Gambling

My parents and I agree on condemning lotteries. We feel that it is like drugs, once we get hooked on, it is very difficult to stop. My mother especially pointed out that instead of spending the money on lottery why not put it in a safe deposit account. I found this very useful. I thought to myself, the main reasons people want to start gambling is that the wanted to have the thrill of earning money.

Hence, if they truly want to earn more money, they could get a better job or start up a safe deposit. The chances of winning big in a lottery are like a million to one, instead of wasting money on lottery, why not starts a deposit. It’s definitely much safer than gambling. “If you lose your money while gambling, you can never get it back. However, in a fixed deposit you can get back with interest.” My mother quoted this and it is very meaningful. However, there are a lot of gamblers that pay no heed to this.

They added that gambling not only cause monetary problems but family problems as well. I definitely do not think that it is worth it to quarrel with your family over gambling issues. Gambling is certainly not worth it!

My favourite poet

My favourite poet would be Shel Silverstein. His works are not lengthy and are very easy to understand, it is a good way to start small kids with poems. Furthermore, all of his poems always make me laugh, as they are humorous and silly in nature. Silverstein did not really care to conform to any sort of norm he never read reviews because if you believe the good ones you have to believe the bad ones too. Here are some of his works:

Messy Room by Shel Silverstein
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or --
Huh? You say it's mine?
Oh, dear,I knew it looked familiar!

The poet is trying to tell readers that we sometimes we are too busy minding other people's business/lives that we have forgotten to reflect on our own. Be slow to make judgements; you might end up looking like the fool!

Bear In There by Shel SilversteinThere's a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire--
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there--
That Polary Bear
In our Fridgitydaire.

This poem is humorous and amusing. It is neither complicated nor dry. The personification of the polar bear makes it easier to read as well as funnier.

Smart by Shel Silverstein
My dad gave me one dollar bill'
Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters'
Cause two is more than one!
And then i took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes-
i guess he don't knowthat three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And i took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
and the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then i went and showed my dad,
and he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head-
Too proud of me to speak!

The poem tells us that we may think what we are doing is very smart. However, it turns out that we are doing the exact opposite. We should not be presumptuous and think that everyone will praise us.


Bibliogarphy:
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Shel-Silverstein
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Shel-Silverstein/13484/comments/18
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Shel-Silverstein/13484
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Shel-Silverstein/19771
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shel_Silverstein

My favourite poem

Fast rode the knight by Stephen Crane

Fast rode the knight
With spurs, hot and reeking,
Ever waving an eager sword,
"To save my lady!"Fast rode the knight,
And leaped from saddle to war.
Men of steel flickered and gleamed
Like riot of silver lights,
And the gold of the knight's good banner
Still waved on a castle wall
.. . . . .
A horse,
Blowing, staggering, bloody thing,
Forgotten at foot of castle wall.
A horse
Dead at foot of castle wall.

Hyperbole is used with the repeated use of "fast rode the knight". It is the exaggeration of the knight rode very fast.
Personification is used when they say "an eager sword". The poet is making the sword taking a human feelings.
Simile is used when the poet writes "like riot of silver lights".
The dead horse is used to represent that the dead horse is just a forgotten stepping stone for the noble knight to win the battle. The subtle death of the horse how people leap into action without good judgement, leaving behind something valuable. Not all losses in battle are human losses and not all heroes are human heroes.

I like this poem as it shows that in our rush to accomplish a task, we often forget the ones who serves us loyally and faithfully. It also shows that someone who is well-known for a trait may not be that good after all. In this case, the knight, known for its nobility, even steps on his valuable horse to achieve his goal. Furthermore, the horse is left to die at the foot of the castle. I am sure that the meaning behind this poem is very valuable for our lives yet we still keep forgetting it. This poem reminds us this value therefore I admire this poem.

Compassion confronting intimidation

Book read: Egghead by Caroline Pignat

Brief summary – Will Reid and Katie came from the same elementary school. When he becomes the perfect target for Shane, the grade nine bully. Katie tries her best to defend Will from Shane, however it comes with a great cost. Devan has been part of Shane’s bullyboy team until he befriends Katie and realises that it is not wise to back Shane up for every prank. He also realised that he is as bad as Shane as he chose to look on instead of helping the victim out, which leaves him very guilty. Egghead goes through the modern day teen’s classic dilemmas and how to conquer them with much food for thought.

When I compare my life to the main characters in Egghead, I feel that I am going through a very safe and secured schooling life. Will, also known called Egghead, is known for his gawkiness. After being embarrassed by wearing pink underwear, the whole school makes fun of him and he never gets a day without people bullying him. Unlike him, I study in a very safe school where no bullying occurs. Bullying in school may seem like an impossible thing yet it is thriving in American schools. Devan, who used to follow Shane and his ways, realised that it is not very smart to keep backing him up. He requires huge courage to go against Shane. I am elated that I do not have to go through such troubles. Katie, on the other hand has different problems. As friends since elementary school, it is only natural that Katie help protect Will when he faces difficulties with Shane. However, Shane has also targeted her as a victim as she helps Will too much. There will be misunderstandings between them as a couple and this will cause their friendship to turn sour. I am lucky that I do not face such understandings.

I will change the ending paragraph of the story from “I smile too. It hurts my cheek, but I just can’t stop” to “ I was flushed with relief and elation, I beamed till it hurts my cheek. After all I had been through in my life, I felt the true happiness that overwhelmed me now. I was glad that I had listen to Will instead of Shane. It was worth it.” I changed it because I felt that old paragraph did not tie in properly with the theme of bullying and friendship. I changed the paragraph to give greater elaboration to show that the choice Devan made was the right choice instead of choosing his old path of bullying, it also ties it with the themes more than the previous paragraph.

This is an excerpt of the story from Will point of view. "I squirmed and thrashed around while Brad continuing taping me. He seems to be gaining pleasure as a smug grin appeared on his mouth. His eyes landed on the ant farm which I spent much time on it. He slowly pushed the ant farm until it was wobbling precariously at the edge of the table. I felt the my eyes are coming out of its socket. ‘You got something to say?’ Shane asked, in a piteous voice, picking some cards off the table. I totally ignored his taunt and lunged straight for Brad. I knocked him squarely on the back and sent him flying. His face crashed down and squeaked across the floor like a wet gym shoe. I stood over him, observin that his eyes were in total shock.”

I think that the author intended teenagers to read this book. It is a book that depicts the scenario of bullying, which is thriving is certain schools. Through her depictions of Will, Katie and Devan, she shows that bullying will harm a lot of people and relations cold be broken as a result. Friendships will be taken to the test and this book will tell teenagers that losing friends may not be such a bad thing after all. The author wants to teach us certain things – how not to be a bystander to bullying, how to stand up for your friends and how to do with consuming rage.

Females suffering and endurance

Book read : A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Brief summary – Mariam was born a illegitimate child and can only see her beloved father once a week. On her birthday, she decided to visit her father’s house, but was turned down coldly. When she returned home, she finds that her mother has hung herself. Her father’s wives decided to marry Mariam off to Rasheed, an elderly widow from Kabul, far enough to be safely forgotten. It was a marriage deteriorated into a brutality made worse by Rasheed decisions to marry Laila. Laila was a target of his cruelty when she bore a daughter. However, he two women friendship grew and their union will endure death. One day, Mariam killed Rasheed while he was strangling Laila. Mariam took the punishment and allowed Laila to flee and then marry her childhood friend.

When I compare my own life with that of Mariam’s, I feel that I am living in happiness yet I am unable to realise it. In the novel, Mariam lived in a kolba, a small and dirty house. She appears to have a caring father yet he still would not acknowledge her. She has been deprived of education and can only be taught by a regular guest, Mullah Faizullah. Following, she is forcefully married off to Rasheed at a young age and led a life of suffering in the end. She also has to face the war in Afghanistan at that time. I lead an enjoyable and happy life yet I still complaining about every minor detail in life. I am able to receive proper education but I hate the thought of going to school everyday and I cannot stand the sight of homework. I doubt I will be moving out from my family so soon and can enjoy everyday of my life. Singapore is also a very peaceful country to live in, not being terrorized by the bombings on the street. I feel a great sense of guilt, as I am unappreciative of what my parents gave me over the years.

