What's the meaning of life???

BGR

2010-08-13T23:45:00.000+08:00

BGR is short for Boy-Girl-Relationship. We at such a young age, should we have BGR? What is its consequences and effects?

BGR at such a young age is quite impractical. This is because we are all schooling and if we are from different schools, it would be hard for us to communicate and meet up and see each other often enough. However, with the improved in technology everyday, it is become more and more convenient to maintain a relationship, even for a long distance one.

We can send text messages to each other to communicate with each other every minute and every second. We can also call each other and can talk on the phone for hours and hours. We can also use the Internet and webcam to chat online which is free with the use of application like Skype and MSN. Thus, we can practically keep and get in touch anywhere and everywhere.

However, what are the effects and consequences in having BGR at such a young age. Firstly, you would spend most of your time communicating or seeing your partner and will most definitely lose your focus on your studies. Your studies will greatly be affected as you can stay up late jus tot chat with your partner and in the end, you will have no energy during lesson time and sleep in class. Moreover, w your time will also be spent on meeting up with the other person and you will not have any time for homework. There are some cases whereby BGR led to some serious business that is too big for a mere 14 years old to handle. It might lead to underage sex and if found out be sent to boy’s and girl’s home. It will lead to underage pregnancy and how are you going to be responsible for the baby when you are still studying and does not have a stable income?

Furthermore, BGR at such a young age are often short and does not last. It could only just be a crush on someone and not necessary be love. Thus, it is not worth spending and investing too much time on BGR. I rather you focus on your studies and when you have a stable income in the future, you can have all the relationship you want.

When you have BGR at such a young age, even if it did manage to last, what happens when you go to the army? You will be spending two years in the army and your girlfriends will not be able to see you daily and will miss you a lot. However, slowly you will see that the above I mentioned are all crap and your girlfriends might be having fun while you are suffering in camp. She might found a new boyfriend that you do not know off and that is how many guys lose their girlfriends when they are in the army.

Thus, I suggest that you wait until you are 20 plus years old and after you have been to the army before you have any real relationship as by then you would have matured enough to know what is right from wrong and you will know which girls is good to you and those that are not and then you make your choice from there. By doing so, it will prevent many instances of unwanted pregnancy because you are so-called “ matured” enough. Keep this in mind : There are tons of girls out there waiting for YOU so no worries.

Singapore Judicial System Part 2

2010-08-10T23:44:00.000+08:00

In my previous post, I have discuss about the judicial system of Singapore and what are its advantages and disadvantages. Now I would like to discuss one particular case that my teacher pointed out when we are discussing the Merchant of Venice.

What if a guy who is mentally retarded rapes your sister? Should the judge be merciful? Or should he be sentenced like any male person? Should the judge be taught how to show mercy? Or should he just stick to the book?

Other men are able to think for themselves. They are mature in enough to have self-control over themselves and thus before they commit the act, they would be able to think deeply enough about the consequences and implications. If they still decided to commit the act, and are about 18 which is the age whereby you are considered “matured” enough to think for yourself, you will most probably face jail sentence and caning but if you are below the age of 18, you will most probably go to boy’s home and receive detention.

I feel that the guy should not be sentence like that same way as any other men. This is because I assume he is not mentally sound to think for himself. He would most probably be unable to exercise self-control and cannot think about the consequences and implication. He might think that it is the right thing to do or did it out of curiosity. It was not totally his fault because he is restricted by his handicap and we should at least empathize and sympathize with him.

However, if he raped my sister, I would have mixed feelings about it. It is neither here nor there. As much as I want to empathise and sympathise with him, I would definitely find myself siding my sister instead. Therefore, I am not in the right position to comment on it. But ultimately I will side my sister for sure.

Even though he is mentally unsound, he does not have the right to go about doing anything he like and anything he wants and when caught, give the excuse that he is mentally unsound and be let off lightly.

Furthermore, a judge is taught about the law but not taught how to show mercy. But even with that said, not all judges are heartless. I am sure that some would try to reach deeply into their heart, which has already tuned cold and hard because of the many experiences that they have gone through while being a judge, and try to empathise and sympathise with the mentally unsound person. Many judge do not usually sentence the person being charged to the maximum sentence but always evoke sympathy and be lenient towards them.

So, I would like to sign off with a few questions. If it is really your sister being raped by a mentally retarded person, what will you do? What will you do if you are the judge? Should we have a law to protect these handicapped people?

Singapore Judicial system ( The Barbarian way)

2010-08-05T23:43:00.000+08:00

Singapore Judicial system is one that is disapproved of by lots of other countries. The main reason is because Singapore has caning and death sentences.

Singapore judicial system operates in the form of deterrence. By having severe punishment and sentences, it deters people from committing crime. This idea is similar to fining the Singapore citizens for littering. If a person wanted to commit theft, rape or even murder, they have to think twice about it and they might consider not to execute the act because of the punishment. If the punishment was just a fine or sentence to jail for a short period of time, the person might not even think twice about it and thus, the crime rates in Singapore will increase significantly as evident from the high crime rate in other countries.

Other countries disapproved of both the caning and death sentence is because they operate in the form of human rights. They feel that by sentencing them to death, it is a violation of human rights. Singapore will thus, appear in a bad light globally as people will see Singapore as a barbarian society.

My teacher told me once that she had gone to Canada once to study or take up a particular coarse whereby the instructor there shouted really loud, “YOU ARE A BARBARIAN BECAUSE YOU COUNTRY HAVE THE DEATH SENTENCE!” This is one of the evidence that shows that other people from other countries have bad impression of Singaporeans.

Furthermore, some other countries have a jury during the trial and the definition of a jury is a group of people who have been chosen to listen to all the facts in a trial in a law court and to decide whether a person is guilty or not guilty, according to the Cambridge Online Dictionary. They will carry out a voting process and majority wins, deciding whether a person is guilty or not depending on the situation. However, Singapore only has a judge who will determine whether the person is guilty or not and also decide on the sentence. Some have argued that the Singapore way of only having a judge might not be fair as it is only based on a person’s point of view. By having a jury, it will be fairer as it will consist of more than one person and will encompass different perspective of each individual in the jury.

I feel that Singapore having a judge to determine the sentence is alright as I am pretty sure the judge would be more knowledgeable in the law and would give a better and fairer sentence. The jury system is not really a bad idea as it takes account of the point of view of normal citizens. However, the citizens might not be qualified or knowledgeable in the field of law and might not give a fair outcome.

Lastly, Singapore’s judicial system is that a person is guilty unless proven not, while the American’s judicial system is that a person is not guilty unless proven to be. These two are very different as the person will forever be under custody in Singapore unless there is substantial evidence to prove that he is not while a person will not be in custody and will only be in custody if they are guilty.

In conclusion, I do not really disapprove or disagree in Singapore’s judicial system but I can only say that there is still room for improvement.

Temptation is everywhere!

2010-07-29T23:41:00.000+08:00

My class is quite a strange class. With all the lacking in class chemistry and the craze in computer games, I’m proud to say that we are still doing quite well in terms of class MSG. However, are results all that important when we are lacking in moral values?

Our class has quite a few theft cases since last year. We thought that after the installation of not one but two cameras in our class, we could stop the thief from going about his activities. We were so wrong.

Theft cases are still going about in the class. From losing pens and pencils to losing wallets. At the moment, no laptops are stolen yet maybe because of it is quite bulky and there isn’t a lot of place to hide it when it is stolen. But I feel that it will happen sooner or later as most of my classmates leave their laptops on the table instead on putting them in their lockers as they find it very troublesome to do so.

Hwa Chong Institution is a very big campus and almost anyone can enter and leave without anyone even noticing. Our classrooms are not very secure even with the doors locked as if the thieves are determined to steal the laptops they can just break the glass windows of the classroom and climb in, sweeping all the laptops at one go. If they managed to do that, they would be rich overnight with thousand of dollars of laptops in their possession. If the thieves come from the general public and they so happens to wear a mask, our cameras will not be able to capture their faces and it would be very hard to track them down.

However, today I will not be talking about thieves from the general public but thieves from our class.

They have to be very stealthy and sneaky to be able to steal anything with so many people around the class, thus a laptop is out of question. However, wallets that are left lying around the classroom are quite easy targets for thieves. In the blink of an eye, it will be gone. Even with the cameras, it would be hard to capture as there might be a case whereby many people are standing up, blocking the view of the cameras.

Why then must they steal?

There are many answers to his question.

Firstly, these thieves find that their parents did not give them enough money for allowance and cannot buy sufficient food to fill their empty stomach after a long day in school. Thus, they have to resort to stealing to get more money to fill their stomach. The solution to this is that they should tell their parents that the allowance that they are given is not enough to fill their stomach. I am very sure that their parents would be understanding and increase their allowance. If their parents simply have not enough money to spare their children, I guess that the student would just have to eat less.

Secondly, these thieves receive enough allowance from their parents to fill their stomach. However, they want more money to buy other stuffs that they want but their parents refused to buy it for them, labeling it as a waste of money. Thus, they resort to stealing to get more money aside form the allowance they get. The stuff that they want to buy includes a new phone, a new electronic device, etc. Their act of stealing just so they could buy the things that they want is a very selfish way of thinking. If you steal wallets from others, those people would not have money to buy food for themselves. They would also be scolded very badly by their parents for losing so much money and they might be grounded or have their allowance reduced. Why must you cause so much trouble for others just for the benefits of yourself?

Thirdly, I feel that these thieves steal from others just so that they can teach the victim a lesson to be more responsible for their own things. They are pissed that the victim is so careless, always misplacing his things and therefore, he steals to teach him a lesson to learn from this incident and not be so careless ever again. Another reason is that these thieves steal to help his friend “safe-keep” so as to prevent other thieves from stealing it. At the end of the day, he will return the stolen item to the victim and advised him not to be so careless in future.

Lastly, I feel that these thieves just steal for the fun of it. They feel that it is very thrilling to steal from others and as the time goes by, they get hooked and addicted to stealing and cannot live without stealing. If these problem is not solve early, most probably when he grows up he will be a “full-time” thief and in the end will be caught by the police and put behind bars, ruining his future, if he has any future to begin with.

I feel that all this theft cases would not have happen if students are more responsible for his items and put them in the lockers so as to prevent them from TEMPTING any thief to steal them. Some students may come from a well-off family and feel that they do not need to be responsible for their items as they can always buy a new one if it ever gets stolen. This is a very selfish way of thinking as their parents worked very hard to earn money not to just let him waste it like that. If he has so much money, he can make it more worthwhile by donating it to charity organization to help the less fortunate.

The less temptation the thieves get, the fewer items to get stolen and the less the name of the class would get affected.

STOMP

2010-07-24T23:39:00.001+08:00

Recently, the secondary four in Hwa Chong institution went to the auditorium to listen to a talk. Our discipline master, Mr Sung went about his usually routine around the school when he found out that the doors of all the secondary four’s classroom were left unlocked. He felt that he should teach them a lesson and went into one of the classroom and sweep everything valuables from the classroom. From laptops to wallets to ipod. For each items he took, the took a picture of it. The students were asked to collect their valuable after school and a message was posted up on SMB to notify them. In the end, a student felt that the teachers violated his privacy and was enraged by this and decided to post it up on STOMP to get the opinions of the general public.

