SAT essay

Money, power and fame are wordly desires that most people want for more comfortable and envious life that everyone dreams and serves like an idol or god. Refusing any of them is a great challenge for humans because money, which is the most essential value or thing in the world and the most important thing that can support humans, cannot be ignored. Without money people cannot drink, eat, enjoy, have warm and cool house. It's become almost the same as human lives and this is one of the reasons why people work hard.
Because money appears to solve all wordly problems, it's not easy to rejuect and some even break laws to make money like drug dealers, thieves, illegal businesses.
But even if they make a lot of money by doing illegal activities, their hearts are not always easy, comfortable or happy. Obviously, because they are humans, they feel "guilty" and this came from their consciences. No one can live comfortably with guilt. They won't have good sleep no matter how many hours they spend on it. They can't even laugh when they want to due to their guilty actions. Because they are afraid of punishements for their guilty actions, money cannot dominate conscience. Nothing can cover or erase burdens from individuals, they want to clear it off so they can be comfortable. For example, let's say a normal civilian has decided to kill a wealthy man to satisfy his desire for money to solve his financial problems. The civilian becomes a murderer as soon as he takes the money and everytime when he solves his problems by "illegal money", he thinks about the wealthy man who had to die for the civilian's problems and he feels guilty. Even though he's solved all his financial problems, he can't have a comfortable sleep as he imagined before he solved the problems, instead he's got a huge burden which is a lot heavier than the problems he had and now he has to fight everyday. It's obvious that he will feel free and comfortable when he turns himself in and that's because of his conscience. Cleaning his sins off is same as cleaning his conscience's dusts.
Although people desire more wealth, they always say it's better to be poor than feeling guilty.

review assignment

Are you looking for a thrilling and exciting movie? Star Wars episode III, directed by George Lucas and starring by Hayden Christensen (Anakin skywalker/Darth Vader) Ewan McGregor (obi wan) Ian MacDiarmid (Palpatine), which shows Darth Vader’s early life, before he became a dreadful machine.

After losing his right arm, time has passed. For the peace of the galaxy, and his revenge, Anakin doubled his power to fight Count Dooku. Meanwhile, opponent, Count Dooku’s droid army and their leader, General Grievous kidnapped supreme Chancellor to their ship which gave Anakin a chance to pay back what Dooku had done to him. Anakin and his master, Obi wan Kenobi, have given a mission, which is to rescue the chancellor and destroy the evil forces for good. The two Jedi knights successfully kill Count Dooku and rescue chancellor but aren’t able to capture General Grievous, the leader of the droid army without knowing the true meaning of this kidnap, the coming events, and the real identity of the chancellor.

After the mission, Anakin has a dream just like in Episode II when he lost his mother. This time, he sees Padme dying because of childbirth. To avoid tragic ending of Padme, Anakin has decided to stop the future event at any cost because of his fear of loss which caused by his mother’s tragic death. What a coincidence. The chancellor told him a story about old dark sith lord who had powers and abilities to save people from dying. Without knowing that was Palpatine’s small plot to lure him to the dark side, Anakin didn’t refuse but kept thinking about it. So he turns to the dark side and received two missions which are to eliminate all surviving Jedi, killing the remaining separatists who are staying in a volcanic planet Mustafar and fight and kill his old master, Obi wan Kenobi.

Watching Star Wars episode III was my first time of watching Star Wars series. I saw short clips of wookies from episode IV, but I didn’t like it because at that time I thought that movie was childish because of the wookies’ customs; men wearing hairy custom and making lion like sounds. One reason why I put so much interest in Star Wars is because of one Star Wars game I played. The game had similar light saber moves just like the moves in the movie and making a person a lot stronger by deception and merciless anger power by evil force made a good impression on me.

It would’ve been a lot better if Anakin’s betrayal focused on greater power, not power to save the one he loved. This movie shows how and why Anakin turned to the dark side and turned into the dreadful and merciless Darth Vader, focusing on saving someone’s life is not appropriate for a twisted dark lord.

However, the graphics used in the movie were excellent because compared to light sabers in episodes IV~VI, they have gotten a lot better and more realistic. Light saber duels between a twisted apprentice and his old master were thrilling and exciting.
Overall, I want people to watch this episode if they haven’t watched it yet. It’s no good to miss an exciting movie.

uniform editorial

It's been two weeks since Joe fainted due to a serious cough, a fever and runny nose. It was a shock to all people in our school because despite serious coughs and runny noses, no one has ever fainted. He didn't come to school for a few days. Joe is not a weak boy; he is good at sports, he's talented in every sports game and very active.

