:D:

update

2010-08-23T05:27:00.000-07:00

Hey all just a quick personal update after a few months away from my blog. First, sorry for not being very active for the few weeks before as I was too busy mugging for the tests, but now that it's over, there's the EOY exams!! YIPEE! So , I would probably be away for the rest of this year, yeah, don't expect too much.

Anyways, now that we have gotten most of our results back, I have calculated my current MSG in the worst case scenario to be:

2.67

Wait what? No no no that can't be. Best case scenario:

1.67

ahh, that's much better.

What's yours?
Leave a comment or leave a response in the tagboard.
Alright, that's all for today, bye
-DHY

RE: How Dare He make the MRT look nicer?

2010-07-12T05:04:00.000-07:00

With reference to one of the reading materials for Friday's English Current Affairs Discussion (How Dare He make the MRT look nicer?), I would like to express my opinions about the recent MRT vandalism case.

First of all, kudos to the writer who wrote the article on his blog and the witty title. Sarcasm never gets old. It made me laugh for quite a while, so thanks. :D

So, for those of you who do not know already, 2 foreigners, Oliver Fricker and Lloyd Dane Alexander, broke into the Changi MRT depot and sprayed MRT trains with graffiti. The incident was reported by commuters who noticed the vandalised MRT and already, there are footage of it posted on the Internet.

So, what's the big deal about it? It's just vandalism. Happens all the time. Exactly, so what is all the fuss over this incident?

The sentence.

For decorating the MRT, Oliver Fricker would receive a sentence of 3-8 strokes of the cane, 3 years in jail and a 2000 dollar fine.

What? 3-8 Strokes of the cane? Are you kidding? I totally agree with what the post mentioned-for having an artistic flair and painting the MRT, he has to sit on a rubber float a pillow for the rest of his life. However, that is the truth, sadly. It is written in black and white on the law book of Singapore that vandalism warrants caning. In my opinion, it is a far too harsh and barbaric of a punishment. Besides, he did not even paint anything offensive on the train. I mean I would have understood if he was given a slightly harsher treatment if he printed out the "f" word and a one-finger-salute on the train but all he wrote was "McKoy Banos", the artists' signatures on the train in an intricate, artistic manner. The colorful MRT trains was seen by many commuters and many of them thought that it was a publicity stunt my SMRT and thought that it was a refreshing change from the dull, ordinary trains.

Then, why is he being persecuted if his actions had done potentially no harm and given such a harsh punishment? In my opinion, this is all due to Singapore's old-fashioned ways - the punishment act was based on the Vandalism Act of 1966. 1966! Think about it, the punishment is 44 years old! In the course of 4 and a half decades, human rights have already took a great leap of advancement and physical punishment is not used anymore and maybe even criticised by other democratic nations. Singapore should update its laws accordingly instead of risk being criticised by other nations just because they caned a foreigner. Already, angry netizens are commenting about this incident and how barbaric Singapore is:

"YES Singapore DOES impose FLOGGINGS (which is mandatory) for vandalism. Two different considerations here. Fricker sentenced to be FLOGGED FOR VANDALISM--which is written into Singapores violent laws. He was also convicted for trespassing, which is a security breach, but NO beating for that. Beating anyone to inflict bodily harm and or injury IS VIOLENT, SADISTIC, and BARBARIC! Oliver Fricker is no terrorist and the judge knew it acknowledging there was no sinister agenda"

"Many countries have strict laws but only a few in the world (SINGAPORE IS ONE OF THEM) has sadistic MANDATORY FLOGGINGs for minor things such as illegals overstaying a visa must be beaten at least three lashes with a wood rattan stick, vandalism is mandatory beating of 3 lashes, selling fireworks etc. This country is fanatical with beating people namely the male population. Brutality is a sad way of life here. Look at youtube Malaysia whip -More of the same type VIOLENCE. "

"OKAY KIDS, DADDY'S GONNA CANCEL OUR TRIP TO SINGAPORE, THAT PLACE IS JUST TOO INAPPROPRIATE FOR U KIDS, JUZ LOOK AT THEIR ECCENTRIC ATTITUDE TO FOREIGNERS. BUT NVM, DADDY'S JUZ BOOK TICKETS TO ISRAEL...! MUCH MORE SAFER AND MODERNIZED! "

However, it is still true that vandalism and trespassing of protected property are offences and maybe some of the comment above are a little over exaggerated but Fricker should have been given a lighter punishment, maybe a heavier fine but slight reduction of his imprisonment and no caning. Furthermore, he trespassed protected property and should be lawfully punished for that offence as that breach in security could lead to terrorists realizing how easy it was to break in to the depots and perhaps target them.

