Homework is of such infiniteness which sucks our soul away... ...

IT home learning-Intrapersonal option 3

2010-03-02T07:26:00.000-08:00

ok, right to the topic...

Dear diary,
Today is the day of Tom Robinson's court trial. And the conclusion was as expected. The poor innocent Tom was sentenced to jail. In this society where existing racial prejudice and societal norms dominate the people's minds, nothing could be done about it. It was a case does does not need to be fought. The outcome is already determined long before the appeal. However, it was me who was appointed to defend Tom, and in result, the damage that I have caused to my future generations... sigh... I had no choice, I have to uphold my beliefs...

The innocent Tom was simply judged by the secret courts of man's hearts, not by the supreme courts of justice. All odds are against him due to his skin colour, and even though I have tried my best, all proved to be in vain. I had tried to shed the light on this case, and I had done so. However, Tom had commited a mistake that would convict him, and that is the fact that he sympathized with a white. As a black, he should never had done so, and saying that in front of the jury, the jury eventually convicted him. But thinking once again, in the hearts and minds of this society, only racial prejudice and discrimination existed. There is clearly no such word as justice. Till we eventually be able to coexist with the negros, can we actually bring in the new term of justice into our society. But why do we despise the negros? They did not commit any atrocities that left a colossal impact on the whites...

The negros had suffered the chains of discrimination, languishing in the corners of American society, and my heart certainly went out to them. And I know, that sooner or later, there will be a time when we have to pay our debts to the negros. My reputation had been severely tarnished by defending a negro, but I have to stand up for my beliefs in the face of prejudice and ignorance, or else, I will never be able to hang my head high again.

What is done cannot be undone, and the fact that Tom had been convicted can never change. However, I will still do my best for the next appeal, and hope that Maycomb town will eventually be freed from the manacles of the perception of prejudice and discrimination that were vividly resided in their minds, and allow our society, Maycomb town, to progress with the coexistence of the whites and the blacks...

Atticus

IT learning

2010-03-02T02:43:00.000-08:00

Firstly, due to the fact that I cannot upload a picture up here, I will say it here that I took the test at http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/results.cfm. and the code to view my profile is 2g8vc88772k. As seen from here, my strongest area is in the field of intrapersonal. I feel that it is quite true as I am able to understand myself well and in terms of anger management. As for my second strongest area, which is a tie between linguistic and logical, I do not think that it is quite accurate. The logical portion could be accepted, but for the linguistic portion, it is apocryphal. I do not really think that it could be on par with my logical thinking. Generally, I am number smart more than I am word smart. Maybe it is just a flaw... Thirdly, it is the area in kinaesthethic. Although I can be good at sports, however, I due to my laziness in sports and hence causing a degrading in the field of kinaesthetics. As for the rest, I must concede that I am not naturalistic, musical, or visual. The last portion on interpersonal, I feel that as I an introvert, it is quite reasonable, and I tend know myself alot more than others.

Moving on to the implications, I should strongly accentuate that the test is only accurate only to a certain extent. Perhaps, in comparison of the your area of strengths and weaknesses, it could serve as a good guideline. However, to have a greater analysis of your areas of strengths and weaknesses, I should deduce that it is not accurate. Firstly, it is because of the fact that the number of questions are too little. There are only 40 questions, and as there are 8 aspects in the test, assuming each question will only contribute to one aspect, it will only average at 5 questions for each aspect. Thus, this is not accurate as they are only using 5 questions to judge your areas of strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the choices for the questions are not precise. Questions like "I am rarely like this", "This is a bit like me." are not in-depth, as they do not provide the consequences for each question. For example, if there is a question stating that pollution makes me angry, then the choices should be narrowed down to how angry you are. The choices on how frequent we are like that are simply unsuitable, hence making the test flawed. Hence, the test is generally too simple, hence making the results inaccurate.

On a broader base, I feel that multiple intelligence test, though able to allow one to realise his or her strengths, however, serves no purpose as we are unlikely that we will be able to use something like kinaesthetic to aid our learning. They may just provide methods to assimilate pieces of information into our mind more effectively and methods to avoid by showing us our areas of strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it may be inaccurate as some people may lie to themselves, and hence, although the results are "nice to see", they may be false. It also depends on how we judge the questions, as different people have different degrees of judgment. While one may regard an example like scoring 90 marks something that is very good, others may consider that it is a failure as they wish to get higher. Hence, this different degree of judgment can also be applicable to this test, and thus, the results may not be accurate.

Thus, I feel that the test is not accurate and does not achieve much. One should note that the results may change as time passes, as we can work on our areas of weaknesses and improve them... Hence, I feel that unless we constantly update them, it would be unreliable. Nevertheless, there are many arguments to this, and this is solely based on my point of view. It is abrupt ending here, but I shall just end here, and the next post shall be on the english IT learning assignments that are mandatory to complete.

Sigh...
Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. ~John Berryman(though I feel that it is very ironic...)

The continuation of the horrors of homework--Procrastination(ep.2)

2010-02-06T23:58:00.001-08:00

Hi all,
The second episode to the horrors of homework has returned. Today, I shall be discussing about the act and art of procrastination, which is closely related with the homework. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the comprehension which argues that procrastination is "good" inspired me to post this, but never mind about that. So, lets just start on the topic of procrastination... ...

William James once said "Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.", but is it really true that procrastination is "bad"? I believe that in this world, the amount of people who procrastinate are just unimaginable, and as a matter of fact, I do procrastinate myself. So, the first question is, should I advocate procrastination? The definite answer... NO! But what makes me want to procrastinate that much? Hmm, that is quite hard to answer, because I don't really know that myself... Is someone born with procrastination inculcated in him or her, and whenever there is something to be done, the person will just put it off? That, I am not sure. But why are there just some who does not procrastinate? Is the BAD habit of procrastination that hard to kick?

So, you readers should all know what is procrastination, which is the deferment of work to a later time. Then, the question to which why do we procrastinate thus arrives. The reason is simple, either we think that the task is too hard to do(we would naturally avoid difficult things), time-consuming, as the work takes a long time to complete, lack of knowledge or skill in order to complete the work, or lastly, the fact that we fear that we will screw the thing up.

However, one should take note that a procrastinator is often optimistic about completing his work on time, frequently reassuring himself that everything is under control. If one estimates that an essay paper will take lets say 2days, and if he has 5days, he will procrastinate for 3days. Lulled by a false sense of security, time flies, and after some time, he would finally realise that the amount of time he has is not enough, as some other stuff may crop up at the last moment, resulting in the procrastinator being in a difficult position and then to the desperation due to the lack of time. And then, under the stress and pressure, one will start to take action, putting in considerable amount of effort, and work thus progresses. One will think that it is because of the fact that when he does not have enough time, he procrastinates, and this is the source of energy that drives him to complete his task. But actually, there is no existence of any energy at all, as the fact that drives us towards completing our work is that we do not have a choice, and when we do not have a choice. But when we progress, freedom is lost at the same time as all we can do is to just make progress. Then, barely completed on time, we will experience the ambivalence, as we both have a sense of achievement, but think that it is not really up to standard. But if we get rewarded for our poor "behaviour", then, the act of procrastination or counter-productive behaviour will repeat itself over and over again... ...

Hence, there comes the solutions for procrastination, although they do not really seem to be really effective. Just listing some examples of how to resolve(I couldn't possibly list out everything), we can try to assure that this effort or version will be good enough, make an effort to praise what you have done, repeating to oneself that it is impossible to eradicate all mistakes, we have undoubtedly found all the fatal errors by now, so on and so forth.

And lastly, some food for thought, can we actually turn procrastination to something that benefits us? Like for example, when we do procrastinate, have we ever thought of what do we do when we procrastinate? When we procrastinate, we will still do things, but these things are special, because they are the things that we like to do. For example, we do not like to do homework, and by procrastinating, we do something that we like, like playing computer games. When we do not like to do something, usually, we would do something that we like to do, and the question is, how can we use this to our advantage? Knowing what we like to do when we procrastinate, we can actually brainstorm on how we can make this become an advantage. If you like to read when you procrastinate, then keep on reading, because only then can we develop and seek for the passion that we have always longed for. If one likes to watch television or movies when he or she procrastinates, then he or she can become a movie reviewer. If one likes to moniter the stock market, then he can develop himself in the field or industry which he likes. One would tend to think that constantly allowing oneself to procrastinate would yield no results, but sadly, I have to disagree. It is because when we procrastinate, we seek our passion, and for one to become best at something, two main factors are needed. One is the desire to pursue your passion, and the other, is to develop it into reality. It is only when we procrastinate that we do what we like for as long as we want, and this thus develops us to be the best in something. Don't you think that the reasoning is logical? So now, forget what you used to be good at, and use what you learn from your procrastination to your advantage. Only then, can you realise your passions and turn them into reality... ...

The no. 1 procrastinator :D

The horrors of homework--Boon or Bane(ep.1)

2010-02-03T05:23:00.003-08:00

Dear readers,
I am back, with the serious postings, and the opening topic that I would like to address is homework. If you have noticed, the title of the blog is related to homework, and given the immensity of homework nowadays, I feel that it is quite important addressing this topic, as well as the other relevant topics that are related to it.
Before beginning on the topic of homework, it would be necessary to define the word homework. According to wikipedia, homework will refer to the tasks and assignments being assigned to students by usually teachers that are completed out of class, and the name is derived from the fact that most of these work are done are completed at home. However, though I would agree that homework are mostly done at home, but it does not necessary mean that it is assigned by teachers or your supervisors, as they may also refer to the homework that you do in order to do achieve self-studying and hence, the effect of self-improvement.

But after defining homework, what does homework actually serve to do? It typically serves to increase the knowledge and improve the abilities and skills of students, or to reinforce what they have learned that day, so as to achieve the effect of "practice makes perfect"(though I only agree to a certain extent), and to solidify their foundation skills so as to prepare for upcoming challenges which are more abstract or difficult.

However, does homework really achieves what it is intended to achieve? While we already know the benefits of homework, does it backfire itself, as the immensity of the homework would only bane us instead of a boon? With the gradual increase in the amount of homework, does it make homework defeat its purpose due to the numerous factors accompanied with it?

According to the research studies shown, there is a positive correlation between the amount of homework done and student achievement, and if the homework is too much, it is also extremely counter-reproductive. The research, which supports the "10min-rule", states that for 1st graders, their homework should only take 10min, and us 8th or 9th graders, should only take about 80to 90minutes. However, this phenomena is rarely seen, as once we start doing our homework, it would sometimes take up to hours due to the tons and tons of them, sometimes even working non-stop for days. Thus, isn't this a bane of homework?

Furthermore, homework will also lead to the occurrence of stress, which will in turn lead to many other negative stuff, like illnesses and so on. Another article was arguing that homework may cause stress for us, as a typical day for us would start at around 6, and when we reach home, it would be in the evening or so. And then, we are supposed to do the homework, which causes the stress when we are frustrated with the amount of homework that we are having. One spokesman said that homework, if we already understand the concepts, it is basically unnecessary, but if we don't understand the concepts, it's useless, and saying that the most important aspect of improving isn't homework, but reading. Thus, won't homework be just a bane, which fails to achieve what it intends to achieve?

Based on experiences, we would usually stay up late to complete the homework that we are supposed to complete, and hence, we have to resort to minimal amounts of sleep. Though in the long run it would affect us colossally, however, in the short run, the lack of sleep would already cause the mind to lose its alertness, and sometimes, we even feel so sleepy during lesson times, and for the whole lesson, nothing was absorbed basically, and all we try to do is to sleep but pretend to be listening to the teacher, whose words seemed to be the rumbling and chanting of San script verses. And hence, when we do not understand a topic, it would be a natural intendency to "mug" at home, which cuts away the time allocated for homework, which thus increases the stress which we have.

Thus, don't you think that homework defeats its purpose, and the common trait is that, no one enjoys homework. Yet, we are being "forced"(to a certain extent), to complete the homework that we find absolutely no joy in doing, and in the meantime, tire ourselves out. Hence, though minimal homework is greatly appreciated, but when it is the "high tide" for homework, it only boils down to the question of whether it defeats its purpose, or is it the stretching of our abilities to the fullest...

One should note that homework is never-ending, for after the completion of our homework, we would start on a new kind of homework, which is to conduct self-learning(can be classified as a form of "homework"), and even when we are in our late stages of life, we would still be enriching or indulging ourselves in information...

Advocating the anti-homework movement...

The guy who is suffering under tons of homework right now...

Introduction

2010-02-03T05:23:00.001-08:00

Hi readers,
It has really been ages since I ever posted on this blog again. About half a year... if I am not wrong. But what is the underlying reason for the revival or resurrection of this dead blog? Evidently, the blog postings, although being accentuated that it is not compulsory, is still mandatory, as it constitutes of the ACE, which can never be reclaimed after the term was over. If I had a choice, I would never have devoted much of my time to this blog which is quite useless except for the ACE that everyone would yearn to maximise it as fast as possible. Why? Firstly, I would like to emphasise on the fact that I never took a liking to blogging, and secondly, it is time consuming, given the amount of time we had left for those never-ending homework. Why never-ending, I will address it in later posts, but right now, enough of all the procrastination, and I should get into the topic soon...

Now, I am supposed, or maybe not, to address some of the points for this blogging activity, anyway, just post it here... blaa blaa blaaa... Quite boring actually, but the "administrative" stuff have to be cleared, before I can start on the formal postings... Firstly... reasons for blogging... that should be addressed in the earlier part, or the first paragraph... I despised blogging, but for the ACE, the ACE which would affect our grades in a way or another if we do not max it up, I just have to DO IT!!! ... And apparently, I would not put it under the evaluation worksheet that the reason is because of ACE, perhaps make it like "I have suddenly been attracted to blogging, as the benefits of blogging, as I have realised, are colossal, and invaluable... blaaa...blaa...blaaa" End of story for reasons for blogging...

Moving on to policy, my blog policy is actually quite simple, though comments are greatly welcomed, but no flaming of others, be it directly or indirectly... The tagbox should not be spammed(it will never happen:D), and regarding the language, it should be self-explanatory, which is... appropriate. Last but not least, the revamping of the blog--there are some significant changes. The skin of the blog, after long hours of searching, has been changed to one, definitely copied, but it looks much much better than the previous one. However, if the main content portion that is appearing on the Ipod or Iphone(I am very confused)is too small, you may inform me, or you may just control+ and enlarge it. Thinking of changing into another skin, because it is quite screwed... Secondly, due to the application of a skin, the widgets that are in place last time...have disappeared, though the new skin includes some necessities like tagbox, music. Though there is an area for photos, don't really think I would be putting up photos... That is basically it. And till I find out some more editions on the blog or I took up the initiative to edit(which is quite impossible) due to the crazily busy schedule, I will not be editing this post. I would really like to present the blog in a different language(eg. humorous), but it is quite unlikely, as the fact is that, after this is over, I would not be posting anymore, AND, I don't intend to change the language I am using now, so the language will never change. Muahaha...