I feel that this student make a mountain out of a molehill. This problem was actually very small and minute and can easily be solved, yet he choose to post it up on STOMP and thus gratifying the matter.

When the students got back from the auditorium and found out that all their valuables were lost, they thought that a real thief actually came into the class and steal all the valuables. They were shocked and heart-broken. Although Mr Sung posted a message on the SMB, those people whose laptops are confiscated would not be able to check the message. Furthermore, they are secondary four students and need to use quite a lot of their laptops during their lessons. If their laptops are being taken away, how will they be able to carry on with their lessons? Moreover, their minds would harbour thoughts of their parents reprimanding them and grounding them, causing them to be unable to concentrate entirely in class. When they finally found out that their laptops are only being confiscated instead of being stolen, they will definitely feel a bit cheated and thus, posted the message out of anger.

I think that the root cause of this incident was the lack of communication between the teachers and students. This is because Mr Sung didn’t inform the student before he confiscate their valuables, causing the students to think that it is really stolen by thieves. If Mr Sunk had written on the whiteboard that he had confiscated their valuables and asked the student to collect it from him after school, the students might not feel angry at all and can only blame themselves for being so careless and accept the punishment.

However, it is not entirely the teacher’s fault as the students also play a part in the blame as well. Had they secured their valuables in the lockers instead of putting them carelessly on top of their tables, this incident might not even happen. Therefore, since it is their fault, they have no reason to go blaming the teachers should they confiscate their things so as to help them “safe-keep” to prevent it from really getting stolen.

The school provides lockers for a reason and thus the students should fully utilize them so as to prevent this incident form happening again.

I strongly disagree with the student for posting the incident up onto STOMP as it not only does not benefit the school but also caused harm. It will cause the general public to think that Hwa Chong’s educational system is flawed as it fails to handle this case effectively and it will affect our school’s image significantly. It also does not go with our school value of “win –win”.

The school should also have a forum whereby students can voice out their comments or opinion about the school instead of voicing them to the general public. In this way, the problems can be solved internally without the general public finding out. The school is more than willing to listen to the students’ opinion as this is evident from the incident whereby the time of the assembly is pushed back 5 minutes because a student voice out his opinion about it as by pushing back by 5minutes, it would prevent students from ever being late for assembly. And if students are still late even though the assembly is pushed back by 5 minutes, then he would have no excuse to defend himself and has to accept the punishment without any complain.

In conclusion, this incident was just a small matter. But it was just blown up due to the post on STOMP, attracting many general public’s attention and comments.

Is our educational system flawed?

2010-07-20T23:38:00.000+08:00

Singapore has one of the leading educational system in Southeast-Asia. It exposes us to two main language, English language and out Mother tongue. It also have Mathematics, Science which consist of Biology, Physics and Chemistry. Integrated Humanities which include History, Geography, Literature and Social studies. Some schools also have computer studies, philosophy, Arts, Music, etc

Learning is easier when you are young, therefore, from young, schools try to provide a wide-range and variety of subjects so as to further increase our knowledge capacity as much as possible. However, is it really necessary to have so much subjects? Must we really crammed our brain with so much information everyday? Why isn’t there any freedom for the student to choose the subjects that they like?

Some say that we must at least know the basic of the subject. What is the use of primary school when during the secondary school, we are still learning the basic?

I feel that the objective and purpose of primary school is to learn the basic of all the subjects. So, when we reached secondary school, we will be able to choose the subjects that suit us and further develop on it, instead of continuing learning subjects that you have practically no interest in. If the student has lost the interest in a particular subject after learning it for six year in primary school, no matter how much you force he, he will still not do well in that subject. If we let him focus on the subjects he like and is interested in, he would be able to handle the subject easily and will be able to learn more things about it.

Firstly, when he has interest in the subject, he would most probably have a strong basic in it and it will be easier for him to compress and store the information that he is learning. Thus, he would not have so much stress on him as he would not be worrying for other subjects that he knows that he is going to fail in and will not be wasting time practicing it again and again but to no avail.

Secondly, if we force a student too much to master the subject that he has no interest in and is weak in, he would reach his limit and reject the subject completely. He would be sleeping during the lesson of the subject and will be completely ignoring it. He would be wasting his precious time on it. He would not hand in his homework since he did not listen in class and he would also fail in him examinations. This becomes a vicious cycle causing him to not be able to accomplish anything in the end because he does not further his knowledge in both the subject he likes and the subject he does not like. If he is able to not take the subject that he has no interest in and focus whole-heartedly in the subject that he is interested in he would then be able to further his knowledge in that field and maybe be a professional in that field when he grows up.

A person is grown to be good in some things and bad in others. In conclusion, I feel that he should go about improving the things he is good at instead of improving the things he is weak in.

Every cloud has a silver lining?

2010-07-16T23:20:00.000+08:00

As the saying goes, “every cloud has a silver lining”. However, in this case, is the silver lining enough to overshadow the cloud?

I remember that this incident was published on several local newspapers a few years back, grabbing many attention throughout the nation. However, I was too young then to fully comprehend the gist of the issue. Now thinking back, I decided to do a blog post on it.

It was a about a family, a poor family. The parents had no job and there was not enough money to support the entire family. They have several children and they were too much a burden for them to cope. The father went out into the streets to ask for help from people but to no avail. Everybody refuses to help him and thus he has no choice but to go to the extreme. He committed suicide. He jumped down from the Mass Rapid Transit(MRT) platform and the train went over him. This sparked mass media coverage and many people came to know about this tragedy with a tragic story behind it. This evoked sympathy from the general public and many people feel pity for the family and donated money to them. (this is only a rough idea of the incident according to what I can remember and some facts might be inaccurate)

Did the man really have to die so as to gain sympathy from the general public? Could this tragedy be avoided?

Firstly, those people whom the man approached shouldn’t have ignored him and they will definitely feel guilty when they heard of the death of the innocent man. However, I can understand those people since the reality of the world is cruel and no one or few would give money willingly to others just because they ask for it. This is also partly because people lost faith in donating money resulting form the NKF incident.

Secondly, the man should not take his own life as that would not really solve anything. Although it cause quite a number of people to donate money to his family, but donation is only temporary. What happens when all the money run out? Him committing suicide also cause much harm and pain to his family especially his wife. The wife will be overcome with grief and she would bear the burden of supporting the family alone. He should have approached any charity organization to seek help.

The charity organization can try their best to help him. For example, they can help him find a suitable job so as to have a stable income to support his family. With this he could be prevented from committing suicide.

Although I have said earlier that no one or few would be willing to give money to people just because they ask for it, but employers can be more sympathetic about this man’s plight and can employ him, providing him with a stable income. In this way, the employers will not be giving out money but will be giving him money for his contribution to the company instead.

Lastly, if the parents have trouble supporting the family, they should have made some family planning first before they gave birth more kids than they could handle. In this way, there would be less burden for the family and they would be able to cope better.

Now the mother is left to fend for herself and become the sole bread-winner of the family.

Lets just hope that the family is doing well now……

This is a website of the SOS organization which offer helps for those people who are feeling troubled and are planning to commit suicide: http://www.samaritans.org.sg/index1.html

Lend a Helping hand.

2010-07-11T15:19:00.000+08:00

Do you see beggars on the streets? Ok you seldom see them in Singapore that’s for sure, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Maybe they are not really beggars. They are just some old uncles and aunties selling tissue paper at four packets for a dollar. Or they just go around hawker centers or digging into bins collecting empty can drinks. Or they just stand at one side of the road, giving out flyers.

These senior citizens most likely do not have any children to feed them or they have unfilial children. Their parents have spend lots of time and effort just to bring them up but yet these children do not spare a thought for the effort that their parents put in to rise them and just abandon them just like that. These people are what I call jerks. The parents being old would not be able to find work easily since even graduates cannot even find a job nowadays. They can only work as toilet cleaners if the job is available which is also hard work especially for a 50-70 year old auntie.

Thus, seeing their plight, we should lend them a helping hand. How? By buying their tissue and by taking a flyer. They are in such a desperate situation with no jobs available that they have no choice but to sell tissue and flyers as people who whom they approached will evoke sympathy for them and buy tissues from them or just take their flyers. However, they cannot really earn much from selling tissues and giving out flyers and they can barely support themselves.

However, some people just ignored the old uncles and aunties completely and walked past them like they are not there, even when they approached them. These people did not help the old uncles and aunties maybe because they find them a hassle or they do not want to spend money buying tissues because they don’t need them. I feel that no matter how much a hassle it is or no matter how much you don’t need the tissue, you at least can fork out a few dollars to the elderly as a form of donation instead or just by taking the flyer which is FREE. Isn’t that what all Singaporeans look forward to? They are already very old and do not have the support of their children and thus we must try our best to help them. They need to feed themselves and thus if they cannot feed themselves, there can only be two things they can do. First, they starve to death. Second, they fight for survival. How? They steal and rob others off their money, although I have never come across any elderly robbing or stealing from anyone. This is just a theory or it only applies to those who are younger and are desperate for money. Therefore, if we offer to help them as much as possible, it can reduce the number of theft cases significantly.

I always see a poor uncle on my journey home from training at around 7pm-8pm at Choa Chu Kang Interchange. He is always standing at the entrance giving out flyers. He wore a very sad face hoping to appeal to the public and I often pity him but all I can do to help him is to take the flyer as there is only so much I can do.

Then again, the real world is cruel. If you are not competent enough you will not survive. However, those that are competent should really share some of their money to the less fortunate as they are also fellow human beings. Even with that said, how many people are willing to give for no return? Very few of them will do that as humans are selfish by nature and there is little you can do to change that unless through education which sometimes might also not work.

Maybe we can solve this problem by allowing those selfish people to live a life being poor and full of hardship for a short period of time. Only then will he be able to understand what it feel and will sympathize for the less fortunate more.

As the Chinese saying goes “生在福中不知福” Before you buy something next time, make sure that you really need it and not want it. If you really do not need it then maybe you can donate the money to those of less fortunate.

So next time you see elderly selling tissues or giving out flyers, keep this in mind that you are a lot more fortunate than them and should thus lend a helping hand.

It’s the End? (ITE)

2010-07-07T17:17:00.000+08:00

When people talk about ITE, short for Institute of Technical Education, they usually associate the students with smoking, gangster, tattoo, rowdy, unruly, uncouth, bad attitude, difficult to get along with, bad grades, no future, etc

I once heard a conversation between two people. “ Huh? You want to go ITE? You go there, it’s the end for you.”

I feel that these people have misconception about ITE students. These people might not even met an ITE student before and they just label them as bad students. Why is this so? Maybe because they are just following the crowd. They are not critical enough and do not have an opinion of their own. They just label them as 烂货 “lousy goods” in English which is quite a cruel thing to say. Maybe these people are the ones that are lousy since they cant think for themselves.

