WXD's blog

Shanghai Expo 2010 (Part 2)

2010-06-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

US Pavilion

On the first day, my family visited the US pavilion. We were greeted by a snaking queue in front of the pavilion, with lots of metal railings set up. Looked like a maze or something, so much was the amount. We walked in, taking in the pavilion in our eyes. My first impression was that it was made up of two or more buildings. After about 20mins of queuing, we reached the entrance. We were greeted by a friendly american student who spoke Chinese better than most people in my class. She told us she was part of an ambassador project, where University students from all over the US get chosen to come to Shanghai expo as a guide.

The first attraction was a short film, in which US citizens learn to speak simple Chinese phrases, like 你好 and 欢迎你的来到. After which we were led to another room, this time a longer film where President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton spoke in English to us about core american values, with Chinese subtitles. They then proceeded to say some simple Chinese Phrases and the film ends.

The third attraction is the very popular 4D movie, The Garden. The movie tells of a little girl trying to plant flowers at an abandoned corner in the urban jungle. Her determination inspires her neighbours and they ended up all helping her construct the garden. After the 8 mins long movie, we were led into another room, this time with all the companies' advertisements and stuff. Thus ends the trip into the US Pavilion.

Shanghai Expo 2010

2010-06-13T20:17:00.001-07:00

For the last 2 weeks, I have been in various places in China for holiday. I have been to Shanghai for 2 days to see the expo. The first thing that hit me when my family went to the entrance, there was the longest queue(s) I have ever seen. One for entering the entrance, one for baggage check (entrance into the Expo). And what's more, the ticketing counter is across the road! For each of the mornings, my family had to cross the road, but tickets and cross the road again. After the troublesome trip, we finally ended up at the tail of the loooonng queue to enter the entrance. After about 20 mins of queuing up, we have finally reached the next queue to the baggage check and ultimately into the Expo itself.

Long wait. Finally, baggage checked, and all done. We're in! The first thing that I saw was an overhead bridge. That was the Expo Axis, a bridge in the middle of the whole Expo. It crosses from one end of the compound, all the way across the River Yangtze. We set off on our adventure in the Expo. It didn't turn out very well. Reasons? I feel ashamed to say that what ruined our trip was the people. Most in the Expo were Chinese, as in people born in China and holding the China passport and all that. They acted as if they did not receive any education (which I'm quite sure is exactly the case as they all looked like they're from the poorer parts of China).

First place we went was across the river. There, in area C, were the most popular pavilions, which naturally implied that those pavilions were more interesting. It didn't exactly work out, our plan of visiting the most interesting pavilions on the first day. Not at all. In fact, we didn't even get to visit most of the pavilions on my list of "Most Interesting and Worth Visiting Pavilions". It was all because of long queues. There was a surprising amount of people, considering that we went on weekdays. The (rumored to be)best pavilion, the Saudi-Arabia pavilion, the queue was so long the sign at the tail of the queue said that anyone would have to take 8 hours to reach the pavilion entrance if queuing.

The rest of the pavilions were not any better. Some required 4 hours of queuing, and the shortest among the most worth visiting pavilions had us wait 20 mins because we went during the time when everyone was eating. On the first day, we went to the US pavilion, UK pavilion, and some others.

Continued in next post..

North Korea

2010-04-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

In the news a few days ago, one particular piece of news aroused my curiosity. It seems that just recently North Korea opened its doors to tourism and allowed outsiders to travel there. This is surprising as North Korea has always been seen as mysterious, dangerous. No one knew what went on behind the scenes as North Korea had stopped all communication with the outside world before now.

The history of North Korea is not exactly very bright. Like many other countries, North Korea had been through many devastating wars. The most famous one, or should I say, infamous one was the Korean War. What sparked off the war? The war started because the Allies split Korea into North Korea and South Korea at the conclusion of the Pacific War. It ended 3 years later but there was no official peace between North and South Korea.

Not long after, North Korea started to research on Nuclear technology, both for reactors and warfare in as early as 1956.

So now we have some background information on North Korea's history. North Korea is a strictly communist country. Although opened for tourism, there are still many rules for tourists. For example, one cannot imitate the posture and action of the North Korean leader while taking photos. Also, one cannot take photos of pictures of the leader.