To conclude, I would just like to say that graffiti can be viewed as a form of contemporary art that should be appreciated or as a sign of rebellion and an offence punishable by law. Singapore simply views it as the latter.

Bibliography:

http://kixes.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/how-dare-he-make-the-mrt-look-nicer/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CV4JYKBEQo

Foreign Talent : Boon or Bane?

2010-07-05T05:05:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, foreign talents are more of a boon to Singapore in some areas while less of so in others.

Firstly, I feel that foreign talents are more of a bane than a boon to Singapore in the workforce. In the workforce, foreign talents deprive locals of their jobs as they are usually more capable and talented than the latter, and expect lower incomes than the locals as the cost of living at their homes are usually less and they would therefore expect and require less. These factors coupled with the fact that the society we live in today is extremely mercenary and competitive would mean that bosses would be more inclined to hire foreign talents than to hire locals. While some may say that one's success is measured by his capability and that Singapore has many capable, talented people too, we have to accept the fact that everything is based on money and with foreign talents available at a much lower cost, which boss would not want to hire foreigners instead of locals if given the option? Furthermore, with the limited amount of jobs available in Singapore and the influx of foreign talents, there is a very low chance of finding enough jobs for both foreigners and locals. As a result, social problems might arise in the long run from the unemployed locals.

Secondly, I feel that Foreign talents are more of a boon than of a bane in the education system. Here, the competition is not so intense and the consequences are not as severe as compared to the workforce. In fact, the presence of foreign talents would encourage locals to perform better in order to catch up with them. However, problems would still arise; due to their cultural and other differences, locals and foreigners might find it hard to socialize with each other and lead to isolation or maybe even bullying of foreigners or locals, whichever is the minority.

To conclude, I feel that foreign talents are more advantageous to Singapore in some areas than in others.

Plagiarism

2010-06-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

After the principal dialogue's section yesterday, I feel obliged to write about the topic of plagiarism.
So what exactly is plagiarism? The word itself derived from a Latin word which means "to-kidnap". As it suggest, plagiarism is "The action or practice of plagiarizing; the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) of another." according to the Oxford English Dictionary Online ( I quoted my sources so this is not plagiarism). Basically, stealing.

So, if stealing is immoral, why do so many people still plagiarise? As mentioned yesterday at the Dialogue session, time constraints and laziness are primary factors-Why bother to think of your own ideas when you have it readily available on the Internet? Furthermore, the dawn of the Information Age and the mass production of computers have also encouraged plagiarism. Computer functions such as copy and paste and the huge variety of content on the Internet, it is difficult to avoid plagiarism, even when unintentional.

But if we are not supposed to copy ideas from the Internet, what is the bibliography section at the end of the research assignment for? True, it is to cite sources but not of sources which you simply copy and paste to your Microsoft Word document, but sources that you have read thoroughly and understood completely, along with what you have deduced from studying these sources. Yes, it is difficult and time-consuming and all of us have been tempted to plagiarise many times but it is better to spend 6 mundane hours studying 10 articles than spending much more time behind bars for being caught plagiarising.

So, what could we do to avoid plagiarism? Firstly, we could refer to hard copy sources such as books for research materials instead of information on the Internet. This would slightly discourage us from plagiarising material. Furthermore, hard copy sources are usually more reliable than those on the Internet as the latter might be written by people who might not have even read about the subject before and has been up on the web for such a short period of time that it might not even have been accurately assessed. Secondly, we could develop our critical thinking skills more so we would rely less on external sources but think of equally good ideas ourselves.