I am going to compare Mariam and Laila. In many aspects they are different and in many ways they are similar. Here are some way where they are different, Mariam was not given proper education while Laila has a proper eduation and her father always help her to revise her work. Mariam was the only child while Laila had two brothers thatlater died while defendin th country. Mariam lived in poverty, forcing her to stay in a kolba while Laila was the middle classed and lived in a proper house. They are similar because both their parents died before they reached twenty, with the exception of Mariam’s father. They both had motherly love and enjoyed taking care of the children Laila bore. They were both forced into marrying Rasheed and led horrible lives.

This is an excerpt of the story from Laila point of view. "My eyes fluttered open. ‘Do you know who I am?’a voice murmered, ‘Do you know what has happened?’ My mouth quivered, I closed my eyes. My hand grazed my left cheek. I mouthed something inaudibly, the woman drew closer to me. ‘This ear,’ I breathed. I can’t hear. I did little for the first week except for sleeping, with the help of the pink pills which a man keeps on giving me. I realised that I murmer in my sleep sometimes as well as crying out names that were once so close to me. I wepted in my sleep, grew agitated, kicked he blankets off and the poor woman had to hold me down. Sometimes I retch a lot and threw p everything hat the woman gave me. When I calmed down, I put on a sullen pairs of eyesstaring from under the blanket, breathing short answers from the woman and the man’s questions. I also behaved childlike on certain days, whipping my head side to side when the couple tried to feed me. I went rigid when the womancame at me with her spoon. Unfortunately, I tired easily and had to sumbit to the couple’s persistant badgering. I wept a lot afte surrendering. I could not control the sadness that my parents had died because of a stray missle and my only loved one left fled off because of the war. Deep down inside my heart, I was really grateful that the couple took time off to take care of me.

Although many people lost their lives under the Taliban rule, I would choose to save Mariam from he book in the event of a disaster. I find that Mariam has a friendly and caring pesonality. She does things from the bottom of her heart and is willing to do anthing just to save a friend. When Laila was being suffocated by Rasheed, Mariam risked her own life to save Laila by hitting Rasheed on his temple. This blow killed Rasheed instantly. Yet, she still faces death punishments and allows Laila to escape without her, such courage comes only once in a lifetime. However, females under the Taliban rule lived with such difficuly that rven though Mariam killed Rasheed as a form of self defense and protection for Laila, she still faces death sentence. Therefore, I feel that Mariam, a noble character, shold be saved from the disaster.

If many people thinks something is true, is it true?

If many people thinks something is true, is it true? In my opinion, I feel that is it not true unless proven. It is most likely the media influence and false statistics that causes the public to change their mindset to be the same as what the company wants you to think.

For example, consumers uses petrol x for their own car instead of petrol y as the company of petrol x claims that their petrol is the most environmentally friendly petrol among the other petrols. After consumers saw this advertisement, they all felt that the company of petrol x is telling the truth and continues to pump their car with petrol x. However, is the claim that company x made true? Therefore, if many people thinks something is true, it is not necessarily true.

Although we do not have a viewpoint over a situation yet, we should not side with the crowd that have the most 'supporters' thinking that majority wins. We should try not to follow the crowd with their thinking as it will show that you lack critical thinking.

I am sure that everyone has their own unique viewpoints over certain situations as everyone have different ways of thinking and looking at a situation. However, people may have the same belief in a certain situation as they share same characteristics in their thinking or they do not bother to look beneath the surface. Take the very recent case for example, there is a man putting cats to sleep as he wanted to end their suffering. Animal activists and the public are against with what he is doing. However, are they doing so because a lot of people have taken their sides against the man? Yet if you think hard enough, could the man be right in his actions? Therefore, this is a realistic example that if many people thinks something is true, is still may not be necessarily true.

Will having fun make you happier than studying?

After studying in school for several years, I am very sure that everyone wishes that there were no such things as schools. Instead of studying, we yearn to stay at home all day to play computer games, watch television or just have fun. However, will having fun make you happier than studying? Having fun brings short terms happiness while the happiness of studying comes later, when we are applying for a job or working. Which do you prefer?

In short terms, such like a fortnight or month, I am sure that having fun will make you happier than studying. Firstly, after a long term of studying, I am very sure sure that everyone will feel that we should take a break. Hence, in this case, students or pupils will feel happier to play than to study. Secondly, it is student's 'instinct' to have more fun than to study. So, naturally students will have more fun playing computer in a short term period. Thirdly, some students, after studying for a long term, we naturally hate to see homework or anything related to study and will have fun as an alternative solution instead of studying. As they hate studying so much, they will feel that having fun will make him happier.

However, during long term periods, such like a year or two, things changes. Lazier students will continue playing during this period of time and do nothing to improve their life. Diligent students will know that this is not the way to go on forever as they will feel that having fun is meaningless in life and the only true meaningful thing in life for them now is studying and will start to feel that studying can bring more happiness than having fun.

We should always look into the future and not dwell on the past or the present. Studying now allows us to get a better job in the future, things will be smoother for us in the future. We will have enough money to support ourselves and we can enjoy ourselves in our later life rather than enjoy your teen life and suffer through your entire life. If you had a choice, which scenarios would you prefer?

In my opinion, in short terms periods, I will feel than having fun brings in more longer term periods I will feel happier happiness than studying wheareas in studying instead of having fun. Please share your opinions.

Chinese Drama Camp

The Chinese Drama Camp was held from 15-17 June in the school compounds. Compared to the disastrous secondary 1 camp, this camp was a million times better in many ways. I felt that it was not a waste of time and I enjoyed myself. I will compare this camp with the sec 1 camp.

Accommodation
During the secondary 1 camp, we had to sleep in hot tents and had to endure the mosquitoes. There was also hardly enough space to sleep and we were very crammed. However, during the recent camp, we slept in air-conditioned rooms in the SALT centre. There was enough space for all, no pests around and the floor despite being rough was still 'sleepable'. The camp that won accommodation is obviously, Chinese Drama Camp.

Pricing
The secondary one camp costs $110 while the chinese drama camp costs $15+2 lunches. So, the chinese drama camp would at most cost $30. Obviously, the secondary one camp lost out in pricing.

Free time
I am not sure if this is considered a factor but I will still compare it. In the secondary one camp, we had hardly any free time for ourselves. Excluding meals and travelling time, I doubt if we even had free time at all. Although I am sure the organising committee for Chinese Drama did not plan so much time for rest, we still had a lot of free time to rest. I think it is around 5 to 6 hours. Playing card games was what we did to spend this time, we played cards whenever we have time. During the Chinese Drama Camp, we definitely had more time than the poorly- organised sec 1 camp.

Activities
I am sure you have experienced the secondary one camp and its activities. Hence, I will be elaborating on what we did during the Chinese Drama Camp. Right at the start, we were given a theme that we were supposed to act out the following night, so we discussed the main plot of the story. We played some ice-breaker games and moved to the activity rooms in the SALT centre. We went out to eat our lunch and came back to play some games and soccer or basketball. At night, after we rehearsed for our play, we sat down in different groups and started to play card games until we slept at twelve. We woke up at seven the following day. Amazingly, our seniors played cards early in the morning. We voted for our 'exco' committee we nominated the previous day. Then, we started off with our amazing race throughout the whole Singapore. We went to the MAS, lau pa sat, Bank of China and Raffles Place. We had to find objects and shapes in these four stations. If we could not find it on time, we would have to do a forfeit. The forfeits were stupid, such as smearing nutella on your face, singing nursery rhymes etc. We came back to school after we had finished all those tasks and played cards, as usual. After dinner, we performed the play we rehearsed and the results of the new 'exco' were released, as well as the following year chairman of Chinese Drama. We carried the out 'çhuan deng' to connect us as a family. We played cards for a very long time before we slept. I'm sure you can imagine the amount of free time we had. The activities in the amazing race were much funner than those of the secondary one camp.