Anyway, just to end off, some stuff that you readers have to take note of, comments would gladly be appreciated to be posted under the tagbox, and please... COMMENT!!! ... ALL comments are welcomed, be it a "stupid" one or an intelligent one.
So, happy commenting... Now, joke's over, and on to the serious posting....

IMPT!!! P.S. THE REASONS FOR BLOGGING ARE JUST JOKES!!! I DON'T REALLY MEAN IT! :D

The guy who has not blogged for ages,
and do not intend to even blog AT ALL after this whole blogging thing is over...

Notice

2009-08-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

WARNING: THIS POST IS NOT COUNTED AS THE TERM 3 POSTINGS

Getting on to my main point, yah, the ten posts below are for the term 3 postings, but this post is not considered. And as all of them are based on my memory, I have lots to say but too lazy to type, the order is not the same, as in one might skip from the June holidays to after and then back again. And if you cannot locate the 10 of them, kindly do so in the archives. I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your kind coroperation.

Cheers,
Rayson:D

A visit for Project's day

2009-07-28T05:36:00.005-07:00

Ok, immediately after the June holidays, I am supposed to go visit places for research, as my group was running out of time and ha not visited any places to do our reseach. Hence, I had intended to cover perhaps 10 places that day, working form the morning until the evening. Furthermore, I had brought a new camera, and thus I could get to take better photos than last time. And thus, I set off with my father to the Telok Ayer area. Actually, I was counting on my father to do the itinery, and then he said that he had done some research on that, but it turned out that he did not... ...

We went to our first destination, and after taking some photos there, proceeded to other areas. Somehow, all of them are not open, or are just religious, and me, being a freetinker(I do not know how to spell it), did not dare to venture in, especially churches, but I am more open to temples, and went inside to take a good look. And then, we are like going here and there, covering about 10km walking around, and went to a tota of about 14 places. But when I checked the places that are being preserved as a monument, I suddenly realise that I did not went to a place that I had passed by! I was walking by that place then, wondering whether it is one, and then I went away. I thought that my dad should have known that, but in fact, he forgot about that, and it was miles away before I realised it, and could not go back there. It was quite stupid, actually. Fang lao shi, our project mentor, told us to include a picture of ourselves inside so as to prove that we had been there, but I was in no mood for phototaking( I just hate it) and thus, all the pictures are very gloomy, and resulted in the pictures not being used later, as I look so stupid and glooimy standing there and doing nothing. Fang lao shi actually recommmended us to do some actions like reading or pointing to the building...

But this is not the main "interesting" thing about the trip. That was about 4 in the afternoon, when it started to pour, but we could not let anything hinder our movement, and we were like taking an umbrella and still contiuning to take photos. Then, we took shelter at an mrt station, and then thinking that it is such a bad idea to continue, we halted, and decide to go shopping, waiting for the downpour to turn smaller before returning home. Though it was actually a tiring experience, I actually benefitted alot from it, as I get to read the articles about the places and learn more about it, as well as why it was preserved and what it was used as in the past and present. This project, though we did not really get into the finals, we still learn alot, I believe, and although this is my first attempt at a project's day competition, I still enjoy it very much.

Cheers,
3 cheers for projects day!!!

June holidays, specifically about books

2009-07-28T05:36:00.003-07:00

Nah, the June holidays are finally over, and thus, I would like to give a brief and quick recount on what happened then. Basically, I had not gone abroad for holidays due to the H1N1, and thus stayed at home, playing games. In fact, the thing that I remembered the most, as in what I did, was that I had played computer games for like the whole of the June holidays. Games are really fun, aren't they? And thus, I had to suffer the dire consequences of not able to complete my homework on time, as I had been doing until the last day, you know? I was in fact doing some kind of geog stuff that I believe there is no need to hand in. Such a waste of time. But the thing that kept me occupied was actually books. Me, not being a great fan of english books, turned to chinese, and they were really very nice. I had read like around 5 books, quite thick, and wordy, but it really attracts me alot. Just reading the story at the start will get you glued right to the end, and even though due to my slow reading speed, I still managed to finish one book in a day. It is really very interesting, but my expression for english is not that good, I mean, I just can't find the words to describe how I feel about them. this was also what happened to my father when he read it in the past, he was so glued t it that he stayed up so late(till around 3am) just to complete reading it! But now, due to the tests that lay ahead of me, I could no longer read them, but I am definitely looking forward to reading it. I even have the disire to cry while reading it, the events are really sad, and thinking of it now even makes me want to cry... sob... The love of a mother for her son... The love between a couple are described with such skills that I had never felt like that before. However, this is strictly not about love, it is more of a kungfu tale, the love scene is just part of the story to bring it out more effectively. The ending is also good, they always end with a twist, and one of them even kept me in suspense until more than half of the book is gone. They are really such nice books to read... Basically, now I have already read: 连城诀，神雕侠*，射雕英雄传，and indeed I am looking forward to the 碧血剑，天龙八部，and so on. I could clearly remember one sentence the author had said, "The success of a book does not lie in anything, but when the readers pour their emotions into it, regardless of whether it is furious or sympathy or anything."(translated), and I believe that the author had succeeded in accomplishing that... May my heart pour its feelings into the book...

P.S. I so felt like crying now... sob...

History Project Part 2

2009-07-28T05:36:00.001-07:00

Now, as mentioned in the previous post, we went for the history project, and now it is Mark's turn to do so. He is supposed to do on the Fort Canning Park, the Padang and the War Memorial Park, all of which are within walking distance. I am also supposed to plan out an itinerary for them, and I placed our meeting time as 8.30. However, I did not know that my father may fetch me on that day, and thus, I arrived before 7.30, and Mark arrived at about 8 as his mum fetched him. Only cj arrived at 8.20 and we were 10min before time. We set off, and as I had done alot of homework at home and while waiting, we easily located the war memorial, and then Mark had a few "N.G" and then we were off again, still on track. The Padang was located opposite, and by crossing a road, we reached there, and Mark went on saying about it, and in a few minutes, we are done. Then, came the long walk to Fort Canning, but we covered it in around 10min and started "slacking". It was quite a big place, and then we were taking a tour here and there. Mark had three videos, and then we went off for lunch. I had recovered from the diarrhoea by then, and thus we went to enjoy our lunch at Mcdonalds. The cool air conditioner indeed, was a cool reprieve form the blazing sun that tormented us mercilessly, and soon, we were chit chatting there, talking mostly about how we post on the history blog. Then, we parted our ways with cj, while Mark and I took the same train. The train ran into some kind of fault then, and we were told to evacuate the train. But this is not the important point, as the crux is that we enjoyed ourselves tremendously, forged closer bonds with our friends and gained the knowledge that the learning in classrooms would not provide... ...

Tired but happy... ...
P.S. You may visit the blog at:
http://museumhistorytour.blogspot.com/
and see my sucky vidoes... lol :D

History Project (part 1)

2009-07-26T08:19:00.003-07:00

As you know, we are supposed to do a history project ACE, but made compulsory by Mr Chua, specifically a tour for other foreigners who do not know much about the World War 2 happenings in Singapore. And as such, we set off on the 10th June, basically to places like the Selarang Baracks, the Johor Battery and so on. Mark's father decided to give us a lift, so we do not have the need to take a bus or whatsoever. However, I was considered late as I had failed to locate his house and reach there on time. Actually, I had reached there about 5min earlier, but his house was located like in a maze, and after many futile attempts, I found it, and we set off immediately. We went to pick up an annoyed cj, who was impatient standing at a mrt station waiting for us, and Mark's itnery was not going that well. Furthermore, Mark's cousin, probably from Malaysia(I am not sure about that), came along, and the car which was dull became liven up when cj enters. Aha! Mark's mum alighted at her office and then we were off, to the selarang baracks. As expected, it is not open to visitors, and as we had a script beforehand, and then cj went to memorise it, within a few minutes, we are off again. Only one "N.G", due to the camera problem, but I was feeling uneasy as I had not recovered from my diarrhoea, and cj is really very good for an angle speaker, he is like blabbering non-stop, while I was, wow, with my mouth agape. Next, we went to the Johor Battery, and it was not open, so cj get to talk outside again, and managed it with ease. However, I was having a big problem as I did not memorise the script and then I will have a problem doing this kind of impromptu speeches. Then, we went to Labrador Park, where I had 12 "N.G" for my first attempt at an impromptu. It was really sucky. And everyone there was like laughing and laughing but most of all, I felt very ashamed to waste so much of people's time. We went to the Labrador tunnel and I had an impromptu again, as well as the gun station. It was the worst experience I ever had. Even after I have done it, the video was indescribable. I was standing, shaking all around, and then the speech full of "errssss" and then stuttering here and there. Totally horrendous. We went for lunch after that, and after it, my stomach was bursting and I was breathing in and out, in particular to stop my diarrhoea. It worked, but I had to control and prevent it from coming out again. Next was cj's turn again, and I was really impressed with his oratorical brilliance. He was blabbering non-stop and with so much confidence, and it's no wonder he could have gotten 2nd for the ANGLES competition. And then it was my turn at the Reflections at Bukit Chandu again, and do you know that managing just 3sentences was such a difficulty to me? Just three, three! I had to walk and say at the same time and look at the camera, and due to my lack of coordination and my harsh voice, I screwed it up. But never mind, and then we went to the Krangi War Memorial, where I adopted a new approach by just saying a sentence and then reading from the script, as cj would be filming other places, instead of fixing the camera on me. It worked quite well, but then the last part was a major flaw, as when cj rotated a 360degrees turn, I was not found standing in front of the camera, I had basically ran off, and then the starting part, in my haste to let cj rotate the camera, I showed a hand signal, and then it was in the video. Really hope that Mr Chua does not see it. But I know that my part is really poorly done, and if we were to score low marks, it must be because of me. Mark did quite well, but he did it next time(part 2), but I sincerely wish that I could conquer my stage fright one day and learn at least know how to speak with confidence... ...

Sigh... ...

illness-the tormentor of life...

2009-07-26T08:19:00.001-07:00

Reminiscing about one of the worst things that happened to me during the June holidays was that I fell sick. I remember that it was on the 8th June, and somehow, I felt very weak and then was cold from head to toe. Believing that I would recover, and this is just one of the many small symptoms like flu that taunted me every now and then(I have a tendency to do so if I do not clear my nose), I ignored it, and then after that, I became more and more sick until I had to sleep, and somehow, I always thought that although sleeping is "good" for a sick person, it makes him more drowsy and not alert at all. And thus, since it was my prediction, I would have known it from my past experiences of falling sick, and unfortunately, this time, it still happened. After waking up, I felt as sick as ever, and then started to think about what will happen to me tomorrow. Just coincidentally, tomorrow was my birthday, and I was planning to have a buffet. It was as though heaven was opposing me, and I started to develop signs of VERY BAD diarrhoea. But I could not do anything about it, and did not see a doctor, as I have never seen one since primary what despite being ill. Besides, a doctor will only prescribe some medication to you, and then it will still take a few days to recover, so I would nt be able to celebrate my birthday. That was such a sad thing, but I am seriously helpless, just having diarrhoea every now and then. Somehow, I also got to notice that I always felt that there was a big "thing" stuck inside and I can't push it out, and wasted so much time in the toilet trying to push it out, when it is just my imagination(I found that out after I recovered). As expected, I was still not well when my birthday approached, but I still wanted to go to the buffet, as it was not cancelled due to the late notification. I forced myself to be alert and stand upright, but to no avail, and then thinking about how little food I will be eating and "flushing" them all out in the latrine once again, I gave up the tiny glimmer of hope left to celebrate my birthday, watching my mum as she went out to join my cousins. Surprisingly, I got better that very evening, and then using my... "Ta Da..." pester power, managed to persuade my father who did not went to let my have Mcdonalds. However, I could not drink the milk which I changed to, and then the fries were eaten up(mostly) by my father, so it wasn't an enjoyment at all. And after I reach home, my condition worsen again, must be due to the Mcdonalds, and then it really took me quite some time to get recovered. It even dragged on until the history project, and though sick I was, only with diarrhoea, I had to turn up, and I remember halfway having stomachaches, but have to put up with it for the whole day, and then release it after reaching home. Then, this comes to my next post on the history project, being split into part one and part two. But most of all, what I learned from all of this is that we must always prepare in advance for anything, just like illnesses, you should always eat healthily and reduce the chances of being ill as the immune system will be high, and then they might easily fend off any invading viruses. Moreover, when we are sick, we can try the approach of sleeping, this is very famous but I dislike it, and not eat any junk food, like what I did, eating Mcdonalds. We should always prepare in advance for a rainy day, and I believe, this will help, instead of suffering all the consequences later on... ...

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.
Sidney Lumet

Cheers,
being recovered is so FUN!!!

E-learning

2009-07-26T08:18:00.006-07:00

So now, let's think back about what happen around the June holidays, especially during the end of it. Somehow, the school wanted to test a new system of the e-learning to become the first ever school in singapore to have mass e-learning. It also coincident with the H1N1 outbreak, and thus we do not need to go to school, just stay at home and access the computer. This was great news to me,as the feeling of not going back to school really let me feel elated. Never had I had the chance to stay at home to study, and this new system surely appeal to me. However, I made it a point to turn up 1h before the lessons start, which is at 8, and then on the first day, there is confusion, especially for the english. Somehow there are two instructions, and then I did not know which one to follow, and thus my lateness in submiting my work is considered as attending class late. So sad... However, the rest of the days and the instructions for the other subjects turn out well, and we proceeded with ease. Though it finally ended, I still enjoyed it very much, and hope that this may continue. Below are just some reflections made by me on some subjects.