Joe is not the only one who caught a cold. Most of the students caught serious cold because they have to wear thin school uniforms every Friday no matter what happens to the weather, whether it’s cold or not. The school set a rule that if students wear something under or on the uniform, in other words we are not allowed to cover our school logo or symbol. If anyone tries to wear extra clothes either on or under the uniforms, they could get green slips which mean a light punishment.

The weight of the punishment is not important, but the most important thing is that because of that regulation, students might end up like Joe. Wearing a short sleeve or thin long sleeve and a bit heavy sweater don’t provide enough warm for students in freezing cold weather, especially in mid December to end of February. Also, most of the students don’t wear school uniforms except for Fridays, they don’t wear them very often but they tend to wear other clothes.
Some people say that although the students are not allowed to wear extra clothes, just wearing school uniforms provide a strong school spirit. Yes, school spirit is important for school and the students, but health comes first as D.C. said “Although school spirit is important, health always comes first”. If students are dying, then they won’t produce enough school spirit. Some people say having a uniform regulation makes both students and their parents easy and comfortable because they don’t have to worry what they will wear and since uniforms are expensive, they should wear them more often. That’s a very strong argument, but wearing school uniforms more often cuts down students’ individualities and as I mentioned above, if students don’t wear enough clothes to have sufficient warmth, they will get sick. If that illness gets worse, students will have to suffer more until they are fully recovered and this will not make their parents happy. If students keep getting sick, their parents will complain to the school and will urge teachers or to change the rule so that their children don’t have to suffer anymore because of illness. Also, sometimes people who suffer from the illness often complain because they think that they are getting the disease due to people who caught the disease first and they will eventually blame the administrators who made the rule. School faculties do not want students in school unless they are fully recovered without knowing that the administrators are the cause of the sickness.

So what I want to say is that wearing school uniforms is not bad at all. If regulators allow students to wear extra warm clothes with uniforms, just like W.M. said “it will be good if we can wear extra clothes on or under the uniform,” things will get a lot better.

"Dear" letter assignment

(2) Dear Kwang,I recently attended a soccer match that my children were playing in at our school. I noticed that very few parents came to the game. It made me sad that the parents seemed to care so little about their children. I am appalled by their lack of sensitivity and that of the other parents who did not accompany their children. Please tell your readers that part of the responsibility of parenthood includes being there to give your children emotional support, even if it means missing work. — Outraged in Ortakoy

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Dear Outraged,
I understand your point. For children and for their growth, it's important to show parents' full emotional support so that their children can feel, "Oh, my parents are here to support me. I should do well to make them proud of me", it's obvious that children want their parents to come and show interest in them. Some kids who don't know their parents' love might become criminals due to lack of love or support for themselves which creates depression.

However, I disagree with the fact you said that even if parents miss their work, they should support their children. There's nothing worse than losing a job; and losing a way to live. Can you live in this world without money or job? If parents become unable to provide things their children want, what will their children think and feel and what will the parents feel? They feel really sorry for them for not be able to do things because of money. Think about children on the streets outside. Their parents must have lost their job so that's why they are begging for money. Not all parents feel the same, although they love their children. Some parents might work really hard to make money, so each family has different "Rule" or their way to raise their children. Even if you feel disappointed, please be try to understand other families.
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(4) Dear Kwang,I have many close friends in my school. We all have unlocked lockers in our PE locker room. My friends feel quite comfortable to take things from my locker—my school uniform shirt, my coat, my deodorant—and use them. I don’t mind, but I wish they would put the things back where they found them. I have received two discipline slips because I cannot find my uniform shirt. What can I do to get them to respect my property and my need for “boundaries?” –Frustrated in Ferikoy
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Dear Frustrated,
Doesn't that make you angry when your things disappear when you need them? It will make you to feel so frustrated or angry if someone took something and forgot to return it. You will resent that person for not being careful with your property. This problem is a matter of "respect". If they respect you, they will take extra care when they borrow your property, even if they feel unfortable. However, if they don't have any respect, will they be careful? This won't happen, but some may throw away your stuff or treat it like a trash. To prevent this problem, you need to show some respect to your friends although they are really close. Think about a child and a parent. If the parent is always easy, always smiling, even if the child does something wrong, the child will think "Oh, my father or mother does not mind about my bad behavior." Because of that, little by little that thought diminishes or devalue "respect" for his parent(s). I know it is not right but I think you should show some "seriousness" to your friends just like parents who show seriousness to their children to discipline them.
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(8) Dear Kwang,I recently moved to Turkey. I feel isolated because there are few American families here, and I do not speak Turkish. I home-school my kids, so we don’t have many opportunities to meet other foreigners. It has been five months, and I still can't get over the culture shock. I spend my days cooped up with my kids, unable to do the simplest things. I can't seem to live up to my husband's expectations, and he has become quite critical. This is hurting our marriage. Please help me before I go crazy. — Anonymous Sufferer
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Anonymous,
Your letter reminded me when I first came to Turkey. I suffered a lot both relationships and economically. Despite the economic problems, the one thing that troubled me most was that there weren't enough Koreans compared to Koreans in Korea and it made me really feel like an "outcast". But, since I'm a student I had to go to school. I had to go "outside" of my house. Going to school made me break out of the "box"; a box which was an obstacle that blocked me from people. So, just try to break your own box by or going outside. Otherwise your problem will get worse and you may end up live like a fool.

