Crisis Core, ft Genesis: ... My soul, corrupted by vengeance ... ...

Monday, July 6, 2009

What is beauty?

What is beauty? Beauty is defined as the quality in an object that gives intense pleasure to the mind. There are mainly two types of beauty. Inner beauty and outer beauty. Nowadays, people try their best to look good and naturally place more emphasis on outer beauty. They forgotten that inner beauty is also as important or maybe even more important than outer beauty.

Which is more important? In my opinion, I feel that inner beauty is of course more important than outer beauty though both are important.

Outer beauty is the appearance of the person like whether he or she has combed his hair or put on make-up. It is a beauty that everyone normally noticed, but it is only on the surface.Outer beauty can be easily obtain from all the cosmetics and facial treatment. Furthermore, outer beauty can be deceiving as people might think that you are trustworthy from your appearance but in fact you are not. Outer beauty is important as it gives people a good impression. First impression is very important as it reflects much on your personality. However, some people used their outer beauty to hide their real motive. For example, rich businessmen married young and pretty wives and in turned get cheated by the wives off all their money.

Inner beauty is what people cannot see directly from your appearance. It is the true beauty that everyone should strive to possess. A person with a kind heart and good moral values is what I called beautiful. A person who possess this quality never fails to help other people. These people are selfless. They will not do things that are against their integrity.

In conclusion, outer beauty is selfish while inner beauty is selfless. However one who possess these two qualities is perfect.

A person with true beauty are hard to find. It is not about power or wealth. It is about having a heart of gold that never fails to reach the hearts of people in need, helping them as much as they can.

Here is a video to teach people how to make-up or something.(Not very sure)
Those who are interested in outer beauty can view it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zupy7R4uR2g&feature=channel

2:09 PM
nothing shall foretell my return
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What is happiness?

What is happiness? It is something that everyone wants to get their hands on. However, true happiness is hard to get. Some try hard and their whole life to get it but they never succeeded. Different people have different conceptions of what is true happiness. Some may say that power and wealth can bring them true happiness but others might claim that it is their family members and friends that brings true happiness. I feel that true happiness is to be contended with what we have.

Nowadays, people are more materialistic. They have the wrong perception about happiness. They thought that having a lot of money can bring them happiness by giving themselves more luxury and comfort to their life. However, money has its limitation. Money cannot buy everything. For example: friendships, family, etc. Although money can bring happiness, it is not really long-termed. There is always a day where money runs out. There are some people who want money so much that they sacrifice a lot to get it. They severed ties with family members, break bonds with friends as they betrayed them to get rich and did many unscrupulous things to reach their goal. That is not happiness at all. Without friends and family which brings you warmth, a sense of belonging and stand by your side no matter what. These are what money cannot buy.

Another thing that money cannot buy are smiles. Doing charity to help the poor and the disadvantaged is another form of happiness. It brings smiles to them and give them hope for another day. Here is a video for all of you to feel what money cannot buy.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte
What is happiness to them might not be happiness to us. What some of us want are money, money and more money. While what the people in the video want is another day without worrying about being hungry, another day where they can enjoy a 'good feast' with half eaten drumstick. Watch it and you will see what I mean.

It is true that we still need money to get happiness but money that is just enough for you to carry on living is enough to keep you happy. You just need to be contended with what you have and not ask for more. Only friends and family can give you true happiness. They are the ones who loves you , take care of you without asking for anything in return. They are the ones that help you and most of all they are the ones that accompany you through good times and bad times, standing by you through thick and thin without any complains. To have someone to love you is what true happiness is all about. They are the ones that no amount of money are replace them. They are PRICELESS. Unlike the happiness that derives from money, this happiness last you a lifetime. Though one by one these people may slip away from you, the happy memories you spend with them will always be in your heart, in your mind and stay with you till the day you die. This is what I call true happiness.

Some of you might not agree with me but one thing is certain, happiness is something you must pursue, you must fight for. True happiness will not easy. We need to work hard for the happiness we yearn for. Do not let setbacks ruin your happiness. Although not everyone can be successful in finding their happiness, you should be contented with the things around you. Appreciate them and you too can feel happiness.

11:54 AM
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Sunday, July 5, 2009

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

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

If I could eliminate one emotion in the world, I would eliminate sadness from this world as without sadness, everyone will be happy with what they have. There will be peace and no wars, there will not be fightings over small matter. People will not cry over spilled milk and get on with life.

There was once where I did very badly for Mathematics in primary school and I almost wanted to give up on everything, thinking to myself "Why bother working so hard where you are not rewarded for your hardwork?" However, my friends came and consoled me telling me to work harder for the next test and everything will be fine. I was convinced and so I tried really hard to improve my Mathematics and fortunately, I get a satisfactory grade and was quite happy with myself.