Above all, it comes down to one's moral integrity-everyone has the choice to plagiarise or not to do so.

Bibliography:
http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/howto/infoskills_plagiarism.shtml
http://ezproxy.lib.ed.ac.uk/login?url=http://dictionary.oed.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism
Principal's dialogue session, 29/ 6/10
See, I cited my sources I'm not plagiarising.:D

World Expo part II

2010-06-24T05:14:00.000-07:00

Well, so I have been to Shanghai and have visited the World Expo. How was it? I only have 1 word to describe it:

PEOPLE

Yes, fortunately or unfortunately. Need I say more? The Expo grounds were filled to the brim, or maybe even more, with people and where did those people go? Yes, to the pavilions, so now you have virtually all the queues to the pavilions completely taken up. It is no wonder that a Chinese politician made a joke saying that the World Expo is nothing but for bored people to kill time by queuing. Due to the overwhelming crowd, I regret to say that I have only visited a mere 8 pavilions, a drop in the ocean and I did not even visit the Singapore pavilion. However, I did visit the "untouchable" China pavilion. As its name suggests, people have to queue or even camp for hours before even granted mere entry to the pavilion. However, I feel that it was worth it (not just because of the fact that our tour group was granted instant access to the secondary queue). The pavilion did indeed exhibit China's superior technology and economy through the bombardment of cutting-edge modern facilities and exhibits, the manifestation of the country's prosperity, and needless to say, the pavilion alone was enough to make my day through its interactive and fun features.

I also visited the less well known corporate pavilions situated at the other bank of the river and wanted to visit the Coca-Cola pavilion, partly in order to get a bottle of free coke, but my spirits were dampened by the relentless queue. However, I did enter an aerospace pavilion which was still quite entertaining despite its small size.

Overall, I feel that the 2010 Shanghai World Expo has been a successful event so far and I would have thoroughly enjoyed it....

....If not for the overwhelming number of people.

World Expo (part 1)

2010-05-30T23:37:00.000-07:00

As you all know, the World Expo has began. Actually it began a month ago but I was too busy to update my blog about the World Expo, so pardon my "lag". Anyways, so the World Expo kicked off on the 1st of May with an explosive start. Literally. If you don't believe me just watch this video:

See what I meant?
The mouth-gaping 10 minute fireworks display is not all, the opening ceremony of the World Expo had other various colourful performances contributed by not just China, but countries all over the world, signifying the main reason for this event-unity amongst all nations. Indeed, it was an eye-opener and a visual treat for all those who mange to catch it on Television. I was no exception, unwilling to miss such a huge-scaled global event.

In my opinion, the opening ceremony reflected China's prosperity and was even better than the opening ceremony of the last mega event China hosted, the Beijing Olympics, showing the nation's constant growth and improvement. However, only time will tell whether it reflects the success of the actual event itself or not; due to the recent economic crisis, many countries are short of funds and are unable to build lavish pavilions for the event to showcase their culture. Even superpowers like the United States are hardly able to come up with anything up to standard due to a shortage of funds. Greece was a particular example. Due to a failure in the country's economy and the collapse of their currency, Greece was unable to come up with anything more than a painted rectangular building, hardly enough to showcase its rich history which dates back even to the Stone Age. Furthermore, many people are unwilling to visit the World Expo due to the complaints of long queues and the sweltering summer weather.

Despite these, I believe the World Expo would still be a successful event and China and the world's efforts would not go down the drain. I would be visiting the World Expo during the June holidays, so stay tuned for part 2!

Happy Holidays everyone! :D

Task 2

2010-05-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

1. Point of view
Point- A war veteran of the Vietnam war who has personal experience in handling agent orange.
Evidence - "Toll on the innocent and unborn.", “Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.”,
Elaboration – The writer feels that the war not only takes its toll on the soldiers who took part in the war but also the unborn child of those soldiers. These children, although had no part in the war, but still have to suffer the consequences. This expresses how the writer empathizes with such innocent beings, as they have to pay the price for their forefathers mistake- to join the war, when they themselves had not done anything wrong.

