QWERTYUIOP

Some random letters can be a title for a short story.

QWERTYUIOP, is one of an interesting story so far. It is kind of ghost story, about a ghost typewriter who disturbed the new secretary at a company. She thought herself as the only qualified secretary there, and the others were rubbish and were not needed there. 

Lucy Beck was a poor student with a poor result, which made her think, nobody would employ her. Her principal, Mrs Price had given up on her entirely. Her mother was supporting, on the other hand, which made Lucy more upset as she wished her mother could lost her temper once.

However, luck was perhaps on her side at that time when she was offered a job, where the company was searching for a poor resulted student like her. Even it was quite weird, she told her mother with enthusiasm, without realizing it perhaps bring more disaster in her life.

Started working, she was given the task of typing letters. Then it happened. She wrote QWERTYUIOP repeatedly, which she thought she was actually getting crazy. She tried to retype the letter, then a message come. It gave her the creep, as it sound like GO AWAY and WE DO NOT WANT YOU HERE. Well, she did not give up.She tried, but the message became clearer, then she knew something is wrong with the typewriter.

Her manager was shocked to see her remained, as many of his new secretary quit on their first day. Lucy also found the way to get the ghost away, which amazed him, and actually saying that she deserved to be here.

Gaining many As is actually not to be our primary goal. When we are working, we will know what we belong to, and what our advantages. It is the same as Lucy, as she was a poor student back then, but who knows she could be an excellent worker.

The Fake Necklace She Had Been Dreaming For

Madame Mathilde Loisel had the imagination of having a high position in society with wonderful jewels. However, being married to a clerk gave her nothing. Her husband tried everything to please her, and one day he got two invitations for a party. Mathilde refused, as she got nothing to wear. Using money that he had saved to buy a rifle, he let Mathilde to buy a dress. Still, she was not happy for not having the proper jewels. She then borrowed the fanciest jewel necklace from her best friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier. Unfortunately, after being flattered at the ball, she realized she had lost the necklace.

Failed in searching it, they took out loan from friends and loan sharks to replace the necklace with the exact look. It took them ten years of hard labour to repay them back. Toward the end, Mathilde was taking a walk, remembering her past which changed her life drastically. There, she met Madame Forestier, her best friend, who was shocked by Mathilde's look. Mathilde explained what had happened, but she was shocked when Madame Forestier said the lost necklace was only a fake.

By believing she was born in the wrong social class, after one night of denying the truth, Mathilde lost them altogether. It can be understood by people why she was eagerly attending the party, as she was tired living her life. The readers may doubt her love and loyalty towards her husband, as she was discontented with everything and blamed her husband. Her husband's love was showed obviously, as he tried everything to please his wife despite his condition with nothing to offer.  When her husband gave her money to buy a dress, she was not grateful for that but asking for more. However, when her best friend Forestier lent her the necklace, she showed a great passion towards her. It proved that Mathilde was showing her affection only towards her rich friend, and her love for her poor husband is almost none, or maybe did not exist from the beginning.


At the ball, she was ashamed to be with her husband. Mr. Loisel waited for her at an old salon, while Mathilde was happily dancing with rich and powerful men, who she had been dreaming for. She was trying to get away from her husband despite his love. When she lost the necklace, he was not angry, instead, he was searching for it desperately, to please her again.


In the end, when Mathilde knew that the necklace was fake, she must have been realize that her day of becoming part of rich people was also fake. It was mainly her imagination to be adored and envied, as the fake necklace symbolized her imagination. If only Mathilde had accepted her lot in life, as her husband had, and if she had loved him just as much as he loved her, she could have been content, but her unrelenting desire for all that was not hers consequently left both her and her husband with even less than they started with.

Everyone is a Dr. Jekyll, Everyone has a Mr. Hyde

When I said, "She's a Jekyll and Hyde", it means she has both the evil and good personality. Is it right that everyone has their good and bad side? Is it really possible for someone who is thoroughly nice and at the same time is freaking evil? I am, I guess.

I like this story from the start, at the moment I heard the title, at the moment when my teacher spoke up the story. Till now, I still like the story, although some of the details has melted away from my mind now.

The story was about Dr. Henry Jekyll who made an experiment to prove that human soul was made from two separate distinctions, good and bad. He made two potions which one of them transformed him into Edward Hyde. Soon Dr. Jekyll realized that the Hyde character became inalterable where he stated, "I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde". Jekyll then decided to give up the freedom of  Hyde, but he was tortured by Hyde's longing and once again took the potion and brutally murdered Carew. Soon, the potion failed to work, left Jekyll with no choice but killed himself to stop Hyde from his bad deeds.