FACEBOOK ph.7

Do you know that 132million people have a common interest? These people use a website called "Facebook" to use in many ways for sharing ideas, and common interests or building relationships.
Many people use different social networks,but according to Business Week Online;(8/14/2008) the number of Facebook users has increased rapidly. It is most popular.

It's good for people in the world; Facebook users make friends from different cultures or countries with different thoughts and backgrounds because by building relationships with them, the users can learn many things from their friends' thoughts and experiences. However, too much good can be bad. Once you start building relationships strong, you start to care about your friends more by spending more time on Facebook and sometimes you even use your study time or work time on Facebook to the build relationships stronger. Therefore, if you are a student, your grades will go down eventually as time goes "It wastes studying time",said Inae.L, a student. Once people spend more than 2 weeks (minimum) on Facebook, they will be addicted to Facebook. Little by little they find that it's really hard to get out of addiction of Facebook and, they (won't) know when to stop",-Emily.Y. said
I joined Facebook in summer, 2007. During the first week, I only had 3 friends but as more people added me as their friends or I added people as my friends, the amount of time I spent on Facebook increased. Therefore, because of that from my point of view, Facebook is addictive and it's hard to control or set a limited amount of time. I also feel that I'm really addicted to Facebook because whenever I turn on my computer, I check my Facebook account first just like e-mail. Facebook got rid of "e-mail" from my life due to its easier communications with others.
But although it's addictive and take away our studying time, it gives us some benefits. As Dani R, said, "It helps connect with friends,” we use this “opportunity” to build more relationships than relationships made in school because it’s 1:1 chat, so we don’t need to care about other people’s attention. Also unless people bring a voice recorder to school, comments on pictures of our lives by our friends are also part of our good memory when we look them a few months or years later. We will say “Oh, I miss that time” or “I remember when he/she said that.” Since it’s your “own web” unless you delete things, it will remain forever. In other words, this can last longer than written comments although written comments are sometimes much better. It's not just for students,either Businessmen can also use Facebook to help their business or relationships with their business partners. According to one businessman sited in Business Week Online (8/13/2008), “I’m in the business of collecting people. Relationships are my currency. The more people I know, the more deals I’m exposed to. The more deals I’m exposed to, the more opportunities I have.” From my point of view, workers (businessmen who are working on their project to sell products with other companies) will post pictures and explanations or plans of their projects on Facebook and share ideas with their business partners because it’s a lot easier and less complicated then e-mail.

So, the only thing we have to careful about using Facebook is that we should be able to control ourselves; not to become too addictive but use wisely, set limited amount of time per day. Once we are used to the control, we will be fine and have fewer struggles.

unbiased and biased

Unbiased
On 26th of September 2008, 33 IGA members attended a free college fair which was held at the Hilton Hotel for 3 hours. About 600-700 Turkish students attended the fair which represented 70 schools from Canada, U.S., and Europe to find out more about universities by talking to reps. Students took brochures and colorful or unique pens from each school as they finished the conversations as souvenirs. 80% of students who attended the fair appreciated the pens and other goodies that were available while other 60% felt it was a worthwhile experience to find and learn more about colleges. “Overall it was a really neat experience to see possibilities for the future and enjoy the extravagant atmosphere of the Hilton,” said one of the participants from IGA.