This makes us question the mindset of the leader. Why would he want to open up for tourism if he would set so many rules for the tourists? For money? That would be the most obvious answer. There are many possible reasons, and I shall list them down.

For money
To improve North Korea's public impression
To improve North Korea's impression on the powers so to reduce the lock-down that the powers are putting on her.

These are some of the possible reasons. What do you think?

Intrapersonal: Who would you like to be friends with in the novel?

2010-03-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

I would like to be friends with Arthur Radley (Boo). This is because Arthur Radley is a very kind and gentle person, as evident in the instances where he showed care to Scout and Jem. For example, once Jem sneaked to the Radley house at night and lost his pants there. When he went back and got it, the pants were folded neatly and had been sewn crudely. It could not have been Nathan Radley, the other person in the house because he had attempted to kill him with a shotgun. Also, during the fire, Arthur Radley put a blanket around Scout when she was standing along the road looking at the fire. This shows that Arthur Radley is a good and kind person and therefore I would like to be friends with him.

Naturalist: Habitat of Mockingbirds and the flora and fauna of Maycomb

2010-03-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

Description

The Northern Mockingbird, a medium-sized songbird, is dull gray above with paler underparts. The white outer tail feathers of the long tail and white wing patches are visible in flight.

Life History

Mockingbirds are one of the most commonly noticed birds in the state. They are either applauded for their audaciousness or cursed for their persistence in nocturnal singing or in the defense of their territory. Insects, fruit, crustaceans and small vertebrates make up the mockingbird's diet. The fact that they enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables hasn't exactly made them gardeners' friends either, although they do eat lots of insects.

Mockingbirds are found in just about every habitat type in the state. The males' territoriality and constant singing and displaying during the breeding season make them the most noticeable bird in Texas. Often this territoriality takes on the form of early morning singing sessions or diving attacks on other animals or people!

Unmated male mockingbirds sing more than mated ones, and only unmated males sing at night. Both sexes sing in the fall to claim winter feeding territories. These areas are often different than their spring breeding territories. Mockingbirds mimic 50 other bird's songs. They have also been known to imitate other sounds they hear such as rusty hinges, whistling, cackling hens, and dogs barking so expertly that even an electronic analysis could not tell the difference between the mockingbird and the original. Scientists have found that female mockingbirds are attracted to males that can make the most different sounds.

Habitat

Mockingbirds are one of the few birds found in every kind of habitat, from desert to forest to city.

Distribution

The northern mockingbird is distributed widely and it has extended its range much farther north in recent years. They range throughout North America from southern Canada south to Mexico. They even have been introduced and established in Hawaii. Mockingbirds live year-around across Texas.

Above is what I got from the internet (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/mockbird/). According to the source above, Mockingbirds live everywhere in the United States, not just limited to a specific area like Maycomb. It is found in every kind of habitat, from deserts to city to forests, so it is very hard to determine why it would live in someplace like Maycomb.

Now, about the flora and fauna in Maycomb. From what I know of Mockingbirds, it is hard to determine what kind of flora exists in Maycomb. However, from the diet of Mockingbirds, I can deduce that there would be shrubbery, thickets and bushes in Maycomb. This is because the Mockingbirds' main diet is fruits, vegetables, insects and small vertebrates, which live in shrubbery and bushes. There also could be fruit-yielding plants around Maycomb because Mockingbirds enjoy fresh fruits.

Gambling

2009-07-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

I condemn the construction of the casino in Singapore. I believe that having a casino, or in any way make gambling more convenient for the people is not good. After discussing with my mother, we have came up with this comclusion that Singapore should not build a casino, because gambling is bad, as many people do not or have little self discipline and get themselves sunk in gambling and become compulsive gamblers who gamble and lose most, if not all of their money and have huge debts.
Also, the existence of compulsive gamblers would result in family problems, the gamblers' families breaking up, and divorces. All that would result in some form of social disorder. The gamblers would spend a lot of time in casinos, getting themselves fired and that would be bad for the country's economy, leading to more casinos being built to gain revenue. That would lead to more compulsive gamblers, making this a vicious cycle.
Also, Jonny W., a compulsive gambler, says he lost almost everything to a gambling addiction — his wife, his money, and the life he once knew. He started to cross the line when he starts winning when he only wants to increase his income. Winning, not losing, is the first part that makes a gambler become a compulsive gambler.
Therefore I comdemn the construction og Singapore's casino.