2. Situation and Setting
Point - The nature of this conflict is a combination of ethics and social characteristics.
Evidence - "Generations untold WILL pay", "Execrable effects of the Orange Spray"
Elaboration - The evidences shows the horrific effects of the Orange Spray which will be passed on to the next generation of Vietnamese people, affecting the lives of of the children about to be born. Thus, low ethic level of the Americans can be seen as they did not seem to care about the next generation. The social characteristics is that the conflict involving the herbicides will leave a mark, permanently scar society forever.

3.Language/Diction
Point-The author wanted to show and reveal the truth behind the America's herbicidal weapon in the Vietnam War through his language. The diction shows the speaker's sarcastic attitude towards the Americans.
Evidence- "America did not foresee", "Now thinking twice?"
Elaboration: Despite America not being able to foresee the pain and agony that herbicides will caused towards the people, they did not reconsider as seen from the question mark in the evidence, which implies that even after they realised the horrific effects of the Orange Spray, they did not take any actions and still continue with the original measure, and this signifies their little sense of guilt.

4)Personal response- War is cruel and inhumane. In a war, no one benefits. The Rainbow Herbicides were originally used by the Americans against Vietnamese crops. However, it also had an undesirable side effect. Many Americans came in contact with the Herbicides and as a result they had incurable health problems. The children of these Americans were born with many health defects. Despite being innocent, they will have to suffer for the rest of their lives, for reasons they can’t comprehend.

Task 1

2010-05-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

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

Conflict represented in the poem:
Firstly, let's start off with the poet's background. Hubert Wilson was a soldier who served in the Vietnam war in the USAF service. He was sent to Shemya island in Alaska, a place heavily contaminated with Agent Orange, a type of herbicidal gas used to clear forests in Vietnam in order to expose the hiding spots of the Vietnamese guerillas. It is part of the "Rainbow herbicides", a group of herbicides used for herbicidal warfare and as its name suggests, it consists of gases which had names such as "Agent Blue" and "Agent Purple", which were all highly toxic and indeed, he contracted numerous disease after his service. He begin to suffer from Parkinson-like symptoms and lose control of his central nervous system yet no physician or doctor could diagnose his condition. However, his mind still functions well despite the Agent-Orange poisoning and he has thus turned to writing.

His poems are dedicated to exposing the horrors of chemical warfare, especially those used in the Vietnam War which he had personal experience of. Rainbow Death is one such example, in order to display the inhumane use of Agent Orange.. Agent Orange is a herbicide and defoliant, contaminated with TCDD used by the U.S. military in its herbicidal warfare program during the Vietnam War.
According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 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.

Bibliography:
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

LA online lesson:: spatial task- Design an obituary for Mrs Dubose

2010-03-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

Spatial task: Design an obituary for Mrs Dubose:

La online lesson: : intrapersonal task- write a diary entry for a major character of the novel

2010-02-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

La online lesson: : intrapersonal task- write a diary entry for a major character of the novel

Character: Jem

Timeline: after the Tom Robinson trial

Dear Diary,

I don't understand anymore. Adult life is such a paradox to me. I attended the Tom Robinson trial today and instead of being just and impartial in its judgement, the courtroom was enveloped by prejudice. The evidence had clearly proved that Tom Robinson is innocent and yet, the jury's final verdict was that he was guilty. How could this happen? Ain't all man created equal in our courts like what Atticus had said? Are they not? Is our town so discriminatory that even the ideal of justice has been corrupted? It ain't right. It just ain't right. I don't know this town anymore. Perhaps the next minute, even Calpurnia might be framed and persecuted. The idea of merely walking on the streets with a negro was beginning to scare me. I don't want to live in Maycomb anymore.

Still, I admired Atticus' courage. Now I fully understand what he meant when he said "Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what" . Even though he knew that he would never win and Tom Robinson will never be acquitted, he continued to defend him anyway. I would always look up to this trial not only as a symbolism of the prejudice and racism in our land but as a manifestation of Atticus' courage and I hope that one day, his courage will be appreciated and racial discrimination will finally be lifted from Maycomb.