Biased
On 26th of September 2008, 33 IGA members attended a free college fair which was held at the Hilton Hotel for about 3 hours. At the hotel, 70 schools from Canada, U.S., and Europe were represented. Approximately 600-700 Turkish students attended the fair.Only half of the students actually had any long conversation with the school reps to learn more about the colleges. Most however, acquired pens and brochures as souvenirs or got extra information. It was not easy at all because the room, even though it was huge, it was crowded with hundreds of people. One couldn’t breathe sufficiently due to the hot steam produced by the participants and stuffy room. Still, some students took advantage of the crowded conditions and distracted representatives, collecting many pens rather than asking about information for colleges and universities. Of the students who attended, only 66% said it was a worthwhile experience; 89% (which is a lot of students) said that they appreciated the pens and goodies that were available."I'm not sure if we'd do it again. The traffic was horrendous. In addition, it was so crowded, it was hard for students to spend any quality time with the college reps." said Mrs. Sanderlin, the chaperone of the IGA students who attended.

When I first wanted to use a Turkish toilet, a guy in the center of two bathroom doors didn’t let me go in because I didn’t pay money for the toilet use. I was so shocked and surprised when he asked money. Now I know that almost every country in Europe wants money for public toilet use, but at that time I didn’t know: in my home country, paying money for a public toilet is not required.
The same thing also happened when we (the whole family) traveled to Bulgaria with my friend’s family. My friend and I had drunk too much water because of some spicy Chinese food and, of course, we had to use public bathroom. We walked into a public bathroom, but a guy in the center (just like in Turkey) didn’t let us go in. Since we didn’t speak Bulgarian and also saw some kind of euro sign with 1, we just gave him 2 Euros and he didn’t say anything.

Last Tuesday IGA invited all high school students and their parents for a school program discussion; administrators, students, and parents shared ideas about colleges and other exams.
The eleventh graders (or juniors) used this chance to make more money for their fund raising project which is for the seniors who will be leaving this school at the end of the year with their high school diplomas. The juniors sold baked goods with coffee, tea and cider at very cheap price to increase the buyers' demand so that they could make more money. Unexpectedly, the fundraiser was a success, which allowed the juniors to make 192.1 YTL. Except for 2 or 3 people, the majority of the junior class participated and helped the fundraiser in different parts like baking, serving drinks, or calculating money for change or for total profit.
However there’s always a problem for a happy moment. Although the juniors sold many foods and drinks to the parents and students, the kitchen, which was used for cooking, was so dirty and full of mess which made Mrs. Blythe and other teachers angry. The students have promised they will clean up their mess in the future.

Foolish boy killed himself

-->Yesterday, Ozan Alparslan, 19 year old drunken boy, was killed on Nato Yolu in Cengelkoy, Istanbul. The drunken boy lost his control of his 2005 Renault Broadway as he increased his car speed above the speed limit. It was raining when he lost his control and he didn't even wear his seatbelt. In addition, he was on the wrong side of the median, and ran into an IETT bus injuring the bus driver's arm. Unfortunately, the drunken boy was killed instantly and Cem Bayir, the injured driver, was taken to Medicana Hospital and treated for his broken arm and was released.

The giant pressed charges on boy

A young boy stole valuable things from the giant little by little and now the giant is pressing charges on him.

The giant lives in the sky where people cannot reach or can't even imagine where it is located. "Little by little my valuable gold items have disappeared without any noise" said the giant full of wrath. The boy's been arrested, but the boy has been saying nonsense things when the officers asked how he was able to reach the giant's house. "A stranger gave me a weird bean and suddenly that grew into a huge root which you can use like a rope," said the boy, full of a sense injustice or unfairness.

According to the giant, he's missing a goose which lays golden eggs, a golden harp and golden coins.
Fortunately, the officers and the giant were able to find the missing items left in an abandoned, razed small dog house. The boy, the one who stole the valuable gold items is still denying his crimes even after seeing the missing items which he supposedly stole from the giant.

"This charge is not going to be easy even if he's under age of 17!" Because of the giant’s firm decision, the police officers couldn’t just release the boy…

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photo/picture : bp2.blogger.com/.../s400/jack_N_beanstalk.jpg

my thoughts for the future..

My primary goal is to go to university and study things I want.
I'm not sure yet, but now I want to study dentistry and become a dentist wherever I go so that I can make money to live. I don't really want to go to any Muslim countries because I'm really tired of Muslim culture or religion, however. Living in Turkey is enough; living in this Muslim country is enough in my life. I want to find peace in a place where Muslims cannot touch. Therefore , my second or third goal is to leave Turkey and never come back if possible, because when I came to Turkey it was not a good start.
To do that, I need to do well on my SAT and school grades so that many opportunities will come to me.

I had to wait...

yesterday i was waiting for my bus... but strangely it didn't come at 3:30... so I was annoyed. I decided to wait 10 more mins but it didn't come! So, I waited 47 min and 35 secs