"To start off, maybe perhaps I shall be talking about the knowledge I had gained. Basically, after this e-learning, my amount of knowledge had increased alot. However, although we may have learned alot about the world war two prisoners of war in singapore during our visit to the various trips to places for our history project during the June holidays, I still feel that Ib had learned alot, partly maybe due to the fact that the things I learned are not enough. Moreover, we learn about the types of food that the people ate during the Japanese Occupation, as well as the banana notes, which are not included in our trips to the places for our history project. Furthermore, the exercise helps us to recap on our knowledge, with regards to political aspects, economic aspects and so on. However, initially, although there is a communication problem with others,the whole turned out quite well in the end. As for the lesson 2, I in fact gained more knowledge, or I never had known why Elizabeth Choy was that famous for her deeds during the Japanese Occupation. After watching the videos, I actually get to know more about her life and why she is regarded as a war heroine. Furthermore, for the quiz, it is a game, which I had much fun playing(perhaps trying to win the X-box, lol). They go into deeper issues, and the questions require us to remember what are the names of the people who did this and that, so on and so forth, so there will be knowledge gained(for sure) after the game. Actually, the lessons that I learned are as mentioned by the others before me, in that we should defend our homeland, and should not have a "don't care" attitude in terms of crisis like this. We are the citizens of singapore, and thus we should be the ones defending our homeland, or else who will defend it? Although the probability of the occurrence of another war as major as the world wars are slim, it does not mean that we should let our guard down. We should always be vigilant, and learn from our past. As to what happened before, the British termed singapore as impregnable, and although the people living in singapore are afraid then, they used various forms of propaganda to convince them into thinking that singapore will not fall. However, as a result of this, the people are caught unaware by the Japanese attack and thought that the bombing was actually a drill, which in fact is not, and thus partly leading to the surrender of singapore to the Japanese in the end. after the war, the Japanese were really inhuman, as they tortured the people and did lots of things that should not be mentioned. Thus, this gives us a major impression of what life would be after we are conquered, and thus learn from it by defending singapore. Once we are united as a whole, nothing could defeat us. Personally, and to end off, I feel that learning e-learning on wetpaint, although without the explanation of teachers, has proved to be very successful, and I certainly hope that more of this could be conducted in future."

"I have indeed learned alot from this module. It is certainly very enriching, when I thought that the tools used for comparing data are limited. however, it has indeed been an eye opener for me to be introduced to new types of tools used for comparison. The stem and leaf plot/diagram is indeed new to me, I have never heard that before. Same goes for histograms and so on. through all these tools, there has been actually a chance for me choose, or have a wider range of options with regards to comparing data. Some like the dot diagram and the bar charts are quite similar, but it indeed gives me another option to choose from. Besides, after been introduced to how this or that tool works(I did not know how the stem and leaf diagram works at first), my knowledge on this diagrams certainly improve. We are also being introduced to the concepts like mean, mode, median and range. Actually, when I first look at them at first, I did notknow what they are! I actually tthought f, it can be simply represented by just subtracting the smallest value from the largest values for the mean, I had heard before, so I know it, but as for the mode and the median, it is in fact my first time knowing about them. However, I always get confused among them(or you can balme my poor memory), although there are actually keys to remembering them, like how mode is remembered as "most" where they share the same ttwo alphabets of "mo". Apart from this, the learning of this module through the use of wetpaint also proved to be very successful. It allows us to just chip in anything we can think of in the discussion boards, and this has certainly helped to enhance my learning. apart from contributing, one can also view others' postings, thus gaining knowledge from them. This cannot be observed in class, as the number of students is smaller, and we do not get to listen to everyone views as it would be time consuming by listening to everyone's. A Wetpaint discussion is different, as you can read the postings during your individual time and the comments are preserved. Besides, Mr Tan, you also managed to do learning reviews, so as to comment on our answers in the discussion threads and clarify any doubts, thus giving a general overview of the whole topic as well as your answers to the questions in turn enhancing our learning. the videos posted by you are clear as well, the speaker speaks clearly and the workings are fully explained. There are also links to let us do our own research as well. However, I think that the only flaw in this e-learning is that there is insufficient time, like what Ming En had said. Especially on the first day, where there are 7 questions, I do not actually have time to do the discussions, even though I had done the readings the previous day. I believe many of us would be searching for information regarding the discussion questions, and thus me, who usually searches for answers slowly, have to "sacrifice" my breaks. Moreover, I also had to look through tomorrow's readings first, so as to not be behind time, as I usually spend 1 hour for discussions. However, in an overall performance, it is seriously very beneficial, and hope that more of these would happen in future."

This is my reflection for history and math respectively, and seriously, to sum them up, I just like the online lessons alot, and would really hope for another one like this in future. Three cheers foe E-learning!!!

Cheers,
P.S. E-learning is fun!

A very busy and hectic Thursday

2009-07-26T08:18:00.005-07:00

Now, have I ever been that busy before? No! This Thursday, specifically, 6th August is just the most busiest one I ever had. The previous night, I was like sleeping at one, and then I was abruptly jolted out of my sleep. When I got to school, I was barely awake then, and had to revise for my geog test. Somehow, I knew that my preparation was inadequate, and thus had to continue mugging in school. Before recess was well, but then after recess, there is a poem test, and me , being bad at poems, of course screwed it up. But I still managed to write about 2.5pages, and then my hands were sore all over. Immediately after that, I had geog test, and I was writing like mad, but my hands were already worn out, and thus, I think I did badly by not being able to so-called complete it. After the whole test, my hands were like breaking away from my wrists already, and then after that, I had the AMC. I knew that I screwed that up again, as I times wrongly! And then screw up the whole thing due to my lack of alertness. Then I took a taxi and went for my german class, expecting the test to be after recess, but it did not, and the I was brought by surprise. The test was quite easy, but then I screw it up once again, as I did not memorise stuff like fat, thin, or else the words I did not know and thus cannot answer the question. sigh... Imagine having four major events a day... ... It just makes everything screwed wil I want to revise for them. Just have to face the music, and then got to know of my poor time management, so that I can change. sigh... ... Just reminiscing about this makes me sigh... This is just one short post on the recount of one of the busiest day in my life.

Cheers,
how it feels to be free... ...

Tests... ...

2009-07-26T08:18:00.003-07:00

It is finally a break from the tests that we had weeks before... ... To think that it actually started on the 4th week, and then still continuing, I really cannot stand it anymore. I have been sleeping at 1 or 2am every night, and I seriously know that at this rate, I am going to collapse one day. Reinforcing this point, I had fell sick two times this year already, when I did not even have any illnesses few years back. Furthermore, the symptoms like sleepiness are starting to show, and I even fall asleep during lessons, and even missed my bus stop! But luckily, the test period is somewhat over, and now I can finally have a peace of my mind. But there is still test on week 8, specifically chinese and math and maybe IS(I'm not sure about this), and there is still some mugging left to do, unlike the time where there is geog and history and we had to mug until midnight(for me). Tests, is just the way of a schooling person, and after the tests, will come exams, which is the same for me. However, I am quite looking forward to exemption, though my english and science will never qualify for exemption. As for the other subjects, there is still a problem, as my op is very less. Nevermind, I think I will have to listen to the heaven's will, just doing my part will do. Talking about tests back again, I know that I had screwed up my tests. Though history went well, geography was a disaster, and the science was quite a disaster to me as well. Somehow, the test questions are mainly from the exercise or practice, when I went to learn about atomic structure and thus forgot about them. Such a pity... I thought that it would be outside texbook like previous tests... sigh... Chinese compre and compo was also crap, as for the compo, I slept at 2 the previous night, and got no inspiration AT ALL, and thus, I think I wrote out of point. For the compre, I had never encountered questions like what does this character have a impact on the story and so on, nothing can be copied from the text, and I seriously think that I screwed it up. The hope for getting A1 for chinese was also lost... And thus, I may not get exempted... sigh... English common test was also screwed, and my analysis of poem is starting to get questioned. Mdm Lim says that I cannot understand irony and so on in the poem, sigh... But what is done cannot be undone, and I just have to face the music for always studying at the eleventh hour. Just hope that I will never make that mistake again, and "good luck" to my MSG, for I know that it will be very high... nothing will be the same again, the marks can never be reversed... The past is history, the future is mystery, but now is a gift, and I guess I will have to bury those "unhappy things" and not ponder about what lies ahaed of me, only able to use the present time and pull up my socks... ...

Sigh...

Swimming in term 3

2009-07-26T08:18:00.001-07:00

Hi folks, I am back once again. This time, maybe I shall start with the swimming lessons. Toi keep this short, when I knew that there's going to be swimming lessons for term 3, I was horrified! Basically, I had little experience in swimming, and I do not even know how to tread(I am not sure of it's spelling)water! I had never, ever, had any swimming lessons before, and needless to say, any "medals" at all. I had just managed to put up by swimming "randomly", and somehow learned how to swim, and what's more, I could not swim breaststroke, due to the lack of my coordination, I only know freestyle. Furthermore, I thought that on a regular basis, freestyle should be faster than breaststyle(correct me if I'm wrong), and my swimming speed is SSSOOOOOOOOO... ... slow. Maybe it is because I did not use enough strength, and I always get tired, so I just simply could not swim with great force, or else I may run out of energy midway and the cnsequences... you should know. Thus, you could see how pathetic I am when it cmes to swimming as I know mediocre swimming, and can't master it fully. Hence, you should know what happens when I know that there wuld be swiming lessons, my heart is screaming inside, throbbing as though a signal for me to never lurge beyong the waters that lie within... ....

Fine, that is just how I react when I got the news, perhaps bracing myself to face the music for my inadequate preparation. sigh... ... However, the first lesson turned out to be not bad at all. Although I find the changing experience, it just stinks and sucks, but the swimming experience was not bad. But somehow, my swimming costume was too small, and I had to bear with it, so tight, clenching on to my muscles with vengence for not wearing it for such a long time, especially after my first 50m swim. It was actually the first time I was swimming at lane 2 you know? Last time, I was so afraid to swim at lane 2 due to the mindset that I may drown, but I still had it through. However, when I had my second swim, it was disasterous, as my legs had cramped, and halfway, I ran out of energy, and had to keep saying "1212121212..." and finally made it, tired with exhaustion. For the second lesson, we are supposed to have a test, and of course, due to the test period, I did not manage to prepare for it. Nevertheless, I think it was still a miracle when I managed to get a sliver. I thought I would have just gotton a pass! It was really such a huge relieve and bewilderment for me to have actually made it. And as for the third lesson, it was the best, we just slack in the pool, playing water games. Though tiring as it is, it actualy confirmed myself, and allowed me to accomplish ordeals that I had never managed before, like swimming in the second lane and 100m. Maybe, all of this is due to the strong belief that I will succeed and must succeed, and hence, resulted in my eventual achievement(at least to me). To think that the swimming lesson had not really paid off really made me look forward to the next or another lesson like this. But most of all, it feels so free to be able to be freed from the hands of the "water monster", and once again touch land in the activities that lay ahead of me... ... Belief, is what make us succeed... ...\

Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.(by Mary Kay Ash)

Cheers,
Rayson(who started using quotes)lol... :D

7th Augest CIP

2009-07-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I am finally back after a lng "slacking" holiday. It's been like 2 months, you know? And as expected, I will have lots of "interesting" events in my mind right now, and em pondering over which one I should talk about first. But let's just have a start by talking about the most recent events, then going on to the June holidays. Nevermind, I must bear the consequences of doing this now when I should be posting every now and then, but just bear with it, I think I must have LOST my style of writing long time ago... ...

Ya, on with it, and to start off, this is a CIP event that I did for the national day event, the performance cancelled due to the H1N1 virus, I guess. Actually, when I heard of this, I will really have a scare of my life, you know? If you refer to my earlier posts, you will find that there is another CIP event which I mentioned about, and coincidentally, they are the same, both at Taman Jurong, and are about collecting newspapers. Last time was really a HORROR, as what happened, to give a quick recap, was like rushing off here and there, and I fell and bled and ran out of water! And due to the lack of money, I had to buy ice-cream to quench my thirst, which in fact made me more thristy and my hands became sticky... ... That was such a bad experience, and when I went home, I was actually so tired that I slept for the whole day! One whole day...gone! One whole day of my life...gone! This is bad, considering that if we live till a hundred years old, we only have less than 40000 days to enjoy, you know? Nvermind, what is over cannot be undone, one day... bye bye... ...

On to the REAL topic, we went there, as expected, and then got to know that 5 or 6 people are just doing ome block. That was much more easier, compared to last time where there was a lack of manpower and had to do that much blocks. Furthermore, our team had 6 people, one more than the others, but shilin was not COMPLETELY recovered, and then Wei Ren, if I am not wrong, did not turn up last time, so did not have THAT much experience. But this did not hinder our progress, as we started of immediately, and got the first block, 154, and had a small headstart than the others. Somehow, Mdm Lim decided to help by guarding the newspapers, so we get to have everyone mobilised. We decided to approach by working our way from the top to the bottom, and before going up, ming en counted and there were a total of around 74 units, if I did not remember incorrectly. When we proceeded to the top, we found out that the buildings were mansionates, and were double-storey, so we just have to do 6 floors. That was a greater relieve to us, and we split ourselves into 3 groups, me and timothy ling, shilin and ming en, and samuel and wei ren, thought I did not think it was much of a success, because it turned out that everyone started doing at the same level. Nevertheless, it proceeded quickly, and we were almost done. But on the way, we surely met up with dogs, and deserted rundown units, or units with religious things like a circle in front of the house. However, they were "generous" and thus, we had to suffer, by carrying tjose things down, especially at the 6th floor, where ming en and shlin said that a unit was SOOOOOO... generous that they gave us half of our whole stuff collected! But, I was not present as I was at other floors, and missed out all the fun. Eventually, all our efforts paid off, and we completed it like around 1h, and went to slack, before gathering everything at a huge bin. We tucked in at a small coffee shop later on, and it is like almost everyone is buying a can of cold drink. After that, we went back to school and parted... ...

After I reached home, I was goaded into going out again, and spent like 2.s hours eating a sushi buffet, making me so full, and to be specific, I ate 12 plates, which is quite an accomplishment for my poor and small stomach. AND, when I went home at 6 plus, I slept like I never slept before, and another day is wasted just like that, when I woke up at 11pm! Just the same as what happened before! One day of my life ... GONE! sigh... ... However, thinking that it was for a good cause made me feel that my efforts did not pay off. Though tired with exhaustion, I fell much much contented to be able to help others who are in need. The saying goes that by making others happy, you will become happy yourself, and when the money collected goes to the needy, they are happy, and that makes me contented as well, though indirectly helping them. .. ...

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody... ... (quote from chinese proverb)

Cheers,
Rayson(tired but happy... ...)

English e-learning day 2

2009-06-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

To start off with the assignment, I would say that my favourite poet is William Wordsworth. Basically, why I find him intriguing is that he within his verses, I can feel deep within a bliss of imagination. They are really creative! Besides, lots of people also mentioned that there is a bliss of imagination inside his poems. Once you can understand the spiritual bliss within his poem, there is no reason preventing you from loving his poems. Furthermore, some or maybe most of his poems also touch the beauty of nature, which can be seen from his poems below, and his quote” "Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher." typically shows that he wanted us to let Nature be our teacher, as it certainly teaches alot of things. Besides, he is also a romantic, shown when he returned to England, but did not forget Annette and his daughter. He wrote his acclaimed "It is a beauteous evening, calm and free," recalling his seaside walk with his daughter, whom he had not seen for ten years. At that time, he had never seen his daughter before, and the occurring lines reveal his deep love for both child and mother. Thus, one can easily see that he is a romantic poet, who helped to launch the “Romantic Age”. Nevertheless, I still feel sorry for him, as his brother passed away in 1805 and two of his children in 1812. When I read about his reactions about them, how much they affected him, it could be deduced that he is actually very devoted to his family, and I think that he is a family man. All these mentioned above will show that he has hardly any characteristic flaw, and thus leading me into thinking that he is actually a great English romantic poet during his times.