My Favourite Poet

2009-06-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

He was a cartoonist, playwright, poet, performer, recording artist, and Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated songwriter. Who, you may ask, have this much titles? Who, you may ask, have this much titles but you can't put a name on? He is Shel Silverstein, who have passed away in May, 1999. He was best known for his iconic books of prose and poetry for young readers. His works include Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back (1963), The Giving Tree (1964), A Giraffe and a Half (1964), The Missing Piece (1976), and The Missing Piece Meets the Big O (1981). There's also his immensely popular poetry collections but I won't name the books because that would mean I'm using examples to fill up my 400 words.
Some background information: Shel Silverstein was born on September 25, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois and began writing and drawing at a young age.
I chose him as my favourite because he is the only poet whose poems I can understand fully without external help. His poems had a deft mixing of the sly and the serious, the macabre, and the just plain silly. His poem collections never fail to captivate and surprise me. His poems are not just beloved by children, they are read and loved by adults too.
Three Poems By Shel Silverstein:

1). If the World Was Crazy

If the world was crazy, you know what I'd eat?
A big slice of soup and a whole quart of meat,
A lemonade sandwich, and then I might try
Some roasted ice cream or a bicycle pie,
A nice notebook salad, an underwear roast,
An omelet of hats and some crisp cardboard toast,
A thick malted milk made from pencils and daisies,
And that's what I'd eat if the world was crazy.

If the world was crazy, you know what I'd wear?
A chocolate suit and a tie of eclair,
Some marshmallow earmuffs, some licorice shoes,
And I'd read a paper of peppermint news.
I'd call the boys "Suzy" and I'd call the girls "Harry,"
I'd talk through my ears, and I always would carry
A paper umbrella for when it grew hazy
To keep in the rain, if the world was crazy.

If the world was crazy, you know what I'd do?
I'd walk on the ocean and swim in my shoe,
I'd fly through the ground and I'd skip through the air,
I'd run down the bathtub and bathe on the stair.
When I met somebody I'd say "G'bye, Joe,"
And when I was leaving--then I'd say "Hello."
And the greatest of men would be silly and lazy
So I would be king...if the world was crazy.


2). Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.


3). Sick

"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more--that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut--my eyes are blue--
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke--
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is--what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is. . .Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

Taken from Poets.org

Figurative language in Poems

2009-06-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Figurative language used:
"And there the moon-bird rests from his flight" Metaphor and personification is used. The moon-bird represents the moon and his flight means the flight path of the moon in the sky.

"Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow" Asphalt flowers represents the asphalt roads, and the flowers represent how common asphalt is in the city, like flowers in the countryside.

"There is a place where the sidewalk ends" Where the sidewalk ends is a symbol which symbolises the place where the endless roads and all the things in a city ends, for example a countryside, there is no roads, buildings and naturally no sidewalks. The author used sidewalks because sidewalks are more familiar to children, as the roads are a place of danger to them.

"Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black" The place where the smoke blows black is the city, most likely the industrial area as all the pollution, which is the smoke, comes from. so naturally the 'place' is a city.

Why I like this poem:
This poem instills an emotion of longing for natural things, the grass, the sun and all that that a child would have in a city covered with smoke from the cars and factories. The poem repeats about the chalk-white arrows and the walking measured and slowed. That gives me a sense that the children will get to where the arrows are pointing and out of where the smoke blows black. Also, the poem is short and easy to understand, and I never liked long poems, mostly because I won't be able to understand it.

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

2009-06-21T04:51:00.001-07:00

If everyone else thinks dragons exist, would you? If you know that they do not exist but everyone else thinks otherwise, would you believe them? Would dragons really exist? Therefore, I believe that if many people think something is true, it is true IF it is a scientific fact. If not, or if it have not been proven yet, we should prove it scientifically, or alert the group of people that they are wrong if that something is fiction. But how would you know if that something is fiction or fact?