Alright I have to go now. Bye!

BGFL multi-intelligence test

2010-02-27T23:22:00.000-08:00

This are my results for the BGFL multi-intelligence test

In my opinion, I feel that these multi-intelligence tests are quite accurate but lack specificity. For example, how much is "a bit" in the choice "this is a bit like me" and the questions lack depth and I feel that some of them are too superficial for example, there was a question which asked if I could solve puzzle questions and I do not feel that the question relates directly to how far can one think logically.

I feel that this tests can be rather useful as it can be used to identify our strengths and weaknesses. In this case, I found out that I am not very naturalistic and musical and thus I would know that these areas of my intelligence have to put in more effort in. Furthermore, teachers could use the information given by the results to teach students more effectively. For example. if a student is a spatial person, teachers could teach such students with the use of pictures and it would be more efficient this way as these students could remember pictures very well.

The new academic system

2010-02-25T04:09:00.000-08:00

It has been 6 weeks since the new academic system has been implemented. 6 weeks of hell. 6 weeks of futile attempts to adapt to the new system. Now, you may ask why I am so pessimistic about the new academic system. And my answer is, I am not. This, is the truth.

Firstly, what exactly is the new academic system? As many of you would have already known, it is a new grading system of students which would be effective as of the academic year of 2010. So, what are the differences between this system and the old one? Let me just briefly explain the points:

- ACE points are now counted as a separate subjects and are computed in a different mean subject grade.
yes, that means your projects can no longer help you pull your grades up
- Students would have to choose from different subjects each term to do ACE projects on
- Oral Participation points are now counted as a separate subject, Oral communication and are computed in a different mean subject grade.
like ace points, do not help in improving your academic grade
-Projects done for the projects day competition are graded and counted in a separate subject, Independent Studies which consists of it and ACE points.
yes, its now as useless as ACE points in improving your mean subject grade.
-The 2 new subjects, Independent Studies and Oral Communication are computed into a separate MSG, Scholastic MSG.
Yes, you know what this means...
-A higher weighage of tests and exams (30% and 70%)

So, now that you have fully understood the changes made to the academic system, let me express my views. The new academic system is useless in improving the quality of students' lives or maybe even does more harm than good. Now that ACE and Oral Communication are counted separately, students could no longer depend on the 2 to improve their grades and therefore have to concentrate more on studying according to the syllables. This makes school life dull and boring for the students after all, we tend to learn more efficiently and absorb more information when working beyond the classroom, as in ACE projects. Furthermore, it increases the burden of the students as they are more stressed to achieve good results in tests and exams as they could no longer depend on ACE and Oral Communication points.

Although the 2 subjects are still as crucial as before as they are required for students to enrol in various courses such as the CSE program, the importance of academic results still outweigh the importance of these 2 subjects. After all, nobody would allow a student which achieved a academic MSG of 3.00 and a Scholastic MSG of 1.00 to enter the CSE program.

However, that was just the tip of the iceberg, to top it up, there are logistic glitches in the new academic system. As students have to select 3 subjects each term to do ACE projects on and they have to do so via an online selection system in the Parents portal, I was no exception and I logged in to do so, only to find various appalling flaws. Firstly, Integrated Mathematics was excluded from the list and that meant that there were only 4 subjects left to choose from as Chinese was compulsory. Of the four subjects, Infocomm Studies was ongoing and therefore had to be picked, I decided to leave English out of the list as I had already done it in term 1 and so, eventually, there were only 2 subjects to choose from to fill in the last 2 slots. Not much of a choice if you ask me. I hope that this is only a technical error and that it will be corrected soon. However, the chances of that happening are marginal as the system has already been confirmed.

To conclude, I would like to say that the new academic system is pointless and should not have replaced the old one. What are your thoughts about this issue? Tell me about them and leave a comment through the comment link below this post. Thanks in advance.