I feel that these students who goes to ITE might not necessarily be bad after all, or in other words there is still hope for them. It takes a lot of courage for them to have the will to carry on studying even when the whole world seems to turn their backs against them. For that we should at least credit them by not stereotyping them. There might be smart and bright people in ITE who are just lazy to study or work hard.

Those students who chose not to study and dropped out of school should deserve the nicknames instead not them. They have worked very hard, hoping that there is still a chance for them to succeed. I admire their hard work and never-say-die attitude and hope that they can do well in life.

Here is a case of an ITE student still being able to succeed in life:

My mother told me that their company has recently hired a graduate from university that was originally from ITE. This guy went into ITE and realized that his life was not what he expected to be. He was actually quite a smart boy, but it so happens that he walked the wrong path of road and thus entered ITE. However, when he entered ITE, he told himself that he did not want to enjoy his carefree life anymore. He did not want to play anymore. It seemed that he has finally come to his sense and has matured to finally see things from a different light. Therefore, he worked very hard and entered Junior college after ITE. He was still not satisfied and did not give up. From there he entered university and became what he is today.

This goes to show that we should not have stereotypes of people and we should experience it ourselves and from there generate your own point of view instead of following others. Before we criticize others, we should try to improve ourselves first.

So what if you are from Hwa Chong Institution? So what if you are the top 3% cohort of Singapore? Does this means that you will definitely succeed in life? The answer is NO. Without working hard it is almost impossible for you to be successful in life.

Sadly to say, the real world is cruel. If you are not competent enough you will easily be “dispose of”. The competitive nature of our society might cause some teenagers to be reluctant to study because even though they tried very hard, they still could not get good grades and be one of the best. Furthermore, some teenagers don’t even know the competitiveness of our society since they have parents who are quite well-off and they live in a carefree and relax life without having any stress or the pushing factor to strive harder in their study since they harbour naïve thoughts that their parents’ wealth will be theirs sooner or later and that they do not really have to work hard at all. However, when they grow up, they will soon realize what the real world is and will feel that the wealth left behind by their parents will run out soon enough and from there will they begin to regret not studying hard in the first place.

These ITE student have to understand the competitiveness of the real world and I still believe that they can do it provided they continue to work hard. They can be successful in the feel of technology as the name of the institution suggest. It is definitely not THE END for them.

Do not say I didn’t warn you guys to stop having these stereotypes of people as you might unknowingly hurt their feelings if they heard you. If you continue to be stubborn and keep ranting that ITE students are bad, maybe these “uncouth, unruly and rowdy students” might just come and get you and beat you to a pulp.

So please watch your mouth AND YOUR BACK !

Holiday Job

2010-07-03T23:15:00.000+08:00

Holiday just came and past with the blink of an eye. It is so fast that I still cant get use to school life yet, thinking that it is still the holidays and I can still slack.

Thinking back, I feel that I have not done any thing meaningful throughout the whole holiday except training, playing and more playing.

This topic suddenly came into my mind when I was thinking about what I should have done over the holidays to make it more exciting and meaningful and I feel that I can share with you guys what are the pros and cons of working during the school holidays in my point of view.

There are two long school breaks a year and it is a time where student relax and enjoy their carefree life of not going back to school. There is no homework and even if there is, there is about a month to do it so student don’t really do their homework. It is only during the last week or the last few days of the holidays do they start “chionging” their homework so as to hand in sloppy work to their ever-demanding teachers.

There aren’t many things that we student can do except for sleeping, playing computer games, watching the television, shopping, going out with friends, reading a book ( for those hard-workings ones) and going back to school for remedial lessons. Each day come and go just like that and by the end of the holiday, you will realize that you haven’t really make the most out of your time and didn’t accomplish much.

Hence, rather than wasting your precious time like that, why not try to work during the holidays?

Firstly, working allows you to earn extra cash, which allows you to buy anything that you want. It trains both your responsibility and independent as you do not have to depend on your parents for money and when you are working and you have to be responsible for what you are doing or else you will faced severe consequences and complaints from your boss and your clients or customers should you be working in the service line.

It also allows you to get the experience of working, how hard it is to earn money. This enables you to understand the hardship that your parent faced when they are working so as to provide the family with enough income. Through this you will slowly learn to be less spendthrift and even help your parents save money by not buying stuff that you don’t need. You can be more mature by not letting your parent worry about you be it your studies or your well-being by showing them that you can take care of yourself so as to lighten the already heavy burden that they had to carry. By working, it also allows you to widen your social circle and make new friends.

However, working also has its disadvantages. Firstly, you might be influence by your fellow colleagues and pick up their bad habits like smoking, gambling speaking coarse languages and maybe even drug trafficking which might pollute your pure and innocent minds and this is one of the major reason why parents are reluctant to allow their child to work during the holidays. Furthermore, some parents care so much about their child that they do not want to let their precious child to suffer any hardship derive from working. They rather their child stay at home and study or revise their school work.( most student don’t really do them during the holidays.)

I feel that these parents are being too over-protective of their child and they should allow their child to see what exactly is the real world instead of keeping them shut up at home. If they are afraid that the working environment might be bad for their child, they can find out more about what exactly will their child be doing before allowing them to work there.

In conclusion, I feel that those who want to make the most out of their time, they can try working during the holidays provided that their grades in school are quite good so that they would not have to study and can still catch up when school reopens.(like I said most student do not study during the holidays so it doesn’t really matter)

What are your opinions then? Should we really work during the school holidays? Are there any other meaningful things that we can do during the school holidays?

LA June HW- Effects of war

2010-06-27T23:42:00.000+08:00

LA June HW- Plot of The Merchant of Venice

2010-06-26T23:39:00.000+08:00

Task 2 Rainbow Death

2010-05-26T14:57:00.000+08:00

Task 2

Complete the template provided below (Annex A), focusing on (1) Point of View; (2) Situation and Setting; (3) Language/Diction; and (4) Personal Response, and post your response to Task 2 on your blog. This template is based on John Lye’s ‘Critical Analysis of Poetry’, and you can make reference to this in Annex B when in doubt.

Rainbow Death

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

Hubert Wilson

Point of view

I think the poem is from the point of view a person who have seen the causes and effect of Agent Orange on the people of Vietnam, most probably from a third person point of view. This can be seen from “America did not foresee” which show that he is saying as a bystander on how careless America was without considering the effect of the deadly Agent Orange that will “Toll on the innocent and unborn.” He is like narrating the first-hand experience that he had seen from the war and thus this support my point that the poets adopts a third person point of view and is not actually one of the victims or it will be in the first person point of view. It can also be confirm with facts that the poet was participating in the war and had survived to narrate the story.

Situation and Setting

The setting and situation of the poem is most probably after the war whereby the Americans are “ Now thinking twice” in releasing the “Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!”. This shows that the America regretted releasing the Agent during the war as “America did not foresee”. It is only after the released of the agent can we know “Execrable effects of agent orange spray” on people like “illness, birth defects and prematurely dead”. Thus, I conclude that the poem can only be set in the aftermath of the war to know the effects the agents had on the Vietnamese people and the feeling of regret by the Americans.

Language/Diction

Diction is carefully and uses very accurately to create and impact on the reader so as to let the reader feel the devastating effect the agents had on the Vietnamese people and the remorseful America.

The title “Rainbow Death” is an oxymoron whereby Rainbow is associated with death. Rainbow being colourful, lively and lead to heaven is seldom associated with death, which is dark, dull and lead to hell. The title also relates back to the Rainbow Herbicides that America used solely to remove the leaves of tree to prevent the enemy cover and concealment but have caused many deaths, which was never meant to be lethal or cause any heath problems. However, the rainbow used here has a contrast in saying that it leads to death that in turn leads to hell. This is showing how America used the Agent Orange without knowing its effect on people.

Similarly, death potpourri is also an oxymoron. Potpourri is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant material, used to provide a gentle natural scent in houses. However, it is associated with death. Death that is commonly known to be negative is seldom associated with potpourri that is something positive since it gives a nice fragrant smell. Since death potpourri shows the dying of plant material, it might also relate to the Herbicides which kills off the leaves of trees. However, what the Americans did not know was that such harmless herbicides that were used to only destroy plants can destroy or kill humans as well.

Personal Response

The poem make me feel that the people of Vietnamese or maybe just the poet bore a grudges against America for causing death to so many people and birth deformities too. It enables me to understand the feelings and sufferings of the victims of the Agent Orange and the war itself. Although America is not to be totally blamed, the poem is portrayed to be anti-war and blame America for the sufferings that it had caused on the Vietnamese people. It also allows me to sympathized with the victims. I feel that the message of the poet is that war can bring devastating effect to both sides and that we should resolve everything peacefully instead of going to war as it will bring no good to both sides. I hope that war will cease to happen in future.

Task 1 Rainbow Death

2010-05-26T12:56:00.000+08:00

Task 1

Based on your understanding of the selected poem, perform extensive web research and write a report on your blog detailing the conflict represented in the poem(s) of your choice. Bear in mind that this piece of background information will allow your blog audience to further understand the poem as well as your analysis of the poem in Task 2.

Rainbow Death

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

Hubert Wilson

Hubert Wilson was a Vietnam War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service. The Vietnam War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975. Along with a dozen intelligence school graduates, Hubert was assigned to Shemya Island, Alaskawhich, which was an Agent Orange hotspot.

About 15 years ago, Hubert’s health problems started with unexplained headaches and limb pains. His central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains. No physician has ever diagnosed the specific illness but he guessed that it was because of the drinking water heavily contaminated with Agent Orange at Shemya during his year there as an intelligence analyst. The effects of Agent Orange only showed up 20 to 30 years after initial exposure.

So what is Agent Orange? I have done some research and Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD—used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam war, the United States military sprayed 12,000,000 US gallons of chemical defoliants in South Vietnam as part of the aerial defoliation program known as Operation Ranch Hand. The purpose of the product was to deny an enemy cover and concealment in dense terrain by removing leaves from trees and shrubbery where the enemy could hide. It was principally effective against broad-leaf foliage, such as the dense jungle-like terrain found in Southeast Asia.

4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects like an extra toe or finger. It also caused other serious health problems like mental disabilities, hernias, skin diseases as well as a vast variety of cancers in the lungs, larynx( the hollow muscular organ forming an air passage to the lungs and holding the vocal cords in humans and other mammals)and prostate (a gland surrounding the neck of the bladder in male mammals and releasing prostatic fluid).

References:

http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html

http://www.johntreed.com/agentorange.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

Can you make the right decision?

2010-04-27T23:53:00.000+08:00

Today I went for a Mathematics ACE seminar/ project today, organized by Mr Colin Ton and Mr Chua Boon Woo. It is about using Mathematics to made the best decision possible by considering all the factors.

You can use it for any sort of situation. Be it to decide whether you should ask a girls out for dinner and ask her to be your girlfriend or whether to take a shoot in a game of soccer, etc.