Of course, there’s still the part about opinions. If many people believes that something is true, and you don’t, does that mean you are wrong and they are right? It could be different opinions. In that case, there are three different possibilities. One being both are wrong, another being one wrong and the other, correct, and the last one being both are correct in different ways. But how would you know if something is fact or fiction? How do you know all this is real? Opinions, facts, even fiction, are all what we see of this world. But what is real to us, how do you know it is not fiction to other sentient beings?

Take the example of Gods. There are many people in the world who believe in Gods, but do they really exist? Those people seem to think so. If you pray, and a ‘miracle’ happens (I’m not a believer), is it really an act of a God? Or is it just a coincidence? Not everyone gets their prayers answered you know. You would not know if Gods really exist, or if they exist and we don’t. Therefore, you can’t tell if something is true even if many people think it’s true.

What is happiness?

2009-06-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

Everyone wants happiness, don’t they? But sometimes this question comes up in my mind: What is Happiness? I’ve thought about it quite a few times, and frankly, I haven’t come up with any conclusion to it.

Now, I shall pen my thoughts down in black and white, my thoughts about what is happiness. Is happiness a state of mind? Or is it something else? Is it what you feel when you win the lottery? Is it what you feel when your child scores straight As? Or is it both? I think it depends. I feel that there are different types of happiness, one being the temporary, where you feel happy about an event, and that passes as the event passes. The other would be longer. It is what you feel when you have a wife/husband of your dreams and you she/he loves you a lot. It is also what you feel when you live everyday of your life as though it is your last.

Why do we feel happy? I feel that I have to at least talk about this as it (I believe) is part of the question. Why do we feel happy? It may be because we see, do, hear, taste etc something we like very much. For example, we could feel happy when we eat something we like, we could also feel happy when we hear music or sounds we like. Why do we like those things? This would link to our personalities, and that would be too far away from the main point.

There is no way a person would be happy everyday about everything every time, because for that to happen, he/she would have to have everything, have nothing, control everything, control nothing and the feeling of content, he/she would also have to have a child, have no children etc. The list can go on and on, with most of them contradicting each other.

And now I conclude my passage with no conclusion at all, for who will know what exactly happiness is? Or is there no such thing as happiness, for it is only a label?

What is Beauty?

2009-05-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

What is beauty? Many people have debated, discussed and fought over what is beauty(or maybe not). To me, everything around us are beautiful in one way or another. There are beauty in good things and bad things alike, with the good things being even more emphasised as beautiful than the bad things. The good things can be categorised as two parts, the inner beauty and the 'outer' beauty. The inner beauty also can be split between a person's heart and mind. The heart is beautiful because people can be kind, helpful and all those, and that makes them beautiful. The mind is considered beautiful when the person is smart, and that makes them beautiful, with the same reason as why being kind and helpful is beautiful.

The outer beauty have many different aspects. The biggest would be the physical beauty, which is the appearance of an object or a person. The most common definition of beauty would be of the appearance of a person or object, where it is more common to be the apperance of a person. The appearance of a person have many areas where it would be classified as beautiful, for example the body, the face or the proportion of the body parts. I would not go deeper into the aspect of the beauty of the body, because it is not appropriate to talk about it, whereas I can talk about the aspect of the face. The face is sometimes considered as beautiful is because of the position of the organs, and the appearance of the organs. Also, the organs must look good when placed together for the face to be considered beautiful.

The proportion of the body parts is also very important, because if the legs or arms are out of proportion(which means they are either too short or too long), the person would not look good, even if he or she have a beautiful face. Imagine a person with legs too short and arms too long! That would make him or her look not as good as a person with his or her limbs in proportion.

After the aspect of the appearance of a person, there is the aspect of the appearance of an object. An object can be beautiful if it is crafted to perfection or if the object is rare. If the object is very exquisite, the person who own the object would gaze lovingly at it, which proves that the object is beautiful to the person. If the object is rare, a person with an interest in these objects would want it, to either add to his or her collection or to brag about it to his or her friends who also hold an interest in these objects.