Food and Shower
Although we paid only $15, we got two buffets from the green plate stall. Unlike the secondary one camp, they provided enough drinks, vegetables, meat, hashbrown, fish, nuggets and chicken wings or the sweet chicken. There was a lot of leftovers even though several people took a lot and a few servings of food. I am sure you know the conditions of the SALT centre bathing facilities. There was no mud and people did not have to queue as long as the secondary one camp and there was sufficient time for all. The food were a hundred times better than those in the secondary one camp.

I used to dislike camps but after this camp, I started to grow my interest back. I had a lot of fun during these few days.

How do you know who your friends are?

What are friends?

Friends are a group of people whom you have the same interest as them. As the time goes by, friendship will develop and wonderful things between friends can happen. They care for each other, play together and share times of happiness, as well as sorrow with you leaving a strong impression of them throughout your entire life.

If there is a group of people who shares a common interest with you and always 'hang out' with you, are they your true friends? It is not necessarily true, as they may be fair-weathered friends. They will leave you immediately should you meet a setback. So, how do you know who your friends are?

In my opinion, there are a few ways to find out. Firstly and most obvious, they should share a common interest with you or there is a similar attribute in your character. Also, they should be your friends for who you are and not what you have, for example money or fame. During tough times, true friends will stick up for you and try their best to comfort us. Friends will support each other through thick and thin and try their best to give care, courage and hope to each other.
However, as friends do not mean that they have absolute agreement over everything. As different people, we definitely ought to have different viewpoints over certain issues and arguments would be inevitable. However, we cannot let such a minor setback allow us to break our friendship as friendship will become one of the most important things in life for us. We should swallow our pride and apologize to our friends when arguments happen as ruining a friendship over a minor argument is not worth it. Do not under estimate the power of friendship as it will help us during our daily lives.

Should we be rewarded for our efforts in school?

My personal opinion is that we should not be rewarded too much for our efforts in school. The main purpose of us going to school is for us to gain knowledge, as well as gaining experience in a conducive environment with caring teachers. It is not for us to get rewarded for our efforts in school and rewards should be only a bonus.

Students have only one priority that is to study hard in preparation of the future. We should study because of ourselves and not for rewards or gift.

If a student is works hard only because he wants to get the reward, it beats the purpose of education as he is supposed to work hard for himself and not for the reward. Furthermore, if there are no more rewards, he may lose the urge to study and he will be obsessed with rewards only. However, if a student works for himself and not for the reward, he will be always eager to learn new things and he would be very successful in his life.

In certain cases, rewards are necessary or should be given to their children. The new generation of children spends most of their time watching television and playing computer games instead of reading a book or going for a jog. Rewards should only be the last resort and to motivate their ‘hopeless’ children to study. The rewards may also spur them to do better in their work and hence their academic performance would increase. At the least, their children would be smart and motivated to study.

Deals involving gifts and rewards should be given only after the test is over. The student will study because of himself and the reward will act as a small bonus to study harder next time. However, rewards should only be given occasionally as the student will feel that he is working hard for the reward too.

We should reward based on the effort not the result. A child who works very hard yet still does not achieve his goals should be rewarded after he took the test. Hence, the child will know that he is being rewarded because he studied very hard. I will also motivate the child to work harder so in the next text, the child will work as hard and achieve better results.

Hence, I feel rewards should be given minimally and only after the test. Reward based on the effort not the result.

My first semester being a secondary one

It is almost half a year since I have entered secondary school and I have experienced a lot of things which I have not expected at all. The first semester was quite smooth besudes some downs. I will be sharing some of the plus points, minus points, interesting points and my plans for the future.(next semester)

Plus points (+)

I experienced half a year of secondary school life, teachers were friendly and always ready to make the lesson interesting, meaningful lessons were made fun and easy to learn, they made me eager to go to school. I managed to do different projects with different classmates, and I got used to working with people I'm not familiar with. My classmates were behaved relatively well and they made intelligent jokes during the class, unlike my old classmates when they make jokes that make no sense. I learned stuff that I did not expect to learn (infocomm studies). Computers can be used during free time and they are widely available, something I could not experience till I was a secondary school pupil. My cca, Chinese Drama, also allowed me to learn a lot about acting and stage play. The school had several platforms to communicate with their pupils and we received our test results via the internet, very hi-tech. With its ACE and OP, the school makes sure that students voice out during lessons, as well as focusing on self initiated projects. I grew to like my third language, Malay, and I found that it can be applied a lot in our daily lives. Hence, I represented Malay for the open house. The open house provided valuable experience for me and I learned what the parents wanted to know about the school. Project’s Day, the main project of the year, allowed me to experience doing a real project, our mentor was friendly and always gave his/her opinion on problems that we faced.

Minus Points (-)

The homework given by the teacher was difficult as the topics taught were totally new to me and I had to spend a lot of time completing them. There were plenty of days for me to stay back, especially in the first term, hence leaving me with very little free time as compared to primary school. The teachers 'spammed' me with projects and gave me very little time to finish up the projects. No extension given. Furthermore, teachers expect us to hand in our worksheets to the *subject* representative without any warning. Some teachers had problems pronouncing certain words and their sentence are full of grammatical errors. The school could not find good organizers or organized their programs well. The secondary one camp was horrible and the secondary one orientation/ consortium day was not really fun.

Interesting point (/)

Our recess is increased to 40 minutes. The teachers timed their homework the give with the other teachers so one day we have lots of work and the next day we have no work at all. I found out that humanities are actually quite interesting as we can apply it to our daily lives. I learned to sleep on the bus on my way home despite people shouting across the bus. I grew to like the noodles, economic rice, chicken rice the canteen sells.

Plans for the future (?)

Improve my grades because I will work harder. I will try to read more widely to improve my general knowledge besides reading compulsory books like Journey to the West etcetera. I will try my best to finish up ACE projects and speaking more in class. I will strike a balance between cca, homework and relaxation/ time with my family and friends. I also wish to be a more critical thinker and look at the both side of a problem.

Chinese Drama Anniversary

The Chinese Drama team celebrated its 30th anniversary last Saturday. Due to the Tan Kah Kee epic drama, the Chinese Drama team had to postpone the anniversary from the month of March till now.There wasn't much events/ programs prepared but we were occupied with rehearsing for our short play that we were supposed to present to our seniors at night. After a rousing game of catching, we settled to get ourselves ready for the short play. We were evenly divided, with much disagreements, into four groups. Well, each group is in charge of making a short play with only the script and very little time. As it was my first time actually participating in a play, it was an eye-opener for me. I had a taste of what I would be doing in the next few years, although it wasn't much fun, it was very meaningful for me. Let me share what happened on that day.

Now, I know what to do after getting our scripts, step by step. Bet you don't know what to do. Firstly, we read the script.(isn't it obvious) Next, we assign roles to each member of the team. Democracy overrides volunteerism as everyone will try taking up the easy role --- majority wins. Following, read the lines that you are going to say, to familiarise yourself with what your character is going to say. Lets get started! Act out the play with your script in hand, the director will then assign your standing places, the speed your character speak etc. most importantly, speak out loud. As a beginner, I had problems articulating my words well as I tend to mumble, I also either said my speech too early or too fast. As I got an easy role, no emotions were required but our team main lead did not clearly express his emotions out. I have not have a nerve-wrecking experience on stage yet, as what I had to say was short or little. I feel that facing a crowd isn't a hard thing to do.

Besides experience, I took home some knowledge on acting. Well, do not turn your back to the audience, or face your friend. Despite its simplicity, everybody is still doing it and is a relatively easy habit to kick/ get. Speak loud so that you are audible enough. Infuse your acts with emotions to show the audience that you are not memorising. Act not memorise. Be ready to change your story plan if one of your teammates forgot his lines. Aid him if you known his lines and be prepared to generate ideas if anything goes wrong. Isn't this helping you in your RTA oral assessment?