My favourite character is the first ever mentioned, the lawyer Mr Utterson. I think of him as the lead character, (although he was merely an important supporting character) as he was the one looking for the answer of the mystery. He was the trusted friend of Dr. Jekyll, lovable, and cared about him. He was present in almost every chapters!

Throughout the story, a lot of questions pop out from my mind. Why Dr Jekyll let Mr Hyde free? Dr Jekyll realized he could transform into Mr Hyde, then didn't it mean he still had a complete control over himself and Hyde altogether? I should explore about this more. ;)

The Phantom I Fall in Love with

When I was in Form 2, I was compelled to accept Potato People as my Literature Component. It was an interesting though as reading is my thing, but as I flipped through the pages of my English textbook for the summary, I was attracted by the words, "The Phantom of the Opera". As curious as I could be, I searched for its information throughout the book, and I could not resist the urge to own the book by my own. But till today, still I have not get this book. 

The Phantom of the Opera by Jennifer Bassette is about a phantom named Erik who lived in an Opera House. It is 1880, in an Opera House in Paris, where people was talking about the Phantom of the Opera, the ghost that lived somewhere under the Opera House. The Phantom was a man in black clothes. He had a yellow face, no nose, and black holes for eyes. Everybody was afraid of the Phantom - the singers, the dancers, the directors, the stage workers. 

The phantom, Erik, blackmailed and threatened the people  who ran the opera. He made them feel very afraid of him. Later he even kidnapped Christine for his own selfish reasons. When he knew Christine's affection towards Raoul, he wanted to kill him. All these actions do not show good human qualities. However, he was not totally bad. In fact, he was a very interesting character. He owned the bad qualities, but he was also compassionate and considerate to people he loved, Christine. He did not torture Christine as we assumed so, as when he realized how much Christine loved Raoul, he released her.

Christine's life story was somewhat similar to the fairy tales. From childhood, her father, a talented musician had filled her soul with the view of the world that was found in folk stories. Her meeting with Raoul was somewhat destined when they were met again years later at the opera house. The innocence she carried into adulthood, caused her to fall victim to Erik. She was kindhearted as well. As she tried to protect her love, Raoul from being hurt by the Phantom, still she sympathized Erik. She did not fear Erik eventually, and she was the one who believed that Erik was not a bad person entirely.  

I must read this book to know more about Raoul. He seems to be the kind of guy women will fall for!

Heading to bookstore searching for this will not help, I believe. Just hope to find a copy of it, which fall from the sky! 

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Leisurely Doing These

Leisure by William Henry Davies

What is this life, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like stars at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

Leisure by William Henry Davies is an incredible poem about taking the time to look around and notice the beauty that every day holds. It is briefly about man nowadays who do not have the time to enjoy their life entirely. Whatever happens in the world, they are oblivious as they are somewhat overwhelmed by their works and responsibilities. Leisure teaches us that we need to slow our lives down and take a look around and notice the little things. It shows that we should take advantage of the little time that we have on this earth and pay attention to the little things.

First, it is asking what is good life if we don’t take the time to stand and look at what’s going on around us. We do not even take the time to look at the little things. We never wake up and gaze at the beauty of the first rays of the sun shining down. When the sun goes down and night takes over we don’t look up and admire the moon or the twinkling stars. We just go on with our fast paced lives as though it is nothing special, when in reality it is a magnificent creation like a work of art hanging in a museum. The poet compares human with "sheep and cows", which can stand and stare as long as they wish. 

This is saying, again, how we do not ever seem to take the time to see the world around us. We have to look around when travelling down the road and what we passing about. We should take the time to recognize the world around us and see what’s going on. The poet claims that when we pass the wooded area, we will not notice where the squirrels hide the nuts in the grass.  

We can’t even take the time to enjoy the smile of another person because we are too caught up in where we have to be next and what we are doing ten minutes from now. Time is when we just empty our minds for sometimes and let the beauty of little pleasures of life fill it. There is no time to stop and stare as a beautiful woman dances, and no time to wait to see her smile, first with her eyes, then with her mouth.


The final couplet makes something of a moral judgement that it is pretty pitiful as we cannot stand stare at natural and beautiful things, just because they are bogged down with responsibilities and worries. 


Although the poet includes himself as one of the members of the crowd who do not have the time to observe nature and beauty closely, at the same time, he demonstrates that in fact he has taken the time to do it. He has obviously overcome these as when he states what he notices things around him, and now he tries to persuade people to "stand and stare".