There is also beauty in evil, or bad things, usually actions. An example of a negative action that could be classified as beautiful would be a robbery. There are different parts of it that could be beautiful, for example the planning of the robbery, the robbery itself and the item that is stolen. the item that is stolen would be classified as the good part of beauty, the outer beauty, so I do not need to explain it one more time.

The planning of the robbery is an art, where it is important to plan which way to get in the premises, which way to get the item and which way to escape, and each of the actions must be completed without being seen or detected. In this way, the act of a robbery can be classified as being beautiful.

There are many other aspects of beauty for bad things, and some of them are too explicit for me to explain, so I will stop here. In general, everything can be beautiful.

My First Semester as a Secondary School Student

2009-05-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Now I am a secondary student, and I have already passed my first semester. I quite satisfied with my results, my class allocation and most importantly, my school. As expected, the workload this year has increased by at least tenfold. Also, the difficulty of this year's work has increased.

OVERVIEW

1.) Plus sides of this year
2.) Minus sides of this year
3). Interesting points of this year
4). Future Plans for this year

1). Plus sides of this year

I have a CCA that I have am interested in, namely the school's Military Band. My instrument in the Band is the Horn, which is the second most difficult instrument in the whole Band, right before the Oboe. Sad face :(
There is an IS(Infocomm Studies) lesson. Now I get to learn the basic skills of Macromedia Flash, Photoshop and some others. That is great, considering that I do not know how to use any of them, and when I found out how to use them, I saw that they were extremely fun, especially Flash, where I get to make my own animation, and hopefully flash games.
I am in the GEP again in secondary school. That is excellent as it is very difficult to continue studying in the GEP after primary school.

2). Minus sides of this year

The workload of this year has increased, plus the number of times I have to stay back at school for various reasons forced me to sacrifice some, if not most of my free time during the weekends. Before this year, I could go out and spend some quality time with my family, but now I have to stay at home during the afternoons and catch up with my work.
The difficulty of this year's work has increased dramatically, forcing me to spend more time on individual homeworks, thus increasing the time I need to complete my homework(including this). For example, I could not finish this blog prompt during lessons, and I had to rush this piece of work at night due to an exchange program right after school.
The examinations have changed. The formats of the examinations of various subjects have changed, for example the English subject's (now known as LA, ie Language Arts) examination paper has been changed from the standard MCQ->OEQ+Composition+Oral into the more difficult Literature Paper+OEQ+Summary(and maybe there's still oral).

3). Interesting points of this year

I have gained many new friends, and have discovered that there are people who are REALLY irritating. The new friends, whom I have acquired, have been quite good friends, helping out when a friend of theirs is in need and always looking out for each other. However, on the other hand those who are REALLY irritating just disrupts the class until the teacher had to blow his/her top.

4). Future Plans for this year

I plan to study harder fo the rest of the year(and the rest of the years too) because my results for term 2 was not good at all, despite having a MSG of lower that 2 for term 1. I found that it is because that the subjects havce become harder, with more facts to remember, and more skills to learn. Especially LA, needing to read a whole book and needing to annotate & analyse the whole book, because the common test at the end of the term or year would be talking about the book.

Vegetating

2009-05-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

This is the meaning of vegetating on urbandictionary.com

1.	Vegetating	7 up, 1 down
	The root word of Veg meaning to loaf or to relax. Normally, vegetating denotes more activity than just sitting around. So what are you doing today? Nothing but a little vegetating.

This is the meaning on the dictionary

veg·e·tate (vj-tt)

intr.v. veg·e·tat·ed, veg·e·tat·ing, veg·e·tates

1. To grow or sprout as a plant does.

2. Pathology To grow in size or spread abnormally.

3. To exist in a state of physical or mental inactivity or insensibility.

4. Informal To engage in relaxing or passive activities, such as watching television.

[Latin vegetre, vegett-, to enliven; see vegetable.]

Contrary to popular belief, vegetating does not always mean to sit or lie around and do absolutely nothing. From the dictionary, even playing computer games is counted as vegetating. As usually being blamed by Benny to vegetate at every free time I have, I just have to clear this up. Yes, I do vegetate, but that doesn't mean I exist in a state of physical or mental inactivity.