Biography
Born in England in 1770, Wordsworth attended Cambridge University and afterwards went on a walking tour of France and Switzerland. When war broke out in 1793 he returned to England, moving in with his sister Dorothy in Dorset. It was during this time he discovered his calling as a poet with a predominant theme of the common man close to nature. In 1798 he was instrumental in the advent of Romantic Poetry, together with Coleridge writing the Lyrical Ballads, which began with Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner" and ended with Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey". He spent a year in Germany, then settled down in Dove Cottage, Grasmere with his wife Mary Hutchison in 1802, where he wrote his poetic autobiography The Prelude and two other books of poems. He was selected poet laureate in 1843 and died in 1850.

First poem: I wandered lonely as a cloud
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: -
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and gazed -but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.

Summary

The speaker says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he feels "vacant" or "pensive," the memory flashes upon "that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude," and his heart fills with pleasure, "and dances with the daffodils."

Commentary

This simple poem, one of the loveliest and most famous in the Wordsworth canon, revisits the familiar subjects of nature and memory, this time with a particularly (simple) spare, musical eloquence. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poet's wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely, bored, or restless. The characterization of the sudden occurrence of a memory--the daffodils "flash upon the inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude"--is psychologically acute, but the poem's main brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its early stanzas. The speaker is metaphorically compared to a natural object, a cloud--"I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high...", and the daffodils are continually personified as human beings, dancing and "tossing their heads" in "a crowd, a host." This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature, making it one of Wordsworth's most basic and effective methods for instilling in the reader the feeling the poet so often describes himself as experiencing.

Second poem: London, 1802
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Summary

The speaker addresses the soul of the dead poet John Milton, saying that he should be alive at this moment in history, for England needs him. England, the speaker says, is stagnant and selfish, and Milton could raise her up again. The speaker says that Milton could give England "manners, virtue, freedom, power," for his soul was like a star, his voice had a sound as pure as the sea, and he moved through the world with "cheerful godliness," laying upon himself the "lowest duties."

Commentary

The speaker of this poem, which takes the form of a dramatic outburst, literally cries out to the soul of John Milton in anger and frustration. (The poem begins with the cry: "Milton!") In the octave, the speaker articulates his wish that Milton would return to earth, and lists the vices ruining the current era. Every venerable institution--the altar (representing religion), the sword (representing the military), the pen (representing literature), and the fireside (representing the home)--has lost touch with "inward happiness," which the speaker identifies as a specifically English birthright, just as Milton is a specifically English poet. (This is one of Wordsworth's few explicitly nationalistic verses--shades, perhaps, of the conservatism that took hold in his old age.)

In the sestet, the speaker describes Milton's character, explaining why he thinks Milton would be well suited to correct England's current waywardness. His soul was as bright as a star, and stood apart from the crowd: he did not need the approval or company of others in order to live his life as he pleased. His voice was as powerful and influential as the sea itself, and though he possessed a kind of moral perfection, he never ceased to act humbly. These virtues are precisely what Wordsworth saw as lacking in the English men and women of his day.

It is important to remember that for all its emphasis on feeling and passion, Wordsworth's poetry is equally concerned with goodness and morality. Unlike later Romantic rebels and sensualists, Wordsworth was concerned that his ideas communicate natural morality to his readers, and he did not oppose his philosophy to society. Wordsworth's ideal vision of life was such that he believed anyone could participate in it, and that everyone would be happier for doing so. The angry moral sonnets of 1802 come from this ethical impulse, and indicate how frustrating it was for Wordsworth to see his poems exerting more aesthetic influence than social or psychological influence.

Third poem: The world is too much with us
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. -Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Summary

Angrily, the speaker accuses the modern age of having lost its connection to nature and to everything meaningful: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: / Little we see in Nature that is ours; / We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" He says that even when the sea "bares her bosom to the moon" and the winds howl, humanity is still out of tune, and looks on uncaringly at the spectacle of the storm. The speaker wishes that he were a pagan raised according to a different vision of the world, so that, "standing on this pleasant lea," he might see images of ancient gods rising from the waves, a sight that would cheer him greatly. He imagines "Proteus rising from the sea," and Triton "blowing his wreathed horn."

Commentary

"The world is too much with us" falls in line with a number of sonnets written by Wordsworth in the early 1800s that criticize or admonish what Wordsworth saw as the decadent material cynicism of the time. This relatively simple poem angrily states that human beings are too preoccupied with the material ("The world...getting and spending") and have lost touch with the spiritual and with nature. In the sestet, the speaker dramatically proposes an impossible personal solution to his problem--he wishes he could have been raised as a pagan, so he could still see ancient gods in the actions of nature and thereby gain spiritual solace. His thunderous "Great God!" indicates the extremity of his wish--in Christian England, one did not often wish to be a pagan.

On the whole, this sonnet offers an angry summation of the familiar Wordsworthian theme of communion with nature, and states precisely how far the early nineteenth century was from living out the Wordsworthian ideal. The sonnet is important for its rhetorical force (it shows Wordsworth's increasing confidence with language as an implement of dramatic power, sweeping the wind and the sea up like flowers in a bouquet), and for being representative of other poems in the Wordsworth canon--notably "London, 1802," in which the speaker dreams of bringing back the dead poet John Milton to save his decadent era.

Source:
biography from http://www.geocities.com/infinitum_poetry/bioswilliamwordsworth.html
poem from
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/
analysis and comments of the poems from
www.sparknotes.com/

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth

Fast rode the knight

2009-06-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, whatsoever. But according to the e-learning, which the instructions appear to be quite unclear to me, I shall be posting about a poem that I like, and then answer the two questions that are:

How are the figurative language used in the poem? Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?
Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words.

Actually, I am not quite sure whether I should be posting down here, but nvm, if it is like needed in the class blog, I will just post it up there. The impt thing is to get it ready first(as in that's what I think). Basically, the title for "my favourite poem" is "Fast rode the knight". You actually can't deem it as my "favourite" poem, as there are really lots of them and I couldn't possibly finish reading all of themv and deciding which one is my "favourite". So on to serious stuff now, the poem is as below:

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

This is basically it. In respose to qs. 1, there are of course the five types of languages used in figurative language, namely hyperbole, personification, metaphor, similie and last but not least symbolism. Now for my answer, I think that hyperbole is the "blowing, staggering, bloody thing" which shows how badly hurt the horse is being exaggerated. As for personification, I am not quite sure whether the "eager sword" can be considered one, but as for a metaphor, there certainly is, as the men at war are described as "men of steel", although they are not actually made of steel. For simile, there is one that I had found, which is " Like riot of silver lights". Maybe it can also be classified under metaphor, as the "riot" is really exxagerated. However, for symbolism, I think that the "knight's good banner" can symbolise that he is still fighting strong and not giving up until he dies, but the horse can also symbolise a forgotten stepping stone that the knight used in order to climb up to the castle. But actually, the last stanza did not really specify whether the knight survived or not, as the knight could be dead or climbed back to the castle by using the horse as a stepping stone.

As for the second qs. it should be free response.
Basically, I like the poem as it mentioned a horse, which I like alot, although it died in the end by serving as a stepping stone for the knight to retuern to the castle, and a vailant knight at battle. However, it is not actually the real reason why I like the poem, as the poem actually reflects the passion of Arthurian times, when knights were great men who fought for honor, their people, and their kingdom. The way in which the poet incorporates phrases such as "hot and reeking," "steel flickered and gleamed," and "riot of silver lights," definitely gives me a better portrayal of what was going on then, and have an image of the battle. Furthermore, there is also romance, as the knight is actually doing the battle to save the lady that he loved. The amazing part is that such a short poem could imprint such a vivid picture in my mind, and I feel that it is really a very accomplished poem. It is also allegorical, and if you read it deeper, it is not supporting war, and that the horse is not "on its period" and so on. Thus, all this that are mentioned actually should be the real reason why I like the poem. Nevertheless, the only part that I do not like is about the knight leaving the horse to die aftere he climbed up to the castle. It shows the knight, though brave, has a characteristic flaw in thinking that though the horse is like a person, it is lowly regarded and could be sacrificed. The knight, having the horse as his companion, should go through thick and thin with it, but he disregarded it after leaving his horse to die. It is really sad. But the learning point is that even though the armors are made of steel, people could still get hurt, and thus reflects upon how evil and disastrous the effects of a war is as well as the fact that war is just a sacrifice of the finest(in these case the knights) for nothing at all.

As a reflection, I generally wish that I could learn more of these types of writing styles. The twist at the end is really good. The poem describes how brave and gailant a knight is before battle, "waving an eager sword" but the end result is being defeated, and the horse is left to die. The use of powerful metaphors like "riot of silver light" is certainly another good learning point. Besides, they are not overused, and the length of the poem certainly inspires me to continue reading it. The poem also does a great job in leading one through this powerful scene of war and then ending with the grousom effects using such an innocent animal. By being able to incorporate all these aspects, writing would be improved. Hence, I wish that I may be able to do so.

Animal Farm

2009-05-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

Hi,
Basically, I did not know that there is a need to post on animal farm, but I saw that everyone's post has animal farm, so I guess I shall be posting one as well. Ok, To start off, I seriously thought that the title is quite, so-called "cute". I really had the real impression of it being so-called a "baby story", because I seriously thought that animal stories are for children. However, I was wrong... It turned out to be an allegory, which means that it has a deeper meaning, and once I flipped open the first page, the mystery of whether it is really a "baby story" unravels... ...

It started off with the introduction of the author, setting the scene, main characters, main themes and language and style(mine has a reading guide). From there, it was immediately known that it is written based on events during the Russian Revolution, and this urged me to find out more about it. After reading it, and doing some self assessments(from reading guides), I indeed got a deeper understanding of it.

It is actually as mentioned, during the Russian Revolution. Now, I am going to elaborate on the history of it.Russian society in the early twentieth century was bipolar: a tiny minority controlled most of the country's wealth, while the vast majority of the country's inhabitants were impoverished and oppressed peasants. Communism arose in Russia when the nation's workers and peasants, assisted by a class of concerned intellectuals known as the intelligentsia, rebelled against and overwhelmed the wealthy and powerful class of capitalists and aristocrats. They hoped to establish a socialist utopia based on the principles of the German economic and political philosopher Karl Marx.

In Das Kapital (Capital), Marx advanced an economically deterministic interpretation of human history, arguing that society would naturally evolve—from a monarchy and aristocracy, to capitalism, and then on to communism, a system under which all property would be held in common. The dignity of the poor workers oppressed by capitalism would be restored, and all people would live as equals. Marx followed this sober and scholarly work with The Communist Manifesto, an impassioned call to action that urged, “Workers of the world, unite!”

In the Russia of 1917, it appeared that Marx's dreams were to become reality. After a politically complicated civil war, Tsar Nicholas II, the monarch of Russia, was forced to abdicate the throne that his family had held for three centuries. Vladimir Ilych Lenin, a Russian intellectual revolutionary, seized power in the name of the Communist Party. The new regime took land and industry from private control and put them under government supervision. This centralization of economic systems constituted the first steps in restoring Russia to the prosperity it had known before World War I and in modernizing the nation's primitive infrastructure, including bringing electricity to the countryside. After Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky jockeyed for control of the newly formed Soviet Union. Stalin, a crafty and manipulative politician, soon banished Trotsky, an idealistic proponent of international communism. Stalin then began to consolidate his power with brutal intensity, killing or imprisoning his perceived political enemies and overseeing the purge of approximately twenty million Soviet citizens.

Now, comes the summary part for the chapters.

As the novella opens, Mr. Jones, the proprietor and overseer of the Manor Farm, has just stumbled drunkenly to bed after forgetting to secure his farm buildings properly. As soon as his bedroom light goes out, all of the farm animals except Moses, Mr. Jones's tame raven, convene in the big barn to hear a speech by Old Major, a prize boar and pillar of the animal community. Sensing that his long life is about to come to an end, Major wishes to impart to the rest of the farm animals a distillation of the wisdom that he has acquired during his lifetime.

As the animals listen raptly, Old Major delivers up the fruits of his years of quiet contemplation in his stall. The plain truth, he says, is that the lives of his fellow animals are “miserable, laborious, and short.” Animals are born into the world as slaves, worked incessantly from the time they can walk, fed only enough to keep breath in their bodies, and then slaughtered mercilessly when they are no longer useful. He notes that the land upon which the animals live possesses enough resources to support many times the present population in luxury; there is no natural reason for the animals' poverty and misery. Major blames the animals' suffering solely on their human oppressors. Mr. Jones and his ilk have been exploiting animals for ages, Major says, taking all of the products of their labor—eggs, milk, dung, foals—for themselves and producing nothing of value to offer the animals in return.

Old Major relates a dream that he had the previous night, of a world in which animals live without the tyranny of men: they are free, happy, well fed, and treated with dignity. He urges the animals to do everything they can to make this dream a reality and exhorts them to overthrow the humans who purport to own them. The animals can succeed in their rebellion only if they first achieve a complete solidarity or “perfect comradeship” of all of the animals against the humans, and if they resist the false notion spread by humans that animals and humans share common interests. A brief conversation arises in which the animals debate the status of rats as comrades. Major then provides a precept that will allow the animals to determine who their comrades are: creatures that walk on two legs are enemies; those with four legs or with wings are allies. He reminds his audience that the ways of man are completely corrupt: once the humans have been defeated, the animals must never adopt any of their habits; they must not live in a house, sleep in a bed, wear clothes, drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, touch money, engage in trade, or tyrannize another animal. He teaches the animals a song called “Beasts of England,” which paints a dramatic picture of the utopian, or ideal, animal community of Major's dream. The animals sing several inspired choruses of “Beasts of England” with one voice—until Mr. Jones, thinking that the commotion bespeaks the entry of a fox into the yard, fires a shot into the side of the barn. The animals go to sleep, and the Manor Farm again sinks into quietude.

Three nights later, Old Major dies in his sleep, and for three months the animals make secret preparations to carry out the old pig's dying wish of wresting control of the farm from Mr. Jones. The work of teaching and organizing falls to the pigs, the cleverest of the animals, and especially to two pigs named Napoleon and Snowball. Together with a silver-tongued pig named Squealer, they formulate the principles of a philosophy called Animalism, the fundamentals of which they spread among the other animals. The animals call one another “Comrade” and take their quandaries to the pigs, who answer their questions about the impending Rebellion. At first, many of the animals find the principles of Animalism difficult to understand; they have grown up believing that Mr. Jones is their proper master. Mollie, a vain carriage horse, expresses particular concern over whether she will be able to continue to enjoy the little luxuries like eating sugar and wearing ribbons in the new utopia. Snowball sternly reminds her that ribbons symbolize slavery and that, in the animals' utopia, they would have to be abolished. Mollie halfheartedly agrees.