After the 'not-that-bad' dinner, we headed back to the black box to perform our master pieces. The seniors were scheming and crafty.They went up to the stage, posed as one of the actors in my group and mentioned something totally different from the original storyline. Luckily, my friend managed to think of an impromptu idea and 'chased' the senior back. They also ruined another play by moving the props around and added in an irrelevant part to the story, but luckily they managed to get through as well. After singing the official Chinese Drama song, we had a seemingly big cake to enjoy. Because of traditions and customs, the secondary one were the last to get the cake and I managed to get the last piece of the cake even though some seniors had not eaten yet. Yes! After the celebration, we were dismissed at 9 plus and the school was eerily dark. I had never been at school since so dark, it was definitely a spooky experience.

Despite the lack of fun activities, I still enjoyed the celebration. I am starting to develop a bond with Chinese Drama. It was also very meaningful, for secondary one, as we learned the very basics of acting, felt how it was like acting a short play in front of a small audience. It was really heartening when I heard the 'thunderous applause' from the audience. The chocolate cake, topped with fruits, was real nice as well. Overall it was a fun and meaningful day.

If you could eliminate one emotion from the world, would you? Which one? Why?

Firstly, ask yourself what is an emotion. Well, according to Wikipedia, an emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and behavior. For example, anger, compassion, disappointment, frustration, jealousy, pride, love and regret etc. These are the more common emotions. I feel that there are “beneficial” and “harmful” emotions. “Beneficial” emotions includes compassion, guilt, happiness, hope, joy, love and surprise, these emotions help to make our life more colourful and full of meaning. “Harmful” emotions makes us see our lives as dull, and the make us feel that life has no meaning, such as anger, contempt, frustration, hatred, hostility, loathing and jealously.

Hence, I feel that jealously is the root of all “harmful” emotions. Being jealous may lead you to having other “harmful” emotions towards others and hatred between each other will be common. Therefore, I wish to eliminate jealously and people around the world can live in peace.
For example, student x is jealous as student y for winning him in an exam.


Student x will be jealous of student y and he will start saying nasty remarks about student y. This will lead both students to be very hostile to each other, and it is not a win-win situation. Both students quality of work would eventually drop and will result in both of them having a lousy grade. However, if student x is humble enough to ask for help from student y, student x’s quality of work would increase, both of them eventually will excel in their work. Since there is no jealousy, student y would be very happy that he managed to help a student score the same marks as him. This is definitely a win-win situation. Hence, from this simple example, jealousy harms others while it has no benefit to you at all.


Why shouldn’t other emotions be eliminated? Sadness is essential for us as we need to overcome failures and downs of life, guilt is also essential as it represents that we have understood our mistakes and not repeat them again. With boredom, comes enjoyment, with worry, comes happiness. Disappointment spurs us on further too.


A world with no jealousy would also see a decrease in other “harmful” emotions. The world would be friendly, more peaceful and joyful instead of having a world full of spite, revenge and hatred.



Please share your viewpoints on this issue.

Tied up

Well, this is not considered an actual blog post but I would like to use this platform to express my feelings now. I am caught up in a situation between the devil and the deep blue sea. Let me explain, I have a former class gathering on the 30 may but it so happened that there was a smb message telling me that I have to go for my Chinese drama '相声' competition on that day. I know that I would be threading on very thin ice if I excuse myself for the event but I would also feel very disappointed if I am not being able to make to my former class gathering. There are a few ways out :

Firstly, I very thick-skinly ask my Chinese drama chairman to excuse me for this meeting. However, I have used that trick before in a not-compulsory event, SYF. He will then remark,"华岗重要还是朋友重要?" I would love to say,"朋友比较重要". But, he will用着失望的眼光看着我,道:"你去把!" Following, I will feel a sense of guilt within me and I would feel like I do not belong to Chinese drama cca.
Chances of it likely happening : low
Happiness level if it works: very high (for that day only)

Secondly, I could kindly and politely request my classmates to postpone the date of the gathering. Hopefully, I am so important that they will postpone it (have to include bin hui/max). I will use pitiful glances to look at them and hopefully, they will get enticed and allow it to happen. Another way is to use the hard way. However, I really hope that we have our class gathering soon.
Chances of it likely happening : med
Happiness level if it works: very high

Thirdly, I could rush to the class gathering after the'相声' competition. Chances are, the locations are at the exact ends of Singapore and I would have to rush my heart out to meet my old friends and teachers. I would be very tired and can't really enjoy myself.
Chances of it likely happening : high
Happiness level if it works: med

I can predict the future: only the second and third plan may pull through. Although postponing the event is good, I do not enjoy waiting another week to meet my friends again. Hence, if the competition is very early, I could most likely make in but if it is in the afternoon,......

The best conclusion I can come out with : hope that they postpone the date of the competition. :)

*Note: I hope being bilingual in a blog is not against any of the rules for blogs.

June Holidays

As the term slowly creep by, with endless amount of projects and homework/assignments, the june holidays is finally only a week away after nine gruelling weeks of 'intensive learning'. Never in my life had I longed for the holidays to come this much as I need my well-deserved rest. However, the june holidays are already packed with camps, outings, even dental appointment! Hence, it is quite hard to totally relax for one month straight.

Homework is inevitable during this long period of time and I already expected comprehensions, literature assignments, compositions, tons of worksheets for humanities, mathematics and science. Following, we have the 'time bomb' as teachers would give us homework over the net suddenly during our holiday. I really dislike this and would prefer if they give it in all at once so I can relax after I have finished them. I have already prepared myself for the worst.



Yet, all work and no play make jack a dull boy. We should try to maximise my time, allowing ourselves to relax even more. Books are a form of leisure and can be read at any available time. (Oh, I need to read lots of books like The Little Prince, Journey to the West, Little Ironies, {can't believe I haven't read finished that book} and 2 other meaningful books for reviews.)

Aside with that, let me explain why I look forward to the holidays. I cannot wait to meet up with my old classmates as they hold a special place in my heart. It's great to spend time with them sharing our old memories. I will try to blog about what happened on that day. I can also spend time relaxing by watching a movie or by going out. I hope everyone will make us of the june holidays to do something meaningful.

HCI open house

As everyone know, yesterday was a significant event on our HCI calender. Yes, it was the open house. I will be sharing on what the open house was about and my personal feelings towards it. Early in the morning, at around seven thirty, all the ushers and 'promoters' of each program were waiting there, eager to start their open house. When I reached there, all the boards for various programs were already taken out. People were talking here and there and there was a sense of anticipation. As the time went by, more people were streaming in, getting full preparation to introduce their programs to the anxious parents. The clock tower was decorated pretty well, with plants everywhere. I also noticed that there were drums at the clock tower and I wondered what will those be used for.

The mystery was 'solved' once the parents began to stream in with their the nervous primary 6 child. The drums were used as a table for parents to register and to receive a free goodie bag. I was helping out for the MSP. Parents came and asked questions relating to the MSP, and I had a hard time gearing up as the parents seemed somewhat fierce. Suddenly, we realised that our teacher-in-charge had yet to arrive, and we were not wearing the tags that the presenters were supposed to wear and was very awkward. That thought aside, I tried to explain what the MSP program was about, how it is carried out and the advantages. However, I was not very confident and needed the help of a more eloquent friend. Our teacher appeared out of the blue, handed our tags and rushed off as fast as she came. On the whole, I felt that the parents were friendly, and seemed interested to send their child to HCI. Some parents smiled at us while others gave encouraging words like 'keep it up'. However, some of them were rude to us and casted cold glances at us. During a short break, I toured areas nearby and saw how the interacted with the child and the parents.

Another disaster came when we were short of one packet of food. We had a difficult time sorting the food into another packet and miscommunication were often. Hence, we all had less to eat and one of my friends even resorted to eating refreshments that were for parents. After our lunch, no one came to inquire about the MSP but there were a lot of questions based on consortiums, DSAs, school hours and CCA. I parent maybe too 'kiasu' asked so much about the dsa that we are practically giving it away. The parents must really care their children to ask about the school to such a great extent.