Rant on: Friday

2010-02-19T19:10:00.000-08:00

image taken from: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_--YjWiyF8eE/SGgVC4pR8MI/AAAAAAAACg8/rcuHcXegddY/s320/friday25.gif

It has always been said that Friday was the best day of the week, it was the end of a hectic week at work or at school, it was the start of the relaxing weekends, it was the time for everyone to unwind. Some people has become such big fans of Friday that they have even created a fan page on Facebook for that particular day of the week and you can check it out here. However, I beg to differ sometimes as some Fridays turned out to be ironically the worst day of the week. Take yesterday for example:

Yesterday was the worst Friday of the year ( not that there are many Fridays in 2010 yet). To begin with, I had forgotten to do my maths homework and arrived in school late that day and therefore could not complete it in the morning before the flag raising ceremony but I could still complete it during recces. However, there was insufficient time and in the end, I handed it in incomplete, which was enough of a reason for the maths teacher to give me a lecture on punctuality and a punishment of either cleaning up the staffroom or copying the two conduct songs 10 times each.

Furthermore, I realised that I have not completed my NYAA (national youth achievement award) application form yet and I was unsure of some details such as my postal code. Eventually, I managed to complete and hand in the form after school but it was in poor condition and thus it might be rejected. Right now, there is nothing I can do to help but pray fervently.

Finally school ended and I reached home at around 7pm after my CCA and immediately, I rushed to the computer, not to access Facebook or MSN or play computer games but to revise for my Infocomn Studies test on C++ next Monday. As C++ was one of my weaker Infocomn studies sub-topics, I encountered numerous problems and did not understand half the things I was looking at. Thus, I began searching for answers on the Internet and by the time I had done finding all of them, it was already well into midnight and I was as exhausted and collapsed into bed.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining and yesterday was not all that bad. It has been confirmed that I will be representing the school in the inter-school wushu competition this year! Finally, months of hard work and training has finally paid off.

Well I guess Fridays can be both enjoyable and not and whether it is the former or the latter, it totally depends on the person. After all, the obstacles I met with yesterday were all due to my absent-mindedness. So, what are your thoughts of Fridays? Leave them as a comment on this post and I would love to hear them.

Have a great weekend ahead!

Chinese New Year Celebrations!! :D

2010-02-12T04:52:00.000-08:00

As of those who were present today, I am sure many of you enjoyed the concert and performances thoroughly today but even if you did not, its still fine because Chinese New Year begins tomorrow! I would like to reemphasise on the fact:

CHINESE NEW YEAR BEGINS TOMORROW!

Anyway, back to the topic. I too, enjoyed myself today at the concert, be it socialising with my friends or enjoying the performances. The teachers, organising team and the various EP3s involved has been putting in a lot of effort into rehearsing and preparing for this day and their effort has not gone to waste as seen from the school's ecstatic cheers and the thunderous rounds of applause. It has been hard on the people involved in preparing this event and I would like to express my gratitude to them for organising such a great concert.

However I feel that there were a few of logistics errors here and there. For example, the speaker's stand was so heavily and flamboyantly decorated that it blocked some parts of the stage, causing some of us to be unable to view the whole performance. However, there were only a few such glitches and generally, the performance went through smoothly.

Before I end off, I would like all of you who are reading this post to leave a comment via the comment link below telling me how do you intend to spend this festive season, be it visiting your friends' or relatives' house or simply just relaxing. Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

OK that's all for today. Have fun during the Luna New Year, but just remember, do not exercise self-control and do not stuff yourself with too much goodies, I do not want to sit with another 34 obese people in class once school reopens!

