The diary of a stay-at-home boy during the vernal season of the year two thousand and twenty (2020) anno domini amid the COVID-19 pandemic _ week 2 (By Ethan)

The diary of a stay-at-home boy during the vernal season of the year two thousand and twenty (2020) anno domini amid the COVID-19 pandemic _ week 1 (By Ethan)

If I am a parent (by William)

Facilitating Writer's Club Meeting (by William)

About a week ago, I had my first experience in facilitating my school’s Writing Club.  Facilitating a club was new to me, so I was surprised of the compliments that the other club members gave to me. 

Our Writing Club was inspired and founded last year.  Paul Griffin, the author of When Friendship Followed Me Home visited our school.  He suggested us to start a Writing Club.  I was honored to be one of the seven founding fathers.  As the founders pulled in their friends, the Writing Club grew twice as large.  Ever since, we have been sharing ideas every Thursday during lunch.

I signed up to be a facilitator and my original plan was to talk about science fiction for the meeting.  However, everything changed a few days before the meeting.  Two honored members of the Club who happened to be my friends dropped by and told me they were going to quit after I facilitate the meeting.  They considered we were not exactly productive in keeping the namesakes of Writing Club.  I was concerned, and at the last moment, I changed the topic to personal writing.  I was prepared for the moment of truth of keeping them stay in the Club. 

I prepared index cards for writing a passage about one’s personality, and for writing down one’s worst fears.  We discussed how to analyze, accept, and resolve fears, and once everyone was done writing about fears, I asked them to rip the fear cards into millions of pieces.  We also talked about what it means to be human, and finally, I had my clubmates write an acronym of their own name.  The funny ones came out to be: Bright, Energetic, and Nomadic.

After the meeting, clubmates complimented me on the activities.  The two friends who were planning to quit decided to stay.  With this experience, I now see how one person’s determination can influence others and make the world a better place. 

Proposal to Quibi CEO Meg Whitman (by William)

Dear Ms. Whitman,

Inspired and blown away!  This was how I felt after listening to you and Mr. Haaga’s talk about American Entrepreneurship at the Huntington Library on Monday night.  I agreed with your way of thinking, mainly, we have a choice to do an “easy wrong” or a “hard right.”  In the case of eBay, you camped at the company for three weeks to fix a technical problem.  According to you, it was “the right thing to do.”  Setting up a donation system after Hurricane Katrina was the “hard right” as well, but the funds helped many people to recover from the disaster.  A “hard right” in my life is to stand up for kids being bullied in school, picking up candy wrap from the library floor, or help my parents with chores in the house.    

My name is William, a middle schooler.  We discussed about possible collaboration between Quibi and my YouTube Channel after the talk, and you kindly told me your email address.  I understood Quibi’s business objective is to provide high quality streaming videos for the millennials, while the millennials’ children are young and don’t have their own phones, so those kids are using their parents’ phones at night and weekends, between activities, in the cars…  If you go to any family orientated restaurants such as Souplantation or Mimi’s Cafe, you will see many kids holding their parents’ phones.  If Quibi can provide high quality educational contents to millennials’ children, such as 10 minutes singing classes or drawing lessons, the $7.99 membership fee will be such a bargain, and Quibi can build brand loyalty among 60 million children in the age between 1 to 14, in US alone.

It’s a sad fact that most public schools do not provide singing classes after the budget cut.  Kids who do not sing are like birds lost their voices.  If the elementary school teachers can connect their cell phones with classroom projectors, and have a 10 minutes singing class watching Quibi, teachers will get a precious break, and kids can be singing birds again.  I am very lucky that my childhood memories are always associated with songs.  Michael Jackson’s Thriller zombie dance ended my pre-school days.  My first summer camp’s singing class filled my heart with joy, and I still remember the very moment when the pianist started playing Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music. In elementary school, I sang at the talent shows and those were the special moments of my life.  I hope my kids and grandkids will love the songs that I once sang along again and again using my mom’s phone--I still don’t have my own phone and once my parents sign up for Quibi, I most probably will be your future customer. 