The pigs' most troublesome opponent proves to be Moses, the raven, who flies about spreading tales of a place called Sugarcandy Mountain, where animals go when they die—a place of great pleasure and plenty, where sugar grows on the hedges. Even though many of the animals despise the talkative and idle Moses, they nevertheless find great appeal in the idea of Sugarcandy Mountain. The pigs work very hard to convince the other animals of the falsehood of Moses's teachings. Thanks to the help of the slow-witted but loyal cart-horses, Boxer and Clover, the pigs eventually manage to prime the animals for revolution.

The Rebellion occurs much earlier than anyone expected and comes off with shocking ease. Mr. Jones has been driven to drink after losing money in a lawsuit, and he has let his men become lazy, dishonest, and neglectful. One day, Mr. Jones goes on a drinking binge and forgets to feed the animals. Unable to bear their hunger, the cows break into the store shed and the animals begin to eat. Mr. Jones and his men discover the transgression and begin to whip the cows. Spurred to anger, the animals turn on the men, attack them, and easily chase them from the farm. Astonished by their success, the animals hurry to destroy the last remaining evidence of their subservience: chains, bits, halters, whips, and other implements stored in the farm buildings. After obliterating all signs of Mr. Jones, the animals enjoy a double ration of corn and sing “Beasts of England” seven times through, until it is time to sleep. In the morning, they admire the farm from a high knoll before exploring the farmhouse, where they stare in stunned silence at the unbelievable luxuries within. Mollie tries to stay inside, where she can help herself to ribbons and gaze at herself in the mirror, but the rest of the animals reprimand her sharply for her foolishness. The group agrees to preserve the farmhouse as a museum, with the stipulation that no animal may ever live in it.

The pigs reveal to the other animals that they have taught themselves how to read, and Snowball replaces the inscription “Manor Farm” on the front gate with the words “Animal Farm.” Snowball and Napoleon, having reduced the principles of Animalism to seven key commandments, paint these commandments on the side of the big barn. The animals go to gather the harvest, but the cows, who haven't been milked in some time, begin lowing loudly. The pigs milk them, and the animals eye the five pails of milk desirously. Napoleon tells them not to worry about the milk; he says that it will be “attended to.” Snowball leads the animals to the fields to begin harvesting. Napoleon lags behind, and when the animals return that evening, the milk has disappeared.

The animals spend a laborious summer harvesting in the fields. The clever pigs think of ways for the animals to use the humans' tools, and every animal participates in the work, each according to his capacity. The resulting harvest exceeds any that the farm has ever known. Only Mollie and the cat shirk their duties. The powerful and hard working Boxer does most of the heavy labor, adopting “I will work harder!” as a personal motto. The entire animal community reveres his dedication and strength. Of all of the animals, only Benjamin, the obstinate donkey, seems to recognize no change under the new leadership.

Every Sunday, the animals hold a flag-raising ceremony. The flag's green background represents the fields of England, and its white hoof and horn symbolize the animals. The morning rituals also include a democratic meeting, at which the animals debate and establish new policies for the collective good. At the meetings, Snowball and Napoleon always voice the loudest opinions, though their views always clash.

Snowball establishes a number of committees with various goals, such as cleaning the cows' tails and re-educating the rats and rabbits. Most of these committees fail to accomplish their aims, but the classes designed to teach all of the farm animals how to read and write meet with some success. By the end of the summer, all of the animals achieve some degree of literacy. The pigs become fluent in reading and writing, while some of the dogs are able to learn to read the Seven Commandments. Muriel the goat can read scraps of newspaper, while Clover knows the alphabet but cannot string the letters together. Poor Boxer never gets beyond the letter D. When it becomes apparent that many of the animals are unable to memorize the Seven Commandments, Snowball reduces the principles to one essential maxim, which he says contains the heart of Animalism: “Four legs good, two legs bad.” The birds take offense until Snowball hastily explains that wings count as legs. The other animals accept the maxim without argument, and the sheep begin to chant it at random times, mindlessly, as if it were a song.

Napoleon takes no interest in Snowball's committees. When the dogs Jessie and Bluebell each give birth to puppies, he takes the puppies into his own care, saying that the training of the young should take priority over adult education. He raises the puppies in a loft above the harness room, out of sight of the rest of Animal Farm. Around this time, the animals discover, to their outrage, that the pigs have been taking all of the milk and apples for themselves. Squealer explains to them that pigs need milk and apples in order to think well, and since the pigs' work is brain work, it is in everyone's best interest for the pigs to eat the apples and drink the milk. Should the pigs' brains fail because of a lack of apples and milk, Squealer hints, Mr. Jones might come back to take over the farm. This prospect frightens the other animals, and they agree to forgo milk and apples in the interest of the collective good.

By late summer, news of Animal Farm has spread across half the county. Mr. Jones lives ignominiously in Willingdon, drinking and complaining about his misfortune. Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick, who own the adjoining farms, fear that disenchantment will spread among their own animals. Their rivalry with each other, however, prevents them from working together against Animal Farm. They merely spread rumors about the farm's inefficiency and moral reprehensibility. Meanwhile, animals everywhere begin singing “Beasts of England,” which they have learned from flocks of pigeons sent by Snowball, and many begin to behave rebelliously.

At last, in early October, a flight of pigeons alerts Animal Farm that Mr. Jones has begun marching on the farm with some of Pilkington's and Frederick's men. Snowball, who has studied books about the battle campaigns of the renowned Roman general Julius Caesar, prepares a defense and leads the animals in an ambush on the men. Boxer fights courageously, as does Snowball, and the humans suffer a quick defeat. The animals' losses amount only to a single sheep, whom they give a hero's burial. Boxer, who believes that he has unintentionally killed a stable boy in the chaos, expresses his regret at taking a life, even though it is a human one. Snowball tells him not to feel guilty, asserting that “the only good human being is a dead one.” Mollie, as is her custom, has avoided any risk to herself by hiding during the battle. Snowball and Boxer each receive medals with the inscription “Animal Hero, First Class.” The animals discover Mr. Jones's gun where he dropped it in the mud. They place it at the base of the flagstaff, agreeing to fire it twice a year: on October 12th, the anniversary of the Battle of the Cowshed—as they have dubbed their victory—and on Midsummer's Day, the anniversary of the Rebellion.

Mollie becomes an increasing burden on Animal Farm: she arrives late for work, accepts treats from men associated with nearby farms, and generally behaves contrary to the tenets of Animalism. Eventually she disappears, lured away by a fat, red-faced man who stroked her coat and fed her sugar; now she pulls his carriage. None of the other animals ever mentions her name again.

During the cold winter months, the animals hold their meetings in the big barn, and Snowball and Napoleon's constant disagreements continue to dominate the proceedings. Snowball proves a better speaker and debater, but Napoleon can better canvass for support in between meetings. Snowball brims with ideas for improving the farm: he studies Mr. Jones's books and eventually concocts a scheme to build a windmill, with which the animals could generate electricity and automate many farming tasks, bringing new comforts to the animals' lives. But building the windmill would entail much hard work and difficulty, and Napoleon contends that the animals should attend to their current needs rather than plan for a distant future. The question deeply divides the animals. Napoleon surveys Snowball's plans and expresses his contempt by urinating on them.

When Snowball has finally completed his plans, all assemble for a great meeting to decide whether to undertake the windmill project. Snowball gives a passionate speech, to which Napoleon responds with a pathetically unaffecting and brief retort. Snowball speaks further, inspiring the animals with his descriptions of the wonders of electricity. Just as the animals prepare to vote, however, Napoleon gives a strange whimper, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars charge into the barn, attack Snowball, and chase him off the farm. They return to Napoleon's side, and, with the dogs growling menacingly, Napoleon announces that from now on meetings will be held only for ceremonial purposes. He states that all important decisions will fall to the pigs alone.

Afterward, many of the animals feel confused and disturbed. Squealer explains to them that Napoleon is making a great sacrifice in taking the leadership responsibilities upon himself and that, as the cleverest animal, he serves the best interest of all by making the decisions. These statements placate the animals, though they still question the expulsion of Snowball. Squealer explains that Snowball was a traitor and a criminal. Eventually, the animals come to accept this version of events, and Boxer adds greatly to Napoleon's prestige by adopting the maxims “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right.” These two maxims soon reinforce each other when, three weeks after the banishment of Snowball, the animals learn that Napoleon supports the windmill project. Squealer explains that their leader never really opposed the proposal; he simply used his apparent opposition as a maneuver to oust the wicked Snowball. These tactics, he claims, served to advance the collective best interest. Squealer's words prove so appealing, and the growls of his three-dog entourage so threatening, that the animals accept his explanation without question.

For the rest of the year, the animals work at a backbreaking pace to farm enough food for themselves and to build the windmill. The leadership cuts the rations—Squealer explains that they have simply “readjusted” them—and the animals receive no food at all unless they work on Sunday afternoons. But because they believe what the leadership tells them—that they are working for their own good now, not for Mr. Jones's—they are eager to take on the extra labor. Boxer, in particular, commits himself to Animal Farm, doing the work of three horses but never complaining. Even though the farm possesses all of the necessary materials to build the windmill, the project presents a number of difficulties. The animals struggle over how to break the available stone into manageable sizes for building without picks and crowbars, which they are unable to use. They finally solve the problem by learning to raise and then drop big stones into the quarry, smashing them into usable chunks. By late summer, the animals have enough broken stone to begin construction.

Although their work is strenuous, the animals suffer no more than they had under Mr. Jones. They have enough to eat and can maintain the farm grounds easily now that humans no longer come to cart off and sell the fruits of their labor. But the farm still needs a number of items that it cannot produce on its own, such as iron, nails, and paraffin oil. As existing supplies of these items begin to run low, Napoleon announces that he has hired a human solicitor, Mr. Whymper, to assist him in conducting trade on behalf of Animal Farm. The other animals are taken aback by the idea of engaging in trade with humans, but Squealer explains that the founding principles of Animal Farm never included any prohibition against trade and the use of money. He adds that if the animals think that they recall any such law, they have simply fallen victim to lies fabricated by the traitor Snowball.

Mr. Whymper begins paying a visit to the farm every Monday, and Napoleon places orders with him for various supplies. The pigs begin living in the farmhouse, and rumor has it that they even sleep in beds, a violation of one of the Seven Commandments. But when Clover asks Muriel to read her the appropriate commandment, the two find that it now reads “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” Squealer explains that Clover must have simply forgotten the last two words. All animals sleep in beds, he says—a pile of straw is a bed, after all. Sheets, however, as a human invention, constitute the true source of evil. He then shames the other animals into agreeing that the pigs need comfortable repose in order to think clearly and serve the greater good of the farm.

Around this time, a fearsome storm descends on Animal Farm, knocking down roof tiles, an elm tree, and even the flagstaff. When the animals go into the fields, they find, to their horror, that the windmill, on which they have worked so hard, has been toppled. Napoleon announces in appalled tones that the windmill has been sabotaged by Snowball, who, he says, will do anything to destroy Animal Farm. Napoleon passes a death sentence on Snowball, offering a bushel of apples to the traitor's killer. He then gives a passionate speech in which he convinces the animals that they must rebuild the windmill, despite the backbreaking toil involved. “Long live the windmill!” he cries. “Long live Animal Farm!”

In the bitter cold of winter, the animals struggle to rebuild the windmill. In January, they fall short of food, a fact that they work to conceal from the human farmers around them, lest Animal Farm be perceived to be failing. The humans refuse to believe that Snowball caused the destruction of the windmill, saying that the windmill's walls simply weren't thick enough. The animals deem this explanation false, but they nevertheless decide to build the walls twice as thick this time. Squealer gives ennobling speeches on the glory of sacrifice, but the other animals acquire their real inspiration from the example of Boxer, who works harder than ever. In order to feed the animals, Napoleon contracts to sell four hundred eggs a week. The other animals react with shock—one of Old Major's original complaints about humans focused on the cruelty of egg selling, or so they remember. The hens rebel, and Napoleon responds by cutting their rations entirely. Nine hens die before the others give in to Napoleon's demands.

Soon afterward, the animals hear, to their extreme dismay, that Snowball has been visiting the farm at night, in secret, and sabotaging the animals' efforts. Napoleon says that he can detect Snowball's presence everywhere, and whenever something appears to go wrong by chance, Snowball receives the blame. One day, Squealer announces that Snowball has sold himself to Mr. Frederick's farm, Pinchfield, and that the treacherous pig has been in league with Mr. Jones from the start. He recalls Snowball's attempts at the Battle of the Cowshed to have the animals defeated. The animals hear these words in stupefied astonishment. They remember Snowball's heroism and recall that he received a medal. Boxer, in particular, is completely baffled. But Napoleon and Squealer convince the others that Snowball's apparent bravery simply constituted part of his treacherous plot. They also work to convince the animals of Napoleon's superior bravery during that battle. So vividly does Squealer describe Napoleon's alleged heroic actions that the animals are almost able to remember them.

Four days later, Napoleon convenes all of the animals in the yard. With his nine huge dogs ringed about him and growling, he stages an inquisition and a purge: he forces certain animals to confess to their participation in a conspiracy with Snowball and then has the dogs tear out these supposed traitors' throats. The dogs, apparently without orders, even attack Boxer, who effortlessly knocks them away with his huge hooves. But four pigs and numerous other animals meet their deaths, including the hens who rebelled at the proposal to sell their eggs. The terrible bloodshed leaves the animals deeply shaken and confused. After Napoleon leaves, Boxer says that he would never have believed that such a thing could happen on Animal Farm. He adds that the tragedy must owe to some fault in the animals themselves; thus, he commits to working even harder. Clover looks out over the farm, wondering how such a glorious rebellion as theirs could have come to its current state. Some of the animals begin to sing “Beasts of England,” but Squealer appears and explains that “Beasts of England” may no longer be sung. It applied only to the Rebellion, he says, and now there is no more need for rebellion. Squealer gives the animals a replacement song, written by Minimus, the poet pig. The new song expresses profound patriotism and glorifies Animal Farm, but it does not inspire the animals as “Beasts of England” once did.

A few days after the bloody executions, the animals discover that the commandment reading “No animal shall kill any other animal” now reads: “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.” As with the previous revisions of commandments, the animals blame the apparent change on their faulty memories—they must have forgotten the final two words. The animals work even harder throughout the year to rebuild the windmill. Though they often suffer from hunger and the cold, Squealer reads continuously from a list of statistics proving that conditions remain far superior to anything the animals knew under Mr. Jones and that they only continue to improve.