HAPPY YEAR OF THE TIGER EVERYONE!!

image taken from: http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/images/tiger.jpg

Updates on the Haiti crisis

2010-02-02T04:31:00.000-08:00

As all of you would have known, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on the 12 of January 2010, causing serious damage to the country and destroying the capital, creating a mass grave of at least a 17000 and a living hell for those has been injured. 20 days have passed since the disaster strike and needless to say, Haiti has received numerous humanitarian aid from other country. However,the damage to the infrastructure impeded the progress as the airport has been completely razed to the ground and many roads have been made inaccessible and thus, although it seems that country is receiving a lot of help, it has been slow to reach the victims due to the above factor. The progress has been slowed down by so much that a UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs even called this the "worst disaster the UN has ever confronted"

First of all, I would like to express my sympathy for the Haitians. Come to think of it, the country has already suffered a lot and despite this, being the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, suffering from various natural disasters and being occupied by various countries for the past 5 centuries, was just not enough and another disastrous earthquake has to devastate the country again. Many Haitians had already lost their family, homes and all that mattered and have sustained some serious injuries. One such example is this boy in the picture below:

image src:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Boy_receiving_treatment_after_Haiti_earthquake.jpg
Furthermore, many of them have been further traumatised by the post-disaster violence of looting and killing for necessities. A majority of them are currently staying in temporary shanty town built of what they could salvage from the collapsed buildings and have to fight to receive even the most basic daily necessities such as food and potable water. Here is a video displaying conditions of the aftermath of the disaster:

Although I could not do anything much to help the Haitians overcome this situation, I feel that I should at least donate, no matter how meagre the sum, some money to the organisations helping Haiti. Despite not having done so, I believe that this is a cause we should all support and I would donate some money to Haiti the next time I come across such an organisation.

What are your thoughts of the calamity? I would love to hear them. Please leave a comment in the comment link below.

"Hope For Every fallen Man" by Relient K

2010-01-24T04:50:00.000-08:00

Hope For Every Fallen Man by Relient K

*also available on the mixpod playlist below, track 4*

Lyrics:

As you push it up through the soil,
I will shake your filthy hand.
You may be dead to me but that don't mean we can't be friends.
Now it's time to get over this,
Long as it's clear you understand,
That I will never trust a single thing you say again.

Because the judge of you is someone I could never be,
Is why you should thank the Lord that it is Him, and it's not me.

Don't give up, it's not the end,
There's hope for every fallen man,
To pick themselves up when they think they can,
Because with every passing second comes a second chance.

Oh-oh-oh

You stole so much from me and there is nothing left to take,
Save a hard learned lesson on how to not make the same mistake.
And you may be delirious but that is something that will fade,
After you confess that this mess is all something that you made.

Oh, because the judge of you is someone I could never be,
Is why you should thank the Lord that it is Him, and it's not me.

But don't give up, it's not the end.
There's hope for every fallen man,
To pick themselves up when they think they can,
Because with every passing second comes a second chance

Oh-oh-oh

Don't give up, it's not the end.
You'll get back on your feet again.
Forgiveness can be given when you think it can,
Because with every passing second comes a second chance

Oh-oh-oh

'Cause with every passing second comes a second chance,
Take a good look at yourself and know,
You've got yourself a ways to go.
But difficult is not impossible,
You can take back all the lost control.
Take a good look at yourself and see,
You'll emerge eventually.
As long as your heart's not too far gone,
From the only thing that can save you from yourself...

Forgiveness can be given when you think it can,
'cause with every passing second comes a second chance.

But don't give up, it's not the end.
There's hope for every fallen man,
To pick themselves up when they think they can,
Because with every passing second comes a second chance,

Oh-oh-oh

Don't give up, it's not the end.
You'll get back on your feet again.
Forgiveness can be given when you think it can,
Because with every passing second comes a second chance

Personally, this song is one of my favourite songs as I feel that its lyrics are very meaningful especially the chorus. The line "because with every passing second comes a second chance" has left a lasting impact on me as I feel that it is a very effective hyperbole to show that there are many more opportunities for redemption. Additionally, I feel that I relate to the lyrics of this song and listening to this song when things are not going so smoothly has encouraged me to persevere and not give up after all, "there's hope for every fallen man to pick themselves up when they think they can".

OK now time for the "fun" part, analysing the literary form of the lyrics. (yay!)

The general tone of this song is a combination of an optimistic tone and a pessimistic tone and sometimes in between. The first stanza starts off in a rather discriminatory tone with the persona telling somebody that he will never trust him again. However, the tone gradually turns indifferent in the next stanza and gradually transforms into a optimistic tone as the persona tells the person he was talking to not give up. The rest of the song follows the same pattern.