I felt a sense of satisfaction once the open house was over as I am sure that this open house has attracted many parents to sign up for this school after their PSLE. Furthermore, serving parents, ushering them, made me feel happy. But I was particularly happy when a primary six boy, came up to us and asked about our MSP. I could tell that he was really shy from his facial expressions and gestures, yet this did not stop him from coming up to ask up. I hope that if he enters HCI, he would join our MSP and strive to be a good student.

Swine Flu (reflections)

As everyone knows, the world is currently battling a dangerous virus, namely swine flu. It will come to Singapore in a matter of time and hence we must all be prepared for the worst. By the way, according to the newspaper, Singapore already has three suspected cases of swine flu. However, I will not be touching on this very much.

Instead, I would like to discuss about the starting cause of swine flu. It was stated in today's Straits Times that the very first person, Edgar Hernandez, four, who caught the swine flu has just recovered from it after a very torturing journey to regain his health. Now, people around the world are accusing him of spreading the swine flu around a "notoriety that makes his parents anxious". So, is he really the one to be blame for the swine flu becoming a pandemic.

I feel that such a poor child should not be put through such suffering, especially after just recovering from swine flu. Firstly, the flu "is infectious in the 24 hours before any symptoms shows in a the victim." and " victims may not display any symptoms at all". Hence, I feel that someone could have transmitted the germs to Edgar without even knowing that he has contracted the disease. Following, Edgar may have fallen ill and was taken to a doctor, before knowing he has swine flu. While the other person may not display any symptoms, he would not have seen a doctor until his conditions worsen. Therefore, anyone could have made this misunderstanding and accidentally blamed Edgar for spreading the swine flu.

Therefore, no one is to be blamed, but we must take up the responsibility. Please share your views on this issue.

Carelessness

Carelessness leads to all things bad. For example, if you intend to rob a house and you accidentally drop something out of carelessness, you are putting yourself in jail. I'm sure carelessness has affected everyone, if not almost everyone. People right about being unlucky but I'm going to relate a true story about carelessness:



It was a normal Sunday morning and my mother and I decided to visit her mother. To be as efficient as possible, I decided to bring the Animal Farm literature practice along to do at my grandmother's place. So I packed as usual, making sure I brought my pencil case as I had forgotten it the last time round. Pencil case, pencil case, literature, literature. As soon as I arrived, I was greeted with a shock of my life, I did not bring the book, Animal Farm. It was actually no problem as I could find it all on the internet but they were without annotations. Nevermind, when I go home at 5, I will finish up the last question. BUT I had forgotten to bring my foolscap as well! Now I couldn't write as well so I had to write out on a piece of paper and later go home and copy it out. Argh...

As I was heading home, another carless mistake was made by me again. I had left the question paper at my grandmother's place. I was so angry as I was already on the bus. Hence, I had to walk one stop back, cross an overhead bridge and clime another six storeys. Then, I had to walk to the bus stop and wait for another bus, which took an eternity to come. What an careless day!

To be perfectly careful is impossible as no one is perfect, try to be very mindful of what you should do or should bring. I'm sure that if we put in effort, we can avoid carelessness in our everyday life.

Swine Flu

What started off as an insignificant flu has grown into a likely imminent pandemic. The swine virus is a respiratory diease affecting pigs that is caused by type A influenza virus. Each and every country is stepping up its security to contain this deadly virus. Singapore is also tightening border checks, at Changi Airport last night/ today has thermal scanners which screens the arriving passengers to prevent the swine flu from entering Singapore. So far Singapore has no known, or even suspected, cases on this disease but we cannot afford to be complacent as once the virus enters Singapore, we will all be badly affected as Singapore is very dense. This imminent pandemic is not only capable of claiming lives but also will greatly affect the growing economic from last year crisis. Imagine losing money, after the terrible crisis, while you are sick, that wouldn't be pleasant at all.

Please be considerate and if you are sick, please do not comt to school or work as it may spread to so many more people may fall prey to this deadly virus. Please seek medical help immediately if you have influenza like symptoms: running nose, cough, sore throat, high fever or even breathlessness. To prevent yourself from contracting this flu avoid people with flu-like symptoms, avoid crowded areas, wash hands thoroughly with soap as frequently as possible, cough or sneeze into your arms as your hands may come into contact with another thing, which other people may also use.

For fun and trivial facts, a previous flu affected the world whole so badly that half of the world's most populated country died, that is half of China's population died, but of course, it does not only affect the Chinese. Please remember to take care of your health.

Sports meet

Yesterday, 9 out of the 15 Secondary 1 classes went down to the Chua Chu Kang stadium to cheer on for our track and field team. It must be a very grand event for the school as the school has used reading period for cheers practise. As I stepped into the majestic stadium, home of the SAFFC, I saw that the terraces opposite the stadium hanging with banners to support the own school on. We were than 'ushered' to our seats and I felt that at that angle, I could not see all the events at once as there were people blocking my view. We were told that other schools brought drums and pails to support their team. As part of propaganda, it was greatly exaggerated but they did really brought items to the stadium. As soon as the running events started, we were cheering our hearts out for our fellow runners down on the track. We were immersed in our school spirit thoroughly. However, for the 100m, 400m and 1500m we were not so fortunate as we did not manage to clinch the first three places, but I feel that we are cheering for the runner himself and the hard work he put in, not for the sake of winning a medal. As the relay events started, we started to fare slightly better as the runners could feel our spirit lingering in the air of anticipation. It was really tense as the runners were running their lives out back to back with their opponent.

Finally, the most anticipated moment has arrived. Everyone listened carefully with bated breath as the results were being released, the HCI track and field team has done the school proud by clinching the 'B' and the 'C' division champions for the fifth (i think) consecutive year. They have acheived commendable results. However, the students there were not satisfied yet and requested for half-day the next day. I think that the school cares about the welfare of the students very much as half-day will lead the student in liking that school. I hope that our school can continue thinking of the welfare of the students more so more 'cynical' people will start to like the school.

Nothing but the truth (pre-thoughts)

I have read finished the novel from Avi, Nothing but the truth (nbtt). I felt it as a good book as its format in dialogue captures people attention, the order of events are clearly stated and there are several meaningful yet thought-invoking discussion questions at the back of the book. To begin my first post about nbtt, I will pen down several misconceptions that most people have when they have read finished their book.

• Everyone thought Miss Narwin was the one who suspended Philip, but in actual fact she was strongly against it! It was Dr Palleni who did the suspension
• Humming or singing? That's the most important question of all

I am very sure of these two misconceptions when I read the book for its first time. However, I cannot guarentee these are the correct and only misconception as Ms Soh has not gone through it yet. Jake Barlow was not helping the matter much and was biased against Miss Narwin and Miss Steward wasn't any better spreading rumours. So as of now, I feel that Miss Narwin is the victim unless someone else convices me.

Busy

Ever since joining my new school, life had became harder, in terms of amount of homework. However, I had been coping them farely well with enough time to rest before I sleep, which is considerably early. But that is only term 1, now in term 2, workloads are getting heavier and are tougher to complete. Projects are building up on a daily basis. Besides, I have third language twice a week. There is a Chinese common test this week and I have to take the test after my Malay, from 3.30 to 5.30, which will be very exhausting. Malay is also getting harder and harder to cope but I am sure I can persevere for now.

Last week, I had to complete my IS project and a chapter analysis in one night. The IS project was the root of the problem, draining away all my time and the worst thing is that they were useless. I had wasted at least 5 hours! Creating a web page sure is hard. In the end, I did not meet the IS project deadline and missed it by 4 hours. I hope Mr Yong would not be angry as i really had problems doing the project. At least team's chapter analysis passed and I would have to feel even more demoralised. To relief all the stress, I went to the Marina Barrage. It was an interesting dam and I learned how they control the amount of water in the reservoir. If it is raining inland and is low tide in the sea, they would open the gates to allow water to return to the sea to prevent flooding from happening. If it was raining inland and happens to be the high tide, they will pump water into the sea. The walls of the dam are created high enough to prevent water from overflowing. The pumps can pump an Olympic size swimming in one minute. They have a gallery which is very informative about the dam, they even have a live simulation. The Barrage is built for three purposes. To prevent flooding, to purify water and as a lifestyle hub. Wait, the title is busy yet I am talking about relaxing, lets get back on track......