Napoleon has now taken the title of “Leader” and has dozens of other complimentary titles as well. Minimus has written a poem in praise of the Napoleon and inscribed it on the barn wall. A pile of timber lies unused on the farm, left over from the days of Mr. Jones, and Napoleon engages in complicated negotiations for the sale of it to either Mr. Frederick or Mr. Pilkington. When negotiations favor Mr. Frederick, the pigs teach the animals to hate Mr. Pilkington. When Mr. Pilkington then appears ready to buy the timber, the pigs teach the animals to hate Mr. Frederick with equal ferocity. Whichever farm is currently out of favor is said to be the hiding place of Snowball. Following a slew of propaganda against Mr. Frederick (during which Napoleon adopts the maxim “Death to Frederick!”), the animals are shocked to learn that Mr. Frederick eventually comes through as the buyer of the timber. The pigs talk endlessly about Napoleon's cleverness, for, rather than accept a check for the timber, he insists on receiving cash. The five-pound notes are now in his possession.

Soon the animals complete the construction of the windmill. But before they can put it to use, Napoleon discovers to his great outrage that the money Mr. Frederick gave him for the timber is simply a stack of forgeries. He warns the animals to prepare for the worst, and, indeed, Mr. Frederick soon attacks Animal Farm with a large group of armed men. The animals cower as Mr. Frederick's men plant dynamite at the base of the windmill and blow the whole structure up. Enraged, the animals attack the men, driving them away, but at a heavy cost: several of the animals are killed, and Boxer sustains a serious injury. The animals are disheartened, but a patriotic flag-raising ceremony cheers them up and restores their faith somewhat.

Not long afterward, the pigs discover a crate of whisky in the farmhouse basement. That night, the animals hear singing and revelry from within, followed by the sound of a terrible quarrel. The next morning the pigs look bleary-eyed and sick, and the animals hear whisperings that Comrade Napoleon may be dying. By evening, however, he has recovered. The next night, some of the animals find Squealer near the barn, holding a paintbrush; he has fallen from a ladder leaned up against the spot where the Seven Commandments are painted on the barn. The animals fail to put two and two together, however, and when they discover that the commandment that they recall as stating “No animal shall drink alcohol” actually reads “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess,” they once again blame their memories for being faulty.

A few days after the bloody executions, the animals discover that the commandment reading “No animal shall kill any other animal” now reads: “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.” As with the previous revisions of commandments, the animals blame the apparent change on their faulty memories—they must have forgotten the final two words. The animals work even harder throughout the year to rebuild the windmill. Though they often suffer from hunger and the cold, Squealer reads continuously from a list of statistics proving that conditions remain far superior to anything the animals knew under Mr. Jones and that they only continue to improve.

Napoleon has now taken the title of “Leader” and has dozens of other complimentary titles as well. Minimus has written a poem in praise of the Napoleon and inscribed it on the barn wall. A pile of timber lies unused on the farm, left over from the days of Mr. Jones, and Napoleon engages in complicated negotiations for the sale of it to either Mr. Frederick or Mr. Pilkington. When negotiations favor Mr. Frederick, the pigs teach the animals to hate Mr. Pilkington. When Mr. Pilkington then appears ready to buy the timber, the pigs teach the animals to hate Mr. Frederick with equal ferocity. Whichever farm is currently out of favor is said to be the hiding place of Snowball. Following a slew of propaganda against Mr. Frederick (during which Napoleon adopts the maxim “Death to Frederick!”), the animals are shocked to learn that Mr. Frederick eventually comes through as the buyer of the timber. The pigs talk endlessly about Napoleon's cleverness, for, rather than accept a check for the timber, he insists on receiving cash. The five-pound notes are now in his possession.

Soon the animals complete the construction of the windmill. But before they can put it to use, Napoleon discovers to his great outrage that the money Mr. Frederick gave him for the timber is simply a stack of forgeries. He warns the animals to prepare for the worst, and, indeed, Mr. Frederick soon attacks Animal Farm with a large group of armed men. The animals cower as Mr. Frederick's men plant dynamite at the base of the windmill and blow the whole structure up. Enraged, the animals attack the men, driving them away, but at a heavy cost: several of the animals are killed, and Boxer sustains a serious injury. The animals are disheartened, but a patriotic flag-raising ceremony cheers them up and restores their faith somewhat.

Not long afterward, the pigs discover a crate of whisky in the farmhouse basement. That night, the animals hear singing and revelry from within, followed by the sound of a terrible quarrel. The next morning the pigs look bleary-eyed and sick, and the animals hear whisperings that Comrade Napoleon may be dying. By evening, however, he has recovered. The next night, some of the animals find Squealer near the barn, holding a paintbrush; he has fallen from a ladder leaned up against the spot where the Seven Commandments are painted on the barn. The animals fail to put two and two together, however, and when they discover that the commandment that they recall as stating “No animal shall drink alcohol” actually reads “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess,” they once again blame their memories for being faulty.

Years pass. Many animals age and die, and few recall the days before the Rebellion. The animals complete a new windmill, which is used not for generating electricity but for milling corn, a far more profitable endeavor. The farm seems to have grown richer, but only the many pigs and dogs live comfortable lives. Squealer explains that the pigs and dogs do very important work—filling out forms and such. The other animals largely accept this explanation, and their lives go on very much as before. They never lose their sense of pride in Animal Farm or their feeling that they have differentiated themselves from animals on other farms. The inhabitants of Animal Farm still fervently believe in the goals of the Rebellion—a world free from humans, with equality for all animals.

One day, Squealer takes the sheep off to a remote spot to teach them a new chant. Not long afterward, the animals have just finished their day's work when they hear the terrified neighing of a horse. It is Clover, and she summons the others hastily to the yard. There, the animals gaze in amazement at Squealer walking toward them on his hind legs. Napoleon soon appears as well, walking upright; worse, he carries a whip. Before the other animals have a chance to react to the change, the sheep begin to chant, as if on cue: “Four legs good, two legs better!” Clover, whose eyes are failing in her old age, asks Benjamin to read the writing on the barn wall where the Seven Commandments were originally inscribed. Only the last commandment remains: “all animals are equal.” However, it now carries an addition: “but some animals are more equal than others.” In the days that follow, Napoleon openly begins smoking a pipe, and the other pigs subscribe to human magazines, listen to the radio, and begin to install a telephone, also wearing human clothes that they have salvaged from Mr. Jones's wardrobe.

One day, the pigs invite neighboring human farmers over to inspect Animal Farm. The farmers praise the pigs and express, in diplomatic language, their regret for past “misunderstandings.” The other animals, led by Clover, watch through a window as Mr. Pilkington and Napoleon toast each other, and Mr. Pilkington declares that that the farmers share a problem with the pigs: “If you have your lower animals to contend with,” he says, “we have our lower classes!” Mr. Pilkington notes with appreciation that the pigs have found ways to make Animal Farm's animals work harder and on less food than any other group of farm animals in the county. He adds that he looks forward to introducing these advances on his own farm. Napoleon replies by reassuring his human guests that the pigs never wanted anything other than to conduct business peacefully with their human neighbors and that they have taken steps to further that goal. Animals on Animal Farm will no longer address one another as “comrade,” he says, or pay homage to Old Major; nor will they salute a flag with a horn and hoof upon it. All of these customs have been changed recently by decree, he assures the men. Napoleon even announces that Animal Farm will now be known as the Manor Farm, which is, he believes, its “correct and original name.”

The pigs and farmers return to their amiable card game, and the other animals creep away from the window. Soon the sounds of a quarrel draw them back to listen. Napoleon and Pilkington have played the ace of spades simultaneously, and each accuses the other of cheating. The animals, watching through the window, realize with a start that, as they look around the room of the farmhouse, they can no longer distinguish which of the cardplayers are pigs and which are human beings.

This should be the whole story, by chapters. However, I guess I shall end here,as it is really getting late. Bye.

Rayson
P.S. I got the information from sparknotes.

Sorry

2009-05-10T07:23:00.001-07:00

Oops, really sry, I did not know how to arrange the pictures correctly. This is not counted into the judging, just a comment. For those to be judged are the 5 posts after this post, or the one above this post, although I feel that it shouldn't really be counted one as I copied the information from a source. I did not have time to do as by the time I knew that there should be an animal farm post, it was already 10 plus on Sunday. Besides, my mum was telling me to go to sleep, and I still have to comment on others' blogs. Thks. Sry for any inconvenience caused.

Rayson

A visit to Memories at Old Ford Factory

2009-05-10T04:32:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I shall not be posting about the soccer stuff that I had mentioned in my last post. Partly due to my poor memory, I somehow can't remember them clearly, and I was only present for the first half of the match. So actually, I do not know quite well what happened during the second half, except that Aloysius Poh scored a goal, making it a win of 5 to 3, with reference made to Matthew's post. Basically, he has already updated on it, so I shall not be talking about it. Actually, I went to a national monument today, and found it very interesting, so I shall be elaborating more about it in my next paragraph.

Ok, the monument is Memories at Old Ford Factory, located around upper Bukit Timah Road. Basically, I intended to go there mainly for the project's day projects, but in the end, I got more than what I had expected. Besides getting the stuff needed for the project, I also got to do some of the history stuff, as well as for this blog post. However, I had spent $5.50 for my entrance fee, but it still proved to be a good yield. Never mind about this, now , let me elaborate a little on that monument, in case you do not know what it is.

According to the brochures I had taken there, it was the Ford Motor Company's first Southeast Asian car assembly plant. It is today a prominent historical and architectural landmark in Singapore, most remembered as the site where the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese on 15th February and gazetted as a national monument in 2005, Memories now houses a permanent World War 2 exhibition gallery and archives repositories. It is also the first "Green mark" certified national monument in Singapore. So this is basically a short introduction from it.

Actually, I thought that it would be quite a big place, but in fact, it is quite small, and has only 1 level, compared to the other monuments which I had been before. Wait, wait, wait. While posting this, I am looking at the brochure, and it says that there is a second floor on the Battle of Bukit Chandu. I guess I had missed out on it. There goes my money, how could I forget to visit the second floor? How careless was I? Forget about it... ...

It also contains lots of artefacts, and do you know that Tan Kah Kee was also inside? As I had to do the project, which requires me to take photos, me, being a noob at choosing information, decided somewhat to take down everything. I had actually brought a notebook along, but did not want to take down anything after looking at all the wordy information. This thus resulted in me taking 57 or 59 photos, I can't remember, of that place. You know, I did not upgrade my camera, so the pictures are not that clear. By the way, for information sake, its age is bigger than me. So you should probably know how "laggy" it is.

The inside is really beautiful, and there is also a huge map which I took lots of photos of, probably to use for my history project. But in fact, I really do not have time to do it as I still have alot of stuff pending for me to be done. Ok, to cut it short, as I still have the tons of homework "smiling" at me, with the television embracing its arms towards me, I will really have to shorten this post. Seriously speaking, I also do not have much to say, as I went there for only a brief visit.

I went to view all the exhibits, but without much of an interest. After feeling bored, I proceeded to view the plants commonly seen during the Japanese Occupation. I did not take any photos, I just find trhem "lame", and I do not have the "green hands". Truthfully, I went back home after that, not before stopping at the library to borrow some books.

That should be all, and I shall end my post here. Below are the 57 or 59 photos that I had taken there. Hope that you will have a good time viewing them. I am not a photographer, and my camera is "laggy", so please pardon them if they are not "well-shot". Hope you will have a good time viewing them. Oh yah, feel free to make any comments. I shall end here, so bye. See you on Tuesday... ... where I will meet my end for my poorly done tests. I must brace myself to face the music... ...

Rayson
(my tests... save me...)

German stuff

2009-05-09T04:06:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I am back again. As mentioned, I shall be posting about some german stuff. To start off, I shall be talking about my tests. Actually, I thought that the paper would be a hard one, and revised for it. As zhu cheng, who is also taking german, test's is on Tues and mine is on Thurs, his naturally come before me. After the test, he told me that it is actually quite easy, and told me some of the things to learn. On Thursday, I went for my test but I found it hard. When the results are out, he got a 47/50, congrates to him, while I only got a mere 42.5/50. Although it is still an A1, I am somewhat angry at myself for making so many careless mistakes. I had chose the correct verb to fill it into the blanks, but the state(I do not know how to express it) is wrong. Never mind, what is undone cannot be undone, I still must be happy that I got an A1. The semester test is on next week, and I will have to do a reading comprehension! I am already poor at comprehensions, I guess I will really fail it. Just hope that I will have luck that day. By the way, I am really getting very unlucky these days.

The next thing is to talk about my personal experience of it. Basically, I find it very boring, but I had to put up with it for some unknown reason that urges me to do so. Although there are games there, I actually find it very "lame" as they are all very simple and are no fun at all. However, learning one more language would surely be better than those who only learned two. According to the chinese test compre, it said that we can have a greater understanding of things around us and so on, but I thought that maybe we may also have a job advantage in future? Naaaaa... who cares about it anyway, the "future" is still a long long way to go. We still have to go through all those tests, exams and so on before we work, and I guess the amount of homework we have will surely keep us busy to think of any other things for the time being. Don't you agree with me? Seriously speaking, learning german really "oh my god"(I am a free-tinker. Pardon my spelling, it really sucks, I only know how to say it, not spell it. sigh...). I have learned german for like 4 months or so, but I still do not understand lots of the text and if anyone speaks too fast, i will not be able to catch the meaning. I mean, my vocab is really very limited, and I have a great, big problem with my sentence construction. There are so many rules to remember, some words must be behind the subject, so on and so forth. They are real irritating. It is just basically memorising everything and apply them. I, having a poor memory, find it very hard to remember them, unlike all the other "german-mates"(there is a "classmate", so maybe there is a "german-mate" as well right?). I can only remember all the chess matches. I just have to see it once and can replay the whole match already. Not exactly boasting, because they only stay in my brain temporarily, I will forget them after a day or so, unless I really made an effort to remember them, or they are special matches that I cannot forget. Yah, my memory is real bad at memorising all the german words, so learning the language will be a hard on for me.

That is basically all, and maybe I will be posting some stuff, perhaps soccer stuff, although I lost my interest in it after being hit "there" two times painfully. Luckily, I still have my father's day. Ok, that should be all, but before I sign off, I did like to post some german videos that are really nice. They had been recommended by my german teacher, one is the abc song, mind you, they are really unique, and the other is titled "neunundneunzig", which means 99. According to my teacher, she said that it is very popular, and has been translated into lots of different types of languages. So sit back and enjoy, hope you find them nice. Actually, I also do not understand the song, the language is too "chimm" for me, but they sang it and I felt as though I understand it.