Racism(or is it supposed to be Anti-chinaism?)

2009-05-19T04:03:00.001-07:00

I have been silent for too long. This is getting worse, and it must stop. I do not understand why most of the students at Hwa Chong is so anti-china. I have asked many, and most of them explain themselves by saying that everyone knows how lousy the quality of China-made products are. Gradually, they link that to the people from China and will say that people from China all sucks.

I feel that they should not think like that, linking the minority of the low-quality products with the rest of all the produce of China and going on to think that China people are all 'low-quality' bad, selfish and the like. That's just blind generalising. The students(and most of my friends and classmates) are all blinded by their hatred(might be too strong a word) against China and her people.

Of course, they may have some other reasons, like the reason of why some people like to bully others. They might be troubled and wanted to push the blame on to someone else who cant fight back or could not do anything about it, either because they would not care or that they could not have the chance to hear.

Now, the situation is so bad that if there is ANY mention of China, China-made products or China people, my classmates would all simultaneously shout their comments, mostly to insult, or state that China, China-made products or China people sucks or is 'low-quality'. I have tried to stop them, or at least bring them to their senses, but to no avail. No matter what I say, they all have, and will probably comtinue having, a low impression of China, China-made products or China people. If asked, they would just bring out examples such as the San Lu milk incident or some past incident about China-made products.

Blog Prompt(Computer Gaming)

2009-05-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

Once I was addicted to computer gaming(and maybe I still am), and that was the worst year of my life. It went like a blur and till now I still could not remember any significant events. On average, I spent 3-5 hours on the computer a day, and up to 12++ hours during the holidays. Surprised? But that's what really happened. Needless to say, my grades dropped, my eyesight went from bad to worst and I was further and further away from the people around me. That was the only year I had with my mathematics teacher that year and I had wasted the time I had to know him better. That dealt the most damage. Because of that, I lagged behind while others strived in algebra, and seeing them talk to my teacher like old friends now pains me in the heart. It makes me feel like I'm the odd one out, missing out something that they know but I don't. For school work, I had meagre grades. I talked less with my parents, spent little time with my brother and was generally being a self-exiled outcast in the house. To the pleas of my parents for me to abandon my computer just for a while and spend some time with them at the dinner table, I turned a deaf ear to them and played on. I didn't know if I lost weight, but I definitely ate less, drank less and spent less and less time outside the room with the computer. I don't know what came over me. The period of time when I changed from a hardcore gaming addict back to a normal student was/still is very fuzzy to me. Somehow, I realised my mistakes, looked back on my actions and the outcome and discovered that what I have done was very destructive to my life and then, I decided to change. The results were very significant, seeing that my results rose dramatically and more time was spent between me and my family members(mostly because I needed coaching for algebra). And from then on, computer games were not as interesting and tempting as before anymore.

RS

2009-03-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

Please take this survey, to help me with my project, and pass it on. Thanks.

(Pssst, Bryce made me do this. But then again, do the survey)

Dragon Boating

2009-03-24T05:58:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the Kallang basin for the school's exchange program with BPGHS. We were there for dragon boating. quite a few of my classmates did not expect to be very wet after the activity so they did not bring an extra clothing or an extra plastic bag or a towel. including me on the towel part. we started off quite nicely, until when we reached near the Singapore flyer, the instructor suggested we spray water at each other. SOME people started to and irritated others. They then started to retaliate, resulting in a huge dragon boat water fight. I and Benny was the 'dormant' ones, not retaliating nor attempting to attack, until Benny finally 'erupted' of course. THEN, the one thing happened that made me attack ferociously(ok maybe not so lah but then...) someone, spray so much water that 80% of me was wet. That's it man, i thought, I immediately poured all my remaining water on someone behind me and proceeded to refill... (continued tomorrow because I have to sleep already)

My idiot Brother

2009-03-20T20:56:00.001-07:00

I'm so darn pissed about my brother. He, EVERY SINGLE DAY, makes me angry. He refuses to listen, refuses to do housework, refuses to do ANYTHING except for, maybe, eating once every now and then. Once, he almost made my mother commit suicide. She absolutely just broke down man, bawling her eyes out just like that. AND, worse of all, I have to listen to all that scolding and stuff. God Damn. What have I done to deserve this kind of brother? And my mother. She is currently having 'split personalities', so to speak. On a lot of occasions, she have to scold me, go on a rage and talk nicely to me afterwards. It's very difficult for her to do that you know.