In the past hectic weeks and the coming ' whirlwind weeks', time management is very important. If you are researching and you cannot search for what you want, you will spend a lot of time trying to accomplish the impossible. Therefore, you must be focused at the talk at hand and not to waste time. I also realised that secondary school is not a breeze as no one promised you so. You must be prepared to lose your enjoyment and sleeping time to finish up your projects. As long as you focus on the process, instead of the outcome, you are sure to enjoy amidst your busy schedule.

Friends

I have not blogged in a long time so today I will talk about one of my primary school friend. He is called Derrick but it does not matter at all. We were in the same class during P5 and P6, however, during primary five, I was not very close to him but only when I was primary six then I was closer to him. He is not a very friendly person at first sight but once you know him deeper, you will see that his friendship is very important. Let me describe his funny antics clearly. He loves to spite our former form teacher, he does not pay attention during class and like to make jokes about her, hence he will get sent out off the class 6 out of 10 lessons. When a relief maths teacher relieved our form teacher for a few weeks, he always like to spite her.
"Who has gotten this question wrong?" the teacher asked, and Derrick will raise his hands for every single time she said that until she realised that he was a lousy student. I just do noy understand why he does not like our teacher.
Besides that, he also has pronunciation problem, he reads 'me' as 'meh' and 'no' as 'nor'. We were accusing Derrick when he said,"Who? Meh, meh". It was so funny that me and another guy (seah yi, if you know who is he)laughed all the way from the hall to our classroom. Hitherto, I still do not know if he can speak this words properly. RTA will definitely help him pronounce the words cleary and accurately.
Then there was this 'Cold War' between me and him, sparked off because, I think, because he ate in the canteen while I ate in the classroom and he got very angry with me. He often tried to get me out off the class with rude and obscene gestures, even in front of the teacher, of course the teacher wasn't looking. However, now I am sure he will not do it again as he is mature enough to think.
He always wanted to beat me academically but he wasn't always successful. If he did badly in CA1, he would say that he would try harder in the next term test until PSLE, which I do not know if he is satisfied with his marks but I am sure that Derrick, being a competitive person, would surely like to improve himself in the new environment of secondary school. Hope that you will strive to become the top.
We joined the Infocomm Club together and the training was totally useless. The trainer took 30 minutes just to take attendance and another close to an hour to teach us to how draw a table on Fireworks. Our class often make jokes with each other to spend our time.

Now we keep in contact with each through MSP, we still make the same jokes but the friendship never changes. I hope we will not lose 2 years of friendship so easily and your maturity really help 'overcome' your childishness.

P.S. I know that you will read this post, hope to see your long comment. Thanks for your constant support towards this blog and I will always remember you as a friend throughout my life, at least secondary school.

Earth Hour

The first global election was observed on Saturday from 2030 to 2130. Switch off your lights to vote for a cleaner and greener Earth, leave your lights on to vote for a dirtier and smellier world. This event occurs only once a year for only an hour so I believe that everyone should participate actively in the event. The Earth is suffering because of us, so we should save our Earth since it has provided land for us to develop. Let me share with you my experience on that day.

I was rushing through my dinner as it was almost Eath Hour and I have not bathed yet, but luckily I managed to bath finished in time. However, my grandmother refused to switch off totally as she was watching her drama shows, I do not hold it against her as she may be too inflexible to change. To prevent any further temptation of swithching on any other lights, my relatives and I went out for a walk. I walked around my house and found that 1 in 4 leave their lights on even when they are not doing anything, leaving their porch's lights on. Some even remain their lights just to play a round of mahjong. I found that intolerable as they would rather play mahjong than care about the Earth, by the time they cared, it may be too late already. Above are the pictures of my neighbours's houses who have played their part in saving the Earth and those that did not. Well, the picture on the left is obviously not doing their part and yet there is still no one in the living room. The one on the right actually shoes two houses, one which has left its porch lights on, while the other is totally in complete darkness. (My relatives)My uncle is even resting on the grass looking at the stars. Speaking of stars, I felt that there were more stars in the sky during the Earth Hour. My neighbours were making a big fuss out of it and kept calling her family members to admire the stars, maybe thats the way Earth repays us for our effort. Step forward, save the Earth.

Leaders

Animal Farm, a popular book that is known to many people, has leaders leading the animals. Like the animals, there are many great and good leaders in the world who have changed the fate of their countries and one of them is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Mahatma Gandhi, the great soul who led India to independence and aspired movement for civils rights and freedom around the world.
A great leader is one who is intellectual, has foresight, able to make quick decisions or decisions that have a great impact on the country. He should also think of the people welfare and selfless, and charisma all of which Mahatma Gandhi possess. When India was ruled by the British, they were left in extreme poverty as the British kept on leving a tax on them. This great leader spent time, suffering and money to to help his fellow villages in many ways, for eample, building facilities for them. He managed to gain independence for India without the use of violence but through non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his "weapons" in the struggle against British. Imagine how hard it is to struggle for independence but without the use of war and violnce, I find it an impossible act to carry out.
In conclusion, I feel that Gandhi is a very aspiring person that can commit to what he do. His selflessness, charisma and peacefulness gained independence for India and has inspired many to fight for their own rights without the use of violence.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhi

Pre napfa thoughts

When I first saw the smb message that the napfa test was on 26 March, I received a huge shock as my primary scholl always conducted it in August. Well, I do not need to spell it out that i am physically at disadvantage.(what a nice way to say it) I am short, therefore, I will lose out in my weakness, the standing broad jump. I also was born inflexible, which just does not help at all in sit and reach. Arm strength is insufficient to pull myself up so I will be struggling in inclined pull up. I am slowing stunning me in the shuttle run component. Stomach muscles will not be strong enough to get a good score and will be thrasing trying to 'sit up'. I think I have the confidence in sit-up even though I am having difficulties get my target points. Hence, I trained a bit for my 5 items during the holidays. I just do not think I'm sporty enough. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst, although I already forsee that I will do badly. Anyway, good luck for everyone.

March Holidays

The March had ended so fast while it took ages to arrive. With a not-so-eventful holidays I returned to school but I would rather have another week of rest. However, I heard that a school started their week at thursday, with only 3 insufficient daysto rest for 3 months hence we must treasure our time preciously. The only memory that I will remember is our first primary school class gathering at a friend's house. Although only a quarter of the class was invited, we had a whoping time, with the classical game of halo3. There were incidents that sparked old memories and some new ones that will be etched in our memory. We should always treasure friendship and find time to keep in touch with them.

The Lottery

The lottery has a lot of relevance to the society today. By using the themes in the lottery, we can find that the lottery is somewhat related to today. For example, the lottery made a sacrifice, hoping to increase harvest. In the working world, people often speak bad about people to our superior, hoping that they will be promoted. In both cases, human used another person for his/her personal gains.

Secondly, the problem of hypocrisy. When Tessie have not drew the winning ticket, even in the previous years, she did not complain. In fact, she was chatting away with her friends happily. But when she drew her winning ticket, she comlained that " it wasn't fair ". In our modern day society, some company claims to be environmentally-friendly but when I entered the office, the air-conditioner was blasting cold wind while all the lights were swithched on when there were very little staff working.

Thirdly, in the lottery, the people just complied to the meaningless tradition, without asking if they should eliminate it, afraid of being laughed at. We should not comply with what others say, instead we should question it if it is acceptable or not.

Post camp thoughts

Sorry, I could not write my feelings for the camp any earlier and my computer crashed so now I'm using this computer,its spacebar has a problem and therefore, please forgive and words typed together.

1st day

1) Gathered in school and formed our groups, process was slow and noisy.<->
2)Went into our groups and drawed on a piece of paper, this was slow and boring.<->
3)Proceeded to class to retrieve our bags, again slow, noisy and boring.<->
4)Boarded the bus, perhaps the funniest thing I've done today.
5)Arrived there and sat under the blazing sun to wait for the other groups, hot and boring.<->
6)Took my longest lunch ever by sitting down, re-arranging ourselves and sitting down again, taking an hour.<-->
7) Activities next were boring like problem solving.The cooking, no one bothers. And they made us sit on mud.<-->
8)Song session was lame, singing childish songs.<->
9)Cancelled the BMT, which is fun, to cheer.
End of day 1 with a <-9> scoring.