It is very simple and I will try to explain it to you guys. Using the four operation +, -, x , /, we can easily form our equation.

First and foremost, we must first find our situation. I will use a simple situation.

Should I buy the mobile phone or not.

Legends( Variables) Scale

Cost of phone- C 1-10

How much do I need the phone-N 1-10

How much do I want the phone-W 1-10

Functions and Applications of the phone- FA 1-10

The variable can be divided into two parts. Negative( decrease the chance of me buying the phone) and Positive( increase the chance of me buying the phone).

Negative= Cost of phone, How much do I want the phone.

Positive= Functions and Application of the phone, How much do I need the phone

The operations we used must also correspond to whether the variable is negative of positive.

Negative= + and x

Positive = - and /

Now we can start our equation.

(FA+N)/ (C+W)= 0.1-10

0.1 is the minimum answer we can get from this equation

10 is the maximum answer we can get from this equation

Therefore, if the answer is more than 1, I will buy the phone. If the answer is less than one, I will not buy the phone.

This equation might seem easy enough to do but this is only because they are only a few variables. When there are many variable, the trouble will come.

I hope that you guys find this helpful and can finally made the better decision in any situation once you read this.

If you find this too complicated to understand, the easiest way to make the better decision is to consider all the advantages and disadvantages before making the choice as it will increase the chance of you making the right choice.

I find that this seminar is worthwhile as I get to bring away what I had learnt there and is able to apply it in life when I am making a choice.

I feel that going for courses and seminar solely for ACE purposes is wrong and incorrect as ACE are meant for you to learn something out of the class syllabus. You don’t do ACE just for the sake of doing it. You have to enjoy the course, enjoy the process and learn something from the ACE assignments.

Hence, I would like to conclude by reminding you guys that today is already week 6 and I hope that you guys will treasure the time left and complete all the ACE for this term.

LAW or MORAL?

2010-04-23T22:48:00.002+08:00

Today we had our Chinese Current Affairs. It is about littering in Singapore and whether we should use stricter law to stop it or use moral education to educate Singaporean against littering. They are two sides in this debate and some of my classmates are asked to have a debate with each other depending on which side you are on.

Here are some of my friends views on this problems:

LAW Point of view

I feel that law is the only way to go as it is only by enforcing law will the citizen be able to stop littering. Since Singaporean a more materialistic, they tend to treasure they valuable more, especially their money. Singaporeans are unwilling to part with their money. Therefore, by enforcing law, people will think twice before they litter as they are afraid to get caught and will need to pay fines that range from about a few hundred dollar to a thousand dollar for repeat offenders. They will not think about affecting their moral when they are about to litter. Therefore, using moral education is not helping Singaporeans to stop littering. Furthermore, this can also be confirmed by factual knowledge that with law imposed, there are fewer cases of people caught littering. Some other suggestions to prevent Singaporean from littering are to increase the fine further. Like instead of a few hundreds dollars for first time offenders it should be a few thousand dollars for first time offenders. This will tell the citizen that the government and NEA( National Environment Agency) are treating littering seriously and they will do whatever it takes to stop it from happening again.

MORAL Point of view

I feel that moral is the only way to go as results have shown that more than half of the people caught littering are youths. Therefore, it is only through educating the youth can we really stop littering. Moral education is important as it teaches everyone to be a better person and do things that are morally correct. Littering is regarded as incorrect. Through moral education, more people will know that littering is incorrect and they can also spread it out to their families and friends so that more will get the message that littering is wrong and they can spread it to even more people. This is the advantage of moral education. By using law to enforce littering is impossible. Everyday, there is bound to be lots of people littering and all the officers will not be able to catch everyone of them and fine them, thus everybody will not think twice about littering as the percentage of getting caught is very small. Furthermore, the reason why Singapore got it reputation of being a green city is because of the hard work of the road sweeper Without their hard work, sweeping up all the rubbish and litters on the ground, Singapore will become a rubbish dump in no time. Moral education teacher us to spare a thought for other and it will be the benefit of the road sweeper if Singaporeans can spare a thought for them and not litter taking into account of the road sweepers being in the hot sun all day just to clean up the mess we made.

MY Point of view

Personally, after this debate/discussion, I feel that both cannot exist without each other. Both law and moral and education have to work hand in hand to make Singaporeans stop littering. Without law, littering will definitely increase even with the help of moral education. Moral education can only go as far as to educate people but can not completely prevent them from doing so. With moral education, littering will also increase as less people will know that littering is incorrect and there are not many officers to go around catching everybody who litters. However, with both imposed upon Singaporeans, the law will prevent Singaporeans from littering as it inflict pain on the citizen if they lose their hard-earned money just because of this small act of littering. On the other hand, moral education can act as CCTVs and monitor everybody and prevent them from littering. If the person want to litter, there will be a string tugging in him and that will cause him to think whether or not to litter.

Thus, I conclude that Law and Moral education must both be imposed together. Everybody has a part to play in keeping Singapore a CLEAN and GREEN city.

What are your views on this issue? Is there any other solution other than the two I mentioned above? Please feel free to comment.

Sportsmanship?? Part II

2010-04-17T18:39:00.000+08:00

Sorry guys for not posting for so long. It had been a tedious, tiring and stressful month for me and I think for everyone as well. Tests are coming and the workload is increasing. With CCA and homework to juggle, it is quite a marvelous feat for me to be still surviving and not dead from exhaustion. We are only secondary 2 and I wonder how we are going to manage in Secondary 3. However, this is not the point of this blog post. Just wanted a channel to vent my “anger”.

Moving on. I am sure that all of you, if not most of you had heard of the ACSI and SAS “interesting” and “exciting” rugby match. It was more of a boxing tournament though. Some background information for you guys, for those who have yet heard about this incident.

At the B Division finals of the rugby competition, ACSI emerged victorious against SAS by a mere margin of one point, 8-7. This is such a thrilling match that is not to be missed. However, the show was not over after the final whistle. A fight broke out involving Leonard Wee and an opposing SAS player. It left Leonard Wee with a bloodied mouth and nose.

I am sure that all of you will think that the SAS player is in the wrong for hitting Leonard and that he should be punish. I also thought that way too when I first read about it. You might think that the reason why the SAS player hit Leonard is because they lost the match by only a point and cannot swallow his pride and wanted to take revenge and thus hit Leonard. However, that might not be the case if you know the full story.

According to some of my friends from ACSI, it was Leonard who first provoked the SAS player in the first place. He called the SAS player a loser. If I am not wrong this is what Leonard said, “ Loser! Go back to ITE”. From what I have heard, the SAS player was formerly from SAS but went to ITE. And SAS called the player back to play for their school. What the ACSI said was really insulting. If I were the SAS player I would also not be able to take the insult and punch him in the face. You might notice how I emphasize that all this information was from my friend and might not be true. So it is your choice to choose which one to believe in. Whether Leonard provoked the SAS player or the SAS player punched Leonard because he cannot accept the defeat. Whatever the case, I want to point out that both Leonard and SAS lacked sportsmanship.

After the game, the SAS player should try to accept the defeat no matter how hard it is and admit that both sides fought hard and tried their best. The SAS player should at the end shake hand with the opposing team and congratulate them on their achievement. While Leonard upon winning the game should not agitate the losing team even more but instead encourage the losing team that they have to try harder next year and meet in the finals again. After the match both team should shake hands with each other to show that both teams had a wonderful game with each other and it is an honour to be part of this thrilling match. This should have been the case for this rugby match so that none of the fighting would began in the first place and of course this also applies to other sports as well. This is what sports is all about to make new friends and of course to work hard and strive for excellence and not all about winning and fighting(except for sports like judo, wrestling ,etc).

Violence will not solve problems but instead creates more. So if one insult you, you should not resort to violence but instead tell it to the teacher or coach, etc to solve the problem diplomatically. Once a fight starts more will follow and it is hard to stop it, similar to the case for both World Wars. Therefore, we have to be more friendly towards each other and try not to agitate the person purposely to prevent such incident from happening.

Hence, I conclude that in sports, having sportsmanship and discipline are important and these traits are what make athletes special, different from those who don’t take up sports. Let play our part and not tarnish the image of sports.

Sportsmanship and fighting spirit!!!

2010-04-01T21:11:00.000+08:00

Today marks the day of the end of the B division Water Polo Championship. Although we lost, we still gained lots of other things. Winning is not always everything. I saw what true water polo is today. “true” as in how waterpolo should be played. I understand what waterpolo really is and why it appeals to so many people. Waterpolo not only about swimming, ball techniques and skill, outwitting your opponent. What is lacking here is the fighting spirit, the spirit to fight till the end and not give up even if the opponent are stronger. I am sure that fighting spirit also applies to other sports as well.

At the B division Waterpolo championship, ACSI were the favourites to win as they overcome HCI in the preliminary round 6-2. It seem as though HCI will lose and that ACSI will have a comfortable win, as they were arguably the best waterpolo team in Singapore. However, all did not go well for them.

Our seniors did not think about losing. Their mindsets were set to win. They were not about to give up easily as that would mean that all their training they had put in, all the sweats and pain and sufferings that they had gone through would all go to waste if they lose this match. Their sacrifices were all for this one match, the finals. Furthermore, they were looking forward to break the record. To end the drought of B division gold medal for so many years. Lastly, the were lots of supporters there at CCAB, supporting, cheering, screaming their lungs out for them, to encourage them to not give up and aim for gold. The supporters were awesome, overwhelming ACSI’s supporter with their loud and booming voices, even when ACSI was using drums and other tools to make as much noise as possible. They rocked the CCAB. With so many stakes at hand, our seniors were not in the hurry to loss to ACSI.

ACSI was stunned when HCI took the lead with 2-1 in the first half. It was their first time experiencing such situation as they were always having a comfortable lead in front. At that moment, they knew that they had to give it their all or they could just lose the championship title. It was really a very tough fight after the first half, with ACSI taking the lead several times, but HCI always equalized in the end. This was not possible without the centre back help who defended well and snatched away any ball that comes his way. Their defense was solid-rock and this was not possible without the other teammates focusing, as they wanted to win the gold badly and playing their best. However, ACSI forced in a shot in the last quarter and shattered everyone’s heart, making the score 5-4 in favour of ACSI. However, despite this, our seniors refused to back down and attacked relentlessly hoping to land in another shot but to no avail. In the end our seniors had to settle with the silver, though they knew they were the better team and should have won. However, they had sportsmanship and congratulate ACSI for winning the gold medal. They did not fight with the ACSI nor regretted the game they played. They accepted their defeat and held their heads high, thanking the supporters for their help in cheering them on. This is the true spirit of waterpolo.

Seeing that they had done so much for the team, seeing how hard they fought in the water, refusing to give in and seeing their sadness in their eyes was really disheartening but yet inspiring. It inspired me to do better, inspired me to restore the gold medal next year that they lost by a small margin and inspired me to train harder and strive for excellence.