Quibi can collaborate with my choir Los Angeles Children’s Chorus to produce 10 minutes singing clips, so kids can learn singing in the right way in class room, and on the go.  Music directors in my choir, such as Mrs. Brigham and Mr. Fernando are fabulous music educators, and Quibi may change may children’s lives by filling in the void of public schools, just like what eBay did for Katrina victims.  Please let me know what do you think of my proposal, and I can help arrange the collaboration.      

Please visit my YouTube channel The Children’s Show (my newest adventure, just started with my choir friend Phoebe two weeks ago) at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUFCmCiFK-0arSMTpb4t3A  and my blog (started since my partner and I were in the 2^nd grade) at http://worldthroughchildrenseyes.blogspot.com/

Thank you very much Ms. Whitman.

(Note: Event link from Huntington Library:
https://www.huntington.org/events/centennial-paul-haaga-jr-program-american-entrepreneurship)

A Proud Teacher's Assistant (by William)

I had an eye-opening experience as a teacher assistant for the wonderful Preparatory Choir of LACC. The experience taught me how to interact appropriately with children much younger than myself. I also learned how being a conductor’s assistant can be like. Directly below is a lovely letter from Mrs. Brigham, director of both the Prep and Intermediate Choirs in LACC. She summed up my contribution as the Teacher's Assistant helping the Preppies learn and grow, and my participation in the operas.  Thank you Mrs. Brigham for your encouragement!

"It has been a pleasure to have you assisting with Prep Choir.  You are a wonderful assistant, and I appreciate how your interactions with the Prep Choristers are friendly, kind, and thoughtful.  You help them to feel comfortable, and you are an outstanding model and mentor for them.  I am very grateful for your assistance.

Your work ethic in preparation for La Boheme and Magic Flute was exceptional, William, and I admire the way that you view every situation as an opportunity to learn and grow.  That was inspirational!

I am wishing you and your wonderful family a bright and joyous New Year!"

Card from Mrs. Brigham

My First Late-Night Pizza Party (by William)

Delicious pizza scents wafted over to our table in Mamma’s Pizza.  I checked my watch, 9:30 p.m.  I tried to watch the Rams losing to the 49ers, but I was too occupied to really focus on the football game.  After 30 minutes of solid waiting for my good friend Anson and the badminton batch to come after the night training, I heard the happy clamoring of the energetic children.  I recognized one voice, which belonged to Anson himself.  Just then, my group of ecstatic looking friends walked into the restaurant.  I greeted them warmly, and our late-night pizza party began!

We sat around a long table and shared delicious pizza, pasta, salad, and garlic knots. Anson’s cousin KZ was the special guest from Singapore.  He kept adding cheese powder and spice to his pizza and the other food.  He would keep adding garnish toppings until nobody could see the outlines of the pizza slices.  Auntie Michele and Uncle Alren kept reminding KZ to stop adding spices using very serious tones of voice.  KZ usually agreed hastily with a mischievous glance at us, and after two minutes of intervals, his sneaky little fingers would slowly reach for spice containers and again, dump excess toppings on his food. We all found KZ’s tricks intriguing and funny.  Auntie explained that KZ was used to the heavy taste in Singapore, but she considered it’s healthier for kids to intake less spices.

After the party, we kids decided to start a trivia game.  Our first topic was song lyrics - Ella read lyrics and made us sing the rest of the song.  I quickly changed the subject of trivia to Star Wars.  The change of subject made my answers ruthless and efficient.  All the people at our table were utterly astounded on how much Star Wars information I possessed.  My mom called those “useless knowledge.”  The trivia games were fun for all the kids, parents, and grandma.
   
I loved my first late-night pizza party and will cherish it forever.  I had never tasted better mom and pop pizza in my life.  Both the white and meat lover pizzas delivered a mouthful of juicy, creamy, and thick flavor.  As I am writing, the tastes still linger in my mouth.  The buttery garlic knots punched my tastes buds with perfect garlic and olive flavors.  Thank you auntie Michele for treating us, and I am looking forward to the next gathering.