This song utilizes some imagery throughout. For example, in stanza 1, a symbolism of resurrection is used, "as you push it up through the soil, I will shake your filthy hand". Another such example is the personification of a person's heart, "as long as your heart is not too far gone".

Enjoy the song

LA lectures

2010-01-21T04:08:00.000-08:00

image taken from: http://www.leasingnews.org/CartoonBank3/Lecture.gif

As all of you have known, there is a new lesson of the subject, Language Arts, in the timetable dubbed "Language Arts Lecture". Basically, it is a lesson which consists of a university style lecture conducted by a teacher to 3 classes at any one time and they have selected our cohort and the secondary 1 cohort to be guinea pigs and test this new procedure on us.

In my opinion, this new way of teaching has helped cater to the needs of students as some students might learn faster and more effectively when learning independently at his own pace instead of being guided step by step as in the case of the traditional "classroom teaching" method. Secondly, I think that this method of teaching has made us better prepared for higher level education such as university and junior college level education as most of the lessons conducted are lectures similar to those that we are having. Additionally, I feel that this method will be able to bring the 4 consortiums together as the lectures are usually conducted with 3 classes, each from a different consortium and here, they are able to share their views and opinions with each other. Furthermore, I feel that these lectures are more interesting than the usual lessons as the lecturer would usually make use of multimedia such as video clips and PowerPoint presentations. Last but not least, the environment is better than the conventional classroom, after all, who can resist having lessons in a nice cool air-conditioned spacious lecture hall?

However, all coins have heads and tails and there are a few disadvantage of this new way of teaching. First and foremost, I feel that some classes are not participating actively enough in these lectures. For example, during the lesson last Thursday, only our class was participating orally and the other classes remained silent throughout. This could be because of the teacher who is conducting the lecture as the one who was doing so was our language arts teacher only and was nothing but just another average teacher whom they do not know for the other classes and therefore were shy to speak up. Secondly, I feel that this method of teaching is unsuitable for some students who could not learn independently and needs someone to guide him through every step or are just plain lazy as only the tip of the iceberg is touched on in a lecture and the rest of it would require a student to further research on the topic to fully comprehend it.

Overall, I feel that this radical teaching style's pros outweigh its cons and is more effective than traditional styles for me. However, one man's meat might be another man's poison and other students might not feel the same way for this.

So, what are your thoughts of this new way of teaching? I would like to hear them. Please comment via the comment link below of through the tagboard although the former is preferred. Alright, time to go, goodbye all.

First Week of school

2010-01-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

As you all have known and experienced, school has recently just opened a week ago and I'm sure most of you have a rather dreaded feeling about it, after all, suddenly deprived of the freedom you had for 6 weeks and having it replaced with mundane school does cause one to be slightly unaccustomed to life. However, we should all try to maintain a positive attitude and look forward to the new academic year and the first week of school was not that bad either, and I feel that our lessons were quite fun.

A new academic year also meant a year of changes and metamorphosis. Firstly, I was separated from the majority of my Secondary 1 class to join the Pilot Programme class, 2A3. This meant that I will gradually lose most of my previous friends and make new ones in the class and although currently I am not ready to do so and am sitting in the back corner of the class and still continue to maintain my ties with my Secondary 1 classmates, I believe I will do so soon as everything must change and those who are not ready to do so will be left behind in the past.

Secondly, there are a few different teachers who would be teaching me now, such as Ms Loh, the English teacher and Mr Kong, the chemistry teacher and my opinions about them are currently neutral, they will change as the year progresses.
Finally, about my blog. Please do comment on the layout, design and etc of my blog and I would like to hear all your thoughts and improve on whatever areas which can be improved on. Many thanks in advance.

That's all for today, goodbye all

Welcome

2010-01-17T01:22:00.000-08:00

Hi all so this is my new school blog, and for my friends, please link it ASAP.
As this blog would be mainly use for educational purposes (getting ACE points), please do not post any obsceneties or vulgarities.
The first posts will be up soon
-Han Yang :)