If you are interested in finding out what exactly happened in this exciting match please go to this link:
http://redsports.sg/2010/04/02/acsi-hci-final-waterpolo/

Care n Concern

2010-03-27T23:42:00.001+08:00

A few days ago, my class went on a CIP (Community Involvement programme) trip to an old folk’s home during the school founder’s day. What we are supposed to do at the old folk’s home is to interactive with the old folks by chatting with them. There was also a performance for the elderly at the beginning of our visit and we were told by our teachers to bring our rags so as to clean up the home after our interaction with the elderly but the person in-charge told us that we need not give the home a clean up.

I can say that I was quite excited to go to the old folks home as it was my first time and that I was equipped with hokkien and I knew that it would come in handy when I am conversing with the elderly. I was also put in-charge as the translator and I was to give an introduction of ourselves before we began the performance. Although I had rehearsed my lines, I was shy and lacked confidence as I feared I might make a fool out of myself so I did not really perform well while giving the introduction.

When we first entered the home, I was greeted by about 20 old folks and some of them were sitting on wheelchairs. Although the place was quite clean and there were many nurses attending to the old folks, I cannot help myself but feel a sense of sadness. I did not know that so many ungrateful children are willing to send their parent to an old folks home. When I heard that that were more old folks upstair, I was stunned. I told myself that the reason we were there was to let the old folks have some fun and be happy and I got a hold of myself.

There were a lot of activities prepared for the elderly, to entertain them. However, we only rehearsed for the first time the day before only because a teacher requested it. Many did not want to cooperate with the organizing team in previous attempts to hold rehearsal. We were tasked to sing 4 chinese songs, two of which were taught during music lessons (满江红 and 细水长流) while the other two songs are 月亮代表我的心 and 城里的月光.Due to the fact that we did not practice a lot before hand, we did not know the lyrics like the back of our hand and thus, have to look at the lyrics on the paper which was not very professional. As for the two songs we had learnt during music lesson, we were confidence of singing it correctly and thus did not have any lyrics but in the end, we mixed the verses up and sang wrongly. However, with a few talented musicians in our class, Kang Le playing the piano, Darren and Jim and Jong playing the guitar, they made up for our mistake and the mass singing performance turned out quite well.

Next, we have the Magic show whereby Jun Mun performed a few magic tricks like pulling a blue cloth out of a handkerchief and making three ropes of different length into the same lengths. Till now I still cannot not figure out how he did it and I am sure the old folks enjoyed it.

Lastly, we have a wushu performance put up by Zhan Yi and Xavier who threw punches and kicks and execute their moves wonderfully.

All in all I think the elderly enjoyed it as they were clapping at the end of our performance and they were all smiling and appreciate what we have done for them.

After the performance, we had the interaction with the elderly. Although I was equipped with hokkien, I found it very hard to communicate with them. This is because of the language barrier between us. Most of the elderly spoke different dialects like Hokkien, Teochew Cantonese etc. And it is hard to find an elderly who speaks hokkien as some of them have hearing problems while others do not understand what exactly we are saying. However, despite all this, we still pressed on and managed to find out some information from the elderly like their age and what they like to do during their free time. We found out that the elderly’s age range from 60-108 and was surprised as I did not know that Singaporeans can live that long!

One elderly told my classmate that the nurses working there were very bad to them. It was only when guests like us come and visit them, did the nurses pretend to be friendly and kind. I do not know whether the elderly was telling the truth or she was just trying to let us know that the nurses are cruel and possibly ask her children to take her away from here. The person in-charge also told us not to lent the elderly our phone for fear that the elderly will use the opportunity to call their children as the children did not want their parent to call them or pester them.

Another elderly told me that I should not bring my parents here next time. I feel that this statement has a very big impact on me. Coming from someone who has been left at the old folks home, I think I will heed her advice and not put my parents in the old folks home.

This bring me to my next point that why did so many ungrateful children are willing to leave their parents in the old folks home, especially when their parents have spent so much effort and time to raise them into adults. However, all the thanks they get are being sent to old folks home. Although the children might have their reasons to leave the old folks in the home such as: there is no one at home to take care of the elderly or maybe they find their parents too much a trouble or a nuisance and decide to put them in the old folks home. Whatever the reason, they should also visit them frequently to show that they still care for their parents and let their parents’ mind be at ease by showing that they are doing well in life, because though their parent might be in the old folk home, they still care about their children and are constantly worried about them.

I have learnt many things from the trip to the old folks home like doing things ahead and not at the eleventh hour and that we should be grateful to our parents for enduring hardship while bring us up and let them live a comfortable life by not sending them to the old folk home. All in all, the trip to the old folks home is an eye opener for me and it is an interesting experience. I hope that the school can organize more such trips so that we can help more elderly by bring joy to them.

Waterpolo C division Final

2010-03-23T21:20:00.000+08:00

Today was my finals for the National Water Polo Championship 2010, C Division. The night before the competition, I could not sleep, thinking about what will be the outcome of the competition. I know I should be optimistic about the game and that my mindset is to win, is to give it my all. However, there is this feeling tugging me, the feeling that I am sorry to say is losing. ACSI is a notch above us, though it is not an impossible task to overcome them, it would be difficult, very difficult indeed.

Before I went down to play I was nervous. I had to calm myself down and tell myself that I just had to play my best. Gulping down a few mouthful of redbull, I hoped that it would come into good use during the match.

The match was against ACSI, a strong rival of my school. At the preliminaries, we lost to them 8-3. However, both HCI and ACSI won all of their remaining matches and thus we met again in the finals.

At the finals, I can say that I did not perform well, or maybe I always did not perform well. You might say that I might be underestimating myself but I do not think so. During the finals, I was often lost, caught between attacking and defending. Whenever I wanted to swim towards the opponent side of the pool to support my teammates, the possession of the ball always changes side and I have to swim back. Thus, I gradually stop swimming to the opponent side as I was fearful that the ACSI guy that I was marking would do a counter break and we would from there lost a point. I just stayed where I was, neither attacking nor really defending. I feel that me being in the team and me not being in the team does not really make much of a difference. I do not score to help my team and this can be supported by me only having a total of 3 goals in all the matches that I played while others are averaging at a total goals of ten and above. My defending is also not good so is my stamina and I often remain stationary, refusing to swim after I have just sprinted to chase the opponent.

I feel that I am useless and did not know why coach put me into the team. Maybe for the only reason that I can swim quite fast and that was all. My technique and skill cannot match up to some of my teammates. Slowly, my teammates are catching up with me on swimming and I would gradually be left behind……

Coming back to the finals, the score in the first half was 2-1 in favour of ACSI and it was quite good as we were putting up a good fight. However, our stamina slowly decrease and we started to let in free men and counter breaks in the second half where ACSI increased the margin by a fair bit and in the end, the match ended with 10-4 in favour of ACSI.

Although the margin is quite big, I feel that we have done the best we could. We have put in all our effort to want to win this competition, but ACSI was generally fitter in terms of stamina, faster in swimming and much stronger in physical strength. These caused them to win us by such a huge margin in the second half. However, I will not stop here. I will continue training to fight for the team and to fight for myself. I will come back stronger again next year in B’ division and hopefully I will know what I am doing during the match but that all depends whether coach will put me in the team. Nevertheless, I am going to train hard to convince coach to put me in the team next year so that I can get another chance to prove my worthy. I will not want to fail those who believe in me again. ACSI you guys better watch your back.

Competitiveness in Society

2010-03-15T22:17:00.002+08:00

Competition among one another is everywhere. From competing in competitions like swimming to students competing with each other on their results. From competing for a higher position in a company to competing on how much money each has.

Competition can both be a good thing and a bad thing. Too much of anything is harmful to us. This also applies to competition. Having competition among one another is good and helpful in its own way. However, having too much can result in dire consequences.

Students compete with each other over their examination results. This pushes each student to strive hard and try to overcome other students, and get better results. This is a win-win situation. However, if the student takes the competition too seriously, it may result in the student putting too much pressure on himself. Thus, if he did not get the desired result, he will just break down, as his expectations are just too high to meet. Too much competition can also result in the breaking of many friendships. What may seem as just a harmless rivalry, might cause Student A to hate Student B if A did not score as well as B and A will from then on bear a grudge on B and will do anything to get back at him, resulting in a vicious cycle. Furthermore, it is not very good for him to experience this at such a young age, which will affect his future relationships with others greatly. Moreover, parents also pressurize their children by comparing their children result with others. “ Why didn’t you beat Terry in this test? You will be grounded until you win him.”

In companies, employees compete with each other fiercely, much more than that of the students. They will resort to despicable means to reach their goals, even if it means backstabbing their best friend. Their goal is to be the manager and the CEO to earn money and more money. Is the money worth it to betray your friend? Some people might say yes as they feel that it is a cruel world out there. It is the survival of the fittest. They will grab any opportunity that is given to them.

Next Tuesday will be the Waterpolo finals against ACSI. Although we can't underestimate our opponent, neither can we feel inferior to them. We must have the right mindset, the mindset to fight and to win. We must have the right attitude, the attitude of not giving up. The competitiveness here is different. It is not too much nor too little and it is just right for us to excel to the best of our ability. Although most people feel that ACSI has a higher percentage of winning, I feel that it is our mental that makes up for it. Although ACSI maybe physically fitter that HCI, it is the Hwa Chong spirit that burns within us spurring us on. We will definitely put on a spectacular show to all the teacher and students that will be cheering us on Tuesday.

This is life. This is society. Competitiveness is good but not too much. I hereby suggest all parents to not stressed up your children too much let them enjoy life while they can as it will be difficult to enjoy life once they are all grown up.

I feel that the Life cycle of a human is like this:

You are born to this wonderful world.

You get to spend the first few years playing and enjoying.

Just when everything seems so peaceful, things start to turn ugly. You have to go to school. No fun and games anymore.

Work your ass off as a student. Suffer hardship and faced many obstacles but still managed to hang on and not give up.

Work your ass off again but now as an adult. Try to earn as much money as possible.

Retirement comes first then illness. Spend the next half of life suffering from illness, spending the money that you have earned.

Wait for death to come knocking.

What a wonderful life this is and I sure hope this will not happen to me.

Society Class difference

2010-03-10T15:29:00.000+08:00

Please view the video below.

Are you furious at the Caucasians who did not pay for the ride? Or do you think that the Trishaw uncle charged his service a little too high? Is it really the Caucasians’ fault? Or is it just the language barrier that separates them?

Whatever the answers are, they are not important. What I want to talk about today is the difference in social class in our society.

In a company, there is always the Director of the company followed by the managers of respective department and then the “low class” employees.

In our society today, it is also the same. There is a difference between people of higher class and people of lower class. Since the education system in Singapore is that all children must have at least an education of up till Primary 6, less people are illiterate, leading to more people doing the white collar jobs. With less people willing to do the blue collar jobs, for example: road sweepers, garbage collectors, toilet cleaners etc. Thus, Singapore has to allow immigrants from mostly China and India to do these jobs.

