On the Title

Roi-Et a.k.a. "101" is a city in the northeast of Thailand. I spent more than "One Night in Bangkok," and was on my way to Roi-Et. It wasn't my final destination in Thailand, but the place where I grew the most. I gained a tolerance for spicy food, and learned a little dialect called Essan-- a mixture of Laos and Thai. I learned that it's not the destination but the journey that matters. Just as random as my adventures were in Thailand, so is my life--it's like living in L.A. (oh by the way L.A. is another nickname for Roi-Et).

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Chapter Two

Chapter Two The Lost Gremlin Named Corny

The troll may not be able to catch this unicorn, but he tries and tries to capture the unicorn. He thought and thought. He finally came up with something.
"I can disguise myself as a gremlin and name the gremlin Corny. I'm so wicked," he said to himself (he likes to talk to himself, he is a loner).

The next day he hid behind a stump by the pond. The unicorn got another sip of water.  All of a sudden, a little tiny gremlin popped out. The unicorn was drinking the water she eyed the gremlin. Then she turned her eye to look at her lovely reflection. She saw that nasty old troll's reflection, and looked up (she was very clever) and saw the sneer on the gremlin's face. She found out that the gremlin was really the troll, so she decided to go along with the joke.

When he took out his net to get  ready to capture her she flew away. The troll said, "Darn it! She found out." The unicorn said, "Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha! You didn't get me."
The troll was so mad he turned back into a troll and turned blue.

I wrote the story in pencil, I am surprised that the story has lasted this long. Growing up, I was told that pen lasts longer, and doesn't smear like pencil--well I proved the critics wrong. I know there are a lot of mistakes, but I didn't have an editor to tell me that I was making a lot of leaps. My fourth grade imagination is not like a J.K. Rowling or Jane Austen, and yes I did take lots of leaps in writing this story visualizing the scene at the pond, expecting the reader to just know the actions of the unicorn and troll. The illustrations help too!

I didn't realize it at the time, but I made a pure and perfect animal really vain.

P.S. In this story gremlins are suppose to be cute and good fairy creatures, like Gizmo before water spills on him in the classic movie Gremlins.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The Story I wrote in the 4th Grade: Chapter One

While cleaning out the garage and going through boxes of old stuff--stuff from Thailand, stuff from my childhood through high school, and early college years, I lovingly call my "goof-off years"--I found a story that I wrote and illustrated in the fourth grade: The Unicorn, the Troll, and the Princess. I really liked unicorns as a child. I still want one!

Well I decided to edit it (mostly change punctuation and spelling errors, and take out repetitive phrases), and post it here chapter by chapter (there are only 5 short chapters),  along with three poems I wrote: "Trolls," "Unicorns," "A Princess."

Chapter 1 Almost Captured
Once there was a unicorn. It was so friendly, so wise, and so talented. It had wings like a dove and flew swiftly through the air. Everyone liked the nice friendly unicorn, but a troll wanted to capture her horn for the power. The power was so strong it could purify poisoned water. The troll wanted to capture this unicorn so he could take the horn for the power.
When the unicorn heard this she was so frightened she went into the forest so she couldn't get captured. She went to a pond to have a cool sip of water (it was a very hot day). She stood up to see her lovely reflection. Her reflection looked funny, then she noticed a troll was walking up to her with a net. When the troll was about to capture her, she flew away. He tripped over a stone fell into the net and floated down into the pond. The troll said, "I'll get you next time!"