should have confessed sooner so the girls couldn’t gain so much trust/power in the court and predicted their reactions/schemes before going to court. Throughout the entire process, his fate was tossed around in the hands of those malevolent females and with the movement of their bodies and mouths; they were able to toy with him until he walked straight to his death.

Well, let's respond to Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

After reading Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in class yesterday, I felt like I just learned about a new aspect of Christianity because as you may guess, I’m not a Christian nor do I believe in any religion. Now if I were to think about what would happen if I lived in a Puritan neighborhood during that time period, I probably would accept it as if it was the truth all along. The reason for that is because although the Ten Commandments already told us the things we shouldn’t do and I already know what the seven deadly sins were, then why should we be surprised to hear about what would happen to us if we commit a sin.  Naturally it occurs to me that God is very angry with man because he had already send a flood to kill us once so why wouldn’t it be common sense that he’ll condemn us to Hell if we commit a sin which he hates.

                Now referring back to how I would’ve reacted, I would just be sitting on the bench listening and show the same expression as the group. If I don’t do that, then maybe they’ll think that hearing this revelation doesn’t surprise me at all and burn me at the stake for being a heretic for not caring about God. Although this sermon given by Jonathan Edwards might surprise many people in that Church and some might even run out of the Church screaming, I would just be absolutely calm on the inside because I know that was the truth all along. The reason is because if people could just repent for their sins after they had committed it, then what is the point of not committing any sins. That’s just my opinion because I agree with what he’s saying that if people actually didn’t commit sins their entire life, then they definitely deserve to go to Heaven while the others who couldn’t persevere should go to Hell which is where they belong in the sense that they anger God. If my parents who were with me at that time was surprised and decided to run out of the Church screaming, then I’ll just follow them in a normal pace but if they reacted like I did on the inside, then I would just accept it as I would for whatever reaction they might have. Basically, I would go with the crowd because I feel that Jonathan Edwards is a sensible but others might think he’s crazy and I don’t want to anger the crowd so I would conform.  

If you were me at that time, what would you have done? Please leave a comment below about your thoughts!

There goes the neighborhood

Well I can’t think of an account that fits this topic so I decided to write about a factual account from my mother who had an experience with this kind of situation.  This came about when she saw me struggling with this assignment and asked me what I was stuck on. Then I gladly told her what I was working on and she told me that she had an experience that’s germane to this blog topic. After talking to her, she persuaded me to write about her experience when she was still living in her village in China.

                My mother remember that one day when a city couple decided to move into the village she grew up in, they brought with them electronics and beautiful furniture  that wouldn’t be of any use in the village. When the other villagers saw that the couple brought a lot of furniture and electronics with them, they decided to help those couple move their things into their house. Upon seeing the villagers moving toward their belongings, the couple quickly moved to their things and angrily told the villagers to not even think about stealing from them. Even though the villagers meant no harm, the couple still decided to misjudge them because they think the villagers are uneducated thieves/lowlifes who don’t have enough money to support their lives in the cities.  Then the groups of villagers dispersed with anger in their minds while the couple went into their new house.  

                For the next day and the days afterward, the couple never leaves their house unless they were going to the market to buy groceries.  Due to that fact, they never got the chance to have any meaningful conversations with the villagers so wherever they go, they would bear those prejudice thoughts of the villagers in their minds. On a few occasions where a random villager stopped the couple for a quick conversation, the couple would always tell the stranger about their lives in the city and how they should be more like them instead of being lowlifes.  As the days went on, hatred started to build up between the couple and the villagers because of the couple’s prejudiced view of the villagers and the unfriendly attitude from those welcoming villagers as a response to the couple.

                From those days afterward, whenever the couple comes in contact with any of the villagers, they would argue about the most ridiculous things such as how the villagers should become more civilized and how the couple is trying to convert the villagers into carping snobs like them. With the fuel provided from the arguments, the fire of hatred strengthened until it was to the point where the couple would either apologize to the villagers or they would be evicted by any means necessary. Eventually the couple decided to apologize to the villagers but not because they changed their minds but because they think that it is a waste of energy for them to argue against lowlifes that can’t accept change.

                Even though this continued for a few years while my mother was living in her village, the idea of there goes the neighborhood applies because of how the newly moved in couple is trying to change the village while the villagers are not allowing them to do that. Historically, this could be compared to how Christopher Columbus tries to convert the Native Americans to Christianity and there were some Natives who strongly refused to change what they believed in.  

Introduction

             Hello everybody! My name is Yi Dong Mei. This year I’m going to be one of your classmates in Mr. McCarthy’s 7th period American literature class. I hope that by reading this blog entry, all of you could know a little bit more about me. At this time, we probably know a few or a lot of people in this room but by the end of reading all of these blog entries, we would be more familiar with each other than we are now. Now let us get started on knowing a little bit about me!

 This year I’m a sophomore attending Whitney Young High School. My birthday is in July each year so I had just recently turned fifteen years old. Since I was the only child and my father immigrated to the United States, my mother and I moved here when I was just eight years old. To this day, I live in Chicago’s one and only Chinatown where Chinese culture are displayed almost everywhere. You can find traces of them from the food made in bakery stores to the zodiac animals at Zodiac Square. Well, that’s enough about my personal information so now read about my personality.

Some of my interests are playing badminton, going for bike rides with friends, and listening to almost any kind of music. Besides from hobbies, I am interested in reading science fiction books such as the Ender’s game series by Orson Scott Card, learning about Chinese culture and participating in the Whitney Young Garden Club. The reason why I actually participated in the Whitney Young Garden Club is because it’s very enjoyable to spend one or two hours every week taking care of plants with other students who are also interested plus there is opportunities for students to obtain service hours. Last year, we get to build our very own greenhouse from scratch and we grew some of the vegetables that we used in the dishes to sell at the Taste of Whitney Young.   

Well that’s almost all there is to know about me because by this time, most of you might already be placing your attention on other more important tasks in your minds.