Rayson

updates on school stuff

2009-05-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

Back to the topic of tests again. It just keep coming and coming. I must really record them down before I forgot all of them. Ok, currently, my history and my geography tests are still not returned. And mind you, our history teacher said that there are people who got 8/20, which means an E8! Oh my, what if I am really the unlucky one? I got back my literature, and got a mere 17/25 for writing so called out of point. The common test is the worst, got a C6. I actually did not understand the teacher's comments, she said something like what I was talking was not straight to the point and that my story must bring the reader along with it, and also , too much descriptions. For maths, I got an lucky A1, missed the A2 mark by the skin of my teeth. I actually did not check the paper, due to the fact that I was stuck at an easy question which I figured it out and found myself very stupid after like 15minutes. Chinese test is quite good for me, I actually got top for my compre and the test. That shouold really be all.

This week was the busiest week, I have lots of tests and I did not think that I did well for anyone of them. Today was the worst day ever. The test is supposeds to be quite simple, but I was down with flu, and mind you, it is not H1N1, just common flu that I always have, so I can't do my test properly. I have to control my mucus from flowing down by looking up, as well as feeling very weak all over. Such a bad day for me.

Today, due to the fact that my cca was cancelled, I went home and started watching a show on sina.com. The videos are actually on youtube, but got deleted due to terms of use violation. The ending was a sad one, and I am still grooving over it. Seriously speaking, it was a show that captured my emotions the most, compared to any other shows. Never mind about that, I think I will get over it soon.

Basically, I have not done any homework yet, so I guess I should start doing them now. It is like once the tests are over, homework will strike again. Ok, maybe I shall be posting about third language stuff tomorrow, and to end off, one news to inform myself. I got into the chinese chess "A team" for the Raffles Cup this June as a reserve, but it is quite good as I do not think that I will have to play any games and copuld win a prize. I t is actually the most elite team in hwa chong. It is getting late, and I shall end here. Actually not in the mood to post, but I have to for my english ace. sigh... ...

Rayson
(so tired, but there is no school on Mon, yipee... ...)

Tests! Tests! Tests! I hate it!

2009-04-24T22:21:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I am back again. As usual, homework has been troubling me like hell, and I can only find time to post now. In fact, I was so busy during weekdays that I always slept on the bus, and today, I slept for 12.5 hours. Thus, I always havce the habit of standing in thew bus as I do not want myself to fall asleep. Nevermind about all this, I shall be getting on to the main topic today.

As promised, I shall be updating on my results for my science and NAFA test. For my NAFA, I ran 2.4 km in 11min 21s, and if I am not wrong, it should be an A. However, I finished second, the first was like miles ahead of me, he finished in 10min 47s! He was in cross country what... ... OK, so now obvioul I got 27/30 for the whole NAFA test, which is a gold. Ok, this is the good news, but there is still one problem with it. As I did not do any warm-up, my legs "ran out of blood" on my second lap, and I had to pull through it to finish the other four laps. It was so painfull you know. Thus, by the end of everthing, my leg was so painfull that I can hardly stand, and till now, I still have muscle cramps in my lags. But who can I blame? I can only blame myself for nmot doing all my warm-ups at first. Another interesting thing is that on my last lap, I suddenly wanted to do some "big business", and I had to slow down because of that. However, competion was fierce with the person who got third as I only finished it 3 seconds in front of him. That was a huge relief that it did not "come out" while I was running. The surprising thing is that it was gone when it ended...

The next thing is the science. It was bad news, I only got a B3, which is very bad, compared to my A1 in the first term. I made alot of careless mistakes and got lots of marks deducted. Sigh... I guess I must really take my final exams, I just cannot get exempted for it. I don't know whether I spelled "exempted" correctly, my spelling "sucks". Ok, maybe I should work harder next time. To tell you the truth, I did not revise for the test very much, I just don't have time with all my homework.
Ok, I shall not be talking about my sad things.

Last but not least, I shall be talking about the tests that I had this week. I just have tests every week, and mind you, they all take in marks. For example, I have literature and history test next week. I took a history mock test this week, which was returned with only a tick at the bottom, a chinese compo and letter writing, w2hich I think I did not do well, a geography mock test, which I did not do well as well. I revised so much on rocks and it came out on maps! I had to use my memory to remember all the facts which the teacher taught us in class, which was obviously a failure due to my "poor" memory. The final one is the german tests, I did not know that the teacher set it that hard... ... But my friend told me that it was a piece of cake! I think I am really going to fail this. I somehow forgot all my facts! Sigh... ... That is really the way of life. The only good thing is that I have less homework this weekend, and I expect to complete them by today. Really looking forward to watching TV at night... ...

Rayson
(a very stressed out boy)

Tests- that's the way of life.

2009-04-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

Every student in Singapore will have tests , right? It is just a part and parcel of life. However, I believe that no one ever likes tests or exams, they will just stress you out. Imagine life without tests, that is so fun, no stress, so carefree... Ahhh, but unfortunately, we just have them. Now, talking about me, it just stresses me out like "hell". I will have to sacrifice my tons of homework in order to revise for them, and sometimes, when I have no luck, I will just fail it, like how I failed my Research Studies test, although it does not take in marks. I found out the the majority of my classmates did not revise for it, and I spent so much time on it. In the end, I got only 9/20, while the others got an A1!.
Now, moving on, I shall start talking about the tests I had earlier. Last week, I had my first ever term 2 math test. I was tested on algebra and other stuff, and we had a mock test on it as well. Unfortunately, due to my bad luck that day, I got so careless that I failed. I am just so unlucky. I revised for the real math test which is on the next day, but in the end, it turned out to be difficult as ever(to me). The prctice test was so much easier. In the end, I got a mere 33/40. Though it was an A1, I am quite unhappy about it as I had gotten full marks for the previos test. This means that I had dropped by 7 marks! Never mind about this, what is undone cannot be undone, but our math teacher told us that for the next test in week 7, it will all be on algebra. I am going to be dead... ...
The next thing is the NAFA test. Though it is physical, it is still considered as a test. I had my 5 elements, and I got 22/25, 2 'A's and 3 'B's. I was so angry! I missed my inclined pull-ups to A by 1 pull-up, shuttle run by 0.1s to A, and sit-ups 3 to A. I copuld have gooton 25/25! So angry. However, I am quite pleased that my standing board jump increased from 183cm last year to 222cm this year! It is an incremant of 39cm. I am so proud of myself(jk). I also got an A for sit and reach, which I obviously was poor at, but I used some real good tactics, maybe invented by myself, to get an A. I shall not be elaborating on them.
Last but not least, it is the science test. It turneed out o be very difficult for me and I thought that I will fail. It has not been returned, so I shall be talking about them next time. I just know that I did badly for it. It is not that I did not revise, but the fact is that I had been bad at science all along. Nah, that's my "tests" life. I shall update on my results on my later posts.
Ok, that's all for today. I am still having lot's of homework, it just does not seem to get any lesser. They just get more and more. Now, what do you feel about tests. Feel free to write any comments. Below is a multimedia show on tests. Hope it would be of some use.

Rayson
P.S. I changed my style of writing from daily accounts to "this". Hope it would be of some use. Actually, I got the inspiration from my classmates.

2009-04-13T05:24:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Yah, sorry but I can't find anything related to my post, so I hope that this youtube video would be of " some" use. By the way, I am getting more and more busy nowadys, so I will not post that often.

Rayson

Chinese chess finals

2009-04-10T22:39:00.001-07:00

Hi all,
On the 21st and 22nd of March, I went for my finals, and after a long battle, I emerged 2nd.
I shall start elaborating on my first day. In fact, as I did not know all my oponents well( I only know those that are pro), I just trashed them all. However, I still had to thank my friend for clearing the way for me. He fought alot of strong oponents and in the end got a draw, while I was having a perfect score then. It was then known that I will be fighting another hwa chong on the next day, as we were the only ones with perfect scores.
I shall now fast-foprward to the next day's events, skipping what happened at home. On the next day, while I was fighting him, I put in my best effort as we had agreed to determine a winner. However, when I had alredy won him a piece, and victory seemed mto be mine, I somehow became complacent and in the end, I was so careless that I let him win through a "men sha"(in hanyupinyin). I was so angry at that time for being so careless but I still managed to keep my cool. As expected, I fell from table 1 to table 5, with my morale greatly demoralised. Nevertheless, heaven seemed to take pity on me and let me win. On the next and final round, I met up with a hwachong guy again, and although he was tough, I finally won him and became second. However, I found out that I had made a careless mistake again after that when I did not eat his "free" piece. Nevertheless, I still feel glad that my heavy burden was gone and though did not achieve my desired results, I still tried my best and got a 2nd.
Just in conclusion, I wish that I canbe more careful next time and achieve greater results.

Rayson
(hope they do not exceed the word limit of 250 words, and my english "sucks", so pls pardon it. I just have to summarise everything, or esle they will exceed the word count. sigh... ...)

Chinese chess prelims

2009-04-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
On the 17th of March, I went to the chinese chess competition prelims. As I had always had a phobia of losing, I can't restrain myself from being nervous. However, the prelims would surely be easier than the finals, thus I was not "that" scarded.
Moving on , I was somewhat surprised that there were primary school students, as this was the Under 14 category. They must be from corporation primary school, as they so-called specialised in this cca and some of them had defeated me before. On my first match, I met up with one of them, but not all of them were that strong, after much difficulty, I trashed him. But, when the second match arrived, I was surprised to see that my oponent was in fact a "noob" and I owned him again. My morale was greatly boosted but I met my "end" at my 3rd match, where I lost to a schoolmate. He had 4 instrutors and I had only one, thus he was better than me. I trashed my 4th and 5th oponent, and it was only then did I realised that hwa chong was dominating the table. I met with a friend again during my 5th match, but we planned a draw. Thugh I met with another friend again, I trashed him and got 4th for the prelims. However, I did not bother, as it was only the prelims, what is important is the finals.
I shall end my experience for the prelims here, and continue the finals on my next post. I will also be uploading a multimedia on my next ost, but firstly, I must figure out how to upload first. I sort of forgot what my classmates taught me on how to upload a video from youtube.

Rayson

CIP

2009-04-10T20:26:00.001-07:00

Hi all,
On the 14th of March, I had my first CIP organised by hwa chong, which is to collect old newspapers. We started collecting at about 8am, and being a very shy boy, I found it hard to open my mouth. However, as time goes by, I finally mustered the courage to do so. Nevertheless, another problem crooped up, that is the weight of the newspapers is too heavy. Though we had a hard time, we still managed to do so. I even fell to the ground once! It was actually an intended fall, which means that I had planned it well, but somehow I got a cut, and it took me a few days after that to get it recovered. Just when I thought that the situation cannot get any worse, I found out that my water was finished up. I ran to get a ribena at a mama shop(at a very high price) but it was not enough. The 500ml bottle could not last me long. Moreover, I had to share it with my friends as they were also running out of water and opur bags were far away. We cleared lots of blocks that day, collecting newspapers, giving out flyers, but the worst was when they are too generous and gave us lots of nespapers. We finally ended at 12.40pm, 20 minutes before our sheduled time, but we still got our 5 CIP hours. I should have volunteered for CIP at school, instead of going out and tire myself out. If I were to work at the school library, it would be tons better. Under the air conditioner, lazing around. It was too tiring for me, and when I reached home, I slept for the whole afternoon. Though it was a tiring day, I still feel glad thta I could be of service to the community.

Rayson

Camp

2009-04-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
On march the 11th, I went for the sec 1 camp, and as I had expected, it did not turn out to be an "enjoyable" experience. I was already dreading to go there as I knew that the toilets will be very dirty, after the experience at my P5 camp. However, the only thing I am looking forward to is the activities, as I believe that they will be fun and exciting.
On that day,we had a mass debrief and after that, we have our lunch. The lunch was not that "nice", but I still bear with it as I was hungry. We went to have our team-building games after that, and though I did not participate actively, I still enjoyed it very much. We had dinner at about 8pm, and then we started preparing for the cheers for the camp fire next day. As expected, the public toilets were very dirty, but the toilets inside our domes was better, as we spent time washing it. Compared to the others, we were quite fortunate to have our own toilets.
The next day is as per usual. We had our lunch, and then the Sarimbun challenge. Though we did not complete it due to a upcoming rain, we still had a great bonding time together. The campfire started at eight, and though it is the most "prestigious" event of the camp, I did not have a great time as I was smelling others' sweat and shuffing against them. I fell asleep immediately after that tiring day.
On the last day of the camp, we did some area cleaning and after a mass debrief, we were dismissed. Though tired, I was elated that I could finally get home to rest and avoid the sight of the toilets there. In fact, I did not do my "big buisness", and rushed home immediately to do that. However, did I knew that I already had constipation... ...

Rayson
(I am finally able to clear everything about 2 to 3 days later... ...)
haha :D

I am back.

2009-04-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I am back after not posting for a very long time, due to the tons of hw again. It just getting more and more. Why can't schools stop giving hw? sigh... On the other hand, as there will be cps, in other words, credit points, I shall start posting today. I will have to post 4 posts between 100 and 250 words and upload a multimedia on my blog. I will be posting bout what happened during term 1 , which are my term 1 chinese chess prelims, finals, CIP and camp, which I had not posted for a long time. However, I will try my best to recall them. Ok, watch out for my next post, coming right up next!

Rayson
(in a happy mood)

2009-04-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

I have not posted for a long time, due to my tons of homework. My homework is just getting more and more. I just found out that I only need to post 5 post per term, so I guess I wil not be posting that often unless I have the time to do so. I will be posting the 5 posts for term 1 the major events that happened, like the sec 1 camp, CIP and so on. However, I do not have much time to spare, I have to do my homework, so bye.

Rayson,
suffering under too much homework... ...
LOL

2009-03-28T02:32:00.000-07:00

Due to hw, I apologise for not posting on Tue. Today too.
Rayson Khoo
P.S.Shortest post ever.

typical day

2009-03-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

It is getting quite late now, so I will just go through some " important" things(perhaps to me). Nothing much happened today, and the only thing I can talk about is the chinese chess competition on Sat and Sun. By the way, I got second, and will further elaborate it tmr, together with my chinese chess prelims, CIP, camp, and another I forgot(but I will refer back to my earlier post to remember) as I probably have the whole afternoon free. Ok, I gtg so gd night and bye!

Rayson
P.S. This must be the second shortest post ever(in my record), except for my first post, which is like only 2 sentences or so. I was typing for fun then.

Busy and slacking day for me... ...