2nd day

1)Area cleaning, there were not enough jobs and some people had nothing to do. The people working were just wetting the floor.<->
2)Fun fitness games was probably the best thing in the camp.<+++>
3)Team building is plain boring.<->
4)Rafting, only three people could raft, which means those who were not rafting had nothing to do.<->
5)Sarimbun challenge wasn't a challenge, quite simple and easy and worst still it rained, but it was slightly fun.<+>
6)Campfire was lousy. It was made from a make-shift one instead and the I couldn't hear what the perfomers said.<->
7)Just 10 seconds after I went back to the tent, they were scolding me for coming out to late.<->
End of day 2 with a <-1> scoring. Improving...haha

3rd day

1) Clean places where we did not live in, boring and hot.<-->
2)We were only supposed to clean the area but had to strike down tents too.<-->
3)Prize presentation wasn't any better.
End of day 3 with a <-4>scoring.
End of camp with a <-14> scoring.

It was boring throughout the camp and the most memorable moment was when we boarded the bus back.

Pre-camp thoughts

I think almost everyone in this class is going for this camp, i persoally not looking forward to it but not dreading it either. The camp has certain facilities like a rock wall, archery range, high elements, fling fox, a lake (not nice), huts, dorms, mess hall and a gathering point. Not too big at all. Haha, I've been to the camp before and it is not as nice looking as it seems. Here's why:
1. The ground is not paved or tiled to become a pavement (and i don't think it will be) so if it rains, the ground will be very muddy and there will be brownish pools of water everywhere so watch where you walk so your shoes will not be covered in mud.
2. No proper sleeping hours and no naps (i don't take naps). You may be used to sleeping late and waking up early but first you must understand that the environment there and your house is a world apart, no fans/air-con,+mosquitoes, the coil some times doesn't work. You sleep at 11 and wake up at 6, after a whole tiring day may seem a bit short, though.
3. The toilets. Its crazy. Its smelly. Its muddy. Can you imagining bathing there? Your shoe is dirty and you step into the toilet and naturally the toilet becomes muddy. Then, you have to take out your shoes to shower and your legs get dirty. Hence, the toilet will reek of mud. And since 500 people have to bath in a mere 40 minutes with 10 cubicles and an open area shower with 9 shower heads. Even if they bath at 5 minutes per student, you will need to have 85 minutes. So, to keepin time you need to bath only 1.5minutes per student.
Thats all I will say for now as I do not which to damper excited people feelings. Although I stop there, that doesn't mean I don't have any more to say. However, we will need not study so we can at least rest our brains for a few days.

Reflections for changi beach clean-up

This is very irritating. I accidentally deleted this post, which cannot be retrieved forever. Now, I will try to type exactly the same thing i typed 3 days ago.
Why do we have to wake up at 6 in the morning to rush down to school just to do something so boring like a beach clean-up, well it is because we have to play a role in serving the community. Some people who are lazy would say that they are too young to serve the community, when they grow older, they can become a world class singer/actor/doctor/lawyer/engineer... and singapore would become even more popular but why look so far into the unsure future and start focusing what we can do now instead of procrastinating.Others may argue that what is the use of a beach cleaning? Well, singapore is interested in attracting more tourists to flock to singapore for a holiday. Hence, by cleaning our beaches we have a more presentable image for the tourists and this may attract the tourist to come back again in the near future. See, such a small action from the heart can make such an impact. Remember CIP is not about the amount of time you put in but is the amount of effort you put in. So why not help in the community right now, right here.

I hope i remembered it correctly.

The Singapore culture

As I was taking 151 home today, I saw four schoolgirls boarded the bus and at this moment of time the bus was pretty empty with many seats available. The girls then proceeded to the seats at the front of the bus and after putting down their bags on the other seats saw down at chit-chatted. Their bags actually occupied 5 seats! Thats more than the amount of seats they are sitting on. A boy from another school also did the same thing but was biting his nails and shaking his legs. After changing to 153, there were a lot of people,(not including me), doing the same exact thing. But is doing this considered an inconsiderate behaviour. I personally feel it is fine as long as there are other seats available, but not if there are less than 5. It can provide comfort for the person yet does not cause inconvinence to other people, but yet other people feel it is morally wrong. But thing changes when there is a disabled or senior citizen who need the front seats as it is more convenient to alight, we should let the space to them if we know that this is the case. What do you feel？

Beach cleaning @ Changi

Time to get serious. I woke up early today to rush down to our school and after a short briefing we were heading out. When we reached there we all got a glove and a rubbish bag to a pair. Joshua and I also agreed to compete with Jian Kai and Bin Hui to see whose bag was heavier at the end of the day. We went to the grass patch where people were camping to pick up trash. I had a shock. There were hundreds of cigarette buds left on the grass and all along I thought beaches were smoke-free. Soon after, we went to the water's edge to try our luck and we found a shoe! I think it is definitely weighed about one kilo. We saw lots of rubbish at the water's edge and took a stick and try to reel it in. Then, i saw a crowd nearby and approached it and heard someone said he stepped on what look like a millipede to me. The millipede was still squirming on the ground and was so disgusting. Then, Jian Kai and Bin Hui approached us saying that their bag broke so they had to team up with us. Jian Kai found a baby octopus and stepped on it until it died, so violent, and kept saying it wasnt a octopus. We were getting tired then so I rested for a while with Jian Kai until Joshua found a flat worm. I think one of them flipped in halfway so it was struggling to get up until the wave came and knocked it over completely. We realished it was almost time so we headed back.

Geography Test (pt2)

Woah! My scored for geography did not change that means i still got an a1 yeah! This was the most tense moment in my seondary life. I can decide my fate in the future. Anyway, although i realised some people added marks the class msg was still the same. I hope our msg will increase so we can make our teachers happy and not fret so much.

Malay test (bahasa melayu ujian)

The test was a disater. The whole seminar wrecked havoc and the galvanised roof rang with a dreadful sound. The rain battered against the windows, wanting to crack the window. The failures in the class fell like they were hit by a gunshot while the a1-people jumped in joy as if they won a war. There were lifeless people strewn all over the floor like some zombies. Enough wasting time, i scored a mere b4 which was 60. Tied with derrick, if you know who he is, and dao ming. Jonah won by 2 marks but still scored a b4. Wei wen was terrific, i think he scored a 73. Anyway, soalan empat saya bagus, sepuluh, juga ada bintang.

Geography Test

Shi Jie heaved a sigh of relief as he saw his own marks- it was an a1. He managed to ace his test but his friend beat him by half a mark. Shi Jie thought, wasted, how could i lose to my friend. While his friend thought, yes, managed to beat that guy again! But, the teacher said that the paper would go for benchmarking, hoping that the class msg will go down till its below 2. However, Shi Jie thought, if i lose another one mark i will get an a2 which will ruin my grade. Praying, Shi Jie left the computer lab hoping he will gain marks instead of losing marks.

P.S. Sucess! Managed to write in another P.O.V. Guess what that is.