If there was no sadness in the world, I would most probably forget all about the Mathematics test and get on with life, and to try to do better in the next test. However, others can argue that if we do not have sadness in the world and I did not felt sad for my mathematics test at that time, I might not make the effort of doing well in my next mathematics test and achieve the result I wanted. Although, there is two sides to the story, I still prefer to not have sadness in the world as I want to life my life fill with happiness and not sadness. With happiness, I will feel great, feel the drive to do well in everything in life.

Furthermore, without sadness, there will be no war as every country is happy for what resources they have. They will not be brutal killing, there will not be people who are homeless due to wars and everyone will live peacefully. There will not be people committing crimes and of course the world will be a better place to live in without sadness.

However, in competitions, if everyone is happy with whatever results they have, there will not be any competitions at all. No one will try to get the first position and no one will be determined to work hard and achieve the best result they can. Therefore, people will get lazier and lazier and this is the side effect of not having sadness in the world.

In conclusion, too much of everything is no good we must take things in moderation. To choose between a world full of sadness to a world full of happiness, I will choose a world filled with happiness.

12:06 AM
nothing shall foretell my return
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Saturday, July 4, 2009

Gambling Addiciton

The casino being built in Singapore is supposed to be a money-maker and job creator. However, many people have spoken against it. Talk to a parent or adult and get their view on the casino. Listen to the NPR and YouTube offerings and choose one that substantiates your viewpoint and include a quote from it as well. Your blog entry has to be at least 200 words and you must either support the casino or condemn its construction and ultimately the hardships it will cause in Singapore.

What is Addiction?
Addiction is any behaviour that becomes so excessive that influence our life with a negative effect and is very hard to control.
Who gambles?
1980 just a handful of women sought treatment for gambling addiction.
Now almost half of gambling addicts are female.

This addiction caused the addicts to lose everything. Their house, car , marriage, assets and most importantly their life. The addiction not only will hurt the addicts but also their family members.

Now that the government have given the green light to build the casino in Singapore to be a money-maker and job creator. It is good for the economic of Singapore, job-seekers and of course gamblers. However, I do not support its construction as it will cause a lot of harm to the people in Singapore. With the casinos, the number of compulsive gamblers will surely increase and will lead to many problems. They will not care about their family members, leaving them in the lurch and only cared about making more and more money from gambling. Even if they had earn a lot of money, their greed will tempt them to gamble more and to earn more money. Furthermore, the gamblers if they ran out of money, they will do anything to obtain more money to gamble. They will beat their relatives up to get money from them. If they were not successful, they will either rob, steal from other or even kill people to get more money. This will increase the number of crime rate drastically in Singapore.

My Dad point of view about the casino being build in Singapore is that "it is not only a casino but it is also an entertainment centre, for exhibions to attract foreign tourists. Untimately, even with all these advantages, gambling is still a bad habit. If we lose control of it it will lead to many problems." He does not support it construction too as he has his own experience as his father was a compulsive gambler when he was young and he suffered a lot in those days.

Here is an example of a real life experience from a compulsive gambler that is fighting against that addiction even today.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93191168

In this video, Jonny W said he started gambling at the age of 12 years old .When he first start out it was just the matter of having fun and hanging out with his friends. He crossed the line when he was in college,trying to go to school and was always short of funds. He thought he could increased his funds by going out to gamble. At first, he kept winning but he always wanted more and more and could not stop himself. He soon found himself going there every night and on the weekends and every opportunity that he could find. His luck changed and he kept losing. The more he lost,the more he wanted to return and reclaim his losses. In total,he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. He became alienated by his friends as he was never there for them and with them at social events as he was always going to the casinos. He later got a divorce with his wife and she took away the two of his children. Jonny W said he was basically out on the streets trying to survive. That was when he found out he needed help and contacted the number for help and that was what that changed his life ever since. However, he still look at himself as a compulsive gambler till he dies.

Once a compulsive gambler, always a compulsive gambler.

Perhaps, the reason of building a casino in Singapore is to not lose out in the global tourism industry and want to create a tourist attraction. However, is it worth it to sacrifice and destroying the life of people in Singapore?

Here are some videos that you might be interested in:

NPR National Public Radio.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5182193 Drugs Shows Promise in Treating Gambling Addiction.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93191168 Battling back from Gambling Addiction

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92278316 Gambling Habits Reflect Personalities

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4801449 Online Gambling Attracts Millions

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90213926 Casino’s Bankruptcy Signals Gambling’s Boom Bust

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93191163 Defining Addiction And its Many Forms

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHDYk15V6hE Gambling Addiction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aQgpcxVtu0 Gaming Addiction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvVbzbT4gJw Internet Gambling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chbjc-XDKLw Anti-Gambling Singapore

10:41 PM
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Poet (Robert Frost)

Robert Frost was one of America's leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. I find him very intriguing as he lived somewhere 1874-1963, but millions of readers around the world have still found comfort and profound meaning in his poetry and he has influenced numerous other authors, poets, musicians, and playwrights into the 21st Century. Here are some background information about him. Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874. He moved to New England at the age of eleven and became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was not a poet from the start. After leaving school, he drifted through a string of occupations, working as a teacher, cobbler, and editor of the Lawrence Sentinel. His first professional poem, "My Butterfly," was published on November 8, 1894, in the New York newspaper The Independent. A year later he married Elinor White, with whom he had shared valedictorian honors at Lawrence, MassachusettsHigh School. His wife became a major inspiration in his poetry until her death in 1938. Over the next ten years he wrote poems but rarely published them, operated a farm in Derry, New Hampshire and supplemented his income by teaching at Derry's Pinkerton Academy. The couple moved to England in 1912, after their New Hampshire farm failed, and it was abroad that Frost met and was influenced by such contemporary British poets as Edward Thomas. Rupert Brooke and Robert Graves. Now, this is the start of his poetry career.