2009-03-18T03:21:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I am back again, after a day of tiring work. Yesterday was my chinese chess competition, and I only got a 4th, for the prelims. Lotsw of interesting things happened yesterday, but I think I would not have the time to talk about them. I will post them when I am free, together with my camp and my CIP. Hope that I would be able to remember them, but I guess I will for the time being, as I have gd memory(to myself), and the events that happened are too interesting to forget. Ok, interesting also happened today, when I meet my friends for project work, but as I still did not clear my hw, I shall post them on another day. Well, I have to end here, and same again, I wish that I would be able to complete my hw on time... ...
Rayson
"dying"under the pressure of hw... ...

The revenge of hw...

2009-03-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I am back again, but only for a brief period of time. Sry for not posting on Friday bout my camp, and in particular, I also do nopt know the reason why. I have CIP on Saturday as well, which is to collect old newspapers from the people living near Taman Jurong CC. I also had a boring day on Sunday, as I went to my grandfather's house and on that day, only 2 of my cousins went there,so it is quite boring. N0 laptop, no nothing, except for the chinese chess set that I brought. They aren't very gd at it, so it was quite boring. I intended to post something, not something, but it is bout the camp and the CIP, but due to unseen circumstances, which is hw, I guess I would have to post bout them when I have the time. I suddenly realised that I still had tons of hw to clear, and I have a competition tmr, which means that one day is gone for me, on WED I have to meet in sch, another day gone, THURS visit my sick former instructer, another day gone, finally free on FRI, which I don't think I can clear my hw in 1 day, SAT go for finals of the competition, which I am LIKELY to go, another day gone, SUN is the continuation of the finals, another day gone, and MON I have to start sch, so as u can see, I am running out of time. Very lllllooooonnnnnngggggggg sentence indeed. Thus, I am still doing my "very hard to clear" hw, and perhaps, I can only post after the holidays. I will try my best to post, and at least once a week... ... So gd luck for me that I would be able to finish my hw on time... ... It is really the revenge of the hw, it is striking back at me! By the way, I also got 1.33 for my MSG, dam gd for me, 3 ops for everything except for science. Too gd to be true, to the boy that never raises his hands in class at all, not even once... ... Feeling happy, but might collapse under hw. Sad... ...
Going back to do my hw... ...
Rayson
(Dam it! So much to do... ...)

Sry... ...

2009-03-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Sry for not posting on these few days(maybe it is to myself...). I actually forgot to post and on Sat and on Sun, I was too busy for my work to post. However, on Monday, I had to revise for my test and do some dam tough project work for the next day. Nvm bout this, but what I dreaded most is the test, which turned out poorly done for me. On Tuesday, I noticed that no one revised for the test, and when I actully went in, I found that it was on the table already, which I thought was weird as the teachers usually give out the test paper before we do. But nvm, and next is what that surprised me the most, which is that after looking through the paper, some of my "surrounding people" took out their files and check for the ans, as all the ans were in the file. I thought that this was unbelivable, this is a test! Next, when I flipped through the paper, I found some blanks with printed ans on it. I thought that it was actually the ans key, and it eventually turned out to be just a page where there is ans, so the total marks is reduced by 10. This is ridiculous! Furthermore, we are sitted very closely to one another, and thus we can copy! Forget bout this, and after I did the paper,(which I thought was easy), I went for my break. After it, our teacher told us to mark the papers ourselves(oops, this is before recess)! This is not a test at all! However, when my group leader marked my paper, I found out that I only got 9/20, which I failed, wile others (almost everyone), got an A1. I was so sad that I was stunned. After that, I consoled myself by saying that the marks would not be taken in, but if it really is to take in, my MSG will fall from bout 1.3 to 2.3(which is alot, although it is only 1 point)! Nevertheless, I stilled had to accept the fact and prepare for my project. That night, I felt much better. Ok, I am dam tired now as I went to camp on Tuesday, which is the day after I failed my test, and returned home today. I did not have enough sleep! It is the holidays now, but I think it will be better if I just post once a week. I am going to have an afternoon nap now, and will update on what happened during the CAMP!!! later tonight, with lots of interesting events tonight, unless I forget or whatsoever. Stay tuned to the NEXT episode... ...

Yawn...
Rayson
(Sweet dreams... ...)

Sry... ...

2009-03-06T06:41:00.000-08:00

Hi,
I am back again. However, sending my apologises to me for not posting during the past few days. I am real busy and there are loads of hw to clear. I can't really finish them. Luckily, I had cleared all of them by now(not all, I still have holiday hw), and can really have a gd rest. Although the March holidays are still a week away, you still can consider that I am already having my holidays, as next week is my sabacticals week. There is going to be projects and my long-waited sec one camp. Feeling very excited bout it. Now, on the week's events, the only one thing that I want to talk about is that I fell sick. To begin, I shall be recounting what had actually happened.

Ok, on Monday, I started having a stomachache on my way to sch and it was very painful, causing me to think that I actually want to do my "big" buisness. Nevertheless, i still tried to rush to the toilet, only to be blocked by some tall, burly guys standing in front of me. I decided not to say "excuse me" due to the fact that I am still controlling my pain. Finally, after a long wait, I had the chance to go in frnot of them and thus, charge like hell to the toilet. I found out that I had a "watery big buisness" only after everything. However, I still did not feel sick and thought that it was just me, eating some "wrong" things. Just to add in, I also received my english results and is utterly disappointed with it. I only got a B3, which os very bad for me. I got A1 for everything, as mentioned in my past posts, and my english certainly pulled me down. Frm my targeted MSG of 1.0, I think I only got 1.3 or so. Think I have to work harder on it next time. It can't help being my weakest subject... ...

On to Tuesday, pherhaps there would only be a few lines, as there is nothing happening. I just had another "diarrhoea" during recess, and I thought that there is nothing wrong with me, so I continued having "junk" food, although feeling a bit weird, due to the fact that I also do not "diarrhoea". I got scolded at night that day for post-poning my hw(by my mum)until late at night, and went to sleep gloomily, but whether it is the cause of me being sick I am not sure... ...

I woke up in the middle of my sleep, which is yupp, wednesday already, only to have another "diarrhoea". I was feeling very sleepy at that moment, but certainly thought that there is really something wrong with me. When I went back to bed, I was feeling very cold, so I huddled underneath my blankets and went to sleep. I woke up again, probably later, but that time I was feeling dam sick, so cold and my head was burning(I think). How I wish that time passes slower... ... I think I woke up another time, (and was feeling the same fereling again). When I woke up in the morning to go to sch, I knew that I was immediately sick and was running a high fever. I told my parents about it and they advised me not to go to sch. Unfortunately, I have a presentation that day and there is too much hw to have a "one-day leave". I went to sch, feeling very weird and tired. By that time, I was alraedy having a headache and was feeling very dizzy. I think I shall end soon as it is very late now. I did not know how I pulled through that day, but I certainly did not go for EP3. After sleeping at home, I feel much better.

On Thursday, I was feeling a lot better, except for stomachache and diarrhoea. I did not went to see a doctor as it costs lots of money, it is economic crisis now, and I am used to not seeing one. I was having a stomache at the start of the news in class lesson, and rushed off to the toilet after it is seconds from ending. However, I was late by 1 second, and you know what happens when you have diarrhoea and miss by 1 second. Nevermind, I was also needing lots of sleep and is still feeling weak. I also worked until 12 that day.

On the next day, which is today, I had almost fully recovered, my diarrhoea is also improving. I am feeling very well and as my sch got high marks for the A level exams they declared that the school is dismissed at 11.30am. All of us cheered. However, I was not sure whather there is CCA, or EP3, toady as some are still on. After stupidly waiting for 1 plus hour, I discovered that they had sent me a sms that there is no EP3 , but my phone did not receive it as it was somewhat spoilt. I went home after that, and started playing games. It is the holidays already(for me).

Ok, I guess I shall be ending here and go to watch the survival show. My mother is watching and the temptation is too graet to resist. Gd night everyone, and I think I should have the time to blog LONGER posts tmr or so. Besides, this is already a long post(I think).

Cheers,
Rayson
(Yawn... ...)
P.S. I learnt "Cheers" frm Darrel Long, my classmate. No plagerism, right?

early sunday

2009-02-28T18:54:00.000-08:00

Hi,
I am back again, but there is one thing different this time, and that is I am posting dam early(to myself) today. Reason being that I might not have time to post late at night as I still had loads of hw to rush. Besides, this is my blog's eighth day birthday, for this is my eighth post today, and I post everyday. Ok, as it is still early in the morning, there is nothing much to say, so I might talk bout one incident yesterday which I forgotten. Ok, it is that I missed a meeting with my friends. How could I have forgotten that? I was real dam careless, having the other person to wait without company. sry to him, really. I might not be posting next week, it is a dam busy week, so I shall also end here due to the tons of hw I have. Bye... ...

Rayson
(no tricks this time... ...)

a saturday...

2009-02-28T07:02:00.000-08:00

Hi,
Maybe, you can regard this as the fact that I finally had time to post again. Don't you realise that I always posted late in the night? Ok, to me, eveyday is like a normal day, and today, I only play, do hw, eat, so on and nothing else. To add to my gloominess, it rained today. I did mentioned that rainy days make me gloomy right? By the way, I still had loads of hw to clear, blame myself for not doing much today. Gotta wake up real early tmr and do all my hw, including ACE and ws. Must hand them in all by the end of next week, and mind you, those are really hard to clear. I shall end my post now, so gd night everyone, and You should be lucky to see my posting today...

Cheers,
Rayson
(got to sleep fast)

another normal day again

2009-02-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

Hi to myself,
As it is late in the night, I shall not be elaborating much on the day's events. Besides, nothing interesting happened today, and thus, that mean that my post will certainly be short. Does anyone notice that my post is getting shorter and shorter each day? Nvm, but I certainly have tons of hw this weekend, which meant that I may not be posting on the weekend. However, I will still try my best to post one each day. Now on to the topic, and that is the chinese test today, which seemed rather the most significant topic of interest(to me) today. Basically, I feel that the chinese test is quite easy, and upon 20, I feel that I can get at least 15. As I had already gotten back my first chinese paper, which I got 70 out of 80, I just need to get another 5 more marks to get an A1, which I feel confident of. Another thing is that I also knocked my neck against my table, due to the lack of balance, and still feeling a little bit painful after that. Ok, I had just listed down two of the most interesting things(to me), and I guess I shall be ending my post here. Gd night everyone, and hope that you all sleep well.
From the lazy and busy man,
Rayson Khoo

dam busy day

2009-02-26T06:04:00.000-08:00

Hi,
Today, due to the fact that I still had lots of things at hand, I shall be ending my post dam soon. I might be able to post longer at weekends, but definitely not now. Thus, I shall just be talking about the best thing that happened today. It is the getting back of my maths test paper, and it is that I had actually scored 40/40. It is unbelievable, as I thought that it was the most poorly done out of all papers. I had got a 4th place in class, which is extremely good to me. I had gotten an A1. I am so happy!!! However, I would not be elaborating too much on that and as I still have to revise for a chinese exam tmr, I shall end my post here. Pls have gd luck for me... ...

Yawn... ...
Rayson Khoo

A happy day for me... ...

2009-02-25T06:03:00.000-08:00

Hi,
I am posting once again, and today, I have some exciting pieces of news. Do you know that I got A1 for history and science? Both of them are my lousiest pieces of tests but I still managed to get an A1 for them, thus, I am overjoyed. Although both of them are just a little above the A1 grade, I am still happy that I got A1. A1 is A1, whether it is low or high, it is still an A1. I am so happy! I will also end my post shortly, for I still had to do tons of hw. Moving on, I will be talking about today's math test, and of course, I done very poorly in it. I am most probably getting back my grade back tmr, so pls wish me luck. I had already got 4 A1s, so pls let me complete my A1s. Pls, pls, pls... ... Nothing much happened today, and I will now end here due to time constrain. I am also having a headache now, so I guess I will continue tmr. Gd night everyone, and PLS wish me luck for tmr's math paper grade... ...

Yawn... ...
Rayson Khoo
(wish me luck... ...)

another normal day... ...

2009-02-24T01:44:00.000-08:00

Hi to myself once again,
Maybe this blog has became my diary, for I am always speaking to myself. Today, nothing interesting happened today, so I am going to end my post dam fast. I got back my geo test today, and is very pleased that I had got an A1, which is extremely gd to me. This is my second A1, so I sincerely wish that I can get an MSG of 1. However, the "rainy season has to come, for I will surely fail all my badly done tests, like english and science. Another thing to add on, is that posting on blogs may help me to type fatser on the long run, and thus aid me in the speed of typing in my IS assignments, projects and tests. I am going to get back my science test tmr, so I must certainly brace myself to face "the music". I will also have to have a maths test tmr, so I wish that I can have an A1, forming my third A1. Pls wish me luck... ... I am getting tired now, so I am going to end the day like that... ...

Cheers to myself,
rkty
the future international chinese chess master
(yawn once again, due to my lack of sleep... ...)

a normal day... ...

2009-02-23T06:14:00.000-08:00

Hi to myself,
Today is another same day again, but Monday is usually one of my most favourite day of the week, for I somewhat do not have any "tough" lessons and there are simple lessons full of " leisure" like music, art, RTA, assembly and so on. Besides, I get to stayback for my EP3 private tuition, which I like most among all my EP3 days as not many people signed up for this private tuition( it costs 100 dollars per month!) Today, we learnt basically nothing in art, as most of the time are for examples of art pieces that we are suppose to start next week, I suppose. Next was chinese, and I somewhat knew that my worst horror had arrived, which is the chi TEST!!! I had been dreading for it like since last month, when I first knew that there will be tests that will be graded. However, each cloud has its sliver linining, for after much "polling" we eventually decided to have it on the last day of the weekdays, which is Friday. That was such a huge relieve to me. Now, next, is of course, RECESS!!! I especially loved it, for it was the only time which I could rest, and edit some homework pieces if I had to. However, today's recess ended a bit early, for there is assembly. I was one of the people who did not check the SMB about it, so with a palpitating heart, I went into the auditorium. We had some discussions, and as I had to end this quick due to the fact that it is getting late, I shall now skip everything to after school, which is EP3. There is a new visitor today, and we had a great whale of a time there. I had an exciting match with my instructor, Mr Tay, but time flies, and soon, we had to bid goodbye. I was so sleepy at that moment and when I got onto the bus, I stopped myself from sitting as I might sleep. I had already slept on the bus 4 times and overshot! In the end, I still slept, as I told my friend to wake me up when we are reaching. When I reach home, I did all my homework, and now, blogging. I am absolutely sure that I will fail my geo and sci tests when I receive them tmr. Brace myself to accept the facts, for there is no use denying. I am yawning now, and do not wish to think about how I would fail my exams. I hate Tuesdays, and going to sleep now...

Yawn... ...
rkty
(the future international chinese chess master(jk))
good night, everyone, lights off... ...

bad day

2009-02-18T04:50:00.000-08:00

Today is a bad day. Flunk my tests. Sign... ....