Please excuse my language, I'm just pissed off ~~at myself~~ .

The Lottery

2009-03-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

The Lottery, as we know it, is a joyous occasion, with people anticipating and hoping that they will win. But, in this text: 'The Lottery', it is the exact opposite. The one who 'wins' get stoned to death, instead of getting monetary rewards. But why do the villagers stone people every year? Is the reason given, "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon" a bit too superstitious? Or is it just the bit about 'mob mentality'? I feel that it is a little of both. The story tells us about how the villagers follow the tradition of lotteries, one per year to stone a person each year. Isn't it a bit like how our society's been like? The fact about bullies, aren't them like the people in The Lottery? Each group of bullies have a leader, and a band of followers. The leader, or the person who starts the mob to attack the 'weaklings', is like Old Man Warner. He insists that the village continue with the Lotteries even though some show doubt about it.

"They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery."

Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly. "Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody."

"Some places have already quit lotteries." Mrs. Adams said.

"Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools."

A very good example happening in our lives right now would be Philmann. Everybody discriminate him and 'mob' him, just like how the villagers from The Lottery stone Tessie to death. Although it SEEMS like a small problem, mob mentality is a growing problem in our societies. Think about it, there are already bullies in schools, what about the working world? It could just take over the world or something if left untreated. I feel that if we give Philmann some breathing space, he might just change for the good, and not just discriminate and hurt his feelings. I agree, though, that Philmann is irritating, even when no one is there to discriminate him, because I have personal experiences. But, as I have stated earlier, give him some breathing space and he can change for the good. The reference to superstitions is when Old Man Warner say that "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon". It obviously is a superstition as how could killing a person get you more corn? It's just like praying to gods and stuff.

Blog Prompt(another one)

2009-02-14T04:06:00.000-08:00

In this speech you will learn about the increase of the increases of the traffic charges and why is there an increase. Because of traffic congestions, charges will increase to ease the congestions of places during peak hours. Congestion will increase waiting time, slowe speeds, increase travel time and increase fuel costs. Therefore congestions must be eased. There are two ways to ease congestions, one being widening the roads and allowing more vehicles to pass but the widened part would just be congested all over again, the other, is the increase of traffic charges. It is effective, as not a lot of people would pay or would want to pay. This would ease the traffic congestions. Also the first way would use up resources and that is not good for the environment.

WXD

Blog prompt

2009-02-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

In this speech you will learn why animals should not be hunted for their body parts as medicinal ingredients and preventing cruelty to animals. Using animal parts for medicinal ingredients is cruelty to animals, and over killing of the animals will lead to the extinction of the animals. Parts of animals like bears, tigers, slow loris, civet cats and rhinos have been used for medicinal ingredients. Parts of bears like fat, brain, spinal cord and other parts are used to treat everything from cancer to general pain. The tiger, with almost every part used as powder, balms, pills or meat to be eaten, is like a 'walking, living drug store'. It's penis, is used as an aphrodisiac, bones for arthritis and muscular atrophy, claws against insomnia, fat to fight leprosy, and brain to clear pimples. A tiger on the black market can sell for 10,000 US dollar. The slow loris is a big-eyed tree dwelling primate. It's fur is believed to accelerate healing of wounds,and the extract from it's eyeballs is turned into love potion. The anal scent gland of the civet cat is used in potion to induce abortion, and used in Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix soup, for fighting arthritis and to stimulate blood flow. The Rhino's horn is believed for centuries to ba able to cure fevers, convulsions, delirium, headaches, heart and liver problems, toothaches, and snake bites. The horn is also more valuable by weight than gold.