President John F. Kennedy said , "Frost has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding." Frost style of writing is very simplistic.His poetry was also very natural in its wording, using words that most people can understand and that make his poetry seem practical and ordinary.

Robert Frost lived and taught for many years in Massachusetts and Vermont, and died in Boston on January 29, 1963. his live was was plagued with grief and loss. His father died of tuberculosis in 1885, when Frost was 11, leaving the family with just $8. Frost's mother died of cancer in 1900. Elinor and Robert Frost had six children, but unfortunately, only Lesley and Irma outlived their father. Son Elliot (1896–1904, died of cholera), daughter Lesley Frost Ballantine (1899–1983), son Carol (1902–1940, committed suicide), daughter Irma (1903–1967), daughter Marjorie (1905–1934, died as a result of puerperal fever after childbirth), and daughter Elinor Bettina (died three days after birth in 1907). Frost's wife, who had heart problems throughout her life, developed breast cancer in 1937, and died of heart failure in 1938.

Having lived for close to 90 years, he had written about 180 poems or more. That is a great achievement for somone who started writing poems only after spending half of his lifespan.

Here are the three poems:

1.The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I-I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

2.Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

3.Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

I really hope you can appreciate these 3 poems.

More Robert Frost Poems>http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_frost/poems

Citation

Info on Robert Frost
http://everything2.com/node/1149111
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/robertfrost
http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192

Robert Frost Poems
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_frost/poems

2:48 PM
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Monday, June 29, 2009

Poems

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!

This poem is taken from http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/shel_silverstein/poems/14818

In this poem, hyperbole is used. 'Whosever room this is should be ashamed!','Oh, dear,I knew it looked familiar!'. These two statements potraits the person' feelings and emotions with a bit of exaggeration and to heighten the effect when readers read the poem.

I like this poem because 'his' is used throughout this poem without mentioning who he is until the last part with a little twist. It also quite humorous with vivid description of the room and I can almost picture the room in my head. The mess in the room is mostly in the most unusual place like the underwear hanging on a lamp, old sock stuck to the wall, etc. This aids in the humor in the poem and makes the poem stuck in the reader's heads. In addition, this poem also conveys the message that in our society, many people blame others for their wrongdoings but never seem to admit or accept their own mistakes. Although they themselves know that it was their own fault, they will still try to push the blame to others and let the others be their scapegoats.It also tells us that we must be, more organised and plan ahead before taking any action. If not our action will be in a total mess like the room in the poem.

For more poems
Click here>http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/

1:40 PM
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Sunday, June 7, 2009

Holidays

Now as you all know, it is the June holiday now. After the gruelling school term, we are finally able to take a rest, relax and enjoy ourselves.

However, I feel that there should be a change in the holidays. In my opinion, we should have holidays planned out as follow. Every week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday there will be school. Wednesday and the weekend there will be rest and no school. There will be no school holidays for March and September, but there will be a two week school holiday during June and a month of holiday during December. If the holidays are planned out like this, we will have a rest on Wednesday and need not go through school in one shot for five days. With this, I think that we can excel more in school as we have adequate rest on Wednesdays. Moreover, with no more March and September holidays and the holidays of June and December shorten, it will not allow us to forget the things that we learnt in school during the holidays. For example, after one whole month of June holidays of playing, we might forget what we have learnt in school before the June holidays and it will be hard and a waste of time for us to refresh our mind and pick up the skills again.

This plan will enable the students to have sufficient rest so that they can concentrate on their lesson in class. It also allow the students to have one extra day to catch up with the homework and lesson that they have fallen behind in. They can also use the extra day to revise for their coming examinations so that they will not need to study extra hard, having already revised their work. This extra time will allow the students to focus more on their weaker subjects. They can enrich themselves by reading books or engaging in research, things that are seldom or unable to do in school.

With this new plan, a lot of the school system will need to be revised like the school term, the examinations etc and it will be a big trouble to do so but it will be worth while with the results that follow after adapting to this new plan. Although many things are needed to be considered, I do hope that we will adapt to this plan and hopefully it will work better than the current one.

Thank you. I have come to an end and I would like to hear what you readers have to say. Do you think this plan is even possible? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Please comment:)

5:53 PM
nothing shall foretell my return
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