Many people of the higher class do not want to socialize with these people of the lower class. They go to the extent of despising them and feel that they should not even exist in the growing economy of many developed countries. However, without these people of lower class, any countries will not be able to operate or even survive. Many rubbish an debris will be left on the road and floor, the toilets will be dirty and smelly, the buildings will not be re-painted for many years to come, the trees and grasses will be overgrown, etc. Therefore, it is not morally right to despise them as they do all the “dirty work” so as to allow the people of higher class to function.

However, just because it is one’s job to do something, does not mean that the people of higher class can abuse it. For example, many customers at fast food restaurants do not take the initiative to clear they trays themselves. They feel that they should let the cleaners to do it since they are hired solely for this reason. Similarly, road sweepers are hired to clean up rubbish to keep the roads of Singapore clean. However, just because of this, we should not litter everywhere we go just so that the road sweeper can sweep them up. We should throw our rubbish into rubbish bin instead to reduce the road sweepers workload.

In the video, the Caucasians should not take the trishaw uncle service for granted even if they do not agree with the price they were charged. They should at least pay him for the ride and sympathise with him that he is already so old yet he still tried his best to cycle.

As people of higher class, we should show more compassion to the people of lower class to reduce their workload and stress as much as possible and not make it worst. Furthermore, we should not despise them just because they are of a lower class. They are still humans and they do not deserved to be treated this way. We cannot change the cruel truth of the difference between people of higher class and people of lower class, but we can make their life much easier. They have already suffered enough hardship and poverty, some do not even know when their next meal will be. Must we be so cruel as to make it difficult for them?

How I wished everybody’s life will be peaceful and happy. But sadly, some things just aren’t fair.

Home learning (Spatial/Visual)

2010-03-02T21:59:00.006+08:00

Spatial / Visual
a. Draw a map of Maycomb (think google map!). Take into consideration the locations of the homes, the streets etc.

Reference:
http://www.enotes.com/images/enotes/9061/large.jpg

http://zsp417.tripod.com/id4.html

Home learning (Intrapersonal Assignment)

2010-03-01T18:52:00.006+08:00

Intrapersonal
a. Who would you want to be friends with in the novel? Explain.

I would like to be friend with Boo Radley although he is a bit of a weirdo who stay shut in his house for fifteen years.

I can infer from Boo's action that he is a caring and kind-hearted person. He offers gift like figurines, chewing gums, watch and medal to Jem and Scout through the knot-hole in the tree even though they make fun of him. He tries to establish connect with them and the outside world. He even went to the extent of stepping out of his house so as to put a blanket over Scout's shoulder when she was freezing while watching Ms Maudie's house burnt down.
Boo Radley is also selfless when he saved Jem and Socut from Bob Ewell, not caring for his own safety.

Boo Radley is also very innocence. He is not controlled by the cruelty of the society since he was shut up in his house fro 15 year and do not have any outside influence. Whatever things he does, it will definitely be very sincere and from the bottom of his heart.

Boo Radley also do not change his behaviour to suit the majority and be in the "in group". Even though he is misunderstood as a freak by other Maycomb citizens, he does not try to explain himself and give his reasons. Instead, he just took in all the insults and mockery and be himself.

With a friend like Boo Radley, I would be very fortunate. As he will treat me very nicely and kind-heartedly with no other exterior motive. Unlike today's society where everybody hides its true identity behind a mask and they do whatever it takes to achieve their goals even by means of betraying one's friend. I can even tell him my deepest secret and feel safe that my secret will not leek out. He is also able to befriend those who speak ill of him which shows that he does not bear grudges and just shrug them off. Of course I am not implying that you should say hurtful thing and mock your friend behind his back even if he is able to take in the insults and shrug it off, as that shows how lousy a friend you are. Instead you should tell him face to face about his flaws.

Boo taught me to not be a self-centered person who only care about yourself and not others. He also taught me that we should be who we really are and not change to suit the needs of others and not mind what others think about you.

Boo is truly an honest and selfless friend that all seeks but hard to find.

Multiple Intelligence Test

2010-03-01T17:07:00.001+08:00

Post your learning profile on your blog and write in no less than 100 words the implications or what you feel about the Multiple Intelligence test.

This MI test consist of aset of 40 different questions and six different options to choose from.

This is not like me at all

I am very rarely like this

This is a bit like me

This is sometimes like me

I am like this more often than not

I am always like this

As you can see from the above picture, there are 8 intelligence tested, Logical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Musical, Visual/Spatial, Naturalistic, Kinaesthetic and Linguistic.

The result I got was Logical was ranked 1 while Intrapersonal and Kinaesthetic is ranked at 2. I feel that this 40 questions not accurate and are not able to fully determine which intelligence you are better in. The questions are too general. For example: I know myself well.

My feeling towards the results was that I agree that I am Logical-Number Smart. I quite good with numbers and can handle them pretty well so I have no problems with that. I also agree with that I am Body Smart. I can control my bodily motion well. My CCA- Waterpolo needs lots of hand-eye-leg coordination to play the sport. However, I am not quite sure about Intrapersonal. Sometimes, I do not really know what I really want in my life. I do not really self-reflect and find out where can I improve on and how do I go about improving, stuffs like that. Therefore, the result is not very accurate to a certain extent and it really take a lot of self-control and understanding of oneself to make the most-accurate answer for each question. I feel that this test is just for my understanding of which intelligence I am strong in and not really to be taken strongly.

If you are interested in taking this test, go to:

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/choose_lang.cfm

Gambling

2010-02-15T13:25:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year has begun and other than receiving ang bao, we can hear the usual loud shuffling of mahjong when we visit our relatives. Furthermore, other than the adults gambling, parent also allow their children to gamble, using poker cards, with small bets ranging around 10 cents to $1. As Chinese New Year is only celebrated once a year and they feel that it is alright for the children to gamble in this special occasion. However, I beg to differ as I feel that by allowing the children to gamble, the parents are sending the wrong message to the children that gambling is good and they should do it often, since they are usually the children’s role model. In major cases, students might gamble secretly in school and over time, become addicted to gambling. Therefore, I feel that before letting the children gamble, parents should warn them that they are only allowed to gamble during this special occasion and not elsewhere or else they would be severely dealt with. Although, this solution is not foolproof, it is quite effectively as the children will think twice before engaging in gambling elsewhere.

Gambling addiction is a type of impulse-control disorder. Compulsive gamblers can’t control the impulse to gamble, even when they know their gambling is hurting themselves or their loved ones. They might even steal and rob other for money to gamble. Gambling is all they can think about and all they want to do, no matter the consequences.

The consequences are:

-Strain relationship with closed ones

-Interfere with work and responsibilities at home

- Lead to financial problems

With the recent opening of the Resort world Sentosa’s casino on 14 February, it encourages more people to gamble in Singapore which might lead to more people borrowing money from loan sharks and might cause more family to be broken because their family members are compulsive gamblers. To solve the problem, the government agreed to implement safeguards to limit the negative impact of casino gambling. Singaporeans would be charged an entrance fee of S$100 per entry or a fee of S$2,000 per year if they wish to enter the casino. Casinos would also be prohibited from extending credit to Singaporeans. The police are also stepping up to loan sharks to assure the people that the opening of the casinos would not affect them greatly and Singapore is still a safe place to live and work in .

Individuals and families with gambling problems can ring the hotline 1800-X-GAMBLE or
"1800-9-426253" from 9am-6.30pm on Mondays and Fridays, 9am-9pm on Tuesdays to Thursdays, and 9am-6pm on Saturdays. The hotline is funded by Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society.

Bibliography:

http://helpguide.org/mental/gambling_addiction.htm

http://www.singaporedice.com/compulsivegambling

http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1606_2009-10-31.html

http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20100209-197510.html

Wrong mindset and attitude

2010-02-09T15:14:00.002+08:00

“Marcus what are you doing? Swim faster!” This has been often shouted to me during my CCA Waterpolo training sessions by my coach. Coach has always said that I am very lazy, refusing to swim for the ball or swim faster to catch up with my opponent. Some times I agree with what he says that I really am lazy and slacking but other times I seriously am very tired and cannot move anymore.

However, I am not here to criticize my coach but to do some soul-searching and figure out what exactly went wrong.

Personally, I feel that it is both my attitude and mindset that is the problem. My wrong mindset started when I first knew about ACSI and how strong their waterpolo team really is. Their team has a strong 30 players for C division and all of their swimming and techniques are good. As only 15 players can enter the competition, the 15 players are the best of the best. However, for HCI waterpolo team, we do not even have 15 players in Secondary 2. Only after we have included the 3 Secondary 1 DSA players do we have 15 players. Hence, just by these statistics it is clear that HCI has already lost. I know that it is a wrong mindset for athletics to have even before they started playing with their opponents, but I just can’t get this out of my mind. My wrong mindset caused my attitude to be wrong too. Since we cannot defeat ACSI, for what reason do I still train so hard? This question is always ringing in my mind. That is the reason why I don’t take my training seriously.

After much soul-searching did I realize that this should not be the way. So what if we can’t defeat ACSI? We just have to try our best in it and there would still be a chance in winning, thought the percentage is not very high. If we just give up, there will not even be a chance at all. HCI waterpolo team is a strong team and has the potential to achieve, to win, to be the champion. It does not need someone who has a negative attitude and mindset. Hence, I will try my best to change, hopefully before nationals.

Moving back, basic courtesy

2010-02-02T21:30:00.000+08:00

Everyday when I went home from school, I would see this sign, “ Thank you for moving back. Courtesy, try a little kindness.” at the back of the bus. During the peak hours buses will be packed like sardines and most of the seat will be occupied. However, it is a common sight to see the bus driver failing his hands, urging us to move back and shouting, “ Move back please!” continually and almost unfriendly. So why does our buses need signs and drivers to remind us to move back so as to allow more people to board the bus? Isn’t it basic courtesy to move back? Are Singaporean selfish? Or they simple do not care?

Now let me do an evaluation of why people do not want to move back. From my observation, there are many reasons people do not want to move at the back of the bus.

1.They are alighting soon and it is just ridiculous to move back and forth in such a short period of time and if they did, they might cause even more discomfort to other passengers.
2.They have their friend sitting down while they are standing and want to chat with each other. Hence, they refuse to move back and would rather let other passengers do so.
3.Some passengers just like certain part of the bus better! They prefer standing in the front part of the bus and refused to move back but they try to make space for others to do so.
4.Some passengers are unaware of their surroundings. They are busy talking with friends that they did not notice that other people have moved in and that there is a big gap in between. However, once they are aware of it they will move in.

So from the examples above, you can find out that not all passengers are selfish and only care about oneself. However, it is still not an excuse to not move in and allow other passengers to board the bus. Therefore, Singaporean should try their best to exercise basic courtesy in whatever they do so as to prevent foreigners from getting the wrong impression about Singapore. Everybody has a part to play, so lets play our part TODAY…

New School System

2010-01-31T00:32:00.003+08:00

What is the future school programme about?