Other cruel acts to animals include what happens to animals that we eat before they are killed for meat. Their lives are spent in cages that are filthy and barely larger than their bodies. They should be treated humanely even though we are going to eat them. To produce veal, most calves are taken from their mothers when they are just hours or days old and then hung by their necks in crates too narrow for them to turn around or even lie down comfortably. Almost totally unable to move and prevented from engaging in natural behavior, they suffer tremendously.

During nearly their entire four-month pregnancies, millions of female pigs used for breeding are kept in gestation crates – individual, metal stalls only two-feet wide. The crates are so small that the animals cannot even turn around. Barely able to move, these highly intelligent animals suffer terribly and develop various illnesses.

Hundreds of millions of hens are kept in tiny cages so small that the birds can’t spread their wings, nest, dust-bathe, perch, or even walk more than a few painful steps. Each caged hen has less space than a sheet of letter‐sized paper on which to live for more than a year before the hen is killed for meat.

In conclusion, hunting animals for their body parts as medicinal ingredients and cruelty to domestic animals must stop.

WXD

Blog Prompt

2009-02-10T04:17:00.000-08:00

This proposal will hopefully convince you to fund the recycling campaign launched by our school's Recycling Club. By funding our campaign, there will be three ways you can benefit. Firstly, recycling reduces the amount of materials wasted, thus reducing landfill costs and therefore you would have to pay less. Energy costs would also be reduced since getting materials would be mining, and various ways so recycling would reduce the costs of using energy to get the materials. The air would also be less polluted because the materials would not be incinerated but recycled, giving you materials and less pollution.

WXD

2nd blog prompt

2009-01-23T02:52:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: I did not post the 3rd post in my blog. It was posted by me:

Blog Prompt 2:
The Three Gorges Dam, recently completed on 30th October, has 26 electricity generators. There are 6 more under construction underground. Thus it will not become fully operational until 2011. the total generating capacity will reach 22,500 megawatts.
Residents receiving the electricity generated by the Three Gorges Dam will have to pay an additional 7.00 Yuan per MWh. The additional money will go to the Three Gorges Construction Fund.
Now will this be beneficial or not beneficial to people? I think that after the fund is filled, the extra money would be deducted and the cost of electricity would be reverted back to the original before the Three Gorged Dam was built.
Why was the dam built if the cost were very high(180 billion Yuan)? The dam was built to provide more electricity through more environmentally friendly way, hydroelectric, so the weight on the planet would be reduced by a bit if not all. The cost might also be lower after the fund is filled because hydroelectric is generated by running water which almost cost none at all while burning fossil fuels for electricity cost more for the burning process and pollutes the environment.
The Three Gorges Dam would, according to The National Development and Reform Commission of China, it takes 366 grams of coal to generate 1 kWh, so the dam would potentially reduce the annually coal consumption of 31 tonnes and the annual emission of 100 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, millions of tonnes of dust, 1 million tonnes of sulfur dioxide, 370 thousand tonnes of nitric oxide, 10 thousand tonnes of carbon monoxide and a significant amount of mercury into the atmosphere. The dam would also reduce the energy consumption of mining, washing and transporting of the coal.
Therefore, the socio-economic impact of the Three Gorges Dam is and probably will be for the time being, positive.

WXD

Now is anyone else happy that I'm not a pathetic old man or a Charlie Gordon?

3rd post

2009-01-18T01:37:00.000-08:00

teh all mighty lolcat has dictated that ur 3rd post needs to be more substantial under law 32174926b of the Penal Code under blog writing.

"All blog posts are to be substantial or they will be edited by the mighty lolcat"

Have a nice day.

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Second post

2009-01-17T05:11:00.001-08:00

This is my second post. I have nothing better to do other than write useless and meaningless stuff on my blog so my first blog was a total failure and i forgot the password. Did I mention I had a first blog? Oh well, I have a first blog. now I’m writing this post out of boredom. Oh hey! This is a long post! How interesting. And this is my longest post on any blog ever! I have nothing better to say. Sad.

1st Post!

2009-01-08T20:18:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, this is my first post on this blog. I have no idea how to improve my blog skin so that's why it's so dull. If only someone would tell me...