Malay test

The test was horribly horrible. My spelling got 6/20 which is disastrous i lost 14 marks in one of the five sections. The chances of getting a1 is extremely slim. All i can do is hope i can do well enough so i can add it to my msg. 就此搁笔

Police Heritage Centre

Today i went to the police heritage centre with my class(1p1). On reaching the place, i saw a high fence an a picture 'Warning restriced area; tight security'. If they want to promote this as a tourist attraction, the tourists will definitely feel unwelcomed. But, if 'forced to enter', they will definitely enjoy it. Firstly,as security purposes, their security is very strict. We are forced to fork out our ez link card in exchange for our visitor pass. Their service was of an average speed but i feel that they should be faster as there are 4 classes standing in the hot sun and it was very hot. However, i was privilleged as we were the first class and i was the first few(managed to escape the blistering heat). Next, after our whole class had a visitor pass we proceeded to the police heritage centre. We watched a short film about the history of the police and how the police force changed with the occupation of the japenese. Then we proceeded to the next floor and there were some police honourary ranks. There were also some policement who passed away in honour while carrying out their duties. For example, the police a huge outbreak of robberies in the bukit timah area. So, the police sent a team there to patrol the area for suspicious people. Then, at newton circus market, they saw a man carrying a haversack, they quickly asked the man to reveal what is in the haversack, the man placed the haversack on the hood of the car. In a flash, the man snatched an axe an hacked the policeman's throat, drawing blood. The others immediately called for back-up and an ambulance. However, the fugitive ran away before the policeman had enough time to catch him. The reinforcements came and hunted down the cold-blooded man. The police reached a block of flats(i think) and saw the lift stop at the top floor. Being witty, the immediately took the lift up too. When they reached the roof, they combed the area only to find the fugitive behind a row of flower pots. That man was caught and after a verdict was hanged. The policeman who sacrified his life was awarded the medal of valour in recognision for his courage. I feel that the policemen have a meaningful job as they uphold the security in our lives. After that, we went upstairs and saw how the police were in the past and now. Ending our trips, we were all given a keychain of the police heritage centre. I had a meaningful experience and hope we can visit other places more often.

Should science be used to artificially improve someone's intelligence or external appearences

I am answering this question based on a literature story flowers for algernon. It is a story where a protaganist called Charlie Gordon undergoed a operation to artificially increse his intelligence. However, the operation when wrong and soon his intelligence decreased as fast as it has gone up. So i will be discussing if science should be used to artificially improve someone's intelligence or external appearences.

I strongly disagree that science be used to improve someone's intelligence or external appearences.

There are pros and cons to this viewpoint. The pros obviously being that people will get smart need not to study and so on. However, if science and technology is up to that level, everyone would be waiting to get the operation. If babies that are just born go through the operation and become super intelligent and need not go to school and study. He/she will be lacking moral values and determination/perseverance. Thus, their threshold level will be very low and will not be able to grow through life. Besides, they will have knowledge but lack wisdom.

Besides, all operation comes with a risk. What if the same thing happened as said in the story? People who undergone the operation may be emotionally hurt or scarred for life. Science and technology is used to improve our lives but I feel that we should not abuse science and technology to artificially improve someone's intelligence or external apperances. Besides, we are 'playing god' hence I do not encourage science to be used to artificially improve someone's intelligence or external appearences.

I think from what I know most smart people are not happy, and are frequently grumpy and frustated over their work or project and therefore don't get to enjoy life to its fullest.

Shi Jie

Tests and more tests......

If you think that school life is all fun but no work, then your wrong. After one month of secondary school life, he comes the tests. There are tests in almost every subjects, including infocomm studies and my third language which is malay, which is totally new to me. As a newcomer, I have to study real hard to ace that subject. Also, I feel that teachers are deceiving people, (please, i have no bad intentions) as the plan when to give their work at the right time. For example, one day you have no homework and the next day, you have tons of it, making you unable to cope properly. Thats all for now and I wish everyone good luck for their tests.

P.S I t may be a little to late as we have taken two tests already.

Little Ironies - Taximan's Story

1)What is the irony in the story?

I feel that the irony in the story is when the taximan keeps harping on the fact that schoolgirls and schoolboys act like big shots, spending money, smoking and wearing the latest fashion. The taximan also talks about the teenagers habits like they wear school uniform to school everyday but they don't go home instead go to a public lavaratory and change into these clothes. But secretly the taximan like them as they give more money compared to other people who bargain and say don't want to go by meter. There is evidence from the second last line that the taximan is indeed after their money."Must go off to Hotel Elroy~there plenty young people to pick up."

2)What are the themes raised in the story?

I feel that the most important theme raised is morals. The teenagers in the story often deceive their parents and hang out in coffee-house with their American or European boyfriends. I can infer this from what the taximan said about schoolgirls wearing school uniform to school everyday but they don't go home instead go to a public lavaratory and change into these clothes. I am sure that their parents will not agree if they knew their child's intention. There is also a slight fault with the taximan as he dislikes them yet hopes to meet them as they will give more money than other customers.

3)How realistic is the story?

Although the story is not a tall tale but I feel that is only partially belivelable. A person will not talk about his/her own personal life so easily, especially to a stranger about his daughter hanging out at coffee-housesand how he beat his daughter up. Besides that, I feel that the rest of the story about teenagers are true as he has nothing to gain about lying to his customers.

4)What do you think of the taximan? Do you feel sympathy for him?

I feel that the taximan is a good and trustworhty father. He trusted that his daughter is going back to the school to do extra work, extra coaching in her weak subject. And he also felt proud of his daughter as she was the only one good enough to go to university. The taximan has my sympathy as he trusted Lay Choo so much but Lay Choo betrayed his trust and went to hang out with Europeans. Imagine how the father felt when he saw Lay Choo at the coffee-house.

5) Do you agree with his lamenting?

I agree with his lamenting. As an older generation of Singapore, he does not want teenagers to ruin their future so he is seeking greater awareness of the growing trend of this issue. In fact, this trend has already affected his own beloved Lay Choo.

6)What about the other characters in the story?Do you feel sympathy for them?

I feel sympathetic for Lay Choo as she got "thrashed and bashed" by her father but her father not actually knowing the reason as he dragged his daughter to his taxi. The people she hanged out with could actually be her own classmates. Therefore, I feel that Lay Choo has my sympathy.

Current affairs (2009 budget)

As Finance Minister Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam unveiled recently on a $20.5 billion package of measures. For saving jobs, $5.1 billion has been used. The Government will give all employers money for every worker on their CPF payrole. Besides that, more subsidies will be given to training and the Government will also step up recruitment. $2.6 billion will go to helping families, families will get cash in the form of GST credits and rebates has also incresed. $8.4 billion will go to help companies ti cope with their individual financial problems. $4.4 billion will increse expenditure on public infrastructure and rejuvenate Singapore's neighbourhood. Besides that, it will spend more on education and healthcare and green transport and clean energy. I hope that all of these plans will help Singapore with its current crisis in both long term and short term. So most of us need not stress so much on the economic crisis and look forward to a better future. But will all of these budget packages work? Only time will time.

Current affairs (president of the USA)

As everyone it the world knows, President Barack Obama have already swore in his position as the new 'president of the world'. The whole world also has high expectations of him to bail the world out of its current economic crisis, to provide more stable jobs, taking care of wars and others internal and external problems. Based on an interview with the president, when he was asked what was his greayest moral failure inhis life, he replied,"When his father wasn't home, he experimented with drugs and he drank in his teenage years. And he traced this to a certain selfishness on his own part." Quoted by the president: "We see evil all the time. We see evil, sadly, on the streets of our cities. And it has to be confronted." and "It is so important for us, when we are criticising other countries about the rule of the law, to make sure we are abiding by it. In time the world will see whether he has carried out his promises.

Current affairs (silver workforce)

People may think that older workers are useless or maybe slow. However, old people have more experience than younger workers so we do not need to go for a lot of training courses. Most old people do not work for money but either for more experience or spending their time away. In fact, old people are generally more patient and friendly than younger people. In comparision, working is much more meaningful than begging in the streets so let us get a job to spend our after retirement life in quality.(Writing as a view point of an elder worker)

Archery???

This morning, i went to one of the coffee shops near my house for breakfast. After my breakfast, my aunts went to the nearby wet market to buy some groceries for their dinner. My mother and i went to a hardware shop, intending to buy a new mop. Something caught my attention it was a bow and some arrows (which was fake, how obvious). Because it was cheap and my mother wanted to try it too, we bought it. At a nearby field, i 'fired' a few shots. But my mother had difficulty starting, but eventually she manged to shoot a few arrows. Soon even my aunts were facsinated and they took turns trying. Archery is difficlt at first but it will be easy soon. It also trains your concentration, patience,stability, accuracy. Also it is very fun to play with. Hope i can try the real bow and arrows soon again.