It is about bringing laptops to school and using it in class for lessons. A new teaching method called the JITT – Just In Time Teaching is also introduced. JITT is basically the teacher supplying us with the notes for us to read at home. The teacher will not go through the topic in class. He will only go through the question that we faced while we are reading the notes. The advantage of this method is that it enables us to save more time as we can use the time in class to participate actively in discussion instead of going through the topic. The disadvantage is that those people who are lazy and who doesn’t read the notes that are given to them will not know anything about the topic and will most probably flunk their exams. Therefore, students must read the notes and voice out the questions they faced or they will not be able to understand the topic.

Our class is chosen for this programme because during the e-learning week last year, out of the three Ortus secondary 1 classes, 1o1 and 1o2(this year 2o1 and 2o2) were found to be able to do the e-learning activities more efficiently. Therefore, being able to bring laptops to school is a privilege, however, there is consequences. There is a risk in the laptops being stolen or missing, but there are always risks in everything that we do, thus we will just have to be more careful and have the responsibility of taking care of our belongings.

New subjects. The Oral Communication(OC) and the Independent Studies(IS)

The Ace and Oral Participation(OP) have been split into two different subjects with other components.

Previously, with Ace and OP for each subjects, it is a lot easier to get an A1. Now since it is split up, it is very difficult. So the easiest way now is to get exempted from the EOYs which is no easy feat too since you must be consistently good in all 3 terms.

Ace is now lumped up with projects day whereby Ace takes up 50% and Project day another 50% to make up 100% for IS.

As for OP , it is lumped up with current affairs discussion where OP 40% and Current affairs discussion is 60% to make up 100% for OC.

I shan’t elaborate further or else you guys might get bored or confused. So to sum it all up, it is a lot tougher to get an A1, it is a lot tougher with more subjects to cope with, it is a lot tougher when you are in secondary 2. A long and tiring journey awaits us…

First Post in months.... New Beginning

2010-01-27T21:56:00.003+08:00

I'm back in action again. This post officially marks the reopening of my blog. I know I have been rather inactive last year. However, as the title suggest, it is a new beginning for me and I will try to post as often as I can.

For those people out there who don't know the reason for me blogging, I will tell you guys once and for all. I am blogging mainly because it is part of my Language Art and it will be graded. Therefore, I will refrain from showing the Ah Beng side of me and post in English. Although I didn't really enjoyed my blogging experience last year, I will try to post because I want to and not because I need to this year.

As for my blog slogan, I will try to think of something and will post on it at a later date. I hope that you will follow my blog and if you have a blog feel free to post your url at my tag box so I can link. Thanks

A glimpse on my current school life...
The usual routine of waking up early, going to school to attend lessons, sleeping during lectures, end of school, cca, home at 8pm, mug until 11 plus and sleep. However, there is a new feature added in my school life to spice it up, so tune in next time to find out more...

What is beauty?

2009-07-06T14:09:00.002+08:00

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

What is happiness?

2009-07-06T11:54:00.003+08:00

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.

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

2009-07-05T00:06:00.002+08:00

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.

Gambling Addiciton

2009-07-04T22:41:00.006+08:00

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

Poet (Robert Frost)

2009-06-30T14:48:00.006+08:00

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

Poems

2009-06-29T13:40:00.003+08:00

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/

Holidays

2009-06-07T17:53:00.009+08:00

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:)

Is the process or the result more important?

2009-06-07T16:38:00.004+08:00

Okay! I'm back to posting. Today and last Sunday have been wonderful to me as I participated two different swimming competition, one at NSRCC and the other at Temasek Club. I finished with a whopping result of 4 gold and 4 silver.

However, what I am talking about today is whether the process or result is more important. I feel that the process is of course more important than the results. Without the process, we will not be able to yield any result. For example, if I did not train well for these two swimming competitions, I would definitely not have the 4 golds and silvers. The process is very important. If you don't have the basic foundation of anything and you want to achieve the highest possible level of that particular thing, it will be almost impossible to achieve it. Another example is before you learn how to walk you want to run. Hence, we must take things at our own pace. Slowly build up the strong foundation and gradually you will find that you can achieve your target.

Therefore, the process affects the result and the result will depend on the process. In conclusion, the process is more important and we must work hard on the process to get better result.

I have to credit Mark Loh for giving me this idea of blog post and I will try to post more often.

First semester as a secondary 1 in HCI

2009-06-05T17:06:00.002+08:00

I feel that my first semester here as a secondary one is a fun and fruitful one as I have made new friends and already got used to the environment here. Although the days here are even more tiring and stressful than in those days during my primary school, I feel that I had benefited a lot and that all the effort that I have given is worthwhile.

HCI is very big with facilities that not all schools in Singapore might have. For example: a swimming pool, a well-equipped gym for us to work out and a track for the trackers etc. However, HCI being a big campus, it is quite a tiring job for you to walk from one destination to another.

Everyone is required to have CCA and my CCA is Waterpolo. We train three times a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (CCA day). Although it is tiring, it offers many benefits like helping us to relax and most importantly have fun. However, we have long hours of training and usually ends very late. By the time we reach home, we will not have sufficient time to do our homework. The workload increases from primary to secondary, and we will have to adapt to the increase in workload and the decrease in time. Therefore, I usually sleep at about 11pm and wake up at 6am which is considered very good compared to others who only slept for 5-6 hours.

HCI also has an interesting way of tabulating the result of a student. It consists of three components. Your MSG (Mean Subject Grade), ACE, OP (Oral Participation). It also offers CIP etc for character development of a student, including the core values (J-tigerr) and Motto (自强不息)

For term1 I think I did okay with a MSG of 1.67. However, for term 2, I got a MSG of 1.83. I'm not very happy about my term 2 grade. I will try to work harder to achieve better results and that will be my goal for term 3. Although result does not mean everything but striving hard to the best of your ability will make all the efforts that you have put in pay off. And to achieve that, I will work extremely hard and not play too much during the coming June Holidays. I will have to buck up for all my subjects especially Language Art and History which I did very badly.

As the saying goes, “Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”. Therefore I have to work on my planning and time management to achieve my target. The road ahead can be tough but I am willing to take on the challenge and see what really lies ahead in my way.

Stress

2009-05-15T22:27:00.005+08:00

Stress is a thing that we as human beings cannot avoid in life. It can be inflicted by many causes. Peer pressure and parents expectations are two of them.

Peer pressure

We can be very stressed up when seeing our friend score higher marks than us in an examination.This is a very common sight in HCI. We will therefore need to work very hard in order to get the better of them in the next examination. In this way, it is a positive thing as it gives you the drive to work harder and achieve your goals. However, too much of it will lead to stress that we ourselves cannot handle. Therefore, our goals must be realistic in order to avoid this effect of overwhelming peer pressure.

Parents expectation

It is good to know that your parents expect you to achieve certain goals. This shows that they care for your well-being. However, this can also lead to overwhelming stress. Your parents care about you. They care for you so much that they they want the best for you. In other words, I can say that your parents are kiasu. They want you

to be top of everything which sometimes might not be good.

I would like to share an example here:

I saw in a newspaper that a 13 year old boy jumped down from a 7-storey building but survived. It is reported that the boy was scolded because he played truant.

A 13-year-old boy ending his own life because he was scolded for playing truant? If that is the case, many students would have died. Maybe he had some other problems he faced? Maybe it is not the because he was scolded for playing truant that caused him to jump? Maybe he was caused by an overwhelming of stress because of peer pressure or parents expectations? No one knows what is the truth behind it but one thing for sure is that what he did was extremely unacceptable. He shouldn't run away from his problems by ending his life. Instead, he should face them and try to solve them. If he cannot solve them he should ask his parents, teachers or maybe even friends who can provide a listening ear to his problems and try to help him solve them. This is the same case as Adeline Ng Ai Choo where she didn't want to tell anybody about her problems. Therefore, I advise you that before you do anything foolish please please please tell someone about your problems and that might actually save your life.

Way to keep stress level down

-exercise often

-take up some hobbies

Exercise can include swimming, jogging etc. Most importantly participate actively in your ep3 as that might be the only time you can destress.

Take up hobbies like collecting stamps, keeping pets, reading books etc, things that you can do conveniently at home so that whenever you feel bored or stress up you can immediately destress.

Okay I think I should end here. However, if you guys have any opinion to share feel free to post in comments. You can give comments on other ways to destress or other ways that can cause stress. Thank you.

Puddle of water case

2009-04-01T18:59:00.005+08:00

The case of the puddle of water

What happened?

I did not know the exact detail of the incident so I will just describe what I feel and see.

During recess, I stayed back for a while to complete my homework. After that I went to the canteen to have my break. When I was going out through the door of the class room, I noticed a puddle of water and a water bottle nearby. Apparently the water had spilled out of the water bottle. Thinking that the person who had spilled the water might have gone to get a cloth to clean up the mess, I simply brushed this incident off my mind. After recess, I came back to class late for a little bit and Miss Soh was already in the class. I was shocked to see the puddle of water still there but I went back to my seat as quickly as possible, carefully not to step on the puddle of water. Miss Soh was standing in front of the class on silence when she finally spoke,"Why is there a puddle of water on the floor with clothes over it. Why isn't there any one cleaning up the mess? Will the clothes be able to soak up all the water if you leave them there?" At this moment, the students sitting near the puddle of water immediately started to clean up the mess. As I was sitting at the back and I cannot see whether the students have cleaned up the mess therefore I didn't go forward and offer my assistance. However, I feel that this is not an excuse. I should go forward and see if they need any help rather than just standing at the back watching a 'free show'. There is reasons why Miss Soh asked us to clean up the mess. Firstly, if people did not see the puddle of water and accidentally slipped and fell, it will be disastrous. Secondly, if people accidentally stepped on the puddle of water but did not slip and continue walking, he will leave black foot prints on the floor, causing the floor to be very dirty. In the future, when I see such incident happen again I will render my help willingly and not let what happened on that day happen again.

Students changing in Classroom instead of the toilet

2009-03-08T22:56:00.003+08:00

Students changing in Classroom instead of the toilet!

Personally, I feel that it is acceptable to change in classroom instead of the toilet. It is partly because I myself also changes in the classroom. I feel that changing in the classroom is not a big deal as we are in fact a boy school and there is no people of the other gender except for the teachers and the staff of Hwa Chong. The fact is that we only change from our uniform into our PE attire and are not totally naked. What is the difference between changing in the toilet than in the classroom? The only difference is that the toilet have cubicle while the classrooms do not. It only waste time when we change in the toilet as we have to wait for others when they are changing in the cubicles. If the whole class go to the toilet and change, it will be very crowded and people who are in need of using the toilet will have to push and shove through the crowd just to ease themselves and answer nature call. Not only that, many people will be looking at him in the process and he will feel very embarrass. Therefore, I hope that students can be more open-minded and change in the classroom instead of the toilet or maybe some can change in the toilet while others can change in the classroom so that less time is spent on changing and more time is spent on PE.
This is my view.
What is yours? Share it with me and comment on my post.
Thank you

Student stabbed professor at NTU

2009-03-07T18:11:00.004+08:00

Student stabbed professor at NTU
David Hartanto Widjaja

Why did he do that?
Is it because he played computer games and got too addicted, causing him to stabbed the professor?
Or
Is he under too much stress from realising the fact that his scholarship has been revoked because of his poor academic performance?

My view is both of the above.
He might be under a lot of peer pressure as he might be competing with students that have better academic result then him. Because of this, he played the computer game to relive his stress. However, the type of computer games might be very violent and caused him to react in this way. He often played the computer games in the wee hours of the morning and affected his academic results. This leading to the termination of his scholarship. He was believe to have stabbed the professor as he thought the professor had caused him to lose his scholarship.

This is my view what is yours?
Please comment
Thank you!

Finally!!!

2009-03-07T16:31:00.003+08:00

Omg! Finally, I can post for more than a month. This month has been very busy for me causing me to have no time to post or should I say too lazy to post. An update on the events that happened or going to happen.

Just finished my tests a few weeks ago.(Main reason no time to post) I am quite happy with my result although I feel that I could have put in more effort.
The results:
Mathematics-A1
Chinese-A1
Science-A1
Geography-A1
Infocom Studies-A1
History-B3
Language Arts-C5
MSG(Average):1.67

French Petit(mini) test:10/10
Yes man!

Got a lot of projects too. However there is one major project for project day.
Group Members:
Mark Loh
Jeffrey Oh
Grady Ng
Faced a lot of problems in this project. We can't seem to decide on the topic.However when we decided on it, it was rejected by mentors. I hope our current project topic will work and everything can go on as smoothly as possible.

My first waterpolo competition is this Monday and I really look forward to it. I hope we can win all the matches and clinch the gold medal. That is my goal and I will work towards it.

Sec1 camp is just around the corner. I both look forward and don't look forward to this camp. Some of my friends who have been to the Sarimbun Scout Camp said that it is very dirty and that we will have a terrible 3day 2 nights there while others said that it was a very fun and enriching experience for them and will want to go back there. I feel that I cannot make any decision whether I like the camp until I experience it myself. However I will be going back on Thursday night so that I can attend my waterpolo competition on the next day.

I have come to the end of my post and I hope I can post again without waiting for another month.Thank you

The Taximan's Story

2009-02-04T21:56:00.003+08:00

1.What is the irony of the story?

The irony of the story is that Lay Choo is intelligent and is very good in her studies but unexpectedly, she was fooling around instead of being in school.

2.What are the themes raised in this story?

The themes are Parental Guidance and Teenagers this days etc

3.How realistic is this story?

This story is very realistic as the writer potrays the taximan to be a typical Singaporean who do not have much education and speaks singlish. She also writes about the current problems faced by most families about handling teenagers, like the taximan's.

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

I think that the taximan is very violent and strict. He beat and slapped Lay Choo when he found out that she was fooling around. He even lock her up in her room for three days. I feel sympathy for him as he did all this because he love Lay Choo and was concerned about her studies. He worked all day and save for her University, yet she went fooling around.

5.Do you agree with his lamenting?

I do not agree with his lamenting. He can only blame himself and no one esle when Lay Choo went fooling around because it is the responsibility of a father to instill good moral values and discipline to his son or daughter so that he or she will not go astray.

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

I sympathise with Lay Choo's mother because I feel that she will be very disappointed in her daughter who is smartest of all her siblings to do such a disgraceful thing. I do not sympathise with Lay Choo as she was wrong to fool around and deserved to face the music. Even though She might have her own reasons. For example: Her family need cash urgently. She should have discussed it will her parents and don't act rashly.

Reflections : The taximan should not be so violent to her daughter as it might cause her to reble even more. I think he should advise her on the advantages and disadvantages on mixing with bad company and fooling around. E.g. It will affect her studies etc. The taximan should not be ashamed to tell Lay Choo's teacher about the incident so that she might be able to help in monitoring Lay Choo.

Third Language and Waterpolo

2009-01-31T14:13:00.003+08:00

Ok I have not posted for a long time. Something happened to my last Thursday that makes me feel stupid.

On Thursday, I was actually supposed to take bus to MOELC for my third language with Tze han and Ming Shi but in the end they abandon me and went ahead first as I needed to let Mr Loh sign my Class Transfer form for my third language. It was my first time taking bus there as my father usually come and drive me there. As I was in the com lab, i checked the bus number in the Internet and finally found my way there. What a relief man. I thought I will lose my way and furthermore on that day I had forgotten to bring my hp.
Yesterday, the result for the students allocated into the different CCA was out. Darren, Zexter and 12 other students was in Waterpolo. I can't wait to see them in action. I hope they will start their training as soon as possible.

Flower for Algernon (ACE)

2009-01-28T15:31:00.004+08:00

6.Linguistic

Charlie Gordon
Sixth Avenue 43th Street
New York, NY 16785

Dr Nemur
Scientist
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
525 East 68th Street
New York, NY10065

Dear Dr Nemur,

After a lot of consideration, I think I want to be smart by having the operashun, even tho it is temporary and herts. Becaus all my life i wantid to be smart and not dumb so I can do a lot of things. I can reed books, learn different languages and understand what other peopul are saying. Miss Kinnian says that i was her bestist pupil in the adult nite school becaus i tried the hardist and reely wantid to lern. After the operashun im gonna try awful hard to be smart so please Dr Nemur let me hav the operashun to become smart. If i can be smart i might even help you in your work and help people like me becaus i noe how people like me fels when people laff at you for being dumb. and they noe its not their fault to be dumb but they cant help it.

Pls let me hav the operashun!

You faintfuli,

Charlie Gordon

Goals!

2009-01-25T16:20:00.003+08:00

Blog Prompt: Imagine that you are Dr Tan and that you have been invited to make an article contribution to a youth magazine to encourage young people to set worthwhile goals and work towards them.

Article: Hi everyone. I am Dr Tan and I am very happy to be able to make an article contribution in this youth magazine to encourage every single one of you out there to set worthwhile goals and work towards them.
The key to setting goals and successfully achieving them is perseverance. One should not set goals that are either too easily to achieve or too hard to accomplish. When you have set your target, do not be afraid and give up easily because of some minor mistake. You must bear in mind that everyone makes mistake and occasional mistakes are fine.
No pain no gain. You should work really hard if you want to achieve your goals. There are many obstacles that you must go through but in the end the result will always be sweet even if you didn't accomplish your goals. Therefore, don't be discouraged if you didn't accomplish your goals as there is always a second chance.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Time management is very important as you can save a lot of time to do other things by doing so.Thus, always plan and manage your time carefully and accurately.
Most importantly, you must set goal that you really want. In that way, you will have the personal drive and passion to work towards it.

Chinese New Year Celebration

2009-01-23T22:00:00.006+08:00

Yes! We can wear home clothes to school today. Today's celebration was nice. I like the Lion Dance and Wu Shu part most. Today was suppose to have waterpolo training from 10.30am-12.30pm but the pool was closed so i think it was cancelled.

Went back to De La Salle School and the security guard only allowed us to go in at 1pm and we have to wait at macs. Lol
Met some of our friends. Some changed a lot, while some are still the same old self. Went to see my P5 and P6 teacher to talk about the new school and stuffs. After that 2.30pm followed Jeff and his class to macs again, because their teacher blanja them.

After that went home. End of story.......

Whaling

2009-01-20T23:15:00.003+08:00

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I am a member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and I am here today to give a speech about the cruelty of the fishing industry to whales in Japan.

The reason why whales are still hunted is because they are a source of food for the Japanese and whaling for scientific-research purposes has also become an important practice. The excessive hunting of whales has resulted in the depletion of the population of the whales which might one day lead to the extinction of whales. If the whales become extinct, it will affect the whole eco-system, which indirectly will affect us. Therefore, we must prevent it from happening. Farming whales in captivity to increase the population of the whales has never been attempted and would almost certainly be logistically impossible. However, if we hunt whales in moderation, the population will slowly but surely increase. I hope that all the whalers in Japan can hunt whales in moderation and everyone of us can do our part by not purchasing any whale-related product. I hope that my speech has made a difference and together we can make a difference.

Thank You

2009-01-19T17:06:00.007+08:00

Alright, I have not post for quite some time already because I have no time. All my time is spent on homework, CCA and more homework. Therefore, I will try to recall what happened last week.

Thursday
Went for the mathematical olympiad selection test. There was 12 questions and it's a 1-hour paper. After 45 minutes I had only done 4 questions. Amazing right? I hope I did well.
I also had my first third language lesson which is french at MOELC (Ghim Moh). However, because of the mathematical olympiad selection test I reached there half an hour late but the teacher didn't reprimand me. Learnt some funny word like "Bonjour" for good morning and good afternoon. That's the most basic one I think. Next week, I hope I will be able to say 1-10 in french.

Friday
We had our very first Current Affairs discussion in class. The topic was about Economical development has the upper hand against Environmental development. It was a very heated debate but most of my classmates were focusing on the reclamation of land in Singapore instead. I didn't speak much but I think in the next discussion I will participate more.
Yes! Earn 1 op (oral participation)point in mathematics lesson for finding out a mistake. Lol!

Today, nothing special. The timetable for today and tomorrow changed so resulted our class to have three periods of mathematics.

Okay stop here today. I still have things to do. Tomorrow got water polo training, will be very tired so might not post.

W@ter polo trial

2009-01-14T18:21:00.002+08:00

This morning when I woke up I felt a strain on the right side of my neck. I think it was cause by my sleeping posture the night before. Because of this I have to walk around with my head tilted to one side for the whole day. Some people said that it was a very obscene sight while others classified it as funny.

Today I went for the water polo trial to help out and I think I have 2 other rivals. Both of them are super good. One of them is Darren from my class and the other one is Zexter. They managed to clock 33.8 sec for 50m freestyle sprint even after a 20 min non stop swim and a 400m sprint which they also excelled at. I don't think I can do that but that's what make the sport more challenging. I hope that they will get into the team and fight along side Sam and me.

I just reached home with homework to do as usual and I hope that my neck will not hurt so badly tomorrow morning.

Reminder!

2009-01-13T22:23:00.002+08:00

Hi everyone. It has been three days since I posted on my first entry. Today will be a short one.

I came back home around 7.45pm because i have waterpolo training today. The training was very tough and I am dead tired right now. Just a reminder to all fellow Hwa Chong schoolmates that there will be waterpolo trial tomorrow and next Wednesday from 2.30pm-4.30pm(not very sure about the timing) and please remember to bring your swimming trunks and goggles to school if you are going for the trial as you will be swimming.

That's all for today because I have tons of homework that I have to complete by tonight.

Wish all those going for waterpolo trial good luck!

First post

2009-01-10T19:03:00.002+08:00

Yo!My first blog entry. Hope you all enjoy it. More about myself. I'm from HCI and my CCA is waterpolo. My primary school is De La Salle School some where located at Choa Chu Kang and it is near my house. That's the end of my introduction. I'll post more next time.